Age of Fable or Beauties of Mythology

by Thomas Bulfinch

  Runic Letters.

  One cannot travel far in Denmark, Norway, or Sweden without meeting with great

  stones, of different forms, engraven with characters called Runic, which appear at first

  sight very different from all we know. The letters consist almost invariably of straight

  lines, in the shape of little sticks either singly or put together. Such sticks were in early

  times used by the northern nations for the purpose of ascertaining future events. The

  sticks were shaken up, and from the figures that they formed a kind of divination was

  derived.

  The Runic characters were of various kinds. They were chiefly used for magical

  purposes. The noxious, or, as they called them, the bitter runes, were employed to bring

  various evils on their enemies; the favorable averted misfortune. Some were medicinal,

  others employed to win love, &c. In later times they were frequently used for inscriptions,

  of which more than a thousand have been found. The language is a dialect of the

  Gothic, called Norse, still in use in Iceland. The inscriptions may therefore be read with

  certainty, but hitherto very few have been found which throw the least light on history.

  They are mostly epitaphs on tombstones.

  Gray's ode on the Descent of Odin contains an allusion to the use of Runic letters

  for incantation: -

  "Facing to the northern clime,

  Thrice he traced the Runic rhyme;

  Thrice pronounced, in accents dread,

  The thrilling verse that wakes the dead,

  Till from out the hollow ground

  Slowly breathed a sullen sound."

  The Skalds.

  The Skalds were the bards and poets of the nation, a very important class of men

  in all communities in an early stage of civilization. They are the depositaries of whatever

  historic lore there is, and it is their office to mingle something of intellectual gratification

  with the rude feasts of the warriors, by rehearsing, with such accompaniments of poetry

  and music as their skill can afford, the exploits of their heroes living or dead. The

  compositions of the Skalds were called Sagas, many of which have come down to us,

  and contain valuable materials of history, and a faithful picture of the state of society at

  the time to which they relate.

  Iceland.

  The Eddas and Sagas have come to us from Iceland. The following extract from

  Carlyle's Lectures on Heroes and Hero Worship gives an animated account of the region

  where the strange stories we have been reading had their origin. Let the reader contrast

  it for a moment with Greece, the parent of classical mythology.

  "In that strange island, Iceland, - burst up, the geologists say, by fire from the

  bottom of the sea, a wild land of barrenness and lava, swallowed many months of every

  year in black tempests, yet with a wild, gleaming beauty in summer time, towering up

  there stern and grim in the North Ocean, with its snow yokuls, [mountains,] roaring

  geysers, [boiling springs,] sulphur pools, and horrid volcanic chasms, like the waste,

  chaotic battle-field of Frost and Fire, - where, of all places, we least looked for literature

  or written memorials, - the record of these things was written down. On the seaboard of

  this wild land is a rim of grassy country, where cattle can subsist, and men by means of

  them and of what the sea yields; and it seems they were poetic men these, men who

  had deep thoughts in them and uttered musically their thoughts. Much would be lost had

  Iceland not been burst up from the sea, not been discovered by the Northmen!"

  Chapter XLI: The Druids - Iona

  Druids.

  The Druids were the priests or ministers of religion among the ancient Celtic

  nations in Gaul, Britain, and Germany. Our information respecting them is borrowed

  from notices in the Greek and Roman writers, compared with the remains of Welsh

  and Gaelic poetry still extant.

  The Druids combined the functions of the priest, the magistrate, the scholar, and

  the physician. They stood to the people of the Celtic tribes in a relation closely

  analogous to that in which the Brahmans of India, the Magi of Persia, and the priests

  of the Egyptians stood to the people respectively by whom they were revered.

  The Druids taught the existence of one god, to whom they gave a name "Be'al,"

  which Celtic antiquaries tell us means "the life of every thing," or "the source of all

  beings," and which seems to have affinity with the Phoenician Baal. What renders this

  affinity more striking is that the Druids as well as the Phoenicians identified this, their

  supreme deity, with the Sun. Fire was regarded as a symbol of the divinity. The Latin

  writers assert that the Druids also worshipped numerous inferior gods.

  They used no images to represent the object of their worship, nor did they meet

  in temples or buildings of any kind for the performance of their sacred rites. A circle of

  stones (each stone generally of vast size) enclosing an area of from twenty feet to

  thirty yards in diameter, constituted their sacred place. The most celebrated of these

  now remaining is Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, England.

  These sacred circles were generally situated near some stream, or under the

  shadow of a grove or wide-spreading oak. In the centre of the circle stood the

  Cromlech or altar, which was a large stone, placed in the manner of a table upon other

  stones set up on end. The Druids had also their high places, which were large stones

  or piles of stones on the summits of hills. These were called Cairns, and were used in

  the worship of the deity under the symbol of the sun.

