IRortbwestern lílníversítv^ Xíbrarv
Evanston, Illinois
THE GIFT OF
!k_cÀv-V^
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES;
oa,
AN HISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, RELIGION
AND LAWS, MARITIME EXPEDITIONS AND DISCOVERIES,
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
OF THE
ANCIENT SCANDINAVIANS,
(DANES, SWEDES, NORWEGIANS AND ICELANDSRS.)
WITH INCIDENTAL NOTICES EESPECTINQ CUE SAXON ANCESTOES.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF M. MALLET,
BY BISHOP PERCY.
NEW EDITION,
EEVISED THEOUOHOUT, AND CONSIDEEABLT ENLAEGED ; WITH A TEANSLATION
OP THE PEOSE EDDA FEOM THE OEIGINAL OLD NOESE TEXT ;
AND NOTES OEITICAL AND EXFLANATOEY,
BY I. A. BLACKWELL, ESQ
TO WHICH IS ADDED,
AN ABSTRACT OF THE EYRBYGGJA SAGA,
By Sir Walter Scott.
LONDON:
HENRY G. BOIIN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1847
BOHN'S ANTIQUARIAN LIBRARY.
MALLET^S
NOiriHERN ANTIQUITIES.
I.ONDON :
GEOKGE WOODFALL AND SON,
ANGEL COURT, SKINIrER STREET.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
Bishop Percy's Edition of M. Mallet's " Northern Antiqui¬
ties" having been published at a period when the most
important documents bearing on the subject were but im¬
perfectly known, the present Editor has necessarily been
obliged to revise the work throughout, and omit such portions
as were founded on views obviously erroneous, or on authorities
which the historical researches of the present age have shown
to be fallacious ; while he has sought to render the whole more
in af'cordance with these researches, by insertions in the body
of the text*, and notes critical and explanatoryt. Supple¬
mentary chapters have also been added, in which, as well as
in the remarks on the Prose Edda, several questions that
have given rise to learned discussions and conflicting theories
have been carefully investigated, and, perhaps, in some in¬
stances, placed under a novel point of view.
In the prosecution of his laborious task, the Editor has
made it an invariable rule to test the statements even of
writers who are generally regarded as authoritative on the
subject, by referring to the Eddas, the Sagas, and the Grágás,
from which almost all the information we possess respecting
Scandinavia in the olden time has been, either mediately or
immediately, derived. In short, he has endeavoured, by unre¬
mitting attention and diligent research, to make this one of
the most complete works on Northern Antiquities hitherto
published. How far he may have succeeded will be for the
reader to judge ; who, he trusts, will bear in mind the quaint
admonition "of old Dan Geflry" that—
" For every word men may not chide or pleine
For in this world certain ne wight ther is
That he ne doth or sayth sometime amis,"
I. A, B.
London, August \QtJi, 1847.
* Distinguished by being placed within brackets.
f These notes, when they do not refer to his own text, are distinguished
by the letters Ed,
v
CONTENTS.
Page
pishop Percy's Preface
Kemarks on Bishop Percy's Preface. By the Editor . . .22
Specimens of Languages . . . . . , . .46
M. Mallet's Preface 55
Chapter I.—First inhabitants of Denmark, particularly the Cimbri . 60
Chap. II.—Grounds of the ancient history of Üenmark, and of the
different opinions concerning it . . . . . . .71
Chap. III.—Of Odin, his supposed arrival in the North, and the changes
which he is said to have effected . . . . . .79
Chap. IV.—Primitive worship of the northern nations . . .87
Chap. V.—Religion in the North, particularly in Scandinavia, after
the primitive worship had been altered . . . . .90
Chap. VI.—Exterior worship and religious ceremonies of the northern
nations 107
Chap. VII.—Form of Government which formerly prevailed in the North 122
Chap. VIII.—Passion of the ancient Scandinavians for arms—their
valour : the manner in which they made war .... 134
Chap. IX.—Maritime expeditions of the ancient Scandinavians . . 172
Chap. X.—Customs and manners of the ancient Northern Nations . 194
Chap. XI.—Sequel of the customs, arts and sciences of the ancient
Scandinavians .......... 215
supplementary chapters by the editor.
Chap. I.—Colonization of Greenland, and discovery of the American
continent by the Scandinavians ....... 244
Chap. II.—Laws and institutions of Iceland ..... 276
Chap. III.—Manners and customs of the Icelanders .... 309
Chap. IV.—Icelandic Literature ....... 362
The Prose Edda.—Preliminary Observations by the Editor . . 397
Part I.—The Deluding of Gylfi 398
Part II.—The Conversations of Bragi 459
Critical Examination of the leading doctrines of the Scandi¬
navian System of Mythology. By the Editor . . .464
Notes to the Prose Edda. By M. Mallet and Bishop Percy . . 508
Abstract of the Eyrbyggja-Saga. By Sir "Walter Scott . .517
Glossary to the Prose Edda. By the Editor . . . .541
Index 571
BISHOP PERCY'S PREFACE.
The Author of the following vfork had a share in the educa¬
tion of that amiable Prince, Christian VII., king of Den¬
mark. During his residence in the North, Möns. Mallet
(who has all the talents of a fine writer) was engaged by
the late king, Frederick V., to write a history of Denmark
in the French language. By way of introduction to that
history, he drew up these two prefatory volumes *, the merit
of which has long been acknowledged in most parts of
Europe.
Though intended only as a preliminary piece, it has all
the merit of a complete independent work; and, except to
the natives of Denmark, is much more interesting and en¬
tertaining than the history itself, which it was intended to
precede. It very early engaged the attention of the present
translator : wdiose reading having run somewhat in the same
track with that of the author, made him fond of the subject,
and tempted him to give in an English dress a w^ork in which
it was displayed with so much advantage. As he happened
also to have many of the original books from which the
French author had taken his materials, he flattered himself
they would supply some illustrations, which might give an
additional value to the version.
For this reason, as also to afford himself an agreeable
amusement, the Translator some time ago undertook this
work ; but a series of unexpected avocations intervened, and
it was thrown aside for several years. At length he was
* Bishop Percy's Translation of M. Mallet's work was published in 1770,
in 2 vols. 8yo.
B
3
BISHOP PEECY'S PEEFACE.
prevailed upon to resume it ; and as many of his friends were
so obliging as to share among them different parts of the
translation, he had little more to do but to compare their
performances with the original, and to superadd such remarks
as occurred to him. These are distinguished from those of
the author by the letter P.
He was the rather invited to undertake this task, as he
perceived the author had been drawn in to adopt an opinion
that has been a great source of mistake and confusion to
many learned writers of the ancient history of Europe ; viz.,
that of supposing the ancient Gauls and Germans, the Bri¬
tons and Saxons, to have been all originally one and the same
people ; thus confounding the antiquities of the Gothic and
Celtic nations. This crude opinion, which perhaps was first
taken up by Cluverius^, and maintained by him with uncom¬
mon erudition, has been since incautiously adopted by Keys-
lerf and Pelloutierl, the latter of whom has, with great
diligence and skill, endeavoured to confirm it. In short, so
much learning and ingenuity have scarcely ever been more
perversely and erroneously applied, or brought to adom and
support a more groundless hypothesis. This mistake the
translator thought might be easily corrected in the present
work; and by weeding out this one error, he hoped he should
obtain the author's pardon, and acquire some merit with the
English reader.
And that it is an error he thinks will appear from the
attentive consideration of a few particulars, which can here
be only mentioned in brief : for to give the subject a thorough
discussion, and to handle it in its full extent, would far
exceed the limits of this short preface.
The ancient and original inhabitants of Europe, according
to Cluverius and Pelloutier, consisted only of two distinct
races of men, viz., the Celts and Sarmatians; and that from
* Philippi Cluveri Germanise Antiquse Libri Tres, &c. Lugdnni Eatav.
Apud Elzev. 1616, folio.
I Antiquitates Selectse Septentrionales et Celticse, &c. Auctore Job.
Georgia Keysler, &c. Hannoverse, 1720. 8vo.
X Histoire des Celtes, et particulièrement des Gaulois et des Germains,
&c., par M. Simon Pelloutier. Haye, 1750. 2 tom. 12mo. Tbis learned
•writer, -who is a Protestant minister, counsellor of the Consistory, and libra¬
rian to the Academy at Berlin, is descended from a family originally of Lan¬
guedoc, and was bom at Leipsic, 27th October, 1691, O.S.
BISHOP PEECY'S PREFACE.
3
one or other of these, but chiefly from'the former, all the
ancient nations of Europe are descended. The Sarmatians
or SauromatiB, were the ancestors of the Sclavonian tribes,
viz., the Poles, Ptussians, Bohemians, &c., who continue to
this day a distinct and separate people, extremely different in
their character, manners, laws and language, from the other
race, which was that of the Celts, from whom (they will have
it) were uniformly descended the old inhabitants of Gaul,
Germany, Scandinavia, Britain and Spain, who were all
included by the ancients under the general name of Hyper¬
boreans, Scythians, and Celts, being all originally of one race
and nation, and having all the same common language, reli¬
gion, laws, customs and manners.
This is the position which these writers have adopted and
maintained, with an uncommon display of deep erudition,
and a great variety of specious arguments. But that their
position, so far as relates to the Celts, is erroneous, and the
arguments that support it inconclusive, will appear, if it can
be shown, that ancient Germany, Scandinavia, Gaul and Bri¬
tain, were not inhabited by the descendants of one single
race; but on the contrary, divided between two very different
jieople; the one of whom we shall call, with most of the-
Boman authors, Celtic, who were the ancestors of the Gauls,
Britons, and Irish; the other Gothic or Teutonic, from whom
the Germans, Belgians, Saxons and Scandinavians, derived
their origin; and that these -were ah origine two distinct
people, very unlike in their manners, customs, religion, and
laws.
As to the arguments by which Cluverius and Pelloutier
support their hypothesis that the Gothic and Celtic nations
were the same, they may all be reduced to two heads; viz.,
either to Quotations from the ancient Greek and Roman
writers; or to Etymologies of the names of persons or
places, &c.
With regard to the latter (viz., Etymologies), these two
writers lay it down that the present high German is a
genuine daughter of the ancient Celtic or Gaulish language
because from it they can explain the etymology of innumer¬
able names that were well known to be Gaulish or Celtic f;
• Pelloutier, vol. i. p. 165, &c.
I Yid. Cluv, lib. 1, cap. vi, vii. viii. &c. Pellout. liv. 1, cbap. xv.
B 2
4
BISHOP PEKCY'S PREFACE.
and this being admitted, it must follow that the Germans
are a branch of the Celts, and consequently, that the Celtic
and Teutonic nations were the same. In prosecuting this
argument it must he acknowledged that they have produced
many instances that appear at first sight very plausible. But
whoever considers how little we can depend upon the etymo¬
logy of obsolete words, derived from barbarous dead lan¬
guages, in which there are no books e.xtant, will not build
very securely on proofs of this sort. No one will assert that
the present German bears any resemblance now to the
modern Welsh and Irish languages; and yet there are writers
in abundance who will undertake to account for the name of
almost every place, person or office, in ancient Europe, from
one or other of these two living tongues, and will produce
instances fully as plausible and conclusive, as any adduced by
Cluverius or his followers--. After all, there is probably a
good deal of' truth on both sides; I can readily believe that
all the names of places and persons in ancient Germany, or
such other countries as any of the Teutonic nations at any
time penetrated into, will be reducible to the language now
spoken by their descendants : and that in like manner, from
the Irish and Welsh languages, which may be allowed to be
genuine daughters of the ancient Gallic or Celtic tongue, it
will be easy to explain such names as were imposed by any
of the ancient Celtic or Gallic tribes. Indeed in the veiy
remote ages, prior to history, one cannot pretend to say wffiat
were the distinct bounds or limits of each people. They
were, like all other barbarous nations, roving and unsettled ;
and often varied their situation; being sometimes spread
over a country; at other times driven out by some stronger
tribe of barbarians, or forsaking it themselves in search of
new settlements. Caesar informs us, that some of the Gallic
tribes forced their way into Germany, and there established
themselves f. It is equally probable, that before his time,
bands of Germans might at different periods penetrate into
* See that excellent antiquary Lluyd, in Archœologia Britannica, &c.,
not to mention many late writers of a different stamp, viz., Jones, Parsons,
&c. &c.
-f- Fuit antea tempus cum Germanos Galli virtuie superarent et vitro hella
inferrent, ac . . . trans Rhemm colonias mitterent, dx. Vid. plura
apud. Goes, de Bell. Gall. lib. vi.
BISHOP Percy's preface.
5
Gaul* ; where, although their numbers might be too small to
preserve them a distinct nation, yet these emigrants might
import many names of persons and places that would outlive
the remembrance of their founders. This will sufficiently
account for the dispersion of words derived from both lan¬
guages, and inform us why Celtic derivations may he found
in Germany, and German names discovered in Gaul. So
much for arguments derived from etymology ; which are so
very uncertain and precarious, that they can only amount to
presumptions at best, and can never be opposed to solid posi¬
tive proofs.
With regard to the other source of arguments, by which these
learned writers support their opinion of the identity of the
Gauls and Germans, viz., quotations from the ancient Greek
and Roman authors ; these they have produced in great abun¬
dance. But even if it should be granted that the Greeks and
Romans applied sometimes the names of Celtic, Scythian or
Hyperborean indiscriminately to the ancient inhabitants of
Germany and Gaul, of Britain and Scandinavia, the inference
will still be doubted by those that consider how little known
all these nations were to the early writers of Greece and Rome ;
who, giving them all the general name of Barbarians, inquired
little farther about them, and took very little pains to be ac¬
curately informed about their peculiar differences and distinc¬
tions. Even a long time after these rude nations had begun
to press upon the empire, and had made the Romans dread
their valour, still their writers continued to have so confused
and indistinct a knowledge of their different descent and
character, as to confound both the Celts and Goths with
the Sarmatians, whom all writers allow to have been a dis¬
tinct nation from them bothf: thus Zosimus, an historian of
the third century, includes them all under the common name
of Scythians | ; and this, at a time when, after their long and
frequent intercourse with the Romans, their historians ought
to have been taught to distinguish them better.
* This Csesar expressly tells us of the Belgae, who were settled to the
north of the Seine and the Marne. Plerosque Belgas esse ortos à Germania ;
Rhenumque antiqnitns transductos, frofter loci fertilitatem ibi consedisse ;
Gallosque qui ea loca incollerent, exptdissc. De Bell. Gall. lib. ii.
t See Pelloutier, vol. i. liv. i. chap. ii. passim.
Î See Pelloutier, vol. i. p. 17.
6
BISHOP PE BOY'S preface
However, the G-reek and Roman authors were not all equally
indistinct and confused on this subject. It Avill be shown be¬
low, tliat some of their best and most discerning writers, when
they had an opportunity of being Avell informed, knew how to
distingush them accurately enough : so that both Cluverius
and Pelloutier have found themselves much puzzled how to
reconcile such stubborn passages with their own favourite
hypotheses, and have been entangled in great difficulties
in endeavouring to get over the objections these occasion.
Even with regard to the more early historians, they appear to
have been sometimes more precise and accurate in their de¬
scriptions. There is a remarkable passage of this kind in
Strabo ; in which he informs us that, although the old Greek
authors gave all the northern nations the common name of Scy¬
thians or Celtoscythians, yet that writers still more ancient f, di¬
vided all " the nations who lived beyond the Euxine, the Danube,
and the Adriatic Sea, into the Hyperboreans, the Sauromatse,
and Arimaspians ; as they did those beyond the Caspian Sea
into the Sacse and Messagetse." The Sacae and Messagetae might
possibly be the ancestors of the Saxons and Goths, who, in-
the time of those very remote Greek writers, possibly had not
penetrated so far westward as they did afterwards : as it is
well known that the Germanii are mentioned by Herodotus I
as a Persian people. Now the most authentic historians and
poets of the Teutonic nations all agree that their ancestors
came at different emigrations from the more eastern countries §.
But with regard to the three other nations, the Hyperboreans,
the Sauromatœ and the Arimaspians ; if we agree with Pel-
* Strabo, lib. xi. "A.tixv7Cí¡ (An ^y¡ <rov; ^ooa-ßio^ovs xotvu; el entxciiot. r&jv
'EXXjivwn avfyy^a-ipiTs, "Zxvêat xal KiXrotrxvüat ixecXoSv, &C. Yid. CIuv. lib.
i. p. 22. Pellout. vol. i. p. 2.
f 0; Tb ETI nPOTEPON SisXavTEj, &c.
t Herod, in Clio. Edit. R. Steph. 1570, p. 34.
§ All the old northern Skalds and historians agree that their ancestors
came thither from the East, but then some of them, to do the greater honour
to their country, and to its antiquities, pretend that they first made an emi¬
gration into the East from Scandinavia. See Sheringham De Angloriim,
Gentis oñgine. Cantabrigiœ 1670, 8vo. passim. It is the great fault of
Sheringham not to know how to distinguish what is true and credible from
what is improbable and fabulous in the old northern Chronicles : because
some parts are true, he receives all for authentic ; as a late ingenious writer,
because some parts are fabulous, is for rejecting all as false. (See Clarke, in
his learned treatise on the connection between the Roman, Saxon, and Eng-
BISHOP Percy's preface.
7
loutier *, that under the two former the Celts and Sarmatians
are plainly designed ; when he contends -i that the Arimas-
pians are a mere fabulous people, which never existed, who
does not see that he is blinded by hypothesis? Why may not
the ancient Finns or Laplanders have been intended by this
term, which he himself iuterprets from Herodotus to signify
One-eyed, and supposes it descriptive of some nation that ex¬
celled in archery, as alluding to their practice of winking with
one eye in order to take aim Tacitus expressly assures
us that the Fenni were great archers § ; and, it is highly pro¬
bable that at some early period of time, both the Finns and
Laplanders were possessed of much larger and better tracts
of country than the northern deserts to which they are now
confined.
But whether this interpretation be admitted or not, and
whatever the more early Greek and Boman writers knew con¬
cerning the Celtic and Teutonic nations, it is very certain that
in latter times, such of them as had most discernment, and
the best opportunities of being informed, have plainly and
clearly delivered that the Germans and Gauls were two dis¬
tinct people, of different origin, manners, laws, religion and
language, and have accurately pointed out the difference be¬
tween them.
Before we descend to particulars, it may be premised, that
these two races of men were in many things alike, as would
necessarily happen to two savage nations who lived nearly in
the same climate, who were exposed to the same wants, and
were obliged to relieve them by the same means. The more
men approach to a state of wild and uncivilized life, the
greater resemblance they Avill have in manners, because savage
nature, reduced almost to mere brutal instinct, is simple and
uniform ; whereas art and refinement are infinitely various :
thus one of the rude natives of Nova Zembla will bear a strong
resemblance in his manner of life to a savage of New Holland :
lisli coins, &c. Lend. 1767, 4to.) By the same rule we might reject the
whole Grecian history : for that of the north has, like it, its fabulous, its
doubtful, and more certain periods ; which acute and judicious critics will
easily distinguish.
* Liv. i. chap. i. -f Vol. i. p. 9, 10.
X Pelloutier, ibid. Herod p. 129, 145.
§ Sola in sagittis spes. Tac. de Mor. Germ. cap. ult.
bishop Percy's preface.
they will both live upon fish and sea fowls, because their
desert shores afford no other food ; they will both be clad in
the skins of seals and other sea animals, because their country
affords no other clothing ; and they will both live by fishing
in little boats, and be armed with lances pointed, for want of
metal, either with sharp flints or the bones of fishes : but will
it therefore be inferred that the inhabitants of these two op¬
posite poles of the globe were originally one and the same
people ? The ancient Britons in the time of Csesar painted
their bodies, as do the present Cherokees of North America,
because it would naturally enough occur to the wild people of
every country, that by this practice they might render them
selves terrible to their enemies : nor will this prove that the
Cherokees are descended from the ancient Britons. When
therefore Cluverius and Pelloutier solemnly inform us that
the Germans and Gauls lived both of them in small huts or
caverns ; that they subsisted either on venison slain in hunt¬
ing, or on the milk and cheese procured from their flocks ;
that both people led a wandering rovdng life, and equally
disliked to live in cities, or follow agriculture, and of course
ate little or no bread : that they both of them drank out of
the horns of animals and either went naked, or threw a
rude skin over their shoulders : when they collect a long series
of such resemblances as these, and bring innumerable quota¬
tions from ancient authors to prove that all these descriptions
are equally given of both people, who does not see that all
these traits are found in every savage nation upon earth, and
that by the same rule they might prove all the people that
ever existed to be of one race and nation ?
But notwithstanding these general resemblances, we have
sufficient testimony from some of the most discerning ancient
authors, that the Germans and Gauls, or in other words, the
Celtic and Teutonic nations were sufficiently distinguished
from each other, and differed considerably in person, manners,
laws, religion and language.
Caesar, whose judgment and penetration will be disputed
* Some of the ancient Gennan tribes drank beer and ale, as did the old
inhabitants of Gaul. (See Pelloutier, vol. i. lib. 2. oh. ii. p. 216, 217, &c.)
This, however, proves them not to be the same people, any more than our
drinking tea and coffee, proves us to be descended from the Chinese and
Arabians.
BISHOP PEECY'S PREFACE.
9
by none but a person blinded by hypothesis*, and ^Yhose
long residence in Gaul gave him better means of being in¬
formed than almost any of his countrymen ; Caesar expressly
assures us that the Celts or common inhabitants of Gaul
"differed in language, customs and laws" from the Belgae.
on the one hand, who were chiefly a Teutonic people, and
from the inhabitants of Aquitain on the other, who, from
their vicinity to Spain, were probably of Iberian race. Caesar
positively affirms that the nations of Gaul differed from those
of Germany in their manners, and in many other particulars,
which he has enumerated at length. And this assertion is
not thro^vn out at random, like the passages brought by Clu-
verius against it; but is coolly and cautiously made, when
he is going to draw the characters of both nations at length
in an exact and w^ell finished portrait, which shows him to
have studied the genius and manners of both people with
great attention, and to have been completely master of his
subject f.
It is true, the Gauls and Germans resembled each other
in complexion, and perhaps in some other respects, as might
be expected from their living under the same climate, and
nearly in the same manner; yet that they differed sufficiently
in their persons, appears from Tacitus, who says that the in¬
habitants of Caledonia resembled the Germans in features,
whereas the Silures were rather like the Spaniards, as the
inhabitants of South Britain bore a great resemblance to the
Gauls |. This plainly proves that the Spaniards, Germans,
and Gauls, were universally known to differ in their persons.
They differed also in manners and customs. To instance
only in one point, among the Germans, the wife did not give
a dowry to her husband, but the husband to the wife, as
Tacitus expressly assures us§. Whereas we learn from
* Csesar is so much more precise and positive against the hypothesis
espoused by Cluverius, Keysler, Pelloutier, &c., than the common Roman
authors, who were generally inattentive to the differences of the barbarous
nations ; that all the writers above mentioned set out Avith accusing Caesar of
being for ever mistaken ; Avhereas he and Tacitus were probably the only
Romans that were generally exact.
t See the passage in Caesar, lib. 6, at large, it was too long to be inserted
here.
+ Tacit, in Vit. Agricolae, c. ii.
^ Dotem non ïixor marito, sed uxori inaritus offert. De Mor. Gçena.
c. Í8.
10
BISHOP PERCY's PREFACE,
Csesar, that among the Gauls, the husband received a por¬
tion in money with his wife, for which he made her a suitable
settlement of his goods*, &c.
They differed no less in their institutions and laws. The
Celtic nations do not appear to have had that equal plan of
liberty, which was the peculiar honour of all the Gothic
tribes, and which they carried with them, and planted
wherever they formed settlements. On the contrary, in
Gaul, all the freedom and power chiefly centered among the
Druids and the chief men, whom Csesar calls Equités, or
knights ; but the inferior people were little better than in a
state of slavery t ; whereas every the meanest German was in-
dependent and freej.
But if none of these proofs of difference of person, man¬
ners, institutions or laws, could have been produced, or should
be explained away, still the difference was so great and essen¬
tial between the Celtic and Teutonic nations, in regard to
religion and language, as can never be got over, and plainly
evince them to have been two distinct and different people.
These two points are so strong and conclusive, that the whole
proof might be left to rest upon them.
In comparing the religious establishment and institutions
of the Celtic tribes, with those of the Teutonic nations, the
most observable difference, and what strikes us at flrst sight,
is that peculiar hierarchy or sacred college among the Celts,
which had the entire conduct of all their religious and even
civil affairs, and served them both for magistrates and priests,
viz., that of the Druids; which has nothing to resemble it
among any of the Gothic or Teutonic nations. This differ¬
ence appeared to Csesar so striking, that he sets out with this,
at his entrance on his description of the Germans, as a fun¬
damental and primary distinction §. I do not here enter into
a minute description of the nature of the Druids' establish¬
ment, or an enumeration of their privileges, because these
may be found in Cœsar and Pliny among the ancients, and
* Viri quantas pecunias ah uxonbus dotis nomine acceperunt, tanta ; ex
suis bonis, cestirnatione facta ; cum dotibus communicant. De Bello Grail,
hb. 6.
•f De Bell. Gall. lib. 6.
j Tacitus de Mor. Germ., passim.
De Bell. Gall. lib. 6.
BISHOP PEECY'S PEEFACE.
li
in so many authors among the moderns * : it will he sufficient
to say that, although the Teutonic nations had priests, they
bore no more resemblance to the Druids, than the pontiffs of
the Greeks and Romans, or of any other Pagan people. The
learned and ingenious Dr. Borlace has left nothing to bo
desired on the subject of the Druids and their institutions.
He has however been drawn in by Keysler to adopt this hypo¬
thesis, that the religion of the ancient Germans was, in fun¬
damentals, the same with that of the Gauls and Britons (vid,
p. 71). As nothing that falls from so excellent a writer
ought to be disregarded, I shall consider his arguments with
attention. He proves the identity of the German and Gaul¬
ish religion from the conformity of the Germans and Gauls
in the following points ; viz., "1, the principal Deity of both
nations was Mercury ; 3, they sacrificed human victims ;
3, they had open temples ; and, 4, no idols of human shape ;
5, they had consecrated groves; 6, worshipped oaks; 7, were
fond of auspicial rites ; and 8, computed by nights and not
by days."
I shall consider each of these proofs in their order ; and
as for the first, that " both nations worshipped Mercury."
This amounts to no more than this, that the Gauls and Bri
tons worshipped for their chief Deity, some Celtic god, which
Caesar finding to resemble in some of his attributes the
Roman Mercury, scrupled not to call by that Roman name ;
so again the Germans worshipped for their supreme God, a
Divinity of their own, whom Tacitus likewise called Mercury,
from a fancied resemblance to that Roman Deity, perhaps in
other of his attributes. We know very well that the Su¬
preme Deity of all the Teutonic nations was Odin or Woden,
called by the ancient Germans Votam and Gotam, or Godam,
(vid. not. in Tác. Yarior. p. 602), who seems chiefly to have
resembled the Roman Mercury, in having a particular power
over the ghosts of the..departed. (Vide Bartholin, lib. 2, c. 7,
Odinus Manium fuit Dominus ; Mercurio comparandus.) In
* Vid. Caesar. De Bello Grail. Comment, lib. 6. Plinii Nat. Hist. lib. 16,
c. 44.
Of the moderns, see Poland's Specimen of a Hist, of the Druids, in Miscel.
Works, vol. i. 1747, 8vo. Stukely's Stonehenge, and Abury, 2 vols. 1740,
&c., folio. * But especially Dr. Borlace's Antiquities of Cornwall, 2nd edit.
1769, folio.
12
BISHOP PEECY'S PREFACE.
Other respects, how much they differed will appear at first
sight in the Edda. Now if the Celtic Mercuiy resembled
the Roman no more than Odin did ; we see how unlike they
might be to each other. We are not even sure that these
two Mercuries of the Gauls and Germans agreed with the
Mercury of the Romans in the same points of resemblance.
But, 2, "both nations, sacrificed human victims ; 3, had
open temples; 5, consecrated groves; and 7, were fond of
auspicial rites." These descriptions I believe may be applied
to all the Pagan nations in the world, during their early
barbarous state. For 2, all Pagan nations have offered
human victims ; have had 3, open temples before they got
covered ones ; and, previous to their erecting magnificent
domes for their religious rites, have either set up circles of
rude stones, or retired under the natural shelter of 5,
solemn groves, which, upon that account, they consecrated :
and 7, all pagan people have dealt in omens, auspices, and
all the other idle superstitions of that sort. There is not
one of the above circumstances but what is mentioned in
Scripture, as practised by the idolatrous nations which sur¬
rounded the Jewish people, and was equally observed by
some or other of the inhabitants of Italy and Greece ; so
that the Germans resembled the Gauls with regard to these
particulars no more than they did the old idolatrous inha¬
bitants of Canaan, Assyria, Greece, and Italy. As for the
Teutonic nations, they very soon got covered temples, and
also idols of human shape, as had indeed the Celtic nations
also in the time of Cœsar; for so Dr. Borlace himself (p. 107 )
interprets that passage of his concerning the Gauls (lib. 6) :
Deum niaximê Mercuriiim colunt: Hujus siíníPLURiMA simul¬
acra. If these simulacra had not been images, but only
rude unformed stones, Caesar would doubtless have expressed
himself with more reserve. When, therefore. Dr. Borlace
says that the Gauls and Germans resembled each other in
having (4) "no idols of human shape," he must, only mean
in their more early state of idolatry, which I suppose may
also be predicated of every savage nation, before they have
attained any skill in sculpture.
But he says, 6, that both nations "worshipped oaks."
His proof, however, that the Germans had this superstition
only, is, that "the Sclavonians worshipped oaks, inclosed
BISHOP Percy's preface.
13
tliem with a court, and fenced them in, to keep off all un¬
hallowed access and for this he refers to the note in Tacit.
Variorum ad c. 9, where Helmoldus has said, that the Rus¬
sians held their groves and fountains sacred, and that the
Sclavi worshipped oaks. This proves nothing with regard to
the Teutonic nations, but plainly shows that many of the
Druidic superstitions had been caught up and adopted by
nations in no way allied to the Celts ; and therefore suggests
an easy answer to the last proof that is urged of the resem¬
blance of the Germans and Gauls in their religious rites and
opinions; viz., that,
8, Both people " computed by nights, and not by days."
This is in reality the only solid argument that has been pro¬
duced. But to this the answer is very obvious. The Teu¬
tonic nations, it is allowed, had this very peculiar arbitrary
custom, which they probably borrowed from their Celtic
neighbours, although of a very different race, and professing,
in the main, a very different religion : for if the Sclavonian
tribes, whose situation lay so much more remote from the
Celts, had adopted their superstitious veneration for the oak,
which seems in no degree to have infected the Germans, it
would have been wonderful indeed, if the latter, who lay con¬
tiguous to the Celts, had picked up none of their opinions or
practices.
Not only in the peculiar nature of their priesthood, but
in their internal doctrines as well as outward rites, they
differed.
The Druids taught, and the Celtic nations believed, the
metempsychosis, or a transmigration of the soul out of one
body into another. This is so positively asserted of them by
Csesar'i^, who had been long conversant among them, and
knew them well, that it is not in the power of any of the
modern system-makers to argue and explain his words away,
as they have attempted to do in every other point relating to
the Celtic antiquities. However, they attempt to qualify it,
by asserting that the Celtic nations believed only that the
soul passed out of one human body into another, and never
into that of brutes f: which distinction I shall not now stay
* Lib. vi.—Vid. Diodor. Sicul. lib. v. c. 2, & Val. Max. lib. ii. c. 6.
Ammian. Marcel, lib. xv.
f Vid. Keysler Antiq. Sept. p. 117. Borlace, p. 98, 99, &c.
14
BISHOP Percy's preface
to examine, but proceed to observe, that all the Teutonic
nations held, on the contrary, a fixed Elysium, and a Hell,
where the valiant and the just were rewarded, and where the
cowardly and the wicked suffered punishment. The descrip¬
tion of these forms a great part of the Edda.
In innumerable other instances, the institutions of the
Druids among the Celts were extremely different from those
of the Teutonic nations. To mention a few ; the former fre¬
quently burnt a great number of human victims alive, in
large mcker images, as an offering to their Gods=î^ The
Gothic nations, though like all other pagans they occa¬
sionally defiled their altars with human blood, appear never
to have had any custom like this.
The Druids venerated the oak and the mistletoe, which
latter w^as regarded by them as the most divine and salutary
of plants, and gathered with very particular ceremonies. In
the Teutonic mythology, if any tree seems to have been re¬
garded with more particular attention than others, it is the ash :
and as for the mistletoe, it is represented in the Edda rather
as a contemptible and mischievous shrub.
But w^hat particularly distinguishes the Celtic institutions
from those of the Teutonic nations, is that remarkable air of
secrecy and mystery with wiiich the Druids concealed their
doctrines from the laity ; forbidding that they should ever be
committed to writing, and upon that account, not having so
much as an alphabet of their own f. In tliis, the institutions
of Odin and the Skalds was the very reverse. No barbarous
people were so addicted to writing, as appears from the in¬
numerable quantity of Runic inscriptions scattered all over the
north ; no barbarous people ever held letters in higher reve¬
rence, ascribing the invention of them to their chief deity, and
attributing to the letters themselves supernatural virtues.
Nor is there the least room to believe that any of their doc¬
trines were locked up or concealed from any part of the com¬
munity. On the contrary, their mythology is for ever dis¬
played in all the songs of their Skalds, just as that of the
Greeks and Romans is in the odes of Pindar and Horace.
There never existed any institution in which there appears
* Vid. Ctesar de Bell. GaU. lib. vi. Borlace, p. 127.
f Caesar, lib. vi
EISHOP Percy's preface.
15
less of reserve and mystery than in that of the Scandinavian
people.
After all, it may possibly be true that the Teutonic nations
borrowed some opinions and practices from the Celts, with¬
out being at all descended from them, or having any.pre¬
tensions to be considered as the same people. The Celtic
tribes were probably the first that travelled westward, and it
is not impossible but that several of the Druidic observances
might be caught up and imitated by the other nations that
came after them. Some relics of the Druidic superstitions,
we have seen, prevailed among the Sclavonians : and still more
might be expected to be found among those of Teutonic race,
both from their nearer vicinage and greater intercourse with
the Celtic nations ; from whom the Sarmatians lay more re¬
mote. Nothing is more contagious than superstition; and
therefore we must not wonder, if in ages of ignorance one
wild people catch up from another, though of very differ¬
ent race, the most arbitraiy and groundless opinions, or en¬
deavour to imitate them in such rites and practices as they
ai'e told will recommend them to the gods, or avert their
anger.
Before I quit this subject of the religion of the Celtic and
Teutonic nations, I must beg leave to observe, that the my¬
thology of the latter was probably in the time of Ciesar and
Tacitus a very crude and naked thing, compared to what it
was afterwards, when the northern Slialds had had time to
flourish and adorn it. From a very few rude and simple
tenets, these wild «fablers had, in the course of eight or nine
centuries, invented and raised an amazing superstructure of
fiction. We must not therefore suppose that all the fables of
the Edda were equally known to the Teutonic nations of every
age and tribe. As truth is uniform and simple, so error is
most irregular and various ; and it is veiy possible, that dif¬
ferent fables and different observances might prevail among
the same people in different times and countries. From their
imperfect knowledge of the divine attributes, all pagan nations
are extremely apt to intermix something local with their idea of
the Divinity, to suppose peculiar Deities presiding over certain
districts, and to worship this or that God with particular rites,
which were only to be observed in one certain spot. Hence, to
inattentive foreigners, there might appear a difference of re-
10
BISHOP PERCYS PREFACE.
ligion among nations who all maintained, at the bottom, one
common creed ; and this will account for whatever disagree
• t •
ment is remarked between Coesar and Tacitus in their de¬
scriptions of the Gods of the ancient Germans. It nill also
account for whatever difference may appear between the im¬
perfect relations of the Ptoman writers, and the full display of
the Teutonic mythology held forth in the Edda. It is indeed
veiy probable that only the mere first inidiments of the Teu¬
tonic religion had begun to be formed, when the Germans
were first known to the Ptomans. And even when the Saxons
made their irruptions into Britain, though they had the same
general belief concerning Odin or Woden, Thor and Frigga,
&c., yet probably the complete system had not arrived to the
full maturity it afterwards attained under the inventive hands
of the Skalds.
The essential difference remarked above, between the re¬
ligion of the Celtic and Teutonic nations, in their tenets, in¬
stitutions, and worship, affords a strong proof that they were
two races of men ab origine distinct. The same truth is
proved still more strongly, if possible, by their difference in
language ; this is an argument of fact, that amounts in ques¬
tions of this nature almost to demonstration.
Tacitus assures us, that the ancient British language was
very little different from that spoken in Gaul ; Sermo hand
miiltum diversus ; there was probably no more than a small
difference in dialect. But that the Gaulish language widely
differed from that of the Germans, appears from the whole
current of history. Thus Cœsar . plainly shows that the Ger¬
man and Gaulish languages were very different, when he tells
us that Ariovistus, a G erman prince, only learnt to speak the
latter by his long residence in GauP-is Again, Suetonius tells
us, that Caligula, returning from his fruitless expedition
against the Germans, in order to grace his triumph with
an appearance of prisoners of that nation, for want of real
Germans, chose from among the Gauls such as were of very
tall stature, Avhom he caused to let their hair grow long, and
to colour it red, to learn the German language, and to adopt
German names ; and thus he passed them off for prisoners
from Germany f. These, and other proofs from Tacitus, are
* De Bell. Gall. lib. i. c. 47.
+ Sueton. Caligula, c. 47.
BISHOP PEEGY'S PEEFACE.
17
produced by Pelloutier himself, though he afterwards endea¬
vours to obviate their force, by pretending that the langua.ges
of Gaul and Germany differed only in dialect *, &c. But that
they were radically and essentially different, will appear be¬
yond contradiction, to any one that will but use his eyes and
compare any of the living languages which are descended
from these two ancient tongues. This question receives
so clear, so full, and so easy a solution, by barely inspecting
such of the languages of Celtic and Gothic origin as are now
extant, that to conclude the inquiry, I shall only lay before
the reader specimens of them both.
That the languages now spoken in Germany, Sweden, Den¬
mark, Holland, and England, are all allied to the ancient
German no one can deny, because the words are visibly the
same in them all, only differing in dialect. On the other
hand, that the ancient British was a language very little dif¬
ferent from that of the Gauls, we have the express testimony
of Tacitus above mentioned. Let us now compare the seve¬
ral dialects of the ancient British; viz. the Welsh, the
Armoric, and the Cornish, and see whether they contain the
most distant resemblance to any of the Teutonic dialects above
mentioned.
Whoever looks into the following specimens, will observe
that the modern English and German are two languages evi¬
dently derived from one common source-; almost all the words
in both being radically the same; and yet it is near 1200
years since the English language was transplanted out
of Germany, and cut off from all intercourse with the mother
tongue. In the mean time, the people who have spoken
it have undergone amazing revolutions and changes in their
government, religion, laws and manners, and their language
in particular has been subject to more than common innova¬
tions. On the other hand, let him compare the same English
specimen with that of the Welsh language, and see if he can
discover the most distant resemblance between them ; and yet
both these are spoken upon the same island, and that by fel¬
low-citizens, who for many hundred years have been subjects
to the same prince, governed by the same laws, have professed
the same religion, and adopted nearly the same system
* Pellout; vol, i. liv. i. ch, xy.
c
18 bishop peecy's preface.
of manners. And now at last, after all this intercourse, what
two languages can be more unlike ? Can this radical dissimi¬
litude be called only a difference in dialect? During the rude
ages prior to history, before the Britons or Germans were
invaded by other nations, or had adopted any foreign refine¬
ments, while both people were under the uninterrupted influ¬
ence of their original institutions, customs, and manners,
no reason can be assigned why their language should undergo
any material alterations. A savage people, wholly occupied
by their present animal wants, aim at no mental or moral
improvements, and are subject to no considerable changes.
In this state, their language being affected by none of the
causes that commonly introduce very great innovations, will
continue for many ages nearly the same. The great causes
that introduce the most considerable changes in language, are
invasions of foreigners, violent alterations in religion and
laws, great improvements in literature, or refinements in man¬
ners. None of these, so far as we know, had happened either
to the Germans or Britons before the time of Cassar, and yet
even then there appeared no resemblance between the lan¬
guages of these two people. On the other hand, all these
causes have been operating with combined force ever since,
and yet no considerable resemblance has obtained between the
languages of England and Wales ; nor has the radical affinity
between those of England and Germany been effaced or
destroyed. Upon what grounds then can it be pretended
that the ancient languages of Gaul and Germany flowed from
one common source ? Or who will believe so improbable a
fact?
M. Pelloutier tells us-'', that "it having been pretended
that the ancient Celtic is preserved to this day in the
languages of Wales and Brittany in France, he had looked
into a few glossaries of the Welsh and Armoric tongues f, and
* Hist, des Celtes, vol. i. p. 155.
The Armoric language, now spoken in Erittany in France, is a. dialect
of the Welsh ; that province being peopled with a colony from Britain in the
fourth century ; and though the two people have been separated so many
ages, and have been subject to two nations so different in their laws, reli¬
gion, and manners, still the two languages contain so strong a resemblance,
that in our late conquest of Belleisle, such of our soldiers as came out of
Wales were easily understood by the country people, and with their Welsh
language, served for interpreters to the other soldiers who only spoke Eng-
BISHOP Percy's preface.
19
had indeed discovered "that several words of the ancient Celtic
were, in effect, preserved in those tongues." But he plainly
hints, that he could not consider the bulk of the language as
there perpetuated ; and, indeed, considering how thick a film
the prejudice of system had drawn over his eyes, it is
a wonder he could discover any Celtic words at all ; for he,
taking it for granted that the High Dutch language was the
genuine Celtic, only looked for such words as bore any resem¬
blance to that tongue ; and there being, as indeed there are,
very few that have any similitude, no wonder that he found so
few Celtic words in a genuine Celtic language*.
I shall now proceed to lay before the reader specimens of
the Teutonic and Celtic languages, properly classed f, which,
lish. This is a fact related to me by a person who was there. Perhaps,
upon comparing the specimens subjoined, the two dialects may appear to
the eye more remote from each other than the above relation supposes ;
but, it may be observed, that their orthography not having been settled in
concert, the same sound may have been expressed by very different combina¬
tions of letters, and the other differences may be only those of idiom ; so
that the two languages, when spoken, may have a much greater resemblance
than appears upon paper to a person ignorant of them both. To give one
instance; the Welsh word Drwg, and the Armoric Drouc (Eng. Evil),
though so differently written, are in sound no further distant than Droog and
Drook, the vowels in both being pronounced exactly alike.
* It is much to be lamented that a writer of so much learning, sagacity,
and diligence, as Möns. Pelloutier, should have spoiled, by one unfortunate
hypothesis, so excellent a work as his ' History of the Celts,' after all, cer¬
tainly is. Had he not been drawn into this fundamental error, which infects
his whole book ; but on the contrary, had been apprised of the radical dis¬
tinction between the Gothic and Celtic antiquities ; had he assigned to each
people the several descriptions which occur of them in ancient history ; had
he pointed out the distinct features of their respective characters, and shown
in what particulars they both agreed, and wherein they differed ; had he
endeavoured to ascertain the limits of each people in ancient Europe, and
shown by which of them the several countries were formerly inhabited, and
from which of them the modern nations are chiefly descended ; he would
then have performed a noble task, and have deserved equally well of the
past and future ages ; his book, instead of being a perpetual source of mis¬
take and confusion, would then have served as a clue to guide us through the
labyrinth of ancient history, and he would have raised a noble monument to
the memory alike of the Celts and Goths, from one or other of which ancient
people so many great nations are descended.
i" Specimens of these languages, taken from more correct sources than
were available in Bishop Percy's time, and classed in conformity with
the present state of the science of glossology, will be given after the reimuks
we shall have to make on the learned Bishop's admirable preface.—Ed.
C 3
20
BISHOP PEECT'S PKEFACE.
it is apprehended, will decide this question better than any
conjectural or moral reasoning. The great and uniform simi¬
litude, discoverable at first sight between all the specimens
of the Gothic or Teutonic languages, must indeed be very
striking, even to foreigners unacquainted with these tongues.
But to those that know them intimately the affinity must
appear much nearer and stronger, because many words that
were originally the same are disguised by the variations of
pronunciation and orthography, as well as by the difference
of idiom ; thus, the German Geheiliget, and the English Hal-
lowed, are both equally derived from the Teutonic Helig,
Holy.
It may further be observed, that time has introduced a
change, not only in the form, but in the meaning of many words,
so that, though they are equally preserved in the different
dialects, they no longer retain the same uniform appearance,
nor can be used with propriety to express the same exact
meaning. Thus, the Latin word Panis is translated in the
Gothic and Anglo-Saxon Hlaf, or Hlaif, which word is still
current among us in its derivative Loaf, but with a variation
of sense that made it less proper to be used in the Paternoster
than the other Teutonic word Bread, which is preserved in
all the other dialects, but in a great vai'iety of forms. Thus
in the old Frankic, Brot; German, Brod ; Dutch, Brood;
Old Norse, Brand; Swedish and Danish, Brod.
Again, it is possible that in many of these languages there
was more than one word to express the same idea ; and if
there was a variety, then the different translators, by using
some of them one word, and the rest another, have intro¬
duced a greater difference into their versions than really sub¬
sisted in their several languages. Of this kind I esteem the
word Atta [Pater], used by Ulphilas, whose countrymen had
probably another word of the same origin as Fader or Father,
as well as all the other Gothic nations. So again, the Anglo-
Saxons (besides their word Hlaf) had probably another term,
whence we derived our present word Bread.
As the strong resemblance of the several Teutonic speci¬
mens to each other, so their radical dissimilitude to those of
Celtic origin, must appear decisive of the great question dis¬
cussed in the foregoing preface, not but here and there a word
may have been accidentally caught up on either side : viz.,
BISHOP Percy's preface.
21
borroTved by tlie Goths from the Celtic language, and vice
versa ; or perhaps adopted by each of them from some third
language radically different from them both. Thus, from the
Welsh Tad, our vulgar have got the common English word
Dad and Daddy. And, from the French Délivré, are derived
both the English Deliver, and the Armoric Diluir, whence
the Cornish Dilver.
Before I conclude these slight remarks, I must beg leave
to observe, that as the great subject of this present hook is
Gothic antiquities, which I apprehend to be totally distinct
from the Celtic, I do not take upon me to decide on any of
the points which relate either to the Celtic antiquities or
Celtic tongues. For this reason I avoid entering into the
dispute, which has of late so much interested our countrymen
in North Britain ; viz. whether the Erse language was first
spoken in Scotland or Ireland. Before the inquisitive reader
adopts either opinion, he would do well to consider many
curious hints, which are scattered up and down in Lluyd's
most excellent Archseologia Britannica, 1707, fol., and espe¬
cially in his Welsh and Irish prefaces, translated in the ap¬
pendix to Nicholson's Irish Historical Library, &c., 1736, folio.
In reply to those who contend that the true name of the
Erse language is Gaelic or Galic, and that this word is the
same with Gallic, the name of the ancient language of Gaul,
I will merely observe, without deciding the question as to the
origin of the Erse language itself, that the ancient name of
Gallic does not seem to have been used by the natives of
Gaul themselves, but to have been given them by foreigners.
They called themselves Celtse, and their language Celtic * ;
in like manner as the inhabitants of Wales, though called
Welsh by us, term themselves Cymru, and their own language
Cymraeg ; who at the same time call us Saissons, and our
tongue Saissonaeg, thus reminding us of our Saxon origin.
* Qui ipsonim lingua Celtse, nostra Galli appellantur. Caesar de Bell. Gal.
L. 1. " Celtae, the Gauls, Csedil, Cadil, or Keill, and in the plural, accord¬
ing to our dialect, Keiliet, or Keilt, (now Guidhelod) Jnshmen. The word
Keilt could not he otherwise written by the Romans, than Geilte or Celtae."
See Lluyd's Irish Preface, p. 107, in Nicholson's Irish Historian.
In the same place the reader will find many of the ancient names of offices,
persons, &c., mentioned by Caesar as prevailing in Gaul, explained from the
modern Irish language, as, Allohrox, Divitiacus^ Verçingelorix^ Veryasil-
launus, Verc/olreñis, 3îc,
32
REMARKS ON BISHOP PERCY'S
PREFACE.
BY THE EDITOR.
Peofessor Ease, in tlie Introduction to his Icelandic Gram¬
mar-!^, observes that, " after Bishop Percy's most excellent
Preface to Mallet's Northern Antiquities, the Teutonic and
Celtic languages can no longer he confounded, nor comprised
under the vague and unmeaning appellation of Scythian,
Sarmatian," &c. Since the publication of the learned Danish
Professor's work thirty-five years have elapsed, during which
period the study of glossology, or comparative philology, has
made as rapid a progress as that of biology, or comparative
anatomy and physiology. By the latter v/e have become ac¬
quainted with the organization and affinities of animals ; by
the former, with the construction and relationship of lan¬
guages. At the present day a zoologist, by the mere inspec¬
tion of a few fossil bones, will seldom be at a loss in ascertain¬
ing to what description of animal they belonged, and, if the ani¬
mal be of an unknown species, what place he ought to assign
it in the reticulated chain of organic existence. A glossolo-
gist, in like manner, by subjecting to a critical examination
the few literary remains of some ancient idiom, which a lucky
accident may have preserved from oblivion, will not fail to re¬
construct them into a language more or less perfect in all its
parts, and point out its near or remote affinity to well-known
cognate tongues.^ When a writer of the 17th or 18th century
attempted to do any thing of the kind, he was sure to be led
astray by some vague theory or other which we should now
deem unworthy of serious consideration, or, like a person
threading the mazes of a sylvan labyrinth, would frequently
turn aside when on the point of entering the right path and wind
* Fiiblislied at Copenhagen in 1811.
EEMAEKS ON BISHOP PEECY'S PREFACE.
23
round the object lie was in quest of without ever being able to at¬
tain it ='■=. Cluverius and his followers thus perceived that there
was a certain affinity between the Celtic and Teutonic languages,
but, in order to account for this affinity, had recourse to a gra¬
tuitous assumption on which they founded arguments that
were necessarily erroneous and inconclusive. No one could
have refuted these arguments with greater perspicuity and
force of reasoning than Bishop Percy has done in the preced¬
ing admirable dissertation ; but, while he completely demo¬
lishes the crude theory of Pelloutier, he falls himself into the
error of denying that any, " even the most distant, resem¬
blance" exists between the languages of the Celtic and Teu¬
tonic nations. " Üpon what grounds then," he adds, " can it
be retended that the ancient languages of Gaul and Ger¬
many flowed from one common source ? or who will believe
so improbable a fact ? " f
Now this fact, improbable as it appeared to Bishop Percy,
has been admitted by the greatest philologists of the present
age. No one certainly will any longer hesitate to regard the
Celtic and Teutonic languages as forming two distinct lin¬
guistic families ; but we think sufficient evidence has been
adduced by those wdio have thoroughly investigated the sub¬
ject, to warrant the conclusion that these families are re¬
motely cognate, and, with six other linguistic families, do really
* These writers could manage well enough to draw up a tolerable
grammar from the remains of an ancient tongue, but they generally thrust
the language thus reconstructed into a wrong place. This was the case with
the Mœso-Gothic. The reader will find, by referring to one of Bishop Percj-'s
notes to chap, xi., that the fragments of a translation of the Gospels made by
the Gothic Bishop Ulphilas in the fourth century, Avere discovered in the
sixteenth century, in the library of a Westphalian com-ent. Noav Hickes,
bye, and other celebrated English philologists of the last century, confounded
this Gothic idiom rvith the Anglo-Saxon. The first part of Hickes's " The¬
saurus," published in 1705, consists of an Anglo-Saxon and Mceso-Gothic
Grammar, " a Avork," as Bask observes, (see the Preface to his " Anglo-
Saxon Grammar," Cop. 1830,) "far from faultless, as aa-oII by reason of the
unfortunate idea of treating the tAVO most dissimilar of the Teutonic tongues
together, as in the execution of its respective parts." In 1772 Lye pub¬
lished his " Dictionarium Saxonico et Gothico-Latinum," in 2 vols, fob, in
Avhich Ave observe, to Aise Kask's Avords, " the same unfortunate blending of
Anglo-Saxon and Mœso-Gothic, languages Avhich no more admit of being
treated together than IlebreAV and Arabic, or Greek and Latin."
f See page 18.
24
EEMAEKS ON BISHOP PERCY S PREEACE.
" flow from one common source." We shall not reproduce
the arguments brought forward in support of this opinion, as
we should be obliged to enter into a philological discussion,
which for most of our readers would be totally devoid of in¬
terest ; but as frequent mention will be made in this work of
Scandinavians, Saxons, Goths, and other Teutonic nations,
we shall attempt to point out, as briefly as possible, the pre¬
cise relationship they stand in to each other, and conjointly,
to other nations or races sprung from the same " common
source," referring the reader to the works of Rask, Schlegel,
Grimm, Klaproth, Bopp, Arndt, and other eminent Avriters of
the German school of philology, for more ample information
on the subject, which he will find, on closer examination, to
be Avell deserving of his attention.
Among the numerous sciences which the researches of the
present age have given rise to, is one which, for want of a
better name, has been called ethnology. This science falls
into two branches—a physiological branch, wdiich might ap¬
propriately be termed anthropology; and a philological branch,
which forms the science of glossology. Anthropology shows
the organic distinctions that constitute the varieties of the
human species, inquires how these varieties have originated,
whether they be reducible to one common type, or to several
distinct types, strives to trace the affinities that connect
them, and form a systematic classification of the various races
that have hitherto appeared on the face of the globe. Glosso¬
logy, on the other hand, investigates the construction and
affinities of the various languages spoken by mankind, from
the earliest that have left any vestiges of their existence down
to those of the present day, assumes that a certain number
may be regarded as primitive, from which all the others are
derived, points out clearly this derivation, and then strives to
connect the primitive languages themselves by tracing any
philological affinities that may exist between them, with a
view both of co-ordinating them into a systematic arrangement,
and of ascertaining whether they have all sprung from a com¬
mon source—from a primordial tongue—or constitute a num¬
ber of glottic groups totally unconnected. It will thus be seen,
that although each of these sciences establishes a separate
class of facts, they have essentially the same object in view, and
may therefore be subordinated to a higher science, which by
EEMAEKS ON BISHOP PEECY'S PKEFACE.
25
investigating and comparing the facts they respectively fur¬
nish, will ascertain how far physiological and philological
affinities may be made to coincide—whether, for instance,
several nations speaking cognate languages, but remotely
connected with any other known tongue, are also distinguished
by physiological traits sufficiently prominent to constitute a
distinct race. A higher class of facts will thus be elicited,
from which we may obtain by induction all the truths ethno¬
logical science can make us acquainted with.
It is obvious, however, that this science cannot be cultivated
with success until the subordinate sciences of anthropology
and glossology have attained a certain degree of perfection.
Anthropology, unfortunately, is still in its infancy. Man has
certainly been made the object of a special study in every
quarter of the globe, but it is only since a very recent period
that this study has been conducted on scientific principles.
The facts elicited are therefore not sufficiently numerous to
form the groundwork of a well constructed system or warrant
any general conclusion that might be drawn from them. We
may, however, take for granted that man—the genus homo—
has only one species—which zoologists have been pleased to
designate by the somewhat equivocal appellation of homo sa¬
piens; or, in other words, that no specific difference exists
among mankind. But this fact, even if it were established
with a more rigorous certainty than it is at present, does not
by any means solve the problem of the origin of the human
race ; for similar causes operating on two or more points of
the globe, under similar circumstances, would necessarily
produce similar results. Be this as it may, the varieties of
the human species are endless, a circumstance which renders
an accurate classification of them as difficult a task as a scien-
tiûc arrangement of the animal kingdom itself.
When zoologists fancied that the scale of being ascended
in a straight line from the lowest radiary animals to man,
classifications were comparatively easy, but when they at length
discovered that instead of a chain it formed a most intricate
network, in some places ravelled, in others rent, the task be¬
came much more difficult. They found that their classes and
orders were connected by intermediate links, often too imper¬
ceptible to be seized, and that nature disregarded these arti¬
ficial distinctions invented to assist the memory and enable
26
EEMAEKS ON EISHOP PEECY'S PEEFACE.
our limited faculties to embrace the multifarious ramifications
of organic life, diverging from a common trunk, and again
uniting in the highest class of beings that has hitherto ap¬
peared on the face of the globe. They found, for instance,
that the cyclostomaare a connecting link between fish and
worms, that the cirrhopoda, or malentozoa, form a complete
transition from molluscous to articulated animals, and that
the animal and vegetable kingdoms themselves, which had
been supposed so distinct, were intimately connected by the
psychodiaria. Now, when we attempt to classify the varieties
of the human species, we are placed in the same predicament
as the zoologists. We might certainly, like the wniters of a by¬
gone age, leave the ark with Noah, and make Shem, Ham, and
Japhet the progenitors of mankind t; but when we confine
ourselves within the domain of science, we must necessarily
proceed on principles more in accordance with physiological
researches and historical facts ; and then, whatever varieties
may be taken as types for our classification, we find, when we
* The lowest class of cartilaginous fish, comprising the lampril, the
lamprey, &c.
f When we say of a bj^gone age, we fear that we must except some of
our own writers who, somehow or other, generally manage to lag half a cen¬
tury behind their continental brethren ; for we find in Jamieson's " Hermes
Scythicus," a Avork of some pretension, published not in the seventeenth but
in the nineteenth century, in the year of grace 1814, that the Thracians
were the descendants of " Tiras, or rather Thiras, the son of Japhet." !!
And it seems beyond dispute," says this learned Scotch philologist with
imperturbable gravity, " that the Cimmerii were the posterity of Gromer, the
eldest son of Japhet, the Japetus of the Greeks, and tiiat they Avere the first
race that peopled Europe. The name is obviously retained by the descend¬
ants of the ancient Britons, Avho still denominate themselves Cuiuri." ! ! ! This
is much on a par with the raving of Dr. Parsons, Avho, in his " Bemains of
Japhet," published however in 1747, and consequently at a more pardonable
epoch, maintains that the blood of Gomer still floAvs unsullied by any ex¬
traneous admixture in the veins of the Welsh and Irish, and that king
George III. might claim descent from a long line of Scythian kings that can
be traced up to Magog, In j uxtaposition Avith the passage from Jamieson's
work, published in 1814, we might place the folloAving observations from
Schlözer's " Allgemeine Nordische Geschichte," published in 1771. " The
Gomerites and Magogites should no longer be suftered to disfigiure our oldest
northern history. Such names or such unlearned plictriplactri should be
left to the English authors of the universal history, and to their German
mechanical compilators." A passage Avhich shoAVS, more especially as Schlözer
was by no means free from the erroneous ideas of the period, that the Ger¬
mans are generally half a century in advance of us.
eemarks on bishop percy s preface. 27
group the other varieties around them, such a many odd fish
like the cyclostoma in our vay, that we soon fiecome puzzled
what to do with them.
If a person saw before him a Gennan, a Chinese, a Malay,
an American Indian, and a Negro, he would not hesitate a
moment to recognise five distinct varieties of tlie human
species. But Avhen these are taken for the typesof a scien¬
tific classification, we are obliged to group the Jew with the
German, the Finn with the Chinese, and the Caffre of the
Cape with the Negro of Senegal. This, however, is the
classification generally adopted, but it is so obviously de¬
fective that, in order to render it somewhat more in accord¬
ance with nature, we shall modify it as follows :—
VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.
1. The West Asiatic, or Caucasian Variety,
Comprising the natives of India, Afghanistan, Persia,
Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia, the Caucasus, Tartary, and
Northern Africa, and, with the exception of those be¬
longing to the Tshudic (Finnic) Ptace and a few Samo-
jedes, all the Europeans and their descendants in
America and the colonies.
2. The East Asiatic, or Mongol Variety.
The Mongols, Kalmucks, Manshus, Thibetans, Cliinese,
Japanese, Siamese, &c.
3. The North Asiatic, or Arctic Variety.
Most of the natives of the boreal regions of the globe.
The Tshuds, (Finns, Lapps, Permians, &c.,) extending
from the White Sea, along the Oural mountains, down to
the Caspian. The Samojedes, Youkagirs, and various
* As the subject may be novel to many of our readers, we subjoin a defi¬
nition of a type from Professor Whewell's " Philosophy of the Inductive
Sciences."
" Natural groups are best described, not by any definition which marks
their boundaries, but by a type which marks their centre. The type of any
natural group is an example which possesses, in a marked degree, all the
leading characters of the class.
" A natural group is steadily fixed, though not precisely limited; it is
given in position, though not circumscribed ; it is determined, not by a
boundary without, but by a central point within ; not by what it strictly
excludes, but by what it eminently includes ; by a type, not by a definition."
—92?t(i and 93rcZ Aphorisms concerning Ideas.
28
KEMARKS ON BISnOP PERCy's PREFACE.
other tribes iu Siberia, and the Esquimaux in America
and Greenland.
4 The Oceanic, or Malay Variety.
The natives of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Moluccas,
Philippines, &c., and the islands of the Pacific and
Madagascar.
0. The American, or Copper-coloured Variety.
Excepting the Esquimaux, all the aboriginal inhabitants
of America.
G. The Eastern African, or Demi-Negro Variety.
The Gallas of Abysinnia, the natives of the eastern
coast of Africa, the Caifres and Hottentots of the Cape,
the Congoese, &c.
7. The Central African, or Negro Variety.
The type being the Negro of Senegal.
8. The Australian Variety.
The natives of Australia, and the Papons and Alfouras
of some of the Malaisian Isles.
In the present state of the science, all such classifica¬
tions as the above will necessarily be more artificial than
natural. A natural arrangement of the varieties of the human
race ought, in fact, to be reticular and not vertical, and the
main groups connected by intermediate links, which, in these
artificial vertical arrangements, are entirely omitted*.
* We have given the vertical arrangement as it is generally followed,
though it is equally as defective as a vertical arrangement of the animal
kingdom. The absurdity of placing the four great divisions of this kingdom,
the radiata, mollusca, articulata, and vertebrata, in a straight line became
apparent when, according to this artificial arrangement, the cephalopoda or
highest class of molluscous animals—which includes the sepia, or cuttle-fish
as it is improperly termed—was immediately preceded, in the ascending scale,
by the enthelmintha or lowest class of articulated animals, that of intestinal
worms. By placing the mollusca and articulata on collateral lines, and con¬
necting them with each other, as well as with the radiata and vertebrata, by
intermediate groups, this absurdity was avoided. In the above classification
the American Indian is placed between the Malay and the Demi-Negro
Varieties, which is obviously an anomaly. This is avoided, in other vertical
arrangements, by making the American \ ariety the second instead of the
fifth; but the red man of the forest then treads on the heel of the Euro¬
pean, and is followed by the Chinese, which is almost as bad as the sepia
following the tape-worm. The Caucasian Variety is unquestionably the
highest, and the Australian the lowest in the scale ; but we might probably
ascend, from the Australian to the Caucasian, by two or three collateral lines,
placing on one the American, and on the other the Mongol Variety, and con^
EEMAKKS ON BISHOP PEKCY'S PREFACE.
29
Glossology has been cultivated with much greater success
than anthropology, though another century Avill probably
elapse before it attains its full development. Human speech
presents, in fact, the same endless varieties as the human
species. A person travelling through England, for instance,
would find in every county a different form of speech ; but,
although some would be as unintelligible as an unknowm
tongue, he would not hesitate to regard them as dialects of
one language. Now we might take the most prominent of
these dialects for types, around which the others might be ar¬
ranged, and thus form a certain number of glottic groups,
which we might term idioms. The dialects of the six north¬
ern counties, for instance, might be termed the Northumbrian
Idiom.; the dialects of Scotland, the Caledonian Idiom*, &c.
The result of this process would be one language—the Eng¬
lish—possessing six or seven idioms, and each idiom, proba¬
bly, from ten to twenty dialects. By subjecting the dialects
of North Germany, Friesland, and Holland, to a similar pro¬
cess, we should obtain the Low German (Piatt deutsch), the
Frisic, and the Dutch languages. On comparing the four lan¬
guages thus obtained, we should find that, as distinct languages,
they stood much in the same relationship to each other as the
seven English idioms, and as dialectic affinities constituted
an idiom, and idiomatic affinities a language, these linguistic
necting them b}' the Malay Variety, which would also form a transition to
the "West Asiatic.
* The dialects of Scotland and the North of England are owing to the
influence of the Old Norse—the common language of all the ancient Scandi¬
navians ; those of the midland and eastern counties to the language spoken
by the Angles, the language of the Saxons prevailing more in the southern
counties, though both these languages soon coalesced into one common tongue
—the Anglo-Saxon. The English dialects might probably be arranged, so
as to form six or seven idioms, as follows :—
1. The Standard Idiom, of language of the educated classes.
2. The Saxonia Idiom
3. The Anglic or Mercian
Idiom
4. The Northumbrian Idiom
.5. The Hibernian Idiom
6. The American Idiom
7. The Caledonian Idiom
aj
.JS
the southern counties of England,
the eastern and midland counties.
^ .2 Ï six northern counties.
U .
s ^
o
Ireland.
the United States.
^ ( Scotland.
"We place the Caledonian Idiom, or Scotch dialect as it is generallyyalled,
the last, because it differs the most from the Standard Idiom, and is, in fact,
regarded by some glossologists as a distinct language.
30
EEMAEKS ON BISHOP PEECY'S PKEFACE.
affinities would entitle us to comprehend the languages in
question under the general denomination of Saxonic. The
dialects of Central and Southern Germany would furnish us
with the High German language, which, with three ancient
tongues, would be found to differ from the Saxonic group of
languages sufficiently to constitute a separate group, which
we might term the Alemannic ; but the affinity existing be¬
tween these two glottic groups would entitle us to compre¬
hend them under the denomination of Germanic. The Scan¬
dinavian languages would form another group, radically allied
to the Germanic, though differing too much to be rendered
subordinate to it; we might, therefore, comprehend both
under the appellation of Teutonic, and should thus form all
the languages, we had subjected to a critical examination, into
a distinct linguistic family.
Having thus shown how a linguistic family may be synthe¬
tically formed from provincial dialects, we shall proceed to lay
before the reader the ordinary classiffcation of the Teutonic
and Celtic languages, which constitute two distinct linguistic
families ; but, as glossologists have not as yet adopted the
reticular arrangement, we must regard our glottic groups as
the branches and sub-branches of a family stem, and arrange
them as follows :—
Germanic
Branch.
TEUTONIC LANGUAGES.
Extinct languages,
remains of which
have been preserved.
' Alemannic, or f Mœso-Gothic,
High German^ Alemannic, ^German.
Sub-branch^-. pFrankic,
^ Saxonic, or [ Old Saxon,
Low German^ Old Ääsic,
Sub-branch I. ! . , „
pAnglo-Saxon,
Living languages
derived from them.
f Low German,
^ Dutch I,
pFrisic,
English.
* To this sub-branch belong the totally extinct languages (languages of
which no literary remains have been preserved) of the ancient Suevi, Taurisci,
Quadi, Marcomanni, Hermaduri, Longobardi, Goths, Ostro-Goths, Visi-
Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, &c.
f The totally extinct languages belonging to this sub-branch are those of
the ancient Angli, Cherusci, Chauci, Menapii, Batavi, &,c.
I We have not inserted Flemish, as it is generally regarded as an idiom
KEMAEKS ON BISHOP PEECYS PREFACE.
81
Scandinavian Branch
Extinct language«, languages
reinains of which
have heen preserved.
Ç Icelandic
0« Norse \
{Norrœna ■<
Túngd).
Norwegian f,
Swedish,
Danish.
CELTIC LANGUAGES.'
Extinct languages Living languages derived from them,
with literary remains. ° ° °
T 1 . . , TErse, spoken in Ireland
ae ic I J Gaelic, s^ioken in the Highlands.
Branch. J" Irish. Isg Man.
Brandl ^ British^ I Armorican iBreyzad), spoken in Bas-
■ J ■ Bretagne.
Glossologists have grouped the various languages, spoken
hy mankind, into upwards of five hundred families, each with
its branches, idioms, and dialects. Of such linguistic fami¬
lies, the West Asiatic Variety possesses twenty-four; the East
Asiatic, ten or twelve ; the North Asiatic, eight or ten ; the
Oceanic only one, divided into four main brauches ; the Ame¬
rican, upwards of three hundred ; the Eastern African, from
ten to twenty; the Central African, upwards of fifty; and
the Australian, probably as many. Besides these, there are
from fifty to a hundred languages of small tribes and isolated
people, belonging to the West and East Asiatic Varieties, too
little known to be classed, so that, on further investigation,
of the Dutch language ; in the same manner as the " Scotch dialects " form
an English idiom. 4
* Spoken in the Fseröe, or, as they are commonly, though improperly,
termed, the Ferroe Isles.
f Norwegian ceased to he a literary language in the middle of the six¬
teenth century; since which period, Danish has heen the language of the
educated classes in Norway, Norwegian only continuing to he spoken hy the
peasantry in the rural districts, and consequently remaining without a
standard idiom. Since the union with Sweden, the Norwegian patriots have
heen trying to revive the language of their forefathers. The Norse, formerly
spoken in the Orkney and Shetland Isles, was a Norwegian idiom.
1 Cornish, which became extinct in the middle of the last century, was
also a Celtic language of the Kymric hranch.
32
EEMARKS ON BISHOP PERGY'S PREFACE
the number of linguistic families will probably be found to
exceed six hundred, a circumstance which has been adduced
by several writers in support of the autochthonic theory of
the origin of the human race. It will be seen, however, from
the above statement, that there are not more than fifty well-
known linguistic families in the civilized parts of the globe,
only twenty-three of which possess a literature. These twen¬
ty-three families contain about eighty distinct languages ; but,
if the different periods of a literature be taken into account,
a person, in order to become acquainted with the literature of
all nations and ages, would probably have to leam upwards of
a hundred different tongues.
When glossologists had succeeded in grouping languages
into families, their next step was to ascertain whether any of
these families might be regarded as cognate. Now, if we
compare the Teutonic and Semitic families, for instance we
shall find that not the slightest analogy exists between them,
or at least no further analogy than all forms of human speech
must necessarily possess ; whereas a comparison of the Teu¬
tonic and Celtic families will show them to be remotely allied.
A radical affinity will, on further investigation, probably be
found to exist between several linguistic families of Eastern
Asia, but, at present, glossologists only admit seven such
families to be sufficiently cognate to constitute what we shall
not hesitate to call, for want of a better name, a linguistic
tribef. These families—generally comprised under the
* The Semitic family comprises the Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and other
cognate languages.
f Glossology is still in want of a scientific nomenclature, the word lan¬
guage being indiscriminately used, in the plural, to designate a linguistic
tribe, family, branch, and sub-branch, as in the phrases, " Indo-European
languages," " Teutonic languages," " Germanic languages," " Saxonic lan-
guilges," &c., phrases which convey no precise meaning, and from which it
would be impossible to surmise that the Saxonic languages were included
under the term Germanic, the Germanic under Teutonic, and the Teutonic
under the general term of Indo-European. If it were laid down as a rule,
that dialects constitute an idiom ; idioms a language ; languages a tongue,
corresponding to a branch ; tongues, a linguistic family which might appro¬
priately be termed a glottj and families or glotts, a tribe or pangloii; we
might express ourselves in much clearer terms. It might then be said, for
instance, that the Indo-European panglott comprises seven glotts, and the
Celtic glott two tongues, one of them having three, and the other two, living
languages ; and that each of these languages has a certain number of idioms
and dialects.
EEMAEKS ON BISHOP PEECY'S PEEFACE.
33
vague denomination of " Indo-Germanic or Indo-European
languages—are the Hindostanic, Iranio, Hellenic, Romanic,
Slavonic, Teutonic, and Celtic." We should far exceed our
prescribed limits were we to point out the affinities that con¬
nect these families, or enter into any details concerning the
languages they respectively comprise; suffice it to say, that
the Hindostanic family possesses three ancient languages, the
Sanskrit, Bali, and Kavi, from which most of the living lan¬
guages of Northern and Central India are derived; the
Iranio family has also three extinct languages, the Zend,
Pehlvi, and Parsi, the latter being the parent of modern Per¬
sian ; the Hellenic family has ancient and modern Greek ;
the Romanic family, Latin, from which are derived Italian,
Spanish, Portuguese, Occitannic (La Langue doc), French,
Rumansch (spoken in the Canton of Grisons), and Rumenic,
a language spoken by 3,400,000 Valachs, in Hungary, Tran¬
sylvania, Moldavia, Walachia, and Bulgaria. The Slavonic
family comprises the Illyrian, Servian, Croatian, Russian,
Polish, Bohemian, and other cognate languages. The Teu¬
tonic and Celtic families have already been described. The
most ancient languages ■ of this tribe are the Sanskrit and
Zend, to which, it would appear, the Celtic languages have
but a remote affinity. The Celtic may, in fact, be regarded
as the family the most distantly related to its tribe. The
families that offer the greatest resemblance are the Hindo¬
stanic, Iranic, Hellenic, Romanic, and Teutonic.
Returning to the anthropological branch of ethnology, we
must remark that each variety of the human species may be
divided into races—each race offering certain physiological
and psychological traits that distinguish it from all others.
Thus, among the numerous races that constitute the West
Asiatic Variety, the two that are the immediate object of the
present inquiry may be thus characterized.
TEUTONIC EACE. CELTIC EACE.
Physiological Character.— Physiological Character.—
Fair complexion, fair, often Dark (sallow) cömplexion,
flaxen, reddish, golden-co- dark brown eyes, and black
loured smooth hair, com- hair, with a disposition to tum
monly not curled ; large blue grey at an early age, and to
eyes, ruddy cheeks, broad fall out (bald-head), commonly
high brow, skull larger and not curled ; stature of middle
84
EEMAKKS ON BISHOP PERCYS PREFACE.
size, slender make, legs curved
somewhat inwards, as in fe
males ; comparatively narrow
chest, narrow hips, face and
upper part of the skull the
exact form of an oval, heels
and ankles slender, feet small.
Temperament ;—Bilious and
bilious-nervous prevailing.
rounder than in the Celtic
variety, bones thicker, chest
broader, so the hips, legs
straight, heels and ankles
strong, feet often large, even
clumsy when compared with
the Celtic variety; greater
strength of muscle, tallness
of figure, above what is called
the middle size; skull and
face of a form that approaches
nearer to a half circle, to
which the thinner end of the
oval is added ; disposition to
become corpulent. Tempera¬
ment : — Sanguine, nervous,
and phlegmatic prevailing.
Psychological Character.—
Slowness, but accuracy of per¬
ception; general slowness, but
depth and penetration of mind ;
not brilliant for witticism like
the Celtic variety, but distin¬
guished by acuteness ; fond¬
ness of independence, it being
valued more highly tlian
equality of condition or rank ;
provident, cautious, reserved,
hospitable, but not sociable
on a large scale with aristo¬
cratic conservative tenden¬
cies ; respect for women, with¬
out assuming the Celtic cha¬
racter of frivolous flippancy;
sincerity, forgetfulness of re¬
ceived injuries, adventurous,
distinguished for cleanliness.
* "We have taken this description from the remarks Dr. Gustaf Komhst
has appended to his Ethnographic Map of Great Britain and Ireland, pub¬
lished in Johnstone's splendid edition of Berghaus's Physical Atlas, omiUing,
however, such of his moral and intellectual (psychological) characteristics as
Psychological Character
Quickness of perception, great
powers of combination, appli¬
cation, love of equality, of so¬
ciety, of amusement, of glory,
want of caution and provid¬
ence, prevalent disposition for
sexual intercourse, gallantry,
national vanity, fine blandish¬
ing manners, great external
politeness, without inward
sympathy; irascible, not for¬
getful of injuries, little dispo¬
sition for hard work*.
REMARKS ON BISHOP PERCY S PREFACE
35
We may remark that physiological characteristics are, in a
great measure, indelible ; but the original psychological quali-
we deemed inapplicable, either on account of their savouring too much of a
preconceived theory, or of their being more attributable to the influence of
social institutions than to idiosyncrasy of race. We subjoin these passages
as Ave should regret giving a gentleman of Dr. Kombst's learning and abili¬
ties any reason to complain of their omission. They are, for the Teutonic
race, " Want of concentrativeness ; self-government in all spheres of life.
Fond of titles and social distinctions " (a trait quite as applicable, we should
imagine, to mankind in general as to the Teutonic race). " No foundling
hospitals ; spirit for benevolent foundations. Eecklessness regarding other
nations' rights, overbearing, haughty spirit. Musical talent in most Teutonic
tribes great. Skilful seamen. On the whole, fond of spirituous liquors."
And, for the Celtic race, " Disposition for concentrating political and admini¬
strative power. Want of respect for human life—want of penetration, and
desire for personal independence and political freedom. Disposition to super¬
stition and hierarchy. Foundling hospitals. In most Celtic countries, nn
laws regarding paternity, or for the sustenance of, so-called, natural children
by the father. Bad seamen. Not fit for colonising."
" Recklessness regarding other nations' rights, overbearing, haughty
spirit," is much the same kind of phrase as a Parisian journalist would make
use of to designate " la perfide Albion." Now admitting, for the sake of
argument, that, as a nation, we do possess this character, and we will admit
that we are somewhat too haughty and overbearing—very unenviable quali¬
ties certainly, but which are the necessary consequences of our unexampled
maritime power and commercial prosperity-—still Dr. Kombst would not be
justified in attributing such psychological traits to the Teutonic race, for our
good-natured brethren the Germans, who form the mass of this race, are un¬
questionably the least haughty and overbearing people in existence. We pre¬
sume that, when Dr. Kombst attributed " want of respect for human life " to
the Celtic race, he had the Irish in vierv, and forgot for the moment that the
Scandinavians of the olden time showed less " respect for human life " than
any people Avhose sanguinary deeds ever stained the pages of history. And
as to the agrarian outrages of Ireland, they are the necessary result of the
wretched system pursued for centuries in that unhappy country. Place any
people on the face of the earth, no matter of what race or of what religion,
in the same deplorable situation as the Irish peasantry, and the same conse¬
quences will inevitably ensue. The inhabitants of Cornwall, who are re¬
garded by Dr. Kombst as " the purest Celtic race of any in Great Britain
and Ireland," do not figure in our criminal records more frequently .than their
Saxon neighbours of the adjacent counties ; neither have we heard of their
being " bad seamen," a quality which Dr. Kombst also ascribes to their race.
The rude Styrian boor, as prone to superstition as the Irish Celt, and uniting
low cunning with an obtuseness of intellect almost unparalleled ; the lively,
jovial Rheinlander and the intellectual Saxonian present the same physio¬
logical traits, and belong to the same branch (the High Germanic) of the
Teutonic race ; yet we think Dr. Kombst, Avho, we presume, is also a Ger¬
man, would be somewhat puzzled to draw up a moral and intellectual cha¬
racter " equally applicable to them.
D 2
36
RKMAKKS ON lîrSIIOP PERCYS PREFACE.
ties, due to phj^sical conformation and temperament, are so
modißed and changed hy the influence of civil and religious
institutions, that we ought to be extremely cautious in apply¬
ing them to characterize a race. There are, however, certain
psychological traits, which may be regarded as inherent, sus¬
ceptible of undergoing a slight modification—of assuming a
greater or lesser degree of intensity ; but, so long as the race
remains unmixed, totally ineradicable, these ought to be
carefully distinguished from adventitious qualities, which may
be applied to a particular tribe or nation, and ascribed to the
influence of its peculiar institutions, but never made use of to
designate a race. Among the psychological characteristics
which ethnological writers have applied to the Teutonic and
Celtic races, we have selected, though with some slight hesi¬
tation, such as we deem inherent, discarding others which, for
the reasons stated in the note, we must consider as entirely
adventitious.
Anthropology having established the existence of distinct
races, and glossology the existence of distinct linguistic fami¬
lies, it remained for the higher science of ethnology to ascer¬
tain whether the races of the one coincide with the families
of the other. In the two races and families we have espe¬
cially in view, this is strictly the case. All nations that
belong physiologically to the Teutonic race, either speak, or
have originally spoken, one or other of the Teutonic lan¬
guages, and those belonging to the Celtic race one or other
of the Celtic languages. The physiological character of a
nation lasts, however, much longer than its language. Hence
when two nations present the same physiological tmits, we
may take for granted that they are of a common origin,
although the languages they speak may not possess the
slightest affinity. The inhabitants of Cornwall, for instance,
speak English, but present all the characteristics of the
Celtic race, and Ave know that their Celtic language only
became extinct in the last century
• For the " distribution of races " in the British Isles, Ave refer the reader
to Dr. Komhst's map before mentioned, and subjoin the folloAS'ing extract
from the remarks Avhich accompany it.
" If we AA^ere," he says, " to make an average calculation as to the ethno¬
graphic quality of the blood in the population inhabiting Grreat Britain, (for
an accurate calculation Avill for the present at least be out of the question,)
we Avould most probably arrive at the following result."
EEMARKS ON BISHOP PEECY'S PEEFACE.
37
In the British islands the Teutonic and Celtic races have
remained tolerably distinct ; but it is obvious that centuries of
«/
war and conquests have frequently blended into one nation
tribes of different races, though the effects which such
a fusion produces are, generally speaking, not so great as
might be expected. The conquerors of a country have gene¬
rally been a much less numerous body than the people they
conquered, which will account for the slight modification that
the physiological character of several subjugated nations has
undergone. Thus, although France has been successively
conquered by the Romans, by the Franks, Burgundians, and
other Germanic tribes, and at a more recent period by the
Normanno-Saxons of England, we find that the French of
the present day retain in a marked degree all the physiologi¬
cal and psychological traits that characterize the Celtic race.
On closer examination we may certainly perceive the traces
of these conquests in the shades of character and physiog¬
nomy that distinguish the inhabitants of the various pro¬
vinces. The people of Normandy, for instance, still retain
some of the characteristic traits of the Scandinavians ; the
I. Pure Blood.
1. Teutonic, in England, Scotland, and the east and north-east
of Ireland 10,000,000
2. Celtic, in Cornwall, Wales, the Scottish Highlands, and
Ireland 6,000,000
16,000,000
II. Mixed Blood.
1, Teutonic (that is, with prevalent Teutonic character), in
England, Scotland, and the east and north-east of Ire¬
land 6,000,000
2, Celtic (that is, with prevalent Celtic character), in Corn¬
wall, Wales, the Scottish Highlands, and Ireland . . . 4,000,000
10,000,000
Total of Teutonic pure .and mixed 16,000,000
Total of Celtic pure and mixed 10,000,000
26,000,000
We must observe, that in our acceptation of the terms. Dr. Kombst's map
is not an ethnographic but an anthropographic map, as it merely distin¬
guishes races and not languages. A map indicating languages would be a
glossographic map, and one indicating both races and languages, a rcial eth
nographic map.
33
EEMAEKS ON BISHOP PERCY'S PREFACE.
«
Germanic traits are still perceptible in tlie other provinces
north of the Loire, and the Romanic in several of those
situated on the south of that river; but the Celtic cha¬
racter every where predominates, and the account which
Csesar gives of the character of the ancient Gauls might be
literally applied to their descendants—our volatile neighbours
across the Channel. Whenever a fusion of nations speaking
different languages takes place by conquest, the language of
superior intellectual development soon becomes the common
tongue of the conquerors and the conquered. It was thus
that the Celtic language of the ancient Gauls was replaced
by the Latin, whereas the Franks and the other Gennanic
tribes soon lost their Teutonic idioms, and adopted the
language of the Romanized Gauls they subjugated.
We will not attempt to give even a sketch of the state
of Europe before the dawn of authentic history, as we should
be obliged to examine a number of hypotheses, and after all
should arrive at no satisfactory result. From the high lands of
Central Asia races of men seem to have been propelled like
waves one after another from the remotest period, com¬
paratively speaking, down to the present time, and we may
take for granted that the Celtic race preceded the Slavonic,
and the latter the Teutonic, for we find at the earliest period
to which even conjectural reasoning can safely ascend, that the
Celts occupied the greater part of western and south-western
Europe, the northern and north-eastern parts being in pos¬
session of the Tshuds—a race belonging to the Arctic variety
of the human species—and the south-eastern parts, com¬
prising the present countries of Tui'key in Europe, Greece,
and Southern Italy, peopled by various tribes, whose origin it
is impossible to ascertain. Among these were the Thracians
and Pelasgi—or we should perhaps say the Thracians or
Pelasgi—for whether these people were of the same race, and
whether this was a mixed or a pure race, whether the
Thracians, as some waiters assert, were a powerful tribe of the
Teutonic, or as others maintain, of the Slavonic race, we will
not pretend to decide, the arguments ]'espectively brought
forward in support of these opinions being more or less
hypothetical. All that can be said with any degree of his¬
torical certainty is, that the people, who at a somewhat later
period spoke the Greek language, were a mixed race, and
EEMAEKS ON BISHOP PEKCY'S PREFACE.
39
those we find established in ancient Latium, and speaking the
Latin language, a race still more mixed. But as these lan¬
guages have the greatest affinity with Sanskrit, it is evident
that the mixed races in question which we have denominated
the Hellenic and Komanic, were chiefly composed of tribes
from Central Asia, and the former, as well as the latter, may
probably have had for its nucleus a Thracian or Pelasgian
tribe, which by amalgamating with Semitic (Phenician) and
other tribes, formed the Hellenic, and with Celtic and various
Italic tribes of an unknown origin, the Piomanic race. At a
still later period the Slavonic and Teutonic races entered
Europe. The Slavonians, after driving the Tshuds further
north, occupying the parts now known under the names of
Russia, Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, &c., and the whole of
north Germany. The hardy Teutons drove Tshuds, Sla¬
vonians, and Celts, before them ; the Scandinavian branch
of this race expelling the Tshuds from the southern parts of
Sweden and Norway, and the Germanic branch conquering
and amalgamating with the Slavonic tribes settled in Ger¬
many, traces of this fusion being still perceptible in the dark
eyes and hair, and comparatively darker complexions, of
several of the northern Germans. If we had an authentic
history of the migrations of these various races, we should
probably find that none of them are unmixed ; however, com¬
paratively speaking, the Celtic, Slavonic, and Teutonic, may
be regarded as pure, and the Hellenic and Romanic as mixed
races.
As frequent mention will be made in this work of the
Finns, it may not be irrelevant to say a few words respecting
the Tshudic-'^ race, to which they belong. The languages
spoken by the various tribes of this race may be classed as
follows :—
* As the English sh corresponds to the German seh, we do not see the
utility of retaining the c in words not of German origin. We might also
notice here the error which most of our geographical writers fall into of re¬
taining the German w, which corresponds to the English v, in the proper-
names of other languages than German. Why not, for instance, write Va-
lachia, as the natives of that country, and the Germans themselves, pronounce
the word, instead of Walachia.
40
EEMARKS ON BISHOP PERCY'S PREFACE.
TSHUDIC LANGUAGES (3,200,000)*.
].
Suomic Branch
(2,075,000).
<>
2
8
Permic
Branch
(1,125,000).
^5
Northern
Sub-Branch
(375,000).
0.
7.
■4
Southern
Sub-Branch <f
(750,000).
L
Finnic (1,500,000), spoken in
Finnland and the Govera-
ments of St. Petersburg,.
Novgorod, and Olonetz.
Esthonic (500,000), in Es-
thonia and Livonia.
Livic the ancient language
of Livonia, now almost
extinct.
4. Lappic (75,000), spoken by
the Laplanders in Russia,
Sweden, and Norway.
Komic or Permic Proper
(35,000), in the Govern¬
ment of Perm.
Sürsenic (40,000), in the Gov.
of Penn, Yiatka, Vologda,
Archangel, and Tobolsk.
Votaskic (100,000), in the
Governments of Viatka and
Kasan.
8. Vogulic (100,000), in the Go¬
vernments of Perm, To¬
bolsk, and Tomsk.
Asjach (100,000), on
rivers Obi and Jertush.
Tshervassic (400,000),
the Governments of Kasan,
Nijnii Novgorod, Simbirsk,
Saratov, and Astrakhan.
Tsheremissic (220,000), in
the Governments of Kasan,
N. Novgorod, Simbirsk, and
Astrakhan.
12. Mordvinic (130,000), in the
Governments of N. Novgo¬
rod, Simbirsk, Tambov,
Penza, and Saratov.
9.
no.
the
111
II.
* The figures denote the numher of persons speaking the respective lan¬
guages, or, in other words, the population of each tribe and branch ; the
REMARKS ON BISHOP PEECï's PREFACE.
41
That the tribes speaking these languages belong to the
Arctic variety of the human species is unquestionable ; but
whether they are all of the same race we will not pretend to
decide. We should, in fact, be incliped to regard the Finns
and Lapps as belonging to distinct races, their physiological
and psychological characteristics differing materially. The
Lapp is distinguished for his obstinacy, suspicion, and child¬
ishness of feeling; the Finn for his energy and gloomy
earnestness. "The man by his word, the ox by his horn," is
a Finnic proverb. The Lapps consider it an honour to be¬
long to the Finns, and both people call themselves Suomi =1%
but the Finn regards the Lapp with the same contemptuous
disdain as the Magyar looks down on the Slovak, or as the
Norman regarded the Saxon, a feeling which would imply
tliat at some remote period the Finns conquered the Lapps,
who were probably the aborigines of Finnland and Esthonia.
Ptolemy places the Fenni south-west of the Lithuanians ;
Tacitus more north; Strabo describes them under the name
of Zoumi (Suomi), and according to the classic writers, they
Avere very savage and dirty, and much in the same state as the
Australians of the present dayf.
f
whole Tshudic race being estimated at 3,200,000. We have calculated the
population from the data given by Eerghaus in his " Grrundriss der Geo¬
graphie. Breslaw, 1842."
* Suomi is an abbreviation of Suomenmaa, and this of Suomiehenmaa,
literally, " Morass-man's-land," from suo, morass; mies, gen. miehen, man;
and maa, land.
f Several writers place the Magyar language in the Tshudic family, but
we think on very inconclusive grounds. See, for instance, Gyarmath's
" Affinitas Lingum Hungaricse cum Unguis Fennicœ originis grammaticœ
demonstrata," Gotting. 1799. That a certain affinity exists we will not
deny ; but the Magyar is probably an original Asiatic idiom, amalgamated
with various Tshudic and Turkish dialects into one of the most energetic
and copious languages we are acquainted with. We have heard of Hun¬
garian patriots taking it for granted that Magyar was the language spoken
by Adam and Eve—and we presume also by the serpent—in Paradise, and
it is certainly séduisante enough in the mouth of a fair lady to tempt a man
somewhat beyond the bounds of discretion. The origin of the Magyars
themselves is a quœstio vexata we will not attempt to solve. Horvath—the
Hungarian Ivudbeck, makes them the descendants of the Parthians ! ! The
Magyars of the tenth century, according to the description given of them by
contemporary writers presented all the physiological characteristics of the
Mongol variety. If this was really the case, they must have been crossed
by other races, for at the present day they are as fine a race of men as any
43
EEMAEKS ON BISHOP PERCï's PREFACE.
We have already mentioned the close relationship of the
Hindostanic, Iranio, Hellenic, Komanic, and Teutonic lin¬
guistic families, and we may conclude these observations on
Bishop Percy's Preface, which have led us somewhat further
than we intended, by calling the attention of the reader to the
most remarkable fact which the annals of mankind can pro¬
duce, and which future historians, when ethnological truths
have become more popular, will no longer pass over in silence.
It is the striking, we should say the main, the fundamental
fact of human history, that from the earliest period of re¬
corded time, down to the present day, a powerful people
speaking a language belonging to one or other of these five
families, should have, in a great measure, swayed the destinies
of the human race.
When we strive to pierce the mysterious gloom that
shrouds an infant world, it is the heaven-aspiring peaks of
Central Asia'"' that we first discern, illumined by those
primeval myths, which, like the dazzling coruscations of a
polar winter, play fantastically amidst the night of ages, ere
history's dawn has yet streaked time's hoary horizon with its
earliest ray. And when at length the opening morn dispels
these visionary splendours, wr behold the luxuriant plains of
the Ganges already occupied by an intelligent people, with
its sages and philosophers attempting, by rendering matter
the shadowy phenomenal of mind, to idealize the metempsy¬
chosis of nature into an eternal self-emanating and self-
absorbing unity. It is to these Hindoo sages that we are
indebted for most of the philosophical and theological ideas
that we still strive to weave into a system that shall finally
explain what we ought, ere this, to be aware will, for beings
endowed with our limited faculties, for ever remain inexpli¬
cable. It would, in fact, be easy to show—were it not foreign
to our purpose—how the metaphysical speculations of these
in Europe, the higher classes especially are distinguished for their noble and
expressive physiognomy, but they have probably as much German and
Italian as Magyar blood in their veins, and on a closer examination the
Magyar peasantry will be found to offer physiological traits that Avould indi¬
cate a mixture of the Caucasian and Arctic—not to say Mongol—varieties ;
the Caucasian, however, generally predominating.
* The Himalaya, or Heavenly mountains, the Sanskrit, hiroala, correspond¬
ing to the M. Gothic, himins ; Alem., himil ; Germ., Swed. and Dan., him-
mel; Old Norse, himin; Dutch, hemel; Ang. Sax., lieofonj Engl., heaven.
EEMAEKS ON BISHOP PEECY'S PEEFACE.
43
sages, after being recast in a classic mould by Plato, were
engrafted by tbe first fathers of the Church on the primitive
doctrines of Christianity, through which they still exercise a
powerful influence over the most civilized nations of the globe.
Proceeding westward, we find, as the morn of time expands
into day, the Iranio race, founding one of the mightiest mo¬
narchies the world ever witnessed, and in conformity with the
precepts of Zoroaster's dualistic monotheism,
" Make
Their altars the high places and the peak
Of earth-o'ergazing mountains, and thus take
A fit and unwalled temple, there to seek
The spirit, in whose honour shrines are weak
Upreared of human hands."
Led on by Cjums and by Cambyses we find these Iranites,
or early Persians, subjugating all the neighbouring nations,
and finally ruling with uncontrolled dominion from the Indus
to the Nile ; the Egyptians, who were probably an offshoot
from the same parent stem, being, for near two centuries, their
tributaries. But while they were thus proceeding in their
career of glory, various small tribes of a mixed race, located
on the isles and coasts of Greece and Asia Minor, and bound
together by the ties of a common language, were essaying
every form of self-government which the unshackled spirit of
freedom suggests to the mind of man. Thus nerved for
heroic deeds, their Hellenic idioms moulded into a classic
tongue by the inspired strains of their immortal bards, the
metaphysical speculations of their earliest sages and the
forensic eloquence of their patriot statesmen, they fearlessly
encountered the all-conquering Iranio race, and wrested from
its trembling grasp the destinies of the world, on the ever-
memorable plains of Marathon. The part assigned to this
intellectual people in the great drama of life, was to emanci¬
pate the human mind from the hierarchial thraldom in which
it had so long lingered ; to render man conscious of his own
dignity, to show what marvels self-government and free in-
quiiy can accomplish, and thus hand down a glorious heritage
of imperishable principles for the guidance of future genera¬
tions.
It would be needless to point out how the Hellenic race
had, in its turn, to cede the destinies of mankind to a cognate
and more energetic, though less intellectual people ; and how
Iloman valour and discipline, in acquiring the dominion of the
44
EEMAEKS ON BISHOP PEECY'S PEEFACE.
then known world, diffused among the Celtic nations of western
Europe the germs of a civilization grounded on municipal
freedom, making them at the same time acquainted, by means
of the Latin language, with that Hellenic intellectuality which
they had themselves appropriated as the most glorious ])úze of
their conquest.
The time at length arrived when, by the inevitable laws of
nature, Roman freedom had degenerated into imperial de¬
spotism. Humanity was stagnating into a lethargic slumber;
the world was in its wane. But the hardy tribes of the Teu¬
tonic race then issued from the forests of Germania, and after
a long period of desolation and slaughter, regenerated the
Romanized nations of Europe, by infusing into them, along
with their Teutonic blood, a portion of that spirit of personal
independence which appears to be the peculiar characteristic
of the Teutonic race. The meridional European nations
were thus blended into a mixed Teuto-Romano-Celtic race,
speaking various languages derived from Latin, which, as the
language of superior intellectual development, had predomi¬
nated over the unpolished idioms of the barbarous Teutons
and Celts.
Since this eventful epoch, one or other of the nations be¬
longing either to this mixed race, or to the pure Teutonic race
located in Germany, Holland, England and Scandinavia, has
swayed, singly or conjointly with a cognate nation, the desti¬
nies of mankind. And at the present day we find the Ger¬
mans arrived at the highest point of intellectuality the human
mind has hitherto attained, recasting in a Teutonic mould
those ancient systems of Hindostanic and Hellenic philosophy,
which have become so intimately inwoven with our whole
social existence, that without them, modern civilization would
be but a sensual refinement doomed to inevitable decay.
And when we turn our attention to a small island on the
north western coast of Europe, we behold a nation, formed by
the genial blending of Saxonic and Scandinavian tribes,
arrived at a height of commercial prosperity and maritime
greatness hitherto unparalleled. Ay, 'tis a pardonable vanity
to record the fact; England, matchless in the mechanical
arts, irresistible in arms, sweeping from the surface of the
ocean the fleets of every rival nation that dares dispute her mari¬
time supremacy, is now in possession of that heritage, whose
succession we have traced through cognate races, and will, we
REMARKS ON BISHOP PERCY'S PREFACE.
45
trust, long retain it by virtue of the law which appears to have
regulated its transmission ; that it should be held for the time
being, by the most energetic tribe of the race to which it had
devolved, by the tribe that [physiological and psychological
qualities rendered the most adapted to make use of it for the
development of humanity.
We have thus seen how five cognate races have successively
been the rulers, if not always physically, at least intellectually,
and the civilizers of mankind, and how the civilization that
genninated on the plains of the Ganges some forty centuries
ago, has been transmitted westward from race to race, until we
now find it in the north-west of Europe, with the Germans in
possession of the more intellectual, and the English of the
more practical, elements that constitute its essence. But the
most singular fact connected with this social metempsychosis
is, that the Saxon should now rule with uncontrolled sway over
that antique land, whence the heritage he so gloriously holds
was originally transmitted to him, and should there impart to
his Hindostanic brethren a civilization whose germs had been
planted by their common ancestors, at a period when the vast
mountain barrier that bounds that luxuriant realm still
gleamed with mythic radiancy athwart the gloom of hoar an¬
tiquity.
The day, however, must necessarily arrive when the Teu¬
tonic race, after running its destined career from barbarism to
civilization, from civilization to decay, will have, either to
cede this heritage to a more primitive and vigorous race, or
to be regenerated by that fusion of nations which a century
of war and devastation has at different epochs invariably pro¬
duced. May this day be still far distant; but when German
philosophy shall degenerate into Hellenic sophistry, and
British refinement into Roman luxuiy, we may safely conclude
that the Teutonic race has reached its point of culmination,
and must necessarily fall before the race destined, by the in¬
scrutable designs of an Allwise Providence, to carry on the
development of humanity on earth, and render it more fit for
a higher intellectuality hereafter.
" Sic rerum summa novatur
Semper, et inter se mortales mutua vivunt.
Augescunt alise gentes, alise minuuntur :
Inque brevi spatio mutantur ssecla animantum ;
Et, quasi cursores, vitaï lampada tradunt."
40
SPECIMENS OF LANGUAGES.
TEUTONIC LANGUAGES.
GERMANIC BRANCH.—ALEMÀNNIC SUB-BRANCH.
MŒSO-GOTHIC, FOUETH CENTUET.
^Atta unsar, thu ïn himinam, veilinai namo them; ^qimai
thiudinassus tlieins; ^vairthai vilja theius, sve "in liimina, jah.
ana airthai; ^hlaif unsarana thana sinteinan gif uns himma
daga; ^jah aflet uns thatei skulans sijaima, svasve jali veis
afletam thaim skulam unsaraim; ''jali ni briggais uns ïn
fraistubnjai, ''ak lausei uns af thamma ubilin; ®Unte theina
ïst thiudangardi, jah mahls, jah vulthus, ïn aivins.—From
Gahelentz and Lœhes edition of Ulj^hilas, Altenh. and Lei])-
sig, ,18o6.
ALEMANNIC, A.D. 720.
^Fátter unseer, thu pist in himele, wihi namun dinan;
"chweme rihi din; werde willo din, so in himile, sosa in
erdu; ^proath unseer emezhic kip uns hiutu; ^oblaz uns
sculdi unseero, so mr oblazen uns skuldikem ; ® enti ni unsih
firletti in khorunka, '' uzz erlosi unsili fona ubile.—From
Adelung's Mithridates, ed. 1809, vol. ii. spec. 124.
FEANKIC, NINTH CENTUET.
^ Eater unser, thu thar hist in himile, si giheilagot thin
namo ; ~ queme thin rihhi ; ^ si thin uuillo, so her in himile
ist, so si her in erdu; ^unsar brot tagalihhaz gib uns hiutu;
®inti furlaz uns unsara sculdi, so uuir furlazemes xmsaren
sculdigon; "inti ni gileites unsih in costunga, ''^uzouh arlosi
unsih fon ubile. — From Sclimellers Evangelii secundum,
Matthœum versio Francica, steculi ix. Stuttg. 1827.
SPECIMENS OF LANGUAGES.
47
GEEMAN, THIKTEENTH CENTURY.
'Fater ynser, tu in Fliimele, din Name urde gelieiliget;
"din Ricke kome; 'Rlin Uile gskehe in Erdo alz Hiimele;
^ynser tagolicko Bred kib ynss hiuto; •''undto ynsere Sculdo
blaze yns, als wij belatzen ynser Sculdige; '^unde in Corunga
nit leitest du unsicli, '^nun belose unsicli fone Ubele.—From
Adelung s Mithridates, vol. ii. spec. 130.
GERMAN, A.D. 1463.
^Vatter unser, du do bist in den Himeln, geheyliget ward
dein Nam; ^ zuo kum dein Reich ; ^dein Wil der ward, als
im Himeln vnd in der Erd ; unser täglich Brot gib uns heut;
®und vergib uns unser Schuld, als und wir vergeben unsern
Schuldigern; ^und für uns nit in Versüchung, '^sunder erlöss
uns von den Übeln. From Adelung's Mithridates, vol. ii.
spec. 137, taken from the first printed Bible.
GERMAN, NINETEENTH CENTURY.
^ Unser Vater, der du bist im Himmel, geheiliget werde
dein Name ; ^dein Reich komme ; ^dein Wille geschehe, wie
im Himmel, also auch auf Erden ; ^ unser tägliches Brodt gieb
uns heute; ^und vergieb uns unsere Schulden wie wir ver¬
geben unsern Schuldigern; ®und führe uns nicht in Versu¬
chung ''sondern erlöse uns von dem Uebel. ®Denn dein ist
das Reich, und die .Kraft, und die Herrlichkeit, in Ewigkeit.
—From " Fas Allgemeine Gebetbuch,'' Lond. 1845»
SAXONIC SÜB-BRANCH,
OLD SAXON
The earliest specimen of this language extant, is a poetical
Paraphrase of the Gospels, made in the ninth century ; an
edition of which has been published by Schmeller from a
MS. in the British Museum.
The Paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer is as follows :—
Fadar is usa* firiho barno. the is an them hohon* himi—
larikea. Geuuihid si thin name- uuordo gehuuilico. Cuma
thin craftag riki. Uuerda thin uuilleo' obar thesa uuerold. al
so sama an erdo. so thar uppa ist* an them hohen- himilri-
kea. Gef us dago gehuuilikes rad* drohtin the godo, thina
48
SPECIMENS OF LANGUA(3ES,
helaga lielpa. Endi alat us hebenes uuard- managoro men-
sculdio. al so uue odrum mannum doan. Ne lat us farledean*
letha uuihti' so ford an iro uuilleon* so uui uuirdige sind. Ac
help us uuidar alluu' ubilon dadiun. — Ileliand. Poema
Saxonicum seculi noni. edit. J. A. Schmeller, 1 v. 4°. Monachii
1830, p. 48, 8-16.
OLD FKISIC.
The oldest specimen extant of this language is the Asega-
bók, a Code of Laws of the Bustringian Friesians, of the
thirteenth century, from which we subjoin an extract, taken
from Wiarda's edition, I v. 4to. Berlin, 1805, page 1, with a
literal translation, though for the English reader a translation
is scarcely necessary.
Thit riuht skref God selva. This law (right) wrote God
use liera, tha thet was thet himself, our Lord, when (that
Moyses latte thet israheliska was, that) Moses led the
folk thruoh thene rada se and Israelite folk through the Red
of there wilda wostene, and se Sea and the wild waste, and
komon tho tha berge ther 'is they came to the mount that
beheten Synay. Tha festade is called (hight) Sinai. Then
Moyses twia- fiuwerth dega fasted Moses twice forty days
and nadita ; ther efter ief and nights ; thereafter gave
God him twa stenena tefla God him two stone tables on
ther hi on eskrivin hede tha which he written had the ten
tian boda ; tha skolde hi lera commandments ; these should
tha israheliska folke. he teach the Israelite folk.
LOW GERMAN.
^ Unse Vader, in dem hemmel, dyn name werde gehilliget ;
^ dyn rike käme ; ^ dyn wille geschae up erden, aise im
hemmel ; ^ unse daclilike brod gif uns hüden ; ^ und vorgyf
uns unse schülde, aise wy misen schüldeners vorgeven ; ® und
vöre uns nicht in versökinge, sunder vorlöse uns van dem
övel. ^ Weilte dyn ys dat rike, nun de kraft, unde de her-
licheit, in ewicheit. — From Adeliing's Mithridates, vol. ii,
spec. 168.
FEISIG (MOLKWERIC IDIOM).
^ Uhs Fader, der y binne ynne himmelen ; jen namme
worde heilige ; ^jen kenningryk komme ; ^ jen wille geschae.
SPECIMENS OF LANGUAGES.
49
allyk ynne liymmel, soa aeak op jerde ; ^ uhs dags brae jouw
uhs joed ; ® in forjauw ulis unzze Schleiden, allyk aek wy
forjouwe uhs schieldeners ; ® in lied uhs naet yn forsieking,
mar forlos uhs fen den quaeden. ® Want jens ist ken-
ningryk, in de kräft, in de haerlykheit, ynne jewigheid.—
From Adelung's Mithridates, vol. ii. spec. 150.
FEISIC (DIALECT OF HELIGOLAND).
^ Ohsem Baabe, de dö beest ohne hemmel, hallig waarde
dann nähme ; ^ thokamme dinn kenning-rik ; ^ dann walle
schien of h dä eerde, allick ös öhn dä hemmel ; ^ dühn ös
delling ÖS daaglicks bruud ; ^ en verjeef ös Öse schöll, allick
ÖS wie veijeefe Öse schellers ; " en fehr ös eech hanninn öhn
verseeldng, '''m^ help ös vohnt eävelen eerg. ^Dirram datt
dat kenning-rick dinn is, en dä krafft, en dä hucheit, öhn
iwigkeit.—From Adelung's Mithridates, vol. ii. spec. 152.
DUTCH.
^ Onze Vader, die in de hemelen zijt, uw naam werde
geheiligd; uw koningrijk kome ; "^uw wil geschiede, gelijk
in den hemel, alzoo eck op de aarde ; ^ geef ons heden ons
dagelijksch brood ; ® en vergeef ons onze schulden, gelijk ook
wij vergeven onzen schuldenaren ; " en leid ons niet in
verzoeking, maar verlos ons van den booze. ® Want uw is
het koningrijk, en de kracht, en de heerlijkheid in eeuwigheid.
—From the Dutch State Bible, edit. Legden, 1842.
ANGLO-SAXON.
^ Feeder úre, thú the eart on heofenum, si thin nama ge-
hálgod ; ^ tó-becume thin rice ; ^ gewur^e thin willa on
eorthan, swá swá on heofenum ; iirne daeghwamlican hláf
syle us to deeg ; ^ and forgyf us úre gyltas, swá swá we for-
gifa^ drum gyltendum ; " and ne gelaéd thú us on costnunge.
HQ alys us of yfele.—From Basics Anglo-Saxon Grammar,
Copenhagen, 1830.
ENGLISH, THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
' Cure. Fader, that art in hevenes, halewid be thi name ;
2 thy kingdom come ; ^ to be thi wille do as in. hevene, and in
erthe ; ^ gyff to us this day oure brede over other substance ;
®and forgyve to us oure dettis, as forgyven to oure dettours;
E
50
SPECIMENS OF LANGUAGES
®aûd lede us not into temptatioun, ' but del}nre us fro yvel,—
From Chamherlayne s Oratio Dominica. Amst. 1715, p. 72.
ENGLISH, SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
^ Ou-re Father which arte in heven, halowed be thy name ;
^ let thy kingdome come ; thy will be fulfylled, as well in
erth as it is in heven ; ^ geve us this daye oure dayly bred ;
° and forgeve us oure treaspases, even as we forgeve oure tres-
pacers ; ^ and leade us not into temptacion, but delyver us
from evyll. For thyne is the kyngedome, and the power,
and the glorye for ever.—From Tyndal and Coverdales Bible.
Black letter. 1537.
SCANDINAVIAN BRANCH.
OLD NORSE (NORRÍENA TLNGA).
Not being aware of any work that contains the Our Father
in Old Norse, we shall give, as a specimen of this language,
part of the long argument made use of by King Olaf Tryggva-
son to persuade Sigmund Bresterson to embrace Christianity,
extracted from E,afn's edition of the Fsereyinga Saga, ch. 29.
OLD NORSE.
NÛ allra heizt fyrir thá
skyld, er ek hefi spurt, at thú
hafir aldri blótat skúrgo'S
eptir hietti annarra hei^inna
manna, thá hefi ek góTÍa von
á, at hinn háleiti himnako-
nûngr, skapari allra hluta,
mmii thik lei^a til kynningar
sins helga nafns ok heilagrar
trúar af minum fortölum ; ok
gera thik mér samfèlaga i
rèttum átrúna^i, svà sem jaf-
nan at añi ok allri atgervi, ok
ö^rum sinum miskunnargjö-
fum, er hann hefir thèr veitt
sem mèr, löngum tima fyrr
enn ek hafiii nokkura vissu
af dvr^ hans.
TRANSLATION.
Now it is chiefly on this
account, because I have learn¬
ed that thou hast never sacri¬
ficed to idols after the custom
of other heathen men, that I
have good hope, that the most
high heavenly king, the crea¬
tor of all things, may lead thee
to the knowledge of his hal¬
lowed name and holy faith
through my supplication ; and
make thee my fellow compa¬
nion in the right worship, as
thou art like to me in strength
and skill, and in other gifts of
his grace, that he hath be¬
stowed upon thee as upon me,
a lang time before I had any
knowledge of his glory.
specimens of languages.
51
icelandic (islenzka).
^ Fader Yor, thu sem ert á himnum, helgest tliitt nafn ;
kome thitt ríke ; ^verde thinn vile, so á jördu, sem á liimne ;
^'gef thu oss Í dag vort daglegt brand ; ^og fyrergef oss Yorar
skullder, so sem yer fyrergefum Yorum skulldunautum ; ®og
imileid oss eige í freistne, '''helldur frelsa thu oss fra illu.
^ThYÍad thitt er ríked, og máttur, og dyrd, um allder allda.—
From the Icelandic Bible, published at Copenhagen, 1813.
F^RCEIC.
We shall gÍYe as a specimen of this language, the pre¬
ceding passage of the Feereyinga Saga, from the Fœrœic
translation made by two clergymen of the Fseroe Isles, for
Rafn's edition of the Saga.
Nú allarhelst firi tan Skjild, at e havi spurt, at tú heYÍr
aldri ofra til Afgudar sum ärir hajdnir Men häYa til Si, ta
häYi e gowa Vown til tes, at tan hoji Himnakongur, skäpari äf
ödlun Lutin, man laja te til atkunnast yí sujt hajlia NaYn og
til hajlia Trygv äf hesari mujni Tälu, og gjera te lujka so sam-
sintan yí me um tä rattu Trúna, sum han heYÍr gjört te jaYnan
YÍ me uj Stirka og adlari KYÍklihajd; og örun sujnun Mis-
kunargaYun, sum han Yajt tär sum mär, lenga Tuj firin e heji
näka Vitniskji urn Harlihajt hansara.
norwegian *.
^ Faer Yaar, du som er i himlen, helket Yaarde dit namn ;
^tilkome os dit rike; ^sje di YÖllie her aajera, sem den sjer i
hiimlen ; ^gÍY os höer dak Yaart daklike brö; ®og forlat os
Yaar sjuld, som yí forlate Yaare sjulner; ®leet os ikkie uti
friistelse, '^men frais os fra det one. ®Ty riket er dit, aa
makten, aa aran, i eYÍkhet.—From Ädelimg's Mithridates, yoI.
ii. spec. 181.
swedish.
^Fader Yar, som äst i himlom, helgadt Yarde ditt namn;
^tilkomme ditt rike ; ^ske din YÍlje sàsom i himmelen, sa ock
pa jordene ; '^gif oss i dag Yart dageliga bröd; ®och förlat oss
Yara skulder, säsom ock yí fori ate dem oss skyldige äro ; ®och
inled oss icke i frestelse; '''utan fräls oss ifrân ondo. ^Ty
riket är ditt, och magten, och härligheten, i CYÍghet.—From
the Bible Society's edit, of the Bible, Stocholm, 1837.
* That is to say, a Norwegian dialect, see note 5, page 15.
E 2
52
SPECIMENS OF LANGUAGES.
DANISH.
^Vor Fader, du som er i liimlene, heiliget verde dit navn;
^komme dit lige ; ''skee din villie, som i himmelen, saa og paa
jorden; ^giv os i dag vert daglige brëd; ^og feriad es ver
skyld, saa sem vi eg ferlade ve re skyldnere ; ®eg leed es ikke
ind i fristeise, '^men frie es fra det ende. ®Thi dit er riget,
og kraften, eg herligheden, i evighed.— From the Bible
Society's edition of the Bible, Christiana, 1835.
CELTIC LANGUAGES.
GAELIC BEANCH.
ERSE.
^Ar na tliair ata ar neamh, náemhtliar hainm ; ^tigeadh do
rieghaclid ; deúntar de theil ar an ttalamh, mar de nithear ar
neamh; ^ar narán laéathamhail tabhair dhúinn a niu; ®agus
maith dhúinn arbhfiacha, mar mhaithmidne dar bhféitheamh-
nuibh féin ; ®agus na léig sinn a ecathughadh, '''achd sáer inn
ó ele. ^Oir is leachd féin an ríeghachd, agus an cumhachd,
agus an ghleír, ge síerruighe.—From the Bible Society's Neto
Test., Loud., 1824.
GAELIC.
^Ar n-Athair a ta air nèamh, gu naemhaichear t'ainm ;
-thigeadh de rieghaclid; ^deanar de theil air an talamh, mar
a nithear air nèamh ; tabhair dhuinn an diugh ar n-aran
laitheil ; ^agus maith dhuinn ar fiacha, amhuil mar a mhaitheas
sinne d'ar luchd-fiach ; ®agus naleig am buaireadh sinn ; ''ach
saer sinn e ele. ® Oir is leatsa an rioghachd, agus an cumhachd,
agus a' ghloir, gu sierruidh.—From the Gaelic Neic Testament,
Edinburgh, 1813.
MANKS.
^Ayr aiu t'ayns niau, casherick dy rew dty ennym; ~dy jig
dty reeriaght; ^dty aigney dy row jeant ery thallee, myr te
ayns niau; tcur deein nyn arran jiu as gagh laa; ®as leih
deein nyn leghtyn, myr ta shin leih dauesyn tajannee leghtyn
nyn 'eï; ®as nyleeidshin ayns miolagh, '''agh livrey shin veih
SPECIMENS OF LANGUAGES.
53
oik. ®Son Ihiat's y reeriaght, as y phooar, as y gliloyr, son dy
bragli.—From the Bible Society's Manks New Testament,
London, 1815.
KYMRIC BRANCH.
WELSH.
^Ein Tad, yr liwn wyt yn y nefoedd, sancteiddier dy enw;
-deled dy deyrnas ; ''gwneier dy ewyllys, megis yn y nef, felly
ar y ddaear liefyd ; ^ dyro i ni lieddyw ein bara bennyddiol ;
^a madden i ni ein dyledion, fei y maddeuwn ninnau i'n
dyledwyr; '^ac nac arwain ni i brofedigaeth, '''eitlir gwared ni
rhag drwg. ^Canys eiddo ti yw y deyrnas, a'r nerth, a'r
gogoniant, yn oés oesoedd.—From the Welsh New Testament,
Wyddgrug, 1835.
ARMOEICAN (BREYZAD).
^Hon Tad, pehini a so en eon, hoch ano bezet sanctifiet;
^roet deomp ho manteles ; ^ho bolonte bezet gret en duar,
evel en eon ; "'roet deomp hon bara pebdeziec; ®a pardonet
deomp hon offansn, evel ma pardonomp dar re pere ho devus
hon offanset; '^ne bermettet ket e cuessemp e tentation ebet;
"^oguen hon delivret a zruc.—From Adelung^s Mithridates,
vol. ii. spec. 118.
TSHÜDIC LANGUAGES.
SUOMIC BRANCH.
FINNIC.
^Isä meidän, joka olet taiwaisa, pyhitetty olkon sinuin
nimes; ^lähestykön sinun waldakundas; ^ olkon sinun tahtos
niin maasa, kuin taiwasa; ^anna meille tänäpänä meidän
jokapäiwäinen leipämme; '^ja anna meille meidän welkamme
andexi, niinkuin mekin andexi annamme meidän welwollis-
temme; ''ja älä johdata meitä kiusanxeen ; ''mutta päästä
meitä pahasta. ''Sillä sinim on waldakunda, ja woima, ja
kunnia, ijankaikkisesti.— From the Bible Society's N. Test.,
pub. at Tiirusa, 1815.
ESTHONIC (DORPAT DIALECT)
^Meije Issa, taiwan, pühhändatus sago sinno nimmi ;
®sinno rikkus tulgo; "sinno tahtminne sündko, kui taiwan
54
SPECIMENS OF LANGUAGES.
nida ka ma pääl; ^meije päiwalikko leiba anna meile täämba;
''nink anna meile andis meije süda, nida kui ka meije andis-
anname ommille süüdleisille; ''nink ärrasaatko meid kiu-
satusse sisse; '''enge pasta meid ärra kmjast. ®Sest sinno
perralt cm rikkus, nink v/äggi, nink auwustus, iggawetsel
ajal.—From the Bible Society s Esthonic N. Test., pub' Mitau,
1815.
LAPPIC.
^Attje mijen, jukko leh almesne, ailesen sjaddes to
namma; -pâtes to rik; '^sjaddes to wiljo ko almesn, nan
ai ädnamen nain; ^mijen farten peiwen laipeb wadde miji
udne ; "''ja luoite miji mijen laikoit andagas, nan ko ai mije
luoitebe mijen welkolatjita; ''ja ale sislaide mijeb kattjeleb-
mai; ''walla warjele mijeb pabast. ® Jutte to le rik, jafaomo,
ja liärlogwuot, ekewen aikai.—From the Lappic Bible, pub. at
Hern'ôsandesne, 1811.
PEKMIG BEANCH.
TSHEKEMISSIC.
^ Atjà memnàn, ílscha kjuschnasótaschta, Ijum tünin STvjatoi
lísba; ^i tólslra tünin schmàk; ''lisba tünin wolja, kusè tün-
jascbtá, tugè rokascbta; '^kíndam memnánam kasbdakétscbel-
sebam pu malanà tagátscha ; ®kodà malanà sulukwlajam
memnanam, kusè i me kodalnà menàp parmawljanam ; ®it
púrta memnàm oltalmáscbka; ''siorlsja memnàm scboitan
getscben. ^ Tùnili úla iscbmak, koàt, tscbelja, ikscbta nin.—
From Adelung's Mithridates, vol. iv. spec. 60.
55
M. MALLET'S PREFACE.
History has not recorded the annals of a people who have
occasioned greater, more sudden, or more numerous re¬
volutions in Europe than the Scandinavians *, or whose anti¬
quities, at the same time, are so little known. Had, indeed,
their emigrations been only like those sudden torrents of
which all traces and remembrance are soon effaced, the indif¬
ference that has been shown to them would have been suffi¬
ciently justified by the barbarism they have been reproached
with. But, during those general inundations, the face of
Europe underwent so total a change, and during the confu¬
sion they occasioned, such different establishments took place ;
new societies were formed, animated so entirely with a new
spirit, that the history of our own manners and institutions
ought necessarily to ascend back, and even dwell a con¬
siderable time upon a period, which discovers to us their chief
origin and source.
But I ought not barely to assert this. Permit me to sup¬
port the assertion by proofs. For this purpose, let us briefly
run over all the different revolutions which this part of the
world underwent, during the long course of ages which its
history comprehends, in order to see what share the nations
of the north have had in producing them. If we recur back
to the remotest times, we observe a nation issuing step
by step from the forests of Scythia f, incessantly increasing
* Than the Teutons, or people of the Teutonic race, would have been a
more appropriate expression ; the tribes belonging to the Grermanic branch of
this race having unquestionably "caused more numerous revolutions in
Europe" than those belonging to the Scandinavian branch.—En.
+ There is not a vaguer term in ancient geography than that of Scythia.
Taken in its most extensive signification, it would embrace all the countries
lying between the present river Don in the west, the great desert of Grobi
in the East, the Hindoo Kosh mountains on the south, and the plains of
56
m. mallet's peeface.
and dividing to take possession of the uncultivated countries
which it met with in its progress. Very soon after, we see
the same people, like a tree full of vigour, extending long
branches over all Europe ; we see them also carrying with
them, wherever they came, from the horders of the Black Sea
to the extremities of Spain, of Sicily, and Greece, a religion
simple and martial as themselves, a form of government dic¬
tated by good sense and liberty, a restless unconquered spirit,
apt to take fire at the very mention of subjection and con¬
straint, and a ferocious courage, nourished by a savage and
vagabond life. While the gentleness of the climate softened
imperceptibly the ferocity of those who settled in the south,
colonies of Egyptians and Phenicians mixing with them upon
the coasts of Greece, and thence passing over to those of
Italy, taught them at last to live in cities, to cultivate letters,
arts and commerce. Thus their opinions, their customs and
genius, were blended together, and new states were formed
upon new plans. Rome, in the mean time arose, and at
length carried all before her. In proportion as she increased
in grandeur, she forgot her ancient manners, and destroyed,
among the nations whom she overpowered, the original spirit
with which they were animated. But this spirit continued
Siberia on the north, in which direction the boundaries might be limited or
extended to suit any particular theory, this region being for the ancients
terra incognita. We would also venture to say that there is scarcely a
nation or tribe known in European history that has not, by one writer or
other, been called Scythian. We could cite works in which Pelasgi, Thra-
cians, Celts, Goths, Saxons, Finns, Huns, Magyars, Turks, Tatars, and
various other nations are respectively designated as Scythians, or of Scythian
origin. Jamieson in his "Hermes Scythicus" gravely informs us that " with
respect to their (the Scythians) origin, the most general opinion is, that they
were the descendants of Magog, the second son of Japhet ! ! !" The con¬
fusion of ideas that long prevailed on this subject arose from writers applying
the term "Scythians" ethnographically instead of geogmphically, applying it
to designate a distinct race like the terms Teutons, Slavonians, Celts, &c.,
and not an assemblage of nations of various origin, such as we comprehend
under the terms Europeans, Africans, Asiatics, &c. It is only in the latter
signification that the word can be tolerated at the present day. When our
author, therefore, talks of " a nation issuing from the forests of Scythia" he
must be understood to mean the various races of Asiatic origin, some of
them, as we have shown in our preceding remarks, remotely cognate, that
spread themselves over Europe at an epoch far bej'ond the bounds of authentic
history, as well as others who may have "trod upon the heels of their fathers"
at a more recent period.—En.
m. mallet's peeface.
57
unaltered in the colder countries of Europe, and maintained
itself there like the independency of the inhabitants. Scarce
could fifteen or sixteen centuries produce there any change in
that spirit. There it renewed itself incessantly ; for, during
the whole of that long interval, new adventurers issuing con¬
tinually from the original inexhaustible country, trod upon the
heels of their fathers towards the north, and, being in their
turn succeeded by new troops of followers, they pushed one
another forward, like the waves of the sea. The northern
countries, thus overstocked, and unable any longer to contain
such restless inhabitants, equally greedy of glory and plunder,
discharged at length, upon the Roman empire, the weight that
oppressed them. The barriers of the empire, ill defended by
a people whom prosperity had enervated, were borne down on
all sides by torrents of victorious armies. We then see the
conquerors introducing, among the nations they vanquished,
viz. into the very bosom of slavery and sloth, that spirit of in¬
dependence and equality, that elevation of soul, that taste for
rural and military life, which both the one and the other had
originally derived from the same common source, but which
were then among the Romans breathing their last. Disposi¬
tions and principles so opposite, struggled long with forces
sufficiently equal, but they united in the end, they coalesced
together, and from their coalition sprung those principles and
that spirit which governed, afterwards, almost all the states of
Europe, and which, notwithstanding the differences of climate,
of religion, and particular accidents, do still visibly reign in
them, and retain, to this day, more or less the traces of their
first common origin.
It is easy to see, from this short sketch, how greatly the
nations of the north have influenced the different fates
of Europe ; and if it be worth while to trace its revolutions to
their causes, if the illustration of its institutions, of its police,
of its customs, of its manners, of its laws, be a subject
of useful and interesting inquiry; it must be allowed, that the
antiquities of the north, that is to say, every thing which
tends to make us acquainted with its ancient inhabitants,
merits a share in the attention of thinking men. But to
render this obvious by a particular example ; is it not
well known that the most flourishing and celebrated states of
Europe owe originally to the northern nations, whatever
58
M. MALLETS PEEFACE.
liberty tliey now enjoy, either in their constitution, or in the
spirit of their government? For although the Gothic form
of government has been almost every where altered or abo¬
lished, have we not retained, in most things, the opinions, the
customs, the manners which that government had a tendency
to produce ? Is not tliis, in fact, the principal source of that
courage, of that aversion to slavery, of that empire of honour
which characterize in general the European nations ; and of
that moderation, of that easiness of access, and peculiar atten¬
tion to the rights of humanity, which so happily distinguish
our sovereigns from the inaccessible and superb tyrants
of Asia ? The immense extent of the Eoman empire had
rendered its constitution so despotic and military, many
of its emperors were such ferocious monsters, its senate was
become so mean-spirited and vile, that all elevation of senti¬
ment, every thing that was noble and manly, seems to have
been for ever banished from their hearts and minds ; in¬
somuch that if all Europe had received the yoke of Eome in
this her state of debasement, this fine part of the world, re¬
duced to the inglorious condition of the rest, could not have
avoided falling into that kind of barbarity, which is of all
others the most incurable ; as, by making as many slaves as
there are men, it degrades them so low as not to leave them
even a thought or desire of bettering their condition. But
nature had long prepared a remedy for such great evils,
in that unsubmitting, unconquerable spirit, with which she
had inspired the people of the north; and thus she made
amends to the human race, for all the calamities which,
in other respects, the inroads of these nations, and the over¬
throw of the Roman empire produced.
" The great prerogative of Scandinavia (says the admirable
author of the Spirit of Laws), and what ought to recommend
its inhahitants beyond every people upon earth, is, that they
afforded the great resource to the liberty of Europe, that is,
to almost all the liberty that is among men. The Goth Jor-
nandes (adds he) calls the north of Europe the forge of man¬
kind. I should rather call it, the forge of those instruments
which broke the fetters manufactured in the south. It was
there those valiant nations were bred, who left their native
climes to destroy tyrants and slaves, and to teach men that
nature having made them equal, no reason could be assigned
for their becoming dependent, but their mutual happiness."
:m:. mallet's preface.
59
If these considerations be of any weight, I shall easily be
excused for having treated at so much length the antiquities
of the north. The judicious public will see and decide whe¬
ther I have conceived a just idea of my subject, or whether,
from an illusion too common with authors, I have not ascribed
to it more importance than it deserves. I should not
be without some apprehensions of this kind, if that were
always true which is commonly said, that we grow fond of our
labours in proportion as they are difficult. Many tedious and
unentertaining volumes I have been obliged to peruse : I have
had more than one language to learn ; my materials were
widely scattered, ill digested, and often little known. It was
not easy to collect them, or to accommodate them to my pur¬
pose. These are all circumstances ill calculated, it must be
owned, to give me much assurance. But I have likewise met
with very considerable assistances ; several learned men have
treated particular points of the antiquities of the north with
that deep erudition which characterizes the studies of the last
age. I cannot mention, without acknowledgment and praise,
Bartholinus, Wormius, Stephanius,. Arngrim Jonas, Tor-
fseus, &c.
Is it necessar}^ that I should take notice, before I conclude,
that I am about to delineate a nation in its infancy, and that
the greatest part of the other Europeans were neither less
savage, nor less uncivilized, during the same period ? I shall
give sufficient proofs of this in other places, being persuaded
that there is among nations an emulation of glory, which
often degenerates into jealousy, and puts them upon assuming
a pre-eminence upon the most chimerical advantages ; that
there glows in their bosoms a patriotic zeal, which is often so
blind and ill informed, as to take alarm at the most slender
and indifferent declarations made in favour of others.
60
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
CHAPTER I.
of the first inhabitants of denmark, and parti¬
cularly of the cimbri.
It is useless to inquire at what period of time Denmark be¬
gan to be inhabited. Such a research would doubtless lead
us up to an age when all Europe was plunged in ignorance
and barbarity. These two words include in them almost all
we know of the history of the first ages. It is very probable,
that the fii'st Danes were like all the other Teutonic nations,
a colony of Scythians*, who spread themselves at different
times over the countries which lay towards the west. The
resemblance of name might induce us to believe that it was
from among the Cimmerian Scythians (whom the ancients
placed to the north of the Euxine Sea) that the first colonies
were sent into Denmark ; and that from this people they in¬
herited the name of Cimbri, which they bore so long before
they assumed that of Danes. But this resemblance of name,
which many historians produce as a solid proof, is liable to so
many different explanations, that it is better to acknowledge
once for all, that this subject is as incapable of certainty, as
it is unworthy of research.
Whatever was the origin of the Cimbri, they for a long
time before the birth of Christ inhabited the country, which
received from them the name of the Cimbrica Chersonesus,
or Cimbric Peninsula, and probably comprehended Jutland,
Sleswic, and Holstein, and perhaps some of the neighbouring
provinces. The ancients considered this people as a branch
of the Germans, and never distinguished the one from the
other in the descriptions they have left us of the manners
* See the note page 55.
OF THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF DENMARK.
61
and customs of that nation. The historical monuments of
the north give us still less information about them, and go no
farther back than the arrival of Odin ; the epoch of which I
am inclined to place, with the celebrated Torfgeus, about
seventy years before the birth of Christ. All that passed in
Denmai'k before that period would be entirely unknown to
us, if the famous expedition of the Cimhri into Italy had not
drawn upon them the attention of a people who enjoyed the
advantage of having historians. It is a single gleam, which
for a moment throws light upon the ages of obscurity ; short
and transient as it is, let us nevertheless catch it, in order to
discover, if possible, a feature or two of the character of this
people.
The histoiy of Rome * informs us, that in the consulship
of Caecilius Metellus and Papirius Carho, about one hundred
and eleven years before the Chistian eraj-, the republic was
agitated by intestine divisions which already began to threaten
its liberty, when the intrigues of the several factions were all
at once suspended by the sudden news of an irruption of bar¬
barians. More than three hundred thousand men, known by
the names of Cimbri and Teutones, who chiefly issued from
the Cimbric Chersonese and the neighbouring islands, had
forsaken their country to go in search of a more favourable
climate, of plunder and glory. They attacked and subdued
at once whatever people they found in their passage, and as
they met with no resistance, resolved to push their conquests
farther. The Gauls where overwhelmed with this torrent,
whose course was for a long time marked by the most hor¬
rible desolation. Terror every where went before them, and
when it was reported at Rome, that they were disposed to
pass into Italy, the consternation there became general. The
senate despatched Papirius Carbo with an army to guard the
passage of the Alps, deeming it a sufficient degree of good
fortune, if they could but preserve Italy from these for¬
midable guests. But as they took a different route, and
stopped some time on the banks of the Danube, the Romans
resumed courage, and condemning their former fears, sent in
a menacing tone to the Cimbri, to bid them take care not to
* See Plutarch in Mario.—Ores. 1. 5.—Vel. Patercul. 1. 2.—T. Liv. epit.
1. 68.—Plor. 1. 3. chap. 30.
+ Anno Urb. Cond. 610.
6a
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES,
disturb the Norici their allies. At the same time the Cimbri,
being informed that a Koman army approached them, and re¬
specting the character of the P^epublic, sent ambassadors to
the Consul Papirius, "to excuse themselves, forasmuch as
having come from the remote parts of the north, they could
not possibly know that the Norici were the allies of the
Komans: " adding, "that they only knew it to be a received
law among all nations, that the conqueror hath a right to
whatever he can acquire ; and that the Ptomans themselves
had no other pretensions to most of the countries they had
subdued, than what was founded on the sword. That they
had, however, a great veneration for the Roman people on
account of their virtue and bravery ; in consideration of
which, although they knew not what it was to fear, they
consented to leave the Norici in peace, and to employ their
valour in some other quarter, where they could do it without
incurring the displeasure of the commonwealth." Satisfied
with so moderate an answer, the consul suffered them quietly
to remove ; but when the Cimbri were retired into Dalmatia,
and expected nothing less than hostilities from the Romans,
a party of these commanded by Carbo surprised them by night
asleep and unarmed. These brave warriors full of indignation
flew to their arms, and defended themselves with so much in¬
trepidity, that they wrested the \ictory out of their enemies'
hands, and forced them to seek their safety by flight. But
although the Romans almost all escaped the vengeance of
their enemies, this defeat was not the less fatal to the re¬
public; for the splendour and reputation which it added to
the arms of the Cimbri, drew on all sides under their banners
such nations as were either impatient of the Roman yoke, or
jealous of their encroachments ; particularly the Tigurini
and Ambrones, two people originally of Helvetia. With
these new auxiliaries, they overwhelmed Gaul a second time,
and advancing to the foot of the Pyrenees, endeavoured to
establish themselves in Spain ; but meeting with a vigorous
repulse from the Celtiberians, and tired of so many unprofit¬
able invasions, they sent a new embassy to the Romans, to
offer them their services, upon condition they would give them
lands to cultivate. The Senate, too prudent to enter into any
kind of accommodation with such dangerous enemies, and al¬
ready divided among themselves about the distribution of
OF THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF DENMARK.
63
lands, returned a direct refusal to their demand. Upon which
the Cimhri resolved to seize by force what they could not
gain by entreaty, and immediately fell with so much fury
upon the new consul Silanus, who had received orders to
march against them, that they forced his intrencliments, pil¬
laged his camp, and cut all his army in pieces. This victory
was soon after followed by another, which their allies the
Amhrones gained over Cassius Longinus at the mouth of the
Rhone; and to complete the misfortune, a third army of
Romans, more considerable than the two former, was soon
after entirely defeated. Scaurus, who commanded it, was
made prisoner, and afterwards put to death ; his two sons
were slain, and more than fourscore thousand of the Romans
and their allies were left dead in the field. Last of all, two
other generals, the consul Manlius, and the proconsul Caepio,
to whom had been intrusted a fourth army already half van
quished with fear, and who v;ere disunited and jealous of each
other, were attacked near the Rhone, each of them in his
camp, and entirely defeated.
Such repeated losses filled Rome with grief and terror ;
and many began to despair even of the safety of the state.
In this melancholy conjuncture, minds less firm than those
of these spirited republicans would, doubtless, have suggested
the imprudent measure of granting to the conquerors condi¬
tions capable of softening them ; they would have given them
at once the lands they had required, or perhaps have pur¬
chased their friendship with a sum of money. This dangerous
policy would probably have ruined Rome in this exigence, as
it did some ages after. The Gauls, the Germans, and the
Scythians, poor and greedy nations, who grasped after nothing
but slaughter and booty, roving and warlike, as well by in¬
clination as necessity, would have harassed, by continual in¬
roads, a people which had let them see that they were at
once richer and weaker than themselves. The prudent firm¬
ness of the Senate, and the valour of Marius, saved Rome for
this time from the danger under which it afterwards sunk.
All the citizens now turned their eyes towards the conqueror
of Jugurtha, as their last and only support. They decreed
him consular honours for the fourth time, and associated with
him Catulus Luctatius, a person scarcely inferior to him in
64
NOBTHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
military skill, and who far exceeded him in all the other quali¬
ties which make a great statesman.
Marius having quickly discovered that the ill success of his
predecessors was the effect of their imprudence, formed to
himself a very different plan of conduct. In particular, he
resolved not to join battle with the enemy till their furious
ardour was abated, and till his soldiers familiarized to the
sight of them, should no longer consider themselves as con¬
quered before they came to blows. Their former victories,
their tallness of stature, rendered still more terrible by their
dress, their ferocious air, their barbarous shouts, and unusual
manner of fighting, had all contributed to strike the Romans
with the greatest terror ; and this terror was the first enemy he
had to encounter ; an enemy which time alone could subdue.
With this view, Marius judged it necessary to encamp on the
banks of the Rhone, in a situation naturally advantageous,
where he laid in all sorts of provisions in great abundance,
that he might not be compelled to engage before he saw a
convenient opportunity. This coolness of the general was re¬
garded by those barbarians as a mark of cowardice. They
resolved, therefore, to divide themselves into different bodies,
and so penetrate into Italy. The Cimbri and Tigurini w^ent
to meet Catulus ; the Ambrones and Teutones, hoping to pro
voke the Romans to fight, came and encamped in a plain full
in their front. But nothing could induce Marius to change
his resolution.
Nevertheless, these barbarians insulted the Romans inces¬
santly by every means they could devise ; they advanced as-
far as the very intrenchments of their camp to reproach and
deride them ; they challenged the ofi&cers and the general
himself to single combat. The Roman soldiers were by de¬
grees accustomed to look their enemies in the face, while the
provocations they received every day more and more whetted
their resentment. Many of them even broke out into re¬
proaches against Marius for appearing so much to distrust
their courage ; and this dexterous general to appease them,
had recourse to a Syrian prophetess in his camp, who assured
them that the gods did not yet approve of their fighting
At length the patience of the Teutones was exhausted, and
they endeavoured to force the Roman intrenchments; but
OF THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF DENMARK. 65
here they were repulsed with loss: upon which, they resolved
to abandon their camp, and attempt an irruption into Italy.
They filed off for six days together in the presence of Marius's
army, insulting his soldiers with the most provoking language,
and asking them if they had any message to send to their
wives wnom they hoped soon to see. Marius heard all these
bravados with his accustomed coolness ; but when their whole
army was passed by, he followed them as far as Aix in Pro¬
vence, harassing their rear-guard witho-ut intermission. When
he was arrived at this place, he halted, in order to let his sol¬
diers enjoy what they had ardently desired so long—a pitched
battle. They began with skirmishing on both sides, till the
fight insensibly growing more serious, at length both armies
made the most furious attacks. Thirty thousand Amhrones
advanced first, marching in a kind of measure to the sound
of their instruments. A body of Ligurians, supported by the
Romans, repulsed them with great loss ; but as they betook
themselves to flight, their wives came forth to meet them
with swords and hatchets in their hands, and bitterly re¬
proaching them, and striking indiscriminately friend and foe,
endeavoured to snatch with their naked hands the enemies'
weapons, maintaining an invincible firmness even till death.
This first action raised the courage of the Romans, and was
the prelude to a victory still more decisive.
After the greatest part of the Amhrones had perished in
that day's action, Marius caused his army to retire back to
his camp, ordering them to keep strict watch, and to lie close
without making any movement ; as if they were affrighted at
their own victory. On the other hand, in the camp of the Teu¬
tones were heard continual bowlings, like to those of savage
beasts ; so hideous, that the Romans, and even their general
himself could not help testifying their horror. They, not¬
withstanding, lay quiet that night, and the day follomng,
being busily employed in preparing all things for a second
engagement. Marius, on his part, took all necessary pre¬
cautions ; he placed in an ambuscade three thousand men
commanded by Marcellus, with orders to attack the enemy in
the rear, as soon as they should perceive the battle was begun.
When both armies were come within sight of each other,
Marius commanded his cavalry to dismount ; but the Teutones,
hurried on by that blind impetuosity which distinguishes all
F
66
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
barbarous nations, instead of waiting till the Romans were
come down into the plain, attacked them on an eminence
where they were advantageously posted. At the same instant,
Marcellus appeared suddenly behind with his troops, and
hemming them in, threw their ranks into disorder, so that
they were quickly forced to fly. Then the victory declared
itself entirely in favour of the Romans, and a most horrible
carnage ensued. If we may take literally what some of the
Roman historians have related*, there perished more than a
hundred thousand Teutones, including the prisoners. Others
content themselves with saying, that the number of the slain
was incredible ; that the inhabitants of Marseilles for a long
time after, made inclosures for their gardens and vineyards
with the bones ; and that the earth thereabouts was so much
fattened, that its increase of produce was prodigious. Marius
loaded with glory, after a victory so illustrious in itself, and
so important in its consequences, was a flfth time honoured
with the consular fasces ; but he would not triumph till he
had secured the repose of Italy, by the entire defeat of all the
barbarians. The Cimbri, who had separated themselves from
the Teutones, still threatened its safety. They had pene¬
trated as far as the banks of the Adige ; which Catulus Lucta-
tius was not strong enough to prevent them from crossing.
The progress they made still caused violent alarms in Rome ;
Marius was charged to raise a new army with the utmost
speed, and to go and engage them. The Cimbri had halted
near the Po, in hopes that the Teutones, of whose fate
they were ignorant, would quickly join them. Wondering
at the delay of these their associates, they sent to Marius a
second time to demand an allotment of land, suflicient to
maintain themselves and the Teutones their brethren. Marius
answered them, that " their brethren already possessed more
than they desired, and that they would not easily quit what
he had assigned them." The Cimbri, irritated by tiiis raillery,
instantly resolved to take ample vengeance.
They prepared immediately for battle, and their king, or
general, named Bojorix, approached the Roman camp with a
small party of horse to challenge Marius, and to agree with
him on a day and place of action. Marius answered, that
although it was not the custom of the Romans to consult their
*■ See Plutarch's Life of Marius.
OF THE FIEST INHABITANTS OF DENMARK. 67
enemies pn this subject, he would notwithstanding for once
oblige them, and therefore appointed the next day but one,
and the plain of Verceil for their meeting. At the time ap¬
pointed, the two armies marched thither ; the jElomans ranged
themselves into two mngs : Catulus commanded a body of
twenty thousand men, and Sylla was in the number of his
oihcers. The Cimbri formed with their infantry an immense
square battalion ; their cavalry, consisting of fifteen thousand
men, was magnificently mounted ; each soldier bore upon his
helmet the head of some savage beast, with its mouth gaping
wide ; an iron cuirass covered his body, and he carried a long
halberd in his hand. The extreme heat of the weather was
very favourable to the Romans. They had been careful to get
the sun on their backs ; while the Cimbri little accustomed to
its violence, had it in their faces Besides this, the dust
hid from the eyes of the Romans the astonishing multitude of
their enemies, so that they fought with the more confidence,
and of course more courage. The Cimbri, exhausted and dis¬
pirited, were quickly routed A precaution, which they had
taken to prevent their being dispersed, only served to forward
their ruin ; they had linked the soldiers of the foremost ranks
to one another with chains; in these they were entangled, and
thereby exposed the more to the blows of the Romans. Such
as could fly, met with new dangers in their camp ; for their
women who sat upon their chariots, clothed in black, received
them as enemies, and massacred without distinction their
fathers, brothers, and husbands ; they even carried their rage
to such a height, as to dash out the brains of their children ;
and completed the tragedy, by throwing themselves under
their chariot wheels. After their example, their husbands in
despair turned their arms against one another, and seemed to
join with the Romans in promoting their own defeat. In the
dreadful slaughter of that day, a hundred and twenty thousand
are said to have perished ; and if we except a few families of
the Cimbri, which remained in their own country, and a small
* We are told that the Cimhri were on the point of gaining the victory,
when the sun, breaking through the clouds, blinded them. If this story be
true, the fate of the world hung upon a sunbeam ! It apparently often does
hang upon a very glender thread. " Si le nez de Cléopatre eût été plus
court, toute la face de la terre auroit changé," says Pascal, 1 P. A. 9, s.
56.—ED.
F 2
68
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
number who escaped, one may say, that this fierce and valiant
nation was all mowed down at one single stroke. This last
victory procured Marius the honours of a triumph, and the
services he thereby rendered the commonwealth appeared so
great, that he received the glorious title of Third Founder of
Rome.
Thus have we given, in a few words, what historians relate
of the expedition of the Cimbri; it drew upon them for a
moment the attention of all Europe. But as literature, and
the fine arts, can alone give lasting fame to a nation, and as
we easily lose the remembrance of those evils we no lo^§r
fear, this torrent was no sooner withdrawn within its ancient
bounds, but the Romans themselves lost sight of it, so that
we scarcely find any farther mention of the Cimbri in any of
their writers. Strabo only informs us, that they afterwards
sought the friendship of Augustus, and sent for a present a
vase, which they made use of in their sacrifices ; and Tacitus
tells us, in one word, that the Cimbri had nothing left but a
celebrated name, and a reputation as ancient as it was ex¬
tensive.
I do not pretend to decide whether the first inhabitants of
these countries were all of them, without any mixture, of
Germanic origin, Cimbri and Teutones*. For although to
* "Whether the ancient Cimbri, and their confederates the Teutones, who
made the irruption into the Eoman empire in the time of Marius, were a
Celtic or a Grothic people may perhaps admit of some disquisition. They
who contend that they were Celts, may urge the resemblance of the name of
Oirtihri to that of Cymri, by which the Britons have always called them¬
selves in their own language : they may also produce the authority of Ap-
pian, who expressly calls the Cimhñ Celts ; as well as of several of the Ro¬
man authors, who scruple not to name them Gauls It may further he ob¬
served in favour of this opinion, that the emigration of so large a body of the
old Celtic inhabitants, would facilitate the invasion of the Gothic tribes who
succeeded them in these northern settlements, and will account for the rapid
conquests of Odin and his Asiatic followers ; it might also he conjectured,
that the small scattered remains of these old Celtic Cimbri, were the savage
men who lurked up and down in the forests and mountains, as described by
• " Appianus m Illyricis Cimbros Celtas, addito qms Cimbros vacant, ap-
pellavit. Et evolve Florum, lib. iii. cap. 3. Salustium Bell. Jugurth. in
fine. Rufum Brev. cap. vi. qui omnes Cimbros diserté Gallos et ab extremis
Oallice prófugos, norainarunt." Speneri Notitia Germanise Antiquge. Hai.
Magd. 1717, 4to. p. 123.
OF THE FIKST INHABITANTS OF DENMARK.
69
me this appears very probable, with regard to Denmark, it
cannot be denied that the Finns and Laplanders anciently
the ancient Icelandic historians, and who, in their size and ferocity, so well
correspond with the descriptions given us of their countrymen that invaded
the Roman empire. Thus far such an opinion is equally consistent both with
the Roman and northern historians. On the other hand, that the Cimhri of
Marius were not a Celtic, but a German or a Gothic people, is an opinion
that may be supported with no slight arguments. On this head it may be
observed, with our author, Möns. Mallet, " that the ancients generally con¬
sidered this people as a branch of the Germans," and that their tall stature
and general character rather corresponds with the description of the Germans
than of the Celts : that as for the name of Cimhri or Cimher, it is resolvable
into a word in the German language, which signifies warrior or warlike ^ :
and that the authorities of the Roman historians cannot much be depended
on, because (as has been before observed) they were seldom exact in the
names they gave to the barbarous nations. It may further be urged, that
the facility with which the Cimbri made their way through Germany into
Gaul, renders it probable that they were rather a branch of the German
people, than of a race in constant enmity with them, like the Celts, and who,
upon that account, would have been opposed in their passage j especially as
the Germans appear in these countries rather to have prevailed over the
Celts, and to have forced them westward, driving them out of many of their
settlements. But lastly, if the Cimbri had been a Celtic people, then such
of them as were left behind in their own country, and were afterwards swal-
Oermanis quidem Camp exercitum ant locum uhi exercitus castra mei-
atur, significat j inde ipsis vir castrensis et militaris Kemffer et Kempher et
Kemper et Kimber et Kamper, pro varietate dialectorum vocatur ; vocahu-
lum hoc nostro {sc. Anglico) Sermone nondum penitus exolevit ; Norfol-
ciences enim plebeio et proletario sermone dicunt " He is a Kemper Old
Man." i. e. Senex vegetus est. Sheringham, p. 57. See also, Kemperye
Man, in the " Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," vol. i. p. 70. Sheringham
afterwards adds, Illud autem hoc loco omittendum non est, Cimbros quoque à
proceritate corporis hoc nomen habere potuisse .... Kimber enim alia
signißcatione hominem gigantea corporis mole prœditum désignât. " Dánico
hodie idiomate, (inquit Pontanus, inadditam. ad Hist. Dan. lib. 1). Kimber
sive Kempe et Kemper non bellatorum tantùm sed proprie Oigantem notât."
Sheringham, p. 58. From hence it should seem, that a gigantic person was
called Kimber, from his resemblance to the ancient Cimbri ; rather than
that this people were called Cimbri, from their gigantic size ; so that this
favours the opinion that the Cimbri were a different race from the an¬
cient Danes, &c., because no nation would think of calling themselves giants ;
for if they were all uniformly gigantic, there would appear to themselves no¬
thing remarkable in their size ; whereas this would strike another people as
a primary and leading distinction.
70
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
possessed a mucli more considerable part of Scandinavia than
they do at present. This was the opinion of Grotius and
Leibnitz, According to them, these people were formerly
spread over the southern parts of Norway and Sweden,
whence, in process of time, they have been driven out by new
colonies of Scythians and Germans, and banished among the
northern rocks ; in like manner as the ancient inhabitants of
Britain have been dispossessed by the Saxons of the greatest
and most pleasant part of their island, and constrained to
conceal themselves among the mountains in Wales, where, to
this day, they retain their language, and preserve some traces
of their ancient manners. But whether the Finns were for¬
merly the entire possessors of Scandinavia, or were only some¬
what more numerous than they are at present, itiis very cer¬
tain that this nation has been established there from the
earliest ages, and has always differed from the other in¬
habitants of the north, by features so strong and remarkable,
that we must acknowledge their origin to be as different from
that of the others, as it is utterly unknown to us. The lan¬
guage of the Finns has nothing in common with that of any
neighbouring people, neither does it resemble any dialect of
the ancient Teutonic or Celtic tongues. The learned, who
have taken the pains to compare the great Finland Bible
printed at Abo, with a multitude of others, could never find
the least resemblance between this and any other known lan¬
guage, so that after all their researches on this head, they
have been obliged to propose mere conjectures, among which
lowed up among tlie succeeding Gothic tribes who invaded Scandinavia,
would have given a tincture of their Celtic language to that branch of the
Teutonic, which was spoke in these countries : or, at least, we should have
found more Celtic names of mountains, rivers, &c., in the Cimhric Chersonese
than in other Gothic settlements : hut I do not find that either of these is
the case ; the old Icelandic seems to he as free from any Celtic mixture, as
any other Gothic dialect ; nor is there any remarkable prevalence of Celtic
names in the peninsula of Jutland, more than in any part of Germany ; where
I believe its former Celtic inhabitants have up and down left behind them a
few names of places, chiefly of natural situations, as of rivers, mountains, &c.
This at least is the case in England, where, although the Britons were so
entirely extirpated, that scarce a single word of the Welsh language was ad¬
mitted by the Saxons ; and although the names of towns and villages are
almost universally of Anglo-Saxon derivation, yet the hills, forests, rivers,
&c., have generally retained their old Celtic names.—P.
g bounds of the ancient history of denmark. 71
mankind are divided according to the particular light in which
every one views the subject
CHAPTER II.
the grounds of the ancient history of denmark, and
of the different opinions concerning it
On whatever side we direct our inquiries concerning the first
inhabitants of Denmark, I believe nothing certain can he
added to the account given of them above. It is true, if we
will take for our guides certain modern authors, our knowledge
will not be confined within such scanty limits. They will
lead us step by step through an uninterrupted succession of
kings and judges, up to the first ages of the world, or at least
to the deluge : and there, receiving the descendants of Noah,
as soon as they set foot out of the ark, will conduct them
across the vast extent of deserts into Scandinavia, in order to
found those states and kingdoms, which subist at present.
Such is the scheme of Petreius, Lyschander, and other
authors, who have followed what is called, among Danish his¬
torians, the Gothlandic hypothesis t, because it is built upon
some pretended monuments found in the isle of Gothland, on
the coast of Sweden : monuments which bear so many marks
of imposition, that at present they are by common consent
thrown aside among the most ill-concerted impostures.
The celebrated Rudbeck, a learned Swede, zealous for the
glory of his countrymen, has endeavoured no less to procure
* The reader will Snd, by referring to page 40, that at the present day, the
Finnic language is no longer a mystery, and that so far fi-om having " no¬
thing in common with that of any neighbouring people," it has every thing in
common with the languages of the neighbouring Lapps, Esthonians, Per-
mians, &c.-^Ed.
f Petreius is a Danish author of the sixteenth century : Lyschander was
historiographer to King Christian IV. His work, printed in Denmark at
Copenhagen in 1669, bears this title : " An Abridgment of the Danish His¬
tories from the beginning of the world to oiir own times." The arguments
on which these authors found their accounts did not merit the pains which
Torfseus and others have taken to refute them. The reader may consult, on
this subject, the last-cited writer, in his " Series of Kings of Denmark,"
Hb. i. c. 8.
72
NOETHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
them the honour of a very remote origin ; as if, after all, it
were of any consequence, whether a people, who lived before
us so many ages, and of whom we retain only a vain resem¬
blance of name, were possessed sooner or later of those coun¬
tries, which we quietly enjoy at present. As this author
joined to the most extensive learning an imagination eminently
fruitful, he wanted none of the materials for erecting plausible
and frivolous systems. He has found the art to apply to his
own country a multitude of passages in ancient authors, who
probably had never so much as heard of its name. Accord¬
ing to him Sweden is the Atlantis of which Plato speaks, and
for this reason he assumed that word for the title of his book.
He makes no doubt but Japhet himself came thither with his
family, and he undertakes to prove the antiquity of the Scan¬
dinavians by the expeditions, w^hich according to him they
have undertaken in the remotest ages*. The first of these
he places in the time of Serug, in the year of the world 1900:
the second under the direction of Hercules in the interval be¬
tween the years 2200, and 2500. He lays great stress upon
the conformity Avhich is found between the names, manners,
and customs of certain nations of the South and those of the
North, to prove that the former had been subdued by the
latter; which he affirms could never have been done, if Scan¬
dinavia had not been for a long time back overcharged, as it
were, with the number of its inhabitants. It doubtless cannot
be expected that I should go out of my way to encounter such
an hypothesis as this : it is very evident that Kudbeck and
his followers have falsely attributed to the Goths of Scandi¬
navia, whatever the Greek or Latin historians have said of
the Getae, or Goths, who dwelt near the Euxine. And as to
the arguments brought from a resemblance of names, we
know how little these can be depended on. Proofs of this
kind are easily found wherever they are sought for, and never
fail to offer themselves in support of any system our heads
are full of.
Having thus set aside these two pretended guides, there
only remains to choose between Saxo Grammaticusf and
* See 01. Rudbeck. Atlántica, cap. xxxv.
•j* Saxo, surnained, on account of his learning, Grraramaticus, or the Gram¬
marian, wrote about the middle of the twelfth century, imder the reigns of
Valdemar the First, and Canute his son. He was provost of the cathedral
GROUNDS OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF DENMARK. 73
Thermod Torfseus. The first of these supposes that a certain
person, named Dan, of whom we know nothing but that his
father was named Humble, and his brother Angul, was the
founder of the Danish- monarchy, in the year of the world
2910: that from him Cimbria assumed the name of Den¬
mark ; and that it hath been ever since governed by his pos¬
terity. Saxo himself takes care to give us, in his preface, the
grounds on which his account is founded. These are, first,
the ancient hymns or songs, by which the Danes formerly
preserved the memory of the great exploits of their heroes,
the wars and most remarkable events of each reign, and even
sometimes the genealogies of princes and famous men.
Secondly, the inscriptions which are found up and down in
the north, engraven on rocks and other durable materials.
He also lays great stress on the Icelandic chronicles ;
and on the relations which he received from archbishop
Absalon. It cannot be denied but Saxo s work is written
with great elegance for the time in which it was com¬
posed, but the rhetorician and the patriot are every where so
apparent, as to make us distrust the fidelity of the historian.
In short, to be convinced that this high antiquity, which he
attributes to the Danish monarchy, is extremely uncertain,
we need only examine the authorities on which he builds his
hypothesis. Torfœus -¡s a native of Iceland, and historio¬
grapher of Norway, has shown this at large in his learned
" Series of Kings of Denmark." He there proves that those
songs, from which Saxo pretends to have extracted part of
what he advanced, are, in" very small number; that he can
cliurcli of Roschild, then the capital of the kingdom. It was the celebrated
Absalon, archbishop of Lund, one of the greatest men of his time, who en¬
gaged him to write the history of Denmark ; for which he furnished him
with various helps. Sweno, the son of Aggo, contemporary with Saxo, wrote
also, at the same time, and by the command of the same prelate, a history of
Denmark, which is still extant. But this author seems rather to lean to the
Icelandic hypothesis ; for he differs from Saxo in many essential points, and
in particular concerning the founder of the monarchy, who, according to him,
was Skiold the son of Odin, the same who, according to the Icelandic chroni¬
cles, was the first King of Denmark.
