AN
IDEA
OF THE
MORE ANCIENT
EDDA.
IT is now time to describe what remains of the former Edda, compiled by Soemund, surnamed the Learned, more than an hundred years before that of Snorro. It was a collection of very ancient poems, which had for their subject some article of the Religion and Morality of Odin. The share that Sæmund had in them, was probably no more than that of first collecting and committing them to writing. This collection is at present considered as lost, excepting only three pieces, which I shall describe below: But some people have, not without good reason, imagined that this ancient Edda, or at least the greatest part of it, is still preserved. It were to be wished, that the possessors of such a treasure could be induced to esteem the communication of it to the world, the greatest advantage they can reap from it; and they are now urged, in the name of the public, to this generous action. Be that as it may, the admirers of the antiquities of the north have, in the fragments of this work, which may be seen and consulted, sufficient to reward their researches. The remainder is probably less interesting; and this may perhaps have been the cause of its being consigned to oblivion.
THE first of these pieces is that which I
have so often quoted under the title of
Voluspa; a word which signifies the Oracle,
or the Prophesy of Vola. It is well known,
that there were among the Celtic nations,
women who foretold future events, uttered
oracles, and maintained a strict commerce
with the Divinity. Tacitus makes frequent
mention of one of them, named Velleda,
who was in high repute among the Bructeri,
a people of Germany, and who was
afterwards carried to Rome. There was one in
Italy, whose name had a still nearer affinity
to this of Vola, viz. that Sibyl, whom
Horace (Epod. V.) calls Ariminensis Folia.
Vola or Folia might perhaps be a
general name for all the women of this kind.
As these names are evidently connected with the idea of Folly or Madness, they would
at least be due to those enthusiastick
ravings and mad contortions with which such
women delivered their pretended oracles.
The word Fol bore the same meaning in
the ancient Gothic, as it does in French,
English, and in almost all the languages of
the north; in all which it signifies either a
Fool or a Madman[1].
This Poem attributed to the Sibyl of the north, contains within the compass of two or three hundred lines, that whole system of Mythology, which we have seen disclosed in the Edda; but this laconic brevity, and the obsoleteness of the language in which it is written, make it very difficult to be understood. This, however, does not prevent us from observing frequent instances of grandeur and sublimity, and many images extremely fine: then the general tenor of the work, the want of connection, and the confusion of the style, excite the idea of a very remote antiquity, no less than the matter and subject itself. Such were, doubtless, the real Sibylline verses so long preserved at Rome, and so ill counterfeited afterwards. The Poem of the Voluspa is perhaps the only monument now remaining, capable of giving us a true idea of them.
I need not here quote any passages from this Poem: the text of the Edda, is (as we have seen) quite full of them: and I have given pretty long extracts from it in my Remarks. It is sufficient briefly to observe, that the Prophetess having imposed silence on all intellectual beings, declares, that she is going to reveal the decrees of the Father of Nature, the actions and operations of the Gods, which no person ever knew before herself. She then begins with a description of the chaos; and proceeds to the formation of the world, and of that of its various species of inhabitants, Giants, Men and Dwarfs. She then explains the employments of the Fairies or Destinies; the functions of the Gods, their most remarkable adventures, their quarrels with Loke, and the vengeance that ensued. At last, she concludes with a long description of the final state of the universe, its dissolution and conflagration: the battle of the inferior Deities and the Evil Beings: the renovation of the world: the happy lot of the good, and the punishment of the wicked.
THAT Poem is followed by another no less deserving of regard. It made part of the Edda of Soemund; and, in point of antiquity, does not yield to the Voluspa: this is called Havamaal, or “The Sublime Discourse of Odin,” and is attributed to that God himself, who is supposed to have given these precepts of wisdom to mankind. This piece is the only one of the kind now in the world. We have, directly from the ‘ancient’ Scythians[2] themselves, no other monument on the subject of their morality: whatever we know from any other quarter on this article, being imperfect, corrupted and uncertain. Thus this moral system of Odin’s may, in some measure, supply the loss of the maxims which Zamolxis, Dicenæus, and Anacharsis gave to their Scythian countrymen: maxims which those sages pretended to have derived from heaven, and which were frequently the envy of the Greek Philosophers.
