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Eftspelling
Some three posts ago now (see [here])
we first marked how an overburdened land would take steps to send out
folk to settle in new lands after hallowing them to this or that god.
We also marked that Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his Roman
Antiquities bk. 1, ch. 16, said it was an old wone shared by many
folks of yore when their homelands had too many mouths to feed or were
blighted by “unseasonable
changes of the weather”. The Romans knew it as a ver sacrum, and thus Pliny in his Historiæ Naturales 3.13.110 says that Picenum was settled by the Sabines after they behight in a ver sacrum
(... Piceni ... orti sunt a Sabinis voto vere sacro). To deem from
what is written in the old chronicles about two brothers leading such
an exodus it would seem likely that the Heavenly Twins were often though
of yore as leading the folk. And the two brothers should thus be
understood as their earthly stand ins.
Now
the forefathers of the English are said to have lived in northern
Germany and Denmark once upon a time and to have settled in the island
now named for them with the wholesale weakening of Roman might in the
West that happened either side of the year 410 in the mean reckoning.
And we find it said that Hengest and Horsa led the first three shiploads
hither from Jutland.
Although Bede, following Gildas, will have Hengest and Horsa coming to Britain at the lathing of King Vortigern, in Nennius’ Historia Brittonum 31 we find no word of any lathing, but only that the three ships are said to have been driven out. There showing up in Britain when Vortigern needed them was thus down to luck. As we didn't give Nennius' words in the earlier post I'll give them now for those who might like to see them:
Although Bede, following Gildas, will have Hengest and Horsa coming to Britain at the lathing of King Vortigern, in Nennius’ Historia Brittonum 31 we find no word of any lathing, but only that the three ships are said to have been driven out. There showing up in Britain when Vortigern needed them was thus down to luck. As we didn't give Nennius' words in the earlier post I'll give them now for those who might like to see them:
“ Factum est supra dictum bellum, quod fuit inter Brittones et Romanos, quando duces illorum occisi sunt, et occisionem Maximi tyranni transactoque Romanorum imperio in Brittannia per quadraginta annos fuerunt sub metu. Guorthigirnus regnavit in Brittannia et dum ipse regnabat, urgebatur a metu Pictorum Scottorumque et a Romanico impetu nec non et a timore Ambrosii. interea venerunt tres ciulae a Germania expulsae in exilio, in quibus erant Hors et Hengist, qui et ipsi fratres erant, filii Guictglis, filii Guigta, filii Guectha, filii VVoden, filii Frealaf, filii Fredulf, filii Finn, filii Fodepald, filii Geta, qui fuit, ut aiunt, filius dei. non ipse est deus deorum, amen, deus exercituum, sed unus est ab idolis eorum, quod ipsi colebant.
Guorthigirnus suscepit eos benigne et tradidit eis insulam, quae in lingua eorum vocatur Tanet, Brittannico sermone Ruoihm. regnante Gratiano secundo cum. Equitio Saxones a Guorthigirno suscepti sunt anno cccxlvii post passionem Christi.”
“After the above-said war between the Britons and Romans, the assassination of their rulers, and the victory of Maximus, who slew Gratian, and the termination of the Roman power in Britain, they were in alarm forty years. Vortigern then reigned in Britain. In his time, the natives had cause of dread, not only from the inroads of the Scots and Picts, but also from the Romans, and their apprehensions of Ambrosius.
In the meantime, three vessels, exiled from Germany, arrived in Britain. They were commanded by Horsa and Hengest, brothers, and sons of Wihtgils. Wihtgils was the son of Witta; Witta of Wecta; Wecta of Woden; Woden of Frithowald; Frithowald of Frithuwulf; Frithuwulf of Finn; Finn of Godwulf; Godwulf of Geat, who, as they say, was the son of a god, not of the God of gods, Amen, the god of hosts, but one of their idols, and whom they worshipped.
Vortigern received them as friends, and delivered up to them the island which is in their language called Thanet, and, by the Britons, Ruym. Gratianus Aequantius at that time reigned in Rome. The Saxons were received by Vortigern four hundred and forty-seven years after the passion of Christ. ”
As
Nennius' bare words stand, Hengest and Horsa' hithercoming could be
down to anything that might make someone leave home for a new one. But
in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniæ Book 6, chapitle 10, the whys and wherefores are given (awend. J. A. Giles):
"In the meantime there arrived in Kent three brigandines, or long galleys, full of armed men, under the command of two brothers, Horsa and Hengist. Vortigern was then at Dorobernia, now Canterbury, which city he used often to visit; and being informed of the arrival of some tall strangers in large ships, he ordered that they should be received peaceably, and conducted into his presence. As soon as they were brought before him, he cast his eyes upon the two brothers, who excelled all the rest both in nobility and gracefulness of person; and having taken a view of the whole company, asked them of what country they were, and what was the occasion of their coming into his kingdom. To whom Hengist (whose years and wisdom entitled him to precedence), in the name of the rest, made the following answer:—"Most noble king, Saxony, which is one of the countries of Germany, was the place of our birth; and the occasion of our coming was to offer our service to you or some other prince. For we were driven out of our native country, for no other reason, but that the laws of the kingdom required it. It is customary among us, that when we come to be overstocked with people, our princes from all the provinces meet together, and command all the youths of the kingdom to assemble before them; then casting lots they make choice of the strongest and ablest of them, to go into foreign nations, to procure themselves a subsistence, and free their native country from a superfluous multitude of people. Our country, therefore, being of late overstocked, our princes met, and after having cast lots, made choice of the youth which you see in your presence, and have obliged us to obey the custom which has been established of old. And us two brothers, Hengist and Horsa, they made generals over them, out of respect to our ancestors, who enjoyed the same honour. In obedience, therefore, to the laws so long established, we put out to sea, and under the good guidance of Mercury have arrived in your kingdom."|
So
Hengest and Horsa were leaders of three shiploads of men sent out to
free their homeland from the blight of too many folk. Mark that
Geoffrey calls it a "custom which has been established of old". And so
in Geoffrey of Monmouth's telling of it, the coming of the first
forefather of the English to Britain is a forebisening of what we
thought it was all along.
