BOOK The Teu onic Norns. and thus we come to the Teutonic Norns. The Hellenic Moirai, as knowing what was to befall each man, had necessarily the power of prediction, a characteristic which is the most prominent attribute of the fatal sisters of the North. These in the German myths are Vurdh, Verdhandi, and Skuld, names purely arbitrary and artificial, denoting simply that which has been, that which is in process of becoming or is in being, and that which shall be hereafter.' Of these names the two last have dropped out of English usage, while Vurdh has supplied the name by which the sisters were known to Shakespeare; and thus we have the weird sisters whom Macbeth encounters on the desolate heath, the weird elves of Warner's Albion, the Weird Lady of the Woods of the Percy Ballads,' the Fatal Sustrin of Chaucer. These Norns, gifted with the wisdom of the Thriai,3 lead us through all the bounds of space. They are the guardians of the great ash-tree Yggdrasil, whose branches embrace the whole world. Under each of its three roots is a marvellous fountain, the one in heaven, the abode of the Asas, being the fountain of Vurdh, that of Jötunheim being called by the name of the wise Mimir, while the third in Niflheim, or Hades, is the Hvergelmir, or boiling cauldron. At the first the Asas and Norns hold their court; at the second Mimir keeps his ceaseless watch, a being whose name has apparently a meaning closely akin to that of the Latin Minerva, and 1 Vurdh represents the past tense of the word werden. Verdhandi is the present participle, werdend, while Skuld is the older form of Schuld, the obligation to atone for the shedding of blood. Skuld thus represents really the past tense skal, which means 'I have killed, and therefore am bound to make compensation for it.' The difference between our shall' and 'will' is thus at once explained. Max Müller, Chips, ii. 62; Grimm, D. Myth. 377. 2 Grimm, D. M. 378. Max Müller, Lectures on Language, second series, 563. The Norns are the Three Spinsters of the German story in Grimm's collection, who perform the tasks which are too hard for the delicate hands of the Dawn-maiden. In the Norse Tales (Dasent) they reappear as the Three Aunts, or the three one-eyed hags, who help Shortshanks, as the three sisters in the tale of Farmer Weathersky, and the three loathly heads in the story of Bushy Bride. 3 Their wisdom is inherited by the bards whose name, Skalds, has been traced by Professor Kuhn to the same root with the Sanskrit Khandas, metre; and Khandas Professor Max Müller regards as identical with the term Zend. For the evidence of this see Chips, &c. i. 84, note. + Grimm, who traces the word through its many changes, notes also the relation of the Latin memor with the Greek μuéouai-the mimic being the man who remembers what is done by another; and thus mummery' is but another form of 'memory." D. Myth. 353. Mimir is thus the Kentaur Mimas; and the wisdom of the Kentaur, it may be YGGDRASIL AND IRMINSUL. who leaves to Wuotan (Odin) only one eye, having demanded the other as a pledge before he will grant to him a draught from the water which imparts wisdom. Such is the sanctity of this water, which the Norns every morning pour over the branches of the ash-tree, that everything touched by it becomes snow-white, and the dew which falls from the tree is always sweet as honey. On the crown of the tree sits an eagle; under its roots lurks the serpent or dragon Nidhögr; and between these the squirrel, ever running up and down, seeks to sow dissension. This mighty ash-tree in Grimm's belief is only another form of the colossal Irminsul,' the pillar which sustains the whole Kosmos, as Atlas bears up the heaven, the three roads which branch from the one representing the three roots of the other. The tree and the pillar are thus alike seen in the columns, whether of Herakles or of Roland; while the cosmogonic character of the myth is manifest in the legend of the primeval man Askr, the offspring of the ash-tree, of which Virgil, from the characteristic which probably led to its selection, speaks as stretching its roots as far down into earth as its branches soar towards heaven.2 19 СНАР. teia. II. The process which multiplied the Norns and defined their Nemesis functions exalted also the character of Atê, who, as we have and Adrasseen, appears in the Iliad simply as the spirit of mischievous folly, hurled out of Olympos for bringing about the birth of Eurystheus before that of Herakles, but who in the hands of Eschylos becomes the righteous but unrelenting avenger of blood. The statement that the Litai are beings who follow closely when a crime is done, and seek to make amends for it, is a mere allegory on the office of prayer; and what is told us of Nemesis, if less allegorical, is still merely the result of moral reflection. In the world good and evil seem BOOK Tychê to be capriciously distributed, so that on the one side we have the squalid beggar, on the other the man whose prosperity is so unvarying that his friend, foreseeing the issue, sends to renounce, all further alliance with him. This inequality it is the business of Nemesis to remedy; and thus she becomes practically an embodiment of righteous indignation at successful wrong, although she is also regarded as the minister of the gods who are jealous when the well-being of man passes beyond a certain limit.' In either aspect she is Adrasteia, the being from whom there is no escape. In the meaning commonly attached to the word, Tychê denoted the idea of mere blind chance, scattering her gifts without any regard to the deserts of those on whom they might fall. But this was not the conception which led some to represent her with a rudder as guiding the affairs of the world, and not only to place her among the Moirai, but to endow her with a power beyond that