The Havamaal, or Sublime Discourse, is comprised in about one hundred and twenty stanzas. There are very few which are not good and sensible; but as some of them contain only common truths, and others, allusions which it would be tedious and difficult to explain, I shall give only the following extracts, assuring the Reader anew, that he will find them translated with the most scrupulous exactness.
“CONSIDER[3] and examine well all
your doors, before you venture to
stir abroad: for he is exposed to
continual danger, whose enemies lie in
ambush concealed in his court.
“To the guest, who enters your
dwelling with frozen knees, give the warmth
of your fire: he who hath travelled over
the mountains hath need of food, and
well-dried garments.
“Offer water to him who sits down at
your table: for he hath occasion to cleanse
his hands: and entertain him
honourably and kindly, if you would win from
him friendly words, and a grateful
return.
“He who travelleth hath need of wisdom. One may do at home whatsoever one will; but he who is ignorant of good manners, will only draw contempt upon himself, when he comes to sit down with men well instructed.
“He who goes to a feast, where he is
not expected, either speaks with a lowly
voice or is silent: he listens with his
ears, and is attentive with his eyes: by
this he acquires knowlege and wisdom.
“Happy he, who draws upon himself
the applause and benevolence of men!
for whatever depends upon the will of
others, is hazardous and uncertain.
“A man can carry with him no better
provision for his journey than the strength
of Understanding. In a foreign
country, this will be of more use to him
than treasures: and will introduce him
to the table of strangers.
“There is nothing more useless to the
sons of the age, than to drink too much
Ale: the more the drunkard swallows,
the less is his wisdom, till he loses his
reason. The bird of oblivion sings
before those who inebriate themselves, and
steals away their souls.
“A coward thinks he shall live for ever, if he can but keep out of the reach of arms: but though he should escape every weapon, old age, that spares none, will give him no quarter.
“The gluttonous man, if he is not upon
his guard, eats his own death: and the
gluttony of a fool makes the wise man
laugh.
“The flocks know when to return to
the fold, and to quit the pasture: but
the worthless and slothful know not how
to restrain their gluttony.
“The lewd and dissolute man makes a
mock of every thing: not considering
how much he himself is the object of
derision. No one ought to laugh at
another, until he is free from faults
himself.
“A man void of sense, ponders all night
long, and his mind wanders without
ceasing: but when he is weary at the
point of day, he is nothing wiser than
he was over-night.
“He thinks he is profoundly knowing;
being indeed most superficial and shallow. But he knows not how to sing an
answer, when men pose him with a
difficult question[4].
“Many are thought to be knit in the
tyes of sincere kindness: but when it
comes to the proof, how much are they
deceived. Slander is the common vice
of the age. Even the host back-bites his
guest.
“One's own home is the best home,
though never so small[5]. Every thing
one eats at home is sweet. He who
lives at another man’s table is often
obliged to wrong his palate.
“I have never yet found a man so
generous and munificent, as that to receive
at his house was not to receive: nor any
so free and liberal of his gifts, as to
reject a present when it was returned to
him.
“Let friends pleasure each other reciprocally by presents of arms and habits. Those who give and those who receive, continue a long time friends, and often give feasts to each other.
“Love both your friends, and your
friends friends: but do not favour the
friend of your enemies.
“Peace, among the perfidious
continues, for five nights, to shine bright as
a flame: but when the sixth night
approaches, the flame waxes dim, and is
quite extinguished: then all their amity
turns to hatred.
“When I was young I wandered about
alone: I thought myself rich if I chanced
to light upon a companion. A man
gives pleasure to another man.
“Let not a man be over wise, neither
let him be more curious than he ought.
Let him not seek to know his destiny,
if he would sleep secure and quiet.
