TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

236 OTHER GODS,
it : brcgo engla, Caxlm. 12, 7. 60, 4. 62, 3 ; brego Dena, Beow.
8i8 ; hseleSa brego, Beow. 3905 ; gumena brego, Andr. 61 ; beorna
brego, Andr. 305 (conf. brego moncynnes, Cod. exon. 457, 3) ;
there
grows up an instructive analogy to the above-mentioned bragr
karla, and to the genitives similarly connected with the divine
names Tyr, Fred and Bealdor (pp. 196, 211, 220). The AS. brego
equally seems to point to a veiled divinity, though the forms and
vowel-relations do not exactly harmonize. 1
Their disagreement rather provokes one to hunt up the root
under which they could be reconciled : a verb briga brag would
suit the purpose. The Saxon and Frisian languages, but not the
Scandinavian or High German, possess an unexplained term for
cerebrum : AS. briigen (like regen pluvia, therefore better written
so than braegen), Engl. brain, Fris. brein, Low Sax. bregen ;
I think
it answers to the notions understanding, cleverness, eloquence,
imitation, and is connected with (frprjv, $pevos, -cfrpcov, -$>povo<$. Now
the ON. bragr, beside poesis, means also mos, gestus, and braga
eftir einum referre aliquem gestu, imitari. OHG. has nothing like
it, nor any such proper name as Prako, Brago, Brego.
But, as we detected among the Saxons a faint trace of the god
or god s son, we may lay some stress on the fact that in an OS.
document of 1006 Burnacker occurs as the name of a place, v.
Llinzel s Hildesheim, p. 124, conf. pref. v. (see Suppl.). Now Bragi
and his wife I5unn dwelt in Brunnakr, Sn. 121 a , and she is called
Brunnakrs beckjar ger5r, Brunnakerinae sedis ornatrix, as Sk.
Thorlacius interprets it (Spec. 6, pp. 65-6). A well or spring,
for more than one reason, suits a god of poetry ; at the same time a
name like Springfield is so natural that it might arise without any
reference to gods.
Bragi appears to have stood in some pretty close relation to
Oegir, and if an analogy between them could be established, which
however is unsupported hitherto on other grounds, then by the
side of briga brag the root braga brog would present itself, and
the AS. broga (terror), OHG. pruoko, bruogo, be akin to it. The
connexion of Bragi with Oegir may be seen by Bragi appearing
prominently in the poem Oegisdrecka, and by his sitting next to
Oegir in Sn. 80, so that in intimate converse with him he brings
out stories of the gods, which are thence called Bmgarocdur,
1 The Irish breitheam, brethemb (judcx) is said to be pronounced almost
as brehon, Trans, of Irish acad. 14, 167.