Scandinavia. I forbear to accumulate a pedantic parade of authorities on this occasion: nor can it be expected that I should enter into a formal and exact examination of this obscure and complicated subject in its full extent, which is here only introduced incidentally. I will only add, that Scotland and Ireland, as being situated more to the north, and probably less difficult of access than Britain, might have been objects on which our northern adventurers were invited to try some of their earliest excursions: and that the Orkney-islands remained long under the jurisdiction of the Norwegian potentates.

In these expeditions, the northern emigrants, as we shall prove more particularly below, were undoubtedly attended by their scalds or poets. Yet even in times of peace, and without the supposition of conquest or invasion, the Scandinavian scalds might have been well known in the British islands. Possessed of a specious and pleasing talent, they frequented the courts of the British, Scottish, and Irish chieftains. They 3 were itinerants by their institution, and made voyages, out of curiosity, or in quest of rewards, to those islands or coasts which lay within the circle of their maritime knowledge. By these means, they established an interest, rendered their profession popular, propagated their art, and circulated their fictions, in other countries, and at a distance from home. Torfæus asserts positively, that various Islandic odes now remain, which were sung by the Scandinavian bards before the kings of England and Ireland, and for which they received liberal gratuities'. They were more especially caressed and rewarded at

It is conjectured by Wormius, that Ireland is derived from the Runic Yr, a bow, for the use of which the Irish were once famous. Lit. Run. c. xvii. p. 92. The Asiatics near the lake Mæotis, from which Odin led his colony in Europe, were celebrated archers. Hence Hercules in Theocritus, Idyll. xiii. 56.

-Μαιωτισι λαβων ευκαπμία τόξα. Compare Salmas. de Hellen. p. 369. And Flahert. Ogyg. Part. iii. cap. xviii. p. 188. edit. 1685. Stillingfleet's Orig. Brit. Præf. p. xxxviii.

[The Celtic population of Ireland pre

cedes the period of legitimate history. Their migration to Scotland has been referred with great probability to the earlier part of the fourth century. But the origin of the Picts, their language, the etymology "of the names of places and persons over that part of Scotland which they inhabited," is a subject which divides the opinions of Scottish antiquaries. See Mr. Chalmers's Caledonia, and Dr. Jamieson's Etymological Scottish Dictionary (Introduction).—EDIT.]

Torf. Hist. Orcad. in Præfat. [See the Sagas of Egill, and Gunnlaug Ormstunga.-EDIT.]

the courts of those princes, who were distinguished for their warlike character, and their passion for military glory.

Olaus Wormius informs us, that great numbers of the northern scalds constantly resided in the courts of the kings of Sweden, Denmark, and England. Hence the tradition in an antient Islandic Saga, or poetical history, may be explained; which says, that Odin's language was originally used, not only in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, but even in England'. Indeed it may be naturally concluded from these suggestions, that the Scandinavian tongue became familiar in the British islands by the songs of the scalds: unless it be rather presumed, that a previous knowledge of that tongue in Britain was the means of facilitating the admission of those poets, and preparing the way for their reception.

And here it will be much to our present argument to observe, that some of the old Gothic and Scandinavian superstitions are to this day retained in the English language. Mara, from whence our Night-mare is derived, was in the Runic theology a spirit or spectre of the night, which seized men in their sleep, and suddenly deprived them of speech and motion". NICKA was the Gothic demon who inhabited the element of water, and who strangled persons that were drowning". Boн was one of the most fierce and formidable of the Gothic generals*, and the son of Odin: the mention of whose name was sufficient to spread an immediate panic among his enemies'.

