TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

206 zio.
to the legend of Picus, a son of Saturn, a wood-spirit who helped
to nurse the babes Eemus and Romulus ; certain features in our
antiquities seem to recall him, as will be shown later. Romulus
consecrated the third month of the year to Mars, his progenitor ;
our ancestors also named it after a deity who may perhaps be
identified with Mars. That is to say, the Anglo-Saxons called
March Hredemdnad, which Beda without hesitation traces to a
goddess Hreffe; possibly other races might explain it by a god
Jfreda ? These names would come from hr65 gloria, fama, OX.
hroc5r, OHG. hruod, OFrank. chrod, which helped to form many
ancient words, e.g. OHG. Hruodgang, Hruodhilt, OFrank. Chrodo-
gang, Chrodhild ; did Hruodo, Chrodo express to certain races the
shining god of fame ? x The Edda knows of no such epithet for Tyr
as Hr65r or Hroeol (see Suppl.).
To these discoveries or conjectures we have been guided simply
by the several surviving names of one of the greatest gods of our
olden time, to whose attributes and surroundings we have scarcely
any other clue left. But now we may fairly apply to him in the
main, what the poetry of other nations supplies. Zio is sure to
have been valiant and fond of war, like Ares, lavish of glory, but
stern and bloodthirsty (al/^aros aaai "Apya, II. 5, 289. 20, 78. 22,
267) ; he raves and rages like Zeus and Wuotan, he is that old
blood-shedder of the Servian song, he gladdens the hearts of
ravens and wolves, who follow him to fields of battle, although
the
these creatures again must be assigned more to Wuotan (p. 147) ;
Greek phrase makes them olwvoi and /cvves (birds and dogs), and
1 In this connexion one might try to rescue the suspicious and discredited
legend of a Saxon divinity Krodo ; there is authority for it in the loth century,
none whatever in the earlier Mid. Ages. Bothe s Sassenchronik (Leibn. 3, 286)
relates under the year 780, that King Charles, during his conquest of the East
Saxons, overthrew on the Hartesburg an idol similar to Saturn, which the
people called Krodo. If such an event had really happened, it would most
likely have been mentioned by the annalists, like the overthrow of the
Irmansul. For all that, the tradition need not be groundless, if other things
would would only correspond. Unfortunately the form Crodo for Chrodo, Hrodo,
Rodo [like Catti, aiterw. Chatti, Hatti, Hessen] is rather too ancient, and I can
find no support for it in the Saxon speech. A doc. of 1284 (Langs reg. 4, 247)
nOQ n "YVo 1 1 li tivno /liofno &* /* r\rJ ^ oi-/l r\ or\t-tf~f 1 1- "\Ti f 1^ r\ vf *a TVToTT *i Ol^Qb a Jf.vnir\lf
~
find
has a Waltherus dictus Krode, and a song in Nithart s MsII. 3, 2()8b a Krotolf,
which however has no business to remind us of Hruodolf, Ruodolf, being not
a proper name, but a nickname, and so to be derived from krote, a toad, to
which must be referred many names of places, Krotenpful, &c., which have
been mistakenly jiscribed to the idol. The true form for Upper Germany
would not tolerate a Kr, but only Hr or II (see Suppl.).