Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border Volume Ii Part 7

In a work, avowedly dedicated to the preservation of the poetry and tradition of the "olden time," it would be unpardonable to omit this opportunity of making some observations upon so interesting an article of the popular creed, as that concerning the Elves, or Fairies. The general idea of spirits, of a limited power, and subordinate nature, dwelling among the woods and mountains, is, perhaps common to all nations. But the intermixture of tribes, of languages, and religion, which has occurred in Europe, renders it difficult to trace the origin of the names which have been bestowed upon such spirits, and the primary ideas which were entertained concerning their manners and habits.

The word _elf_, which seems to have been the original name of the beings, afterwards denominated fairies, is of Gothic origin, and probably signified, simply, a spirit of a lower order. Thus, the Saxons had not only _dun-elfen_, _berg-elfen_, and _munt-elfen_, spirits of the downs, hills, and mountains; but also _feld-elfen_, _wudu-elfen_, _sae-elfen_, and _water-elfen_; spirits of the fields, of the woods, of the sea, and of the waters. In low German, the same lat.i.tude of expression occurs; for night hags are termed _aluinnen_, and _aluen_, which is sometimes Latinized _eluoe_. But the prototype of the English elf, is to be sought chiefly in the _berg-elfen_, or _duergar_, of the Scandinavians. From the most early of the Icelandic Sagas, as well as from the Edda itself, we learn the belief of the northern nations in a race of dwarfish spirits, inhabiting the rocky mountains, and approaching, in some respects, to the human nature. Their attributes, amongst which we recognize the features of the modern Fairy, were, supernatural wisdom and prescience, and skill in the mechanical arts, especially in the fabrication of arms. They are farther described, as capricious, vindictive, and easily irritated. The story of the elfin sword, _Tyrfing_, may be the most pleasing ill.u.s.tration of this position. Suafurlami, a Scandinavian monarch, returning from hunting, bewildered himself among the mountains. About sun-set, he beheld a large rock, and two dwarfs, sitting before the mouth of a cavern. The king drew his sword, and intercepted their retreat, by springing betwixt them and their recess, and imposed upon them the following condition of safety:--that they should make for him a faulchion, with a baldric and scabbard of pure gold, and a blade, which should divide stones and iron as a garment, and which should render the wielder ever victorious in battle. The elves complied with the requisition, and Suafurlami pursued his way home. Returning at the time appointed, the dwarfs delivered to him the famous sword _Tyrfing_; then, standing in the entrance of their cavern, spoke thus: "This sword, O king, shall "destroy a man every time it is brandished; but it shall "perform three atrocious deeds, and it shall be thy bane." The king rushed forward with the charmed sword, and buried both its edges in the rock; but the dwarfs escaped into their recesses.[A] This enchanted sword emitted rays like the sun, dazzling all against whom it was brandished; it divided steel like water, and was never unsheathed without slaying a man--_Hervarar Saga,_ p. 9. Similar to this was the enchanted sword, _Skoffhung_, which was taken by a pirate out of the tomb of a Norwegian monarch. Many such tales are narrated in the Sagas; but the most distinct account of the _-duergar_, or elves, and their attributes, is to be found in a preface of Torfaeus to the history of Hrolf Kraka, who cites a dissertation by Einar Gudmund, a learned native of Iceland. "I am firmly of opinion," says the Icelander, "that these beings are creatures of G.o.d, consisting, like human beings, of a body and rational soul; that they are of different s.e.xes, and capable of producing children, and subject to all human affections, as sleeping and waking, laughing and crying, poverty and wealth; and that they possess cattle, and other effects, and are obnoxious to death, like other mortals." He proceeds to state, that the females of this race are capable of procreating with mankind; and gives an account of one who bore a child to an inhabitant of Iceland, for whom she claimed the privilege of baptism; depositing the infant, for that purpose, at the gate of the church-yard, together with a goblet of gold, as an offering.--_Historia Hrolfi Krakae, a_ TORFAEO.

