Welsh Journals

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448 sin :" i.e., " Lovleif, the son of Thorjolf, erected this cross to his son Ub," (or perhaps " Ulb," i.e., Olaf).* Upon a general review of these Runic remains, we can hardly but be struck with the evidence they afford that these Northmen, whose names we associate only with everything that is barbarous and bloody, were anything but an uncivilized and uncultivated people. There was in them a great deal of natural refinement, a taste for the beautiful in art, and an originality of design. They were poets and musicians too, as well as sculptors. On one of these monuments we have the representation of a man playing on a harp ; and the poems of one of their number, who flourished shortly after these monuments were erected, (Snorro Sturlson), have come down to our own day, and abound with fine descriptive and heart-stirring passages. That they were legislators, as well as warriors, the persistency of much of their legal code in the island at the present day abundantly proves; and that they earnestly embraced Christianity, even when offered to them by a conquered people, is evidenced by the munificent gifts for religious purposes which were made from time to time by the Scandinavian kings in Man, as well as by the very numerous memorials which even the common people have left behind them, of their affectionate remembrance of their friends who died in the faith of Christ. The lectures were profusely illustrated by a number of drawings, casts, and rubbings, from remarkable examples of antiquity ; and as an exposition of an early and comparatively unknown period of British history, they were marked by a patient research, a clearness of statement, and a fulness of antiquarian lores which excited the interest and largely contributed to the information of the meetings. The evening lecture (which is now in the press, and will be shortly published by Mr. Cumming, illustrated with about 60 original plates.f) elicited some pertinent remarks from several gentlemen present. The Runic Crosses of the Isle of Man naturally enough suggested enquiries respecting the beautiful Crosses at Sandbach, in Cheshire, which, however, the lecturer considered to be of later date than those of the which he had been treating. It is to be hoped that some Member of our Society in the * Since this lecture was delivered, Mr. Cumming has more closely examined the inscription on thi3 Cross, and proposes the following amended reading:—"Thorlaibr: Thorjulb: sunr: raisti: crs: thona: aftir: Ulb: sun: sin:" i.e., "Thorlaf, ThorjolPs son, erected this cross to his son Olave." There is apparently a small additional stroke in the first letter, which will convert the " 1" into " th" ; the " u" or " v" are so very like "r" that they may readily be mistaken; and there is a faint stroke between the "U" and "b" of the word Ub, which was probably intended for "1," and would make it Ulb or Ulv, i.e., Olv or Olave, as Mr. Cumming conjectures in the text. t Subscribers' names may be sent to Mr. Lomax, Bookseller, Lichfield.