SCOTO-SCANDINAVIAN RELICS.
From the slight historical sketch introduced in a preceding chapter,
we perceive that the plundering expeditions of the Norse Vikings, and
the establishment of Norwegian dominion by Harold in the Northern
and Western Isles, were rapidly superseded by the establishment of
an independent Scoto-Norwegian kingdom, which diminished the direct
intercourse with Scandinavia Proper, and led to some interfusion of
the Celtic and Scandinavian races. To this period, therefore, we
must look for the introduction of pure Scandinavian antiquities into
Scotland, and also for the production of those native relics which bear
manifest traces of the influence of Scandinavian art. In the Western
Isles especially, where the expatriated Vikings of Norway fixed their
head-quarters, and in Man, and the Orkney and Shetland Isles, where the
first independent Scoto-Norwegian kingdoms were established, we may
naturally look for many traces of Scandinavian arts.
To this period belongs the very characteristic and beautiful ornament,
usually designated the shell-shaped brooch, and which is equally
familiar to Scandinavian and British antiquaries. In Scotland
especially, many beautiful examples have been found: several of them
are preserved in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries, and from
these the following is selected as surpassing in beauty of design
and intricacy of ornament, any other example of which I am aware. It
consists, as usual, of a convex plate of metal, with an ornamental
border, surmounted by another convex plate of greater depth, highly
ornamented with embossed and perforated designs, the effect of which
appears to have been further heightened by the lower plate being gilded
so as to shew through the open work. In this example the gilding
still remains tolerably perfect. On the under side are the projecting
plates still retaining a fragment of the corroded iron pin, where it
has turned on a hinge, and at the opposite end the bronze catch into
which it clasped. The under side of the brooch appears to have been
lined with coarse linen, the texture of which is still clearly defined
on the coating of verd antique with which it is now covered. But its
peculiar features consist of an elevated central ornament resembling a
crown, and four intricately chased projections terminating in horses'
heads. It was found in September 1786, along with another brooch of the
same kind, lying beside a skeleton, under a flat stone, very near the
surface, above the ruins of a Pictish house or burgh, in Caithness.
It measures nearly four and a half inches in length, by three inches
in breadth, and two and two-fifth inches in height to the top of the
crown. Like many others of the same type, it appears to have been
jewelled. In several examples of these brooches which I have compared,
the lower convex plates so nearly resemble each other, as to suggest
the probability of their having been cast in the same mould, while the
upper plates entirely differ.
[Illustration]
These oval brooches are most frequently found in pairs, and may be
presumed to have been worn on the front of the shoulders or breast, as
shewn in a curious piece of sculpture, evidently of nearly the same
period, which is built into the church wall of Invergowrie. It is
engraved in Mr. Chalmers of Auldbar's "Ancient Sculptured Monuments of
Angus," (_Pl._ XXII.) and represents, apparently, three dignitaries,
probably priests, as two of them hold books in their hands. The two
outer figures are adorned with large brooches on their shoulders,
while the central, and perhaps more important figure, is without
them, but wears instead a circular ornament on the lower front of
his garment. Along with the pairs of oval brooches is frequently
found a third, flat and sometimes trefoiled. One of these, referred
to more particularly on a subsequent page, found along with a pair
of oval brooches, in a barrow on the Island of Westray, in 1839, was
first observed on the exposure of the skeleton, apparently laid on
the abdomen, while the others were beside the ribs, as if worn on
the breast. Another example from the Island of Sangay is figured in
the Vetusta Monumenta, (vol. ii. _Pl._ XX.) A beautiful pair, made
of a white-coloured metal, found under peculiar circumstances in a
tumulus in Yorkshire, and another from the neighbourhood of Bedale, are
figured in the Archæological Journal.[558] Various other specimens are
preserved, both in public and private collections, but none of those
that I have seen appear to equal in elaborateness or beauty of design,
the Caithness brooch figured above.
[Illustration: Sculpture at Invergowrie.]
By far the most remarkable relic associated with the period of
Scandinavian invasion yet discovered in Scotland, is the beautiful
Runic brooch, engraved on _Plate_ I., which forms the frontispiece
to this volume. It was found in the autumn of 1830, on the estate of
Robert Hunter, Esq. of Hunterston, in the parish of West Kilbride,
Ayrshire, within about an hundred yards of the sea, by two workmen who
had commenced to quarry for stones. It lay quite close to the surface,
at the foot of a steep cliff, called the "Hawking Craig," where the
falcon still breeds,--a part of the Goldenberry hill, which bounds the
extreme western point of Ayrshire. Between the Hawking Craig and the
sea is a level piece of ground, where local tradition affirms that a
skirmish took place, shortly before the celebrated battle of Largs,
fought A.D. 1263,[559] when the fleet of King Haco was shattered by
a tempest, and the Norse foe, already dispirited and greatly reduced
in numbers, was totally routed, and finally driven from the Scottish
mainland. In further confirmation of the local tradition Mr. Hunter
adds,--"On the opposite side of the Hawking Craig, where the brooch
was found, I discovered, in making a fence, some graves, composed
merely of six rough stones, but with nothing inside but some charcoal,
the bones being quite decayed. A short distance from this, at the foot
of the hill, is the flat piece of ground assigned as the scene of the
skirmish, in confirmation of which I discovered some graves there. A
short way from this was a large cairn or tumulus of stones, wherein
were found coins, &c.; but I just recollect, as a boy, the stones
having been carted away: I found also an urn of unbaked clay, half
filled with bones partially burned." It might admit of doubt if the
Norsemen were likely to tarry on an enemy's coast, after so decisive
a defeat, long enough to construct the cist and cinerary urn, and to
rear the funeral pile, though we know that they were permitted to land,
after the battle of Largs, in order to bury their dead. But we may
dispense with the argument in this case, as we have not the slightest
reason to imagine that the cinerary urn was in use, either by Scots or
Norwegians, of the thirteenth century. In truth, the whole theory by
which the remarkable relic now referred to is sought to be connected
with the important historical event of the reign of Alexander III., is
destitute of any satisfactory foundation. The locality is far removed
from Largs, and not the slightest value can be attached to any local
tradition of Norwegian skirmishes or battles. A reference to the old
and new statistical accounts of the various parishes, along both the
Ayrshire and Argyleshire coasts, will suffice to shew that the battle
of King Haco has proved as infallible a source of explanation for the
discovery of cists, tumuli, cairns, and sepulchral relics of every
kind, as if it were a well authenticated fact that no one had died,
from the days of Noah to our own, but at the battle of Largs!
Sturla, the Norse skald, has celebrated the gorgeous armament of Haco
in the famous Raven's Ode, and disguises the extent of his monarch's
defeat with the skill of a courtly bard; but in vain. King Haco
gathered together the shattered remnant of his fleet, and bore away for
Orkney, where he died, not many weeks after, of a broken heart. The
old Norse skald thus refers to his earlier success, while the fleet
was gathering along the Scottish shores, in sight of the Ayrshire
coast:--"Our fierce veterans, feeders of wolves, hastened their fatal
course through the mountains. In the fell battle mingling, Aleinn the
Dauntless wreaked vengeance on the expiring foe. But now our sovereign
encountered the horrid powers of enchantment. A tempest, magic-raised,
blew upon our warriors ambitious of conquest, and against the floating
habitations of the brave. The roaring billows dashed shielded companies
on the Scottish strand."
In one of the skirmishes which preceded the fatal encounter fought
on Tuesday the 2d of October 1263, the beautiful brooch engraved on
_Plate_ I. is assumed to have been lost. Both the character of its
inscription and the style of its ornament suggest the probability of
its pertaining to a much earlier period; and even Danish antiquaries,
while not unwilling to authenticate its Scandinavian origin, have
sought for it a date one hundred and thirty-three years prior to the
defeat of King Haco, and the final abandonment of the Scottish mainland
by the Norwegian invader. The brooch is of silver, richly wrought
with gold filigree work, and measures four inches and nine-tenths
in greatest diameter. It is also set with amber, and is in a nearly
perfect condition. The only injury it has received, with the exception
of the point of the acus being broken off, is in some of the amber
settings, occasioned either by the action of the weather, to which
it was exposed from lying so near the surface, or possibly from the
frequent burning of the whins which abound along the cliff where it
was found. But the most remarkable feature of this beautiful personal
ornament is an inscription engraved in large Runic characters on its
under side.
Shortly after the discovery of this interesting relic, it was exhibited
to the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, and Mr. T. G. Repp, a native of
Iceland, familiar with Runic literature, read the inscription thus:--
[Illustration: ᛘᛆᛚᚮᚱᛁᚦᛆ᛬ᛆ᛬ᛐᛆᛚᚴ᛬ᚦᛁᛍ᛬᛬ᛐᚭᛚᚴ᛬ᚭᛍᚠᚱᛁᛑᚭ᛬]
Maloritha á dalk this; Dólk Osfriđo; which he thus translated:
Maloritha possidet hanc fibulam; Fibula Osfridie. At the same time
drawings of the brooch were made, and a cast in sulphur was taken from
the inscription, which is now deposited in the Museum of the Scottish
Antiquaries. This valuable historic relic, which is here for the first
time presented to British archæologists, has attracted considerable
attention among Danish antiquaries. It was made the subject of a
learned communication by Finn Magnusen, in the _Annaler for Nordisk
Oldkyndighed og Historie_ for 1846, (pp. 323-599,) but it admits of
doubt if he has been more successful in the correct rendering of this
than of the well-known Runamo or Ruthwell inscriptions, though he is
equally precise in assigning to our Ayrshire brooch a definite date and
owner, as in identifying Offa, and the other historical characters of
whom mention is made, according to certain readings of the Ruthwell
Runes.
The inscription on the brooch is traced in large Runic characters,
of which an exact fac-simile is introduced in the frontispiece, and
differs essentially from any readings hitherto given of it by Danish
antiquaries. Professor Magnusen's version, furnished by the late
Mr. Donald Gregory, then Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, was probably only a copy of that made by Mr. Repp, though he
reads the second name ᚮᛍᚠᚱᛁᛐᚭ, and contrives to elicit a vast deal more
significance from the brief legend than its former translator dreamt
of. He renders the first part--MALFRIÞA A DALK ÞIS; and translates
it, _Malfritha is the owner of this brooch_. In this Malfritha he
ingeniously discovers the Norwegian Queen Malford, a Russian princess
who lived about A.D. 1130, while he finds in the Osfrido of the latter
part of his version, Astrith the wife of King Svenir. A passage,
moreover, in the Saga of King Haco, wherein the monarch complains of
having been despoiled in infancy of all his inheritance save a brooch
and a ring, completed the coveted cycle of historical identification,
and here accordingly we have the brooch of King Haco, and an undoubted
memorial of the Battle of Largs! A glance at the fac-simile of the
inscription will shew how much imagination had to do even with the
literal elements of this unparalleled discovery. In adapting the first
name to his historical romance, Professor Magnusen reads ᚮ as F, not
only without any authority, but even while recognising the regular ᚠ,
or Runic F, in the second name--a needless liberty as will appear. The
word ᚦᛁᛍ is no less a creation of the fancy. The mark which appears to
have been construed into the terminating circle of the ᛍ, and to have
given some show of probability to the others, being only the head of
one of the silver rivets, which chances there to protrude in the middle
of a line.
