SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Mimir: Two Myths or One? 49
One day they sent her to the stream to fetch water, and up
came an ugly, horrible head to the surface of the water.
"Wash me, you!" said the head. "Yes, I will willingly wash
you," said the girl, and began to rub and wash the ugly face;
but a horrible task she thought it. When she had done so,
a second head came up to the surface, and it was even more
horrible. "Brush me, you!" said the head. "Yes, I will
willingly brush you," said the girl, and tugged at the matted
hair; but you cannot imagine more unpleasant work than that.
When she had finished, a still more ugly and horrible head came
to the surface. "Kiss me, you!" the head said. "Oh yes,
I will kiss you," the girl said, and she did so, but she thought it
the hardest task she had had in her life. Then the heads talked
together, and they asked each other what they should do for
this girl who was so kind. "She shall be the most beautiful
girl there is, and as bright as the light of day," said the first
head. "Gold shall drip from her hair every time she brushes
it," said the second. "Gold shall fall from her mouth every
time she opens it," said the third.
The wicked step-sister in turn goes to the stream, but
refuses the heads' requests, so they decree that she should
have "a mouth three ells wide, and a nose four ells long,
and a fir-bush in the middle of her head, and that every
time she spoke, ashes should fall from her mouth."
As the English folk-tale can thus be paralleled from
Norway, and since in any case there is no reason to
connect it with the Celtic areas of Britain, it would seem
unlikely that Mimir is the only ancient non-Celtic example
of a speaking head associated with water. The line of
development represented by these stories differs in several
ways from that discussed by Dr Ross; here the heads are
bestowers of beauty, wealth, and luck in marriage, rather
than guardians of healing waters; here too, and only here,
we find the account of heads actually rising out of the
waters of the well or stream, and their requests (oddly
suggestive of a ritual or cult) to be washed, combed,
brushed, stroked or kissed. Nor are these stories linked
with explanations of particular place-names or the cults
of local saints; they support the idea that the association
of head and well was once widespread, though undoubtably
more easily traceable in Celtic cultures than elsewhere.
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