TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

428 WISE WOMEN.
who laid their wings aside, and then danced up and down the
field. He jumped up, fetched the wings away, and laid them under
the stone on which he sat. When the maidens had danced till
they were tired, they came to him, and asked for their wings ; he
declared, if one of them would stay and be his wife, the other two
should have their wings back. From this point the story takes a
turn, which is less within the province of the swan-wife myth ;
it is worth noting, that one of the maidens offers her lover a drink
of water out of a golden pitcher, exactly as elfins and wish-wives do
elsewhere (pp. 420, 326).
Molbech no. 49.
These lovely swan-maidens must have been long known to
German tradition. When they bathe in the cooling flood, they lay
down on the bank the swan-ring, the swan-shift ; who takes it from
them, has them in his power. 1
but
Though we are not expressly told
so, yet the three prophetic merwomen whose garments Hagene took
away, are precisely such ; it is said (Nib. 1476, 1) by way
again :
sie swebten sam die vogele uf der fluot.
of simile
It is true, our epic names only two of them (the Danish story only
one), the wisiu wip, Hadburc and Sigelint? but one of them begins
to prophesy, and their garments are described as wunderlich,
1478, 3. The myth of Volundr we meet with again in an OHG.
to a
poem, which puts doves in the place of swans : three doves fly
fountain, but when they touch the ground they turn into maidens,
Wielant removes their clothes, and will not give them up till one
of them consents to take him for her husband. In other tales as
widely diffused, young men throw the shift, ring
or chain over
them, which turns them into swans? When the resumption of
human shape cannot be effected completely, the hero retains a
evidence of the high antiquity of this detail lies in its
swan-wing ;
connexion with the heroic legend of Scoup or Sceaf (p. 370) ; and
it has found its way into modern pedigrees. 4
Especially impor-
1
Musaeus, Volksmarchen vol. 3 : The stolen veil.
2 There is a plant named, I suppose, from this Sigelint Sumerl. ; 22, 28
(conf. 23, 19) has cigelinta fel draconis, and 53, 48 cigelinde; Graff 6, 145 has
sigeline ; see Sigel/Siglander in Schm. 3, 214.
3 Kinderm. no. 49. Deutsche sagen 2, 292-5. Adalb. Kuhn p. 164, the
swan-chain.
4
Conf. Deutsche sagen no. 540 : the Schicanrings of Plesse/ who carry a
swarfs wing and ring on their scutcheon. A doc. of 1441 (Wolfs Norten no.
48) names a Johannes Swanefliigel, decretorum doctor, decanus ecclesiae
*
to tear
majoris Hildesemensis. In a pamphlet of 1617 occurs the phrase :
the ring and mask off this .
pseudonym