Scef The Author Of Culture Identical With Heimdal-rig The Original Patriarch

: THE MYTH CONCERNING THE EARLIEST PERIOD AND THE EMIGRATIONS FROM THE NORTH.
: Teutonic Mythology

But in one respect Are Frode or his authority has paid attention to the

genuine mythic tradition, and that is by making the Vana-gods the

kinsmen of the descendants of Yngve. This is correct in the sense that

Scef-Yngve, the son of a deity transformed into a man, was in the myth a

Vana-god. Accordingly every member of the Yngling race and every

descendant of Scef may be styled a son of Frey (Freys attungr),

epithets ap lied by Thjodulf in Ynglingatal in regard to the Upsala

kings. They are gifts from the Vana-gods--the implements which point to

the opulent Njord, and the grain sheaf which is Frey's symbol--which

Scef-Yngve brings with him to the ancient people of Scandia, and his

rule is peaceful and rich in blessings.



Scef-Yngve comes across the ocean. Vanaheim was thought to be situated

on the other side of it, in the same direction as AEgir's palace in the

great western ocean and in the outermost domain of Jormumgrund (see 93).

This is indicated in Lokasenna, 34, where Loke in AEgir's hall says to

the Van Njord: "You were sent from here to the East as a hostage to the

gods (thu vart austr hedan gisl um sendr at godum)". Thus Njord's

castle Noatun is situated in the West, on a strand outside of which the

swans sing (Gylfag., 23). In the faded memory of Scef, preserved in the

saga of the Lower Rhine and of the Netherlands, there comes to a

poverty-stricken people a boat in which there lies a sleeping youth. The

boat is, like Scef's, without sails or oars, but is drawn over the

billows by a swan. From Gylfaginning, 16, we learn that there are myths

telling of the origin of the swans. They are all descended from that

pair of swans which swim in the sacred waters of Urd's fountain. Thus

the descendants of these swans that sing outside of the Vanapalace

Noatun and their arrival to the shores of Midgard seems to have some

connection with the coming of the Van Scef and of culture.



The Vans most prominent in the myths are Njord, Frey, and Heimdal.

Though an Asa-god by adoption, Heimdal is like Njord and Frey a Vana-god

by birth and birthplace, and is accordingly called both ass and vanr

(Thrymskv., 15). Meanwhile these three divinities, definitely named

Vans, are only a few out of many. The Vans have constituted a numerous

clan, strong enough to wage a victorious war against the Asas (Voelusp.).

Who among them was Scef-Yngve? The question can be answered as follows:



(1) Of Heimdal, and of him alone among the gods, it is related that he

lived for a time among men as a man, and that he performed that which is

attributed to Scef--that is, organised and elevated human society and

became the progenitor of sacred families in Midgard.



(2) Rigsthula relates that the god Heimdal, having assumed the name Rig,

begot with an earthly woman the son Jarl-Rig, who in turn became the

father of Konr-Rig. Konr-Rig is, as the very name indicates and as

Vigfusson already has pointed out, the first who bore the kingly name.

In Rigsthula the Jarl begets the king, as in Ynglingasaga the judge

(Domarr) begets the first king. Rig is, according to Ynglingasaga, ch.

20, grandfather to Dan, who is a Skjoldung. Heimdal-Rig is thus the

father of the progenitor of the Skjoldungs, and it is the story of the

divine origin of the Skjoldungs Rigsthula gives us when it sings of

Heimdal as Jarl's father and the first king's grandfather. But the

progenitor of the Skjoldungs is, according to both Anglo-Saxon and the

northern sources above quoted, Scef. Thus Heimdal and Scef are

identical.



These proofs are sufficient. More can be presented, and the identity

will be established by the whole investigation.



As a tender boy, Heimdal was sent by the Vans to the southern shores of

Scandinavia with the gifts of culture. Hyndla's lay tells how these

friendly powers prepared the child for its important mission, after it

was born in the outermost borders of the earth (vid jardar thraum), in

a wonderful manner, by nine sisters (Hyndla's Lay, 35; Heimdallar

Galdr., in the Younger Edda; compare No. 82, where the ancient Aryan

root of the myth concerning Heimdal's nine mothers is pointed out).



