fort for sale with the same inscription, but what was the date I do not recollect, the size of that 10 inches.

The subject on the whole of these three bells is the same-Orpheus, who, on a rude kind of violin, has brought round him an attentive-looking audience of birds and beasts, including a

"Rabbit and hare

And even a bear."

In addition to the name of the maker, there is, also, the inscription, in capital letters-O MATER DEI MEMENTO MEI-on all three bells.

I have always considered that Van der Gheyn, the bellfounder of the Netherlands, was the person referred to by the Latin "Petrus Gheynus" or "Petrus Gheinus," but I cannot understand how the bell figured in "Vetusta Monumenta" can be correctly copied as 1368. The art does not seem like that period. Van der Gheyn was of the sixteenth century.

Claughton, Cheshire.

"THE IMITATIO CHRISTI."

(See vol. i. p. 287.)

E. Q.

THE "RUINS" IN BATTERSEA PARK. I recently paid a visit to Chelsea, and, never having seen Battersea Park, I crossed the Albert Bridge to have a look at it. On the river side of the Park, close to the Embankment, I found a great collection of old stone-work, carved pillars and capitals, large oak doors, &c., strewed about. There was nothing to protect them from injury. Children were clambering, running, and jumping about them; and some of these terrible infants were busily engaged in chipping away fragments of the best carved work. Can you tell me anything about these classical-looking ruins? they are apparently neglected and forgotten by the authorities. Is it intended to erect the fragments on the spot where the disjecta membra now lie? if so, would it not be better to do so before they are hopelessly damaged by children and roughs; or else to rail them in, or otherwise protect them from wanton injury?

CUTHBERT Bede.

[These are probably the disjecta membra of the fine screen in front of old Burlington House, which were removed in 1865 from Piccadilly to Battersea Park.]-ED. ANTIQUARY.

JADE IN EUROPE.

Being interested in the matter of jade, I would ask Mr. Thiselton Dyer, or any antiquary, whether he is

aware that it has been stated-though I know not with what truth-that the tumulus of Mont St. Michel, near Carnac, when opened some years ago, was found to contain "a square chamber containing eleven beautiful jade celts, two large rough celts, twenty-six small petrolite celts, and 110 stone beads and fragments of flint, but no trace of metal." Neither am I aware where these were deposited. The find, if truly stated, necessarily disposes of the theory that some traveller in his journeyings may have brought it [them] in much later times, from some locality where jade might be found." B. NICHOLSON.

66

306, Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush, W.

Answers to Correspondents. "Moss Trooper" is thanked for the Bookplate so kindly sent.

Books Received.

Memorials of Cambridge. By Charles H. Cooper, F.S.A. Part VI. (Macmillan & Co.)-Glossary of the Essex Dialect. By Richard S. Charnock, F.S.A. (Trübner & Co.)-Politics and Art. By T. H. Hall Caine. (Notes and Queries Society, Liverpool.)— Cathedra Petri. By Charles F. B. Allnatt. (Burns & Oates.)-Mysteries of all Nations. By James Grant. (Simpkin, Marshall & Co.)-Philological Essays of the late Rev. Richard Garnett, of the British Museum. Edited by his Son. (Williams & Norgate.) -Truthfulness and Ritualism. By Orby Shipley, M.A. Second Series. (Burns & Oates.)-Our Ancient Monuments and Land around Them. By C. P. Kains-Jackson. With Preface by Sir John Lubbock, Bart. (Elliot Stock.)-English Chimes in Canada. By the Rev. H. Scadding, D.D. (Toronto: Guardian Office.)-John Noakes and Mary Styles; or "an Essex Calf's Visit to Tiptree Races. A Poem with a Glossary. By Charles Clark, Esq. (J. Russell Smith, Soho Square.)-Chrestos; a Religious Epithet. By J. B. Mitchell, M.D. (Williams & Norgate.)— Memoir of Gabriel Béranger. By Sir William Wilde, M.D. (Dublin: Gill & Son.)-Colchester Castle. By G. Buckler. (Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.)-Life, Times, and Correspondence of Dr. Doyle, Bishop of Kildare. By W. J. Fitz-Patrick, LL.D. 2 vols. (Duff & Sons.)-Folk-lore Record, Vol. III. part 1. (Folk-lore Society.) Gloucestershire Notes and Queries. Part 7. (Kent & Co.)-Byegones, April to June, 1880. (Oswestry: Caxton Works.)-Ancient Buildings of Halifax. By John Leyland. (Halifax : R. Leyland & Son.)-English Plant Names. By Rev. John Earle, M.A. (Clarendon Press, Oxford.)-Bibliography of Dickens. By R. H. Shepherd. (Shepherd, 5, Bramerton Street, Chelsea.)-Renaissance in Italy. By J. Addington Symonds. (Smith, Elder & Co.)Calendar of State Papers: Colonial America and West Indies, 1661-1668. Edited by W. Noel Sainsbury. (Longman & Co.)

