Northern mythology

226 EPITOME OF GERMAN MYTHOLOGY.
mytliology ; although in recent times there is manifestly
a disposition to
regard every collection of popular superstitions^
notions and usages as a contribution to it\
Among the superstitions are to be reckoned the charms
or spells and forms of adjuration, which are to be uttered
frequentty, with particular ceremonies and usages, for the
healing of a disease or the averting of a danger, and which
are partly still preserved among the common people, and
They are for the most
partly to be found in manuscripts^.
part in rime and rhythmical, and usually conclude with
an invocation of God, Christ and the saints.
Their beginning
is frequently epic, the middle contains the potent
words for the object of the spell. That many of these
forms descend from heathen times is evident from the
circumstance that
downright heathen beings are invoked
in them^.
Another source is open to us in German Manners
AND Customs. As every people is wont to adhere tenaciously
to its old customs, even when their object is no
longer known, so
has many a custom been preserved, or
only recently fallen into desuetude, the origin of which
dates from the time of heathenism, although its connection
therewith may either be forgotten or so mixed up
with Christian ideas as to be hardly recognisable. This
observation is particularly applicable to
the popular diversions
and processions, which take place at certain seasons
in various parts of the country.
These, though frequently
falling on Christian festivals, yet stand in no necessary
connection with them ; for which reason many may, no
1 Muller, p. 16.
' ^lany such conjiu-ations and spells ai"e given by Grimm, D. M.
pp. cxxvi-CLix. 1st edit., and in Mone's Anzeiger, also in Altdeutsche
Blatter, Bd. ii. etc.
^ As Erce and Fasolt, See D. M. pp. cxxx-cxxxii. 1st edit. .Miiller,
p. 21.