The Project Gutenberg eBook of Myths of the Rhine
Title: Myths of the Rhine
Author: X.-B. Saintine
Illustrator: Gustave Doré
Translator: M. Schele de Vere
Release date: December 14, 2013 [eBook #44430]
Most recently updated: February 21, 2021
Language: English
Credits: Produced by David Widger
MYTHS OF THE RHINE
Translated from the French of X. B. Saintine
By Prof. M. Schele De Vere, LL. D.
Illustrated by Gustave Doré
Scribner, Armstrong, and Company
1874
CONTENTS
DESCRIPTIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS.
DESCRIPTIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS.
I.
Primitive Times.—The First Settlers on the Rhine.—Masters going to School.—Sanskrit and Breton.—An Idle God.—Microscopic Deities.—Tree Worship.—Birth-Trees and Death-Trees.....003
II.
The Druids and their Creed.—Esus.—The Holy Oak.—The Pforzheim Lime Tree.—A Rival Plant.—The Mistletoe and the Anguinufh.—The Oracle at Do-dona.—Immaculate Horses.—The Druidesses.—A late Elector.—Philanthropic Institution of Human Sacrifices.—Second Druidical. Epoch.....027
III.
A Visit to the Land of our Forefathers.—The Two Banks of the Rhine.—Druid Stones.—Weddings and Burials.—Night Service.—A Demigod Glacier.—Social Duels.—A Countrywoman of Aspasia.—Boudoir of a Celtic Lady.—The Bard’s Story.—Teutons and Titans.—Earthquake.....055
IV.
The Roman Gods invade Germany.—Drusus and the Dru-idess.—Ogmius, the Hercules of Gaul.—Great Philological Discovery concerning Tentâtes.—Transformations of every kind.—Irmensul.—The Rhine deified.—The Gods cross the River.—Druids of the Third Epoch.....091
V.
The World before and since Odin.—Birth of Ymer.—The Giants of the Frost.—A Log split in Two.—The First Man and the First Woman.—The Ash Ygdrasil and its Menagerie.—Thor’s Three Jewels.—Freyr’s Enchanted Sword.—A Souvenir of the National Guard of Belleville.—The Story of Kvasir and the Two Dwarfs.—Honey and Blood.—Invocation.....121
VI.
Short Biographies.—A Clairvoyant among the Gods.—A Bright God.—Tyr and the Wolf Fenris.—The Hospital at the Walhalla.—Why was Odin one-eyed.—The Three Norns.—Mimer the Sage.—A Goddess the Mother of Four Oxen.—The Love Affairs of Heimdall—The God with the Golden Teeth.....153
VII.
Heaven and Hell.—The Valkyrias.—Amusements in Walhalla.—Pork and Wild Boar.—A Frozen Hell.—Balder’s Death.—Frigg’s Devotion.—The Iron Tree Forest.—The Twilight of the Gods.—Iduna’s Apples.—The Fall of Heaven and the End of the World.—Reflections on that Event.—The Little Fellow still alive.....175
VIII.
How the Gods of India live only for a Kalpa, that is, for the Time between one World and another.—How the God Vishnu was One-eyed.—How Celts and Scandinavians believed in Metempsychosis, like the Indians.—How Odin, with his Emanations, came forth from the God Buddha.—About Mahabarata and Ramavana.—Chronology.—The World’s Age.—Comparative Tables.—Quotations.—Supporting Evidence.—A Cenotaph.....211
IX.
Confederation of all the Northern Gods.—Freedom of Religion.—Christianity.—Miserere mei!—Homeric Enumeration.—Prussian, Slavic, and Finnish Deities.—The God of Cherries and the God of Bees.—A Silver Woman.—Ilmarinnen’s Wedding Song.—A Skeleton God.—Yaga-Baba’s Pestle and Mortar.—Preparation for Battle.—The Little Chapel on the Hill.—The Signal for the Attack.—Jesus and Mary.....217
X.
Marietta and the Sweet-briar.—Esus and Jesus.—Amalgam.—A Neophyte.—Prohibition to eat Horseflesh.—Bishops in Arms.—Interruption.—Come Home, my Good Friend!—Prussia and the Myths of the Middle Ages.—Tybilinus, the Black God.—The little Blue Flower.....245
XI.
