[14]. The “Nornir” were the Fates of northern mythology.

[15]. The Valkyries.

[16]. Holmgang—see note, p. [19].

[17]. Bragi, the god of poetry and eloquence.

[18]. See note, p. [72].

[19]. Suttung was a giant who kept guard over the magic mead of poetical inspiration.

[20]. The word “wraith” is here used in an obviously inexact sense; but the wraith seemed to be the nearest equivalent in English mythology to the Scandinavian “fylgie,” an attendant spirit, often regarded as a sort of emanation from the person it accompanied, and sometimes (as in this case) typifying that person’s moral attributes.


THE PRETENDERS
(1863)

CHARACTERS.