FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[1]The mark on Adam's Peak in Ceylon is, by the Buddhists, ascribed to Buddha; by the Mohammedans, to Adam. It reminds one of the story of the lady and the vicar, viewing the moon through a telescope; they saw in it, as they thought, two figures inclined toward each other: "Methinks," says the lady, "they are two fond lovers, meeting to pour forth their vows by earth-light." "Not at all," says the vicar, taking his turn at the glass; "they are the steeples of two neighbouring churches."[2]Faerie Queene, III. c. iii. st. 8, 9, 10, 11. Drayton, Poly-Olbion, Song VI. We fear, however, that there is only poetic authority for this belief. Mr. Todd merely quotes Warton, who says that Spenser borrowed it from Giraldus Cambrensis, who picked it up among the romantic traditions propagated by the Welsh bards. The reader will be, perhaps, surprised to hear that Giraldus says nothing of the demons. He mentions the sounds, and endeavours to explain them by natural causes. Hollingshed indeed (l. i. c. 24.) says, "whereof the superstitious sort do gather many toys."[3]The Haddock.[4]For a well-chosen collection of examples, see the very learned and philosophical preface of the late Mr. Price to his edition of Warton's History of English Poetry, p. 28et seq.[5]In the Middle Ages the gods of the heathens were all held to be devils.[6]Φηρ is the Ionic form of θηρ, and is nearly related to the Germanthier, beast, animal. The Scandinaviandyr, and the Anglo-Saxonold english deoold english r,have the same signification; and it is curious to observe the restricted sense which this last has gotten in the Englishdeer.[7]Preface to Warton, p. 44; and Breton philologists furnish us with an etymon; not, indeed, of Fairy, but of Fada. "Fada, fata, etc.," says M. de Cambry (Monumens Celtiques), "come from the Bretonmatormad, in constructionfat, good; whence the English,maid."[8]D'HerbelottitreMergian says, "C'est du nom de cette Fée que nos anciens romans ont formé celui deMorgante la Déconnue." He here confounds Morgana with Urganda, and he has been followed in his mistake. D'Herbelot also thinks it possible thatFéeriemay come fromPeri; but he regards the common derivation fromFataas much more probable. Cambrian etymologists, by the way, say that Morgain is Mor Gwynn, theWhite Maid.[9]These two instances are given by Mdlle. Amélie Bosquet (La Normandie Romanesque, etc. p. 91.) from Dom Martin,Rel. des Gaulois, ii. ch. 23 and 24.[10]Gryphus ternarii numeri.[11]De Bell. Got. i. 25.[12]See below,France. It is also remarked that in some of the tales of the Pentamerone, the number of theFateis three; but to this it may be replied, that in Italy every thing took a classic tinge, and that the Fate of those tales are only Maghe; so in the Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso we meet with LaFataUrganda. In Spain and France the number would rather seem to have been seven. Cervantes speaks of "los siete castillos de lassietefadas;" in the Rom. de la Infantina it is said, "sietefadas mefadaron, en brazos de una ama mia," and theFéesaresevenin La Belle au Bois dormant. In the romance, however, of Guillaume au Court-nez, theFéeswho carry the sleeping Renoart out of the boat arethreein number.—See Grimm Deutsche Mythologie, p. 383.[13]A MS. of the 13th century, quoted by Grimm (ut sup.p. 405), thus relates the origin of Aquisgrani (Aix la Chapelle): Aquisgrani dicitur Ays, et dicitur eo, quod Karolus tenebat ibi quandammulierem fatatam, sive quandamfatam, quæ alio nominenimphaveldeaveladriades(l.dryas) appellatur, et ad hanc consuetudinem habebat, et eam cognoscebat; et ita erat, quod ipso accedente ad eam vivebat ipsa, ipso Karolo recedente moriebatur. Contigit dum quadam vice ad ipsam accessisset ut cum ea delectaretur, radius solis intravit os ejus, et tunc Karolus viditgranum aurilingue ejus affixum, quod fecit abscindi et contingenti (l. in continenti) mortua est, nec postea revixit.[14]"Aissimfadarotres serorsEn aquella ora qu' ieu sui natzQue totz temps fos enamoratz."—Folquet de Romans.(Thus three sistersfated, in the hour that I was born, that I should be at all times in love.)"Aissi fuy de nueitzfadatzsobr' un puegau."—Guilh. de Poitou.(Thus was Ifatedby night on a hill.)—Grimm,ut sup.p. 383.[15]See our Virgil, Excurs. ix.[16]Following the analogy of the Gotho-German tongues,zauberei, Germ.trylleri, Dan.trolleri, Swed. illusion, enchantment. The Italian word isfattucchieria.[17]Here too there isperhapsan analogy withcavalry,infantry,squierie, and similar collective terms.[18]The Faerie Queene was published some years before the Midsummer Night's Dream. Warton (Obs. on the Faerie Queene) observes: "It appears from Marston's Satires, printed 1598, that the Faerie Queene occasioned many publications in which Fairies were the principal actors.Go buy some ballad of theFaery King.—Ad Lectorem.Out steps some Faery with quick motion,And tells him wonders of some flowerie vale—Awakes, straight rubs his eyes, and prints his tale.B. III. Sat. 6."[19]It is in this century that we first meet withFairyas a dissyllable, and with a plural. It is then used in its fourth and last sense.[20]The Fata Morgana of the Straits of Messina is an example; for the name of Morgana, whencesoever derived, was probably brought into Italy by the poets.[21]Dobenek, des deutschen Mittelalters und Volksglauben. Berlin, 1816.[22]See D'Herbelot, Richardson's Dissertation, Ouseley's Persian Miscellanies, Wahl in the Mines de l'Orient, Lane, Thousand and One Nights, Forbes, Hatim Taï, etc., etc.[23]Ormuzd employed himself for three thousand years in making the heavens and their celestial inhabitants, the Ferohers, which are the angels and the unembodied souls of all intelligent beings. All nature is filled with Ferohers, or guardian angels, who watch over its various departments, and are occupied in performing their various tasks for the benefit of mankind.—Erskine on the Sacred Books and Religion of the Parsis, in the Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, vol. ii. p. 318. The Feroher bears in fact a very strong resemblance to the Genius of the ancient Roman religion: see our Mythology of Greece and Italy.[24]This word is pronouncedPerryor ratherParry.[25]Sanskrit writingHence it follows that the very plausible idea of the Peri having been the same with the Feroher cannot be correct.[26]Translated by Mr. Duncan Forbes. It is to be regretted that he has employed the terms Fairies and Demons instead of Peries and Deevs.[27]See Lane, Thousand and One Nights, i. p. 21,seq.[28]The Cahermân Nâmeh is a romance in Turkish. Cahermân was the father of Sâm, the grandfather of the celebrated Roostem.[29]It is in the Cahermân Nâmeh that this circumstance occurs.[30]Sanskrit writingThe Tahmuras Nâmeh is also in Turkish. It and the Cahermân Nâmeh are probably translations from the Persian. As far as we are aware, Richardson is the only orientalist who mentions these two romances.