Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

or turn, wind, to turn anything around rapidly. As the epithet "the turner" is given to that
god who brought friction-fire (bore-fire) to man, and who is himself the personification
of this fire, then it must be synonymous with "the borer."
A synonym of Heimdall's epithet Stígandi, "the traveller," is Rati, "the traveller,"
from rata, "to travel," "to move about." Very strangely, this verb (originally vrata, Goth.
vrâton, to travel, make a journey) can be traced to an ancient Germanic word which
meant to turn or twist, or something of the sort (Fick, Wörterbuch, 3, 294). And, so far as
the noun Rati is concerned, this signification has continued to flourish in the domain of
mythology after it long seems to have been extinct in the domain of language. Hávamál
106, Grímnismál 32, and Skáldskaparmál testify each in its own way that the mythical
name Rati was connected with a boring activity. In Hávamál "Rati's mouth" gnaws the
tunnel through which Odin, in the guise of an eagle, flies away with the mead-treasure
concealed in the "deep dales" at Fjalar's under the roots of the world-tree. In the
allegorical Grímnismál strophe it is "Rati's tooth" (Ratatoskur) who lets the meaddrinking
foe of the gods near the root of the world-tree find out what the eagle in the top
of the world-tree (Odin) resolves and carries out in regard to the same treasure. In
Skáldskaparmál, the name is given to the gimlet itself which produced the connection
between Odin's world and Fjalar's halls. The gimlet has here received the name of the
boring "traveller," of him who is furnished with "golden teeth." Hence there are good
reasons for assuming that in the epic of the myth it was Heimdall-Gullintanni (gold tooth)
himself whose fire-gimlet helped Odin to fly away with his precious booty. In Rigveda
Agni plays the same part. The "tongue of Agni" has the same task there as "Rati's mouth"
in our Norse records. The sacred mead of the liquids of nourishment was concealed in the
womb of the mountain with the Dasyus, hostile to the world; but Agni split the mountain
open with his tongue, his ray of light penetrated into the darkness where the liquids of
nourishment were preserved, and through him they were brought to the light of day, after
Trita (in some passages of Rigveda identical with Vata) had slain a giant monster and
found the "cows of the son of the work-master" (cp. Rigveda, 5: 14, 4; 8: 61, 4-8 ; 10: 8,
6-9). 58 "The cows of the son of the work-master" is a paraphrase for the saps of
nourishiment. In the Germanic mythology there is also "a son of the work-master," who
is robbed of the mead. Fjalar is a son of Surt, whose character as an ancient artist is
evident from what is stated in Nos. 53 and 89.
By friction Mâtaricvan brought Agni out of the maternal wombs in which he was
concealed as an embryo of light and warmth. Heimdall was born to life in a similar
manner. His very place of nativity indicates this. His mothers have their abodes við
jarðar þröm (Völuspá in skamma 7) near the edge of the earth, on the outer rim of the
earth, and that is where they gave him life (báru þann mann). His mothers are giantesses
(jötna meyjar), and nine in number. We have already found giantesses, nine in number,
mentioned as having their activity on the outer edge of the earth - namely, those who with
the möndull, the handle, turn the vast friction-mechanism, the world-mill of Mundilfari.
58 Again Rydberg reads "work-master" for the artisan Tvastar. Rigveda, 5: 14, 4 "Agni shone bright when
born with light killing the Dyaus and the dark; He found the cattle, the floods, the sun. 8: 61, 4-8 ; 10: 8, 9
"… Then Trita slew the seven-rayed, three-headed, and freed the cattle of the son of Tvastar." Interpreted
by Griffith to mean "the showers obstructed by the fiend."