2660. 2715), conf. p. 836. Of very aged people, who still live on, we say 'Death has forgotten to fetch them.' The Nib. Lament 122 has: der Tôt het ir minne, die dâ sterben solden,' D. bore those in mind that there should die, or, as Lachmann interprets it, desired them for his band (conf. p. 848). These investigations will hardly have left it doubtful, that the heathen 'Death' is one of a secondary order of gods; hence too he coincides more especially with the semi-divine valkyrs and norns, he is dependent on Oðinn and Hel; of the Grecian gods, it is Hermes and Hades, Persephone and the ferryman Charon that come nearest to him. But his nature is also not unrelated to that of elves, homesprites and genii. Chap. XXIV. has explained how he got mixed up with one of the time-gods, Winter; no wonder therefore that he now and then reminds us of Kronos. In our Heldenbuch, Death figures as a false god, whom the heathen Belligan serves above all other gods, and whose image is demolished by Wolfdietrich. I do not know exactly how to account for this: it must be a diabolic being that is meant. In the Finnish lays, Manala and Tuonela are often named together, but as separate beings. One is the underworld, from 'maa,' earth; the other the kingdom of the dead,, as Tuon (0ávaTos) is Death, Halja. In Kalewala, runes 6—9, Tuonela seems to be a river of the underworld, with sacred swans swimming on it (see Suppl.). VOL. II. E E CHAPTER XXVIII. DESTINY AND WELL-BEING. This is the place to insert a more exact survey of ancient opinions on fortune and destiny, than it was possible to take in chap. XVI, where the semi-divine directresses of human fate were spoken of. Fate in the proper sense has so much to do with men's notions about birth, and more especially those about death, and these have only just been expounded. Thus, a man over whom there impends a speedy and inevitable death is said to be fey.1 Our ancestors, like other heathens, appear to have made a distinction between destiny and fortune. Their gods bestow prosperity and bliss: above all, Wuotan is the giver of all good, the maker and author of life and victory (pp. 133-7). But neither he nor any other god was at the beginning of creation, he has himself sprung out of it (p. 559), and can do nothing against a higher constitution of the world, which exempts neither him nor victory-lending Zeus from a general destruction (pp. 316-8). Some things turn out contrary to his will: Oðinn and all the âses cannot prevent the misfortune of Balder another instance of overruling destiny at p. 425. Ragnarök, the world's destruction, far overtops the power of the gods. 2 ; This predetermined and necessary character of all that comes into being and exists and perishes, was expressed by a plural 1 OHG. feigi, MHG. veige; OS. fêgi, Hel. 72, 4; AS. fæge, Beow. 5946; ON. feigr. The old meaning of the word has been preserved longest in Lower Saxony [and Scotland]: 'dar is en veege in'n huse'; en veegminsche, dat balde sterven werd (will die soon)'; per contra, he is nau nig veege (not fey yet)' of a man who comes in when you are talking of him. Also Nethl. een veeg man (with one foot in the grave), een veege teken (sign of death)', hence also veeg debilis, periculis expositus. Our own feig has acquired the sense of fainthearted, cowardly, pitiable, as the Lat. fatalis has, in the Fr. fatal, that of unlucky, disagreeable. So the Lith. paikas, bad (see Suppl.). = 2 Τρώεσσι βούλεται νίκην (Ι. 7, 21. 16, 121), as βουλή will, counsel, is usually attributed to Zeus (nuîv Boúλeraι 17, 331); and sometimes voos (17, 176) or vóŋua, purpose (17, 409). His great power is illustrated by the gold chain (σepá, Il. 8, 19-28), but passages presently to be cited shew that he had to leave destiny to be decided by the balance. = noun, ON. scöp, OS. giscapu, AS. gesceapu; I have not found an OHG. scaf, kiscaf in the same sense, though the sing. is forthcoming, and, like the sing. skap in ON., signifies indoles, consilium, Graff 6, 450. The later Icelandic uses a masc. skapnaðr, and the Dan. skiebne (ON. skepna forma, indoles). The OS. intensifies its giscapu by prefixes: wurdigiscapu, Hel. 103, 7. reganogiscapu (supra p. 26), decreta fati, superorum, where the old heathen notions of wurd and regin plainly assert themselves. In ON. the neut. pl. lög (statuta) is never used of destiny, except when joined to the particle ör (for or), örlög, which in all the other dialects becomes a sing., OHG. urlac (neut.? Graff's quotations 2, 96-7 leave it doubtful, Notker uses urlag as masc., pl. urlaga), OS. orlag, AS. orlæg, all denoting a 'fixing from the first;' but as the most momentous issue of fate was to the heathen that of war, it early deviated into the sense of bellum, and in Hel. 132, 3 urlagi bellum seems distinct from orlag, orleg fatum, but in reality both are one. So the OHG. urteil, urteili, AS. ordal, from being the award of a judge, came to mean that of battle. The OS. compound aldarlagu (vitae decretum), Hel. 125, 15 retains the old plural form. Now aldr, aldar is strictly aevum (p. 792), and hveila, OHG. huila tempus, but also vitae tempus; hence these words also run into the sense of fatum, conf. AS. gesceap-hwil, orleg-hwil, Beow. 52. 4849. 