Teutonic Mythology Part 10

Halfdan-Gram has felled Helge's rival and the many Svarin and many of his brothers. brothers of the latter dwell Svarin was viceroy under around Svarin's grave-mound.

Groa's father (Saxo, 32). They are allies or subjects of Sigrun's father.

Halfdan-Gram is slain by Helge is slain by Dag, who Svipdag, who is armed with is armed with an Asgard an Asgard weapon (Saxo, 34, weapon (Helge Hund., ii.).

to be compared with other sources. See Nos. 33, 98, 101, 103).

Halfdan-Berggram's father Helge's father was slain by is slain by his brother Frode, his brother Frode, who took who took his kingdom (Saxo, his kingdom (Rolf Krake's 320). saga).

Halfdan Berggram and his Helge and his brother were brother were in their childhood in their childhood protected protected by Regno by Regin (Rolf Krake's saga).

(Saxo, 320).

Halfdan Berggram and his Helge and his brothers brother burnt Frode to death burnt Frode to death in his in his house (Saxo, 323). house (Rolf Krake's saga).

Halfdan Berggram as a Helge Hundingsbane as a youth left the kingdom to his youth left the kingdom to his brother and went warfaring brother and went warfaring (Saxo, 320 ff). (Saxo, 80).

During Halfdan's absence During Helge Hundingsbane's Denmark is attacked by an absence Denmark is attacked enemy, who conquers his by an enemy, who conquers brother in three battles and his brother in three slays him in a fourth (Saxo, battles and slays him in a 325). fourth (Saxo, 82).

Halfdan, the descendant of Helge Hundingsbane became Scef and Scyld, becomes the the father of Rolf father of Rolf (Beowulf (Saxo, 83; compare Rolf poem). Krake's saga).

Halfdan had a son with his Helge Hundingsbane had a own sister Yrsa (Grotte-song, son with his own sister Ursa 22; mon Yrsu sonr vid Half-dana (Saxo, 82). The son was Rolf hefna Froda; sa mun (compare Rolf Krake's saga).

hennar heitinn vertha borr oc brothir).

A glance at these parallels is sufficient to remove every doubt that the hero in the songs concerning Helge Hundingsbane is originally the same mythic person as is celebrated in the song or songs from which Saxo gathered his materials concerning the kings, Gram Skjoldson, Halfdan Berggram, and Halfdan Borgarson. It is the ancient myth in regard to Halfdan, the son of Skjold-Borgar, which myth, after the introduction of Christianity in Scandinavia, is divided into two branches, of which the one continues to be the saga of this patriarch, while the other utilises the history of his youth and transforms it into a new saga, that of Helge Hundingsbane. In Saxo's time, and long before him, this division into two branches had already taken place. How this younger branch, Helge Hundingsbane's saga, was afterwards partly appropriated by the all-absorbing Sigurdsaga and became connected with it in an external and purely genealogical manner, and partly did itself appropriate (as in Saxo) the old Danish local tradition about Rolf, the illegitimate son of Halfdan Skjoldung, and, in fact, foreign to his pedigree; how it got mixed with the saga about an evil Frode and his stepsons, a saga with which it formerly had no connection;--all these are questions which I shall discuss fully in a second part of this work, and in a separate treatise on the heroic sagas. For the present, my task is to show what influence this knowledge of Halfdan and Helge Hundingsbane's ident.i.ty has upon the interpretation of the myth concerning the antiquity of the Teutons.

30.

HALFDAN'S BIRTH AND THE END OF THE AGE OF PEACE.

THE FAMILY NAMES YLFING, HILDING, BUDLUNG.

The first strophes of the first song of Helge Hundingsbane distinguish themselves in tone and character and broad treatment from the continuation of the song, and have clearly belonged to a genuine old mythic poem about Halfdan, and without much change the compiler of the Helge Hundingsbane song has incorporated them into his poem. They describe Halfdan's ("Helge Hundingsbane's") birth. The real mythic names of his parents, Borgar and Drott, have been retained side by side with the names given by the compiler, Sigmund and Borghild.

