While studying the progress made in the colonisation of different parts of the world by European nations, I have often asked myself the following questions:—

How is it that over every region of the globe the spread of the English-speaking people and of their language far exceeds that of all the other European nations combined?

Why is it that, wherever the English-speaking people have settled, or are at this day found, even in small numbers, they are far more energetic, daring, adventurous, and prosperous, and understand the art of self-government and of ruling alien peoples far better than other colonising nations?

Whence do the English-speaking communities derive the remarkable energy they possess; for the people of Britain when invaded by the Romans did not show any such quality?

What are the causes which have made the English such a pre-eminently seafaring people? for without such a characteristic they could not have been the founders of so many states and colonies speaking the English tongue!

In studying the history of the world we find that all the nations which have risen to high power and widespread dominion have been founded by men endowed with great, I may say terrible, energy; extreme bravery and the love of conquest being the most prominent traits of their character. The mighty sword with all its evils has thus far always proved a great engine of civilisation.

To get a satisfactory answer to the above questions we must go far back, and study the history of the race who settled in Britain during and after the Roman occupation. We shall thus find why their descendants are to-day so brave, successful, energetic and prosperous in the lands which they have colonised; and why they are so pre-eminently skilled in the art of self-government.

We find that a long stretch of coast is not sufficient, though necessary, to make the population of a country a seafaring nation. When the Romans invaded Britain, the Brits had no fleet to oppose them. We do not until a later period meet with that love of the sea which is so characteristically English:—not before the gradual absorption of the earlier inhabitants by a blue-eyed and yellow-haired seafaring people who succeeded in planting themselves and their language in the country.

To the numerous warlike and ocean-loving tribes of the North, the ancestors of the English-speaking people, we must look for the transformation that took place in Britain. In their descendants we recognise to this day many of the very same traits of character which these old Northmen possessed, as will be seen on the perusal of this work.

Britain, after a continuous immigration which lasted several hundred years, became the most powerful colony of the Northern tribes, several of the chiefs of the latter claiming to own a great part of England in the seventh and eighth centuries. At last the time came when the land of the emigrants waxed more powerful, more populous than the mother-country, and asserted her independence; and to-day the people of England, as they look over the broad Atlantic, may discern a similar process which is taking place in the New World.

The impartial mind which rises above the prejudice of nationality must acknowledge that no country will leave a more glorious impress upon the history of the world than England. Her work cannot be undone; should she to-day sink beneath the seas which bathe her shores, her record will for ever stand brilliantly illuminated on the page of history. The great states which she has founded, which have inherited her tongue, and which are destined to play a most important part in the future of civilisation, will be witnesses of the mighty work she has accomplished. They will look back with pride to the progenitors of their race who lived in the glorious and never-to-be-forgotten countries of the North, the birthplace of a new epoch in the history of mankind.

As ages roll on, England, the mother of nations, cannot escape the fate that awaits all; for on the scroll of time this everlasting truth is written—birth, growth, maturity, decay;—and how difficult for us to realise the fact when in the fulness of power, strength, and pride! Where is or where has been the nation that can or could exclaim, “This saying does not apply to me; I was born great from the beginning; I am so now, and will continue to be powerful to the end of time.” The ruined and deserted cities; the scanty records of history, which tell us of dead civilisations, the fragmentary traditions of religious beliefs, the wrecks of empires, and the forgotten graves, are the pathetic and silent witnesses of the great past, and a sad suggestion of the inevitable fate in store for all.

The materials used in these volumes, in describing the cosmogony and mythology, the life, religion, laws and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nations of to-day, are mainly derived from records found in Iceland. These parchments, upon which the history of the North is written, and which are begrimed by the smoke of the Icelandic cabin, and worn by the centuries which have passed over them, recount to us the history and the glorious deeds of the race.

No land has bequeathed to us a literature, giving so minute and comprehensive an account of the life of a people. These Sagas (or “say”) record the leading events of a man’s life, or family history, and date from a period even anterior to the first settlement of Iceland (about 870 A.D.).

Some Sagas bear evident traces of having been derived, or even copied, from earlier documents now lost: in some cases definite quotations are given; others are evidently of a fabulous character, and have to be treated with great caution; but even these may be used as illustrating the customs of the times at which they were written. Occasionally great confusion is caused by the blending of the similar names of persons living at different periods.

