Teutonic Mythology Part 6

The proof of this, so far as Denmark is concerned, is that, according to the Beowulf poem, its first royal family was descended from Scef through his son Scyld (Skjold). In accordance herewith, Danish and Icelandic genealogies make Skjold the progenitor of the first dynasty in Denmark, and also make him the ruler of the land to which his father came, that is, Skane. His origin as a divinely-born patriarch, as a hero receiving divine worship, and as the ruler of the original Teutonic country, appears also in _Fornmannasogur_, v. 239, where he is styled _Skaninga G.o.d_, the G.o.d of the Scanians.

Matthaeus Westmonast. informs us that Scef ruled in Angeln.

According to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, the dynasty of Wess.e.x came from Saxland, and its progenitor was Scef.

If we examine the northern sources we discover that the Scef myth still may be found in pa.s.sages which have been unnoticed, and that the tribes of the far North saw in the boy who came with the sheaf and the tools the divine progenitor of their celebrated dynasty in Upsala. This can be found in spite of the younger saga-geological layer which the hypothesis of Odin's and his Trojan Asas' immigration has spread over it since the introduction of Christianity. Scef's personality comes to the surface, we shall see, as Skefill and Skelfir.

In the Fornalder-sagas, ii. 9, and in Flateyarbok, i. 24, Skelfir is mentioned as family patriarch and as Skjold's father, the progenitor of the Skjoldungs. There can, therefore, be no doubt that Scef, Scyld's father, and through him the progenitor of the Skjoldungs, originally is the same as Skelfir, Skjold's father, and progenitor of the Skjoldungs in these Icelandic works.

But he is not only the progenitor of the Skjoldungs, but also of the Ynglings. The genealogy beginning with him is called in the Flateryarbok, _Skilfinga aett edr skjoldunga aett_. The Younger Edda also (i. 522) knows Skelfir, and says he was a famous king whose genealogy _er kollut skilvinga aett_. Now the Skilfing race in the oldest sources is precisely the same as the Yngling race both from an Anglo-Saxon and from a heathen Norse standpoint. The Beowulf poem calls the Swedish kings _scilfingas_, and according to Thjodulf, a kinsman of the Ynglings and a kinsman of the Skilfing, _Skilfinga nidr_, are identical (Ynglingatal, 30). Even the Younger Edda seems to be aware of this. It says in the pa.s.sage quoted above that the Skilfing race _er i Austrvegum_. In the Thjodulf strophes _Austrvegar_ means simply Svealand, and _Austrkonungur_ means Swedish king.

Thus it follows that the Scef who is identical with Skelfir was in the heathen saga of the North the common progenitor of the Ynglinga and of the Skjoldunga race. From his dignity as original patriarch of the royal families of Sweden, Denmark, Angeln, Saxland, and England, he was displaced by the scholastic fiction of the middle ages concerning the immigration of Trojan Asiatics under the leadership of Odin, who as the leader of the immigration also had to be the progenitor of the most distinguished families of the immigrants. This view seems first to have been established in England after this country had been converted to Christianity and conquered by the Trojan immigration hypothesis. Wodan is there placed at the head of the royal genealogies of the chronicles, excepting in Wess.e.x, where Scef is allowed to retain his old position, and where Odin must content himself with a secondary place in the genealogy. But in the Beowulf poem Scef still retains his dignity as ancient patriarch of the kings of Denmark.

From England this same distortion of the myth comes to the North in connection with the hypothesis concerning the immigration of the "Asiamen," and is there finally accepted in the most unconcerned manner, without the least regard to the mythic records which were still well known. Skjold, Scef's son, is without any hesitation changed into a son of Odin (Ynglingasaga, 5; Foreword to Gylf.a.g., 11). Yngve, who as the progenitor of the Ynglings is identical with Scef, and whose very name, perhaps, is or has been conceived as an epithet indicating Scef's tender age when he came to the coast of Scandia--Yngve-Scef is confounded with Frey, is styled Yngve-Frey after the appellation of the Vana-G.o.d Ingunar Frey, and he, too, is called a son of Odin (Foreword to Gylf.a.g., c. 13), although Frey in the myth is a son of Njord and belongs to another race of G.o.ds than Odin. The epithet with which Are Frode in his _Schedae_ characterises Yngve, viz., _Tyrkiakonungr_, Trojan king, proves that the lad who came with the sheaf of grain to Skane is already in Are changed into a Trojan.

