German 3313 Northern Myths and Legends

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German 3313 Northern Myths and Legends

• Welcome to German 3313
• Northern Myths and Legends
• No Prerequisites
• Syllabus is online at
• http//www.languages.ttu.edu/courses/germ3313
  /
• Instructor Dr. Charles A. Grair
• FL 265 Tel. [phone] ext. 275
• Charles.Grair_at_ttu.edu
• Office Hours M.W.F. 2-3 p.m.

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• What is a myth?
• From the Greek word mythos, literally
  utterance. Originally a traditional story of
  gods or heroes, set in a remote past.
• An oral phenomenon, usually not systematic or
  fixed, often survives in several, at times
  contradictory versions (especially the case for
  Germanic myth).
• Represents a communitys distinctive view of the
  world, its values and its goals, things of
  collective importance. Myth, however, is
  impossible to distinguish precisely from other
  oral genres...

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What is a Legend? (From a Latin root meaning to
read), like myth, oral or written stories of gods
or heroes, but generally more historical than
divine in nature. Legends tend to deal with
mortal heroes instead of with divine
figures. What is a folktale? Like legends, but
generally refer to stories about common people,
peasants rather than aristocrats, usually with
lesser figures of popular imagination, witches,
giants, trolls, elves, dwarfs, etc. Historical
basis even more tenuous, as the events are
timeless rather than specific to a given
dynasty or locale.
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What is folklore? Experiences of the common folk,
but in a vague, undefined way more like FAIRY
TALES, set in an undetermined locale at an
unspecified time (one upon a time in a kingdom
far away...). Folklore and fairy tales
generally lack the cosmic element familiar in
myth, the highly individualistic and competitive
struggle against limits of humankind and its
mortality. What is a saga? Collections of
narratives about a particular enterprise, city or
family are usually termed a saga. In general use,
collections of stories about the interactions of
gods and heroes, though a more precise definition
refers to a specific genre of family tales in
Iceland from 13th to 15th century AD.
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• What is a myth?
• Provides an element of religion.
• Provides a text for social and cosmic order.
• Helps reveal what is sacred in a society.
• Provides continuity in belief and social
  stability, thus also a legal or constitutional
  function.
• Provides the structure for rituals that defined
  and maintained identity.
• How are we to interpret and understand myth?
• 1. As a form of history or religious lore.
  Examples of heroic action that promoted similar
  behavior, fostered same values. The relationship
  of myth and ritual would have been very important
  in ancient timesstories used to explain
  ceremonies whose real origins have been
  forgotten, or to justify beliefs, customs,
  rituals, or social practices / hierarchies.

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2. As allegory, as a quasi-literary, symbolic
depiction of a different, though associated
topic. It is not difficult to read some Germanic
myths as fundamentally allegorical in nature,
such as Thors hammer as a metaphorical
description of thunder. These mythical
descriptions of natural phenomenon reflect a
naive, pre-scientific attempt to describe the
physical world through personification. 3. As a
theological or metaphorical dimension of the
human condition, how mankind came to be the way
it is. That is, myths such as the Rigsthula give
symbolic meaning to our lives and existence. Gods
can also be allegories of human qualities, such
as Odin for craftiness and wisdom, Loki for
treacherousness, Freya for fertility.
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4. As psychological expressions, such as Freuds
use of Greek myth to describe the subconscious.
Myth is thus a way of speaking about the human
condition in ways not otherwise possible, such as
through dreams and associations. Another
psychological view is that of Carl Jungs
archetypal mythsuniversal characters and
themes in myths that recur in the mythologies of
very different peoples and that reflect ideal and
timeless models of the human view of ourselves.
The danger in such readings is the reductionist
tendency to ignore the cultural specifics of a
myth in order to reveal more general
patterns. 5. As archetypical patters -- others
have stressed the formal properties of myths, the
fixed narrative patterns or structures that seem
to underlie myth. Again, a neatly reductionist
reading that eliminates all differences from
myths and that posits only a few possible
variations.
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• What myths can tell us
• Myth and folk stories, legends and sagas will
  allow us to see how these people viewed
  themselves, how they envisioned the world and the
  cosmic order. Rather than reduce the stories
  into rigid patterns or formal archetypes, we will
  try to explore the different possibilities
  inherent in each of the myths.
• What can these stories teach us about their
  tellers and their world?
• What do they tell us about the world-view of
  their heroes?
• What virtues or goals inspire them? What do they
  fear?
• What details seem especially important to the
  poets and their audience?
• And why?

