Anecdote of a Peal of Bells (Vol. i., p. 382.).—It is related of the bells of Limerick Cathedral by Mrs. S.C. Hall (Ireland, vol. i., p. 328. note).
M.
[Another correspondent, under the same signature, forwards the legend as follows
"THOSE EVENING BELLS."
"The remarkably fine bells of Limerick Cathedral were originally brought from Italy. They had been manufactured by a young native (whose name tradition has not preserved), and finished after the toil of many years; and he prided himself upon his work. They were subsequently purchased by a prior of a neighbouring convent, and, with the profits of this sale, the young Italian procured a little villa, where he had the pleasure of hearing the tolling of his bells from the convent cliff, and of growing old in the bosom of domestic happiness. This, however, was not to continue. In some of those broils, whether civil or foreign, which are the undying worm in the peace of a fallen land, the good Italian was a sufferer amongst many. He lost his all; and after the passing of the storm, he found himself preserved alone, amid the wreck of fortune, friends, family, and home. The convent in which the bells, the chef-d'œuvre of his skill, were hung, was rased to the earth, and these last carried away to another land. The unfortunate owner, haunted by his memories and deserted by his hopes, became a wanderer over Europe. His hair grew gray, and his heart withered, before he again found a home and friend. In this desolation of spirit he formed the resolution of seeking the place to which those treasures of his memory had finally been borne. He sailed for Ireland, proceeded up the Shannon; the vessel anchored in the pool near Limerick, and he hired a small boat for the purpose of landing. The city was now before him; and he beheld St. Mary's steeple lifting its turreted head above the smoke and mist of the old town. He sat in the stern, and looked fondly towards it. It was an evening so calm and beautiful as to remind him of his own native haven in the sweetest time of the year—the death of spring. The broad stream appeared like one smooth mirror, and the little vessel glided through it with almost a noiseless expedition. On a sudden, amid the general stillness, the bells tolled from the cathedral; the rowers rested on their oars, and the vessel went forward with the impulse it had received. The old Italian looked towards the city, crossed his arms on his breast, and lay back on his seat; home, happiness, early recollections, friends, family—all were in the sound, and went with it to his heart. When the rowers looked round, they beheld him with his face still turned towards the cathedral, but his eyes were closed, and when they landed they found him cold in death."
MR. H. EDWARDS informs us it appeared in an early number of Chambers' Journal. J.G.A.P. kindly refers us to the Dublin Penny Journal, vol. i. p. 48., where the story is also told; and to a poetical version of it, entitled "The Bell-founder," first printed in the Dublin University Magazine, and since in the collected poems of the author, D. H. McCarthy.]
Codex Flateyensis (Vol. ii., p. 278.).—Your correspondent W.H.F., when referring to the Orkneyinga Saga, requests information regarding the Codex Flateyensis, in which is contained one of the best MSS. of the Saga above mentioned. W.H.F. labours under the misapprehension of regarding the Codex Flateyensis as a mere manuscript of the Orkneyinga Saga, whereas that Saga constitutes but a very small part of the magnificent volume. The Codex Flateyensis takes its name, as W.H.F. rightly concludes, from the island of Flatey in the Breidafiord in Iceland, where it was long preserved. It is a parchment volume most beautifully executed, the initial letters of the chapters being finely illuminated, and extending in many instances, as in a fac-simile now before me, from top to bottom of the folio page. The contents of the volume may be learned from the following lines on the first page; I give it in English as the original is in Icelandic:—
"John Hakonson owns this book, herein first are written verses, then how Norway was colonised, then of Erik the Far-travelled, thereafter of Olaf Tryggvason the king with all his deeds, and next is the history of Olaf Haraldson, the saint, and of his deeds, and therewith the history of the earls of Orkney, then is there Sverrers Saga; thereafter the Saga of Hakon the Old, with the Saga of Magnus the king, his son, then the deeds of Einar Sokkeson of Greenland, and next of Elga and Ulf the Bad; and then begin the annals from the creation of the world to the present year. John Thordarson the priest wrote the portion concerning Erik the Far-travelled, and the Sagas of both the Olaves; but Magnus Thorhallson the priest has written all that follows, as well as all that preceded, and has illuminated all (the book). Almighty God and the holy virgin mary give joy to those who wrote and to him who dictated."
A little further on we learn from the text that when the book began to be written there had elapsed from the birth of Christ 1300 and 80 and 7 years. The volume was, therefore, commenced in 1387, and finished, as we judge from the year at which the annals cease, in 1395. The death of Hakon Hakonson is recorded in the last chapters of the Saga of that name, which we see is included in the list of those contained in the Codex Flateyensis.
E. CHARLTON.