[858]. Sigeléoð in Anglo-Saxon, sung after a victory, was doubtless the same thing. Kögel notes that leikr, leik, in Norwegian dialects down to this day, means both “war” and “dance”; and he conjectures that winelâc, in Anglo-Saxon, goes back to an originally erotic dance, as it may go forward to a children’s “kissing-game.”
[859]. Wolf, Lais, pp. 18, 183 f., puts too much stress on the singing of church music, though he concedes popular origins; p. 22.
[860]. Work quoted, p. cxvii.
[861]. Bladé, Poésies Populaires de la Gascogne (Vol. III. is devoted entirely to songs for the dance), III. i. ff. “En général on ne danse aux chansons que faute de mieux,” although even now, at times, “they bid the music cease, and dance to the sound of their own voices.” The dancing is literally a round, a circle.
[862]. See Wolf’s note, Lais, pp. 185 f. On this carole or ronde, danced mainly by women, but now and then by men and women, see Jeanroy’s chapter, already quoted, and the additional suggestions of M. Gaston Paris, Origines d. l. Poés. Lyr., pp. 44 ff., really a review of Jeanroy’s book. “Ce qui caractérisait surtout les caroles, c’était le chant qui les accompagnait,” says M. Paris. The only use of instruments, and these very simple, was to mark the rhythm. Dancers turned to the left.
[863]. An early reference, from “Ruodlieb,” may be added to show the connection of dance and song; the passage occurs in a description of the dancing bears (III. 84 ff., ed. Grimm-Schmeller, Lat. Ged. des X. u. XI. Jhrh., p. 144):—
cum plebs altisonam fecit gyrando choream,
accurrunt et se mulieribus applicuere,
quae gracili voce cecinerunt deliciose,
insertisque suis harum manibus speciosis