The Student's Mythology Part 27

Runic Letters.

_Ques._ What are Runic letters?

_Ans._ One may occasionally meet in Norway, Denmark, or Sweden with great stones of different forms, engraven with characters called Runic, which appear, at first sight, very different from any letters we know. They consist almost invariably of straight lines in the shape of little sticks, either single or in groups. Divination was anciently practiced among the northern nations by means of sticks of different lengths. These were shaken up, and from the chance figures they formed, the priests predicted future events. When alphabetic writing was introduced, the letters naturally took the form of the ancient runes. The magic verses were of various kinds. The noxious, or, as they were called, the bitter runes were recited to bring evils on their enemies; the favorable averted misfortune; some were medicinal, others employed to win love, etc. In later times, the runes were used for inscriptions, of which more than a thousand have been found.

The language is a dialect of the Gothic, called Norse, still in use in Iceland. The inscriptions may, therefore, be read with certainty; but they throw very little light on history, being princ.i.p.ally epitaphs on tombstones.

Ragnarok, the Twilight of the G.o.ds.

It was a firm belief of the northern nations, that a time would come when all the visible creation, the G.o.ds of Valhalla, the inhabitants of earth, men, giants and elves, would be destroyed, together with their habitations.

This fearful day will not be without its forerunners. First will come a triple winter, during which clouds of snow, driven by piercing winds from the four quarters of the heavens, will fall unceasingly on the earth; tempests will sweep the sea, and the sun will impart neither heat nor gladness. Three such winters will pa.s.s away without being tempered by a single summer. Three other winters will then follow, during which war and discord will convulse the universe. The solid earth will tremble, the sea will leave its bed, and the heavens will be rent asunder.

During this convulsion of nature, armies will meet in combat, and so great shall be the slaughter, that wolves and eagles will banquet upon the flesh of kings and heroes. The wolf Fenris will now break his bands; the Midgard serpent rise out of the sea, and Loki, released from his chains, will join the enemies of the G.o.ds. The Eddas give a wild description of the last great battlefield on which the powers of good and evil shall contend, and on which all alike, whether G.o.ds or demons, are doomed to perish. When all are slain, the world will be wrapped in flames, the sun will become dim, the stars will fall from heaven, and time shall be no more.

After this universal destruction, Alfdur (All-Father) will cause a new heaven and a new earth to rise out of the abyss. This new earth will produce its fruits without labor or care; perpetual spring will reign, and sin and misery will be unknown. In this blissful abode, G.o.ds and men are to dwell together in a peace which the powers of evil can never again disturb.

Germany.

The Mythology of the Teutonic or Germanic race is neither so picturesque nor so well defined as that of Scandinavia. Odin and other Scandinavian divinities were wors.h.i.+pped by the tribes who dwelt along the borders of the Northern Ocean; in other parts of Germany, Druidism prevailed. The Germans had, however, their own deities and their own superst.i.tions. Tuisco (sometimes written Tuesco or Tuisto) was wors.h.i.+pped by the Saxons as the G.o.d of war. The third day of the week takes its name from this divinity.

CHAPTER VIII.

CELTIC MYTHOLOGY.

DRUIDISM.

_Ques._ From what is the term Druid derived?

_Ans._ There exists much difference of opinion on this point. The word has been variously deduced from the Saxon, "dry," a magician, from the German, "druthin," a master or lord, from the Celtic, "deru," an oak, etc. The best informed writers now refer it to the compound Celtic word "derouyd," from "De," G.o.d, and "rouyd," speaking. It would, therefore, seem to signify those who speak of or for G.o.d.

_Ques._ Where did Druidism prevail?

_Ans._ In some parts of Germany, in Gaul, and in ancient Britain and Ireland.

_Ques._ Where did it originate?

_Ans._ Various theories have been advanced on this subject. Some refer it to the Siva-wors.h.i.+ppers of Hindostan, others to the Magi of Persia; but all agree as to its Eastern origin.

_Ques._ Who is the earliest writer on this subject?

_Ans._ Julius Csar. His account is considered perfectly reliable, although, to render it more intelligible, he gives to the Celtic G.o.ds the names of the Greek and Roman divinities whom they resemble.

_Ques._ What were the princ.i.p.al characteristics of Druidism?

_Ans._ The belief in one Supreme Being: in the immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments. This last doctrine takes with them, as with the Hindoos, the form of metempsychosis. The religion of the Druids was farther characterized by the use of circular temples, open at the top; the wors.h.i.+p of fire as the emblem of the sun, and the celebration of the ancient Tauric festival, (held on the first of May, when the sun enters Taurus.)

_Ques._ What name did the Druids give to the Supreme Being?

_Ans._ Esus, or Hesus; although this is sometimes mentioned as the appellation of a subordinate divinity. Superior to the Roman Jupiter, or the Zeus of the Greeks, Esus had no parentage; was subject to no fate; he was free and self-existent, and the creation of the world was his own voluntary act. The Druids taught that excepting this Supreme G.o.d, all things had a beginning, but that nothing created would ever have an end. Notwithstanding these enlightened ideas, they reverenced many other divinities. The a.s.syrian Baal was wors.h.i.+pped among the Celts as Bel or Belen. As he represented the sun, the Romans recognized in him their G.o.d Apollo. Diodorus Siculus, a contemporary of Csar, makes the following statement on the authority of an ancient Greek writer.

"Apollo," he says, "is wors.h.i.+pped with solemn rites by the inhabitants of a large island, which lies off the coast of Gaul, in the Northern Ocean. This island is inhabited by the Hyperboreans, so named because they live beyond the region of the north wind. The G.o.d has there a remarkable temple, circular in form, and a magnificent forest is consecrated to him." It is generally supposed that the temple alluded to by Diodorus, was the Druidical circle of Stonehenge, of which we shall speak later.

