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The Teutonic or "
Germanic " nations, embracing peoples of High and Low
German speech, Dutch, Danes, and Scandinavians, have
always displayed and still display a marked leaning
towards the study and consideration of the occult. We are,
however, concerned here with their attitude towards the
hidden sciences in more ancient times, and must refer the
reader to the article on " Germany " and the other
countries alluded to for information upon mediaeval and
modern occultism in them.
But little can be gleaned from the writings of classical
authors upon the subject, and it is not until we approach
the middle ages, the contemporary manuscripts concerning
the traditions of an earlier day, and the works of such
writers as Snorre Sturluson and Saemund (The Eddas)
Saxo-Grammaticus, and such epics or pseudo-histories as
The Nibelungenlied that we find any light thrown
upon the dark places of Teutonic magical practice and
belief. From the consideration of such authorities we
arrive at several basic conclusions: (i) That magic with
the Teutons was non-hierophantic, and was not in any
respect the province of the priesthood, as with the Celtic
Druids; (2) That women were its chief conesrvators ; (3)
That it principally resided in the study and elucidation
of the runic script, in the same manner as in early Egypt
it was part and parcel of the ability to decipher the
hieroglyphic characters. Passing from the first
conclusion, which is self-evident, as we discover all
sorts and conditions of people dabbling in magical
practice, we find that to a great extent sorcery— for
efforts seem to have been confined mostly to black
magic—was principally the province of women. This is to be
explained, perhaps, by the circumstance that only those
who could read the runes—that is, those who could read at
all—were able to undertake the study of the occult, and
that therefore the unlettered warrior, too restless for
the repose of study, was barred from all advance in the
subject. We find women in all ranks of life addicted to
the practice of sorcery, from the queen on the throne to
the wise-woman or witch dwelling apart from the community.
Thus the mother-in-law of Siegfried bewitches him by a
draught, and scores of similar instances could be adduced.
At the same time the general type of ancient Teutonic
magic is not very high, it is greatiy hampered by human
considerations, and is much at the mercy of the human
element on which it acts, and the very human desires which
call it forth. Indeed in many cases it is rendered
nugatory by the mere cunning of the object upon which it
is wreaked. In fine it does not rise very much above the
type of sorcery in vogue among barbarian peoples at the
present day. It is surprising, however, with all these
weaknesses, how powerful a hold it contrived'to get upon
the popular imagination, which was literally drenched with
the belief in supernatural science.
Runes.—(German, rune ; Anglo-Saxon run ; Icelandic run).
The word is derived from an old Low German word rattnen "
to cut" or " to carve," and as the runes in more ancient
times were invariably carved and not written, it latterly
came to designate the characters themselves. As has been
said, comparatively few were able to decipher them, and
the elucidation was left to the curious, the ambitious
among the female sex, and the leisured few in general,
those perhaps including priests and lawmen. Consequently
we find the power to decipher them an object of mysterious
veneration among the ignorant and a belief that the
ability to elucidate them meant the possession of magical
powers. The possessors of this ability would in no wise
minimise it, so that the belief in their prowess would
flourish. Again, it is clear that a certain amount of
patience and natural ability were accessary to the
acquirement of such an intricate script.
The tradition that they were connected with sorcery has
scarcely yet died out in some parts of Iceland. In later
times the word runes came to be applied to all the
alphabetical systems employed by the Teutonic peoples
before the introduction of Christianity. Their origin is
obscure,, some authorities denying that it is Teutonic,
and asserting that they are merely a transformation or
adaptation of the Greek characters, and others that they
have a Phoenician or even cuneiform ancestry. That they
are of non-Teutonic origin is highly probable, as may be
inferred from their strong resemblance to other scripts
and from the circumstance that it is highly unlikely that
they could have been separately evolved by the Teutonic
race in the state of comparative barbarism in which it was
when they first came into general use. They have been
divided into three systems—English, German, and
Scandinavian— but the difference between these is merely
local. They were not employed in early times for literary
purposes, but for inscriptions only, which are usually
found on stone monuments, weapons, implements, and
personal ornaments-and furniture. In England runic
inscriptions are found in the north only, where
Scandinavian influence was strongest. The first symbols of
the runic alphabet have the powers of the letters f, u, th,
6, r, c, for which reason the order of the runic letters
is called not an alphabet but a futhorc. The system is
symbolic. Thus its first quantity or letter pictures the
head and horns of an ox, and is called feoh after that
animal, the second is called ur, after the word for "
bull," the third thorn, a tree, the others following os, a
door ; rad, a saddle,; caen, a torch, all because of some
fancied resemblance to the objects, or, more properly
speaking, because they were probably derived or evolved
from a purely pictorial system in which the pictures of
the animals or objects enumerated above stood for the
letters of the alphabet. Since these were cut, some
connection may be permitted between Anglo-Saxon secgan, to
say, and Latin secare, to cut, especially when we find
secret signatures made of old by merely cutting a chip
from the bark manuscript. In spelling, for example, the
old sense of " spell" was a thin chip or shaving. Tacitus
mentions that in Teutonic divination a rod cut from a
fruit-bearing tree was cut into slips, and the slips,
having marks on them, were thrown confusedly on a white
garment to be taken up with prayer to the gods and
interpreted as they were taken. A special use of light
cuttings for such fateful cross-readings or " Virgilian
lots," may have given to " spells " their particular
association with the words of the magician.
