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 TWO LECTURES. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM MILLER, A. M., 
 
 PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 DELIVERED AND PUBLISHED FOR BEHOOF OF THE THURSO BENEVOLENT 
 INSTITUTION. 
 
 THURSO : 
 A. RUSSELL, HIGH STREET. 
 
 EDINBURGH : JOHN MENZIES,2 HANOVER ST.; E. BREMNER, 12 LEITH ST. 
 
 GLASGOW : DAVID BRYCE, 129 BUCHANAN ST. 
 
 ABERDEEN I ROBERT WALKER, 92 BROAD STREET. 
 
 MDCCCLXII. 
 
r^3 
 
 SOLD BY THE PUBLISHERS, 
 
 AND BY 
 
 PETER REID, WICK. 
 
 WILLIAM RAE, WICK, 
 
 JOHN GEORGE, PULTENEYTOWN. 
 
 ROBERT ANDERSON, KIRKWALL. 
 
 tf*. JV.^E, STROMN c ESS. • . 
 
TO THE 
 
 YOUNG MEN OF THURSO, 
 
 WITH THE PRAYER THAT THEY MAY FIND 
 
 THE PERFECT FREEDOM, TRUTH, AND SYMPATHY, 
 
 WHICH IT IS OUR HEREDITARY CHARACTERISTIC TO SEEK FOR, 
 
 BY SUBMITTING THEMSELVES 
 
 TO HIM IN WHOM ALL PERFECTION DWELLS, 
 
 THE SON OF MAN, THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD, 
 
 QZfyt&t VLtttutM 
 
 ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM MILLER. 
 
 M167994 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 The Thurso Benevolent Institution, in aid of which these 
 Lectures were delivered, is intended for the education of 
 the female children of the poor belonging to the town and 
 neighbourhood. Such of the parents as are able pay a very 
 small fee ; but, with this exception, it is supported entirely by 
 voluntary contribution. 
 
 The occasion and object of the Lectures will be best shown 
 by inserting part of the original advertisement — 
 
 "At the request of the Committee of the Thurso Benevolent 
 Institution, the Rev. William Miller, A.M., will deliver 
 two Lectures in aid of a fund for building an Infant Class- 
 Room and a Washing House, in connection with the Institu- 
 tion. Subject of Lectures: — Our Scandinavian Fore-fathers. 
 Lecture 1. Their Origin, Institutions, and Religion. Lecture 
 2. Their Character and Literature." 
 
 After some hesitation, I agreed to comply with the request for 
 the publication of the Lectures, addressed to me by the commit- 
 tee and others, provided it appeared that my doing so would 
 be of any pecuniary benefit to the institution. The number 
 of subscribers is already such that a considerable sum will 
 certainly remain in the hands of the committee after the cost 
 of publication has been defrayed. I therefore deem myself 
 warranted in laying these pages before the public, since, 
 at the very least, some benefit will thereby accrue to an 
 institution most worthy of cordial support. Were it not for 
 this, I would scarcely let a production see the light which has 
 been so hastily composed ; and which, from the extent of its 
 subject, is necessarily so superficial. Other demands too upon 
 my time prevent my doing anything now in the way of addi- 
 tion or improvement. Indeed, the endeavour to make these 
 lectures a worthy presentation of their theme, might end in 
 my publishing not a pamphlet but a bulky volume. There- 
 fore, with the exception of some unimportant omissions, and 
 the addition of the notes and appendix, they are printed 
 exactly as delivered. W. M. 
 
OUR SCANDINAVIAN FOREFATHERS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 Before entering on the subject which is to engage our attention 
 for these two evenings, there are a few things which I think it right 
 to mention, by way of preface or apology. 
 
 Thus, as regards the subject I have chosen, it is not — at least at 
 first sight — one which has any great connection with the object 
 aimed at by those at whose request I appear before you. Nor is it 
 perhaps in all respects the theme which my own inclination would 
 lead me to fix on for a lecture here. But the fact is that, if I were 
 to have the pleasure of addressing you at all, I had no alternative 
 but to select a subject not requiring much investigation, or thought- 
 ful preparation. For these I have had no time. And thus, I am 
 compelled to ask you to accompany me in the exploration of a field 
 which has been long familiar to me, and in which I may serve as 
 guide, without much extra trouble. Further, I must warn you at 
 the outset that, on this same plea of want of time for investigation, 
 I cannot vouch for the minute accuracy of any historical details 
 that may be set forth. In the composition of these papers I have 
 had almost no access to works bearing on their subject; and though, 
 for several years, I have paid some little attention to Scandinavian 
 history and literature, still one cannot be expected always to re- 
 member, with perfect correctness, the dates and other minute though 
 important particulars which form the skeleton of history — especially 
 when, as is in this matter the case with me, the attention has for a 
 considerable time been turned in a wholly different direction. My 
 aim is to present you with a true and, if possible, a vivid picture of 
 bygone times, and of the character of those who were actors in 
 them; and this aim, fortunately, it is possible in some measure to 
 fulfil, even though there may be some mistake as to the name of a 
 poet or king, the date of a battle, or the precise locality of the 
 planting of a colony. And surely the subject of these lectures is 
 one which may suitably challenge some attention from us, whoever 
 else may afford to pass it by. From those of whom I am to speak, 
 you, the men of Caithness, are descended. By knowing them, 
 
8 
 
 you may better know yourselves. Their character you to a large 
 extent inherit ; and many and powerful as have been the influences 
 which the slow-creeping centuries have exerted, you are in no inap- 
 preciable degree moulded by what your forefathers were a thousand 
 years gone by, in Danish plains, and by wild Norwegian firths. 
 Often have I regretted that so little is commonly known among us 
 of our own corner of Scotland — that so little interest is taken in 
 traditions and remnants of ancient custom, which, if reported to us 
 as found in some distant land, would move us greatly. If some 
 here be stirred up to inquire into and to meditate more than before 
 on these things, I shall feel that my time has not been spent in 
 vain. For surely none of us is wholly unaware of the benefit that 
 comes from living under the power of old historic associations — of 
 being reminded by the objects that daily meet the eye, of the joys 
 and sorrows, the efforts and achievments, of past generations. Here 
 we have indeed nothing to remind us of struggles for liberty, civil 
 or religious ; no heart-ennobling memorials of the aspirings of genius, 
 or the victories of art. This is no land 
 
 " Where each old poetic mountain 
 Inspiration breathes around ;" 
 
 Yet do these long reaches of rolling sea, those walls of sternest cliff, 
 that form our northern beauty; and, most of all, the old grey 
 towers that sentinel our shores — yet do these tell to ears that are 
 open to hear their voice, of a history not void of interest or instruc- 
 tion. They point back to a stern, rude time, when, amid the over- 
 throw of nations and the fierce incursions of a fresh and powerful 
 race, God, far down in the thick darkness, was laying the strong 
 foundations of that temple of order, and peace, and purity, which, 
 with many a check and seeming failure, He has been slowly but 
 surely building up in Christendom ; and which shall one day, far 
 distant as the prospect perhaps seems as yet, be all completed ; and 
 its every tower surmounted by the cross, shall rise above the hills, 
 the habitation of the Lord, and draw the nations unto it. 
 
 Well then, let me begin by telling you, as briefly as I can, who 
 these Scandinavians were ; and how it has come to pass that we 
 should have had them for our forefathers. 
 
 As far back as European history can be traced, Scandinavia, or 
 the countries known now as Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, sent 
 forth large armies, or rather nations, which precipitated themselves 
 on the fertile regions of the south. The place of these emigrants 
 was ever supplied by new invaders from the east j and at some period, 
 which cannot now be accurately fixed, but certainly prior to the 
 year 300, a tribe, advancing from the plains of Russia and Poland, 
 thus took possession of these countries, and there their descendants 
 have ever since remained. This tribe was headed by a chieftain of 
 the name of Odin — so at least their tradition has unvaryingly 
 affirmed; and this name we shall find it of importance to remember 
 
by-and-by. For several centuries our knowledge of their history 
 is chiefly, or I may say almost wholly conjectural. Like other 
 peoples, they have a mass of legend and tradition connected with the 
 early stages of their national existence. But, while much of this 
 may be true, much is certainly false; and we scarcely possess a 
 criterion for judging between the two. 
 
 It is not until the year 700, that anything can be said to be known 
 about their actions, their character, or their customs. Until then, 
 all that we see by history's light is a few gigantic forms of half 
 mythologic heroes, and a wild confusion of incessant warfare. 
 This, however, we know with certainty; that these centuries had 
 sufficed greatly to change the character and habits of the former 
 wanderers on the Scythian plains. The nature of the country where 
 they dwelt — surrounded on all sides by the sea, and penetrated 
 besides by long fiords or lochs, running, some of them, as much as 
 a hundred miles into the interior — necessarily turned their attention 
 to navigation, and in process of time made them, as they and their 
 descendants have ever since remained, the finest seamen in the 
 world. Thus, just by the necessities of their daily life, were they 
 taught the art which was to be their pathway to greatness — the 
 means by which they were to influence the world, and contribute 
 their share to the fulfilment of God's purposes in the human family. 
 
 In the course of the eighth century it was, that the Scandinavians 
 first became known throughout Europe. Gradually they had 
 become so skilled in navigation that the perils of the North Sea 
 and the Atlantic Ocean, which, at the utmost of their maritime skill , 
 had terrified the Romans, no longer daunted them ; and, before the 
 year 750, they had visited every portion of the western coast of 
 the continent, and even made their way through the Straits of Gib- 
 raltar. Wherever they came, it was to ravage and destroy. Land- 
 ing from their galleys, they attacked the cities near the shore ; and, 
 after plundering them of whatever valuables could be easily removed, 
 and carrying away the strongest of the inhabitants as slaves, they 
 often set them on fire before they left to seek for other prey. Fierce 
 and unscrupulous heathens too as they were, they sometimes spared 
 neither age nor sex. No wonder that the visits of these pirate 
 Vikings, or Sea Kings, as they called themselves, were dreaded more 
 than pestilence or famine.* Even had the nations they invaded been 
 as warlike as themselves, it would have been difficult for them, 
 being quite unskilled in seamanship, to take any effectual measures 
 to resist their incursions ; and, instead of being warlike, the nations 
 of Europe were then sunk in sloth and vice — needing, above all 
 things, some infusion of more vigorous blood. By-and-by the terror 
 inspired was such, that the landing of a few boat loads of Vikings 
 would make whole counties flee in terror. Even Charlemagne, in 
 the zenith of his power, is recorded to have wept with shame and 
 
 * Not that the word Vtking, as is commonly enough supposed, signifies Sea King ; but 
 that both terms were used to denote these rovers. They were named Vikings because of 
 their remaining in the viks or havens to watch for passing ships. 
 
10 
 
 vexation when he saw their galleys in the distance; and, in England, 
 prayer was habitually offered in the churches for deliverance from 
 their attacks. For some generations they continued these fierce 
 descents, attempting nothing farther; but, ere long, they began to 
 take permanent possession of the most convenient portions of the 
 territories which they visited. The increase of the population, 
 internal quarrels, the wish to be nearer to their plundering ground (for 
 so they regarded all countries but their own), — these causes, and many 
 others, conspired to make many choose their permanent habitation 
 at a distance from Scandinavia. Once the attention of the nation 
 was turned in this way to colonising, their foreign wars took rather 
 the form of regular invasions than of mere inroads ; and gradually 
 the Viking or piratical expeditions became less frequent, though 
 they were not wholly discontinued or looked upon as at all discredit- 
 able, for several centuries. Many a one who at home was a loyal 
 subject, an indulgent master, an affectionate parent, and a zealous 
 promoter of all the arts of peace, spent an occasional summer — 
 perhaps as much for amusement as for gain — in sailing the seas in 
 quest of ships to plunder, and of seaport towns to lay under contribu- 
 tion.* But, before the end of the tenth century, at which time it 
 was that Scandinavia was first Christianized, traces of cruelty or 
 wanton destruction almost wholly disappear from the narratives of 
 the Viking cruises. 
 
 The nearness of Orkney and Shetland to their own coast, the 
 security of their harbours, and the weakness of their aboriginal 
 inhabitants, made it natural that they should be among the first 
 of the lands thus colonised ; and so thoroughly were they taken 
 possession of, that scarcely a vestige now remains, in all proba- 
 bility, of the Celtic race, who dwelt in them originally. From 
 Orkney the Norsemen, or Norwegians — for it was mainly the 
 Norwegian branch of the Scandinavians that settled in this neigh- 
 bourhood, the Danes and Swedes extending themselves in other 
 directions — from Orkney, the Norsemen passed over ere long to 
 Caithness ; and though no records remain to tell us precisely how 
 or when they did so, it is certain that they had taken possession 
 of portions of this county before the year 850. By this time the Scan- 
 dinavian ferocity, though not their valour, energy, or enterprise, had 
 somewhat abated ; and some among them began to turn their atten- 
 tion to literature, and, most of all, to history. And, in the earliest 
 authentic records of which I, at least, have any knowledge, Caith- 
 ness appears as in intimate connection with Norway. In this 
 connection it remained for many centuries ; and though it was only 
 from the north-eastern corner of the county that the Norsemen 
 
 * They acted just as their descendants Cavendish, Drake, and Hawkins did towards the 
 Spaniards in the days of Queen Elisabeth. But for the glow of Christian sentiment that 
 plays over the narratives of the 16th century, one of them might almost be mistaken for an 
 account of a Viking expedition in the 10th : the honour, the chivalry, the courage were as 
 great in the one time as the other; and if there were among the Vikings many of most 
 wanton cruelty—a disgrace to the name of raferi — so certainly ■were there also among the 
 Buccaneers. 
 
11 
 
 drove out the original possessors so completely as they did in 
 Orkney, still they soon extended their rule over the whole. So 
 wholly identified was this corner of the island with Norway, 
 forming, indeed, with Orkney, the most powerful of all its earldoms, 
 that one of the early Scottish kings, in a dispute with the Nor- 
 wegian monarch, threatened, as his utmost defiance, that if his 
 demands were not satisfied, " he would plant his standard upon the 
 cliffs of Thurso." There are, as some of you are no doubt aware, 
 legends in the county of the Scandinavians being defeated and 
 expelled. But these refer only to the defeat of bands of invaders, 
 seeking to dispossess those who, like themselves, had come from 
 Norway at the first. There were many such invasions ; but from 
 the very earliest date to which history bears us back, Caithness, as 
 a whole, was possessed by those of Scandinavian descent. And 
 of this possession we need not go far to look for the proofs. 
 There are indeed tokens that, except in Canisbay, the original 
 Gaelic speaking population were allowed to remain as labourers, or 
 serfs; but we have only to listen to the dialect, only to remember 
 the names of our burns, and lochs, and farms, to have it proved 
 that the mass of our forefathers belonged to the race that held 
 Europe in terror for generations, and that has been the means of 
 awakening whatever spirit of energy and freedom is characteristic 
 of it now. If you draw an imaginary line from the mouth of the Water 
 of Forss to Lybster, you will find to the east of it scarcely a single 
 name which is not manifestly Scandinavian; while to the west — that 
 is, in the more inland and less fertile districts — Gaelic names prepon- 
 derate, though the others are not uncommon ; shewing this, that in 
 these districts, fewer of the conquerors found it their interest to 
 settle. Thus we have the countless names that end in ster — the 
 equivalent this of the Norwegian soetr, i.e. farm, or rather shelling, 
 or outfield pasture. There is the word itself preserved in Seatee, 
 and its endless compounds, such as Thostee, or Thoes-soete; 
 Tister, or Tyes-soete; Sceabstee, Lybstee, Stemstee, Camstee, 
 Ulbstee, Ulv's, or Olafs-soete, and so on. So too, there are the 
 numerous compounds in gio (a word of which I need not surely 
 explain the meaning)* — Feesgio, or Feeya's-gio, Gienigio, Ruigio, 
 Staxigio, and the rest. Then we have Forss, the pure Scandi- 
 navian for waterfall ; and Wick, meaning bay or haven, standing, not 
 only alone, but also in composition, as in Feeswick, or Feeya's-wick, 
 and Dwaewick. Then again, we have dale, the Norse equivalent 
 for the Gaelic strath; as in Dale itself, Toemsdale, Haepsdale, 
 Rtjmsdale, Halladale and Beeeiedale. Thus I might go over 
 almost all the names on the north and east of Caithness. All of 
 them tell, unmistakably, of the Scandinavian descent of those who 
 gave them. Our own town, I need hardly tell you, derives its 
 
 * The fact is, that unless one has seen the sort of place denoted by it, it is not very easily 
 explained. For the benefit, however, of southern readers, I may say that a gio is a fiord, 
 firth, or loch, measured by yards instead of miles — a tongue, as it were, of sea, running into 
 *ie land, and surrounded by lofty rocks. 
 
