Part 3

Loder also gave at the same time another gift, _litr goda_. To understand this expression (hitherto translated with "good complexion"), we must bear in mind that the Teutons, like the Hellenes and Romans, conceived the gods in human form, and that the image which characterises man was borne by the gods alone before man's creation, and originally belonged to the gods. To the hierologists and the skalds of the Teutons, as to those of the Greeks and Romans, man was created _in effigiem deorum_ and had in his nature a divine image in the real sense of this word, a _litr goda_. Nor was this _litr goda_ a mere abstraction to the Teutons, or an empty form, but a created _efni_ dwelling in man and giving shape and character to the earthly body which is visible to the eye. The common meaning of the word _litr_ is something presenting itself to the eye without being actually tangible to the hands. The Gothic form of the word is _wlits_, which Ulfilas uses in translating the Greek _prosopon_--look, appearance, expression. Certain persons were regarded as able to separate their _litr_ from its union with the other factors of their being, and to lend it, at least for a short time, to some other person in exchange for his. This was called to _skipta litum_, _vixla litum_. It was done by Sigurd and Gunnar in the song of Sigurd Fafnersbane (i. 37-42). That factor in Gunnar's being which causes his earthly body to present itself in a peculiar individual manner to the eyes of others is transmitted to Sigurd, whose exterior, affected by Gunnar's _litr_, accommodates itself to the latter, while the spiritual kernel in Sigurd's personality suffers no change.

Lit hefir thu Gunnars oc læti hans, mælsco thina oc meginhyggior (Sig., i. 39).

Thus man has within him an inner body made in the image of the gods and consisting of a finer material, a body which is his _litr_, by virtue of which his coarser tabernacle, formed from the earth, receives that form by which it impresses itself on the minds of others. The recollection of the belief in this inner body has been preserved in a more or less distorted form in traditions handed down even to our days (see for example, Hyltén-Cavallius, _Värend och Virdarne_, i. 343-360; Rääf in Småland, _Beskr. öfver Ydre_, p. 84).

The appearance of the outer body therefore depends on the condition of the _litr_, that is, of the inner being. Beautiful women have a "joyous fair _litr_" (Havamál, 93). An emotion has influence upon the _litr_, and through it on the blood and the appearance of the outward body. A sudden blushing, a sudden paleness, are among the results thereof, and can give rise to the question, _Hefir thu lit brugdit?_--Have you changed your _litr_? (Fornald., i. 426). To translate this with, Have you changed colour? is absurd. The questioner sees the change of colour, and does not need to ask the other one who cannot see it.

On account of its mythological signification and application, it is very natural that the word _litr_ should in every-day life acquire on the one hand the meaning of complexion in general, and on the other hand the signification of _hamr_, guise, an earthly garb which persons skilled in magic could put on and off. _Skipta litum_, _vixla litum_, have in Christian times been used as synonymous with _skipta hömum_, _vixla hömum_.

In physical death the coarser elements of an earthly person's nature are separated from the other constituent parts. The tabernacle formed of earth and the vegetative material united therewith are eliminated like the animal element and remain on earth. But this does not imply that the deceased descend without form to Hades. The form in which they travel in "deep dales," traverse the thornfields, wade across the subterranean rivers, or ride over the gold-clad Gjallar-bridge, is not a new creation, but was worn by them in their earthly career. It can be none other than their _litr_, their _umbra et imago_. It also shows distinctly what the dead man has been in his earthly life, and what care has been bestowed on his dust. The washing, combing, dressing, ornamenting, and supplying with Hel-shoes of the dead body has influence upon one's looks in Hades, on one's looks when he is to appear before his judge.

