TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

HILD. GUND. DRUD. 423
tive firtiffr virgo, and in OHG. occurs in a great many female
names (e.g. Alpdrud [^ElfyryS, Elfrida], Wolchandrud, Himildrud,
Pliddrut, Plihdrut == Plectrud, Kerdrud = Gertrude, Mimidrud,
Sigidrud, which naturally suggest ghostly beings), has assumed
the general meaning of witch, sorceress, hobgoblin. 1 Hans Sachs
several times uses alte trute for old witch, and noisy children are
quieted with the words : hush, the drut will come !
2 so that here
she exactly fills the place of frau Holla or Berhta, and can
the more appropriately be the ancient valkyr. An AS. wood-
maiden, named Dhryft, comes up in the Vita Offae secundi (supra,
p. 388) : she is from France, where she had been sentenced to
death for her crimes, exposed in a ship, and cast on the shore of
Mercia. Here Offa saw the maiden passing fair, and married her,
but she soon committed new transgressions. She is called 9 a Drida,
9 b Petronilla, 15 b Qvendrida (!e.,cwen ThryS ; conf. Kemble s pre
face to Beow. pp. xxxv. xxxvi, and Backstrbm 1, 220 (see SuppL).
Beside the valkyrs named, there must have been many others,
and the second section of the Ssemundaredda names several as
lovers or wives of heroes. Such are Svava, Sigrlinn, Kara, jSigrtin,
Sigrdrifa, who are expressly called valkyrjur, Ssem. 142 b 145 b 157,
169. 194. It also comes out, that they were of human origin,
being daughters of kings, Svava of Eylimi, Sigrlinn of Svafnir,
Sigrun of Hogni, Kara of Halfdan, Sigrdrifa of Buoli ; Svava was
the lover of Helgi HiorvarSsson, Sigrlinn of HiorvarSr, Sigrun of
Helgi Hundingsbani, Kara of Helgi HaddingskaSi, and Sigrdrifa,
who is no other than Brynhildr, of Sigurftr. Grimhildr (helmet-
maiden, p. 238), and above all Brynhildr, Prunhilt, whose very
name betokens the mail-clad Hildr, is superhuman: her inaccessible
hall stands on a mountain, like those of Yeleda and Jetha (pp. 95-
6) ; it was a schildburg (skialdborg), where she herself, bound by
the spell, slept under her shield, till SigurSr released her. Then
she prophesied to him, Ssem. 194b , and before her death she
prophesies again, 224. 226b . Her hall was encircled vritib. flickering
flame, oc var um sal hennar vafrlogi, Sn. 139 (see SuppL), as was
also that of Mengloft (OHG. Maniklata, i.e., monili laetabunda),
another valkyr: salr er slunginn er visom vafiioga (Ssem. 110 a , conf.
1 Some people think Gerdrut, Gerdraut, an unchristian name. Fran Trude
(Kinderm. 43).
2
Flogel, gesch. des groteskekom. p. 23.