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l^W;NORWAY

NORWEGIANS

BY

C. F. KEARY, M.A., F.S.A.

AUTHOR OF ' THE VIKINGS IN WESTERN CHRISTENDOM,'
' THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE EDDAS,' ETC.

Hotibon

PERCIVAL AND
1892

CO.V<2.\ '

PREFACE

The growing attractiveness of Norse scenery to English
and American travellers, whereof the returns of steam-
ship companies and hotels would be sufficient evidence,
has been witnessed also by the production during recent
years of a good many books descriptive of the country.
The present volume is not an addition to the number of
these. It does not, that is to say, aim chiefly at
describing what the tourist may expect to see in Nor-
way ; but rather at supplying those items of informa-
tion which the most sharp-sighted traveller could not
get from observation alone; some of those links which
unite the Norway of to-day to the Norway of the
past, and the parts of the existing life of the country
visible to the eye to other parts which the mere
tourist cannot participate in, the life of politics, of
industry, of literature, which belongs to the inhabitants
of a country but not to the visitors to it. A final
chapter, kindly written for me by Miss E. Tindall,
deals upon the same plan with the Flora of Norway,vi	Preface

supplying those details concerning the habitat, the
rarity, etc., of different plants which the traveller in
Norway, however keen his faculties, could likewise
not learn from mere observation.

It will characterise the aims of the present volume
in a sentence if I say that, while books of the descrip-
tive sort are addressed chiefly to what fare-bills and
guide-books call the intending tourist in Norway, the
following pages have been written chiefly for travellers
there in esse, for men or women who can see for them-
selves what is to be seen in the country, but cannot
know of themselves what they might wish to know
concerning it.

I need not say that I have no hope of supplying
more than a portion of their wants in this kind.
Next after the limitations of ignorance, the scheme of
this volume has been largely regulated by what the
writer's intercourse with travellers in Norway, and
those who would be classed as ' general readers/ led
him to suppose were the heads of information most
required and sought after. He found as a general
rule, that his interlocutor was deeply impressed by cer-
tain vague and general ideas concerning the past of
Norway and of the Scandinavian people.; that certain
words were for him what are for the Norwegian salmonPreface	vii

the flies, wherewith the sportsman provides himself—
that his imagination ' rose' at once to words and
phrases such as fEdda/ ' Saga/ ' Old Norse Poetry/ ' Old
Norse Heathenism/ ' Odin/ ' Thor/ ' Viking/ and so
forth. But that these words and phrases connoted only
the vaguest ideas to him ; so vague were they, indeed,
that he could hardly have given them any sort of defini-
tion. To make these words and the vistas of ideas
which they open out to us somewhat more real and
definite is one of the chief aims of this book. Then to
give such links as are necessary to connect the ancient
heroic past of Norway and of Scandinavia generally
with modern times. Finally, to say something about
Norway as it is, enough to make the traveller realize—
as he sometimes fails to do—that it is not a mere
assemblage of hotel-keepers and shyds-guts; and there-
with to say something about the literature of Norway,
which is beginning to occupy such an important place
in the literature of Europe.

The writer has designedly selected the * plums ' from
all this class of information—always, I mean, within
the limitations imposed by his own ignorance. But he
has added enough of drier detail to prevent the interest-
ing parts (of the history for example) from standing
out as mere isolated fragments. To carry on theviii

Preface

simile, he has aimed at supplying enough dough to
properly imbed the plums. And he has brought the
historical portions into as close relations as were
possible to the experiences of the present-day sight-
seer. He has designedly, too, availed himself of trans-
lations (of the Sagas, etc.), wherever such translations
were available, expecting or hoping that the reader
would be tempted to continue this class of reading for
himself. The translations of the Heimskringla Saga,
by Laing, and of the Njals Saga or Njala, by Dasent,
are the works most frequently quoted from. Only in
the case of certain metrical renderings, and of one
or two passages from the Longer Olafs Saga Trygg-
vasonar, have original translations been given.

The reader may be glad if we add a short list of
books through which he can, if he chooses, continue for
himself the study of the subjects treated of in the
chapters of this volume.

Corpus Poeticum Boreale (Prose translation of Old Norse
Poetry), by Vigfusson and Powell.

Teutonic Mythology, by Rydberg (translated by R.
Anderson).

The Story of Burnt Njal (Translation of Njala), by Sir
G. W. Dasent.

The Story of Grettir the Strong (Translation of Grettis
Saga), by W. Morris and E. Magnusson.Preface	ix

The Saga Library (Translations of Havardar Saga,
Bandamanna Saga, Hsensa Thoris Saga, Eyrbyggja
Saga, etc.1)

The HeimsJcringld, or Sagas of the Norse Kings (Transla-
tion by S. Laing and E. Anderson).

Other translations may be found under the names of
Dasent, Morris and Magnusson, Head, etc.

The reader who desires to consult the original
authorities will find most of the Sagas which we have
referred to or quoted from, in the following series:—

Fornmanna Sogur. Edited by C. C. Eafn (with a trans-
lation into Danish).

Fornaldar Sogur. Edited by Eafn (with Danish trans-
lation).

Nordiske Oldskrifter.

AntiguiUs Busses.

Heimskringla Saga. Edited by Unger.

The modern authorities for Norse history which have
been used are—

Det Norske Folks Historie. P. A. Munch.

Udsigt over Norsk Historie. J. E. W. Sars.

The writer may perhaps be permitted to refer to
his own book, The Vikings in Western Christendom,

i This series is in progress. Up to the time of going to press 1 have
seen two volumes of it only.x	Preface

for the chapter which deals with that subject. In the
chapter on literature a sufficient list is given of works
by the authors chiefly spoken of—Ibsen and Bjornson.
I do not know if any collected editions of Ibsen's
or Bjornson's works have been published in Norway.
A considerable number, but not all of Ibsen's works,
have been collected and published in Copenhagen
(Gyldendalske Boghandel). There is a series of
German translations professing to be the collected
works or collected dramas, novels, etc., of Ibsen and
Bjornson: they are, however, in fact, nearly all of
them, incomplete.

C. F. KEARY.

200 Cromwell Road, S.W.
May 1892.CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.—THE LAND.

PAGE

Recent Habitation of Norway—The Glacial Era and its
Effects—The Island Rampart—The Hills—Remains of
Ancient Glaciers—The Fjords—The 4 Norwegian Canal'
—General Conformation of the Country—Snowfields—
Waterfalls—Forests, ..... 1

CHAPTER II.—THE PEOPLE.

Theory of the Origin of the Aryans in Scandinavia—Traces
of Prehistoric Life : Ship - building, House - building—
Homesteads—Primitive Customs—The Midsummer Fire, 31

CHAPTER III.—SEAFARING.

Ship-building in the Viking Age—Rise of the Viking Age—
The Norsemen in Ireland—The Vikings in Continental
Europe—The Swedes in Russia, . . . .60

CHAPTER IV.—THE EDDA AND ITS MYTHOLOGY.

Norse Colonies and Discoveries in the Faroes,(in Iceland, in
Greenland and America—The 4 Greater Scandinavia' of
the Ninth and Tenth Centuries—Origin of Scandinavian
Literature—Old Teutonic Metre—The Eddie or Poetical
Literature—The Mythology of the Edda—The Jotuns
—Thor—Frey—Balder—Odin—The V alkyriur—Lesser
Divinities, . .	. . . .83xii

Contents

CHAPTER V.—THE EDDA MYTHOLOGY (continued).

PAGE

The Underworld—Conjuration of the Dead—Ragnarok: The

Doom of the Gods—Heroic Lays and Court Poetry, . 107

CHAPTER VI.— THE SAGAS.

The Settlement of Iceland—Rise of the Saga—The Shorter
and Longer Sagas—Character Studies from Saga Litera-
ture—Narrative—Quotation from Njala—The Book Age
—Snorri Sturluson,	. . . . . 122

CHAPTER VII.—HISTORY.

Consolidation of Norway—Harald Fairhair—Battle of Hafirs-
fjord—Harald's Land Laws—Harald's Sons—Erik Bl6d-
iix—Hakon the Good—Lapp Magic—Gunhild—Hakon
and the Sons of Erik and Gunhild—Battle of Frsedar-
berg—Battle of Stordo—Death of Hakon—Harald Grey-
slcin—Earl Hakon—Hakon and the Haralds of Denmark
and Norway, ...... 143

CHAPTER VIII.— HISTORY.

Olaf Tryggvason—His Legendary Youth—The Age of the
two Olafs—Conversion of Olaf Tryggvason—Earl Hakon
and the Joms-vikings—Battle in the Jorundf jord—Death
of Earl Hakon—Succession of Olaf— Christianisation of
Norway—Olaf and Kjartan—Olaf and Halfred Vand-
rcedasJcald—Olaf and Svend, King of Denmark—Alli-
ance against Olaf—The Battle of Svold—Death of Olaf
Tryggvason, a.d. 1000, ..... 167

CHAPTER IX.—HISTORY.

Norway under Earl Erik—Early Years of St. Olaf—Olaf
acquires the Crown of Norway—His Government—The
Spread of Christianity—Olaf of Norway and Olaf of
Sweden—Character of St. Olaf—Opposition Party in
Norway—Olaf and Cnut, King of Denmark—Olaf driven
from Norway—His Return—Battle of Stiklestad and
Death of St. Olaf, a.d. 1030, . . . .205Contents

xiii

CHAPTER X.—HISTORY.

PAGE

St. Olaf's Son Magnus (the Good) restored to the Throne of
Norway—Magnus and Hardacnut, King of Denmark—
Magnus in Vendland—Svend Estridsson and Magnus—
Harald Hardradi at Stiklestad—In Russia—As Com-
mander of the Varangian Guard—He returns to Nor-
way and shares the Government with Magnus—Harald
as sole King of Norway—Harald's Invasion of England—

Battle of Stamford Bridge and Death of Harald Hardradi
a.d. 1066—End of the Heroic Age—Picture of Norse
Life in the Heroic Age, ..... 238

CHAPTER XI.—HISTORY.

Magnus and Olaf (Kyrri) the Sons of Harald—Peaceful Era
in Norse History—House-building—Inns—Building of
Churches—Mediaevalism in Norway—Death of Olaf
Kyrri, a.d. 1093—Magnus Bareleg—His kingly saying
—His Death, a.d. 1103—Magnus's Sons—Sigurd the,
Crusader (d. 1130)—Magnus (the Blind) and Harald
Qilli—Beginning of the Civil War—Increase in the
Power of the Aristocracy and of the Church—Elevation of
Magnus Erlingsson (a.d. 1161)—The Power of the Church
—Rise of the Birkibeinar—Sverri—Civil War between
Magnus and Sverri—Defeat and Death of Magnus, a.d.
1184—Personal Government of Sverri—Hakon Hakons-
son—Hakon's Expedition to Scotland and Death, a.d.
1263, . ...... 264

CHAPTER XII.—HISTORY.

Magnus, the Son of Hakon—His Constitutional Reforms—

Fall of the Aristocracy—Norway united to Sweden—
Union, at Calmar, of the Scandinavian Countries—Nor-
way ceases to be an Independent State—Movements
which affected the Three Scandinavian Countries—Trade
—The Hansa—The Black Death—The Rivalries of
Sweden and Denmark—The Sture Family—The Rise of
the Vasas—The Reformation—Growth of the Russian
Empire—Transition to Modern Times, . . . 297xiv

Contents

CHAPTER XIII.—MODERN NORWAY.

PAGE

The present Constitution of Norway—The Ministry—The
Parliament {Storthing)—Internal Administration—Re-
venue—Liquor Laws—Religion—Religious Intolerance
of Norwegians—Education, . . . . 320

CHAPTER XIV.—MODERN NORWAY.

Land Tenure—Few traces of Feudal Tenures—Abolition of
Titles of Nobility—Inheritance—Continual increase in
the number of Landed Proprietors—Productive Indus-
tries of Norway—Fisheries—Agriculture—The Sceter—
Forestry—Common Rights in the Forests—Life of the
Wood-Cutters—Means of Transport—Physique of the
Modern Norseman—National Costume—National Diet—

Effect of Republican and Democratic Institutions as ex-
emplified in Norway, . .	. . 336

CHAPTER XV.—LITERATURE.

Rise of Modern Norse Literature—Syttendemai Poetry—
Wergelaiid—Welhaven—A. Munch and J. Moe—Norse
Antiquarians and Historians—P. A. Munch—Ibsen and
Bjornson—Bjornson's Works—Influence on them of
German Literature—Bjornson's Character—His different
manners—Novels of the Early and Middle Period—
Dramas—Bjornson's later manner—Ibsen—The greatest
name in Norse Literature—Not to be judged by Social
Dramas only—Brand and Peer Gynt—Ibsen's other
Dramas—His Pessimistic Character—A. Kjelland and
Jonas Lie, . . . . . . . 370

CHAPTER XVI.—THE WILD FLOWERS OF NORWAY.

Peculiarities in the Distribution of the Norse Flora—Habitat
of the principal Wild Flowers—Description of Wild
Flowers, . ... . . . 380

Genealogical Tables,	..... 395

Index, ........ 396Contents

xv

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Bergen in the Sixteenth Century, . . . Frontispiece
Ground-plans of Norse houses, showing development

of the art of house-building in Norway, . . .43
Old house in Orkedal, . . . . . .45

Stabbur or store-houses,	. . . . .48

Ranunculus glacialis, . . . . . . 388
Gentiana purpurea, ...... 393

Linncea borealis,	...... 394

MAPS.

Historic Norway, . . . . . . xvi
Scandinavian Settlements in N. Europe,

Tenth and Eleventh Centuries, . . . 408HISTORIC

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R KNORWAY AND THE NORWEGIANS

CHAPTER I

the land

The Glacial Era and its remains—Islands—Mountains—Fjords-
Valleys—Forests—Conformation of the Country.

The Scandinavian Peninsula may be called—according
to the light in which we choose to regard it—either
one of the youngest or one of the oldest lands in Europe.

In the lands to the south of it, more especially in
what we are wont to speak of as the classical countries,
it is almost impossible to dissociate nature from man-
kind. The villages which crown the hills of Italy, for
example, and which the eye catches sight of one after
another nestling among the Apennines, we cannot pos-
sibly imagine removed from the scene. If they were
not there we should be in a different country. They
transport our thoughts back at a bound to the Middle
Ages, when they were as numerous, almost, and per-
haps more prosperous, than they are to-day. And they
may well transport us further back still,—to the days of
ancient Eome; or to yet earlier times before Eome had
grown to its full greatness: to a Saturnian age, while
yet there was no fear of Jove, while Etruscan and
Italic communities lived unthreatened by the increasing

A2	Norway and the Norwegians

power of the city by the banks of the Tiber. In the
plains below these mountain villages the records of an
antique civilisation are only just hidden from sight.
Scratch the ground,j&iid you come upon traces of the
dead, upon vases-which have been maybe brought by
traders- frtfm 'Greece^and been there manufactured in
the days when Sophocles still lived, and when Phidias
and Polycletus worked in marble. Everywhere, there-
fore, in lands such as these, the history of mankind has,
we may say, worked itself into the very soil. It is
impossible to dissociate man and nature, even in thought.

But leave Italy, and travel to the Scandinavian
countries, and you find everything in as great contrast
to this as possible. Here man appears like a new
comer; his civilisation, his cultivation of the soil, seem
to t>e still only attempts, only a beginning. Every
thing that is human seems most temporary; man h^ts
not yet made himself at home with nature. This im-
pression, which is stronger than anywhere else in Nor-
way, is heightened by what are perhaps mere accidents.
The houses in Norway and Sweden are not maybe
really slighter or more quickly built than the cottages
in many other countries: but they look much more
so. At a distance they look like wooden toy-houses,
scattered upon no fixed principle here and there over
the landscape. At best they resemble more the wooden
shanties which people put up in the backwoods of
America or the colonies, than the cottages of other
European countries.

The tilling of the ground, too, appears to our eyes
wonderfully slight and accidental. It is at best not
verv scientific, and to our English eves it annears muchThe Land

3

more casual than it is perhaps in reality, if we come to
understand the principles upon which it is carried out.
The meadows are beautiful in the eye of the traveller,
for they are full of wild flowers; but they would not
be beautiful in the eyes of a scientific farmer. Here
they are a mass of harebells; a little further on pink
campion (ragged robin), or, that with us rarer form of
campion, the fly-catcher, colours them crimson. Over
all wave the heads of dock sorrel their rich russet
brown. Then, again, in the midst of the meadow you
come, without any apparent rhyme or reason, upon a
little patch of potatoes or barley. In a later chapter
we shall speak again of these eccentricities in farming;
for the present we have only to do with the impression
they make upon the eye of the traveller. On the
other side it must be admitted that, occasionally, we
are surprised by the ingenuity with which the smallest
opportunities have been seized upon. We may some-
times see the top of a flat rock, though not much bigger
than a good-sized table, made to bear a crop of corn or
potatoes. One instance of this I can especially well
remember. It lies on the road between Gronaas and
Hellesylt. All the side of that road, between it and
the river, the ground is a mass of immense stones and
boulders, the ddbris of glaciers and avalanches in past
times. It seems a region given up to barrenness. But
on one of these rocks, which, because it is quite flat,
is suited to retain a layer of earth, there grows this
little potato-patch, an oasis in a wilderness.

At the best, however, the cultivated lands throughout
Norway bear but a small proportion to. the unculti-
vated area of the countrv.—thev seem of no ar^rmnf,4	Norway and the Norwegians

compared to the vast stretches of woodland, of rocky
mountain, of lakes, of rivers, of glaciers. All these
things combine to produce the same impression upon
the mind, to the effect that man is still but a recent
intruder upon the antique solitudes of nature. You
might even fancy that nature is preparing summarily
to eject him; that it needs but a slight convulsion—
slight as an exercise of her power—to crush for ever
those scattered houses which lie between the cliffs
and the fjord; to sweep away the farm-houses on the
mountain side, or bury them beneath a portion of a
single glacier; then, that her ancient and majestic
peace will be restored to the primeval land.

Looked at, therefore, in this light, it is the immense
antiquity of the Scandinavian countries which is brought
home to you. All the forces and the relics which are
impressed upon your imagination are the forces of
nature, the relics of her work. Waterfalls which fell
as they fall to-day ages before man set foot upon the
soil; glacial boulders, moraines, which have, been left
exactly where they now stand when some hundreds
of thousands of years ago the Glacial Age came to an
end.

And yet, even in the annals of Nature (strange though
the assertion must sound), Scandinavia may be said to
be a younger country than others in Europe. She is
so precisely in virtue of the great share she has had
in the Glacial Era of which we have just spoken. It
is not, I imagine, unknown to the reader that there
was a time—a time we can hardly reckon, however
roundly by years, but one not so very remote in the
category of geological ages—when the whole of northernThe Glacial Era

5

Europe was covered by an impenetrable sheet or sea of
ice. When, for example, starting from close upon our
most southern latitudes, there was not a green thing to
be seen between those latitudes and the pole. The
southern limit of this huge glacier would lie, for our
islands, a little way from the southern coast of England;
on the Continent, at about the latitude of Dresden or
Cracow; eastward the snow region spread as far as
Nijni Novgorod or as Yoronej ; westward it covered the
whole bed of the North Sea, the whole of our islands
(except the strip just spoken of) and pushed on into the
Atlantic some little way beyond the present limits of
the Hebrides and of Ireland. Then, in the course of
Nature, the great ice-age slowly passed away. The
glaciers began to melt and to transform themselves
into the floods which have hollowed out the great
river-beds of Northern Europe, until at last they re-
mained only in the high lands. This change took
place last in Scandinavia, which, therefore, longer than
any- country, retained its covering of ice.

After that in other lands life had begun; when lichens
had begun to grow upon the rocks, and duckweed in
the swamps; as these in course of time gave place to
grass and herbs, and the herbs developed into trees, and
animal life came to re-inhabit the awakened earth, in
Scandinavia the awful stillness of the ice-fields re-
mained—their utter solitude and deprivation of even
the germs of life. This is what I mean when I say
that, even in the annals of Nature, Norway and Sweden
may be reckoned the youngest among the countries of
Europe.

This history of Scandinavia in the glacial age is the6	Norway and the Norwegians

more worth remembering, because it accounts for some
of the phenomena of the country which are most
striking, even at the present day, some which would
attract the attention of even the most casual tourist,
and for others again which, though they are no longer
so obvious, are always present and show themselves by
their effects. It might be some time before the traveller
quite realised the meaning, even of those characteristics
which he saw, and it would be longer still, probably,
before he divined their true cause, unless he happened
to have already studied the subject. Let us try and
describe some of these legacies from the Ice Age which
Norway still keeps and shows to the traveller. I will
suppose this traveller to come to Norway—as nine out
of ten do—across the North Sea, from Hull, or New-
castle, or Leith, or it may be even from the Shetlands,
arriving first, as in some of these cases he will do,
possibly at Stavanger, but in any case passing im-
mediately to Bergen. At this last place he is close to
some of the grandest scenery which Norway produces.
The two most celebrated fjords of Norway—the Hard-
anger and the Sogne—lie on either side of him. Twelve
or fourteen hours' steam, in the one case to the north,
in the other case to the south, will take him well into
the inner parts of one of those fjords, where he will see
hills towering skywards, and immense cliffs descending
sheer down into the sea. In rainy weather, of which,
unluckily, he must expect a fair amount, he will see
the mountains quite losing themselves in the clouds,
glaciers constantly gleaming among them. The streams
have that opaque colour—almost the colour of opal—
which we are familiar with in glacier water. TheseThe Island Belt

7

things belong to our ordinary experiences of a moun-
tainous country, and at any rate the traveller who has
been in Switzerland will be familiar enough with them;
familiar, too, in some degree with the torrents and the
waterfalls, from .the sound of which, after his full entry
into Norway, the traveller's ears will, perhaps for days
or weeks, be never free; and familiar with the wonder-
ful beauty and variety of the ferns and flowers which
he finds among all this grandeur. These things, I say,
are common to Switzerland and Norway, as more or
less to all mountain regions. Norway and Switzerland,
in fact, always associate themselves in the mind as two
countries essentially similar in scenery, whose flora are
closely allied, and so forth.

But there are other features of Norwegian scenery
peculiar to that Switzerland of the north, that Switzer-
land by the sea.

The first of these which the traveller in his supposed
tour catches sight of is the belt of islands which lies
between the mainland and the ocean. On his way into
Bergen, for example, or into Stavanger, he will first
pass for some hours among these rocky islands. They
are of various sizes and of various elevations ; but they
share the same general character. They have much
the same general look that rocks have which have been
worn down by long detrition of the sea, only in the
case of these islands it is not water which has robbed
them of all their sharp angles, as we shall see presently.
Similar islands may be found off the western coast of
Scotland, and they are not infrequent off the west
coast of Ireland, but no other land of Europe has such
a continuous belt of islands as has Norway. This is8	Norway and the Norzvegians

one of the special features of the country which the
traveller should note when he first sees it. The island
rampart protects the whole coast with the quite in-
significant exception of a small district at the extreme
south, between Lister and the mouth of the Stavanger
Fjord, and another opposite the Lofoten Islands.
Skjcergaard, or rock-rampart, is the collective name
which this protecting belt receives in Norway.

The general appearance of these islands—of the
larger as well as the lesser, the mere rocks—is, as I
have said, as if they had been sea-worn. What seems
at first sight stranger still, you will find, as soon as you
have threaded the last of them and arrived at the main
coast, that that too carries on the same effect. The
hills are now much higher than the most lofty of the
islands which you have passed through, certainly high
enough (if there could be any doubt about the latter)
to be, and to have always been, far out of reach of the
sea; and yet these hills have, like the Skjcergaard, a
rounded, billowy look, as if they too had been worn
smooth by the action of water. Eound Stavanger, the
point on the Norwegian coast which the traveller from
Hull first touches, this characteristic of Norwegian
coast scenery is very marked. So much is this the
case, that I have before now been doubtful when
arriving at that port in the twilight whether the
eminences which I saw between me and the eastern
sky were really hills or clouds; the hills have so
very much the look of dark clouds hanging on the
horizon. At Bergen you see the same effect, not quite
so marked. In the more northern fjords it is frequently
absent, so far at least as regards the appearance of theThe Hills

9

land from the sea. In the Nordfjord, for example, a
number of jagged peaks cut the sky-line almost as im-
pressively as the peaks in Switzerland stand out
against the horizon. But even this effect, produced by
gazing straight up from below, in a way you seldom
can do in Switzerland, would be lost if you could get
a wider perspective. Taking the country as a whole,
and anticipating for once the later experience of the
traveller, we are bound to confess that the contour of
the hills in Norway is far less grand than in Switzer-
land, or in the Apennines or Pyrenees. We miss that
long succession of rugged peaks which are so impres-
sive in mountain chains, such as that of Mont Blanc, of
the Bernese Oberland, or any of the other well-known
chains in Switzerland. Nay, it is often worse than
this. The general rugged effect of a mountain country
against the sky-line is often lost altogether. The hills
of Norway seen in this way look puddingy. If we are
close beneath the cliffs they look stupendous; but
when we are far enough off to take in the effect of a
whole range of hills, that effect is, it must be confessed,
much inferior to what we receive in the other highland
regions I have spoken of. This is the one disappoint-
ment which the tourist must expect in Norway, and it
is pleasant to get rid of this as soon as possible. Very
likely the reader has experienced something of the same
disappointment when first travelling in the Scottish
Highlands. He expected mountains, but from a little
distance off, at anyrate, the mountains look mere hills
or hillocks.

This effect is due to precisely the same causes in
Scandinavia and in Scotland, namely, to that veryio Norway and the Norwegians

glacial era of which we have already spoken. It has
been the wear and tear of the superincumbent sea of
ice which, going on through ages and ages, has rubbed
down the tops of the hills, has destroyed their fine and
jagged outlines, and has reduced them to that puddingy
contour which we cannot but deplore. Of course, since
the glacial age departed, atmospheric influences have
come in and partly modified its effects. To these are
due the return to rough and jagged outlines which we
find on many of the cliff-sides. But these have not
had the effect of altering the general contour of the
Norwegian highlands. From the islands of the Skjaer-
gaard, or island barrier, to the highest of the eminences
which enclose the fjords of Norway, the effects of this
glacial rubbing may be detected. When the traveller
has once been put upon the track he will easily dis-
tinguish the marks of the corroding glacier as it ground
down the hill-sides. He will constantly detect on the
rocks what are called the glacial striations, the scorings
of the surface produced either by the ice itself, or more
commonly by stones carried along in the ice and ground
against the surface of the rock. He may study the
effects which the glaciers of Norway are producing at
this very moment, by going up to some of the branches
of the Jostedalsbrse or the Folgefond, the two greatest
glaciers of Norway (of which more anon). In some of
these branches the glacier is actually advancing down
the valley, and he will see trees which it is beginning
to push over on its downward march. Such a branch is
the Buarbrae branch of the Folgefond, near Odde. But
in other places,—and these are the more instructive,—-
he will find receding branches, which, as they decrease,Traces of Glaciers

leave behind them the marks of what they have done,
the faces of the rock worn down and scored by the ice
and the stones which it carried with it. The Mgards-
brae, or the Gredungsbrse branches of the Jostedalsbrae I
will mention for the sake of giving instances, or the
Kjendalsbrse branch at Loen. Then, again, after he has
long left the glacier behind him, our traveller will con-
tinue to mark exactly the same scoriations on the rocks
in his path that he noticed when he was at the part
from which the glacier had only recently retired.
I will mention one place where I myself have remarked
them in greatest quantities,—the walk between the
Gradunasbrae and the sceter, near Gradunstol. But over
all Norway they are to be found.

Only in some of the great mountain regions of the
interior do we come to peaks which stand higher than
the highest point to which the glaciers have reached.
This is the case in many of the hills of the Dovrefjeld
and the Jotunfjeld.

Thus the traveller will convince himself of how
much may be due to the action of the immense ice-
sheet when it rested upon the whole of Scandinavia, or
when, through subsequent millenniums, it began to
decrease and work its way down the mountain-sides
towards the sea. Armed with this thought, he will
begin to observe how many of the greater hill-sides
have the same kind of rubbed and smoothed appearance
which he first detected in the rocks,—a smoothness
varied by scoriations just such as the lesser rocks have.
Even where, now-a-days, the hill is covered by vegeta-
tion, this general effect of its contour is very noticeable
when once we have had our attention directed to it. I12 Norway and the Norwegians

would take the Hardanger Fjord as a good instance in
point. During all . his first day's sail from Bergen
to Eide (say) the traveller will notice these smoothed
yet rocky hill-sides stretching down to the fjord on
either hand; and recalling to mind the appearance of
the hills of Norway as he first saw them at Stay anger,'
he will see how these things, too, are the outcome of the
glacial age.

If, so far, these effects of the glacial era have been
rather injurious to the beauty of Norwegian scenery,
amends have surely been made in the burrowing out of
the fjords. For that, too, is the work of glaciers.
I have already, by anticipation, carried the reader into
some of the fjords; but we have now to speak more
particularly of this feature of the country. I take the
things in order of our experience of them; first the
Skjcergaard, or island belt, next the hills, and now, more
decidedly unique than either of the preceding, the
fjords. I say advisedly the most distinctly unique of
the three. The reader who has never been to Norway,
and has formed his judgment chiefly from maps, will
perhaps hardly understand the statement. Fjord, so far
as its etymology goes, is simply firth; and firth is the
Scottish term generally used for the estuary of a river.
Any one who had never been to Norway might be
expected to interpret the word simply in this sense, and
to look for river-mouths or estuaries of essentially the
same kind that he would find in England or Scotland.
In reality, however, the fjord is a natural feature pecu-
liar to Scandinavia, as the tourist will soon begin to
discover.

The two fjords which the traveller is likely firstThe Fjords

13

to visit are those of which I have already spoken, lying
on either side of Bergen,—the Hardanger and Sogne
Fjords,—the one some sixty miles' sail to the south, the
mouth of the other more than a hundred miles to
the north. These are the two longest fjords of Norway ;
the Hardanger is sixty-eight miles long, the Sogne
a hundred and six miles. In either case a day's steam
from Bergen suffices to take one into either fjord. From
Bergen to Eide, for example, well at the back of the
Hardanger, is a matter of some twelve hours; to Odde,
the extreme point of the same fjord, about twenty-one
hours. You can get from Bergen to Vadheim, one of
the first stopping-places in the Sogne, in eight or ten
hours; to Laerdalsoren or Aardal, the stations at the end,
it takes about twenty hours. But the times of the
steamers vary immensely, according to their class and
to the number of places at which they stop en route.
Each fjord has its own characteristics. The Hardanger
has wide reaches enclosed by hills, high, indeed, but well
clothed with vegetation, and, as a rule, sloping towards
the water in the way I have already described. The
branches of the Sogne are much the narrower,—the sides
of them the most precipitous and bare. Sometimes these
lesser branches are enclosed by walls so towering and
close that they seem to shut out all sunlight, and,
in fact, there are places on which for a very large por-
tion of the year the sun never shines. Each of these
smaller branches of the fjord is the continuation of a
valley, narrow or broad according to the breadth of the
estuary; and as down each valley of Norway runs
a stream, these narrower fjords at any rate seem at first
glance quite to answer to the common idea of a firth or14 Norway and the Norwegians

river-mouth. But neither the lesser branches nor the
greater fjords do so in reality, for reasons which I will
now point out.

One way in which the fjords are distinguished from
ordinary estuaries and river-mouths we have already
spoken of—and this is the first peculiarity which the
traveller to the Hardanger or the Sogne will notice—
namely, by the island-belt which separates the fjord
mouth from the open sea. In most countries the river
mouths form the only harbours of the country. Where
the firths afford safe anchorage, this is due, as a rule,
to the formation of the estuary itself; and the advantage
which is derived from protection from winds and waves
is to a certain extent neutralised by the complications
of tides and river-currents. But with Norway the
whole sea-coast may be spoken of as one vast harbour;
for all the force of the sea is kept out by the island
rampart.

And let me pause at this point a moment to point
out how this protected character of the Norwegian fjord
should make us modify some of the views with which
we probably have become imbued before ever we came
to Norway. We are always thinking of the hardy
Norsemen venturing forth to battle with the wild
Northern seas, to wring his livelihood from their
death-dealing waters, and in this struggle with Nature
learning those arts of navigation which created the in-
domitable race of Yikings or Sea-rovers, and made the
Scandinavian people the greatest seafarers and the
greatest pirates of the early middle ages. This picture
is partly true and partly false. I shall speak here-
after of the Yikings and their origin, and tellThe Fjords

*5

something of their history. It is enough to say at
present that, in the first place, the earliest Scandi-
navian navigators probably learnt their art not on any
portion of the coast which faces the north Atlantic,
but in the comparatively safe waters of the Baltic, just
as the Greeks learnt their art of seafaring in the enclosed
waters of the iEgean. This in the first place; and
secondly, that even the navigators of the North Atlantic
coasts had for their first essays these protected fjords
shut off from the outer ocean by the wall of the
skjcergaard; and that it was because they had this pro-
tected region to experiment in, because they could
gradually improve upon the rude boats with which they
first began and did not need until they had had time for
long practice and long development to venture forth
into the open sea, that the forefathers of modern navi-
gation became the great sailors which they did become.
No doubt the men of Norway did venture out at last
and battle with the elements, with the wildest of
Atlantic storms, when, through the course of ages, they
had learnt to make their ships fit for the contest.

And now we return to the description of the fjord.
The fjord is not like a true firth, because, for one thing,
there is no single great river current sweeping down it,
fighting against the influx of the tide, as there is in the
firth of Forth or Clyde, as there is in all great river
mouths. Nor, on the other hand, can the fjord be at all
justly compared to an ordinary bay.

Other bays, surrounded by high cliffs, have almost
always a deposit of some kind at the foot of the rock, a
beach of some sort between the cliff and the sea. How-
soever steep and high may be the surrounding rocks, the16 Norway and the Norwegians

beach itself slopes gradually into the sea. This must
be the case in the natural course of circumstances.
Through the ages fragments must detach themselves from
the rock and roll down to its base to be in time ground
to sand and pebbles by the action of the tides. And if
the fjords were like other bays we should see the same
phenomena here. The reason why we do not see them
springs from the main distinction between the fjord and
all other firths or bays, the most remarkable one of all,
though one which does not, as a rule, come under the
eye of the tourist. The fjords are much deeper than
the outside sea. We may say that, as a rule, the water
which lies between the outer island, belt and the land,
into which it runs in creeks and fjords, is very much
deeper than the sea some way outside the skjcergaard.
In many cases the area of greater depth runs a consider-
able way beyond the skjcergaard. The difference is
often very striking. Now, here we have certainly a most
striking peculiarity in the fjords of Scandinavia, and one
which distinguishes them from all other estuaries, bays,
and river-mouths that we are likely to meet with in our
travels. The cause of this peculiarity is precisely the
same as the cause of the peculiarity of the rounded
mountain tops of Norway, namely, the huge glacier
which once lay upon the whole peninsula.

It was this vast sheet of ice which, pushing by its
weight always down towards the sea, scraped out where-
ever the ground was softest the deep valleys of Norway;
and when it got to the water's edge continued, as it
were, the bed of these valleys into the sea, and hollowed
out the vast depths of the fjords.

" The grandest display of ice-action which we couldThe ' Norwegian CanaV

17

wish to see," writes Mr. James Geikie, "is that which the
fjords and valleys of Norway present. The smoothed
and mammillated mountain-tops, the rounded islets that
peer above the level of the sea like great whales, the
glistening and highly-polished surfaces of the rocks
that sweep right down into deep water, the great perched
blocks ranged like sentinels on jutting points and ledges,
the huge mounds of moraine ddbris at the heads of the
valleys, and the wild disorder of crags and boulders
scattered over the former paths of glaciers combine to
make a picture which no after amount of sight-seeing is
likely to cause a geologist to forget."

The action of the rivers of ice, as we may call them,
which hollowed out the valleys and the fjord-beds did
not always follow the bend of the surface of the soil.
We can understand how the great pressure of the ice
sheet may have forced the ice lying on the surface to pass
over elevations and across small valleys. Thus we find
that many of the rock-scoriations travel across moderate
valleys and go up and down hill. On the same prin-
ciple it is believed that, beside the ice-rivers which ran
down the chief valleys, there was a lower ice-stream
which took a direction at right angles to their direction,
and that it was due to the action of this lower river of
ice—lying at the edge of and outside the streams which
were working down the valleys—that we have the ex-
traordinary phenomenon of a deep channel running all
along a great part of the Norwegian coast and following
the line of that coast.

This submarine channel is called the Norwegian canal.
The canal spreads all round the south-west ledge of
Norway, and travels far up its western coast. It begins18 Norway and the Norwegians

in the Christiania Fjord, a little to the west of Christiania
itself. Its deepest point lies in the Skagerrak, between
Arendal in Norway and the Scaw, the extreme northern
peak of Jutland. Here it is upwards of 400 fathoms
deep. Off Lister it has a depth of 200 fathoms. Off
the Bommelo, opposite the mouth of the Hardanger
Fjord, it is 120 fathoms deep ; and this is its shallowest
part. It begins to increase in depth as we pass farther
north. Off the Sogne Fjord it is again more than 200
fathoms deep, and it continues to deepen until, by the
Cape Stad, it debouches into the deep channel of the
North Atlantic Ocean.

There is, as the reader probably knows, a great sub-
marine bank beneath the. waters of the North Sea
which- unites Denmark with the British Isles, and which
stretches out some little way beyond the west coasts of
Scotland and of Ireland. To the east this bank stretches
as far to the north as Cape Stad, or Statt, the most
westerly point of the Norwegian mainland. Therefore,
when the Norwegian canal has passed Cape Stad, the
bank beside it suddenly dips down to the channel of the
North Atlantic, and the canal is merged in the deep sea.

When the Great Glacier had disappeared from the
face of the country, or rather when it had shrunk into
those fragments which we now find lying on the high
lands of Norway, the territory which it laid bare was
the peninsula of Scandinavia which we have to-day. It
is a territory which, in the extreme north, is almost a
plain—an extremely sad-looking barren' and rocky plain,
with but stunted birch bushes instead of trees. But as
you travel southward the trees grow higher, firs and pines
appear, and, at the same time, the land begins to riseConformation of the Country	ig

up, and then forms a sort of crest like the crest of a wave,
or like a backbone; or, for another simile, we may take
that implied in the name which is given to it by the
Norwegians themselves, Kjolen, the Keel. The most
important part of this Keel begins about 69° north lati-
tude, in the diocese of Tromso, and reaches to 63°, the
southern part of the diocese of Throndhjem. It rises
in its course into certain special elevations, or groups
of mountains, such as Sulitelma.

Some way south of the Trondhjem Fjord this ridge
turns westward nearly parallel with the trend of the
coast in that direction. And at the same time it spreads
out into a series of highland countries, the most import-
ant of which are the Dovrefjeld, the Jotunfjeld (which
adjoins the celebrated Jostedal glacier) and the Har-
danger Vidde, These three groups of hills give a
peculiarly rugged character to all the country which
lies between them and the coast,—that is to £ay, to
the great fjord district containing the Hardanger and
Sogne Fjords, whereas the country to the north of them
is lower-lying and more fertile.

Before the ' Keel' reaches the south of the peninsula
it gradually subsides, so that from about latitude 62°
the rivers, which have hitherto always run either east
or west, begin to run due south. Still their course is
very rapid, and we get nothing approaching level land
until we come to Lake Mjosen, which lies chiefly south
of latitude 6"1°. It is this region falling away from the
Keel, till we get to a more level country, that is known
in early Norse history as the Upland; and the inhabi-
tants of it play an important part in this history.
South of Mjosen, and along the coast of the Skagerrak,20 Norway and the Norwegians

and the beginning of the Cattegat, is the flattest and
most fertile part of Norway; the district which was
earliest inhabited, and which is historically the most
important in the whole country.

It must be borne in mind that most of the land of
Norway,—even where no special range of hills is dis-
tinguishable,—lies, as compared with the sea-coast, at a
very considerable elevation: and that this great table-
land, which is the essential Norway, is everywhere inter-
sected, when we get near the coast, by valleys or fjords
that run far into it, and by the beds of rivers which have
a steep fall and a very rapid course. Some of the larger
valleys in the interior are very celebrated, as' are the
Eomsdal and the Gudbrandsdal. Even the lower lands
approaching the Christiania Fjord are far from level; the
rivers which run through them have, for the most part,
too precipitous a course to allow of their navigation.

The whole history of Norway is suggested by the
character of the country which these formations bring
about. It is, in the first place, a country facing two
ways : looking out in one direction (as its rivers flow)
towards Denmark, towards the Baltic, which is the sea
uniting all the Scandinavian countries; looking out in
the other direction towards the wild North Atlantic,
towards the British Islands, and beyond them to the
boundless west. Then, again, it is a country cut up by
its formation into many different parts, into the bare,
flat Finmark in the extreme north ; into the rocky
Halogaland (now Nordlandsamt and Tromsoamt) lower
down, a district particularly rich in its fisheries; into the
fertile Throndhjem region (Nordre- and Sordre-Throndh-
jemsamt) always throughout Norse history strong inConformation of the Country	21

virtue of its substantial yeomen (bcender, bonders), the
backbone of the Norse nation, and independent beyond
any other district of Norway; into the two long valleys,
the Osterdal and the Gudbrandsdal, which the Dovre-
fjeld separates from the Throndhjem country and the
Uplands, which lie alongside of them; into the fjord dis-
trict (Northern and Southern Bergenhus, or in history
Hordaland and Sogn)—to which we may add Sondre-
More and Romsdal—a region which, we have seen, is
cut off from the Gudbrandsdal by mountain ranges; into
the barren, uneven country of the southern bulge of the
peninsula Eogaland, Agder, Thelemarken; and finally,
into the more fertile region which lies to the south of
Lake Mjosen, where the Uplands cease.

These last are the divisions most often mentioned in
Norse history—East Agder, Greenland, Westfold to the
west of the Christiania Fjord, Yingelmark to the east.
And just behind these regions, between them and the
true uplands, lie Ringariki, Romariki, and Hedemark.

Add to these divisions by hill and valley the vast
forests which still cover the inner slopes of the country,
and of which the traveller who goes by rail from Chris-
tiania to Throndhjem gains some idea, and we see how
difficult a country Norway must have been to unite
into one whole. We understand how rival forces may
march and countermarch in such a country without
ever coming in sight of one another; and we are in a
position to understand the tale of constant wars and
factious rivalries which make up the history of Norway.

For when we come to the coast the same features
meet us. The innumerable fjords and bays by which the
coast is cut up; the countless islands which lie outside22 Norway and the Norwegians

it, make it as easy for one of two rival fleets to avoid an
engagement—or, on the other hand, to obtain a surprise
—as the varied character of the interior makes it easy
for two rival armies to do so.

Here, then, is the true history of Norway told in a
moment. A land whose sons have done great things
abroad, and formed a heroic character at home. But
a country likewise, it must be owned, which has
had scarcely any political history of importance. No
other country, save Ireland, has had such a turbulent
domestic history as Norway has had, or been more
constantly the threatre for the struggles of rival
factions. Thanks to the unrivalled beauty of the
northern saga literature (an Icelandic literature rather
than a Norse), some of the makers of Norse history,
Hakon the Good, Olaf Tryggvason, Olaf the Saint,
stand out in a heroic guise before us. But we must
not make the mistake of thinking that this glamour
which literature has cast over the history of Norway
makes that country great, as in political matters we
estimate greatness. It is great in beauty, but not
politically important; as the land of Norway is to-day.
For the very causes, which have kept the country so
long divided, and have left it so little opportunity for
great national movements for a wide culture or for the
creation of great monuments, such, for example, as the
architecture with which the Middle Ages covered other
European countries, is precisely the cause of the ex-
ceeding attraction of the country to the traveller of
to-day, who is tired of seeing on every side of him the
signs of a too solid material prosperity from which the
reign of nature seems quite shut out.Elevations

23

In our country life, even, the signs of wealth and
luxury meet us on every hand. But here we may
wander for days seeing nothing more civilised than
tiny wooden houses; and though Norway is every year
getting more overrun by tourists, we may still pass
from valley to mountain and see no signs but of a
primitive and simple life, which has been unchanged
for centuries.

And now to give a few statistics which may show
the proportion of valleys and hills and higher mountain
peaks in Norway.

20*5 per cent, of the area of Norway lies between the sea level

	and 500 ft. above it.	
226 „	between 500	and 1000
26-0	1000	2000
16*8	2000	3000
9*1	3000	4000
3-8	4000	5000
i-o	5000	6000
0*2 „	6000	7000
0*02 „	over	7000

20*5 per cent, of the area of Norway lies between the sea level

We see from these figures that the amount of terri-
tory which rises above the height of 7000 feet is
extremely insignificant. There are, in fact, no very
high mountains in Norway. The Galdhopig, in the
Jotunheim, which is the highest of the Norwegian
mountains, is only 8400 feet in altitude. This does
not seem much beside the 15,784 feet of Mont Blanc,
or the 15,217 feet of Monte Bosa. About five per cent,
of the area of Norway lies above 4000 feet from the sea
level,—that is to say, above the highest point to which
the Scandinavian glacier ever reached. These hills,
therefore, which consist of the higher portions of the
Jotunfjeld, the Dovrefield, and K/jolen, and of certain24 Norway and the Norwegians

isolated peaks scattered about these districts, are quite
free from the effect of glacial action. Some of them
are exceedingly precipitous in shape and imposing in
appearance, more so than most of the mountain ranges
in Switzerland. What we have said, therefore, of the
disappointment which the traveller experiences in
comparing mountainous Norway, as a whole, with
mountainous Switzerland, must not be taken to apply
to these exceptional ranges.

It will be seen from the above statistics that more
than one-third of the area of the country lies above
2000 feet from the sea-level. And owing to a peculiar
character of Norwegian scenery, and the degree in
which all the light soil has been carried into the
valleys, this means, practically, that this area of the
country is not cultivable. At best it only affords some
mountain pastures for cattle and sheep. But of the
area of Norway under cultivation, and of the character
of the farming which obtains there, we shall have to
speak in a later chapter of this volume. This is enough
of statistics for the present.

What Norway shares with other mountainous
countries, its hills, its cliffs, its everlasting water-
falls, its moist hill-sides carpeted with flowers, it owes
to geological conditions such as they have undergone;
such as produced Switzerland, for example, and its
bordering highlands between the plains of France and
Lombardy. But that which is most characteristic of
Norway, its rounded hill-tops and its deep fjords, it owes
to glacial conditions almost peculiar to this country.
This is why I have paused to dwell upon them, and
why the tourist may well bear them in mind.Glaciers and Snow fie Ids	2 5

And now to these two products of the glacial era in
Scandinavia let us add a third, which, however, is not
so much a result of the Ice Age as a continuation of it,
—I mean the immense glaciers which still remain in
Norway. The line of perpetual snow in Norway is, as;
we might expect, far lower than in Switzerland. In
some places it is as low as 3000 feet above the sea
level. It is not merely the northern situation of the
country which produces the great snow fields and
glaciers of Norway. Their presence is partly due to
the smoothness of the hill-tops which I have already
spoken of. Thus it might be said that the glaciers of
Norway are so huge to-day, because they were so much
vaster in former ages.

It is not, by the way, easy to persuade those who
have never travelled in Norway of the size of her
glaciers; the Swiss glaciers are so much the most
celebrated that their reputation overshadows that of
the ice-fields of. Norway. In speaking of the Joste-
dalsbrae as the largest glacier in Europe, I have so often
met with the response,' You mean after the great Swiss
glaciers/ that it may be worth while to give the reader
an idea of the comparative areas of these different
ice-sheets. The largest glacier in Switzerland is the
Aletsch glacier : it is not more than a sixth of the Jos-
tedalsbrae, with its 350 square miles, nearly half as large
again as the county of Middlesex. Even the next largest
glacier, the Folgeford, has an area of over 120 square
miles,—that is to say, it is nearly as large as Kutland-
shire. For the reasons which I have already given, the
Norwegian glaciers lie much lower than those of Switzer-
land, and are, therefore, more easy to reach. The task26 Norway and the Norwegians

of crossing the huge Jostedalsbrse, which is very narrow
in proportion to its length, is not beyond the compass
of a third or fourth rate mountaineer. Every year one
or two ladies perform the feat, and have the pleasure of
boasting that they have crossed the largest ice-sheet in
our quarter of the globe.1 These two glaciers belong
to the two fjords of which I have already spoken
several times; the Folgeford overlooks the Hardanger,
and may be seen from almost any point on that fjord.
The Jostedalsbrse, in like fashion, lies close to three of
the branches of the Sognefjord, the Lysterfjord, the
Sogndalsfjord, and the Fjarlefjord, and generally lies
.along a portion of the watershed between the Sogne-
fjord and the next great fjord north of it, the Nordfjord.

The Skjsergaard, or island-belt round the coast, the
fjords and the mountains which immediately enclose
them, the snow-fields and glaciers which rest above,
and the streams and waterfalls which descend thence
into the fjords and into the sea, these things we have
spoken of; they sum up all the principal features of
the country with which nine out of any ten travellers
in Norway come in contact. For the travellers in, or,
say, the visitors to, Norway may be divided into three
classes. First, those who come for sport—which here is
almost exclusively fishing—these usually settle them-
selves for the whole time of their stay not far from the
mouth of one of the salmon rivers of the country. The
scenery which they get a glimpse of is the scenery of
the fjords and the river-lakes near the coast. Another
set are those who come either in private yachts, or on
what are called now-a-days yacht-steamers, and scarcely

1 Save one in Iceland.Waterfalls

27

ever leave the coast during the whole time they'are in
Norway. They steam from fjord to fjord; occasionally
they may go for a day's drive over some neck of land,
but their knowledge of the country is like that of the
sportsman, entirely confined to the coast region. Lastly,
there are the regular travellers in the country; but
even these travel little in the interior. One cross-
country route is a good deal frequented. It is that from
Christiania down the Gudbrandsdal, ending with the
magnificent Romsdal. There is good reason for this
exclusiveness in Norwegian travel. The coast scenery
is far the finest which the country has to show, and is,
in truth, so magnificent that I shall not attempt to find
language fit to describe its beauties. The constant
juxtaposition of mountain and fjord gives this scenery
its peculiar charm. Add to this the moist and warm
summer climate which produces a vegetation of un-
equalled richness and beauty, the quantity of melting
snow which feeds an endless succession of waterfalls
and torrents. Nowhere are waterfalls so numerous as
in this land. You may travel for days and yet the
sound of them be never out of your ears. I have
counted as many as four-and-twenty, standing in one
spot. To the flowers of Norway a special chapter at
the end of the volume is dedicated. I will not say
that the meadows here are richer than I have seen
them in Switzerland in the spring, but they are as rich.
And there is one feature about the flora of Norway
incidental to a country with a short summer of long
days of sunshine, which, at midsummer time, even in
the southern half of the country, lasts from two, or half-
past, in the morning, to half-past nine or ten at night:28 Norway and the Norwegians

this feature is the rapidity with which the flowers come
to maturity, so that we see—what seems so strange to
us—blooming side by side the flowers of spring and of
late summer. While you find the ditches still yellow
with golans, you see the wild rose-trees in full bloom,
the meadows full of harebells, and the foxgloves out in
the woods and on the hill-sides.