“Rise early, if you would enrich
yourself, or vanquish an enemy. The
sleeping wolf gains not the prey; neither the
drowsy man the victory.
“They invite me up and down to feasts, if I have only need of a slight breakfast: my faithful friend is he who will give me one loaf when he has but two.
Whilst we live, let us live well: for be
a man never so rich, when he lights his
fire, Death may perhaps enter his door,
before it be burnt out.
“It is better to have a son late than
never. One seldom sees sepulchral stones
raised over the graves of the dead, by any
other hands but those of their own
offspring.
“Riches pass away like the twinkling
of an eye: of all friends they are the
most inconstant. Flocks perish;
relations die; friends are not immortal; you
will die yourself: but I know one thing
alone that, is out of the reach of fate:
and that is the judgment which is passed
upon the dead.
“Let not the wisest be imperious, but
modest: for he will find by experience,
that when he is among those that are
powerful, he is not the most mighty.
“Praise the fineness of the day, when it is ended; praise a woman, when you have known her; a sword, when you have proved it; a maiden, after she is married; the ice, when once you have crossed it[6]; and the liquor after it is drunk.
“Trust not to the words of a girl;
neither to those which a woman utters;
for their hearts have been made like the
wheel that turns round; levity was put
into their bosoms.
“Trust not to the ice of one day’s
freezing; neither to the Serpent who lies
asleep; nor to the caresses of her you
are going to marry; nor to a sword that
is cracked or broken; nor to the son of
a powerful man; nor to a field that is
newly sown.
“Peace between malicious women is
compared to a horse who is made to walk
over the ice not properly shod; or to a
vessel in a storm, without a rudder; or
to a lame man who should attempt to
follow the mountain-goats with a young
foal, or yearling mule.
“He who would make himself beloved by a maiden, must entertain her with fine discourses, and offer her engaging presents: he must also incessantly praise her beauty. It requires good sense to be a skilful lover.
“There is no malady or sickness more
severe, than not to be content with ones
lot.
“The heart alone knows what passes
within the heart: and that which
betrays the soul is the soul itself.
“If you would bend your mistress to
your passion, you must only go by night
to see her. When a thing is known to
a third person, it never succeeds.
“Seek not to seduce another’s wife with
the alluring charms of Runic
incantations.
“Be humane and gentle to those you
meet travelling in the mountains, or on
the sea.
“He who hath a good supper in his
travelling wallet, rejoices himself at the
approach of night.
“Never discover your uneasiness to an evil person, for he will afford you no comfort.
“Know, that if you have a friend, you
ought to visit him often. The road is
grown over with grass, the bushes
quickly spread over it, if it is not
constantly travelled.
“Be not the first to break with your
friend. Sorrow gnaws the heart of him
who hath no one to advise with but
himself.
“Obsequiousness produces friends: but
it is vile indeed to flatter ones own self.
“Have never three words of dispute
with the wicked. The good will
often yield up a point, when the wicked
is enraged and swollen with pride.
Nevertheless, it is dangerous to be silent,
when you are reproached with having
the heart of a woman; for then you
would be taken for a coward.
“I advise you, be circumspect, but not
too much: be so, however, when you
have drunk to excess; when you are near the wife of another; and when you
find yourself among robbers.
“Do not accustom yourself to
mocking; neither laugh at your guest, or a
stranger: they who remain at home,
often know not who the stranger is that
cometh to their gate.
“Where is there to be found a virtuous
man without some failing? or one so
wicked as to have no good quality?
“Laugh not at the gray-headed
declaimer, nor at thy aged grandfire.
There often come forth from the
wrinkles of the skin, words full of wisdom.
“The fire drives away diseases: the oak
expels the stranguary: straws dissolve
inchantments[7]: Runic characters destroy
the effect of imprecations: the earth
swallows up inundations; and death
extinguishes hatred and quarrels.”
