Part 16

(Thjasse flew a long way with Loke, so that the latter came near being torn into pieces), "... thereupon (_thá_ = _deinde_) became he who caused Thor to run (_vard Ihórs ofrunni_)--or who became Thor's friend (_Ihórs ofrúni_)--tired out (_ofsprúnginn_), (for) Lopt was heavy (_thúngr var Loptr_). He (Loke) who had made a journey with the powerful Midjung's (Thjasse's) female companion (_málunautr hvats midjungs_) could (now finally) sue for peace (_mátti fridar bidja_)."

In the lines--

thá vard thórs ofrunni thúngr var Loptr, ofsprúnginn--

_thúngr var Loptr_ clearly stands as an intermediate sentence, which, in connection with what has been stated above, namely, that Thjasse had been flying a long way with his burden, will justify and explain why Thjasse, though exceedingly strong, stronger than _Hrungnir_ (the Grotte-song), still was at the point of succumbing from over-exertion. The skald has thus given the reason why Thjasse, "rejoicing in what he had caught," sank to the earth with his victim, before Loke became more used up than was the case. To understand the connection, the word _mátti_ in the third line is of importance. Hitherto the words _málunautr hvats mátti midjungs fridar bidja_ have been interpreted as if they meant that Loke "was compelled" to ask Thjasse for peace. _Mátti_ has been understood to mean _coactus est_. Finnur Jonsson (_Krit. Stud._, p. 48) has pointed out that not a single passage can with certainty or probability be found where the verb _mega, mátti_, means "to be compelled." Everywhere it can be translated "to be able." Thus the words _mátti fridar bidja_ mean that Loke _could_, was able to, ask Thjasse for peace. The reason why he was able is stated above, where it is said that Thjasse got tired of flying with his heavy burden. Before that, and during the flight and the disagreeable collisions between Loke's body and objects with which he came in contact, he was not able to treat with his capturer; but when the latter had settled on the ground, Loke got a breathing space, and could beg to be spared. The half strophe thus interpreted gives the most logical connection, and gives three causes and three results: (1) Loke was able to use his eloquent tongue in speaking to Thjasse, since the latter ceased to fly before Loke was torn into pieces; (2) Thor's _ofrunni_ or _ofrúni_ ended his air-journey, because he, though a very powerful person, felt that he had over-exerted himself; (3) he felt wearied because Loke, with whom he had been flying, was heavy. But from this it follows with absolute certainty that the skald, with Thor's _ofrunni_ or _ofrúni_, meant Thjasse and not Loke, as has hitherto been supposed. The epithet Thor's _ofrunni_, "he who made Thor run," must accordingly be explained by some mythic event, which shows that Thor at one time had to take flight on account of Thjasse. A single circumstance has come to our knowledge, where Thor retreats before an opponent, and it is hardly credible that the mythology should allow its favourite to retreat conquered more than once. On that occasion it is Volund's sword, wielded by Svipdag, which cleaves Thor's hammer and compels him to retire. Thus Volund was at one time Thor's _ofrunni_. In Haustlaung it is Thjasse. Here, too, we therefore meet the fact which has so frequently come to the surface in these investigations, namely, that the same thing is told of Volund and of Thjasse.

But by the side of _ofrunni_ we have another reading which must be considered. Codex Wormianus has _ofrúni_ instead of _ofrunni_, and, as Wisén has pointed out, this runni must, for the sake of the metre, be read _rúni_. According to this reading Thjasse must at some time have been Thor's _ofrúni_, that is, Thor's confidential friend. This reading also finds its support in the mythology, as shall be demonstrated further on. I may here be allowed to repeat what I have remarked before, that of two readings only the one can be the original, while both may be justified by the mythology.