12 
 
 name from the river on which it stands — Thor's aa, or the river of 
 Thor ; of whom more immediately. And finally, let me point you 
 to Holborn, or Hollibiorn; that is Holla's bairn, or the child of 
 Holla, the infernal goddess of northern mythology j a name which one 
 who is familiar with the awful glories of that most majestic head- 
 land, will not wonder that these men of old should have given to 
 the rocks where, in the darkness and the storm, many a home- 
 bound ship that had sailed, unharmed, from Africa to Iceland, went 
 down, with all on board, to an instant and a nameless doom. 
 
 So much, then, for our connection with these ancient sea-kings. 
 Not, indeed, that Caithness-men generally are descended from them 
 alone. There is undoubtedly in most a large admixture of Gaelic, 
 or Celtic blood. Yet even the Celts, who were allowed to remain 
 of old, were under Norwegian laws and lords ; they were forced to 
 conform to Norwegian customs • and derived what civilization they 
 had wholly from a Norwegian source. Thus our character is still 
 more Scandinavian than even our descent. Those of you who are 
 Gaelic scholars must know how largely the dialect of that language 
 spoken here, is mixed with English, as is commonly supposed, but 
 in reality, with ancient Norse^ — one of the chief fountain heads of 
 the English tongue : a fact which confirms, what is well known 
 from independent sources, that the most purely Celtic of the popu- 
 lation were under Scandinavian influence. 
 
 Let us turn now to the character and exploits of those with 
 whom we are so intimately connected. In this lecture let me tell 
 you something of the influences by which their character was formed, 
 and chiefly of their civil and religious institutions. Then in to-mor- 
 row's lecture, I shall try to set clearly before you what that 
 character was, and what Scandinavian influence on the world at large 
 has been; and shall, to some small extent, let these our ancestors 
 speak to you for themselves, through the medium of the literature 
 they have left us. To-night, then, let us think of the influences by 
 which the character of the Scandinavians was formed — that character 
 which, to so large an extent, has determined yours and mine. 
 
 Amongst these influences, a foremost place must be assigned to 
 the nature of the country in which they had dwelt for centuries, be- 
 fore they emerged into the light of history. Now it would require 
 a lecture for itself even to open up this wide and interesting question 
 of the influence of scenery upon character. The philosophy of it 
 cannot be touched upon at all. Suffice it to say, that no country 
 can well be imagined better suited than Scandinavia to mould a 
 hardy, bold, and energetic race. The mountains among which they 
 had to hunt the animtls used for food, necessitated constant and 
 great exertion ; exertion invigorating for the body, and tending in 
 virtue of the strange connection subsisting between the body and the 
 mind, to give a determination and energy and strength to the whole 
 personal character. The Norseman could scarcely move a step on level 
 ground — he had difficulties continually to encounter and overcome ; 
 
13 
 
 and thus he learnt to rejoice in toil, and long for exertion and adven- 
 ture. And on the other hand, the sea, which still more than the moun- 
 tians was the Norseman's home, saved him from that life of unskilled 
 and unthinking exertion into which the simple mountaineer is so apt 
 to fall. Difficult as are the mountains to labour and to live among, 
 they are yet ever the same. Learn once the way through a parti- 
 cular pass, learn once to climb a particular precipice, and though 
 the bodily exertion may be equal every time you do so, the mind 
 may ever after be almost dormant in the action. But not so with 
 those whose avocations call them to encounter the dangers of the 
 sea. Ceaseless and sudden in its changes, it demands the ever open 
 eye, the mind always on the alert, and the skilled and steady hand. 
 Thus, by the two great features of their home, were our forefathers 
 trained on the one hand to vigorous activity, on the other, to daring 
 and enterprise, and presence of mind. And besides all this, it w T as 
 from the silent influence of the scenery, of mingled hill and flood, 
 of tumbling torrent and storm-tossed ocean, of riven rock and 
 dark ravine, and forests of the steadfast sombre pine, that the Norse- 
 men drew that tone of earnest sadness and noble dissatisfaction 
 with themselves and their possessions, that has ever characterised 
 them. Let these suffice as hints on the influence on their character 
 of the scenery of their home. 
 
 An effect not less powerful was produced by the laws and insti- 
 tutions under which they lived. These, it is true, were as certainly 
 a result as a cause of their character. Being at all times in their 
 history free, their laws were but the expression of themselves. Yet 
 they perpetuated their character, and being in all their leading 
 features fully in operation before the nation came into contact with 
 others, they may fairly be regarded as a leading element in making 
 them what they were. The essential idea of these laws and insti- 
 tutions may be expressed in a word — it is that of personal freedom. 
 Unlike the tendency of Greek and Roman government — unlike that 
 of the feudal system prevailing in Europe at the times of which I 
 write — most of all unlike that of the clan or patriarchal system 
 prevailing among the Celtic tribes — the chief thing aimed at in the 
 Scandinavian polity, was the protection of individual rights, and the 
 seeking of room for individual action and development.* And it 
 was this knowledge from a human stand-point of the importance of 
 the individual, met and deepened by the solemn sense of personal 
 accountability awakened by the living Truth embodied upon earth 
 
 * Such was the spirit of their laws in their native seats, and as towards each other. But 
 whenever they took possession of a new country— settling there as a colony of conquerors — 
 they adopted in dealing with their subjects, the laws, and often the mode of government, 
 which were already in operation. Thus we find the Normans adopting the feudal system, 
 and carrying it out most vigorously ; and with the Scandinavian chiefs of our own Highland 
 clans the patriarchal rule was most fully in operation. 
 
 It may however be a question how far this clan or patriarchal system was truly Celtic, 
 and how far it arose from the conquest itself of the Celts by their Scandinavian chiefs. 
 This manifestly had some influence in making it what it was, but how much I cannot say. 
 So little attention has in this country been paid to such topics, that it is impossible for one 
 who has neither the knowledge, nor the time necessary for much original inquiry, to speak 
 with any certainty about them. 
 
u 
 
 1 800 years ago, that has been the source of all the civil freedom which 
 the nations have enjoyed since then. As instances of the spirit of 
 these northern institutions let me mention such as these. The 
 tenure of land was that denominated udal. Every freeborn Scandi- 
 navian was a landholder, subject to no superior whatever; but 
 himself an absolute possessor. He needed no titles or charters 
 from king or parliament. And then, on the death of a father of a 
 family, his possessions were equally divided among all his children. 
 Of course it is not my wish to maintain that Scandinavian customs 
 were in all things right, or that ours ought to be modelled after them. 
 I mention this only as an example of how strong was the 
 sense of freeborn right — how great the dislike to any sort 
 of involuntary subjection, such as necessarily arises when the 
 land is in the hands of a few. Be it remembered too, that 
 in a country so thinly peopled, the inconvenience of such a 
 plan was small, compared with what it would be in one like our own ; 
 and also, that this mode of inheritance was in practice greatly 
 modified by a custom which, when the nation was most vigor- 
 ous, was almost universal. Namely this — that the more enter- 
 prising members of a family made over their claim upon the 
 land to some one of their number ; receiving in return an equivalent 
 in money, with which they helped to fit out some piratical or 
 colonizing expedition. Yet these udal rights could not be wholly 
 alienated. On these members of the family, or any of their de- 
 scendants — no matter how many generations had elapsed — returning 
 and refunding this money, they could at any time reclaim the land. 
 So far indeed was this feeling of equality and equal hereditary right 
 carried, that the crown was similarly inherited. The kingdom 
 itself was, according to law, divisible among all the children of the 
 monarch : an ordinance manifestly fraught with danger and incon- 
 venience, but which was not unfrequently carried out, though more 
 often some arrangement was made in the lifetime of the king, 
 whereby the nation remained entire. This leads me to speak of 
 the Scandinavian mode of government. Every udaller, or bondi, as 
 he was more commonly named — that is every one having an udal 
 claim to any portion of the land — had the right of appearing at the 
 parliament, or Thing; and, when there, had an equal vote. Every 
 district had its Thing, where every matter in question, civil, criminal, 
 or of whatever kind, could be brought, and was finally decided ; 
 and all the Things were independent of one another; though, 
 practically of course, some few in the country led the rest in all 
 matters of public politics. At these Things the poorest bondi was on a 
 footing of perfect equality with the most powerful earl (orjarl as is 
 the true Norse pronunciation), and even with the king himself. 
 There are many instances of the kings being defeated in the Things 
 by the simple eloquence of some unknown bondi, and any attempt 
 to employ coercive measures — though such attempts from their 
 foreseen results were but rarely made — at once banded the nation 
 
15 
 
 against him who put them forth.* These Things usually sat in the 
 open air, and generally in some place as sequestered, if at the same 
 time central, as could be found. The Thing of this part of Caithness 
 must, for a time, have met in the place that still bears the name, Tain ; 
 and the place where that of the Latheron district convened seems to 
 have been on the top of an extensive, but easily accessible, clett, in 
 the side of the little bay of Forse, to the south of Lybster.t Thus too 
 in Ross we have proof of the existence of two separate Things, in 
 the names of Tain and Dingwall — that is, Thtngvalla, or the 
 valley of the Thing, a name most common still in all parts of Scan- 
 dinavia and Iceland. Thus you see that, even in the ordinarily 
 reputed Celtic county of Ross, the Norsemen bore the rule. 
 
 Between the udallers and the royal family there existed no 
 separate order. There were indeed jarls who exercised a powerful 
 influence in various ways on which I cannot enter ; but the office 
 seldom descended from father to son, and was in no case necessarily 
 hereditary, save in that of our own earldom — the possessors of which 
 were to all intents and purposes independent monarchs. The king him- 
 self, too — though as captain-general of the forces, and administrator 
 of the laws, his powers were ample — was yet always held as respon- 
 sible to the Things ; and he was in many ways reminded that he 
 held authority only as the representative of the people, and that, 
 personally, he was but an ordinary udaller. So jealous were the 
 Norwegians at least of kingly power that no guards were provided 
 for the monarch, nor was there any castle or stated revenue. Over 
 and above his private possessions, he had no right but that of quar- 
 tering himself, his family, and attendants, upon each of his subjects 
 in succession, for a length of time proportioned to their means. 
 And they often gave his majesty sufficiently unceremonious notice 
 to pack up, when the legal time was at an end. This was termed 
 going into "guest quarters;" and was certainly a mode of support- 
 ing the king not calculated to give too high a notion of royal 
 power, or greatly to encourage royal pretensions. 
 
 I know none of the institutions of the Scandinavians exhibiting 
 more strongly their love of freedom and fair-play, than the way in 
 which the slaves were treated. They were denominated thralls, and 
 consisted almost solely of the prisoners taken in Viking expeditions. 
 Commonly, when they were once brought to their captor's home, 
 a certain sum was fixed upon, which, as soon as they had paid, they 
 were freed from thrall-dom. So small was the ransom, at least in 
 
 * The very frequent battles at the Things must not he confused with attempts to coerce 
 the courts themselves — of which, indeed, there is scarcely a recorded instance, 'a he right of 
 wager of battle, which was but lately swept from our own statute book, belonged to every 
 free born Scandinavian. A lawsuit might be at any time withdrawn from tbe Thing, and 
 fought out, either then or afterwards, in a fair and honourable manner. In the early ages 
 such combats were frequent ; and often the friends of the disputants took part on either 
 side, until half perhaps of the members of the Thing — who the day before had met in 
 friendly deliberation, and who would next day quietly resume business as if nothing had 
 happened in the interval — were engaged in deadly conflict. 
 
 t I may explain again only for the benefit of southern readers, that a dell or stack is a 
 maas of rock of 6ome considerable height, and surrounded by the sea— at least at high 
 water. 
 
16 
 
 some cases, that one of their historians in speaking of a very suc- 
 cessful Viking, says that some of his thralls redeemed themselves 
 in a year, most of them in two years, and all, he adds, " who had 
 any luck, could do it in three years." The slaves were allowed to 
 possess property of their own ; and once they had ransomed them- 
 selves, they and their descendants formed a class called the " Un- 
 free," who were on an equality with the udallers in all respects, save 
 that they had no voice in the Thing, and of course no share in the 
 land. But neither were they bound by the laws enacted by the 
 Things. Having no voice in them, it seemed to these free children 
 of the north but fair that they should not be subject to them. Thus, 
 when on one occasion the exportation of certain articles had been 
 prohibited by the Thing, a merchant came in quest of them to the 
 same udaller whose easiness with his slaves has just been mentioned. 
 He told the merchant that he could not dispose of his property, but 
 that some of his thralls had a quantity of the required article ; and 
 on applying to them, the desired cargo was obtained. So different 
 was domestic slavery in heathen Scandinavia, a thousand years ago, 
 from what it is in a Christianised nation in the middle of the 19 th 
 century. And it is to me matter of regret that, on the part of those 
 claiming kindred with these men of old, there should be so much sym- 
 pathy, or any vestige of sympathy at all, with the efforts that are 
 being made in our day to secure the perpetuation of this blackest 
 villany. 
 
 As the last of the civil institutions characteristic of our forefathers 
 which I can notice now, let me mention that of trial by jury. It 
 is from Scandinavia alone that the characteristic features of this 
 great safeguard of freedom, with all the advantages derived from it, 
 have been transplanted into Britain. It is commonly, but most inac- 
 curately, spoken of as a Saxon institution. But though the anti- 
 quarian discussion which proves this to be incorrect would be out 
 of place here, it is now established beyond a doubt that it was un- 
 known to the Saxons, and introduced into England by the northern 
 colonists. 
 
 I cannot even allude to the criminal laws, to the mode in which 
 the defence of the country was conducted, or even to the social 
 condition and manners of the Scandinavians — interesting as they 
 all are, and appropriate as their introduction would be in discussing 
 the influences by which the Scandinavian character- was formed. 
 The institutions at which I have glanced are, however, enough to 
 shew its indomitable love of freedom; and it is not difficult to 
 understand how a people living under such a polity should exhibit, 
 on the one hand, manly energy and determination, vigorous elo- 
 quence, self-reliance, love of justice, and unbounded patriotism ; and, 
 on the other, not a little of that fickleness, of that excessive love of 
 diplomatic stratagem, and tendency to uncalled-for resistance of 
 rightful authority, which are the evils ever ready to result from so 
 democratic a constitution. 
 
Like laws and institutions, the literature of a people is one of the 
 chief formative influences of their character. But the literature of 
 the Scandinavians I shall notice rather as an exponent of what their 
 character came to be. I could not but notice it in that division of 
 my subject, and I cannot therefore treat of it also in this. The 
 only other source of the character of the race which can be alluded 
 to is their religion. 
 
 Equally with their laws, this was emphatically an expression of 
 themselves — a consequence of their character. Yet not the less on 
 that account, was it a most potent agent in preserving and develop- 
 ing it. Until almost the end of the tenth century, all the inhabitants 
 of Scandinavia itself (except some of the southern Danes), and many 
 too of the colonists who had settled in other lands, were heathens 
 still. About that time, chiefly through the efforts of two kings of 
 the name of Olaf, Norway, parts of Sweden and Denmark, Caith- 
 ness, Orkney, Shetland, and Iceland began to be, after a fashion, 
 Christianised. Of these monarchs, the earlier, named Olaf Tryggve's 
 son, was one of the noblest kings of whom we read; and the latter, 
 though certainly the less worthy of the honour, has been canonised, 
 and is known in history as St Olaf. The methods these crowned 
 missionaries used were certainly not always such as can be approved 
 of. For instance, with regard to our own county. One of the 
 Olafs — at this moment I forget which — soon after he had come to 
 the knowledge of Christianity, was sailing through the Pentland 
 Firth on his way home, full of zeal for the conversion of his country- 
 men. There he met with our earl, with whom he was on the best 
 of terms. He boarded his galley, however, and taking him prisoner, 
 offered him then and there the alternative of baptism or death. 
 After some discussion and hesitation, he had the satisfaction of 
 seeing the former chosen. The ceremony was performed by a priest 
 who accompanied the king, though up till this time, the earl was very 
 probably in entire ignorance of the tenets of his new religion. 
 Certainly such a mode of procedure is not for a moment to be de- 
 fended. Yet, let us remember that it is not by the standard of an 
 age of sloth and ease that these times are to be judged. Indeed, I 
 know few histories more calculated than that of the evangelising 
 of the north, to show in what various forms the living truth 
 takes hold of the minds of men ; how powerful it is, even when its 
 lustre is obscured by mighty errors; and in spite of how much 
 darkness, and from how great a distance, the souls whom God is 
 leading struggle towards the light. Yes, and ere we condemn King 
 Olaf, let us ask which is better, an untaught zeal like his, or the 
 quiet contentment and half dead faith which is content to possess 
 the bread of life and slumber over it, while millions on every side 
 are striving hard to stifle their cravings after truth with the husks 
 that only swine can eat. 
 