In the earlier post we also marked other old forebisenings of the wone. with two leaders whose names often will be found to rhyme on the first stave or at the end:
In the earlier post we also marked other old forebisenings of the wone. with two leaders whose names often will be found to rhyme on the first stave or at the end:
- Chionis and Battus who set up Cyrene (see Pausanias Guide to Greece 3.14.3);
- Romulus and Remus the leaders of the outcasts from Latium;
- Ybor and Agio who lead the folk who would become the Lombards out of Scania (see [here]);
- maybe "Ambri et Assi... duces Wandalorum" marked in the Lombard histories;
- Raüs "reed-thatch" and Raptus "rafter" (Ῥᾶός ... καὶ Ῥάπτος) who led the Hasdingi (Dio Cassius Roman Hist. 72.12.1);
- Segovesus and Bellovesus of the Bituriges who lead the Gauls eastward, Segovesus taking half to Hercynia and Bellovesus the lave to Italy (Livius, ab urbe condita, 5,34) – Bellovesus setting up Mediolanum or Milan;
- Leonarius (Λεωννώριος) of the Tolistobogii and Lotharius (Λουτούριος) of the Trocmi who led the Galatæ (Γαλάται) into Asia Minor (Liv. 38,16,5-9);
- Widewuttis and Brūtens who led the forefathers of what would become the Prussians to Prussia (see Simon of Grunau's Chronicle);
- Brutus and Corineus from the Historia Regum Britanniæ who led the first Britons to Britain;
- Moses and Aaron/Joshua and Caleb;
- the "Scarthe & fflayn" (=Þorgils Skarði & Kormákr "Fleinn"?) who built Scarborough and Flamboroug;
- and Hari and Gūjar of the Sakti, two sons of the Raja of Kirat the forebear of the The Rajas of Barabhum.
Plynos and Scolopetius
In book one, chapitle 15 of Pauulus Orosius’ Historia we have a marking of Plynos et Scolopetius, leading men out of Scythia which our King Alfred has awent for us thus:
“On þære ilcan tide wurdon twegen æþelingas afliemde of Sciþþian, Plenius 7 Scolopetius wæron hatene, 7 geforan þæt lond, 7 gebudon betuh Capadotiam 7 Pontum neah þære læssan Asian, 7 þær winnende wæron oð hie him þær eard genamon.”
“At the same time there were two athelings driven from Scythia who were called Plenius and Scolopetus, and they fared over the land and settled between Cappadocia and the Black Sea near Asia Minor and were fighting there until they had their land taken from them ”
But Orosius is copying (and maybe miswriting) Justinus’ epitome of the Historia Philippicæ of Pompeius Trogus:
“1. Sed apud Scythas medio tempore duo regii iuuenes Plynos/Ylinos et Scolopitus, per factionem optimatum domo pulsi, ingentem iuuentutem secum traxere, 2 et in Cappadociae ora iuxta amnem Thermodonta consederunt subiectosque Themiscyrios campos occupauere.”
“Among the Scythians, in the meantime, two youths of royal extraction, Ylinos and Scolopitus, being driven from their country by a faction of the nobility, took with them a numerous band of young men, and found a settlement on the coast of Cappadocia, near the river Thermodon, occupying the Themiscyrian plains that border on it.”
These Scyths then, led by Plenius and Scolopetius, were however at length beaten by their foes in Asia Minor and left behind them their widowed women folk who went on to become the Amazons. For as Diodorus Siculus Library of History book 2 ch.44, §1 wrote of the womenfolk of Scythia:
“Ἐν τούτοις γὰρ τοῖς ἔθνεσιν αἱ γυναῖκες γυμνάζονται πρὸς πόλεμον παραπλησίως τοῖς ἀνδράσι καὶ ταῖς ἀνδρείαις οὐδὲν λείπονται τῶν ἀνδρῶν.”
“For among these peoples the women train for war just as do the men and in acts of manly valour are in no wise inferior to the men.”(awend. Oldfather)
Palus and Napes
We cannot now know if Plynos/Ylinos and Scolopitus are myth or history, but they echo an even earlier pair of Scyths marked by Diodorus called Palus and Napes:
“Τῶν δὲ ἀπογόνων τούτου τοῦ βασιλέως ἀδελφοὺς δύο γενέσθαι διαφόρους ἀρετῇ, καὶ τὸν μὲν Πάλον, τὸν δὲ Νάπην ὠνομάσθαι. Τούτων δ´ ἐπιφανεῖς πράξεις κατεργασαμένων καὶ διελομένων τὴν βασιλείαν, ἀφ´ ἑκατέρου τοὺς λαοὺς τοὺς μὲν Πάλους, τοὺς δὲ Νάπας προσαγορευθῆναι. Μετὰ δέ τινας χρόνους τοὺς ἀπογόνους τούτων τῶν βασιλέων ἀνδρείᾳ καὶ στρατηγίᾳ διενεγκόντας πολλὴν μὲν πέραν τοῦ Τανάιδος ποταμοῦ χώραν καταστρέψασθαι μέχρι τῆς Θρᾴκης, ἐπὶ δὲ θάτερα μέρη στρατεύσαντας διατεῖναι τῇ δυνάμει μέχρι τοῦ κατ´ Αἴγυπτον Νείλου. Πολλὰ δὲ καὶ μεγάλα τῶν ἀνὰ μέσον τούτων ἐθνῶν καταδουλωσαμένους προβιβάσαι τὴν ἡγεμονίαν τῶν Σκυθῶν τῇ μὲν ἐπὶ τὸν πρὸς ἀνατολὰς ὠκεανόν, τῇ δ´ ἐπὶ τὴν Κασπίαν θάλατταν καὶ Μαιῶτιν λίμνην· ηὐξήθη γὰρ ἐπὶ πολὺ τοῦτο τὸ ἔθνος καὶ βασιλεῖς ἔσχεν ἀξιολόγους, ἀφ´ ὧν τοὺς μὲν Σάκας προσαγορευθῆναι, τοὺς δὲ Μασσαγέτας, τινὰς δ´ Ἀριμασπούς, καὶ τούτοις ὁμοίως ἄλλους πλείονας. Ὑπὸ δὲ τούτων τῶν βασιλέων πολλὰ μὲν καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν καταπολεμηθέντων ἐθνῶν μετῳκίσθαι, δύο δὲ μεγίστας ἀποικίας γενέσθαι, τὴν μὲν ἐκ τῶν Ἀσσυρίων μετασταθεῖσαν εἰς τὴν μεταξὺ χώραν τῆς τε Παφλαγονίας καὶ τοῦ Πόντου, τὴν δ´ ἐκ τῆς Μηδίας παρὰ τὸν Τάναϊν καθιδρυθεῖσαν, ἧς τοὺς λαοὺς Σαυρομάτας ὀνομασθῆναι. ”
“3. … Now among the descendants of this king [Scythes, eponym of the Scyths] there were two brothers who were distinguished for their valour, the one named Palus and the other Napes. 4 And since these two performed renowned deeds and divided the kingship between them, some of the people were called Pali after one of them and some Napæ after the other. But some time later the descendants of these kings, because of their unusual valour and skill as generals, subdued much of the territory beyond the Tanaïs river as far as Thrace, and advancing with their armies to the other side they extended their power as far as the Nile in Egypt. 5 And after enslaving many great peoples which lay between the Thracians and the Egyptians they advanced the empire of the Scythians on the one side as far as the ocean to the east, and on the other side to the Caspian Sea and Lake Mæotis; for this people increased to great strength and had notable kings, one of whom gave his name to the Sacae, another to the Massagetæ, another to the Arimaspi, and several other tribes received their names in like manner. 6 It was by these kings that many of the conquered peoples were removed to other homes, and two of these became very great colonies: the one was composed of Assyrians and was removed to the land between Paphlagonia and Pontus, and the other was drawn from Media and planted along the Tanaïs, its people receiving the name Sauromatae.”
