Part 7

In the mythology _Odr_, like _Hödr_, was an inhabitant of Asgard, but nevertheless, like _Hödr_, he has had hostile relations to Asgard, and in this connection he has fought with Thor (see No. 103). The similarity of the names and the similarity of the mythological situation are sufficient to explain the confusion on the part of Saxo. But there are several other reasons, of which I will give one. The weapon with which Hoder slew Balder in the mythology was a young twig, _Mistelteinn_. The sword of victory made by Volund, with hostile intentions against the gods, could, for the very reason that it was dangerous to Asgard, be compared by skalds with the mistletoe, and be so called in a poetic-rhetorical figure. The fact is, that both in Skirnersmal and in Fjölsvinnsmal the Volund sword is designated as a _teinn_; that the _mistletoe_ is included in the list of sword-names in the Younger Edda; and that in the later Icelandic saga-literature _mistelteinn_ is a sword which is owned in succession by Saming, _Thráinn_, and Romund Greipson; and finally, that all that is there said about this sword _mistelteinn_ is a faithful echo of the sword of victory made by Volund, though the facts are more or less confused. Thus we find, for example, that it is _Máni Karl_ who informs Romund where the sword is to be sought, while in Saxo it is the moon-god Gevar, Nanna's father, who tells Hotherus where it lies hid. That the god _Máni_ and Gevar are identical has already been proved (see Nos. 90, 91, 92). Already before Saxo's time the _mistelteinn_ and the sword of victory of the mythology had been confounded with each other, and Hoder's and Oder's weapons had received the same name. This was another reason for Saxo to confound Hoder and Oder and unite them in Hotherus. And when he found in some of his sources that a sword _mistelteinn_ was used by Oder, and in others that a _mistelteinn_ was wielded by Hoder, it was natural that he as a historian should prefer the sword to the fabulous mistletoe (see more below).

The circumstance that two mythical persons are united into one in Hotherus has given Saxo free choice of making his Hotherus the son of the father of the one or of the other. In the mythology Hoder is the son of Odin; Oder-Svipdag is the son of Orvandel. Saxo has made him a son of Hoddbrodd, who is identical with Orvandel. It has already been demonstrated (see No. 29) that Helge Hundingsbane is a copy of the Teutonic patriarch Halfdan. The series of parallels by which this demonstration was made clear at the same time makes it manifest that Helge's rival Hoddbrodd is Halfdan's rival Orvandel. The same place as is occupied in the Halfdan myth by Orvandel, Hoddbrodd occupies in the songs concerning Helge Hundingsbane. What we had a right to expect, namely, that Saxo, when he did not make Hotherus the son of Hoder's father, should make him a son of Oder's, has actually been done, whence there can be no doubt that Hoder and Oder were united into one in Saxo's Hotherus.

With this point perfectly established, it is possible to analyse Saxo's narrative point by point, resolve it into its constituent parts, and refer them to the one of the two myths concerning Hoder and Oder to which they belong.[7] It has already been noted that Saxo was unable to unite organically with his narration of Hoder's adventure the episode concerning the sword of victory taken from Mimingus. The introduction of this episode has made the story of Hotherus a chain of contradictions. On the other hand, the same episode naturally adapts itself to the Svipdag-Oder story, which we already know. We have seen that Svipdag descends to the lower world and there gets into possession of the Volund sword. Hence it is Svipdag-Oder, not Hoder, who is instructed by the moon-god Gevar as to where the sword is to be found. It is he who crosses the frost-mountains, penetrates into the _specus_ guarded by Mimingus, and there captures the Volund sword and the Volund ring. It is Svipdag, not Hoder, who, thanks to this sword, is able as _thursar thjódar sjóli_ to conquer the otherwise indomitable Halfdan--nay, even more, compel Halfdan's co-father and protector, the Asa-god Thor, to yield.

Thus Saxo's accounts about Otharus and Hotherus fill two important gaps in the records preserved to our time in the Icelandic sources concerning the Svipdag-myth. To this is also to be added what Saxo tells us about Svipdag under this very name (see Nos. 24, 33): that he carries on an implacable war with Halfdan after the latter had first secured and then rejected Groa; that after various fortunes of war he conquers him and gives him a mortal wound; that he takes Halfdan's and Groa's son Gudhorm into his good graces and gives him a kingdom, but that he pursues and wars against Halfdan's and Alveig-Signe's son Hadding, and finally falls by his hand.