 But to return. I must give you a bare outline of the Norseman's 
 belief, when he was still a heathen. In it you will see pourtrayed 
 
18 
 
 that ferocity which made him so terrible of old, but which, softened 
 by a Christian civilisation, has been the seed of the adventure and 
 energy and enterprise which he has left as his legacy to the world, 
 and, most of all, to Britain. The gods whom they worshipped were 
 just gigantic reflections cf themselves. It is not without interest 
 to notice, that they, almost alone of any known polytheistic race, 
 had almost no images or idols. Wonderful as it may seem, these 
 northern barbarians possessed a power of spiritual apprehension of 
 which the Romans and the Greeks were destitute; and as a conse- 
 quence of this, they retained an awe and reverence for the objects 
 of their worship to which these polished nations were utter strangers. 
 First among the gods was Odin, the chieftain under whom their 
 forefathers had migrated from the east. Of the time when he began 
 to be worshipped, I can say nothing. Very possibly his name 
 gradually slipped in to represent that one God of whom in the early 
 ages all nations knew, but whom they did not like to retain in their 
 knowledge. Yet even Odin, who had thus been put in the place of 
 God, was practically forgotten. He was regarded with reverence 
 and awe j yet another step had to be taken away from God, ere an 
 idea could be formed of a superhuman power on which their minds 
 could quietly rest. The god whom they really adored was Thoe, 
 the son of Odin, the god of war. It was to him that sacrifices were 
 chiefly offered, and after him more men and places were named than 
 after most of the other gods together. He was the very ideal of a 
 Viking. The lightning was his mallet, with which, according to 
 them, he wandered through creation, slaying the giants, or Jotuns, 
 the persistent enemies of the gods. Countless are the legends about 
 his valour, his stratagems, his defeats (for he was not always vic- 
 torious), and his chivalry. He had a grim humour about him, 
 Thor; and, with all his ferocity, could be hail-fellow-well-met and 
 capital friends with the giant whom he would torture and kill, if he 
 could, as soon as the time of truce was ended. I wish I had time 
 to bring in some of the interesting legends in which he figures — to 
 tell you how to this day, the tide is caused by his being once cheated 
 by a giant into trying to quaff off the sea at a draught. He could 
 not quite accomplish that, but the amount he did imbibe caused a 
 disturbance so great that it has not yet subsided. Then again, it 
 would amuse you to hear how he was thrown in attempting to 
 wrestle with an old woman, who, however, turned out to be Time — 
 how he once found shelter for the night in the thumb of a giant's 
 mitten* and so on. These things I cannot speak of now ; but I am 
 not without hope that some will follow out the subject by means of 
 the books which I intend to bring under your notice in my next 
 lecture.f Childish as the outward dress of many of these legends 
 
 * Mitten, I say. and not glove ; for no "hand-shoe," as a German would say, was known 
 till recently in the north save the good old mitten, with its two compartments — one for the 
 thumb, and the other for all the rest of the fingers together. 
 
 + See Appendix. 
 
19 
 
 is, they yet contain, under this trivial garb, much that is interest- 
 ing, suggestive, and wise; and they cannot but rouse many a sad 
 and earnest thought in the mind of one who reads them, remember- 
 ing that in their inner meaning is contained all that was thought 
 about the dread futurity that awaits us all, by many a darkened, 
 but earnest and inquiring spirit. 
 
 Amongst the other gods of the Scandinavians was Tyk, like Thor, 
 a warlike deity, and one of his right-hand men in his raids upon 
 Jotunheim, or Giantdom. Then there was also Feeya, the wife 
 of Odin, not possessed of many qualities now-a-days supposed to be 
 excellent in women. From these four, then — Tyr, Odin, Thor, and 
 Freya — are derived the names in our language of four out of the 
 seven days of the week, viz. — Tuesday, which in old English is 
 written, and I doubt not in many places is still pronounced, Tyr's- 
 day ; Wednesday, Odin's-day; Thursday; and Friday, or Freya's-day. 
 This, of itself, is surely sufficient proof of the deep and extensive 
 influence of the Scandinavian race in England — a subject on which 
 I shall have more to say hereafter. 
 
 The consistent enemy of the gods, the source of all evil (and evil, 
 according to the old Scandinavian belief, was summed up in 
 cowardice), was Loki. In the depths of the bygone ages, he had 
 been expelled from the company of the gods, and since then had 
 waged against them perpetual and implacable war. In this, his 
 chief allies were the Jotuns, of whom I have already spoken — a 
 name, by the way, which will remind those possessed of a classical 
 education of the Titans, who, in the Greek mythology, played the 
 same part against Jupiter as they against Thor and Odin : an in- 
 teresting memorial this of the common origin of the language and 
 beliefs of these far distant and widely dissimilar races. The most 
 formidable of the supporters of Loki was, however, the wolf Fenrir, 
 who also had been originally a companion of the gods, and whom 
 they long sought in vain to master and expel. Odin had bound 
 him repeatedly with iron, and silver, and golden chains; but these 
 were but as tow to Fenrir. At last, a very thin cord was made of 
 some ingredients not supposed to be very plentiful, as, for instance, 
 the noise made by cats' feet, and the silence of women's tongues. 
 This Fenrir was persuaded to try on in jest ; but the unsuspicious- 
 looking cord was found to defy all his efforts, and he was forthwith 
 consigned to Niflheim, the heim or home of cowards, the prison- 
 house of Loki and his followers. The war between Loki and the 
 gods was, it was believed, to be long continued ; but at last Loki 
 was to burst his prison-house, and, assembling all his forces, was in 
 person to assail Asgaard, the habitation, that is, of the gods, who 
 were called the Asm,* or Immortals. This was delayed until such 
 time as a ship — the name of which I am unable to recall — should 
 be built out of the nails of dead men. From this belief originated 
 
 * Here we have another instance of the connection in language and belief of nations that 
 are now remote from one another. The "Asyrs" and the " Syrt" are the opposing powers 
 of good and evU in the ancient Indian Epics, 
 
20 
 
 the curious custom of paring the nails before death; in order, of 
 course, that the completion of the ship might be delayed as long as 
 possible. Once, however, that it was finished, the fatal time had 
 come. Asgaard was to be scaled at last. The Asir, aided by all 
 departed heroes, were to strive to the utmost, but in vain. Thor 
 and Fenrir were mutually to destroy each other, and of all the hosts 
 of evil and of good, not one was to remain alive. Amidst the 
 universal confusion, sun, moon, and stars, neglected by their deities, 
 were to tumble into ruin, and the Ragnarokr, or night of the gods, 
 a night hopeless in its darkness for evermore, was to settle over all 
 existence. 
 
 The men who, even in this rude way, bodied forth their thoughts, 
 felt the eternal antagonism between good and evil ; and even thus, 
 out of their darkness, sent up a cry to heaven, confessing and be- 
 wailing that they knew no way of saving all that was good from 
 ruin. Yet, hopeless as they were, it was esteemed the highest 
 reward and glory to be ready to come to the help of Odin in the last 
 dark conflict. To be on his side, even in ruin and in death, was the 
 highest reward of the brave. For the reception of the spirits of the 
 valiant, a part of Asgaard was appointed, called Valhalla. There 
 they awaited the end of all things. Thither went those who died 
 valiantly in fight, and those who longed to do so ; while cowards 
 were consigned to the pool of Holla, the goddess who ruled 
 in Niflheim, to take part with Loki and with Fenrir. In the 
 notion of the joys to be tasted in Valhalla, the old Scandinavian 
 nature, ere it was yet tamed at all, rejoicing in battle and blood, 
 comes out clearly into view. Daily the heroes there were to fight 
 with one another until every one was slain ; which, doubtless, was 
 looked upon as a training for the final struggle, yet also as the 
 highest of possible delights. No sooner had the last one fallen than 
 Odin daily restored them all once more to life; and the rest of the 
 day was spent in feasting, amid the clang of martial music, and the 
 high-pealing songs of departed Skalds or poets. A pithy old Norse 
 verse thus describes the pleasures of Valhalla ; " The Einerjar," a 
 name denoting the " unmatched heroes": — 
 
 " The Einerjar all, upon Odin's plain, 
 Hew daily each other, till all are slain ; 
 Then they all rise again, and ride home from the fray, 
 To drink ale with the Asir till spent is the day." 
 
 Such was the old Scandinavian mythology. It is one as stern and 
 fierce as can be well imagined. Yet was it not unrelieved by touches 
 of deepest tenderness — tenderness all the more affecting, because seen 
 with such a back-ground. Thus, for instance, there is the legend of 
 Balder, the most pathetic of any that the Eddas or mythologic books 
 contain. Balder the Beautiful was the god of music and poetry and 
 love, and possessed a very different character from that of his fierce 
 compeers. Yet was he loved by all of them, more by far than any 
 other. It was told in Asgaard that danger threatened Balder. The 
 
21 
 
 hearts of the gods were filled with fear and sorrow. There was 
 mourning throughout all the halls of Odin. And none could tell 
 how the danger was to come. Not Odin himself could so pierce the 
 veil of the future. In the sorrow of the Immortals, it was proposed 
 that they should beg of all existing things a promise never to injure 
 their beloved. No sooner said than done. Throughout all crea- 
 tion the dwellers in Asgaard wandered, and in time, by their petitions, 
 a promise had been procured from every tree, and stone, and bird, 
 and beast, that no harm should by it ever be done to Balder. All 
 things had promised thus, save one — the misletoe j and it had been 
 passed over, because by a thing so weak, surely no harm could be ever 
 done. Rejoiced at their success, and confident of the dear one's safety 
 now, the Asir proclaimed a feast. After it was ended, they all began 
 to throw missiles of every kind at Balder ; and it was high amuse- 
 ment to see how the most deadly weapons, aimed by the most 
 unerring hands, remembering their promise, ever turned aside and 
 flew harmless bye. In the midst of the confusion Loki in some 
 disguise stood near, and put the misletoe into the hands of one about 
 to throw. The fatal missile sped, and unfettered by any promise, 
 and flung by an Asir's hand, it pierced Balder to the heart. He 
 fell to rise no more. The light of Asgaard was quenched for ever, 
 and despairing, remorseful sorrow filled the hearts of its inhabitants. 
 All this and the various legends connected with it, as for instance, 
 how Odin himself descended from his throne to search, but to search 
 in vain for Balder, is told in the Eddas with a pathos all the more 
 affecting, that it is brief, and blunt, and unadorned. 
 
 Such, then, is an outline of our forefathers' belief, when they 
 were heathens still. It is the last I can mention of the influences 
 by which their character w r as formed. It is surely unnecessary for 
 me to spend any time in pointing out how certain it was to make 
 men who believed it bold, and hardy, and death-defying : to make 
 them terrible in the fight, true to their word, but careless of the 
 feelings of others, and coarse in their perceptions and their thoughts ; 
 and yet, not to leave them unvisited by many a passing glimpse 
 of the beauty of tenderness and love. Nor is it consistent with 
 the purpose of these lectures, that I should point out the meaning of 
 this mythology, or make any comments on it. There is a meaning 
 in it, and that of sad and earnest import. Like all other pagan 
 dreams — and more, by far, than most of them — it tells of the deep- 
 seated yearning of humanity. It tells of its consciousness of some 
 sore disease — of its felt subjection to some stern, dark power, which 
 no strength of its own can procure deliverance from. It is a confused 
 and Availing cry — call it, if you will, a despairing yell — for Him 
 whom w T e know to have been the Desire of all nations ; the strong 
 Deliverer, for whom, even amidst cruel rites, and bloody sacrifices, 
 and hell-inspired beliefs, there were hearts longing, half uncon- 
 sciously, in every error- darkened land. 
 
 Here, then, I must think of breaking off for to-night. I have 
 
22 
 
 little more than opened ground in setting before you these subjects, 
 and if they have not proved of interest, and that the greatest, this 
 certainly arises from my inability to do them justice, and not from 
 any defect in them. Now, then, let me conclude this lecture by 
 reading to you some passages of a poem well suited to set forth the 
 spirit inspired by the Scandinavian beliefs concerning Odin and 
 Valhalla. I have many reasons for not deferring it until I come to 
 speak directly of Scandinavian literature; amongst others, these: — 
 that it sets forth specially, the effects which the beliefs just spoken of 
 really had on the Northern tone and temper ; and also, that I wish 
 those who may not be able to be here again, to carry with them a 
 more vivid idea than could in any other way be given, of what that 
 tone and temper were. The poem is not a translation, but an 
 imitation of the Scandinavian minstrelsy. It is by Motherwell, 
 best known through his collection of ancient Scottish ballads ; and 
 though thus not itself a relic of heathen times, it really gives a 
 better notion of what like the poems of the Vikings were, than any 
 single translation could. No man now can fully reproduce these songg. 
 Christianity has so entered into our lives, and so moulded the 
 thoughts even of those who are farthest from yielding themselves 
 wholly to its influence, that there is in all modern melodies, a 
 deeper tone, a stronger undercurrent of aspiration, than was pos- 
 sible to the noblest of pagan bards. Yet this Lay is one of the 
 most successful instances we have of real entering into all that was 
 high and noble in the ancient heathen life. The legend on which 
 it is founded, is one connected with our own county. Soon after 
 the year 1000, the Scandinavians, who had long had extensive 
 possessions in Ireland, were involved in hostilities with Brian 
 Boroimhe, the most powerful of the Irish kings. Their king, 
 called Sigtrygg, was at length hard pressed by Brian, at this time 
 an old man, but an energetic and skilful leader. At Sigtrygg's 
 request, Sigurd, Jarl of Orkney and Caithness, assembled a large 
 fleet, and went to his assistance. Before setting out, the mother of 
 Sigurd presented him, according to the legend, with a standard 
 called the Landeyda, or Land-ravager, on which the raven, the 
 Scandinavian emblem, was wrought, and which possessed this 
 property, that it was certain to lead the host who fought beneath 
 its folds to victory, but that its bearer was doomed to death. 
 The issue of the expedition was, that soon after Sigurd and 
 his forces landed, a pitched battle was fought at Clontarf, 
 near Dublin, in which, after a desperate struggle, the Irish 
 remained masters of the field. Several standard bearers having fallen, 
 the Jarl himself bore on the Landeyda, and accordingly was slain. 
 In a desperate charge, one Bruadir, or as we would now pronounce 
 it Brodie, had, however, killed King Brian. And thus though the 
 Norsemen were driven back that day to their entrenchments, the Irish 
 army, deprived of their leader, were easily discomfited afterwards, 
 and Sigtrygg's power established more firmly than before. Thus 
 
23 
 
 after all, the Landeyda did lead Sigurd's arms to victory. In 
 Motherwell's poem, the young and sireless Harald, who had been 
 appointed to an early and glorious death by a vision of the three 
 goddesses who chose out the bravest heroes for Odin, is represented 
 as volunteering to be the bearer of the fatal flag. The greater part 
 of the poem is taken up with his death-song of defiance, poured 
 forth as the ships are drawing near to the Irish shore. Remember- 
 ing then, that we too are called to a war more terrible than was ever 
 battled in by ancient hero, or sung by ancient skald ; remembering 
 too, that in that new nature of which all we read and hear should 
 remind us ever, there is room and call for every truly human and 
 heart-inspiring impulse, for everything that is pure and noble, or 
 that can rouse a high-strung, unselfish courage, let us listen now to 
 the Lay of 
 
 THE BATTLE FLAG OF SIGURD. 
 
 The eagle hearts of all the North 
 
 Have left their stormy strand ; 
 The warriors of the world are forth 
 
 To choose another land ! 
 Again, their long keels sheer the wave, 
 
 Their broad sheets court the breeze ; 
 Again, the reckless and the brave 
 
 Kide lords of welt'ring seas. 
 Nor swifter from the well-bent bow 
 
 Can feather'd shaft be sped, 
 Than o'er the ocean's flood of snow 
 
 Their snoring galleys tread. 
 Then lift the can to bearded lip, 
 
 And smite each sounding shield, 
 Wassaile ! to every dark ribb'd ship, 
 
 To every battle-field ! 
 So proudly the Skalds raise their voices of triumph, 
 As the Northmen ride over the broad-bosom'd billow. 
 
