The Sources of Carlyle's Lecture on "The Hero as Divinity"Author(s): Herbert WrightSource: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan., 1918), pp. 87-90Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3714308 .

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Miscellaneous Notes

THE SOURCES OF CARLYLE'S LECTURE ON 'THE HERO AS DIVINITY.'

Whenever Carlyle speaks of Scandinavian mythology, he displays a much truer appreciation of the old Norse spirit than most of his pre- decessors. He came much nearer to understanding the thoughts and

feelings of the old Norsemen than did either Gray or Walpole. Yet like them he was unable to go direct to the original and had to rely on translations as a medium.

At the time when he delivered his lecture on The Hero as Divinity (May 5th, 1840), neither Dasent's translation of the Prose Edda nor

Laing's version of the Heimskringla was published, the former appearing in 1842 and the latter in 1844. Carlyle was therefore obliged to rely on other sources. The chief of these seem to be (1) Jakob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie which had been published at Gottingen in 1835; (2) Der Mythus von Th6r nach rordischen Quellen, by Ludwig Uhland; which appeared at Stuttgart and Augsburg in 1836; (3) Paul Henri Mallet's Northern Antiquities, whether the London edition of 1770 or the Edinburgh reprint of 1809, it is impossible to say.

In two places Grimm is referred to by name. 'Grimm, the German

Antiquary,' says Carlyle, 'goes so far as to deny that any man Odin ever existed.' The passage corresponding to the account Which Carlyle then

proceeds to give will be found in the Deietsche Mythologie, p. 94, and runs as follows:

Die hochste und oberste gottheit, wie man annehmen darf, allgemein unter allen deutschen stammen verehrt, wiirde in gothischer mundart geheissen haben VOdans oder T6thans, sie hiess ahd. Wuotan.. .Unzweifelhaft ist wol die unmittelbare abkunft dieses wortes aus dem verbum ahd. watan, wuot, altn. vadha, 6dh, welches buchstablich dem lat. vadere entspricht, und mneare, transmeare bedeutet, cutm impetu ferri, ebeo- daher stammt das subst. wuot, das, wie p.evos und animus eigentlich mens, ingenium, dann ungestiim und wildheit ausdriickt; im altn. ddhr haftet noch ganz die bedeu- tung mens oder sensus. Hiernach scheintWuotan, Odhinn das allmichtige, alldurch- driigende wesen, qui omnia permeat; wie Lucan von Jupiter sagt: est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris, die geistige gottheit.

It will be noted that when Carlyle declares that Wuotan is the

original form of Odin, he is attributing a statement to Grimm which the latter did not make and never could have made.

In another passage of his lecture Carlyle says that 'perhaps the notablest god we hear tell-of is one of whom Grimm the German

etymologist finds trace: the God Wilnsch (sic !), or Wish.' This probably refers to the account given on pp. 99-100 of the Deuttsche Mythologie.

Den inbegriff von heil und seligkeit, die erfiillung aller gaben, scheint die alte sprache mit einem einzigen worte, dessen bedeutung sich nachher verengerte, aus- zudriicken, es hiess der wunsch...Unter den eddischen narnen Odhins kommt nun

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Miscellaneous Notes

auch vor Osci...d. h. der die menschen des wunsches, der hochsten gabe theilhaftig machende.

From this it appears then that the power to fulfil wishes was in the older period an attribute of Odin and not that of a special god. There is therefore no justification here for Carlyle's setting up a god Wish

alongside Thor and Balder. When speaking of the survival of the name of Odin in present-day

names, Carlyle says: 'Our own Wednesday...is it not still Odin's day ?

Wednesbury, Wansborough, Wanstead, Wandsworth.' He doubtless obtained a hint from Grimm, who on p. 89 of the Deutsche Mythologie points out that the fourth day of the week is namled after Odin. On

p. 103 Grimm says: Ein Vodnes beorg in der ags. chronik...woraus nachher Wodnesborough, Wan.-

borough (in Wiltshire) gemacht vurde; and on p. 107 we are told:

In England erscheinen mehrere [Ortsbenennungen]: Woodnesboro in Kent, unweit Sandwich; Wednesbury in Staffordshire; Wednesfield ebenda; Wednesham in Cheshire, Wodnesfield bei Ethelwerd...und wol noch andere.

