The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda
Hvergelmer in Niflheim. Hvergelmer is the source out of which all matter
first proceeded, and the dragon or devil Nidhug, who dwells in
Hvergelmer, is, in our opinion, the evil principle who is from eternity.
The good principle shall continue forever, but the evil shall cease to
exist after Ragnarok.
YMER is the noisy one, and his name is derived from _ymja_ = to howl
(compare also the Finnish deity Jumo, after whom the town Umea takes its
name, like Odinse).
AURGELMER, THRUDGELMER and BERGELMER express the gradual development
from aur (clay) to thrud (that which is compressed), and finally to berg
(rock).
VIDOLF, VILMEIDE and SVARTHOFDE are mentioned nowhere else in the
mythology.
BURE and BORE mean the bearing and the born; that is, father and son.
BOLTHORN means the miserable one, from bol = evil; and Bestla may mean
that which is best. The idea then is that Bor united himself with that
which was best of the miserable material at hand.
That the flood caused by the slaying of Ymer reminds us of Noah and his
ark, and of the Greek flood, needs only to be suggested.
CHAPTER IV.
ASK means an ash-tree, and EMBLA an elm-tree.
While the etymology of the names in the myths are very obscure, the
myths themselves are clear enough. Similar myths abound in Greek
mythology. The story about Bil and Hjuke is our old English rhyme about
Jack and Gill, who went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.
CHAPTER V.
In reference to the golden age, see Norse Mythology, pp. 182 and 197.
In the appendix to the German so-called Hero-Book we are told that the
dwarfs were first created to cultivate the desert lands and the
mountains; thereupon the giants, to subdue the wild beasts; and finally
the heroes, to assist the dwarfs against the treacherous giants. While
the giants are always hostile to the gods, the dwarfs are usually
friendly to them.
DWARFS. Both giants and dwarfs shun the light. If surprised by the
breaking forth of day, they become changed to stone. In one of the poems
of the Elder Edda (the Alvismál), Thor amuses the dwarf Alvis with
various questions till daylight, and then cooly says to him: With great
artifices, I tell you, you have been deceived; you are surprised here,
dwarf, by daylight! The sun now shines in the hall. In the Helgakvida
Atle says to the giantess Hrimgerd: It is now day, Hrimgerd! But Atle
has detained you, to your life’s perdition. It will appear a laughable
harbor-mark, where you stand as a stone-image.
In the German tales the dwarfs are described as deformed and diminutive,
coarsely clad and of dusky hue: “a little black man,” “a little gray
man.” They are sometimes of the height of a child of four years,
sometimes as two spans high, a thumb high (hence, Tom Thumb). The old
Danish ballad of Eline of Villenwood mentions a troll not bigger than an
ant. Dvergmál (the speech of the dwarfs) is the Old Norse expression for
the echo in the mountains.
In the later popular belief, the dwarfs are generally called the
subterraneans, the brown men in the moor, etc. They make themselves
invisible by a hat or hood. The women spin and weave, the men are
smiths. In Norway rock-crystal is called dwarf-stone. Certain stones are
in Denmark called dwarf-hammers. They borrow things and seek advice from
people, and beg aid for their wives when in labor, all which services
they reward. But they also lame cattle, are thievish, and will carry off
damsels. There have been instances of dwarf females having married and
had children with men. (Thorpe’s Northern Mythology.)
WAR. It was the first warfare in the world, says the Elder Edda, when
they pierced Gullveig (gold-thirst) through with a spear, and burned her
in Odin’s hall. Thrice they burned her, thrice she was born anew: again
and again, but still she lives. When she comes to a house they call her
Heide (the bright, the welcome), and regard her as a propitious vala or
prophetess. She can tame wolves, understands witchcraft, and delights
wicked women. Hereupon the gods consulted together whether they should
punish this misdeed, or accept a blood-fine, when Odin cast forth a
spear among mankind, and now began war and slaughter in the world. The
defenses of the burgh of the asas was broken down. The vans anticipated
war, and hastened over the field. The valkyries came from afar, ready to
ride to the gods’ people: Skuld with the shield, Skogul, Gunn, Hild,
Gondul and Geirr Skogul. (Quoted by Thorpe.)
CHAPTER VI.
In reference to Ygdrasil, we refer our readers to Norse Mythology, pp.
205-211, and to Thomas Carlyle’s Heroes and Hero-worship.
A connection between the norns Urd, Verdande and Skuld and the weird
sisters in Shakspeare’s _Macbeth_ has long since been recognized; but
new light has recently been thrown upon the subject by the philosopher
Karl Blind, who has contributed valuable articles on the subject in the
German periodical “Die Gegenwart” and in the “London Academy.” We take
the liberty of reproducing here an abstract of his article in the
“Academy”:
* * * * * *
The fact itself of these Witches being simply transfigurations, or
later disguises, of the Teutonic Norns is fully established--as may
be seen from Grimm or Simrock. In delineating these hags, Shakspeare
has practically drawn upon old Germanic sources, perhaps upon
current folk-lore of his time.
It has always struck me as noteworthy that in the greater part of
the scene between the Weird Sisters, Macbeth and Banquo, and
wherever the Witches come in, Shakspeare uses the staff-rime in a
remarkable manner. Not only does this add powerfully to the archaic
impressiveness and awe, but it also seems to bring the form and
figure of the Sisters of Fate more closely within the circle of the
Teutonic idea. I have pointed out this striking use of the
alliterative system in _Macbeth_ in an article on “An old German
Poem and a Vedic Hymn,” which appeared in _Fraser_ in June, 1877,
and in which the derivation of the Weird Sisters from the Germanic
Norns is mentioned.
