The Viking Age. Volume 1 (of 2) / The early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nations

CHAPTER XLIV. REVENGE.

The duty of the nearest relative—Procedure—Blood-nights—Secret slaying—Incitement to revenge by women—Intentional wounding—Arbitration—Manslaughter—Murder by lunatics—Insults—Punishment of derision.

Revenge played a conspicuous part in the daily life of the Norsemen, and it was the duty of the nearest relative to avenge the death of a kinsman. This duty first belonged to the brother of the deceased, and, if he had no brother, to his next of kin. Relatives as far as the fourth degree were obliged, if there was no one nearer, to undertake the duty. If the relative could not find the murderer, his revenge fell upon the innocent kinsman of the murderer, or upon the servants of the latter.

Procedure depended on the nature of the case. If a man was slain in his own Herad, his wife or heir, or the nearest of kin present in the Herad, the same day that the death became known sent out an arrow from farm to farm through the Herad to summon the boendr. The summons ordered them to meet the same day, or, if it was already late, the next day, at the place of murder, to attend the Arrow-thing. At the Arrow-thing those more especially had to appear to whom the murderer had announced the slaying, with his name and residence; those assembled examined the circumstances of the slaying, and what was practically a coroner’s inquest took place.

“Thither came nine boendr who lived next to the slaying-place. MÖrd (who caused the slaying and declared it) had ten men with him. He showed to the boendr the wounds of HÖskuld, and named witnesses to the wounds, and one to every wound except one. He feigned not to know who had given it, for he had given it himself. He declared that Skarphedin had slain him, and that his brothers and Kari had given the wounds. Then he summoned the nine neighbours of the slaying-place to come to the Althing, then he rode home” (Njala, 112).

The days and nights immediately following a murder were called blood-nights.

Hrolleif, the son of a witchcraft-knowing woman, slew the chief Ingimund. When he came home and told his mother what he had done, she said:

“‘It is my advice that thou goest away, for the blood-nights are the quickest for revenge’”^[581] (VatnsdÆla, c. 24).

“Glum went out one day to slay Sigmund; he put on the blue cloak, and had a spear in his hand, ornamented with gold. When he had killed him he rode off to his brother Thorstein, who, seeing blood on the inlaid ornaments of the weapon, asked if he had struck anyone with it just before. Glum said: ‘It is true, I forgot to tell thee that I have slain Sigmund Thorkelsson to-day.’ Thorstein answered: ‘That will be bad tidings to Thorkel (Sigmund’s father) and the Esphol men, his sons-in-law.’ Glum added: ‘It is an old saying, that during the blood-nights every one is most passionate; but they will think little of it as time passes’” (Viga Glum’s Saga, c. 8).

If at least twenty-seven boendr had come to the Thing, and the nearest kinsman of the murdered man was present, and the slayer himself, after having received truce (grid), appeared, or it was stated that although the arrow had reached him he did not desire to appear, the Arrow-thing possessed the right to at once render judgment in the case.

The fifth day the prosecution took place at the Fimtarthing, which was an extraordinary Heradsthing.

To this Thing the slayer, or the person accused of the murder, was summoned, and here the case was carried to completion, and judgment given by the Thingsmen.

If the slaying was murder, and there was no certainty as to the murderer, then the next of kin could require three persons, on whom his suspicions had fallen, to free themselves one after the other, by tylftareid (an oath of suspicion).

“If the king accuses a man of land-treason (high-treason), he must repel the charge by a tylftareid. Charge of murder and of breach of faith must also be repelled in this way. Six men, equal to him (the accused) in rÉtt, shall be summoned on both sides of him, two of them selected, then two of his nearest kinsmen, himself as the fifth, and seven fangavattar (witnesses summoned at random)” (Gulathing’s Law, 132).

“Further, if thou findest a man slain out on the field, thou shalt hide the body and tell the first man whom thou meetest, and then go to his heir if he is in the Fylki; else thou shalt cut a Thing-summons and call a Thing. The man that does not come to the Thing is fined six aurar, called the large Thing-fine, and proves himself to be the slayer if the heir wants to accuse him of it” (Gulath., 161).

If a reconciliation took place between the slayer and family of the slain, the nearest of kin to the slain at once assured the slayer of intermediate truce (grid), and later, when the indemnity was paid, which generally took place in several instalments, assured him of security (tryggdir), whereby the matter was regarded as completely settled.^[582]

If the slayer left the weapon in the wound of his foe his act was not considered murder, but only a lesser crime, termed “secret slaying.”

“One morning, just before day-light, while VÉstein was still in bed, some one entered the room, thrust a spear through his breast, and went out again. When Vestein tried to rise he fell dead. His sister Aud called upon a thrall of hers, Thord the faint-hearted, and bade him take the weapon from the wound. It was the custom for the man who pulled the weapon from a wound to be obliged to avenge the slain; but it was called secret slaying, and not murder, if the slayer left the weapon remaining in the wound” (Gisli Sursson’s Saga).

To slay a man for revenge at night, or to put any one to death at night, was considered murder.

“King Olaf sat down in his seat when the room had been prepared, and was very angry. He asked where the slayer was. He was told that he was guarded out on the balcony. The king said: ‘Why is he not slain?’ Thorarin Nefjulfsson answered: ‘My lord, do you not call it a murder to slay men at night?’ Then the king said: ‘Put him into fetters, and slay him to-morrow’” (St. Olaf’s Saga, c. 126).

“Then ArinbjÖrn said: ‘The king will not let himself be incited to all thy nithing-deeds. He will not let Egil be killed this night, because night-killings are murders.’ The king replied: ‘It shall be as thou askest, ArinbjÖrn, that Egil shall live this night’” (Egil’s Saga, c. 62).

Incitement to revenge was often given by women. ThorbjÖrg, the wife of Indridi, heard that her brother HÖrd had been treacherously slain by Thorstein Gullknapp.

“When she and her husband came into their bed in the evening, ThorbjÖrg drew a sax and thrust it at Indridi; but he parried the blow with his hand and got much wounded. He said: ‘ThorbjÖrg, it is difficult to know what to do, and thou art very hard upon me. What shall I do that we may become friends again?’ ‘Thou canst do nothing but fetch the head of Thorstein Gullknapp for me’” (HÖrd’s Saga, c. 37).

To him who performed nabjargir (ceremony attending the dead) belonged the duty of avenging the dead.

HÖskuld, a son of Njal by his concubine HrÓdnÝ, was found wounded with sixteen wounds. HrÓdnÝ laid him against the wall in Njal’s sheephouse and went in to Njal’s bed, as it was night.

“She asked if Njal was awake. He answered: ‘I have slept, but now I am awake. Why art thou here so early?’ HrÓdnÝ replied: ‘Rise from the bed of my rival and go out with me, and also thy wife and thy sons.’ They rose and went out. Skarphedin said: ‘Let us take our weapons with us.’ Njal did not speak, and they ran in and fetched their weapons. HrÓdnÝ walked on in front, and when they came to the sheephouse she went in and asked them to follow. She took up a lantern and said: ‘Here, Njal, is thy son HÖskuld with many wounds on him, and he needs to be healed.’ Njal answered: ‘I see death-marks on him, and no life-marks; why hast thou not given him nabjargir, as his nostrils are open?’ ‘I intended Skarphedin to do that,’ she answered. Skarphedin walked up to HÖskuld’s body and closed the nostrils, eyes, and mouth. Then he asked his father, ‘Who, sayest thou, is the slayer?’ Njal answered: ‘LÝting of Samstadir and his brothers have probably slain him.’ HrÓdnÝ said: ‘I give it into thy hands, Skarphedin, to revenge thy brother; and I expect thee to behave well and perform the greatest part (in the revenge), though he was not legitimate.’ BergthÓra (Njal’s wife) said: ‘It is strange that you slay men for slight reasons, while you ponder over and digest this matter until nothing comes of it; HÖskuld Hvitanesgodi will soon be here and ask you to come to terms, and you will grant him them; if you intend to do anything, do it now.’ Skarphedin said: ‘Now our mother incites us with lawful provocation’” (Njala, c. 98).

Then follows in the Saga a long account of how the two brothers of LÝting were killed, and how he himself was wounded and escaped. LÝting went to a man called HÖskuld, who was a godi, and asked him to reconcile him with Njal and his sons. HÖskuld consented, and went with him to Njal’s home.

If a man intentionally wounded an innocent man, or offended him in such a way that full rÉtt was due to him, the offended could slay him if he had not offered surety.

It was not uncommon to resort to arbitration when cases of revenge occurred for which weregild would have to be paid.

Gunnar of Hlidarendi, the famous champion, with his brother Kolskegg had slain eight men. After the prosecution of the case had begun at the Althing, some proposed that good men should arbitrate.

“It was determined, according to the advice of the wisest men, that all the suits which followed should be submitted to arbitration; six men to arbitrate, and it was done at once at the Althing. It was decided that the death of Skamkel should not be paid for, the wound of the spur making up for the wergild; for the other a befitting payment was made. The kinsmen of Gunnar gave property, so that all the weregilds were at once paid at the Althing” (Njala, c. 56).

Manslaughter was murder if it was not acknowledged by the slayer; if there was no witness to the deed, he had to acknowledge it at the farm nearest to the place of slaughter, and tell his name and home. If kinsmen of the slain were present, he might pass the place; but in no case could he go further than the third farm without declaring it.

“Further, if men meet at the crossing of roads, and the one slays the other, and the man is alive when people come to him, then he is the slayer whom the man declares to be, unless the great evidence help him. If another man declares himself to be the slayer, then they are both slayers, though there is only one wound on the dead man. When a man declares the slaying lawfully, he goes from the place in whatever direction he likes, and declares it at the next house, unless kinsmen on male or female side or near relatives of the dead are there; in this case he shall pass on to the next house, unless they (kinsmen) are also there; then he shall go to the third house and declare it, whoever are in it. He is neither called Ulf (wolf), nor BjÖrn (bear), unless it be his name. He shall tell the jartegn (by which he is known), and tell where he slept last night. At the Arrow-thing evidence of the declaration of the slaying shall be given” (Gulathing’s Law, 61).^[583]

If a man acknowledged a slaughter lawfully, and also in the presence of witnesses gave surety that he would pay weregild and thegngildi (weregild for a thegn), he thereby made himself holy and sacred, so that he could not be slain.

“If a man wounds an innocent man, or injures him publicly by deeds liable to full rÉtt, and revenge is taken by the man or his kinsmen before a lawful offer with full surety has been made, then the one who first broke the peace is outlawed, whether he has been slain or outraged in other ways, unless the king and other men of good sense think otherwise. But if he offers full surety he is peace-holy, and the one who slays him is outlawed” (Frostath., Introd. 6).

An insane man who committed murder, though not accounted responsible for his actions, was expelled the country.

“If a man becomes mad so that he breaks his chains and kills a man, he shall leave the land, and have all his property in half a month’s truce during summer, and one month during winter” (Frostath.).

“If a father becomes so mad that he slays his son, or a son slays his father, or a brother his brother, he shall be outlawed, and leave the land, and never come back again” (Frostath., iv. 31).

Among the insults which were most resented were those caused by “nid,” or derision. Derision was of two kinds: the first called “tungunid,” tongue derision; that is, derisive or mocking words, which were chiefly in songs and lampoons (nidvisur), which sometimes were also thought to possess magical power, thus scaring away the guardian spirits, and bringing misfortune on the person in question. The second were trenid (wooden derision), that is, derisive images carved or traced on wood. These were placed at spots where they would draw attention, generally on the grounds of the enemy; and some of them must have corresponded to the caricatures of our own times.

These derisive songs were so much resented that Harald Gormsson, King of Denmark, intended to go to Iceland to take revenge upon the people for a derisive song which had been made upon him by an Icelander.

“Harald Gormsson King of Denmark heard that Hakon jarl had cast away Christianity, and made warfare in many places in his lands. Then he levied a host and went to Norway, and when he came into the realm of Hakon he plundered there, and devastated the country, and went with his host to the islands called Solundir. Only five farms were left in Laradal, and all the people fled to the mountains and forests with all the loose property they could take with them. Then he wanted to sail^[584] to Iceland, to take revenge for the derision (nid) which all the Icelanders had made on him. The Icelanders had enacted a law that as many nid-songs (derisive songs) should be made about the King of Denmark as there were noses (heads, men) in the country. The reason for this was that a ship owned by Icelanders had been wrecked in Denmark, and all the property on board taken by the Danes, who called it wreckage; this was done by the king’s steward Birgir, and the derision was on both of them”^[585] (Olaf Tryggvason’s Saga, c. 36).

