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CHAPTER IV.
SCOTO-SCANDINAVIAN RELICS.

From the slight historical sketch introduced in a preceding chapter, we perceive that the plundering expeditions of the Norse Vikings, and the establishment of Norwegian dominion by Harold in the Northern and Western Isles, were rapidly superseded by the establishment of an independent Scoto-Norwegian kingdom, which diminished the direct intercourse with Scandinavia Proper, and led to some interfusion of the Celtic and Scandinavian races. To this period, therefore, we must look for the introduction of pure Scandinavian antiquities into Scotland, and also for the production of those native relics which bear manifest traces of the influence of Scandinavian art. In the Western Isles especially, where the expatriated Vikings of Norway fixed their head-quarters, and in Man, and the Orkney and Shetland Isles, where the first independent Scoto-Norwegian kingdoms were established, we may naturally look for many traces of Scandinavian arts.

To this period belongs the very characteristic and beautiful ornament, usually designated the shell-shaped brooch, and which is equally familiar to Scandinavian and British antiquaries. In Scotland especially, many beautiful examples have been found: several of them are preserved in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries, and from these the following is selected as surpassing in beauty of design and intricacy of ornament, any other example of which I am aware. It consists, as usual, of a convex plate of metal, with an ornamental border, surmounted by another convex plate of greater depth, highly ornamented with embossed and perforated designs, the effect of which appears to have been further heightened by the lower plate being gilded so as to shew through the open work. In this example the gilding still remains tolerably perfect. On the under side are the projecting plates still retaining a fragment of the corroded iron pin, where it has turned on a hinge, and at the opposite end the bronze catch into which it clasped. The under side of the brooch appears to have been lined with coarse linen, the texture of which is still clearly defined on the coating of verd antique with which it is now covered. But its peculiar features consist of an elevated central ornament resembling a crown, and four intricately chased projections terminating in horses' heads. It was found in September 1786, along with another brooch of the same kind, lying beside a skeleton, under a flat stone, very near the surface, above the ruins of a Pictish house or burgh, in Caithness. It measures nearly four and a half inches in length, by three inches in breadth, and two and two-fifth inches in height to the top of the crown. Like many others of the same type, it appears to have been jewelled. In several examples of these brooches which I have compared, the lower convex plates so nearly resemble each other, as to suggest the probability of their having been cast in the same mould, while the upper plates entirely differ.

These oval brooches are most frequently found in pairs, and may be presumed to have been worn on the front of the shoulders or breast, as shewn in a curious piece of sculpture, evidently of nearly the same period, which is built into the church wall of Invergowrie. It is engraved in Mr. Chalmers of Auldbar's "Ancient Sculptured Monuments of Angus," (Pl. XXII.) and represents, apparently, three dignitaries, probably priests, as two of them hold books in their hands. The two outer figures are adorned with large brooches on their shoulders, while the central, and perhaps more important figure, is without them, but wears instead a circular ornament on the lower front of his garment. Along with the pairs of oval brooches is frequently found a third, flat and sometimes trefoiled. One of these, referred to more particularly on a subsequent page, found along with a pair of oval brooches, in a barrow on the Island of Westray, in 1839, was first observed on the exposure of the skeleton, apparently laid on the abdomen, while the others were beside the ribs, as if worn on the breast. Another example from the Island of Sangay is figured in the Vetusta Monumenta, (vol. ii. Pl. XX.) A beautiful pair, made of a white-coloured metal, found under peculiar circumstances in a tumulus in Yorkshire, and another from the neighbourhood of Bedale, are figured in the Archæological Journal.[558] Various other specimens are preserved, both in public and private collections, but none of those that I have seen appear to equal in elaborateness or beauty of design, the Caithness brooch figured above.

