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MAN IN THE MOON. 717
Mani, as one may see from the earth (sva sem sia ma af io
Sn. 12. That not the moon s phases "but her spots are here
meant, is plain enough from the figure itself. No change
of the
moon could suggest the image of two children with a pail slung
on their shoulders. Moreover, to this day the Swedish people see
in the spots of the moon two persons carrying a big bucket on
a pole. 1
Bil was probably a girl, and Hiuki a boy, the former
apparently the same as the asynja named together with Sol in
Sn. 39; there it is spelt Bil, but without sufficient reason ; the
neuter bil
signifies momentum, interstitiuni, a meaning that
would suit any appearance of the moon (conf. p. 374 on OHGL
pil). What is most important for us, out of this heathen fancy
of a kidnapping man of the moon, which, apart from Scandinavia,
was doubtless in vogue all over Teutondom, if not farther, there
has evolved itself since a Christian adaptation. They say the
man in the moon is a ivood-stealer, who during church time on
the holy sabbath committed a trespass in the wood, and was then
transported to the moon as a punishment; there he may be seen
with the axe on his bach and the bundle of brushwood (dornwelle)
in his hand. Plainly enough the water-pole of the heathen story
has been transformed into the axe s shaft, and the carried pail
into the thornbush ; the general idea of theft was retained, but
special stress laid on the keeping of the Christian holiday ; the
man suffers punishment not so much for cutting firewood, as
because he did it on a Sunday. 2 The interpolation is founded on
Numb. 15, 32-6, where we are told of a man that gathered
sticks on the sabbath, and was stoned to death by the congrega
tion of Israel, but no mention is made of the moon and her spots.
As to when this story first appeared in Germany I have no means
of telling, it is almost universally prevalent now ;
3 in case the
full-moon s name of ivadel. wedel in the sense of a bunch of twigs 4
annu fins den meningen bland var almoge. Ling s
1 Dalin 1, 158 : men
Eddornas sinnebildslara 1, 78 : annu sager allmanheten i Sodraswerge, att manens
flackar aro tvenne varelser, som bara en bryggs& (bridge-bucket, slung pail).
2 A Westphalian story says, the man dressed the church with thorns on
Sunday, and was therefore put, bundle and all, into the moon.
3 Hebel has made a pretty song about it, pp. 86-9 : me het em gsait der
DieterleS on which Schm. 2, 583 asks : is this Dietrich of Bern, translated in
classic fashion to the sky ? We must first make sure that the poet found the name
already in the tradition.
4 In the Henneberg distr. wadel means brushwood, twigs tied up in a bundle,
esp. fir-twigs, wadeln to tie up brushwood (Eeinwald 2, 137) ; this may however
come from the practice of cutting wood at full-moon.