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A GOD. 855
2660. 2715), conf. p. 836. Of very aged people, who still live
on, we say Death, has forgotten to fetch them/ The Nib.
Lament 122 has: der Tot liet ir minne, die da sterben solden/
D. bore those in mind that there should die, or, as Lachmann in
terprets it, desired them for his band (conf. p. 848).
These investigations will hardly have left it doubtful, that the
heathen Death is one of a secondary order of gods ; hence too
he coincides more especially with the semi-divine valkyrs and
norns, he is dependent on OSinn and Hel ; of the Grecian gods,
it is Hermes and Hades, Persephone and the ferryman Charon
that come nearest to him. But his nature is also not unrelated
to that of elves, homesprites and genii.
Chap. XXIV. has explained how he got mixed up with one of
the time-gods, Winter; no wonder therefore that he now and
then reminds us of Kronos.
In our Heldenbuch, Death figures as a false god, whom the
heathen Belligan serves above all other gods, and whose image is
demolished by Wolfdietrich. I do not know exactly how to
account for this : it must be a diabolic being that is meant.
In the Finnish lays, Manaia and Tuonela are often named
together, but as separate beings. One is the underworld, from
maa/ earth; the other the kingdom of the dead, as , Tuon (0dvaro9)
is Death, Halja. In Kalewala, runes 6 9, Tuonela seems
to be a river of the underworld, with sacred, swans swimming on
it (see Suppl.).
VOL. ii. E E