Page:Runic and heroic poems of the old Teutonic peoples.djvu/28



Feoh byþ frofur fira gehwylcum;

sceal ðeah manna gehwylc miclun hyt dælan

gif he wile for drihtne domes hleotan.

Ur Ur (Saltz. AS. ur, Goth. wraz). Cf. ON. úrr, OHG. urohso; bos taurus primgenius, the aurochs or buffalo, the gigantic wild ox described by Caesar, B. G.. 28, as inhabiting the Hereynian forest:''Tertium est genus eorum qui uri appellantur. Hi sunt magnitudine paulo infra elephantos, specie et colore et figura tauri. Magna vis eorum est et magna velocitas, neque homini neque ferae quam conspexerunt parcunt… Amplitudo cornuum et figura et species multum a nostrorum boum differt.It is to be distinguished from the bison (e.g. Seneca, Phaedra, v. 68; and Pliny, Nat. Hist.'' . 15) with which it was confused in medieval Germany, cf. Albertus Magnus, De Animalibus,. 2."Its remains occur abundantly in the later Plistocene deposits of Britain, those from the brick-earths of Ilford, in Essex, being remarkable for their fine state of preservation and showing the enormous dimensions attained by this magnificent animal" (Lydekker, Wild Oxen, p. 11, London, 1898). In Western Europe, however, it was still found in the Middle Ages; in the sixth century it was hunted in the Vosges (Gregory of Tours, . 10, Venantius Fortunatus, Misc. . 4. 19; cf. Nibelungenlied, str. 880), and doubtless in other thickly wooded regions, but was extinct by the end of the period. In Poland alone it persisted somewhat longer in the forest of Jakozowska (described and illustrated by von Herberstein, Rerum Moscovitarum Commentarii, Antwerp, 1557), where the last was killed in 1627. Cf. Lydekker, The Ox and its Kindred, pp. 37–67, pi. . . (London, 1912).The horns of the aurochs, occasionally 6½ feet in length with a capacity of well nigh a gallon, were much prized as drinking vessels in medieval Europe, cf. Egilssaga, c. . 3, Saxo, Bk. (Holder, p. 168); and the poet, who is scarcely likely to have seen an aurochs in the flesh, may have used one brought to England from the continent. byþ anmod ond oferhyrned,

felafrecne deor, feohteþ mid hornum

mære morstapa; þæt is modig wuht.

Ðorn byþ ðearle scearp; ðegna gehwylcum

anfeng ys yfyl, ungemetum reþe

manna gehwelcum, ðe him mid resteð.

Os byþ ordfruma ælere spræce,

wisdomes wraþu ond witena frofur

and eorla gehwam eadnys ond tohiht.