“Middelerd for mon wes mad”

All Hail!

In the name of the gods let us begin, for all good things begin with the gods.  In the following blog posts we are to look for the will of the gods in the wyrd of the English folk from the beginning.   But it is well here, as also maybe in the next few posts, if the gods are willing, to first say something of the background of Middle Earth upon which that wyrd is dreed (=performed).

In Harley handwrit 2253 there is a leeth (=poem) which beginneth: “Middelerd for mon wes mad” “Middle Earth for man was made”.  And although the new belief hath its own thoughts on who it was made by, I say, with all truefast folk that it was made by the gods (see Völuspá 4, Grímnismál 41, Snorri Sturluson Edda, Gylfaginning 8).  Sallustius, On the Gods and the World (Περὶ Θεῶν καὶ Κόσμου) chapitle 14:

Ταῦτα δὲ πάντα ποιοῦσι μὲν Θεοί, τάττει δὲ νοῦς, κινεῖ δὲ ψυχή.

All this world is made by the Gods, stightled by Mind, stirred by Soul.

J. R. R. Tolkien hath maybe made Middle Earth an household name now for many, but his brooking of it should not blind us to the true meaning to be found otherwhere.  It stemmeth from the Old English middanȝeard, which we find in Bēowulf (see lines 75, 1771 middan‐ȝeard, line 2996 middan‐ȝearde lines 504, 751 middan‐ȝeardes). This is a match for the Northern (=Norse) Miðgarður.   But in Old English times middanȝeard was understood as middaneard, and this was then updated to middelerde, thus Kyng Alisaunder (Laud handwrit 622):

Whilom clerkes wel ylerede
On þre diȝtten þis middelerde,
And cleped hem, in her maistre,
Europe, Affryke, and Assye.

Whilom clerks well learned
In three dighten (=arranged) this Middle Earth,
And called them, in their lore,
Europe, Africa and Asia.

 And the Orrmulum   (Bodley Bookhoard, Oxford, handwrit Junius 1) line 11256:

All þiss middellærd iss ec
O fowwre daless dæledd:
Onn Æst, o Wesst, o Suþ, o Norrþ.

All this Middle Earth is also
in four deals (=parts) dealt:
Into East, into West, into South [and] into North.

These two outdraughts (=extracts) give a good forebisening (=example) of what was meant by Middle Earth of yore.

And to show how whilom I mark that King Alfred awendeth the following words of Paulus Orosius’ Historia Adversum Paganos:

“Maiores nostri orbem totius terrae, oceani limbo circumsaeptum, triquadrum statuere eiusque tres partes Asiam Europam et Africam uocauerunt,...”

as

“ure yldran ealne ðisne ymbhwyrft ðises middanȝeardes (cwæð Orosius) swá swá Oceanus ymbliȝeþ útan ( Þone man Garsecg hatað), on ðreo todældon 7 hu hy þa þry dælas on ðreo tonemdon : Asiam 7 Europam 7 Affricam.” 

 Eard, later erde  or ærd meaneth a dwelling stead; a home, world.   In Laȝamon Leouenaðes sone's Hystoria Brutonum (British Museum handwrit Cotton Caligula A.IX) line 29173 we may read: “Inne France wes his ærd” “In France was his home”.  It need not be an earthly home however, as in the Orrmulum it is even brooked for heaven as the former home of the fallen angels:

Off all þatt enngleflocc þatt fell
Off heoffness ærd till helle.

Of all that angel-flock that fell
From heaven's dwelling to hell.

In Bēowulf line 104 we find “fīfel‐cynnes eard”, “fīfel” being another name for a giant or ettin.  And in “The Wars of Alexander” (handwrit Ashmole 44) of Queen Candace:

“Scho was so faire & so fresche • as faucon hire semed,
 An elfe out of an-othire erde • or ellis an Angell.”                 5258

She was so fair and so fresh as falcon her seemed,

An elf out of another world or else an angel.

In time the spelling of the word, but not its meaning, was formenged (=confused) with earth, terra.  Only in Middle Earth and in “fox's earth” did the word meaning “dwelling” live on.  As Midelerthe we will find it in John Gower's Confessio Amantis.  One of its last outings before Tolkien is in Shakespeare: “But stay, I smell a man of Middle Earth” The Merry Wives of Windsor Act V, scene v.  A man of Middle Earth being here marked out as not being an elf.

