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250
COPENHAGEN.
Chap. XVI.
manship, tastefully engraved, and a silver cup, an inch
and three-quarters high, taken from the grave of Queen
Thyre Dannebod, at Jellinge, ornamented with the
serpent decoration. Fibulas of every form and fashion,
lyre-shaped, sword-shaped, in endless variety; an ancient
coin scratched over with Runic inscription; silver scales;
Eastern-looking beads, and rings with pendent
bre-loques; small hatchets, and other implements.
Bracelets, plain silver band, with perpendicular bark-like
ornament ; netted, twist, and chain of every device invented
since the creation of the world; one, too, of a suspicious
horseshoe form, worn perhaps for luck; then others of
serpent coil, more massive still, rich and exquisite in
design. A necklace composed of rings of netted
chainwork, similar to the bracelets, very beautiful and perfect
in execution, at the same time both massive and delicate.
The more you examine the more you are astonished
at the beautiful workmanship of the articles displayed
before you.
And now for the gold ornaments. You admire those
large massive “ bracelets ” as you call them; so did
I till I knew better. They are the swearing-rings of the
ancients, and hang, as you may see on examining some
of the figures on the early bracteæ coins, to the collar of
the warrior; on these he placed his finger when taking an
oath on any solemn occasion, which oath he would break
in twenty-four hours afterwards with very little
hesitation. Gold embossed beads, trumpery and
Palais-Royal-ish in taste; leopard-headed ornaments with jewelled
pendants; collar ornaments of filigree with bracteæ
attached, all betray their Byzantine origin.
A girdle of solid gold, but beaten very thin, once
adorned the statue of some favourite idol: it is very
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