* Thermodius Torfseus, who was bom in Iceland in the last century, and
died about the beginning of the present, had received his education at Copen¬
hagen, and passed the greatest part of his life in Norway. He was a man
of great integrity and diligence, and extremely conversant in the antiquities
of the north.
74
KOBTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
quote none of them for many entire books of his history ; and
that they cannot exhibit a chronological series of kings, nor
ascertain the date of any one event. Nor could the inscrip¬
tions, adds he, afford greater assistance to that historian; they
contain very few matters of importance, they are for the most
part eaten away vdth time, and are very difficult to under¬
stand =î«. With regard to the Icelandic chronicles, Torfaeus
thinks that they might have been of great use to Saxo, had
he often consulted them ; but this, notwithstanding his asser¬
tions, does not sufficiently appear, since they rarely agree
with his relations. Finally, the recitals of archbishop
Absalon are doubtless of great weight for the times near to
those in which that learned prelate lived ; but we do not see
from whence he could have drawn any information of what
passed a long time before him. Upon the whole, therefore,
Torfaeus concludes, with reason, that Saxo's first books, that
is to say, nearly half his history, scarce deserve any credit so
far as regards the succession of the kings, and the dates of
the principal events, although they abound with various pas¬
sages, which contribute to throw light on the antiquities of
the North. Having thus overturned the hypothesis of that
ancient historian, let us now see whether Torfaeus is equally
successful in erecting a new one in its stead.
The knowledge which this learned man had of the old Ice¬
landic language, enabled him to read a considerable number
of ancient manuscripts, which have been found in Iceland at
different times, and of which the greatest part relate to the
history of that island and the neighbouring countries. After
having carefully distinguished those which appeared to him
most worthy of credit, from a multitude of others which
strongly savoured of fiction and romance, he though the had
found in the former materials for drawing up a complete
* Wormius had read almost all those which are fotmd in Denmark and
Norway, as Verelius had also done the greatest part of those which sub¬
sisted iu his time, in Sweden. Both of them agree that they scarce throw
any light upon ancient history. To he convinced of this, one need only to
examine the copies and explanations they have given of them. See " Olai
"Wormii Monumenta Rúnica," lib. iv., and "Olai Verelii RunagraphiaScan-
dica Antiqua," &c. Since Verelius's work there has been published a
complete collection of all the inscriptions found in Sweden, by John Gorans-
son; at Solm, 1750, folio.
GROUNDS OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF DENMARK. 75
series of Danisli kings, beginning with Skjöld the son of Odin,
who, according to him, began his reign a short time before
the birth of Christ. Thus he not only cuts off from history
all the reigns which, according to Saxo, preceded that era ; but
he changes also the order of the kings, which succeeded it ;
affirming that Saxo had one while inserted foreign princes,
another while lords or powerful vassals ; that he had repre¬
sented as living long before Christ some who did not reign
till many years after; and that, in short, he has visibly
enlarged his list of monarchs, whether with design to flatter
his own nation by making the Danish monarchy one of the
most ancient in the world, or whether he only too credulously
followed the guides who seduced him.
It will appear pretty extraordinary to hear a historian of
Denmark cite, for his authorities, the writers of Iceland, a
country cut off, as it were, from the rest of the world, and
lying almost under the northern pole. But this wonder, adds
Torfseus, will cease, when the reader shall be informed, that
from the earliest times the inhabitants of that island have
had a particular fondness for history, and that from among
them have sprung those poets, who, under the name of Skalds,
rendered themselves so famous throughout the north for their
songs, and for the credit they enjoyed with kings and people.
In effect, the Icelanders have always taken great care to pre-
sen'^e the remembrance of every remarkable event that hap¬
pened not only at home, but among their neighbours the
Norwegians, the Danes, the Swedes, the Scots, the English,
the Greenlanders, &c. The first inhabitants of Iceland were
a colony of Norwegians, who, to withdraw themselves from
the tyranny of Harold Hárfagra, retired thither in the year
874 ; and these might carry with them the verses and other
historical monuments of former times. Besides, they kept up
such a constant intercourse with the other people of the north,
that they could readily learn from them whatever passed
abroad. We must add, that the odes of these Icelandic Skalds
were continually in every body's mouth, containing the genea¬
logies and exploits of kings, princes, and heroes ; and as the
poets did not forget to arrange them according to the order of
time, it was not difficult for the Icelandic historians to com¬
pose afteïwards, from such memoirs, the chronicles they have
left us.
76
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
These are the grounds of Torfaeus's system : and one can¬
not help highly applauding the diligence and sagacity of an
author, who has thrown more light on the first ages of Banish
history than any of his predecessors. At the same time we
must confess, that there still remains much darkness and un¬
certainty upon this subject. For, although the annals of the
Icelanders are, without contradiction, a much purer source than
those which Saxo had recourse to ; and although the reasons
alleged by Torfaeus in their favour are of some weight ; many
persons, after all, will hardly be persuaded that we can thence
draw such exact and full information, as to form a complete
and firm thread of history. For, in the first place, the Ice¬
landic writers have left us a great number of pieces which
evidently show that their taste inclined them to deal in the
marvellous, in allegory, and even in that kind of narrations, in
which truth is designedly blended with fable. Torfseus him¬
self confesses * that there are many of their books, in which
it is difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood, and that
there are scarce any of them, but what contain some degree
of fiction. In following such guides there is great danger of
being sometimes misled. In the second place, these annals
are of no great antiquity : we have none that were written
before Christianity was established in the north : therefore
the compilers of the Icelandic annals found no written memoirs
earlier than their own : as we have great reason to believe,
then, their narratives are only founded on traditions, inscrip¬
tions, or relics of poetry.
But can one give much credit to traditions, which must
have taken in so many ages, and have been preserved by a
people so ignorant ? Do not we see that among the common
class of men, a son remembers his father, knows something
of his grandfather, but never bestows a thought on his more
remote progenitors ? With regard to inscriptions, we have
already seen what assistance they were likely to afford ; we
may add that there are very few of them, which were written
before the introduction of Christianity into the north ; and,
indeed, as we shall prove in the sequel, before that time very
little use was made of letters. Lastly, as for the verses or
songs which were learnt by rote, it cannot be denied, but the
* See bis Series Dynast, et Reg. lib. i. cap. 6.
GEOUNDS OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF DENMARK, 77
Icelandic historians might receive great information from
them, concerning times not very remote from their own.
But was a rough and illiterate people likely to bestow much
care in preserving a great number of poems, through a suc¬
cession of eight or nine centuries ? Or can one expect to find
in such compositions much clearness and precision ? Bid the
poets of those rude ages observe that exactness and methodi¬
cal order, which history demands ? In the third place, if the
Icelandic annalists could not know with certainty, what passed
a long time before them in Iceland and Norway, must not
their authority be still weaker in what relates to a distant
state like that of Denmark ; which doubtless in those times
had-not such intimate connections with the other countries of
the north, as it hath had since? We must be sensible that
almost all that could be then known in Iceland of what passed
in other nations, consisted in popular rumours, and in a few
songs, which were handed about by means of some Icelandic
Skald who returned from thence into his own country =i'-.
What course, then, ought an historian to pursue, amid such
a wide field of contrary opinions, where the momentary gleams
of light do not enable him to discover or trace out any cer¬
tain truth ? In the first place, I think he ought not to en¬
gage himself and his readers in a labyrinth of entangled and
useless researches ; the result of which, he is pretty sure, can
be only doubt. In the next place, he is to pass rapidly over
all those ages which are but little known, and all such facts as
cannot be set clear from fiction. The interest we take in past
events is weakened in proportion as they are remote and dis¬
tant, But when, besides being remote, they are also doubt¬
ful, unconnected, uncircumstantial and confused, they vanish
into such obscurity, that they neither can, nor ought to en¬
gage our attention. In those distant periods, if any events
occur, which ought not wholly to he passed over in silence,
great care should be taken to mark the degree of probability
which appears to be due to them, lest we debase history by
* There is much truth in these remarks though they are too indiscriminately
applied, which necessarily renders them inconclusive. Saga literature has
been subjected, since our author's time, to a critical examination, and a due
distinction is now made betwen the mythic, the romantic, and the historical
Sagas, Some of the latter, though they cannot claim to be ranked with
authentic history, may at least be relied on as much as the monkish chronicles
of the middle ages, to which, in every other respect, they are infinitely
superior.—En.
78
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
reducing it to one undistinguished mass of truth and fable. It
is true, by conforming to this rule, an historian will leave
great chasms in his work, and the annals of eight or nine cen¬
turies which, in some hands, fill up several volumes, will by
this means be reduced within very few pages. But this chasm
if it be one, may be usefully filled up. Instead of discussing
the doubtful facts which are supposed to have happened among
the northern nations, during the dark ages of paganism, let us
study the religion, the character, the manners and customs of
the ancient inhabitants diuing those ages. Such a subject, I
should think, may interest the learned, and even the philoso¬
pher. It will have to most readers the charm of novelty,
having been but imperfectly treated of in any modem lan¬
guage ; and so far from being foreign to the History of Den¬
mark, it makes a very essential part of it. For why should
history be only a recital of battles, sieges, intrigues, and nego¬
tiations ? And why should it contain merely a heap of petty
facts and dates, rather than a just picture of the opinions,
customs, and even inclinations of a people ? By confining our
inquiries to this subject, we may with confidence consult those
ancient annals, whose authority is too weak-to ascertain events.
It is needless to observe that great light may be thrown on
the character and sentiments of a nation, by those very books,
whence we can learn nothing exact or connected of then his¬
tory. The most credulous writer, he that has the greatest
passion for the marvellous, while he falsifies the history of
his contemporaries, paints then manners of life and modes of
thinking without perceiving it. His simplicity, his ignorance,
are at once pledges of the artless truth of his drawmg,
and a warning to distrust that of his relations. This is doubt¬
less the best, if not the only use, we can make of those old re¬
lics of poetry, which have escaped the shipwreck of time.
The authors of those fragments, erected into historians by
succeeding ages, have caused ancient history to degenerate
into a mere tissue of fables. To avoid this mistake, let us
consider them only on the footing of poets, for they were in
effect nothing else; let us principally attend to and copy
those strokes, which, without their intending it, point out to
us the notions, and mark the character of the ages in which
they lived. These are the most certain truths we can find
in their works, for they could not help delivering them
whether they would or not.
odin's supposed arrival in the north.
79
CHAPTER III.
of odin, his supposed arrival in the north, and the
changes which he is said to have effected,
Before I describe the state of ancient Scandinavia, I must
stop one moment. A celebrated tradition, confirmed by
the poems of all the northern nations, by their chronicles, by
institutions and customs, some of which subsist to this day, in¬
forms us, that an extraordinary person named Odin, formerly
reigned in the north : that he made great changes in the go¬
vernment, manners, and religion of those countries ; that he
enjoyed there great authority, and had even divine honours
paid Iñm. As to what regards the origin of this man, the
country whence he came, the time in which he lived, and the
other circumstances of his life and death, they are so uncer¬
tain, that the most profound researches, the most ingenious
conjectures about them, discover nothing to us but our own
ignorance. Thus previously disposed to doubt, let those an¬
cient authors I have mentioned relate the story: all their
testimonies are comprised in that of Snorri, the ancient his¬
torian of Norway, and in the commentaries and explications
which Torfseus added to his narrative.
The Roman Commonwealth was arrived to the highest pitch
of power, and saw all the then known world subject to its
laws, when an unforeseen event raised up enemies against it,
from the very bosom of the forests of Scythia, and on the
banks of the Tanäis. Mithridates by flying, had drawn Pom-
pey after him into those deserts. The king of Pontus sought
there for refuge, and new means of vengeance. He hoped to
arm against the ambition of Rome, all the barbarous nations
his neighbours, whose liberty she threatened. He succeeded
in this at first ; but all those people, ill united as allies, ill
armed as soldiers, and still worse disciplined, were forced to
yield to the genius of Pompey. Odin is said to have been of
this number. He was obliged to withdraw himself by flight
from the vengeance of the Romans ; and to go and seek in coun¬
tries unknown to his enemies that safety which he could no
longer find in his own. His true name was Sigge, son of Fri-
dulph ; but he assumed that of Odin, who was the Supreme
80
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
God among the Teutonic nations : either in order to pass
among his followers for a man inspired by the Gods, or be¬
cause he was chief priest, and presided over the worship paid
to that deity. We Imow that it was usual with many nations
to give their pontiffs the name of the God they worshipped.
Sigge, full of his ambitious projects, we may be assured, took
care to avail himself of a title so proper to procure him re¬
spect among the people he meant to subject.
Odin, for so we shall hereafter call him, commanded the
^sir, whose country must have been situated between the
Pontus Euxinus, and the Caspian Sea. Their principal city
was Asgard. The worship there paid to their supreme God
was famous throughout the circumjacent countries. Odin
having united under his banners the youth of the neigh¬
bouring nations, marched towards the north and west of Eu¬
rope, subduing, we are told, all the people he found in his
passage, and giving them to one or other of his sons for sub¬
jects. Many sovereign families of the north are said to be
descended from these princes. Thus Horsa and Hengist, the
chiefs of those Saxons, who conquered Britain in the fifth
century, counted Odin,, or Wodin in the number of their an¬
cestors ; it was the same with the other Anglo-Saxon princes;
as well as the greatest part of those of Lower Germany and
the north. But there is reason to suspect that all these
genealogies, which have given birth to so many insipid pane¬
gyrics and frivolous researches, are fomided upon a mere
equivoque, or double meaning of the word Odin. This word
signified, as we have seen above, the Supreme God of the Teu¬
tonic nations ; we Imow also that it was customary with all
the heroes of these nations to speak of themselves as sprmig
from their divinities, especially their god of war. The his¬
torians of those times, that is to say the poets, never failed to
bestow the same honour on all those whose praises they sung :
and thus they multiplied the descendants of Odin, or the Su¬
preme God, as much as ever they found convenient.
After having disposed of so many countries, and confirmed
and settled his new governments, Odin directed his course
towards Scandinavia, passing through Cimbria, at present
Holstein and Jutland. These provinces, exhausted of inhabit¬
ants, made him no resistance ; and shortly after he passed
into Fünen, which submitted as soon as ever he appeared.
odin's supposed arrival in the north.
81
He is said to have staid a long time in this agreeable island,
■where he built the city of Odensee, "which still preserves in
its name the memory of its founder. Hence he extended his
arms over all the north. He subdued the rest of Denmark,
and made his son Skjold be received there as king ; a title,
which according to the Icelandic annals, no person had ever
borne before, and which passed to his descendants, called
after his name Skjöldungians ; if this name was not rather
given them on account of the shield, which they were accus¬
tomed to bear, for this is called Skjold in the Danish language
to this day. Odin, who was apparently better pleased to give
crowns to his children, than to wear them himself, afterwards
passed into Sweden, where at that time reigned a prince
named Gylfi, who persuaded that the author of a new worship
consecrated by conquests so brilliant, could not be of the
ordinary race of mortals, paid him great honours, and even
worshipped him as a divinity. By favour of this opinion,
which the ignorance of that age led men easily to embrace,
Odin quickly acquired in Sweden the same authority he had
obtained in Denmark. The Swedes came in crowds to do
him homage, and by common consent bestowed the regal title
and office upon his son Yngvi and his posterity. Hence sprung
the Ynglingians, a name by wffiich the kings of Sweden were
for a long time distinguished. Gylñ died, or was forgotten.
Odin governed with absolute dominion. He enacted new
laws, introduced the customs of his own country; and estab¬
lished at Sigtuna (a city at present destroyed, situate in the
same province with Stockholm) a supreme council or tribunal,
composed of twelve pontiffs or judges. Their business was
to watch over the public weal, to distribute justice to the
people, to preside over the new worship, which Odin brought
with him into the north, and to preserve faithfully the religious
,and magical secrets which that prince deposited with them.
He was quickly acknowledged as a sovereign and a god, by all
the petty kings among whom Sweden was then divided ; and
he levied an impost or poll-tax upon every head through the
whole country. He engaged on his part to defend the inha¬
bitants against all their enemies, and to defray the expense of
the worship rendered to the gods at Sigtuna.
These great acquisitions seem not, however, to have satis¬
fied his ambition. The desire of extending farther his religion,
g
83
NOBTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
his authority and his glory, caused him to undertake the con¬
quest of Norway. His good fortune or address followed him
thither, and this kingdom quickly obeyed a son of Odin named
SsDming, whom they have taken care to make head of a family,
the different branches of which reigned for a long time in that
country.
After he had finished these glorious achievements, Odin
retired into Sweden ; where perceiving his end to draw near,
he would not wait till the consequences of a lingering disease
should put a period to that life, which he had so often bravely
hazarded in the field ; but assembling the friends and compa¬
nions of his fortune, he gave himself nine wounds in the form
of a circle with the point of a lance, and many other cuts
in his skin with his sword. As he was dying, he declared he
was going back to Asgard to take his seat among the other
gods at an eternal banquet, where he would receive with great
honours all who should expose themselves intrepidly in battle,
and die bravely with their swords in their hands. As soon as
he had breathed his last, they carried his body to Sigtuna,
where, conformably to a custom introduced by him into the
north, his body was burnt with much pomp and magnificence.
Such was the end of this man, whose death was as extraor¬
dinary as his life. The loose sketches which we have here
given of his character, might afford room for many cmious
conjectures, if they could be depended on as well founded.
Among those which have been proposed, there is nevertheless
one which deserves some attention. Several learned men
have supposed that a desire of being revenged on the Komans
was the ruling principle-of his whole conduct. Driven from
his country by those enemies of universal liberty; his resent¬
ment, say they, was so much the more violent, as the Teu¬
tonic tribes esteemed it a sacred duty to revenge all injuries,
especially those offered to their relations and country. He
had no other view, according to them, in running through so
many distant kingdoms, and in establishing with so much
zeal his sanguinary doctrines, but to spirit up all nations
against so formidable and odious a power. This leaven, which
he left in the bosoms of the northern people, fermented a
long time in secret; but the signal, they add, once given,
they all fell as it were by common consent upon tliis unhappy
empire; and after many repeated shocks, entirely overturned
odin's supposed areival in the north.
83
it; thereby revenging the affront offered so many ages before
to their founder.
I cannot prevail on myself to raise objections against so in¬
genious a supposition. It gives so much importance to the
history of the north, it renders that of all Europe so interest¬
ing, and, if I may use the expression, so poetical, that I
cannot but admit these advantages as so many proofs in its
favour. It must after all be confessed, that we cannot dis¬
cover anything very certain concerning Odin, but only this, that
he was the founder of a new religion. I will not answer for
the truth of the account given of his origin. I only suspect
that at some period of time more or less early, either he, or
his fathers, or the authors of his religion, came from some
country of Scythia, or from the borders of Persia. I may
add, that the god, whose prophet or priest he pretended to be,
was named Odin, and that the ignorance of succeeding ages
confounded the Deity with his priest, composing out of the
attributes of the one and the history of the other, a gross
medley, in which we can at present distinguish nothing very
certain. New proofs of this confusion will occur in all we
shall hereafter produce on this subject ; and it will behove the
reader never to lose sight of this observation, I shall now
mention some farther particulars recorded of Odin, which will
not only confirm what I have been saying, but give us some
insight into his character.
The Icelandic chronicles paint out Odin as the most per¬
suasive of men, They tell us that nothing could resist the
force of his words, that he sometimes enlivened his harangues
with verses, which he composed extempore, and that he was
not only a great poet, but that it was he who first taught the
art of poesy to the Scandinavians. He was also the inventor
of the Runic characters, which so long prevailed among that
people. But what most contributed to make him pass for a
god was his skill in magic. He persuaded his followers that
he could run over the world in the twinkling of an eye, that
he had the direction of the air and tempests, that he could
transform himself into all sorts of shapes, could raise the
dead, could foretel things to come, could by enchantments de¬
prive his enemies of health and vigour, and discover all the
treasures concealed in the earth. The same authors add, that
he also knew how to sing airs so tender and melodious, that
G 3
84
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
the very plains and mountains "would open and expand with
delight ; and that the ghosts attracted by the sweetness of his
songs, would leave their infernal caverns, and stand motion¬
less about him.
But if his eloquence, together with his august and vener¬
able deportment, procured him love and respect in a calm and
peaceable assembly, he was no less dreadful and furious in
battle. He inspired his enemies with such terror, that they
thought they could not describe it better, than by saying he
rendered them bhnd and deaf ; that he would appear like a
wolf all desperate, and biting his very shield for rage, would
throw himself amidst the opposing ranks, making around him
the most horrible carnage, "without receiving any wound
himself*.
[The legend of " the historical Odin"' is founded on the
authority of the Ynglinga Saga, which forms the first book of
Snorris "Heimskringla,"or " Chronicles of the Kings of Nor¬
way." The first of these kings, whose existence cannot
be called in question, is Halfdan the Black, who reigned over
"Westfold and some other petty states in the south of Norway
towards the middle of the ninth century, and with his reign
Snorri begins his second book, entitled " Saga Halfdanar
Svarta," Rögnvalid, the son of Halfdan's brother Olaf, being the
last king mentioned in the Ynglinga Saga. Now, we think that
not"withstanding all that has been written on this Saga, a suffi¬
cient distinction has not been drawn between that part which
may be regarded as semi-historical, and that which is purely
fictitious. We shall therefore venture to make this distinc¬
tion, and regard the Ynglinga Saga as composed of a chronicle
of the kings of Sweden—or, more properly speaking, of the
Upsal district—and a chronicle of the kings of Westfold and
Baumariki in Norway. The chronicle of the Swedish kings
commences by giving an account of a people established on
the east of the river Tanaquisl. who were governed by
a pontiff-king called Odin, residing in the city of As-
* As there are several writers who still believe that a personage called
*'the historical Odin" actually conquered Scandinavia at the head of an
army of Asiatics, we deemed it advisable to retain this chapter, omitting a
few passages obviously erroneous, and adding our own opinions on the sub-
iect, though it is by no means entitled to tlie consideration that the learned
men of the north have thought proper to bestow upon it.—En.
odin's supposed aeeival in the noeth.
85
gard *. The manner in which Odin invaded Scandinavia—an
event which, according to Schöning, took place 40 years
before the Christian era—has been already related. The
successor of Odin, we are told, was Njörd, of the race of the
Vanir, who was succeeded by his son Frey, called Yngvi-
Freyf, the founder of the Yngling dynasty, the last king of
which, being the 21st in descent from Frey, was Ingialld
Illradi, whose reign is placed in the beginning of the seventh
century. At his death the kingdom of Upsal or Svithiod
came into possession of Ivar Vidfami, a lineal descendant
from Odin's son Skjöld, the founder of the Skjöldungian dynasty
of Denmark. Now that such men as Ingialld and Ivar may
have existed, and the latter acquired possession of a petty state
in Sweden in the seventh century, we will not pretend to deny;
but the account given of Ingialld's ancestors in the Ynglinga
Saga, and of Ivar's, by Saxo-Grammaticus, are obviously fic¬
titious, or at all events their veracity may be said gradually to
diminish as we ascend from these semi-historical personages
to the supposed founders of their dynasties, who are
evidently no other than the deities worshipped by the ancient
Scandinavians, anthropomorphized to flatter the vanity of
their earliest rulers ; these deities themselves being but the
symbolical representations of the inscrutable phenomena
elicited by the elemental strife of nature. We shall there¬
fore, whenever we have occasion to allude to the subject in our
subsequent remarks, regard this part of the Ynglinga Saga—
chap. I to 45 inclusive—as a document of little or no histori¬
cal value, and any theories or arguments founded on it as un¬
deserving of serious attention.
The second part of the Saga, or chronicle of the Norwegian
kings—chap. 46 to 55 inclusive—begins by stating that at the
death of Ingialld, his son Olaf, perceiving that the Swedes
were determined to rid themselves of the Yngling dynasty,
went with his followers into the uninhabited district west¬
ward of the Vsenir lake, and having cleared the forests settled
there, and gave it the name of Vermaland (Warmland). Olaf
* This river is supposed to be the Tanais or Don, and the learned northern
antiquaries have not hesitated to identify Asgard with the Aspurg of Strabo,
the Tana of the middle ages, and the Azof of the present day ! ! !
t The reader will find an account of these deities, transformed by the
Saga-man into kings, in the prose Edda, chap. 23 and 24.
86
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
"was soon joined by all who were discontented with the change
of dynasty, and although his enemies tried to ridicule his pro¬
ceedings by calling him " The Woodcutter" (Tretelgia), his
colony grew into a petty state of some importance. A scarcity
however ensued, which the people attributed to the king
having been remiss in his religious duties, meaning probably
that he had not given them a sufficient number of sacrificial
banquets. They accordingly surrounded Olafs house, and
burnt him in it, offering him as a sacrifice to Odin for a good
harvest. The most enlightened amongst them saw, however,
that the real cause of the famine was a surplus population,
and that it would be a much wiser plan for them to rely on
their own exertions, than to sit down and die of starvation in
the vain expectation that Odin would supply their wants with
crops of superabundant fertility. They therefore crossed the
mountains to Norway, and having made Olafs son, Halfdan
Whitebone, their king, conquered Eaumariki, Westfold, and
other petty states in the southern part of that country. Half-
dan was succeeded by his son Eystein, who was drowned at
sea. His son and successor, Halfdan, enriched himself
by successful Viking expeditions, and obtained the singular
surname of " The Munificent and Food-sparing," because he
gave his followers plenty of money, but nearly starved them
to death. The son and successor of this sea-roving king was
Gudreyd the Magnificent, at whose death, which is said to
have taken place in the year 841, the kingdom of West-
fold was divided between his two sons, Olaf and Halfdan the
Black.
That HaKdan was a real historical personage, and the
father of the celebrated Harald Hárfagra, of whom frequent
mention will be made in this work, is unquestionable ; and
although the evidence is by no means conclusive, we should
be inclined to admit that his ancestors, up to the Woodcutter,
"were also men of real thews and sinews, who played their
parts, with more or less success, in the ever-varying drama of
human existence. We have devoted more attention to the
Ynglinga Saga than it probably deserves, as it will be fre¬
quently alluded to in the following chapters, and must
remark in conclusion, that to throw discredit on the whole of
Snorri's Heimskringla merely because the first book is little
better than a legendary fiction, would be equally as absurd as
peimitive woeship of the scandinavians.
87
to impeach the veracity of Livy because he begins his Roman
history by the legend of Romulus, which NieWhr has shown
to be equally as devoid of foundation as that of the historical
Odin.]
CHAPTER IV.
a geneeal idea of the peimitive woeship of the noetheen
nations.
It is not easy to form an exact notion of the religion formerly
professed in the north of Europe. What the Latin and
Greek authors have written on this subject is commonly de¬
ficient in point of exactness. They had for many ages little
or no intercourse with the inhabitants of these countries,
whom they styled barbarians ; they were ignorant of their
language, and, as most of these nations made a scruple of un¬
folding the grounds of their religious doctrines to strangers,
the latter, who were thereby reduced to be mere spectators
of their outward forms of worship, could not easily enter into
the spirit of it. And yet, if we bring together the few short
sketches which these different writers have preserved of it, if
we correct them by one another, if we compare their accounts
with those of the ancient poets and historians of these nations
themselves, I flatter myself, we shall throw light enough upon
this subject to be able to distinguish the most important
objects in it.
A few plain easy doctrines seem to have comprised the
whole of religion known to the first inhabitants of Europe.
The farther back we ascend to the era of the creation, the
more plainly we discover traces of this conformity among the
several nations of the earth; but in proportion as we see them
dispersed to form distant settlements and colonies, they seem
to swerve from their original ideas, and to assume new forms
of religion. The nations, who settled in the southern coun¬
tries, were they who altered it the first, and afterwards dis¬
figured it the most. These people derive from their climate
a lively, fruitful, and restless imagination, which makes them
greedy of novelties and wonders : they have also ardent pas¬
sions, which rarely suffer them to preserve a rational freedom
of mind, or to see things coolly and impartially. Hence the
88
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
wild frenzies of tlie Egyptians, Syrians and Greeks in religious
matters ; and hence that chaos of extravagances, in some re¬
spects ingenious, known by the name of mythology; through
•which we can hardly discover any traces of the ancient doc¬
trines. And yet we do discover them, and can make it appear,
that those first doctrines, which the southern nations so much
disguised, were the very same that were preserved in the north
without any material alteration. There the rigour of the
climate necessarily locks up the capricious desires, confines
the imagination, lessens the number of the passions, as well
as abates their violence, and by yielding only to painful and
unremitted labour, wholly confines to material objects that
activity of mind which produces among men levity and dis¬
quiet.
But whether these causes have not always operated with
the same efficacy, or whether others more powerful have pre¬
vailed over them ; the greatest part of these nations, after
having, for some time, continued inviolably attached to the
religion of their first fathers, suffered it at length to be cor¬
rupted by an intermixture of ceremonies, some of them ridi¬
culous, others cruel ; in which, by little and little, as it com¬
monly happens, they came to place the whole essence of reli¬
gion. It is not easy to mark the precise time when this alter¬
ation happened, as well for want of ancient monuments, as
because it was introduced by imperceptible degrees, and at
different times among different nations : but it is not there¬
fore the less certain, that we ought to distinguish two different
epochs or ages in this religion, and in each of these we
should be careful not to confound the opinions of the sages
with the fables or mythology of the poets. Without these
distinctions it is difficult to reconcile the different accounts,
often in appearance contradictory, which we find in ancient
authors. Yet I cannot promise to mark out precisely, what
belongs to each of these classes in particular. The lights
which guide us at intervals through these dark ages, Eire
barely sufficient to show us some of the more striking objects ;
but the finer links which connect and join them together will
generally escape us.
Let us first of all examine this religion in its purity. It
taught the being of a " supreme God, master of the universe,
to whom all things were submissive and obedient." Such,
PKIMITTVE WORSHIP OF THE SCANDINAVIANS.
89
according to Tacitus, was the supreme God of the Germans.
The ancient Icelandic mythology calls him " the author of
every thing that existeth; the eternal, the ancient, the living
and awful Being, the searcher into concealed things, the
Being that never changeth." This religion attributed to
the Supreme Deity " an infinite power, a boundless knowledge,
an incorruptible justice," and forbade its followers to represent
him under any corporeal form. " They were not even to think
of confining him within the enclosure of walls, but were
taught that it was only within woods and consecrated forests
that they could serve him properly. There he seemed to
reign in silence, and to make himself felt by the respect which
he inspired. It was an injurious extravagance to attribute to
this deity a human figure, to erect statues to him, to suppose
him of any sex, or to represent him by images. From this
supreme God were sprung (as it were emanations of his divi¬
nity) an infinite number of subaltern deities and genii, of
which every part of the visible world was the seat and temple.
These intelligences did not barely reside in each part of
nature ; they directed its operations, it was the organ or in¬
strument of their love or liberality to mankind. Each element
was under the guidance of some being peculiar to it. The
earth, the water, the fire, the air, the sun, moon, and stars had
each their respective divinity. The trees, forests, rivers,
mountains, rocks, winds, thunder and tempests had the same ;
and merited on that score a religious worship, which, at first,
could not be directed to the visible object, but to the intelli¬
gence with which it was animated. The motive of this wor¬
ship was the fear of a deity irritated by the sins of men, but
who, at the same time, was merciful, and capable of being
appeased by prayer and repentance. They looked up to him
as to the active principle, which, by uniting with the earth or
passive principle, had produced men, animals, plants, and all
visible beings; they even believed that he was the only agent
in nature, who preserves the several beings, and disposes of
all events. To serve this divinity with sacrifices and prayers,
to do no wrong to others, and to be brave and intrepid in
themselves, were all the moral consequences they derived
from these doctrines. Lastly, the belief of a future state
cemented and completed the whole building. Cruel tortures
were there reserved for such as despised these three funda-
90
noetheen antiquities.
mental precepts of morality, and joys without number and
without end awaited every religious, just, and valiant man.
These are the principal heads of that ancient religion
which probably prevailed for many ages through the greatest
part of the north of Europe, and doubtless among several
nations of Asia. When it began to lose the most beautiful
features of its original purity, and whether this change must
be attributed to the natural inconstancy of mankind and their
invincible proneness to whatever is marvellous, and strikes
the senses, or was brought about by violence and conquest, is
difl&cult to decide. The eye is lost and bewildered, when it en¬
deavours to trace out events so remote and obscure. To un¬
ravel and distinguish the several causes, and to mark exactly
the distinct influence of each, is what we can hardly do in the
history of such ages as are the most enlightened and best
known to us. Let us then conñne ourselves within more
narrow limits, and endeavour to sketch out a new picture of
this same religion, as it was afterwards altered, and like a
piece of cloth so profusely overcharged with false ornaments,
as hardly to show the least glimpse of the original ground¬
work. This picture will take in a space of seven or eight
centuries, which intervened between the time of Odin and
the conversion of Denmark to the Christian faith. The
Icelandic Edda, and some ancient pieces of poetry, wherein
the same mythology is taught, are the sources whence I shall
draw my information.
CHAPTER V.
of the eeligion which peevailed in the noeth, and
pakticulakly in scandinavia, aftee the peimitive woe-
ship had been alteeed.
The most striking alteration in the doctrines of the primitive
religion, was in the number of the gods who were to be wor¬
shipped. A capital point in the ancient dogmas, was that pre¬
eminence, I have been describing, of one only all-powerful and
perfect being over ail the other intelligences with which univer¬
sal nature was peopled. But men becoming in all appearance
THE KELIGION WHICH PEE VAILED IN THE NOKTH. 91
weary of this simplicity of religion, associated to the supreme
God many of those genii or subaltern divinities who had been
always subordinate to him. As these differed rather in de¬
gree of power, than in essence, the transition was very easy
to a people who were not very refined and subtle. To this
another reason also contributed. As each of these inferior
divinities governed with absolute power every thing within
his respective sphere ; fear, desire, all their wants and pas^
sions, inclined a rude people to have recourse to them, as to
a more present, speedy and more accessible help in time of
need, rather than to the supreme God, whose name alone im¬
printed so much respect and terror. It is an inevitable mis¬
take of the human mind to carry the imperfections of its own
nature into the idea it forms of the Deity. The deep con¬
viction we have every moment of our own weakness, prevents
us from conceiving how it is possible for one single being to
move and support all parts of the universe. This is, espe¬
cially, inconceivable to an ignorant people who have never
suspected that there is any connection between the several
parts of nature, and that a general mechanism can produce
60 many different phenomena. Accordingly, all barbarous
nations have ever substituted, instead of the simple and uni¬
form laws of nature, which were unknown to them, the opera¬
tion of spirits, genii and divinities of all kinds, and have
given them as assistants to the Supreme Being in the moral
and physical government of the world. If they have paid to
any of them greater honours than to others, it has usually
been to those whose dominion extended over such things as
were most dear to them, or appeared most worthy of admira¬
tion. This was what happened in Scandinavia. In process
of time that Supreme Being, the idea of whom takes in all ex¬
istence, was restrained to one particular province, and passed
among the generality of the inhabitants for the God of War.
No object, in their opinion, could be more worthy his at¬
tention, nor more proper to show forth his power. Hence
those pictures which are left us of him in the Icelandic
mythology, where he is always meant under the name of
Odin. He is there called " The terrible and severe God ;
the father of slaughter ; he who giveth victory, and reviveth
courage in the conflict ; who nameth those that are to be
slain." The warriors who went to battle made a vow to send
92
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
him a certain number of souls, which they consecrated to
him; these souls "were Odin's right, he received them in
Valhalla, his ordinary place of residence, where he rewarded
all such as died sword in hand. There it was that he dis¬
tributed to them praises and delight ; there he received them
at his table, where in a continual feast, as we shall see here¬
after, the pleasure of these heroes consisted. The assistance
of this Deity was implored in every war that was undertaken ;
to him the vows of both parties were addressed ; and it was
believed that he often descended to intermix in the conflict
himself, to inflame the fury of the combatants, to strike those
who were to perish, and to carry their souls to his celestial
abodes.
This terrible deity, who took such pleasure in shedding
the blood of men, was at the same time, according to the
Icelandic mythology, their father and creator. So easily do
gross and prejudiced minds reconcile the most glaring con¬
tradictions: this same god, according to the Edda, "liveth
and governeth during the ages, he directeth every thing which
is high, and every thing which is low, whatever is great and
whatever is small ; he hath made the heaven, the air, and
man, who is to live for ever ; and before the heaven and the
earth existed, this god lived already with the giants." The
principal strokes of this picture are found many times re¬
peated in the same work. They have been frequently used
by other northern poets. Nor were they peculiar to the in¬
habitants of Scandinavia. Many ancient people, the Ger¬
mans for example, attributed in like manner to the supreme
God a superintendence over war. They drew their gods by
their own character, who loved nothing so much themselves
as to display their strength and power in battle, and to sig¬
nalize their vengeance upon their enemies by slaughter and
desolation. There remains to this day some traces of the
worship paid to Odin in the name given by almost all the
people of the north to the fourth day of the week, which was
formerly consecrated to him. It is called by a name which
signifies Odin's day *.
* Old Norse, Odinsdagr; Swe. and Danish, Onsdag.; Ang. Sax. Wodenes-
dœg, Wodnesdaeg; Eng .Wednesday; Dutch, Woensdag. As Odin or Wodan
was supposed to correspond to the Mercury of the Greeks and Romans, the
name of this day was expressed in Latin Dies Mercurii.
THE KELIGION -WHICH PREVAILED IN THE NORTH. 95
The principal goddess among the ancient Scandinavians
was Frigga, the wife of Odin. It was the opinion of many-
ancient nations, as well as of the first inhabitants of Greece,
that the supreme Being or celestial God had united with the
earth to produce the inferior divinities, man, and all other
creatures. Upon this was founded that veneration they had
for the earth, which they considered as a goddess, and the
honours which were paid her. They called her Mother
Earth, and Mother of the Gods. The Phenicians adored both
these two principles under the name of Tantes and Astarte.
They were called by some nations Jupiter and Apia ; by the
Thracians, Cotis and Bendis ; by the inhabitants of Greece
and Italy, Saturn and Ops. All antiquity is full of traces of
this worship, which was formerly universal. We know that
the Scythians adored the, earth as a goddess, wife of the
supreme God ; the Turks celebrated her in their hymns ; the
Persians offered sacrifices to her. Tacitus attributes the same
worship to the Germans, particularly to the inhabitants of the
north of Germany. He says, " They adore the goddess
Herthus*, (meaning the earth,") and gives a circumstantial
description of the ceremonies which were observed in honour
of her in an island, which he does not name, but which could
not have been far from Denmarkf. We cannot doubt but
this same goddess was the Frigga of the Scandinavians.
Another celebrated goddess was Freyja, the Goddess of Love.
It was she that was addressed in order to obtain happy mar¬
riages and easy childbirths. She dispensed pleasures, en¬
joyments, and delights of all kinds. The Edda styles her the
most favourable of the goddesses ; but she went to war as
well as Odin, and divided with him the souls of the slain :
* The name which Tacitus gives to this goddess signifies the earth in all
the Teutonic languages. Thus it is in the ancient Giothic, Airtha ; in the
Anglo-Saxon, Eorthe, Ertha, Hertha; English, Earth; in Danish, Jord,
&c.—P.
+ Cluverius pretends that it is the isle of Rugen, which is in the Baltic
Sea, on the coast of Pomerania (Germ. Antiq., p. 134). Yet as Tacitus
places it in the ocean, it is more likely to have been the isle of Heligoland,
Avhich is not far from the mouth of the Elbe. The Angles (Angli, from whom
our English ancestors derived their name) were seated on this coast ; and.
Amkiel hath shown in his Cimbric Antiquities, that the ancient Germans
held this island in great veneration. The word Heligoland signifies " Holy
Land."—P.
94
NORTHEBN ANTIQUITIES.
and indeed it would have been very bard if tbe goddess of
pleasure bad been deprived of an amusement wbicb ber
votaries were so fond of. It appears to bave been tbe general
opinion tbat sbe was tbe same witb tbe Venus of tbe Greeks
and Eomans, since tbe sixtb day of tbe week, wbicb was con¬
secrated to ber under tbe name of Freytag, Friday, or Freyja's
day, was rendered into Latin, Dies Veneris, or Yenus's day*.
Tbe second principal god of tbe ancient Scandinavians was
named Tbor, and was no less known tban Odin among tbe
Teutonic nations. In tbe system of tbe primitive religion,
tbe God Tbor was probably only one of tbose genii or subaltern
divinities sprung from tbe union of Odin, or tbe supreme
being, and tbe eartb. Tbe Edda calls bim expressly tbe
most valiant of tbe sons of Odin. He was considered as tbe
defender and avenger of tbe gods. He always carried a
mallet, wbicb, as often as be discharged it, returned back to
bis band of itself ; be grasped it witb gauntlets of iron, and
was further possessed of a girdle wbicb bad tbe virtue to
renew bis strength as often as was needful. It was witb
these formidable arms tbat be overthrew to tbe ground tbe
monsters and giants, when tbe gods sent bim to oppose their
enemies f.
Tbe deities whom we have mentioned were tbe principal
objects of tbe worship and veneration of all tbe Scandinavians ;
but they were not all agreed among themselves about tbe
preference wbicb was due to each of them in particular. Tbe
Danes seem to have paid tbe highest honours to Odin ; tbe
inhabitants of Norway and Iceland appear to have been under
tbe immediate protection of Tbor ; and tbe Swedes bad chosen
for their tutelar deity Freyja, or rather Frey, ber brother, who,
according to tbe Edda, presided over tbe seasons of the year,
and bestowed peace, fertility, and riches. Tbe number and
employment of these deities of tbe second order it is not very
easy to determine ; and tbe matter besides being of no great
* Old Norse, Freydagr, Friadagr; Sw. and Danish, Fredag ; Ang. Sax.,
Frigedseg; Dutch, Vrijdag; Genn., Freytag.
+ The fifth day of the week was consecrated to Thor. Old Norse,
Thórsdagr; Sw. and Dan., Torsdag; Ang. Sax., Thuresdaeg, Thursdseg;
Eng. Thursday; Germ. Donnerstag; Dutch, Donderdag (the Thunderers
day). The name of this day was rendered into Latin by Dies Jovis, Jupiter,
according to the ideas of the Romans, being also the God of Thunder.
THE EELIGION WHICH PEEVAILED IN THE NORTH. 95
consequence, I shall point out some of the most material.
The prose Edda reckons up twelve gods and as many god¬
desses, to whom divine honours were due, and who, though
they had all a certain power, were nevertheless obliged to
obey Odin, the most ancient of the gods, and the great prin¬
ciple of all things. Such was Njörd, the Neptune of the
northern nations, who reigned over the sea and winds. The
extent of his empire rendered him very respectable ; and we
find in the north, to this day, traces of the veneration which
was there paid him. The Edda exhorts men to worship him
with great devotion.
Baldur was another son of Odin, wise, eloquent, and en¬
dowed with such great majesty that his very glances were
bright and shining. Tyr, who must be distinguished from
Thor, was also a warrior deity, and the protector of champions
and brave men=i=. Bragi presided over eloquence and poetry.
His wife, named Iduna, had the care of certain apples, which
the gods tasted when they found themselves grow old, and
which had the power of instantly restoring them to youth.
Heimdali was their porter. The gods had made a bridge
between heaven and earth ; this bridge is the rainbow.
Heimdali was employed to watch at one of the extremities
of this bridge, for fear the giants should make use of it to get
into heaven. It was a difficult matter to surprise him ; for
the gods had given him the faculty of sleeping more lightly
than a bird, and of discovering objects by day or night farther
than the distance of a hundred leagues. He had also an ear
so fine that he could hear the very grass grow in the meadows
and the wool on the backs of the sheep. He carried in the
one hand a sword, and in the other a trumpet, the sound of
which could be heard through all the worlds. I suppress
here the names of the other gods, who made up the number
of twelve ; but I ought to bestow a word upon Loki, whom
the ancient Scandinavians seem to have regarded as their evil
principle, and whom, notwithstanding, they ranked among the
gods. The Edda calls him " the calumniator of the gods, the
* From Tyr is derived the name given to the third day of the week in
most of the Teutonic languages, and which has been rendered into Latin by
Dies Martis. 0. Norse, Tirsdagr, Tisdagr ; Sw., Tisdag; Dan., Tirsdag;
Germ., Dienstag ; Dutch, Dingsdag ; Aug. Sax., Tyrsdmg, Tyvesdœg,
Tivesdseg; Eng., Tuesday.
96
NOETHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
grand contriver of deceit and frauds, the reproach of gods and
men. He is beautiful in his figure, hut his mind is evil, and
his inclinations inconstant. Nobody renders him divine
honours. He surpasses all mortals in the arts of perfidy and
craft." He has had many children, besides three monsters,
who owe their birth to him ; the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard
serpent, and Hela or Death. All three are enemies to the
gods, who after various struggles have chained this wolf till
the last day, when he shall break loose and rush against
them. The serpent has been cast into the sea, where he
shall remain till he is conquered by the God Thor. And
Hela or Death has been banished into the lower regions, where
she has the government of nine worlds, into which she dis¬
tributes those who are sent to her. We find here and there
in the Edda several other strokes concerning Loki, his strata¬
gems against the gods, their resentment, and the vengeance
they took of him, when he was seized and shut up in a cavern
formed of three keen-edged stones, where he rages with such
violence that he causes all the earthquakes that happen. He
will remain there captive, adds the same mythology, till the
end of the ages ; but then he shall be slain by Heimdall, the
door-keeper of the gods.
We have seen above that the Icelandic mythology reckons
up twelve goddesses, including Frigga, the spouse of Odin,
and the chief of them all. Their names and respective func¬
tions will be found specified in the prose Edda, c. 3.5. Be¬
sides these twelve goddesses there are numerous virgins in
Valhalla, or the paradise of the heroes. Their business is to
wait upon them, and they are called Yalkyrior. Odin also
employs them to choose in battles those who ai'e to perish,
and to make the victory incline to whatever side he pleases.
The court of the gods is ordinarily kept under a great ash
tree, and there they distribute justice*. This ash is the
greatest of all trees ; its branches cover the surface of the
earth, its top reaches to the highest heaven, it is supported
by three vast roots, one of which extends to the ninth world.
An eagle, whose piercing eye discovers all things, perches upon
its branches. A squirrel is continually running up and down
it to bring news ; while a parcel of serpents, fastened to the
* See the Edda, c. 15.
THE RELIGION WHICH PREVAILED IN THE NORTH. 97
trunk, endeavour to destroy him. From under one of the
roots runs a fountain wherein Wisdom lies concealed. From
a neighbouring spring (the fountain of past things) three vir¬
gins are continually drawing a precious water, with which
they water the ash tree : this w^ater keeps up the beauty of
its foliage, and after having refreshed its leaves, falls back
again to the earth, where it forms the dew of which the bees
make their honey. These three virgins always keep under the
ash ; and it is they who dispense the days and ages of men.
Every man hath a destiny appropriated to himself, who deter¬
mines the duration and events of his life. But the three
destinies of more especial note are Urd (the past), Verdandi
(the present), and Skuld (the future).
Such were the principal deities, formerly worshipped in the
north of Europe ; or rather these were the ideas which the
poets gave of them to the credulous people. It is easy to
discover their handywork in these fictions, sometimes inge¬
nious, hut more frequently puerile, with which they thought
to set off the simplicity of the ancient religion ; and we ought
not to believe that such of them as were men of sense and
discernment ever considered them in any other light. But
after having shown the names and attributes of their principal
deities, let us proceed to set forth, after the Edda and the poem
named Voluspá, the other doctrines of their religion.
We have seen that among the qualities of which they sup¬
posed Odin or the Supreme God to be possessed, that of 'the
creator of heaven and earth is expressly attributed to him.
What the Icelandic mythology has preserved to us on this
head, merits so much the more attention, as it discovers to
us the sentiments that prevailed at a very early period on
this important point, and at the same time expresses them
frequently with a greatness and sublimity equal to the finest
strokes of classical antiquity on the same subject. The Vo¬
luspá begins by a description of Chaos. " In the day-spring
of the ages," says the prophetess, " there was neither sea,
nor shore, nor refreshing breezes. There was neither earth
below, nor heaven above, to be distinguished. The whole was
only one vast abyss, without herb, and without seeds. The
Bun had then no palace : the stars knew not their dwelling-
places, the moon was ignorant of her power." After this we
are told that " there was a luminous, burning, flaming world
H
98
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
towards tlie south ; and another, nebulous and dark, toward
the north. From the latter world flowed out incessantly into
the abyss that lay between the two, torrents of venom, which
in proportion as they removed far away from their source,
congealed in their falling into the abyss, and so filled it with
scum and ice. Thus was the abyss by little and little filled
quite full : but there remained within it a light and immove¬
able air, and thence exhaled icy vapours. Then a warm
breath coming from the south, melted those vapours, and
formed of them living drops, whence was born the giant
Ymir. It is reported that whilst he slept an extraordinary
sweat under his arm-pits produced a male and female, whence
is sprung the race of the giants ; a race evil and corrupt, as well
as Ymir their author. Another race was brought forth which
formed alliances with that of the giant Ymir : this was called
the family of Bor, so named from the second of tliat family,
who was the father of Odin. The sons of Bor slew the giant
Ymir, and the blood ran from his wounds in such abmidance,
that it caused a general inundation, wherein perished all the
giants, except only one, who saving himself in a bark,
escaped with all his family. Then a new world was
formed. The sons of Bor, or the gods, dragged the body of
the giant in the abyss, and of it made the earth : the sea
and rivers were composed of his blood ; the earth of his flesh;
the great mountains of his bones ; the rocks of his teeth and
of splinters of his bones broken. They made of his skull the
vault of heaven, which is supported by four dwarfs named
North, South, East, and West. They fixed there tapers to
enlighten it, and assigned to other fires certain spaces which
they were to run through, some of them in heaven, others
under the heav^en : the days were distinguished, and the years
were numbered. They made the earth round, and surrounded
it with the deep ocean, upon the outward banks of which they
placed the giants. One day, as the sons of Bor, or the gods,
were taking a walk, they found two pieces of wood floating
upon the water ; these they took, and out of them made a man
and a woman. The eldest of the gods gave them life and souls ;
the second motion and knowledge ; the third the gift of
speech, hearing and sight, to which he added beauty and
raiment. From this man and this woman, named Ask and
* See the Edda, c. 6.
THE EELIGION WHICH PREVAILED IN THE NORTH. 99
Embla, is descended the race of men who are permitted to
inhabit the earth."
It is easy to trace out in this narration vestiges of an an¬
cient and general tradition, of which every sect of paganism
has altered, adorned or suppressed many circumstances, ac¬
cording to their own fancy, and which is now only to-
be found entire in the books of Moses. Let the strokes we
have here produced be compared with the beginning of
Hesiod's Theogony, with the mythology of some Asiatic
nations, and with the book of Genesis, and we shall instantly
be convinced that the conformity which is found between
many circumstances of their recitals, cannot be the mere
work of chance. Thus in the Edda the description of the
Chaos ; that vivifying breath which produces the giant Ymir ;
that sleep during which a male and female spring from his
sides ; that race of the sons of the gods ; that deluge which
only one man escapes, with his family, by means of a bark ; ,
that renewal of the world which succeeds ; that first man and
first woman created by the gods, and who receive from them
life and motion : all this seems to be only remains of a more
ancient and more general belief, which was carried into the
north, and altered there more slowly than in other countries.
One may discover also in the very nature of these alterations
the same spirit of allegory, the same desire of accounting for
all the phenomena of nature by fictions, which has suggested
to other nations the greatest part of the fables with which
their theology is infected. To conclude, the style itself, in
which the expressions, one while sublime, one while extrava¬
gant and gigantic, are* thrown together without art, the lit¬
tlenesses that accompany the most magnificent descriptions,
the disorder of the narrative, the uniform turn of the phrases,
confirms to all who read this work an idea of a very remote
antiquity, and a mode of thinking and writing peculiar to a
simple and gross people, who were unacquainted with any
rules of composition, and whose vigorous imagination, de¬
spising or not knowing any imles of art, displays itself in all
the liberty and energy of nature.
It was thus the world was created ; or to express it in a
manner more conformable to Scandinarian notions, it was
thus that the matter already existing, but without order and
without life, was animated and disposed by the gods in the
H 2
100
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES,
present state in which we behold it. I have already re¬
marked, that they were far from supposing that after it had
received the first motion from the hands of the gods, the
world continued to subsist, and to move independent of its
first movers. Perhaps no religion ever attributed so much to
a Divine Providence as that of the northern nations. This
doctrine served them for a key, as commodious as it was uni¬
versal, to unlock all the phenomena of nature without excep¬
tion. The intelligences united to different bodies penetrated
and moved them, and men needed not to look any farther
than to them, to find the cause of everything they observed in
them. Thus entire nature, animated and always moved im¬
mediately by one or more intelligent causes, was in their sys¬
tem nothing more than the organ or instrument of the
divinity, and became a kind of book in which they thought
they could read his wdl], inclinations, and designs. Hence
that weakness formerly common to so many nations, and of
which the traces still subsist in many places, that makes
them .regard a thousand indifferent phenomena, such as the
quivering of leaves, the crackling and colour of flames, the
fall of thunderbolts, the flight or singing of a bird, men's
involuntary motions, their dreams and visions, the movements
of the pulse, &c., as intimations which God gives to wise men,
of his will. Hence came oracles, divinations, auspices, pre¬
sages, and lots ; in a word, all that rubbish of dark supersti¬
tions called at one time religion, at another magic, a science
absurd to the eyes of reason, but suitable to the impatience
and restlessness of our desires, and which only betrays the
weakness of human nature, in promising to relieve it. Such,
notwithstanding, was the principal consequence which the
Teutonic nations drew from the doctrine of a Divine Provi¬
dence. The ancient Scandinavians carried it to as extra¬
vagant a pitch as the rest, as will appear from what I shall
say of their sacrifices and presages, when I come to treat of
their exterior worship. With respect to the moral precepts,
we know very well that it has ever been the failing of man¬
kind to regard these as the least essential part of religion.
When they admitted that continual and immediate action of
the Divinity on all creatures, the Scandinavians had thence
concluded that it was impossible for men to effect any change
in the course of things, or to resist the destinies. The Stoics
THE EEEIGION WHICH PREVAILED IN THE NORTH. 101
themselves did not understand this term in a more rigorous
sense than the people of the north. Nothing is more common
in the ancient chronicles tiian to hear their warriors com¬
plaining that the destinies are inflexible, that they are
unalterable and cannot be surmounted. We have seen above
that they reckoned the Parcee or goddesses of destiny to be
three in number, as well as the Greeks ; and like them attri¬
buted to them the determination of all events. Every man
had also his own destiny, who assisted at the moment of his
birth, and marked beforehand the period of his days. It is
yet probable that they considered Odin, or the supreme God,
as the author and arbiter of the destinies. This the Edda
insinuates pretty clearly, when it tells us that he has esta¬
blished from the beginning governors to regulate the des¬
tinies of mortals. One may conceive what impression this
doctrine must have made upon men who were naturally war¬
like. Recent examples have shown us, that it never fails
among men to add strength to their ruling passion, and
to produce, particularly in such as love war, a blind temerity
which knows neither measure nor danger But to this un¬
lucky prejudice the ancient inhabitants of the north added
another, the effects of which were no less barbarous ; Avhich
was, that the term of a man's life might be prolonged, if any
one would put himself in his place and die in his stead. This
was often practised when a prince or illustrious warrior was
ready to perish by some accident ; Odin, appeased by such a
sacrifice, and content to have a victim, revoked, they said, the
decree of the destinies, and lengthened the thread of his life
whom they were so desirous to save
The other precepts of this religion probably extended no
farther than to be brave and intrepid in war, to serve the
gods, and to appease them b}'- sacrifices, not to be unjust, to
show hospitality to strangers, to keep their words inviolably,
and to be faithful to the marriage bed f. There are many
* The author (I suppose) alludes to Charles XII. of Sweden. See his
History by Voltaire.—P.
f Carlyle, in the work he has devoted to " Heroes and Hero-worship,"
remarks in his peculiar manner, that " Among these shadowy Edda matters,
amid all that fantastic congeries of assertions and traditions, in their musical
mythologies, the main practical belief a man could have was probably not
much more than this : of the Valkyrs and the Hall of Odin ; of an inflexible
102
KOKTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
remarks to be made upon the sense in which these precepts
were taken, and upon the manner in which they were
observed ; but to avoid repetitions, I shall reserve them for
the article in which I shall treat of the manners of the
ancient Scandinavians. There we shall be best able to judge
what influence their religion had upon these people, and by a
natural circle thence form the most exact idea of the spirit of
the religion itself. It is now time to discuss another of its
doctrines, that of the state of man after death, and the final
destiny of the world he now inhabits.
" There will come a time, says the Edda, a barbarous age,
an age of the sword, when iniquity shall infest the earth,
when brothers shall stain themselves with brothers' blood,
when sons shall be the murderers of their fathers, and fathers
of their sons, when incest and adultery shall be common,
when no man shall spare his friend. Immediately shall
succeed a desolating winter; the snow shall fall from the
four corners of the world, the winds shall blow with fury, the
whole earth shall be hard bound in ice. Three such winters
shall pass away without being softened by one summer. Then
shall succeed astonishing prodigies ; then shall the monsters
break their chains and escape ; the great serpent shall roll
himself in the ocean, and with his motions the earth shall be
overflowed ; the earth shall be shaken, the trees shall be torn
up by the roots, the rocks shall be dashed against each other.
The wolf Fenrir, broke loose from his chains, shall open his
enormous mouth which reaches from heaven to earth ; the
fire shall flash out from his eyes and nostrils ; he shall devour
the sun ; and the great serpent who follows him shall vomit
forth upon the waters, and into the air, great torrents of
venom. In this confusion the stars shall fly from their
places, the heaven shall cleave asunder, and the army of
Surtur shall break in. But Heimdall, the door-keeper of the
gods, rises up, he sounds his clanging trumpet; the gods
destiny ; and that the one thing needful for a man was to be brave ; the
Valkyrs or Choosers of the Slain ; a destiny inexorable, which it is useless
trying to bend or soften, has appointed who is to be slain ; this was a fun¬
damental point for the Norse believer; as indeed it is for all earnest men
everywhere, for a Mahomet, a Luther, for a Napoleon too. It lies at the
basis this for every such man, it is the woof out of which his whole system
of thought is woven."
THE RELIGION WHICH REEVAILED IN THE NORTH. lOo
awake and assemble; the great ash-tree shakes its branches;
heaven and earth are full of horror and affright. The gods
fly to arms; the heroes place themselves in battle array.
Odin appears armed in his golden casque and his resplendent
cuirass ; his vast scimitar is in his hands. He attacks the
wolfFenrir; he is devoured by him, and Fenrir perishes at
the same instant. Thor is suffocated in the floods of venom
which the serpent breathes forth as he expires. Loki and
Heimdall mutually kill each other. The fire consumes every¬
thing, and the flame reaches up to heaven. But presently
after a new earth springs forth from the bosom of the waves,
adorned with green meadows ; the fields there bring forth
without culture, calamities are there unknown, a palace is
there raised more shining than the sun, all covered with gold.
This is the place that the just will inhabit, and enjoy delights
for evermore. Then the powerful, the valiant, he who
governs all things, comes forth from his lofty^ abodes, to render
divine justice. He pronounces decrees. He establishes the
sacred destinies which shall endure for ever. There is an
abode remote from the sun, the gates of which face the
north ; poison rains there through a thousand openings : this
place is all composed of the carcasses of serpents : there run
certain torrents, in which are plunged peijurers and assas¬
sins."*
Notwithstanding the obscurities which are found in these de¬
scriptions, we see that it was a doctrine rendered sacred by the
religion of the ancient Scandinavians, that the soul was immor¬
tal, and that there was a future state reserved for men, either
happy or miserable, according to their behaviour here below. All
the Teutonic nations held the same opinions, and it was upon
these they founded the obligation of serving the gods, and of
being valiant in battle : but although the Greek and Latin
historians who have spoke of this people, agree in attributing
these notions to them, yet none of them have given any par¬
ticular account of the nature of these doctrines; and one
ought to regard in this respect the Icelandic mythology as a
precious monument, without which we can know but very im¬
perfectly this important part of the religion of our fathers.
I must here sacrifice to brevity many reflections, which the
* See tke Prose Edda, ch. 51.
104
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
picture I have here copied from thence naturally presents to
the mind. Many in particular would arise on the surprising
conformity that there is between several of the foregoing
strokes, and those employed in the gospel to describe the same
thing, A conformity so remarkable that one should be
tempted to attribute it to the indiscreet zeal of the Christian
writer who compiled this mythology, if the Edda alone had
transmitted to us this prophecy concerning the last ages of
the world, and if we did not find it with the same circum¬
stances in the Voluspá, a poem of greater antiquity, and in
which nothing can be discovered that has an air of interpola¬
tion, or forger}\
One remark, however, ought not to be omitted, which is,
that this mythology expressly distinguishes two different
abodes for the happy, and as many for the culpable ; which is
what several authors who have written of the ancient religion
of Europe have not sufficiently attended to. The first of these
abodes was the palace of Odin named Valhalla, where that
god received all such as died in a violent manner, from the
beginning to the end of the world, that is, to the time of that
universal desolation of nature which was to be followed by a
new creation, and what they called Ragnarök, or the twilight
of the gods. The second, which after the renovation of all
things was to be their eternal abode, was named Gimli, that
is, the palace covered with gold, the description of wEich we
have seen above, where the just were to enjoy delights for
ever. It was the same as to the place of punishments; they
distinguished two of those, of which the first, named Niflheim,
was only to continue to the renovation of the world, and the
second that succeeded it was to endure for ever. This last
was named Nástrond, the shore of the dead; and we have
seen in the description of the end of the world, what idea was
entertained of it by the ancient Scandinavians, With regard
to the two first places, the Valhalla and Niflheim, they are
not only distinguished from the others in being only to endure
till the conflagration of the world, but also in respect to re¬
wards and punishments. Those only whose blood had been
shed in battle, might aspire to the pleasures which Odin pre¬
pared for them'in Valhalla, The pleasures which they ex¬
pected after death show us plainly enough what they relished
during life, " Tbe heroes, says the Edda, who are received
the eeligion which prevailed in the north. 105
into the palace of Odin, have every day the pleasure of arm¬
ing themselves, of passing in review, of ranging themselves
in order of battle, and of cutting one another in pieces ; but
as soon as the hour of repast approaches, they return on
horseback all safe and sound back to the hall of Odin, and
fall to eating and drinking. Though the number of them
cannot be counted, the flesh of the boar Ssehrimnir is suffi¬
cient for them all ; every day it is served up at table, and
every day it is renewed again entire : their beverage is ale and
mejad ; one single goat, whose milk is excellent mead, fur¬
nishes enough of that liquor to intoxicate all the heroes. Odin
alone drinks wine for his entire liquor. A crowd of virgins
wait upon the heroes at table, and flll their cups as fast as
they empty them." Such was that happy state, the bare hope
of which rendered all the inhabitants of the north of Europe
intrepid, and which made them not only to defy, but even seek
with ardour the most cruel deaths. Accordingly King Eagnar
Lodbrok, when he w'as going to die, far from uttering groans,
or forming complaints, expressed his joy by these verses. "We
are cut to pieces with swords; but this fills me with joy,
when I think of the feast that is preparing for me in Odin's
palace. Quickly, quickly seated in the splendid habitation of
the gods, we shall drink beer out of curved horns-!=. A brave
man fears not to die. I shall utter no timorous words as I
* We have substituted "curved horns" for "the skulls of our enemies;"
Finn Magnusen, and Professor Rask having shown that this is the true
meaning of the original passage, literally " soon shall we drink ale out of the
curved branches of the skull," i. e. of an animal, a figurative expression cm-
ployed by the Skald to indicate the usual drinking horns, and that Olaus
Wormius, Bartholin and other writers of that period, whom our author has
followed, were totally mistaken in rendering it " ex concavis crateribus
craniorum," and " ex concavis craniorum poculis," or as one of them gives it,
" confestim, ex cranibus hostium capacitate conspicuis, cerevisiam bibemus."
It is this mistake that has given rise to the erroneous notion, that the
heroes of Valhalla drank their ale out of the skulls of those they had slain
in battle.
" They thought
One day from Ella's skull to quaff the mead,
Their valour's guerdon,"
says Southey. We think that a daily dinner consisting solely of boiled pork,
washed down with ale and an occasional draught of mead, was bad enough
in all conscience, without making skulls serve for drinking cups.—ed.
106
NOIITHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
enter the Hall of Odin." This fanatic hope derived addi¬
tional force from the ignominy affixed to every kind of death
but such as was of a violent nature, and from the fear of being
sent after such an exit into Niflheim. This was a place con¬
sisting of nine worlds, reserved for those that died of disease
or old age. Hela or Death, there exercised her despotic
power; her palace was Anguish; her table Famine; her waiters
were Slowness and Delay; the threshold of her door was
Precipice; her bed Care; she was livid and ghastly pale; and
her very looks inspired horror.
After this description of the religion of the Scandinavians,
can we be surprised that they should make war their only
business, and carry their valour to the utmost excesses of
fanaticism. Such also wül be the features which I shall most
frequently have occasion to present, when I come to give a
picture of their manners : there the influence of a doctrine
so pernicious will be felt in its utmost extent. But justice
obliges me to observe here, that the reproach arising from
it does not affect the ancient inhabitants of the north more,
than those of all Europe in general, unless it be that they
continued to deserve it longer. However strange to a man
who reasons coolly may appear the madness of maldng war
habitually, for the sake of war itself, it must notwithstand¬
ing be allowed, that this has been for a succession of ages the
favourite passion of all those nations at present so polite;
and it is but, as it were, of yesterday that they began to be
sensible of the value of peace, of the cultivation of arts, and
of a government favourable to industry. The farther we look
back towards their infancy, the more we see them occupied in
war, divided among themselves, cruelly bent on the destruction
of each other, by a spirit of revenge, idleness and fanaticism.
There was a time when the whole face of Europe presented
the same spectacle as the forests of America; viz. a thousand
little wandering nations, without cities or towns, or agriculture,
or arts ; having nothing to subsist on but a few herds, wild
fruits and pillage, harassing themselves incessantly by in¬
roads and attacks, sometimes conquering, sometimes con¬
quered, often totally overthrown and destroyed. The same
causes everywhere produce the same effects: a savage life
necessarily produces cruelty and injustice ; disquiet, idleness
and envy naturally lead to violence, and the desire of rapine
eeligious cekemonies
107
and mischief. The fear of death is no restraint when life has
no comfort. What evidently proves the unhappiness of those
nations who live in such a state as this, is the facility with
which they throw their lives away. The pleasure arising from
property, from sentiment and knowledge, the fruits of industry,
laws and ai'ts, by softening life and endearing it to us, can
alone give us a relish for peace and justice.
CHAPTER VI.
of the exteeiob woeship and eeligious ceeemonies
of the noethern nations.
In laying open the principal doctrines of the ancient Scandi¬
navians, I have already had frequent occasion to remark their
conformity with those of the other Teutonic nations of Europe.
The same conformity is observable in the worship which they
paid the Deity ; and one may presume that it would appear
still greater if it were easy to pursue with exactness the his¬
tory of that religion through its several stages of purity and
alteration. Thus, for instance, it is easy to comprehend why
the ancient Scandinavians made use of temples; although, on
the other hand, it would appear that the use of them was
proscribed by the primitive religion, which taught that it was
offensive to the gods to pretend to inclose them within the
circuit of walls ; and that men thereby checked and restrained
their action, which is to penetrate all creatures freely in order
to support them in being. There was doubtless a time, when
the Scandinavians, admitting the same doctrine, worshipped
their divinities only in the open air, and either knew not or
approved not of the use of temples. Although we want the
greatest part of the monuments which might instruct us con¬
cerning that stage of their religion, the traces of it are not
yet entirely destroyed. We find at this day here and there,
in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, in the middle of a plain,
or upon some little hill, altars, around which they assembled
to offer sacrifices and to assist at other religious ceremonies.
The greatest part of these altars are raised upon a little hill,
either natural or artificial. Three long pieces of rock set up¬
right serve for a basis to a great flat stone, which forms the
108
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
table of the altar There is commonly a pretty large cavity
under this altar, which might be intended to receive the
blood of the victims ; and they never fail to find stones for
striking fire scattered round it ; for no other fire, but such as
was struck forth with a flint, was pure enough for so holy a
purpose. Sometimes these rural altars are constructed in a
more magnificent manner; a double range of enormous stones
surround the altar and the little hill on which it is erected.
In Zealand we see one of this kind f ; which is formed of
stones of a prodigious magnitude. Men would even now be
afraid to undertake such a work, notwithstanding all the
assistance of the mechanical powers which in those times they
wanted. What redoubles the astonishment is, that stones of
that size are rarely to be seen throughout the island, and that
they must have been brought from a great distance. What
labour and time then must have been bestowed upon these
vast rude monuments, which are unhappily more durable than
those of the fine arts ! But men in all ages have been per¬
suaded that they could not pay greater honour to the Deity,
than by making for him (if I may so express it) a kind of
strong bulwarks ; in executing prodigies of labour ; in conse¬
crating to him immense riches. The sacrifice of whatever is
vicious in our passions, which he only requires of us for our
own happiness, is always the last thing that is thought of to
offer to him, because it is perhaps what is after all the most
difficult. At Ephesus they displayed their devotion by lay¬
ing out upon one single temple all the treasures of Greece
and Asia. The Goths, whose bodily strength was all their
riches, showed their zeal by rolling enormous rocks to the
summits of hills.
In some places of Norway are found grottoes, which have
also been employed for religious uses. Some of them have
* Our author who, throughout his work, places too great a value on the
somewhat Utopian account which Tacitus has left us of the ancient Grer-
mans, fancies that these rude monuments were the altars that served for what
he is pleased to term " the primitive worship of mankind." (See Chap. IV.)
Without entering into a discussion of an hypothesis which we deem to be
perfectly gratuitous, we will merely observe that places where such circles of
upright stones are found, were, generally speaking, Thingsteads, that is to
say, the places where the Things or legislative and judicial assemblies were
held, and where the kings were also elected.—En.
f Vide Olai Womii Monum. Danic.
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES OF THE NORTH.
1U9
been cut with incredible pains in tlie hardest rocks ; others
are formed of prodigious stones brought near and combined
together with a force no less surprising
By degrees, as the Scandinavians formed new intercourses
and connections with the other nations of Europe, whether
by the expeditions they undertook, or by the foreign colonies
which came to establish themselves among them, their re¬
ligion, changing by degrees, tolerated insensibly temples and
idols, and at length adopted them without reserve. The three
principal nations of Scandinavia f vied with each other in
erecting temples, but none were more famous than that of
Upsal in Sweden. It glittered on all sides with gold. A
chain of the same metal (or at least gilded) ran round the
roof, although the circumference was not less than nine hun¬
dred ells. Hakon, earl of Norway, had built one near Dron-
theim, which was not inferior to that of Upsal. When Olaf
Tryggvason, king of Norway, introduced the Christian faith
into that country, he caused this temple to be razed to the
ground, and broke to pieces the idols it contained. They
found there great riches, and particularly a ring of gold of
great value. Iceland had also its temples, and the chroni¬
cles of that country speak with admiration of two especially,
one situate in the north of the island, the other in the south.
In each of these temples " there was," says an author of
that country j, "a private chapel, which was regarded as a
holy place : there they placed the idols upon a kind of altar,
around which they ranged the victims that were to be offered
up. Another altar stood opposite to it, plated with iron, in
order that the fire which was to bum there perpetually should
not damage it. Upon this altar was placed a vase of brass,
in which they received the blood of the victims. Beside it
stood a brush which they made use of to sprinkle the blood
upon the bystanders. There hung up likewise a great silver
ring, which they stained with blood, and which whoever took
an oath on any occasion was required to hold in his hand.
In one of these temples, there was also near the chapel a
deep pit or well, into which they cast the victims."
* "Worm. Mon um. Danic. lib. i. p. 6.
+ Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.
îVid. Arngrim. Jon. Crymogaea.
110
NOETHEBN ANTIQUITIES.
When Denmark had embraced the Christian faith, the^'
applied themselves with as much zeal to destroy these temples,
as they had a little before to serve their false gods in them.
In a short time they were all razed to the ground, a^id the
very remembrance of the places where they stood was totally
lost. But the altars that are very often found scattered upon
the mountains and in the woods, testify at this day that the
ancient Danes were not less attached to this mode of worship
than the other northern nations. All the gods whose names
I have enumerated, and many others of inferior note, were
worshipped and invoked by the ancient Scandinavians, but not
all in the same manner, nor on the same account. The great
temple of Upsal seemed to be particularly consecrated to the
three superior deities, and each of them was characterized by
some particular symbol. Odin was represented holding a
sword in his hand : Thor stood at the left hand of Odin, with
a crown upon his head, a sceptre in one hand, and his mallet
in the other. Sometimes they painted him on a chariot,
drawn by two he-goats of wood, with a silver bridle, and his
head surrounded with stars. Frey stood at the left hand of
Thor, and was represented of both sexes, (as an hermaphro¬
dite,) and with divers other attributes which characterized
productiveness. I do not here enter into a minute account of
the worship rendered to the other gods : that which was paid
to the three superior deities consisted principally in sacriñces,
and deserves to be described more at large.
There were three great religious festivals in the year. The
first was celebrated at the winter solstice. They called the
night on which it was observed the Mother-night, as that
which produced all the rest; and this epoch was rendered the
more remarkable as they dated from thence the beginning of
the year, which among the northern nations was computed
from one winter solstice to another, as the month was from
one new moon to the next. This feast, which was very con¬
siderable, was named Jul-^S and was celebrated in honour of
Frey, or the sun, in order to obtain a propitious year and
fruitful seasons. Sacrifices, feasting, nocturnal assemblie.s.
and all the demonstrations of a most dissolute joy, were then
authorized by the general usage. These answered to tln-
* Hence is derived the word Yeol or Yule, the old name for Christmas. P.
KEL;GI0US CEllEMOMIKS OF 'IliE KOllTH.
Ill
Saturnalia of tlie Romans, and were in a great measure re¬
newed afterwards among the people on occasion of the feast of
Christinas. The second festival was instituted in honour of
the earth, or of the goddess Goa, to request of her pleasures,
fruitfulness, and victory ; and it was fixed at the first quarter
of the second moon of the year*. The third, which seems to
have been the most considerable in ancient times, was insti¬
tuted in honour of Odin ; it was celebrated at the beginning
of the spring, in order to welcome in that pleasant season, and
especially to obtain of the god of battles happy success in
their projected expeditions. There were also some feasts in
honour of the other gods, and they were often multiplied en
occasion of particular events.
In the earliest ages the offerings were simple, and such as
shepherds and rustics could present. They loaded the altars
of the gods with the first fruits of their crops, and the choicest
products of the earth. Afterwards they sacrificed animals.
When they had once laid it down as a principle that the effu¬
sion of the blood of these animals appeased the anger of the
gods, and that their justice turned aside upon the victims
those strokes ivhich were destined for men, their great care
then was for nothing more than to conciliate their favour by
so easy a method. It is the nature of violent desires and ex¬
cessive fear to know no bounds, and therefore when they would
ask for any favour which they ardently wished for, or would
deprecate some public calamity which they feared, the blood
of animals was not deemed a price sufficient, but they began
to shed that of men. It is probable that this barbarous prac¬
tice was formerly almost universal, and that it is of a very re¬
mote antiquity. It was not entirely abolished among the
northern nations till towards the ninth centuiy, because before
that time they had not received the light of the gospel, and
* This was the chief festival of the Swedes, during which they held their
Al-thing. Goa is not mentioned in the Edda, hut is supposed to correspond
to the nymph or goddess Saga, and the festival to have been in honour of
all the fiisir—^beings, though of a different sex, corresponding in their attri¬
butes to the Roman genii loci. In other parts of Scandinavia a festival took
place at this period in honour of Freyja. It seems probable, in fact, that all
the female deities, Asynior, Norns, Valkyrior, and Disir, were involved at
these vernal festivities.—See Finn Magnusen's Eddalceren, IV. 144.—En,
112
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
were ignorant of those arts which had softened the ferocity of
the Romans and Greeks whilst they were still pagans.
The appointed time for these sacrifices was always deter
mined by another superstitious opinion which made the
northern nations regard the number three as sacred and par¬
ticularly dear to the gods. Thus in every ninth month they
renewed this bloody ceremony, which was to last nine days,
and every day they offered up nine living victims, whether
men or animals. But the most solemn sacrifices were those
which were offered at Upsal in Sweden every ninth year.
Then the king and all the citizens of any distinction were
obliged to appear in person, and to bring offerings, which were
placed in the great temple described above. Those who could
not come themselves sent their presents by others, or paid
the value in money to those whose business it was to receive
the offerings. Strangers flocked there in crowds from all
parts ; and none were excluded except those whose honour had
suffered some stain, and especially such as had been accused
of cowardice. Then they chose among the captives in time of
war, and among the slaves in time of peace, nine persons to
be sacrificed. The choice was partly regulated by the opinion
of the bystanders, and partly by lot. But they did not always
sacrifice such mean persons. In great calamities, in a press¬
ing famine for example, if the people thought they had some
pretext to impute the cause of it to their king, they even sa¬
crificed him without hesitation, as the highest price with which
they could purchase the Divine favour. In this manner the
first king=!' of Vermaland was burnt in honour of Odin to put
an end to a great dearth ; as we read in the history of Nor¬
way. The kings, in their turn, did not spare the blood of
their subjects; and many of them even shed that of their
children. Earl Hakon, of Norway, offered his son in sacrifice,
to obtain of Odin the victory over the Jomsburg pirates.
Ann, king of Sweden, devoted to Odin the blood of his nine
sons, to prevail on that god to prolong his life f. The ancient
history of the north abounds in similar examples. These
* This was a petty king of a province of Sweden. See Wormius, in Mo-
ünm. Dan. p. 25, 26. See also page 86.—Ed.
f- Worm. Monum. Danic. lib. i. p. 28.
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES OF THE NORTH. J13
abominable sacrifices were accompanied with various cere¬
monies. When the victim was cliosen, they conducted him
towards the altar where the sacred fire was kept burning
night and day ; it was surrounded with all sorts of iron and
brazen vessels. Among them one was distinguished from the
rest by its superior size ; in this they received the blood of
the victims. When they offered up animals, they speedily
killed them at the foot of the altar ; then they opened their
entrails to draw auguries from them, as among the Piomans ;
afterwards they dressed the flesh to be served up in a feast
prepared for the assembly. Even horse-flesh was not rejected,
and the chiefs often eat of it as well as the people. But when
they were disposed to sacrifice men, those whom they pitched
upon were laid upon a great stone, where they were instantly
either strangled or knocked on the head. The bodies were
aftenvards burnt, or suspended in a sacred grove near the
temple. Part of the blood was sprinkled upon the people,
part of it upon the sacred grove ; with the same they also
bedewed the images of the gods, the altars, the benches and
walls of the temple, both within and without.
Near the temple of Upsal there was a grove of this sort, of
which every tree and every leaf was regarded as the most
sacred thing in the world. This, which was named Odin's
Grove, was full of the bodies of men and animals who had
been sacrificed. In whatever manner they immolated men,
the priest always took care in consecrating the victim to pro¬
nounce certain words, as, " I devote thee to Odin." " I send
thee to Odin." Or, "I devote thee for a good harvest; for
the return of a fruitful season." The ceremony concluded
with feastings, in which they displayed all the magnificence
known in those times. They drank immoderately ; the kings
and chief lords drank first, healths in honour of the gods ;
every one drank afterwards, making some vow or prayer to
the god whom they named. Hence came that custom among
the first Christians in Germany and the North, of drinking to
the health of our Saviour, the apostles, and the saints;
a custom which the church was often obliged to tolerate. The
licentiousness of these feasts at length increased to such
a pitch as to become mere bacchanalian meetings, ivhere,
to the sound of barbarous music, amidst shouts, dancing, and
I
114
NOETHERN ANTTQtTITIES,
indecent gestures, so many unseemly actions were committed,
that the wisest men refused to assist at them.
The same kinds of sacrifices were offered, though perhaps
with less splendour, in Denmark, Norway and Iceland. Let
us hear on this subject an historian of the eleventh century,
Dithmar, bishop of Merseburg"There is," says he, "in
Zealand a place which is the capital of Denmark, named
Lederun (this is now Lethra or Leyre, of wlrich I shall speak
hereafter). At this place, every nine years, in the month of
January, the Danes flock together in crowds, and offer to
their gods ninety-nine men, as many horses, dogs and cocks,
mth the certain hope of appeasing the gods by these victims."
Dudo of St. Quentin, a French historian, attributes the same
practice to the Normans or Norwegians f ; but he informs us
that it was in honour of Thor that these sacrifices were made.
Arngrim Jonas, an Icelandic author, who has written with great
learning upon the antiquities of his nation 1, remarks that
there were formerly in Iceland two temples in which they
offered up human victims, and a famous pit or well in wLich
they were thrown headlong. There are still in Friesland,
and in several places of Germany, altars composed of such
large stones that they could neither be destroyed by the
ï-avages of time, nor by the zeal of the first converts to
Christianity. These altars, according to the tradition of the
inhabitants, and the reports of credible historians, have
served for the same horrid purposes. The Gauls for a
long time offered men to their supreme god Esus. The first
inhabitants of Italy, and Sicily, the Britons, the Phoenicians,
the Carthaginians, and all the nations we know of in Empope
and Asia, have been covered with the same reproach. And
can we wonder at it? Every nation buried in ignorance must
inevitably fall into error, and from thence into fanaticism and
cruelty. Men are born surrounded with dangers and evils,
at the same time that they are weak and naked. If, as they
grow up to manhood, the arts of civil life and the security of
laws do not disperse their fears, soften their dispositions,
and diffuse through their minds calmness, moderation, and
the social affections, they become a prey to a thousand gloomy
* Dithm. Merseburg. Chronic, lib. i, p. 12.
'b Dudo Quint, sub init.
Î J. Arngr. Crymog. lib. i. c. 7.
EELIGIOÜS CEREMONIES OF THE NORTH. 115
terrors, ■which paint out all nature to them as full of dangers and
enemies, and keep them perpetually armed with ferocity and
distrust. Hence that thirst of revenge and destruction which
barbarous nations cannot lay aside : hence that impious pre¬
judice which makes them imagine the gods to be as san¬
guinary as themselves. It is the unhappiness of our nature,
that ignorance suggests fear, and fear cruelty. They must
therefore be very little acquainted with human nature, and
still less so with history, who place the golden age of any
people in the age of its poverty and ignorance. It is so
true that men are everywhere alike in this respect, that
nations who have never had any commerce with those of
Europe, have run into the same excesses ■with equal fury.
The Peruvians anciently offered human sacrifices. The
Mexicans once offered up to their gods, upon one single
occasion, five thousand prisoners of war. Multitudes of
people, half unknown and wandering in the deserts of Africa
or forests of America, do to this day destroy each other,
from the same principles and with the same blind fury.
Tacitus informs us that, among the Germans, the power of
inflicting pains and penalties, of striking, and binding a crimi¬
nal, was vested in the priests alone. And these men, so
haughty, who thought themselves dishonoured if they did not
revenge the slightest offence, would tremblingly submit to blows
and even death itself from the hand of the pontiff, whom they
took fur the instrument of an angry deity. In short, the cre¬
dulity of the people, and the craft and presumption of the
priest went so far, that these pretended interpreters of the
Divine ■will dared even to demand, in the name of Heaven,
the blood of kings themselves; and they obtained it. To
succeed in this, it was only requisite for them to avail them¬
selves of those times of calamity, when the people, distracted
with sorrow and fear, lay their minds open to the most horrid
impressions. At those times, while the prince was slaugh¬
tered at one of the altars of the gods, the others were covered
with offerings, which were heaped up on all sides for their
ministers.
I have already observed, that the ancient religion of the
northern nations made the deity to interpose in the most in¬
different events, as well as the most considerable ; and they
only considered the elements as so many organs by which he
I 3
110
NOKTIIERN AKTIQUITJES.
mariifesteil his ^Yill and his resolves. This opinion once ad¬
mitted, interest or superstition quickly drew from thence a
consequence natural enougdi : namely, that by studying with
care the phenomena of nature, or, to speak in the spirit of
that religion, the visible actions of that unseen deity, men
might come to know his will, inclinations, and desires : in
one word, they entered into a kind of commerce with him ;
oracles, auguries, divinations, and a thousand practices of that
kind, quickly sprung up in crowds, from this erroneous prin¬
ciple. Accordingly, in all our ancient fables and chronicles,
we see the northern nations extremely attached to this vain
science. They had oracles, like the people of Italy and
Greece, and these oracles wnre not less revered, nor less
famous, than theirs. It was generally believed, either that
the gods and goddesses, or, more commonly, that the three
destinies, whose names I have given elsewhere, delivered out
these oracles in their temples. That of Upsal was as famous
for its oracles as its sacrifices. There were also celebrated
ones in Dalia, a province of Sweden; in Norway and Den¬
mark. " It was," says Saxo the Grammarian, " a custom
with the ancient Danes to consult the oracles of the Parese,
concerning the future destiny of children newly born. Ac¬
cordingly Fridleif, being desirous to know that of his son
Glaus, entered into the temple of the gods to pray; and,
being introduced into the sanctuary, he saw three goddesses
upon so many seats. The first, who was of a beneficent na¬
ture, granted the infant beauty and the gift of pleasing. The
second gave him a noble heart. But the third, who was en¬
vious and spiteful, to spoil the work of her sisters, imprinted
on him the stain of covetousness." It should seem that the
idols or statues, themselves, of the gods and goddesses deli¬
vered these oracles vivá voce. In an ancient Icelandic chro¬
nicle we read of one Indrid, wdio went from home to wait for
Thorstein, his enemy. " Thorstein," says the author, " upon
his arrival, entered into the temple. In it was a stone (cut
probably into a statue) wdiich he had been accustomed to wor ■
ship ; he prostrated himself before it, and prayed to it (to in¬
form him of his destiny). Indrid, who stood without, heard
the stone chaunt forth these verses :—' It is for the last time,
it is with feet drawing near to the grave, that thou art come
to this place : for it is most certain, that, before the smi
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES OF THE NORTH. 117
arisetli, the valiant Indrid shall make thee feel his hatred.""-
The people persuaded themselves, sometimes, that these idols
answered by a gesture or a nod of the head, which signified
that they hearkened to the prayers of their supplicants.
I shall not enter into a description of the other kinds of
oracles. Enough has been said to convince the discerning
reader, that here was the same credulity on the one side, and
the same imposture on the other, as had formerly procured
credit to the oracles of Greece and Asia. There is no essen¬
tial difference between those of the two countries, though so
far distant from each other. If the luxury of the southern
nations set theirs off with more pomp and magnificence than
comported with the simplicity of the rude inhabitants of the
North, the latter had no less veneration and attachment to
their own oracles than they. It has been thought to be no
less for the interest of religion to attribute these of the North
to the artifices of the devil than the others, as well as the
pretended science of magic, of which the North has passed so "
long for the most celebrated school and peculiar country. It
is true that men have not advanced on the subject of the
northern oracles, as they have done with respect to those of
the south, that they ceased at the birth of Christ, although
the assertion is as true of the one as the other ; but for want
of this proof, an ill-grounded zeal hath found plenty of others ;
as if the advantages resulting from true religion were less im¬
portant, or our gratitude less due, because the evils, from
which it has delivered mankind, did not proceed from super¬
natural causes.
Oracles were not the only efforts made by the curiosity of
the Scandinavians to penetrate into futurity, nor the only re¬
lief imposture afforded them. They had diviners, both male
and female, honoured with the name of prophets, and revered
as if they had been such. Some of them v/ere said to have
familiar spirits, who never left them, and whom they consulted
under the form of little idols ; others dragged the ghosts of
the departed from their tombs, and forced the dead to tell
them what would happen. Poetry was often employed for the
like absurd purposes, and those same Skalds or bards, who, as
we shall see here^er, enjoyed .such credit among the living,
■* Holmverla sAga Apuá Sartliolln. lib. iii. c. li
118
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
boasted a power of disturbing the repose of the dead, and of
dragging them out of their gloomy abodes by force of certain
songs which they knew how to compose. The same ignorance,
which made poetry be regarded as something supernatural,
persuaded them also that the letters or Runic characters,
which were then used by the few who were able to write and
read, included in them certain mysterious and magical pro¬
perties. Impostors then easily persuaded a credulous people
that these letters, disposed and combined after a cer¬
tain manner, were able to work wonders, and, in parti¬
cular, to presage future events. There were letters, or
Runes, to procure victory—to preserve from poison—to re¬
lieve women in labour—to cure bodily diseases—to dispol
evil thoughts from the mind—to dissipate melancholy—and
to soften the severity of a cruel mistress. They employed
pretty nearly the same characters for all these different
purposes, but they varied the order and combination of the
letters ; they wrote them either from right to left, or from top
to bottom, or in form of a circle, or contrary to the course of
the sun, &c. In this principally consisted that puerile and
ridiculous art, as little understood, probably, by those who pro¬
fessed it, as it was distrusted hy those who had recourse to it.
I have already remarked that they had often no other end,
in sacrificing human victims, than to know what was to hap¬
pen by inspection of their entrails, by the effusion of their
blood, and by the greater or less degree of celerity with which
they sunk to the bottom of the water. The same motive en¬
gaged them to lend an attentive ear to the singing of birds,
which some diviners boasted a power of interpreting. The
ancient history of Scandinavia is as full of these superstitious
practices as that of Rome itself. We see in Saxo Grammati-
cus, as in Livy, auguries which forebode the success of an
expedition, warriors who are struck by unexpected presages,
lots consulted, days regarded as favourable or unlucky, female
diviners who follow the armies, showers of blood, forebodings,
wonderful dreams which the event never fails to justify, and
the slightest circumstances of the most important actions
taken for good or bad omens. This has been, we well know,
a general and inveterate disease in human natm'e, of which it
has only begun to be cured in Europe. To recall to view a
spectacle, which tends so much to mortify and humble us,
EELIGIOÜS CEEEMOKIES ÜF THE KORTH.
119
would be a labour as useless as discouraging to an historian,
if the knowledge of all these practices did not make an essen¬
tial part of that of manners and of the causes of events,
without which there could be no history; and also if the
sketch of the errors and mistakes of human reason did not
convincingly prove to us the necessity of cultivating it. A
person endued with natural good sense will also find, by this
means, remedies proper to cure whatever remains of such
weakness and credulity hang about him. It is true, one can¬
not always refute the marvellous and supernatural stories of
ancient historians, by the bare circumstances of their rela¬
tions ; because, besides that it would be endless to enter con¬
tinually upon such discussions, we often want the pieces
necessary to enable us to make all the researches such an ex¬
amination would require. But what needs there more to con¬
vince us that we have a right to reject, without exception, all
facts of this kind, than to consider, on the one hand, how ig¬
norant the vulgar are even in our days—how credulous—how
easy to be imposed on ; and to be even the dupes of their own
fancy, greedy of the marvellous, inclined to exaggeration, and
precipitant in their judgments : and, on the other hand, that
among those nations, whose history appears so astonishing at
present, for a long time all were vulgar, except, perhaps, a
few obscure sages, whose voice was too feeble to be heard
amid the clamours of so many blind and prejudiced persons ?
Is it not sufficient to consider further, that the age of the
greatest ignorance of such nations is precisely that which has
been most fruitful of oracles, divinations, prophetic dreams,
apparitions, and other prodigies of that kind ?—that they ap¬
pear more seldom in proportion as they are less believed ?—
and, finally, that the experience of our own times shows us,
that wherever reason is brought to the greatest perfection, all
things fall into the order of natural and simple events, inso¬
much that the lowest and meanest class of men accustom
themselves to believe nothing which is not agreeable to good
sense and accompanied with some probability ?
But I repeat it once morg, that superstition did not blind
all the ancient Scandinavians without exception ; and history
testifies, that there were, after all, among them men wise
enough to discover the folly of the received opinions, and
courageous enough to condemn them without reserve. In
the history of Olaf Tryggvason a warrior fears not to say
120
îs'ORTHERX ANTIQUITIES.
publicly, that he relies much more ou his own strength and on
his arms, than upon Thor or Odin. Another, in the same book,
speaks thus to his friend :—" I would have thee know, that T
believe neither in idols nor spirits. I have travelled in
many places ; I have met with giants and monstrous men ;
they could never overcome me ; thus to this present hour
my own force and courage are the sole objects of my belief."
Unluckily there seems too much room to suspect that this
contempt of superstition did but throw them for the most
part into the opposite extreme. So true is it that we seldom
are able to observe a just medium. At least, many of the
northern warriors seem to have been so intoxicated with
their courage as to esteem themselves independent beings,
who had nothing to ask or fear from the gods. In an Ice¬
landic chronicle, a vain-glorious person makes his boast to a
Christian missionary, that he had never yet acknowledged
any religion, and that his own strength and abilities were
every thing to him. For the same reason, others refused to
sacrifice to the gods of whom they had no need. St. Olaf,
king of Norway, demanding of a warrior, who offered him his
services, what religion he professed ; the warrior answered,
"I am neither Christian nor Pagan ; my companions and I
have no other religion, than the confidence in our own
strength, and in the good success which always attends us
in war ; and we are of opinion it is all that is necessary."
The same thing is related of Rolf, surnamed Kraki, king of
Denmark : one day, when one of his companions proposed
to offer a sacrifice to Odin, he said that he feared nothing
from that blustering spirit, and that he should never stand
in awe of him. But as it was not always kings who durst
manifest sentiments so bold and hardy, the followers of the
prevailing religion sometimes punished these irreligious per¬
sons. In the life of King Olaf Tryggvason, mention is made
of a man who was condemned to exile for having sung in a
public place, verses, the sense of which was to this purpose,
" I will not insult or affront the gods ; nevertheless, the god¬
dess Freyja inspires me with no respect ; it must certainly
be that either she or Odin are chimerical deities." It is easy
to conceive how much natural good sense, supported by that
confidence which bodily strength inspires, could excite in those
ancient warriors contempt for their mute and feeble deities,
and for the childish or troublesome rites in their worship.
EELIGIOUS CEREMONIES OF THE NORTH.
121
But besides this, the pidmitive religion, as I have already ob¬
served, in its original purity admitted only a simple and
reasonable worship, and one sole, principal deity, who was
invisible and almighty. One may tlien suppose, with a good
deal of likelihood, that this religion was not by length of time
so much defaced, but that some traces of it still remained in
the memory of sensible persons, and in the soundest part of
the nation. Indeed we see appear at intervals in ancient
Scandinavia, some men of this stamp endued with a real
strength of mind, who not only trampled under foot all the
objects of the credulity and idle superstition of the multitude,
(an effort which pride renders easy, and sometimes alone pro¬
duces,) but who even raised their minds to the invisible
master of every thing we see ; " the father of the sun, and
of all nature." In an Icelandic saga, a person named Giest
says to his nephew, who is just ready to embark for Green¬
land * ; "I beseech and conjure him who made the sun to
give success to thy undertaking." A celebrated Nor¬
wegian warrior, named Thorstein, says, speaking of his father,
" He will receive upon this account a recompense from him
who made the heaven and the universe, whoever he be : "
and, upon another occasion, he makes a vow to the same be¬
ing, " who made the sun," for, adds he, " his power
must needs have been excessive to produce such a work."
All his family entertained the same sentiments, and
it is expressly noted in many places of the same saga,
that it was their religion to believe in him, " who was
creator of the sun." Torkill, a supreme judge of Iceland, a
man of unblemished life, and distinguished among the wisest
magistrates of that island during the time that it was governed
in form of a republic, seeing his end draw near, ordered him¬
self to be set in the open air, with his face turned towards the
sun, and having rested there some moments in a kind of ec¬
stasy, expired, recommending his soul to him among the gods
who had created the sun and the stars f. But of all the
strokes of this kind, none is more remarkable than what a
modern Icelandic historian relates in Iiis manuscript supple¬
ment to the history of Norway. Harold Hárfagra, the first
* Vatzdsela. apud Barthol. c. 6, lib. i. p. 83.
f Am. Jon. Crymog. lib. i. c. Ö.
noethern antiquities.
king of all Norway, says this author, being yet but young,
held the following discourse in a popular assembly ;—" I swear
and protest in the most sacred manner, that I will never
offer sacrifice to any of the gods adored by the people, but
to him only who hath formed this world, and every thing
we behold in it." Harold lived in the middle of the ninth
century, at a time when the Christian religion had not yet
penetrated into Norway.
CHAPTER VII.
of the form of government which formerly
prevailed in the north.
The character of the ancient northern nations is, in some
measure, laid open in the fermer hook. It is the nature of
every religion which is the handiwork of men, always to cany
marks of the weakness of its authors, and to breathe forth the
same spirit with which they themselves were animated.
Their government and laws are another faithful mirror where¬
in that spirit may be seen with no less advantage. It is ob¬
vious that the laws cannot long be contrary to the gerdus of
a nation. Sooner or later they will he impressed with its
character, or they will give it theirs. These are two streams
very different in their sources, but which as soon as they unitn
in the same channel, have hut one force and one direction.
The importance of this subject makes it incumbent on me to
ti'eat it with some extent, and to bring together with the ut¬
most care all the feeble and scattered rays which throw any
light upon it amid the obscurity of so many dark ages.
In the first place, let us consult Tacitus, that excellent
historian of ancient Germany, who in his little compendious
narrative has given in a few pages a most striking picture
of the inhabitants of this vast country. His words ought to
be given here entire, and weighed with care. Among this
people, he says, " the chiefs, or princes *, determine some
affairs of less importance ; all the rest are reserved for the
* De minorihiM rehtcs Principes consultant ; de majorihus Omnes. Tacit.
Germ, c. 11, 12, 13,14, &c.
ANCIENT GOVERNMENT.
123
general assembly : yet even these, the decision of which is
vested in the people, are beforehand discussed by the chiefs....
At these assemblies they take their seats all of them armed.
Silence is commanded by the priests, whose business it is
at such times to maintain order. Then the king or chief
speaks first ; afterwards the great men are heard in their turns
with that attention which is due to their age, to their nobility,
their reputation in war, their eloquence ; greater deference
being paid tp their power of persuasion, than to their per¬
sonal authority. If their advice displeases, the people reject
it with a general murmur ; if it is approved of, they clash
their lances. It is the most honourable way of expressing
their assent, or of conferring praise, to do it by their arms
Criminal causes may also be brought before this great coun¬
cil of the nation In the same assemblies are elected
the chiefs or princes, whose business it is to distribute justice
through the towns and villages. To each of these are joined
a hundred assessors chosen out of the people, who assist the
chief with their advice and authority * The kings are
chosen for their noble birth ; the leaders or generals for their
personal valom'. The power of the kings is not arbitrary, but
limited. The leaders are not so much to give orders as ex¬
amples : they must signalize themselves by their courage and
activity, and their authority must be founded on esteem and
admiration Extreme youth does not exclude from
the rank of prince or chief, those whom their noble birth, or
the distinguished merit of their fathers, entitle to this dignity.
As they advance in age and acquire esteem, other young
warriors attach themselves to them and swell their retinue.
Nor does any one blush to be seen among these attendants
or followers. Yet they have different degrees of rank, which
are regulated by the chiefs own judgment. Among the fol¬
lowers is great emulation who shall stand highest in the
chiefs or prince's favour ; among the princes who shall have
the most numerous and valiant attendants. This is their
dignity, their strength, to be always surrounded with a body
of chosen youths. This is their glory in peace, their secu¬
rity in war. And not only in their own nation, but among
neighbouring states, they acquire a name and reputation, in
* Reges ex nohiliiate ; Duces ex virtute swmint. Tacit, c. 7.
lU
KORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
proportion to the numher and valour of their attendants. Then
is their friendship souglit after by embassies, and cultivated
by presents In battle, it i\ould be a disgrace to the
chief to be excelled in courage by any of his followers ; -a dis¬
grace to his followers not to equal their chief. Should he
perish, they would be exposed to the highest infamy through
life if they should survive him, and escape from battle
The chiefs fight for victory—they for their chief To
retain their followers in their service, no prince or chief has
any other repource but war. They require of him one while
a horse trained for war ; one while a victorious and bloody
lance. His table rudely served, but with great abundance,
serves them instead of pay."
All the most distinguished circumstances which characterize
the ancient Teutonic form of government are contained in
this remarkable passage. Here we see kings, who owe their
advancement to an illustrious extraction, presiding, rather
than ruling, over a free people. Here we see the nation as¬
sembling at certain stated times, and making resolutions in
their own persons on all affairs of importance, as to enact
laws, to choose peace or war, to conclude alliances, to distri¬
bute justice in the last resort, and to elect magistrates. Here
also we distinguish a body of the chiefs of the nation, who
prepare and propose the important matters, the decision of
which is reserved for the general assembly of all the free
men : that is, we trace here the first lineaments, if I may so
say, of what was afterwards named in different countries,
"the council of the nation," "the senate," "the house of
peers," &c. Here Ave discover the origin of that singular
custom, of having an elective general, under an hereditary
king ; a custom received among most of the nations of Ger¬
man extraction, who had either mayors of the palace, or
grand marshals, or constables, or counts ; for all these different
names only expressed the same thing in different countries.
Lastly, if we examine with attention the words of Tacitus, we
cannot doubt but vassalage and the feudal tenure had already
taken footing among this people before ever they left their
native forests. For although perhaps they did not in those
early times give lands in fee, and although their fees or fiefs
Avere then perhaps nothing but arms, Avar-horses, and banquets ;
Avhat we read of the reciprocal engagements betAveen the
ANCIENT GOVERNMENT.
125
princes or chiefs ancl their followers evidently contains "what¬
ever was essential to the nature of vassalage, and all the
changes which were afterwards made in it were only slight
and accidental, occasioned by the conquests and new esta¬
blishments which followed from it.
If we consider after this the character of these nations, as
it is sketched out by Tacitus, we shall not be surprised to see
them wedded to institutions which they found so suitable to
their situation and temper ; for being the most free and war¬
like people upon earth, they must have had a natural aversion
to the authority of a single person ; and if they placed them¬
selves under leaders, it was only because war cannot be con¬
ducted in any other form. As free men they would only obey
from choice, and be less influenced by personal authority than
by reason ; as warriors they conceived no other duty to be
owing to a prince than to be ready to shed their blood for his
cause.
But how came these men to preserve themselves in so
great a degree of liberty ? This was owing to their climate
and manner of life, which gave them such strength of body
and mind as rendered them capable of long and painful
labours, of great and daring exploits. " Accordingly we have
since found liberty to prevail in North America, but not in the
south for the bodily strength of the northern warriors
kept up in them that courage, that opinion of their own valour,
that impatience of affronts and injuries, which makes men
hate all arbitrar}^ government and despise those who submit
to it. Being less sensible of pain than the more southern
nations, less easily moved by the bait of pleasure, less sus¬
ceptible of those passions which shake the soul too "violently,
and weaken it by making it dependent on another's will, they
were the less a prey to ambition, which flatters and intimi¬
dates by turns in order to gain the ascendant. Their
imagination more constant and lively, their conception more
steady than quick, naturally resisting novelties, kept them
from falling into those snares out of which they would not
have known how to escape.
They were free because they inhabited an uncultivated
* Montesquieu, L'Esprit des Lois, toai. 2.
126
NOKTHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
countrj, rude forests and mountains ; and liberty is the sole
treasure of an indigent people ; for a poor country excites no
avidity, and he who possesses little defends it easily. They
were free because they were ignorant of those pleasures, often
so dearly bought, which render the protection of a powerful
master necessary. They were free because hunters and
shepherds, who wander about in woods through inclination or
necessity, are not so easily oppressed as the timorous inhabit¬
ants of inclosed towns, who are there chained down to the
fate of their houses ; and because a wandering people, if
deprived of their liberty in one place, easily find it in
another, as well as their subsistence. Lastly, they were free
because, knowing not the use of money, there could not be
employed against them that instrument of slavery and cor¬
ruption, which enables the ambitious to collect and distribute
at will the signs of riches.
Further, that spirit of liberty, arising from their climate,
and from their rustic and military life, had received new
strength from the opinions it had produced, as a sucker which
shoots forth from the root of a tree strengthens by embracing
it. In effect these people, esteeming beyond all things the
right of revenging an affront, the glory of despising death and
perishing sword in hand, were always ready to attack tyranny
in the first who dared to attempt it, and in whatever for¬
midable shape it appeared.
By these means was liberty preserved among the inhabit¬
ants of Germany and the north, as it were in the bud, ready
to blossom and expand through all Europe, there to flourish
in their several colonies. This powerful principle exerted
the more strength in proportion as it was the more pressed ;
and the whole power of Rome having been unable to destroy
it, it made that yield in its turn from the time it began to be
enfeebled till it was entirely overturned. Indeed there was
scarce a moment wherein these two opposite powers preserved
an even balance. As soon as ever that of Rome ceased to be
superior, it was destroyed ; its celebrated name, that name
which had been so long its support, was only a signal of ven
geance, which served as it were to rally and assemble at the
same instant all the northern nations ; and immediately all
these people, breaking forth as it were by agreement, over-
ANCIENT GOVERNMENT.
127
titrned this unhappy empire, and formed out of its ruins
limited monarchies—states not less known before by name
than by their form of government
In effect we every where see in those swarms of Germans
and Scandinavians, a troop of savage warriors, Avho seem only
born for ravage and destruction, changed into a sensible and
free people as soon as ever they had confirmed their conquests ;
impregnating (if I may so say) their institutions with a spirit
of order and equality ; electing for their kings such of their
princes of the blood royal as they judged most worthy to wear
the crovm; dividing between those kings and the whole
nation the exercise of the sovereign power ; reserving to the
general assemblies the right of making laws and deciding im¬
portant matters ; and lastly, to give a solid support to the
powers immediately essential to monarchy, distributing fiefs
to the principal warriors, and assigning certain privileges
proper to the several orders of the state.
Such for a long time was the constitution of all the govern¬
ments which these people founded in Italy, in Spain, in Gaul,
in Britain, at that memorable era which changed the fate and
place of abode of so many nations—an era for ever memorable,
since here we trace the first link (as it were) of a new chain
of events ; and hence we see spring forth the laws, the man¬
ners and principles, which have ever since governed so many
celebrated nations, whose superiority of genius seems to have
called them forth to determine one day the fate of almost all
the rest of the world.
One cannot without difficulty quit an object so pleasing.
It is time, however, to confine myself to what more particu¬
larly relates to my subject. All that we learn from the his¬
torical monuments of the north perfectly confirms the testi¬
mony of Tacitus, and either gives or receives new light from
the annals of the other Teutonic nations. This remarkable
agreement made M. de Montesquieu say that, " in reading
Tacitus we every where see the codes of the barbarous
nations ; and in reading the codes of the barbarous nations,
we are continually reminded of Tacitus." Notwithstanding
this, we must not flatter ourselves that we can discover
exactly the extent of power which the ancient kings of Scan¬
dinavia enjoyed, nor the particular rights and privileges of
each order of the state If these were never very precisely
determined among a rude people, who had no other laws but
128
noetheen antiquities,
custom, how can we distinguish them exactly at the present
great distance of time ? All that we can obscurely discover,
is, that the Danes, who before the arrival of Odin were di¬
vided into many nations, and lived in great independence,
were by force of arms subjected to kings more absolute, whom
this conqueror placed over them*.
They were not long, however, before they recovered their
right of electing their kings, and consequently all the other
rights less essential to liberty. It is true, the people seem
always to have made it- a law to choose the nearest relation of
the deceased king, or at least some one of the royal family,
which they respected as issued from the gods. They still
show the places where these elections were made : and as
Denmark was for a long time divided into three kingdoms, we
find accordingly three principal monuments of this custom ;
the one near Lunden in Scania, the other at Leyra or Lethra
in Zealand, and the third near Viburg in Jutland. These
monuments, whose rude bulk has preserved them from the
ravages of time, are only vast unhewn stones, commonly
twelve in number, set upright and placed in form of a circle-.
In the middle is erected a stone much larger than the rest, on
which they made a seat for their king f. The other stones
served as a barrier to keep off the populace, and marked the
place of those whom the people had appointed to make the
election. They treated also in the same place of the most
important affairs |. But if the king chanced to die in war .or
at a distance from home, they formed upon the spot a place
after the same model by bringing together the largest stones
they could find. The principal chiefs got upon these stones,
and with a loud voice delivered their opinions ; then the sol¬
diers who stood in crowds about them signified their appro¬
bation or assent by clashing their shields together in a lond
of cadence, or by raising certain shouts. We know that this
custom of electing their kings in the open field prevailed
among all the northern nations, and was for a long time
necessary, because they had no cities. The emperors of Ger¬
many were for many ages elected after the same manner.
In Sweden, they joined to the other ceremonies which I
* This is an assumption founded on the Ynglinga-saga. See page 84.—
Ed.
+ Worai. Monum. fianic.
X The places indicated were in fact Thing-steads. ' See Note, page 108.—ed.
ANCIENT GOYEENMENT.
129
have been describing, an oath reciprocally taken between the
king and his subjects^. One of the judges of the provinces
convoked an assembly to make a new election immediately
after the death of the king, and demanded with a loud voice
of the people, if they would accept for king the person he
named, who was always one of the royal family. When they
had all given their consent, the new king was lifted up on the
shoulders of the chiefs, in order that all the people might see
and know him. Then he took Odin to witness, that he would
observe the laws, defend his country, extend its boundaries,
revenge whatever injuries his predecessors had received from
their enemies, and would strike some signal -stroke which
should render him and his people famous. This oath he re¬
newed at the funeral of his predecessor, which was usually
celebrated with great pomp ; and also on occasion of the pro¬
gress which he was obliged to make through the chief pro¬
vinces of the kingdom, in order to receive the homage of his
subjects. I relate here all the particulars of this ceremony,
because the exact conformity which we find between the man¬
ners of the Danes and Swedes during the ages of paganism,
will not suffer us to doubt but that the kings of Denmark were
elected after the same manner. This supposition is confirmed
by what we can discover of the ancient constitution of the
kingdom of Norway. But it is sufficient just to mention
here this identity of government in the three principal king¬
doms of the North. To describe it minutely in them all
would occasion tiresome repetitions.
The ancient inhabitants of Germany and Scandinavia
emerged but slowly from a state of nature. The ties which
linked different families together were for a long time no¬
thing but a confederacy to exercise violence or to repel it.
They possessed a great extent of lands, of which they culti¬
vated but little, and resided on less ; in short, they lived too
separate from each other to have any great need of civil laws ;
and their chiefs had too little authority to make them ob¬
served, if they had. Hence so many little societies and con¬
federacies. Men banded together to revenge an injury; and
the sentiment of honour, as well as interest, made them faith
ful to each other in an association so necessary to their wel-
* Dalin. Suea Eikes. Hist. torn. i. chap. 7.
K
130
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
fare. A man's relations and friends who had not revenged
his death, would instantly have lost that reputation which con¬
stituted their principal security. The inhabitants of Fries-
land lived for a long time in a state of this kind. Most of the
other German nations had already advanced a step beyond
this in the time of Tacitus. Endless disorders, the unavoid¬
able consequences of the right of self-revenge, had suggested
to the wiser sort among them the necessity of magistrates,
who should interpose' their authority in private quarrels, and
oblige the offended person or his relations to receive a present
from the aggressor ; that so a compensation being made for an
injury, might prevent the consequences of an eternal resen1>
ment, which from private persons might extend to the public.
And for fear that this manner of terminating differences
should become a new source of them, the compensation was
determined by an invariable rule, and commonly limited to a
certain value in cattle, the only money known in those rude
ages. A mark of submission of this sort satisfied men's pride
as to the point of honour, gratified their avarice, and suffi¬
ciently secured them from a repetition of the offence. The
Danes, in this respect, followed the steps of the neighbouring
nations. Mere parity of reason might give one a right to sup¬
pose this, even if we had not more positive proofs ; but with¬
out accumulating these unnecessarily, we need only cast our
eyes on the ancient laws of the conquerors of Great Britain,
most of which are still extant ; and whoever will run over the
collections published by Lambard, Wilkins, and Leibnitz,
will not doubt but they were all dictated by the same spirit,
and were really the same at the bottom. It will be sufficient
to quote a few particulars, to enable us to judge of their ge¬
neral spirit ; for this is all I undertake to show of them. As
to their more particular minute circumstances, they have
doubtless varied a thousand times, in different ages and coun¬
tries ; but these we shall not descend to at present.
The laws of the Saxons, as regulated by Charlemagne, and
published by Leibnitz established a composition in money
for most sorts of crimes ; and for want of money this was to
be paid in the flesh of cattle, every limb and joint of which
had its known value regulated by law. They carefully distin-
* Leibnite, Eer. Brunswic. torn. i.
ANCIEKT GOVERNMENT.
181
guished the different degrees of offence, as well as those of the
rank which the offended person bore in the state. Accord¬
ingly for the murder of a noble or a prince the composition
was 1440 sous and the same for every wound that deprived
him of his hearing, sight, or use of his limbs. But if this in¬
jury was done to a free man, and not to a noble t, the compo¬
sition was only 120 sous | ; at the same time the murder of a
slave was rated but 30 ; which was precisely the price of a
simple blow, that produced neither swelling nor blackness, if
given to a prince or noble. Much the same proportions were
observed by the law of the Angles. Wounds given to a maiden
were estimated at double the rate they w^ould have been, if
given to a man of the same rank of life. It was not the same
with a woman who had borne children. Outrages against
modesty were also valued with a degree of exactness of which
one would not have thought matters of that nature suscepti¬
ble. " The laws of these people," says M. de Montesquieu,
" judged of insults offered to men by the size of the wounds,
nor did they show more refinement as to the offences com¬
mitted against women ; so that they seem to have measured
injuries as one measures figures in geometry."
These laws vary more in what relates to theft. By the law
of the Saxons, it was in most cases punished with death. By
that of the Angles, which doubtless approaches nearer to the
laws of the Danish nations, the robber compounded by paying
triple the value of what he had stolen. But when govern¬
ment had acquired a little more stability, and when the man¬
ners were a little more civilized, men were not satisfied with
opposing to the disorder a barrier so often ineffectual. The
magistrates appointed to watch over the public peace pretended
that THEY were insulted as often as that peace was broken,
and therefore, over and above the composition which was to
atone for the offence, they exacted a fine, either as a satisfac¬
tion due to the public, or as a recompense for the trouble given
themselves in making upj the difference and in protecting the
offender. These fines were for a long time all, or almost all
* If the author computes by modern money, it is 720 pence English, or
about SI. sterling.—P.
f The original is Eoda, whence comes the word Roiurier, by which the
French express at present one who is not a gentleman.
t Sixty pence, or five shillings sterling.—P.
K 2
132
NOKTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
tlie punishment ■which could possibly prevail among a valiant
and free people, who esteemed their blood too precious to be
shed any other way than in battle. Their kings had for many
ages no other revenue than Avhat arose from these fines, and
from their ovm private demesnes : all other kinds of imposi¬
tion were not known till long after that period of time to
which we at present confine our researches.
If this way of punishing crimes may justly pass for singular,
that of establishing proofs in the administration of justice may
be esteemed no less so. Here all the ignorance, all the bar¬
barity of our ancestors manifest themselves so plainly, that it
is not in the power of our reflections to add to them. Their
embarrassment was so great when they endeavoured to distin¬
guish truth from falsehood, that they were obliged to have re¬
course to the most strange expedients and most ridiculous
practices. Thus they sometimes obliged the accused to pro¬
duce a certain number of persons called Compurgators ; not
that these men had, or were supposed to have any know¬
ledge of the affair in question, but they were simply to swear
they were persuaded the accused spoke true. Besides this,
they often appointed what was called the judiciary combat, and
how absurd soever this custom was, it was so intimately con¬
nected with their opinions concerning destiny and providence,
that it triumphed for a long time over religion, popes, and
councils ; and though a hundred times proscribed, as often re¬
vived and appeared again under different shapes. Lastly,
when the discovery of truth appeared to them to exceed all
human powers, they had recourse to supernatural means, and
what they called divine judgments. They had many -ways of
consulting that oracle. For as, according to their notions, all
the elements were animated by an intelligence as incorruptible
in its justice as the deity -whence it sprung, they thought
they had nothing to do but to unite the accused person to one
of these divinities, and so oblige it to declare by the manner
of its acting upon him, what judgment it entertained of his
innocence. Thus sometimes they cast him into a deep water,
tied about with cords : if he sunk, that is, if the genius of the
water received him into its bosom, it declared him to be
innocent ; if it rejected him, if he swam upon the surface,
he was looked upon as convicted of the crime. This -was
called the watery ordeal, and was more dangerous than it ap-
ANCIENT GOVERNMENT.
133
pears to have been at first sight ; for though a man thrown
into the water commonly sinks at first to the bottom, yet as
they tied him about with large cords, " and withs," he some¬
times swam on the surface spite of his teeth. This kind of
proof indeed, as well as that of boiling water, was only for per¬
sons of inferior rank. Others handled hot iron, or put their
hands into a red-hot gauntlet, or walked blindfold over burn¬
ing ploughshares. If at the end of certain days there re¬
mained any marks of the fire on the hands or feet, the ac¬
cused were judged guilty ; if not, he was acquitted. There is
reason to think that, notwithstanding they took all possible
precaution, they also had recourse to certain preservatives
against the effects of fire, and perhaps the same that mounte¬
banks in our times make use of as oft as they amuse the
people with spectacles of the same kind. Besides this, men
who were accustomed to hard labour, to the toils of hunting,
and constant handling of arras, had rendered their skins so
thick and callous, that they could not easily be hurt ; and as
for the ladies, they were generally allowed champions to un¬
dergo the trial for them. The proof by fire, or fiery-ordeal,
seems to have been more in use afterwards, and founded upon
a different train of reasoning ; for in things of this nature, we
must not expect such rude minds to act very consistently.
As for the ceremonies which accompanied these kinds of
proof, the cases in which they were appointed, and the other
minute circumstances, they varied in different times and
places : and as imitation and habit perpetuate customs long
after the causes of them have ceased, the ordeal was practised
during many ages by men, who doubtless believed nothing
about the genii presiding over the several elements, or the
other doctrines of the ancient religion*. I shall not enter
on the minute history of the ordeal, &c., which was not pecu¬
liar to the ancient Danes, and may be foimd described in other
books f. I thought proper only to mark the connection be-
* Thus long after Christianity was established among the Anglo-Saxons,
king Edward the Confessor (a reputed saint) is said to have put his mother
to the proof of the burning ploughshares. And even down to our own times,
the watery ordeal, or proof by swimming, has been employed by the vulgar
for the trial of witchcraft, whenever they could find means to put it in prac-
tice.—P.
Vid. Wormius in Moninn. Danic. lib. i. c. 2, and Steph. Stcphanius in
his Notes on Saxo Grammaticus.
134
KOKTHEEN AXTIQUITIES.
tween them and the doctrines of that religion, which I de
scribed in the preceding chapters : a connection which has
been seldom attended to, and which shows that it is only for
w^ant of studying mankind that they appear to act wholly with¬
out motives or principles of conduct. It was king Valdemar
the Second to whom the glory belongs of having abolished
this absurd and inhuman practice in Denmark f.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PASSION OF THE ANCIENT SCANDINAVIANS FOE AEMS : THEIE
VALOÜE : THE MANNEE IN WHICH THET MADE WAE.
" Rome had reckoned from its foundation six hundred and
forty years, when the arms of the Oimbri were first heard of
among us. From that time to the present have elapsed two
hundred and six years more. So long have we been in con¬
quering Germany. And in the course of so tedious a war,
what various losses have been sustained by each party? No
nation has given us more frequent alarms ; neither the Sam-
nites, the Carthaginians, the Spaniards, the Gauls, nor even
the Parthians : so much less Ggour has the despotic power
of Arsaces had, than the liberty of the Germans. For, except
the defeat of Crassus, what has the conquered and prostrate
East to object to the current of our success? Whereas the
* lie reigned from the year 1202 to 1241.—P.
•f- I cannot conclude this subject without obsers-ing that we find some
traces of the ordeal among the ancient Grreeks and Romans. Thus in the
Antigone of Sophocles, (Act II. Sc. II.) we have the following remarkable
passage, which shows it was not unknown in Greece ;—
" The guards accused each other ; nought was proved.
But each suspected each, and all denied.
Offering in proof of innocence to grasp
The burning steel, to tvalk thro' lire, and talce
Their solemn oath they knew not of the deed."
See Franklin's Sophocles and note on the above passage. See also Stiernhök
de Jur. Vet. Suec. lib. i. c. 8, apud Dalin, Sue. Rik. Hist. torn. i. eh. 7.
Pliny, speaking of a feast, which the ancient Romans celebrated every year
in honour of the Sun, observes that the priests, who were to be of the family
of the Hirpians, danced on this occasion barefoot on burning coa's Avithout
burning themselves : this was apparently a relic of the fery orde.il. Plin.
Hist. Nat. lib. vii. 2.
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
135
Germans have taken or defeated five generals of the republic
who commanded so many consular armies. They cut off Varus
and three legions from Augustus himself. Nor was that ad¬
vantage obtained with impunity, which Marius gained over
them in Italy, the divine Julius in Gaul, and Drusus, Tibe¬
rius and Germanicus in their own country. And even pre¬
sently after this, the tremendous threats of Caligula became
the object of their sport. A respite followed, till profiting
by our discord and civil wars, they attacked our legions in
their winter quarters, and even undertook the conquest of
Gaul. We have since driven them back beyond the Rhine :
but in these latter times, our victories over them have been
less real, than the pomp of our triumphs If this
people cannot be brought to love us, at least may they always
•hate each other ! since in the present declining fates of the
empire, fortune can grant us no greater favour, than the dis¬
sensions of our enemies." •'!'
Such was the opinion entertained of the German and
northern nations by the people who conquered the rest of the
world. Such, according to the confession of Tacitus, was
that martial courage, that ardour, that constancy in defending
and avenging their liberty, which so early threatened the
power of Rome, and in a few ages after overturned it. It is
not my present business to write the history of that great
revolution, which changed the face of Europe, but my sub¬
ject leads me to disclose its causes, since they are contained
in the opinions and manners which I am describing. We
only want here that penetrating eye, that deep sense and
energy of style, which distinguished the author I have been
translating. The sources whence issued those torrents of
people, which .from the north overwhelmed all Europe, the
principles which put them in motion, and gave them so
much activity and force, these objects, so grand and interest¬
ing, have been but slightly and weakly treated of. The more
enlightened people, who were the victims of these ravages,
were too much pressed with the weight of their calamity to
have leisure to trace its remote causes. Like the thunder
which remains unseen in the clouds till the moment it bursts
forth, and whose nature we have no time to study while it is
* Tacit. Grerm. c. 37, et c. 33.
136
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
Striking us; these unexpected irruptions would hardly be¬
come the objects of research till after their effects were
forgotten. Hence the relations that have been given us of
them are so uninteresting, confused, and obscure; faults
to which every history will he liable which only gives us
a heap of facts, without being able to develop their causes.
The greatest part then of the historical phenomena of the
middle ages can only be explained by a deep insight into
the manners of the northern nations. It is only from thence
we can ever he able to comprehend what could induce
whole nations to transport themselves from one extremity of
Europe to the other; could break through the ties of coun¬
try, which so strongly attach men to the places of their birth;
could render them unanimous in such strange projects, and
make them thus spread themselves beyond their own bound¬
aries with such exuberance and impetuosity.
I have already hinted that the ancient Teutonic nations
breathed nothing but war, which was at once with them the
source of honour, riches, and safety. Their education, laws,
prejudices, morality and religion, all concurred to make that
their ruling passion and only object. From their most ten¬
der age tliey applied themselves to learn the military art;
they hardened their bodies, and accustomed themselves to
cold, fatigue, and hunger. They exercised themselves in
running, in the chace, in swimming across the greatest rivers,
and in handling their arms. The very sports of childhood
itself, and of early youth, were directed all towards this end:
dangers were always intermingled with their play ; for it
consisted in taking frightful leaps, in climbing up the steepest
rocks, in fighting naked with offensive weapons, in wrestling
with the utmost fury : it was therefore common to see them
at the age of fifteen years already grown robust men, and
able to make themselves feared in combat. It was also at
this age that their young men became their own masters,
which they did by receiving a sword, a buckler, and a lance.
This ceremony was performed in some public meeting. One
of the principal persons of the assembly armed the youth in
public. " This, we are told by Tacitus, was his Toga Virilis,
his entrance upon dignities ; before this he made only part of
a family, now he became a member of the state." After this
he was obliged to provide for his own subsistence, and was
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
137
either now to live by hunting, or by joining in some incursion
against an enemy. Particular care was taken to prevent
these young soldiers from enjoying too early an acquaintance
with the opposite sex, till their limbs had acquired all the
vigour of which they were capable. Indeed they could have
no hope to be acceptable to the women but in proportion to
the courage and address they had shown in war and in their
military exercises. Accordingly we see in an ancient song,
preserved b}-- Bartholin, a king of Norway extremely sur¬
prised that, as he could perform eight different exercises, his
mistress should presume to reject his suit. I shall frequently
have occasion to produce new instances of this manner of
thinking among their women: it is sufficient at present to
observe, that they were not likely to soften their children by
too much delicacy or indulgence. These tender creatures
were generally born in the midst of camps and armies.
Their eyes, from the moment they were first opened, saw
nothing but military spectacles, arms, effusion of blood, and
combats either real or in sport: thus as they grew up from
their infancy, their souls were early disposed to imbibe the
cruel prejudices of their fathers.
Their laws, for the most part like those of the ancient
Lacedemonians, seemed to know no other virtues than those
of a military nature, and no other crimes but cowardice.
They inflicted the greatest penalties on such as fled the first
in battle. The laws of the ancient Danes, according to
Saxo, excluded them from society, and declared them in¬
famous. Among the Germans this was sometimes carried so
far as to suffocate cowards in mud ; after which they covered
them over with hurdles ; to show, says Tacitus, that though
the punishment of crimes should be public, there are certain
degrees of cowardice and infamy which ought to be buried in
eternal silence. The most flattering distinctions were re¬
served for such as had performed some signal exploit, and
the laws themselves distributed men into different ranks
according to their different degrees of courage. Frotho,
king of Denmark, had ordained, according to Saxo, that
whoever solicited an eminent post in the army, ought upon
all occasions to attack one enemy; to face two; to retire only
one step back from three ; and not to make an actual retreat
till assaulted by four. Hence was formed that prejudice so
138
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
deeply rooted among these people, that there was no other
way to acquire glory hut by the profession of arms and a
fanatic valour : a prejudice the force of which displayed itself
without obstruction at a time when luxury was unknown,
when that desire, so natural, and so active among men,
of drawing upon themselves the attention of their equals, had
but one single object and support ; and when their country
and their fellow-citizens had no other treasure but the fame
of their exploits, and the terror thereby excited in their neigh¬
bours.
The rules of justice, far from checking these prejudices,
had been themselves warped and adapted to their bias. It is
no exaggeration to say, that all the Teutonic nations enter¬
tained opinions on this subject quite opposite to the theory of
our times. They looked upon war as a real act of justice,
and esteemed force an incontestable title over the weak, a
visible mark that God had intended to subject them to the
strong. They had no doubt but the intentions of this
divinity had been to establish the same dependence among
men which there is among animals, and setting out from the
principle of the inequality of men, as our modern civilians do
from that of their equality, they inferred thence that the
weak had no right to what they could not defend. This
maxim, which formed the basis of the law of nations among
the ancient inhabitants of Europe, being dictated by their
most darling passion, we cannot wonder that they should so
steadily act up to it in practice. And which, after all, is
worst ; to act and think as they did, or like the modems,
with better principles to act as ill ? As to the ancient nations,
we attribute nothing to them here but what is justified by a
thousand facts. They adopted the above maxim in all its
rigour, and gave the name of Divine Judgment not only to
the Judiciary Combat, but to conflicts and battles of all sorts;
victory being in their opinion the only certain mark by which
Providence enables us to distinguish those whom it has
appointed to command others. " Valour," says a German war¬
rior in Tacitus, " is the only proper goods of men. The gods
range themselves on the side of the strongest."*
Lastly, religion, by annexing eternal happiness to the
* Tacit. Hist. lib. iv. c. 17.
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOE ARMS.
139
military virtues, had given the last degree of activity to the
ardour and propensity these people had for war. There were
no fatigues, no dangers nor torments capable of damping
a passion so well countenanced, and the desire of meriting so
great a reward,
[[The story of the celebrated Jomsburg sea-rovers will cor¬
roborate what is here advanced, and offer, moreover, some
very curious traits respecting the customs and superstitions of
the Northmen, Antiquarian researches have given rise to
various conjectures respecting the first establishment and
exact situation of Jomsburg, At a very early period the
Vends—a Slavonic tribe occupying the whole of the southern
coast of the Baltic from the Elbe to Esthonia—had a sea¬
port called Julin, situated in that part of the delta of the
Oder that forms the present island of Wollin, Adam of
Bremen, mentions Julin as being the largest and most
flourishing commercial city of Europe in the eleventh cen¬
tury; but it was destroyed in 1176 by Valdemar I,, King of
Denmark, and the renown of its former splendour and pro¬
sperity only survived in the legendary accounts which the
romantic writers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries gave
of a town they called Viñeta, which they represented as having
been swallowed up by the sea, its ruins, they contended,
being still discernible at a short distance from the coast, near
the island of Usedom. Modern criticism has, however,
shown that these legends originated in mistaking a reef of
basaltic columns for the ruins of a city, and in some blunder¬
ing scribe ivriting Viñeta for Jumneta (Julin) in a manu¬
script. Whether Harald Bluetooth, who reigned in Den¬
mark A,D, 941-91, in one of his numerous expeditions against
the Vends, erected a stronghold called Jomsburg, in or near
Julin, and placed a Danish garrison in it, is uncertain. It
is, however, a well authenticated fact that during the reign of
that monarch, Palnatoki, a celebrated sea-rover, established
himself in a stronghold bearing that name, situated some¬
where near Julin, and had probably the whole island of
Wollin ceded to him by the Vendic prince Borislav,
Palnatoki, who appears to have possessed in an eminent
degree all the good and bad qualities of a Scandinavian free¬
booter, is said to have made of Jomsburg a second Sparta;
and some writers even go so far as to compare his legislation
140
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
with that of Lycurgus ! ! When the facts, however, are
divested of that romance which the undiscriminating ad¬
mirers of Saga literature are too apt to indulge in, we shall
find that this pretended legislation merely consisted in
Palnatoki rendering more stringent the regulations observed
on board a pirate vessel in that age, as well as in most sue
ceeding ones. No one, for instance, under 15 or above 50,
was to be admitted into the community. No one who had
not shown that he did not fear to face two men equally as
strong and well armed as himself. The associates were to
regard each other as brethren. Any feud that might un¬
avoidably arise, as, for instance, when a person previous to
entering the association had killed any one whose death
another member was bound by the ties of consanguinity or
sworn friendship to avenge, was to be referred to Palnatoki,
and the parties were to abide by his decision. All booty was
to be brought together, and divided according to established
usage. All tidings were to be first communicated to Pal¬
natoki, and no one, without his permission, was to be absent
for more than one night from Jomsburg, into which no females
were to be admitted *.
Palnatoki's band soon became famous for its exploits
throughout the North, and it was esteemed an honour to
* The writers alluded to, taking for granted that whenever men and
women come together some mishap or other is sure to he the consequence,
award great praise to their piratical Lycurgus for this exclusion of females
from his community. No one in Jomsburg, they gravely assure us, was
allowed to marry. Palnatoki's object was to form a band of invincible war¬
riors, hence he very wisely eschewed female charms, and, like St. Senanus,
might have exclaimed to any stray dame who attempted to allure his fol¬
lowers—
" Oh haste and leave this pirate isle
Umvelcome bark ere morning smile,
Por on thy deck, though dark it be,
A female form I see;
And I have sworn this SpaHan sod
Shall ne'er by woman's foot be trod."
Professor Müller has shown, however, that only ladies of a certain class
were refused admittance into Jomsburg, and that Palnatoki's followers were
not only allowed to marry, but obtained pennission to introduce their wives,
de temps en temps, into the stronghold. So that after all, this old sea-rover
was not quite such an ungallant gentleman as his admirers would make
him.
scANDINAVÍAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
141
belong to it. We are told that amongst other distinguished
persons, Sigvald and Thorkell the Tall, the sons of the
Sealand Jarl Strut-Harald, were admitted as members of the
association. These chieftains on their way to Jomsburg had
supplied themselves with provisions by making a cattle
foray* in the island of Bornholm; and although this was
regarded as a very trifling offence in these predatory times,
Jarl Viseti, to whom the island belonged, demanded com¬
pensation from Strut-Harald, and as the latter felt no great
inclination to pay for the freaks of his roving offspring, Viseti
ravaged three of the Jarl's estates in Sealand, a proceeding
which Strut-Harald retaliated by doing equal mischief in
Bornholm. Previous to this Bui the Thick, one of Viseti's
sons, had plundered Strut-Harald's treasury, and taken away
among other things, 20 lbs. weight of silver, and the
splendid cap by which Harald had acquired his surname f.
Svend, the son of Harald Bluetooth J, now interfered be¬
tween the two powerful chieftains, and proposed that Bui
should keep the silver but return the cap, and that Sigurd,
another of Jarl Viseti's sons, should marry Strut-Harald's
daughter. The parties having agreed to these conditions,
the marnage was celebrated with great pomp, after which
Bui and Sigurd went to Jomsburg, and were admitted as
members of the piratical community §.
This honour was shortly afterwards solicited by Vagn, the
grandson of Palnatoki, but the old sea-rover would not listen
to his request for two very cogent reasons; first, because
Vagn was only twelve years old ; and, secondly, because he
* Called a Strandhögg, or Strand-hewing, because the cattle were gene¬
rally slaughtered on the strand.
f Struts-fugl is the Old Norse for Ostrich (Struthio). Harald probably
acquired his surname from possessing a cap ornamented with an ostrich fea¬
ther, which in those days must have been a great rarity.
I A writer is often puzzled whether he ought to adopt the Old Norse, the
modern Danish, or the current English orthography for the names of Scan¬
dinavians mentioned in English history. Thus the names of the conqueror
of England, and his son and successor, are in Old Norse, Sveinn and Kniitr,
and in modern Danish, Svend and Knud, names which have been changed
by our historians into Sweyne, Sweno, and Canute.
§ We are not told whether Sigurd's fair Countess or Jarless accompanied
him. If she did, we presume that Palnatoki, notwithstanding his Spartan
predilections, would hardly have been so ungallant as to refuse admittance to
a lady during her honeymoon.
142
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
liad already acquired the reputation of heiug the most unruly
and turbulent youngster who ever sailed on a viking cruise.
Vagn very coolly replied, that as to his age he was ready to
show, by fighting with Jaii Sigvald, that he possessed the
strength of a youth of eighteen. The challenge was of course
accepted, but when the combatants had belaboured each other
for some time with their battle axes, Palnatoki, perceiving
that Sigvald was losing ground, separated them, and Vagn
was received by general acclamation into the community.
Four years after this event Palnatoki fell sick, and, strange
to say, died very quietly in his bed, after having appointed
Jarl Sigvald his successor
Sigvald, who appears to have been more impressionable to
female charms than Palnatoki, wns not, we ai-e told, over-
strict in requiring the due observance of the Jomsburg
Spartan code. He, in fact, set his followers a very good
examiile in this respect, by soliciting the hand of Borislav's
daughter, the lovely Astrida. The young lady was, however,
patriotic enough to requñe that her lover, ere he obtained her
consent, should free the Vends from the tribute they had to
pay to Denmark. Sigvald, in order to accomplish this task,
managed to take Svend, who had succeeded his father to the
throne, prisoner, and convey him to Jomsburg, where he dic¬
tated the terms of his ransom. These terms were that the
tribute should no longer be paid, that Svend should give his
sister Thyra m marriage to Borislav, and marry himself the
Vendic Prince's daughter Gunhilda, Sigvald at the same time
to espouse Astrida. These marriages took place the same
evening, the brides being veiled, a cii'cumstance that pre¬
vented Svend from remarking, until it was too late, that
Astrida was far more lovely and amiable than her sister. He
was obliged however to stifle his resentment, and return
home with Gunhilda, though he inwardly vowed to take
ample revenge on Sigvald for his perfidy.
It was the custom of the Scandinavians that wFen a per¬
son of note died, his heir should at the first convenient
opportunity give a sumptuous banquet to his friends and
dependents, d^uring which he should drink to the memory of
the defunct, and then place himself in the high-seat always
* Œhlenschlœger has made Palnatold the hero of one of his tragedies.
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
143
occupied by the master of the house, and generally placed
between two carved columns, which was regarded as a sign
of his having taken possession of the heritage. King Svend,
shortly after his marriage, summoned all the chief persons in
his dominions to such a succession-banquet, and as the Jarls
Strut-Harald and Viseti had died a short time before, he
invited Sigvald and Bui the Thick to come with their bro¬
thers to the feast, assuring them that horns should also be
emptied to tlie memory of their fathers. The Jomsburg
chiefs accepted the invitation, but repaired to the, festival with
thirty—some accounts say with eighty—large ships, manned
with their bravest followers, Sigvald being no doubt of opi¬
nion that a retinue could not be too numerous when he
visited a king whom he had forced to marry an ugly woman
while he at the same time espoused her handsome sister. On
the first day of the feast. King Svend before he placed him¬
self in the high-seat of his ancestors, filled a horn and drank
to his father s memory, making at the same time, according
to custom, a solemn vow that before three winters had passed
he would go with a large army to England, and either kill
King Ethelred, or drive him out of the country. After all
the guests had drunk to King Haralds memory, the horns
were again filled, and emptied in honour of Christ f, the
Jomsburg chieftains being supplied with the largest horns
and the strongest liquor. The third toast was given to
Michael the Archangel, after which Jarl Sigvald filled a large
horn and drank to his father's memory, making a solemn vow
f The first missionaries,, as M. Mallet has observed, page 113, were
obliged to substitute the names of Christ and the Saints for those of Odin
and the gods on these festive occasions.
Though several Danish kings were baptized Christianity had made very
little progress in Denmai-k in the tenth century. The Danes and the Joms¬
burg sea-rovers were, however, at this period regarded by the Norwegians as
Christians, Svend although he is said to have died a Christian, did not
cease to persecute Christianity during his lifetime. He seems, in fact, to
have been as fanatical a worshipper of Thor and Odin as any of his prede¬
cessors. Canute, in the beginning of his reign, was in this respect not much
better than his father, but afterwards, owing probably to the influence of his
Nonnan wife Emma {the widow of Ethelred), he became, outwardly at least,
a very zealous Christian, and it was during his reign that Christianity
became firmly established in Denmark, though worshippers of Odin were still
to be found there so late as the twelfth centurv.
V
144
NORTHEHN ANTIQUITIES.
that before three winters were over he would go to Norway,
and either kill Jarl Hakon or drive him out of the country.
Thorkell the Tall and Bui the Thick then made solemn
vows that they would accompany Sigvald and stand by him to
the last, and Vagn, when it came to his turn, took the drink¬
ing horn, and vowed that he would also go with Sigvald and
not return from Norway before he had slain Thorkell Leire,
and taken to him that Jarl's daughter, the fair Ingjibjorg,
without the consent of her friends and relations. The next
morning, when they came to their sober senses, the Jomsburg
chieftains regretted having made such rash vows; as they
however could not retract them, they began vithout delay to
make preparations for the contemplated expedition. Sigvald,
by the advice of Astrida, tried to induce Svend to join them,
but could only obtain his promise to furnish them with forty
vessels duly manned and armed, a promise, however, which
he seems to have had no intention of performing.
The expedition of the Jomsburg sea-rovers is said to have
taken place 'in the year 994. Sailing along the coast of
Norway with a powerful fleet they signalized their approach
by plundering, burning, killing all the men capable of bear¬
ing arms, and by the perpetration of all those other revolting
and remorseless deeds which in those ages invariably marked
the progress of a band of Scandinavian freebooters. The
crafty Norwegian Jarl, Hakon, having in the meantime col¬
lected his forces, sailed with a fleet of 150 vessels, and fell
in with the Jomsburg fleet at a place called Hjörungavag
(now Lievog), and at break of day a combat began, which was
maintained by the sea-rovers with their accustomed valour,
though they were greatly inferior in numbers to the Nor¬
wegians. Hakon, in fact, after trying in vain to break
through the line of his opponents, found it prudent to retire
with his fleet to the coast, and vie are told that he then went
into a forest to consult a famous sorceress, or prophetess,
called Thorgerd Hördabrud, in wdiom he put all his trust in
any great emergency. She was, however, for a long time
deaf to his supplications for assistance, although Hakon
prostrated himself on the earth before her and offered to
perform any bloody sacrifice she might require. She at
length told him that the victory could only be obtained by
the sacrifice of his son Erling, a very handsome boy then in
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
J45
bis seventh year. Hakon did not hesitate to ofíer up his
son, and then returned to his fleet and renewed the engage¬
ment. Towards evening a dreadful thunderstorm arose,
during which hailstones of an unusual size fell on board the
Jomsburg vessels. The sea-rovers also fancied that they saw
Thorgerd Hördahrud herself at the prow of Hakon's ship,
with whole volleys of arrows flying from her fingers, each
arrow bringing to one of them his death-wound. Twenty-five
of the Jomsburg ships had already fallen into the hands of
the Norwegians, when Sigvald cut the cable by which tho
remainder were fastened together, and bidding the other
chieftains follow him, sailed away from the combat, saying
that he had made a vow to fight against men and not against
witches. Meanwhile Hakon and his son Eirek boarded the
vessel of Bui the Thick, and when that chieftain saw that
further resistance was fruitless, he took two chests full of
gold, and calling out " Overboard all Bui's men," plunged
with his treasure in the sea and perished. Thorkell and
Sigurd then took to flight and arrived in Denmark with
30 vessels. Yagn, however, continued to fight valiantly with
his division against the combined forces of the Norwegians,
but was at length overpowered and taken prisoner with 30 of
his followers.
The next morning, when Hakon and his sons had break¬
fasted, they ordered the prisoners to be led out to execution.
The proceedings on this occasion show at the same time the
barbarity of the age, and the kind of heroism which was more
the result of this barbarity than of the pretended legislation
of Palnatoki. The prisoners being seated on a log of wood
with their legs bound together by a rope, withies or osier
twigs were twisted in their hair. A slave was then placed
behind each to keep his head steady by holding fast the
withies twisted into a band for that purpose. The exe¬
cutioner was no less a personage than Thorkell Leire, one of
the most renowned Norwegian chieftains, whose daughter
Vagn had vowed to gain possession of without the consent of
her relations.
Thorkell began his sanguinary task by striking off the
head of him who sat outmost on the log. After he had
beheaded the next two he asked the prisoners what they
thought of death.
L
146
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
"What happened to my father," replied one, "must hap¬
pen to me. He died, so must I."
Another said that he remembered too well the laws of
Jomsburg to fear dying: a third declared that a glorious
death was ever welcome to him, and that such a death was
far more preferable to an infamous life like that of Thor-
kell's.
" I only beg of thee," said a fourth, "to be quick over thy
work ; for thou must know that it is a question often discussed
at Jomsburg, whether or not a man feels anything after losing
his head. I will therefore grasp this knife in my hand ; if,
after my head is cut off, I throw it at thee, it will show that
I still retain some feeling ; if I let it fall, it will prove just
the contrary. Strike therefore and decide the question with¬
out further delay."
Thorkell, says the Saga-man, struck off the man's head
with a stroke of his battle-axe, but the knife instantly fell to
the ground.
" Strike the blow in my face," said the next, " I mil sit
still without flinching, and take notice whether I even wink
my eyes; for w^e Jomsburg people know how to meet the
stroke of death without betraying an emotion."
He kept his promise, and received the blow without show¬
ing the least sign of fear, or so much as winking his eyes.
Sigurd, the son of Bui the Thick, a fine young man in the
flower of his age, with long fair hair, as fine as silk, flowing
in ringlets over his shoulders, said, in answer to Thorkell's
question, "I fear not death, since I have fulfilled the greatest
duty of life, but I must pray thee not to let my hair be
touched by a slave or stained with my blood."
One of Hakon's followers then stepped forward and held
his hair instead of the slave, but when Thorkell struck the
blow Sigurd twitched his head forward so strongly that the
warrior who was holding his hair had both his hands cut off.
Eirek, the son of Jarl Hakon, who seems to have relished
this practical joke, then came up and asked Sigurd whether he
would have his life spared.
"That depends," replied the youth, "upon who it is that
makes me the offer."
" He who has the power to do it, Jarl Eirek," said the
son of the Norwegian chieftain.
SCANDINAVJAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
147
" From his hand -will I accept it," said Sigurd, and he was
immediately loosed from the rope. Thorkell enraged at
Eirek's clemency, exclaimed, " If thou spare the lives of all
these men, Jarl, at least Vagn Akason shall not escape me."
So saying he ran at Vagn wdth uplifted axe, but the crafty
sea-rover threw himself on the ground, so that Thorkell fell
over him and cut the rope with his axe, seeing which Vagn
sprung up, and seizing the weapon, gave Thorkell his death-
wound. Jarl Eirek, notmthstanding his father's remon¬
strances, then asked Vagn if he would accept life from his
hands.
" Willingly," replied Vagn, " provided thou wilt give it to
all of us."
"Loose the rope," said Eirek, and it was done; eighteen
had been beheaded, and twelve were spared by Eirek thus
interfering, among whom was a Welshman named Björn.
After this the army dispersed : Jarl Hakon went to Drontheim
highly dissatisfied with his son's proceedings. Jarl Eirek,
however, does not seem to have cared much for his father's
displeasure, for we are told that he shortly afterward married
Vagn to Thorkell Leire's daughter Ingjibjorg, the young lady,
be it remembered, whom the sea-rover had vowed to gain
possession of without her friends' consent, and whose father
he had actually killed. However, such events were of fre¬
quent occurrence in those turbulent ages, and would not be
regarded as singular. Vagn after his marriage returned
to Denmark with three ships which Eirek had made him
a present of, and became a renowned chieftain and the
founder of a powerful family. Sigvald on his arrival at Joms-
burg was received very coolly by his fair lady Astrida, who
jeered him ever afterwards for returning from a battle without
a single wound, an action which in her eyes was quite unpar¬
donable.
Such is the account transmitted to us of this celebrated
expedition of the Jomsburg sea-rovers'<=, and whatever may
be thought of some of the incidents related, they serve at
least to show the manners and customs of that rude period,
while the main features of the storj'-, corroborated as they are
by collateral evidence, may be regarded as strictly historical.
* See Jomsvikinga-Saga. The Heiraskringla, vi. 38-47 ; and Mlillei's
Sagabib. iii. p. 39.
L 2
148
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
It is even not at all improbable that Jarl Hakon sacrificed his
son at the suggestion, or rather command of Thorgerd Hör-
dabrud, for we know from other sources that he placed im¬
plicit reliance in the oracular responses of this woman.
We thus read in the Fœreyinga Saga that when Sigmund
Brestisson was ready to sail on his expedition to the Fasroe
isles, he went to Jarl Hakon, who asked him in whom he put
his trust.
"I trust in my own might and main," replied Sigmund—a
phrase of much the same import as "I trust in my own good
sword," which a modern hero might make use of under similar
circumstances. Hakon told him that he was wrong in doing
this, and that he should rather put his trust in Thorgerd
Hördabrud. " In her," he added, "I have always placed my
faith, and I will now lead thee to her." The Jarl then took
Sigmund into a forest, in which they had not proceeded far
before they came to a house with glass windows, and Sig¬
mund remarked that the interior was ornamented with gold
and silver, and a number of images of the Scandinavian
divinities. At the entrance stood a woman attired in very
costly apparel, before whose feet Hakon instantly prostrated
himself, and remained for some time in that attitude. On
rising he told Sigmund that they must gain the favour of this
woman, who was no other than Thorgerd Hördabrud herself,
by placing silver on a stool that stood before her, a kind of
offering which was no doubt the most likely of all others to
render her propitious.
"It will be a sign," added the Jarl, "that she listens to
my prayer when she lets go the ring she holds in her hand,
and that ring will bring thee good fortune, Sigmund."
Hakon then began to pull at the ring, but the more he
pulled the faster she held it. He then prostrated himself at
her feet a second time and burst into tears. On rising he
again pulled at the ring with all his force, and Thorgerd at
length quitting her hold, he obtained possession of it, and
returned home highly pleased that he was able thus to give
Sigmund a charm that would preserve him from danger and
insure his future welfare, and for which, we presume, he had
left the sylvan lady hard cash to treble the amount of its
intrinsic value
* See Fœreyinga-Saga, eh, 23.
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
149
Constancy in the last moments was not, however, the jiecu-
liar effect of the laws and education of the Jomsburg sea-
rovers. The other Danes have often given the same proofs of
intrepidity ; or rather this was the general character of all the
inhabitants of Scandinavia. It was with them an instance of
shameful pusillanimity to utter upon such occasions the least
groan, or to change countenance, but especially to shed tears.
The Danes, says Adam of Bremen-!«, "are remarkable for
this, that if they have committed any crime, they had rather
suffer death than blows. There is no other punishment for
them but either the axe or seiwitude. As for groans, com¬
plaints and other bemoanings of that kind, in which we find
relief, they are so detested by the Danes, that they think it
mean to weep for their sins, or for the death of their dearest
relations." But if a private soldier looked upon tears as pe¬
culiar to weakness or slavery, their great warriors, the chiefs,
all who aspired to fame and glory, carried the contempt of
death much further. King Eagnar, who, as I have once be¬
fore observed, died singing the pleasure of receiving death in
the field of battle, cries„out at the end of a stanza, " The hours
of my life have passed away, I shall die laughing : " t and
many passages in ancient history plainly show that this was
not a poetical hyperbole. Saxo, speaking of a single combat,
says, that one of the champions fell, laughed, and died, an
epitaph as short as energetic An officer belonging to a
king of Norway, celebrating in verse the death of his master,
concludes his eulogium with these words, " It shall hereafter
be recorded in histories, that King Halfer, died laughing." §
A warrior having been thrown upon his back, in wrestling with
his enemy, and the latter finding himself without his arms,
the vanquished person promised to wait without changing his
posture while he fetched a sword to kill kim ; and he faith¬
fully kept his word. To die with his arms in his hand was
the vow of every free man ; and the pleasing idea they had of
this kind of death would naturally lead them to dread such
as proceeded from disease and old age. In the joy therefore
which they testified at the approach of a violent death, they
* Adam Bremen, de situ Daniœ, c. 21-3.
f That is to say, tlie Skald who composed Eagnar's famous death-song
puts these words in the mouth of his dying hero Ed.
X Saxo Gram. lib. ii. § Barthol. p. 6.
150
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
might frequently express no more than their real sentiments,
though doubtless it was sometimes intermixed with ostenta¬
tion. The general tenor of their conduct proves that they
were most commonly sincere in this ; and such as know the
power which education, example and prejudice have over men,
will find no difficulty in receiving the multitude of testimo¬
nies which antiquity hath left us of their extraordinary va¬
lour. " The philosophy of the Cimhri," says Valerius Maxi-
mus, " is gay and courageous : they leap for joy in a battle,
that they are going to quit life in so glorious a manner: in
sickness they lament for fear of a shameful and miserable
end."'i^ Cicero remarks, that in proportion as men are in¬
trepid in war, they are weak and impEtient under bodily
jiains. " Happy in their mistake," says Lucan, " are the
people who live beneath the pole ! persuaded that death is
only a passage to a long life, they are undisturbed by the
most grievous of all fears, that of dying. Hence they eagerly
run to arms, and their minds are capable of meeting death;
hence they esteem it cow^ardice to spare a life which they shall
so soon recover." The history of anci^t Scandinavia is full of
passages expressive of this manner of thinldng. The illus¬
trious warriors, who found themselves wasting by some linger¬
ing illness, were not always content barely to accuse their
fate. They often availed themselves of the few moments
that were yet remaining, to shake off life by a way more glo¬
rious. Some of them would be carried into a field of battle,
that they might die in the engagement ; others slew them¬
selves ; many procured this melancholy service to be per¬
formed them by their friends, who considered this as a most
sacred duty. " There is on a mountain in Iceland," says the
author of an old Icelandic romance t, " a rock so high that no
animal can fall from the top and live. Here men betake
themselves when they are afflicted and unhappy. From this
place all our ancestors, even without waiting for sickness,
* Val. Max. lib. ii. cap. 6, p. 11. Cicero Tusc. Qusest. lib. ii. cap. ult.
t The old Saga, or history here quoted, contains a mixture of truth and
fiction, but shows us plainly what opinion was held of suicide, and how com¬
monly it was practised heretofore in the north. Procopius attributes the
same thing to the Heruli, a Grothic people. " Apud Herulos," says he, "nec
senibus, nec œgrotis fas erat vitam producere : et si quem senium occupasset,
aut morbus, rogare is cogebatur propinquos, ut quamprimum hominum numero
euiu tollerent." Procop. Groth. lib. ii. c. 14.
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOB AEMS.
151
have departed unto Odin. It is useless, therefore, to give
ourselves up to groans and complaints, or to put our re¬
lations to needless expenses, since "we can easily follow the
example of our fathers, who have all gone by the way of
this rock." There was such another in Sweden*, appro¬
priated to the same use, which was figuratively called the
Hall of Odin, because it was a kind of vestibule or entry
to the palace of that godf. Lastly, if none of these reliefs
were afforded, and especially when Christianity had banished
these cruel practices, the heroes consoled themselves at least
by putting on complete armour as soon as they found their
end approaching ; thus making (as it were) a solemn protest
against the kind of death to which they were forced involuntarily
to submit. After this it will not be thought wonderful that
those who followed a great chieftain in some expedition, should
make a vow not to survive their commander; or that this vow
should always be performed in all its rigour. Neither will it
* There are several of these rocks in Sweden, called Ättestupor (stem or
family rocks). One situated on the borders of a lake in the province of
Bleking, and two others in West Gothland, bear the name of Valhalla. To
another of these rocks, called Stafva Hall, is attached the remarkable local
tradition, that at an annual festival held there in pagan times, a number of
people, after dancing and singing, and partaking in the general amusement,
threw themselves from it into the lake below, in the same manner as the
classic writers tell us was practised by the Scythians and Hyperboreans,
See Geijer. G. Sch. I. 103.—En.
f We have a particular description of this place by Sir William Temple;
which it will be worth while to produce at large.
" I will not," he says, " trouble myself with more passages out of the Kimic
poems concerning this superstitious principle [of preferring a violent death,
&c.], but wiU add a testimony of it, which was given me at Nimeguen, by
count Oxenstem, the first of the Swedish ambassadors in that assembly. In
discourse upon this subject, and in confirmation of this opinion having been
general among the Goths of those countries, he told me there was still in
Sweden a place which was a memorial of it, and was called Odin's Hall. That
it was a great bay in the sea, encompassed on three sides with steep and ragged
rocks; and that in the time of the Gothic paganism, men that were either
sick of diseases they esteemed mortal or incurable, or else grown invalid with
age, and thereby past all mililnry action, and fearing to die meanly and basely
(as they esteemed it) in their beds, they usually caused themselves to be
brought to the nearest part of these rocks, and from thence threw themselves
down into the sea, hoping by the boldness of such a violent death to renew
the pretence of admission into the Hall of Odin, which they had lost, by
failing to die in combat, and with their arms."—Miscellanea, part II.
essay 3, part 4.—P.
NORTHEBN ANTIQUITIES.
be surprising that private soldiers should sometimes form
among themselves a kind of society or confraternity, in which
the several members engaged, at the expense of their own
lives, to avenge the death of their associates, provided it were
honourable and violent. All these dangers were, in their
opinion, so many favourable and precious occasions of merit¬
ing glory and eternal happiness. Accordingly, we never find
any among these people guilty of cowardice, and the bare sus¬
picion of that vice was always attended with universal con¬
tempt. A man who had lost his buckler, or who had received
a wound behind, durst never more appear in public. In the
history of England*, we see a famous Danish captain named
Siward, who had sent his son to attack a province in Scotland,
ask with great coolness those who brought the news of his
death, -whether he had received his wounds behind or before ?
The messengers telling him he was wounded before, the father
cries out, " Then I have only cause to rejoice: for any other
death would have been unworthy of me and my son." A con¬
queror could not exercise a more terrible vengeance upon his
captives, than to condemn them to slavery. " There is," says
Saxo, " in the heart of the Danes, an insurmountable aver¬
sion to servitude, which makes them esteem it the most
dreadful of all conditions."! The same historian describes
to us a king of Denmark, named Frotho, taken in battle by a
king his enemy, and obstinately refusing all offers of life which
that prince could make him. " To what end," says he,
" should I reserve myself for so great a disgrace? What good
can the remainder of my life afford me, that can counterba¬
lance the remembrance of my misfortunes, and the regret
which my misery would cause me? And even if you should
restore me my kingdom, if you should bring me back my
sister, if you should repair all the loss of my treasure, would
all this recover my honour ? All these benefits would never
replace me in my former state, but future ages would always
say, Frotho hath been taken by his enemy." In all combats,
and the number of them is prodigious in the ancient histo¬
ries of the north, we always find both parties continually re¬
peating the words glory, honour, and contempt of death, and
• Eronipton. Ubb. Jom. Chronic, p. 946.
! Saxo Gramm, lib. xii.
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
153
by this means raising one another to that pitch of enthusiasm
which produces extraordinai'y actions. A general never forgot
to remind his troops of these motives when he was going to
give battle ; and not infrequently they prevented him, and flew
to the engagement of themselves, chanting songs of war, march¬
ing in cadence, and raising shouts of joy.
