CHAPTER XXV.

TIME AND WORLD.

In the last chapter we examined myths having reference to the alternation of seasons, to phenomena of the year. Our language affords several instances of transition from the notion of time to that of space.

Ulphilas translates χρόνος, καιρός, ὥρα alternately by mêl, hveila, beihs, yet so that 'mêl' usually stands for xpóvos or Kapós, rarely for "pa, and 'hveila' mostly for pa, seldomer for χρόνος and καιρός; the former expressing rather the longer section of time, and the latter the shorter. Mêl, OHG. mál, AS. mæl, ON. mál, lit. mark or measure, is applied to measured speech or writing as well as to a portion of time; on the contrary, hveila, OHG. huila, MHG. wîle, AS. hwîl (p. 702), denotes rest, and is purely a notion of time, whereas mêl was transferred from space to time. We come across beihs (neut. gen. peihsis) only twice, viz. Rom. 13, 11: 'vitandans pata þeihs, patei mêl ist,' εἰδότες τὸν καιρὸν, ὅτι ὥρα, and 1 Thess. 5, 1 : ‘bi po peihsa jah mela, περὶ τῶν χρόνων καὶ τῶν καιρῶν. Each passage contains both peihs and mêl, but the choice of the former for xpóvos and the latter for kaipós shews that peihs is even better adapted than mêl for the larger fuller notion, and the most complete arrangement would be: peihs χρόνος, mêl καιρός, hveila ὥρα. I derive þeihs from peihan (crescere, proficere, succedere), as veihs gen. veihsis (propugnaculum) from veihan (pugnare); so that it expresses profectus, successus, the forward movement of time, and is near of kin to OHG. dîhsmo, dêhsmo (profectus), probably also to dîhsila (temo), our deichsel, AS. pîsl, thill, for which we may assume a Goth. þeihslo, peihsla, the apparatus by which the waggon is moved on. Schmeller 4, 294 cleverly connects têmo itself with tempus: the celestial waggon-thill (p. 724) marks the movement of nocturnal time (Varro 7, 72–5), and þeihsla becomes a measure like the more general þeihs. Even if the connexion of the two Latin words be as yet doubtful, that of the two Gothic

ones can hardly be so. But now, as the Goth. beihs has no representative in the other Teutonic tongues, and in return the OHG. zît, AS. tîd, ON. tîỡ seems foreign to Gothic, it is natural, considering the identity of meaning, to suppose that the latter form arose from mixing up peihan (crescere) with teihan (nuntiare), and therefore that the AS. tîd stands for þîd, and OHG. zît for dît; besides, the OHG. zît is mostly neut., like þeihs, whereas the fem. zît, tîd would have demanded a Goth. þeihaps. Of course a Goth. þeihs ought to have produced an OHG. dîhs or dîh (as veihs did wîh); but, that derivation here branched in two or three directions is plain from the ON. tîmi, AS. tîme (tempus, hora), which I refer to the OHG. dîhsmo1 above, and a Goth. þeihsma, with both of which the Lat. tempus (and têmo?) would perfectly agree (see Suppl.).

Like hveila, the OHG. stulla, and stunt, stunta, AS. ON. stund (moment, hour), contain the notion of rest, and are conn. with stilli (quietus), standan (stare), while conversely the Lat. mōmentum (movi-mentum) is borrowed from motion. We express the briefest interval of time by augenblick, eye-glance; Ulph. renders Luke 4, 5 év otiyμî Xpóvov in stika mêlis,' in a prick of time, in ictu temporis; 1 Cor. 15, 52 ẻv pɩπŷ ỏþ¤aλμoû, ‘in brahva áugins,' brahv being glance, flash, micatus, AS. twincel, and traceable to braíhvan (micare, lucere), OHG. prëhan, MHG. brehen; AS. 'on beorhtm-hwile' from bearhtm ictus oculi, 'on eágan beorhtm,' Beda 2, 13; ON. 'î augabragði,' conf. Sæm. 11. 14. 19. OHG. 'in slago dero brâwo,' N. ps. 2, 12, in a movement of the eyelid (conf. slegiprâwa palpebra, Graff 3, 316); ‘ante

1 In dîhan, dîhsmo the d remained, in zît it degenerated. Just so the Goth. bvahan first became regularly OHG. duahan, then irregularly tuahan, now zwagen; the OS. thuingan first OHG. duingan, then tuingan, now zwingen. Less anomalous by one degree are OHG. zi for Goth. du (to), and our zwerg for ON. dvergr (dwarf), MHG. twerc.

2 Numeral adverbs of repetition our language forms with stunt as well as mâl, but also by some words borrowed from space, Gramm. 3, 230.