My method of putting together the series of descriptions which will be found in the ‘Viking Age’ has been as follows:—

By reading carefully every Saga—and there are hundreds of them—dealing with the events of a man’s life from his birth to his death, I was able to select the passages bearing on the various customs. When in one Saga the bare fact of a birth, or a marriage, or a burial, or a feast, etc., etc., was mentioned, in others full details of the ceremonies connected with them were found. After thus collecting my material, which was of the most superabundant character, I went over it and selected what seemed to me to be the best accounts of the various customs with which I deal in these volumes. I have not been content with the translations of other persons, but have in every case gone to the original documents and adopted my own rendering of them.

Some extracts from the Frankish Chronicles are given in the Appendix, as showing the power of the Northmen, and bearing strong testimony to the truthfulness of the Sagas. If I had not been afraid of being tedious, I could also have given extracts from Arabic, Russian, and other annals to the same effect.

The testimony of archÆology as corroborating the Sagas forms one of the most important links in the chain of my argument; parchments and written records form but a portion of the material from which I have derived my account of the ‘Viking Age.’ During the last fifty years the History of the Northmen has been unearthed as it were—like that of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Romans—by the discovery of almost every kind of implement, weapon, and ornament produced by that accomplished race.

The Museums of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, England, France, Germany, Russia, are as richly stored with such objects as are the British Museum, the Louvre, the Museums of Naples and Boulak with the treasures of Egypt and Pompeii.

I have myself seen nearly all the objects or graves illustrated in this book, with the exception of a few Runic stones which have now disappeared, but are given in an old work of Jorgensen.

As my materials expanded themselves before me I felt like one of those mariners of old on a voyage of discovery. To them new lands were continuously coming into view; to me new materials, new fields of literary and archÆological wealth unfolded themselves incessantly. Thus carried away by enthusiasm and the love of the task I had undertaken, I have been able to labour for eight years and a half on the present work, with some interruptions from exhaustion and impaired health. May I, then, ask the indulgence of a public, which has always been kind to me, for all the shortcomings of my work?

I have received valuable assistance from many friends, but I desire especially to express my thanks to Mr. Bruun, the Chief Librarian of the Royal Library of Denmark, for his great kindness in allowing me so many privileges during the years I have worked in Copenhagen; to Mr. Birket Smith, of the University Library of Copenhagen; and Mr. Kaalund, Keeper of the Arna MagnÆan Collection of Manuscripts, for the uniform courtesy they have shown me; among antiquarians, to my friend Professor George Stephens, author of the magnificent work, ‘Northern Runic Monuments,’ for his readiness in giving me all the information and help I needed, which sometimes occupied much of his valuable time (several illustrations of the runic stones, etc., in these volumes are taken from his work); to Mr. Vedel, Vice-President of the Royal Society of Antiquarians; to Messrs. Herbst, Sophus MÜller, and Petersen, of the Royal Museum of Northern Antiquities, for their great courtesy; I am also indebted to the works of the following distinguished antiquarians which have been invaluable to me in my researches and which have furnished me with many of the illustrations for my book: Ole Rygh, Bugge, Engelhart, Nicolaysen, Sehested, Steenstrup, Madsen, SÄve, Montelius, Holmberg, Jorgensen, Baltzer, and Lorange; also to the works of the historians, Keyser, Geijer, Munch, Rafn, Vigfusson. My sincere thanks are also due to my young friend Jon StefÁnsson, an Icelandic student, for his constant help in rendering the translations of the Sagas as accurate and literal as possible; and to my old friend Mr. Rasmus B. Anderson, late American Minister to Denmark, and translator of the ‘Later Edda,’ etc.; in England, to Messrs. A. S. Murray, Franks, and Read, of the British Museum; to Dr. Warre, the head master of Eton, and to General Pitt Rivers, author of a valuable work on the excavations in Cranborne Chase, which contains objects strikingly similar to those of Scandinavia; also to my friends Mr. J. S. Keltie and Mr. Arthur L. Roberts; to my old friends Messrs. Clowes, who have taken great pains in carrying out what has proved to be a very difficult task for the printer, and who have had the work over two-and-a-half years in type.

I must thank, above all, my esteemed and venerable publisher, John Murray, for the great interest he has taken in the present work, which has tried his patience and liberality many a time, and also for the many years of uninterrupted friendship and the pleasant business relations (unhampered by any written agreement whatever), which have existed between us from the time when I came to him almost a lad, and he first undertook the publication of ‘Explorations in Equatorial Africa,’ in 1861, not forgetting my dear friends, his sons, John and Hallam, the former of whom has assisted me materially in seeing the work through the press, and my old companion Robert Cooke.

I cannot close this preface without thanking my old and ever true friend Robert Winthrop, of New York, descendant of the celebrated Colonial Governor of Massachusetts, to whom I dedicated “The Land of the Midnight Sun,” for his unfailing kindness and sympathy during the years I have been engaged in the present work.