sword" which the Princess lays by her side every night, will they fail to recognise Sigurd's sword Gram, which he laid between himself and Brynhildr when he rode through the flame and won her for Gunnar. These mythical deep-rooted germs, throwing out fresh shoots from age to age in the popular literature of the race, are far more convincing proofs of the early existence of these traditions than any mere external evidence.[1]
- ↑ It may be worth while here to shew how old and widespread this custom or notion of the "naked sword" was. In the North, besides being told of Sigurd and Brynhildr, we hear it of Hrôlf and Ingigerd, who took rest at night in a hut of leaves in the wood, and lay together, "but laid a naked sword between them." So also Saxo Grammaticus says of King Gorm: "Cæterum ne inconcessum virginis amorem libidinoso complexu prseripere videretur, vicina latera non solum alterius complexibus exuit, sed etiam districto mucrone secrevit."—Lib. 9, p. 179. So also Tristan and Isolt in Gottfried of Strasburg's poem, lines 17,407-17
Hierüber vant Tristan einen sin,
Si giengen an ir bette wider,
Und leiten sich dâ wider nider,
Von einander wol bin dan,
Rent als man und man,
Niht als man uiid wîp;
Dî lac lip und lîp,
In fremder gelegenheit,
Ouch hât Tristan geleit
Sin swert bar enzwischen si."And the old French Tristan in the same way—
"Et qant il vit la nue espee
Qui entre eus deus les deseurout."So the old English Tristrem, iii. 20, 21, 22—
"His swerd he drough titly
And laid it hem bitvene."