By far the most remarkable relic associated with the period of Scandinavian invasion yet discovered in Scotland, is the beautiful Runic brooch, engraved on Plate I., which forms the frontispiece to this volume. It was found in the autumn of 1830, on the estate of Robert Hunter, Esq. of Hunterston, in the parish of West Kilbride, Ayrshire, within about an hundred yards of the sea, by two workmen who had commenced to quarry for stones. It lay quite close to the surface, at the foot of a steep cliff, called the "Hawking Craig," where the falcon still breeds,—a part of the Goldenberry hill, which bounds the extreme western point of Ayrshire. Between the Hawking Craig and the sea is a level piece of ground, where local tradition affirms that a skirmish took place, shortly before the celebrated battle of Largs, fought A.D. 1263,[559] when the fleet of King Haco was shattered by a tempest, and the Norse foe, already dispirited and greatly reduced in numbers, was totally routed, and finally driven from the Scottish mainland. In further confirmation of the local tradition Mr. Hunter adds,—"On the opposite side of the Hawking Craig, where the brooch was found, I discovered, in making a fence, some graves, composed merely of six rough stones, but with nothing inside but some charcoal, the bones being quite decayed. A short distance from this, at the foot of the hill, is the flat piece of ground assigned as the scene of the skirmish, in confirmation of which I discovered some graves there. A short way from this was a large cairn or tumulus of stones, wherein were found coins, &c.; but I just recollect, as a boy, the stones having been carted away: I found also an urn of unbaked clay, half filled with bones partially burned." It might admit of doubt if the Norsemen were likely to tarry on an enemy's coast, after so decisive a defeat, long enough to construct the cist and cinerary urn, and to rear the funeral pile, though we know that they were permitted to land, after the battle of Largs, in order to bury their dead. But we may dispense with the argument in this case, as we have not the slightest reason to imagine that the cinerary urn was in use, either by Scots or Norwegians, of the thirteenth century. In truth, the whole theory by which the remarkable relic now referred to is sought to be connected with the important historical event of the reign of Alexander III., is destitute of any satisfactory foundation. The locality is far removed from Largs, and not the slightest value can be attached to any local tradition of Norwegian skirmishes or battles. A reference to the old and new statistical accounts of the various parishes, along both the Ayrshire and Argyleshire coasts, will suffice to shew that the battle of King Haco has proved as infallible a source of explanation for the discovery of cists, tumuli, cairns, and sepulchral relics of every kind, as if it were a well authenticated fact that no one had died, from the days of Noah to our own, but at the battle of Largs!

Sturla, the Norse skald, has celebrated the gorgeous armament of Haco in the famous Raven's Ode, and disguises the extent of his monarch's defeat with the skill of a courtly bard; but in vain. King Haco gathered together the shattered remnant of his fleet, and bore away for Orkney, where he died, not many weeks after, of a broken heart. The old Norse skald thus refers to his earlier success, while the fleet was gathering along the Scottish shores, in sight of the Ayrshire coast:—"Our fierce veterans, feeders of wolves, hastened their fatal course through the mountains. In the fell battle mingling, Aleinn the Dauntless wreaked vengeance on the expiring foe. But now our sovereign encountered the horrid powers of enchantment. A tempest, magic-raised, blew upon our warriors ambitious of conquest, and against the floating habitations of the brave. The roaring billows dashed shielded companies on the Scottish strand."

In one of the skirmishes which preceded the fatal encounter fought on Tuesday the 2d of October 1263, the beautiful brooch engraved on Plate I. is assumed to have been lost. Both the character of its inscription and the style of its ornament suggest the probability of its pertaining to a much earlier period; and even Danish antiquaries, while not unwilling to authenticate its Scandinavian origin, have sought for it a date one hundred and thirty-three years prior to the defeat of King Haco, and the final abandonment of the Scottish mainland by the Norwegian invader. The brooch is of silver, richly wrought with gold filigree work, and measures four inches and nine-tenths in greatest diameter. It is also set with amber, and is in a nearly perfect condition. The only injury it has received, with the exception of the point of the acus being broken off, is in some of the amber settings, occasioned either by the action of the weather, to which it was exposed from lying so near the surface, or possibly from the frequent burning of the whins which abound along the cliff where it was found. But the most remarkable feature of this beautiful personal ornament is an inscription engraved in large Runic characters on its under side.

Shortly after the discovery of this interesting relic, it was exhibited to the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, and Mr. T. G. Repp, a native of Iceland, familiar with Runic literature, read the inscription thus:—

Maloritha á dalk this; Dólk Osfriđo; which he thus translated: Maloritha possidet hanc fibulam; Fibula Osfridie. At the same time drawings of the brooch were made, and a cast in sulphur was taken from the inscription, which is now deposited in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries. This valuable historic relic, which is here for the first time presented to British archæologists, has attracted considerable attention among Danish antiquaries. It was made the subject of a learned communication by Finn Magnusen, in the Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie for 1846, (pp. 323-599,) but it admits of doubt if he has been more successful in the correct rendering of this than of the well-known Runamo or Ruthwell inscriptions, though he is equally precise in assigning to our Ayrshire brooch a definite date and owner, as in identifying Offa, and the other historical characters of whom mention is made, according to certain readings of the Ruthwell Runes.

