Book v

., with entire exclusion of all mythical interest.

_Transmission of Legends_. (Page 47.)

Müllenhoff's views are given in the _Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum_, vol. x.; Maurer's in the _Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie_, vol. ii. For Golther's views on the Volsung cycle see _Germania_, 33.

_The Dragon Myth_. (Page 49.)

See also Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales_.

The eating of the dragon's heart (see p. 19) may possibly be a survival of the custom of eating a slain enemy's heart to obtain courage, of which Dr. Frazer gives examples in the _Golden Bough_.

_Alien Wives_. (Page 49.)

For the theory of alien wives as a means of transmission, see Lang, _Custom and Myth_ (London, 1893).

_The Sister's Son_. (Page 51.)

See Mr. Gummere's article in the _English Miscellany_; and Professor Rhys' Presidential Address to the Anthropological Section of the British Association, 1900. The double relationship between Sigmund and Sinfjötli (not uncommon in heroic tales; compare Conchobhar and Cuchulainn, Arthur and Mordred) seems in this case due to the same cause as the custom which prevailed in the dynasty of the Ptolemies, where the king often married his sister, that his heir might be of the pure royal blood.

_Swanmaids_. (Page 51.)

See Hartland, _Science of Fairy-Tales._

_The Waverlowe_. (Page 51.)

Dr. Frazer (_Golden Bough_) gives instances of ritual marriages connected with the midsummer fires. For _Svipdag and Menglad_, see Study No. 12 of this series. If Rydberg, as seems very probable, is right in identifying Menglad and Svipdag with Freyja and the mortal lover who wins her and whom she afterwards loses, the story would be a parallel to those of Venus and Adonis, Ishtar and Tammuz, &c., which Frazer derives from the ritual marriage of human sacrifices to the Goddess of fertility. The reason given in the Edda for Brynhild's sleep, and her connexion with Odin, are secondary, arising from the Valhalla myth.

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