Chapter XVI

Women as Missionaries, Women as Prophets, Strong Women, and Serpent Women.--Children’s Myths.--Godmothers.--Fairies.--The Magic Wand and the Broomstick.--The Lady of Kynast.--The World of the Dead, the World of Ghosts, and the World of Shadows.--Myths of Animals.....397

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Father Rhine....................................................003

The impassive historian ........................................004

Vast forests as old as the world ...............................005

The first pioneers..............................................007

The Celts were a people from India..............................009

What happy people scholars are..................................010

A horrible custom...............................................019

Dead man’s trees................................................022

The Druids now appear for the first time in Germany.............023

Their creed must be judged by their rites.......................027

The other chieftains were generally polygamists.................031

Courts of justice were always held under an elm tree............032

Attempt to murder the mayor ....................................033

Mistletoe an officinal and sacred plant.........................035

Gauls...........................................................037

Serpents’ knots.................................................039

Prophetic trembling and neighing................................041

A Druid teacher ................................................044

The Germans were in full flight ................................046

The bloody knife of the Druids .................................052

I turn my steps from the sacred precincts.......................055

Who are these other soldiers?...................................057

These laborers seem to suffer from some restraint...............058

I look around for a resting-place ..............................059

A shepherd......................................................060

The guard of a sword, which had been driven into the ground.....061

The shepherd,--as mournful as ever..............................063

Herds of swine are wallowing ...................................066

A young wife bearing the burden of united household.............067

Happiness consists in the fulfillment of duty ..................068

Such were the ways of our fathers: rejoice in facing death......069

The Druidical altars............................................070

As there is no window I peep through the trap-door..............072

One of the chief men of the country ............................075

She was a young Ionian girl, a country-woman of Aspasia.........080

The boudoir of a Celtic lady....................................082

The Druid-bard..................................................085

Death of Druids.................................................091

A Druidess endowed with the gift of prophecy ...................093

The victorious march of the Romans .............................094

Her deities personified nothing but vices ......................096

The Hercules--so called.........................................098

Mercury, the son of Jupiter ....................................099

“O Varus, Varus, bring me back my legions!”.....................103

Perhaps the old river remembered his grievances.................105

They made him a king, the King of German rivers.................106

He had already allowed Jupiter to cross.........................107

The vines began to adorn the banks of the river.................108

Once more caresses had their hoped-for effect...................109

He did his best to help everybody across........................110

Fnvolous and ill-mannered deities...............................110

The dauntless pirates will end by wearing white night-caps......113

The great Northern Tempest .....................................115

The German Druids gave way......................................118

Iormungondur, the great sea serpent.............................121

The giant Ymer has been born....................................123

The first men had been born with a telescope in their pocket?...127

Ymer was the first to succumb...................................128

After the giants came the turn of land and sea monsters.........129

The new creation was assuming a more pleasing appearance........132

Deer, eland, and aurochs were bounding in herds.................133

Incessantly a tiny squirrel comes and goes......................136

A vulture perching upon the loftiest top of the sacred tree.....137

Thor’s weighty hammer Mjoïner...................................139

The good Freyr seated at Odin’s table...........................141

Portrait of Freyr...............................................142

Bragi and the beautiful Freya ..................................147

Return of the eagle with the three precious vessels.............150

Balder, the bright god..........................................153

The wolf Fenris.................................................156

Converse with each other by significative glances...............159

They were the Norns.............................................160

He took counsel with the Norns..................................162

“To Egir, the seas and navigation”..............................164

Gefione took her four sons and changed them into oxen...........165

Jarl, the noble.................................................171

The Valkyrias ..................................................175

Beautiful nymphs of carnage.....................................176

A very mammoth of a boar........................................180

Feast in Scandinavian Paradise..................................181

Hela, the pale goddess..........................................185

“Balder, fair Balder, is going to die”..........................189

Loki succeeds in exhilarating even Odin himself.................191

Balder is amused by the game....................................192

When the mother told her pitiful tale the iron trees wept.......197

The three sacred cocks announcing the Twilight of Greatness.....202

The death of the gods...........................................208

My VIIIth chapter is thus changed into a cenotaph...............211

I like to glean a little where scholars have reaped.............214

The two religions face to face..................................217

Ovid reciting his “Metamorphoses”...............................219

Druidic worship suspended by the Romans.........................220

“Miserere mei, Jesu”............................................222

Perkunos, Pikollos, and Potrympos...............................224

Puscatus,--a kind-hearted god ..................................226

Monstrous reptiles accompany the gods to Germany................227

He let his heavy mace fall upon a little town...................238

The blacksmiths of Ilmarinnen...................................239

Marietta appeared in their midst................................245

“Do you think I am a man to be taken in ?”......................251

Horse-head, a la mode...........................................253

The Undines mingled with the Tritons and the Naiads.............258

Have transferred their Olympus to the Brocken...................259

The Olympus of the North........................................263

Able to see without being seen .................................266

Dance of the white fairies .....................................269

The black fairies personify Nightmare ..........................271

An important personage with a will of his own ..................272

Enormous toads are posted about.as watchmen.....................279

Elementary spirits of the water.................................283

Imaginary music ................................................288

The nix with the harp ..........................................289

Schoolmaster’s son who had fallen in love with one of them......291

He thought he saw a pale form arise from the waters.............294

He rose suddenly and fled to another room ......................295

The steward whispered some words in her ear ....................297

Niord, the Scandinavian god ....................................299

This creature is Nixcobt........................................300

The Vintner is hanged, and Nixcobt laughs heartily..............302

Four Prussian soldiers watching the water ......................305

The Zotterais protected sheep ..................................309

The master has nothing to do....................................315

Prefer to remember the Kobold a cheerful household companion....317

The Zotterais as fond of stables as the Kobolds of kitchens.....319

They are naturally easily tired ................................321

The Killecroffs are children of the Devil ......................322

His nurse has to be reinforced by two goats and a cow...........324

The great Reformer, Dr. Martin Luther ..........................326

The fall of Killecroff .........................................331

Giants and dwarfs...............................................335

The last of the giants..........................................337

Grommelund and Ephesim .........................................339

The humiliated giant............................................340

Our good little dwarfs .........................................341

He stood at first with his mouth wide open .................... 346

A long and deep sigh of satisfaction............................348

Flight of the conspirators......................................353

Kreiss slipped boldly into this vast and spacious cavity........354

They fixed strong piles between the two rows of teeth...........355

In his hand he held not a club but a lantern....................357

Kreiss compelled to leave his position by torrents of tears.....359

The last two held each a long thorn in their hands..............361

Kreiss entering the great meeting hall..........................363

Putskuchen was in love..........................................365

Ouadragant vanquished...........................................367

The passing of the wizard ......................................371

Venus and Tannhàuser............................................390

His ex-colleague Jupiter .......................................396

The author pursues the subject .................................399

The conscientious collector of myths............................401

The Druidess transformed into an accursed witch.................406

To return was as impossible as to proceed.......................409

She had rejoined her victims ...................................413

He is the Lord Hackelberg.......................................417

These ghosts can imitate all the motions of men.................421

Farewell........................................................423