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htfeeioe deities as objects of woeship. 183
I trust that our Disir,
Heliuet-coT«red,
Hither have come
To Denmark.''
To whicli Ulf answers :
" Dead may all
Tour Disir be
Fortune has fallen
From HSlfs champions ! "*
In the old Eddaic poeni, Grimnismal, Odin says to
King GeirroS, just before the latter falls by his own
sword
" I know life is leaving thee,
;
Unpropitious are thy Disir."f
In the Altamal, Glaumvor says to her husband
Gunnar, whom, on hearing the recital of his ill-bod-
ing dream, she vainly tries to dissuade from the
journey in which he met with his death :
"Ifearthatthy Dfeir
Have all forsaken thee ! "jf.
When it occars in the Sagas that a powerful man
gives his Good Luck (hamingja, gipta) to one whom
he sends on a dangerous errand, or to whom he in
any way wishes weU-^—an expression still used ia
Christian times— ^the idea was conveyed originally,
that the Disir of the one, in such cases, took the
other for a time or for ever under their protection.
When the Icelandic Chiefta,in Hoskuld, on his deathbed,
divided his property amolig his sons, but was
not able to let his unmarried son Olaf, whom he
» Hilfs S. 15.
t The 0. Edda: Grinm. 53,
t
lb, : Atlam. 25.