Derision was forbidden by law, and punished by outlawry.

“No man shall make tongue-nid (derision) on another, nor wood-nid (nid carved on wood). If it be known and proved that he has done this, he is liable to outlawry; he shall redeem the offence with an oath of reconciliation; he falls as an outlaw if he is slain. No man shall make exaggeration or slander about another: that is exaggeration if a man says about another what cannot take place, or will not, or has not, saying he is a woman every ninth night, and has borne a child, and calls him gylvin (she-wolf). He is an outlaw, if it is proved; he shall redeem the offence with an oath of reconciliation; he falls as an outlaw if he is slain” (Earlier Gulathing’s Law, 138).

END OF VOL. 1.

1.A kind of baptism.

2.The assembly of the people.

3.The hall and abode of the slain.

4.“Sueonum hinc civitates, ipso in oceano, prÆter viros armaque classibus valent. Forma navium eo differt quod utrinque prora paratam semper appulsui frontem agit. Nec velis ministrantur, nec remos in ordinem lateribus adjungunt: solutum, ut in quibusdam fluminum, et mutabile, ut res poscit, hinc et illinc remigium” (Germ. xliv.).

5.“Hujus est civitatis longe amplissima auctoritas omnis orÆ maritimÆ regionum earum, quod et naves habent Veneti plurimas, quibus in Britanniam navigare consuerunt, et scientia atque usu nauticarum rerum reliquos antecedunt, et in magno impetu maris atque aperto, paucis portibus interjectis, quos tenent ipsi, omnes fere qui eo mari uti consuerunt, habent vectigales” (Gallic War, iii. c. 8).

“Namque ipsorum naves ad hunc modum factÆ armatÆque erant; carinÆ aliquanto planiores, quam nostrarum navium, quo facilius vada ac decessum Æstus excipere possent; prorÆ admodum erectÆ, atque item puppes ad magnitudinem fluctuum tempestatumque accommodatÆ; naves totÆ factÆ ex robore ad quamvis vim et contumeliam perferendam; transtra pedalibus in latitudinem trabibus confixa clavis ferreis digiti pollicis crassitudine; ancorÆ pro funibus ferreis catenis revinctÆ; pelles pro velis alutÆque tenuiter confectÆ, hÆ sive propter lini inopiam atque ejus usus inscientiam, sive eo, quod est magis verisimile, quod tantas tempestates Oceani tantosque impetus ventorum sustineri, ac tanta onera navium regi velis non satis commode posse arbitrabantur. Cum his navibus nostrÆ classi ejusmodi congressus erat, ut una celeritate et pulsu remorum prÆstaret; reliqua, pro loci natura, pro vi tempestatum, illis essent aptiora et accommodatiora. Neque enim his nostrÆ rostro nocere poterant (tanta in his erat firmitudo), neque propter altitudinem facile telum adjiciebatur, et eadem de causa minus commode copulis continebantur. Accedebat, ut, cum sÆvire ventus coepisset et se vento dedissent, et tempestatem ferrent facilius, et in vadis consisterent tutius, et ab Æstu relictÆ nihil saxa et cautes timerent; quarum rerum omnium nostris navibus casus erat extimescendus” (c. 13).

6.?p? t?? a????a t?? ??????? ?e?s???s?? S????e? (Geog. lib. ii. c. 2).

7.?ast???a? de, S??????? ?????, ?p?pes??ta? a?t? p??s?e??? ?at???se T??????? ???????? ?a? d?et??esa? t??? ??a??? ??te???te? ?????. ?a? F?????? t? as??e? p??se????t?? ?a? t????t?? ????se?? ???? t?? ?p?st?sa, p????? e?p???sasa, t?? ????da s??et??a?e? ?pasa? ?a? S??e??? p??ss???sa ?a? t? S??a???s??? p??s??asa p???? ?at? ta?t?? e????sat? f????. ?d? de ?a? ???? p??s???s?e?sa, ?a? ?p?????s?e?sa d???e?? ?? ?a???d???? ?pe?e??e?s??, ??a te ?????e? ?pa??? ?pa?e??e?? ???ade. (Zosimus. de Probo, i. 71).

8.“Quid loquar rursus intimas FranciÆ nationes jam non ab iis locis quÆ olim Romani invaserant, sed a propriis ex origine sui sedibus, atque ab ultimis barbariÆ littoribus avulsas, ut, in desertis GalliÆ regionibus collocatÆ et pacem Romani imperii cultu juvarent et arma delectu?” (Eumenius. Constantin. Aug. c. vi.)

9.“Recursabat quippe in animos illa sub Divo Probo et paucorum ex Francis captivorum incredibilis audacia et indigna felicitas, qui a Ponto usque correptis navibus GrÆciam Asiamque populati nec impune plerisque LibyÆ littoribus appulsi ipsas postremo, navalibus quondam victoriis nobiles ceperant Syracusas, et immenso itinere pervecti Oceanum, qua terras irrupit intraverant atque ita eventu temeritatis ostenderant nihil esse clausum piraticÆ desperationi quo navigiis pateret accessus” (Eumenius Panegyr. Const. CÆs. xviii. circ. A.D. 300)

10.“Per hÆc tempora (i.e. 287) etiam Carausius, qui vilissime natus in strenuÆ militiÆ ordine famam egregiam fuerat consecutus, cum apud Bononiam per tractum BelgicÆ et ArmoricÆ pacandum mare accepisset, quod Franci et Saxones infestabant, multis barbaris sÆpe captis, nec prÆda integra aut provincialibus reddita aut imperatoribus missa consulto ab eo admitti barbaros ut transeuntes cum prÆda exciperet atque hac se occasione ditaret; a Maximiano jussus occidi purpuram sumpsit et Britannias occupavit” (Eutropius, Breviarium HistoriÆ, ix. ch. 21).

11.Orat. 1. F?????? ?a? S????e? t?? ?p?? t?? ????? ?a? t?? ?spe??a? ???atta? ????? t? a???tata.

12.“Hoc tempore velut per universum orbem Romanum bellicum canentibus buccinis, excitÆ gentes sÆvissimÆ limites sibi proximos persultabant. Gallias RhÆtiasque simul Alamanni populabantur; SarmatÆ, Pannonias et Quadi; Picti, Saxonesque, et Scoti, et Attacotti Britannos Ærumnis vexavere continuis” (Rerum Gestarum, lib. xxvi. s. 4).

13.“Gallicanos vero tractus Franci, et Saxones iisdem confines, quo quisque erumpere potuit terra vel mari, prÆdis acerbis incendiisque et captivorum funeribus hominum violabant” (Ammianus Marcellinus, d. circ. 400, lib. xxvii. c. 8, § 5).

14.

“Maduerunt Saxone fuso
Orcades; incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule;
Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne.”

(De Cons. Hon. iv. 31.)

15.“Vita omnis in venationibus atque in studiis rei militaris consistit. Ab parvulis labori ac duritiÆ student ... in fluminibus promiscue perluuntur et pellibus aut parvis rhenonum tegimentis utuntur magna corporis parte nuda” (CÆsar De Bello Gallico, vi. 21).

16.“Nec enim immensa barbarorum scuta, enormes hastas, inter truncos arborum et enata humo virgulta perinde haberi quam pila et gladios et hÆrentia corpori tegmina ... non loricam Germano, non galeam, ne scuta quidem ferro nervo ve firmata, sed viminum textus vel tenues fucatas colore tabulas, primatu utcunque aciem hastatam, cÆteris prÆusta aut brevia tela” (Tacitus Annals, ii. 14).

17.“Nam super hac re varia opinio est, aliis arbitrantibus de Danis Northmannisque originem duxisse Saxones, aliis autem aestimantibus, ut ipse adolescentulus audivi quendam praedicantem de Graecis, quia ipsi dicerent, Saxone reliquias fuisse Macedonici exercitus qui secutus magnum Alexandrum inmatura morte ipsius per totum orbem sit dispersus” (Ann. lib. 1).

18.“Dani et Sueones, quos Northmannos vocamus, et Septentrionale litus et omnes in eo insulas tenent” (Vita Caroli Magni, c. 12; Eginhard, historian and friend of Charlemagne).

19.“Dani more quoque Francisco dicuntur nomine Manni.”

20.VÖluspa is derived from vÖlva, sybil and spÁ, foretelling. The name vÖlva seems to be derived from vÖlr (staff, stick), as we see that the sibyls or prophetesses used to walk from place to place with a stick.

21.Vafthrudnir. Vaf = weave, or entangle: thrudnir = strong, or mighty; hence Vafthrudnir = mighty in riddles which cannot be disentangled.

22.The awful = Odin.

23.The one who gives useful advice.

24.When the heart, which is near the ribs, is cold, the ribs are also cold; therefore this means cold-hearted.

25.Foeda means both to give birth to, to raise, and to feed.

26.Ividi, a very obscure word (only found here in the whole Northern literature), which has been translated differently without any particle of authority in any case, and in each case only as a mere guess. The word vid means tree, perhaps the world-tree, Yggdrasil, which extended its roots under the world.

27.It is well known that the later Edda bears strong marks of the influence of Christianity, and we quote it with caution and only when it essentially agrees with Voluspa and other parts of the earlier Edda.

28.Vili, will; Ve, sanctuary, holy place. Cf. also ‘Lokasenna,’ 26; ‘Ynglinga,’ c. 3.

29.GjÖll (the sounding one).

30.Gjallar bridge (the bridge of GjÖll).

31.Modgud (the valkyrja of anger).

32.Nanna is told of in Baldr’s burning, as she, his wife, was burnt with him.

33.In Sigurdrifumal it is said the runes were in the holy mead, sent to Asar, Alfar, and Vanir.

34.Elivagar, the streams flowing from the well Hvergelmir in Niflheim froze into a JÖtun.

35.i.e., a JÖtun woman.

36.A kind of trough used for flour; so the boat is called in which he saved his life as is seen by what follows. In the lay of Hyndla we read:—

“All JÖtnar came from Ymir.”

37.Mundilfori, from mondul = a handle, and fara = to go; the one veering or turning round.

38.A JÖtun.

39.Sun, in the north, is of feminine gender, and the moon masculine.

40.The rim of heaven = the line of the sky from the horizon.

41.The sun.

42.The moon.

43.RÖkstÓl—stol, seat or stool; rÖk, judgment.

44.Wind-chilly.

45.Sweet mood.

46.Bloody surf means poetically the sea, and the expression, the bones of Blain, a name nowhere else mentioned in the earlier Edda, seems to refer to a fight, the record of which is lost to us.

47.Modsognir and Durin, only mentioned here, refer to some lost myth. There seem to have been three kinds of tribes of Dvergar, having for chiefs, respectively, Modsognir, Durin, Dvalin. “Many man-likenesses in the earth,” namely Dvergar, who are often described as living under the earth.

48.The five stanzas (Nos. 11, 12, 13, 15, 16) omitted give a long list of names of Dvergar, among them those of Nyi, the growing moon; Nidi, the waning moon; Nordri, the north, &c.; Althjof, all-thief; Dvalin, the delayer, &c., &c.

49.The Dvergar clan of Dvalin, who is not mentioned before, seems to have been the highest among all the Dvergar.

From Alvismal we may infer that the Dvergar were related to the Thursar.

50.There seems to be something missing between the stanzas 16 and 17, unless the poet means the host of the Dvergar, who were under the three above-named chiefs.

51.It seems that the house in which Ask and Embla were to live was in existence already. Ask means ash-tree, like Yggdrasil; Embla only occurs here in the VÖluspa, and it is most difficult consequently to give a meaning to it; the elm-tree is called alm, and perhaps is here meant to be in contrast to the ash.

52.Odin, Hoenir, and Lodur gave them life. Hoenir is mentioned in the later Edda. Lodur is only mentioned in the beginning of Heimskringla.

53.Jarnvid, or iron forest; the word is only found here and in the Later Edda. The old one means a JÖtun woman, Angrboda, by whom Loki begat the Fenrir wolf (‘Later Edda,’ c. 34).

54.The son of Fenrir. According to the prose Edda MÁnagarm is the name of the son of the Fenrir wolf who swallowed the moon. See Gylfaginning, c. 12.

55.A third bird not named lives in the halls of Hel. They represent the JÖtnar, the Asar, and the third Hel (the home of the dead), and seem to be the wakers of these three different realms.

56.The Asar, after taking Loki, bound him to a rock with fetters made of the entrails of his son, Vali (who must not be confused with his namesake, Baldr’s brother).