Hotherus-Svipdag's perilous journey across the frosty mountains, mentioned by Saxo, is predicted by Groa in her seventh incantation of protection over her son:

thann gel ek thér in sjaunda, ef thik sækja kemr frost á fjalli há hávetrar kuldi megit thinu holdi fara, ok haldisk æ lik at lidum.

[5] According to Gheysmer's synopsis. Saxo himself says nothing of the kind. The present reading of the passage in Saxo is distinctly mutilated.

[6] This Bugge, too, has observed, and he rightly assumes that the episode concerning the sword has been interpolated from some other source.

[7] This analysis will be given in the second part of this work in the treatise on the Balder-myth.

102.

SVIPDAG'S SYNONYM EIREKR. ERICUS DISERTUS IN SAXO.

We have not yet exhausted Saxo's contributions to the myth concerning Svipdag. In two other passages in his _Historia Danica_ Svipdag reappears, namely, in the accounts of the reigns of Frode III. and of Halfdan Berggram, in both under the name Ericus (_Eirekr_), a name applied to Svipdag in the mythology also (see No. 108).

The first reference showing that Svipdag and Erik are identical appears in the following analogies:

Halfdan (Gram), who kills a Swedish king, is attacked in war by Svipdag.

Halfdan (Berggram), who kills a Swedish king, is attacked in war by Erik.

Svipdag is the son of the slain Swedish king's daughter.

Erik is the son of the slain Swedish king's daughter.

Saxo's account of King Frode is for the greater part the myth about Frey told as history. We might then expect to find that Svipdag, who becomes Frey's brother-in-law, should appear in some _rôle_ in Frode's history. The question, then, is whether any brother-in-law of Frode plays a part therein. This is actually the case. Frode's brother-in-law is a young hero who is his general and factotum, and is called Ericus, with the surname _Disertus_, the eloquent. The Ericus who appears as Halfdan's enemy accordingly resembles Svipdag, Halfdan's enemy, in the fact that he is a son of the daughter of the Swedish king slain by Halfdan. The Ericus who is Frode-Frey's general, again, resembles Svipdag in the fact that he marries Frode-Frey's sister. This is another indication that Erik and Svipdag were identical in Saxo's mythic sources.

Let us now pursue these indications and see whether they are confirmed by the stories which Saxo tells of Halfdan's enemy Erik and Frode-Frey's brother-in-law, Erik the eloquent.

Saxo first brings us to the paternal home of Erik the eloquent. In the beginning of the narrative Erik's mother is already dead and his father is married a second time (_Hist._, 192). Compare with this the beginning of Svipdag's history, where his mother, according to Grogalder, is dead, and his father is married again.

The stepmother has a son, by name Rollerus, whose position in the myth I shall consider hereafter. Erik and Roller leave their paternal home to find Frode-Frey and his sister Gunvara, a maiden of the most extraordinary beauty. Before they proceed on this adventurous journey Erik's stepmother, Roller's mother, has given them a wisdom-inspiring food to eat, in which one of the constituent parts was the fat of three serpents. Of this food the cunning Erik knew how to secure the better part, really intended for Roller. But the half-brothers were faithful friends.

From Saxo's narrative it appears that Erik had no desire at all to make this journey. It was Roller who first made the promise to go in search for Frode and his sister, and it was doubtless Erik's stepmother who brought about that Erik should assist his brother in the accomplishment of the task. Erik himself regarded the resolve taken by Roller as surpassing his strength (_Hist._, 193).

This corresponds with what Grogalder tells us about Svipdag's disinclination to perform the task imposed on him by his stepmother. This also gives us the key to Grogalder's words, that Svipdag was commanded to go and find not only "the one fond of ornaments," but "_those_ fond of ornaments" (_koma móti Menglödum_). The plural indicates that there is more than one "fond of ornaments" to be sought. It is necessary to bring back to Asgard not only Freyja, but also Frey her brother, the god of the harvests, for whom the ancient artists made ornaments, and who as a symbol of nature is the one under whose supremacy the forces of vegetation in nature decorate the meadows with grass and the fields with grain. He, too, with his sister, was in the power of the giant-world in the great fimbul-winter (see below).