(20) In the mythology are found characters that form a group by themselves, and whose characteristic peculiarity is that they practise skee-running in connection with the use of the bow and arrow. This group consists of the brothers Volund, Egil, Slagfin, Egil's son Ull, and Thjasse's daughter Skade. In the introduction to Volundarkvida it is said of the three brothers that they ran on skees in the Wolfdales and hunted. We have already referred to Egil's wonderful skees, that could be used on the water as well as on the snow. Of Ull we read in Gylfaginning (Younger Edda, i. 102): "He is so excellent an archer and skee-runner that no one is his equal;" and Saxo tells about his Ollerus that he could enchant a bone (the ice-shoe formed of a bone, the pendant of the skee), so that it became changed into a ship. Ull's skees accordingly have the same qualities as those of his father Egil, namely, that they can also be used on the sea. Ull's skees seem furthermore to have had another very remarkable character, namely, that when their possessor did not need them for locomotion on land or on sea, they could be transformed into a shield and be used in war. In this way we explain that the skalds could employ _skip Ullar_, _Ullar far_, _knörr Örva áss_, as paraphrases for shields, and that, according to one statement in the Edda Lovasina, _Ullr átti skip that, er Skjöldr hét_. So far as his accomplishments are concerned, Ull is in fact the counterpart of his father Egil, and the same may be said of Skade. While Ull is called "the god of the skees," Skade is called "the goddess of the skees," "the dis of the skees," and "the dis of the sea-bone," _sævar beins dis_, a paraphrase which manifestly has the same origin as Saxo's account of the bone enchanted by Ull. Thus Thjasse's daughter has an attribute belonging to the circle of Volund's kinsmen.

The names also connect those whom we find to be kinsmen of Volund with Thjasse's. Alvalde is Thjasse's father; Ivalde is Volund's. _Ívaldi_ is another form for _Idvaldi_. The long prefixed _Í_ in _Ívaldi_ is explained by the disappearance of _d_ from _Idvaldi_. _Id_ reappears in the name of Ivalde's daughter _Idunn_ and Thjasse's brother _Idi_, and these are the only mythological names in which _Id_ appears. Furthermore, it has already been pointed out, that of Alvalde's (_Ölvaldi's_) three sons there is one who has the epithet Wildboar (_Aurnir, Urnir_); and that among Ivalde's three sons there is one--namely, Orvandel-Egil--who has the same epithet (_Ibor, Ebur, Ebbo_); and that among Alvalde's sons one--namely, Thjasse--has the epithet _Fjallgyldir_, "mountain-wolf" (Haustlaung); while among Ivalde-Olmod's sons there is one--namely, Volund--who has the epithet _Ásólfr_, which also means "mountain-wolf."

In this connection it must not be forgotten that tradition has attached the qualities of giants, not only to Thjasse, but also to Volund. That this does not appear in the Elder Edda depends simply on the fact that Volund is not mentioned by this name in the genuine mythic songs, but only in the heroic fragment which we have in Volundarkvida. The memory that Volund, though an elf-prince in the mythology, and certainly not a full-blooded giant on his father's side, was regarded and celebrated in song as an _iötunn_,--the memory of this not only survives in Vilkinasaga, but appears there in an exaggeration fostered by later traditions, to the effect that his father Vade (see No. 110) is there called a giant, while his father's mother is said to have been a mermaid. In another respect, too, there survives in Vilkinasaga the memory of a relationship between Volund and the most famous giant-being. He and the giants Etgeir (_Eggther_) and Vidolf are cousins, according to chapter 175. If we examine the Norse sources, we find Vidolf mentioned in Hyndluljod (53) as progenitor of all the mythological valas, and Aurboda, the most notorious of the valas of mythology, mentioned in strophe 30 as a kinswoman of Thjasse. Thus while Hyndluljod makes Thjasse, the Vilkinasaga makes Volund, a kinsman of the giant Vidolf.

Though in a form greatly changed, the Vilkinasaga has also preserved the memory of the manner in which Volund's father closed his career. With some smiths ("dwarfs") who lived in a remote mountain, Vade had made an agreement, according to which, in return for a certain compensation, his son Volund should learn their wonderful art as smiths. When, toward the close of the time agreed upon, Vade appeared outside of the mountain, he was, before entering, killed by an avalanche in accordance with the treacherous arrangement of these smiths.

