TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

CHAPTER X.
FRO, (FREYR).
The god that stands next in power and glory, is in the Norse
mythology Freyr (Landn. 4, 7) ; with the Swedes he seems even to
have occupied the third place. His name of itself proclaims how
widely his worship prevailed among the other Teutonic races, a
name sacred enough to be given to the Supreme Being even in christ-
ian times. There must have been a broad pregnant sense underlying
the word, which made it equally fit for the individuality of one
god, and for the comprehensive notion of dominion, whether sacred
or secular : to some nations it signified the particular god, to others
the soverain deity in general, pretty much as we found, connected
with the proper names Zio, Zeus, the more general term deus, 0e6?.
While the names of other heathen gods became an abomination to
the Christians, and a Gothic Vodans or Thunrs would have grated
harshly
I
on the ear; this one expression, like the primitive guj? itself,
could remain yet a long time without offence, and signify by turns
the heavenly lord and an earthly one.
It is true, the names do not correspond quite exactly. The ON.
Freyr gen. Freys, which Saxo gives quite correctly in its Danish
form as Fro gen. Fros (whence Froso, Fro s
island), the Swed. like-
jwise Fro, ought to be in Gothic Fraus or Fravis, 1 instead of which,
|3very page of Ulphilas shows frduja gen. fraujins, translating tcvpw,
pn the other hand, the ON. dialect lacks both the weak form (Freyi,
Freyja), and the meaning of lord. The remaining languages all
Wd with the Gothic. In OHG. the full form frouwo was already
Lost, the writers preferring truhtin; it is only in the form of address
UW min! (0. i. 5, 35. ii. 14, 27. v. 7, 35. Ludw. lied) that the
|k
l
Frey = Fravi, as hey = havi (hay), mey = mavi (maid), ey = avi (isle),
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