TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

242 OTHER GODS.
proceed breath and spirit (ond), as from Lo&r (blaze, glow) come
blood and colour (la ok litr), the connexion of Hcenir, who imparts
sense (65), with water is not so clear : this Hcenir is one of the
most unmanageable phenomena of the Norse mythology, and with
us in Germany he has vanished without leaving a trace. But the
fire-god too, who according to that gradation of sounds ought
either to be in Goth. Laiiha and OHG. Loho, or in Goth. Luka and
OHG. Locho, seems with the loss of his name to have come up
again purely in the character of the later devil. He lasted longer
in Scandinavia, and myths everywhere show how nearly Loki the
as approaches Logi the giant. Thorlacius (spec. 7, 43) has proved
that in the phrase Loki fer yfir akra (passes over the fields), and
in the Danish Locke dricker vand (drinks water),
fire and the
burning sun are meant, just as we say the sun is drawing water,
when he shines through in bright streaks between two clouds.
Loka daun (Lokii odor) is Icelandic for the ignis fatuus exhaling
brimstone (ibid. 44) ; Lokabrenna (Lokii incendium) for Sirius ;
Loka sposnir are chips for firing. In the north of Jutland, a weed
very noxious to cattle (polytrichum comm.) is called Lokkens havre,
and there is a proverb Nu saaer Lokken sin havre, now Locke
sows his oats, i.e., the devil his tares ;
the Danish lexicon translates
Lokeshavre avena fatua, others make it the rhinanthus crista galli.
When the fire crackles, they say Lokje smacks his children/ Faye
p. 6. Molbech s Dial. lex. p. 330 says, the Jutland phrase Lokke
saaer havre idag (to-day), or what is equivalent Lokke driver idag
med sine geder (drives out his goats), is spoken of vapours that
hang about the ground in the heat of the sun. When birds drop
their feathers in moulting time, people say they i gaae Lokkis arri
(pass under L. s harrow ?) ; at hore paa Lockens eventyr
(adventures) means to listen to lies or idle tales (P. Syv s gamle
danske ordsprog 2, 72), According to Sjoborg s Nomenklatur, there
is in Vestergotland a giant s grave named Lokehall. All of them
conceptions well deserving notice, which linger to this day among
the common people, and in which Loki is by turns taken for a bene
ficent and for a hurtful being, for sun, fire, giant or devil. Exactly
the same sort of harm is in Germany ascribed to the devil, and the
kindly god of light is thought of as a devastating flame (see Suppl.).
On this identity between Logi and Loki rests another vestige