Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/101

Rh connected with the god the Gaulish habit of reckoning the night before the day; but precedence was also given the night by the ancient Germans, as we are expressly told by Tacitus in his Germania, cap. xi.; and they did so most likely for the same reason as the Celts, who considered night and death to have existed before light and life. This would explain the myth describing how Heimdal was in the beginning of days born of nine giant maidens, nine sisters or nine mothers, in whom we may see a reference to a nonary week: thus Heimdal proves to be the first offspring of time.

His name must have been epithetic; but he had other names, which, together with his blast-horn, remind one of the horned Cernunnos: I allude to Hallinskiᵭi and Heimdali, both of which are said to mean a ram, which suggests that Heimdal was originally represented as a ram. That he was horned is implied likewise by a curious term in Norse poetry for a man's head, namely, 'Heimdal's sword:' Gretti the Strong so speaks of his own head, and it called forth the explanation that Heimdal had some time or other fought in Samson-like fashion with somebody's head as his weapon; but as it is not called a club or hammer, but hjörr, which meant a sword, also a missile weapon, and even a shield, it is highly probable that the original myth represented him as fighting with no head but his own, the horns on which served him for sword, spear and shield all at once. À propos of Heimdal as a ram, the fact should perhaps be mentioned that the Celtic Pluto and his associate frequently have as one of their attributes a serpent or two with a ram's head.