[Footnote 8: Geijer has partly indicated its significance in _Svea Rikes Hafder_, where he says: "The tradition anent Sceaf is remarkable, as it evidently has reference to the introduction of agriculture, and shows that it was first introduced in the most southern part of Scandinavia."]

[Footnote 9: The Beowulf poem has the name Scedeland (Scandia): compare the name Skadan in _De origine Longobardorum_. Ethelwerd writes: "Ipse Skef c.u.m uno dromone advectus est in insulam Oceani, quae dicitur Scani, armis circ.u.mdatus," &c.]

[Footnote 10: Matthaeus Westmonast. translates this name with _frumenti manipulus_, a sheaf.]

21.

SCEF THE AUTHOR OF CULTURE IDENTICAL WITH HEIMDAL-RIG, THE ORIGINAL PATRIARCH.

But in one respect Are Frode or his authority has paid attention to the genuine mythic tradition, and that is by making the Vana-G.o.ds the kinsmen of the descendants of Yngve. This is correct in the sense that Scef-Yngve, the son of a deity transformed into a man, was in the myth a Vana-G.o.d. Accordingly every member of the Yngling race and every descendant of Scef may be styled a _son of Frey_ (_Freys attungr_), epithets applied by Thjodulf in Ynglingatal in regard to the Upsala kings. They are gifts from the Vana-G.o.ds--the implements which point to the opulent Njord, and the grain sheaf which is Frey's symbol--which Scef-Yngve brings with him to the ancient people of Scandia, and his rule is peaceful and rich in blessings.

Scef-Yngve comes across the ocean. Vanaheim was thought to be situated on the other side of it, in the same direction as aegir's palace in the great western ocean and in the outermost domain of Jormumgrund (see 93).

This is indicated in Lokasenna, 34, where Loke in aegir's hall says to the Van Njord: "You were sent from here to the East as a hostage to the G.o.ds (_thu vart austr hedan gisl um sendr at G.o.dum_)". Thus Njord's castle Noatun is situated in the West, on a strand outside of which the swans sing (Gylf.a.g., 23). In the faded memory of Scef, preserved in the saga of the Lower Rhine and of the Netherlands, there comes to a poverty-stricken people a boat in which there lies a sleeping youth. The boat is, like Scef's, without sails or oars, but is drawn over the billows by a swan. From Gylf.a.ginning, 16, we learn that there are myths telling of the origin of the swans. They are all descended from that pair of swans which swim in the sacred waters of Urd's fountain. Thus the descendants of these swans that sing outside of the Vanapalace Noatun and their arrival to the sh.o.r.es of Midgard seems to have some connection with the coming of the Van Scef and of culture.

The Vans most prominent in the myths are Njord, Frey, and Heimdal.

Though an Asa-G.o.d by adoption, Heimdal is like Njord and Frey a Vana-G.o.d by birth and birthplace, and is accordingly called both _a.s.s_ and _vanr_ (Thrymskv., 15). Meanwhile these three divinities, definitely named Vans, are only a few out of many. The Vans have const.i.tuted a numerous clan, strong enough to wage a victorious war against the Asas (Volusp.).

Who among them was Scef-Yngve? The question can be answered as follows:

(1) Of Heimdal, and of him alone among the G.o.ds, it is related that he lived for a time among men as a man, and that he performed that which is attributed to Scef--that is, organised and elevated human society and became the progenitor of sacred families in Midgard.

(2) Rigsthula relates that the G.o.d Heimdal, having a.s.sumed the name Rig, begot with an earthly woman the son Jarl-Rig, who in turn became the father of Konr-Rig. Konr-Rig is, as the very name indicates and as Vigfusson already has pointed out, the first who bore the kingly name.

In Rigsthula the Jarl begets the king, as in Ynglingasaga the judge (Domarr) begets the first king. Rig is, according to Ynglingasaga, ch.

20, grandfather to Dan, who is a Skjoldung. Heimdal-Rig is thus the father of the progenitor of the Skjoldungs, and it is the story of the divine origin of the Skjoldungs Rigsthula gives us when it sings of Heimdal as Jarl's father and the first king's grandfather. But the progenitor of the Skjoldungs is, according to both Anglo-Saxon and the northern sources above quoted, Scef. Thus Heimdal and Scef are identical.