The inscription on the brooch is traced in large Runic characters, of which an exact fac-simile is introduced in the frontispiece, and differs essentially from any readings hitherto given of it by Danish antiquaries. Professor Magnusen's version, furnished by the late Mr. Donald Gregory, then Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, was probably only a copy of that made by Mr. Repp, though he reads the second name ᚮᛍᚠᚱᛁᛐᚭ, and contrives to elicit a vast deal more significance from the brief legend than its former translator dreamt of. He renders the first part—MALFRIÞA A DALK ÞIS; and translates it, Malfritha is the owner of this brooch. In this Malfritha he ingeniously discovers the Norwegian Queen Malford, a Russian princess who lived about A.D. 1130, while he finds in the Osfrido of the latter part of his version, Astrith the wife of King Svenir. A passage, moreover, in the Saga of King Haco, wherein the monarch complains of having been despoiled in infancy of all his inheritance save a brooch and a ring, completed the coveted cycle of historical identification, and here accordingly we have the brooch of King Haco, and an undoubted memorial of the Battle of Largs! A glance at the fac-simile of the inscription will shew how much imagination had to do even with the literal elements of this unparalleled discovery. In adapting the first name to his historical romance, Professor Magnusen reads ᚮ as F, not only without any authority, but even while recognising the regular ᚠ, or Runic F, in the second name—a needless liberty as will appear. The word ᚦᛁᛍ is no less a creation of the fancy. The mark which appears to have been construed into the terminating circle of the ᛍ, and to have given some show of probability to the others, being only the head of one of the silver rivets, which chances there to protrude in the middle of a line.

Meanwhile let us glance at the safer guidance which pure archæological evidence supplies. In addition to the inscription, I have introduced in the drawing, portions of the ornamental borders running along the outer and inner edges of the brooch. The Irish antiquary especially will recognise in these the familiar interlaced patterns to be found on nearly every native ecclesiastical and personal ornament pertaining to the early Christian period prior to the first appearance of the Northern Vikings, and with these the entire design and ornamentation correspond. But for the inscription, in fact, no one would have dreamt of assigning to the brooch a foreign origin; yet it does not seem to have ever occurred to the Scottish antiquaries to whom it was submitted, that the inscription might also be native, and equally Celtic with the workmanship. It will be seen that a rude chevron pattern is engraved on the back of the brooch, cut in the same style as the inscription, evidently the work of very different, and no doubt later hands, than those of the original jeweller. The whole reasoning, both of Scottish and Danish antiquaries in relation to this interesting relic, has heretofore proceeded on the assumption that a Runic inscription must have a direct Scandinavian origin: a conclusion by no means necessarily resulting from the use of Runes in Scotland at the date assigned to this one, after alliances and intermarriages had long existed between the Scandinavian and Celtic races of Scotland.

The Runic monuments of the Isle of Man present some remarkable features, manifestly pointing them out as the product of a Scandinavian colony in close alliance with a native Celtic population, and possessed both of a language and style of art resulting from the intercourse of these diverse races. The Manx Runic alphabet appears also to have some literal peculiarities altogether singular, though probably once common to the Hebrides and Northern Isles, and found also, as might have been anticipated, on the Hunterston brooch. To these features of the Manx alphabet, my attention was called by Professor P. A. Munch of Christiania, during the visit of that distinguished Northern scholar to this country in 1849; by whom, indeed, they were for the first time detected, when inspecting a series of casts of the Manx inscriptions in the Museum of the Scottish Antiquaries. In these ᚮ is sometimes used as B, so that the first name on the brooch reads Malbritha. From the incidents already narrated relative to the Scandinavian acquirement of possessions on the Scottish mainland, both by conquest and marriage, it cannot be doubted that, in so far as the Celtic race had any literary acquirements, they must have been familiarized both with the Northern language and Runes. It need not, therefore, surprise us to find in the owner of the Hunterston brooch not a Norwegian queen but a Scottish chief of the same name as the Celtic Maormor, Melbrigda Tönn, slain by Sigurd, the Orkney jarl, when he invaded the north of Scotland A.D. 894. The name, indeed, is familiar to the student of early Scottish history, and its first syllable is one of the commonest Celtic prefixes, as in the Mail Pataric on the Iona tomb, and even in the royal name of Malcolm, Maol Columb, the servant of Columba, as Maol Brigda signifies the servant of St. Bridget. In all cases it is a male prefix, the Gaelic maol meaning bald as well as subordinate, and being undoubtedly employed in its latter acceptation with reference to the tonsure. It is accordingly frequently met with in the names of ecclesiastics, as in the Pictish chronicle, A.D. 965, "Maelbrigd episcopus pausavit," and again repeatedly in an early Irish MS. copy of the Gospels, preserved among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum,—n, 1802; as, for example, at the end of the Gospel of St. John, the colophon, "Or. do Maelbrigte h-Ua Maeluanaig, qui scripsit hunc librum."