 Silent the self-devoted stood 
 
 Beside the massive tree ; 
 His image mirror' d in the flood 
 
 Was terrible to see ! 
 As leaning on his gleaming axe, 
 
 And gazing on the wave, 
 His fearless soul was churning up 
 
 The death-rune of the brave. 
 Upheaving then his giant form 
 
 Upon the brown bark's prow, 
 And tossing back the yellow storm 
 
 Of hair from his broad brow ; 
 The lips of song burst open, and 
 
 The words of fire rushed out, 
 And thund'ring through that martial crew 
 
 Peal'd Harald' s battle shout ;— 
 It is Harald the dauntless, that lifteth his great voice, 
 As the Northmen roll on with the doom-written banner. 
 
 B 
 
24 
 
 " I bear Sigurdir's battle-flag 
 
 Through sunshine or through gloom; 
 Through swelling surge, on bloody strand 
 
 I plant the scroll of doom ! 
 On Scandia's lonest, bleakest waste, 
 
 Beneath a starless sky, 
 The shadowy Three like meteors passed, 
 
 And bade young Harald die; — 
 They sang the war-deeds of his sires, 
 
 And pointed to their tomb; 
 They told him that this glory flag 
 
 Was his by right of doom. 
 Since then, where hath young Harald been, 
 
 But where Jarl's son should be ? 
 'Mid war and waves the combat keen 
 
 That raged on land or sea ! " 
 So sings the fierce Harald, the thirster for glory, 
 As his hand bears aloft the dark, death-laden banner. 
 
 " Mine own death's in this clenched hand! 
 
 I know the noble trust; 
 These limbs must rot on yonder strand— 
 
 These lips must lick its dust. 
 But shall this dusky standard quail 
 
 In the red slaughter day / 
 Or shall this heart its purpose fail — 
 
 This arm forget to slay '/ 
 I trample down such idle doubt; 
 
 Harald' s high blood hath sprung 
 From sires whose hands in martial bout 
 
 Have ne'er belied their tongue; 
 Nor keener, from their castled rock, 
 
 Rush eagles on their prey, 
 Than, panting for the battle-shock, 
 
 Young Harald leads the way." 
 It is thus that tall Harald, in terrible beauty, 
 Pours forth his big soul to the joyance of heroes. 
 
 " Flag ! from thy folds, and fiercely wake 
 
 War-music on the wind, 
 Lest tenderest thoughts should rise to shake 
 
 The sternness of my mind ; 
 Brynhilda, maiden meek and fair, 
 
 Pale watcher by the sea, 
 I hear thy wailings on the air, 
 
 Thy heart's dirge sung for me ; — 
 In vain thy milk-white hands are wrung 
 
 Above the salt sea foam ; 
 The wave that bears me from thy bower, 
 
 Shall never bear me home ; 
 Brynhilda ! seek another love, 
 
 But ne'er wed one like me, 
 Who death fore-doomed from above 
 
 Joys in his destiny." 
 Thus mourn'd the young Harald as he thought of Brynhilda, 
 While his eyes fill'd with tears which glitter' d, but fell not. . 
 
 " The rivers of yon island low 
 
 Glance redly in the sun, 
 But ruddier still they 're doom'd to glow, 
 
 And deeper shall they run ; 
 
25 
 
 The torrent of proud life shall swell 
 
 Each river to the brim, 
 And in that spate of blood, how well 
 
 The headless corpse will swim ! 
 The smoke of many a shepherd's cot 
 
 Curls from each peopled glen ; 
 And, hark ! the song of maidens mild, 
 
 The shout of joyous men ! 
 But one may hew the oaken tree, 
 
 The other shape the shroud ; 
 As the Landeyda o'er the sea 
 
 Sweeps like a tempest cloud : " — 
 So shouteth fierce Harald— so echo the Northmen, 
 As shoreward the ships like mad steeds are careering. 
 
 " Sigurdir's battle-flag is spread 
 
 Abroad to the blue sky, 
 And spectral visions of the dead, 
 
 Are trooping grimly by ; 
 The spirit-heralds rush before 
 
 Harald' s destroying brand ; 
 They hover o'er yon fated shore, 
 
 And death-devoted band. 
 Marshal, stout Jarls, your battle fast ! 
 
 And fire each beacon height, 
 Our galleys anchor in the sound, 
 
 Our banner heaves in sight ! 
 And through the surge and arrowy shower 
 
 That rains on this broad shield, 
 Harald uplifts the sign of power 
 
 Which rules the battle-field!" 
 So cries the death-doom'd on the red strand of slaughter 
 While the helmits of heroes like anvils ar« ringing. 
 
 On roll'd the Northmen's war, above 
 
 The raven standard flew; 
 Nor tide nor tempest ever strove 
 
 With vengeance half so true. 
 'Tis Harald — 'tis the sire-bereaved— 
 
 Who goads the dread career, 
 And high amid the flashing storm 
 
 The flag of doom doth rear. 
 " On, on, the tall death-seeker cries, 
 
 " These earthworms soil our heel; 
 Their spear-points crash like crisping ice, 
 
 On ribs of stubborn steel ! 
 Hurra ! hurra ! their whirlwinds sweep, 
 
 And Harald's fate is sped; 
 Bear on the flag— he goes to sleep 
 
 With the life-scorning dead." 
 Thus fell the young Harald, as of old fell his sires, 
 And the bright hail of heroes bade hail to his spirit. 
 
26 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 In my former lecture, I set before you what little is known of the 
 remote origin of the Scandinavians, and at the same time some small 
 portion of the evidence, easily discoverable still, of our having drawn 
 our origin from them. I likewise told you something of the in- 
 fluences under which their character as a race was formed, and more 
 especially of their civil and political institutions, and of their religion 
 or mythology; and though there is no time even to glance again 
 over the ground which we have already traversed so hastily together, 
 it may not be amiss to remind you of that by which you could not 
 but be struck, concerning the manifest general tendency of all the 
 Scandinavian beliefs and laws. Plainly enough, their general 
 tendency was to make each man, whatever else he was, thoroughly 
 energetic, and to develope in each a well-marked individual character. 
 To-night, it is my wish to narrate how this superabundant energy 
 found vent, and how it has influenced the history of the world ; and 
 thereafter, to sum up, as best I can, the elements of the strongly- 
 marked character which was thus developed, and to let it speak for 
 itself in some few specimens of the literature of the time. First of 
 all, then, let me giie you a hasty outline of the history of the 
 Scandinavians during the centuries when our present nations were 
 being formed. I daresay, in giving the subject of this night's lecture 
 in the advertisement, I should have inserted the achievements, as well 
 as the character and literature, of our forefathers. But what I have 
 to say under this head may, if you will, be regarded as illustrations 
 of their courage and their vigour, which, after all, were their most 
 notable characteristics. Now, that we may understand the use of 
 which they were made in the carrying out of the purposes of God 
 on earth, we must first of all remember the state of Europe in the 
 eighth and ninth centuries, when, as I have already told you, their in- 
 cursions first began. It was a state of which it- is scarcely possible 
 for us to form any conception. Three centuries before, the Roman 
 Empire of the West had been finally destroyed, after it had been for 
 ages rotting amid weakness and tyranny, corruption, cruelty, and all 
 manner of nameless sins. During these centuries, Europe had been 
 but one wild scene of battle and of blood. The northern invaders 
 by whom Rome was overthrown — known by the various names of 
 Goths, Vandals, Saxons, Franks, and others — were a branch of the 
 great Teutonic family, to which the Scandinavians also belonged; 
 and, when they first precipitated themselves on Southern Europe, 
 were possessed of much of that manly energy and comparatively 
 pure morality which also characterised those of whom I treat. But 
 
27 
 
 long ere this, they had been themselves corrupted and enervated. 
 It seemed as if all the suffering of centuries had been in vain, and 
 as if the victors had now fallen to as low a level as that in which 
 they had found the vanquished. Not that it was really so, for a 
 new and stronger nature had been introduced, which, sunk as it was, 
 was at least capable of a purity and a courage impossible for those 
 whose bodies and whose souls had been alike destroyed by that 
 hereditary debauchery of which we have so dark a picture in the 
 first chapter of the Epistle to the Komans. Yet were the races 
 generally (though some, as, for instance, the English Saxons, retained 
 a little more than others of their former enterprise and freedom) — 
 yet were the races generally, Italian, Gothic, Frankish, or Lom- 
 bard, all alike rioting in a confusion of pillage and injustice, assas- 
 sinations and cruelty, and vices which it is polluting to remember, 
 and would be sinful to endeavour to describe. And amid all this 
 the Church itself, the world's only hope, was hardly less corrupt 
 than the world itself. It never, at its lowest, was without some 
 God-inspired heroes of the faith, and humbler souls too, who in 
 their obscurity were as wells of living water to some few equally 
 obscure. It never, at the worst, was without some purifying power 
 — without some healthful restraining influence on the vices and 
 passions of those who owned its sway. But all about it too seemed 
 tending to decay and death. Even as with the Church's Head, so 
 with the Church itself. The corn of wheat had fallen to the ground, 
 and was dying then, and so preparing for that more glorious up- 
 rising and bearing of fruit which has been for centuries in progress, 
 but of which it is only the beginning that has been seen as yet. 
 Yes, had it not been for the seeds of an immortal life, of which that 
 Church, polluted and degraded as she was, had not been deprived, 
 all things else would have been in vain. There might have been 
 incursions of races still more powerful and more pure than the Nor- 
 wegian; there might have been all conceivable impulses and in- 
 fluences on earth; yet, from that weltering chaos, the nations 
 without this could never have emerged. But it is ours to mark for 
 a few minutes now how these human influences were used by God; 
 how the northern nations were brought in, and in some degree 
 brought under the power of the truth, at the very moment when 
 the night was at the darkest, and when, through them, the dawn 
 might be made to appear. 
 
 I mentioned last night that, from about 760 to 860, the Scandi- 
 navians ravaged the coast of Europe, without making any permanent 
 conquest. This of itself aroused by degrees a more brave and 
 vigorous spirit, and revived in Britain and the continent some 
 measure of the good qualities which the defence of lands and pro- 
 perty, wife and children, ever awakes in man. Thus it was the 
 incursions of the Danes, as many of you know already, that aroused 
 in Saxon England all the vitality it possessed during the reign of 
 Alfred. Towards the end of this period, about the middle, that is, 
 
28 
 
 of the eighth century, some small colonies had been formed, besides 
 the still more ancient ones in our neighbourhood here. But it was 
 in the end of the ninth century that the real colonising impulse was 
 given. It came from Norway, which was, after all, the true home 
 and most typical centre of the Scandinavian race. Up till this 
 time, that country had been divided among a host of petty chiefs, 
 each with his own Thing or council, and all of them little more 
 than nominally subject to the King of Norway. In the year 861, 
 this almost titular sovereignty was inherited by Harald Haarfajer, 
 or Fair-haired Harald. He was at this time only ten years old ; 
 but ere he had arrived at manhood, he had formed the daring pro- 
 ject of making himself king in reality as well as name. This design 
 he was incited to, or at least confirmed in, by the answer he received 
 from the maiden whose hand he sought in marriage. She replied 
 that as soon as he was what he professed to be — King of Norway — 
 she would listen to his proposals, but not till then. For thirty long 
 years Harald toiled, and schemed, and fought; and at last, at 
 Hafur's Fiord, in one of the bloodiest battles recorded in the 
 history of the north, the power of his enemies was entirely broken. 
 To complete the romance, he was immediately after wedded to 
 Gyde, his early choice, who must ere then have lost something 
 of her youthful charms. Such was the Scandinavian reverence for 
 woman that there is nothing unlikely in this account, almost in- 
 credible as it would be in the records of any other heathen nation. 
 Most of the defeated chieftains, and their retainers, determined to 
 live no longer in a land which they deemed enslaved. Some set 
 out to join and to extend the colonies already in existence ; some 
 to conquer new lands for themselves. And in this they were joined 
 by numbers from Sweden and from Denmark, who had nothing 
 themselves to do with the fair-haired king. Thus the tide of 
 Scandinavian emigration had fairly set in, to continue for genera- 
 tions, long after its immediate cause had passed away. Let me run 
 over the localities where they founded colonies ; and though I can 
 do little more than name them, you will see at once how wide-spread 
 their influence became ; and if you bear in mind what I have told 
 you of the state of Europe at the time, you will be able (after I have 
 summed up for you the elements of the Scandinavian character) to 
 
 * On. looking the other day, however, over a book in which Scandinavian chronology is 
 well laid down, I found the date assigned to the battle of Hafur's Fiord to be 876, or only- 
 fifteen years after Harald succeeded to the crown. This, of course, is quite irreconcilable 
 with the account given above. Where the mistake lies, I cannot tell. It may spring from 
 a misprint in the book alluded to ; it may be from my having, through forgetfulness, ascribed 
 to Harald a story relating to some other king ; but most probably there are different legends 
 and chronologies adopted in the different Sagas. It is not until Norway had become con- 
 solidated under the rule of this powerful monarch, that the dates of most of its historical 
 events can be ascertained with perfect certainty. I have no time for examining fully into 
 the causes of the discrepancy ; and 1 must remind the reader of the warning already given 
 of my not professing accurately to remember, in every case, dates and other particulars of the 
 kind. Though I should be much surprised at any downright error being found in any of my 
 statements, I would much prefer that they shoiild not be taken for granted, but that each 
 should search into them for himself; and I am confident that many at least who might begin 
 to read on the subject, only to ascertain the precise truth concerning some transaction in 
 which they are interested, would speedily learn to pursue the study for its own sake. 
 
29 
 
 guess at what I have no time definitely to dwell on — viz., the bene- 
 ficial and enduring nature of the influence they exercised. 
 
 One of the first results of the battle of Hafur's Fiord was the 
 settlement of Iceland. This island was discovered by one Naddod, 
 in the year 861 — the very year in which Harald Haarfajer suc- 
 ceeded to the throne. A few years after, one Gardar, a Swede, on 
 his way to the Hebrides, was overtaken by so terrible a storm in 
 the Pentland Firth that he too was driven as far as Iceland. The 
 mariner's compass, you must remember, was then unknown ; so that 
 his course, once lost, was not easily recovered. In 870, the island 
 was minutely explored by Floki ; and thus it became known to the 
 Norwegians at the very time when a new land was needed. Soon 
 after the year 900, the most of the island had been taken possession 
 of; and a regular government, with a Thing and all other Norwe- 
 gian institutions, had been established. The Faroe Islands had 
 been discovered and colonised some generations before, and formed 
 a convenient stage in the passage from the mother country. In 
 this northern sanctuary these expatriated Norsemen, finding them- 
 selves too far from Europe to conduct their wonted piracies, turned 
 their energies into a healthier and more ennobling channel. During 
 the centuries known as the dark ages, Iceland was the most learned 
 and literary country in the western world. It was the birth-place 
 of most of the Scandinavian literature; and its sons were scattered 
 over all northern Europe as poets, and as secretaries or ambassadors 
 of kings — in short, in every kind of post in which intellectual 
 ability was required. I wish I had time to tell you of the laws 
 and manners of the Icelanders; and how, to this day — though 
 struggling with difliculties, in the face of which it might seem 
 enough if they preserved their bare existence — they are educated, 
 refined, and kindly, beyond any other people. - * I wish I had time 
 to trace out the causes by which a literary taste was developed 
 among them ; and a retreat thus prepared for knowledge, banished 
 by the din of arms from Europe, whence it was again to issue 
 mightily purified and invigorated by its northern sojourn. These 
 things, those who will read some of the volumes, whose names 
 are before you, will find it full of interest and profit to reflect on.t 
 
 But it was not only in literature that the Icelanders displayed 
 their hereditary energy. They had not been long settled in their 
 new country ere they discovered and colonised Greenland also ; J 
 
 * I do not wish to convey the impression, that among the Icelanders are to be found the 
 foremost men of the age in literature or science. What I mean is, that, as a people, they 
 rank in these respects as the first in Europe. A high standard of education seems to be 
 universal, and the greatest taste for reading of a right and healthy kind is everywhere 
 diffused. Learning is common to all ; not as with us, carried to a high pitch with the few, 
 and wholly awanting in the many. And even with respect to men of distinguished reputa- 
 tion, no country has, in recent times, produced so many in proportion to its population. In 
 Britain indeed their writings are not much known, simply because they treat of history and 
 cognate subjects for which no taste has existed here for centuries, though now at last it is 
 beginning faintly to appear. 
 
 + See Appendix. 
 
 X All have been Btruck by the seeming absurdity of that region of ice and snow being 
 named the green land ; but the truth is, that during the brief Arctic summer (at which time 
 
30 
 
 the climate of which can hardly, at that time, have been so severe 
 as now. For in valleys whence life, animal and vegetable, is almost 
 wholly banished by perpetual ice and snow, the ruins of extensive 
 villages and churches may still be seen. 
 