[31]Sanskrit writingIt signifies 'thirty birds' and is thought to be the roc of the Arabs. The poet Sâdee, to express the bounty of the Almighty saysSanksrit writingHis liberal board he spreadeth out so wide,On Kâf the Seemurgh is with food supplied.The Seemurgh probably belongs to the original mythology of Persia, for she appears in the early part of the Shâh Nâmeh. When Zâl was born to Sâm Nerimân, his hair proved to be white. The father regarding this as a proof of Deev origin, resolved to expose him, and sent him for that purpose to Mount Elburz. Here the poor babe lay crying and sucking his fingers till he was found by the Seemurgh, who abode on the summit of Elburz, as she was looking for food for her young ones. But God put pity into her heart, and she took him to her nest and reared him with her young. As he grew up, the caravans that passed by, spread the fame of his beauty and his strength, and a vision having informed Sâm that he was his son, he set out for Elburz to claim him from the Seemurgh. It was with grief that Zâl quitted the maternal nest. The Seemurgh, when parting with her foster-son, gave him one of her feathers, and bade him, whenever he should be in trouble or danger, to cast it into the fire, and he would have proof of her power; and she charged him at the same time strictly never to forget his nurse.[32]SeeArabian Romance.[33]Sanskrit writinga pearl. Life, soul also, according to Wilkins.[34]Ferdousee's great heroic poem. It is remarkable that the Peries are very rarely spoken of in this poem. They merely appear in it with the birds and beasts among the subjects of the first Iranian monarchs.[35]Chap. xx. translation of Jonathan Scott, 1799.[36]See below,Shetland.[37]i. e.possessed, insane. It is like the νυμφοληπτος of the Greeks.[38]It must be recollected that the Peries are of both sexes: we have just spoken of Perikings, and of thebrothersof Merjân.[39]In the Shâh Nâmeh it is said of Prince Siyawush, that when he was born he wasbright as a Peri. We find the poets everywhere comparing female beauty to that of superior beings. The Greeks and Romans compared a lovely woman to Venus, Diana, or the nymphs; the Persians to a Peri; the ancient Scandinavians would say she was Frith sem Alfkone, "fair as an Alf-woman;" and an Anglo-Saxon poet says of Judith that she wasElf-sheen, or fair as an Elf. In the Lay of Gugemer it is said,Dedenz la Dame unt trovéeKi de biauté resanbloitFée.The same expression occurs in Méon (3, 412); and in the Romant de la Rose we meet,jure que plus belle est que fée(10, 425). In the Pentamerone it is said of a king's son,lo quale essenno bello comme a no fato.[40]Mines de l'Orient, vol. iii. p. 40. To make his version completely English, M. von Hammer uses the word Fairies; we have ventured to change it.[41]In Purchas' Pilgrims, vol. i., quoted by Sir W. Ouseley.[42]Compare Antar and the Suspended Poems (translated by Sir W. Jones) with the later Arabic works. Antar, though written by Asmai the court-poet of Haroon-er-Rasheed, gives the manners and ideas of the Arabs of the Desert.[43]The Jinn are mentioned in the Kurân and also in Antar.[44]See Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 37,seq.Lane, Thousand and One Nights,passim.[45]Genius and Jinn, like Fairy and Peri, is a curious coincidence. The Arabian Jinnee bears no resemblance whatever to the Roman Genius.[46]"When we said unto the Angels, Worship ye Adam, and they worshiped except Iblees (who) was of the Jinn."—Kurân. chap. xviii. v. 48. Worship is here prostration. The reply of Iblees was, "Thou hast createdmeof fire, and hast createdhimof earth."—Ib.vii. 11; xxxviii. 77.[47]It was the belief of the Irish peasantry, that whirlwinds of dust on the roads were raised by the Fairies, who were then on a journey. On such occasions, unlike the Arabs, they used to raise their hats and say, "God speed you, gentlemen!" For the power of iron, seeScandinavia.[48]The Arabs when they pour water on the ground, let down a bucket into a well, enter a bath, etc., say, "Permission!" (Destoor!) or, Permission, ye blessed! (Destoor, yâ mubârakeen!)[49]For the preceding account of the Jinn, we are wholly indebted to Lane's valuable translation of the Thousand and One Nights, i. 30,seq.[50]The first is given by Lane, the other two by D'Herbelot.[51]On the subjects mentioned in this paragraph, see Tales and Popular Fictions, chap. ii. and iii.[52]In the Amadigi of B. Tasso, she is La Fata Urganda.[53]Lancelot is regarded as probably the earliest prose romance of chivalry. It was first printed in 1494. The metrical romance called La Charrette, of which Lancelot is the hero, was begun by Chrestien de Troyes, who died in 1191, and finished by Geoffrey de Ligny. We may here observe that almost all the French romances of chivalry were written originally in verse in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, principally by Chrestien de Troyes and Huon de Villeneuve. The prose romances in general were made from them in the fifteenth century.[54]For while it was in hand, by loving of an elf,For all his wondrous skill was cozened of himself:For walking with his Fay, her to the rock he brought,In which he oft before his nigromancies wrought.And going in thereat, his magics to have shown,She stopt the cavern's mouth with an enchanted stone,Whose cunning strongly crossed, amazed while he did stand,She captive him conveyed unto the Fairy-land.Drayton,Poly-Olb.Song IV.—See above, p.2.[55]La damoiselle qui Lancelot porta au lac estoit unefée, et en cellui temps estoient appelléesfeestoutes celles qui sentremcloient denchantements et de charmes, et moult en estoit pour lors principallement en la Grand Bretaigne, et savoient la force et la vertu des parolles, des pierres, et des herbes, parquoi elles estoient en jeunesse, et en beaulte, et en grandes richesses, comment elles divisoient.[56]La dame qui le nourissoit ne conversoit que en forest, et estoit au plain de ung tertre plus bas assez que celui ou le roy Ban estoit mort: en ce lieu ou il sembloit que le bois fust grant et parfont (profond) avoit la dame moult de belles maisons et moult riches; et au plain dessoubs y avoit une gente petite riviere moult plantureuse de poissons; et estoit ce lieu si cele et secret que bien difficille estoit a homme de le trouver, car la semblance du dit lac le couvroit si que il ne pouvoit estre apperceu. And farther, La damoiselle nestoit mie seulle, mais y avoit grande compaignie de chevaliers et de dames et damoiselles.[57]Vol. i. ch. 42.[58]Vol. iii. ch. 31.[59]Tristan was written in verse by Chrestien de Troyes. The prose romance was first printed in 1489.[60]Parthenopex was written in French in the twelfth century, according to Le Grand; in the thirteenth, according to Roquefort.[61]Composed—for to call it, with Ellis, Ritson, and others, a translation, would be absurd. How Ellis, who had at least read Le Grand's and Way's Fabliaux, could say of Chestre, that he "seems to have given afaithfulas well as spirited version of this old Breton story," is surprising. It is in fact no translation, but a poem on the adventures of Sir Launfal, founded chiefly on the Lais de Lanval and de Graelent, in Marie de France, with considerable additions of Chestre's own invention, or derived from other sources. These Lais will be considered under Brittany.