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The Figure of Loki in Germanic Mythology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

Frank Stanton Cawley
Frank Stanton Cawley
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

Iceland, that island of marvels, has preserved for us, as it has done in most other fields of Germanic culture, nearly all of what we know about the religion of our pagan ancestors. The two Eddas, the Elder (Poetic) and the Younger (Prose) Edda, furnish the whole body of coherent mythology accessible to us. As for the cults themselves, we are much less well informed, but such knowledge as we have is drawn mainly from the Sagas, prose tales dealing with men and events, real and fictitious, of the heathen time, written down two or three centuries after the adoption of Christianity as the state religion in the year 1000, yet seeking to give a faithful picture of the manners and beliefs of the old days, and with scarcely a trace of the intolerance which almost obliterated the pagan traditions in other parts of Germanic territory. The distribution and popularity of the cults, their relative age and gradual expansion have been revealed by the brilliant researches of Professor Magnus Olsen on the Norwegian place-names and by the subsequent studies inspired by his work.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , October 1939 , pp. 309 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1939

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References

1 Hedenske Kultminder i norske Stedsnavne (Videnskabsselskabets Skrifter, hist.-filos. Klasse, 1914, No. 4), Kristiania, 1915. See also the same author's revision of Munch, P. A., Norrøne Gude- og Heltesagn3, Kristiania, 1922, 210 ff.Google Scholar, and his Farms and Fanes of Ancient Norway: the place-names of a country discussed in their bearings on social and religious history, Harvard Univ. Press, 1928.Google Scholar

2 Pauls Grundriss der germanischen Philologie3, 12/1 and 2, 1935–37.

3 von der Leyen, F., Das Märchen in den Göttersagen der Edda, Berlin, 1899CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mogk, E., Novellistische Darstellung mythologischer Stoffe Snorris und seiner Schule, Folklore Fellows Communications No. 51, Helsinki, 1923Google Scholar; Nordal, Sigurður, Snorri Sturluson, Reykjavík, 1920.Google Scholar

4 ‘Loge bist du, doch nenn' ich dich Lüge!’ ‘Verfluchte Lohe, dich lösch' ich aus!’ Scene 2. ‘Zur leckenden Lohe mich wieder zu wandeln spür' ich lockende Lust.’ Scene 4.

5 Deutsche Mythologie4 1, 199 ff.

6 Cf. T. von Grienberger, Zts. f. d. öster. Gym. 47, 1009.

7 Nordisk Mythologi1, Copenhagen, 1849, 355 ff.Google Scholar

8 Oden och Loke, 1873, 62 ff.

9 Undersökningar i germanisk Mythologi, 1886, 1, 450 f.Google Scholar

10 Der germanische Himmelsgott, Festgabe Heinzel, 1898, 236 ff., especially 245 f.Google Scholar

11 Pauls Grundriss d. germ. Phil.2, 3, 348. Mogk later withdrew this idea in favor of a conception of Loki as a fire-elf, Hoops’ Reallexikon d. germ. Altertumskunde, article Loki.

12 Nordische Mythologie, 1903, 403 ff.

13 Germanische Mythologie, 1891; Mythologie der Germanen, 1903, 163 ff.

14 Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, 1910, 335 ff.

15 Die Religion der Indogermanen in archäologischer Beleuchtung (Mannus-Bibliothek 31), 119.

16 Handbuch d. germ. Mythologie, 1895, 406 ff.

17 The Religion of the Teutons, 1902, 259 ff.

18 Goðafræði Norðmanna og Íslendinga eftir heimildum, Reykjavík, 1913, 96.Google Scholar

19 Schonning, O., Dødsriger i nordisk Hedentro, Copenhagen, 1903.Google Scholar

20 Studier i nordisk Litteratur- och Religionshistoria 2, 125.

21 Schück and Warburg, Illustrerad svensk Litteraturhistoria3, 1, 159.

22 Germanentum und Hellenisraus (Germ. Bibl. 2, 17), 1924, 115 ff.

23 See van Deursen, A., Der Heilbringer, eine ethnologische Studie über den Heilbringer bei den nordamerikanischen Indianern, Groningen, 1931.Google Scholar

24 The Algonquin Legends of New England or Myths and Folk Lore of the Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Tribes, Boston, 1884Google Scholar. See also Emerson, Ellen Russell, Indian Myths, Boston, 1884, 361 ff.Google Scholar

25 Op. cit. v f., 168 f. ‘A re-perusal of the Eddas has impressed me with the remarkable resemblance of Lox, the Wolverine, to Loki.…. But the most remarkable point is that the general immoral character of the Lox, [footnote: The coincidence of name amounts to nothing, as Lox is not, I believe, an Indian word.] or Wolverine, is so much like that of Loki, consisting of evil or mischief of the worst kind, always tempered by humor, which provokes a laugh. Now to find a similar and very singular character supported by several coincidences of incident is, if nothing more, at least very remarkable.’

