Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



But as the swan, I have herd seyd ful yore — 

 Ageyns his dethe shall singen his penaunce — So 

 singe I here the destinye or chaunce — How that 

 Arcite, etc. 



Musical swans used to come in such flocks 

 to a lake near Liban that it was called the lake 

 of complaining — Klagesee. 



In England the musical swan seems a rare 

 winter visitant now-a-days ; it is supposed 

 never to have bred there. Special provisions 

 for breeding swans seem to have come into 

 England with the Norman kings, who may 

 have Inherited their reverence for the bird 

 from the habits of chiefs and magnates in 

 Denmark and Norway, their northern ances- 

 tors. It was not by chance that Edward the 

 First, one of the greatest kings after the Con- 

 queror, swore an oath on the swan. Fattened 

 roast cygnet (a Norman word) Is still eaten in 

 England. By the time of Elizabeth the keep- 

 ing of swans had ceased to be a royal preroga- 

 tive and to-day the largest " game " of swans 

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