Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/142

110 BOOK I. her as his wife. His desire can be satisfied only through Sigurd, who by the arts and philtres of Grimhild has been made to forget his first love and betroth himself to Gudrun. In vain Gunnar^ strives to ride through the flames that encircle Brynhild, until at last, by the arts of Grimhild, Sigurd is made to change shapes and arms with Gunnar, and, mounting on Gran, to force Brynhild to yield. Thus Sigurd weds the Valkyrie in Gunnar's form, and lies down by her side with the unsheathed blade of Gram between them.^ In the morning he gives to Brynhild the ring which was under the double curse of Andvari and Loki, receiving from her another ring in return. This ring is necessarily connected with the catastrophe ; but in the mode by which it is brought about, the Northern poets were left free to follow their fancy. In the Volsung tale, Gudrun and Brynhild are washing their hair in the same stream, when Brynhild says that no water from Gudrun's head shall fall upon her own, as her husband is braver than Gudrun's. When Gudrun replies that Sigurd, to whom she was wedded, had slain Fafnir and Regin and seized the hoard, Brynhild answers that Gunnar had done yet a braver deed in riding through the flames which surrounded her. A few words from Gudrun show her how things really are, and that the seeming Gunnar who had placed on her finger the ring won from the spoils of Andvari was really Sigurd who had transferred to Gudrun the ring which he had received from Brynhild. Thus her old love is re-awakened, only to be merged in the stinging sense of injustice which makes Oinone in one version of the myth refuse to heal the wounded Paris, and leads Deianeira to resolve on the death of Herakles. The three instances are precisely the same, although Oinone is of the three the most gentle and the most merciful. But in all there is the consciousness

' «' Gunnar Gjukason seems to sig- nify darkness, and thus we see that the awakening and budding spring is gone, carried away by Gunnar, like Proser- pine by Phito ; like Sita by Ravana. Gudrun, the daughter of Grimhild, and sometimes herself called Grimhild, whether the latter name meant summer (cf. Gharma in Sanskrit), or the earth and nature in the latter part of the year, is a sister of the dark Gunnar, and though now married to the bright Sigurd, she belongs herself to the nebulous regions." — Max Miillcr, CJiifs, ii. no. For some analysis of the Ramayana, which tells the story of Sita, Rama, and Ravana, see Intro.htc- iion to Comparative Myt/iohi:^', 347. Story of the Two Brothers, and in the romance of Tristram. In the Norse legem! of the Big Bird Uan, w-ho is no other than the Arabian Roc, the princess lays the bare sword between her and Ritter Red. Sir G. W. Dasent adds many more instances, as the story of Hrolf and Ingegerd, of Tristan and Isolt, and he rightly insists that "these mythi- cal deep-rooted germs, throwing out fresh shoots from age to age in the popular literature of the race, are far more convincing proofs of the early existence of their traditions than any mere external evidence." — A'orse Tales, introduction, cxlii. It is certainly worth noting that the incident is related also of AUah-ud-deen in the Arabian Nights' legend.
 * This incident recurs in Grimm's