“Now Loki was without any truce taken to a cave. They took three slabs, set them on edge, and made a hole in each. They took the sons of Loki, Vali and Nari or Narfi, and changed Vali into a wolf which tore Narfi asunder. Then they took his entrails and with them tied Loki over the three slabs; one was under his shoulders, another under his loins, the third under his knees, and these bands changed into iron. Then Skadi (a goddess) took a poisonous serpent and fastened it above him, so that the poison should drip into his face; but his wife Sigyn stands at his side, and holds a vessel under the poison-drops. When it is full she goes out to pour it down, but in the meanwhile the poison drips into his face; then he shudders so hard that the whole earth trembles; that you call earthquake. There he lies in bands till the doom of the gods” (Gylfaginning, c. 50).

“Loki begat the wolf
With Angrboda,
And Sleipnir
With SvadilfÖri;
One monster was thought
Most terrible of all;
It was sprung from
The brother of BÝleist (= Loki).”

[HyndluljÓd, 40]

The Asar were afraid of Fenrir wolf, Loki’s son, and twice tried to chain it, but could not.

“Thereupon they were afraid that they could not chain the wolf; then AllfÖdr (Odin) sent the servant SkÍrnir, the messenger of Frey, down to SvartÁlfaheim (world of the black Álfar) to some Dvergar, and had a chain made, called Gleipnir. It was made of six things: Of the noise of the cat, of the beard of women, of the roots of the mountain, of the sinews of the bear, of the breath of the fish, of the spittle of the bird.”

At last they succeeded in chaining it with the chain, but TÝr lost his right hand, which he was obliged to put into the mouth of the wolf as a pledge.

“When the Asar saw that the wolf was fully tied they took the band which hung on the chain and was called Gelgja, and drew it through a large slab, called GjÖll, and fastened the slab deep down in the ground. They took a large stone and put it still deeper into the ground; it was called Thviti, and they used it as a fastening pin. The wolf gaped terribly and shook itself violently, and wanted to bite them. They put into its mouth a sword; the guards touch the lower palate and the point the upper palate; that is its gag. It groans fiercely and saliva flows from its mouth and makes the river Von; there it lies till the last fight of the gods” (Later Edda, c. 34).

57.Dvergar.

58.Hrym. This name occurs nowhere else.

59.JÖrmungand is the world serpent, Midgard’s serpent, the son of Loki.

“Angrboda was a JÖtun woman in JÖtunheimar. Loki begat three children by her: Fenrir wolf, JÖrmungand, or Midgardsorm, the serpent, and Hel. When the gods knew that these three children were brought up in JÖtunheimar, they had foretellings that great misfortune and loss would be caused by them, and all thought much evil must be expected from them, first on account of their mother, and still more of their father. AllfÖdr (Odin) sent the gods to take and bring them to him. When they came to him he threw the serpent (Midgardsorm) into the deep sea that lies round all lands, and it grew so much that it lies in the middle of the sea round all lands and bites its tail” (Later Edda, c. 34).

60.“Naglfar.” The ship, said in the Later Edda, Gylfaginning 51, to be made of nails of dead men; when it is finished the end of the world comes.

61.Loki being the chief enemy of the gods.

62.The first sorrow is not mentioned. Hlin, a maid of Frigg (see Gylfaginning, 35). Her second sorrow is the death of Odin.

63.Slayer of Beli = Frey.

64.The wolf Fenrir.

65.Loki is the father of Fenrir-wolf, who is called the JÖtun’s son, as Loki was a JÖtun.

66.Odin’s son, Vidar, avenges his father by slaying the Fenrir-wolf.

67.Here the VÖlva again sees how everything is destroyed. RagnarÖk, “the doom of the powers and the end of the world,” is mentioned in Lokasenna where Loki is taunting the gods; when he comes to Tyr, the latter answers him—

I have no hand
And thou hast no praise;
We are both badly off;
Nor is the wolf well
That in bands shall
Wait for RagnarÖk.

In Atlamal RagnarÖk is also mentioned in the dreams of Glaumvor (see p. 462). In the later Edda the word is corrupted by having an “r” added, which gives the meaning of twilight instead of doom of the gods, as it really meant.

68.The VÖlva seems never to tire reminding her hearers that the dog Garm barks loud, &c.

69.The VÖlva.

70.Midgard—midr, middle; gardr, yard, enclosed space; also, courtyard and premises; a house in a village or town; a stronghold; a fence or wall; a collection of houses, a farm.

71.Asgard in olden times meant a place surrounded by walls, and also a collection of houses enclosed by a fence, hence the modern name in Scandinavia of gÅrd for farm. The residence of the gods is also called by this name in the Edda.

72.Mannheimar (always in plural mannheimar, the singular is mannheim) means homes of men.

73.The word Gullveig is only found as a compound word this once in the literature of the North. Gull = gold; veig = draught, also strength. It may be a metaphor for the thirst of gold being the root of evil, and the cause of the first fight and manslaying in the world, as the thirst is never dying.

74.HÁr = Odin.

75.Here evidently the reference is to the war between the Vanir and the Asar. This shows that they had been defeated. Feast means sacrifice, which was always followed by the feast; this would imply that they wanted to make a sacrifice for peace or victory.

76.A stockade made like Danavirki or other strongholds in the north.

77.Wergild, indemnity.

78.Alfheimar. In one text, JÖtunheimar. In later times Risar, Troll, and Dvergar became synonymous with giants, dwarfs, and wizards.

79.Kvisl—a forked river, one of the forks where they unite—it also means a branch of a tree.

Vana-kvisl means the river of the Vanir; it is supposed now that it was the river Don which flows into the Sea of Azow, but it is doubtful.

80.This was probably the river Don, which is near the Ural Mountains.

81.SvÍthjÓd the Great seems to be Russia—Norway, Sweden, perhaps Denmark and the shores of the Baltic.

82.Gefjon was one of the Asynjur.

83.SvithjÓd = Sweden, but it can hardly be taken in these early Sagas as exactly corresponding to modern Sweden.

84.People were buried with their wealth.

85.The one who owned the burning in the text. Heaven means space, not a blessed abode.

86.This word is not found elsewhere in Scandinavian literature.

87.See priest.

88.IdrÓttir, a name for all kinds of athletic and intellectual games.

89.We must here remark that nowhere is Thor called the God of Thunder.

90.See Havamal, the lord of the gallows; see Havamal where he is said to have hung on a tree.

91.GrimnismÁl, 19–20, also mentions these ravens.

19.

The battle-tamer (Odin) feeds
Geri and Freki,
The famous father of hosts (HerjafÖdr)
And by wine alone
The weapon-famous
Odin always lives.

20.

Hugin and Munin
Fly every day
Over the wide earth;
I am afraid Hugin
Will not come back,
But still more of Munin.

Poetical names were given to these ravens by Eyvind Skalda-spillir; they are called the Swans of FarmatÝr (the god of cargoes), i.e., the Swans of Odin.

92.Because he was always fighting against the JÖtnar.

93.The fires were always in the centre, lengthwise.

94.This man was Odin, who is always represented as having only one eye.

95.Cfr. also Volsunga Saga, c. 11.

96.The story of Odin’s ship reminds one of the tent mentioned in the ‘Arabian Nights,’ which could cover an army, and yet could be folded and carried in a small pocket.

97.Odin himself hung in Yggdrasil to learn wisdom, and this is a like custom (Havamal, 139); it seems that Odin learned wisdom from the one hanging in the gallows by sitting under it.

98.A high seat from which Odin could see over all worlds. (Gylfaginning, 17.) In the older Edda there is a long poem, SkirnismÁl or SkirnisfÖr, on the story of NjÖrd falling in love with Gerd.

99.The peace of Frodi, so called from the chief who ruled Denmark at the time, and who must have become very celebrated.

100.Gymir, a jotun of whom nothing is known.

101.A lady is still called fru all over Scandinavia.

102.In Icelandic Sagas housewife is hÚs-freyja; but in modern Icelandic, hÚs-frÚ.

103.i.e., mixed with water.

104.This would imply that Sweden was east of Vanaheim.

105.Cf. also Herraud and Bosi’s Saga, c. 1.

106.Cf. also Ynglinga Saga, and Prologue to Heimskringla.

107.The Ynglingatal is not given, as it is tedious, and would be uninteresting to the general reader.

108.FrÓdi had two sons, Ingjald and HÁlfdÁn. From the first was descended the great Harald HilditÖnn, who was defeated by his kinsman Sigurd Hring at the Bravalla-battle, see p. 368. From the second was descended Harald Fairhair, the ancestor of the Dukes of Normandy, and so indirectly of Queen Victoria.

109.This was written after all the petty kingdoms of Denmark had been consolidated into one; the term Danish tongue at earlier periods did not exist, but Norroena, or Northern tongue, was used instead.

110.Antiquities of the stone age have been found in bogs at Hoebelstrup; Sandbjerg, near HÖrsholm; Loesten, near Randers; Kjoer, RingkjÖbing Amt, Jutland; SamsÖ, &c.; and in mounds. Among them are numerous amber beads; flint tools from 4½ to 10 ins. long, many having teeth like a saw; axe-blades, chisels, spear-points, and ornaments.

111.The following contents of a Dolmen at Luthra, Vestergotland, are typical:—5 spear-heads, 1 arrow-head, 19 rough flint axes, 4 bone pins, 18 bone beads, 4 amber beads, 11 pierced teeth of bears, dogs, and pigs, several bones of cows, and a great number of skeletons.

112.Of the 140 passage graves at present known in Sweden, more than 110 have been found in Skaraborglan, and most of these near FalkÖping.

113.Some of the forms of these antiquities are met with in parts of Germany, Hungary, England, and elsewhere in Europe, whilst others, by far the most numerous, are peculiarly Northern.

114.In one of the slabs (Fig. 28) there seems to be a representation of a kind of sacrificing altar, with figures of persons coming towards it, as if they were coming there for some object. There seem to be men blowing horns. In Fig. 29 are a ship and a large cone, on each side of which are an axe and another object or sign the significance of which is unknown.

Fig. 30 has only a ship.

Fig. 31 has four-footed animals, the lower ones coming in opposite directions, and the others going the same way; but the two subjects are separated by peculiar marks.

115.The Svastika, or Suvastika, is in its essential form a cross with bent arms Svastikas, but with many modifications. As a symbol, it is found widespread over a large part of the Old World. It is certainly of ancient origin, but authorities are disagreed as to its symbolical significance. Other symbols equally difficult to interpret, found in Norse remains, are the three dots, circle of dots, triangles, the triskele , &c.

116.In a bog by Taarup several pieces of bronze, such as arm rings, spear-points, chisels, &c., were found.

Near Aarup, Jutland, two bronze earrings of a similar pattern, two bracelets made of convex bronze bands with engraved ornaments, a solid gold ring for the hair, three spiral-shaped loops of gold with bowl-shaped buttons at the ends. The engraved ornaments seem to point to the fact that the engraving needle was known in the bronze age.

Somewhat similar objects have been found in other bogs.

117.See ‘Land of the Midnight Sun’ for other ornaments of bronze.

118.During the stone and bronze ages the population of Norway was not as great as that of Sweden, Denmark, and the islands of the Baltic. It is only during the iron age that that country becomes more thickly settled, and approximates somewhat in its population to the neighbouring countries; bronze finds have occurred in Norway as far north as 66° 10´ N. latitude.

119.Mixed finds precede the advent of each age. Stone implements or weapons are found together with those of bronze, and later bronze implements, which are the forerunners of the approaching iron age, are found with those of iron. Examples of such are—a grave at Stonholt, Viborg Amt, containing pearl of glass mosaic, with bronze poniard; grave at Alstrup, Aalborg Amt, containing iron weapons alongside an urn in which were a knife and ring of bronze; grave at Assens on Fyen, containing early iron age fibula, with bronze knife, saw, and needle; at Helsinge Zealand, grave with iron pin and bronze objects; at Brandtbjerg, near SorÖ, Zealand, fragments of iron fibula and objects from bronze age, &c.

120.Broholm, situated on the S.E. coast of Fyen, forms the centre of the area of a magnificent archÆological field, which extends about four kilometres all around it. In order to give an adequate idea of the richness of the place, I cannot do better than use the language of the late Herr F. Sehested, who in three summers discovered more than 10,000 different pieces belonging to the three ages above mentioned.

121.In an urn in a mound near Veile, Jutland, was found a bent bronze poniard; and in another mound at Mors, Jutland, an urn containing burnt bones and a bent bronze poniard.

