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20 The Anglo-Saxon Runic Poem<br />
67 Ing wses serest mid East-Denum<br />
gesewen secgun, oj? he siSSan est<br />
<strong>of</strong>er wseg gewat; wsen sefter ranr;<br />
t5us Heardingas Sone hsele nemdun.<br />
71 E]?el by)? <strong>of</strong>erle<strong>of</strong> aeghwylcum men,<br />
gif he mot Cser rihtes and gerysena on<br />
brucan on boWe bleadum <strong>of</strong>tast.<br />
74 Dseg by]? drihtnes sond, deore mannum,<br />
msere metodes leoht, myrg]? and tohiht<br />
eadgum and earmum, eallum-brice.<br />
77 Ac by}? on eor]?an elda bearnum<br />
flsesces fodor, ferej? gelome<br />
<strong>of</strong>er ganotes bee]?; garsecg fanda)?<br />
hwaeber ac hsebbe sebele treowe.<br />
73. H. blode, 74. H. mann inserted above dceg.<br />
67. Ing (Salzb. AS. Ing, Goth. Enguz), the letter for ng in the original<br />
r\<br />
alphabet ; occasionally it is used for ing, e.g. Bir^ngu on the stone from<br />
Opedal, Norway ; Ing is doubtless the eponym <strong>of</strong> the Ingwine, a name<br />
applied to the Danes in Beowulf, vv. 1044, 1319, where Hrothgar is styled<br />
eodor Ingwina, frean Ingwina.<br />
The earliest reference to Ing is to be found in the Ingaevones <strong>of</strong> Tacitus,<br />
c. ii., and Pliny, whom Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Chadwick (Origin <strong>of</strong> the English Nation,<br />
pp. 207 ff.) has shown there is some reason for identifying with the con<br />
federation <strong>of</strong> Baltic tribes who worshipped Nerthus, id est Terra Mater,<br />
on an island in the ocean, perhaps the Danish isle <strong>of</strong> Sjaslland. But in<br />
later times the name is almost exclusively confined to Sweden ; e.g.<br />
Arngrim J6nsson's epitome <strong>of</strong> the Skioldunga saga (Olrik, Aarb.f.n.O.,<br />
1894, p. 105): tradunt Odinum,..Daniam...Scioldo, Sveciam Ingoni filiis<br />
assignasse. Atque inde a Scioldo, quos hodie Danos, olim Skiolldunga fuisse<br />
appellatos ; ut et Svecos ab Ingoni Inglinga. In Icelandic literature, e.g. the<br />
Ynglinga saga, the name Ynglingar is applied to the Swedish royal family,<br />
and the god Frey, their favourite divinity and reputed ancestor, is himself<br />
styled Yngvi-Freyr and Ingunar freyr (the lord <strong>of</strong> the prosperity <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Ingwine or the husband <strong>of</strong> Ingun). It is significant, moreover, that the<br />
name <strong>of</strong> his father NJgiftr is phonetically equivalent to Nerthus, and his own<br />
cult as a god <strong>of</strong> peace and prosperity is evidently descended from that <strong>of</strong> the<br />
selfsame goddess (cf. Chadwick, O.E.N. p. 230 ff.).<br />
69. wsen after ran, doubtless to be connected with the following passages,<br />
Tacitus, Germania, c. XL : They have a common worship <strong>of</strong> Nerthus, that is<br />
Mother Earth, and believe that she intervenes in human affairs and visits the<br />
nations in her car, etc., and the story <strong>of</strong> Gunnarr Helmingr in the Flateyjarb6k<br />
Saga <strong>of</strong> Olaf Tryggvason, which relates that there was in Sweden an<br />
image <strong>of</strong> the god Freyr, which in winter time was carried about the country<br />
in a car, gera monnum drbot, to bring about an abundant season for men ;<br />
cf. Vigfiisson and linger, Flateyjarbdk, i. 338, translated in Sephton's Saga<br />
<strong>of</strong> K. Olaf Tryggvason, p. 258 ff.<br />
70. Heardingas, not elsewhere in AS., perhaps a generic term for<br />
"warriors" as in Elene, vv. 25, 130. It corresponds however to the ON.<br />
Haddingjar and the Asdingi, a section <strong>of</strong> the Vandals (from haddr, " a