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with his body.”] We have seen, in the former part of this work[1], that one of the chief funeral Ceremonies, consisted in depositing along with the defunct whatever had been most precious and dear to him during his life. Upon opening the old burial-places, various kinds of iron instruments are still found there; though, whatever our Poet may say, the little earnestness that is shown for searching into such recesses, is a sufficient proof that men seldom find any great quantity of gold concealed in them.
(d) “Hilly monuments . . . . for the slain.”] This incontestably proves, that the events related in this Poem, are of very ancient date. From the first erection of churches in the north, it was strictly forbidden to bury in the open fields, as had been the custom in times of Paganism. It has been already observed[2], that these little sepulchral mounts are found every where in Scandinavia, and in the countries lying upon the Baltic. The Norvegians carried this custom with them into Normandy, where these little monumental Hillocks are often found, constructed like these of the north. The learned Montfaucon has given a full description of one that was discovered in the year 1685, in the Diocese of Evreux.
It were needless to extend these Remarks farther, the preceding Poem being of itself sufficiently characteristic of the manners of the times. In this, as in almost all other pieces of this Collection, may be perceived more force of imagination than could be expected from those ages of ignorance and ferocity; not to mention, from so rigorous a climate. It must however be added, that much of the beauty and force of these Poems is lost to us, who only read them in a prose Translation; who seldom, and not without much pains, can unfold the allegorics with which their Authors