For its mission the child had to be equipped with strength, endurance,

and wisdom. It was given to drink jardar magn svalkaldr saer and Sonar

dreyri. It is necessary to compare these expressions with Urdar magn,

svalkaldr saer and Sonar dreyri in Gudrunarkivda, ii. 21, a song

written in Christian times, where this reminiscence of a triple

heathen-mythic drink reappears as a potion of forgetfulness allaying

sorrow. The expression Sonar dreyri shows that the child had tasted

liquids from the subterranean fountains which water Yggdrasil and

sustain the spiritual and physical life of the universe (cp. Nos. 63 and

93). Son contains the mead of inspiration and wisdom. In Gylfaginning,

which quotes a satire of late origin, this name is given to a jar in

which Suttung preserves this valuable liquor, but to the heathen skalds

Son is the name of Mimer's fountain, which contains the highest

spiritual gifts, and around whose rush-bordered edge the reeds of poetry

grow (Eilif Gudrunson, Skaldskaparmal). The child Heimdal has,

therefore, drunk from Mimer's fountain. Jardar magn (the earth's

strength) is in reality the same as Urdar magn, the strength of the

water in Urd's fountain, which keeps the world-tree ever green and

sustains the physical life of creation (Voelusp.). The third subterranean

fountain is Hvergelmer, with hardening liquids. From Hvergelmer comes

the river Sval, and the venom-cold Elivogs (Grimner's Lay,

Gylfaginning). Svalkaldar saer, cool sea, is an appropriate designation

of this fountain.



When the child has been strengthened in this manner for its great

mission, it is laid sleeping in the decorated ship, gets the grain-sheaf

for its pillow, and numerous treasures are placed around it. It is

certain that there were not only weapons and ornaments, but also

workmen's tools among the treasures. It should be borne in mind that the

gods made on the plains of Ida not only ornaments, but also tools

(tangir skopu ok tol goerdu). Evidence is presented in No. 82 that

Scef-Heimdal brought the fire-auger to primeval man who until that time

had lived without the blessings produced by the sacred fire.



The boy grows up among the inhabitants on the Scandian coast, and, when

he has developed into manhood, human culture has germinated under his

influence and the beginnings of classes in society with distinct

callings appear. In Rigsthula, we find him journeying along "green

paths, from house to house, in that land which his presence has

blessed." Here he is called Rigr--it is true of him as of nearly all

mythological persons, that he has several names--but the introduction

to the poem informs us that the person so called is the god Heimdal

(einhverr af asum sa er Heimdallr het). The country is here also

described as situated near the sea. Heimdal journeys framm med

sjofarstroendu. Culture is in complete operation. The people are

settled, they spin and weave, perform handiwork, and are smiths, they

plough and bake, and Heimdal has instructed them in runes. Different

homes show different customs and various degrees of wealth, but

happiness prevails everywhere. Heimdal visits Ai's and Edda's

unpretentious home, is hospitably received, and remains three days. Nine

months thereafter the son Trael (thrall) is born to this family. Heimdal

then visits Ave's and Amma's well-kept and cleanly house, and nine

months thereafter the son Karl (churl) is born in this household. Thence

Rig betakes himself to Fadir's and Modir's elegant home. There is

born, nine months later, the son Jarl. Thus the three Teutonic

classes--the thralls, the freemen, and the nobility--have received their

divine sanction from Heimdal-Rig, and all three have been honoured with

divine birth.



In the account of Rig's visit to the three different homes lies the

mythic idea of a common fatherhood, an idea which must not be left out

of sight when human heroes are described as sons of gods in the

mythological and heroic sagas. They are sons of the gods and, at the

same time, from a genealogical standpoint, men. Their pedigree, starting

with Ask and Embla, is not interrupted by the intervention of the

visiting god, nor is there developed by this intervention a half-divine,

half-human middle class or bastard clan. The Teutonic patriarch Mannus

is, according to Tacitus, the son of a god and the grandson of the

goddess Earth. Nevertheless he is, as his name indicates, in the full

physical sense of the word, a man, and besides his divine father he has

had a human father. They are the descendants of Ask and Embla, men of

all classes and conditions, whom Voeluspa's skald gathered around the

seeress when she was to present to them a view of the world's

development and commanded silence with the formula: "Give ear, all ye

divine races, great and small, sons of Heimdal." The idea of a common

fatherhood we find again in the question of Fadir's grandson, as we

shall show below. Through him the families of chiefs get the right of

precedence before both the other classes. Thor becomes their progenitor.

While all classes trace their descent from Heimdal, the nobility trace

theirs also from Thor, and through him from Odin.



Heimdal-Rig's and Fadir's son, begotten with Modir, inherits in

Rigsthula the name of the divine co-father, and is called Rig Jarl.