See also Pliny's Historiæ Naturales 6.19.50:
"ibi Napaei interisse dicuntur a Palaeis"
"there (north of the Jaxartes) it is said the Napæ were killed by the Pali".
Targitaos and his three sons
Now in making Palus and Napes the brothers of Scythes (the eponym of the Scyths) like he does, Diodorus seems to know another outsetting of the tale told by Herodotus in his Histories about the beginnings of the Scyths. For Herodotus tells us (4.8-10) that the Greeks in Scythia said Heracles begot three sons by the daughter of the river Borysthenes (=Dniestr) called Agathyrsus, Gelonus and Scythes who are the eponyms of the Agathyrsi (Ἀγάθυρσοι), Geloni and Scyths (Σκύθαι). So Palus and Napes would then be in the stead of Agathyrsus and Gelonus. But Herodotus (4. 5-7) tells us that the Scyths themselves said that they were sprung from Targitaos the "ἄνδρα... πρῶτον ἐν τῇ γῆ ταύτῃ ἐούσῃ ἐρήμῳ" "the first man in the land which was then a wilderness" (4.5.1). And that this Targitaos had three sons: Lipoxaïs and Arpoxaïs and the youngest Colaxaïs. And these then were the forebears of three kinds of folk (4.6.1):
ἀπὸ μὲν δὴ Λιποξάιος γεγονέναι τούτους τῶν Σκυθέων οἳ Αὐχάται γένος καλέονται, ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ μέσου Ἀρποξάιος οἳ Κατίαροί τε καὶ Τράσπιες καλέονται, ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ νεωτάτου αὐτῶν τοῦ βασιλέος οἳ καλέονται Παραλάται· ...
From Lixopaïs, they say, are descended those Scythians who are called the race of the Auchatai; from the middle brother Arpoxaïs those who are called Catiaroi and Traspians, and from the youngest of them the "Royal" tribe, who are called Paralatai: .. (awending Macaulay).
That
the offspring of Colaxaïs are called "Paralatai" might make us think
that Colaxaïs had a byname of Paralatus. If so, this is wondeful
indeed, as it matches the byname that the Parsees give to Hōšang or Haošyaŋha who is called Paraδāta (> Pēš-dād), and who is thought of by them as a forefather (see Bundahišn) and early king (see Šāh-nāma), if not the first king (see Dēnkard
5.4.2). Furthermore, it would seem that the Parsees thought of
Hōšang as one of the fifteen sons of one Fravak. Fravak being it would
seem, the great forefather of mankind (Bundahišn) for a good many of the Parsees, and seemingly a rough match for the Scyths' Targitaos. Bundahišn 15. 30:
If you are wondering why a myth told by the Scyths should match one told by the Parsees, this is unfolded for us by Ammianus Marcellinus in his Roman Histories 31.2.20 when he says:
" Those, indeed, throughout the seven regions are all from the lineage of Fravak, son of Siyamak, son of Mashye."
If you are wondering why a myth told by the Scyths should match one told by the Parsees, this is unfolded for us by Ammianus Marcellinus in his Roman Histories 31.2.20 when he says:
" Persae, qui sunt originitus Scythae,"" the Persians, who are originally of Scythian extraction, ...".
In
following this lead among the Scyths so far, we now find that we have
come out of what rightly belongs to the Heavenly Twins into what belongs
to the forefathers of mankind who, as we said in an earlier post [here] are often muddled up with them, but are to be rightly understood as their (half-) brothers.
However, so that nothing is left unsaid which is good to be told, and will help our overall understanding of the gods in the end, it is worth our while to allow ourselves to go a little further along the forefathers' road before heading back to the Heavenly Twins.
Fravak, Siyamak and Mashye who the Parsees have as their forefathers are belike a lengthening of an earlier genealogy which had Mashye as the great forefather, as his name is one with the Manu we find in the Ṛgvedaḥ as the forefather of mankind. And Mashye and Manu would match the Mannus who our forefathers once sung as the springhead of their stock to deem from the oft overgone words of Tacitus' Libellus de Origine, Moribus et Situ Germanorum more or less,
[Works of Tacitus. Tacitus. Alfred John Church. William Jackson Brodribb.]
The three sons of Mannus who underlie the folk-names Ingaevones, Herminones and Istaevones and are something like *Ingwaz, *Ermunaz and *Istwaz should however, roughly match in outline the three sons of Targitaos. And it is markworthy that the Greeks or Hellenes (Ἕλληνες) also saw themselves as the offspring of the three sons of Hellen (Ἕλλην): Aeolus (Αἴολος), Xuthus (Ξοῦθος), and Dorus (Δῶρος). However, as the Hindus have Manu as outlasting a Great Flood it would seem that it is Hellen's father Deucalion (Δευκαλίων) who is truly a match for Mashye, Manu and Mannus. And those who know their Bible cannot help thinking here of Noah and his three sons here as well.
