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TIIITNOR  THE  THUNDERER, 


!  AltVED  ON  A  SCANDINAVIAN  FONT 


OF  ABOUT  THE  YEAR  1000. 


THE  FIRST  YET  FOUND  GOD-FIGURE 
OF   OUR  SCANDO-GOTHIC    FOREFATHERS. 


HY 


Prof.  Dr.  GEORGE  STEPHENS,  F.  S.  A., 

LONDON.     EDINBURGH,    CHEAPINOH  A  VKN,    STOCKHOLM    Ac. 

I 


WILLIAMS  AND  NORGATE; 

14  HENRIETTA  ST.,  LONDON;  20  FREDERICK  ST.,  BDINB1  i: 

H.  H.  J.  LYNGE; 

8  HELLIGGEIST-8TB,,  CHEAPINGHAVEN    K.IOI1ENHAVX.  COPENHAGEN), 

1878. 


Till  NOR  THE  THUDERER, 


CARVED  ON  A  SCANDINAVIAN  FONT 


OF  AHOIT  THE  YEAR  1000. 


THE  FIRST  YET  FOUND  GOD-FIGURE 
OF   OUR  SOANDO-GOTHIC  FOREFATHERS 


II Y 


Prok.  Dr.  GEORGE  STEPHENS,  F.  S.  A., 

LONDON,     EDINBURGH,    CHE  API  NGH  A  VEN,    STOCKHOLM    &C, 


WILLIAMS  AND  NORGATE; 

14  HENRIETTA  ST.,  LONDON;  80  FREDERICK  ST.,  EDINBURGH. 

H.  H.  J.  LYNGE; 

8  HBLLIGGEIST-STR.,  CHEAPINGHAVEN  IKJ0BENHAVN.  COPENHAGEN!. 

1878. 


Printed  bv  tt.  n    Thiele. 


UKSPKCTITLFY   INS(   KII'.U) 


TO 


THE  REV.  CLAE8  JOHAN  LJUNGSTROM, 

Rector  of  Rannum  in   Westgotland,   Sweden, 
THE    FIRST    PUBLISHER    OF    THE  OTTRAYA    FONT. 


Varpser  barn  til  kirkiu  boret  oc 
bebiz  cristnu.  pa  seal  fabir  ok  mo5er 
la  guftfsebur  oc  gudmodor  oc  salt  oc 
uatn.  |>a't  seal  b;vv;v  til  kirkiu  |»a  seal 
a  prcst  kalla>  ban  seal  a  kirkiu  bole 
boa?,  barn  seal  brymsignse  firi  utan 
kirkiu.  dyr.  Sipen  seal  font  wigyse. 
prestcr  barn  dopse.  oc  gudfapir  a  haldse. 
gudmoper  til  namns  sygiae.  prester  seal 
byu|>c  husu  [=huru|  lengi  t'a|>ir  oc  mo|>er 
sculu  vardvetse.  Haendir  baet  sot  a  vegh 
oc  ma  igh  til  kyrkiu  coma,  ba  seal  gud- 
fapir dopae  oc  gudmoper  a  haldse.  i 
vatn.  a3n  vatn.  sev  ti!  i  namn  fapurs 
oc  suner  oc  andses  helagha. 


/.<  a  child  to  church  borne  and  wsketh 
Christendom,  then  shall  father  and  mother 
get  godfather  and  godmother  and  soli  and 
water.  One  shall  bear  it  to  church,  and 
call  for  the  priest.  He  shall  at  the  church 
house  dwell.  The  barn  shall  be  cross- 
signed  outside  the  church- door.  'I hen 
shall  the  Font  be  hallowed.  The  priest 
shall  baptise  the  child,  the  godfather 
hold  it.  the  godmother  my  out  the  name. 
The  priest  shall  sag  how  long  the 
father  and  mother  must  take  care  of 
it.  Should  it  fall  side  on  the  way  and 
cannot  come  i,,  church,  the  godfather  shall 
baptise  it  and  the  godmother  hold  it,  in 
water  if  water  be  there,  in  the  name  of 
the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  ffo/u 
Ghost. 


Schlyter.  Codex  Juris  Vestrogotim.     Stockholm   1827,  Mo.     Earliest  Church-balk.     Sec. 
I,  p.  3.     (Dale  about  1200—1250.     Dale  of  Ms.  close  of  the  13th  century). 


A  krist  skulu  allir  kristnir  trose 
at  han  a?r  gub.  ok  eei  seru  gubaer  Here. 
aen  han  sen.  sengin  skal  affgubum 
blotse.  ok  sengin  a  lundi  fellr  stense 
trose.  allir  skulu  kirkiu  dyrkse.  bit 
skulu  allir  babi  quikir  ok  dobir. 
komeendi   ok   farendi.   i.   wernld  ok  aff. 


(Jn  Christ  shall  all  Christians  trow 
that  He  is  God,  and  not  are  gods  other 
than  He  alone.  None  shall  to  idols 
offer,  and  none  shall  on  groves  or  stones 
believe.  All  shall  Church  honor.  Thither 
shall  all,  both  quick  and  dead,  coming 
and  faring  (hence-going),  into  this  world 
and  out  of  it. 


Schlyter.  Codex  Juris   Lplandici.     Stockholm  1834,  4to.   Church-balk,  Sec.   1.  p.   11. 
(Publish*  under  Birr/er  Jarl,  about  1296.     Dale  of  Ms.  about  1300). 


THH(NO)K  THE  THUNDERER. 


Pictures   are  poor  men's   books    (John   I)  am  a  seen  us). 

Jirethren  and  Sisters  in  the  Faith,  Friends  and  Neighbors  from  far 
aud  near,  whether  happily  already  followers  of  the  White  Christ  or  cleaving 
yet  to  the  Gods  of  our  forefathers,  and  specially  ye,  now  here  present,  who 
ask  me  by  Holy  Baptism  to  receive  this  child  into  the  Ark  of  the  Church, 
listen  a  short  stund  while  I  first  expound  the  figures  I  have  let  carve  on  this 
Laver  of  Regeneration! 

The  cunning  stone-smith  hath  obeyed  my  wish,  and  hath  given  us  on 
this  Doop-stone  a  short  outline  of  what  ye,  and  this  infant  thro  you,  should 
know,   to  guide  him   onward  in  his   path   of  Christian  duty. 

Many  words  I  need  not;  for  much  that  is  good  and  true  is  common 
to  all  the  children  of  men  in  every  time  and  land,  not  least  in  this  time  and 
this  land,  whether  still  holding  fast  pagan  lore,  shadows  and  symbols  of  things 
divine  now  misinterpreted  and  misunderstood,  or  already  members  of  the  mys- 
tical bodv  of  Our  Lord.  Man  was  made  in  the  image  of  God.  and  all  the 
glory   is  not  yet  departed   from   his   brow. 

All,  then,  bow  we  before  a  common  Allfather,  all  thank  we  Him  for 
His  endless  goodness,  all  hope  we  happiness  hereafter  thro  His  infinite  love  to 
His  children.  But  all,  alack  all  of  us,  also  know  that  Guile  and  War  entered 
Walhall,  that  this  is  now  a  world  of  Sin  and  Sorrow  and  Death.  The  peace 
and  innocence  of  Ida's  fields,  of  Eden  and  its  Paradise,  have  long  since  fled 
away.  The  canker  of  Self  hath  toucht  everything.  The  brother's  hand  is 
raised  against  the  brother.  The  crafty  Serpent  triumpht.  Our  fore-elders  fell. 
They   stood  not  in   the  day   of  trial.      The   forbidden   fruit  was   eaten. 


H 


THE    FALL. 


And  here,  lo.  we  sec  the  Worm  with  the  Apple  in  his  mouth.  Ask 
and  Embla,  Adam  and  Eve,  or  bow  else  th<>  first  happy  pair  may  be  hight  in 
the  folk-talks  of  the  world,  lost  the  Garden,  were  driven  from  the  Tree  of 
Life.  Thorns  and  thistles  grew  up  unto  them,  and  in  the  sweat  of  their  brow 
shall    the?   gain   a   bit   of  bread. 


For  this  great  Fall  the  gentile  world  no  sure  help  knoweth.  Stocks 
and  stones,  idle  tales,  dim  sayings,  Elves  and  offerings,  bloody  rites  and  cruel 
overtrow,  well-meant  but  childish  house-lore  unworthy  of  bold  bearded  men 
and  of  fair  honorable  women,  hateful  feuds,  fierce  selftortures,  temple  juggleries, 
songs   of  priests   about   Gods    who    fight    and    fall    —   these    and    suchlike    cannot 


THE    UI'UFTINO. 


IIOI.V    BAPTISM. 


aid  us.       No    heathendom    could    ever   yet    heal    the    soul  wounded    by  sin,    the 
heart  broken  by   sorrow. 

Here  then  we  all  stand  together.  The  facts  of  life  are  round  about 
us,  are  in  our  own  bosom.  Mask  it  as  we  will,  call  it  as  we  choose,  we  are 
full    of   fear    and    feebleness,   long   for   an    outgang   from    this    cave   of  darkness. 


i 

■ 


XT  I    i  ■ 


we  reach  after  a  brighter  day,    waiting   the  whisper   of  God  whose   music  won- 
derful shall  tell  us   of  something  higher,   better,   heavenly! 

And  blessed  be  God.  He  left  not  His  fallen  children.  He  gave  the 
Word  and  the  Word  was  made  flesh:  I  will  put  enmity  between  thee  and  the 
woman,  and  between  thy  seed  and  her  seed:  it  shall   bruise  thy  head,   and  thou 

2 


10  THE    UPLIFTING.     —     HOLY    BAPTISM. 

shalt  bruise  his  heel.  Hence  was  the  Son  of  God,  the  Lord  Christ,  born  of 
a  \  irgin;  hence  gave  He  Himself  for  us,  and  bought  us  back  the  Golden  Land 
and  Life  Everlasting.  0  wondrous  grace  and  glory!  The  Son  ot  the  Almighty 
Father  is   our  Captain   and   our  Brother.      His   Cross  is   our  Banner! 

See!  the  Bodesmen  of  His  kingdom,  each  Priest  of  His  Church,  every 
Christian  man  and  woman,  hath  He  bidden:  go  into  all  the  world,  and  with 
mouth  and  life  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature.  Eke  said  He  —  the 
letters  even  now  are  flowing  and  rippling  and  sparkling  from  out  the  Gospel- 
book,   as  the   Holy  Mark  hath   uttered  them: 

HE  THAT  BELIEVETH  AND  IS  BAPTIZED,  SHALL  BE  SAVED 

He  that  believeth,  old  or  young.  If  old.  so  much  the  greater  need, 
ere  the  last  shadows  fall,  to  hasten  to  our  heavenly  Jordan.  If  young,  He 
waiteth  who  said :  suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me  and  forbid  them  not, 
for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Soothly,  therefore  flock  we,  worn  and 
weary,  to  the  arms  of  our  Healer.  Therefore  spreadeth  the  kingdom  from 
heart  to  heart,  from  landscape  to  landscape:  therefore  am  even  I  come  hither, 
I  Kick  to  the  shining  home  of  my  forefathers,  to  preach  the  Glad  Tidings.  And 
thus  groweth  the  grain  of  mustard  into  a  tree  that  shall  overshadow  all  the 
nations,  therefore  standeth  Holy  Church  on  high,  and  the  gates  of  Hell  shall 
not  prevail  against  it. 

Haste  we  then  glad  to  take  the  yoke  of  Jesus,  for  it  is  light.  Him 
to  serve  is  to  be  truly  free.  Richly  giveth  He  of  the  treasures  of  His  grace. 
Death  is  the  wages  of  unrighteousness,  but  with  Him  is  joy  for  evermore. 
Bondmen  and  free,  prince  and  people,  we  are  all  one  in  Him.  The  waters 
of  Baptism  cleanse  from  sin,  and  make  us  heirs  of  the  kingdom,  if  only  we 
hold  fast  by  the  Holy  Covenant.  Take  we  then  the  White  Weeds  with  joy, 
even   tho  with  trembling! 

Yet  forget  not.  Brethren  dear,  that  this  Sacrament  is  only  the  be- 
ginning of  our  Christian  life.  We  must  go  on  iu  the  way  of  truth,  step  by 
step,  from  mystery  to  mystery.  The  Holy  Font  must  be  followed  by  laying 
on  of  hands  in  Confirmation  by  the  Bishop,  and  this  must  be  upheld  by  the 
Holy  Supper,  the  Body  and  the  Blood  of  Christ,  spiritually  eaten  and  drunken. 
And  as  the  Priest  baptizeth,  so  doth  the  Bishop  confirm.  He  is  here 
before  us,  seated  on  his  chair,  and  with  uplift  fingers  to  bless  the  young  sol- 
diers of  the  Church.  In  his  other  hand  holdeth  he  The  Book,  the  wondrous 
Word  of  Life.  When  then  this  child  hath  reacht  years  of  discretion,  forget 
not  to  bring  him  to  your  Bishop  to  renew  the  solemn  promise  and  vow  made 
in  his  name  by  helpsome   Godfathers    and    Godmothers.       On    the    threshold    of 


I  mi.    STRENGTHKNING. 


CONFIRMATION. 


11 


manhood  let  him  once  more  openly  renounce  the  Devil  and  all  liis  works,  and 
gird  himself  to  tight  in  the  battle  of  life  against  all  things  sinful  and  shame- 
ful,  under   his   Captain   Christ. 

Thus  confirmed,   we  must  daily  grow  in  all  the  gifts  <>f  grace,  in  wis- 
dom and  understanding,    in    counsel   and   ghostly    strength,   in    holiness  and  low- 


liness, in  all  true  godliness,  going  onward  and  upward  from  height  to  height,  no 
longer  babes  in  Christ.  Putting  away  all  gods  made  or  fancied  by  our  fore- 
elders  or  ourselves,  yet  more  abhorring  to  make  ourselves  god,  our  own  might 
or  wisdom  our  sufficient  helper,  we  must  hold  fast  our  faith  in  One  God,  the 
Almighty,   the   All-merciful,   but  in  three  persons,  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost. 

2* 


12 


THE    STRENGTHENING.    —    HEAVENLY    MYSTERIES. 


We    must   reach    as    it    were    unto    the    courts    of  our   king's    palace,     our   eyes 
bathed  in  the  streams   of  light  flowing  from  the  cloud-hidden  Sanctuary. 

Listen  we  to  the  honied  words  falling  from  the  lips  of  Saint  John, 
the  Celestial  Doctor:  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was 
with   God,   and   the    Word   was   God.     The   same   was   in   the   beginning  with  God. 


"S^!H 


■9 


All   things  were  made    by    him,    and   without   him    was    not   anything   made   that 
was  made.     In  him  was  life,   and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men. 

Behold  this  lofty  witness  here  before  you  on  this  Holy  Basin,  Cross 
in  hand,  above  the  Rainbow,  the  arch  of  heaven.  Be  fulfilled  with  his  teaching, 
so  often  redd  out  to  you  in  your  own  tung  when  we  meet  for  worship.       And 


THK    GARDEN    Si)    GIVEN    HAi'K 


13 


forget  never  his  deathless  precept;  that  sentence  summing  up  all  knowledge, 
all  the  Law  and  all  the  Gospel;  that  heart-lore  which  shall  dry  the  tear  from 
the  lid  of  the  helpless  and  break  away  the  iron  fetter  from  the  neck  of  war- 
slave  or  house-theow,  our  brother  tho  a  thrall:  that  snatch  of  heaven- song 
which  rang  so  merrily  when  the  silly  shepherds  heard  the  Lr<><«l  tidings  of  great 
joy  to  all  people,  while  the  air  was  fragrant  with  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  towards  men;  that  dread  command  that  with 
levin-glitter  lighteneth  from  the  east  to  the  west;  that  still  small  voice  that 
whispereth    in    our   dreams   and   in    our   day-dreams: 

LITTLE    CHILDREN,    LOVE    ONE    ANOTHER! 

So  shall  Walhall  be  given  back  to  us,  Kden  be  our  own  once  more, 
that  blessed  Garden  offer  us  its  Bowers  and  fruits  and  sunshine,  its  day  with- 
out night,   its  joy  unmarred  by  grief,   its  life  without  death. 