Such are some of the beauties of Norway, and these,
as I have said, belong chiefly to the fjord districts.
Then, again, these fjords are so numerous, the distances
in Norway are so great, that there is little danger for
the traveller that he will exhaust the beauties to be
seen in these regions, supposing it were really possible
to exhaust the beauties of nature. Far be it from me
to suggest that such is possible: but still, taking the
average tourist as we find him, it must be owned that
it would be far easier for him to do Switzerland than
to do Norway.

It is, therefore, reasonable that the average traveller
should confine himself almost exclusively to the fjord
district, but by so doing he hardly gets an idea of the
character of Norwegian scenery as a whole. The effect
of seeing Norway only from the sea is something like
the effect of seeing the Ehine-land only from the Ehine.
In the latter case we get an impression of passing
through almost a mountainous country; but if we
clamber up to the top of these hills we find we are on
a vast table-land, and that it is the deep bed of the
river which produced the illusion of hills. So, in the
case of Norway, it is the sudden cutting off of the table-
land of the country which is accountable for the greater
part of the effects which we witness from the fjordside.Forests of the Interior	29

But Norway, as we have said above, is not merely a
table-land. In many places it breaks into real moun-
tain scenery, as in the Dovrefjeld and the Jotunheim;
and in almost every case the table-land continues to
rise in elevation toward that great back-bone of Scan-
dinavia, the Keel, which runs nearly parallel with the
Norwegian coast. Any one who has never visited this
interior portion can have no notion of what the pine-
forests of Norway are like in their grandeur.

The traveller, therefore, should not leave the country
without seeing these back parts of it, or travelling
somewhere near the Keel; and in the present day, by
the spread of the railway system, this is not difficult
to do. The railway from Throndhjem to Christiania
begins near the southern end of the Keel, and at first
the line continues to ascend till it attains a consider-
able elevation. At Roraas we see the country in its
bleakest aspect; when we reach Koppang we find the
forests in their perfection. We are now hanging upon
the lower skirts of the Keel, and well in that country
known as the Upland. At either Roraas or Koppang
we can, if we choose, leave the train and travel for a
while inland by road on foot or by kariole. We have
a still more interesting experience as we mount the old
road from the Throndhjem Fjord leading straight across
into Sweden. We travel continually uphill, getting
splendid views of the fjord in many windings and
branches—just such a view, in fact, as St. Olaf saw a
few days before his death, as we shall narrate hereafter,
and fancied he was looking over the whole world. The
road rises from the neighbourhood of Yerdal. At first
the country is very rich, as all the Throndhjem district is.30 Norway and the Norwegians

We see fields of rye waving before us (and this may
remind the historian of another story of King Olaf the
Saint). Then gradually we ascend into the deep pine-
woods ; and at last, by a steep but well-made road,
we reach the plateau on which runs the dividing line
between Norway and Sweden. If we continue our
walk we should find ourselves in Jemteland, another
district which figures often in early Norse history. It
is now a district of Sweden. The large farms on the
route afford us hospitality. There are no inns.

Of quite recent years a railway has been made taking
rather a different route; and it may be presumed the
road is very much less used now than it formerly was.CHAPTER II

the people

Traces of Prehistoric Life in Modern Norway

When the great glacial era came to an end, and the
ice-sheets retired to as it were entrench themselves in
mountain fastnesses, as in the Swiss mountains or in
the Pyrenees, or else in the colder lands to the north,
certain animals which, in those conditions of Arctic
climate, had ranged freely over Europe, but could not
stand the change to conditions more temperate, retired
with the ice-sheet. The chamois was one of these. He
took refuge in the highlands of Southern Europe. The
reindeer was another. He retired to the north of Scandi-
navia. Some anthropologists believe that glacial man,—
that is to say, the man who lived in Southern Europe
while the great glacier covered all the north, and who,
therefore, for generations upon generations had grown
habituated to an Arctic climate, was obliged in like
manner to migrate northwards after the rein-deer; and
that he fixed his home in Scandinavia, and continued
there the earlier European race, while a new race of
men from the south or from the east came in to occupy
the countries farther south which he had abandoned.
It was in the cold conditions to which for hundreds

3132 Norway and the Norwegians

nay, thousands of years it had been subjected (so say
these anthropologists) that the fair-haired, light-skinned
type of mankind was formed. They imagine these fair-
haired people continuing, after their forced migration
northwards, through hundreds or thousands of years,
and they point out that it is only in the southern
Scandinavian countries, in Denmark and South Sweden,
that we have traces of the presence of man, apparently
so continuous as to bridge over the time between his
earliest remains (in what is called the First Stone Age)
and his later remains of the Second Stone Age. Thus,
for a time—a period not estimable in years, and in an
unspeakably remote past, measuring by historical
standards—there lived on in the north these fair people
of the north, and in Central and Southern Europe a
different race of darker people, more allied to the dark
races of Asia or Africa. At last the fair people
migrated southwards, conquered the dark races, mingled
with them, and imposed, it may be, their language
upon them. Out of this mixed race sprang all those
different European peoples, which are, we know, allied
to each other in language, as well as those other races
of Persia and India, whose language likewise shows
them descended from the same stock as the Europeans.
The supporters of this theory point out among other
things how many of the dominant races among the
people of antiquity prided themselves upon their fair
hair—among the Greeks, for example, and the ancient
Persians — whereas it is not common to find a
fair-haired man among their modern representatives;
and they take this as evidence of the conquest by
the fair-haired race from the north of the SouthernThe People

33

European peoples; analogous to the conquest which
took place thousands of years later of the Eoman races
by the Goths and Lombards and Franks from Germany.
And though all this is mere speculation, or not much
more than that, what is not mere speculation is that
out of the Teutonic races of a later time, among those
very conquering Goths and Lombards of whom we have
iust spoken, and others of the people who rose upon
the fall of Eome, a very large number believed them-
selves to have come at some very remote era from the
Scandinavian countries.

Whether or not in times indefinitely remote, long
before the dawning of the historic era in any part of
Europe, a Scandinavian people had played the import-
ant part which this theory assigns to them, it is certain
that (except maybe in some half-forgotten tradition)
they had been long lost sight of by the nations of t|Le
south, and that when the day of history broke upon
these, the people of the north were left still in
darkness.

It was, we know, in the basin of the Mediterranean
that all the civilisation of the west took its rise, begin-
ning on the eastern side, on the iEgean or on the
Asiatic coast, with the Phoenicians and the Greeks, and
then passing westward to Sicily and Italy, to Northern
Africa, and on to Spain and to Southern Gaul. One
slender thread of this stream, it is thought by some,
made its way northward. There seems some trace of a
trade route starting from the Greek seas and passing
by the Black Sea up the Dnieper (a river which the
Greeks knew well, and named the Borysthenes) up to
the western parts of what is now Russia; by another

c34

Norway and the Norwegians

river, the Dwina or the Vistula, it found its way down
again to the Baltic. There seem to be some traces of
this thin uniting thread of trade between the south and
the north; and some think that the earliest northern
alphabet — the well-known runic alphabet, which
belonged to the Scandinavians and the North Germans
—found along this route its way from Greece to the
Baltic countries; but of this connection between the
north and the south no written record now remains.
No Greek traveller has told us how the Baltic countries
presented themselves to his eyes.1 The Greeks did,
we know, talk of a land of the Hyperboreans—a land
to the back of the north wind, but they meant by that
no region so far away as Scandinavia. What they
meant by this land at the back of the north wind was
simply the territory in which no longer blew a certain
wind which daily blows down the iEgean Sea; so that
their land of Hyperboreans would lie but a little to the
north of the Greek Sea, say in Thrace, or on the other
side of Mount Hsemus, the Balkans, i.e. in modern
Bulgaria—far enough removed from the Baltic lands.

But when we have travelled down the stream of time
till the days of the Roman Empire, until after the
beginning of our era, then we do find the Scandinavian
lands beginning, as it were, to dawn on the general
knowledge of mankind. A certain knight in the reign

1 The only Greek traveller who got at all near to these regions and left
any record of his travels was Pytheas, a merchant of Marseilles. Some
commentators have thought from his descriptions that he passed beyond
the Cimbric Chersonese (Jutland) to within the Baltic. But the best
authorities are agreed that he never saw any of the Scandinavian
countries, save, maybe, Denmark, and of that only the western coast of
Jutland.Earliest Records of the Scandinavians 35

of Nero is said to have been the first Eoman who
actually gazed upon the Baltic Sea. It is Pliny; the
Elder who tells us this; and the words in which
Tacitus, writing about the end of the first century,
speaks of the Scandinavian countries are worth remem-
bering—the first recorded glimpse of any worth into
this remote world by the eye of a Roman.

It is after he has finished describing the people of
Northern Germany, who lay along the southern shore
of the Baltic, that Tacitus goes on to speak of what lies
beyond. The Romans, as yet, knew only the southern
bulge of the Scandinavian Peninsula, and therefore did
not know but that this was an island in the midst of
the Northern Ocean. Wherefore the Baltic is for them
but a portion of the great ocean which lies round the
north-western coasts of the European continent, round
Frisia, round Jutland (the Cimbric Chersonese), and
round the north of Germany. Tacitus, however, does
make a distinction between this Northern Sea south of
the Scandinavian 'island/ and the Arctic Sea on the
other side of it. He speaks first of the land of the
Suiones (i.e. the Swedes), which lies in the Northern
Sea opposite the coasts of Germany. We must take
this land to be the southern bulge of Sweden, part of
which is to-day called Skane, or Skonen. Scania,
Scandia, Scanzia, Scandinavia were the names by which
the country was known to the Romans. Of his land
of the Suiones, all that Tacitus tells us is that it is rich
in arms and ships and men; and then he goes on to
say that 'beyond the land of the Suiones is another
sea (i.e. the Arctic Sea), sluggish or almost stagnant,
which, we may believe, girdles and encloses the whole36 Norway and the Norwegians

earth. For here ['in the Suiones' land'] the light of the
setting sun lingers on till sunrise bright enough to dim
the light of the stars. More than that, it is asserted
that the sound of his rising is to be heard, and the
forms of the gods and the glory round his head may be
seen. Only thus far—and here rumour seems truth—
does the world extend/

Here, is indeed, a picture which might excite the
imagination of a Roman of those days. We have
reached the very edge of the world, so near the place
where the sun goes down for his night's rest or emerges
again to make the day, that his light still hovers about
the place all night, and it is said (the paragraph is a
little obscure) that you get so near the blazing chariot
that you can distinguish the figure of the godlike
charioteer, and that the sound of his rising is to be
heard. Beyond this is the part where the earth seems
but half created out of the primal chaos in which there
was no distinction between land and sea. The sea is
sluggish or almost stagnant, and this is, like the Oceanus
of Homer's verse, the stream which encircles the whole
earth. One would say that the travellers who brought
back to Rome this picture of the north, and reported
how the light of sunset lingered on till dawn could
have been there only in summer weather. And yet in
this almost stagnant sea there seems to linger a picture
of the frozen, or half-frozen, ocean in winter time. Per-
haps the two most remarkable features of the north, the
twenty-four hours' day of midsummer and the frozen
sea of midwinter are here confounded in the account of
Tacitus.

Here, at anyrate, is a beam, though a faint one, ofRock-Carvings of Bohuslan	37

recording history breaking over the lands of the north.
And, strange to say, in the above-quoted passage our
author places on record one of the things by which the
north was destined to make itself most famous in the
history of the world. These Suiones (Swedes) were, we
see, already a seafaring people ' rich in ships.' Nay, we
have other independent proof that, for as many as five
hundred years before Christ, six hundred years before
Tacitus put on record what he had gathered concerning
Scandinavia, there was an art of shipbuilding known
in these countries. Let the traveller who has leisure,
and desires in his travels to see all kinds of Scandi-
navian scenery, if he has begun his tour by going first
to Sweden, and has explored its placid beauties before
turning to the more exciting ones of Norway, turn
aside to visit one of the countries in the southern bulge
of Sweden, just that part which escapes the notice of
the great majority of travellers. This is Bohuslan,
which lies between Gotteborg and Christiania, and is
passed by the steamers which ply between these ports.
The country is flat and tame, but it is not unsought by
the Scandinavians themselves, who think that there is
something specially salubrious in the air of this coast.
The flat scenery and the many windmills of this region
remind one somewhat of Holland. To the historian the
most interesting things in Bohuslan are the remains
which lie scattered up and down it of a very remote
antiquity. There are many Stone-Age chambered
tombs in this region; and more interesting than all
remains of this kind are certain carvings on rocks
which the northern antiquaries pronounce to date from
an age not less remote than B.C. 500. The majority of38 Norway and the Norwegians

these representations are concerned with ships; we may
believe that some of them are representations of sea-
fights, like the sea-fights of the Vikings in the ninth or
tenth centuries of our era. And rude as the drawings
are, they do allow us to gather some notion of the kind
of vessels employed in that very remote age: which, it
may be said at once, correspond in the principal features
not only with what we gather were the kind of boats
used in Tacitus's day, but save in one point of great im-
portance, with what we know were the kind of vessels
used by the Vikings. That is to say, these ships of the
rock-carvings were row-boats with very high carved
prows or stern posts, and steered not by a rudder be-
hind but by an oar at the side. This last practice long
continued, and has given us our word starboard, i.e.
steerboard, to signify the right-hand side of the vessel.
But where the Viking ship differed from the vessels of
Tacitus's time, and those still earlier ones which are
displayed upon the rock-carvings of Tanum or Brestad
in Bohuslan, is that they possessed sails, which the two
previous orders of vessels were quite without. They
were still rowing boats, but with the addition of a sail
which could be hoisted when required. This new
device,:—new to them,—the northern people had learnt
more or less directly from the Romans. For our word
sail, and its equivalents in other Teutonic languages,
segely segl, seil, are all derived from the Latin word
sagulum}

So much for the northern lands as they presented
themselves to the imagination of a Boman of the first

1 A short cloak originally much, worn by the Gauls; afterwards the
word was applied to a sail.Prehistoric Ships

39

century. We who travel in the north shall, most of us,
like the Romans, see the country only in its summer
aspect. We shall see often enough the phenomenon
which struck the Roman travellers as so wonderful as
to be a proof that they had got near the borders of the
earth—the light of sunset lingering on bright enough
to dim the light of the stars. But what their imagina-
tion likewise saw, the forms of the gods and the glory
round the head of the sun-god, that is lost to us for
ever, not less than the sight of Proteus rising from the
sea or Triton blowing his wreathed horn.

Let the traveller, in passing among the rocky islands
and fjords of Norway, note those heavy boats with high
prows and squared sails which he will see here and
there lying among more modern-looking craft. They
have an indescribable air of antiquity about their build,
and at once contrast with the numerous boats, of the
build that we are accustomed to in our coasting vessels
and fishing smacks, which we shall see beside them.
For, now-a-days, this more modern species of craft is
much the commonest, and the heavy square-sailed
boats which I have been describing are getting rarer
day by day. In an experience extending over only
seven years, I can notice a marked decline in them. In
the cod-fishing,—especially that of the north,—vessels
of this build, but still more like the old Viking ships
(in that they have pointed sterns), are still used. The
voyager to the North Cape will encounter many of
them. But the average tourist may not see many.
These old-fashioned boats are a link between us and
the remotest past of Scandinavia, a link with the
Scandinavia of Tacitus's day,-with the still earlier40 Norway and the Norwegians

Scandinavia of the rock-carvings in Bohuslan. When
I come to speak more particularly of the Yiking boats,
of which examples are extant in the museums, I shall
point out the difference between the modern craft which
I have described and the Yiking ships and the ships
which preceded them. But despite the differences
which exist, there remains enough likeness to make
this existing boat a real link between us and the re-
motest past.

Other links between us and the past are the houses of
Scandinavia, especially those of Norway, many of which
keep the form which was given to them in the most
primitive days. Most houses, we know, have grown by
accretion; what are now the different rooms of a house
were different buildings added on as age followed age
and people became more refined and exacting in their
tastes. The primitive element, what we may call the
kernel of the English house, is really the hall; and that
is why the word 'hall' has come to have such a wide and
varied significance in our language. In old-fashioned
houses even of to-day, and in houses which, like modern
country houses, try and imitate the architecture of an
earlier time, the hall with its wide fireplace is simply
the largest room in the house: the other rooms seem to
have gathered round it. What we might call the two
essential constituents in a house of the Middle Ages are
the 'hall' and the ' bower/ so often brought into connec-
tion and contrast in our ballad poetry. ' Bower/ it
may be said, has no connection with boughs, and means
nothing in the nature of an arbour, though many people
have a sort of notion that it does. It is really theHouse-Building	41

' building,'1 in other words, the building on to the hall;
and hall and bower stand connected or contrasted really
as the men's and women's parts of the house, or, if you
like, the men's and women's houses built together.

Just the same is the essential character of the Greek
house as it stands revealed to us in Homer. The chief
room, the hall of that house was called fieyapov,' the
great,' simply, but it meant the great room; or say
great house, at a time when all other rooms were simply
other houses built round. To the bower of our old
poetry corresponded the woman's apartment, the 6aX-
afioq. When the Greek house has become more
elaborated (as we see it, for example, in the Pompeian
house) these two essential divisions have expanded into
two groups of rooms, each group surrounding a court,
the men's quarter (avSpcovlri5) and the women's quarter
{yvvcuKCDviTis). Such is the chronicle and brief abstract
of the art of house-building in the west.

In Norway we may still (even in this year of grace)
go back to the primitive condition of things, where,
what would be only a room of a house of the modern
kind, is here a separate building, and sometimes the
separate buildings seem in themselves to preserve all
the characteristics of the most primitive house-archi-
tecture. The modern traveller,—especially the traveller
who keeps close to the coast regions,—is only likely to
find examples of this in the sceters, those temporary
summer settlements lying generally on a small piece of
table-land some way up a mountain, whither the Nor-
wegians bring their cattle during the summer months
to feed upon the moist rich pastures of these high lands;

1 German bauen, to build and to cultivate.42 Norway and the Norwegians

where they themselves live as in a sort of encamp-
ment. It is the temporary character of the life led
in the sceters, combined with the fact that the months
passed there are all summer months, which has kept
the houses built in them more primitive in form than
the houses in the valley.

But, as I have said, in the interior likewise, in parts
of Norway where wood is most plentiful, and where
there has been consequently less temptation to depart
from the ancient fashion, there may be found still more
striking examples of the early method of building. In
the Gudbrandsdal, which many Norwegian travellers
pass down on the route from Christiania to the Roms-
dal, there are some good examples of this multiplica-
tion of small houses in place of a multiplication of rooms.
One example given by Eilert Sundt, who has devoted a
work to the subject of the peasants' houses in Norway,
shows as many as thirty-three of these separate buildings.

Many houses in Norway have attached to them a
sort of smoke-house or wash-house. It is called
IldMcs or Boghus ; or, at any rate, these used to be the
names of it. These houses are not very common now-
a-days in the more civilised parts of Norway. There
used to be one §,t Yossevangen. The house is simply
a square building, with a fire in the centre of it, on an
open stone hearth. There is no chimney, but a hole
(Ijore) in the roof through which the smoke may
escape. When it is shut, the apartment becomes full
of smoke, and these smoke-houses are used for smoking
the meat which the Norwegians preserve dried for a
long period. The only other opening to the room
besides the Ijore is the door.Norwegian Houses	43

This smoke-house, according to Eilert Sundt, gives
us the type of the earliest form of Norwegian house.
Only, of course, in days when the building was used as
a house it would be furnished with table, seat, and bed
(board, bench, and bed), as in the accompanying wood-
block (Fig. A) the Nos. 1, 2, 3 in this figure, as in the
other two, represent table, bench, and bed. The bench is
always a fixed part of the house ; it always runs round
some part of the walls, and this appears to have been

	V r**i
I	|I|i§|]
LJ	I f 2

Fig. A

Fig- B	Fig. C

the case in the old Saga-days just as it is to-day in
many houses in Norway and Sweden.

In a dwelling-house of a similar structure, consisting
of but one oblong room, we should see the fireplace (/)
upon the ground, or only raised above it by a low
hearth of stone. A kettle hangs over the fire, sup-
ported by a pulley from the roof; there is 110 chimney,
and the smoke escapes from aliole in the roof. I have
seen such a thing in the sceter houses.1 The place

1 The sceter house almost always has behind and united to it a small
dairy. But the living-house often consists of one room only.44 Norway and the Norwegians

was full of pungent wood-smoke. Not seldom this
opening in the roof serves as window as well as
chimney. It must be close-able, to give protection
against the weather; and, if it is closed suddenly, the
room must get absolutely choking with wood smoke,
which can then only find its way out at the door.
When the fire has burnt to glowing ashes, so that there
is little or no smoke coming from it, it is usual to shut
up this opening in the roof in order to preserve as
much heat as possible in the room. Probably in the
old Saga-days most of the people in the house slept on
the benches which went along the walls. But there
were generally one or more separate beds, which the
chief people occupied. They were sometimes partitioned
off from the room, and are then spoken of in the Sagas
as closed beds. The table was not always fixed, but
brought in when the feast was laid. It stood ap-
parently between the bench and the fire, which in large
halls did not lie, as in our illustration, on a single
hearthstone in the middle of the room, but ran all
down the hall. The ale was handed to the people
sitting on the benches 'across the fire/ as we are
expressly told. That gave it some sort of blessing,
no doubt. It was not until about A.D. 1100 that this
custom was given up.

It is probable that at this date, too, the fire itself was
removed to one side or to one corner of the hall. And
that would lead very soon to the use of chimneys to
carry away the smoke. Fig. B represents a small house
which follows this plan. The fire (now-a-days the
stove, /), stands, we see, in the corner of the room
instead of in the centre. And there are windows asNorwegian Houses

45

well as a door to the house (for the ground-plans given
in our figures A, B, C are taken from existing buildings,
not merely from imagination). The Old Norse name
for the most primitive form of house (A) would be
bur. Another word stofa (modern Norse, stuva), is
etymologically the same as our stove, and like the
German stube, means a room with a fire in it. Fig. C
represents a third and more developed type of house,
which has an additional chamber and a porch.

The earliest houses built in Norway were, no doubt,
in the strict sense of the word log-houses. There-

fore, if the traveller is on the search for a primitive
form, he will do well to look out especially for buildings
of this sort; for to-day wooden houses in Norway and
Sweden are not usually built of undressed logs, but of
boards. In the house given on the accompanying block
we have an example of perhaps one of the oldest wooden
houses actually standing in Norway. It stands, or stood
at Uv in Eennebo in Orkedal. We see that it has been
built of rough logs, but in spite of its primitive struc-
ture, some of the love of beauty which distinguished46 Norway and the Norwegians

the middle ages has crept into the ornamentation of
its porch.

This Kennebo house would perhaps be an intermediate
form between the ground-plans B and C. We might
have given this intermediate form, but it will easily
suggest itself to the reader. The small plain quad-
rangular one-roomed building has only this of distinc-
tiveness about it, that it has some form of protecting
chamber, or at least portico before the door of the
house.1 This is rendered necessary by the severity of
the weather, when snow may be piled up high against
the door, and without some protection would melt there
and run over the floor of the room within. This pro-
tecting fore-room, fore-hall may be simply a sort of
portico; the roof carried forward a little and resting
upon pillars. Among places where I have myself
chiefly noticed this form of building, I will mention
the well-known Eomsdal; and I would advise the
traveller who passes up that lovely valley to take note
of the few scattered huts which he will see upon his
way, and of their overhanging eaves resting upon two
wooden pillars in front of the door. .In some cases
this portico has further decayed to be a mere over-
hanging of the eaves, or practically disappeared alto-
gether; the setter cottages show it in this state, for
they, as I have said, are houses for summer only. But
in a very large number of cases the same portico has
developed into a closed-in room, a sort of vestibule to
the house. A typical sort of house now-a-days (which
is still built upon old lines) has a hall preceded by this
vestibule, and running down the middle of the house,
1 Suggested by the clotted square in Fig. B, p. 48.The Stabur

47

with one room on each side of it, each the length of the
central hall. Or it may be that these two side rooms have
been again sub-divided to make two each. A house of
this kind shows us really a building-on of the side
rooms on either hand of the hall. You recognise the
hall as the nucleus of the whole by the large fireplace
which it contains.

I use such words as hall and vestibule for the sake
of characterising the different sections of the house.
But let the reader understand that the house itself and
its divisions are supposed on a small scale. I ought,
perhaps, to use the words cottage, hut, rather than
house for some of the places which I have in mind;
but words of this kind imply that the dwelling-place is
abominably small, whereas these houses of Norway are
really the original and primitive form of house; those
that are larger (except when quite modern influences
have come in) have become so (as has already been
pointed out) by the growing together of several of these
primitive buildings.

Among the buildings of the lower lands, beside the
ordinary house, stands nearly always a separate single-
roomed building for a store-house—in the Norse stabur
or stabbur—properly stav-bur, stave-house. This, as
the name implies, is a store-house raised upon props.
Sometimes the houses themselves are raised in the
same way. It is partly to avoid floods, partly to re-
move the stores out of the way of vermin that this
principle is adopted; we see something of the same
kind in Switzerland.

The accompanying wood-block gives a view of two
of these stabur. They look like buildings still more48

Norway and the Norwegians

primitive than the houses—more like covered wagons
that have been deposited there on props when their
wheels were removed; and in looking at them our
thoughts are irresistibly carried back to the picture
which the Eoman writers give us of the ancient Goths
during the days of their migrations; of how they lived
in covered vans or wooden houses upon wheels, and in
these travelled slowly and heavily from place to place.
I do not say but that this association of ideas may be

partly fanciful; but I believe that these propped dwell-
ings give us as near a representative of the house on
wheels of the ancient Goths as any which could be
found standing in this year of grace.

I have seemed, perhaps, to dwell too long upon the
Norwegian houses, considering their primitive and
simple structure; but it appears to me that there is an
interest attaching to relics of the past such as these, asRelics of Antiquity

49

soon as we learn to understand them, scarcely less than
belongs to more imposing monuments. The cathedrals,
the walls, the towers, and Eath-houses of Germany
carry us back to the middle ages. Half the towns in
Germany have only just awoke from the sleep into
which they were thrown at the beginning of the
fifteenth century. Unfortunately, now they have
awaked, and we must anticipate a day not distant when
Ltineburg and Liibeck, Hildesheim and Dantzig; when
Nuremberg and Heilbronn and Innspriick will pre-
serve as little of the past (they can never lose all trace
of it) as Cologne now does—Cologne which we can,
most of us, remember while it was still in great part
surrounded by its walls. Norway possesses few such
monuments of antiquity; of what she does possess I
shall speak hereafter when we come to that period of
her history; but there is an antiquity of a much vaster
stretch suggested by ships like the Norse ships, which
have still so much in common with the vessels which
navigated the Baltic five hundred years before Christ;
with houses like the Norse ones, which seem to bring
us back to the very beginning of the art of house-
architecture, or which make us think of the ambulant
dwellings of the Goths; of those great wagons in
which they made their migrations over Europe, and
which seem now to have only stayed for a moment on
their wanderings.

From the house we pass to the group of houses form-
ing a homestead or a village. There are some special
peculiarities of Norwegian country life, and of the
settlement of the country, which distinguish that land
even from Sweden, and, indeed, from the other countries

D50 Norway and the Norwegians

of Northern Europe. It is not, I dare say, unknown
to the reader how much the social constitution of
Germany and of England seems to point back to a time
when the separate communities—call them tribes if
you will—who occupied the locality and formed their
houses into a village, constituted within the limits of
that village a sort of commonwealth, and held their
lands, or a portion of them, in common. The village
community, as it has been styled, formed a unit in the
constitution of almost every Teutonic nationality in
primitive days. This form of community existed
among all the nations on the shores of the Baltic, not
the North Germans alone, but the Swedes and Danes
likewise. But there is much less trace of it in Norway.
The greater portion of that land seems to have been
settled by individual emigrants in much the same way
that the Western States of America have been and are
being settled in our day. Some sturdy emigrant made
his way into the unknown land, taking his family, his
servants, his household gods, it may be, with him, and
he settled down in a farm of his own, choosing a spot
which promised well; other houses grew up round his—
his own being many houses—occupied by his dependants;
but the land on which he dwelt was his own, not
common land, but held by free and allodial title. This
settler was in his way an aristocrat. He had his own
servants, but he served no man. His descendant, the
modern peasant proprietor, is still the most genuine
and ancient aristocrat of Norway. The times of trouble,
of external war and Viking expeditions, raised up
another and more military aristocracy in the country;
but behind this class always stood the class of freeholdSmall Holdings

5i

peasants, bondis, bonders (boendir), yeomen, as we
should call them, the descendants of the original settlers
of the country. The representatives of this class are
the great peasant proprietor class of Norway.

The immense majority of the landholdings in the
country are what we should call quite small holdings.
For instance, properties which are called there of a
moderate size, are what with us would be considered
very small farms. Farms that are capable of support-
ing some 2 horses, 15 head of cattle, and from 30 to 40
sheep; of yielding an annual produce of some 250
bushels of cereals, and 500 bushels of potatoes, occupy
59 per cent, of the cultivated area of the kingdom,
and constitute one quarter of the total number of
landed properties in the country. Below these come
the very small holdings, whose owners have other
means of subsistence, and are (generally) either labourers,
artisans, or fishermen; these occupy 33 per cent, of the
remaining land, and constitute three-quarters of the
total number of properties. For really large estates
only one per cent, of the properties is left, and only
eight per cent, of the cultivated area of the kingdom.

What is so interesting to us in travelling in the
country is to find the names of localities frequently
taken from the names of quite small proprietors, men
whom we should call mere peasants, who yet have the
proud consciousness that they have bestowed a name
upon a farm, a valley, or a mountain. Their ancestor
may have been the first settler in the district, and
the local names have been taken from him, for this
seems not infrequently to have been the case. In
other instances the name of the family has been52 Norway and the Norwegians

derived from the locality, as with families ' of that ilk'
in Scotland or England.

Thus, in Scandinavia, we may still find specimens,
both of which appear to be as primitive as any we are
likely to meet with in any country, of the village whose
history dates back to the days of the village community,
and of settlements, farms, or gaards, which belong to a
system of landholding in which the village community
has scarcely played any part. The former belong to
Sweden and to some parts of the interior of Norway.
It is not a little interesting to see these Swedish
villages with their red houses (for in Sweden the
majority of the wooden houses are painted red) scattered
wide apart over a considerable plain. It is a village
very different from our English idea of one, where the
houses stand for the most part close together or touch-
ing each other, and 'dressed' like two lines of soldiers,
facing inwards on either side the long village street.
We may see much more irregular villages than this
English type in Germany; but none where the houses
stand so scattered as they do in most of the Swedish,
and in a certain number of Norwegian villages. In
looking at these we are at once brought back to the
words of Tacitus in describing the way the Germans
lived in his day : ' It is well known/ says the author (in
a passage with which the reader no doubt is familiar
enough), 'that the Germans do not dwell in towns.
They do not even suffer their habitations to stand close
together; but live apart and scattered, each one choosing
his own home by stream, or grove, or plot of open ground.'

In large districts of Norway (I have already said) noPrimitive Customs

53

such villages are to be found. The traveller, however,
need not go much out of his track to come to regions
very sparsely inhabited, where the life is still most
primitive, and where he may go on for days without
finding anything but a succession of the gaards or
homesteads of which I have spoken. I will take one
district, which the traveller may easily visit if he choose.
Thelemarken, which lies at the back, so to say, of Odde
on the Hardanger Fjord. There is a fast route from
Odde to Kongsberg, and from Kongsberg you get into
civilisation again, for you get upon one of the few
railways in Norway, and can travel by it to Christiania.
Unfortunately, the living and accommodation are so
rough that not many people are tempted to make the
expedition through Thelemarken for the sake of a
good specimen of primitive Norway.

Some primitive customs, too, relics of bygone super-
stitions, and even of pre-Christian religions, are better
preserved in Scandinavia than in any other of the
countries of Northern Europe, though even here, it
must be said with regret, they are rapidly dying out.
Of these, the one which the traveller has most chance
of seeing some example of is the keeping up of the
Midsummer, or St. John's Day fires; what in Germany
are called, or used to be called, the Johannisfeuer, and
in France Feu de S. Jean. There is scarcely a country
of Europe which used not to celebrate this festival of
Midsummer, which the Swedes and Norwegians still
keep up under the name of the Sankt Hans. The time
for the festival is the eve of St. John's day, and St.
John the Baptist is the patron of it. But there can be
no doubt that it springs from religious rites earlier than54 Norway and the Norwegians

Christianity,—that it is a festival to the sun, held on the
sun's highest day. Sun-worship, and the worship of fire,
are things intimately connected, the fire being supposed
(naturally enough) a sort of image of the sun: this we
see especially in the old Mazdean religion of Persia.
It can hardly be said that this feast of the summer is
peculiarly Teutonic or peculiarly Celtic. It rather
seems to belong to a very primitive faith common to
the ancestors of Germans and Celts alike. The festival,
I have said, used to be kept up in all the countries of
Christendom.

Strutt, in his Sports and Pastimes, says that it was
usual in country places, on the Vigil of St. John the
Baptist, commonly called Midsummer Eve, for the
people, old and young, to meet together and make
merry by the side of a large fire made in the middle
of the street, or in some open and convenient place,
over which the young men frequently leapt by way
of frolic, and also exercised themselves with various
sports and pastimes.

In the heathen times in the north, as we see by the
Icelandic Sagas, the two great festivals of the year were
Yule-tide and Midsummer, and both were celebrated
by the lighting of great fires. So that we may assume
that, in the festival as we witness it to-day, we are
stepping back at once into the religious observances of
heathen times.

Brand, in his Popular Antiquities (pp. 169-199) cites
a number of authorities who refer to the custom of light-
ing these Midsummer fires in different parts of England
and Ireland. Of the latter country a writer in the
Gentleman's Magazine of 1795 says, fI was so fortunate,Midsummer Fires

55

in the summer of 1782, as to have my curiosity gratified
by the sight of this ceremony to (over) a very great
extent of country. At the house where I was enter-
tained it was told me that we should see at midnight
the most singular sight in Iceland, which was the light-
ing of fires in honour of the sun. Accordingly, exactly
at midnight, the fires began to appear, and taking the
advantage of going up to the leads of the house, which
had a widely extended view, I saw on a radius of thirty
miles all round the fires burning on every eminence
which the country afforded. I had the further advan-
tage of learning, on undoubted authority, that the people
danced round the fires, and at the close went through
these fires, and made their sons and daughters, together
with their cattle, pass through the fire, and the whole
was conducted with religious solemnity/

This is a description of the ceremony in its most elabo-
rate form, such as, even at that date, I suspect, was hardly
to be found in England. Stow speaks of the custom of
hanging garlands of lucky herbs over the doors, and
among these garlands placing blazing lamps which burn
all night. Among the herbs which were considered to
give a blessing if thus employed, or according to other
customs if thrown into the midsummer fire, St. John's
wort is one that preserves the memory of this custom.
Fennel, marjoram, green birch, are others of those magi-
cal herbs mentioned by different writers. In Sweden,
besides lighting the midsummer fire, they in most places
raise, or used a year or two ago to raise, a pole like a
Maypole, and this was hung with garlands, which were
no doubt originally, if they are not still, made up of
these magical herbs. We read in some accounts of56 Norway and the Norwegians

garlands plaited of nine sorts of flowers, and nine is a
mystic number in the old Scandinavian mythology.

Souvestre, in his account of Brittany (ed. by Cambray),
gives a description of the midsummer fires, which corre-
spond very closely with the account of the ceremony in
Iceland just cited. 'Cries of joy,'he says, 'are heard
from every side. Every promontory, every rock, every
mountain is alight. A thousand fires are burning in
the open air, and from afar you may descry the shadow-
like figures moving round the fire ; in their dancing one
might fancy it a dance of courils (fairies). The fires
are often lighted by the priests, who make procession
through the villages with .consecrated tapers.' The cere-
mony of leaping through the flame, which some writers
mention, must, one thinks, be the far-off reflex of the
sacrifice of children by passing them through the fire.
The ordeal by fire is itself a reflex of this custom. On
the same principle that Abraham's readiness to sacrifice
Isaac was accounted to him for righteousness: so is the
readiness of an accused person to offer himself as a
sacrifice to the deity supposed to show his innocence;
and, as in the case of Isaac, the divinity is expected
to intervene to prevent the completion of the
sacrifice.

It would not be safe to affirm that the simple practice
of jumping over the ashes of the fire, when it has burnt
low, which we see the boys and young men do to-day
in Sweden and Norway, is in its turn a relic of the
more ceremonial custom of jumping through the fire
when it was in full blaze. But, of course, it may easily
be so.

Grimm, in his German Mythology {Deutsche Mytho-Midsummer Fires

57

logie), cites numberless authorities for . the custom of
lighting the Johannisfeuer in different parts of Germany.
One of the most curious customs is related of a townKonz,
on the Moselle (French in those days by nationality, but
German by blood and tradition), where the members of
each household had to carry up a truss of straw to the
hill above the river. There a huge wheel was made and
completely wrapped round in straw. A pole was passed
through an axle, and the wheel was lighted with cere-
mony, and by the aid of the pole was rolled down hill
into the Moselle. If it kept alight till it got into the
river it foretold a good vintage.

In Sweden these fires still .blaze on many a hill and
headland, by the side of the lakes. In Norway they
were more prevalent seven years ago than they are
now; though in many places much visited by tourists,
they are kept up as much, perhaps, for their sake as for
that of the inhabitants. The ceremony generally begins
with a mock wedding. A child or young girl is dressed
up as a bride with the Norwegian bridal crown, and
followed by a procession of other girls, a fiddler (as is
always the case in a real Norwegian marriage) fiddling
at the head. She corresponds to the May Queen in our
English May-day festivities, such as still remain with
us. In the evening the fire is lighted and dancing
round it is kept up—the services of the fiddler again
put into requisition—all through the undarkened night.
When this takes place in a village by the side of a
fjord, a headland looking far over the water is often
selected for the scene of the fire (provided it present a
sufficiently flat surface for dancing), and it is a very
beautiful sight to see the boats stealing over the water58	Norway and the Norwegians

from smaller villages or from solitary farms, each bring-
ing its contingent of young men and girls dressed in
holiday costume to take part in the festival.

No land seems more suited as a home for the creatures
of popular superstition than this land; and till the
other day almost, we may believe (from the Folk-Tales
that have been handed down to us) these frowning
cliffs and sequestered valleys were still for the peasant
inhabited by the beings who figure in most Teutonic
mythologies; that on the hills dwelt Thursar (Monsters)
or Trolls; in the valleys or beneath the earth dwelt
JElfa/r, elves, and fairies. The celebrated Swedish water-
fall Trollhattan (the Troll's hat) is a reminiscence of the
belief in this race of giants and witches; so are the well-
known Trolltinder (the Trold's needles) which are the
most remarkable feature of the Eomsdal in Norway.
And there are many other places which bear names com-
pounded of Troll or Trold. Troldvand, near one of the
arms of the Jostedal glacier, surrounded by rocky walls,
and reached through a deep and gloomy ravine, is one
of the many lakes at the bottom of which a witch-
woman dwells or dwelt, and to which heroes have been
known to descend for the sake of fighting with the
ogress. There are one or two more place-names con-
founded with ' trold' in this neighbourhood, i.e. close to
the Jostedalsbrse. Troldkirketind, one of the scenes of
the Witches' Sabbath of the Norwegians, overlooks the
Norddalsfjord and the Slyngsfjord. Besides the Troll-
tinder before mentioned, there is a Troldstol (witches'
chair) and another Troldvand (witches' lake) in this
same neighbourhood; that is to say, we pass them on
our journey from Molde to the Romsdal. Many otherPopular Superstitions	5 9

places compounded with the name may be mentioned,
such as Trollabrug, near Throndhjem, and the Troldfjord
high up the coast by the Lofotens. All these names
witness to the deep-seated beliefs of past times. The hills
above Bergen were among the chief places in Europe-
which popular superstition fixed upon as the scenes
for the celebrated Witches' Sabbath, which was held on
the eve of the first of May.

About fifty years ago two Norwegians, Asbjornsen
and Moe, one a man of letters and a poet, the other a
bishop, set to work to do what the brothers Grimm
had done for Germany, to collect the popular tales and
legends which lingered in the mouths of the peasantry
of their day. Their collection of stories has been trans-
lated into English, under the title Popular Tales from
the Norse, and from these the reader can get some picture
of the legendary superstition of the people about half
a century ago. There is no such marked peculiarity
in these stories as compared with the German popular
tales of the brothers Grimm (.Kinder-u-Hausmarchen)
that it can be characterised in a sentence.

But since the days of Asbjornsen and Moe, when
passengers no longer row from homestead to# home-
stead, but where steamers are found plying on all the
Norwegian waters—when, too, primary education has
reached a point of great excellence in the country—
these popular beliefs and legends have been rapidly
dying out; we may expect them to disappear altogether
in a few years.CHAPTEE III

seafaring

The Vikings

The sight which we spoke of in the last chapter, of the
boats on festival days or Sundays making from the
lesser villages or from solitary farmhouses towards
some trysting-place, is an exceedingly beautiful one, and
is suggestive of much. It is curious to see how the
boats appear to start out of the precipitous walls of the
fjord, though they really come from some bay hidden
from sight. The place where you are standing is rock-
girt ; no other houses are visible but those of your own
village; behind you there stretches, may be, one road,
or perhaps only a mountain path towards the interior
of the country; in front lies the fjord. You feel as if
you were standing at the end of the habitable earth,
cut off from communication with the rest of the world.
Then suddenly, one by one, these boats appear in sight,
as if they had risen up from the water, or, as we have
said, had sprung out of the rock itself. It is the water
of the fjord which constitutes the road, the connecting
link, between the farms and villages upon its banks,
the safest imaginable way, and the easiest traversed.

It is in this wise, by sights such as these, that we come

60Seafaring

61

to realise how, among a people situated as the Norse
folk have been, the sea, from very early days, became
their one road, and the people was a predestined race
of navigators and explorers.

The bays and creeks of the Baltic, of Denmark and
Sweden, afford the same facilities for navigation that
do the fjords of Norway, with their protecting island
guard; and, with the Norse Sea cut off by the narrow
passage of the belt, and with the numberless islands of
Denmark, this sea, too, is as protected as one could wish,
so that the other Scandinavian peoples, the Swedes and
Danes, have had equal opportunities with the Norsemen
of becoming great navigators. It is, in truth, in the
Baltic Sea, including therewith the channel which
leads to it, Skaggerrak and Cattegat, rather than on the
western coast of Norway, that we must look for the
growth of that art of navigation which ushered in the
great era in the history of Scandinavia, the Age of the
Vikings. As we saw, it is Bohuslan, one of the southern
provinces of Sweden, and abutting on the Baltic, which,
in its rock-carvings, contains the earliest record of the
use of ships and the knowledge of navigation to be
found in the north.

We also saw that, so far as it is possible to judge,
the shipbuilding of the early times represented by the
rock-carvings, had not very materially changed when,
a thousand years later, arose the Viking Age, in which
these northern ships were to become known almost to
every country in Europe.

In the Museum at Christiania (at the back of the
University) we find two relics of the art of shipbuilding
in the Viking Age, or near it. These two ships may62	Norway and the Norwegians

very well stand as specimens of the whole class. One
of them was found at Tune, which is the same as Tuns-
berg, so far as we can tell, the earliest of the towns of
Norway. The other boat, a beautifully preserved speci-
men, which stands in the house especially built for it
beside the Museum, was discovered at Gokstad in the
Christiania Fjord. It must be said that the latest use
to which this Gokstad ship has been placed has been
for the purposes of burial: that is to say, it has been
employed as an immense coffin. The custom long re-
mained among the Scandinavian people of interring
men, presumably great leaders, in ships; and this was
done in the days when the bodies of men were burnt
as well as those in which they were buried.

In the former time the pyre was lighted on the ship,
and the ship was pushed out to sea; in the latter case
it was, like this Gokstad vessel, used as a huge coffin
and buried in the earth. It is because the Gokstad
ship has been buried in this fashion that it has been so
well preserved.1

This Christiania boat is sixty feet along her flat keel,
and seventy-five feet measured at her greatest length.
She is pointed at either end, and has high stem- and
stern-posts, like the boats represented in the Bohuslan
carvings. She is shallow, her depth at the broadest
part being little more than three and a half feet; her
gunwale rises as she grows narrower towards either end.
She was not decked, but may have had a sort of sloping

1 So far as regards the names of the Norse vessels, the general name
skip applied to all. Battle-ships are often called 'dragons,' because of the
custom of ornamenting their prows with dragons' heads. They are also
called long-ships (langskip). The words snekkja and skata, which likewise
occur, denote small, swift-rowing boats.Viking Ship at Christiania	63

roof of planks over one end, possibly over the whole
length, except a little bit of deck fore and aft. As a
rule, in these boats, the men sat under awnings or tents,
which were struck before they came into action. On
the short piece of deck fore arid aft there stood a group
of the foremost fighting men; others, no doubt, stood
round the side and made some sort of protection for the
rowers. Very frequently there ran a gangway connect-
ing the fore and aft decks, the forecastle (in old Norse
nusn) and the poop (lipting). The Christiania boat
had sixteen rowers a-side. The sizes of the boats of which
we read descriptions in the Norse Sagas are always
reckoned by the number of seats or benches of rowers
they contained; and this Christiania boat would be
called a boat of sixteen benches. These benches would
accommodate from four to eight men; and it is probable
that, in most of the war-vessels, the number of people
they contained was almost six times as many as the
number of benches, so that the Christiania boat in
question would contain about a hundred men. This is,
if anything, an inside reckoning. This Christiania boat
is a fair average size for a boat of this period; we read
of boats which had thirty and more ' benches/ but they
are always spoken of as something exceptional.

A picturesque appearance was given to the Vikings'
ships by the coloured square sails—often they were
painted in stripes of colour; and by the coloured round
shields, painted red, or black, or white, which hung
outside the gunwale; and, finally, by the beautifully-
carved and painted figure-heads and stern-posts.

The shallowness of these vessels made them very
useful iu the Yiking days for lying in small creeks, or64 Norway and the Norwegians

passing up rivers far into the interior of a country;
but they could not have been good seafaring vessels,
and doubtless many of them were lost. Among the
specimens of old Norse poetry which have come down
to us, and of which we shall speak in another chapter,
there is one beautiful piece in which the author laments
over the death by drowning of his favourite son. It
may stand to us for a symbol of many thousands of
laments which must have been uttered by fathers,
mothers, wives, children over the men who were lost in
in the same way. The boats had no regular tiller, but
were steered by an oar from the side, the right side
generally; and it is from this custom that the right
side of a vessel has received the name steer-board—
starboard.

We have spoken of the heavy square-sailed ships,
with high curving prows, which are still to be met with
all along the coast of Norway. These have generally
square sterns; but in some places (off the Lofotens,
for instance, if the traveller should go so far north)
another sort of boat is used, almost exactly like these
in build, but pointed both stem and stern. This is
almost an exact copy of the Gokstad ship, that is to say,
of the old Viking ship. Something the same shape is
preserved in the smaller rowing-boats which are used
on the fjords or island lakes. But these are too small,
and too rarely hoist a sail to give the reader adequate
means for realising the appearance of a Viking ship.
We must then keep the high-pro wed coasting or fishing
vessels in our mind's eye if we want to get a picture of
the sight which, towards the end of the eighth century,
began to strike at first with surprise and then withThe Viking Age

65

terror all the dwellers on the coasts of Christian
Europe.

It must not be supposed that the depredations of
the northern warriors had gone on from time imme-
morial. There is a very definite date at which begins
the Yiking age, properly so called, the age of Viking
voyages and depredations. This is in the year a.d.
789. And there can be no doubt that the one thing
which, more than any other, led to this outbreak of
"piracy was the discovery of the use of sails by the
Scandinavians. The Yiking ships resembled those of
the rock-carving of a thousand years earlier in almost
every particular but one, that the earlier vessels had
not, and the later had, sails; and there can be no doubt,
while in other respects their art of boat-building was
ancestral, that the northern people learnt the use of
sails from the Eomans. They began to use them pro-
bably some hundred years before their great era of
adventure and piracy dawned. But for all that, it
was this discovery more than any other which led to
that era.

The first Scandinavian ships which harried any coast
of Christian Europe were three vessels, which, in the
summer of a.d. 789, appeared upon the Dorset coast.
The officer in charge of the port—we are not told pre-
cisely to what harbour they had come—supposed them
to be merchant-men, and rode down to demand the
port-dues payable to the king. But he found to his
cost that these were no merchants. The Vikings sprang
to the shore, drew their swords and killed the port-
reeve and his small following, then took plunder from
the place and sailed away out to sea.

e66	Norway and the Norwegians

A custom obtained very much in the Christian
Europe of those days for the pious, who raised mon-
asteries in honour of God and the saints, to choose
for the sites of these either islands in the sea or some
promontory which was washed by the waves : it was
done upon something of the same principle, it may be,
which caused the Greeks to dedicate so many temples
to Apollo (the most national of their gods) upon islands,
or upon headlands along the coast. ' The high watches
pleased him, and the rivers that run into the deep,
and the shores stretching down to the sea, and the
sea's harbours/ as the Homeric hymn to Apollo says.

And for the same reason, namely, that these places
at the edge of all earthly kingdoms belonged especially
to the god, were the early religious houses of Christen-
dom so often built upon islands or by the sea-shore.
In England one of the most famous of these establish-
ments was Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, a foundation of
St. Cuthbert. This was the next place attacked by a
Yiking fleet. The pirates slew or made captive all the
monks, and the monastery itself was rifled and then
burnt. This was in a.d. 793.

