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Phinptiis: Sort.
27
hveralundr, which in Iceland would mean a wood with
hot springs. If the theory of the common Teutonic origin
of Muspell be tenable, we may consider that the
Scandinavian race did originally possess a belief in the fhud
destruction of the world by fire, which, amid the
surround-ings of Iceland, was modified into a destruction by volcanic
agency. It is however far more probable that Mmpell is
borrowed from the Germans, among whom we have seen that
it represents an idea of Christian origin. The probability is
that the Scandinavian race originally possessed no belief in
the final destruction of the world, — which is not the
con-ception of a primitive race. In all likelihood it was the
awe-inspiring upheavals and the gloom caused by the
vol-canoe8 in their new home which first gave the Icelanders the
idea of the possibility of the annihilation of the world. It
is interesting to see that a like occasion made the inhabitants
of Pompeii consider a like possibility. Pliny (op. eit.): —
’Many lifted their hands to the gods: a larger number
con-ceived that there were now no gods anywhere, — that this
was the world’s final and everlasting night."
But whichever view we hold as to the belief of the
earlier Scandinavians, one point is clear, that if Surt be an
Icelandic creation, he must be a late addition to the
Northern mythological system. So that it would be an argument
in favour of his Icelandic origin, if we were to find any
in-dications of his comparatively recent date. Some indication
of this kind is forthcoming. Firstly, as Yigfússon pointed
out, and as we have already seen, the name is of
etymolo-gical origin, and all names of etymological origin are now
generally agreed to be late. But further confirmation is
af-forded by the circumstance that the name is so little used
in any kennings of the skalds — only occurring three times,
if we except Surfar sefi (’the kinsman of Surt’, ie. Fenrir)
in Ysp. 47. The first occurrence of the name is in a dråpa
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