The Pirate
the [supposed] residence of Norna of the Fitful-head."--Thus one of the
very improbable fictions of the tale is verified by a singular
coincidence.
Note V., p. 197.--CHARACTER OF NORNA.
The character of Norna is meant to be an instance of that singular kind
of insanity, during which the patient, while she or he retains much
subtlety and address for the power of imposing upon others, is still
more ingenious in endeavouring to impose upon themselves. Indeed,
maniacs of this kind may be often observed to possess a sort of double
character, in one of which they are the being whom their distempered
imagination shapes out, and in the other, their own natural self, as
seen to exist by other people. This species of double consciousness
makes wild work with the patient's imagination, and, judiciously used,
is perhaps a frequent means of restoring sanity of intellect. Exterior
circumstances striking the senses, often have a powerful effect in
undermining or battering the airy castles which the disorder has
excited.
A late medical gentleman, my particular friend, told me the case of a
lunatic patient confined in the Edinburgh Infirmary. He was so far happy
that his mental alienation was of a gay and pleasant character, giving a
kind of joyous explanation to all that came in contact with him. He
considered the large house, numerous servants, &c., of the hospital, as
all matters of state and consequence belonging to his own personal
establishment, and had no doubt of his own wealth and grandeur. One
thing alone puzzled this man of wealth. Although he was provided with a
first-rate cook and proper assistants, although his table was regularly
supplied with every delicacy of the season, yet he confessed to my
friend, that by some uncommon depravity of the palate, every thing which
he ate _tasted of porridge_. This peculiarity, of course, arose from the
poor man being fed upon nothing else, and because his stomach was not so
easily deceived as his other senses.
Note VI., p. 199.--BIRDS OF PREY.
So favourable a retreat does the island of Hoy afford for birds of prey,
that instances of their ravages, which seldom occur in other parts of
the country, are not unusual there. An individual was living in Orkney
not long since, whom, while a child in its swaddling clothes, an eagle
actually transported to its nest in the hill of Hoy. Happily the eyry
being known, and the bird instantly pursued, the child was found
uninjured, playing with the young eagles. A story of a more ludicrous
transportation was told me by the reverend clergyman who is minister of
the island. Hearing one day a strange grunting, he suspected his
servants had permitted a sow and pigs, which were tenants of his
farm-yard, to get among his barley crop. Having in vain looked for the
transgressors upon solid earth, he at length cast his eyes upward, when
he discovered one of the litter in the talons of a large eagle, which
was soaring away with the unfortunate pig (squeaking all the while with
terror) towards her nest in the crest of Hoy.
Note VII., p. 280.--THE STANDING STONES OF STENNIS.
The Standing Stones of Stennis, as by a little pleonasm this remarkable
monument is termed, furnishes an irresistible refutation of the opinion
of such antiquaries as hold that the circles usually called Druidical,
were peculiar to that race of priests. There is every reason to believe,
that the custom was as prevalent in Scandinavia as in Gaul or Britain,
and as common to the mythology of Odin as to Druidical superstition.
There is even reason to think, that the Druids never occupied any part
of the Orkneys, and tradition, as well as history, ascribes the Stones
of Stennis to the Scandinavians. Two large sheets of water,
communicating with the sea, are connected by a causeway, with openings
permitting the tide to rise and recede, which is called the Bridge of
Broisgar. Upon the eastern tongue of land appear the Standing Stones,
arranged in the form of a half circle, or rather a horse-shoe, the
height of the pillars being fifteen feet and upwards. Within this circle
lies a stone, probably sacrificial. One of the pillars, a little to the
westward, is perforated with a circular hole, through which loving
couples are wont to join hands when they take the _Promise of Odin_, as
has been repeatedly mentioned in the text. The enclosure is surrounded
by barrows, and on the opposite isthmus, advancing towards the Bridge of
Broisgar, there is another monument, of Standing Stones, which, in this
case, is completely circular. They are less in size than those on the
eastern side of the lake, their height running only from ten or twelve
to fourteen feet. This western circle is surrounded by a deep trench
drawn on the outside of the pillars; and I remarked four tumuli, or
mounds of earth, regularly disposed around it. Stonehenge excels this
Orcadian monument; but that of Stennis is, I conceive, the only one in
Britain which can be said to approach it in consequence. All the
northern nations marked by those huge enclosures the places of popular
meeting, either for religious worship or the transaction of public
business of a temporal nature. The _Northern Popular Antiquities_
contain, in an abstract of the Eyrbiggia Saga, a particular account of
the manner in which the Helga Fels, or Holy Rock, was set apart by the
Pontiff Thorolf for solemn occasions.
I need only add, that, different from the monument on Salisbury Plain,
the stones which were used in the Orcadian circle seem to have been
raised from a quarry upon the spot, of which the marks are visible.
FOOTNOTES:
[42] We may suppose the beads to have been of the potent adderstone, to
which so many virtues were ascribed.
[43] Like those anciently borne by porters at the gates of distinguished
persons, as a badge of office.
[44] See the Eyrbiggia Saga.
[45] See Torfæi Orcadus, p. 131.
EDITOR'S NOTES.
(_a_) p. 17. Norna's soothsaying. The passage quoted by Scott from the
Saga of Eric the Red may be read in its context in "Vinland the Good,"
edited by Mr. Reeves, and published by the Clarendon Press. Eric was the
discoverer of Greenland, and father of Leif the Lucky, who found Vinland
(New England, or Nova Scotia?) about the year 1002. Leif has a statue in
Boston, Massachusetts.
