And the broad shadow of her wing Near Stratforth high they paid their vows, invaded Northumberland, bringing with them the magical standard, so often mentioned in poetry, called REAFEN, or Rumfan, from its bearing the figure of a raven : "Wrought by the sisters of the Danish king, Of furious Ivar in a midnight hour: While the sick moon, at their enchanted song Wrapt in pale tempest, labour'd through the clouds, The demons of destruction then, they say, Were all abroad, and mixing with the woof Their baleful power: The sisters ever sung, Shake, standard, shake this ruin on our foes."" THOMSON and MALLET's Alfred. The Danes renewed and extended their incursions, and began to colonize, establishing a kind of capital at York, from which they spread their conquests and incursions in every direction. Stanmore, which divides the mountains of Westmoreland and Cumberland, was probably the boundary of the Danish kingdom in that direction. The district to the west, known in ancient British history by the name of Reged, had never been conquered by the Saxons, and continued to maintain a precarious independence until it was ceded to Malcolm, King of Scots, by William the Conqueror, probably on account of its similarity in language and manners to the neighbouring British kingdom of Strath-Clyde. Upon the extent and duration of the Danish sovereignty in Northumberland, the curious may consult the various authorities quoted in the Gesta et Vestigia Danorum extra Daniam, tom. ii. p. 40. The most powerful of their Northumberland leaders seems to have been Ivar, called, from the extent of his conquests, Widfam, that is, The Strider. The Tees rises about the skirts of Crossfell, and falls over the cataracts named in the text before it leaves the mountains which divide the North-Riding from Cumberland. HighForce is seventy-five feet in height. The heathen Danes have left several traces of their religion in the upper part of Teesdale. Balder-garth, which derives its name from the unfortunate son of Odin, is a tract of waste land on the very ridge of Stanmore; and a brook, which falls into the Tees near Barnard Castle, is named after the same deity. A field upon the banks of the Tees is also termed Woden-Croft, from the supreme deity of the Edda. Thorsgill, of which a description is attempted in stanza il., is a beautiful little brook and dell, running up behind the ruins of Eglistone Abbey. Thor was the Hercules of the Scandinavian mythology, a dreadful giant-queller, and in that capacity the champion of the gods, and the defender of Asgard,, the northern Olympus, against the frequent attacks of the inhabitants of Jotunhem. There is an old poem in the Edda of Sæmund, called the Song of Thrym, which turns upon the loss and recovery of the Mace, or Hammer, which was Thor's principal weapon, and on which much of his power seems to have depended. It may be read to great advantage in a version equally spirited and literal, among the Miscellaneous Translations and Poems of the Honourable William Herbert. Remember'd Thor's victorious fame, II. Yet Scald or Kemper err'd, I ween, For where the thicket-groups recede, III. Here rise no cliffs the vale to shade; The woodland lends its silvan screen. I [MS." The early primrose decks the mead, And the short velvet grass seems meet Such varied group Urbino's hand IV. "And rest we here," Matilda said, Wellnigh an orphan, and alone, Then paused, with downcast look and eye, And sat a little space removed, Unmark'd to gaze on her he loved. V. Wreathed in its dark-brown rings, her hair Half hid Matilda's forehead fair, Half hid and half reveal'd to view [MS.-"That you had said her cheek was pale; Or heard the praise of those she loved, 2 In English blood imbrued his steel,' To fiery Essex gave the foil, And reign'd a prince on Ulster's soil? When that brave Marshal fought and died, ' His billows red with Saxon gore. 'Twas first in that disastrous fight, 3 Rokeby and Mortham proved their might. ' The O'Neale here meant, for more than one succeeded to the chieftainship during the reign of Elizabeth, was Hugh, the grandson of Con O'Neale, called Con Bacco, or the Lame. His father, Matthew O'Kelly, was illegitimate, and, being the son of a blacksmith's wife, was usually called Matthew the Blacksmith. His father, nevertheless, destined his succession to him; and he was created, by Elizabeth, Baron of Dungannon. Upon the death of Con Bacco, this Matthew was slain by his brother. Hugh narrowly escaped the same fate, and was protected by the English. Shane O'Neale, his uncle, called Shane Dymas, was succeeded by Turlough Lynogh O'Neale; after whose death Hugh, having assumed the chieftainship, became nearly as formidable to the English as any by whom it had been possessed. He rebelled repeatedly, and as often made submissions, of which it was usually a condition that he should not any longer assume the title of O'Neale; in lieu of which he was created Earl of Tyrone. But this condition he never observed longer than until the pressure of a superior force was withdrawn. His baffling the gallant Earl of Essex in the field, and overreaching him in a treaty, was the induction to that nobleman's tragedy. Lord Mountjoy succeeded in finally subjugating O'Neale; but it was not till the succession of James, to whom he made personal submission, and was received with civility at court. Yet, according to Morrison, "no respect to him could containe many weomen in those parts, who had lost husbands and children in the Irish warres, from flinging durt and stones at the earle as he passed, and from reuiling him with bitter words; yea, when the earle had been at court, and there obtaining his majestie's direction for his pardon and performance of all conditions promised him by the Lord Mountjoy, was about September to returne, hee durst not pass by those parts without direction to the shiriffes, to convey him with troopes of horse from place to place, till he was safely imbarked and put to sea for Ireland."—Itinerary, p. 269. |