 It would merit, did time permit, more than this passing notice, that 
 in their voyages to Greenland the Icelanders discovered America, and 
 explored the coast, at least as far south as the site of the city of New 
 York. Many voyages were made to it ; and, a colony founded, which, 
 however, does not appear to have been at any time very 
 prosperous; and, though down to the 14th century communi- 
 cation was occasionally kept up, Vinland, as they named America, 
 does not figure very prominently in the history of the Norsemen. 
 Still it is as certain as any fact in history, that more than 400 years 
 before the birth of Columbus, they knew, and thought little of 
 making voyages to the land which the tried mariners of Spain with 
 such difficulty managed to arrive at. 
 
 Such voyages as these, at that early time, indicate that they were 
 far before every other European people, not only in courage, but in 
 skill and civilisation of every kind. And when we remember this 
 wandering, restless instinct of theirs, and contrast it with the compa- 
 ratively stay-at-home disposition of pure Saxons, like the Germans, 
 we shall not, I think, be at any loss to determine to which of the 
 races that have gone to form the British nation we owe the vast 
 colonial empire on which the sun never sets. 
 
 About the time when Iceland was settled by Norwegians, the 
 empire of Russia was founded by Rurik, or Roderick, the Swede. 
 With a number of his countrymen, he subdued the barbarian tribes, 
 which have since expanded into this colossal nation. The house of 
 Romanoff, which to this day reigns in Russia, are his lineal descen- 
 dants; and no one who knows their history — who remembers Peter the 
 Great, and Catherine, and Alexander, and Nicholas, can doubt their 
 being possessed of much of the valour, energy, and genius, as 
 well as of some portion of the ferocity and love of diplomatic stra- 
 tagem which characterised their ancestors.* 
 
 Soon after this time, the Scandinavians found their way south 
 through eastern Europe, to the coast of the Black Sea, and thence 
 to Constantinople, which was then, and until it was taken by the 
 Turks in 1453, the capital of the eastern Roman, or as it is more 
 commonly termed the Grecian Empire, f There they entered into 
 the service of the emperor, and for generations formed his body 
 guard — the centre and flower of his army, and a most influential 
 
 of the year it was first discovered), its valleys are covered with grass of greater richness than 
 that of Iceland ; and this would of course appear all the greener, from its contrast to the 
 snow-clad hills which rise directly above the valleys on the coast. 
 
 * The direct male descendants of Roderick became extinct in 1598. After a period of fear- 
 ful anarchy, the Romanoffs — descended from the former dynasty in the female line — partly 
 by popular election, partly by the right of the strongest, succeeded to the vacant throne. 
 Thus they represent the family of Roderick exactly as Robert Bruce did that of the ancient 
 Scottish kings. 
 
 t Constantinople was known in Scandinavia by the name of "Micklegaard," or Big Town. 
 
31 
 
 power at all times in his government. They were known by the 
 name of the Varangians.* 
 
 I must pass over other colonies in Germany and France in order 
 to tell you of one of the most important of them all, of which the 
 latter country was the seat. The coasts of France had been often 
 wasted ; Paris itself, at least once taken ; and some small colonies 
 already established, when Rollo first invaded it. The expedition 
 was one in which we may feel a special interest. Rollo (the softened 
 French form of his real name, Heolf or Ralph,) was a younger 
 son of the earl of Orkney and Caithness ; and most probably left this 
 country (though of this I am not quite sure) in consequence of his 
 father, and all the smaller chieftains of Shetland, Orkney, and Caith- 
 ness, being forced to own the sway of the redoubtable Harald 
 Haarfajer. It was at any rate about this time that, collecting a 
 band, who would of course be mainly composed of the subjects of 
 his father's earldom, he landed in France, and wrested from its 
 king entire possession of the large and fertile province which has 
 since then been named Normandy — the land, that is, of the Normans, 
 Northmen, or Norwegians.^ There Rollo and his descendants, with 
 the title of dukes, were really kings ; and those who had been but 
 petty chiefs, or perhaps but small farmers or fishermen in their own 
 country here, found themselves, as in a moment, powerful lords 
 ruling over thousands of Frenchmen. 
 
 Though heathens when they invaded France, the Normans soon 
 embraced Christianity; and became a polished, courtly, and (com- 
 pared with the general state of matters at the time) a humane and 
 literary nation. Indeed, wherever the Scandinavians went, they 
 generally learned from their vassals all they had that was valuable, 
 and always their Christianity, or at least their Christian form of 
 worship and professed belief. The Normans were the foremost and 
 most chivalrous knights, the most skilful leaders, the most eloquent 
 orators, and the most accomplished, or rather it may be plainly 
 termed, the most cunning politicians of their age. And I need not 
 surely remind you how, 150 years after Rollo's invasion, they most 
 
 * I have no certain knowledge of how they came to receive this appellation, hut the 
 conjecture may be ventured that it is derived from the name of a district in the extreme 
 north of Norway— a name which still survives in the Varanger Fiord. Ferhaps the first 
 Northmen who arrived at " Micklegaard " may have belonged to that remote region. King 
 Harald Hardrada, who fell in battle with Harald Goodwin's son, sbortly before the battle 
 of Hastings, was long the captain of the Varangian guard ; and, to this day, his name may 
 be read, carved in Runic characters in the Acropolis of Athens. 
 
 X It is rather a pity that the word "Norwegian" has become naturalised among us. It 
 is unknown in Norway itself. Its inhabitants call themselves to this day, Normans (i.e. 
 Nordmans or Northmen), exactly as did the followers of William the Conqueror. Norway is 
 simply our softened form of " Nord ce," the north land or island ; and the proper adjective 
 from it is that used by Milton, "Norwej-an." This has changed into "Norwegian;" and 
 the word thus formed has been applied to the inhabitants of Norway by the same 
 mode of speech which makes us speak of the Spanish instead of the Spaniards, and the 
 Scotch instead of the Scots. It might indeed be pedantry to insist upon a change, but it is 
 well that we should at least remember that the rightful term is, "the Normans " — not "the 
 Norwegians." 
 
 I may add that the 02 in " Nord 03 " is the same termination that is familiar to us in the 
 north, in such words as Grimsay, Ronaldshay, and Orkney ; and the same too that 
 appears in such as Stroma, anciently Stromay (i.e. Strom 02, or the island of the stream J; 
 which any one who knows the Pentland will deem an appropriate name. 
 
32 
 
 thoroughly subdued England, under his descendant William the 
 Conqueror — through whom it is that our Sovereign draws her 
 title to the English Crown.* The followers of William became of 
 course the aristocracy of England; and many of them, penetrating 
 also into Scotland, were the founders of our noblest families. 
 Amongst others was the family of Sinclair, who, in the 15th century, 
 by marriage with the heiress of the Norwegian earls, succeeded to 
 their lands in Orkney and in Caithness ; the family thus returning, 
 after a circuit through Normandy, England, and the Lowlands, to the 
 county whence, doubtless, their ancestors had set out 500 years before. 
 So you see it is on account of her descent from Rollo, a scion of 
 that race of earls who had one of their principal residences 
 at Ormlie,* that Queen Victoria rules in London; and there are 
 many hundreds of people in this county, and in Orkney, who could, 
 without much trouble, make out pretty accurately the degree in 
 which they stand related to Her Majesty. Thus have these northern 
 shires of ours, through those whom they sent out of old, had a most 
 potent influence on the history of the world. 
 
 There is one other of the Norman conquests to which I must 
 allude. They expelled the Saracens from Sicily, and for a long 
 time ruled over it and the south of Italy, under the title of the 
 Counts of Naples. There is a most characteristic story of their 
 once quarrelling with the Pope (no light matter then), and 
 actually appearing in arms against him — a piece of sacrilege, showing 
 how little hold the superstitions of the time had on the northern 
 mind. The Pope assembled and himself accompanied a large 
 army. With greatly inferior numbers, but with great ease, the 
 Normans defeated them, and pursued and took captive His Holiness. 
 Seemingly content with having thoroughly beaten him, they begged 
 his pardon; and, as it were in sport, let him have almost everything 
 the poor man had been fighting for. 
 
 These Counts quarrelled once with the Emperor of Constantinople ; 
 and, having several times defeated him, determined upon conquer- 
 ing his entire dominions. In a terrible engagement they were 
 however defeated by their own countrymen, the Varangians, who 
 had been sent forth in this last extremity; and, but for whom, 
 Count Robert Guisoard would most assuredly have mounted the 
 throne of the Csesars. Thus had the Scandinavians girdled Eurqpe. 
 Coming, one party from the east, the other from the west, and 
 influencing more or less every nation on the way, they had met on 
 the plains of Greece — a place at a greater distance then to all 
 intents and purposes, from their original seats, than any that the 
 earth contains is to us in the nineteenth century. 
 
 But our own Islands were, after all, the chief scene of Scandina- 
 
 * To the English crown — not of course to that of Scotland, which she inherits from that 
 unconquered line of kings, whom our fervent patriots insist on tracing back to Fergus, 
 b.c. 300 ! Robert Bruce, however, the great restorer of the Scottish monarchy, was as pure 
 a Norman as the Conqueror. 
 
 t The epitaph of the famous castle of Ormlie is written in the name of the house now 
 standing almost on its site — " Castle Green." 
 
33 
 
 vian colonisation; and it is we, the English and the Scots, through 
 whom chiefly their influence is now felt. I casually told you last night 
 something of their connection with Ireland. For some hundred 
 years they presented the same spectacle there as Britain does in 
 India now — that of a small number of a powerful race, virtually, 
 though not always directly, ruling over a population some scores of 
 times their number. But their influence in England and Scotland was 
 greater far. And here I must insert a word of explanation. All 
 that I have said as yet, concerning Scandinavian influence, is well 
 known and universally admitted. What I have still to say, though 
 equally true, is not so generally believed. It has become the 
 fashion to talk of our race as the " Anglo-Saxon," and to speak as 
 if the institutions and the character of those who speak the English 
 tongue were of purely Saxon origin. Thus, what is now said of the 
 Scandinavians, may appear to many of you strange and novel. I 
 cannot of course, in these few minutes, adduce authorities and proofs 
 for my statements; but you will I think believe me, when I say 
 that I shall state nothing of the accuracy of which some consider- 
 able investigation has not thoroughly convinced myself — nothing, I 
 may add, which is not in accordance with the opinion, not yet of 
 the general run of writers, but of those who are best entitled to speak 
 with authority on the point. 
 
 It was the Danish branch of the Scandinavians that had most to 
 do with England. They overran the whole country in the time of 
 Alfred, and, though defeated by him, retained possession of Northum- 
 berland, Durham, and part of Yorkshire. From these they 
 gradually extended their conquests, until the whole of the eastern 
 coast of the country was in their hands. At length, under Sweyn, 
 they became masters of the whole, and held the crown for some 
 generations. Sweyn's son, Canute the Great, was by far the 
 most powerful monarch of his time, being king at once of England, 
 Norway, and Denmark. When the two peoples, the Saxons and the 
 Danes, were at peace, a line, called the Watlinga-stroet, was drawn 
 through the centre of London, dividing England into two not very un- 
 equal parts, of which the eastern was governed by the Danish laws, 
 and the western by the Saxon. The course which this line took 
 through London itself is to this day known by its ancient name of 
 Watling Street. Of course the inhabitants of the eastern half were 
 not purely Scandinavian; yet were the Scandinavians the ruling 
 power, and the chief formative cause of the character of the popula- 
 tion. Besides this, there were detached colonies, chiefly of Nor- 
 wegians, in the western portion of the country, as in Devon and in 
 Cumberland; and in the latter especially, they seem to have nearly 
 expelled the earlier possessors. Of this, a small but well marked 
 token occurred not long ago to myself. In visiting in a neglected 
 part of Edinburgh, I came upon a woman whom, as soon as 
 she began to speak, I set down as from Caithness. After some 
 conversation, I said, " I think you come from the north;" and so 
 
34 
 
 she did; but it was from the north of England, not of Scotland— 
 from Cumberland. Yet I never met a more perfect specimen, as I 
 thought, of the Caithness face and accent, and I flatter myself I 
 have a pretty good eye and ear for these things. Thus have the 
 Scandinavian peculiarities of appearance, dialect, and manner, en- 
 dured through these many generations alike in Cumberland and 
 Caithness. Thus except South Wales which is purely Celtic, and 
 the midland counties which are purely Saxon, there is scarcely any 
 part of the southern kingdom in which there is not a Scandinavian 
 admixture of the population, which if not always numerous, was 
 always most influential in fixing their character and language.* In 
 Scotland, the case is similar. The Border counties were Scandina- 
 vian colonies; the genius of the people in their rude and lawless 
 times amply exemplifies this, and the names of the places to this 
 day corroborate it. Thus that is emphatically the country of the 
 dales; as for example, Eskdale, Tweeddale, Annandale, Niths- 
 dale, Teviotdale, Llddesdale. So too Ayr, certainly the most 
 typical of all the Lowland Scottish counties, was largely colonised 
 from Norway, The name itself of the town and county are pure 
 Norwegian: — Era, an open beach or sandy coast; a name sufficiently 
 descriptive of the locality, and the same by the way, which we have 
 in the north in Eiriboll, the boll or farm of the sandy beach. In 
 the Lothians and Lanark, the Norwegian element is smaller than on 
 the Borders, though very considerable still, and northwards through 
 Fife and Forfar, it gradually decreases, until in Aberdeen and Banff 
 it is not very appreciable at all. I incline to think that the popula- 
 tion in these last shires, are the t remains of that race of whom so 
 little can be discovered — the Picts. Yet in all these counties, the 
 leading families are Norman as distinguished from directly Scandi- 
 navian ; and on all their coasts there are besides purely Norwegian 
 colonies, preserving to this day, most markedly, their ancient customs 
 and appearance, and chiefly engaged in a sea-faring life. There 
 are such, for instance at Buckhaven in Fife, Johnshaven and 
 Stonehaven in Kincardine, and Buckie in Banff. 
 
 In the Highlands again, the Scandinavians appear after a different 
 fashion. While the country of the Saxon had to be colonised, he, if 
 fairly beaten, seeking another settlement, determined not to remain 
 as serf where he had been lord — that of the Celt had only to be con- 
 quered. As in Ireland so in the Highlands, the native inhabitants 
 were content to receive their invaders as their rulers. Thus, these 
 gathered around them the former possessors of the soil; and 
 in time adopted their customs, dress, and language; so that the 
 republican Viking became in time the chieftain of a clan, wearing 
 the tartan and speaking Gaelic. Thus the powerful family of the 
 
 * This alleged influence of the Scandinavian on the English tongue, may be tested by one 
 who will compare any ordinary specimen of English with the corresponding passages in Ger- 
 man and*Icelandic. Let the Lord's prayer, for instance, or some simple verses of Scripture, 
 be thus compared ; and the most inveterate supporter of the "Anglo-Saxon " theory, cannot 
 but see that English is as much Scandinavian as Saxon in its origin. 
 
35 
 
 Lords of the Isles* were of pure Norwegian descent. So also were 
 the chieftains of almost all the principal clans besides ; such as that 
 of Campbell, Sutherland, M'Intosh, Sinclair, M'Neil, Gunn, 
 Fraser, Cameron, and M'Kay. There are, however, a few clans 
 such as the M'Gregors whose chiefs were of Celtic descent. Some- 
 times the Gaelic Mac was prefixed to the name of the conquering chief, 
 and the patronymic of the whole clan thus formed ; as, for instance, 
 in M'Leod and M'Iver: Liot and Ivar being simply Norwegian. 
 Thus is explained the anomaly which puzzled the Lowlanders in the 
 rebellion of 1745 ; that the Highland chiefs should seem so different 
 from their followers, being tall, athletic, and fair-haired, while the latter 
 were short of stature and of dark complexion. No little portion of 
 the good qualities of the Highlanders, and doubtless of the evil too, is 
 to be ascribed to their being thus so largely intermixed with, and 
 governed by, the northern race. Wherever you find flat and fertile 
 land near the sea coast in the Highlands, you may be pretty sure of 
 finding traces of the Norsemen. I put this to the test not long ago. 
 In company with a friend whose sympathies were rather Celtic, 
 I was visiting for the first time, a part of the west coast, which is 
 open and fertile, not unlike some of the best parts of Caithness. I 
 said, " This is far too good land for my friends not to have turned 
 the Celts out of it ; I am sure there are tokens of them being here." 
 I had some fears, both because the locality is small, not much larger 
 than Holborn Head, and because it is somewhat south of the river 
 Laxfiord, which, according to an excellent authority, is the southern 
 limit of Norse names for more than a hundred miles. But the very 
 next place of which we asked the name, had the unmistakeable ter- 
 mination gio, and we speedily fell in with others as markedly 
 Scandinavian. J Thus you see how largely the Scandinavians were 
 
 * There is an almost amusing attempt to deny this in the introduction to the very valu- 
 able "Book of the Dean of Lismore," recently published by Messrs Edmonston and 
 Douglas, Edinburgh. The writer of the introduction, Mr Skene, one of the few in this 
 country who have been laying the foundations of Ethnology, admits that Somerled, the 
 founder of the family, bore a Scandinavian name, and that he came into possession of the 
 Islands only by marriage with the heiress of tlie Norwegian Jarls. Nor does lie conceal that 
 hitherto all who have turned their attention to the matter, have regarded the family as 
 purely Scandinavian. Yet he insists that the Lords of the Isles were Celtic ; the only proof 
 being that they fought against some of the Scandinavians and had some Celtic allies. As 
 if at that time Celts and Scandinavians alike did not fight among themselves as often as 
 with foes of a different race. Seemingly aware of the weakness of the proof, whenever the 
 Lords of the Isles are afterwards mentioned in the Introduction, it is as "this Celtic house," 
 " this Otitic family," and so on. If they had been shown to be Celts, it would not have 
 been necessary to reassert it so continually. 
 
