376 



ON THE NATURE AND 



came from his hill at the voice of his mighty son. A cloud, like the steed 

 of the stranger, supported his airy hmbs. His robe is of the mist of Lano, 

 that brings death to the people. His sword is a green meteor half ex- 

 tinguished. His face is without form and dark. He sighed thrice over 

 the hero ; and thrice the winds of the night roared around. Many were 

 his words to Oscar. He slowly vanished, like a mist that melts on the 

 sunny hill." 



The idea of his still pursuing his accustomed occupation of ridiiig with 

 his glittering sword, (its glitter now half extinguished, and of a green 

 hue,) on the steed of the stranger — a steed won in battle — his own limbs 

 rendered airy, and the steed dissolved into the semblance of a cloud — is 

 not only exquisite as a piece of poetic painting, but as a fact consonant 

 with the popular tradition of all other countries, which uniformly allotted 

 to the shades or ghosts of their respective heroes, their former passions and 

 inclinations, the pastimes or employments to which they had devoted 

 themselves while on earth, and the arms or implements they had chiefly 

 made use of. Thus, the Scandinavian bard, Lodbrog, while singing his 

 own death song, literally translated from the Runic into Latin by Olaus 

 Wormius, and transferring, in like manner, the pursuits of his life to his 

 pursuits after death: " In the halls of our father Balder 1 know seats are 

 prepared, where we shall soon drink all out of the hollow sculls of our 

 enemies. In the house of the mighty Odin no brave man laments death. 

 I come not with the voice of despair to Odin's hall."* 



The same popular belief was common to the Greeks and Romans. 

 Thus, iEneas, according to Virgil, in his descent to the infernal regions, 

 beholds the shades of the Trojan heroes still panting for fame, and amusing 

 themselves with the martial exercises to which they had been accustomed, 

 and with airy semblances of horses, arms, and chariots : 



The chief surveyed full many a shadowy car, 

 Illusive arms, and coursers trained for war, 

 Their lances fixed in earth, their steeds around, 

 Now free from harness, graze the mimic ground. 

 The love of horses which they had, alive. 

 And care of chariots, after death survive."!" 



Yirgil, while true to the tradition of his country, is well known to have 

 copied his description from Homer ; and in Homer's time the same popu- 

 lar tradition was common to the Jews, and runs through almost all their 

 poetry. It is thus Isaiah, who was nearly contemporary with Homer, 

 satirizes the fall of Belshazzar, ch. xiv. 9. 



The lowermost Hell is in motion for thee, 

 To congratulate thy arrival : 

 For thee arouseth he the mighty dead, 

 All the chieftains of the earth. 



The term mighty dead is peculiarly emphatic. The Hebrew word is 

 r3^«3l (Rephaim,) the gigantic spectres," " the magnified and mighty 



* See Blair's Dissertations on Ossian. 



t Arraa procul, currusque virum miratur inanes. 

 Stant terra defixae hastae, passimque soluti 

 Per campos pascuntur equi ; quie gratia currum 

 Armorumque fuit vivis, quae cura nitentes 

 Pascere equos : cadem seqnitur tellure re])Ostos. 



j^neid, vi. 661. 



