Part 9

While Hadding lived in exile in a northern wilderness, after his great defeat in conflict with the Swedes, it happened, on a sunny, warm day, that he went to the sea to bathe. While he was washing himself in the cold water he saw an animal of a most peculiar kind (_bellua inauditi generis_), and came into combat with it. Hadding slew it with quick blows and dragged it on shore. But while he rejoiced over this deed a woman put herself in his way and sang a song, in which she let him know that the deed he had now perpetrated should bring fearful consequences until he succeeded in reconciling the divine wrath which this murder had called down upon his head. All the forces of nature, wind and wave, heaven and earth, were to be his enemies unless he could propitiate the angry gods, for the being whose life he had taken was a celestial being concealed in the guise of an animal, one of the super-terrestrial:

Quippe unum e superis alieno corpore tectum Sacrilegæ necuere manus: sic numinis almi Interfector ades.

It appears, however, from the continuation of the narrative, that Hadding was unwilling to repent what he had done, although he was told that the one he had slain was a supernatural being, and that he long refused to propitiate those gods whose sorrow and wrath he had awakened by the murder. Not until the predictions of the woman were confirmed by terrible visitations does Hadding make up his mind to reconcile the powers in question. And this he does by instituting the sacrificial feast, which is called Frey's offering, and thenceforth was celebrated in honour of Frey (_Fro deo rem divinam furvis hostiis fecit_).

Hadding's refusal to repent what he had done, and the defiance he showed the divine powers, whom he had insulted by the murder he had committed, can only be explained by the fact that these powers were the Vana-gods who long gave succour to his enemies (see No. 39), and that the supernatural being itself, which, concealed in the guise of an animal, was slain by him, was some one whose defeat gave him pleasure, and whose death he considered himself bound and entitled to cause. This explanation is fully corroborated by the fact that when he learns that Odin and the Asas, whose favourite he was, no longer hold their protecting hands over him, and that the propitiation advised by the prophetess becomes a necessity to him, he institutes the great annual offering to Frey, Svipdag's brother-in-law. That this god especially must be propitiated can, again, have no other reason than the fact that Frey was a nearer kinsman than any of the Asa-gods to the supernatural being, from whose slayer he (Frey) demanded a ransom. And as Saxo has already informed us that Svipdag perished in a naval engagement with Hadding, all points to the conclusion that in the celestial person who was concealed in the guise of an animal and was slain in the water we must discover Svipdag Freyja's husband.

Saxo does not tell us what animal guise it was. It must certainly have been a purely fabulous kind, since Saxo designates it as _bellua inauditi generis_. An Anglo-Saxon record, which is to be cited below, designates it as _uyrm_ and _draca_. That Svipdag, sentenced to wear this guise, kept himself in the water near the shore of a sea, follows from the fact that Hadding meets and kills him in the sea where he goes to bathe. Freyja, who sought her lost lover everywhere, also went in search for him to the realms of _Ægir_ and _Rán_. There are reasons for assuming that she found him again, and, in spite of his transformation and the repulsive exterior he thereby got, she remained with him and sought to soothe his misery with her faithful love. One of Freyja's surnames shows that she at one time dwelt in the bosom of the sea. The name is _Mardöll_. Another proof of this is the fragment preserved to our time of the myth concerning the conflict between Heimdal and Loke in regard to Brisingamen. This neck- and breast-ornament, celebrated in song both among the Teutonic tribes of England and those of Scandinavia, one of the most splendid works of the ancient artists, belonged to Freyja (Thrymskvida, Younger Edda). She wore it when she was seeking Svipdag and found him beneath the waves of the sea; and the splendour which her Brisingamen diffused from the deep over the surface of the sea is the epic interpretation of the name _Mardöll_ from _marr_, "sea," and _döll_, feminine of _dallr_ (old English _deall_), "glittering" (compare the names Heimdallr and Delling). _Mardöll_ thus means "the one diffusing a glimmering in the sea." The fact that Brisingamen, together with its possessor, actually was for a time in Æger's realm is proved by its epithet _fagrt hafnýra_, "the fair kidney of the sea," which occurs in a strophe of Ulf Uggeson (Younger Edda, 268). There was also a skerry, _Vágasker, Singasteinn_, on which Brisingamen lay and glittered, when Loke, clad in the guise of a seal tried to steal it. But before he accomplished his purpose, there crept upon the skerry another seal, in whose looks--persons in disguise were not able to change their eyes--the evil and cunning descendant of Farbaute must quickly have recognised his old opponent Heimdal. A conflict arose in regard to the possession of the ornament, and the brave son of the nine mothers became the victor and preserved the treasure for Asgard.

