Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1964, Page 88

96
Færeyinga saga, chapter forty
difficult to reconcile this with the description as a whole,
where the pieces of fencing are mounted in a square, the
dead men do not appear within or by the fencing, and the
fire, whose hilastic function can hardly be doubted, is dis*
sociated from the grindr.
All in all, it seems most likely that the dead were thought
to be summoned by bránd’s psychic exertion (whatever
form it was believed to take), coupled with the big fires,
and that the intention of the reitar and grindr was apo*
tropaic, in accordance with their use in other contexts.* 1)
The one who would seem to need protection is brándr,
but after taking his elaborate precautions, he calmly sits on
a chair between the fire and the grindr. This may give him
cover back and front but one feels that he ought to be
inside the grindr all the same.
Two possible explanations of this discrepancy suggest
themselves. It may be implied that by making his square
of fencing and drawing the nine perimeter lines around it,
í>rándr has created an effective apotropaic symbol which
so that there is no need to assume, as O’Rahilly does, that the seer
wrapped himself in the skin, although this is also known). In this rite
it appears to be the hide of the (sacrificial) animal which confers divine
potency, enabling the seer to share the secrets of other worlds; its
protective function is probably secondary. The purpose of the wattles
on the other hand is obscure. The fact that they were made of the
sacred rowan (cf. J. de Vries, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte (1956—7),
I 282—3 with references) suggests that their function was apotropaic,
and it may be that they made some sort of platform, similar to the
seiðhjallr, whose function was to isolate »den sejdande frán stórande
inflytelser och erbjuda en trygg plats under den extas, som átfoljde
sejden« (Strómback, 118). It is perhaps worth pointing out the similarity
of construction between the typical grind and the typical hjallr, both
made of frames with bars and interstices; on the possible connection
of hjallr with hjalmr and an original sense »Geflecht«, see J. de Vries,
Altnordisches etymologisches W/órterbuch (1961), 230.
*) A protective function for the grindr is naturally assumed by those
who think the fire and firándr were inside them, implicity by Meiss=
ner, for example, and explicitly by York Powell, xxxviii.