Lit. Dan. p. 195. ed. 4to. t Bartholin. iii. 2. p. 651. It was a constant old British tradition, that king Arthur conquered Ireland, Gothland, Denmark, and Norway. See Galfrid. Monum. ix. 11. Rob. of Glouc. ed. Hearne, p. 180. 182. What is said in the text must have greatly facilitated the Saxon and Danish conquests in England. The works of the genuine Cadmon are written in the language of the antient Angles, who were nearly connected with the Jutes. Hence that language resembled the antient Danish, as appears from passages of Cadmon cited by Wanley. Hence also it happened, that the later Dano-Saxonic dialect, in which Junius's POETICAL PARAPHRASE OF GENESIS was written, is likewise so very similar to the

language of the antient Angles, who settled in the more northern parts of England. And in this dialect, which indeed prevailed in some degree almost over all England, many other poems are composed, mentioned likewise in Wanley's Catalogue. [See the Preface to this edition.-EDIT.] It is the constant doctrine of the Danish historians, that the Danes and Angles, whose successors gave the name to this island, had the same origin.

See Keysler, Antiquitat. Sel. Septentrional. p. 497. edit. 1720.

The fictions of Odin and of his Scandinavians, must have taken still deeper root in the British islands, at least in England, from the Saxon and Danish invasions.

That the tales of the Scandinavian scalds flourished among

Κήρυκες δ' ἄρα λαὸν ἐρήτυον· οἱ δὲ γέροντες
Εἵατ' ἐπὶ ξεστοῖσι λίθοις, ἱερῷ ἐνὶ κύκλῳ.
Il. xviii. 503.

These "sacred circles" in the North were not only used as places of public assembly, but were the scenes of all judicial proceedings. From a passage in the 67th chapter of Egills-Saga, there is reason to believe, that they were also made the theatres of the "trial by battle." The Irish antiquaries consider them to have been places of public worship. "Magh-Adhair, a plain of adoration, where an open temple consisting of a circle of tall straight stone pillars with a very large flat stone called Crom-leac, serving for an altar, constructed by the Druids and similar to that in Exodus xxiv. "And Moses...... builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel." O'Brian in voc.-EDIT.] Geoffrey of Monmouth affords instances in his

the Saxons, who succeeded to the Britons, and became possessors of England in the sixth century, may be justly presumed. The Saxons were originally seated in the Cimbric Chersonese, or those territories which have been since called Jutland, Angelen, and Holstein; and were fond of tracing the descent of their princes from Odin'. They were therefore a part of the Scandinavian tribes. They imported with them into England the old Runic language and letters. This appears from inscriptions on coins", stones, and other monuments; and from some of their manuscripts". It is well known that Runic inscriptions have been discovered in Cumberland and Scotland: and that there is even extant a coin of king Offa, with a Runic legend. But the conversion of the Saxons to christianity, which happened before the seventh century, entirely banished the common use of those characters, which were esteemed unhallowed and necromantic; and with their antient superstitions, which yet prevailed for some time in the popular

British History. The knights sent into Wales by Fitzhammon, in 1091, were TWELVE. Powel, p. 124. sub anno. See also an instance in Du Carell, AngloNorman ANTIQ. p. 9. It is probable that Charlemagne formed his TWELVE PEERS on this principle. From whom Spenser evidently took his TWELVE KNIGHTS.

[In the poem of Beowulf twolf wintra tid,' the time of twelve winters, is evidently a mere epic form of expression to denote an indefinite period. It is like the forty days of the Hebrews, the iuag of the Iliad, the eleven of Piers Plowman. This number therefore ought not to be interpreted too literally, unless supported by the context.-EDIT.]

"Ex vetustioribus poetis Cimbrorum, nempe Scaldis et Theotiscæ gentis versificatoribus, plane multa, ut par est credere, sumpsere." Hickes. Thesaur. i. p. 101. See p. 117.

a See Gibson's Chron. Saxon. p. 12. seq. Historians mention WODEN'S BEORTH, i. e. Woden's hill, in Wiltshire. See Milton, Hist. Engl. An. 588. b See Sir A. Fountaine's Pref. Saxon Money. OFFA. REX. Sc. BOTRED MONETARIUS, &c. See also Serenii Diction.

Anglo-Suecico-Latin. Præf. pag. 21.