To the Svipdag synonyms _Ódr_ (Hotharus), _Óttar_ (Otharus), _Eirekr_ (Ericus), and _Skirnir_, we must finally add one more, which is, perhaps, of Anglo-Saxon origin: _Hermodr_, _Heremod_.

From the Norse mythic records we learn the following in regard to Hermod:

(_a_) He dwelt in Asgard, but did not belong to the number of ruling gods. He is called Odin's _sveinn_ (Younger Edda, 174), and he was the Asa-father's favourite, and received from him helmet and cuirass (Hyndluljod, 2).

(_b_) He is called _enn hvati_ (Younger Edda, 174), the rapid. When Frigg asks if anyone desires to earn her favour and gratitude by riding to the realm of death and offering Hel a ransom for Balder, Hermod offers to take upon himself this task. He gets Odin's horse Sleipner to ride, proceeds on his way to Hel, comes safely to that citadel in the lower world, where Balder and Nanna abide the regeneration of the earth, spurs Sleipner over the castle wall, and returns to Asgard with Hel's answer, and with the ring Draupner, and with presents from Nanna to Frigg and Fulla (Younger Edda, 180).

From this it appears that Hermod has a position in Asgard resembling Skirner's: that he, like Skirner, is employed by the gods as a messenger when important or venturesome errands are to be undertaken; and that he, like Skirner, then gets that steed to ride, which is able to leap over vaferflames and castle-walls. We should also bear in mind that Skirner-Svipdag had made celebrated journeys in the same world to which Hermod is now sent to find Balder. As we know, Svipdag had before his arrival in Asgard travelled all over the lower world, and had there fetched the sword of victory. After his adoption in Asgard, he is sent by the gods to the lower world to get the chain Gleipner.

(_c_) In historical times Hermod dwells in Valhal, and is one of the chief einherjes there. When Hakon the Good was on the way to the hall of the Asa-father, the latter sent Brage and Hermod to meet him:

Hermódr ok Bragi kvad Hroptatýr gangit i gegn grami thvi at konungr ferr sá er kappi thykkir, til hallar hinnig (Hakonarmal).

This is all there is in the Norse sources about Hermod.

Further information concerning him is found in the Beowulf poem, which in two passages (str. 1747, &c., and 3419, &c.) compares him with its own unselfish and blameless hero, Beowulf, in order to make it clear that the latter was in moral respects superior to the famous hero of antiquity. Beowulf was related by marriage to the royal dynasty then reigning in his land, and was reared in the king's halls as an older brother of his sons. The comparisons make these circumstances, common to Beowulf and Hermod, the starting-point, and show that while Beowulf became the most faithful guardian of his young foster-brothers, and in all things maintained their rights, Hermod conducted himself in a wholly different manner. Of Hermod the poem tells us:

(_a_) He was reared at the court of a Danish king (str. 1818, &c., 3421, &c.).

(_b_) He set out on long journeys, and became the most celebrated traveller that man ever heard of (_se wæs wreccena wide mærost ofer wer-theóde_--str. 1800-1802).

(_c_) He performed great exploits (str. 1804).

(_d_) He was endowed with powers beyond all other men (str. 3438-39).

(_e_) God gave him a higher position of power than that accorded to mortals (str. 3436, &c.).

