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184 Hagen: K vasir.
identical with the etymological birth-legend of Orion, strongly
indicated that we are here on the right track.
The next matter to he considered is Kvasir’s death at
the hands of the dwarfs Fjalar and Galar. Also this fea-
ture is, I believe, strikingly illuminated by reference to an
Orion story which seems to have had considerable currency.
I have already quoted Mythogr. Vatic., 32, and I shall now
give part of 33. It will be seen from the words ”praedic-
tus filius Neptuni”, that the mythographer is not troubled
by the question of two Orions: ”Orion, praedictus filius Nep-
tuni, venator acerrimus fuit. Is abiens ad Minoen, Creten-
sium regem, hospitio susceptus est, et tentavit filias eius vio-
lenter rapere. At vero Minos Libero patri, cuius filius vide-
batur, immolavit. Igitur Liber pater misit Satyros, qui
Orionem ebriosum ligaverunt et vinctum Minoi tradiderunt,
ut ipse eum puniret. Tunc ille oculos eius eruit. Postea
vero Orion didicit responso, lumina se recepturum, si ad
orientem venisget,” etc. The same story is told by Servius
ad Aen. 10, 763: ”Hie venator. . . cum vellet eius filiam
vitiare, ille iratus opem Liberi patris, cuius erat filius, im-
ploravit, is satyros misit, qui soporem infunderent Orioni et
sic velut vinctum Oenopioni traderent arbitrio eius punien-
dum, turn ille Oenopion sopito ei oculos sustulit”. This fea-
ture, according to which Orion falls into the hands of satyrs,
who make him drunk and then hand him over bound to
his tormentor, bears an unmistakable likeness to the Norse
account of Kvasir’s falling into the hands of the dwarfs.
The goat-footed, ape-like and generally fantastic wood-deities,
the satyrs, are usually kindly beings, but also at times
mischievous, and they are here not unfittingly displaced by
the ugly and deformed, kindly and mischievous dwarfs. The
fact that dwarfs play a rôle in connection with the death of
Kvasir would thus be plausibly explained. But there is an
important difference between the Orion story and the Kvasir
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