876 THE MISTLETOE IN HEREFORDSHIRE. 
been happily rendered in Icelandic poetry, where Baldur, the Sun, is 
supposed to be slain by a sprig of Mistletoe, as the only plant capable 
of injuring him. In the poem of ‘Voluspa, or Visions of Vala,’ in 
the Edda of Sæmund, Vala tells of the death of Baldur. But the 
idea is more fully and beautifully expressed in the legend on the death 
of Baldur, given in the tale of ‘ The Young Norseman,’ by Mr. 
Rands, which appeared in the ‘ Boys’ Own Volume’:*— 
* More than one sword of a northern champion was named ‘ Mis- 
telteinn,’ after the weapon which had slain the white god. The story 
affords one of many points of resemblance between the mythology of 
Northern Europe and those of Persia and the far East. In the ‘Shah 
Naméh,' the hero Asfendiar is represented as invulnerable, except by a 
branch from a tree growing on the remotest shore of the ocean. Des- 
thán, his enemy, found it, hardened it with fire, and killed the hero. 
Both legends possibly refer to the ‘death’ of the Sun; perishing in 
his youthful vigour, either at the end of a day struck by the powers of 
darkness, or at the end of the sunny season stung by the thorns of 
winter." — Miiller’s ‘ Comparative Mythology,’ in Oxford Essays 
for 1856.) “The * Marentakken,' or ‘branch of spectres?" which still © 
in Holstein is believed to confer the power of ghost-seeing on its pos- 
sessor, is oe the true Viscum album." (* Quarterly Review,’ 
vol. exiv. 
It is deis difficult to trace down in history the customs relative to 
the Mistletoe after the overthrow of the Druidical ceremonies in which 
it played so important a part. We know that in more serious matters, 
—superstitions of deeper import, and more injurious tendency,—our 
stubborn ancestors resisted for many centuries all attempts to set them 
aside. This is the reason why we meet with so many edicts of em- 
perors, and canons of councils, in the sixth, seventh, and eighth centu- 
ries, against them ; even so late as in the eleventh century, in the reign 
of Canute it was found necessary to make the following law against 
these heathenish superstitions :—'* We strictly forbid all our sub- 
jects to worship the gods of the Gentiles; that is to say, the sun, the 
moon, fires, rivers, fountains, hills, or trees, or woods of any kind. 
(Leges Polit. Canuti Regis, c. 5, apud Lendenbrog in Glossar. p. 1473.) 
* The Mistletoe, Trefoil, Oak, and Wheat, form the Bardic emblems of the four 
seasons, and, as such, the Mistletoe was figured on the vague National Token 
given by the ladies of South Wales to the Princess of Wales 
xu y c lE. piss 
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