Arthurian romances; Lady of the Lake (Legendary character) -- Romances
Saint Fillan was a Scotch abbot of the seventh century who became famous
as a saint. He had two springs, which appear to be confounded by some
editors of the poem. One was at the eastern end of Loch Earn, where the
pretty modern village of St. Fillans now stands, under the shadow of
Dun Fillan, or St. Fillan's Hills, six hundred feet high, on the top of
which the saint used to say his prayers, as the marks of his knees in
the rock still testify to the credulous. The other spring is at another
village called St. Fillans, nearly thirty miles to the westward, just
outside the limits of our map, on the road to Tyndrum. In this Holy
Pool, as it is called, insane folk were dipped with certain ceremonies,
and then left bound all night in the open air. If they were found loose
the next morning, they were supposed to have been cured. This treatment
was practised as late as 1790, according to Pennant, who adds that
the patients were generally found in the morning relieved of their
troubles--by death. Another writer, in 1843, says that the pool is still
visited, not by people of the vicinity, who have no faith in its virtue,
but by those from distant places. Scott alludes to this spring in
Marmion, i. 29:
"Thence to Saint Fillan's blessed well,
Whose springs can frenzied dreams dispel,
And the crazed brain restore."
3. And down the fitful breeze, etc. The original MS. reads:
"And on the fitful breeze thy numbers flung,
Till envious ivy, with her verdant ring,
Mantled and muffled each melodious string,--
O Wizard Harp, still must thine accents sleep?"
10. Caledon. Caledonia, the Roman name of Scotland.
14. Each according pause. That is, each pause in the singing. In
Marmion, ii. 11, according is used of music that fills the intervals of
other music:
"Soon as they neared his turrets strong,
The maidens raised Saint Hilda's song,
And with the sea-wave and the wind
Their voices, sweetly shrill, combined,
And made harmonious close;
Then, answering from the sandy shore,
Half-drowned amid the breakers' roar,
According chorus rose."
The MS. reads here:
"At each according pause thou spokest aloud
Thine ardent sympathy sublime and high."
28. The stag at eve had drunk his fill. The metre of the poem proper
is iambic, that is, with the accent on the even syllables, and
octosyllabic, or eight syllables to the line.
29. Monan's rill. St. Monan was a Scotch martyr of the fourth century.
We can find no mention of any rill named for him.
31. Glenartney. A valley to the north-east of Callander, with
Benvoirlich (which rises to the height of 3180 feet) on the north, and
Uam-Var (see 53 below) on the south, separating it from the valley of
the Teith. It takes its name from the Artney, the stream flowing through
it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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