 The contents of the book itself suffice to show that the Celts have enough of character and 
 achievment of their own, without trying, as they have long been doing, to appropriate to 
 themselves what belongs to others. It is time sureiy, that these prejudices of race had 
 ceased to interfere with our inquiries into historical truth ; — all the more when we remember 
 that there ia scarcely a literary man in Scotland who must not have Scandinavians, Saxons, 
 and Celts, all of them among his ancestors. When the truth is dispassionately sought after, 
 it will soon appear that each race had its own share to contribute, and each its own peculiar 
 place to fill— all of them honourable, all of them indispensable for making our nation 
 what it is. 
 
 X Thus it is a mistake for the Highlanders to boast of their pure Celtic blood, or for those 
 who dislike them to call them Celts, as if that were the most reproachful term they could fall 
 in with. Both of these mistakes are common enough. But in point of fact, the character 
 of the people in most of the Highlands is as much Scandinavian as Celtic. The number 
 even of Norwegians who settled there was very large, since not only must there have been 
 a considerable body at the first conquest of a district, but for generations tn»ir numbers 
 
36 
 
 settled in Britain, and to what an extent our national character must 
 therefore depend on them. Our language is an evidence to the same 
 effect. It is loosely said to be of Saxon origin, but the Scandinavian 
 element in the English tongue, is at least as great as the Saxon; and so 
 close is the affinity of Norwegian to our provincial dialects (which, 
 of course, show best the original fountain-head of a people's speech) 
 that I have it on the authority of one who has resided many years 
 in Norway, that even now, though the language has changed 
 with them, as well as with us — that even now, one able to speak 
 good Ayrshire Scotch can, after a fashion, make himself understood 
 there. Of course, one who could speak the real Caithness, and all 
 the more if with the peculiarities of Canisbay, would get on far 
 better. 
 
 Now, before going on to sum up and set forth the character of 
 those of whose achievements I have said so much, it strikes me that 
 a single word of caution may not be out of place. In skimming thus 
 over the history of a warlike time, some minds, at least, are apt to 
 be taken up only with its glitter and romance. And it is, perhaps, 
 not wrong that in describing, and in hearing it described, there should 
 be some sympathy with this romantic element. Yet let us not for- 
 get that under all this there lay suffering the most terrible, 
 cruelty and bloodshed, treachery and rapine, which seemed but 
 little to the men of that day, but the very thought of which would 
 be soul-harrowing in ours. With all its evils, this is an age unspeak- 
 ably in advance of that. Yet without that, what we enjoy could 
 not have been arrived at ; even as it is on the foundation of the age 
 in which we live, that the time will come when our cruelties, and 
 lies, and treacheries (would that our eyes were opened to see them 
 now) will be banished from the earth. For thus, age after age, 
 slowly and with many an apparent check, yet ever surely, is that 
 promise being fulfilled that the world shall be brought back to peace, 
 and purity, and love, through the ever- working Spirit of Him who 
 has come and died to save it. 
 
 Now, then, for a few words on the Scandinavian character; they 
 
 were increased by new retainers nocking to the banner of the successful invader. Moreover, 
 there are few tracts of the Highland coast where detached colonies of Norwegians did not 
 settle. The people, for instance, of Durness, ;are almost as purely Scandinavians as those of 
 Thurso ; though being surrounded by Celts on all sides, they have come to use the Gaelic 
 language. The case is similar all along the east coast of Sutherland, from Helmsdale south- 
 wards. Indeed, in most parts of the coast of the north Highlands, you find a strip of land 
 some few miles broad, inhabited by Scandinavians, who, in character and appearance, are to 
 this day easily distinguishable from the people of the interior. 
 
 Besides, the position of leadership which these colonists occupied, even more than their 
 actual numbers, has modified the Highland character. 
 
 It is to the relation thus subsisting between the two races that I would ascribe much of 
 the genealogical turn characteristic of the Highlands ; or at least much of the desire on the 
 part of all to show some blood-connection with the chief. It arose from the wish to make 
 out that one belonged to the conquering and not to the conquered race. 
 
 I conclude this note by quoting a few words from Dr Gustaf Kombst ; perhaps the best 
 authority we have on general ethnography. ' ' The higher classes of the inhabitants in the 
 Highlands have either the marks of pure Teutonic origin — viz. , large, tall figure, blue eyes, 
 and fair or reddish hair ; or they bear at least the marks of a cross breed, in which the Teu- 
 tonic prevails in the frame of body, and often, also, in the occurrence of bluish or grey eyes, 
 though the hair and complexion may be dark. Also among the lower classes, a great many 
 individuals of pure Teutonic character occur, the majority being, undoubtedly, a cross breed 
 in which on the whole, the Teutonic character prevails." 
 
37 
 
 must be fewer far than I could wish; and I must leave you to judge, 
 without my dwelling on it, how far that character is exemplified in 
 ourselves. Of course, all estimates of character are but comparative ; 
 therefore, let us simply contrast the Scandinavian with that of the 
 other two great races which have gone to form the British peoples — 
 the Celtic and the Saxon. First of all, then, we have the restless 
 energy of the Scandinavian, of which I have spoken so often. He 
 cannot be idle ; it is not in his nature. The Celt will dream, if 
 you let him, for any length of time; the Saxon will sleep; the 
 Scandinavian must work. If he has not work, he will make it. If 
 he cannot be doing good, he will be doing evil. And this comes 
 out in the very vices characteristic of the races. That of the Scandi- 
 navians is drinking, by which a kind — a short-lived and a sinful 
 kind, yet a kind — of energy is induced. The favourite one of the 
 Saxon is gluttony, by which he enjoys a sleepy torpor and repose. 
 The Scandinavian drinks spirits, by which he is excited ; the Saxon 
 beer, by which he is bemuddled. 
 
 Connected with this energy is a noble dissatisfaction, a craving 
 after something better than has been gained as yet — a feeling which, 
 at bottom, is a dim, wild, unconscious yearning after something 
 worthier than can be got on earth at all. Yet, from these two 
 things arises one of the greatest evils in the Scandinavian's 
 character — fickleness, and excessive love of change. Once get up 
 his interest in anything, and he is determined on it, and no 
 obstacle daunts him in the least until what he wants seems on 
 the way to being attained. Then some new object carries him away, 
 and the old is cast aside ; he cannot wait ; the only hope of his ever 
 fairly and fully working out anything at all, is its being of such a 
 kind as to demand incessant effort, or his having so many things on 
 hand at once that he can work at the one when he should be 
 waiting for the other. If he has to relax his efforts he is, for a 
 wonder, off with the thing entirely. Yet has the Scandinavian none of 
 the fiery impulsiveness of the Celt. He works coolly and quietly, 
 doing three times as much as the Celt with a third of his show; 
 but he must be ever on the stretch. Whatever we have in our 
 national character of steady, untiring patience, perseverance, and 
 endurance, is traceable to a Saxon origin. 
 
 Next, let me notice the independence, thorough sturdy indepen- 
 dence, of the Scandinavian. With him there is none of the 
 cringing servility of the Celt; rather is he in danger of refusing just 
 and rightful reverence. He is impatient of everything that has not 
 a footing of its own to stand on — of everything that even appears to be 
 unreal. While a Celt reverences a man because he is in some official 
 position — his hereditary chief, his clergyman, his master — the Norse- 
 man reverences only the man himself, and if he feels the man to be 
 unworthy of his place, that place will then only add to the contempt 
 with which he is regarded. Again, the Scandinavian nature is more 
 frank, and free, and trusting, than the Saxon, and far more so than the 
 
38 
 
 suspicious Celtic. It is, for instance, a sort of unwrittenjnaxim of 
 British, that is, of Scandinavian law (for, in its spirit, it is far more 
 Scandinavian than Saxon), that an accused man be deemed innocent 
 till proved guilty. It is one of French, that is, of Celtic law, that 
 such a one be deemed guilty till proved innocent. 
 
 I would not say that the character of the Scandinavian is nearly 
 so affectionate as the Celtic ; and yet, when he is brought to feel 
 that a man is worthy of confidence and affection, his friendship (or 
 his friendly obedience, if the man be his leader or his master) is far 
 truer, steadier, and more enduring, than that of either Celt or Saxon. 
 In the old churchyard of Durness, there is a quaint inscription 
 which runs thus — 
 
 "Donald M'Murrough here lies low ; 
 111 to his friend, waur to his foe, 
 True to his master in weird and woe." 
 
 There spoke the genuine Celtic rascal. Ready to betray friend as well 
 as foe ; his one redeeming point being fidelity to his master; that is, to 
 his hereditary chief. The Northman, again, be he as thorough a 
 rascal as he might, while as true as the other, not to an hereditary 
 chief, but to one whom he deemed worthy to be his chief; and while 
 at least as cruel as the other to his enemy, would yet have been true 
 — true through blood and fire, true even to the death — to the man 
 he once called friend.* Truth, reality, friendship, honour — these 
 were the Northman's aspirations. And yet I cannot, I am sorry to 
 say, fully call them truthful. There was and is a carelessness about 
 truth which is one of the greatest, indeed most painful, inconsistencies 
 I have met with in any ethnological investigation. Once get them 
 interested in a thing — once get them to feel it as a point of honour 
 or duty, and to the last drop of their blood they may be trusted. 
 Yet in ordinary life there is a carelessness about promises, a forget- 
 fulness of engagements, unexemplified in either Celt or Saxon. 
 There are a few here who, from having heard me talk in this way 
 before, will be in danger of supposing that I am in this just taking 
 occasion to hint at certain defects noticeable in Thurso, without much 
 ground for calling it a peculiarly Scandinavian failing. But it is not 
 so. In all the ancient history of the race — in all that I have read and 
 heard of modern Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and other places 
 not separated from us by very many miles of sea, this sad feature of un- 
 truthfulness is exceedingly prominent. On the one hand, it is certain 
 that if the Norseman be somewhat roused, if his attention be fairly 
 alive to the importance of a thing, or to his duty in it, there is in 
 him a devotedness to truth, a longing and a craving for it, a carrying 
 
 * I see that I have not put this trait of longing for sympathy, and fidelity in friendship, 
 nearly strong enough above. Coarse as the whole Scandinavian nature undoubtedly 
 is in comparison with the delicate refinement of the Celtic, there was in it, and there is in 
 it still, a depth of love too deep to be at once perceptible — ever craving to express itself— 
 ever seeking some one in whom it may fully trust, and from whom a response is sure to all the 
 inmost and truest thoughts and feelings. Even in the old heathen times a man was deemed 
 happy, not so much on account of his power, his wealth, his birth, as in proportion to the 
 number and the faithfulness of his friends. The highest honour the Saga-men could ascribe 
 to any of their heroes was that he was one to whom his friends stuck closely. 
 
39 
 
 of it out at any cost, a determination to be honest and to be real, 
 which no other race on earth exemplifies. But on the other hand, 
 it is equally certain that, when not so roused, he is untruthful, and 
 seemingly without any sense of the need of being truthful ; and that 
 in the very last degree. I cannot fully reconcile or understand the 
 painful inconsistency. 
 
 The Norseman was not easily excited to passion or revenge. He 
 knew nothing of the bitter Celtic longing for blood to wash out an 
 injury.* Yet there was in him a demon of ferocity which, when once 
 awake, was terrible beyond anything seen among any other people. 
 Yes, and overlaid as it is by centuries of Christian influence, that 
 demon is in us still, wholly ineradicable, save by thorough conversion 
 to God. In Scandinavian districts, murder, for example, is far 
 less frequent than in Celtic ; but when murders do occur, they are 
 accompanied by the most heart-Bickening brutality. Such a tiger 
 ferocity it was that made our forefathers boil their bishop, and im- 
 pelled George the Wicked, Earl of Caithness, to starve his son to 
 death in Girnigio, while he himself was feasting overhead. 
 
 Add to all this, that there was in the Scandinavian character a 
 wonderful power of adapting itself to every change of circumstance 
 or locality, a peculiarly strong feeling of family affection, a vein of 
 sad tenderness, and a singular generosity, shown especially in the 
 treatment of the weaker sex : and I have said all that I can mention 
 now. Of this last, any one may have abundant proof, who will but 
 compare the state of women in the lowlands of Caithness with that 
 in which they are in some Highland districts not very far away. 
 There, to this day, the women for the most part do all the menial 
 drudgery about the house and about the land, while their husbands are 
 basking in the sunshine, or sleeping by the fire. 
 
 The Saxon and the Celt have done much for our national cha- 
 racter. They are, indeed, its basis. Yet still more, in my be- 
 lief, has been done by that freer, stronger race which united and 
 governed them; which has bequeathed to us our energy, our adapta- 
 bility, our love of freedom and of justice ; and which has thus led the 
 nation on to greatness, and to the accomplishment of that good which 
 God has privileged us to work on earth already, and which, if we are 
 
 * It ig true that the Saga* are full — like all records of heathen peoples— of deeds of blood. 
 But these were perpetrated, not as they would be among Celts from an insatiable feeling 
 of thirst for vengeance, but simply because, until Christianity was adopted, and indeed 
 until long after, it was universaUy held to be the duty of every man to avenge the death of 
 a friend or relative by slaying his murderer. Thus murders were perpetuated; one often 
 giving rise to many. But that this was done simply from a mistaken sense of duty, is plain 
 from the ease with which reconciliations were generally made on the guilty party being punished 
 by fine or temporary banishment, all that was sought being justice. It is plain, also, from 
 the faithfulness with which these reconciliations were always kept; and, most of all, 
 from the fair and open way in which revenge was sought. Whilst a Celt would stab his 
 enemy in the dark, the Scandinavian never took him unawares, or refused to peril his life 
 in open combat with him. 
 
 In this, as in all things, the Northman acted, because, on cool deliberation, he deemed it 
 (however mistakenly) his duty. The Celt in his revenge was actuated by a torrent 
 of ungovernable passion. Dr Dasent (than whom no one is better acquainted with the ancient 
 Scandinavians) seta down as the motto of one of the books mentioned in the appendix, and 
 of course as expressive of the character of the men it treats of, these two Ioelandic 
 proverbs : — " But a short while is hand fain of blow ; " and, "Bare is back without brother 
 behind it." The latter bears out what I spoke of in the last note. 
 
 C 
 
40 
 
 faithful to our trust, will but presage good, wider and deeper far. 
 Possibly I may seem to have dealt rather harshly with the Celt in 
 these last remarks. Let me add, therefore now, that to him is due, 
 in spite of these weaknesses, much of whatever devotedness we have 
 to a person, a family, an idea ; much of our loyalty and patriotism ; 
 and finally, nearly all that we possess of that deep-souled and pensive 
 melancholy which, from the days of Ossian,* has been descending 
 from these old grey hills, to give a sadder earnestness to our thoughts 
 on the life we are living now, and to turn these thoughts often to the 
 life that lies beyond it. There is in the Celt an openness to religious 
 impressions and a power of dwelling on religious thoughts, when once 
 they have found a real entrance, for which you will seek in vain in 
 Scandinavian or Saxon ; and of this we need not go far to find a 
 token. For while Scandinavian energy and love of justice, Scandi- 
 navian skill and honesty, and even a little of Scandinavian cleanliness, 
 have penetrated into and changed the Gaelic parts of the county, it 
 is the Celtic type of religious custom and feeling that prevails 
 throughout it all. I do not say that this is altogether an advantage ; 
 but it is a noticeable fact, that, in this so important point, the con- 
 quered should have overcome the conquerors. J 
 
 A few words now on the physical appearance of the Scandinavians, 
 in which those of you who believe as much as I do in the power 
 given to the mind to mould the body, will see what I have said on 
 their character visibly shadowed forth. I think it is Scott that de- 
 scribes them thus. They are known, he says — 
 
 " By the tall form, blue eye, proportion fair ; 
 The limbs athletic, and the long light hair." 
 
