fable, where the fox enveigles the stupid wolf into descending to the kingdom of heaven, so that he himself may be drawn up. As they meet in the buckets half-way, the fox uses the familiar words of mockery, "This is the way the world goes, one is up and the other down." Furthermore, the sack and the bucket are equivalent to the barrel in which the crafty man is going to be drowned by the stupid peasants (see No. 61, and Scarpafico in Straparola); he however, makes a shepherd who is passing by, believe that whosoever gets inside it will be carried away and be married, and receive great possessions; just as the cunning thief Cassandrin, disguised as an angel, holds out the sack of fame and bids Severin creep into it (Straparola, 2. 2). In all these stories the magic sack, or fortune-barrel, is presented from the comic side, for the saga willingly turns seriousness into a jest. Raparius, however, reminds us of the serious side most distinctly; as in our story, the man who is hanging in the tree learns wisdom, so the Norse wise man hovers in the air and learns all knowledge (Runacapituli, 141, 144):
veit ek at ek hêck vindga meidi â.[1]
natur allar nîo,
thâ nam ek fravaz ok frôther vera."
Odin seats himself beneath the gallows, and enters into conversation with the hanged man, and for this reason is called "hangagod" (fyrdrottinn.) On account of this mythical importance it might be well to quote the passage of the original referred to, which will at the same time give a specimen of the style,
"tunc quasi socraticus hunc laeta voce salutat
et quasi nil triste perpatiatur ait
'salve, mi frater, hominum carissime, salve!
hue ades, ut spero, sorte favente bona.'
erigit ille caput stupidosque regirat ocellos,
ambigit et cujus vox sit et unde sonet.
dum super hoc dubitat utrum fugiat maneatve,
hue movet ire timor et vetat ire pudor.
sic sibi nutantem solidat constantia mentem,
dixit 'item resonet vox tua, quisquis es hic?"
de sacco rursus auditur vox quoque secundo
'Si dubitas quid sim, suspice, tolle caput;
in sacco sedeo, sedet sapientia mecum,
hic studiis didici tempore multa brevi.
pape! scolas quaerunt longe lateque scolares,
hic tantum veras noveris esse scolas
- ↑
"I know that I hung on a wind-swept tree,
For the space of nine long nights,
And then I began to be famed and wise."