Sehested mentions (1) a bronze sword broken in four pieces, total length about 2 feet 8 inches with point missing; (2) fragments of a bronze sword with hollow handle broken at the top of the handle: (3) handle of sword with fragments of broken blade; (4) fragments of a spear-head broken near its socket. These objects had been intentionally rendered useless.

122.I can give an example that has lately come to my knowledge to prove this assertion. Professor Lorange found runes on parts of burnt bones found in a grave which he with Professor Stephens places, judging from the antiquities which belonged to it, as belonging to the sixth century.

“RUNE-INSCRIBED BURNT BONE.

“In a letter dated Feb. 27th, 1886, I received from my friend the gifted Norwegian old-lorist A. Lorange, Keeper of the Bergen Forn-hall, a facsimile drawing of a piece of burnt bone, shortly before found in a grave-urn from the early iron age at JÆderen. Afterwards he kindly sent the original to the Danish Museum, that I might give a faultless engraving. While there, the frail treasure was scientifically treated by Hr. Steffensen, the Conservator, and it is now quite hard and in excellent order. But even when it was taken from the urn, the runes were sharp and quite readable. These Old-Northern letters were elegantly cut, most of them in decorative writing, that is, with two or three strokes instead of one, very much in the style of the (? 7th century) Old-Danish Bone Amulet found at Lindholm in Scane, Sweden (‘Old Northern Run. Mon.,’ vol. i., p. 219; iii., p. 33; 4to Handbook, p. 24); and of the ashen Lance-shaft from the Danish Kragehul Moss, not later than the year 400 (‘O. N. Run. Mon.,’ vol. iii, p. 133; 4to Handbook, p. 90).

“This burnt bone is nearly 4 inches long; average width, ½ inch. It bears over forty rune-staves, cut in two lines, in the Boustrophedon order.

“From the rune-types and language I judged this piece to date from the 6th century. But as Hr. Lorange was familiar with the build and grave-gear of the tumuli of a similar class, I begged him to say whether—exclusively from his standpoint as archÆologist—he agreed with me. He replied, that he did.

“If I have read the runes aright, this object also has been a heathen amulet. It is the first burnt bone yet found risted with runes. Other such we may have lost, for want of lynx-eyed examination.

“George Stephens,

Cheapinghaven, Denmark.

November 6, 1886.”

123.Similar runes also occurred on a scabbard found at Varpelev, and on a gold horn.

124.Danish coins with runic characters have been obtained from as early a period as that of Svein Úlfsson, or the 12th century. A runic kefli, according to its contents, carved soon after 1200, is preserved in the Danish museum. It was found in Vinje church, Upper Telemarken, of Norway. The inscription thereon signifies: Sigurd Jarlson traced these Runes the Saturday after Botolf’s mass, when he journeyed hither and would not be reconciled to Sverre, the slayer of his father and brother. Sigurd was the son of the well-known Erling Skakke; he lost a battle against Sverre in 1200. As the latter died in 1202, it was between these two dates that the unsuccessful attempt at reconciliation occurred. (Stephens, p. 515.)

125.Dennis, p. 306. See Signor Gamurrini, who has described and illustrated them (see Ann. Inst. 1871, pp. 156–166). Franzius, in his ‘Elementa Epigraphices GrÆcÆ,’ p. 22, 4to, Berolini, 1840, gives three Greek alphabets found inscribed in the same manner on various objects. No. 1, of twenty-four letters, is on the Agyllic vase first engraved by Lepsius (‘Annal. Hist. ArchÆol. Rom.,’ vol. viii., p. 186). The second is a fragment, only sixteen letters, found on the wall of an Etruscan sepulchre (‘Lanzi Saggio di ling. Etr.,’ ii., p. 436). The third is incomplete, having only the beginning, or the first fourteen letters.

126.Tacitus (Germ. c. 19) says: “Litterarum secreta viri pariter ac feminÆ ignorant” (Men and women are equally ignorant of the secrets of letter writing). The earliest Latin inscriptions found in the North have characters unlike the runes.

127.In the Royal Library at Copenhagen there exist three most remarkable manuscripts in runic characters, showing the late period at which these still were in use. The first of these manuscripts, bearing the date of 1543, was written as a journal by Mogens Gyldenstjerne (a Danish noble) of Stjernholm, during a voyage into the North Sea undertaken by him in that year. The second bears the date of 1547, and is written as a note on a rough draft of a power of attorney by Bille of Bregentved, another Danish noble. The third is a notice about the last-mentioned estate, also containing a line in runic characters.

The Runic codex containing the Scanian law also contains, in a different hand, a list of Danish kings, and among these one Ambruthe as having been king in Jutland. The time of this codex can be approximately fixed at about the year 1300.

128.The sacred or mystical number.

129.We see that Odin had to go through a terrible ordeal to learn the runes.

130.BÖlthorn and Bestla are nowhere else mentioned in the earlier Edda.

131.Song-rouser, one of the vessels holding the sacred mead.

132.From this stanza we learn which tribes or people knew the art of writing runes.

133.Thund = Odin.

134.Three last lines of stanza are missing.

135.The edges of weapons. Some persons were supposed to have the power to deaden weapons’ edges.

136.Spells on the roots of a young tree or sticks.

137.Witches and ghosts were believed to ride on hedges and tops of houses at night.

138.Hanged corpse.

139.Man.

140.Here the Alfar are reckoned among the gods.

141.The mighty rearer.

142.Delling is the father of Day (VafthrÚdnismÁl, 25; Later Edda).

143.Odin.

144.Loddfafnir is some one whom Odin is teaching.

145.One must not tell his secret to any one.

146.We see by this and many other passages that the JÖtnar were the enemies of the Asar.

147.Property here means gold.

148.Of witches = shape-stolen.

149.Undecipherable.

150.Take care of his clothes, &c.

151.Cf. also Gretti’s Saga. c. 62.

152.KvÆdi, a poem or song. The poem consists of seventy-one stanzas with eight verses each, and the manuscripts are late and corrupted. It is evidently made up from the lives of several warriors, and often exaggerated, e.g., that he lived 300 years, and that his height was 16 or 24 feet.

153.Speldi = tablet, flat piece of wood.

154.A form of duelling.

155.Professor Stephens in ‘Handbook of Old Northern Runic Monuments,’ says: “The only Northern stone known to me which bears two words, cut far apart and running in different directions. I would therefore suggest that the one name is carved later than the other. Perhaps the husband or wife died first, and shortly after the partner was called away: thus they most likely lay in the same grave, and were remembered on the same block.”

156.Bugge, by comparing the runic inscription on the PirÆus marble lion now at Venice, comes to the conclusion that, while the damaged state of the inscription makes it impossible to decipher it as a whole, enough can, however, be read to show its approximate date, and also the home of the tracer. The snake-slings and runes on this lion in all probability are traced by a man from Sweden, who has been among the VÆrings or Varangians.

157.Bog finds belonging to the bronze age, as well as to the iron age, have been discovered in many places in the North. Those of the bronze age consist chiefly of swords, lance-heads, axes, sickles, &c. Objects of the bronze age are also found deposited under stones or in fields.

158.Thorsbjerg is situated south of Flensborg, in Southern Jutland. Among the objects found were fragments of swords, all double-edged, the hilts of all, with one exception, of wood, inlaid with bronze and silver, with scabbards of wood with metal mountings (on the metal bottom-piece of one scabbard is a very clear runic inscription); a sword-belt of thick leather, 41½ inches long and 3½ inches wide; buckles for sword-belts, all of bronze, with broken pieces of iron buckles; bows and arrows in a more or less complete state, the most perfect bow being about 60 inches long, but both ends are somewhat damaged, and the original length seems to have been a couple of inches more; a great number of arrow-shafts, all of similar shape, between 26–35 inches long and ½ inch thick, but the arrow-points are all destroyed, the iron having rusted; remnants of shields, flat and circular, composed of several smoothly-planed and pretty thin wooden boards, which are not equally broad all over, but become narrower towards the border:—the largest cross-measure is 42½ inches, the smallest 21 inches, the thickness of the middle boards, which as a rule are somewhat heavier than the rest, is about ½ to ¼ inch (the shield-buckles are of bronze, but broken pieces of iron ones have been found also; their cross-measure is between 6–7 inches); axes, whose blades are much decomposed by rust, with thirty good handles of ash and beechwood, which measured between 23 and 33½ inches in length; a few well-preserved spear-points, and others more or less destroyed by rust; four spear-handles, 32, 98½, 107½, and 116 inches in length; several riding and driving accoutrements; more than sixty fibulÆ of many different styles; many broken pieces of gold rings, only two of which have been fitted together so as to form one complete ring; two spiral rings of bronze; a round pendant of gold; a hollow ornament of silver-mixed gold; a mass of beads; a piece of unworked amber; pincers; dice of amber; a variety of utensils and tools for domestic use, such as bowls of wood and clay, spoons, jugs, knives, &c.; two pairs of coarse woollen trousers, &c.; and several objects, the use of which is unknown.

159.Thirty-seven Roman coins were found altogether. The earliest is of the year 60 A.D.; the latest, 194 A.D.—1 of Nero, 1 of Vitellius, 4 of Vespasianus, 1 of Domitianus, 7 of Trajanus, 6 of Hadrianus, 1 of Aelius, 6 of Antoninus Pius, 1 of Faustina the elder, 3 of Marcus Aurelius, 2 of Faustina the younger, 3 of Commodus, and 1 of Septimius Severus, the last-named being struck in the year 194 of our era.

160.On a superb silver vase at the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, found in Southern Russia, is a representation of a man wearing similar trousers.

161.The principal objects in this find included a very great number of arrow shafts (most of them thoroughly decayed), with arrow-points of bone or iron; a remnant of a quiver of wood about 25 inches long; a mass of wooden scabbards, mostly for edged swords; 390 pieces of metal and bone mountings for the scabbards, some of silver, and one of bronze covered with silver and thin gold plates, with runes lightly traced; shield-boards, handles and buckles (180 of the latter of iron); about 150 knives, all of iron and different shapes; several remnants of belts, as well as about 40 buttons of bronze, some covered with gold, and about 60 double buttons of bronze; about 250 different pieces of buckles and other mountings of iron and bronze; about 150 different pieces of riding harness; a few horses’ bones; bronze bowls, needles, keys; scissors; scythe-blades; 1 millstone; 1 small anvil; 6 hammers; 25 iron chisels; 3 iron files; 2 iron pincers; 57 bone combs, some with svastica, and one with runes on; 4 square, 2 oblong dice; amber, glass, and mosaic beads; fibulÆ of bronze, iron, silver, &c., &c.

162.This Greek writer, who lived at the beginning of the 3rd century, was called to the Roman Court by Faustina, wife of Septimius Severus, whose numerous coins are found, and if this art was known by the Romans he would certainly have described it.

“Around this youth is a group of young men of fine appearance, and engaged in fine pursuits, as beseems men of noble birth. One of them seems to bear on his countenance traces of the palÆstra, another gives evidence of gentleness, a third of geniality: here is one who you would say had just looked up from his book; and of the horses on which they ride no two are alike, one is white, another chestnut, another black, another bay, and they have silver bridles, and their trappings are adorned with golden and decorated bosses (f??a?a). And it is said that the barbarians by the ocean pour these colours on red-hot copper, and that the designs become hard, like stone, and are durable.”—Philostratus, Imagines. Chapter on Boar-hunting.

163.The articles found include glass, mosaic, and porcelain beads; fragments of four bone combs; four tweezers of bronze, of which two hang on bronze rings; remains of wooden shields with metal mountings; bronze mountings; 10 iron swords, damascened in several patterns, the length of the blades being from 31 to 35 inches, their width 1¾ to 2 inches; and fragments of several others; fragments of wooden scabbards, of which one has remains of leather on it; several metal mountings for scabbards; a buckle of bronze; about 80 points of iron spears, all of different shapes; 30 spear-handles, ornamented with engraved lines, some straight, and others with snake lines; remains of a wooden bow, length 47½ inches, and fragments of another; arrows; four whole iron knives, between 7 and 10 inches long, and several handles and fragments; four oval-shaped whetstones and fragments of a square one; five small balance-weights; fragments of a heavy wooden post and of a small twig; some mountings of silver which probably belonged to riding harness; bones of three animals; &c., &c.

