(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 Sinfjoetli (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.
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