214 The Honey-Makers 



with ale, call thy two sons, Erp and Eitil, to thy knees from 

 thy high seat. Thou shalt never see in the midst of thy 

 court the young princes shafting their spears, clipping their 

 horses' manes, or spurring their steeds ! ' " 



Again, in a fragment of an Atli lay, Atli says to Gudrun : 

 " I dreamed that two hawks flew off my hand, famished 

 for food. I dreamed that in sorrowful mood I ate their 

 hearts all full of blood, dressed with honey." 



In the early Christian ages mead was still a favorite drink, 

 and in the " Legends of the Holy Rood," belonging from 

 the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries, we find it occasionally 

 mentioned. 



In the "Dispute between Mary and the Cross" occur 

 these curious lines : — 



" Adam drowned his ghost in bitter gall ; instead of this 

 gall God gave us mead ; with sweet mercy the bitterness is 

 quenched." And again in the same legend, — 



" The fell Jews, stone-hearted in dark sins, have beaten 

 a lamb, — softer than milk or mead mixed together. Like 

 hard stones were the Jews. Softer than dew on the lilly- 

 flower, was Christ's body in bloody colours." 



Mead, or meth, as it is often written, was still a common 

 drink in Chaucer's time, and in the " Knight's Tale," 

 Emelye, going to sacrifice at Diana's altar, took 



" Hir maydens, that she thider with hir ladde, 

 Ful redily with hem the fyr they hadde, 

 Thencens, the clothes, and the remenant al 

 That to the sacrifyce longen shal ; 

 The homes full of vieth^ as was the gyse ; 

 Ther lakked noght to doon hir sacrifyse." 



And in the " Miller's Tale," we are told of the carpenter's 

 wife that, — 



" Hir mouth was swete as bragot or the meeth. 

 Or hord o£ apples leyd in hey or heeth." 