Ar var alda; It was time's morning, that er arar gullo, eagles screeched, hnigo heilog votn holy waters fell af himinfjollum; from the heavenly mountains.

tha hafthi Helga Then was the mighty inn hugom stora Helge born Borghildr borit by Borghild i Bralundi. in Bralund.

Nott varth i boe, It was night, nornir qvomo, norns came, ther er authlingi they who did shape aldr urn scopo; the fate of the n.o.bleman; thann batho fylci they proclaimed him fraegstan vertha best among Budlungs, oc buthlunga and most famed beztan ticcia. among princes.

Snero ther af afli With all their might the threads aurlaugthatto, of fate they twisted, tha er Borgarr braut when Borgar settled i Bralundi; in Bralund; ther um greiddo of gold they made gullin simo the warp of the web, oc und manasal and fastened it directly mithian festo. 'neath the halls of the moon.

ther austr oc vestr In the east and west enda falo: they hid the ends: thar atti lofdungr there between land a milli; the chief should rule; bra nipt Nera Nere's[15] kinswoman a nordrevega northward sent einni festi one thread and bade it ey bath hon halda. hold for ever.

Eitt var at angri One cause there was Ylfinga nith of alarm to the Yngling (Borgar), oc theirre meyio and also for her er nunuth faeddi; who bore the loved one.

hrafn gvath at hrafni Hungry cawed --sat a ham meithi raven to raven andvanr ato:-- in the high tree: "Ec veit noccoth! "Hear what I know!

"Stendr i brynio "In coat of mail burr Sigmundar, stands Sigmund's son, doegrs eins gamall, one day old, nu er dagr kominn; now the day is come; hversir augo sharp eyes of the Hildings sem hildingar, has he, and the wolves'

sa er varga vinr, friend he becomes, vith scolom teitir." We shall thrive."

Drott thotti sa Drott, it is said, saw dauglingr vera In him a dayling,[16]

quado meth gumnom saying, "Now are good seasons G.o.d-ar kominn; come among men;"

sialfr gecc visi to the young lord or vig thrimo from thunder-strife ungum faera came the chief himself itrlauc grami. with a glorious flower.

Halfdan's ("Helge Hundingsbane's") birth occurs, according to the contents of these strophes, when two epochs meet. His arrival announces the close of the peaceful epoch and the beginning of an age of strife, which ever since has reigned in the world. His significance in this respect is distinctly manifest in the poem. The raven, to whom the battle-field will soon be as a wellspread table, is yet suffering from hunger (_andvanr atu_); but from the high tree in which it sits, it has on the day after the birth of the child, presumably through the window, seen the newcomer, and discovered that he possessed "the sharp eyes of the Hildings," and with prophetic vision it has already seen him clad in coat of mail. It proclaims its discovery to another raven in the same tree, and foretells that theirs and the age of the wolves has come: "We shall thrive."

The parents of the child heard and understood what the raven said.

Among the runes which Heimdal, Borgar's father, taught him, and which the son of the latter in time learned, are the knowledge of bird-speech (_Konr ungr klok nam fugla_--Rigsthula, 43, 44). The raven's appearance in the song of Helge Hundingsbane is to be compared with its relative the crow in Rigsthula; the one foretells that the new-born one's path of life lies over battle-fields, the other urges the grown man to turn away from his peaceful amus.e.m.e.nts. Important in regard to a correct understanding of the song, and characteristic of the original relation of the strophes quoted to the myth concerning primeval time, is the circ.u.mstance that Halfdan's ("Helge Hundingsbane's") parents are not pleased with the prophecies of the raven; on the contrary they are filled with alarm. Former interpreters have been surprised at this. It has seemed to them that the prophecy of the lad's future heroic and blood-stained career ought, in harmony with the general spirit pervading the old Norse literature, to have awakened the parents' joy and pride.