Here, therefore, we have a probable key to the language of the whole inscription, nor can it be regarded as an extravagant idea that a Celt should write his native language in an alphabet already familiar to him. The characters on the brooch, it will be seen, include various Binderuner or compound Runes, which add to the difficulty of translation. Making allowance for these, the following version has this merit at least, compared with previous ones, that it does not select merely such letters as will conform to a preconceived theory, but takes the whole in natural order. In the latter part of the inscription the second letter is a compound Rune, consisting of ᛅᚭ, or perhaps of ᛁᛅᚭ, the next of ᛚᛉ, and the fourth of ᛆᚭ—a construction entirely in accordance with the usual mode of interpreting the Binderuner, which were in common use at the very period of the most intimate Celtic and Scandinavian intercourse. The whole will thus read:

The additional marks are mostly irregular lines, with no distinctive character, and executed with so little care, that it is not improbable they have been introduced merely to occupy the remaining space with a uniform texture. What is decipherable reads in good Scottish Celtic: Malbritha a daimiheh i dæol Maolfridi; i.e., Malbritha his friend in recompense to Maolfridi: a is the possessive pronoun his; daimheach, a friend or relative; i or h-i, the old Celtic preposition in; and dìol, a reward for service done. It must be borne in remembrance that the spelling of the Scottish Gaelic is entirely modern. It is the sound therefore that is chiefly to be looked to, but the variations even in the spelling are not important. No Scandinavian scholar can examine the fac-simile of the inscription, and question the fact that the concluding portion actually contains the masculine name which Professor Magnusen was at such needless pains to try and educe from that of Malbritha. The chief value, however, to the Scottish antiquary of the reading now given, arises from no identification of these old Celtic friends, but from its establishing the fact—in itself so probable—that they did actually employ the Scoto-Scandinavian Runes in writing their own native language.

The annexed woodcut represents an exceedingly beautiful Scottish brooch, the size of the original, now in the collection of John Bell, Esq. of Dungannon. Like the Hunterston brooch, it is of silver, set with amber, and with the pattern wrought in gold. The resemblance of the two, both in style of ornament and in some of the details, can hardly fail to be admitted. This very fine specimen was found in the immediate vicinity of the celebrated mounds of Dunipace, Stirlingshire, the subject of antiquarian speculation from the days of Buchanan to our own. Another very fine large silver brooch, jewelled and plated with gold, formerly in the celebrated collection of Major Sirr, and now in that of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., has the acus exactly corresponding in its form and peculiar construction to that of the Hunterston brooch, while its other details are such as Scottish and Irish antiquaries are familiar with on the native gold and silver work of Celtic Christian art prior to the eleventh century. In point of workmanship and style of art, therefore, we have no reason to ascribe to our Runic brooch a foreign origin. Other evidence equally exposes the fallacy of assuming a necessary connexion between the discovery of Runes on our western coast and the fatal expedition of King Haco.

Directly opposite to the Ayrshire coast, and within sight of the Bay of Largs, a small island protects the entrance to Lamlash Bay, in the Isle of Arran, the well-known anchorage where Haco mustered his shattered fleet after his overthrow. In the Norwegian account of the expedition, after the narration of the fatal storm and conflict, it is stated, "The king sailed past Kumbrey (Cumbray) to Melansay, where he lay some nights."[560] This Melans ey, or isle, there can be little doubt is Holy Island, in the Bay of Lamlash, which contains the cave assigned by immemorial tradition as the residence of St. Molio or St. Maoliosa, a disciple of Columba, and a favourite Celtic saint. The island corresponds in geological structure to the southern district of Arran, presenting along the shore the common red sandstone strata, overflowed by a great mass of claystone and claystone porphyry, which towers above it in rugged and picturesque cliffs, fringed by the dwarf oak and birch, to a height of about a thousand feet. The cave of St. Molio is little more than a waterworn recess in the sandstone rock at an elevation of about thirty feet from the present level of the sea. On the shore below, a circular well is pointed out as St. Molio's Bath, and a large block of sandstone cut perfectly flat on the top, and surrounded with a series of artificial recesses or seats, bears the name of the Saint's Chair. Such relics are by no means rare in Scotland. They appear to have been singularly characteristic of Celtic hagiology. The Bath of St. Cuthbert was once a favourite resort in Strathtay; that of St. Woloc exists in Strathdeveron; and that of St. Fillan remains in the strath of Perthshire which still bears his name. St. Kentigern also had once his "bath," "bed," and "chair," near the Molendinar Burn. The Stone Chair of St. Marnan is still at Aberchirder; that of St. Fillan was recently preserved at the Mill of Killin; while another of these singular Celtic relics, placed at a commanding point, near Achtereachan, Glencoe, where a bend of the glen enables it to command both views, bears the name of Cathair Malvina, or the Chair of Malvina, one of Ossian's heroines.

