Urchin is a hedgehog, as Stevens has justly observed,[378] and in these lines of Titus Andronicus (ii. 3.)
A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes,
Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,
it probably has this sense. We still call the echinus marinus the Sea-urchin. Still as we have no analogy, but rather the contrary, for transferring the name of an animal to the elves, we feel inclined to look for a different origin of the term as applied to these beings. The best or rather only hypothesis we have met with[379] is that which finds it in the hitherto unexplained word Orcneas in Beówulf, which may have been Orcenas, and if, as we have supposed,[380] the Anglo-Saxons sometimes pronounced c before e and i in the Italian manner, we should have, if needed, the exact word. We would also notice the old German urkinde, which Grimm renders nanus.[381]
We now come to the poets.
In Beówulf, an Anglo-Saxon poem, supposed not to be later than the seventh century, we meet with the following verse,
"Eotenas, and Ylfe,
And Orcneas."
The first of these words is evidently the same as the Iötunn or Giants of the northern mythology; the second is as plainly its Alfar, and we surely may be excused for supposing that the last may be the same as its Duergar.
Layamon, in the twelfth century, in his poetic paraphrase of Wace's Brut,[382] thus expands that poet's brief notice of the birth of Arthur:—
"Ertur son nom; de sa bunte
Ad grant parole puis este."
| Sone swa he com on eorthe, | So soon he came on earth, |
| Alven hine ivengen. | Elves received him. |
| Heo bigolen that child | They enchanted that child |
| Mid galdere swith stronge. | With magic most strong. |
| Heo zeven him mihte | They gave him might |
| To beon best alre cnihton. | To be the best of all knights. |
| Heo zeven him an other thing | They gave him another thing |
| That he scolde beon riche king. | That he should be a rich king. |
| Heo zeven him that thridde | They gave him the third |
| That he scolde longe libben. | That he should long live. |
| Heo zeven that kin-bern | They gave to that kingly child |
| Custen swithe gode. | Virtues most good. |
| That he was mete-custi | That he was most generous |
| Of alle quike monnen. | Of all men alive. |
| This the Alven him zef. | This the Elves him gave. |
| vv. 19254: seq. |