NOTES TO THE PROSE EDDA.

BY

M. MALLET AND BISHOP PERCY*.

[A] Snorri informs us, in the beginning of the Heimskringla, that Gylfi was a prince, who governed Sweden before the arrival of Odin and his followers, and was obliged to yield to the supernatural power which those intruders employed against him, and to resign his kingdom up to them. This gave rise to the supposition that Gylfi was willing to make trial himself of the skill and sagacity of these new comers, by proposing to them a variety of captious questions.

[B] In the manuscript copy of the Edda, preserved at Upsal, there is a representation or drawing (very rudely done, as may be supposed) of these three thrones, and of the three persons sitting on them. They have crowns on their heads; and Gangler is drawn in a suppliant posture before them.

[c] These are important questions; but the answers are still more remarkable. From their conformity with the Christian doctrines, one would be tempted to believe that Snorri had here embellished the religion of his Pagan ancestors, by bringing it as near as possible to the Gospel, if we did not find the same unfolded system literally expressed in the Völuspá, a poem of undoubted antiquity, and which was composed long before the name of Christianity was known in the north; and also if the same system were not continually referred to in every other place of the Edda †.

[D] Here we have the pleasure to observe, that our philosophers saw the necessity of having recourse to the intervention of a deity in forming the world. The vivifying breath, here mentioned, seems to carry in it a strong affinity to the "Breath of Life" which God breathed into the nostrils of the first man; according to the phrase of Scripture.--Gen. chap. ii. ver. 7‡.

[E] It has been a general opinion in the East that God began with creating genii, both good and bad, of very immense powers: who, for a long time before we existed, inhabited a world prior to this of ours. One may see in Herbelot what the Persians relate concerning the Dives, Nere, Peris, and their king Eblis.

[F] In all likelihood this legend is only an allegory. There is, however, a very important remark to be made here. A powerful being had with his breath animated the drops out of which the first giant was formed. This

* See page 397. Bishop Percy's notes are marked P.

+ M. Mallet here falls into the same error as a number of eminent writers have done since his time; an error which we have attempted to point out in our critical examination of the Eddaic doctrines. See page 482.-ED.

See our remarks, page 485.-Ed.

Being, whom the Edda affects not to name, was entirely distinct from Odin *, who had his birth long after the formation of Ymir. One may conjecture, therefore, that the hidden philosophy meant to inculcate that the supreme, eternal, invisible and incorruptible God, whom they durst not name out of fear and reverence, had appointed inferior divinities for the government of the world; and that it was those divinities who, at the last day, were to yield to the efforts of powerful enemies, and be involved in the ruins of the universe: and that then the supreme god, ever existing, and placed above the reach of all revolution and change, would arise from his repose, to make a new world out of the ruins of the old, and begin a new period, which should, in its turn, give place to another; and so on through all eternity. The same was the system of the Stoics; who, as well as the philosophers of the north, supposed that the world, after it had been consumed by flames, should be renewed; and that the inferior deities should be destroyed at the same time. What confirms all this, is, that this god, superior to Odin himself, and of whom the vulgar among this people had scarce any idea, is represented in the Icelandic poems as making a second appearance, after the death of all the gods, in order to distribute justice, and establish a new order of things +.

[G] It is not undeserving of notice, that all the ancient nations of Europe describe their origin with the same circumstances. Tacitus says, that the Germans, in their verses, celebrated a god born of the earth, named Tuisco. This Tuisco had a son named Mannus, whose three sons were the orignal ancestors of the three principal nations of Germany; namely, the Ingævones, Iscævones and Herminones. The Scythians, according to Herodotus, said that Targytaus, the founder of their nation, had three sons, Leipoxain, Anpoxain, and Kolaxain. A tradition received by the Romans, imported that the Cyclop Polyphemus had by Galatea three sons, named Celtus, Illyrius, and Gallus. Saturn, the father of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, might very well come from the same source; as well as the three sons whom Hesiod makes to spring from the marriage of Heaven and Earth, Coltus, Briareus, and Gyges. A tradition so ancient and so general must have certainly had its foundation in some real fact.

