Rydberg on the Ribhus of the Rigveda

The following is an excerpt from chapter 111 of Viktor Rydberg's
Undersokingar i Germanisk Mythologi, Volume 1 ("Teutonic Mythology"
translated by Rasmus Anderson, 1889).

It regards a comparison of the Rigveda's competition of the artists the
Ribhus and Tvastar with the Germanic tale of the competition between the
artists The Sons of Ivaldi and Brokk and Sindri as told in the Younger Edda.
After studying the evidence, I am convinced that the two likely had a common
origin in PIE myth. To my knowledge no one else has ever pointed this out.

However, please note that modern scholars such as Ursula Dronke recognize a
lingusitic connection between the name "Ribhus" and the ON "alfar" (elves).
In other chapters, Rydberg identifies the Sons of Ivaldi as elves, and
demonstrates that a similar myth is told of them as of the Ribhus. The final
paragraph is a remarkable observation about the likely date of the PIE
source myth and its division into two distinct branches that evolved
independantly.

The passage presupposes a familarity with the Germanic tale of the contest
of the artists, if anyone is unfamilar with this tale, I will provide a
link. Please ask.

[Note Rydberg uses the word "Aryan" for Indo-European, without the racial
connotations it would later develop. He discusses the use of this term fully
in Chapter 6 of the book, and he uses it in a purely scientific fashion lest
anyone get hung up on the use of the word.]

Chapter 111:

Above (see No. 54), it has already been shown that the fragments of old
Aryan mythology, which Avesta, Zend, and Bundehesh have preserved, speak of
a terrible winter, which visited the world. To rescue that which is noblest
and best among plants, animals, and men from the coming destruction, Jima
arranged in the lower world a separate enclosed domain, within which
selected organisms live an uncontaminated life undisturbed by the events of
this world, so that they may people a more beautiful and a happier earth in
the regenerated world. I have shown that the same myth in all important
details reappears in the Teutonic doctrine anent Mimir's grove and the
ásmegir living there. In the Iranian records, we read that the great winter
was the work of the evil spirit, but they do not tell the details or the
epic causes of the destruction by the cold. Of these causes we get
information in Rigveda, the Indian sister of the Iranian mythology.

Clothed with divine rank, there lives among Rigveda's gods an extraordinary
artist, Tvashtar (Tvashtri), often mentioned and addressed in Rigveda's
hymns. The word means "the masterworkman," "the handi-workman" (Bergaigne,
Relig. Ved., iii. 45; Darmesteter, Ormazd, 63, 100). He is the one who forms
the organisms in the maternal wombs, the one who prepares and first
possesses as his secret the strength- and inspiration-giving soma-drink
(Rigv., ii. 53, &c.); it is he that supports the races of men (Rigv., iii.
55, 19). Among the wonderful things made by his hands are mentioned a
goblet, which the gods drink from, and which fills itself with blessings
(Rigv., iii. 55, 20 ; x. 53, 9), and Indra's, the Hinduic Thor's,
thunderbolt, corresponding to Thor's Mjolnir.

But among mortals brothers have been reared, themselves mortals, and not of
divine rank, but who have educated themselves into artists, whose skill
fills the world within astonishment. They are three in number, usually
called the Ribhus, but also Anus and Ayus, names which possibly may have
some original connection with the Volund names Anund and Ajo. Most clever
and enterprising in successful artistic efforts is the youngest of the three
(Rigv., iv. 34). They are also soma-brewers, skalds, and heroes (Rigv., iv.
36, 5, 7), and one of them, like Volund's brother Orvandil-Egil, is an
unsurpassed archer (Rigv., iv. 36, 6). On account of their handiwork, these
mortal artists come in contact with the gods (Rigv., iv. 35), and as Volund
and Orvandil-Egil become Thor's friends, allies, war-comrades, and servants,
so the Ribhns become Indra's (Rigv., i. 51, 2; vii. 37, 7); "with Indra, the
helpful, allied themselves the helpers; with Indra, the nimble, the Ribhus".
They make weapons, coats-of-mail, and means of locomotion, and make
wonderful treasures for the gods. On earth they produce vegetation in the
deserts, and hew out ways for the fertlising streams (Rigv., v. 42, 12; iv.
33, 7). With Ivaldi's sons, they, therefore, share the qualities of being at
the same time creators of vegetation, and smiths at the hearth, and
bestowers of precious treasures to the gods.

