English
There is, certainly, a much greater similarity between the Buddhism of-the Topes and the Scandinavian mythology ihan between it and the Buddhism of the books; ‘but still the gulf between the iwo is immense, and if any traces of the doctrines of the gentle ascetic ever existed in the bosoms of Odin or his followers, while dwelling near the roots of the Caucasus, all that can be said is, that they suffered fearful shipwreck among the rocks of the savage superstitions of the north, and sank, never again to appear on the surface of Scandinavian mythology. If the two religions cante anywhere iu. contact it is at their base, for underlying both there existed a strange substratum of Tree and Serpent Worship; on this the two structures seem to have been raised, though they afterwards diverged into forms so strangely dissimilar. As will be seen in a subsequent part of this work, recent discoveries have narrowed, to a certain extent, the gulf which separated them at the .time of their greatest development, and it is by no means impossible that if we are able to go further back they may be found to approximate still more closely: We do not yet, however, see much prospect of reaching a point where the. two may come in contact, except at the point where they both start from their foundations; but the inquiry is too new, and the facts yet gathered are far from being sufficient to enable us to speak with anything like certainty, except regarding the later forms of either of these faiths. The myth of the Ygegdrasil ash is told in considerable detail in the Prose Edda, though its meaning will hardly be understood till we are more familiar with ‘the corresponding features in Indian mythology. * It was under the ash, the chiefest and holiest seat of the oats that “they assembled every day in council. The branches spread over the whole world, and even reach to heaven above. It has three roots, one stood over Mimir’s well, in which wisdom and wit lie hidden; and one over Niflheim, a place where those wicked people are sent who die from natural causes, and this root it is, that is continually gnawed by the serpent Nidhégg, with whom in Hwergelmir there are so ‘ many snakes that no tongue can recount them.* The third root of the ash is in . ‘ heaven, under it is the holy Urdar-fount; it is here the gods sit in judgment. Near “ this sit the three Norns or fates, who fix the lifetime of all men. In its branches * sits an eagle who knows many things, and a squirrel, Ratatésk, runs up and down, “and seeks to cause strife between the Eagle and Nidhégg. Four harts run across “ the branches of the tree and bite the buds.’”? In addition to this is the great Midgard serpent Jérmungand, “ who being of parentage of bad augury, was thrown “ by All-Father (Odin) into the ocean, but the monster-grew to such an enormous “ size, that holding his tail in his mouth, he encircles the whole earth.’’+ Without continuing these quotations further at present, enough has perhaps been brought forward to show that Ygedrasil is in the first place a reminiscence of the trees a —— * Pliny refers to the Gonnexion of the serpent with the ash, but in a different sense (XVI. 13). ‘He says snakes will not rest in its shadow, but shun it at a distance, and adds, from “ personal experience,” that, * if'a “ serpent is so surrounded by a fence of ash leaves: that he cannot escape except by passing through fire, he will “ prefer the fire rather than pass through the leaves.” + Translation of Prose Edda, 410 et seq. SCANDINAVIA. 25 of fate and knowledge of the Garden of Eden, though wisdom lay in a well of water at the root of the northern tree, of which Odin drank and gained knowledge,* instead of eating its fruit, which, with an ash, was not a probable form of the myth. It is. also probably pnoneh to enable us to recognize in the eagle, the Garuda, and in the’! Nidhégg, the Nagas of eastern fable, though the squirrel does not there appear to have been necessary to keep alive the enmity that always existed between them. And in Thor fishing for the Midgard serpent, and the part he is to play at the ‘end of all things, we may without difficulty recognize a reflex of the churning of the ocean and the renewal of all things by Vishnu through the instrumentality of the great serpent. As might be expected from the nature of the country and style of its historians, we have fewer accounts of the actual form of the worship than of its doctrinal importance. Still we are toldt that in front of the great Temple at Upsala ‘“‘ there grew a huge tree of unknown kind, that spread with large boughs, and was ** green both summer and winter,” and near the same temple a sacred grove, every tree and every leaf of which was considered the most sacred thing in the world.t It was called Odin’s Grove, and in it the most solemn sacrifices