3 Beside the inf. brëhen (MS. 1, 47a. 185a. Gudr. 1356, 2) we are only sure of the pres. part.: ouge-brehender klê, MS. 1, 3o. brehender schîn 2, 231; for the pret. brach, MS. 2, 52a. Bon. 48. 68, could be referred to brechen, conf. 'break of day,' p. 747, yet the two verbs themselves may be congeners. In OHG. the perf. part. appears in prëhan-ougi (lippus), a compound formed like zoran-ougi, Gramm. 2, 693. The Goth. brahv assures us of the princ. parts in full, braíhva, brahv, brêhvum (like saíhva, sahv, sêhvum). But instead of an adj. braíhts (bright), even the Gothic has only a transposed form baírhts, OHG. peraht, AS. beorht, ON. biartr; yet our Perahta is afterwards also called Prehta, Brehte (pp. 277-9), and other proper names waver between the two forms, as Albrecht Albert, Ruprecht Robert.

VOL. II.

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quam supercilium superius inferiori jungi possit,' Caesar. heisterb. 12, 5. ' minre wîlen (in less time) dan ein oucbrâ zuo der andern muge geslahen,' Grieshaber p. 274. als ein oucbrâ mac ûf und zuo gegên,' can open and shut, Berth. 239. 'ê ich die hant umbkêrte, oder zuo geslüege die (or better, diu) brâ,' Er. 5172. alsô schier sô (as fast as) ein brâwe den andern slahen mac,' Fundgr. 1, 199 (see Suppl.).1

A great length of time is also expressed by several different words: Goth. áivs (m.), OHG. éwa (f.), Gr. aióv, Lat. aevum shading off into the sense of seculum, O. Fr. aé (p. 678); the OS. eo (m.) means only statutum, lex, as the Goth. mêl was scriptura as well as tempus. Then Goth. alps (f.), by turns aiov (Eph. 2, 2. 1 Tim. 1, 17. 2 Tim. 4, 10), and Bíos or yeveá; ON. öld; OHG. with suffix altar (aevum, aetas), though the simple word also survives in the compound wëralt (assimil. worolt), MHG. werlt, our welt, AS. wërold, Engl. world, Fris. wrald, ON. vërald, vëröld, Swed. werld, Dan. verd: constant use accounts for the numerous distortions of the word.2 Its Gothic form, wanting in Ulph., would have been vaír-alps or 'vaírê alps,' virorum (hominum) aetas, aetas (lifetime) passing into the local sense of mundus (world), just as seculum, siècle, has come to mean mundus, monde. We saw on p. 575 that Greek mythology supposes four ages of the world, golden, silver, brazen and iron a fancy that has travelled far, and was apparently no stranger in Scandinavia itself. Snorri 15 gives the name of

1 Can brâwe, OHG. prâwa, ON. brâ, be derived from brehen? Perhaps the set phrases in the text reveal the reason for it. In that case the OHG. prâwa must be for prâha, and we might expect a Goth. brêhva? Then the Sanskr. bhrû, Gr. ¿opus, would be left without the vivid meaning of the Teut. word.

2 Its true meaning was so obscured, that other explanations were tried. Maerlant at the beginn. of his Sp. Hist. die de werelt êrst werrelt hiet, hine was al in dole niet. Adam die werelt al verwerrede.' This deriv, from werren (impedire, intricare) was, if I mistake not, also hit upon by MHG. poets, e.g. Renner 2293. Equally wrong are those from wern to last, and werlen to whirl. It is quite possible, that werô alt (virorum aetas) was intended as an antithesis to a risônô alt (gigantum aetas) which preceded it.

3 In our Mid. Ages the World was personified, like Death, and the various ages were combined in a statue with a head of gold, arms of silver, a breast of brass and iron, and feet of earth, MS. 2, 175b; another representation gave the figure a golden head, silver breast and arms, brazen belly, steel thighs, iron legs, earthen feet, MS. 2, 225a; a third, a golden head, silver arms, brazen breast, copper belly, steel thighs, earthen feet, Amgb. 27. This medley, though borrowed from Daniel 2, 31-43, reminds us of ancient idols formed out of various metals, and also of Hrûngnir with the stone heart, and Möckrkâlfi who was made of loam, and had a mare's heart put into him, Sn. 109. Hugo in his Renner 13754 speaks of a steel, diamond, copper, wood, and straw world.

gull-aldr to the period when the gods had all their utensils made of gold, which was only cut short by the coming of giantesses out of Iötunheim. Had he merely borrowed this golden age from the classics, he would have taken the trouble to discover the other metals too in Norse legend.1 But in the Völuspâ (Sæm. 8) we see that other ages are spoken of, skegg-öld (see p. 421), skálm-öld, vind-öld and varg-öld, which are to precede the destruction of the world.

