402
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book i.
eræftum, ‰ lδe geolo godwebb geatwum frætwaS,”
—Worms wove me not, with the skill of Wierds,
those namely which the yellow silk for garments
beautifully form. Here weaving is especially put
forward as that in which Wierd excels, her own
peculiar craft and business1.
Spinning and weaving are the constant occupa-
tion of Teutonic goddesses and heroines : Holda
and Bertha spin2, and so do all the representatives
of these goddesses in popular tradition even down
to the fairies. But the Valkyriur or Shieldmays
also weave, and in this function, as well as their
immediate action in the battle-field, as choosers of
the slain3, they have some points of contact with
IheNornsandWyrd4. Gray has transferred to our
language from the Nials Saga a fine poem5 which
throws some light upon the weaving of the Valky-
riur, the wigspéda gewiofu. The Anglosaxon belief
in the Shieldmaidens comes to us indeed in a dark-
ened form, yet we can hardly doubt that it survived.
The word Wselcyrge occurs in glossaries to explain
1 I am almost inclined to think the words Searoruna gespon, the гсеЪ
of various runes, merely a periphrasis for wyrd, taken in the abstract
sense of event. Cod. Ex. p. 347.
2 “As terns ou Beite filait,” i. e. in a period anterior to the memory
of man: in the days of heathendom, of the godd<,ss Bertha, not the
queen.
3 Wælcyrige is derived from Wsel the slain and ceosan to choo<e.
1 I do not know whether the expression Hme Wjrd geceas, can be
found in Saxon poetry ; but ce∣)⅛an is a very common v ord in phrases
denoting death, though by Christian poets transferred to the doomed
hero, from the god or goddess : ær Son forδcure, wintruɪn wæl reste.
Cædm. p. 99. “ Priusquam annis [i. e. vita] praetulerit mortiferanι
quietem.”
6 The Fatal sisters. See vol. i. p. 70, Mitford’s edition.
ся. XII- J
HEATHENDOM. SIIIELDMAYS.
403
Bellona, the goddess of war, and one gloss calls
eyes Wselcyrigean, gorgonei, terrible as those of
Gorgo ; the flashing of the eyes was very probably
one mark of a Wselcyrge in the old belief1, as she
floated or rode above the closing ranks of battle.
In the superstitions of a later period however we
find a clear allusion to these supernatural maidens.
A spell preserved in a Harleian manuscript2 con-
tains the following passages :
Hliidc wæron hɪ lɪi hlɑde, ða hy
ofer ðone hlæw ridon ;
wæron anmodc, ðii hÿ
о fer land ridon.
“ Loud, Io ! loud were they, as they rode over
1 When Dorr visits Drymr under the disguise of Freya, the giant
is suspicious of the flashing eyes which he sees under the veil. Loki
explains them hy the sleeplessness arising from Freya’s desire for the
giant’s embraces.
Laut und Ifnu
Iysti at kyssa ;
en hann utan Stokk
endlangan sal :
“ Hwi eru ond<>tt
augu Freyju ?
bikki mér or augum
eldr of brenna 1 ”
Sat in alsnotra
αmb<>tt fyιir,
er or<S uni fann
viδ jotuns mali:
“ Svaf vætr Freyja
atta nottum,
sva var hon O-Sfils
ɪ jotunheima.”
Hamarsheimt. xxvii. xxviii.
MS. Harl. 586, fol. 186.