Meanwhile let us glance at the safer guidance which pure archæological
evidence supplies. In addition to the inscription, I have introduced
in the drawing, portions of the ornamental borders running along the
outer and inner edges of the brooch. The Irish antiquary especially
will recognise in these the familiar interlaced patterns to be found
on nearly every native ecclesiastical and personal ornament pertaining
to the early Christian period prior to the first appearance of the
Northern Vikings, and with these the entire design and ornamentation
correspond. But for the inscription, in fact, no one would have
dreamt of assigning to the brooch a foreign origin; yet it does not
seem to have ever occurred to the Scottish antiquaries to whom it was
submitted, that the inscription might also be native, and equally
Celtic with the workmanship. It will be seen that a rude chevron
pattern is engraved on the back of the brooch, cut in the same style
as the inscription, evidently the work of very different, and no doubt
later hands, than those of the original jeweller. The whole reasoning,
both of Scottish and Danish antiquaries in relation to this interesting
relic, has heretofore proceeded on the assumption that a Runic
inscription must have a direct Scandinavian origin: a conclusion by no
means necessarily resulting from the use of Runes in Scotland at the
date assigned to this one, after alliances and intermarriages had long
existed between the Scandinavian and Celtic races of Scotland.
The Runic monuments of the Isle of Man present some remarkable
features, manifestly pointing them out as the product of a Scandinavian
colony in close alliance with a native Celtic population, and possessed
both of a language and style of art resulting from the intercourse
of these diverse races. The Manx Runic alphabet appears also to have
some literal peculiarities altogether singular, though probably once
common to the Hebrides and Northern Isles, and found also, as might
have been anticipated, on the Hunterston brooch. To these features of
the Manx alphabet, my attention was called by Professor P. A. Munch of
Christiania, during the visit of that distinguished Northern scholar
to this country in 1849; by whom, indeed, they were for the first time
detected, when inspecting a series of casts of the Manx inscriptions in
the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries. In these ᚮ is sometimes used
as B, so that the first name on the brooch reads _Malbritha_. From the
incidents already narrated relative to the Scandinavian acquirement of
possessions on the Scottish mainland, both by conquest and marriage, it
cannot be doubted that, in so far as the Celtic race had any literary
acquirements, they must have been familiarized both with the Northern
language and Runes. It need not, therefore, surprise us to find in the
owner of the Hunterston brooch not a Norwegian queen but a Scottish
chief of the same name as the Celtic Maormor, Melbrigda Tönn, slain by
Sigurd, the Orkney jarl, when he invaded the north of Scotland A.D.
894. The name, indeed, is familiar to the student of early Scottish
history, and its first syllable is one of the commonest Celtic
prefixes, as in the _Mail Pataric_ on the Iona tomb, and even in the
royal name of Malcolm, _Maol Columb_, the servant of Columba, as _Maol
Brigda_ signifies the servant of St. Bridget. In all cases it is a male
prefix, the Gaelic _maol_ meaning _bald_ as well as _subordinate_, and
being undoubtedly employed in its latter acceptation with reference
to the tonsure. It is accordingly frequently met with in the names
of ecclesiastics, as in the Pictish chronicle, A.D. 965, "_Maelbrigd
episcopus pausavit,_" and again repeatedly in an early Irish MS. copy
of the Gospels, preserved among the Harleian MSS. in the British
Museum,--n, 1802; as, for example, at the end of the Gospel of St.
John, the colophon, "Or. do Maelbrigte h-Ua Maeluanaig, qui scripsit
hunc librum."
Here, therefore, we have a probable key to the language of the whole
inscription, nor can it be regarded as an extravagant idea that a Celt
should write his native language in an alphabet already familiar to
him. The characters on the brooch, it will be seen, include various
_Binderuner_ or compound Runes, which add to the difficulty of
translation. Making allowance for these, the following version has this
merit at least, compared with previous ones, that it does not select
merely such letters as will conform to a preconceived theory, but takes
the whole in natural order. In the latter part of the inscription the
second letter is a compound Rune, consisting of ᛅᚭ, or perhaps of
ᛁᛅᚭ, the next of ᛚᛉ, and the fourth of ᛆᚭ--a construction entirely in
accordance with the usual mode of interpreting the _Binderuner_, which
were in common use at the very period of the most intimate Celtic and
Scandinavian intercourse. The whole will thus read:
[Illustration: ᛘᛆᛚᚮᚱᛁᚦᛆ᛬ᛆ᛬ᛐᛆᛁᛘᛁᚼᛂᚼ᛬ᛁ᛬ᛐᛅᚭᛚ᛬ᛘᛆᚭᛚᚠᚱᛁᛐᛁ]
The additional marks are mostly irregular lines, with no distinctive
character, and executed with so little care, that it is not improbable
they have been introduced merely to occupy the remaining space with
a uniform texture. What is decipherable reads in good Scottish
Celtic: _Malbritha a daimiheh i dæol Maolfridi_; _i.e._, Malbritha
his friend in recompense to Maolfridi: _a_ is the possessive pronoun
_his_; _daimheach_, a friend or relative; _i_ or _h-i_, the old
Celtic preposition _in_; and _dìol_, a reward for service done. It
must be borne in remembrance that the spelling of the Scottish Gaelic
is entirely modern. It is the sound therefore that is chiefly to be
looked to, but the variations even in the spelling are not important.
No Scandinavian scholar can examine the fac-simile of the inscription,
and question the fact that the concluding portion actually contains
the masculine name which Professor Magnusen was at such needless pains
to try and educe from that of Malbritha. The chief value, however,
to the Scottish antiquary of the reading now given, arises from no
identification of these old Celtic friends, but from its establishing
the fact--in itself so probable--that they did actually employ the
Scoto-Scandinavian Runes in writing their own native language.
[Illustration]
The annexed woodcut represents an exceedingly beautiful Scottish
brooch, the size of the original, now in the collection of John Bell,
Esq. of Dungannon. Like the Hunterston brooch, it is of silver, set
with amber, and with the pattern wrought in gold. The resemblance of
the two, both in style of ornament and in some of the details, can
hardly fail to be admitted. This very fine specimen was found in the
immediate vicinity of the celebrated mounds of Dunipace, Stirlingshire,
the subject of antiquarian speculation from the days of Buchanan to
our own. Another very fine large silver brooch, jewelled and plated
with gold, formerly in the celebrated collection of Major Sirr, and now
in that of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., has the acus exactly corresponding in
its form and peculiar construction to that of the Hunterston brooch,
while its other details are such as Scottish and Irish antiquaries are
familiar with on the native gold and silver work of Celtic Christian
art prior to the eleventh century. In point of workmanship and style
of art, therefore, we have no reason to ascribe to our Runic brooch a
foreign origin. Other evidence equally exposes the fallacy of assuming
a necessary connexion between the discovery of Runes on our western
coast and the fatal expedition of King Haco.
Directly opposite to the Ayrshire coast, and within sight of the Bay
of Largs, a small island protects the entrance to Lamlash Bay, in
the Isle of Arran, the well-known anchorage where Haco mustered his
shattered fleet after his overthrow. In the Norwegian account of the
expedition, after the narration of the fatal storm and conflict, it
is stated, "The king sailed past Kumbrey (Cumbray) to Melansay, where
he lay some nights."[560] This Melans ey, or isle, there can be little
doubt is Holy Island, in the Bay of Lamlash, which contains the cave
assigned by immemorial tradition as the residence of St. Molio or St.
Maoliosa, a disciple of Columba, and a favourite Celtic saint. The
island corresponds in geological structure to the southern district
of Arran, presenting along the shore the common red sandstone strata,
overflowed by a great mass of claystone and claystone porphyry, which
towers above it in rugged and picturesque cliffs, fringed by the dwarf
oak and birch, to a height of about a thousand feet. The cave of St.
Molio is little more than a waterworn recess in the sandstone rock at
an elevation of about thirty feet from the present level of the sea.
On the shore below, a circular well is pointed out as St. Molio's
Bath, and a large block of sandstone cut perfectly flat on the top,
and surrounded with a series of artificial recesses or seats, bears
the name of the Saint's Chair. Such relics are by no means rare in
Scotland. They appear to have been singularly characteristic of Celtic
hagiology. The Bath of St. Cuthbert was once a favourite resort in
Strathtay; that of St. Woloc exists in Strathdeveron; and that of St.
Fillan remains in the strath of Perthshire which still bears his name.
St. Kentigern also had once his "bath," "bed," and "chair," near the
Molendinar Burn. The Stone Chair of St. Marnan is still at Aberchirder;
that of St. Fillan was recently preserved at the Mill of Killin; while
another of these singular Celtic relics, placed at a commanding point,
near Achtereachan, Glencoe, where a bend of the glen enables it to
command both views, bears the name of _Cathair Malvina_, or the Chair
of Malvina, one of Ossian's heroines.
The roof and sides of the cave of St. Molio, on Holy Island, are
covered with rude marks and inscriptions of many different periods,
among which may be discerned the following Runic inscription, cut with
great regularity, in characters of about an inch and a half in length.
[Illustration: ❌ ᚿᛁᚴᚢᛚᚮᛌ⁝ᛆᚼᛅᚿᛂ⫶ᚱᛅᛁᛌᛐ᛫]
The reading is sufficiently simple and unmistakable. _Nikulos ahane
raist_. The first, ᚿᛁᚴᚢᛚᚮᛌ, is manifestly a proper name. No such word
as ᛆᚼᛅᚿᛂ is known in the Icelandic or ancient Norse tongue, unless it
be simply _a Hane_: of Hane, the name of a place. We may therefore,
perhaps, without impropriety, look for it in the native Celtic, where
_abhadh_, pronounced very nearly in accordance with the spelling of
_ahane_, signifies a hollow or abode. The last word, ᚱᛅᛁᛌᛐ, is of
common occurrence in Runic inscriptions, the preterite of _rísta, to
engrave_. In the present example, therefore, we shall not probably err
in reading the inscription _Nicholas engraved, or cut, this cave_.
