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742 DAT AND NIGHT.
Darnach kund sich diu sunne
wol an ir zirkel riden (writhe) :
der siieze ein iiberwunne,
ich waen die siieze nieman moht erliden.
mit done do dm zirkel ruorte ;
seitenklanc und vogelsanc
ist alsam glich der golt gen kupfer fuorte.
(Then in his orb the sun to whirling took, I ween such glut of
sweetness none might brook ; with dulcet din his orb he rolled,
that clang of strings or bird that sings were like as copper beside
gold.) Who can help thinking of the time-honoured tradition of
Memnon s statue, which at sunrise sent forth a sound like the
clang of a harpstring, some say a joyful tone at the rising and a
sad* at the setting of the sun. 1 Further on we shall be able to
trace some other fancies about the break of day and the fall of
night, to light and sound (see Suppl.) .
But whither does the evening sun betake himself to rest, and
where is his chamber situated ? The oldest way of putting it is,
that he dives into the sea, to quench his glow in the cool wave.
The AS. Bth. (Rawl. 193 a
) : and ]?eah monnum )?ynce$ ]?a9t hio
on mere gange, under see swife, ]?onne hio on setl glided. So
the ancients said Swat, and mergers of the sun and stars, occasus,
interitus,
vel solis in oceanum mersio y
(Festus). 2 Boeth. 4 (metr.
5) says of Bootes : cur mergat seras aequore flammas ; and metr. 6 :
nee, cetera cernens sidera mergi, cupit oceano tingere flammas ;
which N. 223 translates : alliu zeichen sehende in sedel gan,
niomer sih ne gerot kebadon (bathe) in demo merewazere. So,
sol petit oceanum, Rudlieb 4, 9. But the expression comes so
naturally to all who dwell on the seacoast, that it need not be a
borrowed one ; we find it in ON. sol gengr % cegi, Fornm..sog.
2, 302, and in MHG. der se, da diu sunne uf get ze reste, J MS.
2, 66 b . And, as other goddesses after making
the round of the
country are bathed in the lake, it is an additional proof of the
Sun s divinity that she takes a lath, a notion universally preva-
1 Pausan. 1, 42. Philostr. Vita Apoll. 6, 4. Heroic. 4. Pliny 36, 11. Tac.
Ann. 2, 61. Juven. 15, 5.
2 Setting in the lake is at the same time depositing the divine eye as a pledge
in the fountain. I will add a neat phrase from Wolfram, Parz. 32, 24 : d6 hete diu
miiede sunne ir liehten blic hinz ir gelesen.