Page:Segnius Irritant or Eight Primitive Folk-lore Stories.pdf/103

 maidens is Golden Locks is a symbol of the return of life in spring. In George (? little year) and his Goat we have another sign of the Zodiac—Capricornus, the December sign. The mayor looks out of 93 the window and says: “Oh fie! Martha, Kate and Doodle!” comes down to detach them from the goat as the bull is passing, and he and the bull both stick too. This seems to indicate the passing of the sun into the constellation of the bull. There is, however, some confusion here. The goat is certainly Capricornus; but, as we have seen (and the explanation has been given), there is a tendency for the characters to walk out of their frames, so to say, and assume different parts. Analogies might easily be imagined between Capricornus, the first winter, and Aries, the first spring constellation; between the first constellation of the year, and the first one of the little year, i.e., the three winter months.

The carver, tailor, and hero of the story Reason and Happiness are explained by a Moravian legend called The Four Brothers. In this story four sons of a gamekeeper, like the Panduidi, go into a wood, there divide and seek their fortunes. At the end of a year they return home, each having learnt a trade. One is a botcher, the second a thief, the third a gamekeeper, and the fourth a star-gazer. The star-gazer wins the princess, and each brother is given a kingdom. In spring the father lives with the botcher, in summer with the thief, in autumn with the gamekeeper, and in winter with the star-gazer. The hero, therefore, corresponds to the winter; the carver is autumn; and the tailor who clothes the world with flowers is the spring. In the Vedic legend Tvashtar (the Vedic Vulcan) compare Slav tvoriteltvořitel [sic]—the former or creator is associated with the autumn, he creates all forms of beings. In other words, the seeds which contain all the forms of vegetable life set and fall, the fish spawn, the cattle rut.

We have now identified all the characters in these eight stories who correspond, and have found, in their most abstract form, the fates or grandmothers to represent vague ideas of time, past, present and future; then the recurrent periods of dark moons, light moons and day, particularly associated with the long Arctic winter night; then the four seasons; and lastly the twelve signs of the Zodiac, presiding over the twelve months, and supposed in the dark ages of the world to influence the destinies of human beings. The stories, therefore, with the least differentiated Norns will, as a rule, be the most ancient.

The table on next page shows the relation of the fates and their substitutes to one another in the stories.

This analysis of the fate-element brings out in very clear relief one or two facts with respect to the Slavonic myths, which seem to me of considerable importance. In the first place, all the stories are annual myths. In the next place, all are more or less impregnated, so to say, with the elements of frost and cold. And, lastly, in all the stories the hero is not the sun, but the revivifying forces of nature acting upon the surface of our globe, and which bring dead nature