To translate kóσμos, Ulph. takes by turns, and often one immediately after the other, the two words fairhvus and manaséþs; both must have been in common use among the Goths. Manasêbs 2 means virorum satus (seed of men), and is used at once for Xaos and for kooμos, thus fully conciding with the above developed sense of weralt. Fairhvus I take to be near of kin to OHG. fërah, AS. feorh, MHG. vërch, so that it expressed lifetime again, like aevum ; it is also connected with OHG. firahî (homines), and would mean first 'coetus hominum viventium,' then the space in which they live. It has nothing to do with fairguni, earth, mountain (see Suppl.).

As κóσμos properly means the ordered, symmetrical (world), mundus the clean, well-trimmed, bright, and as the Frisian laws 126, 26 speak of 'thi skene wrald'; so the Slavic sviet, svèt, swiat is, first of all, light and brightness, then world, the open, public,3 all that the sun illumines, whatsoever is 'under the sun.'4 So the Wallach. lume, the Hung. világ, signify both light and world. The Lith. swietas, O. Pruss. switai, world, is borowed from Slavic. Like mundus, the Slav. sviet passes into the time-sense of seculum, vièk (Dobrowsky's Inst. 149). The older Slavs called the world mir and ves'mir, Dobr. 24. 149; mir is also the word for peace, quietness, and seems akin to mira or mèra, measure (order?). The Finnic for world is maa' ilma, the Esth. ma ilm (from ilma, the expanse of air, and maa, earth), the Lapp. ilbme.

1 We may connect the golden age with Frôdi, whose mill ground gold and peace. The Finns say, in Ukko's time gold was ground in the mills, honey trickled from the oaks, and milk flowed in the rivers (conf. p. 697), Ganander 98.

2 Always with single n, as in mana-maúrþrja, mana-riggvs, manags (many), manáuli, and as in OHG. mana-houpit, mana-luomi, manac, conf. MHG. sunewende, p. 617 n. The reason of this peculiarity grammar must determine. 8 To bring to light, impart to the world, is in Serv. na svièt izdáti.'

The Lett. word pasaule seems to have been modelled on this 'sub sole' in Eccles. 1, 3. 2, 22. So unter disem wolken,' Rol. 9, 31.

Beow. 150. 1496; the Fragm. theot. 17, 6. mittiligart, Gl. Jun.

The ON. heimr is mundus, domus, and akin to himinn, himil (p. 698), as mundus also is applied both to world and sky; heimskringla, orbis terrarum. Ulphilas renders oikovμévη, Luke οἰκουμένη, 2, 1. 4, 5. Rom. 10, 18, by midjungards; to this correspond the AS. middangeard, Cadm. 9, 3. 177, 29. OHG. mittingart, Is. 340. 385-6. 408. mittigart, Fragm. th. 17, 3. 20, 20. 25, 9. 216. T. 16, 1. mittilgart, T. 155, 1. 178, 2. 179, 1; the OS. middilgard; the ON. midgardr, Sam. 1. 456. 77. 90a. 114. 115. Sn. 9. 10. 13. 45. 61; and even a Swed. folksong 1, 140 has retained medjegård. O. Engl. middilerd, medilearth, like the Gr. μeooyaía. Fischart's Garg. 66a has mittelkreiss, mid-circle. We saw (p 560) that midgardr was, to the Norse way of thinking, created out of Ymir's eyebrows, and appointed to men for their habitation. The whole compound, doubtless very ancient, is of prime importance, because it is native to our oldest memorials, and at the same time strictly Eddic. Nor is that all: in similar harmony, the world is called in ON. Oegisheimr, Sæm. 124b. 125a, and in MHG. mergarte, Annolied 444. Rol. 106, 14. Kaiserchr. 501. 6633. Karl. 38; i.e. the sea-girt world, conf. Goth. marisáivs (ocean), and OHG. merikerti (aetherium),1 Diut. 1, 250. Lastly, OHG. woroltring, O. ii. 2, 13. iii. 26, 37. iv. 7, 11. v. 1, 33. 19, 1. erdring, O. i. 11, 47. MHG. erdrinc, Mar. 198-9, orbis terrarum, Graff 4, 1163.

According to the Edda, a huge serpent, the midgards ormr, lies coiled round the earth's circumference, 'umgiörð allra landa': evidently the ocean. When Alexander in the legend was carried up in the air by griffins, the sea appeared to him to twine like a snake round the earth. But that 'world-serpent,' hateful to all the gods (sû er goð fîa, Sæm. 55a) was the child of Loki, and brother to the Fenris-ûlfr and Hel; he was called Törmungandr (Sn. 32), the great, the godlike (conf. p. 351), and like Hel he opens wide his jaws, Sn. 63 (see Suppl.).

Everything shews that the notions of time, age, world, globe, earth, light, air and water ran very much into one another; in earth-ring,' ring indicates the globular shape of the earth and

aër.

The Finnic ilma? Festus says mundus meant coelum as well as terra, mare,