Towards a Method of Mythology - Germanic Mythology

peoples’ level of culture and manner of comprehension. 60 But among the Teutons, the
level of culture was obviously very slow to change — Proto-Indo-European customs are
still found among the Teutons in Tacitus’ time, as far as our controls in this matter go,
and among the customs that were prevalent among the Nordic Teutons then, many were
well preserved into the Christian era — and these changes from internal causes must have
appeared in the moral perfection of the gods’ characters more so than in the mythic
adventures themselves.
It should finally be pointed out that the power of mythic traditions to resist the
ravages of time is demonstrably much greater than that of language. A radical religious
revolution is required to break the former, and even when it is broken, the memory
survives, nevertheless, in concealed or in Christian disguise 61 through the human ages,
through centuries and through millennia. Language, on the other hand, can experience
stark changes during short periods without having been subjected to a revolutionary
crisis. The inscriptions on Norway’s oldest rune-stones are rather like a Gothic dialect
and differ considerably from 8 th and 9 th century speech-forms.
Similarly, the Swedish that is spoken today still bears evidence of its relationship
with the language of the Sanskrit-Aryans. If one of them returned to life and lived [471]
as a guest for a while in a Swedish peasant’s hut, both would both probably begin to
suspect this relationship when they found that the one’s mother compares to the other’s
mâtar, son to sûnu, daughter to duhitar, and brother to bhrâtar. The door behind which
they make these comparisons, the inhabitant of the Indus Valley would call dur; oxen and
cows that graze outside, he would call ukshan and go. When the stuff of words, so
corruptible, so susceptible to all influence, can still show such an affinity, what is it when
the stuff of myths, which is ære perennius, 62 preserves as much as it does unchanged
from the same time? Family feasts, wedding feasts, private parties, births, diseases among
humans and livestock, death, burial, seasonal changes, farming, and other peaceable
ceremonies, traveling expeditions, and war expeditions, all were bound with reminders
from myth, from mythic stories, and incantations or holy formulas. Hymns that glorified
the deeds of the gods and the heroes were sung at the Indo-Europeans’ sacrifices; heroic
songs shortened their time by the hearth. Everything holy and everything unholy,
everything beneficial and everything harmful, all these were associated with the concepts
of gods and demons. All knowledge, all culture bore the stamp of myth. It should seem
odder that myths would suffer changes by degrees under such conditions than that they
were preserved, even if they were not protected by a holy and inviolable reputation, and
even if a priesthood did not guard them.
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After Christianity had conquered heathenism, the stories of gods and heroes and
the blessing formulas still survived in the converted peoples’ memories. The need for
songs and stories was not annulled by Christianity's victory. It survived and found
satisfaction not only from the new treasures that Christianity opened, but more than that,
60 An example of this is weapons technology. As new weapons are invented or come into use, they would
also eventually be introduced into the mythology.
61 Assuming the religious revolution was a conversion to Christianity.
62 “more durable than bronze”