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EAETH.
643
puram hcrbam tollere/ as the Hel. 73, 7 has hrencurni, an OHG.
gloss rewcwrwe*:=frumenti, MHG. f daz reine gras, lw. 6446, and
grass and der melm/ dust, are coupled together, Wh. 24, 28.
The purport of the law is, that earth or dust must be taken up
from the four corners of the field, and thrown with the hand over
the nearest kinsman. It was a solemn legal ceremony of heathen
times, which the Christian Capitulars abolished. Against my
interpretation, however, Leo has now set up a Celtic one (cruinneach
collectus, criadh terra), 1 and I cannot deny the weight
of his arguments, though the German etymology evidently
has a stronger claim to a term incorporated in the text itself
than in the case of glosses [because the Latin text must be
. based on a Frankish original] The mythic use made of the
earth remains the same, whichever way we take the words.
The ON. language of law offers another and no less significant
name: the piece of turf [under which an oath was taken] is
called iarffmen, iar&ar men ; now men is literally monile, OHG.
mani, meni, AS. mene, as we saw in the case of FreyjVs neck
lace Brisinga men/ But iariSar men must once have been
larffar men, Erda s necklace, the greensward being very poetically
taken for the goddess s jewelry. The solemn ganga undir
larffar men (RA. 118-9) acquires its true meaning by
this. In
other nations too, as Hungarians (RA. 120), and Slavs (Bohme s
Beitr. 5, 141), the administration of oaths took place by the per
son who swore placing earth or turf on his head (see Suppl.).
The custom of conquered nations presenting earth and water
in token of submission reaches back to remote antiquity : when
the Persians declared war, they sent heralds to demand the two
elements of those whose country they meant to invade, 3 which
again
reminds us of the Roman f
pura. Our landsknechts as
late as the 16th century, on going into battle, threw a clod of
earth (like him that threw chrenechruda) in token of utter re
nunciation of life. 3
Among the Greeks too, grasping
the sod
1 Zeitschr. f. d. alterth. 2, 163 seq. Malb. gl. 2, 149. 150.
2 Brissonius De regno Pers. 3, 6671. Herod. 4, 127. 5, 18. Curtius m. 10,
108. Aristotle Khet. ii. 22, 37. Also Judith 2,7: ero^d^LV yfy Kai 86<ap (Cod.
alex. ed. Augusti).
3 Barthold s Frundsberg p. 58-9. In the Mid. Ages, when a nun was conse
crated, her kinsmen, as a sign that she renounced all earthly possessions, threw
earth over the maiden s arm ; conf. Sveiiska visor 1, 176 :
det voro sa manga grefvar bald,