Northern mythology

:
;
APPENDIX. 241
an equivalent to necis arbiter, Bellona, Aledo, Erinnys,
Tisiphone ; the pi. vselcyrian to parcce, veneficai ; and Anglo-
Saxon poets use personally the nouns Hild and Gu^,
words answering to the names of two Northern Valkyriur,
Hildr and Gunnr (comp. hildr, pugna; ^W72??r, proelium,
helium) . In the first Merseburg poem damsels, or idisi,
are introduced, of whom ^^some fastened fetters, some
stopt an army, some sought after bonds;" and therefore
perform functions having reference to war^ ;
consequently
are to be regarded as Valkyriur^.
We have still a superstition to notice, which in some
respects seems to offer a resemblance to the belief in the
Valkyriur, although in the main it contains a strange
mixture of senseless, insignificant stories. We allude to
the belief in witches and their nightly meetings.
The belief in magic, in evil magicians and sorceresses,
who by means of certain arts are enabled to injure their
fellow-creatures^—to raise storms, destroy the seed in the
^
The following is the poem alluded to in the text, with Grimm's Latin
version
Eiris sazun idisi,
Olim sedebant nymphae,
sazun hera duoder,
sedebant hue atque illuc,
suma hapt heptidun
alias vincula vinciebant,
suina heri lezidun,
alise exercitum morabantur,
suma clubSdun "l
umbi cuniouuidi, J
insprincg haptbandun,
iuuar uigandun.
^^^ coUigebant serta,
insultum diis complicibus,
introitum heroibus.
the last two lines of which are particularly obscure. See Grimm, iiber
zwei entdeckte Gedichte aiis der Zeit des Deutschen Heidenthums. Berlin,
1842; also VV, Wackernagels Altdeutsches Lesebuch, edit. 1842.
Vorrede, p. IX. D. M. p. 372.
2 Miiller, p. 355.
^ We subjoin the principal denominations of magicians and soothsayers,
as affording an insight into their several modes of operation. The more
general names are : divini, magi, Jiarioli, vaticinafores, etc. More special
appellations are: sortilegi (sortiarii, %p?;fT/i6/\oyoj), diviners by lot; incantatores,
enchanters ; somniorum conjectores, interpreters of dreams
M