of the others. In her more fickle aspect she carries the ball in her hand, while her wealth and the nature of her gifts are denoted by the horn of Amaltheia at her side, and the boy Erôs who accompanies her, or the Good Demons who sometimes surround her. As Akraia, Tychê becomes simply a name of Athênê, the wealthbringer; with the epithet Agathê, good, she becomes practically identical with the Agathos Daimôn, the nameless benignant deity invoked by cities and individual men. The names Theos and Daimôn are often given to those unnamed forces in nature which, in Preller's words, are more felt in their general influences than in particular acts. Nor is the assertion without warrant that the genuine utterances of the heart were addressed to this incomprehensible power, of whose goodness generally they felt assured, and not to any mythical deities on whose capricious feelings no trust could be placed. When the swineherd Eumaios talks with Odysseus, we hear nothing of Zeus or Phoibos, but we are told simply that the unnamed God gives and takes away as may seem to him best. 1 φθονερὸν τὸ δαιμόνιον—the doctrine which lies at the root of the philosophy attributed by Herodotos to Solon, and of the policy of Amasis in his dealings with Polykrates. The myth of the Rhamnusian egg of Nemesis belongs to THE WANDERINGS OF LÊTÔ. Nor can we doubt that even the mass of the people were impressed with the belief in a deity or power different in kind from the mythical deities brought before them by their epic or tragic poets. This deity was simply the good God, or the unknown Being, worshipped ignorantly, whom St. Paul said that he came only to declare to them. Doubtless even this conception underwent many modifications; and in the end not only each state or city, but each man and woman, from the moment of birth, had a guardian demon or angel who sought to lead them always in the right way.' This guardian was invoked on all occasions, in such forms as our 'Luck be with you,' or the 'Quod bonum, felix, faustumque sit' of the Latins.2 21 CHAP. II. SECTION X.-HELLENIC SUNGODS AND HEROES. The Ionian legend, embodied in the so-called Homeric The Ionian legend of Hymn, tells the simple tale that Lêtô, the mother of the the birth unborn Phoibos, could find no place to receive her in her of Phoibos.. hour of travail until she came to Delos. To wealthier and more fertile lands she made her prayer in vain; and when she addressed herself to the little stony island with its rugged cliffs and hills, Delos trembled with joy not unmingled with fear. The unborn child, she knew, would be a being of mighty power, ruling among the undying gods and mortal men; and she dreaded lest he should despise his sterile birthplace and spurn it with his foot into the sea. It remained only for Lêtô to make a solemn covenant with Delos, that here should be the sanctuary of her child for ever, and that here his worshippers, coming from all lands to his high festival, should lavish on her inexhaustible wealth of gold and treasures. So the troth was plighted; but although Diônê and Amphitrîtê with other goddesses were by her side, Hêrê remained far away in the palace of Zeus, and the child of Lêtô could not be born unless she should suffer Eileithyia to hasten to her relief. Then, as she drew near, Lêtô cast her arms around a tall palm-tree as she reclined on the bank 1 ἅπαντι δαίμων ἀνδρὶ συμπαρίσταται εὐθὺς γεσομένῳ μυσταγωγὸς τοῦ βίου ayalós.-Menander, quoted by Clem. Al. Str. 5, p. 260. Preller, Gr, Myth. i. 422. Preller, ib. i. 423. BOOK The story. of Kynthos, and the babe leaped to life and light as the earth smiled around her. The goddesses bathed him in pure water, and wrapping him in a glistening robe, fine and newly wrought, placed a golden band round the body of Chrysâôr, while Thetis touched his lips with the drink and food of the gods. But no sooner had the child received this nourishment, than he was endowed with an irresistible strength, and his swaddling bands fell off him like flax, as he declared his mission of teaching to men the counsels of Zeus. Then began the journey of the farshooting god, whose golden hair no razor should ever touch. From land to land he went, delighting his eyes with the beautiful sights of grove-clad hills and waters running to the sea. This hymn has, indeed, a historical interest, as being Delphian manifestly the work of a time when the great Ionian festival at Delos was celebrated with a magnificence which the Lydian and Persian conquests grievously impaired. To the hymn writer Delos is the abode dear above all others to the lord of light; and thither come worshippers whose beauty and vigour would seem beyond the touch of sickness, pain, or death. The rest of the hymn is manifestly a different poem, composed by a Delphian when the oracle of that place had reached its highest reputation; but the blind old bard of the rocky islet of Chios is well aware that, apart from any rivalry of other temples and other festivals, it is impossible for Phoibos always to abide in Delos. For him there is no tranquil sojourn anywhere; and all that the poet can say on behalf of his beloved Delos is, that the God never fails to return to it with ever-increasing delight, as in the old Vedic hymns the Dawn is said to come back with heightened beauty every morning. In truth, almost every phrase of the hymn is transparent in its meaning. The name Lêtô is close akin to that of Leda, the dusky mother of the glorious Dioskouroi, and is in fact another form of the Lêthê, in which men forget alike their joys and sorrows, the Latmos in which Endymion sinks into his dreamless sleep, and the Ladon, or lurkingdragon, who guards the golden apples of the Hesperides. But for many a weary hour the night travails with the birth of the coming day, and her child cannot be born save in the |