The Edda Volume II Part 3

_Sinfjotli's Death_. (Page 14.)

Munch (_Nordmaendenes Gudelaere_, Christiania, 1847) ingeniously identified the old man with Odin, come in person to conduct Sinfjotli to Valhalla, since he would otherwise have gone to Hel, not having fallen in battle; a stratagem quite in harmony with Odin's traditional character.

_Sigmund and Sinfjotli_. (Page 15.)

It seems probable, on the evidence of _Beowulf_, that Sigmund and Sinfjotli represent the Pan-Germanic stage of the national-hero, and Sigurd or Siegfried the Continental stage. Possibly Helgi may then be the Norse race-hero. Sigurd was certainly foreign to Scandinavia; hence the epithet Hunnish, constantly applied to him, and the localising of the legend by the Rhine. The possibility suggests itself that the Brynhild part of the story, on the other hand, is of Scandinavian origin, and thence pa.s.sed to Germany. It is at least curious that the _Nibelungen Lied_ places Prunhilt in Iceland.

_Wagner and the Volsung Cycle_. (Page 26.)

Wagner's _Ring des Nibelungen_ is remarkable not only for the way in which it reproduces the spirit of both the Sinfjotli and the Sigurd traditions, but also for the wonderful instinct which chooses the best and most primitive features of both Norse and Continental versions. Thus he keeps the dragon of the Norse, the Nibelungs of the German; preserves the wildness of the old Sigmund tale, and subst.i.tutes the German Hagen for his paler Norse namesake; restores the original balance between the parts of Brynhild and Gudrun; gives the latter character, and an active instead of a pa.s.sive function in the story, by a.s.signing to her her mother's share in the action; and by subst.i.tuting for the slaying of the otter the bargain with the Giants for the building of Valhalla, makes the cause worthy of the catastrophe.

_Ermanric_. (Page 27.)

For examples of legend becoming attached to historical names, see Tylor's _Primitive Culture_.

_The Helgi Lays_. (Page 29.)

The Helgi Lays stand before the Volsung set in the MS.; I treat them later for the sake of greater clearness.

_Helgi and Kara_. (Page 30.)

_Hromundar Saga Gripssonar_, in which this story is given, is worthless as literature, and has not been recently edited. P.E. Muller's _Sagabibliothek_, in which it was published, is out of print. Latin and Swedish translations may be found in Bjorner's _Nordiske Kmpa Dater_ (Stockholm, 1737), also out of print.

_Rebirth_. (Page 31.)

Dr. Storm has an interesting article on the Norse belief in Re-birth in the _Arkiv for Nordisk Filologi_, ix. He collects instances, and among other arguments points out the Norse custom of naming a posthumous child after its dead father as a probable relic of the belief. The inheritance of luck may perhaps be another survival; a notable instance occurs in _Viga-Glums Saga_, where the warrior Vigfus bequeaths his luck to his favourite grandson, Glum. In the _Waterdale Saga_ there are two instances in which it is stated that the luck of the dead grandfather will pa.s.s to the grandson who receives his name. Scholars do not, however, agree as to the place of the rebirth idea in the Helgi poems, some holding the view that it is an essential part of the story.

_Hunding_. (Page 32.)

It is possible that the werwolf story is a totem survival. If so, the Hunding feud might easily belong to it: dogs are the natural enemies of wolves. It is curious that the Irish werwolf Cormac has a feud with MacCon (_i.e._, Son of a Dog), which means the same as Hunding. This story, which has not been printed, will be found in the Bodleian MS. Laud, 610.

_Thorgerd Holgabrud_. (Page 33.)

Told in Saxo, Book ii. Snorri has a bare allusion to it.

_Holger Danske, or Ogier Le Danois_. (Page 33.)

See _Corpus Poetic.u.m Boreale_, vol. i. p. cx.x.x., and No. 10 of this series. The Norse version of the story (Helgi Thorisson) is told in the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, and is summarised by Dr. Rydberg in the _Teutonic Mythology_, and by Mr. Nutt in the _Voyage of Bran_.

_Ballads_. (Page 36.)

