Great antiquity of the rock-tracings—A silent history of the people—Their abundance on the Cattegat—Ships or boats, fights, warriors, horses, cattle, camels, turtles, mystic signs, etc., representing warriors with horned helmets—Similar helmets found—The bas-relief of the temple of Medinet Habou—Large size of rock-tracings—The peculiar rock-tracings of JÄrrestad and Simris—Peculiar bowl-shaped hollows.

Among the interesting mementoes of the past which help us to get an insight into the life of the earlier inhabitants of the peninsula of Scandinavia are the “rock-tracings,”^[118] which are of great antiquity, long before the Roman period, large pictures engraved on the rocks, which, like the pyramids and sphinxes of Egypt, bear witness to the unwritten history of the people.

These illustrations are of different kinds and sizes: the most numerous being the drawings of ships or boats, canoe-shaped, and alike at both ends (with figures of men and animals), and of fleets fighting against each other, or making an attack upon the shore. The hero of the fight or the champion is generally depicted as much larger than the other combatants, who probably were of one people, though of different tribes, for their arms are similar, and all seem without clothing, though in some cases they are represented as wearing a helmet or a shield, in order to protect them against the blows of their adversaries.

On some rocks are representations of cattle, horses, reindeer, turtles, ostriches, and camels, the latter showing that in earlier times these people were acquainted with more southern climes; the greatest number, and the largest and most complicated in detail of the tracings, occur, especially in the present Sweden, on the shores of the Cattegat, in BohuslÄn, “the ancient Viken of the Sagas,” on the coast of the peninsula washed by the Cattegat. They are also found in Norway, especially in Smaalenene, a province contiguous to that of BohuslÄn, but more scarce in the north, though found on the Trondhjem fjord.

In BohuslÄn the tracings are cut in the quartz, which is the geological formation of the coast: they are mostly upon slightly inclined rocks, which are generally two or three hundred feet or more above the present level of the sea, and which have been polished by the action of the ice. The width of the lines in the same representation varies from one to two inches, and even more; and their depth is often only a third or fourth of an inch, and at times so shallow as to be barely perceptible. Those tracings, which have for hundreds, perhaps for thousands, of years been laid bare to the ravages of the northern climate, are now most difficult to decipher, while those which have been protected by earth are as fresh as if they had been cut to-day; many seem to have been cut near the middle or base of the hills, which were covered with vegetation, and were in the course of time concealed by the detritus from above.

The largest and most interesting rock-tracings are near Tanum church in BohuslÄn, and are found on the slopes of the rocky hills overlooking the valleys which in these earlier times may have been partly arms of the sea. How many hours have I spent before these in deep contemplation, trying, but in vain, to unravel the mystery which surrounds them! Some of the pictures contain over one hundred figures, varying from a small object to one several feet in length or height; except in a few instances, the absence of masts in representations of ships is noticeable.

Among the many interesting rock-tracings are those where warriors have a peculiar horned head-dress, representing most probably a helmet.

In the British Museum there are two helmets of bronze, which reminded me of the representation given on the rock-tracings, which I give below, one of which was found in the Thames, the other at Apulia.

An engraving, illustrating part of a bas-relief of the Egyptian temple of Medinet Habou, has been brought to my notice by Dr. Warre, head-master of Eton College, from a remarkable French work.^[119] There is a similarity in this illustration with the rock-tracings of the North.

This bas-relief of the temple contains a record of the military success and historical events of Rameses III. Among the different episodes the sea-fight shown on p. 123 is recorded. I think we can recognize the horned men of the rock-tracings. There is also a perfect similarity between the boats of the Egyptians and that of Hazeby, in Sweden. The boats of the Egyptians are symmetrical at both ends, and are ornamented with carved heads. They have a single mast, and their sails are furled. At the top of the mast there is a castellated structure which will be seen in the chapter on the ships of the Northmen; but this is not found on the rock-tracings. If these early inhabitants of the North went to the Mediterranean and Egypt we can account for the camel, turtle, octopus-like animal, leopards, and ostriches engraved on the rocks of the North.

A remarkable rock-tracing, which I reproduce from ‘The Land of the Midnight Sun,’ shows horsemen with quadrangular shields; these shields are seen on some Egyptian bas-reliefs, and two somewhat similar ones have been found in England. Either the people represent themselves on this engraving, or some foreign men which the carver of this memento had seen.

The question naturally arises, did the people of the large Scandinavian peninsula learn the art of rock-tracing from the Egyptians, if we take for granted that they went there? There is a roughness of design which I think seems to preclude that these engravings on stones could have been made by Egyptians coming North. The very great number seems to imply that they were made by the inhabitants, that the art flourished for quite a long time, and that on the return of their warlike expeditions, either from the north or south, they and some of the people illustrated the deeds of their heroes.