[Footnote A: Perhaps in this, and similar tales, we may recognize something of real history. That the Fins, or ancient natives of Scandinavia, were driven into the mountains, by the invasion of Odin and his Asiatics, is sufficiently probable; and there is reason to believe, that the aboriginal inhabitants understood, better than the intruders, how to manufacture the produce of their own mines. It is therefore possible, that, in process of time, the oppressed Fins may have been transformed into the supernatural _duergar_. A similar transformation has taken place among the vulgar in Scotland, regarding the Picts, or Pechs, to whom they ascribe various supernatural attributes.]

Similar to the traditions of the Icelanders, are those current among the Laplanders of Finland, concerning a subterranean people, gifted with'

supernatural qualities, and inhabiting the recesses of the earth.

Resembling men in their general appearance, the manner of their existence, and their habits of life, they far excel the miserable Laplanders in perfection of nature, felicity of situation, and skill in mechanical arts. From all these advantages, however, after the partial conversion of the Laplanders, the subterranean people have derived no farther credit, than to be confounded with the devils and magicians of the dark ages of Christianity; a degradation which, as will shortly be demonstrated, has been also suffered by the harmless Fairies of Albion, and indeed by the whole host of deities of learned Greece and mighty Rome. The ancient opinions are yet so firmly rooted, that the Laps of Finland, at this day, boast of an intercourse with these beings, in banquets, dances, and magical ceremonies, and even in the more intimate commerce of gallantry. They talk, with triumph, of the feasts which they have shared in the elfin caverns, where wine and tobacco, the productions of the Fairy region, went round in abundance, and whence the mortal guest, after receiving the kindest treatment and the most salutary counsel, has been conducted to his tent by an escort of his supernatural entertainers.--_Jessens, de Lapponibus._

The superst.i.tions of the islands of Feroe, concerning their _Froddenskemen_, or under-ground people, are derived from the _duergar_ of Scandinavia. These beings are supposed to inhabit the interior recesses of mountains, which they enter by invisible pa.s.sages. Like the Fairies, they are supposed to steal human beings. "It happened," says Debes, p. 354, "a good while since, when the burghers of Bergen had the commerce of Feroe, that there was a man in Servaade, called Jonas Soideman, who was kept by spirits in a mountain, during the s.p.a.ce of seven years, and at length came out; but lived afterwards in great distress and fear, lest they should again take him away; wherefore people were obliged to watch him in the night." The same author mentions another young man, who had been carried away, and, after his return, was removed a second time upon the eve of his marriage. He returned in a short time, and narrated, that the spirit that had carried him away, was in the shape of a most beautiful woman, who pressed him to forsake his bride, and remain with her; urging her own superior beauty, and splendid appearance. He added, that he saw the men who were employed to search for him, and heard them call; but that they could not see him, nor could he answer them, till, upon his determined refusal to listen to the spirit's persuasions, the spell ceased to operate. The kidney-shaped West Indian bean, which is sometimes driven upon the sh.o.r.e of the Feroes, is termed, by the natives "the _Fairie's kidney_."

In these traditions of the Gothic and Finnish tribes, we may recognize, with certainty, the rudiments of elfin superst.i.tion; but we must look to various other causes for the modifications which it has undergone. These are to be sought, 1st, in the traditions of the east; 2d, in the wreck and confusion of the Gothic mythology; 3d, in the tales of chivalry; 4th, in the fables of cla.s.sical antiquity; 5th, in the influence of the Christian religion; 6th, and finally, in the creative imagination of the sixteenth century. It may be proper to notice the effect of these various causes, before stating the popular belief of our own time, regarding the Fairies.

I. To the traditions of the east, the Fairies of Britain owe, I think, little more than the appellation, by which they have been distinguished since the days of the crusade. The term "Fairy," occurs not only in Chaucer, and in yet older English authors, but also, and more frequently, in the romance language; from which they seem to have adopted it. Ducange cites the following pa.s.sage from Gul. Guiart, in _Historia Francica_, MS.