However, so that nothing is left unsaid which is good to be told, and will help our overall understanding of the gods in the end, it is worth our while to allow ourselves to go a little further along the forefathers' road before heading back to the Heavenly Twins.
Fravak, Siyamak and Mashye who the Parsees have as their forefathers are belike a lengthening of an earlier genealogy which had Mashye as the great forefather, as his name is one with the Manu we find in the Ṛgvedaḥ as the forefather of mankind. And Mashye and Manu would match the Mannus who our forefathers once sung as the springhead of their stock to deem from the oft overgone words of Tacitus' Libellus de Origine, Moribus et Situ Germanorum more or less,
[3] Celebrant carminibus antiquis, quod unum apud illos memoriae et annalium genus est, Tuistonem deum terra editum. ei filium Mannum originem gentis conditoresque Manno tres filios adsignant, e quorum nominibus proximi Oceano Ingaevones, medii Herminones, ceteri Istaevones vocentur. [4] quidam, ut in licentia vetustatis, plures deo ortos pluresque gentis appellationes, Marsos Gambrivios Suebos Vandilios adfirmant, eaque vera et antiqua nomina.
In their ancient songs, their only way of remembering or recording the past, they celebrate an earth-born god, Tuisco, and his son Mannus, as the origin of their race, as their founders. To Mannus they assign three sons, from whose names, they say, the coast tribes are called Ingævones; those of the interior, Herminones; all the rest, Istævones. Some, with the freedom of conjecture permitted by antiquity, assert that the god had several descendants, and the nation several appellations, as Marsi, Gambrivii, Suevi, Vandilii, and that these are genuine old names.
[Works of Tacitus. Tacitus. Alfred John Church. William Jackson Brodribb.]
The three sons of Mannus who underlie the folk-names Ingaevones, Herminones and Istaevones and are something like *Ingwaz, *Ermunaz and *Istwaz should however, roughly match in outline the three sons of Targitaos. And it is markworthy that the Greeks or Hellenes (Ἕλληνες) also saw themselves as the offspring of the three sons of Hellen (Ἕλλην): Aeolus (Αἴολος), Xuthus (Ξοῦθος), and Dorus (Δῶρος). However, as the Hindus have Manu as outlasting a Great Flood it would seem that it is Hellen's father Deucalion (Δευκαλίων) who is truly a match for Mashye, Manu and Mannus. And those who know their Bible cannot help thinking here of Noah and his three sons here as well.
That
one of the sons of Targitaos was understood as the forefather of the
"royal tribe" however, shows us how, what was once a myth to show the
deep kinship of sundry folks, was beginning to be thought of as a myth
about the beginning of class.
Rígsþula
This then brings us to Rígsþula or Rígsmál ("Lay of Ríg") from the Codex Wormianus.
In this we have the thre classes of mankind, jarlar, karlar and þrælar
are said to be sprung from the three sons of Heimdallr/Rígr called Jarl,
Karl and Þræll. These are begotten on three "daughters of men" called
Móðir, Amma and Edda. Only Jarl, the third and youngest son, is
acknowledged by Heimdallr/Rígr as his son and allowed to call himself
Rígr as well. We are further told that Konr ungr is the youngest of
twelve sons of Jarl/Rígr and Erna. Jarl/Rígr has magic power taught by
his father. Konr ungr by Jarl/Rígr and earned the right to be called
Rígr as well. Toward the end we have the verse:
Á Danr ok Danpr | dýrar hallir,
æðra óðal | en ér hafið;
þeir kunnu vel | kjóli at ríða,
egg at kenna, undir rjúfa."
To Danr and Danpr [are] | dearer halls
a better homeland | than that you have;
they know well | the keel to ride
the sword-edge to know |wounds to rive.
And if the poem's end was not missing it seems that Konr the young was going to wed Dana the daughter of Danp of Danpsted by whom he would have a son called Dan (after Danp's brother?), and after which his folk would be called Danar or "Danes" or so we deem it from Arngrímur Jónsson's Latin epitome of the lost Skjöldungasaga. All well and good you might think. But Danp of Danpsted shows us that some far faring skald has been busy here to say the least. For "á stöðum Danpar" and "á Danparstöðum á þeim bæ, er Árheimar heita" stem from Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks otherwise saga Heiðreks konúngs ens vitra, and look to a town by a staithe on the river "Danp" which is the Danaper (5.46)/Danaprum (5.30 & 38; 43) found in Jordanes' De origine actibusque Getarum. That is, the Dneipr, othewise known to the Greeks as the Borysthenes! As Danp is named for a river it would seem the Dan who seems to be the brother of Danp in the last verse of Rígsþula would be named for a river also, and we don't have far to look as this is the Don, the Tanaïs (Τάναϊς) of yore. And Isidore of Seville in his Etymologiæ 13.21.24 tells us that the Tanaïs is named after the "first king of the Scyths" called ... "Tanus"!
Justin's Tanaus is Jordanes' "Tanausis rex" or "Thanausis Gothorum rex" (see 5.47-8) and Jordanes tells us that he was worshipped as a god after his death ("Hunc ergo Thanausim regem Gothorum mortuum inter numina sui populi coluerunt.").
So all things bethought here, it looks like the whole thrust of Rígsþula is borrowed from the lore of the Scyths which some skald I guess could have picked up while in Russia. As the maker of the poem belike knew that Dan and Danp were the names of rivers in Russia, we are left thinking that the whole work was wrought to tie in the kings of the Danes with the olden Goths who once ruled in Scythia and who play no small part in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks Saga.
Á Danr ok Danpr | dýrar hallir,
æðra óðal | en ér hafið;
þeir kunnu vel | kjóli at ríða,
egg at kenna, undir rjúfa."
To Danr and Danpr [are] | dearer halls
a better homeland | than that you have;
they know well | the keel to ride
the sword-edge to know |wounds to rive.