[62]Thus we ourselves saythe Príncess Royal, éxtreme need, etc. This, by the way, is the cause why the Greeks put a grave and not an acute accent on words accented on the last syllable, to show that it is easily moveable.[63]As this seems to be one of the lost arts, we will here and elsewhere mark the feminineeand the change of accent.[64]Rode—complexion; fromred.[65]Occient—occidentorocéan? The Gascon peasantry call the Bay of BiscayLa Mer d'Occient. The Spaniards sayMar Oceano.[66]It is strange to find the English poet changing the Avalon of the Lai de Lanval into the well-known island of Oléron. It is rather strange too, that Mr. Ritson, who has a note on "Oliroun," did not notice this.[67]The Lai ends thus:Od (avec) li sen vait en Avalun,Ceo nus recuntent le Bretun;En une isle que mut est beaus,La fut ravi li dameiseaus,Nul humme nen ot plus parler,Ne jeo nen sai avant cunter.In Graelent it is said that the horse of the knight used to return annually to the river where he lost his master. The rest is Thomas Chestre's own, taken probably from the well-known story in Gervase of Tilbury.[68]Huon, Hue, or Hullin (for he is called by these three names in the poetic romance) is, there can be little doubt, the same person with Yon king of Bordeaux in the Quatre Filz Aymon, another composition of Huon de Villeneuve, and with Lo Re Ivone, prince or duke of Guienne in Bojardo and Ariosto. See the Orl. Inn. l. i. c. iv. st. 46. I Cinque Canti, c. v. st. 42.[69]Otnit was supposed to have been written by Wolfram von Eschembach, in the early part of the thirteenth century. It is possibly much older. Huon de Bordeaux was, it is said, written in French verse by Huon de Villeneuve, some time in the same century. It does not appear in the list of Huon de Villeneuve's works given by Mons. de Roquefort. At the end of the prose romance we are told that it was written at the desire of Charles seigneur de Rochefort, and completed on the 29th of January, 1454.[70]Qui a de long seizes lieues, mais tant est plain de faerie et chose estrange que peu de gens y passent qui n'y soient perdus ou arrestez, pour ce que la dedans demeure un roi, Oberon le fayé. Il n'a que trois pieds de hauteur; il est tout bossu; mais il a un visage angelique; il n'est homme mortel que le voye que plaisir ne prengne a le regarder tant a beau visage. Ja si tost ne serez entrez au bois se par la voulez passer qu'il ne trouve maniere de parler a vous, si ainsi que a luy parliez perdu estus a tousjours sans jamais plus revenir; ne il ne sera en vous, car se par le bois passez, soit de long ou de travers, vous le trouverez tousjours au devant de vous, et vous sera impossible que eschappiez nullement que ne parliez a luy, car ses parolles sont tant plaisantes a ouyr qu'il n'est homme mortel qui de luy se puisse eschapper. Et se chose est qu'il voye que nullement ne vueillez parler a luy, il sera moult troublé envers vous. Car avant que du bois soyez parti vous fera pleuvoir, ventrer, gresiller, et faire si tres-mervueilleux orages, tonnerres, et esclairs, que advis vous sera que le monde doive finir. Puis vous sera advis que par devant vous verrez une grande riviere courante, noire et parfonde a grand merveilles; mais sachez, sire, que bien y pourrez aller sans mouiller les pieds de vostre cheval, car ce n'est que fantosme et enchantemens que le nain vous fera pour vous cuider avoir avec lui, et se chose est que bien tenez propos en vous de non parler a luy, bien pourrez eschapper, etc.[71]Le Nain Fee s'en vint chevauchant par le bois, et estoit vestu d'une robbe si tres-belle et riche, que merveilles sera ce racompter pour la grand et merveilleuse richesse que dessus estoit, car tant y avoit de pierres precieuses, que la grand clarté qu'elles jettoient estoit pareille au soleil quant il luit bien clair. Et avec ce portoit un moult bel arc en son poing, tant riche que on ne le sauroit estimer tant estoit beau. Et la fleche qu'il portoit est it de telle sorte et maniere, qu'il n'estoit beste au monde qu'il vousist souhaiter qu'a ieelle fleche elle ne s'arrestast. Il avoit a son cou un riche cor, lequel estoit pendu a deux riches attaches de fin or.[72]This sort of transformation appears to have been a usual mode of punishing in a Fairy land. It may have come from Circe, but the Thousand and One Nights is full of such transformations. Forluytonorlutin, see below,France.[73]We are only acquainted with this romance through Mr. Dunlop's analysis.[74]Avalon was perhaps the Island of the Blest, of Celtic mythology, and then the abode of the Fees, through the Breton Korrigan. Writers, however, seem to be unanimous in regarding it and Glastonbury as the same place, called an isle, it is stated, as being made nearly such by the "river's embracement." It was named Avalon, we are told, from the British wordAval, an apple, as it abounded with orchards; andYnys gwydrin; SaxonGlaold english sold english tn-ey,glassy isle; Latin, Glastonia, from the green hue of the water surrounding it.[75]See Tales and Popular Fictions, ch. ix., for a further account of Ogier.[76]Tant nagea en mer qu'il arriva pres du chastel daymant quon nomme le chasteau davallon, qui nest gueres deca paradis terrestre la ou furent ravis en une raye de feu Enoc et Helye, et la ou estoit Morgue la faye, qui a sa naissance lui avoit donne de grands dons, nobles et vertueux.[77]Dieu te mande que si tost que sera nuit que tu ailles en ung chasteau que tu verras luire, et passe de bateau en bateau tant que tu soies en une isle que tu trouveras. Et quand tu seras en lisle tu trouveras une petite sente, et de chose que tu voies leans ne tesbahis de rien. Et adone Ogier regarda mais il ne vit rien.[78]Lequel estoit luiton, et avoit este ung grant prince; mais le roi Artus le conquist, si fust condampne a estre trois cens ans cheval sans parler ung tou seul mot; mais apres les trois cens ans, il devoit avoir la couronue de joye de laquelle ils usuient en faerie.[79]Et quand Morgue approcha du dit chasteau, les Faes vindrent au devant dogier, chantant le plus melodieusement quon scauroit jamais ouir, si entra dedans la salle pour se deduire totallement. Adonc vist plusieurs dames Faees aournees et toutes courronnees de couronnes tressomptueusement faictes, et moult riches, et tout jour chantoient, dansoient, et menoient vie tresjoyeuse, sans penser a nulle quelconque meschante chose, fors prandre leurs mondains plaisirs.[80]Tant de joyeulx passetemps lui faisoient les dames Faees, quil nest creature en ce monde quil le sceust imaginer ne penser, car les ouir si doulcement chanter il lui sembloit proprement quil fut en Paradis, si passoit temps de jour en jour, de sepmaine en sepmaine, tellement que ung an ne lui duroit pas ung mois.[81]Et quand ils furent tous deux montes, toutes les dames du chasteau vindrent a la departie dogier, par le commandement du roi Artus et de Morgue la fae, et sonnerent une aubade dinstrumens, la plus melodieuse chose a ouir que on entendit jamais; puis, l'aubade achevee, chanterent de gorge si melodieusement que cestoit une chose si melodieuse que il sembloit proprement a Ogier quil estoit en Paradis. De rechief, cela fini, ils chanterent avecques les instrumens par si doulce concordance quil sembloit mieulx chose divine que humaine.