(_b_) p. 35. Islands "supposed to be haunted." In De Quincey's
autobiographical essay his sailor brother, Pink, describes the terrors
of those isles. One of them, the noise of a Midnight Axe, is also found
in Ceylon, in Mexico, and elsewhere. The Editor may be permitted to
refer to the legends collected in his "Custom and Myth."
(_c_) p. 47. Cleveland's song. Lockhart says that Scott, in his later
years, heard this song sung, and said, "'Capital words! Whose are they?
Byron's, I suppose, but I don't remember them.' He was astonished when I
told him that they were his own in 'The Pirate.' He seemed pleased at
the moment, but said next minute, 'You have distressed me--if memory
goes all is up with me, for that was always my strong point.'" This was
in 1828. Mrs. Arkwright was the daughter of Stephen Kemble. She set
"Hohenlinden."
(_d_) p. 86. "Auld Robin Gray." In the Abbotsford MSS. is a long
correspondence between Lady Ann Lindsay and Scott. She had known him as
a child. There was a project of editing all her poems, but perhaps her
own modesty, perhaps the quality of the work, caused this to be dropped,
and Scott only edited the ballad, with a letter of the lady's. This
small quarto sells for some £5 when it comes into the market. It has a
frontispiece by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, and is apparently the only
book of Scott's which is valued as a rarity by bibliomaniacs.
(_e_) p. 255. "John was a Jacobite." In the library of a country house in
the south of England is a copy of Dryden's Miscellany Poems, with a
laudatory autograph envoy to Judge Jeffreys, a sufficiently
thoroughgoing King's man.
ANDREW LANG.
_August 1893._
GLOSSARY.
A', all.
Aboon, above.
Ae, one.
Ain, own.
Aits, oats.
Anes, once.
A'thegither, altogether.
Aught, owned.
Auld, old.
Awa, away.
Bailie, a magistrate.
Baittle, denoting that sort of pasture where the grass is short,
close, and rich.
Bang, a blow.
Bear, a kind of barley.
Bee--"to have a bee in one's bonnet," to be harebrained.
Bern, bairn, a child.
Bicker, a wooden dish.
Bide, to await, to endure.
Biggin, a building.
Bilboes, irons.
Bismar, a small steelyard.
Bland, a drink made from butter-milk.
Blithe, glad.
Blude, blood.
Bodle, a small coin equal to one sixth of a penny sterling.
Bole, a small aperture.
Bonny-die, a toy, a trinket.
Boobie, a dunce.
Bowie, a wooden dish for milk.
Brae, a hill.
Braw, fine, pretty.
Buckie, a whilk.
Bumming, making a humming noise.
Ca', to call.
Canny, good, worthy; safe.
Cannily, gently.
Capa, a Spanish mantle.
Caper, a Dutch privateer of the seventeenth century.
Carle, a churl; also, a farm servant.
Carline, a witch.
Cart-avers, cart-horses.
Chapman, a small merchant or pedlar.
"Clashes and clavers," scandal and nonsense.
Clink, to drop.
Cowp, to upset.
Craig, the neck; also, a rock.
Cummer, a gossip.
Daft, crazy.
"Deaf nuts," nuts whose kernels are decayed.
Deil, the devil.
Dibble, to plant.
Dinna, do not.
"Dinna, downa, bide," cannot bear.
Divot, thin turf used for roofing cottages.
Douce, sedate, modest.
Dowie, dark, melancholy.
"Dowse the glim," put out the light.
Dree, to endure.
Duds, clothes.
Dulse, a species of sea-weed.
Dune, done.
Dung, knocked.
Dunt, to knock.
Een, eyes.
Eneugh, enough.
Eviting, avoiding.
Fash, fashery, trouble.
Fear'd, afraid.
Feck, the greatest part.
Ferly, wonderful.
"Fey folk," fated or unfortunate folk.
"Floatsome and jetsome," articles floated or cast away on the sea.
Forby, besides.
Forgie, to forgive.
Fowd, the chief judge or magistrate.
Frae, from.
Fule, a fool.
"Funking and flinging," the act of dancing.
Gae, go.
Galdragon, a sorceress.
Gane, gone.
Gate, way, direction.
Gar, to oblige, to force.
Gear, property.
Ghaist, a ghost.
Gob-box, the mouth.
Gowd, gold.
Gowk, a fool.
Gude, God, good.
Gue, a two-stringed violin.
Guide, to take care of.
Haaf, deep-sea fishing.
Hae, have.
Haena, have not.
Haill, whole.
Hank, to fasten.
Hellicat, lightheaded, extravagant, wicked.
Hialtland, the old name for Shetland.
Hirple, to halt, to limp.
Howf, a haunt, a haven.
Hurley-house, a term applied to a large house that is so much in
disrepair as to be nearly in a ruinous state.
"Infang and outfang thief," the right of trying thieves.
Jagger, a pedlar.
Jarto, my dear.
Jokul, yes, sir.
Joul, Yule.
Kailyard, a cabbage garden.
Kempies, Norse champions.
Ken, to know.
Kend, well-known.
Kenna, know not.
Kist, a chest.
Kittle, difficult, ticklish.
Lampits, limpets.
Landlouper, a vagabond.
Lave, the rest.
Leddy, a lady.
Lispund, the fifteenth part of a barrel, a weight in Orkney and
Shetland.
List, to wish, to choose.
Lowe, a flame.
Lug, the ear.
Main, to moan.
Mair, more.
Malapert, impertinent.
Mallard, the wild-duck.
Marooned, abandoned on a desert island.
Masking-fat, a mashing vat.
Maun, must.
Mearns, Kincardineshire.
Meed, reward.