TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

FltfKKA. FROUWA. 305
man (not a god, at least not an As), named Offr, but he forsook her,
and she sought him all over the world, among strange peoples,
shedding tears. Her name Syr (Sn. 37) would perhaps be Saurs in
Gothic : Wilh. Miiller has detected the very same in the Syritha of
Saxo Gram. p. 125, who likewise goes in search of Othar. Freyja s
tears were golden, gold is named after them, and she herself is
gratfagr, fair in greeting (weeping), Sn. 37. 119. 133; in our
nursery-tales pearls and flowers are wept or laughed out, and dame
Holla bestows the gift of weeping such tears. But the oldest
authorities make her warlike also ;
in a waggon drawn by two cats
(as Tliorr drives two goats) 1 she rides to the battlefield, riSr til
vtgs, and goes shares with 05inn in the slain (supra p. 133, conf.
Ssem. 42 a . Sn. 28. 57). She is. called eigandi valfalls (quae
sortitur caesos in pugna), Sn. 119 ; valfreyja, mistress of the chosen,
Nialss. p. 118, and of the valkyrs in general; this seems to be
in striking accord with Holda or Berhta (as well as Wuotan)
adopting the lobes that die uncJiristened into their host, heathen
goddesses the heathen souls. Freyja s dwelling
is named Folk-
vdngr or Folkvdngar, the plains on which the (dead ?) folk troop
together ; this imparts new credibility to the connexion of St.
Gertrude, whose minne is drunk, with Frowa, for the souls of the
departed were supposed to lodge with Gertrude the first night (p. 61).
Freyja s hall is Sessrymnir, the seat-roomy, capacious of much/o/A:;
dying women expect to find themselves in her company after death.
Thorgerftr in the Egilss., p. 103, refuses earthly nourishment, she
thinks to feast with Freyja soon : ok engan (nattverS) mun ek
fyrr enn at Freyju . Yet love-songs please her too, and lovers do
well to call upon her : henni likaSi vel mansongr, a hana er gott
at heita til asta, Sn. 29. That the cat was sacred to her, as the
wolf to Wuotan, will perhaps explain why this creature is given to
night-hags and witches, and is called donneraas, wetteraas (-carrion).
When a bride goes to the wedding in fine weather, they say she
has fed the cat well, not offended the favourite of the love-goddess.
The meaning of a phrase in Walther 82, 17 is dark to me: weder
ritest gerner eine guldin katze, aid einen wunderlichen Gerhart
Atzen ? In Westphalia, however, the weasel was named froie,
1
Freyja has a waggon like Nertlms (mother of Freyr?}, like Holda and
the kingly waggon
proper only to great exalted deities.
20
. Freyr himself, Wuotan and Donar e
(pp. 105-7, 251-2-4, 275) ;
. is