=Volumnia= was the _wife_ of Coriolanus, and Vetu´ria his _mother_; but Shakespeare makes Virgilia the wife, and Volumnia the mother.--_Coriolanus_ (1610). The old man’s merriment in Menenius; the lofty lady’s dignity in Volumnia; the bridal modesty in Virgilia; the patrician and military haughtiness in Coriolanus; the plebeian malignity and tribunitian insolence in Brutus and Sicinius, make a very pleasing and interesting variety.--Dr. Johnson. =Voluspa Saga= (_The_), the prophecy of Völa. It contains between 200 and 300 verses, and resembles the Sibylline books of ancient Rome. The _Voluspa_ Saga gives, in verse, a description of chaos, the formation of the world, the creation of all animals (including dwarfs and giants, genii and devils, fairies and goblins), the final conflagration of the world and its renewal, when it will appear in celestial beauty, like the new Jerusalem described in the book of the _Revelation_. =Vorst= (_Peterkin_), the sleeping sentinel at Powys Castle.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.). =Vortigern=, counsel of the Gewisseans, who crowned Constans, king of Britain, although he was a monk, but treacherously contrived to get him assassinated afterwards, and then usurped the crown. He married Rowen’a, daughter of Hengist, and was burnt to death in a tower set on fire during a siege by Ambrosius.--Geoffrey, _British History_, vi. 6; viii. 1 (1142). _Vortigern_, a drama put forward by Henry W. Ireland (1796) as a newly discovered play by Shakespeare. It was brought out at Drury Lane Theatre, by John Kemble. Dr. Parr declared it to be his opinion that the play was genuine. =Vortigern and Hengist.= The account of the massacre of the Long-Knives, given by Geoffrey, in his _British History_, vi. 15, differs greatly from that of the _Welsh Triads_ (See STONEHENGE, A TROPHY). Geoffrey says that Hengist came over with a large army, at which King Vortigern was alarmed. To allay this suspicion, Hengist promised to send back all the men that the king did not require, and begged Vortigern to meet him in conference at Ambrius (_Ambresbury_), on May-day. Hengist, in the meantime, secretly armed a number of his soldiers with “long-knives,” and told them to fall on the Britons during the conference, when he uttered the words, “Nemet oure Saxas.” This they did, and 460 “barons and consuls” fell. It does not appear from this narrative that the slaughter was due “to the treachery of Vortigern,” but was wholly the work of Hengist. Geoffrey calls the earl of Gloucester “Eldol,” and not “Eidiol.”