Myth and Religion; - Germanic Mythology

The following reference displays a detailed knowledge of Viktor Rydberg’s second
volume of Undersökningar i Germanisk Mytologi, published in 1889, and not translated
into English until 2007:
Nicolson, William, MA. Myth and Religion: An Enquiry into their Nature and
Relations, an academic dissertation; Press of the Finnish Literary Society, 1892.
Chapter III. The Methodology of Myths.
Mr. Rydberg on Methodology of Myths; mythology scarcely scientific — should
Märchen or folk-tales be included under mythology? — Rydberg on Mythogony and
Mythology — Von Schmidt on Method: threefold (1) accurate and orderly collection; (2)
comparison, (3) Mythology proper, — Mogk in Grundriss, Higher or lower Myths, —
original locality whence sprung, — stage of civilization and history of peoples amongst
whom originated — Rydberg's practical treatment of Scandinavian Myths — a local
myth — knowledge begins with masses — myths of Heaven and Earth— Linguistic and
philological treatment of myths — Varuna and Uranos — Myths of the Rig-Veda —
Rydberg's application of philological method to Agni and Heimdall — legitimate and
illegitimate application — convergence principle — preservation and permanence of
Myths — savage and obscene myths — difficulties as to such myths — epical myths —
effects of artistic feeling on —Rydberg and E. H. Meyer on the Voluspa.
pp. 13 ff.
Mr. Victor Rydberg in his great work 1 has given us a contribution towards the
Methodology of Mythology. He opens the consideration of this subject by enquiring
whether mythology is a science and is forced to reply in the negative, that it is not. He
holds, we fear, with justice, that a multitude of works appearing on this subject, when we
consider their logical constitution, or mode of treating the subject, have no proper title to
be considered as science. It has seemed to us, that very many of these works are simply
collections of myths or mythical stories, that their treatment is sufficiently loose and
illogical, and that if we look at the derivative of the Greek word logos as made use of
here, it is used far otherwise than in such compounds, as geology, philology, biology etc.
etc. Myths are an important part of folk-literature, as the traditional records of the ancient
life of peoples; but why should these be separated, as they have been from the folk-tale?
which has been left in its ordinary unpretentious form, as the Märchen, or the Russian
Skaska, or afventyr; while the mythical section has got logos tacked on to it, and is
spoken of, as if it had really become a science. The lamented W. Mannhardt, as reported
in the preface to his Mythologische Forschungen by W. Scherer, has objected to the
inclusion of Volk-Märchen in Mythology, more especially in relation to Germanic Myths,
and has affirmed that these Märchen are to be considered as international Novellenstoffe,
and not as belonging to the proper sources of Mythology. Good! but let them be included,
until on proper scientific grounds, it is shown that they ought to be excluded. And it is to
be observed that De Gubernatis, in his preface to his work on 'Die Thiere in der Indo-
1 Undersökningar i Germanisk Mytologi, Andre Delen p. 427 ff.

Germanischen Mythologie' has desiderated the union of what in the narrower sense is
called mythology, with the research of the whole huge mass of folk-sagas, the edited as
well as the non-edited, those which are to be found in poems; legends; songs; folk-tales;
proverbs and superstitious representations, into one study. 2
Mr. Victor Rydberg in the work lately referred to, in his chapter on the “Method
of Mythology" 3 has sought to draw a distinction between Mythogony and Mythology.
While he does not deny that both legitimately may come under the head of Mythology in
general, yet he thinks that in their study, they ought to be separated, as having differing
subjects and diverse methods of research. The aim of Mythology he considers from its
present standpoint, is to deal with the Aryan peoples', mythical groups or complexes
separately; the Semitic peoples' mythical complexes; the Mongolian etc. etc., and when
researches- into each group have been thoroughly carried out, to take up the various
groups, Aryan, Semitic, Turanian and compare them with one another to ascertain how
far relations can be found between them, or an interchange of ideas. Mythology must be
considered to be the comparative study of myths first, in relation to the various groups
within themselves, and when this is complete, to compare them internationally, or as
between races. Mythogony has a less extended aim its purpose being merely to solve the
question of the origin of the myths in the light of psychology, or their pre-historic
development, under laws which are alike for Aryan or Semitic. He believes that the
confusing of these separate lines of inquiry, has been detrimental to the successful
investigation of the objects of both. Mythogony, he considers to be a branch of folk-lore,
whose aim is to find the psychological laws in accordance with which the myths have
originated.
Dr. Eugen von Schmidt in his 'Philosophic der Mythologie' would divide the
study of myths into three stages. First, the collection of the great body of myths, or what
might be called the encyclopedia of myths, brought together as carefully and accurately
as possible. The second stage is their comparison, which might perhaps be conveniently
considered in relation to their origin or the local relations etc. under which they arose,
and then subsequently, in relation to the complex forms into which they have been
brought, as more or less assuming the epical form, which must, however, be considered
as a secondary, artificial treatment, to which they have been subjected (Undersokningar,
Rydberg II. 432). The third form which Herr Schmidt suggests is the Philosophy of
Myths, or indeed, as we have seen, Mythology proper. It would seem that were due
precaution taken, in passing through these successive stages, that we should be able to
arrange and classify myths, and by careful comparison, get at their true relations, and
their meaning, so far as they can be said to contain a meaning. Professor Mogk in his
brief but excellent treatise on mythology in Volume I, 5th part of the Grundriss der
Germanischen Philologie, has given us certain practical rules as to the treatment of
myths, which are quite reconcilable with the principles dealt with, in the preceding. They
come mostly under the second part of Dr. von Schmidt's arrangement in the treatment of
myths, and accord equally well also with Mr. Rydberg's. The first stage, the careful
collection of myths in their most authentic forms, may be considered as common and
applicable to all systems. It is the second stage which calls for a thoroughly careful
classification and arrangement of myths in order to their more effectual and careful
2 Die Thiere in der Indo-germanischen Mythologie von De Gubernatis. list Halfte, Vorwort VI.
3 Undersökningar i Germanisk Mytologi Vol. II, ss. 428-492.