The very first scene in the first act of _Macbeth_ opens strongly
with the staff-rime:
_1st Witch_. When shall we three meet again--
In thunder, lightning or in rain?
_2d Witch_. When the hurly-burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
_3d Witch_. That will be ere set of sun.
_1st Witch_. Where the place?
_2d Witch_. Upon the heath.
_3d Witch_. There to meet with Macbeth.
_1st Witch_. I come, Graymalkin!
_All_. Paddock calls. Anon.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Not less marked is the adoption of the fullest staff-rime--together
(as above) with the end-rime--in the third scene, when the Weird
Sisters speak. Again, there is the staff-rime when Banquo addresses
them. Again, the strongest alliteration, combined with the end-rime,
runs all through the Witches’ spell-song in Act iv, scene 1. This
feature in Shakspeare appears to me to merit closer investigation;
all the more so because a less regular alliteration, but still a
marked one, is found in not a few passages of a number of his plays.
Only one further instance of the systematic employment of
alliteration may here be noted in passing. It is in Ariel’s songs in
the _Tempest_, Act i, scene 2. Schlegel and Tieck evidently did not
observe this alliterative peculiarity. Their otherwise excellent
translation does not render it, except so far as the obvious
similarity of certain English and German words involuntarily made
them do so. But in the notes to their version of _Macbeth_ the
character of the Weird Sisters is also misunderstood, though
Warburton is referred to, who had already suggested their
derivations from the Valkyrs or Norns.
It is an error to say that the Witches in _Macbeth_ “are never
called witches” (compare Act i, scene 3: “‘Give me!’ quoth I.
‘A-roint thee, _witch_!’ the rump-fed ronyon cries”). However, their
designation as Weird Sisters fully settles the case of their
Germanic origin.
This name “Weird” is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Norn Wyrd (Sax.
_Wurth_; O.H. Ger. _Wurd_; Norse, _Urd_), who represents the Past,
as her very name shows. Wurd is _die Gewordene_--the “Has Been,” or
rather the “Has Become,” if one could say so in English.
* * * * * *
In Shakspeare the Witches are three in number--even as in Norse,
German, as well as in Keltic and other mythologies. Urd, properly
speaking, is the Past. Skuld is the Future, or “That Which shall
Be.” Verdandi, usually translated as the Present, has an even deeper
meaning. Her name is not to be derived from _vera_ (to be), but from
_verda_ (Ger. _werden_). This verb, which has a mixed meaning of “to
be,” “to become,” or to “grow,” has been lost in English. Verdandi
is, therefore, not merely a representative of present Being, but of
the process of Growing, or of Evolution--which gives her figure a
profounder aspect. Indeed, there is generally more significance in
mythological tales than those imagine who look upon them chiefly as
a barren play of fancy.
Incidentally it may be remarked that, though Shakspeare’s Weird
Sisters are three in number--corresponding to Urd, Verdandi and
Skuld--German and Northern mythology and folk-lore occasionally
speak of twelve or seven of them. In the German tale of
_Dornröschen_, or the Sleeping Beauty, there are twelve good fays;
and a thirteenth, who works the evil spell. Once, in German
folk-lore, we meet with but two Sisters of Fate--one of them called
_Kann_, the other _Muss_. Perhaps these are representatives of man’s
measure of free will (that which he “can”), and of that which is his
inevitable fate--or, that which he “must” do.
Though the word “Norn” has been lost in England and Germany, it is
possibly preserved in a German folk-lore ditty, which speaks of
three Sisters of Fate as “Nuns.” Altogether, German folk-lore is
still full of rimes about three Weird Sisters. They are sometimes
called Wild Women, or Wise Women, or the Measurers
(_Metten_)--namely, of Fate; or, euphemistically, like the
Eumenides, the Advisers of Welfare (_Heil-Räthinnen_), reminding us
of the counsels given to Macbeth in the apparition scene; or the
Quick Judges (_Gach-Schepfen_). Even as in the Edda, these German
fays weave and twist threads or ropes, and attach them to distant
parts, thus fixing the weft of Fate. One of these fays is sometimes
called Held, and described as black, or as half dark half
white--like Hel, the Mistress of the Nether World. That German fay
is also called Rachel, clearly a contraction of Rach-Hel, i.e. the
Avengeress Hel.
Now, in _Macbeth_ also the Weird Sisters are described as “black.”
The coming up of Hekate with them in the cave-scene might not
unfitly be looked upon as a parallel with the German Held, or
Rach-Hel, and the Norse Hel; these Teutonic deities being originally
Goddesses of Nocturnal Darkness, and of the Nether World, even as
Hekate.
In German folk-lore, three Sisters of Fate bear the names of Wilbet,
Worbet and Ainbet. Etymologically these names seem to refer to the
well-disposed nature of a fay representing the Past; to the warring
or worrying troubles of the Present; and to the terrors (_Ain_ =
_Agin_) of the Future. All over southern Germany, from Austria to
Alsace and Rhenish Hesse, the three fays are known under various
names besides Wilbet, Worbet, and Ainbet--for instance, as Mechtild,
Ottilia, and Gertraud; as Irmina, Adela, and Chlothildis, and so
forth. The fay in the middle of this trio is always a good fay,