730 
SCALD. 
SCALA NOVA, a sea-port town of Asia Minor, about and receive for their verses the most liberal rewards. All 
three leagues from the site of the ancient Ephesus. The the historical monuments of the North testify, in the most 
town is well built, and the fortifications are ahout three ample manner, the honours that were paid to this order of 
quarters of a mile in circumference. To the north is a con- men both by princes and people; nor can the annals of 
siderable suburb, in which alone the Christians are permitted poetry produce any age or country which reflects more glory 
to dwell. The population is reckoned by Tournefort, at and lustre upon it. The ancient chronicles represent the 
1000 Turkish families, 600 Greek, 10 Jew, and 60 Armenian, kings of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, as attended by 
The port is secured by a small island against westerly winds, one or more Scalds. They were more especially honoured 
but is somewhat exposed to those from the north. The town and caressed at the courts of those princes who distinguished 
carries on a considerable trade, supplying Samos and the themselves by their great actions and passion for glory, 
neighbouring districts with grain, coflee, and cloth, from Harold Harfrage, e. g. placed them at his feasts above all 
Egypt, Smyrna, and Salonica. The neighbourhood yields the other officers of his court. Many princes entrusted them, 
a considerable quantity of wine, which, however, has lost its both in peace and war, with commissions of the highest im- 
ancient reputation. This town was the Neapolis of the portance. They never set out on any considerable expedi- 
Milesians, and presents still the remains of some ancient tion, without some of them in their train. Hacon, earl of 
structures; 40 miles south of Smyrna. 
SCALA NUOVA, a small sea-port of Greece, in the east 
of the Morea, on the gulf of Napoli. It is inhabited en¬ 
tirely by Greeks, who carry on a martime trade in their own 
ships, and manufacture good saffron. 
SCALABLE, adj. Capable of being ascended by a 
ladder. 
SCALA'DE, or Scalads, [from scalada, Spanish.] The 
storming of a place by ladders. 
SCALARE, in Natural History, a name given by Rum- 
phius to a peculiar species of turbo, or screw shell. 
SCAL'ARY, adj. Proceeding by steps, as a ladder.—He 
made at nearer distances certain elevations and sealary 
ascents, that they might the better ascend or mount their 
horses. Brown. 
SCALBY, a hamlet of England, East Riding of York¬ 
shire ; 5 miles east of Howden. 
SCALBY, a village of England, in Lincolnshire, near 
Glanford Bridge. 
SCALBY, a village of England, North Riding of York¬ 
shire ; 3 miles north-west of Scarborough. Population 454. 
SCALBY, East and West, two adjacent villages of Eng¬ 
land, in Cumberland; about 6 miles north-east of Car¬ 
lisle. Population 557. 
SCALD, a name given by the ancient inhabitants of the 
northern countries to their poets; in whose writings, their 
history is recorded. 
They were called “ Scaldi,” or “ Scaldri,” as some say, 
from the sound skal, often heard in their verses and poems; 
and the dialect in which they wrote was called “ Asamal,” 
that is, the Asiatic dialect, because it was brought by Woden 
or Odin out of Asia, who is also said to have brought with 
him the Runic characters, and to have taught the northern 
nations the art of poetry. The learned Torfaeus, a native of 
Iceland, and historiographer of Norway, suggests (Prsefat. 
ad Orcades, fob) that the word Scald signified originally, 
“ a smoother and polisher of language.” Whatever was the 
origin of their name, they were an order of poets or singers, 
who w’ere imported into Europe by the Goths, who migrated 
from the East with Odin, and were dispersed among the 
northern nations, particularly in Scandinavia. (See Odin 
and Scandinavia.) These men were held in the highest 
veneration; they were employed to compose odes or songs, 
which related all the most illustrious exploits of the ancient 
Scandinavians, and sometimes the whole history of their 
lives. They attended the festivals of heroic chiefs, accom¬ 
panied them in battle, and celebrated their victories. Their 
songs were propagated from one reciter to another; and 
there w'as no public solemnity in which they were not sung 
or chaunted. The praises which these poets gave to valour, 
the warlike enthusiasm which animated their verses, the great 
care which men took to learn them from their infancy, being 
all of them the natural effects of the ruling passion of these 
people, served in their turn to strengthen and extend it. At 
a period when the use of letters was very limited, verse was a 
necessary medium of knowledge, and the poet was an essen¬ 
tial officer of the state ; and as it required a peculiar and un¬ 
common genius to excel in this art, the professors of it would 
of course acquire a very high degree of esteem and respect, 
Norway, had five celebrated poets in the famous battle, when 
the warriors of Jomsburg were defeated; and history records, 
that each of them sung an ode to animate the soldiers before 
they engaged. Torfaeus produces other instances to the 
same purpose; particularly that of Olave, king of Norway, 
who placed three of his Scalds near him to be witnesses of 
his exploits; each of whom composed a song on the spot, 
which Bartholin has printed and accompanied with a Latin 
version. Other songs of the same kind may be found pre¬ 
served by the same author. They also enjoyed another 
advantage, which would be more an object of envy to the 
poets of these days. They were rewarded for the poems 
they composed in honour of the kings and heroes, with 
magnificent presents. The Scald never sang his verses at the 
courts of princes without a recompence of golden rings, 
glittering arms, and rich apparel. Their respect for this 
order of men often extended so far as to induce them to 
remit the punishment of crimes which they had committed, 
on condition they sued out their pardon in verse; and we 
have still extant an ode, by which Egill, a celebrated poet, 
atoned for a murder of which he had been guilty. In a 
word, the poetic art was held in such high estimation, that 
great lords, and even kings, did not themselves disdain to 
cultivate it with the utmost pains. Rogvald, earl of the 
Orkney Islands, passed for a very able poet. King Regner 
was no less distinguished for his skill in poetry than in war 
and navigation; and it is well known that he died no less 
like a poet than a hero. 
The respect, however, which the northern nations paid to 
their Scalds, was not owing to the nobility of their extrac¬ 
tion. A people, whose object was glory, could not fail of 
shewing a great deference to those who both published it 
abroad, and consigned it to futurity, let their original be 
what it wonld. A prince or illustrious warrior oftentimes 
exposed his life with so much intrepidity only to be praised 
by his Scald, who was both the witness and judge of his 
bravery. It is affirmed that this kind of men, although 
poets, were never guilty of flattery, and never lavished their 
praises on heroes and kiugs themselves, unless their gallant 
exploits were quite incontestible. Hence arose the custom 
of always bringing them into the scene of action : Olave, 
king of Norway, placing three of them one day around him 
in battle,, cried out with spirit, “ You shall not relate what 
you have only heard, but what you are eye-witnesses of 
yourselves." The same poets usually sung their verses them¬ 
selves at solemn festivals and in great assemblies, to the 
sound of the flute or harp. But the subject of these poems 
was not confined to one single event, such as a victory or 
some generous action; it was frequently a genealogical his¬ 
tory of all the kings of the country, deduced down from the 
gods to the reigning prince, who always derived his origin 
from them. These poems were, according to Tacitus, the 
only annals of the Germans: they had great numbers of 
them, which were not wholly forgotten in the eighth cen¬ 
tury ; since Eginhard relates, that Charlemagne caused them 
to be committed to writing.—“ And even learnt himself,” 
adds the historian, “ the rude and ancient songs in which 
the exploits and the wars of the first princes were celebrated.” 
In poems of the same kind consisted, for many ages, all the 
history 
u 