[H] Of all the ancient Theogonies, I find only that of the Chaldees which has any resemblance to this of the Edda. Berosus, cited by Syncellus, informs us that that people, one of the most ancient in the world, believed that in the beginning there was only water and darkness; that this water and darkness contained in them divers monstrous animals, different in form and size, which were all represented in the temple of Bel; that a female, named Omorca, was the mistress of the universe; that the god Bel put to death all the monsters, destroyed Omorca herself, and, dividing her in two, formed of the one half of her the earth, and of the other the heavens: to which another tradition adds, that men were formed out of her head; whence Berosus concludes, that this occasioned man to be endowed with intellectual powers.

[1] The matter of the sun and stars existed long before the formation of

* See our remarks, page 483.-Ed.

+ That is to say, an obscure allusion is made to such a deity in two strophes, the allusion in one of these strophes being applicable to Odin.-See page 483.-ED.

those bodies: this matter was the æther, the luminous world. One cannot but remark in this fable the remains of the Mosaic doctrine; according to which the creation of a luminous substance, in like manner, preceded that of the sun and moon. And what indicates one common origin of both accounts, is what Moses adds in the same place. "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs of seasons, and of days, and of years," &c.--Gen. c. i. v. 14.

[] The Persian mythology abounds with circumstances analogous to this. There are always giants, or mischievous genii, who wish ill to men, and hurt them whenever it is in their power. The heroes have no employment so dear and so glorious as that of making war upon those genii. At this very day they are supposed to be banished among the rocks of Caucasus, or Imaus, ever since Tahmuras, surnamed Divbend (he who subdued the Dives), vanquished and put them to flight. Mahometism has not been so severe as Christianity, in eradicating these ancient superstitions, and therefore the inhabitants of Persia are still very much infatuated with them.

[K] This fable proves that the ancient Skalds understood by the name Frigga, the spouse of the supreme god; and that, at the same time, this Frigga was the earth. This doctrine is of very great antiquity, and has been in general received by all the Teutonic nations. Their philosophers taught that the supreme god, Teut, or Woden, was the active principle, the soul of the world, which uniting itself with matter, had thereby put it into a condition to produce the intelligences or inferior gods, and men and all other creatures. This is what the poets express figuratively, when they say that Odin espoused Frigga. One cannot doubt, after having read this passage of the Edda, but it was this same goddess, to whom the Germans, according to Tacitus, consecrated one of the Danish islands, worshipping her under the name of Herthus, or the earth. From this mystical marriage was born the god Thor. He was the first born of the supreme God, and the greatest and most powerful of all the inferior divinities or intelligences that were born from the union of the two principles.

[L] We have here a specimen of the natural philosophy of the first ages. In attempting to explain things, the causes of which are obscure, men of all countries have gone in the same track; and have represented what was unknown by the image of something they were well acquainted with. This is doubtless the true origin of fable. We perceive, at first sight, that it cannot be men who dispense rain and fine weather, who launch the lightning, &c. There was, therefore, a necessity for imagining there were beings of much superior powers, to produce these wonderful operations; but none at all for assigning to them forms different from those of men and other animals. These solutions at once satisfied the curiosity and the imagination; they were easy to be comprehended; they interested the heart a thousand ways; and must, therefore, succeed, and become lasting. In fact, they have everywhere prevailed throughout the world.

[M] Here we have the cause of eclipses; and it is upon this very ancient opinion that the general practice is founded of making noises at that time, to fright away the monsters, who would otherwise devour the two great luminaries.

[N] We see in the preceding, that the gods assemble together in the open air in a valley; here is their principal residence under an ash-tree. In this,

as in other things, the gods are made to conform themselves to the manners of men. The ancient nations for a long time had no other place of rendezvous than some tree remarkable for its size and age. The states of East Friesland, even so late as the thirteenth century, assembled under three large oaks which grew near Aurich; and it is not more than three centuries ago that most of the German princes held their conferences under trees.

[o] All the Teutonic nations have had these genii. The romances of chivalry are full of allusions to this imaginary system. The same opinions prevailed among the Persians. In many places of High Germany, the people have still a notion that these genii come by night, and lay themselves on those they find sleeping on their backs, and thus produce that kind of suffocation which we call the night-mare. In the same manner they accounted for those luxurious and immodest illusions so common in dreams; hence are derived the fables of Incubi and Sucubi; and that general opinion that there were genii or sylphs of both sexes, who did not disdain the embraces of mortals. The bad genii were particularly dreaded at the hour of noon; and in some places they still make it a point of duty to keep company at that hour with women in childbed, for fear the demon of noon should attack them if left alone. This superstition has prevailed no less in France than elsewhere, though it came from the East. St. Basil recommends us to pray to God some time before noon to avert this danger.