Professor Child is perhaps hasty in regarding the two parts of _Clerk Saunders_ as independent. The first part, though unlike the Helgi story in circ.u.mstance, seems to preserve the tradition of the hero's hostility to his bride's kindred, and his death at their hands.

The Helgi story, in all its variants, is as familiar in Danish as in Border ballads. The distribution of the material in Iceland, Denmark, England and Scotland is strongly in favour of the presumption that Scandinavian legend influenced England and Scotland, and against the presumption that the poems in question pa.s.sed from the British Isles to Iceland. The evidence of the Danish ballads should be conclusive on this point. There is an English translation of the latter by R.C.A. Prior (_Ancient Danish Ballads_, London, 1860).

_The Everlasting Battle_. (Page 39.)

The Skald Bragi (before 850 A.D.) has a poem on this subject, given with a translation in the _Corpus_, vol. ii. Saxo's version is in the fifth book of his History. According to Bragi, Hild has a necklace, which has caused comparison of this story with that of the Greek Eriphyle. Irish legendary history describes a similar battle in which the slain revive each night and renew the fight daily, as occurring in the wanderings of the Tuatha De Danann before they reached Ireland. According to Keating, they learnt the art of necromancy in the East, and taught it to the Danes.

The latest edition of the _Gudrun_ is by Ernst Martin (second edition, Halle, 1902). There is a modern German translation by Simrock.

_Angantyr_. (Page 42.)

The poems of this cycle are four in number--(1) _Hjalmar's Death-song_: (2) _Angantyr and Hervor_; (3) _Heidrek's Riddle-Poem_: (4) _Angantyr the Younger and Hlod_. All are given in the first volume of the _Corpus_, with translations.

_Herrarar Saga_ was published by Rafn (Copenhagen, 1829-30) in _Fornaldar Sogur_, vol. i., now out of print. It has been more recently edited by Dr. Bugge, together with _Volsunga_ and others. Petersen (Copenhagen, 1847) edited it with a Danish translation. Munch's _Nordmuendenes Gudelaere_ (out of print) contains a short abstract.

_Death of Angantyr_. (Page 43.)

Angantyr's death is related by Saxo, Book v., with entire exclusion of all mythical interest.

_Transmission of Legends_. (Page 47.)

Mullenhoff's views are given in the _Zeitschrift fur deutsches Altertum_, vol. x.; Maurer's in the _Zeitschrift fur deutsche Philologie_, vol. ii. For Golther's views on the Volsung cycle see _Germania_, 33.

_The Dragon Myth_. (Page 49.)

See also Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales_.

The eating of the dragon's heart (see p. 19) may possibly be a survival of the custom of eating a slain enemy's heart to obtain courage, of which Dr. Frazer gives examples in the _Golden Bough_.

_Alien Wives_. (Page 49.)

For the theory of alien wives as a means of transmission, see Lang, _Custom and Myth_ (London, 1893).

_The Sister's Son_. (Page 51.)

See Mr. Gummere's article in the _English Miscellany_; and Professor Rhys' Presidential Address to the Anthropological Section of the British a.s.sociation, 1900. The double relations.h.i.+p between Sigmund and Sinfjotli (not uncommon in heroic tales; compare Conchobhar and Cuchulainn, Arthur and Mordred) seems in this case due to the same cause as the custom which prevailed in the dynasty of the Ptolemies, where the king often married his sister, that his heir might be of the pure royal blood.

_Swanmaids_. (Page 51.)

See Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales._

_The Waverlowe_. (Page 51.)

Dr. Frazer (_Golden Bough_) gives instances of ritual marriages connected with the midsummer fires. For _Svipdag and Menglad_, see Study No. 12 of this series. If Rydberg, as seems very probable, is right in identifying Menglad and Svipdag with Freyja and the mortal lover who wins her and whom she afterwards loses, the story would be a parallel to those of Venus and Adonis, Ishtar and Tammuz, &c., which Frazer derives from the ritual marriage of human sacrifices to the G.o.ddess of fertility. The reason given in the Edda for Brynhild's sleep, and her connexion with Odin, are secondary, arising from the Valhalla myth.