The Man for whom Middle Earth is made is the first Man, otherwise called Mannus. Mankind, earlier mancynn, being the kin of Man or Mannus, the first man.  The old Roman writer Tacitus in his Libellus de origine, moribus et situ Germanorum, called “Germania”, chapitle 2 hath something about our old far forefather:

“Celebrant carminibus antiquis (quod unum apud illos memoriae et annalium genus est) Tuisconem deum terra editum, et filium Mannum, originem gentis conditoresque. Manno tres filios assignant, e quorum nominibus proximi Oceano Ingaevones, medii Hermiones, ceteri Istaevones vocentur. Quidam autem, ut in licentia vetustatis, plures deo ortos pluresque gentis appellationes, Marsos, Gambrivios, Suevos, Vandalios, affirmant; eaque vera et antiqua nomina.”

“In their ancient songs, their only way of remembering or recording the past, they celebrate an earth-born god, Tuisco, and his son Mannus, as the origin of their race, as their founders. To Mannus they assign three sons, from whose names, they say, the coast tribes are called Ingævones; those of the interior, Herminones; all the rest, Istævones. Some, with the freedom of conjecture permitted by antiquity, assert that the god had several descendants, and the nation several appellations, as Marsi, Gambrivii, Suevi, Vandilii, and that these are genuine old names.” (The Works of Tacitus awent by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb (1864-1877)). 

The self same tale would seem to lie behind what the Northerners (=Norsemen, Scandinavians) said of Búri, Borr and his three sons (see Snorri Sturluson Edda, Gylfaginning 8), although among them this hath been brooked for the frimth (=origin) of the gods rather than of men.  Brian Branston (see his The Lost Gods of England, chapitle 11, lvs. 172 to 174 of my 1993 outlaying), Viktor Rydberg and Jacob Grimm all are of the same thought about this, and believe the tale of Búri and so on to have arisen from a formenging of the older tale of Mannus.  I mark that Búri is called a man “maðr” by Snorri, and is said to come “ór steininum” “from the stones”, even if rime stones are there meant.  The tale is not to be found in their old leeths.  Aside from Snorri, I believe the only other skáld (for such Snorri was, see Skáldatal) to mark Búri is Þórvaldur Blönduskáld and he lived at the time of Sigurðr Jórsalafari!  Borr, moreover is the same as the Old English byre, Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂 ‎baur, “son” and, like Mannus, not so much a name as a title.  Furthermore, I can't help thinking here that the “Bëor the Old” to be found in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the forefather of one of the three houses of elf-friends, and the first man to settle in The West, doth not owe something to Tolkien's knowledge of Búri or Borr.

It is worth the marking here that having the first man born of the earth, or a stone or a tree was not that selcouth (=rare) a thing in the olden days.  In Horn (Handwrit Gg. 4. 27. 2. University Bookhoard, Cambridge) the haleth (=hero) of the leeth, when he findeth himself alone, is oddly withmeted to something that we must ween to have once been widely known in Old English lore:

Horn him ȝede alone,           1025

Also he sprunge of stone.

Horn went alone,

As if he sprang from a stone.

And in The Odyssey, Book 19, lines 163 to 164:

ἀλλὰ καὶ ὥς μοι εἰπὲ τεὸν γένος, ὁππόθεν ἐσσί.
οὐ γὰρ ἀπὸ δρυός ἐσσι παλαιφάτου οὐδ᾽ ἀπὸ πέτρης.

“Yet even so tell me of thy stock from whence thou art;
for thou art not sprung from an oak of ancient story, or from a stone.” 

[Homer. The Odyssey with an English Awending by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two deals. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. ]

All of which mean no more than to say “I reached the end of my knowledge, I don't truly know who his father was”!  Lucianus of Samosata in Commagene well wrote of scopas (=poets) I think:

“... so long as the poets are under the inspiration of the Muses, they speak truth: but once let those Goddesses leave them to their own devices, and they make blunders and contradict themselves. Nor can we blame them: they are but men; how should they know truth, when the divinity whose mouthpieces they were is departed from them? ...”
[The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Deal III, awending by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler Oxford: The Clarendon Press (1905)].
 

