im through his
pagan career should not attend him into that other world, where her
society might involve him in disagreeable consequences. The persevering
Fylgia, however; in the shape of a fair maiden, walked on the waves of
the sea after her viking's ship. She came thus in sight of all the crew;
and Halfred, recognising his Fylgia, told her point blank that their
connection was at an end for ever. The forsaken Fylgia had a high spirit
of her own, and she then asked Thorold "if he would take her." Thorold
ungallantly refused; but Halfred the younger said, "Maiden, I will take
thee." [284]

In the various Norse Saga there are many anecdotes of these spirits, who
are always charming, because, with their less earthly attributes, they
always blend something of the woman. The poetry embodied in their
existence is of a softer and more humane character than that common with
the stern and vast demons of the Scandinavian mythology.

NOTE (I)

The Origin of Earl Godwin.

Sharon Turner quotes from the Knytlinga Saga what he calls "an
explanation of Godwin's career or parentage, which no other document
affords;" viz.--"that Ulf, a Danish chief, after the battle of Skorstein,
between Canute and Edmund Ironsides, pursued the English fugitives into a
wood, lost his way, met, on the morning, a Saxon youth driving cattle to
their pasture, asked him to direct him in safety to Canute's ships, and
offered him the bribe of a gold ring for his guidance; the young herdsman
refused the bribe, but sheltered the Dane in the cottage of his father
(who is represented as a mere peasant), and conducted him the next
morning to the Danish camp; previously to which, the youth's father
represented to Ulf, that his son, Godwin, could never, after aiding a
Dane to escape, rest in safety with his countrymen, and besought him to
befriend his son's fortunes with Canute." The Dane promised, and kept
his word; hence Godwin's rise. Thierry, in his "History of the Norman
Conquest," tells the same story, on the authority of Torfaeus, Hist. Rer.
Norweg. Now I need not say to any scholar in our early history, that the
Norse Chronicles, abounding with romance and legend, are never to be
received as authorities counter to our own records, though occasionally
valuable to supply omissions in the latter; and, unfortunately for this
pretty story, we have against it the direct statements of the very best
authorities we possess, viz. The Saxon Chronicle and