TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

WODAN. 149
noticeable for its double form : Bifli&i efta Biflindi, Sn. 3 ; Seem.
46 b has Biblindi. As bif (Germ, beben) signifies motus, aer, aqua,
the quaking element, and the AS. liSe is lenis, OHG. lindi, ON.
inr (for linnr) ;
an AS. BifliSe, BeofliSe, OHG-. Pepalindi, might be
suggested by the soft movement of the air, a very apt name for the
all-penetrating god ; but these forms, if- they gave rise to the Norse
term, are no longer found in AS. or OHG. Wuotan s dominion
>oth over the air and over the water explains, how it is that he
walks on the waves, and comes rushing on the gale. It is OSinn
that sends wind to the ships, Fornm. sog. 2, 16, hence a good sail-
ng wind is called osJcabijrr, Seem. 165 b , i.e., Oskabyrr ; byrr
)yrja, OHG. purran, to rise, be lifted up. It is in striking accord
with this, that the MHG. poets use wunschwint in the same sense ;
EEartinann says, Greg. 615 :
Do sande in (to them) der slieze Krist
den vil rehten wunschwint (see Suppl.)
is from
But other attributes of Wuotan point more to Hermes and
Apollo. He resembles the latter, in as much as from him proceed
severe illness is the stroke
contagious diseases and their cure ; any
of God, and Apollo s arrows scatter pestilence. The Gauls also
imagined that Apollo drove away diseases (Apollinem morbos
depellere, Caes. B. G. 6, 17) ; and Wodan s magic alone can cure
Balder s lamed horse. The raven on the god s shoulder exactly fits
Apollo, and still more plainly the circumstance that OSinn invented
the poetic art, and Saga is his divine daughter, just as the Greek
Muses, though daughters of Zeus, are under Apollo s protection,
and in his train. On the other hand, writing and the alphabet
were not invented by Apollo, but by Hermes. The Egyptian priests
placed Hermes at the head of all inventions (lamblich. de myst.
Aegypt. 8, 1), and Theutli or ThotJi is said to have first discovered
letters (Plato s Phaedr. 1, 96, Bekker) , while, ace. to Hygin. fab.
143, Hermes learnt them by watching the flight of cranes. In the
AS. dialogue between Saturn and Solomon, we read (Thorpe s anal,
p. 100) : saga me, hwa serost bocstafas sette ? ic the secge,
Mercurius se gygand\ Another dialogue, entitled Adrian and
Epictus (MS. Brit. mus. Arund. no. 351. fol. 39) asks : quis primus
fecit literas ? and answers Seith, which is either a corruption of
Theuth, or the Seth of the Bible. Just so the Eddie Eunatals J^ttr
seems to ascribe the first teaching of runes to Oolnn, if we may so