Then the pirates appeared on the south coast of
Wales; and after that they sailed thence across to
Ireland, and found another island monastery near to,
Dublin Bay, which they plundered and burnt, in the
same way that their brother Yikings had plundered
and burnt Lindisfarne. We soon And them sailing to
Man; and next round to the west coast of Ireland,
and plundering all that side of the island; or what
seemed more impious still, sailing to the west coast of
Scotland and plundering Iona, that famous foundationCharlemagne and the Danes	67

of St. Columba, indirectly the parent of almost all the
monasteries of the English Church. All these attacks
which I have spoken of had taken place before the
ninth century had got into its teens. We see, there-
fore, how this new wave of plunder and destruction
had, in the course of a few years, swept completely
round the coasts of our islands.

Nor was it long before the pirates became as well
known upon the Continent. The coast towns of what
was then called Frisia, and is now called Holland, were
the first to grow acquainted with the high-prowed,
square-sailed vessels of the Northmen. Frisia was first
attacked in the last year of the eighth century, 799.
Another attack followed the next year; then a pause,
and ten years later (a.d. 810) a very fierce and de-
termined attack was organised by the King of Denmark.
This king, whose name was Godfred, was at war with
the mighty Charlemagne, who was at this time the
Emperor of all Western Continental Christendom. Not
much was to be feared from the Northmen as long as
Charlemagne remained upon the throne. But there is
a story told of this emperor which, if it is true, shows
how well he appreciated the character of this new
terror which was dawning upon Europe.

' Once,' the chronicler tells us, ' Charles arrived by
chance at a certain maritime town of his dominions,1
while he was sitting at dinner, and had not been
recognised by the townspeople, some northern pirates

1 The chronicler (the Monk of St. Gallen) makes it a town in the
Mediterranean, a part to which the Vikings certainly never reached as
early as the time of Charlemagne. It may be that the story really relates
to quite a different sort of pirates—the Arab corsairs. For the Monk of
St. Gallen is not quite to be relied upon.68	Norway and the Norwegians

came to carry on their depredations in that very port.
When the ships were perceived, some thought they
were Jewish merchants, some that they were Africans,
some Bretons. But the wise king, knowing from the
shape and swiftness of the vessels what sort of crews
they carried, said to those about him, " These ships bear
no merchandise, but cruel foes/' At these words all
the Franks rivalled each other in the speed with which
they rushed to attack the boats. But it was useless,
The Northmen hearing that there stood the man whom
they were wont to call Charles the Hammer, were
afraid lest all their fleet should be taken in the port,
and should be broken in pieces ; and their flight was so
rapid, that they withdrew themselves, not only from
the swords, but even from the eyes of those who wished
to catch them. The religious Charles, however, seized
by a holy fear, rose from the table, and looked out of
the window towards the east, remaining long in that
position, his face bathed in tears. No one ventured to
question him: but turning to his followers he said,
" Know ye why I weep ? Truly, I fear not that these
will injure me. But I am deeply grieved that in my
lifetime they should have been so near landing on
these shores, and I am overwhelmed with sorrow as I
look forward and see what evils they will bring upon
my offspring and their people."'

If this story is true, it shows that the great Emperor
was a man of penetration. For few could have guessed
from all that had yet been seen of the Vikings, some little
fleet here and there outside a coast town, or near a
monastery of England or the Low Countries, what a great
flood of invasion was in the course of a few years toThe Norse Vikings

69

sweep upon western Europe, and almost to bring back
this portion of Christendom into the reign of chaos, out
of which it had emerged.

The earlier Yiking piracies, of which we have given a
slight sketch, proceeded, as would appear, rather from
Denmark, or at any rate from the Baltic and its mouth,
than from the western coasts of Norway. But it was
not very long before another route was discovered for
the pirate cruisers. This one led the way from the
western fjords, probably straight across the North Sea to
the Shetlands, and thence due south to the Orkneys and
to the mainland of Scotland. The name of the county
of Sutherland is a reminiscence of the settlement of the
Northmen in these regions. For who but they could
have named almost the most northern county of Scot-
land the southern land ? In the same way they called
the Hebrides the South Islands; south, that is to
say, as compared to the Shetlands and the Orkneys, the
islands in which the northern pirates first settled. The
name South Islands—Sudreyar in Norse—became, as the
reader most likely knows, corrupted into Sodor, and
remains to this day in the title of the Bishop of Sodor
and Man.

In these modern days a returning stream of in-
vaders traverses in an opposite direction the route which
the Vikings first laid open—the invading stream of
tourists, many of whom come in steamers, which take
this northern route from Scotland to the Orkneys
and Shetland, and thence to Norway.

Other streams of northern pirates may have crossed
the sea (in the opposite direction) along the route which
is covered by the Hull and Bergen steamers of to-day.jo	Norway and the Norwegians

But this was not at the beginning of the Yiking age;
for the first Vikings in northern England came from
Denmark.

The two streams of Yiking invasion of which we have
spoken flowed all round the British isles; the Danish
ascending from the south, having coasted round Frisia
till they reached the English Channel, or in other cases
sailed straight across the North Sea to the East Anglian
or Northumbrian shore; the Norse stream descending
from the north, generally by Scotland, to England or
Ireland. Sometimes the two streams met in antagon-
istic currents, sometimes they combined and flowed in
unison; they always ended by conquering and making
settlements. We have no record of the Yiking conquests
in Scotland. But we know that, eventually, the settle-
ments of the Norsemen in that country included the
Orkneys and Shetlands, Caithness, a part of Sutherland-
shire, and the Hebrides. For Ireland we have more
details of the process of conquest; but the accounts of
the wars of the foreigners1 in Ireland are so confused
that it is very hard to form out of them anything like a
consistent picture. What we do see is, beside many
lesser attacks, a great fleet coming about the year 832,
led by a captain whose ambition was not satisfied by
anything less than the conquest of one-half of the
country. His name was Thorgisl. But this leader, this
first real Viking king, as one may call him, did not reign
long. He was captured by one of the Irish kings and

1 Gaill, ' foreigners' simply, is the name usually applied to the invader
from the north in the Irish chronicles. Another name is Lochlann, lake
men (Fjord-men ?) A third ' Gentiles.'Norsemen in Ireland

7i

drowned; and his kingdom, the first Yiking kingdom as
it really was, was likewise the most ephemeral of all.

In the event, the presence of the Vikings in Ireland
took the form of settlements made at certain fixed
points, not of wide-extended conquests. These settle-
ments, which covered no great area, were at last con-
tracted into those so-called kingdoms of the Northmen,
at Dublin, at Waterford, and at Limerick. The two lesser
ones did not deserve the pretentious name of kingdoms ;
they were generally dependent upon the kings of Dublin.
But these last were at one time people of no small
power. They exercised, if not actual rule, a leadership—
what the Greeks called a hegemony—among a group of
other Scandinavian settlements in the west. The settle-
ment in Man—kingdom of Man, as it was called, the
kingdoms and earldoms in the western islands of Scot-
land were in a way subservient to the Irish kings of
Dublin. They gave kings to the Danes and Norsemen
in Northumbria; some, at any rate, of these kings reign-
ing at the same time in Dublin and at York. And the
great hero of Norwegian history, he who so greatly
changed the position of Norway among the nations,—
I mean Olaf Tryggvason (of whom we shall have to
speak hereafter) was closely connected with the kings
of Dublin. It is possible that he came from among
the Dublin Norsemen.

These Dublin kings were (in the time of our ^Ethel-
red the Unready) the first rulers in Ireland who issued
a coinage.

Cut off at last from intercourse with their fellow-
countrymen, the Northmen of Dublin fell under the rule
of the Irish kings; but they preserved no small amount72	Norway and the Norwegians

of independence. Thus, when England was for the first
time brought into close relations with the sister island,
and Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, went over to aid
Dermot M'Murrough, King of Leinster, in winning back
his kingdom, we find the chroniclers describing this
Irish monarch as King of Leinster and the 'Danes.'
' Danes' is certainly not the right word to use here; it
should be Norsemen. But the English had got in the
way of calling all Scandinavians Danes. It is interest-
ing to think that this Irish pale, which was the first foot-
hold of the English in the sister island, was the territory,
not so much of the native Celts as of the Northmen.

In earlier days, again, when Dublin and other of the
Norse kingdoms in Ireland were in their most flourish-
ing condition, they sent out bodies of invaders to the
north-western parts of England, who possessed them-
selves of a considerable portion of what was then called
the Strathclyde—all the region between the Clyde and
the Dee. In Westmoreland, Cumberland, the north of
Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, we find
the largest traces of these Norse invaders, who came from
Ireland. On the other side, in Northumberland and
Durham, still more in the North and East Ridings of
Yorkshire, and in Lincolnshire, the chief settlers were
Danes, who had established a Danish kingdom in these
parts, and had, in fact, turned the north of England
into a Danish country, while another Danish kingdom,
as we know, had by the treaties between Alfred the Great
and Guthrum the Dane, been established in the eastern
counties and the eastern midlands.

Scotland and Ireland, then, with a little strip off the
north-west of England, we note as the chief spheres ofDanes and Norsemen compared 73

Norse influence (as opposed to Danish) in Christian
Europe. As settlers of a more or less permanent kind,
we see the Norsemen in the Shetlands, the Orkneys,
the Hebrides, in Caithness, in Man, in the north-west
of England, in several places round the Irish coast,
especially Dublin.

There was a certain difference between the char-
acters of the Norsemen and the Danes, who came as con-
querors to our islands; consequently the influence of
the two nationalities upon the people with whom they
came in contact took different forms.

The Vikings of Norse blood were, so far as appears,
of rather a different calibre from the Danish Vikings of
the Continent and of the later invasions of England.
While these last were filled with political ambitions,
were colonisers and conquerors, those were imbued with
commercial notions and were conquerors and traders.
How significant in this light is the discovery of a Vik-
ing interment, which was made two or three years ago
in the Hebrides ! The man had been boat-buried after
the heathen rites—though there were likewise some
traces of Christian symbolism, crosses and so forth,
on the tomb—and he had been a warrior who had
doubtless died in his harness, which, with his sword,
spear, and battle-axe, were placed by his side. His horse
had been buried with him, and one of the big bones of
the horse had been nearly cut in two by a sword or axe
—no doubt in the hero's last battle. But along with all
this war-gear, there was found buried with the Viking
leader a pair of scales—curious type of the double
nature of his life as a soldier and a tradesman ! It was,
as we have said above, the Norse Kings of Dublin who,74 Norway and the Norwegians

about a.d. 1000, introduced the first native coinage into
Ireland ; till which date such a medium of exchange was
almost unknown in this backward country.

There were other peculiarities which distinguished
the history of the Norse conquerors. The only contact
which these had with Christendom was in the form of
contact with the Celtic populations of the west, almost
exclusively with the Gaels or Goidhels, the Celts of the
Scottish Highlands and of Ireland. Even the Norse-
men in Strathclyde were in a country chiefly Celtic
but British. From this contact between the Norsemen
and the Celts there arose many consequences which
we shall have to detail in the next chapter.

We shall have, too, in the next chapter, to trace the
Norsemen in a new and somewhat different sphere of
activity. But we will devote the rest of this chapter to
following in brief outline the doings of the Yikings upon
the Continent. These Yikings, we have already said,
were chiefly Danes; and therefore their history has not
so much concern with the history of Norway. But it
would be impossible to leave out altogether the career
of these Yikings on the Continent, which went on while
the Norsemen were establishing their power in Scotland
and in Ireland.

On the Continent—as no doubt the reader knows— -
the mighty empire of the Franks, founded by Charle-
magne, embraced almost the whole of western Christen-
dom of those days. It included the kingdoms of the
East and West Franks, or what were beginning to be
known as Francia (France) and Germania (Germany).
The southern part of what is now France kept a sepa-
rate name—its old Latin one, Pro-vincia or Provence.Vikings in Continental Europe 75

The kingdom of Italy, too, formed part of Charlemagne's
empire. Spain was not Christian in those days, for
it had been conquered by the Mohammedans; save,
indeed, a little strip in the north, half of which belonged
to the Franks, while the other half was independent.
To whatever shore, therefore, the Vikings, coming from
the Baltic, might direct their sail, unless they fell upon
one or other of our islands, they were sure almost to come
in contact with the subjects of the Frankish empire.
As long as Charlemagne held this mighty power in his
hands, the countries were safe from any serious harm;
though, as we have seen, even Charlemagne had a fore-
taste of the evils of Viking invasion. Under Charle-
magne's successor, Lewis, called the Debonair, or the
Pious, the Frankish empire began to decay and fall to
pieces; but even in this reign Christendom suffered
.little hurt from the northern pirates. It was after
Lewis's death (a.d. 840) when his sons, who during
the lifetime of their father had often been in rebellion
against him, were now engaged in civil war one with
another, that an opening was made for the Viking
attacks.

While the rival armies of the imperial princes were
manoeuvring inland, the Viking fleets began to find
their way to the mouths of the great rivers of Western
Europe which emptied themselves into the North Sea,
or into the Atlantic. The most eastern of these, and
therefore the nearest to Denmark, was the Elbe. Near
the mouth of it stood Hamburg, then a growing trading
place and the See of an Archbishop. Next (to the
westward) came the many mouths of the Rhine, which
flowed through the country then called Frisia. Onj6	Norway and the Norwegians

one of these mouths stood a city called Dorstad, which
has now disappeared and hardly left a trace, but which
was then quite the emporium for the north of Europe,
carrying on a trade as far as the British Isles on the one
side, and the Baltic countries on the other. Dorstad,
which must have been known by reputation to the Vik-
ings even before they came there, was one of the chief
marks for their attacks, and was so frequently plundered,
that by the middle of the ninth century its trade had
almost entirely left it. A little further down the coast,
after leaving the Ehine mouths, the Vikings came to
the Scheldt, on which stood Antwerp, a city of some
importance. Farther on still lay, at the mouth of the
little river Canche, which empties itself into the English
Channel near Calais, a town, Quentovic, which has now
entirely decayed, but was then second only to Dorstad
among the trading cities of the north. After they had
left the Canche, the Vikings would come to the Somme,
on which lay Amiens; and next to the far more im-
portant Seine, which in those days was rich in trading
towns and in religious houses. Eouen lay not far from
the mouth; and, when the Vikings had become adven-
turous enough to navigate some way inland, they came
to Paris. Paris could not yet be described as the
capital of France, but it was a city of growing im-
portance. It was, too, full of sacred associations, on
account of the many monasteries which surrounded it.
The sieges of Paris by the Vikings are among the great
events in the history of this century.

The next great river after the Seine was the Loire,
only a little way up.which lay the important town of
Nantes. Nantes gave its name to the title of the countVikings in Continental Europe 77

to whom was especially intrusted the guardianship
of the Marches of Brittany. The Bretons were rebel-
lious subjects of the Frankish empire; and it was in
alliance with them that the first Vikings who came to
the Loire made their attack upon the shores of that
river and upon the town of Nantes. And higher up
the river were two other places of great importance,
Tours and Orleans. The former contained two famous
abbeys, the most famous (perhaps) of all in Europe.
This place was several times plundered by the pirates.
Finally, after leaving the Loire, the Yiking ships would
come to the Garonne, up which they might sail as far
as the old Koman-Gothic city of Toulouse, once the
capital of the West-Goth kingdom in Southern France.

At the mouth of one after another of all these rivers
the high-prowed, square-sailed Yiking ships began to
appear in numbers after the year 840. They were at
first a strange sight to the inhabitants of Christendom.
But we must remember that these lands were not less
strange to the Northmen. Never before, probably,
had the majority of these sailors ventured beyond the
waters of the Baltic; not for hundreds of years had
any of their ancestors done so. It was, therefore, a
wondrous new life on which they were embarked. We
cannot be surprised that, therefore, they proceeded with
caution. The natural course for them would be to
seize upon some one of the promontories at the river-
mouth, the one which could be best guarded, or, safer
still, upon an island, if there was one near the mouth of
the river. For their Christian foes foolishly enough
never provided themselves with strong fleets, and so
the islands lay out of all danger of attack. The very78 . Norway and the Norwegians

first account we get of any organised Viking attack on
any country shows the Northmen proceeding on these
lines. We saw how they seized upon the island or
promontory of Lindisfarne, for, like our St Michael's
Mount or the French Mont. St. Michel, Lindisfarne
was then only an island at high tide. And though
the subsequent attacks of the Vikings on Northumbria
were not successful, this beginning gave the pattern
of their beginning in* most of their other adventures.
Their attacks on Ireland began with the seizure of an
island near Dublin Bay; at the mouth of the Scheldt
they made themselves masters of Walcheren; at the
mouth of the Loire they took a little island called N"oir-
moutiers, and made it their depot and their treasury.

When they were thus established, they seized their
opportunity, and keeping as much out of sight as pos-
sible, they sped up the river 'under the woody banks.
Their boats were constructed so as to draw very little
water, and they could pass up much smaller streams
and over much shallower places than might have been
expected. The history of all these early attacks is
much the same everywhere; only that sometimes we
see the Vikings venturing quite alone, at other times
(too often, alas!) we find them in alliance with
some rebel part of the population, who no doubt fur-
nished them with pilots to take them up the streams.
In this wise, as we have already said, they first found
their way up the Loire, took and plundered Nantes,
killing a large number of the inhabitants, and among
them the bishop of the place. By the same means
they made their first expedition up the Garonne and
plundered Toulouse. The earliest Viking expeditionsScandinavian Settlements

79

up the Seine were more independent. On the first of
these the Vikings sailed only as far as Rouen, which
they plundered. The second time they sailed as far as
Paris; and though the city itself was saved—by a
miracle it was said—from their fury, some of the
neighbouring monasteries were plundered. The same
year that took place this first siege of Paris (a.d. 845),
Hamburg was taken and plundered by another fleet of
pirates sailing up the Elbe.

This gives us a picture of the earliest Viking attacks
on Christendom, which were essentially summer expedi-
tions and raids for plunder only. But in the middle
year of the ninth century (850) we find the Northmen
wintering for the first time in some of the countries
which they attacked, and from this date onwards until
the year 912 we may consider that the career of the
Vikings in Christendom takes a new character. They
became more and more settlers in the countries they
have selected for plunder, and more and more cut off
from the life of their countrymen at home. At first
their settlement is no doubt a settlement only in
entrenched camps, or other strong places: but gradually
the idea comes to them of conquering or colonising
great tracts of the enemies' countries. The first to
whom this idea occurred seems to have been Thorgisl,
the leader of the Norsemen in Ireland, of whom we
have already spoken; but his attempt ended in failure.
It was premature, for Thorgisl's death falls in a.d. 845.

Towards the end ot the ninth century we see that
large schemes of conquest are beginning to engage the
thoughts of the Norsemen. The most extended of
these schemes (the most extended that is estimated by8o Norway and the Norwegians

its results) was the great invasion of England, which
began in a.d. 866, and was only brought to an end after
twelve years (a.d. 878) by the cession of half the land of
England to the conquerors. This first Danish invasion
of England—that of Sweyn and Canute at the beginning
of the eleventh century being the second—is too familiar
a portion of our national history to need dwelling upon
here. But as our histories, especially our school and
popular histories, were rather apt to tell it from the
English point of view, and dwell exclusively on the
efforts and achievements of Alfred, it is well to remem-
ber how successful a performance it was from the point
of view of the invaders.

By the treaty between Alfred and the leader of the
Danish army in the south, all of England north of the
Thames, east of the Lea and of Watling Street (the
great highway which ran, and still runs, between London
and Wroxeter), and south of the Humber, was given up
to form the kingdom of the Danish leader Guthrum,
who became a Christian, and was baptized iEthelstan.
But, meantime, all Northumbria, all England, and Low-
land Scotland between the Humber and the Forth had
been already subjected by another Viking leader, and
this was constituted into a second Scandinavian king-
dom in England.

The heathens from the north made great efforts to
carry their conquests in France and Germany as far
as they had carried them in England. One of their
invading armies advanced up the Ehine as far as
Coblenz. Another crossed the whole of France; but one
town, Paris, held out for a year against a whole army
of Vikings under a famous leader; and it may haveThe Swedes in Russia

81

been this obstinate resistance that saved France from a
conquest as great as that which afflicted England.

None of these achievements were as lasting as they
were impressive. The Northumbrian kingdom remained
for some years; the other Danish settlements in England
gradually diminished under Alfred's successors, Edward
and iEthelstan. The invasions on the Continent were
not lasting either; the result of them finally narrowed
itself to the settlement of the Vikings, under their
leader Hrolf, or Rolf, or Rollo, in the country which
was then called Neustria, but which, from the North-
men, took the name of Normandy.

Before we close this chapter of the great age of
northern conquest in Europe, and sum up the results
thereof, which we must do in the succeeding chapter, let
us take note of one other sphere of achievement on the
part of the Scandinavians. This is Russia. While the
Danes and the Norsemen were turning their ambition
towards the west and south, their brother Scandinavians,
the Swedes, were bent in an exactly opposite direction.
They turned eastward, navigated the Gulf of Finland,
and settled themselves in the province of Novgorod, a
little to the south of Lake Ladoga. Thence they
gradually extended their power, until they had founded
a kingdom which in size was greater than the ancient
kingdom of Sweden, and went by the name of Greater
Suithiod—Greater Sweden. It extended from Lake
Ladoga in the north as far as Kiev upon the Dnieper.
By this last river, which afforded excellent navigation
for their ships, the inhabitants of Greater Suithiod
made their way down to the Black Sea, and eventually

F82	Norway and the Norwegians

travelled as far as Constantinople and the islands of the
Greek Archipelago. The emperors of the East (of the
Byzantine Empire), who reigned at Constantinople,
became familiar with these Eussian Swedes, whose
valour they esteemed so highly that the Byzantine
Emperors came to form fron* their number a special
bodyguard, which was known as the Yaringian Guard.

■ This foundation of Eussian Sweden, as we may call
it, went on at the same time that the Norse and Danish
Vikings were making their conquests and founding
their kingdoms in the west. And if any detailed
history of the doings of the eastern adventurers had
been preserved, it would, perhaps, form almost as in-
teresting a chapter in the history of the Scandinavian
peoples as do the achievements of their western brothers.CHAPTER IY

the edda and its mythology

Discovery of Iceland, Greenland, and America—Origin of Old Norse
Poetry—The Mythology of the Edda.

There is a third chapter in the history of northern
adventure different from the records of conquest of
which we have just spoken, and deserving of a place
to itself.

It would seem that, almost contemporarily with the
coming of the Vikings to Great Britain, certain Irish or
Scottish monks, adventuring without compass or chart
into the North Sea, had found their way not only to
the Shetlands, to the Faroes, but even as far as Iceland;
nay, some think they got as far as America. It may
have been that from some of the Celts whom they had
conquered the Norsemen of Great Britain heard of
these far lands. Certain it is that the settlement of
the Northmen in our islands had not long taken place
before there set in another stream, not now of conquest
but rather of colonisation, towards these distant regions.
The history of the first pioneers in this adventure is
lost to us ; but before very long people of consequence
began to interest themselves in the matter, and soon the
slender stream of emigration swelled almost into a
flood.

8384	Norway and the Norwegians

There was a certain Norse King of Dublin named
Olaf the White. His reign lasts from about a.d. 853
to a.d. 870. He was married to a wife called Aud, who
gained the name of the Deeply Wise or Very Wise.
This Aud was the daughter of a Norse King in the
Hebrides called Ketil Flatnose ; his nose had been cut
off in battle, that is the origin of his name. By Olaf
the White Aud had a son called Thorstein the Red,
whom we catch sight of once in company with an Earl
of the Orkneys marauding in Caithness. Thorstein was
killed in Scotland, a.d. 875 ; and then his mother Aud,
who, we see, had lost father, husband, son in three
different parts of Great Britain, determined to seek a
new home in those western islands to which the Norse
stream of emigration had turned. She had with her
several grand-daughters. She went first to the Orkneys,
and while there she married one of her grand-daughters
to the Earl of Orkney. Then she went on to the Earoes,
and another of her grand-daughters she married to the
chief Norseman in these islands. Finally, she made her
way to Iceland, obtained there a large territory, and
married other of her grand-daughters to the chief
colonists of the country. These early colonists and-
their descendants were a distinguished class in the
island—a sort of Mayflower emigrants, shall we say, or
Knickerbockers ? They were called ' the colonists' par
excellence—landnamamenn; and about them was written
the Zandnama-bdlc: ' The Book of the Settlement/

The stream of settlers in Iceland was to a large
degree set flowing by the change in the history of
Norway, which we shall have to relate in the next
chapter. It is enough to say here that the celebratedDiscovery of Greenland and America 85

Harald Harfagr had made himself sole King of Norway,
and had driven out all the petty kings and chiefs who
would not accommodate themselves to the new state of
things. The kings who submitted Harald made earls
in Norway; those who rebelled he drove away as out-
laws. For some time these foes of the reigning dynasty
in Norway maintained themselves in the western islands,
in the Orkneys and Shetlands, in Scotland, in the
Hebrides and Man; but eventually Harald sent a fleet
to harry and subdue these places also, and his enemies
had to escape to some still more distant land; so they
found their way to Iceland.

Even this was not the end of the Scandinavian dis-
coveries. Stirred up, we may believe, by rumours
which had been handed down by the kin of the Celtic
wanderers of the previous century, some of the Ice-
landers began to think of voyages still farther west.
One of them named Ulf sighted land in this direction.
Later on a powerful Icelander, Earl Erik the Eed, who
was banished from his native country, bethought him
of fitting out an expedition to explore this new territory
which Ulf had sighted. The result was that Erik came
to Greenland, and made a settlement at the place which
is now called Igaliko (an Eskimo settlement), and
which was then called Brattalid; and from this dis-
covery he won great fame. This took place about a.d.
986.

The son of one of Erik's fellow-voyagers who had
been away in Norway at the time that his father sailed,
on coming back to Iceland heard of the expedition, and
set sail to follow his father; but he was caught in a fog
and voyaged out of his course. The land he first sighted86	Norway and the Norwegians

did not at all answer to the descriptions of Greenland
which he had heard in Iceland. He saw land several
times, but never put to shore, though his crew were
anxious to do so. Leif, however, the son of Erik the
Ked, made an expedition in the same direction, and did
land in one or two places. One of these, wherein he
erected a little fort and did some trading and fighting
with the natives—whom the account calls Skrselinger,
the name which the Sagas also give to the natives of
Greenland—he called Yinland—wine-land—because his
men found grapes there. How the Icelanders recognised
the grapes for what they were is explained by the fact
that Leif had in his company a man called Tyrker, a
native of the wine-growing parts of Germany. This
Yinland is America; and there, on the American coast,
we may leave for a while this most distant settlement
of the northern race.

Now let us, remembering what was narrated in the
previous chapter, take a glance at the map of Europe,
say in the year a.d. 912, and see how wide an area was
occupied by people of the Scandinavian race. They
extended in a sort of arc, or, perhaps one should say, in
two arcs, round the Christian nations, round the people
who constituted the true Catholic Europe of the middle
ages. Looking first to the east, we see them settled in
their Greater Suithiodfrom Kiev to Novgorod. This place
—their chief city and earliest settlement—they called
Holmgaard. We do not quite know what settlements
the Norsemen had in the Gulf of Finland, in Esthonia,
and on the southern shore of the Baltic; but in the
latter region there was one very celebrated little re-
public where lies modern Mecklenburg, whose capitalExtent of Scandinavian Conquests 87

was then called Jomsborg. The inhabitants, who
were an exceedingly brave and independent race of
freebooters, went by the name of the Joms Vikings.
A certain Palnatoki is said to have been the founder of
the republic of Jomsborg. He has been chosen as the
hero of one of Bjornson's plays. Then nortH and
west of the Baltic lay the three ancient Scandinavian
countries, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway; each of
which (Norway the last) had before the end of the ninth
century coalesced into a single kingdom.

Travel to the south of Denmark and we see that in
this year, 912, the province of Neustria or Normandy
has been handed over to Eolf (Eollo) and his North-
men. Then, again, in England, Northumbria and a
large portion of the Midlands belong to the Danes and
Norsemen. At this precise moment a certain Siegfrid,
a Dane, of whom we know little, reigned in North-
umbria. But a few years afterwards he was succeeded
by a Regnald, formerly King of Waterford, and there-
fore a Norseman, not a Dane by descent. The kingdom
of Northumbria must have consisted at this time both
of Norsemen and Danes, or a Norse king would never
have been chosen to reign over it. Of the Norse settle-
ments in Ireland and Scotland we have already spoken,
and need not speak again. Then, from the Orkneys
and Shetlands we pass to the Faroes, and to Iceland;
and in the course of the century the area of Norse rule
and settlement extends to Greenland and to a fragment
of America.

What an immense power was latent in this vast
chain of nations stretching from the east to the west!
Had there been political genius enough among the88	Norway and the Norwegians

Scandinavian race at this time to allow of their uniting
into one vast confederacy, what might they not have
effected ! For one thing which is so interesting in this
Greater Scandinavia is that its inhabitants, its whole
manner of life had, within its limits, such a wonderful
uniformity, and differed so markedly from the people
and the life of Central Europe which it enclosed, of
which unity of belief and of culture was gradually
forming the Europe of the Middle Ages. The Northern
People had not enough political genius, however, to
combine together against Christian Europe. On the
contrary, it is just when, at the beginning of the tenth
century, the area of their conquests is nearly complete,
that they begin to split up once more into separate and
hostile fragments. Directly they ceased to win great
territory from Christendom, they began to dispute among
themselves for the possession of that which they had
won. This change in the warlike bent of the Scandi-
navian peoples inaugurates a new era in their history ;
a saving change it was for the inhabitants of Christ-
endom, a very fatal change it was for themselves.
Viking expeditions still continued. But they were not,
like the old ones, voyages of distant adventure directed
against peoples with whom the plunderers had nothing
in common. They were now more frequently directed
by Danes against Norsemen, by Icelanders or Orkney-
men against either, than by Scandinavians against the
Christians of England or France.

As for the Northmen of Normandy—changing from
being Northmen to being Normans—they almost from
the first moment of their settlement began to separate,
themselves in ideas and habits (and very soon in speech)Origin of Scandinavian Literature 89

from the rest of their brother Scandinavians, and to
take on the habits and thoughts and speech of their
French neighbours.

It is this Second Viking age which is the great era of
naval battles. Most of the Christian nations during the
foregone century had possessed no navies. Our King
Alfred was almost the only Christian ruler who had dared
to meet the Northmen 011 their own element. Therefore,
during the earlier Viking Age, naval engagements were
very rare ; the earlier Viking ships were almost exclu-
sively vessels of transport. But when one seafaring
nation began to turn its arms against another sea-
faring nation, then began the great age of naval battles,
such as we find described in the Sagas, and the com-
plete Viking war-ship sprang into existence. It is to
this age that vessels such as that which lies in the
Christiania Museum properly belong.

It might have been foretold that the effects of this
great stir among the people of the north would not be
exhausted by their conquests alone, nor by the change
in the character of the populations of many countries
which those conquests effected. For us the most speak-
ing memorial of this age of change and adventure lies
in the literature which it created. That is to say, the
political effects of this era have been transmuted and
absorbed in the passage of ages; but the remains of the
literature which it created or awoke to new life are still
with us undimmed by time.

The Scandinavian literature of the heroic age takes
two forms,—poetic and prose; each one is very distinct
from the other, more so even, I mean, than prose and
poetry necessarily are. It is convenient as a distinction90	Norway and the Norwegians

to speak of them respectively as the Edda and the
Saga literature; for these names have long been in use.
The rest of the present chapter we will devote to the
poetic or Edda literature.

From times far more remote than we can exactly
determine, the ancestors of all the Teutonic races must
have fixed upon a certain form of poetry, which differs
in most essential particulars from the forms of poetry
which the classical nations affected ; whether we take
the hexameter metre which Homer made classical, or
whether we take those early Latin metres, such as
the Saturnian, which went out of fashion among the
Romans when the Greek forms of poetry came in.
The poetry of the Teutonic nations had little resem-
blance to any of these. On the other hand, there is a
remarkable likeness in the form of the earliest German,
English, or Scandinavian verse.

Let us take, for example, this little fragment, which
is one of the very few relics we possess of verse com-
posed in Germany while the Germans were still
heathens. The fragment is now called ' Hildebrand and
Hadubrand.' Its plot seems to be the same as that of
the Persian legend of Sohrab and Rustem, which Mr.
Matthew Arnold has enshrined in the most beautiful of
his poems—a son unwittingly slain by his father.
This is the passage where Hildebrand mourns over the
son he has slain by his own hand. I mark by italics
the letters on which the alliteration hangs :—

Welaga nu wg-ltant got	wewurt skihit.

Ih wollota sumaro enti wintro	sehstic ur lante,

Dar man mih eo scerita	in folc sceotantero ;

So man mir at 6urg enigeru	6anun ni gefasta.

Nu seal mih swasat ohind	swertu hauwan.Old Teutonic Metre

91

Which we may translate, keeping the alliteration as
well as may be—

Weladay now worthy1 God	a woeful thing has fallen.

Sixty summers and winters 2	have I strayed from home,

While arms I bore	with the king's warriors ;

Yet never a burg	brought me my bane.

Now must I my own child	slay with the sword.

Here, again, is a fragment from one of the earliest,'and
certainly one of the finest, poems written in the English
language. The celebrated poem Beowulf seems to
have been derived, so far as its story goes, from Scandi-
navia, for its hero is a Swede. His great adventure is
in the killing of a certain monster, call him a ghoul or
a giant, which you will. His name is Grendel, and the
passage which follows describes Grendel coming from
his fastnesses among the moors and mountains to the
king's palace, in order to seize the sleeping warriors
and carry them off to devour in his den. This time I
will give a translation only, and the text in a note :—

The grim guest was	Grendel clepen ;

The mighty markstepper,	who kept the moors,

The fen and the fastness.	The fyfel-race's land

Held for a while	this wight accursed,

After the Creator	him had fashioned.

Forth he went to spy,	so soon as night had fallen,

At the high hall,	to see how the Ring-Danes

After the beer-bout	had ordered themselves.

There found he a host	of men of noble kin

Asleep after the feast;	no care knew they.3

1 Properly, 'valiant.'	2 i.e. Thirty summers and thirty winters.

3 Was se primma ^aest	Grendel hatan

iJ/sera meorcstapa;	se the morass heold

i^en and/aesten.	' JPyfel-cynnes eard

JFonsaeleg wqr	zoeardode hwile, etc.92	Norway and the Norwegians

In these translations I have imitated as closely as I
could, though necessarily but roughly, the form and
cadence of the originals. The peculiarities of the verse
consist in the facts that it is not rhymed; that its
cadence is nevertheless not measured by feet, but by
beats or accents as in our English rhymed ballad metre
of a much later date; and thirdly, that instead of by
rhymes a certain satisfaction is produced to the ear by
alliteration.

This form of verse, no doubt, was in use in Scandi-
navia at a pretty early period. It can hardly be, for
instance, but that our Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf,
had for its prototype another poem which was sung in
Denmark or Sweden. Some of the Poetry which is
classed under the head of Edda Poetry may belong to
an age before the Viking expeditions began. But
whatever may have existed before, it is quite certain
that the writing of this verse among the Scandinavians
took a great start about the end of that period which
we have spoken of as the first or the Great Viking Age.

The scene of this new development of northern verse
was not in any of the Scandinavian countries them-
selves, but rather in some one of those settlements which
the Vikings made in the British Isles. Nay, we may
say, almost for certain, that it had its origin either in
the Scottish or Irish settlements. For it was among
the Norsemen, and not among the Danes, that this new
poetry began. We may attribute it in large measure to
the contact of the Norsemen with the Celts, who were
a poetic race, and had already their bards and poet-
asters forming a regular brotherhood among them, and
whose verse had a form very closely resembling theThe Poetry of the Edda

93

Teutonic form of verse. Vigfusson, who is the greatest
scholar of Old Northern Literature which, perhaps, we
have ever had, fixes upon the earldom of the Orkneys
as the probable home of the class of poetry of which
I am speaking, and which forms the body of what is
generally known as Eddie Poetry. He points out how
different the whole spirit of this poetry is from the
northern prose literature which we know as Saga litera-
ture ; and he thinks that the difference arises from the
fact that the Eddie poetry has been the most deeply
affected by the Celtic imagination.

The rest of this chapter and the next I will devote
to a description of this early Norse poetry, and the
mythology which it enshrines.

The Poetry of the Edda is not historical in any sense
of the word; it is purely mythological. The chief part
of it is concerned professedly with the northern gods.
A certain number of poems deal with the achievements
of heroes; but these beings too are not human,—they
are a kind of gods.

It happens, unfortunately, that a writer, writing in
Christian days, at a comparatively late date in Icelandic
history, took upon himself to draw from these early
northern poems, and from traditions which had come
down to him, a system of Northern Mythology. He
combined in this system many classical elements,—
at any rate many things suggested by the mythology
of the Greeks and Romans, with which he was un-
doubtedly familiar. The book which he compiled on
this principle (which was in prose) has come to be known
as the younger or prose Edda. Its proper name is the
Gylfaginning. And ever since it was written—in the94	Norway and the Norwegians

thirteenth century1—or rather ever since it was redis-
covered by modern scholarship, it has been looked upon
as the standard authority for the mythology of the north.
People have re-read the old poerns by the light of this
commentary, and found in them much more than they
really contained. Nay, many people have gone much
further than that, and in the light of the organised
system which was furnished them by Snorri Sturluson
(for he is the author of the Younger Edda) they have
proceeded to reconstruct the ancient beliefs of the
Teutonic Nations—of the Germans of Germany and of
our own ancestors—on the analogy of the system of Snorri.

It is very difficult for us now-a-days to think away
all this; to take up the Edda poems, and read them
with a fresh eye, so as to see the impression they directly
produce. In the following short sketch of northern
mythology I will endeavour to do this; will try to give
an unbiased picture founded solely upon the ancient
and authentic fragments of poetry which have come
down to us.

But with these ancient fragments, which are really
northern, I think we may group that Anglo-Saxon
poem, Beowulf\ whereof I spoke above, or rather the
Scandinavian poem or poems from which it is derived.
The poem of Beowulf has a motive very similar to that
of many of the Edda poems. The most striking char-
acteristic of it is the picture which it draws of the giant
Grendel, the foe of man, who lives away from human
habitations, and makes war upon mankind. The con-

1 The Younger Edda is generally reckoned to contain three works, the
Gylfaginning, the Skdldskaparmdl, and the H&ttatal (a poem). The first
is the authority for the Eddie mythology.The Mythology of the Edaa	95

ception of such a being as this, dwelling in the fen and
the fastness, a haunter of the night, fits in exactly with
the experiences of a northern people, in a country
scantily inhabited and not fully explored, in a climate
in which, if there were long summer days, there were
long winter nights too, nights of darkness and bitter
cold, seasons when all the ways were closed by snow
and ice, or made dangerous by storms and floods. How
naturally would such a northern people, pent in, by
groups, within the limits of their villages and home-
steads, conceive the notion of a vast and terrible out-
side world peopled by monsters such as the Grendel of
Beowulf! It is this same imagery which forms the
staple of the mythology of the Eddas.

The idea of a giant-haunted world is so engrained in
the mythology of the German races that, even to our
minds, it is one of the most familiar of mythic notions;
though with us it has sunk down to a level with the
nursery tales in which alone it survives. To our remote
forefathers it was a very real and a very terrible idea.
In the north the giant race was associated with the
worst, the most inimical of the influences of Nature, with
the frosts and snows which abounded in these countries.
Thus, in the Edda, the giants—they are called giants,
jdtuns,jdtnar, or monsters, thursar—are generally spoken
of collectively as frost-monsters, HHm-Thursar. This
shows, it seems to me, that these beings, as they appear
in the Edda poems, are essentially a Norse conception,
and not at all Celtic. Some have, besides, horrible
individual names which prove them to have been as
terrible as the Grendel of Beowulf. One of the giants
in the Edda, for instance, is called Corpse-devourer.g6	Norway and the Norwegians

Some personify the ancient forming powers of the
universe; some the world before it became formed, and
was but a chaos, a gaping as of night. They are very
ancient these giants, older than the gods; all human
progress is a war upon them, for they are anterior to
all human beginnings, and are for ever endeavouring
to bring back the world to the state in which it was
before change began.

Man would never alone be able to cope with these
monsters—though now and then there arises an indi-
vidual hero who, like Beowulf, is able to contend with
a giant. But man in the north is under the protection
of the great god Thor, the thunderer, whose peculiar
mission it is to make war upon giants and wizards,
whom he destroys with his wonderful hammer, the
thunder-bolt.1 Thor seems to have been the special
god of the Scandinavian folk; and the number of names,
both of persons and places, containing his name witness
to the estimation in which he was held—Thorgeir, Thor-
stein, Thoralf, Thorulf, Thorketil, Thorgrim, Thorarin,
Thorfinn, Thorleif, Thorhall, Thorgerda, Thorhild: it
would be impossible to give them all. Then of places—
Thursby, Thurston, Thurstanton, Thursfield, Thordal,
Thorhus, Thorsborg, Thorshalla, Thorsnut, Thorvik, Thor-
strand—are some in England and in Scandinavia.2 In
England, the place-names of this class occur chiefly in

1	Mjolnir, the crusher.

2	It is not always possible to distinguish with certainty in place-names
between compounds of the word ' Thor' and of the word 'thurs/ a monster.
In personal names, 'thurs' is hardly likely to form an ingredient.
'Thurso' is an example of a place containing the word 'thurs' (plural
' thursar'). It means the monsters' island—some giant, no doubt, having
been supposed to have his dwelling there. In some Sagas it is called
' Thursa-skjaer,' giants' rock.The God Thor

97

those parts in wliich the Danes and Norsemen were
settled; we may assume, therefore, that they were
brought in by the Vikings, and were not Anglo-Saxon.
Whereas the place-names compounded of the name of
the greatest Saxon divinity, Woden, such as Wednes-
field, Wednesbury, though these are far less numerous,
occur in localities outside the sphere of Scandinavian
influence.

In Scandinavia itself the proper names of persons or
of places which contain the name of Odin (Odhinn, the
northern equivalent of our Woden) are much less
numerous than those which contain the name of Thor.
Odensjo (Odin's lake), Odinshog (Odin's mound), are
places that occur in the map of Sweden and Norway: the
first two in Sweden. Odin itself occurs as a man's name,
as does Thor. The local name Odnses, and the proper
names Odd, Oddrun, Oddny—these last two are women's
names—are connected with a root odd, which means a
' point' of land or a ' head' of a family or of a troop.
On the whole, the traces of the worship of Odin are
much less conspicuous in Scandinavia than the traces
of the worship of Thor—certainly among the Norsemen
and Icelanders. Indeed, we may say that among the
Norsemen and the Danes (we judge very much from
the traces which these have left behind them in our
country), Thor, though he was not originally the chief
god of the Scandinavians—for that was Odin—was. the
most thought of and most often in men's mouths.

In the best description that has come down to us of
a temple of the later days of heathendom, the descrip-
tion, namely, of a temple which stood at Upsala, and
probably gave its name (Upp-salr, High Hall) to that

G98	Norway and the Norwegians

place, Thor is spoken of as seated in the middle, and
on either side of him Odin and Frey. And the same
writer says that Thor rules the air, and governeth the
thunder and lightning, and that Odin is the god of war,
' and his name signifieth madness. The third is Trey,
who gives us peace and enjoyment, and is the god of
generation.'

This description shows that a change had taken
place in the characters of the Norse gods since the
earliest days. For originally Odin was certainly the
god of the air; and it is certain that originally it was
Odin who was the chief god, the All-Father, the
Fimbul-tyr, or chief god, of all the Scandinavian people;
as indeed he was once of all the people of Teutonic
race, of English and Germans (of our ancestors, and
the ancestors of the Germans) as well as of the ancient
Scandinavians. Of Odin we will speak more fully
presently.

We saw in the above description mention made of a
third god Frey or Fricco. Frey is rather specially a
god of the Swedes. Then there is a fourth god, Tyr, who
figures in the Edda poems, but not very conspicuously.

We may, perhaps, classify the three gods as above
mentioned who stand next to Odin as follows :—

Thor is by far the most conspicuous and original a
figure. He embodies the characteristics of the Norse
people as they were—nay, as they are—to be studied in
their native land. His adventures express the terror with
which the Norsemen were inspired by the unknown forces
of nature by which they were surrounded, by the cold
and darkness, and by the great tracts of mountain and
of heath, of barren unexplored territory. And at theFrey

99

same time he expresses the courage and resolution
with which all these forces were met and confronted;
and above all, he expresses the humour which was
never far absent from the Norseman's mind even in
the midst of the strangest surroundings and of the
greatest dangers. There is no 'high falutin' about Thor.
He sometimes fails conspicuously and makes himself
ridiculous; but more frequently the laugh is upon his
side. It has been said of Thor that, by the side of
Odin, he is a somewhat rustic figure. He is essentially
the god of the bondi or yeoman-farmer at home in
Norway or in Iceland. He is not in an equal degree the
god of the Yiking, the seafarer and adventurer. Thor
is a patron of agriculture as well as a constant fighter.

Frey is a great contrast to Thor in most particulars,
though he resembles him in some. We know so little
of the Swedes during this period that we cannot say
whether Frey represents them as well as Thor represents
the people of the Sagas; but if he does so they must
have been a much more peaceful race than their brother
Scandinavians. It is possible that this was the case.
It seems to be a law of national growth that people are
capable of exhausting their energy by great achieve-
ments, and that after these efforts they are condemned
to a period of long repose. The Danes and Norsemen
exhausted their energies by the immense vigour which
they displayed during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh
centuries. The Swedes, on the other hand, owe their
chief title to fame to their achievements in the days of
Gustavus-Adolphus and of Charles the Twelfth. If we
assume that, during the earlier centuries of Scandinavian
history, they were as much inferior in energy and spiritioo Norway arid the Norwegians

to the Danes and Norsemen as the Danes (for instance)
were inferior to the Swedes in the days of Gustavus-
Adolphus, we shall understand why the Swedish
national god Frey is so different from the Norse god
Thor. I say this may have been the case with the Swedes.
True, there is the history of the conquest of Russia, of
Greater Suithiod, which seems to negative that supposi-
tion. But then we have no details of this conquest.
The country may have been very sparsely inhabited;
in any case the danger of attacking it cannot have
been as great, or seemed so great, as would in those
days appear an attack upon the famous empire of the
Franks or on the hardy English.

Frey is, of course, to some extent a warrior; no
northern god could be otherwise. He is, like Thor, a
patron of agriculture. And in his essence he is a god
of peace. Men pray to him for good harvests and for
peace. He is a god of spring-time; much more of
what is called a Nature-god than any other god of the
northern mythology. All the gods were in their origin
embodiments of natural phenomena or natural forces.
Thor, as we have said, was originally the thunder;
Odin was the wind or the storm; Frey, the spring, or
the early vegetation clothing the earth. But Frey
alone still keeps his nature-being pretty conspicuously
before our eyes. Odin and Thor have become idealised
men and little else.

Another name of the god Frey is Yngvi, Ynge. Under
this name he is the ancestor of the royal race of Sweden
and of the first royal race of all Norway, the line of
Harald Fairhair. This race was called the Ynglings.
Certain feminine names which we meet with in NorseBalder

history, Ingeborg, Ingegerd, are perhaps derived from
Yngvi-Frey.

Then Tyr: we need not pause to speak much of
him. In times long past he had been the chief god of
all the Teutonic races, and he is essentially one with
the classic Zeus and Jupiter. But before the Norse
mythology comes much into view he has sunk to be
a secondary character. He is called the God of War.
But in the Eddas Odin is really this. So we may
speak of Tyr as having become a lesser Odin and no
more.

Another god about whom we hear much in the
Younger Edda, the Prose Edda of Snorri, but much less
in the Edda lays which have come down to us, is Balder.
Most readers know something of the story of this beauti-
ful young god, who was slain by accident by his blind
brother Hoder, was carried to the under-world, with
such universal grief that all nature, save one being only,
wept to bring him back to earth. After Balder had
been carried down to the kingdom of the dead, the
gods sent a messenger to the regent of that kingdom,
whose name was Hel,1 to pray her to let the god come
back to earth. She promised that she would do so
if all things on earth, both living and dead, wept for
him. And when the message was brought round, all
things did weep, all living things, and earths and stones
and trees and metals, 'just as thou hast no doubt seen
these things weep when they are brought from a cold
place into a hot one.' Only one person refused

1 Our word Hell is, of course, identical with this word. But in the
Norse mythology Hel appears not so often as the name for the kingdom
of the dead, which is called Helheim, as for the queen of that region.102 Norway and the Norewgians

to shed a tear, an old crone named Thokk, who
sang—

Thokk will wail with dry tears
Over Balder's bale;

Nor quick nor dead for the carl's son care I,

Let Hel hold her own.

And the old crone, it was thought, was none other but
Loki in disguise; c for Loki never ceased to work evil
among the gods.' Such is the story of Balder's death.
But we must not assume that this is a pure product of
northern mythology; though evidently there has been a
lay about it which is now lost, and therefore the story
has as much a right to be considered ancient as any
other in the poetic Edda. But all the Edda—all the
northern mythology, almost—has in it a touch of
Christianity; and in this story of Balder we have the
strongest element of all.

It remains now to speak of the most important god
of all, of Odin.

Odin was not a national god in the sense that Thor
was a god of the Norsemen and of the Danes, and that
Frey was especially a god of the Swedes. He has been
sometimes spoken of as the god of the Vikings; but we
must really consider him as the god of all the Teutonic
nationalities, for we know that he was worshipped by
our Anglo-Saxon ancestors; his name occurs in the
genealogies of their kings, and there are a certain
number of places in England which contain his name.
In England he was called Woden. Among the conti-
nental Germans he was Wodan or Wuotan. He may
have at one time been a sort of god of the heavens or
of the sky. We know that he was called Allfather; and
that is an epithet which religions very generally applyOdin

to a god of the sky. But the character in which the
Norse Odin comes before us is certainly that of a god
of the storm. So that, looked upon in this aspect, we
may say that he and Thor divide between them the
wilder phenomena of nature. Thor is the god of the
thunderstorm; and his business is to fight against the
embodiments of frost and snow, the giants who haunt
the mountains and woods. Odin, as the storm wind,
travels with unequalled swiftness over land and sea;
his breath stirs up in men the excitement of battle, the
love of carnage. We know that in every language the
ideas of battle and of storm are confused; people talk
of the storm of battle and the battle of the elements.

Thus much for the original character of Odin. It
is quite natural that this being should have become the
favourite god of the Vikings, who had so much to do
with both kinds of storms. Thor might be supposed to
stay at home in Norway, to fight with the frost-giants
, there, and to look after the interests of his special
clients, the yeomen-farmers, at home. Bub that new
race of adventurers, the Yikings, had a right, if any one
had, to claim the protection of Odin. In their hands
there grew up a more elaborate mythology concerning
this god than had been known of before.

