HEN'S HOLE IN CHEVIOT 135 



being always called by his proper name of Balder, instead of 

 the literary Baldred, shows he is not a mediaeval church 

 tradition. It is the more noticeable that there has been at 

 least one set of martyrs of the Bass since, whose martyrdom 

 was not voluntary. 



But the curious circumstance about the mythology of 

 Hen's Hole I only became aware of comparatively lately. 

 In a letter I had from Dr Hai'dy, not long before his 

 death, he mentioned, with reference to something else, that 

 " one of the old hunting Percies " had taken refuge from a 

 snowstorm in Hen's Hole — whether he mentioned the cave 

 or not I am not sure without looking at the letter — with 

 his hounds, and that they are said to be all sleeping there 

 still. 



Now the cave in which Frederick Barbarossa is said in 

 German tradition to be sleeping, is that of Berchtesgaden, 

 which I believe is very inaccessible, and is no doubt a 

 popular representative of the mythological hall of Berchta, 

 from which souls come. Mr Small, in his poem on the 

 Cheviot legend, does not name the sleeping hunter. 



The story about the cave may be as old as the Saxon 

 occupation of Northumbria, but it is quite possible it is not 

 older than the time of Edwin's adoption of Christianity, 

 when the name of St. Helena was probably given to the hill. 

 I have latterly thought that the hill had had a Saint's name, 

 for Hen is a Welsh word for saint ; and Andrewhinny 

 above St. Mary's Loch is no doubt St. Andrew. The name 

 was probably given when the Cumbrian Church conformed 

 to Rome, in 700, under the influence of Adamnan of lona. 

 Pen-Christ, as the name of the great hill in Roxburghshire 

 is distinctly pronounced, is of course Welsh too ; but the 

 best known of these names is the Dunion, or Dun-Ian, near 

 Jedburgh ; the hill of St. John, which has a duplicate near 

 Inverness. 



St. Helena, who is connected with York, does not usually 

 appear with Welsh associations ; but there might be a special 

 reason for it in this case. The Welsh Pol Hen is said to be 

 neither the Scriptural St. Paul nor St. Pol de Leon, but 

 Paulinus. 



