Handbook of Heraldry: With Instructions for Tracing Pedigrees, and Deciphering Ancient Mss, Rules for the Appointment of Liveries C (Classic Reprint)

The songs with which theN orthern Bards regaled the heroes at their feasts of shells were but versified chronicles of each ancestral line, symphonied by their stirring deeds. Through the oak-fire suncertain flame the chieftain saw descend the shadowy forms of his fathers ;they came from the halls ofO din as the harper swept the strings, and deployed before their descendant, rejoicing in the sound of their praise. No parchment told his lineage to the warrior of those days ;but the heroic names were branded each night upon his swelling heart by the burning numbers of the bard. Thus did theN orthman chronicle his ancestry in those unlettered times. A fterwards, when the oak-fire was extinguished, the shell thrown by, and the night came no more with songs when we reach the age of records-we find this love of lineage availing itself of the new method of commemoration. This strong ancestral spirit of theN orman may be traced partly to the profound sentiment of perpetuity which formed the principal and noblest element of his character, aud partly to the nature of the property to which he was linked by the immemorial customs of the Teuton
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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