The food to which serpents must contribute one of the constituent parts reappears in Saxo's account of Hotherus (_Hist._, 123; No. 101), and is there described with about the same words. In both passages three serpents are required for the purpose. That Balder should be nourished with this sort of food is highly improbable. The serpent food in the stories about Hotherus and Ericus has been borrowed from the Svipdag-myth.

The land in which Frode and his beautiful sister live is difficult of access, and magic powers have hitherto made futile every effort to get there. The attendants of the brother and sister there are described as the most savage, the most impudent, and the most disagreeable that can be conceived. They are beings of the most disgusting kind, whose manners are as unrestrained as their words. To get to this country it is necessary to cross an ocean, where storms, conjured up by witchcraft, threaten every sailor with destruction.

Groa has predicted this journey, and has sung a magic song of protection over her son against the dangers which he is to meet on the magic sea:

thann gel ek thér inn sétta ef thú á sjó kemr meira en menn viti: logn ok lögr gangi thér i lúdr saman ok ljái thér æ friddrjúgrar farar.

When Erik and Roller, defying the storms, had crossed this sea and conquered the magic power which hindered the approach to the country, they entered a harbour, near which Frode and Gunvara are to be sought. On the strand they meet people who belong to the attendants of the brother and sister. Among them are three brothers, all named Grep, and of whom one is Gunvara's pressing and persistent suitor. This Grep, who is a poet and orator of the sort to be found in that land, at once enters into a discussion with Erik. At the end of the discussion Grep retires defeated and angry. Then Erik and Roller proceed up to the abode where they are to find those whom they seek. Frode and Gunvara are met amid attendants who treat them as princely persons, and look upon them as their court-circle. But the royal household is of a very strange kind, and receives visitors with great hooting, barking of dogs, and insulting manners. Frode occupies the high-seat in the hall, where a great fire is burning as a protection against the bitter cold. It is manifest from Saxo's description that Frode and Gunvara, possibly by virtue of the sorcery of the giants, are in a spiritual condition in which they have almost forgotten the past, but without being happy in their present circumstances. Frode feels unhappy and degraded. Gunvara loathes her suitor Grep. The days here spent by Erik and Roller, before they get an opportunity to take flight with Gunvara, form a series of drinking-bouts, vulgar songs, assaults, fights, and murders. The jealous Grep tries to assassinate Erik, but in this attempt he is slain by Roller's sword. Frode cannot be persuaded to accompany Erik, Roller, and Gunvara on this flight. He feels that his life is stained with a spot that cannot be removed, and he is unwilling to appear with it among other men. In the mythology it is left to Njord himself to liberate his son. In another passage (_Hist._, 266, 267) Saxo says that King Fridlevus (Njord) liberated a princely youth who had been robbed by a giant. In the mythology this youth can hardly be anyone else than the young Frey, the son of the liberator. Erik afterwards marries Gunvara.

Among the poetical paraphrases from heathen times are found some which refer to Frey's and Freyja's captivity among the giants. In a song of the skald Kormak the mead of poetry is called _jastrin fontanna Sýrar Greppa_, "the seething flood of the sea ranks (of the skerry) of Syr (of Freyja) of the Greps." This paraphrase evidently owes its existence to an association of ideas based on the same myth as Saxo has told in his way. _Sýr_, as we know, is one of Freyja's surnames, and as to its meaning, one which she must have acquired during her sojourn in Jotunheim, for it is scarcely applicable to her outside of Jotunheim. _Greppr_, the poet there, as we have already seen, is Freyja's suitor. He has had brothers also called _Greppr_, whence the plural expression _Sýrs Greppa_ ("Syr's Greps"), wherein Freyja's surname is joined with more than one Grep, receives its mythological explanation. The giant abode where Frode and Gunvara sojourn, is according to Saxo, situated not far from the harbour where Erik and Roller entered (_portum a quo Frotho non longe deversabatur_--_Hist._, 198). The expression "the Greps of Syr's skerries" thus agrees with Saxo.

A northern land uninhabited by man is by Eyvind Skaldaspiller called _utröst Belja dolgs_, "the most remotely situated abode of Bele's enemy (Frey)." This paraphrase is also explained by the myth concerning Frey's and Freyja's visit in Jotunheim. _Beli_ is a giant-name, and means "the howler." Erik and Roller, according to Saxo, are received with a horrible howl by the giants who attend Frey. "They produced horrible sounds like those of howling animals" (_ululantium more horrisonas dedere voces_). To the myth about how Frey fell into the power of the giants I shall come later (see Nos. 109, 111, 112).