The roof and sides of the cave of St. Molio, on Holy Island, are covered with rude marks and inscriptions of many different periods, among which may be discerned the following Runic inscription, cut with great regularity, in characters of about an inch and a half in length.

The reading is sufficiently simple and unmistakable. Nikulos ahane raist. The first, ᚿᛁᚴᚢᛚᚮᛌ, is manifestly a proper name. No such word as ᛆᚼᛅᚿᛂ is known in the Icelandic or ancient Norse tongue, unless it be simply a Hane: of Hane, the name of a place. We may therefore, perhaps, without impropriety, look for it in the native Celtic, where abhadh, pronounced very nearly in accordance with the spelling of ahane, signifies a hollow or abode. The last word, ᚱᛅᛁᛌᛐ, is of common occurrence in Runic inscriptions, the preterite of rísta, to engrave. In the present example, therefore, we shall not probably err in reading the inscription Nicholas engraved, or cut, this cave.

According to established custom with all relics found in the neighbourhood of the estuary of the Clyde, possessing the slightest affinity to those of ancient Scandinavia, this Runic inscription will no doubt be ascribed to the followers of King Haco in the thirteenth century. But independently of the improbability of the defeated Norsemen employing themselves in inscribing such a retreat, the simplicity of the Runes favours the probability of its pertaining to an earlier period. It is not altogether impossible, however, that even now, after the lapse of at least six centuries, we may be able from the brief Runes of St. Molio's Cave, to identify the anchorite who dwelt in this rude retreat. From the initial ✠, the inscription appears to be the work of an ecclesiastic; and in the Chronicon Manniæ, after recording the death of Bishop Michael, the elevation of his successor Nicholas, a native of Argyle, is thus noted: Huic successit Nicolaus Archadiensis genere, qui jacet in monasterio Benchorensi.[561] He appears to have succeeded to the see about the year 1193, and to have held it for about fourteen years.[562] The coincidence both of name and place of nativity certainly give probability to the supposition that the recluse of Holy Island in the bay of Lamlash, and the old Manx bishop, may have been one; at the same time it must be observed that such attempts at identification rest on an extremely uncertain basis, and have been the fruitful source of error.

The traces of the use of Runic characters are still abundant in the Isle of Man, and undoubtedly belong to the period of the general adoption of Christianity there, though it is not possible to assign to them a precise date. But the above are not the only Runes inscribed on St. Molio's cave. The whole surrounding surface of the rock is covered with crosses, evidently the marks of pious but illiterate pilgrims, who thus recorded their visit to the Holy Isle. Among these, however, are also traceable initials, monograms, and other more perfect evidences of the former concourse of pilgrims to the sacred spot. The annexed fac-simile of a group of them shews the curious character of these primitive holographs; but among them the experienced eye will at once discern the Runic characters, not regularly and boldly cut as in the former inscription, but irregularly scratched, as with the hasty hand of the wayfaring pilgrim. It is hardly necessary now too curiously to investigate the primitive record, though the letters are for the most part sufficiently distinct and well defined. The ᚳ, or k, is not a Scandinavian but an Anglo-Saxon Rune: a mixture by no means improbable by a Celtic inscriber. The whole probably imply no more than the proper name Akiethir, though it does not present, as in the former case, one familiar to our ears. Possibly like some other Runic inscriptions, it reads from right to left, in which case we should perhaps recognise it as a female name, Ritheika.

The rounded Roman characters, from which the medieval church-lettering ultimately sprung, were in use in the North more than a century prior to the era of King Haco, though they had not entirely superseded the Runes. But before this took place the Runic alphabet had been augmented by various new characters, and the Binderuner, or compound Runes, were in general use, especially in proper names, many of which are united into a single monogram. Both of the inscriptions in St. Molio's Cave are free from the later abridged mode of writing, and would therefore seem more probably ascribable to an older date than the thirteenth century, or indeed the not greatly earlier era of Bishop Nicholas of Man.

