Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/586

 of Aphrodite: this is not surprising, as Aphrodite is identical with Helen, the moon, which swims at night as a silver swan upon the deep dark sky-sea. A late fable relates how that Achilles and Helen were united on a spirit-isle in Northern Pontus, where they were served by flights of white birds.

In the North, however, is the home of the swan, and there we find the fables about the mystic bird in great profusion. There, as a Faroese ballad says— “Fly along, o’er the verdant ground, Glimmering swans to the ripping sound;” or, as an Icelandic song has it— “Sweetly swans are singing In the summer time. There a swan as silver white, In the summer time, Lay upon my bosom light. Lily maiden, Sweetly swans are singing!” The venerable Edda of Soemund relates how that there were once three brothers, sons of a king of the Finns; one was called Slagfid, the second Egil, the third Völund, the original of our Wayland smith. They went on snow-shoes and hunted wild