Jarl's son, Kon, gets the same name after he has given proof of his

knowledge in the runes introduced among the children of men by Heimdal,

and has even shown himself superior to his father in this respect. This

view that the younger generation surpasses the older points to the idea

of a progress in culture among men, during a time when they live in

peace and happiness protected by Heimdal's fostering care and sceptre,

but must not be construed into the theory of a continued progress based

on the law and nature of things, a theory alike strange to the Teutons

and to the other peoples of antiquity. Heimdal-Rig's reign must be

regarded as the happy ancient age, of which nearly all mythologies have

dreamed. Already in the next age following, that is, that of the second

patriarch, we read of men of violence who visit the peaceful, and under

the third patriarch begins the "knife-age, and axe-age with cloven

shields," which continues through history and receives its most terrible

development before Ragnarok.



The more common mythical names of the persons appearing in Rigsthula are

not mentioned in the song, not even Heimdal's. In strophe 48, the last

of the fragment, we find for the first time words which have the

character of names--Danr and Danpr. A crow sings from the tree to

Jarl's son, the grandson of Heimdal, Kon, saying that peaceful amusement

(kyrra fugla) does not become him longer, but that he should rather

mount his steed and fight against men; and the crow seeks to awaken his

ambition or jealousy by saying that "Dan and Danp, skilled in navigating

ships and wielding swords, have more precious halls and a better

freehold than you." The circumstance that these names are mentioned

makes it possible, as shall be shown below, to establish in a more

satisfactory manner the connection between Rigsthula and other accounts

which are found in fragments concerning the Teutonic patriarch period.



The oldest history of man did not among the Teutons begin with a

paradisian condition. Some time has elapsed between the creation of Ask

and Embla, and Heimdal's coming among men. As culture begins with

Heimdal, a condition of barbarism must have preceded his arrival. At all

events the first generations after Ask and Embla have been looked upon

as lacking fire; consequently they have been without the art of the

smith, without metal implements, and without knowledge of agriculture.

Hence it is that the Vana-child comes across the western sea with fire,

with implements, and with the sheaf of grain. But the barbarous

condition may have been attended with innocence and goodness of heart.

The manner in which the strange child was received by the inhabitants of

Scandia's coast, and the tenderness with which it was cared for

(diligenti animo, says Ethelwerd) seem to indicate this.



When Scef-Heimdal had performed his mission, and when the beautiful boat

in which he came had disappeared beyond the western horizon, then the

second mythic patriarch-age begins.





22.



HEIMDAL'S SON BORGAR-SKJOLD, THE SECOND PATRIARCH.





Ynglingasaga, ch. 20, contains a passage which is clearly connected with

Rigsthula or with some kindred source. The passage mentions three

persons who appear in Rigsthula, viz., Rig, Danp, and Dan, and it is

there stated that the ruler who first possessed the kingly title in

Svithiod was the son of a chief, whose name was Judge (Domarr), and

Judge was married to Drott (Drott), the daughter of Danp.



That Domar and his royal son, the latter with the epithet Dyggvi,

"the worthy," "the noble," were afterwards woven into the royal pedigree

in Ynglingasaga, is a matter which we cannot at present consider.

Vigfusson (Corpus Poet. Bor.) has already shown the mythic symbolism

and unhistorical character of this royal pedigree's Visburr, the

priest, son of a god; of Domaldr-Domvaldr, the legislator; of

Domarr, the judge; and of Dyggvi, the first king. These are not

historical Upsala kings, but personified myths, symbolising the

development of human society on a religious basis into a political

condition of law culminating in royal power. It is in short the same

chain of ideas as we find in Rigsthula, where Heimdal, the son of a god

and the founder of culture, becomes the father of the Jarl-judge, whose

son is the first king. Domarr, in the one version of the chain of

ideas, corresponds to Rig Jarl in the other, and Dyggvi corresponds to

Kon. Heimdal is the first patriarch, the Jarl-judge is the second, and

the oldest of kings is the third.



Some person, through whose hands Ynglingasaga has passed before it got

its present form in Heimskringla, has understood this correspondence

between Domarr and Rig-Jarl, and has given to the former the wife

which originally belonged to the latter. Rigsthula has been rescued in a

single manuscript. This manuscript was owned by Arngrim Jonsson, the

author of Supplementum Historiae Norvegiae, and was perhaps in his time,

as Bugge (Norr. Fornkv.) conjectures, less fragmentary than it now is.

