"I kept it," he said, "some time in manuscript, unwilling to show it to any one, it being a voice from my inmost heart."
7. "Dust thou art": quoted from Genesis 3:19, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
10. Pope in Epistle IV of his "Essay on Man" says: "0 happiness! our being's end and aim." How does Longfellow differ with him?
THE SKELETON IN ARMOR
The Skeleton in Armor. "The following Ballad was suggested to me while riding on the seashore at Newport. A year or two previous a skeleton had been dug up at Fall River, clad in broken and corroded armor; and the idea occurred to me of connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport, generally known hitherto as the Old Windmill, though now claimed by the Danes as a work of their early ancestors."
19. Skald: a Scandinavian minstrel who composed and sang or recited verses in celebration of famous deeds, heroes, and events.
"And there, in many a stormy vale,
The Scald had told his wondrous tale."
—SCOTT, Lay of the Last Minstrel, can. 6, St. 22.
20. Saga: myth or heroic story.
28. ger-falcon: large falcon, much used in northern Europe in falconry.
38. were-wolf: a person who had taken the form of a wolf and had become a cannibal. The superstition was that those who had voluntarily become wolves could become men again at will.