partial mutilation, as of Uranus by Cronus, it represents the vast frame of the world-giant Hymi completely cut up by the sons of Bor, that is to say, the Anses or Norse gods with Woden at their head: from Hymi's flesh they made the earth, from his bones the mountains, from his skull the heavens, from his blood the sea, from his brows the earth for the sons of men to dwell on, and from his brain the threatening clouds.[1] The previous stage was the subject of a very natural vagueness, and we are told nothing very detailed about it; but Hymi existed, and the existence may also be supposed of that whereon he rested, a cosmic consort corresponding, roughly speaking, to Gaea or Pṛithivî. Further we are informed who Hymi was,[2] at least relatively to the Anses: he was the grandfather of Tiu, called in Norse Týr. This means, as Tiu or Týr is the equivalent of Zeus, that Hymi is to be rendered by Uranus, the grandfather of Zeus, which is in fact borne out by the etymological meaning of these names respectively. The name Hymi, which in Norse makes Hýmir in the nominative case, is akin, for instance, to the Norse verb hýma, 'to sneak in the dark,' húma, 'to become dusk,' all from húm, 'twilight or dusk;' while the Greek Οὐρανός, 'Uranus,' and its Sanskrit equivalent Varuṇa, come from a root var, meaning 'to cover.' This chimes in with the grievance of which the children of Uranus complained, that he used to hide them from the light in
Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/131
THE INSULAR CELTS.
115