The Antiquary Exchange.

DIRECTIONS.

Enclose 4d. for the First 12 Words, and 1d. for each Additional Three Words. All replies to a number should be enclosed in a blank envelope, with a loose Stamp, and sent to the Manager.

The Manager will not guarantee to forward Post Cards or letters which are not accompanied by the penny stamp to cover postage, the low price charged for Exchange Advertisements does not allow for postages being paid.

NOTE.-All advertisements to reach the office_by the 15th of the month, and to be addressed-The Manager, EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT, THE ANTIQUARY OFFICE, 62, PATERNOSTER Row, LONDON, E.C.

FOR SALE.

Book Plates for sale. Send for list. A specimen packet of 12 for 25., post free.-W. E. Morden, 30, The Parade, High Road, Lee.

Pennant's Tours in Wales.-Pugh's Cambria Depicta.-Churchyard's Worthiness of Wales. Pennant's London, and Chester to London.-History of the Westminster Election, 1784 (90).

Á beautiful slab of marble (purple breccia), 4 feet long, 2 feet broad, 1 inch thick. It has been polished. W. Pointer, 18, Carburton Street, Portland Street, W.

Grose's Antiquities of England and Wales. Origi nal edition, 1773; 6 vols. 4to, thick paper, whole calf, gilt extra; excellent condition; engravings complete. Book Plates of Robert Wood and Richard Tayler (91).

Life and Death of King Charles I., with EIKON BAZIAIKH and Vindication of King Charles's authorship, 1693, 11s.-W. D., 14, St. Peter's Hill, Grantham.

Tokens, French Centimes (various); American Cents and Tokens; Half-farthings; for disposal (88). The greater part of The Arundel Society's Publications for last twenty years; will separate.-Geo. Mackey, 49A, Union Passage, Birmingham.

Armorial Général de l'Empire Français contenant les Armes de sa Majesté l'Empereur et Roi, des Princes de sa Famille, etc., par Henri Simon. Paris, 1812. The contents are :-Abrégé de l'art Heral dique, seventy splendid copper-plates (size 18 inches by 12 inches), containing more than 700 Coats of Arms of Napoleon I., his Family, Court, and Generals, with full heraldic descriptions, and Index.-Address offers, W. H., 746, Old Kent Road, S.E.

Franks, several thousands; Peers and Commoners; many duplicates to be sold together.-E. W., 17, Church Row, Hampstead, N. W.

Autographs for sale. Is. per dozen.-R. H., 15, Brooklyn Road, Shepherd's Bush.

A Few "Chap Books," 181-(87).

Campbell's Political Survey, 2 vols. 4to.-Borlase's Natural History of Cornwall, folio 1768.-Raine's North Durham, large paper.-Buckland's Reliquiæ Silurianæ, 4to, 1824, coloured plates.-Campbell's Journey in Scotland, 2 vols. 4to.-Garnett's Tour in the Highlands, 2 vols. 4to.-Carr's Ireland, 4to.Surtees Durham, vol. iv. only, 1840.-Skelton's Pietas Oxoniensis, 1828.-Wild's Lincoln Cathedral. -Bailey's Annals of Nottingham, 4 vols. roy. 8vo,

half calf, neat.-Public Records of Great Britain and Ireland, with facsimiles, thick folio, 1800.-Dodsworth's Salisbury Cathedral.-Amsinck's Tunbridge Wells.-Moule's Bibliotheca Heraldica,-Cotton's Typographical Gazetteer.-Rutter's Fonthill Abbey, full morocco gilt.-Roy's Military Antiquities, and many others for sale or exchange.-H. Gray, 10, Maple Street, Cheetham, Manchester.

On receipt of six stamps, to cover postal charges, J. Henry, 48, Devonshire Street, W.C., will be happy to forward his new (1880) Copper Token, gratis.