[P] I am obliged to return again to Odin. There is nothing in all Pagan antiquity more express than this passage, with regard to the supremacy of one God. The name of As, or Lord, is again ascribed to him in this place. It is to no purpose to object that the father of gods and men could not at the same time be called the father of combats, without manifest contradiction; for the Edda establishes this to be the fact too strongly to be disputed. Besides, contradictions do not always hinder an opinion from being received. Various modifications and distinctions are found out to clear up the difficulty. But there was no great need of any here, for the Teutonic nations regarded war as a very sacred occupation. It furnished, according to them, opportu nities for displaying courage, and of fulfilling the views of Providence; which was to place us here as in a field of battle; and only to grant its favours as the peculiar rewards of fortitude and valour.

[q] This reasoning upon the names of Odin may contain something of truth in it. It is certain that almost all the names ascribed to the Supreme Deity, are either epithets taken from the qualities attributed to him, or the places where he was worshipped, or from the actions he had performed, &c.

[R] The reader will recollect here what I have previously said concerning this divinity of the northern nations. The function ascribed to him of launching the thunder, made him pass for the most warlike and formidable of all the gods. It was also Thor who reigned in the air, distributed the seasons, and raised or allayed tempests. The mallet which he hurled against the giants, and with which he crushed their heads, is doubtless the thunder, which most frequently falls upon elevated places. He was regarded as a divinity favourable to mankind, as he who guarded them from the attacks of giants and wicked genii, whom he never ceased to encounter and pursue.

[s] Baldur corresponds to the Apollo of the Greeks and Romans, the sun considered as a benign and salutary constellation, who chased away maladies,

animated the spirits, and warmed the imagination, that fruitful mother of poetry and all the other arts.

[T] This god, or at least a god with these attributes, has been adored by all the ancient nations of Europe, as also by the Persians. They all of them assigned a genius or god to the waters, whether of the sea, or of rivers, or fountains. This god would not fail to be adored and loaded with presents. Indeed all the people of Europe have had a great veneration for this divinity, and nothing was more difficult than to bring them off from the worship they paid him; this furnished subject for the prohibitions of many a council. Even within the bosom of the Christian Church the people long continued to repair in crowds to certain fountains, in order to adore the beneficent genius, who, by an incomprehensible power, made the waters flow in equal and uninterrupted abundance.

[u] I should be inclined to call Loki the Momus of the northern deities, did not the tricks he plays them often exceed the bounds of raillery. Besides, the monsters he has engendered, and who are along with their father, in the latter ages, to make rude assaults upon the gods, plainly indicates a system little different from that of the evil principle. Notwithstanding what has been advanced by some learned men, this opinion was not unknown either to the Persians or Goths: perhaps, indeed, we ought thus far only to agree with them, that it did not belong to the ancient religion of either of these people. But the hazardous and labouring condition in which they believed all nature to be, and the assaults which it was to sustain at the last day, led them insensibly to imagine that there was a power who was at enmity with gods and men, and who wrought all the evils which desolate the universe. This was the occupation of Ahriman among the Persians, and of Loki among the Scandinavians. Loki produces the great serpent which entirely encircles the world. This serpent, by some of the characteristics of it in this same mythology, seems to have been intended as an emblem of corruption or sin. He also gives birth to Hela, or Death, that queen of the infernal regions, of whom the Edda gives us here so remarkable a portrait ; and, lastly, to the wolf Fenrir, that monster who is to encounter the gods, and destroy the world. How could the evil principle have been more strongly characterized?

[v] It must be borne in mind that the infernal region here described, where a punishment, rather disagreeable than cruel, is reserved for those who have died without their arms in their hands, is not an eternal hell, but only an intermediate abode, or, if you will, a prison, whence those who are confined will come forth at the last day to be judged upon other principles; and to be condemned or absolved for more real virtues and vices. To this intermediate hell was opposed an elysium of the same duration, viz. Valhalla, of which we shall presently have ample mention. One sees with surprise, in attentively reading this mythology, that the whole is better connected and the parts more dependent on one another than in any other work of the same kind that has come to our knowledge. The inferior gods, created along with this world, and united to it by their natnre, and the conformity of their destiny, had every thing to fear at the last day from the enemies of nature. In order, therefore, to be the better able to resist them, they called home to them all the warriors, who had given proof of their valour by shed