comparison. Mr. Rydberg's division into Mythology and Mythogony deserves to be well
considered, only that we have reason to question as to whether the term, mythology can
be applied to myths, save in the last stage of their examination, or as to the philosophy of
myths. In the second stage viz. the comparative, the careful study of the origin of myths
in connection with their history, or the history of their collection, might well be
desiderated as the first to be taken up. Has every care been taken to obtain them in their
genuine unadulterated forms? Up to Jacob Grimm's taking up the work of collecting the
German mythical collection, but little care had been taken to ascertain how far the
mythical collections were genuine. Praetorius in Germany as early as 1670 had made
collections, but jocularly confesses that he had added not a few fictions of his own
composition to the sagas, 4 and demonology, which he had brought together. In view of
such tendencies, too much care cannot be taken as to the sources whence the raw
materials or body of myths have been derived! Professor Mogk, besides his excellent and
suggestive enquiry as to the sources of Germanic Mythology 5 (die Quellen der
Germanischen Mythologie) and his, 'Geschichte der germanischen Mythologie', has, as
already mentioned, laid down certain rules under the heading of Conception and Problem
of Mythology, (Begriff und Aufgabe der Mythologie), which may very well be
incorporated with the principles to be made use of, in the second or comparative stage of
dealing with myths. The first point taken into consideration, is the nature of the myths
themselves (taking of course, for granted that they have been carefully collected). Do
they belong to what is called the lower or higher order of myths? i.e. have they come
from external influences acting upon the human soul, or have they to do with the human
spirit itself, in its tendency to form ideals and to hold them up before itself? In connection
with this, the country to which they belong, its natural features; the stage of cultivation in
which its people are found; its history, cultural and otherwise, foreign influences to which
it has been subjected etc. etc., all these matters ought to be carefully investigated.
Among other things, the myths ought to be investigated, if possible in the
circumstances, and under the local influences, under which they have arisen. They are not
to be thrown promiscuously together, but like the plants of the botanist, they ought to be
investigated in the habitat, where they have grown. These principles are identical with
those which Mr. Rydberg cites from Wundt, with approbation of their acuteness and
applicability. That myths that have become separated from one another, are to be placed
if possible in space and time, in their original relations, this is pretty nearly identical with
the rules of mythical treatment which we have quoted from Professor Mogk. Mr.
Rydberg proceeds forthwith to apply this principle to the Scandinavian mythical sources,
which he perhaps rightly considers to contain a richer material than any other. He would
first consider the poems of known authors, which have come down to us from heathen
times such as Vellekla, Haustlaung, Thorsdrapa and a fragment in the Skaldskaparmal;
second, those Relieved to belong to heathen times, but whose authors are unknown, such
as he believes certain poems in the poetical Edda to be; third, songs of the transitional
period from heathenism to Christianity, which may also contain some ancient myths
worthy of examination. Fourthly, Mr. Rydberg would take out of the heroic poems or
even out of the historical, what may be believed to be of heathen origin, but which has
been more or less freely handled by the poets and historians, into whose hands the ancient
4 Voluspa ,,Eine Untersuchung von Elard Meyer". Berlin 1889. I. Kapitel s. 4.
5 Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie I. Band 5te Lieferung s. 983 ff. Mythologie von E. Mogk.

materials have come. Such for example are the first nine books of Saxo's Gesta Danorum,
the poems concerning Helge Hjorvardsson, and also Helge Hundings-bane. Lastly, he
would examine narratives from a later period, which gives an account of the ancient
heathen faith such as Gylfaginning etc. In this investigation, the first thing to be procured
are texts as far as possible free from emendations, especially those in which conjectural
criticism has been applied, in the use of which, even the greatest scholars may fall into
error! When due investigation has been made as to native sources, and the arrangement of
the myths in proper relation to one another, then the investigator may pass on to the
examination of mythological matter of the peoples with which the Scandinavians were
best acquainted, viz. the Anglo-Saxons, the Germans etc. But here also we may fall into
error. Heimdall does not appear among German gods, and it is therefore held that he may
be taken for a merely Norse local god, and the research led off from the proper point of
view. Mr. Rydberg questions the accuracy of this conclusion on the ground, that a god
may belong to related peoples, such as the peoples belonging to the Indo-Germanic stock,
without, nevertheless, being known by the same name! We are inclined to agree with Mr.
Rydberg as to his low estimate of local myths, which have in some parts, been much
sought after and collected. There can be little doubt that such myths are difficult to
estimate at their true value. Mr. Rydberg notices the tendency of myths which have more
impressed themselves upon the imagination, to pass into larger myth complexes, or I
suppose into what he otherwise calls the epical form. But still there are certain local
myths which may be said to possess a geographical character, or which have arisen from
certain peculiarities of the landscape, and which therefore deserve that careful
examination in their relations to the locality, which Professor Mogk desiderates.
A local myth in the northern islands of which I am a native, occurs to me, as what
I consider a very good example of the kind. A promontory or ness of a lofty character
projected from the northwestern coast of the island, in nearly a northerly direction
extending for some miles. Opposite to this long projecting headland which bore the name
of Hermaness, rose the highest mountain in the island, with its bare rounded head, being
not much less than a thousand feet in perpendicular height, from the level of the sea,
which washed the giant precipices in which its northwestern basis terminated. This
mountain, which looked out like a guardian bulwark over the northern Atlantic, was
named Saxavord, and was separated by a rather lengthy bay or arm of the sea, from the
projecting headland which rose opposite. This arm of the sea was known as Burrafirth, a
corruption of the Icelandic Borgar-fiord, so named from one of the circular towers or
brochs, as they are named by the islanders, which is found in the neighbourhood. The
mountain and headland are connected by a local myth, connecting the sublime features of
the landscape. On one side of the bay is a sunken rock, which rises out of the tide; on the
opposite side is a boulder. Two giants are believed to have inhabited the mountain and
headland, bearing the respective names of Saxa and Herman. Having quarrelled on a
certain occasion, the neighbours had been so strongly excited that, but for the intervening
arm of the sea, they would have come to blows. But their wrath found utterance in the
boulder and skerry, which they threw at each other without, however, further results, than
the two marks on the shores of the bay, which have given rise to the myth. The shaping
imagination of the myth-maker has in this case been determined purely by the local
features of the mountain headland and bay, aided by the names which are obviously older
than the myth, and have in part given rise to it. Such local myths in their simplicity seem

