Beschreibung:

Sir William Quiller Orchardson R.A., H.R.S.A. (1832-1910) 'The Queen of the Swords' A dozen cutlasses, selected hastily from an old arm-chest, and whose rusted hue bespoke how seldom they left the sheath, armed the same number of young Zetlanders, with whom mingled six maidens, led by Minna Troil; and the minstrelsy instantly commenced a tune appropriate to the ancient Norwegian war-dance, the evolutions of which are perhaps still practised in those remote islands. The first movement of the dance was graceful and majestic, the youths holding their swords erect, and without much gesture; but the tune, and the corresponding motion of the dancers, became gradually more and more rapid - they clashed their swords together, in measured time, with a spirit which gave the excercise a dangerous appearance in the eye of the spectator, though the firmness, justice, and accuracy with which the dancers kept time with the stroke of their weapons, did, in truth, ensure its safety. The most singular part of the exhibition was the courage exhibited by the female performers, who now, surrounded by the swordsmen, seemed like the Sabine maidens in the hands of their Roman lovers; now moving under the arch of steel which the young men had formed, by crossing their weapons over the heads of their fair partners, resembled the band of Amazons when they first joined in the Pyrrhic dance with the followers of Theseus. But by far the most striking and appropriate figure was that of Minna Troil, whom Halcro had long since entitled the Queen of Swords, and who, indeed, moved amidst the swordsmen with an air, which seemed to hold all the drawn blades as the proper accompaniments of her person, and the implements of her pleasure. And when the mazes of the dance became more intricate, when the close and continuous clash of the weapons made some of her companions shrink, and show signs of fear, her cheek, her lip, and her eye, seemed rather to announce, that, at the moment when the weapons flashed fastest, and rang sharpest around her, she was most completely self-possessed, and in her element. Sir Walter Scott The Pirate , chapter 15. signed and dated 'W Q Orchardson - 77' (lower right) oil on canvas 33 x 53 in. (83.8 x 134.6 cm.)