Lind, which Lye explained by the Latin labarium, vexillum, that excellent scholar, the late lamented Mr. Price, was the first, I believe, to show frequently signified a shield; which was, probably for lightness, made of the wood of the lime tree, and covered with skin, or leather of various colours. Thus we have "sealwe linde" and "hwite linde" in Cædm., "geolwe linde" in Beowulf.
All this is superfluous to you, sir, I know"Retournons à nos moutons," as Maistre Pierre Pathelin says.
The sense required in the passage in Brythnoth seems to me to be:
"bærst bordes lærig=the empty (hollow concave) shields
"and seo byrne sang=and the armour (lorica) resounded."
And in Cædmon:
"ofer linde lærig=over the empty (hollow concave) shield."
In Judith, Th. Anal. 137, 53. we have a similar epithet:
"hwealfum lindum=vaulted (arched concave) shields."
We should remember that Somner has ge-lær, void, empty, vacuus; and Lye, with a reference to the Herbarium, lær-nesse, vacuitas. In the Teuthonista we have lær, vacuus, concavus. In Heiland, 3, 4. "larea stodun thar stenuatu sehsi=empty stood there stone-vats six." I need not call to your mind the O.H.G. lári.
I think, therefore, we cannot doubt that what is intended to be expressed by the A.-S. lærig is empty, hollow, concave. But if we wanted further confirmation, leer, leery, leary are still in use in Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and perhaps elsewhere, for empty, hollow, as the provincial Glossaries will show. Skinner has the word leer, vacuus, and says, "foeliciter alludit Gr. [Greek: lagaros], laxus, vacuus." In Layamon we have (244, 16.), "the put wæs i-lær." I have found but one instance in Middle English, and that is in the curious old Phrase-Book compiled by William Horman, Head Master of Eton School in the reign of Henry VIII:
"'At a soden shyfte leere barellis, tyed together, with boardis above, make passage over a streme.' Tumultuario opere, inanes cuppæ colligatæ et tabulatis instratæ fluminis transitu perhibent."Hormanni Vulgaria, Lond. 1519, f. 272 b.
Instances of the word are not frequent, possibly because we had another word for empty (toom) in common with the Danes; but perhaps there was no necessity for dwelling upon it in the sense of empty; it was only its application as an epithet to a concave or hollow shield that your question could have had in view.
Once more thanking you most heartily for the pleasure and profit I have derived from the Deutsche Grammatik, and all your other important labours, I am, sir, your grateful and obliged servant,
S.W. SINGER.Mickleham, Nov. 23. 1849.
FOLK LORE
ST. VALENTINE IN NORWICHCOOK-EELS, &c. &c
The day appropriated to St. Valentine is kept with some peculiarity in the city of Norwich. Although "Valentines," as generally understood, that is to say billets sent by means of the post, are as numerously employed here as in other places, yet the custom consists not in the transmission of a missive overflowing with hearts and darts, or poetical posies, but in something far more substantial, elegant and costlyto wit, a goodly present of value unrestricted in use or expense. Though this custom is openly adopted among relatives and others whose friendship is reciprocated, yet the secret mode of placing a friend in possession of an offering is followed largely,and this it is curious to remark, not on the day of the saint, when it might be supposed that the appropriateness of the gift would be duly ratified, the virtue of the season being in full vigour, but on the eve of St. Valentine, when it is fair to presume his charms are not properly matured. The mode adopted among all classes is that of placing the presents on the door-sill of the house of the favoured person, and intimating what is done by a run-a-way knock or ring as the giver pleases.