THESE Fragments of the Ancient Edda are followed, in the Edition of Resenius, by a little Poem called, The Runic Chapter, or the Magic of Odin. I have before observed, that the Conqueror, who usurped this name, attributed to himself the invention of Letters; of which, they had not probably any idea in Scandinavia before his time. But although this noble art is sufficiently wonderful in itself, to attract the veneration of an ignorant people towards the teacher of it: yet Odin caused it to be regarded as the Art of Magic by way of excellence, the art of working all sorts of miracles: whether it was that this new piece of fallacy was subservient to his ambition, or whether he himself was barbarous enough to think there was something supernatural in writing. He speaks, at least in the following Poem, like a man who would make it so believed.
“Do you know (says he) how to
engrave Runic characters? how to
explain them? how to procure them?
how to prove their virtue?” He then
goes on to enumerate the wonders he could perform, either by means of these letters,
or by the operations of poetry.
“[8]I am possessed of songs: such as
neither the spouse of a king, nor any son
of man can repeat; one of them is called
the Helper: it will help thee at thy
need, in sickness, grief and all
adversities.
“I know a Song, which the sons of men
ought to sing, if they would become
skilful physicians.
“[9]I know a Song, by which I soften
and inchant the arms of my enemies;
and render their weapons of none effect.
“I know a Song, which I need only to
sing when men have loaded me with
bonds; for the moment I sing it, my
chains fall in pieces, and I walk forth at
liberty.
“I know a Song, useful to all mankind;
for as soon as hatred inflames the sons of
men, the moment I sing it they are
appeased.
“I know a Song, of such virtue, that were I caught in a storm, I can hush the winds, and render the air perfectly calm.”
One may remark upon this last
prerogative of the verses known to Odin, that
among all the ‘Gothic and’ Celtic nations,
the Magicians claimed a power over the
Winds and Tempests. Pomponius Mela
tells us, that in an island on the coast of
Bretagne (he probably means the Isle of
Saints, opposite to Brest) there were
priestesses, separated from the rest of the
people, who were regarded as the Goddesses
of Navigation, because they had the winds
and tempests at their disposal. There are
penal statutes in the Capitularies of
Charlemagne, in the canons of several councils,
and in the ancient laws of Norway, against
such as raise storms and tempests;
Tempestarii is the name there given them. There
were formerly of these impostors on the
coasts of Norway, as there are at present
on those of Lapland, to whom fear and
superstition were long tributary. Hence
silly travellers have, with much gravity,
given us ridiculous accounts of witches who
sold wind to the sailors in those seas. It is
no less true, that the very Norwegian fishermen would long since have forgotten that
so foolish an opinion had ever existed, if
foreign mariners, who were not disabused
like them, did not often come to buy their
wind of them, and pay them money for
being the objects of their ridicule.
The Missionaries and first Bishops, were early in their endeavours to root out this pernicious weed from the soil where they wished to plant the Gospel. They attacked the Pagan religion with all sorts of weapons. As they were often so credulous as to believe the false miracles of Paganism, they were weak enough to oppose them with others, that were no whit better, except in the purity of the intention. In an old Icelandic Chronicle[10], we meet with a bishop laying a storm with Holy-water, and some other ceremonies.——But to proceed on with the discourse of Odin:
“When I see, says he, Magicians
travelling through the air, I disconcert
them by a single lock, and force them
to abandon their enterprize.” He had.
before spoken of these aerial travellers.
“[11]If I see a man dead, and hanging
aloft on a tree, I engrave Runic characters so wonderful, that the man
immediately descends and converses with
me.”
By the operation of these Characters,
and at other times by Verses, Odin had
frequently raised the dead. There is a very
ancient Ode preserved to us by Bartholin[12],
wherein this Deity causes a Prophetess,
whom he wanted to consult, to rise from
her tomb. The beginning of this Ode may
serve to give us an idea what kind of Magic
Poetry it was, which ‘the northern[13]’
nations were heretofore possessed of.
“ODIN, the sovereign of men arises:
he saddles his horse Sleipner; he mounts,
and is conveyed to the subterraneous abode of
Hela (i. e. Death.)