According to established custom with all relics found in the
neighbourhood of the estuary of the Clyde, possessing the slightest
affinity to those of ancient Scandinavia, this Runic inscription will
no doubt be ascribed to the followers of King Haco in the thirteenth
century. But independently of the improbability of the defeated
Norsemen employing themselves in inscribing such a retreat, the
simplicity of the Runes favours the probability of its pertaining to
an earlier period. It is not altogether impossible, however, that even
now, after the lapse of at least six centuries, we may be able from the
brief Runes of St. Molio's Cave, to identify the anchorite who dwelt
in this rude retreat. From the initial ✠, the inscription appears to
be the work of an ecclesiastic; and in the Chronicon Manniæ, after
recording the death of Bishop Michael, the elevation of his successor
Nicholas, a native of Argyle, is thus noted: Huic successit Nicolaus
Archadiensis genere, qui jacet in monasterio Benchorensi.[561] He
appears to have succeeded to the see about the year 1193, and to have
held it for about fourteen years.[562] The coincidence both of name
and place of nativity certainly give probability to the supposition
that the recluse of Holy Island in the bay of Lamlash, and the old Manx
bishop, may have been one; at the same time it must be observed that
such attempts at identification rest on an extremely uncertain basis,
and have been the fruitful source of error.
The traces of the use of Runic characters are still abundant in the
Isle of Man, and undoubtedly belong to the period of the general
adoption of Christianity there, though it is not possible to assign to
them a precise date. But the above are not the only Runes inscribed on
St. Molio's cave. The whole surrounding surface of the rock is covered
with crosses, evidently the marks of pious but illiterate pilgrims, who
thus recorded their visit to the Holy Isle. Among these, however, are
also traceable initials, monograms, and other more perfect evidences
of the former concourse of pilgrims to the sacred spot. The annexed
fac-simile of a group of them shews the curious character of these
primitive holographs; but among them the experienced eye will at once
discern the Runic characters, not regularly and boldly cut as in the
former inscription, but irregularly scratched, as with the hasty hand
of the wayfaring pilgrim. It is hardly necessary now too curiously to
investigate the primitive record, though the letters are for the most
part sufficiently distinct and well defined. The ᚳ, or _k_, is not a
Scandinavian but an Anglo-Saxon Rune: a mixture by no means improbable
by a Celtic inscriber. The whole probably imply no more than the proper
name _Akiethir_, though it does not present, as in the former case, one
familiar to our ears. Possibly like some other Runic inscriptions, it
reads from right to left, in which case we should perhaps recognise it
as a female name, _Ritheika_.
[Illustration: Runic Inscription in St. Molio's Cave.]
The rounded Roman characters, from which the medieval church-lettering
ultimately sprung, were in use in the North more than a century prior
to the era of King Haco, though they had not entirely superseded the
Runes. But before this took place the Runic alphabet had been augmented
by various new characters, and the _Binderuner_, or compound Runes,
were in general use, especially in proper names, many of which are
united into a single monogram. Both of the inscriptions in St. Molio's
Cave are free from the later abridged mode of writing, and would
therefore seem more probably ascribable to an older date than the
thirteenth century, or indeed the not greatly earlier era of Bishop
Nicholas of Man.
In this conclusion Scandinavian scholars will probably concur, though
they may perhaps detect in other undecipherable groups of markings
on the same cave the characteristic _Binderuner_ of a later date.
It can hardly be expected that they will unhesitatingly concur in
another idea, advanced I believe for the first time, that the Celtic
population of Scotland were as familiar with the Northern Runes as
the natives of the kingdom of Northumbria are proved to have been with
the Anglo-Saxon Runes, in which the most remarkable Scottish Runic
monument--the Cross of Ruthwell--is inscribed. Of this, however, we
are not entirely without some direct indications. The earliest, if not
indeed the only medieval Scottish document which contains any allusion
to the Pictish race, is a charter of confirmation of the lands of
Burgie, in the reign of Alexander II., which occurs in the Chartulary
of Moray. In describing the marches of the lands of Burgie, as fixed
by perambulation, it refers to the various landmarks as follows:
"Scilicet a magna quercu in Malevin quam predictus comes Malcolumo
primo fecit cruce signari usque ad _Rune Pictorum_, et inde usque ad
_Tubernacrumkel_, et inde per sicum usque ad _Tubernafein_, et inde
usque ad _Runetwethel_, et inde per rivulam qui currit per meresiam
usque ad vadum quod dicitur _Blakeford_, quod est inter Burgyn et
Ulern."[563] To this interesting and curious charter another parchment
is attached, which professes to furnish an explanation of the local
names. They contain, it will be observed, an admixture of Celtic and
Saxon terminology, sufficiently characteristic of the previous history
of the locality; and the explanatory parchment is chiefly valuable as
shewing how effectually the intrusion of the later race had adulterated
or effaced the native traditions. The following is the explanatory
translation:--"_Rune[s] Pictorum_, the carne of the Pethis, or the
Pecht's fieldis. _Tubernacrumkel_, ane well with ane thrawine mowth, or
ane cassin well, or ane crwik in it." It is sufficiently obvious that
the explanations are given with uncertainty and doubt, and there can
be little hesitation in translating the first name, not as the Pictish
fields, but as the Pictish Runes, referring, as may be assumed, to an
inscribed Celtic monument which had of old marked one of the Burgie
marches; though in the reign of Alexander II., and long prior to the
Battle of Largs, the very meaning of the term had been forgotten in
Scotland. No attempt is made in the Burgie parchment to explain the
name _Runetwethel_, but its correspondence to that of Ruthwell, the
site of the celebrated Runic monument in Dumfriesshire, is perhaps not
unworthy of notice.[564] The form of the northern Runes, as of the
eastern Cuneatic characters, is manifestly traceable to a people whose
literature was confined to graven records, chiefly on stone. Many of
the medieval mason's marks are not only similar in general form, but
some of them are identical with the following characters of the Runic
alphabets:--ᚺᛋᛟᚻᚩᛖᛞᛘᚷᛗᛦ While this correspondence may be sufficiently
explained by the simplicity of such combinations of lines, and their
ready execution by the mason's _pen_, the absence of rounded forms,
such as predominate in the Roman alphabet, adds another proof that the
origin of medieval architecture, and perhaps also of Free Masonry, is
traceable to the northern countries of Europe. The medieval mason's
marks may undoubtedly be assumed with equal probability to retain the
traces of the obsolete Runes, as the _Bomœrker_ (literally house-marks)
employed by the peasantry in certain districts of Sweden and Norway
as signatures, or marks on personal property, in which the northern
antiquaries recognise surviving elements of the Runic alphabet. In
more recent times the term _Runic_ has been used in this country in
the vaguest and most uncertain fashion, occasionally without any very
definite meaning appearing to be attached to it, and not infrequently
as synonymous with Danish or Scandinavian.
These indications of the use of Runes by the native Celtic population
of Scotland, are--like many other ideas advanced in this elementary
treatise on our national antiquities--offered suggestively, and liable
to the correction which further discoveries may suggest. The Celtic
character of the name on the Hunterston brooch, the equally familiar
one, in its Greek form, of that in the cave of St. Molio--peculiarly
characteristic of the native Christian ascetics prior to the eleventh
century,--and the Runic characters mingling with the initials and
pilgrims' marks of the Holy Isle, are all suggestive of the same idea;
and this it will be seen receives further confirmation from other
Runic inscriptions. But whatever conclusion be finally adopted as to
the precise rendering of the Hunterston inscription, or the inferences
to be drawn from the various Runic memorials found in Scotland, it
will be universally acknowledged that the brooch on which the former
occurs is a relic of no ordinary interest or value. Though it may not
admit of comparison with the celebrated golden horns, it surpasses, I
believe, any other inscribed Runic relic hitherto discovered in Denmark
or Sweden. A gold head ring found a few years since at Starup, in the
neighbourhood of Haderslev, with Runic letters upon it, is engraved
in Mr. Worsaae's Primeval Antiquities of Denmark. The inscription is
simply the word _luþro_, traced on the inner side of the ring, and
assumed as probably denoting the name of the owner, which in this case
also is supposed to be that of a man.[565]
While the Isle of Man still retains many interesting traces of
Scandinavian influence, in its memorial crosses graven with
inscriptions in the Northern Runes, it is surprising how very partial
are the indications of the same influence in the older northern
jarldom. Only two imperfect Runic inscriptions have been observed
in Shetland, and are described by Dr. Hibbert from drawings by Mr.
Low.[566] One of them on a slab or grave-stone at Crosskirk, in
Northmavine, is too much mutilated to render any attempt at restoration
or decipherment of its meaning possible. The other was fixed in the
wall of the Parish Church of Sandness, where it probably still remains;
but, if there be no error in Dr. Hibbert's engraving of it, it only
adds another to the frequent examples in Scotland of the term _Runic_
being applied to designate any strange or incomprehensible device on
a sepulchral monument. In Orkney no Runic monument is known to exist,
though it cannot be doubted that many such must have been erected
during the earlier years of the independent occupation of the Northern
Islands by the Norwegian Jarls. Some of these, it is not impossible,
may even yet be brought to light; though the continuous presence
of a busy population during the intervening centuries affords too
satisfactory means of accounting for their destruction to render such
discoveries very probable at this late date. The annexed illustration
of a later and more complicated Runic inscription than any known
British example, is the remarkable memorial stone found in 1824 on
the Island of Kingiktorsoak, Greenland, under the parallel of 73°,
proving the zeal with which the old Scandinavian colonists pushed their
adventurous course even to the extreme north of the inhospitable region
of Greenland. It is introduced here chiefly to shew the complicated
and much more intricate character of Scandinavian inscriptions of a
later and well ascertained period; the era of the colonisation of
Greenland being sufficiently established as a historical fact. Mr. C.
C. Rafn finds in the concluding Runes the date 1135. During the recent
repairs executed on St. Magnus Cathedral at Kirkwall, some singularly
interesting discoveries were made connected with the period of its
earliest Scandinavian bishops. A tomb was opened accidentally in
the choir of the cathedral, which from the inscription accompanying
it appears to have been the place to which the remains of William,
according to Torfæus, first resident Bishop of Orkney, were translated,
after the elongation of the cathedral, towards the close of the twelfth
century. Along with the bones were interred a leaden plate inscribed in
the common Church letters of the period:--~H. Requiescit. Williamus.
Senex. felicis. memorie~. On the reverse of the plate are the words,
~pmus epis~. Further excavations in the east end of the choir, and
close to the presumed site of the high altar, led to the discovery of
two curious pieces of sculpture, in bas relief, representing ST. OLAF
and ST. MAGNUS. These, however, as well as the tomb of Bishop Tulloch,
with crosier, paten, and chalice inclosed, and other discoveries
made at the same period, belong to a later era than that of Runic
literature, and are only referred to now as suggesting the possibility
of still earlier relics of the Scandinavian period of Orcadian history
being yet brought to light, while the first of them shews that the
Runic character had fallen into disuse soon after the introduction of
Christianity in the north.