[82]Imp tree is a grafted tree. Sir W. Scott queries if it be not a tree consecrated to the imps or fiends. Had imp that sense so early? A grafted tree had perhaps the same relation to the Fairies that the linden in Germany and the North had to the dwarfs.[83]Teortew(Drayton, Poly-Olb. xxv.) is to draw, to march; from A.S.old english teóold english gan,old english tuold english gan,old english teón(Germ.ziehen), whencetug,team.[84]Beattie probably knew nothing of Orfeo and Heurodis, and the Fairy Vision in the Minstrel (a dream that would never have occurred to any minstrel) was derived from the Flower and the Leaf, Dryden's, not Chaucer's, for the personages in the latter are not called Fairies. In neither are they Elves.[85]Gönnen, Germ.[86]The "countrie of Faerie," situated in a "privee wone," plainly accords rather with the Feeries of Huon de Bordeaux than with Avalon, or the region into which Dame Heurodis was taken.[87]That is,elfeisalive.[88]These Fairies thus coupled with Nymphs remind us of the Fairies of the old translators. Spenser, in the Shepherd's Calendar, however, had united them before, asNor elvish ghosts nor ghastly owls do flee,But friendlyFaeriesmet with many Graces,And light-footNymphs.—Æg. 6.[89]"Spenser'sFairy Queen, which is one of the grossest misnomers in romance or history, bears no features of the Fairy nation."—Gifford, note on B. Jonson, vol. ii. p. 202.[90]Eddasignifies grandmother. Some regard it as the feminine ofothr, orodr, wisdom.[91]This language is so called because still spoken in Iceland. Its proper name is the Norræna Tunga (northern tongue). It was the common language of the whole North.[92]See Tales and Popular Fictions, chap. ix.[93]It was first published by Resenius in 1665.[94]By the Æser are understood the Asiatics, who with Odin brought their arts and religion into Scandinavia. This derivation of the word, however, is rather dubious. Though possibly the population and religion of Scandinavia came originally from Asia there seems to be no reason whatever for putting any faith in the legend of Odin. It is not unlikely that the name of their gods, Æser, gave birth to the whole theory. It is remarkable that the ancient Etrurians also should have called the gods Æsar.[95]So the lötunn or Giant Vafthrudnir to Odin in the Vafthrudnismal.—Strophe vii.[96]Thorlacius, Noget om Thor og hans Hammer, in the Skandinavisk Museum for 1803.[97]Thorlacius,ut supra, says the thundering Thor was regarded as particularly inimical to the Skovtrolds, against whom he continually employed his mighty weapon. He thinks that theBidentalof the Romans, and the rites connected with it, seem to suppose a similar superstition, and that in the well-known passage of Horace,Tu parum castis inimica mittesFulmina lucis,the wordsparum castis lucismay mean groves or parts of woods, the haunt of unclean spirits or Skovtrolds,satyri lascivi et salaces. The wordTroldwill be explained below.[98]The Dark Alfs were probably different from the Duergar, yet the language of the prose Edda is in some places such as to lead to a confusion of them. The following passage, however, seems to be decisive:Náir, DvergarOkDöck-A'lfar.Hrafna-Galdr Othins, xxiv. 7.Ghosts, DwarfsAndDark Alfs.Yet the Scandinavian literati appear unanimous in regarding them as the same. Grimm, however, agrees with us in viewing the Döck-Alfar as distinct from the Duergar. As the abode of these last is named Svartálfaheimr, he thinks that the Svartálfar and the Duergar were the same.—Deutsche Mythologie, p. 413,seq.See below,Isle of Rügen.[99]The ash-tree, Yggdrasil, is the symbol of the universe, the Urdar-fount is the fount of light and heat, which invigorates and sustains it. A good representation of this myth is given in Mr. Bohn's edition of Mallet's "Northern Antiquities," which the reader is recommended to consult.[100]This Grimm (ut sup.) regards as an error of the writer, who confounded theDöckand theSvartálfar.[101]See Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 274.[102]The analogy of Deev, and other words of like import, might lead to the supposition of Spirit being the primary meaning of Alf.[103]See Mythology of Greece and Italy, p. 248, second edition.[104]After the introduction of Christianity,Engel, angel, was employed forAlpin most proper names, as Engelrich, Engelhart, etc.[105]See MM. Grimm's learned Introduction to their translation of the Irish Fairy Legends, and the Deutsche Mythologie of J. Grimm.[106]MM. Grimm suppose with a good deal of probability, that these are compounds formed to render the Greek ones, and are not expressive of a belief in analogous classes of spirits.[107]Some think, but with little reason, they were originally a part of the Finnish mythology, and were adopted into the Gothic system.[108]The giant Ymir is a personification of Chaos, the undigested primal matter. The sons of Börr (other personifications) slew him. Out of him they formed the world; his blood made the sea, his flesh the land, his bones the mountains; rocks and cliffs were his teeth, jaws, and broken pieces of bones; his skull formed the heavens.[109]Gudmund Andreas in notis ad Völuspá.[110]That they are not insensible to kindness one of the succeeding tales will show.[111]The habitual reader of the northern and German writers, or even our old English ones, will observe with surprise his gradually diminished contempt for many expressions now become vulgar. He will find himself imperceptibly falling into the habit of regarding them in the light of their pristine dignity.[112]Skidbladni, like Pari Banou's tent, could expand and contract as required. It would carry all the Æser and their arms, and when not in use it could be taken asunder and put in a purse. "A good ship," says Ganglar, "is Skidbladni, but great art must have been employed in making it." Mythologists say it is the clouds.[113]i. e.TheDripper.[114]i. e.TheBruiserorCrusher, fromMyla, to bruise or crush. Little the Fancy know of the high connexions of their phraseMill.[115]Edda Resenii, Dæmisaga 59.[116]Thorston's Saga, c. 3, in the Kämpa Dater.[117]The Berserkers were warriors who used to be inflamed with such rage and fury at the thoughts of combats as to bite their shields, run through fire, swallow burning coals, and perform such like mad feats. "Whether the avidity for fighting or the ferocity of their nature," says Saxo, "brought this madness on them, is uncertain."[118]The northern nations believed that the tombs of their heroes emitted a kind of lambent flame, which was always visible in the night, and served to guard the ashes of the dead; they called itHauga Elldr, or The Sepulchral Fire. It was supposed more particularly to surround such tombs as contained hidden treasures.—Bartholin, de Contempt. a Dan. Morte, p. 275.[119]Hervarar Sagapassim. The Tirfing Saga would be its more proper appellation. In poetic and romantic interest it exceeds all the northern Sagas.[120]In Swedish Dverg also signifies a spider.[121]In the old Swedish metrical history of Alexander, the wordDuerfoccurs. The progress in the English word is as follows: Anglo-Saxonold english dþeoold english rold english g;thencedwerke;