26 See now the same author's Die Götter der Germanen, Munich, 1938, 190 ff.Google Scholar

27 ‘Tordenguden og hans Dreng,’ Danske Studier 1905, 129 ff.Google Scholar

28 ‘Loke i nyere Folkeoverlevering,’ Danske Studier 1908, 193 ff., 1909, 69 ff.Google Scholar

29 Språkvetenskapliga Sällskapets i Uppsala Förhandlingar 1907–09, Uppsala, 1911, 18 ff.

30 De Noordse Loki-mythen in hun onderling Verband, Haarlem, 1931.Google Scholar

31 First suggested by Olrik, Axel, ‘Om Ragnarok,’ Aarbøger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie 1902, 157 ff.Google Scholar, and ‘Ragnarokforestillingernes Udspring,’ Danske Studier 1913, 1 ff. German edition of both parts transl. W. Ranisch, Ragnarök, die Sagen vom Weltuntergang, 1922.Google Scholar

32 ‘Loeke, Lodder i flamsk Folketro,’ Danske Studier 1912, 87 ff.Google Scholar

33 Since Grimm, Jakob, Deutsche Mythologie1, 1835.Google Scholar

34 Folklore 1898,186.

35 Cf. County Folklore 5, 125, where the charm is given in the dialect, in a slightly different version: ‘Feyther, Son and Holy Ghoast, / Naale the divil to this poast. / Throice I smoites with Holy Crok, / With this mell Oi throice dew knock, / One for God / An’ one for Wod, / An' one for Lok.’

36 Loc. cit. 48 f.

37 Typewritten manuscript in the Harvard College Library.

38 ‘Om jättenamnet þjaze,’ Ark. f. nordisk Filologi, 21, 1905, 132 ff.Google Scholar

39 Corresponding, sound for sound, to Lat. textor, which has the specialised sense of ‘weaver.’ Greek τέκτων shows the original, general significance of ‘artisan,’ ‘craftsman,’ meaning in Homer ‘stone-cutter,’ ‘carpenter,’ ‘ship-builder,’ ‘wagon-builder,’ ‘horn-turner,’ and ‘ivory-carver.’ See O. Schrader, Reallexikon d. idg. Altertumskunde2 1, 394, art. Gewerbe §5. The IE. root has a large number of derivatives in the descendant languages, among which may be cited Old English þeox ‘spear’ and Old Icelandic þexla ‘adze.’

40 E. H. Lind, Norsk-isländska Dopnamn, lists a long series of variant forms from various periods and districts.

41 See Lind, Ark. f. n. Fil. 11, 269.

42 The technical proof is presented in greater detail in my article Loki und , ein bisher unbekannter indogermanischer Gott, which has just appeared in the Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 63, 457 ff.

43 Sitzb. d. königl. bayer. Akad. d. Wissenschaften 1866, 2, 138 ff., 207 f.

44 Zts. f. d. Altertum, 64, 269 ff. For the meaning, see now Krogmann, loc. cit., 63 ff.

45 The etymology of the Germanic word does not concern us here, since the meaning is clear from the glosses. But see Krogmann, loc. cit. 68 f.

46 It is pure chance that we are informed about the existence of such private cults as the álfablót (sacrifice to the elves) and the cult of Vǫlsi, the horse-phallus. A bit of evidence not to be lightly disregarded is the name þjóstólfr, the very type of personal names described by H. Usener, Götternamen, 350, given to children in artisan families to place them under the protection of the patron god (though, to be sure, the name is no doubt very old and its significance was no longer understood in the historical period).

47 I agree with de Vries that in these matters etymology should never be the point of departure, divorced from a careful study of the religious phenomenon as such. But when this condition is fulfilled, it may often furnish the decisive proof.

48 A very ancient motive; cf. the ‘Minoan bird-epiphany,’ Martin P. Nilsson, A History of Greek Religion, 34; see also 56 f., 65.

49 G. Maspero, Les contes populaires de l'Égypte ancienne4, 1 ff.

50 The most recent contributions to the discussion, by Franz Rolf Schröder, Arch, f. Rel., 35, 1938, 201 ff. (especially 213), and Hermann Schneider, ibid., 237 ff., both the productions of learned and ingenious scholars, suffer from the methodological faults so incisively criticised by de Vries. Schröder clings to his interpretation of Loki as a vegetation deity, Schneider presents the god as a death-demon, and reverts to the discredited etymology of Loki as ‘the closer.’ Schröder (224) believes that Othin as the possessor of the eight-footed horse Sleipnir was originally a Totendämon in horse-form; Schneider (249), because Loki was the parent of Sleipnir, draws the same conclusion in regard to Loki. It is evident that such speculations cannot further the search for the truth.

I would only cite here the warning of Axel Olrik, “Tordenguden og hans Dreng,’ Danske Studier 1905, 137, a warning which, alas! he himself did not always regard: ‘Når sammenlignende mytologer har fået ud af sagnet, at Thjalfe var en Prometheus der bragte ilden til jorden, er det en ganske vilkårlig omtydning, og den er kun mulig ved at løsrive þielvar-sagnet fra det organisk sammenhørende stof. En anden sag er det, at det muligvis er en mytisk Thielvar-Thialfe, der bryder øens trolddom, — men da vi aldrig har ham optrædende uden i Thors følge, svæver en sådan gætning ret højt i det blå. Ilden som middel mod troldskab er så almindelig i folkeskik (Feilberg, Ordbog II 12), at den ikke byder nogensomhelst sandsynlighed for, at sagnet rører sig i gudernes verden.’