Myth and Religion; - Germanic Mythology

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.