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Submits the fasces of her sway,

While spirits blest above and men below
Join with glad voice the loud symphonious lay.

VIII. GRAND CHORUS.

"Thro' the wild waves as they roar,

With watchful eye and dauntless mien,

Thy steady course of honour keep, Nor fear the rocks, nor seek the shore: The star of Brunswick smiles serene, And gilds the horrors of the deep."

90

Hor. Od. II. x. v. 1. W. "Nor let her tempt that deep, nor make the shore." Prior. Ode.

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V. 93. Pope, in his Essay on Criticism, has a similarly beautiful image, v. 645:

"The mighty Stagyrite first left the shore,

Spread all his sails, and durst the deeps explore;
He steer'd securely, and discover'd far,
Led by the light of the Mæonian star."

Young, in his "Universal Passion," Sat. vii. v. 169:
"And outwatch every star, for Brunswick's sake."

THE FATAL SISTERS.

AN ODE. FROM THE NORSE TONGUE.

To be found in the Orcades of Thormodus Torfæus; Hafniæ, 1697, folio; and also in Bartholinus, p. 617, lib. iii. c. 1. 4to. (The song of the Weird Sisters, translated from the Norwegian, written about 1029. Wharton, Ms.)

Vitt er orpit fyrir valfalli, &c.

In the eleventh century, Sigurd, earl of the Orkney Islands, went with a fleet of ships and a considerable body of troops into Ireland, to the assistance of Sictryg with the Silken beard, who was then making war on his father-in-law Brian, king of Dublin: the earl and all his forces were cut to pieces, and Sictryg was in danger of a total defeat; but the enemy had a greater loss by the death of Brian their king, who fell in the action. On Christmas day (the day of the battle), a native of Caithness in Scotland, of the name of Darrud, saw at a distance a number of persons on horseback riding full speed towards a hill, and seeming to enter into it. Curiosity led him to follow them, till looking through an opening in the rocks, he saw twelve gigantic figures resembling women: they were all employed about a loom; and as they wove, they sung the following dreadful song; which when they had finished, they tore the web into twelve pieces, and (each taking her portion) galloped six to the north, and as many to the south. These were the Valkyriur, female divinities, Paroæ Militares, servants of Odin (or Woden) in the Gothic mythology. Their name signifies Choosers of the slain. They were mounted on swift horses, with drawn swords in their hands; and in the throng of battle selected such as were destined to slaughter, and conducted them to Valkalla, the hall of Odin, or paradise of the brave; where they attended the banquet, and served the departed heroes with horns of mead and ale: their numbers are not agreed upon, some authors representing them as six, some as four. See Magni Beronii diss. de Eddis Islandicis, p. 145, in Elrichs. Dan. et Sued. lit. opuscula, vol. i.

Now the storm begins to lower,
(Haste, the loom of hell prepare,)
Iron sleet of arrowy shower

Hurtles in the darken'd air.

Glitt'ring lances are the loom,

Where the dusky warp we strain,
Weaving many a soldier's doom,
Orkney's woe, and Randver's bane.

Var. V. 5. Launces. MS.

5

V. 3.

Gray.

"How quick they wheel'd, and, flying, behind them shot
Sharp sleet of arrowy show'r." Par. Reg. iii. 324.
Avianus has a similar expression: "Ausa pharetratis imbribus
ista loqui," Fab. xli. v. 6. "Sic et imbrem ferreum dicunt,
cum volunt multitudinem significare telorum," Lactant.
Epitome, c. xi. Virg. Æn. xii. 284: "Tempestas telorum ac
ferreus ingruit imber." Many other examples could be given.

Thick storms of bullets ran like winter's hail,
And shiver'd lances dark the troubled air.”

Spanish Trag. Vid. Hawkins. Ant. Drama.

V. 4. "The noise of battle hurtled in the air."

Julius Cæsar, act ii. s. 2. Gray.

V. 7. In Thomson. Masque of Alfred, p. 126, the weaving of the enchanted standard is thus described:

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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 thro' the clouds.
The demons of destruction then, (they say,)
Were all abroad, and mixing with the woof
Their baleful power; the Sisters even sung,

Shake, standard, shake, this ruin on our foes!'"'

See the grisly texture grow!

('Tis of human entrails made) And the weights, that play below, Each a gasping warrior's head.

Shafts for shuttles, dipt in gore,

Shoot the trembling cords along.
Swords, that once a monarch bore,
Keep the tissue close and strong.

Mista, black terrific maid,

Sangrida, and Hilda, see, Join the wayward work to aid: "Tis the woof of victory.

Ere the ruddy sun be set,

Pikes must shiver, javelins sing,
Blade with clattering buckler meet,
Hauberk crash, and helmet ring.

(Weave the crimson web of war)
Let us go, and let us fly,

Var. V. 15. Sword] Blade. MS.

V. 17. Mista, black] Sangrida, terrific.
V. 18. Sangrida and] Mista black, and.
V. 23. Blade] Sword. W. MS.

MS.

MS.

10

15

3

25

V. 11. Dr. Warton, in his Notes on Pope (vol. ii. p. 227), has compared this passage of Gray to some lines in the Thebais of Statius, i. 720.

V. 17. The names of the Sisters, in the original, are Hilda, Hiorthrimula, Sangrida, and Swipula.

Where our friends the conflict share,
Where they triumph, where they die.

As the paths of fate we tread,

Wading through th' ensanguin'd field,
Gondula and Geira, spread

O'er the youthful king your shield.

We the reins to slaughter give,

Ours to kill, and ours to spare:

Spite of danger he shall live.

(Weave the crimson web of war.)

They, whom once the desert-beach
Pent within its bleak domain,
Soon their ample sway shall stretch
O'er the plenty of the plain.

Low the dauntless earl is laid,

Gor'd with many a gaping wound:

Fate demands a nobler head;

Soon a king shall bite the ground.

Long his loss shall Eirin weep,
Ne'er again his likeness see;

Var. V. 31. Gondula and Geira] Gunna and Gondula.
V. 44. Shall] Must. MS.

V. 40. "Insult the plenty of the vales below."

MS.

30

85

40

45

Essay on the Alliance, &c. Luke. V. 44. (Shall bite the ground) " Θνητοι ὀδαξ έλον όνδας.”

Hom.

V. 45. Eirin] Ireland.

F

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