some way to show that the robbers wore aware that the Howe was originally erected by people of their own race.
If, however, the direct evidence of those inscriptions is inconclusive, there is one engraving on a pillar facing the entrance which looks as if it were original, both from its position and character. It represents a dragon (woodcut No. 85) of a peculiar Scandinavian type. A similar one is found on a stone attached to the tumulus under which King Gorm was buried, at Jellinge, in Denmark, in the middle of the tenth century. Making allowance for the difference in drawing, they are so like that they cannot be very distinct in date. A third animal of this species is found at Hunestadt, in Scania,[1] and dating about the year 1150, but very different, and very much more modern-looking than this one.
Had the Jerusalem pilgrims drawn this dragon, it would probably have been much more like the Hunestadt example. On the other hand, if the one at Maes-Howe is original, the age of the tomb can hardly be half a century distant from that of King Gorm's Howe, which in other respects it very much resembles. It is, however, very unlikely that Christian pilgrims would draw a dragon like this, and still less that they would accompany it with a Wurm, or Serpent-knot, like that found on the same pillar; both look like Pagan emblems, and seem to belong to the original decorations of the tomb.
- ↑ Olaus Wormius, 'Monumenta Danica,' p. 188, fig. 6.
