THE DEATH OF BALDER. 403 him, assuring her how great the grief was among the gods. Hel answered, 'It shall now be proved whether Balder be so much loved as thou sayest. If therefore all things, both living and lifeless, mourn for him, then shall he fare back to the Esir. But if one thing only refuse to weep, he shall remain in Helheim.' Then Hermôdhr rose, and Balder led him from the hall and gave him the ring Draupnir, to give it as a keepsake to Odhinn. Nanna sent Frigg a linen veil and other gifts, and to Fulla a gold finger ring. Hermôðr then rode back to Asgard and gave an account of all he had seen and heard. And when Hermôdhr had delivered Hel's answer, the gods sent off messengers throughout the world to beg everything to weep, in order that Balder might be delivered out of Helheim. All things freely complied with this request, both men and every other living being, and earths and stones and trees and metals, 'just as thou hast no doubt seen these things weep when they are brought from a cold place into a hot one.' As the messengers were returning, and deemed that their mission had been successful, they found an old hag named Thökk sitting in a cavern, and her they prayed to weep Balder out of Helheim. But she said Thökk will weep with dry tears Over Balder's bale. Nor quick nor dead for the carl's son care I; Let Hel hold her own. The nature myth out of which this story has grown ist very easily traced. Balder is the sun; his ship Hringhorni is the sun's disk, and as it floats out into the west it shows the picture of a burning sunset. After awhile out of the day myth sprang the myth of the year. Balder's Bale commemorates the death of the summer, or the actual descent of the sun for some weeks' or months' duration into the realm of darkness; a phenomenon. known only in Northern lands. The witch Thökk sitting there in her cave is undoubtedly the same whom we have met many times at the eastward entry of hell. She was originally simply the darkness-the same as Dökkr, dark.' So Shelley sings Swiftly walk over the western wave, Out of the misty eastern cave. Being originally no more than a nature myth, the story of Balder's death came in time to exercise a most important influence upon men's beliefs concerning death and the future. In the story as it has just been related the hope which was for a little while held out of Balder's again returning to earth was defeated through the machinations of Loki. But I do not fancy that it was by most people thought that Balder stayed in Helheim for ever. In the Völuspâ, as we shall presently see, there is the prophecy of a new world which is to follow the destruction of the old world at Ragnarök; and to that new world it is said Balder shall return, to reign supreme in it. True, it is likely that these concluding verses of the Völupsâ have been written under the influence of Christian ideas; but even so they point to some early foundation for the belief that Balder would reign as the king of paradise. There must have been some legend which made Balder, like others, sail away to a land of the blessed beyond the western horizon and the kingdom of shades. It was, we may well suppose, in virtue of some such belief that there arose the custom of burning the hero in a ship, in the same way that Balder was burned in Hringhorni. Before historic times, however, the meaning of this rite had been generally forgotten, and scattered remains of it only survived. 2 That is to say, the name has probably been changed from Dökkr to pökk, thanks, in obedience to an allegorising spirit like that which changed Hel into Elli. 2 See also next chapter. NORSE FUNERAL RITES. 405 Yet the very fragmentariness of these remains is the best witness we could wish for to the importance once attaching to rituals which commemorated the burial of Balder. For example, we find in historic times that men were often buried in a ship—that is to say, in a coffin made in the shape of a ship. Not many years ago was unearthed from a Norwegian burial ground a large vessel which had served as a resting-place for the dead. Of course to use the vessel in this way was to defeat the very purpose for which the ship had been at first called into requisition; for the body, when buried, could not sail away in the track which Balder had made. But the use of this form of coffin shows that men had once understood the meaning of laying the dead man in his ship. It shows incidentally this also: that the belief commemorated in the story of Balder's bale belongs to a date earlier than the date of this use of the ship as a coffin. It is highly interesting to find, in the accounts of a traveller among certain Northern Teutons in the tenth century, the description of a funeral which is evidently a close copy of the funeral of Balder, with just such an omission or change