52 
of C arzkature 
and Gratchue 
extravagant as to produce laughter. The chieftains appear alfo to have 
encouraged men who could make jokes, and fatirife and caricature others; 
for the company of fuch men feems to have been cherifhed, and they are 
not unfrequently introduced in the ftories. Such a perfonage, as I have 
remarked before, is Hunferth in Beowulf; fuch was the Sir Kay of the 
later Arthurian romances; and fuch too was the Norman minitrel in the 
hiftory of Hereward, who amufed the Norman foldiers at their feafis by 
mimicry of the manners of their Anglo-Saxon opponents. The too 
perfonal fatire of thefe Wits often led to quarrels, which ended in 
ii? , Q 
W  
 
N0. 27. Anglo-Saxon Dragons. 
fanguinary brawls. The Anglo-Saxon love of caricature is lhown largely 
in their proper names, which were moflly fignilicant of perfonal qualities 
their parents hoped they would poffefs; and in thefe we remark the 
pronenefs of the Teutonic race, as well as the peoples of antiquity, to 
reprefent thefe qualities by the animals fuppofed to poffefs them, the 
animals molt popular being the wolf and the bear. But it is not to be 
expeeted that the hopes of the parents in giving the name would always 
be fulfilled, and it is not an uncommon thing to find individuals lofing 
their original names to receive in their place nicknames, or names which 
probably