Carlyle seems to have made a selection here and to have added Wanstead and Wandsworth as being of special interest to the London audience he was addressing.

Elsewhere Carlyle informed his hearers that ' Iynde Etin, and still more decisively Red Etin of Ireland, in the Scottish Ballads, these are both derived from Norseland.' This remark was no doubt suggested by the following statement in the Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 302-3:

Auch in Schottland kannte man die erzahlung 'of the reyde eytyn vitht the thre heydis,' vom rothen riosen mit den drei hinptern (complaynt p. 98) und Lindsays dreme (ed. 1592, p. 225) gedenken der ' history of reid etin.'

Another passage in which Carlyle seems to have gleaned information from Grimm, though he applies it wrongly, occurs in his description of the old giants. 'Frost,' he says, 'the old Norse Seer discerns to be a monstrous hoary Jotun, the Giant Thrym, Hrym; or Rime, the old word now nearly obsolete here, but still used in Scotland to signify hoar-frost.' We see that the name Thrym, which Uhland had declared to mean

'uproar,' and which has since been explained as signifying 'exhausted' or 'powerless,' is here connected with the word 'rime.' This suggestion, which appears to be Carlyle's own and lacks all foundation, probably owes its origin to a few lines in Grimm about the giant Ymir. Of the latter he says, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 305:

Ymir selbst entsprang aus gefrornem reif oder thau (hrtm)...davon heissen alle riesen hrnzthursar, reifriesen; hrlmkaldr (reifkalt) ist beiwort fur iotunn oder theurs...; Hrlmnir, Hrtmgrtnr, Hrtmgerdhr sind riesische eigennamen.

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Miscellaneous Notes

Direct reference is made to UhlAnd towards the end of the lecture, where Carlyle mentions him with evident approval. 'Is it not a trait of right honest strength, says Uhland...that the old Norse heart finds its friend in the Thunder-God?' This corresponds to the following lines in Der Mythus von Th6r, p. 128 (Uhlands Schriften, Stuttgart, 1868):

Ein Voli zeigt riistigen Sinn, das im Donnerhalle die Nahe seines Freundes erkennt.

Carlyle's account of Thialfi is clearly based on Uhland, p. 19:

Diensatflichtige Gefahrten Th6rs sind Thialfi und -Rokva, der Arbeiter und die Rasche, Kinder eines Bauers; sie bezeichnen die unverdroasene menschliche Arbeit beim Anbau der Erde.

The brief narrative of Thor's visit to Hymir, which immediately follows the account of Thialfi, is also in all probability derived from Uhland's Mythus von Th6r, pp. 88-90. Carlyle describes how Thor places Hymir's cauldron over his head and proceeds to quote the words -the 'handles of it reach down to his heels.' With this may be com- pared Uhland's:

An die Fersen schlagen ihm die Hebringe (loc. cit. p. 89).

At the end of this passage in the lecture we read: 'This is the Hymir whose cattle, the critics have discovered, are Icebergs.' In spite of the words 'icebergs' instead of 'glaciers,' these lines evidently refer to Uhland (loc. cit. pp. 91-92), who says:

Weun mit der Rinderheerde des Sturmgebirgriesen Thrym das Gewolke genleint war, so sind unter denjenigen des Eisriesen HImir die wandelnden Gletacher zu verstehen.

At the close of the description of Thor's expedition to Utgard, of his attendant Skrymir and of the god's adventure with the gigantic glove, Carlyle gives an explanation, 'Thor looked at his attendant Jitun: it was Skrymir;-it was, say Norse critics, the old chaotic rocky Earth in

person, and that glove-house was some Earth-cavern.' The Norse critics are not, as one might think. Scandinavian critics, but students of Old Norse, and the reference is to Uhland (loc. cit. p. 43):

Der Riesenhandschuh, darin sie ibernachtAn, ist eine Steinkluft mit ihrer Nebenhohle.

Mention must likewise be made of the concluding paragraphs in The Hero as Divinity where the apparition of Thor to King Olaf is described. Carlyle would seem to have read with profit Uhland's account in Der Mythus von Th6r (p. 25).

