On Some Ancient Battle-Fields In Lancashire Part 5

They seemed a boar's form To bear over their cheeks; Twisted with gold, Variegated and hardened in the fire; This kept the guard of life.

At the pile was Easy to be seen The mail s.h.i.+rt covered with gore, The hog of gold, The boar hard as iron.

In the episode relating the events attendant on the battle of Finsburgh, in the same poem, we find similar importance attached to the boar, as the warrior's protector. We read--

Of the martial Scyldings, The best of warriors, On the pile was ready; At the heap was Easy to be seen The blood-stained tunic, The swine all golden, The boar iron-hard, etc.

In the "Life of Merlin," Arthur and his kinsman, Hoel, are described as "two lions," and "two moons." In the same poem, Hoel is styled the "Armorican boar."

In the Welsh poem, "The G.o.dodin," by Aneurin, are several allusions to the boar and the bull, as warlike appellations:--

It was like the tearing onset of the woodland boar; Bull of the army in the mangling fight.

The furze was kindled by the ardent spirit, the bull of conflict.

And those s.h.i.+elds were s.h.i.+vered before the herd of the roaring Beli.[28]

The boar proposed a compact in front of the course--the great plotter.

Adan, the son of Ervai, there did pierce, Adan pierced the haughty boar.

Mr. F. Metcalfe, in his "Englishman and Scandinavian," says--"Indeed this porcine device was common to all the Northern nations who wors.h.i.+pped Freya and Freyr. The helmet of the Norwegian king, Ali, was called Hildigolltr, the boar of war, and was prized beyond measure by his victors (Prose Edda, I., 394). But long before that Tacitus (Germ., 45) had recorded that the Esthonians, east of the Baltic, wore swine-shaped amulets, as a symbol of the mother of the G.o.ds.

Tacitus adds--"This" (the wild-boar symbol) "serves instead of weapons or any other defence, and gives safety to the servant of the G.o.ddess, even in the midst of the foe."

This connection of the boar with the religious ceremonies and warlike exploits of our pagan ancestors is often referred to in the Edda. The valiant Norseman believed that when he entered Walhalla he should join the combats of the warriors each morning, and hack and hew away as in earthly conflict, till the slain for the day had been "chosen," and mealtime arrived, when the vanquished and victorious returned together to feast on the "everlasting boar" (shrimnir), and carouse on mead and ale with the aesir. The boar's head, which figured so conspicuously in the Christmas festivities of our ancestors, is evidently a relic, like the mistletoe and the yule-log, of pagan times.

There is nothing, therefore, improbable in the proposition that the standard, totem, or helmet-crest of some devastating Teutonic chieftain like Penda, the ferocious pagan conqueror of Oswald, may have been of this porcine character. The Christian adherents of the Northumbrian king and saint would very easily confound him and the devastation attendant upon his victorious march through their country, with the dethroned and abhorred pagan deity whose emblem formed his crest or "totem," as well as with the older wild boar storm-fiend, or "the monster who prowled over the neighbourhood, inflicting injury on man and beast," and for the subdual of which the sanct.i.ty of the edifice of the saintly monarch was alone effectual. In the prophecy attributed to Merlin, King Arthur is described as the wild boar of Cornwall, that would "devour" his enemies.

The mingling of ancient superst.i.tious fears with the more modern Christianity, especially with reference to such matters as charms, prophylactics, etc., is of very common occurrence even at the present day. Sir John Lubbock, in his "Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man," says--"When man, either by natural progress or the influence of a more advanced race, rises to a conception of a higher religion, he still retains his old beliefs, which linger on side by side with, and yet in utter opposition to, the higher creed. The new and more powerful spirit is an addition to the old pantheon, and diminishes the importance of the older deities; gradually the wors.h.i.+p of the latter sinks in the social scale, and becomes confined to the ignorant and young. Thus a belief in witchcraft still flourishes amongst our agricultural labourers and the lowest cla.s.s in our great cities, and the deities of our ancestors survive in the nursery tales of our children.

We must, therefore, expect to find in each race traces--nay, more than traces--of lower religions."

Some parties regard the Winwick sculpture as "St. Anthony's pig," but they acknowledge they know of no connection of that saint with the parish. But, as I have shown in the previous chapter, "the deeds of one mythical hero are sure, when he is forgotten, to be attributed to some other man of mark, who for the time being fills the popular fancy."