It  is  here  before  you.  The  stone-smith  hath  fashion'd  it  to  my  mind. 
There  standeth  the  Gate  of  Paradise,  within  whose  walls  ye  shall  one  day 
enter.  The  Tree  of  Life  is  there,  yours  for  ever.  It  towereth  high  above  the 
portal,  tempting  you  to  to  come  in.  And  outside  are  the  four  rivers  of  the 
New  Jerusalem,  the  bright  flood  flowing  thence  and  branching  into  four,  even 
Pison  and  Gihon  and  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  These  and  yet  not  these.  For 
all  things  seen  are  shadows  of  the  unseen.  These  four  onward-sweeping  wave- 
flows,  what  are  they  other  than  the  four  Evangelists  of  Christ?  Soothly,  they 
are  Matthew  and  Mark,  Luke  and  John,  who  receive  from  Christ  and  give  all 
nations  to  drink  that  Living  Water  which  refresheth  the  thirsty  sons  of  men 
and  putteth  death  far  from  them.  Soothly  the  well-spring  of  these  waters, 
the  real  source  whence  they  all  issue,  is  the  Lord  Christ,  the  Lamb  of  God, 
whose  light  is  the  starry  orb  of  the  Golden  City,  whose  glory  dwelleth  within 
her,   so  that  Sun  nor  Moon  can  be  needed  there. 

For  as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive. 
Our  first  parents   broke   God's   law. 


Fearfully  fell  they, 
and  fell  was  their  penance; 
guilt  after,  gain'd  they 
but  God's  dread  wrath  and 
bale-sorrow  blasting; 
their  bairns,   time   thro, 
with  tears  deep   atoning 
their  taste  of  yon  apple  — 


the  Lord's  word   un- listed. 

Their  land  should   they   therefore, 

the   shining  and  sweet-deckt, 

sadly   abandon 

thro  grudge  of  the   hell- adder, 

grim   when   be-guil'd  he 

elders   our 

in  those  first  yore-days 


14 


THE    GARDEN    SO    GIVEN     BACK. 


thro  false-minded   framings; 
that  far  thence   those  wand'rers 
in  death's  outer  dale-home 
a  dwelling  mote  seek  them, 
seats  all  sorrowful. 
Soothly  was  given  them 


life  with  gloom   louring, 

(their  lea  ever  holy, 

fiends   thro   false-tung'd, 

lastly  y -barred 

winters   full   many) 

till,   the   worthy,   the  worshipful 


mankind's  great  mirth -spring, 
the  mood-weary's  cheerer 
earth  and  heaven's   only   hope 


by  hitherward  coming 

to  save  each  dear  saint-child, 

open   struck   it   once  more! 


HUT    THIS     CiAHIlKN     MUST    UK    FOUGHT    I  OH. 


15 


Hut  trow  not  that  this  can  be,  wlii]<-  re  onlj  look  on.  Faith  with- 
our  works  is  dead.  Ye  must,  fight  as  good  kemps  againsl  the  World,  the 
Flesh  and  the  Devil.  Kvil  men  and  evil  powers  are  round  about  us.  In  this 
land  few,  as  yet,  even  name  the  name  of  Christ.  Ye  walk  as  it  were  with 
your  life  in  your  hands,  for  often  must  we  seal  our  helief  with  a  baptism  of 
blood.     All  kinds  of  wickedness  and  cruelty,  savage  inroads,   burnings  of  home- 


—'"'?*■  :r™?C^gf^'-  ~\-^j  '-■ ' 


steads  and  of  the  poor  folk  therein,  with  theft  of  children  for  sale  in  pagan 
markets,  are  rife  around  us,  and  tempt  to  quick  gain  by  quick  means.  But 
all  these  things  are  the  drivings  of  demons,  the  fristings  of  fiends,  the  glamour 
of  ghost-trolls.  Against  all  such  stand  ye  fast.  Take  the  whole  armor  of  God, 
your  loins  girded  with  truth,  having  on  the  breastplate  of  righteousness,  your 
feet  shod  with  the  preparation  of  the   Gospel  of   peace,   and  wielding  fearlessly 


16  BUT    THIS    GARDEN    MUST    BE    FOUGHT    FOR. 

the  shield  of  faith,  the  helmet  of  salvation,  the  sword  of  the  spirit.  Sleep 
not.  Be  constant  in  heart.  On.  Cross-men,  on!  Let  each  one  he  a 
Christian    Thur! 

For  as  ye  have  the  White  Baldor,  the  wise  and  mighty  (W)Odin's 
son.  an  aftergleam  and  image  of  the  White  Christ,  the  spotless  son  of  the 
only  one  God,  the  Lord  of  Law  and  Right,  —  so  talk  ye  also  of  the  doughty 
Thu(no)r.  the  Asa-Thu(no)r.  the  aftergleam  and  image  of  Christ  the  Conqueror, 
Christ  who  smiteth  Satan,  who  standeth  alway  against  all  evil  things,  and 
hunteth  down  to  Hell  the  foul  flocks  warring  against  him.  As  each  good  glaive 
and  valiant  helt  among  our  fore- elders  hath  gladly  battled  on  the  side  of  one- 
eyed  (W)Oden  and  of  his  son  the  stalwart  Thu(no)r,  so  let  each  good 
swordsman  among  us  struggle  strongly  for  Allfather  and  for  Christ. 

Your  Thur  is  here.  Look!  in  his  forehead  are  still  bedded 
shivers  of  the  flintmace  hurled  against  him  by  the  skyhigh  llrugner.  Still  his 
red  Beard  frighteth  the  Monsters  afar.  Still  his  Megingjarder.  his  Belt  of 
Strength,  girdeth  him  round  about.  With  his  iron-gripe,  his  hand-shoe,  his 
adamantine  Glove,  still  graspeth  he  his  Mjolner,  the  famous  Dwarf-smithied 
short- hafted  Hammer,  flinging  it  with  unerring  aim  at  Ettins  and  Goblins,  while 
ever  it  runneth  back  to  his  fingers  again.  Still  handleth  he  the  Steer-oar  with 
which  he  helpt  so  wondrously  in  the  giant  Hrymer's  boat,  when  he  dasht  his 
death-mall  against  the  Midgarth  Worm,  the  World-snake,  whom  we  see  in  small 
under  his  right  arm.  And  strange  creatures,  his  foes  and  victims  aye,  from 
wild  and  wold  and  wood  and  cliff  and  crag  and  car,  are  near  him  above  his 
shoulders. 

Children,  whenever  ye  see  your  Thur,  resolve  to  be  no  less  daring 
and  dauntless  against  foul  wight  and  false  wanderer  and  fierce  waylayer  than 
he.  Ye  fight  hence-forth  under  a  nobler  chieftain,  a  deathless  captain,  Christ. 
Thu(no)r,  so  ye  siug  and  say.  in  the  last  dread  doomsday  shock,  the  weird  of 
the  world  and  its  gods,  shall  mightily  massacre  the  brood  of  the  Giantess,  yon 
infernal  Midgarth- dragon,  but  himself  falleth,  poisoned  by  the  streams  of  burn- 
ing etter  he  had  spewed  out  over  him.  Our  leader,  the  fair  Folk-Frea,  Christ 
the  Comforter,  shall  cast  the  Dragon-devil  into  the  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone 
along  with  Death  and  Hell,  and  shall  rule  triumphant,  King  and  Kaiser,  in  the 
Holy  City  of  the  New  Heaven  and  the  New   Earth! 

Only  so  will  Christ  acknowledge  you  as  His.  Only  so  can  ye  be  His 
mystical  members,  true  branches  grafted  into  Him  the  true  Vine.  Idle,  help- 
less, timeserving,  cowardly,  selfish,  mere  slaves  of  softness  and  sloth,  ye  are 
cut    off    from    Him    the    Holy   Tree.       Steadfast   for   Him,    living   and   dying   for 


SO    AKK    WK    (JHAITKI)    INTO    T1IK    Til  UK    VINK. 


17 


Him,  battling  for  Him  by  word  and  deed  and  a  pure  daily  ensample,  ye  shall, 
as  limbs,  have  part  in  the  sap  and  life  running  alway  thro  the  Vine  of  Heaven. 
I  am  the  True  Vine,  saith  the  high  and  holy  one;  my  Father  is  the  husband- 
man. The  branch  cannot  bear  fruit  except  it  abide  in  the  Vine.  Bear  ye 
abundantly  blossoms  of  righteousness  thro  Him  the  Righteous. 


g^^r^gg-'''"  ' -■yrZ.^g^zs. 


Here  is  the  Vine  on  this  granite  Font- book.  The  cunning  artificer 
hath  pourtrayed  it  well,  leaf,  tendril,  cluster,  the  rich  grape-group,  whose  wine's 
savor  is  Life  Everlasting.  Remember  we  this  alway,  resisting  the  Devil  that 
he  may  flee  from  us!  Make  we  the  Prince  of  Peace  our  pattern,  and  so  be 
knitted  to  Him  the  True  Vine  for  ever!  Then  are  we  one  with  Christ  and  He 
with  us,  thro  Love.  Love  is  stronger  than  death,  overcometh  all  things.  Faith, 
Hope,   Love;   but  the  greatest  of  these  is  Love.     What  shall  separate  us  from 


18 


ALL    THRU    CHRIST   THK    CRUCIFIED. 


the  love  of  Christ,  what  break  us  away  from  the  Heavenly  Vine?  I  trow, 
nothing  in  Heaven  or  Earth  or  Hell,  neither  principalities  nor  powers.  For 
He  is  faithful  and  just  to  keep  His  word  to  us.  Cleave  we  unto  Him,  lose 
we  never  His  almighty  help,  legions  of  His  Angels  keeping  watch  and  ward 
round  about  us.  To  Him  be  wuldor.  ore,  herying  and  lordship,  — glory,  honor, 
praise  and  dominion,    —    for  ever  and   for  aye!    So   be  it! 


But  all  this  is  in  and  thro  and  by  Christ,  Christ  the  Crucified,  as  I 
have  taught  ye  so  oft,  repeating  the  Holy  Creed  of  the  Apostles,  which  we 
will  hold  fast  till  our  life's  end.  Christ  is  greater  than  a  thousand  Thu(no)rs. 
He  shall  mightily  succor  His  people.  He  shall  uphold  and  comfort  them  in 
life  and  in  death,    giving   them    at    last   a   house  not  made    with  hands,    eternal 


ALL    THRO    CHRIST    THE    CRUCIFIED. 


1!) 


in  the  heavens.     This  Christ,  our  youthful  champion,  who  died    that  lie  might 
kill  Death  and  that  we  might  live,   hangs   in  effigj    there  on  the  Rood-tree. 

That  Cross  of  offence,  that  accursed  trunk,  that  gallows  of  shame 
and  sorrow,  hath  become  the  thrice-happy  Rood-token,  the  bright  Beacon, 
the  Christian's  battle-banner,  the  sign  of  Blessing  to  all  mid-earth.  See! 
Itself  the  fount  of  life  all  worlds  round,  it  buds  and  I. looms  and  breaks  forth 
about  Him  into  the  Stem  of  Life,  even  the  Tree  of  Paradise  lost  by  Adam, 
with  fruit  celestial  and  undying  foliage.  As  Adam  died,  SO  Christ  maketh 
alive.      The   king  of  kings  and   lord   of  lords   is    He.      Blessed   be    His   nam"! 


Tire  not  to  tellen 
of  the  Tree   of  (dory, 
where  the   Prince  of  Peace 
tholed  (suffered,  underwent)  His  Passion 
for  the   sins   many 
of  Man's  children, 
the  olden  misdeeds 
of  father  Adam. 

Death   He   there   tasted: 
but  the  Dreeten  (Lord)  thence  breaking, 
with    His   mickle  might    . 
for  the   help   of  man, 
to   Heaven  ascended. 
Here  will  He  eft  eke 
in  this  our  mid-earth 
mankind  visit 
on  the  Day  of  Doom, 
He  the  Dread- One, 
God  Almighty, 
and  His   Angels  with  Him. 
Who  bath  power   of  judgment   — 
so  will  judge  them, 
each  and  every, 
as  erewhile  here 
in  this  miserable  life 
their  deeds  merited. 


Pale  need  no  one, 
panic-stricken, 
at   the   words   which    then 
the   Waldend  (Ruler,  Lord)    speaketh. 
Fore    that   crowd    speireth  (asketh)  He 
whether  creature  be  any 
who  for  God's   name's   sake 
will  give   himself  up 
to   torment  and  death, 
as  on  the  Tree   lie   did. 
Pear  then  af-frayeth, 
and  few  bethink   them 
what  to  the  Saviour 
they  mo   say   or  answer. 
Yet  pale  need  no  one, 
panic-stricken, 
in  breast  who  e'er  beareth 
this  blessedest  token. 
Thro  the  Cross  each  Christian 
may   reach   the   Kingdom; 
soar  may  each  soul 
from  earth  skyward, 
if  to  wun  with  the   Waldend 
she  willeth  rightly. 


3* 


20  ALL    THRO    CHRIST    THE    CRUCIFIED. 

So  sang  my  gifted  landsman,  the  heaven  -  taught  shepherd  -  songster, 
England's  glory,  this  Northland's  child,  Csedmon  of  the  Angles  in  broad  North- 
umberland.    His   verses  never  leave  me.     Let  them  abide  with  you  also. 

And  now,  little  children,  the  grace  of  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with 
you   alway ! 


1  ought  to  apologize  to  my  reader  for  beginning  with  this  unexpected 
little  Homily,  to  some  perhaps  a  mere  rhapsody.  But  the  facts  are  before  us. 
The  carvings  of  the  Baptismal  Vessel  cannot  be  explained  away.  Such  a  Cate- 
chism-Font1),  undeniably  bearing  in  one  of  its  compartments  the  figure  of  a  chief 
Scando-Gothic  God,  is  unique2),  must  have  a  meaning,  and  demands  exposition.  This 
can  only  be  done  by  using  the  oldest  Christian  symbolisation,  and  by  reference 
to  the  time  and  place  when  the  Font  was  made.  I  may  not  everywhere  have 
entirely  succeeded  in  every  detail.  But  1  think  that,  on  the  whole,  the  signi- 
fication must  be  nearly  as  I  have  suggested.  Perhaps  others  may  find  some 
better  clue.  Every  olden  relic,  however,  must  be  interpreted  in  an  atmosphere, 
a  light,  of  its  own.  This  is  the  case  with  mere  heathen  remains,  and  not  less 
so  with  Christian.  In  fact  I  did  not  know  how  easier  and  better  to  interpret 
the  long  roll  of  symbol-figures  here  carved  on  the  graystone,  than  to  place  the 
whole  by  itself  first  of  all,  as  a  continuous  little  address  by  the  simple  Priest 
standing  before  the  Dip-stone. 


Something  like  the  words  to  the  engravings  may  then  well  have  been 
the  language  often  used  by  the  English  missionary- priest  or  his  Scandinavia- 
born  disciple,  now  himself  a  teacher  of  his  countrymen,  when  evangelizing  the 
Gothic  clans  in  this  part  of  Sweden,  the  cradle  of  Christianity  in  that  land. 
Effort  after  effort  would  be  made,  every  fitting  opportunity  used,  to  teach  the 
people;  not  least  by  expounding  the  things  used  in  the  little  church.      All  early 


*)  This  expression  is  here  taken  in  its  primitive  meaning  of  oral  instruction  in  the  elements  of 
the  Christian  faith.  It  gradually  obtained  other  significations.  Its  present  use,  in  the  sense 
of  a  short  written  or  printed  outline  or  explanation,  is  quite  modern,  in  a  happy  moment 
introduced   by   the  great   Reformer   Martin   Luther. 

*)  A  couple  of  small  Bronze  statues  of  taranis,  the  Gallic  Hammer-bearing  Thunder-god, 
answering  to   the   Scando-Gothic  tbtjnor,   have   been   found   in   France. 


COMMENT   ON   THE    EXPLANATION.  21 

Christian  art  was  a  hornbook  and  more  <>r  less  symbolical,  helping  to  gather  folk 
into  the  fold.  Especially  at  Baptism  would  kinsfolk  and  Strangers,  some  of  them 
maybe  not  yet  converted,  be  present,  as  well  as  the  small  households  of 
believers. 

Hence  in  old  Christian  lauds,  especially  in  our  North,  is  the  Dip- 
stone  often  so  exceptionally  decorated.  In  spite  of  the  vandalisms  of  centuries, 
no  part  of  Europe  has  even  yet  so  many  costly  Fonts  -  usually  of  simple 
granite   or   wood   and   of  rough   or  even    « barbarous"  execution  as  Scandinavia. 

England's  very  early  « civilisation »  and  o'high  farming"  has  destroyed  almost 
all  our  very  oldest  Fonts.  The  time  will  come  when  these  precious  Scandi- 
navian relics  will  be  collected  and  publisht1).  Many  of  them  bear  Runic  In- 
scriptions, while  as  yet  we  have  only  found  two  bearing  runes  in  England. 
Some  have  words  or  sentences  in  Roman  characters.  Most  of  those  in  Scan- 
dinavia down  to  about  the  14th  century  and  in  England  down  to  about  the 
11th,  are  in  various  ways  remarkable.  I  myself  have  seen  great  numbers,  in 
the  original  or  in  drawings;  but  never,  in  any  part  of  Europe,  one  so  remarkable 
as  this  from  Ottrava. 