WANTED TO PURCHASE,

Books on Trades men's Tokens; Exchange Numismatic, or other Books, Coins, &c. (89). Autographs of W. M. Thackeray (87). Portrait of Wycherley, folio size (81). Dibden's Bibliographical Decameron.-Bibliotheca Spenseriana.-Œdes Althorpinæ (82).

Ame's Typographical Antiquities, Bibliotheca, Anglo-Poetica (83).

Byron's Deformed, 1824.—Curse of Minerva, 1812. -Ode to Napoleon, 1814.-Poems on his Domestic Circumstances, 1816 (84).

Chatterton's Supplement.-Carew's Poems.-Syntax Three Tours.-Hood's Annuals, 1835-7-9-Howard's Poems, 1660, original editions (85).

Keble's Christian Year, sixth edition (86). Seventeenth Century Tokens of Worcestershire Best price given.-W. A. Cotton, Bromsgrove. Seventeenth Century Tokens of Lancashire or Cheshire. Best price given.-N. Heywood, 3, Mount Street, Manchester.

Hull Seventeenth Century Tokens.-C. E. Fewster, Hull.

Seventeenth Century Tokens of Wales and Border Counties, especially Herefordshire, or with issuer's name VORE or VOARE.-J. W. Lloyd, Kington.

Lincolnshire Seventeenth Century Tokens.-James G. Nicholson, 80, Acombe Street, Greenheys, Manchester.

Portrait of Milton (oval 4 by 3 inches), date about 1650 (74).

Westminster Chess Papers, vol. ii. (73).

Wanted. History of Surrey. Manning and Bray, 3 vols. folio. Complete sets, or any odd volumes.Tradesman's Tokens (17th century) of Surrey.-George C. Williamson, Guildford.

Armorial Book-plates purchased or exchanged.Dr. Howard, Dartmouth Row, Blackheath.

System of Self-Government, by Edmondson.Doctrine of the Reformation in the words of Martin Luther (Saunders and Otley).-Arundones, by Drury Cami.-Freytag's Pictures of German Life.-Freytag's The Lost Manuscript.-Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. iv. part 2 (Longman).-Life of Christ, by Jeremy Taylor, complete. Zoological Society's Proceedings, vol. for 1864, coloured plates.-Walks around Nottingham, 1835.-The Naval Keepsake, 1837.- Nights at Sea, 1852.-Little Henry (Dover), 1816.-Medical Assistant, or Jamaica Practice of Physic, by T. Danvers (printed by Gilbert, St. John's Square, Clerkenwell).-Cozen's Tour in the Isle of Thanet, 1793.-Garside's Prophet of Carmel (Burns & Oates). -Reports of condition and prices of all or part of this list to be sent to M., care of The Manager.

The Antiquary.

SEPTEMBER, 1880.

people, rises as it were out of a night of darkness, from which there are few recollections save those of disordered dreams. This night is succeeded by a dawn, in which we seem to distinguish bygone objects and occurrences; but all in a light so doubtful that they are pictured to us in highly perplexing forms. This is the period during which we find history blended with myth, corresponding to the second step of our childhood, from which we have indeed succeeded in rescuing many re

Northern Paganism.

By WILLIAM Porter,

Author of "The Norse Invasion of 1066, a Neglected Chapter in English History."

PART I.

HE subject of our Paper is not one who has enchained the public mind because of popular knowledge regarding his life, his work, and his character. Born far back in the dark days of history, and in the darkened North, Olaf, though sainted and surnamed the Holy, has never, to our mind, been sufficiently rescued from the oblivion that seemed to await him; nor has his character, nor have his deeds, received either the esteem or the censure they severally deserve. It is an old and oft-used saying, that every great man who has reflected either the virtues or the vices of his age, should be judged by his surroundings; that all the conditions of time, and place, and people should be considered in forming our estimate of the man. The difficulty of doing this is self-evident in numerous instances; and the prevalent ignorance of the early history of that northern people among whom St. Olaf's lot was cast, and among whom (though by a very questionable process) he established Christianity, may be sufficient excuse for the general want of knowledge regarding the greatness of the man, and the tardiness with which he has received our esteem. It will be our purpose to try to bring his figure more prominently out of the dark background of history by which he has so long been enshrouded, and to present him, not indeed as a faultless hero, but as one possessed of high attributes and stern resolution.

