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18
Phillpotts: Sturt. 18
’brennendes holzscheit, feuerbrand’. It is evident that it can
have no connection with ’brand’, ’sword’. Surtarbrandr, thenr
might be taken to mean ’Surt’s fuel’ and might be
sup-posed to be so named because of its burning properties. In
any case, it is very significant that this lignite is only found
in seams between strata of rock formation, being thus a
pro-duct of the bowels of the earth, for it clearly indicates that
Surt was conceived of by the ancients as a dæmon domiciled
underground, where his ’brand’ or fuel is to be obtained.
So much for the evidence afforded by the name. We must
now consider the evidence supplied in the descriptions of the
end of the world, considered to be brought about chiefly by
Surt’s agency. His name occurs in the three poems of the
Elder Edda aheady mentioned — Yjluspp’, Yafþrúþnesmj’l
and Fáfnesmp’l. Of course Y9IU8P9’ is the fullest and most
tru8tworthy source, and the other notices of Surt are clearly
derived from it. The most important passages in Ysp. are
the first half of v. 51, where we are told that a vessel comes
from the east bearing the people of Muspell, the first four
lines of v. 52: —
Surtr ferr sann&n skinn af sverþe
med sviga \éve, s61 valtiva.
and the description of the fight between Frey and Surt in
v. 53. This last point we find in Yafþrúþnesmp’l v. 17-18:
Vafþróþner kvaþ: Óþinn kvaþ:
hvé [s4] vøllr heiter Yígrídr heiter [vgllr]
es finnask vige at es finnask vige at
Snrtr ok en sv^so goþ? Snrtr ok en sv^so goþ.
There is another reference to Surt (the source of which
is Ysp. 53) in the same poem: —
V. 50. Óþinn kvaþ:
hverer ráþa åser
eign ora goþa
þás sloknar Surta loge?
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