Plusiers parlent de Guenart, Du Lou, de L'Asne, de Renart, De _Faeries_ et de Songes, De phantosmes et de mensonges.

The _Lay le Frain_, enumerating the subjects of the Breton Lays, informs us expressly,

Many ther beth _faery_.

By some etymologists of that learned cla.s.s, who not only know whence words come, but also whither they are going, the term _Fairy_, or _Faerie_, is derived from _Fae_, which is again derived from _Nympha_.

It is more probable the term is of oriental origin, and is derived from the Persic, through the medium of the Arabic. In Persic, the term _Peri_ expresses a species of imaginary being, which resembles the Fairy in some of its qualities, and is one of the fairest creatures of romantic fancy. This superst.i.tion must have been known to the Arabs, among whom the Persian tales, or romances, even as early as the time of Mahomet, were so popular, that it required the most terrible denunciations of that legislator to proscribe them. Now, in the enunciation of the Arabs, the term _Peri_ would sound _Fairy_, the letter _p_ not occurring in the alphabet of that nation; and, as the chief intercourse of the early crusaders was with the Arabs, or Saracens, it is probable they would adopt the term according to their p.r.o.nounciation. Neither will it be considered as an objection to this opinion, that in Hesychius, the Ionian term _Phereas_, or _Pheres_, denotes the satyrs of cla.s.sical antiquity, if the number of words of oriental origin in that lexicographer be recollected. Of the Persian Peris, Ouseley, in his _Persian Miscellanies_, has described some characteristic traits, with all the luxuriance of a fancy, impregnated with the oriental a.s.sociation of ideas. However vaguely their nature and appearance is described, they are uniformly represented as gentle, amiable females, to whose character beneficence and beauty are essential. None of them are mischievous or malignant; none of them are deformed or diminutive, like the Gothic fairy. Though they correspond in beauty with our ideas of angels, their employments are dissimilar; and, as they have no place in heaven, their abode is different. Neither do they resemble those intelligences, whom, on account of their wisdom, the Platonists denominated Daemons; nor do they correspond either to the guardian Genii of the Romans, or the celestial virgins of paradise, whom the Arabs denominate Houri. But the Peris hover in the balmy clouds, live in the colours of the rainbow, and, as the exquisite purity of their nature rejects all nourishment grosser than the odours of flowers, they subsist by inhaling the fragrance of the jessamine and rose. Though their existence is not commensurate with the bounds of human life, they are not exempted from the common fate of mortals.--With the Peris, in Persian mythology, are contrasted the Dives, a race of beings, who differ from them in s.e.x, appearance, and disposition. These are represented as of the male s.e.x, cruel, wicked, and of the most hideous aspect; or, as they are described by Mr Finch, "with ugly shapes, long horns, staring eyes, s.h.a.ggy hair, great fangs, ugly paws, long tails, with such horrible difformity and deformity, that I wonder the poor women are not frightened therewith."

