Books, Prehistory, Chambers' Book of Days July 19

WAYLAND SMITHS CAVE [Map]

This now well-known monument of a remote antiquity stands in the parish of Ashbury, on the western boundaries of Berkshire, among the chalk-hills which form a continuation of the Wiltshire downs, in a district covered with ancient remains. It is simply a primitive sepulchre, which, though now much dilapidated, has originally consisted of a rather long rectangular apartment, with two lateral chambers, formed by upright stones, and roofed with large slabs. It was, no doubt, originally covered with a mound of earth, which in course of time has been in great part removed.

It belongs to a class of monuments which is usually called Celtic, but, if this be a correct denomination, we must take it, no doubt, as meaning Celtic during the Roman period, for it stands near a Roman road, the Ridgway, which was the position the Romans chose above all others, while the Britons in the earlier period, if they had any high-roads at all, which is very doubtful, chose in preference the tops of hills for their burial-place. A number of early sepulchral monuments might be pointed out in different parts of our island, of the same class, and more important than Wayland Smith's Cave, but it has obtained an especial celebrity through two or three circumstances.

In the first place, this is the only monument of the kind which we find directly named in an Anglo-Saxon document. It happened to be on the line of boundary between two Anglo-Saxon estates, and, therefore, became a marked object. In the deed of conveyance of the estate in which this monument is mentioned, of a date some time previous to the Norman Conquest, it is called Welandes Smiththan, which means Weland's Smithy, or forge, so that its modern name, which is a mere slight corruption from the Anglo-Saxon one, dates itself from a very remote period. In the time of Lysons, to judge from his account of it, it was still known merely by the name of Wayland Smith, so that the further corruption into Wayland Smith's Cave appears to be of very recent date. It is also worthy of remark, that the Anglo-Saxon name appears to prove that in those early times the monument had been already uncovered of its earth, and was no longer recognised as a sepulchral monument, for the Anglo-Saxons would hardly have given the name of a forge, or smithy, to what they knew to be a tomb; so that we have reason for believing that many of our cromlechs and monuments of this description had already been uncovered of their mounds in Anglo-Saxon times. They were probably opened in search of treasure.

But, perhaps, the most curious circumstance of all connected with this monument is its legend. It has been the popular belief among the peasantry in modem times, that should it happen to a traveller passing this way that his horse cast a shoe, he had only to take the animal to the cave,' which they supposed to be inhabited by an invisible, to place a groat on the copestone, and to withdraw to a distance from which he could not see the operation, and on his return, after a short absence, he would find his horse properly shod, and the money taken away. To explain this, it is necessary only to state that, in the primitive Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic mythology, Weland was the mythic smith, the representative of the ancient Vulcan, the Greek Hephaistos. We have a singular proof, too, of the extreme antiquity of the Berkshire stouy, in a Grecian popular legend which has been preserved by the Greek scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius. We are told that one of the localities which Hephaistos, or Vulcan, especially haunted was the Vulcanian islands, near Sicily; and the scholiast tells us, that 'it was formerly said that, whoever chose to carry there a piece of unwrought iron, and at the same time deposit the value of the labour, would, on presenting himself there on the following morning, find it made into a sword, or whatever other object he had desired.' We have here, at this very remote period, precisely the same legend, and connected with the representative of the same mythic character, as that of the Berkshire cromlech; and we have a right, therefore, to assume that the same legend had existed in connection with the same character, at that far-distant period before the first separation of the different branches of the Teutonic family, and when Weland, and Hephaistos, and Vulcan were one.

All our readers know how skilfully our great northern bard, Sir Walter Scott, introduced the Berkshire legend of Wayland Smith into the romance of Kenilworth, and he has thus given a celebrity to the monument which it would never otherwise have enjoyed. Yet, although in his story the mythic character of Wayland Smith is lost, and he stands before us a rather common-place piece of humanity, yet every reader must feel interested in knowing something of the real character of the personage, whose name is famous through all medieval poetry in the west, and who held a prominent place in the heathen mythology of our early Saxon forefathers. His story is given in the Eddas.

