þæ̂t hine siððan nô
that on it ever since
brond nê beado-mêcas
no brand or blade of war
bîtan ne meahton.
had any power to bite.
These closing lines recall the remarkable passage of Tacitus, where he says that the Æstii (Esthonians) venerate the mother of the gods, and that they wear figures of the wild boar as the emblem of her cult, and that this observance alone suffices without arms offensive or defensive to make her votary feel secure even in the midst of enemies[15].
The mother of the gods may be identified, or at least proximately equated, with Frige, the consort of Woden, whose name survives in the sixth day of the week, Friday; Frige-dæg. A survival of her cult is seen in the festive ceremony of the Boar’s Head, which is kept up in Queen’s College, Oxford, adding a mystic incident to the mirth of Christmas.
Caput apri defero,
Reddens laudes Domino.