There is the "Birnam Wood" stratagem, by which men advanced behind a
screen of boughs, which is even used for the concealment of ships, and
the curious legend (occurring in Irish tradition also, and recalling
Capt. B. Hall's "quaker gun" story) by which a commander bluffs off his
enemy by binding his dead to stakes in rows, as if they were living men.

Less easy to understand are the "brazen horses" or "machines" driven
into the close lines of the enemy to crush and open them, an invention
of Gewar. The use of hooked weapons to pull down the foes' shields and
helmets was also taught to Hother by Gewar.

The use of black tents to conceal encampment; the defence of a pass by
hurling rocks from the heights; the bridge of boats across the Elbe;
and the employment of spies, and the bold venture, ascribed in our
chronicles to Alfred and Anlaf, of visiting in disguise the enemy's
camp, is here attributed to Frode, who even assumed women's clothes for
the purpose.

Frode is throughout the typical general, as he is the typical statesman
and law-giver of archaic Denmark.

There are certain heathen usages connected with war, as the hurling of
a javelin or shooting of an arrow over the enemy's ranks as a "sacratio"
to Woden of the foe at the beginning of a battle. This is recorded in
the older vernacular authorities also, in exact accordance with the
Homeric usage, "Odyssey" xxiv, 516-595.

The dedication of part of the spoils to the god who gave good omens for
the war is told of the heathen Baltic peoples; but though, as Sidonius