258 



St. Bega was the patroness of St.Eee's, in Cumberland, where she left 

 a holy Iracelet, which was long an object of profound veneration : a 

 small collection of her miracles, written in the 1 2th century, is extant, 

 and has been published." In the prefatory statement of the compiler, 

 we learn, among other things, that — Whosoever forswore hwiself upon 

 her hracelet swiftly incurred the heaviest punishment of perjury, or a 

 speedy deaths 



TJpon this passage we may observe, that as the Anglo-Saxon Beagas, 

 the French Bague, is the usual denomination of our Saxon ancestors for 

 rings, we may venture to predict that holy St. Bega was but a personi- 

 fication of one of the holy rings, which, having gained great hold on the 

 minds of the heathen Cumbrians, it was not politic in their first Chris- 

 tian missionaries wholly to subvert ; the Papal policy sought to divert 

 the popular veneration to its own benefit by the improvisation of a new 

 saint, and the onomatopoeia of the ancient venerated emblem, as in the 

 other instances, by which St. Veronica and St. Longinus were trans- 

 ferred as veritable personages to the Papal calendar from the sudarium, 

 and the spear by which the body of the Saviour was pierced on the 

 cross. 



"With inscriptions we have only, as oath rings, a single one, but 

 graven with an important word ; it was found in Bavaria, and described 

 with an engraving in vol. i. of the Philosophical Transactions of the 

 Eoyal Bavarian Academy;" the letters, in old German characters, 

 form the obsolete German word 



CE£jJ3V0llt, 



which has the same meaning almost as the obsolete English wrolce and 

 wrohen, from the verb to wreak, viz., to imprecate revenge or vengeance ; 

 so in the Bremen low Saxon dictionary — Wrahen tvrehen, rachen ; Cod. 

 Argent, wriken, ad. wroxan, HoU. wraecken, Altfriiuk. wrerecho^ It is 

 further remarked : — ^' This word is allied to the preceding wrahen ; to 

 throw out (Baltic merchants know well the meaning of wracked or 

 bracked deals and timber), because the avenger throws out from him and 

 persecutes the perjurer." 



There is, however, still remaining another possibly unique specimen 

 of these rings in the possession of the Earl of Londesborough, found in 

 Ireland, which deserves special attention, as elucidating the magisterial 

 uses of these rings, and a curio as passage in Scotch judicial practice, 

 which seems hitherto to have escaped inquiry, and of which I can find 

 no trace but in the curious pages of our JSTorthern Wizard, comes to 

 our aid, and we trust also by it to explain to Teutonic inquirers a pas- 

 sage in their own mythology which they appear to have hitherto mis- 

 understood. 



This ring, as far as a cursory view amongst an assemblage of objects 

 of the highest archaeological interest, and through a glass case, enabled 

 me to note, is of silver, almost annular, and with the usual lips ; but the 

 peculiarity consists of a moveable swivel ring, which can he slided round 

 the circle, but not taken off the ring, from the obstruction of these pro- 

 truding lips. 



