Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

this race has its chieftain, and that his brothers, for this very reason, could not be included
in his clan. There is every reason to assume that they, like him, were clan-founders; and
as we find besides the Aesir two other races of gods, this of itself makes it probable that
Odin's two brothers were their progenitors and clan-chieftains.
Odin's brothers, like himself, had many names. When Völuspá says that Odin, in
the creation of man, was assisted by Hoenir and Lodur, and when the Prose Edda
(Gylfaginning 9) says that, on this occasion, he was attended by his brothers, who just
before (Gylfaginning 6) are called Ve and Vili, then these are only different names of the
same powers. Hoenir and Lodur are Ve and Vili. It is a mistake to believe that Odin's
brothers were mythical ghosts without characteristic qualities, and without prominent
parts in the mythological events after the creation of the world and of man, in which we
know they took an active part (Völuspá 4, 17, 18). The assumption that this was the case
depends simply upon the fact that they have not been found mentioned among the Aesir,
and that our records, when not investigated with proper thoroughness, and when the
mythological synonymies have not been carefully examined, seem to have so little to say
concerning them.
Danish genealogies, Saxo's included, which desire to go further back in the
genealogy of the Skjoldungs than to Skjold, the eponym of the race, mention before him
a King Lotherus. There is no doubt that Lotherus, like his descendants, Skjold, Halfdan,
and Hadding, is taken from the mythology. But in our mythic records there is only one
name of which Lotherus can be a Latinized form, and this name is, as Müller (Notæ
ulterior ad Saxonis Hist.) has already pointed out, Lóðurr.
It has above been demonstrated (see Nos. 20, 21, 22) that the anthropomorphous
Vana-god Heimdall was sent by Vanir as a child to the primeval Germanic country, to
give to the descendants of Ask and Embla the holy fire, tools, and implements, the runes,
the laws of society, and the rules for religious worship. It has been demonstrated that, as
an anthropomorphous god and first patriarch, he is identical with Scef-Rig, the Scyld of
the Beowulf poem, that he becomes the father of the other original patriarch Skjold, and
the grandfather of Halfdan. It has likewise been demonstrated (No. 82) that Heimdall, the
personified sacred fire, is the son of the fire-producer (by friction) Mundilfari, in the
same manner as Agni is the son of Mâtaricvan. From all this it follows that when the
authors of mythic genealogies related as history wish to get further back in the Skjoldung
genealogy than to the Beowulf Skjold, that is to say, further back than to the original
patriarch Heimdall, then they must go to that mythic person who is Heimdall's father, that
is to say, to Mundilfari, the fire-producer. Mundilfari is the one who appears in the
Latinized name Lotherus. In other words, Mundilfari, the fire-producer, is Lóðurr. For
the name Lóðurr there is no other rational explanation than that which Jakob Grimm,
without knowing his position in the epic of mythology, has given, comparing the name
with the verb lodern, "to blaze." 66 Lóðurr is active in its signification, "he who causes or
66 The meaning of the name is uncertain. Many etymologies have been offered since. Some identify Lóðurr
with Loki. The main evidence used to support this theory is the grouping of Lodur, Hoenir, and Odin for the
creation of man in Völuspá; compared to the grouping of Odin, Hoenir, and Loki in Haustlöng and