[1]The mark on Adam's Peak in Ceylon is, by the Buddhists, ascribed to Buddha; by the Mohammedans, to Adam. It reminds one of the story of the lady and the vicar, viewing the moon through a telescope; they saw in it, as they thought, two figures inclined toward each other: "Methinks," says the lady, "they are two fond lovers, meeting to pour forth their vows by earth-light." "Not at all," says the vicar, taking his turn at the glass; "they are the steeples of two neighbouring churches."

[2]Faerie Queene, III. c. iii. st. 8, 9, 10, 11. Drayton, Poly-Olbion, Song VI. We fear, however, that there is only poetic authority for this belief. Mr. Todd merely quotes Warton, who says that Spenser borrowed it from Giraldus Cambrensis, who picked it up among the romantic traditions propagated by the Welsh bards. The reader will be, perhaps, surprised to hear that Giraldus says nothing of the demons. He mentions the sounds, and endeavours to explain them by natural causes. Hollingshed indeed (l. i. c. 24.) says, "whereof the superstitious sort do gather many toys."

[3]The Haddock.

[4]For a well-chosen collection of examples, see the very learned and philosophical preface of the late Mr. Price to his edition of Warton's History of English Poetry, p. 28et seq.

[5]In the Middle Ages the gods of the heathens were all held to be devils.

[6]Φηρ is the Ionic form of θηρ, and is nearly related to the Germanthier, beast, animal. The Scandinaviandyr, and the Anglo-Saxonold english deoold english r,have the same signification; and it is curious to observe the restricted sense which this last has gotten in the Englishdeer.

[7]Preface to Warton, p. 44; and Breton philologists furnish us with an etymon; not, indeed, of Fairy, but of Fada. "Fada, fata, etc.," says M. de Cambry (Monumens Celtiques), "come from the Bretonmatormad, in constructionfat, good; whence the English,maid."

[8]D'HerbelottitreMergian says, "C'est du nom de cette Fée que nos anciens romans ont formé celui deMorgante la Déconnue." He here confounds Morgana with Urganda, and he has been followed in his mistake. D'Herbelot also thinks it possible thatFéeriemay come fromPeri; but he regards the common derivation fromFataas much more probable. Cambrian etymologists, by the way, say that Morgain is Mor Gwynn, theWhite Maid.

[9]These two instances are given by Mdlle. Amélie Bosquet (La Normandie Romanesque, etc. p. 91.) from Dom Martin,Rel. des Gaulois, ii. ch. 23 and 24.

[10]Gryphus ternarii numeri.

[11]De Bell. Got. i. 25.

[12]See below,France. It is also remarked that in some of the tales of the Pentamerone, the number of theFateis three; but to this it may be replied, that in Italy every thing took a classic tinge, and that the Fate of those tales are only Maghe; so in the Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso we meet with LaFataUrganda. In Spain and France the number would rather seem to have been seven. Cervantes speaks of "los siete castillos de lassietefadas;" in the Rom. de la Infantina it is said, "sietefadas mefadaron, en brazos de una ama mia," and theFéesaresevenin La Belle au Bois dormant. In the romance, however, of Guillaume au Court-nez, theFéeswho carry the sleeping Renoart out of the boat arethreein number.—See Grimm Deutsche Mythologie, p. 383.

[13]A MS. of the 13th century, quoted by Grimm (ut sup.p. 405), thus relates the origin of Aquisgrani (Aix la Chapelle): Aquisgrani dicitur Ays, et dicitur eo, quod Karolus tenebat ibi quandammulierem fatatam, sive quandamfatam, quæ alio nominenimphaveldeaveladriades(l.dryas) appellatur, et ad hanc consuetudinem habebat, et eam cognoscebat; et ita erat, quod ipso accedente ad eam vivebat ipsa, ipso Karolo recedente moriebatur. Contigit dum quadam vice ad ipsam accessisset ut cum ea delectaretur, radius solis intravit os ejus, et tunc Karolus viditgranum aurilingue ejus affixum, quod fecit abscindi et contingenti (l. in continenti) mortua est, nec postea revixit.

[14]

"Aissimfadarotres serorsEn aquella ora qu' ieu sui natzQue totz temps fos enamoratz."—Folquet de Romans.

(Thus three sistersfated, in the hour that I was born, that I should be at all times in love.)

"Aissi fuy de nueitzfadatzsobr' un puegau."—Guilh. de Poitou.(Thus was Ifatedby night on a hill.)—Grimm,ut sup.p. 383.

[15]See our Virgil, Excurs. ix.

[16]Following the analogy of the Gotho-German tongues,zauberei, Germ.trylleri, Dan.trolleri, Swed. illusion, enchantment. The Italian word isfattucchieria.

[17]Here too there isperhapsan analogy withcavalry,infantry,squierie, and similar collective terms.

[18]The Faerie Queene was published some years before the Midsummer Night's Dream. Warton (Obs. on the Faerie Queene) observes: "It appears from Marston's Satires, printed 1598, that the Faerie Queene occasioned many publications in which Fairies were the principal actors.

Go buy some ballad of theFaery King.—Ad Lectorem.Out steps some Faery with quick motion,And tells him wonders of some flowerie vale—Awakes, straight rubs his eyes, and prints his tale.B. III. Sat. 6."

Go buy some ballad of theFaery King.—Ad Lectorem.

Out steps some Faery with quick motion,And tells him wonders of some flowerie vale—Awakes, straight rubs his eyes, and prints his tale.B. III. Sat. 6."

[19]It is in this century that we first meet withFairyas a dissyllable, and with a plural. It is then used in its fourth and last sense.

[20]The Fata Morgana of the Straits of Messina is an example; for the name of Morgana, whencesoever derived, was probably brought into Italy by the poets.

[21]Dobenek, des deutschen Mittelalters und Volksglauben. Berlin, 1816.

[22]See D'Herbelot, Richardson's Dissertation, Ouseley's Persian Miscellanies, Wahl in the Mines de l'Orient, Lane, Thousand and One Nights, Forbes, Hatim Taï, etc., etc.

[23]Ormuzd employed himself for three thousand years in making the heavens and their celestial inhabitants, the Ferohers, which are the angels and the unembodied souls of all intelligent beings. All nature is filled with Ferohers, or guardian angels, who watch over its various departments, and are occupied in performing their various tasks for the benefit of mankind.—Erskine on the Sacred Books and Religion of the Parsis, in the Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, vol. ii. p. 318. The Feroher bears in fact a very strong resemblance to the Genius of the ancient Roman religion: see our Mythology of Greece and Italy.

[24]This word is pronouncedPerryor ratherParry.

[25]Sanskrit writingHence it follows that the very plausible idea of the Peri having been the same with the Feroher cannot be correct.

[26]Translated by Mr. Duncan Forbes. It is to be regretted that he has employed the terms Fairies and Demons instead of Peries and Deevs.

[27]See Lane, Thousand and One Nights, i. p. 21,seq.

[28]The Cahermân Nâmeh is a romance in Turkish. Cahermân was the father of Sâm, the grandfather of the celebrated Roostem.

[29]It is in the Cahermân Nâmeh that this circumstance occurs.

[30]Sanskrit writingThe Tahmuras Nâmeh is also in Turkish. It and the Cahermân Nâmeh are probably translations from the Persian. As far as we are aware, Richardson is the only orientalist who mentions these two romances.

[31]Sanskrit writingIt signifies 'thirty birds' and is thought to be the roc of the Arabs. The poet Sâdee, to express the bounty of the Almighty says

Sanksrit writing

His liberal board he spreadeth out so wide,On Kâf the Seemurgh is with food supplied.

