TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

238 OTHER GODS.
einum, means to inspire with fear or reverence, Laxd. saga, p. 130.
Islend. sog. 2, 155 ; ek bar Oegishialm yfir alia folki, Fornald. sog.
1, 162 ; hafa Oegishialm t augum, ibid. 1, 406, denotes that terrible
piercing look of the eyes, which others cannot stand, and the
famous basilisk-glance, ormr i auga, was something similar. 1 Now
I find a clear trace of this Norse helmet in the OHG. man s name
Egihelm (Trad. fuld. 1, 97 ; in Schannat no. 126, p. 286 Eggihelm),
i.e. Agihelm, identical with the strengthened- vowel form Uogihelm,
which I am unable to produce. But in the Eckenlied itself Ecke s
costly magic helmet, and elsewhere even Ortnit s and Dietrich s,
are called Hildegrim, Hildegrin ; and the ON. grima mask or
helmet (in Ssem. 51 a a name for night) has now turned up in a
Eulda gloss, Dronke p. 15 : scenici = crimfan presupposes a sing.
; so we can now understand Krimliilt
krimd larva, persona, galea
(Gramm. 1, 188) the name of a Walkurie armed with the helmet of
terror, and also why daemon in another gloss is rendered by
egisgrimolt. The AS. egesgrime is equally a mask, and in El. 260
the helmet that frightens by its figure
of a boar is called a grim-
helm. 1 venture to guess, that the wolf in our ancient apologue
was imagined wearing such a helmet of dread, and hence his name
of Isangrim, iron-mask, Eeinh. ccxlii (see Suppl.). NOT have we
into one another :
yet come to the end of fancies variously playing
as the god s or hero s helmet awakened terror, so must his shield
and sword ; and it looks significant, that a terrific sword fashioned
by dwarfs should likewise be named in the two forms,
viz. in the
Vilkinasaga Eckisax, in Veldek s Eneit Uokesahs (not a letter may
we alter), in the Eckenlied Ecken sahs, as Hildegrin was Ecken
helm, Eckes helm. In the Greek alyk I do not look for any verbal
affinity, but this shield of Zew aiyioxo* (H. 15, 310. 17, 593),
wielded at times by Athena (2, 447. 5, 738) and Apollo (15, 229.
318. 361. 24, 20), spreads dismay around, like Oegishialmr,
Hildegrim and Eckisahs ; Pluto s helmet too, which rendered
invisible, may be called to mind. That ancient god of sea, Oceanus
and Oegir (see Suppl.), whose hall glittered with gold, Saem. 59, 2
1 Fornm. sog. 9, 513 : gekk alvaldr und tfgishialmi. The spelling with f
goes to confirm our 02, and refute se, as an y can only stand for the former, not
for the latter ; conf. mor and the deriv. inyri = mceri, Gramm. 1, 473.
2 In the great feast which he gave to the gods, the ale came up of itself (sialft
barsc ]?ar ol, Su>m. 59), as Hephsestus s tripods ran avTopdrot in and out of the
Qdov aywi/a, II. 18, 376. Even so Freyr had a sword er sialft vegiz (that swings
itself), Seem. 82a , and Thor s Miolnir comes back of itself everytime it is thrown.