For  the  Holy  Stone  here  before  us  belonged  to  the  old  C  bun di  at 
otthava  in  the  diocese  of  Skara,  West  Gotland,  Sweden.  But  the  old  un- 
barbarized  name,  down  to  1397,  was  otervad,  Otter  Wade,  the  Ford  of  the  Otter. 
This  Church  was  taken  down  in  1813,  and  its  sandstone  materials  were  used 
in  building  the  large  new  Church  at  Dimbo,  which  is  now  the  temple  for  the 
whole  rectory.  The  Rev.  M.  Florell  took  care  of  the  old  Font,  which  lay 
neglected  in  Ottrava  church-yard,  and  had  it  removed  to  Dimbo.  Here  it  was 
examined  by  the  Rev.  Claes  Johan  Ljungstr5m  in  1875,  and  that  active  archaeo- 
logist sent  me  in  Dec.  1875  a  full-size  tracing  of  the  figures.  I  explained  them 
to  him,  and  in  October  1877  he  publisht  a  short  account  of  the  Doop-stone, 
with  a  very  small  engraving  of  the  compartments.  See  his  valuable  work: 
"Wartofta  Hiirad  och  Staden  Falkoping»,   Lund   1877,  4to  p.    159 — 161. 

This  precious  Baptismal  Basin  is  of  granite,  about  2  feet  high,  2 
feet  8  inches   in  diameter,   and   5   inches    thick.     The  base  has  not  been  found. 


x)  Of  course  a  good  many  have  appeared  from  time  to  time  in  Scandinavia,  scattered  thro  all 
sorts  of  publications  and  often  far  from  correctly  engraved,  or  only  a  part  of  the  sculpturing 
given.  What  we  want  is  a  carefully  drawn  systematic  series  of  all  having  any  interest,  and 
enumerations  —  with  specimens  —  of  the  rest.  A  good  instalment  has  this  moment  reacht 
me,  13  of  the  oldest  Fonts  in  Bohuslan,  Sweden,  ( « Bohuslanska  Dopfuntam,  from  drawings 
by  G.  Brusewitz,  with  text  by  Dr.  0.  Montelius,  pp.  425 — 446  of  «Goteborgs  och  Bohuslans 
Fornminnen  och   Historian.      1876,   1877    —   8vo.   Stockholm   1877). 


22 


COMMENT    ()N    THE    EXPLANATION. 


By  analogy  with  other  such,  it  probably  bore  a  Runic  Inscription  —  at  least 
the  name  of  the  stone-smith.  The  date  is  about  the  year  1000,  or  very  early 
in  the  11th  century.  It  is  now  preserved  in  the  National  Museum.  Stockholm, 
to  which  it  came  by  purchase. 

Anxious  to  obtain  materials  entirely  trustworthy,  I  was  fortunate  enough 
to  gain  the  assistance  of  a  distinguisht  Swedish  antiquarian  artist,  with  many 
years'  experience  in  this  kind  of  work,  Heir  Olof  Erlandsson  of  Skara  in  West 
Gotland.  In  the  summer  of  187(i  he  spent  some  time  for  me  at  Dimbo,  and 
made  the  careful  and  beautiful  drawings  which  are  here  given,  engraved  on 
wood  by  Herr   I.   F.  Rosenstand  of  Cheapinghaven. 

That  we  may  form  a  good  idea  of  its  general  appearance,  I  here  add 
a  view  of  the  piece  as  it  stands,   with  its  figures  cut  in  relief: 


I  also  give  a  profile  of  the  Basin: 


COM  Ml  M    OS    THE    EXPLANATION.  23 

Ami  of  the  bottom  of  the   Dipping  stone,   Been  from  above: 


1  Cartouche.  The  Fall.  As  the  Worm,  Dragon,  Snake,  &c.  plays  so 
great  a  part  in  Northern  Art  and  Mythology,  the  artist  has  taken  the  shortest 
and   simplest  symbol,   only  the  Serpent.      Observe   the   Apple  in  its   mouth. 

2  Cartouche.  The  Restoration.  Holy  Baptism.  A  Priest  with  Cross 
uplift.  His  left  hand  holds  the  Gospels.  The  carved  verse  is  from  S,  Mark's 
Gospel,   ch.    16,   v.  16: 

QVI    CREDIDERIT    ET    LSATJZATVS    FVERIT    SALVVS    ERIT. 

Remark  the  slurring  of  the  p.  the  rare  old  type  for  z  and  the  small 
s,   —   in  ba(p)tiz.\tvs. 

3  Cartouche.  Confirmation.  Bishop  seated  on  his  chair,  right  hand 
uplift  to   bless,   left  grasping  the   Holy   Book. 

4  Cartouche.  Heavenly  Mysteries.  Saint  John  the  Celestial,  above  the 
Rainbow.      Stands  as  a  bust  in   profile,   Cross  in   hand  '). 


')  The  learned  Danish  Priest  Karl  J.  Brandt  kindly  suggests  that  this  field  represents  «the 
great  prayer  of  the  Church.  »Our  Father™,  in  the  name  of  Christ  the  Crucified".  This  idea 
is  worthy  of  attention.  But  I  cannot  accept  it.  uOur  Father »  must  surely  be  comprehended 
in  the  Church's  teaching  under  the  first  compartment.  Baptism.  And  the  sculpture  itself  for- 
bids it.  We  there  do  not  see  the  Crucified  ;  there  is  no  glory  or  any  other  emblem  tokening 
Our  Lord,   still   less   Christ  on    the   Cross.       The    figure    is    either    that    of  a   simple   Priest  - 


24  COMMENT   ON   THE    EXPLANATION. 

5  Cartouche.  Paradise  restored.  We  see  the  (wattle-built)  wall  or  gate  of 
the  Garden,  the  Tree  of  Life  within,  and  the  outflowing  4  Rivers  emblemizing  the 
4  Evangelists.  This  last  bold  and  touching  type  is  the  oldest  of  all  for  the 
Gospelers,  and  one  of  the  earliest  symbols  known  to  the  Christian  Church. 
From  the  narrow  space  and  to  spare  hard  stone-work,  the  Rivers  are  treated 
conventionally  and  are  not  exactly   four.1) 

The  stave-rime  verses  introduced  are  lines  811  —  844  of  my  line-for- 
line  and  metre-for-metre  version  of  a  charming  Old-English  poem  of  the  10th 
or  11th  yearhundred.  See  pp.  32,  33  of  «The  King  of  Birds;  or  the  Lay  of 
the  Phoenix »,   printed  pp.256 — 322  of  Archaelogia,   Vol.30,   London   1844,  4to. 

We  must  remember  that  all  Scandinavia  was  chiefly  converted  by 
English  missionaries,  partly  direct  from  England,  partly  indirect  from  their  sta- 
tions in  Germany.  Frisland  eVc,  which  they  lookt  upon  as  stepping-stones  to  further 
progress  northward.  Hence  the  crowd  of  manuscripts  in  Germany,  written  by 
Englishmen  or  copied  by  their  disciples,  containing  Runic  Alphabets  for  their 
use  in  Scandinavia,  where  alone  —  and  in  its  colony  England  —  Runes  were 
ever  heard  of.  The  first  considerable  and  successful  Christian  mission  in  Swe- 
den was  in  West  Gotland,  whither  also  came  among  other  Angles  the  inde- 
fatigable and  loving  Saint  Sigfrid,  consecrated  Bishop  for  that  mission  in  York. 
After  the  selfsacrificing  labors   of  half  a  century  he  died  somewhere  about  1030. 

6  Cartouche.  Thu(no)r.  In  Scandinavia  and  part  of  England  the 
older  thunor  and  WODEN  early  gave  way  to  the  easier  slurred  forms  thur  (thor) 
and  oden  (odin).  The  former  we  still  keep  in  our  Thursday,  while  the  latter 
has  kept  its  w  in  our  Wednesday,  the  days  especially  allotted  to  their  worship. 
All  the  details  here  are  quite  plain.  The  well-known  legends  about  Thu(no)r 
will  be  found  in  the  Eddas  and  elsewhere.      Striking  is  Thu(no)r's   Beard.     All 


■which  cannot  be,  for  we  plainly  have  the  Priest  in  the  2nd  stall  —  or  else  it  is  an  Evan- 
gelist. But  the  Rainbow  belongs  to  St.  John  as  the  Heavenly  Teacher,  »the  Eagle  John 
who  scanned  the  divine  naturen. 
2)  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  oldest  emblem  of  the  4  Evangelists  was  the  4  Rivers  of  Paradise. 
This  is  earlier  than  the  Tetramorph,  the  4  Living  Creatures  in  Ezekiel"s  visions,  or  than 
these  united  in  one  figure,  but  afterwards  simplified  as  the  Apocalyptic  Lion,  Calf,  Man  and 
Eagle,  which  first  commenced  in  the  5th  century  and  were  not  separately  attributed  to  separate 
Evangelists  till  long  after.  We  find  these  4  Rivers  on  some  of  the  most  antique  works  of 
Christian  art,  among  others  the  famous  Lateran  Cross,  a  mosaic  whose  original  dates  from 
the  time  of  Constantine.  The  4  Books  or  Rolls  also  occur,  as  symbolizing  the  4  Evan- 
gelists, on  very  early  art-works.  The  4  Rivers  are  often  found  united  as  one  Jordan,  in 
union   with   other  signs   connected   with   Baptism. 

Nor    can   I    think    that    the    figure  o?ily  or  chiefly  refers    to    the   New  Jerusalem    in    the 
Revelations   of  St.   John. 


COMMENT   ON    THE    EXPLANATION.  25 

the   other   heads   are    beardless.      Bui   the   DIP-STONE    ie    more  than  '.'Oil  years  OLDER 
than   the   oldest  Codex   of  the   oldest  or   Poetical   Edda.') 

7  Cartouche.  The  Vine,  the  very  oldest  Christian  symbol  of  Our  Lord 
and  His   Church. 

8  Cartouche.  Ihe  Crucifixion.  The  \  ontlifulness  of  the  figure  and 
the  feet  separated,  are  proofs  of  great  antiquity  in  the  treatment,  which  is 
highly  conventional,   not  even  the  nails  being  given. 

The  stave-rime  verses,  line-for-line  and  metre-for-metre,  are  lines 
195 — 244  of  the  magnificent  «The  Holy  Rood,  a  Dream ».  written  in  Old-North- 
English  by  the  sublime  Poet  Csedmon,  perhaps  about  the  middle  of  the  7th 
century,  lie  died  about  A.  D.  G80.  The  commencing  lines  of  this  lay,  in  Old-* 
North-English,  are  inscribed  in  runes  on  the  Ruthvvell  Cross  in  the  extreme 
north  of  old  Northumbria  (now  in  south  Scotland),  whose  date  is  about  680. 
But  the  whole  poem  is  only  extant  in  a  South-English  transcript  of  the  10th 
century.  See  engravings  of  the  Cross,  all  4  sides,  the  lay  itself  and  my  notes 
and  version,  in  my  « Old-Northern  Runic  Monuments  of  Scandinavia  and  Eng- 
land", Vol.  1,  folio,  London  18G7,  pp.  405—448,  —  this  section  also  pub- 
lisht  separately  as  a  pamphlet.  —  The  biblical  and  traditionary  subjects 
sculptured  on  this  Ruthwell  Cross  are  many  and  remarkable.  Among  them 
is   The    Vine2). 


1)  Pastor  Brandt  will  also  give  to  tin's  compartment  a  reference  to  Penitence,  hot  and  bettering. 
At  all  events  he  is  right  in  thinking  that  the  monsters  may  additionally  symbolize  in  the 
olden   Church  the  7   Deadly   Sins. 

2)  Pastor  Brandt  is  inclined  to  look  upon  the  7th  and  8th  fields  as  symbolizing  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per, the  True  Vine  as  introductory  thereto  and  the  Body  of  Our  Lord  as  a  fruit  on  the 
Tree  of  Life.  He  thinks  the  Catechism  will  be  then  clearer.  But  this  seems  to  me  far  too 
narrow.      We  expect  the   Sacrament  of  the   Altar   under   Confirmation. 

The  Vine  was  always  chiefly  the  mystical  union  with  Christ.  The  Cross  became  very 
early  more  than  a  simple  Rood.  Where  it  was  not  a  short  and  rich  sign  of  Christ  Himself, 
it  was  a  token  for  Eternal  Life,  Paradise  Regained.  This  idea,  which  is  perhaps  much 
older,  meets  us  as  well  known  in  the  5th  century  in  the  popular  apocryphal  tiospel  of  Nico- 
demus  (or  the  Acts  of  Pilate).  Part  2.  Here  the  author  speaks  of  Seth's  visit  to  Paradise, 
to  seek  the  Oil  of  Mercy  wherewith  to  cure  his  dying  lather  Adam.  But  the  Angel 
answered,  that  this  Oil  —  in  the  shape  of  the  Tree  of  Mercy,  the  Tree  of  Lite  —  should 
one  day  be  given  thro  the  God-man,  and  that  Paradise  should  in  this  way  be  opened  to 
Adam  and  his  children.  This  conception  soon  rapidly  spread,  in  many  and  various  shapes, 
thro  all  the  Christian  world.  It  was  well  known  to  the  great  Englishman  the  Venerable 
Bede  (672—735),  whose  writings  were  devoured  by  the  Western  Churches.  It  is  found  in 
Scandinavia  in  the  old  Swedish  Legendarium  (last  half  of  13th  century);  but  older  Scandi- 
navian works  of  a  similar  character  have  disappeared.  Specially  as  regards  the  treatment 
of  the  Cross  itself  in  Christian  art,  we  have  this  emblem  as  far  back  as  the  6th  and  7th 
century  on  the  Monza  Oil-flasks,  on  the  Cross  in  the  Baptistery  in  St.  Pontianus,  and  else- 
where,   where   it   appears   as   a    flowering   tree,    from    whose    stem    spriug   forth    leaves   and    fruit. 

4 


26  THUNOB    AMI    HIS    EMBLEMS. 

Iii  order  to  understand  the  introduction  of  Thu(no)r  on  a  Christian 
Font,  we  must  realize  tliat  in  this  very  early  period  in  Scandinavia  Heathendom 
ivas  all  around,  living  and  strong  and  warlike.  The  congregations  of  the  faith- 
ful were  few  and  far  between,  ilands  as  it  were  in  a  sea  of  pagandom.  The 
Church  was  only  slowly  making  its  way.  The  whole  air  was  pagan,  the  lan- 
guage itself  of  a  necessity  largely  pagan  —  full  of  words  and  phrases  rooted 
in  the  olden  national  belief  —  like  Greek  in  the  time  of  Saint  Paul.  Many 
of  these  pagan  technical  expressions  were  naturally  taken  up  bodily  in  the 
service  of  the  Church,  some  have  subsisted  in  England  itself  down  to  our  own 
day.  Then  heathen  names  of  things  and  festivals  &e.  were  slightly  altered  or 
imitated  or  translated  (the  name  of  a  Saint  substituted  for  that  of  a  God  or 
Goddess  and  so  on).  This  was  the  case  in  all  the  Scando-Gothic  lands.  It 
has  been  the  case  to  some  extent  everywhere.  Even  Finland  calls  God,  rightly 
and  beautifully,  Jumala.  I  have  already  pointed  out  that  Csedmon,  in  his  lines 
on  the  Ruthwell  Cross,  while  singing  —  as  only  he  could  sing  —  the  death 
of  Christ  on  the  Cross,  actually  describes  the  death  of  the  Christ  of  his  heathen 
forefathers,   Baldor,   slain  and  pierced  by  the  Mistleto! 

We  must  also  remember,  (to  appreciate  the  simple  broad  Bible-truths 
uttered  by  the  good  Priest  and  understood  by  his  flock),  that  the  early  Anglo- 
Scandic  Church  had  all  the  great  pillars  of  the  faith,  as  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  the  Doxologies  and  such,  recited  in  the  service,  in  the 
vulgar  tuxg1).  We  have  still  such  things  —  in  spite  of  destruction  endless 
—  in  England  from  the  9th  century  downwards,  in  Scandinavia  from  the  12th 
century  downwards.  Nay,  many  Old  and  Early  English  Homilies  were  in  stave- 
rime  verse,  the  grand  national  metre,  the  better  to  catch  the  ear  of  the  com- 
mon people. 