Separated from the earthly element, from the vegetative material, and from the blood, the _lit_ is almost imponderable, and does not possess the qualities for an intensive life, either in bliss or in torture. Five fylkes of dead men who rode over the Gjallar-bridge produced no greater din than Hermod alone riding on Sleipner; and the woman watching the bridge saw that Hermod's exterior was not that of one separated from the earthly element. It was not _litr daudra manna_ (Gylfaginning). But the _litr_ of the dead is compensated for what it has lost. Those who in the judgment on _daudan hvern_ are pronounced worthy of bliss are permitted to drink from the horn decorated with the serpent-symbol of eternity, the liquids of the three world-fountains which give life to all the world, and thereby their _litr_ gets a higher grade of body and nobler blood (see Nos. 72, 73). Those sentenced to torture must also drink, but it is a drink _eitri blandinn miok_, "much mixed with venom," and it is _illu heilli_, that is, a warning of evil. This drink also restores their bodies, but only to make them feel the burden of torture. The liquid of life which they imbibe in this drink is the same as that which was thought to flow in the veins of the demons of torture. When Hadding with his sword wounds the demon-hand which grasps after Hardgrep and tears her into pieces (see No. 41), there flows from the wound "more venom than blood" (_plus tabi quam cruoris_--Saxo, _Hist._, 40).

When Loder had given Ask and Embla _litr goda_, an inner body formed in the image of the gods, a body which gives to their earthly tabernacle a human-divine type, they received from Honer the gift which is called _ódr_. In signification this word corresponds most closely to the Latin _mens_, the Greek _nous_ (cp. Vigfusson's Lexicon), and means that material which forms the kernel of a human personality, its ego, and whose manifestations are understanding, memory, fancy, and will.

Vigfusson has called attention to the fact that the epithet _langifótr_ and _aurkonungr_, "Longleg" and "Mire-king," applied to Honer, is applicable to the stork, and that this cannot be an accident, as the very name _Hænir_ suggests a bird, and is related to the Greek _kuknos_, and the Sanscrit _sakunas_ (_Corpus Poet. Bor._, i. p. cii.).[2] It should be borne in mind in this connection that the stork even to this day is regarded as a sacred and protected bird, and that among Scandinavians and Germans there still exists a nursery tale telling how the stork takes from some saga-pond the little fruits of man and brings them to their mothers. The tale which now belongs to the nursery has its root in the myth, where Honer gives our first parents that very gift which in a spiritual sense makes them human beings and contains the personal ego. It is both possible and probable that the conditions essential to the existence of every person were conceived as being analogous with the conditions attending the creation of the first human pair, and that the gifts which were then given by the gods to Ask and Embla were thought to be repeated in the case of each one of their descendants--that Honer consequently was believed to be continually active in the same manner as when the first human pair was created, giving to the mother-fruit the ego that is to be. The fruit itself out of which the child is developed was conceived as grown on the world-tree, which therefore is called _manna mjötudr_ (Fjölsvinnsmal, 22). Every fruit of this kind (_aldin_) that matured (and fell from the branches of the world-tree into the mythic pond [?]) is fetched by the winged servants of the gods, and is born _á eld_ into the maternal lap, after being mentally fructified by Honer.

Ut af hans (Mimameids) aldni skal á eld bera fyr kelisjúkar konur; utar hverfa thaz thær innar skyli, sá er hann med mönnum mjötudr.

Above, in No. 83, it has been shown that _Lodurr_ is identical with _Mundilföri_, the one producing fire by friction, and that _Hœnir_ and _Lodurr_ are Odin's brothers, also called _Vei_ and _Vili_. With regard to the last name it should be remarked that its meaning of "will" developed out of the meaning "desire," "longing," and that the word preserved this older meaning also in the secondary sense of _cupido_, _libido_, sexual desire. This epithet of _Lodurr_ corresponds both with the nature of the gifts he bestows on the human child which is to be--that is, the blood and the human, originally divine, form--and also with his quality of fire-producer, if, as is probable, the friction-fire had the same symbolic meaning in the Teutonic mythology as in the Rigveda. Like Honer, Loder causes the knitting together of the human generations. While the former fructifies the embryo developing on the world-tree with _ódr_, it receives from Loder the warmth of the blood and human organism. The expression _Vilja byrdr_, "_Vili's_ burden," "that which _Vili_ has produced," is from this point of view a well-chosen and at the same time an ambiguous paraphrase for a human body. The paraphrase occurs in Ynglingatal (Ynglingasaga, 17). When Visbur loses his life in the flames it is there said of him that the fire consumed his _Vilja byrdi_, his corporal life.

