On the other hand a popular belief is attested from end to end of Europe
and Asia, as well as in parts of Africa, that certain types of stone found on the
earth are thunderstones and have valuable magical properties, especally that
of protecting a house against future strikes. It is widely believed that the
thunderstone when first hurled or shot down from the sky penetrates the
earth to a depth of several feet, and then gradually rises to the surface over a
period of many days or years. The belief attaches particularly to wedge-
shapedflints or stones that look like axes and are in fact, in many cases,
prehistoric stone tools. Such are the objects known as ‘Perkunas’ stone’,
‘Perun’s arrows’, and the like. These ideas are already attested in Classical
authors.^62
The Water DragonThe thunder-god is not after you and me. His wrath is directed against devils,
demons, giants. Their identity varies from one country to another. But there
is an adversary of a different order who lurks in Vedic, Greek, and Norse
mythology and who seems to represent an Indo-European concept: a mon-
strous reptile associated with water, lying in it or blocking its flow. It is
perhaps a cosmic version of the common mythical motif of the serpent who
guards a spring, or some other desirable thing, and prevents access to it.
The defeat of this creature by the thunder-god is in essence a nature myth:
thunderstorms release torrents of water that had previously been pent up.
But whereas the god can always go on killing giants or demons, because there
are always more of them, a unique dragon can only be slain once. There
is therefore a dilemma. Is the killing of the monster a heroic deed that the
god did sometime in the past, to be celebrated in his hymns of praise? Or
is the monster not after all dead, so that the conflict is renewed again and
again? On the whole the first approach prevails. The story is set in the past,
weakening its connection with our weather. But we shall see that there is some
ambivalence.
Indra is celebrated for many victories over different demons, for example
Vala, Vis ́varu ̄ pa, S ́ambara, Namuri, S ́us
̇
na, Uran
̇a, Pipru, Arbuda. How-
ever, his principal opponent is Vr
̇
tra. Vr
̇tra’s name, as we have seen, means
‘resistance, blockage’, and was abstracted from Indra’s epithet vr
̇
trahán-. But
it was abstracted to bestow on a mythical creature already conceptualized.
(^62) Pliny, HN 2. 146; 37. 134 f., 150, 176; Lydus, De ostentis 45; Grimm (1883–8), 179 f., cf.
1221, 1686; Mannhardt (1875), 294; von Schroeder (1914–16), i. 546; most fully documented in
C. Blinkenberg, The Thunderweapon in Religion and Folklore (Cambridge 1911).
- Storm and Stream 255