')  This  is  independent  of  Hymns,  ifcc,  and  of  Biblical  books  or  Lections  therefrom.  Of  the 
latter  the  oldest  bits  left  in  Norway-Iceland  are  from  the  close  of  the  12th  century,  in  Swe- 
den from  the  14th,  in  Denmark  from  the  15th.  In  England  the  oldest  left- axe  from  the  9th 
and  10th,  in  Old-North-English  and  Old-South-English,  besides  the  Psalms  in  0.  S.  E.  in  both 
Prose  and  Verse.  But  all  our  Northern  lands  have  lost  much  older.  What  (how  many  o mil- 
liards » )  would  we  not  give  for  a  copy  of  the  Venerable  Bede's  translation  (in  0.  N.  E.)  of 
St.  John's  Gospel,  whose  last  verse  he  penned  just  before  he  died?  This  great  and  good  man 
fell  asleep  in  735.  And  as  St.  John  is  the  4th  Gospel,  Bede  had  probably  already  trans- 
lated the  other  3.  But  nowhere  is  it  said  that  this  was  the  first  version  in  England.  The 
rubrics  in  the  0.  E.  Gospels  distinctly  point  out  what  portions  were  to  be  redd  in  the 
Churches  on  particular  days.  The  oldest  existing  Scando-Gothic  Bible  books  are  the  Mfeso- 
Gothic,  translated  by  Bishop  Wulfila  about  A.  I).  360.  And  these,  tho  considerable,  are 
only   fragments. 


THUNOH    USD    Mis    I AII'.i.I.ms.  27 

There  i.s  therefore,  as  far  as  I  can  sec,  aothing  strange  or  unlikely 
m  the  words  here  hypothetically  addrest  by  the  West-Gotland  Priest  to  liis 
Christian  Bock. 


THU(NO)R  AND   HIS   EMBLEMS. 


As  we  see,  the  great  feature  of  this  Font  is  the  figure  of  Thu(no)r. 
This  popular  God  has  hitherto  only  been  found,  in  the  art-efforts  of  our  fore- 
fathers, as  it  were  in  short-hand,  in  a  general  way  or  by  some  symbol.  Far 
be  it  from  me  to  enter  upon   the  whole  question  of  Thu(no)r  and   his  worship, 

and  the  references  to  him  in  tradition  and  in  the  written  prose  and  verse  still 
left  to  us.  But  it  cannot  he  amiss  here  to  gather  up  some  notices  of  the  Art- 
works  relating  to  him  up  to  this  time.  They  have  of  course  been  observed 
chiefly  in  the  Scandinavian  home-land,  which  was  Christianized  hundreds  of 
years  after  its  colony  England. 

Taking  these  things  as  shortly  and  simply  as  we  can,  we  will  group 
them  as  follows: 

A.     THE    HEAD   OF  THU(NO)R. 

The  first  example')   will   he  the  heathen  stone  at 

SKJERN,     NORTH     JUTLAND,     DENMARK. 

This  I  have  already  made  public  in  my  « Old-Northern  Runic  Monu- 
ments of  Scandinavia  and  England",  folio,  Vol.  2,  p.  788  —  791,  to  which  I 
refer  for  details.  It  is  probably  from  the  9th  century,  and  is  5  feet  high  by 
,".  feet  broad,  and  from  2  to  16  inches  thick.  The  drawing  was  made  by  Kruse 
in  1856,  but  3  letters  are  here  corrected,  from  a  fresh  drawing  by  Prof.  J.  M. 
Petersen  in   1869.      First  we  have  the  body  of  the  granite  block: 


l)  At  p.  741  of  my  Old-Northern  Runic  Monuments,  Vol.  2,  I  have  given  an  engraving  of  a 
large  rock  in  Sweden  (Lagnii,  Aspo,  Soderinanland).  of  which,  by  the  kindness  of  Baron  O. 
Hernielin,  I  have  since  obtained  a  very  large  and  still  more  careful  drawing.  The  central 
figure,  carved  on  the  rock  with  the  runic  risting,  is  a  naked  man  with  immense  mustachioes. 
But  as  this  shape  has  no  beard,  and  no  single  attribute  of  any  kind,  and  may  be  the  bild 
of  the  deceast  or  a  mere  fantastic  sketch,  I  omit  it  here.  It  was  however  doubtless  cut 
in   heathen   times. 

i* 


28 


THUNOR    AND    HIS    EMBLEMS 


THUNOB    AND    MIS    EMBLEMS. 


29 


In   the  center   is    the  Head    of  Thu(nor),    wil<l    ati<l  bearded.      There   is 
no  manner   of  doubt    that   he   is    here    introduced  and   invoked  to  l,less  and  pro- 
tect the  deceast,   and   his   tumulus,   grave-stone  and   other   funeral  marks. 
The  Skjern  runes  are  large  and   plain: 
SO  skikah;    BISW   stin,    FTNULFS  tutik,    at  UMNKAUR,    usiwakna/i  sun,   DO.fi  TUBA, 

UK    filN    TUUU'I'IN    FASTA. 

Whether  we  divide  so  skikuk,  <>r  soskikaI'K  as  one  word,  the  meaning 
of  the  whole  sentence  will  be  the  same.  Then  comes,  here  given  separately, 
the  top   of  the   block: 


SII>1    SA    MONR    IS    I>USI    KDBL    UB    HIRUTl! 
The  meaning  of  the  whole   runic   risting  wdll  be: 

SHE  SKIRATH  RAISED  this- STONE,  FINULFS  DAUGHTER,  AT  (to,  in  memory  of)  UTHIN- 
KAVR  USBIARNS  SON,    THE  DEAR,  EKE  (and)    ONE    (a)    DREETEN    ( Lord,     Htisband)    FAST    (true, 

faithful). 

sith  (wander,  be-outlaived,  banned  and  rightless  be)  sa  (that)  man  as  (who) 
these  CUMBELS  (these  grave-marks,  how  and  stones)  vp  may-BRETE  (may  dare  to  break 
or  desecrate)! 

We  have  a  similar  formula  of  curse  against  the  despoiler  of  the  tomb 
on  the  stones  at  Glimminge,  Skane,  Sweden;  Glavendrup,  Fyn,  Denmark;  and 
Tryggevselde,  Sealand,  Denmark;  and  it  is  explained  by  me  in  my  Old-N.  R. 
Mon.  Vol.  2,  p.  697  —  701. 

The  second  is   the  heathen   runic   monolith  at 
LUND,     SKANE,     SWEDEN, 

engraved  and  described  by  me  in  my  0.  N.  R.  Mon.  2,  p.  749.  I  here  repeat 
the  woodcuts,  but  remark  that  Bruzelius  (Saml.  til  Skanes  Hist.  Lund  1871, 
p.   148)  has   shown  that  the  drawing  I  engraved  (Sjoborg's)  is  not  quite  correct 


30 


TH0NOB    AND    HIS    EMBLEMS. 


m  the  oriental  parts      However,  we  1 bere  tie WM  Brf  Face 

of  Thu(no)r  the  Protector  of  the  Deed: 


lllllMli;     AND     HIS     KMIil.KMS. 


31 


I  'In-  inscription   plainly   reads: 

MJRKISL,    sun    iskis    BIARNAfl    SUNAB,    RIST1    ST(lNO)    D(lSl)    I'Mii:    BBTOR    BINO    n\M 

I   HF    UK     UTAH.     I.ANMITII     KI'I'V. 
Till  IIKISI    (        Till  III. ISI  ).    SOh   of  (SKIR   (       ANSGAIR)   MARKS  SON,  RAISED  STONE  THIS 

after  (in  memory  of)  brothers  sine  (his}  with  (his  t"-<>  brothers)  vlai  eke  {and)  vtar, 
landmen  (Land-guards,  Officers,  or  landholders,  freeholders,  yeomen)  good. 


32  THUNOR  AND  HIS  EMBLEMS. 

I  add.  as  contrast,  the  remarkable  stone  raised  in  the  first  half  of 
the  11th  century  at 

VALLEBERGA,  SKANE,  SWEDEN. 

It  was  given  by  me  in  my  0.  N.  R.  Mon.  Vol.  2,  p.  820,  and  afterwards 
by  N.  G.  Bruzelius  (Saml.  till  Skanes  Hist.  8vo.  Lund  1873,  p.  3).  It  stood 
on  a  cenotaph,  not  a  grave,  for  it  expressly  says  that  the  deceast  were  lying 
entombed  in  London. 

We  see  that  it  bears  a  very  common  Cross-type,  the  Cross  Patte, 
but  on  its  upper  limb  rests  a  Beardless  Head  with  mild  features.  This  I  look 
upon  as  overgang,  a  trasitional  treatment  on  so  early  a  block.  The  Head  of 
Christ  has  taken  the  place  of  the  Head  of  Thu(no)r,  while  the  Hammer-mark 
of  the  Thunderer  has  given  way  to  the  Cross-mark  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 
It  is  a  charming  conventional  treatment,  Christ  on  the  Cross  in  small '). 

The  runes  on  the  chief  side  say: 

SUIN    AUK    TURGUTR    KJAURMJ    KDML    flSI   1FTIR    MANA    AUK    SUIN1. 

say  eke  (and)  tdbgvt  cared  (made)  clmbels  (grave-marks)  these  after  mani  eke  suin. 
The  continuation  on  the  back  is: 

KUI>    HIALBI    SIAUL    £IKA    UEL.        IAN    EEfi    LIGIA    I    LUNTUNUM. 
GOD  HELP  S0VL{S)  THEIR   WELL     IN  (but)  THEY  LIE  IN  LONDON. 

But  I  also  class  here  an  amulet-type  which  meets  us  in  the  Later 
Iron   Age.       Dr.   H.   Hildebrand2)    and    after    him   Dr.    0.    Montelius3)    have    en- 


1)  As  we  all  know,  on  the  famous  and  colossal  runestone  at  Jellinge  in  Jutland,  Denmark, 
raised  by  Harald  Blue-tooth  to  his  father  king  Gorm  tho  Old  in  the  10th  century,  one  side 
bears  on  a  very  large  scale  Christ  on  the  cross.  But  the  treatment  is  highly  conventional. 
There  is  in  fact  no  Cross,  only  ornamental  winds  and  knots.  But  the  meaning  doubtless 
was,  that  the  whole  should  represent  the  Crucifixion:  only  in  the  antique,  rich  and  symboli- 
cal form,  that  the  Cross  is  visibly  blooming  and  changing  into  the  Tree  of  Life,  exactly  as 
on  the  Ottrava  Font.  Now  the  Jellinge  monument  is  much  older  than  the  Ottrava,  and  the 
treatment  is   proportionally   more    ■ barbaric »    and   Northern-national. 

2)  Fdlhagen-fyndet  (Ant.   Tidskr.   f.    Sverige,  3,   101). 
s)    Sveriges   Forntid    (Atlas.   2,   Nos.   595,   605,   606). 


i  HUNOB    \M>   ins    i:\nn  i  \i - . 


:;:; 


graved    3   of  these    pieces.       All    arc    of  silver,    found    in    (Jutland,    tdven    full    size, 
and  arc  here  Heliotyped   by   Pacht.  Twelve  such  were  found  at  Folhagen. 

These   pendants,    probably   for   the   neck,    show    the    Head  of  a   Man. 
conventionally  treated  with  head-work  &C,  but  all  with  what    is  meant    for  n  Heard, 


The  next  class  of  these  pieces  is: 

A.     TIIU(NO)R'S  HEAD  AND  I1AMMER. 

Of  this  I  have  only  one  example,  the  heathen  engraved  rock  at 
A 15  V,  sOdermanland,  swkden, 
given  by  me  in  my  0.  N.  K.  Mon.  2,  p.  670,  G71,  but  without  any  drawing. 
It  is  only  known  to  me  by  the  woodcut  in  (ioransson's  Bautil,  No.  7GG,  of 
which  I  here  copy  the  central  part,  Heliotyped  by  Pacht.  By  his  scale  it  was 
about  1G  feet  high  and  the  runic  band  about  8  inches  high.  Accordingly  the 
letters  must  have  been  very  plain,  and  his  drawing  seems  absolutely  correct, 
save  a  mere  woodcutter's  error  in  the  word  fraubiurn,  where  by  a  false  stroke 
the  P  has  become  K.  It  seems  from  the  10th  century.  Liljegren  (No.  993)  had  no 
other  authority  than  Bautil.  Here  we  have,  boldly  cut,  the  Head  of  Thu(no)r 
the  Protector,  with  miistachioes  and  peakt  Beard,  and  below  his  Hammer.  — 
For  another  example  of  the  sioun  for  SEVEN,  with  the  N  still  left,  see  the  Sten- 
quista  stone,   farther  on.  , 


34 


II I  r  NOR    AND    HIS    EMBLEMS. 


Correcting  the  k.   as   above  said,   the  runes  are: 


ASMUNTR    AUK    ERAUBIURN    LITU    KIRA    MAKI    STOUTS'    AT    HERBIURN,    FA1>UR    SIN. 

ashunt  i .i.v\i//.v/i.  eke  i  um  mi  n v  let  care  (make,  raise)  these-grave-MARKS  seven 

AT    (to)    HEIIBHRN,  FATHER  SIN  (their). 

Often  several  standing  stones,  besides  the  rune-bearer,  were  raised 
to  the  dead,  and  sometimes  the  number  is  spoken  of  in  the  epigraph.  Thus 
we  have  endlessly  one.  sometimes  two  or  both,  then  seven  and  many  and  all. 
On  one,  the  Ek  stone.  West-Gotland.  Sweden,  we  have  a  stone-bridge  and 
thirty  marks! 

Pass  we  now  to  the   Amulets   or  breast-ornaments   already    spoken  of.' 
Some  of  these,  like  the  Stone,   have  the    Hammer  as  well  as  the  Head.     I  first 
engrave  one,   of  silver  strongly  gilt,   found  in   1877  in 

SKANE.     SWEDEN. 


It  is  here  given  full  size,  Chemityped  by  Prof.  Magnus  Petersen  from 
an  Electrotype  in  the  possession  of  Herr  Steffensen,  Conservator  to  the  Danish 
Museum.  The  original  is  in  the  collection  of  Viscount  Arvid  Kurck,  skane. 
It  is  doubly  interesting  as  being  a  copy's  copy  of  a  piece  which  was  founded 
on  the  Classical  Thunor.  jupiter  ammon,  so  well  known  to  the  « barbarians »  from 
the  Alexander  Coins,  as  well  as  in  other  ways  ').  As  we  now  see  it,  the  type 
is  being  degraded  into  the  shape  of  a  Bird. 

The  second  offers  no  such  capricious  variation.  Head  and  Hammer 
are  perfect.      It  comes  from  a  rich  find  in   1875  at 

ERIKSTORP,    EAST    GOTLAND,    SWEDEN. 


*)    Just  as  taranis   (the   Gallic  thctjor)    has    also    been    found    bearing    attributes   of  the   Classical 
herccles.      The  influence   of  Classic   Art  and   Mythology   was   very  great,   far  and    wide. 


THUNOR    AND    Ills    I  uisu-.us. 


35 


It  is  here  copied,  full  size,  from  an  engraving  (p.  504)  illustrating  an 
interesting  paper  by  Dr.  H.  Hildebrand,  in  the  Swedish  «Mauadsblad»  for  July 
— August  1877.  The  Heliotype  is  by  Paeht.  It  is  of  silver,  parcel-gilt.  The 
treasure  to  which   it  belonged  was  buried  about  the  year   1000. 

For  the  loan  of  the  next  2  blocks  I  have  to  thank  Dr.  H.  Petersen. 
(See  his   work,    p.  76,   78).      The   one  represents  a  similar  piece  found  at 

BREDSATTRA,    6 LAND,    SWEDEN. 


36  THU.NOK    AM)    HIS    EMBLEMS. 

It  is  of  silver,   and  is  engraved  in  the  Atlas  2  of  Dr.  Montelius,  No.  628, 
a.    The  Head  is  still  quite  distinguishable,  in  spite  of  the  conventional  treatment 
Lastly  I  add  one  found  in   1874  at 

MANDEMARK,    MON,    DENMARK. 


This  piece,  of  silver,  is  decorated  with  golden  plates  prest  in  and 
hangs  in  a  golden  ring.  The  eyes  are  of  gold,  inlaid,  and  on  the  forehead 
are  inlaid  3  golden  stripes,  exactly  as  on  the  head  of  Thu(no)r  on  the  Font. 
I  take  them,  here  also,  to  represent  the  fragments  of  the  Giant's  Flint-mace. 
At  all  events  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  figure  was  intended  to  represent 
a  Human  Head  close  on  to  Thu(no)r's  Hammer. 

Then  we  have  the  simple  symbol 

C.     THU(NO)RS  HAMMER  ALONE. 
Beginning  with  Runic  Stones,   we  come  to  that  at 

HANNING,    NORTH    JUTLAND,    DENMARK. 