Let us realise once again the scenery in which the
greater part of the Edda poetry and mythology took
their final forms. The regions of immense mountains
and of vast tracts of ice and snow had been left behind;
and the descendants of the Vikings, who composed the
later Edda poems, the most elaborate and most beauti-
ful of the series, found themselves in the storm-vexed
islands of the Orkneys or Shetlands. There are many104 Norway and the Norwegians

passages and expressions in the Edda poems which
must have been uttered amid surroundings of this
kind. Then, again, the northmen had mingled with
the Celts and had imbibed much of their spirit, nay,
had inherited much of their blood. For it is remark-
able, as Yigfusson has pointed out, how many of the
celebrated northern bards are spoken of as dark men
(having black hair and eyes), which argues an ad-
mixture of Celtic blood in their veins. Amid all these
influences grew up what we may call the new mytho-
logy of the Norsemen.

All the interest of this mythology centres round the
figure of Odin, who is surrounded by a sort of college of
priestesses. Once these inspired women had been real
priestesses of the great god, and had gained from him
the power of divination. We see mention of such wise
women among the German races, wherever they come
before us in history. But in the new Edda mythology
these priestesses have been transformed into a race of-
Amazons, who ride to battle with the god of the storm
of battle; they, like a sort of houris, choose their
favourites among mortal wTarriors, whose arms they
bless, and whom, when they die, they are allowed to
take with them to heaven. Yalkyriur (sing. Valkyria)
is the name of these maidens of Odin;1 and some of the
most exquisite passages of northern poetry are those
which refer to them and to their relations with men.
There is a fortified city where the gods dwell. Its
name is Asgaard, the home of the iEsir (gods). (Such is
the picture which later Eddie mythology draws for us.)

1 ' Choosers of the slain;' the Walkilrien of Wagner's Ring des
Nibelungen.Odin and the Valkyriur	105

And in that Asgaard there has been prepared a
special home for all heroes. It is called Valholl, the
hall of the chosen, the hall of the heroes, and is pre-
sided over by Odin and his Valkyriur, 'the choosers of
the slain,' whose business it is from every battlefield to
select the heroes who are worthy to go to Yalholl.

The imagination of the Norsemen did really behold
that celestial company : Odin riding through the air on
his eight-footed horse Sleipnir, the swiftest of steeds,
and with him riding his troop of shield-maidens-—' three
nines of maidens/ as one poem says—mounted upon,
their horses, their bare-backed steeds. And the theory
which lay at the root of all this business of choosing
slain warriors and transporting them to Yalholl was
that the powers of rude nature, the Giants and Trolls,
were always ready to make war on the abode of the
gods, and that one day they would all combine for one
great assault upon it, the issue of which no man could
foresee.

This is, in the language of sober prose, the myth of
Odin and the Valkyriur, and of Valholl (Walhalla).
But prose is not the form in which it should be uttered.
To appreciate it we have to look at it through the
medium of the old northern poetry.

' Three troops of maidens, though one maid foremost rode,

A white and helmed maid :

Their horses shook themselves, and from their manes there fell

Dew in the deep dales and on the high hills hail.'

Many other lesser gods are mentioned. Bragi is one,
a god of poetry, and also in a manner a god of rash and
boasting vows (whence our 'brag'). For it was the
custom at feasts to hand round a cup called the Bragi-106 Norway and the Norwegians

cup, over which men (being then half drunk) vowed to
perform deeds which, in the cooler morning, they were
often loath to set about. But Bragi is really only
another name of Odin. Hermodhr (Battle-fury) also
appears as one of the gods of Gods-burg (As-gaard).
His name, too, is only another of Odin's names.

There is Skirnir (the Shiner), Frey's messenger, who
is really his double. There is CEger, the god of the sea,
from which is derived the word ' eager/ which is some-
times given to that tidal wave otherwise called the
' bore.' There is Niordhr, also a god of the sea. And
more interesting than any of these there is Heimdal
(Homedale), whose other name is Eigh. He is a kind
of universal ancestor, and appears as the fashioner of
humankind. His second name Eigh seems to be Celtic,
not Scandinavian.

Then there are the goddesses. Frigg, the wife of
Odin, is the chief of these. The name, compared to
that of Frey, or Fricco, shows her to be really the
feminine counterpart of that god—that is to say, a
goddess of springtime, of peace and pleasure. There
is, moreover, another being Freyja, who is called the
sister of Frey. It is obvious that Frigg and Freyja are
really one and the same. There is Nanna, the wife of
Balder, who has scarcely any individuality; and Idun,
a goddess of perpetual youth (the Hebe of the North).
She, too, is probably identical with Freyja and Frigg.

Stranger than all of these is the devil-god, the
mysterious inhabitant of the gods-burg, Loki. He, as
we saw,' ceases not to work evil among the -ZEsir.' Some
writers of authority think him no more than an
adaptation from the Lucifer of the Christians.CHAPTER Y

the edda mythology (continued)

The Underworld

All that was described in the last chapter belonged to
the present world, to the aspects of nature as they
might be seen in Norway or Sweden, the birthplaces of
the ancestral belief of the Norsemen; or as they might
be seen in the storm-vexed lands to which the Vikings
made their way, and which were the actual birthplaces
of the Edda poetry that has come into our hands.

But the thoughts of our northern forefathers were
very much concerned (as indeed are most mythologies)
with the world beyond the grave—call it Underworld
or Outer world as you will—which was a place to be
reached by a journey towards the bowels of the earth,
or one to which the soul travelled by a long journey
on the earth.

The contact of the Vikings with the Christians, who,
of course, were full of thoughts and teachings concern-
ing the future state, was sure to intensify the former's
interest on these points. For, as a matter of fact, no
one among the Christian nationalities was more con-
cerned with speculations—ay, and visions—touching the
future state than just that nationality with which the

107io8 Norway and the Norwegians

Vikings came in contact—the Christian Celts. The
many recorded visions which came out of Ireland and
Scotland, and from Irish and Scottish monks, the
visions of Furseus, of Drihthelm, of Adamnan, of Tun-
dale, are a sufficient memorial of this fact.

Moreover, towards the year 1000, the hearts of
all Christians in Europe began to beat with fear, or
with hope. For the millennary of the first coming of
Christ to earth was confidently fixed upon as the end
of the rule of the powers of earth, the period of the
return of Christ to reign in power and establish the
millennium of the Church Triumphant. We may guess,
from the fragments that have come down to us, how
all these thoughts reacted on the imagination of the
framers of the Edda lays.

By the side of the picture of the giants and the land
of the giants given us in the Edda poetry, we have
a picture of the underworld. This borders so closely
on the giants' land, that the two cannot always be dis-
tinguished. But if I may venture on a conjecture, I
should say that, as the cold Jotunheim (giant-home),
the region of frost and snowT, is characteristically Norse,
the region of the underworld was originally chiefly Celtic;
and that the confounding of these two places, to the
extent that it occurs in the Edda, is really the mingling
of two different mythologies.

The finest portions of the Edda poetry are those which
bring us in contact one way or another with the under-
world. They do this in various ways. Sometimes
they speak of the summoning from his tomb or funeral
mound of a dead man, some father or ancestor of the
person who conjures him; more frequently a deadVisits to the Underworld	109

woman, some Vdiva or wise woman is summoned from
her tomb. Other poems take us on a journey to the
underworld. And finally we have a long poem, the
most beautiful in the whole Edda, deeply imbued with
Celtic-Christian mythology, which brings up all the
beings of the underworld to join with the race of giants
in a final battle against gods and men.

There are three Edda myths which tell almost the
same story,—the visit of a god to the underworld. The
first account comes from two lays, known as the Con-
juring of Groa (Grougaldr), and the lay ofFiolsvinn
(.Fjolsvissmdl), in which a certain god or hero Svipdag
(day-swoop, daybreak) goes down to rescue a maiden
who seems to be confined in the netherworld in a hall
surrounded by flame. On his way he visits the tomb
of his mother, Groa, and by incantations, we may be-
lieve, makes her arise from her tomb, and give him
counsel before proceeding on his mission—

' Awake thou, Groa, awake sweet lady,

At the door of death I wake thee ;

Rememberest how thy son thou badest
Unto thy cairn to come.'

Then she awakes and cries—

' Why callest thou thy mother who is come to mould,
And gone from the world of men ?'

After that she teaches him charms to keep him safe on
his journey.

When he has reached the underworld or giant-land,
for the two are not kept distinct here, the adventurer
sees the house of the maiden—Menglod is her name—
and this house is encircled by fire. It is guarded by
a monster—no Norway and the Norwegians

*	What monster is it within the fore-court standing,

And hovering round the burning flame ?'

And a little later he asks the same guardian giant—

' How name they this hall that is girt round
With a certain flickering flame ?'

The house girt round by flame occurs again in one of
the poems belonging to what is called the Yolsung
Cycle,1 because it tells the story of Sigurd or Sigrod,
who corresponds to the Siegfried of the Niebelungen
legend. In the lay I speak of, called the lay of
Sigrdrifa, we find a maiden, Sigrdrifa,2 who has been
cast into a magic sleep, which is really the sleep of
death, lying in a hall ringed about by fire; and through
that fire Sigurd has to ride on his horse Grani to
awaken her, or to rouse her to fresh life—

*	I know that on the fell a war-maiden sleeps ;

Around her flickers the linden's bane;3

With his sleep-thorn Odin has pierced the maiden,

Who the god's chosen dared in battle to bring low.'

This act is the counterpart of Day-swoop's in bringing
back the Lady of the Necklace.—That is the meaning
of the name Menglod.4

Now we come to a third story similar to the foregoing
ones, a third Hell-ride told in the poem called Skirnir's
Journey (Skirnisfor). Skirnir is a lesser god, who is
sent by Frey to woo for him a maiden called Gerd.
Gerd, like Menglod, lives either in the land of the
giants, or under the earth in the land of the dead.

1	The cycle of poems which tell the same story as is told by the late
German poem the Nibelunge-not, and which to many modern readers
will be best known through Wagner's opera cited above.

2	Another name of Brynhild, apparently.	3 Fire.

4 And Menglod is really Freyja.Conjuration of the Dead

in

Skirnir does not, like Svipdag, begin by a visit to a
tomb. He borrows a horse from the god Frey, and
that god's sword. He knows that he will have to ride
through the flame which surrounds Gerd's home. ' Give
me/ he says—

4 Give me thy steed, then, that he may bear me through

The murk flickering flame.'

From a fragment of poetry not actually included in
the collection called Edda, but of just the same char-
acter as its poetry, we have another presentation of this
fire, which always seems to surround the dead. This
time it appears as if it flared out of the tomb itself, or
the funeral mound. The fragment of poetry of which
I speak is taken from the Saga of Hervor and Heidrek.1
The story tells, among other things, of the visit made
by a lady, Hervor, to the ' how'2 of her father, Agantyr,
which lies on an island in Sweden—much as Day-
Swoop visits the tomb of Groa—in order to summon
him from his death-sleep and learn from him the burial-
place of a certain magic sword which is an heirloom.
When she first comes to the island Hervor finds a shep-
herd, and asks the way to the mound. He answers—

4 Who is this to the island come alone ?

Go hence straightway shelter to seek.'

Hervor repeats her question; but he supposes her to be
a witch and runs away.

''Run we fast as our feet will carry us ;

All is awful for me to look upon :

Fires are flickering, graves are gaping;

Burn fold and fell. Let us run faster.'

1	Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks, caps. iv. v.

2	Funeral mound.H2 Norway and the Norwegians

And she says—

4 Be not we affrighted at such moaning;

Though on all sides the island burns.

Ajar lies hell-gate, the how is opened ;

Fire I behold all round the island.'

Then she awakes her father and he speaks to her.

There is one more hell-journey of which I have to
speak. This is the most celebrated of them all, the
famous ride of Odin, under the name of Vegtam, to the
underworld.1 Odin went to inquire what meant the
portents which seemed to foretell harm to Balder, and
which did, in fact, as we know, foretell his death.

Like so many other journeys to the underworld, this
of the Sire of Gods and Men includes a visit to a tomb.
It is the tomb of a sibyl; this time the tomb seems
itself to stand within the world of shades, just outside
the eastern gate of the city or citadel of Hel herself,
the queen of the dead.

' Downward he rode towards Niflhel,2
There met him the hell-hound from its cave coming :
Bloody it was upon its breast;

And it bayed and gaped wide
At the sire of runic song.

Onward rode Odin—the earth echoed—

Till to the high Hel's home he came.

Then rode the god to the eastern gate,

Where he knew there was a vala's3 grave.

To the wise one began he his charms to chant,

Till she uprose a-force, and the dead one spake :

" Say what man of men to me unknown
Trouble has made for me, and my rest destroyed.

Snow has snowed o'er me, rain has rained upon me,
Dew has bedewed me,—I have long been dead." '

1	Well known through Gray's rendering: The Descent of Odin.

2	Niflhel is a place—mist-hell.	3 Vala or Volva, a Seeress.Ragnardk: the Doom of the Gods 113

It remains to speak of the rise of the infernal powers
against the gods, the corollary, as we have called it, to
the myth of Odin and the Heroes; and of the final battle
which these are to wage with the giant race, the beings
of Frost and Snow, with whom are allied beings of
Darkness and Death. To the history of this great final
battle—this Armageddon of the northern mythology—
is dedicated one long poem of the Edda, which is
perhaps the finest of them all. It is called Voluspd;
or,' The Wise One's Prophecy,' the prophecy being of the
end of the world. In the old manuscript collection
called Edda, from which all subsequent translations
have been taken, this poem Volusjpd stands the first.
It is not, however, by any means the earliest in date of
all the northern poems. We may surmise that it was
composed a little before the year 1000, for then, we
have said, the thoughts of Christian Europe were full of
the expectation of the second coming of Christ to judge
the world; full of expectation, of hope, but still more
of dread; and I take it that this Voluspd poem is the
reflection on the minds of the half-Christianized north-
men in the Scottish islands of this same pre-occupation,
of the same hope and dread. It is impossible to say
how much the fancies of Celts and of Christians have
mingled with genuine northern mythology to form this
poem. Certainly the result achieved has an almost
unrivalled beauty among creations of this order.

Voluspd, the prophecy of the volva or sibyl, begins
with an account of the origin of all things; with de-
scriptions of the different races of the earth; with some
obscure hints of past history when the world was young.
Then, about the middle of the poem, it passes from

H114 Norway and the Norwegians

reminiscences of the far-away past to prophecies of a
far-away future—namely, to the Last Day, as it pre-
sented itself to the northern mind. The end of the
world is to begin with a terrible winter of three years'
duration. All folk living on earth will perish in this
cold. Only the immortal powers of good and evil—the
gods from Asgaard, the City of the Gods, the heroes
who have been translated thither, and dwell in the hall
of the chosen Yolholl (Walhalla)—will be left to fight
in this final battle.

' Swart grows the sunshine, and no summer after;

All the winds are death-winds.'1

And then out of this darkness the Last Day dawns, as
over graves:

' There on a how 2 sat, striking his harp,

The giantess' watch, glad Egdir.

Crowed to him from gallows'-wood
A bright red cock that Fjalar hight.

Crowed to the gods Gullinkambi; 3
And another crowed from beneath the earth,

A dusk-red cock in the halls of Hel.

Fiercely the hell-hound bays from the Gnipa-cave,
Its fetter breaks, and the wolf runs free.

How is it with the iEsir, how with the Alfar ? 4
Jotunheim roars ! The iEsir come to council;

And the dwarfs are moaning before their stony doors.
Know ye what that betokens ?'

There are three great battles of this dooms-day—
Kagnarok. Odin, the chief god, fights with a certain
Fenrir, the hell-hound or hell-wolf, the son of Loki;
Thor fights with another of Loki's children called

1	Or winds from the dead, laden with pestilence.

2	The funeral mound,	3 Gold-comb.	4 The elves.The Doom of the Gods	115

Jormungandr, the great earth-serpent who encircles the
world. Frey fights with the fire-god, Surt.

' Surt from the south comes, the giant with the sword ;

The gods' sun shines reflected from his shield ;

Rocks are shaken ; giantesses totter;

Heroes fare to hell; and heaven is cleft in twain.'

When Odin has been killed by Fenrir he is revenged
by Yidar, who strikes his sword into the heart of the
wolf. Thor kills Jormungandr; but, suffocated by the
dragon's poisonous breath, he recoils nine paces and
falls dead. Tyr and Garm (another hell-hound) slay
one another. Last two of all, Loki, the embodiment of
evil, and Heimdall, an ancient creator-god, fight: each
kills the other. And now the Death-Flame (Surt)
stalks unhindered over earth, and, spreading fire 011
every side, consumes it all.

* The sun darkens ; the earth sinks into the sea.

From heaven fall the bright stars.

The Fire-wind storms round the all-nourishing tree ;

The flame assails high heaven itself.'

The original myth of Ragnarok perhaps ended here,
drawing a veil over all things, plunging the earth again
into darkness, as out of darkness it had emerged. As
the old proverb said: 'Few can see farther forth than
when Odin meets the wolf.' But the Voliispd does
pass beyond this picture, and, influenced thereto by
Christianity, lifts the veil again upon a new world,
which rises out of the ocean of chaos, peopled by a new
race of mankind, and a younger generation of Msir.
In a passage of the Voluspd of unrivalled beauty we
are told how the prophetess, with an eye which pierces
beyond Ragnarok,—116 Norway and the Norwegians

i Sees arise, a second time,

Earth from ocean, green again ;

Waters fall once more ; the eagle flies over,

And from the fell fishes for his prey.

The iEsir come together on Ida's plain ;

Of the earth-encircler, the mighty one, they speak.

Then to the mind are brought ancient words,

And the runes by Fimbultyr found.

Then will once more the wondrous
Golden tablets in the grass be found,

Which in the ancient days the iECsir had,

The folk-ruling gods, and Fiolnir's race.

Unsown shall the fields bear fruit.

Evil shall depart; Balder come back again;

In Hropt's high hall dwell Balder and Hoder,

The happy gods.

A hall I see brighter than the sun,

With gold adorned, on Gimil;

There shall noble princes dwell,

And without end the earth possess.

Then rides the Mighty One, to the gods' doom going,
The Strong One from above who all things governs.
He strifes shall stay and dooms shall utter,

Holiness establish which shall ever be.

These are the chief elements in the mythology of the
northern folk as it is given us in the Edda. The
doings of the gods, however, occupy only a certain
space in Norse poetry. Next (I do not mean next in
point of time), after the lays, which are concerned with
the gods and godesses, come the heroic lays or ballads
which relate the doings of some great hero. These
ballads are far less characteristically northern than is
the pantheon of the Eddie gods. That it was a Scan-
dinavian habit as much as a German one, among theThe Heroic Lays	117

Germans whom Caesar and Tacitus describe, to compose
these heroic ballads we may be pretty sure. How
otherwise than through some one or some collec-
tion of these could we English have obtained our
poem Beowulf? But still the fact remains that the
ballads of the Edda have to borrow from Germany
for their principal figure. This personage is the Siegfried
of the Nibelungen legend, who in these northern poems
appears as Sigurd or Sigrod. The family to which
Sigurd belongs is here called the Volsungs; in the
German poem he is 'King of the Mbelungs.' But that
the Siegfried legend is a tradition which has travelled to
the north from Germany, and that it belongs to the time
of the great German migrations, and of the fall of Kome,
there can be 110 reasonable doubt. The German legend,
even in the very late form which has come down to us,
still preserves the names of some of the great heroes of
the time of the German invasions, such as Theodoric
the Goth, and Atila the Hun. Theodoric has in the
German become Dietrich. Atila survives as Etzel;
in the Scandinavian poems he figures as Atli. Another
great personage of the same age also figures in the
Scandinavian myths; Eormanrik, the Gothic king, who
ruled in what is now Eussia, and whose kingdom was
destroyed by the Huns.

One might imagine that the old legend of Siegfried
which lingered so long in Germany, and was finally put
down in the ballad which we know as the Nibelungen
Lied, was originally a Gothic legend; for we see that,
taking all the forms in which it has come down to us,
it preserves the names of two great Gothic heroes,—
Eormanrik and Theodorik,—and of one man, the special118 Norway and the Norwegians

foe of the Gothic race, Atila. And as the Goths were
undoubtedly much more nearly related to the Scandi-
navians than were any other of the German peoples,
this might account for the fact of the legend filtering
back to the north.

Seeing that it did thus filter back, and that the
northern ballad-mongers must have been full of the
great deeds done by the Goths and other nations, cousins
of the Scandinavians, in the fourth and fifth centu-
ries, at the time Eome fell, we cannot but allow our-
selves to speculate how far the thought of these deeds,
the vague traditions of the riches and grandeur of the
Eoman empire, may have spurred the first Viking
adventurers forth on their journeys, and to their attacks
upon Christendom. And if we admit the possibility of
this, may not we guess further, that a vague tradition
of the kingdom of Eormanrik, the Goth, which was
flourishing in the fourth century, may have enticed the
first Swedish travellers into Eussia in the early years
of the ninth century ?

The mythologic poems, then, and the heroic or legend-
ary poems, form two divisions of the old northern verse.
There is a third division, which in bulk is greater than
either of the others—the encomice or laudatory ballads
on living persons or persons just dead. These contain
the only historic element in the poetry of the north.

It became the custom early in the history of the
Earls of Orkney, and of the Kings of Norway and
Sweden, for certain poets to attach themselves to the
courts of these rulers. Generally they were warriors,
too, who shared in the adventures of their masters, and
sang them afterwards. But I dare say the king tookCourt Poetry

119

the best care he could not to let his vates sacer run too
great risks, lest he himself should go down to his
long night unsung. We read, for example, of St. Olaf
appointing a special guard (shield-burg) for his court-
poet. The custom of having a poet at court was
adopted by the northern kings from the Irish or the
Highlanders,—it was a Celtic custom. We have a long
series of poems of the historic era by the skalds(i.e. bards),
as they were called, whose names, and something of
whose character have been handed down to us. In
its metre most of this court poetry differs in certain
respects from the older mythological and heroic poetry.

Before it had come into vogue, moreover, the literary
centre of the north had moved from the Western
Islands to Iceland, so that most of these court poets are
spoken of as Icelanders. But still the skalds were very
often Irishmen by descent; as we have said, the descrip-
tions of them represent them as dark-haired, dark-eyed
men, for the most part, of a turbulent, adventurous,
Celtic character. Almost the earliest of the encomiae
is the piece which was composed in memory of Erik
Blodox, the son of Harald Fairhair, a personage of
whom we shall have hereafter to speak. And this is
the most beautiful of them all. It begins by describ-
ing how Odin awakes from sleep, having dreamt that a
host of dead heroes were on their way to Yalholl, and
orders the benches and the mead-cups to be got ready
for them. Presently they are heard approaching—

' What thunder is it, as if a thousand men were tramping,
Or a mighty host drew near ?

The walls are breaking,—as though 'twere Balder come
Again to Odin's hall.'120 Norway and the Norwegians

The best and earliest of the court poems are written
in the old Eddie metre and spirit, the same as those
in which the best of the mythological poems are written.
But the regular race of court bards, who begin in the
time of King Hakon (see Chapter vil), write in a new
metre, and in a style which, as the ages go on, grows
more and more affected and prdcieux. We shall see
quite late in the history of the kings of Norway this
fashion of encomia or court-ballad dying down with
the last embers of Norse adventure. The poets at the
court of Hakon the Good, of Gunhild's sons, of
Olaf Tryggvason, and of Olaf the Saint, were retained
in order that they might be a sort of rhyming chroniclers
of the deeds of these kings. And it is quite evident
that many of the Kings' Lives, or Sagas of the Kings,
on which our knowledge of Norse history is founded,
have been chiefly made up from these long poems, of
which, in most cases, fragments only remain to the
present day. Thus, in the prose Sagas, we very fre-
quently find a certain courtier taking ,a very con-
spicuous part in giving advice to the king, or help to
him in battle. It puzzles us at first to understand why
this individual, who does not appear to have been one
of the first men in rank, should hold such a prominent
place in the prose tale. The mystery is explained
when we realise that he is the author of the poem on
which the prose Saga is founded. It is natural that he
should record at great length the events in which he
himself bore a conspicuous part.

Among the more distinguished of these court bards
—distinguished either by the excellence of their verse,
by their achievements, or by their favour with the kingCourt Poetry

121

—may be cited Hornklofi, of the court of Hakon the
Good; Glum Geirason, the bard of Harald Greyfell;
Einar, Earl Hakon's poet; Halfred Vandrsedaskald
(the Troublesome Bard), who was a devoted friend of
Olaf Tryggvason; and Sighvat, the poet of St. Olaf, who
must have left a long poem describing all the achieve-
ments of that hero. Of most of the works of these
court poets we have only very few remains, by com-
parison with what they may reasonably be conjectured
to have written.

This later court poetry is genuinely Icelandic; most
of the bards about the persons of the kings having been
by birth Icelanders. The little Eepublic held a unique
position among the Scandinavian nations for its literary
achievements. But for all that this later court poetry
is Icelandic in origin, the true power of Icelandic
literature does not lie in the direction of poetry, but of
prose. It is by the development of the prose tale, the
Saga, that Iceland has won for herself a permanent and
no mean place in the literary history of the world.

The growth and character of this literature deserve to
be spoken of in a chapter to themselves.CHAPTEK YI

THE SAGAS

Let us go back to the foundation of the colony in Ice-
land. The earliest settlers in the island had gone
thither, as would appear, from some portions of the
British Islands, very largely, probably^ from Ireland.
For many Irish or Highland names are mentioned
among those of the early settlers. A considerable num-
ber of these foreigners were brought to the country as
thralls of the Norsemen. But there were also not a
few who went thither as freemen, and took land along-
side the Scandinavian settlers. One of the two heroes
of the celebrated Saga called Njdla, Gunnar of Litha-
rendi, namely, was the third in descent from an Irish
settler in Iceland. The other hero of the Saga (to which
he has given his name) must have had some Irish parent-
age; for his name, Njal, is really Irish, not Scandinavian.
It is the same as Niel in the family of O'Niel. And
though the name became acclimatized in the Scandina-
vian countries, and has remained so to this day (whence
the common Christian name Niels which we find in
Iceland, in Norway or Sweden, and the numberless
Nielsens, Nilssons, etc., among Scandinavian surnames),
it exists only in virtue of acclimatization; and wher-
ever found it betokens, we may feel sure, some Irish
122The Sagas

123

ancestor of the possessor, though he may be very remote.
Of the Irish ancestors of the Scandinavians, whatever
number there may have been, the largest proportion
were probably to be found among the early settlers in
Iceland.

It was in the south-west of Iceland, in the home of
the earliest settlers, that arose Icelandic literature
strictly so called. We cannot call the old Scandinavian
poetry in any true sense Icelandic. But the prose litera-
ture, the literature of the Sagas, is so distinctly. And
we may believe that, like the Edda poetry, though in a
somewhat different fashion, this literature is the out-
come of a fusion of the Celtic and the northern spirit.

How much of the literature of Europe at large may
be due to fusion of a nature similar to this! As J.
E. Green has said, there is something appropriate in the
fact that our great national poet was born just upon the
border line, where the population preponderantly Teu-
tonic, English, runs into a population which is probably
still by blood preponderantly Celtic. In French litera-
ture, again, we know that that which has carried the
day, and decreed what was to be the ultimate form of
the French language, has been the literature of northern
France, of the langue d'oil, not that of the southern
langue <£oc\ and it is in the north of France alone that
there is any considerable infusion of Frankish (Teutonic)
blood with the original Celtic. Goethe and Schiller were
both born in that part of Germany which was Celtic before
it was German : we cannot tell how large a Celtic ele-
ment remains in it. And Dante—who can guess of what
admixture of blood his may have been composed, made
up of Etruscan, of Celtic, of Latin, and of Lombardic124 . Norway and the Norwegians

elements ? So if the Icelandic literature has had an
origin not dissimilar to that of so many other modern
European ones, the fact certainly need not surprise us;
but it is well worth noting.

For this Saga literature, though it cannot take rank
with such great creations as we associate with the names
of Shakespeare or Goethe or Dante, is far finer, and
far more worthy of study than most men suppose.

We can partly trace, and partly surmise its growth.
It sprang up, we have said, in the west of the island.
The new settlers there, cut off from their old interests,
and yet full of the energy which their past lives of
adventure begat, threw themselves eagerly and vividly
into their fresh life, so that small, and, as we should
judge it, petty as that life really was, it became in their
hands almost heroic; and under the imported influence
of the Celtic bias that way it became fit for treatment
in literary art.

Most people seem to have only a very vague and
general idea of what the true Saga is. They confuse the
Icelandic Saga with the German Sage, a tale, and fancy
that the word may be applied to almost any Scandina-
vian story or history written at any period. But, pro-
perly speaking, the expression Saga Literature should be
taken to denote a very distinct and a strictly prescribed
outcome of the northern imagination. We will devote
the rest of this chapter to an account of the birth and
the development of the Icelandic Saga, and to a descrip-
tion of its peculiar characteristics.

The idea of this tale-telling was not native among
the Icelanders. Tales, very like the northern Sagas,
had been told in Ireland before ever the NorthmenEarly Settlers in Iceland	125

came thither. And whether it be that the northern
settlers in Ireland learned the art of story-telling there,
or that the Irish, among the early settlers in Iceland,
brought with them the art into their new country, we
must take this beginning of Icelandic literature to be a
descendant of what may be called (by a sort of bull)
the oral literature of the Irish.

The settlers in Iceland seem, to have been a good
deal self-centred. A great breadth of sea cut them off
from the politics of that long chain of territories which
we have called the Greater Scandinavia; and that Greater
Scandinavia lay between them and the rest of Europe.
Thus they preserved, with very minute care, the records
of the early settlements in the island; the history of
the families who were descended from these early
settlers, who were a sort of Mayflower emigrants, and
formed ultimately the aristocracy of the island. About
the doings of all the chief men in these families stories,
we may believe, were composed to be recited in winter
days round the fire. Gradually there grew up a race
of story-tellers, who worked upon a plan; so that the
practice of Saga-making developed into a defined art.
It is curious to trace the beginnings of a really great
literature amid these petty surroundings and trivial
interests. But it reminds us, to a certain extent, of the
beginnings of other and still greater literatures. What
the deeds of the Icelanders were, compared to the
doings of the northern folk, in the native Scandinavian
countries, or even in their settlements in our islands,
such were the quarrels between two petty branches of
the Pelasgic race compared to the wars which, at the
same time, were raging between the mighty empires of126 Norway and the Norwegians

Egypt and Assyria, or between either and the great
confederacy of the Hittites. Yet out of the petty
quarrels between the Achsean-Pelasgians in the west
and the Asiatic-Pelasgians in the east grew the Epic
Poetry of Greece.

Making allowance for the difference between prose
and poetry, the development of the Icelandic Saga is,
probably, no bad reflex of the development of the Greek
Epic. As in the earlier literature, a number of smaller
ballads must have preceded the long poems which have
come down to us, and must have, by a special art, been
combined together to form these long poems; so in
Iceland the short fireside stories have been combined to
form the Sagas that we know; and a great deal of art
has been used in making this combination. It seems
extraordinary to us that such poems as the Homeric
ones could ever have been committed to memory entire.
We cannot be certain how far they were so, or how far
the hand of the redactor is present, though concealed, in
the written version. The Sagas present the same diffi-
culty. They were, of course, eventually committed to
writing; and how far the written form actually repre-
sents the narrated form we cannot be certain. On the
whole, however, it seems to represent it pretty exactly,
which is the same as saying that the long Sagas that we
know were once preserved by oral tradition only.

It is thought that the full bloom of the Saga period
dates from about the beginning of the eleventh century;
that is to say, just after Iceland had become Christian,
when the people were quieting down, and when, there-
fore, deeds such as those which the tales narrate were
growing less frequent year by year. We can imagineSagas of Western Iceland	127

how the Icelandic chiefs must have looked back with
pride to the doings of their ancestors, and delighted to
take part in them in imagination. And the picture of
the Saga-maker, relating his story in their halls in the
winter evenings, is very much the same as the picture
of Homer or of the ballad-monger of the Homeric cycle
singing his ballad to the descendants of the Argive
chiefs.

The Sagas which have come down to us are of various
lengths, and written in various styles.

If we accept the theory of Vigfusson and of Powell
that the Sagas have their rise in the south-west of Ice-
land, we must place among the earliest extant ones the
Hardar Saga or Hdlmsvega Saga, as it is otherwise called,
a story of adventure relating the deeds of a company of
outlaws, who haunted the district of Iceland known as
Hvalesfjord or Whalesfirth. Another of these south-
western stories is the Saga of Hen Thori (.Hcensa
])oris Saga), which tells of the rivalries of two Icelanders,
Thori and Ketil, of whom the one in the end burns the
other in his house—a very common ending of feuds in
Iceland. The action of both these stories lies a little
before the end of the tenth century. Another Saga
which has the stamp of great antiquity is the Saga of
another Thori, called Gold Thori (Gull-lporis S.), and of
this the action lies in the early part of the tenth cen-
tury. This belongs, too, to the western side of Iceland.
Kormaks Saga is another of early composition, though
it does not belong to the birthplace of the Sagas, but to
the north of the island. The hero of it has an Irish
name (for Kormac, though it is common enough among
Icelandic names, was, like Njal, an Irish name originally),128 Norway and the Norwegians

and has, no doubt, a good deal of Irish blood in him.
And the story of his courting of his mistress, Steingerda,
is a curious half-real, half-magical tale, not unlike one
of the stories told in the poetic Edda. It is in style
and in treatment the nearest approach which we have
to a link uniting the true Icelandic Saga and the Edda
literature. Two other short Sagas well worth reading
are the Vatnsdcela Saga and the Vapnfirdhinga Saga,
the^Sagas respectively of certain settlers in ' Waterdale'
and ' Weaponfirth/ two districts in Iceland. Both are
stories of blood feuds.

On the whole, it may be said that the plots of the
Sagas turn mainly upon two subjects, either the rivalry
of two heroes for the love of a woman, or a blood feud
between two rival houses, and the duty which devolves
(very often) on generation after generation of carrying
it on. An incident in the narrative is frequently the
outlawry of one or other of the parties to the quarrel;
for outlawry was one of the chief weapons by which
the law of Iceland struck offenders against the peace.

Other Sagas which may be mentioned, as containing
a good deal of interesting matter, are Hrafnlcels Saga
Freysgoda, Svarfdcela Saga, Vigu Ghims Saga (which
contains some genuine and antique verses), Iporsteims
Saga Sidu Halls sonar, the Saga of Thorstein, the son
of Hall of Side. Hall o' Side had much to do with the
first attempts to introduce Christianity into Iceland.

Gunnlaugs Saga Ormstungu (the Saga of Gunnlaug
Snake-tongue), Gisla Saga Stirssonar (the Saga of Gisli
Sur's son), are accessible to the reader in translations,
the former by Messrs. Morris and Magnusson, the latter
by Sir G. Dasent.The Longer Sagas

129

So far for the lesser Sagas—those which most nearly
represent the original form of this work of art. But, as
has been said, a time arrived when the narrators came
to work out of the materials of the shorter tales long
narratives which are almost epics. These often follow
the history of many different families through several
generations. As a matter of fact, they hover between
the character of a chronicle and the character of an
epic. These greater Sagas are the following—

Njala Saga, the story of Burnt Njal, the finest of
them all.

Eyrbyggia Saga, the Saga of the inhabitants of Ere,
between Broadfirth and Huna-floi, and their neighbours
in the north-west of Iceland.

Laxdcela Saga, the Saga of the men of Laxdal,
Salmon-dale, in the west of the country.

Egils Saga, a Saga whose story goes as far back as to
the days of Harald Fairhair, king of Norway, but con-
tinues its history for about a hundred years. It is the
history of the feud between the family of Egil and the
descendants of Harald.

Grettis Saga, the story of G-rettir the Strong. This is
another outlaw's history.

Of these, the Eyrlyggia Saga approaches, perhaps, most
nearly the chronicle form, while Laxdcela Saga is more
like the old heroic epic, and is, in fact, practically a prose
poem. It seems to have been affected by the legendary
Yolsung history. It professes to relate the story of some
among the successors of that Aud the Wise of whom we
have spoken. The Njala, or Nj&ls Saga, may be said to
hold the mean between these two, and to present us with
the Icelandic Saga in its very finest development.

1130 Norway and the Norwegians

The motives of these longer Sagas are not essentially
different from those of the shorter ones. Loves and
family feuds afford the staple of their material. They
deal, in fact, in almost equal proportion with the two
strongest passions of the human heart,—love and hate.

As a rule, the tale is a sad one. ' A sad tale is best
for winter,' as Mamillius says in The Winter's Tale.
Not seldom do we find that it is the least worthy man
who wins. Literature here, as it generally does, shows
that best part of its bias—a leaning to the losing side-—
such as we notice in Homer's picture of Hector, who
far outshines in nobility his victorious rivals. So it is
here. Hrafn gets the better of his nobler rival, Gunn-
laug Snake-tongue; in the end both fall. Kjartan, in
the Laxdsela Saga, is a finer and more interesting figure
than Bolli, who gets the better of him and wins his
love Godrun, just as Gunther gets the better of Siegfred
in the Nibelungen story. The Njals Saga tells of the
slaying by the sword of the most brilliant man in Ice-
land, Gunnar, and the burning of the most stately and
venerable man, Njal.

It must not be thought that though the Sagas deal
chiefly in rivalries and slayings, that the picture of
Iceland which they present is that of a purely anarchical
country. On the contrary, we cannot but be aston-
ished at the love of law and order which co-exists in the
land along with this recognition of the duty of revenge.
Certainly these northern republicans showed themselves
well fitted for self-government. And alongside of their
love of battle and adventure we see in them a reverence
for law which is almost superstitious.

Of other superstition, or even of religious feeling, thereCharacter Studies

is little trace in the Sagas, and this is the most remark-
able thing about them. Not, of course, that the ideas
of magic or of ghosts are entirely absent,—that is
not to be expected in such an age, and sometimes the
magic intervenes in an odd way in most naturalistic
story-telling. But the traces of the fundamental
beliefs of old heathenism are very few. The Svarfdcela
Saga is, perhaps, the most imbued with them. This
peculiarity, which makes such a strong contrast be-
tween the Sagas and the Edda poetry, is an argument
either that the Sagas, as they now stand, were written
or composed after the conversion of Iceland; or else
that, for some time previous to their conversion, the
ancient creed had lost all hold on the people of the
island. The latter is the most probable explanation.
Ancient creeds, much less than modern ones, admit of
a change of domicile. They are very largely rooted to
the soil in which they have sprung up. And the fact
that the Icelanders of the Saga age had so completely
got rid of their ancestral beliefs is, I think, some evi-
dence that the Edda mythology did really spring from
Norse soil, and that it really does reflect, as it seems
to do, the aspects of nature which belong to Scandinavia
more than to any other country.

These Icelandic Sagas preserve the quintessence of
the national character, and show it, moreover, not only
in its heroic moments, but in the affairs of common life.
We are irresistibly reminded in reading these accounts
of the northern farmer, the Yorkshire farmer, say, as
we know him to-day, the true descendant of the
Scandinavian. Observe two men of this class meet-
ing. They shake hands—in silence. Then, after a132 Norway and the Norwegians

minute's pause, comes some commonplace greeting or
commonplace observation.

' Fine day.'

' Ay, pretty well.'

Then another minute's pause.

4 Will ye take summut ?' and so forth.

All the while they know that they have met for a
particular purpose. Each one is as well aware as his
companion of the nature of the bargain or the business
which has brought them together.

Compare with this picture from to-day the account
of the negotiations for a marriage between two Ice-
landic families. It is Glum who, with his brother
Thorarin, has come to demand the hand of Hallgerda,
daughter of one Hauskuld, and niece of Hrut.

' They [Glum aud Thorarin] gathered men together
and rode off, ten in company, west to the dale, and
came to Hauskuldstsede. Hauskuld gave them a hearty
welcome, and they stayed there that night. But early
next morning Hauskuld sends for Hrut, and he came
thither at once; and Hauskuld was out of doors when
Hrut rode into the farm. Then Hauskuld told Hrut
what men had come thither.

' What may it be that they want ?' says Hrut.

' As yet/ says Hauskuld,' they have not let out to
me that they have any business.'

' Still/ says Hrut,' their business must be with thee.
They will ask the hand of thy daughter Hallgerda. If
they do, what answer wilt thou make ?'

The family affection which exists among these men
is a very pleasant feature of life in the Saga-age; though
it has its antithesis in the awful persistence with whichNarrative

133

they exact vengeance for a slain kinsman and carry on
a blood-feud through generations. In the Njal's Saga
we find Njal, the famous law-giver, living peaceably
with three grown sons in the house. Two of them
were married and had farms of their own, but chose to
live with their father and mother. The brothers Haus-
kuld and Hrut, whom we have just mentioned, though
they were not always on such good terms, we find in
every difficulty asking each other's advice, and consult-
ing about family affairs.

And, when we get to the more exciting passages, few
literatures have produced a more vivid style of narra-
tion than is to be found in the same Sagas. The frame-
work of the stories is homely enough. We see the
chief—and this again reminds us of the Homeric Epic
—setting his men, his house-carls to work, and superin-
tending their labours—watching his own hay cut, and
going up upon the mountains to collect his sheep.
But how vivid may be the narrative which accom-
panies these plain details let one quotation suffice to
show us. It is taken from the Njala, perhaps the
most poetic of all the Icelandic Sagas. The event
which is here described is only an incident in the story,
not its climax: but the fact that it is only an inci-
dental touch causes the picturesqueness and vividness
of the narration to stand out the more conspicuously.

There had been long a feud between the wives of two
great friends—between Hallgerda, the wife of Gunnar,
and Bergthora, the wife of Njal. Fortunately the two
husbands swore that nothing that their wives could do
should bring them to a quarrel; and this oath they
kept till death. But as Hallgerda cannot stir up her134 Norway and the Norwegians

husband to insult the family of Njal, or to avenge the
slights which she conceives herself to have received
from it, she casts about to find other instruments. One
of these is Sigmund, an Easterling (Norwegian), who
had come out to Iceland. 4 He was a great voyager and
a comely and courteous man, tall too, and strong. He
was a man of proud spirit and a good skald (bard), and
well trained in most feats of strength. He was noisy
and boisterous, and given to gibes and mocking/ Hall-
gerda first egged on Sigmund to slay a servant of Njal,
one Thord Freemansson. Then, when that business
was pacified, and Gunnar had paid atonement for
Thord, Hallgerda one day made Sigmund sing a mock-
ing stanza on Njal and on his sons. Njal had no
beard, so Hallgerda christened him ' the beardless carle;'
and on hearing that he was casting dung over his land,
she asked why he did not cast some over his beard.
And to Njal's sons she straightway gave the name of
dung-beardlings.

'And now do pray,' she said, 'give some stave about
them, Sigmund, and let us get some good by thy gift
of song/

So Sigmund sang some satiric verses, which the
gossips carried to the ears of Bergthora, the wife of
Njal. Njal's sons were Skarphedinn, Grim, and Helgi.
These three were the children of Bergthora; and Haus-
kuld was their bastard brother. The sons were all
grown men, and two of them were married, but they
stayed with their families in the house of their father
and mother. They were all strong men. Skarphedinn,
we are told, had dark crisp hair and fine eyes. But his
face was ashen pale. Grim, too, had dark hair, but wasFrom the Njdla

*35

comelier than his brother, and Helgi was very fair of
face and had beautiful hair. These are the heroes of
the adventure which follows.

The sons came in to their supper, and when they
were sat down Bergthora spoke.

' Gifts have been given you, father and sons, and ye
will be no true men unless ye repay them somehow/
' What gifts are these ?' asks Skarphedinn.

' You, my sons,' says Bergthora, ' have got one gift
between you all. You are called " dung-beardlings " ;
but my husband is " the beardless carle."'

' Ours is no woman's nature/ says Skarphedinn, ' that
we should fly into a rage at every little thing/

'And yet Gunnar was wroth for your sakes/ says
she/and he is thought to be good-tempered. But if
ye do not take vengeance for this wrong, ye will avenge
no shame/

' The carline, our mother, thinks this fine sport,' says
Skarphedinn, and smiled scornfully as he spake; but
still the sweat burst out upon his brow, and red flecks
came over his cheeks [his ashen pale cheeks] such as
was not his wont. Grim was silent and bit his lip.
Helgi made no sign, and he said never a word. Haus-
kuld went off with Bergthora. She came into the room
again and fretted and fumed much.

Njal spoke and said,'" Slow and sure/' says the pro-
verb, mistress! and so it is with many things, though
they try men's tempers, that there are always two sides
to a story, even when vengeance is taken.'

But at even, when Njal was come into his bed, he
heard that an axe came against the panel and rang
loudly, and there was another shut bed, and there the136 Norway and the Norwegians

shields were hung up, and he sees that they are away.
He said,' Who have taken down our shields ?'
' Thy sons went out with them/ says Bergthora.

Njal pulled his shoes on his feet and went out at
once, and round to the other side of the house, and sees
that they are taking their course right up the slope.
He said, ' Whither away, Skarphedinn ?'

' To look after thy sheep/ he answers.

4 You would not then be armed/ said Njal, ' if you
meant that, and your errand must be something else/
Then Skarphedinn said,—

' We shall fish for salmon, father.'

' 'Twould be well, then, if it turned out so that the
prey does not get away from you.'

They went on their way, but Njal went to his bed,
and he said to Bergthora,—' Thy sons were out of doors,
all of them, with arms, and now thou must have egged
them on to something.'

' I will give them my heartfelt thanks,' said Berg-
thora, ' if they tell me the slaying of Sigmund/

Now they, Njal's sons, fare up to Fleetlithe, and were
that night under the Lithe, and when the day began
they came near to Lithend. That same morning both
Sigmund and Skiolld rose up and meant to go to the
stud-horses; they had bridles with them, and caught the
horses that were in the farm-yard, and rode away 011
them. They found the stud-horses between two brooks.
Skarphedinn caught sight of them; for Sigmund was
in bright clothing. Skarphedinn said, 'See you now
the red elf yonder, lads ?' They looked that way and
said they saw him.

Skarphedinn spoke again: 'Thou, Hauskuld, shaltFrom the Njdla

137

have nothing to do with it, for thou wilt often be sent
out alone without due heed. But I mean Sigmund
for myself; methinks that is like a man ; but Grim and
Helgi shall try to slay Skiolld.'

Hauskuld sat him down, but they went till they
came up to them. Skarphedinn said to Sigmund,—

' Take thy weapons and defend thyself; that is more
needful now than to make mocking songs on me and
my brothers.'

Sigmund took up his weapons; but Skarphedinn
waited the while. Skiolld turned against Grim and
Helgi, and they fell hotly to fight. Sigmund had a
helm on his head and a shield at his side, and was girt
with a sword; his spear was in his hand; now he turns
against Skarphedinn, and thrust at once at him with
his spear, and the thrust came on his shield. Skar-
phedinn dashes the spearhaft in two, and lifts up his
axe and hews at Sigmund, and cleaves his shield down
to below the handle. Sigmund drew his sword and
cut at Skarphedinn, and the sword cuts into his shield,
so that it stuck fast. Skarphedinn gave the shield such
a quick twist that Sigmund let go his sword. Then
Skarphedinn hews at Sigmund with his axe, the ' Ogress
of War.' Sigmund had on a corselet; the axe came on
his shoulder. Skarphedinn cleft the shoulder-blade
right through, and at the same time pulled the axe
towards him. Sigmund fell down on his knees, but
sprang up again at once.

' Thou hast lilted low to me already,' says Skarphe-
dinn. 'But still thou shalt fall upon thy mother's
bosom ere we two part.'

' 111 is that, then,' says Sigmund.138 Norway and the Norwegians

Skarphedinn gave him a blow 011 his helm, and after
that dealt Sigmund his death-blow.

Grim cut off Skiolld's foot at the ankle-joint; but
Helgi thrust him through with his spear, and he got
his death there and then.

Skarphedinn saw Hallgerda's shepherd, just as he
had hewn off Sigmund's head; he handed the head to
the shepherd and bade him bear it to Hallgerda, and
said she would know whether that head had made
jeering songs about them, and with that he sang a
mocking song on Hallgerda.

Other more exciting passages might be cited from the
history of the Njals Saga, from which we have made
these two extracts. But there is none in which the
• peculiar gifts of the narrator are better shown.

When we come to the kings' lives we shall give
other extracts which display the same Saga manner,
and serve further to illustrate this art of literature.

When the Saga-makers had become celebrated at
home, they were naturally attracted to the courts of the
greater northern chiefs in other lands. The Earls of
the Orkneys had their Saga-men; and a series of
histories of the Orkney Earls, known as Jarla-Sogur
(Earls' Sagas) have been preserved. Probably the
Norse kings of Dublin had theirs, for a fragment
from their history has been preserved to us in the
Icelandic Saga Njala. It tells of a celebrated
battle which was fought in 1014 at Clontarf, between
the kings of Dublin and their Norse allies on the one
side, and the confederated Irish kings, under Brian-
Boroo, on the other. The Irish had their Saga or
history of the same battle. There are in the sameThe Book Age

139

way Sagas which relate the doings of the Joms
Vikings.

The most interesting, historically, of the whole series
of Sagas are those of which we have spoken above,
called the Lives of the Kings,—that is to say, of the kings
of Norway. At a later date, when writing had been
well established, the literary men of Norway set to
work, either simply to make copies and collections of
the older prose Sagas as they stood, or else to write
works in what we may call the ' Saga vein/ which were
founded'partly on extant prose tales and partly on
fragments of verse. These latest and most elaborate
productions of the Icelandic prose muse must not be
confounded with the Sagas produced in the true Saga
age. Albeit they are made up of elements which date
from that era.

This is the second age of Icelandic literature, and, as
distinguished from the true ' Saga era/ it may be called
the book age; for, in point of fact, the word book (bok)
now begins to be employed. The father of this second
order of Icelandic literature—the true literature, if we
use the word in its etymological sense—is Ari the
Historian, Ari Frodi, as he was called by his country-
men. This Ari was a descendant of Aud the Wise,
and of Olaf the White, king of Dublin, of whom we
spoke in the last chapter. Ari's date is A.D. 1067-
1148. He was, we see (at any rate we shall see when
we come to the history of Norway), born the year after
Harald Sigurdsson, or Harald Hardradi, fell in England.
Three great works are attributed to this Ari Frodi, of
which one has been preserved as he wrote it; the con-
tents of another have been handed down to us, but not140 Norway and the Norwegians

always separable from addenda of a later date; and of
the third only an abridgment remains. These books
are—

Landnama-bdk, the Book of the Settlement of Iceland,
of which we spoke on a previous page.