to us worthy of careful consideration. From their local connection they have retained their
simplicity and show the myth-making faculty in its earliest and simplest exercise. By the
comparison of the more simple and complex of these myths of locality, the workings of
the myth formative, might be traced in the origination of stories of a greater or less
degree of complexity.
The psychological laws which have been verified, might further be used as
regulating and controlling the formation of myths. Our Scottish philosopher, Sir W.
Hamilton has maintained in opposition to Dugald Stewart and others, that our
consciousness does not begin either with the infinitely great or the infinitely little, but
with „ masses of objects" from the vague to the determinate; and finally, we gradually
ascend to a fuller and clearer knowledge of the whole, while at the same time we descend
to a more careful and detailed consciousness of the lesser objects which come within our
field of vision. 6
This principle must be illustrated in the external objects in connection with the
observation of which, myths have arisen. Heaven and Earth as masses and not as
discriminated, must first have impressed themselves upon the savage imagination; and
accordingly, we find this illustrated in the nature myths of a variety of peoples. Such was
the relation of Heaven and Earth in the Greek myth of Kronos and Gaea; in the Indian
Dyaus and Prithivi; 7 the Egyptian Seb and Nut; in the New Zealand 'Rangi and Papa', the
parents of all; and also in the Phenician myths which repeat or anticipate the Greek. Mr.
Rydberg comments also, as connected with this methodology of myths on two methods
which have been followed in dealing with myths, the linguistic so named by Wundt, and
the philological. He believes, that the first of these has been greatly over estimated as to
its practical value, and frequently carried too far in its application.
The application thus overdriven has been to find similarities of a nominal kind
between the gods and heroes which are found in kindred mythologies, such for example,
as the identity which has been traced between Vata and Vodana, as Slavic forms between
Parganya and Fjorgynn, and in Greek and Italian forms between Hestia and Vesta, Juno
and Dione etc. Mr. Rydberg holds that the same god can appear under differing names
and yet in reality be identical. The polyonomy which is believed by certain mythologists
to have arisen or been diffused at a certain stage of human development, could easily
result in certain tribes having one name for a certain god; while a neighbouring tribe may
have fallen upon another. The struggle for existence prevails, as Mr. Rydberg points out
in the regions of mythology, as in other forms of life; and thus one deity happens to
obtain a certain name, while another name falls to the lot of another. There are also
besides, in these poetic regions, the elements of change to be found, and thus
conservative as men are, in relation to such things, one name replaces another. It is thus,
that deities having the same or nearly the same attributes bear different names with the
Greeks, the Germans and the Slavs. In reference to such gods belonging to the Aryan or
Indo-European cycle, the linguistic method already referred to, would seem to be more
applicable, though even within this limited area; it may be misapplied as may be seen
from the following example. The god Varuna of the Rig-Veda has been taken to be
substantially the same as the Uranos of the Greeks. This however Mr. Rydberg believes
not to be the case, indeed never to have been the case. To the former of these, no
6 Sir William Hamilton's Lectures on Logic and Metaphysics. Vol. H. p. 334 & ff.
7 Lang's Myth, Ritual and Keligion Vol. I. pp. 253. Vol. II. p. 113 p. 29 also p. 324—5, appendix.