For  the  loan  of  this  Chemitype  I  am  again  indebted  to  Dr.  H.  Pe- 
tersen, who  has  publisht  it  in  his  valuable  and  original  essay  «0m  Nordboernes 
Gudetro  i  Hedenold»,  8vo.  Kjobenhavn  1876,  p.  52.  The  block  is  compara- 
tively modern,  seemingly  from  the  11th  century,  for  heathendom  lingered  long 
locally  in  Scandinavia.  And  it  has  many  contractions,  as  is  not  uncommon, 
to  spare  cutting.  When  the  church  at  Banning  was  raised,  it  was  used  as 
building  material,  and  squared  off  as  a  slab  in  the  southern  chancel  wall.  But 
the  whole  inscription  was  spared,  and  by  a  happy  accident  we  perhajts  can  restore 
the  first  word  by  its  being  repeated  at  the  close.  Thus  se  is  either  short  for  sen 
or  it  is  SEN  sounded  and  written  SE,  while  RSm  is  RISM  as  often,  and  MOR 
shortened  from  moi>or.  The  H  stands  in  the  same  way  for  hiau  or  hio  &c.  — 
The  Hammer  of  Thu(no)r,  invoking  him  to  guard  and  bless,  is  undeniable.  I 
read  the  staves: 


Till'Mii:     \.\li    HIS    EMBLEM8. 


37 


HMOME 


D(ikU)  TOtA    SE    HSM    STEN    DENE    EFTIB    taill,    MOB   SINA.    (li)IKII.    U. 
Vlhll,  TOFE-SON  RAISED.  STONE  THIS  AFTER    (in    mimic   of)    i.i  lll\    WTBER  SIS    (Ids). 
i  ihii   hewed  (carved  the  rum's). 

The  second  is  the  heathen  block  at 

I    1  BORG,    NORTH    JUTLAND,    DENMARK. 


38 


Tlll'MiK    AND    His    EMBLEMS. 


For  this  Chemitype  also  I  have  to  thank  the  same  active  archaeologist, 
who  gave  it  in  his  work,  p.  53.  A  couple  of  the  letters  are  now  fallen  away. 
Whether  we  translate  trutnik  by  Queen,  or  by  Sffistrm  (Lady  in  whose  employ  he 
was),  does  not  concern  us  here.  Thu(no)r&  Hammer  of  bcnison  is  twice  re- 
peated  on   the  stone. 

RHAEMJKA    TUKI     IIIAI-     Kl'NAJI   1>ASI    AIT    (|)UR)U1.    TRUTNIK    SINA. 
RBAFNVttG-TUFl   BEWED   (cut)    RUNES  THESE  AFTEH  TBYRE,  QUEEN  SIN  (Ms). 


[•HONOB     \M>    Mis    EMBLEMS. 


39 


The  third  is   the  large  heathen  monolith  at 

STENQVISTA.    S0D5R  MAN  LAND,    s\\  EDEN, 

about  10  feet  high.     Heliotyped   by    Pacht  IV R.  Dyheck's  Run-urkunder,  8vo. 

No.  34.  But  a  splendid  paper  cast,  for  which  I  have  to  thank  llr.  Wester- 
berg  of  Eskilstuna,  reacht  me  in  1868.  This  showed  that  Dybeck  was  not 
exactly  correct  in  2  letters,  and  these  arc  here  put  right.    Thu(no)r»  Protecting 

Hummer  guards    the    tomb.      The   BI0UN,    SEVEN,    lias    already    appeared    above. 

BELK.1    AUK    FRAUKAIH    AUK    DOBEAUTB     RAISTTJ    MKHKI    SKIUN     AT    MUI'MUXT,     FAPUR    SIX. 

HEl.KI  (BELGE)  EKE  (ami)  FRAVKAIR  EKE  THURKAIT  RAISED  MARKS  these-SEVEN  AT  (to) 
TBWTBMUNT,  FATHER  SIN    (llu'ir). 

This  fine  monument  would    seem    to    be    from    the   10th  year-hundred. 

The   fourth   is   the   runic   block   at 

GRASTORP,    WEST-GOTLAND,    SWEDEN. 

But  Dr.  0.  Montelius  has  kindly  informed  me  that  he  has  not  yet 
been  able  to  procure  a  good  drawing  of  this  monument.  He  says  that  it  is 
now  lying  in  a  ditch,  and  that  its  position  prevents  even  a  paper  cast  being 
taken.  But  he  will  endeavor,  as  .soon  as  possible,  to  pay  a  second  visit  to 
Grastorp   and  have  the   stone  dug   out  and   drawn. 

Passing  on  to  the  Coins,  we  have  2  pieces  struck  by  the  Danish  kings 
of  Northumbria.  They  have  been  pointed  out  by  my  learned  friend  and  country- 
man the  Rev.  D.  II.  Ilaigh,  in  Archseologia  /Eliana,  8vo.  Vol.  7,  1866,  p.  43, 
47,  and  are  Nos.  2  and  3  in  his  Plate  6.  I  copy  them  here,  adding  Mr. 
Haigh's  description: 


« 2.    Similar  type;   legend,   intended  for  sitric  re,   blundered. 
« Thor's  hammer,   between  the  billets ;   legend  intended  for  ingelgar  MON. 
«3.    lvdo  sitrc;    similar  type,  Thor's  hammer  introduced  as  an  acces- 
sory ornament. 

«+eric  moti;   a  cross   with  crescents  and  pellets  iu  alternate  quarters". 


40  TH0NOB    AM)    HIS    EMBLEMS. 

"There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  is  the  object  intended  by  the  device 
on  two  of  the  coins  of  Sihtric,  and  on  the  later  types  of  the  S.  Peter  money. 
Little  hammers  of  this  form  seem  to  have  been  worn  as  amulets:  there  are 
three  or  four  in  the  Old  Northern  Museum  at  Copenhagen,  one  attached  to  a 
ring,   all   intended   to  be   so;   and  one  was   found   [in  England]   with  the   Cuerdale 

coins The  story  which  Simeon  tells,   of  Onlaf  « the  hold  ■>,   swearing  enmity 

to  the  clergy  of  the  church  of  S.  Cuthbert,  by  his  gods  «Thor  and  Othan», 
shows  that  he  stood  first  in  the  estimation  of  the  Danish  rulers  of  Northum- 
berland. So  this  dynasty,  the  race  of  Ivar,  whose  seat  of  empire  was  alternately 
Dublin  and  York:  who  quitted  Dublin  when  the  Northumbrians  invited  them, 
and  resumed  their  authority  in  Dublin  when  they  were  compelled  to  abandon 
Northumberland,  are  called,  in  verses  quoted  by  the  Four  Masters,  A.  D.  942 
(944),  mmtitir  Thomalr,  i.  e.  the  «people»  or  «race»  or  ((descendants  of  Thomaim, 
and  they  cherished  as  their  greatest  treasure  the  «ring  of  Tomaim  or  Thor.  This 
was  doubtless  the  very  same  «holy  ring»  on  which  they  swore  to  keep  their  treaty 

with  yElfre.l.   when   they  were  in   England    in   876 This   holy   ring  of  Thor, 

therefore,  was  one  of  the  instruments  of  his  worship,  and  would  be  kept  in  the 
same  way  in   all   his  temples,   and  so  also    in    their  own  temple  by  the  sons  of 

ivar». —  —  ■ —   «Thomair  is  the   Irish  form  of  Thorn. »  Thunaer,   Thor, 

Thomair,   is  exactly  parallel  to  Anlaf,   Olaf,   Amlaib,   and  Inweer,   Ivar,  Iomaim1). 

I  quite  agree  with  Mr.  Haigh  that  the  above  coins  have  Thu(no)r's 
Hammer,  but  I  think  it  is  also  something  else.  We  must  remember  that  several 
of  these  kings,  tho  originally  heathens,  ruled  over  both  Christian  and  pagan 
subjects.  Hence,  in  my  opinion,  they  frequently  used  the  old  symbol  which 
had  spread  from  the  far  East  and  Egypt  hundreds  of  years  before  Christ,  the 
T,  the  Tau  Cross,  Saint  Anthony's  Cross,  common  to  both  Christians  and 
Heathens,  one  of  the  very  oldest  and  best-known  Cross-types,  whilst  it  was 
also  so  very  near  in  shape  to  Thu(no)r's  Hammer-mark.  Hence  it  rapidly 
became  merely  decorative,  when  not  a  Cross  exclusively  Christian  or  merely 
neutral.  On  most  of  these  early  Northumbrian  coins,  and  always  on  those  of 
king  Alfred.  I  look  upon  this  Tau- Cross  as  a  Christian  symbol,  otherwise  as 
neutral. 

With  regard  to  the  Thu(no)r  Hammer-Amulets,  of  which  Mr.  Haigh 
has  spoken,   about  50  specimens  are  in  the  great  Scandinavian  Museums  alone, 


1)  Further  remarks  on  these  Oath-Rings  and  on  Thu(no)r's  Hammer  will  be  found  in  C.  A. 
Holmboe,  Mjiilnir  og  Vadjira,  Christiania  1862,  8vo.,  and  his  Om  Eeds-Ringe,  Christiania 
1863,  8vo ;  in  H.  Petersen,  Om  Nordb.  Guded. ;  and  in  my  Old-N.  R.  Mon.  2,  p.  976,  and  Vol. 
3,   Bracteates,  No.   75. 


THUNOH    AND    Mis    EMBLEMS.  41 

besides  those  in  Iceland  ami  in  private  Collections.  Sec  hereon  the  treatises  by 
Dr.  II.  Hildebfand,  with  illustrations,  in  Manadsbladet,  Stockholm,  8vo.  1872, 
p.  49  —  55;  1875,  p.  33;  and  1877,  p  501.  Most  of  these  pieces  are  only 
the  Hammer.  Dr.  II.  Petersen  has  kindly  lent  me  a  block  of  such  a  Pendant, 
lliiiuincr  k/ou,'.  See  his  work  p,  75;  Dr.  0.  Moiitelius,  Atlas  2,  No.  624.  It  is 
of  silver,   from 

I.ABY,    U  PLANT).    SWKHKN. 


Many  others  (Hammer  alone)  are  given  by  Montelius,  Hildebrand  &c. 
But  I  need  not  repeat  them.  They  are  all  of  the  same  type,  but  endlessly 
vary  in  size  and  details.  Most  of  them  are  of  silver;  some  of  simple  metal. 
Here  and  there,  especially  in  Skane,  this  heathen  Hammer- type  has  only  slowly 
past  over  to  the  usual  shape  of  a  Christian  Cross,  with  ihs  or  AGNDS  DEI,  (&c.) 
or  the  figure  of  Christ  cut  or  mounted  upon  it.  But  they  disappear  more  and  more. 
They  are  no  longer  in  the  taste  of  the  peasantry,  who  are  everj  where  selling; 
their  old   silver  ornaments   for  modern  gewgaws. 

A    fourth   distinct  attribute  is 

D.     THU(NO)R'S   GRIPE  OR  GLOVE. 

Of  this  Mr.  Ilaigh  thus  speaks  (1.  c.  p.  48):  "These  facts  sufficiently 
explain  the  presence  of  Thor's  chief  symbol,  the  hammer,  on  the  coins  of 
Sihtric,  and  on  those  which,  although  they  bear  the  name  of  S.  Peter,  were 
doubtless  coined  under  Danish  influence  after  his  death  [in  927];  and  they 
suggest  the  explanation  of  another  type,  that  of  the  coins  of  Uagnolt  [the 
brother  of  Sihtric,   died  probably  in   925]: 

«2.  The  glove,  aho  a  symbol  of  Thor.  His  iron  gloves,  also  the  gift 
of  the  Dwarfs,  are  often  mentioned  in  the  mythology  of  the  North.  He  handled 
them   whenever  he  grasped   his   lightning-flashing   hammer  ■ 

n 


42  THUNOR  AND  HIS  EMBLEMS, 

On  his  plate  5  Haigh  gives  many  variations  of  this  emblem;  obverse, 
racnolt,  &c.  and  a  Hand  or  Glove;  reverse,  a  barbarization  of  eborace  (York) 
and  the  monogram  for  carolus  (the  Sword  of  Carl)  <Vc.  But  as  of  the  Tau- 
Cross,  still  more  of  the  Glove.  This  has  never  yet  been  met  with,  as  far  as 
I  know,  as  the  sculptured  attribute  of  Thu(no)r.  I  look  upon  it  merely  as  a 
type  convenient  for  both  religions.  The  one  would  see  therein  the  Mitten  of 
their  Thunderer  ■) ;  the  other  would  recognize  at  once  the  common  European 
Christian  symbol   of  the  Divine  Hand,   the  Heavenly  Majesty,    the  Holy  Father. 

Nor  is  Mr.  Haigh's  No.  4,  the  Bow  and  Arrow,  in  my  opinion,  «the 
symbol  of  the  hunting  god;  the  archer,  Uller;  the  son  of  Thor's  wife  Sif,  by  a 
former  husband",  —  but  a  Rebus  (of  which  we  have  other  examples  on  our 
Old-English  coins)  for  the  name  of  the  Moneyer,  here  boga,  which  means  a 
Bowman,  an  Archer. 

Lastly  we  come  to  a  class  which  in  a  sense  should  not  be  used  here, 
as  not  being  « sculptured  or  art-workt»,  but  which  in  fact  is  the  most  im- 
portant of  all,  namely 

E.     THU(NO)R  DIRECTLY  INVOKED,  BUT  NO  SYMBOL  ADDED. 

These  pieces  bearing  no  attribute,  I  refer  to  them,  as  rare,  costly  and 
interesting,   but  very  shortly  and  without  engravings: 

No.  1.  A  heathen  stone,  about  10th  century,  given  in  my  0.  N.  R. 
Mon.  Vol.  2,  p.  766.  It  is  from  Ostberga,  Sodermanland,  Sweden.  It  ends 
with  the  formula  in  sam- staves  (tied  or  monogram  runes): 

EONAR   ROA    DIT! 

thonar  roo   (peace,   repose)   weet   (show,   give)! 
No.   2.      A  heathen  stone,   about  10th  century,   given  by  Prof.  Thorsen 
in  Aarboger  for  Nordisk   Oldkyndighed,   8vo.     Kjobenhavn   1870,   p.  420,  pi.   24. 
Is  from   Virring,   North  Jutland,   Denmark.      Ends  with  the  formula: 

J>UR   UIKI   MSI   KUML! 
thu{no)r  bless  (consecrate,    guard)    these  cumbels    (grave -marks:    the    how, 
funeral  block  and  standing  stones)! 

No.  3.  A  damaged  heathen  stone,  about  10th  century,  publisht  by 
R.  Dybeck,  Sverikes  Runurkunder,  folio,  No.  151.  Is  from  Vesterby,  Upland. 
Ends  with  the  formula: 


*)   In   the   Old-English   epic   of  Beowulf,   the   monster  Grendel   also   has   his   hond-SCIO   or  glof. 


tiiiinok    ami    ins    EMBLEMS.  43 

W    I'UR  su   ki(ii)|{(u)noak! 

an  (but)   rniiMhii  SEE  (Idess,  guard)  /h  use- ken -(marking)  h/.v/.s.' 

This  SEE,   as   a  formula  of  blessing,  is  kept  on   in   the  Christian  period, 

and   is   found   on  Christian   runic  stones  with   invocations  to  God,  Christ  and  the 

Saints.       In    Middle    and    even    Modern    English    it    is    well    known    in    the   same 

meaning.      See  my   remarks  hereon    in    my   0.   N.   It.   M.  Vol.  2,   p.  738  &c.      It 

has  continuously  been  used  in  this  sense  in  Scandinavia. 

No.  4.      A   ctdossal   heathen   stone  from   the   9th   century   from  Glaven- 

drup,   Fyn,   Denmark.       See  my   0.  N.  R.  Mon.  Vol.  2,   p.   692.      Ends    with    the 

formula: 

t>UR   UIKI    PASI    RDNAH! 

tiii  (nuik  BLESS  (consecrate,  guard)  these  runes! 
No.   5.      A    golden   Runic    Bracteate   from   the    6th    century.       See   my 
0.  N.  R.  Mon.  2,  538,  and  Svenska   Fornminnesforeningens  Tidskrift.  8vo.    Stock- 
holm 1875,  p.  47  fol.      Begins  with  the  formula: 

pur  te  runoa! 
thu(no)r  tee  (help,  bless)  these- mines. 
The  only  other  God   I    have    hitherto    found   invoked    on    runic  monu- 
ments is  (w)oden.       We   have    examples    on    one    stone    with    the  Old-Northern 
runes,   one  with  the  later  or  Scandinavian  staves,   and,   perhaps,    on  one  Golden 
Bracteate. 


THE  DANISH  RUNE-CAVEL  IN  ENGLAND. 


But,  as  I  think.  I  have  lately  found  an  example  of  this  thu(no)r 
bless  of  a  very  singular  character  and  in  a  very  unexpected  quarter.  It  is  not 
indeed  stampt  or  carved,  it  is  only  written  on  parchment,  but  it  is  so  excep- 
tional that  it  may  well  challenge  a  place  here. 

