Volume Ii Part 7 (2/2)
So who they be that ouphant fairies strike, Their souls shall wander to King Offa's dike.
The entrenchment, which served as lists for the combatants, is said by Gervase to have been the work of the pagan invaders of Britain. In the metrical romance of _Arthour and Merlin_, we have also an account of Wandlesbury being occupied by the Sarasins, i.e. the Saxons; for all pagans were Saracens with the romancers. I presume the place to have been Wodnesbury, in Wilts.h.i.+re, situated on the remarkable mound, called Wansdike, which is obviously a Saxon work.--GOUGH'S _Cambden's Britannia,_ pp. 87--95.]
To the same current of warlike ideas, we may safely attribute the long train of military processions which the Fairies are supposed occasionally to exhibit. The elves, indeed, seem in this point to be identified with the aerial host, termed, during the middle ages, the _Milites Herlikini_, or _Herleurini_, celebrated by Pet. Blesensis, and termed, in the life of St Thomas of Canterbury, the _Familia h.e.l.liquinii_. The chief of this band was originally a gallant knight and warrior; but, having spent his whole possessions in the service of the emperor, and being rewarded with scorn, and abandoned to subordinate oppression, he became desperate, and, with his sons and followers, formed a band of robbers. After committing many ravages, and defeating all the forces sent against him, h.e.l.lequin, with his whole troop, fell in a b.l.o.o.d.y engagement with the Imperial host. His former good life was supposed to save him from utter reprobation; but he and his followers were condemned, after death, to a state of wandering, which should endure till the last day. Retaining their military habits, they were usually seen in the act of justing together, or in similar warlike employments. See the ancient French romance of _Richard sans Peur_.
Similar to this was the _Nacht Lager_, or midnight camp, which seemed nightly to beleaguer the walls of Prague,
”With ghastly faces thronged, and fiery arms,”
but which disappeared upon recitation of the magical words, _Vezele, Vezele, ho! ho! ho!_--For similar delusions, see DELRIUS, pp. 294, 295.
The martial spirit of our ancestors led them to defy these aerial warriors; and it is still currently believed, that he, who has courage to rush upon a fairy festival, and s.n.a.t.c.h from them their drinking cup, or horn, shall find it prove to him a cornucopia of good fortune, if he can bear it in safety across a running stream. Such a horn is said to have been presented to Henry I. by a lord of Colchester.--GERVAS TILB.
p. 980. A goblet is still carefully preserved in Edenhall, c.u.mberland, which is supposed to have been seized at a banquet of the elves, by one of the ancient family of Musgrave; or, as others say, by one of their domestics, in the manner above described. The Fairy train vanished, crying aloud,
If this gla.s.s do break or fall, Farewell the luck of Edenhall!
The goblet took a name from the prophecy, under which it is mentioned, in the burlesque ballad, commonly attributed to the duke of Wharton, but in reality composed by Lloyd, one of his jovial companions. The duke, after taking a draught, had nearly terminated the ”luck of Edenhall,”
had not the butler caught the cup in a napkin, as it dropped from his grace's hands. I understand it is not now subjected to such risques, but the lees of wine are still apparent at the bottom.
G.o.d prosper long, from being broke, The luck of Edenhall.--_Parody on Chevy Chace._
Some faint traces yet remain, on the borders, of a conflict of a mysterious and terrible nature, between mortals and the spirits of the wilds. This superst.i.tion is incidentally alluded to by Jackson, at the beginning of the 17th century. The fern seed, which is supposed to become visible only on St John's Eve,[A] and at the very moment when the Baptist was born, is held by the vulgar to be under the special protection of the queen of Faery. But, as the seed was supposed to have the quality of rendering the possessor invisible at pleasure,[B] and to be also of sovereign use in charms and incantations, persons of courage, addicted to these mysterious arts, were wont to watch in solitude, to gather it at the moment when it should become visible. The particular charms, by which they fenced themselves during this vigil, are now unknown; but it was reckoned a feat of no small danger, as the person undertaking it was exposed to the most dreadful a.s.saults from spirits, who dreaded the effect of this powerful herb in the hands of a cabalist.
Such were the shades, which the original superst.i.tion, concerning the.
Fairies, received from the chivalrous sentiments of the middle ages.