One of the finest tracings, which is about 66 feet in length and 20 feet in height, is near a small stream by the bridge at Hvitlycke. Among the prominent figures, of which there are over one hundred, is a large man, probably a champion, with a shield and spear, attacking another; in another part, two men fighting with axes; in another a large snake attacks a man much smaller in size than the snake. There are also 22 ships, varying in size from 2 to 3 feet in length, but one is about 10 feet long. The earth which covered the lower part of the tracings had just been removed some days before my arrival at the spot, and they were as distinct and fresh as if they had been just cut.

The large size of some of the tracings shows that a long time must have been required to complete them, and indicates that the people must have been settlers in the country. With whatever instruments some of them were cut, the work, on account of the great number of figures, must have been in many cases slow. The question naturally arises: Did the early tribes, who, according to the story, came to the North with Odin, find a different people, who themselves or whose ancestors had made these illustrations of their history, or a people belonging to the same race and tribes of which we have spoken before, who gradually advanced in civilisation? These are queries which it is to be feared no one will ever be able to answer with satisfaction.

It is a most remarkable fact that in the Eddas, Sagas, or songs of the people, no mention is ever made of rock-tracings. In the Sagas we are often told that drawings on shields, embroidery, cloth, &c., were made to preserve the memory of heroic deeds and important events. From these facts we must come to the conclusion that the rock-tracings are of great antiquity.

The beautiful antiquities of bronze found in the North seem to show a civilisation higher than that existing at the time of the rock-tracings. The conscientious inquirer will naturally ask himself. To what epoch do these earlier rock-tracings belong—to the so-called stone, bronze, or iron age? Unfortunately, nothing can positively settle the question. Scholars who have made them their special study do not agree; and we know that graves of the stone age have been found with tracings, but not of human figures.^[120]

But many of the tracings show that even at that remote period cattle were known to the inhabitants, and the existence of the plough conclusively shows that the people cultivated the soil.

The frequent appearance of swords on the rock-tracings shows that they could not have been made during the stone age, in which swords were unknown; but there are several indications that the tracings were made before the iron age, and that they probably belong to the bronze age.^[121]

This art of tracing seems to have been earlier than that of writing runes, for not one of these peculiar representations, numbering several hundreds of different sizes, have runic characters upon them.

They are very primitive, and in several cases plainly show that modesty was not one of the characteristic traits of the people.^[122] The first impression gathered on seeing them is that they belonged to a people of low civilisation, who must have been engaged in perpetual warfare, and who by this means commemorated the deeds of their warriors, and it is quite clear that the people who made them were not only warlike but seafaring.

A very interesting district, rich in rock-tracing, exists on the south-eastern coast of Sweden, in the neighbourhood of the little town of Cimbrishamn, where the rocky coast falls very gently towards the sea, losing itself in a somewhat sandy beach covered with boulders. The most curious tracings are to be found on the farms of JÄrrestad and Simris. The ships represented present the same characteristics as those of BohuslÄn; in some places they are 26 or 27 inches long, and generally have 14 ribs. There are also wheels with crosses inside, with a diameter of 5 to 6 inches, and in many instances only axes are seen on the illustrations, which apparently is not the case with any of the BohuslÄn tracings.

At JÄrrestad there exists on a rock slanting towards the sea a tracing 54 feet in length and 40 feet in height, which contains, besides the characteristic figures of the rock-tracings of BohuslÄn, a ship with a mast. Another superb tracing is found on a large rock at Simrislund, in which the figures are placed in several groups, and consist of 10 vessels, 33 war axes, two men with weapons, one horse, four circles without crosses, a mass of round excavations or cups, some of which are quite large and deep; and finally a couple of figures impossible to determine. One of the circles encloses a ship, and passes along the belly of a horse, which is placed upside down in relation to the ship. One tracing represents wheel-tracings and several ships, one of which is 26 inches long, almost on a line with fifteen or sixteen small hollows. Quite close to these web tracings is a low mound, in which were found an urn with burnt bones and a bronze button. The graves in the neighbourhood though robbed of their contents, present the same characteristics as those of the bronze age, to which all the cairns found in the neighbourhood belong.

What the bowl-shaped hollows, which vary in size from 1 to 2 inches in diameter and are generally about 1 inch deep, and which are shown on the illustrations by small black dots, represent will probably always remain an enigma. The reader will also notice peculiar figures, such as circular rings, divided by crosses or double crosses, footprints, &c. Only two rock-tracings thus far have been discovered, where waggons are seen with wheels and horses attached to them.

In Denmark, tracings have thus far only been discovered on the slabs of passages in graves, such as those of Herrestrup in Zealand, and Ullerup in Northern Jutland, and their absence is to be accounted for by the want of rocky formation.