Part 22

Accordingly, the situation is this: A pretended race-hero and namer of Svithiod is in the abode of Sokmimer, while a person who, from a mythological standpoint, is the real race-hero and namer of Svithiod is on his way to Sokmimer's abode and about to enter. The myth could not have conceived the matter in this way, unless the pretended race-hero was believed to act the part of the real one. The arrival of the real one makes Odin's position, which was already full of peril, still more dangerous, and threatens him with discovery and its consequences.

(5) If Odin appeared in the part of a "champion drinker," he was compelled to drink much in Sokmimer's halls in order to maintain his part, and this, too, must have added to the danger of his position.

(6) Still the prudent Asa-father seems to have observed some degree of caution, in order that his plans might not be frustrated by the real _Svigdir_. That which happens gives the strongest support to this supposition, which in itself is very probable. Sokmimer's doorkeeper keeps watch in the darkness outside. When he discovers the approach of _Svigdir_, he goes to meet him and informs him that Odin is inside. Consequently the doorkeeper knows that _Svidurr_ is Odin, who is unknown to all those within excepting to Odin himself. This and what follows seems to show positively that the wise Odin and the cunning dwarf act upon a settled plan. It may be delusion or reality, but _Svigdir_ sees the mountain door open to the illuminated giant-hall, and the information that Odin is within (the dwarf may or may not have added that Odin pretends to be _Svigdir_) causes him, the "proud one," "of noble race," the kinsman of _Dulsi_ (epithet of Mundilfore, see No. 83), to rush with all his might after the dwarf against the real or apparent door, and the result is that the dwarf succeeded in "deceiving" him (he _velti_ Svegder), so that he never more was seen.

This is what we learn from the strophes in Grimnersmal and Ynglingatal, with the prose text of the latter. If we now compare this with what Havamál and Eyvind relates, we get the following parallels:

_Havamál and Eyvind._ _The strophes about Sökkmimir._

Odin visits inn aldna iotum Odin visits inn aldna iotun (Surtr and his race). (Sökkmimir and his race).

Odin's purpose is to deceive Odin's purpose is to deceive the old giant. In his abode is the old giant. In his abode is found a kinsman, who is in found a kinsman who is in possession of the skaldic possession of the skaldic mead (Suttung-Fjalar). mead (Midvitnir).

Odin appears in the guise Odin appears as Svidurr-Svigdir. of Gunlad's wooer, who, if he Svigdir means the is named, is called Sumbl champion drinker. (sumbl = a drink, a feast).

Odin became drunk. Odin must have drunk much, since he appears among the giants as one acting the part of a "champion drinker."

A catastrophe occurs causing A catastrophe occurs causing Gunnlöd to bewail the Odin to slay Midvitnir's death of a kinsman. son.

To this is finally to be added that Eyvind's statement, that the event occurred in Surt's _Sökkdalir_, helps to throw light on Surt's epithet _Sökkmimir_, and particularly that Ynglingatal's account of the arrival and fate of the real Svegder fills a gap in Havamál's narrative, and shows how Odin, appearing in the guise of another person who was expected, could do so without fear of being surprised by the latter.