The history of every land, and of every

VOL. II.

monstrous and illogical character, because, at the period of their occurrence, we had not the understanding rightly to judge of the things and the issues they affect, and at which recollections in our riper years we are often moved to smile. Then at length the sun rises in the shape of written history, and from this period we have a knowledge of what has happened, though at first with frequent mistakes as to the size and importance of objects-bearing in this respect a kind of analogy to our youth, when we are indeed fully conscious of what we see and of what takes place around us, but for the most part judge them more by the light of imagination than from the platform of true reality.*

What we have uttered respecting the history of every land and of every nation in general, applies with particular force to the history of the North and its inhabitants. Through long generations during prehistoric ages, the wild surroundings of Nature and the stern character of the northern seasons, heightened in their effect also by a barren and unfruitful earth, had tended to roughen the character of that branch of the great Germanic family which from some still disputed quarter of the globe had found its way thither.†

Though the ancient Norse conception of religion may be considered a subject intimately connected with that of which we now treat, we shall here dwell upon only one or two points, insomuch as it will be necessary to represent some of the gloom that dwelt upon the minds of men, rightly to comprehend the forces to be overcome, and the light that banished and succeeded that gloom. Briefly, then, the northern races, amongst whom St. Olaf's life

See Holmberg: "Nordbon under Hednatiden." + Keyser: "Om Nordmændenes Herkomst og Folkeslægtskab," in "Samlede Afhandlinger."

H

mission was to be wrought, had inherited from far-away ages a religion which, feeding upon their peculiarly warlike and adventurous life, in return also gave back to their character much of its own roughness, and fostered in them the spirit of daring and violence. While its conceptions of morality in their home and social life stood higher perhaps than those of most mythical religions, it was not imbued with the elements of social progress. It contained little to lift the human mind above the attributes of brute force; and its field of exercise was closed, and its cruelties exemplified, by its doctrines of exclusiveness. It was the religion of a race, and of a race under special conditions; not the religion of humanity. To slay those beyond the boundaries of its domain became of itself a virtue, and the highest honours of Valhalla were opened to those who in conflict, or even in cold blood, sacrificed the greater number of heathen lives.* The counterpart both of its teaching and its influence in this respect we see in Islamism and in the Turk to-day. It was not altogether from an innate cruelty that the Norsemen and Danes cast up the children of Anglo-Saxon England to be impaled upon their spears; it was more the result of a doctrinal teaching of their religion, and as an offering to their warrior-gods. Urged by the tenets of such a code, we need not wonder at many of the violent and bloody deeds which the history of such a people furnishes; it explains, though it does not palliate, their crimes. It is true that during different eras of the Viking period we meet also with different phases of this warlike character; but such differences are more those of development than of principle. The Viking of the Swedish poet Gejer is not the Viking of the Fridthjofs Saga; neither is either of them the Viking at least the ordinary Vikingof history. Honour and love, and certain romantic and specific objects to be attained, have in both these cases played a conspicuous part, and have thrown their heroes out of the ordinary course prescribed by their northern national life. The terrible Hastings, of whom we read a little in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and whose deeds form a still more conspicuous portion of the relations of Continental Keyser: "Nordmændenes Religionsforfatning i Hedendommen." Holmberg: ante.

chronicles-notably those of France and Spain* the terrible Hastings, terrible though he is, is more the type of the real Viking, whose course was to be tracked, as it is poetically expressed, by the blood of his victims upon the sea. Wherever cause of quarrel could be found, wherever death could be dealt, hither did Hastings wend his way, giving no quarter, deaf to human woe, and blind to mercy, slaying for the honour of his name alone, and whose latest boast it was that a hundred thousand victims had fallen as sacrifices to his sword.† Hastings was the true type of hundreds more that ravaged far and wide for a period of nearly three centuries, differing only from them by the duration of his power and by the measure of his success.

In such a stern and warlike school as this young Olaf was brought up. Leaving the home of his step-father, Sigurd Syr, and his mother, Aaste, under the guidance and protection of Rane Vidfarle-or "the far-travelled" he stepped on board his first Viking ship at twelve years of age, thereafter to be a leader of old and tried marauders, and a dealer of terror and of death. His earliest recorded exploits are in keeping with the cruel antecedents of his chosen sphere, and are perhaps more indicative of the dictates of Rane than of himself. Plundering and destroying for some time along the coasts of the Baltic and the eastern shores of the German Ocean, Olaf at length ventures over to England, which now for over two centuries had offered such a field for the exercise of their valour, and such recompense as its reward. Here, as by chance, a train of circumstances in the history of our country was destined to alter the purposes of the youthful hero, and to turn to better account the forces obeying his command. On reaching England he found that King Sweyn had overrun the country with a Danish army, and had taken possession of Ethelred's kingdom; but the sudden death of the Danish conqueror that same autumn induced Ethelred to make great offers to all who would help him to regain his crown; and, lured by these, Olaf sailed up the Thames, and mainly contributed to wrest * Adam of Bremen; Dudo; Wace, "Roman de Rou;" Benoit, "Chronique;" &c. &c.