Lastly, like the heroes of Homer, those of ancient Scan¬
dinavia, in the excess of their over-boiling courage, dared
to defy the gods themselves. " Though they should be
stronger than the gods," says a boastful warrior speaking of
his enemies, " I would absolutely fight them." * And in Saxo
Grammaticus we hear another vishing ardently that he could
hut meet with Odin, that he might attack him; expressing
his mind by verses to this effect:—" Where at present is he
whom they call Odin, that warrior so completely armed, who
hath but one eye to guide him? Ah, if I could hut see him,
this redoubted spouse of Frigga; in vain should hebe covered
with his snow-white buckler, in vain mounted upon his lofty
steed, he should not leave his abode of Lothra without a
wound. It is lawful to encounter a warrior god." The same
author relates that a Danish prince, named Hother, resisted
the united forces of Odin, Thor, and the squadrons of the gods.
" And the victory," he adds, " would have remained with the
gods, if Hother, breaking through their thickest ranks, and
assailing^ them with such fury as a mortal can superior beings,
had not rendered the mallet of the god Thor useless, by cut¬
ting it off at the handle. Weakened by this sudden and un¬
expected stroke, the gods were forced to betake themselves to
flight." It was a received opinion among them, that a man
might attack and fight the gods; and it is needless to remark
with Saxo, that these were only imaginary deities. No one
is tempted to take such relations literally, and they only de¬
serve to be mentioned because they show us what manner of
thinking prevailed among the people who invented stories of
this sort. From them we may at least infer that the confi¬
dence with which their bodily strength and courage inspired
these ancient Danes must have been excessive to make them
brave and defy whatever was most formidable in their system
of religion. But Diomedes's wounding Venus concealed in a
* Bartholin, lib. i. c. 6.
154
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
cloud, his defying Jupiter, as well as the other combats of
men with the gods described in the Iliad, have already shown
us to what a degree of intoxication and madness men may
arrive, who tliink themselves above all fear.
A passion so strong, so general and so blind, could not but
give a tincture of its character to whatever it could possibly
extend to ; and therefore we must not be surprised that they
should take it into their heads almost to deify the instruments
of war, without which that passion could not have been gra¬
tified. The respect they had for their arms made them also
swear by instruments so valuable and so useful, as being the
most sacred things they knew. Accordingly, in an ancient
Icelandic poem, a Scandinavian, to assure himself of a person's
good faith, requires him to swear " by the shoulder of a horse,
and the edge of a sword."* This oath was usual more espe¬
cially on the eve of some great engagement; the soldiers en¬
gaged themselves, by an oath of this kind, not to flee though
their enemies should be never so superior in number.
From the same source proceeded that propensity to duels
and single combats, so remarkable among all the Teutonic
nations, and which of all their barbarous customs has been
most religiously kept up by their present descendants. In
Denmark, and through all the north, they provoked a man
to fight a duel, by publicly calling him Niding or " in¬
famous; "f for he who had received so deep a stain, without
* It is therefore with peculiar propriety and decorum (as is well observed
by his commentators) that Shakspeare makes his Prince of Denmark call
upon his companions to swear upon his sword.
Come hither, gentlemen,.
And lay your hands again upon my sword.
Never to speak of this that you have heard
Swear by my sword.
Hamlet, A. 1, sc. ult.—P.
In the same manner as gi%nng the lie is the highest provocation in
modern times, because it implies a charge of meanness, falsehood and cow¬
ardice; so the word Niding or Nithing anciently included in it the ideas of
extreme wickedness, meanness and infamy. It signified a villanous base
wretch, a dastardly coward, a sordid stingy worthless creature. No wonder
that an imputation of this kind should be so reproachful among an open and
brave people, or that they would rather do anything than incur it.
"We have a remarkable proof in English history how much this name was
dreaded and abhorred by our ancestors. King William Rufus having occa-
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOB ARMS.
155
endeavouring to wash it out with the blood of his adversary»
would have lost much more than the life he was so desirous to
save. Banished by public indignation from the society of
men, degraded from his quality of citizen, and scarce regarded
as a human creature, he had nothing left for it buta shameful
and insecure flight.
j^Nithing * was unquestionably the most insulting epithet
that a Northman could apply to an adversary. There was,
moreover, a peculiar way of applying it that greatly increased
its virulence, although it gave the aggrieved party the right to
seek redress by an action at law. This was by setting up what
was called a Nithing-post or Nithing-stake [Nidstaungj. A
mere hazel twig stuck in the ground by a person who at the
same time made use of some opprobrious epithet, either against
an individual or a community, was quite sufQcient to come
under the legal definition of a Nithing-post. Several super¬
stitious practices were, however, commonly observed on the
occasion which were supposed to impart to the Nithing-post
the power of working evil on the party it was directed against,
and more especially to make any injuries done to the person
sion to draw together a sudden body of forces, only sent word to all such as
held of him in fee, that those who did not repair to his assistance should be
deemed Nithing; and without further summons they all flocked to his stand¬
ard. Hex irá inflammatus, says Matthew Paris, stipendiarios milites suos
Anglos congregat, et absque mora, ut ad obsidionem reniant, jvbet, nisi
velint sub nomine Nithing, quod Latine nequam sonat, recenseri. Angli {qui
nihil contiimeliosius et vilius estimant quam hujusmodi ignominioso rocabulo
notari) catervatim ad regem confluentes, ingentes copias conficiuni. (M.
Par. sub aun. 1089.) The word Nithing for some ages after continued in use
in this kingdom, but chiefly in the sense of stingy, niggardly, &c. The
translator has seen an ancient MS. poem, that was written between the reigns
of Edward III. and Edward IV. in which a person is thus exhorted,
Looke thou be kind and curteous aye.
Of meate and drinke be never Nithing.
which sense of the word still obtains in Denmark, as we learn from Bartho¬
lin. Denoted Niding modernis Danis virum sordide parcum atque tenacem.
Lib. i. c. 7, p. 98.—P.
* There are three old Norse words, naud, need, German noth; nithr,
downward ; and nid, contumely, infamy, disgrace, from which etymologists
respectively derive the word Nithing. The derivation from nid is at least
the most significant, and the word seems to correspond with the Greek
evii^os, which has the same meaning, and with the Gennan neid, Mœso-Guth
neiths, envy.
156
NORTHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
erecting it recoil on those by whom they had been perpe -
trated. A pole with a horse's head, recently cut off, stuck on
it, was considered to form aNithing-postof peculiar efficacy*.
Thus when Eigil, a celebrated Icelandic skald of the ninth
century, was banished from Norway, we are told that he took
a stake, fixed a horse's head on it, and as he drove it in the
ground said, " I here set up a Nithing-stake, and turn this
my banishment against King Eirek and Queen Gunhilda." He
then turned the horse's head towards the land, saying, " I
tura this my banishment against the protecting deities of this
country, in order that they may, all of them, roam wildly
about and never find a resting-place until they have driven out
King Eirek and Queen Gunhilda." He then set sail for
Iceland, with the firm persuasion that the injuries he had re¬
ceived by his banishment, would by the efficacy of his charmed
Nithing-post recoil on the royal couple they had, in his opinion,
proceeded fromf.
Mention is frequently made in the Sagas and the Icelandic
laws of this singular custom. We are told for instance, in
the Vatsndsela Saga, that Jökul and Thorstein having ac¬
cepted a challenge from Finbogi and Bjorg, went to the place
of meeting on the day and hour appointed. Their opponents,
however, remained quietly at home, deeming that a violent
storm, which happened to be raging, would be a sufficient ex¬
cuse for their non-appearance. Jökul, after waiting for some
time on the ground, thought that he would be justified in
setting up a Nithing-post against Finbogi, or as would now be
said, in posting him for a coward. He accordingly fashioned
out a block of wood into the rude figure of a human head, and
fixed it on a post in which he cut magical runes. He then
killed a mare, opened her breast, and stuck the post in it with
the carved head turned towards Finbogi's dwelling t.
* Some curious details respecting superstitious practices with horses' heads
are given by Grimm in his " Deutsche Mythologie," p. 42 and 426. Several
Teutonic tribes, for instance, killed the horses taken from the Romans in
battle, and eat their flesh, but dedicated their heads, which they stuck on poles
round their encampment, to the gods they worshipped ; and Pliny tells us that
a pole with the skeleton of a horse's head stuck on it and placed in a garden,
was reckoned a good remedy against caterpillars.
f Miiller's Sagabib. I. 116.
X This anecdote will, we trust, serve to convince the most incredulous of
the rapid strides civilization has made since the time of the Northmen. A
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOR ARMS. 157
In an old Swedish code of laws cited by Wachsmuth*,
some very precise rules are given respecting the manner of
proceeding on such occasions ; for instance, " when a man makes
use of ill words to another, and says, ' Thou art nothing like
a man, hast nothing manly in thee;' and the other answers,
' I am as much a man as thou art,' they shall encounter each
other at a place where three roads meet. If he who made use
of the ill words comes to the place of meeting, and he to whom
tliey were given comes not, then shall he (the latter) be held
for worse than he was called, and shall be declared incompe¬
tent to have an oath administered to him, or to give evidence
either for man or woman. If he to whom the ill words were
applied comes, and he who applied them comes not, then
shall the former call out three times Nithing, and make a
mark on the ground. If they both meet properly armed, and
he to whom the ill words were given be killed, only half mulct
shall be demanded. But if the giver of the ill words fall,
then will his tongue have justly forfeited him his life, and he
shall be left lying on the earth without atonement," that is to
say, the other would have no mulct to pay for killing him.]
The dreadful consequences of their sensibility with regard
to what we falsely call honour, extended often from private
persons to a whole people ; and nations, blind to their true
Avelfare, waged long and cruel wars for such chimerical inter¬
ests as really ought not to have armed one single individual
against another. Under the reign of Harald Blaatand, king
of Denmark, the Icelanders provoked by his having detained
duellist of the ninth century, after waiting for some time, in the vain ex¬
pectation either of killing or getting killed, has at length recourse to the
expedient of posting his adversary for a coward. A duellist of the nineteenth
century, in similar untoward circumstances, also posts his opponent, not ex¬
actly on a Nithing-post, hut in the columns of the Morning Post, which is
much the same thing. The substitution of hair-trigger pistols for battle axes,
typographic characters for Eunic ones, and above all the saving in horse-flesh,
will therefore indicate the progress civilization has made during the last ten
centuries. Something, however, may always be learned from our barbarous
ancestors, and we should suggest the expediency of reviving the old custom
of killing a horse on such occasions, for horse-flesh having become rather an
expensive article, its use, being thus rendered as imperative by the modern
as it was by the ancient code of honour, might deter many of our modern
Jökuls and Finbogis from indulging too freely in their pugnacious propen¬
sities.
* Europ. Sitteng. 2 Th. p. 161.
158
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
one of their ships laden with merchandise, flew for revenge to
a species of arms that were familiar to them, and made verses
upon him so very satirical, that Harald, stung to the quick,
sent out a fleet to ravage the island. This obliged the inha¬
bitants to make a law, which is still extant in their ancient
code, forbidding any person, under capital punishment, to
compose satirical verses upon the kings of Denmark, Sweden,
or Norway*.
After so many efforts to acquire gloiy, it was very natural
to think how to perpetuate it. To this end the ancient Scan¬
dinavians employed various means suitable to the grossness
and rudeness of the times ; which if they have deceived the
expectation of those who hoped for fame and immortality from
them, have done them no great injustice. The most common
method consisted in burying the heroes under little hills which
they raised in the middle of some plain, and in giving to
these hillocks, and sometimes to the plains themselves, the
name of the person who was there interred. This rude mo¬
nument kept up at the same time the memory of the hero,
and the emulation of the neighbouring inhabitants. We
find in Denmark at this day a great number of such artificial
hills, which bear the name of some warrior or king of ancient
times.
They commonlj^ pitched upon some public place, some great
road, some fountain, or other well-frequented spot, as the
most proper to raise these tombs in. They adorned them
frequently with one or more large atones and epitaphs, as will
be explained when I come to speak of the funerals of this
people. But above all, they had recourse to the art of poetiy,
when they were disposed to immortalize their kings or great
captains. The skalds, or bards, were employed to compose
odes or songs, which related all their most shining exploits,
and sometimes the whole history of their lives. These songs
were propagated from one reciter to another ; and there was
no public solemnity in which they were not sung or chaimted.
The praises which these poets gave to valour, the warlike en¬
thusiasm which animated their verses, the great care men took
to leam them from their infancy, being all of them the na¬
tural effects of the ruling passion of this people, served in
* Grágás, ix. 15.
SCANDINATIAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
159
their turn to strengthen and extend it. Lastly, the common
objects which they usually had before their eyes, the rocks
scattered all over the countiy, the bucklers, the trophies
raised in the field of battle, the walls and hangings of their
houses, all contributed to preserve the memory of great ac¬
tions and intrepid warriors, by means of the Eunic characters,
the hieroglyphics, and the symbols, which were engraven or
inscribed upon them.
A people who nourished so strong a passion for war, could
seldom be at loss for occasions of it. Accordingly the ancient
Scandinavians were continually involved in one hostile dis¬
pute or other, and their whole history would have consisted of
nothing else but melancholy and disgusting details of these
wars, if they had been at the needless pains to write it. But
the little that is left of their history is more than sufficient to
satisfy the curiosity of those who admire courage, no matter
with what spirit it is animated ; and who are astonished that
men should be so prodigal of their lives, when they were ig¬
norant of the art how to render them agreeable. We have
already observed, that the inhabitants of Germany and the
north were accustomed every spring to hold a general assem¬
bly, at which every free man appeared completely armed, and
ready to go upon any expedition. At this meeting they con¬
sidered in what quarter they should make war : they examined
what causes of complaint had been received from the several
neighbouring nations, their power or their riches, the easiness
with which they might be overcome, the prospect of booty, or
the necessity of avenging some injury. When they had de¬
termined on the war, and settled the plan of the campaign,
they immediately began their march, furnished each of them
with a proper quantity of provisions ; and almost every grown
man in the country made haste to join the army thus tumul-
tuously assembled. We are not to wonder after this, that
there should issue from the north swarms of soldiers, as
formidable for their numbers as their valour ; and we ought
not hastily to conclude from hence, that Scandinavia formerly
contained more people than it does at present. I know what
is related of the incredible multitudes of men which that
country is said to have poured forth ; but on the other hand,
who does not know how much nations and historians have
been, in all ages, inclined to exaggeration in this respect ; some
160
NOETHERN ANHQUITIES.
being desirous to enhance the power of their country, and
others, when it has been conquered, being willing to save its
credit by making it yield only to superior numbers ; but the
greatest part have been guilty of enlargement from no other
motive than a blind love of the marvellous, authorized by the
difficulty of pronouncing with certainty on a subject, in which
men often commit great mistakes even after long researches.
Besides this, it is very probable that many particular circum¬
stances of those famous expeditions made by the Scandina¬
vians, have contributed to countenance that name of Vagina
gentium, wbich an historian gives their country*. For when
these emigrations were made by sea, the promptitude and
celerity with which they could carry their ravages from one
coast to another, might easily multiply armies in the eyes of
the people they attacked, and who heard many different irrup¬
tions spoken of almost at the same time. If, on the contrary,
they issued forth by land, they found everywhere on their
march nations as greedy of fame and plunder as themselves,
who joining with them, afterwards passed for people of the
same origin with the first swarm which put itself in motion.
It should also be considered, that these emigrations did not
all of them take place at the same time ; and that after a
nation was thus exhausted, it probably remained inactive
until it had been able to recruit its numbers. The vast ex¬
tent of Scandinavia being in those times divided among many
different people who were little known and only described by
some one general name, as that of Goths, for instance, or
Normans, (that is " Northern men,") it could not exactly be
ascertained from what country each troop originally came, and
still less to what degree of depopulation each country was re¬
duced after losing so great a quantity of its inhabitants. But
what, in my opinion, best accounts for those numerous and
frequent inundations of northern people, is that we have rea-
* Jornandes de rebus Greticis.—Sir "William Temple calls it tbe Northern
Hive : and Milton has taken a comparison from thence to express exuberant
multitudes.
" A mirltitude like which the populous North
Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass
Bhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons
Came like a deluge on the South, and spread
Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian sands.
Par. Lost, B. I. 351.—P.
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
IGl
son to believe entire nations often engaged in enterprizes of
this sort : even the women and children sometimes marched
in the rear of the armies, when a whole people, either by in¬
constancy, by indigence, or the attraction of a milder climate,
resolved to change their place of abode. Projects of this
kind, it is true, appear very strange to us at present ; but it
is no less true that our ancestors often engaged in them. In
the time of Caesar, the Helvetians, that is, the ancient in¬
habitants of Switzerland, desirous to establish themselves in
Gaul, burnt their houses with their own hands, together with
such of their effects as were not portable, and, followed by
their wives and children, set out with a resolution of never
more returning home. What a multitude might not one ex¬
pect such a nation to form? And yet Caesar remarks* that
according to the musters of the Helvetians themselves, found
in their camp, they did not exceed three hundred and sixty
thousand in all, including old men, women and children ; a
number, without dispute, small compared with that of the in¬
habitants of the same country at present. The expedition of
the Cimbri had also been an entire transplantation of that
people ; for it appears, by the request they made to the Ko-
mans, that their view was to obtain new lands to settle in.
They, as well as the Helvetians, took with them their wives
and children ; and accordingly Cimbria (at present Sleswick
and Jutland) continued after this emigration so depopulated,
that at the end of two whole centuries, viz. in the time of Ta¬
citus, it had not been able to recover itself, as we have already
remarked from this historian, who had been himself in Ger¬
many.
The expedition of the Anglo-Saxons furnishes us v/ith
proofs no less convincing than those I have mentioned. The
first Angles, who passed into Britain under the conduct of
Hengist and Horsa, were a mere handful of men. The
ancient Saxon chronicle f informs us, that they had only
three vessels, and it should seem that their number could not
well exceed a thousand. Some other swarms having after¬
wards followed their example, their country was reduced to a
mere desert, and continued destitute of inhabitants for more
than two centuries ; being still in this state in the time of
* Da bello Gallic, lib. i. c. 11.
+ Chronic. Anglo-Sax. à Gibson, edit. p. 13.
M
162
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
Bede, from "whom the author of the Saxon chronicle borrowed
this fact. Let any one judge after this, whether it was al
ways out of the superfluity of its inhabitants, as has been
frequently asserted, that the North poured forth its torrents
on the countries they overwhelmed. For my part I have not
been able to discover any proofs that their emigrations ever
proceeded from want of room at home : on the contrary, I
find enough to convince me that their country could easily
have received an additional number of inhabitants, When
Alboin formed the project of leading the Lombards into Italy,
he demanded auxiliaries from the Saxons, his allies. Twenty
thousand Saxons, with their wives and children, accompanied
the Lombards into Italy : and the kings of France sent
colonies of Swabians to occupy the country which the Saxons
had left desert. Thus we see the Saxons, who are thought
to have been one of the most numerous people of Germany,
could not send forth this feeble swarm without depopulating
their own country : but this is not all. The twenty thousand
Saxons, disagreeing with the Lombards, quitted Italy, and
returned back (undiminished in number) into their own coun¬
try, which they found possessed by the Swabians above men¬
tioned. This presently gave rise to a war, notwithstanding
all the remonstrances of the Swabians, who, as an ancient
historian * assures us, demonstrated to the Saxons, that both
nations might easily share the country among them, and live
all of them in it very commodiously. I make no doubt but
there were throughout all Saxony, as well as Scandinavia,
vast tracts of land which lay in their original uncultivated
state, having never been grubbed up and cleared. Let any
one read the description which Adam of Bremen f gives of
Denmark in the eleventh century, and he will be convinced
that the coasts alone were peopled, but that the interior parts
formed only one vast forest.
From what has been said, therefore, I think one may safely
conclude, that as all were soldiers among the ancient Scandi¬
navians, they could easily fill all Europe with the noise of
their arms, and ravage for a long time different parts of it,
although the sum total of the inhabitants should have been
much less than it is at present. If it was otherwise, we must
* Paul. Diacon. de Gest. Longobard. lib. ii. c. 6.
"t" Adam Brem. Hist. Eccles. Cap. de Situ Daaise.
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOE AKMS.
163
acknowledge, that this extreme population can he very ill
reconciled, either with what history informs of the manners,
customs, and principles of the ancient Scandinavians, or with
the soundest notions of policy with respect to what makes the
true prosperity of a people. For we cannot allow them such
a superiority over us in the number of inhabitants, without
granting them at the same time a proportionable excellence
in their customs, manners, civil regulations, and constitution
of government, as so many efficacious causes of the good or
bad state of all societies, and consequently of their greater or
less degree of population. But who can persuade himself,
that those savage times, when men sowed and reaped but
little ; wffien they had no other choice but that of the destruct¬
ive profession of arms, or of a drowsy indolence no less de¬
structive ; when every petty nation was torn to pieces either
by private revenge and factions within, or by w^ar with their
neighbours from without; when they had no other sub¬
sistence but rapine, and no other ramparts but wide frontiers
laid waste ; who, I say, can believe such a state as this to be
more favourable to the propagation of the human species,
than that wherein men's goods and persons are in full secu¬
rity ; wherein the fields are covered with labourers, and their
cities, rich and numerous, flourish in tranquillity; wherein
the people are left to breathe during long intervals of peace,
and there is never more than a small part of the inhabitants
to whom war is destructive ; and lastly, wherein commerce,
manufactures, and the arts offer so many resources, and
second so well that natural propensity to increase and mul¬
tiply, which nothing but the fear of indigence can check and
restrain.
Let us now consider in what manner the ancient nations of
of the North made war. When an army was upon the march,
the whole body, as well generals as private soldiers, equally
desired to terminate the campaign by some speedy and de¬
cisive action. Their numbers, their poverty, the want of pro¬
visions, and of the other precautions observed at present, did
not permit these people to wait leisurely the favourable occa¬
sions of giving battle. The plunder, as it was their principal
object, so it was generally their greatest resource ; and they
were not of a character to brook either long delays, or severe
discipline, without which all military knowledge is useless.
M 2
164
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES,
Naturally impetuous and ardent, they only fought with courage
so long as the first heat of their passion continued, and while
they were encouraged by the hope of speedy success. When¬
ever they attacked a civilized and warlike people they were
always sure to be defeated sooner or later, provided the opera¬
tions were slow and cautious. It was thus Marius repaired
the repeated losses which Rome had suffered from the impru¬
dence of the former generals, by only opposing to the Cimbri
a studied slackness, which blunted the edge of their impetuo¬
sity, and threw them into dejection and decay by reducing
them to inaction. One need only read the account which the
English historians give of the irruptions made by the Danes
in England, to be convinced that it was rather by surprise
and sudden excursions than hy a regular war, that they made
a conquest of that country. The northern kings, as well as
those of the other parts of Europe, had not then any regular
troops, excepting perhaps a small number of armed cavalry
which served them for guards. When they would raise an
army, they convoked, as we have said above, a general assem¬
bly of the freemen of the nation ; in this assembly they levied
soldiers, and fixed the number which each farm, village or
town was to furnish. There is room to believe that in Den¬
mark, as in other kingdoms, the soldiers received no regular
pay ; but every one returned home as soon as the expedition
was finished and the booty divided. Nevertheless the more
valiant among them, unable to lie inactive, till their own
country should offer them new occasions to enrich and sig¬
nalize themselves, entered into the service of such other
nations as were at war. This was a general custom among
all the Teutonic nations, and ancient history affords us a
thousand examples of it. We have seen the Cimbri ask the
Romans to assign them lands, promising in return to be
always ready to arm themselves in their quarrels. A long
time after we frequently see the Goths and Danes in the pay
of the Roman emperors. Saxo informs us that in succeeding
ages the emperors of Constantinople intrusted to them the
guard of their persons, and gave them the first ranks in their
armies.
It is very difficult to say any thing more particular of the
tactics or military art of these ancient nations. It appears to
have been the custom of the Scandinavians to dispose their
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
165
troops in the form of a triangle or pyramid, the point of
•which was directed against the centre of the enemy's army.
This body was only composed of infantry, the cavalry being
generally upon a very inconsiderable footing in the North,
whether because the country is so divñded there by mountains
and arms of the sea, or whether because their principal forces
were reserved for the marine*. They had only some sol¬
diers who served both on foot and horseback, and who were
commonly placed in the flanks of their armies. When they
were going to join battle, they raised great shouts, they
clashed their arms together, they invoked with a great noise
the name of Odin, and sometimes sung hymns in bis praise.
They made an intrenchment with their baggage round the
camp, where the women and children remained during the
engagement. The conquered in vain fled there for refuge if
they happened to be routed. Most commonly the "women
only waited their coming back to cut them in pieces, and if
they could not oblige them to retmrn to battle, they chose to
bury themselves and their children in one common carnage
with their husbands rather than fall into the hands of
a merciless conqueror f. Such were the dreadful effects of
that inhumanity with which war was then carried on. An
act of rigour occasioned an act of cruelty, and this again pro¬
duced a degree of barbarity still greater. The chains and
punishments which were reserved for the vanquished, only
served to render the victory the more bloody, and to make it
cost the dearer to those who purchased the honour of de¬
stroying their fellow-creatures without necessity.
Their offensive weapons were commonly the bow and
arrows, the battle-a.x:e, and the sword. The sword was short,
most frequently crooked in the manner of a scimitar, and
hung to a little belt which passed over the right shoulder.
Yet they sometimes made use of very long swords which
went by a different name, and these were what the Cimbri
employed, according to Plutarch. Their champions or heroes
took particular care to procure very keen swords, which they
inscribed with mysterious characters, and called by such
* .Dalin. Siiea, Rike's Hist. torn. i. ch. 8.
f This account, derived from a classic source, even if it could be implicitly
relied on, which is far from being the case, would only be applicable to the
early migratory expeditions of the Germanic and Celtic tribes.—En,
166
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
names as might inspire terror. The battle-axe had two
edges ; when it had a long handle it went hy the name of an
halberd, and was particularly affected by the Trabants, or
those who stood upon guard in the castles of their kings-!'.
The Scandinavians were reckoned very skilful at shooting,
and accordingly made great use of the bow, as we leam from
all the ancient chronicles. But besides these arms, some
warriors employed whatever others they judged most proper
to second their valour. Thus we sometimes read of javelins,
slings, clubs stuck round with points, lances, and a sort of
daggers. There was no less variety in their defensive arms.
Of these the shield or buckler was the chief. This most
commonly was of wood, bark, or leather. The shields be¬
longing to warriors of distinction were of iron or brass, orna¬
mented with painting and sculpture, often finely gilt, and
sometimes plated over with gold or silver. We have seen
what great account the ancient Danes made of their shields,
and what penalties were reserved for such as lost them in
battle. Their shape and size varied much in different coun¬
tries : the Scandinavians generally had them of a long oval
form, just the height of the bearer, in order to protect him
from arrows, darts, and stones. They besides made use of
them to cany the dead to the grave, to terrify the enemy by
clashing their arms against them, to form upon occasion
a kind of shelter or tent when they were obliged to encamp
in the open field, or when the weather was bad. Nor was
the shield less useful in naval encounters; for if the fear of
falling into their enemies' hands obliged one of their warriors
to cast himself into the sea, he could easily escape by swim¬
ming upon his buckler f. Lastly, they sometimes made a
rampart of their shields, by locking them one into another,
* The word halbard is, I believe, of later date, though it is of Gothic
origin, being compounded of the Teutonic, barde an axe, and halle a court ;
halberds being the common weapons of guards. The weapon itself, how¬
ever, was probably in use from the earliest times. Trabants (or rather
drabants) is the name given to the yecmen of the guard in the Northern
courts.—P.
f Vid. Holberg's Dannera. og Norg. Beskrivelse, chap. xiii.
Plutarch, in his Life of Marius, tells us, that the Cimbri, when they were
passing the Alps, took great delight in climbing up to the tops of the moun¬
tains over the ice and snow, and there placing their broad shields under their
bodies, would slide down those vast slippery descents.—P.
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOE AEMS.
167
in the form of a circle ; and at the end of a campaign they
suspended them against the walls of their houses, as the
finest decoration with which they could adorn them.
All these uses which they made of their shields could not
but inspire the Scandinavians with a high respect for this
part of their armour. It was the most noble manner in
which a hero could employ his leisure, to polish his shield
to the .utmost brightness, and to represent upon it either
some gallant feat, or some emblematical figure expressive
of his own inclinations or exploits ; and this served to distin¬
guish him when, being armed at all points, his helmet hid
his face. But then every one could not carry these painted
or carved shields indifferently. When a young warrior was
at first enlisted, they gave him a white and smooth buckler,
which was called the "Shield of expectation." This he
carried till, by some signal exploit, he had obtained leave
to have proofs of his valour engraven on it. For this reason
none but princes, or persons distinguished by their services,
presumed to carry shields adorned with any symbol; the
common soldiers could not obtain a distinction of which the
chieftains were so jealous. Even so early as the expedition
of the Cimbri, the greatest part of the army, according to
Plutarch, had only white bucklers. In following times, but
not till long after, these symbols which illustrious warriors
had adopted, passing from father to son, produced in the
North, as well as all over Europe, hereditary coats of arms.
The casque or helmet was Imown to the Scandinavians
from the most early ages. The private soldiers had their
helmets frequently of leather; those of the officers were,
of iron, and, if their rank or wealth permitted, of gilded
brass. The coat of mail, the breast-plate and back-piece,
the armour for the thighs, and other less essential pieces,
were only for such as were able to procure them.
They did not carry to much perfection the art of fortifying
or attacking places of defence. Their fortresses were only
rude castles situate on the summits of rocks, and rendered in¬
accessible by thick misshapen walls. These rude forts were
seldom taken by the enemy, unless by surprise or after a long
blockade : however, when these were of great importance, they
raised terraces and artificial banks on that side of the fort
which was lowest ; and by this means annoyed the besieged
168
KOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
by tbroA'ing in arrows, stones, boiling water, and melted
pitch ; offensive arms, which the besieged, on their psn-t, were
not negligent in returning.
(^Although the military art of these rude ages cannot be
compared with the tactics of the G reeks and Romans, or even
with the improved methods of warfare which the crusades gave
rise to, there can be little doubt but that such as it was, the
Scandinavians understood it as well, and probably better, than
any people with whom they came in contact. They were not
only unrivalled at sea, but, what is very remarkable, also excel¬
lent horsemen. They fought, in fact, equally well on foot, on
horseback, and on board a vessel. In their naval engage¬
ments they generally lashed their vessels together, so as to
form a floating rampart, with a row of shields placed along the
sides of the ships for the protection of the combatants. Ha¬
rald Hardráda, at the battle of Stamford Bridge, drew up his
army much in the same manner as a general of the present
day would do against an enemy superior in cavalry. With
both wings bent backwards until they met, the army formed
an irregular square, in which Harald, with his chief officers,
placed himself, beside his famous banner, called—very appro¬
priately—the Land Ravager. The men stood close together,
shield against shield, the first rank setting their spears on the
ground, and the second holding theirs forward, thus forming
a bristling rampart which the Anglo-Saxon cavalry tried in
vain to break through The Scandinavians were probably
also as well acquainted with the art of besieging tovms as
their contemporaries, although in their marauding expeditions
they were generally unprovided with the engines necessary for
carrying on a regular siege. We find, however, that when
they invested Paris, in 886, they constructed a moveable
platform, three stories high, on which they placed sixty men
at arms, and brought it to bear against the tower of the bridge
over the Seine, in which they attempted on the day following
to make a breach with three battering rams +.
Harald Hardráda, who commanded more disciplined troops
than the leaders of these piratical bands, is said to have
fought, during the ten years he was in the service of the By¬
zantine emperors, eighteen regular battles, and to have taken
* Heimsk. ix. 92.
I Depping, Liv. iii. ch. 1.
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
169
eighty fortified places from the Saracens in Africa, besides several
others in Sicily, He took one of these Sicilian towns by having
recourse to a very singular expedient. The walls were so strong
that he began to doubt whether it would be possible to make
a breach in them, and the inhabitants had plenty of provisions
and every thing that they required for their defence. Under
these circumstances, Snorri informs us that " Harald or¬
dered his fowlers to catch the small birds that nested in the
town, and ñew to the forest during the day in quest of food for
their young. He then caused splinters of inflammable wood,
smeared with wax and sulphur, to be fastened on their backs
and enkindled. The birds, when set at liberty, flew imme¬
diately to their nests, under the roofs of the houses in the
town, which were thatched with reeds and straw. The fire
from the birds soon caught the thatch, and although each bird
bore but a small quantity, their number was so great that one
house after another began to burn until the whole town was
in flames." * The inhabitants then came out and implored
mercy, and Harald thus gained possession of the place, and in¬
creased his treasures by its plunder.
During the siege of another of these Sicilian towns, Harald
fell sick, and his sickness increased so rapidly that his life was
despaired of. His men, knowing that the besieged had been
informed by their spies of the dangerous state in which their
commander lay, thought they might turn the circumstance to
advantage, and gain possession of the town by a well-con¬
trived stratagem. Demanding, therefore, a parley, they made
known to the besieged that Harald was dead, and trusted that
the clergy would allow his body to be brought into the town and
buried with due solemnity. No proposal could have been more
favourably listened to than this was by the churchmen. The
burial of a wealthy and renowned prince w^as not an event of
everyday occurrence, and large would be the sums, and costly
the presents, they would receive for the due performance of
their pious offices. Out accordingly they went, with cross and
banner, shrine and reliquary, and found the Varangians ready
to accompany them with a splendid coffin. Preceded by the
monks and priests, chaunting their hymns and litanies, a
chosen band of Varangians bore the coffin under a canopy of
* Heimsk. ix. 6. Olga, the widow of the Russian Scandinavian Czar Igor,
is said to have set fire to a town by a similar expedient.
170
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
the finest linen, and marched in solemn procession toward
the town, but no sooner were they within the gateway than
they set down the coffin right across the entrance, placed a
bar to keep the gate open, drew their swords, and sounded to
arms with their trumpets. The whole army, at this signal,
rushed to the assault, soon made themselves masters of the
town, and with the usual Scandinavian barbarity, massacred
all the male inhabitants. The priests and monks, who had
been so eager to offer their services, were in the worst plight,
for the Varangians, says Snorri, " cut down every one around
them, priest and layman, without distinction."*
A somewhat similar story, though not mentioned in any of
the Icelandic sagas, is told by the Norman chroniclers of the
famous sea-king Hastings. This adventurer having heard of
the wealth and splendour of the capital of the Christian
world, entered the Mediterranean, about the year 857, with a
fleet of one hundred vessels, and after plundering the coasts
of Spain and Africa, and the Balearic Isles, appeared before
the ancient Etruscan city of Luna t, which he mistook for
Kome, when the inhabitants were celebrating the festival of
Christmas. Finding the town well prepared for defence,
Hastings had recourse to that perfidy which a Northman
never scrupled to employ against an adversary. He accord¬
ingly sent some of his followers to inform the count and
bishop that he had merely entered the port to repair his shat¬
tered fleet ; and that being also weary of a sea-roving life, he
was desirous of becoming a Christian, in order to find that
repose in the bosom of the church which he had so long
sighed for. Deceived by these fair words, the worthy bishop
went to the camp of the Northmen and baptized Hastings.
But although the Italians furnished their miwelcome visitors
with provisions and other necessaries, they took care not to
let them enter the city. Hastings, ever fertile in expedients,
therefore pretended to be dangerously ill, and whilst his camp
resounded with the lamentations of his followers, he made
known his intention of leaving the rich booty he had acquired
to the church, provided the bishop would allow him to be in¬
terred in one of the sacred edifices in the city. This was con-
* Heimsk. ix. 10.
t Some traces of this ancient city are still discernible on the left bank of
the Magra, near Carrara.
SCANDINAVIAN LOVE FOR ARMS.
171
ceded witliout much difficulty, and shortly afterward a chosen
band of Northmen bore a coffin into the cathedral, supposed
to contain the lifeless body of their chieftain. But no sooner
had they set it down than Hastings started up, sword in hand,
and killed without hesitation the poor bishop who had bap¬
tised him, whilst he was celebrating the sacred office at the altar
for the repose of the soul of the remorseless sea-rover -!=, His
followers then drew forth their concealed weapons, massacred
all who were assembled in the cathedral, and made themselves
masters of the city, which they set fire to, after committing
their usual acts of ferocity f. Hastings, we are told, then
loaded his vessels with a rich booty, and set sail on his return
home, not forgetting to take with him the handsomest women
of Luna
Although these stories of Harald and Hastings have no his¬
torical value, the events narrated are quite in accordance with
the character of the Northmen, and may perhaps have actually,
taken place. All that we know with certainty, however, is,
that Harald took several towns in Sicily, and that the city of
Luna was destroyed in the middle of the ninth century, % a
band of Norman sea-rovers ; a fact which is attested by several
Italian writers as well as by the Norman chroniclers.^]
* The Norman Trouvère Benoit, in his rhymed Chronicle of the Dukes of
Normandy, says—
" E Hastenc est en pez sailli,
Enz en sun poin s'espée nue
Cum male deserte a rendue
A saint euesque sun parein •
Tut le fendi de ci qu'ai sein
Mort l'a e le conte ensement
S'a il des meillors plus de cent."
•j- " Braient dames, plorent puceles
Aqui l'em coupe braz e mámeles.
Suz les auters les esceruient.
Tut detrenchent et tut occient,"
says Benoit.
Depping, Liv. ii. ch. 3.
172
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE MARITIME EXPEDITIONS OF THE ANCIENT
SCANDINAVIANS.
How formidable soever the ancient Scandinavians were by
land to most of the inhabitants of Europe, it must yet be
allowed that their maritime expeditions occasioned still more
destructive ravages and greater terror. We cannot read the
history of the eighth, the ninth and the tenth centuries, with¬
out observing with surprise the sea covered Avith their vessels,
and from one end of Europe to the other, the coasts of those
countries, now the most powerful, a prey to their depredations.
During the space of two hundred years, they almost inces¬
santly ravaged England, and frequently subdued it. They
often invaded Scotland and Ireland, and made incursions on
the coasts of Livonia, Courland and Pomerania. Already
feared, before the time of Charlemagne, they became still
more terrible as soon as this great monarch's eyes were
closed. He is known to have shed tears on hearing that
these barbarians had, on some occasion, defied his name, and
all the precautions he had made to oppose them. He fore¬
saw what his people would suffer from their courage under
his feeble successors. And never was presage better grounded.
They soon spread, like a devouring flame, over Lower Saxony,
Friesland, Holland, Flanders, and the banks of the Rhine as
far as Mentz. They penetrated into the heart of France,
having long before ravaged the coasts ; they everywhere
found their way up the Somme, the Seine, the Loire, the
Garonne and the Rhone. Within the space of thirty years,
they frequently pillaged and burnt Paris, Amiens, Orleans,
Poitiers, Bourdeaux, Toulouse, Saintes, Angoulême, Nantes,
and Tours. They settled themselves in Camargue, at the
mouth of the Rhone, from whence they wasted Provence and
Dauphiny as far as Valence. In short, they ruined France,
levied immense tribute on its monarchs, burnt the palace of
Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle, and, in conclusion, caused
one of the finest provinces of the kingdom to be ceded to
SCANDINAVIAN MARITIME EXPEDITIONS.
173
them. They often carried their arms into Spain and even
made themselves dreaded in Italy and Greece. In fine, they
no less infested the north than the south with their incur¬
sions, spreading everywhere desolation and terror: some¬
times as furiously bent on their mutual destruction, as on
the ruin of other nations ; sometimes animated by a more
pacific spirit, they transported colonies to unknown or unin¬
habited countries, as if they were willing to repair in one
place the horrid destruction of human kind occasioned by
their furious ravages in others.
A people, who are ignorant of manual arts and professions,
of justice, and of all means of providing for their own secu¬
rity or subsistence except by war, never fail to betake them¬
selves to piracy, if they inhabit a country surrounded by the
sea. The Pelasgi or first Greeks were generally pirates and
robbers. " Some of them," says Thucydidesf, "attacked un-
* In September, 844, a band of these sea-rovers, after plundering the coasts
from the Tagus to the Guadalquiver, sailed up the latter river and attacked
Seville, which they soon made themselves masters of, the inhabitants having
fled, on their approach, to Carmona, and the Moorish troops making but a
feeble resistance. On learning this unexpected event, Abderahman II. sent
a flotilla with fresh troops down the river, from Cordova, and a sanguinary
conflict took place between the sectaries of Odin and Mahomet, presenting,
no doubt, one of the most singular scenes recorded in history. On one side
the fair-haired sons of the north, on the other the swarthy warriors of
Mauritania ; both possessing indomitable courage, and both excited by the
spirit of religious fanaticism. The Northman beholding the shadowy forms of
the Valkyrior hovering over the field of battle, ready to conduct him in.
triumph, when he fell, to participate in the boisterous joys of Valhalla ; the
Moor, amidst the clash of arms, equally convinced that dark-eyed Houris
were waAÛng their green kerchiefs to welcome those who braved death for
Allah and his prophet, to an eternity of blissful voluptuousness. No decided
advantage appears to have been gained by either party, we only know that
the sea-rovers redescended the Guadalquiver unmolested, carrying with them
the spoil of the city and a great number of captives, among whom we may
picture many a weeping damsel, who, amidst the frozen regions of the north
would long sigh in vain for the sunny plains and vine-covered hills of Anda¬
lusia. The Northmen continued cruising for some time after this along the
coast, but Abderahman, by stationing vessels at the mouths of the rivers, and
troops on the sea-shore, effectually prevented them from committing any fur¬
ther depredations. This seems to have been the first time that the Moors
came into contact with the Northmen, whom they took for a people of magi¬
cians. See Depping, Histoire des Expéd. Maritimes des Normands, Liv. II.
chap. 2.—Ed.
+ See Thucyd. lib, i. cap. 5.
374
NOKTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
fortified cities ; others, such as the Carians and Cretans, "who
dwelt along the coasts, fitted out fleets to scour the seas."
But whereas the Greeks are represented to us as pirates in
the first periods of their history, it is to be observed, that the
Scandinavians did not become so tül late. Sidonius Apolli-
narius, a writer of the fifth centuiy, is, I think, the first who
mentions the piracy of the Northern nations. He attributes
this practice to the Saxons, of whom he draws a frightful pic¬
ture *. The Danes and Norwegians had not as yet ventured
far from their coasts. I imagine that their nearest neigh¬
bours had not allurements suificient to tempt them. The in¬
habitants of those countries, as poor and warlike as themselves,
were likely to return them blow for blow. Britain and Gaul
were too distant and too well defended to become the first at¬
tempt of the Scandinavian ravagers. They began then by
arming a few vessels, with which they plundered the states
nearest to them, and overpowered such few merchant ships as
* The Saxons are first noticed by the ancient writers as occupying, towards
the close of the second century, the islands lying near the mouth of the
Elbe. Ptol. G-eogr. II. 2. A century later they had become so troublesome
by their predatory expeditions, that the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian
deemed it advisable to place the coasts under the special command of an
officer, afterwards dignified with the title of Count of the Saxon Shore. Carau-
sius, a Menapian, who first held this office, instead of warring with the
pirates, entered into an alliance with them, and by their assistance, and that
of his German (Frankic) soldiers was proclaimed emperor, and reigned in
Britain ffom 287 to 294. " Under his command," says Gibbon, " Britain,
destined in future ages to obtain the empire of the sea, already assumed its
natural and respectable station of a maritime power. His fleets rode tri¬
umphant in the Channel, commanded the mouths of the Seine and of the
Rhine, ravaged the coasts of the ocean, and diffused beyond the columns of
Hercules the terror of his name."
The coasts of France continued to be infested by Saxon sea-rovers during
the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh centuries. Their expeditions were conducted
precisely in the same manner as that of their Scandinavian brethren of the
eighth, ninth and tenth centuries. They ascended the rivers in their light
barks, pillaged the towns on their banks, and retired with their booty to an
island or other naturally strong position on the coast, where they generally
passed the winter. A band of these Saxon pirates even succeeded in ac¬
quiring a permanent settlement in Neustria, and like their Norman successors,
left off their predatory habits for the peaceful pursuits of commerce and agri¬
culture. The district they occupied is called in a charter of Charles-le-
Chauve, Otlingia Saxonica. They had also permanent establishmènts at
Caen, Bayeux, St. Omer, and at the mouth of the Loire. See Depping, Hist,
flea Expéd. Marit. des Normands, Lib. II. ch. 1.—En,
SCANDINAVIAN MARITIME EXPEDITIONS,
175
traversed the Baltic. Insensibly enriched by their success in
little enterprizes, and encouraged to attempt greater, they
■were at length in a condition to become formidable to distant
nations, such as the Anglo-Saxons, the French, or the
Flemings, who all of them possessed wealth enough to tempt
freebooters, and lived under a government too defective and
weak to repel them. From that time this people conceiveji
an amazing fondness for maritime expeditions, and towards
the beginning of the ninth century we find these adventurers
vastly increased, who, by a strange association of ideas, ima¬
gined they acquired eternal glory by committing everywhere,
without any pretext, the most horrible violence.
In proportion as the divisions, incapacity and imprudence
of Charlemagne's successors weakened their governments,
the Scandinavians, encouraged by their growing wealth, con¬
stantly fitted out still more numerous fleets. "The French
monarchy," says an author of that age*, "labouring under
the weight of a bad interior policy, hath been obliged to
leave the seas exposed to the barbarous fury of the Nor¬
mans." The mal-administration of the Saxon kings of
England produced the same effect in that islaud. Both the
one and the other had the dangerous imprudence to pur¬
chase peace from these pirates ; which was n ot only putting
arms into the hands of the enemy, but was also attended
with this, further inconvenience, that the commanders in
these expeditions, who had no authority over each other, only
considered themselves bound by their own separate engage¬
ments ; so that those harassed nations were no sooner freed,
by dint of money, from one set of ravfigers, than another
succeeded, ready to attack them ■v\ith the same impetuosity,
if they were not appeased by the same means. The better to
account for that strange facility with which the Scandinavians
so long plundered, and so frequently conquered the Anglo-
Saxons and the French, we must remark, that their cruelty,
which gave no quarter, and which occasioned those sad
lamentations so well Imownf, had impressed these nations
* Auctor Vitse Sti. Genulfi, lib. xi.
"b The monks inserted it as a petition in the Litany, A furore Norman-
norum, libera nos, Domine.—The French called these adventurers in general
Normans, i. e. Northern-men; which afterwards became the proper name of
the colony that settled in Neustria, whose history is given below.—P.
176
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
with such terror, that they were half vanquished at their very
appearance. Besides, there was no contending with an
enemy who did not make war, like regular forces, on any
direct and consistent plan, but by sudden irruptions in a
hundred places at once, as expeditious in retreating to their
ships where they met with resistance, as in darting down
upon the coasts where they found them quiet and defenceless.
It is, nevertheless, probable that a wise and well-ordered
government might have remedied all these evils: and in fact
that it did so, we have an incontestable proof in the conduct
of the great Alfred, under whose reign the Danes were obliged
to leave England unmolested. But what appears an easy
matter to us at this time, required in those ages of ignorance
and confusion the uncommon genius of an Alfred to accom¬
plish*.
If we reflect on the interior state of Scandinavia during the
times that its inhabitants were so unfortunately famous, we
shall soon see the cause of that amazing exterior power which
they possessed. I have before observed that they neglected
agriculture, which, among a thousand other good effects,
extinguishes in a rising people the relish for savage life, and
inspires them with the love of peace and justice, without
which the cultivation of their lands is useless. Their flocks
being almost their only income, they were neither obliged to
a constant abode on the same spot, nor to wait for the time of
harvest, and consequently such a people, though in fact but
few, were able, on short notice, to levy numerous armies.
Most of them brought up in a maritime country, and inured
to the sea from their childhood, had no fear of the dangers, or
rather knew not that there were dangers of any kind attend-
* Alfred, as is well known, translated the works of several Latin writers
into Anglo-Saxon for the instruction of his countrymen. To his translation
of Orosius's "Epitome of Ancient History," he subjoined a geographical
treatise which he had drawn up partly from communications made to him
by travellers and navigators. In this treatise he has inserted the narratives
which Otter or Ohter, a Norwegian, and Vulfstan (Ulfstein) a Dane, gave
him of their discoveries in the northern seas, and has thus transmitted to us
the earliest account we have of a voyage round Cape North. This was
made by Otter, who proceeded as far as the White Sea, on the eastern coasts
of which he found the Beormas (Pennians), a people who spoke nearly the
same language as the Finns of Scandinavia. Ulfstein's voyages were con¬
fined to the Baltic, the shores of which were no doubt at that period accu¬
rately known to his countrymen.—En.
SCANDINAVIAN MARITIME EXPEDITIONS
177
ing such a life. What a boundless field for conquests was
here opened by the sole advantage of navigation! What
a free scope was here afforded a warlike people to spread
universally the terror of their arms! The profession of
piracy was so far from appearing disgraceful to them, that it
was in their eyes the certain road to honours and to fortune:
for it was wisely contrived that the word honour, to Avhich so
many different ideas are annexed, was among them solely
confined to a disregard of dangers. Hence it is that in the
ancient chronicles, more than one hero boasts of being the
most renowned pirate in the north; and that often the sons
of the great lords and kings made cruising voyages in their
youth, in order to render themselves illustrious, and to
become one day worthy of command. This is what we see
happen very frequently after Harald Hárfagra had once made
himself master of all Norway, which before his time was
divided into several petty states *. Many chieftains, seeing
themselves thus stripped of their possessions, retired into
Iceland, the Orkneys, the isles of Faro and Shetland, and
thence covering the sea with their vessels, infested all the
coasts of Scandinavia; where for many ages there was no
sailing with any safety. Adam of Bremen, who travelled
through Denmark some time after Christianity was received
there, gives a very affecting description of the desolations
they made in that kingdom f. Nor were they in reality less,
formidable in the north, than to France or England. The
coasts of Denmark, Sweden and Norway were obliged to be
under constant guard. They increased so much, that on
some occasions, and particularly under King Eagnar Lodbrok,
♦ Harald made a vow neither to comb nor cut his hair until he had sub¬
dued the whole of Norway, and as it took him several years to do this, it
grew so long and thick that he was called Haralld hinn Lúfa, Harald the
Hirsute. Having finally accomplished the object of his wishes, and being on
a visit at Jarl Ragnvald's in More, he took a bath, which he no doubt stood
very much in need of, and afterwards combed his hair, and got Eagnvald to
trim it for him. His appearance was so much changed for the better by
these cleansing operations that Eagnvald gave him the surname of Hárfagra,
by which he is known in history ; Haralld hinn Hárfagra, Harald the
Fair-haired, or as he might be termed in English, Harold Fairfax. See
Heimsk. iii. c. 23.—En.
f Yid. Adam Brem, de situ Ban. passim.
N
178
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES,
the Danes were perhaps more numerous on sea than on
land.
As soon as a prince had attained his eighteenth or twen¬
tieth year, he commonly requested of his father a small fleet
completely fitted out, in order to achieve with his followers
some adventure that might be productive of glory and spoil.
The father applauded such an inclination in his son, as indi¬
cating a rising courage and heroic mind. He gave him ships,
the commander and crew of which mutually engaged not to
return, unless adorned with laurels and loaded with plunder.
That nation became the first object of their resentment from
whom they had received any injury; and frequently their
principal aim was to make reprisals on some province which
served for the retreat of other corsairs. If the fleets of two
different nations met by chance in their voyage, this was also
an occasion of fighting which they never neglected.
The vanquished party was commonly put to death, though
sometimes the conquerors were contented to make them
slaves; and often, by a singular strain of generosity, which
the love of glory was able to produce in minds in other
respects so ferocious, if the enemy that fell in their way had
fewer ships than themselves, they set aside part of their own
vessels, that so, engaging upon equal terms, the victory might
not be attributed to superiority of numbers. Many of them
also regarded it as dishonourable to surprise the enemy by
night. Sometimes the chiefs thought it best to decide the
dispute by single combat; in this case they landed on the
nearest shore : if one of them happened to he disarmed or
thrown down, he frequently refused to receive quarter, and
was killed on the spot; but if he had defended himself gal¬
lantly, the victor granted him his life, demanded his friend¬
ship, adopted him for a kind of foster-brother, and they
mutually swore to preserve an eternal friendship. In token
of this alliance the two heroes made incisions in their hands
or arms, and besmeared their weapons with the blood, or
mixing it in a cup, each of them covering their heads with a
sod, drank of it. swearing that the death of the first of them
who fell in battle should not pass unrevenged. "Many of
these piratical princes, whom success and custom had attached
and habituated to this profession, never quitted it, but gloried
SCANDINAVIAN MAEITIME EXPEDITIONS, 179
in passing the remainder of their lives on board their ships.
We meet with them sometimes, in their ancient histories,
boasting that they never reposed under an immoveable roof,
nor drank beer in peace by their fireside.
The vessels of these corsairs were always well provided
with offensive arms, such as stones, arrows, cables, with
which they overset small vessels, and grappling irons to
board them, &c. Every individual was skilful in swimming,
and as their engagements were seldom far distant from the
shore, the vanquished party often saved themselves by swim¬
ming to land. Each band had its own peculiar stations,
ports, places of rendezvous, and magazines : and many cities
in the north owe their present prosperity to the advantage
they had of affording them retreats. Such was Limden in
Scania, which, according to Adam of Bremen contained
great riches laid up there by the pirates : and for a long time
the kings themselves countenanced and shared their plunder,
by selling them the liberty of retiring into their harbours.
The manner in which the lands were parcelled out in
Denmark and Norway evidently shows that every thing there
was directed towards this one end of having a powerful mari¬
time force. Each division, whether more or less consider¬
able, derived its name from the number of vessels it was
capable of fitting out, and these names still subsist in some
places. In the history of Denmark may be seen the par¬
ticular taxes imposed on each province for that purpose, and
the number of ships of which their fleets were composed. At
first they were inconsiderable, but in proportion as the chiefs
who followed this piratical profession were enriched by it, the
northern seas were seen covered with one or two hundred
vessels, or still more numerous squadrons. We read in his¬
tory of a fleet of seven hundred ships, commanded by Harald,
surnamed Bluetooth, king of Denmark, and a Norwegian
earl named Hakon. This number is no greater than what
we often find in the fleets under the following reigns, and
besides it is certain that the vessels of which it consisted
were but small. The first we hear of were only a kind
of twelve-oared barks ; they were afterwards built capable of
containing one hundred or a hundred and twenty men, and
* Vid. Adam Brem, de sit. Dan. cap. ccxiii,
N 2
180
NOETHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
these were very common in the eleventh and twelfth cen¬
turies. The northern kings also sometimes constructed ves¬
sels of an extraordinary size, but these were rather for show
than defence. Such was that of Harald Hárfagra, a long
ship which the chronicles mention with admiration, under the
name of the Dragon. King Olaf Tryggvason had one of the
same kind, named the Long Serpent : the chronicles say it
was very long, large and high, and of a most durable con¬
struction; a serpent or dragon was carved on its prow, and
both that and its poop were gilded. It carried thirty-four
banks of rowers, and was, they add, the finest and largest
ship that had been ever seen in Norway*.
These piratical expeditions were not always confined to the
devastation of some province, or to a few naval engagements ;
events which, producing no farther consequence than the im¬
mediate misfortune of the people who then suffered by them,
were soon forgot by posterity. I should digress from my sub¬
ject were I to relate all the conquests made by the inhabitants
of the north in their cruising voyages. I will only take
notice of the emigration of the Angles, who along with the
Saxons, invaded Britain in the fifth century, and gave it their
name. As for the rest, I shall only borrow from the old
chronicles some facts and relations little known to strangers,
but wliich will afford the best idea of the maritime power of
these ancient Northmen, formerly dreaded by so many nations.
It is well known that the Britons, unable to defend them¬
selves from the northern inhabitants of their isle, sought for
assistance from the Danes and Saxons, their allies f. The
* Olaf Trj'ggvason captured this vessel from Baud, a Norwegian clilef-
tain, whom he put to death in the most cruel and barbarous manner for his
refusing to embrace Christianity.—See the Heimsk. vi. 87.—Ed.
+ Modern historical criticism, which has dissipated some of our most
cherished classical illusions, Avill no longer listen to the old story of Vortigem
seeking assistance from Saxon chieftains bearing such very equivocal names
as those of Hengist and Horsa®. It is, in fact, obvious, that swarms of
hardy sea-rovers who had long infested the coasts of Britain, and only been
prevented from establishing themselves in the country by the disciplined .troops
of imperial Kome, would require no invitation from British princes to cross
' Hengist—A. Sax. Hengest; Old Norse, Heingéstr; Sw. and Dan.
Hingst; Germ. Hengst, a stallion,
Horsa—An. Sax. hors; Dan. hors; Germ. Ross, a horse ; Old Norse, hros
and hors, a mare.
SCANDINAVIAN ilABITIME EXPEDITIONS
181
ancient Saxon chronicle, published by Gibson, informs us, that
those people who went over and settled in Britain were ori¬
ginally of three different countries. One party of them were
the ancient Saxons, that is to say, the people of Lower
Saxony; another were the Angles or English, who inhabited
that part of the duchy of Sleswic in the neighbourhood of
Flensbourg, still called Angelen, and were consequently
Danes. Lastly, there passed over into Britain also a consi¬
derable number of Jutes, which is the name given at this day
to the inhabitants of Jutland. "From the Jutes," says the
chronicler, " came the Kentish-men and the Wightwarians,
that is, the tribe which now dwells in Wight, and that race
among the West-Saxons which is still called the race of Jutes.
From the Old-Saxons came the men of Essex and Sussex and
Wessex. From Anglia, which has ever since remained waste
betwixt the Jutes and Saxons, came the men of East Anglia,
Middle Anglia, Mercia, and all North-humbria : " * and adds,
that the Angles wholly abandoned their own country, situated
between the territories of the Jutes and Saxons, and that it had
ever since stood waste. Thus although this people were not
yet known by the name of Danes, it is evident that at least
two-thirds of the conquerors of Great Britain came from Den¬
mark ; so that when the Danes again infested England about
three or four hundred years after, and finally conquered it to¬
ward the latter end of the tenth century, they waged war with
the descendants of their own ancestors t.
the sea, when they became aware that these troops had finally abandoned toe
island. It is indeed highly probable, that the Saxons had fixed themselves,
according to the invariable custom of the northern pirates, on several strong
points on the coast, even during the dominion of the Romans. Be this as it
may, their leaders would easily perceive that by taking part in the quarrels
of British princes, and opposing their hardy bands to a people long unaccus¬
tomed to warfare, much more was to be gained than by mere sea-roving.
Higden, in his Polycronicon, i. 26, gives an odd etymology of the word
Saxon. " Men of that cowntree, he says, ben more lyghter and stronger on
the sea than other scommers and theeves of the sea, and pursue thcyr
enemyes full harde both by water and by londe, and ben called Saxones of
Saxum, that is a stone, for they ben as harde as stones, and uneasy to fare
with."—Ed.
* Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bohn's Stand. Lib. Edit.
That two-thirds of the conquerors—not of Great Britain—but of Eng¬
land, came from Denmark, if by Denmark our author meant the territories
composing the Danish monarchy in his time, is unquestionable, for the Jutes
came from Jutland, the Angles from the duchy of Sleswick, and the greater
part of the Saxons from Holstein ; but it dcçs not by any means follow that
182
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
A particular event served to rekindle that spirit of rapine
and conquest which had already been so fatal to this island.
Harald Hárfagra having (as I said above) completed the con-
because these tribes came from districts that fell under the Danish sceptre at
a later period, they were of Danish, that is to say, of Scandinavian origin.
The fact is, ethnology as a science was too little known in the last century for a
writer to make a proper distinction even between races, much less between
the different branches of the same race. Having elsewhere discussed this
subject^, we will merely observe, that the Teutonic race has two main
branches, the Scandinavian and the Grermanic, the latter of which presents
two distinct sub-branches, the Alemannic or Upper Germanic, and the Saxonic
or Lower Germanic. Except by a few of our own writers, who, if we may
judge by an article in a recent number of one of our most esteemed periodi¬
cals, seem still to cling pertinaciously to the crude notions of a bygone age
on such subjects, it is no longer disputed that the Saxon invaders of England
belonged to the Lower Germanic, and the Jutes to the Scandinavian branch
of the great Teutonic family. But under which of these branches are we
to class the Angles? Placed geographically between the two, they might
have belonged either to the one or the other, and as no remnant of their lan¬
guage has been handed down to us, we are unable to decide the ques¬
tion by direct philological evidence. Professor Bask, however, very justly
observes, in the Preface to his excellent Anglo-Saxon Grammar, that " it
is reasonable to infer that the Angles were a Germanic and not a Scandi¬
navian tribe, from the circumstance of their being so closely connected with
the Saxons, that the whole of them accompanied the latter in their emigra¬
tion, and this conjecture becomes almost a certainty from the feet, that the
dialects of these invaders so soon coalesced into one common tongue, and
assumed a character so decidedly Germanic, that, with the exception of a few
Normanisms, introduced in later times, there is scarcely a vestige deserving
of notice of the old Scandinavian structure to be found in Anglo-Saxon;
so that in this respect even the old Saxon bears a closer resemblance to the
Scandinavian tongue." We think the reasons thus adduced by one of the
greatest philologists of the present age, are quite sufficient to warrant the
conclusion, that the Angles were a Germanic tribe speaking a language very
similar to Old Saxon and Frisic. They were also probably a more numerous
body than the Saxons, for they finally acquired a greater extent of ter¬
ritory, and gave their name to the whole nation, though to the present day
we are called by the Welsh and the Scotch Highlanders, in their respective
idioms, not Angles or Englishmen, but Saxons. However, whether the
Angles or the Saxons were the more numerous, it is certain that the Jutes
formed but a mere fraction of the invaders, so that instead of " two-thirds of
the conquerors" being of Scandinavian origin, as M. Mallet would seem to
infer, we may safely assume that at least three-fourths of them were Ger¬
manic, the more so as it is highly probable that a considerable number of
Frisians took an active part in the enterprize. It would, therefore, appear
that the invaders of England belonged to three Germanic tribes, speaking
respectively Anglic, Old Saxon, and Frisic, and to a Scandinavian tribe
speaking Jutic ; and that Anglo-Saxon, which soon became the common lan-
^ See the Kemarks on Bishop Percy's Preface.
SCAÎÎDINAVIAN MARITIME EXPEDITIONS.
183
quest of Norway about the year 880, and being desirous of
procuring that repose for such of his subjects as dwelt along
the coasts, which they themselves would not grant to their
neighbours, prohibited all pirates of Norway, under the
severest penalties, from exercising any hostilities against their
own country. But notwithstanding this prohibition, a Nor¬
wegian earl named Rolf or Rollo*, sprung, as it is said, from
the ancient kings of Norway, made a descent on the province
of Viken, nor retired thence till laden with a great booty of
cattle. Harald, who was in the neighbourhood, was enraged
at Rollo to the last degree, for thus daring to disobey him
almost in his very presence, and instantly condemned him to
perpetual banishment from Norway. In vain Hilda, the
mother of this unfortunate youth, threw herself at the king's
gaage of the conquerors, and which differs as much from Old Saxon as Italian
does from Spanish, was formed by the rude mixture of their respective
idioms, the Anglic and Old Saxonia elements being unquestionably the pre¬
dominant.—Ed.
* Eolio was the son of the Jarl Eagnvald mentioned in the note, page 177,
and from his earliest youth a celebrated sea-rover. He was, however, of
such a great bulk or stoutness of growth, that no horse could carry him, and
hence Avas obliged in all his journeys to go on foot, from which circum¬
stance he was caUed Gaungo-Rolf, i. e. Eolf the Walker, or Ganging Ealph.
See Heimsk. iii. 24. We should imagine, however, that Eolio was not a
very bulky, but an unusually tall man, and that he obtained his surname
from his legs appearing to touch the ground when he was on horseback.
When Eolio became Duke of Normandy and his descendants kings of Eng¬
land, genealogists had no difficulty in making out a suitable pedigree for him,
tracing his ancestors, in the maternal line, up to Sigurd Eing, and in the
paternal, to the Finnish family of the Fornjótr, which they supposed had
been established from time immemorial in Norway. Several of our modern
writers have given this genealogy as they found it in the works which fur¬
nished the materials for their respective compilations ; but the reader may
judge of its value, when we state that Sigurd Eing was a king of Denmark
of the ante-historical or heroic period, and that the word Fornjótr means the
oldest or primordial giant, and was used to designate a mythological person¬
age, who had three sons called Fire, Wind, and Ocean ! I These, it must be
confessed, are very good progenitors, and what is more very appropriate ones,
for the royal descendants of the Norman sea-rover have generally possessed a
good portion of fire, and we all knoAv that her present most gracious Majesty as
fearlessly braves the Avind as she gloriously rules the ocean. We are sorry
to say, however, that modern criticism, instead of remounting to the elements,
stops short at Eollo's grandfather. All that can be ascertained, in fact, with
any degree of historical certainty, is that Jarl Eagnvald Avas the son of
Eystein Glumru, one of the chiefs or petty kings of the Drontheim district.-—
Ed.
184
NOBTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
feet, imploring pardon for her son, and chanting, according
to the custom of those times, these verses, which the chroni¬
cles have preserved to us : " Is the very name of our race
become hateful to you? You drive from his country one of
the greatest men it has ever produced, the honour of the Nor¬
wegian nobility. Ah Î why will you provoke the wolf to de¬
vour the flocks who wander defenceless through the woods?
Fear, lest becoming outrageous, he should one day occasion
great misfortunes." The king remained inflexible, and Kollo,
perceiving that he was for ever cut off from all hopes of return
to his own country, retired with his fleet among the islands of
the Hebrides to the north-west of Scotland, whither The
flower of the Norwegian nobility had fled for refuge ever since
Harald had become master of the whole kingdom. He was
there received with open arms by those warriors, who, eager
for conquest and revenge, waited only for a chief to undertake
some glorious enterprize. Rollo setting himself at their head,
and seeing his power formidable, sailed towards Fjngland,
which had been long as it were a field open on all sides to the
violences of the northern nations. But the great Alfred had
some years before established such order in his part of the
island, that Rollo, after several fruitless attempts, despaired of
forming there such a settlement as should make him amends
for the loss of his own country. He pretended, therefore, to
have had a supernatural dream, which promised him a glorious
fortune in France, and which served at least to support the
ardour of his followers. The weakness of the government in
that kingdom, and the confusion in which it was involved,
were still more persuasive reasons to assure them of success
Having therefore sailed up the Seine to Rouen, he imme
diately took that capital of the province, then called Neustria,
and making it his magazine of arms, he advanced up to Paris,
to which he laid siege in form. The events of this war
properly belong to the histoiy of France, and all the world
knows that it at length ended in the entire cession of Neus¬
tria, which Charles the Simple was obliged to give up to Rollo
and his Normans, in order to purchase a peace. Rollo re¬
ceived it in perpetuity to himself and his posterity, as a feudal
duchy dependent on the crown of France. This famous treaty,
by which Charles agreed to give his daughter Gisele in marriage
to Rollo, together with that part of Neustria since called
scandinavian maeitime expeditions.
185
Normandy, upon condition that he would do homage for it,
and would embrace the Christian religion, was concluded at
Saint Clair, a.d. 913. A description of the interview between
Charles and this new duke, gives us a curious picture of the
manners of the Normans, for Rollo would not take the oath
of fealty to his sovereign lord any other way than by placing
his hands within those of the king, and absolutely refused to
kiss his feet, as custom then required. It was with great dif¬
ficulty he was prevailed on to let one of his warriors perform
this ceremony in his stead ; but the officer to whom Rollo de¬
puted this service suddenly raised the king's foot so high
that he overturned him on his back ; a piece of rudeness which
was only laughed at, to such a degree were the Normans
feared and Charles despised
Soon after, Rollo was persuaded to embrace Christianity,
and he was baptized with much ceremony by tlie Archbishop of
Rouen in the cathedral of that city. As soon as he saw him¬
self in full possession of Normandy, he exhibited such virtues
as rendered the province happy, and deserved to make his
former outrages forgotten. Religious, wise, and liberal, this
captain of pirates became, after Alfred, the greatest and most
humane prince of his time. Far from treating Normandy as a
conquered province, his whole attention was employed to re¬
establish it. This country was, by the frequent devastations
of the Scandinavians, rendered so desert and uncultivated,
that Rollo could not at first reside in it; but Charles was
obliged to yield up Brittany to him for awhile, till Normandy
was in a condition to furnish subsistence to its new masters f.
Nevertheless, the fertility of the soil seconding the industry
of the people, it became, in a few years, one of the finest pro¬
vinces of Europe. Thus it was that this prince, afterwards
known under the name of Rollo or Raoul I., secured to his
• " Le roi enversa tut arière
De ce fu ris à grant manière,"
says Robert Wace in his Roman de Rou.
+ So say the old Norman chroniclers, but the French historians of the pre¬
sent day have shown this yielding up of Brittany to be a mere fiction. The
territory ceded to Rollo in the year 912 was only that part of the ancient
province of Neustria that corresponds to the present Département de la
Seine Inférieure, and a portion of the Département de L'Eure, and this can
scarcely be called a cession, for no mention is made of any legal document
having been drawn up on the occasion. The plain story, when divested of
romance, seems to be this : Rollo went to Saint Clair, and gave his hand to
the king as a sign that he wished to live in peace with the Franks, provided
186
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
children this noble possession, which thej, two hundred years
afterwards, augmented by the conquest of England ; as if it
were destined that this island should at all times receive its
sovereigns from among the northern nations*. As to the
French historians, they agree with the Icelandic chronicles, in
describing Rolla as a man of uncommon wisdom and capacity;
generous, eloquent, indefatigable, intrepid, of a noble figure
and majestic size. Many other Scandinavian princes and
chieftains are drawn in the same colours. Such were Harald
they would leave him in quiet possession of the territory he had conquered,
and which he then held in virtue of the only right that a worshipper of Thor
and Odin would be inclined to recognize, that of the sword ; and Charles the
Simple was no doubt too glad to accept these conditions ; and although he may
have stipulated for the observance of the usual ceremonies of investiture, it
seems very unlikely that Rollo would even have deigned to listen to the pro¬
posal ; at all events there is not the slightest evidence to show that he took
the feudal oath of fealty. It would also appear, that so far from the new
duchy being " desert and uncultivated," it was probably as populous and
flourishing a district as any other in Charles's dominions, for during the ten
years preceding this so-called treaty, it had been so well governed as to afford,
both to heathens and Christians, a much greater security for person and
property than could be found in any of the adjacent territories, a circum¬
stance which had induced a considerable number of Charles's subjects to settle
in the country. See Depping, liv. iii. c. 2.—En.
* The passion of the Normans for a wild adventurous life seems by no
means to have abated after their conversion to Christianity. As pagans they
had been the most zealous sectaries of Thor, the god of battles, the com-
bater of giants, monsters, demons, and every other typified evil principle.
As Christians they became the enthusiastic devotees of Michael the arch¬
angel, whom they were taught to believe was equally as renowned in de¬
moniacal warfare as the Scandinavian deity. We therefore find them in the
beginning of the eleventh century making pilgrimages to Mount Grargano in
Apulia in honour of their new protector, and shortly afterwards taking an
active part in the incessant warfare carried on by Lombards, Germans,
Byzantines and Saracens, for the possession of Southern Italy. In 1029 the
Byzantines deemed it advisable to cede Aversa to one of their leaders, and
ten years later three of the gallant sons of Tancred de Hauteville had made
themselves masters of Apulia, and parcelled out the land among their fol¬
lowers as Rollo had done in Normandy, and William the Conqueror subse¬
quently did in England. These conquests were completed by the celebrated
Robert Guiscard, the craftiest politician of his age, who drove the Saracens
from Sicily, and transmitted to his brother Roger a dominion corresponding to
the limits of the present kingdom of Naples. The latter half of the eleventh
century, in which these stirring events took place, fonns a conspicuous epoch
in history. We find a William the Conqueror in England, a Henry IV. in
Germany, a St. Ladislaus in Hungary, a Malek Schah in Persia, the Cid in
Spain, Robert Guiscard in Italy, and a Hildebrand in the chair of St. Peter;
and the century closes by Godfrey de Bouillon planting the chivalric banner
of the crusaders on the walls of Jerusalem.—En.
SCANDINAVIAN MAEITIME EXPEDITIONS.
187
Hárfagra, Olaf Tiyggvason, Magnus, king of Norway, Canute
the Great, &c., men born with truly heroic qualities, which
they, alas! degraded by injustice and inhumanity; but who
wanted only another age and another education to render
them most accomplished personSj,.
It was not by this expedition alone, important as it might
be, that the Norwegians were distinguished under the reign
of Harald Hárfagra. The ambition of that prince gave birth
to a conquest of a more peaceable Idnd, which though little
known to the rest of the world, had yet very interesting con¬
sequences in the history of the north. For, not satisfied
with having happily subdued the little tyrants who had for a
long time weakened and distressed Norway, he was disposed
to exercise such absolute authority over his subjects, as, far
from submitting to, they had not even a name for it. The
greatest part of the Norwegian nobility perceiving that it was
in vain to oppose their strength to his, determined to abandon
a country where they were obliged to live depressed, im¬
poverished and obscure.
[¡It fortunately happened that at this period Iceland began
to be Imown. The Landnámabók informs us that the first
Northman who landed on the shores of that island was
Naddod, a celebrated sea-rover, who being driven by a violent
storm on the eastern coast about the year 860, entered one of
the friths and ascended a high mountain that commanded an
extensive prospect, but discovering no traces of the country
being inhabited, set sail again, after giving it the name of
Snœland, Snowland. Four years afterwards Gardar Svafarson,
a Swede, was also driven by a storm to Iceland, which by cir¬
cumnavigating he ascertained to be an island, and called it
Gardarhólm, Gardar's Isle. The favourable account Gardar
gave of it on his return having excited the spirit of adventure
among the Northmen, Floki, another famous sea-rover, went
out with the intention of settling there, but all the cattle he
had taken with him having perished during the winter, and
the spring being unusually cold, and the bays and friths
covered with ice, he returned in the summer to Noiway, and
bestowed the name of Island, Iceland, on the island in
which he had passed such a gloomy season, and which he de¬
clared was uninhabitable either for man or beast. We are
told that Floki, previous to setting out on his expedition, per-
188
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
formed a great sacrifice, and having consecrated three ravens
to the gods, took them with him to guide him on his voyage.
After touching at the Shetland and Fseroe islands, he steered
N.W., and when he was "fairly out at sea, let loose one of his
ravens, which after rising to a considerable elevation, directed
its flight to the land they had quitted, whence Floki very
sagely concluded that it was nearer to him than any other.
Onward, therefore, went Floki. The second bird, after being
some time on the wing, returned to the ship, a sign that land
was too far distant to be descried even by a raven hovering in
the sky. Floki therefore continued his course, and shortly
afterwards let loose his third raven, which he followed in its
flight until he reached the eastern coast of Iceland*.
In the year 870 Ingolf, a Norwegian chieftain, wintered in
Iceland, and was so pleased with the appearance of the
countiy, that on his return to Norway, he being discontented
like the other chieftains with Harald s proceedings, began to
make preparations for emigrating there.]
It is, indeed, said, that the apprehension of being punished
for a murder he had committed, was, equally with the tyranny
of Harald, a motive for his flight; but this latter inducement
was certainly what engaged a multitude of noble families of
Norway to join himf. These illustrious fugitives being em¬
barked, Ingolf, whom they had chosen for their leader, con¬
ducted them, in the year 874, to Iceland. As soon as they
discovered it ata distance, Ingolf, according to an ancient and
superstitious custom, threw a wooden doorj into the sea, de¬
termining to land where the gods should seem to point out,
by the direction of this floating guide ; but the waves carrying
it out of sight, after a fruitless search, they were obliged to
disembark in a gulf toward the south part of the island, which
still bears Ingolf s name. Hjörleif, his brother-in-law, settled
in another part. They both found the island uninhabited and
• Floki was probably not the only sea-rover who, in those days, made
ravens serve him for a compass. There may have been a particular brood of
these birds trained and consecrated by religious rites for the purpose, which
would account for the custom falling into disuse on the introduction oí
Christianity ; the more so as the raven was the bird of Odin, the Raven-
god—Hrafnagud, as he is called in Skaldic poesy.
+ Arngrim. Jon. Crymogaea, sive de reb. Island, lib. iii. Ilamb. 1593.
Î It was not a wooden door that Ingolf threw into the sea^ but the sacrc^
«olumns of his temple-—the öndvegissulur.—IJp,
scandinavian maritime expeditions.
189
uncultivated, but covered with thick forests of birch trees,
through which they could not penetrate but by cutting their
way before them. There are now no forests in Iceland, nor
any birch trees, except here and there a few short and slender
shrubs : but the trees that are still found deep buried in the
earth, and frequently among the rocks, should prevent our too
hastily rejecting the evidence of the ancient chronicles, when
they describe the country as different from what it is at pre¬
sent*. Torfaeus remarks the same thing. " Should anyone
object (says he) that modern Iceland does not answer the
ancient descriptions of it, it may be justly answered, that this
country has greatly degenerated. This I can affirm, from
what I have been an eye-witness of myself; I have seen in
my youth great alterations in the face of this country ; shores
swallowed, and others thrown up by the violence of the
waves; meadows formerly fruitful now buried under vast
heaps of sand; plains all covered and valleys filled up with
stones and sand brought down by the torrents of melted
snow."f. The Norwegian adventurers imagined that this
island had been formerly inhabited, or at least that people
had landed on the shore, as Ingolf found there wooden crosses,
and other little pieces of workmanship, after the manner of
the Irish and Britons. These people had embraced Chris¬
tianity before that time, and very possibly some of their fish-
ennen, thrown upon the coasts, might have left a few of their
effects behind themj.
* Vid. Amgrim. Jon. Crymogsea, lib. i. c. 2, p. 21.
1' Vide Torfaei, Hist. Norveg. torn. i. c. 5, p. 12.
Î The Landnámabók and other ancient Icelandic documents merely state
that " before Iceland was settled by the Northmen, there were men there
called by the Northmen Papae. These men were Christians and are thought
to have come from the west, for there were found Irish books and bells and
various other things, whence it is thought that they were Westmen," and
that these things were found in Papey, a small island, the isle of the Papœ,
on the eastern coast which still bears the same name, and at Papylio in the
interior, and that " the Christians left the country when the Northmen settled
there." These people were probably fishermen from the north of Ireland
and the Western Isles of Scotland, and may have annually frequented the
northern seas and made Papey one of their winter stations ; for Dicuil, an Irish
monk of the ninth century, exprersly states in his geographical treatise de
mensura orbis terrae, that Iceland and the Faeroe Isles had been discovered
by his countrymen.—ed.
190
NOBTHEKîf ANTIQUITIES.
The success of Ingolf's expedition being much talked of in
Norway, other families were eager to fly to this place of refuge
from the ambitious encroachments of their king. The Ice^
landic annals are very exact in relating the names of these
adventurers, the several numbers of which they consisted,
together with the names of the places where they settled,
which, for the most part, are still retained. All the other
circumstances of these voyages are handed down with equal
precision, and we may confidently assert, that the ancient his¬
tory of Iceland is more complete than that of any other
country in Europe. The several particulars and the sequel of
the event are foreign to this work; we need only observe, that
this Icelandic colony carried with them a violent hatred for
arbitrary power, and bravely preserved their liberty and in¬
dependence against every attempt to deprive them of those
blessings. This was endeavoured by several Norwegian princes
in vain ; so that it was full four hundred years before this re¬
public became subject to Norway, along with which it was
afterwards united to the crown of Denmark.
The Scandinavians, now masters of the nortliem ocean, and
flushed with success, became possessed, at different times, of
all the islands in those seas. Thus, while the Danes were re¬
ducing England, the Norwegians conquered a considerable
part of Scotland, together with the Orkneys, the Hebrides,
and the Shetland Isles. Towards the end of the eleventh
century, Magnus Barefoot, the son of Olaf, one of their
princes, filled that part of the world with the renown of his
arms. Ordericus Vitalis, whose acknowledged veracity in the
histories of France and England may serve to establish that
of our old Icelandic chronicles, with which he perfectly agrees,
relates, that " in the fifth year of the reign of William Rufus,
king of England, Magnus, king of Norway, visited the Ork¬
neys, and made a tour through part of Scotland, and all the
islands in those seas that belonged to him, as far as Anglesey.
He settled colonies in the Isle of Man, which was then a
desert, commanded them to build houses, and took care they
should be provided with necessaries of every kind. He after¬
wards made a progress through several other islands in the
great ocean, which are, in a manner, beyond the limits of the
world; and, exerting his royal authority, obliged several
SCANDINAVIAN MARITIME EXPEDITIONS.
191
people to go and inhabit them. With the same earnestness
did this prince apply himself for many years to increase his
subjects and enlarge his empire."*
[^In the year 1266 King Magnus Lagabätter sold the He¬
brides and the Isle of Man to Alexander III. of Scotland for
4000 marks sterling, but the Norwegian sovereignty over the
Orkney and Shetland islands continued until the year 1468,
when it was mortgaged to James III., by Christian I., king of
Norway, Denmark and Sweden, for 50,000 Rhenish florins,
this sum being part of the dowry he had stipulated to give his
daughter Margaret on her marriage with the Scottish mo¬
narch. In 1549 an assessment was levied in Norway to re¬
deem the mortgaged sovereignty, and after that period several
Danish kings asserted their right to redeem it ; but it is need¬
less to observe that the Scotch were unwilling to listen to any
proposals that tended to deprive them of these important de¬
pendencies. The islands continued to be governed by the
laws and customs of Norway, and their inhabitants to speak
the Norse language, until the seventeenth century ; and the
substitution of the Scotch weights and measures for the Nor¬
wegian, together with the augmentation of the public burdens,
formed a subject of complaint down to a much later period.
The Scandinavian sea-rovers began very early to ravage the
coast of Ireland. In the annals of Ulster they are termed
Lochlanach, and the country they came from Lochlin, and we
find them in the ninth century in possession of Dublin, Lime¬
rick and Waterford, and other towns of minor importance,
which became the capitals of petty maritime states, governed
by the laws and customs of Norway.
The eastern coasts of the Baltic were as much infested by
Swedish, as those of the British Isles and France were by
Danish and Norwegian marauders. In the ninth century,
Oskold, the leader of one of these piratical bands, esta¬
blished himself at Kiew, on the Dneiper, and Rurik, the
* The expedition alluded to by Odericus Vitalis took place in 1096, and
it was after fighting a battle with two earls of Norman descent, who had
established themselves in Anglesey, that Magnus gained possession of that
island. In 1102 Magnus, in conjunction with a king of Connaught, overran
Leinsterand Ulster, but as he was preparing to embark on St. Bartholomew's
Day in the following year, to return to Norway, was treacherously attacked
by his Irish allies, and lost his life in the conflict.—See Heimsk. xi. 27.—Ep.
192
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
leader of anotlier band, took possession of Novgorod, and be¬
came the founder of the Russian empire, and the ancestor of
a long line of princes, Feodor I., the last czar of his dy¬
nasty, dying in 1598 *. When the Scandinavians had obtained
a footing in Russia, they began to infest the shores of the
Black Sea,.and in the year 866 appeared before Constanti¬
nople, which was, however, too strongly fortified for them to
think of attacking mth any chance of success, though their
retreat was ascribed by the Byzantines to the sacred homo-
phorion, or chemise of the Virgin, which the priests carried in
solemn procession and dipped in the seat. This, however,
did not prevent the pagans from returning, and although the
Byzantines were protected not only by the Virgin's chemise,
but also by their celebrated Greek fire, the hardy sea-rovers
seldom failed in extracting considerable sums from the de¬
generate emperors. An obscure account of one of their expe¬
ditions to the Caspian Sea, during the reign of Rurik's son
• Rurik and his followers are said to have come from a district in Sweden
called Roslagen, Rodeslagen, Roden, whence, according to the supposition of
several eminent northern writers, they were called by the Slavonic tribes
they subdued Russians, a name which was afterwards applied to the inha¬
bitants of the country, who had previously been called Slavonians. Be this
as it may, for we have no gi-eat confidence in such etymological disquisitions,
it is certain that Constantine Porphyrogenitus designated by these names
(juirifTi and (TKkaßtintrTt), the two races and languages in the middle of the
tenth century, and it would appear that to this day the Finns have continued
to call the Swedes Rv.otsolaiset. See Geijer's Ges. Schw. i. 36, and a note
to the Preface of Rask s Icelandic Grammar.
f The Virgin's chemises appear to have been regarded in those ages as
the most efficacious arm that could be employed against the worshippers of
Odin. The inhabitants of Chartres, for instance, ascribed the somewhat du¬
bious victory which they gained over Rollo, in the year 911, to the wonder¬
working properties of one of these chemises, which had long been the chief
object of veneration in their cathedral, and which they had borne before
them, suspended on a lance like a banner, when they sallied forth, with their
bishop, to attack the Northmen ; —
" Quant Ron si grant gent vei, si s'en est esbahi,
De la procession ki de Chartres issi.
Des relikes k'ils portent, è des cants k'il o'i.
De la Sainte Kemise ke la Dame vesti,
Ki mere è virge fu quant de lié Dex naski.
Ont Rou si grant poor, è tant s'en esbahi,
N'i osa arester, verz sis nés tost s'enfui
says old Wace in his Roman de Rou. See Depping, lib. iii. c. 3.
SCANDINAVIAN MARITIME EXPEDITIONS.
193
Igor (Ingvar) has also been transmitted to us In this ex¬
pedition they carried their light barks from one river to an¬
other—from the Don to the Volga—as was frequently done
by the Normans and Danes in France and England.
The Scandinavian sea-rovers in the Baltic were known
under the name of Varœger, which corresponds to the Veeringjar
of the Icelandic Sagas and the Varangi {Hapoiyyoi) of the By¬
zantine writers. In the year 902 the Emperor Alexis took
seven hundred of these Varfegerfrom Kiew in his pay, and from
that period down to the fall of Constantinople the Byzantine
emperors committed the care of their persons to a body-guard
chiefly, if not wholly, composed of Scandinavian adventurers,
at flrst of Russian Varœger, and, at a later period, of Danes,
Norwegians and Icelanders. The Codex Flatoyensis gives
the number of men in this guard, in the eleventh century, at
three hundred, and distinguishes it from another corps of
Franks and Flemings, also in the imperial service t. Tliis
celebrated Varangian body-guard, to use the words of Gibbon,
" with their broad and double-edged battle-axes on their
shoulders, attended the Greek emperor to the temple, the
senate, and the hippodrome ; he slept and feasted under their
trusty guard ; and the keys of the palace, the treasury, and
the capital, were held by the firm and faithful hands of the
Varangians." Í Our great historian might have added that
* The widow of this Czar, Olga, who was distinguished for what we are
sorry to say appear to have been the two principal traits of the old Scandi¬
navian character—craft and cruelty—was baptized at Constantinople in 957,
and introduced Christianity into Russia, which about thirty years later was
firmly established by Vladimir, sumamed, like Canute, and with equal pro¬
priety, the Great. Vladimir, on his marriage with the Byzantine princess,
Anna, caused the image of Perun—the Slavonic god of thunder—to be tied to
a horse's tail, and after being dragged through the town to be thrown into the
Dnieper. Shortly afterward, when another image of the same deity was
thrown into the Volga at Novgorod, we are told—every superstition has had its
speaking images—that it began to complain bitterly of the ingratitude of the
people it had so long protected. See Grimm. Deut. Mythol. 733.
+ Cod. Flat. col. 507, quoted by Müller in his Sagabib. ii. 149.
J Gibbon. Dec. and Fall, ch. 55. When Gibbon further says that the Va¬
rangians " preserved till the last age of the empire the inheritance of spot¬
less loyalty, and the use of the Danish or English language," he can only mean
the Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon, two distinct langunges, which the writers of
the last century were too apt to confound. (See note, page 181). And we
presume that " the inheritance of spotless loyalty" is merely one of those
0
194
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
these adventurers also plundered the palaces as well as
guarded them, for it would appear that at the death of an
emperor the Varangians were allowed to go through all the
imperial palaces and take whatever they could lay their hands
on. It was thus that the celebrated Harald Hardráda, who
commanded the Varangians in the time of the Empress Zoe,
was fortunate enough to be at Constantinople at the deaths of
three of the nominal emperors whom that ambitious woman
had placed on the throne ; and what with the plunder of the
palaces and the booty he acquired in his campaign against the
Saracens, he amassed a treasure that enabled him to marry
the daughter of the Russian czar, and gain possession of the
throne of Norway
CHAPTER X.
OF THE CUSTOMS AND MANNERS OF THE ANCIENT NORTHERN
NATIONS t.
Whoever attempts to delineate the manners of the ancient
inhabitants of the north, will find their love of war and
passion for arms amongst the most characteristic and express-
sive lines of the portrait. Their prejudices, their customs,
stereotype phrases which historians frequently make use of to give due weight
to a sentence.
* Snorri tells us some strange stories respecting the adventurous life Harald
led when he was in the service of the Byzantine emperors, which, although they
cannot be regarded as historical facts, have at least furnished Œhlenschlâger
with excellent materials for his tragedy entitled " The Varangians in Con¬
stantinople Vœringerne i Miklagord." See Heimsk. ix. 1—17. Harald,
as is well known, lost his life in the battle of Stamford Bridge, but it has not,
we think, been sufficiently remarked that his alliance with Tostig, by draw¬
ing off the forces of our last Anglo-Saxon monarch to the north, greatly fecili-
tated the Norman conquest.
f We have omitted a chapter in which Mr, Mallet gave an account of the
discovery of Greenland and America by the Scandinavimis, the sources which
were available when his work was published (in the year 1755) being
too meagre and defective to furnish him with correct information on the sub¬
ject. The reader will find an account of this discovery, taken from the most
recent and authentic works that have been published relating to it, in our
first supplementary chapter.—En.
ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND MANNERS. 195
their daily occupations, their amusements, in short, every ac¬
tion of their lives, were all impressed with this passion. They
passed the greatest part of their time either in camps or on
board their fleets, employed in real engagements, in pre¬
parations for them, or in sham fights ; for whenever they
were constrained to live in peace, the resemblance of war
furnished out their highest entertainment. They then had
reviews, mock battles, which frequently ended in real ones,
tournaments, the bodily exercises of wrestling, boxing, racing,
&c. The rest of their time was commonly spent in hunting, pub¬
lic business, drinking and sleeping. " The Gennans," says
Tacitus, " when not engaged in war, pass their time in indo¬
lence, feasting and sleep. The bravest and most warlike among
them do nothing themselves ; but transfer the whole care of
the house, family and possessions to the females, the old men
and such as are infirm among them : and the same people,
by a strange contradiction of nature, both love inaction and
hate peace." All the Celtic nations lie under the same re¬
proach from the Greek and Roman authors ; and it is easy to
conceive, that a people who affixed ideas of contempt to all
labour of body and mind, had for the most part nothing else
to do but to carouse and sleep, whenever the state did not
call them to arms. This was the badge and noblest privilego
of their liberty ; every free man placed his glory and happiness
in being often invited to solemn entertainments; and the
hopes of partaking of eternal feasts filled, as we have seen,
the north with heroes. Other pleasures and other rewards
have been conceived under the influence of other climes : all
nations have in their infancy been governed by the force of
climate ; and their first legislators, far from endeavouring to
stem this torrent, but borne away with it themsel ves, have ever by
their laws and institutions enlarged and increased its natural
prevalence. We find remarkable instances in the Icelandic Sagas
of frequent and excessive feastings. Tacitus observes, that the
plentiful tables of the chiefs, were, among the Germans, the
wages of their dependents. Nor could a great lord or chief¬
tain take a readier way to attract a numerous train of follow¬
ers, than by often making magnificent entertainments. It
was at table that the Germans consulted together on their
most important concerns, such as the electing of their princes,
0 2
196
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
the entering into war, or the concluding of peace, &c. On
the morrow they re-considered the resolutions of the preceding
night, supposing, adds the same historian, " that the proper
time to take each other's opinions was when the soul was too
open for disguise ; and to determine, when it was too cautious
to err." * The common liquors at these carousals were either
beer, mead, or wine, when they could get it : these they drank
out of earthen or wooden pitchers, or else out of the horns of
wild bulls, with which their forests abounded. The principal
person at the table took the cup first, and rising up, saluted
by name either him who sat next him, or him who was near¬
est in rank ; then he drank it off, and causing it to be filled
up again to the brim, presented it to the man whom he had
saluted f. Hence came the custom of drinking to the health
of the guests : but I know not whether that of drinking to
the honour of the gods was generally practised among all the
Teutonic people, or only among the Scandinavians. Snorri
Sturlason says, " that in the solemn festivals, such as usually
followed the sacrifices, they emptied what was called the cup
of Odin, to obtain victory and a glorious reign ; then the cups
of Njörd and of Frey, for a plentiful season ; after which
several used to take off another to Bragi, the God of Eloquence
and Poetry." The Scandinavians were so much addicted to
this custom, that the first missionaries, unable to abolish it,
were forced instead of these false deities to substitute the
true God, Jesus Christ, and the saints ; to whose honour they
devoutly drank for many ages. In the pagan times, they
also drank to the heroes, and to such of their friends as had
fallen bravely in battle. Lastly, it was at these feasts, for the
most part, that those associations were formed and confirmed
which the old chronicles so often mention. There was
scarcely a valiant man who was not a member of one or more
of these societies ; the chief tie of which was a solemn obliga¬
tion entered into, to defend and protect their companions on
all occasions, and to revenge their deaths at the hazard of
* Tac. de mor. Germ. c. 14.
1" This ancient ceremony is still kept up, at solemn feasts, in some of the
Colleges in our Universities.—In like manner our custom of drinking to
the memory of departed persons, is evidently a relic of the ancient super¬
stition of drinking to the manes of their heroes, kings and friends.—P.
ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND MANNERS
197
their own lives This oath was taken and renewed at their
festivals, which had also their respective laws. Fraternities
of this sort still subsisted after the Christian religion was re¬
ceived in the north, but by degrees the object was changed.
When the harbouring projects of enmity and revenge were for¬
bidden at them, these meetings had no other object or sup¬
port but drunkenness and intemperance f. More than two
* In the early state of society, when the laws were too weak to afford
protection, individuals had no other means of securing their lives and pro¬
perty, but by entering into these associations, in which a number of men
engaged to vindicate and avenge each other. These confederacies, which
were at first necessary for self-preservation, and might originally be con¬
fined to self-defence, often proceeded afterwards to act offensively, and so
were productive of great mischiefs.
Confraternities of the same kind prevailed in this kingdom, not only during
the Anglo-Saxon times, but for some ages after the conquest. They were
called Bandshipa, and were often under the patronage of some great man ;
they had public badges by which each band or confederacy was distinguished,
and at length grew to such a pass as to support each other in all quarrels,
robberies, murders and other outrages : this occasioned a particular act of
parliament for their suppression, 1 Rich. II. ch. 7.—Dr. Hickes has pre¬
served a very curious bond of this kind, which he calls Sodalitium ; it was
drawn up in the Anglo-Saxon times, and contains many particulars which
strongly mark the manners and character of those rude ages. See his Dis-
sertatio Epistolaris, p. 21.—P.
+ Were it not foreign to our subj ect, a chapter might be written to show the in¬
fluence which Gruilds had in working out the municipal franchises of the middle
ages. We cannot however refrain from remarking, that before the intro¬
duction of Christianity the Scandinavians used to meet in select parties for
the purpose of feasting and drinking—used in fact to have regular drinking-
hovis, at which he who drank the deepest, or emptied the largest horn at a
single draught, was regarded as the hero of the festival. They were too fond
of guzzling their ale and mead, to abandon this custom when they became
Christians ; but as drinking gave rise to quarrels which generally ended in
bloodshed, these private meetings were, through the influence of the clergy,
gradually changed into public confraternities or Guilds, the members of which,
or Guild-brethren as they were called, pledged themselves to keep the peace
and to check intemperance. The Guilds established by the Norwegian king Olaf,
the Quiet, in the latter half of the eleventh century, appear to have been
of this description—convivial clubs in fact, whose« members were pledged to
keep good order and behave like gentlemen ; and as such a club or guild was
placed under the patronage of a saint, some worthy bishop or other high
dignitary of the Church could preside at the social board and empty his
cup—for cups were in this century substituted for drinking horns—in honour
of the sainted patron, without in any way infringing the decorum of his sacred
office. In the latter half of the twelfth century we find these convivial
guilds had become powerful and influential corporate bodies, and that the guild-
198
NOBTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
hundred years after the Scandinavians had embraced Chris¬
tianity there were still confraternities of which the first nobility
were members. But the disorders committed at these meet¬
ings increasing, the Councils were at last obliged to suppress
them
While the attention of these people was thus engrossed by
their passion for arms and the pleasures of the table, we may
conclude that love held no violent dominion over them. It
is besides well known that the inhabitants of the north are
not of very quick sensibility. The ideas and modes of think¬
ing of the Scandinavians were in this respect very different
from those of the Asiatics and more southern nations ; who
by a contrast as remarkable as it is common, have ever felt
for the female sex the warm passion of love, devoid of any
real esteem. Being at the same time tyrants and slaves ;
laying aside their own reason, and requiring none in the ob-
brethren were pledged to aiford each other mutual aid and protection, especially
in judicial affiairs. And although conviviality frequently outstepped the
bounds of reason and good order, the statutes of these protective affflociations
show that the members devoted their attention to the amelioration of the
laws for the security of person aud property.
It would lead us too far to follow the changes which gradually took place in
these protective guilds until they became trades-guilds or companies. Neither
will it be necessary for us to inform the guild-brethren of the city of Lon¬
don that their worshipful companies are the lineal descendants of the old
Scandinavian drinking-bouts, for they seldom fiiil to show the public that
this is a fact which they are perfectly aware of.
The word Guild—Ang. Sax. Gylda ; Dan. and Germ. Gilde ; Swed. Gilde,
Gille ; is probably derived from the Old Norse verb gjalda, to pay, to con¬
tribute to.—Ed.
* '1 he reader will find many curious particulars relating to the above-
mentioned confraternities (or Gilds, as they called them in the north) in
Bartholin, who has given some of the laws or statutes observed by them,
particularly those found in a MS. of the thirteenth century.—One of these
statutes will give us an idea of the sobriety of those times ; Si quispro ehrietate
eeciderit in ipsa domo eonmvii, vel antequam propriam curiam itdra^erit,
Oram (a small piece of money) persolvat. Not less remarkable are the
statutes of another confraternity instituted in honour of S. Olave, king of
Norway ; among which we find these : Quicunque potuwi, stium effundii latíu»
quam pede velare poterit, VI Denarios perstdvaL O'^icunque dormierU in
banco convivii in conspectu fratrum, Gram persolvat. Quicwnque ebrietatía
eausâ in domo convivii vomitum fecent, Dimidiam Marcam persolvat, die
(Barthol. caus. contempt, mort. &c., p. 133.)
Our modern clubs are evidently the ofíspring of the ancient gilds «*
guilds of our northern ancestors.—P.
ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND MANNERS.
199
ject, tliey have ever made a quick transition from adoration to
contempt, and from sentiments of the most extravagant and vio¬
lent love, to those of the most cruel jealousy, or of an indifference
still more insulting. We find the reverse of all this among the
northern nations, who did not so much consider the other sex
as made for their pleasure, as to be their equals and com¬
panions, whose esteem, as valuable as their other favours,
could only be obtained by constant attentions, by generous
services, and by a proper exertion of virtue and courage. I
conceive that this will at first sight be deemed a paradox, and
that it will not be an easy matter to reconcile a manner of
thinking which supposes so much delicacy, with the rough,
unpolished character of this people. Yet I believe the observ¬
ation is so well grounded that one may venture to assert
that it is this same people who have contributed to diffuse
through all Europe that spirit of equity, of moderation, and
generosity shown by the stronger to the weaker sex, which is
at this day the distinguishing characteristic of European man¬
ners ; nay, that we even owe to them that spirit of gallantly
which was so little known to the Greeks and Romans, how
polite soever in other respects.
That there should in the north be a communication of
liberty and equality between the two sexes, is what one might
expect to find there in those ancient times, when men s pro¬
perty was small and almost upon an equality ; when their
manners were simple ; when their passions disclosed them¬
selves but slowly, and then under the dominion of reason ;
being moderated by a rigorous climate and their hard way of
living; and, lastly, when the sole aim of government was to
preserve and extend liberty. Btit the Scandinavians went
still farther ; and these same men, who on other occasions
were too high-spirited to yield to any earthly power, yet in
whatever related to the fair sex seem to have been no longer
tenacious of their rights or independence. I have often as¬
serted that the immediate intervention of the Deity, even in
the slightest things, was one of their most established doc¬
trines, and that every, even the most minute, appearance of
nature was a manifestation of the will of Heaven to those who
understood its language. Thus men's involuntary motions,
their dreams, their sudden and unforeseen inclinations, being
considered as the salutary admonitions of Heaven, became the
NORTHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
objects of serious attention; and a universal respect could
not but be paid to those who were considered as the organs or
instruments of a beneficent Deity. Now women must appear
much more proper than men for so noble a purpose, who be¬
ing commonly more subject than we to the unknown laws of
temperament and constitution, seem less to be governed by
reflection, than by sensation and natural instinct. Hence it
was that the Germans admitted them into their councils, and
consulted with them on the business of the state. Hence it
was that among them, as also among the Gauls, there were
ten prophetesses for one prophet ; whereas in the East we find
the contrary proportion, if, indeed, there was ever known an
instance in those countries of a female worker of miracles.
Hence also it was, that nothing was formerly more common in
the north than to meet with women who delivered oracular
informations, cured the most inveterate maladies, assumed
whatever shape they pleased, raised storms, chained up the
winds, travelled through the air, and, in one word, per¬
formed every function of the fairy art. Thus endowed
with supernatural powers, these prophetesses being con¬
verted as it were into fairies or demons, influenced the
events they had predicted, and all nature became subject to
their command. Tacitus puts this beyond a dispute when he
says, " The Germans suppose some divine and prophetic
quality resident in their women, and are careful neither to
disregard their admonitions, nor to neglect their answers." *
Nor can it be doubted but that the same notions prevailed
among the Scandinavians. Strabo relates that the Cimbri
were accompanied by venerable and hoary-headed pro¬
phetesses, apparelled in long linen robes most splendidly
white. We also find this people always attended by their
wives even in their most distant expeditions, hearing them
with respect, and after a defeat, more afraid of their re¬
proaches than the blows of the enemy. To this we may add,
that the men being constantly employed either in war or
hunting, left to the w^omen the care of acquiring those useful
branches of knowledge which made them regarded by their
husbands as prophetesses and oracles. Thus to them be¬
longed the study of simples and the art of healing wounds,
an art as mysterious in those times, as the occasions of it
* Tacit, de Mor. Ger. o. 8.
ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND MANNERS.
201
were frequent. In the ancient chronicles of the north, we
find the matrons and the young women always employed in
dressing the wounds of their husbands or lovers. It was the
same with dreams ; which the women alone were versed in
the art of interpreting ; probably because they paid more at¬
tention to them than the men, and gave more credit to them.
But this is not all. At a time when piracy and a fondness
for seeking adventures exposed weakness to continual and un¬
expected attacks, the women, especially those of celebrated
beauty, stood in want sometimes of deliverers, and almost al¬
ways of defenders. Every young warrior, eager after glory
(and this was often the character of whole nations), must have
been glad then to take upon him an office which promised
such just returns of fame, which flattered the most agreeable of
all passions, and at the same time gratified another almost as
strong, that for a wandering and rambling life. We are apt
to value what we acquire, in proportion to the labour and
trouble it costs us. Accordingly the hero looked upon him¬
self as sufficiently rewarded for all his pains, if he could at
length obtain the fair hand of her he had delivered ; and it is
obvious how honourable such marriages must have been among
the people who thought in this manner. This emulation
would quickly increase the number of those gallant knights ;
and the women, on their parts, would not fail to acquire a
kind of stateliness, considering themselves as no less necessary
to the glory of their lovers, than to their happiness and plea¬
sure. That fair one who had stood in need of several cham¬
pions, yielded only to the most courageous ; and she who had
never been in a situation that required protectors, was still
desirous of the lover who had proved himself capable of en¬
countering all kind of dangers for her sake. This was more
than enough to inflame such spirits as these with an emula¬
tion of surpassing each other, and of displaying their courage
and intrepidity. Besides, the character of the northern wo¬
men themselves left the men no other less glorious means of
gaining their hearts. Naturally chaste and proud, there was
no other way but this to come at them. Educated under the
influence of the same prejudices concerning honour as the
men, they were early taught to despise those who spent their
youth in a peaceful obscurity, All the historical records of
ancient Scandinavia prove what I advance. We see there the
Î202
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
turn for chivalry as it were in the bud. The history of other
nations shows it afterwards as it were opening and expanding
in Spain, France, Italy, and England, being carried there by
the swarms that issued from the North. It is in reality this
same spirit, reduced afterwards within juster bounds, that has
been productive of that polite gallantry so peculiarly observ¬
able in our manners, which adds a double relish to the most
pleasing of all social bands, which unites the lasting charms
of sentiment, regard, and friendship with the fleeting fire of
love, which tempers and animates one by the other, adds to
their number, power, and duration, and which cherishes and
unfolds sensibility, that most choice gift of nature, without
which neither decorum, propriety, chaste friendship nor true
generosity, can exist among men. It would be needless to
prove, that we are not indebted for this manner of thinking
to the ancient Romans. We may appeal for this to all who
know any thing of their character, and safely conclude that
the respect we show to the fair sex is derived from that su¬
perstitious reverence which our ancestors had for them, and
is only a relic of that ancient authority, which the women en¬
joyed among the northern nations.
As few young men of any rank were able to obtain an
advantageous or honourable alliance until they had distin¬
guished themselves in war, we may naturally conclude they
cpuld not marry till late in life. This is also confirmed by
other proofs. Caesar says, that " among the Germans, the
greatest praise is allowed to those who remain the longest un¬
married ; and that it is reckoned very shameful for young men
to be acquainted with women before they are twenty years of
age."* Tacitus adds, that "the Germans retain the vigour
of youth the longer, by deferring their union with the other
sex ; nor are they in haste to have their daughters married." +
That age once past, it was common for the people of the north
to marry two wives or more, and this was a very ancient cus¬
tom i. Men of wealth and power considered a number of
* Caes, de Bell. Gall. lib. vi. 19.
■j- Tacit Germ. c. 20.
Î In Scandinavia monogamy was the rule, polygamy the exception. In
Iceland a m m had frequently a concubine, but never more than one legiti¬
mate wife. Priests in Iceland were not prohibited from marrying before the
ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND MANNERS
203
wives as a mark of grandeur. And according to Tacitus
political reasons also sometimes brought about these matches,
since the great were often obliged to yield to the importunity
of families which sought their alliance. The Christian re¬
ligion, not without great difficulty, got the better of this cus¬
tom ; which still prevailed in the north so late as the tenth
century. Nevertheless, one of the wives seems to have pos¬
sessed a superior rank, and to have been considered as the
chief and most legitimate.
The matrimonial ceremonies were very simple, and chiefly
consisted in feasting. The bridegroom having obtained the
maiden's consent, together with that of her parents and
guardians, appointed the day ; and having assembled his own
relations and friends, sent some of them to receive in his name
the bride and her portion from her father. The friends were
answerable for the charge that was committed to them, and
if they abused their trust, the law amerced them in a sum
treble to what was paid for murder. The father or guardian
of the young woman attended her also to the husband's house,
and there gave her into his hands. After this the new mar¬
ried pair sat down to table with their guests, who drank to
their healths along with those of the gods and heroes. The
bride's friends then took her up and bore her on their shoul¬
ders, which was a mark of esteem among the Goths ; her
father afterwards led her to the nuptial bed, a great number
oÄ lights being carried before her ; a custom known to the
Greeks and Romans, and still in use in some parts of the
North The marriage being consummated, the husband made
his wife several presents, such as a pair of oxen for the plough,
an harnessed horse, a buckler, together with a lance and a
sword. " This was to signify," says Tacitus f, " that she
ought not to lead an idle and luxurious life, but that she was
to be a partaker with him in his labours, and a companion in
dangers, which they were to share together in peace and war."
He adds that " the women, on their parts gave some arms ;
year 1178, and then the prohibition does not appear to have had much effect,
for we read of married priests exercising their sacerdotal functions at a still
later period.—En.
• He says, the Germans in his time were for the most part content with
one wife, Exce-ptis admodum paucis, adds he, qui non libídine, sed ob niO'
hilitatem plurimis nuptiis amlriuntur. De mor. Ger, c. 18.—P.
t Tac. de mor. Germ. c. 18.
204
northern antiquities.
this was the sacred band of their union, these their mystic
rites, and these the deities who presided over their marriage."
The yoked oxen, the caparisoned horse, and the arms, all served
to instruct the women how they were to lead their life, and
how perhaps it might be terminated. The arms were to be
carefully preserved, and being ennobled by the use the husband
made of them, were to be consigned as portions for their
daughters, and to be handed down to posterity.
The German women have been justly noted for fidelity to
the marriage-bed ; and indeed chastity seems to have been
the general character of this nation *. Let us see what that
most excellent writer Tacitus says on this subject ; "A strict
regard for the sanctity of the matrimonial state characterizes
the Germans, and deserves our highest applause
Among them female virtue runs no hazard of being debauched
by the outward objects which are presented to the senses, or of
being corrupted by such social gaieties as inflame the passions.
The art of corresponding by letters is equally unknown to both
sexes. Very few adulteries happen in that populous nation:
where the power of instantly inflicting punishment is granted
to the injured husband ; who, after having cut off her hair in
the presence of her relations, drives her naked out of his house,
and whips her through the village. Chastity once prostituted
is never forgiven ; nor to such a one can the attractions of
beauty, youth or riches procure a husband. Vice is not there
made the object of wit and mirth ; nor can the fashion of the
age be pleaded in excuse either for being corrupt, or for en-
* M. Mallet has fallen into his usual error of placing implicit reliance on
the statements of Tacitus. It will, we presume, be scarcely necessary at the
present day to remark that the Latin historian exaggerated the few virtues
common to most barbarous nations, in order to form a greater contrast with
the corruption that prevailed amongst his own countrymen. The passage
quoted by our author, for instance, would be far more truthful if applied
negatively to the Romans, than affirmatively to the Grermans.
If Tacitus, in describing the manners of his countrymen had said, " Among
them female virtue runs a great hazard of being debauched. Vice is there
made the object of wit and mirth," &c., &c., his observations would have been
entitled to much greater consideration. Nothing, however, can be more
natural than that female chastity should be more prevalent in a northern than
in a southern climate; and when this is not the case, we may safely conclude
that the laws and institutions are either remarkably vicious and defective in
the former, or in the latter of surpassing excellence.—ed.
ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND MANNERS.
205
deavouring to corrupt others Good customs and man¬
ners avail more among these barbarians, than good laws among
a more refined people."*
Our own historical monuments confirm these testimonies.
I have before observed, that their religion threatened the
seducers of women with the severest torments of the next
world. Adam of Bremen, in his Voyage to Denmark, observes,
that adultery was there most strictly punished ; and that the
woman who was detected in it was sold on the spot. The
law in Iceland was equally remarkable ; for it not only de¬
nounced very severe punishments against rapes and adul¬
teries, but proceeded farther; expressly prohibiting even
kissing or secret embraces f. If a man abused a free woman
he was punished with exile ; if a slave, he was amerced three
marks. Among the Swedes and Danes, the husband who
caught his wife in the act of adultery, might immediately
kill her, and render her lover incapable of again infringing
the laws of conjugal morality.
When the people of the north migrated into the southern
parts of Europe, they carried along with their laws a chastity
and reserve which excited universal surprise. Salvian, a
priest of Marseilles in the fifth century, exclaims, "Let us
blush," says he, " and be covered with a confusion which
ought to produce salutary effects. Wherever the Goths be¬
come masters, we see no longer any disorders, except among
the old inhabitants. Our manners are reformed under the
dominion of Vandals. Behold an incredible event ! an un¬
heard-of prodigy! Barbarians have, by the severity of their
discipline, rendered chaste the Eomans themselves ; and the
Goths have purified those places which the others had defiled
by their debaucheries. A cruel nation," adds he, "but worthy
jto be admired for their continence."! These virtues were
not there of long continuance ; the climate soon warmed their
frozen imaginations ; their laws by degrees relaxed, and their
manners still more than their laws.
A numerous offspring was commonly produced from these
* Tacit. Germ. c. 18, 19.
+ By referring to the supplementary chapter III., the reader will find
that, notwithstanding this prohibition, both kissing and secret embraces
were as common in Iceland as in any other country.—En.
^ Salvian, lib. vii. de Gubem. Dei.
206
KOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
marriages ; but neither the rich nor the poor scrupled to ex¬
pose such of their children as they did not choose to bring
up. Both the Greeks and Romans were guilty of this bar¬
barous practice, long before they can be said to have been
corrupted by prosperity, luxury, and the arts. So true is it
that ignorance is no security from vice, and that men always
know enough to invent crimes. It is no less remarkable, that a
kind of infant baptism was practised in the north, long before
the first dawning of Christianity had reached those parts.
Snorri Sturlason, in his chronicle, speaking of a Norwegian
nobleman who lived in the reign of Harald Hárfagra, re¬
lates, that he poured water on the head of a new-bom child,
and called him Hakon, from the name of his father -!=. Harald
himself had been baptized in the same manner, and it is noted
of king Olaf Tryggvason, that his mother Astrida had him
thus baptized and named as soon as he was born f. The
Livonians obseiwed the same ceremony ; which also prevailed
among the Germans, as appears from a letter which the
famous pope Gregory the Third sent to their apostle Boniface,
directing him expressly how to act in this respect R It is
probable that all these people might intend by such a rite to
preserve their children from the sorceries and evil charms
which wicked spirits might employ against them at the in¬
stant of their birth. Several nations of Asia and America
have attributed such a power to ablutions of this kind ; nor
were the Romans without such a custom, though they did not
wholly confine it to new-bora infants §.
I shall not here repeat what I have said above concerning
• Vid. Snor. Sturles. c. Ixx.
+ Baptism is expressly mentioned in the Háva-mál and Rígs-mál, and
alluded to in other Eddaic poems. It is possible that the water used in this
ceremony was regarded as a symbol of the water of the Urdar-fount; but we
cannot go so far as some of the German mythologists, who suppose that the
stream flowing from this fountain of ever-enduring time was regarded as the
type of etherial light and life, as the animating and sentient spirit of the uni¬
verse. Such metaphysical notions presuppose a refinement of ideas, which we
should willingly attribute to the priests of ancient India, Persia, and Egj'pt;
but certainly not to tiie pontiff-chieftains of Scandinavia.—Ed.
Î Vid. Epist. 122. apud Nie. Serar in Epist. Sti Bonifacii martyris.
^ Vid. Keysler. Antiq. Select, p. 313, who has a very learned note on this
subject, where he has collected together a number of curious passages from
authors ancient and modem, classic and barbarous writers, relating to this
practice.
ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND MANNERS.
207
the hardy way of bringing up children in the north. But I
cannot omit mentioning the great advantages gained from it
in respect to their health and bodily force. The Greek and
Latin authors speak with surprise of the size and strength
of the northern men. Caesar observes of the Suevi, that they
feed chiefly on milk, and exercise themselves much in hunt¬
ing, which, together with the free unrestrained life they lead,
never being from their childhood impelled against their incli¬
nations to any discipline or duty, he assigns as effective causes
of their very large and robust make *. Vegetius expressly
afiBrms, that the tallness of the Germans gave them great ad¬
vantage in combat over the lesser Romans. The lances,
swords and other arms which have been preserved to this
time, and may yet continue to more remote ages, are objects
of curiosity and astonishment to those whose ancestors were
able to wield them. But the greatest proof of their prodigi¬
ous strength arises from the rude enormous monuments of
architecture which were raised by these northern people. We
have all heard of that monument on Salisbury plain in Eng¬
land, where we see a multitude of vast stones of monstrous
weight set up endwise, and serving as bases to other stones,
many of which are in length sixteen feet. Nor are the monu¬
ments of this kind less astonishing which we meet with in
Iceland, in Westphalia, and particularly in East Friezeland,
Brunswick, Mecklenburg, and many parts of the north. The
dark ignorance of succeeding ages not being able to compre¬
hend how such stupendous edifices could be constructed by
mortals, have attributed them to demons and giants. But
although the founders of these had not probably all the
assistance wo derive from the mechanic powers, yet great
things might be accomplished by meu of such mighty force
co-operating together. The Americans, unaided by the en¬
gines we apply to these purposes, have raised up such vast
stones in building their temples, as we dare not undertake to
remove f. One may, however, conceive that patience united
* Bell Gall. lib. iv. c. 1.
f See Acosta's Hist, of the Indies, lib. vi. cap. 14. This author, speaking
of the buildings and fortresses which the Incas had erected In Cusco and
other places of Pern, says, " they used no mortar nor cement, neither had
iron nor steel to cut the stones with; no engines or other instruments to
carry them ; and yet they were so artificially wrought that in many places
208
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES,
■with strength, might, by taking time, be able to move such
vast bodies from one place to another, and afterwards to set
them up on end, by means of artificial banks, down the slopes
of which they made them slide. It is without dispute from
such proofs of the great size and strength of the first inha¬
bitants of the earth, that ancient history has generally painted
them as giants. The atmosphere, which was formerly more
cold and bracing in Europe than it is now, the continual ex¬
ercises which men then persisted in, together with their con¬
tinence, their avoiding an early commerce with the other sex,
their simple diet and savage life, in the fatigues of which the
mind bore no part, were, without doubt, the causes which pro¬
duced such enormous strength ; and will convince us, when¬
ever the like circumstances again occur, that nature, ever
young and inexhaustible, will always produce the like effects.
To that wonderful constitutional vigour, the Scandinavians
were indebted for such a long and healthy old age as many
of them enjoyed : an advantage which they for the most part
only regarded with indifference, and even with disdain, though
so highly valued by mankind since the acquisition of arts, and
the refinements of pleasure, have shortened the date, but ren¬
dered the journey of life more agreeable. In truth, few of
them awaited the distant period allotted by nature ; single
combats or general engagements, the dangers and fatigues of
the sea, together with the frequent practice of suicide, were
so many passages ever open to conduct them to that glorious
path which they thought led to a happy futurity. The influ¬
ence which this doctrine had upon their minds, cannot be
more particularly seen, than in the customs observed in their
last scene of life and funeral ceremonies. In the most early
ages these were very simple ; the Scandinavians doing nothing
more than lay the dead body, together with his arms, under
a little heap of earth and stones *.
the joints are hardly seen : " and as for their size, he assures us he measured
one of the stones himself, which was 38 feet long, 18 feet broad, and 6
feet thick. And in the wall of the fortress of Cusco there are stones of a
still greater bigness."—P.
* There is room to believe that this custom of burying the dead under
little hills or mounts of earth prevailed among many of the ancient inhabitants
of Europe. Isidore speaks of it as a general custom. A'pvd majores, he says,
potentes aut sub montibus, aut in montibus sejpeliuntur, (Orig. Ub. xr. c.
ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND MANNERS.
209
[^Odin is said to have introduced the custom of burning the
dead ; but as the arrival of the so-called historical Odin is a
mere legendary fiction, all that we know with certainty is,
that burning the dead on funeral piles seems to have prevailed
in the north at a very early period, and to have been super¬
seded by burial, which may, perhaps, have been but the revival
of a former custom. Be this as it may, when the body was
burnt, the ashes were generally collected in an urn, or small
stone chest, over which a low mound not above a yard high
was raised. Burial took place in various ways ; sometimes
the body was merely covered with a rude heap of stones, but
was more frequently placed in a kind of vault formed of loose
stones, the outside ones being in regular layers. Such kinds
11.) And Virgil and Servius expressly attribute it to the ancient Italians :
See Servius on that verse of JEn. II.
Fuit ingens monte svJb alto
Regis Dercenni terreno ex aggere bvstum.
This custom Bartholin thinks Odin brought with him into the north out of
Scythia ; where it anciently prevailed, as we learn from Herodotus, lib. iv.
c. 71. And Mallet assures us that some travellers " have seen in Grim
Tartary (part of the ancient Scythia), and in the neighbouring countries, arti¬
ficial hills like those which are found in Denmark and throughout all the
north." Mallet 1st Edit. See also Bell's Travels, vol. i. This traveller
found these sepulchral hills in his journey to China.
We have in England many ancient monuments of this kind, which are of
such rembte antiquity that it is not easy to decide whether they ought to be
ascribed to our Teutonic ancestors the Saxons and Danes, or to the more
ancient inhabitants of Celtic race, viz., the Britons, &c. Some antiquaries
are for referring every vestige of this sort to the times of the Druids ; but it
is very certain that the ancient Scandinavians buried in the same manner :
indeed this sort of monument is so simple and obvious, that it has doubtless
prevailed among many nations of very different origin.
Monuments of this kind particularly abound in the south-west parts of this
island. "There are many in Wiltshire, round and copped, which are called
burrows or barrows ; perhaps raised in memory of the soldiers slain there :
for bones are found in them ; and I have read that it was a custom among
the northern people, that every soldier who survived a battle should bring
a helmet full of earth towards raising of monuments for their slain fellows."
So far from Camden : to which Gibson adds, that " upon these downs (in
Wiltshire) are several sorts of barrows. 1. Small circular trenches with very
little elevation in the middle. 2. Ordinary barrows. 3. Barrows with
ditches round them. 4. Large oblong barrows, some with trenches round
them, others without. 5. Oblong barrows with stones set up all round
them." Of this last sort " that large oblong barrow, called Milbarrow, is
more especially remarkable, as being environed with great stones about 6 or
7 feet high." Which was doubtless " the sepulchre of some Danish com¬
mander."—P. p
northebn antiqüitiks.
©f vaults, tkough found occasionally in Denmark, are more
frequently te be met with in Norway, and do not appear to
bave ever been covered with earth. When the deceased was
a person of distinction, a high mound, or barrow, was generally
raised over his remains. Most Scandinavian barrows are
either rounder oblong, and some of them have rows of upright
stones set round them. Some oblong barrows have been found
to contain two cinerary stone chests, one at each end, and
occasionally one in the middle. Round barrows were commonly
raised over stone vaults or mortuary chambers in which the
dead body was deposited, either buried in sand or laid out on
a fiat stone, and sometimes placed in a sitting posture. Bar¬
rows of this description have frequently two or more vaults,
and there is generally a passage in the eastern or southern
side, leading to, and on a level with, the mortuary chambers.
Barrows with wooden chambers would appear tobe the most re¬
cent of all, and to have been raised not long before the introduc¬
tion of Christianity, and are, therefore, likely to ofier the
most tempting spoil for antiquaries. Barrows in con¬
siderable numbers were often raised on a field of battle, high,
stone encircled barrows over the fallen chieftains, and lower
mounds over those of their followers. Mention is also fre¬
quently made of boats and even large ships being drawn on
shore, turned keel uj)permost, the bodies of the slain deposited
under them, and stones and earth superimposed, thus forming
what may appropriately be termed ship-harrows. A long,
square-shaped stone standing two or three yards out of the
ground, and called a Bautastein was also frequently erected in
memory of a fallen warrior. These rude cenotaphs are very
common in Norway and Sweden, but we believe none have
yet been found bearing inscriptions.
Snorri, in his preface to the Ynglinga-Saga, makes a dis¬
tinction between the age of burning—Bruna-ölld, and the
age of burial—Hcmgs-'élld. But as this distinction is founded
on the authority of the Ynglinga-Saga itself, the greater part
of which is a mere legend undeserving tlie notice which the
learned have bestowed on it, the reasons assigned for such a
distinction are without any historical value *. The
northern antiquaries, in the classification of the weapons, uten-
* See p. 84, and our remarks on the Heimskringla in the 4th supplemen¬
tary chapter.
ANCIENT CUSTOMS AND MANNERS.
211
sik and other objects of the olden time, distinguish three
epochs, which they term respectively the Stone, Bronze, and
Iron age. Stone weapons were no doubt the first in use. and
were probably replaced by bronze, and these again by weapons
of iron and steel ; so that, in this respect, the classification,
appeal's to be well founded. Whether it be applicable or not
to distinguish the relative age of barrows is another question,
which we should be inclined to answer in the negative. We
are told, for instance, that the barrows with stone vaults in
which the dead were deposited without burning, belong to the
Stone Age, because the objects found in those that have been
opened are generally of stone, and very seldom of metal ; at
most only a few bronze or gold ornaments, and never any thing
•of silver, having been discovered. It is further assumed that
in the next, or Bronze Age, burning on funeral piles prevailed,
the weapons found in cinerary chests in the mounds and
barrows containing them being generally of bronze, and the
other objects either of bronze, gold, or amber, and never of
silver. The barrows with wooden mortuary chambers, are
placed by the learned antiquaries in the Iron Age, when they
suppose that burial again prevailed, although burning on
funeral piles continued to be practised *. The opening of a
dozen barrows would probably upset this specious theory, v/hich,
as it seems to be founded on the fictions of the Ynglinga-Saga,
we can place no confidence in, even admitting that the state¬
ments respecting the objects found in the different kinds of
barrows were quite unobjectionable, which however is far from
being the case.
The learned Skulius Thorlacius was of opinion that the
stone weapons found in harrows were mere simulacra armorum,
meant to typify the power of Thor over the elves and spirits
of darkness, and protect the dead from their machinations f.
Thor killed his demoniacal adversaries by launching his mal¬
let at them ; that is to say, an evil principle, typified under the
form of a giant, was destroyed by the lightning of heaven.
Now, according to Thorlacius, the cuneiform stone axe was
* See a work cititled " Leitfaden zur Nordischen Alterthumsknude;"
published—so at least it is stated in the title page, otherwise we should have
•doubted the fact—by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries.
f Om Thor og bans Hammer. Skand. Mus. 18Q2. Nos. 3 and 4.
2 p
S12
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
emblematic of the splitting, the arrow head of the piercing,
and the malleiform axe of the shattering force of the thunder-
holt hurled by the renowned Scandinavian deity, and these are
the stone weapons generally found in barrows. Whether this
hypothesis of the learned Dane he well founded or not, we
will not pretend to decide ; it is at all events sufficiently in¬
genious to make us hesitate in assuming that a barrow in
which only stone weapons are found must necessarily have been
raised at a period when bronze and iron were unknovi*n, or
not in general usage. William Grimm, in the supplement to
his work on German runes, in which he cites this hypothesis
of Thorlacius, has given some very interesting statements re¬
specting the barrows of the ancient Germans. In a barrow
near Maden in Hesse-Cassel *, three cinerary urns were found,
and also three skeletons lying with the face to the ground. A
barrow at Eichstätt contained three skeletons, the middle one
lying with the face upwards and turned towards the east, the
two others with the face downwards and turned to the south.
In one of the Braunfels barrows a single skeleton was found ;
in another, a skeleton and an urn filled with incinerated hu¬
man bones. On one side of the mortuary chamber of a bar¬
row near Wamstadt, in Saxony, was found an urn containing
the burnt bones of a child, on the opposite side lay a moulder¬
ing skeleton, and in the middle a perfect skeleton of a man
with a spear. Grimm supposes that a skeleton found lying
with the face downwards must be that of a slave ; and, admitting
this to be the case, we should be justified in concluding from
the facts stated, that the Maden barrow was raised at a period
when the Germans burnt the body of the master and buried
that of the slave, and the Eichstätt harrow when it was the
custom to buiy both slave and freeman ; care, however, being
taken to indicate by the position in which the bodies were
laid that death itself did not put an end to servitude. If the
errors into which the northern antiquaries have fallen did not
warn us to be exceedingly cautious in drawing conclusions
from vague assumptions and dubious facts, we might, perhaps,
infer from the respective positions of these skeletons, that our
Teutonic forefathers were of opinion that the soul of a slave
* The ancient inhabitants of Hesse Cassel were the Chatti, a tribe belong¬
ing to the upper Germanic branch of the Teutonic race.
ANCIENT CÜST0M3 AND MANNERS.
215
would descend to the abodes of darkness, while that of his master
soared to the regions of ethereal light and everlasting bliss.
Be this as it may, we may safely conclude that burning and
burying the dead were contemporaneous usages, both cinerary
urns and skeletons, face upwards, having been found in bar¬
rows near Wisbaden, in others, near Darnburg in the Duchy
of Weimar, as well as in several barrows raised by the ancient
Slavonic inhabitants of Pomerania, Barrow burial, or bar-
rowing—if the term he admissible—was practised not only by
the Scandinavians and Germans, but also by several Slavonic
and Celtic tribes, as well as by the ancient Greeks and Etrus¬
cans, and may probably have originally been founded on some
religious dogma, held at a very remote period by the common
ancestors of all these nations. From the eastern shores of
the Black Sea we may follow lines of barrows in a north¬
easterly direction through the steppes of Tartary to the wilds
of Siberia, and in a north-westerly course through Russia and
northern Germany, to Scandinavia and the British Islands.
It is somewhat singular that although there are a considerable
number of barrows in Silesia, Saxony, Prussia, and the whole
of northern Germany, none are to he seen, with the excep¬
tion of those near Eichstätt, in Austria, Bavaria, Wurtemberg
and Baden *. In Iceland and Norway there are very few of
these rude monuments ; Denmark has a considerable number
of them, but in no country are they so abundant as in
Sweden.]
When a hero or chief fell gloriously in battle, his funeral
obsequies were honoured with all possible magnificence. His
arms, his gold and silver, his war-horse, and whatever else he
held most dear, were placed with him on the pile. His de¬
pendants and friends frequently made it a point of honour to
die with their leader, in order to attend on his shade in the
palace of Odin.
Nothing, in fact, seemed to them more grand and noble than
to enter Valhalla with a numerous retinue, all in their finest
armour and richest apparel. The princes and nobles never
failed of such attendants. His arms, and the bones of the
horse on which Chilperic I. supposed he should be presented
to this warrior god, have been found in his tomb. They did
• See Grimm "Über deutsche Runen, p. 265.
214
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
in reality firmly believe, and Odin himself bad assured them,
that whatever was buried or consumed with the dead, accompa¬
nied them to his palace. The poorer people, from the same
persuasion, carried at least their most necessary utensils and a
little money, not to be entirely destitute in the other world.
From a like motive, the Greeks and Romans put a piece of
silver into the dead man's mouth, to pay his passage over the
Styx. The Laplanders to this day provide their dead with a
flint and every thing necessary for lighting them along the
dark passage they have to traverse after death. In whatever
degree civilized nations resemble the savage part of mankind,
their strongest features are those which respect religion,
death, and a future state. Men cannot contemplate these in¬
teresting objects coolly, nor uninfluenced by such hopes and
fears as shackle and impede the proper exertion of their rea¬
soning faculties. Accordingly all that the theology of the
Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans, those people in other re¬
spects so wise, taught them on many points, was only one
great delirium, and was (if we consider it impartially) in no
respect superior to that of the ancient Scandinavians ; if in¬
deed it was not more indecent and extravagant still than theirs.
Odin was supposed to guard these rich deposits from the
sacrilegious attempts of rapine by means of certain sacred
and wandering fires which played round the tombs. And for
their better security the law promulged its severest edicts
against all offences of this kind. The nineteenth chapter of
the Salic law is full of the different punishments decreed
against such as shall carry off the boards or carpeting with
which the sepulchres were covered ; and interdicts them from
fire and water. This law appears to have been well observed
in the north during the times of paganism, since, in digging
into old burial grounds, there are now frequently found arms,
spurs, rings, and different kinds of vases. Such were the con¬
tents of the tomb that was opened near Guben in Germany.
The person who had been interred there seems to have been
a lover of good cheer ; for he had carried with him several
utensils of cookery, together with flagons and drinking vessels
of all sizes. In the British isles, in Germany, in Scandinavia,
and in many countries in the northern and eastern parts of
Asia, are found monuments of the ancient inhabitants, in the
form of little round hills and often surrounded witli stones,
sequel of the ancient customs, etc.
215
on opon plains or near some road. It is the received opinion
that these are the burying places of giants, and indeed bones
larger than the human size are often found in them ; but we
must remember that as the ancients durst not approach the
palace of Odin on foot, and for that reason had their horses
buried with them, it is very probable that the hones of these
animals are often mistaken for those of men.
CHAPTEK XI.
sequel of the customs, arts and sciences of the ancient
scandinavians.
The arts, which are necessarv to the convenience of life, are
but indifferently cultivated among a people who neglect the
more pleasing and refined ones. The Scandinavians held
them £l11 equally in contempt: what little attention they be¬
stowed on any, was chiefly on such as were subservient to
their darling passion. This contempt for the arts, which
men's desire of justifying their own sloth inspires, received
additional strength from their sanguinary religion, from their
extravagant fondness for liberty, which could not brook a
long confinement in the same place, and especially from their
rough, fiery, and quarrelsome temper, which taught them to
place all the happiness and glory of man in being able to
brave his equals and to repel insults.
As long as this inclination had its full sway among a people
who were perpetually migrating from one forest to another,
and entirely maintained from the produce of their flocks and
herds, they never thought of cultivating the soil. In the time
of Tacitus, the Germans were little used to agriculture.
" They cultivate," says that historian, " sometimes one part
of the country, and sometimes another; and then make a
new division of the lands. They will much easier he per¬
suaded to attack and reap wounds from an enemy, than to till
the ground and w^ait the produce. They consider it as an in¬
dication of effeminacy and want of courage to gain by the
sweat of their brow, what they may acquire at the price of
S16
NOBTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
their blood." * This prejudice gradually wore out, and they
applied themselves more to agriculture. The great consump¬
tion of grain in a country, where the principal part of their food
and their ordinary liquor was chiefly made of nothing else,
could not but produce this effect. In the ninth and tenth
centuries we see the freemen, the nobility and the men of
great property, directing the operations of husbandry them¬
selves f. At length Christianity having entirely extinguished
the taste for piracy, and thus restored to the land one half of
its inhabitants, laid them under a necessity of deriving from
thence all their subsistence.
But the other arts were still depressed under the influence
of this prejudice, and were for a long time considered as ab¬
ject occupations befitting none but slaves ; which not only
dishonoured the present professors, but even fixed a stain on
all their posterity. The Gauls, the Germans, and the Scandi¬
navians never employed in any of their domestic and handi¬
craft trades other than slaves, freedmen, women, or such mi¬
serable old men as preferred a dishonourable life to death.
They were of course ignorant of all the pleasing conveniences
and ornaments of life, excepting such as they either acquired
by violence in their piratical excursions, or gained to them¬
selves by foreign service. Their wives spun themselves the
wool which made one part of their clothing, and skins sup¬
plied the rest. Their habits sat close to their bodies, and
were short and neat like those of all the Teutonic I nations:
not wide, long and flowing, like those of the Sàrmatians and
eastern people. They were perhaps still less luxurious in
their manner of lodging.
In the time of Tacitus, the Germans had not yet built
themselves cities, or even towns ; " Every one," says that
author, " places his house on whatever spot he chooses, near
* Tac. Germ. c. 14, &c.
+ Yid. Amg. Jon. Crymog. lib. i. p. 52.
Î In the habits of the ancient Teutonic nations we see evidently the rudi¬
ments of the modern European dress. They consisted of a kind of waistcoat,
and breeches, or rather a kind of trowsers which came down to the feet, and
were connected with the shoes ; whereas the ancient Romans were naked
at the knee. Upon the pillars of Trajan and Antonine the dresses of such
nations as were of Teutonic race bear a great resemblance to those of our
common sailors and peasants.—P.
SEQUEL OF THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS, ETC.
317
a spring, a wood, or open field, at a distance from any neigh¬
bour, either from ignorance in the art of building, or for fear
of fire."* When religion permitted temples to be erected
to the gods, the concourse of those who came to offer oblations,
engaged them to build round about them, and towns insen¬
sibly arose. The same thing happened near the castles of
their kings, princes, and great men ; and lastly, the markets,
whither the peasants repaired for the mutual exchange of
those few commodities in which the trade of these days con¬
sisted, gave birth to a third kind of towns, which still in their
names bear evident traces of their origin f. The houses of
which these towns consisted were nothing better, for the most
part, than cottages supported by thick heavy posts joined to¬
gether by boards and covered with turf. The very lowest
rank of people were not even so well off ; having no other de¬
fence from the severity of the winter, but only miserable huts.
But I again repeat it, that it was only a small part of this
people who lived so totally ignorant of the conveniences of
life. Their chiefs were early distinguished by edifices sumptu¬
ous for those times. Their chief ambition was to have them
of vast extent, and the wooden columns that supported them
adorned with carved images and runic characters. Fragments
of these are still found in Iceland, nor is the sculpture so bad.
as might be expected. The mountaineers of Norway and
Sweden have to this day a remarkable dexterity at carving
with the Icnife, and in the cabinets of the curious are pre¬
served many pieces which surprisingly show how far genius
can advance unassisted by art. Such of the Scandinavians as
settled in richer countries, soon adopted the luxury of their
new fellow-citizens, and were as desirous as they of distin¬
guishing themselves by sumptuous buildings.
We may judge from the foregoing pages of the state of
commerce in ancient Scandinavia. It is true, the fondness of
the inhabitants for navigation ought to have been favourable
to it; but we know that piracy, which is the result of idleness
in those who practise it, reduces to idleness those who suffer
by it, as it renders all industry useless. We must not, how¬
ever, suppose that this people carried on no kind of trafi&c.
* Tac. Germ. c. 16.
+ The general termination of these is hoping, i. e. market.
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
I think one may discover some views of this sort in those
maritime expeditions of the Norwegians which have been re¬
lated above : and this conjecture seems to be confirmed by
the great quantity of foreign money which is still found in
different parts of the north ; if indeed this is not rather
relics of the plunder collected by these ravagera It is pro¬
bable that for a long time commerce was carried on by means
of this foreign coin, in those parts where they had a sufficient
quantity of it, and in other places by an exchange of com¬
modities. We do not find that there was any money coined
in the three northern kingdoms before the tenth or at most
the ninth century; and there is reason to believe it was
Canute the Great who first brought over Englishmen for the
purpose of coining those little pieces of copper money which,
are still shown, and are generally impressed with the figure
of a cross, the sun, or a star, without any letters or inscription.
Under the pagan princes money was also much in use as the
common medium of value, but it seems to have only passed
by weight.
[^A great trade appears to have been carried on at this
period, probably from the seventh to the eleventh century, by
theTshuds of Bjarmaland, the centre of which was Tsherdiin,
on the confluence of the Kol va and Kama in the present go¬
vernment of Perm. The Bjarmaland of the Scandinavians
comprised the present Russian Governments of Archangel,
Vologda, Perm, and Viatka, and was almost exclusively
peopled by tribes of the Permic branch of the Tshudic racef.
The produce of India, after a tedious overland conveyance,
was shipped on the eastern shores of the Caspian, and carried
up the Volga and Kama to Tsherdiin, whence it was forwarded
by the Tshuds to the Baltic. Tsherdiin was also frequented
by caravans from Bokhara, and all accounts concur in repre-
* A great quantity of Arabic coins of the ninth and tenth centuries, and of
countries situated to the south-east of the Caspian Sea, has been found ia
Sweden ; and the museum of the Academy of Sciences, at St. Petersburg, is
rich in Arabic coins found in Russia, and which are supposed to have been
part of the plunder of Hastings and other sea-rovers, in the Mediterranean;
for they are coins of the Ommiades of Spain, the Edressites of Mauritania,
and the Abisside Emirs of Lybia, and all of them prior to the year 815. See
Depping L. II. 9. and Greijer. Cescht. Schw.—Ed.
•fSee page 40.
SEQUEL TO THE AKOIENT CtPSTCÏMS, ETC. 219^
eenting the Permian Tshuds as a wealthy and prosperous
people. They appear to have had a considerable establishment
on the White Sea at the mouth of the Dvina, where, in the
midst of a thick forest, was the temple of their chief deity,
Jumala, with a celebrated image, richly apparelled, adorned
with pearls and precious stones, and holding on its lap a large
silver bowl filled with coins. Near the temple was a cemetery,
and the whole was inclosed %vith palisades, and guarded by six
men night and day If the account which Tacitus gives of
the Tshuds may be relied on f, we must either restrict his de¬
scription to the Finns, (to the Suomic branch of the race,)
or conclude that five or six centuries had wrought a great
change in their social condition.]]
We may readily suppose that the Scandinavians studied
astronomy. A science so requisite for sailors could not but
make a great part of the education of a people who aspired to
fame by maritime enterprizes. The ancient chronicles fre¬
quently present us with young warriors endeavouring to ac¬
quire the good opinion of their mistresses by boasting of their
accomplishments, such as their skill at chess, their dexterity
in swimming and skating, their talents in poetry, and their
knowing all the stars by their names. These names had no¬
thing in common with those adopted by the Greeks and Ro¬
mans ; and were often founded on reasons as fantastical as
theirs. Thus they called Ursa Major, the Great Bog, and the
lesser Bear, Charles's Wain; the three stars in the belt of
Orion, Frigga's Distaff; the Swan, the Cross; the Milky-
way, the Road of Winter, &c. It is remarkable that the
Scandinavians numbered the unities up to twelve, without
stopping at ten like all other nations. This manner of count¬
ing is preferable to ours, as twelve is a more perfect number,
and more easily broken into fractions, than ten. The Ice¬
landers, and the peasants of certain provinces in Sweden, re¬
tain to this day a method of reckoning by great hundreds and
little hundreds, great thousands and little thousands: but
• See Schlözer's Nord. G-eschxclite, p. 439. Geijer Gesch. Schw. p. 85»
Qtimm. Deutsche Mythol. XXYIII., and Berghaus' Grundriss. der Geogra¬
phie. Breslau, 1842.
t See page 41.
NOBTHEBN ANTIQUITIES.
they seem to have confounded their ancient manner of com¬
putation with the modem, since they make their great hun¬
dred to consist of 20 times 12 or 120, and their great thou¬
sand of 1200, instead of multiplying regularly 12 by 12*.
Their year commonly commenced at the winter-solstice, and
they divided it into two half years, or intervals between the
two solstices t, which were again divided into quarters and
months. There was great variety in the names of these
months, which were borrowed generally from the rural occu¬
pations to be performed in each of them, or from the religious
ceremonies which were then to be observed; these names
are still in use in many places of the north. The months
were divided into weeks of seven days, a division which hath
prevailed among almost all the nations we have any knowledge
of, from the extremity of Asia to that of Europe. The day
was divided into twelve parts, to each of which they assigned
a distinct name ; but in their computation of time, they made
use of the word night instead of day. Tacitus observes the
same thing of the Germans I ; and the English have still, on
some occasions, the same mode of speaking §. The longest
night of winter was considered in the north, as that which
had produced all the rest, as well as the days ; hence they
termed it the mother-night, and were persuaded that on such
a night the world was created. This notion certainly gave
birth to the mode of expression above related.
The necessity of assisting the memory, led them early to
invent a kind of calendars, which they called runic staffs.
These were a sort of compendious almanacks marked out by
lines upon short pieces of board, or smooth sticks ||. Some
of them bear the appearance of great antiquity, but I believe
• The same method of reckoning by the great and little hundred still pre¬
vails among our English farmers, in their sale of cheese, &c. Their great
hundred is 120 lbs., their little hundred 112 lbs.—P.
t That is, by summer and winter, as we in our ordinary conversation do
in England.—P.
^ Tacit. Germ. c. 11.
§ Thus we say sevennight (not seven days), and fortnight, i. e. fourteen
nights (not fourteen days).—P.
II They were called in the north nm-síocí» and / they exhibited,
by different lines and marks, the fasts and festivals, the golden number, do¬
minical letter, epact, &c.—-P.
SEQUEL OF THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS, ETC. 221
there are none which do not carry evident marks that their
owners were Christians. The Pagans, however, may have
had instruments of this kind; which the first princes con¬
verted to Christianity might alter and adapt to the Christian
rites. The runic characters with which they are always in¬
scribed, together with some other marks of paganism, seem to
prove this ; hut the question cannot positively be decided till
we have examined whether the Scandinavians were acquainted
with the use of letters before they had embraced Christianity.
This is a fruitful question which deserves particular discus¬
sion.
One cannot travel far in Denmark, Norway or Sweden,
without meeting with great stones of different forms, en¬
graven with those ancient characters called runic *, which
appear at first sight extremely different from all we know.
Several of them were undoubtedly written in pagan times ;
but as a great part of them bear evident marks of Christianity,
some learned men of distinction have thought that the Ger¬
man and Scandinavian missionaries first instructed their con¬
verts in the art of writing. The favourers of this opinion
allege several proofs in support of it, which deserve some
attention.
They produce the testimony of several Greek and Latin
authors to invalidate what the northern literati have assèrted
concerning the great antiquity of the runic character. An-
drotion, quoted by Elian t, assures us. that " neither the
Thracians, nor any other of the barbarous people settled in
Europe, make use of letters ; looking upon it as somewhat
dishonourable to employ them : whereas the use of them is
common among the barbarians of Asia." Tacitus is more ex¬
plicit on this bead. " Both the men and the women," says
he, speaking of the Germans, " are equally ignorant of the
* Runic inscriptions are also found in this island. See a description of a
very curious one in Cumberland, and of another in Scotland, in Hicks's The-
saur. Ling. Sept. {Gram. Island. Tab. vi. and p. 5.) See also Gordon's Iti-
nerarium Septentrionale, p. 168. There is even extant a coin of King Oifa
with a runic inscription ; whence it should seem that this character had been
originally used by the Saxons, as well as their Scandinavian brethren.—P.
f .ffllian. Var, Hist. lib. viii. c, 6. Yid. Pelloutier, Hist, des Celtes, torn. i.
eh. 10.
NORTHERN AN'TIQÜITIES.
•secret of writing letters."* Almost all the xuacients, who
speak of the Celts, affirm the ^me thing. They assure us,
that these people held in contempt every occupation, except
that of arms ; that learning to read and write degraded a per¬
son in their eyes ; that their Druids or priests, induced either
by interest or superstition, and probably by both, utterly for¬
bade them the use of letters, and encouraged them in the
aversion they entertained for this admirable secret ; and that
these Druids pretended their doctrines ought to be reserved
for the initiated only, and concealed from all others, which
could not have been had they committed them to an indis¬
creet paper. These statements, in respect to the Teutonic
nations, are corroborated by divers facts. Thus Theodoric,
king of Italy, could not so much a.s sign the first letters of his
name, though he had spent his youth among the Romans.
Eginhard, in his life of Charlemagne, says, that this emperor,
though in other respects not unlearned, could not write, and
that there were entire nations in Germany subject to him,
whose laws were not yet committed to writing. The Saxons
under Louis le Débonnaire, persisting in their resolution of
not learning to read, he was obliged to have the Old and New
Testament turned into verse, which they willingly learned by
heart, and sung after their own manner. Lastly, the literati,
whose sentiments we here give, think they can unravel all the
difficulty arising from the particular form of the runic cha¬
racters, and prove that these were not known in the north
before Chrisianity, by reducing them to the Roman letters ;
from which, say they, these do not differ any farther than this,
that the people of the north having been obliged at first to
engrave them in wood and stone, found it convenient to draw
their letters chiefly in straight lines, and to avoid as much as
possible all round strokes and turnings.
These arguments are specious, but are they equally solid ?
It is true the ancients denied that the nortliern nations had
the knowledge, or at least the use of letters among them ;
but our present inquiry only regards the Scandinavians, and
such of the Germans as lived nearest them. These are the
only people among whom the runic characters are found, and
* " Literarura secreta viri pariter ac foeminse ignorant." Tac. Germ.-c. 19.
SEQUEL OE THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS, ETC.
ivith them the ancients were least acquainted. As for Tacituä,
he has probably been misunderstood ; those who are acquainted
■with his style and manner, if they reconsider the passage, wlil
not doubt but this is his meaning ; that " both the German men
and women were ignorant of the secret of writing letters or
epistles ; " that is, with a view to carry on an intrigue *. We
may easily suppose there were among them many warriors
and illustrious men who could not write, without concluding
from thence that the whole nation was equally ignorant. As
for the last argument, which attributes to the first missionaries
the honour of introducing lettera into the north, it does not
appear to me to carry much weight. The Runic characters
might possibly be borrowed from the Roman alphabet, with¬
out any necessary "conclusion that the Scandinavians had
waited for the secret till the introduction of Christianity among
them. The Runic letters might even have a great resem¬
blance to the Roman without being copied from them, since
both may have been derived from one common original. But
the strongest argument of all is, that this resemblance has
been nothing less than proved ; for that the difference between
the runic and Roman letters is all owing to the necessity of
writing on wood or stone, and of tracing the letters iu per¬
pendicular lines, leaves such a latitude for changing, adding, or
diminishing, that tliere are few alphabets in the world, which,
by means of such a commodious hypothesis, might not easily
be reduced to the Roman character. Accordingly, the learned
Worraius found the Runic letters as easily reducible to the
Greek and Hebrew alphabets as to the Romanf.
The Roman history tells us, that under the reign of the
emperor Valens, Ulphilas bishop of those Goths who were
settled in Mψa and Thrace, translated the Bible into the
* So the best translators of Tacitus, and so the Abbé Eletterie has ren¬
dered this passage in his celebrated French version.
■f Vid. 01. Wonn. Literatur. Eunic, pas-sim. It -was that great master of
northern literature, Dr. Hickes, who first started the notion that the Runic
character was borrowed from the Roman : see his Thesaurus Liuguar.
Septentrion., &c. But this opinion is now generally given up as insupport¬
able.—P.
X In the year 369. Vid. Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv., and Sozomen. lib.
vi. 36.
224
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
Gothic language. Several authors say, that Ulphilas invented
the character in which this version was written ; but is it pro¬
bable that any man should form a new alphabet for a nation
which had one already ? If the Goths of Mœsia and Thrace had
not before his time had any knowledge of letters, would it not
have been better to have taught them the use of the Greek
character, already understood? Besides, Ulphilas neither
wrote the Gospels on wood nor on stone, but on parchment ;
he would not therefore be under the necessity of disfiguring
the alphabet of other nations for the sake of straight lines, which
it is alleged gave birth to the Runic letters. At most it could
not be the Roman alphabet that was altered ; but if any it
must have been the Greek, for Ulphilas was at that time in
a country where the Greek language was spoken. Nor is it
difficult to discover what it was that led historians into the
mistake of supposing Ulphilas to have been the inventor of
these characters. The Greeks had probably never heard any
mention of them before he came among them : the introducer
of a novelty easily passes for the author of it ; and when we
compare the Runic letters taken from the inscriptions
scattered up and down on the rocks in the north with the
alphabet of Ulphilas, it is easy to see that the bishop has added
divers characters unknown to the ancient Scandinavians.
It was doubtless the translation of the Bible which obliged
him to make these additions. The ancient alphabet, being com¬
posed only of sixteen letters, could not express the many
sounds foreign to the Gothic language that necessarily
occurred in that work. These additional letters might easily
confer on Ulphilas the credit of inventing the whole. This is
one of those inaccuracies which every day happen. It is no
less probable that before Ulphilas, the Goths, even while they
were involved in the thickest darkness of paganism, had some
knowledge of letters
* In the sixteenth century there was found in the abbey of Werden, in
Westphalia, a very curious fragment of what is believed to have been the
identical version of Ulphilas, written in the language of the Mœso-Goths, and
exhibiting the characters which that prelate made use of : these are so very
remote from the runic, that we may now safely allow the Gothic bishop the
honour of their invention, without in the least derogating from the antiquity
of the Kunic letters. This fragment is now preserved in the library at Up-
SEQUEL OF THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS, ETC.
235
What are we to think of those inscriptions in the Runic
character, which travellers assure us they have seen in the
deserts of Tartary * ? Tartary has never yet been converted
to Christianity; from this and the circumjacent countries
issued those swarms which peopled Scandinavia ; nor have the
Scandinavians ever made any expeditions into their mother
sal, in Sweden, and is famous among all the northern literati, under the name
of the Codex Argenteus, or Silver Book : for which reason a short account of
it may not be unacceptable.
The Codex Argenteus contains at present only the four Gospels, though
somewhat mutilated ; and is believed to be a relic of the Gothic Bible, all or
the greater part of which Ulphilas had translated. The leaves are of vellum
of a violet colour ; all the letters are of silver, except the initials, which are
of gold. These letters (which are all capitals) appear not to have
been written with the pen, but stamped or imprinted on the vellum
with hot metal types in the same manner as the bookbinders at
present letter the backs of books. This copy is judged to be nearly
as ancient as the time of Ulphilas, or at least not later than a century
or two after ; yet so near was the copyist to the discovery of printing, that
if he had but thought of combining three or four of these letters together he
must have hit upon that admirable invention ; whereas he only imprinted
each letter singly. This curious fragment has been several times printed in
4to, first by Junius in 1665 ; and lately in a very elegant manner at Oxford
by the learned Mr. Lye in 1750. Another fragment of this curious version
(containing part of the Epistle to the Romans) has been since discovered in
the library at Wolfenbüttel, and was published a few years ago in a very
splendid volume in 4to by the Rev. F. A. Knitell, Archdeacon of Wolfen¬
büttel
To conclude, the letters used in the Gothic Gospels, being twenty-five in
number, are formed with slight variations from the capitals of the Greek and
Latin alphabet, and are extremely different from the Runic. The invention
of them may therefore be very safely attributed to Bishop Ulphilas (as the
ancients expressly assert) ; who might not choose to employ in so sacred a
work as the translation of the Bible the Runic characters, which the Goths
had rendered infamous by their superstitious use of them.—P.
* Consult Strahlemberg's Description of the northern and eastern parts of
Europe and Asia (quoted by Er. Renzel. Jun. in Pericul. Runic. Diss. Upsal.
1724). See also in the same book the map of Tartary.
® See this fully proved in some late curious tracts written by the learned
Dom. Johan Ihre, and other Swedish literati.
Since Bishop Percy's time, several editions of Ulphilas have appeared.
The most complete edition is that published at Leipsic, in 1836, edited by
H. v. Gabelenz and Dr. Lœbe, which contains the fragments discovered in
Palimpsest MSS. by Cardinal Mai.—En.
Q
226
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
country since they embraced the Christian faith. If, then, the
account given us by these travellers is true, we must neces¬
sarily conclude that the Runic writing was an art which had
its rise in Asia, and was carried into Europe by the colonies
who came to settle in the north. This is also confirmed by
all the old chronicles and poems which I have so often quoted.
They universally agree in assigning to the Runic characters a
very remote antiquity, and an origin entirely pagan. They
attribute the invention of them to Odin himself ; who, they
add, was eminently skilled in the art of writing, as well for the
common purposes of life, as for the operations of magic. In
a very ancient ode, quoted by Bartholin, the poet thus speaks
of the Runic characters. " The letters which the great an¬
cient traced out ; which the gods composed ; which Odin, the
sovereign of the gods, engraved." Had it been otherwise, how
could the pagans have so soon forgotten that these letters were
introduced among them by the ministers of a religion that was
foreign, unknown, and must have been hateful to them, since
they were often compelled by violent means to profess it?
how could all their poets (who were at the same time their
theologians) so expressly call Odin "the inventor of the
runes ? "
This would be the place to say something of those supersti¬
tious practices, if we had not already given sufficient instances
of the weakness of the human mind, and of the strange errors
and extravagances to which ignorant nations are subject.
Let it suffice, then, just to observe, that the Runic characters
were distinguished into various kinds The noxious, or, as
they called them, the hitter runes, were employed to bring va--
rious evils on their enemies ; the favourable averted misfor¬
tunes; the victorious procured conquest to those who used
them ; the medicinal were inscribed on the leaves of trees for
healing ; others served to dispel melancholy thoughts ; to
prevent shipwreck ; were antidotes against poison ; preserva¬
tives against the resentment of their enemies, and efficacious
to render a mistress favourable : these last were to be used
with great caution. If an ignorant person had chanced to
write one letter for another, or had but erred in the minutest
stroke, he would have exposed his mistress to some dangerous-
* Vid. Worm. Litterat. kunic. p. 33, et Barthol. de Cau«., &c., p. 650.
SEQUEL OF THE AKCIENT CUSTOMS, ETC.
227
illness ; whicli was only to be cured by writing other runes
with the greatest niceness. All these various kinds differed
only in the ceremonies observed in writing them, in the ma¬
terials on which they were written, in the place where they
were exposed, in the manner in which the lines were drawn,
whether in the form of a circle, of a serpent, or a triangle, &c.
In the strict observance of these childish particulars consisted
that obscure and ridiculous art, which acquired to so many
weak and wicked persons the respectable name of priests
and prophetesses, merely for filling rude minds with so much
jealousy, fear, and hatred. It is by mischievous errors of the
same kind that all nations have been distinguished in their ñrst
ages of simplicity and ignorance ; those first ages which pre¬
judice makes us regret, and wish that the arts had never cor¬
rupted their primeval innocence. Whereas in proportion as
the empire of the sciences has prevailed in the north, that of
superstition has faded and vanished before its growing light.
But the extremity of Scandinavia, where that light has not
yet penetrated, still remains faithfully subject to all its an¬
cient errors. Allowing for the difference of their climate and
poverty, the Laplanders at present are in this respect what
the Scandinavians were formerly. With the same ignorance,
they are equally subject to superstition and credulity; for it
is a certain rule that magic never fails to work prodigies in all
such nations as believe in it. The Ostiacs and other savages
of Asia are no less given to sorcery and witchcraft than the
Laplanders, and we have all heard of the Jongleurs, those
magicians so revered among the barbarians of America.
However, the use of runic letters for more rational pur¬
poses became by degrees more common in the north. In the
latter ages of paganism they were frequently used for inscrip¬
tions. The older these inscriptions are the better they are
engraved. We rarely find them written from the right hand
to the left's:; it is not uncommon to meet with the line
running from the top to the bottom, after the manner of the
Chinese and several nations of India ; or from the top to the
bottom, and then turning round to the left, and so up again
to the place it begins at ; or else from the left to the right,
* Yid. Vform. Litterar. Tiun. cap. xxy.