Belief in Nature Spirits.—The scope of this work is
entirely without the consideration of mythology proper,
that is to say that the greater deities of the many human
religious systems receive no treatment save in several
special circumstances. But the lesser figures of
mythology, those who enter into direct contact with man
and assist him, or are connected with him, in magical
practice, receive special and separate notice. Thus the
duergar, or dwarfs trolls, undines, nixies, and all the
countless host of Teutonic folk-lore are alluded to under
their separate headings, and we have here only to consider
their general connection with Teutonic man in his magical
aspect. His belief in them was distinctly of an animistic
character. The dwarfs and trolls inhabited the recesses of
the mountains, caves, and the underworld. The nixies and
undines dwelt in the " lakes, rivers, pools, and inlets of
the sea. In general these were friendly to man, but
objected to more than an occasional intercourse with him.
Though not of the class of supernatural being who obey the
behests of man in answer to magical summonses, these,
especially the dwarfs, often acted as his instructors in
art-magic, and many instances of this are to be met with
in tales and romances of early Teutonic origin. The dwarfs
were usually assisted by adventitious aids in their
practice of magic, such as belts which endowed the wearer
with strength, like that worn by King Laurin, shoes of
swiftness, analogous to the seven-league boots of
folk-tale, caps of invisibility, and so forth.
Witchcraft.~Witchcia.it, with its accompaniment of
diabolism was much more in favour among the northern
Teutons than it was in Germany, and this circumstance has
been attributed to their proximity to the Finns (q.v.), a
race notorious for its magical propensities. In Norway,
Orkney, and Shetland, we find the practice of sorcery
almost exclusively in the hands of women of Finnish race,
and there is little doubt that the Finns exercised upon
the Teutons of Scandinavia the mythic influence of a
conquered race, that is, they took full advantage of the
terror inspired in their conquerors by an alien and
unfamiliar religion and ritual, which partook largely of
the magical. The principal machinery of Teutonic
witchcraft was the raising of storms, the selling of
pieces of knotted rope, each knot representing a wind,
divination and prophecy, acquiring invisibility, and such
magical practices as usually accompany a condition of
semi-barbarism. In the North of Scotland the Teutonic and
Celtic magical systems may be •said to have met and fused,
but not to have clashed, as their many points of
resemblance outweighed their differences. As the sea was
the element of the people, we find it the chief element of
the witch of the northern Teutons. Thus we discover in the
saga of Friihjof, the two sea-witches Heyde and Ham riding
the storm and sent by Helgi to raise a tempest which would
drown Frithjof, and taking the shape of a bear and a
storm-eagle. In the saga of Grettir the Strong we find a
witch-wife, Thurid, sending adrift a magic log which
should come to Grettir's island, and which should lead to
his undoing. Animal transformation plays a considerable
part in Teutonic magic and witchcraft. In early Germany
the witch (hexe) seems to have been also a vampire.
Second Sight.—It was, however, in prophecy and divination
that the Teutons excelled, and this was more rife among
the more northern branches of the people than the
southern. Prophetic utterance was usually Induced by
ecstasy. But it was not the professional diviner alone who
was capable of supernatural vision. Anyone under stress of
excitement, and particularly if near death, might become "
fey," that is prophetic, and great attention was
invariably paid to utterances made whilst in this
condition.
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