Konunga-bdk, the Lives of the Kings of Norway.
Ari's work is believed to be contained in the later and
larger collection of ' Kings' Lives,' taken from older
Sagas. It probably includes the kings' lives down to
the accession of 01 af Tryggvason.

Islendinga-bdh This is the work which, in its original
and expanded form, has perished.

Other names in the literary history of Norway, con-
temporary with or subsequent to Ari, are—

Ssemund, also called hinn Frodi, the Wise or Learned.
It is to him that the Poetic Edda was ascribed, but
without foundation. Saemund had a great reputation
among his contemporaries, as he was thought to be a
magician. We have no extant works which can with
certainty be ascribed to him, and it is very likely that
he did not write in the vernacular, but in Latin.

Kolskegg Asbjornsson. He, too, has the appellation
Frodi. He was a contemporary of Ari, and assisted the
latter in compiling the Landnama.

Brand, called the Prior or Bishop.

Later in Norse history, after the heroic age has quite
passed, we have—

Erik Oddsson, who wrote lives of two rivals for the
throne of Norway, Harald Gilli and Sigurd Slembi-
djakn.

Karl Jonsson wrote the life of King Sverri, of whom
we shall speak in a later chapter.Snorri Sturluson

I41

Odd, the monk, and Gunnlang the monk, were authors
of Latin lives of the two Olafs—Olaf Tryggvason and
Olaf the Saint.

Then arose the greatest figure in Icelandic literature.
This is Snorri Sturluson (a.d. 1178-1241). His age is,
in Norse history, the age of the end of the Civil War,
when (as we shall see in Chapter xi.) the long disputes
of rival dynasties were closed by the elevation of Hakon
Hakonsson (Hakon iv.) to the Norwegian throne, and
the suppression of his rivals. Snorri was much in
Norway, and took an active part in Norwegian politics.
For the politics of Iceland hung close upon the politics
of Norway in those days; the rival parties in the
northern kingdom being associated with rival parties
in the daughter republic. Snorri sided against Hakon
and with Earl Skuli, Hakon's rival. Skuli fell in 1240,
and, at the instigation of Hakon, Snorri was murdered
in Iceland the following year. This opened the way
for the formal annexation of the republic to the Norse
kingdom (see Chapter xi.).

Snorri's great work has always been supposed to be
the Heimshringla Saga, one of the compilations of the
Kings' Lives (of which there are variants) which is
considered the most trustworthy. There is but small
external evidence to support this attribution; but the
internal evidence for it is strong, and has convinced those
best able to form an opinion. We must consider the
later lives, from Olaf Tryggvason to the death of Sigurd
Jorsalfari (see Chapters viii.-x,), as actually Snorri's
work; the earlier Sagas as abridgements only.

The Prose Edda, which consists of three parts; first,
the Gylfaginning (see Chapter iv.); secondly, the142 Norway and the Norwegians

SkdldsJcajparmdl, a poetical gradus; and thirdly, the
H&ttatal (list of metres), a collection of specimens of all
the different metres used in Icelandic verse. This is
the second considerable work ascribed to Snorri.

Icelandic literature may be said to end with Sturla
Thordsson, the author of the Islendinga Saga and the
Thorgils Saga. To him have been attributed the whole
mass of Sagas known under the head of Sturlunga
Saga or Sogur. But it is probable that only two out
of the collection are the work of Sturla. He was a
member of the great Sturlung family, and a nephew of
Snorri Sturluson. He was born a.d. 1214 and died
1284.

In the later period, when the Sagas of the kings of
Norway began to be collected, some other collections of
Sagas were made, which are now known under their
collective names, as, for example—

Orhneyinga Saga. The history of the Earls of
Orkney.

Fcereyinga Saga. The history of the Faro Islands,
especially of the Christianization of them.

Skjoldunga Saga. The history of the royal family of
Denmark (the Skjoldungs).

Jomsvikinga Saga, of which we have spoken as the
history of the Joms-Vikings of Mecklenburg.

When we read these Sagas of the kings, etc., it
becomes obvious that the compilers of them did not
always avail themselves of prose records only. Snorri,
for instance, seems to have been very largely indebted
to the court ballad poetry, of which we spoke in the
last chapter.CHAPTEE VII

HISTORY

Harald Fairhair—Hakon—Gunhild's Sons. (Circ. a.d. 867-969.)

A nation of small land-owners, each a little chief in
his own way; for he has the sons of his house under
him, his nephews, may be, and his nephews' and his
sons' sons; and his servants, not perhaps precisely
thralls nor adscrijpti glelw, but what is next door to
that; for they have little or no chance of livelihood,
save upon the estate on which they have been born.
Then, superior to these yeomen, these peasant pro-
prietors, are certain hersar?- who are their leaders in
war; and over these hersar, again, stand the earls or the
petty kings. This is the nationality of Norway at the
dawn of her historical period. But that which makes
all the people, not of the whole of Norway, but those
living in each considerable district of the country into
a single nationality, is not the unity of its government,
of its executive, but rather the unity of its legislature
(though this is to some extent executive also),—that
is to say, its general assembly of freemen, which was
called the Thing. These Things were of many kinds
and of various degrees of importance. There were

1 Sing, hersir (hersi).

143144 Norway and the Norwegians

smaller local Things. But there were also larger ones,
of which the ones most spoken of in the Sagas seem to
have been four. The Borgar Thing was held at Sarpsborg,
on the river Glommen, not far from the modern Chris-
tiania. Its jurisdiction took in all the coast which lies
round the Skagerrak and Cattegat. In those days Nor-
way extended as far as the Gota River, now in Sweden,
so that its coast-line stretched along both the Skagerrak
and Cattegat; and this coast district was generally
known as Viken, or the Bay. The western portion of
it was also called Westfold. Behind this coast district,
higher up the country, towards Lake Mjosen, there was
another fertile district, which ended in what is called
the Upland,—that is to say, the country reaching back
to the great back-bone of Scandinavia, which the Norse-
men called the Keel. This district had another Thing
for itself : it was at Eidesvold, not far from Lake
Mjosen. Round to the west there was a Thing district,
which included the two great fjords—the Hardanger and
the Sogne : these were comprised in the district of the
Gola Thing. And after that we come to the Trondhjem
district; its assembly was called the Frosta Thing.
All the region of the extreme south (Thelemarken,
for instance, and the still wilder Satersdal) seems to
have no special electorate of its own. Probably these
districts were very thinly inhabited; as, indeed, they
still are. And we read of no great Thing belonging to
the northern part, Halogaland.

Among the districts of these four Things, the Yiken
district and the Trondhjem district were by far the most
fertile and the most thickly inhabited. The tra-
veller in Norway to-day will notice this characteristicHistory

*45

of them. Of the Christiania country, this almost goes
without saying, seeing that the capital of Norway lies
there. It need hardly be said that in heathen days
there was no such town as Christiania. In those days
the chief, or the only town, of the Vik country seems to
have been Tuna, the modern Tonsberg. In the early
days, however, of Norway's existence as a single king-
dom, the seat of monarchy rather lay in the Thrond-
hjem country. For there was held another Thing
called the Ore Thing, which was always convoked for
the purpose of bestowing the crown on each fresh suc-
cessor to it, but for no other purpose. We can hardly
speak of the capital of the country lying at Throndhjem,
for there was no town in the country. Ore, at the
mouth of the Throndhjems fjord, was the place of
meeting for the Ore Thing, and nothing more. This
Throndhjem country is, like that of Christiania, fairly
level and very fertile, and forms, on the whole, a strik-
ing contrast to the great fjord districts—the Hardanger
and the Sogne country, which probably the traveller
will have first beheld. When we get up to the Thrond-
hjem Fjord, the rough cliffs and snow-capped mountains
have retreated or disappeared, and we find ourselves in
a district of fertile hills and valleys. This country
must have been very early inhabited by a hardy race
of yeomen-farmers, for the Throndhjem people play a
very conspicuous part in the history of Norway.

It may, in truth, be said that Norway is divided by
Nature, and by the character of its inhabitants, into
three districts, and that this division is very noticeable
in reading early Norse history. The people who lived
in Yiken lived opposite Denmark, and close to Sweden

K146 Norway and the Norwegians

(the southern part of Sweden then was a part of Den-
mark); and it would appear that the Yiken people
were among the earliest to take part in the piratical
expeditions of the Viking age. For the very word
Viking as it was used by the Norsemen or Icelanders of
a later date, is probably derived from this word Vik; so
that Viking means only ' man of the Vik.' The people
of the Vik belonged to the Baltic; they took part in the
same expeditions in which shared the Danes of Jut-
land, or of the islands, or of southern Sweden. But
the men of the fjords of the extreme west lay far away
from the Baltic, and opposite the Shetlands; and so it
was from the fjord country that there issued that stream
of adventurers whom we have described as passing down
from the Shetlands to the Orkneys, to Scotland, and
Ireland. These form two of the three great divisions
of Norway. Thirdly, there was the Throndhjem region
which, perhaps, was less concerned with the Viking life
than either of the other two, whose inhabitants were,
therefore, less thinned by the draining off of adventurers
to take part in that life. The Throndhjdfti people seem,
when we first catch sight of them, to have been a settled
race of farmers, steady, well-to-do men, and, though
fearing no man, contented enough with their life at
home. The Throndheimers were, therefore, the most
conservative among the people; not so prepared to re-
sist a sudden attack as were the fjord men, they were
yet more difficult to keep under. For they had not
acquired those habits of loyalty to their chiefs which
a life of adventure tends to produce. Norway, as we
have described it, was, when we first catch sight of it
in history, divided up among a great number of littleHarald Fairhair

147

kings and earls. Agder, Westfold, Raumariki, Vingul-
mark, Hordaland (modern Horland), Sogn, North and
South More are some of these kingdoms. Some of these
districts preserve their ancient names little changed.
The beautiful Gudbrandsdal was called after a certain
Hersir Gudbrand, who lived in the time of Halfdan the
Black, father of Harald Fairhair. The Throndhjem
country had then for its chief place Lade (Hladir)—for
the town of Throndhjem was not yet built. North of
Throndhjem country lay Halogaland.

In being cut up in this way among petty rulers,
Norway was, at first, only in the same condition as the
other Scandinavian kingdoms. Suithiod (the Upsala
country), East and West Gothland, were originally all
separate kingdoms in Sweden. Denmark had kings in
both North and South Jutland. A third division, the
Kingdom of Leire, consisted of the Danish isles, Zealand
and the rest, and the southern extremity of Sweden,
what are now the provinces of (Sm&land, Bkeling,
Halland, and SkUne. Eventually the kingdom of Leire
swallowed up the Jutland kingdoms. For towards the
end of the ninth century Sweden and Denmark began
to, coalesce. Gorm the Old made himself the sole king

O

of Denmark; and Erik the king of the Upsala country
made himself master of the rest of Sweden. What
more natural, therefore, than that some one of the small
kings of Norway should dream of doing the same thing
in that land ? And we might prophesy that the accom-
plishment of such a task would fall to the king in
Viken, seeing that he ruled in not only a thickly-
inhabited district, and in one which had already taken
the lead in inaugurating the life of adventure of the148 Norway and the Norwegians

Viking age; but likewise because that country had
been long in closer communication with Denmark and
Sweden than any other part of Norway, so that it was
more likely to follow the example of these states.

The first king of Viken or Westfold, who emerges
out of the mythological age, is Halfdan the Black.
The family to which he belonged claimed to be a
branch of the famous Ynglinga line—descended from
the God Frey—which gave likewise kings to Sweden.
Of Halfdan the Black we know very little. He may
have been the Philip of this Macedon, and prepared the
way for the son who was to follow him. This son, this
Alexander, was Harald. We need not repeat the legend,
how the taunt of a maiden, Gyda, first inspired Harald
with the idea that he should make himself sole king
of Norway; how he swore that his hair should grow
unkempt till he had accomplished his vow. The notion
is more likely to have been instilled into his mind by
his father Halfdan or by his mother Ragnhild, daughter
of one of the petty kings, who, through her mother,
claimed a famous descent. In any case, Harald did
have this ambition; and soon after he came to the
throne he applied himself to the task of subduing, one
after another, his petty brother kings in Norway. The
number of these is far too great for us to keep count
of; though the saga tells us the names of those whom
Harald subdued one after another. Some submitted
voluntarily and became the king's earls. And Harald
had already made himself master of the two most im-
portant divisions of the country, Yiken, or Westfold,
his patrimonial kingship, and the Throndhjem district,
including North and South More, when the remainingBattle of Hafirsfjord	149

kings leagued themselves together for the purpose of
resisting his further encroachments.

The district which he had not subdued was just that
one which, as we have said, had most connection with
the Viking route to the British Isles; and it is quite
certain that the allied kings, in their opposition to
Harald, obtained the assistance of a large number
of Viking leaders from England and Scotland and
the other west countries. The allies assembled a
large fleet, which was under the command of three
kings, Kjdtvi the Kich, king of Agder, Sulki, king of
Kogaland, and Erik, king of the Hardanger district.
King Harald was at this time lying with the fleet in
Hafirsfjord. This fjord lies just to the south of Sta-
vanger; and the traveller who has leisure may well
turn aside from this point to visit it, historically one
of the most interesting spots in Norway. He will find
at the mouth of the fjord a little group of low islands
called Jaederens Eef (reef), a reef of rounded ice-worn
rocks. Here the allied fleet assembled. The rocks
hide the fjord so completely that Harald's fleet may very
well have lain there without being seen; and they, on
their side, might have stolen close to the mouth of the
fjord unobserved. The fleets engaged, and the battle
was a severe one. Two of the allied leaders, the Kings
Sulki and Erik, were killed, and the third, Kiotvi, took
to flight. This battle of Hafirsfirth practically settled
the fate of Norway. The opposition was annihilated;
and Harald reigned as sole monarch of the kingdom,
dressing his locks now that his vow was accomplished,
and becoming Harald Fair-hair (Rdrfagr) for his sub-
jects and for all history.x 50 Norway and the Norwegians

It is.always reckoned that Norse history begins with
this substitution by Harald of a single rule for that of
the numerous petty kings of a former time, with the
loose tie of the Things (a.d. 867?). And if Harald had
had political sagacity enough to lend all his efforts
towards consolidating this rule and ensuring the posi-
tion of his dynasty, it would, indeed, have been a
momentous epoch in the history of the country, and
might have led, who knows, to what supremacy of
Norway among the Scandinavian nations, who knows
to what power of the Scandinavian nations themselves
in Europe ? But Harald attempted too much.

In the step which the new sole King of Norway
next took we seem to see a reflection of the difference
between Yiken and the rest of Norway. We hava
already pointed out how different from the beginning
was the character of land-holding in Norway from that
which obtained in the other Teutonic countries of
Europe. Only in the regions near Yiken are there
traces of the primitive Teutonic village which other
countries possessed; which, in fact, formed the unit of
life to all the other Teutonic countries. Now, the
primitive village developed by a natural process into
something like the mediaeval manor, that is to say, into
the germ of the feudal system of land-holding.

Not feudalism itself, but what we may call the
foundations of feudalism, had been laid in the Christian
countries of Europe by the end of the ninth century,
and the nearest heathen ones had probably gained some
idea of it. Denmark, for instance, though heathen still,
was not always in a condition of hostility to the neigh-
bouring Christian states. Some of the kings of SouthernHarald Fairhair

Denmark had been very favourably disposed towards
some of the Christian prelates of North Germany ; more
especially to the celebrated Archbishop of Hamburg,
Saint Ansgar; and by the intercourse which arose
between the peoples, the ideas of the Christians on
secular as well as on religious matters filtered into
Denmark. The Danish kings established a system of
land-holding which was more or less feudal in character;
and as the kings of Viken were such near neighbours
to Denmark, and *as Harald himself was allied to the
royal line of that country, we can easily understand
how he, too, may have adopted the same ideas.

What is certain is, that Harald, as soon as his power
was firmly established, set himself to dispossess the
landowners of Norway from their freehold-, or, as it is
called, their udal-tenure, and to make himself nominally
owner of the whole land of the country, turning the
former freeholders into his tenants or vassals. This
was a most momentous change, and one which had a
lasting influence ; for it transferred all the waste lands
to the possession of the crown. But in what it de-
signed to effect, the change of the freehold tenants
into vassals, it was much too sweeping, much too
impolitic ; as a matter of fact, Harald utterly failed
to enforce it; and his action in this matter of land-
tenure led to the fall of his own dynasty. In truth
Harald, like many innovators, was not consistent in his
policy. If he had sought to make himself the feudal
monarch of all Norway, he ought to have abolished, in
respect to his own crown, the old Norse laws of succes-
sion, which gave all sons, legitimate or bastard, an
equal claim upon the property of their father, and152 Norway and the Norwegians

to have established the succession upon a fixed rule of
primogeniture. He did not do this, and the result was
that the monarchy which he had founded began at his
death to crumble away.

The ill effects of his policy were not seen till after
Harald's death, which took place about a.d. 933, when
the king had reached a venerable age. He was buried
at Hauge, in the Karmtsund, the sound between Kar-
mo Island and the mainland. Karmo the steamers
pass after leaving Stavanger for Bergen, and so sail
close by Harald's grave. It lay, we see, close to the
scene of his great triumph at Hafirsfjord. Harald had
many wives and concubines, and a number of children,
whole or half-brothers to one another. The favourite
of them all was Erik, son of the chief among Harald's
wives, the daughter of the Swedish King. This Erik
got the name of Erik Blodox, i.e. Bloody Axe, on
account of his fierce and war-like disposition. He was
a great favourite with his father, and even during his
father's lifetime he attained to something like kingly
power. During' his father's lifetime, too, he compassed
the death of several of his brothers, and after his father's
death he killed, one after another, most of those who
remained. The mound of one of them, Bjorn, is still to
be seen under the name of the Seaman's Mound, at
Seim, near Tonsberg, on the Christiania Fjord. The
youngest of Harald's sons, Hakon, had, however, long
left the country. He had been sent into England to
be fostered by the King of England, Athelstan, and,
naturally enough, had been brought up in this country
as a Christian. When his father Harald died, and Erik
began, by fair means or foul, to make himself as muchHakon the Good

153

master of the country as Harald Eairhair had been,
Athelstan furnished Hakon with a fleet and with troops
in order that he might prosecute his claim of succession
to a portion, at any rate, of the kingdom. Hakon sailed
to the Throndhjem district, and there the people at once
rose in his favour.

The Throndhjem people were brought over to Hakon's
side chiefly by the promises which the new-comer held
out, that he would restore to them their old freehold
tenure. There was a very powerful family who ruled
as earls of the Throndhjem district; the earls of Lade
they were generally called. Lade (Hladir) their estate
lay close to where the town of Throndhjem now stands.
The representative of the family at this moment was
Earl Sigurd, and he declared himself for King Hakon.
The defection of the Throndhjem people was followed
by that of the people of what were called the Uplands,
that is to say, the eastern part of Norway. The people
of the Yik district followed suit, so that now Erik's
kingdom was confined to the fjord district in the centre.
Finding himself no match for his younger brother, Erik
at last abandoned this also, set sail westward, and even-
tually became king of Northumbria, as a vassal of King
Athelstan. It is said that he became a Christian there,
but that seems doubtful. Erik's wife, Gunhild, at any
rate, could hardly have done so, for we have quoted from
the remains of that beautiful poem or dirge, composed
by command of his widow after the death of King Erik,
in which it is described how Odin makes preparation
for the coming to his halls of this mighty warrior.

Though Erik thus continued his adventurous career
in the west, after he had left his native country, he154 Norway and the Norwegians

made no attempt to regain the crown of Norway. On
the death of Athelstan he fell into disfavour with
Edmund, the succeeding English King, and had to
leave Northumbria. He first steered to Ireland; after-
wards, as would appear, he made an effort to regain his
kingdom of Northumbria, and died in the attempt.

On first leaving Norway Erik had sailed to the
Orkneys, which was a fief of the Norwegian crown, and
it would seem that he left his wife and some of his
children in that country. This wife, Gunhild, was in
the Orkneys at the time that she heard of Erik's death.
She is a strange figure, who had a great influence on
Norwegian history, and the story of her first acquaint-
ance with Erik is worth telling.

The position which the Lapps occupy in the pages
of the early Norse Sagas reminds us precisely of the
position which the Jotuns and Trolls occupy in the
Edda mythology. They are the masters of the art
of magic, and they play upon Norwegians, high and
low, the same sort of tricks which the Jotuns and
Trolls were for ever playing on the Scandinavian gods.
A king is sitting at table at the Yule feast; suddenly
the table and all that it contains disappear, like the
table set before King Alonso in the Tempest. The
guests return home amazed. The king finds a Lapp
lingering about the place, has him seized and tortured,
but can gain nothing from him; and Harald, this king's
son (for it is of Halfdan the Black that this story is
told, and his son is Harald Eairhair) helps the im-
prisoned Laplander to escape, and escapes with him to
the north. They travel till they reach the house of a
Lapland chief, and there they stay all the winter. OneLapp Magic

155

day in the spring the Lapland chief says to Harald,
with the grim humour which forms such a delightful
feature of the Norse sagas: ' Thy father took it very ill
last Yule because I helped myself to some of his pro-
visions ; but now I will return you good for this evil:
the good piece of news, namely, that your father is dead/
Harald was destined to meet the Lapp -whom he had
rescued once again; and in a manner which still more
closely affected his own future. One winter towards
the end of his reign Harald was staying with one of
his subjects in Upland, at Tofta, in fact, a farm which
still stands at the top of the Gudbrandsdal, close to a
-country which was in those days uninhabited, almost
unexplored up to the Swedish border. This event, too,
happened at Yule-tide. On the evening of the Yule
feast came one Svasi and sent a message to ask the
king to come out and speak to him. At first the king
was angry, but the message was repeated, and Svasi
proved to be the Laplander whom Harald had known
long before. He reminded the king how, when in old
days they had travelled together, he had promised to
visit his home; and now it, he said, stood only just
beyond the nearest ridge of mountains. The king com-
plied ; and when he got to the hut of Svasi, there stood
a beautiful maiden, Snsefrid, who held out a cup of
mead to the king. No sooner had he drunk it than,
says the saga, it was as if a fire ran through his whole
body; he fell so passionately in love with the maiden
that he determined, low-born as she was, to make her
his wife at once. Eventually Snaefrid died. But her
corpse never changed, and remained as fresh and rosy
as when she was alive. The king constantly sat by156 Norway and the Norwegians

her, and thought that she would come to life again.
At length, as he was seen to neglect all affairs of state,
one of the courtiers, by a device, induced Harald to
raise up the body, and then it was found to be full of
all sorts of corruption, and worms and toads and all
manner of reptiles came out of it.

The Norse tradition of Gunhild is that she was by
birth a Norse girl, who went away to a Lapland hut to
be instructed in Lapland magic. And the Saga gives
a curious picture of her, watched over by two Lapp
brothers, who were so jealous of each other that she was
safe with them. There she was discovered by some
followers of Erik, Harald's son. She assisted them to
kill the brothers; then they brought her away to their
master. Erik, as his father with Snsefrid, fell in love
with her at once, and determined to marry her out of
hand. This is the story. In reality it is more likely
that Gunhild was a Danish princess. She is said to
have been very beautiful and very clever, but of an
evil disposition. After the death of her husband she
took a part in all the schemes for restoring his family
to the throne of Norway.

Meanwhile Hakon, the Norse king, had begun to
forfeit some of the popularity which had accompanied
his first return to Norway, through his efforts to intro-
duce Christianity into the country. He began by
destroying several temples; until at the last, at the
Frosta Thing, the Throndhjem people came armed to
resist these encroachments upon their ancient beliefs
and customs. They put up one of their number as
a spokesman, and he roundly declared that they, the
Throndhjem bonders, who had been the means ofHakon and the Sons of Erik 157

raising Hakon to the throne, would turn against him
and depose him unless he conformed to their ancient
customs. Earl Sigurd came forward as a mediator;
and he did his best to persuade Hakon to go through
the rites of sacrifice; but the king performed his part
very unwillingly. Both sides left the feast in bad
humour; and Hakon swore that he would collect an army
and punish the Throndhjem people for their insolence.

Gunhild and her sons had already begun to bestir
themselves to win back the crown of Norway. Their
first movement was to seek aid from the King of Den-
mark, Harald Bluetooth (Blatand), the son of Gorm the
Old, the first sole king of the country. It is possible
that Gunhild was a sister of this monarch, whom Hakon
had offended, by plundering his dominions. Harald
received the Norse princes kindly, and adopted as his
foster-son one of their number, a namesake of his own.
But he could do nothing immediately to help to restore
Gunhild's sons to what they deemed their rights. There
was at present no career open to them, but that which
for nearly two centuries had been the career of all dis-
possessed men of noble or peasant blood—the career of
Vikings. And they spent many years in this pursuit,
plundering the coasts of Norway, or of other Baltic
lands farther east.

About the time of the disputes, whereof we have just
spoken, between Hakon and his subjects—the news of
which was no doubt wafted to the ears of Gunhild and
her sons—these last made their first great stroke for
the recovery of the Norwegian crown. Hakon had
returned in a sullen fit to More (the country lying
between Throndhjem and Bomsdal), when news reached158 Norway and the Norwegians

him that the sons of Erik had come to the south, and had
driven out the under-king of the Vik country; and that
many of the people had submitted to them. Hakon re-
conciled himself with his Throndhjem subjects, collected
a large fleet and army, and sailed southward. Mean-
time the brothers, the Erikssons, had sailed round to the
west coast, and the rival fleets met near the island of
Karmo. Karmo lies just on the north side of the Bukken
Fjord, and thus nearly opposite Stavanger; steamers, as
we have said, pass just inside of it on their way from
Stavanger to Bergen. Here there was a hard-fought
battle. But Hakon gained the victory, and with his
own hand slew one of the sons of Erik, Guthorm by
name. The others took to flight, sailed out to sea, and
returned to Jutland.

Gunhild's sons continued to make predatory expedi-
tions, now against one part of the country and now
against another. Sometimes they came in force suffi-
cient to venture upon an attack on the fleet commanded
by the king. We have already pointed out how the
formation of the coasts and islands of Norway lend
themselves to this sort of desultory warfare by sea, as the
formation of the ridges and valleys of the kingdom lend
themselves to the same kind of desultory warfare by
land; and how difficult it is for the ruler of the country
to force an inferior enemy to a decisive engagement.
Hakon, however, held his own during a reign of six-
and-twenty years. His nephews never abandoned their
hopes and schemes. The unappeasable Gunhild took
good heed that they should not do so.

There is, as we have said, some reason to believe that
Gunhild, whom Norse traditions represent as a sorceress,Battle at Fr&darberg	159

brought up by the Finns, was really the sister of King
Harald of Denmark, and that this accounts for the fact
that Harald became foster-father to her son Harald.
He generally assisted Gunhild's sons with troops and
ships when they made their attacks upon Norway.
And it would seem that when they finally attained
the crown of Norway they ruled in a certain degree
as vassals of the Danish king.

The second serious attempt was made in the twenty-
first year of Hakon's reign. The king was then staying
on the island of Frcedo, near the more modern Christian-
sund, and had with him only his personal bodyguard
and some of the neighbouring bonders, whom he had
bidden to the house. News was brought that Erik's
sons lay with a fleet just to the south of Stad, the
most westerly point of the Norse mainland. Hakon
sent round the war-token (a split arrow), and hastily
collected a small force and fleet; then he set sail to
meet the fleet of Erik's sons. The two fleets ap-
proached, and landed their men at two opposite sides
of the promontory of Frsedarberg, which lies at the
entrance of the Sundal Fjord. Hakon had but nine
ships' crews and Erik's sons had twenty. But the
battle was won for the reigning king by a device of
the Nestor of his army, a certain old soldier Egil, who
had fotfght under Harald Fairhair. The device was one
which any one familiar with the uneven character of the
Norwegian ground will best appreciate. In the thickest
of the fight the army of Erik's sons, turning round,
saw advancing to near the crest of a low hill twelve
standards which, from their spacing and alignment,
clearly betokened the advance of another troop of160 Norway and the Norwegians

the royalists. But in the direction of their advance
they threatened to cut off the communication between
the pretenders' troops and their ships. The nerves of
these began to give way at the sight. They thought,
at any rate, of the desirability of securing their base.
But as they began to retire, Hakon's men pressed on
more eagerly in front, and at last the retreat of the
Erikssons' army became a flight. Too late one of the
brothers now observed that, after all, those twelve stan-
dards never advanced above the ridge of the hill, and
surmised the truth that had they done so, they would
have displayed the fact that they were held by twelve
men with due intervals between them: but that there
was no other body of troops but these twelve men
advancing to attack the sons of Erik.

In this engagement another of Erik's and G-unhild's
sons fell. His name was Gamle Eriksson. The other
brothers retired again to wait for a better chance.

At last came the opportunity, which always comes to
those who can wait for it. The story of this final and
successful effort of theirs and of Hakon's last battle is
so well narrated by the Saga writer, that it is worth
while to re-tell it—only abridging a little. Norway
had been so much troubled by the continual raids of
the pretenders, that Hakon had divided the whole
country up into ship-districts, for the support of an
adequate fleet and other things necessary for what we
should call a system of national defence. He likewise
caused beacons to be erected to flame out from headland
to headland their alarm to the neighbourhood; and thus
at last to all the country. The traveller in Norway may
himself, on Midsummer Eve, or some other festival, haveBattle on Stordo

161

the opportunity of seeing the beacons which to-day are
lit up on the ' Nesses * of the fjords; and this may give
him some picture of Hakon's beacons flaring out their
warning fires over the waters. But the worst of precau-
tions of this kind is. that they are often abused. Many
a time the petty raid of some obscure Viking was con-
verted by terror into the advent of Erik's sons and their
fleet, and the beacons were set on fire with'out due cause;
so that Hakon had to enact severe penalties for the
wanton lighting of the fires. The result was what might
have been expected : ' wolf' had been cried too often ;
and when the real danger came there was no alarm.

Hakon was on the island called Stordo at the mouth
of the Hardanger Ijord. The steamers from Stavanger
to Bergen pass this island, as do those which sail from
Bergen into the Hardanger. With its rounded shape
and green niches the island is not distinguishable in
character from its neighbours, but the traveller may
well note it as he passes for the sake of this picture
which comes to us from nine hundred years ago. King
Hakon was staying at the house of a bonder, and had
with him only the soldiers of his household—house-
carles, as they were called—and the bonders from the
neighbourhood. Just as the king sat down to table,
the look-outs on the island observed what they took for
a considerable fleet making for the spot; but the king
had been so severe upon all who had given false alarms,
that they were afraid to light the beacon, or even to
warn the king. At last they sent for one of the king's
men, who was likewise a famous skald and a favourite
at Court; and he, seeing the seriousness of the danger,
went to the house and roused his master.

L16 2 Norway and the Norwegians

' Thou art too brave a fellow, Eyvind,' said the king,
' to bring me false alarms.'

The king then left the hall, and went out to survey
the approaching fleet. It was now too late to raise the
country side; but there might yet be means of escape.
Hakon held a council of war to decide whether this was
the course which should be adopted.

'For it is easy to see that we must now fight against
a much greater force than we have ever had arrayed
against us before; though we thought the same the
last time we fought against Gunhild's sons/

While others hesitated to answer, Eyvind spoke a
verse, advising that they should give battle and with
no thought of the odds against them.

Hakon answered,' Thy counsel is manly, Eyvind, and
after my own heart; but I will wait to hear the opinion
of others upon the matter.'

Then, as our saga-writer slily adds, 'as the king's men
thought they saw in what direction the king leant, they
replied that they would rather fight and fall like men
than fly before the Danes, and that they had often
gained a victory against greater odds than these/ So
the king put on his armour, and girt at his side
his famous sword—a present from the English King
Athelstan—which was called 'quern-biter' because it
would cut (if you like to believe it) to the heart of a
mill-stone; and he drew up his men, house-carles and
bonders and bonders' men, in a body, and set up his
standard.

Erik's sons had a force six times as strong as that of
Hakon. But the prowess of the king and of some of
the men of his chosen bodyguard counted for much.Death of Hakon the Good 163

On both sides they fought bravely, and much blood was
shed. The king had on a golden helmet which gleamed
in the sunlight, and attracted many hostile darts. But
it was said that he had thrown off his armour before
the battle began. His henchman, Eyvind, put a cap
over the golden helmet. Then one of the champions
from the other side called out,' Does the King of the
Norsemen hide himself ?' Hakon shouted back,' Come
on as ye are coming, and ye will find the King of the
Norsemen;' and before long the man who had thus
spoken fell before a blow from the king.

And now the Norse king went forward, cutting down
all who stood before him. Then there flew an arrow,
a three-edged dart, and entered the king's arm. He
had gained the victory, and Erik's sons were in flight.
But when the day was over, and Hakon bethought him
of having his wound bound up, the blood flowed from
it so fast, that it could not be stopped, and it soon
appeared that the king's life was ebbing away. He
commanded that they should place him in his boat and
row him northward; for he hoped that he might reach
a property of his which lay very near to the present
town of Bergen. In these last hours, Hakon began to
repent him that he had not been more zealous in
spreading Christianity in Norway.

'If fate/ he said, 'should prolong my life, I intend,
in any case, to leave the country and go to some
Christian land, and do penance for my sins against
God. But if I die in a heathen land, let them bury me
as they think fit.'

Having no children of his own, Hakon left the suc-
cession to those life-long rivals of his, the sons of Erik.164 Norway and the Norwegians

But he never reached his homestead. When the
rowers had reached the island of Asko (it lies just to the
north of Bergen, and many people visit it by about one
hour's steam from that town, for the sake of the fine
view which may be had from its upper ridge of the
islands and the fjords round about), the rowers put into
the mainland, for the king was almost lifeless. Strange
to say, they had reached a spot to which some forty, or
two-and-forty, years before a girl, who had been a sort
of servant of Harald Fairhair, and was with child by
him, had been carried on her way to seek the father of
her coming child in a farm where Harald was staying.
Like Hakon now, this girl—Thora by name—was sail-
ing northward; taken suddenly by the pangs of child-
birth, she had been carried ashore to the very place to
which Hakon was now carried. There, lifted from her
boat, but lying only on the bare rock by the sea, she
had given birth to her child, none other than this very
Hakon, who had now come to suffer on the same spot, a
death as untimely as his birth had been. (Circ. a.d. 961.)

Thus ended the long and prosperous reign of this
king, whose name was preserved in tradition as Hakon
the Good. 'During his reign,' says the Saga, 'the
country had nearly always good harvests.'

It went very differently with Norway during the
reigns of Hakon's successors, the children of the witch
Gunhild. Not but that in many ways they seemed
likely men enough. Many of the brothers had been
slain during the years of contest with Hakon; and the
eldest of them now, the ensuing king of Norway, was
that Harald, who had been adopted as his foster-son byHarald Grdfeld	165

Harald, the son of Gorm, king of Denmark. This
Harald reigned as the chief among the brothers; but
all had their share in the kingdom.

Norway only half submitted to their rule. They
were not popular in either of the districts of Thrond-
hjem or Vik; in consequence they generally made
their home in the fjord district. They probably had
relations with the Norsemen in the west, and hoped, in
case of need, for support from the men of the Orkneys
or the Shetlands. Soon Gunhild began to display those
arts of a Brunehault or a Fredegonde, for which her
name is handed down in Northern history. By her
advice and assistance Harald compassed the removal of
his more dangerous rivals. There were other descend-
ants of Harald Fairhair down in the south. Harald
and his brothers contrived the death of one of them after
another. The most important of these minor kings in
Viken district was one Tryggvi Olafsson, a grandson on
the mother's side, of Harald Fairhair, second cousin,
therefore, of Gunhild's sons. Gunhild contrived his
death, and his widow, carrying the hope of Norway in
her womb, had to flee away through unheard-of perils
and sufferings till she reached SwTeden. This, at least,
is the legend, which we shall presently relate.

In the north, in Throndhjem district, the real power
lay in the hands of Earl Sigurd of Lade, who had been
a close friend of the late king, and was not, therefore,
likely to be a persona grata to his successors. Gunhild's
sons excited the jealousy of Sigurd's brother, Griotgaard,
and engaged him in a plot against the life of the earl.
Griotgaard sent word to the sons of Gunhild that his
brother had gone very slenderly attended to a farm ofr66 Norway and the Norwegians

his at Stordal, south of Molde. King Harald and his
brother Erling came by night—by starlight, as the
author tells us—and surrounded the house, and set fire
to it, burning Earl Sigurd and all his men inside. This
act of treachery was of no avail to Griotgaard, nor to
the sons of Gunhild. For all the Throndhjem people
rose to defend the rights of Sigurd's son, Hakon, a man,
moreover, well able to defend himself; and after many
years of struggle, Harald had to acknowledge him as
the Earl of Lade, with all the powers which his father
had possessed.

Harald, Erik's and Gunhild's son, is represented—
despite his many acts of infamous treachery—as a
proper man enough in himself, of a good presence, and
a brave man of war. He had a good sense of humour
too, and he got the nickname of Grafeld, grey-skin, by
which he is known in history in the following wise :—

While he was lying in one of the fjords there came
there a trading ship from Iceland full of skins. Many
people visited the vessel, but no one bought the skins.
Harald was among the number of visitors, and the
merchant complained to him that he could do no trade.
' Well,' said the king, ' will you give me one of your
skins ?' ' Willingly,' replied the other, ' as many as you
please.' So the king chose out a grey skin, put it on
immediately, and went in this guise from the ship.
Before nightfall, everybody who had the money had
bought a skin as much like the king's as could be, and
the merchant sailed away next day well content.

Howbeit, an evil time for Norway followed the
accession of Gunhild's sons. Earl Hakon, of theEarl Hakon

167

Throndhjem district, though he had nominally made
peace with the murderers of his father, knew that he
could never consider himself secure, and eventually he
escaped to the court of Harald, king of Denmark. All
the causes of division, which made the weakness of the
Scandinavian nations, had now begun to operate. In
the previous century the Viking hordes, who came
swarming over Europe, had seemed like different parts
of one vast army of heathenism which was bent on the
conquest of Christendom. Since then, the Scandinavian
nationalities had united into three or four large states;
but there was less unity between these separate states
than there had been among different bands of Yiking
freebooters. Denmark wras at war with Norway; Nor-
way turned its arms against Swreden, against the Ork- -
neys, or against Iceland. Wherefore, every discontented
subject could find a refuge in one of the neighbouring
states. About the same time, two of the subjects of
Gunhild's sons sought in different guise protection at
two of the Scandinavian courts. Earl Hakon came
with a powerful fleet to Denmark, and was well received
there. Astrid, the widow of King Tryggvi (so at least
the story goes), with hardly a companion, but carrying
her infant son, Olaf, known in history as Olaf Trygg-
vason, sought asylum in Sweden.

Earl Hakon was a man of cunning as well as of
courage. His morality was the untinged heathen
morality of an age that was passing away. He con-
trived, first of all, the treacherous slaughter of Harold
Grey-fell by a Danish Harald, called Gold Harald,
the half-brother of Harald, the king of Denmark, and
directly after that, the no less treacherous slaughter of168 Norway and the Norwegians

this Gold Harald by himself, with consent of the
Danish king. The latter now proclaimed himself King
of Norway as well as of Denmark. But he placed
Earl Hakon under him, titularly as viceroy, but in
reality as an almost independent regent of the country.
Hakon was expected to pay ' scat' (scot—tribute) to
Denmark. As a matter of fact he rarely fulfilled the
obligation; but still, during his life, Norway could
hardly consider itself more than an earldom tributary
to the Danish crown.CHAPTEIi VIII

HISTORY
Olaf Tryggvason (a.d. 995-1000)

' At the time that Gunhild's sons came to the kingship
in Norway there ruled in Gardariki (Russian Sweden)
a king called Valdemar,1 whose wife was called Allogia.
She was wise and beneficent, though still a heathen.
King Valdemar had a mother who was so old and infirm
that she lay always a-bed. But she was well skilled in
spae-dom. And it was always the custom that at Yule-
time, when the guests assembled in the hall of the king,
the king's mother was borne in thither and placed in
the king's high seat. There she prophesied touching
any danger overhanging the country or similar thing,
according to the questions which were put to her.

'Now it happened one winter that when the king's
mother had been borne in after this fashion, King
Valdemar asked her whether any foreign prince or
warrior would turn his arms against, or come to, his
kingdom the following year. " I discern no token of
any disastrous war, or other misfortune," she answered;
"but one wonderful event I see. In the land of Nor-
way there has been lately born a child who will be
bred up here in Russia until he grows to be a fampus

1 Vladomir.

169170 Norway and the Norwegians

prince. He will do no hurt to this kingdom; on the
contrary, he will in every way increase thy fame. He
will return to his native land while he is still in the
flower of his age, and will reign with great glory in this
northern portion of the world; but not for long. Now
carry me away."'

This passage brings before us the romantic person-
ality of Olaf Tryggvason, about whom so many stories
and myths lingered in the north. The passage comes
from what is called the Longer Olafs-Saga, and is not
to be found in the Heimskringla. But the longer and
shorter Sagas alike tell the history of the flight of
Astrid, Olaf s mother, across the border to Sweden, and
of her attempt to make her way to the Greater Sweden
(Gardariki), where she had a brother, Sigurd, in the
service of its king, King Yaldemar.1

But on the way they were captured by pirates ; and
the mother was separated from her son. Both were
sold into slavery. Olaf, his foster-father Thorolf, and
Thorgils, Thorolf s son, made one ' lot.' The purchaser,
a farmer of Esthonia named Klaerkon, thought that
Thorolf was not worth his keep, so he killed him. The
two boys he subsequently sold again to a man named
Klserk; and Klserk sold Olaf to one named Eeas, who
gave a good cape in exchange for the Hope of Norway.

Olaf was six winters with Eeas in Esthonia. One
day there came a great man from the court of Novgorod
to collect the king's dues from this part of the country.
He saw a very handsome boy standing in the market-

1 Valdemar's (Vladomir's) reign is given a.d. 970 to 977. He became
a convert to Christianity, and is spoken of as the first Christian king of
Novgorod. His successor was Jarisleif (Yaroslav), called the Legislator.Youth of Olaf Tryggvason	171

place, and asked him his name and parentage. The boy
was Olaf, and the king's agent was Olaf's Uncle Sigurd.
As soon as he learnt Olafs parentage he bought him
and carried him away, but did not tell Olaf that he was
his uncle. Not long after this the young Olaf, who
could not have been more than seven or eight, saw in

O 7

the market-place of Novgorod his first owner, Klserkon,
the same who had killed his foster-father Thorolf. Olaf
went up to Klserkon, and, having a small child's axe in
his hand, struck Kherkon with it such a blow that the
iron entered into his brain and he fell down dead.
Sigurd, in order to save the boy from the penalty for his
act, carried him off to the Queen Allogia; and she
readily promised her protection to the handsome child.

About this time Olaf was again the subject of pro-
phecy among the wise men in Russia.

' At the time when Olaf came to Gardariki there were
in Holmgard1 many people who could foretell the
future. Their second sight told them that there had
come to the country the " genius"2 of an outland
man,3 one so highly gifted that there had never before
been seen such a noble Fylgja. They had no idea
where the man was; though they declared that the
light which shone from him sent a reflex over all
Gardariki, arid round about over the eastern side of the
earth. Queen Allogia herself, who was in some sort a

1	Novgorod.

2	Fylgja, a sort of double, which at the same time had, so to say, a
more direct communication than the ordinary body with the spiritual
world, and passed on its knowledge to the man himself. It might be
likened to the4 Astral Body of the Theosophists. It is not accurate to
speak of the Fylgjar as guardian angels; though under the influence of
Christian ideas they came to be regarded as much the same thing.

3	Foreigner.172 Norway and the Norwegians

spee-woman, perceived the very first time she saw Olaf
that the boy was destined to the highest fortunes, and
that he would be a glory to that country. This was
the reason why the boy was held in such high esteem
by both the king and queen/

The Saga here goes on, quite opposed to historic
truth, to represent Glaf as already a Christian, and
refusing to accompany the king into the heathen
temples. 'I pray you/ says King Valdemar, 'to do all
in your power to show honour to the gods and to
pacify them; otherwise I fear they will make you feel
their might.' 'I shall never fear the gods whom you
serve/ said Olaf. 'For there is no saying that they
have either sight or hearing, understanding, or anything
else. And of what nature they are, I can best judge by
this, that you, my king and foster-father, at all other
times have been in my eyes a mild and beaming (super-
naturally shining) countenance, save only when you
have been to sacrifice in the temples. Then, when you
come out, you have ever a dark and forbidding aspect/
Such are some of the myths which gathered about
this famous name.

The era upon which we have now entered is the
most heroic age in the history of Norway; nay, in
many respects, the most heroic in the history of the
whole Scandinavian world. For Norway it includes the
reigns of Olaf Tryggvason and of Olaf the Saint; but,
unfortunately, likewise a humiliating interval during
which this country was only a fief of Denmark. For
Denmark it includes the great reigns of Svend (Sweyn)
and Cnut (Canute), and, as the reader does not need to
be reminded, the complete subjugation of our countryThe Age of the two Olafs	173

by Denmark, the greatest achievement which lies to the
credit of any Scandinavian power. For Sweden it in-
cludes the reign of a victorious King Erik, but also that
of Olaf, known as Skatt-Konung, or Olaf the Tribute
King: the only king of Sweden who as yet had been
tributary to the Danes. To the same era belonged in
Greater Suithiod or Gardariki (Scandinavian Eussia)
the reign of the first Christian king, Yaldemar (Vlado-
mir), and of Jarisleif (Yaroslav), his successor, the
lawgiver. In the Orkney Islands, too, it nearly corre-
sponds to a very great period, the reigns of the two
celebrated earls, at first joint rulers, afterwards rivals,
Bognvald and Thorfinn. It is the era of the conversion
of Iceland and of the Orkneys, so that the two extremi-
ties, Russia and Iceland, were, like the intermediate
country Norway, converted during this period. For
Iceland it is the end of what we may call the period of
settlement, the beginning of the Saga*Age.

We may say, indeed, that the chief growth of Norse
literature belongs to this age. It is just to about the
end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh cen-
tury that we may refer the development of the Edda
poetry in Celtic Scandinavia, as we may call it; and
parallel with that, or a little later, the growth of the
Saga prose in Iceland.

But this is likewise the age in which the mutual
jealousies and mutual hostilities of the different Scan-
dinavian nations begin to be most accentuated. The
ambition of Denmark for the conquest of Norway and
of Sweden; the attempts of Norway to dictate to the
people of Iceland, and to obtain possession of the
Orkneys by taking the part of one earl against his rival;174 Norway and the Norwegians

the efforts of the Orkney earls to extend their sway
over the Hebrides, and Man, and Dublin.

In the account which the Saga gives ns of the acces-
sion of Svend (Sweyn), king of Denmark, the father of
our Canute, we have a curious picture of the way in
which the different Scandinavian states of Greater
Scandinavia were connected by ties both of friendship
and hostility. King Sweyn bade to his succession-
feast (iarvol, heirship-ale, is the technical name for such
a feast), not only the chiefs of his own dominions, but
some of the leaders of the republic of the Joms Vikings,
who had their seat in Mecklenburg, somewhere near the
modern Stettin. At these feasts, when men had well
drunk, they had the custom of pledging each other in
what was called a Bragi-cup, and over this cup they
took oaths of what they would accomplish afterwards.
It need not be said that they often regretted their rash
vows1 when next* morning brought reflection. On this
occasion Svend, over the Bragi-cup, swore that he
would hunt King iEthelred out of England ; a threat
which, as we know, he fulfilled. Earl Sigvald, the chief
of the Jomsburgers, swore for his part that before three
years were over he would either kill Earl Hakon of
Norway or chase him out of the country.

Olaf Tryggvason, on his side, had been in company
with Svend, and was harrying round the English coast.
He allied himself, moreover, with some of the chief Scan-
dinavian settlers in the British Isles. He is said to have

1 This Bragi-cup is a relic of the old custom which Tacitus notes among
the Germans of his day {Germ. 22), of deciding on matters when drunk,
but reserving the details of carrying out the decision till they were sober.
The same custom prevailed among the ancient Persians.Conversion of Olaf Tryggvason 175

married at this time Gyda, the sister of the Norse king
of Dublin, Olaf Quaran. At first Olaf Tryggvason
plundered wherever he could the territory of the Chris-
tians, and passed south to the Scillies; and at this
time a curious circumstance led to his conversion to
Christianity.

News was brought to him of a certain hermit, a
Christian, who had wonderful knowledge of the future.
Olaf, to try him, dressed up one of his men, the hand-
somest and stoutest among his bodyguard, and told him
to go to the hermit and represent himself as King Olaf,
for, says the Saga-writer, King Olaf was known in all
countries as handsomer, stronger, and braver than other
men. But the holy man was not deceived. * Thou art
not the king/ he said, 'but I advise thee to remain
faithful to thy king.' After this proof of the seer's
knowledge, Olaf himself consulted him; and the hermit
admonished the Norse king to abandon his heathen
faith, at the same time giving a further proof of his
inspiration by foretelling an event which happened a
few days later.

The same story is told of Totila, the Goth, who
visited St. Benedict on Monte Cassino; therefore it
may be apocryphal here. But what is certain is that
Olaf Tryggvason became a much more zealous .Christian
than any of the preceding rulers in Norway. Hakon
the Good had been a Christian, and had made some
attempt at the conversion of Norway. The sons of
Gunhild even were nominally Christians, though their
faith was of a very lukewarm sort. Olaf's was of a
very different description. His proceedings, if the
accounts in the Saga are to be believed, were sometimes176 Norway and the Norwegians

as high-handed as Charlemagne's in the conversion of
the heathen Germans.

At the present moment Norway had a ruler who was
more genuinely attached to Odin-worship than any
which the country had possessed for some time. Earl
Hakon, as we saw, had got his rule (his kingdom as it
really was) by bringing about the slaughter of Harold
Greyfell at the hands of the brother of the King of
Denmark, and then, "by previous connivance with
that king, falling upon and slaying the victor. From
this time Hakon was the virtual ruler of all Norway.
But he was at the same time the nominal tributary of
the king of Denmark, Harald Blatand. In the year
965 Otto the First, the German Emperor, made an
attack upon Denmark, and, having defeated Harald,
the king compelled him to accept baptism. Oddly
enough King Harald seems to have become at once
a zealous convert to the new faith. Or else he felt
like the fox in the fable who had lost his tail, and
could not bear, since he had been compelled to undergo
baptism, that his vassal, Hakon, should escape the
same indignity. For he summoned Hakon to him,
while he held his court in Zealand, and tried all he
could to make the earl change his creed. The Norse-
man absolutely refused to do this, and went the length
of shaking off all allegiance to Harald. He carried
his fleet away, and set to work to plunder the do-
minions of his former lord. King Harald of Denmark
retaliated by bringing a fleet to the Sulen Isles, at the
mouth of Sogne Fjord. Thence he went right into
the fjord. Only five houses, says the Saga, were left
standing inLaerdal. The people fled far inland up thatEarl Hakon and the Jofns- Vikings 177

beautiful valley past Husum and Borgund to hide
themselves among the hills.