In the mythology Thjasse's father is the great drink-champion who, among his many names and epithets, as we have seen, also has some that refer to his position in the mythology in regard to fermented beverage; _Svigdir_ (the great drinker) _Ölvaldi_, _Ölmódr_, _Sumbl Finnakonungr_. In regard to _Svigdir's_ death, it has already been shown (see No. 89) that, on his complete disappearance from the mythology, he is outside of a mountain in which Suttung and Suttung's sons, descendants of Surt-Durinn, with Mimer the most ancient smith (see No. 89), have their halls; that on his arrival a treacherous dwarf, the doorkeeper of Suttung's sons, goes to meet him, and that he is "betrayed" by the dwarf, never enters the rocky halls, and consequently must have died outside.

Vilkinasaga's very late statements (probably taken from German traditions), in regard to the death of Volund's father, thus correspond in the main features with what is related in the Norse records as to how Thjasse's father disappeared from the scene of mythology.

In regard to the birth and rank of Thjasse's father among the mythic powers, the following statements in poems from the heathen time are to be observed. When Haustlaung tells how Thjasse falls into the vaferflames kindled around Asgard, it makes use of the words _Greipar bidils son svidnar_, "the son of Greip's wooer is scorched." Thus Thjasse's mother is the giantess Greip, who, according to a stanza cited in the Younger Edda, i. 288, is a daughter of the giant _Geirrödr_ and a sister of Gjalp. One of these sisters, and, so far as we can see, Greip, is, in Thorsdrapa, called _meinsvarans hapts arma farmr_, "the embrace of the arms of the perjurous _hapt_." _Höpt_, sing _hapt_, is like _bönd_, meaning the same, an appellation of lower and higher powers, _numina_ of various ranks. If by the perjurous mistress of the _hapt_ Greip, and not the sister Gjalp, is meant, then Thjasse's father is a being who belonged to the number of the _numina_ of the mythology, and who, with a giantess whose _bidill_ he had been, begat the son Thjasse, and probably also the latter's brothers _Idi_ and _Gángr_ (_Aurnir_). What rank this perjurous _hapt_ held among the powers is indicated in Vellekla, strophe 9, which, like the foregoing strophe 8, and the succeeding strophes 10, 11, treats of Hakon Jarl's conflicts at Dannevirke, whither he was summoned, in the capacity of a vassal under the Danish king, Harald Blue-tooth, to defend the heathen North against Emperor Otto II.'s effort to convert Denmark to Christianity by arms. The strophe, which here, too, in its paraphrases presents parallels between Hakon Jarl and his mythic progenitor Thjasse, says that the Danish king (_fémildr konungr_) desired that the Morkwood's Hlodyn's (Mork-wood's earth's, that is to say, the woody Norway's) elf, he who came from the North (_myrkmarkar Hlodynjar alfs, thess er kom nordan_), was to be tested in "murder-frost," that is to say, in war (_vid mord-frost freista_), when he (Denmark's king) angrily bade the cold-hard storm-watcher (_stirdan vedrhirdi_, Hakon Jarl) of the Hordaland dwellers (of the Norsemen) defend Dannevirke (_Virki varda_) against the southland Njords of the shield-din (_fyr serkja-hlym-val-Njördum_, "the princes of the southland warriors").

Here, too, the myth about Thjasse and of the fimbul-winter forms the kernel out of which the paraphrases adapted to Hakon Jarl have grown. Hakon is clothed with the mask of the cold-hard storm-watcher who comes from the North and can let loose the winter-winds. Emperor Otto and the chiefs who led the southern troops under him are compared with Njord and his kinsmen, who, in the mythology, fought with Volund and the powers of frost, and the battle between the warriors of the South and the North is compared with a "murder-frost," in which Hakon coming from the North meets the Christian continental Teutons at Dannevirke.

Thus the mythical kernel of the strophe is as follows: The elf of the Morkwood of Hlodyn, the cold-hard storm-watcher, tested his power with frost-weather when he fought with Njord and his kinsmen.