To Loder's and Honer's gifts the highest Asa-god adds the best element in human nature, _önd_, spirit, that by which a human being becomes participator in the divine also in an inner sense, and not only as to form. The divine must here, of course, be understood in the sense (far different from the ecclesiastical) in which it was used by our heathen ancestors, to whom the divine, as it can reveal itself in men, chiefly consisted in power of thought, courage, honesty, veracity, and mercy, but who knew no other humility than that of patiently bearing such misfortunes as cannot be averted by human ingenuity.

These six elements, united into one in human nature, were of course constantly in reciprocal activity. The personal kernel _ódr_ is on the one hand influenced by _önd_, the spirit, and on the other hand by the animal, vegetative, and corporal elements, and the personality being endowed with will, it is responsible for the result of this reciprocal activity. If the spirit becomes superior to the other elements then it penetrates and sanctifies not only the personal kernel, but also the animal, vegetative, and corporal elements. Then human nature becomes a being that may be called divine, and deserves divine honour. When such a person dies the lower elements which are abandoned and consigned to the grave have been permeated by, and have become participators in, the personality which they have served, and may thereafter in a wonderful manner diffuse happiness and blessings around them. When Halfdan the Black died different places competed for the keeping of his remains, and the dispute was settled by dividing the corpse between Hadaland, Ringerike, and Vestfold (Fagerskinna, Heimskringla). The vegetative force in the remains of certain persons might also manifest itself in a strange manner. Thorgrim's grave-mound in Gisle's saga was always green on one side, and Laugarbrekku-Einar's grave-mound was entirely green both winter and summer (Landn., ii. 7).

The elements of the dead buried in the grave continued for more or less time their reciprocal activity, and formed a sort of unity which, if permeated by his _ódr_ and _önd_, preserved some of his personality and qualities. The grave-mound might in this manner contain an _alter ego_ of him who had descended to the realm of death. This _alter ego_, called after his dwelling _haugbúi_, hill-dweller, was characterised by his nature as a _draugr_, a branch which, though cut off from its life-root, still maintains its consistency, but gradually, though slowly, pays tribute to corruption and progresses toward its dissolution. In Christian times the word _draugr_ acquired a bad, demoniacal meaning, which did not belong to it exclusively in heathen times, to judge from the compounds in which it is found: _eldraugr_, _herdraugr_, _hirdidraugr_, which were used in paraphrases for "warriors;" _ódaldraugr_, "rightful owner," &c. The _alter ego_ of the deceased, his representative dwelling in the grave, retained his character: was good and kind if the deceased had been so in life; in the opposite case, evil and dangerous. As a rule he was believed to sleep in his grave, especially in the daytime, but might wake up in the night, or could be waked by the influence of prayer or the powers of conjuration. Ghosts of the good kind were _hollar vættir_, of the evil kind _úvættir_. Respect for the fathers and the idea that the men of the past were more pious and more noble than those of the present time caused the _alter egos_ of the fathers to be regarded as beneficent and working for the good of the race, and for this reason family grave-mounds where the bones of the ancestors rested were generally near the home. If there was no grave-mound in the vicinity, but a rock or hill, the _alter egos_ in question were believed to congregate there when something of importance to the family was impending. It might also happen that the lower elements, when abandoned by _ódr_ and _önd_, became an _alter ego_ in whom the vegetative and animal elements exclusively asserted themselves. Such an one was always tormented by animal desire of food, and did not seem to have any feeling for or memory of bonds tied in life. Saxo (_Hist._, 244) gives a horrible account of one of this sort. Two foster-brothers, Asmund and Asvid, had agreed that if the one died before the other the survivor should confine himself in the foster-brother's grave-chamber and remain there. Asvid died and was buried with horse and dog. Asmund kept his agreement, and ordered himself to be confined in the large, roomy grave, but discovered to his horror that his foster-brother had become a _haugbúi_ of the last-named kind, who, after eating horse and dog, attacked Asmund to make him a victim of his hunger. Asmund conquered the _haugbúi_, cut off his head, and pierced his heart with a pole to prevent his coming to life again. Swedish adventurers who opened the grave to plunder it freed Asmund from his prison. In such instances as this it must have been assumed that the lower elements of the deceased consigned to the grave were never in his lifetime sufficiently permeated by his _ódr_ and _önd_ to enable these qualities to give the corpse an impression of the rational personality and human character of the deceased. The same idea is the basis of belief of the Slavic people in the vampire. In one of this sort the vegetative element united with his dust still asserts itself, so that hair and nails continue to grow as on a living being, and the animal element, which likewise continues to operate in the one buried, visits him with hunger and drives him in the night out of the grave to suck the blood of surviving kinsmen.

