TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

400 V/ISE WOMEN.
In the Carmen de Fliyllide et Flora it is said 31, 4 : Ille me commemorat
inter ipsas caedes/ my beloved in the battle breathes my
name, to issue therefrom victorious. 1 This sounds altogether
heathen, for the gods too were at your side the moment you uttered
their names. Snorri, in Yngl. saga cap. 2, says
of OSinn : sva var
oc um hans menn, hvar sem J?eir urftu i nauSum staddir, a sia efta
& landi, );a Jcolludu ];eir d nafn hans, oc J?6ttiz iafnan fa af J?vi fro/
so was it also with his men, wherever they were in trouble, on sea
or on land, then called they on his name, and immediately were
gladdened by it. When Hrungnir became intolerable to the Ases,
J?eir Tlior, J?vi nasst kom Thorr i hollina, Sn. 108. Kraka,
J>a nefna
a semi-divine being, admonished Erich: si suprema necessitatis
violentia postularet, nominis sui nuncupations remedium celerius
esse quaerendum, affirmans se divina partim virtute subnixam et
quasi consortem coelitus insitam numinis gestare potentiam, Saxo
Gram., p. 72. So the valkyrja comes to the rescue of her chosen
she is become his guardian, as if
hero, when he calls out her name ;
sent by the gods to bring him aid (see Suppl.).
The mission of such women then is to announce and prepare
good or ill, victory or death to mortal men ; and we have seen that
the popular faith retained longest its connexion with fighting and
victory. Their own being itself, like that of the heroes, rests on
human nature, they seem for the most part to have sprung from
kingly and heroic families, and probably an admixture of divine
ancestors is to be presumed in their case too. But to perform their
office, they must have wisdom and supernatural powers
at their
command : their wisdom spies out, nay, guides and arranges com
plications in our destiny, warns of danger, advises in difficulty.
the birth of man they shew themselves predicting arid endowing,
in perils of war giving help and granting victory. Therefore they
are called wise ivomen, ON. spdkonor (conf. spakr, OHG. spahi,
prudens), Scot, spae wife, MHG. wisiu ivip, Nib. 1473. 3. 1483, 4
(see Suppl.).
1. ITIS, IDES (Dis).
But I will first take an older word, which appears to me to yield
1 Philander of Sittewalcl 2,727, Soldatenl. p. 241, still mentions the practice
in time of danger of commending oneself to the loved one s grace and
favour .
At