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Miscellaneous Notes Miscellaneous Notes

The extent of Carlyle's indebtedness to Mallet is less easy to determine. The fact that he refers to the theory of Torfseus that Odin came to the North in the year 70 B.C. appears to point to familiarity with Mallet, and this is perhaps confirmed by the account of Odin as the inventor of the runes. Such forms as Loke and Hela are identical with those found in Mallet, though it is hardly safe to press this argument too far. It also seems probable, though absolute proof is almost impos- sible, that Carlyle's accounts of Balder's death, of the creation of the world, of the cow Adumbla and the great ash Ygdrasil are based on the extracts from the Edda given in the second volume of Mallet.

One fact emerges clearly from a study of the sources of the lecture on The Hero as Divinity, namely, that Carlyle was no mere plagiarist, nor a mouthpiece for the views of others. As Professor J. G. Robertson has said: 'Carlyle is not to be regarded as a mere apostle or trans- mitter of German ideas and German ideals.' Nowhere is the con- structive aspect of Carlyle's genius better revealed than in the first lecture of Heroes and Hero-Worship. What he owed to Grimin and also to the Swiss Mallet was chiefly facts. To Uhland and his natural- istic explanation of old Norse mythology, his debt was greater. But

Carlyle's perception of' the robust simplicity, the veracity, the directness of conception' of the old Norse spirit, and his interpretation of Norse

mythology in this light-this is entirely his own. Carlyle was willing to learn from Grimm and Uhland, but he is no mere apprentice. At times he lays violent hands on their opinions and uses them for his own ends. Always he shows himself to be an original master-builder.

HERBERT WRIGHT. BANGOR.

THE SOURCE OF MATTHEW ARNOLD'S 'FORSAKEN MERMAN.'

The story of the merman who marries a maiden and is afterwards abandoned by her is one that has enjoyed considerable popularity in several countries. In Denmark it appears, though not until a compara- tively late date, in the ballad Agnete og Havmanden which was a source of inspiration to the Danish poets Oehlenschlager and Baggesen. In his edition of the Danish ballads, Svend Grundtvig traced numerous German and Slavonic versions, though he was unable to discover a Swedish or Norwegian form. He therefore concluded that the Danish ballad was an importation from the south'.

1 Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, u, 48-51.

The extent of Carlyle's indebtedness to Mallet is less easy to determine. The fact that he refers to the theory of Torfseus that Odin came to the North in the year 70 B.C. appears to point to familiarity with Mallet, and this is perhaps confirmed by the account of Odin as the inventor of the runes. Such forms as Loke and Hela are identical with those found in Mallet, though it is hardly safe to press this argument too far. It also seems probable, though absolute proof is almost impos- sible, that Carlyle's accounts of Balder's death, of the creation of the world, of the cow Adumbla and the great ash Ygdrasil are based on the extracts from the Edda given in the second volume of Mallet.

One fact emerges clearly from a study of the sources of the lecture on The Hero as Divinity, namely, that Carlyle was no mere plagiarist, nor a mouthpiece for the views of others. As Professor J. G. Robertson has said: 'Carlyle is not to be regarded as a mere apostle or trans- mitter of German ideas and German ideals.' Nowhere is the con- structive aspect of Carlyle's genius better revealed than in the first lecture of Heroes and Hero-Worship. What he owed to Grimin and also to the Swiss Mallet was chiefly facts. To Uhland and his natural- istic explanation of old Norse mythology, his debt was greater. But

Carlyle's perception of' the robust simplicity, the veracity, the directness of conception' of the old Norse spirit, and his interpretation of Norse

mythology in this light-this is entirely his own. Carlyle was willing to learn from Grimm and Uhland, but he is no mere apprentice. At times he lays violent hands on their opinions and uses them for his own ends. Always he shows himself to be an original master-builder.

HERBERT WRIGHT. BANGOR.

THE SOURCE OF MATTHEW ARNOLD'S 'FORSAKEN MERMAN.'

The story of the merman who marries a maiden and is afterwards abandoned by her is one that has enjoyed considerable popularity in several countries. In Denmark it appears, though not until a compara- tively late date, in the ballad Agnete og Havmanden which was a source of inspiration to the Danish poets Oehlenschlager and Baggesen. In his edition of the Danish ballads, Svend Grundtvig traced numerous German and Slavonic versions, though he was unable to discover a Swedish or Norwegian form. He therefore concluded that the Danish ballad was an importation from the south'.

1 Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, u, 48-51.

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