TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

zio. 207
the fields of the slain, where the hounds hold revel, are called KVVWV
fj,e\in}0pa, II. 13, 233. 17, 255. 18, 179. Battle-songs were also
sure to be tuned to the praises of Zio, and perhaps war-dances
executed (pekTrevOai *Apr)l, II. 7, 241),
from which I derive the
persistent and widely prevalent custom of the solemn sword-dance,
exactly the thing for the god of the sword. The Edda nowhere
lays particular stress on the sword of war, it knows nothing of
Sahsnot, indeed its sverSas x
is another god, IleirnSallr but it sets
;
Tyr before us as one-handed, because the wolf, within whose jaws
he laid his right hand as a pledge, bit it off at the joint, whence
the wrist was called ulfliSr, wolf-lith, Seem. 65 a . Sn. 35-6. This
incident must have been well-known and characteristic of him, for
the OK exposition of runes likewise says, under letter T : Tyr er
einhendr Asa ; conf. Sn. 105, The rest of Teutonic legend has no
2
trace of it, unless we are to look for it in Walther s onehandedness,
and find in his name the mighty wielder of hosts . I prefer to
adopt the happy explanation, 3 that the reason why Tyr appears
one-handed is, because he can only give victory to one part of the
combatants, as Hadu, another god who dispenses the fortune of
war, and Plutos and Fortuna among the Greeks and Eomans, are
painted blind, because they deal out their gifts at random (see
Suppl.). Now, as victory was esteemed the highest of all fortune,
the god of victory shares to the full the prominent characteristics
of luck in general, partiality arid fickleness. And a remoter period
of our nation may have used names which bore upon this. 4
Amongst the train of Ares and Mars there appear certain
mythic beings who personify the notions of fear and horror. Aelnos
and $o/3o5 (11. 4, 440. 11, 317. 15, 119) answer to the Latin Pallor
1 Conf. Apollo xpvo-dopos above, p. 203, note.
2 Cod. pal. 361, 65 a tells of Julian, that he was forced to put his hand
into the mouth of Mercury s statue : Die hant stiez er im in den munt
dar, darinne uobte sich der valant (devil), er clemmete im die hant, mid
gehabete sie im so vaste, daz er sich niht irlosen mohte (could not get loose).
Besides, the wolfs limb has a likeness to the Wuotan s limb, Woens-let, p. 160.
3
Wackernagel s, in the Schweiz. mus. 1, 107.
4 The Greek epos expresses the changefulness of victory (VLKTJ eVepaXK^y, II.
8, 171. 16, 362 ; VIK.J] eVa/Liei/Serai ai/Spay, 6, 339) by an epithet of Ares,
AAXoTrpoo-aXXoy 5, 831. 889. A certain many-shaped and all- transforming,
being, with a name almost exactly the same, Vilanders (Ls. 1, 369-92), Baldanderst,
Baldander (H. Sachs 1, 537. Simpliciss. bk 6, c. 9), has indeed no visible
connexion with the god of war, but it may have been the name of a god. The
similaritv of this Vilanders to the name of a place
in the Tyrol, Villanders
is, Vulunuturusa, ace. to Steub. p. 79. 178) is near Brixen (Velunutris
merely
accidental.