But the matter is explained by the mythic connection which makes Borgars' life const.i.tute the transition period from a happy and peaceful golden age to an age of warfare. With all their love of strife and admiration for warlike deeds, the Teutons still were human, and shared with all other people the opinion that peace and harmony is something better and more desirable than war and bloodshed. Like their Aryan kinsmen, they dreamed of primeval _Saturnia regna_, and looked forward to a regeneration which is to restore the reign of peace. Borgar, in the myth, established the community, was the legislator and judge. He was the hero of peaceful deeds, who did not care to employ weapons except against wild beasts and robbers. But the myth had also equipped him with courage and strength, the necessary qualities for inspiring respect and interest, and had given him abundant opportunity for exhibiting these qualities in the promotion of culture and the maintenance of the sacredness of the law. Borgar was the Hercules of the northern myth, who fought with the gigantic beasts and robbers of the olden time. Saxo (_Hist._, 23) has preserved the traditions which tell how he at one time fought breast to breast with a giant bear, conquering him and bringing him fettered into his own camp.

As is well known, the family names Ylfings, Hildings, Budlungs, &c., have in the poems of the Christian skalds lost their specific application to certain families, and are applied to royal and princely warriors in general. This is in perfect a.n.a.logy with the Christian Icelandic poetry, according to which it is proper to take the name of any viking, giant, or dwarf, and apply it to any special viking, giant, or dwarf, a poetic principle which scholars even of our time claim can also be applied in the interpretation of the heathen poems. In regard to the old Norse poets this method is, however, as impossible as it would be in Greek poetry to call Odysseus a Peleid, or Achilleus a Laertiatid, or Prometheus Hephaestos, or Hephaestos Daedalos. The poems concerning Helge Hundingsbane are compiled in Christian times from old songs about Borgar's son Halfdan, and we find that the patronymic appellations Ylfing, Hilding, Budlung, and Lofdung are copiously strewn on "Helge Hundingsbane." But, so far as the above-quoted strophes are concerned, it can be shown that the appellations Ylfing, Hilding, and Budlung are in fact old usage and have a mythic foundation. The German poem "Wolfdieterich und Sabin" calls Berchtung (Borgar) Potelung--that is, Budlung; the poem "Wolfdieterich" makes Berchtung the progenitor of the Hildings, and adds: "From the same race the Ylfings have come to us"--_von dem selbe geslehte sint uns die wilfinge k.u.men_ (v. 223).

Saxo mentions the Hilding Hildeger as Halfdan's half-brother, and the traditions on which the saga of Asmund Kaempebane is based has done the same (compare No. 43). The agreement in this point between German, Danish, and Icelandic statements points to an older source common to them all, and furnishes an additional proof that the German Berchtung occupied in the mythic genaelogies precisely the same place as the Norse Borgar.

That Thor is one of Halfdan's fathers, just as Heimdal is one of Borgar's, has already been pointed out above (see No. 25). To a divine common fatherhood point the words: "Drott it is said, saw in him (the lad just born) a dayling (son of a G.o.d of light), a son divine." Who the divine partner-father is, is indicated by the fact that a storm has broken out the night when Drott's son is born. There is a thunder-strife _vig thrimo_, the eagles screech, and holy waters fall from the heavenly mountains (from the clouds). The G.o.d of thunder is present, and casts his shadow over the house where the child is born.

[Footnote 15: Urd, the chief G.o.ddess of fate. See the treatise "Mythen om Under-jorden."]

[Footnote 16: _Dayling_ = bright son of day or light.]

31.

HALFDAN'S CHARACTER. THE WEAPON-MYTH.

The myths and heroic poems are not wanting in ideal heroes, who are models of goodness of heart, justice, and the most sensitive n.o.bleness.

