turnskin

Updated: June 5, 2025

Augustin, in his great treatise, De Civitate Dei, tell the same story, and Virgil, in his Eclogues, has sung the same belief . The Latins called such a man, a turnskin versipellis, an expression which exactly agrees with the Icelandic expression for the same thing, and which is probably the true original of our turncoat.

Sir George Webbe Dasent - Popular Tales from the Norse