that here again some elements of an Indo-European myth have been
preserved.^67
Thor, a genuine thunder-god, killed (or perhaps only wounded) the
Miðgarð Serpent ‘which lies round all lands’ (Gylf. 47). He went out in a boat
with the giant Hymir on the outer sea and fished for the monster, using
an ox’s head as bait. He managed to pull its head out of the water and dealt it
a smashing blow with his hammer, whereupon it sank back into the sea
(Hymiskviða 20–4). The poem leaves it ambiguous whether the blow was
fatal. Snorri, telling the story more fully (Gylf. 48), writes ‘and men say that he
struck its head off on the sea-bed. But I think the truth to tell you is that the
Miðgarð Serpent still lives and lies in the surrounding sea.’ In this Norse
myth the great serpent is located outside our world and has nothing to
do with our water supplies. But like Vr
̇
tra he is struck on the head by the
thunder-god’s weapon and sinks into the waters, where he now lies hidden.
The phrase that Snorri uses about him, that he ‘lies round all lands’ (liggr um
lo ̨nd o ̨ll), is reminiscent of a formula repeatedly used of Vr
̇
tra, áhann áhim
paris ́áya ̄nam árn
̇
ah
̇, ‘he smashed the Serpent who lay round the flood’ (RV 3.- 11; 4. 19. 2; 6. 30. 4).
The more recently recorded mythologies of eastern Europe yield a few
residual motifs that are relevant in this context. In Lithuania Perkunas’first
spring thunderclap is said to ‘unlock the earth’ from its frozen winter state.
The Slavonic Perun fought a dragon, a conflict later transferred to St Ilya
(Elijah). According to a Ukrainian legend the divine smith Kuy, who assisted
the thunder-god against the dragon, ploughed a furrow with its body, and
this was the origin of the river Dnieper with its ‘snake ramparts’. Albanian
myth tells of a dragon called Kulshedra (from Greek/Latin chersydros, an
amphibious serpent) or Ljubi, who grows huge in a mountain cave and often
causes streams to dry up, though her approach also brings storms; she has
nine tongues and spits fire. What is most to be feared is her lethal urine. She
is fought by a Drangue, who uses meteoric stones or lightning-swords and
protects mankind from storm by overwhelming her with piles of trees and
rocks.^68
Vis ́varu ̄ pa and his cowsThe waters imprisoned by Vr
̇
tra are likened to cows pent up in a stall, cows
being a standard Vedic metaphor for anything capable of giving nourishment.
(^67) Vr
̇
tra and the Hydra have been compared by L. von Schroeder, Herakles und Indra (as n.
38), 32–8; F. R. Schröder (as n. 45), 8.
(^68) Greimas (1992), 31; Vánˇa (1992), 72, 283 f.; Lambertz (1973), 471 f., 473 f., 486 f., 488 f.
- Storm and Stream 259