What the Northerners say of the world being made from bits of the ettin Ymir (see Völuspá 3 - 4, Grímnismál 40 - 41, Vafþrúðnismál 20 – 21, Snorri Sturluson Edda, Gylfaginning 8) is oddly somewhat nigh what was said otherwhere of the first man, called Adam in the new belief, but only backward.  I believe there is an Old English telling, but I like this from Ypotys (Vernon handwrit fol. 296) lines 164 to 180:

Of hou feole þinges god maade Adam?
Þe child seide: of þinges seuene.
Whuche hit beþ, Ichul þe nempne:
Erþe-slym was on of þo,
Water of þe see he tok þerto,
And of þe sonne, and of þe wynde,
And of þe cloudes, as we ifynde,
And of þe stones bi þe see-cost,
And also of þe holy gost.
Of þe eorþe he made his flesch,
And of þe water his blod so nesch,
And of þe sonne his herte and his bowels,
His liknesse and his goode þewes,
Of þe wynt he made his breþ,
And of þe cloudes his wittes beþ,
of þe ston he made his bon,
And of þe holygost his sowle anon.

The reader might like to umbethink (=consider) this alongside the words of Cursor Mundi (Bodley handwrit Fairfax 14):

Of  erþ al-ane made was he noȝt,

bot of  þe foure elementes wroȝt:

Of water his blode his flesshe of laire

his hete of fire, his ande of ayre.     520

laire is clay, earth.

And:

 þis ande þat he drawes oft,

  be-takenes winde þat ys on loft.       532

ande, or onde is another word here for breath.

This can also be notefully withmeted (=usefully compared) with what the Northerners themselves say of the making of the first man from a bit of wood (tré), rather than from the earth (see Völuspá 17 to 18 and Snorri Sturluson Edda, Gylfaginning 9).  

 

To say “önd gaf Óðinn” “ghost gave Woden”(Völuspá 18) is no more than another way of saying “And of þe holygost his sowle anon”.   But the wording is more nearly matched by the so-called Sidrak and Bokkus (Lansdowne handwrit 793):

Adames soule so was wrought

Of Goddes onde...

It can be endlessly flitted that the Northerners tale is a misunderstood borrowing from the first man tale, or the againward, but mine own belief is that the tale is rightly said of the first man.   The Northerners' themselves have Jörð, our Earth, as a gyden, see Gylfaginning 9, 10, 36, and I mark 9:

“Jörðin var dóttir hans ok kona hans [Alföðr]. Af henni gerði hann inn fyrsta soninn, en þat er Ása-Þórr. Honum fylgði afl ok sterkleikr. Þar af sigrar hann öll kvikvendi”. 
 

“The Earth was his daughter and his wife; on her he begot the first son, which is Ása-Thor: strength and prowess attend him, wherewith he overcometh all living things. (awending Brodeur)”

 

This is the same  as what our own English forefathers thought to deem from the Æcerbot a gealdor (=charm) found in London, British Bookhoard, Cotton Caligula A. vii, where we may read of “eorþan modor” “earth mother” and “folde,      fira modor” “earth, mother of men”.  See also the verse of the Old English rune leeth (=poem), for the rūnstæf “rune-stave”  ȝear once to be found in Cotton Otho B.x, fol. 165a – 165b but lost in 1731:

ᛄ

[ȝear] byþ gumena hiht, ðonne God læteþ,

   halig heofones cyning, hrusan syllan

   beorhte bleda beornum ond ðearfum.

Year, (here what a year bringeth forth, a harvest, is meant),  is hope to men, when God alloweth,

 the holy King of Heaven, the Earth to give

bright blede (=fruits) to the well-to-do and to the needy.

It is worth etching (=adding) to this here that men are not here to underput or “subdue” the Earth  (see Gen. 1: 28), but to look after her, as the wise Roman Cicero wrote in the Somnium Scipionis 7 (6.15) from his De Re Publica:

“homines enim sunt hac lege generati, qui tuerentur illum globum, ... quæ terra dicitur:...”.

“Men were brought forth with the understanding that they were to look after that sphere called the earth,...”.

But this is only to speak of the earthly body of man, the soul herself bestoweth upon men another  behest as Hermes Trismegistus outfoldeth:

“... god shapes mankind from the nature of soul and of body, from the eternal and the mortal, in other words, so that the living being so shaped can prove adequate to both its beginnings, wondering at heavenly beings and worshipping them, tending earthly beings and governing them.” (awending B. P. Copenhaver see his Hermetica, Cambridge University Press (1992), lf. 71)

And the looking after the earth is of a sunder (=special) kind:

“Seeing that the world is god's work, one who attentively preserves and enriches its beauty conjoins his own work with god's will when, lending his body to daily work and care, he arranges the scene formed by god's divine intention.” (awending B. P. Copenhaver see his Hermetica, Cambridge University Press (1992), lf. 73)

So we are not here to wield an unholy lordship over the Earth but to work with her.   As Tolkien well wrote:

“... not ... strength or domination or hoarded wealth, but understanding, making, and healing, to preserve all things unstained.” 