Q 2
228
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
and so back to the left again, which was the manner of the
early Greeks, and had its name from the resemblance to a
furrow traced by the plough The greater part of the an¬
cient monuments written in the Runic character, which are
still preserved, are inscriptions dispersed here and there in
the fields, and cut out on large stones or pieces of rock. The
Scandinavians wrote also on wood and on the bark of the
birch-tree. As for the manuscripts in the Runic character,
the most ancient we can find appear to have been written
some time after Christianity took place in the north, as is
judged from several proofs, particularly from the frequent in¬
termixture of Roman letters in them. In the tenth and
eleventh centuries the runic gave way still more and more to
the other ; till at length the missionaries succeeded in totally
abolishing the use of them, as tending to retain the people
in their ancient superstitions. But this reformation did not
speedily take place, and there remained traces of this charac¬
ter for many succeeding ages ; nor, as we are assured t, is it yet
wholly laid aside among the mountaineers of one province m
Sweden.
^Upwards of a thousand Runic inscriptions have been dis¬
covered in Sweden, and three or four hundred in Denmark
and Norway, but few of them are of a date prior to the
eleventh century, and there is scarcely one of undoubted
authenticity that throws the least light on history. They are,
in fact, singularly devoid of interest, and by no means repay
the trouble taken by thè learned men of the north to decipher
them. By far the greater number of these inscriptions are
short epitaphs on tombstones, raised after the introduction of
Christianity by obscure individuals, in memory of their friends
and relations. N. N. set (raised) this stone after (in memory
of) N. N. his father, mother, brother, sister, or friend, would
be, by the insertion of two ordinary Scandinavian proper
names, such as Suti, Steinar, Olaf, &c., a literal translation of
the greater part of them. The most interesting Runic in
scription we have yet seen is that on the Kingiktorsoak stone
which we shall give an account of in the next chapter.
* BovcrçeÇtiiif,
t See Dalin. Su. Eik, hist. torn. i. p. 237, and Benzel. collect, hist. p. 1,
cap. 1.
SEQUEL OF THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS, ETC. 229
The Runic, like the ancient Greek alphabet, originally con
tained only sixteen letters, arranged as follows :—
Name . .
fe
úr
thurs
OS
rei^
Signification
money a ure-ox
a giant
an estuary
a ride
Figure . ,
h
a
k
Power . .
F
U
D.TH
0
E
Name . .
Kön
hagl
nau^
is
ár
sol
Signification
an ulcer
hail
need
ice
year
the sun
Figure . .
Y
*
h
I
H
Power . .
K
H
N
I
A
s
Name . .
Tyr
bjork lógr
ma"£r
yr
Signification
the God Tyr
a birch tree a
lake
a man
a bow
Figure . .
t
r
r
yk
Power • .
T
B :
L
M
Y
We will not fatigue the reader by entering into a critical
examination of the conflicting theories that have been brought
forward to account for the origin of these characters, for not¬
withstanding the antiquarian lore by which many of them are
supported, they have only served to involve the question they
were intended to elucidate in still greater obscurity. Leaving,
therefore, these erudite lucubrations to those who may have
the curiosity to investigate them *, we shall give, as briefly as
possible, a few well authenticated facts on the subject. It
may, in the first place, be taken for granted that the Scandi¬
navian Runic alphabet was in use in the ninth century. It
is, moreover, highly probable that the Saxons also possessed
a Runic alphabet previous to their invasion of England, for it
has been clearly ascertained that the Anglo-Saxons were ac¬
quainted with Runic letters when they adopted the Roman
* Sclilözer, in Lis Allg. Nord. GescLichte, edit. 1771, has collected a great
deal of literary rubbish on the subject.
230
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES,
alphabet on their conversion to Christianity in the sixth cen¬
tury, as they retained two of them—]) th and p w—that ex¬
pressed sounds in their language which could only have been
inadequately rendered by a combination of two or more of the
Eoman characters Hrabanus Maurus, an archbishop of
Mainz, in the ninth century, has given in his work, " De Inven-
tione Linguarum," a Runic alphabet, which he says was used
by the Marcomanni for magical purposes ; and another German
Runic alphabet has been found in a vellum MS., of the
tenth century, in the convent of St. Gallen, in Switzerland ;
but William Grimm has shown f that these are only modifi¬
cations of the Anglo-Saxon Runes, though he is of opinion
that the alphabet of Hrabanus Maurus may probably be that
used by the Nordalbingian Saxons prior to their invasion of
England, as well as by several other Germanic tribes. That
the Germans were accustomed to write on wooden tablets in
Runic characters, is proved by the authority of Venantius
Fortunatus, a bishop of Poictiers of the sixth century, who,
in one of his epistles to his friend Flavius, tells him that
when he is tired of the Latin, he can make use of the Hebrew,
Greek, or even of the Runic letters.
" Barbara fraxineis pingatur nma tabellis ;
Quodque papyrus agit, virgula plana valet,"
are the words which the poetical bishop makes use of, and by
which he meant to designate the German, and not the Scandi-
* Tbe so-called Anglo-Saxon characters, except the two mentioned in the
text, are a mere corruption of the Koman, and ought to be abandoned. Rask
very properly made use of Roman letters for his excellent Anglo-Saxon
grammar, observing that he did so, "after mature deliberation, the written
Anglo-Saxon characters as they appear in MSS. being themselves a bar¬
barous, monkish corruption of the Roman, and the printed ones a very im¬
perfect imitation of the MSS. To persist, therefore, in the use of them,
(however venerable their appearance,) seems to be without good reason ; for
though called Anglo-Saxon, they are no other than those employed at the
same time in the writing of Latin ; if, therefore, we should be consistent, we
ought to employ types to represent every variation of the monkish characters
throughout the middle ages ; as the handwriting underwent many changes
before the discovery of printing, and the restoration of the Roman alphabet."
—Preface, page 55.
f In his compendious work, entitled " Ueber Deutsche Runen," Gotting.
1821.
SEQUEL OF THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS, ETC.
231
navian Eunes, as is evident from several other passages in
which allusion is made to his travels in Germany. Grimm
has further shown, in the most clear and satisfactory manner,
that the Anglo-Saxon Runic alphabet was derived from the
Scandinavian at a period when it had only sixteen letters,
the complementary letters of the two alphabets having been
formed on principles that offer not the slightest analogy.
Hence we may safely infer that the Scandinavians were ac¬
quainted with Runic letters in the sixth century, and, in all
probability, at a much earlier period, though it is certainly
very extraordinary that they should have made so little use
of them. Grimm, after having established by the most con¬
clusive arguments the facts above stated, attempts to trace
the sixteen original Runes =1'- to a remote Asiatic source, found¬
ing his conjectures on their inadequacy to express all the
sounds of the Old Norse language, and therefore assuming
that they must necessarily have been borrowed from a more
primitive tongue. Into this inquiry we will not follow him,
as we deem the assumption to be somewhat gratuitous f, but
leave the reader to draw his own conclusions from a com¬
parison of the three Runic alphabets which we give in the
next page, together with the characters said to have been in¬
vented by Ulphilus, but which Grimm supposes were known
to the Mœso-Goths long before their learned bishop's trans¬
lation of the Gospels, their original form having been some¬
what changed when the Goths became acquainted with the
Greek alphabet, and further modified by Ulphilus rendering
them more adaptable for writing.
* Not having as yet met with a satisfactory etymology of the word Eune,
we will not give that generally adopted, as it is probably the most erroneous
of all, but merely observe that the Norse u corresponds to the Grerman aî(,
and that the famous root mandragora or rather the demon conjured out of
it, is designated in old Glerman by the word alraun. See Will. Grimm's
Deutsche Eunen, p. 67, and Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, p. 376.
f In modem German, for instance, the sounds represented by B and P are
equally as distinct as in English, yet these sounds are so confounded in
some of the provincial dialects, that we much question whether an Austrian
village schoolmaster, if called upon to form an alphabet for the jargon he
teaches his scholars, would not discard one of them as superfluous.
S32
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
tí
g
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CÍ
Wh «
O P
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tí 00
OB
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i 3
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9
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*.,* C, K, and Q represent the same sound in Anglo-Saxon, two of these
letters are consequently superfluous. Rask only uses twenty-four characters
in his Anglo-Saxon grammar.
SEQUEL OF THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS, ETC. äfiS
We may remark, in conclusion, that no Runic lapidary in¬
scriptions in any of the ancient Upper Germanic languages
have hitherto been discovered, and we believe not more than
two or three in Anglo-Saxon
Mankind, every where essentially the same, have been al¬
ways led to poetical composition prior to that of prose. This
seems at present the reverse of the natural order ; hut we
think so either through our prejudices or for want of putting
ourselves in the place of a people who are ignorant of the art
of writing. Pleasing sounds and the attractions of harmony
would strike at first every ear ; but song could not long sub¬
sist without poetry. No sooner was it observed how these
two united powers fixed and impressed those images on the
mind, which the memory was desirous of retaining, than they
acquired a new degree of esteem, especially among such as
aspired to a lasting fame. Verse was made use of to preserve
the memory of remarkable events and great actions. The
laws of a people, their religious ceremonies and rural labours
were also recorded in numbers, because these are subjects which,
consisting of a great variety of particulars, might easily fall
into oblivion. Hence it was that Greece could already boast
of an Homer, an Hesiod, and of many other poets, .several ages
before Pherecydes had written in prose. Hence among the
Gauls and other Celtic nations there were poems composed on
* One of these, cut on a stone cross, was found in Nottinghamshire, and a
copy of it sent by Spelman, in 1618, to the famous northern antiquarj',
Glaus Wormius, who has given it in his Monura. Dan. page 161. The in¬
scription consists of thirteen very legible Anglo-Saxon Runes. Wormius, how¬
ever, taking for granted that the inscription was in the old Norse language,
and not being able to extract any meaning from the letters as they stood, did
not hesitate to transpose some and add others, by dint of which legerdemain,
he at length brought out " Rino satu Runa 'siina, Rino set this Runic stone.
Another erudite northern antiquary, Helverschov, tortured them into " vilos
eras ateos," the barbarous Latin for vilis ero at/ieis, but William Grimm reads,
without changing a letter, the Anglo-Saxon phrase. Rices dryhtnes, the
dominion of the kingdom, which may mean the dominion of the kingdom of
heaven over that of earth, or the dominion of a civil jurisdiction, the cross
being probably placed to mark the boundary of a parish or a hundred. This
anecdote will serve to show the reader that the present generation of northern
antiquaries, in having recourse to the Jonathan Oldbuck manner of decipher¬
ing lapidary inscriptions—an amusing instance of which will be found in the
next chapter—merely tread in the footsteps of their illustrious predecessors.
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
all subjects from the earliest ages, which the Druids, who were
appointed to educate the youth, frequently employed twenty
years in teaching them to repeat '-5=. This custom, rendered
sacred by its high antiquity, which ever commands respect
from the people, was in force many ages after the art of writing
had pointed out a more perfect method of preserving the me¬
morials of human knowledge. In like manner the Scandina¬
vians for a long time applied their Runic letters only to the
senseless purposes above mentioned ; nor did they, during so
many years, ever think of committing to writing those verses
with which their memories were loaded ; and it is probable
that they only wrote down a small quantity of them at last.
The idea of making a book never entered into the heads of
those fierce warriors, who knew no medium between the violent
exercises and fatigues of war or hunting and a stupid lethargic
state of inaction. Among the innumerable advantages which
accrued to the northern nations from the introduction of the
Christian religion, that of teaching them to apply the know¬
ledge of letters to useful purposes, is not the least valuable.
Nor could a motive less sacred have eradicated that habitual
and barbarous prejudice which caused them to neglect so ad¬
mirable a secret. The churches and monasteries were at least
so many asylums where this secret was preserved, while the
ferocity of manners which prevailed in the dark ages tended
again to consign it to oblivion.
So long as paganism prevailed in the north, the use of
letters being very limited, it is no paradox to say that verse
was a necessary medium of knowledge, and the poet an essen¬
tial officer of the state. And if it requires a peculiar and im-
common genius to excel in this art, the professors of it would
of course acquire a very high degree of esteem and respect.
All the historical monuments of the north are full of the
honours paid this order of men both by princes and people ;
nor can the annals of poetry produce any age or country which
reflects more glory and lustre upon it. The ancient chronicles
constantly represent the kings of Denmark, Norway, and
Sweden as attended by one or more Skalds ; for this was
the name they gave their poets. They were more especially
honoured and caressed at the courts of those princes, who
* Csesar, Comment, lib. vi. 14.
SEQUEL OF THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS, ETC.
235
distinguished themselves by their great actions and passion
for glory. Harald Hárfagra, for instance, placed them at his
feasts above all the other officers of his court. Many princes
entrusted them both in peace and war with commissions of
the utmost importance. They never set out on any consider¬
able expedition without some of them in their train. Hakon,
Earl of Norway, had five celebrated Skalds along with him in
that famous battle, when the warriors of Jomsburg were de¬
feated ; and history records that they sung each an ode to
animate the soldiers before they engaged. But they enjoyed
another advantage, which would be more the envy of the poets
of these days. They were rewarded for the poems they com¬
posed in honour of the kings and heroes with magnificent
presents ; we never find the Skald singing his verses at the
courts of princes without being recompensed with golden rings,
glittering arms, and rich apparel. Their respect for this or¬
der of men often extended so far as to remit the punishment
of crimes they had committed, on condition they sued out
their pardon in verse. In a word, the poetic art was held in
such high estimation, that great lords and even kings did not
disdain to cultivate it with the utmost pains themselves.
Kagnvald, Earl of the Orkney islands, passed for a very able
poet ; he boasts himself, in a song of his which is still extant,
that he knew how to compose verses on all subjects. Eagnar
Lodbrok was no less distinguished for his skill in poetry, than
in war and navigation. Many of his poems were long pre¬
served in the north, and may be found inserted in the history
of his life : and it is well known that he died no less like a
poet than a hero.
The respect, however, which the northern nations paid to
their Skalds was not owing to the nobility of their extraction.
A people whose object was glory, could not fail of showing a
great deference to those who both published it abroad and
consigned it to futurity, let their origin be what it would.
A prince or illustrious warrior oftentimes exposed his life with
so much intrepidity only to be praised by his Skald, who was
both the witness and judge of his bravery. It is affirmed that
this kind of men, although poets, were never guilty of flattery,
and never lavished their praises on heroes and lungs them¬
selves unless their gallant exploits were quite incontestable *
* Yid. Bartliolin. p. 154, et cap. 10. lib. i. passim.—P.
236
NOTHEUN ANTIQUITIES.
Hence arose the custom of always bringing them into the
scene of action : Olaf, king of Norway, placing three of them
one day around him in battle, cried out with spirit, " You
shall not relate what you have only heard, but what you are
eye witnesses of yourselves ! " The same poets usually recited
their verses themselves at solemn festivals and in great assem¬
blies. But the subject of these poems was not confined to one
single event, such as a victory or some generous action ; it
was frequently a genealogical history of all the kings of the
country, deduced down from the gods to the reigning prince,
who always derived his origin from them. These poems were,
according to Tacitus, the only annals of the Germans. They
had great numbers of them, which were not wholly forgotten
in the eighth centuiy ; since Eginhard relates, that Charle¬
magne caused them to be committed to writing. " And even
learnt himself," adds the historian, " the rude and ancient
songs in which the exploits and the wars of the first princes
were celebrated." In poems of the same kind consisted for
many ages all the history of the Scandinavians. A bard named
Thiodolf celebrated in his verses the exploits of Harald and
thirty of his predecessors ; another called Eyvind, composed
an historical poem which went back as far as Odin. Such
are the sources whence Saxo drew his materials for the first
six or seven books of his history, and he might doubtless have
derived great assistance from them, if he had not hapj)ened
to live in an age wholly destitute of that exact skill in criticism
which knows how to separate facts from the fictions with which
they are blended.
The necessity there was for poets, the natural attractions of
the art itself, and those it derived from the manners of the
age, greatly multiplied the number of Skalds. An ancient
Icelandic manuscript has preserved a list of all such as dis¬
tinguished themselves in the three northern kingdoms, from
the reign of Ragnar Lodbrok to that of Valdemar II. They
are in number two hundred and thirty, among whom we find
more than one crowned head. But what is not less remark¬
able is, that the greatest part of them are natives of Iceland.
The reader has doubtless by this time observed that we are
indebted to that island for almost all the historical monu-
* Vide Skaldatal in Append, ad Lit. Lun. 01. "Worm. p. 212.
SEQUEL OF THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS. ETC.
237
rnents of the northern nations now remaining. It cannot
easily be accounted for how it came to pass that a people, dis¬
joined from the rest of the world, few in number, depressed
by poverty, and situated in so unfavourable a climate, should
be capable, in those dark ages, of manifesting such a taste for
literature, and should even rise to the perception of the more
refined mental pleasures. While they were heathens, the
Icelandic annalists were always deemed the best in the north.
After they had embraced the Christian faith, they were the
first who thought of unravelling the chaos of ancient history,
who collected the old poems, digested the chronicles into a
regular form, and applied themselves to rescue from oblivion
the traditions of their pagan theology. Were we better in¬
formed of certain particulars relating to the state of the north
during those remote ages, we might possibly find the cause of
this phenomenon either in the poverty of the inhabitants of
Iceland, which drove them to seek their fortunes at the neigh¬
bouring courts, or in the success of their first bards, which
excited their emulation, and at the same time prepossessed
strangers in their favour ; or lastly in the nature of their re¬
publican government, in which the talent of oratory and the
reputation of superior sense and capacity are the direct roads
to respect and preferment.
The style of these ancient poems is very enigmatical and
figurative, very remote from the common language, and for
that reason, grand, but tumid ; sublime, but obscure =í=. If it
be the character of poetry to have nothing in common with
prose, if the language of the gods ought to be quite different
from that of men, if every thing should he expressed by
imageiy. figures, hyperboles, and allegories, the Scandinavians
may rank in the highest class of poets ; nor is this unaccount¬
able. The soaring flights of fancy may possibly more pecu¬
liarly belong to a rude and uncultivated, than to a civilized
people. The great objects of nature strike more forcibly on
rude imaginations. Their passions are not impaired by the
constraint of laws and education. The paucity of their ideas
and the barrenness of their language oblige them to borrow
" If we make a distinction between Eddaic and Skaldic poetry, " grand
and sublime " are epithets quite inapplicable to the latter, by far the greater
part of which is mere bombast ; " tumid and obscure," enough to be utterly
worthless.—En.
238
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
from all nature, images fit to clotlie their conceptions in.
How should abstract terms and reflex ideas, which so much
enervate our poetry, be found in theirs ? They could seldom
have been met with in their most familiar conversations.
The moment the soul, reflecting on its own operations recurs
inwards, and detaches itself from exterior objects, the ima¬
gination loses its energy, the passions their activity, the mind
becomes severe, and requires ideas rather than sensations :
language then becomes precise and cautious, and poetry, being
no longer the child of pure passion, is able to affect but feebly.
If it be asked, what is become of that magic power which the
ancients attributed to this art, it may be well said to exist
no more. The poetry of the modem languages is nothing
more than reasoning in rhyme, addressed to the understand¬
ing, but very little to the heart. No longer essentially con¬
nected with religion, politics, or morality, it is at present, if I
may so say, a mere private art, an amusement that attains its
end when it has gained the cold approbation of a few select
judges.
The most affecting and most striking passages in the an¬
cient northern poetry, were such as now seem to us the most
whimsical, unintelligible, and overstrained; so different are
our modes of thinking from theirs. We can admit of nothing
but what is accurate and perspicuous. They only required
bold and astonishing images, which appear to us hyperbolical
and gigantic. What also contributes to render their poetry very
obscure at present is, that the language of it is borrowed from
their mythology ; a mythology not so familiar to us as that of
the Greeks and Romans. When they did not allude to their
own fables, they took their metaphors from other subjects,
which were commonly very far-fetched and remote ; thus a
poet seldom expressed heaven by any other term than " the
skull of the giant Ymir," alluding to a fable on that subject.
The rainbow was called " the bridge of the gods gold was
" the tears of Freyja;" j)oetry, " the present, or the drink of
Odin." The earth was either indifferently " the spouse of
Odin, the flesh of Ymir, the daughter of the night, the vessel
which floats on the ages, or the foundation of the air herbs
and plants were called " the hair or the fleece of the earth."
A combat was termed " a bath of blood, the hail of Odin, the
shock of bucklers;" the sea was " the field of pirates and
SEQUEL OF THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS, ETC.
239
tlie girdle of the earth;" ice, " the greatest of all bridges
a ship, " the horse of the waves the tongue, " the sword of
words," &c. Each of their deities might be expressed by an
infinite variety of phrases. /In short, a peculiar study of this
Idnd of language was necessary to constitute a poet ; for which
reason they early composed a dictionary of it for the use of
the Skalds, as well as their readers. The same Eagnvald,
Earl of the Orlmeys, before spoken of, is said to have com¬
posed a work of this sort, which, according to Wormius, is still
extant, under the name of the " Poetical Key." Another is
found at the end of the prose Edda, and is entitled " Skalda,
or the Art of Poetry," This is a collection of epithets and sy¬
nonymous words selected from their best poets, very like those
which are put into the hands of young people when they
first apply themselves to Latin poetry. It was also usual with
the Skalds to interlard their discourse with extemporary
verses. Thus it is reported of an Icelandic bard, named Si-
vard, that when he spoke in prose his tongue seemed embar¬
rassed and to deliver his thoughts with difficulty, but that he
expressed himself in verse with the greatest fluency and ease.
The historians frequently and positively assure us that these
verses were spoken off-hand. This is what is remarked in the
life of the poet Egill, for instance, who purchased his pardon
from the king of Norway by singing an extemporary ode which
still remains, and is entitled the " Ransom of Egill."'!^ The same
eulogium is often given to another more ancient Skald, called
Eyvind. All the chronicles mention his great facility in com¬
posing verses, as a matter well known throughout the north.
The taste which the Skalds had for the abstruse and com¬
plicated could not fail of running them into allegories and
enigmas of every kind : we often meet with princes and great
warriors, in the ancient chronicles, proposing riddles, and
affixing penalties on such as could not unravel them. But
excepting some few which are tolerably ingenious, they are
either totally unintelligible, or built on verbal equivocations..
The poets were not limited to this kind only. There is men¬
tion made from the earliest ages of Logogryphs t, and other
* Vid. Torf. H. N. torn. ii. p. 188, et seq.
+ A Logogryph is a kind of enigma, which consists of taking, in different
senses, the different parts of the same word.—See instances of this species
of false wit, in 01. Wormii Literat. Runic, p. 183, 185, &c.—P.
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
Still more trifling species of wit, for which we happily want
even names. Some of them must have cost much labour, and
all imply such an acuteness and patience in the inventors, as
would hardly be expected from a nation of warriors.
There remains now but one word to add by way of conclu¬
sion. When the truth of facts is once solidly established, we
may safely reason concerning their causes. From a repre¬
sentation of such facts, (which are here only brought together
and left to speak for themselves,) a picture has been given of
the ancient northern nations. But having thus informed our¬
selves concerning the manners of this people, why may we
not proceed a step farther, to consider the general causes of
their character ? It does not seem impossible here to discover
and pursue the path which nature has taken. A great abund¬
ance of blood and. humours, strong and rigid fibres, together
with an inexhaustible vigour, formed the constitutional tem¬
perament of the Scandinavians and Germans, as they do in¬
deed of all savage people who live under a like climate.
Hence proceeded that impetuosity and violence of their
passions when they were once roused ; and hence, in their
calmer moments, that serious, phlegmatic, and indolent turn.
The exercises of war and the chase which are great fatigues
to a less robust people, were to them only amusements, the
means of shaking off their lethargy, and of giving an agreeable
and even necessary motion to the body. Their relish for this
kind of life, the effect of constitution, strengthened in its turn
the cause that produced it. Thus strongly moulded by the
hand of nature, and rendered hardy by education, the opinion
they entertained of their own courage and strength must have
given the peculiar turn to their character. A man who thinks
be has nothing to fear, cannot endure any sort of constraint ;
much less will he submit to any arbitrary authority, which he
sees only supported by human power, or such as he can brave
with impunity. As he thinks himself not obliged to court any
one's favour or deprecate his resentment, he scorns dissimula¬
tion, artifice, or falsehood. He regards these faults, the effects
of fear, as the most degrading of all others. He is always
ready to repel force by force ; hence he is neither suspicious
nor distrustful. A declared enemy to his enemy, he attacks
openly ; he confides in, and is true to others ; generous, and
sometimes in the highest degree magnanimous, because he
SEQUEL OF THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS, ETC. 241
places Iiis dearest interest in the idea he entertains and would
excite of his courage. He does not willingly confine himself
to such occupations as require more assiduity than action,
more application of mind than body ; because moderate exer¬
cise is not sufficient to put his blood and fibres into such a
degree of motion as is necessary to his own ease. Hence that
distaste for the arts ; and, as the passions always endeavour to
justify themselves, hence also that contempt and prejudice
which represent the profession of the arts as dishonourable.
War then becomes the only employment he can exercise with
pleasure. The frequent and extreme vicissitudes, the fatigues
and dangers attendant on this way of life, are alone able to
throw him into those violent and continual agitations his habit
of body requires. Now if we suppose after this a whole society
composed of such men, to what a degree of emulation must
their courage arise ? The love of distinction, so natural to all
men, having here no other object than personal valour, with
what ardour must that quality have been cultivated and
cherished ! The love of arms becoming thus their ruling
and universal passion, would soon characterize their religion,
dictate their laws, and, in short, form their prejudices and
opinions, which decide every thing among mankind.
But it may be objected, that if the manners and character
of the ancient northern people proceeded so much from the
climate, as the same cause still operates, why is the effect
altered? This is only a specious difficulty. A nation is
never solely influenced by climate, except in its infancy;
while it is uncultivated and barbarous, it is only guided by
instinct; the objects of sense and the modes of living being
as yet simple and uniform. When, after some ages, reason
has been expanded by experience and reflection, when legis¬
lators have arisen, who, either by the native force of genius,
or by observing the manners of other nations, have so en¬
larged their understandings as to perceive the necessity of a
change of manners, it is then that a new system of principles
combat, and either divide the empire with, or totally triumph
over, the first physical causes. Such was the immediate effect
of Christianity in the north, an event which, considered only
in a philosophical light, should be ever regarded as the dawn
of those happy days which were afterwards to shine out with
superior splendour. In effect, this religion, which tended to
K
242
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
correct the abuse of licentious liberty, to banish bloody dis¬
sensions from among individuals, to restrain robberies and
piracy, softening the ferocity of manners, requiring a certain
knowledge of letters and history, re-establishing a part of
mankind, who groaned under a miserable slavery, in their
natural rights, introducing a relish for a life of peace, and an
idea of happiness independent of sensual gTatifications, sowed
the seeds, if I may so speak, of that new spirit which grew
to maturity in the succeeding ages, and to which the arts and
sciences, springing up along with it, added still more strength
and vigour.
But, after all, is it very certain, as the objection supposes,
that the climate of Europe has not undergone a change since
the times we speak of? Those who have read the ancients
with attention, think differently, and conclude, that the de¬
grees of cold are at this time much less severe than they were
formerly. This is not a place to enlarge on a subject which
might appear foreign to the work. Let it sufi&ce to observe,
that the rivers in Gaul, namely, the Loire and the Rhone,
were regularly frozen over every year, so that frequently
whole armies with their carriages and baggage could march
over them. Even the Tiber froze at Rome, and Juvenal says
positively that it was requisite to break the ice in winter, in
order to come at the water of that river. Many passages in
Horace suppose the streets of Rome to be full of ice and
snow. Ovid assures us, that the Black Sea was frozen
annually, and appeals for the truth of this to the governor of
the province, whose name he mentions : he also relates several
circumstances concerning that climate, which at present agree
only with Norway or Sweden. The forests of Thrace and
Pannonia were full of bears and wild boars, in like manner as
now the forests of the north. The northern part of Spain
was little inhabited for the same cause. In short, all the
ancients who mention the climate of Gaul, Germanj^ Pan¬
nonia and Thrace, speak of it as insupportable, and agree
that the ground was covered with snow the greatest part of
the year, being incapable of producing olives, grapes, and
most other fruits. It is easy to conceive that the forests
being cleared away, the face of the country better cultivated,
and the marshy places drained, the moist exhalations which
generate cold, must be considerably lessened, and that the
SEQUEL OF THE AKCIENT CUSTOMS, ETC.
243
rays of the sun must have a freer access to warm the earth.
The same thing has happened in North America since the
Europeans have carried there their accustomed industry. The
history of the north leaves us no room to doubt that there
have been vast forests cut down, and, by this single means, ex¬
tensive marshes have been dried up and converted into land
fit for cultivation. Without mentioning the general causes
which insensibly effect the destruction of forests, it was com¬
mon to set these on fire in order to procure fertile fields. A
king of Sweden was surnamed the wood-cutter, for having
grubbed up and cleared vast provinces, and felled the trees
with which it was all covered *. Nor were they less cleared
away in Norway and Denmark. Thus a change in the climate
must long have preceded that in the manners.
What conclusion ought we to draw from all this ? If for
these fifteen or sixteen centuries, the arts, sciences, industry
and politeness have been incessantly advancing in the north
of Europe, we cannot but evidently discover three causes of
this, which, though different in their natures, have yet been
productive of the same effect. The first, is that restlessness
natural to the people of all nations, but which acts more
forcibly on the inhabitants of Europe, and is ever urging
them to exchange their present condition in hopes of a
better : the second, slower but equally sure, is the change of
climate : the third, more sensible, more expeditious, but more
accidental, is that communication formed between mankind by
commerce and religion, and cemented by a thousand new re¬
lations ; which has, in a short time, transported from the south
into the north new arts, manners, and opinions. These three
causes have continually operated, and the face of Scandinavia
changes daily. It already shines with somewhat more than
borrowed lights. Time produces strange revolutions ! Who
knows whether the sun will not one day rise in the north?
* M. Mallet alludes to the Olaf Tretelgia of the Ynglinga-saga, and the
reader will find by referring to page 86, that this so-called king, even if the
statement may be relied on, merely cleared a small district, and not " vast
provinces," and that the surname of wood-cutter was given him by his enemies,
in order to throw ridicule on his proceedings.—Ed.
R 2
344
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTERS
bt
THE EDITOR.
CHAPTER L
colonization of greenland, and discovery of the
american continent by the scandinavians.
About a century after the discoveiy of Iceland, of which an
account has been previously given ■-'•=, a Norwegian chieftain
named Thorvald, having been banished for homicide, retired
thither with his son Eirek, surnamed the Red. Some years
afterwards, probably in 982, Eirek was sentenced to three
years' exile for a similar offence, and set sail towards the west
in quest of a coast that had recently been descried by a Nor¬
wegian navigator. His search proved successful, and he
landed on a small island, west of Cape Farewell, where he
passed the first winter. In the spring he went to survey the
mainland, and finding it covered with a pleasing verdure, gave
it the name of Greenland, Greenland, saying, that a good
name would induce people to settle there. Eirek, when the
term of his banishment was expired, returned to Iceland, and,
in the year 986, again set sail for Greenland with a number of
settlers, and established himself in a place he named Bratta-
hlid, on a creek called after him, Eireksfjord (Eric's Frith),
which soon became a very considerable colony t. Some years
* See page 187.
* Eireksljörd is supposed tobe the modern Tunnulliorbik in the Julianes-
Laab district on the eastern coast of Baffin's Bay, in lat. 60® 55^. Brattahlid
COLONIZATION OF GEEENLAND.
245
afterwards, probably in 997, Leif, the son of Eirek, having
made a voyage to Norway, met with a. favourable reception
from King Olaf Tryggvason, who persuaded him to embrace
the doctrines of Christianity, or, more properly speaking, to be
baptized, and then sent him back, accompanied by a priest, to
convert the new colony. Eirek was at first offended at his
son for deserting the faith of his forefathers, but was at length
obliged to give his tacit consent to the propagation of the new
religion, which was soon embraced by all the settlers, though
it would appear that Eirek himself remained to the day of his
death a worshipper of Thor and Odin. The settlements in
Greenland continued to increase and flourish. They were
divided into the East and the West Bygd, or inhabited
districts, the intervening tract being termed the Ubygd,
or uninhabited countrjL The West Bygd, at a later period,
contained ninety farms, with four churches ; the East Bygd,
one hundred and ninety farms and two towns, with one cathe¬
dral, eleven churches, and three monasteries. The cathedral
was in Garda. The first bishop was ordained in 1121, the
seventeenth and last in 1404; and documentary proofs of his
having officiated in 1409 at a marriage in Garda have lately
been discovered by the learned Finn Magnusen, who derives
his pedigree from the marriage in question. After this
nothing more was heard of the Greenland colonies. How
they perished we know not
The learned men of the seventeenth century, when they
recalled to mind that a Christian community had existed on
these remote shores for upwards of four centuries, could only
account for its extinction by a sudden catastrophe. Some
supposed that the settlements had been ravaged by the pirates
who infested the north seas at the close of the fourteenth
century; others, that the great pestilence of 1348, called the
Black Death, had-swept off the greater part of the population,
and that the survivors had been massacred by the Esquimaux.
But it seems very unlikely that pirates would have directed
their marauding expeditions to such a poor country as Green¬
land, and although the colony may probably have been visited
was lo7ig the residence of Eirek's descendants, and afterwards of the cliief
magistrate of Greenland. The word may be rendered by Steepslopo ; from
JiraUr, steep, and hial, a slope or acclivity.
246
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
by the terrible scourge so graphically described by Boccaccio
in the introduction to his Decameron, we believe there is no
documentary evidence to show that this was actually the case.
We know at least that upwards of half a century later there
was still a bishop at Garda, and may therefore conclude that
the colonists were able to resist the attacks of the Esquimaux,
with whom they appear to have been in constant hostility.
The real cause of the gradual decay and final extinction of
these settlements was, no doubt, the pernicious system of
commercial policy pursued by the mother country. Previous to
the Calmar Union, Queen Margaret had made the trade with
Iceland, Greenland, and the Fseroe islands a royal monopoly,
only to be carried on in vessels belonging to, or licensed by,
the sovereign ; and this monopoly was kept up by her suc¬
cessors, and, after the dissolution of the union, by the kings
of Denmark, to a very late period, being only abolished for-
Iceland in 1776. Finn Magnusen, in a very able paper
on the trade between England and Iceland during the Mid¬
dle Ages, published in the Nordisk Tidskrift for Oldkyn-
dighed, very justly observes that "Iceland would probably
have shared the same fate as Greenland, had not British mer¬
chants, in spite of opposition, supplied it with articles abso¬
lutely necessary for the existence of its inhabitants."
A few fruitless attempts were made in the sixteenth century
to rediscover the lost colonies ; but as it was not kno^vn at
that period that Greenland had a west coast, the ív^'o Bygds
were naturally supposed to have been situated on the eastern
one. Subsequently to the voyages of Davis, Frobisher, and
Bafiin, it became the general opinion of northern antiqua¬
ries that the East and West Bygds were situated respectn ely
on the east and west coasts of the peninsula. In 1721, Hans
Egede, a zealous Nors\'egian clerg3^man, prevailed on the king
of Denmark to form a new settlement on the west coast,
Egede himself going out as missionary. Since the establish¬
ment of this colony numerous vestiges of the ancient one have
been discovered ; urns, implements, fragments of church bells,
Bunic inscriptions, and ruined edifices—especially in the dis¬
trict of Julianeshaab. We knoAv by several very accurate
topographical descriptions of the ancient settlements that the
West Bygd only contained four churches, and as the ruins
of seven have been discovered in the southern part of West
COLONIZATION OF GBEENLAND.
247
Greenland, the opinion gradually gained ground that both
Bygds were situated on the west coast ; the supporters of this
hypothesis contending that the current, which sets south-
westward from the Polar Seas, accumulates the ice on the
east coast of Greenland to an extent which must, in all ages,
have rendered the climate much more rigorous than that of
the west coast, and formed an insurmountable harrier to colo¬
nization. This question was finally set at rest in 1829 by
Captain Graah, who, by order of the Danish government, ex¬
plored the east coast in umiaks—the larger kind of Esqui¬
maux boats—from Cape Farewell to the sixty-fourth parallel
of latitude, without finding a single trace of the ancient
colonies
The prevailing opinion of the northern antiquaries at pre¬
sent is, that the East Bygd extended from Cape Farewell to
Immartinek, in lat. 60° 50', and the West Bygd from Arksut
Creek, lat. 61° 40', to lat. 67°. The coast beyond the West
Bygd, was called Nordrsetur f, and was much frequented in
the summer season by the colonists for fishing. They also
appear to have had some permanent settlements on this coast,
both to the south and north of Disco Island.
In 1824, a stone was found in the island of Kingiktorsoak,
in lat. 72° 54', long. 56°. west of Greenwich, hearing a Kunic
inscription, which was submitted to Finn Magnusen, Professor
Bask, and Dr. Brynjulfvson of Iceland ; and these celebrated
Bunologists, without any communication on the subject having
passed between them, respectively arrived at the same inter¬
pretation of the characters, except the last six, which Professor
Bask and Finn Magnusen at length agreed meant the nu¬
merals MCXXXV ; Dr. Brynjulvson contenting himself with
expressing an opinion that they might be mere ornaments,
but that, from the form of the other characters, he should
deem the inscription to be of the twelfth century. These
gentlemen gave the inscription as follows ;—
* See Narrative of an Expedition to the East Coast of Greenland by Capf.
W. A. Graah, of the Danish Royal Navy. Translated by the late E. Gordon
Macdougall.
f From seta, a seat. The northern seats ; or, possessions.
248
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
ELLIGR • SIGVATHS • SON : R • OK - BJANNE : TORTARSON :
OK : ENRITHI ■ ODDSSON : LAUKAEDAK • IN : FYRIR GAKNDAG
HLOTHV • VARDATE • OK RYDU : MCXXXY.
which^ in correct Norse, would be
" Erlingr Sighvatssonr, ok Bjarni Thór^arson, ok Eindri^i
Oddsson, laugardaginn fyrir gagndag, lilôïu var^a thessa {yel
thenna,) ok ruddu; MCXXXV-
In English :
Erling Sighvatsson, and Bjami Thordasson; and Eindrid
Oddsson, on Saturday before Oangday, raised these marks and
cleared the ground, 1135.
We subjoin a woodcut of the Kingiktorsoak stone, copied
from the Antiquitates Americanœ.
Professor Rafn derives gagndagr, from gagn, victory, and
dagr a day—the day of victory ; and observes that the Ice¬
landers gave this appellation to two festivals of the church,
one falling on the 14th of May, the other on the 25th of
April, or Ascension Day, which was popularly termed
gagndagrinn eini, and hinn mihli ; the unique and the great
day of (spiritual) victory. Ascension week was celebrated in
Catholic times with peculiar solemnity ; the priests, accom¬
panied by the people, going in procession with lighted torches,
and sprinkling holy water round the churches. It was no
doubt from this going, or ganging, in procession, that the three
COLONIZATION OF GKEENLAND.
249
days before Ascension Day were called, in Anglo Saxon,
gang dagas, and in old Scotch, gang dayis. Björn Haldorson
in his Icelandic dictionary, renders them by gagndagar, vel
gdngdagar, the latter being, no doubt, the more popular
appellation. Be this as it may, the meaning of the inscrip¬
tion is, that in the twelfth century—and if we admit Pro¬
fessor Hash's interpretation of the last six Runic characters—
in 1135, on the Saturday, either before April 25th or
May 14th—in all probability the former—three Northmen
cleared the ground, and set up marks or mounds, some ves¬
tiges of which were observed on the spot where the stone was
found, to show that they had taken possession of the land—
probably of the whole island. This would indicate an inten¬
tion of settling there, and thev must at all events have
O ' f •
passed the winter in this high latitude, Bafi&n's Bay being
unnavigable at so early a season. The discovery of this
Runic stone has thus made us acquainted with the singular
fact that Northmen explored the Polar Seas, and wintered
in these icebound regions, seven centuries previous to the
expeditions of Captains Parry and Ross, and that, too,
without being furnished with any of the numerous comforts
and conveniences of a modem outfit.
Other Runic stones have been discovered in the district of
Julianeshaah, but they offer nothing of interest. One of these,
a tombstone, with the epitaph " Vigdis rests here, God
glad her soul "—was found on the shores of a creek called
Igaliko, supposed to be Einarsfjörd, near the founda¬
tions of a church 96 feet in length, and 48 in breadth.
Some dilapidated walls at the bottom of the same creek,
inclosing an area of 120 feet by 100, are supposed to be
the remains of the cathedral of Garda ; but the .most re¬
markable ruin yet discovered is at Kakortok, situated on a
branch of this creek. It is an edifice, evidently a church, 51
feet in length, and 25 in breadth, having a round-headed
window at each gable, and foursquare windows in each of the
lateral walls, which are from 4 to 8 feet thick, and of mas¬
sive stone *.
We have thus seen that the old Icelandic Sagas state ex¬
plicitly that colonies of Northmen existed on the shores of
• Two views of tliis niln arc given in the Antiq. Amer. Plate IX.
250
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
Greenland from the close of the tenth to the beginning
of the fifteenth century. From that period, to the middle
of the last century, nothing more was heard of them, and
those who had not read the original documents, and been con¬
vinced from the internal evidence afforded by the simplicity
and truthfulness of the narrative that they dealt with facts,
and not with fiction, might reasonably doubt their testimony,
and, by analogical reasoning, that of the Sagas in general.
The Runic inscriptions, and the numerous vestiges of the
former colonies, scattered along the east coast of Baffin's
Bay, are therefore doubly interesting and important ; for they
not only confirm, m the most striking manner, the authen¬
ticity of the Sagas relating to Greenland, but warrant the
conclusion that those which tell us, in the same artless
manner, of the discovery of the American continent are equally
trustworthy, though their statements have not as yet been
confirmed by the same kind of palpable evidence.
The Sagas, relating to Ameiica, were made use of by Tor-
faeus for his ''Historia Vinlandiœ Antiquœ" published in
1705, which contains a correct account of the discoveries of
the Northmen in the western hemisphere. More or less am¬
ple information on the subject was also furnished by several
eminent writers of the last century ; notwithstanding which,
the literary world seemed unwilling to admit the startling fact,
that a people, who were erroneously supposed to have been
without the pale of European civilization, should have crossed
the wild waves of the Atlantic, and trod the shores of a mighty
continent ages before its name became associated -svith that
of Columbus. In order to remove any further doubts on this
point. Professor Eafu undertook the laborious task of publish¬
ing the original narratives of the voyages, and we believe that
no impartial person who has examined the documentary evi¬
dence given in the " Antiquitates Americana " will any longer
hesitate to acknowledge the claims of the Scandinavians
to priority of discovery, though he may differ, as we do, very
* Antiquitates Americanse ; sive Scriptores Septentrionales rerum ante
Columbianarum in America, 1 vol. fol. Copenh. 1837, published by the
Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians. Mr. Rafn, who was assisted in his
task by Finn Magnusen, has given the Icelandic (Old Norse) text, with the
various readings of the MSS,, accompanied by translations in Danish and
Latin.
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
251
materially from the learned antiquarians of Copenhagen
respecting the light in which such a discovery ought to he
regarded.
The two most important documents published by Mr. Rafn
are the Sagas of Eirek the Red, and of Thorfinn Karlsefni,
which were probably first committed to writing in the twelfth
century, or about four generations after the events recorded
took place. The manuscript of the latter Saga, made use of
by Mr. Rafn as the basis of his text, is on vellum, and bears in¬
ternal evidence of having been written at the close of the
thirteenth, or beginning of the fourteenth century. The Saga
of Eirek the Red forms a part of the beautiful vellum manu¬
script called the " Codex Flatoiensis," which is a collection
of Sagas transcribed from older manuscripts between the
years 1387, and 1395 ; that is to say, a century before the dis¬
covery of America by Columbus. Begging the reader to bear
in mind this significant fact, we shall proceed, without entering
into further details, to give an abstract of these Sagas, with
such explanations as may be called for in the course of the
narrative, especially on points that have furnished matter for
discussion, or further investigation.
Among those who accompanied Eirek the Red to Greenland
was Herjúlf, whose son Bjarni was at that time on a trading
voyage to Norway. Returning to Iceland in the course of
the summer *, and finding that his family had left the island^
Bjarni resolved to follow them, and pass the winter, as he had
been used to do, at his father's fireside. He accordingly set
sail, though neither he nor any of his men had ever navigated
the Greenland seas, and for many days was driven by tem¬
pestuous north winds, accompanied by dense fogs, he knew
not whither. When the weather cleared up, he descried land,^
which, on approaching, he found to be moderately elevated
and overgrown with wood. Being convinced that it could not
be Greenland, which had been represented to him as distin¬
guishable at a distance by its snow-capped mountains, he left
it to larboard, and, standing out to sea, after sailing two days
again descried land, lower than the former, but also over-
O , , '
grown with wood. Continuing his course with a south-west wind,,
he came in three days to a lofty island, the shore of which
* This must have been in the year 986. See page 244.
252
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
presented numerous icebergs and glaciers. The coiîntry not
appearing to Bjami very attractive, he again stood out to sea,
and after sailing four days, with fz-esh gales, reached Her-
júlfnes in Greenland, where his father was settled.
Some years after this Bjarni, being again in Norway, ^usited
Eirek, one of the principal jarls of the country, and was much
blamed, when he related his adventures, for not having ex¬
amined the land he had discovered more accurately. On his
return to Greenland, the chief topic of conversation during
the long mnter evenings was the newly discovered cozmtry to
the south-west, and the spirit of enterprise being thus kept
awake, Leif, son of Eirek the Bed, purchased Bjarni's vessel,
which he fitted out, about the year 1000, with every requisite
for a long voyage, and prevailed on his father to accompany
him. Old Eirek happening, however, to fall from his horse,
on his way to the place of embarkation, regarded it as a sign
that he was not destined to make any further discoveries, and
thei'efore returned home, leaving Leif, with a crew of thirty-
five men, to set sail without him.
The fii'st land they made was that which Bjami had seen
last. Going on shore they found no herbage of any kind, but
a hare rugged plain of broad flat rocks, extending from the
foot of a clzain of ice and snow-clad mountains to the sea-side.
Having given the name of Helluland (1) f, Shistland, or the
land of large flat broad stones, to this country, Leif continued
his voyage, and arrived at a low level coast, with numerous white
sandy cliffs, and thickly covered with w'ood, from which circum¬
stance he called it Markland Woodland (2). After sailing two
days more, with a noi*th-east wind, they came to an island, and
entered a channel between it and a point projecting northwards
from the mainland. Holding their course westwai'ds, along
the shores of the latter, they remarked that a great extent of
ground was left dry at ebb-tide. They afterwai'ds went on
shore whei'e a river, issuing from a lake, fell into the sea, and
being pleased with the appearance of the countiy, bi-ought
their vessel up the river with the flood-tide, and moored her
in the lake. Having made up their minds to winter in this
place, they constmcted some large and commodious dwellings
* Supposed to be the modern Ikigeit, near Cape Farewell.
■}• The figures refer to the Explanatory Kemarks at the end of the chapter.
From mörk, a wood, or thicket.
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
253
or bootlis, known afterwards under the appellation of Leifs-
húdir, or Leifsbooths (3). Both the lake and the river afforded
them an abundant supply of the finest salmon. The soil ap¬
peared to be fruitful, and the pasturage excellent. The
climate was temperate, there being no severe cold during the
winter, and the grass never losing its freshness.
When they had finished building, Leif divided his people
into two companies, to be employed alternately in exploring
the country and keeping watch at the booths. It happened
one day that they missed a German, named Tyrker, who was
a great favourite of Leifs, having been for years in his father's
service. Leif instantly set out with twelve men in search of
him, but they had not gone far when they saw him coming
towards them with an air of extraordinary gaiety. He at
first, to their great surprise, accosted them in German, but
at length told them in Norse that he had been feasting on
grapes, having found at a short distance up the country a
place covered with wild vines. On Leif appearing to doubt
this statement, he added, that he surely ought to know what
grapes were, having been born in a country where there was
no lack of them (4). They soon ascertained, in fact, that grapes
grew in abundance in most parts of the country around them,
a circumstance which induced Leif to give it the appropriate
name of Vinland, Wineland (5). After passing the winter in
this place, and loading their vessel with timber, and their
long boat with grapes, they set sail in the spring for Green¬
land (6). On approaching the coast, they descried on a rock
a i)arty of shipwrecked people, fifteen in all, including their
chief Thorir, and his wife Gudrida. Leif rescued them from
their perilous position and took them home with him, and
from this circumstance obtained the surname of the Lucky.
On hearing the favourable account that Leif gave of Vin¬
land, his brother Thorvald, deeming that the country had not
been suificiently explored, set out in 1002, in Leifs vessel,
Avith thirty men, and arrived without accident at Leifsbooths.
The following spring Thorvald sent a party out in the boat to
explore the coast to the south. The party, on their return in
autumn, reported that they had found the country everywhere
very beautiful and well wooded, the Avoods extending to within
a short distance of the beach, which Avas in genei-al of a fine
white sand ; that there Avcre numerous shoals and islands
f254
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
along the coast, but, "with the exception of a -wooden shed on
one of the islands, they had nowhere found any trace either
of man or beast (7). The following summer, 1004, Thorvald
sailed eastward from Leifsbooths, and then northward, past a
remarkable headland, which, mth an opposite headland, in¬
closed a bay. Here they were driven by a violent gale into
shoal water, and were obliged to remain a considerable time
to make a new keel for their vessel ; Thorvald setting up the
old one on the headland, which he named, from this circum¬
stance, Kjalarnes, Keelness or Cape Keel (8). He then sailed
along the coast eastward, and coming to a finely wooded head¬
land, went on shore with all his followers, and was so struck
with the beauty of the scenery, that he exclaimed, " Here
should I like to fix my dwelling ! " As they were preparing
to go on board, they observed three canoes or sealskin boats
drawn up on the beach, under each of which were three
Esquimaux or Skrsellings, as they were called by the
Northmen. Of the nine natives they lulled eight, one escaping
in his canoe. They were then, continues the Saga, so weary
that they all fell into a profound sleep, but were awakened by
a voice crying out, " Arise, Thorvald! if thou wfit save thy life
hasten to thy vessel with all thy followers, and set saü without
delay." Shortly afterwards they saw a number of canoes, filled
with Skrfellings, coming from the interior of the bay against
them. They endeavoured to protect themselves by raising
battle-screens on the ships' sides, but the Skraellings, after
discharging a volley of arrows, and shouting for a while,
betook themselves to a precipitate flight. Thon^ald had been
wounded by an arrow, under the arm, and finding that the
wound was mortal, turned to his followers, and said :—
" I now advise ye to prepare, as speedily as ye may, for
your departure. But me shall ye bear to the headland, wEich
I thought was the most fitting for a dwelling place. It may
be that the word which fell from my mouth about abiding
there was prophetic. There shall ye bury me, and set up
two crosses, one at my head, and the other at my feet, and
shall call the place Krossanes (9)—Crossness, or Cape Cross—•
in all times to come."
They did as he had ordered, and then returned to their
companions at Leifsbooths, where they passed the winter, and
early in the spring of 1005 set sail for Greenland, with a
DISCOVERY OP AMERICA.
355
cargo of timber, grapes, and vine sets. Christianity, as before
stated, had been introduced into Greenland by Leif, a few
years previous to Thorvald's expedition.
Not long after this Thorstein, the third son of Eirek the
Eed, set sail in the same ship, accompanied by Gudrida his
wife, and twenty-five able-bodied men, with the intention of
bringing home his brother's body, but after being tossed about
the whole summer by adverse winds, they were driven at the
beginning of winter into Lysufjörd where Thorstein and
most of his followers were carried off by a contagious disease,
and Gudrida returned in the following spring to Brattahlid
with her husband's body.
In the autumn ofT006, two ships came to Greenland from
Iceland, the one commanded by Thorfinn, who bore the signi¬
ficant surname of Karlsefni ; i. e. possessing manly abilities ;
the other by Bjarni Grimolfsson and Thorhall Gamlason.
Thorfinn was a wealthy and powerful man, of a very distin¬
guished family, tracing his descent from Danish, Swedish,
Norwegian, Irish and Scotch ancestors, some of whom were
kings or of royal lineage, and he appears to have been one of
the most enterprising trading-rovers of that period. He was
accompanied by Snorri Thorbrandsson, also of good extrac¬
tion. Thorfinn and his companions passed the winter with
old Eirek the Red, and the festivities of Yule or Christmas
were kept up with a splendour never before witnessed in
Greenland, owing in a great measure to Thorfinn having stowed
his ship with plenty of malt and corn, which he told Eirek to
make a free use of. During this festal season, and the long
winter nights that followed, Thorfinn having heard a great deal
about the fine salmon and wild grapes of Vinland, came to the
resolution of founding a colony there. Meanwhile, however,
he fell in love with Thorstein's handsome widow, Gudrida, who
is represented as possessing every quality that in that age
could render a lady attractive, and having obtained the con¬
sent of her brother-in law, Leif, married her.
In the spring of 1Ü07 the vessel belonging to Thorfinn and
his friend, and it WDuld appear trading partner, Snorri, and
that which was the joint property of Bjarni and Thorhall
Gamlason, were fitted out for the projected voyage to Vin-
* Supposed to be Issortok Creek, on the east coast of Baffin's Bay, in
lat. 65®.
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
land. A third vessel was commanded by Thorvard, who had
married Freydisa, a natural daughter of Eirek the Red. He
was accompanied by a dark ill-looldng man, of gigantic sta¬
ture, called Thorhall, who had long served Eirek as hunts¬
man in summer and house-steward in winter, but who is
represented as a very bad Christian ; a circumstance which
might probably have contributed to raise him in the esti-
matiQn of old Eirek. There were in all one hundred and
sixty individuals, furnished with cattle and other live stock in
abundance.
They first sailed to the western district of Old Greenland
and to Bjarney (10), and then, for two days, in a southerly di¬
rection to Helluland, where they found a great many foxes, and
describe the large flat stones or rocks—several of them twelve
ells broad—peculiar to the country. Two days more brought
them to the woody shores of Markland, where they killed a
bear on an island near the coast, which was named from that
circumstance Bjarney, Is/and (11). Leaving this place,
they continued sailing for some time south-west, having the
laud to starboard, until at length they arrived at Kjalames,
where there were trackless coasts and ichite sandy beaches of
such length as to obtain the name of Fur^ustrandiror Mar¬
vellous Strands (T2). The coast afterwards became more indent¬
ed with inlets and bays, into one of which they entered. Here
Thorfinn landed a Scotch man and woman, called Haid and
Hekja, whom Leif had formerly received as a present from
Olaf Tryggvasou, and who were remarkably swift of footf, with
orders to run across the country and explore it to the south¬
west for three days, when they were taken on board, bringing
with them some wild corn and some grapes. Continuing
their course they entered a bay, off the mouth of which was
an island so crowded with eider ducks that they could scarcely
walk without treading on their eggs, A strong current ran
past this island, and also further up the bay, from which cir¬
cumstance they named the former Straumey, Stream Isle,
* From fur'Sa, Gen. furSu, a marvellous or wonderful thing, and strond, pi.
Btrandir, strands.
t 'lilis anecdote has a mythic tinge, which renders it somewhat suspicious ;
Thor also taking with him a boy and girl, Thjalfi and Röska, who were re¬
markably swift of foot, on his expedition to Jötunheim.—See the Prose
Edda, ch. 44,
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
257
atld the alter Straumfjörd, Stream Frith (13), Here they un¬
loaded their ships and passed the first winter, and it was pro¬
bably here that Gudrida gave birth to a son called Snorri *.
In the spring they began to experience a scarcity of provi¬
sions, the weather having been for a long time too stormy for
fishing. Under these circumstances, they prayed God to send
them food, but the old Sagaman quaintly observes that food
did not come so soon as they thought it might have done,
Thorhall, the huntsman, had meanwhile disappeared, and
after looking for him for three days, they found him sitting
on a rock gazing vacantly around and muttering verses.
Shortly after this, a whale of a species unknown to the North¬
men being stranded, they cut it up for food, but we are told
that all who ate of it became sick, owing probably to Thorhall
exclaiming while they were eating it ; " The redbeard Thor
has been more helpsome to us than your Christ, I have got
this (the whale) for my verses. Seldom has my protector re¬
fused me any thing that I have asked of him;" on hearing
which they threw all that remained of the whale into the
sea, quite horror-stricken at the idea of being indebted to
Thor for their sustenance. The Sagaman piously adds, that
after this the weather became milder, and they were no longer
in want of provisions, being able to hunt, fish, and collect
eggs in the island.
Shortly afterwards Thorhall the huntsman, with eight men,
left Thorànn and sailed northward in search of Vinland ; but
after passing Kjalarnes was driven out to sea by westerly
gales and thrown on the coast of Ireland, where, according to
the account of traders, he and his party were made slaves.
Thoi-finn and his people sailed south, and came to a liver
that ßowed through a lake on its way to the sea, and the
mouth of ivhich was so beset tvith sandbanks as to be only ac¬
cessible at high water. To this place he gave the name of
Hop, Estuary and finding the country very beautiful,
,with good pasturage for the cattle which they had still with them,
and every thing in great abundance, corn growing ivild on the
loio grounds, and vines on the hills, with the woods well stocked
* Snorri Thorfinnsson was, consequently, the first European on record
born in America, The celebrated sculptor Thorvaldsen, and the no less cele¬
brated northern antiquary Finn Magnus -n, claim descent from hiin by a fe¬
male line. See the Ninth Genealogical Table in the Ant, Amer.
S
258
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
with game, and the rivers and creeks actually teeming "with
fish, they resolved to make it their winter quarters, and ac¬
cordingly set up booths at a short distance from the lake or
hay. No snow fell during the winter, and their cattle re¬
mained out in the fields (15).
One morning, soon after their arrival, they saw a number of
natives coming in skin canoes up the bay, brandishing their
poles and making a great noise, which the Northmen re¬
sponded to by holding up a white shield in token of peace.
The natives then landed, and after gazing for some time at
the strangers in mute astonishment, rowed away again round
the headland. They are described as being of a sallow and
swarthy appearance, with uncouth hair, large eyes, and high
cheek-bones (16). The winter passed without any incident
worthy of notice, but early in spring the natives came again
in such numbers that the bay appeared actually covered with
their canoes. A white shield being again held out by the
Northmen, the Skrsellings landed, and eagerly began to barter
their fine grey furs and squirrel skins for bits .of red cloth
and milk porridge, which they seem to have highly relished.
What they coveted most were swords and spears, but these
Thorfinn prudently forbade his people to sell them. Whilst
this lucrative traffic was going on, and the Northmen were
dealing out their cloth in smaller shreds, a bull, which Thor¬
finn had brought with him, issued unexpectedly from the
wood and began to bellow, which so terrified the Skraellings
that they rushed to their canoes and rowed off in the greatest
trepidation. Three weeks after this they again appeared in
still greater numbers, brandishing their poles and setting up
a shout of defiance. Thorfinn, on their landing, caused a red
shield to be borne against them, and a hot skirmish took
place, the Skraellings using their slings with great dexterity.
The Northmen, fancying themselves surrounded, were seized
with a panic, and fled along the river. In this conjuncture
"Fredisa rushed out, exclaiming—
" How can such valiant men as ye are run away from these
wretched caitiffs, whom I thought you would have knocked
down like cattle ! Had I a weapon, methinks I could wield
it better than any of you."
They, however, continued their flight into the forest, Frey-
disa, though far advanced in pregnancy, following them as well
DISCOVERÏ OF AMERICA,
259
as sbe "was able. At length, picking up the sword of Tlnr-
brand Snorrason, who had been killed with a stone, she turned
round on the Skrœllings and prepared to defend herself; but
her frantic gestures so terrified or bewildered them, that thsy
ran off to their canoes pursued by the Northmen, wlio killed
great numbers of them, only losing two of their own party.
Sueh is the account transmitted to us of the first battle
fought by Europeans on the American continent, and it is a
curious coincidence that its successful issue should have been
owing to the courage of a woman ! We are told that the va¬
liant Northmen could only account for their sudden fear
by supposing that they had not only to combat witli real
men of flesh and blood, but also with a whole legion of
phantoms.
After this Thorfinn and his companions felt convinced that
although the country held out many advantages, they would
be constantly exposed to the attacks of the natives. They,
therefore, returned to Straumfjord, where they passed the
third winter ; but the number of females being very dis¬
proportionate to that of the males, violent quarrels arose,
" those who had no wives," as the old chronicler quaintly ob¬
serves, "wishing to take them from those who had."
In the ensuing spring they sailed homewards, and touching
at Markland, met with a Skrielling and his two wives and two
children. The adults escaped, but the Northmen carried off
the children, whom they baptized and taught Norse, and who
told them that their people had no houses, but lived in holes
and caverns. Bjarni Grimolfsson was driven westward into a
sea so infested with worms that his vessel was soon reduced
to a sinking state. They therefore had no alternative than
to cast lots who should leave the vessel, and try to escape in
a small boat, preserved from the attacks of the worms by
being smeared with seal blubber. BJarui himself was among
the fortunate ; but when he got into the boat a man from the
ship called out, " Wilt thou leave me, Bjarni? Didst thou
not promise my father, when I left Iceland with thee, that we
should share the same lot?" " And tliat we won t do," re¬
plied B i ami ; "get thou into the boat and I will return to the
ship, for I see thou hast a hankering after life ;" so saying, .he
gave the young man his place in the boat and mounted the
vessel, which was never .heard of afterwards. Those in the
s 2
â60
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
boat made their way to Dublin, where they related what had
taken place. Thorfinn and his companions reached Green¬
land in safety in lOli.
In the same year there arrived in Greenland a ship from
Norway, commanded by two brothers, Helgi and Finnbogi,
whom Freydisa persuaded to undertake a voyage to Vinland
with her. Each party was to fit out a vessel with thirty able-
bodied men, and to have an equal share in the profits of the
expedition. Freydisa, however, contrived to take five men
more than the number stipulated. They arrived at Vinland
without any accident, and passed the winter at Leifsbooths,
which Freydisa had wished to purchase from Leif, but could
only obtain his permission to make use of them. The Nor¬
wegian brothers devised all sorts of games and recreations for
the people during the winter but coolness soon arose be¬
tween them and Freydisa, who, by her subtle arts, at length
persuaded her husband Thorvard to fall on the two brothers,
when they were asleep,, and murder them and all their fol¬
lowers. As she could not, however, prevail either on her hus¬
band or any of his men to lay their hands on the five women
of the Norwegian party, she seized a hatchet and butchered
them herself. After the perpetration of this base deed, they
returned to Greenland in 1013, when the rumour of the crime
having reached the ear of Leif, he put three of Freydisa's fol¬
lowers to the torture, and obtained a full account of the san¬
guinary transaction. Freydisa was left unpunished, but became
an object of general abhorrence.
At the time of Freydisa's return Thorfinn was waiting for a
favourable wind to sail to Norway with the most valuable
cargo that had ever left the shores of Greenland, consisting
chiefly of the hard-grained wood and fine furs of the newly
discovered country. He disposed of his goods to great advan¬
tage in Norway, and we are told that a Bremen merchant
gave him as much as half a mark of gold—equivalent to £16
of modern money—for a small piece of Vinland massur woodf.
In 1014 Thorfinn returned to Iceland, where he purchased
the estate of Glaumbae, in the northern district, and became
the founder of a wealthy and powerful family. After his
* Captain Parry, placed in similar circumstances, acted in a similar man¬
ner, and got up theatrical representations for the amusement of his sailors.
t Probably Äe variegated, or bird's-eye maple, common in Massachusetts.
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
261
death his widow Gudrida went on a pilgrimage to Rome, and
afterwards returned to Glaumbae, where her American-born son
Suorri had built a church, and passed the remainder of her
days as a religious recluse. Runolf, the son of Snorri's
daughter Hallfrida, was the father of the learned Bishop
Thorlak Runolfsson, to whom we are principally indebted for
the oldest ecclesiastical code of Iceland, published in the year
1123, and it is also probable that the narrative of Thorfinn's
voyage was originally compiled by him.
Such is the account transmitted to us of the discovery of
Vinland, which, as we have attempted to show in the expla¬
natory remarks, there is every reason to suppose was that part
of the American continent that, six centuries later, became
known under the appellation of New England. Mr. Rafn has
given numerous extracts from the Icelandic Geographical
Treatises of the Middle Ages, in which the three American
districts Helluland, Markland and Vinland are spoken of.
But the most conclusive collateral evidence he adduces is that
of Adam of Bremen, who informs us that he heard of the dis¬
covery from Sveyn Ethrithson, King of Denmark who had
entertained him during his mission in the north for the pro¬
pagation of Christianity. " The king," says the learned ec¬
clesiastic, " also made mention of another region discovered
in the northern ocean, which had been visited by many peo¬
ple, and was called Wineland, because grapes that produce a
very good wine grow there spontaneously ; com also grows there,
without sowing, in great abundance and emphatically adds,
"We know this not by fabulous hearsay, but from authentic
accounts furnished by Danes
We think Professor Rafn ought to have been satisfied with
this evidence, without attempting to fix the latitude of Thor¬
finn's winter quarters by an astronomical calculation founded
on a mere conjectural interpretation of a vague expression in
the original text, respecting the time the sun remained above
the horizon. He might also have spared us a great deal of
learned trifling by omitting his, " Descriptio vetusti monurnenti
in regione Massachusetts reperti for these monumenta vetusta
are, to say the least, of a very dubious character, and the
* A nephew of Canute. He reigned from 1047 to 1076.
"f Adam Brem, de situ Dan. c. 246, and Antiq. Amer. p. 338.
962
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
•dissertation in question affords rich materials for any one
who might feel inclined to place the lapidary lore of the Royal
Society of Northern Antiquaries on a par with that of the
renowned Jonathan Oldbuck. The principal mon urn en turn
vetustum which has given rise to these erudite lucubrations,
is a rock, or boulder, commonly called the Dighton-writing
Rock, lying on the banks of the Taunton river a few miles
above Mount Hope Bay. Its flat surface is covered with rude
designs pecked in the stone, and probably meant for the
figures of men and animals, together with some unconnected
scrawls which, if we may judge from the series of drawings
made at various times between the years 16S0 and 1830,
and now published by Mr. Rafn, would appear to have
gradually growm under the pencil of each successive draughts¬
man, into something resembling runic characters On the
fqith of these drawings—such as they are—and especially of
the last one of the series, which the docti Insula Rhodensis
viH assure Mr. Rafn was made by " the Committee on the
Antiquities and Aboriginal History of America! in proper
person expressly"—no doubt expressly—for the work he had in
preparation, the learned Finn Magnusen has not hesitated to
transmute the scrawl in question into a very readable Old Norse
inscription, purporting that Thorfinn, with 151 followers,
took possession of the country arotmd the said Dighton Rock ;
an interpretation which has no doubt been duly appreciated
by the docti viri of Massachusetts. We beg the reader not to
conclude, from this manner of interpreting lapidary inscrip¬
tions, or rather lapidary scrawls, that the characters on the
Kingiktorsoak stone were deciphered by a similar process,
for we can assure him that there is not the slightest analogy
between the two monuments. The Kingiktorsoak stone bears
an undoubted runic inscription, offering, wiih the exception
of the last, six characters, no great difliculty of interpretation.
The Dighton Rock is covered with tortuous lines which may
he made to mean any thing or nothing, and which after all
the noise that has been made about them may probably be
* See Ant. Amer. Plates xi. and xii.
d" We have heard of the aborigines and the aboriginal inhabitants of a
country, but what the learned men of Khode Island may mean by an " aborir
girud history " we will not pretend to divine.
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
263
the handiwork of one of old Sachem Philip's Wampanong
Indian Sw
Although the Sagas, of which we have given an abstract,
famish us with a very circumstantial account of the discovery
of Vinland, Mr. Rafn has not been able to produce any evi¬
dence to show that it was ever colonized by the Northmen.
Trading voyages for the purpose of felling timber and carry¬
ing on a lucrative traffic with the natives for their furs and
skins were, no doubt, sometimes made both from Greenland
and Iceland, and probably also from Norway and Denmark ;
but no record of such voyages has been preserved. The Ice¬
landic annals only give the following brief memoranda on the
subject.
1121. Bishop Eirek sailed from Greenland in quest of
Vinland
1285. Athalbrand and Thorvald, sons of Helgi, discovered
a new land west of Iceland.
1290. Rolf was sent by king Eirek in search of the new land,
and took several men with him from Iceland for that purpose.
1295. Death of Rolf, surnamed The Discoverer.
1347. A Greenland bark, of less size than the common
Icelandic vessels, ran into StraumÇôrd, having lost her
anchors. There were seventeen men on board, who had sailed
to Markland, and on their return had been tossed about on
the ocean.
Athalbrand and Thorvald, mentioned in these annals, were
tfvo priests, and we think all that can be said respecting their
voyage, is, that they accidently discovered some part of the
American continent. This, however, is not enough for Mr.
Rafn's amor patriœ. John Cabot was sent to Denmark by
the Bristol merchants to negotiate concerning their trade with.
Iceland, which had, as usual, been interrupted by the arbitrary
proceedings of the Danish government. And the very next
year after the negotiations were concluded, Cabot obtained his
patent from Henry VIL, and the year following, namely in
1497, set out on his voyage, and discovered Newfoundland.
* This is the year in Avhich Eirek wns ordained Bishop, and his sailing to
Vinland has been adduc','d as a proof that there was at that period a settle¬
ment there. It certainly does seem strange—if we may rely on the Icelandic
annals for the record of events occurring in Greenland—that a bishop should
undertaice such a voyage from a mere motive of curiosity.
264
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
What a liappy concatenation of events for a northern antiquary
to huilcl an hypothesis on ! Mr. Rafn accordingly sets to work
and tells us that Cabot, from the nature of the negotiations
he was entrusted with, would necessarily be led to make in¬
quiries respecting Iceland and its dependencies, and may have
received, among other information, some account of this voyage
of the Scandinavian priests. The name given to the country
he discovered tends, according to Mr. Rafn, to confirm this
hypothesis. " Huic hypothesi ipsum nomen favere videtur,
verbis Islandicorum Annalium/Mná?^ nyia land {Nyia fundu
land,) literatim consonum," are the words he makes use of
Now, with all due deference to Mr. Rafn, whose philological
learning no one will pretend to dispute, we must say that this
is a mere quibble. The phrases in the Icelandic annals are,
''fundu Helgasynir nyja land Adalbrandr ok Thorvaldr,"
and, " Adalbrand ok Thorvardr Helgasynir fundu nyja land
vestr undan Islandi," which mean literally, " Athalbrand and
Thorvald or Thorvard found new land west of Iceland ; " that
is to say, discovered a country before unknown, and not that
they gave the name of Newfoundland to the land—whatever
it might be—which they probably did find. Neither would
Mr. Rafn venture to say this, but he adroitly transposes the
fiords, foimd neiv land, into new found land, and this philolo¬
gical hoctis pocus settles all difiiculties. The two priests came
to a new found land, so did, according to Mr. Rafn, John Cabot,
therefore the new found land of the sacerdotal voyagers must
necessarily have been the new found land of the Venetian navi¬
gator ; that is to say, the present island of Newfoundland ! A
most logical conclusion, truly ! quite on a par with the interpre¬
tation of the scrawl on the nionumentum vetustum offMassachu-
setts ! Mr. Rafn is no doubt aware that the voyages of the Ca¬
bots, father and son, are involved in great obscurity. We only
know that either John or Sebastian Cabot, or both of them,
sailed along the east coast of North America, in the vain at¬
tempt to find a north-west passage to Cathay, as China was
then called; but it is highly probable that the land they found
was not Newfoundland t. Be this as it may, it Is certain that
* Ant. Amer. p. 451.
•f" See a very interesting work entitled, " A Memoir on Sebastian Cabot,"
Iiond. 1831.
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
265
neitter they-nor any of their men, as it was popularly sup¬
posed, gave the American Island the name it now bears. In
the maps of that period, all the newly discovered land in the
northern Atlantic is designated under the term Terra Nova :
and a Bristol merchant, in a memorial to Henry VIII. on the
practicability of a north-west passage, says ; " After they be
past the pole, they should go on the back of the new found
land which of late was discovered by your grace's subjects ; "
and again, " if between our newfound land and Norway the sea
he practicable." The fact is, the name was applied at first to
the whole coast, and afterwards became restricted to the island
that bears it at present, and which was previously called
Bacallaos on account of its cod fisheries. We thus find that
Mr. Eafn's theory rests on no foundation, and we fear this
may be said of several other theories which the northern
antiquaries are too apt to indulge in, and which renders their
opinions, even on subjects more exclusively within the range
of their studies, liable to be received with a certain diffidence ;
a circumstance very much to be regretted ; for men possessing
a greater amount of solid learning and erudition are no where to
be met with.
In an old Icelandic geographical treatise there is the follow¬
ing passage. "To the south of inhabited Greenland are
wild and desert tracts and ice-covered mountains ; then comes
the land of the Skrsellings, beyond this Markland, and then.
Vinland the Good. Next to this, and somewhat behind it, lies
Albania, that is to say, Hvitramannaland, Whiteniansland,
whither vessels formerly sailed from Ireland. It was there
that several Irishmen and Icelanders recognised Ari, the son
of Mar and Katla of Reykjanes, whom there had not for a
long time been any tidings of, and whom the natives of the
countiy had made their chief." The Landnámabók also states
that Ari Marsson was driven by a tempest to Hvitramannaland,
and detained and baptized there * ; and we are told in Thor-
finn's Saga that the Esquimaux children taken in Markland f
declared that beyond their country lay another, the inhabitants
of which wore white dresses and bore flags on long poles, a
* Ari Marsson is incidentally mentioned in several of the best authenticated
Sagas, and it would appear that Finn Magnusen claims a lineal descent from
him. See the seventh Genealogical Table in the Antiq. Americana;, which
begins with Ari Marsson, and ends with Finnr Magnnsson.
f See page 259.
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
statement obviously of no value in itself, but remarkable for
the conclusion drawn from it by the Northmen, that the coun¬
try thus described must necessarily be Hvitramannaland, which
shows, at all events that at thei^eriod the Saga was written the
existence of such a country was a fact generally admitted.
Mr. Rafn has given us two Sagas ^ relating to Hvitramanna¬
land, but they are of a totally different character from those
which narrate the voyages of Leif and Thorfinn, and by no
means entitled to the same degree of credibility t.
It would appear that tlie Northmen received their account
of Hvitramannaland, which was also called Irland it Mihla—
Great Ireland—from Limerick traders, and that vessels had
sailed there previous to the discovery of Vinland. These
circumstances, and the mention made of Ari's baptism, have
led some writers to suppose that there was an Irish colony
established on the coast of America, south of Massachusetts, in
the ninth or tenth century ; but the statements transmitted
to us are obviously too vague to possess any historical value;
and any opinions they may give rise to must, therefore, be
purely conjectural.
All that can be said with certainty is, that the Northmen
were tolerably well acqiminted with the coast of America from
Labrador to Massachusetts, and had a vague tradition that it ex¬
tended much farther south, and that this southern region was
peopled by a race of men differing in many respects from the
Esquimaux. We may also admit, when we take into con¬
sideration the swarms of freebooters constantly cruizing in the
northern seas and along the whole western coast of Europe,
that during a violent gale from the north-east several vessels
mav have been driven across the Atlantic as far south as
Florida. Neither is it at all improbable that trading voyages
may have occasionally been made from Limerick to some part
of the American continent. That the Northmen possessed
sufficient seamanship to attempt a voyage across the Atlantic
is unquestionable, for we know that, during their piratical ex-
* The Saga of Björn Asbrandson, surnamed Breidvikingakappi ; {. e. the
Champion of Breidavik, or the hero of Bradwiek, as he is not inappropriately
termed by our great Novelist—a surname he obtained when he belonged to
the piratical band of the famous Palnatoki.
t Sir Walter Scott has given the substance of these Sagas in a note to the
Eyrbyggja Saga, to which we refer the reader.
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
peditions, they frequently remained for weeks together at
sea; and that trading voyages from Iceland to Ireland and
ftnm Norway to Greenland were of common occurrence.
The part of America they were acquainted with offered, how¬
ever, no inducement to freebooters, whose sole object was plun¬
der, and but very few even to traders, to undertake such a
voyage, which, under the most favourable circumstances, must
always have been attended with considerable risk and danger.
Had the sea-kings and their hardy followers been aware that
beyond the region of vines and forests there lay another
abounding in gold and silver and costly commodities, we
should probably have seen at the present day a Norman
dynasty reigning in Mexico. It is, in fact, obvious that the
merest accident might in that age have led some enterprising
adventurer a few degrees further south, and given rise to a
series of events resulting in the final conquest of the tropical
regions of America by the seafaring Scandinavians. It is use¬
less, however, to speculate on what might have happened, or
on the influence which such an event as the one contemplated
might have exercised on the social condition of Europe at a
period when the principal elements of its future civilization
were still in violent conflict. The discovery of America by
the Northmen produced no such results, and it was reserved
for Columbus and the navigators and adventurers of the six^
teenth century to withdraw that mysterious veil which, by
some inscrutable design of Providence, had for so many ages
shrouded an unknown world.
Finn Magnusen, in a very able dissertation published in
one of the early numbers of the '■'Nordisk lidsskrift for Old-
kyndighed," has fully established the fact of Columbus having
visited Iceland in the year 1477, and on this fact, which can
no longer be called in question, has constructed, as usual, a
very brilliant theory, which we give in his own words:—
"The English trade with Iceland certainly merits the con¬
sideration of historians, if it furnished Columbus with the
opportunity of visiting that island, there to be informed of the
historical evidence respecting the existence of important lands»
and a large continent in the west."
"If Columbus should have acquired a knowledge of the
accounts transmitted to us of the discoveries of the Northmen»
in conversations held in Latin with the Bishop of SkalhoU
Ö68
fíORTIlEEN ANTIQUITIES.
And the learned men of Iceland, we may the more readily con¬
ceive his firm belief in the possibility of rediscovering a
western continent, and his unwearied zeal in putting his
■plans in execution. The discovery of America, so momentous
in its results, may therefore be regarded as the mediate con¬
sequence of its previous discovery by the Scandinavians, which
may be thus placed among the most important events of former
ages. It has long been known that the fate of the world, and
of mankind, frequently hangs on the finest threads, the di¬
rection of which it is often very difficult for historians to fol¬
low, though it is seldom that this direction should only first
be clearly perceived after a lapse of three centuries. This,
however, appears to me to have happened in the present case,
as we have now, for the first time, a well-founded reason to
suppose that the small and barren Iceland not only produced
the men who were the first discoverers of the New World, but
that it also pointed out to the immortal hero, whom it was
long believed ought alone to enjoy that honour, the way by
which he could prosecute and terminate the discovery in such
a manner, that through it the earth should assume a new
form, and mankind acquire, both in a material and intellectual
point of view, a new state of existence."
It would be a veiy easy task to show that this theory is
equally as groundless as that of Mr. Rafn respecting Cabot.
We will, however, merely observe that it rests on the erro¬
neous supposition that Columbus had formed the idea of dis¬
covering or rediscovering a western continent. Now this was
so far from being the case, that, until the day of his death, he
imagined that the West India Islands and Terra Firma were
the easternmost parts of Asia. The relation of Marco Polo's
travels and adventures in the East had extended the geogra¬
phical knowledge of the learned men of the fourteenth and fif¬
teenth centuries far beyond the regions kno-wn to the ancients.
In the chart made use of by Columbus in his first voyage,
constructed for him by Paolo Toscanelli, one of the most
scientific men of that age, the eastern shores of Asia are laid
down in front of the western coasts of Europe and Africa,
the distance from Lisbon to Quisay, since determined to be a
part of China, being computed at 6500 nautical miles. Tos¬
canelli, in a letter to the Canon Martinez, describes Quisay ta
be in a country " where great profits may be made, and many
DISCOVERT OF AMERICA.
069
valuable things found, gold, and silver, and ¡jvecicus stones,
and all sorts of spices, in great abundance ; " and speak¬
ing of Cipango, which is supposed to have been Japan, he
says : " This island greatly abounds in gold, and pearls, and
precious stones, and, you must know, that the temples and
royal palaces are covered with plates of pure gold. So, that
on account of the way not being known, all these things lie
hidden and concealed, and yet they may be gone to in safety."
And in one of his letters to Columbus, he tells him that he
sees the great and noble desire which he has to go " to those
countries where the spices grow," and remarks that the
voyage is not only practicable, " but would also be productive
of inestimable profit, and great power and fame among all
Christians." Now, admitting that Columbus received the
most ample information respecting the discoveries of the
Northmen during his stay in Iceland, he could only have be¬
come aware of the existence of a wild uncultivated country to
the south-west of Greenland, producing nothing but timber,
sour grapes, and salmon, and peopled by wandering tribes of
miserable savages ; whereas Toscanelli pointed out the way to
the civilized and populous dominions of the great Khan, with
their gold-coyevedi palaces and temples. The choice could not
be doubtful. We accordingly find that the course invariably
pursued by Columbus in his first voyage was not in the di¬
rection of Vinland, but in that of " the countries where the
spices grow," which countries he would have reached had not
America existed to bar his passage. His discovery of Ameiica
was, in fact, quite accidental. Marco Polo first made Europe
acquainted with China. Paolo Toscanelli pointed out the
route to it by sea, and Columbus, in following this route,
stumbled on America, and thus was revealed the existence of a
vast continent which neither Columbus himself nor any one
else in that age, if we except the worthy Bishop of Skalholt,
and a few learned Icelanders, had the remotest idea of
* As these opinions fully coincide with the views taken in an article in
the " Athenseurn," No. 514, on Finn Magnusen's Dissertation, it may not be
irrelevant to state that that article was written by the editor of this volume.
S7 Û NOßTHEKN ANTIQOTTIES,
EXPLANATORY REMARKS ON THE PRECEDING CHAPTER.
(1.) Hellulakd.—This "was probably the south-eastern ex¬
tremity of Newfoundland, wbich is nearly separated from the
main by two deep bays, so as easily to be mistaken for an
island. The distance from Cape Broil, on this coast, to Cape
Farewell, in Greenland, is 600 nautical miles, which, with a
fair wind, might easily be run in four days. The description
given by modem travellers of the coast of Newfoundland fully
corresponds with that of the Sagas ; and Ans]jach, a modem
German writer, speaks of " the hare and large flat rocks with¬
out a tree or shrub.'" In the old Icelandic geographical
treatises, Newfoundland is called Little [Litla] Helluland, and
the name of Helluland, hit Mihla, or Great Helluland, is
given to Labrador and the whole coast of the American con¬
tinent Avest of Baffin's Bay. The Helluland of Thorfinn was
probably the south-eastern extremity of Labrador. A writer
in the "Philosophical Transactions,"! speaking of Labrador,
says : " The surface is every where uneven and covered idtk
large stones, some of which are of amazing dimension. The
mountaifts are almost devoid of every sort of herbage, a
blighted shrub and a little moss is sometimes to be seen
upon them, but in general the hare rock is all you behold.
In a Avord, the whole country is nothing more than n prodi¬
gious heap of harren rocks.'" This writer also notices the
great number of foxes that are found in the country.
(2.) Markland can be no other than Nova Scotia. The
following descriptions of this part of the coast from modern
works on navigation correspond to the letter with those of the
Northmen. " The land is low in general, and not visible
twenty miles off. Aspotogon hills have a long level appear¬
ance. Between Cape Le Have and Port MedAvay, the coast
to the seaward is level and low, and the shores marked Avith
white rocks, with low barren points ; from thence to Shel-
bourpe and Port Roseway are Avoods. I'rom Port Haldimand
to Cape Sable the land is low, ivith white sandy cliffs, parti¬
cularly, visible at sea. Cape Sable is a low woody island at
the south-eastern extremity of a range of sand cliffs, Avhich are
* Geschichte and Beschreibung A'on Newfoundland, p. 103.
! Vol. Ixiv. pp. 374 and 377, quoted in Antiq. Am. p. 419.
DISCOVEEY OF AMERICA.
271
very remarkáble at a considerable distance in the offing." *
"From Port Haldimand to Cape Sable the land appears level
and low, and on the shore are some cliffs of exceeditujly white
sand, particularly in the entrance of Port Haldimand and on
Cape Sable, where they are very conspicuous from sea."f
(3.) Mr. Rafn supposes that the course here described was
through Nantucket Bay and Vineyard Sound, and thence up
the Seaconnet Reach and Pocasset River to Mount Hope Bay,
where Leif fixed his booths on the Taunton River; but we
think the indications given in the Saga are too vague to fix
the precise localities. The account of Thorfinn's voyage is
more satisfactory in this respect.
(4.) The anecdote of Tyrker, which, if rightly understood,
will be found to furnish strong evidence of the genuineness of
the narrative, has been treated with ridicule by some writers,
on the erroneous supposition that the Saga describes the old
German as being intoxicated by eating a few fresh grapes.
Even Mr. Laing, who, as the translator of the Heimskringla,
must certainly be aware that there is nothing in the original
Old Norse text of the Saga to warrant such an interpretation,
cannot refiainfrom remarking, that "All the grapes in Ger¬
many, and Vinland to boot, would not make a man drunk,
without their juice undergoing the vinous fermentation. This
is clearly the fiction of some Saga-maker, who knew no more
of wine than that it was the juice of the grape."; Now the
Saga-maker, as Mr. Laing terms him, merely tells us that when
Leif met Tyrker he soon perceived that he was skapfâtt, or
a little out of his wits. Another manuscript has skapyott,
i. e. in a merry mood ; and that whilst he was talking German
he twisted his mouth, and turned his eyes many ways. There is
certainly nothing very extraordinary in this. On the contrary,
we may readily conceive that a German who had passed the last
twenty years of his life in the frozen regions of the north,
would be elated somewhat beyond the bounds of reason, on
finding in a strange land the same fruit he had so often re¬
lished in his childhood, and, as the recollections of that happy
* The New American Pilot, by J. W. Norie, Lend. 1815, P. ii. pp.
1. 3. 6.
Laurie and Whittle's New Sailing Directions for the Coasts of North
America, Lond. 1816, p. 7 ; Antiq. Am. p. 423.
1; Laing's Heimskringla, vol. i. p. 168.
272
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
period rushed on his mind, would give vent to his feelings in
his mother tongue. Mr. Laing makes Tyrker speak Turkish^
such being, in his opinion, the signification of the Icelandic ad¬
jective thyrskr.— See Laing s " Heimskringla," vol. iii. p. 349.
The learned Schöning, who first conceived this notion, gives
it as a mere conjecture: " Incertus sum," he says, "quomodo
illud á thyrsku, Latine reddam, linguane Theutonica, an
Turcica?"—See Schöning's edit, of the Heimskringla, Co-
penh. 1777, vol. i. p. 310, note c. Mr. Rafn has satisfactorily
shown that thyrskr means German.—See Antiq. Am. p. 35,
note a, and p. 28, note a.
(5.) We shall find that Helluland, Markland, and Vinland, or
the three lands of stone, of wood, and of the vine, always occur
in succession to the Northmen holding a south-west course
from Greenland. This circumstance alone, even if unsup¬
ported hy collateral evidence, would he sufficient to show that
the countries so designated were respectively the projecting
lands of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New England, about
Massachusetts. Mr. Laing finds, however, that " in the ac¬
count of the details upon which so much has been built up by
modem antiquaries, we find no such consistency, credibility, or
external evidence of truthfulness. Leif and his successors,
Karlsefne and others, arrive in Vinland in spring—say, in
May, June, or July. In what climate or part of the world are
grapes to be found in those months ? Do vines, or wheat, or
com of any kind grow spontaneously in those countries ? This
is a question by no means satisfactorily ascertained." " All
the geographical speculations upon the sites and localities of
the Vinland of the Northmen, built upon the natural products
of the land, fall to the ground."* This, at first view, appears
to be marvellously conclusive ; but Mr. Laing will find by
referring to the Saga, that although Leif and his companions
may probably have arrived in the country some time in May,
June, or July, the incident of Tyrker finding grapes is re¬
lated as having occurred after they had erected their booths, or
dwelling-houses, and settled themselves for the winter. Tyrker,
therefore, found his grapes precisely in the season when grapes
are to be found, viz., in autumn. That vines and com grow
spontaneously in New England is a fact too well attested to
be called in question. The island of Martha's Vineyeird oh-
* Heimskringla, vol. i. p. 168.
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
Q73
tained its Dame, from the first English settlers, on account of
their finding wild grapes growing there in great abundance.—
See also Remark 15.
(6.) Timber was a veiy requisite article both in Greenland
and Iceland, which produced no wood, or at least none fit for
either ship-building or for the construction of the large ban-
quetting halls of the rich landed proprietors. A good deal
of drift-wood was, and is still, occasionally found on the coasts,
but generally too worm-eaten to be serviceable. Leif, there¬
fore, took out a cargo of timber, and probably some specimens
of the fine hard-grained wood of the country, and stowed his
long-boat w ith packages of raisins.
(7.) The account is too scanty to fix the localities visited by
the party, but, as they were absent the whole summer, they pro¬
bably sailed along the coast as far south as the Carolinas.
(8.) It will appear more fully in the narrative of Thorfinn's
voyage, that Kja'arnes can be no other than Cape Cod, and
the opposite headland, Gurnet Point, which form the entrance
of Cape Cod Bay.
(9.) This locality is not so easy to determine, but it may per¬
haps have been " the bluff head of Alderton," at the south¬
east of Boston Bay.
(10.) Disco Island, in Baffin's Bay, was called Bjarney, or
Bear Island, by the Northmen, but they seem to have applied
this name indifferently to several islands. The Bjarney here
mentioned was probably one of the numerous islands on the
coast of Labrador, from which a vessel might sail with ease
in two days to Newfoundland. It is, at all events, quite ob¬
vious that Thorfinn, who-knew that the country he was in
search of lay to the south-west, would not have sailed due
north to Disco Island.
(11.) This Bjarney was probably Cape Sable Island.
(12.) The Furtustrandir of the Northmen correspond ex¬
actly with the coast of the Nauset Peninsula, and the Chatham
and Monomoy beaches. Hitchcock, in his " Report on the
Geology of Massachusetts," p. 94, says, in speaking of this
coast, " The dunes, or sand hills, which are often nearly
or quite barren of vegetation, and of snowy whiteness,
attract the attention on account of their peculiarity. As w'e
approach the extremity of the Cape the sand and the barren¬
ness increase ; and, in not a few places, it would need only a
T
,274
KOETHERN ANTIQUITIES,
party of Bedouin Arabs to cross the traveller's path to make
hiin feel that he was in the depths of an Arabian or Lybian
desert." Mr. Rafn observes, that the name of " MarvelLam
Strands " may have been given, not so much on account of
tlleir dreary length, as from the Northmen having, perhaps,
witnessed the phenomenon of the mirage which frequently
occurs on this coast, and which they would justly have deemed
most marvellous. Hitchcock, in the work above quoted, p. 97,
remarks, " In crossing the sands of the Cape, I noticed a sin¬
gular mirage, or deception. In Orleans, for instance, we
seemed to be ascending at an angle of 3 or 4 degrees ; nor
was I convinced that such was not the case, until, turning
about, I perceived that a similar ascent appeared on the road
just passed over."^
(13.) Straumf)örd is supposed to be Buzzard's Bay, and
Straumey, either Martha's Vineyard or the .islands of Cutty-
hunk and Nashaw-enna, which, in the eleventh century, were
probably connected. The Gulf Stream will sufficiently account
for the strong currents noticed in the narrative. Lyell remarks,
in his Geology,, vol. i. p. 384, "That it is the beach of Nan¬
tucket which turns the current of the Gulf Stream at the depth
of from two to three hundred feet below the surface of the
water. "Mr. Laing, who carries his scepticism somewhat too far,
observes, that " The eyder duck, on our side of the world, is
very rarely seen in lower latitudes than 60 '. It may be dif¬
ferent on the American coast. " f And tliat it is different we
have among other authorities cited by Mr. Rafn, that of Ebe-
ling, a German w-riter, who says, that " on the numerous isles
on this coast there are an extraordinary quantity of wild
geese and ducks, among which the eyder duck is very comwow."|
(14.) If it be admitted that Thorfinn passed the first winter
at Buzzard's Bay, Hop may possibly be the present Mount
Hope Bay. This locality, in fact, perfectly corresponds to the
description given in the narrative. There is a river—the
Taunton River—flowing through a lake—Mount Hope Bay
might almost be termed a lake—on its way to the sea—by the
Pocasset River and Seaconnet Reach, which, owing to their
sandy shoals, are only navigable at high water. It would appear
* Pee Ant'q. Am. p. 42T.
f Heimskringla, vol i. p. 169.
X See Antig. Am, p. 444.
DISCrOTEKY OF AMEEICA.
275
tlàat this Mount Hope is merely a corruption of the Indian
name haup, (pronounced like the Icelandic hop,) which the
place bore when the first English settlers arrived there. Haup
was the residence of the famous IMetacomet, or King Philip,
as he was called, the last Sachem of the Wampanoug Indians ;
and some of the Rhode Island antiquaries have hazarded the
supposition that the name may have been transmitted to the
Indians by the decendants of the Northmen who had settled
in the place, and were gradually merged in the tribe of the
Wampanougs. But if it were even a well established fact,
instead of a me^-e covjecture, tliat the Hop of the Northmen
was the Haup of the old Indian Sachem, still this coincidence,
like that of many other homonymous words belonging to dif¬
ferent languages, which have so often led etymologists on a
wild goose chase, might be quite fortuitous.
(15.) Although it may be difficult to fix the precise locality
of each particular place mentioned in the narrative, there can
be but little doubt that Massachusetts was the country known
to the Northmen under the name of Vinland. "When the
English settlers first arrived in this part of America the}»"
found vines growing wild on the hills, and Indian corn on the
plains, the rivers teeming with fish, and the islands covered
with innumerable wild fowl, precisely as we are told the
Northmen did several centuries previously. A modem
writer, speaking of Massachusetts, says, " La vigne sauvage
grimpe de tous cotés sur les arbres,'' and adds that, of some
of the species, " les fruits sont très estimés à cause de leur
salubrité et de leur délicatesse."-s A number of other passages
from recent works might be quoted in corroboration of the
descriptions given in the sagas and the old Icelandic geo¬
graphical treatises of Vinland the Good; but we think no im¬
partial person who takes the trouble to examine the evidence
brought forward by Mr. Rafn will hesitate a moment in
placing it, in what Mr. Warden, in the work above quoted,
terms paradis de l'Amérique." The supposition that
such a country could have been situated on the bleak and
barren coast of Labrador is too absurd to merit a refutation.
(16.) From this description, and their being called Skrœllings,
they were manifestly Esquimaux. Some recent writers, there-
* Warden's Description des Etats Unis. Paris, 1820.—See also Antiq.
Am. p. 439 and 441.
T 2
S76
northern antiquities.
fore, contend that we ought to place the Vinland of the
Northmen on the coast of Labrador, and they treat the sup¬
position of the Northern Antiquaries, that the Esquimaux race
formerly extended much farther south than at present, as per¬
fectly gratuitous. It requires, however, but a very superficial
knowledge of ethnological history to be aware of the fact that
whenever two races of men have come into contact, the one
that was the inferior in physical or intellectual endowments
has necessarily given way to the other. It was thus that the
Pinns retired before the Scandinavian and Slavonic races;
the Slavonians of ancient Pannonia before the Magyars ; the
Celtic race of the British Isles before the Teutonic ; the
Britons before the Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) ; the Gaels before
the Scandinavian branch : and we have in our own times seen
how the Bed men of the New World have gradually been obliged
to recede before the Spaniards and Anglo-Americans. Though
unsupported by historical evidence, we may therefore reason¬
ably conclude that the Esquimaux were driven, in like man¬
ner, to the Polar regions by the superior race of Red Indians.
CHAPTER II.
on the law^s and institutions of the icelandic common¬
wealth.
The preceding chapters will have made the reader acquainted
with the religious doctrines, manners and customs of the an¬
cient Scandinavians. It will remain for us to give a succinct
account of their literature ; but as almost all the old Norse
poems and sagas that have been handed down to us were either
collected or written by Icelanders, we shall previously enter
into a few details respecting the social institutions of these
Norwegian colonists, in order to show what peculiar circum¬
stances enabled them to acquire such a literary pre-emiuence
over their fellow-countrymen in Norway, Sweden, and Den¬
mark, who, it must be borne in mind, spoke, at that period,
precisely the same language.
We have elsewhere observed that Scandinavian history does
not reach beyond the middle of the ninth century. The person-
* Sec page 84.
LAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. 277
ages who figure in the legendary accounts of events that hap¬
pened, or that are said to have happened, before that period,
belong to the heroic age, in which, among all nations, it is
next to impossible to draw a line of demarcation between facts
and fiction. Events that may have taken place, and which
probablj'' actually did take place—as Ragnar Lodbrok s famous
expedition to Northumbria, for instance,—are so blended with
what is purely imaginative, that any arguments founded on them
must necessarily be inconclusive. It is, therefore, a fortunate
circumstance that the colonization of Iceland falls within
the historical period, which, for Norway, may be said to begin
with Halfdan the Black, and more especially with his son
Harald Hárfagra.
At this period Norway was divided into a number of inde¬
pendent states, each under its chieftain or king, whose au¬
thority, however, was far from being unlimited, all public
affairs being discussed and decided at the Things, or general
assemblies of the freemen, who gave their assent to a measure
by striking their shields with their drawn swords. These
freemen, or thingsmen, as they were called, were the landed
proprietors of the country, and their sons and kindred. The
tenure of land in Norway was then, as we believe it still con¬
tinues to be, strictly allodial. • The odalsman (ódalsma'^r) or
dominus allodialis, whether he held extensive domains or
only a few acres, could not alienate the land. At his death
it was equally divided amongst his children, or next of kin,
and at a later and more civilized period, when legal right
became better defined, any one who could establish his rela¬
tionship with the original proprietor, might evict a person who
had acquired an estate once belonging to the family, without
having any allodial claim to it. It would lead us too far to
point out the advantages and evils resulting from this kind of
tenure, which also prevails in Hungary, where it is regarded
at the present day as one of the greatest obstacles to social
improvementIts obvious tendency is to to fritter away
* Some of the Hungarian domains, those of Prince Esterhazy, for instance,
are entailed and inherited according to the law of primogeniture, but the
tenure that generally prevails is such as we have described. Every manor
in Hungary was originally bestowed by the crown, and, at the deatii of the
last legitimate descendant of the person to whom it was granted, becomes
again crown property. According to the strict letter of tlie law, a manor
S78
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
the estates of a family by continual subdivisions, though th^
"will at times become concentrated in the hands of two or three
individuals, who have been lucky enough to survive their rela¬
tives. There was, however, no great fear in the turbulent
ages we are speaking of, when a Scandinavian never quitted
his arms *, and scarcely passed a day without exposing him
self to danger, that an estate would have to be parcelled out
among a too numerous progeny. We thus find that the
chiefs of a powerful family continued to maintain their dig¬
nity for several generations, a circumstance which in more
peaceable times would have been of rare occurrence.
A chieftain throughout Scandinavia generally presided over
the her-ad f, or district, in which his allodial possessions were
situated, in the triple capacity of chieftain, or military com¬
mander, pontiff, and judge. In Norway, theherad frequently
formed an iudependent*state, and its chief, when the territory-
was tolerably extensive, bore the title of Fylkis-Kùngr
that has devolved to the crown, is merely held in tnist for the purpose of
being ag tin bestowed as a reward for services rendered to the state, but in
point of fact is always sold to the highest bidder ; a proceeding, however,
which the Diet never fails to protest against. It might naturally be supposed
that this law of Amticity, as it is very appropriately termed, would prevenía
person from selling an estate, for, by virtue of its provisions, any of thi de¬
scendants of the original donee might make use of his right, either of pre-emp¬
tion or re-emption. In the latter case, he would, however, have to rtfund any
sums that might have been laid out in improvements, and, as a clever lawyer
generally hits upon some expedient for evading a bad law, the Hungarian
gentlemen of the long-robe have introduced the practice of inserting in the
deed of conveyance double the sum actually given for an estate, and thus
effectually deterring those who enjoy the right of re-emption from making
use of it. The last Diet appointed a committee to inquire into the aviticity
laws, and the next Diet will probably entirely abolish them, or at least render
their operation less pernicious.
* This continued to be the case for centuries after the introduction of
Christianity. The Norwegians only quitted their arms when they entered a
church, when they hung them up in the porch ; hence to this day, in the
rural districts of Norway, the porch of a church is called a weapon-house—
VaabenlMUs.
+ Herad, properly speaking, means a tribe—the word being derived from
Tier, an army, an armed multitude—ra host.
Î Folk's-king. Fylhi signifies a district, and is derived from folk, a word
which has the same meaning as in English. The Old Norse name for king
is konúngr, kongr ; Swed., konuiig j Dtm., kong ", from konr, a man of noble
birth, or simply a man ; and úngr (young), a termination, signifying a son or de¬
scendant, and equivalent to the Ang.-Sax. and English ing. Hence the Ang.-
LAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. 079^
However, whether independentor not, the union of the sacerdotal
and magisterial functions must necessaril v have given him much
the same kind of influence over the smaller landed proprie¬
tors, as a Roman patrician exercised over his clients. An at¬
tentive perusal of the Sagas will, in fact, convince anj one
whose judgment is not biassed by some favourite theory of
Scandinavian optimism, that the boasted independence of the
humbler class of thingsmen was more apparent than real.
They, no doubt, made a great clatter with their shields, and
bawled out most lustily for the adoption or rejection of the mea-"
sure under discussion ; but although a sagaman is not exactly a
Horace Walpole, he often lets us sufficiently behind the cur¬
tain to become aware of the fact, that, even in that rude age, a
man who possessed his hundreds of acres, was never at a loss
how to influence the vote of his humble neighbour, who, al¬
though in the enjoyment of the same political rights, pos¬
sessed but a score All odalsmen were, however, regarded
Sax., cj'ning ; Eng., king ; Dntch, koning ; in Grerman, kpnig. Kings were
formerly as plentiful in Scandinavia as dukes are at the present day at Na¬
ples, the son of a king, though without territories, bearing the same title as
his father. In the Drontheim district alone, Harald Hárfagra, according to
Snorri, defeated and slew no less than eight kings.—See Heimsk. iii, 7.
* There is a striking coincidence ' between the civil institutions cf the
Hungarians (Magyars) and those of the ancient Scandinavians, and this co¬
incidence, which we believe has never been pointed out, is the more rern.ork-
able from there not existing the slightest or remotest analogy between the
Magyar and the Old Norse languages; and although it is by no means ascer¬
tained whether the Magyars belong to the Tshudic, Tatar, or Turkish races,
they are unquestionably not a tribe of any of the so-called Indo-Eui-opean
races, and therefore differ in every respect, physiolog'cally as well as
psychologically, from the Scandinavians. Nevertheless, each of the fifty-five
districts or counties into which Hungary is divided, has its Thing (county
congregation), at which public affairs are discussed, as in ancient Scandinavia,
hj &\\ the odalsmen or thingsmen of the district; aman possessing but a:
single rood of allodial land having the same vote and the same rights and
privileges as the proprietor of the most extensive domains. But those who
may have an oppcmtunity, as we have frequently had, of being present at
oPe of these stormy meetings, will not fail to remark what a powerful in¬
fluence the possessors of such domains, or fvll-spnrred nobles, exercise over
the half-spurred nobles, as the petty allodial landowners are contemptuously
termed, and, perhaps arrive at the conclusion that, in a multitudinous as¬
sembly of freemen, sound lungs are more requisite than a sound judgment.
Although the Himgarian Althing, or Diet, has become in modem times a
bi-cameral legislative body, it differs materially from the British Parlianremt.
Every bill must originate in the lower house, the members of which are the
280
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
as freemen, and constituted a privileged class. Another class
was that of the so called unfree, und^er which negative deno¬
mination were included cottiers, labourers, artizans, and othere,
who enjoyed personal freedom, but had no political rights ;
that is to say, were not thingsmen. They were, however, en¬
titled to bear arms, and most of the opulent lando^vners or
allodial lords, the real nobility of the country, had a number
of them in their service as armed retainers. After these came
the freedmen, or manumitted slaves, and, last of all, the slaves
themselves, or thralls, to whom the law afforded no protection
whatsoever. Their masters might dispose of them as they
thought proper, and even kill them with impunity. These
thralls were generally captives taken in war, who, if not ran¬
somed by their friends, were sold in regular slave markets.
In the year 863, Harald Hárfagra inherited Westfold and
one or two other petty states, and, before the close of the cen¬
tury, had made himself master of the whole country, and be¬
come, dc facto, king of Norway. One of his first measures
was to introduce a kind of feudal system. He accordingly
made it known that all the allodial property in the country
belonged to the crown, and that those who' wished to retain
possession of their estates would thenceforward have to pay a
land-tax. In order to render the royal authority paramount,
he placed over each of the petty states and districts he had
conquered one of his own followers, with the title oijarl (earl),
who was charged with the administration of justice, and the
collection of the royal revenue derived from fines, and the
newly imposed land-tax. A jarl was bound to keep sixty men-
at-arms readv for the king's service, but was allowed to retain
w O '
mere delegates of the district Things, or county congregations, appointed by
the majority of the Thingsmen, and are liable to be recalled at a moment's
notice, so that, in point of fact, all legislative measures are decided by the
fifty-five district Things, the table of magnates and the king having merely a
veto, which, however, is, on most occasions, very adroitly made use of, though
often in a manner the expediency of which it is foreign to our purpose to inquire
into. The reader will find a graphic description of Hungarian public life in
" The Village Notary," of Baron Joseph Eötvös, a work which hhs been
translated into German, and which places its talented author—who has shown
by his political writings and his eloquent speeches in the chamber of mag¬
nates, that a brilliant imagination may be happily combined with a correct
judgment, and the most practical views of social amelioration—among the first-
rate novelists of the present age.
LAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH Sl8l
one-third of the revenue collected. Each jarl had under him
four hersirs *, each of whom received a salary of twenty marks,
and was hound to furnish twenty men-at-arms. When the
system was fully established, Harald did not scruple to aug¬
ment the land-tax, and it soon became evident that his jarls
possessed much greater power, and had much larger incomes
than the petty kings they had replaced, a circumstance that
induced several of the fallen chieftains to solicit the lucrative
employment f. Those who preferred independence, or, more
properly speaking, the exercise of authority, to submission,
became sea-rovers, and infested the coasts of France and the
British islands, or sought refuge in the Shetland, Orkney,
and Faeroe Isles, and especially in Iceland, which, as it was
stated in a preceding chapter, had been recently discovered I.
None but Northmen, inured from their infancy to a rude cli¬
mate and the perils of a seafaring life, would have thought of
settling in such a country, which is thus described by a modem
writer § :—
" The opinion that Iceland owes its formation to the opera¬
tion of submarine volcanoes, is not only confirmed by analo¬
gical reasonings, deduced from the appearances presented by
other islands which are confessedly of volcanic origin, but gains
ground in proportion to the progress of a closer and more ac¬
curate investigation of the geological phenomena which every
part of it exhibits. In no quarter of the globe do we find
crowded within the same extent of surface such a number of
ignivomous mountains, so many boiling springs, or such im¬
mense tracts of lava, as here arrest the attention of the tra¬
veller. The general aspect of the country is the most rugged
and dreary imaginable. On every side appear marks of con¬
fusion and devastation, or the tremendous sources of those
evils in the yawning craters of huge and menacing volcanoes.
Nor is the mind of a spectator relieved from the disagreeable
emotions arising from reflection on the subterraneous fires
* The word hersir has the same root as herad, and might—though not very
appropriately—be rendered by baron.
f Heimsk. iii. 6.
I See page 187.
§ Henderson, in his work entitled " Iceland ; or the Journal of a Resi¬
dence in that Island during the years 1814 and 1815." We have somewhat
abridged Mr. Henderson's description of this singular country.
NORTHERN ANTIQtlITIEB.
■which are raging beneath him, by a temporary survey of the
huge mountains of perpetual ice by which he is surrounded.
These very masses, which naturally exclude the most distant
ideas of heat, coutaiu in their bosom the fuel of conflagration,
and are frequently seen to emit smoke and flames, and pour
down upon the plains immense floods of boiling mud and
"Water, or red-hot torrents of devouring lava.
" There are no less than thirty principal volcanoes in the
island, and besides these an immense number of smaller cones
and craters, from which streams of melted substances have
been poured forth over the surrounding regions. Tracts of
lava traverse the island in every direction. The most exten¬
sive fields are those in the volcanic region around the lake of
Myvatn. The vicinity of the sulphur mines of Fremri also con¬
sists of lava, and from the mountains around which these mines
lie, as far as the eye can reach, nothing is seen but one inter¬
minable region of desolation. The dismal gloom of this tract
is barely relieved by the columns of smoke that are constantly
ascending into the atmosphere through apertures and fissures
in various parts of the surface. Here the odáda hraun,
or horrible lava, begins and extends to a great distance to¬
ward the south and west. It is described as the wildest and
most hideous tract in the whole island. The surface is ex¬
tremely rugged, consisting of broken and pointed rocks, be¬
tween which are fissures and chasms of a tremendous size,
that throw insuperable barriers in the way of any traveller
who might wish to penetrate beyond them. In the south of
Iceland lie the extensive tracts of melted rock about Thing-
valla, where scarcely any thing appears but one scene of uni¬
versal desolation. The lavas about Mount Hekla are well
known ; and the whole plain, between that volcano and the
sea, is filled with the same substance till within a few feet of
the surface of the ground.
" Another proof of the universality of volcanic agency and of
the continued existence of subterraneous fires in Iceland, is
the multiplicity of hot springs in which it abounds. Many of
these springs throw up large columns of boiling water, accom¬
panied by immense volumes of steam, to an almost incredible
height, and present to the eye of the traveller some of the
grandest scenes to be met with on the face of the globe.
"Celebrated as the island has been for its volcanoes and hot
lAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELAKDIC COMMONWEALTH. SSB
springs, it is scarcely less remarkable on account oí the enor*»
mous ice-mountains which occupy a vast portion of its surface.
To these mountains the natives give the name of Yökuls,
which signify large masses of ice. They have generally ter-
reous and rocky mountains for their bases, and in many places
exhibit magnificent glaciers, which commence at a great height,
and run down with a very rapid descent into the plains. The
most extensive of all the Icelandic yökuls is called the Klofa
Yökul, in the eastern quarter of the island. It lies behind
the yökuls and other mountains which line the south-east
coast, and forms, with little or no interruption, a vast chain of
ice and snow-mountains, which are supposed to fill a space of
not less than three thousand square miles. Five of these
ybkuls are volcanic. Though covered with coats of ice of im¬
mense thickness, when the internal parts of the mountains
become ignited, the mass of ice, or indurated snow, is cracked
and rent by the explosion which ensues ; a great quantity of
it is melted by the flames or by the exundations of hot water;
and whole fields of ice are sometimes deposited on the neigh¬
bouring plains.
" Numerous ridges of rugged and irregular mountains stretch
across the interior, and from these other inferior mountains
branch out toward the coast, and, in many instances, terminate
in high and steep promontories. Between these ridges, in
the vicinity of the coast, are rich and beautiful valleys, in which
the inhabitants have erected their dwellings ; and many of the
low mountains are covered with coarse grass, which afford
summer pasturage to the cattle. The most extensive tract
of low country is that between the districts of Myrdal and
Oraefa, where the traveller pursues his journey for the period
of four days without seeing any thing like a mountain in the
immediate vicinity. The whole of the interior, as far as it has
been explored, consists of a vast inhospitable desert, traversed
in various directions by barren mountains, between which are
immense tracks of lava and volcanic sand, with here and there
a small spot scantily covered with vegetation."
Such was the country that afforded the discontented Nor¬
wegian chieftains a secure retreat from what they were pleased
to term the tyranny of Harald. The colonization commenced
in the year 874, and in little more than half a century the
whole coast of the island had been taken possession of. Expe-
284
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
ditioiis to Iceland were necessarily attended with considerable
expense, for the emigrants had to take every thing with them,
provisions, winter stores, live stock, and even the timber for
the construction of their dwellings. They were, therefore,
generally fitted out by the pontiff-chieftains ; a circumstance
which naturally increased the authority already exercised by
these sacerdotal magistrates over the less wealthy landowners
whom they permitted to accompany them.
Previous to embarking the pontiff chieftain held a blot-
veitsla *, or sacrificial banquet, in the temple over which he
presided. A Scandinavian temple was in fact nothing more
than a large wooden banqueting hall, with a small recess at
one end that formed a kind of sanctuary. In winter a fire
was kindled on a hearth placed exactly in the centre of the
hall, the smoke finding its way out through apertures in the
roof, which also served for windows, and appear to have been
furnished with shutters. On the southern side of the hall,
opposite the fire hearth, was the imdvegi, or high seat, a kind
of throne raised on steps, and placed between two wooden
columns called the öndvegissulur^, which were generally carved
* Blot, a sacrifice, from the verb hlóta, to sacrifice : veitsla, a banquet,
from the verb veitna, to supply, to make ready. A curious instance of the
different meaning attached to the same word in different ages is furnished by
the Old Norse verb biota which, in Pagan times, meant to sacrifice, to conse¬
crate ; but after the introduction of Christianity, quite the reverse, viz., to
curse. The monks having transformed Odin into Satan, it was but reasonable
that biota should undergo a similar transformation. The northern philolo¬
gists generally derive blot from bl6d, blood ; but Grimm has shown that this
derivation is ungrammatical, observing, at the same time, that the real deriva¬
tion of the word is unknown to him, an admission which, coming from the
greatest philologist of the present age, ought to be a caution to those who in¬
dulge so freely in mere conjectural etymology. Grimm further remarks, that the
Anglo-Saxon verb blótan is used by Csedmon, for the sacrifices of the Hebrews,
and cites, among other instances, blótan s%inu (filium sacrificare). From this
verb he derives the verb blétsian, more recently blessian, whence the Eng¬
lish verb to bless.—See Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, 2nd edit., page 32.
+ This word may be rendered by sacred columns ; súlur being the plural
of svla, a column ; Germ., seule. There are numerous etymologies of the
word öndvegi, but as none of them appear to us to be satisfactory, not even
that given by Grimm in his Deutsche Grammatik, ii. 715, we will not fa¬
tigue the reader by their enumeration. That the öndvegi seat was placed.
opposite the morning sun, consequently on the south side of the hall, is cer¬
tain, and this circumstance would seem to indicate a very remote Asiatic
origin; but whether the first syllable of the word be derived from and, op-
LAWS, ETC., ©F THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. 285
with Runic inscriptions, and ornamented with images of Odinic
divinities. This was the seat occupied by the chieftain, his
most distinguished guest being placed on another öndvegi
seat, probably not quite so high, and without columns, on the
northern side of the hall, the fire blazing between them *.
The other guests and the retainers and dependents of the
chieftain were ranged with their backs to the wall, on benches
to the right and left of these öndvegi seats, the other side of
the tables placed before them being unoccupied. The flesh of
the sacrificed animals, after being boiled in a large kettle over
the fire, was served up to these rude banqueters, who fre¬
quently ami:^ed themselves by throwing the bones at one an¬
other, the manner in which they were placed on the opposite
sides of the hall being very convenient for indulging in this
elegant pastime -j". After they had finished eating their boiled,
horse flesh J, they generally sat swilling their ale out of capa¬
cious drinking-horns and listening to the lay of a Skald or the
posite, or from aund, ond, soul, spirit, Danish aand, we will not pretend to
determine.
* Southey, in one of his notes to " Madoc," cites from Bede, lib. ii. 13,
an argument made use of by a follower of Edwin of Northumbria to advise
that king respecting his intended conversion to Christianity which we cannot
refrain from borrowing, as it not only alludes to tJiefire blazing in the centre
of tlœ hall, but contains a highly poetical comparison. One of the chieftains
having finished his discourse, another arose and addressed Edwin as follows :—
The present life of man upon the earth, when compared with the future, has
appeared to me, 0 king ! like as when thou and thy chieftains and thy servants
have been seated in winter time at supper ; the hearth blazing in the centre and
the viands smoking, while without it is storm, or rain, or snow ; and a spar¬
row flies through the hall, entering at one door and passing out at another ;
while he is within, in that brief moment of time, he does not feel the
weather, but after that instant of calm, he returns to winter, as from winter
he came, and is gone. Such and so transitory is the life of man, and what
follows it or what precedes it is totally unknown to us. Wherefore if this new
doctrine should bring any thing more certain, it well deserves to be adopted."
f In the year 1011, Elphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, was killed by the
Danes throwing bones at him, as he was labouring to convert them to Chris-
, tianity, a kind of martyrdom which we may readily account for, by suppos¬
ing these rude warriors seated in a hall in the manner described, and the
archbishop standing between the tables.
Î The eating of horse flesh was common to all the tribes of the Teutonic
race previous to their conversion to Christianity, and was, no doubt, a use
they had learned on the steppes of Asia. At such banquets as we have de¬
scribed, beef, mutton and pork were also served up, and although the fare
was coarse, it appears to have been very abundant.
KOETHERN ANTIQUITIES
tale of a Sagamati, until they were most of them in that happy
state of mind, when, according to Dr. Johnson, man is alone
capable of enjoying the passing moment of his fleeting exist¬
ence
. When this noisy festival, which sometimes lasted several
days, was over, the chieftain embarked with his friends and
retainers, carrying with him his öndvegissulur, and frequently
also the earth on which had stood the image of his tutelar
deity. On approaching the coast of Iceland the sacred co¬
lumns were thrown into the sea, and the place where they
were washed ashore was chosen by the chieftain for his new
residence. The columns were sometimes carried out of sight,
which was regarded as a bad omen. This happened to Ingolf,
the first colonist j-, who, after a fruitless search for them,
landed on a promontory at the south-eastern extremity of Ice¬
land, at a place called to this day Ingólfshofdi. Three years
afterwards some of his followers having been sent out to ex¬
plore the country, found the sacred columns cast ashore near
the south-western point of the island. Although the place
where he had first settled was agreeable and fertile, and that
whe^e the columns had been washed ashore remarkable for
its sterility, Ingolf, on learning the auspicious event, instantly
removed thither with his family and retainers. This place
afterwards became the town of Eeykjavik, the capital of
Iceland. The guidance of the sacred columns was, however,
sometimes disregarded. We are told, for instance, that when
Kraku-Hreidar approached the coast, he said, that he con¬
sidered it very foolish to follow a floating piece of wood where-
ever it might be carried to, and that for his part he would ask
Thor—in what manner we are not informed—to point out a
landing-place, and if he found that the land was already occu¬
pied, he would challenge its possessor to single combat, and
thus ascertain by wager of battle whether he had not the
"best right to it. Hreidar was, however, shipwrecked, not¬
withstanding which he persisted in his resolution, and finding
that Soemund had already formed a settlement on that part of
the coast on which his vessel had been stranded, instantly
* Johnson being asked " whether a man was not sometimes happy in the
moment that was present," answered, " Never but when he is drunk,"—Bos-
well, viii. 271 ; edit, of 1819.
See page 188.
LAWS, ETC., OF THE, ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH.
sent him the intended challenge. Havord, with whom Ste-
mund had passed the first winter as guest, at last persuaded
Hreidar to consult Eiri, the chief of the district. To Eiri he
accordingly went, who told him that there was plenty of waste
land in the island, and that he himself would cede to him
the whole promontory below Skalamyra, and that this was the
very place which Thor had pointed out to him, for when he
invoked that deity the prow of his vessel must have been
turned towards it. Hreidar was perfectly satisfied with this
conclusive argument, and establisbed himself on the promon¬
tory *. Another immigrant, named Kvölld-Ulf, having fallen
dangerously ill on the passage, ordered that when he died his
body should he placed in a coffin—or probably on a shield—
and thrown into the sea, and that his son should settle on
that part of the coast on which it w^as washed -j-.
The first colonists seem to have made the ridges of hills,
the banks of rivers, and other natural boundaries, the limits
of their respective settlements. Tbe usiial manner of taking
possession was by lighting fires. Helgi, for instance, lighted
fires at the mouths of all the streams running into the frith
bounded by the promontories of Siglunes and Reynesnes, and
thus took possession of the whole district. Shooting a fiery
arrow over a river was also regarded as equivalent to taking
possession of the land on the other side from the place where
the arrovv fell to tbe mouth of the stream. Ormund the Wise,
for instance, had occupied that part of a valley lying eastward
of the rivulet that ran through it, but having heard that Eirek
wished to occupy tbe western part, he hastened to take pos¬
session of it by shooting a fiery arrow over the rivulet Í.
The ceremony of taking possession by lighting fires on the
boundaries, appears to have been regarded as a consecration
of the land to tutelar deities, and to have only been prac¬
tised by pontiff-ehieftains. Several of these chieftains having
appropriated in this manner very extensive territories, it was
made an established rule that no one should occupy a larger
district than what he and his followers were able to inclose
and dedicate by fires, lighted at sunrise, and kept burning till
sunset, the distance between the fires not to be greater than
would enable a man placed at one to discern the smoke of the
other by day, and its flame by night.
* Landnámab. iii. 7. + Landnámab. i. 18. $ Landnámab. iii, 8.
NOKTHERN ANTlQÜIiTES,
It would appear that if the leader of the settlers was a
woman, another manner of proceeding was observed. Asbjöm,
for instance, having died on the passage to Iceland, the duty
of leading the settlers devolved to his widow, Thorgerda, who,
according to established usage, could only take possession of
as much land as she was able, on a summer's day from sunrise
"to sunset, to drive a two-year old cow, or a young bull, round *.
However, if this was a rule, an exception was made to it in
favour of ladies who had plenty of money, or its equivalent, at
their command ; for we are told that when And the Rich ar¬
rived, she took as much land as she pleased and divided it
among her followers, several of whom were her manumitted
slaves.
Immigrants, who arrived in a district after all the land had
been occupied, had the alternative of purchasing an estate, or
gaining one by wager of battle. They generally preferred the
latter, for it was considered more honourable to acquire land
by the sword than by purchase. The victory in a wager of
battle was awarded by the gods, and the victor might boast that
he had received his land from Thor himself as a reward for his
valour. There are many instances on record of an immigrant
requiring a previous settler either to cede to him his land, or
to do wager of battle for it. We have already mentioned one
that ended without bloodshed, hut it would appear that this
was an exceptionable case, and that more frequently the ques¬
tion at issue was decided with sword and battle-axe by a holm-
gang. It was in this way that Thorolf Bœgifôt acquired the
estate of an old man named Ulfarf. Another immigrant named
Gudlaug Audgi, perceiving that the land on which Thorir had
settled was the best in the district—in which it would appear
waste land was still to be had—went to Thorir and gave him
the usual choice of a cession or a combat. Thorir's son Thor-
finn did not hesitate a moment in preferring a holmgang
to dishonour. To work they accordingly went; both com¬
batants were grievously wounded : Thurida, the fair daughter
of Tungu-Oddi, healed their wounds, and, while she was per¬
forming this good office, persuaded them to enter into an
amicable arrangement J.
• Landnámab. i v. 10.
f See Walter Scott's abstract of the Eyrbyggja Saga,
^ Landnámab. ii. 6.
LAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. 28D
Instances also occur of a man already in possession of an
estate offering to exchange it for another, leaving its possessor
the choice of accepting his offer or having recourse to a
holmgang. Hrolleif, for instance, having remained several years
in the place where he had settled, proposed to his neighbour,
Eyvind, that they should exchange their possessions, intimating,
at the same time, that if Eyvind was not willing to do this, he
was ready to meet him in single combat. Eyvind preferred
making the exchange, though he was no doubt a loser by the
transaction *. This, it must be confessed, was a very con¬
venient way of acquiring land for those who were skilful in
the use of the battle-axe ; mention, however, is frequently made
of immigrants purchasing a part of the ample domains of the
early settlers.
When a chieftain had taken possession of a district, he
allotted to each of the freemen who accompanied him a certain
portion of land, erected a temple (hof), and became, as he
had been in Norway, the chief, the pontiff, and the judge of
the herad. Such a chieftain was called a godi or hofgodi f,
and all to whom he had allotted land were bound to accom¬
pany him on his journeys, and to pay a tax for the support of
the temple. We thus find these sacerdotal magistrates ap¬
pearing at the public assemblies with a number of armed fol¬
lowers, not retainers, but odal-born freemen. When they
went on their private affairs, they were generally accompanied
by their retainers and guests, and we rarely meet with an in¬
stance either of a godi or a wealthy landowner going out
alone. The whole frame of society in Iceland was, in fact,
essentially aristocratic. The laws only recognised four classes,
as in Norway; freemen, imfree, freedmen, and thralls, but
among the freemen themselves a distinction was made betwen
the godar or pontiff chieftains, and the opulent landed pro¬
prietors called stormenn |, or magnates, who had also taken
possession of extensive territories, and allotted land to their
followers, and a still greater distinction between these and the
* Landnámab, v. 13.
f Godi, properly Go'Si, literally a God, plural, Godar, properly Go'Sar,
gods ; the priests being designated by the same epithet as the deities they wor¬
shipped.
Î Great men, from star great, and ma^r, a man.
U
290
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
less wealtky freeholders to ■whom, generally speaking, land
had been allotted.
A number of independent chieftains being thus located on
the coasts of Iceland without any general law or central au¬
thority to control their actions, were continually embroiled in
petty feuds and dissensions. The evil consequences resulting
from this state of things became at length so great that, in
the year 925, Ulfliot was charged with the task of devising a
remedy for the ever increasing dissensions of the infant colony.
Ulfliot, in order to prepare himself for the duties of a legis¬
lator, went to Norway, where he remained three years with
Thorleif the Wise, justly renowned for his knowledge of the
laws and usages of the parent country. When Ulfliot re¬
turned he convoked a general assembly of the people, in which
all his proposed enactments were adopted, and a republican
form of government flnally constituted.
The island, in conformity with its physical features, was di¬
vided into four provinces or quarters—Fjór^úngar, called re¬
spectively the east, west, north and south Fjór^úngr,—and
each quarter into three districts. A few years later, however,
one of the districts of the northern quarter was divided for the
convenience of the inhabitants, thus making, in all, thirteen
districts, which were subdmded into hrepps, or parishes, as
they might not inappropriately be termed. A hrepp was
to be a tract of country that should not contain less than
twenty landholders, five of whom were to be elected by the
inhabitants for the management of the affairs of the locality,
and especially—as we shall presently show—for the due ad¬
ministration of the Poor Laws. They were empowered to
convene a public meeting whenever they might deem it neces¬
sary to submit any measures to the discussion of the rate¬
payers.
Each of the thirteen districts had its temple {h'ófud-hof^
chief temple) and its Thing, over which presided three godar,—
hence called samgodar -—who were to be chosen from amongst
those the most distinguished for their wisdom and love of
justice. It would appear, however, that although these godar
must necessarily have been elected or appointed in the first
* Sam, from saman, together.
LAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. 291
instance, the dignity afterwards became hereditary ; for it is
expressly stated in the Grágás how a female, inheriting such
a sacerdotal magistracy, is to appoint a deputy Frequent
mention is also made of a godi selling his office, or godord t,
as it was termed, when, according to express law, it was to
devolve to the heirs of the purchaser The godord was, in
fact, regarded as a possession that might be sold, and be¬
queathed, and inherited, but not entailed. A district Thing,
called a Varthing, was held annually in spring, and attended
by all the freemen of the district, with a crowd of retainers.
It was not to last more than seven, nor less than four days.
The Thingstead was always near the temple, in which one of
the sacerdotal magistrates performed a sacrifice and sprinkled
the walls of the edifice, as well as the bystanders, with the blood
of the victims ; holding in his hand, on this as on every other
solemn occasion, a massive silver ring, with which the altar of
every temple was furnished. The Things were held in the
open air, and served both for the discussion of public affairs
and the administration of justice. For the latter purpose a
circle called the doom-ring, dómhringr, was formed with hazel
twigs or with upright stones, to which were attached cords
called veh'ónd §. Within this circle sat the judges, the people
standing on the outside, and in the midde stood the blótstemn,
a huge stone with a sharp ridge, on which the backs of criminals
condemned to death were broken ||. Each of the three godar
summoned twelve assessors or doomsmen (dóms-menn), to sit
* Grágás, iii, 61. We frequently read of females holding this office.
Thus, in the tenth century, Steinvora entered an action against Thorleif,
who having been baptized during his residence abroad, had refused, on his
return to Iceland, to pay the accustomed tribute to the temple over which
she presided.—See Müller, Sagabib, i. 99.
T Properly go'Sor'S, literally god-tvord—or'S, word, authority.
Î " Ef ma^r hefir keypt golSor'S e'Sr var hanom gefit ok skal that at ertcSom
fara." Grágás, iii. 61.
§ Vebönd—the consecrated or sacred cords—lond the plural of hand, a
band or cord. In the glossary to the second volume of the Edda several signi¬
fications of the word ve are given—religion, peace, justice, right &c., and it
seems to be cognate with the Mceso-gothic, veihan, Germ, weihen, to consecrate ;
the Pehlvi vek, pure, and the Persian veh, excellent, &c.
II Sacrificial stone, human victims being sometimes offered on it, as an ex¬
piatory sacrifice, to appease the offended deities. Such sacrifices were very
common in Sweden, but do not appear ever to have taken place in Iceland.
u 2
292
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
"with him within the forensic circle which thus formed a court
of justice composed—if we may apply modem terms to ancient
institutions—of three judges and thirty-six jurymen. Any
doomsman, to whom either plaintiff or defendant might object,
was to be instantly replaced by the godi, who had nominated
him *. The altar-ring we previously made mention of was
used for -the administration of oaths. Every one engaged in
a lawsuit, whether as plaintiff or defendant, as witness, or com¬
purgator, or doomsman, was obliged to swear on this ring,
" in the name of Frey, Njörd, and the Almighty God," f that
he would fulfil the duty imposed on him—to give evidence,
or plead, or judge as the case might be—conscientiously, and
to the best of his abilities.
A few miles to the north-east of Reykjavik is a lake, for¬
merly called Olvus-vatn, into which flows the river Oxerá.
The surrounding country has been convulsed and torn to pieces
by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. To the north of the
lake stretches an arid plain, bounded by mgged mountains, in¬
tersected by indurated volcanic streams, and rent into fissures
and yawning chasms, presenting, with their jagged accli-vities
and piled up masses of disrapted lava, an ever varied scenery
of the most awful sublimity |. It was on this wild and deso-
• "We have evidently here the trial by jury, for -which we are probably more
indebted to our Scandinavian than to our Saxon ancestors. In Eigil's Saga
there is a graphic description of a Norwegian Thing—also -vvith thirty-six
doomsmen, twelve from each district, seated in a doom-ring, formed -with
hazel-twigs, in the middle of a wide plain. At this Thing, Queen Gunhilda,
fearing that the verdict Avould be pronounced in favour of Eigil, caused one
of her followers to cut the sacred cords {véb'ôncC), and thereby put a stop to
the proceedings : cutting the cords being regarded as a profanation of the
forensic circle, and as a crime that merited the severest punishment.—See
Eigil's Saga, and Miiller's Sagabib, i. 115.
f By " the Almighty God " the Icelanders and Norwegians meant Thor,
the Swedes and Danes, Odin.
j: The reader may form some idea of this terrific scenery, by the fol¬
lowing abridged extract from Henderson's " Iceland : "—" The track we
followed," says this traveller, " led us all at once to the brink of a
frightful chasm, where the solid masses of burnt rock have been disrupted
so as to form a fissure or gap not less than 180 feet deep ; in many
places nearly of the same width, and about three miles in length. On the
west side of the rent it is met by another opening, partially filled with large
masses of broken rock, down -which the traveller must resolve to proceed.
To the north-west of Thingvalla church, (situated near the ancient Law-
mount,) we entered on a long and narrow track of solid lava, completely
LAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. 293
late spot, amidst the elemental strife of nature, that the Ice¬
landers held their Al-thing, or national assembly. On the
banks of a frightful precipice stood the Law-mount, (Lögberg,)
with a mystic doom-ring of huge volcanic stones fixed in the
earth, so as to -withstand the storms of centuries.
The Al-thing ^ was held annually in summer, and lasted
sixteen days, and it was regarded as disreputable for a free¬
man not to attend it. People of all classes, in fact, pitched
their tents, and erected their booths on the Thingvalla plain
on such occasions. The chieftains were accompanied by their
retainers, the litigants by their witnesses and compurgators t.
Tradesmen came from Norway and Denmark, and at a later
period also from England, to exchange their goods for the
produce of the country, and there appears to have been no lack
of stalls for the sale of provisions. This multitudinous assem¬
bly was kept in good order by a police magistrate, called the
Allsherjar-godil, specially appointed for the purpose. The
separated from the rocks on both sides by two parallel fissures, which, in many
places, are upwards of fort}* fathoms in depth, and in some places no bottom
can be found at all. They are filled with the most beautiful pellucid water
till within about 60 feet of the brink on which we stood."
* Al, all. The word Thing, Aug. Sax. Thing, Grerm. Ding, requires, for
the English reader, no explanation in the sense in which it is usually taken ;
but it also signifies a colloquy, a conference, from the Old Norse, thinga, to de¬
liberate on, Aug. Sax. thingean to say ; hence the word thing became an ap¬
pellative denoting a deliberative assembly ; v'ollr is the Old Norse for a field,
or plain, Thingv'ollr the field or place in which a Thing is held. Several places
show by the names they still bear that they were originally Thingsteads, as
Thingvalla in Iceland; Tingvold in Norway; Tingwall in the Shetland
Isles ; Dingwall in the county of Eoss ; Tynwald in Dumfries ; Tynwald
in the Isle of Man, and Dingsted in the Duchy of Oldenburg, which has still
its doom-ring of upright stones, with the llótsteinn in the centre.
d* The magistrates and doomsmen had their expenses defrayed by a tax
called the Thingfararkaup, Thing-fañng-tax—-farar from the verb fara, to
fare, to go ; kaup from kaupa to buy—levied on the inhabitants of their
respective districts, and it would appear more particularly on the class of the
unfree.—See Grrágás, viii. c. 25. A Thing-faring-tax is also levied in Hungary,
but exclusively on the class of the unfree or peasantry ; and as the Hungarian
Al-thing frequently lasts upwards of a year, and each delegate receives 12s. a
day, and 3s. a day for his amanuensis, the expenses are pretty considerable.
The nobility, however, defrayed the expenses of the last Diet by levying a con¬
tribution on themselves, having at length become aware of the injustice of
saddling the burden on the poorest class of the community.
Í That is, magistrate of all the assembled people—^literally All-hosts'-god.
The Scandinavian and Magyar institutions offer a remarkable coincidence.
254
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
Al-thing itself was presided over by the supreme magistrate of
the Republic, called the Lögsö'jumadr*, or Promulgator of the
Law, who was elected for life, and, according to received notions,
by the free suffrage of his fellow-citizens ; that is to say, in
plain language, by the free suffrage of the few, who adroitly
disposed, either by justifiable or unjustifiable means, of the
votes of the many ; the only kind of free suffrage which we
fear was ever enjoyed in any age, or in any country on the
face of the earth, by a popular assembly. Within the doom-
ring were three rows of stone seats. On the middle row sat
the godar, twelve from each of the four quarters of the island t,
and on the front and back rows their assessors, or doomsmen,
each of these sacerdotal-magistrates being accompanied by
two men whom—it was supposed at least—^he had chosen for
their knowledge of the laws and usages of the country. This
forensic assembly consisted, therefore, of 144 persons, besides
the Lögsögumadr who presided over it, and must have had a
very imposing appearance J.
We find it stated in several works that an appeal lay from
a district Thing to the Al-thing. This, however, was not the
case, as the writers would have found had they consulted the
Grágás, or read Schlegels commentary on that in trícate code §.
It was, however, optional for parties to bring their suits either
before the Thing of their district, or before the Al-thing, and
even when proceedings had commenced before the former,
not only in their general features, but even in their details ; thus the Hun¬
garian Al-thing has also its Allsherjargodi, or police magistrate, specially ap¬
pointed for the occasion—an office which was held at the last Diet by Count
Feri Zich3\
* Properly Lögsöguma"Sr, literally Laws-narrationi-r/ian, or, Law-saying-
man ; log, nom. plural of lag, law, from leggja, to lay, to lay down ; s'ógur,
plural of saga, a narration, a say, from segja, to say ; and ma^r, man.
4' The north quarter had, as we before observed, four districts, and con¬
sequently twelve godar : the south, east and west quarters, only three dis¬
tricts and nine godar each. In order to render the number from each quar¬
ter the same, the three godar of each of these districts were empowered to
appoint a fourth godi to accompany them to the Al-thing.
X After the introduction of Christianity, the two bishops of the island sat
with the supreme magistrate, and appear to have exercised a considerable in¬
fluence on public affairs.
§ Grágás, 2 V. 4to, Copenh. 1829, with the original Icelandic text, a Latin
translation, and an admirable " Commentatio Histórica et Critica," by W.
Schlegel.
LAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. 295
either the plaintiff or defendant might put a stop to them and
bring the case before the latter, but when judgment had been
pronounced no appeal lay to a superior tribunal. A suit
brought before the Al-thing was heard and decided by the
twelve godar, and twenty-four doomsmen of the province, or
quarter, to which the litigants belonged ; the forensic circle of
the Al-thing being formed for judicial proceedings into four sec¬
tions, or tribunals, corresponding to the four quarters into which
the island was divided. Each of these quarters had also its
Thing, but these provincial Things are seldom mentioned,
and appear to have only been occasionally held for the con¬
venience of suitors whose cases could not be terminated at the
Al-thing, and their forensic circles to have been composed of
the same godar and doomsmen, who had represented the pro¬
vince at that national assembly.
The suits at the Al-thing, were conducted in the same man¬
ner as at a district Thing, oaths being administered to all
the parties concerned, facts elicited by witnesses, and the
corroboration of compurgators, and the verdict pronounced by
a simple majority of the court ; the Lögsögumadr having, it
would appear, in all the four courts the casting vote. Until
the end of the eleventh century every one went armed to the
Al-thing, the chieftains being generally accompanied by very
numerous retinues. Many a sanguinary scene was the natural
result ; and we read of men being slaughtered mthin the
doom-ring itself, and of parties preventing the promulgation
of an act, or verdict, by occupying with an armed force the
Law-mount. In order to remedy these evils, it was at length
decreed that all who were present at an Al-thing should lay
aside their arms, and not resume them until the assembly
broke up *, and that no suitor should be accompanied by^ more
than thirty men, only three of whom should be admitted at
the same time within the doom-ring.
Less than a century's experience seems to have shown the
Icelanders the necessity of having a court of appeal or revi-
* Hence the word vopnataJc—resumption of arms, {weapons'-take)—was
used to denote the termination of an Al-thing. The Hungarians still retain
their weapons, and their magnates may still be seen leading on, sword in
hand, like the Icelandic chieftains of the olden time, a crowd of dependent
Thingsmen, ready at their nod to decide a question under discussion, or carry
the election of a magistrate vi et armis.
â96
KORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
ßion. They acco rdingly instituted, in the year 1004, at the
suggestion of Njáll,—whom we shall have occasion to make
mention of in the next chapter—a fifth court, Fimtardomr,
composed of the sacerdotal magistrates of the Al-thing. But
as the litigants had the right to exclude twelve of them, the
court actually consisted of thirty-six of these magistrates, nine
from each quarter of the island. The sittings were held in
the same place as the Al-thing ; but this tribunal could only
annul a decision of the other courts on the ground of in¬
formality, arising from the non-observance of prescribed
usages, false evidence, subornation of witnesses, forcible deten¬
tion of any one engaged in the suit, &c. It was invested, in
fact, with much the same kind of authority as the French
Cour de Cassation; and it is a very remarkable fact, as Schlegel
observes, that a tribunal similar to that which the French
legislators of the present age so justly pride themselves in
having established, should have existed in this remote island
in the beginning of the eleventh century. About the same
period an act was also passed to empower the godar of each
district to hold a court called a Leidar-thing fourteen days
after the termination of an Al-thing, for the purpose of pro¬
mulgating the laws that had been passed in that assembly,
fixing tlie day on which the district Thing was to be held,
making known any change that had taken place in the magis¬
tracy, and other matters concerning the administration of
the Republic.
It will be seen from the sketch we have given of the civil
institutions of the Icelanders, that the form of government
was strictly aristocratic, the administration of affairs being, in
a great measure, in the hands of hereditary sacerdotal magis¬
trates. The Lögsögumadr himself chiefly exercised his au¬
thority at the Al-thing: out of that assembly he seems to
have possessed little or no power. The oflice was, how¬
ever, regarded as the highest dignity in the state, and
from the year 930, when the Republic was finally consti-
* Leidar, from the verb leita, to inquire into, according to Thorkelin, but
more probably from li^a, to go. Schlegel has shown that although the Eng¬
lish word leet is cognate with the old Norse lei% Thorkelin was wrong in
supposing that the English court-leet corresponded to the Icelandic Leidar-
thing.—See Comm. de Grágás, note, p. 92.
LAW'S. ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. 297
tuted, until the year 1204*, was held by thirty-nine in¬
dividuals, the periods at which they respectively exercised
this magistracy forming so many distinct epochs in the na¬
tional annals. Ulfliot, who had been so instrumental in
founding the Republic, was made its first Lögsögumadr, by
the same national assembly that adopted his legislation. We
have already given an account of the political and administra¬
tive measures introduced by this Icelandic Solon ; but it is
impossible to ascertain, at the present day, what were the pre¬
cise laws he submitted for the approval of his countrymen; for
they were handed down by oral tradition for nearly two cen¬
turies, during which period, the title of Law-saying-man,
borne by the supreme magistrate of the republic, was a very
appropriate one, for he had to recite and expound the laws to
the assembled people at every Al-thing. When a case had
been decided he had also to announce the decision, which was
regarded as a precedent equivalent to a formal law on the
subject. In the year 1117 these laws and precedents were
first committed to writing, and after being thoroughly revised
by the most experienced jurisconsults, underwent a public
discussion at the following Al-thing, when those that had
been approved of by a majority of the Thingsmen were di¬
gested into a regular code, into which subsequent laws and
precedents were, from time to time, incorporated until the final
extinction of the Republic. This code, Icnown under the name
of the Grágásf, is unquestionably one of the most remark-
* The north, south, and west quarters became tributary to Norway in the
year 1261, and the east quarter in 1264. But in becoming the subjects of
the Norwegian kings the Icelanders expressly stipulated that they should re¬
tain their own laws and customs, and be exempt from taxation, and, although
they subsequently adopted several Norwegian laws, the spirit of their ancient
code continued to prevail for centuries. The Al-thing also continued to be
held annually on the Thingvalla plain—^though, in modern times, more as a
judicial than a legislative assembly—until the year 1800, when the frequent
earthquakes were made a pretext for removing the courts to Reykjavik.
t The name of Grágás, grey goose, was first applied to it in the seven¬
teenth century by Björn of Skardsa, some say because grey goose quills were
generally used for writing Icelandic manuscripts; others, because the manu¬
script copy of the Grágás was bound in a grey goose skin ; but Schlegel is
of opinion that the name was given because a grey goose was formerly sup¬
posed to live for ages. The two vellum MSS., which Schlegel has made
use of for his admirable edition of this ancient code, are supposed to have
Ö98
NOBTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
able documents of the kind in existence. Wliat strikes us the
most in perusing it are the legal formularies with which it is
overloaded. Every judicial proceeding has its prescribed
form, the manner in which the accusation and defence are to
be conducted, witnesses summoned, evidence given, verdict
pronounced, &c., are detailed with the greatest minuteness,
and the omission of a single phrase in any one of these formu¬
laries suf&ced to render the judgment invalid *.
We have frequently observed that subtilty was a leading
trait in the character of the ancient Scandinavians ; should
any one doubt this he has only to read the Grágás and Njáls-
saga, which is the best commentary on it, and he will find that
the Icelanders have surpassed all other nations, ancient or
modern, in legal chicanery. Jurisprudence was the favourite
study of the rich. A wealthy Icelander was always ambitious
to plead a cause before the Al-thing, and the greater pro¬
ficiency he showed in the art of prolonging, or involving it by
having recourse to legal quibbles, the greater was his celebrity.
A man, in fact, gained as much reputation for defeating his
adversary in a lawsuit as for killing him in a duel f. The
Icelandic legislators were, in some respects, like those Catholic
divines who indite manuals for the confessional, in which
every conceivable sin a poor mortal could by any possibility
ever fall into is duly registered ; for we find in the Grágás
every imaginable combination of circumstances that might in
any way tend to attenuate or increase the criminality of an
been written towards the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth
century, consequently about halfa century after the fall of the Republic. The
code is divided into ten sections ; the first as well as the second of these sections
only contains one law or chapter, relating to the political division and adminis¬
tration of the country. Section iii. has 72 chapters relating to judiciary pro¬
ceedings. Section iv., 25 chapters on the inheritance of property. Section v.,
poor laws, 35 chapters. Section vi. contains 59 chapters relating to marriage,
divorce, conjugal rights, &c. Section vii., commercial laws, laws of debtor
and creditor, &c., 85 chapters. Section viii., criminal laws, 121 chapters.
Section ix., laws relating to property, 72 chapters. Section x., navigation
laws, 4 chapters.
* A number of these formularies, which are only referred to in the Grrágás
as the "accustomed manner of proceeding," have been preserved in Njálssaga,
which is filled with them.
t These gentlemen were, however, by no means averse to taking a fee,
for mention is frequently made of milch cows, and a certain number ot ells
of wadmal being given as a con-si-der-a-tion for their services.
LAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. Ö99
act, and the punishment graduated accordingly. The endless
distinctions and quiddities of the scholastic disputants of the
middle ages are here embodied into law. It is thus enacted,
to cite one instance among a hundred, that " If a man holds
his weapons in a peaceable manner, as a person ordinarily
does when he is not going to use them, and when they are in
this position another man runs against them and wounds him¬
self, he who held the weapons is liable to the punishment of
banishment if competent witnesses can prove that he held
them in this apparently quiet manner, in order that the other
might run against them and be wounded thereby." *
The punishment of death seems only to have been inflicted
for witchcraft and magic, and in order to prevent the ghosts
of those who were executed for these imaginary crimes from
revisitiug " the glimpses of the moon " the bodies were either
burnt or cast into the sea. The punishments for most other
crimes and misdemeanors were the so called Fj'ôrhaugsgar^r
and Skóggángr\. Both these terms imply outlawry, but the
former may be rendered by exclusion, i. e. from society, and
the latter by exile. Exclusion was the ordinary punishment
for what would be deemed in modern times very trifling of¬
fences, and generally lasted three years, during which period
the condemned person had to remain within doors, three houses
being assigned in which he might dwell at his option, and the
road indicated by which he might go, at stated times, from the
one to the other, or to a place of embarkation if he preferred
leaving the island. Any one who found him at any other
time out of these houses, or off these roads, might kill him
with impunity. This punishment might, however, be remit¬
ted at the discretion of the court on the offender paying a
fine of three marks If this had not been the case, most
* Grágás, viii. 34.
f Schlegel derives Fjörbaugs, or as he will have it Fjörheygsgar'Sr, from
Tt'ór, vital energy, life; heygr, fear; and gar'^r, a fence; and the word
would therefore express that a man condemned to such a punishment would
always he in fear of his life. Skóggángr from skogr, a forest, and ganga, to
gang, to go.
t A mark was dividea into eight ounces. Pecuniary transactions were;
however, adjusted in Iceland, not by the medium of a metallic currency, but
by the coarse woollen cloth of the country, called wadmal, vadmal; mark
and ounce are therefore only used as designations for so many ells of wadmal.
300
NOBTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
people in those days would have had to pass the greater part
of their lives within doors. For graver crimes, such as homi¬
cide and arson, and, as we shall presently show, even for
several minor offences, the punishment was twenty years' exile,
iSkóggángr,) Rt the expiration of which period the exile might
return, and, provided he could effect a reconciliation with the
kindred of the party he had injured, might live unmolested.
During the period of his banishment he was, in the most
rigorous acceptation of the term, an outlawed man. Any one
holding communication with him was liable to be prosecuted,
a price was set on his head, and he might be killed with
impunity, not only in Iceland but also in a foreign country.
The spirit of revenge was even carried so far that a man who
had passed some years in exile might expiate his offence and
return to Iceland by killing another who had been recently
banished. The property of an exile was generally confis¬
cated, a portion reserved for the maintenance of his family,
and the rest equally divided between the accuser and the com¬
munity *.
In no code of the middle ages do we find such rigorous
enactments for the protection of person and property, nor
such detailed police regulations, as in the Grágás. Yet not¬
withstanding this legal terrorism there was probably no coun¬
try in Europe, during that turbulent epoch, where acts of vio¬
lence were more frequently committed than in Iceland. The
want of a central administration will, in some measure, account
for this seeming anomaly, and police regulations, however ex¬
cellent, would naturally be infringed in a country without a
police to enforce their due observance ; but it was, no doubt,
The Gragás, viii. 3, defines a legal ounce to be 6 ells of wadmal, 2 ells wide.
A fine of 3 marks would consequently be equivalent to 144 ells. We often
find in the Sagas a large hundred, or 6 score ells of this cloth, made equiva¬
lent in value to a cow or to 6 sheep.
• A child born in exile of legitimate parents, even when only one of them
was exiled, could not inherit property. Here again the Icelanders drew one
of their scholastic distinctions. If the father was exiled and not the mother,
the child was called an Exile's drop, Vargdropi; from vargr, a wolf, also an
exile—an outlawed man being regarded as a wolf—and dropi, a drop ; in the
contrarj- case, the mother being exiled and the fether not culpable, the name
of Cavern-child (Baesingr) was bestowed on it, as it was supposed that a
man would only hold communication with his outlawed wife in a cavern.
LAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. 301
chiefly owing to the system that prevailed, not only in Ice¬
land, but in most of the other European states at that period,
of leaving it to the option of an injured person either to pro¬
secute those who had injured him, or receive a pecuniary
compensation for the injury sustained. When a man had been
killed, for instance, his son or next of kin, as the case might
be, had three courses open to him. . He might in his turn
kill the person who had, whether in self-defence or not, de¬
prived his father of life ; he might enter an action at law
against him, or he might receive a compensatory fine, in which
case no further notice was taken of the transaction.
The facility thus afforded for expiating an offence by the
payment of a fine will account for the severity of several enact¬
ments in the Grágás. A man, for instance, was liable to the
punishment of exile, and all its terrible consequences, for merely
throwing dirt at another, or striking him with his fist, or at¬
tempting to throw him into the mire, though he might not
actually fall therein*. We find these compensatory or expia¬
tory fines accurately specified in all the codes of those bar¬
barous ages, but the Grágás offers in this respect many striking
peculiarities. Thus a whole chapter is devoted to show how
the amount of a fine is to be apportioned among the kindred
of a person who has either to pay or receive it. The fourth
cousin of one party, for instance, would have to pay the same
portion of the fine as the fourth cousin of the other party
would have to receive, but this portion would be less than a
third cousin and more than a fifth cousin would have to pay
or receive, the amount decreasing with the degree of con¬
sanguinity f. In the Germanic codes each limb has its tax,
and a man knew beforehand how much he would have to pay
for lopping off another man's ear, or rendering him for life
a cripple. There is nothing of the kind in the Grágás.
The Icelanders were, in this respect, greatly in advance of
their contemporaries. They enter, it is true, into endless dis¬
tinctions to appreciate the extent of a bodily injury, and the
manner in which, and the circumstances under which, it might
be inflicted, whether by stabbing, sticking, cutting, hewing
* Grágás, viii. 90, 91.
f Grágás. Baugatal. tüí. HI.
NOKTPIERN ANTIQUITIES.
&G., but the punishment awarded is, according to the gravity
of the case, either exile or exclusion.
A master could, of course, kill his slave with impunity:
but if a slave killed his master, or any of his master's near
relatives, he became, on conviction, an outlawed exile. It
would appear, that exiled slaves generally sought refuge in
the uninhabited parts of the island, though their lives were
continually in danger, for among other remorseless enactments
in the Grágás there is one which states that, when an exiled
slave is found in a district, he shall be taken to the person at
whose suit he had been exiled, and this person shall lead him
to a cross road, and there cut off his legs, and afterwards kill
him in whatever manner he may take a fancy to : a refusal to
comply with this regulation rendered him liable to the punish¬
ment of exclusion, and those who brought the slave to him
might for that purpose enter an action at law against him
A singular distinction is made between murder and man¬
slaughter. If a man killed another and kept the deed secret,
or concealed the body of the person he had killed, he was
guilty of murder ; but if he publicly avowed the deed on the
same day that it was committed, and did not conceal the body
further than by covering it sufficiently to protect it from birds
and beasts of prey, only of manslaughter.
The Icelanders were famous throughout the north for their
nithing-verses, or pasquinades f, which were, however, generally
speaking, of the coarsest description. Scandal, slander, ill-
natured remarks on neighbours, and abusive language, were
indulged in at their social meetings to an extent that called
for legislative interference. Hence we find in the Grágás the
most stringent enactments for the punishment of such kind of
offences. Composers of nithing-verses, or writers of foul and
scandalous libels, as our gentlemen of the long robe w^ould
term them, are as rigorously dealt with in the Grágás as in a
modern act of parliament. The Icelandic definition of a libel
is also much the same as our own. Verses composed and i-e-
peated before another, or written and circulated for the pur¬
pose of holding any one up to ridicule, or casting a slur on
• Grágás, viii. 111.
f For the explanation of the word nithing, see the note p. 155.
LAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. 303
his character, arc declared to be libellous, irrespective of
the truth or falsehood of the allegations they cotí tain *.
Expressions made use of for the same purpose are placed in
the same category. We should be inclined to conclude, from
several chapters of the Grágás, that the coarse wit of the Ice¬
landic poetasters was principally directed against the sacer¬
dotal magistrates and other leading men of the commonwealth;
for these gentlemen, who were the honâ fide legislators of the
country, the crowd of Thingsmen being no doubt completely
under their influence, appear to have had a peculiar dislike to
verse-making in all its stages. Thus, in the chapter entitled
" Urn Skaldskap\, it is enacted that no one shall compose
verses even in praise of another," " neither in a man's praise
nor dispraise," lof ne löst—are the words made use of; and, in
conformity with that pettifogging spirit that pervades the
whole code, some curious distinctions are drawn to show the
precise degree of criminality that is to be attached to each
kind of vei'se, and to each individual concerned in its compo¬
sition. The composer of a half strophe (four short lines) that
contains no satirical expression is liable to a fine of three
marks ; of a whole strophe, to the punishment of exclusion.
But if the half strophe contains any satirical expression
against another person, the punishment of exile is to be
awarded. If, in the latter case, the half strophe has been
composed by two or even by four individuals, or the whole
strophe by eight individuals, each of them is liable to the
same punishment as well as those convicted of reciting it. If
no allusion is made in the strophe to a particular individual,
any one may apply it to himself, and enter an action against
its composer or composers. Even love ditties were not exempt
from this general proscription of versification ; and if a young
lady, to whom such effusions were addressed, was hard-hearted
enough to render the amatory wight who composed them
liable to the punishment of banishment or its pecuniary equi¬
valent, she had only to enter an action against him ; or, if a
* In Norway, and the other Scandinavian states, truth might he told even
in satirical verse, and it was only false allegations that were regarded as
libellous.
f On Poetry—on doggrel would have been a more appropriate term, for
most of these nithing-verses are as arrant doggrel as ever was cudgelled out
of the brain of a poetaster.
304
NOETHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
minor, persuade her parents or guardians to do so in her name
and behalf,—a proceeding which we will presume, for the
honour of the Icelandic fair sex, was not often resorted to
One of the most remarkable sections of the Grágás is that
of the Poor-laws, which we have no hesitation in saying might
be studied even at the present day with advantage. It is
laid down, as a maxim, that when a person is imable through
age, or infirmity, or misfortune, to maintain himself, those
who are his nearest of kin, and possess sufficient means, are
bound to maintain him. Hence many fine distinctions are
drawn respecting the legal claim that persons in such a
situation may have on their relations ; a claim regulated both
according to the degree of consanguinity in which the in¬
dividuals on whom it was made might stand to the claimant,
and the value of the property they might respectively be in
possession of. Every one, say the Icelandic legislators, is
bound to maintain his mother, if his circumstances admit,
also his father, then his children ; in the third degree, his
brothers and sisters, and so on according to the means he
may have at his disposal. Consequently, when a person was
unable to maintain himself, the parish {hrepp) authorities
were empowered to ascertain on winch of his relations he had
a legal alimentary claim, and compel that relation to take
charge of him ; or, supposing for instance, that a widower with
four children, and aged and infirm parents, could satisfactorily
show that he was only able to maintain himself and his
mother, the parish authorities were then bound to see that
his father and children were duly provided for. If no legal
claim could be made out, that is to say, if all the relations of
a destitute person were equally destitute, the charge of sup¬
porting him devolved on the parish. It was one of the chief-
duties of the five administrators of the affairs of a parish +, to
allot to each rate-payer a number of paupers proportionate to
the value of his property, whom he was bound to supply with
the necessaries of life in the manner prescribed by law. A
dépôt of provisions for the poor was also established in each
parish. If a poor man's house was burnt down, the parish
rebuilt it for him. In short, the most praiseworthy care
* Grágás, viii. 106.
f Thehrepps, see page 290, after the introduction of Christianity, generally
became parishes, though the terms were not synonymous.
ÏAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. 305
seems to have been taken that no citizen of the common¬
wealth should perish by starvation. Hence the reciprocal
duties of alirnentor and cdimentee are defined with the usual
minuteness. An alimentee who was ill treated, or ül fed,
might seek redress from the parish authorities, or bring
his case before the district Thing. An alimenter who
quitted his parish for the purpose of evading his duties, was
liable to the punishment of exclusion. No alimenter was
allowed to leave the island until he had given his alimentées
into the charge of a competent individual, and placed at his
disposal sufi&cient funds to provide, during three years, for
their maintenance. We thus find that, in respect to the poor, an
Icelandic parish was, to say the least, equally as well managed
as an English one. The Icelanders, however, did not charge
themselves with the support of their poor without taking
especial care to keep the number of paupers within due
limits ; a care which we have grossly neglected, and are now
enduring the fearful consequences of our want of foresight.