Elementary Spirits of Air, Fire, and Water.—Sylphs, their Amusements and Domestic Arrangements.—Little Queen Mab.—Will-o’-the- Wisps.—White Elves and Black Elves.—True Causes of Natural Somnambulism.—The Wind’s Betrothed.—Fire-damp.—Master Haemmerling.—The Last of the Gnomes.....263
XII.
Elementary Spirits of the Water.—Petrarch at Cologne.—Divine Judgment by Water.—Nixen and Undines.—A Furlough till Ten o’clock.—The White footed Undine.—Mysteries on the Rhine.—The Court of the Great Nichus.—Nixcobt, the Messenger of the Dead.—His Funny Tricks.—I go in Search of an Undine.....283
XIII.
Familiar Spirits.—Butzemann.—The Good Frau Holle.—Kobolds.—A Kobold in the Cook’s Employ.—Zot-terais and the Little White Ladies.—The Killecroffs, the Devil’s Children.—White Angels.—Granted Wishes, a Fable.....309
XIV.
Giants and Dwarfs.—Duel between Ephesim and Gromme-lund.—Court Dwarfs and Little Dwarfs.—Ymer’s Sons.—The Invisible Reapers.—Story of the Dwarf Kreiss and the Giant Quadragaat.—How the Giants came to serve the Dwarfs.....335
XV.
Wizards and the Bewitched.—The Journey of Asa-Thor and his Companions.—The Inn with the Five Passages.—Skrymner.—A Lost Glove found again.—Arrival at the Great City of Utgard.—Combat between Thor and the King’s Nurse.—Frederick Barbarossa and the Kyffhâuser.—Teutonia! Teutonia!—What became of the Ancient Gods.—Venus and the good Knight Tannhâuser.—Jupiter on Rabbit Island.—A Modern God.....371
XVI.
Women as Missionaries, Women as Prophets, Strong Women, and Serpent Women.—Children’s Myths.—Godmothers.—Fairies.—The Magic Wand and the Broomstick.—The Lady of Kynast.—The World of the Dead, the World of Ghosts, and the World of Shadows.—Myths of Animals.....399
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
The impassive historian ........................................004
Vast forests as old as the world ...............................005
The first pioneers..............................................007
The Celts were a people from India..............................009
What happy people scholars are..................................010
A horrible custom...............................................019
Dead man’s trees................................................022
The Druids now appear for the first time in Germany.............023
The other chieftains were generally polygamists.................031
Courts of justice were always held under an elm tree............032
Attempt to murder the mayor ....................................033
Mistletoe an officinal and sacred plant.........................035
Gauls...........................................................037
Serpents’ knots.................................................038
Prophetic trembling and neighing................................041
A Druid teacher ................................................044
The Germans were in full flight ................................046
The bloody knife of the Druids .................................052
I turn my steps from the sacred precincts.......................055
Who are these other soldiers?...................................057
These laborers seem to suffer from some restraint...............058
I look around for a resting-place ..............................059
A shepherd......................................................060
The guard of a sword, which had been driven into the ground.....061
The shepherd,—as mournful as ever...............................063
Herds of swine are wallowing ...................................066
A young wife bearing the burden of united household.............067
Happiness consists in the fulfillment of duty ..................068
Such were the ways of our fathers: rejoice in facing death......069
The Druidical altars............................................070
As there is no window I peep through the trap-door..............072
One of the chief men of the country ............................075
She was a young Ionian girl, a country-woman of Aspasia.........080
The boudoir of a Celtic lady....................................082
The Druid-bard..................................................085
Death of Druids.................................................091
A Druidess endowed with the gift of prophecy ...................093
The victorious march of the Romans .............................094
Her deities personified nothing but vices ......................096
The Hercules—so called..........................................098
Mercury, the son of Jupiter ....................................099
“O Varus, Varus, bring me back my legions!”.....................103
Perhaps the old river remembered his grievances.................105
They made him a king, the King of German rivers.................106
He had already allowed Jupiter to cross.........................107
The vines began to adorn the banks of the river.................108
Once more caresses had their hoped-for effect...................109
He did his best to help everybody across........................110
Fnvolous and ill-mannered deities...............................110
The dauntless pirates will end by wearing white night-caps......113
The great Northern Tempest .....................................115
The German Druids gave way......................................117
Iormungondur, the great sea serpent.............................118
The giant Ymer has been born....................................123
The first men had been born with a telescope in their pocket?...127
Ymer was the first to succumb...................................128
After the giants came the turn of land and sea monsters.........129
The new creation was assuming a more pleasing appearance........132
Deer, eland, and aurochs were bounding in herds.................133
Incessantly a tiny squirrel comes and goes......................136
A vulture perching upon the loftiest top of the sacred tree.....137
Thor’s weighty hammer Mjoïner...................................139
The good Freyr seated at Odin’s table...........................141
Portrait of Freyr...............................................142