Erik is in Saxo called _disertus_, the eloquent. The Svipdag epithet _Ódr_ originally had a meaning very near to this. The impersonal _ódr_ means partly the reflecting element in man, partly song and poetry, the ability of expressing one's self skilfully and of joining the words in an agreeable and persuasive manner (cp. the Gothic _weit-wodan_, to convince). Erik demonstrates the propriety of his name. Saxo makes him speak in proverbs and sentences, certainly for the reason that his Northern source has put them on the lips of the young hero. The same quality characterises Svipdag. In Grogalder his mother sings over him: "Eloquence and social talents be abundantly bestowed upon you;" and the description of him in Fjölsvinnsmal places before our eyes a nimble and vivacious youth who well understands the watchman's veiled words, and on whose lips the speech develops into proverbs which fasten themselves on the mind. Compare _augna gamans_, &c. (str. 5), and the often quoted _Urdar ordi kvedr engi madr_ (str. 47).

Toward Gunvara Erik observes the same chaste and chivalrous conduct as Otharus toward Syritha (_intacta illi pudicitia manet_--p. 216). As to birth, he occupies the same subordinate position to her as _Ódr_ to Freyja, Otharus to Syritha, Svipdag to Menglad.

The adventures related in the mythology from Svipdag's journey, when he went in search of Freyja-Menglad, are by Saxo so divided between Ericus Disertus and Otharus that of the former is told the most of what happened to Svipdag during his visit in the giant abode, of the latter the most of what happened to him on his way thence to his home.

Concerning Erik's family relations, Saxo gives some facts which, from a mythological point of view, are of great value. It has already been stated that Erik's mother, like Svipdag's, is dead, and that his father, like Svipdag's, is married a second time where his saga begins. The father begets with his second wife a son, whom Saxo calls Rollerus. When Erik's father also is dead, Roller's mother, according to Saxo, marries again, and this time a powerful champion called Brac (_Hist._, 217), who in the continuation of the story (p. 217, &c.) proves himself to be _Asa-Brage_, the god Thor (cp. No. 105), to whom she brings her son Roller. In our mythological records we learn that Thor's wife was Sif, the goddess of vegetation, and that Sif had been married and had had a son, by name _Ullr_, before she became the wife of the Asa-god, and that she brought with her to Asgard this son, who became adopted among the gods. Thus the mythic records and Saxo correspond in these points, and it follows that Rollerus is the same as Uller, whom Saxo elsewhere (_Hist._, 130, 131; cp. No. 36) mentions as Ollerus. The forms Ollerus and Rollerus are to each other as _Olfr_ to _Hrólfr_. _Hrólfr_ is a contraction of _Hród-úlfr_; Rollerus indicates a contraction of _Hród-Ullr_, _Hríd-Ullr_. The latter form occurs in the paraphrase _Hrídullr hrotta_, "the sword's storm-Ull," a designation of a warrior (Grett., 20, 1). It has already been pointed out that in the great war between Odin's clan and the Vans, Ull, although Thor's stepson, takes the side of the Vans and identifies his cause with that of Frey and Svipdag. Saxo also describes the half-brothers as faithfully united, and, in regard to Roller's reliable fraternity, makes Erik utter a sentence which very nearly corresponds to the Danish:

"End svige de Sorne og ikke de Baarne"

(_Hist._, 207--_optima est affinium opera opis indigo_). Saxo's account of Erik and Roller thus gives us the key to the mythological statements, not otherwise intelligible, that though Ull has in Thor a friendly stepfather (cp. the expression _gulli Ullar_--Younger Edda, i. 302), and in Odin a clan-chief who distinguishes him (cp. _Ullar hylli_, &c.--Grimnersmal, 42), nevertheless he contends in this feud on the same side as Erik-Svipdag, with whom he once set out to rescue Frey from the power of the giants. The mythology was not willing to sever those bonds of fidelity which youthful adventurers shared in common had established between Frey, Ull, and Svipdag. Both the last two therefore associate themselves with Frey when the war breaks out between the Asas and Vans.