Viktor Rydberg also eveneth  Mannus with “Hálfdan gamli” (see Snorra Edda: Skáldskaparmál 80),  marking that long life was a thing often bestowed upon highfathers (=patriarchs) as may also be seen in the Bible of the new belief. 

 Our word  “man” is, so the speech-lore masters (=linguists) tell us, said to be akin to the word muž, mǫžĭ, mǎž, mož, mąż “husband” found among the Slavs.  And to the word found in the old holy tongues of the East, to Avestan manuš, and to Sanskrit मनुः ‎(manuḥ) “man”.  With this last we may see the roots of the word with मनुः ‎(manuḥ) “thinking , wise”, मनः ‎(manaḥ) “mind”, one with the Greek τὸ μένος.  And where there is such kinship of speech must there not be a kinship of the men who speak those tongues?

Mannus may  be notefully  withmeted to the high-father Mašyā known among the Parsees (=Persians) as the forefather of mankind (see the Greater Bundahishn chapitle 14 of Anklesaria's awending, 15 of West's).  But Mannus' true match is with the Manuḥ or Manu known in India as the forefather of mankind.  Thus The Mahabharata Book 1, Adi Parva, Sambhava Parva, Section LXXV:

“And Manu was imbued with great wisdom and devoted to virtue. And he became the progenitor of a line. And in Manu's race have been born all human beings, who have, therefore, been called Manavas.  And it is of Manu that all men including Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, and others have been descended, and are, therefore, all called Manavas. Subsequently, O monarch, the Brahmanas became united with the Kshatriyas. And those sons of Manu that were Brahmanas devoted themselves to the study of the Vedas. The ten sons of Manu are known as Vena, Dhrishnu, Narishyan, Nabhaga, Ikshvaku, Karusha, Saryati, the eighth, a daughter named Ila, Prishadhru the ninth, and Nabhagarishta, the tenth. They all betook themselves to the practices of Kshatriyas.  Besides these, Manu had fifty other sons on Earth. But we heard that they all perished, quarrelling with one another.” (awending Kisari Mohan Ganguli).

Furthermore, much of what is said in the new belief in the West of Noah of outlasting a Great Flood  is also said of Manu in India.  This is from that tale being borrowed by the new belief from the old in the Near East (see the tale found in tablet XI of the so-called Epic of Gilgamesh).  And this being understood, the Greeks also can now be seen to know Mannus under the name of Deucalion.  The tale of Manu and the Great Flood is given in The Mahabharata, Book 3: Vana Parva, Markandeya-Samasya Parva, Section CLXXXVI.

“Then Yudhishthira, the son of Pandu, said to the Brahmana, Markandeya, 'Do thou now narrate the history of Vaivaswata Manu?