164.Among the objects found in the bog were 106 iron swords, all double-edged, with handles of wood sometimes covered with silver, or of bone or massive bronze; 93 damascened in different patterns, two wrought from two different pieces, and only eleven simply wrought. On several there are Latin inscriptions, and on one blade runes inlaid in gold. The condition in which the swords were when buried is peculiar. Generally they were without hilts and bent, on many were found deep cuts on both edges, one having 23 cuts on one, and 11 cuts on the other edge. Wooden scabbards, with mountings of bronze; mountings to sword-belts; buckles of iron and bronze; rings with loose end-mountings; 70 iron shield buckles; iron axes; iron bridles, three of which were still in the mouths of (skeleton) horses; 552 iron spear-points, several ornamented with gold; several hundred spear-handles; numerous household utensils of wood; several hundred arrow-shafts with traces of marks of ownership on them, and some with runes, &c.

165.Thirty-four Roman coins, struck between the years 69 and 217 A.D., are so-called denarii of silver, and date from the time of Vitellius (1), Hadrian (1), Antoninus Pius (10), two of which have the mark of DIVVS; Faustina the elder (4), Marcus Aurelius (7) (partly as CÆsar, between the years 140–143, and partly as Imperator), Faustina the younger (1), Lucius Verus (2), Lucilla (2), Commodus (5), and Macrinus (1), the latter a very rare coin, struck in 217 A.D.

166.See p. 385.

167.In the coffin itself, on the right side of the skeleton, were found, among other objects, forty-six checker pieces of glass, sixteen dark red, the others of whitish colour, ¾ to 1½ inch; three finger-rings of gold, and a spiral bracelet, similar to the one from Oland (vol. ii. p. 311); two fibulÆ of silver, one gilt. On the left, sixty checker pieces, thirty-one of which were black, the others whitish; with these was a small amethyst stone with rough, unworked surface. At the feet, bronze vessels, one placed on the other, two small bosses of silver of unknown use.

168.See also pages 280, 282, 284.

169.The earliest coins (Gotland) are those of Augustus (29 B.C.–A.D. 14). Then follow those of Nero, and coins of all the different emperors to Alexander Severus (222–235); the greatest numbers are those of Trajan (98–117); Hadrian (117–138); Antoninus Pius (138–161); Faustina, wife of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius (161–180); Faustina junior, wife of Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus (180–192). At Hagestaborg the most numerous were those of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Faustina the younger, and Commodus. The earliest are of the time of Nero (54–68), the latest of that of Septimius Severus (193–211). In Öland the earliest are those of Trajan, the latest those of Alexander Severus. In Zeeland the earliest are of Vespasian, the latest of Macrinus (217, 218). In Fyen the earliest are of Tiberius (14–37), the latest of Geta (211, 212). In Bornholm the earliest are of Nero, the latest of Septimius Severus. In Jutland the earliest are also of Nero, the latest of Macrinus (217, 218). In southern Sweden the earliest are of Claudius (41–54), the latest of Alexander Severus, but only one or two of the latter have been found; after the time of Commodus the silver denarii became rarer and rarer. On the island of Fyen a complete series of gold coins from Decius (249–251) to Licinius the elder (307–323) have been found. The Byzantine coins are of gold, and chiefly used as ornaments, date from Constantinus Magnus (306–337) to Anastasius (491–518); one also of Justinius I. (518–527) has been found. In Norway the gold coins of the above period are exceedingly rare, only one of Valens (364–378) and one of Gratuanus (367–375) having been discovered; also one of Tiberius Constantius (578–582), one of Mauricius Tiberius (582–602), one of Constantius V. Copronymus (741–775), one of MichÆl III. (842–867) all of gold. Some of the earlier Arabic coins had already made their appearance in Scandinavia. The Roman coins from the Bangstrup find date from between A.D. 249 and 361. See also Appendix.

170.I have myself seen an illustration of this on the African coast, where natives could not understand that coins represent the value of goods, though traders had come to their country for a long time, and in some places they were loth to take money as payment, while a few miles inland it was refused.

171.See “Land of the Midnight Sun.” The islands of Zeeland and Fyen are especially rich in Roman objects and show the existence of great intercourse with the Roman provinces; while Gotland is particularly rich in coins. In the hamlet of Ryk (Tanum parish), BohuslÄn, a Roman coin struck A.D. 179 for the Emperor Marcus Aurelius was found in the ground. From the inscription on the coin the date can be accurately fixed, for it was said that it was coined in the year when Marcus Aurelius was Tribune for the thirty-third time, Imperator for the tenth time, and Consul for the third time.

A gold coin of Tiberius (14–37) was found in a stone-set coffin at Rorboek; a silver denarius of Nerva (96–98) in the find of Fraugdegard, Fyen; and a silver denarius of Antoninus Pius (138–161), with a skeleton, in a natural hill at Bennebo, near Holboek; a silver denarius of Lucius Verus (161–169), with a skeleton, in a hill at Gunnerugs, near PrestÖ; a barbaric imitation in gold of a Roman imperial coin, with a loop soldered to it, found with a skeleton at Aareslen in Odense amt, Fyen. One limit of time obtained by means of the coins is certain enough, for the graves cannot have been closed before the year of their coinage.

Pyteas mentions GuttanÆ. The Gotlanders in the Sagas are called Gutar; they may have met him on some of their trading journeys. The two names seem to be sufficiently similar to make this a probable supposition. In the island of Gotland a Greek coin of copper was found, but it seems to have been struck at Panormus in Sicily. On the obverse is a female head looking to the right, on the reverse a horse galloping to the left; it has no Punic letters. (In the collection of Capt. C. T. von Braun, of Ystad.) Two Macedonian coins of silver were also found; one of them is a diabole of Philip II., similar to the coins described in MÜller, “Der Macedoniske Konge Philipp II.’s Mynter,” p. 3, Nos. 14–16, and engraved Plate 1. (Both were in the collection of Capt. v. Braun, of Ystad; now only one remains there.)

Also Roman coins anterior to Augustus, found together about 100 years ago. A silver coin of the family of Lucretia; a silver coin of the family of NÆvia; a coin of the family of Sulpicia. They are all unusually well preserved, but shorn on the border. (In the collection of Capt. von Braun Ystad.) A silver coin of the family Funa; a silver coin of the family Poblicia; one subÆrate coin of the family Postumia; one silver coin of the family Procilia; a silver coin of the family Tituria; a silver coin of the family Veturia. (In the collection of Capt. von Braun.) A silver coin of the family NÆvia, given by Capt. Braun to the Museum at Uddevala; and a silver coin of the family Sicinia, both well preserved. (In the Wisby Museum; formerly in the collection of Mr. P. A. Save.)

172.Three hundred and forty-four silver denarii, coined by the emperors between Nero and Marcus Aurelius, among them many of Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius, have been found at the mouth of the Elbe.

Under a large stone on a bank at Sengerich, in Hanover, 1,100 silver denarii were dug up, coined between the years 96 and 211.

In Mecklenburg the finds of imperial coins embrace the period from Augustus to Valentinian.

Finds of Roman coins from the first two centuries after Christ have also been made at the mouth of the Vistula and in its lower course, near the Oder.

An especially interesting discovery was that of a Greek denarius coined in Lycia by Trajan; the only Greek coin discovered in Hanover.

173.Apollo Grannus, to whose temple the vase once belonged, was worshipped by the tribes of Gaul and Belgium. The Roman historian Dio Cassius relates that he was one of the gods worshipped by the Emperor Caracalla, who was murdered in A.D. 217. The name has also been discovered in Transylvania on a stone which Quintus Axius Ælianus, Governor of Dacia at the beginning of the second century, had cut. It, however, happens that this Ælianus had before this resided in Belgium, whither he had probably brought with him the worship of the god.

174.More than forty different statuettes have been found.

175.Among the bones outside the urn were found various fragments of bronze, six clinch-nails of iron, remains of glass, a burnt oblong loaf of bread, two pieces of a head ornament of bronze with rivets of iron, a ring of bronze, twelve beads of glass of different size and appearance, a damaged hanging ornament of bronze, a square plate of bronze with iron rivets, a denarius of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius coined in A.D. 162.

176.The word amber occurs in three earlier poems. Magical runes were written on gler.—Sigrdrifumal. Pliny in his ‘Natural History,’ Book xxxv. 3, 42, speaks of amber as being “formed in the islands of the Northern Ocean.”

177.For other objects in BavenhÖi find, see p. 252–254.

178.For other objects found at Varpelev, see p. 256–258.

179.Cf. also FlateyjarbÓk, i. 401; HrÓlf Kraki, c. 44; Heidarviga Saga, c. 20; Eyrbyggja Saga, c. 13.

180.Cf. also Finnboga Saga, c. 23; Gunnlaug Ormstunga’s Saga, c. 5.

181.Grimhild had asked her sons Gunnar and HÖgni to pay weregild to GudrÚn because they had slain her husband, Sigurd Fafnisbani.

182.This shows that bows of yew as well as of elm were used.

183.Another stone in relief has been found by Prof. Save, nearly 12 feet high, at LarbrÖ, in the northern part of the island of Gotland; of the same horse-shoe shape as shown here and on p. 58, with representations of ships, horses, and the eight-footed horse Sleipnir.

184.In Tanum parish, BohuslÄn, alone there are more than 2,000 mounds, the largest being about 300 feet in circumference; near Upsala nearly 600; at Ultuna, 700.

The greatest number of mounds found in any one spot is east of the ancient Birka Bjorko, where there are over 1,000 of them; while seven graves, as will be seen in the course of the narrative, are found close together.

185.Poets, see vol. ii. p. 389.

186.I was sorry to see the place being gradually destroyed, the gravel taken away, and the embankments, made by the digging, falling down with the grave.

187.Gudlaug, Hakon’s ancestor.

188.At Eds, Upland, there is a very fine ship-form grave of twenty-eight stones, 182 feet long and 50 feet wide. The largest stone at one end is 9 feet in height, and is evidently a bautastone; the rest, although large, each measuring several feet in circumference, are common boulders. At the centre of the ship there lies a similar stone, where, as well as at the ends, there is a small mound-like elevation.

In the woods at Braidfloar, between Levide and Sproge in GÖtland, there is a ship-form grave 144 feet long, but only 16 feet at its widest part; the stones, however, are small, none being higher than 3 feet.

At Lungersas, GÖtland, Nerike, there is a ship-form grave in which stands a stone with an inscription in later runes.

There is also a bautastone with runes, in one end of a ship-form at Lilla Lundley in Lids, SÖdermanland, upon which are the words “Spjute and Halfdan raised this stone after Skarde their brother. He went eastward with Roar. In Serkland lies the son.” (See p. 356 Yellow Book, Den yngre jernalder.)

A ship-form grave between the post-stations of Ljungby and Hamneda province of Kronobergs is 92 feet long and 32 feet broad; the neighbourhood is full of grave-mounds and bautastones.

Another near the shore of the Baltic, in Eista parish, GÖtland, is 50 feet by 16 feet. A third, on the island of FarÓ, near GÖtland, is 50 feet by 8 feet.

We see by this that their breadth does not always bear the same proportion to their length.

In two ship forms at Hjortehammar, in Blekinge, there were found burned bones, ashes, two of the bowl-shaped fibulÆ of bronze so common during the later iron age, a round fibula of silver, some glass beads, &c.

In one at RaftÖtangen, in Tanum parish, was an urn filled with ashes, on the top of which lay a finely ornamented damascened sword of the later iron age.

189.Such expressions occur as “i haug lagdr,” mound laid; “heygdr,” mounded.

190.There seem to have been special places built for the burning of the dead. On the island of Fyen, not far from Broholm, and about 1,200 yards from the numerous graves, are two sites of pyres, round in shape, about 120 yards distant from each other. The pavement, about 7 inches in thickness, is made of cobble stones of the size of a man’s fist set very close together, and broken into sharp angles. The stones, especially those in the middle, have been exposed to the action of fire, but have been preserved by being covered with earth that had gathered over them brought by wind and rain in the course of centuries.

191.Nabjargir.

192.In SigrdrifumÁl the texts have in stanza 34 laug = bath, and haug = mound. The letters h and l being very like in the manuscripts, we can choose whichever we like best of the two.

193.Cf. also Egil’s Saga, c. 61.

194.In Brynhild’s ride to Hel we have a different account:—

“After the death of Brynhild two pyres were made, one for Sigurd, which was first set on fire, but Brynhild was burned on the other and was in a carriage tented with god-web (a kind of fine cloth). It is told that Brynhild drove in the carriage on the road of Hel, and went through the tun where the jÖtun-woman dwelt” (Hel-reid Brynhildar).

195.Sigurd.

196.See Volsunga, ch. 20 and 31.

197.Probably on account of the ring on the door, as fine doors were ornamented with them.

198.We will follow on his heels, so that the door will not be shut after he enters, but be open while we enter.

199.The inheritance—wealth, treasure, dowry, &c., &c.

200.In the preceding stanzas she has foretold the fate of Gudrun, Gunnar and HÖgni, as is told in Volsunga.

201.For battle, see Vol. ii., p. 436.

202.A division of land.

203.Cf. also GÖngu Hrolf’s Saga, c. 3.

204.Breast.

205.Tyrfing.

206.Tyrfing.

207.I would wish thee to believe it.

208.Ships.

209.That Tyrfing was dangerous.

210.I visited the island of SamsÖ in order to see if I could discover any indication of the mound of Angantyr. This island stands in the middle of the great belt; it is only in clear weather that part of the coast of the peninsula of Jutland can be seen; its shores are in many parts lined with huge boulders. In some parts mounds, passage graves, dolmens, &c., are to be seen; everything tends to show that in olden times it was a great burial place. Many of the mounds are either hidden by woods, or stand solitary amidst cultivated fields. The scene described in Hervara came forcibly upon my mind, and I wondered not that HervÖr knew not where the mound of her father was. This island was well chosen for the resting-place of these men of the sea.

211.The gyg (ogress, witch) seem to have been women of JÖtun race, possessing supernatural strength.

212.Volsunga Saga. ch. 38; instead of a ship he is buried in a stone coffin, but the poetry must be more trusted.

213.Smear well with wax the sheets.

214.Cf. Landnama, ii. An Bogsveigi’s Saga, c. 6. AtlamÁl. Gisli SÚrsson. LaxdÆla Saga, ch. 7.

215.Other ship-graves, such as that of Tune, Borre, &c., have been found with skeletons of horses.

Among other ships found is the Gunnarshaug ship, discovered in Bergen Stift in 1887. The large mound in which it was found had a diameter of over 125 feet, and stood about 500 feet from the shore.

The ship was only partly preserved owing to the action of the soil. Its planks were of oak, thicker and less broad than those of the GÖkstad ship, fastened by clinch-nails. In the uppermost planks, considerably thinner than the rest, there are holes at distances of a little over 3 feet. Its keel is about the same length as that of the GÖkstad ship.

It stood north to south, and has been supported by six stones, each about 6 feet high. Its inside has been clothed with a layer of moss, evidently to hinder decay by the soil, and on one side of it was a heap of shavings, chips and bark, left by the carpenters. There are reasons for thinking that a wooden roof had been erected over the ship, and afterwards broken down.

Of the Viking’s body no trace is left, but the remains found indicate his place in the middle of the ship; these are two swords, forging-tools, five long whetting-stones, a tinder-box and pieces of a wooden box. Farther north: several large beads of mosaic glass and fine chesspieces of amber and coloured glass, part of a waxen tablet, a bracelet of gold, &c.

Near the weapons lay an iron kettle and both the stones of a hand-mill, which shows that the Vikings ground their grain at sea. The stem was filled with rust.

Oars and carved tools were also found, and planks of an exceedingly well-built boat of oak, over which there lay a fir plank, several feet long, with steps cut in it, evidently a landing-board (cf. GÖkstad ship).

This is the first burial-place found in Bergen Stift where the body was unburnt, but they are common further south.

216.In a large mound at Vold, Borre parish, Norway, was a small vessel about 54 feet long, but in such an imperfect state of preservation that only the clinch-nails with pieces of the planks were left. On the right side lay a horse’s skeleton, near which were found remains of a fine bridle and saddle of leather and wood, the mountings of bronze and silver; also fragments of a glass bowl similar to the one found in a mound at Taplow (see p. 319). On the left side lay the skeletons of another horse and of a dog. Above the ship, over the entire mound, was spread a layer of charcoal. Among the objects found were a wrought-iron chain, an iron axe, fragments, and an iron kettle containing ashes, &c. This grave was made in a group of large mounds.

In Tune, Norway, about five miles from the river Glommen, were found in 1867, in a mound, the remains of a viking ship, now in Christiana. This mound lay on a hill not far from the VisterflÖ, one of the branches of the river Glommen. It was about 24 feet in height, and 500 feet in circumference. Behind the mast lay the unburned corpse of a man, with part of the skeleton of a horse at his side. At the stern were the remains of ring armour.

At LackalÄnga, near Lund, there are several earth-mounds. In one of these were found—fragments of a ship, the wood being incrusted with iron rust; an urn of clay, with burned bones and coal; fragments of weapons, &c.; at least 100 clinch-nails of iron, and some other pieces of the same metal, probably originally belonging to a vessel buried in the mound; two larger buckles of iron, like those used on saddles; two stirrups, bits for a bridle, &c.

217.According to Herodotus, i. 212, Tomyres, queen of the MassagetÆ, whose son had been taken prisoner by Cyrus, sends to him the following message:—“Restore my son; depart out of the country, unpunished.... But if you do not do this, I swear by the sun, the Lord of the MassagetÆ, that insatiable as you are, I will glut you with blood.”

218.“East of Tanakvisl (Tanais, Don) in Asia was Asaland, or Asaheim, and the head-burgh (chief town) in the land was called Asgard. In the burgh was a chief called Odin; it was a great sacrificing-place (blÓtstad). It was customary there that twelve temple-priests (hofgodar) were the foremost, and had charge of the sacrifices and judged between men. They were called diar or drottnar; all the people were bound to give them service and reverence” (Ynglinga Saga, c. 2).

219.VetrarblÓt = winter-sacrifice; from vetr = winter, and blÓt = sacrifice. The milky way is called vetrarbraut = winter way, because people thought that the appearance of the milky way predicted the course of the winter.

220.The people counted by nights instead of days.

221.This was also sometimes called Thor’s sacrifice.

222.It seems that at this season other sacrifices than those to Frey were sometimes offered. Cf. HÁlfdÁn the Old. Skaldskaparmal, c. 13.

223.Cf. Ynglinga Saga, 8; St. Olaf, 115.

224.Cf. also HÖrd’s Saga and Hervarar Saga, c. 14. The boar was consecrated to Frey.

225.Cf. also Hakon Adalsteinsfostri’s Saga, c. 15; Olaf Tryggvason (Hkr.), c. 28.

226.Cf. Hakon Adalsteinsfostri’s Saga, c. 15. Snorri’s Olaf Tryggvason, c. 28.

227.See chapter on Godis, p. 525.

228.Olaf Tryggvason in Fms. ii. 173.

229.See p. 496, a landowner.

230.St. Olaf 115, Heimskringla.

231.Ynglinga, 47. Snorri’s Olaf Tryggvason, 16.

232.Sometimes the expenses devolved on the king, at others the feasts were provided for by the food and ale brought by those in attendance (Hakon Adalsteinsfostri, 16, 18). How far people went for sacrifices is seen in LandnÁma v., 8.

233.Eyrbyggja, 4, 10.

234.In Herraud’s Saga, ch. 12, the toasts are given in different order. The first toast is dedicated to Thor; then one to all the Asar; then one to Odin; and lastly, one to Frey.

235.Hallfredar Saga.

236.In the earliest times Thor was the great enemy of the JÖtnar. He was called upon by wrestlers also (Gunnlaug Ormstunga, 10), and showed his anger by causing loss of property (FlÓamanna Saga, c. 20)

237.Thrymskvida. The bridegroom and bride were to be marked with the holy sign. (Vol. II., p 12.)

238.St. Olaf’s Saga, 44. “He was marked after Thor and hammer in the hand.”

239.In the account of Fornmanna SÖgur about the battle of Svold, Eirik jarl is said to have had Thor in the prow of his ship. “He took it away and put the cross instead, which he did on the advice of Olaf Tryggvason,” otherwise he would not get the victory.

240.In VafthrudnismÁl, NjÖrd is said to have ruled over many temples by the old Asgard.

241.Cf. Egil’s Saga, c. 58.

242.From VafthrÚdnir’s answer to Odin about NjÖrd’s origin we find that he ruled over temples and hÖrg. (VafthrÚdnismÁl, 38.)

243.Shining like glass. Amber is called gler; and in SigrdrifumÁl, st. 17, we find that runes were written on gler or amber.

The hÖrg is also mentioned in VÖluspa, 7; Helgakvida Hjorvardssonar, 4; LandnÁma ii. 16; Elder Gulathing’s Law, ch. 29; Orvar Odd, p. 29; Hervarar Saga, 1.

244.See Landnama v., 2; Hrafnkel Freysgodis Saga, pp. 4–6.

245.Olaf Tryggvason Heimskringla, ch. 65, 66.

246.Kjalnesinga, 2; Droplaugarsona, Saga about Bessi temple, LandnÁma v. 12.

247.Landowner (see p. 496).

248.Adam of Bremen about 1070 writes that not far from Sictona (Sigtuna) is the temple Ubsola, where were the three gods, Thor, Wodan and Fricco (Frey). What he says about this temple makes it evident that not only its roof but also the whole inside of the structure was covered with gold plates. Further he says that close to it there was a large tree, which no one knew, and which stretched its branches far out, and was always green, as well as a spring, near which the heathen made their sacrifices, and wherein a live man was thrown; the people believed that his wishes would be fulfilled, in case he sank; also a golden chain went around the temple, and hung from the roof.

249.Saxo writes that the Danish king Halfdan journeyed to Upsala in order to find out the cause of his daughter’s sterility, and was answered that he must first satisfy the spirit of his brother, whom he had unwittingly slain; this he did, and then she, in accordance with the promise of the oracle, bore Harald HilditÖnn.

At the present old Upsala church there were discovered the foundations of an old building, a mass of coals, molten copper and silver pieces, with small traces of pure gold, as well as a rusty nail with a little gold on it, and finally skulls of pigs and hawks, and cheekbones and teeth of horses, all of which tend to show that the old heathen temple of Upsala, so famous during pagan times, stood there. (Verelius NotÆ in epist. def. Shefferi, p. 16.)

250.This implies that in the sacred precincts there were several buildings.

251.Gridastad means place of truce.

252.The writer or copyist seems to have been a Christian.

253.FridthjÓf means the thief of peace, the one who steals or destroys peace.

254.Cf. also Landnama, iv. 5; Kormak’s Saga, 11.

255.Cf. Landnama, iii., c. 2, 7.

256.Cf. also VatnsdÆla, 12. Landnama, i., c. 10. Ondvegissula = high-seat pillar.

257.Disar = genii.

258.Olaf, son of Ingjald IllrÁdi ... fled to a forest district of Vermaland, where he cleared the land of its woods; therefore he was called Tretelgja (tree-cutter).

259.“The scene of most interest, and at the same time of most horrors, taken from the mythical or poetical history of Greece is one which represents the sacrifice of Trojan captives to the manes of Patroclus. Achilles himself is the priest or butcher, for he occupies the centre of the scene, clad in brazen cuirass and greaves, his long yellow locks uncovered by a helmet, and seizing by the hair the wretched Trojan captive who is seated naked at his feet imploring mercy, he thrusts his sword into his neck, just as the ‘swift-footed son of Peleus’ is represented to have treated Lycaon, the first victim he sacrificed to his friend Patroclus. Above the Trojan stands Charon, in red jacket and blue chiton, wearing a cap or helmet, and bearing his mallet on his shoulder ready to strike. The right half of the scene is occupied by the two Ajaces, each bringing forward a victim, naked and wounded, whose hands are bound behind their backs. Ajax Telamonius, the more prominent of the two, is fully armed; and Ajax OÏleus is similarly armed, but without a helmet. The funeral pyre on which the corpse of Patroclus was already laid before the sacrifices of captives, horses, and dogs were made to his manes is not shown. This episode forms the subject of the first wall paintings found in Etruria which were illustrative of Hellenic myths, but since their discovery that of the Grotta del Orco at Corneto has afforded us additional proof that the Etruscans did not always confine the pictorial adornments of their sepulchres to the illustration of the peculiar customs, funeral observances, or religious creed of their native land” (Dennis’s ‘Etruria’).

260.From this passage we see that it was the custom of Hakon Jarl to make sacrifices, but unfortunately the manner in which he made them is not told.

261.See p. 478.

262.TÍundaland = land of the tenth.

263.Hervarar Saga, 9, 10, 11, 12.

264.Kristnisaga, Fornmanna SÖgur ii., 228.

265.I.e. Tun or open space.

266.Meaning, broke the backs of.

267.Not far from nearly every one of the (twenty) dom-rings of Nerike there is a spring tending to confirm the Icelandic tradition of their use.

