TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

(Huns) Cum
are named instead of Vandals :
WODAN. 135
a Chunis (Lango-
bardi) Danubium transeuntes fuissent comperti, eis bellum conati
sunt inferre. Interrogati a Chunis, quare gens eorum terminos
introire praesumeret ? At illi mulieribus suis praecipiunt, comam
capitis ad maxillas et mentum ligare, quo potius virorum habitum
simulantes plurimam inultitudinem hostium ostenderent, eo quod
erant mulierum comae circa maxillas et mentum ad instar barbae
valde longae : fertur desuper utraeque phalangae vox dixisse : hi
sunt Langobardi ! quod ab his gentibus
fertur eorum deum fuisse
locutum, quern fanatici nominant Wodanum (al. Wisodano, a mere
copyist s or reader s error for Wuodanp). Tune Langobardi cum cla-
massent, qui instituerat nomen, concederet victoriam, in hoc praelio
Chunos superant. (Bouquet 2, 406 ; according to Pertz, all the MSS.
read Wodano.) In this account, Frea and her advice are nowhere ;
the voice of the god, giving the name, is heard up in the air.
It was the custom for any one who bestowed a name, to follow
1
it up with a gift. Wodan felt himself bound to confer the victory
on those for whom he had found a new national name. In this
consisted the favour of fortune, for the people, in dressing up their
wives as men, had thought of nothing but swelling the apparent
numbers of their warriors. I need scarcely remind the reader, that
this mythical interpretation of the Lombard name is a false one,
for all the credit it found in the Mid. Ages. 2
There is one more feature in the legend that must not escape
>ur notice. Wodan from his heavenly dwelling looks down on the
irth through a window, which exactly agrees with ON. descrip
tions. Oolnn has a throne named fflidskialf, sitting on which he
can survey the whole world, and hear all that goes on among
men :
j?ar er einn staSr er HliSscialf heitir, oc J?aer Oolnn settiz
]?ar i hasseti, oc ]?a sd hann of alia heima, oc vissi alia luti,
J?a er hann sa (there is a stead that H. hight, and when O.
sat there on high-seat, then saw he over all countries, and
wist, &c.), Sn. 10. oc J?a er AllfbSr sitr i J?vi sseti, J?a ser hann of
allan heim, Sn. 21. Uusiar (listens) OSinn HliSscialfo i, Sa3m. 89 b .
1 Lata fylgja nafni, Saem. 142 a . 150 a . Fornm. sog. 3, 182. 203. gefa at
nafnfesti
(name-feast), Sn. 151. Fornm. sog. 2, 51. 3, 133. 203. Mend. sog.
2, 143. 194. Vocabuli largitionem muneris additione commendare, Saxo
Gram. 71.
2
Longobardi a longis barbis vocitati, Otto fris. de gest. Frid. Oolnn himself was named Ldngbar&r.
2, 13. But