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WATEE. HEILAWAC. 587
custom mentioned at p. 58 : on Easter Monday youths and
maidens walk to the Hollow Eock in the mountains, draw water
from the cool spring in jugs to carry home, and throw flowers in
as an offering. Apparently this water- worship was Celtic like
wise ; the water of the rock-spring Karnant makes a broken
sword ivliole again, but
du muost des urspringes han
underm velse, e in beschin der tac (ere day beshine it).
Parz. 254, 6. Tit. 5456. 5732. l Curious customs shew us in
what manner young girls in the Pyrenees country tell their own
fortunes in spring water on May-day morning.
We need not suppose that the peculiar properties of medicinal
springs are the point here; no, it is the normal efficacy of the
refreshing, strengthening, re-animating
2
element. Many places
in Germany are called Heilbrunn, Heilborn, Heiligenbrunn, from
the renewing effect of their springs, or the wonderful cures that
have taken place at them. Heilbronn on the Neckar is called
Heilacprunno in the oldest documents. 3 But certain springs and
wells may have stood in especial repute. Of high renown are
the ON. Mimisbrunnr and Ur&arbrunnr (p. 407), which Sn. 17
calls brunnr mioc heilagr. A Danish folksong (1,318) tells of a
Maribokilde, by whose clear waters a body hewn in pieces is put to
gether again. Swedish lays celebrate Ingemos kdlla (Vis. 1, 244-5).
We remember that old Frisian fount of Forseti, whence none
drew water save in silence, pp. 229, 230 (see Suppl.). Sacrifices
were offered at such springs. Of the salutary effect of hot and
chalybeate springs people must have been aware from immemorial
time, witness the Aquae Mattiacae in the Koman time and those
1 The hardening and repairing of sroords in water (sverft herfta, Ssem. 136 h )
was certainly believed in by the Germans too. The Vilkinasaga, cap. 40 p. 100,
eays : when dwarf Alberich had fashioned Nailring, he searched nine kingdoms
before he found the water in which the sword could be tempered ;
at last he arrived
at the water Treya, and there it was tempered. Our Eckenlied, str. 81, agrees with
this, but is still more : precise dannoch was ez niht vollebraht, do fuorten z zwei
wildiu getwerc wol durch niun kiinecriche, biz daz si kamen zuo der Dral, diu da
ze Troige rinnet, daz swert daz was so liehtgemal: si harten z in der Drdle, des
wart ez also fin (dwarfs bring it to the Dral, that runs by Troige, etc.). Who can
doubt any longer of real German lays forming the groundwork of the Vilk. saga ?
2 A man bitten by an adder will not die, if he can leap over the nearest water
before the adder does so. Lenz s Schlangenkunde, p. 208.
3 Bohmer s Keg. Karolor. nr. 740 (an. 841) ; Ecc. Fr. orient. 2, 893 der
;
Necker vliuzet fur Heilicbrunnen (flows past Holy-well], MS. 2, 68 b .