 With respect to the last particular, I used to be puzzled ; but a better 
 acquaintance with colours has shewn me its accuracy. Those of 
 Scandinavian descent have often, very often, dark hair \ but it is 
 always such that only the shade, not the colour, would require to be 
 changed, to make it even flaxen. It is never black. It may be the 
 very darkest brown. Wherever you find the population of a district 
 to be characterised by black hair, that population is certainly well 
 nigh purely Celtic.§ To the above lines I would only add, that the 
 
 * For a most full and impartial statement of what seems to be the truth concerning this 
 vexed question about Ossian, see Mr Skene's Introduction to the volume already mentioned 
 — " The Book of the Dean of Lismore." 
 
 X Of course the fact simply is, that in describing any race, one fixes on their good qualities 
 chiefly ; and it happens that the Scandinavians and Celts are so opposite in their charac- 
 teristics, that in almost everything wherein the one excels the other is deficient. If I were 
 describing the Celts I would in like manner seem to be depreciating the Teutonic races. I 
 know the Celtic country — and such remnants of the Celtic race as the mixture of cruelty 
 and folly, miscalled improvement, has suffered to remain among us— too well to be willing, 
 in however small a measure, to raise any prejudice against those who are capable of so much 
 gallantry, poetry, affection, and devotion. 
 
 § I quote again from Dr Gustaf Kombst. In speaking of the fair complexion of the 
 Teutons and the dark one of the Celts he says : " In crossing the two shades, the darker one 
 prevails over the fairer in complexion, colour of eyes and hair ; the fairer again predomi- 
 nates over the darker one so far as frame of body, and frequently so far as temperament is 
 concerned." This explains the darkness of the hair in districts where other physical 
 characteristics and the whole mental disposition are manifestly Tuetonic. Yet I believe, 
 that seldom, if ever, does the hair become black, as I have said above. 
 
41 
 
 face is broad and open, caused by the height of the cheek-bones ; 
 the forehead more remarkable for breadth than height ; and the com- 
 plexion fair, and often ruddy — never dark and sallow, like the Celtic. 
 But perhaps the most notable feature in their physiognomy is what I 
 would term the mobility of the countenance. The Celtic character 
 flashes out from the dark and deep- set eye, while the light-blue or 
 grey eye of the Scandinavian is comparatively inexpressive. But 
 this is compensated by the exceeding expressiveness of the mouth 
 and chin. The whole lower part of the face has often, indeed, the 
 appearance as if its very bones were flexible — so easily can the ob- 
 servant and practised eye read in it the signs of each thought or 
 emotion as it passes through the mind. 
 
 T must now, as the last head of these lectures, tell you something 
 of the literature of Scandinavia. I see, however, that my remarks 
 on this subject must be greatly curtailed from what I had intended. 
 Even before writing, along with Christianity, was introduced into 
 Scandinavia, about the year 1000, the literature was extensive. It 
 was preserved in the memories of the people, and handed down from 
 generation to generation. At that time, of course, it consisted almost 
 solely of poetry. But after the art of writing became known, prose 
 works, and especially histories, or, as they were termed Sagas, began 
 to be composed. Of these there are very many ; and in an age 
 when, in the rest of Europe, the few who could write at all did no 
 more than compile a dry chronicle of events, many of Iceland's sons 
 were publishing volumes bearing on intricate questions in jurispru- 
 dence, and writing full and beautifully composed histories, which are 
 to this day about the most interesting and vivid that it is possible to 
 peruse. Of these, I must say nothing; and I shall confine myself to 
 one or two specimens of their poetry, selecting it from the heathen 
 period, that you may see the rude and fierce materials out of which 
 we have been formed. Among the chief poems is the celebrated 
 Lodbrokarkvida, or Death Song of Regner Lodbrok — a poem at 
 least 900 years old. Regner Lodbrok — that is, Regner Boughbrcelcs 
 — was a king of Denmark in the eighth century. After many success- 
 ful piratical expeditions, he was captured by Ella, King of Northum- 
 berland, and thrown into a dungeon full of venomous serpents, from 
 whose bite he soon expired. By whomsoever the song was composed, 
 it is represented as sung by him when the poison was working in his 
 veins, and is certainly very like what a Viking in his circumstances 
 would say. Some good judges think it quite possible that it, or 
 part of it, may have been actually composed by him. On this, I am, 
 of course, no authority j but it can certainly be traced back at least 
 to within a century of the time of his death. The poem consists of 
 twenty-nine stanzas of ten lines each, and is simply a fierce, exulting 
 narrative of his life, glorying in his bloody victories, but not con- 
 cealing his defeats. A few verses will serve as a specimen, from a 
 translation which is almost literally exact :-r— 
 
42 
 
 We have hew'd with our swords, hurrah ! 
 High was each hero's crest 
 
 When Hedinga's bay heard the roar of war : 
 Thunder' d the lance on each mail-clad breast, 
 
 You might hear the clang afar, 
 As right through the cuirass it eagerly prest. 
 Sweet was the sight for a warrior tried ; 
 Not more I rejoic'd when in love's first pride, 
 I clasp'd to my bosom my beauteous bride. 
 
 We have hew'd with our swords, hurrah ! 
 Fierce was the storm of war 
 
 That burst on the shields of my followers true 
 When the brilliant light of Northumberland's star 
 
 Was quenched in death's red dew. 
 Not till the morn had our foes fled afar ; 
 
 But loud on their helmets our swords then rung — 
 
 Many a chief to the earth we flung : 
 
 No mother or widow their death-song sung. 
 
 We have hew'd with our swords, hurrah ! 
 On many a slaughter^ heap 
 
 Of their bravest foes did our warriors lie; 
 The crows swept gladly along the deep, 
 For the clamour of battle rose high, 
 "When Erin's king slept his last long sleep. 
 
 In the midst of the combat's most furious swell, 
 At Vedra's Gulf, King Mariston fell — 
 The wolf and the raven his fate can tell. 
 
 We have hew'd with our swords, hurrah ! 
 Many a warrior lay 
 
 On the bloody field on that fatal morn ; 
 And my Regner fell in the front of the fray, 
 
 And left this heart forlorn : 
 It was Egil alone that my boy could slay. 
 
 But wild did the roar of the conflict arise, 
 And fierce for revenge were my follower's cries, 
 Till our banners wav'd free and alone in the skies. 
 
 We have hew'd with our swords, hurrah ! 
 The lover of many a maid, 
 
 With his long light locks round the wild wolf's jaw, 
 When the morning arose in its beams array'd, 
 
 At Ila's firth I saw ; 
 And many a widow ere then had I made ; 
 Many a buckler was cloven in twain ; 
 And the blood of the valiant was pouring like rain, 
 When gallant King Orn in the fight was slain. 
 
 We have hew'd with our swords, hurrah ! 
 My life must quickly end, 
 
 For the poison is pouring thro' every vein. 
 Great Odin, to Ella my sons but send, 
 
 Their swords in his blood to stain, 
 If Lodbrok, though dying, thou 'It yet befriend. 
 
 For I know when they hear how their father died, 
 That their heart-blood will boil in a furious tide ; 
 And to battle they'll rush with the warrior's pride. 
 
43 
 
 But my sword shall hew no more, 
 And my battles all are o'er ; 
 For hark ! I hear my call, 
 
 And it sounds in accents wild and free ; 
 And soon I '11 be in Odin's hall, 
 
 And Vahalla's chiefs shall welcome me ; 
 But highest I '11 sit amongst them all. 
 
 Fresh shall the combat be every day ; 
 
 So joyous I hasten, away, away ; 
 
 And die with a cheer on my lips — Hurrah ! 
 
 The next poem to which I shall call your attention is an imitation 
 of the lays of the ancient Skalds. It is perhaps equal as a poem, 
 hut not as an imitation, to that which I read to you last evening. It 
 is entitled " The Sword Chaunt of Thorstein Raudij" and in it the 
 warrior sings the praises of the weapon to which he owed so much: — 
 
 'Tis not the gray hawk's flight o'er mountain and mere ; 
 'Tis not the fleet hound's course, tracking the deer ; 
 'Tis not the light hoof-prints of black steed or gray, 
 Though swelt'ring it gallop a long summer's day, 
 Which mete forth the lordships I challenge as mine : 
 
 Ha ! ha ! 'tis the good brand 
 
 I clutch in my strong hand 
 That can their broad marches and numbers define. 
 Land giver ! I kiss thee. 
 
 Dull builders of houses, base tillers of earth, 
 Gaping, ask me what lordships I own'd at my birth ; 
 But the pale fools wax mute when I point with my sword 
 East, west, north, and south — shouting, " There am I lord !" 
 Wolu and waste, town and tower, hill, valley, and stream, 
 
 Trembling, bow to my sway 
 
 In the fierce battle fray, 
 When the star that rules fate is this falchion's red gleam. 
 Might giver ! I kiss thee. 
 
 Far isles of the ocean thy lightning hath known ; 
 
 And wide o'er the mainland thy horrors have shone. 
 
 Great sword of my father, stern joy of his hand, 
 
 Thou hast carv'd his name deep on the stranger's red strand, 
 
 And won him the glory of undying song. 
 
 Keen cleaver of gay crests — 
 
 Sharp piercer of broad breasts — 
 Grim slayer of heroes, and scourge of the strong ! 
 Fame giver ! I kiss thee. 
 
 My kindred have perish' d by war or by wave ; 
 Wow childless, and sireless, I long' for the grave. 
 When the path of our glory is shadow'd in death, 
 With me thou wilt slumber below the brown heath — 
 Thou wilt rest on my bosom, and with it decay ; 
 
 While harps shall be ringing, 
 
 And scalds shall be singing, 
 The deeds we have done in our old fearless day. 
 Song giver ! I kiss thee. 
 
u 
 
 Here is another poem referring to that expedition of Earl Sigurd 
 to Ireland, of which I told you yesterday evening. When Sigurd 
 and his men were absent, and on the day when the battle of Clontarf 
 was fought, one Daurrud — so goes the legend — was walking over 
 the hill of Syssag, which, I daresay you are aware, bears to this day 
 an equivocal sort of reputation. There, it is said, he came upon 
 twelve gigantic women, who turned out to be the Choosers of the 
 Slain — goddesses who were present at every battle, to mark for 
 Odin how each man fought. They were weaving a web made of 
 human entrails, and as they wove, they sang this song. It is trans- 
 lated, though not very literally or very well, by Gray. I can only 
 read a small portion : — 
 
 Ere the ruddy sun be set, 
 
 Pikes must shiver, javelins sing, 
 Blade with clatt'ring buckler meet, 
 
 Hauberk crash, and helmet ring. 
 
 As the paths of fate we tread. 
 Wading through the sanguine field, 
 
 Goudula and Geira, spread 
 O'er the youthful king your shield. 
 
 We the reins to slaughter give — 
 
 Ours to kill and ours to spare : 
 Spite of danger, he shall live 
 
 (Weave the crimson web of war). 
 
 They whom late the desert beach, 
 
 Pent within its bleak domain, 
 Soon their ample sway shall stretch 
 
 O'er the plenty of the plain. 
 
 Low the dauntless earl is laid, 
 Gor'd with many a gaping wound ; 
 
 Fate demands a nobler head — 
 Soon a king shall bite the ground. 
 
 Long his loss shall Erin weep, 
 
 Ne'er again his likeness see ; 
 Long her strains in sorrow steep — 
 
 Strains of immortality ! 
 
 Horror covers all the heath ; * 
 
 Clouds of carnage blot the sun; 
 Sisters, weave the web of death ; 
 
 Sisters, cease ; the work is done. 
 
 Hail the taslc, and hail the hands ; 
 
 Songs of joy and triumph sing ; 
 Joy to the victorious bands ; 
 
 Triumph to the younger king. 
 
 Sisters, hence with spurs of speed ; 
 
 Each her thund'ring falchion wield ; 
 Each bestride her sable steed ; 
 
 Hurry, hurry to the field. 
 
45 
 
 Finally, here is an imitation of one of the ruder and simpler of the 
 ballads of the Skalds. It is entitled 
 
 THE LANDING AT THE HUMBER. 
 
 Ho ! we were a band of rovers, 
 
 Sailing here, and sailing there ; 
 Sailing where the wild winds bore us— 
 
 None to stay our course might dare. 
 
 Once we spoil'd the Saxon land- 
 Vikings bold, though few in number ; 
 
 And we fought a merry fight 
 In the landing at the number ! 
 
 Gaily blew and roar'd the breezes, 
 
 WaVd our ravens on the gale, 
 Forward bounded Norway's galleys, 
 
 Wing'd with many a bellying sail. 
 
 Up we rush'd along the Humber ; 
 
 Fair-hair'd Rogvald led the way ; 
 Till we saw the wealthy city, 
 
 Close beside the sandy bay. 
 
 When the Saxons saw us coming, 
 
 Quickly did they line the shore; 
 Arm'd with costly spears and axes, 
 
 Twice two hundred men and more. 
 
 Then we bounded from our galleys 
 
 To our middles in the tide; 
 And we rush'd to meet the Saxons, 
 
 With the Nordman's battle stride. 
 
 Then arose the joyous clanging, 
 
 Of the sword upon the mail; 
 Mingled with the shavelings' clamour, 
 
 And the Saxon women's wail. 
 
 Soon in broad and deep'ning volume, 
 Rush'd along the streams of gore ; 
 
 And it cheer' d each hero's spirit, 
 To behold the corpse-clad shore. 
 
 There the gash'd and dying Saxon 
 Writh'd and struggled in his pain; 
 
 Shrieking as his coward spirit 
 Pass'd away to Holla's reign. 
 
 But each Viking that had fallen, 
 Quietly lay upon the strand, 
 
 Gazing on the joyous battle- 
 Grasping still his ruddy brand; 
 
 While whole heaps of hostile corpses 
 Round him all the ground did cumber; 
 
 Telling Thor how he had quit him 
 In the landing at the Humber. 
 
 Soon the crows were o'er us wheeling- 
 Soon they settled to their prey; 
 
 Well they know the Nordman's war-cry, 
 Bearing onwards through the fray. 
 
4G 
 
 Soon the Saxon ranks were broken, 
 And they turn'd their backs to flee; 
 
 But they 'scaped not thus the vengeance 
 Of the masters of the sea. 
 
 For we chas'd them to the mountains, 
 
 And we slew, and slew, and slew, 
 Till the hardest steel was blunted; 
 
 They who 'scaped were fleet and few. 
 
 When we turn'd toward the city, 
 Wolves were settling to their food ; 
 
 Bravely did they thank the Nordmans, 
 Gnashing jaws all smear'd with blood. 
 
 Then we stor'd our barks with plunder, 
 
 And at eve we fir'd the town; 
 And its flames dispell' d the darkness, 
 
 As we floated gaily down. 
 
 Thus we spoil'd the wealthy city — 
 Vikings bold, though few in number; 
 
 Thus we fought a merry fight 
 In the landing at the Humber. 
 
 Such is a sort of specimen of the literature of our forefathers — of the 
 songs that were chanted beside Caithness firesides of old, by 
 those from whom you and I are lineally descended.* I cannot take 
 time to point out how these songs illustrate the various elements of 
 the Scandinavian character, hut they do so most unmistakeably. 
 And reflections of thankfulness that our lot has been cast in other 
 times, I must leave you to make for yourselves, as I doubt not that 
 some will do. 
 
 Here, then, I must somewhat abruptly conclude these lectures. 
 They have already extended far beyond the limits which I at first 
 designed; and yet, notwithstanding this, I feel that I have only 
 begun to say what I would wish. In fact, if I had time to write, and 
 you to listen (neither of which things, however, are the case), it 
 would be easier for me to compose ten lectures than two, on a subject 
 so extensive, and so fruitful of the deepest thought concerning the 
 ways of God to man. I am well aware of many imperfections in 
 what I have had time to say; but these have been largely unavoid- 
 able, on account of the wideness of my subject, and the shortness of 
 my time — of my time, both for writing and for reading to you these 
 remarks. And yet, great as my deficiencies have been, I venture to 
 indulge the hope that these lectures may not be in vain for higher 
 purposes than any that are merely temporary. I cannot draw out 
 for you the thoughts which it seems to me that the field we have been 
 traversing should suggest. Yet, I would fain hope that many such 
 thoughts will be aroused by the remembrance of the simple facts, 
 which I have so hurriedly set before you. I have only furnished 
 
 * Many of those who are acquainted with the subject, will think I have not made a very 
 judicious selection from the ancient literature of Scandinavia. They will wonder at my 
 dealing bo much in imitations, and at my giving the loose and highly Anglicised paraphrase 
 of Gray as a specimen at all ; but, the truth is, that I had to do the best I could, with the 
 help of the very few books beside me when the lectures were written. 
 
