TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

impetrare, accipere, so that asking has passed
PRAYER. 31
over into effectual
asking, getting (see Suppl.).
Another expression for prayer is peculiar to the Norse and AS.
Ion or been, Swed. Dan.
dialects, and foreign to all the rest : OK
Ion, AS. len, gen. bene f., Csedm. 152, 26, in Chaucer bone, Engl.
boon ; from it, bena supplex, bensian supplicare. Lastly the Icel.
Swed. dyrka, Dan. dyrke, which like the Lat. colere is used alike of
worship and of tillage, seems to be a recent upstart, unknown to
the OIsT. language.
On the form and manner of heathen prayer we lack informa
tion ; I merely conjecture that it was accompanied by a looking lip
to heaven, lending of the body (of which bidjan gave a hint), folding
of hands, bowing of knees, uncovering of the head. These gestures
grow out of a crude childlike noti ;n of antiquity, that the human
suppliant presents and submits himself to the mighty god, his
conqueror, as a defenceless victim (see Suppl.).
Precari deos ccelum-
que suspicere is attested by Tacitus himself, Germ. 10. Genuflec-
tere is in Gothic knussjan, the supplicare of the Eomans was flexo
corpore adorare. Falling down and bowing were customs of the
Christians too ; thus in Hel. 47, 6. 48, 16. 144, 24 we have : te
bedu hnigan. 58, 12 : te drohtine hnigan. 176, 8 : te bedu fallan.
145, 3 : gihneg
an kniobeda. In the SolarlioS is the remarkable
expression : henni ec laut, to her (the sun) I bowed, Ssem. 126 tt
from luta inclinare. falla a kne ok luta, Vilk. saga cap. 6. nu
strauk kongsdottir sinn legg, ok mselti, ok ser i loptiff upp, (stroked
her leg, and spoke, and looks up to the sky), Vilk. saga cap. 61.
So the saga of St. Olaf tells how the men bowed before the statue
O
of Thor, lutu Ipvi skrimsli, Fornm. sog. 4, 247. fell til iardar fyrir
likneski (fell to earth before the likeness). Fornm. sog. 2, 108.
The Langobards are stated in the Dial. Gregorii M. 3, 28 to have
adored submissis cervicibus a divinely honoured goat s head. In the
Middle Ages people continued to bow to lifeless objects, by way of
blessing them, such as a loved country, the road they had traversed,
or the day. 1 Latin writers of the time, as Lambert, express urgent
entreaty by pedibus provolvi ; the attitude was used not only to
1 Dem stige nigen, Iw. 5837, dem wege nigen, Parz. 375, 26. clem lande
nigen, Trist. 11532. nigen in daz lant, Wigal. 4018. nigen in elliu lant, Iw.
7755. in die werlt nigen, Frauend. 163, 10. den stigen und wegen segeu
tuon, Iw. 357 (see Suppl.).
;