5817, OS. orlag-huila, Hel. 103, 8, and OHG. huîlsâlida.1 Then there is an ON. auðna, Swed. öde, destiny, and 'auðinn' fato concessus : ́auðna ræðr hvörs manns lîfi,' rules every man's life, Fornald. sög. 1, 95. Our modern words, not introduced till late, schicksal (fr. schicken aptare, conf. geschickt aptus), verhängnis, fügung, do not come up to the old ones in simplicity or strength. To the nouns 'scapu, lagu,' correspond the verbs to shape, to lay, which are used in a special sense of the decrees of fate (pp. 407. 410): 'ist tha kindee skepen (is it shaped for the child)' says the O. Fris. Law 49, 10. But we also meet with an ON. ætla (destinare, to intend for some one), OHG. ahton and perhaps ahtilôn, MHG. ahten, and beslahten, as ahte and slahte are akin to one another (see Suppl.). 1 Wilsâlda (fortuna), N. Cap. 20-3-5. 53. 77. MHG. wilsælde, Kaiserchr. 1757. Massmann 3, 669. Geo. 61a. diu wîle mîn und ich müez Got bevolhen sîn,' must be committed to God, Bit. 3b. Destiny has principally to do with the beginning and the end of human life. The Wurd visits the newborn and the dying, and it is for one or the other of these events that the abovementioned names of destiny are mostly used by the poets; thus Beow. 51 speaks of dying 'tô gesceaphwîle,' at the appointed time: Hel. 103, 7: 'tho quâmun wurdegiscapu themu ôdagan man, orlaghuîle, that he thit licht farlêt.' The hour of birth too settles much as to the course and outcome of one's life: 'qualem Nascentia attulit, talis erit,' and 'Parcae, dum aliquis nascitur, valent eum designare ad hoc quod volunt,' Superst. A, and C 198°. The infant's whole course of life shall be conformable to what the norns or fays in their visitation have bestowed, have shaped. 1 It is a deviation from this oldest way of thinking, to put the settlement of destiny into the hands of the gods; yet it is a very old one. Undoubtedly the faith of many men began early to place the Highest God at the very head of the world's management, leaving those weird-women merely to make known his mandates. The future lies on the lap of the gods, Oeŵv ev yoúvaσi Keîтaɩ, and with this agrees that 'laying on the lap,' that 'taking to the bosom,' which is performed by the paternal or maternal deity (pp. 642. 839). If above the gods themselves there could be conceived a still higher power, of the beginning and end of all things, yet their authority and influence was regarded by men as boundless and immeasurable, all human concerns were undoubtedly under their control (see Suppl.). The Gautrekssaga tells us (Fornald. sög. 3, 32), that at midnight Hrosshårsgrani 2 awoke his foster-son Starkaðr, and carried him in his boat to an island. There, in a wood, eleven men sat in council; the twelfth chair stood vacant, but Hrosshârsgrani took it, and all saluted him as Oðinn. And Oðinn said, the demsters should deem the doom of Starkaðr (dômendr skyldi doma örlug St.). Then spake Thôrr, who was wroth with the mother of the lad: I shape for him, that he have neither son nor 1 We still say: 'born in happy hour.' OHG. ' mit heilu er giboran ward,' 0. Sal. 44. Freq. in the O. Span. Cid: ' el que en buen ora nascio, el que en buen punto nascio.' From this notion of a good hour of beginning (à la bonne heure) has sprung the Fr. word bonheur (masc.) for good hap in general. Similarly, about receiving knighthood, the O. Span, has el que en buen ora cinxo espada.' 2 That is, Grani, Sîðgrani, the bearded, a by-name of Oðinn (p. 147). daughter, but be the last of his race. Oðinn said: I shape him, that he live three men's lifetimes (conf. Saxo Gram. p. 103). Thôrr: in each lifetime he shall do a 'nîðîngs-verk.' Oðinn: I shape him, that he have the best of weapons and raiment. Thôrr he shall have neither land nor soil. Odinn: I give him, that he have store of money and chattels. Thôrr: I lay unto him, that he take in every battle grievous wounds. Oðinn: I give him the gift of poetry. Thôrr: what he composes he shall not be able to remember. Odinn: this I shape him, that he be prized by the best and noblest men. Thôrr: by the people he shall be hated. Then the demsters awarded to Starkaðr all the doom that was deemed, the council broke up, and Hrosshârsgrani and his pupil went to their boat. Thôrr plays here exactly the part of the ungracious fay (pp. 411-2), he tries to lessen each gift by a noxious ingredient. And it is not for an infant, but a well-grown boy, and in his presence, that the destiny is shaped. According to Greek legend, Zeus did not always decide directly, but made use of two scales, in which he weighed the fates of men, e.g. of the Trojans and Achæans, of Achilles and Hector: Καὶ τότε δὴ χρύσεια πατὴρ ἐπίταινε τάλαντα ἐν δ ̓ ἐτίθει δύο κῆρε τανηλεγέος θανάτοιο, ἕλκε δὲ μέσσα λαβών· ῥέπε δ' αἴσιμον ἦμαρ Ἀχαιῶν. Il. 8, 69. 22, 209; conf. 16, 658. 19, 223. The same of Aeneas and Turnus, Aen. 12, 723 : Jupiter ipse, duas aequato examine lances sustinet, et fata imponit diversa duorum, quem damnet labor, et quo vergat pondere letum. I am the more particular in quoting these, as the christian legend also provides the archangel Michael, the conductor of souls, with scales, in which the good and evil deeds of them that die are weighed against one another, and the destinies of souls determined by the outcome1 (see Suppl.). The application of a balance to actions, to sins, is very natural; the (apocryphal) 2 Esdras 3, 34 1 Conf. Deut. S. no. 479; a coll. of authorities in Zappert's Vita Acotanti, (Vienna 1839), pp. 79, 88. |