CHAPTER 111. 



THE OTTER IN LITERATURE 

 AND ART. 



The earliest reference to an Otter in European 

 literature is contained in the Second Lay of Sigurd 

 Fafnisbana, in the Heroic part of the Poetic Edda, 

 where Odin, Loki, and Hoenir come upon an Otter 

 eating a fine salmon, which it has just killed, and 

 slay it. This is Otr, the son of Hreidmar, to whom 

 the ^sir show the skin : being condemned as punish- 

 ment to fill and cover it with red gold. 



^sop and Phgedrus make no mention of the Otter 

 in their fables, though the characteristics of most 

 other beasts are faithfully depicted there. It is fair, 

 therefore, to surmise that the shy and retiring habits 

 of the Otter are responsible for the ignorance of his 

 doings which has prevented him from figuring in the 

 pages of the early fabulists, as, indeed, from mention 

 by those of later date — La Fontaine and Gay. The 

 latter, as a Devonshireman, should have known 

 something of his existence at least, though evidently 

 not enough about his peculiar characteristics to found 



