TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

FRIKKA. FKOUWA. 307
hann (have lie) it mikla men Brisinga ! Ssem. 72. Now this very
trinket is evidently known to the AS. poet of Beowulf 2399, he
names it Brosinga mene, without any allusion to the goddess ; I
would read Brisinga mene, and derive the word in general from a
verb which is in MHG-. brisen, breis (nodare, nodis constringere,
Gr. icevrelv to pierce), namely, it was a chain strung together of
bored links. Yet conf. ch. XX, Irising St. John s fire : perhaps
the dwarfs that forged it were called Brisingar ? The jewel is so
closely interwoven with the myth of Freyja, that from its mention
in AS. poetry we may safely infer the familiarity of the Saxon race
with the story itself ; and if the Goths worshipped a goddess
Fraujo, they too would doubtless know of a Breisigge mani.1
Conf. ch. XX, larffar men, Earth s necklace, i.e., turf in the ON.
legal language.
We cannot but feel it significant, that where the gospel simply
speaks of TO ayiov sacrum (Matt. 7, 6), the OS. poet makes it a
an old heathen remin
helag halsmeni (holy necklace), Hel. 52, 7 ;
iscence came over him, as once before about doves perching on
shoulders (p. 148). At the same time, as he names only the swine,
not the dogs, it is possible that he meant halsmeni to be a mere
amplification of merigrioton, pearls.
But this legend of the goddess s necklace gains yet more in im
portance, when we place it by the side of Greek myths. Brisinga
men is no other than Aphrodite s o/oyoto? (Hymn to Venus 88), and
the chain is her girdle, the /ceo-ro? //xa? Tnu/aXo? which she wears
on her bosom, and whose witchery subdues all gods and mortals.
How she loosens it off her neck (OLTTO o-TrjOeacfuv) and lends it to
Here to charm her Zeus with, is told in a lay that teems with
world-old myths, II. 14, 214-8. As the ifids is worn in turn by
Here and by Aphrodite, the Norse fable gives the jewel now to
Frigg and now to Freyja, for that gold of Frigg
in Saxo is the
same as Brisinga men. Then there is another similarity : the same
narrative makes Freyja possess a beautiful chamber, so strong that,
when the door is locked, no one can enter against her will : hun
1 Just as from Freyja proceeded the general notion of a freyja frouwa, so
serves to describe a beautiful wife or maiden. In Seem. 97 :i
necklace-wearing
mengloft (monili laeta, rejoicing in a necklace) means simply femina, but in
108a lll a Mengloft is a proper name (see p. 272 note); in 222a menskogul is
used of Brynhildr. Women are commonly named from their ornaments of
gold or precious stones, Sn. 128 (see Suppl.).