  That the Druids offered sacrifices to their deity there can be no doubt. But there

  is some uncertainty as to what they offered, and of the ceremonies connected with

  their religious services we know almost nothing. The classical (Roman) writers affirm

  that they offered on great occasions human sacrifices; as for success in war or for

  relief from dangerous diseases. Caesar has given a detailed account of the manner in

  which this was done. "They have images of immense size, the limbs of which are

  framed with twisted twigs and filled with living persons. These being set on fire, those

  within are encompassed by the flames." Many attempts have been made by Celtic

  writers to shake the testimony of the Roman historians to this fact, but without

  success.

  The Druids observed two festivals in each year. The former took place in the

  beginning of May, and was called Beltane or "fire of God." On this occasion a large fire

  was kindled on some elevated spot, in honor of the sun, whose returning beneficence

  they thus welcomed after the gloom and desolation of winter. Of this custom a trace

  remains in the name given to Whitsunday in parts of Scotland to this day. Sir Walter

  Scott uses the word in the Boat Song in the Lady of the Lake: -

  "Ours is no sapling, chance sown by the fountain,

  Blooming at Beltane in winter to fade;" &c.

  The other great festival of the Druids was called "Samh'in," or "fire of peace," and

  was held on Hallow-even, (first of November,) which still retains this designation in the

  Highlands of Scotland. On this occasion the Druids assembled in solemn conclave, in

  the most central part of the district, to discharge the judicial functions of their order. All
<
br />   questions, whether public or private, all crimes against person or property, were at this

  time brought before them for adjudication. With these judicial acts were combined

  certain superstitious usages, especially the kindling of the sacred fire, from which all the

  fires in the district, which had been beforehand scrupulously extinguished, might be

  relighted. This usage of kindling fires on Hallow-eve lingered in the British islands long

  after the establishment of Christianity.

  Besides these two great annual festivals, the Druids were in the habit of

  observing the full moon, and especially the sixth day of the moon. On the latter they

  sought the Mistletoe, which grew on their favorite oaks, and to which, as well as to the

  oak itself, they ascribed a peculiar virtue and sacredness. The discovery of it was an

  occasion of rejoicing and solemn worship. "They call its," says Pliny, "by a word in their

  language which means 'heal-all,' and having made solemn preparation for feasting and

  sacrifice under the tree, they drive thither two milk-white bulls, whose horns are then for

  the first time bound. The priest then, robed in white, ascends the tree, and cuts off the

  mistletoe with a golden sickle. It is caught in a white mantle, after which they proceed to

  slay the victims, at the same time praying that God would render his gift prosperous to

  those to whom he had given it." They drink the water in which it has been infused, and

  think it a remedy for all diseases. The mistletoe is a parasitic plant, and is not always

  nor often found on the oak, so that when it is found it is the more precious.

  The Druids were the teachers of morality as well as of religion. Of their ethical

  teaching a valuable specimen is preserved in the Triads of the Welsh Bards, and from

  this we may gather that their views of moral rectitude were on the whole just, and that

  they held and inculcated many very noble and valuable principles of conduct. They were

  also the men of science and learning of their age and people. Whether they were

  acquainted with letters or not has been disputed, though the probability is strong that

  they were, to some extent. But it is certain that they committed nothing of their doctrine,

  their history, or their poetry to writing. Their teaching was oral, and their literature (if such

  a word may be used in such a case) was preserved solely by tradition. But the Roman

  writers admit that "they paid much attention to the order and laws of nature, and

  investigated and taught to the youth under their charge many things concerning the stars

  and their motions, the size of the world and the lands, and concerning the might and

  power of the immortal gods."

  Their history consisted in traditional tales, in which the heroic deeds of their

  forefathers were celebrated. These were apparently in verse, and thus constituted part

  of the poetry as well as the history of the Druids. In the poems of Ossian we have, if not

  the actual productions of Druidical times, what may be considered faithful

  representations of the songs of the Bards.

  The Bards were an essential part of the Druidical hierarchy. One author,

  Pennant, says, "The Bards were supposed to be endowed with powers equal to

  inspiration. They were the oral historians of all past transactions, public and private.

  They were also accomplished genealogists, &c."

