Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/130

124 the curious geography of an old Teutonic mootstead, with its law-hill, or rock or slope, and the fenced ring of seats for the court lying to the east thereof, the two connected by a path, along which the judges pass to the dooming. There follows an examination of the World-mill legends, which is suggestive, but cannot be wholly accepted. The mill-traditions are evidently late (because the quern is a late instrument preceded by the pounder, and probably not developed till the regular cultivation of cereals came in), and they are mere outcomes of the desire to explain the salt of the sea and the sand of the shore.

An ingenious equation of Heimdall with Agni as the god of the auger-born fire is to be noticed. The Niðað-Mimer equation is by no means acceptable. An excellent note on p. 486 on Saxo’s rules for Latinising vernacular names is to be mentioned, but the speculations on the Moon-god, with much that seems reasonable, include a good deal of forced analogy and doubtful theory. Fair-Balder is a good equation, and there is a clever essay on the legend of the Seven Sleepers.

The third part of the volume deals with the Ivalde Race, and first with Swipdag-Oðrand Freyja-Menglad, and connects the former with the historic Eric, the Swede god, and with Hermod, while Orwandil is made a synonym of Egil and Ibor. The weakness of much of this lies in the ignoring of the patent fact that myths are continually being transferred from a half-forgotten hero to the one fresh in fame, and that round persons like Hnef, Hermod, and Eric old myths crystallise afresh.

Chapter iii sums up admirably the plot of part of Völuspá, and shows the identity of the Vedic legend of Tvashtar and the Ribhas with the Teutonic Sindre-Ivalde tradition. The next chapter deals with Thjasse-Tishja-Rogner. The authority of Forspiallsliód (in the authenticity of which Dr. Rydberg unaccountably believes) is of course more than useless. The analysis of Thórsdrapa is ingenious, even plausible, but it is impossible to build