TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

232 PALTAR.
genealogies would perhaps name a Forseta or Forsete as Bseldseg s
son. 1
Forseti, Fosite are a proof of the extent of Balder s worship. If
we may infer from Pholesouwa and Baldrshagi that the god loved
isles and eas, Helgoland is a case in point, where the flocks of his
son grazed ; and so is perhaps the worship of the Hercules-pillars,
which, following Tacitus, we might fix on some other island near it. 2
1 Later writers have turned Fosete into a goddess Foseta, Phoseta, Fosta, to
approximate her to the Roman Vesta ; maps of Helgoland,
in which are found
marked a templum Fostae vel Phosetae of the year 768, and a tempi um
Vestae of 692, were made up in Major s Cimbrien (Plon, 1692), conf. WiebeFs
programm iiber Helgoland, Hamb. 1842. The god Foste and Fosteland could
easily find their way into the spurious Vita Suiberti cap. 7.
2 Another thought has struck my mind about Fosete. In the appendix to
the Heldenbuch, Ecke, Vasat, Abentrot are styled brothers. The form Fasat
instead of the usual Fasolt need not be a mistake ; there are several QHG.
men s names in -at, and OS. in -ad, -id, so that Fasat and Fasolt can hold their
ground side by side. Now Fasolt (conf. ch. XX. Storm) and Ecke were known
as god-giants of wind and water, Abentrot as a daemon of light.
As Ecke-Oegir
was worshipped on the Eider and in Lassoe, so might Fosite be in Helgoland.
The connexion with Forseti must not be let go, but its meaning as For-seti,
Fora-sizo becomes dubious, and I feel inclined to explain it as For?-eti from
fors [a whirling stream, force in Cumbld], Dan. fos, and to assume a daemon of
the whirlpool, a Fossegrimm (conf. ch. XVII. Nichus), with which Fositfs
sacred spring would tally. Again, the Heldenbuch gives those three brothers
a father Nentiger (for so we must read for Mentiger) = OHG. Nandcjer and
does not he suggest Forseti s mother Nanna = Nandd ?