FOOTNOTES:
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Keightley, Thomas
[103] See Mythology of Greece and Italy, p. 248, second edition.
[104] After the introduction of Christianity, Engel, angel, was employed for Alp in most proper names, as Engelrich, Engelhart, etc.
[105] See MM. Grimm's learned Introduction to their translation of the Irish Fairy Legends, and the Deutsche Mythologie of J. Grimm.
[106] MM. Grimm suppose with a good deal of probability, that these are compounds formed to render the Greek ones, and are not expressive of a belief in analogous classes of spirits.
[107] Some think, but with little reason, they were originally a part of the Finnish mythology, and were adopted into the Gothic system.
[108] The giant Ymir is a personification of Chaos, the undigested primal matter. The sons of Börr (other personifications) slew him. Out of him they formed the world; his blood made the sea, his flesh the land, his bones the mountains; rocks and cliffs were his teeth, jaws, and broken pieces of bones; his skull formed the heavens.
[109] Gudmund Andreas in notis ad Völuspá.
[110] That they are not insensible to kindness one of the succeeding tales will show.
[111] The habitual reader of the northern and German writers, or even our old English ones, will observe with surprise his gradually diminished contempt for many expressions now become vulgar. He will find himself imperceptibly falling into the habit of regarding them in the light of their pristine dignity.
[112] Skidbladni, like Pari Banou's tent, could expand and contract as required. It would carry all the Æser and their arms, and when not in use it could be taken asunder and put in a purse. "A good ship," says Ganglar, "is Skidbladni, but great art must have been employed in making it." Mythologists say it is the clouds.
[113]i. e. The Dripper.
[114]i. e. The Bruiser or Crusher, from Myla, to bruise or crush. Little the Fancy know of the high connexions of their phrase Mill.
[115] Edda Resenii, Dæmisaga 59.
[116] Thorston's Saga, c. 3, in the Kämpa Dater.
[117] The Berserkers were warriors who used to be inflamed with such rage and fury at the thoughts of combats as to bite their shields, run through fire, swallow burning coals, and perform such like mad feats. "Whether the avidity for fighting or the ferocity of their nature," says Saxo, "brought this madness on them, is uncertain."
[118] The northern nations believed that the tombs of their heroes emitted a kind of lambent flame, which was always visible in the night, and served to guard the ashes of the dead; they called it Hauga Elldr, or The Sepulchral Fire. It was supposed more particularly to surround such tombs as contained hidden treasures.—Bartholin, de Contempt. a Dan. Morte, p. 275.
[119] Hervarar Saga passim. The Tirfing Saga would be its more proper appellation. In poetic and romantic interest it exceeds all the northern Sagas.
[120] In Swedish Dverg also signifies a spider.
[121] In the old Swedish metrical history of Alexander, the word Duerf occurs. The progress in the English word is as follows: Anglo-Saxon þeo; thence dwerke;
A maid that is a messingere And a dwerkè me brought here, Her to do socoúr. Lybeaus Disconus.
lastly, dwarf, as in old Swedish.
[122] Danske Folkesagn, 4 vols. 12mo. Copenh. 1818-22.
[123] Udvalgde Danske Viser fra Middelaldaren, 5 vols. 12mo. Copenh. 1812.
[124] Svenska Folk-Visor från Forntiden, 3 vols. 8vo. Stockholm, 1814-16. We have not seen the late collection of Arvidsson named Svenska Fornsånger, in 3 vols. 8vo.
[125] The reader will find a beautiful instance of a double Omquæd in the Scottish ballad of the Cruel Sister.
There were two sisters sat in a bower, Binnōrie o Binnōrie There came a knight to be their wooer By the bonny mill-dams of Binnōrie.
And in the Cruel Brother,
There were three ladies played at the ba', With a heigh ho and a lily gay; There came a knight and played o'er them a', As the primrose spreads so sweetly.
The second and fourth lines are repeated in every stanza.
[126] These are the Swedish verses:
Det växte upp Liljor på begge deres graf, Med äran och med dygd— De växte tilsamman med alla sina blad. J vinnen väl, J vinnen väl både rosor och liljor. Det växte upp Rosor ur båda deras mun, Med äran och med dygd— De växte tilsammans i fagreste lund. J vinnen väl, J vinnen väl både rosor och liljor.
[127] Some readers may wish to know the proper mode of pronouncing such Danish and Swedish words as occur in the following legends. For their satisfaction we give the following information. J is pronounced as our y; when it comes between a consonant and a vowel, it is very short, like the y that is expressed, but not written, in many English words after c and g: thus kjær is pronounced very nearly as care: ö sounds like the German ö, or French eu: d after another consonant is rarely sounded, Trold is pronounced Troll: aa, which the Swedes write å, as o in more, tore. Aarhuus is pronounced Ore-hoos.
[128] That is, Wise People or Conjurors. They answer to the Fairy-women of Ireland.
[129] Afzelius is of opinion that this notion respecting the Hill-people is derived from the time of the introduction of Christianity into the north, and expresses the sympathy of the first converts with their forefathers, who had died without a knowledge of the Redeemer, and lay buried in heathen earth, and whose unhappy spirits were doomed to wander about these lower regions, or sigh within their mounds till the great day of redemption.
[130] "About fifteen years ago," says Ödman (Bahuslän, p. 80), "people used to hear, out of the hill under Gärun, in the parish of Tanum, the playing, as it were, of the very best musicians. Any one there who had a fiddle, and wished to play, was taught in an instant, provided they promised them salvation; but whoever did not do so, might hear them within, in the hill, breaking their violins to pieces, and weeping bitterly." See Grimm. Deut. Myth. 461.
[131] Arndt, Reise nach Schweden, iv. 241.
[132] Svenska Folk-Visor, vol. iii. p. 159. There is a similar legend in Germany. A servant, one time, seeing one of the little ones very hard-set to carry a single grain of wheat, burst out laughing at him. In a rage, he threw it on the ground, and it proved to be the purest gold. But he and his comrades quitted the house, and it speedily went to decay.—Strack. Beschr. v. Eilsen, p. 124, ap. Grimm, Introd., etc., p. 90.
[133] Thiele, vol. iv. p. 22. They are called Trolls in the original. As they had a king, we think they must have been Elves. The Dwarfs have long since abolished monarchy.
[134] The greater part of what precedes has been taken from Afzelius in the Svenska Visor, vol. iii.
[135] Thiele, iv. 26.