1907-1908/ 



6$ 



his mother, decided to espouse his cause, and sought help from 

 Norway and all Scandinavian countries. He went to Earl Sigurd, 

 of Orkney, to the southern isles and Man, where Brodir and Ospak 

 were lying, as is related in the Kjala Saga, promising Sigurd and 

 Brodir the hand of his mother, and the succession after himself. 

 They gave their assistance, but Ospak refused, and went to Brian 

 and told him of the conspiracy. On Good Friday, 1014, the hosts 

 assembled, and the battle of Clontarf was fought, which destroyed 

 the Scandinavian power in Ireland, and Brian was slain at the end 

 of the fight by Brodir. After this battle the Scandinavians 

 embraced Christianity, so the battle of Clontarf was the death 

 struggle of the faith of Odin. Away in the Faroe Islands and in 

 Caithness men saw the war-weaving sisters, Odin's choosers of the 

 slain. Daurrud saw folk ride to a bower, twelve together, and 

 enter, and when he got there and looked in, behold there were 

 women, and a loom was set up. Beneath swift fingers the woof 

 ever waxed, and it was wet with blood, and woven of the entrails 

 of men. The warp was blood-red, weighted with the heads of 

 slain men ; as blue as a corpse was the weft, blood-stained spears 

 formed the spindles, arrows the reels, and a sword the shuttle. 

 Into this were the fates of men woven as the war woof was worked, 

 and the sound of the iron-bound loom was as the rushing together 

 of a mighty host. As they wove they sang, and they told of the 

 sorrow of the Irish and how new nations would govern them, and 

 they spoke in anguish of the fall of the gods, and their departure 

 from the homes and doings of man. When they had told their 

 tale, they plucked down the woof and tore it asunder, and each 

 kept what she had hold of, and they came out and got on their 

 horses, six riding to north and six to the south, on the great last 

 ride of the Valkyries, for so men say. 



A discussion followed on both lectures, in which the 

 Chairman, Mr. D. E. Lowry, Mr. R. May, Mr. W. J. Fennell, 

 F.R.I. B. A., and Mr. C. Cunningham took part, and the pro- 

 ceedings closed with a vote of thanks to both lecturers. 



