DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.638#0055
2 INDIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
pasture lands; he was the god of fertility, and he became
the corn spirit; he was "the friend of man"; he was the
artisan of the Universe which he shaped with his hammer,
the dragon slayer, the giant killer, the slaughterer of
enemies, the god of war. His racial significance must
ever remain obscure. We cannot identify his original
home, or even fix with certainty the archaeological period
in which he first took definite shape. It is possible that
ne may have been invoked and propitiated by Neolithic,
or even by Palaeolithic, flint knappers who struck fire
from stone long ere they suspected the existence of metal;
the primitive hunting and pastoral wanderers may have
conceived of a thunder deity engaged in splintering the
hills with his stone hammer, and fighting demons in the
rude manner in which they themselves contended against
beasts of prey. Memories of the Stone Age cling to the
hammer god. Indra's bolt was " the all-dreaded thunder-
stone " of Shakespeare's lyric; until recently Palaeolithic
and Neolithic artifacts were reputed to be " elf bolts"
and "thunder bolts" which fell from the sky; in Scandi-
navian folklore "the flint hills" are the fragments of the
weapon wielded by the thunder giant Hrungner. The
bolt or hammer ultimately became an axe; and according
to the modern Greeks, lightning flashes are caused by the
blows of the "sky axe" (astropeleki); Scottish Gaelic
retains an immemorial reference to the " thunder ball"
(peleir-tarnainaich).
The hammer god's close association with hilly countries
suggests that he was first worshipped on the steppes and
then distributed by the nomads whose migrations were
propelled by changing climatic conditions. He is found
as far east as China, where, as P'an Ku, the dwarfish
"first man", he smites primeval rocks with his thunder
nammer while engaged in the work of shaping the hills;
pasture lands; he was the god of fertility, and he became
the corn spirit; he was "the friend of man"; he was the
artisan of the Universe which he shaped with his hammer,
the dragon slayer, the giant killer, the slaughterer of
enemies, the god of war. His racial significance must
ever remain obscure. We cannot identify his original
home, or even fix with certainty the archaeological period
in which he first took definite shape. It is possible that
ne may have been invoked and propitiated by Neolithic,
or even by Palaeolithic, flint knappers who struck fire
from stone long ere they suspected the existence of metal;
the primitive hunting and pastoral wanderers may have
conceived of a thunder deity engaged in splintering the
hills with his stone hammer, and fighting demons in the
rude manner in which they themselves contended against
beasts of prey. Memories of the Stone Age cling to the
hammer god. Indra's bolt was " the all-dreaded thunder-
stone " of Shakespeare's lyric; until recently Palaeolithic
and Neolithic artifacts were reputed to be " elf bolts"
and "thunder bolts" which fell from the sky; in Scandi-
navian folklore "the flint hills" are the fragments of the
weapon wielded by the thunder giant Hrungner. The
bolt or hammer ultimately became an axe; and according
to the modern Greeks, lightning flashes are caused by the
blows of the "sky axe" (astropeleki); Scottish Gaelic
retains an immemorial reference to the " thunder ball"
(peleir-tarnainaich).
The hammer god's close association with hilly countries
suggests that he was first worshipped on the steppes and
then distributed by the nomads whose migrations were
propelled by changing climatic conditions. He is found
as far east as China, where, as P'an Ku, the dwarfish
"first man", he smites primeval rocks with his thunder
nammer while engaged in the work of shaping the hills;