Such are, for example, the Asa-G.o.d Balder, his counter part among heroes, Helge Hjorvardson, Beowulf, and, to a certain degree also, Sigurd Fafnesbane. Halfdan did not belong to this group. His part in the myth is to be the personal representative of the strife-age that came with him, of an age when the inhabitants of the earth are visited by the great winter and by dire misfortunes, when the demoralisation of the world has begun along with disturbances in nature and when the words already are applicable, "_hart er i heimi_" (hard is the world). Halfdan is guilty of the abduction of a woman--the old custom of taking a maid from her father by violence or cunning is ill.u.s.trated in his saga. It follows, however, that the myth at the same time embellished him with qualities which made him a worthy Teutonic patriarch, and attractive to the hearers of the songs concerning him. These qualities are, besides the necessary strength and courage, the above-mentioned knowledge of runes, wherein he even surpa.s.ses his father (Rigsth.), great skaldic gifts (Saxo, _Hist._, 325), a liberality which makes him love to strew gold about him (Helge Hund., i. 9), and an extraordinary, fascinating physical beauty--which is emphasised by Saxo (_Hist._, 30), and which is also evident from the fact that the Teutonic myth makes him, as the Greek myth makes Achilleus, on one occasion don a woman's attire, and resemble a valkyrie in this guise (Helge Hund., ii.). No doubt the myth also described him as the model of a faithful foster-brother in his relations to the silent Hamal, who externally was so like him that the one could easily be taken for the other (cp. Helge Hund., ii. 1, 6). In all cases it is certain that the myth made the foster-brotherhood between Halfdan and Hamal the basis of the unfailing fidelity with which Hamal's descendants, the Amalians, cling to the son of Halfdan's favourite Hadding, and support his cause even amid the most difficult circ.u.mstances (see Nos. 42, 43). The abduction of a woman by Halfdan is founded in the physical interpretation of the myth, and can thus be justified. The wife he takes by force is the G.o.ddess of vegetation, Groa, and he does it because her husband Orvandel has made a compact with the powers of frost (see Nos. 33, 38, 108, 109).

There are indications that our ancestors believed the sword to be a later invention than the other kinds of weapons, and that it was from the beginning under a curse. The first and most important of all sword-smiths was, according to the myth, Thja.s.se,[17] who accordingly is called _fadir morna_, the father of the swords (Haustlaung, Younger Edda, 306). The best sword made by him is intended to make way for the destruction of the G.o.ds (see Nos. 33, 98, 101, 103). After various fortunes it comes into the possession of Frey, but is of no service to Asgard. It is given to the parents of the giantess Gerd, and in Ragnarok it causes the death of Frey.

Halfdan had two swords, which his mother's father, for whom they were made, had buried in the earth, and his mother long kept the place of concealment secret from him. The first time he uses one of them he slays in a duel his n.o.ble half-brother Hildeger, fighting on the side of the Skilfings, without knowing who he is (cp. Saxo, _Hist._, 351, 355, 356, with Asmund Kaempebane's saga). Cursed swords are several times mentioned in the sagas.

Halfdan's weapon, which he wields successfully in advantageous exploits, is in fact, the club (Saxo, _Hist._, 26, 31, 323, 353). That the Teutonic patriarch's favourite weapon is the club, not the sword; that the latter, later, in his hand, sheds the blood of a kinsman; and that he himself finally is slain by the sword forged by Thja.s.se, and that, too, in conflict with a son (the stepson Svipdag--see below), I regard as worthy of notice from the standpoint of the views cherished during some of the centuries of the Teutonic heathendom in regard to the various age and sacredness of the different kinds of weapons. That the sword also at length was looked upon as sacred is plain from the fact that it was adopted and used by the Asa-G.o.ds. In Ragnarok, Vidar is to avenge his father with a _hjorr_ and pierce Fafner's heart (_Voluspa_).

_Hjorr_ may, it is true, also mean a missile, but still it is probable that it, in Vidar's hand, means a sword. The oldest and most sacred weapons were the spear, the hammer, the club, and the axe. The spear which, in the days of Tacitus, and much later, was the chief weapon both for foot-soldiers and cavalry in the Teutonic armies, is wielded by the Asa-father himself, whose Gungner was forged for him by Ivalde's sons before the dreadful enmity between the G.o.ds and them had begun.

The hammer is Thor's most sacred weapon. Before Sindre forged one for him of iron (Gylf.a.ginning), he wielded a hammer of stone. This is evident from the very name _hamarr_, a rock, a stone. The club is, as we have seen, the weapon of the Teutonic patriarch, and is wielded side by side with Thor's hammer in the conflict with the powers of frost. The battle-axe belonged to Njord. This is evident from the metaphors found in the Younger Edda, p. 346, and in Islend. Saga, 9. The mythological kernel in the former metaphor is _Njordrklauf Herjan's hurdir_, _i.e._, "_Njord_ cleaved Odin's gates" (when the Vans conquered Asgard); in the other the battle-axe is called _Gaut's megin-hurdar galli_, _i.e._, "the destroyer of Odin's great gate." The bow is a weapon employed by the Asa-G.o.ds _Hodr_ and _Ullr_, but Balder is slain by a shot from the bow, and the chief archer of the myth is, as we shall see, not an Asa-G.o.d, but a brother of Thja.s.se. (Further discussion of the weapon-myth will be found in No. 39.)

[Footnote 17: Proofs of Thja.s.se's original ident.i.ty with Volund are given in Nos. 113-115.]

32.

HALFDAN'S CONFLICTS INTERPRETED AS MYTHS OF NATURE. THE WAR WITH THE HEROES FROM SVARIN'S MOUND. HALFDAN'S MARRIAGE WITH DISES OF VEGETATION.

In regard to the significance of the conflicts awaiting Halfdan, and occupying his whole life, when interpreted as myths of nature, we must remember that he inherits from his father the duty of stopping the progress southward of the giant-world's wintry agents, the kinsmen of Thja.s.se, and of the Skilfing (Yngling) tribes dwelling in the north. The migration sagas have, as we have seen, shown that Borgar and his people had to leave the original country and move south to Denmark, Saxland, and to those regions on the other side of the Baltic in which the Goths settled. For a time the original country is possessed by the conquerors who according to Voluspa, "from Svarin's Mound attacked and took (_sotti_) the clayey plains as far as Jaravall." But Halfdan represses them. That the words quoted from Voluspa really refer to the same mythic persons with whom Halfdan afterwards fights is proved by the fact that Svarin and Svarin's Mound are never named in our doc.u.ments except in connection with Halfdan's saga. In Saxo it is Halfdan-Gram who slays Svarin and his numerous brothers; in the saga of "Helge Hundingsbane" it is again Halfdan, under the name Helge, who attacks tribes dwelling around Svarin's Mound, and conquers them. To this may be added, that the compiler of the first song about Helge Hundingsbane borrowed from the saga-original, on which the song is based, names which point to the Voluspa strophe concerning the attack on the south Scandinavian plains.

In the category of names, or the genealogy of the aggressors, occur, as has been shown already, the Skilfing names Alf and Yngve. Thus also in the Helge-song's list of persons with whom the conflict is waged in the vicinity of Svarin's Mound. In the Vo1uspa's list Moinn is mentioned among the aggressors (in the variation in the Prose Edda); in the Helge-song, strophe 46, it is said that Helge-Halfdan fought _a Moinsheimom_ against his brave foes, whom he afterwards slew in the battle around Svarin's Mound. In the Voluspa's list is named among the aggressors one _Haugspori_, "the one spying from the mound"; in the Helge-song is mentioned _Sporvitnir_, who from Svarin's Mound watches the forces of Helge-Halfdan advancing. I have already (No. 28B), pointed out several other names which occur in the Voluspa list, and whose connection with the myth concerning the artists, frost-giants, and Skilfings of antiquity and their attack on the original country, can be shown.

The physical significance of Halfdan's conflicts and adventures is apparent also from the names of the women, whom the saga makes him marry. Groa (grow), whom he robs and keeps for some time, is, as her very name indicates, a G.o.ddess of vegetation. Signe-Alveig, whom he afterwards marries, is the same. Her name signifies "the nouris.h.i.+ng drink." According to Saxo she is the daughter of Sumblus, Latin for _Sumbl_, which means feast, ale, mead, and is a synonym for _olvaldi_, _olmodr_, names which belonged to the father of the Ivalde sons (see No.

123).