PREFACE. V 



till the Deluge. His head was then swept to Jerusalem, and remained 

 in the gateway till Christ's cross was planted therein (2229-2240). 

 Enos, Noah, and other patriarchs are then mentioned (2241-2292). 

 The numbers of years from Adam to the Deluge, from the Deluge to 

 Abraham, from Adam to the birth of Christ (2293-2336), the numbcr of 

 years to the murrain, the names of some of the leading princes reigning 

 about that time in Ireland and in Scotland, those of Eadgar on one side 

 of the EngHsh Channel and Hlothair on the other^ an allusion to the 

 ravages caused by the Danes from Denmark (2337-2380) : the rest till 

 the day of doom nobody could declare except the high King of the sun, 

 whose Hfe never ends (2381-2388). 



The tradition mentioned in hnes 7529, 753, that Christ was born 

 from the crown of the Virgin^s head, is worth noting^ ; and the description 

 of some of the signs at the Crucifixion (7761-7772) may be quoted 

 as a specimen of the style of the poem (I omit two chevilles), and as 

 illustrating Sophus Bugge's theories about the Baldr-saga : 



Darkness sprang over every plain : 



Earth's dead arose : 



Dear God's elements were afraid 



When the veil of the temple vvas rent. 



Every creature wailed 



Heaven and earth trembled : 



The sea proceeded to go over (its) bounds : 



Hearts of black rocks split. 



The King who suffered in (his) fair clay, 



A cross for sake of Adam's children, 



Thereafter took a prey (of redeemed souls), 



So that he overcame Hell. 



The metre in which the bulk of the Saltair is composed is dcibidc, 

 each line of the quatrain consisting of seven syllables, the second and 



^ So according to the A.S. Adrian aiid Ritheus (Kemble, Saloion a7id Saturnus, 

 p. 204) Christ was born of his IMother, ' Jjurh J)aet swire breost,' through hcr right 

 breast. So the Bodhisattva was born from Maya's right side (Kem, Der Buddhistnus, 

 30, n.). See, too, other strange births, Liebrecht, Volkskunde, 490 ; and note the 

 punishment of certain sinners, Visio Tttugdafi, ed. Wagner, 18S2, p. 28 : ' Pariebant, 

 dico, non solum femine, set et viri, non tantum per ipsa membra, que natura 

 constituit tah officio convenientia, verum per brachia simul et pcr pcctora, exibantque 

 erumpentes per cuncta membra.' 



