Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/554

538 The story of Balder, in the only form we have it, makes Höᵭr the innocent slayer of that god, by giving the genius of mischief which guides him in his act a separate personality bearing the distinct name of Loki; and it must have been a nice question who murdered Balder; for it might be argued that it was not Höᵭr, as he could not see, and that it was not Loki, as he did not throw the fatal twig. Norse law would treat him as murdered by them both, by Höᵭr as the hand-bani, or the one whose hand committed the deed, and by Loki as the ráᵭ-bani, or the one who contrived it. But who slew Cúchulainn? The stories vary; for we found one stating that it was Erc, and one that it was Lugaid, a discrepancy which one might be at first inclined to put down to the carelessness of Irish story-tellers; but the Norse tale allows one to suppose that it is to be traced to a different origin; and the Irish accounts as they stand are best explained on the theory that they were both his slayers. Now Erc and Lugaid appear in them as warriors, but there is no more reason to regard them as originally and essentially war-gods than in the case of Höᵭr and Loki, though Erc at least came sooner or later to be invested probably with that character,—a view which derives indirect corroboration from the fact that Irish hagiology makes a saint bearing the name of Erc resemble St. Martin, an assimilation which I should trace to a probable equivalence of the names Erc and Mars. I should, therefore, venture to regard the Erc