[Illustration: Greenland Runic Inscription.]
It is to the Manx monuments, however, that we must turn for the
most distinct and abundant traces of Scandinavian influence, though
modified both by the arts and the faith of the older Celtic population.
The Runic inscriptions are conjoined with the sacred emblem of the
Christian faith, and are associated with ornamental accompaniments,
some of which are sufficiently common on the sculptured memorials of
the Scottish mainland and isles, though never found on contemporary
native monuments of Scandinavia. The close resemblance of a peculiar
trefoil ornament on the upper part of one of these crosses at Kirk
Michael, to the device on the reverse of the coins of Aulaf, King
of Northumbria, has been pointed out;[567] but it is impossible
to limit to a single country or to a very narrow period much of
the common ornamentation vulgarly called Runic knotwork. It may be
traced on manuscripts, monuments, and relics of Scoto-Irish, Pictish,
Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman origin, from the sixth to
the twelfth century. It is, however, frequently found with other
accompaniments of a more precise character, and this in the case of the
Manx crosses of Kirk Andreas and Kirk Michael, approaches more nearly
to the style of the singular sculptured standing stones of Scotland
than to any other monuments of the north of Europe. Here, therefore,
sheltered by the isolation of this island, and by the veneration or
by the superstition of its inhabitants, examples have been preserved
of the style of Scoto-Norwegian monuments of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, which must once have abounded in the Scottish Northern and
Western Isles, and on those parts of the mainland longest subject
to Scandinavian rule. "The fear of sacrilege evinced by the Manx
peasants is very great. The ruined chapels are still venerated, and
a Manx formula of cursing is,--May a stone of the church be found
in a corner of your house."[568] That the monuments of this period
should have disappeared cannot surprise us, when we reflect on the
very few memorials we now possess of that important era of Scottish
ecclesiastical history which intervenes between the building of the
white-walled cathedral of St. Ninian at Whithern, about the year 412,
and the founding of the Abbey of Dunfermline in the eleventh century.
I am fortunate in having obtained the assistance of Professor P. A.
Munch--whose name will, I believe, be sufficient authority among
northern scholars--in translating such of the Manx monuments as are
referred to here. Previous transcriptions made by copyists unfamiliar
with the Runic characters, or ignorant of the language in which they
are inscribed, have added much uncertainty and obscurity to the
subject, and produced so many various readings as to bring the whole
inquiry into disrepute.[569]
At Kirk Andreas, near Ramsey, at Kirk Michael, Kirk Bride, Kirk
Maughold, and Balsalla, are various of these interesting memorials
of the Scandinavian era, supplying us with examples of the art and
evidences of the faith of the period, and even furnishing some curious
personal information regarding the men of that time. Not the least
interesting of these minute records is that supplied by the inscription
on one of the Kirk Michael crosses, already referred to:--
[Illustration: ᛘᛆᛁᛚ᛬ᚮᚱᛁᚴᛐᛁ᛬ᛌᚢᚿᚱ᛬ᛅᚦᛆᚴᛆᚿᛌ᛬ᛌᛘᛁᚦ᛬ᚱᛆᛁᛌᛐᛁ᛬ᚴᚱᚢᛌ᛬
ᚦᛆᚿᚨ᛬ᚠᚢᚱ᛬ᛌᛆᛚᚢ᛬ᛌᛁᚿᛁ᛬ᛌᛁᚿ᛬ᚮᚱᚢᚴᚢᛁᚿ᛬ᚴᛆᚢᛐ[ᛋ]᛬
ᚴᛁᚱᚦᛁ᛬ᚦᛆᚿᚨ᛬ᛆᚢᚴ᛬ᛆᛚᛆ᛬ᛁᛘᛆᚢᚿ]
Rendered literally, according to the equivalent for each Runic
character, it is:--Mail orikti sunr aþakans smiþ raisti krus þana fur
salu sini sin oruguin gauts girþi þana auk ala i maun. And in pure
Norse it reads:--Mailorikti (Mailbrigdi) sunr Aþakans smiđar reisti
kross þenna fyrir sálu sinni sins öruggs vinar Gauts's gerđi þenna ok
alla i Mön; i.e., Mailbrikti, son of Athacan the smith, raised this
cross for his soul, and that of his faithful friend Gaut, who made this
[cross] and all [the crosses] in Man. The name of the faithful Gaut,
the old Manx sculptor, occurs on other inscriptions, as on a mutilated
fragment at Kirk Andreas:--
[Illustration: ᚦᚨᚿᛆ᛬ᚢᚠ᛬ᚢᚠᛆᛁᚴ᛬ᚠᛆᚢᚦᚢᚱ᛬ᛌᛁᚿ᛬ᛁᚿ᛬ᚴᛆᚢᛐᚱ᛬ᚴᛁᚱᚦᛁ᛬ᛌᚢᚿᚱ᛬
[ᛒᛁᛆ]ᚱᚿᛆᚱ᛬ᚴ᛬᛬᛬]
[Illustration: Kirk Michael Cross.]
Literally, þana uf ufaig fauþur sin in gautr girthi sunr ... rnar g ...
orthog. (N. N. reisti kross) þenna of Ufeig föđur sinn, en Gautr gerđi,
sunr Bjarnar g.... N. N. raised this cross over Ufeig his father,
_but Gaut_ made [it] the son of Björn.... Another of the Kirk Michael
crosses, which has been more frequently and diversely translated than
any British Runic inscription, consists of an upright square slab, with
a cross cut on both sides, according to the usual style of the Scottish
memorial stones, and decorated with a variety of sculptured figures and
animals, representing a stag hunt. One of the edges is ornamented with
interlaced work, as shewn in the annexed illustration, and along the
opposite edge is the legend, surmounted with a small incised figure of
a warrior in simple costume, with his arms extended, holding a spear in
his right hand, and bearing a round shield on the left arm. The letters
are sharply cut, and the author of "Ecclesiological Notes on the Isle
of Man" refers to this as the most perfect Runic inscription in the
three kingdoms:--
[Illustration: ᛆᚢᚮᛚᚠᛁᚱ᛬ᛌᚢᚿᚱ᛬ᚦᚢᚱᚢᛚᚠᛌ᛬ᚼᛁᚿᛌ᛬ᚱᛆᚢᚦᛆ᛬ᚱᛁᛌᛐᛁ᛬ᚴᚱᚢᛌ᛬
ᚦᚨᚿᚨ᛬ᛆᚠᛐ᛬ᚠᚱᛁᚦᚢ᛬ᛘᚢᚦᚢᚱ᛬ᛌᛁᚿᚨ]
Its literal rendering is:--Auolfir sunr þurulfs hins rauþa risti krus
þana aft friþu muþur sina; betraying like the others the variations of
a provincial dialect, or a foreign use of the old Norse tongue. More
correctly it is:--Eyolfr sunr þórolfs hins rauđa reisti kross þenna eft
Friđu móđur sína; _i.e._, Eyolf, the son of Thorolf the Red, raised
this cross after (or in memory of) Frida his mother. This exceedingly
simple memorial of affection, contrasting in its brevity so strikingly
with the inflated extravagancies of modern monumental inscriptions,
affords a good example of the most usual style of the Manx Runic
legends. One cross at Kirk Andreas is raised by Sandulfr suarte, or
Sandulf the Black, in memory of his sons and wife; while on another
imperfect fragment of a cross may still be traced the words:--Oskitil
uilti i trigu aiþsuara sinn; _i.e._, Oskitil betrayed in truce his
sworn friend. The precise object of this unusual memorial cannot
now be guessed at with any degree of certainty, though the fragment
preserves sufficient that is peculiar to excite our regret at its
recovery in so imperfect and dubious a state. Another mutilated cross
at Kirk Michael is interesting as an additional example of a Runic
inscription containing names essentially Celtic in character. Part of
the inscription is so much defaced by the weather as to baffle any
attempt at a consistent rendering of its meaning, but of the portion
copied below no doubt can be entertained. It is presented here in
fac-simile, as an illustration of the style of engraving of the Manx
inscriptions, though it differs in the use of ᛋᛏ for the more common
Runic characters introduced on the other crosses as equivalent to the
_s_ and _t_.
[Illustration: ᛘᛅᛚᛚᚤᛘᚴᚢᚾ᛬ᚱᛅᛁᛋᛏᛁ᛬ᚴᚱᚢᛋ᛬ᚦᛆᚾᛅ᛫ᛂᚠᛏᛁᚱ⁝ᛘᛅᛚ᛫ᛘᚢᚱᚢ᛬ᚠᚢᛋᛏᚱᛅᛋᚢᚾ]
The inscription literally reads:--Mal-lymkun raisti krus thana eftir
Mal-muru fustra sun; _i.e._, Mallymcun raised this cross, after
Malmor his foster-son. The frequent allusions in Runic inscriptions
to the foster-father, brother, or son, shews the singular estimation
in which such peculiar ties of adopted relationship were held by
the northern races at that early date, as they have continued to be
even to our own day among the Scottish Highlanders. But the most
thoroughly Scandinavian in character of all the Manx Runic crosses is
the beautiful one which stands in the churchyard at Kirk Braddan. I
am not aware if crosses of this form are found in Denmark or Norway,
but in nearly all the principal details, especially on the shaft, it
differs entirely from the other Manx crosses, and corresponds to those
on Scandinavian relics of the Iron Period. It has been broken in two,
and otherwise mutilated; but the two principal pieces have been clasped
together with iron bands, so that a good idea can still be formed of
it in its perfect state. The shaft is decorated with the common dragon
ornaments, intricately intertwined over its whole surface; thus greatly
differing in style from the Runic crosses wrought by the skilful hands
of Gaut, as well as from the contemporary standing stones of the
Scottish mainland. This, therefore, we may be justified in assuming, is
the work of some Norwegian artist, whose style was derived from his own
fatherland, though in some degree modified by the favourite models of
Celtic art which have influenced the form of other Christian monuments
in the island. It is probably one of the latest of all the Runic
memorials in Man, while at the same time it presents the Scandinavian
characters accompanying a style of art to some extent derived from
the same foreign source. It can hardly indeed admit of doubt, that in
some at least of the Manx monuments we must recognise the adaptation
of the Norse literature and dialect to native memorials. The cross
cut in relief on the flat slab, with the subordinate accompaniments
illustrative of feats of war or the chase, appear to be peculiarly
characteristic of primitive Pictish art; while the perforated head with
interlaced ornamentation, such as that which is here associated with
the old dragon pattern and other Pagan devices of Scandinavia, is
more directly traceable to the early Christian arts of Celtic Ireland.