"Markandeya replied, 'O king, O foremost of men, there was a powerful and great Rishi of the name of Manu. He was the son of Vivaswan and was equal unto Brahma in glory. And he far excelled his father and grandfather in strength, in power, in fortune, as also in religious austerities. And standing on one leg and with uplifted hand, that lord of men did severe penance in the jujube forest called Visala. And there with head downwards and with steadfast eyes he practised the rigid and severe penance for ten thousand years. And one day, whilst he was practising austerities there with wet clothes on and matted hair on head, a fish approaching the banks of the Chirini, addressed him thus, 'Worshipful sir, I am a helpless little fish, I am afraid of the large ones; therefore, do thou, O great devotee, think it worth thy while to protect me from them; especially as this fixed custom is well established amongst us that the strong fish always preys upon the weak ones. Therefore do thou think it fit to save me from being drowned in this sea of terrors! I shall requite thee for thy good offices.' On hearing these words from the fish, Vaivaswata Manu was overpowered with pity and he took out the fish from the water with his own hands. And the fish which had a body glistening like the rays of the moon when taken out of the water was put back in an earthen water-vessel. And thus reared that fish O king, grew up in size and Manu tended it carefully like a child. And after a long while, it became so large in size, that there was no room for it in that vessel. And then seeing Manu (one day), it again addressed these words to him, 'Worshipful sir, do thou appoint some better habitation for me.' And then the adorable Manu, the conqueror of hostile cities, took it out of that vessel and carried it to a large tank and placed it there. And there again the fish grew for many a long year.  And although the tank was two yojanas in length and one yojana in width, even there, O lotus-eyed son of Kunti and ruler of men, was no room for the fish to play about! And beholding Manu it said again, 'O pious and adorable father, take me to the Ganga, the favourite spouse of the Ocean so that I may live there; or do as thou listest. O sinless one, as I have grown to this great bulk by thy favour I shall do thy bidding cheerfully.' Thus asked the upright and continent and worshipful Manu took the fish to the river Ganga and he put it into the river with his own hands. And there, O conqueror of thy enemies, the fish again grew for some little time and then beholding Manu, it said again, 'O lord, I am unable to move about in the Ganga on account of my great body; therefore, worshipful sir, do thou please take me quickly to the sea!' O son of Pritha, Manu then taking it out of the Ganga, carried it to the sea and consigned it there. And despite its great bulk, Manu transported it easily and its touch and smell were also pleasant to him. And when it was thrown into the sea by Manu, it said these words to him with a smile, 'O adorable being, thou hast protected me with special care; do thou now listen to me as to what thou shouldst do in the fulness of time! O fortunate and worshipful sir, the dissolution of all this mobile and immobile world is nigh at hand. The time for the purging of this world is now ripe. Therefore do I now explain what is good for thee! The mobile and immobile divisions of the creation, those that have the power of locomotion, and those that have it not, of all these the terrible doom hath now approached. Thou shall build a strong massive ark and have it furnished with a long rope. On that must thou ascend, O great Muni, with the seven Rishis and take with thee all the different seeds which were enumerated by regenerate Brahmanas in days of yore, and separately and carefully must thou preserve them therein. And whilst there, O beloved of the Munis, thou shall wait for me, and I shall appear to thee like a horned animal, and thus, O ascetic, shall thou recognise me! And I shall now depart, and thou shall act according to my instructions, for, without my assistance, thou canst not save thyself from that fearful flood.' Then Manu said unto the fish, 'I do not doubt all that thou hast said, O great one! Even so shall I act!' And giving instructions to each other, they both went away. And Manu then, O great and powerful king and conqueror of thy enemies, procured all the different seeds as directed by the fish, and set sail in an excellent vessel on the surging sea.  And then, O lord of the earth, he bethought himself of that fish. And the fish too, O conqueror of thy enemies and foremost scion of Bharata's race, knowing his mind, appeared there with horns on his head. And then, O tiger among men, beholding in the ocean that horned fish emerging like a rock in the form of which he had been before appraised, he lowered the ropy noose on its head. And fastened by the noose, the fish, O king and conqueror of hostile cities, towed the ark with great force through the salt waters. And it conveyed them in that vessel on the roaring and billow beaten sea.  And, O conqueror of thy enemies and hostile cities, tossed by the tempest on the great ocean, the vessel reeled about like a drunken harlot. And neither land nor the four cardinal points of the compass, could be distinguished.

And there was water everywhere and the waters covered the heaven and the firmament also. And, O bull of Bharata's race, when the world was thus flooded, none but Manu, the seven Rishis and the fish could be seen.  And, O king, the fish diligently dragged the boat through the flood for many a long year and then, O descendant of Kuru and ornament of Bharata's race, it towed the vessel towards the highest peak of the Himavat. And, O Bharata, the fish then told those on the vessel to tie it to the peak of the Himavat. And hearing the words of the fish they immediately tied the boat on that peak of the mountain and, O son of Kunti and ornament of Bharata's race, know that that high peak of the Himavat is still called by the name of Naubandhana (the harbour). Then the fish addressing the associated Rishis told them these words, 'I am Brahma, the Lord of all creatures; there is none greater than myself. Assuming the shape of a fish, I have saved you from this cataclysm. Manu will create (again) all beings--gods, Asuras and men, all those divisions of creation which have the power of locomotion and which have it not. By practicing severe austerities he will acquire this power, and with my blessing, illusion will have no power over him.'

"So saying the fish vanished instantly. And Vaivaswata Manu himself became desirous of creating the world. In this work of creation illusion overtook him and he, therefore, practised great asceticism. And endowed with ascetic merit, Manu, O ornament of Bharata's race, again set about his work of creating all beings in proper and exact order. This story which I have narrated to thee and the hearing of which destroyeth all sin, is celebrated as the Legend of the Fish. And the man who listeneth every day to this primeval history of Manu, attaineth happiness and all other objects of desire and goeth to heaven.”(awending Kisari Mohan Ganguli).

Matsya pulls a boat carrying Manu and Saptarishi during Pralaya

Ramanarayanadatta astri Mahabharata Deal 2, Gorakhpur Geeta Press ᛋ

Farewell.