Page:The Lay of the Last Minstrel - Scott (1805).djvu/321

 to have known, that the greatest crime I, or my family, could have committed, was persevering, to my own destruction, in serving the royal familie faithfully, though obstinately, after so great a share of depression, and after they had been pleased to doom me and my familie to starve."—MS. Memoirs of John, Master of St Clair.

The chiefs of the Vikingr, or Scandinavian pirates, assumed the title of Sækonungr, or Sea-kings. Ships, in the inflated language of the Scalds, are often termed the serpents of the ocean.

The jormungandr, or snake of the ocean, whose folds surround the earth, is one of the wildest fictions of the Edda. It was very nearly caught by the god Thor, who went to fish for it with a hook baited with a bull's head. In the battle betwixt the evil demons and the divinities of Odin, which is to precede the Ragnarockr, or Twilight of the Gods, this snake is to act a conspicuous part.

These were the Valkyriur, or Selecters of the Slain, dispatched by Odin from Valhalla, to choose those who were to