the Traditions connected with it. 331 



hamstrung and the tendons of his feet cut ; he avenged himself by 

 killing the king's two sons and outraging his daughter, and finally 

 flew away, with wings of his own construction, into Seeland. 



In the earliest Anglo-Saxon poems, there are traces of the same 

 wonderful smith, — Weland. In Beowulf, he is named as the maker 

 of the precious breastplate of the hero. 



If the war take me. 



Send back to Higelac, 



The best of war-coverings. 



That which guardeth my breast : 



It is the work of Weland. (Beow. VI., v. 898.) 



In the poetical version of Alfred's Anglo-Saxon Boethius, it is 

 said: — 



Who knows now the bones 

 Of the wise Weland, 

 Under what barrow 

 They are concealed ? 



At a later period, the 14th century, in the English romance of 

 "Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild," Rimnild gives to Horn a 

 sword named the king of swords, or Bitterfer, which she tells him 

 " Weland wrought," and that " better sword never bare knight." 



A very similar legend to that current in Berkshire still prevails 

 near Osnaburgh, in Lower Saxony, (Hanover) ; and^ it can hardly 

 be doubted that this story and that of the Berkshire "Wayland own 

 a common origin. In a mountain cavern dwelt an invisible smith, 

 who was said to rest by day and labour at night, for the benefit of 

 his earthly brethren. Latterly, he confined his labours to the 

 shoeing of horses. In front of the cavern was a stake fixed in the 

 ground, to which the country people tied the horses they wished to 

 have shod ; but it was also necessary for them not to neglect to lay 

 the usual fee for the labour on a large stone which was to be found 

 on the spot. The Hitler, for so the smith was called, would never be 

 seen by any one, nor would he be disturbed in his cavern. 



All these legends respecting Weland are with great probability 

 supposed to have a common source with those which refer to the 

 Yulcan (Hephaestus) and the Daedalus of the Greeks. "Yulcan," 