Hence it was enacted that no one who had not sufficient pro¬
perty to maintain a family should be allowed to marry *, and
that when a person manumitted a thrall, he should allot him
a piece of land sufficient for the maintenance of a family,
failing to do which, he and his heirs should be regarded as
the legally bound alimentors of the freedmen and his pos¬
terity f. Very stringent regulations were also passed to keep
the poor within their respective parishes. Clothes and shoes
* The minimum is fixed, Sec. viii. 12, at six score legal ounces, that is
to say, a property equivalent in value to 720 ells of wadmal, besides clothes
and other necessaries. A man whose property was under this legal minimum
rendered himself, by marrying, liable to the punishment of exclusion, " ex¬
cept hiß wife should be barren," an exception quite in accordance with the
whole tenor of Icelandic legislation.
f The land was not given unconditionally, certain services being required
from the donee, at whose death, provided he left no children, it reverted
to the donor; otherwise the children inherited, and many hypothetical
cases are laid down to show when the heirs of the donor may, in default
of issue of the descendants of the donee, again enter into possession of it.
This enactment offers a very favourable contrast to a Norwegian law (in the
Gulathing code) of the same period, which ordains that the destitute orphans
of a manumitted thrall shall be placed in a grave dug for the purpose in the
parish churchyard—Norway, Avas, at this period, a Christian country—and
only the child that remained alive the longest be entitled to claim support
from his father's former master.
X
806
NOETHEBN ANTIQítJlTIES.
might be given to a pauper of another parish, but any parish*
ioner who furnished such a pauper with victuals, except he
was merely passing through the parish to go to his own,
rendered himself liable to the punishment of exclusion. The
Icelanders also took care to make able bodied paupers work
for their living. An able-bodied pauper fomid begging was
liable to be punished with exile, which, for such a man, was
tantamount to death, as he would have no means of leaving
the island, and might, consequently, after conviction, be
killed with impunity. Begging was not tolerated, especially
at the Al-thing. If a beggar entered a booth on the Thing-
valla plain, the booth-man might forcibly eject him, and every
one who furnished such a beggar with meat, was liable to be
punished with exclusion. All persons who wandered about
the country for fifteen days and upwards were to be regarded
as vagabonds, or ganging-men (göngomenn), as they are
termed in the Grágás, and punished accordingly. Besides
other punishments to which they were liable, any one who
tliought proper might mutilate them in the manner practised
in the East to qualify a man for the service of the seraglio
The Icelandic rural code, as well as the laws for the pro¬
tection of property, the laws of inheritance, mortgages, and
debtor and creditor, are also well deserving of attention, but
our limits will only allow us to notice a few of the enact¬
ments on these subjects. The legal rate of interest was ten
per cent. Insolvent debtors appear to have been very mildly
treated,—a circumstance that reflects the more credit on the
Icelanders from the contrast it affords to the barbarity that
prevailed in this respect in Norway, where a debtor was not
only obliged to work for his creditor, but if his friends would
not liquidate his debts the creditor might lead him to the
Thingstead, and there, in the presence of the assembled
Thingsmen, " hew off any part of his body, either above or
below," that he might think proper, or, in other words, an in¬
solvent debtor whom no one would redeem from thraldom
might be legally cut to pieces.
The age for attaining to majority was fixed, for males, at
* Rett er at gelda göngomenn, or as the clause is rendered in Latin—though
we should be inclined to substitute vagabundos for inendicos—" Mendicos
castrare fas est, nec delicti in leges commissi poena quis tenetur, etiamsi inde
vel plagam yel mortem retulerint."—Grágás w 55.
LAWS, ETC., OF THE ICELANDIC COMMONWEALTH. 307
sixteen, and for females at eighteen, but a boy when twelve years
old was a competent witness, and might enter an action against
a person who had killed his father. A person who had ar¬
rived at the good old age of fourscore was not allowed to sell
his estate, except it was deeply mortgaged, and if he married,
any children his wife might have were to be regarded as
illegitimate*. Very good regulations were also framed to
prevent a person from suffering his land to lie waste. If,
after due notice had been given, he refused to cultivate it, or
to let it to another willing to do so, his neighbours might
make use of it as a common pasture. A person was only
allowed to fish or to kill game on his own estate, but he might
kill wolves, bears, eagles, and crows anywhere.
The Icelanders did not follow the whale fishery, though
they sometimes harpooned a whale that approached the shore,
and when one of these leviathans of the deep was stranded or
entangled in the ice off the coast, the whole population of the
district was in movement, and it was seldom that such an
event occurred without giving rise to lawsuits and sanguinary
contests. Hence we find in the Grágás no less than eighteen
chapters (Sec. ix. ch. 66—72) to define in what manner a
legal claim is, in such cases, to be established, and what por¬
tion of the spoil has to fall to each of the claimants—to the
owner of the land on which the whale was stranded, to the
person who first descried it, &c., &c.
At the early period of the commonwealth, when a man
was suspected of theft, a kind of tribunal composed of twelve
persons named by him, and twelve by the person whose
goods had been stolen, was instituted before the door of
his dwelling, and hence called a door-doom (duradómr) ; but
as this manner of proceeding generally ended in blood¬
shed, it was abolished, and an act passed authorizing the
suffering party to summon thirty of his neighbours to accom¬
pany him for the purpose of making domiciliary visits in search
of the stolen property; any one refusing to go, to be fined three
marks, and those who would not allow a search to be made on
their premises, to be liable to the punishment of exile. This
* Grágás, iv. 18. The godord also came within the provisions of this law,
which is another proof that it was regarded as real property that might he
disposed of whenever the holder thought proper.
X 2
308
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
act * contains as usual numerous regulations respecting the
manner in which the search is to be made, and mutual
pledges, in the presence of competent witnesses, are to be given
that no bodily injury should be inflicted by any of the parties
concerned. Highway robber» or brigands might not only be
killed with impunity, but those who killed them were en¬
titled to a recompense.
These and numerous other enactments, in the Grágás, as
well as the incidents related in the Sagas, show that a man's
property was more secure in Iceland than his person. In an
age, in fact, when every one went armed, when it was re¬
garded as an act of cowardice to brook the slightest insult,
and when a pecuniary compensation might be offered and re¬
ceived without dishonour for a bodily injury, a man's life
must have been in daily jeopardy. The same causes would
also, in a great measure, have rendered property equally in¬
secure. Hence, although the Icelandic laws both for the pro¬
tection and inheritance of property are much superior to those
of the mother-countiy, and the Germanic states of the same
period, a person skilful in the use of his weapons would, no
doubt, frequently have braved their stringent regulations with
impunity. This was particularly the case during the times of
Paganism, but in the eleventh century legal right appears to
have been much more respected. We think, however, that
it would be erroneous to suppose, with some writers, that a
sudden change of public opinion had been effected by the in¬
troduction of Christianity. A change there certainly was, but
we should attribute it more to the knowledge of jurisprudence,
and especially of judicial forms, which the Icelanders had ac¬
quired in the forensic circle of the Al-thing. An influential
person had been taught by experience that he might crush his
adversary more effectually, and with less bodily risk, by
having recourse to legal chicanery, and underhand practices,
than by meeting him with sw^ord and battle-axe at a holm-
gang. In the tenth century a prudent man in Iceland was,
no doubt, often deterred from enforcing a legal claim by re¬
flecting on the personal risk he would necessarily incur, and
the probability that any step he might take would only be the
* Grágás, YÜi. 118.
makneks and customs of the icelanders, 309
commencement of one of those hereditary feuds that were the
cause of so much bloodshed. In the eleventh, and especially
in the twelfth and in the thirteenth century, he would be
equally deterred by the certain prospect of involving himself
and his family in a ruinous and interminable lawsuit. At
the early period of the commonwealth the Icelanders acted
on the principle—a principle which, as worshippers of Thor,
was quite in accordance with their religious tenets—that
might constituted right ; but the proceedings in their forensic
circles gradually effected a great change in their sentiments,
and they appear to have finally arrived at the conviction that
rights could only be maintained or enforced by legal astute¬
ness.
CHAPTER III.
manners and customs of the icelanders.
In our remarks on the Grágás, we purposely abstained from
noticing the laws that define conjugal rights and regulate the
intercourse between the sexes, it being our intention to give
a brief outline of them in the present chapter, together with
a few anecdotes from the Sagas, which will serve as their best
commentary, and at the same time enable the reader to form
a more correct idea of the state of society in Iceland during
the earlier period of the commonwealth than any observations
we could make on the subject. We should certainly be in¬
clined to doubt whether some of the incidents related in these
narratives actually occurred ; but the same doubt exists when
we read the chronicles of the middle ages or any of the nu¬
merous French memoirs of the last three centuries. Yet,
where is the age of chivalry portrayed with such vivid colours
as in the graphic pages of I'roissart ? Who presents us with
a more truthful picture of the turbulent freedom of a mediaeval
Italian republic than Giovanni Villani? And do not the
memoirs of Saint Simon, and the letters of Sévigné, throw a
greater light on the social state of France during the reign of
Louis XIV. than the most elaborate history ? Such kind of
works should not be subjected to too severe a criticism. Wo
should be satisfied when the author's statements and opinions.
310
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
taken as a whole, are sufficiently trustworthy to enable us to
mark the principal traits in the national character of a people
—the action of their civil and religious institutions on their
social condition—the reaction resulting from the conflict of
opposing interests by which these institutions are modified—
the gradual development of principles destined to exercise a
beneficent or baneful influence on future generations—to fol¬
low the statesman from the tribune to the council board—the
brawling patriot from the clamorous arena of popular agita¬
tion to the confidential interview—^the humble citizen from
his daily avocations to the privacy of the domestic circle, and
thus seize a few of the evanescent and ever-blending shades
that diversify the chequered woof of human existence. The
manners of a semi-barbarous people are certainly not so at¬
tractive as the polished refinement of modern civilization ; but
they show, at least, that man, in whatever circumstances he
may be placed, is invariably guided by the same motives, and
that, however the forms which his passions assume may differ
in appearance, they will be found on closer examination to be
essentially identic. Under this point of view, a sketch ctf
Icelandic life in the olden time, while the deities, that ancient
lore had symbolized into being from nature's varied pheno¬
mena, were still the objects of public worship *, will not be
devoid of interest. In giving this sketch, we shall let the
Sagas speak for themselves. These Sagas, it is true, were
committed to writing upwards of a century, in some cases two
or three centuries, after the events narr9,ted are said to have
taken place. Yet, notwithstanding this untoward circumstance,
they bear internal evidence of being trustworthy records of
the periods to which they severally refer. Each of the lead¬
ing families or septs of Iceland had its Saga, and when we
take into consideration the state of society at that period, we
may readily admit that a family history might have been
handed down by oral tradition for three or four generations
without undergoing any material alteration. The statements
of one Saga are also frequently corroborated by those of
* Christianity was embraced by the Icelanders at the Al-tliing of the year
1000, but they stipulated that the former religion should be tolerated, and
the eating of horseflesh and the exposition of infants permitted. When the
Al-thing broke up, the assembled multitudes went to the hot baths to be bap¬
tized, preferring for this rite hot water to cold.
MANNEES AND CUSTOMS OiF THE ICELANHEES. 311;
another, and the Danish literati of the present day who have
subjected these ancient documents to a critical examination,
regard upwards of a hundred of them to be fully entitled to
the claim of historical authenticity. Although we are in^
dined to suspect that the amor patriœ of these gentlemen
has led them, on this occasion, as it usually does, rather
too far, we should have no hesitation ourselves to admit that
a few of the best authenticated Sagas, Njáls and Kormaks for
instance, were fully equal in point of veracity to most of the
memoirs that French, vanity ever indited, an admission which
certainly does not preclude a considerable degree of scepti¬
cism from prevailing in their perusal. However, such as
they are, they furnish the best information that can be ren¬
dered available for our present purpose, and, we repeat, on
the whole, give a faithful picture of the state of society during
the most turbulent period of Scandinavian history.
The manners and customs of the ancient Scandinavians and
Germans—people belonging to the same Teutonic race, and
placed in much the same circumstances—could not have
offered any very striking difference, and, although these
customs must necessarily have undergone a considerable
change during the lapse of centuries, several modern writers,
as the reader will have remarked in the preceding chapters,
have not scrupled to apply the glowing description which
Tacitus has given of those Germanic tribes, that the Eomans,
in his time, were acquainted with, to all the nations of
Teutonic origin, whether Germanic or Scandinavian, and
that, too, from the earliest period of their history to their
conversion to Christianity. The Germans of the second
century, according to Tacitus, possessed all the virtues that
adorn humanity. The men were distinguished for their
courage and love of justice, the women for their chastity and
conjugal affection. The golden age of primaeval innocence
still existed in the forests of Germania, This primitive sim¬
plicity continued to prevail in Scandinavia, according to M.
Mallet, so late as the tenth century. The Icelandic laws,
he tells us, " not only denounced very severe punishments
against rapes and adulteries, but proceeded farther, expressly
prohibiting even Idssing or secret embraces."* Now all this
* See page 205,
313
NOKTHEEN ANTIQUITIES»
is amazingly fine and very consolatory, but, unfortunately,
only applicable to a state of society that never existed, and
■which we fear was never destined, at least not in this wicked
world of ours, to be the lot of humanity. At all events, the
reader will find that the customs of the Scandinavians of the
tenth century, as they are depicted in the Sagas, were far
less primitive than those which Tacitus thought proper to
attribute to their Germanic brethren of the age of the first
Csesars. And this could not be otherwise. The Sagaman
relates the actions of his fellow-citizens without attempting to
draw a single conclusion from the facts stated. Tacitus, from
hearsay and the few personal observations he was enabled
to make among a people whose language was totally unknown
to him, constructed a brilliant theory of primœval virtue as a
contrast to the vices which civilization had necessarily intro¬
duced among the Komans. The Sagaman, in a word, dealt
with every-day facts, with sober reality; Tacitus with theoreti¬
cal fiction. We shall, therefore, proceed to lay before the
reader the homely truths of the Norse chroniclers, and leave
those who still imagine that a barbarous people can combine
primitive simplicity of character with the refinement of civili¬
zation, to peruse the classic pages of Tacitus.
Polygamy may perhaps have prevailed in Scandinavia, at
least among the wealthy, at a very early period, but in the
ninth and tenth centuries it seems, if it had really ever been
a general custom—which we very much doubt—to have fallen
into disuse. At all events no mention is made in any of the
Sagas relating to Iceland of polygamy. We only read of the
mater familias, the house-wife, húsfreyja, and the husband,
húsbóndi, though frequent instances occur of a man keeping,
with the knowledge and sometimes consent of his wife, a
frilla or concubine *. These/n//as were frequently the cause of
domestic quarrels. Thus, in the Laxdaela-Saga, we are informed
* Húsbóndi, pater familias, our husband, means Jiouse-dweller ;
Jiús, house, and hondi, contracted from hóandi, búandi, the participle of the
verb búa, to dwell, to inhabit. Húsfreyja, mater familias, house-wife. The
Old Norse word/}-«, Dan. frue, Germ.frau, Dutch, vrouw, is used both for
woman and wife. In the Prose Edda, ch. 24, the word is derived from Freyja
the name of the goddess of love, but in the glossary to the Poetical Edda,
from frí'Sr, handsome, whence fridla, frilla, a concubine. Another derivation
is given from the verb/Wa, Mseso-Gothic,/nyoji, to love, but all these words
appear to be cognate.—See the word Freyr in our glossary to the Prose Edda.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS.
313
that Höskuld having gone to Norway, in the middle of the
tenth century, to purchase timber, fell in with a Russian
trader, who, amongst other merchandise, had a dozen very
pretty girls on sale. Höskuld was particularly struck by the
fine features and symmetrical proportions of one of these
lovely captives, and did not hesitate to pay three marks of
silver for her, although the Russian told him that she had one
great defect, that of being deaf and dumb,—a circumstance
which Höskuld may have probably regarded as no very great
blemish in a woman. On his return home, his wife, Jorunna,
eyed the fair slave with a very scrutinizing glance, and asked
her husband who in the world he had brought with him.
Höskuld told her without much circumlocution that she was
a slave he had purchased, and made his Jrilla, and begged
that she might not only be allowed to remain in the house,
but also be treated with due consideration. Jorunna, with
the proper pride of an Icelandic matron, said she should not
think of quarrelling with a woman of that description ; but was
not at all dissatisfied to find that the girl was deaf and dumb.
Höskuld was very much pleased with his wife's conduct, and
appears to have lived very lovingly with her during the
winter, and to have somewhat neglected his beautiful frilla,
who, however, in the spring, became the mother of a very fine
boy, Höskuld acknowledging his paternity by the usual cere¬
mony of taking the new-bom babe in his arms, and sprinkling
it with water, while he gave it the name of Olaf In the
summer Jorunna told her husband that if he did not choose
to let his favourite do the work of a maid-servant, he must
send her somewhere else, as she was determined that, in a
house over which she presided, no idle woman should remain.
Höskuld did not hesitate to intimate by signs to Olafs mother
that she must thenceforward wait on Jorunna, and do what¬
ever menial services might be required of her. Some time
after this, Höskuld, to his great surprise, found his favourite
talking to her son. Seeing she could no longer conceal her
secret, she told him that her name was Melkorka, and that
she was the daughter of the Irish king Mirkjartan, (Murcatoc,)
and had been taken captive when she was eleven years old.
* We had occasion to speak of this pagan baptism in the note, page 206, to
which we refer the reader.
314
NOKTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
After this discovery Jorunna began to be rather jealous,
and, as Melkorka could now make use of her tongue, Hoskuld
had no very easy life of it. One evening as Melkorka was
undressing her mistress she happened to let her stockings
fall, on seeing which Jorunna not only gave her a good scold¬
ing, but taking up the stockings struck her on the head with
them,—a proceeding which Melkorka responded to in the true
Irish fashion, by dealing a blow with her fist which sent
Jorunna reeling with a bloody nose to the other end of the
apartment. After this scene, Hoskuld deemed it advisable to
send Melkorka and her son to one of his estates higher up
the valley, on which he assigned her a house, and supplied
her with every thing she might stand in need of *.
Frequent mention is made of a marriage being contracted
to save a young lady's reputation ; thus Uni, a Danish trader,
during a winter he passed in Iceland, was the guest of Leidolf-
Kappa, with whose daughter, Thorunna, he contracted a very
intimate acquaintance, insomuch so, in fact, that when Uni
had left in spring, to get his vessel ready for the home voyage,
Leidolf discovered that Thorunna would ere long present him
with a grandchild. He accordingly went with his retainers
to the Danish vessel ; an altercation ensued, ending, as was
usually the case, in a combat, in which several of the Danes
lost their lives. Uni was obliged to return with Leidolf, who
told him that provided he would marry Thorunna, and remain
in Iceland, he should inherit the family estates. Uni tacitly
consented to this proposal, but shortly afterwards left his bride
* Müller, Sagabib. i. 198. The reader will find extracts from this Saga, in
the original Norse, with an English translation by Thorkelin, in vol. vi.
of the Bib. Topog. Britannica. Thorkelin's translation was, no doubt,
highly appreciated in the last century ; but at the present day one much more
conformable both to the sense and the spirit of the original woidd be re¬
quired. The Norse text in the work referred to is far from being correctly
printed.
The Laxdsela-Saga further informs us that, when Olaf was grown up, his
mother sent him to Ireland to make himself known to his grandfather, king
Murcatoc, and gives an account of his subsequent adventures, which, though
somewhat romantic, are by no means improbable. In fact, at a period when
the coasts óf Ireland were infested by Scandinavian sea-rovers, there is
nothing more likely than that one of them should have snapped up the
daughter of a petty Irish king, and sold her, with his other booty, to a Kas¬
sian trader. Such events, in those ages, must have been of daily occurrence.
IIANNEES AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS.
315
to bewail her fate, and made off for the coast. Leidolf pur¬
sued him in hot haste, and in the skirmish that ensued Uni
and his Danish followers fell under the battle-axes of the en¬
raged Icelanders
The due observance of judicial formalities was required to
constitute a legal marriage contract. When a person had ob¬
tained the consent of the legal guardian f of the maiden he
wished to marry, a day was fixed for the betrothal. The
betrother had then to take the hand of the guardian, andy in
the presence of competent witnesses, promise, within a year
and a day, to marry the ward, at the same time time paying him
a stipulated sum, called the mundr J, the guardian on his part
promising to make over, when the nuptials were celebrated,
to his ward or to the betrother, or conjointly to both, as the
case might be, the stipulated heimanfylgja §, or marriage
portion. If the marriage did not take place within the time
prescribed, the parties were relieved from the contract, and if
its non-fulfilment had been owing to the betrother he could
not recover the mundr. The marriage itself appears to have
been celebrated without any kind of religious ceremony j].
We only read of banquets being given to the friends and re¬
latives of the parties, the feasting at the marriage of a wealthy
person being kept up for several days, and frequently ending
by some of the guests quarrelling over their ale, and hewing
each other to pieces with their battle-axes.
* Landnámabók, iv. 4.
■f A widow or a maiden who had attained her majority might marry without
the consent of her legal guardian. The Grágás defines the legal guardian
of a maiden to he, in the first place, her father; at his death, her brother; then
her mother; and so on, according to the proximity of relationship.
I From mund, hand, so much in hand—a sponsal gift, or hrida ransom,
as it might appropriately be termed ; for the mxmdr appears to have been re¬
garded as the symbolical juridical ceremony of ransoming or freeing the bride
from the authority of her legal guardian, and whether she brought her hus¬
band a large property, or a small one, or none at all, the mundr had always
to be paid. The legal guardian generally gave the mundr to the bride as a
present on the day of her marriage.
§ Heiman, at home, fylgja, to follow ; i. e. the marriage portion to follow
the bride to her new home—a home-following.
II All the observances relating to the marriage ceremony, are detailed ia
the Grágás ; but although this code, in the form we have it, was drawn up
two centuries after Christianity had become the established religion of Ice¬
land, no mention is made of a priestly benediction being required.
316
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
The rights of woman are in no code more clearly acknow¬
ledged and defined than in the Grágás. A married woman
might dispose of her personal property, and a considerable
portion of her real (landed) property, as she thought proper.
Her husband had, in this respect, no control over her actions,
except it had been expressly stipulated at the betrothal, in
the presence of competent witnesses, that the goods, chattels,
and estates of the husband and wife should be held conjointly,
in which case the husband had the administration of the
property, but the wife and her heirs, or next of kin, had a
legal claim to one third of it. When no such stipulation
had been made, it would appear that, to a certain extent,
a married woman had not the absolute disposal of her pro¬
perty, for we find it stated in the Grágás, sec. vi. 21,
" That a married woman cannot legally sell the half of her
landed property, nor her godord, if she be in possession of one,
nor any sailing vessel that may belong to her, without the ad¬
vice of her legal guardian," which implies that she might
dispose of one half of what would be termed in English law her
real property, and all her personal property without restriction.
When a divorce took place the wife of course retained the
property held in her own name, and if the divorce had been
legally constituted by the decision of a competent tribunal,
she might claim one third of any property held conjointly by
her and her husband. If the divorce was owing to the loose
conduct of the wife, the husband might reclaim the mundr he
had paid at the betrothal.
The Icelandic legislators seem to have been particularly
anxious to prevent the abuse of marital authority,—a proof that
female influence was as predominant in the forensic circle of
the Al-thing as in the family mansion. We are aware that
some passages might be cited from the Sagas to prove the con¬
trary—of men exchanging their wives, for instance ; but they
are by no means conclusive. Thus Illugi the Red exchanges
with Holm Starri estate, live-stock, and wife. Illugi, by this
transaction, obtains Jorunna, with whom he appears to
have had a liaison, but Sigrida, his wife, is so outraged at
his proceedings that she goes in the temple and hangs her¬
self*. This, however, was a very exceptional case, and, in-
• Landnámabók, i. 21.
MAKKERS AKD CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS.
317
stead of Sigrida hanging herself, she might have entered an
action at law against her husband, which would have been a
much wiser proceeding.
The women not only enjoyed much the same rights as the
men, but appear to have asserted them with becoming spirit,—
a circumstance that rendered divorces of very frequent occur¬
rence. A wife, in fact, had only to tell her husband that from
that day they ceased to be man and wife, and the marriage was
de facto, and in pagan times also de jure, dissolved. A woman
who had any claim to joint property would, of course, prefer
suing for a divorce before a competent tribunal. She might
do this on the most frivolous pretexts, and even when Chris¬
tianity became the established religion a wife might sue for a
divorce, if her husband had secretly disposed of any part of
her property, had attempted to take her out of the island
against her will, or had been absent from home for the space
of three years -iL
The following story, from the Laxdaela-Saga, will serve to
show in what light marriage was regarded in Iceland, and in
what a very equivocal manner a mater familias sometimes exer¬
cised her authority. Olaf, the son of Hoskuld and Melkorka,
previously mentioned, was accompanied, we are told, on his
return from Norway, where he had been to purchase timber,
by one of his old sea-roving friends named Geirmund, at
whose house he had passed the winter. Geirmund, in his
turn, became the winter guest of Olaf in Iceland, and soon
fell in love with that chieftain's daughter, the beautiful Thu-
rida. Olaf, although he was very fond of his Norwegian
friend, would not hear talk of a marriage. Geirmund, seeing
that he had no chance of succeeding with the young lady's
father, began to flatter her mother Thorgerda, and, by dint of
entreaties and costly presents, at length obtained her consent.
The marriage was celebrated with great pomp, Olaf inviting
his numerous friends and dependants to a sumptuous feast,
in a large banqueting hall he had recently erected, the walls
* Grágás, vi. When Christianity was fully established, the consent of the
bishop was necessary to constitute a divorce, but in the above instances the
law appears to have been imperative. The clergy, however they might dis¬
approve of a judicial sentence, were often obliged to sanction it, rdthough
they of course strove to render the marriage tie indissoluble by merely admit¬
ting a separation à mensa et thoro, which in pagan times was unknown.
818
NOETHEBN ANTIQUITIES.
of which were hung with tapestiy representing the story of
Baldur and the prowess of Thor*. When Geirmund had
passed three years in the marriage state, he began to get tired
of his wife, and Thorgerda was at length obliged to tell her
husband that she had ascertained that their son-in-law intended
to return to Norway, leaving Thurida and her daughter Groa
behind him without making any provision for their support.
Olaf said the marriage was her doing, not his, and, instead of
showing any sign of displeasure, he was more friendly than
usual with Geirmund, and even made him a present of a fine
trading vessel, being probably very glad to get rid of him.
Geirmund went on board this vessel, and was only waiting for
a favourable wind, when one morning, at break of day, Thu¬
rida entered the cabin when he was asleep, placed her child
in his bed, and taking a splendid sword, which she knew he
set a great value on, got into her boat, and told her men to
row off again. Geirmund awoke at the moment, and, becom¬
ing aware of what had happened, called on his wife to come
back and take Groa and return him his sword, for which he
offered to give her any sum she might think proper to de¬
mand. Thurida told him that she would do no such thing,
that he had acted dishonourably towards her, and that they
were no longer man and wife, and accordingly returned home,
and gave Geirmund's sword to her cousin Bolli. Thurida,
after this proceeding, could, of course, re-marry, and we pre¬
sume that in those days the want of maternal affection she had
evinced, by exchanging her only child for a sword, would not
have prevented her from finding a second husband.
Liberty, as is well known, cannot be enjoyed without being
abused. Liberty of speech, in a public assembly, will often
be mere scurrility ; liberty of the press, licentiousness and sedi¬
tion ; people who live under a constitutional form of govern¬
ment are inclined to kick up a row now and then, under an
autocratic despotism they will remain as noiseless as the
earth they tread on; and so it is with the fair sex. Ladies
who, when shut up in an oriental seraglio, become very harm¬
less beings, are apt, when allowed such liberty as in Iceland,
* A fragment of a poem on this tapestry, composed by Ulf Uggison, has
been preserved in the Skalda. Ulf received a valuable consideration from
Olaf for this poetical effusion, the Skalds being always well paid for stringing
together their far-fetched metaphors.
MANNEES AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS. 519
to let their passions get the upper hand, and lead them into
scrapes which they sometimes have occasion to repent of.
The Icelanders seem, in general, to have regarded the freaks
of their wives with tolerable equanimity. Asmund, for in¬
stance, has the misfortune to have a wife much younger than
himself ; the usual consequences ensue. Asmund wishes to lead
a quiet life, Thora is fond of flirtation. Tired of her conduct,
Asmund at length leaves her, and passes his old age on another
of his estates. After his death, Thora opens a kind of inn on
the roadside, seats herself before the door, and invites those she
takes a fancy to to enter and regale themselves. Ladies who
were divorced, or widows, and fond of a gay life, and had the
means at their disposal, appear to have frequently amused
themselves by keeping such hostelries, in which meat and
drink, and lodging, and every thing else—the fair hostess in¬
cluded—were to be had gratis.
Some husbands were, however, as full of " the green-eyed
monster " jealousy as Othello himself, and sometimes gave
vent to it much in the same fashion. Thus Hallbjörn,
having married Hallgerda, passed the first winter at the
house of her parents. Notwithstanding their recent marriage,
Hallbjöm began to suspect that Hallgerda had a liaison with
her uncle Snœbjôrn, and being as fully averse as the Moor
" To keep a comer in tke thing he loved
For others' uses,"
hastened the construction of the dwelling they were to inhabit,
and early in the spring made preparations for their departure.
One morning Hallbjörn goes and tells his wife that the horses
are at the door and every thing ready for setting out; she re¬
fuses to leave the room; Hallbjörn, regarding this conduct as a
proof that his suspicions were well founded, draws his sword,
tells his wife she has been false to him, and severs her head
from her shoulders, and then mounts his horse and rides off.
Snaebjörn pursues him, they fight, and Hallbjörn falls pierced
by the sword of his adversary*.
The loose conduct of the Icelandic women will account in
some degree for the exposure of infants. In poor families
this cruel custom was, no doubt, often resorted to from neces-
* Landnámabók, ii. 30.
320
NOEÏHERN ANTIQUITIES.
sity, though no necessity, however great, can justify or even
extenuate it; but in wealthy families other motives must have
prevailed. It must be home in mind that when the husband
took the new-born babe in his arms, or offered it milk and
honey, or sprinkled it with water and gave it a name *, he
thereby acknowledged his paternity. If a man suspected his
wife, whether justly or unjustly, of infidelity, he would, of
course, refuse to perform this ceremony of legitimation, and
the child was then carried out and generally placed under a
tree, and protected with stones from beasts of prey. If the
mother had really carried on a criminal intercourse, and still
retained any influence over her seducer, she would not fail to
apprize him of what had happened, and enjoin him to rescue
her babe and have it duly provided for. This right of legiti¬
mation which a husband possessed was probably, like all other
rights, frequently abused; but, on the whole, it must have had
much the same effect in restraining the indulgence of a crimi¬
nal passion as the fear of being involved in a crim. con. pro¬
ceeding has in this country.
Among other curious enactments in the Grágás, we find
that a man was liable to eodle for taking an unmarried woman
without her consent, or a married woman either with or without
her consent, out of the island, or even out of her ownfjórdúngr,
or province ; and for a similar elopement with an unmarried
woman, she consenting, to exclusion. All persons found guilty
of aiding or abetting him, to be condemned to the same punish¬
ment-}-. For kissing another man's wife, with or without her
consent, the punishment of exclusion or its pecuniary equiva¬
lent was awarded. A man was also liable to the same punish¬
ment for kissing an unmarried woman under legal guardian¬
ship without her consent, and, even if she consented, the law
required that every kiss should be atoned for by a fine of three
marks Î, equivalent to one hundred and forty-four ells of
wadmal, a quantity sufficient to furnish a whole ship's crew
with pilot jackets.
These anti-kissing laws have been frequently cited by modem
writers as a proof that the fair dames of the north, in the olden
time, were remarkable for their chastity and propriety of con¬
duct. One hundred and forty-four ells of cloth for a Idss ! Why,
* See the note, pag-' 206. f Grágas, vi. 29, 38. î Grágás, vi. 24.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS
321
the Puritans themselves would have visited such a breach of
decorum with greater leniency ! We fear, however, that the
anecdotes previously given, and the abstracts of two or three
of the most trustworthy Sagas, which we shall now proceed to
lay before the reader, will by no means warrant the conclu¬
sions that have been drawn from these singular enactments
of the Grágás. We shall begin by Kormak's Saga=í=, the
heroine of the story having been regarded by her contempo¬
raries as a model of female perfection—coquetry, we presume,
forming in their opinion an essential ingredient of the female
character. Kormak, we must premise, was one of the most
celebrated Skalds of the tenth century, though his composi¬
tions, if we may judge by the sixty or seventy strophes that
are attributed to him, were equally as devoid of true poetic
genius as those of the other verse smithiers—we can use no
better epithet to designate the generality of these northern
Skalds—who, in that rude age, hammered out their rhapsodi¬
cal ideas into the form of alliterative metre.
The Saga commences by stating that one of the earlier set¬
tlers in Iceland was Skeggi, a celebrated sea-rover, who took
possession of the country around the Midfjörd, in the northern
part of the island. Shortly after the death of Harald Hár-
fagra, another sea-rover, named Ogmund, cast anch or inthis
frith, into which his sacred columns had been driven, and
established himself on an estate ■ called Mel, which Skeggi is
said to have gratuitously ceded to him. This estate at
Ógmund's death passed to his two sons Kormak and Thorgils,
who continued to reside in the paternal mansion with their
mother Dalla. Kormak is represented as a very handsome
young man, with fine dark eyes, black hair, and a fair com¬
plexion. He was of a very enterprising character, and soon
acquired the reputation of being a good Skald and a skilful
swordsman. His brother, who appears to have been very
much attached to him, was, unlike the generality of his coun¬
trymen, of a mild and taciturn disposition.
■* Kormak's Saga, 1 vol. 8vo., Hafnise, 1832.—Professor Müller, who has
given a very meagre abstract of this Saga in his Sagabib. i. 140, judging from
the intrinsic evidence of the style, supposes that it was written in the twelfth
century. The MS. from which the Saga was printed is, however, of the
fourteenth century. The events narrated fall within the latter half of the
tenth century.
Y
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
Not far from Mel lay Gnupsdale, where Steingerda, the
beautiful daughter of Thorkell of Túnga, then resided with,
her foster-parents. From the first moment that Kormak
beheld this fair maiden he fell violently in love with her, and
did not fail to make known his passion in plaintive ditties,
which the young lady appears to have listened to with great
complacency. When Thorkell became aware of what was
going forward he took his daughter home, and, although
he could not well refuse to let Kormak see her, he strove
to render his visits to Túnga as disagreeable as possible by
encouraging Oddur and Gudmund, the sons of a famous sor¬
ceress named Thorveiga, who were frequently his guests,
to jeer him when present, and cast aspersions on his character
the moment he had left the house. Kormak bore this annoy¬
ance for some time with exemplary patience, only indulging
himself now and then by composing satirical verses on his
adversaries. One day the two brothers lay in wait for Kormak
as he returned home from Túnga. Thorkell, who was privy
to their design, when he heard the clash of arms, seized his
battle-axe, and would have gone to aid them had not Stein-
gerda who perceived his intention, prevailed upon him, while
she held his hands with no feminine grasp, to await the issue
of the combat. The issue was not long doubtful; Kormak
slew both his antagonists, and then went to Thorveiga and
told her that she must instantly remove to another part
of the country, for he would no longer suffer such a vile sor¬
ceress to remain in the neighbourhood. Thorveiga was
obliged to comply with this injunction, but avenged herself by
prophesying that he who had killed her sons would never
become the husband of Thorkell's daughter. Although not
entirely free from the superstition of the age respecting sor¬
cery, Kormak continued his visits to Túnga, and, having at
length obtained the reluctant consent of Thorkell, was for
mally betrothed to Steingerda, and a day fixed for their nup¬
tials. Kormak, however, let the day pass by, and the sponsal
contract was consequently broken. What his motives were
for this strange proceeding it is difidcult to divine ; he may
have been dissatisfied with the pecuniary arrangements that
his friends had entered into with Thorkell respecting the fair
bride's dowry, or began to dread the ominous words of Thor¬
veiga, or, like most poets, have been somewhat crotchety ; at
MANNEES AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDEES.
323
all events, his conduct gave great offence to Tliorkell's
relatives, and was regarded as a gross insult offered to the
family.
At Saurbaer, in the western province of the island, dwelt a
wealthy and valiant gentleman named Bersi, generally called,
from his pugnacious propensities, Holmgang, or Duelling
Bersi. At the death of his wife the care of his household, and
of his infant son Asmund, devolved on his sister Helga,
a young lady distinguished for her beauty and accomplish¬
ments. Shortly after the events narrated a family council
was held at Túnga to consider what steps ought to be taken
in consequence of Kormak's proceedings. Thorkell's sons
said that the only way of settling the business was by making
the young Skald feel the weight of their battle-axes ; but
Narfi, a retainer of the family, told them they would inflict a
greater punishment on him by marrying Steingerda without
delay to a man of acknowledged influence and reputation, and
that in his humble opinion the rich widower Bersi, of Saur-
bser, was just the kind of person that would suit her. This
advice having been unanimously approved of, they mounted
their horses and rode to Saurbser on pretext of paying Bersi a
friendly visit, taking care, however, as they emptied their
drinking-horns, to say a great deal in praise of Steingerda,
Naríi artfully insinuating that no one who feared encounter¬
ing Kormak need demand her in marriage. Bersi, who knew
how to kill his man in a duel as well as most people, on hear¬
ing these words resolved to make Steingerda his wife. He
accordingly went to work in a very business-like manner, not-
paying much attention to the fair damsel herself, but nego¬
tiating with her father respecting her dow"ry. These arrange¬
ments having been concluded to the mutual satisfaction of the
contracting parties, the betrothal took place with the usual
formalities, and a very early day was fixed for the nuptials.
Steingerda saw this day approaching with ever increasing
anxiety. She had given her tacit though reluctant consent to
the marriage with the hope that ere it took place Kormak
would own his fault and become reconciled with the family.
'* But if he allow Bersi to become my husband !" said Stein-
gerda, as she braided her long silken tresses. "Well, I will
then strive to forget that Kormak was once my lover, and he
will one day repent him of his conduct. And, after all, Bersi
y.2
824
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES,
is not much amiss ; Is n't he acknowledged to be the most
valiant man in his district ! Who can wield a battle-axe like
Holmgang-Bersi !" These consolatory reflections did not,
however, prevent her from sending to apprize Kormak of
what had happened, but the messenger was detained by
Bersi's cousin Vigi, who kept strict watch and ward around
the premises, and would suffer no one to pass without know¬
ing his errand.
On the day appointed Bersi came with a splendid cavalcade
to conduct his fair bride from the paternal mansion to his
own dwelling. Piqued at Kormak's apparent neglect, Stein-
gerda packed up her trinkets, bade adieu to her relatives,
and, mounting her horse with a joyous mien, rode off with her
husband. Steingerda's message was now delivered to Kor¬
mak, with the unpleasant addition that the lady was passing
the first night of her marriage at Mûli, the residence of
Bersi's friend, Thord Arndisarson. Kormak, on learning these
fatal tidings, mounted his horse, and, accompanied by his bro¬
ther Thorgils, rode in hot haste to Múli to demand satisfac¬
tion for the insult which he deemed had been offered to him.
Bersi, who appears on the whole to have been a good kind
of fellow, though somewhat too pugnacious, said he really
could not see what Kormak had to complain of. Kormak had
been betrothed to Steingerda, but from some motive or other
had thought proper to break the spousal contract. He, Bersi,
had been betrothed to the same lady, but, unlike Kormak,
had fulfilled his engagement. This cogent argument was not
much relished by Kormak, who contended that he had been
fraudulently deprived of Steingerda, and that she must be
restored to him. Bersi said that was quite out of the ques¬
tion, that Steingerda was now his wife and his wife should
remain. "But to show," he added, "that lam willing to
effect a reconciliation, I shall have no objection to offer
to Kormak the hand of my sister Helga,—an offer, methinks,
-which is not to be slighted and so saying left Kormak to his
own meditations. Thorgils strongly advised his brother to
accept this advantageous proposal, for Helga, in addition
to her personal charms, was possessed of broad lands and
numerous flocks and herds—things which, though not essen¬
tially conducive to conjugal felicity, render at least the mar¬
riage state exceedingly comfortable.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS.
325
At this moment Thordisa of Spákomifell'i^, a woman noted
for her skill in magic, entered the room, and began to insinu¬
ate that Helga, with all her wealth and beauty, had no mind—
was, in fact, quite a simpleton, and not at all fit to he the wife
of Kormak. Thord declared this to he a vile calumny, and
told the sorceress to he gone about her business. Kormak
observed that, whether the words were true or false, he should
not accept the offer that had been made to him, and ended
the colloquy by challenging Bersi to meet him that day fort¬
night in a holmgang, a challenge which Bersi of course will¬
ingly accepted. Kormak before he left managed to see Stein-
gerda, whom he reproached for marrying another after she
had plighted her troth to him. She told him that he would
do better to reproach himself for his own unaccountable con¬
duct, which had forced her to act in a manner repugnant to
her feelings.
On the day appointed Bersi and Kormak met on a small
island, since called Battle Isle, to decide their quarrel in the
presence of numerous spectators. Bersi had a famous sword
called Hviting, to match which Kormak had persuaded his
father's friend Skeggi to lend him Hrolf Kraki's sword
Skofnúng, which that old sea-rover had in one of his expe¬
ditions taken from the Danish king's barrowf. Bersi, as an
experienced duellist, thought proper before they commenced
to explain the difference between a holmgang and an einvigilf
and said that, although Kormak had challenged him to the
former, he would allow him, as this was the first affair of the
kind he had been engaged in, to choose the latter, which was
attended with less danger. Kormak, however, refused to
avail himself of this generous offer, and Bersi then laid down
the laws of the holmgang with great precision. The person
* The Rock of the Sorceress. Scotîcè, the Spae wife's fell.
•f" It was reckoned a daring exploit to break into the barrow of a cele¬
brated warrior and carry away his sword. We must observe, however, that
Hrolf Kraki is one of those problematic personages of the heroic period
whose very existence may be called in question, though there are reason¬
able grounds for supposing that Hrolf himself was not a mere creation of
the fancy, but actually reigned, and performed some valorous deeds towards
the middle of the sixth century.
X Holmgang—literally isle-gang, such duels generally taking place in a
small island; einvigi, single combat. Both terms were, however, used to
designate a single combat, the difference being in the manner in which the
combatants were to use their weapons.
326
NOBTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
challenged, he said, had the right to strike the first blow ;
when his opponent was wounded so that his blood stained the
ground, the seconds might interfere, and put an end to the
combat. He that was the first wounded had to pay the cus¬
tomary holmgang fine of three marks. The validity of these
laws having been acknowledged by Kormak, the combatants
went to work and displayed great skill in the use of their
weapons. After each party had had three shields cloven in
twain, Kormak received a slash from Bersi's sword across the
hand, and as blood flowed from the wound in profiision, the
•seconds declared the duel to be honourably terminated. Bersi
then demanded the fine from Kormak, who promised that it
should be punctually acquitted.
Kormak, on leaving the field, went to his unde Steinar—a
man of a very turbulent disposition—^and told him that he
intended to go abroad, begging, at the same time, that he would
pay the fine for him. "Thou dost things in too great a
hurry," said Steinar ; "however, if the fine must be paid, I will
pay it." A few days afterwards, as Kormak was riding home,
accompanied by his uncle, he met Bersi, who greeted him
very amicably, and asked him how his wound was going on.
" Not very Vv^ell," replied Kormak. " Well," said Bersi, " as
I gave it thee, if thou wilt, I will also heal it." Kormak very
coldly refused to accept any service from his rival, intimating,
at the same time, that hostilities had not ceased between
them. To which Bersi, who was a bit of a Skald, replied by
extemporizing a strophe in allusion to the recent duel, and
then rode off with the numerous friends and retainers who
accompanied him. Kormak, on his return home, consoled
himself, whilst his mother healed his wound, by hammering
out a due quantity of Skaldic lays, in which he attributed the
unfavourable issue of the duel more to his adversary possess¬
ing a charmed sword than to his skill in using it.
Shortly after this, Bersi's son, Asmund, happened to hurt
one of Thord's children while they were playing together,
which so vexed Thord's wife that she gave her husband no
peace until he demanded a pecuniary compensation from Bersi
for the slight injury v/hich the child had sustained. Bersi
* Each combatant was attended by a second, who had to protect him
with a shield.
maín-KERS and customs of the icelanders. 327
laughed at his ftiend for making such a demand, but a cool¬
ness arose in consequence between the two families. Bersi
and Thord had always been accustomed to ride together to the
Thorsnes Thing. When the time fixed for holding the Thing
arrived, Bersi went as usual to Múli to call for Thord, but
found that he had already set out. "What change has come
over him," said Bersi ; " why did he not wait for me as he was
wont to do?" "Thou art the cause of the change," replied
Thord's wife ; " and this will be but a slight revenge, if
a greater do not follow." Bersi then rode off, and, as he was
the Thingsman of Olaf Pá, went, on his arrival at the place of
assembly, to that chieftain's booths. The booth was so
crowded with Olafs Thingsmen and retainers that Bersi could
scarcely make his way through them. On the seat usually
occupied by Thord he found a man of athletic frame, who was
wrapped up in a bear-skin cloak, and had altogether the ap¬
pearance of one who, like a Scotch Knight of the Thistle, can¬
not be touched with impunity,
" What's thy name ?" demanded Bersi.
" Glum or Skum, or what thou wilt," growled the stranger,
as he drew his cloak tighter about him.
"Nay," said Bersi, "thou need'st not muffle thyself up in
thy bear-skin, for I see plainly thou art Steinar."
"Ay," replied the stranger, "I am Steinar, and am come
to pay thee my nephew's fine, but before I pay it I challenge
thee to meet me in a holmgang."
"As thou wilt," answered Bersi; and the day and place of
meeting were fixed with the usual formalities.
The next day Bersi and Steinar had a swimming match,
when Steinar perceiving that his competitor wore an amulet
—called a life-stone—round his neck, swam up to him, and
tearing it off threw it into the sea. It was however found at
ebb tide by Thord, who, being now at enmity with Bersi, kept
possession of it.
On the day appointed for the duel Bersi went to the place
of meeting accompanied by several of Olaf Pá's retainers.
* We have here an example of a wealthy and influential landed pro¬
prietor being, in some measure, dependent on a powerful chieftain,—a circura-
fitance that will serve to strengthen the arguments we made use of in the
beginning of the preceding chapter. Olaf Pá was the son of Hosknld and
Melkorka previously mentioned.
3Q8
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
Kormak was his uncle's second or shield-holder. The com¬
batants, with the assistance of their shield-holders, warded off
each other's blows for some time with great dexterity ; hut
Steinar at length succeeded in giving his adversary a terrible
wound across the hip joint which completely disabled him.
"There," said Steinar, "thou hast now received full pay¬
ment for my nephew's fine."
Stung by these words Bersi sprang up, clove Steinar's shield
in twain, and slightly wounded him in the breast, and then
fell exhausted with loss of blood, and was borne from the field
by his retainers, and conveyed to his own mansion. Thord, on
learning the dangerous state of his woimd, went to Saurbier
and gave Bersi his amulet, and, being well skilled in the heal¬
ing art, never quitted him until a perfect cure had been
effected. It is needless to add that the two friends were now
reconciled, and remained ever afterwards on terms of the
greatest intimacy.
One day, while Bersi was still confined to his bed, Stein-
gerda entered the room, and after giving her husband a sur¬
name descriptive of his wound, and far more emphatic than
elegant, formally announced her intention of being divorced
from him. So saying, she left him to his own reflections,
packed up her trinkets, mounted her horse, and rode off to her
father's residence. Here she passed the winter, and managed
at length to persuade her brother Thorkell to go and reclaim
her marriage portion from Bersi, a mission not unattended
with danger. 'Thorkell, on his arrival at Saurbœr, was received
by Bersi with due courtesy, who would not, however, listen to
his demand, Steingerda he contended having no legal claim
upon him. Thorkell intimated that if he persisted in that
opinion they wnuld have to meet in Battle Isle, near Tjaldnes,
and decide the question at issue by single combat.
" Be it so," said Bersi, "I promise thee thou shalt not have
to await my coming."
On the day appointed Thorkell went, with his friend Vali
for shield-holder, to Battle Isle, where they found Bersi and
Thord awaiting them, Thorkell objected to Bersi's sword
being longer than the laws of duelling allowed, but this objec¬
tion appears to have been overruled by the seconds. They
accordingly began the combat, and after two shields had been
rendered useless, Thorkell fell mortally wounded at the feet of
MANNEES AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS. 329
his advei*sary, who very coolly extemporized a Skaldic verse
as he regarded him. Vali, after bearing off his dyiûg friend,
re-entered the lists and challenged Bersi to fight with him on
the spot. Bersi, placing himself in an attitude of defence,
said he had never any objections to fighting; but as they were
going to begin the combat, Thord stepped between them, de¬
claring that it was a pity two such valiant fellows should kill
each other to no purpose, and that they would do better to
leave the quarrel to his arbitration. On their consenting to
this proposal, he said the best way for effecting a reconcilia¬
tion would be for Bersi to marry Vali's sister Thordisa. Bersi
expressed his willingness to become the young lady's husband
provided Vali would give her, for her marriage portion, the
estate of Breklmland. Vali having promised that it should be
hers the parties left the field, and rode off mutually satisfied
with the arrangement. The marriage took place shortly after¬
wards, and Bersi, strange to say, led for several years a very
quiet life, occupying himself in improving his estates, and en¬
larging his family mansion.
Not far from Saurbser dwelt Oddur, who had a very pretty
daughter, Steinvöra, surnamed from her delicate proportions
Mjóbeina {slender-hones). Another of Bersi's neighbours was
Thorarin, who had in his time been a celebrated navigator
and sea-rover, but now resided on his estate of Thambardal
with his three sons, Alf, Loptur, and Skopti. One evening, as
Oddur and his friend Glum sat drinking their ale by the fire¬
side, they began to exercise their wits at the favourite Ice¬
landic pastime of instituting comparisons between the leading
men of the district. Glum, after enumerating all the good
qualities of Thorarin, contended that he was justly entitled to
pre-eminence. Oddur, however, was loud in his praise of
Bersi. Each of the disputants sought of course to strengthen
his arguments by detracting from the merits of his opponent's
hero, until at length Oddur, as he emptied his drinking-horn,
swore by Thor and Odin that it was quite preposterous to
compare the knavery of Thorarin with the valiantness of
Bersi. Glum did not fail to tell Thorarin what Oddur had
said of him. "I will soon teach him better mannersT"
exclaimed Thorarin, and mounting his horse, rode with
his retainers to Oddur's dwelling and carried off Steinvöra,
intimating to her father that if he made any complaint his life
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
would be in danger. Oddur, however, notwithstanding this
threat, went to Bersi and begged that he would assist him to
recover his daughter. Bersi having armed himself from head
to heel, and buckled on his famous sword, hviting, rode over
to Thambardal and knocked late in the evening at Thorarin's
door, which was at that moment opened by a man named
Thorleif, who was leaving the dwelling. Thorarin hearing a
noise at the door went to see what was the matter, when Bersi
ran him through the body and left him weltering in his gore
on the threshold. He then mounted his horse, placed Stein-
vöra before him, and galloped off with her to a neighbouring
forest Telling her to remain here with his horse until he
returned, he went with three javelins in his hand towards
Thambardal, being determined that Thorarin's sons should
share the same fate as their father. He found them on the
road already in pursuit of him, Thorleif having informed
them when they came and found their father lying dead on
the threshold who it was that had slain him. Bersi, before
they were aware of his presence, hurled one of his javelins,
which brought Alf to the ground : he then attacked Loptur
and Skopti, who soon lay beside their brother. Having thus
had the satisfaction of killing the whole family, Bersi ré-
turned to the forest and took Steinvöra with him to Saurbaer,
where they arrived before the servants were yet stirring.
Oddur was very glad to see his daughter again, and on his
asking how she had been rescued, Bersi extemporized a
strophe, in which he awarded due praise to himself for the
sanguinary deeds he had committed. Oddur then went home,
leaving his daughter in the care of Bersi, a proceeding which
Thordisa did not by any means relish f. Steinvöra, however,
continued to reside at Saurbaer in spite of the good lady's re¬
monstrances, and appears to have lived with Bersi on terms
of the strictest intimacy. Some time after these events Bersi
perceiving that he was growing old, and having lost his only
* In the Sagas relating to Iceland frequent mention is made of forests,
but the Icelanders probably applied the word forest to designate a tract of
country covered with brushwood, and in some places, perhaps, with stunted
birch trees. See pqge 189.
t " Thetta likar Thórdisi illa," that liked Thordisa ill, quaintly observes
the Sagaman.
manners and customs of the icelanders.
331
child, made Haider, the son of Höskuld, his adopted son and.
heir. Thordisa had farmed out her estate of Brekkuland to
her brother Vali, and appears, by so doing, to have mightily
offended young Haldor and Steinvöra, for the last mention
made of Bersi is, that he went at the instigation of the slen¬
der-boned lady and waylaid, and, with the assistance of Hal-
dor, then in his twelfth year, killed his brother-in-law Vali,
and boasted of the deed as a proof that in his old age his
valour had not deserted him.
It is now time to return to Steingerda, who, it is natural to
suppose, left Bersi in order to become the wife of Kormak.
Such, however, does not appear to have been that capricious
lady's intention, for we find her the following summer giving
her hand to "^horvald, a wealthy man, and a very good poet,
and it would appear from his surname of Tintein, (Tinfounder,)
equally as expert in fusing metals as in casting far fetched
metaphors into the stiff forms of Skaldic metre. Thorvald, or
Tintein, as he was generally called, notwithstanding the many
very useful and very amiable qualities he possessed, had
the defect of being rather chicken-hearted, a circumstance,
which, in that age of the sword and battle-axe, often placed
him in a very embarrassing position. Kormak, when the
marriage took place, was fitting out a vessel for a trading
voyage to Norway. Feigning not to be aware of what had
happened, he went to Steingerda and begged her to make him
a shirt. Steingerda told him very coolly that she was now the
wife of Tintein, and that his visit was very inopportune, and
would not be tolerated either by her husband or his relations.
Kormak replied by extemporising a satirical strophe on Tin¬
tein, whom he designated as the stanniferous Skald. Stein-
gerda was highly incensed at his conduct, and declared she
would repeat the verse to her husband. Kormak then ex¬
temporised a very gallant strophe in praise of her beauty and
accomplishments, which somewhat appeased the fair lady.
They parted, however, as the Sagaman quaintly remarks,
without any blithesomeness having passed between them "
Kormak then sailed with his brother, a.d. 963, to Norway,
and met with a good reception from King Hakon, the Good.
He afterwards entered into a sea-roving partnership with a
German named Sigurd, and on his return to Norway found
Harald Greyskin on the throne. Kormak accompanied this
332
NORTHEBN ANTIQUITIES.
king on his expedition to Ireland, and gained great renown
both as a warrior and a Skald, the favourite theme of his lays
still continuing to be the charms of Steingerda. Being, how¬
ever, unable to support any longer his absence from the fair
charmer, he set sail for Iceland. On approaching the coast he
descried a woman on horseback, and recognised at the first
glance—lovers have a very keen vision—that it was she whom
he adored ; rowing, therefore, to shore in the ship's boat, he
borrowed a horse, and soon overtook her. Dismounting from
his steed, he very gallantly assisted Steingerda to alight from
hers, and then led her to a verdant sunny bank beside a mur¬
muring stream, where they sat down, and, while she
" With a greedy ear
Devoured up his discourse,"
he told her of all " the moving accidents, by flood and field,"
that had befallen him. The hours thus glided away unheeded,
and still they sat
" Linked in the inwoven charm
Of converse, and caresses sweet and deep,"
until the shades of evening began to creep over the moun¬
tains, when Steingerda bethought her that it was high time
they should look for their horses. The horses, however,were
no where to be found ; the lovers were therefore obliged to
seek shelter in a neighbouring cottage, when Steingerda, re¬
tired with the house-wife to her apartment. The next morn¬
ing she told Kormak that it would be better if they did not
meet, adding, with a sigh, that he would perhaps find another
more worthy of his affection. " Nay," said Kormak,
" Till the rock on the river
Shall float like the plume.
Till the firm oak shall quiver
And earth meet its doom ;
Till the sky-cleaving mountain
Be whelmed in the main.
To contend with Steingerda
In beauty, were vain."
A strophe that was amply rewarded by the fair lady telling
the young Skald, with one of her archest smiles, that he was
too great a flatterer.
HANKERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS. 333
When lovers meet after a long absence they are loath to
quit each other. Kormak and Steingerda, therefore, passed
four or five days very agreeably in their rural retreat ; Stein-
gerda retiring every evening with the house-wife, leaving her
lover to complain in Skaldic verse, that, although, under the
same roof he was still separated from her, whose embrace
would consummate his fondest wish, by an envious wainscot;
a most provoking impediment certainly, which Steingerda,
however, told him, as he repeated his longing stanzas to her
during their morning s walk, should on no consideration be
removed. Kormak's verses becoming every day more ardent,
it at lejigth occurred to the fair dame that she had a husband
who might probably be uneasy at her absence, and as her
horse had been caught, she told her lover they must part.
Kormak, as he placed her on the saddle, attempted to put a
gold ring on her finger, but she told him, somewhat petu¬
lantly, that he might keep it himself, and whipping her horse
galloped off, not in the best of humours, to her loving spouse,
who, good-natured soul that he was, after a short lecture that
made no great impression, pardoned his wife's escapade, though
he begged it might not be repeated.
During the winter Kormak frequently visited Steingerda
in her own house, but, although Tintein could overlook an
escapade he had not been an eyewitness to, his equanimity be¬
came somewhat ruffled when he saw his wife listening, with
great complacency, to the amatory lays of a brother Skald,
who had, moreover, the advantage of being able to recount the
feats he had performed as a sea-rover. Tintein was, however,
too peaceable a man to make known his displeasure, further
than by putting himself in a very ill-humour, and giving
Steingerda a curtain lecture now and then for carrying on
such a provoking flirtation. In this conjuncture, Tintein re¬
ceived a visit from his brother Thorvard who, on becoming
aware how matters stood, declared that the family would be
dishonoured if Kormak's visits were any longer tolerated.
Tintein vowed that he wished Kormak were in Valhalla,
though that would be too good a place for him ; but how was
he to rid himself of the annoyance. Thorvald who knew that
his brother was sadly deficient in courage, and that he could not
supply him with it, not having himself much to part with,
suggested that they should get Narfi to indite a satirical
stanza on Steingerda, and pay a wandering minstrel to sing
334
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
it in her presence, and say that it was the composition of
Kormak. Tintein highly approved of the plan, declaring
that any thing would be better than a holmgang, and the
stratagem had the desired result. Steingerda, when the
minstrel sung the lay, flew into such a violent passion that
the poor fellow thought himself fortunate in making hia
escape, and she not only refused to see Kormak, but would
not even hear his name mentioned. It was in vain that he
sent to supplicate the enraged beauty to admit him to her
presence, or at least to let him know what crime he had com¬
mitted. She continued for a long time inexorable. At
length, by dint of entreaties, Kormak obtained an interview,
when Steingerda told him that the shameful verse he bad
composed on her was in every one's mouth, there was not a
social meeting held in the whole district where it was not re¬
peated amidst the jeers of the guests, and the coarse laughter
of their retainers. Kormak strenuously denied having any
knowledge of it, but promised her that its authors, whoever
they might be, should not go unpunished He, accordingly,
went in quest of the wandering minstrel from whom he
elicited the desired information. He then rode to Túnga,
and slew Narii, and would have slain Tintein too, whom he
had dragged from his hiding place, had not the servants sepa¬
rated them.
These proceedings caused a great noise, and every one said
that the brothers would be disgraced if they put up with such
an insult. Having no other alternative, Thorvard at length
sent one of his friends to challenge Kormak to a holmgang.
On the appointed day, Kormak went to the place of meeting,
but waited in vain for his antagonist, who being of Falstaff's
opinion that " the better part of valour is discretion," remained
quietly at home with Tintein. Kormak now thought himself
justified in showing up the two brothers in a nithing-verse
which, among the scandal-loving Icelanders, soon obtained an
extensive circulation. When Tintein and Thorvard heard
this satirical strophe, they signified their intention, if due
compensation were not offered, to bring an action at law
against its author for defamation. Kormak would not allow
his relations to compromise the matter, contending that, as
* See page 155.
MANNEES AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDEES. 335
Thorvard had shown himself to be a coward, he had a right to
call him one. When the suit was pleaded before the district
Thing, Thorvard, perceiving from the raillery of his friends
that he would gain no reputation, even if he brought it to a
successful issue, screwed up what little courage he possessed
and challenged Kormak a second time. The doughty gen¬
tleman made preparations for his duel, by going to the sor¬
ceress of Spákonufell, and inducing her, for a due consideration,
to impart to his sword a magical efficacy. Kormak, more in
compliance with his mother's entreaties, than from any faith
he had in sorcery, also went to Spákonufell, hut after he had
witnessed Thordisa's manner of working a spell told her, in a
Skaldic strophe, that her art was sheer nonsense *.
Thorvard, relying on the efficacy of his sword, duly kept his
appointment. Kormak, as he prepared for action, descried
Steingerda ameng the spectators, and greeted her in a very
gallant verse, purporting that she was the fair cause of the
combat. After a few blows had been exchanged, Kormak,
although he did not wound his adversary so as to draw blood,
managed to break two of his ribs, which put an end to the duel ;
Thorvard, as the wounded person, being obliged to give his
antagonist a gold ring equivalent to the legal fine of three
marks, which he did with great reluctance. Kormak, seeing a
* Sorcery must have been a lucrative profession in Scandinavia, for the be¬
lief in it was pretty general, though frequent instances are to be found in the
Sagas of men, who, like Kormak, treated it as a mere delusion. It would
be superfluous to remark, that the marvels related of witchcraft and magic,
merely show the popular belief of the age, and by no means warrant tbe
conclusion that because they are evidently false, the whole Saga must be de¬
void of veracity. The Sagaman states what he believed to be true, in the
same manner as the learned Sir Thomas Brown, at a trial for witchcraft in
the year 1664, gave evidence against two poor women, and professed his firm
belief in the absurd prodigies attributed to them. And it was on such
groundless evidence that, in that comparatively enlightened age. Sir Matthew
Hale did not hesitate to condemn the supposed criminals to be burned at the
stake. See " Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions," by Mr. Mackay,
who calculates that in the seventeenth century no less than 40,000 persons
were burned in England alone, for the imaginary crime of witchcraft. It
would have been a fortunate circumstance if parliament at that period had
adopted a law of the Hungarian king Kalcman, (a.D. 1095—1114,) which
simply declares, that as witches do not exist, there can be no question about
them : " De strigis vero, quae non sunt, nulla quaestio fiat." Colomani regis
decret. lib. i. c. 67, in the Corpus Juris Hungarici.
336
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
bull grazing in an adjoining field, went up and slew it, ob¬
serving that the duel should not be entirely bloodless. The
day being very hot, he then took off his helm, and wiped his
forehead with the hem of Steingerda's kirtle, extemporizing, at
the same time, a due quantity of Skaldic verse, in praise of
her beauty. He used all his eloquence to persuade her to
make another escapade with him, but she told him that she
had something else to do, and must go home and look after
the house, and so saying left him somewhat piqued that his
amatory lays had made no greater impression. Steingerda
then went to Thorvard and bound up his broken ribs, but be¬
fore she left the ground, Kormak managed to have a little
more chat with her. Thorvard, when his wound was healed,
rode over to Mel, and challenged Kormak to another holmgang,
having previously paid Thordisa a good round sum to render
him, by her incantations, invulnerable. He soon found, how¬
ever, that his money had been thrown away, for Kormak
clealt him a blow that fractured his shoulder bone, and laid
him sprawling on the earth in utter helplessness. This woimd
effectually damped Thorvard's nascent courage, and as he had
to part with another gold ring, he began to find that duelling
was not only a dangerous, but also an expensive amusement.
Kormak, before he set sail for Norway, paid a farewell visit to
Steingerda, and on taking leave could not refrain from giving
her two kisses, which the Sagaman, being we presume of
opinion that the intensity of a kiss ought to be measured by its
duration, takes care to inform us were by no means shon ones.
This proceeding of the enamoured young Skald was moré than
even Tintein's good nature could tolerate, but being puzzled
how to act, he turned to his brother, who declared that Kor¬
mak ought to pay the legal fine for his audacity.
" What do ye demand ? " asked Kormak.
" The two rings, replied Thorvard, which I had to give thee
in virtue of the holmgang regulations,"
='Be it so." said Kormak, and in giving him the rings ex¬
temporized a strophe, which, divested of its far-fetched meta •
phors, would run somewhat as follows :—
For two kisses, impressed,
"With glowing desire.
On woman's sweet lips
Two gold rings ye require.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OP THE ICELANDERS.
337
The gems shall be yours,
Though methinks 'tis not meet
To tax a poor wight
For so luscious a treat.
Not long after Kormak's departure, Steingerda told lier
husband that he must fit out a vessel, for she was determined
to go and see what kind of a country Norway was. Tintein,
who knew by experience that his wife would have her own way,
in spite of any thing he could do to oppose her caprices, re¬
signed himself to his fate, and soon got one of his ships in
sailing order. On their voyage to Norway, Steingerda and
Tintein fell into the hands of sea-rovers. Kormak, on being ap->
prized of their disaster, set sail and rescued them and took them
in his vessel to Dronthem, where they met with a very gracious
reception from King Harald, with whom Kormak was in high
favour. Kormak walking one day in the court yard of the
palace, saw that Steingerda was alone in her apartment, he
accordingly went in and sat down beside her, and this time
gave her four kisses, which we presume—the Sagaman being
unfortunately silent on this important point—were also of
tolerable duration, for while his lips still clung to those of
Steingerda, Tintein rushed in, sword in hand, followed by the
maidservants, whose screams brought King Harald himself
to ascertain the cause of the uproar. Harald told the dispu¬
tants to put up their swords, and let him be their arbitrator.
Tintein said he would acquiesce in whatever the king in his
wisdom should decide.
" Well then," said Harald, addressing himself to the irri¬
tated husband, " one kiss shall go for Kormak having saved
thee from the sea-rovers, one for his having saved Steingerda,
and for the two others he shall pay two ounces of gold." A
truly royal decision this of a kissing case.
Some days afterwards, the king was again alarmed by a
noise in Steingerda's apartment, but this time it was the fair
lady herself who was crying out for assistance. On entering
the room, Harald in fact found her struggling with Kormak,
who was attempting to carry her off by main force, for which
uncourteous proceeding the king gave him a good scolding.
All parties were however soon reconciled, and appear to have
passed the winter very merrily at the court of the Norwegian
sovereign.
z
838
NOETHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
In the spring Harald set sail on an expedition to Bj arm aland,
and was accompanied by Kormak and Tintein, each having
the command of a galley. One day, as they were sailing in
company, Kormak took out the tiller of his vessel, and
hurled it at Tintein, who fell down senseless. Stein-
gerda, who was sitting near her husband, instantly took
his place at the helm, and, bidding her men ply their oars,
steered her vessel with such dexterity that she ran down
Kormak's before the rudder could again be rendered service¬
able. Having thus taught her lover better manners, she went,
while her men were saving the crew of the sinking vessel, to
console her husband, who was, however, less hurt than
frightened.
Tintein, on the return of the expedition, sailed to Denmark,
whither Kormak followed him, and found the poor gentleman
on a small island in a very pitiable condition. Thorstein, a
famous old sea-rover, having plundered him of all he possessed
and carried off Stein gerda. Kormak instantly set sail in quest
of Thorstein, and the following night descried his vessel at
anchor in an island creek with the crew carousing on shore,
round a blazing fire, heedless of danger. Every thing being
thus favourable for his design, Kormak left his vessel con¬
cealed from view by a sheltering rock, and went with his
brother, in a skiff to that of Thorstein. On entering the
cabin, they found Steingerda fast asleep in the arms of a sea-
rover. After killing this poor fellow while he was yet dream¬
ing of faveurs enivrantes that had been granted him, they
swam to shore with Steingerda, and brought her in safety to
her husband. When Tintein heard how her deliverance had
been effected, he said that Kormak was a very good fellow, and
that as he had twice rescued Steingerda he might now take
her. Oveijoyed at this unexpected offer, Kormak was going
to clasp the fair lady in his arms, but she told him with great
composure, that she had no inclination to change her condition,
that she was the wife of Tintein, and the wife of Tintein would
remain. " Thou art right," replied Kormak, " Go with thy
husband—the envious fates have decreed that thou shalt never
be mine."
After taking a tender leave of the enamoured Skald, Stein-
gerda returned with her good-natured spouse to Iceland : Kor¬
mak and Thorgils then sailed to the Orkneys, and for several
MANNEKS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS. 339
years exercised their old trade of sea-roving on the coasts of
the British islands, Kormak still attuning his northern lyre,
amidst the tempest's howl, and the din of battle, to her, who,
through life, had been the object of his fond affections. After
various exploits and adventures, Kormak at length fell in a
single combat with a gigantic Scotchman, and expired in the
arms of his brother, reciting, with his dying breath, a strophe
in praise of Steingerda.
Such is the eventful story of this northern Skald, whom
we should not hesitate to call the Scandinavian Petrarca.
It would certainly be almost a profanation to compare the rude
lays of Kormak with the dulcet strains of the Italian poet ;
however, such as they are, they were no doubt equally as ap¬
preciated in the north, as were the voluptuous sonnets of the
Florentine in the sunny clime of Italy. Kormak, too, like
Petrarca, was the lover of a married woman, and Steingerda
appears to have been as great an adept in the art of coquetry
as Laura herself ; both ladies having managed foryears to carry
on a flirtation without any further impropriety of conduct than
mere flirtation necessarily implies ; Laura, not having had a
Sagaman at her elbow, even escaping, in this respect, some¬
what more unscathed than the fair Scandinavian.
Kormak's Saga is, comparatively speaking, free from those
sanguinary scenes that form such tragical episodes in the gene¬
rality of the Icelandic Sagas. The following abstract of
Njálssaga'!= will, we fear, in this respect, not tend to efface any
unfavourable impression which the perusal of Kormak's may
have left on the mind of the reader.
The Sagaman begins his narrative by informing us that a
powerful chieftain named Eût, after having been betrothed to
a rich heiress, called Unna, went to Norway, where he passed
a winter very agreeably at the court of Harald Greyskin, his
recent betrothal not preventing him from forming a very
tender liaison with Harald's mother, Queen Gunhilda. On
his return to Iceland his marriage with Unna was celebrated
* Njálssaga bears internal evidence of having been written towards the
middle of the twelfth century at the latest. The events narrated extend from
the middle of the tenth century to the year 1017. The Saga may, conse¬
quently, have been first committed to writing by the grandson, or even by
the son of a person who heard it from one of the chief actors mentioned
in the story—^from Kári or Flosi, for instance.—See Müllers Sag9,bib. i. 51.
Z 3
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
•with the usual festivities. Not long afterwards Unna, having
accompanied her husband to the Al-thing, took an opportunity
of complaining to her father that the enjoyments of the mar¬
riage life were not such as she had anticipated, and therefore
requested him to bring about a legal divorce. This was
easily effected, but it was a much more difficult matter to
make Rut return the discontented lady's dowry. Female
charms can, however, work wonders even in the rudest age,
and Unna appears to have employed hers to soften the heart
of her cousin Gfunnar, and induce him to enter an action
against Rut for the recovery of her dowry. Gunnar, aided
by the counsel of his friend Njáll, brought the suit to a suc¬
cessful issue at the Al-thing, and afterwards went to Norway,
in order to recruit his finances by sea-roving. On his return
he attended the Al-thing, where he became enamoured of
Hallgerda, who was generally regarded as the most beautiful
woman in Iceland, though her character by no means corre¬
sponded to her beauty, as she had been twice married, and
was strongly suspected of having caused the death of both her
husbands. Gunnar was, however, too much in love to listen
to the prudent advice of his old friend and neighbour Njáll,
and he accordingly offered his hand to Hallgerda, which she
willingly accepted. At the marriage festival a dispute re¬
specting precedence took place between Hallgerda and Njáll's
wife Bergthora,—the Icelandic ladies being on such points
equally as punctilious as the patronesses at Almack's " when
George the Fourth was King." Hallgerda, in order to cause
dissension between the two families, sent her people to
kill one of Njáll's men, a proceeding which Bergthora re¬
taliated by inciting her sons to murder one of Gunnar's re¬
tainers. This man's death was of course avenged by Hall-
gerda, and the two ladies went on murdering in this manner
for some time, their husbands paying the usual expiatory fines,
and remaining, to Hallgerda's great mortification, as good
friends as if nothing of the kind had happened. Hallgerda,
however, soon involved Gunnar in quarrels with persons who
were not so well disposed towards him, and although he once
gave her a box on the ear for one of her misdeeds, he was
obliged to defend them both in the forensic circle and the
holmgang. A protracted lawsuit her proceedings had given
rise to, terminated by Gunnar being condemned to three years'
MANNEES AKD CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS. 341
banishment. As he was riding to the place of embarkation
he turned round to take a last look at his family mansion,
and, dismounting from his horse, exclaimed ;
"Never did this spot appear to me so lovely! the streams
are so clear, the grass so green, the fields so well manured
—no—I cannot leave it, I must turn back whatever may be
the consequences."
Gunnar accordingly returned, and, in spite of the remon¬
strances of Njall, remained a banished outlaw in his own
dwelling. His enemies, on becoming aware that he had not
left the island, surrounded his house one morning at break of
day, knowing that there was nobody with him except his wife
and mother, all the men having been sent to another farm to
make hay. Gunnar was awakened by the barking of his faith¬
ful dog, and seizing his bow and arrows prevented his ad¬
versaries from entering the premises. He had already wounded
eight of them, and though severely wounded himself, would
probably have succeeded in driving them off had not the string
of his bow snapped in twain. In this conjuncture he begged
his wife to cut off one of her long ringlets in order that his
mother might twist it into a bow-string for him.
" Dost thou absolutely require it?" asked Hallgerda.
" My life depends on it !" replied Gunnar.
" Therefore," said the fiery lady, " the time is come when
I can repay thee for the box on the ear thou gavest me, it is
quite indifferent to me whether thou art able to defend thyself
or not."
" Every one seeks honour after his own fashion," mildly
replied Gunnar, and contended with sword and shield against
his adversaries, who now rushed in, until he was at length
overpowered. His heroic defence became the theme of many
a Skaldic lay, and his death was amply avenged by Njall's son,
Skarphedin.
Soon after this tragical event Skarphedin, and his brothers
Grim and Helgi, left Iceland, and after two years spent in a
wild adventurous sea-roving life on the coasts and islands of
Scotland, sailed with their friend Kári and a considerable
booty to Norway, and cast anchor in the frith of Drontheim.
Sometime previous to their arrival an Icelander named Hrapp
had sought refuge in Norway, and although a perfect stranger,
was treated with great hospitality by Gudbrand, one of Jarl
342
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
Hakon's courtiers, an hospitality -which Hrapp repaid by se¬
ducing Gudbrand's daughter, and killing one of his retainers-
Having been outlawed for these misdeeds, he plundered and
set fire to Jarl Hakon's chief temple, and then concealed him¬
self on board one of the Icelandic ships lying in the harbour
and belonging to Thrain Sigfusson. The jarl suspecting that
Njáll's sons had aided Hrapp in effecting his' escape, sent a
party of men to arrest them ; a deperate conflict ensued, which
ended in Sliarphedin and his brothers being taken and thro\vn
into prison. Having, however, plenty of money at their com¬
mand they managed, through the good offices of their friend
Kári, and the intercession of Jarl Eirek*, to regain their liberty.
Thrain, meanwhile, kept Hrapp concealed on board his vessel,
and conveyed him safely to Iceland.
In the year 998, Njáll's sons returned from their Viking
expedition, in which they had amassed a considerable booty,
bringing -with them their friend Kári, to whom Njáll gave his
daughter in marriage. Njáll's sons then sought to establish a
legal claim for compensation from Thrain for all they had suf¬
fered on his account from Jarl Hakon, but before the suit was
decided Hallgerda and Hrapp, who had formed a most inti¬
mate liaison, exercised tlie baneful influence they had acquired
over Thrain by exciting him to apply to his adversaries one of
those satirical epithets which an Icelander regarded as the
greatest insult that could be offered to him. The natural
consequence of this proceeding was a combat, in which Thrain
was killed by Skarphedin. The peaceable old Njáll, who was
universally respected for his rectitude, not only paid the usual
expiatory fine, but took Thrain's son, Höskuld, mider his
fosterage, and thus put an end to the quarrel.
Njáll, however, was not destined to end his days in peace.
Höskuld, when he grew up, fell in love with Hildigunna, one
of the most lovely, but, at the same time, most fiery and
frealdsh young ladies in the island, and of so haughty and am¬
bitious a disposition that she had made a vow only to marry
a pontiff-chieftain. It unfortunately happened that at this
period none of these sacerdotal-magistracieswere to be dis¬
posed of; however Njáll at length succeeded in procuring one
for Höskuld and marrying him to Hildigunna. Mörd Val-
* The son of Jarl Hakon.—See page 147.
See page 291.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS.
343
gardson, one of the most influential persons of the district,
but of a very bad character, being displeased at this proceed¬
ing, involved Höskuld in a quarrel with Njall's sons, which he
took care to embitter by all kinds of malicious insinuations.
Skarphedin and his brothers got rid of Höskuld in the
usual Icelandic way, by entering his house when he was un¬
prepared for defence, and killing him. Hildigunna conjured
her uncle Flosi, as she cast over his shoulders her husband's
blood-stained mantle, to avenge his death. Flosi deemed the
best way of doing this would be by entering an action at law
against the murderers. The case was brought before the Al¬
thing, and after due recourse had been had to the usual legal
quibbles, it was finally decided that Njáll should pay on the
spot a triple fine in atonement for the murder of the sacerdotal
magistrate. It was a large sum, but Njáll managed to raise
it. As he appeared to make the payment, Flosi let fall some
injurious expressions against him, which were retaliated by
Skarphedin. Flosi then declared that the reconciliation was
at an end, and that no compensation could be accepted.
Shortly after this, Flosi, at the head of one hundred fol¬
lowers, appeared before Njáll's house, which he set fire to,
but his proceedings, sanguinary though they were, present a
few redeeming traits which are worth citing for their singu¬
larity. He not only allowed the servants, male and female,
to escape, but when the house was in flames went to the door
and begged Njáll to come out with his wife, saying, that he
did not wish that the innocent should suffer with the guilty.
" I will not stir," cried Njáll, " for I am an old man in¬
capable of avenging my sons, and with dishonour I will not
live."
" And I," said Bergthora, " when a young woman, plighted
my troth to Njáll that his fate should be mine, and that troth
shall be kept unbroken."
She then said to Kári's son, " Thee shall they carry out,
thou must not be burnt."
" Thou didst promise me, my dear grandmother," answered
the child, " that we should never part so long as I wished to
remain with thee, and methinks it is much better to die with
thee and Mjáll, than to live with those people."
Njáll and Bergthora then went to their bedroom, and laying
themselves down with their grandson between them, calmly
344
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
awaited the approach of the devouring element. Their son-
in-law Kári was the only one of the family who escaped from
the scene of devastation.
Kári for some time sought in vain to obtain redress for the
injuries he had sustained, hut at length succeeded in having
his powerful enemies summoned before the Al-thing. The
legal proceedings that took place on this occasion are the
most curious that have been preserved in the Icelandic Sagas.
Klosi took advantage of the endless formalities and distinc¬
tions which law and precedent had sanctioned to render the
CTidence of Kári's witnesses and compurgators unavailing. The
pleadings were conducted on both sides with such acrimony
that the parties at length came to blows, and blood was shed
within the sacred precincts of the doom-ring. The leading
men of the commonwealth now interfered, and it was finally
decided that Flosi and his associates should pay heavy expia¬
tory fines for the murders they had committed. For Njáll,
a triple fine ; for Bergthora and her sons, Helgi and Grim,
double fines ; and for the other victims, single fines. The
murder of Skarphedin was set against that of Höskuld, and
the homicidal account thus balanced. Flosi was banished for
three years, and most of his associates for life. Kári was,
however, by no means satisfied with this verdict ; he accord¬
ingly ranged the district in which Iiis enemies dwelt, and
managed in a short time to kill a round score of them
Flosi, however, escaped, and sought refuge at the court of
Sigurd, Jarl of the Orkney Islands. We are told that the
jarl thought at first of punishing Flosi for killing Njáll's sons,
two of whom had formerly been in his service, but ho did not
long persist in this laudable resolution, Flosi in a short time
becoming his hirdman, or courtier, and one of his greatest
favourites. One day, when a retainer of Flosi was relating
the story of the burning of Njáll's house, in a manner which
placed the conduct of his chief in the most favourable light,
Kári, who had long been prowling about the coasts, rushed in,
and with a stroke of his battle-axe felled to the ground the nar¬
rator. Sigurd ordered the audacious intruder to be seized,
but when the jarl's followers recognised their old sea-roving
friend Kári, they interfered in his behalf, and Sigurd allowed
• As they were outlawed, he could kill them with impunity. See page 300.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS. 345
him to depart unmolested. Flosi accompanied Jarl Sigurd in
his expedition to Ireland, and fought under his banner at Brian
Boroimhe's celebrated battle of Clontarf, in which the Orkney
jarl was killed. Flosi then sailed to Italy, and, after obtain¬
ing absolution for his crimes from the pope himself, returned
in the year 1016 to Iceland. Kári also went to Kome and
obtained absolution, we presume, much on the same terms as
his opponent. On his return, he was shipwrecked on the
coast, not far from Flosi's dwelling. Flosi went out with his
people and rendered him every assistance, and in the evening
placed him by his side in the high seat, when old quarrels, that
had already been cancelled by the pope's absolution, were for
ever obliterated by copious draughts from the drinking-horn.
Shortly afterwards Kári married Höskuld's Avidow,Hildigunna,
and thus became a member of Flosi's family.
We have already had occasion to speak of Höskuld and
Melkorka, and of the visit which their son, Olaf, paid to his
maternal grandfather, the Irish King Murcatoc, and shall now
proceed to give an abstract of the latter part of the Laxdœla-
Saga*, which principally relates to Olafs son, Kjartan.
Olaf, who had obtained the surname of Pá t, from an old
gentleman who made him his heir, on his return to Iceland
married the lady whom we previously made mention of I, and
being now in possession of great wealth, erected a stately
mansion on his principal estate, called, from the numerous
herds of cattle he kept on it. Herd-holt. It was Höskuld's
wish that the family estates should devolve conjointly to his
two legitimate sons and to Olaf, but as he could not induce
his son Thorleik to consent to this arrangement, he made
over, during his lifetime, personal property to Olaf to the
amount of twelve ounces of gold §. At Höskuld's death Olaf
offered to defray two-thirds of the expenses of the heirship-
banquet \\, provided his brothers would let him have the
* The Laxdaela-Saga embraces a period extending from the middle of the
ninth to the beginning of the eleventh century ; the principal events taking
place in the latter half of the tenth century. The Saga itself does not appear
to have been written before the thirteenth century.
f Pá, or páfugl, a peacock.
î See page 317.
§ Illegitimate children might succeed to real property when their fathelf
left no legitimate issue, and had neither brother nor sister.
11 See page 143.
346
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
management of it, and postpone it until the following year,
the season being too far advanced for holding such a festival
with becoming splendour. This offer having been accepted,
Olaf at the next Al-thing ascended the Law-mount, and made
known that ten weeks before winter he and his brothers would
drink their heirship ale, and that for fourteen days open house
would be kept at Herdholt, inviting first the sacerdotal magis¬
trates, and Üien every one who chose to be his guest, to come
and pledge a bumper to Höskuld's memory.
At the appointed time upwards of a thousand persons re«
paired to Olafs mansion, and were feasted with a splendour
seldom before witnessed in Iceland ; the principal guests re¬
ceiving at their departure presents of a more costly descrip¬
tion than were usually given on such occasions*. When
Olafs house-steward began to reckon up the number of fat
beeves slaughtered, gammons and ñitches taken from the
larder, barrels of ale tapped, and other such items required to
keep up a fortnight's unbounded hospitality, Thorleik was
quite astounded at the sum total, and, although he had only
to pay one-sixth of it, declared that Olaf intended to ruin him.
The son of Melkorka, who liked to do things en grand seig¬
neur, told him, however, that he need not put himself to any
inconvenience respecting the payment, offering at the same
time to take his son Bolli in fosterage, an offer which Thor¬
leik very gladly accepted. Olaf appears to have lived on very
good terms with his wife, Thorgerda, though the lady, as we
have seen, was fond of having her own way now and then f.
Their eldest son, named Kjartan, after his royal grandfather,
is represented as one of the handsomest and most accom¬
plished young men of the age. Few could compete with him
in manly sports and exercises, and his engaging manners ren¬
dered him a general favourite with the fair sex. Kjartan, and
his cousin and foster-brother Bolli, were sworn friends and in-,
separable companions.
At a short distance from Herdholt dwelt a wealthy gentle¬
man, named Osvif, whose daughter, Gudruna, was the most
lovely maiden in the whole island, agaçante, espiègle, et très
* The two greatest heirship-festivals which the Sagas relating to Iceland
make mention of, are those of Olaf and one given by the sons of Hjalti to
upwards of fourteen hundred persons.
f See page 317.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS.
347
comme il Jaut, as our lively neighbours would say; but, where¬
withal, like most young ladies of surpassing beauty, somewhat
whimsical and freakish. When Gudruna had reached her fif¬
teenth year, Osvif gave her in marriage to Thorvald Haldor-
son, a gentleman amply provided with every thing that tends
to render life comfortable, stipulating that she should have
the management of her own property, and, that whenever a
legal divorce took place, should retain a fair moiety of it, and
should, moreover, wear the most costly apparel that could be
procured in Iceland. Although Gudruna had no great incli¬
nation for Thorvald, these favourable conditions induced her
to give her tacit consent to the marriage, which was celebrated
with the usual boisterous festivity.
Gudruna, as a married woman, was oy no means of opinion
that beauty is " when unadorned, adorned the most; " for she
was continually teazing her loving spouse to purchase her rings
and necklaces, and fur-lined kirtles and other costly articles,
which fair ladies have in every age regarded as necessary acces¬
sories to their loveliness. Thorvald, as long as the honey-moon
lasted, willingly complied with his young wife's caprices, but
deemed at length that it was high time to put a stop to her
extravagance, his resolution in this respect being probably
strengthened by a very provoking flirtation she was carrying
on vdth an intimate friend of his, named Thord Ingunnarson,
who resided in the neighbourhood. Thorvald at first mildly
remonstrated with her on the impropriety of her conduct, but
had the mortification of finding that his words produced no
effect. Gudruna was fully determined to dress and to flirt as
she thought proper ; a woman of her beauty and accomplish
ments was made to be admired, and her husband ought to
think himself fortunate in possessmg a wife who was the ob¬
ject of universal admiration. Acting on these principles, she
received Thord's assiduous homage with renewed affability,
the more so, as she was well aware that it caused the greatest
annoyance to his wife, Audura. Matters went on in this
manner for some time, until Thorvald began to suspect that
his wife's flirtation with Thord had grown into a regular
liaison, and as remonstrances were unavailing, he one day let
the fair lady feel the weight of his hand by giving her a
smart box on the ear, which she, no doubt, had richly merited.
Gudruna, however, regarded this uncourteous proceeding as
348
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
an insult not to be put up with, and accordingly consulted
her lover respecting the means she might employ in order to
obtain a legal divorce. Thord advised her to make Thorvald
a shirt with very wide sleeves, so that it might come under
the designation of a shift-, and then she might sue for a
divorce at the Al-thing on the plea that her husband had
worn female apparel f. Gudruna lost no time in having re¬
course to this expedient, which was attended with the wished
for result. Thord, meanwhile, obtained a divorce from Audura
on an equally frivolous pretext, and the two lovers shortly
afterwards became man and wife, their marriage being cele¬
brated with the usual festivities. A few months after these
auspicious nuptials Thord was drowned at sea, and Gudruna,
now a blooming widow of eighteen, went to live with her
father in Saelingsdale.
Saelingsdale was celebrated for its warm baths, which
Kjartan and Belli often frequented. Kjartan was naturally
very fond of Gudruna's company, and many a fair damsel
soon learned with regret that the agaçante young widow was
going to make him her third husband. Olaf, who had by no
means approved of his son's frequent visits to Saelingsdale, on
becoming aware how matters stood, began to make a right use
of his paternal authority by striving to convince Kjartan that
a marriage with Osvif's daughter, though unobjectionable in
point of rank and fortune, wé^ not likely to insure either his
future happiness or welfare. Kjartan listened very un¬
willingly to this prudent advice ; but Olaf at length persuaded
him to take a share in a trading vessel ready to sail for
Norway, flattering himself that absence and change of scene
would soon restore him to his sober senses. In a few days
Olaf had made the necessary preparations for the projected
voyage, and Kjartan was at length obliged, to communicate
* We ought to have said chemise, the homely old English word shift having,
for ears polite, long since become obsolete.
•j" It would appear that, in the tenth century, one sex wearing the garments
of the other, constituted, according to Icelandic notions, a gronnd for divorce.
No mention is made of such a plea iu the sections of the Grágás relating to
marriage ; but that code enacts that women wearing male, or men female ap¬
parel, from a motive of frivolity, render themselves liable to the punishment
of exclusion or its pecuniary equivalent.—See Grágás, vol i. p. Ill, and
Note 4, page 338.
MANNEES AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDEES.
349
the fatal tidings to Gudruna. The young lady at first flew
into a violent passion, and had then recourse to tears and
tender expostulations, but as Kjartan still persisted in his
resolution of going to Norway, she finally declared that she
would accompany him. Kjartan was, however, ungallant
enough to refuse this kind offer, telling her that she would
do much better to remain with her father in Saslingsdale, but
if she would plight him her troth to wait for three years, he
would, before the expiration of that term, return to Iceland
and marry her. " Nay," said Gudruna, " that is more than
I can promise thee or any one else ; " thinking, probably, that
in three years she had already had two husbands ; so the
lovers parted not in Mie best of humours with each other.
Kjartan and Bolli arrived in the harbour of Drontheim on
a fine autumnal day, when a number of people were displaying
their dexterity in the art of swimming. Kjartan, Avho was
passionately fond of manly exercises, soon joined the party,
and making up to one of the most dexterous swimmers, ducked
him under the water. The Norwegian on rising managed in
his turn, after a short struggle, to duck Kjartan, and they
thus continued to display their strength and agility, amidst
the cheers of the spectators, until they found that they were
fully a match for each other. When they came to land, the
Norwegian asked Kjartan Avho he was, and Avhether he Avas as
expert in other feats as he had shoAvn himself to be in SAvim-
ming.
" If people in Iceland did not rate my other qualities higher
than my SAvimming," coldly replied Kjartan, " I should not
have much to boast of."
" That depends on whom thou hast for a competitor," said
the Norwegian ; " and methinks thou mightst condescend to
inquire the name of the person that thou hast noAV been con¬
tending with."
"It is a matter of perfect indifference to me," replied
Kjartan, " what thy name may be."
" By my troth, 'tis a hardy felloAV I have to deal Avith ! " ex¬
claimed the Norwegian; "but although thou art too proud to
ask, I will tell thee my name—know, then, that it is Olaf
Tryggvason thou hast been swimming Avith."
Kjartan, Avithout making any reply, went in his SAvimming
attire tOAvardshis vessel; but King Olaf called him back, say-
S50
NORTHEBN ANTIQUITIES
ing. as he took off his rich scarlet mantle, and placed it on
Kjartan's shoulders. " There, as thou hast now no occasion
to fear taking cold, thou needst not be in such a hurry to leave
me! "
When Kjartan returned on board his ship, his republican
countrymen blamed him for accepting the king's mantle, which
they said was tantamount to his acknowledging himself in the
royal service. The Icelanders were, in fact, at this time highly
displeased at the Norwegian Idng, for placing an embargo on
three of their vessels lying in the harbour on account of their
crews having refused to embrace Christianity. Olaf, then
in the third year of his reign had already converted his
courtiers, and at a Thing held shortly after Kjartan's arrival,
managed to persuade most of the inhabitants of the Drontheim
district to receive the rite of baptism, giving the Icelanders,
at the same time, plainly to understand that they should not
set sail, ere the same rite had been administered to them.
Seeing that the king's resolution was not to be shaken, the
Icelanders held a meeting in the hostlery they frequented to
consult what steps they ought to take in this emergency.
Belli declared that, for his part, he had no great inclination to
embrace such effeminate doctrines as those of Christianity
appeared to be.
" And I, said Kjartan, am of opinion that instead of sitting
here to be taken like sheep in a fold, and compelled, as these
poor Norwegians have been, to kneel before a kirtled monk,
we should do better to fall on King Olaf, and bum him in his
palace.
This plan, though highly approved of, was deemed too
hazardous to be put in execution, and, after a long discussion,
the meeting broke up without any resolution having been
adopted. The following day, Olaf, who had been duly informed
of their proceedings by his spies f, summoned the Icelanders
to his presence, and told them that he was fully determined
to make them Christians before they left Drontheim, adding
that he was well aware that one of them had proposed to bum
him to death in his palace. Kjartan unhesitatingly avowed
that it was he who had made the proposal.
* He reigned A. n. 995—1000.
-f- This is not the only instance of spies we meet with in the Sagas ; in fact,
espionage has been in every age the necessary accompaniment of despotism.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS,
351
" "Well, this time I will not punish thee," said the king, " and,
as ye are averse to the doctrines of Christianity, ye may depart
in peace, for the God we worship does not wish that any one
should be brought to him by compulsion."
" In this manner," replied Kjartan, " I may be induced to
become a Christian ; and at all events will promise that next
winter, in Iceland, Thor shall not often be worshipped by me."
" Methinks," said Olaf, smiling, " thou art one of those that
put their trust in their own might and main, and care very
little either for Thor or Odin."f
When Christmas came, Kjartan and the Icelanders having
attended the midnight mass, and heard the king himself
preach a very edifying sermon, declared their willingness to
be baptized—a resolution which the king no doubt ascribed
to the impression made by his homily, and the monks to
the pompous ceremonies of the mass ; but which was probably
as much owing to a due regard for their trading interests, as
to any motives of religion. Kjartan, in fact, now began to fit
out his vessel for a trading voyage to England, having heard
that Scandinavians who had renounced heathenism were well
received in that country, and found a ready sale for their mer¬
chandise. Olaf told him that he would have preferred his
going to Iceland to preach Christianity, but that at all events
he would do better to remain at his court, which was a more
fitting place for a man of his valour and abilities than the
deck of a trading vessel. This was of course too flattering an
invitation for Kjartan to refuse, and he soon became one of
the king's greatest favourites, receiving, among other costly
presents, a splendid suit of clothes from the royal wardrobe,
* Strange words these for Olaf Tryggvason to make use of; for it was by
sheer compulsion that he made the Norwegians embrace Christianity. His short
reign was in fact entirely devoted to the propagation of the new faith, by
means the most revolting to humanity. His general practice was to enter
a district at the head of a formidable force, summon a Thing, and
give the people the alternative of fighting with him, or of being baptized.
Most of them of course preferred baptism to the risk of a battle with an ad¬
versary so well prepared for combat ; and the recusants were tortured to
death with fiend-like ferocity, and their estates confiscated.—See Heimsk.
vi., 59—100, and the note *, page 180.
+ See pages 120 and 148. Most of the incidents respecting Kjartan and
King Olaf are also relateii, with very slight variations, in Olaf Tryggvason'a
Saga, which forms the sixth book of the Heimskringla.
352
noethern antiquities.
which, as Olaf was about his own size, ütted him admirably.
The Norwegian king, in the mean time, sent his court chap¬
lain, Thangbrand, to convert the Icelanders, but his mission
was unsuccessful ; the skalds or poetasters of the island (the
terms are generally synonymous) having turned his proceed¬
ings into ridicule by lampoons of the coarsest description.
On Thangbrand's return, Olaf again laid an embargo on the
Icelandic vessels, and the following summer (a. d. 1000)
sent two Icelandic exiles, named Hjalti and Gissur, to convert
their countrymen, keeping Kjartan and three other Icelanders
at his court as hostages for their safety. Kjartan appears to have
been a very willing hostage, for the charms of the king's sister,
the fair Ingjibjörg, rendered his sojourn in the palace exceed¬
ingly agreeable. Bolli, in fact, seeing that he was always in
her company, returned to Iceland, declaring that his foster-
brother was too deeply in love to stand in need of a
companion.
When King Olaf received the welcome tidings that the
Icelanders had embraced Christianity at the Al-thing 'i', he
took off the embargo, and released the hostages, telling Kjar
tan that if he wished to return home, he would fit out his
vessel in a manner that his countrymen should see how he
was esteemed in Norway, intimating, at the same time, that
it would be more agreeable for him, if he remained in his
service. Kjartan, however, preferred home to the enjoyments
of a court, graced though it was with the enrapturing presence
of such a beauteous being as Ingjibjörg. When the vessel was
* The sudden conversion of the Icelanders to Christianity is generally
ascribed to the conclusive arguments made use of by Gissur, Hjalti, and
Snorri before the assembled people at the Al-thing (See Henderson's Ice¬
land, p. 29, and anote to Walter Scott's abstract of the Eyrbyggjasaga); but
we think this embargo was more calculated to bring about so desirable a re¬
sult than any proceedings which are said to have taken place on the occasion.
Without a foreign trade Iceland would soon perish. On the breaking out
of the war between Great Britain and Denmark, in the year 1807, the Ice¬
landers were apprehensive of absolute starvation, and would probably have
been decimated by famine and pestilence had not Sir Joseph Banks induced
the British Cabinet to grant licences to Danish vessels to trade with Ice¬
land, on condition of their touching at Leith both on their outward and home¬
ward botmd passage. And in the year 1810 an order in Council was issued,
prohibiting all acts of hostility against Iceland and the other Danish colonies
in the Arctic Seas, and taking the inhabitants and their property under the
special protection of Great Britain.—See Henderson's Iceland, p. 403.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDERS.
353
ready to set sail, Kjartan, as he entered the lovely princess's
apartment, regretted having taken such a rash resolution.
Ingjibjörg received him with her accustomed affability, and,
placing him by her side, said that she trusted no one had
forced him to leave Norway, adding, with a sigh, " No ! thou
art not forced, it is thy own inclination that leads thee to Ice¬
land."
A long silence ensued, Kjartan not venturing to make a
reply, or even to cast a look at the disconsolate fair one. Ing¬
jibjörg at length arose, and opening her wardrobe, took out a
splendid white and gold brocaded head dress, saying, as she
placed it in Kjartan's hands,
" This will become Gudruna, the daughter of Osvif ; give
it her as a bridal present ; the ladies of Iceland shall see that
the maiden thou wert acquainted with in Norway was not of
ignoble lineage. Go—return to thy home—I cannot, I
must not accompany thee ; may every happiness be thine."
Kjartan, we are told, summoned all his fortitude to stammer
out a last farewell, and leave a place endeared to him by such
fond recollections
Long before Kjartan set sail. Belli had arrived in Iceland,
and on his first visit to Sselingsdale had described his foster-
brother as living in the greatest splendour at the court of
the Norwegian monarch. Gudruna hesitatingly inquired
whether any other motive than King Olafs friendship kept
him at the court.
" Why, I must needs tell thee," said Belli, " that Kjartan
is greatly beloved by the Lady Ingjibjörg, and it is generally
supposed that sooner than part with him the king will give
him his sister in marriage."
" Good tidings thou bringest me," replied Gudruna, with
affected indifference, " for such a marriage will but be the just
reward of Kjartan's merits ;" and so saying, left the room in
* The Lady Ingjibjörg was afterwards married to Earl Rögnvald of Groth-
land. Snorri, in speaking of her, says, " She was of a beauteous appearance,
mild and condescending with the common people, firm and manly in her
purpose, and of a most graceful and winning demeanour. She was very fond
of the Icelanders who were there, (at the court,) but Kjartan Olafsson was
her greatest favourite, for he had been with the king longer than the others,
and it was often his delight to converse with her, for she was both wise and
elever in her discourse."—Heimsk. vi. 113, Schöning's Edit.
A A
854
NOKTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
order to conceal the violent emotion which she had tried in
vain to stifle. Bolli, after the first burst of passion was over,
frequently visited Gudruna, and finding her one day in her
usual flow of spirits, ventured to ask her what she would say
if he solicited her hand in marriage
" Thy suit would be in vain," replied the fair widow ; " never
will I contract another marriage whilst I know that Kjartan
is still in existence."
" If thou still thinkest of Kjartan," said Bolli, " thou wilt
have to wait long enough for a husband, for if he had cared
any thing about thee, he would have made me the hearer of a
message to thee, instead of letting me depart without even
mentioning thy name."
Shortly after this Bolli, accompanied by Olafs sons—Olaf
himself having declined to interfere in the business—rode to
Saelingsdale and formally demanded from Osvif the hand of
his daughter in marriage. Osvif said that Gudruna, being a
widow, might act as she thought proper, hut promised to use
his influence in Bolli's behalf. Gudruna at first would not
listen to the proposal, hut was at length persuaded to give her
hand to Bolli. The marriage festival was, however, scarcely
over when Kjartan unexpectedly returned. Gudruna now
reproached her husband with having intentionally deceived
her ; Bolli declared that he had merely stated facts which no
one at the court of the Norwegian king would think of calling
in question. Gudruna remained silent, and never afterwards
made the least allusion to the subject, though Bolli did not
fail to remark that Kjartan was still the object of her affec¬
tions.
Kjartan, on learning that Gudruna had become the wife of
his sworn friend and foster-brother, was plunged in the deepest
melancholy : studiously avoiding company and being now a
zealous Christian, he kept Lent with the greatest strictness,
and people flocked to Herdholt to behold the singular spec¬
tacle of a man fasting, wondering how it was possible for any
one to keep body and soul together without tasting flesh meat.
The year after his arrival, Olafs family were invited to hold
the autumnal festival at Saelingsdale. Kjartan wished to
* This festival, called hausthoth (autumn-invitation), was held toward the
autumnal cijuinox, when the Icelanders were accustomed to kill all their
MANNEES AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDEKS.
3.5.5
remain at home ; hut his father at length persuaded him to
join the party, and Gudruna had the satisfaction of seeing him
arrive, dressed in the splendid suit of clothes and scarlet mantle
that King Olaf had made him a present of, with a helmet and
sword richly studded with ornaments of burnished gold, and
hearing a shield on which a golden cross was conspicuously
emblazoned, his suite consisting of thirteen armed retainers,
sumptuously apparelled. Belli received his foster-brother with
great cordiality, and at his departure offered him, as guest-gift
a fine white and hay mottled stallion and three mares of the
same colour, which Kjartan refused to accept, wishing to show
Belli that after what had taken place, a renewal of their former
friendship was not to be expected.
Kjartan still continued a prey to melancholy ; but the fol¬
lowing year was induced by his sister to marry a friend of
hers, named Hrefna, the daughter of one of the wealthiest
gentlemen of the district. Kjartan made his fair bride a pre¬
sent of the splendid head-dress which Ingjibjorg had destined
for Gudruna, and at the marriage festival recovered his wonted
cattle in good condition, and lay in a store of provision for the winter, and was,
like the winter or Yule—Jól—^festival, attended with religious ceremonies.
No mention is made in the Sagas relating to Iceland of a midsummer festival ;
but the Icelanders, like most other heathen nations, had probably a festival at
each of the four astronomical periods of the year—at the vernal as well as the
autumnal equinox, and at the summer as well as the winter solstice ; festivals
which, after the introduction of Christiarnty, were replaced by Lady-day and
Easter—by Midsummer (St. John's-day), Michaelmas (in honour of Michael
the Archangel), and Christmas, The reader will find some curious details
respecting the coincidence of Christian and heathen festivals in Finn Mag-
nusen's " Specimen Calendarii Grentilis," in the 3rd vol. of the Edda.
* At these festivals the principal guests received presents—generally horses,
swords, battle-axes, and gold rings—^at their departure. The Icelanders were
passionately fond of horses and horse-racing ; and money, or its equivalent, wad-
mal, appears to have changed hands at their races much in the same manner
as at Epsom and Newmarket. Thus, Thorir Dufunef, to cite one instance
among a hundred, when riding through Hrinverja dale on his famous mare
Fluga, (Fly, or, in modem turf language. Highflyer,) was met by Om, who
was mounted on a mare equally celebrated for her racing qualities. Orn bet
Thorir two marks and a half (one hundred and twenty ells of wadmal) that
his mare would beat Fluga. When the race came off Orn was, however,
completely distanced, which had such an effect on his mind that he shortly
afterward committed suicide. (Landnámab. iii. 8.) Bowls, quoits, wrest¬
ling and swimmings were also favourite amusements, bets being taken as at
horse-racing.
A A S
356
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
gaiety, and related—to the great delight of his numerous friends,
what they had so long been desirous of hearing,—his adventures
at the court of King Olaf, suppressing, we presume, the most
tender parts of the story, in consideration of his fair lady, who,
notwithstanding her gorgeous head-dress, would scarcely have
listened to them with becoming matronly decorum.
The next autumnal festival was held at Herdholt. When
the guests were going to take their seats, a lady asked for
whom the high seat was reserved. " For Hrefna !" exclaimed
Kjartan, " for as long as I live she shall be the most ho¬
noured." Gudruna, who had always occupied the high seat
on these festive occasions, looked at Kjartan and turned
deadly pale, but placed herself at the table without uttering a
syllable. The next day Gudruna told Hrefna that she ought
to put on the Lady Ingjibjörg's head-dress, in order that peo¬
ple might see the most costly article of the kind that had yet
been worn in Iceland ; but Kjartan objected to Hrefna wear¬
ing it, observing, that it was far more agreeable for him that
his wife should possess a treasure than that the public should
feast their eyes on it *. Gudruna, however, was determined
to see the head-dress, and, as ladies are very fond of display¬
ing their finery, she had no great difficulty in persuading
Hrefna to show it her ; but what effect it produced Hrefna
could not divine, Gudruna, after turning it about in her hands
and examining it minutely, giving it her back without making
a single observation. When the festival was over, a splendid
sword that had been presented to Kjartan by King Olaf was
missing. This sword was afterwards found, very much da¬
maged, in a morass, into which Kjartan ascertained that it had
been thrown by one of Gudruna s brothers.
The winter festival was held at Osvif's mansion, Olaf, sadly
against Kjartan's inclination, repairing thither with his family.
* The Lady Ingjibjörg's head-dress, which caused so much
mischief, was probably one of those high-peaked caps much
in the same style as those worn in Iceland at the present day.
The annexed wood-cut, copied from " Henderson's Iceland,"
represents an Icelandic female (of the nineteenth century)
in her bridal attire ; the high-peaked cap, or falldr, as it is
called, being of fine linen or muslin, with a fillet ornamented
with gold lace.
MANNEES AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDEKS. 357
Hrefna was easily persuaded by her mother-in-law, Thorgerda,
to take her splendid head-dress with her, which, on her ar¬
rival, she gave to one of Gudruna's waiting-maids to take care
of. The next day, when she was going to dress for the ban¬
quet, it was nowhere to be found. The scene that ensued
may easily be imagined—Hrefna in tears, Thorgerda giving^
due vent to her passion, Kjartan chafing with rage, and Olaf
striving in vain to pacify them. Kjartan vowed by all that he
held sacred that he would make Bolli restore the lost trea¬
sure. Bolli, in his turn, felt himself insulted in being ac¬
cused of theft, declaring that he knew nothing about the head¬
dress, and that Kjartan ought to be aware that he was not the
man to do the mean action attributed to him. In the midst
of this confusion, Gudruna very coolly observed, that if any
one in the house had taken the head-dress, it must be some
one who wished it to come into the possession of its rightful
owner. Olafs family and retainers then mounted their horses
and rode home, Kjartan declaring that after what had passed
a reconciliation was out of the question.
Shortly after this event, Kjm-tan, with sixty retainers, sur¬
rounded Osvif's mansion, and kept it for three days and
nights in a state of the strictest blockade. On his return
home, Olaf blamed him for having had recourse to such a pro¬
ceeding, but Thorgerda declared that he had acted with be¬
coming spirit, Osvif's family having deserved a much greater
insult. Hrefna asked him whether he had not spoken to any
of the family.
" I exchanged a few words with Bolli," replied Kjartan, in
a tone of affected indifference.
" Kay," said Hrefna, " I have been told for a certainty
that thou didst converse with Gudruna, who wore the Lady
Jngjibjörg's head-dress, which became her amazingly."
" I have not seen what thou chatterest about," answered
Kjartan, reddening with anger, " and let me tell thee that
Gudruna has no need to deck herself out with a head-dress to
be the most lovely of her sex."
Some time afterward Kjartan, having heard that Bolli
had bargained for an estate but had not yet paid the purchaser
money, went to the proprietor and induced him to let him
have it on the same terms. Gudruna incited her brothers to
avenge this .insult in the Icelandic manner, namely, to waylay
358
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
Kjartan and murder him, and bj dint of jeering him for what
she was pleased to term his cowardice, at length induced her
husband to acompany them. Kjartan had been warned not to
go out without a numerous retinue, but he daily visited his
new estate accompanied only by two retainers, observing, that
he cared not for Osvif's sons, and as for Bolli he was sure
that his foster-brother would never lift his sword against him.
One day, as he was returning home, he found himself waylaid
by nine armed men, among whom he descried Osvif's sons and
Bolli. His two retainers were soon despatched, but Kjartan
defended himself with his usual dexterity, and managed to
kill several of his opponents without receiving the slightest
injury. Bolli having remained at a short distance without
taking any part in the sanguinary action, Kjartan called out
to him to come amongst them, saying, " Cousin Bolli, why
didst thou leave thy home to stand there the idle spectator of
a combat, thou wouldst do better, methinks, to side with one
of us." Bolli, however, pretended not to hear either Kjartan
or his brothers-in-law, who jeered him for his inaction. Pro¬
voked at length by their sarcasms, he rushed sword in hand
against Kjartan.
" Thou art now going to do a nithing-work'-¡s friend Bolli,"
said Kjartan, "and it will be better that I receive my death
wound from thee, than for me to give thee thine ; " and so
saying, he threw down his sword and shield and refused any
longer to defend himself. Bolli, unmoved by this noble con¬
duct, ran Kjartan through the body with the sword which
Thurida had given him f. With feelings of bitter compunc¬
tion for the rash act he had committed, Bolli then raised
Kjartan from the ground, who expired without uttering a
single word of reproach in the arms of his foster-brother.
Olaf would not let his sons avenge their brother's death on
Bolli himself, but allowed them to kill several of that chief¬
tain's retainers. He then summoned Osvif's sons to appear
before the Al-thing, but could not be induced to include Bolli
in the summons. Bolli, however, paid the usual expiatory
fine, and Osvif's sons having been found guilty in the forensic
circle of the Al-thing, were condemned to the punishment of
exile. Hrefna, inconsolable for the loss of Kjartan, to whom
she appears to have been tenderly attached, died shortly after-
* See page 155. + See page 318.
manners and customs of the icelanders. 359
wards of a broken heart, and before three years had elapsed,
Olaf Pá expired, (a.d. 1006,) with Christian resignation, in his
family mansion of Herdholt.
Thorgerda, after her husband's death, told her sons that
they ought now to take ample vengeance on Bolli. They
accordingly, in compliance with the old lady's wishes, went
to Saslingsdale with several of their friends and retainers, and
Bolli, being unprepared for an effectual resistance, fell under
the battle-axe of Helgi Hardbeinson. Gudruna, who had
been out with her maidens bleaching linen, on entering the
house found her husband weltering in his gore at the feet of
Helgi, who very coolly wiped his battle-axe with the hem of
her kirtle. Gudruna regarded him with a significant smile
of derision, and Helgi, on being reproached by Olafs sons for
his inhuman conduct, said, " Ye need not reproach me, for I
have a presentiment that under that kirtle lies my bane."
Gudruna, in fact, a few months afterwards gave birth to a
son, who received in baptism the name that had been borne by
his father.
When Bolli Bollison was twelve years old, a valiant, though
somewhat foolish fellow, named Thorgils Holluson, fell in
love with Gudruna, who promised him in the presence of wit¬
nesses that if he would join her sons in taking ample ven¬
geance on Helgi, she would not marry any one else in the dis¬
trict. Helgi was accordingly attacked in the usual Icelandic
manner and killed, as he had predicted, by Bolli Bollison.
When Thorgils reminded Gudruna of the solemn promise she
had made to give him her hand as a reward for the service he
had rendered, she told him very coolly that she was on the
point of marrying Thorkell Eyjulfson.
" How is this ! " exclaimed Thorgils, " thou hast deceived
me."
"Nay," said Gudruna, "there is no deception. Thou
knowest that I promised not to marry any one else in the dis¬
trict but thee. Now although Thorkell does reside in the dis¬
trict, he was in Norway when I made the promise. Thou seest,
therefore, that thou hast nothing to reproach me with."
We are not informed what impression this scholastic dis¬
tinction made on Thorgils ; but if the Jesuits had in that
age darkened the earth with their ambiguous presence, we
think Gudruna might have become a very useful member of
their worthy community.
860
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
Gudruna's fourth marriage was celebrated with the greatest
splendour imaginable. A short time previously she had
taken under her protection a Norwegian, named Gunnar, who
had killed a young Icelander of rank, and was hotly pursued
by his relatives. At the marriage festival, Thorkell, after
eyeing this gentleman for some time with great suspicion,
ordered him to be arrested. Gudruna, however, instantly
sprung from her seat and flew to his rescue, commanding her
retainers to draw their swords and defend him, telling her
husband, at the same time, that if he did not desist from his
purpose, she would there and then be divorced from him.
Thorkell, not knowing how to manage such a fiery lady, let
her have her own way, and cooled his anger by emptying, at
a draught, the capacious drinking horn placed before him.
Gudruna afterwards persuaded her indulgent husband to
make Gunnar a present of a fine trading vessel, in which she
packed him off to his own country.
Some years afterwards Thorkell went to Norway, and was
well received by King Olaf II. -'■% who gave him 100 marks
of silver, and sufficient timber to erect a large church in
Iceland. Not long after his return home. Thorkell was
drowned in the Breidafjord. Gudruna being again a widow,
became very devout, and was the first woman in Iceland that
learned psalm singing. She was also the first who became a
nun, having in her old age entered the first convent established
in the island. Bolli Bollison passed several years abroad,
and served with distinction in the famous Varangian body¬
guard of the Byzantine emperors. On his return to Ice¬
land, he frequently visited his mother in her solitude, and
one day had the curiosity to ask her for which of her wooers
she had entertained the greatest affection. Gudruna replied
by saying something in praise of each of her husbands ; but
on Bolli reiterating his question, she exclaimed, with a sigh,
"He to whom I was the most evil disposed was the most be¬
loved by me ! "
These abstracts of three of the most interesting Sagas that
relate to Iceland will render any further details respecting
* Olaf II. reigned from 1015—1028, when Norway was subdued by*
Canute. Olaf attempted to recover his crown, but was slain in a battle
fought near Drontheim, A.D. 1030, and, after being duly canonized, became
the patron saint of Norway, or, in other words, the successor of Thor ; patron
saint and tutelary deity being in those days pretty nearly synonymous.
MANNEKS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ICELANDEES. 361
the manners and customs of the Icelanders superfluous. The
reader has seen them at their drinking-bouts their festivals,
their legislative and forensic assemblies, and obtained a good
insight both of their public and private intercourse, and he
will probaby coincide with us in opinion that the graphic
sketches which they have themselves given of their social ex¬
istence, produce, on the whole, an unfavourable impression.
The worst traits of the ancient Scandinavian character—
craftiness, remorseless cruelty, a spirit of sanguinary revenge,
perfidy, malice, slander, recklessness regarding the lives and
property of others—are, in fact, every where but too con¬
spicuous ; though we also find the Scandinavian energy, valour,
enterprise, love of independence, and a few other redeeming
traits, that render the picture somewhat less sombre. And
if a strict comparison were instituted between the social
condition of Iceland and that of other countries, we should
probably be induced to place it, notwithstanding its vicious-
ness, rather above than below the average standard of civiliz¬
ation that prevailed in Europe during those barbarous ages.
That an aristocratic republic should have flourished for four
centuries on a comparatively barren island, placed amidst the
wild waves of the Arctic Ocean, and that the leading men of
this republic should have framed a code of laws, which, what¬
ever may be its defects, secured at least an ample provision
for the poorest member of the community, and suffered no
one to perish from starvation, are facts which will always ren¬
der Iceland peculiarly interesting to all who make human
nature—or the development of humanity on earth, in its
multifarious and ever varying aspects—the object of their
* Antiquaries have not been able to ascertain whether the Icelanders brewed
their beer from oats, rye, or barley. Previous to the eleventh century bread
and wine were unknown in Iceland. The standing dish of an Icelandic
family was oatmeal porridge ; they had also plenty of butter and cheese, and,
on festive occasions, their tables were abundantly supplied with beef, mutton,
veal, pork, and horseflesh, and with fresh and dried fish. They appear to
have been equally as fond of steaks as the people of this country ; in fact, the.
Old Norse word for cook, is steaher, (steikari,) though meat stoain, (mat-
sveinn,) is also used to designate that indispensable household functionary.
Our word steak is evidently derived from the Old Norse steik, which, how-,
ever, was not restricted to beef ; the term being applied by an Icelandic
steaker to any slice of flesh meat that he had to prepare for the table.
Horse steaks were probably as much in request at an Icelandic convivial
meeting, as rump steaks are in a London tavern at the present day.
362
northern antiquities.
special atteution. It is also a very remarkable fact, that,
notwithstanding its rude climate, the Icelanders should have
evinced, in every age, an ardent attachment for their native
island. To leave it, and lead for a few years an adventurous
life in foreign countries, was considered, in the olden time,
as the necessary complement of a youth's education. " Heimskr
er heimalid bam." Inexperienced is he who remains in his
native land—literally, homely is the h&me-bred child—was a
favourite Icelandic maxim. But whatever might he his
career—whether he acquired wealth and renown as a daring
sea-rover, or served with distinction in the Varangian body¬
guard of the Byzantine emperors ; whether he pursued the
more peaceful avocations of a Skald or a Sagaman, and be¬
came a welcome guest at every court his wandering disposi¬
tion induced him to visit, the Icelander was sure to return
and pass at least his old age amidst the volcanic fires and
eternal snows of his own cherished island. And even at the
present day, when an Icelander hears tell of the genial climes
of the south, he exclaims, while he views with a happy con¬
tentment the bleak scenery around him, "After all, Iceland
is the best land that the sun shines upon ! Island er hinn
besta land sem solinn skinnar uppá."
CHAPTEB IV.
ICELANDIC LITEKATUßE.
Our limits only allow us to give a mere sketch of the lite¬
rature of Iceland in the olden time. We shall regard it as
naturally falling into the three divisions of Eddaic, Skaldic,
and Saga literature, and say a few words respecting each :
eddaio literature.
There are two works which bear the title of Edda, the one
in verse, the other in prose. The Poetic, or Elder Edda ^i*-,
* Yarious derivations have been given of the word Edda, which in Old
Norse signifies simply, great grandmother, in which sense it is used in the
Rlgs-mâl. In M. Gothic atta is used for father, and aithei for mother.
Smmund's Edda was quite unknown to the learned world until the seven¬
teenth centurv, when the celebrated Torfseus received a MS. containing
ICELANDIC LITERATURE.
363
consists of thirty nine poems, which were collected by Saemund
Sigfusson, (n. 1057. oh. 1131,) surnamed the Learned, to¬
wards the latter end of the eleventh or the beginning of the
twelfth century. Saemund, after pursuing his classical and
theological studies in the universities of France and Germany,
became, on his return to Iceland, the parish priest of Oddi,
a village situated at the foot of Mount Hekla, and which had
belonged to his family from the time of the first colonization
of the island, and where he seems to have devoted himself
with great zeal to the cultivation of letters and the education
of youth. Some writers maintain, though without being able
to adduce the slightest evidence in support of their arguments,
that Ssemund merely transcribed the Eddaic poems from Runic
manuscripts, or Runic staves ; but the most probable con¬
jecture seems to be that he collected them from oral tradition,
though he may possibly have found some of the most important
amongst them in manuscripts written in Roman characters,
shortly after the introduction of Christianity.
The Eddaic poems maybe classified as follows:—1. The
Mythic-cosmogonic. 2. The Mythic-ethnologic. 3. The
Ethic. 4. The Mythological. 5. The Mythic-heroic. 6. The
Miscellaneous. One of them—the Sólar-ljód—was probably
composed by Saemund himself, as it is the only one that con¬
tains the least allusion to Christianity *. All the others, espe¬
cially the Mythic-cosmogonic poems, bear internal evidence
that entitles them to the claim of a much higher antiquity
than the eleventh century.
The Mytliic-cosmogonic poems are the V'ólmpá, the Vqf-
thrúdnis-mál, and the Grimnis-mâl. The Y'ôlu, or V'ólo-spá—
a compound word, signifying The Song of the Prophetess —
it from Iceland. Resenius gave two of the poems in the first edition of the
Prose Edda, published in 1665, but we have now a complete edition of all
the poems, with notes and glossaries, in 3 volumes, 4to., published by the
Arni-jVIagnœan Commission at Copenhagen, the 1st volume in 1787, the 2nd
in 1818, and the 3rd, which is provided with an excellent " Lexicon Mytho-
logicum" by Finn Maguasen, in 1828.
* "With the exception of a couplet in the thirteenth strophe of the Grou-
galdur, in which mention is made of the (magical) evil to be apprehended
from the dead body of a Christian woman, " kristin daud kona," and per¬
haps also one or two obscure allusions in the mythic-heroic poems.
f Scotict Vala's spae.—)See the Glossary to the Prose Edda. All the
Teutonic nations appear to have had their Valas or prophetesses ; Caesar re¬
marks, i. 60, that " apiid Germanos ea consuetudo esset, ut matres familias
364
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
appears to be the oldest as it is the most interesting of the
Eddaic poems. It is a kind of Sybilline lay, supposed—though
we think without any adequate grounds—to have been recited
before the assembled people at the religious festival of the
summer solstice, and contains the whole system of Scandi¬
navian mythology—the creation, the origin of man, how evil
and death were brought into the world, and concludes by a
prediction of the destruction and renovation of the universe,
and a description of the future abodes of bliss and misery. As
numerous extracts from this poem are given in the Prose Edda,
of which it in fact forms the groundwork, any further details
respecting it would be superfluous.
The Vafthrúdnismál contains the same system of cosmo¬
gonie mythology in the form of a dramatic dialogue between
Odin and the giant Vafthrúdnir. The poem commences by
Odin telling his wife, Frigga, that he intends to visit Vaf¬
thrúdnir in order to ascertain the extent of his knowledge
of sacred lore. Frigga fearing that Odin—to whose fate that
of gods and men was indissolubly linked—might be van¬
quished in an intellectual encounter with a giant so renowned
for his omniscience, advises him to desist from his purpose.
Odin, however, proceeds on his journey, and enters the halls
of Vafthrúdnir as a mere mortal under the name of Gangrad.
The giant finding, after he had asked the stranger a few
questions, that he had a worthy antagonist, invites him to take
a seat, and expresses his willingness to enter into a disputa¬
tion with him on the condition that the vanquished party—the
one unable to answer a question put to him by the other—
should forfeit his head. They accordingly discuss by question
and answer the principal topics of Scandinavian mythology ;
but the pretended Gangrad at length asks his adversary what
eonim sortibus et vaticinationibus declararent, utrum prœlium committi ex
usu esset, nee ne and Tacitus in giving an account of Veleda, the prophetic
virgin of the Bructeri, says. Hist. 4. 61, " Ea virgo nationis Bructerae,
late imperitabat, vetere apud Grermanos more, quo plerasque feminarum fati-
d.icas, et augescente superstitione arbitrantur deas." He afterwards speaks of
Veleda giving her oracular responses from the tower in which she dwelt.
The classic writers also make mention of Ganna and Auidnia (probably a
Latin corruption of Alirúna) as Germanic prophetesses.
* Mal, song, discourse, speech, a word cognate with the Ang. Sax. mal,
mœl, the Gr. ^íí.a¡, &c. For an explanation of the proper names that occur
in this chapter, see the Glossary to the Prose Edda.
ICELANDIC LTTEIÎATUEE.
365
Odin whispered in the ear of his son Baldur before he had
him placed on the funeral pile,—a question by which the
astonished giant becomes aware that his antagonist is Odin
himself, who was alone capable of answering it, and therefore
acknowledges himself vanquished. Although the limits of
the present work only allow us to give a mere summary of
these ancient myths, we cannot refrain from remarking that
most of them admit of a satisfactory explanation. The dis¬
pute between Odin and Vafthrúdnir, for instance, is the
symbolical expression of the strife between summer and winter
—between light and darkness ; the earth, (Frigga,) naturally
awaiting with anxiety the issue of a combat on which her
fate depends. As darkness was also supposed to conceal some
profound mystery, some primordial knowledge which could
only be revealed by the rays of light dissipating the enshroud¬
ing gloom, the disputation of Odin and Vafthrúdnir may typify,
not only the elemental antagonism of light and darkness, but
also the strife between intellectuality and obscurantism—a
strife coeval with man, and which we fear will only end when
time shall be no more ; although it were certainly much to be
wished that obscurantism should become like Vafthrúdnir, a
headless monster ; or, in other words, that the rays of science
should at length dissipate that deadening and soul-withering
gloom in which the human understanding is still unfortunately
enshrouded.
The Grimnis-mal (Grimnir's lay) contains, among other
matters, a description of twelve habitations of celestial deities,
which were possibly meant (for we will not venture to speak
so dogmatically on the subject as Finn Magnusen, and other
interpreters of Eddaic esoteric doctrines,) for the twelve signs
of the zodiac. Should this be the true interpretation, Grim¬
nir's lay may be regarded as a mythic-uranographic poem,
under which point of view it is well deserving of attention.
The Mythic-ethnologic class contains only one poem, the
Hîgs-mâl, which explains, in an allegorical manner, the origin
of the different races, or, more properly speaking, castes,
located in Scandinavia at the period it was composed. Heim-
dall—who, as the warder of heaven, is here a symbol of the
sun—wanders, under the name of Rigr, over the earth, then
but thinly peopled, probably, according to the notions of the
866'
MORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
Skald, only with the immediate offspring of Ask and Emhla *.
Heimdall is received and entertained with great hospitality,
first by Ai (Great Grandfather) and Edda (Great Grandmother),
dwelling in a lowly hut ; then by Afi (Grandfather) and Amma
(Grandmother), located in a more comfortable habitation ; and
lastly by Fa^ir (Father) and Mó^ir (Mother), who possess a
splendid mansion. The deity, by his beneficent presence,
infuses a vital energy into his hosts, and nine months after
his departure Edda, Amma, and Mo^ir respectively give
birth to a son. The children are sprinkled with water at the
moment of their birth f ; Edda's son is called Threell (Thrall);
Amma's, Karl (Churl) ; and Mo^ir's, Jarl (Noble) ; and. Thrall,
Churl, and Noble have each of them a numerous offspring. We
have thus an aristocratic explanation of the three castes that
appear, at a very early period, to have formed the framework
of Scandinavian society. The thralls or slaves, the churls
or free peasants—bœndur or odalsmen, as they were after¬
wards called—and the nobles. The Skald describes the
thralls as having black hair, an unsightly countenance, an
uncouth appearance, and as being of a low and deformed
stature ; physiological traits, characteristic of the Lapps, who
were probably reduced to a state of vassalage by their Scandi¬
navian conquerors. The destiny of the thralls is, of course,
to toil incessantly, in order that by their labour, the churls
' may obtain sufi&cient produce from the earth to enable the
nobles to live with becoming splendour. The Skald shows
his contempt for this caste by giving Thrœll's sons such names
as Frousy, Stumpy, Plumpy, Sootyface, Slowpace, Home¬
spun, &c., and calling his daughters Lazybody, Cranefoot,
Smokynose, Tearclout, &c. The churls are described as
having red hair and a florid complexion ; and among the sons
of Karl, the progenitor of the caste, we find Stiffbeard, Hus¬
bandman, Holder (of land), and Smith J, the daughters being
* See tte Prose Edda, ch. 9.
^ See note, page 206, and pages 313 and 320.
Í We trust that all who bear the ubiquitous homonyme of Smith, be they
Smiths, or Smyths, or Smithsons, or Goldsmiths, or Smythes, excellence,
will duly acknowledge the sturdy Scandinavian yeoman, Smfôr, son of Churl,
son of the jovial old fellow. Grandfather, who had the honour of pledging a
bumper with a celestial deity, as their common ancestor.
ICELAKDIC LITEEATÜKE.
367
designated by such names asPrettyface, Swanlike, Blithespeech,
Chatterbox, &c. But the Skald reserves all his eloquence
for the nobles, who, he tells us, " have fair hair, a clear com¬
plexion and fine piercing eyes, their sole avocations being to
wield the sword, dart the javelin, rein the fiery steed, chase
the deer, and other elegant amusements, which Jaii's descend¬
ants still delight to astonish the churls with. The Skald
marries, Jarl to Ema (Lively), the daughter of Hersir (Baron),,
but only gives us the names of their sons, which generally
denote relationship, as Cousin, Nephew, &c. The Págs-mál
furnishes a striking proof of the aristocratic spirit that pre¬
vailed in Scandinavia at a very early period of its history, and
we should recommend its attentive perusal to those writers
who, allowing a tolerable free scope to their imaginative facul¬
ties, expatiate on the marvels which, according to their notions,
have been wrought by the influence of a Scandinavian demo¬
cratic element, transfused into the veins of the phlegmatic
Saxon. For our own part we are inclined to regard an aristo¬
cratic feeling as one of the inherent psychological traits of the
Teutonic race, and this trait was unquestionably, in the olden
time, more conspicuous among the nations forming the Scan¬
dinavian branch of this race, than among those constituting
its Germanic branch.
There is only one Eddaic poem, the Háva-mál "■% that can
be placed in the Ethic class ; but it forms of itself a tolerable
complete code of Odinic morality, though the reader will find
by the following extracts, translated by Bishop Percy f, that
several of its precepts would be " more honoured in the breach
than the observance."
1. " Consider and examine well all your doors before you
venture to stir abroad : for he is exposed to continual danger,
whose enemies lie in ambush concealed in his court."
3. " To the guest, who enters your dwelling with frozen
* Háva-mál signifies tlie discourse or canticle of the sublime; {. e. deity.
The canticle of canticles,—Odin himself being supposed to have given these
precepts of wisdom to mankind.
f Bishop Percy remarks that he made his translation from Mallet's French
translation, occasionally consulting a manuscript copy of Resenius's Latin ver¬
sion. We have numbered the verses as in the original, omitting some, un¬
important in themselves, which offered too great a discrepancy with the
original Norse text published in the third volume of the Edda.
368
NOBTHEKN ANTIQUITIES,
knees, give the warmth of your fire : he who hath travelled
over the mountains hath need of food, and well-dried gar¬
ments."
4. " Offer water to him who sits down at your table ; for
he hath occasion to cleanse his hands : and entertain him
honourably and kindly, if you would win from him friendly
words, and a grateful return."
5. " He who travelleth hath need of wisdom. One may do
at home whatsoever one will ; but he who is ignorant of good
manners, will only draw contempt upon himself, when he
comes to sit down with men well instructed."
7. " He who goes to a feast, where he is not expected,
either speaks with a lowly voice, or is silent ; he listens with
his ears, and is attentive with his eyes : by this he acquires
knowledge and wisdom."
8. " Happy he, who draws upon himself the applause and
benevolence of men ! for whatever depends noon the will of
others, is hazardous and uncertam."
10. "A man can carry with him no better provision for his
Journey than the strength of understanding. In a foreign
country this will be of more use to him than treasures ; and
will introduce him to the table of strangers. "
12-13. " A man cannot carry a worse custom with him to
a banquet than that of drinking too much; the more the
drunkard swallows, the less is his wisdom, till he loses his
reason. The bird of oblivion sings before those who inebriate
themselves, and steals away their souls."
16. "A coward thinks he shall live for ever, if he can but
keep out of the reach of arms ; but though he should escape
every weapon, old age, that spares none, will give him no
quarter.'*
17. " The gluttonous man, if he is not upon his guard, eats
his own death : and the gluttony of a fool makes the wise man
laugh."
21. " The flocks know when to return to the fold, and to
quit the pasture : but the worthless and slothful know not
how to restrain their gluttony."
22. " The lewd and dissolute man makes a mock of every
thing : not considering how much he himself is the object of
derision. No one ought to laugh at another, until he is free
from faults himself."
ICELANDIC LITEKATUKE.
369
23. " A man void of sense ponders all night long, and his
mind wanders without ceasing : but when he is weary at the
point of day, he is nothing wiser than he was over-night."
32. " Many are thought to be knit in the ties of sincere
kindness : hut when it comes to the proof, how much are they
deceived. Slander is the common vice of the age. Even the
host backbites his guest."
37. " One's own home is the best home, though never so
small *. Every thing one eats at home is sweet. He who
lives at another man's table is often obliged to wrong his
palate."
39. "I have never yet found a man so generous and muni¬
ficent, as that to receive at his house was not to receive : nor
any so free and liberal of his gifts, as to reject a present when
it was returned to him."
41. " Let friends pleasure each other reciprocally by pre¬
sents of arms and habits. Those who give and those who re¬
ceive, continue a long time friends, and often give feasts to
each other."
43. " Love both your friends, and your friends' friends : hut
do not favour the friend of vour enemies."
47. " When I was young I wandered about alone : I thought
myself rich if I chanced to light upon a companion. A man
gives pleasure to another man."
51. " Peace, among the perfidious, continues for five nights
to shine bright as a flame ; but when the sixth night ap¬
proaches, the flame waxes dim, and is quite extinguished:
then all their amity turns to hatred."
55. " Let not a man be over wise, neither let him be more
curious than he ought. Let him not seek to know his destiny,
if he would sleep secure and quiet."
58. " He who seeks to destroy the flock, or to take the life
of another, must rise early. The sleeping wolf gains not the
prey; neither the drowsy man the victory."-
67. " They invite me up and down to feasts, if I have only
need of a slight breakfast : my faithful friend is he who will
give me one loaf when he has hut two."
70. " Whilst we live, let us live well : for be a man never
* This is like our English proverb, "Home is home, be it never so
homely."—P.
B B
370
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
SO rich, when he lights his fire, death may perhaps enter his
door before it be burnt out."
72. " It is better to have a son late than never. One
seldom sees sepulchral stones raised over the graves of
the dead by any other hands hut those of their own off¬
spring."
77. " Pdches pass away like the twinkling of an eye : of
all friends they are the most inconstant. Flocks perish; re¬
lations die ; friends are not immortal ; you will die yourself ;
hut I know one thing alone that is out of the reach of fate :
and that is the judgment which is passed upon the dead."
81. "Praise the fineness of the day when it is ended;
praise a woman when she is buried ; á sword when you have
proved it ; a maiden after she is married ; the ice when once
you have crossed it ; and the liquor after it is drunk."
84. "Trust not to the words of a girl; neither to those
which a woman utters ; for their hearts have been made like
the wheel that turns round; levity was put into their
bosoms."
86, 7, &c. " Trust not to the ice of one day's freezing ;
neither to the serpent who lies asleep ; nor to the caresses
of her you are going to marry ; nor to a sword that is cracked
or broken ; nor to the son of a powerful man ; nor to a field
that is newly sown."
90. "Peace between malicious women is compared to a
horse who is made to walk over the ice not properly shod ; or
to a vessel in a storm without a rudder ; or to a lame man
who should attempt to follow the mountain goats with a young
foal or yearling mule."
92. " He who would make himseK beloved by a maiden,
must entertain her with fine discourses, and offer her en¬
gaging presents : he must also incessantly praise her beauty.
It requires good sense to be a skilful lover."
95. " The heart alone knows what passes within the heart :
and that which betrays the soul is the soul itself. There is
no malady or sickness more severe than not to be content
with one's lot."
117. " Seek not to seduce another's wife with the alluring
charms of Runic incantations."
* This is not unlike the English proverb, " Praise the bridge that carries
you safe over."
ICELANDIC LITEEATÜEE.
371
119. " Never discover your uneasiness to an evil person,
for he will afford you no comfort."
121. " Know, that if you have a friend, you ought to visit
him often. The road is grown over with grass, the bushes
quickly spread over it, if it is not constantly travelled."
123. " Be not the first to break with your friend. Sorrow
gnaws the heart of him who hath no one to advise with but
himself."
130. " I advise you he circumspect, hut not too much : he
so, however, when you have drunk to excess ; when you are
near the wife of another ; and when you find yourself among
rohhers.
131. "Do not accustom yourself to mocking; neither laugh
at your guest nor a stranger : they who remain at home often
know not who the stranger is that cometh to their gate."
135. " Where is there to he found a virtuous man without
some failing ? or one so wicked as to have no good quality ?
136. " Laugh not at the gray-headed declaimer, nor at thy
aged grandsire. There often come forth from the wrinkles
of the skin words full of wisdom."
140. " The fire drives away diseases ; the oak expels the
stranguaiy : straws dissolve enchantments * ; Eunic characters
destroy the effect of imprecations : the earth swallows up
inundations; and death extinguishes hatred and quarrels."
THE EUNIC CHAPTEEf.
149. " I am possessed of songs ; such as neither the
spouse of a king, nor any son of man can repeat ; one of them
is called the Helper : it will help thee at thy need, in sick¬
ness, grief, and all adversities.
150. "I know a song, which the sons of men ought to
sing, if they would become skilful physicians.
151. "I know a song, by which I soften and enchant the
arms of my enemies; and render their weapons of no
effect !
* Hence probably is derived the custom of laying two straws crosswise in
the path where a witch is expected to come.
4 This chapter does not appear to have originally formed part of the Hava-
mál. At all events, the learned editors of the Edda will not allow it to be
attributed to Odin ; that is to say, to the same high sacerdotal dignitary or
dignitaries who dictated the preceding precepts.—En.
872
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
152, " I know a song, which I need only to sing when
men have loaded me with bonds ; for the moment I sing it,
my chains fall in pieces, and I walk forth at liberty."
156. "I know a song, useful to all mankind ; for as soon
as hatred inflames the sons of men, the moment I sing it
they are appeased.
157. "I know a song of such virtue, that were I caught in
a storm, I can hush the winds, and render the air perfectly
calm.
158. "When I see magicians travelling through the air, I
disconcert them by a single look, and force them to abandon
their enterprise.
159. " If I see a man dead and hanging aloft on a tree, I
engrave Runic characters so wonderful, that the man imme¬
diately descends and converses with me."
161. " If I will that a man should neither fall in battle,
nor perish by the sword, I sprinkle him over with water at
the instant of his birth.
162. " If I will, I can explain the nature of all the different
species of men, of genii, and of gods. None hut the wise can
know all their differences."
164. " If I aspire to the love and the favour of the chastest
virgin, I can bend the mind of the snowy-armed maiden, and
make her yield wholly to my desires."
166. "But I know one which I will never impart to any
female, except my own sister, or to her whom I hold in my
arms. Whatever is known only to one's self, is always of
very great value."
The following verse, which neither M. Mallet nor Bishop
Percy thought proper to give, is too Scandinavian tobe omitted.
45. " Hast thou a friend whom thou canst not well trust,
but wouldst make him useful to thee, speak to him with
bland words, but think craftily, and thus render him levity
for lies."
The poems conclude with the following verse.
167. "Now have sublime strains been sung, in halls sub¬
lime. Useful are they to the sons of men ; useless to the
sons of giants ! Hail to him who hath sung them ! Hail to
him who hath understood them! may they proflt him who
hath retained them ! Hail to those who have lent an ear to
them ! "
ICELANDIC LITERATURE.
373
The poems we have given this summary account of, may
be regarded as forming a logical sequence, and constituting a
system of heathen doctrine complete in all its parts ; for the
three niythic-cosmogonic poems explain the mysteries of
creation ; the Rigs-mál shows the origin, and points out the
duties of the castes into which society was then divided ; and
the Háva-mál lays down precepts, of a somewhat dubious
morality, for the better regulation of this society. Our notice
of the remaining poems, which appear to be of a more recent
date than the preceding ones, must necessarily be very
brief.
The Mythological class contains six poems. ]. Yegtams-
(The Wanderer's lay)'!=. The Prose Edda informs us
that Baldur, " having been tormented with terrible dreams,
indicating that his life was in great peril, communicated them
to the assembled gods, who resolved to conjure all things, to
avert from him the threatened danger."! Odin, however,
being aware that the fate of the gods depended on that of
Baldur, has still his doubts whether these precautions would,
avert the dreaded evil. He accordingly mounts his horse,
Sleipnir J, and rides to the abodes of death, in order to evoke
the spirit of a deceased Vala, or Prophetess, with Runic in¬
cantations, and leam Baldur's fate. It is this descent of
Odin to the regions of Píela, that forms the subject of the
Vegtams-kvi^a, which has been so beautifully paraphrased,
by Gray, in his ode beginning—
" Up rose the king of men with speed.
And saddled straight his coal-black steed.'
Odin, under the name of Vegtam, evokes the sybil from
her tomb §, who reveals to him how Baldur will fall by the
hand of Hödur, in the manner related in the -IGth chapter of
the Prose Edda, to which we refer the reader.
2. For Skirnis (The journey of Skirnir). A very beautiful
* The lay of one accustomed to the road—literally, Waytamers-quoiJi.
KvKa, (formerly written, as in the edition of the Edda, quida,) from the verb
kvë^ja, to say; cognate with the English quote, quoth. Vegtam, from vegr,
way, and tamr, accustomed ; cognate with the Grerm., zahm, and the English
tame.
f See the Prose Edda, chap. 49.
Î See the Prose Edda, chap. 42.
§ This is the only instance of a tomb being mentioned in the regions of
Hela.
S74
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
poem, giving, in a dramatic dialogue, the story of Frey and
Gerda, which the reader will find in the 37th chapter of the
Prose Edda
3. Hárhards-ljód t, is a dialogue between Thor and Hárhard,
a ferryman, who refuses to convey the Thunderer across a
frith, which furnishes them with an occasion to relate the
valorous exploits they have respectively been engaged in.
The esoteric doctrine concealed by the Skald under this
popular form, is probably that of the elemental antagonism of
light and darkness, represented at a period when darkness—
Hárbard, or the Demon of Winter—is in the ascendant.
4. Thryms-kvi^a e'Ôr Hamarsheimt, (Thrym's lay, or the
Pecovery of the Mallet,) is, irrespective of its signification, one
of the most amusing poems of the Eddaic collection. Thor's
* The reader will find very teautiful poetical versions of the For SMrnis,
and other Eddaic poems, in the works of the late Hon. William Herbert, Dean of
Manchester. Mr. Herbert's translations are generally correct, and always
elegant, though somewhat too ornate ; but the most ludicrous bombast ever
published is the so-called translation of, " The Edda of Ssemund, into English
verse," by Amos Cottle, of Bristol. A luckless wight was the said Amos
Cottle ; for just as he was sinking, with his rhapsodical efiiisions, into the
charitable void of utter oblivion, Byron caught him up, and, with his
" Oh ! Amos Cottle ! for a moment think
What meagre profits spring from pen and ink,"
has preserved him, like a fly in amber, for future generations to wonder at.
As poor Amos has thus become a literary curiosity, we subjoin a specimen of
his translation.
" Chief of lineage divine !—
Long may thy princely virtues shine—
Tell me, for I wish to know.
The story of thy bitter woe ;
Say, why you shun the field and gi-ove.
And lonely thus your chambers rove.
Should you my boldness disapprove.
Forgive me— 'tis the crime of love."
The literal translation of the original text of this Cottlized Eddaic stroplie,
the third of the For Skirnis, would be—
" Say thou to me, (tell me,) Frey, Leader of Gods ! what I wish to know ;
why my chief (or my lord—minn drottinn) sittest thou, the whole day, ia
the hall alone 1"
Mr. Herbert renders the passage by—
" Prince of the gods, and first in fight.
Speak, honour'd Freyr, and tell me right !
Why speeds my lord the tedious day
In this lone hall, to grief a prey ? "
f Ljód, properly Ij&'S ; German, lied ; Ang.-Sax., leoth ; English, a lay.
ICELANDIC LITEEATUEE.
375
mallet has fallen into the possession of the giant Thrym, and
lies buried eight miles beneath the gelid rocks of Jotunheim,
or, in other words, to speak physically, summer is in the power
of winter, light has succumbed to darkness, or, metaphysically,
obscurantism has overshadowed intellectuality. Loki is sent to
negotiate with Thrym ,who vows that the formidable weapon shall
only be restored when Freyja will consent to become his bride.
Loki returns to Asgard ; but the Goddess of Love is of course
quite horrified at the idea of bestowing her charms on the King
of the Frost-giants. In this emergency Loki persuades Thor to
dress himself in Freyja's clothes, and accompany him to Jotun¬
heim. Thrym receives his veiled bride with due courtesy, but is
greatly astonished at seeing her eat for her supper eight
salmons and a full-grown ox, besides other delicacies, washing
the whole down with three tuns of mead. Loki, however,
assures him that she has not tasted any thing for eight long
nights, so great is her desire of sharing the nuptial couch
with the renowned ruler of Jotunheim. Thrym has at length
the curiosity to peep under his bride's veil, but starts back in
affright, and demands why Freyja's eye-balls glisten with fire.
" Because, replied Loki, she has not slept for eight nights,
so ardently does she long to become thy spouse ! " Thrym
then orders the mallet to be brought in, and " laid on the
fair maiden's lap." But Thor now throws off his disguise,
grasps his redoubted weapon, (his thunder-bolt,) and slaughters
Thrym and all his followers. " And thus " concludes the poem,
" did the son of Odin recover his mallet."
5. The Hymis-kvi^a, also relates to Thor's exploits, .^gir,
the ocean deity, entertains all the gods of Asgard at the festi¬
val of the autumnal equinox, but although he gives them
plenty to eat, Thor finds, to his great regret, that drink is
sadly wginting to give a due zest to the banquet, and it at last
turns out that .dîgir has not a cauldron sufficiently capacious to
brew ale for such a numerous company. Thor having heard
that the giant Hymir is the owner of a famous cauldron, sets
out with "Tyr to Jotunheim, in order, either by force or fraud, to
obtain possession of it. Various adventures are then related ;
amongst others, Thor's fishing for the Midgard serpent, an ac
count of which is given in the 48th chapter of the Prose Edda.
Thor at length succeeds in bearing off the cauldron, and is fol¬
lowed by the giants, whom he kills with his redoubted mallet.
376
NOKTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
6. The ^gis-clrekka, (^gir's banquet, or drinking-bout,)
forms, in some measure, the sequel of the preceding poem.
.¿Egir, having now a capacious cauldron, is able to brew
as much ale as his guests require. They accordingly sit down
to a regular drinking-bout, but Loki kills one of ^gir's ser¬
vants, for which the gods expel him, and drive him into a forest.
Loki, however, shortly afterwards returns, and persuades Odin
to let him take his place at the table again—a favour which he
repays by calumniating every one present.
In the Mythic-heroic class we have—1st, the Volundar-kvVSa
narrating the tragical adventures of Völundr, the Northern
Daedalus •!= ; and, 2nd, a cyclus of twenty heroic lays, forming
a complete epos—a grand epic poem, in fact, in twenty cantos,
containing the same tragical story of the Volsungians and
Niflungians as the German Nibelungen-lied—Sigurdr (Sieg¬
fried) and his fatal treasure—^his liberation of Brynhüdr
(Brunhild) from her magic sleep ; his marriage with Gudrun
(Chrimhilt) ; Brynhilda's marriage with Gunnar (Günther) ;
Sigurd's murder, Gudrun's marriage with Atli (Etzel, Attüa) ;
and all the terrible scenes that result from it. The Scan¬
dinavian Epos is, however, of a much earlier date than the
German, the personages are more mythological, the style
more simple ; and the whole has a certain grandeur and sub¬
limity which place it far above the Nibelungen f.
The Miscellaneous Poems are—1. Hrafna-galdur Odins
(Odin's Raven-song); an obscure poem, which one of the learned
editors of the Edda, after devoting four months to the study
of it, declares his inability to explain. 2. Fj'ól-svmns mal,
another obscure poem, in the form of a dramatic dialogue.
3. The Hyndlu-ljód, fragmentary and obscure, containing the
genealogies of the Ynglingians, Skjöldungians, and other
mythic and mythic-heroic dynasties. 4. Grou-galdur . (Groá's
* The Norse Völundr is the Ang.-Saxon "Wealand.—See the word in the
Glossary to the Prose Edda. We may remark, that the Wayland Smith, in
Kenilworth," is no other than the Northern Völundr, though our great
novelist does not appear to have been aware of the homonymy.
-f- Professor Müller (in his Sagabib, vol. ii. p. 129 and 139) has ably re¬
futed the supposition of Weber, (in the "illustrations of Northern Antiquities,"
1. vol. Edinb. 1814,) that this Eddaic Epos was derived from German sources,
and has shown by the most satisfactory and conclusive arguments that most of
the poems must have been composed prior to the reign of Harald Hârfagra,
and in all probability at a much earlier period.
icelandic literatüee.
377
magic lay) ; a collection of magical terms and incantations.
5. The Alvis-mál, a mere collection of synonymes. The
dwarf Alvis has been promised Thor's daughter in marriage,
but when he goes to fetch his bride, Thor cunningly detains
him all night, by asking him questions concerning the regions,
or worlds, he had visited. Alvis answers by giving the names
of the various objects of nature in the respective languages of
gods, men, giants, dwarfs and elves; until the morning at
length dawns, when the dwarf, being one of those genii who
shun the light of day, is obliged to depart without the fair
bride whom he expected would have accompanied him. 6. The
Sólar-ljód (Solar lay) ; which was obviously written by a
Christian, the Trinity being invoked, and a future state being
described partly in accordance with Christian doctrines. This
poem, in fact, is generally ascribed to Sœmund himself,
who may probably have written it to show that, notwithstand¬
ing his love of Heathen literature, he was a very good Chris¬
tian. It is, however, a most fortunate circumstance that the
sacerdotal proprietor of an Icelandic village was sufi&ciently
enlightened to rescue from approaching oblivion the interest¬
ing remains of antiquity which we have given this summary
account of.
The Prose, or Younger Edda, is generally ascribed to the
celebrated Snorri Sturlason, who was born of a distinguished
Icelandic family, in the year 1178, and after leading a turbu¬
lent and ambitious life, and being twice the supreme magis¬
trate of the Republic, was killed a. d. 1241 ='=. When Snorri
* Snorri, at the death of John Loptson, (a. d. 1197,) does not appear to
have possessed any property whatever, though he afterwards became the
wealthiest man in Iceland. His rise in the world was chiefly owing to his
marriage with Herdisa, the daughter of a priest called Bersi the Eich,—a very
enviable surname, which no doubt enabled the Eev. gentleman to brave the
decrees of Popes and Councils, and take to himself a wife—who brought him
a very considerable fortune. If we may judge from Snorri's biography, Chris¬
tianity appears to have effected very little change in the character of the Ice¬
landers. We have the same turbulent and sanguinary scenes, the same loose
conduct of the women, and perfidy, and remorseless cruelty of the men, as in
the Pagan times. Snorri, for instance, after living twenty-five years with
Herdisa, obtained a divorce, married a rich heiress, quarrelled with the son and
daughter of his first wife respecting pecuniary matters, had a number of ille¬
gitimate, or rather adulterine, children, and was finally murdered by three of
his sons-in-law and a step-son. Three of his illegitimate daughters were
378
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
■was three years old, John Loptson of Oddi, the grandson of
Saemund the Wise, took him into fosterage. Snorri resided
at Oddi until his twentieth year, and appears to have received
an excellent education from his foster father, who was one of
the most learned men of that period. How far he may have
made use of the manuscripts of Saemund and Ari, which were
preserved at Oddi, it is impossible to say, neither do we know
the precise contents of these manuscripts ; but it is highly
probable that the most important parts of the work, now known
under the title of " The Prose Edda," formed a part of them,
and that Snorri—who may be regarded as the Scandinavian,
Euhemerus—merely added a few chapters, in order to render
the mythology more conformable to the erroneous notions he
appears to have entertained respecting its signification. Be
this as it may, the Prose Edda, in its present form, dates from
the thirteenth century, and consists of—1. Formáli (Fore
discourse); or the prologue.. 2. Gylfa-ginning (The de¬
luding of Gylfi). 3. Braga-rcFSur, (Conversations of Bragi).
4. HpítrmúH; (After discourse); or Epilogue. The Prologue
and Epilogue were probably written by Snorri himself, andaré
nothing more than an absm'd syncretism of Hebrew, Greek,
Eoman, and Scandinavian myths and legends, in which Noah,
Priam, Odin, Hector, Thor, .Lineas, &c., are jumbled together
much in the same manner as in the romances of the Middle
Ages. These dissertations, utterly worthless in themselves, have
obviously nothing in common with the so-called " Prose Edda,"
the first part of which, containing fifty-three chapters, forms a
complete synopsis of Scandinavian mythologj'-, derived prin¬
cipally from the Poetical Edda, as we shall have occasion to
show in our remarks on the work, to which we refer the
reader *.
married to men of rank, who were, however, obliged to get rid of them, by suing
for legal divorces, on account of their loose conduct. Ingjibjörg, one of these
ladies, married a second time, but was again divorced, and became notorious,
even in Iceland, for her debauchery.—See the Sturlunga-Saga.
* " The Prose Edda" was first published by Resenius, in 1665, but the ori¬
ginal Norse text is very inaccurately printed, and the Latin and Danish
translations are, at the present day, quite undeserving of attention. The same
may be said of the Latin version published by Goranson in 1754. In the year
1818, Bask published a very correct edition of the original text, together
with the " Skalda," under the title " Snorra-Edda, asamt Skaldu og
tharme'S fylgjandi Bitgjor^um."
ICELANDIC LITEEATUEE.
379
SKALDIC LITEEATUEE.
The account which M. Mallet has given of the Skalds
and the occasional mention we have made of them in the pre¬
ceding chapters, will render any further remarks superfluous.
We shall, therefore, merely observe, that of the 230 Skalds
whose names have been preserved, there are probably not half
a dozen whose compositions are worth perusing ; and even
the best of these Skaldic lays are greatly inferior to the Eddaic
poems, which are, generally speaking, remarkable for their
grandeur of conception, and their noble simplicity of language.
Hence we have drawn a broad distinction between Eddaic
and Skaldic literature. The Eddaic poems are the composi¬
tions of Sages and Poets; whereas the productions of the
Skalds who flourished during the historical period can only
be regarded, with a few striking exceptions, the more striking
for their rarity, as the mechanical handywork of verse-smiths ;
the term by which these would-be-poets were not inappropri¬
ately designated f. One of the latest and most celebrated
Skalds was Snorri Sturlason's nephew, Olaf Thordson, sur-
named Hvitaskald. It is principally to Olaf that we are in¬
debted for the " Skalda," which is a kind of ars poética,
containing—1. A collection of the epithets and far-fetched
metaphors employed by the Skalds, illustrated by numerous
specimens of their compositions, as well as by a poem writ
ten by Snorri, in upwards of a hundred different metres.
2. Various treatises on grammatical and rhetorical figures—on.
the Koman characters, &c. The " Skalda " has been con¬
founded by most writers with the " Prose Edda," with which
* See page 237.
•)- Lj&^asni'S&ir, literally Lay-smiths or verse-smiths ; though we are per¬
fectly aware that this was a common expression, and not by any means a
term of reproach ; smith being, in fact, used to designate any one who exer¬
cised an art, whether merely mechanical or intellectual. An architect, for in¬
stance, is still called, in Icelandic, a House-smith, (húsasmi'Sr). But in the tenth
and eleventh centuries the Skaldic art was as much a handywork as that of
the blacksmith ; the latter, however, being of far greater utility. The sturdy
blacksmith hammered out iron into horseshoes and ploughshares, the mer-
cenary Skald, in like manner, hammered out far-fetched metaphors into a
jingling rhapsody in praise of any one who would amply reward him for his
mechanical labour.
380
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
it has no further connection than the adventitious one of having
heen found in the same manuscript. The one is a treatise
on Prosody, Rhetoric, &c., the other a Synopsis of Odinic
Mythology.
Rask, we helieve, had the merit of being the first who
clearly showed that the versification of the Anglo-Saxons and
ancient Germans was regulated on the same principles as that
of the Scandinavians, or in other words, that the same rules of
prosody are applicable to all the ancient Teutonic languages.
A short account of the structure of Scandinavian (Icelandic)
verse may, therefore, not be uninteresting to the English
reader; in giving which we shall take Rask for our guide, no
one having thrown a greater light on the subject than that truly
learned philologist
The chief characteristic of Icelandic versification is its allite¬
ration, for which either consonants or vowels may be made
use of. All the Icelandic poems are divided into regular
strophes. A strophe (erendi ; visa f) has generally eight lines,
two of which form a quarter strophe [visufjór^úngr) or .couplet.
Alliteration with consonants requires that three words or ac¬
centuated syllables in a couplet have the same initial letters,
and that two of these words be placed in the first, and the
other in the second line. The initial letter of the latter is
called the h'ófu^stafr (headstaff) or cardinal letter, the initials
of the words placed in the first line being termed studlar (props
or stays) from their supporting or giving force to the cardinal
letter on which they are dependant, and of which they may
he regarded as the auxiliaries ; for instance :—
Farvel fagna'Sar
Fold eg heilla J.
When the cardinal word begins with a double consonant, as
* We have chiefly taken this account from his Icelandic Grammar, Danish
edition, Copenhagen, 1811 ; his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, English edition,
by Mr. Thorpe, Copenhagen, 1830; and his Icelandic Prosody, German
edition, by Mohnike, Berlin, 1830.
f Erendi, eyrendi, derived from ár a messenger, originally signified a
message, a speech delivered ; and was afterwards applied to designate a
strophe. The English word errand is obviously derived from the same
source ; visa, like the German weise means the manner, or wise of doing a
thing; this wise—otherwise.
