e
riding on the seashore at Newport. A year or two previous a skeleton had
been dug up at Fall River, clad in broken and corroded armor; and the
idea occurred to me of connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport,
generally known hitherto as the Old Windmill, though now claimed by the
Danes as a work of their early ancestors."

19. Skald: a Scandinavian minstrel who composed and sang or recited
verses in celebration of famous deeds, heroes, and events.

"And there, in many a stormy vale,
The Scald had told his wondrous tale."

--SCOTT, Lay of the Last Minstrel, can. 6, St. 22.

20. Saga: myth or heroic story.

28. ger-falcon: large falcon, much used in northern Europe in falconry.

38. were-wolf: a person who had taken the form of a wolf and had become
a cannibal. The superstition was that those who had voluntarily become
wolves could become men again at will.

42. corsair: pirate. Originally "corsair" was applied to privateers off
the Barbary Coast who preyed upon Christian shipping under the authority
of their governments.

49. "wassail-bout": festivity at which healths are drunk.

53. Berserk. Berserker was a legendary Scandinavian hero who never wore
a shirt of mail. In general, a warrior who could assume the form and
ferocity of wild beasts, and whom fire and iron could not harm.

94. Sea-mew: a kind of European gull.

110. Skaw: a cape on the coast of Denmark.

159. Skoal!: Hail! a toast or friendly greeting used by the Norse
especially in poetry.

THE WRECK of THE HESPERUS

On Dec. 17, 1839, Longfellow wrote in his journal: "News of shipwrecks
horrible, on the coast. Forty bodies washed ashore near Gloucester, one
lashed to a piece of the wreck. There is a reef called Norman's Woe,
where many of these took place; among others the schooner Hesperus."

On Dec. 30 he added: "Sat till one o'clock by the fire, smoking, when
suddenly it came into my head to write the Ballad of the schooner
Hesperus, which I accordingly did. Then went o bed, but could not sleep.
New thoughts were running in my mind, and I got up to add them to the
ballad. It was three by the clock."... "I feel pleased with the ballad.
it hardly cost mean effort. It did not come into my mind by lines but by
stanzas."

In a letter to Mr. Charles Lanman on Nov. 24, 1871, Mr. Longfellow said:
"I had quite forgotten about its first publication; but I find a letter
from Park Benjamin, d