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• Indo-European Mythology
• Some parallels between Germanic and Greek myths
• Well developed polytheistic system (Germanic less
  systematized).
• Anthropomorphosized gods living as extended
  families ruled by a patriarchal male sky-god.
• Competitive and individualistic gods, with all
  human flaws
• Struggle with Titans / Frost-Giants for control
  of Earth.
• Generally favorable attitude toward human
  affairs, desire prayers and sacrifices, but do
  not demand exclusive obedience.
• Generally amoral, certainly not embodiments of
  justice and morality.
• Not omnipotent, but ruled by fate just as humans
  are not eternal.

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• Some differences between Greek and Germanic
  myths
• Greek myths preserved in many written, literary
  works.
• Stable versions of the myths thus preserved.
• Germanic myths were rarely recorded in writing.
• All versions recorded in the Christian era.
• Mixed feelings about their pagan mythology.
• Transformation of myth from oral to written
  literature.
• Much of the Germanic lore lost.

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So who were the Indo-Europeans and what do they
have to do with the Germanic tribes? Indo-European
s probably arrived around 2000 BC in Western
Europe, give or take a few hundred years. The
term is linguistic, and describes the tribes that
spoke languages that descend from a common tongue
(Proto-Indo-European, or PIE). PIE is presumed to
have been spoken about 5000 B.C. in an area near
eastern Europe or western Asia (no one really
knows the Caspian sea, Caucasus, Lower Danube
Valley?). These tribes shared a linguistic unity
(rather than racial unity) with India (Vedic,
Sanskrit), with Persia, Greece, the Italic
peoples and their descendents, as well Celts,
Slavs and Germans. Many Indo-European tribes and
languages died out in antiquity (Hittite,
Tocharian, etc.) Indo-European is an inflected
language like Latin, Russian, German. First
postulated in 1786 by a Brit in India, Sir
William Jones, who found similarities between
Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.
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(No Transcript)
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Chart of Indo-European Languages according
to Centum- Satem Division
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What makes German German? Germanic languages are
distinguished from other Indo-European languages
by the First, or Great Consonant Shift. Sound
Shift 1,2,3 Germanic and Latin (unshifted)
cognates P gt F piscus / fish T gt TH pater
/ father K gt H cornet / horn B gt
P lubricate / slippery (better examples in
Slavic pairs) D gt T dentist / tooth Here,
these consonants shift to G gt K grain /
corn replace the ones lost in the first
consonant shift. BH gt B such aspirates
(bh, dh, gh) in I-E died out in Latin and DH gt
D Greek as well, though in different ways, so
there are GH gt G no neat word pairs to
illustrate this sound shift, though it can be
illustrated with cognates from Sanskrit bharâm
i / bairan (OHG) to bear, carry
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• The Second Germanic Sound Shift
• separates High German from Low and North
  Germanic, probably already accomplished by 300
  AD. Jakob Grimm discovered the Second Sound
  Shift, now named after him (Grimms Law).
• Indo-European Gothic (first sound
  shift) Hochdeutsch (second shift)
• P T K F TH H (ch) V/F D
• B D G P T K PF/FF Z/SS K/ch
• SC / SK SH
• Compare the following
• Triads of simple words duo two zwei
• from Latin, English, and German tres three
  drei
• Word Pairs with (unshifted) Low German and High
  German
• that / das pepper / Pfeffer
  cake / Kuchen tide / Zeit deed / Tat
• Germanic always accents first syllable, as in
  Veróna gt Bérn
• This practice led to a sloughing off of suffixes
  and endings in general, and led Germanic poetry
  to emphasize alliteration rather than rhyme.

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Merseburg Charms earliest recorded pre-Christian
Germanic texts. I. eiris sazum idisi sazun
hera duoder The women once were settling,
settling here and there. suma hapt heptidun
suma heri lezidun Some came cinching fetters,
some were hindering the army, suma clubodun
umbi cuoniouuidi Some were picking at
shackles insprinc haptbandun inuar
uigandun Escape from the bonds, get away from
the enemy! .
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Merseburg Magic Charms II. phol ende uuodan
uuorun zi holza Phol and Wodan rode into the
woods. du uuart demo balderes uolon sin uuoz
birenkit Then Balder foal sprained its foot. thu
biguolen sinthgunt sunna era suister Then
Sinthgunt cast a spell on it, then the sun, her
sister, thu biguolen friia uolla era
suister Then Freya cast a spell on it, then
Volla, her sister, thu biguolen uuodan so he
uuola conda Then Wodan cast a spell on it, as he
well knew how sose benrenki sose
bluotrenki If it be a dislocated bone, if it be
dislocated blood, sose lidirenki if it be a
dislocated limb ben zi bena bluot zi
bluoda Bone to bone, blood to blood, lid zi
gelinden sose gelimida sin Limb to limb, as
if they were glued! (Document written first
half of the 8th century)