mythical personality is believed to have belonged, not indeed during the time that there
was any community of life, between the forefathers of the Greeks and their kindred who
retained their Asiatic homes. It was only after the separation took place between the
forefathers of the Greeks and their congeners in the uplands of Asia that a mythological
signification began to attach to this word. 8 It is remarkable, however, seeing the
prominent position that Heaven and Earth hold in the many mythologies to which,
indeed, attention has been called, that this relation should not hold amongst the Aryans of
the Vedas. Certainly in the hymns of the Rig-Veda this is the case, but not so absolutely it
would seem, as Mr. Rydberg appears to assert. 9
Mr. Rydberg draws attention to the very varied forms and characters, in which
mythical personages or deities from the Rig-Veda appear, such as Agni, as another
example of the misuse of the linguistic method. But the shifting forms and hues, like the
shifting rays of the Aurora Borealis, which the mythical personages of the Rig-Veda
assume, deserve a special mode of treatment, which we hope to give them. Herr von
Bradke in the work referred to, in the conclusion of the last note, notices that antecedent
to the period of the Rig-Veda in Indian Literature, a time of doubt or scepticism had
intervened as to the rule of the gods, and that the nickering forms of the divine persons,
whom we find invoked in the Rig-Veda, form in some sort, a special religious
development, which cannot well be exemplified elsewhere.
Passing on to deal with the psychological or real method, as dealt with by Mr.
Rydberg in his Methodology, we find that he regards it much more favourably than the
linguistic or nominal. This method lays less stress upon names and designations, and
more upon similar characteristics. A favourable example is given in the case of Agni and
Heimdall. Both are born of several mothers; both have yellow or golden teeth; it belongs
to each of them to belong to the watches of heaven; both are sent over the ocean to bring
religion and culture to men; both are patrons of the division of men into different orders
or grades of society; both have fought with a demon for the possession of a wonderful
ornament and have obtained it. From the similarity of the characteristics thus noted, they
would seem to lead to the inference, that both personages are therefore mythically the
same, a conclusion which seems confirmed by the further similarity that Heimdall is sent
by the patriarchs to Bhrigu and Manu; while in the other case, the Skandinavian Heimdall
is sent to Berich and Mannus. But while Mr. Rydberg holds fast by the validity of the
psychological method, when applied by a sound understanding, he points out at the same
time, that the myths to be compared may be of such a general character that their
8 Rydberg's Undersokningar i Germanisk Mythologi. Andra Delen s. 442.
9 Mr Lang in his Myth Ritual and Religion Vol. I. page 253 writes as follows on this subject, In India
Dyaus (heaven) answers to the Greek Uranus and the Maori Rangi, while Prithivi (earth) is the Greek Gaea,
the Maori Papa. In the Veda, heaven and earth are constantly styled 'parents' butt his we might regard as a
mere metaphorical expression still common in poetry. A passage of the Aitareya Brahmana, however,
retains the old conception, in which there was nothing metaphorical at all. These two worlds heaven and
earth were once joined. Subsequently they were separated (according to one account by Indra, who thus
plays the part of Cronus and Tane Mahuta)". “Heaven and earth,” says Dr Muir, “are regarded as the
parents not only of men, but of the gods also, as appears from the various texts where they are designated
by the epithet, Devapatre, having gods for their children. There have been attempts to account for the
scanty mention of heaven and earth in this relation in the Indian Mythology. In M. P. von Bradke's work,
'Dyaus Asura, Ahura Mazda und die Asuras', Halle 1885, there is an endeavour to account for the
comparative disappearance of Dyaus Pitar and Prithivi in their mutual relation, from the Indian Pantheon,
as may be seen summed up in pp. 114 & ff. of the above work.

comparison proves nothing, and then passes on to note another incorrect application of
the psychological method, which he indicates by the equation S(a + b + c + d) — P (a +
b) + P (c + d) as compared with an equation previously given, which he considers to be
legitimate P(a + b + c + d & c) = S(a + b + c + d & c). Next applying the illegitimate
form, obviously to Professor Bugge's treatment of the Baldr myth, in finding traces in it,
not only drawn from Achilles as in the form drawn from Saxo; but also traces from the
character of Christ, as in the Icelandic form of the myth, which Mr. Rydberg holds to be
improbable and out of keeping with the proper scientific treatment of the myth. 10 But
what if there be such curious additions to mythical characters in point of fact? E. H.
Meyer in his treatise on the Voluspa, has pointed out a similar strange mixture, in the
character of the god Heimdall as he is referred to in the Hyndlulod and the Völuspa hinn
skamma. 11
The principle of the identification of myths which have been broken up into
smaller fragments in time and place, adopted by Mr. Rydberg from Wundt 12 is quite in
accordance with rules laid down by Professor Mogk and others. There can be no doubt
but that the convergence principle which Mr. Rydberg discusses and gives us an example
of the use of, may be followed with advantage in the process of identifying myths, or
fragments of myths with one another.
Mr. Rydberg concludes his chapter on the methodology of myths by some
observations on the preservation and permanence of myths. He accounts for this
permanence by supposing that there may have been priests whose office it was to
preserve and transmit in unaltered form the stock of myths or sagas which belonged to
the tribe or clan. Such a priesthood, he finds in the Skalds or minstrels who made use of
the common stock of traditions and legends, sang them themselves and handed them over
to their successors and descendants. This process he believes to have been facilitated by
the similarity of linguistic forms in the Indo-European speech. There can be no doubt that
there is much truth in this picture of the preservation and transmission of the mythical,
legendary and saga forms, which formed the common stock, — the intellectual and
poetical wealth of the various peoples into which the Indo-Germanic race were divided.
But there is so much that is plausible and even probable, that we must not forget, that
there were influences at work which led to the transformation of the mythical sagas, and
poetic mythical songs, as well as to their preservation.
Mr. Rydberg himself touches upon these in the course of his enquiry. The myths
he deals with in the course of his enquiry come to us as he observes in an epical form.
But this in itself implies, in no small degree, a transformation in the character of these
myths themselves. Not only from the Teutonic myths, but equally so in the Indian myths
from the Rig-Veda and in the mythology of Greece, there is a savage, obscene and brutal
residuum, which those who have dealt with the subject, — and the literature of the
question is already extensive, and is growing every day, — have agreed to regard as the
lower or otherwise the earlier myths. Those concerning Heaven and Earth as persons, the
earliest progenitors of both men and gods, on which we have already touched, are of this
character. These are the myths, and they would seem from the religions or cults with
which they were associated to have been more common, or perhaps what is the same
10 Rydberg's Undersokningar. Andra Delen ss. 444—445.
11 * E. H. Meyer's Voluspa. Berlin 1889, ss. 15 ff.
12 Rydberg's Undersokningar. II. Delen s. 432.