268.King Olaf was on an expedition into France.

269.Odd evidently, like some other of his countrymen, as seen in this narrative, was not orthodox in the religion of his fathers, for he robbed the graves.

270.Cf. also Ragnar LodbrÓk, 18; Norna Gest, 6; Olaf Tryggvason, 179; Sigurdar Kvida Fafnisbana ii., 26; Orkneyinga Saga, ch. 8.

271.Ynglinga Saga, 10.

272.Gisla Sursson mentions the same.

273.Olaf Tryggvason, Hkr., c. 76; Halfredar Saga, 6; VatnsdÆla, c. 10, 16.

274.See p. 411, sacrifice to the Disir.

275.I.e., draw the string so hard that the point of the arrow is inside the curve.

276.Cf. also SigrdrifumÁl, 17; Helgi Hundingsbani; Norna Gest; FlateyjarbÓk; Fornaldar SÖgur, i. Later Edda; Orkneyinga; Egil’s Saga; HÁvamÁl; Atlakvida.

277.Helgakvida Hundingsbana.

278.These three maidens came from JÖtunheim, the home of the JÖtnar; here they are no doubt meant to designate the three Nornir, who came and disturbed the peace of the golden age by establishing past, present, and future, i.e., change, fluctuation, development, and growth.

279.IdavÖll, ida, movement; voll, plain. This stanza tells of the golden age when the Asars were happy and lacked nothing.

280.GrimnismÁl, gives a somewhat similar account.

281.Burn a spot on the skin as a cure.

282.ThjÓd nation, nation of the Goths.

283.Odin.

284.Warriors.

285.See pp. 31, 32.

286.Wealth.

287.Sun plains.

288.Fire-mountain. Here the text is corrupted, but I follow Bugge in the suggestion that this is a place-name, the battle taking place on the plain beneath the LogafjÖll, from which the Valkyrias come down to take the slain.

289.The Valkyrias.

290.Valkyrias are here called disir, guardian spirits, and seem to come from the South, the ancient home of the Asar.

291.Chiefs. Helgi invited them to come home with him and his chiefs that night, and they would not.

292.We find that kings sometimes had meetings among themselves.

293.Probably she was betrothed by her father, not being present herself.

294.From this we see that this beautiful story is derived from the lost VÖlsunga-kvida (a great loss), and from which VÖlsunga itself is probably mostly taken.

295.Glad because of victory.

296.The marriage which her father had set his mind upon.

297.Sigrun speaks to the dying HÖdbrod on the battle-field.

298.Wolves.

299.Meaning: “Everything is not in thy power, as the Nornir have great power also over the fates of men.” The death of Helgi was against Sigrun’s will.

300.King.

301.A custom found in the Old Testament (Joshua), of putting the foot on the subdued king’s neck.

302.Dag broke his oath, as we have seen before; and Sigrun cursed him for having done so.

303.Leiptr = flash of lightning. Probably this was a swift river, or waterfall.

304.Here we see the custom of wergild, so often described in the Sagas.

305.The temple of Vandil.

306.Valleys of fight.

307.Cf. also Helga Kvida HjÖrvardsonar.

308.The song of Kara is lost. Svafa in the first song, Sigrun in the second, is Svafa reborn; and Kara in the third and lost song is Sigrun reborn.

309.In Orvar Odd we see that the Volvas performed the foretelling ceremony with fifteen boys and fifteen girls. It seems that night was the chosen time. The boys and girls doubtless stood in a ring round the platform, and sang incantations. They had a stick, with which they struck the cheek of a man, and brought oblivion on him, and then, by striking him on the other cheek, gave him back his memory.

310.Eirik the red, 5.

311.Boiling “seid,” or the witches’ broth, was the chief art in witchcraft.

312.Only found in Thorfin Karlsefni.

313.VatnsdÆla, 3, 10; Thorfin Karlsefni, 3; Orvar Odd, ch. 2, 3.

314.Helgi and HrÓar had taken the names of Ham and Hrani.

315.This song is lost.

316.Cf. also Norna Gest’s Thatt. c. 3.

317.LaxdÆla, 33; Njala, 127.

318.Orkneyinga, 100, 102; Ljosvetninga, 21; VatnsdÆla, 12; Orvar Odd, 2.

319.The name of Ægir is found in Helgi Hundingsbani i., st. 30: in Lokasenna; in Hymiskvida; that of Ran, in Helgi Hjorvardsson, 18; Helgi Hundingsbani, i. 3; Egil’s Saga, &c.

320.In poetry gold is often called Ægir’s fire, or Ran’s light, showing that belief in the old myth still existed.

321.Inheritance feast; see Vol. ii., p. 47.

322.He calls his son BÖdvar a string of his family, made or twisted by himself.

323.The son’s death.

324.Ægir, who brewed ale for the Asar.

325.This passage means—“If I could get my son avenged, Ægir would fare badly.”

326.The upheaver of the waves was the wind = Kari; his brother was Ægir.

327.Plank-bane = ship-destroyer; i.e., Ægir.

328.Egil being old, BÖdvar is called the family shield or protector.

329.Dwellings of joy (Valhalla).

330.Alfheim was given to Frey as a tooth-fee.

331.Here we see that SvartÁlfar are Dvergar.

332.From this it is supposed that Loki had come in the shape of a fly to make them lose the wager.

333.Other texts—Raum and his kinsmen were tall and ugly.

334.Cf. Gisli Sursson, 22, 24, 30, 33; Half’s Saga, 15; Grimnismal, 53; Atlamal, 23. Fylgjas appeared to people in dreams: LjÓsvetninga, 21; Atlamal, 19; Njal, 12.

335.See Vol. ii., p. 423.

336.A kind of duel. See p. 563.

337.The worship of the Lares and Penates, the household deities who watched over the personal and pecuniary interests of individuals and families, was the most prominent feature of the Etruscan mythology, whence it was borrowed by the Romans. Thence it was also, in all probability, that the Romans obtained their doctrine of an attendant genius watching over every individual from his birth. (See Dennis’s ‘Etruria,’ vol. i., p. 59.)

338.(1) Viga Glum, 9; (2) LaxdÆla, 26; Snorri, St. Olaf, 68.

339.The eagles dreamt of by Angantyr were thought to be the fylgjas of champions (Hervarar Saga, c. 5).

Thorstein Vikingsson saw in the many bears which attacked him a foreboding of a king or a king’s son (Gautrek and Hrolf’s Saga; Thorstein Vikingsson, c. 12).

Thus also Geitir guessed the birth of Thorstein Uxafot from the white bear cub, which he had observed walking ahead of the latter.

340.Njala, 12; Finnbogi Rammi’s Saga; Fornmanna SÖgur, iii. They are seen in a walking state. Viga Glum’s Saga; Halfred’s Saga, 22, 24; VatnsdÆla, p. 36; Atlamal, 19; Egil’s Saga, 50, 60; SÖgubrot, 2.

341.The nine women in black had been the Disir of the family, which was going to forsake the old belief; the Disir wanted to take with them the best member of the family before they left. Therefore they slew Thidrandi, whom the nine white Disir try in vain to defend. The nine white Disir were to be the guardian spirit of the family after it had adopted the new belief. From this we can see that the new religion could not entirely overthrow the old superstition and belief.

342.Persuaded by Ivar Vidfadmi, Hroerek slew his brother Helgi, thinking he was too good friends with his wife. Afterwards Ivar slew Hroerek in a fight. In the dream Hroerek is the stag, Helgi is the wild beast, Ivar is the dragon, and the she-bear with the cub is Aud with her son.

343.See Exposure of Children, Vol. II., p. 39.

344.Cf. also Orvar Odd’s Saga, c. 4.

345.This dream seems to have had the power to make the first man who heard it death-fated.

346.Cf. Olaf Tryggvason’s Saga, p. 37.

347.Gladsheim = Home of the glad.

348.Men slain by weapons.

349.Coats of mail or chain armour.

350.The word in the text means “hangs,” and it is impossible to tell if the wolf is living or dead; it may mean that the wolf is ready to pounce.

351.Odin’s warriors. In RagnarÖk these Einherjar fight with Odin against the Fenri wolf.

352.Voluspa, 24; Hervarar Saga, 5; Eyrbyggja, 44; Fornmanna SÖgur, v. 250. Harald HilditÖnn was given to Odin at his birth (cf. Saxo). He was victorious all his life till his last battle.

353.Cf. also Gautrek’s Saga, c. 7.

354.One of the goddesses is also called Snotra.

355.From this we learn that a serf must be in company with some one freeborn in order to go to Odin.

356.Fagrskinna.

357.Two Valkyrjas.

358.GautatÝr = the god of the Gautar = Odin.

359.Yngvi’s kin = the Ynglings descended from Odin.

360.The brother of BjÖrn, who was one of Harald Fairhair’s sons, is Hakon.

361.Battle-oars = sword-blades; a fine simile.

362.Hakon.

363.We see from the last line of stanza 4 that Hakon wore a gold helmet. It is also said in the prose that he was conspicuous by it in the battle.

364.Battle is often called play or game; cf. the synonyms for battle.

365.Gram.

366.VÁfad = Odin; Odin’s cloth = armour.

367.The hard feet of the hilt = sword-blades.

368.Weapons.

369.Wound-drop = blood.

370.Cape of swords = armour.

371.Tempest of Odin = battle, which can also be called the storm of any Valkyrja, and has many other names.

372.Hropt or HroptatÝr = the shouting god = Odin.

373.Hakon.

374.Eight brothers, that is half-brothers, Harald Fairhair being the father of them all.

375.By this is meant end of the world.

376.Einherjar is plural, and is a compound. Ein = only, single; and herjar, from the verb herja = make warfare. Thus it means the only fighters, the only champions, being the warriors chosen by Odin to dwell in Valhalla with him, while Freyja lodged one-half of the slain.

377.Chief meal, corresponding in time to breakfast.

378.Cf. also Vafthrudnismal, 41.

379.Cf. also GrimnismÁl, 19:—

“Geri and Freki
Does the battle-tamer feed,
The famous HerjafÖdr (father of hosts of Odin);
But by wine only
The weapon-famous
Odin always lives.”

380.Some under-king, or host-kings, probably from Norway.

381.The belief in men having the power to change their shape is common in Africa to this day. See Ashangoland.

382.See hereditary dignity, p. 491.

383.See a house or room. Vol II., p. 259.

384.Meaning that the skin was torn.

385.Meaning that the skin could be touched with it.

386.There were two kinds of poison used. Cf. also Volsunga, c. 5.

387.The woman’s name means she-bear.

388.In ch. 27 we are told that Bera ate one bit and a little of another bit of the bear’s flesh, and bore three sons.

389.See p. 558.

390.From some stone tracings and many jewels we see the proof of this. Numerous instances are given in the Earlier Edda of birds speaking to persons.

391.Cf. also Volsunga, 19.

392.Same expression as of a ship.

393.Cf. also about Hrolf’s Champions, c. 31. (Ynglinga, c. 38.)

394.By magical drink, poisonous drink is often meant (Heimskr Harald Fairhair, 41). See GudrÚnarkvida ii., stanzas 21, 22, 23, 24.

395.Egil’s Saga, 44.

396.Egil’s Saga, 75. See p. 165.

397.Cf. Ynglinga, c. 7.

398.Cfr. LaxdÆla, 57, 58, Njala, 30.

399.Cf. Landnama, pt. iii.

400.Cf. also Eyrbyggja, c. 20; and Foereyinga, c. 40.

401.RagnarÖk.

402.Chiefs.

403.From Odin.

404.Helgi.

405.Helgi.

406.Hawks as birds of prey.

407.Helgi.

408.We see it is so late that the eagles sit on the boughs for the night, &c. So they despair of Helgi’s coming.

409.One of the finest similes for sleep.

410.Here dis may be sister or guardian-spirit. SkjÖldungs = kings.

411.The bondmaid calls Helgi and his men ghosts and fiends.

412.See description in Eyrbyggia. Each ghost was called by its name, and had to leave by the opposite door.

413.Cf. also LaxdÆla, 24; Gretti, 34–37.

414.Snorri Harald Fairhair’s Saga, ch. 36.

415.Viga Styr, 102.

416.Njala, 72, 79.

417.Gandreid = wolf ride, wizard or witches’ ride.

418.Eyrbyggja, 52, where the moon moves all round along the wall.

419.Egil, 24.

420.A warrior.

421.Sister of the moon = sun.

422.The famous war custom.

423.I.e., raven.

424.Wound-thorn, sword; sweat of the sword, blood.