  Pennant gives a minute account of the Eisteddfods or sessions of the Bards and

  minstrels, which were held in Wales for many centuries, long after the Druidical

  priesthood in its other departments became extinct. At these meetings none but Bards

  of merit were suffered to rehearse their pieces, and minstrels of skill to perform. Judges

  were appointed to decide on their respective abilities, and suitable degrees were

  conferred. In the earlier period the judges were appointed by the Welsh princes, and

  after the conquest of Wales, by commission from the kings of England. Yet the tradition

  is that Edward I. in revenge for the influence of the Bards, in animating the resistance of

  the people to his sway, persecuted them with great cruelty This tradition has furnished

  the poet Gray with the subject of his celebrated ode, the Bard.

  There are still occasional meetings of the lovers of Welsh poetry and music, held

  under the ancient name. Among Mrs. Hemans's poems is one written for an Eisteddfod,

  or meeting of Welsh Bards, held in London May 22, 1822. It begins with a description of

  the ancient meeting, of which the following lines are a part: -

  ". . . midst the eternal cliffs, whose strength defied

  The crested Roman in his hour of pride;

  And where the Druid's ancient cromlech frowned,

  And the oaks breathed mysterious murmurs round,

  There thronged the inspired of yore! on plain or height,

  In the sun's face, beneath the eye of light,

  And baring unto heaven each noble head,

  Stood in the circle, where none else might tread."

  The Druidical system was at its height at the time of the Roman invasion under

  Julius Caesar. Against the Druids, as their chief enemies, these conquerors of the world

  directed their unsparing fury. The Druids, harassed at all points on the main land,

  retreated to Anglesey and Iona, where for a season they found shelter and continued

  their now-dishonored rites.

  The Druids retained their predominance in Iona and over the adjacent islands

  and main land until they were supplanted and their superstitions overturned by the

  arrival of St. Columba, the apostle of the Highlands, by whom the inhabitants of that

  district were first led to profess Christianity.

  Iona.

  One of the smallest of the British Isles, situated near a rugged and barren coast,

  surrounded by dangerous seas, and possessing no sources of internal wealth, Iona has

  obtained an imperishable place in history as the seat of civilization and religion at a time

  when the darkness of heathenism hung over almost the whole of Northern Europe. Iona

  or Icolmkill is situated at the extremity of the island of Mull, from which it is separated by

  a strait of half a mile in breadth, its distance from the main land of Scotland being thirty-

  six miles.

  Columba was a native of Ireland, and connected by birth with the princes of the

  land. Ireland was at that time a land of gospel light, while the western and northern parts

  of Scotland were still immersed in the darkness of heathenism. Columba with twelve

  friends landed on the island of Iona in the year of our Lord 563, having made the

  passage in a wicker boat covered with hides. The Druids who occupied the island

  endeavored to prevent his settling there, and the savage nations on the adjoining shores

  incommoded him with their hostility, and on several occasions endangered his life by

  their attacks. Yet by his perseverance and zeal he surmounted all opposition, procured

  from the king a gift of the island, and established there a monastery of which he was the

  abbot. He was unwearied in his labors to disseminate a knowledge of the Scriptures

  throughout the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and such was the reverence paid him

  that though not a bishop, but merely a presbyter and monk, the entire province with its

  bishops was subject to him and his successors. The Pictish monarch was so impressed

  with a sense of his wis
dom and worth that he held him in the highest honor, and the

  neighboring chiefs and princes sought his counsel and availed themselves of his

  judgment in settling their disputes.

  When Columba landed on Iona he was attended by twelve followers whom he

  had formed into a religious body of which he was the head. To these, as occasion

  required, others were from time to time added, so that the original number was always

  kept up. Their institution was called a monastery and the superior an abbot, but the

  system had little in common with the monastic institutions of later times. The name by

  which those who submitted to the rule were known was that of Culdees, probably from

  the Latin "cultores Dei" - worshippers of God. They were a body of religious persons

  associated together for the purpose of aiding each other in the common work of

  preaching the gospel and teaching youth, as well as maintaining in themselves the fervor

  of devotion by united exercises of worship. On entering the order certain vows were

  taken by the members, but they were not those which were usually imposed by monastic

  orders, for of these, which are three, celibacy, poverty, and obedience, the Culdees were

  bound to none except the third. To poverty they did not bind themselves; on the contrary

  they seem to have labored diligently to procure for them selves and those dependent on

  them the comforts of life. Marriage also was allowed them, and most of them seem to

  have entered into that state. True their wives were not permitted to reside with them at

  the institution, but they had a residence assigned to them in an adjacent locality. Near

  Iona there is an island which still bears the name of "Eilen nam ban," women's island,

  where their husbands seem to have resided with them, except when duty required their

  presence in the school or the sanctuary.

  Campbell, in his poem of Reullura, alludes to the married monks of Iona: -