thing, better preserved in ancient Greece than anywhere else, which stirred up the wrath
of Xenophanes and Plato; so that the latter, not without reason, for as we have seen, the
civilized Greek must have been much perplexed in his moral feelings, when he brought
his children to visit the temples and look upon the sacred pictures by which from such
pieces as the Ion of Euripides etc., we learn that these myths were illustrated. In Greece
and in India we see that the myths had undergone similar transformations to those, we
observe the Teutonic myths to have undergone. They had been reduced to the epical
condition. Mr Lang, to whom we have referred several times as one of the most advanced
British students of mythology, is of opinion that Homer and Hesiod, in whom we find so
much, that is hardly presentable to dress societies of our own time, had nevertheless
found it necessary to select in their poems, and if Homer, as is probable, represents the
rhapsodists of his time, they too had found it necessary to adopt a more or less
expurgated form of the mythical materials which they found at hand as the subjects of
their poems. The same is in all probability true of the Rig-Veda; so much is agreed
upon. 13 People ridicule the Americans of our own day as being so very proper that they
wish to cover up the legs of then- pianofortes, but in the days of the Rig-Veda there
appears to have been a very different state of feeling. Macaulay, voyaging to India, notes
that on the outward voyage, an Andaman boatman boarded the steamer, and stood on the
deck before the whole company of passengers on board the outward bound Indiaman, as
naked as the hour in which he was born, but yet without the least indication of shame;
and such is but bringing the youth and maturity of the world face to face!
The myths which have been reduced to the epical condition, what does this
imply? It certainly implies that these myths are generally recognized by mythologists as
belonging to the higher or more recent and artificial class of myths. This they owe,
doubtless to the treatment they have received from that 'priesthood' who were in
possession of an “ur-alt" stock of mythological songs from the time of the beginning of
the Christian era, according to the testimony of Tacitus. 14 These priests were the
predecessors and progenitors of the skalds and minstrels of a later period; and we know
that while they preserved the ancient myths, these myths passed, while in their keeping,
through a change analogous to that through which the Grecian myths passed in the hands
of Homer and Hesiod, and similar also to that through which the myths, wrought up in
the Rig-Veda, are believed to have passed, in the importation into them of a purer and
more elevated tone, such as the process of the ages had wrought upon the minds of the
skalds and minstrels themselves.
In the transmission of these myths too, through new poetic forms, such as they
must, more or less have undergone, we know that besides the elements of change which
came from the ethical change to which we have already referred, that there was in the
working over of the mythical material into new poetic forms, a change also of an artistic
kind. This also must have had its effect, as we see that the same materials when wrought
up by Oehlenschlager in his ”Nordens Glider", differ from the form they take in the Edda.
Light is thrown upon these changes in the relation of the rude and savage myths which
are believed, we understand universally, to be the oldest mythical forms in Greece, as
compared with those which have passed through the hands of Homer or Hesiod, though
13 Lang's Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. I. p. 11 ff. and I. Chapter X. pp. 289 ff.
14 2) Rydberg's Undersokningar i Germanisk Mythologi. Andra delen s. 469 ff.

the latter seems to have been disposed to preserve the older forms. Mr Lang 15 refers as
follows to the earlier myths. The object has been to notice a few of the myths which
appear to be the most ancient, and the most truly native and original. These are the
traditions preserved in Mystery plays, tribal genealogies and temple legends, the
traditions surviving from the far-off period of the village Greeks".
It has already been argued in conformity with the opinion of C. O. Müller, that
these myths are most antique and thoroughly local. Hence, if we hold this to be a true
account of the matter, and to this we believe, few of the later mythologists will object, the
epical myths must all be considered as later recastings of the mythical materials. Mr.
Rydberg has referred for example to the Voluspa, as we understand him, as ”de hedniskgermanisk
kallornas egenskap af ren hednista", “the heathen-germanic source's property
of a pure heathen character", but there will be considerable difficulty in upholding this
view, we apprehend, after reading E. H. Meyers's Voluspa. 16
Pg. 44
Now coming back to our myths belonging to the psychical ages of the world, and
we believe the most of them belong to this age, we find them marked exactly by this
same imaginative, rather than spiritual form of expression?
The earliest of all myths are indeed marked by a savage if not brutal form of
conception and expression. Heaven and Earth animated, the father and mother of gods
and men, cleaving together in the unceasing indulgence of savage lust, until their
offspring rise against them in an equally brutal and savage mood, and bring about another
state of things, in ways unutterable and inconceivable, save to the very lowest order of
savage minds. Preller (edition Robert) traces the most of the Greek myths to the period
before Homer and Hesiod, when they were brought from the original seats of the Grecian
people, augmented and embellished by the impressions made upon them, in their
wanderings from their original dwelling-places to their new homes on the shores of the
Aegean, bearing the impress of their encounters with the cultured peoples of the East. But
it is clear that the earliest period of Greek myths must have been long anterior to Homer
and Hesiod. The more savage myths bear the impress of the time when they came into
being, psychical in character, showing that they proceeded from a people, who were as
yet far from conceiving the brilliant pictures of life and society, which we see in the Iliad
and the Odyssey, and still further from the conception of gods, such as the twelve gods of
the perfected Greek system. The period of the Iliad and Odyssey unquestionably rises .far
above the merely psychical, and presents a system which, as von Schmidt observes,
stands little below Monotheism. The subordinate deities are, as it were princes of the
land, recognizing a supreme l and powerful head. But as we have already seen, the
complex system, which had thus come into being, certainly implied an evolution from a
far more simple, rude, primitive and savage time, such as we find traces of, in the Indian,
the Greek and the Germanic mythical systems. And when we come to the consideration
of these original systems, it is highly probable, if not self-evident, that these remains of
15 Myth, Ritual and Religion Vol. II. pp. 181—2.
16 Voluspa, eine Untersuchung von E. H. Meyer. Berlin 1889.