47 
 
 some materials for thought; you, I trust, will use them. And as 
 you walk henceforth beside that unrivalled -bay, over which swept the 
 galleys of these sea kings, a thousand years gone by, and as you listen 
 to the thunder of the waves that are sounding now unchanged even 
 as they sounded then, it may be that the remembrance of these 
 long-past times will help to meditation, more solemn and deep than 
 usual, on the awful importance of which it is that we should find 
 the true aim and principle in life, and do our God-appointed work ere 
 we too pass away, like those who were once as familiar as we are with 
 these rocks and fields, and whose very names are now no longer 
 heard on earth. 
 
 And now does it seem like taking that step which proverbially is 
 all that separates the sublime from the ridiculous, to pass from such 
 themes as these to requesting you to take an interest and a share in 
 the erection of a Washing House and an Infant School f It may do 
 so to some. It will not do so to those who have gazed into these 
 past ages with any real appreciation of the true meaning and lesson 
 which they contain for us. That meaning and lesson is this — that we 
 should not be content only to read of or admire these times, but should 
 actively use and add to any legacy of good that they may have 
 handed down. Better far than any amount of pleasurable excite- 
 ment, of feelings melted to tenderness or roused to admiration, is a 
 single quiet and unnoticed action deliberately done for love to 
 God or man. To us, as I have abundantly shewn, the legacy of 
 the ages has been large and liberal. It is ours to take advantage 
 of it now. The energy, the free and generous impulse, the high- 
 strung daring, which made the Scandinavians the conquerors, and, 
 better far than that, the leaders of the nations in all their noblest 
 enterprises, have not surely departed from this their ancient home. 
 Far be it from me to flatter ourselves. We have little need of that. 
 We are hereditarily prone to have an opinion at least sufficiently 
 high of our own merits and capabilities ; and we have defects and 
 faults, though my theme has not led me to dwell so much on them, 
 which are enough, and surely glaring enough, to keep us humble. 
 Yet this remains, that there are among us powers, and an hereditary 
 force and dignity of nature, which, if duly cultivated, might issue in 
 results specially important, not only to the individuals themselves — 
 not only to this out-of-the-way community — but to the nation, and 
 to the world at large. This I say deliberately. And surely it is a 
 consideration that should nerve for every effort it may seem right 
 that we should now put forth. And let us remember too, that the 
 character which we inherit is one that needs, as surely as it will 
 repay, careful cultivation. For evil, if not for good, it is one that 
 must be remarkable. More rapidly than any other race does ours, 
 when it is neglected and on the downward road, relapse into all its 
 old ferocity, and into rioting in all manner of brutality. Animated 
 by fear of such a result as that, and far more by the encouraging 
 thoughts that we have such a promising field to labour in — a field 
 whose harvest may be expected to gladden distant climes and ages — 
 
48 
 
 be it ours to labour in earnest now, at whatever tends to benefit 
 those who are rising in our midst. And think not that the object 
 in view at present is one too trivial to call into play motives such 
 as these. It is true that I would still more willingly plead for some 
 other objects — say, for calling forth, if I could, some general and 
 determined effort to provide a high and a Christian education for 
 the more thoughtful of our country's youth, who might, if thus 
 helped forward, stand second in no respect — I know it well — to any 
 that Britain can produce. Yet the object now before us is, in its 
 own place, most important. Every opening for good, really taken 
 advantage of, tells in every direction. It tells directly; it tells, too, 
 by opening the way, and preparing for still higher progress. And 
 that there is an opening for good here, I think we shall readily 
 believe, on the simple testimony of those who have been already 
 honoured to effect so much through this Institution. Or, if proof 
 be demanded, it will, I doubt not, be at once forthcoming. 
 
 The world in which we are dwelling, during this stage of our 
 existence, is a sad and terrible one in many respects; yet it is a 
 joyful one in this — that in it no single loving action is ever lost. 
 It may be lost to the eye of man ; though but seldom is it even 
 that, if our eyes are open : yet, true it is for evermore, that so 
 much as a cup of cold water, bestowed by love, shall not fail of its 
 reward. Every child that is well trained here is a step towards a 
 happy and rightminded household, from which, in the future ages, 
 sons and daughters shall rise to lead men towards truth, and light, 
 and love — not only here at home, but in India and China, in 
 America, and the distant continent and islands of the south, and, it 
 may be, in nations whose very name the scroll of Time has never 
 yet unrolled. Thus, as the fruit even of your efforts now, the remote 
 posterity of those whose deeds I have been telling you of to-night, 
 shall go forth with more than their fathers' courage and skill, to 
 conflicts and to victories higher and more holy than were ever won 
 by them. Thus shall the children of the north contribute no small 
 help towards the bringing about of that 
 
 " One far off divine event 
 To which the whole creation moves" — 
 
 even the arrival of the time 
 
 " When the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags are furled, 
 In the parliament of man, the federation of the world; 
 When the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, 
 And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law." 
 
 Or rather, let me substitute for the fancies of the poet, words that 
 are sure and stedfast, and ask you now to help — as I have proved 
 to you that, by means of the character on which you have to work, 
 you can do most powerfully — to help on the time when, even of this 
 saddened, sinful, error-darkened earth, it may be truly said " That 
 its sun shall no more go down, neither shall its moon withdraw 
 itself, for the Lord shall be its everlasting light, and the days of its 
 mourning shall be ended." 
 
49 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Hoping that my readers will be interested in the subject so cursorily noticed 
 in these lectures, I add some account of the books by which, so far as is known 
 to me, its study may be best and most easily pursued. 
 
 First of all, I may mention three volumes of the Edinburgh Cabinet 
 Library, published by Oliver & Boyd — viz., Scandinavia, Ancient and 
 Modern (2 vols.), and Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands. 
 They give us accurately and succinctly the skeleton, as it were, of the history 
 of the Scandinavian race, from its origin to the present day ; and though, 
 from their extreme condensation, they are not so interesting as they might 
 otherwise be, they are most valuable as an introduction to works that are 
 fuller and more philosophic. These, with Mallet's Northern Antiquities 
 (Bonn & Co., London), will give a good general idea of the greater part of 
 the subjects treated of in the lectures. This last volume is a full and careful 
 account (though, like the former works, too full of matter to be exactly 
 popular,) of the religion and mythological literature of the Northmen. 
 
 Then there is the Heimskringla, or Chronicle of the Kings op 
 Norway. This is a translation, by the late Mr Laing of Papdale, aided by 
 his son, the present Indian Chancellor of Exchequer, of the great work of 
 Snorro Sturle's son, an Icelandic gentleman of the thirteenth century. It is 
 a history of Norway from the earliest times, down almost to the era of the 
 author ; and though accessible to the English reader only in this translation, 
 which is evidently very far from a good one, it cannot fail to strike all as one 
 of the most careful, vivid, and impartial of histories. In the introduction to 
 this work, and also in his Tour through Germany and Scandinavia, as 
 well as in other volumes, Mr Laing has made most important contributions 
 to our knowledge of the Scandinavians of ancient times and of our own . 
 
 A most valuable work, for one wishing to understand the character of 
 the Scandinavian race, is The Literature and Romance of Northern 
 Europe, by William and Mary Howitt (Colburn & Co., London). It gives a 
 brief but interesting sketch of the Eddas,' the Sagas, and the songs produced 
 by the period of the greatest activity of the northern mind; that is, from the 
 tenth to the fourteenth centmy. It tells also of the revival of that activity 
 in modern times. 
 
 But it is in the translations from the Norse of Dr Dasent, that we have 
 the most trustworthy information regarding Scandinavia and its children, 
 and the most impartial estimate of their character and influence on the world. 
 His introductions to his books, though unsatisfactory from that brevity which 
 is yet their beauty, are exactly what is needed to procure for those of whom 
 he writes the justice which, in this country alone, has been so long denied 
 them. And the works themselves are so translated that all thought of their 
 being translations nearly disappears. In them we have perhaps the most 
 successful transfusion of thought and feeling from one language to another 
 that recent times have given us. The chief of Dr Dasent's publications are, 
 Popular Tales from the Norse, and The Story of Burnt Njal. In 
 the former, we have the originals of most of our own old nursery tales, and 
 many an amusing and instructive legend besides. Trivial as these may seem 
 to some, there is more true wisdom— more insight into life, its meaning and 
 
50 
 
 solemnity, to be got from them than from all the books of science made easy 
 with which our nurseries are now-a-days inundated. And for giving a notion 
 of the heart of man— of its mingled good and evil, baseness and nobility — I 
 know nothing equal to them, apart from Scripture and such books, as are 
 drawn directly from it. Burnt Njal is an account— composed probably 
 between 1050 and 1100, and committed to writing not very long thereafter — 
 of an Icelandic feud, which took its rise about the end of the tenth century. 
 In it Njal (i.e. Kiel), one of the best and wisest men whom Iceland has pro- 
 duced, was burnt with all his household; and the saga is an account of the 
 events that led to this, and the vengeance that was taken for it. It con- 
 tains a brief narrative of the planting of Christianity in the island, and is 
 most interesting, as shewing the slow degrees by which its spirit overcame 
 the ancient heathenism. 
 
 Besides these, Messrs Edmonston & Douglas (Dr Dasent's publishers) hope 
 to bring out, before the end of the year, a translation, from his pen, of the 
 Orkneyinga Saga, or the history of our own northern earldom. While im- 
 portant for all who study history, this will surely be of the very greatest 
 interest to those who live in the midst of the scenes to which the narrative 
 refers. There is already, I believe, an English translation of this ancient 
 saga, but it is not easily procured, and besides, a translation from one who 
 is so thorough a master of the two languages as Dr Dasent, is well worth 
 waiting for. He also promises ere long a translation of the Younger Edda. 
 
 Of the many books of travels descriptive of the present condition of the 
 inhabitants of Scandinavia and Iceland, the best, so far as 1 have read, are 
 Henderson's Iceland; The Oxonian in Iceland; and Through Norway 
 with a Knapsack. This last, though that earnest, God-fearing spirit, 
 which alone can enable a man to see deeply into anything, is wholly wanting 
 in it, is yet, with regard to outward facts, about the shrewdest and most 
 observing book of travel I have ever seen. 
 
 But the most interesting and important topic raised in the lectures, and 
 the one which I should most wish to see earnest attention drawn to, is that 
 of the influence of the Scandinavians upon Britain and her history. In this 
 influence, the aim, the final cause so to speak, of all their training is to be 
 found. It is not by means of unmixed races that we find the divine purposes 
 most advanced on earth. A pure race is necssarily one-sided and therefore 
 comparatively weak. It is by nations drawn out of several peoples, who have 
 each of them contributed some peculiar element of strength, that most can 
 be done to carry on that long and painful process by which the world is being 
 brought back to God. And it was chiefly, I believe, to give its energy, its 
 courage, its love of freedom and of truth, to the nation that is foremost in 
 every corner of the earth just now, that the Norwegian race was formed and 
 trained. Now, it is but as of yesterday that their influence on Britainghas 
 begun to be recognised among us, and therefore there are as yet but few books 
 bearing directly on the subject. The chief known to me are Worsaae's Danes 
 and Norwegians in England and Scotland ; and Vaughan's Races or 
 Men in England. Latham's British Ethnology also treats of the Scandi- 
 navian element in our population. The statistical accounts and most of 
 the county or other local histories of which there are now so many, are of 
 course valuable as furnishing materials for one who has time and patience 
 for original research ; though most of their writers are misled in their own 
 conclusions by the erroneous notions, or rather the utter want of notions on 
 ethnology, which until lately, have everywhere prevailed among us. 
 
 Among these local histories, I may specially mention the various works on 
 Orkney as by Barry, Peterkin, and Balfour ; and Calder's History of 
 Caithness. Many of Mr Calder's conclusions concerning the early history 
 of the county, are indeed erroneous ; but on the whole, his work, so 
 far as it goes, is admirable, and is one for which all Caithness-men should 
 feel indebted to him. As Mr C, however, says himself, it is but a sketch. 
 There are materials for a far fuller and more philosophic history of the county. 
 And such was the minglingof races in Caithness, and its connection at once with 
 
51 
 
 Scotland, with Norway, and with Normandy, that I question if there be many 
 counties in the empire of which it would be more important that a thoroughly 
 good history should be written. Here also I may mention Dr Macculloch's 
 work on the Highlands ; in the fourth volume of which the question of the 
 origin of the Highlanders is, I understand, ably and impartially discussed. 
 I understand, I say, that it is so, for I have not read this work myself. 
 
 Perhaps the best aid to forming a definite and correct idea on this part of 
 the subject, is the Ethnological Map op Britain in Keith Johnston's 
 Physical Atlas. It and the explanatory letterpress are by Dr Gustaf 
 Kombst, whom I have already mentioned in the notes. It is the first attempt 
 of the kind ; and for the almost unaided production of one man, is perfectly 
 wonderful in its accuracy. There are indeed errors in it— as the author him- 
 self says most truly, that in the circumstances there could not but be. For 
 instance, Orkney is set down as Celtic in an equal degree with the centre of 
 Sutherland ! And probably there are similar mistakes in districts of which I 
 know nothing. Still the map is a marvel of diligent and discriminating 
 research ; and in the accompanying letterpress, the foundation of British 
 Ethnology is firmly laid. 
 
 Finally, I may add that a full account of the Varangians in Constantinople, 
 and of the conquests of the Normans in Italy, will be found in Gibbon, and 
 other histories of those ages. 
 
 With many of the statements in many of these volumes I entirely disagree; 
 and from some of them I differ wholly on points far more important than 
 any of a historical kind. Still -it is only by reading and comparing 
 several of them, by forming his own opinion on the materials of thought 
 they give, and, most of all, by using his eyes and ears in moving through his 
 own country, that the English reader can become thoroughly acquainted with 
 this subject. As yet there is no single volume in the language that even 
 professes to treat of the Scandinavian race, its character and training, and 
 its influence on the character and destiny of Britain. It is perhaps as well 
 that, in the meantime, there should not be. Before this, such a volume 
 could not have been written at all satisfactorily. But now, with the large 
 accumulation of materials that has. been making in Copenhagen, with the 
 light that has recently been cast on comparative philology and mythology, 
 and, most of all, with the true historic sense that seems beginning to awake 
 among us, a thoroughly good treatment of the subject should not be at all 
 impossible. 
 
 Without understanding its ethnology, it is as impossible to understand the 
 history of any nation as it is to appreciate the full significance of a man's 
 life without a knowledge of the influences under which he passed his infancy 
 and boyhood. And it is by tracing up nations to their source — by appreciat- 
 ing the way in which each has been disciplined in all its course, in order to 
 contribute its special elements of life and strength to the Church of Christ, 
 which shall yet be co-extensive with mankind— by understanding thus what 
 is meant when it is said that God, though " He made of one blood all the 
 nations of men," did yet " determine the times before appointed, and the 
 bounds of their habitation:" it is thus that history will become, as it one day 
 must, the great, the visible, the living testimony of the truth of revelation, 
 and at the same time the chief interpretation of its meaning and rule of 
 guidance for the application of its power. And though I know, as well as 
 the least friendly critic, that in these lectures there is nothing very original, 
 still I trust that they will lend a little help towards awakening some 
 knowledge of history, and of its true significance. Knowing that they 
 will be read by many, I cherish the expectation that they will stir up some 
 to a thoughtful and earnest inquiry into the meaning and lesson of the bygone 
 ages, or at the very least that they will help to prepare their minds for 
 understanding and being benefited by that insight into the significance of the 
 whole providential scheme of the world, which many things make me hope 
 that God will ere long give us, through the instrumentality of some Christian 
 historian of poAver. History, too, is of all others the study most congenial to 
 
52 
 
 the northern race, and the one by means of which I would have most expec- 
 tation of those who belong to it advancing the cause of Truth on earth. 
 
 Finally, since I expect that this publication will fall into the hands of few 
 beyond those who know more or less of myself and my present circumstances, 
 I think I may venture to mention another thought which I have been 
 cherishing in connection with it. I hope that it will sometimes remind 
 not a few of my going forth to bear on a banner more sure of endless 
 victory than was ever the fabled Landeyda, of which these lectures tell. 
 I hope it will prompt some occasionally to pray in earnest that the Re- 
 deemer Himself may be with me, strengthening in all weakness, guiding 
 in every difficulty, and thereby hastening the triumph of His own Banner of 
 Salvation. 
 
 PRINTED BY JAMES ADAMSON AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH. 
 
M167994 
 
 DL47 
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 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY