Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/157

Rh “Now for the names, Wôd, Herod, Hackelnbärend, &c. Perhaps Icelandic will help us to explain the myth. Wôd is evidently Woden; the name is derived from the preterite of a verb, signifying to rage:—

“Hackelnbärend is the Icelandic Hekluberandi, the mantle-bearer; Herod is derived from Her-rauthi, the red lord. This name is known in the north (Hernath’s Saga, Kormak Saga and Fornmana Sögur, ii. 259). But Dr. Mannhardt derives the name from Hrôths, rumour, fame. The name of Chasse Macabée is given from the allusion to it in the Bible (2 Maccabees, v. 2-4). ‘Then it happened, that through all the city, for the space almost of forty days, there were seen horsemen running in the air, in cloth of gold, and armed with lances, like a band of soldiers. And troops of horsemen in array, encountering and running one against another, with shaking of shields, and multitudes of pikes, and drawing of swords, and casting of darts, and glittering of golden ornaments, and harness of all sorts, Wherefore every man prayed that that apparition might turn to good.’

“When men began to name the different operations of nature, they called the storm, from its vehemence, its rage, ‘the raging ’—Wuothan, Wôden; or from its coming at regular times, tempestus; or from its outpourings (cogn. ); or again from its breathing, storm (styrma, Icelandic, to puff; sturmen, Teut., to make a noise; thus, Gisah trumbaro inti meniga, sturmenta, Schilt, Thesaur., sub voce—Christ saw the musicians and the multitude making a noise); our word gale comes from its whistling and singing—the root is also preserved in nightingale, the night-singer (gala, Icel. cogn. yell), and from this Odin (the storm) got his name of Galdnir, or Göldnir, and Christmastide was hight Yule; or from its gushing forth like a flood we get the word gust (Icel. geysa and gjósa); or, once more, from the storm cloaking the sky, covering the fair blue with a mantle of cloud, it got its name of Procella (cogn.