425.The raven was looked upon as very wise and prophetic.

426.I.e., a Valkyrja.

427.The birds of Odin were the birds of prey, or perhaps his ravens Hugin and Munin coming to tell him the news.

428.The hail-sprinkled gull, sprinkled with blood; hail—poetical expression used for arrows. The wave of the heap of slain—the blood of the slain making waves by its quantity. A gull is often used as meaning a bird of prey.

429.The mead of kings (blood of warriors slain by the host of kings).

430.Shield is called here the plain of the ring. The tree of the shield is the warrior.

431.I make ready for the sound of Ilm—take my weapon for battle, as the sound of Ilm is = noise made by weapons.

432.A Valkyrja.

433.Hedin’s cloth = armour. The dyed wand is the sword dripping with blood.

434.In Helgakvida Hundingsbana, sleep is called draum-thing (dream-meeting).

435.Halfdan dreamt of the greatness of his family, Halfdan the Black, c. 7. Sometimes there were different explanations of the same dream (VatnsdÆla, 42).

436.LaxdÆla, 33; AtlamÁl, 14–25.

437.See Vol. II., p. 142.

438.See Vol. II., Frontispiece.

439.There was no little hard pushing—meaning that there was a fight between the men and the bears jostling against each other.

440.One of Atli’s shapes, which he could change himself into.

441.Her husband.

442.Summon to join the dead.

443.Guardian spirits; Disir, the shapes of dead women. Cf. Gisli SÚrsson.

444.Dreamstolen, meaning, that the ability of dreaming had been taken away from him.

445.Cf. also Sigrdrifumal.

446.Sacrifice to.

447.This passage seems to imply that those who believed in their own strength only made the sign of Thor.

448.Athletic and mental exercises. See vol. ii., p. 369.

449.Cf. also Gulathing’s Law, c. 29.

450.This refers to stealing the mead.

451.Frey and Freyja.

452.Olaf Tryggvason.

453.Buandi, plural buendr; bondi, plural bendr; bÓandi, plural bÓendr. These are different forms of the same name; the transition from buandi to bÓandi and then to bondi is easily traced. The form to-day is bonde. The original meaning is a dweller; the verb to dwell is bÚa—bjÓ—bÚid.

454.Indemnity, see p. 544.

455.The Frostathing’s Law says nothing about the deduction of one-fifth from the appraised value.

A new law enacted that the odalsman, in order to keep his right open, should make the usual announcement every tenth year; and the king was subject to the same regulations as other people.

456.Cf. also earlier Gulathing’s Law, 267; earlier Frostathing’s Law, vi. 4.

457.Baugryg means a woman who, being a single daughter, could pay and receive wergild.

458.A chalet.

459.All that was thrown up by the sea, whales, wreck, &c., belonged to the king (Gulath., 145).

460.Some great fishing-place in HÁlogaland.

461.Cfr. also Heimskringla, 51, 52.

462.See p. 491.

463.So named probably because accustomed to walk much.

464.Bond-woman.

465.In later times we see that the fire-place was in the middle of the floor.

466.Kind of head-dress.

467.Grandfather and grandmother.

468.Probably for fastening the door.

469.This peculiar head-dress is still found in Iceland and Normandy.

470.A kirtle trailing, long trailing dress.

471.In Volsunga Saga the same expression occurs.

472.The shield of linden tree.

473.Rings were of gold, and were used as money.

474.Perhaps this means the sea.

475.We are not told about the Hersir.

476.Kund—a son, a kinsman.

477.Kon-ung = Konung = Kung = King.

478.Everlasting runes, probably more powerful runes than ordinary—runes that may have been only known to few.

479.To calm the sea by spell.

480.Some people were supposed to understand the language of birds.

481.From this we see that the business of a young king was war.

482.See p. 525.

483.Greyiom: this is the dative form which is grey in nominative; the form grey hund also occurs (Fornmanna SÖgur xi. 10.)

484.The male line of HÁkon Jarl the Great became extinct in his grandson, HÁkon EirÍksson, in 1029.

485.HÁleygjatal, in which Eyvind traces the family of HÁkon. Cf. also the jarls of Moeri (RÖgnvald, Moera-jarl, who was the forefather of the jarls of Orkneys and Rouen in Normandy).

486.Herra = a lord, or master, was only used as a title after the year 1277, when knights and barons were first introduced into Norway. The word is derived from Her (host), thus meaning the lord, or perhaps at first the leader of a host.

487.Pl. Konir.

488.Rig seems to be a son of Rig Jarl, the hero of RigsmÁl, whose name was otherwise Kon.

489.This custom of becoming an under-man is illustrated in several Sagas.

490.The word Viking has, of course, nothing to do with king.

491.NafnbÓt = addition to the name, improvement of the name.

492.In the Danish laws the stipulation to be given by the king at his elevation was called Haand-fÆstning (hand-fastening).

493.Cf. also MagnÚs the Good, c. 22 (Heimskringla).

494.Thrall was a male slave; ambÁtt, a female slave.

495.Here chief is = king. This meeting of kings seems like the meetings in our times of monarchs for alliance or treaties.

496.Cf. also Heimskringla, c. 58.

497.Claim, rights, law, atonement for injury, see p. 544.

498.Cf. Gisli SÚrsson.

499.Gulath., 66, 106, 296.

500.The redemption-sum of a leysingi.

501.Hereditary freeman.

502.This means, to take the slavery off.

503.Cf. also p. 7.

504.Cf. also Njala, c. 36.

505.A man convicted of the lesser outlawry by paying a fine of one mark within a fixed period was safe within a certain space. If he neglected such payment he became a full outlaw.

506.Father’s and mother’s side.

507.Cf. also LaxdÆla Saga, 12, 13.

508.Gulathing’s Law, 57.

509.OstgÖta Law, 6, § 2; VestgÖta Law, i. 22; Gotland Law, i. 28, § 6.

510.In the side.

511.See chapter on Exposure of Children. Vol. ii. p. 42.

512.Earlier Gulathing’s Law, 131.

513.After the introduction of Christianity, near a church.

514.Cfr. also Frostathing’s Law, i. 2.

515.Laws by King Magnus, A.D. 1263–1280.

516.GrÁgÁs, 56.

517.IslendingabÓk, c. 5.

518.Eyrbyggja, c. 10; LandnÁma, ii. c. 12.

519.A Thing held on the plain.

520.The Saga was about Thorgeir HÁvarsson, Thormod’s foster-brother, and his last fight, in which Thorgrim had fought against him. Thormod cleft Thorgrim’s head with his axe as he sat on the chair, and escaped.

521.Pitched a tent over the walls which remained standing.

522.The term “hundreds” means some value, perhaps of vadmal or of silver.

523.Twenty feet of vadmal were paid yearly by each bondi who did not go to the Thing to those who went to the Althing (GrÁgÁs, 77, 107).

524.GrÁgÁs, 23, 49, 51, 62, 67.

525.Every bondi had to belong to some Thing.

526.The country was parcelled out into Thing-districts, each being presided over by three godis, hence the word Thridjung-district.

527.Einmanud, last month of winter.

528.It is probable that this sign was the svastica, used in Iceland instead of the arrow used in Norway. (See p. 520.)

529.Thingmen of his district.

530.The high court of justice composed of 48 Godars, also held in the sacred precincts inside of the vebÖnd. See p. 534–538.

531.Each district has its name, e.g., Kjalnesinga district.

532.LandnÁma, 1, c. 9; Islendinga SÖgur, i. 336.

533.GrÁgÁs, 23, 43.

534.GrÁgÁs, 59.

535.GrÁgÁs, 23.

536.The old laws of Sweden were published during the years 1827–77 (the life-work of Schlyter), in Lund, in thirteen volumes; the thirteenth volume is a dictionary to the twelve volumes preceding it.

537.The Danish ell is a trifle more than two English feet.

538.Gulathing, so called from Gula or Guley (an island), where the Thing took place. Frostathing, from some local name. Our knowledge of the earlier laws of the Northmen is derived from the earlier Gulathing’s Law, almost completely preserved in writing from the latter half of the 12th century. The earlier Frostathing’s Law is almost completely preserved in a writing from the earlier part of the 13th century. Of the earlier Eidsifjathing’s Law, the earlier Borgarthing’s Law, and the earlier Bjarkeyjar Law, or town-law, there are only fragments left. Most of the Icelandic laws are comprised in the GrÁgÁs, which is completely preserved in writing not later than the year 1200.

The historical Sagas often show the effect of the laws in real life and how the latter were interpreted by the people.

539.Nefnd also = a body of men or arbitrators to give judgment in a case. In the old Swedish law it was composed of twelve members (see Schlyter). It is not found in the Icelandic laws, but the GÖrd is its equivalent.

540.GrÁgÁs, 211–217.

541.In the same Saga, c. 96, there is another account of the powers of the lawman.

In ch. 81, the king (of Sweden), the jarl of Vestr Gautland, and the lawman ThorgnÝr are all three called hÖfdingjar = chiefs.

542.Eight aurar made a mark.

543.Indemnity to be paid in metal rings of silver or gold.

544.The reksthegn was a freeman descended from thrall kin, although his family might have been free for several generations. The rÉtt of the Árborinn-madr was 12 aurar, that of the reksthegn one mark. The classes in the two other law districts were probably similar to those above, but it seems that the haulld and bondi were classified as one.

545.The laws on wounds are so minute and numerous that it is not possible to give them in full. Cf. also Gulath., 179–215; Frostath., iv. 42–53.

546.N. G. L., ii. 60.

547.Frostath., v. 20.

548.See oath, p. 558.

549.It was thought unmanly to be disgraced three times and take no revenge. Cf. also Gulath., 196; Addition to Frostath. Law, 36.

550.Baug-eid, or “ring-oath,” is mentioned in HavamÁl, stanza 110.

551.Cf. also Eyrbyggja, c. 4, 16, 44.

552.The sleeping room.

553.The stepson of Thor.

554.See also Kjalnesinga, 2.

555.Skirsl, to pass under jardarmen. See page 559.

556.Dulareid, an oath of denial.

557.Evening rider, night hag, witch, riding on wolves in the twilight.

558.Witnesses fetched at random when defendant could choose his co-swearers.

559.Witnesses called by a body of named men.

560.SÉttareid, an oath of six; i.e., six compurgators.

561.Grima, a hood covering the face; grimueid, a kind of oath taken by six compurgators. The origin of the word is obscure; perhaps the compurgators had to appear in court with cowls or hoods on.

562.See chapter on Foster-brotherhood. Vol. ii. p. 61.

563.In the second song of Helgi, stanza 31, an oath upon a stone is mentioned; these holy stones may have meant hÖrgs.

564.This shows the large size of some of the halls.

565.Her brothers.

566.From stanza 2 we see that the kettle was consecrated. Stanza 5 shows the accuser had to go through the ordeal also.

567.They drowned her in a mire.

568.Einvigi Kormak, c. 10.

569.On Holmganga, Egil, 67.

570.Cf. also Gisli Sursson’s Saga.

571.Cf. SvarfdÆla Saga.

572.Ingjald (another text).

573.IngibjÖrg.

574.Inheritance feast. See Vol. II., p. 47.

575.Cf. Sigurd JÓrsalafari, Heimskringla, c. 20–21.

576.From the last paragraph we see that announcing a hostile invasion of one’s country was a redeemable case.

577.Cf. also Gretti’s Saga, c. 16.

578.Or any one under fifteen years of age.

579.I.e. Slaying which was not done in secret or against plighted faith or skill.

580.N. G. L., i. 122, 265.

581.Gulath., 132.

582.Cf. Foereyinga Saga, c. 4, 5; Njala, 38, 122; Heidarviga Saga, c. 22; BjÖrn Hitdoelakappi; St. Olaf’s Saga, 126, 132; Egil’s Saga, c. 24, 59, 60; Viga Styr, 4. N. G. L., i. 56, 60, 159, 167, 178.

583.Cf. also Kormak’s Saga, c. 16.

584.The text of FornmannasÖgur says that he had 1200 ships.

585.In the song, which is very coarse, it is said that the king and Birgir were like stallion and mare. Cf. VatnsdÆla Saga, c. 33. BjÖrn Hitdoelakappi’s Saga.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN.

ASHANGO LAND.

EXPLORATIONS IN EQUATORIAL AFRICA.

* * * * *

STORIES OF THE GORILLA COUNTRY.

WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR.

LOST IN THE JUNGLE.

MY APINGI KINGDOM.

THE COUNTRY OF THE DWARFS.

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