TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

184 THUNAR.
hederich (ground-ivy? hedge-mustard?) pehrkoncs; Perunika is also,
like Iris, a woman s name. The oak above all trees was dedicated
to the Thunderer (pp. 67, 72): quercus Jovi placuit, Phaedr. 3, 17 ;
magna Jovis antique robore quercus, Virg. Georg. 3, 332. At
Dodona stood the Sp{5? v^tKOfjLos Aw, Od. 14, 327. 19, 297, but at
Troy the leech often named in the Iliad: $77709 v^rj\r) Jto? aiyioxpio,
5, 693. 7, 60. A particular kind of oak is in Servian grm, and
(jrmik is quercetum, no doubt in close connexion with grom
(tonitrus), grmiti or grmlieti (tonare). The acorn is spoken of
above, p. 177.
Apparently some names of the snipe (scolopax gallinago) have
to do with this subject : donncrziege (-goat), donnerstagspferd
(Thursday horse), liimmelsziege (capella coelestis) ;
because he seems
to bleat or whinny in the sky ? But he is also the weatherbird,
stormbird, rainbird, and his flight betokens an approaching thunder
storm. Dan. myrehest, Swed. horsgjok, Icel. hrossagaukr, horsegowk
or cuckoo, from his neighing; the first time he is heard in the year,
he prognosticates to men their fate (Biorn sub v.) ; evidently
superstitious fancies cling to the bird. His Lettish name pelirkona
Jeasa, pehrkona ahsis (thunder s she-goat and he-goat) agrees exactly
with the German. In Lithuanian too, Mielcke 1, 294. 2, 271
gives Perkuno ozhys as heaven s goat, for which another name is
tikkutis. Kannes. pantheum p. 439, thinks the name donners-
tagspferd belongs to the goat itself, not to the bird ; this would be
welcome, if it can be made good. Some confirmation is found in
the AS. firgenycet (ibex, rupicapra, chamois), and firginbucca (capri-
cornus), to which would correspond an OHG. virgungeiz, virgun-
to Donar holds
pocch ; so that in these the analogy of fairguni
good. The wild creature that leaps over rocks would better become
the god of rocks than the tame goat. In the Edda, Thorr has
he-goats yoked to his thunder-car : between these, and the weatherfowl
described by turns as goat and horse (always a car-drawing
beast), there might exist some half-obscured link of connexion (see
Suppl.). It is significant also, that the devil, the modern repre
sentative of the thunder god, has the credit of having created goats,
both he and she ; and as Thorr puts away the bones of his goats
after they have been picked, that he may bring them to life again
(Sn. 49. 50), 1 so the Swiss shepherds believe that the goat has
i The myth of the slaughtered goats brought to life again by hammer-couse-