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Hagen: Kvasir. 137
knúarnir, en búandinn gerdi, sein van var, ok 9II hjunin, kçlludu
ákafliga, bådu ser fridar, budu at yfirbótum alt þat, er þau áttu;
en er bann sá hræzlu þeira, þa gekk af honnm módrinn ok sefa-
disk hann ok tók af þeim í sætt bgrn þéira, Þjalfa ok Rçsku, ok
gerdusk þau þá skyldir þjónostu-menn bans, ok fylgja þau honum
jafnan sidan”.
An analysis of this story with reference to its main
features may be of interest. Here it is Thor’s bucks that
are slaughtered and eaten, not the farmer’s ox; the bones
of the bucks are placed in the hides, not the excreta of the
gods; the bucks are re-created out of these hides and bones,
not a boy; a boy and a girl are given by the farmer to
Thor, not a boy by the gods to the farmer. These diffe-
rences seem at first sight to be very great. And yet I
think it is well worth considering whether there is not back
of this story certain motives of the Orion story that we have
discussed in connection with the Kvasir legend: the gods;
the farmer; the night’s lodging; the slaughtered animal; the
banquet; the hide; the deposit in the hide; the creation of
a living being out of the hide; the rendering of satisfaction
by the presentation of a boy. If this is really so, then we
have here an interesting illustration of the effect of the
mingling of the foreign material which is the main subject
of this paper, with another native Norse story. We are per-
haps here looking into a kaleidoscope in which the little
bits of colored glass are motives from the Orion story and
motives from an original Norse story about Thor. The in-
strument has been turned a good many times, it may be,
and the result is a pattern which differs widely from that
seen in the kaleidoscope containing the motives from the
Orion story and the motives from the peace-compact and
mead-stories. I venture to say that the pattern would in
each case have been different if a Snorri had recorded it a
hundred years earlier or a hundred years later.
But to return to the Kvasir legend. I shall now by
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