The Seemurgh probably belongs to the original mythology of Persia, for she appears in the early part of the Shâh Nâmeh. When Zâl was born to Sâm Nerimân, his hair proved to be white. The father regarding this as a proof of Deev origin, resolved to expose him, and sent him for that purpose to Mount Elburz. Here the poor babe lay crying and sucking his fingers till he was found by the Seemurgh, who abode on the summit of Elburz, as she was looking for food for her young ones. But God put pity into her heart, and she took him to her nest and reared him with her young. As he grew up, the caravans that passed by, spread the fame of his beauty and his strength, and a vision having informed Sâm that he was his son, he set out for Elburz to claim him from the Seemurgh. It was with grief that Zâl quitted the maternal nest. The Seemurgh, when parting with her foster-son, gave him one of her feathers, and bade him, whenever he should be in trouble or danger, to cast it into the fire, and he would have proof of her power; and she charged him at the same time strictly never to forget his nurse.

[32]SeeArabian Romance.

[33]Sanskrit writinga pearl. Life, soul also, according to Wilkins.

[34]Ferdousee's great heroic poem. It is remarkable that the Peries are very rarely spoken of in this poem. They merely appear in it with the birds and beasts among the subjects of the first Iranian monarchs.

[35]Chap. xx. translation of Jonathan Scott, 1799.

[36]See below,Shetland.

[37]i. e.possessed, insane. It is like the νυμφοληπτος of the Greeks.

[38]It must be recollected that the Peries are of both sexes: we have just spoken of Perikings, and of thebrothersof Merjân.

[39]In the Shâh Nâmeh it is said of Prince Siyawush, that when he was born he wasbright as a Peri. We find the poets everywhere comparing female beauty to that of superior beings. The Greeks and Romans compared a lovely woman to Venus, Diana, or the nymphs; the Persians to a Peri; the ancient Scandinavians would say she was Frith sem Alfkone, "fair as an Alf-woman;" and an Anglo-Saxon poet says of Judith that she wasElf-sheen, or fair as an Elf. In the Lay of Gugemer it is said,

Dedenz la Dame unt trovéeKi de biauté resanbloitFée.

The same expression occurs in Méon (3, 412); and in the Romant de la Rose we meet,jure que plus belle est que fée(10, 425). In the Pentamerone it is said of a king's son,lo quale essenno bello comme a no fato.

[40]Mines de l'Orient, vol. iii. p. 40. To make his version completely English, M. von Hammer uses the word Fairies; we have ventured to change it.

[41]In Purchas' Pilgrims, vol. i., quoted by Sir W. Ouseley.

[42]Compare Antar and the Suspended Poems (translated by Sir W. Jones) with the later Arabic works. Antar, though written by Asmai the court-poet of Haroon-er-Rasheed, gives the manners and ideas of the Arabs of the Desert.

[43]The Jinn are mentioned in the Kurân and also in Antar.

[44]See Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 37,seq.Lane, Thousand and One Nights,passim.

[45]Genius and Jinn, like Fairy and Peri, is a curious coincidence. The Arabian Jinnee bears no resemblance whatever to the Roman Genius.

[46]"When we said unto the Angels, Worship ye Adam, and they worshiped except Iblees (who) was of the Jinn."—Kurân. chap. xviii. v. 48. Worship is here prostration. The reply of Iblees was, "Thou hast createdmeof fire, and hast createdhimof earth."—Ib.vii. 11; xxxviii. 77.

[47]It was the belief of the Irish peasantry, that whirlwinds of dust on the roads were raised by the Fairies, who were then on a journey. On such occasions, unlike the Arabs, they used to raise their hats and say, "God speed you, gentlemen!" For the power of iron, seeScandinavia.

[48]The Arabs when they pour water on the ground, let down a bucket into a well, enter a bath, etc., say, "Permission!" (Destoor!) or, Permission, ye blessed! (Destoor, yâ mubârakeen!)

[49]For the preceding account of the Jinn, we are wholly indebted to Lane's valuable translation of the Thousand and One Nights, i. 30,seq.

[50]The first is given by Lane, the other two by D'Herbelot.

[51]On the subjects mentioned in this paragraph, see Tales and Popular Fictions, chap. ii. and iii.

[52]In the Amadigi of B. Tasso, she is La Fata Urganda.

[53]Lancelot is regarded as probably the earliest prose romance of chivalry. It was first printed in 1494. The metrical romance called La Charrette, of which Lancelot is the hero, was begun by Chrestien de Troyes, who died in 1191, and finished by Geoffrey de Ligny. We may here observe that almost all the French romances of chivalry were written originally in verse in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, principally by Chrestien de Troyes and Huon de Villeneuve. The prose romances in general were made from them in the fifteenth century.

[54]

For while it was in hand, by loving of an elf,For all his wondrous skill was cozened of himself:For walking with his Fay, her to the rock he brought,In which he oft before his nigromancies wrought.And going in thereat, his magics to have shown,She stopt the cavern's mouth with an enchanted stone,Whose cunning strongly crossed, amazed while he did stand,She captive him conveyed unto the Fairy-land.Drayton,Poly-Olb.Song IV.—See above, p.2.

[55]La damoiselle qui Lancelot porta au lac estoit unefée, et en cellui temps estoient appelléesfeestoutes celles qui sentremcloient denchantements et de charmes, et moult en estoit pour lors principallement en la Grand Bretaigne, et savoient la force et la vertu des parolles, des pierres, et des herbes, parquoi elles estoient en jeunesse, et en beaulte, et en grandes richesses, comment elles divisoient.

[56]La dame qui le nourissoit ne conversoit que en forest, et estoit au plain de ung tertre plus bas assez que celui ou le roy Ban estoit mort: en ce lieu ou il sembloit que le bois fust grant et parfont (profond) avoit la dame moult de belles maisons et moult riches; et au plain dessoubs y avoit une gente petite riviere moult plantureuse de poissons; et estoit ce lieu si cele et secret que bien difficille estoit a homme de le trouver, car la semblance du dit lac le couvroit si que il ne pouvoit estre apperceu. And farther, La damoiselle nestoit mie seulle, mais y avoit grande compaignie de chevaliers et de dames et damoiselles.

[57]Vol. i. ch. 42.

[58]Vol. iii. ch. 31.

[59]Tristan was written in verse by Chrestien de Troyes. The prose romance was first printed in 1489.

[60]Parthenopex was written in French in the twelfth century, according to Le Grand; in the thirteenth, according to Roquefort.

[61]Composed—for to call it, with Ellis, Ritson, and others, a translation, would be absurd. How Ellis, who had at least read Le Grand's and Way's Fabliaux, could say of Chestre, that he "seems to have given afaithfulas well as spirited version of this old Breton story," is surprising. It is in fact no translation, but a poem on the adventures of Sir Launfal, founded chiefly on the Lais de Lanval and de Graelent, in Marie de France, with considerable additions of Chestre's own invention, or derived from other sources. These Lais will be considered under Brittany.

[62]Thus we ourselves saythe Príncess Royal, éxtreme need, etc. This, by the way, is the cause why the Greeks put a grave and not an acute accent on words accented on the last syllable, to show that it is easily moveable.

