Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-08-06
Scandinavian Drinking Bouts.

LEARNED commentators on the North
ern antiquities help us to conjure up the
scene of one of those drinking bouts. 1t
is bitter evening in winter; the war
galleys have been laid up in ordinary
for the season, and the time hangs heavy
on the hands of the vikings. The better
part of the morning passed in sleeping
off the effects of the previous debauch;
and, after breaking their fasts with un-
impaired appetites, the listless warriors
have reused themselves for exercise, and
have been stretching their muscles over
manly sports. All the same, the short
day has dragged, and they have well
coined the heavy fall of the shadows.
The feast has been spread in rude pro-
fusion; the hugo salted joints have been
picked to the bone and tossed to the
hounds; the bare tables on the trestles
have been cleared away, and the bolster
Gus company, breathing hard after the
meal, has settled itself down for an
earnest carouse. Though the hall is
lighted with numerous torches, it is no
easy matter to distinguish objects, for
the smoke from the fire blazing in the
middle is curling up to the rafters of the
lofty roof, in vain attempts to escape by
the smoke holes. But all around the
jewellers are grouped on the rough
benches, while at the end, On dais
above their followers, sit the nhiefs in
the places of honor. Tablas may be
dispensed with. The great horns, with
the cup-bearers, or horn bearers, in at.
tending to replenish them, pass swiftly
from hand to hand. There are toasts
and anptiFnnVata - aud lnnar .ryt,,I,l
speeches as well, on solemn oc.
casions of ceremony. The scalds
sitting apart, their eyes "in q fine
frenzy rolling" chant the memorable
deeds of gods and heroes, and especially
the feats of the present company, in in
terminable stanzas more or less melodi-
Gus and the fierce jewellers chime in
with the chorus till roof and rafters ring
again. Naturally the fun grows fast and
furious. Thanks to the form of the
drinking vessels, there is no setting
them down between pulls. II was the
anticipation Of the fashion of the hard
drinkers Of later age, who guarded
against heel-taps on the sly by knock
ing the bottoms of their glasses. It was
the pride of those ''jOlly good fellows"
of the North 10 take off the contents of
the horn at breath. The muddy ale
and the header mead must have mud
died weaker or more delicate brains. As
it was, there was little intelligence to
be confused, and not much wit to be ex-
PEELED, though, if the Sagas are to be
trusted, those oase-hardened topers are
10 be credited occasionally with some
bit of dry humOr. But the warm blood
grew better still as the liquor went
coursing through the fevered veins, and
quarrels began that led on TO bloody
fends afterward, if comrades prevented
their being settled on the spot. More
than once in such banqueting hall
some epic in action had its sanguinary
deH0Uenlent- when the Burgundians,
prompted by the vengeance of Kriem-
hild, beset the heroes of the Niebelung-
enlied on the banks of the Danube; and
after Rudiger, in the sublmity of his
chivalry, had handed his shield to Ha-
gen, there began "the slaughter grim
and great. ."-BlacblCo0d's MdgaztRe,