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854 DEATH.
of heathen Germany ;
in telling which, Death was pictured, even
till recent times, not as a skeleton, but in the shape of a living
man or god. We cannot wonder that the story is found with a
great many variations, which are collected, though still incom
pletely, in Kinderm. 3, 72 : in some of them Death presents his
godson with a ring, by which he can judge of diseases. 1 Old
Hugo von Trimberg
4
at the close of his work had told a tale
von dem Tode, wie er ein Idnt huop (took up)/ but there is not
much in it (Bamb. ed. 23665 722) : Death promises
gossip some messengers before he comes to fetch him (as
to send his
in the
Meister-song p. 84 7n.) ; these are, ringing in the ears, running
at the eyes, toothache, wrinkled skin, and grizzled beard. The
gossiphood is the only guarantee of any connexion with the later
marchen. The resemblance of the OHG. toto, godfather,
MHG. tote (Parz. 461, 10. Wh. 7, 21) to tot, death, is striking,
though strictly the quantity of the vowel keeps the two words
apart, and to harmonize them some derivative process must be
presupposed. The story never grew out of a play on the words
(see Suppl.). 3
Equally celebrated, but gayer in tone, is the tale of Death and
Player Jack (Spielhansel, no. 82; conf. 3, 135 148), who by a
spell binds Death to a tree, so that nobody dies in the world
for seven years. Welcker (Append, to Schwenk p. 323-4) has
pointed out a parallel story in Pherekydes, how Death is set on
by Zeus to attack Sisyphos, who binds him in strong chains, and
then no one can die ; Hades himself comes and sets Death free,
and delivers Sisyphos into his hands. Our German fable inter
weaves the Devil into the plot. Once the Devil was put in
possession of hell, he had to take his place beside Death, as
the alliteration death and devil ! couples them together. So
Welnas, Wels, originally the death-god
of the Lithuanians and
Lettons, got converted into the Devil. According to the Chris
tian view, angels received the souls of the just, devils those of
the wicked (p. 836) ; therefore Death in coming for souls was
divided into a double power, according as he resembled the
angel or the devil. As angelic messenger, he comes nearest the
Christian Michael) whose office it was to receive souls (Morolt
1 Ettner s Unwiird. doctor p. 290.
2 Conf. p. 14 on the affinity between god and gode.