Northern mythology

174 NORTHERX MYTHOLOGY.
or the rain that washes him away. The father of Thialii
and Roskva is in Snorri^s Edda called a peasant, but in
S^mund^s Edda ^, he is designated a hravnbui ^ (seadweUer),
a name well suited to the character just assigned
to his son.
The stories of Thoi-^s joiuTieys are chiefly found in
SnoiTi^s Edda^ though allusions to many of them occur
that of Ssemund. Their mythic import is unquestionable.
The giant Hymir (from hum or humr. t/ie sea, Gr. kv/jlu) ^,
is manifestly, both from his name and from the matter
of the poem, a sea-giant ; he represents the cliffs which
stretch themselves out from the land into the vast unfathomable
deep, where lies the Midgard's serpent. The
di'inking cup is smashed against his forehead, ^-iz. the
cliffs^ projecting summits'*. The kettle signifies the whirlpool
among the rocks. Hrungnir, or Hrugnir (from at
hraga, to heap up) is the mountain formed by stratum upon
stratum, whose head penetrates the
in
clouds, and contends
with heaven.
The follo^-ing popular tradition from the Upper Thellemark
is both interesting in itself and will serve as a further
illustration of the stoiy of Thor and Hrungnir.
At the upper end of the long Totak water in the Upper
Thellemark is a very remarkable and imposing assemblage
of stones which, seen from the water, resembles a town
with its gables and towers ; of its origin the peasants relate
the following story :
—
1 Hymiskv. Str. 35, hravn-hvala ' Str. 37, ' hravn-bua,' also Helsakv.
Hadingask. Str. 25.
- Hravn (Hron) is the Anglo-Saxon hron, signifving the ocean. In
this sense hrou-rad (the sea-road) is used in Caedmon (pp. 13, 19), and in
the Legend of St. Andrew (v. 740) hron-fixas (sea-fishes), but where it is
written hom-fixas.' ' So Beowulf, v. 19, ofer hron-rade (over the searoad).
Nord. 3 Olafsen's Digtek. p. 23. Xjala, Ind.. Skaldskap. 61.
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