(_f_) But although he was reared at the court of the Danish king, this did not turn out to the advantage of the Skjoldungs, but was a damage to them (str. 3422, &c.), for there grew a bloodthirsty heart in his breast.

(_g_) When the Danish king died (the poem does not say how) he left young sons.

(_h_) Hermod, betrayed by evil passions that got the better of him, was the cause of the ruin of the Skjoldungs, and of a terrible plague among the Danes, whose fallen warriors for his sake covered the battlefields. His table-companions at the Danish court he consigned to death in a fit of anger (str. 3426, &c.).

(_i_) The war continues a very long time (str. 1815, &c., str. 3447).

(_k_) At last there came a change, which was unfavourable to Hermod, whose superiority in martial power decreased (str. 1806).

(_l_) Then he quite unexpectedly disappeared (str. 3432) from the sight of men.

(_m_) This happened against his will. He had suddenly been banished and delivered to the world of giants, where "waves of sorrow" long oppressed him (str. 1809, &c.).

(_n_) He had become changed to a dragon (_wyrm_, _draca_).

(_o_) The dragon dwelt near a rocky island in the sea _under harne stan_ (beneath a grey rock).

(_p_) There he slew a hero of the Volsung race (in the Beowulf poem Sigemund--str. 1747, &c.).

All these points harmonise completely with Svipdag's saga, as we have found it in other sources. Svipdag is the stepson of Halfdan the Skjoldung, and has been reared in his halls, and dwells there until his mother Groa is turned out and returns to Orvandel. He sets out like Hermod on long journeys, and is doubtless the most famous traveller mentioned in the mythology; witness his journey across the Elivagar, and his visit to Jotunheim while seeking Frey and Freyja; his journey across the frosty mountains, and his descent to the lower world, where he traverses Nifelheim, sees the Eylud mill, comes into Mimer's realm, procures the sword of victory, and sees the glorious castle of the _ásmegir_; witness his journey over Bifrost to Asgard, and his warlike expedition to the remote East (see also Younger Edda, i. 108, where Skirner is sent to _Svartalfaheim_ to fetch the chain Glitner). He is, like Hermod, endowed with extraordinary strength, partly on account of his own inherited character, partly on account of the songs of incantation sung over him by Groa, on account of the nourishment of wisdom obtained from his stepmother and finally on account of the possession of the indomitable sword of victory. By being adopted in Asgard as Freyja's husband, he is, like Hermod, elevated to a position of power greater than that which mortals may expect. But all this does not turn out to be a blessing to the Skjoldungs, but is a misfortune to them. The hatred he had cherished toward the Skjoldung Halfdan is transferred to the son of the latter, Hadding, and he persecutes him and all those who are faithful to Hadding, makes war against him, and is unwilling to end the long war, although the gods demand it. Then he suddenly disappears, the divine wrath having clothed him with the guise of a strange animal, and relegated him to the world of water-giants, where he is slain by Hadding (who in the Norse heroic saga becomes a Volsung, after Halfdan, under the name Helge Hundingsbane, was made a son of the Volsung Sigmund).

Hermod is killed on a rocky island _under harne stan_. Svipdag is killed in the water, probably in the vicinity of the _Vágasker_ and the _Singasteinn_, where the Brisingamen ornament of his faithful Mardol is discovered by Loke and Heimdal.

Freyja's love and sorrow may in the mythology have caused the gods to look upon Svipdag's last sad fate and death as a propitiation of his faults. The tears which the Vana-dis wept over her lover were transformed, according to the mythology, into gold, and this gold, the gold of a woman's faithfulness, may have been regarded as a sufficient compensation for the sins of her dear one, and doubtless opened to Svipdag the same Asgard-gate which he had seen opened to him during his life. This explains that Hermod is in Asgard in the historical time, and that, according to a revelation to the Swedes in the ninth century, the ancient King Erik was unanimously elevated by the gods as a member of their council.