In this conclusion Scandinavian scholars will probably concur, though they may perhaps detect in other undecipherable groups of markings on the same cave the characteristic Binderuner of a later date. It can hardly be expected that they will unhesitatingly concur in another idea, advanced I believe for the first time, that the Celtic population of Scotland were as familiar with the Northern Runes as the natives of the kingdom of Northumbria are proved to have been with the Anglo-Saxon Runes, in which the most remarkable Scottish Runic monument—the Cross of Ruthwell—is inscribed. Of this, however, we are not entirely without some direct indications. The earliest, if not indeed the only medieval Scottish document which contains any allusion to the Pictish race, is a charter of confirmation of the lands of Burgie, in the reign of Alexander II., which occurs in the Chartulary of Moray. In describing the marches of the lands of Burgie, as fixed by perambulation, it refers to the various landmarks as follows: "Scilicet a magna quercu in Malevin quam predictus comes Malcolumo primo fecit cruce signari usque ad Rune Pictorum, et inde usque ad Tubernacrumkel, et inde per sicum usque ad Tubernafein, et inde usque ad Runetwethel, et inde per rivulam qui currit per meresiam usque ad vadum quod dicitur Blakeford, quod est inter Burgyn et Ulern."[563] To this interesting and curious charter another parchment is attached, which professes to furnish an explanation of the local names. They contain, it will be observed, an admixture of Celtic and Saxon terminology, sufficiently characteristic of the previous history of the locality; and the explanatory parchment is chiefly valuable as shewing how effectually the intrusion of the later race had adulterated or effaced the native traditions. The following is the explanatory translation:—"Rune[s] Pictorum, the carne of the Pethis, or the Pecht's fieldis. Tubernacrumkel, ane well with ane thrawine mowth, or ane cassin well, or ane crwik in it." It is sufficiently obvious that the explanations are given with uncertainty and doubt, and there can be little hesitation in translating the first name, not as the Pictish fields, but as the Pictish Runes, referring, as may be assumed, to an inscribed Celtic monument which had of old marked one of the Burgie marches; though in the reign of Alexander II., and long prior to the Battle of Largs, the very meaning of the term had been forgotten in Scotland. No attempt is made in the Burgie parchment to explain the name Runetwethel, but its correspondence to that of Ruthwell, the site of the celebrated Runic monument in Dumfriesshire, is perhaps not unworthy of notice.[564] The form of the northern Runes, as of the eastern Cuneatic characters, is manifestly traceable to a people whose literature was confined to graven records, chiefly on stone. Many of the medieval mason's marks are not only similar in general form, but some of them are identical with the following characters of the Runic alphabets:—ᚺᛋᛟᚻᚩᛖᛞᛘᚷᛗᛦ While this correspondence may be sufficiently explained by the simplicity of such combinations of lines, and their ready execution by the mason's pen, the absence of rounded forms, such as predominate in the Roman alphabet, adds another proof that the origin of medieval architecture, and perhaps also of Free Masonry, is traceable to the northern countries of Europe. The medieval mason's marks may undoubtedly be assumed with equal probability to retain the traces of the obsolete Runes, as the Bomœrker (literally house-marks) employed by the peasantry in certain districts of Sweden and Norway as signatures, or marks on personal property, in which the northern antiquaries recognise surviving elements of the Runic alphabet. In more recent times the term Runic has been used in this country in the vaguest and most uncertain fashion, occasionally without any very definite meaning appearing to be attached to it, and not infrequently as synonymous with Danish or Scandinavian.

These indications of the use of Runes by the native Celtic population of Scotland, are—like many other ideas advanced in this elementary treatise on our national antiquities—offered suggestively, and liable to the correction which further discoveries may suggest. The Celtic character of the name on the Hunterston brooch, the equally familiar one, in its Greek form, of that in the cave of St. Molio—peculiarly characteristic of the native Christian ascetics prior to the eleventh century,—and the Runic characters mingling with the initials and pilgrims' marks of the Holy Isle, are all suggestive of the same idea; and this it will be seen receives further confirmation from other Runic inscriptions. But whatever conclusion be finally adopted as to the precise rendering of the Hunterston inscription, or the inferences to be drawn from the various Runic memorials found in Scotland, it will be universally acknowledged that the brooch on which the former occurs is a relic of no ordinary interest or value. Though it may not admit of comparison with the celebrated golden horns, it surpasses, I believe, any other inscribed Runic relic hitherto discovered in Denmark or Sweden. A gold head ring found a few years since at Starup, in the neighbourhood of Haderslev, with Runic letters upon it, is engraved in Mr. Worsaae's Primeval Antiquities of Denmark. The inscription is simply the word luþro, traced on the inner side of the ring, and assumed as probably denoting the name of the owner, which in this case also is supposed to be that of a man.[565]