_Ques._ Who was Teutates?

_Ans._ This name is thought to be derived from "Tut-tat," signifying "parent of men." This G.o.d was much honored by the Gauls, who attributed to him the invention of letters and poetry. According to the Triads, (Druidical verses,) he "wrote upon stone the arts and the sciences of the world." In his more beneficent character, the name Gwyon was often given to this divinity. He resembles, both in name and attributes, Thoth, the Mercury of Egypt and Phnicia. The ancient Gauls had no idols, nor did they ever attempt any visible representation of their deities. When the Romans established their own wors.h.i.+p in the country, they endeavored, according to their usual policy, to conciliate the conquered tribes by adopting their G.o.ds, and placing their images in the temples which they built. We read that Zenodorus, a famous sculptor, said by some to have been a native of Gaul, executed a statue of Teutates which cost forty million sestertia. He spent six years upon this great work.

Camul, the Celtic Mars, Tarann, the G.o.d of thunder, and many other divinities of inferior rank, were wors.h.i.+pped in Gaul and Germany.

_Ques._ How was the Druid priesthood divided?

_Ans._ Into three orders; the priests, the bards, and the Druids, properly so called.

_Ques._ What were the duties of the priests?

_Ans._ They studied the hidden laws of nature and the mysteries of earth and heaven. They offered public and private sacrifices, and obtained a knowledge of the future from the entrails and the blood of victims, or from the flight of birds. They also cured maladies with certain mysterious charms. The bards held a still higher rank: they preserved in their verses the mystic learning of the priests, the traditions of their race, and the great actions of their heroes. No sacrifice was duly offered without their sacred chant; they encouraged the warrior going to the field of combat, and received him on his return with notes of triumph. To live in heroic song was the aspiration of every Celtic warrior, and to the coward or traitor, there was no penalty so terrible as the denunciation of the sacred bards. Music was the only gentle art known to the rude tribes of Gaul and Britain, and they were, perhaps for this reason, the more susceptible to its influence. The character of these minstrels was peculiarly sacred in their eyes, on account of the gifts of prophecy and second sight which they were believed to possess in moments of inspiration.

The verses of the bards were never committed to writing, and a long and painful course of oral instruction was necessary before a candidate could be admitted to take his place in this influential cla.s.s. According to Csar, twenty years was the ordinary novitiate required.

The bards of Gaul seem to have pa.s.sed away with the religious system to which they belonged; but in the British islands, they continued, although divested of their sacred character, to be a highly esteemed and privileged cla.s.s. We may judge of their influence in keeping alive the patriotic spirit of the people, from the fact that Edward I.

ordered their extermination as the surest means of extinguis.h.i.+ng the feeling of nationality among the Welsh tribes. In Ireland and Scotland, the bards gradually pa.s.sed away with the decline of the feudal system, and the power of the native princes and chieftains whose glory they sung.

_Ques._ Who were the Druids, properly so called?

_Ans._ They were priests of the highest order, who remained secluded in caves and grottoes, or in the depths of oak forests, where they were supposed to study the deeper mysteries of nature and religion, and to consult more directly the secret will of the divinity. They were also the teachers of youth.

The Druids must have possessed some knowledge of the motions of the heavenly bodies, since they counted the year by lunations; astronomical instruments have also been found among the druidical remains in Ireland, which prove that they had made a certain progress in this science. Like the Persians, they mingled astrology and divination with their observations of the celestial bodies. The healing art was also practised by the Druids. The effect of their remedies was not, however, attributed to any natural cause, but rather to a mysterious virtue residing in certain plants, and rendered efficacious by the magic rites with which they were gathered.

The mistletoe, when found growing on the oak, was esteemed particularly sacred; it was an antidote against poison, a remedy in all diseases, and a preservative against the machinations of evil spirits. To possess the proper efficacy, it should be gathered in February or March, on the sixth day of the moon. As soon as the mistletoe was found growing on the no less sacred oak, the Druids a.s.sembled; a banquet and a sacrifice were prepared, after which a priest in white vestments cut the plant with a golden sickle while two others received it reverently into a white mantle spread beneath. Two milk-white heifers were instantly offered in sacrifice, and the rest of the day was spent in rejoicing. In like manner, the samolus, or marsh-wort, possessed no virtue unless it were sought fasting, and gathered with the left hand, without looking at it. They plucked the helago, or hedge hyssop, barefooted, and without a knife, after ablutions, and offerings of bread and wine. The vervain and other plants had also their distinct ceremonial.

Amber was valued for certain mysterious properties; it was manufactured into beads by the Druids, and these were given as charms to warriors going to battle; such beads are sometimes found in their tombs.

_Ques._ Were the Druids acquainted with the art of writing?

_Ans._ They were, at least in Gaul and Ireland. Their alphabet contained seventeen letters, and resembled the characters used by the ancient Pelasgi. It is probable, therefore, that they received it from the early Greek colonists. Writing was employed for ordinary affairs, whether public or private, but the mystic learning of the Druids was handed down by oral tradition only. The few inscriptions they have left are in symbolic writing, which resembles the runes of Scandinavia, and originated in the same manner from the rods and branches of certain plants used in divination. These inscriptions are called in Ireland "ogham;" they are princ.i.p.ally straight lines, grouped in different ways.

_Ques._ Did the Druids exercise any political authority?

_Ans._ Yes; they were the legislators of the people, and had the right of deciding in all controversies. There was no appeal from their sentence, and those who ventured to resist were excommunicated and outlawed.

The college of Druids was governed by a chief or Arch-druid, chosen by vote from among their number. The elections were eagerly contested, and were often attended with much bloodshed. The Arch-druid held his office for life.