NOTE.--The account in the Younger Edda about Odin's visit to Suttung seems to be based on some satire produced long after the introduction of Christianity. With a free use of the confused mythic traditions then extant, and without paying any heed to Havamál's statement, this satire was produced to show in a semi-allegorical way how good and bad poetry originated. The author of this satire either did not know or did not care about the fact that Havamál identifies Suttung and Fjalar. To him they are different persons, of whom the one receives the skaldic mead as a ransom from the other. While in Havamál the rimthurses give Odin the name _Bölverkr_, "the evil-doer," and this very properly from their standpoint, the Younger Edda makes Odin give himself this name when he is to appear _incognito_, though such a name was not calculated to inspire confidence. While in Havamál Odin, in the guise of another, enters Suttung's halls, is conducted to a golden high-seat, and takes a lively part in the banquet and in the conversation, the Younger Edda makes him steal into the mountain through a small gimlet-hole and get down into Gunlad's chamber in this manner, where he remains the whole time without seeing anyone else of the people living there, and where, with Gunlad's consent, he empties to the bottom the giant's three mead-vessels, _Ódrærir_, _Bodn_, and _Són_. These three names belong, as we have seen, in the real mythology to the three subterranean fountains which nourish the roots of the world-tree. Havamál contents itself with using a poetic-rhetorical phrase and calling the skaldic mead, captured by Odin, _Ódrærir_, "the giver of inspiration," "the inspiring nectar." The author of the satire avails himself of this reason for using the names of the two other fountains _Bodn_ and _Són_, and for applying them to two other "vessels and kettles" in which Suttung is said to have kept the mead. That he called one of the vessels a kettle is explained by the fact that the third lower world fountain is _Hvergelmir_, "the roaring kettle." In order that Odin and Gunlad may be able to discuss and resolve in perfect secrecy in regard to the mead, Odin must come secretly down into the mountain, hence the satire makes him use the bored hole to get _in_. From the whole description in Havamál, it appears, on the contrary, that Odin entered the giant's hall in the usual manner through the door, while he avails himself of the tunnel made by Rate to get _out_. Havamál first states that Odin seeks the giant, and then tells how he enters into conversation and develops his eloquence in Suttung's halls, and how, while he sits in the golden high-seat (probably opposite the host, as Richter has assumed), Gunlad hands him the precious mead. Then is mentioned for the first time the way made for him by Rate, and this on the one hand in connection with the "evil compensation" Gunlad received from him, she the loving and devoted woman whom he had embraced, and on the other hand in connection with the fact that his flight from the mountain was successful, so that he could take the mead with him though his life was in danger, and there were giants' ways both above and below that secret path by which he escaped. That Odin took the oath of faithfulness on the holy ring, that there was a regular wedding feast with the questions on the next morning in regard to the well-being of the newly-married couple--all this the satire does not mention, nor does its premises permit it to do so.

90.

THE MEAD-MYTH (_continued_). THE MOON AND THE MEAD. PROOFS THAT NANNA'S FATHER IS THE WARD OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND GOD OF THE MOON.

Before the skaldic mead came into the possession of Suttung-Fjalar, it had passed through various adventures. In one of these enters _Máni_, the god of the moon, who by the names _Nökkvi_ (variation _Nökkver_), _Nefr_ (variation _Nepr_), and _Gevarr_ (_Gævarr_) occupies a very conspicuous position in our mythology, not least in the capacity of Nanna's father.

I shall here present the proofs which lie near at hand, and can be furnished without entering into too elaborate investigations, that the moon-god and Nanna's father are identical, and this will give me an opportunity of referring to that episode of the mead-myth, in which he appears as one of the actors.

The identity of _Nökkvi_, _Nefr_, and _Gevarr_ appears from the following passages:

(1) Hyndluljod, 20: "Nanna was, in the next place, _Nökkvi's_ daughter" (_Nanna var næst thar Nauckua dottir_).

(2) Gylfaginning, 32: "The son of Balder and of Nanna, daughter of Nef, was called Forsete" (_Forseti heiter sonr Baldrs ok Nönnu Nefsdóttur_). Gylfaginning, 49: "His (Balder's) wife Nanna, daughter of Nef" (_Kona hans Nanna Nefsdóttir_).

(3) Saxo, _Hist., Dan._, iii.: "_Gevarr's_ daughter Nanna" (_Gevari filia Nanna_). That Saxo means the mythological Nanna follows from the fact that Balder appears in the story as her wooer. That the Norse form of the name, which Saxo Latinised into Gevarus, was _Gevarr_, not _Gefr_, as a prominent linguist has assumed, follows from the rules adopted by Saxo in Latinising Norse names.

NOTE.--Names of the class to which _Gefr_ would belong, providing such a name existed, would be Latinised in the following manner:

(_a_) _Askr_ Ascerus, _Baldr_ Balderus, _Geldr_ Gelderus, _Glaumr_ Glomerus, _Hödr_, _Hadr_, _Odr_, Hötherus, Hatherus, Hotherus, _Svipdagr_ Svipdagerus, _Ullr_ Ollerus, _Yggr_ Uggerus, _Vigr_ Vigerus.

(_b_) _Ásmundr_ Asmundus, _Amundr_ Amundus, _Arngrimr_ Arngrimus, _Bildr_ Bildus, _Knútr_ Canutus, _Fridleifr_ Fridlevus, _Gautrekr_ Gotricus, _Gódmundr_ Guthmundus, _Haddingr_ Hadingus, _Haraldr_ Haraldus.

