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Saga-Book of the Viking Society
beliefs inherited from a common source. The general
theme of the powers of the severed head appears in Norse
literature quite apart from the story of Mimir, though the
references to it are admittedly somewhat rare. There is
the myth that tells that Heimdallr was killed by a man's
head, though the details of the story are unfortunately
lost ;15 in Eyrbyggja saga ch. 43 a shepherd finds a severed
head lying on a rocky slope singing a verse that prophesies
a fight soon to take place on that spot ;16 the Orkney
Earl Siguror ties the head of his enemy Melbricte to his
saddle, but is poisoned by a gash from its tooth ;' 7 in
Irorsteins pattr bcejarmagns, a colourfullygisaga, a gigantic
head "with flesh and mouth", growing from the end of
a vast drinking-horn, speaks and receives gifts of gold.l 8
Furthermore, the related theme of the skull used as
a drinking-cup is known, e.g. in Vplundarkvioa. Thus it
cannot be taken for granted that the whole complex of
ideas concerning heads was simply borrowed from the
Celts. Even the more limited theme of the association of
heads and water may be a survival of ancient beliefs of
the Indo-Europeans; it occurs in the story of the
dismemberment of Orpheus, whose head was thrown into
the river Hebrus, where it floated downstream singing,
until it was cast ashore on the coast of Lesbos and there
preserved as an oracle in a cave.!"
There also exists an English folk-tale of considerable
interest in this connexion. It has been preserved in
15 Snorri, Skaldskaparmal ch. IS: "A sword is called 'Heimdallr's head'. It
is said that he was struck down by a man's head; there is a verse about this in
the Heimdallargaldr, and since then a head has been called 'the destruction of
Heimdallr' " (ed. cit. 83.) The myth must be an old one, since it forms the
basis of kennings, but its significance is obscure. There are Irish examples of
the motif of the human head as a weapon; T. P. Cross, Motif-Index of Early
Irish Literature (1952), F 839. 4.
16 Einar OJ. Sveinsson and Matthias l>ori\arson, Eyrbyggja saga (1935), II6.
17 Gui\brandur Vigflisson, Orkneyinga saga (1887), 5-6.
1. Guoni Jonsson and Bjarni Vilhjalmsson, Fornaldarsiigur Norourlanda
(1944), III 397-417. Although this pattr is too striking to be omitted from
a list of Icelandic tales of severed heads, it contains much that may be suspected
of foreign origin, and its speaking head is not likely to be derived purely from
native traditions.
i e Ovid, Metamorphose. XI; Philostratus, Heroica \T 704.