TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

386
HEROES.
an echo of Baldr and Freyr, perhaps of OSinn, in Dietrich of Thorr
and Freyr. Ecke oscillates between the giant and the hero.
Even Charles and Eoland are in some of their features to be
regarded as new-births of Wuotan and Donar, or of Siegfried and
Dietrich. As for Geat, Sceaf, Sceldwa, for lack of their legends, it
is difficult to separate their divine nature from their heroic.
One badge of distinction I find in this, that the names of gods
are in themselves descriptive,
i.e., indicating from the first their
l
inmost nature ; to the names of half-gods and heroes this signi
ficance will often be wanting, even when the human original has
carried his name over with him. Then, as a rule, the names of
gods are simple, those of heroes often compound or visibly derived.
Donar therefore is a god from the first, not a deified man : his
appellation expresses also his character. The same reason is
decisive against that notion of Wuotan having made his way out of
the ranks of men into those of the gods.
Demigods have the advantage of a certain familiarness to the
people : bred in the midst of us, admitted to our fellowship, it is
they to whom reverence, prayers and oaths prefer to address them
selves : they procure and facilitate intercourse with the higher-
As it came natural to a Koman to swear mehercle I
standing god.
mecastor ! ecastor ! edepol ! the Christians even in the Mid. Ages
swore more habitually by particular saints than by God himself.
We are badly off for information as to the points in which the
Hero-worship of our forefathers shaped itself differently from divine
worship proper ; even the Norse authorities have nothing on the
subject. The Grecian sacrifices to heroes differed from those
offered to gods : a god had only the viscera and fat of the beast
presented to him, and was content with the mounting odour; a
deified hero must have the very flesh and blood to consume.
Thus the einherjar admitted into Valholl feast on the boiled flesh
of the boar Ssehrimnir, and drink with the Ases ; it is never said
that the Ases shared in the food, Srcm. 36. 42. Sn. 42 ; conf.
supra, p. 317. Are we to infer from this a difference in the sacri
fices offered to gods and to demigods ?
Else, in the other conditions of their existence, we can perceive
many resemblances to that of the gods.
Thus, their stature is enormous. As Ares covered seven roods,
1
Something like the names of the characters in the Beast-apologue.