We are also introduced there to dragons and other
monsters which have human understandings, and, guided by a wicked
spirit, could do great mischief. Such beings took the place of the
ancient divinities, and in many cases when the hero or saint is in great
straits, in combat with these evil spirits or fiends, Jesus Christ comes
to their assistance. One instance will exemplify this:
"O'er him stood the foul fiends,
And with their clubs of steel,
Struck him o'er the helmit
That in deadly swound he fell.
But God his sorrow saw,
To the fiends his Son he sent;
From the earth they vanished
With howling and lament.
The Christian hero thanked his God,
From the ground he rose with speed,
Joyfully he sheathed his sword,
And mounted on his steed."
_Illustrations of "Northern Antiquities."_
By the beginning of this century these ideas of the _personel_ of
supernatural agencies had become slightly modified in this country at
least, giants and dragons having given way to fairies, brownies, elves,
witches, etc.
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