4; Literally, " Farewell joyful land, and blissful" (land).
ICELANDIC LITERAT CEE.
381
sp, st, sk, bl, &c., tbe auxiliary words or syllables must begin
in the same maimer.
The rule for alliteration with vowels is quite the reverse
of tlie preceding ; for although each of the three words must
begin with a vowel or diphthong, these vowels, if possible, must
not be the same.
The alliterative letters, whether vowels or consonants, " must
always be found in those words which have the stress or tone
on the syllable that begins with them ; but a word may com¬
mence with a toneless derivative syllable without disturbing the
alliteration. It is, moreover, a rule that, in the two connected
lines, there must not be more than three words beginning
in this manner ; though a toneless prefix or a toneless particle
is not considered as any infringement. The cardinal letter
does not necessarily stand first in the second line, but is often
preceded by one or more short words, yet not by such as re¬
quire the tone or emphasis in reading. These short precur¬
sory words, which, though independent of the structure of the
verse, are necessary to the completion of the sense, constitute
what may be called the complement,'"or what is termed in
Icelandic the verse-filling (mál-fylling).
The most ancient Icelandic (Norse) poetry has only allitera¬
tion, though at a very early period Line-rhyme and Final-
rhyme were also made use of. Line-rhyme is either consonant
or assonant. Consonant or perfect line-rhyme is when two
syllables, in the same line, have the vowels and the consonants
immediately following them alike; as sum-ir and gum-ar^
merk-i and sterk-a. Assonant or demi line-rhyme is when the
vowels differ, but are followed by the same consonants ; as
stird-un and 7iord-an. Both are generally made use of in the
same couplet, the assonant for the first, and the consonant for
the second line ; for instance :—
Fastor^r skyli fzVSa
Fewysaell vera ihengiW. f.
Final rhyme is sufficiently known as a characteristic of
* Rask's Ang.-Sax. Gram. p. 136. Rask has shown that these rules are
equally applicable to Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon versification.
t The king who wishes to keep warriors in his service should perform
what he promises. Literally, " word fast should be (that) warriors keep will,
the king."
38S
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
modem versification. In Icelandic poetry it is either mono¬
syllabic or dissyllabic ; and previous to the sixteenth century
■we only find consecutive lines rhymed in this manner, and
never the first line rhyming with the third, and the second
with the fourth, which is frequently the case in modem Ice¬
landic poetry.
The Skalds distinguished upwards of a hundred kinds of
verse, which Eask very properly refers to three principal
classes, termed by him Narrative verse, Heroic verse, and
Popular verse. Narrative verse {forny^alag)"^, which has
only alliteration, is the oldest, and also the most unrestricted
in its metre, having the greatest complement, and frequently
only one auxiliary letter. There are several varieties ; the
most regular kind is when each line has only two, or when the
second line of a couplet has two, and the first line three long
syllables, each of which, however, " may be followed by one,
two, or even more syllables, provided the natural intonation
in the reading admits of their being pronounced short ; but
these long and short syllables do not appear to be arranged
according to other rules than those prescribed by the ear," and
as they have nothing to do with the stracture of the verse
"are to be passed over as lightly as possible."! All the
Eddaic poems are in narrative verse, twelve of them have
eight-lined strophes, seven are in six-lined strophes, and the
others are in this respect irregular, some of the strophes con¬
taining ten and twelve lines ; strophes of six and eight lines,
though used in the same poem, being, however, the predomi¬
nant. In a six-lined strophe, the first and second, and fourth
and fifth lines form regular couplets, the third and sixth being
unconnected, and exceeding, in the number of their long syl¬
lables, the common measure.
* Forn-yr'^i, an old word, an archaism, hence applied to designate the
oldest kind of verse.
f Rask's Ang.-Sax. Gram. p. 146. All the Anglo-Saxon poetry which
has been preserved appears to be in narrative verse. The " Vision of Peirce
Plowman," written by Robert Langland in 1359, offers a very regular old
English specimen of this kind of versification ; for instance :—
" I Looked on ray Left hälfe,
as the Lady me taught,
and was Ware of a Woman
Worthlyith clothed."
ICELANDIC LITEEATUr.E.
383
Heroic twse (dróttkvse^i *) has alliteration and line-rhyme
and a stricter metre, not admitting of a com'plement. It was
generally used by the Skalds who flourished after the ninth
century for the honorary and encomiastic poems which they
composed to celebrate the deeds of the valorous kings and jarls
whose courts they frequented, in full expectation, however, of
being amply repaid for their effusions.
Poimlar verse (rùnhende t) has alliteration and final-
rhyme without line-rhyme. It is more regular in its metre
than narrative, but less restricted than heroic verse. It is al¬
ways in eight-lined strophes, the lines being generally of the
same metrical length, and is subdivided into numerous varie¬
ties according to the number of accentuated syllables, generally
two, three, or four, in each line.
We have refrained from filling our pages with specimens
of the different kinds of verse, fearing that the reader would
have fomid them, especially when unaccompanied by alliter¬
ative metrical translations, which we had no great inclination
to hammer out, totally devoid of interest. A single specimen
will probably more than sufi&ce to satisfy his curiosity in this re¬
spect. We have selected for this purpose the first and second
strophes of Kagnar Lodbrok's famous Death Song, and at¬
tempted to render them line for line in the same metre, and
with the same alliterative letters I as the original, in order that
any of our readers unacquainted with the Old Norse language
may form some idea of the rude strains that were jingled on
the Skaldic lyre. We must premise that Kagnar Lodbrok
was a Danish king of the heroic period, and, consequently, a
somewhat problematical personage. In one of his numerous
predatory expeditions to the shores of these islands, he is said
to have been taken prisoner by Ella, a Northumbrian prince §,
* From droit, people, or drottinn, chief, hero, lord ; hxcMi, or kvi'Sa, a song.
+ From rune, which, among its other significations, also means a poem ;
poets being sometimes called Runemen.
Î See page 381, for the rule respecting the alliteration of vowels and
diphthongs.
§ The northern antiquaries have been very much puzzled to reconcile the
legend of Eagnar Lodbrok with the/acts of history. According to the Anglo-
Saxon chronicles, Ella usurped the throne of Northumbria in the year 862,
whereas Kagnar's death is placed by Suhm—who has brought it down to the
latest possiWe epoch—in 794, and by other writers at a much earlier period.
384
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
thrown into a dungeon, and condemned to die by the bite of
vipers. This death song - is alleged to have been composed
by him during his torments, but is probably the composition
of a Skald of the ninth century t. In the first strophe Eag-
nar relates his expedition to Gothland. Thora, the daughter
of a chieftain of that country, was detained in captivity by an
enormous serpent, and was to become the reward of the daring
champion who should deliver her. Eagnar undertook the task ;
and in order to protect himself from the serpent's venom, put
on shaggy trousers, from which circumstance he was after¬
wards called Lodbrok (Shaggy-broguesjl. The poem is in
the heroic verse, though not of the most regular description.
Hjuggum ver ma's Hjörvi ! Hew'd we with the Hanger !
Hitt var ei fyrir laungu. Hard upon the time't was,
Scandinavian history, as we before observed, only dates from the middle of the
ninth century, prior to which period it is quite useless attempting to discri¬
minate between facts and fiction. We are told, for instance, that Ragnar's
second wife was a lady named Kraka, who, after she had become the mother
of four sons, told her husband that her real name was Aslat^ga, and that she
was the daughter of Sigurd Fafiiisbana ; that is to say, of one of the mythic
heroes of the great Eddaic Epos ! !
* It is called in Norse Lodbrokarkvi'Sa (the Song of Lodbrok), and also
Krákumál (the Song of Kráka), the lady of mythic descent mentioned in the
preceding note. Several writers have confounded the Krákumál with the
Bjarkamal, which is a war song, said to have been composed to excite the
courage of Hrolf Kraki's warriors, and attributed to the Skald Bragi the Old.
Be this as it may, the Bjarkamál was no doubt composed prior to the reign
of Harald Hárfagra. Fragments of it have been preserved in the Heims-
kringla, and the Skalda, and Saxo-Grammaticus has given a Latin paraphrase
of it in his historj''.
t Professor Eafh—in his excellent critical edition of the Krákumál, published
in 1826—does not hesitate to ascribe part of the poem to Ragnar himself ; but
as our scepticism respecting heroic history leads us to question even the
existence of such a personage, we must persist, until we are furnished with
much more conclusive evidence to the contrarj'- than that adduced by the
learned Danish Professor, in regarding it as the rhapsody of a Skald of the
ninth centurj'.
Î Writers who strive to reconcile fiction with facts, observe that as Ormr,
the Norse word for serpent, is also a proper name, the Skald who composed
the poem may have simply designated a chieftain of the name of Ormr under
the allegory of a serpent ; but the manner in which the story is related in
the first chapter of Ragnar Lodbrok's Saga—the serpent gradually growing,
with the gold placed under it, until it at length encircles Thora's virgin
bower as the Midgard serpent the earth—will not admit of this explanation.
ICELANDIC LITEBATÜKE.
385
er á Gautlandi Gengum
at Grafvitnis * mofSi ;
THá fengum vér THóni,
THa'San hétu inik fyr'Sar, -,
thá er Lyngál + um Lagtía'k,
Lodbrok : at tliví vígi
STakk ek á SToi'Sar-lykkju X
STáli bjartra mála.
Hjuggum vér me^ Hjörvi !
Heldr var ek úngr, thá er skifôum
AUstr í EYrasundi§
Undurn frekum vargi,
ok Fótgulum Fugli ;
Feagura vér thar, er súngu
vi'5 Háseymda Hjálma
HörS járn, mikils ver'Sar ;
Allr var -®gir sollinn ;
05 hrafn í valbló'Si.
when in Gothlandia Going
to Give death to the serpent;
THen obtained we THora,
THence have warriors called me,
the Ling-eel since I Laid low,
Lodbrok : at that carnage
STuck I the STealthy monster
with STeel of finest temper.
Hew'd we with the Hanger !
it Hap'd that when I young was
EAst in EYra's channel
outpoured we blood for grim wolves,
and golden-Footed Fray birds ;
there Found we them, while sung loud
on Highseamed Helmets
Hard iron, food in plenty ;
All was Ocean swollen
through OOzed blood went the raven.
Finn Magnusen first pointed out tlie striking resemblance"
between the ancient Icelandic narrative verse and the hex¬
ameter, which is acknowledged to be the oldest national verse
of the Hellenic nations ; and Rask observes, that " the hex¬
ameter seems to be merely a somewhat, though very little, re¬
stricted variety of the freer, rougher, and probably elder form
exhibited in the narrative verse," and arranges Greek and
Latin hexameters chosen at random, according to the rules of
narrative verse ; for instance, the beginning of the iEneid :—
Anna viruraque vi superùm,
cano, Trojm sœvae memorem
qui primus ab oris Junonis ob iram
Italiam, multa quoque
fato profugus, et bello passus,
Lavinaque venit dum conderet urbeni,
littora ; multum inferretque
ille et terris déos Latió,
jactatus et alto, genus undo Latinum.
* See the word Grafvitnir in our Glossary to the Prose Edda. The word
is used here metaphorically for a serpent.
+ Ling-eel, or heath adder ; i. e. serpent.
X Stor5, the earth ; lykkja, a clasp, lock, buckle ; hence a clasp or ring of
the earth, and, figuratively, a serpent.—See the account of the Midgard Ser¬
pent in the Prose Edda, chap. 34.
§ The Eyra Sound, or, as we call it. The Sound.
C 0
386
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
*' This decomposition," he observes, "produces neither Pin¬
daric nor Adonic verse, hut the Teutonic narrative verse so
completely, that in these eighteen verses of Virgil there is not
a single deviation from, or fault against, the rules of narrative
verse, but the whole reads just as fluently when arranged ac¬
cording to the Icelandic metre, as according to the laws of hex¬
ameter. Thus w-e have in every verse two long syllables or
pauses for the voice, each of which is usually followed by one
and sometimes tw^o short ones, all the rest of the an-angement
is as flowing fornyr'^alag as any part of the Edda, though the
Latin metre is totally subverted. The reverse of the process
does not hold good, for narrative verse cannot, by any means,
be so easily turned into hexameter ; the reason of wLich is,
that the hexameter is subjected to greater restriction, yet it
often falls in pretty exactly." As in the Háva-mál, st. 22,
Vessell [ ma'Sur ok | illur ] skapi [ hlaer at kvi [ vetna *,
"which is a tolerable hexameter; but the alliteration is destroyed
by this transformation, as the metre is by the decomposition of
the hexameter. Notwithstanding, then, that each of these races
(the Teutonic and the so-called Greco-Romanic) has changed
this species of verse, according to its own fancy, it nevertheless
seems evident that the original idea was the same, and, conse¬
quently, that the groundwork of the poetry, no less than of
the language itself, was in the beginning common to both."-!-
SAGA LITEEATUEE.
We have already had occasion to state in what light we view
the Icelandic Sagas R and cannot do better than give the
reader a few extracts from Professor Müllers Introduction to
his " Sagabibliothek," § which will fully show the importance
of these interesting documents.
" The Sagas," says the learned Professor, " present a pic¬
ture of the public and private life, the feuds and trading
* A pitiful and ill-minded man laughs at everything.
f Rask's Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 154.
Î See page 309.
§ We have taken these extracts from the original Danish edition of Pro¬
fessor Müllers admirable work, published in three volumes, Copenhagen,
1820, omitting a few passages which would be iminteresting to the English
reader, hut giving a full translation of those we have retained.
ICELANDIC LTTERAT^EE.
387
voyages of the Icelanders, and offer at the same time a sphere
of action that embraces their whole social state, while the
number of these biographies that have been preserved, ren¬
ders it possible for us to form a perfect notion of Icelandic his¬
tory from the first colonization of the island down to the pre¬
sent time. What is derived from such a source may certainly
appear to be of very little utility to other nations. The active
population of the country did not, in the most flourishing pe¬
riod, amount to more than 3800 men, and the total number of
inhabitants can scarcely ever have reached 100,000. Sepa¬
rated from the rest of the world by the Northern Ocean, the
Icelanders must, upon the whole, have been prevented from
taking a part in the great events of history. The island itself,,
that has little else to offer than fire and ice, would appear to
other nations to be of importance only as a place of banish¬
ment. But this island possessed in the ninth and tenth cen¬
turies two inestimable treasures—civil liberty and security
The boldest Northmen were thus induced to seek refuge there,
and for four hundred years it flemished as a free state. Its
history, in fact, during this period, may in so far be said to
present the image of a perfect commonwealth, that the island
was never subject to attacks from without, but everything,
both the good—the deep-rooted constitution—and the evil—
which at length laid it waste—sprung up within its own limits.
" In a free state, a concern for the common welfare would
naturally direct public attention to the conduct of each indi¬
vidual chieftain ; hence the curiosity to have an account of each
separate action, the desire to relate such an action, and the en¬
deavour to relate it well. The art of narration, which at the
frequent Folkmotes and solemn banquets served as a means
of social entertainment, was continually looking out for
fresh materials. It was in the recollections of the olden time
which the lays of their forefathers had faithfully preserved,
and in the events that took place in the other Northern States—
events which must necessarily have been well known to their
numerous travellers—that the Icelanders sought for these
materials. The Sagaman was in this manner the narrator of
everything that happened in the north, and as soon as Chris¬
tianity made him acquainted with the literature of other
* That is to say, when compared with other countries, at the same period.
c c 2
388
KOKTHEnX ANTIQUITIES.
countries ho became an historian. It is therefore not merely
as a free state, it is as the foster-mother of northern history,
that the Icelandic Ilejiublic is of importance to us. Conse¬
quently, inasmuch as the investigators of this history bestow
attention on the domestic occurrences of Iceland, will they
not only requite the care with which the early inhabitants of the
island received and preserved so many Sagas relating to the
period of northern heathenism, but will also be rendered more
capable of availing themselves of these documents. It is only
by knowing how these ancient songs and tales became tra¬
ditional in the island that we can be fully aware of their pos¬
sible authenticity. By comparing the numerous narratives con¬
cerning Iceland itself with those that relate to the other
Northern States, it will be easier to fix the degree of validity
that may be assigned to the latter. As, moreover, the Sagas
respecting Iceland are not only numerous, but also offer nu¬
merous characteristic traits in common, they may be the more
easily compared, their age, both on intrinsic and extrinsic
grounds, decided upon, and the result, thus obtained, applied to
similar memorials.
" But it is in a more immediate manner than this that the
Sagas relating to Iceland will serve to elucidate the history of
the other Northern States ; not merely by the casual connec¬
tions which Icelandic travellers formed with northern princes,
but more especially by the light which these narratives throw
on tlie social life of the north in the olden time. Climate
and civil institutions, religion and a maritime life, and, above
all, a common language, united, in heathen times, the various
consanguineous Scandinavian tribes, from the frontiers of
Finmark to those of Holstein, from the Northern Ocean to
the Gulf of Bothnia. We shall consequently find that the
manners and customs of the Norwegian emigrants who first
colonized Iceland were, at that period, common to all the
Scandinavian nations ; but these institutions and customs
were retained in Iceland after they had, in the other states,
undergone considerable changes, caused by the arbitrary power
of the Norwegian kings, and the beneficent influence of Chris¬
tianity. Temples, in which the gods of Valhalla were wor¬
shipped, arose in every part of the island ; the memory of the
heroic races lived in the songs of the Icelandic Skalds, while
the actions of the Danish and Norwegian kings constantly
ICELANDIC LIÏEKATURE.
389
furnished subjects for poetic imagery. The proceedings of
the Icelandic Things were conducted as of old ; the place
where the'doom's-men sat was inclosed with the same sacred
cords, the ancient forms were strictly observed, and the Nor¬
wegian legislature served as a model for the Icelandic. An
Icelandic chieftain was not much less powerful at a Thing
than a Norwegian sub-king ; he lived like a Norwegian herse,
or petty jarl. In Iceland, the whole household dwelt in the
long smoky hall, and the three annual religious festivals and
the public games afforded, as in Norway, the best opportunities
for social intercourse. We may, therefore, often acquire from
these numerous narratives, that lead us, as it were, into the
domestic circle of the old Icelander, and offer the minutest
details respecting the civil institutions of the country, a more
intimate knowledge of northern heathenism than could be ob¬
tained from the traditions of the period itself. Fixed points
of comparison may consequently be established which will
enable us to judge, on intrinsic grounds, whether a Saga bears
the stamp of northern antiquity, or is the romantic offspring
of a later age. But if the Sagas that relate to the domestic
occurrences of Iceland serve to elucidate the history of nor¬
thern heathenism, and to show its predominating spirit, they
will, for the same reason, acquire an importance, not only for
Britons, in whose veins there flows so much Scandinavian
blood, but also for most of the other European nations.
Cimbri and Teutons, Franks and Lombards, Germans and
Goths were allied not only in blood, but in bodily and
mental qualities, in manners and customs, in language, and,
* It would seem, from this confused and anomalous juxtaposition of Teutonic
tribes, that Professor Müller regarded the Cimbri, Lombards, and Groths, as
belonging to the Scandinavian, and the Teutons, Franks, and Grerraans to
the Gennanic branch of the Teutonic race. Now, in strict language, the terra
" Teutons " ought to be applied to all the tribes of the Teutonic race, and the
term " Germans " to all the tribes of the Germanic branch of this race. We
know too little of the Cimbri to say with certainty even to what race, much less
to what branch of a race they belonged, and the Franks, Lombards, and Goths
were tribes of the Alemannic sub-branch of the Teutonic race (see page 30),
though at the period when Professor Müller wrote his work, it was a favourite
theory of Danish and Swedish Avriters to identify the Mœso-Goths, Ostro-
Goths, Visi-Goths and Lombards with the so-called Goths of Sweden, that
is to say, with the Gothlanders : a theory which at the present day they
would not, even with all their praiseworthy amor patrice, think of main-
390
NOETHEEN ANTTQFITIES.
without doubt, also in origin, as much so, in fact, as the Do¬
rians were with the lonians. Much of what relates to the
north is therefore applicable to the destroyers of the Roman
Empire, and we shall consequently find that the disputes at
the Icelandic Al-thing will serve to elucidate many of the old
laws and institutions of the states of modem Europe."
After these excellent remarks of the learned Danish Pro¬
fessor, it will only remain for us to point out the different
kinds of Sagas, which we shall venture to classify, as we have
done the Eddaic poems, according to our own notions on the
subject. We think, therefore, that the Sagas are susceptible
of being arranged, as follows :—1. The Mythic-heroic. 2. The
Heroic. 3. The Historical. 4. The Romantic Sagas.
Tlhe Mythic-heroic class comprises—1. The Volsunga Ssiga,
Noma Gests Saga, and the Vilkina Saga, in which we have
the same tragical story of the Volsungians and Niflungians,
though in a less mythical form than in the Eddaic Epos.
The Vilkina Saga, being taken from German sources, is more
in accordance with the Nibelungen, and if it stood alone might
he placed in the Romantic class. 2. Fundin Noraegur, relating
to the Fornjotr or primordial giant dynasty of Norway
3. The former part—chapters 1 to 45 inclusive—of the Yng
linga Saga f-
In the Heroic class we should place the latter part—chapters
46 to 55 inclusive—of the Ynglinga Saga, and Halfs, Frithiofs
Ragnar Lodbroks, Hrolf Krakis, and Bodvar Bjarkis Sagas,
the personages who figure in them having, in all probability,
actually existed, and performed most of the valorous deeds
attributed to them, but at a period (previous to the middle of
the ninth century) which renders it impossible to discriminate
between facts and fiction.
3. Historical Sagas. In this class modern Danish writers
place upwards of 100 Sagas and Thœttirl. It is obvious,
however, that some of these documents are more historical—
more entitled to be regarded as authentic accounts of the
taining. If Professor MUller had merely said Scandinavians and Germans
were allied not only in blood," &c., his observations would have been per¬
fectly correct,
* See the note page 183.
f See page 84.
I The plural of tliáttr, a part, a section ; a term applied to denote a short
memoir, generally taken from a Saga.
icelandic liteeatiibe.
391
transactions recorded tkan others, though we must not forget
that, with two or three exceptions, the best of them are Sagas
and not Histories, having been committed to writing from oral
tradition, frequently two, and even three and four centuries
after the events narrated are said to have taken place ; a cir¬
cumstance which, as we observed in the preceding chapter,
naturally induces us to peruse them with a certain degree of
scepticism. Considered under this point of view we shall
venture to form two classes or sub-divisions of historical Sagas,
placing in the one what may he termed the corroborated Sagas,
or Sagas that, in so far as regards the principal events narrated
in them, can he corroborated by collateral evidence ; and in the
other, the Historical Sagas which only partially admit of this
corroboration, or, in which the few facts recorded are too at¬
tenuated with romantic stories to be of any great value. In
the class of Corroborated Historica l we should be inclined
to place, 1st., from twenty to thirty Sagas relating to Iceland,
the most interesting of which—taken chronologically, not in
respect to the events narrated, but according to the dates when
they were first committed to writing—are the Heidarviga-
saga, Njáls, Eigils, and Kormaks Sagas, the Fœreyinga,
Eyrbyggja, Laxdsela, Sturlunga,and Kristni Sagas, and Bishop
Ami's Saga. The most voluminous of these documents is the
Stiirlunga-saga,orstory ofthe Sturla Family (the Sturlungians),
of which Snorri may be regarded as the real founder ; and as the
Saga was written towards the close of the thirteenth century,
and the events brought down to the subversion of the com¬
monwealth in the year 1264, it has a greater claim to his¬
torical authenticity than the generality of Icelandic family
memoirs. The Kristni-saga gives an account of the conver¬
sion of the Icelanders to Christianity, and Bishop Ami's Saga
—thebiograghy of Ami, Bishop of Skalholt, a.'d. 1269-98—
written by a contemporary, probably by one of his chaplains,
contains some interesting details respecting ecclesiastical
affairs. To these may be added Ari Frodi's Scliedœ and the
Landnámabók. The former, which is supposed to be the
earliest document written (a. d. 1120) in the Norse language,
is a succinct account, drawn up by Ari hinn Fródi *, of the
• Hinn Fródi was a title given to men who devoted their lives to study,
especiidly to the study of history, and means the wise, the learned, the much*
knowing.
393
northmen ANTIQUmES.
principal events that happened in the island, as well as in
Norway, from its first colonization to his own time ; the latter,
written towards the close of the thirteenth or the beginning
of the fourteenth century, is a kind of Icelandic doom's-day
hook, containing a detailed account of how the land was taken
possession of by the first settlers, with the names of 3000 per¬
sons and 1400 places.
3nd. The Sagas relating to Greenland and Vinland, which
furnished the materials for our first supplementary chapter.
3rd. Two Sagas, with a few fragments, and Thaettir relating
to Denmark; viz., the Jómsvikinga-saga or the story of
Palnatoki s celebrated band of sea-rovers and the Knytlinga-
saga, which is a chroniclQ of the kings who reigned in Den¬
mark from the middle of the tenth to the close of the
thirteenth century.
4th. From twenty-five to thirty Sagas and several Thœttir
relating to Norway. The most important of these, and indeed
of the whole collection of Icelandic Sagas, are the eighteen
Sagas comprised under the title of " Chronicles of the Kings
of Norway,"! which form a consecutive history of the Nor¬
wegian sovereigns from the year 841 to the year 1264. The
reign of Hákon Hákonson, the last of the series, (a.d. 1217-
63,) was written by Sturla Thordson, a Sturlungian, and a
celebrated Skald, between the years 1264 and 1271, and as
he had every opportunity afforded him for collecting materials
during his residence at the Norwegian court, his work is fully
entitled to the rank of history. The chronicle of the period
from 1177 to 1217 is th^| composition of several writers, and,
comparatively speaking, of no great merit. The chronicle of
the kings who reigned from 841 to 1177 inclusive, forms,
* See page 139.
+ Noregs Konunga-s'ôgur, 6 vols, folio. The first and second volumes,
published in 1777 and 1778, were edited by Schöning; the third, pub¬
lished in 1783, which completes the portion known as the Heimskringla, was
edited by Skulius Thorlacius; the fourth which appeared in 1813, and the
fifth in 1818, contain the remaining Sagas; and the sixth, published in 1826,
is devoted to explanatory remarks and dissertations. The two last volumes,
and a part of the fourth, were edited by Werlauff and Birgerus Thorlacius.
Since the year 1825, the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries has pub¬
lished several collections of Sagas—Icelandic, Danish, and Latin editions,
each in twelve volumes octavo, of Sagas recording events that took place out
of Iceland ; an edition of the Sagas relating to Iceland, two volumes, octavo ;
another of the mythic-heroic Sagas, 3 vols. 8vo., &c.
ICELANDIC IJTEEATURE.
393
with the Ynglinga-saga and an introductory chapter, the work
known under the name of the " Heimskringla," * which is ge¬
nerally attributed to Snorri Sturlason, though he was probably
more its editor than its author, and may have written himself
the Ynglinga-saga, which is much on a par with the prologue
and epilogue of the Prose Edda, from materials supplied by
the Ynglinga-tal, and the Sagas founded on similar Skaldic
effusions.
As M. Mallet has devoted a chapter to this part of Snorri's
work, and as several of our own writers still imagine that the
Icelandic historian had at least a trustworthy tradition for his
legend, it may not be irrelevant to remark, in addition to our
former observations on the subject f, that the Ynglinga-tal
was composed by Thiodolf of Hvina, a celebrated Skald of
the ninth century, in honour of Eognvald, the son of Olaf
Geirstad, and his successor to the petty state which fell to
Olafs share on the division of the kingdom of Westfold be¬
tween him and his brother Halfdan the Black. In this
poem Thiodolf, who wes no doubt amply rewarded for his
ingenuity, did not fail to give his patron a long line of royal
ancestors ending in Odinic deities. And it is on such autho¬
rity as this, on the encomiastic effusions of a mercenary Skald,,
that the Ynglinga-saga is chiefly founded—a circumstance that
will enable the reader to appreciate the value of the erudite
dissertations and similar literary rubbish which this Saga has
given rise to. The learned, truly learned editors of the
"Noregs Konunga-sögur," in their " Disquisitio de Snorronis
fontibus et auctoritate," contend that the whole story of the
so-called historical Odin ]; was the invention of Snorri himself.
The Christian historian, they say, could not represent the
celestial beings worshipped by his forefathers as gods, and it
being repugnant to his feelings to make them devils, as the
monks had done, he transformed them into men endowed
with many marvellous qualities, and adopting some of the
geographical fables of Jornandes and Paulus Diaconus, whose
* Snorri's work obtained the singular title of Heimskringla, the "World's
Circle, on account of the Ynglinga-saga, which forms the first book, and imme¬
diately follows the introductory chapter, beginning with the words, "Sva ei
sagt at ^.ringla heiir.tins," it is said that the circle of the world
f See page 84.
^ Vol. vi. p. 247.
394
NOKTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
works were prohahly known to him, led his anthropomorphized
deities from the Tanaquisl to Scandinavia. They chiefly
ground this assumption on the fact that Snorri does not cite a
single verse from the Ynglinga-tal in the first thirteen chap¬
ters of the Ynglinga-saga, although most of the other chapters
rest on the authority of that poem. This argument of the
learned editors is, however, by no means conclusive ; for
Snorri begins to corroborate his statements by quotations
from Thiodolf's rhapsody in his fourteenth chapter, in which
he relates the death of Fjölnir, the son of Yngvi-Frey, that is
to say, of the anthropomorphized sim-god, Frey. These and
other quotations from the Ynglinga-tal show, as we before ob¬
served, that Thiodolf traced up his patron's ancestors to the
Odinic deities In what light he may have regarded these
deities it is utterly impossible to say, neither is it worth
while hazarding a conjecture on the subject ; for, when the
whole story of the historical Odin is admitted to be mere
fiction, it is of very little consequence whether we ascribe this
fiction to an ambitious Icelandic chieftain of the thirteenth cen¬
tury, or to a mercenary Skald of the ninth.
In respect to the historical Sagas of the Heimskringla, we
should not be inclined to go so far as Professor Müller, who
contends that Snorri did not even collect tlie materials for
them, but found these materials already collected by his pre¬
decessors ; nor did he arrange the events chronologically, that
having been done by Ari Fródi, to whose chronology he re¬
fers ; nor narrate them in a more elegant style, for " he
narrates events as they had been narrated before his time,
without introducing any reflections of his own, nor does his
style differ from that of his contemporaries."* Be this as it
may, Snorri must have been too much occupied with public
affairs and the pursuits of ambition, and too much involved in
family feuds, to find time for writing such a voluminous work
as the Heimskringla. He probably collected the Sagas, and,
after subjecting them to a thorough revision, had them copied
by his amanuenses. This might be implied by the expressions
*\cause to be written, have written,'' which he more than onco
• Sagabib. vol. iii. p. 403. Professor Müller also observes, in corroboration
of his views, that the title of the Learned (hinn Prodi) was not given to
Snorri, although every one who in those ages, and even at a later period, dis¬
tinguished himself by his historical studies obtained it.
ICELANDIC LITEEATÜEE.
395
makes use of. At the end of the eighty-seventh chapter of
Olaf Tryggvason's Saga, he says, for instance, " what I shall
next have written will be respecting the Icelanders."* How-
over, in whatever manner he proceeded, Snorri will always be
deservedly regarded as the Herodotus of northern history.
Under the head Uncorroborated or partially corroborated
Historical Sagas, we should place from thirty to forty Sagas
relating to Iceland, and several Thsettir concerning Nor¬
wegians.
4th. Romantic Sagas. This class comprises about twenty-
five Sagas, of which the Hervarar-saga, and Hedin and Hognis-
saga, are very good specimens. It may not be irrelevant to
observe, that the distinction between a mythic-heroic and a
romantic Saga is, that although both may place their heroes
in connection with the Odinic deities, the former speaks of
these deities as they are represented in the Eddaic Poems
whilst the latter mixes them up with the fables and legends
of the Middle Ages. These Sagas are, in fact, mediseval
romances, and as such, in an historical or ethnological point
of view, quite undeserving of attention. The writers of the
last century, who were, generally speaking, not aware of this
distinction, frequently grounded the most inconclusive argu¬
ments on their authority, and still more frequently included
all the Icelandic Sagas under some sweeping denunciation,
which modern criticism has shown would only be strictly ap¬
plicable to the romantic class.
We may remark, in conclusion, that Professor Müller has
given a list of 119 Icelandic Mediaeval Komances which have
been translated from foreign languages, French, German,
Dutch, Latin, &c., or for which foreign romances supplied the
materials. As, for instance, a translation of Gualteri's " Alex-
andriad," made by Bishop Brand Johnson at the request of
King Hákon Hákonson ; the story of Virgil (translated from
the Dutch), the said Virgil marrying a daughter of the Soldán
of Babylon, founding Naples, &c. f With these worthless
productions the old Icelandic literature may be said to have
reached its term. Its dawn was announced by the significant
myths and heroic lays which oral tradition had transmitted
* JVœsi rita láta, next let write, cause to be written, are the words he
makes use of.
t Sagabib. vol. iii. p. 480.
896
northern antiquities.
through the long night of barbarous ages. Developed by the
genial influence of that peculiar constitutional freedom which
the discussions at the Al-tbing gave rise to, it attained its full
maturity in the graphic Saga, flourished with the freedom that
imparted to it its originality, and with this freedom decayed :
the Al-thing degenerating into a Norwegian tribunal, the Saga
into a mediaeval romance.
With the Reformation began a new epoch—that of modern
Icelandic or Islenzka literature, which, although it possesses
no great claim to originality, has nevertheless produced seve¬
ral writers of considerable eminence. John Vidalin, Bishop
of Skalholt, for instance, who died a. d. 1720, has been
called the Icelandic Cicero, his sermons being, it is said—
for we never had the curiosity to look at them—as remark¬
able for their elegance of diction, as they are for their
learning and Christian piety. And in the present century
Rspolin has written a very good continuation of the Sturlunga
Saga, and Sigurd Pètursson, and John Thorláksson have ac¬
quired a deserved celebrity as poets of no ordinary talents ;
the former, for his original compositions, and the latter, for his
elegant translations of Klopstock's "Messiah," Pope's "Essay
on Man," and Milton's "Paradise Lost." Modern Icelandic
poetry being still a curiosity in this country, we subjoin, as a
specimen, a very smooth flowing verse from one of Pétursson's
poems, with an accompanying translation, in which we have
attempted, though at the risk of making it more like Icelandic
than correct English, to preserve the metre, and, as much as
possible, also the alliteration of the original.
" Thá eyrndir stri'Sa á sorgfiillt sinn,
Og svlpur mótgángs um vánga ri'Sa,
Og bakivendir thér veriildin,
Og vellyst brosir aí5 tbinnm kviíia :
Theink, allt er hnottótt, og hverfast lœtr,
Sá hló í dag er á morgan grmtr;
Alt jafnar sig."
" When grief oppresses the mournful mind,
And misery's scourges the pale cheeks furrow.
And back the world on thee wends unkind.
And wanton joyaunce derides thy sorrow;
Think, all is round, and will turn anew.
Who laughs to-day may to-morrow rue;
All's ccjualized."
THE PEOSE EDDA.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS BY THE EDITOR.
It was our intention to have merelj'' revised the translation of the "Prose
Edda" given in Bishop Percy's edition of M. Mallet's Work, hiit, on comparing
it with the Old Norse text, we found that a number of important passages had
been omitted, and others rendered not only quite contrary to the spirit,
but also to the sense of the original. In fact this could not be otherwise,
for Mallet appears to have made his translation from the erroneous
Latin version published by Eesenius in the year 1665, and Bishop
Percy expressly states that he merely turned Mallet's French translation
into English, occasionally consulting Goranson's Latin version, which is
not ranch better than that of Eesenius. Under these untoward circum¬
stances, it is a wonder that the English translation was not more incorrect
than we found it to be. We have, however, naturally been obliged to sub¬
ject it to a thorough reviáon, in fact, to retranslate the work ; a diligent
comparison of Bishop Percy's text, with the Old Norse text of Eask's edi¬
tion *, only allowing us to retain here and there passages conveying the true
meaning of the original. We have also inserted the passages omitted, and
given most of the extracts from the Elder Edda in a metre resembling the
narrative verse, in which all the Eddaic poems are composed f, though with¬
out attempting to preserve the alliteration.- Neither Mallet nor Bishop
Percy deemed the Prologue and Epilogue worth translating, and, as we fully
agree with them in this respect +, we have not disfigured our pages by repro¬
ducing these absurd productions, which, it is needless to say, throw not the
least light on the subject they were intended to elucidate.
Each editor and translator of the Prose Edda having divided the work
into chapters with suitable titles conformable to his own views, we have also
taken the same liberty. In Eask's edition of the original text the chapters
are without titles, and follow each other as paragraphs, the work being in
fact divided into two chapters (parts), one containing fifty-three and the other
four paragraphs, but as references to the Prose Edda are now generally made
according to the enumeration of the chapters or pai'agraphs of Eask's edition,
we have retained this enumeration, and not numbered our own divisions.
To each of the chapters into which he divided the work, M. Mallet added
numerous "Notes," which were, however, but too frequently grounded on the
most erroneous notions respecting Scandinavian mythology, owing, in some
measure, to the ingenious author having adopted the crude theorie^f Cluve-
rius and Pelloutier, on the origin of the Teutonic and Celtic nation^. Such
of these Notes that are still of any value will be given after our "Critical
Examination of the Leading Doctrines of the Scandinavian System of Mytho¬
logy," and referred to in the text by letters in brackets. Many of them
reflect great credit on M. Mallet's judgment, especially when we consider
the period >'hen they were written.
• Published at Stockholm in 1818.—See page 378. f See page 382.
I See page 378. § See Bishop Percy's Preface.
PART THE FIRST,
commohly called
THE DELUDING OF GYLFI.
(aYLPA-GINNINa.)
GEFJOn's ploughing.
1. King Gylfi ruled over the land -which is now called Svithiod
(Sweden). It is related of him that he once gave a wayfaring
woman, as a recompense for her having diverted him, as much
land in his realm as she could plough with four oxen in a day
and a night. This woman was, however, of the race of the
JEsir, and was called Gefjon. She took four oxen from the
north, out of Jötunheim, (but they were the sons she had had
with a giant,) and set the^ before a plough. Now the plough
made such deep furrows that it tore up the land, which the
oxen drew westward out to sea until they came to a sound.
There Gefjon fixed the land, and called it Sselund. And the
place where the land had stood became water, and formed a
lake which is now called " The Water " (Laugur), and the
inlets of this lake correspond exactly with the headlands of
Sealund. As Skald Bragi the Old saith :—
" Gefjon drew from Gylfi,
Rich in stored up treasure.
The land she joined to Denmark.
Four heads and eight eyes bearing,
While hot sweat trickled down them.
The oxen dragged the reft mass
That, formed this winsome island."
* This chapter is probably the interpolation of an early copyist, for it has
evidently no connection with the following one, and is not fonnd in the
Upsal MS. of the Prose Edda, which is supposed to be the oldest extant.
Gefjon's ploughing is obviously a mythic way of accounting for some con¬
vulsion of nature, perhaps the convulsion that produced the Sound, and thus
effected a junction between the Baltic and the Northern Ocean.
the prose edda.
399
GYLFl's JOURNEY TO ASGARD.
2. King Gylfi was renowned for his wisdom and skill in
magic [a]. He beheld with astonishment that whatever the
^sir willed took place ; and was at a loss whether to attribute
their success to the superiority of their natural abilities, or to
a power imparted to them by the mighty gods whom they
worshipped. To be satisfied in this particular, he resolved
to go to Asgard, and, taking upon himself the likeness of an
old man, set out on his journey. But the jEsir, being too
well skilled in divination not to foresee his design, prepared
to receive him with various illusions. On entering the city
Gylfi saw a very lofty mansion, the roof of which, as far as his
eye could reach, was covered with golden shields. Thiodolf
of Hvina thus alludes to Valhalla being roofed with shields.
" Warriors all care-worn,
(Stones had poured upon them).
On their backs let glisten
Valhalla's golden shingles."
At the entrance of the mansion Gylfi saw a man who
amused himself by tossing seven small-swords in the air, and
matching them as they fell, one after the other. This person
haviug asked his name, Gylfi said that he was called Gangler,
and that he came from along journey, and begged for a night's
lodging. He asked, in his turn, to whom this mansion belonged.
The other told him that it belonged to their king, and added,.
" But I Avill lead thee to him, and thou shalt thyself ask him
his name." So saying, he entered: the hall, and as Gylfi fol¬
lowed the door bauged to behind him. He there saw many
stately rooms crowded with people, some playing, some drink¬
ing, and others fighting with various weapons. Gangler, see¬
ing a multitude of things, the meaning of which he could not
comprehend, softly pronounced the following verse (from the
Háva-mál, st. i.):—
" Scan every gate
Ere thou go on.
With greatest caution ;
For hard to say 'tis
Where foes are sitting
In this fair mansion."
400
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
He afterwards beheld three thrones raised one above an¬
other, with a man sitting on each of them [b]. Upon his
asking what the names of these lords might be, his guide an¬
swered : " He who sitteth on the lowest throne is a king; his
name is Har (the High or Lofty One) ; the second is Jafnhar
[i. e. equal to the High) ; but he who sitteth on the highest
throne is called Thridi (the Third)." Har, perceiving the
stranger, asked him what his errand was, adding that he should
be welcome to eat and drink without cost, as were all those
who remained in Háva Hall. Gangler said he desired first to
ascertain whether there was any person present renowned for
his wisdom.
" If thou art not the most knowing," replied Har, " I fear
thou wilt hardly return safe. But go, stand there below, and
propose thy questions, here sits one wlio will be able to an¬
swer them."
OF THE SUPREME DEITY.
3. Gangler thus began his discourse :—" Who is the first,
or eldest of the gods?"
" In our language," replied Har, " he is called Alfadir (All-
Father, or the Father of All) ; but in the old Asgard he had
twelve names."*
" Where is this God ?" said Gangler ; " what is his power?
and what hath he done to display his glory ?" [c]
" He liveth," replied Har, " from all ages, he govemeth all
realms, and swayeth all things great and small."
" He hath formed," added Jafnhar, " heaven and earth,
and the air, and all things thereunto belonging."
"And what is more," continued Thridi, "he hath made
man, and given him a soul which shall live and never perish
though the body shall have mouldered away, or have been
burnt to ashes. And all that are righteous shall dwell with
him in the place called Gimli, or Vingólf ; but the wicked
* As lists of names are frequently given in the Edda, and only serve to
interrupt the text, we shall place them in notes, and refer the reader to the
Glossary for their signification. The names here enumerated are :—1. Alfadir.
2. Herjan. 3. Hnikar, or Nikar. 4. Nikuz, or Hnikudr. 5. Fjölnir. 6.
Oski. 7. Omi. 8. Biflindi. 9. Svidr. 10. Svidrir. 11. Yidrir. 12,
Jálk.
THE PKOSE EDDA.
401
shall go to Hel, and thence to Niñhel, which is below, in the
ninth world."
" And where did this god remain before he made heaven
and earth?" asked Gangler.
" He was then," replied Har, " with the Hrimthursar." *
OF THE PEIMORDIAL STATE OF THE UKIVEESE.
4. " But with Avhat did he begin, or what was the beginniug
of things ? " demanded Gangler.
" Hear," replied Har, " what is said in the Voluspá.
" ' 'Twas time's first dawn.
When nought yet was.
Nor sand nor sea.
Nor cooling wave ;
Earth wes not there.
Nor heaven above.
Nought save a void
And yawning gulf.
But verdure none.' "
" Many ages before the earth was made," added Jafnhar,
" was Niflheim formed, in the middle of which lies the spring
called Hvergelmir, from which flow twelve rivers f, Gjöll
being the nearest to the gate of the abode of death."
" But, first of all," continued Thridi, " there was in the
southern region (sphere) the world called Muspell. It is a
world too luminous and glowing to be entered by those who
are not indigenous there |. He who sitteth on its borders
(or the land's-end) to guard it is named Surtur. In his hand
he beareth a flaming falchion, and at the end of the world
shall issue forth to combat, and shall vanquish all the gods,
and consume the universe with fire. As it is said in the
Voluspa—
* Rime Giants, or Giants of the Frost.
f Viz., Svaul, Gunnthra, Fjorm, Fimbul, Thuir, Siith, Hrith, Sylgr,
Ylgr, Vith, Leiptur and Gjöll.
% Literally, "It is light and hot, insomuch so that it is flaming and
burning, and it is impervious to those who are outlandish (foreign), and no*
indigenous there " (or who have no home or heritage therein).
D D
NOBTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
" ' Surtur from the south wends
With seething fire
The falchion of the mighty one,
A sun-light flameth
Mountains together dash,
Giants headlong rush.
Men tread the paths to Hel,
And Heaven in twain is rent.' "
ORIGIN OF THE HEIMTHURSAE, OE FEOST-GIANTS.
5. "Tell me," said Gangler, "what was the state of things
ere the races mingled, and nations came into being."
" When the rivers that are called Elivagar had flowed far
from their sources," replied Har, " the venom which they
rolled along hardened, as does dross that runs from a furnace,
and became ice. When the rivers flowed no longer, and the ice
stood still, the vapour arising from the venom gathered over
it, and froze to rime, and in this manner were formed, in Gin-
nungagap, many layers of congealed vapour, piled one over the
other."
" That part of Ginnungagap," added Jafnhar, " that lies
towards the north was thus filled with heavy masses of gelid
vapour and ice, whilst everywhere within were whirlwinds and
fleeting mists. But the southern part of Ginnungagap was
lighted by the sparks and flakes that flew into it from
Muspellheim."
" Thus," continued Thridi, " whilst freezing cold and
gathering gloom proceeded from Niflheim, that part of Gin¬
nungagap looking towards Muspellheim was filled with glow¬
ing radiancy, the intervening space remaining calm and light
as wind-still air. And when the heated blast met the gelid
* The sense of this half-strophe is very obscure. Finn Magnusen renders
it by, " Surtur e meridie procedit advehens flagrantem flammam, sol re-
splendet e gladio coelestis Dei." Jacob Grimm, (Dent. Mythol. p. 770,) by
" Surtus tetidit ab austro cum vimine gigas, splendet e gladio {ejus) sol de-
orum," and concludes that Surtur is here expressly called a giant. As nei¬
ther of these interpretations appears to us quite clear, and as that of Grimm
would completely upset a very elaborate theory, we have purposely abstained
from calling Surtur either giant or god—mighty one, being applicable to both,
appearing to us, so long as the question is sub judice, the best designation.
the prose edda
403
vapour it melted it into drops, and, by the might of him who
sent the heat [d], these drops quickened into life, and took
a human semblance. The being thus formed was named
Ymir, but the Frost-giants call him Örgelmir. From him
descend the race of the Frost-giants (Hrimthursar), as it is
said in the Voluspá, ' From Vidolf come all witches ; from
Vilmeith all wizards ; from Svarthöfdi all poison-seethers ;
and all giants from Ymir.' And the giant Vafthrûdnir, when
Gangrad asked, 'Whence came Qï'gelDiir the first of the
sons of giants ? ' answered, ' The Elivagar cast out drops of
venom that quickened into a giant. From him spring all our
race, and hence are we so strong and mighty.' "
"How did the race of Ymir spread itself?" said Gangler;
"or dost thou believe that this giant was a god?"
"We are far from believing him to have been a god," re¬
plied Har, " for he was wicked as are all of his race, whom we
call Frost-giants. And it is said that, when Ymir slept, he
fell into a sweat, and from the pit of his left arm was born a
man and a woman, and one of his feet engendered with the
other a son, from whom descend the Frost-giants, and we
therefore call Ymir the old Frost-giant " [e].
OF THE cow AUDHUMLA, AND THE BIRTH OF ODIN.
6. "Where dwelt Ymir, and on what did he live?" asked
Gangler.
" Immediately after the gelid vapours had been resolved
into drops," replied Har, " there was formed out of them the
cow named Audhumla. Four streams of milk ran from her
teats, and thus fed she Ymir."
" But on what did the cow feed ?" said Gangler.
" The cow," answered Har, " supported herself by licking
the stones that were covered with salt and hoar frost- The
first day that she licked these stones there sprung from them,
towards evening, the hairs of a man, the second day a head,
and on the third an entire man, who was endowed with beauty,
agility, and power [f]. He was called Bur, and was the father
of Bor, who took for wife Besla, the daughter of the giant
Bölthorn. And they had three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve ; and
it is our belief that this Odin, with his brothers, ruleth both
d d 2
404
northern antiquities.
heaven and earth, and that Odin is his true name, and that
he is the most mighty of all the gods " [gJ.
how the sons of bör slew ymir and from his rodt
made heaven and earth.
7 " Was there," asked Gangler, " any kind of equality, or
anj^ degree of good understanding between these two races ? "
" Far from it," replied Har ; " for the sons of Bor slew the
giant Ymir, and when he fell there ran so much blood from
his wounds, that the whole race of Frost-giants was drowned
in it, except a single giant, who saved himself with his house¬
hold. He is called by the giants Bergelmir. He escaped by
going on board his bark, and with him went his wife, and from
them are descended the Frost-giants. As it is said —
" ' Ages past counting
Ere the earth was yet formed,
Was born Bergelmir :
Full well I remember.
How this crafty giant
Secure in his skiff lay.' "
8 " And what became of the sons of Bor, whom ye look
upon as gods?" said Gangler.
" To relate this," replied Har, " is no trivial matter. They
dragged the body of Ymir into the middle of Ginnungagap,
and of it formed the earth. From Ymir's blood they made
the seas and waters ; from his flesh the land ; from his bones the
mountains ; and his teeth and jaws, together with some bits of
broken bones, served them to make the stones and pebbles."
" With the blood that ran from his wounds," added Jafnhar,
*' they made the vast ocean, in the midst of which they fixed
the earth, the ocean encircling it as a ring, and hardy will he
be who attempts to pass those waters " [h].
" From his skull," continued Thridi, " they formed the
heavens, which they placed over the earth, and set a dwarf at
the corner of each of the four quarters. These dwarfs are
called East, West, North, and South. They afterwards took the
Meandering sparks and red hot flakes that had been cast out
of Muspellheim, and placed them in the heavens, both above
* In Vafthrûdnis-màl, st. 35.
THE PROSE EDDA.
405
and below, to give light unto the world, and assigned to every
other errant coruscation a prescribed locality and motion.
Hence it is recorded in ancient lore that from this time
were marked out the days, and nights, and seasons [i]. As is
said in the Voluspá—
" ' The sun that knew not
Where was her home ;
The moon that knew not
What was his power ;
The stars that knew not
Their dwelling place.'*
" Such are the events that took place ere the earth obtained,
the form it now beareth."
" Truly great were the deeds ye tell me of ! " exclaimed
Gangler ; " and wondrous in all its parts is the work thereby
accomplished. But how is the earth fashioned ? "
" It is round without," replied Har, " and encircled by the
deep ocean, the outward shores of which were assigned for a
dwelling to the race of giants. But within, round about the
earth, they (the sons of Bor) raised a bulwark against turbu¬
lent giants, employing for this structure Ymir's eyebrows [j].
To this bulwark they gave the name of Midgard f. They after¬
wards tossed Ymir's brains into the air, and thev became the
clouds, for thus we find it recorded j.
" Of Ymir's flesh was formed the earth ; of his sweat (blood),
the seas ; of his bones, the mountains ; of his hair, the trees ;
of his skull, the heavens ; but with his eyebrows the blithe
gods built Midgard for the sous of men, whilst from his brains
the lowering clouds were fashioned."
OF THE FORMATION OF THE FIRST MAN AND WOMAN.
9. " To make heaven and earth, to fix the sun and the moon
in the firmament, and mark out the days and seasons, were,
indeed, important labours," said Gangler; " but whence came
the men who at present dwell in the world ? "
" One day," replied Har, " as the sons of Bor were walking
• In the Norse, as in the German language, the sun is of the feminine,
and the moon of the masculine gender.
+ More properly speaking, to the earth which it encircled.
I In Grimnis mál, s. 40.
406
koethern antiquities.
along the sea-beach they found two steins of wood, out of
which they shaped a man and a woman. The first (Odin) in¬
fused into them life and spirit; the second (Vili) endowed
them with reason and the power of motion; the third (Ve)
gave them speech and features, hearing and vision. The
man they called Ask, and the woman, Embla. From these
two descend the whole human race, whose assigned dwelling
was within Midgard. Then the sons of Bör built in the
middle of the universe the city called Asgard, where dwell
the gods and their kindred, and from that abode work out so
many wondrous things, both on the earth and in the heavens
above it. There is in that city a place called Hlidskjálf, and
when Odin is seated there on his lofty throne he sees over
the whole world, discerns all the actions of men, and compre¬
hends whatever he contemplates. His wife is Frigga, the
daughter of Fjörgyn, and they and their offspring form the
race that we call the Hisir, a race that dwells in Asgard the
old, and the regions around it, and that we know to be en¬
tirely divine. Wherefore Odin may justly he called All-father,
for he is verily the father of all, of gods as well as of men, and
to his power all things owe their existence. Earth is his
daughter and his wife, and with her he had his first-born son,
Asa-Thor, who is endowed with strength and valour, and
therefore quelleth he everything that hath life " [k].
of night and day.
10. "A giant called Njörvi," continued Har, "who dwelt in
Jötunheim, had a daughter called Night (Nótt) who, like all
her race, was of a dark and swarthy complexion. She was
first wedded to a man called Naglfari, and had by him a son
named Aud, and afterwards to another man called Annar, by
whom she had a daughter called Earth (Jörd). She then
espoused Delling, of the uEsir race, and their son was Day,
(Dagr) a child light and beauteous like his father.
Then took All-father, Night, and Day, her sou, and gave,
them two horses and two cars, and set them up in the heavens
that they might drive successively one after the other, each in
twelve hours' time, round the world. Night rides first on her
horse called Hrimfaxi, that every mom, as he ends his course,
bedews the earth with the foam that falls from his bit. The
THE EROSE EDDA.
407
horse made use of by Day is named Skinfaxi, from whose
mane is shed light over the earth and the heavens " [lJ.
OF THE SUK AND MOON,
11. " How doth All-father regulate the course of the sun
and moon ? " said Gangler.
" There was formerly a man," replied Har, " named Mundil-
fari, who had two children so lovely and graceful, that he
called the male, Máni (moon), and the female, Sol (sun),
who espoused the man named Glenur. But the gods
being incensed at Mundilfari's presumption took his children
and placed them in the heavens, and let Sol drive the horses
that draw the car of the sun, which the gods had made to give
light to the world out of the sparks that flew from Muspell-
heim. These horses are called Arvak and Alsvid, and under
their withers the gods placed two skins filled with air to cool
and refresh them, or, according to some ancient traditions, a
refrigerant substance called isanikul *. Máni was set to guide
the moon in his course, and regulate his increasing and
waning aspect. One day he carried off from the earth two
children, named Bil and Hjuki, as they were returning from
the spring called Byrgir, carrying between them the bucket
called Sœgr, on the pole Simul. Vidfinn was the father of
these children, who always follow Máni (the moon), as we
may easily observe even from the earth."
OF THE WOLVES THAT PURSUE THE SUN AND MOON.
12. " But the sun," said Gangler, " speeds at such a rate as
if she feared that some one was pursuing her for her de¬
struction."
" And well she may," replied Har, "for he that seeks her
is not far behind, and she has no way to escape than to run
before him."
" But who is he," asked Gangler, " that causes her tliis
anxiety ? "
"There are two wolves," answered Har; "the one called
Sköll pursues the sun, and it is he that she fears, for he shall
one day overtake and devour her; the other, called Hati, the
.* A ferreous or glacial refrigeration.
408
northern antiquities.
SOR of Hrodvitnir, nms before her, and as eagerly pursues the
moon that will one day be caught by him " [mj.
" Whence come these wolves ? " asked Gangler.
" A hag," replied Har, " dwells in a wood, to the eastward
of Midgard, called Járnvid, (the Iron Wood,) which is the
abode of a race of witches called Jámvidjur. This old hag
is the mother of many gigantic sons, who are all of them
shaped like wolves, two of whom are the wolves thou askest
about. There is one of tha't race, who is said to be the most
formidable of all, called Mánagarm : he will be filled with the
life-blood of men who draw near their end, and will swallow
up the moon, and stain the heavens and the earth with blood.
Then shall the sun grow dim, and the winds howl tumultu-
ously to and fro. As it is said in the Völuspa—
" ' Eastward in the Iron-wood
The old one sitteth.
And there bringeth forth
Eenrir's fell kindred.
Of these, one, the mightiest,
The moon's devourer.
In form most fiend-like,
And filled with the life-blood
Of the dead and the dying.
Reddens with ruddy gore
The seats of the high gods.
Then shall the sunshine
Of summer be darkened.
And fickle the weather.
Conceive ve this or not?
of the way that leads to heaven.
13. "I must now ask," said Gangler, "which is the path
leading from earth to heaven ? "
" That is a senseless question," replied Har, with a smile of
derision. "Hast thou not been told that the gods made a
bridge from earth to heaven, and called it Bifröst ? Thou
must surely have seen it ; but, perhaps, thou callest it the
rainbow. It is of three hues, and is constructed with more
art than any other work But, strong though it be, it will be
THE PKOSE EDDA.
409
broken to pieces when the sons of Muspell, after having tra¬
versed great rivers, shall ride over it."
"Methinks," said Gangler, " the gods could not have been
in earnest to erect a bridge so liable to be broken down, since
it is in their power to make whatever they please."
"The gods," replied Har, "are not to be blamed on that
account ; Bifröst is of itself a very good bridge, but there is
nothing in nature that can hope to make resistance when the
sons of Muspell sally forth to the great combat."
THE GOLDEN AGE.
"What did All-father do after Asgard was made?" de¬
manded Gangler.
" In the beginning," answered Har, " he appointed rulers,
and bade them judge with him the fate of men, and regulate
the government of the celestial city. They met for this pur¬
pose in a place called Idavöll, which is in the centre of the
divine abode. Their first work was to erect a court or hall
wherein are twelve seats for themselves, besides the throne
which is occupied by All-father. This hall is the largest and
most magnificent in the universe, being resplendent on all
sides, both within and without, with the finest gold. Its
name is Gladsheim. They also erected another hall for the
sanctuary of the goddesses. It is a very fair structure, and
called by men Vingólf. Lastly they built a smithy, and fur¬
nished it with hammers, tongs, and anvils, and with these
made all the other requisite instruments, with which they
worked in metal, stone and wood, and composed so large a
quantity of the metal called gold that they made all their
moveables of it. Hence that age was named the Golden
Age. This was the age that lasted until the arrival of the
women out of Jötunheim, who corrupted it."
ORIGIN OF THE DWARFS.
"Then the gods, seating themselves upon their thrones,
distributed justice, and bethought them how the dwarfs had
been bred M the mould of the earth, just as worms are in a
dead body. It was, in fact, in Ymir's flesh that the dwarfs were
engendered, and began to move and live. At first they were
only maggots, but by the will of the gods they at length
410
noethern antiquities.
partook both of human shape and understanding, although
they always dwell in rocks and caverns.
" Modsognir and Durin are the principal ones. As it is said
in the Voluspá—
" ' Then went the rulers there.
All gods most holy.
To Üieir seats aloft.
And counsel together took,
Who should of dwarfs
The race then fashion.
From the livid bones
And blood of the giant.
Modsognir, chief
Of the dwarfish race,
And Durin too
Were then created.
And like to men
Dwarfs in the earth
Were formed in numbers
As Durin ordered." ' *
of the ash yggdeasill, mimie's well, and the noens oe
destinies.
15. " Where," asked Gangler, " is the chief or holiest seat
of the gods ? "
"It is under the ash. Yggdrasill," replied Har, " where the
gods assemble every day in council " [n].
* In order not to interrupt the text by a mere enumeration of names, we
subjoin what follows.
The names of these dwarfs are—Nyi, and Nidi, Nordri and. Sudri, Austri
and Vestri, Althjófr, Dvalinn, Nár, Nain, Nipingr, Dáinn, Bivaur,
Bavaur, Baumbur, Nori, An, Annar, Oinn, Mjödvitnir, Veigur, Gandálfr,
Vindálfr, Thorinn, Fili, Kili, Fundinn, Náli, Thrór, Throinn, Thekkr, Litur,
Titur, Nyr, Nyrádr, Begin and Eádsvithr.
The above-mentioned dwarfs dwell in the earth, but the following in
rocks.
Draupnir, Dólgthrasir, Hárr, Högstari, Hljódálfr, Glóinn, J)ori, Ori, Dúfr,
Anvari, Flepti, Fili, Hárr and Sjarr.
Others came from Svarin's Barrow (or rocky mountain) to Aurvanga in
Joruvalla, and from them are the Lovar sprung, whose names are as follows :—
Skirfir, Yirfír, Skafidr, Ai, Alfr, Yngvi, Eikinskjalldi, Fjalar, Frosti, Fith,
and Ginnar.
THE PROSE EDDA.
411
"What is there remarkable in regard to that place ? " said
Gangler.
" That ash," answered Jafnhar, " is the greatest and best
of all trees. Its branches spread over the whole world, and
even reach above heaven. It has three roots very wide
asunder. One of them extends to the ^sir, another to the
Frost-giants in that very place where was formerly Gin-
nungagap, and the third stands over Niflheim, and under
this root, which is constantly gnawed by Nidhögg, is
Hvergelmir But under the root that stretches out towards
tFe Frost-giants there is Mimir's well, in which wisdom and,
wit lie hidden. The owner of this well is called Mimir. He
is full of wisdom, because he drinks the waters of the well
from the horn Gjöll every morning. One day All-father came
and begged a draugi^t of this water, which he obtained, but
was obliged to leave one of his eyes as a pledge for it. As
it is said in the Völuspa—
" ' All know I, Odin !
How thou hiddest thine eve
V
In Mimir's well-spring
Of limpid water.
Mead quaffs Mimir
Each morn from the pledge
Valfadir left him.
Conceive ye this or not ? '
" The third root of the ash is in heaven, and under it is the,
holy Urdar-fount. 'Tis here that the gods sit in judgment.
Every day they ride up hither on horseback over Bifröst,
which is called the ^sir Bridge. These are the names of
the horses of the .iEsir. Sleipnir is the best of them ; he has
eight legs, and belongs to Odin. The others are Gladr^
Gyllir, Glœr, Slieidbrimir, Silfrintoppr, Synir, Gils, Fal-
hófnir, Gulltoppr, and Léttfeti. Baldur's horse was burnt
with his master's body. As for Thor, he goes on foot, and is
obliged every day to wade the rivers called Kormtand Œrmt^
and two others called Kérlaung.
" Through these shall Thor wade every day, as he fares to
the doomstead under Yggdrasill's ash, else the Hilsir Bridge
412
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
would be in flames, and boiling hot would become the holy
waters." =5«
" But tell me," said Gangler, " does fire burn over Bi-
fröst ?"
" That," replied Har, " which thou seest red in the bow,
is burning fire ; for the Frost-giants and the Mountain-giants
would go up to heaven by that bridge if it were easy for every
one to walk over it. There are in heaven many goodly home¬
steads, and none without a celestial ward. Near the foun
tain, which is under the ash, stands a very beauteous dwelling,
out of which go three maidens, named Urd, Verdandi, and
Skuld f. These maidens fix the lifetime of all men, and are
called Norns. But there are, indeed, many other Norns, for,
when a man is bom, there is a Nom to determine his fate.
Some are known to be of heavenly origi^, but others belong
to the races of the elves and dwarfs ; as it is said—
" 'Methinks the Noms were born.far asunder, for they are
not of the same race. Some belong to the .®sir, some to the
Elves, and some are Dvalin's daughters."
" But if these Norns dispense the destinies of men," said
Gangler, " they are, methinks, very unequal in their distri¬
bution ; for some men are fortunate and wealthy, others acquire
neither riches nor honours, some live to a good old age, while
others are cut off in their prime."
" The Norns," replied Har, " who are of a good origin, are
good themselves, and dispense good destinies. But those men
to whom misfortunes happen ought to ascribe them to the
evil Norns."
16. " What more wonders hast thou to tell me," said
Gangler, " conceming the ash ?"
" What I have further to say respecting it," replied Har,
" is, that there is an eagle perched upon its branches who
knows many things : between his eyes sits the hawk
called Vedurfolnir. The squirrel named Batatosk runs up
and down the ash, and seeks to cause strife between the eagle
and Nidhogg. Four harts run across the branches of the
tree, and bite the buds. They are called Dáinn, Dvalinn,
* i. e. If Thor drove over Bifröst with his thunder chariot. The passage
cited is the 29th s. of Grímnis-mál.
"f i. e. Present, Past, and Future ; see these words in the Glossary.
THE PROSE EDDA.
413
Duneyr, and Durathrór. But there are so many snakes with
Nidhögg in Hvergelmir that no tongue can recount them.
As it is said *—
" ' Yggdrasill's ash
More hardship bears
Than men imagine ;
The hart bites above,
At the sides it rots,
Below gnaws Nidhögg.'
" And again—
" ' More serpents lie
Under Yggdrasill's ash
Than simpletons think of ;
Góinn and Móimi,
The sons of Grafvitnir,
Grábak and Gráfjollud,
Ofnir and Svafnir,
Must for aye, methinks,
Gnaw the roots of that tree.'
" It is also said that the Norns who dwell by the Urdar-fount
draw every day water from the spring, and with it and the
clay that lies around the fount sprinkle the ash, in order that
its branches may not rot and wither away. This water is sO'
holy that everything placed in the spring becomes as white
as the film within an egg-shell. As it is said in the Voluspá—
" ' An Ash know I standing,
Named Yggdrasill,
A stately tree sprinkled
With water the purest ;
Thence come the deAvdrops
That fall in the dales ;
Ever blooming, it stands
O'er the Urdar-fountain.'
" The dew that falls thence on the earth men call honey-
dew, and it is the food of the bees. Two fowls are fed in the
Urdar-fount ; they are called swans, and from them are de¬
scended all the birds of this species."
* la GrímnÍ3-máb st. 31 and 35.
ÚU
KOBTHEKN ANTIQÜ [TIES.
OF THE VAKIOUS CELESTIAL EEGIOHS.
17. " Thou teilest me many wonderful things of heaven,"
said Gangler, " but what other homesteads are to be seen
there ? "
" There are many other fair homesteads there," replied
Har ; " one of them is named Elf-home (Alfheim) [o], wherein
dwell the beings called the Elves of Light ; but the Elves of
Darkness live under the earth, and differ from the others still
more in their actions than in their appearance. The Elves of
Light are fairer than the sun, hut the Elves of Darkness blacker
than pitch. There is also a mansion called Breidahlik, which
is not inferior to any other in beauty ; and another named
Glitnir, the walls, columns and beams of which are of ruddy
gold, and the roof of silver. There is also the stead called
Himinbjorg, that stands on the borders where Bifröst touches
heaven, and the stately mansion belonging to Odin, called
Valaskjálf, which was built by the gods, and roofed with pure
silver, and in which is the throne called Hlidskjálf. When
All-father is seated on this throne, he can see over the whole
world. On the southern edge of heaven is the most beautiful
homestead of all, brighter than the sun itself. It is called
Gimli, and shall stand when both heaven and earth have
passed away, and good and righteous men shall dwell therein
for everlasting ages. It is thus spoken of in the Yoluspá :—
" ' A hall sees she standing.
Than the sun fairer,
With its glittering gold roof
Aloft in Gimli.
All men of worth
Shall there abide,
And bliss enjoy
Through countless ages.' "
" But what will preserve this abode when Surtur's fire con¬
sumes heaven and earth ? " said Gangler.
"We are told," replied Har, "that towards the south there
is another heaven above this called Andláng, and again above
this a third heaven called Vidbláin. In this last, we think
Gimli must be seated, but we deem that the Elves of Light
abide in it now."
THE PEOSE EDDA.
415
OF THE WIND AND THE SEASONS.
18. " Tell me," said Gangler, " whence comes the wind,
which is so strong, that it moves the ocean and fans fire to
flame, yet, strong though it he, no mortal eye can discern it ?
wonderfully, therefore, must it be shapen."
" I can tell thee all about it," answered Har ; " thou must
know that at the northern extremity of the heavens sits a giant
called Hraesvelgur, clad with eagles' plumes. When he spreads
out his wings for flight, the winds arise from under them.
Thus is it said * : -
" ' Hrsesvelgur's the giant.
Who on heaven's edge sits
In the guise of an eagle ;
And the winds, it is said,
Eush down on the earth
From his outspreading pinions.' "
19. " Tell me further," said Gangler, " why the summer
should be hot, and the winter cold."
" A Avise man would not ask such a question, which every
one could answer," replied hlar; " but, if thou hast been so
dull as not to have heard the reason, I will rather forgive thee
for once asking a foolish question than suffer thee to remain
any longer in ignorance of what ought to have been known to
thee. The father of Summer is called Svásuth, who is such
a gentle and delicate being, that what is mild is from him
called sweet. The father of Winter has two names, Vindloni
and Vindsval. He is the son of Vásad, and, like all his race,
has an icy breath, and is of a grim and gloomy aspect."
OF ODIN.
20. I must now ask thee," said Gangler, " Avho are the
gods that men are bound to believe in ? "
" There are twelve gods," replied Har, " to whom divine
honours ought to be rendered."
" Nor are the goddesses," added Jafnhar, " less divine and
mighty."
" The first and eldest of the iEsir," continued Thridi, " is
* In Vafthrúdnis-mál, st. 37.
416
noexheen antiquities.
Odin. He governs all things, and, although the other deities
are powerful, they all serve and ohey him as children do their
father [p]. Frigga is his wife. She foresees the destinies of
men, hut never reveals what is to come. For thus it is said
that Odin himself told Loki, ' Senseless Loki, why wilt thou
pry into futurity, Frigga alone knoweth the destinies of all,
though she telleth them never ? '
" Odin is named Alfadir (All-father), because he is the father
of all the gods, and also Valfadir (Choosing Father), because
he chooses for his sons all those who fall in combat. For
their abode he has prepared Valhalla and Vingólf, where they
are called Einherjar (Heroes or Champions). Odin is also
called Hangagud, Haptagud, and Farmagud, and, besides
these, was named in many ways when he went to King
Geirraudr." *
"A great many names, indeed!" exclaimed Gangler;
*' surely that man must be very wise who Imows them all
distinctly, and can tell on what occasions they were given."
" It requires, no doubt," replied Har, " a good memory to
recollect readily all these names, but I will tell thee in a few
words what principally contributed to confer them upon him.
It was the great variety of languages ; for the various nations
were obliged to translate his name into their respective tongues,
in order that they might supplicate and worship liim [q].
Some of his names, however, have been owing to adventures
that happened to him on his journeys, and which are related
in old stories. Nor canst thou ever pass for a wise man if
thou art not able to give an account of these wonderful adven¬
tures."
of thoe.
*21. " I now ask thee," said Gangler, " what are the names
of the other gods. What are their functions, and what have
they brought to pass ? "
* Forty-nine names are here enumerated ; viz., Grrimr, Gángrádr, Herjan,
Hjalmheri, Thekkr, Thridi, Thudr, Udr Hclblindi, Hárr, Sadr, Svipall,
Sanngetall, Herteitr, Hnikarr, Bileygr, Báleygr, Baulverkr, Fjölnir, Grím-
nir, Glapsvidr, Fjölsvithr, Sidhöttr, Sidskégg, Sigfadir, Hnikudr, Alfadir,
Atridr, Farmatyr, Oski, Omi, Jafnhar, Biflindi, Göndlir, Hárbardr, Svidr,
Svidrir, Jálk, Kjalar, Vidur, Thrór, Ygg, Thundr, Vakr, Skiffingr, Vafudr,
Hroptatyr, Gautr, and Veratyr.
THE PEOSE EDDA.
417
" The mightiest of them," replied Har, " is Thor. He is
called Asa-Thor and Auku-Thor, and is the strongest of gods
and men [r]. His realm is named Thrúdváng, and his
mansion Bilsldrnir, in which are five hundred and forty halls.
It is the largest house ever built. Thus it is called in the
Grímnis-mál-r
" ' Five hundred halls
And forty more,
Methinketh, hath
Bowed Bilskirnir.
Of houses roofed
There's none I know
My son's surpassing.'
" Thor has a car drawn by tw^o goats called Tanugnióst and
Tanngrisnir. From his driving about in this car he is called
Auku-Thor (Charioteer-Thor). He likewise possesses three very
precious things. The first is a mallet called Mjolnir, which both
the Frost and Mountain Giants know to their cost when they
see it hurled against them in the air; and no wonder, for it has
split many a skull of their fathers and kindred. The second
rare thing he possesses is called the belt of strength or prowess
(Megingjardir); When he girds it about him his divine might
is doubly augmented ; the third, also very precious, being his
iron gauntlets, which he is obliged to put on whenever he would
lay hold of the handle of his mallet. There is no one so wise
as to be able to relate all Thor's marvellous exploits, yet I
could tell thee so many myself, that hours would be whiled
away ere all that I know had been recounted."
OF BALDUR.
22. " I would rather," said Gangler, "hear something about
the other .¿Esir. "
"The second son of Odin," replied Har, "is Baldur, and
it may be truly said of him that he is the best, and that ail
mankind are loud in his praise. So fair and dazzling is he
in form and features, that rays of light seem to issue from
him [s] ; and thou mayst have some idea of the beauty of
E E
418
northeen antiquities.
his hair, when I tell thee that the whitest of all plants is
called Baldur s brow Baldur is the mildest, the wisest, and
the most eloquent of all the iEsir, yet such is his nature that
the judgment he has pronounced can never be altered. He
dwells in the heavenly mansion called Breidablik, in which
nothing unclean can enter. As it is said f—
" ' 'Tis Breidablik called,
Where Baldur the Fair
Hath built him a bower,
In that land where I Imow
The least loathliness lieth.'"
of njörd.
S3. " The third god," continued Har, " is Njörd, who dwells
in the heavenly region called Noátún. He rules over* the
winds, and checks the fury of the sea and of fire, and is there¬
fore invoked by sea-farers and fishermen [t]. He is so
wealthy that he can give possessions and treasures to those
who call on him for them. Yet Njörd is not of the lineage of
the .iEsir, for he was born and bred in Vanaheim. But the
Vanir gave him as hostage to the jiEsir, receiving from them in
his stead Hœnir. By this means was peace re-established
between the iEsir and Vanir. Njörd took to wife Skadi, the
daughter of the giant Thjassi. She preferred dwelling in the
abode formerly belonging to her father, which is situated
among rocky mountains, in the region called Thrymheim, but
Njörd loved to reside near the sea. They at last agreed that
they should pass together nine nights in Thrymheim, and
then three in Noátún. One day, when Njörd came back from
the mountains to Noátún, he thus sang—
" ' Of mountains I'm weary.
Not long was I there,
Not more than nine nights ;
But the howl of the wolf
Methought sounded ill
To the song of the swan-bird.'
* The Anthémis Cotula, still called Balldurshrá, Baldur's eyebrow, in
some parts of Sweden.
j- In Grrimnis-mál, st. 12.
THE PROSE EDDA.
419
" To which Skadi sang in reply—
" ' Ne'er can I sleep
In my couch on the strand,
For the screams of the sea-fowl.
The mew as he comes
Every morn from the main
Is sure to awake me.'
" Skadi then returned to the rocky mountains, and abode in
Thrymheim. There, fastening on her snow-skates and taking
her bow, she passes her time in the chase of savage beasts,
and is called the Öndur goddess, or Ôndurdis. As it is said—
" ' Thrymheim's the land
Where Thjassi abode
That mightiest of giants.
But snow-skating Skadi
Now dwells there, I trow.
In her father's old mansion.'"
OF THE GOD FRET, AND THE GODDESS FRETJA.
24. " Njörd had afterwards, at his residence at Nóatún,
two children, a son named Frey, and a daughter called Freyja,
both of them beauteous and mighty. Frey is one of the most
celebrated of the gods. He presides over rain and sunshine,
and all the fruits of the earth, and should be invoked in order
to obtain good harvests, and also for peace. He, moreover,
dispenses wealth among men. Freyja is the most propitious
of the goddesses; her abode in heaven is called Fólkváng.
To whatever field of battle she rides, she asserts her right to
one half of the slain, the other half belonging to Odin. As it is
said *—
" ' Fólkváng 'tis called
Where Freyja hath right
To dispose of the hall seats.
Every day, of the slain.
She chooseth the half.
And half leaves to Odin.'
* Qrímnis-mál, 14,
E E 2
420
KOKTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
"Her mansion, called Sessrúmnir, is lai'ge and magnificent ;
thence she sallies forth in a car drawn by two cats. She
lends a very favourable ear to those who sue to her for assist¬
ance. It is from her name that women of birth and fortune
are called in our language Freyjor*. She is very fond of
love ditties, and all lovers would do well to invoke her."
OF TYE.
25. "All the gods appear to me," said Gangler, " to have
great power, and I am not at all surprised that ye are able to •
perform so many great achievements, since ye are so well ac¬
quainted with the attributes and functions of each god, and
know what is befitting to ask from each, in order to succeed.
But are there anymore of them besides those you have already
mentioned?"
" Ay," answered Har, " there is Tyr, who is the most daring
and intrepid of all the gods. 'Tis he who dispenses valour in
war, hence warriors do well to invoke him. It has become
proverbial to say of a man who surpasses all others in valour
that he is Tyr-strong, or valiant as Tyr. A man noted for
his msdom is also said to be ' wise as Tyr.' Let me give
thee a proof of his intrepidity. When the ^sir were trying
to persuade the wolf, Fenrir, to let himself be bound up Avith
the chain, Gleipnir, he, fearing that they would never after¬
wards unloose him, only consented on the condition that while
they were chaining him he should keep Tyr's right hand be¬
tween his jaws. Tyr did not hesitate to put his hand in the
monster's mouth, but when Fenrir perceived that the ^sir had
no intention to unchain him, he bit the hand off at that point,
which has ever since been called the wolf's joint (úlflidr).
From that time Tyr has had but one hand f. He is not re¬
garded as a peacemaker among men."
OF THE OTHER GODS.
26. " There is another god," continued Har, " named Bragi,
who is celebrated for his wisdom, and more especially for his
eloquence and correct forms of speech. He is not only emi-
* See the note, page 312.
f See ch. 34.
THE PROSE EDDA.
421
nently skilled in poetry, but tbe art itself is called from
his name Bragr, which epithet is also applied to denote a
distinguished poet or poetess. His wife is named Iduna.
She keeps in a box the apples which the gods, when they feel
old age approaching, have only to taste of to become young
again. It is in this manner that they will be kept in reno¬
vated youth until Ragnarök."
" Methinks," interrupted Gangler, " the gods have com¬
mitted a great treasure to the guardianship and good faith of
Iduna."
" And hence it happened," replied Har, smiling, "that they
once ran the greatest risk imaginable, as I shall have occasion
to tell thee when thou hast heard the names of the other
deities.
27. " One of them is Heimdall, called also the White God.
He is the son of nine virgins, who were sisters, and is a very
sacred and powerful deity. He also bears the appellation of
the Gold-toothed, on account of his teeth being of pure gold,
and also that of Hallinskithi. His horse is called Gulltopp, and
he dwells in Himinbjörg at the end of Bifröst. He is the
warder of the gods, and is therefore placed on the borders of
heaven, to prevent the giants from forcing their way over the
bridge. He requires less sleep than a bird, and sees by night,
as well as by day, a hundred miles around him. So acute is
his ear that no sound escapes him, for he can even hear the
grass growing on the earth, and the wool on a sheep's back.
He has a horn called the Gjallar-horn, wdiich is heard through¬
out the universe. His sword is called Höfud (Head). Thus
it is said of him *—
" ' 'Tis Himinbjörg called
Where Heimdall they say
Hath dwelling and rule.
There the gods' warder drinks,
In peaceful old halls
Gladsome, the good mead.'
" And again he says of himself in Heimdall's lay—
" ' Born was I of mothers nine,
Son am I of sisters nine.'
* In Grímnia-mál, st. 13.
m
NOETHEIÍN ANTIQaiTIES,
"Among the iEsir," continued Har, "we also reckon
Hodur, who is blind, but extremely strong. Both gods and
men would be very glad if they never had occasion to pro¬
nounce his name, for they will long have cause to remember
the deed perpetrated by his hand
29. " Another god is Vidar, surnamed the Silent, who wears
very thick shoes. He is almost as strong as Thor himself,
and the gods place great reliance on him in all critical con¬
junctures.
30. " Vali, another god, is the son of Odin and Kinda, he is
bold in war, and an excellent archer.
31. " Another is called Ullur, who is the son of Sif, and step¬
son of Thor. He is so well skilled in the use of the bow, and
can go so fast on his snow-skates, that in these arts no one
can contend with him. He is also very handsome in his per¬
son, and possesses every quality of a warrior, wherefore it is
befitting to invoke him in single combats.
22. " The name of another god is Forseti, who is the son of
Baldur and Nanna, the daughter of Nef. He possesses the
heavenly mansion called Glitnir, and all disputants at law
who bring their cases before him go away perfectly reconciled.
" His tribunal is the best that is to be found among gods
or men. As it is said f—
" ' Glitnir's a mansion
Upraised on gold columns.
And roofed o'er with silver.
There Forseti his days
In peace ever passeth.
And stilleth all law strife.'"
OF LOKI AND HIS PROGENY.
33. "There is another deity," continued Har, "reckoned
in the number of the ^sir, whom some call the calumniator
of the gods, the contriver of all fraud and mischief, and the
disgrace of gods and men. His name is Loki or Loptur.
He is the son of the giant Farbauti. His mother is Laufey
or Nál; his brothers are Byleist and Helblindi. Loki is
* Namely, his having killed Baldiir in the manner staied in ch. 49.
t In Grímnis-mál, st. 15.
THE PROSE EDDA.
423
handsome and well made, but of a very fickle mood, and most
evil disposition. He surpasses all beings in those arts called
Cunning and Perfidy. Many a time has he exposed the gods
to very great perils, and often extricated them again by his
artifices [u]. His wife is called Siguna, and their son
Nari.
34. " Loki," continued Har, "has likewise had three chil¬
dren by Angurbodi, a giantess of Jötunheim. The first is the
wolf Fenrir; the second Jörmungand, the Midgard serpent ;
the third Hela (Death). The gods were not long ignorant that
these monsters continued to be bred up in Jötunheim, and,
having had recourse to divination, became aware of all the
evils they would have to suffer from them ; their being sprung
from such a mother was a bad presage, and from such a sire,
one still worse. All-father therefore deemed it advisable to
send one of the gods to bring them to him. When they
came he threw the serpent into that deep ocean by which the
earth is engirdled. But the monster has grown to such an
enormous size that, holding his tail in his mouth, he encircles
the whole earth. Hela he cast into Nifiheim, and gave her
power over nine worlds (regions), into which she distributes
those who are sent to her, that is to say, all who die through
sickness or old age. Here she possesses a habitation pro¬
tected by exceedingly high walls and strongly barred gates.
Her hall is called Elvidnir ; Hunger is her table ; Starvation,
her knife ; Delay, her man ; Slowness, her maid ; Precipice,
her threshold ; Care, her bed ; and Burning Anguish forms
the hangings of her apartments. The one half of her body is
livid, the other half the colour of human flesh. She may
therefore easily be recognised ; the more so, as she has a
dreadfully stem and grim countenance [v].
" The wolf Fenrir was bred up among the gods ; but Tyr
alone had the daring to go and feed him. Nevertheless, when
the gods perceived that he every day increased prodigiously in
size, and that the oracles warned them that he would one day
become fatal to them, they determined to make a very strong
iron fetter for him, which they called Lseding. Taking this fetter
to the wolf, they bade him try his strength on it. Fenrir, per¬
ceiving that the enterprise would not be very difficult for him,
let them do what they pleased, and then, by great muscular
exertion, burst the chain and set himself at liberty. The gods,
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
having seen this, made another fetter, half as strong again as
the former, which they called Drómi, and prevailed on the
■wolf to put it on, assuring him that, by breaking this, he would
give an undeniable proof of his vigour,
" The wolf saw well enough that it would not be so easy to
break this fetter, but, finding at the same time that his strength
had increased since he broke Laeding, and thinking that he could
never become famous without running some risk, voluntarily
submitted to be chained. When the gods told him that they
had finished their task, Fenrir shook himself violently,
stretched his limbs, rolled on the ground, and at last burst
his chains, which flew in pieces all around him. He thus
freed himself from Drómi, which gave rise to the proverb ' at
ley sa or la^ingi e^a at drepa or dróma,' (to get loose out of
Laeding, or to dash out of Drómi,) when anything is to be ac¬
complished by strong efforts.
" After this, the gods despaired of ever being able to bind
the wolf ; wherefore Al-father sent Skimir, the messenger of
Frey, into the country of the Dark Elves (Svartálfaheim) to-
engage certain dwarfs to make the fetter called Gleipnir. It
was fashioned out of six things ; to ■wit, the noise made by the
footfall of a cat ; the beards of women ; the roots of stones ;
the sinews of bears ; the breath of fish ; and the spittle of
birds. Though thou mayest not have heard of these things
before, thou mayest easily convince thyself that we have not
been telling thee lies. Thou must have seen that women
have no beards, that cats make no noise when they run, and
that there are no roots under stones. Now I know what has
been told thee to be equally true, although there may be some
things thou art not able to furnish a proof of."
" I belie've what thou hast told me to be true," rephed
Gangler, " for what thou hast adduced in corroboration of thy
statement is conceivable. But how was the fetter smithied '?
" This can I tell thee," replied Har, *' that the fetter was.
as smooth and soft as a silken string, and yet, as thou -U'ilt
presently hear, of very great strength. When it was brought
to the gods, they were profuse in their thanks to the mes¬
senger for the trouble he had given himself ; and taking the
wolf with them to the island called Lyngvi, in the Lake
Amsvartnir, they showed him the cord, and expressed their
wish that he would try to break it, assuring him at the same
THE PROSE EDDA.
425
time tliat it was somewhat stronger than its thinness would
warrant a person in supposing it to be. They took it them¬
selves, one after another, in their hands, and after attempt¬
ing in vain to break it, said, ' Thou alone, Fenrir, art able
to accomplish such a feat.'
" ' Methinks,' replied the wolf, ' that I shall acquire no
fame in breaking such a slender cord ; but if any artifice has
been employed in making it, slender though it seems, it shall
never come on my feet.'
" Tho-gods assured him that he would easily break a limber
silken cord, since he had already burst asunder iron fetters
of the most solid construction. ' But if thou shouldst not suc¬
ceed in breaking it,' they added, ' thou wilt show that thou
art too weak to cause the gods any fear, and we will not hesi¬
tate to set thee at liberty without delay.'
" ' I fear me much,'replied the wolf, ' that if ye once bind me
so fast that I shall be unable to free myself by my own efforts,
je will be in no haste to unloose me. Loath am I, therefore,
to have tliis cord wound round me : but in order that ye may
not doubt my courage, I will consent, provided one of you put
his hand into my mouth as a pledge that ye intend me no
deceit.'
" The gods wistfully looked at each other, and found that
they had only the choice of two evils, until Tyr stepped for¬
ward and intrepidly put his right hand between the monster's
jaws. Hereupon the gods, having tied up the wolf, he forcibly
stretched himself as he had formerly done, and used all his
might to disengage himself, but the more efforts he made the
tighter became the cord, until all the gods, except Tyr, who
lost his hand, burst into laughter at the sight.
" When the gods saw that the wolf was effectually bound,
they took the chain called Gfelgja, which was fixed to tlie fetter,
and drew it through the middle of a large rock named Gjoll,
which they sank very deep into the earth; afterwards, to make it
still more secure, they fastened the end of the cord to a massive
stone called Thviti, which they sank still deeper. The wolf
made in vain the most violent efforts to break loose, and,
opening his tremendous jaws, endeavoured to bite them. The
gods seeing this, thrust a sword into his mouth, which pierced
his under-jaw up to the hilt, so that the point touched the
palate. He then began to howl horribly, and since that time
426
NOßTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
the foam flows continually from his mouth in such abundance
that it forms the river called Von. There will he remain
until Ragnarök."
" Verily," said Gangler, " an evil progeny is that of Loki,
yet most mighty and powerful ; but since the gods have so
much to fear from the wolf, why did they not slay him ? "
" The gods have so much respect for the sanctity of their
peace-steads," replied Har, " that they would not stain them
with the blood of the wolf, although prophecy had intimated
to them that he must one day become the bane of Odin."
OF THE GODDESSES.
35. " Tell me now," said Gangler, " which are the god¬
desses ? "
" The first," replied Har, " is Frigga, who has a magni¬
ficent mansion called Fensalir. The second is Saga, who
dwells at Sökkvabekk, a very large and stately abode. The
third is Eir, the best of all in the healing art [w]. The fourth,
named Gefjon, is a maid, and all those who die maids become
her hand-maidens. The fifth is Fulla, who is also a maid, and
goes about with her hair flowing over her shoulders, and her
head adorned with a gold ribbon. She is entrusted with the
toilette and slippers of Frigga, and admitted into the most
important secrets of that goddess. Freyja is ranked next to
Frigga : she is wedded to a person called Odur, and their
daughter, named Hnossa, is so very handsome that whatever is
beautiful and precious is called by her name {h7iosir). But Odur
left his wife in order to travel into very remote countries. Since
that time Freyja continually weeps, and her tears are drops of
pure gold. She has a great variety of names, for having gone
over many countries in search of her husband, each people gave
her a different name. She is thus called Mardöll, Horn,
Gefn, and Syr, and also Vanadis. She possesses the neck¬
lace Brísíng. The seventh goddess is Sjöfna, who delights
in turning men's hearts and thoughts to love : hence a wooer
is called, from her name, Sjafni. The eighth, named Lofna,
is so mild and gracious to those who invoke her, that by a
peculiar privilege which either All-Father himself or Frigga has
given her, she can remove every obstacle that may prevent
tiie union of lovers sincerely attached to each other. Hence
her name is applied to denote love, and whatever is beloved
THE PEOSE EDDA,
427
by men. Vora, the ninth goddess, listens to the oaths that
men take, and particularly to the troth plighted between man
and woman, and punishes those who keep not their promises.
She is wise and prudent, and so penetrating that nothing re¬
mains hidden from her. Syn, the tenth, keeps the door in
the hall, and shuts it against those who ought not to enter.
She presides at trials when any thing is to be denied on oath,
whence the proverb, ' Syn (negation) is set against it,' when
ought is denied. Hlina, the eleventh, has the care of those
whom Frigga intends to deliver from peril. Snotra, the
twelfth, is wise and courteous, and men and women who pos¬
sess these qualities have her name applied to them. Gná,
the thirteenth, is the messenger that Frigga sends into the
various worlds on her errands. She has a horse that can run
through air and water, called Hófvarpnir [x]. Once, as she
drove out, certain Vanir saw her car in the air, when one of
them exclaimed,
" ' What flieth there ?
What goeth there ?
In the air aloft what glideth ?
" She answered,
" 'I fly not though I go.
And glide through the air
On Hófvarpnir,
Whose sire's Hamskerpir,
And dam Gardrofa.'
" Sol and Bil are also reckoned among the goddesses, but
their nature has already been explained to thee.
36. " There are besides these a great many other goddesses,
whose .duty it is to serve in Valhalla ; to bear in the drink and
take care of the drinking-horns and whatever belongs to the
table. They are named in Grímnis-mál and are called Val-
kyijor. Odin sends them to every field of battle, to make
choice of those who are to be slain, and to sway the victory.
Gudur, Eota, and the youngest of the Norns, Skuld, also ride
forth to choose the slain and turn the combat. Jord (earth), the
* Viz., Hrist, Mist, Skéggold, Skögul, Hildur, Thrúdur, Hlökk, Her^ötur,
Göll, Geirölul, Eandgrid, Kádgrid, and Eeginleif.
428
NORTHEEN ANITQUITIES.
mother of Thor, and Kinda, the mother of Vaii, are also
reckoned amongst the goddesses "
OF FREY AND GERDA
37. " There was a man," continued Har, " named Gymir,
who had for wife Aurboda, of the race of the Mountain-giants.
Their daughter is Gerda, who is the most beautiful of all
women. One day Frey having placed himself in Hlidskjálf
to take a view of the whole universe, perceived, as he looked
towai'ds the north, a large and stately mansion which a woman
was going to enter, and as she lifted up the latch of the door
so great a radiancy was thrown from her hand that the air
and waters, and all worlds were illumined by it. At this
sight, Frey, as a just punishment for his audacity in mount¬
ing' on that sacred throne, was struck with sudden sadness,
insomuch so, that on his return home he could neither speak,
nor sleep, nor drink, nor did any one dare to inquire the cause
of his affliction ; but Njord, at last, sent for Skimir, the mes¬
senger of Frey, and charged him to demand of his master
why he thus refused to speak to any one. Skimir promised
to do this, though with great reluctance, fearing that all that
he had to expect was a severe reprimand. He, however,
went to Frey, and asked him boldly why he was so sad and
silent. Frey answered, that he had seen a maiden of such
surpassing beauty that if he could not possess her he should
not live much longer, and that this was what rendered him so
melancholy. ' Go, therefore,' he added, ' and ask her hand
for me, and bring her here whether her father be willing or
not, and I will amply reward thee. Skimir undertook to per¬
form the task, provided he might he previously put in posses¬
sion of Frey's sword, which was of such an excellent quality
that it would of itself strew a field' with carnage whenever the
o^vner ordered it. Frey, impatient of delay, immediately
made him a present of the sword, and Skimir set out on his
joumey and obtained the maiden's promise, that within nine
nights she would come to a place called Barey, and there wed
Frey. Skimir having reported the success of his message,
Frey exclaimed.
* See ch. ix. and xvil.
the prose edda.
4Q9
" * Long is one night,
Long are two nights,
But how shall I hold out three ?
Shorter hath seemed
A month to me oft
Than of this longing-time the half.'
" Frey having thus given away his sword, found himself with¬
out arms when he fought with Beli, and hence it was that he
slew him with a stag's antlers."
" But it seems very astonishing," interrupted Gangler,
" that such a brave hero as Frey should give away his
sword without keeping another equally good for himself. He
must have been in a very bad plight when he encountered
Beli, and methinks must have mightily repented him of the
gift-"
" That combat," replied Har, " was a trifling affair. Frey
could have killed Beli with a blow of his fist had he felt in¬
clined : hut the time will come when the sons of Muspell
shall issue forth to the fight, and then, indeed, will Frey truly
regret having parted with his falchion."
of the joys of valhalla.
38. " If it be as thou hast told me," said Gangler, •' that
all men who have fallen in fight since the beginning of the
world are gone to Odin, in Valhalla, what has he to give them
to eat, for methinks there must be a great crowd there ?"
" What thou sayest is quite true," replied Har, " the crowd
there is indeed great, hut great though it be, it will still in¬
crease, and mil be thought too little when the wolf cometh [yJ.
But however great the band of men in Valhalla may be, the
flesh of the boar Ssehrimnir will more than suffice for their
sustenance. For although this boar is sodden every morning
he becomes whole again every night [z]. But there are few,
methinks, who are wise enough to give thee, in this respect,
a satisfactory answer to thy question. The cook is called
Andhrimnir, and the kettle Eldhrimnir. As it is said *,—
• Andhrimnir cooks in Eldhrimnir» S^ehrimnir.' 'Tis the best
* In Grímnis-mál, st. 18.
430
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
of flesh, thougli few know how much is required for the
Einherjar."
" But has Odin," said Gangler, " the same food as the
heroes ?"
" Odin," replied Har, " gives the meat that is set before
him to two wolves, called Geri and Freki, for he himself
stands in no need of food. Wine is for him both meat and
drink. As it is said —
" ' Geri and Freki
Feedeth the war-faring
Famed Father of hosts,
For 'tis with wine only
That Odin, in arms renowned,
Is nourished for aye,'
" Two ravens sit on Odin's shoulders and whisper in his ear
the tidings and events they have heard and witnessed. They
are called Hugin and Munin f. He sends them out at dawn
of day to fly over the whole world, and they return at eve to¬
wards meal time. Hence it is that Odin knows so many
things, and is called the Piaven's God (Hrafnagu^). As it is
said 1,—
" ' Hugin and Munin
Each dawn take their flight
Earth's ñelds over,
I fear me for Hugin,
Lest he come not back.
But much more for Munin,'
39, " What have the heroes to drink," said Gangler, " in
sufficient quantity to correspond to their plentiful supply of
meat : do they only drink water ?"
" A very silly question is that," replied Har ; " dost thou
imagine that All-Father would invite kings and jarls and
other great men and give them nothing to drink but water I
In that case, methinks, many of those who had endured the
greatest hardships, and received deadly wounds in order to
* In Grímnis-mál, st, 19,
-j- Mind or Thought, and Memory.
Î In Grímnis-mál, st, 20.
the PROSE edda-
431
obtain access to Valhalla, would find that they had paid too
great a price for their water drink, and would indeed have
reason to complain were they there to meet with no better en
tertainment. But thou wilt see that the case is quite other¬
wise. For the she-goat, named Heidrun, stands above Val¬
halla, and feeds on the leaves of a very famous tree called
Lserath, and from her teats flows mead in such great abund¬
ance that every day a stoop, large enough to hold more than
would suffice for all the heroes, is filled with it." [aa.J
"Verily," said Gangler, 'a' mighty useful goat is this,
and methinks the tree she feeds on must have very singular
virtues."
" Still more wonderful," replied Har, " is what is told of
the stag Eikthyrnir. This stag also stands over Valhalla and
feeds upon the leaves of the same tree, and whilst he is feed¬
ing so many drops fall from his antlers down into Hvergelmir
that they furnish sufficient water for the rivers that issuing
thence floAV through the celestial abodes.
40. " Wondrous things are these which thou teilest me
of," said Gangler, "and Valhalla must needs be an immense
building, but methinks there must often be a great press at
the door among such a number of people constantly thronging
in and out ?"
" Why dost thou not ask," replied Har, " how many doors
there are, and what are their dimensions ; then wouldst thou
be able to judge whether there is any difficulty in going in
and out. Know, then, that there is no lack of either seats or
doors. As it is said in Grimnis-mál :—■
" ' Five hundred doors
And forty more
Methinks are in Valhalla.
Eight hundred heroes through each door
Shall issue forth
Against the wolf to combat.'
44. " A mighty band of men must be in Valhalla," said
* As -usual these rivers are enumerated as follo-ws :—Sid, Vid, Snekinn,
Ekinn, Svol, Guunthró, Fjörm, Fimbulthu!, Gipul, Göpul, Gömul and Geir-
vimnl. Mention is also made of the rivers Thyn, Vin, Thöll, Boll, Grád,
Gunnthrainn, Nyt, Naut, Noun, Hronn, Vina^ Vegsvinn and ïhjôdnuma.
432
nobthern antiquities,
Gangler, " and methinks Odin must be a great chieftain to
command such a numerous host. But how do the heroes
pass their time when they are not drinking ?"
" Every day," replied Har, " as soon as they have dressed
themselves they ride out into the court (or field), and there
fight until they cut each other in pieces. This is their pastime,
but when meal-tide approaches they remount their steeds and
return to drink in Valhalla [bb]. As it is said's^;—
" ' The Einherjar all
On Odin's plain
Hew daily each other,
While chosen the slain are.
From the fray they then ride.
And drink ale with the ^sir.'
" Thou hast thus reason to say that Odin is great and
mighty, for there are many proofs of this. As it is said in the
very words of the jEsir f ; —
" ' The ash Yggdrasill
Is the first of trees,
As Skidbladnir of ships,
Odin of ^sir,
Sleipnir of steeds,
Bifröst of bridges,
Bragi of bards,
Hábrók of hawks.
And Garm of hounds is.' "
of the horse sleipnib.
42. " Thou mad'st mention," said Gangler, " of the horse
Sleipnir. To whom does he belong, and what is there to say
respecting him ? "
" Thou seemest to know nothing either about Sleipnir or
his origin," replied Har, " but thou wilt no doubt find what
thou wilt hear worthy of thy notice. Once on a time when
the gods were constructing their abodes, and had already
* In Vafthrúdnis-mál, st. 41.
+ In Grímnis-mál, st. 43.
THE PEOSE EDDA.
438
finished Midgard and Valhalla, a certain artificer came and
offered to build them, in the space of three half jmars, a re¬
sidence so well fortified that they should be perfectly safe
from the incursion of the Frost-giants, and the giants of the
mountains, even although they should have penetrated within
Midgard. But he demanded for his reward the goddess
Freyja, together with the sun and moon. After long delibe¬
ration the j®sir agreed to his terms, provided he would finish
the whole work himself without any one's assistance, and all
within the space of one winter, but if anything remained un¬
finished on the first day of summer, he should forfeit the re¬
compense agreed on. On being told these terms, the artificer
stipulated that he should be allowed the use of his horse,
called Svadilfari, and this, by the advice of Loki, was granted
to him. He accordingly set to work on the first day of
winter, and dming the night let his horse draw stone for the
building. The enormous size of the stones struck the ^sir
with astonishment, and they saw clearly that the horse did
one half more of the toilsome work than his master. Their
bargain, however, had been concluded in the presence of wit¬
nesses, and confirmed by solemn oaths, for without these pre¬
cautions a giant would not have thought himself safe among
the Hisir, especially when Thor returned from an expedition
he had then undertaken towards the east against evil demons.
" As the winter drew to a close the building tvas far ad¬
vanced, and the bulwarks were sufficiently high and massive
to render this residence impregnable. In short, when it
wanted but three days to summer the only part that remained
to be finished was the gateway. Then sat the gods on their
seats of justice and entered into consultation, inquiring of one
another who among them could have advised to give Freyja
away to Jötunheim, or to plunge the heavens in darkness by
permitting the giant to carry away the sun and moon. They
all agreed that no one but Loki, the son of Laufey, and the
author of so many evil deeds, could have given such bad
counsel, and that he should be put to a cruel death if he did
not contrive some way or other to prevent the artificer from
completing his task and obtaining the stipulated recompense
They immediately proceeded to lay hands on Loki, who, in
his fright, promised upon oath that let it cost him what it
F F
4M
KOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
■would, he would so manage matters that the man should lose
his reward. That very night, when the artificer went with
Svadilfari for building stone, a mare suddenly ran out of a
forest and began to neigh. The horse being thus excited,
broke loose and ran after the mare into the forest, which
obliged the man also to run after his horse, and thus between
one and the other the whole night was lost, so that at dawn
the work had not made the usual progress. The man seeing
that he had no other means of completing his task, resumed
his own gigantic stature, and the gods now clearly perceived
that it ^vas in reality a Mountain-giant who had come amongst
them. No longer regarding their oaths, they, therefore, called
on Thor, who immediately ran to their assistance, and lifting up
his mallet Mjolnir paid the workman his wages, not with the
sun and moon, and not even by sending him back to Jötun-
heim, for with the first blow he shattered the giant's skull to
pieces, and hurled him headlong into Nifihel. But Loki
had run such a race with Svadilfari that shortly after he
bore a grey foal with eight legs. This is the horse Sleipnir,
which excels all horses ever possessed by gods or men. It
is thus said in the Völuspa,—
" ' Then went the rulers there,
All gods most holy,
To their seats aloft,
And counsel together took.
Who all the winsome air
With guile had blended,
Or to the giant race
OS's maiden given
Then Thor, who too was there,
Arose in wrathful mood.
For seldom sits he still
When such things he heareth.
Annulled were now all oaths,
And words of promise fair.
And faith, not long before
In council plighted.' "
* Viz., Freyja, the wife of Odur. See ch. 35, and the word Odur, 0% in
the Grlossary.
THE PROSE EDDA.
435
OF THE SHIP SKÍDBLADNIR.
43. " What hast thou to say," demanded Gangler, " of
Skidbladnir, which thou toldst me was the best of ships ?
Is there no other ship as good or as large ? "
" Skidbladnir," replied Har, " is without doubt the best and
most artfully constructed of any, but the ship Naglfar is of
larger size. They were dwarfs, the sons of Ivaldi, who built
Skidbladnir, and made a present of her to Frey. She is so
large that all the jFisir with their weapons and war stores find
room on board her. As soon as the sails are set a favourahle
hreeze arises and carries her to her place of destination, and
she is made of so many pieces, and with so much skill, that
when she is not wanted for a voyage Frey may fold her
together like a piece of cloth, and put her in his pocket."
44. " A good ship truly, is Slddbladnir," said Gangler,
" and many cunning contrivances and spells must, no doubt,
have been used in her construction."
THOR'S ADVENTURES ON HIS JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF THE
GIANTS.
" But tell me," he (Gangler) continued, " did it ever
happen to Thor in his expeditions to be overcome either by
spells or by downright force ? "
" Few cau take upon them to affirm this," replied Har,
" and yet it has often fared hard enough with him ; but had
he in reality been worsted in any rencounter there would be
no need to make mention of it, since all are bound to believe
that nothing can resist his power. "
" It would, therefore, appear," said Gangler, " that I have
asked you of things that none of you are able to tell me of."
" There are, indeed, some such rumours current among
us," answered Jafnhar, " but they are hardly credible ; how
ever, there is one sitting here can impart them to thee, and
thou shouldst the rather believe him, for never having yet
uttered an untruth, he will not now begin to deceive thee
with false stories."
"Here then will I stand," said Gangler, "and listen to
what ye have to say, but if ye cannot answer my question
satisfactorily I shall look upon you as vanquished."
Then spake Thirdi and said, "We can easily conceive
F F 2
436
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
that thou art desirous of knowing these tidings, but it be¬
hoves thee to guard a becoming silence respecting them. The
story I have to relate is this ;—
" One day the God Thor set out in his car drawn by two
he-goats, and accompanied by Loki, on a journey. Night
coming on, they put up at a peasant's cottage, when Thor
killed his goats, and after flaying them, put them in the
kettle. When the flesh was sodden, he sat down with his
fellow-traveller to supper, and invited the peasant and his
family to partake of the repast. The peasant's son was named
Thjalfi, and his daughter Röska. Thor bade them throw all
the bones into the goats' skins which were spread out near
the fire-place, but young Thjalñ broke one of the shank bones
with his knife to come at the marrow. Thor having passed
the night in the cottage, rose at the dawn of day, and when
he was dressed took his mallet Mjölnir, and lifting it up, con¬
secrated the goats' skins, which he had no sooner done than
the two goats re-assumed their wonted form, only that one of
them now limped on one of its hind legs. Thor perceiving
this, said that the peasant, or one of his family, had handled
the shank bone of this goat too roughly, for he saw clearly
that it was broken. It may readily be imagined how fright¬
ened the peasant was when he saw Thor knit his brows, and
grasp the handle of his mallet with such force that the joints
of his fingers became white from the exertion. Fearing to be
struck down by the very looks of the god, the peasant and
his family made joint suit for pardon, offering whatever they
possessed as an atonement for the offence committed. Thor,
seeing their fear, desisted from his wrath, and became more
placable, and finally contented himself by requiring the
peasant's children, Thjalfi and Röska, who became his bond¬
servants, and have followed him ever since.
45. "Leaving his goats with the peasant, Thor proceeded
eastward on the road to Jotunheim, until he came to the
shores of a vast and deep sea, which having passed over he
penetrated into a strange country along with his companions,
Loki, Thjalfi, and Röska. They had not gone far before they
saw before them an immense forest, through which they
wandered all day. Thjalfi was of all men the swiftest of
foot. He bore Thor's Avallet, but the forest was a bad place
for finding anything eatable to stow in it. When it became
THE PEOSE EDDA
437
dark, they searched on all sides for a place where they might
pass the night, and at last came to a very large hall with an
entrance that took up the whole breadth of one of the ends
of the building. Here they chose them a place to sleep in ;
but towards midnight were alarmed by an earthquake which
shook the whole edifice. Thor, rising up, called on his com¬
panions to seek with him a place of safety. On the right they
found an adjoining chamber, into which they entered, but while
the others, trembling with fear, crept into the furthest corner
of this retreat, Thor remained at the doorway with his mallet
in his hand, prepared to defend himself, whatever might hap¬
pen. A terrible groaning was heard during the night, and
at dawn of day, Thor went out and observed lying near him
a man of enormous bulk, who slept and snored pretty loudly.
Thor could now account for the noise they had heard over
night, and girding on his Belt of Prowess, increased that
divine strength which he now stood in need of. The giant
awakening, rose up, and it is said that for once in his life Thor
was afraid to make use of his mallet, and contented himself
by simply asking the giant his name.
" ' My name is Skrymir,' said the other, 'but I need not
ask thy name, for I know thou art the God Thor. But what
hast thou done with my glove ? ' And stretching out his hand
Skrymir picked up his glove, which Thor then perceived was
what they had taken over night for a hall, the chamber where
they had sought refuge being the thumb. Skrymir then
asked whether they would have his fellowship, and Thor con¬
senting, the giant opened his wallet and began to eat his
breakfast. Thor and his companions having also taken their
morning repast, though in another place, Skrymir proposed
that they should lay their provisions together, which Thor also
assented to. The giant then put all the meat into one wallet,
which he slung on his back and went before them, taking
tremendous strides, the whole day, and at dusk sought out
for them a place where they might pass the night under a
large oak tree. Skrymir then told them that he would lie
down to sleep. ' But take ye the wallet,' he added, ' and
prepare your supper.'
" Skrymir soon fell asleep, and began to snore strongly, but
incredible though it may appear, it must nevertheless be told»
438
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
that when Thor came to open the wallet he could not untie a
single knot, nor render a single string looser than it was be¬
fore. Seeing that his labour was in vain, Thor became wroth,
and grasping his mallet with both hands while he advanced
a step forward, launched it at the giant's head. Skrymir
awakening, merely asked whether a leaf had not fallen on his
head, and whether they had supped and were ready to go to
sleep. Thor answered that they were just going to sleep,
and so saying, went and laid himself down under another
oak tree. But sleep came not that night to Thor, and when
he remarked that Skrymir snored again so loud that the forest
re-echoed with the noise, he arose, and grasping his mallet,
launched it with such force that it sunk into the giant's skull
up to the handle. Skrymir awakening, cried out—
" ' What's the matter ? did an acorn fall on my head ? How
fares it wth thee, Thor ? '
" But Thor went away hastily, saying that he had just then
awoke, and that as it was only midnight there was still time
for sleep. He however resolved that if he had an opportunity
of striking a third blow% it should settle all matters between
them. A little before day-break he perceived that Skrymir
was again fast asleep, and again grasping his mallet,
dashed it with such violence that it forced its way into the
giant's cheek up to the handle. But Skrymir sat up, and
stroking his cheek, said—
" ' Are there any birds perched on this tree ? Methought
when I awoke some moss from the branches fell on my head.
What ! Art thou awake, Thor ? Methinks it is time for
us to get up and dress ourselves ; but you have not now a long
way before you to the city called Utgard. I have heard you
whispering to one another that I am not a man of
small dimensions ; but if you come into Utgard you will see
there many men much taller than myself. Wherefore I advise
you, when you come there, not to make too much of yourselves,
for the followers of Utgard-Loki will not brook the boasting of
such mannikins as ye are [cc]. The best thing you could do
would probably be to turn back again, but if you persist in
going on, take the road that leads eastward, for mine now lies
northward to those rocks which you may see in the distance.'
" Hereupon, he threw his wallet over his shoulders and
THE PEOSE EDDA.
439
turned away from them into the forest, and I could never hear
that Thor wished to meet with him a second time.
46. " Thor and his companions proceeded oij their way, and
towards noon descried a city standing in the middle of a plain.
It was so lofty that they were obliged to bend their necks
quite hack on their shoulders ere they could see to the top of
it. On arriving at the walls they found the gateway closed
with a gate of bars strongly locked and bolted. Thor, after
trying in vain to open it, crept with his companions through
the bars, and thus succeeded m gaining admission into the
city. Seeing a large palace before them with the door wide
open, they went in and found a number of men of prodigious
stature sitting on benches in the hall. Going further, they
came before the king, Utgard-Loki, whom they saluted with
great respect. Their salutations were however returned by a
contemptuous look from the king, who, after regarding them
for some time, said with a scornful smile—
" ' It is tedious to ask for tidings of a long journey, yet if I
do not mistake me, that stripling there must be Aku-Thor.
Perhaps,'he added, addressing himself to Thor, ' thou mayst
he taller than thou appearest to be. But what are the feats
that thou and thy fellows deem yourselves skilled in, for no
one is permitted to remain here who does not, in some feat
or other, excel all other men.'
" ' The feat I know,' replied Loki, ' is to eat quicker than
any one else, and in this I am ready to give a proof, against
any one here who may choose to compete with me.'
" ' That will indeed be a feat,' said Utgard-Loki, ' if thou
performest what thou promisest, and it shall be tried forthwith.'
" He then ordered one of his men, who was sitting at the
further end of the bench, and whose name was Logi to come
forward and try his skill with Loki. A trough filled with
flesh meat having been set on the hall floor, Loki placed him¬
self at one end, and Logi at the other, and each of them be¬
gan to eat as fast as he could, until they met in the middle
of the trough. But it was found that Loki had only
eaten the flesh, whereas his adversary had devoured both flesh
and bone, and the trough to boot. All the company therefore
adjudged that Loki was vanquished.
* i. e. Devouring flame.
440
KORTHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
" Utgard-Loki then asked what feat the young man who ac¬
companied Thor could perform. Thjalfi answered that he
would run a race with any one who might be matched against
him. The king observed that skill in running was something
to boast of, but that if the youth would win the match he
must display great agility. He then ai'ose and went with all
who were present to a plain where there was good ground for
running on, and calling a young man named Hugi bade
him run a match with Thjalfi. In the first course Hugi so
much outstripped his competitor that he turned back and met
him not far from the starting-place.
" ' Thou must ply thy legs better, Thjalfi,' said Utgard-Loki,
* if thou wilt win the match, though I must needs say that
there never came a man here swifter of foot than thou art.'
" In the second course, Thjalfi was a full bow-shot from the
goal when Hugi arrived at it.
"'Most bravely dost thou run, Thjalfi,' said Utgard-Lold,
' though thou wilt not, methinks, win the match. But the
third course must decide.'
" They accordingly ran a third time, but Hugi had already
reached the goal before Thjalfi had got half way. All who
were present then cried out that there had been a sufficient
trial of skill in this kind of exercise.
"Utgard-Loki then asked Thor in what feats he would choose
to give proofs of that dexterity for which he was sq famous.
Thor replied, that he would begin a drinking match with any
one. Utgard-Loki consented, and entering the palace, bade
his cupbearer bring the large horn which his followers were
obliged to drink out of when they had trespassed in any way
against established usage [nn]. The cupbearer having pre¬
sented it to Thor, Utgard-Loki said—
" 'Whoever is a good drinker will empty that horn at a
single draught, though some men make two of it, but the most
puny drinker of all can do it at three.'
"Thor looked at the horn, which seemed of no extraordinary
size, though somewhat long ; however, as he was very thirsty,
he set it to his lips, and without drawing breath pulled as
long and as deeply as he could, that he might not be obliged
to make a second draught of it; hut when he set the horn
* i. e. Spirit or Thought.
THE PKOSE EDDA.
141
down and looked in, lie could scarcely perceive that the liquor
was diminished.
" ' 'Tis well drunken,' exclaimed Utgard-Loki, ' though
nothing much to boast of ; and 1 would not have believed had
it been told me that Asa-Thor could not have taken a greater
draught, but thou no doubt meanest to make amends at the
second pull.'
" Thor, without answering, went to it again with all his
might, but when he took the horn from his mouth it seemed
to him as if he had drunk rather less than before, although
the horn could now be carried without spilling.
"'How now, Thor/said Utgard-Loki; 'thou must not
spare thyself more in performing a feat than befits thy skill ;
but if thou meanest to drain the horn at the third draught
thou must pull deeply; and I must needs say that thou wilt
not be called so mighty a man here as thou art among the
.®sir, if thou showest no greater prowess in other feats than,
methinks, will be shown in this.'
" Thor, full of wrath, again set the horn to his lips, and ex¬
erted himself to the utmost to empty it entirely, but on look¬
ing in found that the liquor was only a little lower, upon
which he resolved to make no further attempt, but gave back
the horn to the cupbearer.
" ' I now see plainly,' said Utgard-Loki, ' that thou art not
quite so stout as we thought thee, but wilt thou try any other
feat, though, methinks, thou art not likely to bear any prize
away with thee hence.'
" ' I will try another feat,' replied Thor, ' and I am sure
such draughts as I have been drinking would not have been
reckoned small among the ^sir ; but what new trial hast thou
to propose ?'
" 'We have a very trifling game here,' answered Utgard-
Loki, ' in which we exercise none but children. It consists
in merely lifting my cat from the ground, nor should I have
dared to mention such a feat to Asa-Thor if I had not already
observed that thou art by no means what we took thee for.'
"As he finished speaking, a large grey cat sprung on the
hall floor. Thor advancing put his hand under the cat's belly,
and did his utmost to raise him from the floor, but the cat
bending his back had, notwithstanding all Thor's efforts, only
442
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
one of his feet lifted up, seeing which, Thor made no further
attempt.
" ' This trial has turned out,' said Utgard-Loki, 'just as I
imagined it would; the cat is large, but Thor is little in com¬
parison to our men,'
" ' Little as ye call me,' answered Thor, 'let me see who
amongst you will come hither now I am in wrath, and wrestle
with me.'
" ' I see no one here,' said Utgard-Loki, looking at the men
sitting on the benches, ' who would not think it beneath him
to wrestle with thee ; let somebody, however, call hither that
old crone, my nurse Elli *, and let Thor wrestle with her if
he will. She has thrown to the ground many a man not less
strong and mighty than this Thor is.'
"A toothless old woman then entered the hall, and was told
by Utgard-Loki to take hold of Thor. The tale is shortly
told. The more Thor tightened his hold on the crone the
firmer* she stood. At length, after a very violent struggle,
Thor began to lose his footing, and was finally brought down
upon one knee. Utgard-Loki then told them to desist,
adding that Thor had now no occasion to ask any one else in
the hall to wrestle with him, and it was also getting late.
He therefore showed Thor and his companions to their seats,
and they passed the night there in good cheer.
47. " The next morning, at break of day, Thor and his com¬
panions dressed themselves and prepared for their departure.
Utgard-Loki then came and ordered a table to be set for
them, on which there was no lack either of victuals or dnnk.
After the repast Utgard-Loki led them to the gate of the
city, and, on parting,'asked Thor how he thought his journey
had turned out, and whether he had met with any men
stronger than himself. Thor told him that he could not
deny but that he had brought great shame on himself. ' And
what grieves me most,' he added, ' is that ye will call me a
man of little worth.'
" 'Nay,' said Utgard-Loki, 'it behoves me to tell thee the
truth now thou art out of the city, which so long as I live, and
have my way, thou shalt never re-enter. And by my troth, had
* i. e. Eld or Old Age,
THE PKOSE EDDA.
443
I known beforehand that thou hadst so much strength in thee,
and wouldst have brought me so near to a great mishap, I
would not have suffered thee to enter this time. Know then
that I have all along deceived thee , by my illusions ; first, in
the forest, where I arrived before thee, and there thou wert
not able to untie the wallet, because I had bound it with iron
wire, in such a manner that thou couldst not discover how
the knot ought to be loosened. After this, thou gavest me
three blows with thy mallet ; the first, though the least, would
have ended my days had it fallen on me, but I brought a
rocky mountain before me which thou didst not perceive, and
in this mountain thou wilt find three glens, one of them re¬
markably deep. These are the dints made by thy mallet. I
have made use of similar illusions in the contests ye have had
with my followers. In the first, Loki, like hunger itself,
devoured all that was set before him, but Logi was, in reahty,
nothing else than ardent fire, and therefore consumed not
only the meat but the trough which held it. Hugi, with
whom Thjalfi contended in running, vms Thought, and it was
impossible for Thjalfi to keep pace with that. When thou, in
thy turn, didst try to empty the horn, thou didst perform, by
my troth, a deed so marvellous, that had I not seen it myself I
should never have believed it. For one end of that horn
reached the sea, which thou wast not aware of, but when thou
comest to the shore thou wilt perceive how much the sea has
sunk by thy draughts, which have caused what is now called
the ebb. Thou didst perform a feat no less wonderful by
lifting up the cat, and to tell thee the truth, when we saw that
one of his paws was off the floor, we were all of us terror-
stricken, for what thou tookest for a cat was in reality the
great Midgard serpent that encompasseth the whole earth,
and he was then barely long enough to inclose it between his
head and tail, so high had thy hand raised him up towards
heaven. Thy wrestling with Elli was also a most astonishing
feat, for there was never yet a man, nor ever shall be, whom
Old Age, for such in fact was Elli, will not sooner or later lay
low if he abide her coming. But now as we are going to part,
let me tell thee that it will be better for both of us if thou
never come near me again, for shouldst thou do so, I shall
again defend myself by other illusions, so that thou wilt never
prevail against me.'
444
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
" On hearing these words, Thor, in a rage, laid hold of his
mallet and would have launched it at him, but Utgard-Loki
had disappeared, and when Thor would have returned to the
city to destroy it, he found nothing around him but a verdant
plain. Proceeding, therefore, on his way, he returned with¬
out stopping to Thrúdváng. But he had already resolved to
make that attack on the Midgard serpent which afterwards
took place. I trust," concluded Thridi, " that thou wilt now
acknowledge that no one can tell thee truer tidings than those
thou hast heard respecting this journey of Thor to Jötunheim."
HOW THOR WENT TO FISH FOR THE MIDGARD SERPENT.
48. " I find by your account," said Gangler, " that Utgard-
Loki possesses great might in himself, though he has recourse
to spells and illusions ; but his power may be seen by his fol¬
lowers being in every respect so skilful and dexterous. But
tell me, did Thor ever avenge this affront ? "
" It is not unknown," replied Har, " though nobody has
talked of it, that Thor was determined to make amends for
the journey just spoken of, and he had not been long at home
ere he set out again so hastily that he had neither his car nor
his goats, nor any followers with him. He went out of Mid¬
gard under the semblance of a young man, and came at dusk to
the dwelling of a giant called Hymir. Here Thor j)assed the
night, but at break of day, when he perceived that Hymir was
making his boat ready for fishing, he arose and dressed him¬
self, and begged the giant would let him row out to sea with
him. Hymir answered, that a puny stripling like he was
could be of no great use to him. ' Besides,' he added, ' thou
wilt catch thy death of cold if I go so far out and remain so
long as I am accustomed to do.' Thor said, that for all that,
he would row as far from the land as Hymir had a mind, and
was not sure which of them would be the first who might
wish to row back again. At the same time he was so enraged
that he felt sorely inclined to let his mallet ring on the
giant s skull without further delay, but intending to try his
strength elsewhere, he stifled his wrath, and asked Hymir
what he meant to bait with. Hymir told him to look out for
a bait himself. Thor instantly went up to a herd of oxen that
belonged to the giant, and seizing the largest bull, that bore
the name of Pliminbrjót, wrung off his head, and returning
the pkose edda.
445
•with it to the boat, put out to sea with Hymir. Thor rowed
aft with two oars, and with such force that Hvmir, who rowed
at the prow, saw, with surprise, how swiftly the boat was
driven forward. He then observed that they were come to
the place where he was wont to angle for flat fish, but Thor
assured him that they had better go on a good "way further.
They accordingly continued to ply their oars, until Hymir cried
out that if they did not stop they "would be in danger from
the great Midgard serpent. Notwithstanding this, Thor per
sisted in rowing further, and in spite of Hymir's remon¬
strances was a great while before he would lay down his oars.
He then took out a fishing-line, extremely strong, furnished
with an equally strong hook, on which he fixed the bull's
head, and cast his line into the sea. The bait soon reached
the bottom, and it may be truly said that Thor then deceived
the Midgard serpent not a whit less than Utgard-Loki had
deceived Thor when he obliged him to lift up the serpent in
his hand ; for the monster greedily caught at the bait, and
the hook stuck fast in his palate. Stung with the pain, the
serpent tugged at the hook so violently, that Thor was obliged
to hold fast with both hands by the pegs that bear against the
oars. But his wrath now waxed high, and assuming all his
divine power, he pulled so hard at the line that his feet forced
their way through the boat and went down to the bottom of
the sea, whilst with his hands he drew up the serpent to the
side of the vessel. It is impossible to express by words the
dreadful scene that now took place. Thor, on one hand, dart¬
ing looks of ire on the serpent, whilst the monster, rearing
his head, spouted out floods of venom upon him. It is said
that when the giant Hymir beheld the serpent, he turned
pale and trembled with fright, and seeing, moreover, that the
water was entering his boat on all sides, he took out his knife,
just as Thor raised his mallet aloft, and cut the line, on which
the serpent sunk again under water. Thor, however, launched
his mallet at him, and there are some who say that it struck
ofif the monster's head at the bottom of the sea, but one may
assert with more certainty that he still lives and lies in the
ocean [ee]. Thor then struck Hymir such a blow^ with his
fist, nigh the ear, that the giant fell headlong into the water,
and Thor, wading with rapid strides, soon came to the land
again,"
446
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
THE DEATH OF BALDUE THE GOOD.
49. " Verily," said Gangler, " it was a famous exploit
which Thor performed on that journey, but did any other
such events take place among the .^sir? "
" Ay," replied Har, " I can tell thee of another event which
the ^sir deemed of much greater importance. Thou must
know, therefore, that Baldur the Good having been tormented
with terrible dreams, indicating that his life was in great
peril, communicated them to the assembled uiEsir, who re¬
solved to conjure all things to avert from him the threatened
danger. Then Frigga exacted an oath from fire and water,
from iron, and all other metals, as well as from stones,
earths, diseases, beasts, birds, poisons, and creeping things,
that none of them would do any harm to Baldur. When this
was done, it became a favourite pastime of the j3Esir, at their
meetings, to get Baldur to stand up and serve them as a mark,
some hurling darts at him, some stones, while others hewed
at him with their swords and battle-axes, for do they what
they would none of them could harm him, and this was re¬
garded by all as a great honour shown to Baldur. But when
Loki, the son of Laufey, beheld the scene, he was sorely vexed
that Baldur was not hurt. Assuming, therefore, the shape of
a woman, he went to Fensalir, the mansion of Frigga. That
goddess, when she saw the pretended woman, inquired of her
if she knew what the iEsir were doing at their meetings.
She replied, that they were throwing darts and stones at
Baldur without being able to hurt him.
" ' Ay,' said Frigga, ' neither metal nor wood can hurt
Baldur, for I have exacted an oath from all of them.'
" ' What ! ' exclaimed the woman, ' have all things sworn to
spare Baldur?'
" ' All things,' replied Frigga, ' except one little shrub that
grows on the eastern side of Valhalla, and is called Mistletoe,
and which I thought too young and feeble to crave an oath from.'
" As soon as Loki heard this he went away, and, resuming
his natural shape, cut off the mistletoe, and repaired to the
place where the gods were assembled. There he found Hödur
standing apart, without partaking of the sports, on accomit of
his blindness, and going up to him, said, ' Why dost thou not
also throw something at Baldm' ? '
THE PROSE EDDA.
447
" ' Because I am blind,' answered Hödur, ' and see not
where Baldur is, and have, moreover, nothing to throw
with.'
" ' Come then,' said Lold, ' do like the rest, and show
honour to Baldur by thromng this twig at him, and I will
direct thy arm toward the place where he stands.'
" Hödur then took the mistletoe, and under the guidance of
Loki, darted it at Baldur, who, pierced through and through,
fell down lifeless. Surely never was there witnessed, either
among gods or men, a more atrocious deed than this ! When
Baldur fell the .^sir were struck speechless with horror, and
then they looked at each other, and all were of one mind to
lay hands on him w^ho had done the deed, but they were
obliged to delay their vengeance out of respect for the sacred
place (Peace-stead) where they were assembled. They at
length gave vent to their grief by loud lamentations, though
not one of them could find words to express the poignancy of
his feelings. Odin, especially, was more sensible than the
others of the loss they had suffered, for he foresaw what a
detriment Baldur's death would be to the iEsir. When the
gods came to themselves, Frigga asked who among them
wished to gain all her love and good will ; ' For this,' said
she, ' shall he hate who will ride to Hel and try to find
Baldur, and offer Hela a ransom if she will let him return to
Asgard;' whereupon Hermod, surnamed the Nimble, the son
of Odin, offered to undertake the journey. Odin's horse
Sleipnir w^as then led forth, on which Hermod mounted, and
galloped away on his mission [ff].
" The ^sir then took the dead body and bore it to the sea¬
shore, where stood Baldur's ship Hringhorn, which passed for
the largest in the world. But when they wanted to launch it
in order to make Baldur's funeral pile on it, they were unable
to make it stir. In this conjuncture they sent to Jötunheim
for a certain giantess named Hyrrokin, who came mounted on
a wolf, having twisted serpents for a bridle. As soon as she
alighted, Odin ordered four Berserkir to hold her steed fast,
who were, however, obliged to throw the animal on the ground
ere they could effect their purpose. Hyrrokin then went to
the ship, and with a single push set it afloat, but the motion
was so violent that fire sparkled from the rollers, and the
earth shook all around. Thor, enraged at the sight, grasped
448
NOKTHERN ANTIQUITJES
his mallet, and but for the interference of the ^sir would
have broken the woman's skull. Baldur's body was then
borne to the funeral pile on board the ship, and this ceremony
had such an effect on Nanna, the daughter of Nep, that her
heart broke with grief, and her body was burnt on the same
pile with her husband's. Thor then stood up and hallowed
tbe pile with Mjölnir, and during the ceremony kicked a
dwarf named Litur, who was running before his feet, into the
fire. There wa^ a vast concourse of various kinds of people
at Baldurs obsequies. First came Odin, accompanied by
Frigga, the Valkyrjor and his ravens; then Frey in his car
drawn by the boar named Gullinbursti or Slidrugtanni ; Heim-
dall rode his horse called Gulltopp, and Freyja drove in her
chariot drawn by cats. There were also a great many Frost-
giants and giants of the mountains present. Odin laid on
the pile the gold ring called Draupnir, which afterwards ac¬
quired the property of producing every ninth night eight
rings of equal weight. Baldur's horse was led to the pile
fully caparisoned, and consumed in the same flames on the
body of his master.
"Meanwhile, Hermod was proceeding on his mission. For
the space of nine days, and as many nights, he rode through
deep glens so dark that he could not discern anything until
he arrived at the river Gjöll, which he passed over on a
bridge covered with glittering gold. Modgudur, the maiden
who kept the bridge, asked him his name and Imeage, telling
him that the day before five bands of dead persons had ridden
over the bridge, and did not shake it so much as he alone.
' But,' she added, ' thou hast not death's hue on thee, why
then ridest thou here on the way to Hel ? '
" ' I ride to Hel,' answered Hermod, ' to seek Baldur.
Hast thou perchance seen him pass this way ? '
" ' Baldur,' she replied, ' hath ridden over Gjöll's bridge,
but there below, towards the north, lies the way to the abodes
of death.'
" Hermod then pursued his journey until he came to the
barred gates of Hel. Here he alighted, girthed his saddle
tighter, and remounting, clapped both spurs to his horse, who
cleared the gate by a tremendous leap without touching it.
Hermod then rode on to the palace, where he found his brother
Baldur occupying the most distinguished seat in the hall, and
THE PEOSE EDDA.
449
passed the night in his company. The next morning he be¬
sought Hela (Death) to let Baldur ride home with him, as¬
suring her that nothing but lamentations were to be heard
among the gods. Hela answered that it should now be tried
whether Baldur was so beloved as he was said to be.
" ' If therefore,' she added, " all things in the world, both
living and lifeless, weep for him, then shall he return to the
iEsir, but if any one thing speak against him or refuse to
weep, he shall be kept in Hel.'
" Hermod then rose, and Baldur led him out of the hall and
gave him the ring Draupnir, to present as a keepsake to Odin,
Nanna also sent Frigga a linen cassock and other gifts, and
to Fulla a gold finger-ring, Hermod then rode back to As-
gard, and gave an account of all he had heard and witnessed.
" The gods upon this despatched messengers throughout
the world, to beg everything to weep, in order that Baldur
might be delivered from Hel, All things very willingly com¬
plied with this request, both men and every other living being,
as well as earths and stones, and trees and metals, just as thou
must have seen these things weep when they are brought from
a cold place into a hot one. As the messengers were return¬
ing with the conviction that their mission had been quite suc¬
cessful, they found an old hag named Thaukt sitting in a
cavern, and begged her to weep Baldur out of Hel. But she
answered,
" ' Thaukt will wail
With arid teais
Baldur's bale fire.
Nought, quick or dead,
By man's son gain I,
Let Hela hold what's hers,'
It was strongly suspected that this hag was no other than
Loki himself, who never ceased to work evil among the
iEsir."
THE FLIGHT AND PUNISHMENT OP LOKI.
50. "Evil are the deeds of Loki truly," said Gangler;
" first of all in his having caused Baldur to be slain, and then
pi eventing him from being delivered out of Hel. But was he
not punished for these crimes ? "
o o
450
KOETHERN ANTIQUITIES-
" Ay," replied Har, " and in such a manner that he will
long repent having committed them. When he perceived
how exasperated the gods were, he fled and hid himself in the
mountains. There he built him a dwelling with four doors, so
that he could see everything that passed around him. Often
in the daytime he assumed the likeness of a salmon, and con¬
cealed himself under the waters of a cascade called Fránán-
gursfors, where he employed himself in divining and circum¬
venting whatever stratagems the iEsir might have recourse
to in order to catch liim. One day, as he sat in his dwelling,
he took flax and yarn, and worked them into meshes in the
manner that nets have since been made by fishermen. Odin,
however, had descried his retreat out of Hlidskjálf, and Lold
becoming aware that the gods were approaching, threw his
net into the fire, and ran to conceal himself in the river.
When the gods entered the house, Kvasir, who was the most
distinguished among them all for his quickness and penetra¬
tion, traced out in the hot embers the vestiges of the net
which had been burnt, and told Odin that it must be an in¬
vention to catch fish. Whereupon they set to work and wove
a net after the model they saw imprinted in the ashes. This
net, when finished, they thr^w into the river in which Loki
had hidden himself. Thor held one end of the net, and all
the other gods laid hold of the other end, thus jointly drawing
it along the stream. Notwithstanding all them precautions
the net passed over Loki, who had crept between two stones,
and the gods only perceived that some living thing had touched
the meshes. They therefore cast their net a second time,
hanging so great a weight to it that it everywhere raked the
bed of the river. But Loki, perceiving that he had but a
short distance from the sea, swam onwards and leapt over the
net into the waterfall. The iEsir instantly followed him,
and divided themselves into two bands. Thor, wading along in
mid-stream, followed the net, whilst the others dragged it
along towards the sea. Loki then perceived that he had
only two chances of escape, either to swim out to sea, or to
leap again over the net. He chose the latter, but as he took
a tremendous leap Thor caught him in his hand. Being, how¬
ever, extremely slippery, he would have escaped had not Thor
held him fast by the tail, and this is the reason why salmons
have had their tails ever since so fine and thin.
the prose edda.
451
"The gods having thus captured Loki, dragged him without
commiseration into a cavern, wherein they placed three
sharp-pointed rocks, boring a hole through each of them.
Having also seized Lokis children, Vali and Nari, they
changed the former into a wolf, and in this likeness he tore
his brother to pieces and devoured him. The gods then made
cords of his intestines, with which they bound Loki on the
points of the rocks, one cord passing under his shoulders, an¬
other under his loins, and a third under his hams, and after-
wai'ds transformed these cords into thongs of iron. Skadi
then suspended a serpent over him in such a manner that the
venom should fall on his face, drop by drop. But Siguna, his
wife, stands by him and receives the drops as they fall in a
cup, which she empties as often as it is filled. But while she
is doing this, venom falls upon Lold, which makes him howl
with horror, and twist his body about so violently that the
whole earth shakes, and this produces what men call earth¬
quakes, There will Loki lie until Kagnarök." [gg].
of eagnarök, or the twilight of the gods, and the
conflagration of the universe.
51. "I have not heard before of Ragnarök," said Gangler;
" what hast thou to tell me about it?"
" There are many very notable circumstances concerning
it," replied Har, " which I can inform thee of. In the first
place will come the winter, called Fimbul-winter, during
which snow will fall from the four corners of the world ; the
frosts will be very severe, the wind piercing, the weather tem¬
pestuous, and the sun impart no gladness. Three such
winters shall pass away without being tempered by a single
summer. Three other similar winters follow, during which
war and discord will spread over the whole globe. Brethren
for the sake of mere gain shall kill each other, and no one
shall spare either his parents or his children. As it is said
in the Völuspa—
" ' Then shall brethren be
Each other's bane.
And sisters' children rend
The ties of kin.
G G 3
452
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES
Hard will be the age,
And harlotry prevail.
An axe-age, a sword-age.
Shields oft cleft in twain,
A storm-age, a wolf-age.
Ere earth shall meet its doom.'
" Then shall happen such things as may truly be accounted
great prodigies. The wolf shall devour the sun, and a severe
loss will that be for mankind. The other wolf will take the
moon, and this too will cause great mischief. Then the stars
shall be hurled from the heavens, and the earth so violently
shaken that trees will be torn up by the roots, the tottering
momitains tumble headlong from their foundations, and all
bonds and fetters be shivered in pieces. Fenrir then breaks
loose, and the sea rushes over the earth, on account of the
Midgard serpent turning with giant force, and gaining the
land. On the waters floats the ship Naglfar, which is con¬
structed of the nails of dead men. For which reason great
care should be taken to die with pared nails, for he who dies
with his nails unpared, supplies materials for the building of
this vessel, which both gods and men wish may be flnished as
late as possible. But in this flood shall Naglfar float, and the
giant Hrym be its steersman.
" The wolf Fenrir advancing, opens his enormous mouth;
the lower jaw reaches to the earth, and the Upper one to
heaven, and would in fact reach still farther were there space
to admit of it. Fire flashes from his eyes and nostrils. The
Midgard serpent, placing himself by the side of the wolf,
vomits forth floods of poison whieh overwhelm the air and the
waters. Amidst this devastation heaven is eleft in twain, and
the sons of Muspell ride through the breach. Surtur rides first,
and both before and behind him flames burning fire. His
sword outshines the sun itself. Bifröst, as they ride over it,
breaks to pieces. Then they direct their course to the battle¬
field called Vigrid. Thither also repair the wolf Fenrir and
the Midgard serpent, and also Loki, with all the followers of
Hel, and Hrym with all the Hrimthursar. But the sons of
Muspell keep their effulgent bands apart on the field of battle,
which is one hundred miles long on every side.
" Meanwhile Heimdall stands up, and with all his force
the peose edda.
sounds the Gjallar-hom to arouse the gods, who assemble
without delay. Odin then rides to Mimir's well and con¬
sults Mimir how he and his warriors ought to enter into
action. The ash Yggdrasill begins to shake, nor is there any¬
thing in heaven or earth exempt from fear at that terrible
hour. The iEsir and all the heroes of Valhalla arm them¬
selves and speed forth to the field, led on by Odin, with his
golden helm and resplendent cuirass, and his spear called
Gungnir. Odin places himself against the wolf Fenrir ; Thor
stands by his side, but can render him no assistance, having
himself to combat the Midgard serpent. Frey encounters
Surtur, and terrible blows are exchanged ere Frey falls ; and
he owes his defeat to his not having that trusty sword he gave
to Skirnir. That day the dog Garm, who had been chained
in the Gnipa cave, breaks loose. He is the most fearful
monster of all, and attacks Tyr, and they kill each other.
Thor gains great renown for killing the Midgard serpent, but
at the same time, recoiling nine paces, falls dead upon the spot,
suffocated with the floods of venom which the dying serpent
vomits forth upon him. The wolf swallows Odin, but at that
instant Vidar advances, and setting his foot on the monster's
lower jaw, seizes the other with his hand, and thus tears and
rends him till he dies. Vidar is able to do this because he
wears those shoes for which stuff has been gathering in all
ages, namely, the shreds of leather which are cut off to form
the toes and heels of shoes, and it is on this account that
those who would render a service to the iEsir should take
care to throw such shreds away. Loki and Heimdall fight,
and mutually kill each other.
" After this, Surtur darts fire and flame over the earth, and
the whole universe is consumed [hh]. As it is said in the
Voluspá,—
" ' High bloweth Heimdall
His horn aloft.
Odin consulteth
Mimir's head.
The old ash yet standing,
Yggdrasill,
To its summit is shaken,
And loose breaks the giant.
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
' Hrym from the East comes,
Floods swell around him
Jormungand * rolls
With giant rage,
And ocean smiteth.
With lurid beak screams
The corpse-pecking eagle ;
While floats Naglfar.
' A keel from the East nears,—
Muspellheim's children
Come o'er the main—
And Loki it steereth.
All grim and gaunt monsters
Conjoin with the wolf,
And before them all goeth
The brother of Byleist "f.
' How fare the ^sir ?
How fare the Elves ?
All Jotunheim's shaken.
The ^T^sir hold Thing.
Expert in rock dwellings
The dwarfs wmling stand
Before their cleft caverns.
Conceive ye this or not ?
' Surtur from the South wends
With, seething fire
The falchion of the mighty one J.
A sunlight flameth.
Mountains together dash.
Giants headlong rush.
Men tread the paths to Hel,
And heaven in twain is rent.
' O'er Hlina§ then shall come
Another woe.
* The great Midgard serpent.
+ Namely, Loki.
X See the note, page 402.
§ Elina was one of the minor goddesses who had the care of those whom
Frigga intended to rescue from danger, (sec chapter 35,) but she is here placed
THE PROSE EDDA.
m
' When Odin fares him forth
The wolf to combat ;
And he who Beli slew
'Gainst Surtur rideth ;
Then shall fall the god
To Frigga dearest f.
' Vidar, the mighty son
Of victory's father,
With the ferocious beast
To fight, then goeth.
And with firm grasp, his sword
In the giant-born monster's heart
Deep planteth; thus
His sire avenging.
' Then the renowned son
Of Hlodyn | cometh,
He, of Odin first born,
Midgard's protecting ward
Bravely fights and slays
The serpent monster.
Then shall all mankind
The earth abandon.
' Dimm'd's now the sun,
In ocean earth sinks ;
From the skies are cast
The sparkling stars ;
The fire-reek rageth
Around Time's nurse §,
And flickering flames
With heaven itself play.'
for Frigga herself. The former woe alluded to is the death of Baldur, the
other Avoe the approaching death of Odin.
* Namely, Frey.—See chapter 37.
f- Namely, Odin.
Î Viz., Thor, the son of Frigga, here called Hlodyn—See this word in the
Glossary,
§ Viz., the ash Yggdrasill.
456
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
" And it is moreover said
" ' "Vigrid is called the field
"Where Surtur and the mild gods
Shall meet in combat.
A hundred miles it hath
On every side.
For the gods 'tis marked out.' "
OF THE ABODES OF FUTURE BLISS AND MISERY.
52. " What will remain," said Gangler, "after heaven and
earth and the whole universe shall be consumed, and after
all the gods, and the heroes of "V^alhalla, and all mankind shall
have perished ? For ye have already told me that every one
shall continue to exist in some world or other, throughout
eternity."
" There will be many abodes," replied Thridi, " some good,
others bad. The best place of all to be in will be Gimli. in
heaven, and all who delight in quafiBng good drink will find
a great store in the hall called Brimir, which is also in heaven
in the region Okolni. There is also a fair hall of ruddy gold
called Sindri, which stands on the mountains of Nida, (Ni^a-
fjollV In those halls righteous and well-minded men shall
abide. In Nástrond there is a vast and direful structure
with doors that face the north. It is formed entirely of the
backs of serpents, wattled together like wicker work. But
the serpents' heads are turned towards the inside of the hall,
and continually vomit forth floods of venom, in which wade
all those who commit murder, or who forswear themselves.
As it is said in the "Voluspá (st. 34, 35)—
" ' She saw a hall
Far from the sun
In Nástrond standing.
Northward the doors look,
And venom-drops
Fall in through loopholes.
Formed is that hall
Of wreathed serpents.
' There saw she wade,
Through heavy streams,
* In Vafthrúdnis-mál, st. 18.
THE PEOSE EDDA,
457
Men forsworn,
And murderers.'
" Hvergelmir, however, is the worst.
" ' There Nidhögg quails
Of the dead, the bodies.'" *
THE EENOVATION OF THE UNIVEESE.
53. " Will any of the gods survive, and will there be any
longer a heaven and an earth ? " demanded Gangler.
" There will arise out of the sea," replied Har, " another
earth most lovely and verdant, with pleasant fields where the
grain shall grow unsown. Vidar and Vali shall survive ; nei¬
ther the flood nor Surtur's fire shall harm them. They shall
dwell on the plain of Ida, where Asgard formerly stood.
Thither shall come the sons of Thor, Modi and Magni, bring¬
ing with them their father's mallet Mjolnir. Baldur and
Hödur shall also repair thither from the abode of death (Hel).
There shall they sit and converse together, and call to mind
their former knowledge and the perils they underwent, and
the fight with the wolf Fenrir and the Midgard serpent.
There too shall they find in the grass those golden tablets
(orbs) which the j3Esir once possessed. As it is said,—
" ' There dwell Vidar and Vali
In the gods" holy seats,
* The compiler of the Prose Edda has omitted two couplets of the
thirty-fifth strophe, one of them very important, as it shows that the Skald
destined Nástrond not only for murderers and perjurers, hut also for adulterers'
(blandishers, seducers—literally, " they who murmur or whisper in the eai's
of others' wives.") If Snorri was the person who made the extract from the
Völuspa, the omission may easily he accounted for—(see the note, page 377).
The thirty-fifth strophe, when complete, is as follows :—
" There saw she wade.
Through heavy streams.
Men forsworn
And murderers.
And those who others' wives
Essayed to blandish.
There Nidhögg sucked
Of the dead the bodies ;
The wolf, too, tore them.
Conceive ye this, or not ] "
458
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
When slaked Surtur's fire is.
But Modi and Magni
Will Mjölnir possess,
And strife put an end to.'
" Thou must know, moreover, that during the conflagration
caused by Surtur's fire, a woman named Lif (Life), and a man
named Lifthrasir, lie concealed in Hodmimir's forest. They
shall feed on morning dew, and their descendants shall soon
spread over the whole earth. As it is said
" ' But Lif and Lifthrasir
Shall keep themselves hid
In Hodmimir's forest :
The dew of the dawn
Shall serve them for food.
And from them spring the races.'
" But what thou wilt deem more wonderful is, that the sun
shall have brought forth a daughter more lovely than herself,
who shall go in the same track formerly trodden by her mother.
As it is said f,—
" ' The radiant sun
A daughter hears.
Ere Fenrir takes her.
On her mother's course
Shall ride that maid,
When the gods have perished.'
" And now," continued Thridi, " if thou hast any further
questions to ask, I know not who can answer thee, for I
never heard tell of any one who could relate what will happen
in the other ages of the world. Make, therefore, the best use
thou canst of what has been imparted to thee."
Upon this Gangler heard a terrible noise all around him :
he looked everywhere, hut could see neither palace nor city,
nor anything save a vast plain. He therefore set out on his
return to his own kingdom, where he related all that he had
seen and heard, and ever since that time these tidings have
"been handed down by oral tradition.
* In Vafthrúdnia-mál, st. 45,
f Ibid. St. 47.
THE PROSE EDDAr
459
PART THE SECOND,
COMMONLY CALLED
THE CONVERSATIONS OF BRAOI *.
(BEAM-EŒDUR.)
AIGIR'S JOURNEY TO ASGARD.
1. -<Egir, who was well skilled in magic, once went to Asgard,
where he met with a very good reception. Supper time being
come, the twelve mighty ^sir,—Odin, Thor, Njörd, Frey, Tyr,
Heimdall, Bragi, Vidar, Vali, Ullur, Hœnir and Forseti,
together with the Asynjor,—Frigga, Freyja, Gefjon, Iduna,
Gerda, Siguna, Fulla and Nanna, seated themselves on their
lofty doom seats, in a hall around which were ranged swords
of such surpassing brilliancy that no other light was requisite.
They continued long at table, drinking mead of a very superior
quality. While they were emptying their capacious drinking
horns, ^gir, who sat next to Bragi, requested him to relate
something concerning the .^sir. Bragi instantly complied
with his request, by informing him of what had happened to
Iduna.
IDUNA AND HER APPLES.
2. " Once," he said, " when Odin, Loki, and Hœnir went on a
journey, they came to a valley where a herd of oxen were
grazing, and being sadly in want of provisions did not scruple
to kill one for their supper. Vain, however, were their efforts
to boil the flesh ; they found it, every time they took off the
lid of the kettle, as raw as when first put in. While they
were endeavouring to account for this singular circumstance
a noise was heard above them, and on looking up they beheld
an enormous eagle perched on the branch of an oak tree.
* We have somewhat abridged the translation of this part, of which Mallet
only gave a mere abstract.
460
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
' If ye are willing to let me have my share of the flesh,' said
the eagle, ' it shall soon he boiled ; ' and on their assenting to
this proposal, it flew down and snatched up a leg and two
shoulders of the ox—a proceeding which so incensed Loki,
that he laid hold of a large stock, and made it fall pretty
heavily on the eagle's back. It was, however, not an eagle
that Loki struck, but the renowned giant Thjassi, clad in his
eagle-plumage. Loki soon found this out to his cost, for while
one end of the stock stuck fast to the eagle's back, he was
unable to let go his hold of the other end, and was conse¬
quently trailed by the eagle-clad giant over rocks and forests,
until he was almost torn to pieces. Loki in this predicament
began to sue for peace, but Thjassi told him that he should
never be released from his hold until he bound himself by a
solemn oath to bring Iduna and her apples out of Asgard.
Loki very willingly gave his oath to effect this object, and
went back in a piteous plight to his companions
" On his return to Asgard, Loki told Iduna that, in a forest
at a short distance from the celestial residence, he had found
apples growing which he thought were of a much better
quality than her own, and that at all events it was worth while
making a comparison between them. Iduna, deceived by his
words, took her apples, and went with him into the forest,
but they had no sooner entered it than Thjassi, clad in his
eagle-plumage, flew rapidly towards them, and catching up
Iduna, carried her and her treasure off with him to Jötunheim.
The gods being thus deprived of their renovating apples, soon
became wrinkled and grey ; old age was creeping fast upon
them, when they discovered that Loki had been, as usual, the
contriver of all the mischief that had befallen them. They
therefore threatened him with condign punishment if he did
not instantly hit upon some expedient for bringing back Iduna
and her apples to Asgard. Loki having borrowed from Freyja
her falcon-plumage, flew to Jötunheim, and finding that
Thjassi was out at sea fishing, lost no time in changing Iduna
into a sparrow and flying off with her ; but when Thjassi re¬
turned and became aware of what had happened, he donned
his eagle-plumage, and flew after them. "When the .¿Esir saw
Loki approach, holding Iduna transformed into a sparrow
between his claws, and Thjassi with his outspread eagle wings
ready to overtake him, they placed on the walls of Asgard
THE PEOSE EDDA.
461
bundles of chips, which they set fire to the instant that Loki
had flown over them ; and as Thjassi could not stop his flight,
tlie fire caught his plumage, and he thus fell into the power
of the jdîlsir, who slew him within the portals of the celestial
residence. When these tidings came to Thjassi's daughter,
Skadi, she put on her armour and went to Asgard, fully de¬
termined to avenge her father's death ; but the iEsir having
declared their willingness to atone for the deed, an amicable
arrangement was entered into. Skadi was to choose a husband
in Asgard, and the .lEsir were to make her laugh, a feat which
she flattered herself it Avould be impossible for any one to
accomplish. Her choice of a husband was to be determined
by a mere inspection of the feet of the gods, it being stipulated
that the feet should be the only part of their persons visible
until she had made known her determination. In inspecting
the row of feet placed before her, Skadi took a fancy to a pair
which she flattered herself, from their fine proportions, must
be those of Baldur. They were however Njörd's, and Njörd
was accordingly given her for a husband and as Loki
managed to make her laugh, by playing some diverting antics
with a goat, the atonement was fully effected. It is even said
that Odin did more than had been stipulated, by taking out
Thjassi's eyes, and placing them to shine as stars in the
firmament,"!
THE OETGIN OF POETEY.
3, Higir having expressed a wish to know how poetry origi¬
nated, Bragi informed him that the .iLsir and Vanir having
met to put an end to the war which had long been carried on
between them, a treaty of peace was agreed to and ratified by
each party spitting into a jar. As a lasting sign of the amity
which was thenceforward to subsist between the contending
parties, the gods formed out of this spittle a being to whom
they gave the name of Kvásir, and whom they endowed with
* See Part I. chapter 23.
+ Finn Magnusen's explanation of this myth is, that Iduna—the ever-reno¬
vating Spring—being in the possession of Thjassi—the desolating Winter—all
nature languishes until she is delivered from her captivity. On this being
effected, her presence again diffuses joy and gladness, and all things revive ;
while her pursuer, Winter, with his icy breath, dissolves in the solar raya
indicated by the fires lighted on the walls of Asgard.
462
KOPvTHEBN ANTIQUITIES.
sucli a high degree of intelligence that no one could ask him
a question that he was unable to answer. Kvásir then tra¬
versed the whole world to teach men wisdom, but was at
length treacherously murdered by the dwarfs, Fjalar and
Galar, who, by mixing up his blood with honey, composed a
liquor of such surpassing excellence that whoever drinks of it
acquires the gift of song. When the .^sir inquired what had
become of Kvásir, the dwarfs told them that he had been suf¬
focated with his own wisdom, not being able to find any one
wFo by proposing to him a sufficient number of learned ques¬
tions might relieve him of its superabundance. Not long after
this event, Fjalar and Galar managed to drown the giant Gilhng
and murder his wife, deeds which were avenged by their son
Suttung taking the dwarfs out to sea, and placing them on a
shoal which was flooded at high water. In this critical posi¬
tion they implored Suttung to spare their lives, and accept the
verse-inspiring beverage which they possessed as an atonement
for their having killed his parents. Suttung having agreed
to these conditions, released the dwarfs, and carrying the
mead home with him, committed it to the care of his daughter
Gunnlauth. Hence poetry is indiJfierently called Kvásir's
blood, Suttung's mead, the dwarf's ransom, &c,,
4. -®gir then asked how the gods obtained possession of so
valuable a beverage, on which Bragi informed him that Odin
being fully determined to acquire it, set out for Jötunheim,
and after journeying for some time, came to a meadow
in which nine thralls were mowing. Entering into con¬
versation with them, Odin offered to whet their scythes, an
offer which they gladly accepted, and finding that the whet¬
stone he made use of had given the scythes an extraordinary
sharpness, asked him whether he was willing to dispose of it.
Odin, however, threw the whetstone in the air, and in attempt¬
ing to catch it as it fell, each thrall brought his scythe to
bear on the neck of one of his comrades, so that the}'" were
all killed in the scramble. Odin took up his night's lodging
at the house of Suttung's brother, Baugi, who told him that
he was sadly at a loss for labourers, his nine thralls havmg
slain each other. Odin, who went under the name of Baid-
verk, said that for a draught of Suttung's mead he would
do the work of nine men for him. The terms being agreed
on, Odin worked for Baugi the whole summer, but Suttung
THE PßOSE EDDA.
463
•was deaf to his brother's entreaties, and would not part with
a drop of the precious liquor, which was carefully preserved in
a cavern under his daughter's custody. Into this cavern
Odin was resolved to penetrate. He therefore persuaded
Baugi to bore a hole through the rock, which he had no sooner
done than Odin, transforming himself into a worm, crept
through the crevice, and resuming his natural shape, won the
heart of Gunnlauth. After having passed three nights with
the fair maiden, he had no great difficulty in inducing her to
let him take a draught out of each of the three jars, called
Odhrœrir, Bodn, and .Son, in which the mead was kept. But
wishing to make the most of his advantage, he pulled so deep
that not a drop was left in the vessels. Transforming himself
into an eagle, he then flew ofl" as fast as his wings could carry
him, hut Suttung becoming aware of the stratagem, also took
upon himself an eagle's guise, and flew after him. The .<3Esir,
on seeing him approach Asgard, set out in the yard all the jars
they could lay their hands on, which Odin filled by discharging
through his beak the wonder-working liquor he had drunken.
He was, however, so near being caught by Suttung, that some
of the liquor escaped him by an impurer vent, and as no» care
was taken of this it fell to the share of poetasters. But the
liquor discharged in the jars was kept for the gods, and for
those men who have sufficient wit to make a right use of it.
Hence poetry is also called Odin's booty, Odin's gift, the
beverage of the gods, &c., &c.
464
A CKITICÀL EXAMINATION
OF THK
LEADING DOCTRINES
OF THE
SCANDINAVIAN SYSTEM OF MYTHOLOGY.
BY THE EDITOK.
It was our intention to have written a kind of commentary on
the Prose Edda, in which we should have attempted to ex¬
plain the myths contained in that work, and in the ancient
poems of the Elder Edda, hut having already exceeded our
prescribed limits, we shall be obliged to conclude our editorial
task by offering a few observations on a subject which, were
it fully treated in all its details, would require a volume
We will not enter into the question whether the so-called
primitive religion of mankind was monotheism or polytheism,
such questions merely giving rise to idle speculations that
cannot possibly lead to any satisfactory result. How, in fact,
can we ascertain the primitive worship of mankind without
knowing how mankind originated ? And how are we to know
this ? Ask the Brahmin, and he will refer you to the Vedas,
which he will assure you are the revelations of the Supreme
Essence, and prove at least that his myth has priority of date in
its favour. Ask the early Persian, and he will refer you to
the Zendavesta. Ask the Israelite, and he will tell you that
Jehovah revealed the work of creation to Moses. Inquire of
modern science, and all that you will be able to leam is, that
after the lapse of countless ages, in comparison to which the
six thousand years of tradition and history are but as an infi¬
nitesimal fraction, the crust of this planet acquired its present
form and consistency, and became a fitting abode for man.
