Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

All these circumstances form together a positive proof of the moon-god's identity
with Nanna's father. Further on, when the investigation has progressed to the proper
point, we shall give reasons for assuming that Viðfinnur of the Edda, the Fin of the
English heroic poem, is the same person whom we have previously mentioned by the
name Sumbli Finnakonungr and Sveigðir, and that the myth concerning the taking of the
mead aloft to the moon accordingly has an epic connection with the myth concerning
Odin's visit to the giant Fjalar, and concerning the fate which then befell Nökkvi's
slayer. 22 91.
THE MYTH CONCERNING THE MOON-GOD (continued).
The moon-god, like Nott, Dag, and Sol, is by birth and abode a lower-world
divinity. As such, he too had his importance in the Germanic eschatology. The god who
on his journeys on "Nökkvi's holy way" 23 serves öldum að ártali (Vafþrúðnismál 23) by
measuring out to men time in phases of the moon, in months, and in years has, in the
mythology also, received a certain influence in inflicting suffering and punishment on
sinners. He is lord of the heiptir, the Germanic Erinnyes (see No. 75), and keeps those
limar (bundles of thorns) with which the former are armed, and in this capacity he has
borne the epithet Eylimi, which reappears in the heroic songs in a manner which removes
all doubt that Nanna's father was originally meant. (See in Saxo and in Helgakviða
Hjorvardsson. 24 To the latter I shall return in the second part of this work, and I shall
there present evidence that the saga is based on episodes taken from the Baldur myth, and
that Helgi Hjorvardsson is himself an imitation of Baldur). In his capacity of lord of the
heiptir the moon-god is the power to whom prayers are to be addressed by those who
desire to be spared from those sufferings which the heiptir represent (heiptum skal mána
kveðja - Hávamál 137). 25 His quality as the one who keeps the thorn-rods of the heiptir
still survives in a great part of the Germanic world in the scattered traditions about "the
man in the moon," who carries bundles of thorns on his back (J. Grimm, D. Myth., Ch.
22; see No. 123).
92.
THE MOON-DIS NANNA. THE MERSEBURG FORMULA.
BALDUR'S NAME FALUR.
Thus Nanna is the daughter of the ruler of the moon, of "the ward of the
atmosphere." This alone indicates that she herself was mythologically connected with the
phenomena which pertain to her father's domain of activity, and in all probability was a
moon-dis (goddess). This assumption is fully confirmed by a contribution to Germanic
22 See Nos. 121-123.
23 An erroneous translation based on a misunderstanding of the verse in Haralds saga Hárfagra, ch. 9. See
last chapter.
24 Eylimi appears in Book 5 of Saxo as Olmar in the Elton translation and Olimar in the Fisher text. There
Olimar allies himself with the King of the Huns against King Frodi. Olimar commands the fleet.
25 "For heiptir (hatred) shall the moon be invoked."