TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

IMAGES. 113
(sculpere), skurd (sculptura) ; in the two passages referred to, it is
likneski af Freyr. Biorn gives sfctirgoft, idolum, sculptile, from
skur, subgrundium (penthouse), because it had to be placed under
cover, in sheds as it were ; with which the OHG. skurguta (Graff
6, 536) seems to agree. But there is no distinct proof of an ON.
skurgoft
Dietmar s account is silent about the gods images at Lethra T
in Adam of Bremen s description of those at Upsal (cap. 233), the
most remarkable thing is, that three statues are specified, as they
were in that temple of the Alamanns : Nunc de superstitione
Sveonum pauca dicemus. Nobilissimum ilia gens templum habet,
quod Ubsola dicitur, non longe positum a Sictona civitate (Sigtun)
vel Birka. In hoc templo, quod totum ex auro paratum est, statuas
trium deornm veneratur populus, ita ut potentissimus eorum Thor
in medio solium habeat triclinio. Hinc et inde locum possident
Wodan et Fricco. The further description we have nothing to do
with here, but there occurs in it also the term sculpere ; as the
whole temple was ex auro paratum, i.e. t decorated with gold, he
above all as
might doubtless have described the figures of the gods
gilded, just as those in Alamannia were aereae et deauratae. Saxo
p. 13 tells of a golden statue of Othin ; Cujus numen Septentrionis
reges propensiore cultu prosequi cupientes, effigiem ipsius aureo
complexi simulacro, statuam suae dignationis indicem maxima cum
religionis simulatione Byzantium transmiserunt, cujus etiam
brachiorum lineamenta confertissimo armillarum pondere per-
stringebant. The whole passage, with its continuation, is not only
unhistorical, but contrary to the genuine myths ;
we can only see
in it the view of the gods taken by Saxo and his period, and
inasmuch as golden and bedizened images of gods were consonant
with such view, we may infer that there still lived in his time a
recollection of such figures (see Suppl.). Ermoldus Nigellus, in
describing Herold s (Harald s) interview with King .
Charles,
mentions 4, 444 seq. (Pertz 2, 509-10) the gods images (sculpta) of
the heathen, and that he was said to have had ploughshares,
kettles and water-buckets forged of that metal. According to the
Nialssaga cap. 89, in a Norwegian temple (goSahus) there were to
be seen three figures again, those of Thor and the two half-goddesses ThorgerSr and Irpa, of human size, and adorned with armlets ;
1 On recently discovered figures of Odin,
8
v. infra. "Wodan
;