Keightley, in his "Fairy Mythology," says--"Every extraordinary appearance is found to have its extraordinary cause a.s.signed, a cause always connected with the _history_ or _religion, ancient or modern_, of the country, and not unfrequently _varying with the change of faith_.

The mark on Adam's Peak, in Ceylon, is by the Buddhists ascribed to Buddha; by the Mohammedans to Adam."

Mr. Mackenzie Wallace, in his "Russia," speaking of the Finns and their Russian neighbours, says--"The friendly contact of two such races naturally led to a curious blending of the two religions. The Russians adopted many customs from the Finns, and the Finns adopted still more from the Russians. When Yumala and the other Finnish deities did not do as they were desired, their wors.h.i.+ppers naturally applied for protection or a.s.sistance to the Madonna and the 'Russian G.o.d.' If their own traditional magic rites did not suffice to ward off evil influences, they naturally tried the effect of crossing themselves as the Russians do in moments of danger." In another place he says--"At the harvest festivals, Tchuvash peasants have been known to pray first to their own deities and then to St. Nicholas, the miracle-worker, who is the favourite saint of the Russian peasantry. This dual wors.h.i.+p is sometimes recommended by the Yornzi--a cla.s.s of men who correspond to the medicine men among the Red Indians." He truly observes--"popular imagination always uses heroic names as pegs on which to hang traditions."

Bishop Percy, in the preface to his translation of "Mallet's Northern Antiquities," says--"Nothing is more contagious than superst.i.tion, and therefore we must not wonder if, in ages of ignorance, one wild people catch up from another, though of very different race, the most arbitrary and groundless opinions, or endeavour to imitate them in such rites and practices as they are told will recommend them to the G.o.ds, or avert their anger."

Jacob Grimm says (Deutsche Mythologie)--"A people whose faith is falling to pieces will save here and there a fragment of it, by fixing it on a new and unpersecuted object of veneration."

It appears, therefore, that the Winwick monster, in this respect, is but an apt ill.u.s.tration of ordinary mythological transference of attributes or emblems, which in no way invalidates the more remote origin to which I have ascribed it, or its connection with the totem or beast symbol of the heathen warrior. The boar, indeed, has been a sacred symbol for ages amongst the Aryan nations. Herodotus (b. 3, c. 59) says that the Eginetae, after defeating the Samians in a sea-fight, "cut off the prows of their boats, which represented the figure of a boar, and dedicated them in the temple of Minerva, in Egina."

The Rev. Sir G. W. c.o.x, in his "Introduction to Mythology and Folk-Lore," referring to the Greek war G.o.d Ares, says--"In the Odyssey his name is connected with Aphrodite, whose love he is said to have obtained; but other traditions tell us that when she seemed to favour Adonis, Ares changed himself into a boar, which slew the youth of whom he was jealous."

The Mussulman's abhorrence of roast pork is well known. Amongst the Turkomans of Central Asia (the ancient home of our Aryan ancestors) the prowess of the living animal is likewise regarded with a strange superst.i.tious dread, evidently akin to some more ancient belief in the supernatural attributes of the animal. Arminius Vambery, in his "Travels in Central Asia" (having narrowly escaped serious injury from a wild porcine a.s.sailant), informs us he was seriously a.s.sured by a Turkoman friend that he might regard himself as very lucky, inasmuch as "death by the wound of a wild boar would send even the most pious Mussulman nedgis (unclean) into the next world, where a hundred years' burning in purgatorial fire would not purge away his uncleanness."

Since the above was written I have perceived a pa.s.sage in Mr. Fiske's essay on "Werewolves," in his "Myths and Myth-makers," that seems not only to strengthen the conjecture that the boar was the crest or "totem"

of the pagan Penda, but likewise the probability of the influence of the older mythical story with which I have a.s.sociated it. The boar, it must be remembered, in all the Indo-European mythologies, is a.s.sociated with stormy wind and lightning. Mr. Fiske, referring to what he terms one of the "more striking characteristics of primitive thinking," namely, "the close community of nature which it a.s.sumes between man and brute,"

says--"The doctrine of metempsychosis, which is found in some shape or other all over the world, implies a fundamental ident.i.ty between the two: the Hindu is taught to respect the flocks browsing in the meadow, and will on no account lift his hand against a cow, for who knows but that it may be his own grandmother? The recent researches of Mr. Lennan and Mr. Herbert Spencer have served to connect this feeling with the primeval wors.h.i.+p of ancestors and with the savage customs of totemism.... This kind of wors.h.i.+p still maintains a languid existence as the state religion of China, and it still exists as a portion of Brahmanism; but in the Vedic religion it is to be seen in all its native simplicity. According to the ancient Aryan, the Pitris, or 'Fathers'

