TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

246 OTHER GODS.
The formula, unz Loki verSr lauss (=unz riufaz regin, till the gods
be destroyed), answers exactly to the Greek Trplv av etc Secr/iwi/
Xa\da0r) npowdevs (Aesch. Prom. 176. 770. 991) ;
the writhings of
the fettered Loki make the earth to quake (Ssem. 69. Sn. 70), just
as %0a)v <reo-d\evTcu in the case of Prometheus (Aesch. 1081).
Only the Greek Titan excites our noblest sympathy, while the
Edda presents Loki as a hateful monster.
Loki was fair in form, evil in disposition ; his father, a giant,
was named Farbauti (boatman ?), his mother Laufey (leaf-ea) and
Ndl (needle ; thin and insinuating, mio ok auttyreiflig, 355), all of
them words easy to translate into OHG. as Farpozo (remex),
such names are nowhere found. He is
Loupouwa, Nadala, though
never called Farbauta sonr, but always after his mother, Loki
Laufeyjar sonr (Seem. 67 a 72 b 73 a
), which had its origin in
alliteration, but held its ground even in prose (Sn. 64) and in the
Locke Loje, Loke Lovmand, Loke Lejemand of the later folk-songs.
This Laufey (Swed. Lofo) is first of all the name of a place, which
was personified, and here again there is doubtless reference to an
element. By his wife Sigyn Loki had a son Nari or Narvi, and by
a giantess Angrlofta three children, the aforesaid Fenrir, the serpent
Idrmungandr and a daughter Hel. It is worthy of notice, that he
himself is also called Loptr (aerius), and one of his brothers Hel-
Uindi, which is likewise a name of OSinn. I just throw out these
names, mostly foreign to our German mythology, in the hope of
enlisting for them future inquiry.
Once again we must turn our attention to a name already
brought forward among the gods of the week (pp. 125-6), for which
a rare concurrence of isolated facts seems almost to secure a place
in our native antiquities. The High German week leaves two days, ,
one in the middle and one at the end, not named after gods. But
sambaztag for Saturday, as well as mittwoch for Wuotanstag, was a
sheer innovation, which the church had achieved or gladly accepted
for those two days at all events. The first six days were called after!
the sun, the moon, Zio, Wuotan, Donar and Fria ; what god was I
entitled to have the naming of the seventh day ? Four German
j
deities were available for Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, but how|
was Saturn to be put into German ? The Mid. Ages
explaining the seventh day by the Roman god
went on
: our KaiserchronikJ