[63]As this seems to be one of the lost arts, we will here and elsewhere mark the feminineeand the change of accent.

[64]Rode—complexion; fromred.

[65]Occient—occidentorocéan? The Gascon peasantry call the Bay of BiscayLa Mer d'Occient. The Spaniards sayMar Oceano.

[66]It is strange to find the English poet changing the Avalon of the Lai de Lanval into the well-known island of Oléron. It is rather strange too, that Mr. Ritson, who has a note on "Oliroun," did not notice this.

[67]The Lai ends thus:

Od (avec) li sen vait en Avalun,Ceo nus recuntent le Bretun;En une isle que mut est beaus,La fut ravi li dameiseaus,Nul humme nen ot plus parler,Ne jeo nen sai avant cunter.

In Graelent it is said that the horse of the knight used to return annually to the river where he lost his master. The rest is Thomas Chestre's own, taken probably from the well-known story in Gervase of Tilbury.

[68]Huon, Hue, or Hullin (for he is called by these three names in the poetic romance) is, there can be little doubt, the same person with Yon king of Bordeaux in the Quatre Filz Aymon, another composition of Huon de Villeneuve, and with Lo Re Ivone, prince or duke of Guienne in Bojardo and Ariosto. See the Orl. Inn. l. i. c. iv. st. 46. I Cinque Canti, c. v. st. 42.

[69]Otnit was supposed to have been written by Wolfram von Eschembach, in the early part of the thirteenth century. It is possibly much older. Huon de Bordeaux was, it is said, written in French verse by Huon de Villeneuve, some time in the same century. It does not appear in the list of Huon de Villeneuve's works given by Mons. de Roquefort. At the end of the prose romance we are told that it was written at the desire of Charles seigneur de Rochefort, and completed on the 29th of January, 1454.

[70]Qui a de long seizes lieues, mais tant est plain de faerie et chose estrange que peu de gens y passent qui n'y soient perdus ou arrestez, pour ce que la dedans demeure un roi, Oberon le fayé. Il n'a que trois pieds de hauteur; il est tout bossu; mais il a un visage angelique; il n'est homme mortel que le voye que plaisir ne prengne a le regarder tant a beau visage. Ja si tost ne serez entrez au bois se par la voulez passer qu'il ne trouve maniere de parler a vous, si ainsi que a luy parliez perdu estus a tousjours sans jamais plus revenir; ne il ne sera en vous, car se par le bois passez, soit de long ou de travers, vous le trouverez tousjours au devant de vous, et vous sera impossible que eschappiez nullement que ne parliez a luy, car ses parolles sont tant plaisantes a ouyr qu'il n'est homme mortel qui de luy se puisse eschapper. Et se chose est qu'il voye que nullement ne vueillez parler a luy, il sera moult troublé envers vous. Car avant que du bois soyez parti vous fera pleuvoir, ventrer, gresiller, et faire si tres-mervueilleux orages, tonnerres, et esclairs, que advis vous sera que le monde doive finir. Puis vous sera advis que par devant vous verrez une grande riviere courante, noire et parfonde a grand merveilles; mais sachez, sire, que bien y pourrez aller sans mouiller les pieds de vostre cheval, car ce n'est que fantosme et enchantemens que le nain vous fera pour vous cuider avoir avec lui, et se chose est que bien tenez propos en vous de non parler a luy, bien pourrez eschapper, etc.

[71]Le Nain Fee s'en vint chevauchant par le bois, et estoit vestu d'une robbe si tres-belle et riche, que merveilles sera ce racompter pour la grand et merveilleuse richesse que dessus estoit, car tant y avoit de pierres precieuses, que la grand clarté qu'elles jettoient estoit pareille au soleil quant il luit bien clair. Et avec ce portoit un moult bel arc en son poing, tant riche que on ne le sauroit estimer tant estoit beau. Et la fleche qu'il portoit est it de telle sorte et maniere, qu'il n'estoit beste au monde qu'il vousist souhaiter qu'a ieelle fleche elle ne s'arrestast. Il avoit a son cou un riche cor, lequel estoit pendu a deux riches attaches de fin or.

[72]This sort of transformation appears to have been a usual mode of punishing in a Fairy land. It may have come from Circe, but the Thousand and One Nights is full of such transformations. Forluytonorlutin, see below,France.

[73]We are only acquainted with this romance through Mr. Dunlop's analysis.

[74]Avalon was perhaps the Island of the Blest, of Celtic mythology, and then the abode of the Fees, through the Breton Korrigan. Writers, however, seem to be unanimous in regarding it and Glastonbury as the same place, called an isle, it is stated, as being made nearly such by the "river's embracement." It was named Avalon, we are told, from the British wordAval, an apple, as it abounded with orchards; andYnys gwydrin; SaxonGlaold english sold english tn-ey,glassy isle; Latin, Glastonia, from the green hue of the water surrounding it.

[75]See Tales and Popular Fictions, ch. ix., for a further account of Ogier.

[76]Tant nagea en mer qu'il arriva pres du chastel daymant quon nomme le chasteau davallon, qui nest gueres deca paradis terrestre la ou furent ravis en une raye de feu Enoc et Helye, et la ou estoit Morgue la faye, qui a sa naissance lui avoit donne de grands dons, nobles et vertueux.

[77]Dieu te mande que si tost que sera nuit que tu ailles en ung chasteau que tu verras luire, et passe de bateau en bateau tant que tu soies en une isle que tu trouveras. Et quand tu seras en lisle tu trouveras une petite sente, et de chose que tu voies leans ne tesbahis de rien. Et adone Ogier regarda mais il ne vit rien.

[78]Lequel estoit luiton, et avoit este ung grant prince; mais le roi Artus le conquist, si fust condampne a estre trois cens ans cheval sans parler ung tou seul mot; mais apres les trois cens ans, il devoit avoir la couronue de joye de laquelle ils usuient en faerie.

[79]Et quand Morgue approcha du dit chasteau, les Faes vindrent au devant dogier, chantant le plus melodieusement quon scauroit jamais ouir, si entra dedans la salle pour se deduire totallement. Adonc vist plusieurs dames Faees aournees et toutes courronnees de couronnes tressomptueusement faictes, et moult riches, et tout jour chantoient, dansoient, et menoient vie tresjoyeuse, sans penser a nulle quelconque meschante chose, fors prandre leurs mondains plaisirs.

[80]Tant de joyeulx passetemps lui faisoient les dames Faees, quil nest creature en ce monde quil le sceust imaginer ne penser, car les ouir si doulcement chanter il lui sembloit proprement quil fut en Paradis, si passoit temps de jour en jour, de sepmaine en sepmaine, tellement que ung an ne lui duroit pas ung mois.

[81]Et quand ils furent tous deux montes, toutes les dames du chasteau vindrent a la departie dogier, par le commandement du roi Artus et de Morgue la fae, et sonnerent une aubade dinstrumens, la plus melodieuse chose a ouir que on entendit jamais; puis, l'aubade achevee, chanterent de gorge si melodieusement que cestoit une chose si melodieuse que il sembloit proprement a Ogier quil estoit en Paradis. De rechief, cela fini, ils chanterent avecques les instrumens par si doulce concordance quil sembloit mieulx chose divine que humaine.

