In the lowest left-hand corner is shown the upper half of a human figure, holding a sword at arm’s length. It no doubt represents Sigurd, but whether before or after slaying the dragon, it is impossible to say.
An historical connection with this tale of Sigurd Fafni’s Bane has been suggested by Professor Browne, which, though not strictly in place in a book of this kind, is so interesting and suggestive that it may be briefly narrated.—Among the coins found when digging the foundations of the tower at Andreas Church was one, either of Aulaf Sihtric’s son, surnamed the Red, who was King of Northumbria 941–945, and King of Dublin till the battle of Tara in 980, or of Aulaf Godfrey’s son, Sihtric’s brother’s son, who was King of Northumbria till 941. Now, the Sigurd of Sigurd Fafni’s Bane was the great-great-grandfather of these two Aulafs, and it is, therefore, a reasonable surmise that the crosses both at Andreas and Malew are memorials to the memory of one of them. This is particularly interesting to historians as showing the connection of these Aulafs, probably that of Aulaf Sihtric’s son with Man, and of equal interest to archæologists as demonstrating that these crosses are of much earlier date than has generally been supposed.
After Loki had enraged the gods by his many treacheries, he was chased by them, and took refuge in the waterfall of Frarangr, where he was caught by the gods in a net under the form of a salmon. After his capture he changed to his human form, and as a punishment the gods caused him to be bound to a rock with the entrails of his own son Nari. After he was bound Skadi (a goddess, daughter of Thiassi and the wife of Njörd) took a venomous serpent and fastened it up over Loki’s head. The venom dropped down from it on to Loki’s face. Sigyn, Loki’s wife, sat beside him, and held a basin under the serpent’s head to catch the venom, and when the basin was full she took it away to empty it. Meanwhile the venom dropped on Loki, who shrank from it so violently that the whole earth trembled.
Of all the mythical personages mentioned in this chapter, the only one remaining in the Folk-Lore of the present day is Manannan, and even about him comparatively little is known. He is usually called Maninagh “the Manxman”, and is supposed to have been the first man in Man, which he protected by a mist. If, however, his enemies succeeded in approaching in spite of this, he threw chips into the water, which became ships. His stronghold was Peel Castle, and he was able to make one man on its battlements appear as a thousand. Thus he routed his enemies. These, together with the notion that he went about on three legs at a great pace, are all the popular ideas about Manannan which still survive.
Footnote
[10] Cormac’s Glossary. (O’Donovan’s edition), p. 114.
[11] Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, 1886, pp. 663–4.
[12] Ogygia, p. 26, Dublin, 1793.
[13] West Connaught, Irish Arch. Soc., Dublin, 1849, p. 54.
‑–[14] Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, 1886, pp. 665–7.
[15] Zeitschrift für deut. Alt., 1889, Mr. Alfred Nutt’s Summary Folk-Lore, June, 1890.
[16] This can scarcely mean the Island.
[17] Manx Soc., Vol. XII., p. 6.
[18] Long hands.
[19] The Fate of the Sons of Turren, published by O’Curry, in the Atlantis. Vol. iv. p. 160–3.
[20] This tale is taken from Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 473–6, who quotes, as his authorities, Book of Leinster, Keating and O’Curry.
[21] Published by Roberts Brothers, Boston. U.S.A.
[22] See Mr. Alfred Nutt’s abstract of Professor Zimmer’s theory of the Ossianic Saga in “The Academy”, of Feb. 14, 1891.
[23] Chorus after every line.
[24] Orree beg—Young Orree—not from his size, but age;—where there are two of the same family, Father and Son, of the same name, the younger is styled beg—i.e., the lesser. This Orree beg is supposed to have been a Scandinavian prince, prisoner on parole, with Fingal and like some modern gallants, to make love to both young ladies at the same time,—and thus they shew their resentment. He declines the hunting party, for an opportunity of intrigueing (sic) with one or other of the ladies. Meantime he falls asleep in a grotto in the heat of the day; but when he awoke and found the indignity done to him, he resolves, in revenge, to burn Fingal’s palace—takes his huge bill, an instrument like a hoe, with which they hack and grub up gorze and heath, or ling, &c., for firing—hies him to the forest, and made up eight large burthens, such as eight modern men could not heave from the ground, and with these he fired the house as above described.
[25] Mollaght Mynney, is the bitterest curse in our language, that leaves neither root nor branch, like the Skeabthoan, the besom of destruction.
[26] Chorus after every line.
[27] Not in the Manx.
[28] “Ten L, thrice X, with five and two did fall, ye Manx beware of future evil’s call”, is the translation given by Munch in his edition of the Chronicle, Manx Society, Vol. xxii., p. 3.—Ed.
[29] Mr. P. M. C. Kermode has the credit of being the discoverer of the former, and Canon G. F. Browne of the latter. Canon Browne, indeed, was the first to indicate the existence of this tale on any sculptured stone in the United Kingdom, he having identified it on a cross in Leeds Parish Churchyard and having pointed out its historical and archæological significance.
[30] The Sigurd here mentioned is the same person as the Siegfried of the Old High German Nibelungenlied. The northern version, however, is the older, more mythical, and more simple of the two. A bold attempt has lately been made by Dr. G. Vigfusson to identify Sigurd with the noble Cheruscan youth Arminius.—Sigfried Arminius, pp. 1–21.
[31] Sleipnir, “the slipper”, was the eight-footed steed of Odin. Grana (commonly Grani) means the “grey steed.”
[32] Rán was the goddess of the sea, and caught in her net all those who were drowned.
[33] The original word is igóa, which has been variously interpreted eagle, hawk, nuthatch, woodpecker, or magpie; Egóir is the poetical word for eagle.
[34] The original word is Þulr, the technical meaning of which is obscure. In the Cleasby-Vigfusson Icelandic Dictionary it is rendered “a sayer of saws, a wise man, a sage (a bard?).”