Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1964, Qupperneq 84

92
Færeyinga saga, chapter íorty
The magic significance of the number nine is too well
known to need particular comment.1)
If the reitar around the grindr have a magic=apotropaic
effect, they are either protecting the grindr, which then have
some special function of their own, or they are reinforcing
a similar power in the grindr themselves. Since the ordi»
nary function of grindr is to form a barrier, the latter ex*
planation seems the more likely. It may be supported by
a certain amount of analogical evidence drawn from a brief
survey of the use of grind-like barriers to separate the dead
and the living.
Tacitus’s description of the manner of execution of certain
types of criminal among some Germanic tribes is well known
(Germania, 12, 1): ignavos et imbelles et corpore infames
caeno ac palude, iniecta insuper crate, mergunt. The »hurdle«
had the practical aim of preventing the return of the corpse
to the surface of the swamp, as it will often do otherwise,2)
but this is tantamount to preventing the dead from walking
again.3) Tacitus’s description is borne out by various finds
of bogíburials. The practice continued through the middle
ages and Gjessing particularly has emphasised the continuity
of the tradition both in the custom itself and in the at*
tempts made to fix the dead in some way.4) Strom has
*) See e. g. K. Weinhold, Die mystische Neunzahl hei den Deutschen
(Abh. der Kóniglichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1897,
No. 2); J. Hoops, Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde (1911 —
19), III 312—4; A. Teilgárd Laugesen, Syv-Ni-Tolv (Studier fra Sprog*
og Oltidsforskning no. 237, 1959).
2) M. Ebert, Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte VIII (1927), 287. Cf.
Livy’s description of the novel form of execution (Ab urbe condita
1. 51, 9): »— deiectus ad caput aquae Ferentinae crate superne iniecta
saxisque congestis mergeretur®. The other references in Roman sources
(Ab urbe condita 4. 50, 4, and Plautus, Poenulus 5. 2, 65) seem to pre*
suppose crushing to death under hurdles.
3) Cf. W. Reeb, Tacitus Germania (1930), 95, who speaks of the
corpses »zum Teil mit Flechtwerk bedeckt, das eine Wiederkehr des
Toten als Gespenst verhindern sollte«.
4) G. Gjessing, ‘Skjoldehamndrakten’, Viking II (1938), especially
30-37.