Myth and Religion; - Germanic Mythology

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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.
Page 1 and 2: The following reference displays a
Page 3: comparison. Mr. Rydberg's division
Page 7 and 8: comparison proves nothing, and then
Page 9 and 10: the latter seems to have been dispo
Page 11 and 12: It is highly probable that the peri
Page 13 and 14: that the etymological signification
Page 15: And sinew to sinew. Heal (— bot)

Myth and Religion; - Germanic Mythology

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