Names ending in _-arr_ are Latinised in the following manner:

(_a_) _Borgarr_ Borcarus, _Einarr_ Enarus, _Gunnarr_ Gunnarus, _Hjörvarr_ Hjartvarus, _Ingimarr_ Ingimarus, _Ingvarr_ Ingvarus, _Ísmarr_ Ismarus, _Ívarr_ Ivarus, _Óttarr_ Otharus, _Rostarr_ Rostarus, _Sigarr_ Sigarus, _Sivarr_ Sivarus, _Valdimarr_ Valdemarus.

(_b_) _Agnarr_ Agnerus, _Ragnarr_ Regnerus.

With the ending _-arus_ occurs also in a single instance a Norse name in _-i_, namely, _Eylimi_ Olimarus. Herewith we might perhaps include Liotarus, the Norse form of which Saxo may have had in _Ljóti_ from _Ljótr_. Otherwise _Ljótr_ is a single exception from the rules followed by Saxo, and methodology forbids our building anything on a single exception, which moreover is uncertain.

Some monosyllabic names ending in _-r_ are sometimes unlatinised, as Alf, Ulf, Sten, Ring, Rolf, and sometimes Latinised with _-o_, as Alvo, Ulvo, Steno, Ringo, Rolvo, _Álfr_ is also found Latinised as Alverus.

From the above lists of names it follows that Saxo's rules for Latinising Norse names ending with the nominative _-r_ after a consonant were these:

(1) Monosyllabic names (seldom a dissyllabic one, as _Svipdagr_) are Latinised with the ending _-erus_ or the ending _-o_.

(2) Names of two or more syllables which do not end in _-arr_ (rarely a name of one syllable, as _Bildr_) are Latinised with the ending _-us_.

(3) Names ending in _-arr_ are Latinised with _-arus_; in a few cases (and then on account of the Danish pronunciation) with _-erus_.

From the above rules it follows (1) that _Gefr_, if such a name existed, would have been Latinised by Saxo either into _Geverus_, _Geferus_, or into _Gevo_, _Gefo_; (2) that _Gevarr_ is the regular Norse for _Gevarus_.

The only possible meaning of the name _Gevarr_, considered as a common noun is "the ward of the atmosphere" from _ge_ (_gæ_; see Younger Edda, ii. 486, and Egilsson, 227) and _-varr_. I cite this definition not for the purpose of drawing any conclusions therefrom, but simply because it agrees with the result reached in another way.

The other name of Nanna's father is, as we have seen, _Nökkvi_, _Nökkver_. This word means the ship-owner, ship-captain. If we compare these two names, _Gevarr_ and _Nökkver_, with each other, then it follows from the comparison that Nanna's father was a mythic person who operated in the atmosphere or had some connection with certain phenomena in the air, and particularly in connection with a phenomenon there of such a kind that the mythic fancy could imagine a ship. The result of the comparison should be examined in connection with a strophe by Thorbjorn Hornklofve, which I shall now consider.

Thorbjorn was the court-skald of Harald Fairfax, and he described many of the king's deeds and adventures. Harald had at one time caused to be built for himself and his body-guard a large and stately ship, with a beautiful figure-head in the form of a serpent. On board this ship he was overtaken by a severe gale, which Hornklofve (Harald Harfager's saga, ch. 9) describes in the following words:

Ut á mar mætir mannskædr lagar tanna ræsinadr til rausnar rak vebrautar Nökkva.

In prose order: _Lagar tanna mannskædr mætir út á mar rak rausnar ræsinadr til Nökkva vebrautar_ ("The assailants of the skerry (the teeth of the sea), dangerous to man, flung out upon the sea the splendid serpent of the vessel's stem to the holy path of Nokve").

All interpreters agree that by "the skerry's assailants, dangerous to man," is meant the waves which are produced by the storm and rush against the skerries in breakers dangerous to seamen. It is also evident that Hornklofve wanted to depict the violence of the sea when he says that the billows which rise to assail the skerry tosses the ship, so that the figure-head of the stem reaches "the holy path of Nokve." Poems of different literatures resemble each other in their descriptions of a storm raging at sea. They make the billows rise to "the clouds," to "the stars," or to "the moon." _Quanti montes volvuntur aquarum! Jam, jam tacturos sidera summa putes_, Ovid sings (_Trist._, i. 18, 19); and Virgil has it: _Procella fluctus ad sidera tollit_ (_Æn._, i. 107). One of their brother skalds in the North, quoted in Skaldskaparmal (ch. 61), depicts a storm with the following words:

Hraud i himin upp glódum hafs, gekk sær af afli, bör hygg ek at sky skordi, skaut Ránar vegr mána.

