TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

240 OTHER GODS.
the nom., Cacdm. 206, 6, and gifen geotende, Beow. 3378. An
OIIG. Kepan is nowhere found, even in proper names, though
Stahlin 1, 598 gives a Gebeneswtlare. I know not whether to take
for the root the verb giban to give, in which case G-ibika (p. 137)
and Wuotan s relation to Neptune (pp. 122, 148) would come in
here or to look ; away to the Greek fern. yi<*v \X L^V hib-ernus > ?]
and the notion of snow and ice giants.
And the North itself furnishes some names which are synony
mous with Oegir. In the Fundinn Noregr (Sn. 369. Fornald.
sog.
2, 17) we read : Forniotr atti 3 syni, hett einn Hler, er vcr kollum
Ocgi (one hight Hler, whom we call Oegir), annarr Logi, Jmdji Kari
(Rask, afh. 1, 95 : Kari). Hler, gen. Hies, appears
from this to have
been the older name, in use among the giants, by which Oegir is
spoken of in Sn. 79, and after which his dwelling-place was named
Hles-cy (Stum. 78 b 159 b 243 b
), now Lassoe in the Cattegat.
4. (FORNIOTR).
Of this HUr I have nothing more to tell (see SuppL), but his
father Forniotr has left a notable trace of himself behind ; he
belongs even less than Oegir to the circle of Ases, being one of the
older demonic giants, and proving that even these demigods or
personified powers of nature must also have borne sway among the
Teutonic races outside of Scandinavia. Forniotr is to be explained,
not as for-niotr primus occupans, but rather as forn-iotr, the ancient
lotr (Rask, afhand. .1, 78), a particularly apt expression for those
giants, and closely connected with iotunn itself, AS. eoton, as will
be shown further on. Now in the AS. Liber medicinalis, from
which Wanley, pp. 176 80 gives insufficient extracts, there is
according to Lye s dictionary a plant of healing virtue spoken of
(twice apparently, from the various spelling) by
the name of
Fomcotes folme, Fornetcs folme (i.e. Forneoti manus). As none of
the ON", writings allude to this herb, its name must be a remnant
of the Saxon people s own mythology. In OHG. the giant may
have been called Firnez, and the plant Firnezes folma. We
remember how, in Beow. 1662, Grendel has torn off the hand of a
water-sprite, and presents it as tacen of his victory, just as Tristan
chops off the giant Urgan s hand, and takes it with him to certify
the deed, 16055-65-85. The amputation of the huge giant-hand
seems therefore part of an ancient myth, and to have been iitly