[163] Sweyn Aageson, Skiold Danis primum didici praefuisse, in Langebek, S.R.D. I, 44.
[164] Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 246; Lawrence, Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. XXIV, 254.
[165] It is odd that Binz, who has recorded so many of these, should have argued on the strength of these place-names that the Scyld story is not Danish, but an ancient possession of the tribes of the North Sea coast (p. 150). For Binz also records an immense number of names of heroes of alien stock—Danish, Gothic or Burgundian—as occurring in England (P.B.B. XX, 202 etc.).
[166] Beovulf, p. 7.
[167] Chadwick, Origin, p. 278.
[168] The scandals about King Edgar (infamias quas post dicam magis resperserunt cantilenae: see Gesta Regum Anglorum, II, § 148, ed. Stubbs, vol. I, p. 165); the story of Gunhilda, the daughter of Knut, who, married to a foreign King with great pomp and rejoicing, nostro seculo etiam in triviis cantitata, was unjustly suspected of unchastity till her English page, in vindication of her honour, slew the giant whom her accusers had brought forward as their champion (Gesta, II, § 188, ed. Stubbs, I, pp. 229, 230); the story of King Edward and the shepherdess, learnt from cantilenis per successiones temporum detritis (Gesta, II, § 138, ed. Stubbs, I, 155). Macaulay in the Lays of Ancient Rome has selected William as a typical example of the historian who draws upon popular song. Cf. Freeman's Historical Essays.
[169] Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 245.
[170] Origin, pp. 279-281.
[171] Brand, Popular Antiquities, 1813, I, 443.
[172] Henderson, Folklore of the Northern Counties, 87-89.