TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

BILLUNG. ORENTIL. 375
Orendil, Meiclielb. 61; Orenttt, Trad, fuld. 2, 24 2, 109 (Schannat
308) ; Orendil a Bavarian count (an. 843 in Eccard s Fr. or. 2, 367);
a village Orendelsal, now Orendensall, in Hohenlohe, v. Haupts
zeitschr. 7, 558. But the Edda has another myth, which was
alluded to in speaking of the stone in Thor s head. Groa is busy
conning her magic spell, when Thorr, to requite her for the
approaching cure, imparts the welcome news, that in coming from
lotunheim in the North he has carried her husband the bold
Orvandill in a basket on his back, and he is sure to be home soon ;
he adds by way of token, that as OrvandiTs toe had stuck out of the
basket and got frozen, he broke it off and flung it at the sky, and
made a star of it, which is called Orvandils-td. But Groa in her
joy at the tidings forgot her spell, so the stone in the god s head
never got loose, Sn. 110-1. Groa, the growing, the grass-green, is
equivalent to Breide, i.e., Berhta (p. 272) the bright, it is only
another part of his history that is related here : Orvandill must
have set out on his travels again, and on this second adventure
forfeited the toe which Thorr set in the sky, though what he had
to do with the god we are not clearly told. Beyond a doubt, the
name of the glittering star-group is referred to, when AS. glosses
render jubar by earendel, and a hymn to the virgin Mary in Cod.
Exon. 7, 20 presents the following passage :
Eala Earendel, engla beorhtast,
ofer middangeard monnum sended,
and soSfsesta sunnan leoma
torht ofer tunglas, J?u tida gehwane
of sylfurn Ipe symle inlihtes !
orbem terrarum
i.e., jubar, angelorum splendidissime, super
hominibus misse, radie vere solis, supra stellas lucide, qui omni
tempore ex te ipso luces ! Mary or Christ is here addressed under
the heathen name of the constellation; I am only in doubt as to
the right spelling and interpretation of the word ; an OHG. drentil
implies AS. earendel, and the two would demand ON. aurvendill,
eyrvendill ; but if we start with ON,, orvendill, then AS. earendel,
OHG. erentil would seem preferable; The latter part of the
compound certainly contains entil- =- wentil. 1 The first part should
1 Whence did Matthesius (in Frisch 2, 439 a ) get his
" Pan
is the heathens
Wendel and head bagpiper
"
1 Can the word refer to the metamorphoses of the
flute-playing demigod 1 In trials of witches, "Wendel is a name for the devil,
Mones anz. 8, 124.