of one or two features in it as may serve to show that the funeral rites in question had been long in use, and had had time to degenerate here and there into empty forms. The account to which I refer is in the Kitâb el Meshâlik wa-l Memâlik' ('Book of Roads and Kingdoms') of the Arab traveller Ibn Haukal. The book was written during the tenth century: the Arab's travels, I believe, extend from A.D. 942 to 976. The people whom Ibn Haukal visited were the Russ or Varings, dwelling in the centre of Russia (near Kief), to which country they have bequeathed their name. For all that they were a Gothic and not a Slavonic race. In his description of the funerals of these Russ, Ibn Haukal has first to tell us that the bodies even of the poor were burned in a ship made for that purpose; those of the slaves were abandoned to dogs and birds of prey; that the Russ were wont to burn their dead with the horses, arms, and precious metals which belonged to them; and that if the dead was married they burned alive with him his wives. The women themselves desired to follow their husbands onto the pyre, thinking that they went with them to Paradise.' The narrative then proceeds, 'As I had heard that at the deaths of their chiefs the Russ did even more than to burn them, I was anxious to see their funeral rites. I soon heard that they were going to render the last duties to a rich merchant, who had died not long before. The body of the defunct was first placed in a ditch, where it was left ten days. This interval was employed in making him new robes. His property was divided into three parts: one part passed to his family; the second was spent on his robes, and the third in the purchase of drink to be consumel at the funeral; for the Russ are very much given to strong drink, and some die with a flask in their hands. Then the family asked of the slaves of both sexes, "Which among you will die with him?" Whoever answers "I ” cannot go back from his word. Generally the female slaves are those who thus devote themselves to death. In this case they asked the female slaves of the dead man which of them chose to follow him. One answered, "I." She was given into the charge of two females, who were bidden to follow her about everywhere and serve her, and who even washed her feet. This girl passed her days in pleasure, singing and drinking, while they were getting ready the garments destined for the dead and were making the other preparations for his obsequies. The day fixed for the funeral was Friday. I went to the bank of the stream on which was the vessel of the dead. I saw that they had drawn the ship to land, and men were engaged in fixing it upon four stakes, and had placed round it wooden statues. Onto the vessel they This statement is only partially confirmed by what follows. NORSE FUNERAL RITES. 407 bore a wooden platform, a mattress and cushions, covered with a Roman material of golden cloth. Then appeared an old woman called the Angel of Death, who put all this array in order. She has the charge of getting made the funeral garments and of the other preparations. She, too, kills the girl slaves who are devoted to death. She had the mien of a fury. 'When all was ready they went and took the dead from his sepulchre; whence too they drew a vase of spirituous drink, some fruits, and a lute, which had been placed beside him. He was clad in the robe which he had on at the moment of his death. I noticed that his skin was already livid, owing to the cold of this place; otherwise he was not at all changed. They clad him now in drawers, trowsers, boots and tunic, and a coat of cloth of gold; his head they covered with a brocaded cap furred with sable, and then they carried him to a tent which had been erected on the ship. He was seated on the couch and surrounded with cushions. Before him they placed some drink, some fruit and odorous herbs, some bread, meat, and garlic; around him were ranged all his weapons. Then they brought a dog, cut it in two, and threw the portions into the ship. They made two horses gallop till they were covered with sweat; then they cut them into pieces with their sabres, and they threw the fragments onto the vessel; two oxen were cut up, and their fragments thrown on in the same manner. Lastly they killed a cock and hen, which they threw on in the same way. Meanwhile the female slave went and came. I saw her enter a tent, where a man said to her these words: "Say to thy master, I have done this for love of thee." Towards evening she was led to a sort of pedestal, newly erected. placing her feet in the hands of round, and said certain words. down. They made her ascend a second time: she spoke some more words, and came down again. She mounted a third time, and when she had said some more words Onto this she climbed, various men who stood Then they helped her |