A Glass Mountain occurs in the Younger Titurel (Str. 6177) also in other stories, viz. in Snow-White (No. 53), in the Raven (No. 93), in the Iron Stove (127). King Arthur dwells with Morgan le fay, on the Glass island, and it is easy to trace a connection not in words alone, with the Norse Gläsiswoll. In Scotland, walls are still to be found covered as it were with glass (vitrified forts), see Archæologia Britan. 4. 242. Saemundar Edda, 2. see 879, Notes.
When the little sister reaches the end of the world, we may compare the observations in the Scottish version of the Frog King (No. 1). Fortunatus also travels until at last he can go no farther, with reference to which Nyerup (Morskabsläsning, p. 161) quotes the following song,
"gamle Sole ligge der[1]
og forslidte Maaners Här,
hvoraf Stjerner klippes."
With this should be compared a song in the Wunderhorn, 1; 300. In the Younger Titurel it is said,
"swer an der erden ende[2]
so tiefe sich geneiget,
der vindet sunder wende
daz er Antarticum wol vingerzeiget 4748."
Wolfram speaks of a land,
"daz sô nâh der erden orte liget,[3]
dâ nieman fūrbaz bûwes pfliget,
und dâ der tagesterne ûf gêt
sô nâh, swer dâ ze fuoze stêt
in dunct daz er wol reichte dran."
Willehalm, 35, 5–9.
Vossius, in his Abhandlung über die alte Weltkunde, gives the following fragments. "The Spinning-girls tell of a young tailor's apprentice who travelled farther and farther, and after manifold adventures with griffins, enchanted princesses, wizard-dwarfs, and fierce mountain-piling giants at last reached the end of the world. He did not find it as it is commonly supposed to be, all boarded up with planks, through the seams of which one sees the holy angels busily engaged in brewing storms, forging lightning, and working
- ↑ Old suns are lying there, and a host of waned moons, out of which stars are cut.
- ↑ Whosoever bends down deep enough at the world's end, will find that without turning round, he points his finger to the Antarctic (regions).
- ↑ That lies so near the end of the earth that no one takes thought for building, and where the morning star rises so near that whoever sets foot there fancies he can almost touch it.
