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732 SKY AND STAKS.
Asbru (Saem. 44 a
), more commonly Bif-rost (OHG. would be piparasta)
the quivering tract, for rost, Goth, and OHG. rasta, means
a definite distance, like mile or league. It is the best of all
bridges (Saem.
46 a
), strongly built out of three colours; yet the
day cometh when it shall break down, at the end of the world,
when the sons of Muspell shall pass over it, Sn. 14. 72. The
tail of this bridge 1 extends to Himinbiorg, HeimdalFs dwelling
(Sn. 21), and Heimdallr is the appointed keeper of the bridge;
he guards it against hrimthurses and mountain-giants, 2 lest they
make their way over the bridge into heaven, Sn. 18. 30. The
whole conception is in keeping with the cars in which the
gods journey through heaven, and the roads that stretch across
it (conf. p. 361). It was Christianity that first introduced the
0. Test, notion of the celestial hew being a sign of the covenant
which God made with men after the rain of the Deluge : OHG.
reganpocjo, AS. scurboga, shower-bow, Csedm. 93, 5. Meanwhile
some ancient superstitions linger still. The simple folk imagine,
that on the spot where the rainbow springs out of the ground,
there is a golden dish, or a treasure lies buried ; that gold coins
or pennies drop out of the rainbow. When gold-pieces are picked
up, they are called regenbogen-schwsselein (-dishes), patellae Iridis,
which the sun squanders in the rainbow. In Bavaria they call
the rainbow himmelring, sonnenring, and those coins himmelringschilsseln
(Schm. 2, 196. 3, 109: conf. supra p. 359 note). The
Romans thought the bow in rising drank water out of the ground :
bibit arcus, pluet hodie/ Plaut. Curcul. 1, 2 ; purpureus pluvias
cur bibit arcus aquas ? Propert. iii. 5, 32. Tibull. i. 4, 44. Yirg.
Georg. 1, 380. Ov. Met. 1, 271. One must not point ivith fingers
at the rainbow, any more than at stars, Braunschw. anz. 1754, -p.
1063. Building on the rainbow means a bootless enterprise (note
on Freidank p. 319. 320, and Nib. Lament 1095. Spiegel,
161, 6) ; and setting on the rainbow (Bit. 2016) apparently
1
Bruar-spordr (we still speak of a bridge s head, tete de pont), as if an animal
had laid itself across the river, with head and tail resting on either bank. But we
must not omit to notice the word spordr (prop, cauda piscis) as ; rost, rasta denote
a certain stadium, so do the Goth, spaurds OHG. spurt a recurring interval, in the
sense of our (so many) times : thus, in Fragm. theot. 15, 19, dhrim spurtim
(tribus vicibus), where rastom. would do as well. Do the runar a bruarsporffi,
Ssem. 196 a mean the rainbow?
2 Giants are often made bridge-keepers (p. 556 n.): the maiden Moftguftr guards
giallarbru, Sn. 67.