(Lat. _Patres_) live in the sky along with Yama, the great original Pitri of mankind.... Now if the storm-wind is a host of Pitris, or one great Pitri, who appeared as a fearful giant, and is also a pack of wolves or wish-hounds, or a single savage dog or wolf, the inference is obvious to the mythopic mind that men may become wolves, at least after death. And to the uncivilised thinker this inference is strengthened, as Mr. Spencer has shown by evidence registered on his own tribal 'totem'

or heraldic emblem. The bears and lions and leopards of heraldry are the degenerate descendants of the 'totem' of savagery which designated a tribe by a beast symbol. To the untutored mind there is everything in a name; and the descendant of Brown Bear, or Yellow Tiger, or Silver Hyaena, cannot be p.r.o.nounced unfaithful to his own style of philosophising if he regards _his ancestors, who career about his hut in the darkness of the night_, as belonging to whatever order of beasts his 'totem' a.s.sociations may suggest."

In the Volsung tale of the Northern mythology the "G.o.ds of the bright heaven" had to make atonement to the sons of Reidmar, whose brother they had slain. This brother was named "the otter."

Modern surnames have been derived from very varied sources, including trades, locations, and individual characteristics. Many, identical with birds, beasts, and fishes, may have originally been what are vulgarly termed "nicknames," or they may be corrupt modern renderings of very different ancient words, such as Haddock, from Haydock, a towns.h.i.+p in Lancas.h.i.+re; Winter, from vintner; and Sumner from summoner, &c.

Nevertheless, the old tribal "totem" or heraldic device of a feudal superior may have given rise to some of the following: Wolf, Lyon, Hog, Bull, Bullock, Buck, Hart, Fox, Lamb, Hare, Poynter, Badger, Beaver, Griffin, Raven, Hawk, Eagle, Stork, Crane, Woodc.o.c.k, Gull, Nightingale, c.o.c.k, c.o.c.kerell, Bantam, Crow, Dove, Pigeon, Lark, Swallow, Martin, Wren, Teal, Finch, Jay, Sparrow, Partridge, Peac.o.c.k, Goose, Gosling, Bird, Fish, Salmon, Sturgeon, Gudgeon, Herring, Roach, Pike, Sprat, &c.

Some flowers and plants may likewise have formed badges or tribal or family symbols or "quarterings," and thus given rise to surnames. We have several of this cla.s.s, such as Plantagenet (the broom), Rose, Lily, Primrose, Heath, Broome, Hollyoak, Pine, Thorne, Hawthorne, Hawes, Hyacinth, Crabbe, Crabtree, Crabstick, &c. The leek, the Welshman's "totem," is not an uncommon name, though generally spelled Leak. I never, however, heard of such names as Shamrock or Thistle. On the other hand, many families have reversed the process and adopted a symbol or crest from a real or fancied similarity of their names and those of the selected objects. The figure of a dog is borne on the arms of the Talbot family, whence, perhaps, the name. The talbot is a dog noted for his quick scent and eager pursuit of game.

Jacob Grimm ("Deutsche Mythologie,") says:--"Even in the middle ages, Landscado (scather of the land) was a name borne by n.o.ble families." He further says:--"Swans, ravens, wolves, stags, bears, and lions, will join the heroes, to render them a.s.sistance; and that is how animal figures in the scutcheons and helmet insignia of heroes are in many cases to be accounted for, though they may arise from other causes too, _e.g._, the ability of certain heroes to transform themselves at will into wolf or swan."

