Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/312

 300 The Ancient Teutonic Priesthood.

at Upsala.^ But it was apparently a Northern custom to deliver prophetic utterances beside sacred springs.- We know also that Upsala possessed an oracle so famous that it was consulted even by foreign princes.^ Again, in the story of Gunnar Helmingr — whatever may be its foundation in fact — we find mention of a young woman who attended to Pro's sanctuary and consulted his will.'* The hypothesis, therefore, has a certain amount of probability. But it is to be observed that the word 'gydia' is not used in the story of Gunnar Helmingr, and, if the sanctuary-prophetesses at Upsala formed the model of the mythical Norns, it is hardly likely that they can have been regarded as priestesses in the Northern sense. ^ They are rather to be compared with the Greek prophetesses at the shrine of Delphi, while the godaror 'spekingar' may have corresponded in some degree to the ocnoi.

' The locality of the temple mentioned by Saxo (vi., p. 272) cannot be definitely fixed ; but, from the context, it seems not unlikely that it was the Upsala temple. In any case the passage affords an interesting parallel to the representation of Asgardr. " It was the custom of the ancients to consult the oracles of the Fates in regard to the future destiny of their children. Fridleuus (a mythical king of the Danes), desiring by this method to ascertain the destiny of his son Olauus, solemly offers his vows and comes to the temple of the gods to pray. There, looking into the sanctuary, he sees three seats occupied by three nymphs." The nymphs proceed to 'shape' the destiny of his son in a manner exactly similar to that described in the Saga of Nornagesti.

• Cf. Hav. no : " It is time to prophesy on the prophet's chair beside the spring of Fate."

" 0/a/s s. Tryggv. (Flat), 277.
 * Cf. Saxo, vii., p. 360; Yiigl. s. 42.

■' It is uncertain from what class they were drawn. In Saxo's account of Ragnar Lodbrok (ix., p. 443) it is the Swedish king's daughter who feeds the snakes — a duty which among the Prussians was performed by the priestesses. On the whole, however, it seems more probable that the sanctuary prophetesses were drawn from a lower class of society.

POSTCRIPT. — P. 280, n. I. From Haralds s. Harf., 7, Hak. s. Godti, ig, Olafs s. Tryggv., 74 ff. (all from Het^nskr.), it seems probable that the priesthood at Maeren was a survival of an old confederacy of hereditary chiefs. It is to be observed that in Haralds s. Harf., 7, these chiefs are called kings.