The Hlodyn of the Morkwood--that is to say, the goddess of the Jotunheim woods--is in this connection Thjasse's daughter Skade, who, in Haleygjatal, is called _Járnvidja_ of _Járnvidr_, the Ironwood, which is identical with the Morkwood (Darkwood). Thjasse himself, whose father is called "a perjurous _hapt_" in Thorsdrapa, is here called an elf. Alone, this passage would not be sufficient to decide the question as to which class of mythical beings Thjasse and his father belonged, the less so as _álfr_, applied in a paraphrase, might allude to any sort of being according to the characterisation added. But "perjurous _hapt_" cannot possibly be a paraphrase for a giant. Every divinity that has violated its oath is "a perjurous _hapt_," and the mythology speaks of such perjuries. If a god has committed perjury, this is no reason why he should be called a giant. If a giant has committed perjury, this is no reason why he should be called a _hapt_, for it is nothing specially characteristic of the giant nature that it commits perjury or violates its oath. In fact, it seems to me that there should be the gravest doubts about Thjasse's being a giant in the strictest and completest sense of the word, from the circumstances that he is a star-hero; that distinguished persons considered it an honour to be descended from him; that Hakon Jarl's skalds never tired of clothing him with the appearance of his supposed progenitor, and of comparing the historical achievements of the one with the mythical exploits of the other; and that he, Thjasse, not only robbed Idun, which indeed a genuine giant might do, but that he also lived with her many long years, and, so far as we can see, begat with her the daughter Skade. It should be remembered, from the foregoing pages, what pains the mythology takes to get the other asynje, Freyja, who had fallen into the hands of giants, back pure and undefiled to Asgard, and it is therefore difficult to believe that Idun should be humiliated and made to live for many years in intimacy with a real giant. It follows from this that when Thjasse, in the above-cited mythological kernel of the strophe of Vellekla, is called an _álfr_, and when his father in Thorsdrapa is called a _hapt_, a being of higher or lower divine rank, then _álfr_ is a further definition of the idea _hapt_, and informs us to which class of _numina_ Thjasse belonged--namely, the lower class of gods called elves. Thus, on his father's side, Thjasse is an elf. So is Volund. In Volundarkvida he is called a prince of elves. Furthermore, it should be observed that, in the strophe-kernel presented above, Thjasse is represented as one who has fought with Njord and his allies. In Saxo it is Anund-Volund and his brother the archer who fight with Njord-Fridlevus and his companions; and as Njord in Saxo marries Anund-Volund's daughter, while in the mythology he marries Thjasse's daughter, then this is another recurrence of the fact which continually comes to the surface in this investigation, namely, that whatever is told of Volund is also told of Thjasse.

[10] See for example Th. Wisén's investigations and Finnur Jonsson's _Krit. Stud._ (Copenhagen, 1884).

[11] The editions have changed _Urdar_ to _Urdr_, and thereby converted the above-cited passage into nonsense, for which in turn the author of Forspjallsljod was blamed, and it was presented as an argument to prove that the poem is spurious.

114.

PROOFS THAT IVALDE'S SONS ARE OLVALDE'S (_continued_). A REVIEW OF THORSDRAPA.

(21) We now come to a mythic record in which Thjasse's brothers _Idi_ and _Gángr_, and he too, in a paraphrase, are mentioned under circumstances well suited to throw light on the subject before us, which is very important in regard to the epic connection of the mythology.

Of Thor's expedition to Geirrod, we have two very different accounts. One is recorded by the author of Skaldskaparmal; the other is found in Eilif Gundrunson's Thorsdrapa.

