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EA, ISLAND. SEA. FIEE. 601
according to the Edda, there lies in the deep sea an enormous
worm/ mrSgarSs-ormr, biting his own tail and begirding the
whole earth. The immensity of ocean (Goth, marisdivs) is ex
pressed in the OHG. names endilmeri and wendilmeri (Graff 2,
829) ; conf. enteo and wenteo (p. 564), entil and wentil (p. 375).
An AS. term garsecg I have tried to explain in Zeitschr. fur d. a.
1, 578. As the running stream will suffer no evil-doer in it, so
is daz mer so reine, daz ez keine bosheit mac geliden/ so clean
that it no wickedness can bear, Wiener merfart 392 (see Suppl.).
2. FIEE.
Fire/ like water, is regarded as a living being : corresponding
to quecprunno (p. 588 n.) we have a quecfiur, daz quecke fiwer,
Parz. 71, 13 ; Serv. vatra zhiva, ogan zhivi (vivus, Vuk 1, xlvi.
and 3, 8. 20) ;
TO irvp Oijptov $fttyv%ov of the Egyptians, Herod. 3,
16; ignis animal, Cic. de N. D. 3, 14, i.e. a devouring hungry
insatiable beast, vorax flamma; frekr (avidus), Ssem. 50 b
; bitar
fiur, Hel. 78, 22 ; bitar logna 79, 20 ; gradag logna (greedy lowe),
130, 23; grim endi gradag 133, 11; eld unfuodi (insatiabilis) 78,
23 ; it licks with its tongue, eats all round it, pastures, i/e/^era/,,
II. 23, 177; the land gets eaten clean by it, irvpl %6a)v ve^erai,
2, 780; f
leztu eld eta iofra bygdir, Sgem. I42 a
; it is restless,
dtcd/maTov irvp, II. 23, 52. To be spoken to is a mark of living
things: heitr ertu hripuSr ! (hot art thou, Fire), Sa3m. 40 a .
The ancient Persians made a god of it, and the Indian Agni
(ignis) is looked upon as a god. The Edda makes fire a brotlier
of the wind and sea, therefore himself alive and a god, Sn. 126.
Our people compare the element to a cock flying from house to
house : I ll set the red cock on your roof }
is a threat of the incen
diary ; ein roten han aufs stadel setzen/ H. Sachs iv. 3, 86 d ;
voter sclnn, Gudr. 786, 2.
An antique heathen designation of the great World-fire, ON.
muspell, OHG. OS. muspilli, mudspelli, mutspelli, has already
been noticed, p. 558. The mythic allusions here involved can
only be unfolded in the sequel ; the meaning of the word seems
to be ligni perditor, as fire in general is also called bani viffar,
1 Names for it, Gramm. 3, 352 ; Eddie names, Stem. 50 b , Sn. 187-8.