[Illustration: _No. 31. A Lamp and Stand._]
We have no information to explain to us how the bower or chamber was warmed. In the hall, it is probable that the fire gave warmth and light at the same time, although, in the fragment of the Anglo-Saxon poem relating to the fight at Finnesburg, there is an indistinct intimation that the hall was sometimes lighted with _horns_, or cressets; but, in the chamber, during the long evenings of winter, it was necessary to have an artificial light to enable its occupants to read, or work, or play. The Anglo-Saxon name for this article, so necessary for domestic comfort, was _candel_ or _condel_ (our _candle_); and, so general was the application of this term, that it was even used figuratively as we now use the word lamp. Thus, the Anglo-Saxon poets spoke of the sun as _rodores candel_ (the candle of the firmament), _woruld-candel_ (the candle of the world), _heofon-condel_ (the candle of heaven), _wyn-condel_ (the candle of glory). The candle was, no doubt, originally a mere mass of fat plastered round a wick (_candel-weoc_), and stuck upon an upright stick. Hence the instrument on which it was afterwards supported received the name of _candel-sticca_ or _candel-stæf_, a candlestick; and the original idea was preserved even when the candle supporter had many branches, it being then called a _candel-treow_, or candle-tree. The original arrangement of the stick was also preserved; for, down to a very recent period, the candle was not inserted in a socket in the candlestick as at present, but it was stuck upon a spike. The Anglo-Saxon writers speak of _candel-snytels_, or snuffers. Other names less used, for a candle or some article for giving light, were _blacern_ or _blæcern_, which is explained in glossaries by the Latin _lucerna_, and _thæcela_, the latter signifying merely a light. It was usual, also, among our Saxon forefathers, as among ourselves, to speak of the instrument for illumination as merely _leoht_, a light--“bring me a light.” A candlestick and candle are represented in one of the cuts in our last chapter (cut No. 19). The Anglo-Saxons, no doubt, derived the use of lamps from the Romans; and they were so utterly at a loss for a word to describe this mode of illumination, that they always called it _leoht-fæt_, a light-vat, or vessel of light. In our cut (No. 31) we have an Anglo-Saxon lamp, placed on a candelabrum or stand, exactly in the Roman manner. It will be remembered that Asser, a writer of somewhat doubtful authenticity, ascribes to king Alfred the invention of lanterns, as a protection to the candle, to prevent it from swealing in consequence of the wind entering through the crevices of the apartments--not a very bright picture of the comforts of an Anglo-Saxon chamber. The candles were made of wax as well as tallow. The candlestick was of different materials. In one instance we find it termed, in Anglo-Saxon, a _leoht-isern_, literally a light-iron: perhaps this was the term used for the lamp-stand, as figured in our last cut. In the inventories we have mention of _ge-bonene candel-sticcan_ (candlesticks of bone), of silver-gilt candlesticks, and of ornamented candlesticks.