The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland possesses a complete cast of
this beautiful cross, taken when the iron clamps were removed for the
purpose of being renewed, and which thus supplies a portion of the
Runic inscription which can no longer be seen. It is as follows:--
[Illustration: ᚦᚢᚱᛚᛁᚮᚱ᛬ᚾᛂᛅᚴᛁ᛬ᚱᛁᛌᛐᛁ᛬ᚴᚱᚢᛌ᛬ᚦᚨᚿᚨ᛬ᛆᚠᛐ᛬ᚠᛁᛅᚴ᛬ᛌᚢᚿ᛬
[ᛌ]ᛁᚿ᛬[ᛒ]ᚱᚢᚦᚢᚱ᛬ᛌᚢᚿ᛬ᛅᛆᚮᚱᛌ]
Literally,--þurlior neaki risti krus þana aft fiak sun sin bruþur sun
eaors. Orthogr.: Thorliótr neaki reisti kross þenna eft Fiak sun sinn,
bróđurson Eaors; _i.e._, Thorlior Neaki raised this cross after Fiak
his son, the nephew (brother's son) of Eaor. In addition to this the
following marks occur on the under side of the head of the cross, and
have been variously figured in the different editions of Camden, and
elsewhere. The Runic ᚢ appears to be used in its literal sense, and the
remainder may be assumed as rude attempts at Roman characters, in which
case I think there can be little hesitation in reading it as the sacred
name IHESVS--a curious example of the transition from the use of Runes
to Roman characters.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Kirk Braddan Cross.]
It has already been noted that the term Runic is used in Scotland in
the vaguest sense, being frequently understood as synonymous with
Scandinavian. In the account of St. Madoes' Parish, Perthshire, for
example, we read: "In the churchyard there is a very beautiful specimen
of that class of monuments called Runic, from their imagined Norse or
Danish origin." It may be perhaps assumed that another stone in the
parish of Anwoth, Kirkcudbrightshire, has no better claims to rank
among the Runic monuments of Scotland, notwithstanding that the older
Statist applies the name in reference to its inscription. It is thus
described in the Old Statistical Account of the parish, along with a
large moat which occupies a steep rocky peninsula jutting out into the
sea: "Near to this moat stands a thin stone, nearly perpendicular,
five feet three inches high, engraved on both sides with the rude
figure of a cross, accompanied with several ornamental strokes, which
some antiquaries suppose to be Runic inscriptions."[570] But one other
remarkable Runic monument remains to be considered, surpassing in
extent and importance any of those yet described, and rendered not
the less interesting from the very curious literary controversy to
which it has given rise. This is the celebrated cross of Ruthwell, in
Dumfriesshire, inscribed not in Northern but Anglo-Saxon Runes. Like
the few English examples yet discovered, it is in the Northumbrian
dialect of Anglo-Saxon, and therefore is traceable, not to that
northern intrusion of the Scandinavian branch of the Teutonic races
which we have hitherto considered, and by which the old Celtic race
of Scotland has been so greatly modified, but to the influx of a
Teutonic race from the south, by which the Celtic occupants of the
Scottish Lowlands and the whole Northumbrian kingdom, were ultimately
superseded. Nevertheless the cross of Ruthwell may be referred to here
without any great risk of confusion, along with those inscribed in the
old Norse dialect; notwithstanding the justice of Mr. J. M. Kemble's
remarks, that "the characters of the Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, and
Icelanders, are not less distinct from those of the Goths, High and Low
Germans, and Anglo-Saxons, than the languages of the several nations
which they represented."[571] The Ruthwell cross is unquestionably by
far the most important Runic monument in Britain, and has excited an
attention fully equal to the great interest justly pertaining to it. A
beautiful engraving of this ancient monument in the fourth volume of
the Archæologia Scotica, accompanied with careful fac-similes of its
inscriptions, renders any minute description of it superfluous.
Setting aside certain old and sufficiently vague local traditions
recorded in the first Statistical Account of the Parish of Ruthwell,
we obtain the earliest authentic notice of it only in the seventeenth
century, at which time it appears to have still remained in the parish
church, uninjured by any of those earlier ebullitions of misdirected
popular zeal to which so many Scottish relics of Christian art fell a
prey. When, however, the struggle between Charles I. and his people was
rapidly hastening to a crisis, and religious differences were forced by
many concurrent influences into violent collision, the General Assembly
of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which met at St. Andrews in the
month of July 1642, passed an order decreeing the demolition of the
Ruthwell cross as a monument of idolatry. The order met with a less
hearty and thorough-going execution than might have been anticipated
from the spirit prevailing at a period when the whole course of public
events had tended to inflame men's minds to the uttermost. The column,
however, was thrown down and broken in several pieces; but it still
lay in the church, and was examined there by Pennant so recently as
1772. Soon after this, however, it was cast out into the churchyard,
where its exposure to weather, and its liability to careless and wanton
mutilation, threatened at length most effectually to accomplish the
object of the St. Andrews Assembly's Order of 1642, when fortunately
the Rev. Dr. Duncan was presented to the parish. Soon afterwards he had
the fragments of the venerable memorial pieced together, and re-erected
within the friendly shelter of the manse garden,--a monument to his own
good taste, with which his name will be associated by thousands who
know not the large-hearted benevolence and piety with which he adorned
the sacred office which he filled.
Not content, however, with merely restoring the venerable memorial,
Dr. Duncan executed careful drawings of it, from which the engravings
in the fourth volume of the Archæologia Scotica were made. These are
accompanied with a history from his pen, and an accurate translation
of the Latin inscription, which is cut in Roman characters on the back
and front of the cross. With the Runic inscription, which occupies the
remaining sides of the monument, Dr. Duncan attempted no more than to
furnish the Scottish antiquaries with an accurate copy, leaving those
who deemed themselves able for the task to encounter its difficulties,
and render an intelligible version of its meaning. This was accordingly
undertaken by Mr. Thorleif G. Repp, a learned northern scholar, and
a native of Iceland, then resident in Edinburgh, who, reading the
letters correctly enough, proceeded to weave them into imaginary
words and sentences, by means of which he makes out the inscription
to record "a gift for the expiation of an injury, of a _cristpason_
or baptismal fount, of eleven pounds weight, made by the authority
of the Therfusian fathers, for the devastation of the fields." Other
portions of the inscription were made to supply the name of the
devastated locality, "The dale of Ashlafr," a place as little heard
of before as were its holy conservators, the Monks of Therfuse! Dr.
Duncan remarks, in furnishing an abstract of Mr. Repp's rendering of
the Ruthwell Runes,--"It is obvious that, in future inquiries on this
subject, it will be of considerable importance to fix the locality of
_Ashlafardhal_ and _Therfuse_!" The accurate drawings of Dr. Duncan,
however, published as they were to the learned world by the Scottish
Antiquaries, had at length supplied the most important desiderata
towards the elucidation of the old Anglo-Saxon memorial. Professor
Finn Magnusen was the first to avail himself of the new elements for
the satisfactory investigation of this venerable Teutonic relic, and
published, in Danish, in the "Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og
Historie, 1836-37," and nearly at the same time in English, in the
"Report addressed by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries to
its British and American Members," a revised version of the Ruthwell
inscription, in which, while confirming the somewhat startling opinion
of Mr. Repp, that it was in a language consisting both of Anglo-Saxon
and old Northern words, he arrives at very different, but still more
precise conclusions. The learned Dane, however, had obtained, as he
conceived, a source of information which not even the zealous incumbent
of Ruthwell parish had access to.
"Fortunately," says he, "we are in possession of what must be
admitted to be an important document in the case before us,
a document the existence of which was unknown as well to Mr.
Repp as, to the best of our belief, to all others now living,
that have devoted attention to the monument in question. Dr.
Duncan observes that the capital of the column, which in the
delineations he gives of it shews no characters or traces of
such, had, however, formerly inscriptions, now quite illegible.
The greater part of them, meanwhile, are found on a delineation
of the two broader sides of the said capital, which together
with the two Runic sides of the whole column, (consequently
more of it than has been given by Hickes or Gordon,) is to be
seen on a large folio copperplate engraving, now the property
of me, Finn Magnusen. It was given to me some years ago by my
much-lamented friend and predecessor, Professor Thorkelin, who,
however, his memory being impaired by age, could not remember
anything more about it than that it represented a column in
Scotland, and that he had obtained it, he knew not how or of
whom, during his travels in Britain."[572]
This rare and indeed seemingly unique print Professor Magnusen
accordingly designates the "Thorkelin Engraving." Its age he conceives
must be about 150 years, or perhaps still older. "Be this as it may,"
he adds, "it serves to throw a new and most important light--in
fact, the most important yet obtained--on the design and purpose of
the column, inasmuch as it has preserved the initial words of its
inscription, setting forth that one _Ofa_, a descendant of Voda, had
caused it to be cut," &c. Accordingly, setting aside the humbler
attempts of Mr. Repp, the Danish professor substitutes a _marriage_
for the _devastation_ of his predecessor, discovers four important
historical personages in the record, nearly fixes the precise year
A.D. 650 for the handfasting, and altogether furnishes an entirely new
chapter of Anglo-Saxon history, based almost entirely on this Thorkelin
print! Some able northern scholars, more familiar with Anglo-Saxon
literature than Professor Magnusen, adopted the very summary process
of dealing with the new element thus unexpectedly brought to bear on
the inquiry, by doubting the authenticity, if not even the existence,
of this unique print. Of its existence, however, there can be no
doubt, since, instead of being the rarity which Professor Magnusen
imagined, it is to be found in every archæological library in the
kingdom, being none other (as I think will no longer be doubted) than
one of two etchings, executed by the well-known Scottish antiquary, Mr.
Adam de Cardonnel, and forming _Plates_ LIV. and LV. of the Vetusta
Monumenta, vol. ii., published in 1789. These are accompanied by a
description furnished by R. G., (Roger Gale,) and to it the following
postscript has subsequently been added, which it will be seen supplies
the account Professor Magnusen failed to obtain from his aged friend:
"Since this account was read before the Society [of Antiquaries of
London,] the drawing has been shewn to Mr. Professor Thorkelin, who
has been investigating all such monuments of his countrymen in this
kingdom, but he has not returned any opinion." These engravings of the
Ruthwell inscription appear to have excited little interest, probably
on account of their being accompanied by no critical analysis or
attempt at translation. They would seem to have escaped the notice of
Mr. J. M. Kemble, otherwise he would have found there all that the
drawings of Dr. Duncan supply, with, indeed, some slight additions;
for it chances oddly enough that the old Scottish Antiquary has copied
the Anglo-Saxon Runes--about which it may reasonably be doubted if he
knew anything--a great deal more correctly than the Latin inscription
in familiar Roman characters, some of which he has contrived to render
totally unintelligible. It was probably a result of this carelessness,
that in arranging a broken fragment of the top of the cross, along
with the lower stem, he misplaced the parts, wedding the imperfect
upper fragments of the Latin, to the remainder of the Anglo-Saxon
inscription. The offspring of this misalliance was the _Ofa, Voden's
kinsman_, of Professor Magnusen, whose double genealogy is given with
amusing precision, "according to the Younger Edda!" The slightest
glance at Cardonnel's etchings will shew that the learned Dane, in
attempting to decipher this supposed invaluable addition, was only
torturing ill-copied Roman characters into convenient Northern or
Anglo-Saxon Runes.