Though they live very long, their lives are limited, and they are obnoxious to the blows of a human foe. From the malignancy of their nature, they not only wage war with mankind, but persecute the Peris with unremitting ferocity. Such are the brilliant and fanciful colours in which the imaginations of the Persian poets have depicted the charming race of the Peris; and, if we consider the romantic gallantry of the knights of chivalry, and of the crusaders, it will not appear improbable, that their charms might occasionally fascinate the fervid imagination of an amorous troubadour. But, further; the intercourse of France and Italy with the Moors of Spain, and the prevalence of the Arabic, as the language of science in the dark ages, facilitated the introduction of their mythology amongst the nations of the west. Hence, the romances of France, of Spain, and of Italy, unite in describing the Fairy as an inferior spirit, in a beautiful female form, possessing many of the amiable qualities of the eastern Peri. Nay, it seems sufficiently clear, that the romancers borrowed from the Arabs, not merely the general idea concerning those spirits, but even the names of individuals amongst them. The Peri, _Mergian Banou_ (see _Herbelot, ap. Peri_), celebrated in the ancient Persian poetry, figures in the European romances, under the various names of _Mourgue La Faye_, sister to _King Arthur; Urgande La Deconnue_, protectress of _Amadis de Gaul_; and the _Fata Morgana_ of Boiardo and Ariosto. The description of these nymphs, by the troubadours and minstrels, is in no respect inferior to those of the Peris. In the tale of _Sir Launfal_, in Way's _Fabliaux_, as well as in that of _Sir Gruelan_, in the same interesting collection, the reader will find the fairy of Normandy, or Bretagne, adorned with all the splendour of eastern description. The fairy _Melusina_, also, who married Guy de Lusignan, count of Poictou, under condition that he should never attempt to intrude upon her privacy, was of this latter cla.s.s. She bore the count many children, and erected for him a magnificent castle by her magical art. Their harmony was uninterrupted, until the prying husband broke the conditions of their union, by concealing himself, to behold his wife make use of her enchanted bath. Hardly had _Melusina_ discovered the indiscreet intruder, than, transforming herself into a dragon, she departed with a loud yell of lamentation, and was never again visible to mortal eyes; although, even in the days of Brantome, she was supposed to be the protectress of her descendants, and was heard wailing, as she sailed upon the blast round the turrets of the castle of Lusiguan, the night before it was demolished. For the full story, the reader may consult the _Bibliotheque des Romans_.[A]--Gervase of Tilbury (pp. 895, and 989), a.s.sures us, that, in his days, the lovers of the Fadae, or Fairies, were numerous; and describes the rules of their intercourse with as much accuracy, as if he had himself been engaged in such an affair. Sir David Lindsay also informs us, that a leopard is the proper armorial bearing of those who spring from such intercourse, because that beast is generated by adultery of the pard and lioness. He adds, that Merlin, the prophet, was the first who adopted this cognizance, because he was "borne of faarie in adultre, and right sua the first duk of Guyenne, was borne of a _fee_; and, therefoir, the armes of Guyenne are a leopard."--_MS. on Heraldry, Advocates' Library,_ w. 4. 13. While, however, the Fairy of warmer climes was thus held up as an object of desire and of affection, those of Britain, and more especially those of Scotland, were far from being so fortunate; but, retaining the unamiable qualities, and diminutive size of the Gothic elves, they only exchanged that term for the more popular appellation of Fairies.

[Footnote A: Upon this, or some similar tradition, was founded the notion, which the inveteracy of national prejudice, so easily diffused in Scotland, that the ancestor of the English monarchs, Geoffrey Plantagenet, had actually married a daemon. Bowmaker, in order to explain the cruelty and ambition of Edward I., dedicates a chapter to shew "how the kings of England are descended from the devil, by the mother's side."--_Fordun, Chron._ lib. 9, cap. 6. The lord of a certain castle, called Espervel, was unfortunate enough to have a wife of the same cla.s.s. Having observed, for several years, that she always left the chapel before the ma.s.s was concluded, the baron, in a fit of obstinacy or curiosity, ordered his guard to detain her by force; of which the consequence was, that, unable to support the elevation of the host, she retreated through the air, carrying with her one side of the chapel, and several of the congregation.]

