175 



earl's asaatit. 



By I. Chalkley Gould. 



HIS prehistoric fortress occupies the rock-strewn summit 

 of an outcrop of millstone grit on Hathersage Moor, 

 nearly two miles east of the village of that name, and 

 close to the border of Yorkshire. 



Seen under gloomy atmospheric conditions, so unusual — I am 

 told — on the High Peak moors,. Carl's Wark presents a striking 

 picture of loneliness and desolation ; while viewed from the moor- 

 land path on the eastern side, with the black rocks of Higger 

 Tor for a background, this ancient fort seems to stand sphinx- 

 like defiant of time and man, yielding no evidence of its story, 

 and more like to " an immense blackened altar " than to a shelter 

 which may have teemed with life when, with infinite labour, it 

 had been made impregnable against armed foes. Some idea of 

 its weird, dark, almost uncanny aspect may be formed from the 

 illustration reproduced, by permission, from Mr. S. Q. Addy's 

 book, The Hall of Waltheof. 



How long a time has passed since the spot was fortified we 

 cannot say, but there can be no doubt that the Norseman's 

 christening " Carl's Wark '' is evidence that, to him, it was an 

 archaic work belonging to a misty past, long anterior to his own 

 era. 



Mr. Addy shows that Carl and Odin are .synonyms; in old 



Norse, Karl = man, also an old man. Carl's Wark, then, is the 



Old One's fori, or Odin's fort. 



" Just as the one-eyed Cyclops, according to the ancient fable, huilt 

 the great walls of the (ireek hill-forts so the one-eyed Odin was the 

 fabulous builder of this strong hill-fort on the Halhcrsage moors. Its 

 very name is proof of its vast age." 