While the Isle of Man still retains many interesting traces of Scandinavian influence, in its memorial crosses graven with inscriptions in the Northern Runes, it is surprising how very partial are the indications of the same influence in the older northern jarldom. Only two imperfect Runic inscriptions have been observed in Shetland, and are described by Dr. Hibbert from drawings by Mr. Low.[566] One of them on a slab or grave-stone at Crosskirk, in Northmavine, is too much mutilated to render any attempt at restoration or decipherment of its meaning possible. The other was fixed in the wall of the Parish Church of Sandness, where it probably still remains; but, if there be no error in Dr. Hibbert's engraving of it, it only adds another to the frequent examples in Scotland of the term Runic being applied to designate any strange or incomprehensible device on a sepulchral monument. In Orkney no Runic monument is known to exist, though it cannot be doubted that many such must have been erected during the earlier years of the independent occupation of the Northern Islands by the Norwegian Jarls. Some of these, it is not impossible, may even yet be brought to light; though the continuous presence of a busy population during the intervening centuries affords too satisfactory means of accounting for their destruction to render such discoveries very probable at this late date. The annexed illustration of a later and more complicated Runic inscription than any known British example, is the remarkable memorial stone found in 1824 on the Island of Kingiktorsoak, Greenland, under the parallel of 73°, proving the zeal with which the old Scandinavian colonists pushed their adventurous course even to the extreme north of the inhospitable region of Greenland. It is introduced here chiefly to shew the complicated and much more intricate character of Scandinavian inscriptions of a later and well ascertained period; the era of the colonisation of Greenland being sufficiently established as a historical fact. Mr. C. C. Rafn finds in the concluding Runes the date 1135. During the recent repairs executed on St. Magnus Cathedral at Kirkwall, some singularly interesting discoveries were made connected with the period of its earliest Scandinavian bishops. A tomb was opened accidentally in the choir of the cathedral, which from the inscription accompanying it appears to have been the place to which the remains of William, according to Torfæus, first resident Bishop of Orkney, were translated, after the elongation of the cathedral, towards the close of the twelfth century. Along with the bones were interred a leaden plate inscribed in the common Church letters of the period:—H. Requiescit. Williamus. Senex. felicis. memorie. On the reverse of the plate are the words, pmus epis. Further excavations in the east end of the choir, and close to the presumed site of the high altar, led to the discovery of two curious pieces of sculpture, in bas relief, representing St. Olaf and St. Magnus. These, however, as well as the tomb of Bishop Tulloch, with crosier, paten, and chalice inclosed, and other discoveries made at the same period, belong to a later era than that of Runic literature, and are only referred to now as suggesting the possibility of still earlier relics of the Scandinavian period of Orcadian history being yet brought to light, while the first of them shews that the Runic character had fallen into disuse soon after the introduction of Christianity in the north.

It is to the Manx monuments, however, that we must turn for the most distinct and abundant traces of Scandinavian influence, though modified both by the arts and the faith of the older Celtic population. The Runic inscriptions are conjoined with the sacred emblem of the Christian faith, and are associated with ornamental accompaniments, some of which are sufficiently common on the sculptured memorials of the Scottish mainland and isles, though never found on contemporary native monuments of Scandinavia. The close resemblance of a peculiar trefoil ornament on the upper part of one of these crosses at Kirk Michael, to the device on the reverse of the coins of Aulaf, King of Northumbria, has been pointed out;[567] but it is impossible to limit to a single country or to a very narrow period much of the common ornamentation vulgarly called Runic knotwork. It may be traced on manuscripts, monuments, and relics of Scoto-Irish, Pictish, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman origin, from the sixth to the twelfth century. It is, however, frequently found with other accompaniments of a more precise character, and this in the case of the Manx crosses of Kirk Andreas and Kirk Michael, approaches more nearly to the style of the singular sculptured standing stones of Scotland than to any other monuments of the north of Europe. Here, therefore, sheltered by the isolation of this island, and by the veneration or by the superstition of its inhabitants, examples have been preserved of the style of Scoto-Norwegian monuments of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, which must once have abounded in the Scottish Northern and Western Isles, and on those parts of the mainland longest subject to Scandinavian rule. "The fear of sacrilege evinced by the Manx peasants is very great. The ruined chapels are still venerated, and a Manx formula of cursing is,—May a stone of the church be found in a corner of your house."[568] That the monuments of this period should have disappeared cannot surprise us, when we reflect on the very few memorials we now possess of that important era of Scottish ecclesiastical history which intervenes between the building of the white-walled cathedral of St. Ninian at Whithern, about the year 412, and the founding of the Abbey of Dunfermline in the eleventh century. I am fortunate in having obtained the assistance of Professor P. A. Munch—whose name will, I believe, be sufficient authority among northern scholars—in translating such of the Manx monuments as are referred to here. Previous transcriptions made by copyists unfamiliar with the Runic characters, or ignorant of the language in which they are inscribed, have added much uncertainty and obscurity to the subject, and produced so many various readings as to bring the whole inquiry into disrepute.[569]

