The Serpentine Devil in Teutonic Fables

Renegade Editor’s Note: Comparative mythology is always fascinating for me, but I feel like the Christian narrative has stained the glasses with which we view our past. This author is trying here to offer further validation for his religion, and this particular book has some errors and outdated information.

by John Bathurst Deane
From The Worship of the Serpent [1833]

In the Teutonic mythology the assumption of the serpentine form by the devil is poetically described by representing THE GREAT SERPENT as an emanation from the evil spirit LOKE.

In the rebellion of Loke against the universal father, the serpent being overcome was thrown down into the ocean, where he encompasses the whole earth with his folds.

The evil principle of the Scandinavians is called in the Edda–“THE CALUMNIATOR OF THE GODS; THE GRAND CONTRIVER OF DECEITS AND FRAUDS; THE REPROACH OF GODS AND MEN.” “He is beautiful in figure, but his mind is evil, and his inclinations inconstant. Three monsters emanate from this evil being: the wolf Fenris, THE SERPENT Midgard, and HELA, or DEATH. All three are enemies to the gods, who, after various struggles, have chained the wolf till the last day, when he shall break loose and devour the sun. The serpent has been cast into the sea, where he shall remain until he is conquered by the god THOR: and Hela shall be banished into the lower regions.”

This intimate connexion, between the EVIL SPIRIT, THE SERPENT, and DEATH, immediately suggests the conclusion, that the whole legend is but the original patriarchal tradition fabulized.

“Thor was esteemed A MIDDLE DIVINITY–A MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MAN. He is said to have bruised the head of the great serpent with his mace. It was further believed of him, that in his final engagement with the same serpent he would beat him to the earth and slay him; but that the victory would be obtained at the expense of his own life, for that he himself would be suffocated by the floods of poison vomited out of the mouth of the noxious reptile.”

The superstition of “the serpent in the sea” was known to the Chinese, as we observed in the chapter on the Serpent-worship of China. But it was, doubtless, at one time, a very general superstition among the heathen, for we find it mentioned by Isaiah, chap. xxvii. 1–“In that day the Lord, with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that CROOKED SERPENT: and he shall slay THE DRAGON THAT IS IN THE SEA.”

The prophet here represents, as I conceive, the triumph of the Messiah over Satan, who is pre-eminently THE SERPENT; and who, through the blindness of idolatry, had been elevated into a constellation; or, through the influence of tradition corruptly remembered, had been clothed with the attributes of the author of the deluge. The Eastern nations, more particularly, adored him under the former; the Northern under the latter character. The prophecy of Isaiah may denote the triumph of the Messiah over both, in the conversion of these people to the knowledge of his gospel.

It is worthy of observation, that in Scandinavia the serpent rarely (I believe never) arrives at such a size as to become a formidable enemy to an unarmed man. Why then, should he be represented as symbolical of the great enemy of God and man? In the absence of every other reasonable hypothesis to account for this phenomenon, we must attribute the connexion of the Teutonic serpent with the evil spirit, and the notion of his natural hostility to the human race to the original tradition, preserved and handed down by the patriarchs after the flood, and conveyed by their descendants to the remotest corner of the globe.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes