9 th S. II. Nov. 5, '98.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
371
I supposed this was the last continental
example I had to inflict, but my wife has
referred me to one more case, that of the
Russian princess Olga, wife of Oleg, Prince
of Russia, murdered by the Drevelians in or
about the year 945. Determined to revenge
his death, Olga attacked the Drevelians and
set siege to the capital Korostene. As the
inhabitants held out she resorted to a strata-
gem. Pretending friendliness, she sent am-
bassadors to treat for amnesty, asking the
townspeople, in fulfilment of their part of the
bargain, to send her all their pigeons. This
was done, but the crafty and treacherous
queen now, I suppose, for services rendered
later to the Church by her own and other
folk's conversion, a saint in the calendar
utilized the birds after the method of Hading,
attaching lighted brands to their tails ana
setting them free. Of course they returned
into the town, which, being built of timber,
was soon in flames. So, according to Russian
legend, did the future St. Helen wreak her
vengeance.
The ultimate Cirencester authority for the version referred to by MR. ED. MARSHALL and MR. MACRAY is Giraldus Cambrensis, who reports (' Topog. Hibernise,' iii. ch. 39) from " British history " that Gurmund alleged conqueror of Ireland passed from Africa into Ireland, and, having been brought over thence into Britain by the Saxons, besieged Cirencester, which he at last took and burnt " by the wicked stratagem of the sparrows "
-' qua tandem capta et passerum (ut ferunt) maleficio igne succensa." The highly con- densed reference "maleficio passerum" would certainly be mysterious unless interpreted in the light of the analogue elsewhere of crow, swallow, and pigeon. Miss THOYTS, mention- ing a kindred tradition of Silchester, reminds me that in the Roman station at Ardoch, when explored recently, there were found many little balls of clay which were believed to have been fireballs an institution by no means unfamiliar in the Roman wars of conquest. Winged legend has often enough feet of clay.
However regarded, the feathered flame- bearers at Cirencester and other places (modelled, like so many other mediaeval won- ders, on Scriptural incident, and in this case, of course, inspired by Samson's artistic and satis- fying treatment of the foxes' tails among the corn of the Philistines)have proved themselves long-distance travellers alike in time and space. Perhaps it would be equivocal to say that they are rather farfetched ; but, at any rate, one may safely opine that Dublin's claim to priority had best wait the decision of the critic of the comparative myth.
Since writing I have enjoyed an hour in
the Hunterian Library with your too rare cor-
respondent PROF. YOUNG, including a ramble
over the ample pages of a very early edition
of the 'Speculum Naturale' of Vincent of
Beauvais, which was before the Reformation
part of the library of the Abbey of Ramsey
in Huntingdonshire, as the MS. title-page
undernoted* bears. In book xxxiii. ch. 96,
entitled ' Tempora Henrici Sexti,' occurs the
passage in question, which may be reckoned
the "editio princeps" of at least some ver-
sions of our tale. It is one not materially
more wonderful than other incidents of
natural history contained in the same noble
tome :
" Eo tempore in pago Beluacensi inter Claruni Montem etCompenmum tante pluuie cum tonitruis et fulminibus et tempestatibua facte aunt quantas nulla memorat hominum antiquitas. Lapides enim ad quantitatem ovorum quadranguli mixtim cum pluuia de celo cadentes et arbores fructiferas et vineas et segetes penitus destruxerunt. Uille quoque in plerisque locis a fulminibus deatructe et combuste sunt. Corui etiam quamplures cum hujuscemodi tempestate visi aunt in acre de loco ad locum volantea cum rostris viuos carbones portantea ac domoa incendentes."
Leland (' Collectanea,' vol. iv. p. 37) has a reference to Giraldus, and to the name Civitas Passerum applied to Cirencester.
GEO. NEILSON.
Glasgow.
It will appear from Camden's observation, as well as from MR. MACRAY'S remark, that there may be room for another note upon this subject.
Geoffrey of Monmouth makes Gormund an African king who came over from Ireland and took Cirencester. But in A.D. 577 Ceawlin took Cirencester after a great battle at Depr- ham, as other authorities, in agreement with the ' A.-S. Chronicle,' state. Geoffrey of Mon- mouth's history ends before A.D. 879, at which date the 'A.-S. Chronicle,' in common with other histories, makes Guthorn-vEthelstan, who had been baptized the year before, to have come from Chippenham to Cirencester, and to have " sat there " for a year, which means a departure out of Wessex into Mercia. So Asser observes in his 'Life of King Alfred ': ___
' "SPECULUM NATURALE VINCENTII BELUACENSIS. Liber hicce rariaaimua utilisaimuaque Speculum mundi dictua cum pluribua aliia servatua est ab exitio e monasterio de Ramsey diasolutia domibua religiosia aub tune temporis rege Henrico ejua riomi- nis Octavo : opus autem fuit Vincentii Beluacensis Burgundi illuatria theologi de quo plura legas licet in folio ducenteaimo quartodecimo libri cronicorum mundi qui liber et ipae ibidem una cum hoc Speculo Mundi fuit conservatus."