Bragi and the beautiful Freya ..................................147
Return of the eagle with the three precious vessels.............149
Balder, the bright god..........................................151
The wolf Fenris.................................................156
Converse with each other by significative glances...............159
They were the Norns.............................................160
He took counsel with the Norns..................................162
“To Egir, the seas and navigation”..............................164
Gefione took her four sons and changed them into oxen...........165
Jarl, the noble.................................................171
The Valkyrias ..................................................175
Beautiful nymphs of carnage.....................................176
A very mammoth of a boar........................................180
Feast in Scandinavian Paradise..................................181
Hela, the pale goddess..........................................185
“Balder, fair Balder, is going to die”..........................189
Loki succeeds in exhilarating even Odin himself.................191
Balder is amused by the game....................................192
When the mother told her pitiful tale the iron trees wept.......197
The three sacred cocks announcing the Twilight of Greatness.....202
The death of the gods...........................................208
My VIIIth chapter is thus changed into a cenotaph...............211
I like to glean a little where scholars have reaped.............214
The two religions face to face..................................217
Ovid reciting his “Metamorphoses”...............................219
Druidic worship suspended by the Romans.........................220
“Miserere mei, Jesu”............................................222
Perkunos, Pikollos, and Potrympos...............................224
Puscatus,—a kind-hearted god ...................................226
Monstrous reptiles accompany the gods to Germany................227
He let his heavy mace fall upon a little town...................238
The blacksmiths of Ilmarinnen...................................239
Marietta appeared in their midst................................245
“Do you think I am a man to be taken in ?”......................251
Horse-head, a la mode...........................................253
The Undines mingled with the Tritons and the Naiads.............258
Have transferred their Olympus to the Brocken...................259
The Olympus of the North........................................263
Able to see without being seen .................................266
Dance of the white fairies .....................................269
The black fairies personify Nightmare ..........................271
An important personage with a will of his own ..................272
Enormous toads are posted about.as watchmen.....................279
Elementary spirits of the water.................................283
Imaginary music ................................................288
The nix with the harp ..........................................289
Schoolmaster’s son who had fallen in love with one of them......291
He thought he saw a pale form arise from the waters.............294
He rose suddenly and fled to another room ......................295
The steward whispered some words in her ear ....................297
Niord, the Scandinavian god ....................................299
This creature is Nixcobt........................................300
The Vintner is hanged, and Nixcobt laughs heartily..............302
Four Prussian soldiers watching the water ......................305
The Zotterais protected sheep ..................................309
The master has nothing to do....................................315
Prefer to remember the Kobold a cheerful household companion....317
The Zotterais as fond of stables as the Kobolds of kitchens.....319
They are naturally easily tired ................................321
The Killecroffs are children of the Devil ......................322
His nurse has to be reinforced by two goats and a cow...........324
The great Reformer, Dr. Martin Luther ..........................326
The fall of Killecroff .........................................331
Giants and dwarfs...............................................335
The last of the giants..........................................337
Grommelund and Ephesim .........................................339
The humiliated giant............................................340
Our good little dwarfs .........................................341
He stood at first with his mouth wide open .....................346
A long and deep sigh of satisfaction............................348
Flight of the conspirators......................................353
Kreiss slipped boldly into this vast and spacious cavity........354
They fixed strong piles between the two rows of teeth...........355
In his hand he held not a club but a lantern....................357
Kreiss compelled to leave his position by torrents of tears.....359
The last two held each a long thorn in their hands..............361
Kreiss entering the great meeting hall..........................363
Putskuchen was in love..........................................364
Ouadragant vanquished...........................................367
The passing of the wizard ......................................371
Venus and Tannhàuser............................................390
His ex-colleague Jupiter .......................................396
The author pursues the subject .................................399
The conscientious collector of myths............................401
The Druidess transformed into an accursed witch.................406
To return was as impossible as to proceed.......................409
She had rejoined her victims ...................................413
He is the Lord Hackelberg.......................................417
These ghosts can imitate all the motions of men.................421
Farewell........................................................423
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I.