• Finn Magnusen's Eddalœren fills, in feet, 4 volumes 12mo, containing
altogether 1680 pages of letter-press, and his Lexicon Mythologicnm, closely
printed in double columns, takes up 860 quarto pages of the third voluma
of the Edda.
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTEINES.
465
Guided by this science, you will also be able to perceive the
first faint glimmerings of intelligence that accompany the
rudimentary nervous system of the radiata, and to trace its
gradual development, along with this system, through the
collateral branches of molluscous and articulated animals to
the vertebrata, until it attains its full maturity in the highest
class of beings that has hitherto appeared on the earth : and
analogical reasoning will warrant you in drawing the con¬
clusion that this intelligence is still in a state of develop¬
ment, and may, even on this planet, in ages far too remote for
human calculation, give rise to beings infinitely superior to
any that at present exist on its ever-changing surface. Vain
indeed must be the person who can imagine that Almighty
power has breathed into such an imperfect being as man all
the spiritual essence that mortality is capable of support¬
ing =5= !
M. Mallet, in his inquiries respecting the religion of the
ancient Teutonic tribes, assumes that they originally worshipped
a sole, unique deity, and, as usual, gives extracts from Tacitus
in corroboration of his opinions. If our space allowed us, we
think we could show that the converse of all that he says on
this subject in the commencement of the fifth chapter of this
work would be much nearer the truth. If we follow the
Teutonic tribes to the plains of Asia, and thus remount far
beyond the bounds of authentic history and the times of
Tacitus, we may, in fact, with much greater reason suppose—
for in such inquiries anything that can be said will be little
better than mere conjecture—that their religion was essen¬
tially grounded on polytheism, for, like every other primitive
people, they were, no doubt, chiefly occupied in hunting and
in tending their flocks and herds. Now, when men are in this
rudimentary state of social existence, they will be forcibly
impressed by the varied phenomena of nature which they are
utterly unable to comprehend. They hear the thunder peal¬
ing from the lurid clouds that veil the beneficent orb which
experience has taught them regulates the seasons. They be¬
hold the forked lightning darting athwart the jarring rack
winged with destruction. Trembling with fear, they naturally
* It may not be irrelevant to observe, that in a note to the second edition
of a pamphlet published in 1836, and entitled " A few Remarks on our
Poreign Policy," we had occasion to make use of a similar argument.
H H
46G
NOKTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
ascribe such terrible effects to a superhuman cause—to a
wrathful deity, who rides the storm and launches his fiery
bolts on the head of some devoted victim. Hence their firm
belief in a God of Thunder—in a Thor, a Perun, a Perkunos,
an Indra, a Jupiter Tonans. When located in a maritime
district they venture in their frail barks to cross the seas that
separate them from countries offering a rich spoil as the re¬
ward of their valour, and are suddenly assailed by a furious
tempest that leaves little hope of safety, what can be more
natural than their belief in a deity presiding over the ocean-—
a Njörd, a Neptune, an Ockopim, a Varuna—who in this
manner makes known his displeasure ? All the great pheno¬
mena of nature are thus regarded as being under the guidance
and control of elementary deities, and self-interest and self-
preservation soon teach the most savage tribes to invoke
these deities in order that their wrath may be averted, or
their beneficent influence exercised for the good of the com¬
munity.
At a much later period, when the tribes have acquired a cer¬
tain degree of civilization, and have their priests or their
pontiff chieftains, this rude form of public worship mil be re¬
duced into a system, and the most powerful of the elementary
deities, generally the God of Thunder—Jupiter, Perun, Per¬
kunos—will be regarded as the supreme divinity to whom all
the others are subordinate. Temples will then be erected,
and a public worship with sacrifices, sacrificial banquets and
festivals instituted.
At a still later period, the. chiefs, the priests and the poets,
in a word, the most enlightened among the commmiity, will
form an esoteric doctrine,—will regiffd the deities to whom
popular belief assigns a real superhuman existence, as the
mere symbols of natural phenomena. The Bards, Skalds,
Prophets, or by whatever name they may be designated, will
draw up systems of cosmogony, theogony and mythology,
susceptible both of an esoteric and an exoteric explana¬
tion. Some of these systems will be grounded on monothe¬
ism, some on pantheism, and others again on a dualistic mono¬
theism, a system, in fact, which apparently offers the most
rational explanation of the cause of evil in the world.
Tribes located in a sterile country, with a rigorous climate,
have seldom passed beyond this stadium of intellectual deve-
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES. 467
lopment, which may he regarded as the transition period from,
systematic mythology to philosophy, from theology to free
inquiry. In the latter period the mind of man attains to the
highest degree of intellectuality of which it is susceptible;
but this culminating point of human intelligence presupposes
several centuries of refinement and civilization, or, at least, a
genial climate, a rich soil, wealth and prosperity ; in short, a
state of society in which men can find leisure to devote their
lives exclusively to the study of the higher branches of human
knowledge. Such a state of society existed at a very remote
period on the plains of the Ganges, and gave rise to various
schools of philosophy, in which were taught the Mímánsá,
Védánta, Nyáya, and Sánkhya systems, the prototypes of
those of ancient Greece and of modern Germany, with this
difference, that theological doctrines generally form the ground¬
work of Hindostanic speculations, whilst the Hellenic and
German are entirely based on free inquiry.
Philosophy has assumed various forms, has been cast into
various systems, has given rise to the wildest theories and
speculations, and has, after all, arrived at no satisfactory re¬
sult. And how could it be otherwise ? The object in view
was too vast for beings endowed with such limited faculties as
we possess. It was nothing less than to acquire the know¬
ledge of things as they are in reality, and not as they appear
to be. In order to do this it was necessary to investigate the
mysterious concatenation of cause and effect, and to answer the
great questions—What is the universe ? What is man ? How
came he here ? Whither will he go ? Is he mere matter
superiorly organized, or is he a material being endowed with
an immaterial spirit? What is this spirit? Is it an indi¬
vidual essence, or does it form but an infinitesimal portion of
a general vivifying principle disseminated and undulating like
light and heat throughout the universe ? What is this uni¬
verse ? Is it a fortuitous combination of atoms, or is it the
work of Infinite Wisdom ? May we suppose the Deity as a
concentrated, and the universe as an extended immateriality,
or must we acknowledge a personal Deity, an omnipotent,
eternal. Supreme Essence, regulating matter at will, or sub¬
jecting it to unchangeable laws throughout eternity, and to
whom time and space—those mysteries of mysteries—will be
unknown? Now, although it is self evident that such ques-
H H 3
468
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
tiens are quite beyond our comprehension, and that they
never have been, nor ever will be answered in away to satisfy
a man of common sense and sound understanding, still it must
be admitted that philosophy has exercised a permanent, and,
on the whole, a highly beneficial influence on the most civi¬
lized portion of the human race.
The ancient Scandinavians were far from attaining to this
degree of intellectuality, for it was during what we have
termed the transition period of systematic mythology that the
Voluspá, and the other mythic poems of the Elder Edda—
which are the highest efforts of their genius—were com¬
posed *. The more, however, that we make ourselves ac¬
quainted with Saga literature, which enters into such minute
details respecting the social life of the Scandinavians, the more
we shall be convinced that the higher doctrines disclosed in
these poems must have been confined to a few Skalds and
Pontiff-chieftains, for they do not appear to have exercised the
slightest influence on the popular belief.
The faith professed by the great body of the people was
simply this, that all who died with arms in their hands, no
matter what had been their moral conduct throughout life,
would partake of the boisterous joys of Valhalla—would have
the pleasure of daily hewing each other to pieces, and then, to
use the words of the Edda, " sit down and drink ale with the
jEsir ; " whilst those who died a natural death would descend
to the cold and cheerless regions of Hela, which were, how¬
ever, by no means regarded as a place of punishment f, the
sojourn in them being merely a negation of that rude kind
of celestial bliss reserved for the chosen heroes. It would
also appear to have been the popular belief that married
women after death would be comfortably lodged in Freyja's
* It is impossible to ascertain the precise date of their composition, but
the doctrines contained in them must at all events have been known prior to
the Scandinavian historical epoch, that is to say, previous to the middle ol
the ninth century.
+ Eating and drinking appear to have gone on in the hall of Hela much in
the same manner as in that of Odin. Hermod, for instance, finds Baldur
placed on the high-seat, and passes the evening very comfortably with him.
See the Prose Edda, ch. 49. In the Alvis-mál, st. 22 and 24, mention is
made of a kind of corn growing in the infernal regions, and it is stated that
the drink which men call ale, is known there under the name of mead. See
also Vegtams-kvida, st. 12.
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.
469
mansion of Fólkváng, while the maidens were taken due cai'e
of by Gefjon
Several Danish and German writers have drawn a broad
distinction between the worship of Thor and that of Odin,
contending that this diversity gave rise to two principal sects,
the Odinites and the Thorites, the former being the Catho¬
lics, and the latter the Protestants of Scandinavian Paganism,
but we think their arguments are far from being conclusive.
We will not deny that at a very remote period, when the
Teutonic tribes were located on the plains of Asia, Thor may
possibly have been regarded as their supreme deity, for, as
we before observed, in most systems of mythology we find the
God of Thunder represented as the chief of the celestial divi¬
nities ; but it is a well-ascertained fact that in more historical
times all the Germanic tribes regarded Woden (Wodan, Odin)
as the father of the gods, in which capacity he is invariably
represented in the Eddaic Poems. It is certainly an equally
well-established fact that the Norwegians and Icelanders were
more devoted to the worship of Thor than the Danes and
Swedes ; and the form of the Icelandic legal oath f, and several
other circumstances, show that they regarded him as the most
powerful of the ^sir. It was, in fact, quite natural that a
nation of warriors should hold in peculiar reverence the deity
who was continually engaged in combating giants and other
typified principles of evil, but this does not appear by any
means to have weakened their faith in Odin, for all the Ice¬
landic Skalds send their heroes to Valhalla, and speak of
Odin's Valkyrjor hovering over the field of battle Even
Hakon the Good, notwithstanding his Christianity §, is de¬
scribed, in the celebrated ode which Eyvind Skaldaspiller
* See the Prose Edda, ch. 35 ; Eigils-saga, c. 80, and Müller's Saga
bib. i, 122.
f See page 292.
Î In the dispute between Hárbard and Thor, the Skald makes the former
say, " Odin has all the Jarls (the Freemen) who fall in battle, Thor all the
Thralls."—See Hárbarz-ljód, st. 23.
§ Hakon (who reigned in Norway A.D. 940—63) was the son of Harald
Hárfagra, who sent him to England, where he was fostered by King Athel-
stane, and instructed in the doctrines of Christianity. Hakon, however,
when he became King of Norway, deemed it prudent not to interfere with the
religious opinions of his subjects—hence Eyvind might justly regard him as
one who respected, though he did not worship, tlje national deities,
470
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
composed on his death, as meeting with a splendid reception
in the hall of Odin.
When popular polytheism, which we must regard as the
primitive worship, has been refined into systematic mythology,
the esoteric doctrines engrafted on it will not long be limited
to a few individuals. The initiated will soon form a numerous
body, and the manner in which they cannot well refrain from
speaking of divinities in whom they no longer believe, will not
fail of exercising a considerable influence on the community *.
The popular faith will be gradually sapped to its foundations,
religious indifference and scepticism will prevail, and announce
that the reign of the ancient deities is drawing to a close.
The Scandinavians of the tenth century appear to have been
in this state of transition ; hence the frequent instances of
warriors relying " on their own might and main," and others
openly contemning the national divinities t. Yet even during
this period the Eddaic doctrines of Ragnarök, of the destruc¬
tion and renovation of the universe, and of a more refined
heaven than that of Odin—assuming, though by no means
taking for granted, that the latter doctrine is contained in the
Eddaic Poems—do not appear ever to have become popular.
The faith in the national deities was weakened without being
replaced. When men's minds are thus prepared for a change
any religious system that is a little more rational than the
ancient one will readily be adopted. Hence the Icelanders
were easily induced to embrace Christianity; not Chris¬
tianity such as it is professed by the more enlightened classes,
in the present age, but monkish Christianity, with its legends
and miracles, and sainted divinities, ready to replace those of
Paganism ; offering as a substitute for Thor, Michael the Arch¬
angel ; for Freyja, the Virgin; for the god Vali, a St. Valentine
—probably manufactured for the occasion—and for every Pagan
festival a Christian one. The Norwegians clung more tenaciously
to the worship of their forefathers, and numbers of them died
real martyrs for their faith, after suffering the most cruel tor¬
ments from their royal persecutor I ; a proof that scepticism and
* The JErjis-clveMa shows that the Scandinavians had their Lucían, like
most other nations when a national religion is in its wane.
f See pages 120 and 148.
Î See the notesj pages 180 and 351.
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTEINES.
471
religious indifference had made less progress amongst them
than amongst the Icelanders, who, for a long time after their
apparent conversion, appear to have had very little faith in
either the old or the new doctrines.
If the view we have taken of the rise of mythological sys¬
tems he correct, it will naturally follow that all such systems
will offer striking coincidences. In all, we shall find a God of
Thunder, a Sun-god, a Moon-goddess, in short, the same
elementarv deities under different names and attributes; and
nothing, in our opinion, can he more illogical than to con¬
clude from these coincidences between two or more mytholo¬
gical systems that they were derived from a common source ;
that is to say, from an historical or ethnological and not a
physical source, natural phenomena being, in fact, the common
source from which all of them originated. It is otherwise
when we find the same spirit pervading two systems ; for even
if their respective deities have no great resemblance, still if
the main doctrines engrafted on the popular belief offer .a
striking coincidence, we may be warranted at least in assuming
that at some remote period they may either have had a common
origin, or that the doctrines of the one may have been derived
from those of the other, the more so, if this coincidence is be¬
tween the mythologies of two cognate races whose languages
are very nearly allied. Writers who ground more or less
plausible theories on such coincidences, are, however, very
apt to be led astray, and find analogy where none exists.
Thus in the whole history of literature there is not, perhaps,
an instance of a more signal failure than Finn Magnusen's
elaborate attempt to identify Odinism and Buddhism. For
our own part we cannot possibly conceive two religions so
totally dissimilar. It is, however, unnecessary to enter into
a discussion of the learned Icelander's hypothesis, as it has
been amply and successfully refuted by Klaprotli, A. W.
Schlegel, and other writers of acknowledged merit ; but it is
much to be regretted that a writer possessing such an inti¬
mate knowledge of northern antiquities as Finn Magnusen,
should have rendered his Edclalœren and his Lexicon Mytho-
logicum of much less utility than they otherwise would have
been, did not this unfortunate theory appear under one form
or other in almost every page. His comparison of the Scan¬
dinavian and Persian systems is more to the purpose. The
47â
NOETHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
ooincidence between these systems has, in fact, been pointed
out by several writers on the subject, and did not escape the
penetration of M. Mallet*. It may, therefore, not be irre¬
levant to give a slight sketch of the doctrines attributed to
Zoroaster, and contained in the Zendavesta, and show their
analogy with those of the Scandinavian system as it is fully
developed in the Eddaic Poems.
The doctrines of the early Persian or Iranite Magi are
grounded on a system of dualistic monotheism. Ormuzd, the
symbol of Light and Goodness, has for antagonist, Ahriman,
the symbol of Darkness and Evil ; but above this dualism
which is finite—limited by a fixed period of time—is Zeruane
Akherene (Illimited or Uncreated Time), the Infinite, Su¬
preme Essence ; or, if we regard the Persian system as a mono¬
theism approaching very nearly to pantheism, the Absolute
from which all things proceed and into which all things must
return. Zeruane Akherene created Ormuzd by pronouncing
the living word—the logos, Honover, {enohe verihe, i. e. I am,
or be it). In Ormuzd are united the three primordial, ethe¬
real elements, light, fire, and water. Ormuzd (Light, Good¬
ness) has emanated from Uncreated Time, but as the Persian
Sages could not admit that evil proceeded from such a pure
source, and as they had nevertheless to account for the cause
of evil in the world, they laid down the doctrine that Zeruane
Akherene first created Light and Goodness, (Ormuzd,) and in
order that a physical and moral antagonism—an ethical combat,
might take place, without which there could in reality be no
goodness, he permitted, not allowed. Darkness and Evil,
(Ahriman,) but fixed a term of 12,000 years, at the expiration
of which the strife should cease, and the antagonistic princi¬
ples be united in Light and Love f.
Ormuzd created the universe by pronouncing the living
word Honover ; first his own abode of light, Sakhter, and then
the Genii, or deities of Light, in three classes. The first
class consists of the seven Amshaspands, Ormuzd himself
being included in the number ; the others are Bahman, the
* See his note to the Prose Edda, [h h].
According to these doctrines of the Magi all things originate through anta¬
gonism. When antagonism ceases, finite things also cease. Hera«litus and
Empedocles appear to have derived several of their doctrines from this
source.
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.
4T3
genius of the region of light ; Ardibehesht, the genius of
ethereal fire ; Shariver, the genius of metals ; Sapandomad,
the creatrix, or rather source, of fruitfulness ; Khordad, the
genius of time ; and Amerdad, the tutelary genius of the
vegetable world, and of flocks and herds. In the second
class are the twenty-seven Izeds, male and female. These
are the elementary deities, as Khorshid the sun ; Mah the
moon ; Tashter the dog-star, also the deity of rain ; Rapitan
the deity of heat, &c. ; and were probably those worshipped
before the popular belief was not only thus reduced into a sys¬
tem like the Scandinavian, but refined to a high degree of
intellectuality by the philosophical and ethical doctrines
engrafted on it. The third class' consists of the Fervers : these
are the vivifying principles of nature, the ideal types of the
material universe, corresponding in a great measure to the
ideas of Plato. In heaven they keep watch against Ahriman
and his host ; on earth 'they combat against the Genii of
evil. Every one, even Ormuzd himself, has his Ferver. An
Iranite had thus constantly by his side his ideal type, or un-
corrupted immaterial image, to guide him through life and
preserve him from evil.
When Ahriman, by the permission, but not by the will of
Zeruane Akherene, fell from Ormuzd—i. e. when darkness
arose in opposition to light, evil in antagonism to goodness—
he was bound down for the space of 3000 years in Duzakh
(Hades—the Bottomless Pit) where he created the Devs;
namely, six chief Devs, himself being the seventh, as the an¬
tagonists of the Amshaspands, and a number of inferior Devs
—the typified principles of evil. Meanwhile Ormuzd went
on with the creation of the material universe, making the
sun, moon, stars, the earth, &c. The first living being was
the ox Abudad, which was slain by Ahriman, but Ormuzd
formed from its body the different species of beasts, birds and
fishes, trees, plants, &c. When the ox expired, a being called
Kajomorz sprung from its right leg. Kajomorz was killed by
the Devs, but after the elementary particles that entered into
the composition of his body had been purified in the light of
the sun during forty years, they became the germ of the Ribas
tree, out of which Ormuzd made the first man and woman,
Meshia and Meshiane, infusing into them the breath of life
474
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
and spirituality. He thus completed the work of .creation in
six periods, holding at the end of each the festival Gahanbar.
Ahriman soon contrived to seduce the first parents of man¬
kind, by persuading them to eat of the forbidden fruit. Sin
and death are now in the world ; the principles of good and
evil are in deadly strife; Ormuzd, however, predominates,
but when he wishes to lead mankind against Ahriman, they
join the Devs. Ormuzd then reveals to them his law through
his prophet Zoroaster ; the strife between the two principles
continues, however, and will continue until the end of the
predestined term. During the last 3000 years of the
period Ahriman is predominant. The world now hastens to
its doom ; religion and virtue- are nowhere to be found ; man¬
kind are plunged in sin and misery ; but Sosiosh is born of a
virgin and redeems them, subdues the Devs, awakes the dead,
and holds the last judgment. A comet sets the world in
flames ; the Genii of Light combat against the Genii of Dark¬
ness, and cast them into Duzakh, where Ahriman and the
Devs and the souls of the wicked are thoroughly cleansed and
purified by fire. Ahriman then submits to Ormuzd ; evil is
absorbed into goodness ; the unrighteous, thoroughly purified,
are united with the righteous, and a new earth and a new
heaven arise free from all evil, where peace and innocence
will for ever dwell
That a certain analogy exists between the Persian and the
Scandinavian systems cannot be denied. A decided dualism
pervades both. Odin and the .dïsir may be compared to
Ormuzd and the Amshaspands ; Loki, and his evil progeny,
the wolf Fenrir and the Midgard serpent, together with the
giants and monsters of Jotunheim and Hvergelmir, to Ahri¬
man and the Devs. There is also a certain similarity in the
cosmogonie myths—the ox Abudad answering to Ymir, and the
creation of Meshia and Meshiane to that of Ask and Embla.
The Persian system has also its Ragnarök : the Genii of
Light and Darkness fight their last fight much in the same
manner as the .íEsir and their opponents, though the ^Esir
have to encounter not only Loki and his evil progeny, but
also the sons of the empyreal region of Muspellheim ; a myth
which we shall presently have occasion to examine. Baldur,
* See Creuzer's Sjinbolik und Mytliologie, 1 Th. 1 B. 3 Cap.
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.
475
too, may in some measure "be compared to the redeemer So-
siosh ; yet notwithstanding these and other coincidences, and
notwithstanding the fact that the various tribes of the Iranio
and Teutonic races spoke languages strictly cognate, we should
not venture to conclude, as most writers on the subject have
done, that both systems were derived directly and immediately
from a common source, nor even—though this is more admis¬
sible—that the Scandinavian doctrines were borrowed from
the Persian. The antagonism between light and darkness,
between good and evil, is a fact, and, in striving to account for
this fact, the sages and theologists of two primitive nations
may easily have fallen into the same train of reasoning, and
thus framed systems offering almost as striking coincidences
as if they had actually had a common origin.
It is unquestionably from India that we have derived, partly
through the Persians, but more especially through the Hel¬
lenic philosophers, most of our metaphysical and several of our
theological doctrines ; and we will not deny that some of these
doctrines may have been handed down by oral tradition to the
Pontiff-chieftains of the Scandinavian tribes, and that the
Skalds who composed the mythic poems of the Elder Edda
may have had an obscure and imperfect knowledge of them.
Be this as it may, we must not forget that the higher doc¬
trines of the Scandinavian system were confined to the few,
whereas those of the Zendavesta were the religious belief of
the whole nation; and so long as they continued uncorrupted
—for all religious doctrines become, in the course of time,
alloyed and perverted—must have exercised, and history at¬
tests actually did exercise, a highly beneficial and humanizing
influence. Iran was the land of Light and of the children of
Ormuzd ; Turan (the steppes of Tartary), the land of Dark¬
ness and of the children of Ahriman, a notion grounded on
the feuds of rival races, which could only have produced
courage ; but every thing that was good, every thing that was
of utility to mankind, also belonged to Ormuzd. Hence it
was the duty of an Iranite to avoid crime, to lead a moral and
unblemished life, to show by the purity of his character that
he was a true Iranite and not a Turanite. It was also his
duty to cultivate the soil, for its fruits were of the kingdom of
Ormuzd, and, consequently, to drain marshes, regulate the
course of rivers, destroy venomous reptiles, and, in a word, to
476
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
contend incessantly against both physical and moral evil, under
whatever forms they might appear. If he had done this, he
might after death fearlessly appear before Ormuzd and Bahman
on the bridge Tshinevad, assured that the Izeds would conduct
him in triumph to regions of celestial bliss ; but if he had
displayed throughout life the greatest valour in war, and had
neglected to combat the principle of evil by restraining his
own passions, he might justly fear being consigned to Ahriman
and the Devs, waiting to seize his trembling spirit and plunge
it into the tormenting, though cleansing, flames of Duzakh -5=.
This was a much more intellectual and refined faith than
that of the Scandinavians, amongst whom valour was the one
thing necessary, the only virtue, in fact, that claimed a future
recompense. If a Northman died with arms in his hands
stained with the blood of his adversaries, he was assured of
enjoying a coarse and jovial kind of celestial happiness in
Valhalla, even though his moral conduct had been far from
irreproachable ; and if he died a natural death he would, at all
events, swill his ale in the halls of Hela. The Persian
system was calculated to form an energetic, intellectual, and
highly moral people ; the Scandinavian a semi-barbarous
troop of crafty and remorseless warriors, whose energy would
be solely displayed in deeds of slaughter, and the social in¬
tervals of their turbulent existence passed amidst scenes of
the coarsest festivity. Yet such as they were these Scandi¬
navians seem to have been destined by the inscrutable designs
of Providence to invigorate at least one of the nations of
which they were for centuries the scourge, in order, as we
previously had occasion to observe f, that the genial blending
of cognate tribes might form a people the most capable of
carrying on the great work of civilization, which in some far
distant age may finally render this world that abode of peace
and intellectual enjoyment dimly shadowed forth in ancient
myths as only to be found in a renovated and fresh emerging
universe.
Although every system of mythology, when fully developed,
* Duzakh resembles the Purgatory of the Cathclic Church ; the Persians,
however, had a purgatory without a hell, being of opinion that the punish¬
ment, even for the greatest crimes, committed by a feeble being endowed with
strong passions and propensities and a limited intelligence, could not last
(eternally.
See page 44.
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.
477
has its esoteric as well as its exoteric doctrines, we think that
several eminent writers, in attempting to withdraw the veil and
initiate us into the mysteries of the former, or, in other words,
to show the true signification of a system, have frequently-
had recourse to thp most unwarranted assumptions. They
appear, in fact, to have altogether lost sight of the question it
was intended to elucidate, to have forgotten that the main
point of such inquiries is, not how a mythological system may
he explained^ but in what manner it was actually explained or
understood by the most enlightened of the community pro¬
fessing to believe in its doctrines. It is thus that Finn
IVJagnusen, with all the dogmatism of an ancient mystagogue,
gives an astronomical explanation of the Scandinavian myths,
without adducing the slightest historical evidence to show that
the Pontiff-chieftains, from whom he himself claims descent,
entertained such notions, or even that they possessed a sufih-
cient knowledge of astronomy to warrant the conclusion that
they were at least capable of entertaining them. Hence, not¬
withstanding the lucidity with which he invariably expresses
his ideas, whether he makes use of the Danish or the Latin
language, and notwithstanding the learning and erudition
displayed in every page of his writings, we are reluctantly
compelled to follow him as we should follow a guide, who pro¬
fessing to lead us out of a labyrinth, would only involve us,
after fruitless circumgyrations, still deeper in its intricate
mazes. We can, in fact, only regard but too many of the
learned disquisitions in his " Eddalacren " and his Mytholo¬
gical Lexicon as plausible arguments in support of ingenious
theories, that, generally speaking, will not stand the test of a
rigorous criticism.
A mythology, when regarded irrespective of the manner in
which it may have been understood by those who first reduced
it into a system, is obviously susceptible of any interpretation
that a writer may choose to give it. Hence we have historical,
ethnological, astronomical, physical, and psychological or
ethical explanations of most mythological systems.
Under the historical point of view the gods are mere:
deified mortals, either heroes who have been deified after their
death, or Pontiff-chieftains who have passed themselves off for
gods, and who, it is gratuitously supposed, found people
478
NOKTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
stupid enough to believe in their pretended divinity. This
was the manner in which Euhemerus explained the Greek
mythology, and Snorri Sturlason the Scandinavian ; but a
method that presupposes an historical Odin, an historical
Jupiter, an historical Osiris, &c., is, in our opinion, too
absurd to merit the slightest attention, or at the present day
to stand in need of a refutation.
Regarded ethnologically, myths are the mere allegorical
accounts of the feuds and dissensions of rival races. The
conflict of the -¿Esir and Vanir, for instance, which terminated
in a lasting peace and the exchange of hostages, is a myth
founded on the wars carried on between the Teutonic and
Slavonic races ; wars which were, however, so far from ter»
minating in the manner described, that they continued for
centuries after the extinction of Paganism ; and even in the
present comparatively enlightened age can scarcely be said
to have subsided. Although the ethnological explanation is
far more rational than the historical, and may possibly be the
right manner of interpreting several myths, we must, never¬
theless, regard it, in so far at least as it has been applied to
Scandinavian mythology, to be equally undeserving of serious
consideration.
It is otherwise with the astronomical, physical, and psycho¬
logical methods. It is obvious, in fact, that when a myth was
intended to convey an esoteric as well as an exoteric doctrine,
the former would generally be grounded on the never ending
strife of those antagonistic principles which pervade alike the
material and the ideal universe, the realms of nature and the
manifestations of human intelligence. Men who were suffi¬
ciently enlightened to reduce the popular belief in elementary
deities into a rational system, would be forcibly struck by the
antagonism between light and darkness, summer and winter,
good and evil, virtue and vice ; between barbarism and civiliza¬
tion, obscurantism and intellectuality. Hence we may safely
assume that most myths contain both physical and psycholo¬
gical doctrines, a fact which for several of the Hindostanic,
Iranic, Egyptian, and Hellenic myths can be fully proved by
the testimony of ancient writers, and other direct historical
evidence. It may also be taken for granted that the sages
and philosophers of civilized nations, that are known to have
scandinavian mythological doctkines.
479,
possessed a competent kno^yledge of astronomy, clothed the
truths of that scienôe in popular myths, and that we are con¬
sequently w^arranted in making use of the astronomical
method for the explanation of such myths, especially for those
of the Egyptians, Phœnicians, Indians, and other Asiatic
nations ; and although we "will not deny that several of the
Scandinavian myths may have a remote Asiatic origin, and
have been handed down to the Pontiff-chieftains by oral tra¬
dition, and may, therefore, contain astronomical truths, still
we should not venture to attribute to these semi-barbarous,
sacerdotal warriors such a familiar acquaintance with the laws
of nature as the astronomical explanation of their mytholo¬
gical system would necessarily imply. In proceeding to
offer a few brief observations on the most interesting chapters
of the Prose Edda, we shall, therefore, chiefly regard the
myths under a physical and psychological point of view, occa¬
sionally giving some of Finn Magnusen's astronomical ex¬
planations, although our limits will not allow us to enter into
any discussion respecting them.
Chap. 2.—This chapter was probably written by Snorri, but
although he commences by anthropomorphizing the Scandina¬
vian deities, and making Gylfl take ajourney to a terrestrial in¬
stead of a celestial Asgard, he concludes by placing him before
the so-called Odinic Trinity, the High, the Equally High, and
the Third.
The most ancient Trinitarian doctrine on record is that of the
Brahmins. The eternal Supreme Essence—called Parabrah-
ma, Brehm, Paratma—produced the universe by self-reflection,
and first revealed himself as Brahma, the Creating Power ;
then as Vishnu, the Preserving Power ; and lastly as Shiva, the
Destroying and Kenovating Power. According to the popular
belief, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are three distinct deities,
whereas the sages who framed the higher doctrines of the
Vedas merely regarded them as the three modes in which the
Supreme Essence reveals himself in the material universe.
Payne Knight remarks that " this tri-form division of the
personified attributes, or modes of action of one first cause,
seems to have been the first departure from simple theism, and
the foundation of religious mythology in every part of the
earth."—" Hence, almost every nation of the world that has
departed from the rude simplicity of primitive theism, has
480
NORTHERN A.N1TQÜITIES.
had its Trinity in Unity, which, when not limited and ascer¬
tained by divine revelation, branched out by the natural sub
division of collective and indefinite ideas into the endless and
intricate personifications of particular subordinate attributes,
which have afforded such, abundant materials for the elegant
fictions both of poetry and art."* This is much the same
kind of theory as that of M. Mallet, both assuming, we think
quite gratuitously, that monotheism was the worship of every
primitive race. That the Vedas are of a very high antiquity
is unquestionable ; but however remote we may place the
period when they were written, we must necessarily presup¬
pose that the Hindostanic race had already attained to a com¬
paratively high degree of civilization, otherwise men capable
of framing such doctrines could not have been found.
Now, this state of civilization must necessarily have been
preceded by several centuries of barbarism, during which we
cannot possibly admit a more refined faith than the popular
belief in elementary deities, a belief on which the metaphysical
doctrines of the Vedas were, no doubt, subsequently engrafted.
At all events, writers who maintain the contrary opinion will
be reduced to the dilemma of admitting either that the
ancient Indians were ab origine a civilized people, or that
being still in a barbarous and unsettled state, they neverthe¬
less possessed sages sufldciently enlightened to discuss the
highest questions of metaphysical philosophy, and that, too,
in one of the richest and most copious languages—we might
perhaps even say in the richest and most copious language—
ever spoken by man.
The monotheistic doctrines of the Vedas were subtilized in
several Hindostanic schools of philosophy into an idealistic
pantheism, Brehm or Paratma being regarded as a self-
emanating and self-absorbing unity—as the All, the Ab¬
solute—as the Being of Beings in eternal repose, surrounded
outwardly by Maja (illusion), that is to say, by the visible
universe, which in respect to itself possesses reality, but in
respect to Brehm,—to the Absolute, is a mere nullity. " By
this universal expansion of the creative spirit," to use the
words of Payne Knight, "every production of earth, water,
* " Inquiry into the Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology."
Lond. 1818, § 229.
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES. 48J.
and air participates in its essence, which was continually
emanating from and reverting hack to its source in various
modes and degrees of progression and regression."* A pas¬
sage from the Puranas, cited by Colebrooket, speaks of one
person in three divinities—a Unity in Trinity—ékci múrtis
trayó dévás. According to the Sánkhya doctrines, this unity,
or great principle, is a mere modification of nature, and be¬
comes distinctly known as three gods by the manifestation of
three qualities ; 1st, sattva, goodness, or the presence of all
that is good and the absence of all that is bad ; 2nd, radjas,
passion, animi impetus, a mixed quality, in which the passions
and affections are the strongest, and give an occasional pre¬
dominance to good and to bad ; 3rd, tamas, obscurity,
ignorance, or the presence of all that is bad and the absence
of all that is good. In other Hindostanic systems we find the
doctrine of an eternal dualism between mind and matter,
between intellectual activity and material passivity |.
Finn Magnusen contends that the form of the legal oath
administered in the names of the Almighty God, (i.e. Odin
or Thor, see page 293,) Njörd and Frey, shows that in the
latter ages of Paganism the Scandinavians worshipped " a
holy Trinity ; " § a conclusion which wo deem perfectly un-
waiTanted, the oath, in our opinion, merely implying that
these gods were regarded as the most powerful of the elemen¬
tary divinities, and therefore the most capable of punishing
those guilty of peijury. We cannot but ascribe to a similar
mania for theorizing the formation, by modern writers, of an
Hellenic Trinity; the persons being Jupiter, Neptune, and
Pluto, which we must also persist in regarding as three distinct
deities, notwithstanding the fact, which these writers adduce in
support of their hypothesis, that each of them was furnished
with a triform symbol. Jupiter with the tripartite, or three-
forked lightning; Neptune with the trident, and Pluto with
the tricephalic, or three-headed dog, Cerberus. It is, how-
* Payne Knight's " Inquiry/' &c., § 63.
*{- In his admirable dissertation " On the Philosophy of the Hindus,"
published in the 1st and 2nd vols, of the " Asiatic Researches."
X See Pauthier's French translation of Colebrooke's Dissertation, with very
interesting notes and remarks by the learned translator. See also Creuzer's
Symb. und Mythol. 1 Th. 2 B. 2 Cap.
§ Eddalseren, vol. i. p. 381.
II
483
noethekn antiqutties.
ever, probable that the Scandina\dan sages had a crude notion
of a Trinitarian doctrine, for in the present chapter of the
Prose Edda we have Har, Jafnhar and Thridi and in the
Gth chapter Odin, Vili and Ve, who create Ask and Embla—
this creation being ascribed in the Voluspá, st. 16, to Odin,
Hoenir and Lo^, beings which approach much nearer to the
metaphysical abstractions of the Brahmins than those invoked
in the oath administered within the Scandinavian doomrings.
It is also worthy of remark that Adam of Bremen describes
the statues of Odin (Wodan), Thor and Frey (Fricco), as being
placed in the temple of Upsal on three thrones, one above the
other, in the same manner as the High, the Equally High,
and the Third are represented in the Prose Eddaf.
Chap. 3.—M. Mallet was wrong in supposing that the doc¬
trines in this chapter are "literally expressed " in the Voluspá I.
There is nothing in that poem respecting an All-Father who
" liveth from all ages," or of a Supreme Being endowing man
with a soul " which shall live and never perish," &c. We should,
indeed, be inclined to attribute several passages in this chap¬
ter to a Christian writer of the thirteenth century. There is, in
fact, a palpable contradiction, for when Gangler asks where
this god, who, he had been told, " liveth from all ages,"
remained before he made heaven and earth, Har answers
" with the Frost-giants," consequently the god alluded to can
be no other than Odin, the son of the mythic-cosmogonic being
Bör. We may also observe that in this chapter Gimli and
Vingólf are synonymous terms, (Gimli 07- Yingólf,) whereas
in the 17th chap. Gimli is given as the name of the highest
heaven. In the 20th chap. Valhalla and Vingólf are described
as the place or places where the Einherjar dwell with Odin,
and in several of the compositions of the Skalds of the
historical period Vingólf is used for Valhalla. Add to this
Grimm's conjecture that the expression "in Gimli" means
simply in heaven, and it must be acknowledged that Gimli
* Trautwetter supposes that Har, Jafnhar and Thridi, are the three stars
of Orion's Belt ! He also regards them as symbols of the Winter Solstice,
the (we presume both Vernal and Autumnal) Equinox, and the Summer
Solstice ! an hypothesis which shows that the Astro7ioinical method of ex¬
plaining ancient myths is as apt to lead learned men on a wild-goose chase
as conjecixiroX etpnologxj. See Eddal. vol. i. p. 407.
f Ádam Bremen, de situ Daniae, c. 233.
Î See his note to the Prose Edda (c).
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES,
483
does not form an over solid foundation for an elaborate
theory.
Finn Magnusen and his followers have laboured very hard
to show that the term. All-Father is susceptible of a double
signification, as one of the epithets of Odin, and as the
designation of the One, eternal. Infinite, Supreme Being ; but
they have not, in our opinion, produced the slightest evidence
to prove that the ancient Scandinavians understood it in this
manner. In the Prose Edda, as the reader will have
remarked, the term is invariably applied to designate Odin.
In the Poetical Edda, the word Alfadir only occurs three-
times ; in Grímnis-mál, st. 46, as one of the names of Odin ;
in a poem of the Eddaic Epos. Helga-kvida Hundingshana I,
St. 35, as the chief of the Valkyrjor and Einherjar, i.e. Odin,
and in a somewhat obscure phrase in the 1st strophe of the
Haven-Song, where it has, however, obviously the same signi¬
fication. The Supreme Deity of the Scandinavians, and
indeed of all the ancient Teutonic nations, was unquestionably
Odin. A belief in a higher deity—in a real Supreme Being—
may possibly have been entertained by a few enlightened
Skalds and Pontiff-chieftains, but there is little or nothing to
show that this belief was inculcated as a doctrine. The
phrase " by the might of him who sent the heat," which
occurs in the 6th chap, of the Prose Edda, and is noticed by
Mallet, (note d,) is not found in any of the Eddaic poems, and
may therefore be ascribed to Snorri, or to some other Chris¬
tian writer of the thirteenth century. In the Elder Edda
there are only two allusions to such an Omnipotent Being,
and even these are very obscure, as the reader will find by the
following literal translation of the strophes that contain them.
' Then cometh the Mighty One (inn riki), to the divine
judgment—the Potent from above who all (things) swayeth.
He giveth judgment, putteth an end to strife and ordaineth
laws (or a holy peace), which shall last for evermore."
Voluspá, st. 58.
" Another and a mightier one *, whom I venture not to
name, will then come. Few there are who can look beyond
the time when Odin will go against the wolf."
Hyndlu-ljó^, st. 41.
♦ Namely, than Thor.
I I 3
484
noethern aktiquities.
We must remark that the strophe from the Voluspá is only
found in paper MSS., and not in any \'e]]um MS., though we
think this is not a circumstance of sufíicient importance to
warrant the conclusion that several writers have drawn from
it. We therefore do not hesitate to regard this strophe as
having as great a claim to antiquity as any other in the poem ;
hut the whole Voluspá is so unconnected and fragmentary,
that the passage in question is equally as applicable to Odin
as to a higher All-Father, and is at all events too obscure to
serve as the basis of an elaborate theory. According to Finn
Magnusen the " mightier one," alluded to in the strophe of
the Hyndlu-ljó^ is Surtur ! ! But why should Hyndla not
venture to name this swarthy god or demon of Muspellheim,
who is repeatedly mentioned in the other Eddaic poems ? We
will not, however, fatigue the reader by entering into a discus¬
sion of the learned Icelander's hypothesis, which has been
ably refuted by writers who are much better acquainted with
the subject than we can pretend to be ■<'; and will merely ob¬
serve in conclusion, that until much stronger evidence can be
produced to the contrary, we must persist in regarding Odin as
the only supreme deitj worshipped or believed in by the ancient
Scandinavians.
We had almost forgot to mention that Finn Magnusen, in
conformity with his favourite astronomical juethod, takes for
granted that the twelve names of Odin are the twelve signs of
the zodiac ; Alfadir being Aries, Herjan Aquarius, &c. f But
how does it happen that these twelve names also occur in
Grímnis-mál—not in the same order, but mixed up mth thirty-
two other names, there being in all forty-four epithets applied
to designate Odin, of which Alfadir is the twenty-eighth, and
Herjan the third ?
Chap. 4, 5,6,7,8, 9.—The cosmogonie doctrines contained in
* See, for instance, Grundtvig's Nordens Mythologi, also a very clever
work by Martin Hammerich, entitled " Om Eagnaroksmytlien og dens Be-
tydning i den oldnordiske Eeligion," Copenh. 1836. Although Mr. Ham¬
merich has ably refuted Finn Magnusen's theories, we think that his own
hypothesis of an Omnipotent Being called Fimbdltyr will not by any means
stand the test of criticism.
f Odin as Alfadir has thus undergone some curious transformations ; in
the olden time he was at least regarded as the lord of Valhalla and the father
of gods and men ; the monks changed him into the devil, but Finn Magnu¬
sen has again installed him in the heavens as the zodiacal ram !
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.
485
these chapters are perfectly in accordance with those of the
Eddaic Poems, with the notable exception that the most import¬
ant doctrine of all, implied in the phrase " by the might of him
who sent the heat," is, as we previously observed, nowhere to be
found in the latter, and must therefore be regarded as apocry¬
phal, the myths and doctrines of the Prose Edda being only of
value when they can be corroborated by the authority of the
Elder Edda. It is certainly of very little consequence whether
several of the myths are susceptible of this corroboration or
not, for, although they may have been embellished, we may
take for granted that they were not invented by the compilers
of the Prose Edda. But it is otherwise with lüords and
phrases, which a compiler or even a mere copyist might have
inserted in a MS. at his pleasure. We therefore repeat that
a phrase in the Prose Edda, expressing a doctrine conform¬
able to the precepts of Christianity, but quite at variance with
the cosmogonie system developed in the Elder Edda, must
be regarded as an interpolation, or at least of too doubt¬
ful a character to ground a theory on. We insist the more
on this point, as the arguments so frequently made use of by
M. Mallet*, and by several eminent writers since his time,
to j)rove that the Scandinavian theory of creation was founded
on the doctrine of an eternal Supreme Being, " placed above
the reach of all revolutions and changes," regulating primordial
matter, and producing the mundane deities to whom he en¬
trusted the formation of the visible universe, rest entirely on
this apocryphal passage of the Prose Edda, and the two
obscure strophes of which we have given a translation.
If we take the cosmogonie system of the Scandinavians as it
is developed in the Elder Edda, and (with the exception of
the phrase in question) also in the Prose Edda, we shall
find that it is essentially based on materialism. Matter is
held to be, as it was in several of the Indian schools of philo¬
sophy, the plastic origin of all things, the gods themselves
being but a mere modification of it. Regarded in this point
of view, the Eddaic system, when divested of its allegorical
language, will be found to offer some curious coincidences
with the speculations of several eminent scientific men of the
present age.
* See especially his arguments in chap. v. and his notes to the Prose
Edda ID and F).
486
KORTHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
The Scandinavian sages being of the opinion of Lucretius
and most of the ancient philosophers, that
" Nil posse creari
De nihilo, necque quod genitu 'st ad nil revocari,"
presupposed that, in the "beginning, the coarser particles of
matter were concentrated in a nebulous sphere (Niflheim), and
the more etherealized particles in a luminous one (Muspell-
heim), and that the latter by worldng on or vivifying the for¬
mer, produced an incipient organic chaos ; the more material
parts of this chaos (typified as the gigantic being Ymir) being
progressively developed by the influence of the more ethereal
portion (the cow Audhumla nourishing Ymir by the four
—elementary—streams that flowed from her teats), the finer
particles of both (Audhumla licking the salt stones) finally
bringing forth a higher organization (Bur and his offspring).
The view we have taken of the Eddaic system, up to this
■stage, does not materially differ from that of Finn Magnusen.
But the question now arises—In what light ought we to re¬
gard Bur and his offspring? or, more properly speaking, in
what manner may we conjecture that they were regarded by
the Scandinavian cosmogonists ? Now Finn Magnusen sup¬
poses that Odin, Vili, and Ve, are mere symbolical expressions
for air, light, and fire, which by operating on the embiyotic
matter gradually produced the visible universe, and finally by
acting on vegetable substances transformed them into animated
beings (Ask and Embla) This is unquestionably a plausible
hypothesis, but we think it savours too much of modern
scientific speculations to be relied on, and, like too many of
the learned Icelander's theories, becomes moreover in its de¬
tails not only inconsequent but even somewhat ludicrous.
He tells us for instance that " the cow licking the salt stones,
by which a being more beauteous and noble than Ymir was
produced, can mean nothing else than the emerging of a por¬
tion of land or a rock from the briny sea ; " and after stating
that this being was called Bur, and his son Bor, adds, " In my
opinion it was intended to signify hereby the first mountain
or mountain-chain, which it was deemed by the forefathers of
our race had emerged from the waters in the same region
where the first land made its appearance. This mountain
* Eddalseren, vol. ii. p. 63.
SCANDIKAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTEINES.
487
chain is probably the Caucasus, called by the Persians Borz
(the genitive of the Old Norse Borr). Bör's wife, Belsta or
Bestia, a daughter of the giant Bolthorn {spina calamitosa),
is possibly the mass of ice formed on the alpine summits." -1=
It will be needless to point out how inconsequent this theory
is. According to the Edda, " the seas and waters, and the
vast ocean," were made by the sons of B'ór from the blood of
Ymir, consequently when Bur was produced no " briny sea "
existed for him to emerge from ; and as Odin, Vili and Ve,
the sons of Bör and Besla t, are according to Finn Magnusen
Air, Light, and Eire, he must, in order to be consequent,
ascribe the origin of these elementary principles to the union
of an alpine rock and an alpine glacier ! A somewhat too
frigid embrace we should imagine to bring forth Light and
Fire, not to mention the thorough deliquescence into which poor
Besla would have fallen in giving birth to such an off¬
spring
Be turning to our ovn views of the subject, such as they
are—for we are perfectly aware that qiiot homines tot sententiœ
is nowhere more applicable than to the explanations given of
ancient myths—we should be inclined to conjecture that the
Scandinavian cosmogonists may have regarded Odin as a real
mundane deity. The problem which they had to solve was
the origin of the universe. They might have had recourse
to the more pleasing, and at the same time far more rational
* Eddalaeren, vol. i. p. 42.
d" So the word is printed in Rask's edition of the Prose Edda.—Bestia
and Beyzia, we believe, are also found in MSS., but Finn Magnusen writes
the word Belsta, on what authority we know not, which may be derived from
helti, a belt, and thus signify the engirdling—i.e. the ocean engirdling the earth,
which suits his latter theory, stated in the note below, admirably. We have
so frequently expressed our opinion respecting conjectural etymology, that it
will be needless for us to observe that we cannot place the least value on any
inferences drawn from a supposed affinity between the Old Norse word Borr,
and the Persian Borz, or more properly Albordj.
X Finn Magnusen seems to have become aware of this himself, for in his
Lexicon Mythologicum, published four years after his Edclnlceren, he con¬
verts Bör into the earth, and Besla into the ocean, adding, " Ex hocce terrae
et maris primo connubio prodeunt Odinn (spiritus mundi nostri ; terrae mag¬
na anima, aëris et aurae numen) Vili sive Hcenir (lux, imprimis cœlestis)
et Ve sive Lódur (ignis, vel elementalis vel proprie sicdictus) qui Ymerum,
chaoticae confusionis auctorem, interficientes ex ejus corpore, post magnum
illud diluvium, terram nostram formant, ea quidam specie quam jam retinet."
Lex. Mythol. Edda, vol. iii. p. 314.
488
NORTHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
system that presupposes a Supreme Essence—a spirit moving
upon the face of the waters—whereas the one they adopted only
recognizes matter which becomes at length sufficiently orga¬
nized to produce Odin, Vili, and Ve. They may possibly have
applied these names to designate three modes of action of one
deity—Odin, or All-Father; hut whether they regarded him as
a corporeal being or as the anima niuncli—the intelligent and
co-ordinating principle of the universe—we think they ascribed
to this being or this intelligence the further work of creation
typified by the slaughter of Ymir, and the formation of the
earth and the heavens from his body, as it lay extended in
Ginnungagap.
Chap. 15, 16.—The Yggdrasill myth, with its three arbor¬
escent roots, three fountains, and three destinies, is one of the
most significant and poetical tobe found in any system of mytho¬
logy, but its explanation has, as usual, given rise to the most con¬
flicting theories. Gräter and Finn Magnusen offer a physical,
Trautwetter an astronomical, Mone an ethical explanation, and
Grundtvig applies his favourite theory of " the heroic spiidt
of the north," (Nordens Ksempe Aand)—pugnacious spirit
would be a more appropriate designation—to this, as indeed to
every other myth which he treats of in that most singular and
rather too crotchetty work of his, entitled Nordens Mythologie
According to Finn Magnusen, Yggdrasill is the symbol of
universal nature. One of its stems, (so he terms the roots,)
springs from the central primordial abyss—from the subter¬
ranean source of matter as it might be termed, (Hvergelmir,)
runs up through the earth, which it supports, and issuing out
of the celestial mountain in the world's centre, "called
Asgard, Caucasus, Borz,"'-i' &c., spreads its branches over the
entire universe. These wide-spreading branches are the
ethereal or celestial regions ; their leaves, the clouds ; their
buds or fruits, the stars ; the four harts are the four cardinal
winds ; the eagle is a symbol of the air ; the hawk, of the
wind-still ether ; and the squirrel signifies hailstones, snow
* These are the precise words he makes use of in his M3'thological Lexicon,
page 865 ; thus identifying, as usual, the Persian Albordj (Borz) with the
Caucasus. If he had made the Hindu Kosh serve his purpose instead of the
Caucasus, the theory would, at all events, have been somewhat more entitled
to consideration ; but we should really imagine that at the present day it
would be quite superfluous to remark that the Persian Albordj, like the
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.
489
flakes, vaporous agglomerations, and similar atmospherical
phenomena. Another stem springs in the warm south over
the ethereal Urdar-fountain, the swans swimming in which
denote the sun and moon ! ! The third stem takes its rise in
the cold and cheerless regions of the north, over the source of
the ocean, typified by Mimirs well. The myth of Odin
leaving his eye as a pledge to Mimir, signifies the descent of
the sun every evening into the sea—to learn wisdom from
Mimir during the night,—the mead quaffed by Mimir every
morning being the ruddy dawn that spreading over the sky
exhilarates all nature. Nidhögg, and the other monsters
that gnaw the roots of the mundane tree, are " the volcanic
and other violent torrents that are constantly striving to con¬
sume or destroy the earth's foundations." "-i"
Although we agree with Finn Magnusen in regarding
Yggdrasill as the symbol of universal nature, we think that,
in attempting to explain the myth in all its details, he has
let his imagination, as usual, get the better of his judgment,
and lead him into the most palpable inconsistencies ; inso¬
much so, in fact, that when we begin to examine his theory
we are almost tempted to exclaim, with Grundtvig, " one
Indian Meru, and the Eiphsean mountains of the Greek mythology, is a mere
mythic-cosmogonic sjmihol, and that the attempt to give it a geographical
locality can only be ascribed to that theorizing mania which so frequently leads
even the most learned men—and few possess greater learning than Finn
Magnusen—into the most palpable errors. Not to fatigue the reader with
numerous citations, we will merely refer to a small work—that happens to
be at hand—by Arnold Hölty, entitled " Eine kritisch-historische Unter¬
suchung über die beiden ersten Capitel des Vendidad," published at Hanover,
1829, with a preface by Heeren, in which the author takes the same view
of the subject, and shows, moreover, that Albordj is only mentioned once in
the Vendidad (in the twentieth Fargard), in a passage which he proves to be
an interpolation, and that the account we have of it is exclusively derived
from the Bundehesh.
The Grecian mythology has its Olympus ; the Persian, its Albordj ; the
Indian, its Meru. Finn Magnusen was, therefore, determined to introduce a
heaven-aspiring hill into the Sc.andinavian mythology. He accordingly
places Asgard on the summit of a conical mountain, rising from the centre of
the terrestrial disk, and gives us a pictorial representation of it in the plates
of the Eddalceren. But where do we find a description of such a mountain,
either in the Elder or Younger Eddal The only mention made of a celestial
mount is that of Himinbjörg, the residence or mansion of Heiindall, which
is placed on the edge of heaven, and which Finn Magnusen gives in Iiis
calendar as the zodiacal sign of the crab.
■* See Lex. Myth. Edda III. p. 863, et sq., and Eddalœren, Bog. II.
4&0
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
"would think it was meant for a joke." * Jacob Grimm—how
refreshing it always is to turn to his admirable pages—very
justly observes that the whole myth of Yggdrasill bears the
stamp of a very high antiquity, but does not appear to be fully
unfolded. "We learn," he says, " something respecting the
enmity between the eagle and the snake, and that it is kept
up by Ratatösk, but nothing as to the destination of the
hawk and the four harts."-j- These remarks of Grimm are
fully borne out by the very meagre account given of the
Yggdrasill myth in the Völuspa, and the Grímnis-mál, the
only Eddaic poems that make mention of it J. In order that
the reader may be aware on what very slight foundations Finn
Magnusen can construct an elaborate theory, we subjoin a
literal translation of all the Eddaic strophes that relate to the
myth, the words in brackets being inserted to render the ob¬
scure passages more intelligible.
From the Yöluspa :—
St. 17. " An ash know I standing, called Yggdrasill. A high tree sprinkled
with the purest water. Thence comes the dew that falls in the dales. It
•(the ash) stands evergreen over the Urdar-fountain."
18. " Thence come the much-knowin? maidens—^three from that lake
O
(fountain) which is under the tree. One is called Urd, another Verdandi,
and the third Skuld. They engraved (Runic inscriptions, i. e., recorded
events) on tablets. They laid down laws ; they determined (determine) the
life of the sons of men ; they tell (fix) the destinies (of men)." +
From Grrímnis-mál :—
St. 29. " Körmt and Œrmt, and the two Kerlaugar—these (rivers) must
Thor wade through every day as he fares to the doomstead, under Yggdia-
sill's ash, otherwise the .®sir-bridge would be in flames, and boiling hot
would become the holy waters."
30. " (The horses), Gladr, Gyllir, Glœr, Skeidbrimir, Silfrintoppr, Sjmir.
G-isl, Falhófnir, Gulltoppr, and Léttfeti are ridden by the .ffisir every day
when they go to the doomstead under the ash Yggdrasill."
* See one of the somewhat too bilious pastor's diatribes against such phy¬
sical explanations of Scandinavian myths, in fact, against every mythological
doxy that does not happen to be Ms doxy, in his Nordens Mythologi, second
edition, Copenh. 1822, page 230.
'h Dent. Mythol. page 757.
J The Norns are mentioned, though in a very obscure manner, in the 49th
St. of Vafthrúdnis-mál ; mention is also made of them in the poems of the
Eddaic Epos, and in the 26th st. of the Raven Song an allusion is made to
a tree under the roots of which are the giants.
§ This is all that we find in the Voluspá respecting the Yggdrasill mj'th,
except the allusion to the mundane tree in the 61st strophe relating to the
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.
491
31. " Three roots stand on three ways (extend to three regions) under the
ash Yggdrasill. Hela dwells under one; (under) another (dwell) the
Frost-Giants; (under) the third (dwell) mortal men" {literally human men).
32. " Ratatösk is called the squirrel that shall run (that runs) on the ash
Yggdrasill. The eagle's words he shall bear (he bears) downwards, and shall
tell (tells) them to Nidhögg below."
33. " There are also four harts that on the summit (of the ash), with bent
necks, bite (the leaves), Dain, Dvalin, Duneyr and Durathrór are their
names."
34 and 35
We think that all that can be gathered from this account
of the ash Yggdrasill, and that given in the Prose Edda, is,
that the mundane tree is represented as embracing with its
three roots the whole universe ; for one of these roots
springs from Hvergelmir in Niflheim, another from Mimir's
well, situated somewhere or other in the region of the Frost-
Giants, and the third from the Urdar-fount, which is obviously
placed in the celestial regions. We have thus a super-terres¬
trial or supernal (the Urdar) root ; a terrestrial (the Mimir)
root ; and a sub-terrestrial or infernal (the Hvergelmir) root.
That the fountain of the Norn s was supposed to be in the
ethereal regions, is unquestionable ; for we are told in Grim-
nis-mál that mankind dwell under it, and the Prose Edda ex¬
pressly states that it is " in heaven," and it would appear
above Asgard, for the ^sir are described as riding wp to the
doomstead beside the Urdar-fountain. Finn Magnusen, as
we have seen, places this fountain, and the root issuing from
it, in the warm south. In his Eddalœren he gives us, in
fact, to understand that the fountain springs from a high and
steep cliff at the south jjole, though he admits, for once, that
nothing respecting such a cliff is to be found in the Eddaic
Poems ; the only authority he is able to adduce in support of
this strange hypothesis being a figurative expression made
use of by a Skald, in a poem written after his conversion to
Christianity f. Finn Magnusen is also of opinion that the pure
water with which the tree is sprinkled by the Norns means
" the snow agglomerated in the northern sky," and that " the
Ragnarök myth, a metrical translation of which has already been given, see
page 455. We have also given a translation of the strophe, (page 411,) re¬
lating to the myth of Odin and Mimir.
* A literal, though metrical, translation of these strophes has already been
given, see page 413. Also a translation of the 43rd strophe, (see page 432,)
in which Yggdrasill is mentioned as " the first of trees."
•f Eddalœren, vol. ii. p. 124.
493
NORTHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
dew that falls in the dales " signifies the ever-verdant aspect
of the southern parts of the earth, as well as the clear azure sky
hy which this perennial verdure is canopied *. It is almost
unnecessary for us to observe that this hypothesis would im¬
ply that the ancient Scandinavians were aware that the earth
was a sphere ; the terms south pole and northern sky not being
applicable, without a great perversion of language, to an earth
represented, as it invariably is in the Eddaic Poems, as a
disk in the middle of a vast ocean bounded by the mountain¬
ous region of the Frost-Giants f.
Mone regards the ash as the emblem of human life. Man
is born of water, the swan is therefore the infantile soul that
still swims on the water, but the eagle, the mature experienced
mind that soars aloft; the hawk perched between the eagle's
eyes being internal sensation. The snakes that gnaw the
root of life are the vices and passions ; the squirrel, the double-
tongued flatterer constantly running between these passions
and the mind (the eagle) which has raised itself above their con¬
trol. The harts denote the passions of the mind, folly,
madness, terror and disquietude, and therefore feed on the
healthy thoughts (the green leaves). But as man in his
levity remarks not what enemies threaten his existence, the
stem rots on the side, and many a one dies ere he attains to
* Eddalseren, vol, ii. p. 126.
f Finn Magnusen's pictorial representation of the Yggdrasill myth (copied
from the Eddalœren, plate 1,) has been selected as a frontispiece to this
volume. The central part of the plate representing the earth (Midgard) as
a disk in the midst of the " vast ocean," and encircled by Jörmungand, the
great Midgard Serpent, " holding his tail in his mouth" (see page 423) ; the
outer shores of the ocean forming the mountainous region of Jötunheim, or
Utgard, is perfectly in accordance with the descriptions given in the Eddas,
with the exception of the conical hill, for which not the slightest authority
can be adduced. The representation of the Mundane Tree itself is founded
on a theory which we have attempted to show rests on the most unwarranted
assumptions. It will, therefore, be merely necessary for us to observe that
Yggdrasill is depicted with three stevu, a main stem springing from Hvcrgel-
mir, and two secondary stems, the one branching out " towards the north,"
over Mimir's well ; the other, " towards the warm south," over the Urdai'-
fount. Bifröst (the rainbow) is made to extend from Asgard, placed on the
summit of the hypothetical Scandinavian Olympus, to Jötunheim, and from
Jötunheim to this fountain of the Norns which is, apparently at least, placed
under the earth, but which we presume is intended to be located at the
south pole of the terrestrial disk ; though its true locality, if we may assign
a locality to such an ideal conception, would unquestionably be above Asgard
in the highest ethereal regions.
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTEINES.
493
wisdom, or figuratively before the bird of his soul (the eagle)
is seated amidst the perennial verdure of the mundane tree.
Ling supposes Yggdrasill to be the symbol both of universal
and human life, and its three roots to signify the physical, the
intellectual, and the moral principles. Other writers cited by
Finn Magnusen take these roots to have been meant for
matter, organization and spirit, and the ash itself for the
symbol of universal primordial vitality *.
We should be inclined ourselves to agree in the main with
those who regard this mythic tree as the sym.bol of ever-en¬
during time, or rather of universal nature, ever-varying "in its
aspects, but subsisting thimighout eternity t. The principles
of evil and destruction (the monsters of Hvergelmir) are in
constant operation, but the three Norns continually sprinkle
the tree (the universe) with the renovating waters of life, and
maintain it in everlasting verdure. We thus find that even
when all things are consumed, and the gods themselves
perish, Yggdrasill, " Time's hoary nurse," though "shaken to
its summit," though " the fire reek rageth around it," still
stands,
" And ever blooming will stand
O'er the Urdar-fountain."
The Ymerian and Yggdrasill systems, as Finn Magnusen
terms them, may possibly have been held by opposite sects,
though there is not the slightest evidence to show that such
was the case. There are, in fact, three systems more or less
fully developed in the Elder Edda—the Ymerian, the Yggdra¬
sill, and the Ragnarök systems, the doctrines contained in
which are, we think, far from being irreconcilable. We
should, ourselves, regard these systems as having been
framed at different periods, the Ymerian being the most
ancient, and the Ragnarök the most recent of the three. We
* See Eddalœren, vol. ii. p. 146.
f The ash was the most appropriate tree that could have been chosen for
such an emblem. Virgil describes it with its outspreading branches as en¬
during for centuries, and it is a singular coincidence that he should have re¬
presented it as a tree that reaches with its roots as far downwards as it doe»
upwards with its branches.
" Altior ac penitus terrae defigitur arbos ;
.ffisculus in primis; qiiœ quantum vértice ad auras
JEthereas, tantum radice in Tariara tendit.
Oecrg. ii. 290.
We may here remark that the Maypole, and the German Vhristbatini,
have a Pagan origin, the type of both being the ash Yggdrasill.
494
NOBTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
llave shown that the Ymerian system is essentially grounded
on materialism ; and in whatever light we may view the
Y^ggdrasill myth, whether it be explained physically or psycho¬
logically—a physico-paychological explanation would probably be
the true one—we shall find that its doctrines as essentially
rest on fatalism, as those of the Ymerian myth do on material
ism. The three Norns regulate the destinies of gods and
men ; even Odin himself, who in the Ymerian myth is repre
sented as the father of all, must submit to their decrees ; which
means to say, in other words, that there is an inevitable succes¬
sion of events in time ; Uncreated Time, Time without begin¬
ning or end—the Zeruane Akherene of the Persians—per¬
sonified in its three moments of the Past, the Present, and the
Future, as three maidens seated by the fountain of perennial
life, being the only deity recognised. We shall now proceed
to examine the third system, and see whether it contain, as,
thanks to the amor jpatriœ of Finn Magnusen and other
northern writers, is generally supposed, more cheering and
consolatory doctrines.
Chap. 52 and 54.—In these chapters of the Prose Edda, as
well as in the strophes of the Eddaic Poems containing the Rag-
narök myth, we can find nothing at variance with the doctrines of
materialism and fatalism laid down in the two preceding, and no
doubt more ancient systems. The world arose out of chaos, and,
after it has run its predestined course, into chaos will again
return. And as the Ymerian system is based on the doctrine
of the indestructibility of matter, and the Yggdrasill system
on the more ideal conception of a necessary succession of
events in illimited time, we find that, in strict conformity with
these views, the Vala, or more properly speaking the ancient
Skald who composed the Voluspá, describes the conflagration
of the universe by the elemental fire of Muspellheim ; that is
to say, the dissolution of all things into the primordial chaos.
But time (Yggdrasill) remains, and as matter is indestructible,
and contains, even in its most chaotic state, ethereal vivifying
principles, (the flakes of Muspellheim,) new organizations are
formed ; the universe is renovated, or in the words of the
Voluspá, st, 52—
" She sees arise,
A second time.
The earth from ocean.
In verdant splendour.
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.
495
The waters fall * :
O'er mountain tops
The eagle flies,
And preys on fishes."
We have here the earth arising from a pre-existing ocean,
but there is nowhere the least allusion—not even a phrase
that the most ingenious criticism could torture into a remote
allusion—that it will arise by the fiat of an Omnipotent Be¬
ing. We are not told in what manner this new world will be
formed, nor any thing respecting the ocean from which it will
emerge. We might even conclude by comparing the first
couplet of the 51st strophe of the Voluspá—
" Dimm'd's now the sun.
In ocean earth sinks"
with the first and second couplets of the 52nd strophe pre¬
viously cited—
" She sees arise,
A second time.
The earth fvorn ocean,
In verdant splendour,"
that the framers of the Bagnarök myth supposed that the
mere submersion of the earth under the waters of a primor¬
dial ocean -would suffice for its renovation ; a theory which,
when divested of its allegorical language, would pretty nearly
coincide with the facts established by modern geologists. At
all events, it is evident that they regarded this new emerging
earth as a mere re-arrangement of matter. They of course
described it as a more lovely and a more innocent world
than the old one—though, to judge from the fish-devouring
eagle, it would appear that animals were still to prey on
each other in it—as a world yielding an abundant produce
without cultivation, and in which man—not created by a Su¬
preme Being, but brought forth by the vital energy (Lif and
Lifthrasir) that still subsisted amidst the general wrack and
dissolution—would again abide, though in what manner we
are not informed, even Thridi himself professing his in¬
ability to pry any further into futurity.
It may possibly be objected that, in taking this view of the
three Eddaic myths, we have not drawn a distinction between
the mundane deities (Odin, Vili, Ve, &c.) and the Elves of
liight dwelling in the empyreal region of Muspellheim. The
* i. e. Eecede as the earth emerges.
496
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
former, it is admitted, are represented as a mere modification
of matter; but those who, like Finn Magnusen, neglect stub¬
born facts for brilliant theories, make use of arguments which,
if they mean any thing, would seem to imply that, as the origin
of Surtur and the Elves of Light is not given in the Eddaic
Poems, they must necessarily have been regarded as immaterial
spirits. To this objection, futile though it be, we should reply,
that neither have we any account of the origin of Nidhogg and
the other monsters of Hvergelmir, nor of the terrestrial Elves
of Light, nor of the Elves of Darkness, nor of the Vanir, nor
of a number of other mvthological beinus that even the wri-
11*' • •
ters in question would not venture to spiritualize as they have
implicitly—though few of them explicitly—spiritualized tlie
Elves of Muspellheim. Arguments founded on such negative
facts are, therefore, quite inconclusive. We must also re¬
mark, that in the Eddaic Poems there is no mention made of
Surtur and the Elves of Light existing in Muspellheim pre¬
vious to the formation of Ymir, neither can their pre-existence
be inferred from the passage in the fourth chapter of the
Prose Edda, which merely speaks of Surtur being seated on
the borders of Muspellheim, evidently at the time—that is
to say, long after the formation of the universe—when Gylñ
is supposed to have had these doctrines revealed to him.
As it is moreover explicitly stated that the union of the ma¬
terial particles of Muspellheim and Niflheim produced first
Ymir and the Frost-Giants, and afterwards the more intelli¬
gent race of the .¿Esir, we should be justified in assuming
that Nidhogg and the monsters of Hvergelmir, as well as
Surtur and the other inmates of Muspellheim, were supposed
to have arisen in much the same maimer : the former being
modifications of the most dense material particles, the latter
of the most ethereal ones ; a peculiar combination of both pro¬
ducing the beings endowed with the highest intelligence. In
strict conformity with the dualistic doctrines held by the Scan¬
dinavian cosmogonists, we have thus on one hand the Intelli¬
gent Powers (Odin, Vili, Ve, and the iEsir), by whose benign
influence the heavens and the earth and the whole visible
universe were fashioned out of chaos ; and, on the other, the
Material or Chaotic Powers, represented not only by the Frost-
Giants and the monsters of Hvergelmir, but also by Surtur and
the Elves of Muspellheim. Hence, on the last day, all these
powers fight against the iEsir, and the very fact that Surtur
scandinavian mythological doctrines.
497
is invariably described as the being who is to lead the Mus-
pellheim bands against " the mild Gods," shows that he was
regarded as one of the chaotic demons. We must, therefore,
repeat, that throughout these myths we can trace no other
doctrines than those founded on materialism and fatalism.
All the mythological beings typify matter—some of them
matter in a chaotic state, the others a material vivifying
principle by which this chaotic matter becomes organized ;
each of the antagonistic principles alternately prevailing, and
the universe being in consequence alternately destroyed and
renovated by an inevitable succession of events in never-end¬
ing time—an evolution and devolution of matter in the in¬
finitude of eternity.
Chap. 53.—When-—somefifteen years ago—we first read this
chapter of the Prose Edda, we rather too hastily concluded that
the Scandinavian doctrines respecting a future state were much
the same as those of Christianity. We were confirmed in
this opinion by the perusal of Finn Magnusen's Eddalœren,
in which we found it expressly stated that the ancient Scan¬
dinavians believed that an Omnipotent, though nameless
Being, w'ould at the last day descend from his abode of ethe¬
real radiancy to judge the human race ; would condemn the
wicked to the torments prepared for them in the profoundest
abyss, and assign to the righteous an eternity of beatitude in
the empyreal region of the Elves of Light, " in highest
Gimli." From the dogmatical tone assumed by the learned
Icelander throughout his work, we took it for granted that he
was able to corroborate his statements by the most unde¬
niable and trustworthy evidence collected from the Eddaie
Poems. The reader may, therefore, judge of our surprise
when, after carefully looking ever these poems—wdiich con¬
tain upw^ards of 1500 strophes—we found that the only allu¬
sions made to this nameless God were in the two obscure
strophes of which we gave a literal translation in our remarks
on the third chapter (see page 483 ); one of these strophes
merely alluding to the coming of " a mightier one " than Thor ;
and the other to " a mighty one " coming to a judgment, but
not to the kind of judgment described in such glowing colours
in the Eddalœren. This discovery completely destroyed our
* See EddalsereU; iv. 102, and a number of similar passages throughout
the work.
k i:
498
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
confidence in Finn Magnusen's statements, and we were really
at a loss to imagine how a man of his learning could venture
to construct a brilliant theory—and support that theory, too,
by the most dogmatical assumptions—on such a very flimsy
foundation. We shall now proceed to examine the fifty-third
chapter of the Prose Edda and the Eddaic strophes on which
it is grounded, and see whether they really do contain the
doctrines that have been so unhesitatingly deduced from them.
The expressions made use of in the Prose Edda would im¬
ply that, after the dissolution of the universe, there mil be a
place of punishment for certain crimes, and several abodes of
celestial bliss for " righteous and well-minded men," one of
which, at least, will be as plentifully provided with drink as
Valhalla. We previously observed that the statements in the
Prose Edda are of little or no value, unless they can be cor¬
roborated by the authority of the Elder Edda. Now the
reader will no doubt be surprised to learn, that the only au¬
thority that can be adduced in support of the assumption that
the Scandinavians believed that the wicked would be con¬
demned to a place of eternal punishment, is a single strophe
of the Yoluspá^, a faithful translation of which we gave in the
note, page 457. Several writers, no doubt with the laudable
intention of supporting a favourite theory—have rendered the
penultimate couplet of this strophe by " There Nidhögg
quails the dead for evermore—for eternity—throughout ever¬
lasting ages," &c. In the original it is—■
" Thar saug Nidhögg
Nái framgengna,"
literally, " There sucked Nidhögg the corpses of the dead."!
There is, consequently, nothing in this strophe to warrant the
conclusion that the punishment is to last eternally. It must
also be borne in mind that the strophe occurs previous to the
* Naströnd is mentioned—though in a very indefinite manner—in the
20th strophe of Guimars Slagr, a poem which, in respect to its subject,
belongs to the Eddaic Epos—but the editors of the Edda themselves regard
this poem as apocryphal, and have, therefore, printed it separately, as an
Appendix to their second volume.
f Both saitg, sucked, and s^^g, sucks, are found in the MSS. The editors
of the Edda have adopted the latter reading, and, therefore, render the
passage by"Illic sugit Nidhöggus cadavera emortua," but we prefer the
former, for the verb in the following line is in the past tense in, we believe,
all the MSS.—the wolf tore, which the editors render by " dilaniavit fera
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.
499
account given of the dissolution of the universe. Naströnd is
described in the 34th and 35th stroplies, and the sinking of
the earth into the sea, and "the fire reek raging around Time's
nurse," in the 51st strophe ; and as there is positively not a
"word, either in the 35th strophe or in the whole poem, that
could be made to imply the designation of a place of eternal
punishment after the confiagration of the universe, the only
logical conclusion that can he drawn from the passage in ques¬
tion is, that the Skald who composed the Voluspá was of opi¬
nion that murderers perjurers, and adulterers, even though
they died on the field of battle, would be deprived of the joys
of Valhalla, and punished in the manner described, until the
final dissolution of all things into the primordial chaos.
In respect to the abodes of celestial bliss, we find that, in
the 33rd strophe of the Voluspá, Sindri is described as
an habitation of the dwarfs, and Brimir as a drinking-hall
(bjórsalr, beer-saloon) of the giants, "^dthout the least allusion
to a future state. On the contrary, the employ of the past
tense stood, " A hall of gold stood on the Nida moun¬
tains," " Another hall, Brimir, stood in Okolni," does not by
any means indicate that the Vala, in repeating this strophe,
had her prophetic vision directed towards futurity. ÎNot-
"withstanding these facts, Finn Magnusen, as usual, does not
hesitate to say that, " by comparing the passages of the Prose
Edda with the Voluspá, we shall find that after the dissolu-
(Inpus)." The learned editors conjecture that the wolf alluded to may be
Fenrir, condemned after the dissolution of the universe to this place of punish¬
ment (see Edda III. p. 43, note 58)—but the word vargr means either a
wolf or any ferocious beast—fera as they have rendered it—and may proba¬
bly have been meant for one of the monsters of Hvergelmir. Kaströnd, in
fact, is evidently placed by the Skald in Hvergelmir. "We may also remark,
that the Prose Edda has qyelr, quails—" There Nidhögg c^uails the bodies
of the dead."
* It is difficult to say what the ancient Scandinavians understood by
miirder. In the modern acceptation of the term, there v/ere few men in
those turbulent ages that had not committed a murder. We have seen the
curious distinction drawn in the Grágás between murder and manslaughter
(page 302), and it would appear that, when a man killed another in a trea¬
cherous or cowardly manner, he was regarded as a murderer—as one who had
done a nithing-worh. Still, even in this signification of the word, the anecdotes
we have given from the Sagas show that murder was thought very lightly of.
It is a singular circumstance that murder, perjurj-, and adultery, which the
Skald regards as the only crimes that merit a future punishment, should be
precisely those which the Icelanders were the most addicted to.
K K 2
500
NORTHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
tion of the universe three distinct paradises or blissful habi¬
tations are destined for three classes of beings, namely,
Gimli, for righteous men ; Brimir, for righteous giants; and
Sindri, for righteous dwarfs ! " ^
As our inquiries only concern the future state of man, we
will leave the righteous giants to guzzle down their ale in
Brimir, and the righteous dwarfs to ply their smithy tools in
Sindri, and see whether any better evidence can be adduced
in support of the Gimli theory. At first view there would
appear to be no doubt on the question, for Gimli is expressly
described in the 57th strophe of the Völuspa as a place of
eternal beatitude. The literal translation of this strophe (a
metrical translation of which has already been given, see
page 414, is as follows :—
" A hall sees she standing, fairer than the sun, roofed with gold, in Gimli.
There shall men of worth abide, and through aU days (ages) enjoy bliss."
This, at least, is sufi&ciently explicit. We must remark,
however, that this strophe occurs after the description given of a
new world emerging from the ocean (which is in the 52nd
strophe), and we might therefore infer that the heaven de¬
scribed was intended to be for the inhabitants of the new world
what Valhalla had been for those of the old one ; a more re¬
fined race of men naturally requiring a more refined heaven.
We say that such an inference might be drawn, which shows,
at least, that even this strophe—owing to the place it occupies
in the poem—is not free from obscurity. Admitting, however,
that the two last couplets—
" All men of worth
Shall there abide.
And bliss enjoy
Through countless ages,"
* Lex. Mythol. Edda III. p. 696. Finn Magnusen, like most theorists,
never fails to cite the authority of an ancient work in support of any of his
assumptions, but, when he is aware that these assumptions are at variance
with such an authority, observes a discreet silence. Now a single passage of
he Prose Edda — and for Finn Magnusen the Prose Edda is an authority
which he frequently refers to—will suffice to upset this theory of righteous
giants,—beings whose skulls Thor was continually splitting with his mallet,
and hurling their bodies, at times, into the abyss of Niñhel (see page 434),
— for it is expressly stated in the 5th chapter that Ymir and all his race,
that is to say, all giants without distinction, are wicked.
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.
501
mean that all "who lead an unblemished life in this world will
have, at its dissolution, this place of eternal bliss assigned them
for an habitation, the question arises whether we ought to I'egard
these four lines as dating from the times of Paganism, or as
being the interpolation of a Christian writer? The Northern
writers of course deny both the ■possibility and 2>'>'obahility of a
single strophe of the Voluspá having been composed after the
extinction of Paganism. We shall, therefore, examine the ques¬
tion under both these points of view ; and first as to the possibi¬
lity. Now we think that an impartial person, in reading the Vo¬
luspá, would find that the two last couplets of the 57tli strophe
difi'er even in style from the rest of the poem ; ho^vever, as
the Northern philologists have declared that they can perceive
no difference in this respect, we must submit to their judg¬
ment. But it does not by any means follow that because the
style of the 57th strophe does not differ from that of the other
strophes, which it is admitted must have been composed pre¬
vious to the reign of Harald Eárfagra, the authenticity of this
strophe cannot be called in question. We will readily grant
that no Skald of the historical period could have composed a
whole poem in the simple and antique style of the Voluspá,
and most of the other Eddaic lays ; but it would be going too
far to pretend that in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth
centuries no Icelander could be found capable of inditing four
short lines (which in the original Norse only contain ten
words) in a style undistinguishable from that of a much earlier
period. We say, in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth cen¬
turies, for the oldest manuscript of the Voluspá extant—the
one made use of by the editors of the Edda—dates from the
fourteenth century, that is to say, upwards of three centuries
after the Icelanders had embraced Christianity. Several
writers contend that the Voluspá and other Eddaic poems were
preserved by being cut on tablets or staves in Bunio cha¬
racters during the times of Paganism, but they are unable to
adduce the slightest evidence in support of this hypothesis.
There is, in fact, every reason for supposing that these poems
were handed down by oral tradition, and first committed to
writing by the learned priest of Oddi upwards of a century
after the introduction of Christianity. We admit that it is very
unlikely that Ssemund inserted a strophe of his own composi¬
tion in the Voluspá, but it must be borne in mind that the
o02
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
oldest manuscript extant, of this poem, was written two cen¬
turies after his time. And during the lapse of two centuries
the poem may have heen frequently copied by less consci¬
entious persons, some of them sufficiently talented to arrange
ten words into two metrical couplets offering not the slightest
difficulty of construction. We think, therefore, that the pos¬
sibility of these couplets having been composed by a Christian
writer is undeniable, and, in our opinion, the probability of
their having proceeded from such a source is equally in¬
contestable. 1st, Because the doctrine inculcated is quite
conformable to the precepts of Christianity, but quite at
variance with the cosmogonie systems developed in the same
poem, which, as we have attempted to show, are essentially
grounded on materialism and fatalism ; and 2nd, Because,
although the Eddaic Poems contain upwards of 1500 strophes,
this is the only one in which mention is made of a place of
eternal bliss after the dissolution of the universe. In no
other strophe do we find even the most obscure or most dis¬
tant allusion to such an abode of beatitude—in fact, no men¬
tion made of any other heaven than that of Odin, predestined,
like Odin himself, to perish in the general wreck of nature.
Several writers contend that as the Eddaic Poems—espe¬
cially those of the mythic-cosmogonic class—are more or less
fragmentary, the lost strophes may have contained a more
definite account of a future state and a Supreme Being. This
is, of course, a mere conjecture, and therefore not entitled to
much consideration. And we should be more warranted in
assuming that strophes containing such doctrines are pre¬
cisely those the most likely to have been preserved, for the
Christian priest who first committed the Eddaic Poems to writing
would no doubt have been too delighted to find that his
Pagan ancestors professed a belief in a higher deity than
Odin, and a higher heaven than Valhalla, not to have assidu¬
ously collected any strophes inculcating such doctrines from
those to whom they had been transmitted by oral tradition.
It is, moreover, highly improbable that such strophes were
ever composed, as they would have been quite at variance with
the cosmogonie systems so fully developed in the Ymerian and
Yggdrasill myths, with which the Eagnarök myth—if it he
admitted that the two last couplets of the 57th strophe of the
Voluspá are apocryphal—fully coincides.
scandinavian mythological doctrines.
503
If tlie view we have taken of Scandinavian mythology he
correct, it will naturally follow that M. Mallet's assumption
that this mythology " expressly distinguishes two different
abodes for the happy, and as many for the culpable ; " —a
Valhalla and a Helheim destined to perish, and a Gimli and
a Nástrond that are to endure throughout eternity—is totally
unfounded, as well as all the conclusions that Finn Magnusen
and a host of modern writers have drawn from it. At all
events this assumption rests entirely on the dubious authority
of two strophes of an Eddaic poem, of which the oldest manu¬
script extant dates from the fourteenth century.
We must remark in conclusion, that the instances cited by
M. Mallet t of men professing to believe in a more exalted
deity than Odin, only prove that even in the most, barbarous
ages a few individuals may be found more enlightened than
the generality of their contemporaries. We should have en¬
tered into these inquiries with much greater satisfaction if we
could have shown that the opinions of these enlightened men
had been embodied into a system, and been held, at least as
esoteric doctrines, by a privileged class ; but we prefer/ticis to
theories, and the only conclusion that we can draw from the
facts stated is that the more refined, and probably esoteric,
doctrines inculcated in the Eddaic Poems are essentially
grounded on materialism and fatalism, as the popular belief
was on polytheism : the highest deity, according to this
popular belief, being Odin ; the highest heaven, Valhalla ; and
the highest celestial bliss, a daily fight, a daily banquet, and a
daily drinking-bout.
Chap. 17.—The twelve (or it may be thirteen) celestial man¬
sions described in the Grímnis-mál, some of which are mentioned
in this chapter of the Prose Edda, are regarded by Finn Magnu¬
sen—who, has a marked predilection for the astronomical method
—as the twelve signs of the zodiac, and arranged as follows t ;—
Celestial Tutelary Corresponding to the In which the
Mansions. Deities. Sign of the Zodiac. Sun enters.
1. Ydalir Ullur Sagittarius Nov. 23. §
2. Alfheimr Frey Capricornus Dec. 23.
3. Valaskjálf Vali Aquarius Jan. 22. |¡
* See page 104. t S®® P^g® 121.
Î See his " Specimen Calendarii Gentilis," in the third volume of the Edda.
§ In 1827. 11 In 1828.
504
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
Celestial
Mansions,
4. Sökkvabekkr
5. Gladsheimr
6. Thrymheimr
7. Breidablik
8. Himinbjorg
9. Fólkvángr
10. Glitnir
11. Nóatún
lä. Land vidi
Tutelary
Deities.
Saga
Odin
Skadi
Baldur
Heimdall
Freyja
Forseti
Njörd
Vidar
Correspontling to the
Sign of the Zodiac.
Pisces
Aries
Tamms
Gemini
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Libra
Scorpio
In which the
Sun enters.
Feb. 21.
March 23.
April 22.
May 22.
June 21.
July 25.
Aug. 24.
Sept. 23
Oct. 23.
The Grímnis-mál positively designates Valaskjálf as the
third mansion, Sokkvabekk as the fourth, &c., in the order that
Finn Magnusen has arranged them, though we doubt whether
he be strictly warranted in making Ydalir the first, and Alf-
heim the second mansion. The fourth, fifth, and sixth strophes
of the Grimnis-mál are, literally, as follows :—
4. The land that I see lying (before me) near the Jîsir and Elves is holy.
But in Thrudheim shall Thor remain until the Gods perish.
5. Ydalir it is called, where Ullur hath built him a hall. In the begin¬
ning (of the world) the Gods gave Alfheim to Frey when he was cutting
his teeth.
6. The third habitation is that where the blithe Gods roofed the halls
with silver : it is called Valaskjálf, which was chosen by the God (As) in
the beginning (of the world).
7. The fourth is called Sokkvabekk, &c.
Several passages in the Eddas and the Skaldic poems show
that Valaskjálf is here meant for Valhalla; the god who chose
it (for his abode) can therefore be no other than Odin. Finn
Magnusen, however, assigns Valaskjálf to Odin's son Vali*.
He also makes Ydalir the first mansion, and Alfheim the
second, though we might obviously conjecture with much the
the same degree of plausibility that Thrûdheim is designated
as the first habitation, the second being either Ydalir or Alf¬
heim, probably the former. At all events, by assigning the
second mansion to Frey, Finn Magnusen makes the Sun-god
correspond—and it must be confessed very appropriately—to
the winter solstice, when the sun is, as it were, annually born,
and may, therefore, be represented as an infant cutting its
teeth. Forseti, who holds the scales of justice so perfectly
equipoised, will also, by this arrangement, very appropriately
* We presume because ValashjáJf might be made to signify T'aA's shetf.
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.
505
correspond to the autumnal equinox, though we do not recollect
that justice is any where typified in the Scandinavian, as it is
in the Grecian mythology, as a being, either male or female,
holding a pair of scales. Odin, who here figures as the zodiacal
ram, corresponds to the vernal equinox, and Heimdall to the
summer solstice, although other writers who have employed
the astronomical method for the explanation of Scandinavian
myths make Baldur correspond to it ; his death being in their
opinion evidently meant to typify the wending of the sun on
the 21st of June. Hence the custom, still kept up in south¬
ern Germany and the Scotch Highlands, of lighting bale fires
at Midsummer, on the day selected by the Catholic Church to
celebrate the nativity of John the Baptist '¡L
In the third chapter of the Prose Edda Niílhel is re¬
presented as being " below in the ninth world ; " and in the
thirt3^-fourth chapter we are told that Odin cast Hela into
Niflheim, and " gave her power over nine worlds.'' In the forty-
fifth strophe of Vafthrúdnis-mál, the giant tells Gangrad that
he has been in nine ivorlds. These allusions, it must be con¬
fessed, are both obscure and contradictory ; nevertheless Finn
Magnusen gives us a systematic classification of the nine
worlds or regions which, according to his notions, were re¬
garded by the Scandinavian mystagogues as constituting the
universe. He in fact furnishes us both with a ternary and a
nonary vertical division, as follows t.
I. THE SUPERIOR OR SUPERNAL WORLD.
1. Ljósálfaheim, in which he places Gimli, where righteous
men, after Eagnarök, are to abide with Surtur, the Supreme
Deity 1 ! ! The heaven Vidblainn separates this region from,
2. Muspellheim, in which are the Flame-spirits ! ! or Mus-
pell's sons, who are also under the immediate dominion of
Surtur, both these regions being uncreated. The heaven
Andláng separates Muspellheim from
3. Godheim, where the .iEsir abide, and which is, " properly
speaking, the ethereal or starry heavens."
The reader will find the most ample Information respecting such fires in
the twentieth chapter of Jacob Grimm's Deiäsche Mythologie,
f See his Eddalaeren, vol. iii. pages 184 and 189.
Î He does not inform us whether his righteous giants and righteous dwarfs
will dwell in this region, though we presume that he would also place them
in it.
506
NOETHEBN ANTIQUITIES,
II. THE MEDIAL WORLD,
4. Vanaheim or Vindheim—the abode of the Yanir, which
he regards as the Spirits of Aii" ; the region itself being the
sky or the terrestrial atmosphere.
5. Mannheim ; the earth ; the abode of mankind,
6. Svartálfaheim ; the subterraneous parts of the earth —
holes, caverns, &c. ; the abode of the Elves of Darkness.
Ill, THE INFERIOR OR INFERNAL WORLD.
7. Jötunheim ; the abode of giants. In this region is also
the great ocean with the Midgard serpent,
8. Helheim ; the abode of death.
9. Niflheim; the deepest region also uncreated, in which
are Hvergelmir and Nástrond.
If it be asked what authority the learned Icelander can
adduce for this classification we must unhesitatingly answer,
not the slightest. The distinction which he makes between
Ljósálfaheim, and Muspellheim, placing in the former, along
with the souls of righteous men, the Elves of Light—or rather
leading us to infer that it was originally or will be their abode ;
and in the latter beings which he is pleased to term Flame-
spirits, is totally unwarranted. That the Yanir are the Spirits
of Air dwelling in the atmosphere (Yanaheim) is a mere con¬
jecture, a plausible one, perhaps, but still a conjecture, and it
will be needless for us to point out the inconsistency of placing
Jötunheim and " the earth-encircling ocean " under the earth,
Einn Magnusen himself, when he follows the horizontal in¬
stead of the vertical division, ranging them on the same plane
with it In short, this classification rests on the most ground¬
less assumptions imaginable, and can only be ascribed to that
theorizing mania, which it is much to be regretted that a
writer of Finn Magnusen's learning should be so apt to in¬
dulge in.
We think, ourselves, that the only admissible division would
be a ternary one, viz. :—
1. The Super-terrestrial Region, or the heavens—the abode
of the mundane deities,
2, The Terrestrial Region, which was regarded as an hori¬
zontal circular plane. In the middle lay the earth (Midgard),
* See the Frontispiece to this volume.
SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.
507
the abode of mankind : the Elves of Darkness and the Dwarfs—
probably two designations of the same mythological beings—
dwelling beneath its surface in caverns and other subterraneous
places. The earth, we are expressly told, was encircled by
the vast ocean, the outer shores of which formed the cold,
cheerless, and mountainous region of Jötunheim, the abode of
the Frost and Mountain Giants, and other typified principles
of evil.
3. The Sub-terrestrial Kegion, or Helheim, the abode of
Hela, or Death
Muspellheim and Niflheim lay without the organized uni¬
verse, and were obviously regarded as the primordial spheres
or material regions of light and darkness, of an active and a
passive principle—both mere modifications of matter—the
antagonism of which produced this universe, with the jEsir,
Vanir, Giants, Dwarfs, and other mythic beings that were
popularly supposed to be located in its various regions, though
they were no doubt regarded by the initiated as the mere
symbols of antagonistic elements f.
* Yggdrasill's three roots perfectly correspond to this ternary division.
One taking its rise in the Super-terrestrial Region, another at the outer part of
the Terrestrial Region, and the third in Helheim ; Hela, according to the
Grímnis-mál (see page 491) dwelling under it.
t Our limits precluding us from entering into any further examination of
the Eddaic myths, we will merely observe that one of the most significant
amongst them is that relating to the death of Baldur (chap. 49). Baldur i»
killed by Hœdur through the machinations of Loki, but his son Forseti sur¬
vives, who
"his days
In peace ever passeth
And stilleth all law strife."
that is to say, in other words, that when virtue succumbs to vice—•
when innocence quits the world, justice remains, or, as Ovid so beautifully
expresses the same idea,
" Victa jacet Pietas : et Virgo caede madentes,
Ultima coelestum, terras Astraea reliquit." Metam. i. 149.
NOTES TO THE PROSE EDDA.
BY
M. MALLET AND BISHOP PEECY*.
[a] Snorri informs ns, in the beginning of the Heimslcringla, that Gylfi
was a prince, who governed Sweden before the arrival of Odin and his fol¬
lowers, and was obliged to yield to the supernatural power which those in¬
truders employed against him, and to resign his kingdom up to them. This
gave rise to the supposition that Gylfi was willing to make trial himself of
the skill and sagacity of these new comers, by proposing to them a variety of
captious questions.
[b] In the manuscript copy of the Edda, preserved at TJpsal, there is a
representation or drawing (very rudely done, as may be supposed) of these
three thrones, and of the three persons sitting on them. They have crowns
on their heads ; and Gangler is drawn in a suppliant posture before them.
[c] These are important questions ; but the answers are still more remark¬
able. From their conformity with the Christian doctrines, one would be
tempted to believe that Snorri had here embellished the religion of his Pagan
ancestors, by bringing it as near as possible to the Gospel, if we did not find
the same unfolded system literally expressed in the Voluspá, a poem of un¬
doubted antiquity, and Avhich was composed long before the name of Chris¬
tianity was known in the north ; and also if the same system were not con¬
tinually referred to in every other place of the Edda -j-.
[n] Here we have the pleasure to observe, that our philosophers saw the
necessity of having recourse to the intervention of a deity in forming the
world. The vivifying breath, here mentioned, seems to carry in it a strong
affinity to the " Breath of Life" which God breathed into the nostrils of the
first man ; according to the phrase of Scripture.—Gen. chap. ii. ver. 7 J.
[e] It has been a general opinion in the East that God began with creating
genii, both good and bad, of very immense powers : who, for a long time be¬
fore we existed, inhabited a world prior to this of ours. One may see in
Herbelot what the Persians relate concerning the Dives, Nere, Peris, and
their king Eblis.
[e] In all likelihood this legend is only an allegory. There is, however, a
very important remark to be made here. A powerful being had with his
breath animated the drops out of which the first giant was formed. This
* See page 397. Bishop Percy's notes are marked P.
f M. Mallet here falls into the same error as a number of eminent writers
have done since his time ; an error which we have attempted to point out in
our critical examination of the Eddaic doctrines. See page 482.—Ed.
See our remarks, page 485.—Ed.
NOTES TO THE PROSE EDDA.
509
Being, wlioni the Edda affects not to name, was entirely distinct from Odin
Avho had his hirth long after the formation of Ymir. One may conjecture,
therefore, that the hidden philo'sophy meant to inculcate that the supreme,
eternal, invisible and incorruptible Grod, whom they durst not name out of fear
and reverence, had appointed inferior divinities for the government of the
world ; and that it was those divinities who, at the last day, were to yield to
the efforts of powerful enemies, and be involved in the ruins of the universe :
and that then the supreme god, ever existing, and placed above the reach of
all revolution and change, would arise from his repose, to make a new world
out of the niins of the old, and begin a new period, which should, in its turn,
give place to another; and so on through all eternity. The same was the
system of the Stoics ; who, as well as the philosophers of the north, supposed
that the world, after it had been consumed by flames, should be renewed ;
and that the inferior deities should be destroyed at the same time. What
confirms all this, is, that this god, superior to Odin himself, and of whom the
vulgar among this people had scarce any idea, is represented in the Icelandic
poems as making a second appearance, after the death of all the gods, in order
to distribute justice, and establish a new order of things +.
[g] It is not undeserving of notice, that all the ancient nations of Europe
describe their origin with the same circumstances. Tacitus says, that the
Germans, in their verses, celebrated a god born of the earth, named Tuisco.
This Tuisco had a son named Mannus, whose three sons were the orignal an¬
cestors of the three principal nations of Germany ; namely, the Ingœvones,
Iscœvones and Herminones. The Scythians, according to Herodotus, said
that Targytaus, the founder of their nation, had three sons, Leipoxain, An-
poxain, and Kolaxain. A tradition received by the Eomans, imported that
the Cyclop Polyphemus had by Galatea three sons, named Celtus, Illyrius,
and Gallus. Saturn, the father of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, might very
well come from the same source ; as well as the three sons whom Hesiod
makes to spring from the marriage of Heaven and Earth, Coitus, Briareus, and
Gyges. A tradition so ancient and so general must have certainly had its
foundation in some real fact.
[h] Of all the ancient Théogonies, I find only that of the Chaldees which
has any resemblance to this of the Edda. Berosus, cited by Syncellus, informs
us that that people, one of the most ancient in the world, believed that in the
beginning there was only water and darkness ; that this water and darkness
contained in them divers monstrous animals, different in form and size, which
were all represented in the temple of Bel ; that a female, named Omorca, was
the mistress of the universe ; that the god Bel put to death all the monsters,
destroyed Omorca herself, and, dividing her in two, formed of the one half of
her the earth, and of the other the heavens : to which another tradition adds,
that men were formed out of her head ; whence Berosus concludes, that this
occasioned man to be endowed with intellectual powers.
[i] The matter of the sun and stars existed long before the formation of
* See our remarks, page 483.—En.
t That is to say, an obscure allusion is made to such a deity in two strophes,
the allusion in one of these strophes being applicable to Odin.—See
page 483.—Ed.
510
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
those bodies : this matter was the œther, the luminous world. One cannot
but remark in this fable the remains of the Mosaic doctrine ; according to
which the creation of a luminous substance, in like manner, preceded that of
the sun and moon. And what indicates one common origin of both accounts,
is what Moses adds in the same place. " And Grod said. Let there be lights
in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night ; and let them
be for signs of seasons, and of days, and of years," &c.—Gen. c. i. v. 14.
[j] The Persian mythology abounds with circumstances analogous to this.
There are always giants, or mischievous genii, who wish ill to men, and hurt
them whenever it is in their power. The heroes have no employment so dear
and so glorious as that of making war upon those genii. At this very day
they are supposed to be banished among the rocks of Caucasus, or Imaus, ever
since Tahmuras, surnamed Divbend (he who subdued the Dives), vanquished
and put them to flight. Mahometism has not been so severe as Christianity,
in eradicating these ancient superstitions, and therefore the inhabitants of
Persia are still very much infatuated with them.
[k] This fable proves that the ancient Skalds understood by the name
Frigga, the spouse of the supreme god ; and that, at the same time, this
Frigga was the earth. This doctrine is of very great antiquity, and has been
in general received by all the Teutonic nations. Their philosophers taught that
the supreme god, Teut, or Woden, was the active principle, the soul of the
world, which uniting itself v.uth matter, had thereby put it into a condition
to produce the intelligences or inferior gods, and men and all other crea¬
tures. This is what the poets express figuratively, when they say that Odin
espoused Frigga. One cannot doubt, after having read this passage of the
Edda, but it was this same goddess, to whom the Germans, according to
Tacitus, consecrated one of the Danish islands, worshipping her under the
name of Herthas, or the earth. From this mystical marriage was born the
god Thor. He was the first born of the supreme God, and the greatest
and most powerful of all the inferior divinities or intelligences that were
born fi:om the union of the two principles.
[l] We have here a specimen of the natural philosophy of the first ages.
In attempting to explain things, the causes of which are obscure, men of all
countries have gone in the same track ; and have represented what was un¬
known by the image of something they were well acquainted with. This is
doubtless the true origin of fable. We perceive, at first sight, that it cannot
be men who dispense rain and fine weather, who launch the lightning, Ac.
There was, therefore, a necessity for imagining there were beings of much
superior powers, to produce these wonderful operations ; but none at all for
assigning to them forms different from those of men and other animals.
These solutions at once satisfied the curiosity and the imagination ; they
were easy to be comprehended ; they interested the heart a thousand ways ;
and must, therefore, succeed, and become lasting. In fact, they have every¬
where prevailed throughout the Avorld.
[m] Here we have the cause of eclipses ; and it is upon this very ancient
opinion that the general practice is founded of making noises at that time, to
fright away the monsters, who would otherwise devour the two great lumi¬
naries.
[n] We see in the preceding, that the gods assemble together in the open
air in a valley ; here is their principal residence under an ash-tree. In this.
NOTES TO THE PROSE EDDA.
511
as íd other things, the gods are made to conform themselves to the manners
of nrcn. The ancient nations for a long time had no other place of rendez¬
vous than some tree remarkable for its size and age. The states of East
Friesland, even so late as the thirteenth century, assembled under three large
oaks which grew near Aurich ; and it is not more than three centuries ago
that most of the German princes held their conferences under trees.
[o] All the Teutonic nations have had these genii. The romances of chivalry
are full of allusions to this imaginary system. The same opinions prevailed,
among the Persians. In many places of High Germany, the people have
still a notion that these genii come by night, and lay themselves on those
they find sleeping on their backs, and thus produce that kind of suffocation
which we call the night-mare. In the same manner they accounted for
those luxurious and immodest illusions so common in dreams ; hence are de¬
rived the fables of Incubi and Sucubi ; and that general opinion that there
were genii or sylphs of both sexes, who did not disdain the embraces of mor¬
tals. The bad genii were particularly dreaded at the hour of noon ; and in
some places they still make it a point of duty to keep company at that hour
with women in childbed, for fear the demon of noon should attack them if
left alone. This superstition has prevailed no less in France than else¬
where, though it came from the East. St. Basil recommends us to pray to
God some time before noon to avert this danger.
[p] I am obliged to return again to Odin. There is nothing in all Pagan
antiquity more express than this passage, with regard to the supremacy of
one God. The name of As, or Lord, is again ascribed to him in this place.
It is to no purpose to object that the father of gods and men could not at
the same time be called the father of combats, without manifest contradic¬
tion ; for the Edda establishes this to be the fact too strongly to be disputed.
Beside.s, contradictions do not always hinder an opinion from being received.
Various modifications and distinctions are found out to clear up the difficulty.
But there was no great need of any here, for the Teutonic nations regarded
war as a very sacred occupation. It furnished, according to them, opportu¬
nities for displaying courage, and of fulfilling the views of Providence ; which
was to place us here as in a field of battle ; and. only to grant its favours as
the peculiar rewards of fortitude and valour.
[q] This reasoning upon the names of Odin maj'' contain something of
truth in it. It is certain that almost all the names ascribed to the Supreme
Deity, are either epithets taken from the qualities attributed to him, or the
places where he was worshipped, or from the actions he had performed, &c.
[r] The reader will recollect here what I 'have previously said concern¬
ing this divinity of the northern nations. The function ascribed to him of
launching the thunder, made him pass for the most warlike and formidable
of all the gods. It was also Thor who reigned in the air, distributed the
seasons, and raised or allayed tempests. The mallet which he hurled against
the giants, and with which he crushed their heads, is doubtless the thunder,
which most frequently falls upon elevated places. He was regarded as a di¬
vinity favourable to mankind, as he who guarded them from the attacks of
giants and wicked genii, whom he never ceased to encounter and pursue.
[s] Baldur corresponds to the Apollo of the Greeksyund E,omans, the sun
considered as a benign and salutary constellation, who chased away maladies.
512
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
animated the spirits, and wanned the imagination, that fruitful mother of
poetry and all the other arts,
[t] This god, or at least a god with these attributes, has been adored by
all the ancient nations of Europe, as also by the Persians. They all of them
assigned a genius or god to the waters, whether of the sea, or of rivers, or
fountains. This god would not fail to be adored and loaded with presents.
Indee<f aU the people of Europe have had a great veneration for this divinity,
and nothing was more difficult than to bring them off from the worship they
paid him ; this furnished subject for the prohibitions of many a council.
Even within the bosom of the Christian Church the people long continued to
repair in crowds to certain fountains, in order to adore the beneficent genius,
who, by an incomprehensible power, made the v/aters flow in equal and un¬
interrupted abundance.
[u] I should be inclined to call Loki the Momus of the northern deities,
did not the tricks he plays them often exceed the bounds of raillerj'. Be¬
sides, the monsters he has engendered, and who are along with their father,
in the latter ages, to make rude assaults upon the gods, plainly indicates a
system little different from that of the evil principle. Notwithstanding what
has been advanced by some learned men, this opinion was not unkno\vn
either to the Persians or Coths : perhaps, indeed, we ought thus far only to
agree with them, that it did not belong to the ancient religion of either of
these people. But the hazardous and labouring condition in which they be¬
lieved all nature to be, and the assaults which it was to sustain at the last
day, led them insensibly to imagine that there was a power who was at en¬
mity with gods and men, and who wrought aU the evils which desolate the
universe. This was the occupation of Ahriman among the Persians, and
of Loki among the Scandinavians, Loki produces the great serpent which
entirelj^ encircles the world. This serpent, by some of the characteristics of
it in this same mythology, seems to have been intended as an emblem of cor¬
ruption or sin. Pie also gives birth to Hela, or Death, that queen of the in¬
fernal regions, of whom the Edda gives us here so remarkable a portrait ;
and, lastlj', to the wolf Fenrir, that monster who is to encounter the gods,
and destroy the world. How could the evil principle have been more strongly
characterized 1
[v] It must be borne in mind that the infernal region here described,
where a punishment, rather disagreeable than cruel, is reserved for those
who have died without their arms in their hands, is not an eternal hell, but
only an intermediate abode, or, if you wiU, a prison, whence those who are
confined will come forth at the last day to be judged upon other principles ;
and to be condemned or absolved for more real virtues and vices. To this
intermediate hell was opposed an elysiiun of the same duration, viz. Val¬
halla, of which we shall presently have ample mention. One sees with sur¬
prise, in attentively reading this mythology, that the whole is better con¬
nected and the parts more dependent on one another than in any other work
of the same kind that has come to our knowledge. The inferior gods, created
along with this world, and united to it by their natnre, and the confonnity
of their destiny, had every thing to fear at the last day from the enemies of
nature. In order, therefore, to be the better able to resist them, they called
home to them all the warriors, who had given proof of their valour by shed-
KOTES TO TÎÎE EROSE EDDA.
513
ding their blood in battle. These, thus received into the residence of the
gods, were still exercised in all the operations of war, in order to keep them
in breath, ready against the last great conflict. This was the great end to
which all their pleasures and employments were directed., As to cowardly
or inactive persons, Avhat could the gods have done with tbem, when they
were thus threatened with an attack as sudden as dangerous ? They gave
them up to the custody of Death, who was to punish their weakness with
languor and pain. All this has nothing to do with that eternal hell and ely-
sium which we shall see sketched out in the Edda with much more force and
dignity; and where nothing will be regarded but fidelity, chastity, integrity
and justice *.
[w] Tacitus informs us that the Germans had no other physicians but
their women. They followed the armies to staunch and suck the wounds of
their husbands. In like manner, all the histories and romances of the north
always represent the females, and often princesses, charged with this care.
The same thing may be observed of almost all nations in their infancy.
[x] The travels of goddesses and fairies through the air are very com¬
mon in all the poems and fables of the ancient inhabitants of the north, and
most of the nations in Europe have thought in this respect along with them.
When in process of time Christianity became prevalent, what had been for¬
merly looked upon as a precious gift and signal mark of divine favour Avas
now regarded as the effect only of diabolic arts. The assemblies of eccle¬
siastics made very severe prohibitions, and denounced their anathemas against
all those who should travel through the air in the night-time. In the ancient
law of Norway, called " Gulathings Lagen," c. i., we find this regulation,
" Let the king and the bishop, Avith all possible care, make inquiry after
those who exercise Pagan superstitions ; who make use of magic arts ; who
adore the genii of particular places, or of tombs, or rivers ; and who, by a
diabolic manner of travelling, are transported from place to place through
the air," &c. A council held at Rouen contains a prohibition of the same
nature.
[y] The Edda never loses sight of the destruction of the Avorld. It was
owing to this expectation that the inferior gods received Avith pleasure war¬
riors of approved valour, and such as they could depend on at the last times.
[z] This description of the palace of Odin is a natural picture of the man¬
ners of the ancient Scandinavians and Germans. Prompted by the wants of
their climate, and the impulse of their own temperament, they form to them¬
selves a delicious paradise in their own way ; where they were to eat and
drink, and light. The women, to whom they assign a place there, are intro¬
duced for no other purpose but to fill their cups. One wild boar furnishes
out the whole of this celestial banquet : for, not very nice, they were only
solicitous about the quantity of their food. The flesh of this animal, as well
as that of the hog, was formerly the favourite meat of all these nations.
The ancient Franks were no less fond of it ; a herd of swine was, in their
oyes, an af&ir of such importance that the second chapter of the Salic Law
consisting of twenty articles, is wholly taken up in inflicting penalties- on
those Avho stole them. In Gregory of Tours, Queen Fredegond, in order to
* See our remarks on the 53rd chapter of the Prose Edda, page 497.—Ed.
l l
514
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
alienate the mind of the king from one Nectarius, blackens him with the
crime of having stolen a great many gammons or hams from the place
where King Chilperic laid up his provisions. The king did not consider this
at ail as a laughing matter, but took it in a very grave and serious light.
[aa] Wine was very scarce in those times, and almost unknown. Beer
was, perhaps, a liquor too vulgar for the heroes ; the Edda, therefore, makes
them drink hydromel, or mead, a beverage in great esteem among all the
German nations. The ancient Franks made great use of it. Gregory of
Tours, speaking of a certain lord who generally drank it, adds, Ut mos bar-
harormn habet.—Greg. Turon. L. 8. c. 3.
[be] From this passage of the Edda we may form to ourselves an idea of
the amusements of the ancient Teutonic nations. When they were not en¬
gaged in any real war, they endeavoured, by the representation of battles, to
gratify that fierce disposition which made them fond of the profession of
arms. To this custom we may ascribe the rise and establishment of joustings
and tournaments.
[cc] To conceive the force of this raillery, the reader must remember that
Thor is represented of gigantic size, and as the stoutest and strongest of the
gods. The Hercules of the northern nations.—P.
[dd] Our modern bacchanals will here observe that punishing by a bumper
is not an invention of these degenerate days. The ancient Scandinavians
were great topers. The drinking vessels of the northern nations were the
horns of animals, of their natural length, only tipped with silver, &c. In
York minster is preserved one of these ancient drinking vessels, composed of
a large elephant's tooth, of its natural dimensions, ornamented with sculp¬
ture.—P.
[ee] We see plainly in the above fable the origin of those vulgar opinions
entertained in the north, and which Pontoppidan has recorded concerning
the craken and that monstrous serpent described in his History of Nor¬
way.—P.
[ff] Baldur, not having the good fortune to be slain in battle, was
obliged to go, like all those that died of diseases, to the abode of Death.
Saxo Grammaticus relates the same adventure, with some diflferent circum¬
stances.
[gg] Loki having at length tired out the patience of the gods, they seize
and punish him. This idea, at the bottom, has prevailed among almost all
the ancient nations ; but they have each of them embellished it after their
own manner. One cannot doubt but our Scandinavians brought with them
from Asia this belief, which appears to have been very widely established
there from the earliest antiquity. In the book of the pretended prophecy
of Enoch, we find many particulars very much resembling these of the Edda.
The rebel angels causing incessantly a thousand disorders, God commanded
the archangel Raphael to bind hand and foot one of the principal among
them, named Azael, and cast him into an obscure place in a desert, there to
keep him bound upon sharp-pointed stones to the last day. One may also
safely conjecture that the fables of Prometheus, Typhon, and Enceladus
are derived from the same origin.
[hh] What we have been reading is, for the most part, nothing else but
the doctrine of Zeno and the Stoics. This remarkable resemblance has never
been properly considered, and highly deserves a discussion. The anciehts
NOTES TO THE PEOSE EDDA.
515
■universally assure ns, that the Stoic philosophy established the existence of
an eternal divinitj'-, diffused through and pervading all nature ; and being as
it were, the soul and priinum mobile of matter. From this divinity pro¬
ceeded, as emanations from his essence, together with the world, certain in¬
telligences ordained to govern under his directions, and who were to undergo
the same revolutions as the world itself until the day appointed for the re¬
novation of this universe. The fires concealed in the veins of the earth
never cease to dry up the moisure contained therein, and will, in the end, set
it all on flames : " A time will come," says Seneca, " when the world, ripe
for a renovation, shall be wrapt in flames ; when the opposite powers shall
in conflict mutually destroy each other ; when the constellations shall dash
together ; and when the whole universe, plunged in the same common fire,
shall be consumed to ashes." (Senec. Consol, ad Marciam. cap. ult.) This
general destruction was to be preceded by an inundation : and in this re¬
spect the Edda perfectly agrees with Zeno. Seneca treats this subject of a
future deluge at large, in his Quasst. Natmal. lib. ill. c. 29, which he asserts
must contribute to purify and prepare the earth for a new race of inhabit¬
ants more innocent and virtuous than the present.
But the consummation of the world by fire was the point most strongly
insisted on by the Stoics. These verses of Seneca's kinsman, Lucan, are well
known :—
" Hos populos si nunc non usserit Ignis,
Uret cum terris, uret cum gurgite ponti ;
Communis Mundo superest Bogus."
But the strongest proof of the agreement between these two systems is
this, that the destruction of the world will involve in it that of the gods ;
that is to say all those created, or inferior divinities. This is expressed by
Seneca, the tragedian, in most clear and precise terms, in those remarkable
verses :—
*' Jamjam legibus obrutis
Mundo cum veniet dies :
Australis polus obruet,
Quidquid per Lybyam jacet . .
Et sparsus Garamas tenet ;
Arctous polus obruet,
Quidquid subjacet axibus.
Et siccus bóreas ferit.
In another place Seneca explains what he means by this death of the gods.
They were not to be absolutely annihilated ; but to be once more reunited,
by dissolution, to the soul of the world ; being resolved and melted into that
intelligence of fire, into that eternal and universal principle, from which they
had originally been emanations. It was, without doubt, in this sense also
that our northern philosophers understood the matter. We may, from an¬
alogy, supply this circumstance with the greater confidence, as the poets have
been ever more attentive to adorn and embellish the received doctrines, than
to deliver them with precision. But, lastly, what must render this parallel
more complete and striking, is, that according to the school of Zeno, no less
than in the Icelandic prophecies, this tremendous scene is succeeded by a new
creation, evidently drawn in the same colours by both.
L L 2
Amisso trepidus polo.
Titan excutiet diem ;
Cceli regia concidens
Ortus atque obitus trahet ;
Atque omnes pariter Deos
Perdet mors aliqua, et chaos"
Hercul. Oet. v. 1103.
516
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
" The world," says Seneca, " being melted and re-entered into the bosom of
Jupiter, this god continues for some time totally concentered in himself, and
remains concealed, as it were, wholly immersed in the contemplation of his
own ideas ; afterwards we see a new world spring from him, perfect in all
its parts ; animals are produced anew ; an innocent race of men are formed
under more favourable auspices, in order to people this earth, the worthy
abode of virtue. In short, the whole face of nature becomes more pleasing
and lovely." (Senec. Epist. 9. and Quœst. Nat. L. 3. c. ult.)
The Edda gives us the same descriptions in other words. They likewise
occur in the poem of the Völuspa above alluded to.
The distance between Scandinavia and those countries where the Stoic
philosophy prevailed, is certainly great, and must have been greater still in
former ages than the present, when commerce and books lend wings to opi¬
nions, and diffuse them in a short time through the world. On the other
hand, the system now under consideration is not such as all men would ar¬
rive at by mere dint of reflection. It appears then probable that all those
who adopted it must have had it from the same hands ; namely, from the
eastern philosophers, and more particularly from the Persians. And history
affords a sanction to this conjecture. We know that the Scandinavians came
from some country of Asia. Zeno, who was born in Cyprus, of Phoenician
parents, borrowed, in all probability, the principal tenets of his doctrine from
the philosophers of the East. This doctrine was, in many respects, the same
with that of the Magi. Zoroaster had taught that the conflict between Or-
muzd and Ahriman {i. e. Light and Darkness, the Good and Evil Principle)
should continue till the last day : and that then the Good Principle should
be reunited to the supreme God, from whom it had first issued : the Evil
should be overcome and subdued ; darkness should be destroyed, and tne
world, purified by a universal conflagration, should become a luminous and
shining abode, into which Evil should never more be permitted to enter.
Some of the points of doctrine, which I have been displaying after the
Edda, have been consecrated by revelation. See, for instance, 2 Pet. ch. 3,
V. 7, 10, 13 ; Mat. ch. 24, v. 10, 12; Mark, ch. 13, v. 24, 25; Luke, ch.
21, V. 25, 26 ; Eev. ch. 6, v. 12, 13, 14 ; ch. 12, v. 1, 2, 4; ch. 21, v. 1,
4, 18, 23, 27.
In the new earth, which was to succeed that which we inhabit, there were
to be again subaltern divinities to govern it ; and men to people it. This,
in general, is what the Edda means to tell us : although the circumstances of
the relation are darkly and allegorically delivered : yet not so obscurely, but
that one easily sees it was th^idea of the northern philosophers, as well as
of the Stoics, that the world was to be renovated, and spring forth again
more perfect and more beautiful. This is what is expressed here with re¬
gard to the sun and moon. Lif signifies life ; which is a farther proof, that
by the fable of these two human beings who are to survive the destruction
of the world, these northern philosophers meant to say that there still ex¬
isted in the earth a vivifying principle, and seed proper to repair the loss of
the former inhabitants.
ABSTRACT
OF THB
EYEBYGGJA-SAGA ;
being the early annals of that district of iceland lying
around the promontory called sn.efells
BY SIR WALTER SCOTT.
Op the various records of Icelandic history and literature, there is none
more interesting than the Eyrbyggja-Saga, composed (as has been conjectured
by the learned Thorkelin) before the year 1264, when Iceland was still
subject to the dominion of Norway f. The name of the author is unknown,
but the simplicity of his annals seems a sufficient warrant for their iidelitj'^.
They contain the history of a particular territory of the Island of Iceland,
lying around the promontory called Snsefells, from its first settlement by
emigrants from Norway: and the chronicle details, at great length, the feuds
which took place among the families by whom the land was occupied, the
advances which they made towards a more regular state of society, their
habits, their superstitions, and their domestic laws and customs. If the
events which are commemorated in these provincial annals are not in them¬
selves of great importance, the reader may, in recompense, derive, from the
minuteness with which they are detailed, an acquaintance with the manners
of the northern nations, not to be acquired from the perusal of more general
history. It is, therefore, presumed, that an abstract of the more interesting
parts of the Eyrbyggja-Saga may be acceptable to the readers of the Northern
Antiquities. The learned Thorkelin published a correct edition of this
history in 1787, executed at the expense, of Suhm, the illustrious and
munificent patron of northern literature. A Latin version, supplied by the
well-known accuracy of the editor, assists the difficulties of those who are
imperfectly acquainted with the original Icelandic.
In the year of God 883, a Norwegian nobleman, named Biorn, having
been declared an exile by Harold, King of Norway, had recourse to the
* This abstract of the Eyrbyggja Saga, is printed verbatim from the
"Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, 1 vol. 4to. Edinb. 1814.—En.
f This must be a lapsus calami of our great novelist, for it was in
the year 1264 that Iceland became "subject to the dominion of Norway."
See page 297.—Ed.
518
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
protection of Eolf, or Eolio, who united the qualities of a priest and a war¬
rior, aud kept the temple of Thor in the Island of Mestur. Biorn wag
kindly received, and furnished with a vessel to pursue his fortune in the
spring. But finding that by this proceeding he had incurred the resentment
of Harold, Eolf, or, as he was called from his sacred office, Thorolf, (quasi
Thor's-Eolf,) resolved to abandon his habitation and to set sail for Iceland,
where, ten years before, a colony had been settled by Ingolf, the son of
Arne. Thorolf made an immense sacrifice to Thor preparatory to his
departure ; and having received or fabricated an oracle authorizing his
change of residence, he set sail, carrying with him the earth upon which the
throne of Thor had been placed, the image of the Mace-Bearer itself, and
the wooden work of his temple. When the vessel of the adventurer
approached Iceland, Thorolf cast the columns of the idol's sanctuary into the
sea, and declared his purpose of establishing his new residence wherever they
should be thrown on shore. Chance, and the current of the tides, directed
the pillars to a promontory or peninsula, called from that circumstance
Thorsness*. Here, therefore, Thorolf established himself and his followers,
and, mindful of his tutelar deity, erected a temple for Thor, the ample scale
of which testified the zeal of his devotion. An inner sanctuary contained
the altar of the deity, on which was placed a silver ring, weighing two
ounces, which was used in the ministration of every solemn oath, and whicli
decorated the person of the priest of Thor upon all occasions of public meet¬
ing. Here also was deposited the vessel which contained the blood of the
sacrifices, and the sacred implement for sprinkling it upon the altar and the
worshippers. Idols, representing the various deities of Scandinavian mytho-
logy, were placed around the altar, and a tax was imposed upon all the
settlers for the maintenance of the solemn rites and sacrifices by which they
were to be propitiated ; Thorolf reserving to himself the office of high-priest,
with the duty of maintaining the temple and superintending the ritual. A
series of curious ordinances marked the foundation and extent of his autho¬
rity. The whole promontory of Thorsness was under the protection of the
deity, but a small eminence entitled Plelgafels {i. e. the Holy Mount) was
so peculiarly sacred, that none of the settlers were to look upon it until they
had performed their morning ablutions, and each living creature which shoidd
trespass upon its precincts was liable to be punished with death. To the
terrors of religion were added the solemnities of legal authority. Near the
Holy Mount was established the place of justice, where the popular assem¬
blies were held f. This spot was also sacred, neither to be defiled by blood.
* Thorsness seems to have been that small peninsula., mentioned by Sir
George Mackenzie in his Survey of the Gold-bringe Syssell of Iceland, which
is itself a huge indented promontory on the south-western coast of that
island. Near the peninsula the travellers saw the Helgafels, on which
there is still a small hamlet, which, they observe, derives its name from the
superstitious usages with which it was anciently connected.—Travels in Ice¬
land, p. 186, 7.
f Each little district of settlers had its provincial assembly, for the pur¬
pose of making laws, imposing punishments, and accommodating differences.
At a later period, general assemblies of the whole Icelandic people, called
THE EYEBYGGJA-SAGA.
519
nor polluted by any of the baser necessities of nature, for satisfying which a
neighbouring rock was appointed. In these institutions we recognise the
rude commencement of social order and public law. The infant settlement
of Thorolf was strengthened by the arrival of Biorn, the fugitive upon whose
account he had incurred the indignation of King Harold, and by that of
other northern chiefs, whom the fate of war, or the love of adventure, had
banished from their respective homes. Each chose his habitation according
to his pleasure, and the settlement began to be divided into three districts,
called Eyrarvert, Alpta-fiord, and Breida-wick, all of which acknowledged
the authority of the Pontiff Thorolf, and the sanctity of his institutions.
The death of Thorolf, however, led the way to internal dissension. A
patriarch, called from the number of his family Barna-Kiallak (rich in chil¬
dren), was tempted to dispute the sanctitj' of the territory of Thorsness,
which had been sedulously stipulated. His tribe, confident in their num¬
bers, openly disputed the power of Thorstein, who had simceeded his father
Thorolf as pontiff, and announced that when occasion pressed they would
pay no more respect to the soil of the sacred territory than to unconsecrated
ground, nor would they take the trouble to secede to the rock appointed for
such purposes. With this foul intent they marched towards Thorsness, and
were met by Thorstein at the head of his tribe, servants, and allies, who,
after a sharp skirmish, was fortunately able to prevent the intended pro¬
fanation of the sacred soil. But, as neither party could boast decisive
success, an armistice was agreed upon, and a congress opened under the
mediation of an aged settler called Thordus. This ingenious referee at once
removed the ostensible cause of dispute, by declaring that the territory,
having been polluted by human blood shed in the conflict, had lost its
sanctity in future, and, to take away the secret cause of contention, he
declared that Thorgrim, one of the sons of Kiallak, should be conjoined with
Thorstein in the charge of the temple of Thor, with an equal share in the
duties and revenues of the office of pontiff, and in the charge of protecting
from sacrilege a new place of justice, which was now to be established. It
is described as a circular range of upright stones, within which one more emi¬
nent marked the stone of Thor, where human victims were immolated to the
Thunderer, by breaking or crushing the spine. And this description may
confute those antiquaries who are disposed to refer such circles exclusively to
the Celtic tribes, and their priests the Druids.
Thorstein, son of Thorolf, perished by shipwreck. His grandson Snorro
became the most distinguished support of his family, and the following com¬
mencement of his history marks the singular system of laws which already
prevailed in Iceland, as well as the high honours in which the female sex
was held in that early period of society. The tutelage of Snorro, whose
father died young, had devolved upon Borko the Fat, his father's brother,
who had married Thordisa, his mother, and was thus at once his uncle and
father-in-law. At the age of fourteen, Snorro, with two companions, went
abroad to visit his relations in H orway, and returned to Iceland after the
lapse of a year. His companion Thorlef was splendid in dress, arms, and
Althing, were held at a place called Thingvalla, on the shores of a salt-water
lake.—-^es Mackenzie's Travels.
Ö20
NORTHEKN ANTlQUmE3.
equipment, being girded with a sword of exquisite workmanship, and
bearing a shield painted blue, and exquisitely gilded, and a spear the handle
of which was plated with gold. But Snorro was dressed in a dark gar¬
ment, mounted upon a black nlare, and his whole appearance intimated want
and dejection. This assumed poverty rendered Snorro more acceptable
at Helgafels, the abode of his uncle Borko. For, by the law of descent,
Snorro was entitled to one-half of the possessions of his grandfather, now
administered by Borko ; and his appearance gave the latter ground to think
that he would sell them in his necessity for an inconsiderable price. He
was, therefore, not displeased to see his nephew return in a condition which
did not seem to supply to him the means of escaping from his tutelage. A
singular incident, however, interrupted their family concord. Shortly after
Snorro had taken up his abode with his uncle, a party of twelve armed men,
headed by Eyolf Gray, suddenly appeared at Helgafels, and their leader
announced that h,e had slain a relative of Thordisa, the mother of Snorro.
Borko, to whom the slaughter was indifferent, and who was connected with
Eyolf, received him joyfully, and commanded his wife to make him good
cheer. While she obeyed his commands "svith undisguised reluctance, Eyolf
chanced to drop the spoon with which he was eating; as he stooped to
recover it, the vindictive matron, unable to suppress her indignation, snatched
his sword, and severely wounded him ere he cotdd recover his erect posture.
Borko, incensed at this attack upon his guest, struck his wife, and was about
to repeat the blow, when Snorro, throwing himself between them, repelled
his attack, and placing his mother by his side, announced haughtily his
intention to protect her. Eyolf escaped with difficultj', and afterwards
recovered from Borko a fine for the wound which he had sustained, and
the uncle and nephew were obliged to have recourse to justice to arrange
their mutual claims, which were rendered yet more inextricable by this
brawl. When they appeared before the assembled patriarchs of the settle¬
ment, Borko admitted that his nephew, in right of his father deceased, was
entitled to one-half of the territory of Helgafels, and he also agreed that
they could not conveniently possess it in community. Wherefore he offered
to purchase that property from Snorro, and to make payment of an adequate
price. To this proposal Snorro replied, that his uncle ought first to fix the
price to be given, and that he, as descended of the elder brother, should
then have it in his option either to sell his own share in the property, or to
purchase Borko's moiety at the price to be so named. Borko, confident in
the supposed poverty of his nephew, estimated the half of the joint property
at sixty ounces of silver, a sum far beneath the real value ; u hen, to his
astonishment, Snorro at once made payment of the stipulated sum, and
obtained full possession of his paternal mansion and estate. Nor did the
vexations of Borko end here. For, when he was about to depart from Hel¬
gafels, his wife Thordisa invoked witnesses to bear testimony that she
solemnly divorced her husband Borko, alleging as a sufficient reason, that he
had raised his hand against her person. And such were the rights of
an Icelandic Mater-fainilias, that the divorce and division of goods imme¬
diately took place between her and her husband, although one would have
presumed that the attempt to murder a guest in his own presence might
have been admitted as a satisfactory apologv for the violence of the husband.
Snpfro, having thus at an easy rate obtained possesçiop of his tvliole paternal
THE EYEBYGGJA-SAGA.
521
inheritance of Helgafels, lost no time in assuming the sacred character
of priest of Thor, and continued, from his boldness, craft, and dexterity, to
act a conspicuous part in the various feuds which agitated the settlers in this
sterile and dreary country as fiercely as if they had been contending for
the mines of Peru, or the vineyards of Italy ; so that the subsequent part of
this history may be considered as the annals of Snorro's pontificate.
Our annalist has not left the scene altogether unvaried. Wars and pro¬
secutions before the assembly of the people are indeed the groundwork; but
such spells and supernatural incidents, as the superstition of the age believed
in, are introduced like the omens and miracles of classic history. Such
incidents, indeed, make an invariable part of the history of a rude age, and
the chronicles which do not afford these marks of human credulity may be
grievously suspected as deficient in authenticity. The following account of a
trial of skill between two celebrated sorceresses occupies several pages of the
Eyrtyggja-Saga. _
" Tell me," said Katla, a handsome and lively widow, to Gunlaugar, an
accomplished and gallant young warrior, " tell me why thou goest so oft to
Mahfahlidal—Is it to caress an old woman 1" "Thine own age, Katla,"
answered the youth inconsiderately, "might prevent thy making that of
Geirrida a subject of reproach."—"I little deemed," replied the offended
matron, "that we were on an equality in that particular—but thou, who
supposest that Geirrida is the sole source of knowledge, mayst find that
there are others who equal her in science." It happened in the course of
the following winter that Gunlaugar, in company with Oddo, the son of
Katla, had renewed one of those visits to Geirrida, with which Katla had
upbraided him. " Thou shalt not depart to-night," said the sage matron,
"evil spirits are abroad, and thy bad destiny predominates."—"We are
two in company," answered Gunlaugar, "and have therefore nothing to
fear."—"Oddo," replied Geirrida, "will be of no aid to thee ; but go, since
thou wilt go, and pay the penalty of thy own rashness."—In their way they
visited the rival matron, and Gunlaugar was invited to remain in her house
that night. This he declined, and, passing forward alone, was next morning
found lying before the gate of his father Thorbiorn, severely wounded and
deprived of his judgment. Various causes were assigned for this disaster;
but Oddo, asserting that they had parted in anger that evening from Geir-
rida, insisted that his companion must have sustained the injury through her
sorcery. Geirrida was accordingly cited to the popular assembly, and
accused of witchcraft. But twelve witnesses, or compurgators, having
asserted upon their oath the innocence of the accused party, Geirrida was
honourably freed from the accusation brought against her *. Her acquittal
■* This ceremony of compurgation formed, as is well known, the remote
origin of the trial by jury. The compurgators were at first a kind of wit¬
nesses, who, upon their general knowledge of the character of the accused,
gave evidence of his being incapable of committing the crime imputed, but
gradually obtained the character of judges, who formed their opinion upon
the evidence of others adduced in their presence
^ This, in so far as regards Iceland and the other Scandinavian states, was
far from being the case. The Icelandic compurgators remained compur-
Ö22
northeen antiquities.
did not terminate the rivalry between the two sorceresses, for, Gfeirrida
belonging to the family of Kiliakan, and Katla to that of the pontiff Snorro,
the animosity which still subsisted between these septs became awakened by
the quarrel
It chanced that Thorbiom, called Digri, (or the corpulent,) one of the
family of Snorro, had some horses which fed in the mountain pastures, near
to those of Thorarin, called the Black, the son of the enchantress Geirrida.
But when autumn arrived, and the horses were to be withdrawn from the
mountains, and housed for the winter, those of Thorbiorn could nowhere
be found, and Oddo, the son of Katla, being sent to consult a wizard, brought
back a dubious answer, which seemed to indicate that they had been stolen
by Thorarin. Thorbiorn, with Oddo and a party of armed followers, im¬
mediately set forth for Mahfahlida, the dwelling of Geirrida and her son
Thorarin. Arrived before the gate, they demanded permission to search for
the horses which were missing. This Thorarin refused, alleging that nei¬
ther was the search demanded duly authorized by law, nor were the proper
witnesses cited to be present, nor did Thorbiorn offer any sufficient pledge of
security when claiming the exercise of so hazardous a privilege. Thorbiom
replied, that as Thorarin declined to permit a search, he must be held as
admitting his guilt; and constituting for that purpose a temporary court of
justice, by choosing out six judges, he formally accused Thorarin of theft
before the gate of his own house *. At this the patience of Geirrida forsook
her. "Well," said she to her son Thorarin, "is it said of thee, that thou
art more a woman than a man, or thou wouldst not bear these intolerable
affronts." Thorarin, fired at the reproach, rushed forth with his servants
and guests; a skirmish soon disturbed the legal process which had been
instituted, and one or two of both parties were wounded and slain, before
the wife of Thorarin and the female attendants could separate the fray
by flinging their mantles over the weapons of the combatants. Thorbiom
and his party retreating, Thorarin proceeded to examine the field of battle.
Alas ! among the reliques of the fight was a bloody hand, too slight and fair
to belong to any of the combatants. It was that of his wife Ada, who had
met this misfortune in her attempts to separate the skirmish. Incensed
to the uttermost, Thorarin threw aside his constitutional moderation, and,
mounting on horseback, with his allies and followers pursued the hostile
party, and overtook them in a hay-field, Avhere they had halted to repose
their horses, and to exult over the damage they had done to Thorarin. At
this moment he assailed them with such fury, that he slew Thorbiorn upon
the spot, and killed several of his attendants, although Oddo, the son of
Katla, escaped free from wounds, having been dressed by his mother in
an invulnerable garment. After this action, more bloody than usually
happened in an Icelandic engagement, Thorarin returned to Mahfahlida,
and, being questioned by his mother concerning the events of the skirmish,
gators and nothing more ; the judges being the Qodar, with their assessors
or doom's-men, as we have shown in the second supplementary chapter. It
is to these doom's-men that we may trace "the remote origin of the trial by
jury," and not to the "ceremony of compurgation." See page 292.—Ed.
* That is to say, a door-doom was held ; for an explanation of which see
page 307.—Ed.
THE EYRBTGGJA-SAGA.
523
he answered in the improvisatory and enigmatical poetry of his age and
öountry,—
From me the foul reproach be far,
With which a female waked the war,
From me, who shunned not in the fray
Through foemen fierce to hew my way;
(Since meet it is the eagle's brood
On the fresh corpse should find their food,)
Then spared I not, in fighting field.
With stalwart hand my sword to wield ;
And well may claim at Odin's shrine
The praise that waits this deed of mine.
To which effusion Greirrida answered, " Do these verses imp' v the death of
Thorbiorn 1 "—And Thorarin, alluding to the legal process which Thorbiom
had instituted against him, resumed his song,—■
Sharp bit the sword beneath the hood
Of him whose zeal the cause pursued.
And ruddy flowed the stream of death.
Ere the grim brand resumed the sheath ;
Now on the buckler of the slain
The raven sits, his draught to drain.
For gore-drenched is his visage bold.
That hither came his courts to hold.
As the consequence of this slaughter was likely to be a prosecution at the
instance of the pontiff Snorro, Thorarin had now recourse to his allies and
kindred, of whom the most pow.erful were Arnkill, his maternal uncle, and
Verimond, who readily promised their aid both in the field and in the
Comitia, or popular meeting, in spring, before which it was to be presumed
Snorro would indict Thorarin for the slaughter of his kinsman. Arnkill
could not, however, forbear asking his nephew how he had so far lost his
usual command of temper. He replied in verse.
Till then, the master of my mood,
Wen called me gentle, mild and good ;
But yon fierce dame's sharp tongue might wake
In wintry den the frozen snake.
While Thorarin spent the winter with his uncle Arnkill, he received in¬
formation from his mother Greirrida, that Oddo, son of her old rival Katla,
was the person who had cut off the hand of his wife Ada, and that he
gloried in the fact. Thorarin and Arnkill determined on instant vengeance,
and, travelling rapidly, surprised the house of Katla. The undismayed sor¬
ceress, on hearing them approach, commanded her son to sit close beside her,
and when the assailants entered they only beheld Katla, spinning coarse
yarn from what seemed a large distaff, with her female domestics seated
around her.—"Her son," she said, "was absent on a journey;" and
Thorarin and Arnkill, having searched the house in vain, were obliged to
depart with this answer. They had not, however, gone far, before the
well-known skill of Katla in optical delusion occurred to them, and they re¬
solved on a second and stricter search. Upon their return they found Katla
in the outer apartment, who seemed to be shearing the hair of a tame kid,
but was in reality cutting the locks of her son Oddo. Entering the inner
524:
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
room, they found the large distaff flung carelessly upon a bench. They re¬
turned yet a third time, and a third delusion was prepared for them ; for
Katla had given her son the appearance of a hog, which seemed to grovel
upon the heap of ashes. Amkill now seized and split the distafi' which he
had at first suspected, upon which Katla tauntingly observed, that if their
visits had been frequent that evening, they could not be said to be altogether
ineffectual, since thej' had destroyed a distaff. They were accordingly re¬
turning completely baffled, when Geirrida met them, and upbraided them
with carelessness in searching for their enemy. " Eeturn yet again," she
said, " and I will accompany you."—Katla's maidens, still upon the watch,
announced to her the return of the hostile party, their number augmented by
one who wore a blue mantle. " Alas ! " cried Katla, " it is the sorceress
Geirrida, against whom spells will be of no avail." Immediately rising from
the raised and boarded seat which she occupied, she concealed C3ddo beneath
it, and covered it with cushions as before, on which she stretched herself,
complaining of indisposition. Upon the entrance of the hostile party, Geir¬
rida, without speaking a word, flimg aside her mantle, took out a piece of
seal's-skin, in which she wrapped up Katla's head, and commanded that she
should be held by some of the attendants, while the others broke open the
boarded space, beneath which Oddo lay concealed, seized upon him, botmd
him, and led him away captive with his mother. Next morning Oddo was
hanged, and Katla stoned to death ; but not until she had confessed that
through her sorcery she had occasioned the disaster of Gunlaugar, which
first led the way to these feuds. This execution is remarkable, because it
seems to have taken place without any previous ceremony of judicial proce¬
dure, which, in general, we find the Icelanders considered as necessary pre¬
liminaries to the condemnation and execution of criminals. Spring now ap¬
proached, and it became necessary for Thorarin to take some resolution ;
for, although it seemed possible that the slaughter might be atoned by a
pecuniary imposition, yet so many persons had been slain, that the usual
fines corresponding to their rank was more than sufficient to exhaust his
fortune : and, to hasten his determination, Snorro, accompanied by a
band of eighty horsemen, appeared before the house of Arnkill, for the pur¬
pose of citing Thorarin to answer for the slaughter of Thorbiom. This
citation was perfonned in obedience to the Icelandic law, which permitted
no accusation to be brought against any party, who had not been previously
apprized of the charge by a summons, delivered to him personally or at his
dwelling-place *. The ceremony being peaceably performed, Thorarin, ob¬
serving the strong party in attendance upon Snorro, broke forth into a poet¬
ical rhapsody :
No feeble force, no female hand.
Compels me from my native land ;
O'er-match'd in numbers and in might.
By banded hosts in armour bright.
In vain attesting laws and gods,
A guiltless man, I yield to odds.
* This law of summons is often mentioned, and seems to have been
regularly insisted upon. It was attended with some risk to the party who
ventured to make the citation, and often ended in a skirmish.
THE EYEBYGGJA.-SAGA.
525
Accordingly, ere tte popular assembly met, Thorarin, witli liia relative
Verimond, embarked in a vessel for Scandinavia. Of the former the history
tells us no more; but Verimond, who separated from him, and spent the
subsequent winter at the court of Count Haco, son of Sigurd, then regent of
Norway, continues to make a figure in the Eyrbyggja-Saga.
It seems that Haco had at his court two of those remarkable champions,
called Berserkir-men who, by moral or physical excitation of some kind or
other, were wont to work themselves into a state of frenzy, during which
they achieved deeds passing human strength, and rushed, without sense of
danger or feeling of pain, upon every species of danger that could be opposed
to them. Verimond contracted a sort of friendship with these champions,
who, unless when seized with their fits of fury, were not altogether discour¬
teous or evil-disposed. But, as any contradiction was apt to excite their
stormy passions, their company could not be called very safe or commodious.
Verimond, however, who now desired to return to Iceland, conceived that, in
the feuds to which he might be there exposed, the support of the two Ber-
serkir would be of the greatest advantage to him. Acting upon this idea,
when Haco at his departure offered him any reasonable boon which he
might require, he prayed that he would permit these two champions to ac¬
company him to his native country. The count assented, but not without
showing him the danger of his request. " They are only accustomed," said
Haco, " to submit to men of great power and high rank, and will be re¬
luctant and disobedient stipendiaries to a person of a meaner station." Veri¬
mond, however, grasped at the permission of the count, though reluctantly
granted, and was profuse in promises to Halli and Leikner, providing they
would accompany him to Iceland. They frankly objected the poverty of the
country, yet agreed to go thither, apprizing their conductor, at the same time,
that their friendship would not endure long if he refused them any boon
which was in his power to grant, and which they might choose to demand.
Verimond again assured them of his anxious wish to gratify them in every
particular-, and transported them to Iceland, where he was not long of dis¬
covering that he had burthened himself with a very difficult task. Halli's
first request was, that he should be provided with a spouse, rich, nobly born,
and beautiful. But, as it was not easy to find a maiden so gifted, who
would unite her fate with a foreigner of mean birth, who was besides a Ber-
serkir, Verimond was compelled to elude the request of his champion. This
was likely to occasion such enmity, that Verimond began to think of trans¬
ferring his troublesome and ungovernable satellites to his brother Arngrim,
a man of a stern, fierce, and active disposition, who had carried on numerous
feuds, and in every case refused to make pecuniary compensation for the
slaughters which he had committed. Thus he was usually called Styr, {i. e.
the Stirring or Tumultuous,) as Verimond was termed Miöfii, or the Deli¬
cate. Styr, nevertheless, tumultuous as he was, could not be prevailed upon
to accept of the patronage of the Berserkir. It was in vain that Verimond
protested that he gifted him with two such champions as would enable him
to become an easy victor in every quarrel he might engage in, and that he de¬
signed this present as a gage of their fraternal union. Styr, professing a
sincere confidence in his brotherly affection, intimated, that he had heard
enough of the disposition of these foreign warriors to satisfy him that they
would be rather embarrassing than useful dependants, and was fully deter¬
mined never to admit them within his family. Verimond was therefore
5â6
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
oljliged to change his tone, to acknowledge the dread in which he stood of
the Berserkir, and request his brother's advice and assistance to rid him of
them. " That," answered Styr, " is a different proposal. I could never
have accepted them as a pledge of favour or friendship ; but, to relieve thee
from danger and difficulty, I am content to encumber myself with the charge
of thy associates." The next point was to reconcile the Berserkir, (who
might resent being transferred like bondsmen from the one brother to the
other,) to this change of masters. The warlike and fierce disposition of Styx
Seemèd, however, so much more suitable to their own than that of Verimond,
that they speedily, acquiesced, and, accompanying their new patron upon a
nocturnal excursion, evinced their strength in breaking to pieces a strong
wooden frame, or bed, in which his enemy had taken refuge, so that Styx
had an opportunity of slaying him. The presumption of Halli, however,
soon discomposed their union. The champion cast the eyes of alfection on
Asdisa, the daughter of his patron, a haughty, fiery, and robust damsel, well
qualified to captivate the heart of a Berserkar. He formally announced to
Styr that he demanded her hand in marriage, that a refusal would be a
breach of their friendship, but that, if he would accept of his alliance, he and
his brother would render him the most powerful man in Iceland. At this
unexpected proposal Styr for a time remained silent, considering how best he
might evade the presumptuous demand of this frantic champion, and at length
observed, that the friends of his family must be consulted upon his daughter's
establishment. " Three days' space," answered HaUi, " will suffice for that
purpose, and be mindful that our friendship depends on thine answer."
Styr, in great doubt and trouble, journeyed to Helgafels, to consult the ex¬
perience of the pontiff Snorro. When Snorro learned that he came to ask
advice, " Let us ascend," he said, " the sacred mount, for such councils as
are taken on that holy spot rarely prove unpropitious." They remained in
deep conference on the mount of Thor until evening, nor did any one know
the purpose which they agitated ; but what followed sufficiently shows the
nature of the councils suggested upon the holy ground. Styri, so soon as he
returned home, announced to Halli his expectation, that since he could not re¬
deem his bride Sy payment of a sum of money as was usual, he should sub¬
stitute in lieu thereof, according to ancient right and custom, the performance
of some unusual and difficult task. "And what shall that task be?" de¬
manded the suitor. " Thou shalt form," said Styr, " a path through the
rocks at Biarnarhaf, and a fence betwixt my property and that of my neigh¬
bours, also thou shalt construct a house for the reception of my flocks, and
these tasks accomplished thou shalt have Asdisa to wife."—" Though unac¬
customed to such servile toil," replied the Berserkar, " I accept of the terms
thou hast offered." And by the assistance of his brother he accomplished
the path required, a work of the greatest labour, and erected the bound-
fence, of which vestiges remained in the days of our historian. The Ber¬
serkir were now labouring at the stable for the flocks, while the servants of
Styr were employed in the construction of a subterranean bath, so contrived
that it could on a sudden be deluged with boiling water, or heated to a suf¬
focating degree. On the last day, when the brethren were labouring at the
conclusion of their task, Asdisa, the daughter of Styr, passed by them
splendidly arrayed. Then sung Halli,
Oh, whither dost thou bend thy way,
Fair maiden, in such rich array.
THE EYKBYGGJA-SAGA.
627
For never have I seen thee roam
So gaily dressed, so far from home 1—^
Then Leikner also sung,—■
Till now that stole of purple rare
Full seldom did the maiden wear,
"Why is she now attired so fair ?
The cause, 0 maid, benign display.
Of that unwonted raiment gay.
Nor thus disdainful pass us by
With silent lip and scornful eye.
But Asdisa, disliking either the bard or the poetry, or both, passed on
without making any answer. Evening now approached, and, the stipulated
task being ended, the champions returned to the dwelling of Styr. They
were extremely exhausted, as was common with persons of their condition,
whose profuse expenditure of strength and spirits induced a proportional de¬
gree of relaxation after severe labour. They therefore gladly accepted Styr's
proposal that they shoiild occupy the newly constructed bath. When they had
entered, their insidious patron caused the trap-door to be blockaded, and a
newly stripped bullock's skin to be stretched before the entrance, and then
proceeded to pour in scalding water through the aperture contrived for that
purpose, and to heat the bath to an intolerable pitch. The unfortunate Ber-
serkir endeavoured to break out, and Halli succeeded in forcing the door,
but, his feet being entangled in the slippery hide, he was stabbed by Styr
ere he could make any defence : his brother, attempting the entrance, was
forced headlong back into the bath, and thus both perished. Styr caused
their bodies to be interred in a narrow glen, of such depth that nothing but
the sky was visible from its recesses. Then Styr composed this song con¬
cerning his exploit :—
These champions from beyond the main
Of Iceland's sons I deem'd the bane.
Nor fear'd I to endure the harm
And frantic fury of their arm.
But, conqueror, gave this valley's gloom
To be the grim Berserkir's tomb.
When the pontiff Snorro heard that the stratagem of Styr had proved
successful, he paid him a visit, in which, after a day's consultation, Asdisa,
the daughter of Styr, was betrothed to Snorro. The marriage was solem¬
nized shortly afterwards, and the activity and intrepidity of Styr being aided
by, and aiding in turn, the wisdom and experience of Snorro, the power of
both was greatly extended and fortified by this alliance.
Passing some feuds of less interest, we come to the history of Thorolf,
Bsegifot. This chief had in his youth defied to combat an aged champion
called Ulfar, for the sake of acquiring his territory. Ulfar, though old and
dim of sight, preferred death to dishonour, and met Thorolf in single combat,
ülfar fell, but Thorolf received a wound in the leg, on which he ever after
halted, and thus acquired the name of Bssgifot, or the Crook-footed.
Thorolf had one son, the same Arnkill who figured in the history of Tho-
rarin the Black, and two daughters, one of whom was the celebrated en-,
chantress, Geirrida. As Thorolf waxed aged, he became of a cankered and.
528
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
savage disposition, and as crooked in his mind as in his limhs. Many
causes of discord occurred betwixt him and his son Amkill, until at length
they were in a state of utter enmity. The nearest neighbour of Thorolf
Eaegifot was TJlfar, a freedman of Thorbrand, possessed of a fair property.
It was said of this cultivator, that he understood the art of making hay
better than any man in Iceland, and that his crop was never injured by the
rain, or his cattle by the storms. Thorolf went to consult this sage upon
the management of the hay-crop on a field which they possessed in common.
*' This week," said Ulfar, " will be rainy ; let us use it in cutting the hay ;
it will be followed by a fortnight of dry weather, which we will employ in
drying it." Thorolf, however, became impatient, and, dubious of a change of
weather, ordered his hay to be carried to his yard, and ricked up, while that
of Ulfar was yet lying in the swathe, and then, whether impelled by cupidity,
caprice, or jealousy does not appear, he carried home also that part of the
crop which belonged to the weather-wise Ulfar. The latter reclaimed his
property ; but, after some altercation, saw no means of redress so eifeclual as
to appeal to the justice of Arnkill, the son of Thorolf. Amkill, after vain
applications for justice to his father, was at length contented to indemnify
Ulfar by making payment to him of the value of the hay—a proposal to which
his father had refused to accede, saying, in the plenitude of oppressive power,
" That the churl was already too wealthy." Amkill, however, indemnified
himself of the price of the hay by driving otf twelve fat oxen belonging to his
father, which he alleged were compensated by the money thus advanced to
Ulfar. It was now the feast of Jol, and Thorolf, who had drunk freely, and
circulated much liquor among his bondsmen, was so incensed against Ulfar,
that he offered liberty to any of his serfs who would bum his house, and
consume him among the flames. Six of his bondsmen set out upon this
neighbourly exploit ; but the flames, as they began to rise, became visible to
Amkill, who hastened to the house of Ulfar, extinguished the fire, and made
prisoners the incendiaries. These he transported to his own house, and
hanged them next morning without ceremony, to the great increase of his
father's discontent. Ulfar, on the other hand, rejoiced at having acquired so
active and powerful a protector, chose Amkill for his immediate patron, to
the displeasure of the family of his original master, Thorbrand, who viewed
with resentment the chance of losing the inheritance of their father's freed¬
man. Meanwhile the wrath of Thorolf grew so high against his son, that he
went to the pontiff Snorro, to prevail on him to prosecute Amkill to the
uttermost for the slaughter of his six bondsmen. Snorro, at first, declined to
have any interference with the matter, alleging the good character of Am¬
kill, and the fotil treason in which the serfs of Thorolf had been engaged
when seized and executed. " I wot well the cause of thy regard for Arn¬
kill," answered Thorolf; "thou thinkest he will pay for thy support in the
assembly more freely than I. But hearken : I know thy desire to possess
the fair woods of Krakaness, which pertain to me. I will bestow them on
thee, if thou wilt prosecute the cause arising from the slaughter of my bonds¬
men with the utmost severity, without sparing, on account of Amkill's rela¬
tion to me, or his friendship to thyself." Snorro could not resist the prospect
of gain thus artfully held out to him, and agreed to prosecute the cause to the
uttermost. The pleadings were ingenious on both sides, and show some pro¬
gress in the intricate punctilios of municipal jurisprudence. The death of
the bondsmen was urged by Snorro. The accused defended himself upon the
THE EYEBYGGJA-SAGA.
529
fact of their being apprehended in the actof burning Ulfar's habitation. It
was replied, that though this might haA'^e justified their being slain on the
spot, yet it gave those who seized them no right to execute them elsewhere
after a day's interval. At length the matter was referred to the award of
the two brethren, Styr and Verimond, who appointed Amkill to pay a fine
of twelve ounces of silver for the death of each domestic. Thorolf, incensed
to the highest pitch at this lenient imposition, broke forth into complaints
against Snorro, whom he considered as having betrayed his cause, and re¬
tired from the convention to meditate a bloody revenge against all his ene¬
mies. Ulfar, the most helpless and inoffensive, was the first to experience
his resentment. He had been feasting with his patron Arnkill, and had
departed loaded with presents, when he was waylaid and assassinated by
Spagil, a villain whom Thorolf had hired to the deed by an ample bribe.
Arnkill, who chanced to be abroad that evening, observed a man at a dis¬
tance bearing the shield which he had so lately bestowed on Ulfar. " That
buckler," said he, " Ulfar hath not parted from willingly ; pursue the bearer
of it, and if, as I dread, he has slain my client through my father's instiga¬
tion, bring him not before my sight, but slay him instantly." A part of his
followers instantly pursued Spagil, and haviiig seized and compelled him to
avow his crime, and confess by whom it was prompted, they killed him on
the spot, and brought back to Thorolf the spoils of the unhappy Ulfar. The
disputes concerning the inheritance of Ulfar now augmented the dissension^
of the settlement. It was claimed by the family of Thorbrand, as Ulfar
had been his freedman, and by Arnkill as his immediate patron and pro¬
tector. The former, however, proved the weaker party, and, on having re¬
course to Snorro, received little encouragement to cope with Arnkill. " You
share only," said the pontiff, " the general lot of the tribe, which, while
Amkill lives, must put up with such aggressions unavenged."—" Most truly
spoken," replied the sons of Thorbrand, " nor can we complain of thee,
Snorro, for refusing to advocate our cause, who art so tame and cold in as¬
serting thine own." With these words of reproach, they left the assembly
in great discontent.
Thorolf Baegifot began now to repent having bestowed upon Snorro the
woods of Krakaness without obtaining the stipulated gratification of his re¬
sentment. He went to the pontiff and demanded restitution, alleging that
he had transferred the woods in loan, not as a gift. But Snorro refused to
listen to his request, and appealed to the testimony of those who witnessed
the transaction, that he had received the woods in full property. In the
warmth of passion, Thorolf now had recourse to his son, and proposed to him
to renew their natural alliance, and that the pledge of their friendship should
be the union of their forces, to recover from Snorro the woods of Kiakaness.
" It was not for love of me," said Arnkill, " that thou gavest Snorro pos¬
session of these woods ; and, although I know he has no just title to them, I
will not enter into feud with the pontiff to gratif}!- thy resentment by our
quarrels."—" Thy cowardice," said Thorolf, " rather than any other motive,
causes thy affected moderation."—" Think on the matter what thou wilt,"
said Arnkill, " but I will not enter into feud with Snorro on that subject."
Thus repulsed at every hand, and in all the agony of impotent fury, Thorolf
Bœgifot returned to his own house. He spoke to no one, partook not of the
evening meal, but, sitting in silence at the highest part of the table, suffered
M M
630
KORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
his domestics to retire to rest without quitting his seat. In the morning he
was found dead in the same place and posture. A message instantly con¬
veyed to Arnkill the news of his father's death. When he came, the corpse
remained seated in the posture in which Thorolf had expired, and the terri¬
fied family hinted that he had fallen by the mode of death of all others most
dreaded by the Icelanders *. Arnkill entered the apartment, but in such a
manner as to approach the body from behind, and he cautioned the attendants
that no one should look upon the face of the corpse until the due propitiatory
rites were performed. It was not without application of force that the
corpse could be removed from the seat which it occupied ; the face was then
veiled, and the customary ceremonies paid to the dead body. This done,
Arnkill commanded the wall of the apartment to be broken down behind
the spot where Thorolf had died, and the corpse being raised up with diffi¬
culty, and transported through the breach +, v/as deposited in a grave strongly
built. But these meet honours, and this grave, however fortified, could not
appease the restless spirit of Thorolf Bœgifot. He appeared in the district
by night and day, slew men and cattle, and harrowed the country so much
by his frequent apparition and mischievous exploits, that his son Arnkill, on
the repeated complaints of the inhabitants, resolved to change his place of
sepultm-e. Some opposition was threatened by the sons of Thorbrand, who
refused to permit the corpse to be carried through their domains, until re¬
minded by their father, that it was illegal to refuse passage to those who
were travelling in discharge of a duty imposed by law, and such was the
burial of the dead. The body of Thorolf was found on opening the tomb,
but his aspect was fearful and grisly to a preternatural degree. He was
placed on a bier between two strong oxen, which, nevertheless, were worn
out by fatigue ere they had transported him many miles. Others were sub¬
stituted in their room, but when they attained the summit of a hill, at some
distance from the destined place of sepulture, they became fi:antic, and, break¬
ing their yokes, rushed down the precipice and perished. The corpse, too,
became of such ponderous weight, that it could by no means be transported
any farther, so that Arnkill was fain to consign it to the earth on the ridge
of the hill where it lay, and which took its name henceforward from that of
Bœgifot. Arnkill caused a mound of immense height to be piled above the
grave, and Thorolf, during the lifetime of his son, remained quiet in his new
abode J.
* Suicide seems to be indicated ^
f It is still an article of popular superstition in Scotland, that the corpse of
a suicide ought not to be carried out of the apartment by the door, but
lowered through a window, or conveyed through a breach in the wall.
Neglect of this observance is supposed to expose the house to be haunted.
Î After the death of Arnkill, Bœgifot became again troublesome, and
walked forth from his tomb to the great terror and damage of the neighbour¬
hood, slaying both herds and domestics, and driving the inhabitants fi'om the
® Certainly not suicide, for the incidents related are said to have hap¬
pened towards the close of tlie 10th century, when the Icelanders were still
Pagans ; consequently at a period when suicide was regarded as an honour¬
able kind of death. See p. 150.—Ed.
THE EYEBTGGJA-SAaA.
