On the Legend of Weland the Smith. by THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq
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315 XXIV.—On the Legend of Weland the Smith. By THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq. F.S.A. Bead 11th March, 1847. MY LORD, The interest which, at the last meeting of your Society, you appeared to take in the traditions connected with the cromlech known as that of Wayland Smith, described in the paper by Mr. Akerman, has encouraged me to offer a few remarks on the subject, which, though not possessing much novelty, have not hitherto been, I think, laid before English readers in a connected form. As Mr. Akerman has observed, the Antiquaries of former days have treated with too much contempt the local legends connected with the monuments of our early forefathers; and through their neglect we have lost irretrievably a large portion of the valuable materials which connected the popular belief of our peasantry hardly a hundred years ago with the mythology of our forefathers at a remote period, when it differed comparatively little from the other branches of the same primeval stock which are now so widely separated. During a century these materials, the popular legends and traditions of the peasantry have been rapidly disappearing before the march of modern improvements; and I would earnestly impress upon the members of this Society the utility of collecting and preserving as many of them as still exist. When our forefathers came into this island, they found it covered with Roman towns and buildings, as well as with monuments of an earlier population, in the shape of cromlechs, vast entrenchments, and other similar works. With the character and uses of the Roman buildings they were perfectly well acquainted; but they looked with greater reverence on cromlechs, and barrows, and indeed on all earthworks of which the origin was not very apparent, because their own superstitions had taught them to attribute such structures to the primeval giants of their mythology, who were objects of dread even to the gods themselves. They believed that the spots on which they stood were under the immediate protection of beings of a higher order than humanity, who frequented them at the silent hour of night, and whose anger it was perilous to provoke. The Saxons brought with them a multitude of mythic traditions and stories relating to their gods and heroes, which they had preserved through ages of which we have no historical account, and the scene of which had been successively placed in every country where they had made a settlement. 316 On the Legend of Weland the Smith. Many of their stories had thus become located in England, when the introduction of Christianity worked a sudden change in people's belief, and what were merely mythic personages were looked upon either as the real heroes of former days, or as so many devils and evil spirits. The mythic legends were still current as romances, and continued to exist under altered forms as romances of chivalry, and under various subsequent degradations, until they were at last hawked about the streets in the still humbler form of penny chap-books and nursery tales. It was in this manner, and by such gradations, that the mighty deeds of the god Thor against the giants of Jotenheim became transformed into the exploits of Jack the Giant-killer. But the peasantry were unacquainted with all these literary vicissitudes. With them the earlier legends were intimately connected with localities, and the names of Woden, and Thor, and Weland, and the rest, were often preserved when they had been long forgotten in more cultivated society, and their stories were as often handed down traditionally with very little transformation. When John Leland made his antiquarian tours in the reign of Henry VIII., these local legends appear to have been extremely numerous, and he has alluded to several of a very interest- ing description. The topographical antiquaries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries also make frequent allusions to them; but unfortunately they looked upon them with contempt, and seldom condescend to do more than barely mention them. I will cite an example from the Itinerary of Leland, who (vol. v. p. 101), speaking of Corbridge in Northumberland, says, " By this broke, as emong the ruines of the olde town, is a place caullid Colecester, wher hath beene a forteres or castelle. The peple there say that ther dwellid yn it one Yoton, whom they fable to have beene a gygant." The giant race of the Northern and Teutonic mythology were termed Jotens or Yotens, in Anglo-Saxon Eotenas. To them the early Anglo-Saxon poetry attributes works of immense power or antiquity—the mounds and earthworks of ancient days, as well as the weapons and other articles found within them. The wonderful sword which Beowulf found in the den of the Grendel's mother was thus a weapon of Eotonish make. Ge-seah ^a on searwum Then saw he among the weapons sige-eadig bil, a bill fortunate in victory, eald sweord eotenisc, an old sword constructed by the Eotens, ecgum Jjyhtig, doughty of edge, wigena weor5-mynd, the glory of warriors, f waepna cyst, the costliest of weapons, god and geato-lic, good, and ready for use, giganta ge-weorc. the work of giants. On the Legend of Weland the Smith. 