The Vik part—the southern part—of Norway seems
to have adhered to its allegiance to the Danish crown ;
so that Hakon henceforward ruled only over the
country of the east coast—that is to say, over his
ancient earldom of Throndhjem, and all the coast
downwards to the southernmost angle of the kingdom,
the entrance to the Skagerrak; sixteen districts in all.
Other small kings reigned in the Yik country, and in
the country immediately behind it; they reigned as
vassals of the Danish king. Hakon's portion of
Norway became once more totally independent, and
Hakon, in fact, though not in name, a king.

This change had taken place some time ago, for, as
we have seen, Harald had died, and Sweyn, his son,
succeeded to the crown of Denmark. Now there hung
over Hakon—though as yet he knew nothing of it—
that threatened attack of the Joms-vikings. The day
after the feast Sigvald and his comrades—though, as
our Saga-writer says, they thought that they had spoken
more than enough the night before—set to work at
once 011 the preparations for their expedition. The first
news of these preparations came to Earl Erik, Hakon's
son. He at once set to work to collect as many troops
as possible in the inner districts, and then marched
north to join his father at Throndhjem. Hakon and
Erik sent along all the coast districts the famous war-
token, the split arrow; they collected all the ships they
could from the Throndhjem Fjord ; then they rowed out,
going round the coast from fjord to fjord, beating up
troops, and adding to their fleet. Meanwhile the Joms-

M178 Norway and the Norwegians

vikings were sailing northward along the same western
coast, plundering and burning wherever they came.

Those who are familiar with the Norwegian coast,
and know how all along it headlands and rocky islands
succeed each other in bewildering confusion, will
appreciate this picture of the two fleets approaching
each other, and yet each having no idea of the other's
whereabouts. The place where they did at last meet,
the scene of the battle which the Saga describes so
vividly, is the Jorund Fjord, in South More, perhaps
the finest of the Norwegian fjords. The steamers from
Hellesylt to Aalesund pass the mouth of it.

As might be imagined, the Norse leaders were best
served by their spies and look-outs. One man came in
a swift-rowing vessel north to the earls, and told them
of the approaching danger, showing the stump where
his hand had been cut off as a proof that he had met
the Jomsburgers. The Norse peasants, on the other
hand, would give no information to the Vikings. At
last one old man, seeing them driving down cattle and
captives, asked Sigvald and his comrades why they
attacked cattle instead of surprising the bear himself in
his lair, assuring them that Hakon was close to with
only a few ships. In reality Hakon and Erik were
hard by, with a hundred and eighty ships in all.

The Joms-vikings had just one-third that number,
but when the battle was joined they fought with
desperate courage. There are some strange and pictur-
esque details of this battle and its sequel given us in
the Saga. One of the Joms chiefs, Bui by name, who
had fought all day, and cleared more than one ship
of the Norsemen, found himself at last overpowered,Battle in the Jorund Fjord 179

So he seized two chests of gold which lay in his ship,
and shouting,' overboard all Bui's men/ plunged into the
water, and, of course, instantly sank to the bottom with
his treasure. Most of his men followed his example,
and plunged in after the Joins-vikings' leader. Earl
Sigvald, however, fled with rather more than half the
fleet. The crews of all the rest were killed or taken
captive.

Then we have a picture of a number of the prisoners
sitting in a row upon a fallen tree, all bound together
as to the feet, but with their hands free; and a certain
Thorkel Leire, who had a special motive for revenge
against these heroes of the Bragi-cup, going along the
row smiting off one head after another. One of them
said, ' I will stick this fish-bone that I have in my hand
into the earth, if it be so that I know anything after
my head is cut off/ His head was cut off, but the fish-
bone fell from his hand. Another man, Sigurd, the son
of Bui, the hero of the gold chests, who was remarkable
for his long and beautiful hair, called out, ' I fear not
death; but let no slave touch my hair nor let blood
defile it.' So one of the Norse men-at-arms stepped
forward to hold up his hair while he was being beheaded.
But Sigurd contrived by a sudden twist to bring the
man's hands in the way of the axe, so that they, and
not his head, were cut off. This trick so delighted
Earl Erik, the son of Hakon, that he ordered Sigurd's
release, and eventually that of the Jomsburgers who
remained alive; and he took them all into his service.
His father, Hakon, was, however, much displeased at
this proceeding.

News came to Hakon of the doings of that180 Norway and the Norwegians

distinguished man who had gone out to the west, and
who at present went among men's mouths by the name
of Ole simply. Hakon suspected the truth, that Ole was
no other than Olaf Tryggvason; so he sent one of his
henchmen to Dublin, where Olaf was then living, to
entice the stranger over to Norway. The man fulfilled
his mission; but when Olaf Tryggvason did arrive in
his native land he found that Hakon had been hunted
from the throne by his enraged subjects. For he had,
during these later years, given the rein to his unbridled
passions. The bonders of Throndhjem, exasperated
by a wanton outrage done to one of their number, rose
in a mass; and the earl, to escape their fury, had to
hide himself in a pit dug beneath a pig-sty, along with
a single companion, a thrall named Kark, who he
thought was devoted to him; for this Kark had been
born on the same day as Hakon, and had been his
thrall almost from birth. But Hakon began to suspect
Kark, and for a night or two Hakon and the man kept
watch upon each other, neither daring to go to sleep.
At last Hakon slept, but he dreamed so ill that he drew
his legs under him, and raised his head in his sleep,
and screamed violently/so that Kaik, in terror lest they
should be discovered, took out his knife and cut his
masters throat. Afterwards he severed the head and
bore it to Olaf Tryggvason, the new King of Norway,
hoping for a reward. Olaf had him executed.

Thus comes on the theatre of authentic history the
great hero of Norwegian history, Olaf Tryggvason, of
whose early adventures (fabulous for the most part) we
have already spoken. Of Olaf Tryggvason's early years
we actually know little more than that he was a Norse-Conversion of Ola f	181

man who, for a long time, had a close connection with
the "Western Islands. There were several Olafs kings
of Ireland. One of them, Olaf Quaran by name, was
said to have been the brother-in-law of our Olaf.
Christianity had taken a pretty firm hold upon the
Norsemen of the west by this time. The first Christian
Scandinavian king in England had been the Guthorm,
of the baptism at Wedmore, the rival of Alfred, who
had been converted 130 years earlier.

There had been a Christian king in Northumbria
before the end of the ninth century. We know that
though the Orkney earls had not yet become Christians,
Erik's sons had taken up the new faith while in the
West. There was nothing strange, therefore, in this
Olaf from the West being a Christian of a sort. But
Olaf Tryggvason is distinguished from his contem-
poraries by the zeal with which he adhered to the new
faith.

He is a romantic figure. Tall, strong, and handsome
beyond all Norsemen of his day, with the kingly attri-
bute of beautiful fair hair, which was supposed to prove
him to be of the genuine Yngling race; he became
celebrated among the Scandinavian nations long before
he was called to become a candidate for the Norwegian
throne. Not only was he a mighty and approved man
of war, but he was superior to all men in those athletic
exercises—swimming, climbing, running, skating, or
'ske-ing,'—running on snow-shoes—and spear-throwing,
in which the Norsemen took such delight. He is said
to have scaled the precipitous Hornelen, and placed
his shield upon the summit.

Olaf came into Norway with the fixed determination182 Norway and the Norwegians

to convert the country, definitely and finally, from the
old faith—from what we may call the discredited Odin-
worship of its old days. The licentious character of
the last earl and his miserable end might serve as
warnings against adherence to Odin-worship. 'No
other name/ says the Saga, ' was allowed to Earl Hakon
but Hakon the Bad;' ' and yet/ adds the liberal Snorri,
' he was in many ways fitted to be a leader: first,
because he was born of a good stock; next, because he
had the wisdom and understanding to govern; and he
was a brave man of war, and very fortunate in killing
his enemies.' But the same writer goes on to say: 'The
misfortunes of his later days came upon him because
the Odin religion was doomed/ People could no longer
tolerate the licence which an old heathen like Hakon
allowed himself.

We find all through in reading these Sagas how
entirely conversion to a new creed takes its analogy
from the act of taking service with a- new commander.
Once the king or the subject has allowed himself to be
baptized, he has practically taken an oath of fealty to
Christ, and he is bound to take part against the enemies
of his new creed. We saw how Harald of Denmark,
though he only accepted baptism under compulsion in
the first instance, became zealous to put the yoke of
the new faith on others.

Olaf, therefore, knew that he might proceed with the
conversion of large batches of men. Let him persuade
the chiefs and their followers of one district, or the
people thereof assembled in the Thing, to follow him
in his change of faith, and he at once obtained zealous.
adherents thereto, not indifferent converts only; and ifChristianisation of Norway 183

he should proceed to the same ends by force (as the
Emperor Otto had done with Harald Bluetooth), he
would still swell the army of believers.

He began by calling into council his own relations.
He would carry it so far, he told them, that all Norway
should become Christian, or he would die in the attempt.
And he promised to make these relatives of his, who
were great men in the Yiken country, the foremost in
the promotion of the work, and great and mighty men
in Norway if they would aid him. This they consented
to do, and the result was that Yiken—which we have
said may have already received some seeds of Chris-
tianity, while it alone of Norway acknowledged the
suzerainty of Harald of Denmark—accepted the new
creed, as it had accepted the new ruler, without demur.

But it did not always go so smoothly for Olaf. It
was not so easy to persuade the peasants of other
districts assembled at their Things. The first meeting
at which Olaf sought to propagate his views took place
at a Thing held in Eogaland (in what is now Stavan-
geramt). The king spoke first, and, as the Saga says,
good-humouredly to the people. For all that he let
them see plainly enough before he had done that he
was bent on their accepting Christianity, and that who-
ever refused to do so might expect his heavy dis-
pleasure.

Now, before the Thing assembled, the bonders had
selected three of the best speakers of their number, who
were charged to answer whatever the king might say.
Olaf Tryggvason was as well known for a ready and
clever speaker as for a famous wielder of arms; and the
bonders were anxious to find spokesmen who should184 Norway and the Norwegians

state their case to the best advantage. But when the
first of the three spokesmen got up he was seized with
such a cough and such a difficulty of breathing that he
could not bring out a word. The second one got up;
but he became so confused that he could not find a word
to say, and had to sit down again. Then the third
tried; but he again was so hoarse that though he spoke
no one could hear what he said. And as after that no
one could be found to take up their case, the bonders
could make no further objection, but received baptism
as King Olaf desired. Such is the story which the saga
tells, a story handed down probably by some of the
Christian priests.

This was but a beginning. Of far more importance
was it to get the assent of the Gula Thing, the great
Thing for the fjord district. At that Olaf was met
by a curious counter-proposal from some of the chief
men of the country: If the king would promote one of
their number, a certain Hersi Erling, by marrying him
to Olafs sister Astrid, they would do what he wished
in the matter of a change of faith; and this arrange-
ment was carried out. This Erling Skjalggson became
one of the most powerful men in Norway during the
reign of Olaf Tryggvason, during the interregnum which
followed it, and during a great portion of the reign of
Olaf the Saint.

At the Thing held in the Throndhjem country the
bonders were more difficult to persuade. They remem-
bered how Hakon the Good had tried to convert their
forefathers, but had ended by being obliged himself to
assist at the sacrifices to Thor and Odin. And they
summoned Olaf to meet them at Maera and do the sameOlaf and the Throndhjenters 185

thing there. This Msera lay up the Throndhjem Fjord
very near to the present village of that name. Times
were, however, changed since the days of Hakon. The
heathen party was not so strong as it fancied itself, and
it had a stronger and a most cunning antagonist. Olaf
made a great feast at Lade (a place of which we have
often had to speak1), and invited all the hersar and
principal bonders thereto. They ate and drank well.
But Olaf had stationed a sufficient bodyguard of his
trusty men-at-arms about the house. The next morn-
ing the Thing was summoned. Olaf spoke to the
people and reminded them how he on his side had
invited them to come and be baptized; while they
for their part had bade him meet them and make sacri-
fice to their gods. 'Now if 1/ said Olaf, 'with you
will turn again to making sacrifices, then will I make
the greatest of sacrifices that are in use; I will sacrifice
men. But I will not select slaves nor malefactors for
this, but I will take the greatest men only to offer to
the gods. And for this I select Orm Lygra of Medal-
house, Styrcar of Gimsum, Kaar of Gryting, Asbjorn
Thorgbergsson of Yarness, Orm of Lyxa, Haldor of
Skirdingstead, and five more of the principal men
beside/ It need not be said that the chiefs who were
in Olafs power showed no willingness to press him to
carry out the sacrifice, but on the contrary, accepted
baptism; and a peace was made.

These stories show us the various means which the
king adopted for the conversion of his subjects. The
heathen powers earthly and spiritual did what they
could. We have one account how Olaf was bewitched

1 Lade is the first station on the Throndhjem-Storlien railway into
Sweden.186 Norway and the Norwegians

in the Salten Fjord in Halogaland (Nordland)—it lies
about opposite the southern end of the Lofotens—when
he sought to carry the new faith into those far northern
countries. There are, on the other hand, accounts of
excessive cruelties practised by Olaf upon individuals
who resisted all gentler persuasion. But we may be-
lieve that these stories are not authentic.

It is certain, however, that Olaf proceeded in a suffi-
ciently high-handed fashion. Not content with the con-
version of Norway, he accomplished that of the Orkneys
and Shetlands and of the Faroes. Finally, he looked to
Iceland, and sent thither a strange sort of missionary, one
Thangbrand, a Saxon priest, 'a passionate, headstrong
man, and a great man-slayer/ Thangbrand came to
Iceland, and obtained the countenance and assistance
of one of the leading men of the country called Hall of
Side. Njal, too, the hero of the Njals Saga, accepted
baptism, as did many others. There is a curious
account of the proceedings of Thangbrand and his
companion Gudleif in the Njals Saga. The two mis-
sionaries seem to have challenged every man who would
not accept the new faith ; and the slaying of one of the
great chiefs of the country was taken very ill by his
kin at the Thing assembled. Hall, however, and Njal
stood by Thangbrand. If it was a woman whom he
encountered, a ' sorceress/ i.e. a spaewife of the old
heathen kind, Thangbrand tried with her a battle
of words.

' Hast thou heard,' said one of these, ' how Thor
challenged Christ to single combat, and how he did not
dare to fight with Thor ?'

' I have heard tell,' said Thangbrand,' that Thor wasOlaf and Kjartan Olafsson 187

nought but dust and ashes, if God had not willed that
he should live.'

It was, however, Olafs fascinating personality which
did more than anything else for the spread of his
opinions. Of his feats of strength and daring the Saga
is full. We have already referred to the story of his
ascent of the inaccessible Hornelen on Bremanger
Island, at the entrance to the Nord Fjord, which tra-
vellers are always bidden to look out for on the route
by steamer from Bergen to Molde. Of the way that
Olaf dealt with men we have charming examples in
the two following anecdotes.

Kjartan Olafsson, a son's son of Hoskuld, and a
daughter's son of Egil Skalagrimsson, came one autumn
from Iceland to Nidaros (Throndhjem). He was con-
sidered to be the most agreeable and hopeful man of
any born in Iceland. There was also Haldor, a son of
Gudmund of Modrovald, and Kolbein, a son of Thord,
Frey's-priest, and a brother's son of Brennuflosi, to-
gether with Swerting, a son of the Brennuflosi Runolf.
All these were heathens ; and besides them there were
many more,—some men of power, others common men
of no property. There came also from Iceland con-
siderable people, who, by Thangbrand's help, had been
made Christians; namely, Gissur White, a son of Teit
Ketilbjornsson; and his mother was Alof, daughter of
Hersi Bodvar who was the Yiking Kare's son. Bod-
var's brother was Sigurd, father of Eric Bjodaskalli,
whose daughter, Astrid, was King Olafs mother. Hjalti
Skeggjason was the name of another Iceland man, who
was married to Vilborga, Gissur White's daughter.
Hjalti was also a Christian; and King Olaf was very188 Norway and the Norwegians

friendly to his relations Gissur and Hjalti, who lived
with him.' But the Iceland men who directed the ships,
and were heathens, tried to sail away as soon as the
king came to the town of Nidaros, for they were told
the king forced all men to become Christians; but the
wind came stiff against them, and drove them back to
Nidarholm. They who directed the ships were Thor-
arin Nefjulsson, the skald Halfred Ottarsson, Brand the
Generous, and Thorleik, Brand's son. It was told the
king that there were Icelanders with ships there, and
all were heathens, and wanted to fly from a meeting
with the king. Then the king sent them a message
forbidding them to sail, and ordering them to bring
their ships up to the town, which they did, but without
discharging the cargoes. They carried on their dealings,
and held a market at the king's pier. It happened one
fine day that many set out to swim for amusement, and
among them was a man who distinguished himself
above the others in all bodily exercises. Kjartan
challenged Halfred Ottarsson to try himself in swim-
ming against this man, but he declined it.

' Then will I make a trial/ said Kjartan, casting off
his clothes, and springing into the water. Then he sets
after the man, seizes hold of his foot, and dives with
him under water. They come up again, and without
speaking a word dive again, and are much longer under
water than the first time. They come up again, and
without a saying a word dive a third time; until Kjartan
thought it was time to come up again, which, however,
he could in no way accomplish, which showed suffi-
ciently the difference in their strength. They were
under water so long that Kjartan was almost drowned.Half red Vanrcedaskald	189

They-then came up, and swam to land. This Norseman
asked what the Icelander's name was. Kjartan tells
his name.

He says: ' Thou art a good swimmer; but art thou
expert also in other exercises ?'

Kjartan replied that such expertness was of no great
value.

The Norseman asks : ' Why dost thou not inquire of
me such things as I have asked thee about ?'

Kjartan replies: ' It is all one to me who thou art,
or what thy name is/

' Then will 1/ says he, ' tell thee: I am Olaf
Tryggvason.'

He asked Kjartan much about Iceland, which he
answered generally, and wanted to withdraw as hastily
as he could; but the king said : 'Here is a cloak which
I will give thee, Kjartan/ and Kjartan took the cloak
with many thanks.

When Michaelmas came the king had high mass
sung with great splendour. The Icelanders went there,
and listened to the fine singing and the sound of the
bells; and when they came back to their ships every
man told his opinion of the Christian men's worship.
Kjartan expressed his pleasure at it, but most of the
others scoffed at it; and it wrent according to the
proverb,' the king has many ears/ for this was told to
the king. He sent immediately—that very day—a
message to Kjartan to come to him. Kjartan went to
the king with some men, and the king received him
kindly. Kjartan was a very stout and handsome man,
and of ready and agreeable speech. After the king and
Kjartan had conversed a little, the king asked him to190 Norway and the Norwegians

adopt Christianity. Kjartan replies that he would not
say no to that if he thereby obtained the king's friend-
ship ; and as the king promised him the fullest friend-
ship, they were soon agreed. The next day Kjartan
was baptized, together with his relation Bolli Thorlaks-
son, and all their fellow-travellers. Kjartan and Bolli
were the king's guests as long as they were in their
white baptismal clothes, and the king had much kind-
ness for them. Wherever they came they were looked ■
upon as people of distinction.

As King Olaf one day was walking in the street some
men met him, and he who went the foremost saluted
the king. The king asked the man his name, and he
called himself Halfred (Ottarsson).

' Art thou the skald ?' said the king.

' I can compose poetry,' replied he.

'Wilt thou then adopt Christianity, and come into
my service ?' asked the king.

'If I am baptized,' replies he, 4it must be on one
condition : that thou thyself stand my godfather; for no
other will I have.'

The king replies: 'That I will do;' and Halfred
was baptized, the king holding him during the baptism.

Afterwards the king said : ' Wilt thou enter into my
service ?'

Halfred replied: 'I was formerly at Earl Hakon's
court; but now I will neither enter into thine nor into
any other service, unless thou promise me it shall never
be my lot to be driven away from thee.'

'It has been reported to me,' said the king, 'that
thou art neither so prudent nor so obedient as to fulfil
my commands.'Half red Vandrcedaskald	191

' In that case/ replied Halfred, ' put me to death/

'Thou art a skald who makes difficulties/ says the
king; 'but into my service, Halfred, thou shalt be
received.'

Halfred says: 'If I am to be named the maker of
difficulties,1 what dost thou give me, king, on my
name-day ?'

The king gave him a sword without a scabbard, and
said: 'Now, compose me a song upon this sword, and
let the word sword be in every (half-) line of the verses/

Halfred sang thus :—

One sword of swords is there that sword-rich maketh me ;

Among swift sword-bearers there shall now be sword-bounty.

No lack of swords now; of three swords am I worthy ;

Well were it were there likewise a sword-sheath to my sword.

Then the king gave him the scabbard, observing that
the word sword was wanting in one (half-) line of his
strophe. ' But there are three swords at least in one
line/ says Halfred. ' So it is/ replies the King. ' Out
of Halfred's lay/ says the narrator, ' we have taken the
most of the true and faithful accounts that are here
related about Olaf Tryggvason.'

This introduction of Christianity into Norway ends
the first and most prosperous half of Olafs reign.
Along with this change of faith came other changes,
which in the history of Europe generally so often
accompanied it. Norway takes steps towards the in-
crease of its foreign trade. We have already said
that the Norse Vikings of the previous century were
great trading men as well as warriors; so were their
descendants, the colonisers of Iceland. Norway may

1 Yandrsedaskald—' The troublesome poet.'192 Norway and the Norwegians

have remained less active and adventurous in the
century which followed, having too much to occupy her
in internal affairs. But now Olaf, who we say had
come from the west, the country not only of Christian
Scandinavians, but of Scandinavian merchants, set to
work to found a ' merchant's town ' in his own kingdom.
This was the origin of Throndhjem, almost the earliest
of the towns in Norway. The name of the town which
Olaf built and its name for long afterwards was not
Throndhjem but Nidaros Mdar-mouth, as it lay at the
mouth of the Nidar. It was, too, very generally called
' the merchants' town'—Kaupstad or Kaupmannaborg, a
name almost equivalent to Copenhagen (Kjobenhavn).

Another of Olaf's activities was in the building of
ships of war, of which he possessed the finest that were
known in those days. One called the Serpent was con-
sidered the chief of all ships of war, until Olaf built a
finer vessel still, which he called the Long Serpent, so
that the old Serpent became the Short Serpent. The
Long Serpent was built on the Throndhjem Fjord at
Ladehammer.

Hakon had left a strenuous son, Erik, behind him,
who was not likely to submit for ever to being dis-
possessed of his father's rule. Erik went first to
Sweden. He spent a year in Viking cruises in the
Baltic. After that he went to Denmark, and married
the daughter of the king, Svend, the father of our
Cnut. Almost at the same time King Svend, whose
first wife had just died, married the Swedish queen-
mother, Sigrid, called 'the haughty.' Now, it happens
that a few years before Olaf Tryggvason had been a
suitor for this queen's hand. She was not young; butOlaf and Svend\ King of Denmark 193

an alliance with her might have ended in a union of
Sweden and Norway: then Olaf would have been
strong enough to defy the power of Denmark. But
Queen Sigrid refused to accept Olaf's new religion; and
Olaf, who, as we have seen, was something of a fanatic,
was so enraged with her for^ her obstinacy that he
raised his hand and struck her in the face with his
glove, saying: 'Why should I marry thee, a heathen
jade?' The Queen answered: 'This blow may some
day be thy death.' And the truth of her words was now
about to be proved.

There soon arose an occasion of enmity between the
kings of Denmark and Norway. Svend had disposed
of his sister Thyri to a Slav king of Yendland {i.e.
somewhere about Mecklenburg or Pomerania) ; Burislaf
was his name, and he was a heathen. Thyri was so
grieved at being sent among heathens that she would
neither eat nor drink among them. After seven days,
by the aid of her foster-father, she stole away, hid her-
self in a wood, and eventually effected her flight out of
the country. She took ship and came to Norway, to
Nidaros, where King Olaf was. Eventually a marriage
was brought about between Olaf and Thyri.

There was now a queen at either court bent on stir-
ring up strife between the two kings. Thyri claimed all
the dower which Svend had paid over to Burislaf. She
taunted Olaf that he dared not go to the Danish
dominions for fear of Svend. Olaf replied with a loud
oath: 'Never did I fear thy brother Svend, and if we
meet he shall give way before me.' Sigrid, too, was
busy in trying to excite the enmity of her husband
against Olaf. However, in the matter of Thyri's portion,

N194 Norway and the Norwegians

Olafs business was rather with Burislaf, the Wend,
Thyri's late husband, than with her brother; for to
the former the queen's dowry had been paid. In
the summer of the year 1000—a memorable year in
Norse history—Olaf Tryggvason set sail for Burislafs
dominions, which, as we have said, lay about the mouth
of the Oder. The negotiations were conducted in a
most friendly manner. Olaf was too great and too
fascinating a personality not to excite the admiration
of any generous mind, unless warped by some personal
enmity or interest.

But still his greatness was a menace to lesser men, to
the rulers, or would-be rulers, of the other Scandinavian
communities of the Baltic. Of the men in this posi-
tion there were four, and they had by this time entered
into a league against the Norse king. At the head of
the league stood the King of Denmark, the Svend of
whom we have often spoken. With him went Olaf,
king of Sweden, a man of small worth, and Earl Erik,
the strenuous son of Hakon, bound not only by his
ambition to recover the territory of his forefathers, the
Earls of Lade, but by his blood to avenge the death of
his father, on whose head Olaf had set a price.

Joined with these three—joined by common interest
to resist the over-mastering greatness of the King of
Norway—was one whom Olaf had no reason to distrust:
Earl Sigvald, the head of the Joms-vikings. The Joms-
vikings had preserved the same dauntless valour which
they showed when the^y fought against Earl Hakon, and
when Bui and his mill jumped overboard to escape
capture. Olaf held Sigvald in high respect, and he had
no reason to believe but that the other felt as cordiallyThe A lliance against Olaf 195

towards him. In reality, however, the earl was in the
secrets of the three leaguers, and had been deputed by
them to worm himself into the confidence of the Norse
king, in order to lead him to his destruction. Jomsborg,
the seat of that little republic of Scandinavians on the
German coast, of which Sigvald may be called the
president, lay almost within the territory of Burislaf.
Sigvald was the brother-in-law of this king; and when
Olaf sailed to the mouth of the Oder the Viking chief
met him there and accompanied him to the court of
Burislaf.

Meantime Svend had been doing his best to collect
the fleets of his allies; and it was Sigvald's business to
detain Olaf as long as possible in order that they might
be more ready to strike at him as he sailed homewards.
The crew of the Norse fleet could not understand the
delay, as they waited with their ships bound for the
voyage, and ready for the first favourable gales; but
still the order to sail never came. At length Sigvald
got news that the leaguers were ready and waiting in
a harbour in the Isle of Rtigen. Then he made no
further difficulties. He offered to accompany King Olaf
on his homeward voyage; and it was reckoned in those
days no small thing to secure the consort of a Joms-
viking fleet.

Olaf had sixty sail and Sigvald eleven; and it may
safely be said that this fleet of seventy-one sail, com-
prising as it did ships like the Long Serpent, the Short
Serpent, and the Crane, and several others, of a size and
weight quite unusual for those days, would, unless there
had been treachery at work, have been a match for
any fleet which could have been brought against it.196 Norway and the Norwegians

But Sigvald's treachery decided the fate of the Norse
king.

The exact details of the famous battle which now
took place are rather difficult to recover. We may
believe that the fleet of the allies had stationed itself on
the western side of the island of Eiigen, where it would
be well concealed from any wanderers of Olaf's fleet
which had come to the Oder, no doubt by the east of
the island. The Kubitzerbodden would be a suitable
place for them to lie in. But it is possible that they
were in a harbour of the mainland, say the Prohner
Wick; Olaf, on his side, directed his course along the
narrow channel between Eiigen and the mainland which
is called Der straler Sund (from which Stralsund gets
its name). Sigvald pretended that as Olaf's ships were
of unusual size they were in danger of running aground,
and that it would be best for him who knew the
channel well to go first with his fleet. They navigated
the channel safely enough; although a race sometimes
runs through this part which is called the Vierendehler
Strom, and which the Norsemen of this expedition knew
by the name of Svold.

To the surprise of the foremost ships of the Norse
fleet, as soon as Sigvald's vessels passed a certain point
of land they turned round into the bay instead of con-
tinuing their course. The Norsemen followed; but
they called out to Sigvald to ask why he sailed that way.
The earl answered that he was waiting for King Olaf,
as he feared there were enemies in the way. All lay
upon their oars; and presently were seen the three
great ships of Olaf's fleet, first the Crane, then the Short
Serpent, with Thorkel Nefia at the helm, and finallyThe Battle in the Svold	197

the Long Serpent, which Olaf steered. The fleet of the
allies was lying within the bay, just out of sight; and
Earl Erik and the two kings had mounted the hill
behind, where they could watch unseen the vessels
sailing up the sound. We can see with their eyes the
imposing spectacle of this fleet of seventy-one sail
passing, one vessel after another, along the channel.
Presently they saw an unusually large ship, brilliantly
painted, and the two kings said : ' That is a very large
and beautiful vessel; that will be the Long Serpent'
Earl Erik replied : 'That is not the Long Serpent' and
he was right, for it was a ship of Eindridi's of Grimsar.

Soon after they saw another vessel come sailing
along much larger than the first; but it had not the
dragon head, the famous figure-head of the Long Serpent.
Then says King Svend: ' Olaf Tryggvason must be
afraid; for he does not venture to sail with the figure-
head of the dragon on his ship.'

Says Earl Erik : ' That is not the king's ship yet; for
I know that ship by the coloured strips of cloth in her
sail. That is Erling Skalgsson's.'

Presently they saw three ships coming along under
sail, and one of them very large. King Svend ordered
his men to go to their ships,' Eor there comes the Long
Serpent.'

Earl Erik says : ' Many other great and stately vessels
have they besides the Long Serpent. Let us wait a
little.'

Then said many,' Earl Erik will not fight and avenge
his father. And it is a great shame that it should be
told that we lay here with so great a force, and allowed
Olaf to sail out to sea before our eyes.' But when they198 Norway and the Norwegians

had spoken thus for a short time, they saw four ships
coming sailing along, of which one had a large dragon
head richly gilt. Then King Svend stood up, and said :
' That ship shall carry me this evening high, for I shall
steer it.'

The Danish fleet then, we may suppose, put at once
to sea, in time to cut off Olaf from a large portion of
his fleet; though precisely how this manoeuvre was
effected is not very clear to us. For while one account
represents Sigvald as piloting the fleet through the
Sound, another account implies that'his vessels came
between Olaf and the vanguard of his fleet. Even now
the Norse king might have escaped by holding on his
course; and when it appeared how large a fleet was
sailing out to intercept him, some of his men urged
Olaf to do this. But the king cried out from the
quarter-deck: £ Strike the sails; never shall men of
mine think of flight. I never fled from a battle. Let
God dispose of my life, but flight I will never take.' In
truth, he could only have saved himself by sacrificing
his rear-guard.

When a fleet got ready for fight, it was usual to
fasten the vessels together by chains, in order that they
might be kept in line. Enough space must, of course,
have been left between the vessels for the use of the
oars.

King Olaf ordered the war-horns to sound for all his
ships to close up to each other. The king's ship lay in
the middle of the line, and on one side lay the Little
Serpent, and on the other the Crane; and as they made
fast the stems together, the Long Serpent and the Short
Serpent were fastened together at their stems. But whenThe Battle in the Svold	199

the king saw it, he called out to his men, and ordered
them to lay the larger ship more in advance, so that its
stern should not lie so far behind in the fleet.

Then said Ulf the Ked : ' If the Long Serpent is to lie
as much more ahead of the other ships as she is longer
than them, we shall have hard work of it here on the
forecastle.'

The king replies : ' I did not think I had a forecastle-
man who was afraid.'

Says Ulf: ' Defend thou the quarter-deck, as I shall
the forecastle.' The king had a bow in his hands, and
laid an arrow on the string, and aimed at Ulf.

Ulf said: ' Shoot another way, king, where it is more
needful: my work is thy gain.'

King Olaf stood on the Serpent's quarter-deck, high
over the others. He had a gilt shie]d, and a helmet
inlaid with gold; over his armour he had a short red
coat, and was easy to be distinguished from other men.
When Kiug O.laf saw that the scattered forces of the
enemy gathered themselves together under the banners
of their ships, he asked : ' Who is the chief of the force
right opposite to us V

He was answered that it was King Svend with the
Danish army.

The king replies: 'We are not afraid of these soft
Danes, for there is no bravery in them; but who are
the troops on the right of the Danes ?'

He was answered that it was King Olaf with the
Swedish forces.

f Better it were,' says King Olaf,' for these Swedes
to be sitting at home killing their sacrifices, than to be
venturing under our weapons from the Long Serpent.200 Norway and the Norwegians

But who owns the large ships on the larboard side of
the Danes V

'That is Earl Erik Hakonson,' say they.

The king replies : ' He, methinks, has good reason for
meeting us; and we may expect the sharpest conflict
with these men, for they are Norsemen like ourselves/

The kings now laid out their oars, and prepared to
attack. King Svend laid his ship against the Long
Serpent Outside of him Olaf, the Swede, laid himself,
and set his ship's stern against the outermost ship of
King Olaf s line; and on the other side lay Earl Erik.
Then a hard combat began. Earl Sigvald held back
with the oars on his ships, and did not join the fray.

This battle was one of the severest told of, and many
were the people slain. The forecastle men of the Long
Serpent, the Little Serpent, and the Crane threw grap-
plings and stern chains on to King Svend's ship, and used
their weapons well against the people standing below
them, for they cleared the decks of all the ships they
could lay fast hold of; and King Svend, and all the
men who escaped, fled to other vessels, and laid them-
selves out of bow-shot. It went with this force just as
King Olaf Tryggvason had foreseen. Then King Olaf,
the Swede, laid himself in their place ; but when he
came near the great ships it went with him as with
them, for he lost many men and some ships, and was
obliged to get away. But Earl Erik laid the Iron
Beard side by side with the outermost of King Olafs
ships, thinned it of men, cut the cables, and let it drive.
Then he laid alongside of the next, and fought until he
had cleared it of men also. Now all the people who
were in the smaller ships began to run into the larger,Earl Eriks Attack	201

and the earl cut them loose as fast as he cleared them
of men. The Danes and Swedes laid themselves now
out of shooting. distance all around Olafs ship; but
Earl Erik lay always close alongside of the ships, and
used his swords and battle-axes, and as fast as people
fell in his vessel, others, Danes and Swedes, came in
their place.

Then the fight became most severe, and many people
fell. But at last it came to this, that all King Olaf
Tryggvason's ships were cleared of men, except the
Long Serpent, on board of which all who could still
carry their arms were gathered. Then Erik laid his ship
Iron Beard alongside the Serpent, and the fight went on
with battle-axe and sword.

Earl Erik was in the forehold of his ship, where a
' shield-burg' had been set up. In the fight, both
hewing weapons, sword, and axe, and the thrust of
spears had been used; and all that could be used as
weapons for casting were cast. Some used bows, some
threw spears with the hand. So many weapons were
cast into the Serpent, and so thick flew spears and
arrows, that the shields could scarcely receive them;
for on all sides the Serpent was surrounded by warships.
Then King Olaf's men became so mad with rage, that <
they ran on board of the enemies' ships, to get at the
people with stroke of sword and kill them; but many
did not lay themselves so near the Serpent, in order to
escape the close encounter with battle-axe or sword;
and thus the most of Olafs men went overboard and
sank under their weapons, thinking they were fighting
on plain ground.

Einar Tambarskelfir, one of the keenest of bow-202 Norway and the Norwegians

men, stood by the mast and shot with his bow. Einar
shot an arrow at Earl Erik, which hit the tiller-end
just above the earl's head so hard that it entered the
wood up to the arrow shaft. The earl looked that
way, and asked if they knew who had shot; and at the
same moment another arrow flew between his hand
and his side and into the stuffing of the leader's stool,
so that the barb stood far out on the other side. Then
said the earl to a man called Fin—but some say he
was of Finn (Laplander) race, and was a superior
archer: ' Shoot that tall man by the mast.' Fin shot,
and the arrow hit the middle of Einar's bow just at
the moment that Einar was drawing it, and the bow
was split in two parts.

'What is that,' cried King Olaf, 'that broke with
such a noise V

'Norway, king, from thy hands,' cried Einar.

'No! not quite so much as that,' says the king;
' take my bow and shoot,' flinging the bow to him.

Einar took the bow, and drew it over the head of the
arrow. ' Too weak, too weak,' said he, ' for .the bow of
a mighty king!' and throwing the bow aside, he took
sword and shield and fought valiantly.

The king stood on the gangway of the Long Serpent
and shot the greater part of the day; sometimes with
the bow, sometimes with the spear, and always throw-
ing two spears at once. He looked dowTn over the
ship's side, and saw that his men struck briskly with
their swords and yet wounded but seldom. Then he
called aloud.: ' Why do ye strike so gently that ye
seldom cut ?' One among the people answered : ' The
swords are blunt and full of notches.' Then the kingDeath of Olaf Tryggvason 203

went down into the forehold, opened the chest under
the throne, and took out many sharp- swwds,-which he
handed to his men; but as he stretched down- his- right-
hand with them, some observed that hloacLwas run-
ning down under his steel glove, but no one knew
where he was wounded.

Desperate was the defence in the Serpent, and there
was the heaviest destruction of men done by the fore-
castle crew and those of the forehold, for in both places
the men were chosen men, and the ship was highest;
but in the middle of the ship the people were thinned.
Now, when Earl Erik saw there were but few people
remaining beside the ship's mast, he determined to
board, and he entered the Serpent with four others.
Then came Hyrning, the king's brother-in-law, and
some others against him, and there was the most severe
combat, and at last the earl was forced to leap back on
board the Iron Beard again, and some who had accom-
panied him were killed, and others wounded.

Now the fight became hot indeed, and many men fell
on board the Serpent ; and the men on board of her
began to be thinned off, and the defence to be weaker.
The earl resolved to board the Serpent again, and again
he met with a warm reception. When the forecastle
men of the Serpent saw what he was doing, they went
aft, and made a desperate fight; but so many men of
the Serpent had fallen that the ship's sides were in
many places quite bare of defenders, and the earl's
i$en poured in all around into the vessel, and all the
men who were still able to defend the ship crowded
aft to the king, and arrayed themselves for his defence.

Kolbjorn, the marshal, who had on clothes' and204 Norway and the Norwegians

arms like the king's, and was a remarkably stout and
handsome man, went up to the king on the quarter-
deck. The battle"was still going on fiercely, even in the
forehold. 'But as many ef the earl's men had now got
into the Sefpvnt as could find room, and his ships lay
all round her, and few were the people left in the
Serpent for defence against so great a force; and in a
short time most of the Serpent's men fell, brave and
stout though they were. King Olaf and Kolbjorn, the
marshal, both sprang overboard, each on his own side
of the ship; but the earl's men had laid out boats
around the Serpent, and killed those who leaped over-
board. Now, when the king had sprung overboard,
they tried to seize him with their hands and bring him
to Earl Erik, but King Olaf threw his shield over his
head, and sank beneath the waters.

Such is the vivid account which the Saga gives of the
famous battle called the Battle of Svold, and of the
death of the greatest hero of Norse history.CHAPTER IX

HISTORY
St. Olaf (a.d. 1015-1030).

The Sagas from which Snorri compiled are very partial
in the attention which they bestow upon the different
rulers of Norway. Of those whom they can treat as
independent sovereigns, the true heirs of Harald Fair-
hair, they have much to tell us; but when we come to
the family of the Earls of Lade, who reigned as kings,
but yet either as vassals of the King of Denmark, or
else over a portion only of Norway, their epochs the
Saga writers pass over with a few words, as if they
were short and slight interruptions in the independent
history of Norway. These intervals are in reality often
longer than the reigns which the Sagas record at length.

Thus it is with the history which follows Svold. The
league of the two kings and Earl Erik had been
founded upon a compact, disgraceful enough for the
latter, for the partitioning Norway among the allies.
Svend, the Danish king, was to get Yiken, the richest
province of Norway; the king of Sweden, Olaf, was to
have a portion of the Throndhjem country, as well as
More and Eomsdal; and Erik the Earl got the rest of
Norway.

2052o6 Norway and the Norwegians

For fifteen years this Earl Erik carried on his govern-
ment unchallenged. In the meanwhile Svend died,
and Cnut—our Cnut—succeeded to the throne of Den-
mark, and to his father's claims on England. Svend
died in a.d. 1014. Mtheired, we know, had been ex-
pelled and now returned. Cnut set on foot a great
expedition for the invasion of England, and invited,
says the Saga, or, it may be, bade Earl Erik to accom-
pany him in it. Earl Erik was Cnut's brother-in-law,
having married the daughter of Svend. The earl, the
Saga says, was celebrated for his luck in campaigning,
for he had been victorious in the two hardest fought
engagements which had taken place in the north. The
one was that in which the Earls Hakon and Erik had
encountered the Joms-vikings; the other was that in
which Earl Erik with his allies fought against Olaf
Tryggvason at Svold.

The earl set sail for England. He was present with
Cnut when he took the ' Castle of London,' and like-
wise in a battle westward of London, where he killed
Ulfkel Snelling; but the next year he died.

Meantime, during the fifteen years that Erik had
ruled peacefully in Norway, another claimant of the
throne had been growing to manhood. This was a
second Olaf, a son of Harald, one of the petty kings of
southern Norway, who claimed descent from Harald
Fairhair. Harald was king of the district called Graen-
land (it is the country immediately south of Thele-
marken), whence he goes in the Sagas by the name of
Harald Graenske. He himself was a man of little mark
or likelihood; but his wife, Aasta, the mother of Olaf,
was a woman of spirit and character. Harald met hisEarly Years of St. Olaf	207

death on a journey to Sweden; and his widow married
another petty king, Sigrod or Sigurd, by whom she had
a second family, of which one of the children was
Harald, afterwards known as Harald Hardradi, whom
we shall hear of again.

Olaf Haraldsson was brought up at the house of
his step-father. But at twelve years of age—the Norse
youth was supposed to reach maturity at twelve years
of age—he was sent out upon Viking expeditions under
the tutorship of his foster-father, Eani, who was called
Rani the Ear-travelled. In this Yiking life Olaf spent
many years of his early manhood. He went eastward
into the Baltic lands and plundered in Sweden and
right up the Gulf of Bothnia, among the magic-dealing
Finns. He next met the leader of the Joms-vikings
near Denmark, and went into partnership with him.
They sailed together, plundering down the west coast
of Jutland, and on to Friesland or Holland. From
thence Olaf sailed to England, and took service on the
side of iEthelred II. against Svend, and lent a hand
towards the restoration of iEthelred after Svend's death.

Olaf had returned again for a while to his Yiking
life. He intended, the Saga tells us, to sail into the
Mediterranean, and by that way on to Jerusalem. But
he was warned by a dream against this course, and
was told that a greater future lay before him in his own
land.

An opportunity was made for him by the ambitious
schemes of Cnut, who, as we have seen, had collected
all his forces for the invasion of England, and had
carried Earl Erik with him. At the beginning of the208 Norway and the Norwegians

war Olaf, mindful of his old alliance, lent a hand to the
sons of iEthelred and Emma against the Dane. He
had met them at the Norman court at Eouen, and he
joined his fleet with theirs when, after the death of
their brother, Edmund Ironside, they attempted to
drive Cnut from this country. But when their attempts
proved quite abortive, and they were obliged to return
again to Normandy, Olaf parted company with them,
and after plundering a while on the English coast he
set sail, with only two ships, for Norway. The spot
at which he first landed was Sselo, close to Cape Stad.

Earl Erik's son, Hakon, and his brother, Svein, had
succeeded to his rule. Almost immediately on his
arrival Olaf had the good fortune to surprise the former
of these two earls as he came, ignorant of danger, sailing
up the Saudungssund (opposite the Dal Fjord, and just
north of Sogne Fjord), with only a single ship, and to
take him prisoner. He exacted from Hakon, as the
price of his life, an oath renouncing all his claims in
Norway, and engaging to leave the country for ever.

After this Olaf proceeded to the south country, and
made his way to the Uplands, where lay the territory
ruled over by his step-father, Sigrod Syr. This peace-
ful farmer-king was at first little disposed to aid Aasta's
son in his daring projects. But Olafs courage and
address, and the influence of his mother, soon formed
for the pretender a party in the south of Norway.
The petty kings or chiefs in Gudbransdal, Hedemark,
Eaumariki, Yalders, Hadaland, Thoten (all the country
which lies about Lake Mjosen, and as far north as the
Dovrefjeld), and the Thing for these districts acknow-
ledged the new comer as their sovereign. OlafsOlaf and the Earls Hakon and Svein 209

difficulty lay in the Throndhjem country, where the
family of the Earls of Lade had been great landowners
and great chiefs as long as any of the race of Harald Fair-
hair had held the crown in Norway. Since the battle
of Svold, moreover, and the partition treaty of the three
leaders, who had united to destroy Olaf Tryggvason,
the Swedish borders had been advanced; so that many
of the bonders of the upper country who once paid
taxes to the Norse king now paid them to the Swede.
The King of Sweden at this time was the same who
had taken part at Svold, another Olaf called Olaf the
Swede by the Sagas, and also Olaf Skattkonung, Olaf
the Tribute-king.

Though Hakon had been disposed of, Earl Svein, his
uncle, still remained. Svein, so soon as he heard what
this new-comer was doing in the south, collected an army
and a fleet, and sailed round towards the southern fjords
to look for him. It is strange to find in the party
opposed to Olaf Haraldsson some of the men who had
been the most famous of the adherents of Olaf the son
of Tryggvi, men such as Einar Tambarskelfir, who had
drawn the bow so well at Svold, and Erling Skjalgsson,
Olaf Tryggvason's brother-in-law, who was reckoned
the strongest and bravest man in Norway. But so it
is. Ana it must have added not a little to the diffi-
culties of the new aspirant to the throne to discover
that such famous warriors had reconciled themselves
to the party of the earls.

At first there was some manoeuvring between the
rival hosts. When Svein approached from the sea,
Olaf passed into the Uplands: neither party seemed
ready to risk an engagement. But at length, on Palm

o2 io Norway and the Norwegians

Sunday A.D. 1015, almost a year and a half after Olaf
had returned to Norway, the rival fleets met off a place
which the Saga calls Nessjar, and which is apparently
the promontory of Laurvik, just at the entrance to the
Christiania Fjord. There Olaf gained a complete victory.
That to which most of all he owed his success was the
band of hardy adventurers, that, in bygone years, had
accompanied him in his voyages, and in his attacks on
the coasts of England and of Trance; a wild but faith-
ful corps of buccaneers, who knew no law but that of
fidelity to their chief, and had, maybe, a touch of the
fanatical adherence to Christianity, which was begin-
ning to be found in many of the Northmen. They were
a well-armed, well-disciplined band. They bore white
shields, with a gilt cross upon them. For Olaf came as
the determined champion of the Christian creed. When
Svein found that the battle was going against him, he
sought to cut himself from the boats which (as was the
common custom in naval battles) were bound to his
vessel by cords or chains. Olaf s men on their side, who,
having destroyed half Svein's crew, were preparing to
board, sought by throwing out their grappling-irons to
keep hold of Svein's ship. At last the earl got away,
and Einar Tambarskelfir with him; and one by one, as
they got the opportunity, the rest of the fleet followed
suit.

In this wise did the young adventurer Olaf, thanks
to his own daring and address, to his royal descent, and
to a name which recalled the popular hero Olaf Trygg-
vason, make himself King of Norway, and begin a
reign which was to leave the deepest traces in Nor-
wegian history. Olaf Haraldsson had not the sameSpread of Christianity	211

claims to popularity which his namesake and prede-
cessor possessed. He was not, like Olaf Tryggvason,
the tallest, handsomest, and strongest man in Norway.
His middle-sized, thick-set figure gained this Olaf the
name of Digri, or ' the stout/ He was brave enough,
and had proved in the thirteen battles fought in foreign
lands 1 of what metal he was. But there are no won-
derful feats of daring and strength recorded of him.
All the more to Olaf's credit, therefore, is it that he
accomplished so much, and that he left behind him a
reputation great enough to overshadow even that of his
great predecessor. He was, our Saga tells us, very
gentle in manner and chary of speech. That which
gained him his reputation in later centuries was the
part which he took in the spread of Christianity, or say,
in the confirmation of it throughout his dominions.
Norway had been nominally Christian since the days
of Olaf Tryggvason. So had Iceland; so had the
Orkneys—the subject colonies of Norway. But no-
where since the first Olaf died had any great efforts
been made to root out heathenism and its customs.
Most of the coastmen had been baptized in Olaf
Tryggvason's days: that was about all. The inland
men were often not even nominally Christians. Olaf
Digri caused ' Christian law' to be proclaimed every-
where, first in the Viken country, afterwards in the
north. By ' Christian law' is meant the canon law for
the due observance of Christian festivals, prohibit-
ing customs which partook of heathenism, especially
the eating of horse-flesh; laws, again, forbidding the
exposure of infants, and regulating the use of slaves.

1 Whereof Olaf s court poet, Sighvat, has left the record.212 Norway and the Norwegians

The new king caused, we are told, inquiry to be made
into the condition of Iceland (from a ' believer's' point
of view) and of the Orkneys; and was little satisfied by
what he heard.

The early years of Olafs reign were largely occupied
by his disputes and negotiations with his namesake,
the King of Sweden. Olaf Skattkonung had, we know,
taken part in the battle of Svold. Ever since then the
Swedish boundaries had been advanced at the expense
of Norway. Olaf Haraldsson determined to readjust the
boundaries of his kingdom as in the days of Harald Fair-
hair. The result was constant disputes between the
two kings; until the Swede became furiously incensed
against the Norseman, and swore that he would make
a complete levy of his subjects, and would burn and
harry in Norway from south to north. The Norse
king, on his side, was constantly attacking the Swedes
who dwelt just over his southern boundary, which, in
those days, was the Gota river; and the west Goth-
landers, who suffered most from these attacks, were
earnestly desirous of a peace between the two countries.
Before long the Norse Olaf made friends with Eogn-
vald, the Earl of West Gothland, whose wife was a
descendant of Harald Eairhair. The earl was anxious,
both for the sake of his subjects and of his friendship
for the King of Norway, to further a peace between the
two countries. Olaf Haraldsson was, on his side, ready
enough to open negotiations; but it was said that the
Swedish king was so incensed with his rival, 'that fat
fellow/ as he called him, that he would not even hear
his name spoken.