In 1838, Mr. John M. Kemble, an English Anglo-Saxon scholar, undertook
to unwind this ravelled skein, and in an able paper "On Anglo-Saxon
Runes,"[573] pointed out the valuelessness of any amount of knowledge
of the Scandinavian languages as a means for deciphering Anglo-Saxon
inscriptions. Following out his own views he accordingly produced
a translation differing, _toto cœlo_, from either of those already
referred to, but which commends itself in some degree even to the mere
English student, who detects in the old Anglo-Saxon the radicals of his
native tongue; as in the original of Mr. Repp's _Cristpason_:--KRIST
WAES ON RODI,--_Christ was on the Rood or Cross_. Combating with
the difficulties arising solely from the mutilated and fragmentary
state of what Mr. Kemble so justly styles "this noble monument of
Anglo-Saxon antiquity," he demonstrates the rhythmic character of the
construction, deducing from this the strongest proof of the accuracy
of his reading. Still should the reader, who is thus compelled to
consider two learned versions of this inscription as no better than
the Antiquary's _Agricola dicavit libens lubens_, hesitate about
accepting the third as less open to challenge, his scepticism could
not perhaps be greatly blamed. A remarkable chance, however, threw
in the way of the intelligent Anglo-Saxon scholar an altogether
indisputable confirmation of the general accuracy of the conclusions he
had arrived at. A comparison of the various steps in this process of
elucidation furnishes one of the most singular modern contributions to
the curiosities of literature. A few years ago a MS. volume consisting
chiefly of Anglo-Saxon homilies, was discovered at Vercelli, in the
Milanese, but which also contained, intermingled with the prose, some
Anglo-Saxon religious poems. One of these, entitled a "Dream of the
Holy Rood," extends to 310 lines, and in this are found the whole
of the fragmentary lines previously translated by Mr. Kemble, along
with the context which fills up the numerous lacunæ of the time-worn
inscription on the Ruthwell cross. No confirmation of the accuracy
of conclusions previously published could well be more gratifying
or satisfactory than this; independently of which the beauty of the
Anglo-Saxon poem suffices to convey a singularly vivid idea of the
civilisation existing at the period--probably not later than the ninth
century--when it was engraved on the venerable Scottish monument which
has anew excited the veneration of the modern descendants of its old
Anglo-Saxon builders, and, with some portion of its former beauty
renewed by the piety of modern hands, is restored to the occupation of
its ancient site. Of the high civilisation of this period, however, the
student of Anglo-Saxon history can need no new proof when he bears in
mind, as Mr. Kemble has remarked, "that before the close of the eighth
century Northumberland was more advanced in civilisation than any other
portion of Teutonic Europe."
The "Dream of the Holy Rood" represents the sleeping Christian suddenly
startled by the vision of the Cross, the instrument of man's salvation,
which appears in the sky attended with angels, and manifesting, by
various changes, its sympathy in the passion and the glory of the
Redeemer. At length the Cross itself addresses the sleeper, and
describes its feelings on being made the instrument of the suffering
of the Son of God. It is from this beautiful part of the poem that the
verses have been selected for inscription on the Ruthwell cross. The
following extracts, in which the fragments still legible on the old
monument are printed in italics, will help the reader to form some idea
of the refinement of the period when the cross was erected, and may
also suffice to shew how little need there is to seek in Scandinavian,
or other foreign sources, for the taste or skill manifested in the
works of early native art. The Cross thus speaks in person:--
'Twas many a year ago,
I yet remember it,
That I was hewn down
At the wood's end,
Stirred from out my dream.
Strong foes took me there,
They made me for a spectacle,
They bade me uplift their outcasts:
There men bore me upon their shoulders
until they set me down upon a hill,
There foes enough fastened me.
There saw I the Lord of mankind
hasten with mighty power,
because he would mount on me.
There then I dared not,
against the Lord's command,
bow down or burst asunder;
There I saw tremble
the extent of the earth.
I had power all
his foes to fell,
but yet I stood fast.
_Then the young hero prepared himself,
That was Almighty God,
Strong and firm of mood
he mounted the lofty cross,
courageously in sight of many_,
when he willed to redeem mankind.
I trembled when the hero embraced me,
yet dared I not bow down to earth,
fall to the bosom of the ground,
but I was compelled to stand fast.
A cross was I reared.
_I raised the powerful king,
the lord of the heavens;
I dared not fall down._
They pierced me with dark nails,
on me are the wounds visible!
* * * * *
_They reviled us both together.
I was all stained with blood
poured from the man's side._
* * * * *
The shadow went forth,
wan under the welkin:
All creation wept;
they mourned the fall of their king.
_Christ was on the cross,
yet thither hastening,
unto the noble one.
All that beheld I,
With sorrow I was overwhelmed._
* * * * *
The warriors left me there
Standing defiled with gore;
_I was all wounded with shafts.
They laid him down limb-weary,
They stood at the corpse's head;
They beheld the Lord of heaven_,
and he rested himself there awhile,
weary after his mighty contest.
This curious poem is marked by what Mr. Kemble has pronounced to betray
evidence of modern handling, and is perhaps the amplification by a
later Anglo-Saxon poet,--it may be of the simpler address originally
graven on the Ruthwell cross. Of the general identity between the poem
and the inscription, however, not the slightest doubt can exist; and we
therefore no longer depend on any future discovery for supplying the
deficiencies of the Runic legend, though we can only guess as to the
full extent to which it was carried in its original form. "It always
seemed probable," says Mr. Kemble in concluding his observations on
the old Scottish monument, "that much of the inscription was missing,
and the comparison instituted above renders this certain. The passages
which remain are too fragmentary ever to have constituted a substantive
whole, without very considerable additions, which there is no longer
room for upon the cross in its present form. Buried perhaps beneath
the soil of the churchyard, or worked into the walls of neighbouring
habitations, the supplementary fragments may yet be reserved for a
late resurrection. Should they ever again meet the eyes of men they
will add little to our knowledge; still we should rejoice to find them
once again resuming their old place in the pillar, and helping to
reconstruct in its original form the most beautiful as well as the most
interesting relic of Teutonic antiquity."[574]
It would be vain to speculate now on the probability of the former
existence of such monuments in other localities, when it is considered
that in the great majority of cases scarcely a relic remains even
of the ancient parish churches of Scotland, built after the final
establishment of a Saxon population in the low country. One other Runic
monument, however, is known to have existed in the same district down
to a very, recent period. Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp of Hoddam,
informs me that in the ancient church of Hoddam, a sculptured stone,
which was built into the wall, bore an inscription of some length, in
Runic characters. Of this he made a copy before the final demolition of
the ruined church in 1815, but he has since sought for the transcript
in vain. The original, it is to be feared, no longer exists; but
among various sculptured fragments rescued from the ruins, and now
in Mr. Sharp's collection, are portions of the shaft of a cross,
divided into compartments with sculptured figures in relief, bearing
a very considerable resemblance to the style of decoration on the
Ruthwell cross, with the addition in one compartment of the favourite
interlaced knotwork of Scottish and Irish sculptors. That the venerable
ecclesiastical edifice included in its masonry relics of still earlier
date, has already been shewn by the rescue of a Roman altar from its
ruined walls, dedicated by a cohort of German auxiliaries to imperial
Jove.[575]
Other remarkable Anglo-Saxon memorials have been discovered within
the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, as well as beyond its southern
limits. One of the most interesting of these is a square font, at
Bridekirk, in Cumberland. It is covered on each of its four sides with
singular sculptures, in some of which a resemblance may be traced to
the decorations of the Scottish standing stones. On the east side
a curious group represents the baptism of our Saviour, who stands
in a square font with a nimbus encircling his head, and over him is
the dove perched on a tree. On the south side is a Runic inscription
interwoven among ornaments, which still remains to be satisfactorily
explained.[576] Mr. Rolfe of Sandwick has in his possession the silver
hilt of a sword found in an Anglo-Saxon barrow, and inscribed in Runic
characters.[577] A few other examples of the use of the Anglo-Saxon
Runes in England have been discovered from time to time,[578] and
receive the attention justly due to objects of such high interest, now
that English archæologists have learned that it is to themselves and
not to Scandinavian scholars that they must look for the elucidation of
the literature of their own Anglo-Saxon progenitors.
[Illustration: Bronze Ring Pin.]
In the Orkney and Shetland Islands, which were so long occupied as
a Norse jarldom, the relics of Scandinavian art are, as might be
expected, more abundant than in any other part of the country. The
woodcut represents a bronze pin about one-fourth of the natural size,
which was found in a tumulus at Sandwick, in Orkney. Another nearly
similar to this, preserved in the local museum at Kirkwall, is said to
have been found in a cist containing a human skeleton, and sticking in
the skull, as if it had been the instrument of death. Other examples
of similar pins with rings attached to them have been discovered at
various times in the Orkney Islands. But not only have such relics
been met with singly from time to time, but occasionally whole groups
of graves have been exposed containing Scandinavian weapons and
personal ornaments, and in some cases at least appearing to indicate
the site of a battle-field in which many of the Northern warriors have
fallen. Wallace describes, in his Account of the Islands of Orkney,
the discovery of graves in the Links of Tranaby in Westray, "in one
of which was seen a man lying with his sword on the one hand and a
Danish axe on the other, and others that have had dogs, combs, and
knives buried with them." In the spring of 1849 the shifting of the
sands during the continuance of high easterly winds brought to light a
remarkable group of graves on the Links of Pier-o-waal at Westray. A
partial notice of this interesting discovery was communicated by Mr. T.
Crofton Croker to the Journal of the Archæological Association,[579]
accompanied with illustrations engraved from various of the articles
found deposited with the dead. The following details are chiefly
supplied from notes by Mr. William Rendall, surgeon, who repaired to
the Links of Pier-o-waal on learning of the discovery of the graves,
and wrote down these observations as they fell under his notice.[580]
Though in some cases less ample than might be desired, they supply
an exceedingly interesting series of data in illustration of the
sepulchral relics of Orkney belonging to the latest Pagan era.
