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NOTES TO THE ENGLISH SLAVE.
( 32 ) for it was forged
By fairy dwarfs amid their secret caves. . . p. 56.
105
The northern nations, who were Scythians, believed in a race
of dwarfs who inhabited the rocky regions, and who forged in
their secret caverns all kinds of weapons of warfare, to which,
by their magic skill, they imparted the most wonderful powers.
Witches, or magicians, were supposed by the Scandinavians
to possess the power of granting to whom they thought proper,
swords and armour of proof, girdles of defence, and caps that,
every way they were turned, should direct the weather.
33
( )
who bows not to earth
And cries, Hail! my lord Dane. . . p. 57.
For several ages after this period, a lofty insolent person
was called a lord Dane.
"The towns through which the Danes passed, exhibited the
most horrible scenes of misery and desolation. Venerable old
men lying with their throats cut at their own doors, the streets
covered with the bodies of young men and women, without
heads, legs, or arms, and of matrons and virgins, who had been
first dishonoured and then put to death." Wallingford, apud
34
( ) Trust him ? Ay, would I, by my golden bracelets, .p. 59.
" The Danes esteemed no oath so sacred and inviolable as
that which they swore by their golden bracelets." Asser. Vita,
JEthelward's Chron. 1. iv. c. 3.
35
( )
Well quaff the wine-cup mingled with our blood,
And swear eternal friendship. . .
p. 60.
" The romantic attachment of the warriors of the North who
entered into a compact of friendship, is well known to all
versed in Scandinavian manners it was confirmed ;
by the
superstitious ceremony of mingling their blood in wine, and
drinking it. They even pledged themselves not to survive each
other. They were called Stall-brodre. When Baldwin II. and
last Latin Emperor of Constantinople, to aid his sinking cause,
formed a dishonourable alliance with the Turks and Comans,
to please the latter a dog was sacrificed between the two
armies, and the contracting parties tasted each other's blood as
a pledge of their friendship j and a Comanian chief, or king,
was buried near one of the gates of Constantinople, with a
train of followers and horses alive." See Joinville.