362
NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. ix. MAY 9,
well what the lost parts were, it may be a
question whether complete restoration is
not the better plan. On the whole, how-
ever, it was thought wiser to leave this old
glass in its fragmentary state.
The work of leading-up these two panels as so arranged having been most satis- factorily done by Messrs. John Hall & Sons of St. Pancras Road, N.W., they have been placed, with short explanatory inscrip- tions below them, in a window at the west end of All Saints' Church, Maldon, close by the Plume building where they were found.
The thanks of all students of history and lovers of old glass are due to the Vicar and Churchwardens of All Saints', Maldon, for their ready help in the work of saving these bits of Tudor heraldry, and for giving them a home in their church, where they will not only be preserved, but be accessible at all times to those who care to see them.
It would, by the way, be interesting to have a list of known examples in painted glass of the arms of Henry VIII. impaled with those of any of his wives. Such impaled shields are, I believe, rare, although the wives' badges within chap lets bearing roses and entwined initials are not un- common.
With regard to Jane Seymour in particu- lar, it is not likely, having regard to the shortness of her married life, that many shields of her arms were painted on glass. F. SYDNEY EDEN.
Maycroft, Fyfield Road, Walthamstow, Essex.
SCHUTTE'S LAW AND ' WIDSITH.'
THE English student is indebted to the diligent industry of Mr. R. W. Chambers for a knowledge of Dr. Gudmund Schiitte's law of initial and terminal stress in lists of heroic names. This law is discussed in Mr. Chambers's Appendix to his ' Widsith,' M., pp. 255-6. The law operates as follows : the first name in a list of heroes which is marshalled in obedience to the law is the name of " greatest general importance " ; the last name in such a list is that of " most special interest." Mr. Chambers quotes Dr. Axel Olrik, who emphasizes the value of this law as a test in cases which have hitherto perplexed the student, and predicts that Schiitte's Law will prove to be as efficient in folk-lore analysis as Verner's in phonetics (Folk-Lore, xix. 353, 1908).
But this idea was first mooted by Dr. Schiitte in his ' Oldsagnom Godtjod, med Saerligt Henblik pa Folkestamsagn,' a work
that I am not able to read, in 1907. Conse-
quently it is quite new, and as Mr. Chambers
has assured us (v. p. viii) that " the more the
literature of the subject is studied the less
room does there seem to be for new views,"
we must admit that we have been fore-
warned that we shall find that Dr. Schiitte's
new views would be combated by Mr.
Chambers. He says in fact, on p. 256, that
he doubts
" whether in' Widsith' any such law is consciously operating. It is claimed that the Catalogue of Kings begins with Attila and ends with Offa (Olrik, u.s., p. 353). But is Attila rather than Ermanaric the king of greatest general import- ance ? And the list does not end with Offa. . . . it ends with Alewih. The list of Gothic cham- pions begins with Hethca, otherwise unknown- It ends with Wudga and Hama, who certainly seem to be of most special interest to the poet."
This is characteristic of the attitude of commentators towards * Widsith.' It mis- handles the matter. The Old-English poet gives us two lists of kings and warriors, and consequently he provides four points upon which Dr. Schiitte's discovery, if it be a real one, should operate. Mr. Chambers is only able to recognize contact with the new idea at one point.
Now the first name in the Catalogue of Kings is neither Eormenric nor Attila. It is; Wala, the identity of which commentators have concealed from themselves by imposing an initial aspirate and turning it into " Hwala." Hwala was one of Woden' s- ancestors, and nothing whatever is known of his career. But Widsith, as I have shown, ('N. & Q.,' 11 S. vi. 7), informs us that Wala was the most excellent of princes for a time, and the mightiest of all the race of men except Alexander, and the one that prospered most of all those that Widsith had heard tell of. If this is not a case of the " greatest general importance," words have no meaning.
Again, the Catalogue of Kings does end: with Offa, King of Onglia and of the Wi]>- myrgingas. It concludes with the words " swa hit Offa geslog," and Offa is named four times : once before Alewih, and thrice after him. Widsith tells us that he sprang from the " e)>el Myrginga " (see ante, p. 161), and Offa, the ruler of Onglia and its allied peoples, the Engle (*7?Engili) and Swaefe (*Swafi), was the overlord of the Myrgingas. Widsith's own people, who were of Suevic race.
Mr. Chambers said that He)>ea (the first name in the list of Gotish, not Gothic cham- pions) is unknown. I have since pointed out that He)>ca is the Hsepcen of ' Beowulf '