These proofs are sufficient. More can be presented, and the ident.i.ty will be established by the whole investigation.

As a tender boy, Heimdal was sent by the Vans to the southern sh.o.r.es of Scandinavia with the gifts of culture. Hyndla's lay tells how these friendly powers prepared the child for its important mission, after it was born in the outermost borders of the earth (_vid jardar thraum_), in a wonderful manner, by nine sisters (Hyndla's Lay, 35; Heimdallar Galdr., in the Younger Edda; compare No. 82, where the ancient Aryan root of the myth concerning Heimdal's nine mothers is pointed out).

For its mission the child had to be equipped with strength, endurance, and wisdom. It was given to drink _jardar magn svalkaldr saer_ and _Sonar dreyri_. It is necessary to compare these expressions with _Urdar magn_, _svalkaldr saer_ and _Sonar dreyri_ in Gudrunarkivda, ii. 21, a song written in Christian times, where this reminiscence of a triple heathen-mythic drink reappears as a potion of forgetfulness allaying sorrow. The expression _Sonar dreyri_ shows that the child had tasted liquids from the subterranean fountains which water Yggdrasil and sustain the spiritual and physical life of the universe (cp. Nos. 63 and 93). _Son_ contains the mead of inspiration and wisdom. In Gylf.a.ginning, which quotes a satire of late origin, this name is given to a jar in which Suttung preserves this valuable liquor, but to the heathen skalds _Son_ is the name of Mimer's fountain, which contains the highest spiritual gifts, and around whose rush-bordered edge the reeds of poetry grow (Eilif Gudrunson, Skaldskaparmal). The child Heimdal has, therefore, drunk from Mimer's fountain. _Jardar magn_ (the earth's strength) is in reality the same as _Urdar magn_, the strength of the water in Urd's fountain, which keeps the world-tree ever green and sustains the physical life of creation (Volusp.). The third subterranean fountain is Hvergelmer, with hardening liquids. From Hvergelmer comes the river Sval, and the venom-cold Elivogs (Grimner's Lay, Gylf.a.ginning). _Svalkaldar saer_, cool sea, is an appropriate designation of this fountain.

When the child has been strengthened in this manner for its great mission, it is laid sleeping in the decorated ship, gets the grain-sheaf for its pillow, and numerous treasures are placed around it. It is certain that there were not only weapons and ornaments, but also workmen's tools among the treasures. It should be borne in mind that the G.o.ds made on the plains of Ida not only ornaments, but also tools (_tangir skopu ok tol gordu_). Evidence is presented in No. 82 that Scef-Heimdal brought the fire-auger to primeval man who until that time had lived without the blessings produced by the sacred fire.

The boy grows up among the inhabitants on the Scandian coast, and, when he has developed into manhood, human culture has germinated under his influence and the beginnings of cla.s.ses in society with distinct callings appear. In Rigsthula, we find him journeying along "green paths, from house to house, in that land which his presence has blessed." Here he is called _Rigr_--it is true of him as of nearly all mythological persons, that he has several names--but the introduction to the poem informs us that the person so called is the G.o.d Heimdal (_einhverr af asum sa er Heimdallr het_). The country is here also described as situated near the sea. Heimdal journeys _framm med sjofarstrondu_. Culture is in complete operation. The people are settled, they spin and weave, perform handiwork, and are smiths, they plough and bake, and Heimdal has instructed them in runes. Different homes show different customs and various degrees of wealth, but happiness prevails everywhere. Heimdal visits Ai's and Edda's unpretentious home, is hospitably received, and remains three days. Nine months thereafter the son Tral (thrall) is born to this family. Heimdal then visits Ave's and Amma's well-kept and cleanly house, and nine months thereafter the son Karl (churl) is born in this household. Thence Rig betakes himself to _Fadir's_ and _Modir's_ elegant home. There is born, nine months later, the son Jarl. Thus the three Teutonic cla.s.ses--the thralls, the freemen, and the n.o.bility--have received their divine sanction from Heimdal-Rig, and all three have been honoured with divine birth.

