TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

34 WOKSHIP.
verb dug a with the sense propitium esse: biS ec Ottari oil goS duga,
(I Ot. pray all, &c.), Seem. 120 b .
bio> J?a disir duga, S^ern. 195a .
Duga means to belp, conf. Gramm. 4, 687. There is beauty in the
ON. prayer: biSjom herjafoSr i hugom sitja (rogemus deum in
animis sedere nostris), Ssem. 113 , just as Christians pray the Holy
Ghost to descend : in herzen unsen sdzi, 0. iv. 5, 30 (see Suppl.).
Christians at prayer or confession looked toward the East, and
lifted up their arms (Bingham lib. xi. cap. 7, ed. hal. 3, 273) ; and
so we read in the Kristinbalkr of the old Gulathing law: ver skulum
Itita austr, oc biSja til ens helga Krists ars ok friSar/ we must bow
east, and pray the holy Christ for plenty and peace (conf. Syntagma
do baptismo p. 65) ; in the Waltharius 1159 : contra orientalem
prostratus corpore partem precatur ;
in AS. formulas : edstweard
ic stande ; and in Troj. 9298. 9642 : keret iuch gen orient. The
heathens, on the contrary, in praying and sacrificing, looked North
wards : horfa (turn) i norftr, Fornm. sog. 11, 134. leit (looked) i
norftr, Ssem. 94 a . beten gegen mitternacht, Keisersperg omeiss 49b .
And the North was looked upon by the Christians as the unblessed
heathen quarter, on which I have given details in EA. 808 ; it was
unlucky to make a throw toward the north, EA. 57 ; in the Lombard
boundary-treaties the northern tract is styled nulla ora/ EA. 544.
These opposite views must serve to explain a passage in the Eoman
de Eenart, where the fox prays christianly, and the wolf heatlitnly,
Eeinh. fuchs p. xli. 1
As the expressions for asking and for obtaining, pp. 30, 31, are
identical, a prayer was thought to be the more effectual, the more
people it was uttered by :
got enwolde so manegem munde
sin genade niht versagen. Wigal. 4458.
die juncvrouwen baten alle got,
nu ist er so gneedec unt so guot
unt so reine gemuot,
daz er niemer kunde
so manegem siiezen munde
betelichiu dine versagen.
Iw. 5351.
1 At the abrenuntiatio one had to face the sunset, with wrinkled brow (fronte
caperata), expressing anger and hatred ; but at the confession of faith, to face
the sunrise, with eyes and hands raised to heaven ; Bingham lib. xi. cap. 7.
13.14. Conf. Joh. Olavii synt. de baptismo, pp. 64-5.