Mimia, Ludus Mimicus, Instrumentum (potius, Ars Joculatoria). Ann. 1482.... "Mimia & cantu victum acquiro."
Du Cange, Gloss. tom. iv. 1762. Supp. c. 1225.
[O] [To have been a Dane.] The northern historians produce such instances of the great respect shewn to the Danish scalds in the courts of our Anglo-Saxon kings, on account of their musical and poetic talents (notwithstanding they were of so hateful a nation), that, if a similar order of men had not existed here before, we cannot doubt but the profession would have been taken up by such of the natives as had a genius for poetry and music.
"Extant Rhythmi hoc ipso (Islandico) idiomate Angliæ, Hyberniæque Regibus oblati & liberaliter compensati, &c. Itaque hinc colligi potest linguam Danicam in aulis vicinorum regum, principumque familiarem fuisse, non secus ac hodie in aulis principum peregrina idiomata in deliciis haberi cernimus. Imprimis Vita Egilli Skallagrimii id invicto argumento adstruit. Quippe qui interrogatus ab Adalsteino, Angliæ rege, quomodo manus Eirici Blodoxii, Northumbriæ regis, postquam in ejus potestatem venerat, evasisset, cujus filium propinquosque occiderat, ... rei statim ordinem metro, nunc satis obscuro, exposuit, nequaquam ita narraturus non intelligenti."—Vid. plura apud Torfæi Præfat. ad Orcad. Hist. fol.
This same Egill was no less distinguished for his valour and skill as a soldier, than for his poetic and singing talents as a scald; and he was such a favourite with our king Athelstan that he at one time presented him with "duobus annulis & scriniis duobus bene magnis argento repletis.... Quinetiam hoc addidit, ut Egillus quidvis præterea a se petens, obtineret; bona mobilia, sive immobilia, præbendam vel præfecturas. Egillus porro regiam munificentiam gratus excipiens, Carmen Encomiasticon, à se, linguâ Norvegicâ, (quæ tum his regnis communis), compostum, regi dicat; ac pro eo, duas Marcas auri puri (pondus Marcæ ... 8 uncias æquabat) honorarii loco retulit."—Arngr. Jon. Rer. Islandic. lib. 2, p. 129.
See more of Egill, in The Five Pieces of Runic Poetry, p. 45, whose poem, there translated, is the most ancient piece all in rhime, that is, I conceive, now to be found in any European language, except Latin. See Egill's Islandic original, printed at the end of the English version in the said Five Pieces, &c.
[P] [If the Saxons had not been accustomed to have minstrels of their own ... and to shew favour and respect to the Danish scalds.] If this had not been the case, we may be assured, at least, that the stories given in the text could never have been recorded by writers who lived so near the Anglo-Saxon times as Malmesbury and Ingulphus, who, though they might be deceived as to particular facts, could not be so as to the general manners and customs, which prevailed so near their own times among their ancestors.
[Q] ["In Doomesday Book" &c.] Extract. ex Libro Domesday: et vid. Anstis, Ord. Gart. ii. 304.
"Glowecesterscire.
Fol. 162. col. 1. Berdic Joculator Regis habet iii. villas, et ibi v. car. nil redd."