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702 SKY AND STAESv
therefore suppose it to have been the initial of a Goth.
hvil = AS. hweol, ON. hvel. From f
hvel r was developed the
Icel. hiol, Swed. Dan. hjul, 0. Swed. kiught; and from f
hweol,
hweohl the Engl. wheel, NethL wiel, and Fris. fial (Richth. 737).
In view of all these variations, some have even ventured to
bring in the ON. jol, Swed. Dan. jul (yule), the name of the
winter solstice, and fasten upon it also the meaning of the wheel;
on that hypothesis the two forms must have parted company
very early, supposing the Gothic name of November jmleis to
1 be cognate. The word wheel seems to be of the same root as
while, Goth, liveila, OHG. huila, i.e. revolving time ; conf . Goth,
hveila-hvairbs, OHG. huil-huerbic, volubilis.
Another symbolic epithet of the sun seems to be of great age :
the warlike sentiment of olden times saw in him a gleaming
circular shield, and we noticed above (p. 700) that the sky itself
formed a sceldbyrig. Notker cap. 71, finding in his text the
words sinistra clypeum coruscantem praeferebat (Apollo)/
translates :
f an dero winsterun truog er einen* rotetv sJtilt/ then
adds a remark of his own : wanda selbiu diu sunna, einemo
sffilte gelih ist/ In German law and German poetry ve catch
the glimmer of these red shields/ Even Opitz 2, 286 calls the
sun ( the beauteous shield of heaven.
The very oldest and most universal image connecied with
the sun and other luminaries seems after all to be thab of the
eye. Ancient cosmogonies represent them as created out of eyes.
To Persians the sun was the eye of Ahummazdao (Orniuzd), to
Egyptians the right eye of the Demiurge,
to the Greeks the
eye of Zeus, to our forefathers that of Wuotan ; and a fable in
the Edda says 0$inn had to leave one of his eyes in pledge
with Mimir, or hide it in his fountain, and therefore he is pic
tured as one-eyed. In the one-eyed Cyclopes mouth Ovid puts
the words (Met. 13, 851) :
Unum est in media lumen mihi fronte, sed instar
ingentis clypei ; quid, non haec omnia magno
sol videt e coelo ? soli tamen unicus orbis*
1 The Norse initial H is occasionally dropt : in- Icel. both, hiula and jula
stand for the babbling of infants. The dialect of the Saterland Frisians las an
actual jule, jole (rota). It is worthy of notice, that in some parts of Schleswig they
used at Christmas-time to roll a wheel into the village,. and this was called at \rille
juul i by, trundling yule into town ; Outzen sub. v. i6l,.p. 145..