And if the poem's end was not missing it seems that Konr the young was going to wed Dana the daughter of Danp of Danpsted by whom he would have a son called Dan (after Danp's brother?), and after which his folk would be called Danar or "Danes" or so we deem it from Arngrímur Jónsson's Latin epitome of the lost Skjöldungasaga. All well and good you might think. But Danp of Danpsted shows us that some far faring skald has been busy here to say the least. For "á stöðum Danpar" and "á Danparstöðum á þeim bæ, er Árheimar heita" stem from Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks otherwise saga Heiðreks konúngs ens vitra, and look to a town by a staithe on the river "Danp" which is the Danaper (5.46)/Danaprum (5.30 & 38; 43) found in Jordanes' De origine actibusque Getarum. That is, the Dneipr, othewise known to the Greeks as the Borysthenes! As Danp is named for a river it would seem the Dan who seems to be the brother of Danp in the last verse of Rígsþula would be named for a river also, and we don't have far to look as this is the Don, the Tanaïs (Τάναϊς) of yore. And Isidore of Seville in his Etymologiæ 13.21.24 tells us that the Tanaïs is named after the "first king of the Scyths" called ... "Tanus"!
" Tanus fuit rex Scytharum primus, a quo Tanaïs fertur fluvius nuncupatus, qui ex Riphaeis silvis veniens dirimit Europam ab Asia, inter duas mundi partes medius currens atque in Pontum fluens."
"Tanus was the first king of the Scyths, for whom the river Tanaïs was named, which comes from the Riphaean woods and sunders Europe from Asia, running in between the two parts of the world and flowing into the Black Sea."This would seem to be the king whom Justin in his epitome of the Historia Philippicæ 1.1 calls Tanaus and writes of him:
" Principio rerum gentium nationumque imperium penes reges erat, quod ad fastigium huius maiestatis non ambitio popularis, sed spectata inter bonos moderatio provehebat. Populus nullis legibus tenebatur, arbitria principum pro legibus erant. Fines imperii tueri magis quam proferre mos erat; intra suam cuique patriam regna finiebantur. Primus omnium Ninus, rex Assyriorum, veterem et quasi avitum gentibus morem nova imperii cupiditate mutavit. Hic primus intulit bella finitimis et rudes adhuc ad resistendum populos terminos usque Libyae perdomuit. Fuere quidem temporibus antiquiores Vezosis Aegyptius et Scythiae rex Tanaus, quorum alter in Pontum, alter usque Aegyptum excessit. Sed longinqua, non finitima bella gerebant nec imperium sibi, sed populis suis gloriam quaerebant continentique victoria imperio abstinebant.."
"The first of all princes, who, from an extravagant desire of ruling, changed this old and, as it were, hereditary custom, was Ninus, king of the Assyrians. It was he who first made war upon his neighbours, and subdued the nations, as yet too barbarous to resist him, as far as the frontiers of Libya. Sesostris, king of Egypt, and Tanaus, king of Scythia, were indeed prior to him in time; the one of whom advanced into Pontus, and the other as far as Egypt; but these princes engaged in distant wars, not in struggles with their neighbours; they did not seek dominion for themselves, but glory for their people, and, content with victory, declined to govern those whom they subdued." (awending J. S. Watson)
Justin's Tanaus is Jordanes' "Tanausis rex" or "Thanausis Gothorum rex" (see 5.47-8) and Jordanes tells us that he was worshipped as a god after his death ("Hunc ergo Thanausim regem Gothorum mortuum inter numina sui populi coluerunt.").
So all things bethought here, it looks like the whole thrust of Rígsþula is borrowed from the lore of the Scyths which some skald I guess could have picked up while in Russia. As the maker of the poem belike knew that Dan and Danp were the names of rivers in Russia, we are left thinking that the whole work was wrought to tie in the kings of the Danes with the olden Goths who once ruled in Scythia and who play no small part in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks Saga.
The
Dan that the Danes took their name from, the son of Dana and Konr
ungr/Rígr is called Dan Mikillati and the foreword of Snorri Sturluson's
Heimskringla eða Sögur Noregs konunga has him as the first king to be buried in a barrow or howe. In Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum he is the brother of Aangul from whom the English take their name, and in the Chronicon Lethrense we hear of three brothers: Dan, Nori and Østen! Stephen Barto in his Tannhäuser and the mountain of Venus: a study in the legend of the Germanic paradise (1916) would seem to have it that much of what is said of Tannhäuser belongs to Dan Mikillati who had become a kind of god of the dead. The myth had shifted to the historic German minnesänger for no better reason than his name had the same first sound.
We
are not far here from the Yama of the Hindus, the elder brother of
Manu, who was the first man to die and who then became the king over
the dead. The Greeks make a word-play on the word soma "body" and sema
"tomb" to highlight the death of the soul when it is first put into
body. Which also shows us why the first man is the first king of the
dead.
We have shown, rightly or wrongly, that the mythic first of all men and the Heavenly Twins were often muddled up (see [here]). But we should understand things, as Yāska tells us in his Nirukta 12.10 that Yama and Yami, and Manu the first man, are the brothers of the Aśvinau. We have also seen how this informs the myth of the Cabiri of Samothrace and kindred gods who are understood to have a brother, or half brother, who dies and who is the mystic ἀρχανθρωπος, the first man (=Dionysus etc.). And that this first man is also understood as the Intellect/Mind/Soul of the material universe (=Dionysus etc.), who is truly a god in his own right, but who was made to undergo the descent into matter by his brother gods. This descent is often spoken of in myth as a killing wherein one brother is said to have been killed by another or by another pair. Although in the Greeks' myth of Dionysus the brothers who do the killing have become unrelated Titans, the Greeks understood Dionysus as being one with the Osiris of Egypt who was killed by his brother Set or Typhon. In the profane retelleing of the Cabeiri myth he is the shape-shifting Phocus (Φῶκος means "seal") who was killed by his half-brothers Peleus and Telamon. The shape-shifting motif is a hangover from Dionysus whose stead Phocus is in, and who shifts shapes to evade the Titans.
