570 Colo7iel Tod's Observations on a Gold Ring found at Montrose. 



" All its tribes were terrified by the steel-clad exactor of rings, and panic- 

 " struck at his mighty power." 



We might select many other passages from '• The Raven's Ode, which 

 Sturla sung," to oppose to Chalmer's declaration, that to the end of the 

 twelfth century the Scots were ignorant of the use of ornaments of gold ; 

 as the following : " Our sovereign, rich in the spoils (gold) of the sea-snalce's 

 " den, viexved the retiring haven from the stem of his snorting steed,* adorned 

 " with ruddy gold." In this we see the analogous mythology of the Nor- 

 man warrior, the Indo-Sythic Rajpoot, and the Etruscan of Italy, who 

 alike made the serpent the guardian of treasure, as in the ring before us he 

 is of the symbol of fruition. 



Had the Norwegian king followed the bent of his inclinations, we might 

 have speculated on this ring having appertained to one of his followers, for 

 while at the Orkneys he held a counsel of war, purposing to extend his 

 ravages. King Dugal, of the Hebrides, Magnus of Mann, with Byrniulf 

 Johnson, Gudbrand his brother, the cup-bearer, and other celebrated cap- 

 tains, were ordered to impose tribute on tlie " wearers of rings " in Mull 

 and Kintire ; another division was commanded " south to the Frith of Forth " 

 but Haco's vassals, like Alexander's, refused obedience, and the scheme was 

 relinquished, or we should have known whether the tribes " south of the 

 Forth," also bore the appellation of the " ring bearers."f 



But although the "the Exactor of Rings" did not make a descent 

 amongst the Ottadini, one of the twenty-one aboriginal tribes of 

 Britain, in whose haunts our relic was found : that they had sustained a 

 signal visitation from the same shores full five centuries anterior to kins: 

 Haco, we learn from the lay of their prince and bard, the celebrated Aneu- 

 rin, whose poem deplores in animated strains the defeat of his countrymen 

 by the intruding Saxons in the battle of Cattraith.t 



* i. e. his ship. 



■f ' Baiig-gerdcr,' i. c. imposer of rings. Bang signifies any thing circular, and it is not easy 

 to discover when it denotes rings or shields. 



' Ririga elldingom,' i. e. bright rings. Ringa signifies not only rings or bracelets, but money ; 

 for before the introduction of coinage into the north, veri/ thick spiral gold wires, were worn round 

 the wrists of great men, who distributed bits to those who performed very great service, and 

 such a wire is still to be seen in the Royal ^luseura of Copenhagen. By ringa is understood 

 ornaments for the fingers, bracelets, rings of investiture, or the current money of the times." — 

 Notes 34 and 4-i to King Haco's Expedition. 



X Chalmer's Caledonia, vol. i. p. 59. The poem is in the British Museum, — Turner's Anglo- 

 Saxons. 