Primitive Times.—The First Settlers on the Rhine.—Masters going to School.—Sanskrit and Breton.—Ax Idle God.—Microscopic Deities.—Tree Worship.—Birth-Trees and Death-Trees.
The Rhine is born in Switzerland, in the Canton of Grisons; it skirts France and passes through it, and after a long and magnificent career it finally loses itself in the countless canals of Holland; and yet the Rhine is essentially a German river.
Already in the earliest ages, long before towns were built on its banks, it saw all the Germanic races dwell here in tents, watch their flocks, and fight their interminable battles, although the clash of arms and the blast of trumpets never for a moment aroused the impassive historian from his deep slumbers.
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His silence, long continued into later centuries, does not prevent us from supposing, however, that the Rhine was already at that time the great high-road on which the Germanic races wandered to and fro, and other races came to their native land. It was the Rhine that brought to them commerce and civilization; but on the Rhine came also invasions of a very different kind. We can allude here only to those religious invasions which are connected with our subject.
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In the earliest ages the South of Europe alone was inhabited, while the Northern part was covered with vast forests, as old as the world, and as yetunbroken by the footsteps of men. Dark, dismal solitudes, consisting of ancient woods or wretched morasses, where trees struggled painfully for existence and only the strongest survived when they reached the light and the sun; densely wooded deserts, in which vast herds of wild beasts pursued each other incessantly, while in the deep shadow of impenetrable foliage flocks of timid, trembling birds sought a refuge against hosts of voracious birds of prey. Thus, even while Man was yet absent, War was already reigning supreme here, and in these vast regions the Great Destroyer seemed to revel in it, as if it had been a feast, a necessity, a glory!
Had never human eye yet looked upon these magnificent but unknown regions?
Then, one fine day a host of savages appeared here and settled down with their flocks. After them came another host of more warlike and better armed men, who drove out the first comers and took possession of the tilled ground.
After them another race, and then still another. Thus it went on for years and for centuries, and all these waves of immigration came down from the extreme North, marking each halting place by a bloody battle, while the conquered people, driven by the sharp edge of the sword to seek new homes, by turns pursued and pursuing, went and peopled those wild unsettled countries which afterwards became known as Belgium and France, as Bretagne and England. Continuing their march from thence southward, from the Rhine to the Mediterranean, they spread right and left, east and west, and crossed the Pyrenees and the Alps, making themselves masters on one side of Iberia, and on the other side of the plains of Lombardy, thus changing from fugitives into conquerors.
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These conquered conquerors, driven from their own homes, and now driving other nations from their homes, these first pioneers who laid open one unknown country after another, were all children of one great family and all bore the same name of Celts.
But where was the first source from which this flood of families, of peoples, of nations, broke forth, that now overflowed Europe and in successive waves spread over the greater part of the Old World? Whence came these vast multitudes of Northern visitors, unexpected and unknown, who broke the mournful silence that had so long reigned in Europe? Were the frozen regions of the North pole, at that early time, really so fertile in men? We call upon men of science to answer our question. The question is a serious one, perhaps an indiscreet one, for who can be appealed to on such a difficult point? History? It did not exist. Monuments, written or sculptured? The Celts had never dreamt yet of writings or of carvings. Does this universal silence put it out of the power of our learned men to give a reply? Must they confess that they are unable to do so? By no means. Learned men never condescend to make such confessions. The Celts have left as a monument, a language, a dialect, still largely used in certain parts of ancient Bretagne as well as in the Principality of Wales.
Illustrious academicians, mostly Germans, did not hesitate to go to school once more in order to learn Breton. The self-denial of which science is capable, deserves our admiration.
After long labors, devoted to the separation of what belonged to the primitive language from subsequent additions, our great scholars found themselves once more face to face with Sanskrit, the sacred idiom of the Brahmins, the ancestor of the old German tongue, and of the old Celtic tongue, and thus of the Breton.