[82]Imp tree is a grafted tree. Sir W. Scott queries if it be not a tree consecrated to the imps or fiends. Had imp that sense so early? A grafted tree had perhaps the same relation to the Fairies that the linden in Germany and the North had to the dwarfs.

[83]Teortew(Drayton, Poly-Olb. xxv.) is to draw, to march; from A.S.old english teóold english gan,old english tuold english gan,old english teón(Germ.ziehen), whencetug,team.

[84]Beattie probably knew nothing of Orfeo and Heurodis, and the Fairy Vision in the Minstrel (a dream that would never have occurred to any minstrel) was derived from the Flower and the Leaf, Dryden's, not Chaucer's, for the personages in the latter are not called Fairies. In neither are they Elves.

[85]Gönnen, Germ.

[86]The "countrie of Faerie," situated in a "privee wone," plainly accords rather with the Feeries of Huon de Bordeaux than with Avalon, or the region into which Dame Heurodis was taken.

[87]That is,elfeisalive.

[88]These Fairies thus coupled with Nymphs remind us of the Fairies of the old translators. Spenser, in the Shepherd's Calendar, however, had united them before, as

Nor elvish ghosts nor ghastly owls do flee,But friendlyFaeriesmet with many Graces,And light-footNymphs.—Æg. 6.

[89]"Spenser'sFairy Queen, which is one of the grossest misnomers in romance or history, bears no features of the Fairy nation."—Gifford, note on B. Jonson, vol. ii. p. 202.

[90]Eddasignifies grandmother. Some regard it as the feminine ofothr, orodr, wisdom.

[91]This language is so called because still spoken in Iceland. Its proper name is the Norræna Tunga (northern tongue). It was the common language of the whole North.

[92]See Tales and Popular Fictions, chap. ix.

[93]It was first published by Resenius in 1665.

[94]By the Æser are understood the Asiatics, who with Odin brought their arts and religion into Scandinavia. This derivation of the word, however, is rather dubious. Though possibly the population and religion of Scandinavia came originally from Asia there seems to be no reason whatever for putting any faith in the legend of Odin. It is not unlikely that the name of their gods, Æser, gave birth to the whole theory. It is remarkable that the ancient Etrurians also should have called the gods Æsar.

[95]So the lötunn or Giant Vafthrudnir to Odin in the Vafthrudnismal.—Strophe vii.

[96]Thorlacius, Noget om Thor og hans Hammer, in the Skandinavisk Museum for 1803.

[97]Thorlacius,ut supra, says the thundering Thor was regarded as particularly inimical to the Skovtrolds, against whom he continually employed his mighty weapon. He thinks that theBidentalof the Romans, and the rites connected with it, seem to suppose a similar superstition, and that in the well-known passage of Horace,

Tu parum castis inimica mittesFulmina lucis,

the wordsparum castis lucismay mean groves or parts of woods, the haunt of unclean spirits or Skovtrolds,satyri lascivi et salaces. The wordTroldwill be explained below.

[98]The Dark Alfs were probably different from the Duergar, yet the language of the prose Edda is in some places such as to lead to a confusion of them. The following passage, however, seems to be decisive:

Náir, DvergarOkDöck-A'lfar.Hrafna-Galdr Othins, xxiv. 7.Ghosts, DwarfsAndDark Alfs.

Náir, DvergarOkDöck-A'lfar.Hrafna-Galdr Othins, xxiv. 7.

Ghosts, DwarfsAndDark Alfs.

Yet the Scandinavian literati appear unanimous in regarding them as the same. Grimm, however, agrees with us in viewing the Döck-Alfar as distinct from the Duergar. As the abode of these last is named Svartálfaheimr, he thinks that the Svartálfar and the Duergar were the same.—Deutsche Mythologie, p. 413,seq.See below,Isle of Rügen.

[99]The ash-tree, Yggdrasil, is the symbol of the universe, the Urdar-fount is the fount of light and heat, which invigorates and sustains it. A good representation of this myth is given in Mr. Bohn's edition of Mallet's "Northern Antiquities," which the reader is recommended to consult.

[100]This Grimm (ut sup.) regards as an error of the writer, who confounded theDöckand theSvartálfar.

[101]See Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 274.

[102]The analogy of Deev, and other words of like import, might lead to the supposition of Spirit being the primary meaning of Alf.

[103]See Mythology of Greece and Italy, p. 248, second edition.

[104]After the introduction of Christianity,Engel, angel, was employed forAlpin most proper names, as Engelrich, Engelhart, etc.

[105]See MM. Grimm's learned Introduction to their translation of the Irish Fairy Legends, and the Deutsche Mythologie of J. Grimm.

[106]MM. Grimm suppose with a good deal of probability, that these are compounds formed to render the Greek ones, and are not expressive of a belief in analogous classes of spirits.

[107]Some think, but with little reason, they were originally a part of the Finnish mythology, and were adopted into the Gothic system.

[108]The giant Ymir is a personification of Chaos, the undigested primal matter. The sons of Börr (other personifications) slew him. Out of him they formed the world; his blood made the sea, his flesh the land, his bones the mountains; rocks and cliffs were his teeth, jaws, and broken pieces of bones; his skull formed the heavens.

[109]Gudmund Andreas in notis ad Völuspá.

[110]That they are not insensible to kindness one of the succeeding tales will show.

[111]The habitual reader of the northern and German writers, or even our old English ones, will observe with surprise his gradually diminished contempt for many expressions now become vulgar. He will find himself imperceptibly falling into the habit of regarding them in the light of their pristine dignity.

[112]Skidbladni, like Pari Banou's tent, could expand and contract as required. It would carry all the Æser and their arms, and when not in use it could be taken asunder and put in a purse. "A good ship," says Ganglar, "is Skidbladni, but great art must have been employed in making it." Mythologists say it is the clouds.

[113]i. e.TheDripper.

[114]i. e.TheBruiserorCrusher, fromMyla, to bruise or crush. Little the Fancy know of the high connexions of their phraseMill.

[115]Edda Resenii, Dæmisaga 59.

[116]Thorston's Saga, c. 3, in the Kämpa Dater.

[117]The Berserkers were warriors who used to be inflamed with such rage and fury at the thoughts of combats as to bite their shields, run through fire, swallow burning coals, and perform such like mad feats. "Whether the avidity for fighting or the ferocity of their nature," says Saxo, "brought this madness on them, is uncertain."

[118]The northern nations believed that the tombs of their heroes emitted a kind of lambent flame, which was always visible in the night, and served to guard the ashes of the dead; they called itHauga Elldr, or The Sepulchral Fire. It was supposed more particularly to surround such tombs as contained hidden treasures.—Bartholin, de Contempt. a Dan. Morte, p. 275.

[119]Hervarar Sagapassim. The Tirfing Saga would be its more proper appellation. In poetic and romantic interest it exceeds all the northern Sagas.

[120]In Swedish Dverg also signifies a spider.

[121]In the old Swedish metrical history of Alexander, the wordDuerfoccurs. The progress in the English word is as follows: Anglo-Saxonold english dþeoold english rold english g;thencedwerke;

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