Towards the Baldur Myth - Germanic Mythology

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III. THE BALDUR MYTH AND THE STEPHANUS LEGEND. THE NAME FOL (FALR). We turn now to the Second Merseburg Charm: Fol and Wotan rode into the woods, there the foot of Baldur‘s foal went out of joint. It was charmed by Sinhtgunt, Sunna her sister; It was charmed by Frigg, Fulla her sister; It was charmed by Wotan, as he well knew how: In his work ―Studier over de nordiske Gude- and Helte-sagns Oprindelse,‖ (―Studies into the Sources of the Nordic God- and Heroic Sagas‖ 1881-1889), Professor Sophus Bugge defends the opinion that Baldur was not a pan-Germanic god nor one known in Germany, and that the name Baldur here is an appellative—certainly not in the relics of the Gothic or German language, but nevertheless in Anglo-Saxon—with the meaning ―Lord‖ and referring to Odin. He assumes that Fol is an evil god corresponding to Loki, and that this evil god was the cause of Odin‘s horse being lamed. According to this opinion, it was consequently the owner of the injured horse that cured his own steed. Professor Bugge primarily supports this idea with an analogy that arises from two magic formulas recorded in Småland. There, Dr. Artur Hazelius has provided the following: ―Oden rider öfver sten och bärg han rider sin häst ur vred och i led, ur olag och i lag, ben till ben, led till led, som det bäst var, när det helt var.‖ [―Odin rides over rock and hill; he rides his horse out of a sprain and into joint out of disorder and into order, bone to bone, joint to joint, as it was best, when it was whole.‖] The second magic charm reads: ―Oden står på bärget,
han spörjer efter sin fåle, fläget har han fått.‖ [―Odin stands on the mountain, he inquires after his steed, it has colic‖] In both of these formulas, it is Odin‘s horse that suffers injury, and in one formula when it is mentioned who cured him, the healer is Odin himself. With this as support, Bugge cites the Merseburg Charm as evidence for his hypothesis that the god, whom the Icelanders called Baldur, was a special Norse creation arising during the last age of Scandinavian heathendom through contact with the Christian British or Irish. However, when considered alone, it is clear that the Merseburg Charm invites the opposite opinion. There, two riders accompanied by four goddesses are said to proceed into the forest. These two riders are Fol and Odin according to the first line of the charm. When Fol is not named again and when, as early as the second line, it says that Baldur‘s horse was lamed during this ride, it lies close at hand to identify Fol with Baldur and see in him the same god known by this name, Odin‘s son. All the more reason since 1) the event can be ranked among the signs which foreboded Baldur‘s death, according to the Norse mythic sources; 2) Saxo says that Baldur, before his death, became weak footed and was carried on a stretcher, instead of using his wonderful horse, also known in the Danish tradition; 3) In the Merseburg Charm, Baldur is surrounded by a protecting watch of divinities, among whom one recognizes precisely those who stand closest to him according to Norse tradition, namely his father Odin, his mother Frigg, and Fulla, to whom Baldur‘s wife Nanna sent a ring from the underworld. And since all mythologists have previously been united in seeing the Baldur myth as a myth about the victory of cold and darkness over sunlight and summer, they must also find it in harmony that the sun-dis Sunna and her sister the moon-dis Sinhtgunt appear in the protective watch around the threatened light- and summer- god in the Merseburg Charm. The situation presented in the Merseburg Charm further invites the assumption that Sinhtgunt rode closest to Baldur when the misfortune to his horse occurred, and that for this reason she is named first among those who seek to heal the injury; thereafter comes her sister, then the pair of sisters, Frigg and Fulla, and finally Odin, who as ―galder‘s father‖ and possessor of the most powerful incantations, succeeds in abolishing one of Jötunheim‘s ills conjured by witchcraft, against which the goddesses‘ galder-songs proved powerless. From this standpoint, it is even less possible to identify the Baldur of the Merseburg Charm with Odin. Because why would all the goddesses be called on to cure Odin‘s horse that he himself was closest to and best equipped to heal? That Baldur himself was not able to heal his own horse of course has its natural explanation in that he was ―feigr‖ (fated to die) and according to Saxo suffered from consumption before death befell him. Finally, regarding the comparison Bugge proposes between the Merseburg Charm and the two charms from Småland, they are certainly related to one another conceptually. But from that it does not follow that they originally referred to one and the same mythological event. A tale could have been told in which Odin‘s horse, Sleipnir, got a sprain while he was out riding it alone and that Odin rode him into joint again. From that
Page 1 and 2: Viktor Rydberg’s Investigations i
Page 3 and 4: stating how, and that for his trans
Page 5 and 6: goodness and how they come to rescu
Page 7 and 8: 12. 17 One and the same ruler of th
Page 9 and 10: n) The Asvins are healers. They mak
Page 11 and 12: This lasts until a fimbul-winter co
Page 13 and 14: I hardly need to point out that the
Page 15 and 16: Compare Gylfaginning‘s words: Fri
Page 17 and 18: and geography on the other. As far
Page 19 and 20: Germanic kingdom of death. He who g
Page 21 and 22: originally identical to Baldur and
Page 23: assume that even this myth (the one
Page 27 and 28: [‗Our Lord Jesus Christ and Saint
Page 29 and 30: The heathen god‘s transformation
Page 31 and 32: 4.) Den fämte han var apelgrå, De
Page 33 and 34: 3) The Ballad of Steffan relates ho
Page 35 and 36: volume of this work (no. 92), I hav
Page 37 and 38: IV. DESCENDANTS OF THE BALDUR MYTH.
Page 39 and 40: Halogi of Halogaland from the story
Page 41 and 42: and receive Olaf Geirstadaalf‘s r
Page 43 and 44: women‘s line is counted king Olaf
Page 45 and 46: others. Hædcyn accidentally kills
Page 47 and 48: so that in her arms she clasp you.
Page 49 and 50: and with another‘s wife.‖ 134.
Page 51 and 52: warnings he received in his youth f
Page 53 and 54: events. Instead, the song shows man
Page 55 and 56: Aldrian as Elberich to Albrian. The
Page 57 and 58: Baldrs sigtólum haldit. Siðreynir
Page 59 and 60: the other hand, the persons named G
Page 61 and 62: Uggason attended the feast and comp
Page 63 and 64: (―While Frey drove in a chariot p
Page 65 and 66: a Loki-epithet, Litr is used in a v
Page 67: able to see when he makes the spear

Towards the Baldur Myth - Germanic Mythology

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