“The Dog who guards the gates of Death
meets him. His breast and his jaws are
stained with blood; he opens his voracious
mouth to bite, and barks a long time at the
father of Magic.
“Odin pursues his way; his horse causes the infernal caverns to resound and tremble: at length he reaches the deep abode of Death, and stops near to the eastern gate, where stands the tomb of the Prophetess.
“He sings to her verses adapted to call up
the dead. He looks towards the north; he
engraves Runic characters on her tomb; he
utters mysterious words; he demands an
answer: until the Prophetess is constrained to
arise, and thus utters the words of the dead.
“WHO is this unknown that dares
disturb my repose, and drag me from my
grave, wherein I have lien dead so long,
all covered with snow, and moistened with
the rains, &c.”
The other prodigies, which Odin in the
Runic Chapter boasts he has the power of
performing, are not of less importance.
“[14]IF I will that a man should neither
fall in battle, nor perish by the sword, I
sprinkle him over with water at the instant
of his birth.” We may here recollect
what I have said in the former Volume
concerning the baptism of the people of
the north, while they were yet Pagans[15].
“If I will, I can explain the nature of all the different species of Men, of Genii, and of Gods. None but the wise can know all their differences.
“[16]If I aspire to the love and the
favour of the chastest virgin, I can bend
the mind of the snowy-armed maiden,
and make her yield wholly to my
desires.
“I know a secret, which I will never
lose; it is to render myself always
beloved by my mistress.
“But I know one which I will never
impart to any female, except my own
sister, or to her whom I hold in my
arms. Whatever is known only to one’s
self, is always of very great value.”
After this, the Author concludes with
exclamations on the beauty of the things
he has been describing.
“NOW, says he, have I sung in my
august abode, my sublime verses; which
are both necessary to the sons of men,
and useless to the sons of men. Blessed be he who hath sung them! Blessed be
he who hath understood them! May
they profit him, who hath retained them!
blessed be they, who have lent an ear to
them!”
The End of the EDDA.
- ↑ Fool, (antiq. Fol) Stultus, delirus, fatuus, rationis expers. Gallicè Fol. Islandice Fol, ferox, iracundus, fatuus insipiens. Folska, Stultitia. Ang. Folly: Gall. Folie. Hinc forsan Ital. Fola, Ineptiæ, nugæ, quid vanum, fatuum fabulosum, &c. Inde verbum Folare, Ineptias, aut stultas & inanes fabulas recitare, nugas venditare. Hickes, in Junij Etymolog. a Lye Edit. T.
- ↑ Des Celtes & des Scythes. Fr.
- ↑ In translating the following maxims from the French, I occasionally consulted a MS copy of Resenius’s Latin Version, and have in some few passages, where the French seemed not to be sufficiently explicit, been determined by the latter; from which I have also supplied a few omissions. But not being able to procure the original, I have, in all other instances, chosen to follow M. Mallet’s Translation, though it differs extremely from that of Resenius: As presuming that M. Mallet had good authority for every deviation. See the Introduction to this Volume. T.
- ↑ Alluding to the Ænigmas and Riddles which it was usual to propose as a trial of wit. See many of them in the Hervarer Saga. Both the riddle and answer, I believe, was usually sung in the manner of a little catch.
- ↑ This is like our English Proverb, “Home is home, be it never so homely.”
- ↑ This is not unlike the English Proverb, “Praise the Bridge that carries you safe over.” T.
- ↑ Hence probably is derived the custom of laying two straws crosswise in the path where a witch is expected to come.
- ↑ Barthol. p. 658.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 347.
- ↑ K. Oloff Trygguason Saga, c. 33.
- ↑ Barthol. p. 641.
- ↑ Lib. III. cap. 2. p. 632.——The original in Bartholin consists of Fourteen Stanzas, of which M. Mallet has here produced only five. In the following Version, the Latin of Bartholin has been consulted. T.
- ↑ Tous les Peuples Celtes.
- ↑ Barthol. p. 348.
- ↑ Pag. 335.
- ↑ Barthol. p. 658.