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WAYLAND.
567

CHAP. X.

than shut out in the outer cold beyond its padlocked gates.[1] But chap. more particularly the devil was a being who under pressure of hunger might be drawn into acting against his own interest; in other words, he might be outwitted, and this character of a poor or stupid devil is almost the only one exhibited in Teutonic legends.[2] In fact, as Professor Max Müller remarks, the Germans, when they had been "indoctrinated with the idea of a real devil, the Semitic Satan or Diabolus, treated him in the most good-humoured manner;" and it has been well said that " no greater proof can be given of the small hold which the Christian Devil has taken of the Norse mind, than the heathen aspect under which he constantly appears, and the ludicrous way in which he is always outwitted."[3]

Wayland Smith, But this freedom was never taken with Satan. While that name remained unchanged in the language of theology, the word devil the passed into an immense number of forms, the Gothic tieval, diuval, diufal, the Icelandic djöfull, Swedish djevful, all of them, together with the Italian, French, and Spanish forms carrying back the word διάβολος to the same root which furnished the Latin Divus, Djovis, and the Sanskrit deva.[4] To this devil were applied familiarly those epithets which are bestowed in the Vedic hymns on the antagonist of Indra. Like Vritra, he is often spoken of simply as the fiend or the enemy (ὁ πονηρός); more often he is described as the old devil or serpent, the ealda deofol of Cædmon, the old Nick,[5] old Davy, and old Harry (Ahriman) of common English speech at the present day. Like Pani, he is Valant, the cheat or seducer,[6] who appears in a female form as Valandinne.[7] But to the Germans the fall of the devil from heaven suggested the idea that, like Hephaistos, he must have been lamed by the descent, and hence we have the lame devil, or devil

  1. ↑ The Master Smith, in the heathenish story so entitled, entraps the devil into a purse, as the Fisherman entraps the Jin in the Arabian Tale, and the devil is so scared that when the Smith presents hmiself at the gate of hell, he gives orders to have the nine padlocks carefully locked. Sir G. Dasent remarks that the Smith makes trial of hell in the first instance, for, "having behaved ill to the ruler "of heaven, and "actually quarrelled with the master"' of hell, he "was naturally anxious" to know whether he would be received by either.—Ibid. cii.
  2. ↑ It has been said of Southey that could never think of the devil without laughing. This is but saying that he had the genuine humour of our Teutonic ancestors. His version of the legend of Ele{{subst:e:}}mon may be compared with any of the popular tales in which Satan is overmatched by men whom he despises.—Grimm, 969.
  3. ↑ Dasent, Norse Tales, introd. ciii.
  4. ↑ Grimm, Deutsche Mytholoqie, 939. For the belief of the gipsy hordes regarding the heaven-god and the earth-mother see Tylor, Primitive Culture.
  5. ↑ This name, one of a vast number of forms through which the root of the Greek νήχω, to swim, has passed, denotes simply a water-spirit, the nicor of the Beowulf, the nix or nixy of German fairy tales. The devil is here regarded as dwelling in the water, and thus the he name explains the sailor's phrase "Davy's locker." — Grimm, D. M. 456.
  6. ↑ Nib. 1334.
  7. ↑ Ib. 1686 ; Grimm, D. M. 943.
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