Now these three brothers are the true origin of Lipoxaïs, Arpoxaïs and Colaxaïs who were known to the Scyths, and the Jarl, Karl and Þræll we find in Rígsþula. And we can also see whence the idea arises that one of the brothers becomes the forefather of þrælar "thralls". For if we set this beside the Cabeiri myth we can see that Þræll is truly for the mystic ἀρχανθρωπος, the first man (=Dionysus etc.). He is a thrall only in so much as he is in the bonds of matter. Jarl and Karl stand in the stead of the two other brothers, the Heavenly Twins proper, who once helped bind their brother in a body (as Prometheus is bound with the help of Cratos (Κράτος) "Strength" and Bias (Βίας) "Might" ). The whole myth is twisted into a myth about class from its true origins which are more universal. It is also tempting to see here the freedom and nobility of the other two brothers is really the freedom and nobility of the gods who never descend themselves to works in matter but work through intermediaries.
It is interesting here to withmete Jarl, Karl and Þræll with what is said about the three sons of Noah in the Bible. Whilst the Bible account has nothing to say about Noah's sons being the fathers of the class system, as soon as the Germanics hear the tale they leapt to that conclusion. An Old English homily has :
The cursed brother Ham is the forefather of the thralls or as tthe Old English account has it the "wælisc... cynn". The other two the Jarlar or "gesyðcund cynnd" and the karlar or "cyrlisc cynn".
But maybe more interestingly, Heimdallr/Rígr in Rígsþula would match the Noah of the Bible story whom king Ælfred matches to Deucalion (Δευκαλίων) - Theuhaleon - in his awending of Paulus Orosius' Seven Books of History Against the Pagans Book I, chapitle 6.
Once this is understood, the mysterious figure of Heimdallr himself is now no longer mysterious. For he is one with Dionysus the ἀρχανθρωπος! His watching was originally as the divine witness or conscience that is in us all as our true selves. A steadfastly heavenly watchman couldn't shift shape to get back the Brisingamen. Heimdall's links to rams stem from the blending of Alexander the Great as the son of Ammon in Egypt with ideas of Dionysus whose eastern conquests he immitates. Heimdall's taking of seal shape to win back the Brisingamen and human form in Rígsþula would then be all that is left of a good deal of shape-shifting that the god did at one time. The visiting of men to test their hospitality, bless them with fertility (beget offspring) or teach them wisdom is however the preserve of the Heavenly Twins.
The Irish once again have something wonderful for us here. In the Lebor Gabála Érenn the greater Irish kindreds were made out to be the offspring of Míl Espáine and his two sons Érimón and Éber Finn who share the kingship of Ireland between them. And it seems to me that Érimón and Éber Finn are a kind of Heavenly Twins blent with the forefathers of men who are by rights, as we have said many times before, their half brothers. What I take to be the truer tale is that the great men of Ireland were sprung from the "two sons of Núadu Airgetlám" found in the genealogies as Glass "Green/Blue/Grey" & Cú Oiss "Deer-hound" where Érimón=Glass and Éber Finn= Cú Oiss. Rawlinson B 502 140b headed “Mínigud Senchais Síl Chuind Inso Sís” runs thus:
But Míl Espáine had a third son, Éber Donn, otherwise called Donn, who died before he got to Ireland, and is made to say:
How old such thoughts behind Donn may be, can be seen from what Julius Caesar writes of the forefather of the Gauls in his De Bello Gallico 6.18:
Rígsþula and the Cabeiri myth
We have shown, rightly or wrongly, that the mythic first of all men and the Heavenly Twins were often muddled up (see [here]). But we should understand things, as Yāska tells us in his Nirukta 12.10 that Yama and Yami, and Manu the first man, are the brothers of the Aśvinau. We have also seen how this informs the myth of the Cabiri of Samothrace and kindred gods who are understood to have a brother, or half brother, who dies and who is the mystic ἀρχανθρωπος, the first man (=Dionysus etc.). And that this first man is also understood as the Intellect/Mind/Soul of the material universe (=Dionysus etc.), who is truly a god in his own right, but who was made to undergo the descent into matter by his brother gods. This descent is often spoken of in myth as a killing wherein one brother is said to have been killed by another or by another pair. Although in the Greeks' myth of Dionysus the brothers who do the killing have become unrelated Titans, the Greeks understood Dionysus as being one with the Osiris of Egypt who was killed by his brother Set or Typhon. In the profane retelleing of the Cabeiri myth he is the shape-shifting Phocus (Φῶκος means "seal") who was killed by his half-brothers Peleus and Telamon. The shape-shifting motif is a hangover from Dionysus whose stead Phocus is in, and who shifts shapes to evade the Titans.
Now these three brothers are the true origin of Lipoxaïs, Arpoxaïs and Colaxaïs who were known to the Scyths, and the Jarl, Karl and Þræll we find in Rígsþula. And we can also see whence the idea arises that one of the brothers becomes the forefather of þrælar "thralls". For if we set this beside the Cabeiri myth we can see that Þræll is truly for the mystic ἀρχανθρωπος, the first man (=Dionysus etc.). He is a thrall only in so much as he is in the bonds of matter. Jarl and Karl stand in the stead of the two other brothers, the Heavenly Twins proper, who once helped bind their brother in a body (as Prometheus is bound with the help of Cratos (Κράτος) "Strength" and Bias (Βίας) "Might" ). The whole myth is twisted into a myth about class from its true origins which are more universal. It is also tempting to see here the freedom and nobility of the other two brothers is really the freedom and nobility of the gods who never descend themselves to works in matter but work through intermediaries.
It is interesting here to withmete Jarl, Karl and Þræll with what is said about the three sons of Noah in the Bible. Whilst the Bible account has nothing to say about Noah's sons being the fathers of the class system, as soon as the Germanics hear the tale they leapt to that conclusion. An Old English homily has :
"Þæt wæs forþon þe he his fæder noe na getælde 7 untweogendlice of þysum þrim mannum noes sunum þæt eall þes middangeard wearð eft onwæcnod þeh hye drihten on þreo streonde 7 swa sibbe cneordnesse to dælde. 7 þæt he todælde for þære tælnysse þe hy heora fæder tældon noe þæt he on ðreo to wearp þa cneordnysse. þæt wæs wælisc 7 oncyrlisc cynn 7 on gesyðcund cynnd."