But some evil tongue persuaded the gods that the Ribhus had said something
derogatory of the goblet made by Tvashtar. This made Tvashtar angry, and he
demanded their death. The gods then sent the fire-god Agni to the Ribhus.
The Ribhus asked: "Why has the most excellent, the most youthful one come to
us? On what errand does he come?" Agni told them that it was reported that
they had found fault with Tvashtar's goblet; they declared that they had not
said anything derogatory, but only talked about the material of which it was
made. Agni meanwhile stated the resolution of the gods, to the effect that
they were to make from Tvashtar's goblet four others of the same kind. If
they were unable to do this, then the gods would doubtless satisfy
Tvashtar's request and take their lives; but if they were able to make the
goblets, then they should share with the gods the right to receive
offerings. Moreover, they were to give the following proof of mastership.
They were to smithy a living horse, a living chariot, a living cow, and they
were to create a means of rejuvenation and demonstrate its efficacy on two
aged and enfeebled beings. The Ribhus informed the gods that they would do
what was demanded of them. So they made the wonderful chariot or the
chariot-ship, which they gave to the Asvinians - the beautiful twin-gods -
on which they ride through the air and on the sea (cp. Skidbladnir, Frey's
ship, and Hringhorni, Baldur's, and probably also Hodur's means of
locomotion through the air and on the sea). Of one horse they made two, and
presented them to Indra. Out of an empty cow's hide they smithied a cow (cp.
Sindri's work of art when he made the boar Slidrugtanni out of an empty
pig's skin). They made the remedy of rejuvenation, and tested it
successfully on their aged parents. Finally, they do the great master-work
of producing four goblets of equal excellence from Tvashtar's. Thereupon
they appear before the gods who, "with insight," test their works. Tvashtar
himself could not help being astounded when he saw the goblets. But the
result of the test by the gods, and the judgment passed on the art-works of
the Ribhus, were fraught with danger for the future. Both Tvashtar and the
Ribhus became dissatisfied. Tvashtar abandoned the gods and betook himself
to the mountains with the dises of vegetation, in whose company he is often
mentioned. The Ribhus refused to accept from the gods the proffered share in
morning and noon sacrifices, and went away cursing their adversaries. They
proceeded on long journeys, and the gods knew not where to find them (Rigv.,
i. 161, 1-13; iv. 33, 1-11, &c.).

The result of this trouble between the primeval artists themselves, and
between them and the gods, becomes clear from the significance which
Tvashtar, he who nourishes the world, and the Ribhus, they who deck the
deserts with vegetation, and irrigate the valleys, have as symbols of
nature. The beneficent powers of nature, who hitherto had operated in the
service of the gods, abandon their work, and over the world are spread that
winter of which the Iranian mythology speaks, that darkness, and that reign
of giant-monsters which, according to Rigveda, once prevailed, and during
which time Indra, at the head of the gods, fought valiantly to restore order
and to bring back the sun.

Here we find remarkable points of contact, or rather contact surfaces,
between the Asiatic-Aryan groups of myths and the Teutonic. The question is
not as to similarity in special details. That kind of similarities may be
pointed out in nearly all mythic groups in the world, and, as a rule,
altogether too bold hypotheses are built on the feeble foundations they
offer. The question here is in regard to identity in great, central,
connected collections of myths. Such are: The myths concerning an original
harmony between a divine clan on the one hand, and artists subordinate to,
and in the service of, the divine clan on the other band. Artists who
produce fertility, ornaments, and weapons for the gods, know how to brew the
strength- and inspiration-giving mead, and are closely connected with dises
of vegetation, who, as we shall show, appear as swan-maids, not only in the
Teutonic mythology but also in the Hinduic; the myths telling how this
harmony was frustrated by a judgment in a competition, the contending
parties being on the one hand he who in the Hinduic mythology made Indra's
thunderbolt, and in the Teutonic Thor's thundering Mjolnir; and on the other
hand three brothers, of whom one is an excellent archer; the myths
concerning the consequences of the judgment, the destruction of nature by
frost-powers and giant-monsters; the myths (in the Iranian and Teutonic
records of antiquity) concerning the subterranean paradise, in which a
selection of the best beings of creation are protected against annihilation,
and continue to live uncorrupted through centuries; the myths (in the
Iranian and Teutonic records of antiquity) of the destiny of these beings,
connected with the myths likewise common to the Iranian and Teutonic
mythologies concerning the destruction and regeneration of the world. Common
to the Hinduic and Teutonic mythology is also the idea that a cunning,
spying being, in Rigveda Dadhyak (Dadhyank), in the Icelandic sources Loki,
has lost his head to an artist who smithied the bolt for Indra and the
hammer for Thor, but saves his wager through cunning.

An important observation should here be pointed out. A comparison between
different passages in Rigveda shows, that of all the remarkable works of art
which were exhibited to the gods for their examination, there was originally
not one of metal. Tvashtar's goblet was not made of gold, but of fire and
water and a third element. Indra's thunderbolt was made of the bones of the
head of Dadhyak's horse, and it is in a later tradition that it becomes
bronze. Common to the Aryan-Asiatic and the Teutonic mythology is the
ability of the primeval artists to make animals from empty skins of beasts,
and of making from one work of art several similar ones (the goblet of the
Ribhus, Sindri's Draupnir). In the Teutonic mythology, Thor's hammer was not
originally of metal, but of stone, and the other works produced by Sindri
and Ivaldi's sons may in the course of centuries have undergone similar
changes. It should also be noted that not a trace is to be found in the
Asiatic groups of myths of a single one to be compared with that concerning
Svipdag and the sword of victory. In the Teutonic heroic saga, Geirvandil,
the spear-hero, is the father of Orvandil, the archer, and of him is born
Svipdag, the sword-hero (cp. No. 123). The myth concerning the sword of
victory seems to be purely Teutonic, and to have sprung into existence
during one of the bronze or iron ages, while the myths concerning the
judgment passed on the primeval artists, and concerning the fimbul-winter
following, must hail from a time when metals were not yet used by the
Aryans. In the other event it would be most incredible to suppose that the
judgment should concern works of art, of which not a single one originally
suggested a product of metal.