See Hickes's Thesaur. BAPTISTERIUM BRIDEKIRKENSE. Par. iii. p. 4. Tab.ii. SAXUM REVELLENSE apud Scotos. Ibid. Tab. iv. pag. 5.-CRUX LAPIDEA apud Beaucastle. Wanley Catal. MSS. Anglo-Sax. pag. 248. ad calc. Hickes. Thesaur. ANNULUS AUREUS. Drake's York, Append. p. 102. Tab. N. 26. And Gordon's Itin. Septentr. p. 168.

d See Hickes's Thesaur. Par. i. page 135. 136. 148. Par. iii. Tab. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. It may be conjectured, that these characters were introduced by the Danes. It. is certain that they never grew into common use. They were at least inconvenient, as consisting of capitals. We have no remains of Saxon writing so old as the sixth century. Nor are there any of the seventh, except a very few charters. [Bibl. Bodl. NE. D. 11. 19. seq.] See Hickes's Thesaur. Par. i. page 169. See also CHARTA ODILREDI AD MONASTE RIUM DE BERKING. Tab. i. Casley's Cat. Bibl. Reg. In the British Museum. e See ARCHEOL. vol. ii. p. 131. A.D. 1778. 4to.

f But see Hickes, ubi supr. i. p. 140.

belief, abolished in some measure their native and original vein of poetic fablings. They suddenly became a mild and polished people, addicted to the arts of peace, and the exercise of devotion; and the poems they have left us are chiefly moral rhapsodies, scriptural histories or religious invocations". Yet even in these pieces they have frequent allusions to the old scaldic fables and heroes. Thus, in an Anglo-Saxon poem on Judith, Holofernes is called BALDER, or leader and prince of warriors. And in a poetical paraphrase on Genesis, Abimelech has the same appellation. This Balder was a famous chieftain of the Asiatic Goths, the son of Odin, and supposed to inhabit a magnificent hall in the future place of rewards. The same AngloSaxon paraphrast, in his prosopopœia of Satan addressing his companions plunged in the infernal abyss, adopts many images and expressions used in the very sublime description of the Eddic hell: Henry of Huntingdon1 complains of certain extraneous words and uncommon figures of speech, in a Saxon ode on a victory of king Athelstan. These were all scaldic expressions or allusions. But I will give a literal English translation of this poem, which cannot be well understood without premising its occasion. In the year 938, Anlaff*, a pagan

It has been suggested to me by an ingenious friend, that Guy and Sir BEVIS, the first of which lived in the reign of Athelstan, and the latter, as some suppose, in that of Edgar, both christian champions against the pagan Danes, were originally subjects of the genuine Saxon bards. But I rather think, they began to be celebrated in or after the crusades; the nature of which expeditions dictated to the romance-writers, and brought into vogue, stories of christians fighting with infidel heroes. The cause was the same, and the circumstances partly parallel; and this being once the fashion, they consulted their own histories for heroes, and combats were feigned with Danish giants, as well as with the Saracen. See infr. SECT. iii. p. 145. 146. 147. There is the story of BEVIS in British, YSTORI BOUN O HAMTUN. Lhuyd's Arch. Brit. p. 264.

Except an ode on Athelstan, trans

lated below. See SECT. i. p. 2. See also the description of the city of Durham. Hickes, p. 179. It has nothing of the wild strain of poetry. The saints and relics of Durham church seem to have struck the poet most, in describing that city. I cannot discern the supposed sublimity of those mysterious dithyrambics, which close the Saxon MENOLOGE, or poetic calendar, written about the tenth century, printed by Hickes, Gramm. Anglo-Sax. p. 207. They seem to be prophecies and proverbs; or rather, splendid fragments from different poems, thrown together without connection.

iSee Hickes. Thesaur. i. p. 10. Who adds many more instances.

* Fab. xlix. See Hickes, ubi supr. p. 116.

1 Who has greatly misrepresented the sense by a bad Latin translation. Hist. lib. v. p. 203.

* [See Mr. Turner's History of the