The real personality of the dead, the one endowed with _litr_, _ódr_, and _önd_, was and remained in the death kingdom, although circumstances might take place that would call him back for a short time. The drink which the happy dead person received in Hades was intended not only to strengthen his _litr_, but also to soothe that longing which the earthly life and its memories might cause him to feel. If a dearly-beloved kinsman or friend mourned the deceased too violently, this sorrow disturbed his happiness in the death kingdom, and was able to bring him back to earth. Then he would visit his grave-mound, and he and his _alter ego_, the _haugbúi_, would become one. This was the case with Helge Hundingsbane (Helge Hund., ii. 40, &c.). The sorrow of Sigrun, his beloved, caused him to return from Valhal to earth and to ride to his grave, where Sigrun came to him and wanted to rest in his arms during the night. But when Helge had told her that her tears pierced his breast with pain, and had assured her that she was exceedingly dear to him, and had predicted that they together should drink the sorrow-allaying liquids of the lower world, he rode his way again, in order that, before the crowing of the cock, he might be back among the departed heroes. Prayer was another means of calling the dead back. At the entrance of his deceased mother's grave-chamber Svipdag beseeches her to awake. Her ashes kept in the grave-chamber (_er til moldar er komin_) and her real personality from the realm of death (_er ór ljodheimum er lidin_) then unite, and Groa speaks out of the grave to her son (Grogaldr., i. 2). A third means of revoking the dead to earth lay in conjuration. But such a use of conjuration was a great sin, which relegated the sinner to the demons. (Cp. Saxo's account of Hardgrep.)

Thus we understand why the dead descended to Hades and still inhabited the grave-mounds. One died "to Hel" and "to the grave" at the same time. That of which earthly man consisted, in addition to his corporal garb, was not the simple being, "the soul," which cannot be divided, but there was a combination of factors, which in death could be separated, and of which those remaining on earth, while they had long been the covering of a personal kernel (_ódr_), could themselves in a new combination form another ego of the person who had descended to Hades.

But that too consisted of several factors, _litr_, _ódr_, and _önd_, and they were not inseparably united. We have already seen that the sinner, sentenced to torture, dies a second death in the lower world before he passes through the Na-gates, the death from Hel to Nifelhel, so that he becomes a _nár_, a corpse in a still deeper sense than that which _nár_ has in a physical sense. The second death, like the first (physical), must consist in the separation of one or more of the factors from the being that dies. And in the second death, that which separates itself from the damned one and changes his remains into a lower-world _nár_, must be those factors that have no blame in connection with his sins, and consequently should not suffer his punishment, and which in their origin are too noble to become the objects of the practice of demons in the art of torturing. The venom drink which the damned person has to empty deprives him of that image of the gods in which he was made, and of the spirit which was the noble gift of the Asa-father. Changed into a _monster_, he goes to his destiny fraught with misfortunes.

