BT. 1. Wold, a wood; woody fastness. Husbande, from the Dan. hos, with, and bonde, a villain, or bondsman, who was a cultivator of the ground, and could not quit the estate to which he was attached, without the permission of his lord. This is the sense of the word, in the old Scottish records. In the Scottish "Burghe Laws," translated from the Reg. Majest. (Auchinleck MS. in the Adv. Lib.) it is used indiscriminately with the Dan. and Swed, bonde. Bigg, build. Ligg, lio. Daes, does. Shaw, wood. Sairly, sorely. 2 Aik, oak. Grewsome, terrible. Bald, bold. 17. An, if. Bide, abide. Lemman, mistress. 18. Nae-gate, no wise. 19. Couth, could, knew how to Lat be, let alone. Gude, goods; property 20. Aneath, beneath. Dwalling-stead, dwelling-plais). 21. Sary, sorrowful. Rede, counsel; consultation. Tyne, (verb neut.) be lost; perish. 22. Will of rede, bewildered in thought; in the Danish ort. ginal "vildraadage," Lat. "inops consilü;" Gr. axogar. This expression is lert among the desiderata in the Glossary to Ritson's Romances, and has never been explained. It is obsolete in the Danish as well as in English. Fare, go. 23. Rud, red of the cheek. Clem'd, in the Danish, klemt; (which in the north of England is still in use, as the word starved is with us; brought to a dying state. It is used by our old come dians. Harm, grief; as in the original, and in the old Teutonic, English, and Scottish poetry. 24. Waefu', woeful. Moody, strongly and wilfully passionato. Rew, take ruth: pity. Unseely, unhappy; unblost Weird fata Fa, (Iel Dan. and Swed.) take; get; acquire; procure; have for my lot.-This Gothic verb answers, in its direct and secondary significations, exactly to the Latin capio; and Allan Ramsay was right in his definition of it. It is quite a different word from fa', an abbreviation of fall, or befall; and is the principal root in FANGEN, to fang, take, or lay hold of. 95. Fay, faith. Mold, mould; earth. Mat, mote; might. Mell, mix. El, an elf. This term, in the Welsh, signifies what has in itself the power of motion; a moving principle; an intelligence; a spirit; an angel. In the Hebrew it bears the same import. Minted, attempted; meant; showed a mind, or intention to. The original is : "Hand mindte hende forst-og anden gang;- End blef hand den lediste deif-vel Mand kunde med öyen sce. Der hand vilde minde den tredie gang," &c. Syth, tide; time. Kyth, appear. 28. Stound, hour; time; moment. 29. Merry (old Teut. mere), famous; renowned; answering, in its etymological meaning, exactly to the Latin mactus. Hence merry-men, as the address of a chief to his followers; meaning, not men of mirth, but of reThe term is found in its original sense in the Gael. mara, and the Welsh mawr, great; and in the oldest Teut. Romances, mar, mer, and mere, have sometimes the same signification. nown. 31. Mends, amends; recompense. 33. Maik, match; peer; equal. Propine, pledge; gift. 35. de, an island of the second inagnitude; an island of the first magnitude being called a land, and one of the third magnitude a holm. 36. Cour'd, recover'd. THE GHAIST'S WARNING. TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH KÆMPE VISER, p. 721. By the permission of Mr. Jamieson, this ballad is added from the same curious Collection. It contains some passages of great pathos. Svend Dyring hand rider sig op under öè, Vare jeg selver ung) Der fæste hand sig saa ven en möè. (Mig lyster udi lunden at ridè,) &c. Child Dyring has ridden him up under öe,! (And O gin I were young!) There wedded he him sae fair a may. (I' the greenwood it lists me to ride.) Thegither they lived for seven lang year, (And O, &c.) And they seven bairns hae gotten in fere. (I' the greenwood, &c.) 1 "Under be."-The original expression has been preserved here and elsewhere, because no other could be found to supply its place. There is just as much meaning in it in the translation as in the original; but it is a standard Danish ballad phrase; and as such, it is hoped, will be allowed to pass. "Fair."-The Dan. and Swed, ven, væn, or venne, and the Sacl, bán, in the oblique cases bhân, (ván), is the origin NOTE 2 Z. -the moody Elfin King. – P. 206. In a long dissertation upon the Fairy Superstitions, published in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, the most valuable part of which was supplied by my learned and indefatigable friend, Dr. John Leyden, most of the circumstances are collected which can throw light upon the popular belief which even yet prevails respecting them in Scotland. Dr. Grahame, author of an entertaining work upon the Scenery of the Perthshire Highlands, already frequently quoted, has recorded, with great accuracy, the peculiar tenets held by the Highlanders on this topic, in the vicinity of Loch Katrine. The learned author is inclined to deduce the whole mythology from the Druidical system,-an opinion to which there are many objections. "The Daoine Shi, or Men of Peace of the Highlanders, though not absolutely malevolent, are believed to be a peevish, repining race of beings, who, possessing themselves but a scanty portion of happiness, are supposed to envy mankind their more complete and substantial enjoyments. They are supposed to enjoy in their subterraneous recesses a sort of shadowy happiness,-a tinsel grandeur; which, however, they would willingly exchange for the more solid joys of mortality. "They are believed to inhabit certain round grassy eminences, where they celebrate their nocturnal festivities by the light of the moon. About a mile beyond the source of the Forth above Lochcon, there is a place called Coirshi'an, or the Cove of the Men of Peace, which is still supposed to be a favourite place of their residence. In the neighbourhood are to be seen many round comical eminences; particularly one, near the head of the lake, by the skirts of which many are still afraid to pass after sunset. It is believed, that if, on Hallow-eve, any person, alone, goes round one of these hills nine times, towards the left hand (sinistrorsum) a door shall open, by which he will be admitted into their subterraneous abodes. Many, it is said, of mortal race, have been entertained in their secret recesses. There they have been received into the most splendid apartments, and regaled with the most imptuous banquets, and delicious wines. Their females surpass