the older mythical systems, such as they have come down to us, set in complex forms,
which are the creations of a later period, when man had passed beyond the psychical into
the rational stage, in which, while still holding in veneration those savage myths which
had been handed down to him from an earlier time, he had become endowed with greater
power of memory and mental combination, so that those rude remains of the earlier
myths were refashioned in the shape, such as we have them now, which Mr. Rydberg
names the epical, in which we have indeed, the savage remains of the earliest myths, but
bearing manifold traces of modification through the spirit of the new time into which they
had come. Thus, Uranos and Gaia, Kronos and Rhea were doubtless in part, the
recollections of a more savage time; but in their composite form, such as we have them,
they are the creation of a later time. It is to be observed that Preller (Robert), in his Greek
mythology, goes even further than this and says, ”Vor allem hiite man sich vor dem
Irrthum, als ob es je eine Epoche der griechischen Religion gegeben habe, in der Kronos,
statt des Zeus als hochster Gott gegolten hatte, und verehrt worden ware. Die Titanen und
ihre Herrschaft reprasentiren nur eine fingirte Vergangenheit die niemals Gegenwart
war."
In respect to this theory, it is highly probable that these rude, savage and lustful
myths really belonged to a remote and savage antiquity. Yet it would appear that they
were held in reverence, otherwise they would not have been so carefully preserved and
handed down to future generations. But it is very unlikely, that in their first form they had
assumed the shape which they eventually took. There would be accretions to them as they
came down from generation to generation; they would be eked out and pieced together
until they came into the form, as accounting for the origin of Zeus and the twelve-god
system, in which we now find them embedded.
There can be little doubt that we possess in them the remains, to some extent, of
myths, of a primitive, rude and savage time, although as noticed, Preller (Robert)
supposes the older gods generally to have been abstracted out of the cultus of the
younger, as Uranos and Kronos were abstracted from the cult of Zeus. We have seen that
there are objections to this, and this objection is all the stronger, that we have reason to
believe that in Homer's time already, there was a feeling against degrading
representations of the gods. This was far from having reached the extent or the degree
which it takes in the Attic literature, and with the Attic poets. There, as with Euripides in
the Ion, the Hippolytus etc, it takes the form of sceptical exposures of the evil and corrupt
side of the ancient mythology.
The same is true also of the Germanic Mythology. The monsters connected with
Loki, the Fenris-wolf, the Midgard serpent, and the background of Jotunheim, all belong
to an earlier time, with which the new gods were no longer in unison. Those of the
monsters, which had not been cast down to Hel, were used as subordinate to the existing
system, such as Sleipnir, Odin's horse etc.
These earlier myths belong to the psychical stage, and had been retained from the
rude and monstrous creations of the popular imagination, and brought over into the
rational period with new accretions and modifications, such as they have come down to
us. This is practically the view of von Schmidt, of E. H. Meyer, of the Slavic mythologist
Shepping, and to some extent also of Lang, Harrison, and others of the younger
mythologists.

It is highly probable that the period of communism with the animals is to be
located in the psychical stage.
Besides the widely diffused Totemistic usages and beliefs 4, in which man is
related to the animal, there appears during the psychical period to have been a faith about
the animal world, and a familiarity with it; nay more, a fellowship, which points to what
is well known in the history of mankind, that while he may ascend above himself and
climb toward God, he may also willingly seek the downward path and be content, if
possible, to wear the bestial form and have fellowship with the brutes.
This period of association with animals would appear to be closely connected
with the period of savage and monstrous myths, which we have lately discussed. That
they belong to the psychical period seems clear, for as we have seen, when man reaches
the rational or spiritual period, the divine is generally imagined under the human form.
The belief in the power of animals would be greatly increased from the once universal
belief, that all things in heaven above or in earth beneath were animated; and hence,
animal forms were seen in the heavens as well as on the earth. 17 Hence the influence
exercised by these forms over the human spirit must have been proportionately greater.
We find, moreover, abundant traces of this belief in the mysterious powers
possessed by animals. To refer to one in particular, in Plato's Politicos, we find that the
stranger, who is the principal spokesman, discourses on the gifts of the men who lived in
the age of Kronos, that they possessed so much leisure, and had so much wealth; and this
not only through their intercourse with men, but with the animals, ,,with whom they were
able to converse", and with whom they lived in familiar intercourse, so that they reached
to such a pitch of wisdom and philosophy, that they were a thousand times in advance of
men of the time when our stranger was speaking. 18 No doubt it may be suggested that as
there is much that is witty and ironical in the dialogues of Plato, that he was here amusing
himself at the expense of some one who held peculiar notions on this point. There is,
however, no evidence of this, that we can see, and the stranger seems rather to look back
to that golden age, which Hesiod believes originally to have existed.
Pg. 59
It may well be, also, that the myths in their newer and more complex forms, in
their ,,epical forms", as Mr. Rydberg designates it, are new; but the savage myths of a
more barbarous past are imbedded in them.
p. 118
The Baldr myth has received a lengthened consideration and treatment from Mr.
Rydberg, in his Undersokningar. It is but fitting, that we should briefly look at his
treatment of the myth.
He connects it with India and Persia, as of remote Aryan origin. We have already
been introduced by Prof. Max Muller to the two Asvins. as the children of Vivasvat, and
17 1 De Gubernatis' Die Thiere in der Indo-germanischen Mythologie. Vorwort, I. Halfte 5, XVI—XVII,
also Steinthal's Mythos und Religion s. 12. Berlin 1870.
18 Plato's Politicos 272 C.

