Notes and Queries, Issue No. 61, December 28, 1850 by Various


Main
- books.jibble.org



My Books
- IRC Hacks

Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare

External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd

books.jibble.org

Previous Page | Next Page

Page 2

Ribolt kills her father and her two eldest brothers, and then Guldborg
can no longer restrain herself:

"Hald, hald, my Ribolt, dearest mine,
Now belt thy brand, for its 'mair nor time.
My youngest brother ye spare, O spare,
To my mither the dowie news to bear."

But she has broken her lover's mysterious caution, and he is mortally
wounded in consequence:

"When Ribolt's name she named that stound,
'Twas then that he gat his deadly wound."

In the Scottish ballad, no such caution is given; nor is the lady's
calling on her lover's name at all alluded to as being the cause of his
death. It is so, however, as in the Danish version:

"She held his steed in her milk-white hand,
And never shed one tear,
Until that she saw her seven brethren fa',
And her father hard fighting, who loved her so dear.

"O hold your hand, Lord William, she said,
For your strokes they are wondrous sair;
True lovers I can get many a ane,
But a father I can never get mair."

There is no note in the _K�mpe Viser_, says Mr. Jamieson, on this
subject; nor does he attempt to explain it himself. It has, however, a
clear reference to a very curious Northern superstition.

Thorkelin, in the essay on the Berserkir, appended to his edition of the
_Kristni-Saga_, tells us that an old name of the Berserk frenzy was
_hamremmi_, _i.e._, strength acquired from another or strange body,
because it was anciently believed that the persons who were liable to
this frenzy were mysteriously endowed, during its accesses, with a
strange body of unearthly strength. If, however, the Berserk was called
on by his own name, he lost his mysterious form, and his ordinary
strength alone remained. Thus it happens in the _Svarfd�la Saga:_

"Gris called aloud to Klanfi, and said, 'Klanfi, Klanfi! keep a fair
measure,' and instantly the strength which Klanfi had got in his
rage, failed him; so that now he could not even lift the beam with
which he had been fighting."

It is clear, therefore, continues Thorkelin, that the state of men
labouring under the Berserk frenzy was held by some, at least, to
resemble that of those, who, whilst their own body lay at home
apparently dead or asleep, wandered under other forms into distant
places and countries. Such wanderings were called _hamfarir_ by the old
northmen; and were held to be only capable of performance by those who
had attained the very utmost skill in magic.

RICHARD JOHN KING.

* * * * *


THE RED HAND.--THE HOLT FAMILY.
(Vol. ii., pp. 248. 451.)

Your correspondent ESTE, in allusion to the arms of the Holt
family, in a window of the church of Aston-juxta-Birmingham, refers to
the tradition that one of the family "murdered his cook, and was
afterwards compelled to adopt the red hand in his arms." Este is
perfectly correct in his concise but comprehensive particulars. That
which, by the illiterate, is termed "the bloody hand," and by them
reputed as an abatement of honour, is nothing more than the "Ulster
badge" of dignity. The tradition adds, that Sir Thomas Holt murdered the
cook in a cellar, at the old family mansion, by "running him through
with a spit," and afterwards buried him beneath the spot where the
tragedy was enacted. I merely revert to the subject, because, within the
last three months, the ancient family residence, where the murder is
said to have been committed, has been levelled with the ground; and
among persons who from their position in society might be supposed to be
better informed, considerable anxiety has been expressed to ascertain
whether any portion of the skeleton of the murdered cook has been
discovered beneath the flooring of the cellar, which tradition, fomented
by illiterate gossip, pointed out as the place of his interment. Your
correspondents would confer a heraldic benefit if they would point out
other instances--which I believe to exist--where family reputation has
been damaged by similar ignorance in heraldic interpretation.

Previous Page | Next Page


Books | Photos | Paul Mutton | Fri 29th Mar 2024, 12:52