It follows that Sif was the second wife of Orvandel the brave before she became Thor's and that Ull is Orvandel's son. The intimate relation between Orvandel on the one side and Thor on the other has already been shown above. When Orvandel was out on adventures in Jotunheim his first wife Groa visited Thor's halls as his guest, where the dis of vegetation might have a safe place of refuge during her husband's absence. This feature preserved in the Younger Edda is of great mythological importance, and, as I shall show further on, of ancient Aryan origin. Orvandel, the great archer and star-hero, reappears in Rigveda and also in the Greek mythology--in the latter under the name Orion, as Vigfusson has already assumed. The correctness of the assumption is corroborated by reasons, which I shall present later on.

103.

THE SVIPDAG SYNONYM EIRIKR (_continued_).

We now pass to that Erik whom Saxo mentions in his narrative concerning Halfdan-Berggram, and who, like Svipdag, is the son of a Swedish king's daughter. This king had been slain by Halfdan. Just as Svipdag undertakes an irreconcilable war of revenge against Halfdan-Gram, so does Erik against Halfdan-Berggram. In one of their battles Halfdan was obliged to take flight, despite his superhuman strength and martial luck. More than this, he has by his side the "champion Thoro," and Saxo himself informs us that the latter is no less a personage than the Asa-god Thor, but he too must yield to Erik. Thor's Mjolner and Halfdan's club availed nothing against Erik. In conflict with him their weapons seemed edgeless (_Hist._, 323, 324).

Thus not only Halfdan, but even Thor himself, Odin's mighty son, he who alone outweighs in strength all the other descendants and clansmen of Odin, was obliged to retreat before a mythical hero; and that his lightning hammer, at other times irresistible, Sindre's wonderful work, is powerless in this conflict, must in the mythology have had particular reasons. The mythology has scarcely permitted its favourite, "Hlodyn's celebrated son," to be subjected to such a humiliation more than once, and this fact must have had such a motive, that the event might be regarded as a solitary exception. It must therefore be borne in mind that, in his narrative concerning Hotherus, Saxo states, that after the latter had acquired the sword of victory guarded by Mimingus, he meets the Asa-god Thor in a battle and forces him to yield, after the former has severed the hammer from its handle with a blow of the sword (_Hist._, 118; see No. 101). It has already been shown that _Ódr_-Svipdag, not _Hödr_, is the Hotherus who captured the sword of victory and accomplished this deed (see No. 101). Erik accordingly has, in common with Svipdag, not only those features that he is the daughter-son of a Swedish king whom Halfdan had slain, and that he persists in making war on the latter, but also that he accomplished the unique deed of putting Thor to flight.

Thus the hammer Mjolner is found to have been a weapon which, in spite of its extraordinary qualities, is inferior to the sword of victory forged by Volund (see Nos. 87, 98). Accordingly the mythology has contained two famous judgments on products of the ancient artists. The first judgment is passed by the Asa-gods in solemn consultation, and in reference to this very hammer, Mjolner, explains that Sindre's products are superior to those of Ivalde's sons. The other judgment is passed on the field of battle, and confirms the former judgment of the gods. Mjolner proves itself useless in conflict with the sword of victory. If now the Volund of the heroic traditions were one of the Ivalde sons who fails to get the prize in the mythology, then an epic connection could be found between the former and the latter judgment: the insulted Ivalde son has then avenged himself on the gods and re-established his reputation injured by them. I shall recur to the question whether Volund was a son of Ivalde or not.

The wars between Erik and Halfdan were, according to Saxo, carried on with changing fortunes. In one of these conflicts, which must have taken place before Erik secured the irresistible sword, Halfdan is victorious and takes Erik prisoner; but the heart of the victor is turned into reconciliation toward the inexorable foe, and he offers Erik his life and friendship if the latter will serve his cause. But when Erik refuses the offered conciliation, Halfdan binds him fast to a tree in order to make him the prey of the wild beasts of the forest and abandons him to his fate. Halfdan's desire to become reconciled with Erik, and also the circumstance that he binds him, is predicted, in Grogalder (strs. 9, 10), by Svipdag's mother among the fortunes that await her son:

thann gel ek thér inn fjórda ef thik fjándr standa görvir á galgvegi: hugr theim hverfi til handa ther mætti, ok snuisk theim til sátta sefi.

thann gel ek pér inn fimta ef thér fjöturr verdr borinn at boglimum: Leifnis elda læt ek thér fyr legg of kvedinn, ok stökkr thá láss af limum, en af fótum fjöturr.