Stories and Ballads of the Far Past Part 36

III. _Yule_, a festival of heathen times, approximately at Christmas, but rather later.

_Feast_, lit. 'At the Bragi-cup.' The custom of making vows in connection with these toasts was carried on into Christian times, an interesting example being found in the _Saga of Olaf Tryggvason_ (_Heimskringla_), ch. 39. See also the _Saga of Haakon the Good_ (_Heimskringla_), ch. 16; and _Helgakvia Hjorvarssonar_, str. 32.

_Angantyr made a vow._ In the Royal MS. (see p. 79) it is Hjorvarth who makes the vow and subsequently claims the bride.

_Yngvi_ is the family name of the early Swedish kings. Collectively the early Swedish royal family were called _Ynglingar_. Cf.

_Ynglingasaga_, ch. 20.

_Never did he_, etc. Compare what is said of Hogni's sword in _Skaldskaparmal_, ch. 49.

_Sams._ The fight at Sams is described in another MS. of this saga (which is translated in the appendix to Part I, p. 145 ff. above and which contains also the _Death-song of Hjalmar_), as well as in the _Saga of orvar Odd_, ch. 14, and in Saxo Grammaticus, _Dan. Hist._, p. 205. The Island of Sams is situated half way between Jutland and Sjaelland.

IV. _Exposing the child_, etc. For the custom of exposing infants, especially girls, at birth, so as to cause their death, see the _Saga of Gunnlaug Ormstungu_, ch. 3, the _Saga of Finnbogi Rammi_, etc. A similar custom prevailed in Ancient Greece. Cf. Plato, _Rep._ v, 461; Aristophanes, _Clouds_, l. 530 f.

_Sprinkled with water._ Sprinkling a child with water when a name was given to it appears to have been customary in heathen times. Cf. the _Saga of Harold the Fairhaired_ (_Heimskringla_), ch. 40; the _Saga of Haakon the Good_, ch. 12; the _Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson_, ch. 31; _Volsunga Saga_, ch. 13.

_She grew up_, etc. Cf. the description of the later Hervor in ch. 10.

_Here is a poem_, etc. The poem is probably earlier than the Saga in its present form. Heusler (_Eddica Minora_, p. xxi) refers it to the early part of the twelfth century.

_I will give you my necklace_, etc. Note the discrepancy between the poem and the prose at this point. In the former it would seem to be Hervor who offers a necklace, and this is what we should expect.

_Foolish is he who comes here alone_, etc. Cf. J. M. Synge, _The Aran Islands_, III: "We went up on the dun, where Michael said he had never been before after nightfall, though he lives within a stone's throw.... These people make no distinction between the natural and the supernatural."

V. _Ghosts_, i.e. the animated corpses of the people buried there.

_Nor other kinsman._ There is a lacuna in the text of the ms. at this point.

VI. _Bring up the child_, etc. It was customary for men in high station to send their children to be brought up and educated in the houses of relatives and friends.

_Reithgotaland_ is here explained as Jutland; but in ch. 9, Heithrek's subjects are described as _Gotar_, i.e. Goths; and in the latter part of the Saga, from ch. 12 onwards, the subject is clearly a war between the Goths and Huns. The earliest occurrence of the word (in the Swedish Inscription of Rok; cf. also _Vafrunismal_, str. 12) gives not _Reithgotaland_, but _Hraithgotaland_, which suggests that the name may be connected in some way with _Hrethgotan_, a name applied to the Goths in Anglo-Saxon poetry.

VII. _Divination._ The phrase means literally, 'The casting of bits of wood at the sacrifice.' Cf. Tacitus, _Germania_, ch. 10.

_Every second man._ _annanhvarn_, apparently for _annanhvern_.

_Hall of the Dis._ It is not clear who the _dis_ was, as the word is used rather loosely for supernatural female beings. Another reference to the _Hall of the Dis_ occurs in _Ynglingasaga_, ch. 33. One of the G.o.ddesses (Freyja?) may be meant; or it may be the guardian spirit of the family.

VIII. _Land of the Saxons._ Cf. the _Thattr of Nornagest_, ch. 10 and note.

_Sifka and Hloth._ The names here mentioned, together with _Heithrek_ and _Angantyr_, are believed by some scholars to recur in _Widsi_, l.

116, where we find

_Heaoric and Sifecan, Hlie and Incgeneow_,

mentioned as being among the followers of Eormenric. These names clearly come from Gothic tradition, but the pa.s.sage would seem to suggest that _Sifeca_ was a man, the Sib.i.+.c.h of the German poems. Cf.

Chambers, _Widsith_, p. 32. For the name Lotherus in Saxo, see note to ch. 12, p. 242.

_Holmgarth_, i.e. Novgorod.

IX. _Wendland_, i.e. the 'Land of the Slavs' (Anglo-Saxon _Weonodland_). After the expansion of the Slavs, from the fifth century onwards, this term came to denote an enormous expanse of country, including the coast of Eastern Germany, to which it is applied in the account of the voyage of Wulfstan in Alfred's translation of _Orosius_. In earlier times, when the Goths still occupied Poland and Galicia, the Slavs were restricted to the regions east of these countries.

_His horse fell dead._ Here the point of the story seems to be missed, or at least not clearly expressed. According to Hofund's fifth maxim (see ch. 6), Heithrek was not to ride his best horse when he was in a hurry.

X. _They had a daughter._ From our text it would appear that Hervor was the daughter of Sifka; but the end of ch. 9 is probably a late addition to the text. In the text printed by Rafn, Hervor is expressly stated to be a daughter of Hergerth.

_Ormar_ is presumably to be identified with the _Wyrmhere_ mentioned in _Widsi_, l. 119, in connection with the war waged by the Goths against the Huns in defence of their ancient fatherland, round the forest of the Vistula.