The cursed brother Ham is the forefather of the thralls or as tthe Old English account has it the "wælisc... cynn". The other two the Jarlar or "gesyðcund cynnd" and the karlar or "cyrlisc cynn".
But maybe more interestingly, Heimdallr/Rígr in Rígsþula would match the Noah of the Bible story whom king Ælfred matches to Deucalion (Δευκαλίων) - Theuhaleon - in his awending of Paulus Orosius' Seven Books of History Against the Pagans Book I, chapitle 6.
“Ær ðæm þe Rome burh getimbred wære eahta hund wintra, and tyn gearan, ricsode Ambictio, se cyning, in Athena Creca byrig. He wæs se þridda cyning, þe æfter Cicrope, þæm cyning, ricsade, þe ærest wæs þære burge cyning. On þæs Ambictiones tide wurdon swa mycele wæter-flod geond ealle world – and þæh mæst in Thasalia, Creca byrig, ymb þa beorgas, þe man hæt Parnasus, þær se cyning Theuhaleon ricsode, - þæt forneah eall þæt folc forwearð. And se cyninge Theuhaleon ealle þa þe to him mid scypum oðflugon to þæm beorgum, he hi þær onfengc, and hi þær afedde. Be þæm Theuhaleon wæs gecweden, swilce mon bispel sæde, þæt he wære mon-cynnes tydriend, swa swa Noe wæs.”But once again we see here only more muddling. The first man, the man who outlasts the Great Flood, or Great Winter as the Parsees will have it, is not to be understood as the father, but is more truly the brother who is made a thrall by his siblings. Whilst the father of these brethren is not the first man, but a god. The son has become muddled up with his father.
Once this is understood, the mysterious figure of Heimdallr himself is now no longer mysterious. For he is one with Dionysus the ἀρχανθρωπος! His watching was originally as the divine witness or conscience that is in us all as our true selves. A steadfastly heavenly watchman couldn't shift shape to get back the Brisingamen. Heimdall's links to rams stem from the blending of Alexander the Great as the son of Ammon in Egypt with ideas of Dionysus whose eastern conquests he immitates. Heimdall's taking of seal shape to win back the Brisingamen and human form in Rígsþula would then be all that is left of a good deal of shape-shifting that the god did at one time. The visiting of men to test their hospitality, bless them with fertility (beget offspring) or teach them wisdom is however the preserve of the Heavenly Twins.
Donn
The Irish once again have something wonderful for us here. In the Lebor Gabála Érenn the greater Irish kindreds were made out to be the offspring of Míl Espáine and his two sons Érimón and Éber Finn who share the kingship of Ireland between them. And it seems to me that Érimón and Éber Finn are a kind of Heavenly Twins blent with the forefathers of men who are by rights, as we have said many times before, their half brothers. What I take to be the truer tale is that the great men of Ireland were sprung from the "two sons of Núadu Airgetlám" found in the genealogies as Glass "Green/Blue/Grey" & Cú Oiss "Deer-hound" where Érimón=Glass and Éber Finn= Cú Oiss. Rawlinson B 502 140b headed “Mínigud Senchais Síl Chuind Inso Sís” runs thus:
“Dá mc oc Nuadait Argatlám: Glass & Cú Oiss. Glass a quo sunt Síl Cuind & Dál Riata & Ulaid & Laigin & Ossairgi. Cú Oiss a quo Muimnich nammá.”
“The two sons of Nuada Argatlam: Glass and Cú Oiss. From Glass are the Sil Cuind and the Dal Riata and the Ulster-men and Leinster-men and the Osraige (=Ossory=folk of Kilkenny and Laois). From Cú Oiss are only the Munster-men.”
Glass can be brooked in Irish in the same way as we in England say a "Grey" for a white horse (see [here]). However, cú glas "grey hound", is both a kenning for a wolf and for an incoming outsider or castaway (see [here]).
But Míl Espáine had a third son, Éber Donn, otherwise called Donn, who died before he got to Ireland, and is made to say:
He thus seems to match the Yama of the Hindus wonderfully well. Yama being the (half) brother of the Heavenly Twins and Manu as we have spelled out often before now in earlier posts. And we should call to mind what we have already learnt of the Cabiri (Κάβειροι) of Samothrace [here], and their third brother or half brother who is the ἀρχανθρωπος, the first man who betokens us all, both the male and female, and who first falls (or is pushed) into matter wherein he is, as it were, torn asunder. And that he is the god Eshmun (Ἔσμουνος) worshipped at Berytus, the god Adonis or Tammuz worshipped more widely in Syria and whom the Greeks understood as noneother than their own Dionysus.Cucum dom thig tíssaid uili / íar bar n-écaibh"To me, to my house, you shall all come after your deaths".
How old such thoughts behind Donn may be, can be seen from what Julius Caesar writes of the forefather of the Gauls in his De Bello Gallico 6.18:
Galli se omnes ab Dite patre prognatos praedicant idque ab druidibus proditum dicunt.All the Gauls assert that they are descended from the god Dis, and say that this tradition has been handed down by the Druids.
Donn's "house", the Tech Duinn, is truly the otherworld. But in the Metrical Dindshenchas it is understood to be the old name for the Bull Rock, but in the folklore of Limerick he is said to live under the hill of Cnoc Fírinne
(Knockfeerina or Knockfierna). The same switching between an island
and an hill for the "house" to which the dead go is also found in the
lore of king Arthur who sometimes is sent of with his mortal wound to
the island of Avalon, whilst at other times he is said to be "sleeping"
under this or that hill. Islands that are also hills would seem to be
the missing link between the two things and such the Bull Rock is.
Above: The Bull Rock by Nigel Cox (see [here]).
Κελτοσκύθαι "Celtoscythians"
It should be better known than it is that the Greeks of yore spoke of all the northern βάρβαροι asΚελτοσκύθαι "Celtoscythians":
“ἅπαντας μὲν δὴ τοὺς προσβόρους κοινῶς οἱ παλαιοὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων συγγραφεῖς Σκύθας καὶ Κελτοσκύθας ἐκάλουν· ”
“Now all the peoples towards the north were by the ancient Greek historians given the general name "Scythians" or "Celtoscythians"; ...” Strabo Geography 11.6.2 [lvs. 244 to 245]
And Plutarch tells us in his Life of Marius that it was believed that Europe was settled little by little by these Κελτοσκύθαι from the lands north of the Black Sea.