531
After the death of Thorolf, Arnkill engaged in various disputes with the
pontiff Snorro for the recovery of the woods of Arakaness, and with the
sons of Thorbrand on account of their old feud. He had the better in many
skirmishes, and in many debates before the national convention. Nor was
Snorro for a length of time more successful in his various efforts to remove
this powerful rival. For, although a priest, he was not in any respect nice
in his choice of means on such occasions, and practised repeatedly against
Arnkill's life by various attempts at assassination. At length, however,
irritated to the highest pitch, by a conversation in which he heard strangers
extol the power and courage of Arnkill above his own, he resolved to employ
in his revenge the sons of Thorbrand. To Thorlef Kimbi, the strongest of these
champions, he gave a choice war-axe, and, bidding him observe the length of
the handle, added, "Yet it will not reach the head of Arnkill while making
hay at the farm of Ulfar." It must be observed, that Arnkill durst not
occupy the farm of Ulfar, which had been so fiercely disputed between him
and the sons of Thorbrand, otherwise than by sending labourers there in the
day, and withdrawing them before nightfall. In the hay-season, however,
he also employed his wains by moonlight to transport the hay from these
possessions to his own domain. The sons of Thorbrand, embracing the hint
of the pontiff, now watched his motions, and, learning that one moon-light
night Arnkill had himself accompanied three of his bondsmen for the above
purpose, they despatched a messenger to inform Snorro, that " the old eagle
had taken his flight toAvards Orligstad." The pontiff instantly rose, and,
accompanied by nine armed followers, traversed the ice to Altifiord, where
he joined the party of the sons of Thorbrand, sie in number. Arnkill, who
descried his enemies advancing towards him, despatched his uirarmed attend¬
ants to his dwelling, to summon his serA*ants to his assistance. "I mean¬
time," said he, " Avill defend myself on the heap of hay, nor will I afford an
easy victory to my foemen." But of these messengers one perished in
crossing a torrent, the other, loitered by the way. Meantime Arnkill, after
defending himself valiantly, was finally overpowered and slain. Of Avhich
sings the Skald Thormoda Ulfilson :—
A noble meal the pontiff strewed
For the wild eagle's hungry brood,
A noble corpse bath filled the tomb.
When valiant Arnkill met his doom.
Arnkill is regretted by the annalist as a model of the qualities most valued
in an Icelandic chief. He excelled all in accurate observance of ancient
rites and customs, was stout-hearted and brave in enterprize, and so prudent
and eloquent, that he was always successful in the causes which he prose¬
cuted in the popular assemblies—qualities which drew upon him the envy
that occasioned his death. His sepulchral mound, raised upon the sea-shore
canton. It was, therefore, resolved to consume his carcase with fire ; for,
like the Hungarian Vampire, he, or some evil demon in his stead, made use of
his mortal reliques as a vehicle during commission of these enormities. The
body was found swollen to a huge size, and equalling in size the corpulence of
an ox. It was transported to the sea-shore with difficulty, and there burned
to ashes. A cow, licking some part of these ashes, brought forth the bull
Hlaeser, by whom Thorodd, his master, was slain.
M M â
Ö32
NOETHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
was visible in the time of the historian. The property of Amkill, and the
charge of exacting vengeance for his blood, passed to females, and hence the
duty was but indifferently discharged. Thorolf Kimbi, who had struck the
deadly blow, was banished for three years from leeland,—a poor atonement
for the slaughter of such a champion. And hence, says the annalist, it was
enacted that neither a woman, nor a youth under sixteen years, should
prosecute in a cause for avenging of blood. Amkill was slain in the year
993.
Omitting a desperate feud between the sons of Thorbrand and those of
Thorlak, we shall only notice the accuracy with which the compensatio
injuriarum was weighed in the Comitia of Helgafels, when the quarrel was
accommodated. Every disaster which had been sustained by the one party
was weighed against one of a similar nature inflicted upon the other. Life
for life, wound for wound, eye for eye, and tooth for tooth, were adjusted
with the utmost precision, and the balance arising in favour of one of the
contending septs was valued and atoned for by a pecuniary mulct. This
compact, which was followed by an internal peace of unusual duration, took
place in the year 999.
In the year 1000, the Christian religion was introduced into Iceland by
her apostles Grizur the White, and Hialto *. Snorro became a convert, and
lent the greatest assistance in extending the new faith f. It is not easy to
see what motive the priest of Thor could have for exchanging a worship,
over which he himself presided, for a new religion, since the unprincipled
cunning and selfish character of Snorro seem to deprive him of the credit of
having acted upon conviction. He procured the erection, nevertheless, of a
Christian church at Helgafels, upon the site of the temple dedicated to Thor,
and acted in every other respect as a sincere convert. As this was the third
attempt to preach Christianity in the island, it seems probable that the good
sense of the Icelanders had already rejected in secret the superstitions of
paganism, and that the worship of Thor had declined in the estimation of
the people.
* Hialto was an Icelander by birth, but had been banished for composing
a song in disparagement of the heathen deities, of which the following is a
literal version :—
I will not serve an idle log
For one, I care not which.
But either Odin is a dog.
Or Freya is a bitch.
Histoña Ecclesiastica Islandice, voL i. p. 57.
-j- We learn from another authority that the heathen priests and nobles
held a public conference with the Christian missionaries in the general assem¬
bly of the tribes of Iceland. While the argument was yet in discussion,
news arrived that an eruption of lava was laying waste a neighbouring dis¬
trict. " It is the effect of the wrath of our offended deities," exclaimed the
worshippers of Odin and Thor. " And what excited their wrath," answered
Snorro, the hero ofthe Eyrbyggja-Saga, though still himself a heathen—"what
excited their wrath when these rocks of lava, which we ourselves tread, were
themselves a glowing torrent 1 " This ready answer silenced the advocates
of heathenism.—Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiœ, vol. i. p. 62.
THE EYKBYGGJA-SAGA.
533
The same year is assigned as the date of a very curious legend. A ship
from Iceland chanced to winter in a haven near Helgafels. Among the
passengers rvas a woman named Thorgunna, a native of the Hebrides, who
was reported by the sailors to possess garments and household furniture of a
fashion far surpassing those used in Iceland. Thurida, sister of the pontiff
Snorro, and wife of Thorodd, a woman of a vain and covetous disposition,
attracted by these reports, made a visit to the stranger, but could not pre¬
vail upon her to display her treasures. Persisting, however, in her inquiries,
she pressed Thorgunna to take up her abode-at the house of Thorodd. The
Hebridean reluctantly assented, but added, that as she could labour at every
usual kind of domestic industry, she trusted in that manner to discharge the
obligation she might lie under to the family, without giving any part of her
property, in recompense of her lodging. As Thurida continued to urge her
request, Thorgunna accompanied her to Froda, the house of Thorodd, where
the seamen deposited a huge chest and cabinet, containing the property of
her new guest, which Thurida viewed with curious and covetous eyes. So
soon as they had pointed out to Thorgunna the place assigned for her bed,
she opened the chest, and took forth such an embroidered bed coverlid, and
such a splendid and complete set of tapestry hangings, and bed furniture of
English linen, interwoven with silk, as had never been seen in Iceland.
" Sell to me," said the covetous matron, "this fair bed furniture."-—"Be¬
lieve me," answered Thorgunna, " I will not lie upon straw in order to feed
thy pomp and vanity ; " an answer which so greatly displeased Thurida
that she never again repeated her request. Thorgunna, to whose character
subsequent events added something of a mystical solemnity, is described as
being a woman of a tall and stately appearance, of a dark complexion, and
having a profusion of black hair. She was advanced in age ; assiduous in
the labours of the field and of the loom ; a faithful attendant upon divine
worship ; grave, silent, and solemn in domestic society. She had little in¬
tercourse with the household of Thorodd, and showed particular dislike to
two of its inmates. These were Thorer, who, having lost a leg in the skir¬
mish between Thorbiorn and Thorarin the Black, was called Thorer-Widlegr
(wooden-leg,) from the substitute he had adopted ; and his wife, Thorgrima,
called Galldra-Kinna (wicked sorceress), from her supposed skill in enchant¬
ments. Kiartan, the son of Thurida *, a boy of excellent promise, was the
* He also passed for the son of Thorodd, but this was not so certain.
Biorn, a stranger, who had acquired the name of the Hero of Bradwick, was
assiduous in his visits to Thurida in the year preceding the birth of Kiartan.
The jealousy of the husband was awakened, and he employed a sorceress to
raise a nocturnal tempest to destroy Biorn on his way to his mistress. This
attempt proved in vain, as well as several others to take his life by violence.
At length, while Snorro was about to surround Biorn with a body of horse,
conceiving his own honour interested in that of his sister Thurida, the cham¬
pion, perceiving their purpose, suddenly seized on the pontiff, and, holding a
dagger to his throat, coijipelled hiip to a treaty, by vyhich Snorfo agreed to
withdraw his followers ; and Fiorn, on his part, consented to remove all
further stain upon Thurida's çeynthtiPb hy departing froin Iceland, Biorn
kept his word, and for long time was not heard of. Many years after-
îvards. hpwpypr^ np jcgl^ndic vessel, while on the western coast of Iceland,
534
NOETHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
only person of the household to whom Thorgunna showed much affection ;
and she was much vexed at times when the childish petulance of the boy
made an indifferent return to her kindness.
After this mysterious stranger had dwelt at Froda for some time, and
while she was labouring in the hay-field with other members of the family, a
Budden cloud from the northern mountain led Thorodd to anticipate a heavy
shower. He instantly commanded the hay-workers to pile up in ricks the
quantity which each had been engaged in turning to,the wind. It was
afterwards remembered that Thorgunna did not pile up her portion, but left
it spread on the field. The cloud approached with great celerity, and sunk
so heavily around the farm, that it was scarce possible to see beyond the limits
of the field. A heavy shower next descended, and so soon as the clouds
broke away, and the sun shone forth, it was observed that it had rained
blood. That which fell upon the ricks of the other labourers soon dried up,
but what Thorgunna had wrought upon remained wet with gore. The un¬
fortunate Hebridean, appalled at the omen, betook herself to her bed, and
was seized with a mortal illness. On the approach of death she summoned
Thorodd, her landlord, and entrusted to him the disposition of her property
and effects. " Let my body," said she, " be transported to Skalholt, for my
mind presages that in that place shall be founded the most distinguished
church in this island. Let my golden ring be given to the priests who shall
celebrate my obsequies, and do thou indemnify thyself for the funeral charges
was surprised by a storm, which drove her far into the Atlantic Ocean. After
sailing far to the west they reached an unknown land, occupied by a savage
people, who immediately seized on the merchants and crew of the vessel, and
began to dispute whether they should reduce them to a state of slavery or
kill them on the spot. At this moment there came up a body of horsemen,,
headed by a leader of eminent stature and distinguished appearance, whom
the assembled natives regarded as their chief. He addressed the merchants
in the Norse language, and, learning that they came from Iceland, made many
inquiries concerning the pontiff Snorro and his sister Thurida, but especially
concerning her son Kiartan. Being satisfied on these points, he intimated his
intention to set them at liberty, cautioning them never to return to that coun¬
try, as the inhabitants were hostile to strangers. The merchants ventured to
inquire the name of their benefactor. This he refused to communicate, lest
his Icelandic friends, c oming to seek him, should encounter the danger from-
which his present guests had been delivered, without his having the same-
power to protect them ; for in this region there were chiefs, he said, more-
powerful than he himself. When they were about to depart, he requested
them to present, on his behalf, a sword to Kiartan, and a ring to Thurida, as
coming from one who loved the sister of Snorro better than the pontiff him¬
self. These words were supposed to indicate Biorn, the Hero of Bradwick ;
and the whole story serves to show that the Icelanders had some obscure-
tradition, either founded on conjecture or accidental intercourse, concerning
the existence of a continent to the westward of the Atlantic®.
® That the tradition was far from being obscure will be seen by referring to
the first supplementary chapter.—En,
THE EYEBYGGJA-SAGA.
535
out of my remaining effects. To thy wife I bequeath my purple mantle, in
order that, by this sacrifice to her avarice, I may secure the right of disposing
of the rest of my effects at my own pleasure. But for my bed, with its
coverings, hangings, and furniture, I entreat they may be all consigned to
the flames. I do not desire this because I envy any one the possession of
these things after ray death, but because I wish those evils to be avoided
which I plainly foresee will happen if my will be altered in the slightest
particular." Thorodd promised faithfully to execute this extraordinary tes¬
tament in the most pointed manner. Accordingly, so soon as Thorgunna
was dead, her faithful executor prepared a pile for burning her splendid bed.
Thurida entered, and learned with anger and astonishment the purpose of
these preparations. To the remonstrances of her husband she answered that
the menaces of future danger were only caused by Thorgunna's selfish envy,
who did not wish any one should enjoy her treasures after her decease.
Then, finding Thorodd inaccessible to argument, she had recourse to caresses
and blandishments, and at length extorted permission to separate, from the
rest of the bed-furniture, the tapestried curtains and coverlid ; the rest was
consigned to the flames, in obedience to the will of the testator. The body
of Thorgunna, being wrapped in new linen and placed in a coffin, was next to
be transported through the precipices and morasses of Iceland to the distant
district she had assigned for her place of sepulture. A remarkable incident
occurred on the way. The transporters of the bodj' arrived at evening late,
weary, and drenched with rain, in a house called Nether-Ness, where the
niggard hospitality of the proprietor only afforded them house-room, without
any supply of food or fuel. But, so soon as they entered, an unwonted noise
was heard in the kitchen of the mansion, and the figure of a woman, soon
recognized to be the deceased Thorgunna, was seen busily employed in pre¬
paring victuals. Their inhospitable landlord, being made acquainted with
this frightful circumstance, readily agreed to supply every refreshment which
was necessary, on which the vision instantly disappeared. The apparition
having become public, they had no reason to ask twice for hospitality, as
they proceeded on their journey, and arrived safely at Skalholt, where Thor¬
gunna, with all due ceremonies of religion, was deposited quietly in the grave.
But the consequences of the breach of her testament were felt severely at
Froda.
The author, for the better understanding of the prodigies which happened,
describes the manner of living at Pröda, a simple and patriarchal structure,
built according to the fashion used by the wealthy among the Icelanders.
The apartment was very large, and a part boarded off contained the beds of
the family. On either side was a sort of store-room, one of which contained
meal, the other dried fish. Every evening large fires were lighted in this
apartment, for dressing the victuals ; and the domestics of the family usually
sat around them for a considerable time, until supper was prepared. On the
night when the conductors of Thorgunna's funeral returned to Froda, there
appeared, visible to all who were present, a meteor, or spectral appearance,
resembling a half-moon, which glided around the boarded walls of the man¬
sion in an opposite direction to the course of the sun *, and continued to
* This is an important circumstance. Whatever revolved with the sun
was reckoned a fortunate movement. Thus, the highlanders, in making tlie
536
NORTIIERX AKTIQUniES.
perform its revolutions until the domestics retired to rest. This apparition
was renewed every night during a whole week, and was pronounced by
Thorer with the wooden leg to presage pestilence or mortality. Shortly
after a herdsman showed signs of mental alienation, and gave various indica¬
tions of having sustained the persecution of evil demons. This man was
found dead in his bed one morning, and then commenced a scene of ghost-
seeing unheard of in the annals of superstition. The first victim was Thorer,
who had presaged the calamity. Going out of doors one evening, he was
grappled by the spectre of the deceased shepherd as he attempted to re-enter
the house. His wooden leg stood him in poor stead in such an encounter;
he was hurled to the earth, and so fearfully beaten, that he died in con¬
sequence of the bruises. Thorer was no sooner dead than his ghost asso¬
ciated itself to that of the herdsman, and joined him in pursuing and
assaulting the inhabitants of Froda. Meantime an infectious disorder
spread fast among them, and several of the bondsmen died one after the
other. Strange portents were seen within doors, the meal was displaced
and mingled, and the dried fish flung about in a most alanning manner,
without any visible agent. At length, while the servants were forming
their evening circle round the fire, a spectre, resembling the head of a seal-
fish, was seen to emerge out of the pavement of the room, bending its
round black eyes full on the tapestried bed-curtains of Thorgunna. Some of
the domestics ventured to strike at this figilre, but, far from giving way,
it rather erected itself further from the floor, until Kiartan, who seemed to
have a natural predominance over these supernatural prodigies, seizing a
huge forge-hammer, struck the seal repeatedly on the head, and compelled it
to disappear, forcing it down into the floor, as if he had driven a stake into
the earth. This prodigy was found to intimate a new calamity. Thorodd,
the master of the family, had some time before set forth on a voyage to
bring home a cargo of dried fish ; but, in crossing the river Enna, the skiff
was lost, and he perished with the servants who attended him. A solemn
funeral feast was held at Froda, in memory of the deceased, when, to the
astonishment of the guests, the apparition of Thorodd and his followers
seemed to enter the apartment dropping with water. Yet this vision excited
less horror than might have been expected, for the Icelanders, though
nominally Christians, retained, among other pagan superstitions, a belief
that the spectres of such drowned persons as had been favourably received
by the goddess Rana were wont to show themselves at their funeral feast.
They saw, therefore, with some composure, Thorodd and his dripping
attendants plant themselves by the fire, from which all mortal guests
retreated to make room for them. It was supposed this apparition would
not be renewed after conclusion of the festival. But so far were their hopes
disappointed, that, so soon as the mourning guests had departed, the fires
demil, a sort of benediction which they bestow in walking round the party
to be propitiated, always observe the course of the sun. And witches, on
the other hand, made their circles, widdershins, as Scottish dialect expresses
it (widder-sins, Germ.), or in opposition to the course of the orb of light.
The apparition of the half-moon reminds us of Hecate, of the mysteries of
Isis in Apuleius, and of a passage in Lucian's " Lears," where the moon is
forced down by magical invocation.
THE EYEBYGGJA-SAGA.
537
being lighted, Thorodd and his comrades marched in on one side, drenched
as before with water; on the other entered Thorer, heading all those who
had died in the pestilence, and who appeared covered with dust. Both
parties seized the seats by the fire, while the half-frozen and terrified domes¬
tics spent the night without either light or warmth. The same phenomenon
took place the next night, though the fires had been lighted in a separate
house, and at length Kiartan was obliged to compound matters with the
spectres by kindling a large fire for them in the principal apartment, and
one for the family and domestics in a separate hut. This prodigy continued
during the whole feast of Jol ; other portents also happened to appal this
devoted family, the contagious disease again broke forth, and when any one
fell a sacrifice to it his spectre was sure to join the troop of persecutors,
who had now almost full possession of the mansion of Froda. Thorgrima
Galldrakinna, wife of Thorer, was one of these victims, and, in short, of
thirty servants belonging to the household, eighteen died, and five fled
for fear of the apparitions, so that only seven remained in the service
of Kiartan.
Kiartan had now recourse to the advice of his maternal uncle Snorro, in
consequence of whose counsel, what will perhaps appear surprising to the
reader, judicial measures were instituted against the spectres. A Christian
priest was, however, associated with Thordo Kausa, son of Snorro, and with
Kiartan, to superintend and sanctify the proceedings. The inhabitants were
regularly summoned to attend upon the inquest, as in a cause between man
and man, and the assembly was constituted before the gate of the mansion,
just as the spectres had assumed their wonted station by the fire. Kiartan
boldly ventured to approach them, and, snatching a brand from the fire,
he commanded the tapestry belonging to Thorgunna to be carried out of
doors, set fire to it, and reduced it to ashes with all the other ornaments of
her bed, which had been so inconsiderately preserved at the request of
Thxu-ida. A tribunal being then constituted with the usual legal solem¬
nities *, a charge was preferred by Kiartan against Thorer with the wooden
by Thordo Kausa against Thorodd, and by others chosen as accusers
against the individual spectres present, accusing them of molesting the
mansion, and introducing death and disease among its inhabitants. All the
solemn rites of judicial procedure were observed on this singular occasion ;
evidence was adduced, charges given, and the cause formally decided. It
does not appear that the ghosts put themselves on their defence, so that sen¬
tence of ejectment was pronounced against them individually in due and
legal form. When Thorer heard the judgment, he arose, and saying, " I
have sate while it was lawful for me to do so," left the apartment by the
* It does not appear that the judges in Iceland were a separate order.
On the contrary, every tribunal appears to have been constituted by a selec¬
tion, ex astantibus, and so far every court of justice resembled a jury chosen
to decide a special cause, and dissolved when that task was performed
® The reader will find by referring to the second supplementary chapter,
that this opinion is quite unfounded. "The solemn rites of judicial pro¬
cedure" were merely those observed at a so-called cloor-doovi. See page
30r.—ED.
538
NOBTHEKN ANTIQUITIES.
door opposite to that at which the judicial assembly was constituted. Each
of the spectres, as they heard their individual sentence, left the place, saying
something which indicated their unwillingness to depart, until Thorodd
himself was solemnly appointed to depart. "We have here no longer," said
he, " a peaceful dwelling, therefore will we remove." Kiartan then entered
the hall with his followers, and the priest, with holy water, and celebration
of a solemn mass, completed the conquest over the goblins, which had been
commenced by the power and authority of the Icelandic law. We have
perhaps dwelt too long on this legend, but it is the only instance in which
the ordinary administration of justice has been supposed to extend over the
inhabitants of another world, and in which the business of exorcising spirits
is transferred from the priest to the judge. Joined to the various instances
in the Eyrbyggja-Saga of a certain regard to the forms of jurisprudence, even
amid the wildest of their feuds, it seems to argue the extraordinary influence
ascribed to municipal law by this singular people, even in the very earliest
state of society.
Snorro, who upon the whole may be considered as the hero of the his¬
tory, Avas led into fresh turmoils and litigation by the death of his brother-
in-law, Styr, slain by the inhabitants of a neighbouring district, for which
slaughter neither Snorro's eloquence in the popular assembly, nor his power
in the field, were able to procure adequate vengeance. He came off with
more credit in his feud with Ospakar.
This Ospakar, a man of huge stature and great personal strength, sur¬
rounded always by satellites of the same description, differed from the other
Icelandic chiefs in the open disregard which he professed for the laws of
property. He kept a stout vessel, always ready for piratical excursions, and
surrounded his house with a mound so as to convert it into a kind of citadel.
It happened that a whale had been cast ashore upon a part of the island,
where the law assigned a part of it in property to the pontiff Snorro, and
part to his neighbour Thorer. While, however, Thorer, and Alfar, called
the Little, steward of the pontiff, were engaged in making the partition,
Ospakar appeared at the head of his armed followers, and, after stunning
Thorer with a blow of his war-axe, appropriated the whole whale to him¬
self. Skirmish folloAved skirmish, and blood Avas spilled on both sides, until
Snorro bestirred himself in invoking the justice of the Comitia against the
lawless Ospakar, and obtained a sentence condemning him and his followers
to banishment. They submitted to this doom for a time, and Snorro caused
the effects of Ospakar to be divided amongst those who had sustained the
greatest losses by his rapine, of which spoil Thorer and Alfar obtained the
larger share. It Avas, hoAvever, a gift fatal to the former. Ospakar, who
still followed his piratical profession, made a sudden descent on the coast,
and, seizing Thorer, put him to death before his own door. Alfar, escaping
with difficulty, fled to the protection of Snorro ; and Ospakar, in defiance of
the sentence pronounced against him, resumed possession of his fortified
mansion, and furnished it with provisions to stand a siege. Snorro pro¬
ceeded on this occasion with his characteristic caution. It has been seen
that an ordinary haystack Avas accounted a strong post in Icelandic tactics,
but a house surrounded with a bank of earth was a much more serious for¬
tification; nor did Snorro deem it safe to attempt storming the pirate's
stronghold till he had assembled his most chosen friends and satellites.
THE EYEBYGGJA-SAGA,
539
Amongst these was Thrandar, who, before assuming the Christian faith, had
been a Berserkar, and although he had lost the supernatural strength exer¬
cised by such persons, which the author states to have been the usual con¬
sequence of baptism, he nevertheless retained his natural vigour and prowess,
which were very formidable. On the slightest hint from Snorro's messen¬
ger, he attended the pontiff, armed as one who has a dangerous task in
hand. Snorro's other allies being assembled, they made a hasty march to
the fortress of Ospakar, and summoned him to surrender at discretion. The
robber having refused compliance, the mound was valiantly assaulted on the
one part, and stoutly defended on the other. Thrandar, by striking the
steel of his battle-axe into the top of the rampart, actually scaled it, raising
himself by the handle, and slew Bafen, a pirate of great fame, who assaulted
him upon his ascent. Ospakar himself fell by a stroke of a lance, and his
followers surrendered upon the sole condition of escaping with life and limb.
On this conflict, the Skald Thormodar composed his poem called Bafn-maal,
or the Death of Bafen.
The birds of Odin found their prey,
"When slaughter raged in Bitra's bay ;
There lay extended on the vale
The three fierce plunderers of the whale,
And, all his toils of rapine past,
Orim Bafen found repose at last.
The annals proceed to detail the remarkable legend concerning the death
of Thorodd by the bull called Glaesir; and, finally, they inform us of the
death of Snorro, during the winter after the death of St. Olave, leaving a
powerful and flourishing family to support the fame which he had acquired.
He was buried in the church at Tunga, which he himself had founded, but
when it was removed his bones were transported to its new site. From
these relics the celebrated Snorro seemed to have been a man of ordinary
stature; nor, indeed, does it any where appear that he attained the ascend¬
ancy which he possessed in the island by personal strength, but rather
by that subtlety of spirit which he displayed in conducting his enterprizes,
and by his address and eloquence in the popular assembly. Although often
engaged in feuds, his valour seems to have been duly mingled with discre¬
tion, and the deeds of war, for which he was celebrated in poetry, were
usually achieved by the strong arm of some ally or satellite. He was so
equal in his demeanour, that it was difficult to observe what pleased or dis¬
pleased him ; slow and cautious in taking revenge, but tenacious and
implacable in pursuing it; an excellent counsellor to his friends, but skilful
in inducing his enemies to take measures which afterwards proved fatal to
them. In fine, as the ecclesiastical historian of Iceland sums up his attri¬
butes, if Snorro were not a good and pious man, he was to be esteemed wise,
prudent, and sagacious, beyond the usual pitch of humanity. This pontiff",
or prefect, is mentioned with great distinction in other Icelandic chronicles,
as well as in the Eyrbyggja-Saga. In the Landnama Bok, part ii. chap. 13,
many of the foregoing incidents are alluded to, and also in the Laxdaela-
Saga, and the Saga of Oluf Tryggason.
I'bat such a character, partaking more of the jurisconsult or statesman
than pf the warrior, should have risen so high in such an early period.
540
NOETHEBN ANTIQUITIES.
argues the preference which the Icelanders already assigned to mental
superiority over the rude attributes of strength and courage, and furnishes
another proof of the early civilization of this extraordinary commonwealth.
In other respects the character of Snorro was altogether unamiable, and
blended with strong traits of the savage. Cunning and subtlety supplied
the place of wisdom, and an earnest and uniform attention to his own
interests often, as in the dispute between Amkill and his father, superseded
the ties of blood and friendship. Still, however, his selfish conduct seems to
have been of more service to the settlement in which he swayed, than would
have been that of a generous and high-spirited warrior who acted from the
impulse of momentary passion. His ascendancy, though acquired by means
equally unworthy of praise, seems, in his petty canton, to have had the
effect produced by that of Augustus in the Roman Empire ; although, more
guiltless than the emperor of the world, the pontiff of Helgafels neither
subverted the liberties of his country, nor bequeathed the domination he
had acquired to a tyrannical successor. His sons succeeded to the paternal
property, but not to the political power of their father, and, his possessions
being equally divided amongst them, they founded several families, long
respected in Iceland as descendants of the pontiff Snorro.
W. S.
Abbotsfohp, Ootobek, 1813.
GLOSSARY TO THE PROSE EDDA.
BY THE EDITOE.
Wishing to render this work as complete as possible, we undertook the
laborious task of searching for the etymologies of all the proper names (up¬
wards of 400) that occur in the Prose Edda. We intended at first to have
copied the etymologies given in the Glossaries to the Poetical Edda, but we
soon found that in numerous instances they could not be relied on, were in
fact merely conjectural. We had, therefore, recourse to that truly admirable
work, the " Deutsche Mythologie" * in which J acob Grimm has shown, as
he had previously done in his Deutsche OramniatiJc, such a profound know¬
ledge of the Teutonic languages, that he may be safely followed as an un¬
erring guide in such inquiries. Grimm, however, had. not occasion to men¬
tion above half of the words whose etymology we were in search of ; we
therefore consulted, for the remaining ones, the Glossaries of the Poetical
Edda-fi, as well as Finn Magnusen's Lexicon Mythologicum, and his Edda-
lœren J, and several glossaries appended to the editions of various Sagas,
making our selection, however, with due precaution, omitting from forty to
fifty names, the derivations given of which appeared to us to be quite un¬
deserving of attention, and qualifying those of several others, regarded by
the learned editors of the Edda as undoubted, with the words perhaps and
probably, words which cannot be too frequently made use of, when etymology
is not founded on scientific principles.
Conjectural etymology, that is to say, etymology grounded on mere similai'ity
of sound, or of orthography, was formerly quite in vogue, and is in fact still in¬
dulged in by several of our own writers, as well as by Finn Magnusen, to a
degree which often borders on the ludicrous. The philologists of the Ger¬
man school have however done away with this futile method ; and at the pre-
* " Deutsche Mythologie von Jacob Giimm," German, or more properly
speaking, Teutonic Mythology by Jacob Grimm, is the simple title of this
excellent work ;—we have made use of the second edition, published at Göt¬
tingen in 1844.
f The edition published by the Arni-Magnaean Commission, (see page 363,)
of which Finn Magnusen's " Lexicon Mythologicum in vetusta septentrio-
nalium carmina quae in Edda Saemundina continentur," fills nearly the whole
of the third volume.
"Eddakeren ogdens Oprindelse," 4 vols. 12mo, Copenh. 1825.
542
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
sent day, when a Grimm and a Bopp wish to show that words are cognate,
they trace them through all their grammatical variations, in order to arrive
at their radical affinities. This of course presupposes an intimate knowledge
of languages, of the principles that regulate the permutation of consonants
and vowels, of analogical glossology in a word, which few possess and which
can only be acquired by years of intense study. Derivations established
in this manner may be regarded as demonstrated facts ; all others either as
more or less plausible conjectures, or as amusing instances of learned
aberration.
It may not be irrelevant here to say a few words respecting the orthography
we have adopted for the proper names that occur in this work. As it was
our intention to give the correct orthography of these names in the following
Glossary, we purposely abstained from accenting the vowels in several of them,
and in most instances substituted d for 'S *. Not wishing to depart too
much from established usage, we also retained the common orthography of
names, such as Odin, Thor, &c., which have long been familiar to the pub¬
lic, taking care, however, to avoid falling into the error of giving the Danish
terminations in e and er (as Loke, Brage, Diser, Niflunger, for instance), instead
of the Old Norse in i, ir, and ar (Loki, Bragi, Disir, Niflúngar). We
also omitted, as a matter of course, the final r which is frequently found in
Norse proper names, this r being merely the sign of the nominative case sing,
masculine, (Rask's second declension,) and as Leif, for instance, is pronounced
the same, whether written Leif or Leifr, and as the latter would only be strictly
correct when in the nominative case, the r, Avhen such words are used in
English, or any other language than Old Norse, is superfluous. In order
that the reader may form some idea of the Old Norse language in this respect,
we give the declension of the masculine noun, brandr, (a brand, either a fire¬
brand, or poetically a sword,) and the feminine noun, strönd, strand, shore.
As Scandinavian words may not be familiar to the generality of our readers,
it will be necessary to say something respecting their pronunciation. Were
we, however, to attempt to give the correct pronunciation of all the words that
occur in this Glossary, we should have to write a treatise on the orthoepy
of the Teutonic languages. We shall therefore merely lay down a few
general rules, which will enable the English reader to pronounce most of
* Or, more properly speaking, retained the d—this letter having been re¬
placed by 'S only in editions of recent date.
Singular.
Nom. brandr strönd
Accus, brand strönd
Dat. brandi ströndu
Gen. brands strandar
Plural.
brandar strandir.
branda strandir.
bröndum ströndum
branda stranda.
GLOSSARY TO THE PROSE EDDA.
543
these words, if not quite accurately, at least in a manner that would render
them intelligible, and which will, at the same time, show that cognate words
frequently differ more in orthography than in pronunciation.
We may remark as a general rule—there being of course no rule without
its exceptions *—that the reader will not greatly err by pronouncing the vowels
in all the Indo-European languages—we might indeed say in almost every
civilized language, except our own -j-, as follows :—■
i short, as i in bill, pill,
i long, as ee in peel, feel.
6 short, as e in met, get.
e long, either as a in paper, or as e in there,
a short, as the first a in papa,
a long, as the second a in papa.
0 short, as o in not.
0 long, as 0 in note,
u short, as oo in hood, good,
u long, as 00 in rood, food.
In some languages the long vowels are accented, as they ought to bean
all.
It will be more difficult to give rules for the pronunciation of sounds that
are foreign to the English language ; discarding, however, nice distinctions
which can only be acquired by the ear, we may remark that the Old Norse
and the Anglo-Saxon y, the German ü, and the French u have much the
same sound. Thus the Old Norse and the Ang.-Sax. word^r, fire, would
be pronounced much in the same manner as the German word für, for, and
the French word fur in the phrase à fur et mesure, or more correctly, au fur
et à mesure ; and the Norse dyr, an animal, like the first syllable of the Ger-
ariman dür-m, aridity, and the French dure, hard, solid. The Norse and
Ang.-Sax. y, however, gradually lost this sound, and acquired that of i.
The reader may therefore pronounce the y in words from these languages either
as the French u, or as i ; when short y, as i in bill, when long y, as ee in
peel.
* The French u, for instance, would form an exception.
•}• It has long been remarked that our orthography stands in need of a
thorough revision. It were indeed " a consummation devoutly to be wished"
that a congress could be held, not to determine the fate of dynasties nor the
partition of kingdoms, but, under the superintendence of some learned Ger¬
man philologist, to devise a uniform standard orthography for all the Teutonic
languages. The task would in fact be far less difficult than might be sup¬
posed ; our own language would, no doubt, be found the most refractory to
deal with, and would probably demand and obtain an exemption from some
of the laws that might be framed for the better regulation of its cousins.
544
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES,
There are certain shades in the pronunciation of the Norse œ, a, the Ang.-
Sax. œ and the Grerman, Swedish and Danish ä, which Ave will not attempt
to indicate. Rask observes that the Ang.-Sax. œ " seems to have repre¬
sented a peculiar, simple, and very open sound, approaching to a." * At all
events the reader must avoid pronouncing œ and a, like we (most barbarously)
pronounce the œ in the word Caesar f. The a in paper would be the nearest
equivalent. For the sound of ö we have no equivalent in our language.
To these general rules we subjoin a few observations respecting the
pronunciation of certain letters in the Old Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and German
languages.
Old Norse,
Ó, has a broad sound, much broader than the o in fore.
á, has a peculiar sound, something between au in aurora and oa in broad.
Rask makes it equivalent to the Italian au in the word aura \ ; hence
hár, hair, would be pronounced Auttr with a clear a. The reader, however,
will not be far from the true pronunciation by giving the Old Norse á the
Swedish â, and the Danish aa, the sound of oa in broad, or that of a in
■warm.
an, has much the same sound as ou in house,
ei, something like ei in weight, never like the German ei.
ey, approaches the German eu, that is to say, has a broader sound than
that of the English word eye—is pronounced, in fact, much in the same
manner as the pronoun I in several of our provincial dialects—in the North
Staifordshire dialect for instance,
j, invariably like y in yard.
g, invariably its pure sound, as g either in go or in give, never as g in
gem, gentle,
s, always hard, as ss in Miss,
z, (which is a mere etymological sign,) as s.
th, (which we have substituted for Jj,) always hard, as in think.
D, tS, always soft, as th in this, father, bathe.
* In his Anglo-Saxon Gram., page 9.
t In this reforming age, when rotten boroughs, and corn laws, and divi
divi have gone to the wall, it is to be hoped that ere long we may be in¬
duced to abandon our most barbarous pronunciation of the Latin vowels,
owing to which any of the ancient Roman worthies, if they might quit the
Elysian fields and visit our universities, would be as much puzzled as learned
foreigners are, to understand the congratulatory Latin discourses addressed
to them.
Í In his " Vejledning til det oldnordiske Sprog," Copenh. 1832.
GLOSSARY TO THE PROSE EDDA.
545
Anglo-Saxon.
c and q, as k.
p, (for which we have substituted th,) as in Old Norse,
as in Old Norse.
g, always its pure sound, either as in go or in give. When it is between
two of the letters se, e, i, y, it has, however, the sound of y in yard.
Thus hrœgen, brains, is pronounced hrœyen.
According to Rask *, e was used before a and o, and i before e and u, to
mark the same sound. Thus Eorl, Earl, was pronounced like the Old
Norse Jarl, viz. Yarl, Yorl. Eótaland, Old Norse Jótland, Jutland, as
Yótaland ; iett as yet, of which it has the signification.—The Ang.-Sax. iett
and the English yei, would therefore only differ in orthography.
German.
m, r, is equivalent as for ,
The German , ,i -r, ,■ . nronounced,
to the English. instance
J
y
jung, yoking,
yoong.
w
v
warten, to wait,
varten.
v
f
vater, father.
fater.
th
t
muth, coiirage.
moot.
sch
sh
schild, shield.
shild.
z
ts
ziel, scogpe, aim.
tseel, not as the English
word zeal.
In respect to the peculiar sounds in this language, besides those already
mentioned, we may remark that
ch, should never be pronounced like ch in cheese, nor as k—but in¬
variably as an aspirated k or kh, like the Greek x,-
g, has always its pure sound, either as in go or give,
ei, has the same sound as the English word eye, or as the pronoun I.
ai, a somewhat broader sound, or one in which the a is heard,
eu, a still broader sound, for which we have no equivalent, except in our
provincial dialects.
au, as ou in house—the English word house and the German haus having
the same sound and signification,
ie, as ee in peel—viel, many, for instance, being pronounced like the English
word/eei, and the name of the celebrated Liebig, Leebig.
The Germans, instead of accenting their long vowels, generally lengthen
them by adding h, thus ih, eh, ah, oh, iih, are equivalent to the long i, e, a,
0, u, and have the sounds indicated in the above table of vowels.
* Anglo-Saxon Gram., pages 10 and 11.
N N
GLOSSAKY.
ABBEEVIATIONS THAT C
a. active, v, a. verb active.
adj. adjective.
Al. Alemannic.
Anc. Ancient.
A. S. Anglo-Saxon.
Celt. Celtic, i. e. one of tlie ancient
Celtic languages,
conseq. consequently.
D. Danish.
Dt. Dutch,
dt. doubtful.
E. English.
E. E. Editors of the Edda,
Etr. Ancient Etruscan,
etym. etymology.
f. feminine.
F. French.
F. Mag. Finn Magnusen.
Fr. Frisic.
G. German,
gen. genitive.
Gr. Greek.
I. Icelandic.
Ind. E. Indo-European languages.
It. Italian.
L. Latin.
lang, language, languages.
:CUR IN THE GLOSSARY,
lit. literally.
m. masculine,
M. G. Mceso-Gothic.
met. metaphorically.
N. Old Norse.
n. neuter.
nom. nominative.
obs. obsolete.
P. Persian.
part, participle.
ph. perhaps.
pi. plural.
prob, probably.
prop, properly or correctly.
Sem. Semitic languages.
sig. signifies, signified, signification.
sing, singular.
Sk. Sanskrit.
SI. Slavonic languages.
sub. substantive.
Sw. Swedish.
Sx. Old Saxon.
syn. synonymous, synonymously,
sylb. syllable, syllables.
V. verb,
Z. Zend.
.31GIR or ŒGIR. F. Mag. derives .Egir from the V. mgia, aga, to flow. Œgir
is derived by Grimm from the root aga, og ; whence the M. O. agis, óg ;
Anc. G. ; akiso, egiso ; A. »S. egesa, horror ; and Anc. O. aki, eki ; A. S.
ege, terror, N. œgja, terrori esse.
.^SIR, sing. ÁS; God, Gods. ÁSYNJA, ÁSYNJOR; Goddess, Goddesses :
cog. with words of the same sig. in several lang., as Celt. Es (Esus) ; Etr.
iEs, Ais, Aísar; P. Ized, and ph. the Magyar, Isten. Grimm remarks
that a cog. expression must have been used in all the ancient Teutonic lang.
GLOSSARY.
547
In M. G. it would have been Ans, pl. Anseis ; A. S. Ós, pl. És. The word
is still preserved in proper names, as 3i. G. Ansila, Anc. G. Anso. Glrimm
further remarks, that the Oíd Germ, names of Anshelm, Anspald, Anshilt,
Ansnot, have the same sig. as Cotahelm, Cotahilt; the A. S. Osweald,
Oslâf, Osdœg; the JV. Asgautr, Asmundr, Asbjörn (the divine bear,
ursus divinns), Aslaug, &c. See Beut. Mythol. p. 22.
ÁI, from á, a river.
ALF Adir, or ALFÖDÜR, All-Father, or the Father of All.
ÁLFR, Elf.
ALSVIDR, All-scorching; svi'Sr from v. svKa, to scorch,
ALTHJÓFR, lit. All-thief, an accomplished rascal—thiófr ; Z). tyv ; 3Í. G.
thiubs; Anc. G. diup; G. dieb; A. Ä. thyf; E. thief; Bt. dief.
ALVÍSS, All -wise. See Glrafvitnir.
AMSVARTNIR : am, dt. etym. ph. from ami, grief ; svartnir, from svart
G. Schwartz, black, gloomy, swart.
ANDHRIMNIR : and prob, from aund, önd, soul, spirit, breath : hrimnir,
from hrim, congealed vapour, rime ; but the word also sig. soot.
ANDLANGR, from aund, spirit, breath; and langr, long.
AND VARI, prob, from aund, spirit; and varr, cautious, timid; cog. with E.
wary.
ANGURBODI, Anguish-boding, announcing or presaging calamity. See
Bodn.
ARVAKR, awaking early; ár, the dawn, Aurora. See Vakkr.
ÁS, ÁSA. See .®sir.
ASGARD, prop. ASGARDR, lit. God's-ward, or the abode of the gods : gar,
gard, gar'Sr and cog. words originally signified in most of the Ind. E. lan¬
guages an inclosure, a fence ; hence the E. to gird, girth, garden, guard,
ward, yard, court, and a number of cog. words in various languages. See
also Midgard and ütgard.
ASKR, an ash-tree : B. ask ; G. esche; A. S. tese, the Fraxinvs excelsior.
ÁSYNJOR. See ^sir.
AÜDHUMLA, or AÜDUMLA, a word of very dt. etym. It is also written
Audhumbla. F. Mag. writes it Aud-hfimla, and derives it from audr,
void, vacuity, and hum, darkness, tenebrosity.
AUDR, rich, wealthy.
AURBODA, prop. AURBODA: aurmayph. mean snow, rain, storm; but it
is also a mere extensive particle ; {see Örgelmir)—bo^a, from the v. bo'Sa,
to announce, whence B. bebude, cog. with E. to bode, and with the N.
sub. BoiS ; B. Bud ; G. Bothe, a messenger ; hence the G. Botschafter,
an ambassador.
AURVÁNGR. See Aurboda and Fólkvángr.
AUSTRI, East, Oriental.
BALDUR, prop. BALDR or BALLDR. If the a is accented it may be de¬
rived from bal; B. baal; Scotch bale; fire, flame, and would ph. be cog.
N N ÍÍ
548
NOETIIEEN ANTIQUITIES,
with the Sem. JBaal; Sic. Bali; Celt. Bel, Beal, Beles, Belenus ; though this
is mere conjecture. If the a is unaccented it may ph. be cog. with the
M. G. balths; IL bold.
BÁLEYGR, Bale-eyed, i.e. endowed with a clear, piercing vision; bál,
see Baldur; eygr from auga; Sw. ciga; D. öie; M. G. augo; G. auge;
A. S. eáge ; E. eye ; Dt. oog, cog. with L. oculus.
BAREY, the Frondiferous-isle, as it may be derived from bar, lit. a bud,
whence the N. ber; D. bser; G. beere; A. *S'. beria; E. berry: and ey,
an island ; D. ö.
BAULVERKR, or BÖLVERKR, Evil-worker; producing evil, calamity.
BAUMBURR, prob. cog. with bumbr, belly, cavity ; cog. with E. bomb.
BELT, prob, from belja, to bellow.
JÎERGELMIR, when written Berggemlir, would mean Mountain-old, i. e.
the old man of the mountain ; but this is a transposition of syllables which
we think quite unwarranted. See Örgelmir.
BIFLINDI, the Inconstant : from bif, motion; and Ijuidi, disposition, mind.
BIFRÖST, BIF-RAUST, the Tremulous-bridge or the Aerial-bridge, bif
signifying also aerial: raust is cog. with ÀI. G. röst; Anc. G. rasta, a cer¬
tain space, a mile, a rest.
BIL, a moment, an interval, an interstice.
BILEYGB, endowed with fulminating eyes, from bilr, bylr, a tempest,
especially a fulminating tempest or thunder-storm ; and auga, eye. See
Baleygr.
BILSKIRNIR, from bilr, storm; and skir, serene: it may therefore sig.
sometimes stormy, and sometimes serene; which, as Thor's mansion prob,
denotes the atmosphere, would be a very appropriate term; or storm-
stilling, i. e. imparting serenity to the tempest; or simply serene, free from
storms.
BIVAURR, BIVÖRR, or BIFUR, the Tremulous, from bif. See Biflindi.
BODN or BODN : very dt. etym. F. Mag. derives it, though we think
very ungrammatically, from the v. bo'öa, to announce. See Aurboda.
From the M. G. v. biudan, to offer, Grimm derives binds; A.aS. beod, a
table, a hoard, which is cog. with the N. bjo'Sr, discus, in so far as it ori¬
ginally signified an offer-table or altar. This M. S. verb is cog. with the
N. sub. bodn, an oblation, though Bodn could not have been used in this
sense as one of the jars in which the dwarfs' poetical beverage was
kept.
BOLL, same as Baul, the Calamitous.
BÖLTHORN, lit. Calamitous or Evil-thorn.
BOR, prop. BÖRR, and BUR, prop. BURR or BURI, mean horn, both words
being derived from the v. bera, cog. with M. G. bairan; A. S. beran; E.
to bear; whence also the Old G. barn, and the Scotch, hairn, a child.
BRAGI, the name of the God of Poetry, has exercised the ingenuity of
etymologists ; F. Mag. even strives to make it cog. with Brahma ! ! A
prob. etym. is that from braga, to glisten, to shine, or from bragga.
GLOSSART.
549
to adorn; pli. cog. with O. pracht, splendour; F. Mag. also montions
Old G. brage, (the brogue 1) and Modern G. spräche, (rriinin explains
Bragr, by vir facundas, and mentions the A. S. brego, breogo, a
king, a prince. Another appropriate etym. which he gives is A. S,
braegen; U. brain; JFr. brein; Lo^v G. bregen; prob. cog. with Gr.
Bragr, which in N. signified poetry, has become in E. to Irag, and
a Poet, a Braggart. From Bragi's bumper—the Bragafull, comes our
word bragget, and prob, also the v. to brew, N. brugga; D. brygge; G.
brauen; F. brasser.
BREIDABLIK : lit. Broad-blink—latifulgent, wide-glancing, expanded
splendour, from brei'Sr, broad, and v. blika, cog. with G. blinken, and
blicken; A.ä. blican; E. to blink.
BE.ÍMIR, prob, from brimi, flame.
BRÍSÍNGR, may prob, mean flaming, and ph. cog. with Gr. ßoal^oit ;
F. braize.
BUR, prop. BURR or BURI. See BcJr.
BYLEISTR, from byr, a dwelling, a town; and v. lesta, to destroy, to break
to pieces.
BTRGIR, prob, from v. byrgja, to conceal; cog. with G. verbergen; A. S.
birgean; E. to bury, whence barrow, a tumulus.
DAINN, prob, the Soporiferous ; from dá, a swoon, or complete repose.
DELLINGR: dt. etym., but F. Mag. and Grimm think it ought to be
written Deglingr, which would mean a short day—a day-ling, and F.
Mag. then explains it to be syn. with the dawn, daybreak.
DÍS, pi. DISIR. Grimm has shown that this word corresponds with the
Anc. G. itis, pi. itisi; A. S. ides, pi. idesa; and that it originally sig. a
female, but was afterwards used in the sense of Nymph and Goddess.
It enters into the composition of several female names, as Thórdis, Frey-
dis, Vegdis, &c.
DÓLGTHRASIR : dólgr, a warrior: thrasir, from thrá, contentious, ob¬
stinate, persisting, from the v. thrasa, to litigate, to quarrrel.
DRAUPNIR, from the v. drupa, to droop, or the v. drjupa, to drip, cog.
with to drop; A. S. driopan, dripan; G. tropfen.
DRÓMI, strongly binding.
DÚFR, ph. from djûp, cog. with A. S. dypa; E. deep ; G. tiefe.
BUNEYRR, prob, from dynr, a hollow sound, from the v. dynja, to sound,
to resound; cog. with the E. din: and eyra; D. ore; G. ohr; A. S. ear;
E. ear.
DURATHRÓR : dt. etym. The first sylb. may be derived either from
dur, a light sleep, or from dyr, a door; and the last, either from the
V. threyja, to expect, to wait for; or from thróa, to increase, to enlarge.
BURINN, prob, from dur, a light sleep, cog. with the v. dusa, to fall asleep;
whence prob, the E. to doze, and ph. also dusk,
DVALINN, from dvali, sleep.
EIKINSKJALDI, furnished with an oaken shield: from eik, the ilex oi"
scarlet oak; and skjöldr, shield.
550
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
EIKTHYRNIR, Eik is the ilex or scarlet oak;thyrnir, a thorn. There¬
fore an iliceous or arboriferous thorn, used prob, metaphorically for a stag's
antlers.
EINHER J AR, sing. EINHERI, i. e. einii, one, unique; and heri, a hero»
conseq. select, chosen heroes.
EIR : dt. etym. ph. from v. eira, to befriend, to tranquillize.
ELDHRÍMNIR : eldr, elementary fire; hrim, congealed vapour, rime,
also soot ; hence (a kettle) sooty from fire. See Andhrimnir.
ELIVÁGrAR, stormy waves: el, more recent jel, a storm: vagr, the sea,
an estuary; cog. with SL vaya, water; G. woge; H. wave.
ELLI, old age.
ELVÍDNIR, ph. from el, a storm; and vi'Sr, wide.
EMBLA. The etymologies of the name of the first woman given by the
AJ. E. are merely conjectural, and therefore not worth repeating*. Grrimm
says the word embla, emla, Anc. G. emila, signifies a busy woman, from
amr, ambr, ami, ambl, assiduous labour ; and remarks that if it had been
Avritten Eskja, it would have corresponded to the mas. Askr, and the two
Avords would then have had the same relation as Meshiaand Meshiane, the
ancient Persian names of the first man and woman, who were also formed
from trees.
FALHÓFNIR : fal, either from fair, a nail, a lamina, or from feuLr, pale:
hófnir, from hófr, hoof.
FARMAGrUD, the God of Carriers and Sea-farers : farmr, a load, a cargo ;
from the v. fœra, to carry, to transport either by land or by water. See God.
FARMATYR, the same sig. as the preceding word. See Tyr.
FENRIR, vulgariter, FENRIS-ÚLFR, ph. also from fen, and may then mean
dweller in an abyss, or the monster Avolf, The N. úlfr; Sw. ulf; D. ulv;
is cog. with M. G. ATilfs; G. wolf; A. S. wulf ; E. wolf; also with L.
vulpes; and prob, with the N. v. yla; E. hyle; G. heulen; E. to howl;
L. ululare.
FENSALIR, lit. Fen-saloon, from fen, a fen, but which it would appear
may also be made to sig. the watery deep, or the sea; and salr, a hall,
mansion, saloon. See Valhalla.
FI M BUL : dt. etym. F. Mag. thinks it is cog. with A. S. fymble, a fable,
but this is a mere conjecture. Grimm regards it as an augmentative, like
jörmun (iimin)—see Jörmungandr—as in the words fimbulfambi, fim-
* F. Mag. changes by metathesis the Gr. word melia, an ash-tree, into
emlia, Avhich he soon transforms into emla and Embla, and hence concludes
that the ash furnished the materials for both man and woman. It is ob¬
vious, however, that by proceeding in this manner we might conjure Embla
out of a score of words, some of them probably as significant as the one on
Avhich the learned Icelander has exercised his ingenuity. In fact, if it had
not clashed Avith his Yggdrasill theory, he Avould perhaps have derived
Embla by metathesis from the N. almr, an elm tree, Avhich would have been
a more appropriate deriA'ation, though equally conjectural.
GLOSSARY.
551
bulthul^ fimbulvetr, fimbultyr, &c. From fimbulfambi comes tlie E.
provincialism, to fimble-famble ; and the D. famle, to stammer, to hesitate
in speaking.
FIMBÜLTHUL. Thuir means an orator or reciter, from v. thylja, to re¬
cite, to speechify ; but the etym. of thul is unknown.
FIMBÜLVETß : vetr, winter; conseq. according to Grimm's explanation of
fimbul, the Great Winter.
FJALARR and FJÖLNIR. Multiform : from fjöld, in composition fjöl,
many; cog. with G. viel.
FJÖLSVIDR or FJÖLSVITHR. The last sylb. from v. svi'Sa; D. svide,
to scorch ; or ph. from svithr, wise, powerful, cog. with M. Gr. svinths ;
A. S. swK, potent, strong.
FJÖRGYN : dt. etym. The E. E. derive it from fj or, life, and vinr, a
friend, the g being interposed; but Grimm, we think, has satisfactorily
shown that fjörg is the G. berg, a mountain.
FJORM, prob, either from fjör, life, or fjarr, far.
FOLKVÁNGR or FÓLKVÁNGAR, lit. the folk's field, or habitation:
folk ; A. S. folc ; Sw., D. and E. folk ; G. volk : vangr, an inclosure, a
field; cog. with G. wohnung, habitation.
FORSETI, lit. the Fore-seated, ?. e. the Judge, corresponding lit. to the
G. Vorgesetzte : seti, from the v. sitja, to sit.
FRÁNANGURS-FORS, prob, from fránn, glittering, and öngr, narrow;
or the obs. ángr, a frith, a river : fors, a force, still used to sig. a water¬
fall in the North of England.
FREKI, from frekr; G. frech, froward : the word has also the sig. of
voracious.
FREYR and FREYJA. F. Mag. explains Freyr (which he also writes
Fraeir), the name of the deity who was the symbol of the sun—to mean the
Seminator, the Fructifier, from the N. frió, free ; Stv. and D. fro, seed ; and
that of Freyja—the symbolical representation of the moon—to be the f.
of it, and mean the Seminated, the Fructified ; but these, like the greater
part of F. Mag.'s etymologies, are far more conjectural than grammatical.
Grimm, with his usual profound knowledge of the subject, traces the
grammatical affinities of these words through all the Anc. Teutonic lan¬
guages, and shows that the original sig. is that of glad, joyful, imparting
gladness, beauteous, lovely. See his Deut. Alytli. p. 191 and 279. See also
the note page 3i2.
FRIGGA, prop. FRIGG. Grimm has shown that the root of this word is,
if not strictly syn., at least very nearly allied with that of the word
Freyja, and explains it tornean the Free, the Beauteous, the Winsome. See
Dent. Myth. p. 276, et seq.
FROSTI, the E. frosty.
FULLA, abundance ; from fullr, full.
FUNDINN, found ; from v. finna, to find.
GANDÁLFR. Álír, an elf : first sylb. of dt. etym., prob. sig. a wolf, a
serpent.
Ö52
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
GANGtLER, prop. GANGLERI, the tired wanderer: gang, from v. ganga,
to go, to gang : leri, from v. lára, to debilitate, to tire.
GANGRAD, prop. GANGRADR, indicates a person directing his steps:
gángr, a step, a gang ; ra'Sr, from v. ra'Sa, to advise ; cog. with G. rathen.
GARDROFA, Fence-breaker : garí5r, a guard or fence, (see Asgard) : rofa,
from the v. rofna, to break, to break through. •
GARMR, ph. from gérr, voracious, a word prob. cog. with L. gurges; A. S
gara; E. to gorge; F. gourmand.
GAUTR, ph. may sig. a keeper, from v. gseta, to keep.
GEFJON, prob, from the v. gefa, to give; hence The Donatrix. F. Ma^.,
who writes the word Géfjón, is inclined to make gé cog. with the Gr.
Ta; A. S. geard, the earth; and explains fjón to mean separation, disrup¬
tion ; but it is needless to add that this is a mere conjecture, to suit a par¬
ticular theory.
GBFN, from the v. gefa, to give; hence The Donatrix.
GEIROLUL, Ft. Spear-alimentrix : geir, from geirr, a spear; ölul, from the
V. ala, to aliment, to nourish.
GEIRRAUDR, or GEIRRÖDR, lit. spear-red; hence King Spear-rubifier.
GEIRVIMÜL : vimul is ph. from the v. veifa, to vibrate; hence the sig.
would be, a river rushing or vibrating like a spear or javelin.
GELGJA, from gálgi, a gallows.
GERDA, prop. GERDUR, the nom. m. of which would be Ger^r, which
has the same meaning as the E. word girth, being derived from the
V. gir'Sa, to gird, which is cog. with gar^Sr. See Asgard. Both gerd and.
gard are common terminations of female names, as Hildigard, Irminigard,
Thorgerda, &c.
GERI, or GÉRI. Géri, maybe derived from gérr, covetous, greedy; cog. with
G. gierig, begehren; and with E. gear.
GIMLI. Grimm observes that, in the Edda, Gimli is the dative case,.
"k gimli," and he thinks that the nom. was gimill, and had the same sig.
as himül, heaven. The E. E. derive it however from gimr, the original
sig. of which may ph. have been fire, but afterwards a gem, as in the N,
word gimsteinn; Al. gimme; A. S. gim, gymstan; E. gem; whence also
our colloquial words, gim, gimmy (neat), and gimcrack.
GINNARR, Seducer; from v. ginna, to seduce.
GINNÚNGA-GAP maybe rendered the gap of gaps; the yawning, gaping
abyss. See Grimm's explanation of the word, (in his Dent. Mythol. 2nd
edit. p. 525,) which we prefer to that of F. Mag. and the E. E.
GJALLAR (horn) ; from the v. gjalla, to resound, to clang; cog. with A. S,
giellan ; E. to yell.
GJÔLL, prob, from gjallr, sonorous, fulgid.
GLADR, glad ; from v. glcSja, to gladden.
GLADSHEIMR: lit. Glad's-home; the abode of gladness or bliss : gla'Sr;
D. glad; A.S. glsed; E. glad: heimr has the sig. both of home and
world, and in composition denotes abode, region. This word is common to all
GLOSSARY.
553
the Teutonic lang, iV. heirar; I. heimi; Sw. hem; D. hiem; M. G. haim;
G. heimath, in composition heim ; A. 8. hám ; E. home.
from glaer, clear, pellucid; cog. with E. glare.
GLEIPNIR, the Devouring; from the v. gleipa, to devour.
GLITNIR, the Glittering ; from the v. glitra; cog. with A. 8. glitenan; E. to
glitter, and to glisten.
GLÓINN, the Glowing; from v. glóa, cog. with A. 8. glowan ; E. to glow ;
G. glühen.
GOD. The Old iV. lang, has two words for God, viz. Go^ and Gu^; and
it would appear that the n. go^ was used for an idol, and the m. gu'S for
a God. Björn Haldorsson, in his "Lexicon Islando-Latino-Danicum,"
renders the word God (prop. GO'S) by idolum, and Gud (prop. GuS) by
Deus, summum et unicum numen. Both words are, however, frequently
applied to denote a celestial deity. GySja is used for Goddess and Priest¬
ess. The Scandinavian Pontiff-chieftains were called GoSar (in the sing.
GoSi). See the note page 289. The forms of the word God in the Teutonic
lang, are, M. G. Guth; Anc. G. Cot; G. Gott; Old 8x., Old Fr., A. 8.,
E., and Dt. God; N. GoS and Gu'S; 8w. and D. Gud. Grimm says
{Deut. Mytkol. p. 12) that the radical signification of the word has not
been ascertained, but he shows that there is a grammatical difference be¬
tween the words in the Teutonic lang. sig. God and good, which will not
admit of their being regarded as originally syn. Good is in M. G.
gods; Anc.G. cuot; Oid G. guot; G. gut; A. 8. god; E. good; Et.
goed ; N. góSr ; 8w. and Z). god. He also remarks that the word Goth
has still less affinity with the word God. The Goths called themselves
Gutans ; in Anc. G. Kuzun; N. Gotar; but observes that if the P.
Rhoda can be derived from the Zend qvadata ; 8k. svadáta, a .se datus,
increatus, a very appropriate etym. of the word God would be fur¬
nished.
GÖLL, the same etym. as Gjöll.
GOMUL, prob, from gamall, old.
GOPUL, prob. fi:om v. gapa, to gape.
GRÁBAKR, Gray-back.
GRÁFJOLLÜDR, Gray-skin: from the obs. Çall, cog. with G. fell, the
skin of an animal.
GRAFVITNIR, from the v. grafa, to dig, to delve; cog. with E. grave :
and the v. vita, to know; cog. with M. G. vitan; A. 8. witan; E. to
wit, wist, wot.
GRÍMAR, and GRÍMNIR. These words with the i accented may be derived
from an obs. N. word grima, a helmet, or any kind of a covering; without
the accent from grimrar, the E. grim. The former would be a more appro¬
priate derivation for the name of Odin, viz.. The Helmeted : grima is also
used poetically for night, the sun being then veiled or covered.
GULLINBURSTI, Golden-bristles: gull, gold; bursti, cog. with G.
borste, bristle.
GULLTOPPR, Golden-mane : toppr, apex, crest, the top of any thing,
hence mane.
554
KOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
CrUNNLAUTH or GTJNNLÖD, from gunnr, see the following word,
and lauth, ph. from the v. latha, to invite ; G. einladen.
OUNNTHEÁ, GÜNNTHRAINN, GÜNNTHRÓ, and GÜNNÜR. The
first sylb. of these words is from gunnr, war, a combat. The second sylb.
of the three first words may be derived from the v. throa, to increase, to
enlarge ; or from the v. thrá, threyja, to desire : thrá also sig. grief, cala¬
mity ; and thro, a cavitj--, a fosse. From gunnr is derived the gunn-
fáni, a war-banner; Barb. L. gunnfanones; It. gonfalone; F. gonfanon:
fána is cog. with G. fahne; A. S. fana; E. banner; and ph. also wdth the
E. word fan.
GYLLIR, from gull, gold.
HÁBRÓK. The E. E. render this word by Altipes, from bar, high; and
brók, lit. breeches, brogues, but which they assume may also sig. a
bird's leg.
HALLINSKITHI, or HALLINS.KIDI ; F. Mag. derives it from v. balk,
to decline ; and skei'S, course, space ; hence it would be an appropriate
term for the post-meridian sun.
HAMSKERPIR, prob, from hams, hide; and the v. skérpa, to sharpen, also
to dry, to indurate.
HANGAGÜD, from v. hánga, to hang; and gu'S, see God.
HAPTAGUD, ph. from haupt, a nexus, a tie, a band ; gu^, see God.
HAR, prop. HÁR or HÁRR, may mean either high or hairy. As a de¬
signation of Odin it has undoubtedly the former signification The High ;
and is cog. with E. höj ; M. G. hauhs; G. hoch; A. S. heáh; E. high.
As the name of a dwarf, the latter sig. would be more appropriate.
HÁRBARDR, Hairy-beard.
HATI, ph. contracted from hatandi, the part, of v. hata, to hate.
HEIDRUN, prop. HEIDRÚN : dt., etjun. ph. from hei'Sr, serene, etherial;
or hoi's, cog. with M. G. haithja ; G. beide; A. 3. hœS; E. heath.
HEIMDALLR : heimr, home, the world; but of dall we have found no
satisfactory explanation.
HELA, prop. HEL., gen. HELJAR, the Goddess of the Infernal Regions,
used instead of Helheimr for those regions themselves. A word of dt.
origin ; the E. E. are of opinion that its primary sig. was intense cold,
and that it is cog. with the L. gelu, and was afterwards employed to
denote, 1 st, the chill of death ; and 2nd, a frigid region, the abode of the
dead ; but, as is usually the case, Grimm gives a much more probable
derivation from a v. hilan, to conceal, in which sense it would sig. a
subterraneous cavity, a hole, which is prob, a cog. word. Be this as it
may, all the Teutonic nations on their conversion to Christianity applied
this word to denote the place where, according to popular notions, the
souls of the wicked are punished hy fire. Thus, M. G. halja; Old G.
hellia, hella; G. hölle; A. S. helle; E. hell; I. helviti (prop, the pains
of hell) ; D. helvede, &c.
HELBLINDI : hel, see the preceding word; blindi, from blundr, slumber;
ph. cog. with E. blunder and blunt; also cog. with JT. blindr, E. blind.
GLOSSAEY.
5Ö5
HEPTT, prob, means impeding, constraining, from heptr, part, of v. hepta,
more recent hefta; cog. with M.G. gahaftjan; O. haften; A. S. hseftan,
to seize, to take by force, to adhere to; hence the I. hepti, hefti; A. S.
and D. hseft; G. hefte; E. haft.
HERFJÖTUß, lit. Host's-fetter, i. e. having the power to impede or con¬
strain an army at will : her, an army, a host, a multitude ; M. G. harjis ;
G. heer. Sh. hara, a destroyer; P. herameh, a pillager. Z. Hereté; I,
Hertogi; Z). Hertug; G. Herzog, Duke. I. Herra; D. Herre; G. Herr,
Mr. or Grentleman; cog. with Gr. and L. heros; E. hero. N. v. herja, to
make war; cog. with G. verheeren; A. S. herían; E. to harrow. Fjöturr,
H. Ä fetor; E. fetter; G. fessel.
HERJANN, the leader of an army; from her.
HERMOD, prop. HERMODR : her from her, {see Herfjötur) ; motSr,
courage, {see Modgudur.)
HERTEITR, gay amongst warriors, a jovial soldier: teitr, glad, joyful.
HILDUR (Hilda). Grrimm has satisfactorily shown thathildr is an old word
common to all the Teutonic lang, with the same sig. as gunnr, war, a
combat. Hence we find it in a number of Teutonic prop, names both m.
and f., as Hilderic, Childeric, Hildegrim (the Helm of War), Brynhildr
(Brunhilda), Clothild (Clotilda), &c.
HIMINBJÖRGr, the Heavenly-Mountains. Âée the note, page 42 : bjÖrg,
pl. of bjarg ; G. berg, a rock, a mountain. It is very singular, as Grrimm
remarks in his Deut. Mythol. p. 661, that whereas the word heaven is in
N. himin; M.G. himins; Anc. G. himil, himmel; it should be in Old
Sx. hëbhan, hëvan; A. S. heofon. He derives himin from a v. himan, to
cover, to bedeck ; and heofon from a lost Grothic word hiba, haf. which he
compares with the L. capio; it consequently means the Comprehending,
the All-embracing.
HIMINBRJÔTR, tieaven-breaking : from the v. brjota, to break.
HJÁLMBERI, Helmet-bearing: hjalmr, a helmet; beri, from v. bera,
to bear, to wear.
HJÚKI, ph. from v. hjiika, to keep warm, to nourish, to cherish.
HLIDSKJALF, ph. from hliii ; A. S. hli'S, a slope, a declivity; or prob,
from hlfô, a gate ; cog. with the E. lid, a cover : skjálf, ph. from the v.
skjálfa; A. S. scylfan, to waver, to tremble; hence expressive of the
ambient air. Grrimm, however, derives the word from skjalf ; A. S.
scylfe; E. shelf.
HLINA, prop. HLÍN. Grimm derives this word from the root hláin, cog,
with the Gr. hXÍvm, L. clino ; and explains it to mean the support on
which a person leans, i. e. a tutelary deity.
HLJÓDÁLFR, the Genius or Elf of Sound: hljó'S; D. liud, 1yd; G.
laut; A. S. hlúd, a sound; hence E. loud.
HLÓD YN, prop. HLODYN, the name of Frigga, as the symbol of the earth.
Grimm has shown that the primary sig. of bio's is a hearth, or prop, a pile,
ara, from v. hlathan, to pile up ; the sig. of the word is coiiseq. Protectress
of the hearth—of the household. The Romans also worshipped a goddess
556
NOETHEEN ANTIQUITIES.
of the earth and of fire under the cemmon name of Fornax, dea fomacalis.
See Ovid. Fast. 2, 513. Grimm mentions a stone found at Cleves with
the remarkable inscription—deae hludanae sacevm 0. tiberivs vervs,
and remarks that Hludana was neither a Roman nor a Celtic goddess, and
could be no other than Hlódyn, which shows the identity of the German
and Scandinavian Mythology.
HLÖKK, or HLAUKK. F. Mag. derives this word from the v. hlakka,
to exalt, to clang, to cry like an eagle, a v. which he thinks may be cog.
with the v. hlaegja; M. G. hlajan; G. lachen; A. S. hlehan; H. to laugh.
But Grimm gives a more prob, derivation from hlokk; Old G. hlancha, a
chain; hence it would have much the same sig. a? Herfjotur.
HNIKARR, or NIKARR, NIKKARR, and HNIKUDR, or NIKUZ.
Of dt. origin. The E. E. compare these words with the Gr. üikÚtu^, a
victor, a conqueror. F. Mag. derives them from v. hnika, to move, to agitate ;
cog. with v. hnikkja, to thrust forward, to take by violence ; and hnekkja,
to repel, to impede ; and thinks they maj'' be cog. with G. knacken ; E.
knack, knock. Grimm has proved the identity of the JV. Hnikar, Nikuz,
with the Old G. Nichus ; G. m. Nix, fem. Nixe, an aquatic genius. We
may remark that the monks having transformed Odin into the devil, our
designation of his Satanic Majesty, as Old Nich appears to be a mere
corruption of these appellations of the Teutonic divinity.
HNOSSA, prop. HNOSS, ph. from hno'Sa, a ball of yam, a clew of thread,
a knot ; G. knoten.
HÖDUR, prop. HÖDR, HÖDUR ; very dt. etym. Grimm thinks that the
original signification may have been war, combat.
HÓFVARPNIR: hóf, hoof: varpnir, from v. varpna ; G. werfen, to
throw, i. e. a horse that plies well its hoofs, a good goer.
HORN, a hom, applied prob, to denote the impetuosity of a fluviatile
current.
nR.®SVELGUR, lit. Raw-swallower, i.e. swallowing raw flesh like an
eagle. N. hrae; Al. hreu; A. S. hrsew, sig. a corpse; cog. with A. S.
hreaw; E. raw: svelgur, from v. svelgja; cog. with D. svselge; A. S.
swelgan; E. swill, swallow; G. schwelgen, &c.
HRAFNAGUD, the Ravens' god: hrafn; G. rabe; E. raven.
HRÍMFAXI : brim, rime, or hoar frost ; G. reif : fax, a crest, a mane.
The E. prop, name Fairfax, means fair-haired.
HRÎMTHURSAR, the Rime or Frost Giants : thurs, a giant, is a word
of very dt. origin.
HRINGHORN, lit. a ringed or annulated hom.
H RIST, from v. hrista, to shake, to agitate; cog. with Z). ryste; G. rütteln;
and with A. S. hristlan; E. rustle.
HRYM, HRYMÜR, prob, fromhrím, rime—hoar frost.
HUGI, and HUGINN, from hugr, spirit, breath, thought, mind, reason.
HVERGELMIR, the roaring cauldron : hver, a cauldron, a spring of
hot water; ph. cog. with E. whirl and wheel : for gelmir, see ör-
gelmir.
GLOSSABT.
557
HYRROKIN, lit. Smoky-fire : hyr, fire : rokin, from rauk, utter darkness,
also smoke ; cog. with O. rauch.
IDAVÖLLR : völlr, a field, a place, see note, p. 293. The etym. of fôa is
very doubtful, among the conjectures of F. Mag. the most prob, would be
from the v. yda, to flow together; or from idja, to work; but to which he
also attaches the sig. of to ramble, to take a pleasant walk ; but such etym.
are like too many of F. Mag's., quite conjectural.
IDUNA, prop. IDUNN or TTHUNN : dt. etym. F. Mag. derives id,
like ida, either from the v. idja, or the v. yda ; and the last sylb. is prob,
from V. unna, to love ; and in this manner, Iduna may mean one who loves
either the confluence of waters, or to work, or to take a pleasant
ramble.
JAFNHÁR. The Equally High; lit. even so high {see Hár) : jafn ;
Z>..jaevn; G. eben; A. S. efen; E. even.
JARNVIDR, Iron-wood: jam; D. jern; M.G. eisarn; G. eisen; E.
iron : vi'Sr, wood, see Vidar.
JÖRD, JÖRTH, M. G. airtha; Âne. G. ërda; A. ä. eor'Se ; E. the
earth.
••
JORMUNGrx\NDR. Gandr sig. serpent, and more prop, wolf: jörmun is a
word of uncertain origin, but appears in all the anc. Teutonic lang, to have
expressed the idea of great, maximus, universal. We have thus the
famous Irminsúl or Irmansúl of the Saxons rendered in Latin by univer¬
salis columna. In Anc. G. inninthiod; A. S. eormencyn, sig. mankind in
general; in like manner the A. ä eormengrund ; N. jörmungrund, the
Avhole earth. The word also enters into the composition of prop, names, as,
for instance, in that of the celebrated Gothic King, called in Latin Erman-
ricus,—which in Al. G. would be Airmanareiks ; in N. Jörmunrekr; in
A. S. Eormenric—and in the Hermioiies and Hermunduri of the classic
Avriters. The Ermingestrete of the latter A. Sx. and Old E. writers (in
pure A. S. Eormenesstraet), has the same etym. The reader will find
much curious information on this subject in Grimm's admirable work,
p. 104, 327, et seq.
JÖTUNHEIMR, lit. Giants'-home, the region of the Giants. Grimm re¬
marks that the Old N. for giant is iötunn (not jotunn), and is cog. with
the M. Ä. eoten, eten; Old E. etin, ettin; Scotch ettyn, eyttyn ; Old Sx.
etan, eten ; and thinks it may be derived from the Ñ. v. éta; M. G. ïtan;
A. S. etan, to eat; and might therefore be rendered by Polyphagos.
KÉRLAUG : kér, any kind of vessel, cup, bowl. See. ; also used to denote
the bed of a river. The root of laug, lögr, may be the N. lá, liquor, and
it would appear also in its primary sig. the sea: hence N. v. laga, to
flow; leka, to trickle. To this root may be traced a number of cog.
words in the Ind. E. lang., as N. laug; G. lauge; A.ä lœg; E. lye;
L. lixivium. N. V. lauga ; L. lavare; E. to lave. N. lögr; Al. lug ;
A. S. lagu (water); E. lake; L. lacus ; and the lough, loch, and llwch of
the Celtic languages.
K J ALA RR, prob, from v. kjala, to transport, to convey; whence prob, kjöll ;
A. S. ceol, a ship, a keel.
558
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
KVÁSIR. This word seems to be foreign to the Teutonic lang., and ph.
may be cog. with the SI. kvas, leaven ; also used in the sense of a drink¬
ing bout.
LAUFEY, lit. Frondiferous-isle : lauf, cog. with 0. laube ; E. leaf : ey, an
island.
LÉTTFETI, Lightfoot: léttr, D. let; G. leicht; A. S. leoht; E. light:
fótr, pl. fœtur ; D. fod; M. G. fotus ; G. ftiss; A. S. fot; E. foot.
LÍFTHRASIE, vital energy, longevity : líf, life : thrasir, from thrár, perti¬
nacious, i. e. enduring a long time.
LITUR, ph. from litr, colour, complexion, form; cog. with D. löd; Svj. let,
colour; iT/. (?. vlits; A. S. lyt, form: JV. andlit ; M.G, andauleizns;
A. S. andwlit ; G. antlilz, the face.
LÓDURR, LÓDR, LÓTHR, from the ob. N. Id's, fire.
LOFNA, prop. LOFN, appears allegorically to denote perennial and un¬
changeable love ; the word is cog. with the JV. v. lofa ; G. loben, to praise,
and with the 31. G. hubs; G. liebe; Dt. liefde; A. S. lufu; E. love.
LOGI, Flame : a word cog. with 3£. G. v. liuhan, to shine, and liuhath ;
G. licht ; A. S. leoht ; E. light : also with the D. lue ; G. lohe, a smo¬
thered flame, and ph. with the E. log, i. e. a log of wood burnt or to be
burnt.
LOK I, has prob, the same etym. as Logi, though it may also be derived from
V. loka and lûka ; 31. G. lúkan ; A. S. lúcan, to shut; whence the E.
lock. The N. loka also sig. to finish.
LOPTTJR, the Aerial, the Sublime: from lopt; 31. G. luftus; G. and D.
luft : A. S. lyft, the air ; whence the E. lofty and aloft, also a (hay) loft.
LifNGVI, from lyng or ling, the sweet broom, heath or ling.
M AGNI, the Potent, the Powerful; from magn, force, energy; cog. with
31. G. mahts ; G. macht ; A. S. miht ; E. might ; also with the L. mag-
nus; Sk. maha, mahima.
JMÁNAGARMR, lit. the moon's wolf : garmr, a monster wolf or dog, prob,
from gérr, voracious. See Géri and Máni.
MÁNI. Sw. mane; D. maane; 31. G. ména; Al. máno; G. mond; A. S.
mona ; E. moon ; Dt. maan ; Sk. masi ; P. mah, mai, mank. In ail the
Ancient Teutonic languages moon is of the masculine, and sun of the
feminine gender. In the Slavonic languages moon is mas., star/em., and
sun neuter. Until a very late period the people in some parts of Ger¬
many were fond of showing a proper respect to the sun and moon, by
calling them Frau Sonne and Herr 3íond; for instance, a popular
expression cited by Grimm (page t)6I), " Frauw Sonne geht zu rast und
gnadin F (Mrs. Sun goes to rest and grace;) and he adds, that near Sal-
zach. "Her 3Ián," (Mr. Moon,) is quite a common expression.
MARDOLL, Sea-nymph : from mar; M. G. marei; SI. more; M.Ä mere,
the sea; whence our word mere, as Windermere, Buttermere, &c. : doll,
a nymph; poetically a woman; ph. cog. with the E. word, doll.
MEGINGJARDIR, the Girdle of Might, the Belt of Prowess: megin.
C^LOSSARY.
55Ö
might, prob, from v. megna, to be able, cog. with A. S. msegen, power,
miracle, &c. ; E. main, as the mainland (/. meginland) ; P. mih, mihin,
great, powerful : gjardir, from the v. girda. See Grerda and Asgard.
MIDGrARD, prop. MIDGARDR, answers to the M. G. midjungards;
Anc. G. mittiligart ; A. S. middangeard (Csedm. and Beow.) and midde-
weard, the middleward; see Asgard. The N. mi'Sr is cog. with M. G.
midums, midia; (r. mitte, mittel; A. S. midd, midien; E. middle, mid¬
dling, mean ; Sk. madhyam, medhi ; Z. meiao ; P. mijan ; Gr. &c.
MÍMIR, or MIMER : dt. etym. Grimm thinks that written with a short
i, it may be cog. with A. S. mimor, gemimor, mimerian (to keep in
memory) ; mimeren (to be fanciful) ; and with the L. memor (mindful) ;
and the Gr, y,iy,tofj!.oí¡.
MIST, prob, from the same root and the same sig. as the I. mistr; A. S.
myst, mist; E. mist, a fog.
MJÖDVITNIR, lit. knowing in mead: mjö'S; G. meth; A. S. meodu,
medu; E. mead (hydromel), prob. cog. with Gr. P. mei, wine; Sk.
madja, palm-wine : vitnir, see Grafvitnir.
MJÖLNIR, or MJÖLLNIR, prob, from v. melja, to pound, or v. mala, to
grind ; both cog. also cog. with the G. mahlen (to grind), and G. miihle ;
E. mill, and prob, with L. malleus, a mallet ; and ph. with the SI, molnija
and munja (lightning .
MODGUDUR, prop. MODGÚDUR, a valiant female warrior, animosa bol¬
lona: ma's, from mó'Sr; G. muth, courage; G. gem'iith, mind; cog.
with A. S. mod ; E. mood ; Sk. anmodo ; G. anmuth, gracefulness, delec¬
tation ; Sk. unmadoh ; G. unmuth, ill humour ; gii'Sur, from gu'Sr, which
has the same sig. as gunnr. See Gunnthrá.
MODI, prop. MÓDI, from mó'Sr. See MoSguSur.
MODSOGNIR, lit. sucking in courage or vigour : from móSr, and v. sjúga;
G. saugen ; A. S. súcan ; E. to suck.
MÓINN, ph. from moi; I. mór, a moor, i. e. dwelbng on a moor.
MÜNINN, from munr, cog. with M. G. gamund; A. S. mynd, gemynd; E.
mind; A. mens; Gr. ¡/.i'joí, whence /¿ivoivn, impetus animi', Sk. manah ;
Z. manó ; P. menish, manish : iY. minni ; D. minde, memory, recollec¬
tion ; G. minne, love *.
* Although we have hitherto never felt the least inclination to indulge in
conjectural etymology, having been too frequently warned from treading its
slippery paths by the amusing vagaries of those who ride some favourite
hobby or other roughshod along them, still we cannot refrain for once from
noticing the curious coincidence between the names of Odin's ravens, Hugin
and Munin—Mind and Memory—and those of two personages who figure so
often in our comic literature, as Messrs. Huggins and Muggins. Huggins,
like Hugh, appears to have the same root as Hugin, viz. Imgr, mind, spirit;
and as Mr. Muggins is as invariably associated with Mr. Huggins as one of
Odin's ravens was with the other (as Mind is with Memory), the name
may originally have been written Munnins, and changed into gg for
560
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
MÜSPELLHEIMR, orMUSPELLSHEIMR,the Muspell region, or Mus-
peil's region or home. The word muspell is evidently used in the sense of
elemental or empyreal fire; but its etym. is quite unknown, for we
cannot accept even Grimm's conjectural derivation of the word, given
in the Deiit. 3iythol, p. 769,
NAGLFAR and NAGLFARI. F. Mag. derives nagl, from nagli, a nail
(clavus), but it is more prob, from nagl, a human nail (unguis), being,
according to the Prose Edda, c. 51, "constructed of the nails of dead
men far, from v. fara; M. G. and A. S. faran; G. fahren; E. to &re,
in the sig. of going—as a sea-faring man.
NAL. G. nadel; A. S. naedl; E. a needle.
NÁLI, ph. the same sig. as Nal.
NANNA. Grimm derives this word from the v. nenna, to dare, andere,
and observes that in M. G. the form would have been Nanthó, from the
V. nanthjan, and in Anc. G. Nandá, from the v. ginendan. F. Mag. is
also inclined to derive it from the v. nenna, which he renders, however,
by/awre, amare, indulgere.
NAR, a corpse.
NÁSTROND. Both ná and nár, sig. a corpse: strcind (pi. strandir), a
strand ; hence The Strand of the Dead.
NAUDUR, NAÜTHR, necessity: cog. with M. G. nauths; G. noth;
A. S, neód ; E. need.
NAUT, ph. from the v. njóta, to make use of; cog. with M. G. niutan; G.
nutzen and geniessen ; A. S. noten.
NIDAFJÖLL, from ni'Sr, downwards, and fjall; D. fjœld; G. fais, a rock,
a mountain.
NIDHÖGG, prop. NIDHÖGGR: ni'Sr, downwards: ny ok is a phrase
used to indicate the new and the waning moon ; ni'S might thus be met.
used for darkness : höggr, from the v. höggva; A. S. heawen; E. to hew;
G. hauen ; cog. with N. hakka ; G. hacken ; E. to hack and to hackle :
hence Nidhögg may be rendered by the Tenebrous Hewer or Gnawer.
NIDI, from ni'Sr, downwards.
NIFLHEIMR, lit. Nebulous-home—the shadowy region of death. See
Muspellheimr. Nifl, cog. with G. nebel; L. nebula; Gr. ve^íXhj.
NIFLHEL, from nifl and bel. See the latter word.
NIFLÚNGAR; G. Nibelunge and Nibelungen. The mythic-heroic sept
of the Niflungians would be the descendants of a N. hero, Nsefill or NefiU,
and a G. Nebel—ghosts of the shadowy realms of death. See Grimm,
p. 760. Úngar sig. a progeny, the pi. of úngr; D. ung; G. and A. S.
jung; E. young; cog. with L. junior; ob. L. junis; Sk. juva, juvana. See
note, p. 278.
the sake of euphony. Should this conjecture, for it is nothing else, be well
founded, one of the most poetical ideas in the whole range of mythology
would in this plodding, practical, spinning-jenny age of ours, have thus
undergone a most singular metamorphosis.
GLOSSARY.
561
NIPINGß, ph. from nipr, handsome; or from v. hnippa^ hneppa, to contract,
to curve.
NJÖRD, prop. NJÖRDR: very dt. etym. Grimm seems inclined to de¬
rive it from noySr, north ; M one from v. nsera; (?. nähren, to nourish.
The goddess Nerthus that Tacitus mentions is no doubt identic Avith
Njord ; the M. Q. form Nairthus, would indicate both m. and f. gender.
The E. E. mention the Greek and Roman deity Nereus, and F. Mag. re¬
marks that the word may ph. be cog. with the Gr. humid ; Sk. nar,
nir, water; P- nere, a wave; and Neriman, an aquatic man.
NORDRI, from nor'Sr, north.
NORN, pi. NORNIR. Etym. quite unknown.
NÓTT; D. nat; M. O. naht; G. nacht; A. S. niht; E. night.
Nil, from ny, new. See Ni'Si. It would appear from their names that
these dwarfs were in some way or other symbolical of the new and the
waning moon.
NÍR, from ny, new.
NYRÁDR, from ny, and v. rá'Sa. See Gangrad.
NÍT, ph. from V. njóta. See Naut.
ODIN. According to Grinim the name of this supreme deity in the Teu¬
tonic languages is N. OiSinn ; M. G. Vódans; Anc. G. Wuotan (which
would of course be pronounced Vnotan). Longohardi wrote Wódan
and Guódan; the Old Saxons Wuodan, Wódan; the Westphalian Saxons
Guódan and Gudan. In A. S. we have Woden; Fr. Wéda; Fcerotc
Ouvin. Grimm derives the word from the Anc. G. v. watan, wuot; iV".
va^a, 0^, which has precisely the same sig. as the L. vadere, and sig.
meare, transmeare, cum impetu ferri, cog. with the E. to wade through,
consequently the Omnipotent Being thai permeates all things, "qui omnia
permeat—est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris," as Lucan says of
Jupiter. The Anc. G. sub. wuot; N. ó'Sr, sig. mind, sense—mens, Inge¬
nium; but the N. adj. ó^r, means rabid, furious, insane. The Anc. G.
sub. wuot, like the A. S. wód, also sig. rage; whence the G. wuth.
We may remark that several places still retain the name of Odin, as
Odensberg, Odenskirka, &c.,, in Sweden; the Odenwald, in Germany;
Wednesbury, in Staffordshire, &c.
ODUR, prop. ÓDR, or ph. ÓDR : if the former, the name of Freyja's
husband may be derived either from the sub. or adj. ó'Sr. See Odin.
Grimm remarks that S and d having been confounded in the Old N.
lang, renders etymological deductions uncertain. In A. S. wód. sig. rage,
and wóS, poetry. Odur might, therefore, like Kvasir, be the personifica¬
tion of poetry.
ÔDHRŒRIR, Mind-exciting; from óSr; (see Odin and OSur) and the
v. hrœra; Anc. G. hruoran; Old G. riieren; G. rühren, to stir. Grimm
remarks that the name of this vessel or kettle Avould have been in Anc. G.
Wuodhruori; and in A. S. WóShrére.
OFNIR, ph. from the v. vefa (óf, ofinn) ; D. vseve; AT.G. vaibjan; G.
weben ; A. S. wefan ; E. to Aveave. The Avord would thus sig. the textile
or creating poAver of Odin.
0 0
562
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
ÓMI, from ómr, a sound, a crash ; a name given to Odin, when, like the
Brahminic Indra, he rattles aloft during a battle, or at daybreak.
ÜNDURDÍS ; öndur, snow skates, a word prob, derived from the v,
andra, to go, cog. with D. vandre ; G. wandern ; A. S. wandrian ; E.
to wander ; It. andaré : dis, a nymph, a goddess. See Dis.
ORGELMIR : or, or, aur, are extensive particles. F. Mag. transposes
gelmir into gemlir, and it may then be derived from gamall, old; and
Örgelmir would then sig. very old—pervetustus, grandccvus—the Prim¬
ordial Griant. But Grimm, without having recourse to such a metathesis,
derives gelmir from v. gjalla, to roar, to howl, to clang, to resound ; cog.
with A. S. giellan ; E. to yell.
OE-I, ph. from órr, insane, delirious (with love), Ori being prob, one of the
Erotic Genii : órr is cog. with the A. S. yrre, wrath ; and G. irre, astray,
from the v. irren ; L. errare ; E. to err.
ÓSKI, from ósk ; D. önske; G. wünsch; E. wish: hence one who listens
to the wishes of mankind. Grimm, with his usual erudition, has shown,
how the German Minnesängern of the 13th century personified the word
wish. See DeiU. Mythol. p. 126.
EÁDGRID, prop. RÁDGRID, lit. seeking power with avidity: rá^,
power, empire council ; from the v. ratia : see Gangrad : gri'S, cestus
animi.
RÁDSVITHPc, or RÁDSVIDR : rá'S, see Gangrad : svithr, wise, powerful.
See Fjiilsvi^r.
RAGNARÖKR. The etym. of this word has exercised the ingenuity of
philologists, but we think that Grimm has given a very satisfactory ex¬
planation of it. At the very earliest period of the German lang, he
observes, the n. ragin signified ratli, council, the pi. of which, regin, is used
in the Eddaic Poems for the gods, "fib's regin," the blithe gods; "upp-
regin, ginregin," the powers above; that is to say, the consulting, delibe¬
rating deities. He explains rök, rökr, to mean darkness; and contends
that it cannot be derived from N. reykr ; G. ranch, smoke. It answers in
fact fully to the E. word raclc, indicating atmospheric nebulosity ; hence
Ragnarük is very approp. rendered by " The Twilight of the Gods," Cre-
pmscula deorurn.
R N, the Spoliatrix; from the v. rsena, to plunder, to snatch from; her
spoil being those who were drowned at sea.
RANDGRÍD : rand, from rond, a shield : grid, see Rádgrid.
RATATÖSKR, very dt. etym. Rata, according to Grimm, is evidently
from the v. rata; M. G. vratón, to permeate; and he conjectures that the
last sylb. may be derived from taska, pl. töskur ; G. tasche, a pocket or
pouch; hence peram piermeansî the Permeating Pouch ]
REGIN. The explanation of this word will be found under Ragnarokr. It
is often used in the sense of vast, immense ; as regnihaf, the vast sea ;
regindjup, the immense deep.
REGINLEIF, dear to the gods, see Regin : leifr, dear, cog. with G. lieb;
E. love.
GLOSSAEY.
5G3
EÍG-R : dt. etym. F. Mag, makes it syn. Avith the iV, Regin; L. Rex; SL
Raja, Rajah, a king.
RINDA, prop. RINDUR, sig. symbolically, according to Grimm, the crust
of the earth, being cog. with the Anc. G. rinta; G. rinde; A. Ä and
E. rind, cortex, the bark or crust of a tree.
ROSEA, ph. from adj. röskr, f. ransk, quick, lively, active; cog. with Sw.
and D. rask ; G. rasch ; E. rash.
SADR, SATHR, or SÁDR, SÁTHR. Without the accent it is syn. with
sannr, which means just, true; Sw. sann; D. sand; 31. G. sunjeins; A. S.
BO'S; E. sooth; A.Ä. só'Slice, in sooth, verily. With the accent its
derivation would be from sad ; D. saed ; G. saat ; A. S. sed ; E. seed :
hence Sádr would correspond to the L. Sator ; and F. Mag. conjectures may
be cog. with Saturnus.
S.3EGR, ph. syn. with sárr, a large vessel of any kind. The word was used
by the Skalds metaphorically for the sea.
SiEHRÍMNIR, or SERIMNIR : very dt. etym.
SiEKINN, ph. from v. ssekja; Siv. söka; D. söge; 31. G. sokjan; G.
suchen; A. S. secan; E. to seek.
SAGA. The personified saga or narration, from the v. segja, imp. sagda,
to say : cog. Avords are found in most of the Ind. E. lang., as 31. G. sagath ;
G. sage ; E. a saying ; L. Saga, a sorceress ; sagax, sagacious ; prsesagire,
to foretel ; P. sachen, &c.
SANNGETALL, inquiring after; lit. getting at, or guessing at truth:
from sub. sannr, truth {see Sadr, under which the Avords cog. with the
adj. sannr, true, are given), and v. geta, Avhich sig. both to guess and
to get.
SESSRÚMNIR, lit. Seat-roomy, i. e. having room for plenty of seats ; sess,
a seat; G. sitze: rum; G. raum; A. S. riiin; E. room.
SÍD, declining, hanging, tending dowuAvard.
SIDHÖTTR, lit. Hanging-hat or hood. iY. höttr; /. hattr; Äi'.,hatt; D.
hat ; G. hut ; A. S. haet ; E. hat and hood.
SÍDSKÉGGR, lit. Hanging-beard: skégg; Sw. skagg; D. skjseg, beard,
cog. with E. shag and shaggy.
SIF. Grimm supposes that from the 31. G. sibja; Anc. G. sippia; A. S.
sib; signifying peace,friendship,relationship, these nations had respectively
a goddess, Sibja, Sippia, and Sib, corresponding to the N. Sif, gen. Sifjar.
SIGFADIR, or SIGFÖDUR, the Father of Victory: sigr; Sw. seger;
D. sejer; Al. sigor; G. sieg; A. S. sige, victory; Sk. sigi, a victor: fablr;
J), fader; G. vater; A. S. fseder; .E. father; Sh. pider; Gr. and L,
pater.
SIGUNA, prop. SIGYN : very dt. etym.*
* The etym. must m fact be more than doubtful, AA^hen Fimi Magnusen,
who is never at a loss to catch up a Avord as he flies on his favourite hobby
in search of etymological spoil from Scandinavia to India, is obliged to admit
0 0
564
NOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
SILFßINTOPPR, Silver-mane: silfr; Su\ silfvor; Z). solv; M. G. silubr;
G. silber ; A. JS. sylfor ; JE. silver : toppr, see Gulltoppr.
SINDRI, either scintillating or producing dross: from sindr; Sw. sinder;
D. sinner; G. sinter, dross of iron; cog. with A. S. sinder; E. cinder.
SJÖFNA, prop. SJÖFN: very dt. etym, F. Mag. derives it from the v.
sjâ, to see.
SKADI, prop. SKADI : dt. etym. It would appear that the magpie re¬
ceived its name from this goddess as it is called in A^. ska'Si ; Sw. skata ;.
Z). skade*. The N. v. ska'Sa; D. skade; G. schaden, sig. to injure, and
is cog. with the E. word scath.
SKAFIDR, shaving, scraping: from the v. skafa; Z). skave; G. schaben;
A. S. scafen ; E. to shave.
SKÊGGÔLD, lit. Old-beard; see Sidskégg : but it appears that skegg also
denoted a particular kind of battle-axe.
SKEIDBRÍMIR may mean rapidly running fire, from skeiíS, a course, any
space of time that is elapsing; and brimi, fire, flame.
SKÍDBLADNIR, from skfô, which sig. 1st, a chip, lath, shingle, billet of
wood, and in this sense is cog. with G. scheit; L. schidium; Gr.
and 2nd, a sheath ; cog. with Z>. skede ; G. scheide ; A. S. sceath ; E.
sheath : bla'S ; G. blatt, a leaf ; cog. with E. blade, a blade or leaf of
grass.
SKILFÍNGR, prob, from v. skélfa, to shake, to shatter.
SKINFAXI, Shining-mane: skin, splendour, light; from v. skina; D.
skinne; G. scheinen; A. S. scinan; E. to shine; whence sheen. See
Hrimfaxi.
SKÍRNIR. "Vox skirnir œtherem ipsum sine ullâ allegoria dénotât,"
says F. Mag. Be this as it may, the word may be derived from skirr,
serene, pure, clear ; cog. with A. S. scir ; E. sheer, which had formerly the
same meaning.
SKOGUL, prob, from v. skaga, to jut out; whence skagi, a promontory.
SKOLL, ph. from v. skolla, to stick to, to adhere ; or v. skélla, to strike, to
smite.
SKULD. ÄeeUrd.
SLEIPNIR : dt. etym. F. Mag. derives it from sleipr, cog. with, and
the same sig. as the Sw. slipprig ; Z>. slibrig ; G. schlüpfrig ; E. slippery.
SLIDRUGTANNI : tanni, from tönn; Z). tand; 6?. zahne; E. tooth:
slidrig of dt. etym., ph. from a word cog. with 3Í. G. sleidja, cruel, fierce,
savage.
that " Etyma nominis hujus incerta sunt et id igitur variis modis, quœ meras
tantum conjecturas admittimt, explicari potest."—Mjtliol. p. 695.
* The reader will find some curious details of popular superstitions
respecting magpies, cuckoos, &c., in Grimm's Beut. M'jthol. p. 639, et
seq.
GLOSSART.
565
fiNOTRA, from snotr; M. G. smitrs; .¿í. ä snoter, prudent, polite, neat,
tidy, Grimm says prop, emiinctce naris; hence it would he equivalent
to the vulgar E. cog. word snot; A. S. snote, which is cog. with the N.
V. snyta; O. schnäutzen; A. S. snytan ; E. to snite, i. e. to blow the
nose ; a person, even a goddess, being much more tidy when the nostrils
are thoroughly enmnctated. A number of verbs beginning with sn denote
a nasal function, or are in some way indicative of the nose, as to snuff,
sneeze, snore, snarl, snuffle, snafHe, snivel, snub, sneer, &c. : to snuff is
cog. with the JV. v. snáfa ; D. snue ; G. schnupfen : to snore, with the A",
snörla and snarka ; E. snorke ; G. schnarchen : to snub with the N.
snubba.
SÖKKVABEKKR, lit. Sinking-brook: sbkkva, from the v. n. sokkva; Siv.
sjunka; D. synke; M. G. siggvan; G. sinken; A. S. sincan; E. to sink:
and V. a. sokkva ; Sw. sänka ; D. saenke ; G. senken ; A. S. sencan ; E.
to sink: bekkr, an estuary, a shore, a brook; Sw. back; D. bsek; G.
bach. The Scandinavian origin of several names of places in Normandy
is attested by the termination bee, as Caudebec, Beaubec, Robec, formerly
Rodebec (A. Rau'Sbekkr, i. e. Redbrook), Briquebec, &c.
SOL was the personified sunna (sun). There seems to have been a similar
relation between the M. G. sáuil and sunnó.
SÓN, very dt. etym. Grimm remarks that it has a radical affinity with
the Anc. G. suona, emendatio. F. Mag., who never hesitates to make a
word tally with a favourite theory, explains it to mean sound, song, sonus,
cantus.
SIJRTÜR, prop. SURTR, gen. SÜRTAR. Grimm is decidedly of opinion
that surtr is, if not exactly correlative, at least radically cog. with
svartr; Sio. svart; D. sort; M. G. svarts; G. schwartz ; E. swart,
swarth*.
SlTTTtJNGR, may prob, be a corruption of súptúngr, sipping-tongue,
from V. súpa; Siv. supa; D. suppe, sibe; G. saufen; A. S. supan; E.
to sup, and to sip : túnga ; D. tunge ; G. zunge ; A. S. tunge ; E.
tongue.
SVADILFARI: sva'Sil, ph. from sva'Si, lubricity, also slippery ice: fari,
from the v. fara. See Naglfar.
SVAFNIR, prob, from v. svefa, to cast asleep; whence sub. svefii, svafn,
sleep, quiet, repose ; cog. with D. sövn ; with obs. L. sopnus, and prob,
with SL svapal.
* Finn Magnusen also admits this derivation, but as it clashes with his
favourite theory, (see page 484,) he does not hesitate to explain swart to
mean obscure; obscure, invisible; and invisible, unintelligible ! ! and thus,
malgré his swarthiness, Surtur remains, according to Finn Ma^usen's
notions, the invisible, unintelligible being whom the ancient Scandinavians
regarded as " the great First Cause least understood " of fill things,
566
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
SV ALINN, the Refrigerating* svalr, frigid; from the v. svala; D. svale, ta
cool, to refrigerate.
SVARTÁLFAHEIMR, lit. Black or Swart Elves' home, i. e. the region
of the Elves of Darkness in contradistinction to that of the Elves of
Light.
SVARTHOFDI, Black-head: svartr, black, swart: höfu'S; Sw. hufvud; D.
hoved ; M. G. haubith ; O. haupt ; A. S. heafod ; E. head.
SVÁSUTHR, or SVÁSÜDR, Sweet-south: svá, from svas, blithe, jocund,
dear ; M. Q, svés ; G. süss ; A. S. swœs (dear) ; E. sweet : su'Sr, suthr,
south.
SV AUL, from svalr. See Svalinn.
SVIDR and SVIDRIR, from v. svi'Sa, to scorch ; or from svi'Sr, svithr, wise,
powerful. See Fjcilsvidr.
SVIPALL, prob, from v. svipa, to hasten, to vibrate; cog. with v. svifa; D.
svseve; G. schweben, to wave, to hover; also with E. v. to sweep.
SVOL, from svalr. See Svalinn.
SYLGR. As both the N. sub. sylgr and svelgr sig. a draught or degluti¬
tion, this word is prob, derived from v. svelgja; Sw. svalja; D. svaelge;
A. S. swolgen ; E. to swallow, to swill ; cog. with G. schwelgen, to guzzle,
to feast.
SYN. The E. E. derive this from v. synja, to deny; but Grimm remarks
that in M. G. a fine distinction was drawn between sunja, truth, and simjó,
defence, or proof of truth, prohatio veriiatis. This is also the case in N.
sannr, signifying equity ; syn. defence, excuse, negation, impediment, which
has been personified into a judicial goddess, Syn.
SÍNIR, having a fine appearance; being prob, from syn; D. syn; G.
gesicht; E. sight; N. v. sjá; D. see ; M. G. saihvan; G. sehen; A. S. seón ;
E. to see.
TANNGNIÓSTR, Gnashing-teeth : tann, from tcinn, see Slidrugtanni :
gnióstr, from v. gnista, to bruise, crack, grind, gnash.
TANNGRISNIR, from tönn, see Slidrugtanni; and grisinn, rare, erat in¬
tervals.
THEKKR, prob, from the v. thekkja, to know; cog. with v. thenkja; D.
tsenke; G. denken; A. S. thencan; E. to think. The adj. thekkr means
also amiable.
THJÓDNÜMA, from thjo'S, pi. thjó^ir, men, people, nations ; AI. G.
thjuda; A. S. theód : and v. nema, to take; cog. with G. nehmen; A. S.
numen.
THOR, prop. THÓRR : dt. etym., though Grimm thinks that it is a
contraction of Thonar, a word which, as indicating a God who,
like Thor, presided over thunder and atmospherical phenomena, would
correspond to a M. G. Thunrs; Old Sx. Thunar; A. S. Thunor. See
Thun dr. Thor enters into the composition of a great number of
Scandinavian proper names, both male and female, as Thórvaldr, Thór-
GLOSSART.
507
finnr, Thórsteinn, Thórger'S (Thorgerda), Thóra, Thórdís (Thordisa),
&c. *
THOEINN, from thor, audacity; whence the v. thora; Äw. toras (torde);
B. turde (tor); M. G. dauran; G. dürfen (darf); A. S. durrou; E. to
dare.
TÏÏRÀINN, the Pertinacious; from the v. thrá, to desire vehemently.
THRIDI, prop. THRIDI, Th& Third.
THRÓR, ph. from v. thróa, to increase, to amplify.
THRÚDGELMIR. See Thrú'Sur and Aurgelmir.
THRÚDUR. Thrú^r is an obsolete N. word signifying fortitude, firmness;
but it appears to have originally had, in most of the Teutonic languages,
the sig. of maiden, virgin; and hence enters into the composition of proper
names, as Himildrúd, Mimidrúd, Gérdrúd {Gertrude), and was afterwards
used in the sense of witch, sorceress ; as in D. Drude, Drut ; G. Trude,
Drude.
THRÚDVÁNGR, the Abode or Region of Fortitude. See Thrfröur and
Fóikvángr.
THRYM, very dt. etym. F. Mag., rvho delights in conjectural etym.,
says the word is imdoubtedhj derived from thruma, thunder.
THRYMHEIMR. See Thrymand Grladsheimr.
THULR. See Fimbidthul.
THUNDR, can be derived from thund, a breastplate, a coat of mail; or
from the v. thenja, to spread out, cog. with G. dehnen ; or fmm the obs.
V. thynja; A. S. thunian, thundian; E. to thunder; whence the I. duna;
Sv:. tordon ; D. torden ; G. donner ; A. S. thuner ; E. thunder.
THYN, ph. from the obs. v. thynja, more recent dynja, to thunder, to make
a thundering noise, as a rapid current does. The E. word din is cog. with
tliis v., and ph. also the names of several rivers, as the Tyne in England,
the Dvina in Russia, &c.
TYR, prop. TÍ Pu Grimm has satisfactorily shown that the Sk. Djaus,
gen. Divas; Gr. liii, gen. Ato;', M. G. Tins, gen. Tivis; N. Tyr, gen.
Tys ; are cog. words signifying God; as well as the L. Jupiter, for which
he assumes a nom. Ju or Ju2, Jupiter—Jus pater.
ULLUR, or ULLR. F. Mag. thinks this word may be derived from ull;
D. uld; G. wolle; A. S. wull; E. wool.
URD, YERDANDI, and SKULD, prop. URDR (Ur«ur), YERDANDI,
and SKULD ; the Present, Past, and Future. The names of the Des-
* Not wishing to depart too much from established usage, and an accented
vowel being, moreover, the Lite noire of English printers, we did not ven¬
ture to accent the o in these proper names which occur so frequently in our
Supplementary Chapters. We must remind the reader, however, that the o
in such words should be pronounced long, like o in more.
KOETHERN ANTIQUITIES.
tinies of the Present and Past are derived from the verb ver'Sa (Part.
Pres. ver'^andi; Part. Past or'Siwii); 1). verde; G. werden; A. weor-
■San, to become. Skuld has her name from the Part. Past, skuld, of the
verb skula ; Sw. skola ; A. S. sculon : in the Pres. tense skal ; Sw. skall ;
D. skal; A. S. sceal; E. shall: in the Past tense sk3'-}di; tíw. skulle; D.
skulde ; A. S. sceolde ; Ji. should. Grriinm remarks that the names of the
three Destinies would have been in M. G. Vaúrths, Vaírthandei, and
Skulds; and in Anc. G. Wurt, AVerdandi, and Scult. The A. S. Wj'r'S,
is like Urd, a Fate or Destiny, the pi. WyrSas corresponding to the JV.
Ur'Sir, Norns, Farcœ, or Destinies; hence our word weird, and the
" AVeird Sisters" of Shakspeare *.
UTGrARD, prop. UTGrx\RDR, lit. Outer-ward. See Midgard.
VAFTHRÚDNIR: vaf, from the v. vefa, to involve, prop, to weave ;
hence cog. with 7). vseve; M. G. vaibjan; G. weben; A. S. wefan; £. to
weave : thrASnir, see Thrú'Sur.
VAFUDR, the AVcaver, or the Constrainer. See the foregoing word.
VAKR, VAKUR, alert, lively, vigilant, corresponding in this sense
to the D. vakker; G. wacker. The root is in the v. vaka; D. vaage ;
G. wachen ; A. S. wacian ; E. to watch ; also A. S. weccan ; E. to
waken.
VAL ASK J ALF : vala, prob, from val; D. valg; G. wähl, choice, elec¬
tion : skjalf, see Hlídskjálf.
YALFADIR, or VALFÖDUR, lit. the Choosing Father: val, choice, see
the preceding word : fa'Sir, father.
VALHALLA, prop. VALHÖLL, lit. the Hall of the Chosen: val, choice,
see Valfa^ir: boll; M. G. hallus ; Old G. halla; G. halle; A. aS. heal,
haell ; E. hall, originallj' sig. a temple, another word for which in the N.,
Old G., Old Sx., and A. S. languages, was hof. See page 289.
The N. word salr; Anc. G. sal; Old Sx. seli; A.ä sele; may also have
originally indicated a temple. See Fensalir.
VALKYRJOR, or VALKYR.JUR, sing. VALKYRJA (in the old orthog.
A^alkj'rior), lit. Choosers of the Slain. The JV. valr; Anc. G. wal; A. S.
wœl, denoted the slain in battle; whence the D. Valplads; G. AVahl-
platz (lit. the place of the slain), a poetical word for a field of battle :
kyrja, from the v. kjöra; A. S. curon ; Anc. G. kUren, to choose. From
the yJiic. G. v. küren is the mod. G. part, erkoren, chosen, elected; and
kur, or chur, expressing the Electoral dignitj'-^ as Churfürst, lit. Elected
Prince. It may be remarked that such L. words as Bellona, A lecto, &c.,
and even Parca and Venéfica, were rendered in A. S. by AA'^aelcyrge and
* The reader will find a great deal of curious information respecting
Norns, Fairies, and the White Ladies of the Middle Ages, in the 16th chap¬
ter of Grimm's Bent. Mythol. Our word fairy is from the French ./cc, and
Grimm observes that from the L. word fatum was formed the It. fata ;
Span, hada; Provencjal, fada; mà E. fée: fata and/ce having the same
analogy of derivation as nata and née, amata and aimée.
GLOSSAEY.
569
Waelcyrre. Grimm concludes that the M. G. form would have been Vala-
kusjó.
VANADÍS, prop, a Goddess of the Vanir. See that word, and Dis.
VANAHEIMR. See Vanir and Gladsheimr.
VANIR, the sing, would be Vanr; a word of dt. origin: the E. E. think
that it may be cog. with iV. vœnn, beautiful ; with the L. venustus and
Venus, and ph. with the ivenchj but this etym. is too conjectural to be
of much value.
VARR, prob. sig. wary. See Andvari.
VAS ADR, from vas, moisture, a word cog. with the E. wet and wash.
VE. Grimm has shown that the N. ve was used in the m. sing, to express
a particular god ; that in the pi. it would be vear, gods, idols ; and that
the n. pi. ve indicated sacred places, loca sacra. He, also shows that the
word is cog. with the Anc. G. wih, a grove; Old Sx. wih, a temple; and
expresses an idea fluctuating between nemus, templum, fan um, idolum, and
numen. Its root must be sought in the 31. G. veihan; G. weihen, to
consecrate. See the note, page 291.
VEDURFOLNIR might be rendered Storm-stilling ; vedur being derived
from veiSr ; D. vseir ; G. wetter ; A. S. weder ; E. weather : and folnir,
prob, from v. fela, to cover, to conceal; hence concealing the weather, or
causing serenity.
VEGSVINN, lit. Road-knowing: vegr; Z). vej; AÍ. 6?. vigs; G. and .<4. jS.
weg; E. way: svinn, from svinnr (svithr), wise, cog. with 31. G. svinths.
See Fjölsvidr.
VEGTAMR. See note, page 373.
VERATYR, lit. the Man-god : vera, from verr, a man, cog. with numerous
words in the Ind. E. languages, as 31. G. vair; SI. vyras; SL viroh; L.
vir, &c. : tyr, see Tyr.
VERDANDI. See Urd.
VESTRI, west, occidental.
VÍD, from v^r; D. vid; G. weit; A. S. wíd; E. wide.
VID AR, prop. VIDAR, ph. from vi'Sr, a tree; cog. with E. wood; and prob,
also with weed and withy.
VÍDBLÁINN, expanded azure (lit. Wide-blue) ; vrö, see VID : blainn,
from blár; D. blaa; G. blau; A. S. blsew; E. blue.
VÍDFINNR, prob, from vi'Sr, wide, vast; and finnr, from v. Anna; D.
finde ; 31. G. finthan ; G. finden ; A. S. findan ; E. to find.
VIDÓLFR, or VIDÁLFR, lit. Sylvan Elf: vid, from vi'Sr, fi tree, see
Vidar : álfr, an elf.
VIDRIR, Moderator of the weather; from v. vi'Sra, to still the weather;
and this from ve'Sr, weather. See Ve'Surfölnir.
VIGRID, prop. VÍGRÍD, from vig, a battle; A. S. wig (whence wigcrseft
battle craft, the art of war) : ri'5, from v. ri'Sa ; D. ride ; G. reiten ; A. S.
ridan ; E. to ride.
570
NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES.
VILI, Will. The iV. vili, vilji, like the Anc. Cr. willo, expressed not only
voluntas, hut also votum impetus and spiritiis; and Grimm remarks that
the M. Gr. V. viljau, to will, is nearly related to the v. valjan, to choose,
to elect. See Valkyrjor.
VILMEITHR, or VILMEIDR, from vil, favour, cog. with vili : and
mei'Sr, an old word for tree.
VIN, and VINA, prob, from vinr, a friend, cog. with v, unna, to love, to
favour; A. S. unnan, to give, to bestow; and the E. winsome,
VINDÁLFR, Wind Elf: vindr; Z). vind; (?., A. S., and Al. wind.
VINDSVALR; vindr, wind: and svalr, cold,glacial.
YINGÓLF, lit. the Abode of Friends: vinr, a friend, see Vin : golf means
lit. a floor ; E. gulv.
VITÜR, VITR, from vit; Q. witz; E. wit. See Grafvitnir.
VÖLUNDR. The N. Völundr is the Velint of the Vilkina-saga; the G.
Wielant, Wieland; the A.ä. Weland, Welond (Wayland). The root of
the word is the N. vél, art, skill, craft, cunning; cog. with the A. S. wil;
E. wile and guile. Grimm remarks that we must presuppose an Old G.
V. wielan; A. S. welan, to fabricate, the part, of which would be wielant
and weland. This would be a more grammatical derivation than that of
Prof. Müller, who derives the word from vél, art ; and lundr, mind. At
all events the word denotes a skilful artificer, in which sense it is still
used by the Icelanders, kann er volundr à jam; he is a famous work¬
man—a Wayland—in iron; and they very appropriately term a labyrinth
a Wayland-house—V'ólundarhús. See the note, page 376.
V0LUSPÁ. The Old N. has two generic terms for a sybil or pro¬
phetess—Vol va and Vala, gen. Volu, which Grimm remarks would cor¬
respond to an Old G. Walawa or Wala. The word vala is prob. cog. with
val, choice. See Valfadir and Valkyrjor. The N. spá, is cog. with and
has the same sig. as the Scotch spae. See the note, page 363.
VÖRA, prop. VÖR, gen. VARAR; prob, the same root as Varr.
YGGDRASILL, very dt. etj'^m. F. Mag. is of opinion that it may be
derived either from y, cog. with úi-, moisture, rain; whence yg, ygg, was
afterwards formed, and drasill, from the v. draga, to carry (prob. cog.
with the G. tragen, and the E. to drag) ; or from Ygg, one of Odin's
names {see the following word), and drasill, bearing; hence, according to
F. Mag., it would sig. bearing (producing) rain, or bearing Odin.
YGGR. This name of Odin is prob, from the v. yggja, which sig. to medi¬
tate, and also to fear; hence the word might be rendered by either the
Meditating or the Terrible. Yggr, in the N. lang., means simply, terror.
ÍLG, the Howling ; prob, from v. yla ; D. hyle ; G. heulen ; E. to howl.
YMIR: very dt. etym. ymr sig. a confused noise, like the rustling of
trees when shaken by the wind ; also the clang of metals ; but whether
the proper orthog. be Ymir, Ymir, Imir or ímir, the etym. given by the
E. E. are alike conjectural. Grimm is inclined to derive it from the v.
ymja, ura'Öi which has the same sig. as the v. gjalla, to roar, to clang.
INDEX.
Adultery, punishment of amongst the
Scandinavians, 205.
Mgh, his banquet, 375, 376 ; his journey to
Asgard, 459.
Agriculture amongst the Scandinavians
and Teutons, 215; land cultivated by
slaves, 216.
Alexander III. purchases the Hebrides,
&c., 191.
Alfred, king, preserves England against
the Danes, 176.
Altars, remains of in Scandinavia, 107;
celebrated one in Zealand, 108 ; merely
Thingstead, ¿5. note;—built for human
sacrifices, 114
Al-things, in Iceland, when held, 293 ; man¬
ner of conducting suits at them, 295.
Ambronesjoin the Cimbri, 62 ; defeat Cas-
sius Longinus, 63; join the Teutons
against Marius, 64; defeated, 65.
America, early discovery of by the North¬
men under Bjarni, 251; under Leif, 252;
under Thorvald, 253; under Thorstein,
Thorfinn, &c., 255; evidence concern¬
ing, 261.
Anglo-Saxons ;•—see Saxons.
Arms and armour of the northern nations,
165.
Asgard, 80, 85, note, 406.
Ash, the greatest of all trees, 96;—see Ygg-
drasill.
Ask, the first man, 99. 406.
Astronomy studied by the Scandinavians,
219.
Audhumbla, the cow, account of in the
Edda, 403.
Auguries amongst the Scandinavians, 118.
Aun, king of Sweden, sacrifices his nine
sons to Odin, 112.
Baldur, son of Odin, his character, 95 ;
story of in the Vegtamskvida, 373 ; Eddaic
account of, 407 ; story of his death, 446.
Banquets, account of, 143. 284. 346.
Baptism, Pagan, 206 ; ib. note; 313.320. 366.
Barrows, ancient, amongst the Scandina¬
vians, 210; different kinds of, 211; hy¬
pothesis concerning, ib. ; celebrated one,
212, 213.
Bifröst, the rainbow, 408; breaks to pieces,
452.
Bojorix, General of the Cimbri, 66.
Bor, his sons create heaven and earth,
404; form the first man and woman, 99.
405.
Bragi, god of eloquence and poetry, 95.
420; relates the storv of Iduna and her
apples, 459 ; of Odin obtaining the poeti¬
cal mead, 461.
Brahminical doctrines compared with the
Eddaic, 479.
Breidablik, the mansion of, 414.
Britain conquered by the Saxons, 180.
Bui the Thick plunders Strut-Harald's
treasury, 141 ; joins the Jorasburgh sea-
rovers, lb. ; follows their expedition, 144 ;
his death, 145.
Burials;—see Funerals.
Cabot, his voyages and discoveries, 263 ;
evidence concerning, 264.
Csepio, proconsul, defeated by the Cimbri,
63.
Carbo Papirius sent against the Cimbri,
61 ; defeated by them, 62.
Celts erroneously confounded with the
Teutons, 3; supposed resemblance in
their etymologies, ib. ; accounted for, 5 ;
confounded with the Teutons by the
early Greek and Roman writers, ¿6.;
their division noticed by Strabo, 6 ; by
later writers, 7 ; resemblance in their
savage manners, 8 ; their difference as¬
serted by Caesar and Tacitus, 9 ; differ¬
ence in their manners and customs, ib. ;
in their institutions and laws, 10 ; in their
religious establishments, etc., ib. ; in their
languages, 16 ; affinity between them,
23 ; classification of Celtic languages, 31 ;
physiological character of the Celtic race,
33 ; origin of, 38 ; specimens of the Celtic
languages, 52.
Celtiberians repulse the Cimbri, 62.
Ceremonies, religious, of the Scandina¬
vians, 113.
Charlemagne, his grief at the conquests of
the barbarians, 172; incapacity of his
successors, 17.5.
Charles the Simple gives his daughter to
Rollo, 184; cedes to him Normandy,
185 ; anecdote of the interview, ib.
Christian I. mortgages the Orkney and
Shetland Isles, 191.
Christianity embraced by Rollo, 185; by
the Russians, note, 193 ; its effect in the
north, 241 ; manner of propagating it by
Olaf Tryggvason, note, 351 ; Icelanders
converted, and baptized in hot baths,
wofe, 310; manner of their conversion,
352 ; ib. note ; 532.
Cimbri, their origin, 60; their expedition
to Italy, 61 ; defeat the Gauls, ib. ; send
ambassadors to the Romans, 62; sur¬
prised by Papirius Carbo, ib. ; with new
Ö72
INDEX.
auxiliaries they again overwhelm Gaul,
but are repulsed m Spain, ib. ; send an
embassy to Rome, ib. ; defeat Silanus
Manlius and Cœpio, 63; Marius sent
against them, 64; defeat of their allies,
65; cross the Adige, 66; defeated by
Mariuswith immense slaughter, 67; sub¬
sequent accounts of by Strabo and Taci¬
tus, 68; whether Celts or Goths, 68,
note, difficulty in conquering them, 134;
their arms and armour, 165.
Codex Argenteus, account of, 225.
Columbus, his discoveries inquired into,
267.
Concubinage in Scandinavia, 312; story
illustrative of, 31,3.
Constantinople attacked by the Scandina¬
vian sea-rovers, 192.
Danes, their invasion of England, 164;
—see Cimbri and Scandinavians.
Day, Edilaic account of, 406.
Dead, burning of, amongst the Scandina¬
vians, 209.
Denmark, early inhabitants of, 60 ; uncer¬
tainty of its early history, 71 ; theGoth-
landic hypothesis, ib. ; hypothesis of
Rudbeck, ib.; of Saxo-Grammaticus,
72; of Torfseus,« 74; temples destroyed
there, 110; human sacrifices there, 114;
oracles, 116; election of its kings, 128.
Destinies, the Three, 97. 412, 413.
Dighton writing rock, 262.
Diviners among the Scandinavians, 117 5
their supposed power, 118.
Divorce, Icelandic laws of, 317 ; story of, ib.
Drontheim, celebrated temple there, 109.
Duels, laws of, 328 ; account of, 325. 328.
335.
Dwarfs, 404; origin of, 409.
Earth, Eddaic account of its creation, 404.
Edda, the Elder, 362; classification of the
poems of, 363.
Eada, the Prose or Younger, 90. 377;
translation of, 397; remarks on, 479;
interpolation in, 485 ;—see Mythology.
Eikthyrnir, the stag of Valhalla, 431.
Eirek the Red discovers Greenland, 244 ;
saga of, 251.
Elivagar, the rivers, 402.
Elves of Light and Darkness, 414.
Embla, the first woman, 99. 406.
Esquimaux ;—see Skrœllings.
Europe, early notices of, 38 ; eastern origin
of Its inhabitants, ib. ; northern nations
conquered by Odin, 80 ; their ancient re¬
ligion, 87; change in, 90; change in the
enmate, 241.
Eyrbyggja Saga, abstract of, 517.
Ey vind, his historical poem, 236.
Feasts, fondness of the Scandinavians for
them, 195; customs of, 196; liquors used
at, ¿6.; fraternities attending them, 197.
Fenrir, the wolf, begotten by Loki, 96 ;
will break from his chains, 102 ; devours
Odin, 103; chaining of, 423; at Ragna-
rök, 4.52.
Festivals, religious, the three great ones,
110.
Finns, their probable early importance, 7 ;
belong to the Tshudic race, 39 ; ancient
possessions in Scandinavia, 69.
Fleets fitted out by the Scandinavians, 175;
increase of, 177 ; given to young chiefs,
178 ; customs of, ib. ; character of the
vessels, 179 ; various, ib. ; particular
ships, 180.
Floki, his settlement in Iceland, 187-
Forseti, the God of Justice, Eddaic account
of, 422 ; ib. note ; 507.
Fortification, art of, amongst the Scandi¬
navians, 167.
French conquered by the Scandinavians.
175.
Frey, brother of Freyja, 94 ; worshipped
in the temple at Upsal, 110; festival rn
honour of, ib. ; Eddaic account of, 419.
428.
Freydisa stimulates the Northmen against
the Skraellings, 258; her voyage with
Helgi and Finubogi, 261 ; her cruelty, ib.
Freyja, the goddess of love, worshipped
by the Scandinavians, 93; Eddaic account
of, 419. 426.
Fridleif, story of, in Saxo, 116.
Frigga, wife of Odin, worshipped by the
Scandinavians, 93; Eddaic account of,
406. 426.
Frotho, king of Denmark, 137* his con¬
tempt of death, 152.
Funerals of the Scandinavians, 209; cere¬
monies of, 213 ; tombs guarded by Odin,
214.
Gauls overwhelmed by the Cimbri and
Teutons, 61, 62; offer un human sacri¬
fices, 114;—see Celts.
Gefjon, Eddaic account of her ploughing,
398.
Germans ;—see Teutons.
Ghost stories, 535.
Giants of the Frost, origin of, 402; Thor's
visit to them, 435.
Gimli, the highest heaven, 104. 400. 456;
Finn Magnusen's Theory of, 499.
Ginnungagap, 402.
Glossary of proper names used in the Edda,
.541.
Glossology, advance in, 29.
Goa, goddess, festival in honour of. 111.
Gothic alphabet, origin of, 224.
Goths ;—see Teutons.
Government;—see Laws.
Grágás, the Icelandic code of laws, 297;
character of, 298 ; their protection of per¬
son and property, 300 ; severity of the
enactments, 301 ; relating to murder and
libel, 302; to poetry, 303; poor laws,
304; punishment for begging, 306; laws
respecting property, ib.; majority, ib.;
whalefishing, 307 ; highway robbery, 308.
Greenland first discovered by Eirek, 244;
the colonists embrace Christianity, 245;
their mysterious disappearance, ib. ;
fruitless attempt to rediscover them, 246 :
vestiges of the ancient settlement, ¿6.;
hypothesis settled concerning the posi¬
tion of the Bygds, 247 ; discovery of
the Kingiktorsoak stone, ib. ; references
to the colonies in old Icelandic .Sagas, 249.
INDEX,
573
Grimnis-mál, the Eddaic Poem, 365.
Grottos, religious, found in Norway, 108.
Grove, Odin's, at Upsal, 113.
Gudruna marries Tnorvald, 347; divorced
from him and marries her lover, 348 ;
marries Bolli, 358 ; incites her husband
to murder Kjartan, 358; avenges her
husband's death, 359 ; marries Tnorgils,
360 ; becomes a nun, ib.
Guilds, origin of, 197 ; 7iote.
Guiscard, Robert, conquers Sicily, 186,
note.
Gylfl, his journey to Asgard related in the
Prose Edda, 399.
Hakon, Earl of Norway, his temple at
Drontheim, 109, sacrifices his son to
Odin, 112.144; attackedbytheJomsburgh
sea-rovers, 144 ; defeats them with the
assistance of a sorceress, 145 ; execution
of the prisoners, 146 ; his faith in the
sorceress, 148; takes five Skalds with
him, 235.
Halfdan the Black, king of Westfold, etc.,
84; father of Harald Hárfagra, 86; a
real personage, ib.
Harald Hardádra, his generalship at the
battle of Stamford bridge, 168; in the
service of the Byzantine emperors, ib.,
194 ; story of a siege, 169.
Harald Hárfagra, his tyranny, 75 ; re¬
nounces the Scandinavian gods before
the introduction of Christianity, 121 ;
conquers Norway and prohibits piracy,
182; banishes Rollo for breaking the
law, 183; his absolute power, 187; re¬
wards the Skalds, 235; introduces the
feudal system, 280.
Hastings, a sea-king, story of, 170.
Hati, the wolf that pursues the moon, 407.
Háva-mál, the Eddaic Poem, translation
of, 367.
Hebrides, sale of, 191.
Heidrun, the she goat in Valhalla, 431.
Heimdall, porter to the gods, 95 ; his
powers, ib.; will slay Loki, 96. 103;
sounds his trumpet in the last ages, 102;
Eddaic account of, 421; at Ragnarok,
452.
Hela, or Death, begotten by Loki, 96; her
residence, 106 ; Eddaic account of, 423.
Hellenic race, 42.
Helluland, notices concerning, 252. 270.272.
Herraod, his journey to Hel, 448.
Hilda, mother of Rollo, 183.
Hindostanic race, 42.
Hlidskjálf, throne of Odin, 406.
Hödur, the blind god, 422; kills Baldur,
446.
Holmgang ;—see Duels.
Hrimfaxi, the horse, 406.
Hrimthursar, or frost giant, origin of, 402.
Human species, varieties of, 27.
Hvergelmir, the spring, 401.
Hymir, the giant, accompanies Thor in
fishing for the Midgard serpent, 444.
Iceland, manuscripts found there, 74;
writers of, 75; its first inhabitants, ¿5.;
the Skalds, ib. ; character of their annals
and traditions, 76 ; two celebrated tem¬
ples there, 109; early discovery of, 187-
wooden crosses found there, 189; descrip;
tion of, 281; colonization of, 284; cere¬
monies of the em igration ,ib.; of landing,
286 ; ceremonies of the colonists in taking
possession, 287.
Icelanders, their contests, 288, exchange
of possessions, 289 ; government of their
chiefs, ib.\ established by Ulfliot, 290;
classes of society, ib.; division of the
country, i&.; the Thingsand Thingsteads,
291 ; the Al-thing, 292 ; their code of
laws, see Grágás; manners and cus¬
toms of, 309; concubinage allowed, 312;
judicial formalities required in marriage
contracts, 315; rights of women, 316;
frequency of divorce, 317; freedom of
wives, 318; loose conduct, 319; cere¬
mony of legitimation, 320; laws relating
to kissing and elopements, ib. ; stories
of, 321. 339. 345; literature of, 362;
Eddaic literature, ib. ; Skaldic literature,
379; construction of Icelandic verse, 380;
its resemblance to Greek and Latin hexa¬
meters, 385; Saga literature, 386; modern
literature of, 396; embrace Christianity,
470.
Iduna, wife of Bragi, 421 ; carried away by
Thjassi, 460.
Indrid, story of, in the Icelandic chronicle,
116.
Ingialld Illradi, the lastking of the Yngling
dynasty, 85 ; succeeded by Ivar Vidtami,
ib, ; account of his ancestors in the Yng-
linga-saga fictitious, ib.
Ingolf, his settlement in Iceland, 188.286.
Inscriptions, northern, 73; modern date
of, 76.
Iranic race, 43.
Ivar Vidfami succeeds Ingialld, 85 ; ac¬
count of by Saxo fictitious, ib.
James HI. obtains the Orkney and Shet¬
land Isles on a mortgage, 191.
Jomsburgh sea-rovers, origin of, 139;
government of, 140; proceedings of, 141 ;
visit King Svend, 143; their expedition,
144; defeated, and several prisoners
taken, 145; treatment of the prisoners,
ib. ; their bravery, 146.
Jormungand, the serpent, begotten by
Loki, 96. 423 ; fished for by Thor, 445 ;
death of, 102. 453.
Julin, a sea-port of the Vends, 139; de¬
stroyed by Valdemar I., ib.
Jury, trial by, origin of, note, 292, note, 521.
Kingiktorsoak stone, 247 ; its inscription,
248.
Kings, election of among the northern
nations, 123, 124. 128.
Kissing, Icelandic law against, 320. 336;
royal decision of a kissing case, 337.
Kjartan, son of Olaf Pá, in love with Gu¬
druna, .346; his swimming match with
king Olaf Tryggvason, 349 ; embraces
Christianity, .351 ; his interview with the
Lady Ingjibjörg, 353; his fasting, 354 ;
marries Hrefna, 355; killed by Bolli,
358.
574
INDEX.
Kormak's Saga, abstract of, 32t.
Kormak, the Scandinavian Petrarca, his
betrothal to Steingerda, 322 ; his duel
with Bersi, 325; his tender interview with
Steingerda, 332 : his duel with Tintein,
335 ; has to pay for kissing Steingerda,
336 ; his death, 339.
Landnámabók, account of, 391 ; anecdotes
from, 287. 288, 289. 316. 319.
Language of the early European nations,
difference in, 16; affinity between the
Celtic and Teutonic, 23 ; classification of,
30.
Lapps differ from the Finns, 41 ; notices
of, i5.; ancient possessions in Scandinavia,
69.
Laws and institutions of the Teutons, 122 ;
as described by Tacitus, ib ; its free
character, 124; preservation of liberty,
125; of the Scandinavians, their election
of kings, 128 ; their little need of civil
laws, 129; principle of revenge, ib. ;
compensation for injuries, 130; of the
Saxons, ib. ; relating to murder, 131 ;
theft, i6.; judiciary combats, ordeals,
etc., 1.32; relating to adultery, rapes,
etc., 205; of the ancient Icelanders, 289;
code of, see Grágás; concerning con¬
cubinage, 313; betrothals and marriages,
315; divorce, 316; legitimation, 320;
against kissing, i&.
Laxdaela Saga, abstract of, 345.
Legitimation, Icelandic law of, 320.
Leif, son of Eirek, converts Greenland to
Christianity, 245 : his discoveries in Ame¬
rica, 252.
Liberty, preservation of, amongst the
Teutons, 125.
Logogryphs, enigmas of the Skalds, 239.
Lögsögumadr presided over the Al-thing,
294 ; his power, 296.
I.oki, the evil principle of the Scandina¬
vians, 95 ; his character in the Edda, .96 ;
his children, ib. ; will be slain by Heim-
dall, ib., 103; helps to recover Thor's
mallet, .375; Eddaic account of, 422;
story of, 433 ; goes with Thor to the land
of giants, 435; effects the death of Baldur,
445; his ffight and punishment, 449; de¬
ceives Iduna, 460.
Lónginus, Cassius, defeated by the Cimbri,
63.
Luctatius, Catulus, elected consul with
Marius, 63 ; marches against the Cimbri,
64. 66, 67.
Luna, story of the siege of, 171.
Magic of the Sc.andinavians, 227.
Magnus Barefoot, son of Olaf, his con¬
quests, 190.
Magnus Lagabätter sells the Hebrides and
Isle of Man, 191.
Magnusen, Finn, character of his theories,
477; his theory of the All Father, 48.3.
497; his explanation of the Yggdrasill
myth, 488 ; of Nastrond, 497 í of Girnli,
499 ; his arrangement of the deities, etc. ;
504; arrangement of the Scandinavian
worlds, 506.
Magyars, striking resemblance of their
civil institutions with those of the Scan¬
dinavians, note, 277 ; 15.279; 15.293; 16.
295.
Man, varieties of, 27.
Man, Isle of, sale of, 191.
Marco Polo, his travels led to Columbus's
discovery, 268.
Margaret, Queen, monopolized the trade
of Iceland, Greenland, etc., 246.
Markland, notices concerning, 252. 270l
272.
Maritime Expeditions of the Scandina¬
vians, 172.
Marius elected consul, 63 ; marches against
the Cimbri, 64; his peculiar tactics,
15. ; defeats the Ambrones, 65 ; the Teu¬
tons, 66; the Cimbri, 67; entitled
" Third Founder of Rome," 68.
Marriage customs of the Celts and Teutons
compared, 9; of the Scandinavians, 202 ;
iiunishments for breaches of, 205; Ice-
andic laws relating to, 305; contracted
to save reputations, 314; story of, 16.;
betrothal, 315; power of married wo¬
men, 316; divorces, 16.; story of, 317;
stories relating to, 321. 339. 345.
Melkorka, daughter of the Irish king Mur-
catoc, her romantic story, 313.
Midgard, 405;—see Jormungand.
Mimir's well. 411.
Mithridate's defeated by Pompey, 79.
Money, amongst the Scandinavians, 218.
Moon, Eddaic account of, 407.
Muspellheim, 401, 402.
Mythology, Scandinavian, 90 ; the worship
of Odin, of Frigga and Freyja, 93; of
Thor, 94; of the other gods and god¬
desses, 95; the court of the gods, 96;
the three Fates, 97 ; description of Chaos,
96 ; creation of the earth, 98 ; compared
with general tradition, 99; its peculiar
character, 100; its effects 101. 106; final
destiny of the world, 102 ; immortality
of the soul, 103; its conformity with
Christianity, 104; future abodes of the
good and wicked, ib. ; occupations of the
heroes in Valhalla, ib. ; the abode of the
miserable, 106 ; translations from the
Elder Edda, 367 ; of the Prose Edda,
397 ; critical examination of the system,
464; Scandinavian and Persian systems
compared, 472; various explanations of
myths, 477 ; compared with the Brah-
minlcal doctrines, 479; the Yggdrasill
myth, 488 ; places of eternal punishment,
498; of celestial bliss, 499; arrangement
of the deities, 504 ; of the worlds, 506 ;
—see also Religion.
Naddod, the first discoverer of Iceland, 187.
Naglfar, the ship made of dead men's
nails, 452.
Nanna, wife of Baldur, 407; dies with
grief at his death, 448.
Nastrond, the future place of punishment,
104; noticed in the Prose Edda, 456;
Finn Magnusen's theory of, 497.
Newfoundland, discovery of, 264.
Nidhögg, 411, 412, 413.
INDEX.
575
Niflheim, description of, 106; formation
of, 401 ; situation of, 505.
Night, Eddaic account of, 406.
Nithing, explanation of, 154; account of
the Nithing post, 155; stories of, 156;
laws respecting, 157; Nithing verse-wri¬
ters punished by the Icelandic law, 302.
Njals-saga, abstract of, 339.
Njörd, god of the sea and winds, 95; Eddaic
account of, 418 ; story of his marriage
to Skadi, 461.
Normans ;—see Northmen.
Norns, or Destinies, 412, 413.
Northmen defeat the French, 175; under
Rollo, 184; established in France, 185;
conquer England, 186 ; discover Iceland,
187; discover Greenland under Eirek,
244; America under Leif, 245. 252; un¬
der Bjarni, 251 ; under Thorvald, 253;
under Thorstein, Thorflnn, etc., 255;
skirmishes with the Skrsellings, 258 ;
quarrel about the women, 259 : evidence
concerning their discoveries, 261.
Norway, chronicle of the kings of, 84 ; re¬
ligious grottos there, 108 ; human sacri¬
fices, 114; oracles, 116; election of its
kings, 129; its earlier state, 277; tenure
of its lands, iö. ; government, 278 ; feudal
system introduced, 280;—see Scandina¬
vians, Icelanders.
Odin, the so-called historical, epoch of his
arrival in Denmark, 61. 85; tradition
concerning, 79 ; defeated by the Romans,
ib. ; assumes the name of the chief god,
80 ; marches to the north of Europe, ih. ;
subdues Denmark, and makes his son,
Skjöld, king, 81 ; enters Sweden, and
is worshipped as a divinity, ib.\ suc¬
ceeds to the throne, i&. ; conquers Nor¬
way, and appoints his son. Seeming, king,
82 ; his death and character, ib. ; con¬
founded with the deity, 83; his character
in the Icelandic chronicles, ib.\ legend of
in the Ynglinga Saga, critically exa¬
mined, 84. 393.
Odin, the Scandinavian deity, 91 ; his attri¬
butes according to the Edda, 92 ; his wife
Frigga, 93; his son Thor, 94; Baldur,
96; his conduct in the last ages, 103;
hall of, 105; worshipped in the temple
at Upsal, 110; festival in honour of. 111 ;
human sacrifices to him, 112 ; his grove
at Upsai, 113 ; hall of, 151 ; guarded the
burial deposits of the Scandinavians, 214;
story of in the Elder Edda, 365 ; Eddaic
account of his birth, 403 ; creates the
earth, 404; man and woman, 406; the
golden age, 409; description of, 415, 416;
his ravens, 430 ; at Ragnarök, 415; story
of his obtaining the poetical mead, 461.
Olaf Pà, a celebrated Icelandic chieftain, his
birth, 313; his political influence, 327;
his succession feast, 346; his death, 359;
—see Kjartan.
Olaf, St., anecdote of, 120.
Olaf, son of Ingialld, retires from Sweden
to the Vaenir lake, 85 ; ridiculed as a
wood-cutter, 86 ; burnt to death, ib. ; his
descendants, ib.
Olaf Thord.son, author of the Skalda, 379.
Olaf Tryggvason, king of Norway, razes
the temple at Drontheim, 109; instances
in his history of unbelieving warriors,
119, 120; takes three Skalds with him
to battle, 236; his swimmin; match with
Kjartan, .349; his zeal for the propaga¬
tion of Christianity, 351, 352.
Oracles, Scandinavian, 116.
Ordeals, various kinds of, 132.
Orkney islands, mortgage of, 191.
Palnatoki, chief of the Jomsburgh sea-
rovers, 139; his government and laws,
140; refuses to admit Vagn, 141; his
death, 142.
Paris, investment of, 168.
Persian mythology compared with the
Scandinavian, 472.
Piracy amongst the ancients, 173.
Poetry cultivated by the Icelanders, 75;
degree of evidence to be attached to it,
77; used in divinations, 117; satirical,
158 ; used in the relation of exploits,
ib. ; its priority to prose, 233 ; never
committed to writing, 234 ; style and cha¬
racter of, 237 ; founded on their mytho¬
logy, 238; Icelandic laws relating to,
302; construction of Icelandic verse,
380; story of its origin, 461.
Poets ;—see Skalds.
Polygamy in Scandinavia, 312.
Poor-laws amongst the Icelanders, 304.
Priests, German, power vested in, 115.
Prophetesses amongst the Scandinavians,
200.
Ragnar Lodbrok king, 105; his death,
149. 383 ; increase of the fleet during his
reign, 177 ; his Death Song, 235. 383.
Ragnarök, or the twilight of the gods, 102.
104 ; Eddaic account of, 451.
Religion of the Celts and Teutons com¬
pared, 11 ; of the Scandinavians, its pri¬
mitive character, 87 ; corruptions and
fables of, see Mythology ; includes a belief
in the immortality of the soul, 103 ; its
conformity with Christianity, 104; its
character, 106 ; temples and altars of,
107; grottos, 108; festivals, 110; sacri¬
fices. Ill; ceremonies, 113; oracles, 116;
divinations, 111 ; auguries, 118; its con¬
nection with war, 138; its real character,
468. 476.
Reykjarvik, capital of Iceland, origin of,
286.
Ri^s-mál, the Eddaic poem, 365.
Rollo breaks the law against piracy, 183;
his origin ib. note ; banished, 184 ; sails for
the Hebrides, ib. ; repulsed in England,
ib. ; invades France, and obliges Charles
to purchase peace, ib. ; his interview with
the king, 185; embraces Christianity,
ib. ; character of, in the Icelandic chroni¬
cles, 186.
Romanic race, 42. 56.
Runic characters, 118.221. 229; inscriptions
discovered in Tartary, 225; their con¬
nection with magic, '226; the substitu-
576
INDEX
tion of Roman characters, 228; character
of, ib. ; names, significations, etc., 229 ;
alphabets, 232.
Runic staffs, 220.
Russian empire founded by Rurik, 152.
Saerifices, simplici ty of the earlier ones, 111 ;
human victims, 112; ceremonies attend¬
ing them, 113; general prevalence of,
Saehrimnir, the boar, 105.
Saemund Sigfusson, collector of the Elder
Edda, 363.
Sagas, doubtful authority of the Yngliiiga,
84 ; general authority, 309 ; abstract of
Kormak's Saga, 821 ; of Njals-Saga, 339 ;
of the Laxdaela-Saga, 345 ; Saga litera¬
ture, 386; Mliller's account of, 387;
classification of, 390; abstract of the
Eyrbyggja Saga, 517.
Sarmatians, Cluverius's opinions concern¬
ing them, 2.
Saxons, laws of, 130; relating to murdei,
131 ; theft, ib.\ judiciary combats, 132;
ordeals, i&. ; invasion of Britain, 161; ac¬
company the Lombards into Italy, 162;
conquered by the Scandinavians, 175 ;
concjuer Britain, 180 ; tribes of, 181.
Scandinavians have caused the most nu¬
merous revolutions, 55; superiority of
the spirit of their government, 58;
ancient, 70; conquered by Odin, 80;
their primitive religion, see Religion ;
corruptions and fables of, see Mythology ;
their exterior worship, 107 > temples and
remains of altars, t6.; grottos, 108;
celebrated temple at Upsal, 109; three
great religious festivals, 110 ; their sacri¬
fices, 111; religious ceremonies, 113;
oracles, 116; divinations, 117 î auguries,
118 ; their contempt for many oí their
own superstitions, 119; their laws and
institutions, 122; election of kings,
128; little need of civil laws, 129; prin¬
ciple of revenge, ib. ; compensation
oi injuries, 130 ; laws relating to mur¬
der, 131 ; theft, judiciary combats, 132 ;
ordeals, ib. ; their passion for arms,
valour, etc., 134; story of the Jomsburgh
sea-rovers, 139; their expedition, 144;
courage of the Scandinavi ins, 149 ; con-
tempt of death, 150; defied the gods
themselves, 153 ; their respect for tneir
arms, 154 ; propensity to single combats,
ib.\ of the Ni thing stake, 154; mode of
proceeding, 157 ! monuments and poetry
upon their heroes, 158 ; perpetual state
of warfare, 159; their emigrations, 160;
their probable population. ib.\ their man¬
ner of making war, 163; their army,
164; conduct upon the field of battle,
165; their arms, ib.\ their armour, 166;
their fortifications, 167 ; their good sea¬
manship, 168; their modes of besieging
towns, ib. ; siege of Sicilian towns by
Harald Hardádra, 169; stories of, ib.\
their maritime expeditions, 172; early
piracy recorded by Sidonius Apollinarius,
174 ; conquer the Anglo-Saxons and
French, 175; defeated by Alfred, 176;
causes and results of their naval power,
177; emulation amongst the naval chiefs,
178; character of their fleet, 179; in¬
vasion of Britain, 180 ; a fleet under
Rollo retire to the Hebrides, 184; their
unsuccessful attempt on England, ib. ;
conquests in France, i6. ; Normandy
secured, 185; other princes, 186; first
discover Iceland, 187 ; establish them¬
selves there, 188 ; conquer Scotland, etc.,
190 ; ravage Ireland, 191 ; infest the
coast of the Baltic, ib. ; establish them¬
selves in Russia, 192 ; attack Constanti¬
nople, 192; their fondness for feasting,
195 ; customs at their festival, 196 ; their
ideas of love, 198 ; equality between the
two sexes, 199 ; numerous prophetesses
amongst them, 200; character of their
marriages, 201 ; time of marriage, 202 :
ceremonies of, 203 ; chastity of their
women, 204 ; laws respecting it, 205;
education of their children, 207 ; their
prodigious strength, ib. ; funeral cere¬
monies, 208 ; burying places, 209 ; their
barrows, 210; classification of their
weapons, utensils, etc., 211 ; funerals of
their heroes, 213 ; their contempt for
the arts, 215 ; their buildings, 217 r their
commerce, ib.; their study of astronomy,
219; their calendars, 220; their Rumo
stones, 221 ; their ignorance of writing,
222 ; Runic characters, 223 ; significatioa
of Runic letters, 229; priority of their
poetic compositions, 233 ; verse their me¬
dium of knowledge, 234; their Skalds,
235 ; style of their poems, 237 ; their
character, 240; their domestic manners
and customs, 310; polygamy amongst
them, 312 ; stories oí, 321. 339. 345 > cri¬
tical examination of their mythological
system, 464 ; compared with the Persian,
472 ;—see Iceland.
Scaurus defeated and put to death by the
Cimbri, 63.
Scott, Sir Walter, his abstract of the Eyr-
byggja-Saga, 517.
Scythian, vagueness of the term, note, 55-
Shetland Isles, mortgage of, 191.
Shields of the Scandinavians, 166.
Ships ;—see Fleet.
Sicilian towns besieged by Harald Har¬
dádra, 169.
Sigtuna, city of, 81.
Sigurd, son of Jarl Viseti, marries Strut
Harald's daughter, 141 ; joins the Joms¬
burgh sea-rovers, ib.
Sigvald, son of Jarl Strut Harald, admit¬
ted amongst the Jomsburgh sea-rovers,
141 ; his cattle forage in Bornholm, ib. ;
succeeds Palnatoki, 142; story of his
marriage with the daughter of Borislav,
ib. ; visits King Svend, 143 ; his expe¬
dition against Norwav, 144 ; defeated,
but escapes, 145; jeered by his wife, 157.
Silanus, consul, defeated by the Cimbri, 63.
Skadi, daughter of Thjassi, story of her
marriage with Njörd, 418. 461.
Skalds generally Icelanders, 75» credence
to be attached to them, 77 » their pre¬
tended powers, 118 ; their celebration of
INDEX.
577
heroic exploits, 158; honours paid to
them, 234 ; their rewards, 235 ; their
number, 236 ; style of their poetry, 237 !
their studies, 239; their literature, 379;
construction of their verse, 380 ; various
kinds of, 382.
Skidbladnir, the ship, 435.
Skirnir's journey, an Eddaic poem, .373.
Skjöld, son of Odin, 75; made king of
Denmark, 81.
Sköll, the wolf that pursues the sun, 407.
Skviellings, their skirmishes with the
Northmen, 258 ; supposed to be Esqui¬
maux, 275.
Skrymir, the giant, story of, 437.
Slavonians conquer the Finns or Tshuds,
39.
Sleipnir, the horse, origin of, 432.
Snorri Sturlason, account of, 377 ; his
family, ih. note; compiler of the Prose
Edda, 378; his Heimskringla, or Chroni¬
cles of the kings of Norway, 393.
Spain threatened by the Cimbri, 62.
Stamford bridge, battle of, 168.
Steingerda betrothed to Kormak, 322; mar¬
ries Bersi, 323; divorced, 328; marries
Tintein, 331; rough treatment of her
lover, 338 ; delivered by Kormak from
pirates, ib. ;—see Kormak.
Stones, vast, discovered in Scandinavia,
287 ; Runic, 228.
Strut-Harald, proceedings of his sons, 141 ;
plundering of his treasury, ib. ; his
daughter married to Sigurd, ¡6.
Suicide, frequent practice of, amongst the
Scandinavians, 150. 208.
Sun, Eddaic account of, 407.
Surtur, 102. 401. 451.
Svend, son of Harald Bluetooth, reconciles
Strut-Harald with Viseti, 141 ; story of
his marriage, 142 ; gives a succession
banquet, 143.
Sweden, chronicle of the kings of, 84;
election of its kings, 129.
Sylla accompanied the expedition against
the Cimbri, 67.
Temples used by the Scandinavians, 107 ;
celebrated one at Upsal, 109; Drontheim,
ib. ; two in Iceland, ib. ; description of
Scandinavian, 284.
Teutons erroneously confounded with
the Celts, 3; supposed resemblance in
their etymologies, ib. ; accounted for, 5 ;
confounded with the Celts by the early
Greek and Roman writers, ib. ; their
division noticed by Strabo, 6; by later
writers, 7 î resemblance in their savage
manners, 8; their difference asserted by
Caesar and Tacitus, 9; difference in their
manners and customs, ib.\ in their in¬
stitutions and laws, 10; in their reli¬
gious establishments, etc., ib. ; their
mythology very crude in the time of
Caesar and Tacitus, 15; difference in
their language, 16; affinity in it, 23;
classification of, 30; physiological cha¬
racter of their race, 33; origin of, 38 ;
conquer the Tshuds, Slavonians, and
Celts, 39; their progress, 44; specimens
of the Teutonic languages, 46 ; have
caused the most numerous revolutions,
55; superiority of the spirit of their
government, 58; join the Cimbri and
overwhelm the Gauls, 61 ; insult Ma¬
rius, 64; bloody defeat of, 66; whe¬
ther those who accompanied the Cimbri
were Celts or Goths, 68, note; their laws
and institutions, 122 ; their preservation
of liberty, 125 ; difficulty in conquering
them, 134; their passion for arms, 136;
their early education, ib. ; military exer¬
cises, punishments, discipline, etc., 1,37 !
their rules of justice respecting war,
138; its connection with religion, ¿6.;
their ancient religion, 465.
Thingsmen in Norway, 277*
Thingsteads, circles of upright stones,
erroneously supposed to be altars, 108;
characters of in Iceland, 291.
Thiodolf, his poetical history, 236.
Thjassi carries off Iduna, 460; his death,
461.
Thor, the son of Odin, worship of, 94;
worshipped in the temple at Upsal, 110;
human sacrifices in honour of, 114 ; his
dialogue with Harvard in the Elder
Edda, 374; story of the recovery of his
mallet, ib.', other exploits, 375; story
of, and the dwarf Alvis, 377; Eddaic ac¬
count of, 417; his journey to the Land
of Giants, 435; fishes for the Midgard
serpent, 444; worship of different from
that of Odin, 469.
Thorfinn Karlsefni, Saga of, 251 ; his dis¬
coveries in America, 255 ; lands a Scotch
man and woman to explore, 256 ; skir¬
mishes with the Skrtellings, 258 ; death
of, 260.
Thorgerd Hordabrud, the sorceress, 144;
honoured by Jarl Hakon, 148.
Thorhall accompanies Thorfinn to Ame¬
rica, 255 ; leaves him, and is made a slave,
257.
Thor'kell the Tall, son of Jarl Strut Ha¬
rald, admitted amongst the Jomsburgh
sea-rovers, 141 ; his cattle forage in Born-
holm, ib.\ joins the expedition against
Norway, 144; defeated, but escapes,
145.
Thorstein, anecdote of, 121.
Thorvald, son of Eirek the Red, his dis¬
coveries in America, 253.
Thrym's Lay in the Elder Edda, 374.
Tigurini join the Cimbri, 62; march to
meet Catulus Luctatius, 64.
Tombs of the Scandinavians, 209.
Trinitarian doctrines of the Brahmins,
479; of the Scandinavians, 481.
Tryggvason ;—see Olaf.
Tshuds retire before the Slavonians and
Teutons, 39; their languages, 40; spe¬
cimens of their languages, 53; their
trade, 218.
Tyr, a warrior deity, 95; Eddaic account
of, 420 ; story of his chaining the wolf
Fenrir, 425.
Ulfliot, the Icelandic lawgiver, 290; made
first Lögsögumadr.
P P
578
INDEX.
ülphilas, his Gothic translation of the
Bible, 223; said to have invented the
Gothic aiphabet, 224,
Universe, primordial state of, as given in
the Edda, 4(il; restoration of, 457.
Upsal, celebrated temple there, 109; gods
worshipped there, 110; human sacrifices
there, 112; grove of Odin there, 113;
oracles there, 116.
Urdar fountain, 413.
Utgard-Loki visited by Thor, 435.
Vafthrudnismài, the Eddaic poem, 364.
Vagn, grandson of Palnatoki, persists in
joining the Jomsburgh sea-rovers, it>. ;
taken prisoner by the Norwegians, 145;
story of his escape from death, 147-
Valdemar I. destroys Julin, 139.
Valdemar II. abolished ordeals in Den¬
mark, 134.
\alhalla, Odin's residence, 92. 96 ; descrip¬
tion of, 104; Eddaic account of, 429,
431.
Valkyrjor, virgins who serve the heroes in
Valhalla, 96. 427-
Varangian body-guard, 193; their plunder-
ings, 194.
Vends, their sea-port Julin, 139.
Vermaland, king of, burnt in honour of
Odin, 112.
Vinland, discovery of, 253; remarks on,
271, 272. 275.
Viseti, Jarl, his island ravaged by the sons
of Strut-Harald, 141 ; his retaliation, ib. ;
marriage of his son to Strut-Harald's
daughter, ib.
Voluspá, its description of chaos and the
creation, 97; the poem, 363; critical
examination of, 498. 501.
War, passion of the Teutonic nations for,
136; education of the young men in,
ib.', laws of, 137; looked upon by the
Teutons as an act of justice, 138; its
connection with religion, ib.', perpetual
amongst the Scandinavians, 159 ; entire
nations engaged in it, 161 ; manner of
engaging in it among the Scandinavians,
163; government of their army, 164;
mode of fighting, 165; arms used, ib.;
armour, 166¡fortificationsand fortresses,
167: observations on the military art of
the Scandinavians, 168; maritime expe¬
ditions, 172; laws of the Scandinavian
fieets, 178 ; honour amongst the chiefs,
ib.
Whale-fishery, Icelandic laws of, 307.
Witches, account of, 322. 325. 3.35. 521.
Women among the Teutons brought up
in the midst of camps, 1.37 ; among the
.Scandinavians, 198; high character of,
1,99; numerous prophetesses amongst
them, 2ÍX); their education and employ¬
ment, 201 ; origin of our resptct for
them, 202; their marriage ceremonies,
202; their chastity, 204 ; punishment for
breaches of, 205 ; polygamy, 312 ; con¬
cubinage, 313; story of, ib.; marry to
save their reputations, 314; story of, ib.;
betrothal and marriage ceremonies, 315;
law of divorce, .316; story of, 317; loose
conduct of, 319; laws of legitimation,
320; against kissing, ¿&. ; stories of, 321.
339. 345.
Yggdrasill, the Mundane Tree, Eddaic ac¬
count of, 410; Finn Magnusen's account
of, 488.
Ymir, the giant, tradition of respecting
the creation of the earth, 98. 403, 404.
Ynglinga Saga forms the first book of
Snorri's Heimskringla, 84; division be¬
tween its fictitious and semi-historical
parts, 84; the first part, ib.; the second
part, 85; origin of, 393.
Ynglingians, origin of, 81; dynasty of
founded by Frey, 85; Ingialld Illradi,
the last king, ib.
Zosimus confounds the Celts, Goth.s, and
Sarmatians, 5.
Page Line
23, 14,/(wretendea, read pretended.
44, 5, for approoriated, read appro¬
priated.
105, 2 note,/ur Rask, read Rafn.
257, 1 > for atter, read latter.
258, ib, for Fredisa, read Freydisa.
294, 6 note,/(«i-log, read Idg.
299, 3 note, for liör, read fjiir.
315, 6 note, for bnda, read bridal.
.319, 11, for to to, read to, to.
321, 23,/or anch or inthis, read anchor in
this.
.352, 7 note,/or peri h, read perish.
Page Line
357, 37,/or afterward, read afterwards.
548, 29, \ ( Bivörr.
550, 25, Supply the ac- Farmat^r.
560, 11, V cent in the ini-i Nái.
567. 6, tial word. Thráinn.
569, 26, j Iveratyr.
555, 13, for mo'Sr read mó^r.
5.58, 12,/or antlilz, read antlitz.
562, 35, supply the accented letter omitted
in the initial tvord Rán.
43,/or regnihaf, read reginhaf.