Untitled - Centrostudirpinia.it

700 SKY AND STAES.
Beow. 1713; under swegle (sub coelo), Beow. 2149; sweglrad
OS. suigli.
I call attention to the AS. sceldbyrig, Cgedm. 283, 23, which
(coeli currus), Cod. exon. 355, 47 ;
has no business to be translated refugium or sheltering city ;
distinctly our schildburg (aula clypeis tecta),
it is
a bit of heathenism
the poet let fall inadvertently ; so the Bdda speaks of Valholl
as skioldum J?6kt, lagt gyltum skioldum, sva sem span]?ak/ Sn. 2,
thatched with golden shields as with shingle-roof (p. 702 and
Suppl.).
Eddie names in Sgem. 49 b . Sn. 177; all masculine, some
obviously founded on personification. Heaven is pictured as
a husband, embracing the female earth ; he is not however
admitted into the circle of the gods, like Ovpavbs, whereas Earth
does stand among the goddesses.
a certain space, the residence of
To us heaven signifies simply
gods. Two poetic names for
it have reference to that enigmatical being Mimir (p. 379) :
hreggmimir, rain-shedder, from hregg imber ; and vetmimir,
moistener ? conf. vaeta humor.
To express star, constellation (sidus), our older speech, in
addition to stairno, sterno, steorra, stiarna (Gramm. 3, 392) and
OHG. himilzeichan (Hymn. 4, 2), has a symbolical term, OHG.
OS. himiltungal, Hel.
himilzunga, Diut. 1, 526 b and Gl. Doc. 249 ;
18, 2; AS. heofontungol, rodortungol ; ON. himintungl. Even
the simple tungol has the same sense in AS., and a Gothic gloss
on Gal. 4, 3, gives tuggl astrum/ whilst in ON. tungl means the
moon. This neuter noun tungal, tungol, tungl, is no doubt from
tunga (lingua), which word itself appears in OHG. himilzunga
(Graff 5, 682) : the moon and some of the planets, when partially
illuminated, do present the appearance of a tongue or a sickle,
and very likely some cosmogonic belief 1
was engrafted on that ;
I know of nothing like it in other languages.
All the heavenly bodies have particular spots, seats, chairs
assigned them, which they make their abode and resting-place ;
they have their lodges and stages (sterrono girusti, 0. i. 17, 10).
This- 1
holds especially of the sun, who daily sinks into his seat
A translation of the tongue to heaven. Or was the twinkling of the stars
likened to a tingling [ziingeln, a quivering nickering motion like that of the
tongue]? The moon s steady light does not bear that out, nor the OHG. form
without the I.