TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

THUNAR.
189
of all giants in the time of the Ases, he himself appeared a lubber
to the Christians ; he throws stones for a wager with giants (conf.
ch. XVIII). But even in the Eddie Thrymsqvifta, he eats and
drinks immoderately like a giant, and the Norwegian folk-tale
makes him take up cask after cask of ale at the wedding, Faye p. 4;
conf. the proverb : mundi enginn Asathor afdrecka (outdrink).
Conversely, the good-natured old giant Thrymr is by his very name
a Donar (conf. ch. XVIII). The delightful story of the hobergs-
gubbe (old man of the mountain, giant) was known far and wide in
a poor man invites him to stand godfather to his child,
the North :
but he refuses to come on hearing that Thor or Tordenveir is also a
bidden guest (conf. ch. XVIII) ; he sends however a handsome
present (conf. Afzelius 2, 158. Molbech s eventyr no. 62, F. Magn.
p. 935). In spite of all divergences, there appears in the structure
of this fable a certain similarity to that of Gossip Death, ch. XXVII,
for death also is a devil, and consequently a giant ; conf. Miillen-
hoff, schl. hoist, p. 289. That is why some of the old tales which
still stood their ground in the Christian times try to saddle him
with all that is odious, and to make him out a diabolic being of a
worse kind than OSinn ; conf. Gautrekssaga p. 13. Finnr drags
the statue of Thorr to King Olafr, splits and burns it up, then
mixes the ashes in furmety and gives it to dogs to devour : tis
meet that hounds eat Thorr, who his own sons did eat, Fornm. sog.
2, 163. This is a calumny, the Edda knows of no such thing, it
relates on the contrary that M651 and Magni outlived their father
(see Suppl.). Several revived sagas, like that of the creation of
wolves and goats, transform Wuotan into the good God, and Donar
into the devil.
From the time they became acquainted with the Roman
theogony, the writers identify the German thundergod with
Jupiter. Not only is dies Jovis called in AS. Thunresdseg, but
Latona Jovis mater is Thunres modur , and capitolium is trans
lated TVidrshof by the Icelanders. Conversely, Saxo Gram. p. 236
means by his Jupiter the Teutonic Thor, the Jupiter ardens above
(p. 110) ; did that mean Donar? As for that Thorr devouring his
a down
children, it seems [a mere importation, aggravated by]
right confusion of Jupiter with his father Saturn, just as the Norse
genealogy made Thorr an ancestor of Oolnn. The presbyter Jovi