In the account of Rig's visit to the three different homes lies the mythic idea of a common fatherhood, an idea which must not be left out of sight when human heroes are described as sons of G.o.ds in the mythological and heroic sagas. They are sons of the G.o.ds and, at the same time, from a genealogical standpoint, men. Their pedigree, starting with Ask and Embla, is not interrupted by the intervention of the visiting G.o.d, nor is there developed by this intervention a half-divine, half-human middle cla.s.s or b.a.s.t.a.r.d clan. The Teutonic patriarch Mannus is, according to Tacitus, the son of a G.o.d and the grandson of the G.o.ddess Earth. Nevertheless he is, as his name indicates, in the full physical sense of the word, a man, and besides his divine father he has had a human father. They are the descendants of Ask and Embla, men of all cla.s.ses and conditions, whom Voluspa's skald gathered around the seeress when she was to present to them a view of the world's development and commanded silence with the formula: "Give ear, all ye divine races, great and small, sons of Heimdal." The idea of a common fatherhood we find again in the question of _Fadir's_ grandson, as we shall show below. Through him the families of chiefs get the right of precedence before both the other cla.s.ses. Thor becomes their progenitor.

While all cla.s.ses trace their descent from Heimdal, the n.o.bility trace theirs also from Thor, and through him from Odin.

Heimdal-Rig's and _Fadir's_ son, begotten with _Modir_, inherits in Rigsthula the name of the divine co-father, and is called Rig Jarl.

Jarl's son, Kon, gets the same name after he has given proof of his knowledge in the runes introduced among the children of men by Heimdal, and has even shown himself superior to his father in this respect. This view that the younger generation surpa.s.ses the older points to the idea of a progress in culture among men, during a time when they live in peace and happiness protected by Heimdal's fostering care and sceptre, but must not be construed into the theory of a continued progress based on the law and nature of things, a theory alike strange to the Teutons and to the other peoples of antiquity. Heimdal-Rig's reign must be regarded as the happy ancient age, of which nearly all mythologies have dreamed. Already in the next age following, that is, that of the second patriarch, we read of men of violence who visit the peaceful, and under the third patriarch begins the "knife-age, and axe-age with cloven shields," which continues through history and receives its most terrible development before Ragnarok.

The more common mythical names of the persons appearing in Rigsthula are not mentioned in the song, not even Heimdal's. In strophe 48, the last of the fragment, we find for the first time words which have the character of names--_Danr_ and _Danpr_. A crow sings from the tree to Jarl's son, the grandson of Heimdal, Kon, saying that peaceful amus.e.m.e.nt (_kyrra fugla_) does not become him longer, but that he should rather mount his steed and fight against men; and the crow seeks to awaken his ambition or jealousy by saying that "Dan and Danp, skilled in navigating ships and wielding swords, have more precious halls and a better freehold than you." The circ.u.mstance that these names are mentioned makes it possible, as shall be shown below, to establish in a more satisfactory manner the connection between Rigsthula and other accounts which are found in fragments concerning the Teutonic patriarch period.

The oldest history of man did not among the Teutons begin with a paradisian condition. Some time has elapsed between the creation of Ask and Embla, and Heimdal's coming among men. As culture begins with Heimdal, a condition of barbarism must have preceded his arrival. At all events the first generations after Ask and Embla have been looked upon as lacking fire; consequently they have been without the art of the smith, without metal implements, and without knowledge of agriculture.

Hence it is that the Vana-child comes across the western sea with fire, with implements, and with the sheaf of grain. But the barbarous condition may have been attended with innocence and goodness of heart.

The manner in which the strange child was received by the inhabitants of Scandia's coast, and the tenderness with which it was cared for (_diligenti animo_, says Ethelwerd) seem to indicate this.

When Scef-Heimdal had performed his mission, and when the beautiful boat in which he came had disappeared beyond the western horizon, then the second mythic patriarch-age begins.

22.

HEIMDAL'S SON BORGAR-SKJOLD, THE SECOND PATRIARCH.

Ynglingasaga, ch. 20, contains a pa.s.sage which is clearly connected with Rigsthula or with some kindred source. The pa.s.sage mentions three persons who appear in Rigsthula, viz., Rig, Danp, and Dan, and it is there stated that the ruler who first possessed the kingly t.i.tle in Svithiod was the son of a chief, whose name was Judge (_Domarr_), and Judge was married to Drott (_Drott_), the daughter of Danp.

