“To me this battle-harness
Hrôðgâr sealde,
Hrothgar gave,
snotra fengel...”
the sapient monarch” &c.
In the evidence above given we see indications that this traditional choice of the wild boar for a crest was of high antiquity, and had its origin in a religious sentiment, and our fourth passage (1449 ff.) certainly conveys the idea that the armourer who wrought at the furniture of the helmet did so with a mind still under the spell of the old persuasion that a mystic sanction clung to the figure of the wild boar, and qualified it for its time-honoured post as guardian of the warrior’s head.
In the Alfred Jewel the Boar’s Head appears to discharge a double function: one subservient, as affording a base or pedestal to the frame of the sacred effigy; the other servile, as a socket for the shaft whereby the elaborate and composite design is to be fixed in its destined place.
[15] ‘Matrem deûm venerantur. Insigne superstitionis formas aprorum gestant: id pro armis omnique tutelâ securum deæ cultorem etiam inter hostes præstat.’ Germania, 45.