Arngrim relates that Rig Jarl was married to a daughter of Danp, lord of

Danpsted. Thus the representative of the Jarl's dignity, like the

representative of the Judge's dignity in Ynglingasaga, is here

married to Danp's daughter.



In Saxo, a man by name Borgar (Borcarus--Hist. Dan. 336-354)

occupies an important position. He is a South Scandinavian chief, leader

of Skane's warriors (Borcarus cum Scanico equitatu, p. 350), but

instead of a king's title, he holds a position answering to that of the

Jarl. Meanwhile he, like Skjold, becomes the founder of a Danish royal

dynasty. Like Skjold he fights beasts and robbers, and like him he wins

his bride, sword in hand. Borgar's wife is Drott (Drotta, Drota),

the same name as Danp's daughter. Skjold's son Gram and Borgar's son

Halfdan are found on close examination (see below) to be identical with

each other, and with king Halfdan Berggram in whom the names of both are

united. Thus we find:



(1) That Borgar appears as a chief in Skane, which in the myth is the

cradle of the human race, or of the Teutonic race. As such he is also

mentioned in Script. rer. Dan. (pp. 16-19, 154), where he is called

Burgarus and Borgardus.



(2) That he has performed similar exploits to those of Skjold, the son

of Scef-Heimdal.



(3) That he is not clothed with kingly dignity, but has a son who founds

a royal dynasty in Denmark. This corresponds to Heimdal's son Rig Jarl,

who is not himself styled king, but whose son becomes a Danish king and

the progenitor of the Skjoldungs.



(4) That he is married to Drott, who, according to Ynglingasaga, is

Danp's daughter. This corresponds to Heimdal's son Rig Jarl, who takes

a daughter of Danp as his wife.



(5) That his son is identical with the son of Skjold, the progenitor of

the Skjoldungs.



(6) That this son of his is called Halfdan, while in the Anglo-Saxon

sources Scef, through his son Scyld (Skjold), is the progenitor of

Denmark's king Healfdene.



These testimonies contain incontestible evidence that Skjold, Borgar,

and Rig Jarl are names of the same mythic person, the son of the ancient

patriarch Heimdal, and himself the second patriarch, who, after Heimdal,

determines the destiny of his race. The name Borgarr is a synonym of

Skjoeldr. The word Skjoeldr has from the beginning had, or has in the

lapse of past ages acquired, the meaning "the protecting one," "the

shielding one," and as such it was applied to the common defensive

armour, the shield. Borgarr is derived from bjarga (past. part.

borginn; cp. borg), and thus has the same meaning, that is, "the

defending or protecting one." From Norse poetry a multitude of examples

can be given of the paraphrasing of a name with another, or even several

others, of similar meaning.



The second patriarch, Heimdal's son, thus has the names Skjold, Borgar,

and Rig Jarl in the heathen traditions, and those derived therefrom.



In German poems of the middle age ("Wolfdieterich," "Koenig Ruther," and

others) Borgar is remembered by the name Berchtung, Berker, and Berther.

His mythic character as ancient patriarch is there well preserved. He

is der grise mann, a Teutonic Nestor, wears a beard reaching to the

belt, and becomes 250 years old. He was fostered by a king Anzius, the

progenitor of the Amelungs (the Amalians). The name Anzius points to the

Gothic ansi (Asa-god). Borgar's fostering by "the white Asa-god" has

accordingly not been forgotten. Among the exercises taught him by Anzius

are daz werfen mit dem messer und schissen zu dem zil (compare Rig

Jarl's exercises, Rigsthula, 35). Like Borgar, Berchtung is not a king,

but a very noble and greatly-trusted chief, wise and kind, the

foster-father and counsellor of heroes and kings. The Norse saga places

Borgar, and the German saga places Berchtung, in close relation to

heroes who belong to the race of Hildings. Borgar is, according to Saxo,

the stepfather of Hildeger; Berchtung is, according to "Wolfdieterich,"

Hildebrand's ancestor. Of Hildeger Saxo relates in part the same as the

German poem tells of Hildebrand. Berchtung becomes the foster-father of

an Amalian prince; with Borgar's son grows up as foster-brother Hamal

(Helge Hund., 2; see Nos. 29, 42), whose name points to the Amalian

race. The very name Borgarr, which, as indicated, in this form refers

to bjarga, may in an older form have been related to the name

Berchter, Berchtung.