16

Appendix 16

For Hallinskidi see Reuter, p. 237; Simrock, Handbuch, p. 277; Gering (Edda trans., p. 320): “gebogene Schneeschuhe habend.” Much (in Festschrift Heinzel, p. 259), connecting -skidi with Celtic skêto, skêda (English: humerus, scapula) and taking halle for “stone,” ventures to propose the reconstruction “he with the stone shoulder . . . which would presuppose a similar story as that about Pelops and his ivory shoulder.”

As concerns mjötvidr, A. V. Strom renders vol. 2: [1]

*Ich erinnere mich neun Welten
**Neun im Baume (oder neun Heime),
*des ruhmvollen Massbaums unter der Erde.

And he quotes Hallberg’s statement: “Der Baum selbst ist das Mass für die Existenz der umgebenden Welt — in der Zeit.” [2] The last remark goes without saying, mythic measures are time measures, generally, but this fact is so seldom recognized that this white raven has to be welcomed enthusiastically. The “localization under the earth” points to the (invisible) South of the world, as will come out later. By which we do not mean to say we understood the enigmatical picture of this measuring tree.

Now, Heimdal and Loke, perpetual enemies as they are, kill each other at Ragnarök, but Heimdal’s death is accomplished by means of a very strange weapon, i.e., by a “head.” Snorri’s Skaldskaparmal 8 (see also 69) offers an ambiguous kenning: “Heimdal’s head is the sword, or, the sword is Heimdal’s head,” [3] or we learn that the sword was called “miötudr Heimdaler,” and that is, according to Jacob Grimm, [4] “the measurer (sector, messor).” Thus, Heimdal measures — or is he measured? — by means of a sword that is also said to be his very own head. Strange goings-on, indeed. Ohlmarks [5] declared the sword to be the Sun — a pleasant change for once, otherwise everything and everybody is the Moon, with him — but although the measuring instrument, whether the “golden rope” or not, usually is the sun (see p. 154 on Varuna, and p. 246 on Theaethetus 153c [the latter is by Plato]) we have the suspicion that the case of Heimdal’s head/sword is more complicated, and that it may not be settled until we know much more about Loke.

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  1. “lndogermanisches in der Volüspa,” *Numen *14 (1967), pp. 173.

  2. Why the author, in this excellent article, drags in “ecstatic visions,” remains incomprehensible, unless we prefer to call every account of astronomical situations “ecstatic visions,” which would be a true miötvidr to measure the vast abyss between sciences and humanities in our time.

  3. Heimdalur hoefut heitir sverdh; cf. Simrock, Handbuch, pp. 272f.

  4. TM, p. 22 (see also p. 1290); the English translation says “the wolf’s head, with which Heimdal was killed,” but the original (Deutsche Mythologie, p. 15) does not mention a wolf.

  5. Heimdalls Horn (1937), p. 151.