That Domar and his royal son, the latter with the epithet _Dyggvi_, "the worthy," "the n.o.ble," were afterwards woven into the royal pedigree in Ynglingasaga, is a matter which we cannot at present consider.

Vigfusson (_Corpus Poet. Bor._) has already shown the mythic symbolism and unhistorical character of this royal pedigree's _Visburr_, the priest, son of a G.o.d; of _Domaldr-Domvaldr_, the legislator; of _Domarr_, the judge; and of _Dyggvi_, the first king. These are not historical Upsala kings, but personified myths, symbolising the development of human society on a religious basis into a political condition of law culminating in royal power. It is in short the same chain of ideas as we find in Rigsthula, where Heimdal, the son of a G.o.d and the founder of culture, becomes the father of the Jarl-judge, whose son is the first king. _Domarr_, in the one version of the chain of ideas, corresponds to Rig Jarl in the other, and _Dyggvi_ corresponds to Kon. Heimdal is the first patriarch, the Jarl-judge is the second, and the oldest of kings is the third.

Some person, through whose hands Ynglingasaga has pa.s.sed before it got its present form in Heimskringla, has understood this correspondence between _Domarr_ and Rig-Jarl, and has given to the former the wife which originally belonged to the latter. Rigsthula has been rescued in a single ma.n.u.script. This ma.n.u.script was owned by Arngrim Jonsson, the author of _Supplementum Historiae Norvegiae_, and was perhaps in his time, as Bugge (_Norr. Fornkv._) conjectures, less fragmentary than it now is.

Arngrim relates that Rig Jarl was married to a daughter of Danp, lord of Danpsted. Thus the representative of the Jarl's dignity, like the representative of the Judge's dignity in Ynglingasaga, is here married to Danp's daughter.

In Saxo, a man by name Borgar (_Borcarus_--_Hist. Dan._ 336-354) occupies an important position. He is a South Scandinavian chief, leader of Skane's warriors (_Borcarus c.u.m Scanico equitatu_, p. 350), but instead of a king's t.i.tle, he holds a position answering to that of the Jarl. Meanwhile he, like Skjold, becomes the founder of a Danish royal dynasty. Like Skjold he fights beasts and robbers, and like him he wins his bride, sword in hand. Borgar's wife is Drott (_Drotta_, _Drota_), the same name as Danp's daughter. Skjold's son Gram and Borgar's son Halfdan are found on close examination (see below) to be identical with each other, and with king Halfdan Berggram in whom the names of both are united. Thus we find:

(1) That Borgar appears as a chief in Skane, which in the myth is the cradle of the human race, or of the Teutonic race. As such he is also mentioned in _Script. rer. Dan._ (pp. 16-19, 154), where he is called Burgarus and Borgardus.

(2) That he has performed similar exploits to those of Skjold, the son of Scef-Heimdal.

(3) That he is not clothed with kingly dignity, but has a son who founds a royal dynasty in Denmark. This corresponds to Heimdal's son Rig Jarl, who is not himself styled king, but whose son becomes a Danish king and the progenitor of the Skjoldungs.

(4) That he is married to Drott, who, according to Ynglingasaga, is Danp's daughter. This corresponds to Heimdal's son Rig Jarl, who takes a daughter of Danp as his wife.

(5) That his son is identical with the son of Skjold, the progenitor of the Skjoldungs.

(6) That this son of his is called Halfdan, while in the Anglo-Saxon sources Scef, through his son Scyld (Skjold), is the progenitor of Denmark's king Healfdene.

These testimonies contain incontestible evidence that Skjold, Borgar, and Rig Jarl are names of the same mythic person, the son of the ancient patriarch Heimdal, and himself the second patriarch, who, after Heimdal, determines the destiny of his race. The name _Borgarr_ is a synonym of _Skjoldr_. The word _Skjoldr_ has from the beginning had, or has in the lapse of past ages acquired, the meaning "the protecting one," "the shielding one," and as such it was applied to the common defensive armour, the shield. _Borgarr_ is derived from _bjarga_ (past. part.

_borginn_; cp. _borg_), and thus has the same meaning, that is, "the defending or protecting one." From Norse poetry a mult.i.tude of examples can be given of the paraphrasing of a name with another, or even several others, of similar meaning.

The second patriarch, Heimdal's son, thus has the names Skjold, Borgar, and Rig Jarl in the heathen traditions, and those derived therefrom.