Weland, as we have said, was the Vulcan of the Teutonic mythology. He was the youngest of the three sons of Wade, the all, or demi-god; and when a child, his father intrusted him to the dwarfs in the interior of the mountains, who lived among the metals, that they might instruct him in their wonderful skill in forging, and in making weapons and jewellery, so that, under their teaching, the youth became a wonderful smith. The scene of this legend is placed by the Edda in Iceland, where the three brothers, like all Scandinavian heroes, passed much of their time in hunting, in which they pursued the game on skates. In the course of these expeditions, they settled for a while in Ulfdal, where, one morning, finding on the banks of a lake three Valkyrier, or nymphs, with their elf garments beside them, they seized and took them for their wives, and lived with them eight years, at the end of which period the Valkyrier became tired of their domestic life, and flew away during the absence of their husbands. When the three brothers returned, two of them set off in search of their fugitive spouses; but Weland remained patiently at home, working in his forge to make gold rings, which he strung upon a willow-wand, to keep them till the expected return of his wife.

There lived at this time a king of Sweden, named Niduth, who had two sons, and a daughter named. Baudvild, or, in the Anglo-Saxon form of the name, Beadohild. The possession of a skilful smith, and the consequent command of his labour, was looked upon as a great prize; and when Niduth heard that Weland was in Ulfdal, he set off, with a strong body of his armed followers, to seek him. They arrived at his hut while he was away hunting, and, entering it, examined his rings, and the king took one of them as a gift for his daughter, Baudvild. Weland returned at night, and made a fire in his hut to roast a piece of bear's flesh for. his supper; and when the flames arose, they gave light to the chamber, and Weland's eyes fell on his rings, which he took down and counted, and thus found that one was missing. This circumstance was to him a cause of joy, for he supposed that his wife had returned and taken the ring, and he laid him down to slumber; but while he was asleep, King Niduth and his men returned, and bound him, and carried him away to the king's palace in Sweden.

At the suggestion of the queen, they hamstringed him, that he might not be able to escape, and placed him in a forge in a small island, where he was compelled to work for the king, and where anybody but the latter was forbidden to go under severe penalties. Weland brooded over his revenge, and accident offered him the first opportunity of indulging it. The greediness of the king's two sons had been excited by the reported wealth of Weland's forge, and they paid a secret visit to it, and were astonished at the treasures which the wily smith presented to their view. He promised that they should have them all, if they would cone to him in the utmost secrecy early next morning; but when they arrived, he suddenly closed the door, cut off their heads, and buried their bodies in the marshy ground on which the forge was built. He made of the skulls, plated with silver, drinking-cups for the king's table; of their eyes, gems for the queen; and of their teeth, a collar of pearls, which he sent as a present to the princess.

The latter was encouraged to seek Weland's assistance to mend her ring, which had been accidentally broken; and, to conceal the accident from her father, she went secretly to the forge, where the smith completed his vengeance by offering violence to her person, and sent her away dishonoured. While he had been meditating vengeance, Weland had also been preparing the means of escape, and now, having fitted on a pair of wings of his own construction, he took flight from his forge. He halted for a moment on the wall of the enclosure of the palace, where he called for the king and queen, told then all the circumstances of the murder of their sons and the dishonour of their daughter, and then continued his flight, and was heard of no more. The Princess Baudvild, in due time, gave birth to a daughter, who also was a celebrated hero of the early German mythology. It will be remarked, that the lameness of Weland is accounted for in a different manner from that of Vulcan in the more refined mythology of the classical ages.

As the various branches of the Teutonic race spread towards the west, they carried with them their common legends, but soon located then in the countries in which they settled, and after a few generations they became established as local legends. Thus, among the Scandinavians, the scene of Weland's adventures was laid in Iceland and Sweden; while among the earlier Teutons, it appears to have been fixed in some part of Germany; and the Anglo-Saxons, no doubt, placed it in England. We have found the name, and one of the legends connected with it, fixed in a remote corner of Berkshire, where they have been preserved long after their original import was forgotten. It is one of the most curious examples of the great durability of popular legends of all kinds. We know that the whole legend of Weland the smith was perfectly well known to the Anglo-Saxons to a late period of their monarchy.