At  p.  162,  Vol.  1,  of  my  0.  N.  R.  Mon.  I  mentioned  a  few  runish 
transliterations  (Latin  words  but  Runic  letters)  and  oddments  and  scribbles  in 
manuscripts,  on  which  I  did  not  dwell.  But  I  referred  for  particulars  to  John 
M.  Kemble's  excellent  paper  on  «The  Runes  of  the  Anglo-Saxons »'),  where 
they  are  engraved. 


>)   Archaeologia.      London   1840.      Vol.  28,  4to.   pp.   327—372. 


44  THE    DANISH    BUNE-CAVEL    IN    ENGLAND. 

Several  of  those  have  since  been  handled  by  Prof.  Dietrich  of  Mar- 
burg,  but  as  I   suppose  without  any  result '). 

The  longest  and  most  tantalizing  of  these  manuscript-runes  is  the  row 
in  the  Codex  Caligula  A,  XV  in  the  British  Museum,  Cottonian  Library.  This 
4to  skinbook  is  described  by  Wanley  in  his  Catalogue  p  233.  It  contains  a 
number  of  Latin  treatises,  together  with  many  pieces  in  Old-English,  Religious, 
Computistic,  Calendaric,  Medical  and  Mixt.  At  the  bottom  of  leaf  119  b  and 
120  a  (123  b  and  124  a,  new  pagination)  are  76  large  and  plain  later  or 
Scandinavian  runes.  This  curious  stave-line  was  communicated  to  Hickes  by 
Wanley,  and  he  engraved  it  in  his  Thesaurus2).  Thence  it  was  copied  by 
Tham3),  and  by  Kemble  in  his  fig.  IV.  But  neither  of  them  has  attempted 
an  exact  facsimile  from  Hickes,  and  both  have  made  one  mistake.  In  the  word 
uigi  they  give  the  third  stave  as  [f  (thus  uiki),  instead  of  \y  (g),  which  Hickes 
plainly  has. 

Wishing  perfect  exactness,  I  begged  Edw.  A.  Bond,  Esq.,  Keeper  of 
the  Mss.  in  the  British  Museum,  our  gifted  English  palseographist,  to  assist 
me,  and  he  kindly  came  to  my  help  in  Nov.  1876.  He  explained  that  the 
codex  is  still  in  the  Museum,  and  that  the  transcript  publisht  by  Ilickes  was 
quite  correct.  The  section  containing  the  runes  was  written,  he  says,  before 
the  year  1075,  the  year  1074  being  the  latest  date  entered.  The  length  of  the 
rune-lines  was  dictated  by  the  breadth  of  the  page.  As  many  runes  were 
written  continuously  in  one  line  as  one  page  could  hold.  Thus  at  the  bottom 
of  leaf  119  b  we  have  40  staves,  ending  with  I>IK.  This  line  is  continued  and 
concluded  with  36  letters  at  the  bottom  of  the  next  leaf,  120  a,  beginning  with 
I'ORSA.  «The  reading  of  the  runes  is  quite  correct  throughout",  Mr.  Bond 
added.     Thus    our  glorious   Hickes  is  again  found  to   be  trustworthy. 

hi  both  Ilickes  and  Kemble  and  the  original  skinbook  we  have  iukil, 
altered  by  Tham  into  kuril  I  agree  with  Dietrich  that  this  is  probably  a 
mistake  for  KURIL,  the  name  with  which  the  inscription  begins.  It  may  indeed 
have  been  a  colloquial  or  slurred  softened  form.  Of  such  things  we  have  many 
examples.      But  this    «pet-    pronunciation  would    scarcely   have    been   adopted  in 


l)  See  his  iDrei  Altheidnische  Segensformeloi  in  M.  Baupt's  ZiiHchrift  fur  deutsches  Alter- 
thum,  13  band,  Berlin  1866,  pp.  193—197;  and  his  nFiinf  Northumbrische  RuDen-sprucbea  in 
the  same  magazine,  pp.  104 — 123.  1  have  a  few  words  on  these  his  eflbrts  in  my  O.  N.  R. 
Mon.  Vol.  2,   pp.  890—2. 

*)  Linguarum  Vett.  Sept.  Thesaurus.  Auc-t.  G.  Hickesiu.  Oxonise  1705.  Pars  3.  Gram.  lsl.  PI. 
6.   Folio. 

3)  Anmarkningar  i  anledning  af  Herr  Prof.  Miillers  Afhandling  om  Guldhornen.  Af  P.  Tham. 
Stockholm   1817,   4to. 


THE    Danish    RDNE-CAVEL    IN    ENGLAND.  45 

the  one  line,  and  not  in  the  other.  It  is  therefore  apparently  a  clerical  slip 
of  the  copyist.  Vox  these  mss.  are  often  copied  the  one  from  the  other,  and 
Runic  Alphabets  and  other  scribbles  we  know  were  in  the  Bame  way  transcribed 
again  and  again,  usually  with  ever-added  barbarizi'ngs.  Nothing  would  be  easier 
for  a  later  scribe  than  to  pass  over  one  short  side-stroke,  in  a  piece  which 
he  perhaps  imperfectly   understood1). 

I  cannot  refer  to  any  facsimile  of  this  bookfell.  It  is  one  of  those 
used  by  our  lamented  Mr.  Cockayne  in  bis  iLeechdoms,  Wortcunning  and 
Starcraft  of  Early  England*,  in  which  volumes  so  much  quaint  lore  has  been 
brought  together.      But   he  gives   no   plate   of  this   codex. 

Ilick.es  engraves  the  staves  in  2  lines,  as  they  stand.  Kemble  copied 
them  in  3  lines,  for  convenience  in  his  narrower  page.  To  ensure  perfect  accu- 
racy. Mr.  Bond  obligingly  procured  me  a  full-size  Autotype  facsimile  of  both 
lines  direct  from  the  Ms.  This  has  been  photoxylographt  by  Hr.  Kosenstand, 
and  is  as  follows: 

FDRir  WW  tlWRW-rn  rWrH  Hfl)  H\WI  IN  HK 
^^mH-inwrWlrhl^MlrMr^rlH-RI 

If  we  wish  to  translate  this  remarkable  and  sudden  entry,  in  runes, 
in  a  codex  containing  Latin  and  Old- English  texts,  we  must  first  carefully  fix 
the  value  of  the  letters,  their  transliteration.  Dietrich  makes  [\  sometimes  U 
and  sometimes  Y;  |  sometimes  A  and  sometimes  E.  This  system,  in  one  and 
the  same  line,  is  scientifically  inadmissible.  The  Futhork  (or  runic  alphabet) 
is  plainly  the  later  or  Scandinavian,  and  must  be  treated  as  such.  The  writer 
had  no  stung  T  for  D,  and  f  therefore  stands  for  both  D  and  T.  He  has  a 
stung   K    for  G  (f),   and   therefore   \*   is   K  and    [x   is   G.     Otherwise   the   charac- 


')  As  of  Runes  so  of  Drawings  copied  and  recopied  in  our  ancient  English  Msg.  In  his  excel- 
lent treatise  on  the  famous  Cotton  Ms.  Claudius  C.  VII,  now  in  Dtrecht  and  called  the  Utrecht 
l'-alter,  Mr.  Walter  de  Gray  Birch  says  (The  History,  Art  and  Paleography  of  the  Manu- 
script styled  the  Dtrecht  Psalter,  8vo.  London  1»7G,  p.  121),  with  regard  to  the  Utrecht  codex 
(of  about  the  year  A.    D.  800): 

uFroni  this  interesting  passage  we  are  now  cognizant  of  the  fact  that  the  Utrecht 
Psalter  gave  rise  to  at  least  four  copies  executed  with  more  or  less  faithful  adherence  to 
its   archetypal   teaching,   in   the   tenth,   twelfth,   and   thirteenth   centuries." 

In  illustration,  Mr,  Birch  gives  one  drawing  from  the  original  skinbook.  with  the  corre- 
sponding  plates   from   2   of  the   later  manuscripts,   all   in   autotype. 


46  THE    DANISH    RDNE-CAYEL    IN    ENGLAND. 

ters   are   as   usual  at  this   period;   <f  i  A,   j|   is   L\   ^  is   0.    Taking   things   to   be 
so,  the  runes  give  us: 

KURILSARI>UARAFARI>CNUFUNTINISTUI>URr/IGII>IK 
PORSATROTINIURILSARbUARAUIfcRAPRAUARI 

As  far  as  I  am  aware,  only  5  attempts  have  been  made  to  read  this 
difficult  inscription.  Two  of  these  were  by  Tham,  in  his  pamphlet  on  the 
Golden  Horns  (at  p.  7  and  again  at  p.  39);  the  3rd  was  by  M.  F.  Arendt 
(publisht  ,by  Tham  as  above,  p.  38);  the  4th  by  F.  Magnusen  in  his  Runamo, 
p.   IJ04,   605:   the  5th  by   Prof.   Dietrich  as  afore  said. 

Of  late  I  have  again  and  again  directed  my  attention  to  these  lines, 
and  now  believe  that  I  have  redd  them.  As  is  my  wunt,  I  alter  nothing,  take 
the  staves  as  they  stand.  I  make  them  to  be  in  an  Old  Danish  dialect,  and 
to  give  us  a  missive  or  message  or  note  or  report,  transmitted  by  a  heathen 
Dane  in  England  to  a  friend,  perhaps  a  kinsman,  probably  also  in  England. 
Pagan  Danes  and  other  Northmen  swarmed  in  England  in  the  10th  and  11th 
centuries.  This  runic  message  was  doubtless  at  first  cut  on  a  little  Cavel  or 
tiny  stick  or  tablet,  and  from  this  wooden  flake  it  may  have  been  copied  on 
to  parchment  for  family  reasons.  Of  the  Northmen  many  in  the  same  family 
were  pagans,  others  already  Christians.  They  rapidly  embraced  Christianity, 
and  a  converted  Scandinavian  may  have  preserved  this  notice  as  being  a  docu- 
ment which  in  earlier  days  had  announced  the  safety  of  a  lady  very  nearly 
allied  in  blood  or  friendship. 

Runic  alphabets  &c.  were  often  recopied  for  hundreds  of  years.  This 
heathen  telegram  may  be  much  earlier  than  the  leaves  on  which  it  now  stands. 
At  all  events,  as  Mr.  Bond  has  shown,  it  cannot  be  later  —  but  may  be  much 
older  —  than  the  year  1075.  At  this  time,  say  in  the  last  half  of  the  11th 
century,  commotion  was  universal  both  in  Scandinavia  and  England.  All  the 
British  lies  thro,  pitcht  battles  and  dreadful  bickerings  and  accidents  and  inroads 
and  murderous  attacks  were  taking  place.  Many  inquiries  would  be  made  as 
to   the  fate  of  individuals   and  families,   and  thousands  of  these  carved1)  «bits   of 


x)     Or  written,    but    usually    cut.       Parchment     and    inkhorns    were    as    yet    a    rarity    everywhere, 
especially   among  the   Northern   freebooters. 

In  Shakespear's  Hamlet  the  young  prince  is  sent  to  Britain  with  a  letter,  carried  by 
his  two  comrades.  But  he  re-writes  the  letter  and  saves  his  life.  In  the  original  Amleth 
legend  of  Saxo  Grammaticus  the  two  companions  of  Amleth  carry  a  wooden  rdne-cavel  [«lite- 
ras  ligno  insculptas  (nam  id  celebre  quondam  genus  chartarum  est)»].  But  he  cuts  away 
some  staves  aud  adds  others,  so  that  the  letter  now  tells  the  British  king  to  slay  the  mes- 
sengers and  to  give  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  Amleth.  Saxonis  Grammatici  Hist.  Danica. 
ed.  Velschow,   Vol.  1,  Lib.  3,  p.  145. 


THE    DANISH    RUNE-CAVEL    IN    ENGLAND.  47 

news"  would  be  sent  l>\  trusty  bands.  Often  this  would  be  bj  ■  underground 
railway*,  which  has  fiourisht  in  every  age.  We  have  many  notices  in  the 
Sagas  and  elsewhere,  from  the  earliest  times  down  to  the  middle-age,  of  these 
letter-slips  and  other  runic  wooden  notifications  and  annals  and  poems.  In  tin- 
shape  of  parchment  and  paper  they  continued,  here  and  there  in  Scandinavia, 
down  to  the  Kith  century.  But  nearly  all  these  wooden  rune-cavels,  which 
have  existed   by   tens   of  thousands,    have   naturally   disappeared. 

We  know  the  extreme  difficulty,  at  times,  of  translating  inscriptions 
which  are  not  divided  into  words.  This  especially  in  a  period  which  had  little 
of  a  conventional  book-language,  hut  naturally  used  many  and  mixt  dialects  of 
which  we  know  so  little,  and  as  to  which  we  must  allow  ourselves  a  certain 
latitude  both  as  to  spelling  and  form,  sometimes  even  as  to  words.  For  cer- 
tain words  may  have  existed  in  localities  and  talks  from  which,  from  mere 
paucity  of  material,   we  have  pronounced   them  absent. 

And  in  a  writing  of  this  kind,  very  many  combinations  of  letters 
may  be  made,  giving  a  meaning  more  or  less  possible  or  probable. 

In  the  face  of  all  this,  the  following  attempt  may  not  have  succeeded. 
All  1  can  claim  for  it  is,  that  it  is  simple  and  natural  and  reasonable  and  « gram- 
matical!), and  fits  in  with  the  movements  of  "the  Wiking  period",  which  lasted 
longer  than  is  generally  supposed.  If  the  runes  are  not  an  idle  scribble,  they 
must  have  been  meant  to  say  something  intelligible,  and  we  know  so  much  of  the 
comparatively  late  dialects  of  the  10th  and  11th  centuries,  that  we  ought  not 
to  be  quite  helpless.  Should  my  reading  be  rejected,  some  other  student  may 
be  more  fortunate. 

The  tiny  rune-tane*  which  may  have  been  hidden  in  the  hair  of  the 
carrier,   in  my   opinion  said : 

KURIL    SARt   UAR    A    FARPU. 

NU    FUNTIN    (=  FUNDIN)    I    STU. 

HJR   UIGI    I>IK,    PORSA    TRUTIN    (=  DRDTIN)! 

(K)URIL    SARP    UAR    A    UIPRAPR    A    UARI. 

Kuril  sored  (wounded)  was  on  her-FERD  (journey,  passage,  expedition). 

NOW  she-is-FOUND  IN  STOW. 

May-THUR  win  (bless)  thee,  he-the-THiRSES'  (giants ')  dreeten  (lord,  ruler,  smiter).' 
(Kjuril  sored  (hurt)  was  on  (at)  the-wiTHER-REDES  (debates,  consultations,  par- 
leyings)  on  (at)  ware. 

Thus  the  Lady  KURIL  was  long  expected  in  vain,  never  arrived.  En- 
quiries were  set  on   foot   by    her   friends,    and    she  was   found  at  Stow,   whither 


48  THE    DANISH    RDNE-CAVEL    IX    ENGLAND. 

she  had  escaped.  She  explained  that  she  had  been  in  danger  of  her  life,  having 
been  attaekt  and  wounded  at  Ware. 

Then  the  affectionate  greeting  to  the  sorrowing  father  or  husband  or 
friend:    —   May  Thttr,  the  giant-tamer,   bless  and  comfort  thee! 

Further  thoughts  suggest  a  "postscript",  of  additional  detail.  The 
debates  between  the  Wikings  and  the  English,  or  between  two  Wiking-bands, 
at  Ware,  where  a  formal  parley  was  held,  ended  in  violence,  and  even  the  Lady 
kuril  was  not  spared. 

I  make  kuril  a  female  name  because  it  must  be  so.  It  is  clearly  in 
apposition  with  sard  and  fuxdix,  and  both  these  words  are  in  the  nom.  sing. 
fem.  But  I  have  never  seen  this  name  before.  It  may  be  a  diminutive  of  KUR, 
a  worn  kurila.  or  a  slurred  popular  or  pet  form  for  kukhildr,  both  of  them 
unknown  to  me.     There  was  a  Gothic   king  corillus. 

sari>  is  a  « correct-)  Old- Danish  and  Old-Swedish  participle,  nom.  sing. 
fem.,  (masc.  sari>er,  fem.  sarp,  neut.  sart). 

Uar  is  common,   for  the  earlier  UAS. 

a  common,   for  the  earlier  ax   or  ox. 

fari>u,  dat.  sing.  fem.  Doubtless  Old-Danish.  The  nom.  sing,  is  in 
O.Swedish  FjERS,  N.  Icel.  ferb,  O.Engl,  ferd,  fyrd,  0.  Kris  ferd.  But  the  M. 
Goth.  farpo,  Ohg.  fart  and  0.  Sax.  fard  have  preserved  the  older  unweakened 
vowel.      All  are  feminine. 

xu,  common  in  all   our  dialects,    xow. 

fuxdix,   p.   part.  n.   s.   fem.   found. 

i.   common,   for  the  older  IN. 