317 In a curious fragment of the Exeter book (p. 476), the poet is introduced solilo- quising over an ancient ruin, of which he says,— Wraetlic is |>es weal-stan, Wondrous is this wall-stone, wyrde ge-brsecon, the fates have broken it, burg-stede burston. have burst the burgh-place. Brosna8 enta ge-weorc, The work of giants perishes, hrofas sind ge-hrorene, the roofs are fallen, hreorge torras, the towers tottering, hrim geat-torras berofen, the hoary gate-towers despoiled, hrim on lime, hoaryness on the lime, scearde scur-beorge, shattered the battlements, scorene, ge-drorene; riven, fallen ; aeldo under Eotene, ancient under the Eotenish race eorS-grap hafaS the earth-grave hath waldend-wyrhtan, its powerful workmen, for-weorone, ge-leorone. decayed, departed. In the same manner, the antique vessels of gold found by Wiglaf in the cave in the mound of the dragon slain by Beowulf, are described as " ancient work of the giants," enta ser-ge-weorc. At a later period, Layamon, who breathes a pure Saxon spirit, describes the giants who (according to the fable) first inhabited Albion, as being Eotens,— Wunia1?) in j>on londe There dwell in that land Eotantes swrSe stronge : Eotens (or giants) very strong : Albion hatte )>at lond. Albion is the land named. Layamon, vol. i. p. 53. In the same poem, Corineus, boasting of the services he had rendered to Brut, says,— for his luve moni eotend for his love many a Eoten, or giant, ic leide dead a )>ene grund. I laid dead on the ground. The same writer, with true Saxon feeling, translates the name chorea gigantum, which Geoffrey of Monmouth gives to Stonehenge, by the ring of Eotens,— hit his a swij>e sellich ]>ing, it is a very wonderful thing, hit hat )>e Eatantes Ring. it is called the ring of Eotens or giants, vol. ii. p. 296. It was this mythic name which was preserved in the legend alluded to by Leland; and how interesting would it be to us to know the story or " fable" which the " people " of Corbridge then told relating to the " one Yoton" who dwelt in the VOL. XXXII. 2 T 318 On the Legend of Weland the Smith, ancient castle or earthwork, for such it appears to have been ! It would probably have made us acquainted with some stray fragment of the mythology of our Teutpnic forefathers. The legend of Weland is a remarkable example in which the mythic traditions were thus preserved, because we can trace it through the various transformations incident to the medieval literature, as well as in the popular local stories of the peasantry. The story of Weland (which bears a close analogy with that of the Grecian "H$a»<rToy) is found at some length in the Edda; from which we learn that he was the son of the giant Wade; that he obtained from the dwergr, or dwarfs, in the interior of the mountains, extraordinary skill in the working of metals by fire. He subsequently fell into the power of king Nidung, who, discovering his merits as a smith, employed him in making wonderful weapons and jewels; and,, that he might never escape from him, he caused his ham-strings and the muscles of his feet to be cut, and thus lamed him for life. Weland continued in this manner to work for the king, brooding over his injuries, until he had found the opportunity of revenging himself by killing the king's two sons and outraging his daughter, and then he flew away with wings which he had constructed. It is not necessary for my purpose to enter further into the details of this legend, which was popular throughout all the branches of the Teutonic race. The most ancient allusions to it are found in the remains of Anglo-Saxon poetry ; and the fact of its been referred to no less than three times among the very few fragments of that poetry now remaining, shows that it must have been very popular among our forefathers in this island. In the early romance of Beowulf, the hero's favourite breast-plate was made by Weland:— On-send Hige-lace, If the war take me, gif mec hild nime, send to Higelac beadu-scruda betst, the best of war-coverings, ];aet mine breost wereS, the most precious of clothing, hrsegla selest; that which guardeth my breast; >aet is Hrasdlan laf, it is the legacy of Hradla, Welandes ge-weorc.