[84] Beattie probably knew nothing of Orfeo and Heurodis, and the Fairy Vision in the Minstrel (a dream that would never have occurred to any minstrel) was derived from the Flower and the Leaf, Dryden's, not Chaucer's, for the personages in the latter are not called Fairies. In neither are they Elves.
[85] Gönnen, Germ.
[86] The "countrie of Faerie," situated in a "privee wone," plainly accords rather with the Feeries of Huon de Bordeaux than with Avalon, or the region into which Dame Heurodis was taken.
[87] That is, elfe is alive.
[88] These Fairies thus coupled with Nymphs remind us of the Fairies of the old translators. Spenser, in the Shepherd's Calendar, however, had united them before, as
Nor elvish ghosts nor ghastly owls do flee,
But friendly Faeries met with many Graces,
And light-foot Nymphs.—Æg. 6.
[89] "Spenser's Fairy Queen, which is one of the grossest misnomers in romance or history, bears no features of the Fairy nation."—Gifford, note on B. Jonson, vol. ii. p. 202.
[90] Edda signifies grandmother. Some regard it as the feminine of othr, or odr, wisdom.
[91] This language is so called because still spoken in Iceland. Its proper name is the Norræna Tunga (northern tongue). It was the common language of the whole North.
[92] See Tales and Popular Fictions, chap. ix.