II. Indeed, so singularly unlucky were the British Fairies that, as has already been hinted, amid the wreck of the Gothic mythology, consequent upon the introduction of Christianity, they seem to have preserved, with difficulty, their own distinct characteristics, while, at the same time, they engrossed the mischievous attributes of several other cla.s.ses of subordinate spirits, acknowledged by the nations of the north. The abstraction of children, for example, the well known practice of the modern Fairy, seems, by the ancient Gothic nations, to have rather been ascribed to a species of night-mare, or hag, than to the _berg-elfen_, or _duergar_. In the ancient legend of _St Margaret_, of which there is a Saxo-Norman copy, in _Hickes' Thesaurus Linguar. Septen._ and one, more modern, in the Auchinleck MSS., that lady encounters a fiend, whose profession it was, among other malicious tricks, to injure new-born children and their mothers; a practice afterwards imputed to the Fairies. Gervase of Tilbury, in the _Otia Imperialia_, mentions certain hags, or _Lamiae_, who entered into houses in the night-time, to oppress the inhabitants, while asleep, injure their persons and property, and carry off their children. He likewise mentions the _Dracae_, a sort of water spirits, who inveigle women and children into the recesses which they inhabit, beneath lakes and rivers, by floating past them, on the surface of the water, in the shape of gold rings, or cups. The women, thus seized, are employed as nurses, and, after seven years, are permitted to revisit earth. Gervase mentions one woman, in particular, who had been allured by observing a wooden dish, or cup, float by her, while was.h.i.+ng clothes in a river. Being seized as soon as she reached the depths, she was conducted into one of these subterranean recesses, which she described as very magnificent, and employed as nurse to one of the brood of the hag who had allured her. During her residence in this capacity, having accidentally touched one of her eyes with an ointment of serpent's grease, she perceived, at her return to the world, that she had acquired the faculty of seeing the _dracae_, when they intermingle themselves with men. Of this power she was, however, deprived by the touch of her ghostly mistress, whom she had one day incautiously addressed. It is a curious fact, that this story, in almost all its parts, is current in both the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland, with no other variation than the subst.i.tution of Fairies for _dracae_, and the cavern of a hill for that of a river.[A] These water fiends are thus characterized by Heywood, in the _Hierarchie_--

"Spirits, that have o'er water gouvernement, Are to mankind alike malevolent; They trouble seas, flouds, rivers, brookes, and wels, Meres, lakes, and love to enhabit watry cells; Hence noisome and pestiferous vapours raise; Besides, they men encounter divers ways.

At wreckes some present are; another sort, Ready to cramp their joints that swim for sport: One kind of these, the Italians _fatae_ name, _Fee_ the French, we _sybils_, and the same; Others _white nymphs_, and those that have them seen, _Night ladies_ some, of which Habundia queen.

_Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels,_ p. 507.

[Footnote A: Indeed, many of the vulgar account it extremely dangerous to touch any thing, which they may happen to find, without _saining_ (blessing) it, the snares of the enemy being notorious and well attested. A poor woman of Tiviotdale, having been fortunate enough, as she thought herself, to find a wooden beetle, at the very time when she needed such an implement, seized it without p.r.o.nouncing the proper blessing, and, carrying it home, laid it above her bed, to be ready for employment in the morning. At midnight, the window of her cottage opened, and a loud voice was heard, calling upon some one within, by a strange and uncouth name, which I have forgotten. The terrified cottager e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed a prayer, which, we may suppose, insured her personal safety; while the enchanted implement of housewifery, tumbling from the bed-stead, departed by the window with no small noise and precipitation.

In a humorous fugitive tract, the late Dr Johnson is introduced as disputing the authenticity of an apparition, merely because the spirit a.s.sumed the shape of a tea-pot, and of a shoulder of mutton. No doubt, a case so much in point, as that we have now quoted, would have removed his incredulity.]