were performed, especially every ninth year, when nine human victims were sacrificed from among the captives if in time of war, or nine slaves if in time of peace. The serpent is not mentioned as an actual object of worship in any written history ; though no doubt the superstition prevailed with the others down to the time when the whole was abolished in the ninth century on the introduction of Christianity. Yet we are told that in the sixteenth century, “There are house serpents “which are accounted in the northern parts of Sweden as household gods; they are “ fed with sheep and cows’ milk, and to hurt them is a deadly sin.” The same author tells us that “serpents rest deep under the roots of birch trees, the multitude ** of them cause heat with their breath, and so keep the leaves green in winter.”$ All this is foolish enough, but the thousand and one stories about serpents which crowd the pages of the good Archbishop of Upsala suffice to show that even in his day the superstition had not died out among the common people, and though serpents were no longer worshipped, the time when they were,so was not yet forgotten.|| At the same time it seems tolerably. clear that such a serpent mythology as existed "An Sweden could never have sprung up naturally in so northern a climate, where all the snake tribe are so insignificant. It must have been imported from the East, though we have yet to learn by whom this was done, and at what exact time it was effected. * Page 411. f Olaus Magnus, III. 5. ft Mallet, p. 113. § Olaus Magnus, X XI. 47 and 48. || Castren, in his Travels in Lapland, gives some very curious details about the feelings of the Lapps with regard to Serpent and Tree Worship at the present day. According to their traditions, Snakes, like men, live in societies, each with a captain and subordinate officers; once a year each community meets in general assembly, and not only has each serpent the right to bring his own grievances forward, but the jurisdiction of the chief extends to men who have slain or offended any of his subjects—Reise Erinncrungen aus den Jahren 1838-44, PP. 66-77. A good deal of information on this subject will be found in a Swedish work by Hylten-Cavallius, “entitled Wairend och Wirdarne, p. 142, for the worship of Trees ag at present existing, and pp. 32% to 332 for that of Serpents. (4799.) D 26 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. FRANCE. We secm to know less of the primitive worship of the early inhabitants of Gaul than. of that of almost any other country of Europe. This may arise partly because ihe Gauls were so far civilized before the classical authors became acquainted ‘with hem, that their old beliefs had lost much of their individuality and freshness, while ‘hey were not so far advanced or civilized at the time when Christianity blotted out the old religions, as to feel sufficient interest in them to care to record their forms. | .. good deal also is no doubt due to the fact that the subject has not been care- fully. investigated by any competent authority since the new school of criticism was introduced. The French antiquarians do not yet seem to have discovered the safe channel between the whirlpools of credulity and the dry sand banks of ete scepticism. Nearly all that we know of the religion of the ancient Gauls is gathered from the celebrated passage in Czosar’s Commentaries,* when he pauses from the narrative of his - exploits to describe the civil and religious institutions of the people he had conquered. In this account there is absolutely no mention of either Tree or Serpent Worship; on the contrary, he tells us that their principal deity was Mercury, not probably the god . known by that name in the Roman Pantheon, but it may be Woden or some such synonym. After him came Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva. Rather a strange selection, and stranger classification if we are to accept them as the Roman gods whose names they bear; but most probably they were local deities who, to his appre- hension, more closely resembled these gods than any other his readers amie be acquainted with: Czesar’s assertion that the Druids were the priests, and by inference the only priests of the Gauls, is considerably modified by the subsequent testimony of both Strabot and Diodorus,t who divide the priests into three classes, the Bards, the Druids, and the Soothsayers. All these authors agree in describing the principal rite to consist in sacrifices, performed apparently in the open air, and by inference in groves. They also agree in stating that human victims were frequently immolated in what appears to have been considered the most solemn and acceptable of their sacred rites. Notwithstanding the silence of the principal authorities, we are not without evidence as to Tree Worship having prevailed.