Howbeit Olaf the Thick appointed an embassy toOlaf of Norway and Olaf of Sweden 213

the court at Upsala, which was to make offers of peace
on what would, in modern diplomacy, be called terms
of the status quo—the boundaries of the two kingdoms
to be once more what they were in the time of Olaf
Tryggvason. Bjorn was the nobleman deputed to head
this embassy; and with him went a certain Hjalti, an
Icelandic bard, who had been staying at the Norwegian
court.

The part which the Icelandic skalds, such as this
Hjalti, take in the history of those days is a peculiar
and fascinating one. Iceland may be described as a
genuine ' Republic of Letters' among the states of the
north. Except for certain dues, not often paid to the
crown of Norway, it was an independent republic, and
it was the literary state par excellence amongst the
Scandinavian group. From it came bards to every
court. The skalds of two rival kings might often be
friends who had known each other at home; and so
they served as connecting links between one country
and another. Sometimes, of course, they might be
enemies who had left Iceland with a blood-feud between
them; and then their royal patrons were often led to
espouse their private quarrel. In the present case, after
Bjorn and his suite had been entertained a while by
Earl Eognvald, it was agreed that Hjalti, the foreigner,
should go first to the Swedish court, where there were
already living two fellow-countrymen of his, skalds
likewise, whose names were Gissur the Black, and Ottar
the Black. Hjalti was well entertained by his country-
men and by their patron. But the only time that he
ventured to breathe to the Swedish Olaf a hint of the
desirability of peace between his country and Norway,214 Norway and the Norwegians

he was warned never to broach the subject again. 'For
this time I will not take it amiss of thee/ said Olaf the
Swede, ' as thou dost not know what people have to
avoid here. That fat fellow shall never receive the
name of king in my court/ Hjalti, however, made good
use of his time in singing the praises of the Norse king
to Ingegerd, the daughter of Olaf, and eventually got
so far as to ask her,' What would be thy answer if the
Norway king, Olaf, sent messengers to thee, with the
errand to propose marriage to thee V

She blushed, and answered slowly but gently, ' I
have not made up my mind to answer to that; but if
Olaf be in all respects so perfect as thou makest him
out to be, I would not wish a better husband; unless
thou hast gilded him overmuch with thy praise/

Olaf, the Swede, held firm to his refusal. But his
subjects were of a different mind, and were growing
more and more incensed at their king's obstinacy. We
have a vivid description of the holding of the great
Thing at Upsala, whereat Olaf was compelled to listen to
the proposals of peace. This took place after the return
of Hjalti, when it was decided that Bjorn must go to the
Swedish court, a journey in which Earl Rognvald agreed
to accompany him. On their way they paused at a
house of a certain old bonder called Thorgnyr, who was
the Lag-man or lawgiver of the Upsala Thing. This
man is a characteristic figure for those days. 4 In the
high seat sat an old man; and never had Bjorn and his
companions seen a man so stout. His beard was so
long that it lay upon his knee, and was spread over his
whole breast; and the man, moreover, was gay and
lively. . . . They remained there some days before theThorgnyr the Lawman	215

earl disclosed his errand. . . . When the earl had done
speaking, Thorgnyr sat silent for a while, and then took
up the word. "Ye have curious dispositions, who are
so ambitious of honour and renown, and have no
prudence or counsel in you when ye get into any
mischief. Why did you not consider, before you gave
your promise to this adventure, that you had no power
to stand against King Olaf ? In my opinion it is not a
less honourable position to be in the number of bonders,
and have one's words free, and be able to say what one
will, even if the king be present. But I must go to the
Upsal Thing, and give thee such help that, without fear,
thou canst speak before the king what thou findest
good."'

And when the Thing was opened Thorgnyr showed
how aptly this description fitted his case.

There was a great assemblage of people at the Thing,
and Olaf was there with his court. The king took his
seat upon one chair, and his court stood round him; and
on the opposite seat sat together Earl Rognvald and
Thorgnyr on one seat. And first rose Bjorn, setting
forth how he had been sent there by his own king, the
Norse Olaf, who offered to the Swedish king peace, and
' the frontiers which, in old time, were fixed between
Norway and Sweden.' Earl Bognvald supported the
proposal of peace; but when he had spoken, King Olaf
the Swede rose up and spoke violently against any
thought of reconciliation, reproaching the earl bitterly
for making friendship with Olaf the Thick, which he
deemed treason against himself. The king spoke long
and bitterly. ' When he sat down not a sound was to
be heard at first. Then Thorgnyr stood up; and when216 Norway and the Norwegians

he arose all the bonders stood up, who before had
been sitting, and rushed together from all parts to
listen to what lagman Thorgnyr would say. At first
there was a great din of peoples and weapons, but when
the noise was settled into silent listening Thorgnyr
made his speech —which it would be pleasant to give,
as a fine specimen of the independent speaking of those
times. It ended by the open threat: ' If thou wilt not
do as we desire, make peace with the king of Norway,
we will now attack thee and put thee to death, for we
will no longer suffer law and peace to be disturbed.'
Thereupon the whole public approved, with clash of arms
and loud shouts, the lagman's speech.

Olaf Skattkonung had to give way. His daughter,
Ingegerd, was betrothed to Olaf of Norway. But her
father continued to postpone the marriage, and finally
gave her hand to the Russian king—king, that is, of
Greater Suithiod—Jarisleif. The Norse Olaf, by the
help of Earl Eognvald, and without asking the consent
of her father, got for his wife Astrid, Olafs illegitimate
daughter, ' but,' as the Saga says, ' a very lovely girl :
her words came well in her talk; she was merry, but
modest and very generous/

Not long after this the Swedes deposed their king, and
raised his twelve-year-old son, Jacob, also called Onund,
to the throne. But another party continued to support
the father, and it was finally agreed that there should
be two kings in Sweden, the father and son, Olaf and
Onund. After this peace was made between Sweden
and Norway.

With a country and with a population such as the
Norwegian, the former naturally divided into districtsCharacter of St. Olaf

217

greatly differing in character, the latter strong-willed
and independent, and behind-hand in their poli-
tical education, a single monarch could only main-
tain his rule by unwearied activity, and by a courage
which bordered on cruelty. King Olaf the Saint had
owed his elevation, and continued to owe his throne
in no small measure to the trusty and highly-trained,
well-armed body of mercenary troops that he had
brought with him into the country. We see him,
surrounded by his guard, making constant progresses
throughout his dominions,—now surprising a most
dangerous conspiracy of five ex-kings in the upland
country,—now making inquisitorial search for traces of
heathenism in Throndhjem district, or in far northern
regions of Halogaland—regions which his predecessors
had left very much to themselves. He owed his
after-title of saint to the zeal with which he stamped
out heathenism, a zeal for God which, as was contended
by his panegyrists, brought about the rise of his discon-
tented bonders, and his own final defeat and death.

In reality Olaf was much less of a saint than of a
firm and capable administrator. He had not, we have
said, the brilliant person of his namesake, the son of
Tryggvi. But he probably surpassed him in solid
mental gifts, and in consistency of purpose. Certain it
is that, without the aid of Olaf Tryggvason's personal
advantages, St. Olaf has succeeded in winning a great
place in history. Good luck accompanied the earlier
years of his reign; He took advantage of a disputed
succession in the earldom of Orkney and Caithness, to
obtain the homage of both disputants, to whom he
dictated the terms of a settlement. A famine in the218 Norway and the Norwegians

fifth year of his reign brought about a relapse towards
heathenism. The famine was attributed to the anger
of the old gods for the conversion of the extreme north
of the country, the part which had till then remained
true to them. But Olaf exerted himself successfully
to stamp out this reactionary movement.

Olaf had wide-reaching plans; but he was somewhat
rash, and not always perfectly honest. He sent
messages of friendship to the outlying western islands,
which had been always considered in some sort of way
dependencies of the Norwegian crown, but most of
which were practically independent. The Orkneys he
had got himself acknowledged over-lord of. But Thor-
finn, one of two claimants to the earldom, before long
disposed of his rival Kognvald; he was not a man to
remain in a state of dependence so soon as he should
have firmly established himself. This Thorfinn is a
striking figure in the history of the Earls of Orkney,
whom, had we space, it would be pleasant to speak of
at greater length.

The Faroes were a small group, little able to with-
stand the power of Norway, and Olaf managed in a
friendly way to entice some of the leading men of the
islands to his court. When he had them there he
retained them, in effect as hostages, till the islands
accepted the Norwegian law, and agreed to pay ' skatt'
to Norway. Olaf tried the same wiles upon Iceland.
He invited all the most conspicuous Icelanders over to
Norway. But these were too cunning to comply. They
sent their sons instead. These in their turn were kept
by Olaf practically as hostages. One of them, Stein,
killed the king's bailiff, who sought to hinder him fromOpposition Party in Norway 219

leaving the country; and as he had friends among the
leading men of Norway who were ready to take up his
quarrel, the matter nearly led to grave troubles.

Olaf could not afford to raise up enemies at home on
slight cause. There was always an opposition party,
which may in a sense be called the heathen party; for
its hostility was in great measure due to the energetic
action of the king in rooting out heathenism. Side by
side with this zeal for Christianity went in Olaf's
mind a love of law and order, to which a large portion
of the population were strangers. For, fine as is the
Norse character, and brilliant as are the figures which
follow one another through the pages of early Norse
history, it cannot be maintained that the Norwegians,
as a nation, have shown on the whole more coherence,
or more power of self-government, than have the Irish
as a nation.

We see that during this, the heroic period of her
history, there were but intervals during which Norway
submitted to the rule of a single king, and allowed him
peace enough at home for him to feel himself a match
for any of the neighbouring Scandinavian powers.
Between these intervals were others during which the
country was either partitioned among several rulers, or
allowed itself to sink to the lower position of a vassal
kingdom to'Denmark or Sweden.

As the nucleus of the party opposed to King Olaf
the Thick stood the adherents of the Earls of Hakon's
line who had lately ruled the country. Two of the
chief men of Norway were, we have already said,
connected with Hakon's house, Einar Tambarskelfir
and Erling Skjalgsson. Both were relatives of Olaf220 Norway and the Norwegians

Tryggvason, and both were connected by marriage with
the house of Hakon. The former of the two, after
St. Olafs coronation, left the country for a time ; but
eventually he made overtures for a reconciliation, which
were accepted by the king. Erling remained from the
first in Norway, and nominally submitted to the new
dynasty, while in reality he ruled his own district
almost as an independent lord. Olaf made several
attempts to break down the power of Erling, and in
these he partially succeeded. Beneath a show of amity
there smouldered a continual ill-will between the king
and this haughty subject. Erling and his sons had
already made offers to transfer their allegiance to Olafs
great rival before the latter was in a position to take
advantage of their offer.

This great rival of Olaf Haraldson was Cnut Svends-
son, King of Denmark and of England. Cnut and Olaf
had always been opposed. Even in his buccaneering
days, as we know, the Norseman had offered his sword to
the sons of iEthelred against the Danish king. Cnut
was now established on the English throne, and so had,
in addition to the resources of his native country, those
of ' the richest country of the north.' He by no
means resigned his claims to Norway in asserting those
to England ; and he had, some years since, sent an
embassy to Olaf, saying that if the lattSr would do
him homage as to an over-lord he would leave him un-
disturbed in his dominions. But Olaf refused utterly to
hold his crown 011 such conditions. He told the Danish
ambassadors that Cnut might eat all the kail in England
ere he, Olaf, would place his head in the Dane's hands,
or own to him any sort of vassalage. This answer wasOlaf and Cnut

221

brought to Cnut. He was not ready to strike yet, but
he bided his time.

Olaf strengthened his forces by land and sea, -and
settled himself in the south of the kingdom opposite to
Denmark ; for presently Cnut returned for a time to his
native land, and was reported to be raising an army.
Olaf also sought to strengthen himself by an alliance
with the Swedish king Onund (Jacob), the son of his
old enemy, Olaf the Swede. Onund favoured the
Norwegian alliance, in spite of the fact that the too
self-confident Olaf would not consent to bury all
thought of rivalry between his kingdom and Sweden
for the possession of the border lands, and that Onund
received at the same time an embassy from Denmark
to bribe him to neutrality.

The expected attack from Denmark was still delayed.
St. Olaf went throughout his dominions collecting
troops, and preparing a fleet. He held a conference too
with King Onund. As still the attack did not come,
and the Swedish and Norwegian troops could not safely
be disbanded, they determined to take the initiative.
Olaf was to fall upon the Danish islands, while Onund
attacked the Danish province of Scania, in the lowest
bulge of the Swedish peninsula, which, as we have
already said, was a part of the kingdom of Denmark.
No immediate help being forthcoming from their king,
most of the inhabitants of Scania made submission to
Onund.

Once more, in the autumn of A.D. 1026, Cnut, having
fitted out in England a fleet more formidable, and con-
taining larger vessels, than any that had, up till now,
taken the seas, set sail for his native country. With him222 Nonvcty and the Norwegians

sailed Earl Hakon, Erik's son, and many another
fugitive Norwegian. Of the two great subjects of St.
01a£ who figure most in the history of this time, Einar
Tambarskelfir, the great bowman, and Erling Skjalgs-
son, the proud hersir, the one chose to sit quietly at
home, taking part neither for nor against his sovereign;
the other, who had for long hardly been on terms with
Olaf, now finally left him and gave in his adherence to
Cnut. When Cnut arrived in Danish waters the allied
kings Olaf and Onund lay with their fleets off his
Swedish coasts—off Scania, as it appears. The Dane
at once occupied the Sound between Zealand and
Sweden with a force too great to be attacked. After-
wards he sailed in pursuit of the allied fleet.

Cnut came to the Swedish coast, and found that the
Norse-Swedish fleet was lying in the mouth of a river,
the Helge-Aar (Holy Eiver). This river flows into the
sea in the south of Sweden, close to Christianstad. It
was now that Olaf gave the second proof of his capacity
as an engineer, which he had displayed once before,
quite at the beginning of his career, when he found
himself blocked in a fjord near Upsala. On that occa-
sion he had cut a canal to the sea, and had escaped by
that means. What he now did was to go to the source
of the Helge river, that is to say, to Lake Sjovik, from
which the Helge river makes but a short course to the
sea. At the mouth of the river, we have said, the
allied fleet had been lying, and to it the fleet of Cnut
was approaching. Olaf, by raising dams, held up the
waters of the lake so as to be ready to flood the river.
When Cnut came near, Onund, who had been left in
command of the fleet, sailed out of the harbour, soundedIncident of the Helge-Aar	223

his war-horns, and bound his ships together to prepare
for battle. Cnut arrived at the estuary with a force
one-half greater than that of the allies. But as it was
evening, and he found the harbour abandoned, he
anchored his fleet there, and many of his men went
ashore. Olaf and his men now cut through the dams
which pent in the waters of the lake ; then they hastened
to rejoin their own fleet. All seemed safe enough to
Cnut and his men. But in the morning the river came
suddenly rushing down in a great flood, covering the
land, drowning all the crews that had gone on shore,
and carrying with it great trees, which were dashed
against Cnut's ships and destroyed several of them.
All the vessels of the Danish fleet were broken from
their moorings, and carried out to sea; Cnut's own
dragon-ship, the largest warship that had ever yet been
built, drifted out among the fleet of Olaf and Onund.
They made great efforts to board it; but it stood so
high above their own vessels that these attempts were
abortive. This mishap to the Danish fleet gave the
allies time enough to withdraw out of its reach; and
while the Danes had suffered severely, the Norse-
Swedish force found that it had not lost a single man.

This was, however, only an incidental triumph. The
case of the allies was really desperate. The kings held
a council of war, and eventually decided to part. Olaf
was obliged to abandon his fleet, and make his way on
foot back to Norway. Many of the Norse crews now
left their leader; those who remained true to him de-
stroyed their vessels; and the king, with quite a small
following, and after a tedious march through Southern
Sweden, returned to the Viken district.224 Norway and the Nonvegians

And now all fell from Olaf. The account of the
proceedings of the next few months would be unintel-
ligible, did we not bear in mind the peculiarities of
Norse scenery, and especially of the Norse sea-coast.
We see Olaf lying in one fjord while the Danish fleet
is sailing all round the coast of Norway, obtaining the
allegiance of the inhabitants of one district after
another. Hakon is appointed Earl-Regent of the
kingdom, but as a vassal of Cnut, much as his grand-
father Hakon had held the country as a vassal of Cnut's
grandfather Harald. Then, when the Danish fleet has
departed, Olaf sails forth again, goes northward along
the coast, and tries to bring back the people to their old
obedience. Few respond, and the king's ancient foe,
Erling Skjalgsson, comes out with a fleet in pursuit of
the royal force. Olaf sails away ; then having rounded
an island, he lies in wait for his pursuer, and Erling
comes sailing far ahead of the rest of his fleet. So soon
as he has got under the lee of the island, the royal
ships dart forth and row up to the attack of Erling's
single vessel, and, after a desperate resistance, Erling
falls. This event took place in December a.d. 1028.

Such isolated successes could do nothing to save Olaf
from his fate. He found Hakon settled firmly in the
Throndhjem country, the country of his forefathers. And
though many of Olaf's followers urged the-king to risk
an engagement, he felt himself too weak to do so.
There was no other course open to him but to make
good his retreat over the mountains (the ' Keel') and
into Sweden. Only very few of the king's followers
remained faithful to him after he had determined to
do this. Kalf Arnason, one of the most distinguishedOlaf retires to Russia	225

of Olafs men, who had been strongly in favour of an
attack upon Hakon at all risks, now deserted his
master. We find Kalf, a short time after this, doing
homage to Cnut, and receiving large promises from that
monarch. Kalf's brother, Finn Arnason, on the other
hand, remained to the end St. Olafs most devoted and
most trusted follower. Meantime the Norse king—
though, as the account would have us believe, his
troubles were alleviated by more than one miracle—
had nothing for it but to make good his retreat to
Sweden, and eventually to Eussia.

Olaf could not rest in his retirement. He still
meditated a return, and one more attempt to win back
his kingdom; though at other times he would talk of
resigning even the royal title, of making a pilgrimage
to Eome, and of dying in the Eternal City in the habit
of a monk.

One night, when he had been revolving these various
schemes, and tossing about irresolute, sleep fell upon
him, and there appeared at his bedside a tall and very
fair man, in splendid raiment. ' And it came into the
king's mind that this was King Olaf Tryggvason who
had come to him/ The apparition reproved St. Olaf for
his weakness, that he should ever think' of laying down
the kingly dignity which God has given thee. It is
the glory of a king to be victorious over his enemies,
and it is a glorious death to die in battle. Thou must
go back to thy country, and God will give open testi-
mony that the kingdom is thine by right of inheritance/

This vision determined St. Olaf. He set forth on his
return journey from Eussia to Sweden, and in the latter
country set about collecting an army. Onund, his old

P226 Norway and the Norwegians

ally, gave Olaf four hundred men from his bodyguard,
and leave to recruit adventurers in his country. From
Norway, meantime, Earl Hakon, who had been set over
the kingdom by Cnut, had returned for a while to
England, 'where he had a wife/ says the Saga; and, on
his voyage back to Norway, he was caught in a storm
and drowned off Caithness. Some of Olaf's former
subjects thought now of returning to their allegiance;
and a body of six hundred men marched over the
mountains to join the king's army in Sweden. It was
headed by Olafs half-brother, Harald, son of Sigurd
Syr and Aasta, the mother of Olaf, the prince who is
called Harald Sigurdsson in Norse history, but is best
known to us by his nickname of Hardradi—Harald
hard-of-rede. He was now about to take part in a
desperate enterprise, and inaugurate a long period of
adventure which ended only with his life.

The united Norse army, with these additions, and
with its Swedish recruits, amounted to about three
thousand men. Olafs march—his last—was through
Dalecarlia to Jemtland, and so over the ridge into Nor-
way. He must have passed pretty nearly over the same
ground which is now traversed by the great high-road
which leads from Jemtland to the Throndhjem Fjord.
During the last stages of his march he descended
towards Yerdal, where the high land slopes rapidly
down through fertile alluvial terraces towards the bed
of the fjord. We have ourselves looked down from
these high lands, over the long, winding arm of water
of the inner fjord, set amidst its pleasant fields and
well-to-do farms, until stretched beyond, we saw,
or seemed to see, glimpses of the more distant openKing Olafs Last March	227

sea. The time was sunset; that is to say, it was not far
from midnight; about half-past eleven, when the sun
had just gone down, the red sunset clouds still brooded
over the scene and were reflected in the waters of the
fjord.

As King Olaf, winding down from the highlands,
looked over the same landscape, he became abstracted,
and as one who looked and saw not. And afterwards,
when questioned by the bishop, who rode at his side, he
said it had seemed to him as if the whole of Norway
had opened before him, and he saw the entire land,
over which he had ruled so many years, and which had
been the scene of so many of his adventures, lucky and
disastrous. Then it had appeared to him that the
scene widened still more, and that he could see over
the whole world. No doubt the memory of all his
youthful achievements came back to him in these
moments which lay—though he knew it not—so near
the term of his strenuous and adventurous life. He
saw the scenes of those thirteen battles which he had
fought in the Baltic, in Yalland (France), far down the
Atlantic shores, almost to the Gates of Hercules. Or
he beheld the places where he had stood by iEthelred,
and the sons of iEthelred, against his old enemy and
present foe, King Cnut: saw London Bridge as he had
stormed it that day, when he had brought up his fleet,
roofed with planks, to protect the crews from missiles,
and had then moored the boats to the piers of the
bridge.

What a life of travel and of activity had his been!
He might claim to have seen almost the whole world
as it was known to the Norsemen of his day, now that,228 Norway and the Norwegians

in addition to those regions of which I have just
spoken, he had travelled through Sweden into Kussia
and back again.

Olaf brought his army to a place called Verdal.
There had gone a war-token throughout all the country,
and the rugged bonders of the Throndhjem district had
collected under their leaders to oppose the king. Cnut
himself was not in the country; but some of the chief
men of Norway, whom the Dane had loaded with
favours, aad still more with promises, and brought
heartily over to his side, were ready to support his
cause. At the head of the army hostile to Olaf was
Kalf Arnason. But all the other sons of Arni were in
the king's army.1

' King Olaf was armed thus:—He had a gold-mounted
helmet on his head, and had in one hand a white
shield, on which the holy cross was inlaid in gold. In
his other hand he had a lance, wThich to the present day
stands beside the altar in Christ Church (Throndhjem
Cathedral). In his belt he had a sword, which was
called Hneitir, which was remarkably sharp, and of

1 My notes, written at the time of a visit to the field of Stiklestad, the
site of the approaching battle between Olaf and the bonders, and the
most interesting battlefield in Norway, give the following directions to
the traveller who is going in search of itTo get to Stiklestad you go by
steamer from Throndhjem and land at Tronaes. You follow thence the
only road you can take, turning to the right when you come to the tele-
graph posts, and going along by them. You then pass over a little bridge,
and ascend a small hill. You take the first turn to the left after passing
the bridge, and at the ridge of the hill. You then walk along a slightly
elevated plateau between two watercourses—it is only the further one that
contains anything worthy the name of a river—and keep straight on till
you see the church of Stiklestad or Verdal rising before you. The position
which St. Olaf held is well defined by the slope of the ground, and you see
opposite the low hill down which the bonders' army was seen advancing
with banners displayed. If in doubt, ask for Veien til Stik'stcC,King Olafs Dream	229

which the handle was worked with gold. He had also
a strong coat of ring-mail.

' Now, when King Olaf had drawn up his men, the
army of the bonders had not yet come near upon any
quarter, so the king said the people should sit down
and rest themselves. He sat down himself, and the
people sat around him in a wide-spread crowd. He
leaned down, and laid his head upon Finn Arnason's
knee. There a slumber came upon him, and he slept
a little while; but at the same time the bonders' army
was seen advancing with raised banners, and the multi-
tude of these was very great.

' Then Finn awakened the king; and said that the
bonder army advanced against them.

' The king awoke and said: " Why did you waken me,
Finn, and did not allow me to enjoy my dream ?"

' Finn: " Thou must not be dreaming; but rather thou
shouldst be awake and preparing thyself against the
host which is coming down upon us; or, dost thou not
see that the whole bonder crowd is coming ?"

' The king replies : " They are not yet so near to us ;
and it would have been better to have let me sleep."

' Then said Finn: " What was the dream, sire, of
which the loss appears to thee so great that thou
wouldst rather have been left to waken of thyself ?"

'Now the king told his dream: that he seemed to see
a high ladder, upon which he went so high in the air
that Heaven was open, for so high reached the ladder.
" And when you awoke me I was come to the highest
step towards heaven."

4 Finn replies: " This dream does not appear to me so
good as it does to thee. I think thou art fey, king."230 Norway and the Norwegians

' Kalf Arnason then raised his banner, and drew up
his house-servants along with Harek of Thiotto and his
men. Thorir Hund with his troop was at the head of
the order of battle in front of the banner, and on both
sides of Thorir was a chosen body of bonders, all of
them the most active and best armed in the forces.
This part of the array was long and thick, and in it
were drawn up the Throndhjem people and the Haloga-
landers. On the right wing was another array; and
on the left of the main array were drawn up the men
from Eogaland, Hordaland, the fjord districts, and
Sogn, and they had the third banner.

' There was a man called Thorstein Knarrarsmid, who
was a merchant and master ship-carpenter, stout and
strong, very passionate, and a great man-slayer. He
had been in enmity against King Olaf, who had taken
from him a new and large merchant vessel he had
built, on account of some manslaughter. (A mulct, in-
curred by one of his misdeeds, which went to the
king.) Thorstein, who was with the bonders' army,
went forward in front of the line in which Thorir Hund
stood, and said: " Here I will be, Thorir, in your ranks;
for I think, if I and King Olaf meet, to be the first to
drive a weapon at him, if I can get so near, to repay
him for the robbery of the ship he took from me, which
was the best that ever went on merchant voyage."
Thorir and his men received Thorstein, and he went
into their ranks.

' When the bonders' men and array were drawn up,
the lendermen addressed the men, and ordered them to
take notice of the place to which each man belonged,
under which banner each should be, who there were inBattle of Stiklestaci	231

front of the banner, who were his side men, and that
they should be brisk and quick in taking up their
places in the array, for the army had still to go a long
way, and the array might be broken in the course of
march. Then they encouraged the people; and Kalf
invited all the men who had any injury to avenge on
King Olaf to place themselves under the banner which
was advancing against King Olafs own banner. They
should remember the distress he had brought upon
them; and, he said, never was there a better oppor-
tunity to avenge their grievances, and to free themselves
from the yoke and slavery he had imposed on them.
" Let him," says he, " be held a useless coward who does
not fight this day boldly; and they are not innocents
who are opposed to you, but people who will not spare
you if ye spare them."

' Kalfs speech was received with loud applause, and
shouts of encouragement were heard through the whole
army.

' Thereafter the bonders' army advanced to Stiklestad,
where King Olaf was already with his people. Kalf
and Harek went in front, at the head of the army,
under their banners. But the battle did not begin im-
mediately on their meeting, for the bonders delayed the
assault, because all their men were not come upon the
plain, and they waited for those who came after them.
Thorir Hund had come up with his troop the last, for
he had to take care that the men did not go off behind
when the battle-cry was raised, or the armies were
closing with each other, and therefore Kalf and Harek
waited for Thorir. For the encouragement of their
men in the battle the bonders had the field-cry: " For-232 Norway and the Norwegians

ward, forward, bondermen !" King Olaf also made 110
attack, for he waited for Dag and the people who
followed him. At last the king saw Dag and his men
approaching. It is said that the army of the bonders
was not less on this day than a hundred times a
hundred men.

4 As the armies on both sides stood so near that people
knew each other, the king said: " Why art thou here,
Kalf, for we parted good friends south in More? It
beseems thee ill to fight against us, or to throw a spear
into our army, for here are four of thy brothers/'

' Kalf replied: " Many things come to pass differently
from what may appear seemly. You parted from us,
so that it was necessary to seek peace with those who
were behind in the country; now each must remain
where he stands; but if I might advise, we should be
reconciled."

' Then Finn, his brother, who was with the king,
answered: " This is to be observed of Kalf, that when
he speaks fairly he has it in his mind to do ill."

' The king answered: " It may be, Kalf, that thou art
inclined to reconciliation; but methinks the bonders do
not appear so peaceful."

'Then Thorgeir of Kviststad said: "You shall now
have such peace as many formerly have received at
your hands, and which you shall now pay for."

' The king replies: "Thou hast no occasion to hasten
so much to meet us, for fate has not decreed to thee
to-day a victory over me, who raised thee to power and
dignity from a mean station."

'Now came Thorir Hund, went forward in front of
the banner with his troop, and called out, "Forward,Battle of Stiklestad	233

forward, bondermen!" Thereupon the bondermen raised
the war-cry, and shot their arrows and spears. The
king's men raised also a war-shout, and that done, en-
couraged each other to advance, crying out, " Forward,
forward, Christ-men ! cross-men ! king's men!" When
the bonders who stood outermost on the wings heard it,
they repeated the same cry; but when the other
bonders heard them they thought these were king's
men, turned their arms against them, and they fought
together, and many were slain before they knew each
other. The weather was beautiful, and the sun shone
clear; but when the battle began the heaven and the
sun became red, and before the battle ended it became
as dark as at night. King Olaf had drawn up his
army upon a rising ground, and it rushed down from
thence upon the bonder army with such a fierce assault
that the bonders' array bent before it, so that the
breast of the king's array came to stand upon the
ground on which the rear of the bonders' array had
stood, and many of the bonders' army were on the way
to fly, but the lendermen and their house-men stood
fast, and the battle became very severe. The lender-
men urged their men, and forced them to advance.

' Then the bonder-army pushed on from all quarters.
They who stood in front hewed down with their swords:
they who stood next thrust with their spears; and they
who stood hindmost shot arrows, cast spears, or threw
stones, hand-axes, or sharp stakes. Soon there was a
great fall of men in the battle. Many were down on
both sides. In the first onset fell Arnliot Gellini,
Gauka Thorir, and Afarfasti, with all their men, after
each had killed a man or two, and some indeed more.234 Norway and the Norwegians

Now the ranks in front of the king's banner began to
be thinned, and the king ordered Thord to carry the
banner forward, and the king himself followed it with
the troop he had chosen to stand nearest to him in
battle; and these were the best-armed men in the field,
and the most expert in the use of their weapons.

' Olaf came forth from behind the shield-bulwark, and
put himself at the head of the array; and when the
bonders looked him in the face they were frightened,
and let their hands drop.

' The combat became fierce, and the king went forward
in the fray.

' King Olaf fought most desperately. He struck the
lenderman before mentioned (Thorgeir of Kviststad)
across the face, cut off the nose-piece of his helmet, and
clove his head down below the eyes so that they almost
fell out. When he fell the king said : ' Was it not true,
Thorgeir, what I told thee, that thou shouldst not be
victor in our meeting?' At the same instant Thord
struck the banner-pole so fast in the earth that it
remained standing. Thord had got his death-wound,
and fell beneath the banner. There also fell Thorfinn
Munn, and also Gissur Gulbraa, who was attacked by
two men, of whom he killed one, but only wounded the
other before he fell.

'It happened then, as before related, that the sun,
although the air was clear, withdrew from sight, and
it became dark.

' At the same time Dag Hringsson came up with his
people, and began to put his men in array, and to set
up his banner; but on account of the darkness the
onset could not go on so briskly, for they could not seeDeath of King Olaf	235

exactly whom they had before them. They turned,
however, to that quarter where the men of Hordaland
and Eogaland stood. Many of these circumstances took
place at the same time, and some happened a little
earlier, and some a little later.

'On the other side of Kalf Arnason stood his two
relations, Olaf and Kalf, with many other brave and
stout men. Kalf was a son of Arnfinn Armodson, and
a brother's son of Arni Armodson. On the other side
of Kalf Arnason stood Thorir Hund. King Olaf hewed
at Thorir Hund, and struck him across the shoulders,
but the sword would not cut, and it was as if dust flew
from his reindeer-skin coat.

' Thorir struck at the king, and they exchanged some
blows; but the king's sword would not cut where it
met the reindeer skin, although Thorir was wounded in
the hands.

' The king said to Bjorn, the marshal: ' Do thou kill
the dog on whom steel will not bite?" Bjorn turned
round the axe in his hands, and gave Thorir a blow
with the hammer of it on the shoulder, so hard that he
tottered. The king at the same moment turned against
Kalfs relation, Olaf, and gave him his death-wound.
Thorir Hund struck his spear right through the body
of Marshal Bjorn, and killed him outright; and Thorir
said, " Thus we hunt the bear (bjorn." Thorstein Knar-
rarsmid struck at King Olaf with his axe, and the blow
hit his left leg above the knee. Finn Arnason instantly
killed Thorstein. The king, after the wound, staggered
towards a stone, threw down his sword, and prayed God
to help him. Then Thorir Hund struck at him with
his spear, and the stroke went in under his mail-coat236 Norway and the Norwegians

and into his belly. Then Kalf struck at him on the
left side of the neck. But all are not agreed upon Kalf
having been the man who gave him the wound in the
neck. These three wounds were King Olaf s death;
and after the king's death the greater part of the forces
which had advanced with him fell with the king.

\Dag Hringsson still kept up the battle, and made in
the beginning so fierce an assault that the bonders gave
way, and some betook themselves to flight. There a
great number of the bonders fell, and these lendermen,
Erlend of Gerdi, and Aslak of Finno, and the banner
also which they had stood under was cut down. This
onset was particularly hot, and was called Dag's storm.
But now Kalf Arnason, Harek .of Thiotto, and Thorir
Hund turned against Dag, with the array which had
followed them, and then Dag was overwhelmed with
numbers; so he betook himself to flight with the men
still left him. There was a valley through which the
main body of the fugitives fled, and men lay scattered
in heaps on both sides; and many were severely
wounded, and many so fatigued that they were fit for
nothing. The bonders pursued only a short way; for
their leaders soon returned back to the field of battle,
where they had their friends and relations to look after.

' Thorir Hund went to where King Olaf's body lay,
took care of it, laid it straight out on the ground, and
spread a cloak over it. He told since that when he
wiped the blood from the face it was very beautiful;
and there was red in the cheeks, as if he only slept,
and even much clearer than when he was in life. The
king's blood came on Thorir's hand, and ran up between
his fingers to where he had been wounded, and theEnd of the Battle	237

wound grew up so speedily that it did not require to be
bound up. This circumstance was testified by Thorir
himself when King Olafs holiness came to be generally
known among the people; and Thorir Hund was among
the first of the king's powerful opponents who endea-
voured to spread abroad the king's sanctity.

'Kalf Arnason searched for his brothers who had fallen,
and found Thorberg and Finn. It is related that Finn
threw his dagger at him, and wanted to kill him, giving
him hard words, and calling him a faithless villain, and
a traitor to his king. Kalf did not regard it, but ordered
Finn and Thorberg to be carried away from the field.
"When their wounds were examined they were found not
to be deadly; they had fallen in part from fatigue, and
under the weight of their ^weapons. Thereafter Kalf
tried to bring his brothers down to a ship, and went
himself with them. As soon as he was gone the whole
bonder-army, having their homes in the neighbourhood
went off also, excepting those who had friends or rela-
tions to look after, or the bodies of the slain to take
care of. The wounded were taken home to the farms,
so that every house was full of them; and tents were
erected over some. But wonderful as was the number
collected in the bonder-army, no less wonderful was the
haste with which this vast body was dispersed when it
was once free; and the cause of this was, that the most
of the people gathered together from the country places
were longing for their homes/

This battle of Stiklestad was fought on July 29,
1030.CHAPTER X

histoky

Magnus the Good—Harald Hardradi—The End of the Heroic Age.
a.d. 1035-1066.

Once more Norway fell under the rule of Denmark.
Cnut made large promises to his supporters, especially
to Kalf Arnason, who had been the leader of the
bonders at Stiklestad, and proceeded to reduce Norway
to the rank of a dependency of the Danish Crown.
The bonders soon began to regret that they had taken
arms against the House of Harald Fairhair in favour
of a stranger. 'Olafs zeal for the true faith was remem-
bered and exaggerated; and as the Christian party
grew in strength a greater and greater halo grew round
the memory of Olaf the Thick, who was soon to change
his soubriquet and become for all future generations
Olaf the Holy.

The heathen party, such as then remained, had no
supporters, for Cnut was a firm and zealous Chris-
tian. He had had his lesson against any tendency to
backsliding towards ancient beliefs, or the showing of
any disrespect to Christian saints. Had not his own
father, Sweyn (as was the general belief), received his
death through the miraculous power of Edmund, the
English saint—strong still to revenge a slight, though

238Discontent in Norway	239

he had been dead more than a century ? Cnut had to
humble himself at St. Edmund's shrine. What power
had such a king to resist the growing reputation for
sanctity which was clinging to the name of the dead
Olaf, the continued report of miracles which had accom-
panied his steps, especially in his latter days of distress
and desertion ? Popular superstition, like popular fancy,
which is illustrated in the folk-tales, always, if it has
any excuse for so doing, clings to the losing side.

Kalf Arnason, too, was discontented. Cnut's promises
had been fair enough, but he showed no signs of ful-
filling them. He had spoken of Kalf becoming the
virtual sovereign of Norway in the same way that the
Earls of Lade had been virtual sovereigns under Cnut's
predecessors on the Danish throne. Hakon, the last
representative of that house, was, as Cnut acknowledged,
too gentle and too honourable to be intrusted with
such power. But it appeared now that the Dane
rather thought of keeping the government in his own
hands, and Kalf was a no better man than formerly.

Cnut had difficulties in his own kingdom. As he
spent most of his time in England his Danish subjects
began to long for a king of their own; and it went so
far that Ulf, one of the most powerful of the Danish
earls, and brother-in-law to Cnut,1 and Cnut's wife
together set up the son of Cnut, Hardacnut, as King of
Denmark in the absence of his father. When Cnut
came over from England they excused their conduct,
and did not venture to oppose the force which the elder
king brought with him; but Cnut took an opportunity

1 He was, through his sister, brother-in-law also to our English Earl
Godwin,240 Norway and the Norwegians

before long to quarrel with Ulf, and he had him
murdered. Ulfs son, Svend—generally called from his
mother Svend Estrid's son—became afterwards a pre-
tender to the throne of Denmark, and the founder of a
new dynasty.

Cnut left his own son Svend as nominal regent of Nor-
way ; but Svend was only a child; the power belonged
to his mother Alfifa. People began to murmur against
this state of things, and, as has been said, Cnut had
done little to propitiate the two most powerful men in
the country, Einar Tambarskelfir and Kalf Arnason.

A pretender presently arose who called himself
Tryggvi, and said he was a son of Olaf Tryggvason. He
was reported to be the son of a priest; fbut/ says
Snorri,'this praise must be allowed him, that he showed
himself more like the son of Olaf Tryggvason; for
this Tryggvi was a slaughtering man/ He could get
no great following. The fleet which he collected was
met by one under the command of Svend (now grown
to maturity), and a battle took place very near the
scene of Norway's first historic battle, the Hafirsfjord,
and there Tryggvi was slain.

But this winter there were consultations between
Einar and Kalf at Nidaros (Throndhjem), and early
next spring they had apparently decided upon their
course, for they collected a great retinue of men, and
prepared for a journey. Cnut had sent to demand a
tribute ' of axes/ and Kalf had refused flatly, nay, with
threats.

The ambassadors left Norway and passed into
Sweden. Magnus, the son of King Olaf (whom
we may now call St. Olaf), had, since the battle ofRestoration of the Royal line 241

Stiklestad been carried away, first to Sweden, afterwards
to Russia. There, at the Court of Novgorod (Holmgaard),
the followers of Olaf had a friend in King Jarisleifs
queen, the Ingegerd who had once been destined for
Olaf. Russia had nothing to fear from the King of
England and Denmark. This Jarisleif (Yaroslav), the
son of Vladomir, was the great-grandson of Kurik or
Rorik, who is reckoned the founder of this dynasty of
the Russians in Greater Suithiod. Kalf and Einar
came first to Ladoga (Aldeigjuborg), and remained there
till they had got a favourable response to their invita-
tion to Magnus to come and claim the crown of
Norway. They were then invited to Novgorod, and
there they did homage to Magnus, or, at any rate,
acknowledged him as their king. Magnus then made a
triumphal progress through Sweden to the Throndhjem
district, and was proclaimed king at the Ore Thing
held there.

By this time Cnut was near death. Hardacnut had
already received the crown of Denmark. Harald was
destined to succeed in England, and Svend in Norway.
The latter could hope for little support beyond that
which his new subjects were disposed to give him. It
very soon appeared that few of the bonders were dis-
posed to take up arms against Olaf s son, and Svend was
compelled to abandon the country and sail to Denmark.
Thus, without blood being shed, Magnus was restored
to the throne of his forefathers (a.d. 1035).

The new king began by driving away many of those
who had fought against his father at Stiklestad, and
confiscating their estates; albeit he had promised that
his reign should be inaugurated by an ' act of oblivion/

Q242 Norway and the Norwegians

Kalf Arnason, who had been the Monk of this restora-
tion, fell into such disfavour that he thought it prudent
to go into exile, and his estates were forfeited. These
unjust proceedings caused an insurrection among the
bonders, and Magnus, profiting by the timely warning,
grew more just and pacific. The latter part of his
reign redeemed the outset, and earned him the name
of Magnus the Good.

Outside of Norway nothing of great importance was
achieved in this reign. At the beginning of it, that is
to say, almost directly after the death of Cnut in 1036,
the King of Norway collected a fleet and prepared to
attack Hardacnut, the new King of Denmark. Harda-
cnut, on his side, brought his fleet to the mouth of the
Gota Eiver, not less ready for battle. In the event,
peace was made between the two sovereigns on the
condition—the tontine condition, as it really was—
that each should reign unmolested by the other, and
that the survivor of the two should succeed to both
kingdoms. Hardacnut, after succeeding his brother
Harold on the English throne, died in a.d. 1039;
whereupon Magnus Olafsson collected a large fleet, and
prepared, if necessary, to assert by arms his claim to
the Danish succession, and for a period he was undis-
puted ruler of Denmark as well as of Norway.

He appointed as his regent of the latter country—
against the advice of some of his wisest statesmen—
the cousin of Hardacnut, the son, namely, of that Earl
Ulf who had married Cnut's sister Estrid, and whom
Cnut, in a fit of jealousy, had caused to be assassinated.
We mentioned a few pages above this son of Ulf's and
of Estrid's whose name was Svend. He is known inMagnus the Good	243

Danish history as Svend Estrid's son, after his mother,
because she was of the old royal line of the Skjoldungs,
the time-honoured race that had given kings to Den-
mark. This Svend was the founder of a new dynasty,
the Estridsons. For, the year following his investiture
•as earl-regent of Denmark, and vassal to King Magnus
he deemed himself strong enough to assert his indepen-
dence, and to take the royal title. Magnus collected a
fleet and army to chastise him, but he escaped to
Scania, and thence into Sweden. The King of Norway
inflicted severe punishment upon the adherents of the
pretender.

We see Magnus also upon the German continent,
first attacking and destroying the Viking stronghold,
Jomsburg; and afterwards marching further inland to
meet a large army of pagan * Vends' (i.e. Slavs). The
army opposed to that of the Norse king proved to be
so much larger than his own that many of Magnus's
followers were for persuading him to turn back; but
he was very unwilling to do this, for he had never yet
shunned an engagement against any odds. At night
(when he had ordered his troops and expected to
meet the enemy the next day) he lay down in some
perplexity and anxiety to sleep. It was Michaelmas
Eve. In the night, so runs the graceful legend, his
father, St. Olaf, appeared to Magnus in his sleep, and
admonished him not to be afraid with a Christian army
to attack an army of heathens however great. ' For 1/
he said, ' shall be with thee in battle. Prepare to give
battle to the Vends when thou hearest my trumpet/

The king awoke, and told his dream to those about
him. The day was just breaking. At that moment244 Norway and the Norwegians

all the people heard in the air a ringing of bells; and
those of the Norwegian army who had been in the town
of Throndhjem (Nidaros) thought it was the ringing of
a bell called ' Glod,' which St. Olaf had presented to
the Church of St. Clement in that town.

The story makes us think of the magic powers of
Michael Scott:

That when in Salamanca's cave,

Him listed his magic wand to wave,

The bells would ring in Notre Dame.

The church bell is always, in mediaeval legend, the
music of the saint, the trumpet, as we may say, which
calls to spiritual battle, to war with the powers of
darkness.

It need not be said after this preface that Magnus
and his Norsemen gained a signal victory. The battle-
field is called in the Saga Lyrskog Heath. It is said to
be not far from Sleswik.

The life of Magnus represents him after this fighting
two battles against Svend Estridson, who would not
resign the title of King of Denmark. In each battle
it is said Magnus was victorious, and Svend was driven
from his kingdom to take refuge in Sweden, and all
his lands were harried. Magnus reigned (nominally,
at any rate) as king of both Norway and Denmark, to
all appearance the most wide-ruling king who had
sprung of the race of Harald Fairhair. But Svend
seems never to have laid down his kingly title, while
the power of Magnus in Denmark lasted only so long
as he had a fleet and an army at hand to support
him. Magnus thought of prosecuting still further
his claims as the (tontine) heir of Hardacnut; and inThe Earls of Orkney	245

virtue of that inheritance he sent to demand the crown
of England, which Hardacnut had also worn before he
died, of Hardacnut's half-brother, our Edward the
Confessor: but he never enforced his demand by arms.

This reign of Magnus in Norway is contemporary
with the greatest period in the history of the Earls of
Orkney, of which the Jarla Sogur, or Orkneyinga Saga,
gives us a vivid account. The possessions of the Earls
of Orkney consisted at that time of both the Orkney
and Shetland groups of islands, and of Caithness on
the Scottish mainland; but the latter county was held
from the Kings of Scotland, and belonged without dis-
pute to Thorfinn, called in the Orkney history Thorfinn
the Great, one of the joint Earls of Orkney. The other
Orkney Earl was Thorfinn's uncle, not much his senior
in age, Eognvald Brusason, a man who had spent much
time at the Norwegian Court, and was high in favour
with the Norwegian monarchs who claimed to be the
suzerains of Orkney, both with Olaf the Saint and his
son Magnus. Eognvald fought by the side of Olaf at
Stiklestad, and aided Harald Hardradi to escape from
the battle in a way that we shall immediately have to
relate. Eognvald returned for a while to the Orkneys;
ruled at first in harmony with Thorfinn, but was
eventually driven out by his nephew; he returned
and drove away Thorfinn for a time, and was finally
slain by the latter.

We now come to the history of that brother of Olaf
the Saint who had fought by his side at Stiklestad, the
son of King Sigurd Syr and of Aasta, Harold Sigurd-
son (or as we English know him best), Harald Hardradi,246 Norway and the Norwegians

Harald the Hard. Few figures in Norse history realise
better than he does the picturesque character of the .old
Viking leader. Few men seemed better fitted to draw
the Norse nation back to the unity from which it was
slipping away; yet none were more unfortunate than
this king was; in truth, we may reckon his death as one
of the greatest blows ever dealt to Norway.

Harald was but a boy when he fought by his step-
brother's side at Stiklestad. He received a wound
there; and when the day had gone hopelessly against
his side, he fled up into the kindly shade of the forest
with one friend only beside him, Earl Rognvald, the
Rognvald of whom we have just spoken, and whom the
Orkney Saga calls ' the most accomplished man of his
day.' Rognvald left young Harald with a bonder who
lived in this forest-country of the border to be healed
of his wounds ; and, when better, the youth passed on
in the early spring through the dense wood of the
Markland into Jemtland, and so on to the Swedish
court of Upsala. There he met many fugitive Norse-
men, among the rest his friend Rognvald once more.
These two decided not to stay in Sweden, but to travel
eastward to the Greater Sweden, and to the court of
King Jarisleif of Novgorod.

We have already beheld many fugitives from Norway
taking the same route. But Harald Hardradi travelled
further than most of these. He followed in the wake of
those men from Greater Sweden who had found their
way as far as the states of the Byzantine Empire, and
taking service with the emperor, had formed them-
selves into a bodyguard, which went by the name of
the Invincible Guard. It was also called the YaringianHarald Hardradi

247

Guard; for the Greeks called all these men from the
north Yaringi or Yarangi (Pharangi) a name which may
perhaps be a corruption of Franks. We are told that
this Yaringian Guard, which formed a distinct division
of the Greek army, often retrieved the day of battle
when the rest of the army had been put to flight.

The licentious and cruel Empress Zoe was on the
Byzantine throne when Harald came to Constantinople.
By her he was appointed to the command of the
Yarangi. Many are the stories which the Sagas relate
of Harald's battles with the Saracens, who were now a
great and ever-growing danger to the Greek Empire,
and of his wonderful quickness in counsel and readiness
of resource. Some of these stories are told of earlier
northern heroes of the Viking age. One in particular
of Harald's achievements is ascribed likewise to Hasting,
a famous Viking of the ninth century. The following
story is told also of one of the Norman Dukes of Apulia.
Yet, albeit we cannot be sure that it is truly told of
Harald, it is worth the repeating.

Harald Hardradi was engaged upon the siege of a
strong town in Sicily. He noticed that the sparrows
from the town flew out every day into the fields to feed;
but flew back at night to nest in the thatched roofs of
the houses of the town. Therefore he gave orders that
as many of these sparrows should be captured as pos-
sible, and, when they were captured, he caused lighted
sticks to be tied to their tails. They, of course, at once
flew back to their nests in the roofs of the houses and
of the citadel; and as these roofs were thatched, they
caught fire, and the whole town was burned to the
ground.248 Norway and the Norwegians

After the restoration of St. Olafs line in Norway,
Harald Hardradi determined to return to his native
country and to claim a share in the inheritance of his
nephew, King Magnus. Supposing that his claims
were sure to be disputed, he allied himself at first with
the pretender to the throne of Denmark, Svend Estrids-
son, and they proceeded together against Magnus. But
Magnus made overtures to Harald, and detached him
from the Svend alliance. Eventually the uncle and
nephew, who were nearly of the same age, jointly
governed the kingdom.

