Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/227

CHAP. 1.

Accordingly we meet with Sigtyr, the victorious god, as a name for Wuotan, and Reidartyr or Reidityr, the riding or driving Tyr, as a name for Thor. Nor can it be said that any real mythology has gathered round this word, for the Stauros which is specially connected with his name belongs rather to the region of symbolism than of mythology, although the conjunction of this emblem with the circle (the kestos of Aphroditê and the necklace of Harmonia and Eriphylê) is in itself a subject of some interest. Hence we should further be led to expect that the special emblem under which Tyr would be worshipped would be the sword and to this fact Grimm traces the names, not only of the Saxons, but of the Cherusci as pointing to the old Cheru, Heru—a sword.

The name Donar. Englishmen may not unnaturally be tempted to think that our word Thunder is the older and more genuine form of the name given to the god who wields the lightnings, and that this name was chosen to express the loud crash which echoes across the heaven. Yet the word in its first meaning has no reference to noise and din. The root denotes simply extension as applied whether to sound or to any other objects, and from it we have the Greek and Latin words reivw and tendo, to stretch, tónos, tone, i.e. the stretching and vibration of chords, tonitru, thunder, as well as tener and tenuis, the Sanskrit tanu, answering to our tender and thin. Hence the dental letter which has led to the popular misconception of the word is found to be no essential part of it; and the same process which presents the English tender and the French tendre as an equivalent for the Latin tener, has with us substituted thunder for the Latin tonitru.^[1] Thus the several forms Donar, Thunor, and perhaps Thor are really earlier than the shape which the word has assumed in our English dialect.

Thor the Allfather. As the lord of the lightning, the thunder, and the rain, Donar is as closely allied, and, indeed, as easily identified with Wuotan, as Vishṇu with Indra, or Indra with Agni. But although most of their characteristics are as interchangeable as those of the Vedic gods generally, each has some features peculiar to himself. Thus, although Thor is sometimes said to move in a chariot like other deities, yet he is never represented as riding like Odin. He is essentially, like