The following Frisian superst.i.tion, related by Schott, in his _Physica Curiosa_, p. 362, on the authority of Cornelius a Kempen, coincides more accurately with the popular opinions concerning the Fairies, than even the _dracae_ of Gervase, or the water-spirits of Thomas Heywood.--"In the time of the emperor Lotharius, in 830," says he, "many spectres infested Frieseland, particularly the white nymphs of the ancients, which the moderns denominate _witte wiven_, who inhabited a subterraneous cavern, formed in a wonderful manner, without human art, on the top of a lofty mountain. These were accustomed to surprise benighted travellers, shepherds watching their herds and flocks, and women newly delivered, with their children; and convey them into their caverns, from which subterranean murmurs, the cries of children, the groans and lamentations of men, and sometimes imperfect words, and all kinds of musical sounds, were heard to proceed." The same superst.i.tion is detailed by Bekker, in his _World Bewitch'd_, p. 196, of the English translation. As the different cla.s.ses of spirits were gradually confounded, the abstraction of children seems to have been chiefly ascribed to the elves, or Fairies; yet not so entirely, as to exclude hags and witches from the occasional exertion of their ancient privilege.--In Germany, the same confusion of cla.s.ses has not taken place. In the beautiful ballads of the _Erl King_, the _Water King_, and the _Mer-Maid_, we still recognize the ancient traditions of the Goths, concerning the _wald-elven_, and the _dracae_.

A similar superst.i.tion, concerning abstraction by daemons, seems, in the time of Gervase of Tilbury, to have pervaded the greatest part of Europe. "In Catalonia," says that author, "there is a lofty mountain, named Cavagum, at the foot of which runs a river with golden sands, in the vicinity of which there are likewise mines of silver. This mountain is steep, and almost inaccessible. On its top, which is always covered with ice and snow, is a black and bottomless lake, into which if a stone be thrown, a tempest suddenly rises; and near this lake, though invisible to men, is the porch of the palace of daemons. In a town adjacent to this mountain, named Junchera, lived one Peter de Cabinam.

Being one day teazed with the fretfulness of his young daughter, he, in his impatience, suddenly wished that the devil might take her; when she was immediately borne away by the spirits. About seven years afterwards, an inhabitant of the same city, pa.s.sing by the mountain, met a man, who complained bitterly of the burthen he was constantly forced to bear.

Upon enquiring the cause of his complaining, as he did not seem to carry any load, the man related, that he had been unwarily devoted to the spirits by an execration, and that they now employed him constantly as a vehicle of burthen. As a proof of his a.s.sertion, he added, that the daughter of his fellow-citizen was detained by the spirits, but that they were willing to restore her, if her father would come and demand her on the mountain. Peter de Cabinam, on being informed of this, ascended the mountain to the lake, and, in the name of G.o.d, demanded his daughter; when, a tall, thin, withered figure, with wandering eyes, and almost bereft of understanding, was wafted to him in a blast of wind.

After some time, the person, who had been employed as the vehicle of the spirits, also returned, when he related where the palace of the spirits was situated; but added, that none were permitted to enter but those who devoted themselves entirely to the spirits; those, who had been rashly committed to the devil by others, being only permitted, during their probation, to enter the porch." It may be proper to observe, that the superst.i.tious idea, concerning the lake on the top of the mountain, is common to almost every high hill in Scotland. Wells, or pits, on the top of high hills, were likewise supposed to lead to the subterranean habitations of the Fairies. Thus, Gervase relates, (p. 975), "that he was informed the swine-herd of William Peverell, an English baron, having lost a brood-sow, descended through a deep abyss, in the middle of an ancient ruinous castle, situated on the top of a hill, called Bech, in search of it. Though a violent wind commonly issued from this pit, he found it calm; and pursued his way, till he arrived at a subterraneous region, pleasant and cultivated, with reapers cutting down corn, though the snow remained on the surface of the ground above. Among the ears of corn he discovered his sow, and was permitted to ascend with her, and the pigs which she had farrowed." Though the author seems to think that the inhabitants of this cave might be Antipodes, yet, as many such stories are related of the Fairies, it is probable that this narration is of the same kind. Of a similar nature seems to be another superst.i.tion, mentioned by the same author, concerning the ringing of invisible bells, at the hour of one, in a field in the vicinity of Carleol, which, as he relates, was denominated _Laikibraine_, or _Lai ki brait_. From all these tales, we may perhaps be justified in supposing, that the faculties and habits ascribed to the Fairies, by the superst.i.tion of latter days, comprehended several, originally attributed to other cla.s.ses of inferior spirits.