+ Cronholm, "Nordboarne i Westerviking."

*

London and Southwark from their Danish defenders. He and his followers remained in England three years, rendering assistance betimes to the harassed monarch.

Now here, we presume, we have the key to the future course of Olaf's life; at least from this period his actions were not so much those of the mean and plundering Vikings of the period. Henceforth his great abilities for rule, and his warlike genius, were to be directed to expeditions of a more national character; and we find him now in England, serving the interests of the troubled rulers, now in Normandy succouring the newly-established dynasty of his own race. But more than all else that tended to reconvert the genius of Olaf, because it reconverted his mind (if not also his heart), was his baptism into Christianity, which he received at the hands of the Bishop of Rouen, after being magnificently entertained and welcomed by Duke Richard.† Though his predecessor on the throne of Norway, the famous Olaf Trygvessen, had first planted the standard of the Cross among the mountains of his native land, and by dint of severity and resolution had, so to speak, established Christianity throughout a great portion of his dominions, the course of subsequent events had almost obliterated every trace of it from the land. The soil was too stubborn, and the climate too uncongenial for its speedy growth. Such was the power of the widely-spread superstitions, and so tenaciously did the warlike minds of the Norsemen cling to those tenets which were so peculiarly adapted to their mode of life, and which so keenly fostered their national prejudices, that during the anarchy that succeeded Olaf Trygvessen's rule it was an easy task to make the ancient rites and ceremonies, with all their rude grandeur, general if not universal. Besides, also, it seemed as if Nature had joined in the crusade against Christianity. It was customary in early spring to invoke the favour of the gods for the plentiful produce of the fruits of the earth, and, as it had happened that during most of that period which Olaf

"Anglo-Saxon Chronicle;" Snorre Sturlassön, "Heimskringla,"-"Saga Olafs hins helga," ed. Unger,

C. 12.

+ Steenstrup; "Indledning i Normannertiden," p. 172.

Trygvessen had occupied in persuading or forcing men to forsake their idolatry, Nature had not been propitious; so, also, it now happened that internal peace and plenty reigned. Superstitious minds were not slow to misinterpret this fact, first as a sign of their gods' displeasure with the ways of Olaf, and, secondly, as a manifestation of the renewal of their favours to them. The second Olaf's prosecution, then, was rendered doubly difficult, and those evidences of Nature were pointed to as paramount; and if, under the course of our brief history of Olaf's life-work, there seems in his character an overdue severity, we shall understand it better by knowing the determined nature of that obstinate resistance which everywhere met his efforts.

It was in the autumn of 1014 that Olaf Haraldssen sailed with a force of 240 chosen men from the coasts of Northumbria, and after a voyage of unusual dangers landed on the little island of Selje, off the western coast of Norway. When Ólaf heard the name of this island ("Selje" in the old Norse tongue meaning "success"), he was pleased with the omen. There is always something in these old Norse sagas which savours of superstition and romance. Thus, his coming to Norway at all is related as the result of a dream, in which Olaf had seen the vision of a man who advised him to end his wandering life, and return to the land of his birth, "for," said he, "thou shalt be King of Norway." Olaf's oracular interpretation, just mentioned, is in keeping with this relation; as is also the next, which, by the way, loses some of its force by frequent repetition in one or other form in the pages of history. Having landed in this island of Selje, Olaf had the misfortune to walk carelessly into some morassy part, when one foot breaking through the grassy covering he sank up to his knee. Not seeing a speedy oracular solution of this dilemma, his lofty visions fell, until his champion Rane interpreted it, "Now didst thou fix thy foot in Norway, King!" And so Olaf again was satisfied.

*

At this time, it must be remembered, Norway was under Danish rule; and, after having travelled somewhat, with a view to learning the minds of some of the chieftains * Snorre Sturlassön; "Saga Olafs hins helga," c. 27. "Fagrskinna," c. 89.