STU.  I  cannot  prove  that  this  is  a  place-jiame.  But  if  we  really  have 
STU  between  I,  the  end  of  one  section,  and  PUR,  the  beginning  of  another,  I 
cannot  see  what  else  it  can  possibly  be.  In  England  and  up  thro  the  old 
Northumbria  we  have  several  places  called  stow,  spelt  in  0.  E.  stou  and  stow, 
and  Latinized  stoua  and  stowa.  The  most  famous  is  stow  or  stow-market  in 
the  Hundred  of  Stow  in  Suffolk.  It  is  on  the  river  Gipping,  a  tributary  of 
the  Orwell,  between  Ipswich  and  Bury.  It  is  quite  near  the  sea  at  Ipswich 
and  Harwich,   and  is  not  very  far  from   London. 

pur,  the  heathen  god  i>uxor,  pur,  k>r,  followed  by  the  verb  uiga. 
This  verb,  so  common  in  Scandinavia,  has  not  yet  been  found  in  0.  Engl.,  tho 
we  had  the  noun  and  endless  compounds.  Here  it  is  in  the  3  s.  pr.  subj. 
The  whole  phrase,  PUR  uigi,  may  Thur  bless,  we  have  already  seen  on  two 
Danish  heathen  runic   stones.       But    we   have    here  —   for  the    first   time  in  all 


THE    danism    CAVEl    in    ENGLAND.  49 

the  North,  on  stone  or  parchment,  in  runes  or  Roman  letters   —   the  doubtless 
once  common   phrase,  KTR  uici   mk,  may  Thur  bless  thee! 

dorsa,  gen.  pi.  masc.  Of  the  THUBSES,  ettins,  giants,  goblins,  mon- 
sters, helpless  and  fools  tho  so  burly  and  big.  This  is  the  N.  reel:  DDES,  DOBS, 
I'OSS,  the  provincial  Norse  TUSSE,  TUSS,  the  provincial  Danish  TOS8E,  ths  provin- 
cial Swedish  tusse,  tuss,  tasse,  tass.  In  0.  Engl,  we  have  dyes,  in  Early  E. 
DUES,  in  Mid.  E.  THUBS,  MRS,  DBISSE,  in  provincial  Engl,  thurs.  THBUSE,  THY] 
thrust,  and  a  rock-den  or  stone-shelter  is  called  a  thurse- house.  In  OIil:. 
there  was  durs  and  TUBS.  —  I  have  never  before  seen  this  fine  epithet,  doubt- 
less  once  widely  used,   corsa  drutin. 

drutin,  obsolete  in  Denmark,  the  0.  Swedish  drotin,  DBOTEN,  N.  Icel. 
DBOTTENN,  0.  E.  DRYHTEN,  DRIHTEN,  Mid.  Engl.  DBYGHTEN,  DBICHTIN,  DBEETEN,  Ohg. 
TRUTIN,    0.  Sax.    DBOHTIN,    DRUHTIN,    O.   Fris.    DROCHTEN. 

uh>-rai>r.  ac.  pi.  fern.,  a  compound  hitherto  found  onlv  in  the  Norse- 
Icelandic   vid-RjEda,   fern.,   talk,   conversation,   parley. 

a  uari,  on.  at,  WABE.  Analogy  would  seem  to  show  that  this  also  is 
a  place-name.  But  again  I  cannot  prove  it.  Should  it  be  so,  again  there  were 
several  spots  called  ware  in  olden  days.  We  should  expect  that  the  one  here 
referred  to  would  be  in  the  same  county  as  stow  And  accordingly  in  Domes- 
day Book1)  we  have  in  Suffolk,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Bungay  and  Flixton. 
Hundred  of  Waneforda,  a  place  in  wari.  With  his  usual  kindness  Mr.  Bond, 
Keeper  of  the  Mss.  in  the  British  Museum,  has  referred  to  the  Ordnance  Sur- 
vey for  me.  But  there  is  no  ware  there,  and  he  suspects  it  may  have  gotten 
a  later  appellation,  and  be  the  spot  now  known  as  Eartham  near  Bungay. 
Should  this  be  not  a  stead-name,  it  can  only  be  a  word  answering  to  the  N.  I. 
vorr  (older  form  var,  gen.  varar)  fern,  and  masc,  and  VEB,  neut..  0.  E,  v  i  K, 
Engl,  ware,  weir,  a  haven,  station,  fishing-place.  The  general  meaning  will  be 
the  same,  but  it  will  not  be  so  sharp  and  clear  as  in  the  former  case,  which 
I   therefore  prefer. 

Till  a  better  can  be  found,  I  therefore  hold  fast  the  interpretation 
here  offered.  Should  it  be  substantially  correct,  it  puts  into  our  hands  the 
earliest  bit  —  by  about  225  years  —  of  parchment  Danish  yet  known  to  us. 
And  not  only  so,  it  is  about  125  years  older  than  any  such  fragment  in  Norse- 
Icelandic,  a  couple  of  whose  vellums  are  the  most  antique  left  to  us  in  any 
Scandinavian   tung. 

This  is  also  the  first  thu(no)r  invocation  yet  found   on   vellum. 


l)     Vol.   2,   fol.   London   1783   p.   380,   col.   2. 


50  Till'.    NORSE    EHTNN-CAVEL    IN    DENMARK. 


THE  NORSE  RUNE-CAVEL  IN  DENMARK. 


The  only  specimen  of  the  inscribed  llunic  cavel  or  wooden  letter-slip 
hitherto  made  public,  is  that  figured  in  01.  Worm's  Monumenta  Danica.  Hafnise 
1643,  folio,  p.  299.  He  styles  it  a  «Virgula  Erotica»  or  Twig-loveletter.  It 
was  sent  him  in  1632  by  the  Rev.  Christian  Hansen  Riber,  the  Bishop  of 
Alborg  in  Jutland,  to  whom  it  had  been  given  by  Hr.  Otto  Scheel,  Governor 
of  Alborghus.  The  Bishop's  letter  is  in  Worm's  Epistola,  1,  43,  and  he  there 
states  that  «singulare  hoc  monumentum»  was  found  about  the  year  1600  by  a 
schoolboy  or  student  («scholasticus» )  in  a  field  near  Viborg  («in  agro  Vibur- 
gensi»)  in  Jutland,  as  was  testified  by  the  Rector  of  the  School,  Herr  Vilhad. 
The  runes,  he  says,  were  small  but  very  neatly  cut  (« accurate  incisae»).  Worm 
adds  that  this  4-sided  cavel  was  apparently  made  of  the  wood  of  the  Sloe-tree 
or  Black- thorn,  and  was  about  3  inches  long  and  1 -third  of  an  inch  broad  each 
way.    He  fortunately  appended  an  exact  facsimile,  full  size,  which   I  here  repeat: 


Worm's  translation,   the  only  one  I  have  ever  seen,   is: 

"BYNAFFN    WET    KIF.RESTA    MTNA    AFF    THENKESTOL    INDE LANDDM. 

ciNomen  meum  uovit  amicissima  mea.   Ex  amoris  hac  tessera landum.» 

This  will  be  in  English:  my  sweetheart  has  found  my  name,    from  this 

LOVE-TOKEN  .....  LANDS. 

What  became  of  this  curiosity  at  Worm's  death,  has  never  been  dis- 
covered. Probably  it  has  long  since  perisht,  like  some  other  things  he  is  known 
to  have  had. 

This  piece  seems  to  me  not  very  old,  perhaps  from  the  14th  cen- 
tury,  and  to  be  in   Old-Norse. 

The  first  bind  or  rune-group  I  would  read  as  bii>at,  beginning  with 
the  B,  taking  I  from  the  stem  as  usual,  then  i>  on  the  right  followed  by  a  on 
the   left,   and   ending  with   T  at  the   top.     This  word,   if  rightly  redd,   will   be  very 


THE    NORSE    HUNK- < 'A \  F.I.    IN    DENMARK.  •">  I 

appropriate  here.  It  is  Old-Norse  in  form.  mi',  hid?,  unit,  ami  the  negative 
affix  at,  not.  Thus  bide  not.  come  away,  join  me  at  once  at  we  had  agreed,  keep 
your  appointment,   meet  me  at  Ike  trysting-place. 

The  second  monogram  or  rune-cluster,  before  landum,  is,  I  think, 
Bl  ml;  B  first,  then  u  on  the  left,  i>  on  the  right,  i  on  the  .stem,  and  l  on  the 
top  left1). 

Worm  made  no  effort  to  unravel  eithei  of  these  runic  binds.  Chang- 
ing nothing,   taking  the  letters  as  they  stand,   they  seem  to  be: 

HI/ AT.      BUNAFN    PET    K.ki.i:  i-.sta    M.KNK    AF    l'KNKKSToi.     KSM,    UVpIl  -I.  wmjm. 

i'  at   this  time  was  continually  used  for  simple  i>. 

BU-NAFN,    ac.    S.    n.    BY-NAME,    village-name 

ukt,   3  s.   pr.   wots,   knows. 

k.kkk.ksta,    11.    8;    f.   'let',    the    most   beloved. 

MINK,    g     pi.    of  MAN.    neut.;    person,    woman. 

af,   prep,  of,  from. 

1'i.NKKSToi,,  d.  s.  m.  a  think- stool,  thought-base.  As  in  English  STOL 
is  <  'hair  and  also  heap,  duster,  so  in  N.  1.  skifa-stoki,  is  a  ship-stool  boat- 
crowd,  fleet.  In  some  Danish  plant-names,  STOL  is  used  in  the  same  way.  So 
MALDRT-STOL  means  a  bushy  Wormwood  plant.  In  either  sense  H  NKK-STOL 
mean s  thought-bearer. 

jENM:,    orthodox   N.  I.   form   END  A. 

boml-landum,  d.  pi.  ii.  There  is  a  bodil  in  Horning  Parish,  Skander- 
borg  Amt,  Jutland,  and  in  other  places  in  Denmark.    There  may  have   been  other-. 

On  the  whole  the  meaning  of  this  message,  apparently  written  by  a 
Norwegian   settler  or  traveler  in  Jutland,   was: 

hide-not  (delay  not,  come  at  once).  The-BY-NAME  (homestead,  moot-place) 
wots  (knows)  the-DEARESTof-ivoMENOF(from,  bg)  this-TBOUGHT-STOOL  (word -beam, 
wooden  nine-slip)  and  (as  also)  the-BODiL-LANDS. 

=  Come  quickly.  You  will  know,  deares'.'  our  meeting-place  from  this 
message  and  the  district  whence  it  comes. 

A  message  of  this  kind,  which  might  fall  into  strange  or  unfriendly 
hands,  was  not  to  be  too  plain  and  straightforward. 

At  all  events,  however  we  translate  it,  we  have  here  a  rune-cavel 
bearing  53  staves. 


*)  The  choice  of  those  words  (for  instance  as  beginning  with  B  and  b,  which  may  have  been 
some  little  mystery)  may  have  been  intentional,  to  convince  the  receiver  that  all  was  right, 
tho   no   other  could   understand   the   reference. 


52 


AN    ENGLISH    RUNE-CAVEI.    IN    ENGLAND. 


AN  ENGLISH  KUNE-CAVEL  IN  ENGLAND. 


All  this  brought  to  my  mind  that  in  a  quick  run  thro  the  British 
Museum,  many  years  ago,  my  learned  friend  Aug.  W.  Franks,  Esq.  obligingly 
pointed  out  to  me  a  piece  of  this  kind.  I  now  thought  it  might  possibly  be 
the  missing  Worm  Cavel.  Thanks  to  the  kind  assistance  of  Mr.  Bond  and  Mr. 
Franks,  I  am  now  able  to  say  that  it  is  not  Worms,  and  that  it  is  an  English 
Cavel.  I  here  give  the  exact  rubbing  of  the  original,  full  size,  furnisht  me  by 
those  gentlemen,   photoxylographt  by  Herr  Ro.senst.ind:1) 


iiL}dL^^M<^r 


f^mi^>>*T 


M~*+  ^ryi^fj^rj-- 


iiiii^^m^ 


It  is  of  a  dark-brown  hard  wood,  and  was  once  in  the  Museum  of 
•Sir  Hans  Sloane.  In  the  old  Catalogue  it  is  entered  as  dSloane  90.  A  Runic 
almanac  small?"  This  is  all  that  is  known  of  its  history.  Probably  it  was 
given  to  Sir  Hans  Sloane  bv  some  friend  about  1740 — 50.  Mr.  Franks  is  not 
aware  that  it  has  ever  been  copied  or  described  or  redd. 

Before  we  proceed  to  handle  it,   we  must  make  a  remark   or  two. 

1.  We  see  at  once,  from  its  general  character,  that  it  is  not  very 
old,  and  must  transliterate  the  marks  accordingly.  For  in  the  last  runic  period, 
both  on  hard  substances  and  on  parchment  or  paper,  there  was  a  great  free- 
dom and  variation  of  type,  and  an  evident  hankering  for  and  feeling  after  a 
kind  of  cursive  and  running  and  easier  hand.  Thus  here  we  have  2  variants  of 
the  c,   2  of  the  e,    2  or  3  of  the  L,    2   of  the  N,    2   of  the  R,    2    or  3   of  the  t 


')    I  sent  Mr.    Bond    a    copy    of  the   woodcut    for  final   correction,   if  needed.       His    answer    was: 
«The  engraved   copy   is   quite   correct.! 


AN    ENGLISH    RUNE-CAVEI.    IN    ENGLAND.  53 

and  ii,   and   a   couple   of  the  v. —   Among  other  peculiarities   is   the    •  short  •    type 
for  G,  (D),  which  is  in  fact  only  half  of  the  figure. 

2.  There  is  a  hind  or  rune-cluster  here  also,  and  for  the  same  reason, 
greater  secrecy.  It  is  in  the  name,  oldr,  o  on  the  left,  L  on  the  top  right, 
D  on   the  right  lower  down,   all   followed  close  by  R. 

3.  thomas  was  often  spelt  with  a  th  (i>)  in  older  days.  And  here 
also  it  is  i>um  for  tum,  tdmmas,  tom,  &c. 

4.  The  alphabet  is  prevailingly  the  later  or  Scandinavian,  but  it  is 
freely   mixt  with   the  older  or  Old-Northern,  so   that  it  may  be  called    transitional. 

5.  The  last  figure  in  the  last  line  is  a  kind  of  flourish,  and  is  equi- 
valent to  an  end-mark  or  full   stop. 

Let  us  now  take  the  letters  quite  simply  as  they  stand,   line  for  line: 

EC    I>E    TEL    NU,     I>UM 
"/"/(,    QUIC    NU,    GJ5T 
YK    EHLY    TO    M.ERE 
AF    NEUK.KSTAL. 
I  TBEE  TELL  NOW,  TOM  OLDR,  QUCK  NOW,  GET  YE  EAHIA   TO  .WWII   01    NEWt  \slll 

This  is  all  very  amusing.  It  is  a  little  love-scroll,  a  rendezvous  de- 
manded by  pretty  mary  of  Newcastle  of  her  betrothed  tom  older1).  It  is  in 
English  of  the  13th  century,  but  North-English,  and  with  distinct  Wiking- 
Scandinavian  peculiarities.  The  EC  and  af  are  Danish  or  Norse  still  left  in  the 
local  talk.  But  all  this  agrees  admirably  with  the  place  named  —  the  then 
strongly  Danish   district  round   about  Newcastle   and  the   Principality  of  Durham. 

In  modern  times,  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  hundred  years,  out  of 
millions  of  Paper  letters  only  a  few  hundreds  have  survived.  There  were  tens 
of  thousands  of  these  little  wooden  or  Runic  missives  in  olden  days.  \\  e 
have  here,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  a  copy  of  one  of  these  in  the  11th  century, 
a  woodcut  of  a  second  in  the  17th  century,  and  one  unique  original  at  this 
moment  in  the   British  Museum. 


')  As  we  know,  there  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun,  and  we  have  Love-ring-.  Love  seals  and 
Love-gems  by  thousands,  from  all  lands  and  times.  One  of  these  is  an  exact  counterpart  to 
the  above.      It  is   a  six-angled   Classical   Gem,   a   Dove  in   the   center,   and   round   it: 

SI    AMAS    VENI. 
IF  YOU  LOVE  ME,  OOMEI 

Doubtless   such   a  message   would   not   be   refused.     See  it   engraved   and   explained   in   Fr. 
Ficoronii   Gemmae   Autiquae   Litteratae,   a  P.    N.   Galeotti.      4to,  Romae  1757,  p   5,  Tab.  1,   No.  14. 


