Northern mythology

288 EPITOME OF GERMAN MYTHOLOGY.
on the one liand^ it was thought that the dead preserved
their okl bodily aspect^ and appeared just as when they
sojoui'ned on earth, although the freshness of life had departed
; on the other hand there is no lack of passages,
according to which a particular form is ascribed to the
soul when separated from its body ^
As mountains, according to the heathen popular belief,
were supposed to be the sojourns of the dead, so it was
imagined that in the bottom of wells and ponds there was
a place for the reception of departed souls. But this belief
had special reference to the souls of the drowned, who
came to the dwelling of the Nix, or of the sea-goddess
Ran. The depths of the water were, however, at the same
time, conceived in a more general sense, as the nether
world itself.
For which reasons persons who otherwise,
according to the popular traditions, are convej^ed away
into mountains, are also supposed to
be dwelling in wells
and ponds - ; and the numerous tales current throughout
the whole of Germany of towns and castles that have been
sunk in the water, and are sometimes to be discerned at
the bottom, are probably connected with this idea. It is
particularly worthy of notice that beautiful gardens have
been imagined to exist under the water ^. Yet more widespread
is the tradition that green meadows exist under
water, in which souls have their abode'*. In an old German
poem it is said that these meadows are closed against
suicides ^, according to which they would appear to be a
detached portion of the nether world ^.
1 MUller, p. 401.
2 Thus the emperor Charles is said to sojourn in a well at Nuremberg.
D. S. No. 22.
2 Thus Fran Holla has a garden under her pool or well, from which she
distributes all kinds of fruits. U. S. No. 4. Comp. 13, 291, and K. and
H. M. No. 24.
4 Grimm, K. and H. M. No. 61. ^Yolf, Niederl. Sagen, No. 506.
5 Flore, 19^ ^ MiiUer, p. 399.