TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

308 GODDESSES.
atti ser eina skemmu, er var baefti fogr ok sterk, sva at j?at segja
menu, ef huroln var laest, at eingi matti komast i skemmuna an
(without) vilja Freyju, Sn. 354. We are told the trick by which
Loki after all got in, and robbed her of the necklace ;
1 Homer says
nothing about that, but (II. 14, 165-8) he knows of Here s 0aA.a/io?,
TOV ol <j)l\os mo? ervj;ev
rvKwas Se dvpas crraO^olcnv jri]p<T6
KpvTrrf), TTJV S ov #6o? a\\o? avcpyev.
What can be more exactly in accordance with that inaccessible
apartment of Freyja, especially as the Ipds is spoken of directly
after? Hephaistos (Vulcan), who built his mother the curiously
contrived bedchamber, answers to the dwarfs who forged the neck
lace for Freyja. The identity of Frigg and Freyja with Here and
Aphrodite must after this mythus be as plain as day.
10. FOLLA. SlNDGUND.
Another thing that betrays the confusion of Frigg with Freyja
is, that the goddess Folld, now proved by the Merseburg poem to
belong to our German mythology, is according to it a sister of Frua,
while the OX. Falla again is handmaid to Frigg, though she takes
rank and order among the Asynjor themselves (Sn. 36-7). 2 Her
office and duties are sufficiently expressed in her name ; she justi
fies our reception of the above-mentioned Abundia or dame Habonde
into German mythology, and corresponds to the masculine god of
plenty P-ilnitis, Pilnitus, whom the Lettons and Prussians adored.
Like dame Herke on p. 253, she bestowed prosperity and abundance
on mortals, to her keeping was intrusted the divine mother s chest
(eski), out of which gifts were showered upon them.
It may be, that Fulla or Folia was at the same time thought
of as the full-moon (Goth. fullij?s, Lith. Pilnatis, masc.), as another
heavenly body, Orion, was referred to Frigg or : Freyja in the Mer
seburg MS. she is immediately followed by Sunnd with a sister
Sindpund, whose name again suggests the path of a constellation.
The Eddie S61 ranks with the Asynjor, but Sindgund (OK Sinn-
1 He bored a hole and crept through as a fly, then as a flea he stung the
sleeping goddess till she shook off the ornament : an incident still retained in
nursery-tales. Conf. the stinging fly at the forging, Sn. 131.
2 If we read Fria for Frua, then Folia would stand nearer to her as in the
Norse, whether as attendant goddess or as sister. Yet, considering the insta
bility of those goddesses names, she may keep her place by Frouwa too.