270 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»* S. IX. April 7. '60. 



The genuineness of the De Situ Britannia; has 

 been so often questioned, particularly by the 

 more recent writers on the Roman geography of 

 Britain, that, till the matter is put beyond dis- 

 pute, if that be possible, it were contrary to every 

 canon of historical investigation to admit it as 

 decisive evidence in favour of an opinion that, but 

 for its supposed authority, would in all probability 

 never have been broached. And, as Dr. Daniel 

 Wilson has justly remarked, even were its genu- 

 ineness established, its value to northern anti- 

 quaries must still be an open question. 



I may embrace this opportunity to correct a 

 mistatement in my former notice of Burghead, 

 which I was led to make by want of access to 

 Torfaeus in the original. In stating (2" a S. ix. 38.) 

 that " it is certainly the burgh or fort of Moray, 

 said by Torfaeus (Orcades) to have been built 

 (circa a.d. 850) by Sigurd, a Norwegian chief . . . 

 and which is elsewhere mentioned by him as a 

 Norwegian stronghold under the name of Eccials- 

 bacca," I presumed upon the correctness of what 

 purports to be a translation of those portions of 

 the Orcades that relate to the transactions of the 

 Northmen on the mainland of Scotland, given by 

 Cordiner as an Appendix to his Antiquities and 

 Scenery of the North of Scotland (London, 1780). 

 A friend having kindly sent me extracts of those 

 passages in which Torfaeus refers to the so-called 

 fort and to Eccialsbacca, I now find that they 

 will by no means bear the construction which 

 Cordiner has put upon them. He says : — 



"Tanta potentia, dignitate, opulentia, auctus Sigurdus, 

 cum Thorsteino Rufo societate inita, fines regui, ultra 

 lirnitera insularum, quern Oceanus pnescripsit, longe pro- 

 tulit: nam Cathanesiam et Sudurlandum, usque ter- 

 minum Eckialdsbackam dictum, Scotise provincias, in 

 ditionem simul conjunctis virions redegerunt. Codex Fla- 

 teyensis universam Catanesiam magnamque Scotias par- 

 tem, Rossiam et Moraviam subactam, oppidunique ab 

 co in australi Moravia exstructum, nomine omisso me- 

 morat." — Orcades, lib. i. cap. iv. p. 12. 



Again : — 



"... ad Dufeyras (Banff, probably,) oppidum Scotise 

 navigat inde circa Moraviarn ad Eckialdsbackam, exinde 

 ad Atjoklas ad Comitem Maddadum profectus." — Orcades, 

 lib. i. cap. xxvi. p. 113. 



The town built by Sigurd was thus situated in 

 the south part of Moray, and cannot have been 

 Burghead ; and Eckialdsbacka was distinct from 

 either. Mr. J. J. A. Worsa«e, whose decision 

 will scarcely be disputed, remarks : — 



" Sigurd, the first conqueror of Sutherland, is said to 

 have extended his dominion as far as Ekkjalsbakke. As 

 bakki, in the ancient language, signifies the bank of a 

 river, there cannot be the least doubt that Ekkjal is the 

 river Oykill, which still forms the southern boundary of 

 Sutherland." — Account of the Danes and Norwegians in 

 England, Scotland, and Ireland, p. 260. 



This correction must not, however, be held as 

 invalidating the opinion that Burghead was at one 

 time in possession of the Northmen. It appears 



that having in the beginning of the eleventh cen- 

 tury defeated the Scots in a great battle fought 

 near Kinloss, the Danes took the towns of Elgin 

 and Nairn (Buchanan says Forres), putting the 

 garrisons to the sword, and settled themselves 

 along the coast. Soon after, they were in their 

 turn overthrown at Mortlach, in Banffshire, by 

 Malcolm II., and obliged to relinquish most of 

 their newly-acquired possessions in Moray ; re- 

 taining, however, Burghead, which they had greatly 

 strengthened. But in the year 1012, Cnute 

 (Canute), afterwards King of England, who had 

 been sent by his father, Svend (Sweyn), with 

 a large fleet and army to retrieve past disasters, 

 being vanquished by the Scots at Cruden, on the 

 coast of Buchan, where he had landed, a treaty 

 was concluded, according to which the invaders 

 agreed to abandon all former conquests, and to eva- 

 cuate Burghead, which was thus the last stronghold 

 they held in the Lowlands of Scotland. (Account 

 of the Danes, frc, pp. 214—217.) 



At p. 83. of the work to which I have just re- 

 ferred, and which I regret I had not an oppor- 

 tunity of consulting till after my first Note was 

 written, the following passage occurs : — 



" Yule, or the mid-winter feast, was in the olden times, 

 as it still partly is, the greatest festival in the countries 

 of Scandinavia. Yule bonfires were kindled round about 

 as festival fires to scare witches and wizards . . . and the 

 descendants of the Northmen in Yorkshire and the an- 

 cient Northumberland, do not even now neglect to place 

 a large piece of wood on the fire at Christmas Eve. Su- 

 perstitious persons do not, however, allow the whole to 

 be consumed, but take it out of the fire again in order to 

 preserve it until the following year." 



One cannot read this without being reminded 

 of the embers of the " Clavie," " carried home and 

 carefully preserved as charms against witchcraft" 

 (2 nd S. ix. 39.) ; but the Burghead ceremony has 

 still peculiarities which render it worthy of spe- 

 cial attention. In the Introduction to the Sixth 

 Canto of Marmion, Sir "Walter Scott alludes to 

 the dances of the Vikings round their Christmas 

 fires : — 



" Even, heathen yet, the savage Dane 



At Iol more deep the mead did drain ; 



High on the beach his galleys drew, 



And feasted all his pirate crew ; 



Then forth, in frenzy, could they hie, 

 While wildly-loose their red locks fly, 

 And dancing round the blazing pile, 

 They make such barbarous mirth the while, 

 As best might to the mind recall 

 The boisterous joys of Odin's hall." 



But enough, I think, has already appeared in 

 " N. & Q." to establish the Scandinavian origin of 

 the " Clavie" : whether either of your correspon- 

 dents (2 nd S. ix. 106. 169.) has hit upon its ety- 

 mology, or that of " Durie," I shall not presume 

 to decide. James Macdqnald, 



Elgin. 