Saranyu. his wife, who had previously borne him Yama and Yami, who were also twins.
Afterwards we are told, that Saranyu became, in a peculiar manner, the mother of
Nasatya and Basra, who are called the two Asvins or ,,horsemen." 19 Passing now to Mr.
Rydberg's characterization of the myth, the twins, Yama and Yami, or to take their
Iranian equivalents, Urvakhshaya and Kerecaspa. are twin brothers, who, though unlike
in disposition, love one another and are united in their endeavours to improve the state of
the world. One of them was a warrior and man of action; the other was peaceful, and
sought to reconcile those that were at strife with each other. The warlike brother, after
conquering many demons, fell at last himself under the sway and influence of a female
demon, who, in concert with a male confederate, brought him. — the warlike twin, — to
that evil state of mind that he should slay his peaceful brother. This evil deed
accomplished, the peaceful brother, in his immortal part, descends to the underworld,
where he becomes a ruler in the seats of the blessed, in which he must remain until the
time for the renewal of the earth is fulfilled, whereupon the inhabitants of this lower
world shall return to inhabit it. The warlike brother, sorrowing deeply over his evil
action, is also in turn slain, on which he follows his peaceful twin-brother, where he, as it
were sunk in sleep, awaits until the day shall come, for the last final struggle against the
evil powers, when he shall also awake to take a part in the conflict.
This history, with some variations, is repeated in the Iranian twins, Urvakhshaya
and Kerecaspa. The latter falls under the influence of a similar female demon; thus
separated from his brother, the evil powers contrive not only the befooling of Kerecaspa,
but also the death of Urvakhshaya. Kerecaspa, freed after his brother's death from the evil
influences which had corrupted him. descends to earth and becomes a Persian hero in the
kingdom of light, and is one of the most famed national leaders of Iran. But alas! he falls
into sin, and to expiate his sin must pass through the gates of death. Accordingly he is
slain of the Turanian Nijas (necessity). He now also sleeps for a thousand years, watched
by thousands of fravashiers, whatever these may mean? until the final struggle between
good and evil shall come. Then he shall be awakened by a threefold admonitory call,
shall hasten to the strife, shall seek and slay the demon Azhi-Dahaka.
Still we have another variation of the same myth in Jima and his brother
Tahmurath, in whom the same experiences are practically repeated.
But when beneficent gods, for the sake of the order of the world, are removed to
the underworld, others are provided to take their places, as Baldr is succeeded by his son
Forsete, and the warlike Had by Vale, so in the Persian Indian mythology. Jima-
Urvakhshaya and Tahmurath -Kerecaspa are replaced by the Asvins. These, if possible,
in their relation to each other, show a still more idyllic activity of beneficence than even
their twin predecessors. The characters of the Asvins, their inseparability, their
beneficence, pass over as an inheritance to the Greek Dioskuroi, and in the Germanic
mythology to Baldr and Had. The Greek names Dioskuroi signify that they are the
children of Zeus, though in the Greek mythology, it is also held that the mortal of the
two, Castor, is the sou of Tydareos, while it is only Polydeukes or Pollux, who is the son
of Zeus.
The close relationship of Baldr and Had is not so evident, though Mr. Rydberg
holds that the forest maidens apparently exert a witchery over Had, to render him an
enemy of Baldr, as had occurred in their Indo-Persian analogues. Mr. Rydberg finds also
19 Prof. Max Miiller's ,,Lectures on Science of Language". Vol. II. p. 529.

that the etymological signification of the name Had leads back to Castor, through the
Sanscrit Catra, as also between Baldr, Fol, Fair, in which he sees a connexion with the
Roman Pol in Pollux or Polydeukes.
This likeness between the Asiatic Dioskuroi myth and the Greek and German is
further illustrated by a careful enumeration of the similarities in their mythical
peculiarities; in their positions and relations as divine persons. It is, however, to be noted
that Mr. Rydberg overlooks, pretty much, the totally different characters in which Baldr
and Had appear, in the Edda and in Saxo. It cannot, however, be denied that Mr. Rydberg
finds a great number of correspondences between the successive twin mythological
personages, that he brings before us, although at the same time, these similarities have in
his case been rather carefully prepared beforehand, and the differences have been
overlooked. If, as Prof. Bugge shows, in the Saxo delineation of them, Baldr derives
much of his character from Achilles, and Had from Paris, it surely cannot be said that
Baldr is less warlike than Had. On the contrary, Baldr is depicted as the aggressor, Had.
as when he retires to Sweden, as the more peaceful of the two. 20
In the examination of the Baldr myth, Mr. Rydberg next proceeds to notice the
evil dreams which threaten the life of Baldr. as narrated in the Snorra-Edda, and the
precautions which the gods of Valhalla took, against the threatened dangers, by striving
to induce all things to take an oath not to harm Baldr. Here again we are taken back to the
Vedas. We have already given some references from Dr Schwarz, as to certain plants and
flowers which possess mysterious powers, for the preservation or the destruction of those
who are assailed by danger. Mr. Rydberg cites from Zimmer's Altind. Leben 66, as to
plants with similar properties. He, however, will hardly venture to regard these
representations as identical with those, that appear in the Baldr myth. In the Vedas, those
plants of a parasitical kind are brought in for preservation; while in the Baldr myth, the
omission to ask an oath of the mistletoe leads to Baldr's destruction. From this we are led
to formulas of adjuration, Indian and Germanic, in regard to dislocated joints, in which in
the Germanic, the injured joint of Baldr's horse is to be restored by the so-called
Mersburg formula. It is curious that a paper was published not long ago in which, in a
similar adjuration, the name of Arthur, the Keltic King, is introduced instead of Odin. Mr.
Rydberg justly remarks upon the close similarity of the two formulas, Indian and
German, even verbally. Finally, Mr. Rydberg cites from the Atharvaveda a formula of
adjuration, which should be used to ward off evil and destructive influences, just as the
Aesir used a similar adjuration upon all things to ward off evil from Baldr.
Mr. Rydberg takes us next to Tacitus, where he discovers a mysterious sacred
grove among the Nahanarvalos, where a priest officiates in a woman's dress, and where
the gods are like Castor and Pollux. Further, he finds in the concluding syllable of
Nahanarvali, -valu or valr; here is Mimir's grove, where, like the Indo-Iranian hero-twins,
Baldr and Had are to await Ragnarok.
The next point which Mr. Rydberg takes up is against Prof. Bugge's view, — that
Baldr was a specially Scandinavian, if not purely Icelandic god, and that he was little
known, if at all, in Germany and equally in England, though the name Bealdor equivalent
to Lord, appears to have originated there. Fol, mentioned in the so-called Mersburg
formula together with Odin, Prof. Bugge regards in name as derived from Apollo, and as
20 Rydberg's Undersokningar ss. 203—216.