the daughters of men in beauty. The seemingly hap py inhabitants pass their time in festivity, and in dancing to notes of the softest music. But unhappy is the mortal who foins in their joys, or ventures to partake of their dainties. By this indulgence, he forfeits for ever the society of men, and is bound down irrevocably to the condition of Shi'ich, or Man of Peace. "A woman, as is reported in the Highland tradition, was conveyed, in days of yore, into the secret recesses of the Men of Peace. There she was recognised by one who had formerly been an ordinary mortal, but who had, by some fatality, become associated with the Shi'ichs. This acquaintance, still retaining some portion of human benevolence, warned her of ker danger, and counselled her, as she valued her liberty, to abstain from eating and drinking with them for a certain space of time. She complied with the counsel of her friend; and when the period assigned was elapsed, she found herself again upon earth, restored to the society of mortals. It is added, that when she examined the viands which had been presented to her, and which had appeared so tempting to the eye, they were found, now that the enchantment was removed, to consist only of the refuse of the earth."-P. 107-111. NOTE 3 A. Why sounds yon stroke on beech and oak, It has been already observed, that fairies, if not positively malevolent, are capricious, and easily offended. They are, like other proprietors of forests, peculiarly jealous of their rights of vert and venison, as appears from the cause of offence taken, in the original Danish ballad. This jealousy was also an attribute of the northern Duergar, or dwarfs; to many of whose distinctions the fairies seem to have succeeded, if, indeed, they are not the same class of beings. In the huge metrical record of German Chivalry, entitled the HeldenBuch, Sir Hildebrand, and the other heroes of whom it treats, are engaged in one of their most desperate adventures, from a rash violation of the rose-garden of an Elfin, or Dwarf King. "Brown dwarf, that o'er the moorland strays, Thy name to Keeldar tell!''The Brown man of the Moors, who stays Beneath the heather-pell. "Tis sweet beneath the heather-bell "But woe betide the shrilling horn, The chase's surly cheer! And ever that hunter is forlorn, Whom first at morn I hear." The poetical picture here given of the Duergar corresponda exactly with the following Northumbrian legend, with which I was lately favoured by my learned and kind friend, Mr. Surtees of Mainsforth, who has bestowed indefatigable labour upon the antiquities of the English Border counties. The subject is in itself so curious, that the length of the note will, I hope, be pardoned. "I have only one record to offer of the appearance of our Northumbrian Duergar. My narratrix is Elizabeth Cockburn, an old wife of Offerton, in this county, whose credit, in a case of this kind, will not, I hope, be much impeached, when I add, that she is, by her dull neighbours, supposed to be occasionally insane, but, by herself, to be at those times endowed with a faculty of secing visions, and spectral appearances, which shun the common ken. "In the year before the great rebellion, two young men from Newcastle were sporting on the high moors above Elsdon, and after pursuing their game several hours, sat down to dine in a green glen, near one of the mountain streams. After their repast, the younger lad ran to the brook for water, and after stooping to drink, was surprised, on lifting his head again, by the appearance of a brown dwarf, who stood on a crag covered with brackens, across the burn. This extraordinary personage did not appear to be above half the stature of a common man, but was uncommonly stout and broad-built, having the appearance of vast strength. His dress was entirely brown, the colour of the brackens, and his head covered with frizzled red hair. His countenance was expressive of the most savage ferocity, and his eyes glared like a bull. It seems he addressed the young man first, threatening him with his vengeance, for having trespassed on his demesnes, and asking him if he knew in whose presence There are yet traces of a belief in this worst and most malicious order of Fairies, among the Border wilds. Dr. Leyden | he stood? The youth replied, that he now supposed him to has introduced such a dwarf into his ballad entitled the Cout of Keeldar, and has not forgot his characteristic detestation of the chase. "The third blast that young Keeldar blew, Still stood the limber fern, And a wee man, of swarthy hue, "His russet weeds were brown as heath That clothes the upland fell; And the hair of his head was frizzly red As the purple heather-bell. "An urchin, clad in prickles red, Clung cow'ring to his arm; The hounds they howl'd, and backward fled, As struck by fairy charm. 'Why rises high the stag-hound's cry, Where stag-hound ne'er should be? Why wakes that horn the silent morn, Without the leave of me?' be the lord of the moors; that he offended through ignorance; and offered to bring him the game he had killed. The dwarf was a little mollified by this submission, but remarked, that nothing could be more offensive to him than such an offer, as he considered the wild animals as his subjects, and never failed to avenge their destruction. He condescended further to inform him, that he was, like himself, mortal, though of years far exceeding the lot of common humanity; and (what I should not have had an idea of) that he hoped for salvation. He never, he added, fed on any thing that had life, but lived in the summer on wortle-berries, and in winter on nuts and apples, of which he had great store in the woods. Finally, he invited his new acquaintance to accompany him home and partake his hospitality; an offer which the youth was on the point of accepting, and was just going to spring across the brook (which, if he had done, says Elizabeth, the dwarf would certainly have torn him in pieces), when his foot was arrested by the voice of his companion, who thought he had tarried long; and on looking round again, 'the wee brown man was fled.' The story adds, that he was imprudent enough to slight the admonition, and to sport over the moors on his way homewards; but soon after his return, he fell into a lingering disorder, and died within the year." |