by Walter Scott
Note IV., p. 143.--ANTIQUE COINS FOUND IN ZETLAND.
While these sheets were passing through the press, I received a letterfrom an honourable and learned friend, containing the following passage,relating to a discovery in Zetland:--"Within a few weeks, the workmentaking up the foundation of an old wall, came on a hearth-stone, underwhich they found a horn, surrounded with massive silver rings, likebracelets, and filled with coins of the Heptarchy, in perfectpreservation. The place of finding is within a very short distance ofthe [supposed] residence of Norna of the Fitful-head."--Thus one of thevery improbable fictions of the tale is verified by a singularcoincidence.
Note V., p. 197.--CHARACTER OF NORNA.
The character of Norna is meant to be an instance of that singular kindof insanity, during which the patient, while she or he retains muchsubtlety and address for the power of imposing upon others, is stillmore ingenious in endeavouring to impose upon themselves. Indeed,maniacs of this kind may be often observed to possess a sort of doublecharacter, in one of which they are the being whom their distemperedimagination shapes out, and in the other, their own natural self, asseen to exist by other people. This species of double consciousnessmakes wild work with the patient's imagination, and, judiciously used,is perhaps a frequent means of restoring sanity of intellect. Exteriorcircumstances striking the senses, often have a powerful effect inundermining or battering the airy castles which the disorder hasexcited.
A late medical gentleman, my particular friend, told me the case of alunatic patient confined in the Edinburgh Infirmary. He was so far happythat his mental alienation was of a gay and pleasant character, giving akind of joyous explanation to all that came in contact with him. Heconsidered the large house, numerous servants, &c., of the hospital, asall matters of state and consequence belonging to his own personalestablishment, and had no doubt of his own wealth and grandeur. Onething alone puzzled this man of wealth. Although he was provided with afirst-rate cook and proper assistants, although his table was regularlysupplied with every delicacy of the season, yet he confessed to myfriend, that by some uncommon depravity of the palate, every thing whichhe ate _tasted of porridge_. This peculiarity, of course, arose from thepoor man being fed upon nothing else, and because his stomach was not soeasily 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 ofthe country, are not unusual there. An individual was living in Orkneynot long since, whom, while a child in its swaddling clothes, an eagleactually transported to its nest in the hill of Hoy. Happily the eyrybeing known, and the bird instantly pursued, the child was founduninjured, playing with the young eagles. A story of a more ludicroustransportation was told me by the reverend clergyman who is minister ofthe island. Hearing one day a strange grunting, he suspected hisservants had permitted a sow and pigs, which were tenants of hisfarm-yard, to get among his barley crop. Having in vain looked for thetransgressors upon solid earth, he at length cast his eyes upward, whenhe discovered one of the litter in the talons of a large eagle, whichwas soaring away with the unfortunate pig (squeaking all the while withterror) 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 remarkablemonument is termed, furnishes an irresistible refutation of the opinionof 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 partof the Orkneys, and tradition, as well as history, ascribes the Stonesof Stennis to the Scandinavians. Two large sheets of water,communicating with the sea, are connected by a causeway, with openingspermitting the tide to rise and recede, which is called the Bridge ofBroisgar. Upon the eastern tongue of land appear the Standing Stones,arranged in the form of a half circle, or rather a horse-shoe, theheight of the pillars being fifteen feet and upwards. Within this circlelies a stone, probably sacrificial. One of the pillars, a little to thewestward, is perforated with a circular hole, through which lovingcouples are wont to join hands when they take the _Promise of Odin_, ashas been repeatedly mentioned in the text. The enclosure is surroundedby barrows, and on the opposite isthmus, advancing towards the Bridge ofBroisgar, there is another monument, of Standing Stones, which, in thiscase, is completely circular. They are less in size than those on theeastern side of the lake, their height running only from ten or twelveto fourteen feet. This western circle is surrounded by a deep trenchdrawn on the outside of the pillars; and I remarked four tumuli, ormounds of earth, regularly disposed around it. Stonehenge excels thisOrcadian monument; but that of Stennis is, I conceive, the only one inBritain which can be said to approach it in consequence. All thenorthern nations marked by those huge enclosures the places of popularmeeting, either for religious worship or the transaction of publicbusiness of a temporal nature. The _Northern Popular Antiquities_contain, in an abstract of the Eyrbiggia Saga, a particular account ofthe manner in which the Helga Fels, or Holy Rock, was set apart by thePontiff 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 beenraised 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, towhich so many virtues were ascribed.
[43] Like those anciently borne by porters at the gates of distinguishedpersons, as a badge of office.
[44] See the Eyrbiggia Saga.
[45] See Torfaei Orcadus, p. 131.