The following group of graves was found near the sea-shore, on the
Links of Pier-o-waal, Orkney, on a line running north and south.
No. 1. This grave appeared to have been previously disturbed.
Sufficient traces of the skeleton were found to indicate that the body
had lain north and south, rather inclining to the right side, with the
face towards the sea. Only half of the skull remained, and from its
appearance it might have been cleft when interred. A small iron hatchet
lay before the body. Half of a helmet was also discovered, and small
pieces of iron were scattered around, apparently indicating that the
occupant of the grave had been buried in armour.
No. 2 contained part of a human skeleton along with that of a horse.
The horse lay on its belly, with its head towards the sea, and directly
north-east, with its hinder parts towards the south-west. The horse's
head, which was quite entire and of rather a small size, was resting
on the nose. On removing it, an iron-bit with one of the bridle-rings
attached, was found between its jaws. The remains of the human skeleton
were lying immediately in front of the horse's head, with the feet
towards the north, and the thigh bones crossed. No skull could be
found. On the right side of the skeleton lay a buckle and a piece of
bone which had been attached to metal. A piece of iron, either a small
sword or a spear-head, and considerable remains of iron rust, shewed
that in this case also the deceased warrior had been laid to rest
accompanied with the panoply of war. Part of the skeleton of a dog was
discovered in the same grave.--No. 3 also contained portions both of a
human skeleton and of a horse. The position of the former could not be
ascertained. Beside it lay a small dagger, and other remains of iron
weapons or armour were found in fragments in the grave. No. 4 contained
a skeleton, lying north and south, on its right side, and with the
knees drawn up towards the abdomen. No remains of armour were found.
This interesting group of early graves appears to have been entirely
distinct from those alluded to in Mr. T. Crofton Croker's account. The
second group, to which he refers, is described by Mr. Kendall as having
been discovered surrounding a tumulus, or mound of sand and small
stones, at a considerable distance from the sea, in a line running
north-west from the former site of graves.
No. 1 was found on the south-west side of the mound. It contained a
large male skeleton nearly entire, lying north and south, with the
head to the north, and having large stones set round it in a square
form: doubtless the usual rude cist so generally adopted in the Pagan
sepulture of the north of Europe. After carefully removing the sand,
the skeleton was discovered lying inclined towards the left side,
with the knees drawn up, and the arms crossing over the breast. About
two inches from the top of the head was found a cup-like piece of
iron, described by Mr. Rendall as "evidently the part of a helmet."
Notwithstanding its position, however, it was more probably the umbone
of a shield, of which other remains were discovered in the cist,
consisting of pieces of wood, with fragments of the iron covering still
adhering to them. On the left side of the skeleton lay an iron sword,
measuring about four feet in length; a large sharpening stone, a comb,
and several glass beads, were also found in the grave.
No. 2. On the north side of the mound a second grave was opened, which
contained a small skeleton, lying north and south, and supposed by
Mr. Rendall to have been a female. In this and following examples the
position differed from that previously described in having the head to
the south. No fragments of iron or indications of rust suggested the
former presence of arms or armour, but on the breast lay a pair of the
large oval or shell-shaped brooches, already described; and lower down,
right over the region of the stomach, was found another ornament of
the class of trefoil-shaped clasps, described by Mr. Worsaae, in his
"Primeval Antiquities of Denmark," as occasionally found in connexion
with the oval brooches.[581]--No. 3. A third grave, opened on the north
side of the mound, disclosed a small skeleton lying between two rows of
stones. This appears to have been the grave most minutely described and
illustrated in Mr. T. Crofton Croker's communication to the Journal of
the Archæological Society.[582]
It also contained a pair of the large oval brooches, one of which is
here figured one-fourth the original size. Two long combs, decorated
on each side with ornamental carvings, were found, one of them above
each shoulder. The teeth of the combs were fastened between two plates
of bone, rivetted together with copper nails. A small bronze pin
or bodkin was likewise picked up among the interesting contents of
this cist. In this case also the skeleton is believed by Mr. Rendall
to have been that of a female: an opinion which coincides with the
conclusions arrived at by Mr. Worsaae,[583] though the very large size
of the brooches seems more suited for the personal decorations of the
chieftain or the priest.
[Illustration: Oval Brooch.]
[Illustration]
No. 4 was another cist on the north side of the mound, but it had
been previously disturbed, and contained only portions of a human
skeleton.--No. 5 was opened on the north-east side of the mound. It
inclosed part of a small skeleton, which Mr. Rendall pronounces to
be "evidently that of a female." This also contained a pair of oval
brooches, an ornamental pin or bodkin, and a pair of combs. The woodcut
represents one of the combs, which was presented to Mr. Croker. It is
much to be regretted that the valuable series of Scoto-Scandinavian
relics, thus brought to light by the disturbance of this tumular
cemetery, have already been dispersed in many private hands, so as to
be irrecoverably lost. Their value would have been greatly augmented as
the illustrations of an important period in our national history, could
the entire collection have been kept together, and deposited in some
accessible public museum.[584]
One of the bronze pins found in the above graves is figured in the
Journal of the Archæological Association. Like others previously
noticed it has a ring at the head, though it is otherwise much
ruder than the example found at Sandwick. It is engraved here about
two-thirds of the size of the original, which was thickly encrusted
with verd antique when discovered. It is described in the notes
furnished to Mr. Croker as "a sharp-pointed metal instrument, hardly a
span in length, having a circular ring of the same metal for a head.
It was found lying on the abdomen. This was the skeleton of an aged
person, of the ordinary size. It was nearly entire. This grave was both
covered and surrounded by large flat stones."
[Illustration]
Such are some of the traces of Scandinavian influence which the
Scottish archæologist meets with in the course of his researches. They
all belong to a comparatively recent period; and of the beautiful class
of personal ornaments, the oval brooches, which are so frequently
found, Mr. Worsaae remarks, "that they are positively to be referred
to the last period of Paganism we know with complete certainty,
because they are frequently found in graves in Iceland, which country
was first peopled by Pagan Norwegians at the close of the ninth
century." Long before that date, however, Christianity had reached the
Scottish shores; and though impeded, and even frequently eradicated
from districts where it had taken deep root, chiefly by the malign
influence of these Pagan Northmen, we have no reason to think it was
ever entirely extinct. Hence we are abundantly justified in claiming
a native origin for the Pagan arts of Scotland, and in referring all
Scandinavian influence to a late period and a very limited locality.
[Illustration]
One other singular class of Northern relics of which analogous types
have been found in Scotland, remains to be noticed. These consist of a
curious variety of vessels, presumed to have been designed for holding
liquors, but invariably made in the form of some animal or monstrous
hybrid. They differ entirely from any class of antiquities hitherto
noticed, and more nearly resemble ancient Indian bronzes than any of
the relics of early Northern art. The annexed figure represents one
of these, in the collection of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp, Esq., and
found by him among a hoard of long-forgotten family heirlooms, in a
vault of his paternal mansion of Hoddam Castle, Dumfriesshire. Of its
previous history nothing is known. It is made of bronze. The principal
figure is a lion, without a tail, measuring fourteen inches in length,
and nearly fourteen inches in greatest height. On the back is perched
a nondescript animal, half greyhound, half fish, apparently intended
for a handle to the whole, while from the breast projects a stag's
head with large antlers. This has a perforation in the back of the
neck, as if for the insertion of a stop-cock, and it appears probable
was designed for running off the liquid contained within the singular
vessel to which it is attached. A small square lid on the top of the
lion's head, opening with a hinge, supplies the requisite aperture for
filling it with whatever liquor it was designed to hold. A similar
relic, possessed by Sir John Maxwell, Bart., was dug up a few years
since on the Pollock estate, and another in the collection of the
late E. W. A. Drummond Hay, Esq., was also in the form of a lion. The
conclusion which the appearance of the whole of these relics would
suggest to an observer unfamiliar with Northern antiquities, would
certainly be that they were the products of ancient Indian rather than
of Scandinavian art. The following account, however, derived from
Kluver's Norwegian Antiquities,[585] will shew that they are well known
not only in Norway and Denmark, but even in Iceland--that interesting
Northern stronghold of the later relics of Scandinavian art.
"On the farm of Vaaden, about five miles south-west from
Drontheim, there was found some years ago in a field, and at no
great distance from the surface, an animal form with beak and
wings. In its beak it carries a man wearing a kirtle and closed
helmet, booted and spurred. The figure, which is of brass
composition, weighs five and one-half pounds. It is hollow
internally. There is an aperture on the neck of the animal,
which has been provided with a lid, and another aperture in the
back of the helmet worn by the mailed figure which it carries
in its beak. Another animal figure has been preserved from time
immemorial, at Moldè, a small sea-port a little to the south
of Drontheim. It resembles a unicorn, and has an aperture in
the neck, to which obviously a lid had been attached. From
the handle along the back, which represents a serpent, and
the circumstance of the horn in the forehead being hollow, it
may reasonably be conjectured to have been used as a liquor
decanter. A third figure of a similar description, which is
said to have been found under ground at Helgeland--a province
situated to the northward of Drontheim--represents a knight
mounted on a piebald horse in complete armour, wearing a coat
of ring-mail, a square helmet with vizor down, and carrying a
drawn sword in his hand. In this figure likewise there is an
aperture in the upper part of the helmet, and another in the
forehead of the horse."
The whole of these singular groups are figured in Kluver's work, and
it will be seen that they closely correspond to the Scottish example
from Hoddam Castle. The costume of the knights in two of them shews
that they cannot be assigned to an earlier date than the latter part of
the thirteenth century. They are all nearly of the same proportions,
measuring about ten inches in length, and six inches in height,
exclusive of the mailed knight mounted on the horse in the figure last
described. Another curious specimen of the same class of antiquities,
in which the principal figure is a lion, has been preserved for
ages in the church of St. Olaf, at Vatnsfjord, in Iceland, and is
described by Professor Sjöborg, who conceives it to have been used
as a lamp. It is also referred to by Professor Finn Magnusen in the
following remarks on those figured by Kluver:--"These curious liquor
decanters--of which various specimens exist in Denmark and other
countries--are of a very remarkable formation. The two first seem to
bespeak an origin in the heathen mythology. Assuming that even in the
middle ages or at a later period they were used in the rites of the
Catholic Church, as in the instance of a like vessel, known by the
name of the Thorlacian, presented to the church at Vatnsfjord, still
it is by no means certain that such was their original purpose. Many
articles, such as tapestries, cups, vases, candlesticks, &c., were used
as household commodities before they were diverted to ecclesiastical
purposes. In the same way these liquor decanters, which neither bear
the forms nor devices of Christian art, have probably been originally
adapted to another use." It will be readily admitted that these relics
present little appearance of having been designed as any of the
sacred vessels of the medieval church; nevertheless little doubt can
be entertained that they were so used in the north, and perhaps at
an early period throughout Christendom, as part of the furniture of
the altar. Professor Munch, who examined the example figured above,
in the collection of Mr. Sharp, during his recent visit to this
country, observes in a letter written since his return to Norway:
"Notwithstanding their fantastic shapes, of some four-footed beast,
they were used upon the altar as vessels containing the water which the
officiating Diaconus poured upon the hands of the priest before his
touching the host at the elevation. I understand from Mr. Thomsen, who
learned it from a Frenchman educated at Smyrna, that such vessels are
still used for the same purpose in the Roman Catholic chapels in the
Levant. It is therefore probable that those found in Norway have either
been brought from Byzantium, or made after Byzantine models."