The skald makes the phosphorescence of the sea splash against heaven; he makes the ship split the clouds, and the way of Ran, the giantess of the sea, cut the path of the moon.

The question now is, whether Hornklofve by "Nokve's holy path" did not mean the path of the moon in space, and whether it is not to this path the figure-head of the ship seems to pitch when it is lifted on high by the towering billows. It is certain that this holy way toward which the heaven-high billows lift the ship is situated in the atmosphere above the sea, and that Nokve has been conceived as travelling this way in a ship, since Nokve means the ship-captain. From this it follows that Nokve's craft must have been a phenomenon in space resembling a ship which was supposed to have its course marked out there. We must therefore choose between the sun, the moon, and the stars; and as it is the moon which, when it is not full, has the form of a ship sailing in space, it is more probable that by Nokve's ship is meant the moon than that any other celestial body is referred to.

This probability becomes a certainty by the following proofs. In Sonatorrek (str. 2, 3) Egil Skallagrimson sings that when heavy sorrow oppresses him (who has lost his favourite son) then the song does not easily well forth from his breast:

Thagna fundr thriggia nidja ár borinn or Jötunheimum, lastalauss er lifnadi á Nökkvers nökkva Bragi.

The skaldic song is here compared with a fountain which does not easily gush forth from a sorrowful heart, and the liquid of the fountain is compared with the "Thrigge's kinsmen's find, the one kept secret, which in times past was carried from Jotunheim into Nokve's ship, where Brage, unharmed, refreshed himself (secured the vigour of life)."

It is plain that Egil here refers to a mythic event that formed an episode in the myth concerning the skaldic mead. Somewhere in Jotunheim a fountain containing the same precious liquid as that in Mimer's well has burst forth. The vein of the fountain was discovered by kinsmen of Thrigge, but the precious find eagerly desired by all powers is kept secret, presumably in order that they who made the discovery might enjoy it undivided and in safety. But something happens which causes the treasure which the fountain gave its discoverers to be carried from Jotunheim to Nokve's ship, and there the drink is accessible to the gods. It is especially mentioned that Brage, the god of poetry, is there permitted to partake of it and thus refresh his powers.

Thus the ship of Nanna's father here reappears, and we learn that on its holy way in space in bygone times it bore a supply of skaldic mead, of which Brage in the days of his innocence drank the strength of life.

With this we must compare a mythic fragment preserved in Gylfaginning (ch. 11). There a fountain called _Byrgir_ is mentioned. Two children, a lass by name _Bil_ and a lad by name _Hjuki_, whose father was named _Vidfinnr_, had come with a pail to this fountain to fetch water. The allegory in which the tradition is incorporated calls the pail _Sægr_, "the one seething over its brinks," and calls the pole on which the pail is carried _Simul_ (according to one manuscript _Sumul_; cp. _Suml_, brewing ale, mead). Bil, one of the two children is put in connection with the drink of poetry. The skalds pray that she may be gracious to them. _Ef unna itr vildi Bil Skáldi_, "if the noble Bil will favour the skald," is a wish expressed in a strophe in the Younger Edda, ii. 363. _Byrgir_ is manifestly a fountain of the same kind as the one referred to by Egil and containing the skaldic mead. _Byrgir's_ fountain must have been kept secret, it must have been a "concealed find," for it is in the night, while the moon is up, that Vidfin's children are engaged in filling their pail from it. This is evident from the fact that _Máni_ sees the children. When they have filled the pail, they are about to depart, presumably to their home, and to their father Vidfin. But they do not get home. While they carry the pail with the pole on their shoulders _Máni_ takes them unto himself, and they remain with him, together with their precious burden. From other mythic traditions which I shall consider later (see the treatise on the Ivalde race), we learn that the moon-god adopts them as his children, and _Bil_ afterwards appears as an asynje (Younger Edda, i. 118, 556).

If we now compare Egil's statement with the mythic fragment about Bil and Hjuke, we find in both a fountain mentioned which contains the liquid of inspiration found in Mimer's fountain, without being Mimer's well-guarded or unapproachable "well." In Egil the find is "kept secret." In Gylfaginning the children visit it in the night. Egil says the liquid was _carried_ from Jotunheim; Gylfaginning says that Bil and Hjuke _carried_ it in a pail. Egil makes the liquid transferred from Jotunheim to Nokve's ship; Gylfaginning makes the liquid and its bearers be taken aloft by the moon-god to the moon, where we still, says Gylfaginning, can see Bil and Hjuke (in the moon-spots).