[Footnote A:
Ne'er be I found by thee unawed, On that thrice hallowed eve abroad, When goblins haunt, from fire and fen.
And wood and lake, the steps of men.
COLLINS'S _Ode to Fear._
The whole history of St John the Baptist was, by our ancestors, accounted mysterious, and connected with their own superst.i.tions.
The fairy queen was sometimes identified with Herodias.--DELRII _Disquisitiones Magicae,_ pp. 168. 807. It is amusing to observe with what gravity the learned Jesuit contends, that it is heresy to believe that this celebrated figurante (_saltatricula_) still leads choral dances upon earth!]
[Footnote B: This is alluded to by Shakespeare, and other authors of his time:
”We have the receipt of _fern-seed_; we walk invisible.”
_Henry IV. Part 1st, Act 2d, Sc. 3_.]
IV. An absurd belief in the fables of cla.s.sical antiquity lent an additional feature to the character of the woodland spirits of whom we treat. Greece and Rome had not only a.s.signed tutelary deities to each province and city, but had peopled, with peculiar spirits, the Seas, the Rivers, the Woods, and the Mountains. The memory of the pagan creed was not speedily eradicated, in the extensive provinces through which it was once universally received; and, in many particulars, it continued long to mingle with, and influence, the original superst.i.tions of the Gothic nations. Hence, we find the elves occasionally arrayed in the costume of Greece and Rome, and the Fairy Queen and her attendants transformed into Diana and her nymphs, and invested with their attributes and appropriate insignia.--DELRIUS, pp. 168, 807. According to the same author, the Fairy Queen was also called _Habundia_. Like Diana, who, in one capacity, was denominated _Hecate_, the G.o.ddess of enchantment, the Fairy Queen is identified in popular tradition, with the _Gyre-Carline, Gay Carline_, or mother witch, of the Scottish peasantry. Of this personage, as an individual, we have but few notices. She is sometimes termed _Nicneven_, and is mentioned in the _Complaynt of Scotland_, by Lindsay in his _Dreme_, p. 225, edit. 1590, and in his _Interludes_, apud PINKERTON'S _Scottish Poems_, Vol. II. p. 18. But the traditionary accounts regarding her are too obscure to admit of explanation. In the burlesque fragment subjoined, which is copied from the Bannatyne MS. the Gyre Carline is termed the _Queen of Jowis_ (Jovis, or perhaps Jews), and is, with great consistency, married to Mohammed.[A]
[Footnote A:
In Tyberius tyme, the trew imperatour, Quhen Tynto hills fra skraipiug of toun-henis was keipit, Thair dwelt are grit Gyre Carling in awld Betokis bour, That levit upoun Christiane menis flesche, and rewheids unleipit; Thair wynit ane hir by, on the west syde, callit Blasour, For luve of hir lanchane lippis, he walit and he weipit; He gadderit are menzie of modwartis to warp doun the tour: The Carling with are yren club, quhen yat Blasour sleipit, Behind the heil scho hat him sic ane blaw, Quhil Blasour bled ane quart Off milk pottage inwart, The Carling luche, and lut fart North Berwik Law.
The king of fary than come, with elfis many ane, And sett are sege, and are salt, with grit pensallis of pryd; And all the doggis fra Dunbar wes thair to Dumblane, With all the tykis of Tervey, come to thame that tyd; Thay quelle doune with thair gonnes mony grit stane, The Carling schup hir on ane sow, and is her gaitis gane, Grunting our the Greik sie, and durst na langer byd, For bruklyng of bargane, and breikhig of browis: The Carling now for dispyte Is maieit with Mahomyte, And will the doggis interdyte, For scho is queue of Jowis.
Sensyne the c.o.c.kis of Crawmound crew nevir at day, For dule of that devillisch deme wes with Mahoun mareit, And the henis of Hadingtoun sensyne wald not lay, For this wild wibroun wich thame widlit sa and wareit; And the same North Berwik Law, as I heir wyvis say, This Carling, with a fals east, wald away careit; For to luck on quha sa lykis, na langer scho tareit: All this languor for love before tymes fell, Lang or Betok was born, Scho bred of ane accorne; The laif of the story to morne, To you I sall telle.]
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