The ecclesiastical character of these singular relics would therefore
seem to be more certainly established than their Scandinavian origin,
though it may still be doubted whether they were primarily designed for
any sacred purpose. It is, however, sufficient for our present object
to trace the analogy discernible between the Scottish relic figured
above and those Scandinavian antiquities discovered in the native
country of the old Northmen, or preserved in their ancient seat of
colonization on the verge of the Arctic Circle. In the latter instance,
at least, we find them devoted to the uses of the church and placed
alongside of its most sacred furniture; while to all appearance they
seem to be more adapted to social purposes, which, among the northern
nations especially, are most allied to excess.
These objects of Northern antiquity, however, form a class by
themselves, and bear no analogy to the prevailing types of the last
Pagan period, either in the Scandinavian countries or in Britain.
However clearly the facts above referred to shew that they pertain to
the antiquities of Norway and Denmark, they cannot be assigned to the
same era of Northern art, which produced the beautiful oval brooches
and other contemporary relics. They seem rather to point to a later
period of intercourse with the East, when the Cufic coins, which are
familiar to Northern antiquaries, were introduced. The oldest of these
date as early as the year 79 of the Hegira, or A.D. 698, but they have
been found of A.D. 1010, and may be presumed to have reached the north
of Europe at a somewhat later period than the last of these dates.
[Illustration]
Beautiful as some of the relics of Scandinavian art found in Scotland
are, they can hardly be considered equal to contemporary examples
of native workmanship, such as the very fine early Scottish brooch
found in the vicinity of the mounds of Dunipace, and figured on a
previous page. Compared with the Caithness oval brooch, selected as the
very best of its class, it will, I think, be generally acknowledged
as exhibiting both a more defined and a higher style of art. But
independently of the beauty of this native relic, nothing is more
remarkable than the striking contrast which it presents in form,
and style of ornament, to any known class of Scandinavian personal
ornaments, while, like most of the later native examples, it bears
a close affinity to the contemporary productions of Irish art. The
woodcut shews the ornamental interlaced knotwork on the upper portion
of the acus, which, in the complete view of the brooch, is concealed by
the central ornament.[586] In its imperfect state it is sufficiently
apparent that this had been of the same disproportionate length as
is frequently found in Irish examples, otherwise greatly varying in
form. This is particularly the case with the ring fibulæ, generally
of silver. One of these, found in county Antrim, and engraved in
the Archæological Journal, measures above six and one-fourth inches
long,[587] while a larger and still more beautiful one, in the Museum
of Trinity College, Dublin, is nearly fourteen inches in length. This
singular feature in the brooches of the early Christian Period both of
Scotland and Ireland, most probably had its origin in some peculiar
fashion of the Celtic dress, superseded in the former country during
the vital changes which affected it in the eleventh century. The
annexed woodcut shews another beautiful Scottish brooch, also from
the collection of Mr. John Bell of Dungannon. It is of less costly
material than the Dunipace brooch, being made of bronze, but, like
it, it has been jewelled, and is otherwise little inferior in point
of workmanship. It was found accidentally amongst old brass, in a
brazier's shop in Glasgow, and is engraved here the full size of the
original.
[Illustration]
The brooch has always been a favourite Celtic ornament, and is indeed
almost indispensable to the Highland costume. It is worn universally by
the Scottish Highlanders, both male and female; and in many Highland
families, of various ranks, favourite brooches have been preserved
through many generations, as heirlooms which no pecuniary inducement
would tempt their humblest owner to part with. The most celebrated of
these is the brooch of Lorn, dropt by Robert the Bruce after the defeat
of his followers at Methven, when he was compelled to abandon his
mantle and the brooch which fastened it, to rid himself of an assailant
who held it in his dying grasp. This interesting historic memorial
is still preserved by the lineal descendant of the Macdougals of
Lorn.[588] Another remarkable relic of the same class is the Glenlyon
brooch, which has been preserved in the family of the Campbells of
Glenlyon for many generations. It is circular, and of silver, richly
jewelled. An ornamental bar, also jewelled, crosses the centre, and
two tongues meet on this from opposite sides. It is engraved on _Plate_
II. from careful drawings made from the original. On the lower side are
the names of the three Kings of Cologne, a favourite inscription on
medieval amulets, thus,--
[Illustration: ~Caspar. Melchior. Baltazar. Consumatum.~]
Pennant has engraved this ancient Scottish brooch, but the figure
conveys a very partial idea of the rude magnificence of the original,
which measures five and a half inches in circumference.[589]
With these native personal ornaments, introduced here for the purpose
of comparison and contrast with those traceable to a Scandinavian
source, may also be noticed the silver brooches, of various forms,
which are frequently found in Scotland, and are also not unfamiliar
to English antiquaries. They are invariably inscribed with some
sacred formula or charm, the most common one being IESUS NAZARENUS.
One example, in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries, is a small
octagonal fibula, without ornament, which is said to have been
discovered in excavating the tomb of King Robert the Bruce, at
Dunfermline, in 1818. It is inscribed,--~Iesus. Nazarenus Rex.
Iudeorum~. Another of the same form, but larger, and of superior
workmanship, recently found among the ruins of Eilan Donan Castle,
on Loch Duich, the ancient stronghold of the M'Kenzies, bears the
abbreviated inscription, ~Iesus. Nazar~. Scottish examples of the same
class might be greatly multiplied, but the most of them belong to a
considerably later period than that to which we now refer.
FOOTNOTES:
[558] Archæological Journal, vol. v. p. 220; vol. vi. p. 74.
[559] MS. Letter from R. Hunter, Esq., 4th April 1850.
[560] Haco's Expedition, Rev. J. Johnston, 1782, p. 109.
[561] Chronicon Manniæ, Antiquitates Celto-Normanicæ. Copen. 1786, p.
44.
[562] Ibid. pp. 24, 25.
[563] Regist. Episc. Moraviensis, p. 456.
[564] It is not impossible that the latter name may have originally
referred to the Runes on its beautiful monument. The probability,
however, is lessened by the earlier forms of the name, as _Ryval_ and
_Ruthwald_. The reader of chartularies cannot have overlooked the
endless variations of local names.
[565] Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, p. 55.
[566] Hibbert's Shetland, pp. 531, 547.
[567] Journal of Archæol. Asso. vol. i. p. 48.
[568] Ecclesiastical Notes of the Isle of Man, &c., p. 46.
[569] Camden's Britannia; Gibson's Ed. p. 1458; Gough's Ed. vol. iv. p.
510; Archæol. Scot. vol. ii. pp. 490, 505; Archæol. Journal, vol. ii.
p. 75; Ecclesiol. Notes, p. 24, &c.
[570] Sinclair's Statistical Account, vol. xiii. p. 350. A local
correspondent informs me that the inscription is now quite illegible.
[571] Archæologia, vol. xxviii. p. 327.
[572] Report of R. S. of Northern Antiquaries to Brit, and Amer. Mems.,
1836, pp. 88,89.
[573] Archæologia, vol. xxviii. p. 327.
[574] Archæologia, vol. xxx. p. 38.
[575] _Ante_, p. 400.
[576] Archæologia, vol. ii. p. 131, Plate IX; vol. xiv p. 113; vol xix.
p. 379.
[577] Archæologia, vol. xxxii. p. 321.
[578] Archæologia, vol. xxviii. p. 346.
[579] Journ. Archæol. Assoc., vol. ii. p. 328.
[580] I am indebted for these to Lieutenant Thomas, R.N., to whom the
notes were supplied by Mr. Rendall.
[581] A drawing of this interesting relic, which I had an opportunity
of examining, was unfortunately lost, along with a valuable series
of notes and sketches made by Lieutenant Thomas, R.N., during his
residence in the Orkneys, as the officer in command of the Admiralty
Survey. I have since failed in an attempt to obtain access to the
original.
[582] Mr. Rendall's own notes are followed in the text, with only
such additional information as the notes and sketches of Lieutenant
Thomas have supplied. They differ considerably from the description
given in the Archæological Journal. In this grave, for example, Mr.
Rendall remarks, "no remains of iron were found." It appears probable,
therefore, that some confusion exists in the previous account. I
may add, the brooches are described as represented, one-half the
original size, in the Journal. They are in reality only one-half the
diameter,--an error of frequent occurrence in describing the figures of
objects of antiquity in archæological works.
[583] Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, p. 53.
[584] After repeatedly writing, I have, in most cases, failed in
obtaining any reply to my inquiries respecting these relics. They have
probably already experienced the usual fate of private collections of
objects of national antiquity: and have been thrown aside and forgotten
or lost so soon as the novelty of first possession was over.
[585] Norste Mindesmarter. Christiania, 1823, pp. 46-48, Plate II.
figs. _a_, _b_, _c_.
[586] _Ante_, p. 530.
[587] Archæol. Journal, vol. vi. p. 70.
[588] Sir Walter Scott, in his Notes to the "Lord of the Isles,"
remarks that the brooch of Lorn "was long preserved in the family
of Macdougal, and was lost in a fire which consumed their temporary
residence." This though true in fact conveys an erroneous impression.
The brooch was indeed lost under the circumstances referred to, but
being recovered from the ruins, it passed into other hands, and was
only restored to the representative of the Macdougals by General
Campbell of Lochnell, at the Argyleshire county meeting in 1825.--MS.
letter, John Macdougal of Macdougal, Esq., Captain R.N., to E. A.
Drummond Hay, Esq., March 1828. The engraving on Plate III. (_ante_, p.
49) is from a drawing taken from the original, which was forwarded for
that purpose by Captain Macdougal. Pennant engraves a fine early copy
of it, executed, as he conceived from the workmanship, in the time of
Queen Elizabeth. It differs very considerably from the original brooch
in the minuter details.--Pennant's Tour, vol. iii. p. 14.
[589] Pennant's Tour, vol. i. p. 104, Plate XIII.