The idea of a regeneration was not foreign to the faith of the Teutonic heathens. To judge from the very few statements we have on this point, it would seem that it was only the very best and the very worst who were thought to be born anew in the present world. Gulveig was born again several times by the force of her own evil will. But it is only ideal persons of whom it is said that they are born again--_e.g._, Helge Hjorvardson, Helge Hundingsbane, and Olaf Geirstadaralf, of whom the last was believed to have risen again in Saint Olaf. With the exception of Gulveig, the statements in regard to the others from Christian times are an echo from the heathen Teutonic doctrine which it would be most interesting to become better acquainted with--also from the standpoint of comparative Aryan mythology, since this same doctrine appears in a highly-developed form in the Asiatic-Aryan group of myths.

[2] There is a story of the creation of man by three wandering gods, who become in mediæval stories Jesus and SS. Peter and Paul walking among men, as in Champfleury's pretty apologue of the _bonhomme misére_, so beautifully illustrated by Legros. In the eddic legend one of these gods is called _Hœne_; he is the _speech-giver_ of Wolospa, and is described in praises taken from lost poems as "the long-legged one" [_langifotr_], "the lord of the ooze" [_aurkonungr_]. Strange epithets, but easily explainable when one gets at the etymology of Hœne = _hohni_ = Sansc. _sakunas_ = Gr. _kuknos_ = the white bird, swan, or stork, that stalks along in the mud, lord of the marsh; and it is now easy to see that this bird is the Creator walking in chaos, brooding over the primitive mish-mash or tohu-bohu, and finally hatching the egg of the world. Hohni is also, one would fancy, to be identified with Heimdal, _the walker_, who is also a creator-god, who sleeps _more lightly than a bird_, who is also the "_fair Anse_," and _the "whitest of the Anses,"_ the "waker of the gods," a celestial chanticleer as it were (Vigfusson, _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, vol. i., Introduction, p. cii., quoted by the translator).

V.

THE IVALDE RACE.

96.

SVIPDAG AND GROA.

Groa's son Svipdag is mentioned by this name in two Old Norse songs, Grogalder and Fjölsvinnsmal, which as Bugge has shown, are mutually connected, and describe episodes from the same chain of events.

The contents of Grogalder are as follows:

Groa is dead when the event described in the song takes place. Svipdag is still quite young. Before her death she has told him that he is to go to her grave and call her if he needs her help. The grave is a grave-chamber made of large flat stones raised over a stone floor, and forming when seen from the outside a mound which is furnished with a door (str. 1, 15).

Svipdag's father has married a second time. The stepmother commands her stepson to go abroad and find _Menglödum_, "those fond of ornaments." From Fjölsvinnsmal we learn that one of those called by this name is a young maid who becomes Svipdag's wife. Her real name is not given: she is continually designated as _Menglöd_, Menglad, one of "those fond of ornaments," whom Svipdag has been commanded to find.

This task seems to Svipdag to exceed his powers. It must have been one of great adventures and great dangers, for he now considers it the proper time to ask his deceased mother for help. He has become suspicious of his stepmother's intentions; he considers her _lævis_ (cunning), and her proposition is "a cruel play which she has put before him" (str. 3).

He goes to Groa's grave-chamber, probably in the night (_verda auflgari allir a nottum dauthir_--Helge Hund., ii. 51), bids her wake, and reminds her of her promise. That of Groa which had become dust (_er til moldar er komin_), and that of her which had left this world of man and gone to the lower world (_er ór ljódheimum lidin_), become again united under the influence of maternal love and of the son's prayer, and Svipdag hears out of the grave-chamber his mother's voice asking him why he has come. He speaks of the errand on which he has been sent by his stepmother (str. 3, 4).

The voice from the grave declares that long journeys lie before Svipdag if he is to reach the goal indicated. It does not, however, advise him to disobey the command of his stepmother, but assures him that if he will but patiently look for a good outcome of the matter, then the norn will guide the events into their right course (str. 4).

The son then requests his mother to sing protecting incantations over him. She is celebrated in mythology as one mighty in incantations of the good kind. It was Groa that sang healing incantations over Thor when with a wounded forehead he returned from the conflict with the giant Hrungner (Gylfag.).