At Kirk Andreas, near Ramsey, at Kirk Michael, Kirk Bride, Kirk Maughold, and Balsalla, are various of these interesting memorials of the Scandinavian era, supplying us with examples of the art and evidences of the faith of the period, and even furnishing some curious personal information regarding the men of that time. Not the least interesting of these minute records is that supplied by the inscription on one of the Kirk Michael crosses, already referred to:—

Rendered literally, according to the equivalent for each Runic character, it is:—Mail orikti sunr aþakans smiþ raisti krus þana fur salu sini sin oruguin gauts girþi þana auk ala i maun. And in pure Norse it reads:—Mailorikti (Mailbrigdi) sunr Aþakans smiðar reisti kross þenna fyrir sálu sinni sins öruggs vinar Gauts's gerði þenna ok alla i Mön; i.e., Mailbrikti, son of Athacan the smith, raised this cross for his soul, and that of his faithful friend Gaut, who made this [cross] and all [the crosses] in Man. The name of the faithful Gaut, the old Manx sculptor, occurs on other inscriptions, as on a mutilated fragment at Kirk Andreas:—

Literally, þana uf ufaig fauþur sin in gautr girthi sunr ... rnar g ... orthog. (N. N. reisti kross) þenna of Ufeig föður sinn, en Gautr gerði, sunr Bjarnar g.... N. N. raised this cross over Ufeig his father, but Gaut made [it] the son of Björn.... Another of the Kirk Michael crosses, which has been more frequently and diversely translated than any British Runic inscription, consists of an upright square slab, with a cross cut on both sides, according to the usual style of the Scottish memorial stones, and decorated with a variety of sculptured figures and animals, representing a stag hunt. One of the edges is ornamented with interlaced work, as shewn in the annexed illustration, and along the opposite edge is the legend, surmounted with a small incised figure of a warrior in simple costume, with his arms extended, holding a spear in his right hand, and bearing a round shield on the left arm. The letters are sharply cut, and the author of "Ecclesiological Notes on the Isle of Man" refers to this as the most perfect Runic inscription in the three kingdoms:—

Its literal rendering is:—Auolfir sunr þurulfs hins rauþa risti krus þana aft friþu muþur sina; betraying like the others the variations of a provincial dialect, or a foreign use of the old Norse tongue. More correctly it is:—Eyolfr sunr þórolfs hins rauða reisti kross þenna eft Friðu móður sína; i.e., Eyolf, the son of Thorolf the Red, raised this cross after (or in memory of) Frida his mother. This exceedingly simple memorial of affection, contrasting in its brevity so strikingly with the inflated extravagancies of modern monumental inscriptions, affords a good example of the most usual style of the Manx Runic legends. One cross at Kirk Andreas is raised by Sandulfr suarte, or Sandulf the Black, in memory of his sons and wife; while on another imperfect fragment of a cross may still be traced the words:—Oskitil uilti i trigu aiþsuara sinn; i.e., Oskitil betrayed in truce his sworn friend. The precise object of this unusual memorial cannot now be guessed at with any degree of certainty, though the fragment preserves sufficient that is peculiar to excite our regret at its recovery in so imperfect and dubious a state. Another mutilated cross at Kirk Michael is interesting as an additional example of a Runic inscription containing names essentially Celtic in character. Part of the inscription is so much defaced by the weather as to baffle any attempt at a consistent rendering of its meaning, but of the portion copied below no doubt can be entertained. It is presented here in fac-simile, as an illustration of the style of engraving of the Manx inscriptions, though it differs in the use of ᛋᛏ for the more common Runic characters introduced on the other crosses as equivalent to the s and t.