Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/274

 REVIEWS.

Essays on Questions connected with the Old English Poem of Beowulf. By Knut Stjerna. Trans, and ed. by J. R. Clark Hall. (Viking Club Extra Series, No. 3.) Curtis «& Beamish, 1912. 4to, pp. xxxv+284. 128 ill. + 2 maps. I2S. 6d. tt.

This handsome and finely illustrated volume, containing a part of the contributions to archaeological science made by the late Dr. Stjerna during his unfortunately only too brief life, is due to the industry of Mr. Clark Hall, whose edition of Beowulf was noticed in Folk-Lore on its appearance in 191 1. The present writer then took occasion to refer to the useful " List of Things Mentioned in Beowulf ".which formed an appendix to the work just mentioned. That list, with some additions, also finds a place in the volume of essays now under review.

As is only natural, the main interest of the book is archaeo- logical, and we may at once say that, from that point of view, it contains contributions to knowledge of the highest interest. But there are also many points of interest to the folklorist. For example, there is the account of the method of dealing with a dragon in charge of a hoard of treasure. The place where the treasure (and incidentally the dragon) is hidden is known by the occasional issuance of flames from thq spot. When the seeker gets near enough he is to throw his knife (with a steel blade) or his right shoe (doubtless with iron nails or the like in it) into the flames, and then to throw himself down on the ground with his legs crossed. The dragon rushes out to kill the man who has thrown his property into the fire, but the sign of the cross is too