“[4] εἰσὶ δὲ οἳ τὴν Κελτικὴν διὰ βάθος χώρας καὶ μέγεθος ἀπὸ τῆς ἔξω θαλάσσης καὶ τῶν ὑπαρκτίων κλιμάτων πρὸς ἥλιον ἀνίσχοντα κατὰ τὴν Μαιῶτιν ἐπιστρέφουσαν ἅπτεσθαι τῆς Ποντικῆς Σκυθίας λέγουσι, κἀκεῖθεν τὰ γένη μεμεῖχθαι. τούτους ἐξαναστάντας οὐκ ἐκ μιᾶς ὁρμῆς οὐδὲ συνεχῶς, ἀλλὰ ἔτους ὥρᾳ καθ᾽ ἕκαστον ἐνιαυτὸν εἰς τοὔμπροσθεν ἀεὶ χωροῦντας πολέμῳ χρόνοις πολλοῖς ἐπελθεῖν τὴν ἤπειρον. [5] διὸ καὶ πολλὰς κατὰ μέρος ἐπικλήσεις ἐχόντων κοινῇ Κελτοσκύθας τὸν στρατὸν ὠνόμαζον.”
“[4] There are some that say that the country of the Celti [Κελτικὴν …χώρας “Celtic land”], in its vast size and extent, reaches from the furthest sea and the arctic regions to the lake Mæotis eastward, and to that part of Scythia which is near Pontus, and that there the nations mingle together; that they did not swarm out of their country all at once, or on a sudden, but advancing by force of arms, in the summer season, every year, in the course of time they crossed the whole continent. [5] And thus, though each party had several appellations, yet the whole army was called by the common name of Celto-Scythians.” (awending John Dryden).
Celts here means both those we might more readily think of as Celts and those we now think of as Germans thus Dionysius of Halicarnassus says Celtica split in two by the Rhine with Galatae on one side and Germani on the other.
“[I. (1)] Ἡ δὲ Κελτικὴ κεῖται μὲν ἐν τῷ πρὸς τὴν ἑσπέραν καθήκοντι τῆς Εὐρώπης μέρει μεταξὺ τοῦ τε βορείου πόλου καὶ τῆς ἰσημερινῆς δύσεως· τετράγωνος δὲ οὖσα τῷ σχήματι τοῖς μὲν Ἀλπείοις ὄρεσι μεγίστοις οὖσι τῶν Εὐρωπείων συνάπτει κατὰ τὰς ἀνατολάς, τοῖς δὲ Πυρρηναίοις κατὰ μεσημβρίαν τε καὶ νότον ἄνεμον, τῇ δὲ ἔξω στηλῶν Ἡρακλείων θαλάττῃ κατὰ τὰς δύσεις, τῷ δὲ Σκυθικῷ τε καὶ Θρᾳκίῳ γένει κατὰ βορέαν ἄνεμον καὶ ποταμὸν Ἴστρον, ὃς ἀπὸ τῶν Ἀλπείων καταβαίνων ὀρῶν μέγιστος τῶν τῇδε ποταμῶν καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ὑπὸ τοῖς ἄρκτοις ἤπειρον διελθὼν εἰς τὸ Ποντικὸν ἐξερεύγεται πέλαγος. [2(2)] τοσαύτη δὲ οὖσα τὸ μέγεθος ὅση μὴ πολὺ ἀποδεῖν τετάρτη λέγεσθαι μοῖρα τῆς Εὐρώπης, εὔυδρός τε καὶ πίειρα καὶ καρποῖς δαψιλὴς καὶ κτήνεσιν ἀρίστη νέμεσθαι, σχίζεται μέση ποταμῷ Ῥήνῳ, μεγίστῳ μετὰ τὸν Ἴστρον εἶναι δοκοῦντι τῶν κατὰ τὴν Εὐρώπην ποταμῶν. [3] καλεῖται δ᾿ ἡ μὲν ἐπὶ τάδε τοῦ Ῥήνου Σκύθαις καὶ Θρᾳξὶν ὁμοροῦσα Γερμανία, μέχρι δρυμοῦ Ἑρκυνίου καὶ τῶν Ῥιπαίων ὀρῶν καθήκουσα, ἡ δ᾿ ἐπὶ θάτερα τὰ πρὸς μεσημβρίαν βλέποντα μέχρι Πυρρήνης ὄρους, ἡ τὸν Γαλατικὸν κόλπον περιλαμβάνουσα, Γαλατία τῆς θαλάττης ἐπώνυμος. [4(3)] κοινῷ δ᾿ ὀνόματι ἡ σύμπασα πρὸς Ἑλλήνων καλεῖται Κελτική, ...”
“1 [1 (1)] The country of the Celts lies in the part of Europe which extends toward the West, between the North pole and the equinoctial setting of the sun. Having the shape of a square, it is bounded by the Alps, the loftiest of the European mountains, on the East, by the Pyrenees toward the meridian and the south wind, by the sea that lies beyond the Pillars of Hercules on the West, and by the Scythian and Thracian nations toward the north wind and the river Ister, which, descending from the Alps as the largest of the rivers on this side, and flowing through the whole continent that lies beneath the Bears, empties into the Pontic sea. [2 (2)] This land, which is so large in extent that it may be called almost the fourth part of Europe and is well-watered, fertile, rich in crops and most excellent for grazing cattle, is divided in the middle by the river Rhine, reputed to be the largest river in Europe after the Ister. [3] The part on this side of the Rhine, bordering upon the Scythians and Thracians, is called Germany, and extends as far as the Hercynian forest and the Rhipæan mountains; the other part, on the side facing the South, as far as the Pyrenees range and embracing the Gallic gulf, is called Gaul after the sea. [4 (3)] The whole country is called by the Greeks by the common name Celtica (Keltikê), ...”.
[Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities, Volume VII: Books 11-20. Translated by Earnest Cary. Loeb Classical Library 388. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950. lvs. 258 to 261]
And what was the belief of these "Celts" we may well ask?
Diodorus Siculus in his Library of History book 4, chap. 3 (awend. C. H. Oldfather)