the "Epithalamium." So it was all a highly difficult business, needing
adaptability, a quick wit, a goodly stock of songs, a retentive memory
and every artifice to assist it. Take "Widsith," for example, the
'far-travelled man.' He begins:--

Widsith spake: he unlocked his word-hoard.

So he had a hoard of words, you see: and he must have needed them, for he
goes on:--

Forthon ic maeg singan and secgan spell,
Maenan fore mengo in meoduhealle,
Hu me cynegode cystum dohten.
Ic waes mid Hunum and mid Hreth-gotum,
Mid Sweom and mid Geatum, and mid Suth-Denum.
Mid Wenlum ic waes and mid Waernum and mid Wicingum.
Mid Gefthum ic waes and mid Winedum....

(Therefore I can sing and tell a tale, recount in the Mead Hall, how
men of high race gave rich gifts to me. I was with Huns and with Hreth
Goths, with the Swedes, and with the Geats, and with the South Danes;
I was with the Wenlas, and with the Waernas, and with the Vikings; I
was with the Gefthas and with the Winedae....)

and so on for a full dozen lines. I say that the memory of such men must
have needed every artifice to help it: and the chief artifice to their
hand was one which also delighted the ears of their listeners. They sang
or intoned to the harp.

There you get it, Gentlemen. I have purposely, skimming a wide subject,