Mr. Charles Elton ("Origins of English History,") says--"The names of several tribes, or the legends of their origin, show that an animal, or some other real or imaginary object, was chosen as a crest or emblem, and was probably regarded with a superst.i.tious veneration. A powerful family or tribe would feign to be descended from a swan or a water-maiden, or a 'white lady,' who rose from the moon-beams on the lake. The moon herself was claimed as the ancestress of certain families. The legendary heroes are turned into 'swan-knights,' or fly away in the form of wild-geese. The tribe of the 'Ui Duinn,' who claimed St. Bridgit as their kinswoman, wore for their crest the figure of a lizard, which appeared at the foot of the oak-tree above her shrine. We hear of 'griffins' by the Shannon, of 'calves' in the country around Belfast; the men of Ossory were called by a name which signifies the wild red-deer! There are similar instances from Scotland in such names as 'Clan Chattan,' or the Wild Cats, and in the animal crests which have been borne from the most ancient times as the emblems or cognizances of the chieftains. The early Welsh poems will furnish another set of examples. The tribes who fought at Catraeth are distinguished by the bard as wolves, bears, or ravens; the families which claim descent from Caradock or Oswain take the boar or the raven for their crest. The followers of 'Cian the Dog' are called the 'dogs of war,' and the chieftain's house is described as the stone or castle of 'the white dogs.'"

The writer, in the Pen. Cyclop., of the memoir of Owen Glendwr, says--"It was at this juncture that Glendwr revived the ancient prophecy that Henry IV. should fall under the name of 'Moldwary,' or 'the cursed of G.o.d's mouth'; and styling himself 'the Dragon,' a.s.sumed a badge representing that monster with a star above, in imitation of Uther, whose victories over the Saxons were foretold by the appearance of a star with a dagger threatening beneath. Percy was denoted 'the Lion,'

from the crest of his family; and on Sir Edward Mortimer they bestowed the t.i.tle of 'the Wolf.'"

Hugh of Avranche, Earl of Chester, was called Hugh Lupus, from his cognizance or favourite device of a wolf's head.

Shakspere has preserved to us at least two noteworthy instances in which the "totem" or beast symbol of our savage ancestors survived, with its original significance, until the period of the "Wars of the Roses." In the Second Part of "King Henry VI." (Act 5, Scene 1), _Warwick_ exclaims:--

Now, by my father's badge, old Nevil's crest, The rampant bear chain'd to the ragged staff, This day I'll wear aloft my burgonet (As on a mountain top the cedar shows, That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm), Even to affright thee with the view thereof.

To which boast _Clifford_ replies:--

And from thy burgonet I'll rend thy bear, And tread it underfoot with all contempt, Despite the bearward that protects the bear.

_Warwick_, in the following scene, amidst the carnage of battle, shouts:--

Clifford of c.u.mberland, 'tis Warwick calls!

And if thou dost not hide thee from the bear, Now--when the angry trumpet sounds alarm, And _dead men's cries do fill the empty air_-- Clifford, I say, come forth and fight with me!

The expression "_dead_ men's cries do fill the empty air," I have hitherto regarded, as doubtless most other readers of Shakspere have done, as either a misprint or an obsolete form of expression, meaning, in the more modern English, "_dying_ men's cries do fill the empty air."

Taken in connection, however, with the continual reference of Warwick to the "rampant bear" as his ancestral "totem" or beast symbol, I am inclined to think it is not improbable that Shakspere, who has made use of such an enormous number of other superst.i.tious fancies as poetic images, as well as ill.u.s.trations of character, may have had in his mind the old belief that the souls of ancestors, "Pitris," or "Fathers,"

careered and howled amongst the storm-winds in the form indicated by their beast symbol or tribal "totem." Poetically, the thought is singularly appropriate to the storm and strife of the battlefield, and especially to the frenzied agony engendered by the horrors too often attendant upon "_domestic_ fury and fierce _civil_ strife." Referring to, and quoting from, the "Exodus," a poem of the Cdman school, Mr.

Green ("The Making of England") says--"The wolves sang their dread evensong; the fowls of war, greedy of battle, dewy feathered, screamed around the host of Pharaoh, as wolf howled and eagle screamed round the host of Penda." Shakspere places in the mouth of _Calphurnia_, when recounting the prodigies which preceded Caesar's a.s.sa.s.sination, the following remarkable words:--

The graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead: Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds In ranks and squadrons and right form of war, Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol; The noise of battle hurtled in the air, Horses did neigh and dying men did groan, And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.