Finally, it should be pointed out that the Svipdag synonym _Odr_ has the same meaning as _môd_ in Heremôd, and as _ferhd_ in Svidferhd, the epithet with which Hermod is designated in the Beowulf strophe 1820. _Odr_ means "the one endowed with spirit," _Heremôd_ "the one endowed with martial spirit," _Svidferhd_, "the one endowed with mighty spirit."

Heimdal's and Loke's conflict in regard to Brisingamen has undoubtedly been an episode in the mythic account of Svipdag's last fortunes and Freyja's abode with him in the sea. There are many reasons for this assumption. We should bear in mind that Svipdag's closing career constituted a part of the great epic of the first world war, and that both Heimdal and Loke take part in this war, the former on Hadding's, the latter on Gudhorm-Jormunrek's and Svipdag's side (see Nos. 38, 39, 40). It should further be remembered that, according to Saxo, at the time when he slays the monster, Hadding is wandering about as an exile in the wildernesses, and that it is about this time that Odin gives him a companion and protector in Liserus-Heimdal (see No. 40). The unnamed woman, who after the murder had taken place puts herself in Hadding's way, informs him whom he has slain, and calls the wrath of the gods and the elements down upon him, must be Freyja herself, since she witnessed the deed and knew who was concealed in the guise of the dragon. So long as the latter lived Brisingamen surely had a faithful watcher, for it is the nature of a dragon to brood over the treasures he finds. After being slain and dragged on shore by Hadding, his "bed," the gold, lies exposed to view on Vagasker, and the glimmer of Brisingamen reaches Loke's eyes. While the woman, in despair on account of Svipdag's death, stands before Hadding and speaks to him, the ornament has no guardian, and Loke finds the occasion convenient for stealing it. But Heimdal, Hadding's protector, who in the mythology always keeps his eye on the acts of Loke and on his kinsmen hostile to the gods, is also present, and he too has seen Brisingamen. Loke has assumed the guise of a seal, while the ornament lies on a rock in the sea, _Vágasker_, and it can cause no suspicion that a seal tries to find a resting-place there. Heimdal assumes the same guise, the seals fight on the rock, and Loke must retire with his errand unperformed. The rock is also called Singastein (Younger Edda, i. 264, 268), a name in which I see the Anglo-Saxon _Sincastân_, "the ornament rock." An echo of the combat about Brisingamen reappears in the Beowulf poem, where Heimdal (not Hamdir) appears under the name Hâma, and where it is said that "Hâma has brought to the weapon-glittering citadel (Asgard) _Brosingamene_," which was "the best ornament under heaven;" whereupon it is said that Hâma fell "into Eormenric's snares," with which we should compare Saxo's account of the snares laid by Loke, Jormenrek's adviser, for Liserus-Heimdal and Hadding.[8]

107.

REMINISCENCES OF THE SVIPDAG-MYTH.

The mythic story about Svipdag and Freyja has been handed down in popular tales and songs, even to our time, of course in an ever varying and corrupted form. Among the popular tales there is one about _Mærthöll_, put in writing by Konrad Maurer, and published in _Modern Icelandic Popular Tales_.

The wondrous fair heroine in this tale bears Freyja's well-known surname, Mardol, but little changed. And as she, like Freyja, weeps tears that change into gold, it is plain that she is originally identical with the Vana-dis, a fact which Maurer also points out.

Like Freyja, she is destined by the norn to be the wife of a princely youth. But when he courted her, difficulties arose which remind us of what Saxo relates about Otharus and Syritha.

As Saxo represents her, Syritha is bound as it were by an enchantment, not daring to look up at her lover or to answer his declarations of love. She flies over the mountains _more pristino_, "in the manner usual in antiquity," consequently in all probability in the guise of a bird. In the Icelandic popular tale Marthol shudders at the approaching wedding night, since she is then destined to be changed into a sparrow. She is about to renounce the embrace of her lover, so that he may not know anything about the enchantment in which she is fettered.

In Saxo the spell resting on Syritha is broken when the candle of the wedding night burns her hand. In the popular tale Marthol is to wear the sparrow guise for ever if it is not burnt on the wedding night or on one of the two following nights.

