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CHAPTER XXI.
TREES AND ANIMALS.
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As all nature was thought of by the heathen mind as living ;
as language and the understanding of human speech was allowed
and as every kind
to beasts, and sensation to plants (see Suppl.) ;
of transition and exchange of forms was supposed to take place
amongst all creatures : it follows at once, that to some a higher
worth may have been assigned, and this heightened even up to
divine veneration. Gods and men transformed themselves into
trees, plants or beasts, spirits
and elements assumed animal,
forms ; why should the worship they had hitherto enjoyed be
withheld from the altered type of their manifestation ? Brought
under this point of view, there is nothing to startle us in the
veneration of trees or animals. It has become a gross thing
only when to the consciousness of men the higher being has
vanished from behind the form he assumed, and the form alone
has then to stand for him.
We must however distinguish from divinely honoured plants
and animals those that were esteemed high and holy because
they stood in close relationship to gods or spirits. Of this kind
are beasts and vegetables used for sacrifice, trees under which
1 The way it is expressed in the Eddie myth of Baldr is more to the point than
anything else : To ward off every danger that might threaten that beloved god,
Frigg exacted oaths from water, fire, earth, stones, plants, beasts, birds and worms,
one single shrub she
nay from plagues personified, that they would not harm him ;
let off from the oath, because he was too young, Sn. 64. Afterwards all creatures
weep the dead Baldr, men, animals, plants and stones, Sn. 68. The OS. poet of the
Heliand calls dumb nature the unquethandi, and says 168, 32 : that thar Waldandes
dod (the Lord s death) unquethandes so filo antkennian scolda, that is
endagon ertha bivoda, hrisidun thia hohun bcrgos, harda stenos clubun, felisos after
them felde. It is true these phenomena are from the Bible (Matth. 27, 51-2), yet
possibly a heathen picture hovered in the author s mind (as we saw on pp. 148.
307), in this case the mourning for Baldr, so like that for the Saviour. Herbort
makes all things bewail Hector : if (says he, 68 a
) stones, metals, chalk and sand
had wit and sense, they would have sorrowed too. As deeply rooted in man s
nature is the impulse, when unfortunate, to bewail his woes to the rocks and trees
and woods ; this is beautifully expressed in the song Ms. 1, 3 b , and all the objects
there appealed to, offer their help.
VOL. II.
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