So universal is this custom in this ancient city, that it may be stated with truth some thousands of pounds are annually expended in the purchase of Valentine presents. At the time of writing (February 2.) the shops almost generally exhibit displays of articles calculated for the approaching period, unexampled in brilliancy, taste and costliness, and including nearly every item suitable to the drawing room, the parlour, or the boudoir. The local papers contain numerous advertising announcements of "Valentines;" the walls are occupied with printed placards of a similar character, and the city crier, by means of a loud bell and an equally sonorous voice, proclaims the particular advantages in the Valentine department of rival emporiums. All these preparations increase as the avator of St. Valentine approaches. At length the saint and his eve arrivespassesand the custom, apparently expanding with age, is placed in abeyance until the next year. I am inclined to believe that this mode of keeping St. Valentine is confined to this city and the county of Norfolk.
As regards priority of occurrence this year, I should have first mentioned, that on Shrove Tuesday a custom commences of eating a small bun called cocque'elscook-eelscoquilles(the name being spelt indifferently) which is continued through the season of Lent. Forby, in his Vocabulary of East Anglia, calls this production "a sort of cross bun," but no cross is placed upon it, though its composition is not dissimilar. My inquiries, and, I may add, my reading, have not led me to the origin of either of the customs now detailed (with the exception of a few unsatisfactory words given by Forby on cook-eels), and I should be glad to find these brief notices leading by your means to more extended information on both subjects, not only as regards this part of the country, but others also.
JOHN WODDERSPOON.Norwich.
Old Charms.I think that, if you are anxious to accumulate as much as you can of the Folk Lore of England, no set of men are more likely to help you than the clergy, particularly the younger part, viz., curates, to whom the stories they hear among their flock have the gloss of novelty. I send you a specimen of old charms, &c. that have come under my notice in the south-eastern counties.
No. 1. is a dialogue between the Parson and the old Dame:
"P. Well, Dame Grey, I hear you have a charm to cure the toothache. Come, just let me hear it; I should be so much pleased to know it.
"Dame. Oh, your reverence, it's not worth telling."
(Here a long talkParson coaxing the Dame to tell himold lady very shy, partly suspecting he is quizzing her, partly that no charms are proper things, partly willing to know what he thinks about it.) At last it ends by her saying
No. 1. is a dialogue between the Parson and the old Dame:
"P. Well, Dame Grey, I hear you have a charm to cure the toothache. Come, just let me hear it; I should be so much pleased to know it.
"Dame. Oh, your reverence, it's not worth telling."
(Here a long talkParson coaxing the Dame to tell himold lady very shy, partly suspecting he is quizzing her, partly that no charms are proper things, partly willing to know what he thinks about it.) At last it ends by her saying
"Well, your reverence, you have been very kind to me, and I'll tell you: it's just a verse from Scripture as I says over those as have the toothache:
"'And Jesus said unto Peter, What aileth thee? and Peter answered, Lord, I have toothache. And the Lord healed him.'"
"P. Well, but Dame Grey, I think I know my Bible, and I don't find any such verse in it."
"Dame. Yes, your reverence, that is just the charm. It's in the Bible, but you can't find it!"
No. 2. To avert sickness from a family, hang up a sickle, or iron implement, at the bed head.
No. 3. Should a death happen in a house at night, and there be a hive or hives of bees in the garden, go out and wake them up at once, otherwise the whole hive or swarm will die.
I hope your Folk Lore is not confined to the fading memorials of a past age. The present superstitions are really much more interesting and valuable to be gathered together; and I am sure your pages would be very well employed in recording these for a future generation. I would suggest, in all humility, that it would be really useful, for the rulers of our Church and State, to know how far such a superstition as the following prevails among the peasantry:
That, if a dying person sees "glory," or a bright light, at or near the time of their dissolution, such a vision is a sure sign of their salvation, whatever may have been their former life, or their repentance.
D. Sholbus.Superstitions in North of England.I find some curious popular superstitions prevalent in the north of England some three centuries ago recorded in the Proceedings before the Special Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes appointed by Queen Elizabeth. Thus:
"Anthony Haggen presented for medicioning children with miniting a hammer as a smythe of kynde."
Again
"John Watson presented for burying a quick dogg and a quick cowe."
And
"Agnes, the wyf of John Wyse, als Winkam John Wyse, presented to be a medicioner for the waffc of an yll wynde, and for the fayryes."