_Gestumblindi._ For this curious name, cf. the _Gestiblindus Gothorum rex_ mentioned by Saxo Grammaticus, _Dan. Hist._, p. 198 ff.

_In the King's retinue there were seven men_, etc. In the text (_a_) of this saga printed in Rafn's edition (_Fornaldar Sogur_, I, p.

462), there are said to be twelve men here. This is no doubt the right figure, twelve being the regular number in the judicial councils of the North, whether historical or legendary. Thus, e.g. in the _Saga of Olaf the Holy_ (_Heimskringla_), ch. 96 we read of a council of twelve sages (_spekingar_), whose duty it was to advise the Swedish king, especially in the administration of justice. Similar councils existed in the Danish settlements in England. Thus Lincoln and Stamford had each a council of twelve (cf. Stubbs, _Const. Hist._, I, p. 106, and n. 4). We may compare the twelve priests who officiated in the sacrifices at Maeren (cf. the _Saga of Olaf the Holy, Heimskr_. ch.

115), and the story of the twelve G.o.ds who were appointed by Othin as temple priests (_hof-goar_) to keep up the sacrifices and administer justice among men; cf. _Ynglingasaga_, ch. 2 (_Hyndluljo_, str. 30; _Gautrekssaga_, ch. 7). In the Irish _Lay of Magnus Barelegs_, the Norwegians are referred to as _Clann an da [.c]o[.m]airlea[.c]

deag_ ('children or clan of the twelve councillors'). Cf. _Laoi[.d]

Ma[.g]nius Moir_ (_Reliques of Irish Poetry_, by Charlotte Brooke, Dublin 1789, p. 274).

_King Heithrek wors.h.i.+pped Frey._ One text quoted by Rafn (_Verelius_) has _Freyja_ for _Frey_. The boar appears in stories relating to both these deities, e.g. _Gylf.a.ginning_, ch. 49; _Skaldskaparmal_, ch. 35; _Hyndlulio_, str. 5, 7.

XI. _I would that I had that_, etc. On these riddles see Heusler, _Eddica Minora_, p. xc ff.; 'Diealtnordischen Ratsel' in _Zeitschrift des Vereins fur Volkskunde_, XI, p. 117 ff.; Tupper, _Modern Language Notes_, 18, p. 103; _The Riddles of the Exeter Book_, p. lii, etc. In the original the riddles are all in verse, while the King's answers, except the refrain with which they begin ("Your riddle is a good one,"

etc.) are in prose.

_You went over a bridge_, etc. The metrical text given by Rafn (_Fornaldar Sogur_, I, p. 466), has: "A bird flew above thee, a fish swam beneath thee, thou did'st go over a bridge." The prose text given on the same page has: "Thou did'st go over a bridge, and the course of the river was beneath thee, but birds were flying over thy head and on both sides of thee, and that was their road."

_Delling's doorway._ Delling (perhaps from an obsolete word _dallr_, 'bright, s.h.i.+ning') is mentioned in _Vafrunismal_, str. 25, as the 'father of Day.' Possibly he may originally have been a personification of day itself. The expression "before Delling's doorway" occurs also in _Havamal_, str. 160, where it has been thought to mean 'at sunrise.' See also the genealogy in _Hversu Noregr Bygist_, ch. I (_Fornaldar Sogur_, II, p. 6), where a certain Svanhild is said to be the daughter of Day, the son of Delling, and of Sol (i.e. the sun), the daughter of Mundilfari (cf. _Gylf.a.ginning_, ch. II).

_Wolves are always struggling for it._ See _Gylf.a.ginning_, ch. 12 (from _Grimnismal_, str. 39).

_He who made it_, etc. I have followed Heusler's reading and read _er_ for _ker_ and _o_ or _sja_ for _a_.

_Laying their eggs._ For _verja_ read _verpa_.

_Have no husbands._ For _eigu_, read _eigut_, as on p. 121.

_Game of chess._ The text has _hneftafl_, i.e. a game having certain features in common with chess which was played in Iceland till the introduction of the latter, probably in the thirteenth century.

Game-pieces have been discovered in Iceland which were probably used for this game. Some are plain and hemispherical in shape, others are shaped with a man's head or a dog's head. For a full and interesting description of _hneftafl_ see H. J. R. Murray, _A History of Chess_, Oxford, 1913, Appendix I, 'Chess in Iceland,' pp. 443-446.

_aegis meyjar._ aegir or Hler, the husband of Rann, is a personification of the sea; but the kennings 'aegir's daughters,' 'aegir's steed,' etc.

for 'billows' are common in poetry. See _Helgakvia Hundingsbana_ II, str. 29, and _Bragar-raeur_, ch. 55 (included in Brodeur's translation of the _Prose Edda_ as _Skaldskaparmal_, ch. I).

_Reefs._ For _brimserk.u.m_, read _brimskerjum_.

_Ocean-path._ For _brim-reiar_, read _brim-leiar_. The pa.s.sage is possibly corrupt.

_That is the hunn._ This stanza is difficult to interpret as we have no clear information as to the character of the game. It would seem that like the game of the Welsh _tawlbwrdd_, it was played between sides composed, the one of sixteen 'fair' (white) men, the other of a King (called _hnefa_ or _hunn_) and eight 'dark' (black) men. Cf.

note to _Game of Chess_ above. See also Murray, _A History of Chess_, Oxford 1913, Appendix I, 'Chess in Iceland,' pp. 443-446.

_Four walking_, etc. This riddle is found in a form almost identical with our text in Jakobsen's _Dialect and Place Names of Shetland_ (Lerwick, 1897), p. 53. The 'sow' is also found in the _Exeter Book_, while 'the waves,' 'the anchor' and 'hailstones' have certain affinities with the AS. riddles.