enly women is in the
treatment of wounds, it is yet inferior to that of Wodan. But it is an
indication of the Teutonic conception that the curing of the sick and
the tending of the wounded appertains to the domain of woman.

It will furnish a more accurate idea of the alliterative form of this
most ancient Germanic poetry if we place here a clever translation by
Professor Gummere of the story just told:

"Phol and Wodan fared to the holt:
Then Haider's foal's foot was wrenched.
Then Sinthgunt besang it and Sunna, her sister:
Then Fryja besang it and Volla, her sister:
Then Wodan besang it, who well knew how,
The wrenching of bone, the wrenching of blood,
The wrenching of limb: Bone to bone, blood to blood,
Limb to limb, as if it were limed."

The second Merseburg charm attributes to the Idisi (wise women) the
power, on the battlefield, of loosening prisoners' bonds. This is
apparent from its text, which runs:

"Once sat (wise) women (idisi), sat hither and thither.
Some bound bonds; some hindered the host;
Some unfastened the fetters:
Spring from fetters; fly from the foe."

It describes the activity of the heavenly women, the Valkyries, in
battle. They are, according to the charm, divided into three
detachments; the first, binds prisoners in the rear of the army which
they favor; the second, engages the foe; the third group appears in the
rear of the enemy where the prisoners are secured, and, touching their
fetters, utters the formula of deliverance: "Escape from your bonds,
flee from the enemy."

Though Weinhold, perhaps the foremost scholar on the position and
achievements of early Germanic womanhood, does not concede the existence
of a real priestcraft among the ancient Teutons, he gives, nevertheless,
numberless examples of their great influence and prophetic mission. Like
the above-mentioned mythological women, mortal women were supposed to
know secret charms to make the weapons of their men victorious: some
possessing the charm over the blade (_Schwertsegeri_). This spell was
worked by scratching secret runes (letters) upon the handle or blade of
the sword while calling thrice the name of the sword god Tyr.

The most potent influence of Teutonic women rests upon their
guardianship of the sacred runes, which are a primeval, Teutonic method
of searching the future: the power of divination. The Anglo-Saxon and