Some of your readers may perhaps explain what these were. It is clear that they were superstitious practices of sufficient prevalence and influence on the popular mind to call for the interference of the queen's commissioners.
A.B.Decking Churches with Yew on Easter Day.In the village of Berkely near Frome, Somerset, and on the borders of Wiltshire, the church is decorated on Easter Sunday with yew, evidently as an emblem of the Resurrection. Flowers in churches on that day are common, but I believe the use of yew to be unusual.
W. Durrant Cooper.Strewing Straw or Chaff.The custom mentioned by your correspondent "B." (p. 245.) as prevailing in Gloucestershire, is not peculiar to that county. In Kent, it is commonly practised by the rustics. The publican, all the world over, decorates his sign-board with a foaming can and pipes, to proclaim the entertainment to be found within. On the same principle, these rustics hang up their sign-board,as one of them, with whom I was once remonstrating, most graphically explained to me. When they knew of a house where the master deems a little wholesome discipline necessary to ensure the obedience of love, considering it a pity that the world should be ignorant of his manly virtues, they strew "well threshed" chaff or straw before his door, as an emblematical sign-board, to proclaim that the sweet fare and "good entertainment" of a "well threshed" article may be found within. The custom, at all events, has one good tendency, it shames the tyrant into restraint, when he knows that his cowardly practices are patent to the world.
Lambert B. Larking.FOLK LORE OF WALES
No. 1. Cron Annwn.When a storm sounds over the mountains, the Welsh peasant will tell you that his ear discerns the howl of the Cron Annwn mingling with that of the wind, yet as clearly distinct from it as is the atmosphere in a diving-bell from that of the surrounding waters. These dogs of Annwn, or "couriers of the air," are spirit hounds, who hunt the souls of the dead; or, as occasionally said, they foretell, by their expectant cries, the approaching death of some man of evil deeds. Few have ever pretended to see them; for few, we presume, would linger until they dawned on the sight; but they are described by Taliesin, and in the Mabinogion, as being of a clear shining white, with red ears; colouring which confirms the author of the Mythology of the Ancient Druids in the idea that these dogs were "a mystical transformation of the Druids with their white robes and red tiaras." Popular superstition, however, which must always attribute ugliness to an object of fear, deems that they are either jet black, with eyes and teeth of fire, or of a deep red, and dripping all over with gore. "The nearer," says the Rev. Edmund Jones, "they are to a man, the less their voice is, and the farther the louder, sometimes swelling like the voice of a great hound, or a blood-hound."
They are sometimes accompanied by a female fiend, called Malt y nosMathilda or Malen of the night, a somewhat ubiquitous character, with whom we meet under a complication of names and forms.
Jones of Brecon, who tells us that the cry of the Cron Annwn is as familiar to the inhabitants of Ystrad Fellte and Pont Neath-vaughan [in Glamorganshire] as the watchman's rattle in the purlieus of Covent Gardenfor he lived in the days when watchmen and their rattles were yet among the things of this worldconsiders that to these dogs, and not to a Greek myth, may be referred the hounds, Fury, Silver, Tyrant, &c., with which Prospero hunts his enemies "soundly," in the Tempest. And they must recall to the minds of our readers the wisk, wisked, or Yesk hounds of Devon, which are described in the Athenæum for March 27. 1847, as well as the Maisne Hellequin of Normandy and Bretagne.
There has been much discussion respecting the signification of the word Annwn, which has been increased by the very frequent mistake of writing it Anwn, which means, unknown, strange, and is applied to the people who dwell in the antipodes of the speaker; while Annwn is an adaptation of annwfn, a bottomless or immeasurable pit, voidlessspace, and also Hell. Thus we find, that when Pwyl, or Reason, drives these dogs off their track, the owner comes up, and, reproving him, declares that he is a crowned king, lord of Annwn and Pendaran, i.e. chief of thunder. (See Myth. Ant. Druids, p. 418.)