There can therefore be no doubt that Nokve's ship is the silvery craft of the moon, sailing in space over sea and land on a course marked out for it, and that Nokve is the moon-god. As in Rigveda, so in the Teutonic mythology, the ship of the moon was for a time the place where the liquid of inspiration, the life- and strength-giving mead, was concealed. The myth has ancient Aryan roots.

On the myth concerning the mead-carrying ship, to which the Asas come to drink, rests the paraphrase for _composing_, for _making a song_, which Einar Skalaglam once used (Skaldskaparmal, 1). To make songs he calls "to dip liquid out of Her-Tyr's wind-ship" (_ausa Hértys víngnodar austr_; see further No. 121, about Odin's visit in Nokve's ship).

The name _Nefr_ (variation _Nepr_), the third name of Nanna's father mentioned above, occurs nowhere in the Norse sources excepting in the Younger Edda. It is, however, undoubtedly correct that Nokve-Gevar was also called Nef.

Among all the Teutonic myths there is scarcely one other with which so many heroic songs composed in heathen times have been connected as with the myth concerning the moon-god and his descendants. As shall be shown further on, the Niflungs are descendants of Nef's adopted son Hjuke, and they are originally named after their adopted race-progenitor _Nefr_. A more correct and an older form is perhaps _Hnefr_ and _Hniflungar_, and the latter form is also found in the Icelandic literature. In Old English the moon-god appears changed into a prehistoric king, _Hnäf_, also called _Hoce_ (see Beowulf, 2142, and Gleeman's Tale). Hoce is the same name as the Norse _Hjuki_. Thus while _Hnäf_ and _Hoce_ are identical in the Old English poem "Beowulf," we find in the Norse source that the lad taken aloft by Mane is called by one of the names of his foster-father. In the Norse account the moon-god (_Nefr_) captures, as we have seen, the children of one _Vidfinnr_, and at the same time he robs _Vidfinnr_ of the priceless mead of inspiration found in the fountain _Byrgir_. In the Old English saga _Hnäf_ has a son-in-law and vassal, whose name is _Finn_ (_Fin Folcvalding_), who becomes his bitterest foe, contends with him, is conquered and pardoned, but attacks him again, and, in company with one _Gudere_ (_Gunnr_), burns him. According to Saxo, Nanna's father _Gevarr_ has the same fate. He is attacked by a vassal and burnt. The vassal is called Gunno (_Gunnr_, _Gudere_). Thus we have in the Old English tradition the names _Hnäf_, _Hoce_, _Fin_, and _Gudere_; and in the Norse tradition the corresponding names _Nefr_, _Hjuki_, _Vidfinnr_, and _Gunnr_ (_Gunnarr_). The relation of the moon-god (_Nefr_) to _Vidfinnr_ is the mythological basis of _Fin's_ enmity to _Hnäf_. The burning is common to both the Old English and the Norse sources. Later in this work I shall consider these circumstances more minutely. What I have stated is sufficient to show that the Old English tradition is in this point connected with the Norse in a manner, which confirms _Nefr-Gevarr's_ identity with _Máni_, who takes aloft _Hjuki_ and robs _Vidfinnr_ of the skaldic mead.

The tradition of _Gevarr-Nefr's_ identity with _Máni_ reappears in Iceland once more as late as in Hromund Greipson's saga. There a person called _Máni Karl_ shows where the hero of the saga is to find the sword _Mistelteinn_. In Saxo, Nanna's father _Gevarr_ shows the beforementioned Hotherus where he is to find the weapon which is to slay Balder. Thus _Máni_ in Hromund's saga assumes the same position as _Gevarr_, Nanna's father, occupies in Saxo's narrative.

All these circumstances form together a positive proof of the moon-god's identity with Nanna's father. Further on, when the investigation has progressed to the proper point, we shall give reasons for assuming that _Vidfinnr_ of the Edda, the _Fin_ of the English heroic poem, is the same person whom we have heretofore mentioned by the name _Sumbl Finnakonungr_ and _Svigdir_, and that the myth concerning the taking of the mead aloft to the moon accordingly has an epic connection with the myth concerning Odin's visit to the giant Fjalar, and concerning the fate which then befell Nokve's slayer.

91.

THE MYTH CONCERNING THE MOON-GOD (_continued_).