Mimir’s head;
The old ash yet standing
Yggdrasill
To its summit is shaken,
And loose breaks the giant.—Voluspa.
[8] ‘Rigveda,’ x. 99.
[9] ‘Zoolog. Myth.,’ ii. 8, 10, &c.
[10] ‘The Mahawanso.’ Translated by the Hon. George Turnour, Ceylon, 1836, p. 69.
[11] It was an ancient custom to offer a stag on the high altar of Durham Abbey, the sacrifice being accompanied with winding of horns, on Holy Rood Day, which suggests a form of propitiating the Wild Huntsman in the hunting season. On the Cheviot Hills there is a chasm called Hen Hole, ‘in which there is frequently seen a snow egg at Midsummer, and it is related that a party of hunters, while chasing a roe, were beguiled into it by fairies, and could never again find their way out.’—Richardson’s ‘Borderer’s Table-Book,’ vi 400. The Bridled Devil of Durham Cathedral may be an allusion to the Wild Huntsman.