In Skaldskaparmal (Younger Edda, i. 284) we read:

Only for pleasure Loke made an expedition in Freyja's feather guise, and was led by his curiosity to seat himself in an opening in the wall of Geirrod's house and peep in. There he was captured by one of Geirrod's servants, and the giant, who noticed from his eyes that it was not a real falcon, did not release him before he had agreed so to arrange matters that Thor should come to Geirrod's hall without bringing with him his hammer and belt of strength. This Loke was able to bring about. Thor went to Geirrod without taking any of these implements--not even his steel gloves--with him. Loke accompanied him. On the way thither Loke visited the giantess whose name was _Grídr_, and who was Vidar the Silent's mother. From her Thor learned the facts about Geirrod--namely, that the latter was a cunning giant and difficult to get on with. She lent Thor her own belt of strength, her own iron gloves, and her staff, _Grídarvölr_. Then Thor proceeded to the river which is called Vimur, and which is the greatest of all rivers. There he buckled on his belt of strength, and supported himself in the stream on the _Grídarvölr_. Loke held himself fast to the belt of strength. When Thor reached the middle of the stream, the water rose to his shoulders. Thor then perceived that up in a mountain chasm below which the river flowed stood Gjalp, Geirrod's daughter, with one foot on each side of the river, and it was she who caused the rising of the tide. Then Thor picked up a stone and threw it at the giantess, saying: "At its mouth the river is to be stopped." He did not miss his mark. Having reached the other bank of the river, he took hold of a rowan, and thus gained the land. Hence the proverb: "Thor's salvation, the rowan." And when Thor came to Geirrod a goat-house was first given to him and Loke (according to Codex Regius; according to the Upsala Codex a guest-house) as their lodgings. Then are related the adventures Thor had with Geirrod's daughters Gjalp and Greip, and how he, invited to perform games in Geirrod's hall, was met by a glowing iron which Geirrod threw against him with a pair of tongs, but which he caught with the iron gloves and threw back with so great force that the iron passed through a post, behind which Geirrod had concealed himself, and through Geirrod himself and his house wall, and then penetrated into the earth.

This narrative, composed freely from mythical and pseudo-mythical elements, is related to Thorsdrapa, composed in heathen times, about in the same manner as Bragarædur's account of Odin and Suttung is related to that of Havamál. Just as in Bragarædur _punctum saliens_ lies in the coarse jest about how poor poetry originated, so here a crude anecdote built on the proverb, "A stream is to be stemmed at its mouth," seems to be the basis of the story. In Christian times the mythology had to furnish the theme not only for ancient history, heroic poems, and popular traditions, but also for comic songs.

Now, a few words in regard to Thorsdrapa. This song, excellent from the standpoint of poetry and important from a mythological point of view, has, in my opinion, hitherto been entirely misunderstood, not so much on account of the difficulties found in the text--for these disappear, when they are considered without any preconceived opinion in regard to the contents--as on account of the undeserved faith in Skaldskaparmal's account of Thor's visit to Geirrod, and on account of the efforts made under the influence of this misleading authority to rediscover the statements of the latter in the heathen poem. In these efforts the poetics of the Christian period in Iceland have been applied to the poem, and in this way all mythological names, whose real meaning was forgotten in later times, have received a general faded signification, which on a more careful examination is proved to be incorrect. With a collection of names as an armoury, in which the names of real or supposed "dwarfs," "giants," "sea-kings," &c., are brought together and arranged as synonyms, this system of poetics teaches that from such lists we may take whatever dwarf name, giant name, &c., we please to designate whichever "dwarf," "giant," &c., we please. If, therefore, Thorsdrapa mentions "_Idi's_ chalet" and "_Gángr's_ war-vans," then, according to this system of poetics, _Idi_ and _Gángr's_--though they in heathen times designated particular mythic persons who had their own history, their own personal careers--have no other meaning than the general one of "a giant," for the reason that _Idi_ and _Gángr_ are incorporated in the above-named lists of giant names. Such a system of poetics could not arise before the most of the mythological names had become mere empty sounds, the personalities to whom they belonged being forgotten. The fact that they have been adapted, and still continue to be adapted, to the poems of the heathen skalds, is one of the reasons why the important contributions which names and paraphrases in the heathen poetry are able to furnish in mythological investigations have remained an unused treasure.