having some bad points in his character corresponding to Loki, as, addicted to
overdriving horses, more especially if they did not belong to himself, as in the formula —
,,Fol ende Uuodan
,,vuoron zi holza,
,,du uuart demo Balderes volon
,,sin vuos birenkit;"
Phol and Odin
Rode to wood
Then Baldr's foal got
A dislocated foot, etc.
The first view of this, is that though Baldr's name is introduced into the formula, it
may be to help out the alliteration, that the horse that got. really injured was Odin's, and
that he, by reason of his well known magical and other arts, was sufficiently well versed
in the medicinal power of his formulas, that he was fully capable of taking care of his
own horse. Prof. Bugge gives a recent Swedish formula, which however differs from the
Mersburg. and has, therefore, force of demonstration in regard to this matter. Mr.
Rydberg prefers, to Prof. Bugge's, an older version also belonging to Sweden, and known
as Dr Ludvig Larson's, which has the advantage of being made more like the Mersburg.
Dr Larson's goes further in the way of proving that Phol was one and the same with
Baldr, although we confess that it is not clear to us. It is extracted from Sorbygdens
dombok for the year 1672, and is communicated by Carl Ohlson Arcadius, in an
academical treatise “Concerning Bohuslan's incorporation with Sweden", printed in
Stockholm in 1883, page 118, note. It runs “Our Lord Jesus Christ and St Peter went or
rode over Brattebro;
St. Peter's horse got we eller skre. 21
Our Lord dismounted from His horse,
blessed (signa, Aasen) St. Peter's horse vre eller skre; blood to blood, sinew to
sinew, so received St. Peter's horse healing (bot, Aasen) in three names etc. etc.
We shall not enter into the process by which Mr. Rydberg shows that Phol must
be referred to, and that thus, Baldr is something more than a Scandinavian god. We have
previously referred to a version of the formula, in which King Arthur is the second
person; and there is a version still, or lately current in the Shetland Islands, in which the
name of our Lord is found alone.
The Lord rade (rode)
And the foal slade (slipped)
He lighted (dismounted)
And He righted
Set joint to joint
Bone to bone,
21 Mishandled or slipped.

And sinew to sinew.
Heal (— bot) in the Holy Ghost's name. 22
Mr. Rydberg sums up in conclusion in ten reasons, to prove that Baldr is identical
with Stephanus, from the Stephanus legends in the Acta Sanctorum, either ironically, or
as showing that Baldr, like, Stephanus, was known in Germany. Hereupon, he sums up
similarly in ten reasons, to prove that Baldr is identical with Phol or Fair; and the final
result of all, is, to translate Mr. Rydberg's own words, that the “,last result of these
researches is that Baldr and Had are pan-germanic gods, with an ancestry from the
(ancient) Aryan common times” 23
Neither Prof. Bugge's nor Mr. Rydberg's researches are ancient history, the former
dating from 1881 to 1889; Mr. Rydberg's second volume dates also from 1889. But the
Baldr myth has, notwithstanding, a history since then. Prof. Bugge's researches excited
attention in a variety of quarters. In England, an ingenious and thoughtful writer, who has
occupied himself a good deal, as we understand, with mythological subjects, Mr Charles
Francis Keary endeavoured, as far back as 1882, shortly after the first sheets of Prof.
Bugge's work appeared, to show that the mythology of the Teutons presented a definite
world-conception, and that it was impossible that Prof. Bugge's views could harmonise
with that definite world-conception; and that consequently, they must in their judgment,
concerning the semi-pagan, semi-Christian accretional growth of the Eddaic myths, be
wrong and unfounded. We do not know whether Mr Keary has published on the subject,
since Prof. Bugge's “Studies" appeared in their more completed form; but we fancy that
he would be a bold man to support the same thesis, since the subsequent light which has
been thrown on the subject by the very able mythologist. E. H. Meyer, in his Voluspa, not
to speak of others.
22 Statistical Account of the Shetland Islands, p. 141, note.
23 Rydberg's Undersokningar. Andra Delen, ss. 222—251.