Both in Saxo and in the popular tale another maiden takes Mardol's place in the bridal bed on the wedding night. But the spell is broken by fire, after which both the lovers actually get each other.

The original identity of the mythological Freyja-Mardol, Saxo's Syritha, and the _Mærthöll_ of the Icelandic popular tale is therefore evident.

In Danish and Swedish versions of a ballad (in Syv, Nyerup, Arwidsson, Geijer and Afzelius, Grundtvig, Dybeck, Hofberg; compare Bugge's Edda, p. 352, &c.) a young Sveidal (Svedal, Svendal, Svedendal, Silfverdal) is celebrated, who is none other than Svipdag of the mythology. Svend Grundtvig and Bugge have called attention to the conspicuous similarity between this ballad on the one hand, and Grogalder and Fjölsvinnsmal on the other. From the various versions of the ballad it is necessary to mention here only those features which best preserve the most striking resemblance to the mythic prototype. Sveidal is commanded by his stepmother to find a maiden "whose sad heart had long been longing." He then goes first to the grave of his deceased mother to get advice from her. The mother speaks to him from the grave and promises him a horse, which can bear him over sea and land, and a sword hardened in the blood of a dragon and resembling fire. The narrow limits of the ballad forbade telling how Sveidal came into possession of the treasures promised by the mother or giving an account of the exploits he performed with the sword. This plays no part in the ballad; it is only indicated that events not recorded took place before Sveidal finds the longing maid. Riding through forests and over seas, he comes to the country where she has her castle. Outside of this he meets a shepherd, with whom he enters into conversation. The shepherd informs him that within is found a young maiden who has long been longing for a young man by name Sveidal, and that none other than he can enter there, for the timbers of the castle are of iron, its gilt gate of steel, and within the gate a lion and a white bear keep watch. Sveidal approaches the gate; the locks fall away spontaneously; and when he enters the open court the wild beasts crouch at his feet, a linden-tree with golden leaves bends to the ground before him, and the young maiden whom he seeks welcomes him as her husband.

One of the versions makes him spur his horse over the castle wall; another speaks of seven young men guarding the wall, who show him the way to the castle, and who in reality are "god's angels under the heaven, the blue."

The horse who bears his rider over the salt sea is a reminiscence of Sleipner, which Svipdag rode on more than one occasion; and when it is stated that Sveidal on this horse galloped over the castle wall, this reminds us of Skirner-Svipdag when he leaps over the fence around Gymer's abode, and of Hermod-Svipdag when he spurs Sleipner over the wall to Balder's lower-world castle. The shepherds, who are "god's angels," refers to the watchmen mentioned in Fjölsvinnsmal, who are gods; the wild beasts in the open court to the two wolf-dogs who guard Asgard's gate; the shepherd whom Sveidal meets outside of the wall to Fjölsvin; the linden-tree with the golden leaves to _Mimameidr_ and to the golden grove growing in Asgard. One of the versions makes two years pass while Sveidal seeks the one he is destined to marry.

In Germany, too, we have fragments preserved of the myth about Svipdag and Freyja. These remnants are, we admit, parts of a structure built, so to speak, in the style of the monks, but they nevertheless show in the most positive manner that they are borrowed from the fallen and crumbled arcades of the heathen mythology. We rediscover in them the old medieval poem about "Christ's unsewed grey coat."

The hero of the poem is Svipdag, here called by his father's name Orendel, Orentel--that is, Orvandel. The father himself, who is said to be a king in Trier, has received another name, which already in the most ancient heathen times was a synonym of Orvandel, and which I shall consider below. This in connection with the circumstance that the younger Orentel's (Svipdag's) patron saint is called "the holy Wieland," and thus he has the name of a person who, in the mythology, as shall be shown below, was Svipdag's uncle (father's brother) and helper, and whose sword is Svipdag's protection and pledge of victory, proves that at least in solitary instances not only the events of the myth but also its names and family relations have been preserved in a most remarkable and faithful manner through centuries in the minds of the German people.