54  THUNOB    IN    BEOWI  I l 


THU(NO)R  IN   BEOWULF. 


Now  all  the  above  representations  or  invocations  of  Tbn(no)r  or  his 
Attributes  are  stampt  or  carved  on  stone,  or  some  metal.  The  usual  written 
sources  which  speak  of  him  or  other  gods  do  not  concern  us  here.  But  1 
desire  to  make  one  exception.  I  think  I  have  found  an  unsuspected  mention 
of  this  Warrior  against  Evil  in  our  own  land,  in  England,  so  far  back  as  shortly 
after  the  year  700. 

This  is  in  our  magnificent  Dano- Anglic  epic  Beowulf,  a  heathen  Saga 
told  by  a  Christian  English  scald  early  in  the  Sth  century,  but  in  its  present 
shape   found   only  in  one   Ms.   of  the   10th   year-hundred. 

The  reason  why  this  instance  has  been  overlookt  is,  because  it  is 
exprest  indirectly,  in  a  "kenning"  or  poetical  epithet  or  substitute.  And  the 
reason  how  so  noble  and  picturesque  a  passage  could  be  so  misunderstood  is, 
because  we  live  in  a  wooden  one-sided  narrow-minded  school  of  « phonology 
and  mechanical  philology,  which  has  done  more  harm  than  good,  and  has  merci- 
lessly tampered  with  precious  olden  texts.  Everything  had  to  be  reduced  to 
system  and  theory,  and  the  manuscripts  have  been  corrupted  and  « corrected » 
accordingly,  obliterating  endless  valuable  fragments  and  traces  of  older  words 
or  word-forms  and  floating  dialects.  New  letter-types  (unknown  to  the  Mss.) 
are  invented  and  thrust  down  our  throats,  aud  accents  are  introduced  wholesale, 
with  a  pragmatical  infallible  contempt  of  what  stands,  and  of  everything  and 
everybody  save  the  editor's  last  hobby  or  the  shibboleth  of  the  last  "phono- 
logical"   Pope  or   Anti-Pope. 

Words,  whether  or  not  originally  one,  have  sometimes  obtained  double 
meanings,  now  distinguisht  by  the  accent.  Therefore,  the  moment  we  —  the 
editor,  publisher  —  add  the  accent  in  the  printed  book,  we  fix  for  ever  the 
meaning  of  the  word! 

So   here  in   Beowulf.     The  term  in  question  is 

gast 
as  it  is  written  in  the  skinbook;    and    so   it   was   honestly    printed    by   its   first 
editor,   Thorkelin,   and  its   second,    Kemble.       But  Kemble   unhappily    translated 
«gast-bona»    «spirit-slayer»,   and   in   his   Glossary   «Diabolus».      So  Thorpe,   fol- 
lowing suit,    printed   the  word   in  his  text    «gast-bona»    and    translated    » spirit- 


iiiiaui:    in    BEOWULF.  55 

slayor».    Then  came  the  rush.  Grein,  'gast-bona';  Grundtvig, 'gast-bona';   Reyne, 
'gastbona';  Arnold,  'gast-bona',  and  so  forth. 

Rut  let  us  now  examine  the  passage  itself.  Early  in  Beowulf,  when 
the  scop  describes  the  murderous  visit  of  the  water-monster  Grendel  to  Heort 
(Heorot),  the  splendid  throne-hall  built  by  rlrothgar,  we  see  that  Grendel  first 
seizes  and  carries  off  .'io  of  the  king's  thanes,  and  then  makes  fresh  ravages 
till  the  palace  is  empty  and  abandoned  during  a  space  of  12  years.  The  royal 
Chief  and  his   Elders  consulted  long  and  well  what  to  do: 

Sometimes   sought  thej 
idol   sanctuaries, 
worship-gifts  vowing. 
Wail-prayers   they   utter'd 
where  <doom'd  the  Gast-smiter, 
for  his   God-help  quickly 
gainst  sorrows  sorest. 
Such  their  wunt  was, 
heathens  so  hoped. 

What  is  the  original  text  of  this  passage?  We  shall  find  it  only  in 
the  first  edition:  «De  Danorum  Gestis.  Ed.  Gr.  J.  Thorkelin.  Havnise  1815», 
4to  p.  15,16;  (Line  348—356  in  Kemble,  Vol.  1:  1.  352  —  360  in  Thorpe; 
348 — 356  in  Grundtvig;    175 — 179   in  Grein,   Heyne  and  Arnold): 

At-times  they  vowed 


Hwilum  hie  ge-heton, 
set  hrserg-trafum, 
wig-weorpunga. 
Wordum  bsedon 
pset  him  gast-bona 
geoce  gefremede 
wip  peop-preaum. 
Swylc  wses  peaw  hyra, 
hedenra  hyht. 


at  altar-enclosures 
ivorshipful  gifts. 
With-many-ivords  ihey-bmh 
that  to-them  the-Gast-sntiter 
help  ivould-give 
aqainzt  such  -folk-anguish . 
Such  was  manner  their, 
of-those-heatheux  I lie-hope. 


It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  here  into  the  vext  question  of  the  ety- 
mology of  GAST,  GHOST  and  GUEST,  the  curious  way  in  which  they  have  often 
past  into  each  other  both  in  form  and  meaning  in  different  dialects,  and  the 
attempts  to  discriminate  them  by  a  long  or  a  short  vowel  and  other  resources, 
but  all  of  which  have  failed  —  from  the  endless  caprice  of  the  folk-talks. 
Generally,   we  are   told   that  GAST  (man)   lias  a  short  vowel,   gast  (ghost)  a   long 


56  THUNOR    IN    BEOWULF. 

vowel,   g.kst  (guest)  a  short  vowel.    Accordingly,  the  editors  having  fancied  that 
gast  meant  a  ghost  altered  it  to  gast,   and  a  ghost  it  remains. 

But  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  the  word  gast  or  GJiST  is  con- 
tinually found  in  our  older  Scando-Gothic  dialects,  particularly  the  Northern, 
for  man,  hero,  enemy,  wild  fellow,  monster,  ettin,  giant,  vagabond,  dare-devil  and 
the  like.  This  meaning  still  remains  in  our  dialects,  and  in  Scandinavia  a  sea- 
dog,   sailor,  is   still  a  (sS-)gast. 

Accordingly  this  gast,  g^est  is  very  frequently  used  in  Old-English 
not  only  for  man,  but  also  for  foul  and  fierce  man,  giant,  monster,  as  it  is  in 
Early  and  Middle  English,  tho  so  often  mistranslated  spirit,  and  this  is  the 
meaning  here  in   Beowulf1). 

It  is  therefore  simply  absurd  to  translate  gast-bona  by  spirit-slayer  or 
anything  such.  There  is  no  question  of  any  spirit,  still  less  of  any  devil.  The 
heathen  Danes,  says  the  poet,  in  their  despair,  crowded  to  the  idol-temples 
and  promist  gifts  and  prayed  to  their  God 

the  giant-slayer 
to  help  them  in  their  terrible  need  against  a  giant,  a  monster,  a  savage  ettin. 
Who  was  that  deity  of  our  forefathers  who  was  the  bane  of  the  gasts?  All 
the  Northlands,  from  the  Eddas  to  Jack- the- Giantkiller,  answer  with  one  voice:' 
thc(no)r!  This  vinr  verlida'  (friend  of  men),  this  'sonr  Odins'  (son  of  (W)oden), 
this  'bar mi  Baldrs'  (Baldor's  brother),  'raflbani  burs'  (by-rede  bane  of  the  thurse, 
death-plotter  against  the  giants),  'dolgr  jotna'  (death-giver  to  ettins,  giants' 
death-wound  giver,  giant-slayer)  and  so  on  in  dozens  of  such  kennings2),  is 
verily  known  unto  all  men. 


*)    Years   after  I   had   convinced   myself  what   this   kenning  really   signified,   1   came   across    I..  Ett- 
miiller's   first   German   version   (Zurich    1840).      At    p.   73  he  gives   the   line   in   question 

odass  der  Geisttilger  ihnen  helfe  wider  den  Weltschreck». 
He  adds  in  a  note:  nWelcher  der  ohern  Gottcr  ist  gemeint?  doch  warscheinlieh  Thunar  (Thdrr), 
der  Urfeind  des  Riesengeschlechtes.n  As  far  as  I  know,  he  stands  alone  in  this.  All  have: 
•  Kemble,  «the  spirit-slayers  ;  Thorpe,  "the  devil,  the  soul-slayem  ;  Grein,  oder  Geistestodtern 
(and  in  his  Dictionary — altering  the  plain  bona  to  bana  —  why  not?  He  has  not  altered 
every  word  in  every  line,  as  some  Germans  in  their  Ms.  editions  — animi  destructor,  diabolus) ; 
Heyne,  «den  Vernichter  aller  Geistem  ;  Arnold,  cthe  destroying  spirit  n  ;  and  so  on.  Only 
Wackerbarth,  in  his  English  poetical  version  (London  1849)  has  «the  Spirit-Slayer* ,  and  in 
a   note   p.    128,»    i.   e.    Odin.n 

2)     B.   Groudal,   in   his   excellent     oClavis    Poetica   Antiques   Linguae   Septentrionalis » ,   8vo.       Hafniae 
1864,   has   nearly   40  of  these   kennings   for  Thu(no)r.      See   his   p.   269. 


THE    MORAL    OF    THE    WHOLE,  f>7 


THE   M<)  KM,  OK  T11K   W1IOLK. 


In  a  time  like  this,  of  —  isms  endless,  the  one  more  damnable, 
ignoble,  driveling  or  doltish  than  the  other;  —  of  foulness,  fetishism  or  frantic 
blasphemy,  flaunting  paper  crowns  overscrawled  « infallible ■  and  uhigh  science n; 
—  of  (i rings »  and  riots,  blacklegs  and  bribers,  falseness  and  fraud,  adulteration 
and  adulteiy,  capitalism  and  club-law;  —  of  softness,  sentiment,  sophism, 
weakness  and  wilfulness,  pendriving  and  paradox;  —  of  morbid  materialism, 
luxury  run  mad,  license  unbounded,  a  literature  most  leprous;  —  law  the  while 
become  lawlessness,  a  slow  and  costly  sham  and  swindle,  a  cobweb  wide  open 
for  wasps  ami  dragon  flics  and  catching  only  silly  gnats,  a  comedy  contemp- 
tible as  it  is  costly,  —  « Punishment"  now  smothered  in  maundering  "Philan- 
thropy", crime  (even  Rape,  Murder,  Burnings)  REWARDED  with  pensions  in  pa- 
laces built  with  the  sweat  and  tearful  savings  of  the  toiling  non-criminal 
million;  —  of  Blood-and-Iron»  and  Bankruptcy;  —  « Examinations'  and  hot- 
house "Education",  in  other  words  Cant  and  Cram  and  an  unbearably  arrogant 
hut  in  real  life  worthless  «Little-of-everythingn  (palsying  the  limbs  and  blearing 
the  eyes  of  our  daily  feebler  youth),  these  now  the  only  Ten  Commandments, 
the  only  « Religion  of  the  Future"  of  States  called  Christian;  —  at  such  a 
moment  thunor,  our  great  ancestral  Symbol-god,  should  never  leave  us.  Not 
only  is  he  the  mighty  in  head,  hand,  heart;  his  whole  being,  his  life  and  death, 
is  Self-sacrifice  for  the  good,  the  right,    and  against  the  bad,  the  wrong. 

We  have  found  him  here  in  Beowulf,  invoked  to  help  the  suffering 
people  against  the  monster  UN- law.  We  have  seen  him  or  his  emblems  or 
name  on  the  funeral  stones  of  the  dead,  that  they  might  sleep  in  peace  under 
his  watchful  eye.  We  have  him  or  his  Mace  on  Jewels  many,  Amulets  of 
Beauty  and  Benison,  a  charm  against  every  terror.  Nay,  he  stands  on  the 
Holy  Font  itself,  perpetually  preaching  that  the  Christian  Soldier  should  FIGHT 
at  least  as  BRAVELY   against   Baseness  as  ever  did  the  Hammer-wielder. 

thunor,  speaking  alway  of  strength,  work,  duty,  truth,  honor  bright, 
lie  is  truly  the  »Land-ass»,  the  Land-Ans,  the  Guardian  Genie  of  the  Father- 
land;   the    «Otti  Jotna.",    the    dread    of   every    Bug   and    Ogre:     the    «Bani  troll- 


58  THE  MORAL  OF  THE  WHOLE. 

quenna*,  the  relentless  slayer  of  Troll  and  Hag  an<l  Witch-quean,  whether 
tripping  winsome  in  gnisc  of  Light-angel  fair,  or  stiffly  striding  with  scowling 
fire-red  balls  and  matted  snake-hair,  her  crooked  fingers  grasping  the  torch  and 
dagger  of  destruction  and  despair. 

God  help  that   Heart,   that  Home,   that  Land,   that  Age  where 

NO    THUN'OR    IS! 


[Accidentally  omitted  Xotr  to  Cartouche  8,  p.  25.  —  So  conventional  is  the  carving, 
that  in  fact  there  is  no  Cross  at  all,  only  the  Board  (suppedaneum)  on  which  the  feet  rested. 

[Accidental!  1/  omitted  Note  to  the  Valleberga  stone,  p.  31,  32.  —  On  the  great  mosaic 
of  St.  Apollinaris  in  Classe,  near  Ravenna  (A.  D.  545)  —  subject,  the  Transfiguration  —  is 
a  Cross  nearly  Maltese  in  form,  at  whose  intersection  we  see  a  Face  of  Our  Lord.  This  is 
the  earliest  known  approach  to  a  Crucifix.  On  the  Oil-vessels  of  Monza  (6th  century)  is 
the   Head  (nearly  a  bust)  of  Christ,  above  a  small   Cross.] 


v 


LATELY   PUBLISHT,    BY    THE    SAME    AUTHOR: 

Two  Leaves  of  king  waldere's  lay,  a  hitherto  unknown  Old-English 
Epic  of  the  8th  century,  belonging  to  the  Saga-eychis  of  King  Theodric  and  his 
Men.  Now  first  publisht  from  the  originals  of  the  9th  century.  Roy.  8vo.  — 
On  fine  paper,  with  4  photographic  facsimiles,  15  shillings.  On  common  paper, 
without  facsimiles,   7  sh.   and  6  d. 

QUEEN  dagmar's  CROSS,  Facsimile  in  Gold  and  Colors  of  the  enameled 
Jewel  in  the  Old-Northern  Museum,  Denmark,  with  Introductory  Remarks. 
Roy.     8vo.     2  sh.  and  6  d. 

revenge,  or  woman's  love.  A  melodrama  in  Five  Acts.  8vo.  3  sh.  — 
seventeen  Sonus   \NO  chants  to  the  same.     Folio.     8  sh. 

the  rescue  of  Robert  burns,  Feb.  1759.    A  Centenary  Poem.    8vo.    1  sh. 

GHOST-THANKS  or  the  grateful  unburiei),  a  Mythic  tale  in  its  oldest 
European  form,     sir  amadace,  from  two  texts,  with  introduction.     8vo.     1/6  d. 

THE    OLD-NORTHERN   RUNIC    MONUMENTS    OF    SCANDINAVIA     AND    ENGLAND,      now 

first  collected  and  deciphered.  Folio.  With  Runic  Alphabets  and  hundreds  of 
splendid  Facsimiles  and  Illustrations.  Vol.  1,  1866  —  7,  Vol.  2,  1877—8. 
Fifty  Shillings  each.   —  Vol.   3  is  in  the  press. 

the  runic  hall  in  the  Danish  Old-Northern  Museum.  Imp.  8vo. 
With  Chemitypes.     1868.    2  sh.  and  6  d. 

runehallen  i  det  Danske  Oldnordiske  Museum.  Imp.  8vo.  Med 
Chemitypier.      1868.   2  kroner. 

the  ruthwell  cross,  Northumbria,  Plates,  Translations,  &c.  Folio 
10  sh.     (Pp.  46). 

macbeth,  .iarl  siward  og  duxdee.  Et  bidrag  til  Skotlands  historie  fra 
Skandinaviens  Rune-fund.     Imp.    8vo.    Med    Chemitypier.      1876.     1   krone. 

Macbeth,  earl  siward  and  Dundee.  A  contribution  to  Scottish  History 
from  the  Rune-finds  of  Scandinavia.     Imp.    8vo.    With  Chemitypes.    1876.    2  sh. 

tordneren  thor.  Frcmstillet  pa  en  skandinavisk  Dobefont  fra  omtrent 
Ar  1000.  Det  eneste  hidindtil  fundne  Gudebillede  efterladt  os  af  vore  Skando- 
Gotiske  forffedre.    3  kr.  50  ore. 


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