III. The notions, arising from the spirit of chivalry, combined to add to the Fairies certain qualities, less atrocious, indeed, but equally formidable, with those which they derived from the last mentioned source, and alike inconsistent with the powers of the _duergar_, whom we may term their primitive prototype. From an early period, the daring temper of the northern tribes urged them to defy even the supernatural powers. In the days of Caesar, the Suevi were described, by their countrymen, as a people, with whom the immortal G.o.ds dared not venture to contend. At a later period, the historians of Scandinavia paint their heroes and champions, not as bending at the altar of their deities, but wandering into remote forests and caverns, descending into the recesses of the tomb, and extorting boons, alike from G.o.ds and daemons, by dint of the sword, and battle-axe. I will not detain the reader by quoting instances, in which heaven is thus described as having been literally attempted by storm. He may consult Saxo, Olaus Wormius, Olaus Magnus, Torfaeus, Bartholin, and other northern antiquaries. With such ideas of superior beings, the Normans, Saxons, and other Gothic tribes, brought their ardent courage to ferment yet more highly in the genial climes of the south, and under the blaze of romantic chivalry. Hence, during the dark ages, the invisible world was modelled after the material; and the saints, to the protection of whom the knights-errant were accustomed to recommend themselves, were accoutered like _preux chevaliers_, by the ardent imaginations of their votaries. With such ideas concerning the inhabitants of the celestial regions, we ought not to be surprised to find the inferior spirits, of a more dubious nature and origin, equipped in the same disguise. Gervase of Tilbury (_Otia Imperial, ap. Script, rer. Brunsvic,_ Vol. I. p. 797.) relates the following popular story concerning a Fairy Knight. "Osbert, a bold and powerful baron, visited a n.o.ble family in the vicinity of Wandlebury, in the bishopric of Ely.

Among other stories related in the social circle of his friends, who, according to custom, amused each other by repeating ancient tales and traditions, he was informed, that if any knight, unattended, entered an adjacent plain by moon-light, and challenged an adversary to appear, he would be immediately encountered by a spirit in the form of a knight.

Osbert resolved to make the experiment, and set out, attended by a single squire, whom he ordered to remain without the limits of the plain, which was surrounded by an ancient entrenchment. On repeating the challenge, he was instantly a.s.sailed by an adversary, whom he quickly unhorsed, and seized the reins of his steed. During this operation, his ghostly opponent sprung up, and, darting his spear, like a javelin, at Osbert, wounded him in the thigh. Osbert returned in triumph with the horse, which he committed to the care of his servants. The horse was of a sable colour, as well as his whole accoutrements, and apparently of great beauty and vigour. He remained with his keeper till c.o.c.k-crowing, when, with eyes flas.h.i.+ng fire, he reared, spurned the ground, and vanished. On disarming himself, Osbert perceived that he was wounded, and that one of his steel boots was full of blood. Gervase adds, that, as long as he lived, the scar of his wound opened afresh on the anniversary of the eve on which he encountered the spirit."[A] Less fortunate was the gallant Bohemian knight, who, travelling by night, with a single companion, came in sight of a fairy host, arrayed under displayed banners. Despising the remonstrances of his friend, the knight p.r.i.c.ked forward to break a lance with a champion who advanced from the ranks, apparently in defiance. His companion beheld the Bohemian over-thrown horse and man, by his aerial adversary; and, returning to the spot next morning, he found the mangled, corpse of the knight and steed.--_Hierarchie of Blessed Angels,_ p. 554.

[Footnote A: The unfortunate Chatterton was not, probably, acquainted with Gervase of Tilbury; yet he seems to allude, in the _Battle of Hastings_, to some modification of Sir Osbert's adventure:

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.]