Thus ended the adventurous portion of Harald Hard-
radi's career, almost the last of the kings of Norway who
seemed to partake of the old Yiking character. There
was one last adventure in store for him. He survived
Magnus, and reigned as sole king of Norway. Magnus
had left Denmark to his old rival Svend Estridsson,
and Norway to his uncle, Harald. The latter refused to
admit the right of Magnus to dispose of the Danish
crown, and continued the war with Svend. Harald
likewise, as we shall see, made the same claims which
Magnus had once asserted to the crown of England.
Harald Hardradi was not, the historian tells us, very
popular with the mass of the population, on account of
the severity of his character. He seems, indeed, to
have exercised a more personal and tyrannical rule than
any preceding king of Norway. But he was respected
for his soldierly qualities and his fame in war. After
Harald had reigned some years in peace, there came a
fresh temptation to him to try once more his fortune
as a soldier abroad.

We most of us know, at least in outline, the historyHaraid's Invasion of England 2 49

of the last adventure of Harald Hardradi. We know
how Tostig, Godwin's son, the brother of our King
Harald, who had been expelled from his earldom of
Northumbria, sought on every side from the enemies
of Harold and of England for aid in the recovery of
his forfeited earldom. He applied first to Duke
William of Normandy, who was making, as all men
knew, preparations for the invasion of England; and
he got some men and ships from that quarter and
harried the southern coasts of England, but was driven
off. Most of his crews deserted him when he tried to
make a descent upon Northumberland, and he went next
to his ally Malcolm (called Caenmore, or Big Head), king
of Scotland. Tostig could not gain all the assistance
which he required in this quarter, so he set sail (at
least the northern Sagas say he did this) to Norway, to
persuade Harald Hardradi to undertake the invasion
of England, of which, as we saw, Harald's nephew and
predecessor Magnus had claimed the crown.

Harald consented, and made vast preparations for
the expedition. We see him reviewing the fleet which
he had collected by the Sulen Islands (the Ytre Sulen
and the Indre Sulen), which lie just at the mouth of
the Sogne Fjord. Strange portents warned men what
was to be the issue of this adventure, this death-throe,
as it proved to be, of the old heroic Norway.

It is said that one of the companions of the king
saw from his ship a huge woman of the troll or
demon race, sitting upon the land. She had in one
hand a fork, and in the other a bowl, as though for
holding blood. And, looking over all the fleet he saw,
with the second sight which had come upon him, on250 Norway and the Norwegians

each ship perched a bird of prey, a raven or an eagle,
as though the crew of each ship was destined to de-
struction. Another man in the Norse fleet saw in a
dream the arrival of their army in England, and the
army which they were going to fight; and before the
latter rode a demon-woman upon a wolf; it held a
human carcase in its mouth, and blood was streaming
from its jaws, and as it devoured one man from the
Norwegian army, the troll-woman gave it another.
Under these gloomy auspices did Harald's fleet set sail
in the autumn of A.D. 1066.

The fleet came first to the Orkneys. It was joined
there by the two Earls of Orkney, Paul and Erling, the
sons of that Earl Thorfinn of whom we have spoken.
How it sailed next to Scotland, and then in conjunction
with Tostig's fleet down to the English coast, fighting
with the men of Scarborough and burning that town,
with the men of Holderness, till it reached the mouth of
the Humber, readers of English history remember. It
sailed up the Humber to the mouth of the Wharf, in
which lay the fleet of the Earls of Northumbria and
Mercia, the famous-infamous Earls Morcar and Edwine.
On "Wednesday, September 20, the army of Harald and
Tostig met the army of the earls at Gate Eulford.
Harald and Tostig gained a signal victory. They then
marched to besiege York, which capitulated on Sunday,
September 24.. Harald took hostages from the city, and
appointed Stamford Bridge as the place where the chief
men of Northumbria were to come to him and make
submission.

But that very evening another English army, under
our King Harold Godwin's son, had reached the neigh-Battle of Stamford Bridge 251

bourhood. It is said that the Norse army was totally
unaware of its approach, and that Harald and Tostig
had gone forward with some of their bodyguard, but
without having donned their armour, when the army
of the English Harold came in sight, advancing along
the road which leads from York to the river. It is an
ancient Eoman highway, as the local names Gate
Helmsley and Gate Eulford suggest. Tostig was for
falling back upon their base; but Harald would only,
consent to send back messengers to bring up the rest
of their force.

The Norse Saga tells the famous story of the message
which English Harold sent to his brother, promising
him restoration to his earldom if he would, make peace.
Tostig said:

'This is something different from the enmity and
scorn which he offered me last winter. . . . But if I
accept of this offer, what will he give Harald Sigurdsson
for his trouble ?'

The envoy replied : ' He has also spoken of this, and
will give him seven feet of English ground, or as much
more as he may be taller than other men.'

Then said the earl: ' Go now and tell King Harold to
get ready for battle; for never shall the Northmen say
that Earl Tostig left King Harald Sigurdsson to join
his enemy's troops, when he came to fight west here in
England. We shall rather all take the resolution to
die with honour, or to gain England by a victory.'

The account of the battle in the Saga is not to be
relied upon, except, maybe, for one little touch. As
the Norse Harald, it is said, was riding round his army
ordering the battle, his horse stumbled under him, and255 Norway and the Norwegians

the king fell off. He got up at once and said, ' A fall
is lucky for a traveller.' But the English Harold asked
' who the stout man was who fell, with the blue cloak
and beautiful helmet.' ' That is the king himself,' they
said. Then the English king said : ' A great man, and
of a stately mien is he; but I think his luck has
deserted him.'

Of the battle of Stamford Bridge, we only know that
it was a hard-fought one on either side; but that at the
last Harald Hardradi and Tostig fell, and the English
gained the victory. But only, alas ! to find that Duke
William of Normandy had taken advantage of the
diversion, and that, his preparations now being com-
plete, he had set sail for England.

We have one other thing to record of this Harald
Hardradi beside his career of warlike adventure.
This is, that he built the town of Opslo or Oslo, practi-
cally the forerunner of the modern Christiania. (Chris-
tiania lies almost entirely to the west of the Akers
Stream, and Oslo lay to the east of it; that is the only
difference between the two sites.) By this act, Harald,
the last of the kings of the old order, took one more
step towards the bringing on of the new order of things,
the more peaceful age which succeeded in Norway.

We may count the death of Harald Hardradi as the
end of the heroic period in the history of Norway—
the true Saga Age, when the deeds that were done and
the skalds that sang or the story-tellers who related
them were all alike worthy. Heathenism had now
disappeared. But it would seem as if the character
of the Scandinavian people were formed upon aEnd of the Heroic Age	253

heathen model, and could not well adapt itself to a
change of faith. As one or two in the great group
of Catholic states of mediaeval Europe, governed
by the beliefs, imitating more or less the social life
and the policy of these Catholic states, the Scandi-
navian countries fall into the background. Their
history no longer claims much of our attention. In
one of the great-grandsons of Harald Hardradi we see
Harald's love of adventure surviving; but now it finds
its outlet by the king joining the crusades, and being
known to his contemporaries and to all Norse history
as Sigurd Jorsalfari, the farer to Jerusalem—Sigurd
the Crusader.

Not, indeed, that the Scandinavian peoples—albeit
they had now utterly forgotten their Odin worship—
showed any unnatural alacrity to follow the precepts
of the Gospel of Peace. Their wars continued to go on;
but they became of a more petty character from year
to year. Once we were able to look upon the whole
mass of the Scandinavian nations as forming, in a
certain sense, one people, and although they were con-
tinually at war with one another, there was at the same
time a sort of unity in their life which kept them
together, and which kept them distinct from all the
nations of Christian Europe. We saw a group of war-
like peoples stretching from the middle of Eussia up to
Iceland, and to the most western of the British Islands.
Until the death of Harald Hardradi there seems to be
very little change in the character of what we have
called the 'Greater Scandinavia/ Such change as
there was meant but an extension of the Scandinavian
influence in Europe. Our own country lay nearest to254 Norway and the Norwegians

the borders of the Greater Scandinavia, almost within
the zone of its influence, between it, one might say, and
the rest of Christian Europe. It fluctuated for a long
time between two opposing forces. Through the im-
mense influx of northern blood which it had experienced
in the ninth and tenth centuries it was drawn towards
the Scandinavian" peoples; by its old Christianity it
was chained to Continental Europe. After the Danish
conquest of Cnut it seemed to give way to the former
attraction, and to become absorbed among the Scandi-
navian States; but then followed the reign of Edward
the Confessor, when the influence of Catholicism and
of Catholic Europe again became strong.

This reign brought in a new element, the Norman
or French element, into our history. Eor, of the Scandi-
navian States which, in a former chapter, we counted
as having been born from the great Viking outpouring
of the ninth century, one (but one only) had been com-
pletely withdrawn from its old associations, had utterly
broken with its old traditions, Normandy, namely, the
Scandinavian settlement in France. Even during
Edward the Confessor's reign a reaction began against
this Norman influence. It was expressed by the rise
of the House of Godwin and the crowning of Harold.
The new king's very name is significant of the influ-
ences which had affected England; for this is the first
appearance of a thoroughly Scandinavian name borne
by a king of English descent. Godwin had married
Gyda, the sister of Earl Ulf of Denmark, who himself
was the brother-in-law of Cnut; and the influence of
Godwin's family and of Harold was to bring back, to
re-assert, as it were, the Danish element in English life.Scandinavian Influence in Europe 255

The relationship between England and the Scandi-
navian lands was shown again in another way: for
when Tostig desired to recover his lost earldom, he
naturally had recourse to the king of one of the brother
Scandinavian states. He went, as we have seen, over
to Norway and enlisted the help of Harald Hardradi,
with we know what results. The Norse Harald and
Tostig fell at Stamford Bridge. The English Harold had
no time to raise forces enough to resist the Norman Con-
quest, wherefore he too fell a few months later at Hast-
ings ; and by the Norman Conquest were confirmed the
Catholic and Continental influences in the history of this
country. That these influences should have been brought
in by another Scandinavian nation is curious; but, as has
been just said, though the Normans were Scandinavians
by descent, they had utterly thrown off their Scandi-
navian character; so much so that before the time of
William the Bastard the dukes found it difficult even
to learn the old language. This was the one Scandi-
navian nation which separated itself from the rest of
the Scandinavian group; but it kept the strength of
the Scandivanian character, and when it adopted French
ideas and the Catholicism of Central Europe, it adopted
them in a more thorough fashion even than the Franks
did themselves, and it became the greatest agent in the
spreading of these ideas wherever its power extended.

From the time of the Norman Conquest the Scandi-
navian influence was gradually pushed out of the British
Islands. The Norman Conquest, and all that it brought
with it, were symbolised by the building of castles and
cathedrals, and displayed in the establishment of a
stricter discipline in Church and State. All these256 Norway and the Norwegians

things we see slowly spreading northwards. The Nor-
man castles and the Norman ways of looking at things
made their way into Scotland with David the First;
and when that happened the Norse influences in the
Scottish Islands were rapidly on the decline. Presently
Norway had to give up all her possessions in those
parts. Hereafter, therefore, the history of the Nor-
wegians becomes the history of Norway alone. With
the other Scandinavian States for many hundred years
—that is, until the union of Norway with Denmark and
Sweden—we have nothing more to do. And when the
union of the three countries does take place, the inde-
pendent history of Norway comes to an end.

Seeing, then, that we are now bidding adieu to the
great age in the history of the northern peoples, and
even to all that is of great interest in the history of
Norway, let us try and gain some picture of what was
the life in this heroic age among the Scandinavians,
and especially in Norway proper; now when Christian-
ity had been introduced all over the north,' but had
not yet seriously affected the character of the people.

We will begin with the domestic life. As we have
said, the country as a whole must be looked upon as a
collection of farms, larger or smaller. Such it is still,
with modifications; such it was then almost purely.
The great men, the kings and earls, personally super-
intended the operations 011 their farms almost as much
as the ordinary farmer in Norway does to-day. They
do not seem, moreover, to have had a great number of
country houses in different parts of their dominions as
the Frankish kings, for example, had, and as our ownLife in the Heroic Age	257

Anglo-Saxon kings had also. That great family of
Throndhjem earls, for instance, from which came Earl
Hakon and his sons, had its country seat at Lade, close
to the more modern town of Throndhjem, and we
almost always hear of the earls residing there. In the
case of one of the small rulers in the south of Norway^
that Sigurd Syr, who was stepfather of St. Olaf, we have
a picture of the king superintending the personnel
of his estate at their work, which is delightful and
Homeric, and made all the more so by the fact that
Sigurd, though he is really only quite a petty ruler, yet
bears the title of king.

' King Sigurd Syr was standing in his cornfield when
the messengers came to him and brought him the news
[of the coming of Olaf, his stepson, who was about to
raise the country and assert his claim to the throne];
and also told him all that Aasta was doing at home in
the house. He had many people on his farm. Some
were then shearing corn, some bound it together, some
drove it to the building, some unloaded it and put it in
sack or barn; but the king, arid two men with him,
went sometimes into the field, sometimes to the place
where the com was put into the barn. His dress, it is
told, was this: He had a blue girdle and blue hose,
shoes which were laced about the legs, a grey cloak,
and a grey, wide-brimmed hat, a veil before his face,
a staff in his hand, with a silver-gilt head on it, and a
silver ring round it. Of Sigurd's living and disposition
it is related that he was a very gain-making man, who
attended carefully to his cattle and husbandry, and
managed his household himself. He was nowise given
to pomp, and was rather taciturn; but he was a man

B258 Norway and the Norwegians

of the best understanding in Norway, and also exces-
sively wealthy in moveable property. Peaceful he was,
and nowise haughty.'

When the news was brought to Sigurd of Olaf's
approach, ' he sat down and made them take off his
shoes and put Corduvan boots on, to which he bound
his gold spurs. Then he put off his coat and cloak,
and dressed himself in his finest clothes, with a scarlet
cloak over all, girded on his sword, set a gilt helmet on
his head, and mounted his horse. He sent his labour-
ing people out to the neighbourhood, and gathered to
him thirty well-clothed men, and rode home with them/

There is something very naif in this last touch of
King Sigurd sending his labourers among the tenants
to collect thirty well-clothed men to ride with the king.

This Sigurd was an inland landowner. The larger
landowners, whose estates went down to the sea, had
nearly all of them one or more boats of their own
building, which they might use in various ways, either
as vessels of war or as merchantmen. We have said a
good deal already about the boat-building of the north.
The best descriptions of Yiking ships which we have
come to us from this period. The boats were not all
built on one pattern. There was one kind called a
Snaekke, which means a particularly fast boat (fast,
that is, for rowing), and which I will guess approached
most nearly the ordinary fjord-boat of modern days.
Then there was the regular war-vessel, which was called
sometimes the long ship, sometimes (purely as a generic
name) a dragon, or a worm. I daresay these long ships
belonged chiefly to the later Yiking age, as in the earlierThe Great Landowners	259

time before sea-fights began a lighter kind of craft
would be all that was required. The mythical story
of the death of Eagnar Lodbrok, who insisted on making
his Viking cruise to England in one very long ship
instead of a number of small ones, rather suggests this.
About the longest ships of which we hear mention con-
tain thirty or thirty-two benches of rowers. Now, the
Christiania ship, which anybody can see who chooses,
contains sixteen benches; and the reader who has seen
the Christiania ship may judge for himself to what fine
dimensions these largest vessels must have reached.
They would not, of course, have been quite double the
length of the Christiania boat, but they would have
been more than half as long again. However, we read
more frequently of boats containing twenty benches;
and I daresay this Christiania boat was a very good
size for any one under the rank of a king. At this
period the king of the whole country—Olaf Tryggva-
son or Olaf the Saint—generally sailed in some excep-
tionally large vessel. Olaf Tryggvason had, during
the latter part of his reign, his celebrated ship called
Long Serpent, in which he was when he lost his life
at the battle of Svold.

This, we are told in the Saga, was the largest ship of
war ever known up to that date. It had thirty-four
benches of rowers ; the keel, when placed upon the
ground, measured seventy-four ells. But, unfortunately,
we do not know for certain what was the length of the
Norwegian ell at this time—two of our feet, or one and
a half. The former would give a hundred and forty-
eight feet for the keel of the Long Serpent, the latter a
hundred and eleven. The lesser number seems the most260 Norway and the Norwegians

probable, seeing that the keel of the Christiania boat
with its sixteen benches is sixty feet.

The admiration which all the vessels of Olaf excited
at Svold among the chiefs allied against the Norse
king is told in a graphic manner in the Saga.

They mistook one vessel after another for the Serpent,
but when the latter did appear it was conspicuous
above all others by its size and beauty. ' Many said
the Serpent is, indeed, a large and beautiful vessel, and
it shows a great mind to have built such a ship.

' Earl Erik said, so loud that several persons heard
him: " If King Olaf had no other vessels but only that
one, King Svend would never take it from him with
the Danish force alone."'

The only rivals of the Norse king's ships, in fact,
were those of his Norse rival, Earl Erik, the son of
Earl Hakon.

' Better were it,' says King Olaf, ' for these Swedes to
be sitting at home killing their sacrifices, than to be
venturing under our weapons from the Long Serpent.
But who owns the large ship on the larboard side of
the Danes ?'

' That is Earl Erik Hakonsson,' say they.

Olaf Haraldsson (Olaf the Saint) had his large ship,
which was carved with a man's head and called the
Carlus. No doubt it represented the head of Charle-
magne, who, now that the Northmen were becom-
ing Christians, was beginning to be appreciated as a
hero by people of that Scandinavian race to which, in
his lifetime, he had been so inimical.

We see, then, that among the ships which were owned
by the great landowners, there was always the materialPiracy and Trade

261

ready for the formation of a fleet for either side in any
national dispute. These private vessels were by no
means exclusively, nay, they were probably not princi-
pally, ships of war. It was, indeed, the custom of most of
the young nobility to begin their adult years—adult
years seem to have begun with these hardy spirits after
the twelfth birthday—by one or more voyages of piracy
in foreign waters. This was a sort of grand tour for the
gilded Norwegian youth. But after they had been so
employed once or twice, the vessels might continue to
be used, now as pirate vessels, now as merchantmen.

The chief export of Norway in those days must have
been fish. In Catholic Europe during the Middle Ages
fish was a commodity more in demand (proportionately)
than it is to-day. There were beside, furs—peltry
—of which the country must have possessed a much
greater supply in those days than it has now. It is very
easy to see what imports were the most valued. There
would first be arms and armour of the best kind obtain-
able, then clothes of various descriptions. Welsh (i.e.
French) repps and Welsh swords, says a verse of northern
poetry. Before the Northmen learned to smithy the
finest weapons for themselves, they must have been a
good deal dependent on importation from foreign
countries. That very characteristic piece of defensive
armour which we read of so often in the Sagas and
poems, the ring-sark (chain-shirt) or byrnie (brunia)
was a manufacture originally borrowed from the Franks.

For clothes : the Northmen had a great deal of vanity
as regards their wearing apparel. In the Icelandic
Sagas, for instance, we always hear of the foremost
men appearing (at the Thing or wherever else it might162 Norway and the Norwegians

be) in very gorgeous apparel. They had a love of
bright and shining colours; and it is interesting to con-
trast the picture we get of their appearance with that
of the inhabitants in mediaeval Europe, who, we gather,
generally dressed in sober-coloured garments. We saw
Sigurd Syr just now in his blue kirtle and hose, and
afterwards putting on his tanned boots, gold spurs,
gold helmet, and scarlet cloak. Scarlet was, of all
colours, that which the inhabitants of the northern
lands mjst favoured. In the Sagas people appear con-
stantly in scarlet dress. It was a figure in a scarlet
dress which flashed out of men's sight when Olaf
Tryggvason sprang overboard at Svold.

The merchant voyages of the Norsemen were, for the
present, independent affairs. Each landowner had his
own ship, his own private harbour or mooring-place.
For as yet congregations of men come to set up a trade
in common were hardly known; towns had scarcely
begun to rise. Yet in the later days of the history
which we have just related, a change had set in.
During the greatest part of our history the only
approach to a town of which we read is Tunsberg,
modern Tonsberg, at the mouth of the Christiania Fjord.
But Olaf Tryggvason founded, and St. Olaf rebuilt,
after it had fallen into decay, the forerunner of the
town of Throndhjem, Nidaros or Kopstat—chapman's
town, merchants' town—as it was variously styled.
Harald Hardradi, as we saw, built Oslo, which may
be called the forerunner of Christiania. The chief
events in the following reigns are the building of fresh
towns in Norway; and the next era in the history of
the country is the era of two things, the establishmentGrowth of Towns

263

of the power of the Catholic Church and the growth of
the merchant towns. For both of these things the
country is indebted chiefly to foreign influences: to
the action of the See of Eome for the one; for the other
to the great league of the trading cities on the Baltic
and 011 the North Sea, which went by the name of
' The League,' the Hansa.CHAPTER XI

history

The Civil Wars—Sverri— Hakon Hakonsson.

a.d. 1066-1263.

Henceforward we must look upon the history of
Norway as divorced from that of the whole group of
Scandinavian states, and one to be studied by itself.
The heroic age has passed; the ages which follow are
far less interesting; they may be dismissed in a much
shorter space. It was not for the sake merely of
recording events, but of giving a picture of the character
of those who made the history of the heroic age, the
national character of these Scandinavians during their
best days; and again, for the sake of giving some notion
of the literature in which their achievements are pre-
served, that we have dwelt rather lengthily on the first
two hundred years or so of Norwegian history. A
single chapter now may suffice to cover as much ground
as is covered by the four previous chapters.

Harald Hardradi was succeeded by a son, who, in
his character, typifies the transition to a new era. His
name was Olaf, and he was surnamed during his reign
Kyrri, or the Peaceful. Harald did, in fact, leave two
sons behind him at his death; one, Magnus, he had left
behind in Norway; Olaf, the other, had been with his

264Olaf Kyrri	265

father in England. Magnus took over the government
of the country till the return of his brother, but he
survived that return only for a short time.

Olaf Kyrri is described as a very handsome man, of
a silent habit in large companies, but very talkative in
small, especially when he was at table; he was a heavy
drinker, but even in his cups of a very mild disposition.
He may be reckoned as—appropriately enough—the
inaugurator of inns or hotels in his country, and on this
account he is an interesting figure to the modern tra-
veller. What Olaf actually did in this way was the
building of a merchants' house in Nidaros or Thrond-
hjem; a building which served the purpose of an inn or
travellers' rest.

We may, perhaps, refer to this period a change in
house architecture, of which we have spoken in an
earlier chapter, namely, the transferring of the fireplace
from the centre of the room to the corner; and the
building of chimneys to carry away the smoke. This
change would, of course, at first distinguish the houses
of greatest pretensions.

Of much greater real importance is it to find Olaf
Kyrri laying the foundations of a new town which,
during the Middle Ages, was destined to be the most
important town in Norway; nay, not only in the Middle
Ages, but until quite modern times. This town is
Bergen, which, as most travellers would agree, is the
most interesting town of Norway; so that its founder
deserves to be had in remembrance. Throndhjem had
hitherto been the great merchant town of the country;
it was founded by Olaf Tryggvason, but practically266 Norway and the Norwegians

rebuilt by St. Olaf; St. Olaf also built Sarpsborg, near
the modern Frederikstad, which, from that time forward,
became the meeting-place of the Thing of the Yiken
district; then Harald Hardradi founded Oslo, the father
of the modern Christiania; finally, we have Olaf Kyrri
founding Bergen; and thus the three chief existing
towns of Norway are accounted for. Other towns
cannot be traced back so easily to their origins; they
have grown up gradually from being mere villages or
collections of fishermen's huts. Among towns of this
class is Stavanger. Another of Olafs acts was the
laying of the foundation of the first stone church in the
country, the Christ Church of Throndhjem—in other
words, Throndhjem Cathedral.

In a metaphorical, and, to some extent, in a literal
sense, the age upon which we have now entered is the
age of church building. Christianity has now estab-
lished itself without a rival. Legend is, during all this
age, changing the rough, practical, law-loving Olaf the
Thick, into a saint and a martyr, dying for his faith.
Before long he will become, so to say, an impersona-
tion of the territory of Norway wiped clean of its old
heathenism and reconsecrated to Christ. Then a theory
will be established, that Olafs right of inheritance
lives on, though the king is in heaven; so that the
legal, the ecclesiastical-legal fiction will be established
that the king for the time being holds his kingdom as
'a fief of St. Olaf,' the power of the saint in heaven
residing with the ministers of his foundation, the See
of Throndhjem, on earth.

The earliest churches built in Norway were, without
doubt, of wood. To this day the wooden churches areChurch Building

267

in a vast majority, and stone ones rare exceptions. We
have no wooden structures which go back quite as early
as the date at which we are now arrived. But there
are one or two wooden churches which belong to a time
very little later—the latter half of the twelfth century.
These are the churches called stavekirker, of which we
have specimens still standing at Hitterdal, on the
Hitterdalselv, not far from Kongsbeg, the terminus
of the western railway from Christiania. Another of
these stave-churches is at Borgund, near Lserdal, on the
Sogne Fjord. This is the one most frequently visited
by travellers. These churches give us a picture of the
religious structures which, from the time of Olaf Kyrri,
began to be raised pretty frequently over Norway. St.
Olaf in his day built churches for the principal divisions
of the country, and the patronage of these churches lay
with the crown. Not seldom some great chief, when
he changed his faith, built a church for his own benefit,
and the.benefit of his household: this was a sort of
private chapel. The chief, before his conversion, had
been in most cases a priest as well as a leader, and had
had a temple of his own, and been wont to assist at the
sacrifices. When he went over, it was natural that he
should wish to preserve as much as possible of his old
status by making himself the patron of a church.
Then there were other churches built by districts for
their own use; in this case the patronage lay neither
with the king nor with any great chief, but rather with
the local Thing.

It marks the inauguration of something like true me-
dievalism in Norway—the nearest approach to it which
the country ever knew—that in some cases, notably in268 Norway and the Norwegians

the case of the most venerable church in the country,
the wooden buildings are replaced by stone ones. The
few stone churches in Norway that preserve any traces
of Eomanesque or Gothic architecture were most of them
founded about the time of King Olaf Kyrri, or very
soon after his death—that is to say, during the con-
cluding years of the eleventh century. Throndhjem
Cathedral stands the first among these, the most interest-
ing architectural monument in Norway. It does not
appear that in the building, as it now stands, we have
any remains of Olaf Kyrri's work. The oldest parts of
the present building were probably erected by the cele-
brated Archbishop Eystein in the succeeding century:
of Eystein we shall have to say a passing word here-
after. Next, after Throndhjem Cathedral, comes the
cathedral of Stavanger, which was founded during or
soon after the reign of Olaf Kyrri by an English bishop,
and was dedicated to the English Saint Swithun—a fair
set-off against the fact that we had in the twelfth
century, and still have in London, a church dedicated
to the Norse St. Olaf. In all the countries which once
belonged to the Norwegian crown, and were colonised
by Norsemen, we shall find but one example of a stone
church which may compare to these two—the cathedrals
of Throndhjem and Stavanger. This church is the
Church of St. Magnus, in the Orkneys. It, too, is a
Eomanesque structure, and it bears a close resemblance
to the older parts of the buildings at Throndhjem and
at Stavanger. Besides being the founder of Throndhjem
Cathedral, Olaf Kyrri was a great founder of monasteries.
Some of those which Bergen formerly possessed were
instituted by him. Olaf Kyrri died in A.D. 1093.Magnus Berfoett	269

That, however, the old adventurous Norse spirit had
not been utterly eliminated from the line of Harald
Sigurdsson, was proved by the accession of a son of Olaf
Kyrri, Magnus by name, who reverted to the character
of his grandfather. His life was a life almost entirely
of adventure, chiefly passed in the British Islands, in
the Hebrides, or in Ireland. His object was to extend
the power of Norway over these various communities
in the west, over the kings of the Hebrides, and the
islands south of them, over the King of Man, and over
the Norse colonies in Ireland, as Olaf and Magnus the
Good had established the power of Norway over the
Orkneys and Faroes. And for his own lifetime he suc-
ceeded—in Scotland at any rate. When this Magnus
came back to Norway from his expeditions in the west,
he came wearing the dress of the countries in which
he had spent so much of his time: a dress something
like the Highland kilt,—and from this habit the king
earned the name of ' Bare-leg' or ' Bare-foot,' by which
he is known in history—Magnus Berfoett. One saying
of his is worth remembering: we might call it a last voice
from the heroic kingship of old days. When Magnus'
friends reproached him for exposing himself too much in
battle, he answered, ' Kings were made for honour, not
for long life.' He was killed in Ireland at the age of
about thirty (a.d. 1103), after he had reigned for ten
years, most of which time was spent in expeditions of
adventure.

Three sons succeeded Magnus Barefoot, one of whom
shared his character: this one is that crusading king,
Sigurd Jorsalfari, of whom we have already spoken. But270 Norway and the Norwegians

despite the fact that his personal character recalls that
of some of his forerunners, the two notable events of
Sigurd the Crusader's reign belong to the new era, to the
two new tendencies of life in Norway, the growth of the
towns, and the growth of the power of the Church. Sigurd
built the town of Kongshalla; and while he was in the
Holy Land, he vowed that he would establish a metro-
politan see in his dominions, and that he would likewise
levy a tithe 011 the whole country for the support of the
clergy—in other words, that he would, as the modern
phrase goes, bring Norway into line with the more
southern states of Christendom, so far as regarded its
church-government. These vows were only partially
fulfilled. But the position of the Church grew much
stronger in this reign, and, indeed, it was growing
stronger day by day.

Stronger, also, were beginning to grow the greater
landowners, the great leaders throughout the country.
Under the Olafs, and their immediate successors, they
had fallen much in position. The old race of earls had
pretty nearly decayed. The greatest among that body,
the Earls of Lade, who so often gave rulers to Norway,
had died out at the time that Magnus, the son of Olaf,
came to the throne. Of the great chiefs under the two
Olafs—-Einar Tambarskelfir, Erling Skjalgsson, Finn
Arriason, and so forth—some only bore the title of earl.
As the old race of earls were the representatives of a
still earlier race of independent kings, so now these
earls were replaced by a class of aristocracy not new but
less imposing in appearance, who went by the name of
lendermen. The lendermen had been in a manner

created by Harald Fairhair, Theoretically they were

\Harald Gilli, the First Pretender 271

the collectors of the king's revenue from the different
districts of the country. But they were likewise men
of noble birth and of great local influence. We may
consider them as representing the hersar, the second
order of nobility in Norway; and albeit they boasted
among their number no houses so imposing as the old
Lade house, and that we do not read of any individuals
among them so illustrious as Einar Tambarskelfir, yet
as a body, they were much more powerful than any
aristocratic body that had yet existed in the country.
Then the aristocracy became self-destructive by rushing
into civil war. This is the history which we have
now to follow. It has many points of similarity to the
history of the fall of our old baronage in the Wars
of the Eoses.

During the latter years of Sigurd the Crusader's
reign there appeared upon the scene a young man
out of Ireland, who declared that he was a son of
Sigurd's father, Magnus Bareleg, and by an Irish
mother. Magnus had never acknowledged this son;
for all men knew he had never heard of him. But the
newcomer, Harald by name, underwent the ordeal of
fire to prove his royal birth, and Sigurd, Magnus' son,
acknowledged him as his half-brother. On Sigurd's
death, in a.d. 1130, the kingdom was divided between
his son Magnus and this Harald, called Gilli or Gille-
christ—' that liar,' as t his nephew Magnus called him.
The two rulers soon quarrelled, and flew to arms to
vindicate their respective claims. Harald had the
strongest support. He defeated his (supposed) nephew
in a battle fought at Foreleif in Bohuslau,2J2 Norway and the Norwegians

Magnus was taken prisoner, blinded, and placed in
a convent. This is a proceeding most common in
mediaeval history, the blinding of an unsuccessful rival,
and imprisoning him in a convent. It constantly
occurs in the history of the Visigoths of Spain, and
of the Franks in France; but, strange to say, it is a
new feature in the history of Norway, and is worth
noting on that account. For one thing Norway was
only beginning to possess religious houses. Nobody
had built more of them than Olaf Kyrri.

Harald Gilli presents all the characteristics of a
mere adventurer. As has already been said, he had
never been recognised by his putative father; why
Sigurd Jorsalafari recognised him it is difficult to
understand. Nevertheless, as we see, he was supported
by the strongest party among the lendermen. It may
have been that Magnus, Sigurd's son, was personally
unpopular, and that Harald was personally liked;
there was much of the jovial, reckless Irishman in. his
composition. But it is probable that the chief reason
of the lendermen for supporting him was that they
felt that with this stranger on the Norwegian throne
they would have more weight in the commonwealth
than under an undoubted descendant of St. Olaf.

The man who profits by a state of disturbance in a
country may expect others also to take advantage of it.
There arose before long in the district bordering on
Sweden, a new claimant, a deacon by profession, by
character a brave but turbulent, unscrupulous man,
little fitted for the clerical profession. His name
was Sigurd, and he got the nickname of Slewibidjakn,
or the Bad Deacon, He claimed to be, like HaraldThe Sons of Haraid Gilli 273

Gillechrist, a son of Magnus Bareleg. He gained -little
support for his own claims, save among the wilder
spirits of the borderland; but, with the help of the
small army he raised among these, Sigurd Slembidjakn
managed to release the blind Magnus, and the opposi-
tion party to King Harald was made up of the adherents
of both Magnus and Sigurd.

The aristocracy of Norway were now split up into
two fiercely hostile sections, caring in reality little about
the rights of the leaders under whom they professed to
fight, but each burning for revenge upon the other. The
lendermen were, in fact, brought to almost precisely
the same condition in which the English nobility were
at the time of the Wars of the Eoses. Now, if a leader
fell, his followers never thought of acknowledging his
rival, they simply looked for a new claimant to the
throne to lead their party, the best they could find.
Harald Gilli at length defeated and slew his two rivals,
Magnus and Sigurd, at the battle of Holmensgraa, and
for a moment peace seemed to be restored. Harald
Gilli was, however, himself murdered in A.D. 1136.

Harald left four sons by different mothers. One of
them, Eystein, was in Scotland at the time of his
father's death, and the government first devolved
upon two brothers, Sigurd and Ingi. When Eystein
appeared, and later on a fourth brother, Magnus, the
country was divided among all the sons of Harald Gilli.

For a short time there was peace. Then war broke
out again between the brothers, or, say, between the
lendermen of the four different courts. Ingi, who was
physically the weakest of the sons of Harald—he was
slightly deformed, and could with difficulty mount on

s274 Norway and the Norwegians

horseback—had among the men of his court two lender-
men of great power and influence in the country, two
king-makers, as we may call them. The first of the
two, leader of Ingi's party till his death, G-regorius
Dagsson, had a quarrel with Sigurd when the latter
came once to a conference with his brother Ingi at
Throndhjem; and Dagsson's men captured Sigurd in
a house in the town and put him to death.

Eystein was the next of the brothers to fall. He
had collected a fleet and set out upon an expedition to
meet Ingi's following in the south; but his ships' crews
began to desert him, until he was obliged to abandon
his fleet and make his way into the interior. He had
still 1200 followers, but the number gradually dwindled,
until at last he was caught by one of Ingi's officers,
accompanied by one attendant only, and was slain.
This was in the interior mountain country, far from
where he had abandoned his fleet. Thereupon Eystein's
party elected a new pretender—the party, as we have
said, now making the claimant, and not the pre-
tender the party—a son of Sigurd, whose name was
Hakon Herdibreid. Hakon's reign was inaugurated by
a disgraceful defeat inflicted upon him by Gregorius
Dagsson, near Kongshalle, the frontier town on the
Gota River. Hakon, it is said, had 4000 men in this
engagement, and Gregorius only 400. The new king
then made his way to Throndhjem, where he had a
large following. He collected a fleet there, and sailed
to the south. By an artifice he caused the death of
Gregorius Dagsson. Gregorius was, says Snorri, 'the
most gallant lenderman in Norway that any one could
remember.' Hakon next attacked King Ingi himself,Erling Skakki

275

who was at Oslo, the precursor of Christiania. It was
in winter, and the Christiania Fjord was thick with
ice. The ice extended as far as Horedo, the Saga says,
that little island about a mile out in the fjord, which is
one of the excursion-places from Christiania. There
Ingi and his rival met, and the former was defeated
and fell (a.d. 1161). He was the last of the rulers of
Norway who even suppositiously represented a descent
in the male line from Harald Hardradi.

The party of Ingi, which was the party of the
greatest lendermen of the country, now looked about
for a new leader. There was no thought of reconcilia-
tion with their opponents, or of submission to the
claims of Hakon Herdibreid. They found their new
leader in the most distinguished of their own body.
Since the death of Gregorius Dagsson, Erling Skakki
stood above all his contemporaries in personal power,
in reputation, and in influence. He himself had, how-
ever, no tincture of royal blood, and the time had not
yet come when that could be dispensed with ; but
Erling had married Christina, the daughter of Sigurd
Jorsalfari, and their son, Magnus, still only a child,
was chosen king; the regency and the real kingship
devolving upon his father Erling. This was in 1161.
In 1162 Hakon Herdibreid was slain by Erling.

The reign of Magnus forms an important epoch in
Norse history. At the beginning of it Erling found
himself encompassed by difficulties on every side, and
threatened by rival claimants of the crown; but the
bulk of the lendermen were on his side. They saw in
this elevation to the throne of a child king, under the2 7 6 Norway and the Norwegians

protectorate of one of their own number, the desired
opportunity of establishing firmly an aristocratic body
in Norway, which might compare with the baronages
or Freiheerdoms of the other States of Christian Europe.
Thus the effect of the change of faith was now begin-
ning to be fully felt, and Norway came at this time as
near as she ever came to adopting the pattern of a
feudal and Catholic State, as that pattern had been
formed in Continental Europe.

For the Church was much concerned in bringing
about the new state of things. We saw how Sigurd
the Crusader had sworn to establish a metropolitan See
for Norway and its dependencies at Throndhjem. The
project was carried out under Harald Gilli: in 1152
Cardinal Nicolas Breakspeare, afterwards Pope Adrian
IV., was sent to Norway by the then Pope for this
purpose. The one who now held the See of Throndhjem
was Archbishop Eystein, a man of marked individuality,
and one who had a lasting influence on the history of
Norway. Erling Skakki saw that there was little
chance of establishing his dynasty upon a firm basis
unless, beside the support of the aristocracy, he could
win the even more important support of the Church.
He entered into an alliance with Eystein, and an agree-
ment was come to which wholly changed the character
of the Norwegian monarchy. Instead of being held,
as heretofore, as independently as if it were a freehold
(odal) possession, it was now said to be held ' as a fief
of St. Olaf/ This meant, in the first place, that it was
held in fee, or as a fief from the Church; but it meant
also, or should have meant, that heredity, in the strictest
sense, in the legitimate male line was preserved for it.Magnus Erlingsson	277

Thus the new constitution was both a benefit and an
evil to Norway. It was an evil in that it made the
monarchy subservient to the Church; it was a benefit
in that it put a stop to, or was designed to put a stop
to, the continual partition of the country between the
sons of the deceased monarch, as this custom had
hitherto prevailed. In virtue of what may really be
called this New Constitution, Archbishop Eystein con-
sented, in a.d. 1164, to anoint Magnus Erlingsson as
King of Norway, a ceremony which had been hitherto
unknown to the Norse constitution.

For a while everything seemed to go well with the
new dynasty. More and more of the lendermen of the
opposition parties gave in their adherence to Erling and
his son Magnus. There remained only bands of mal-
contents hovering in various parts of the country, chiefly
in the markland between Norway and Sweden. The
Saga gives a picturesque description of how Erling
was nearly caught by one of these bands at a place
called Rydiokul, on Lake Venner. He was keeping
Candlemas there, and the priest of the place, who was
secretly in league with the rebels, made Erling and his
men drunk, and then sent word to the leader of the
outlaws. He, in the hope of entrapping Erling, marched
that night forty-three miles, but, through the extreme
darkness of the night, eventually failed in his attempt.

Up to now the history of Norway seems to belong
chiefly to the coast districts. In the earlier years, from
the time of Hafirsfjord Battle down through many cen-
turies, almost all the engagements of importance had
been either naval battles, or, if fought on land, they took278 Norway and the Norwegians

place between the crews of rival fleets, who landed for
the sake of fighting out their differences better than
they could on board ship. The reader who has followed
upon the map the earlier chapters of this history can-
not fail to have been struck with this fact. No real
description of these battle-fields is possible on this
account. And next after the record of the fights the
history of the country consists in the record of the
springing up of the sea-coast towns, one after another,
round the coast—of the building of Throndhjem
(Nidaros), of Opslo, of Kongshalle, of Bergen. In this
way the course of history follows the usual course of
our travels in Norway. Some travellers never get
beyond the coast regions. They may, without doing so,
visit the scenes of almost all the events which we have
had yet to record, the battles in the Christiania Fjord,
in the fjords near Stavanger, the islands near Bergen,
the Nord Fjord, the Nses, South More, North More,
Throndhjem Fjord, and the regions farther to the north.
But now there appears to view, so to say, and takes an
important part in the history of Norway, a new region
which many travellers never visit at all. I mean the
densely-wooded boundary lands which lie below the
higher slopes of the 4 keel,' and just upon the division
line between Norway and Sweden. Here the forests
attain their greatest dimensions. The fir-trees tower up
to almost inconceivable heights, and among them, stand
scarcely less high, the slender SircA-stems, shining
through the gloom like, as has been said,' silver threads
upon a dark green mantle.' We may suppose that
culture—civilisation such as it was—had advanced
farther and farther inland during all the years of historyRise of the Birkibeinar	279

that we liave had to record, so that the wilder spirits
who shunned civilisation and quiet had more and more
to betake themselves to these inland wooded regions.

Bands of adventurers and outlaws existed all through
the Erling-Magnus reign. They represented a per-
petual protest against the new ecclesiastical-feudal
rdgime of Erling and his son. Presently, out of these
scattered elements of disturbance, we see a new band
come into existence. They were a ragged regiment.
Marching and counter-marching, always pursued, never
wholly submitting, they were reduced to the greatest
extremities. For shoes they were obliged to betake
themselves to the bark of the birch trees which grew
abundantly in the forests, so that they gained from the
' respectable classes' the contemptuous name of Birki-
beinar or ' Birch-legs.'

The first leader of these Birkibeinar was named
Eystein Meyla, or ' The Maid/ so called from his girlish
appearance. His command dates from a.d. 1174. (Ten
years, we see, had passed since Magnus was anointed
king by the other Eystein, the Archbishop.) Meyla
had claims to the throne, as good as Magnus', perhaps.
He was not wanting in courage, but he had not the
resources fitting him to be a great leader, and his
period of command was short. He made a descent
upon Throndhjem in 1176, and succeeded so far that
at the Ore Thing he received the title of king; but soon
after this he was met by a body of Magnus' followers,
and was killed in the engagement that ensued. Before,
however, the troop of ' Birch-legs' could be completely
dispersed, there rose to the command of it another man
of a much more remarkable build, a sort of Napoleon280 Norway and the Norwegians

of Norway, who was destined to change the whole
history of the country. This was Sverri. Sverri is com-
monly reckoned the last of the great Norse kings, and
is sometimes placed as a fourth beside the great names
of Harald Haarfagr, Olaf Tryggvason, and St. Olaf.

This new leader came from the least-considered of
the Norwegian colonies over-seas, namely, the Faroe
Islands; and this appearance of Sverri from such
an obscure birthplace reminds one of the birth of
Napoleon in Corsica. Ostensibly, Sverri was a son of
Unas, a farmer in those islands. When he became a
famous leader of the ragged regiment, of which he put
himself at the head, and which he gradually formed
into a troop of invincible veterans, then he let it be
known that he was not the mere adventurer that he
seemed, but a son of Sigurd, a son of Harald Gilli,
Sigurd Mund, as he was called ; consequently Sverri
was professedly half-brother to Hakon Herdibreid. This
enemy and destroyer of the supremacy of the Church
in Norway had been brought up for the priesthood,
and among his enemies he often went by the name of
Sverri Prsest—Sverri the Priest; or even Sverri
Dja)fvul-Prsest—Devil's Priest.

As a man, Sverri was as unscrupulous as he was
undaunted; and was, on the whole, much more of a
Napoleon than of a Cromwell. But there was a certain
strain of fanaticism, or may be of genuine enthusiasm, in
his character which has led him to be compared to the
Great Protector. During the many years of Civil War
which had passed, the exasperation of parties had given
rise to cruelties which were truly mediaeval in char-
acter, worse almost than anything that is recorded ofSverri	281

the Norwegians in their heathen days. Snorri gives a
horrible description of the tortures which were in-
flicted upon Sigurd Stembidjakn, that unfrocked deacon
and warlike adventurer, who opposed himself to the
claims of Harold Gillechrist. Certain men were told
off to do this wretched work, f but the chiefs and the
greater part of the people went away. They broke his
shin bones with a hammer, then they stripped him, and
would Hay him alive ; but when they tried to take off
the skin, they could not do it for the gush of blood.' I
spare the reader any further details. It is to the infinite
credit of Sverri that he showed no trace of this inflamed
spirit of revenge; and that, on the whole, his acts were
distinguished by a humanity which was remarkable,
considering the medium in which his work was cast.

Sverri (whom his partisans called Sverri Sigurdsson)
was born in a.d. 1151. His reign is reckoned to begin
from the time he became leader of the Birkibeinar in
1177, when, therefore, the renovator of Norway was only
twenty-six. There is something strangely picturesque
and striking in this youthful figure, who had come from
a remote, an unconsidered colony of Norway to over-
throw the united powers of the aristocracy and of the
Church. Well might men think he worked by magic,
and call him the Devil's Priest.

As we have already said, one of the chief features of
this war is the place which the inland country now
occupies in it. Formerly battles in Norway had been
almost entirely connected with the sea-coast. The
rival fleets pursue each other round the fjords and in
and out among the islands. When people fight they
land from their fleets and. do battle on some of the282 Norway and the Norwegians

islands or some place close by the sea. What is peculiar
in the history of Sverri's battles is that we constantly
find him making the most wonderful marches in the
interior of the country, crossing over in the middle of
winter the most difficult heights, and descending places
where, in those days, there must have been no road,
scarcely even a path. How he induced his men to sus-
tain such hardships is a miracle. But those who
know the country of Norway can know how it lends
itself to the sort of perpetual guerilla warfare which went
on during these hundred years of civil war. It is as
easy for an army to lie hidden in one of the valleys as
it is for a fleet to lie hidden in any of the fjords or
among any of the islands. The country itself seems
destined to be split up in factions in the same way that
it is split up by nature.

The Birkibeinar had been shattered by the defeat
and death of Eystein Meyla, and when we first catch
sight of Sverri it is as leader of a band of only seventy
men, who have been driven over the border into
Sweden, but have now made their way back from
Jemteland to the hills which overlook the Thrond-
hjem Fjord—by much the same way as that which St.
Olaf took when he returned to fight at Stiklestad.
Sverri had caused a proclamation to issue over the
country, and before long he was joined by another troop
of eighty men from Thelemarken. Presently with only
two hundred men or a little more he attacked and con-
quered an army of 1400 men, and made his way into
Nidaros (Throndhjem) and was elected king there, as
Eystein Meyla had been eighteen months before. The
truth is, the Throndhjem people were, as a body, alwaysSverri's Early Successes	283

opposed to the rule of Erling Skakk and his son. Only
the great men in that district were 011 the side of the
existing regime: the great lendermen and Eystein, the
Archbishop of Throndhjem, who was Sverri's most
formidable opponent.

We can account for some of Sverri's easy victories by
supposing that the body of the armies opposed to
him fought against their will. Often they threw down
their weapons at the first onset; and those who asked
for quarter very rarely failed to receive it. Sverri's
humanity stood him in good stead, and was his best
policy, seeing that in many districts the common people
were on his side. The Birkibeinar again were, and
became ever more so, a terrible body to oppose so long
as the lust of battle was on them. Their profession
was war.

The new leader was weak so soon as he got to the
more civilised parts near the coast. He found he could
not maintain himself in the city of Mdaros, and at
first sought to make a naval expedition along the
coast. But he was soon driven inland again. He
made his way to the border-lands, and his next victory
was gained near the shore of Lake Yenner. After that
some desultory fighting continued for a year or two, of
which the chief interest is the picture which it gives-—
first, of the disturbed state of the country, and the
difficulty there constantly is in this land of hills and
valleys of obtaining any accurate information touching
the whereabouts of an enemy; secondly, of the great
hardships, the long and difficult winter marchings and
counter-marchings which Sverri's troops had to undergo,
and which they could only have been induced to284 Norway and the Norwegians

undergo by the constancy of their leader, and the faith
which he was able to inspire.

In 1179 a sudden change came to the fortunes of the
hunted troop. For the third or fourth time they made
their way over the mountains to Throndhjem, and there
succeeded in surprising the army, under the command
of Earl Erling Skakki in person. Erling's army was far
the larger; but it had been feasting the day before, and
when the pickets brought the news of the approach of
the Birch-legs, the greater part of the men were too
drunk to answer the call to arms. About six hundred
of them gathered round the standards ; still were they
superior in numbers to their opponents ; but they were
110 match in valour for the Birkibeinar, and after a
sharp engagement Erling's army was put to flight, and
the earl himself was slain. Henceforward Fortune
generally attended the standards of Sverri. We find
him entering Bergen after his victory over Erling, and
wintering in that town, which was now becoming, or
had become, the chief city of Norway, Nidaros
(Throndhjem) falling to the second rank.

In the year 1181 a hard-fought naval battle took
place at Bergen between the fleet of Sverri, sixteen sail,
and that of Magnus Erlingsson of thirty-two sail. The
battle took place off the Nordnaes, the promontory which
lies between the two harbours; and along which runs
the Strandgaden. In this the Heklungs, as Magnus'
party was now called, were defeated by the Birki-
beinar. But while the latter were still rejoicing in
their victory, Magnus returned upon them from
Stavanger, to which place he had fled. It was now
the turn for the Birch-legs to take to flight, for theyDefeat and Death of Magnus 285

were quite unprepared for battle. Sverri accordingly
betook himself with all his followers to Throndhjem.
Thither he was before long followed by Magnus; who,
however, could not force his way into the town. But
he could largely diminish the supply of provisions, and
Sverri was obliged to carry a portion of his army across
country to Oslo (Christiania).

In this forward and backward fashion the war went
on, until the year 1184, when the rivals came to a
decisive naval engagement in the Sogne Fjord. As
usual it was a case of surprise. Magnus had been driven
away, and had gone to Denmark. Now he came sailing
up from the south—fought a battle at Bergen, and then
came to the Sogne Fjord, within which Sverri was known
to be, with but few ships. There had been one evil
omen for Magnus. A flight of crows (rooks X) alighted
upon his ship as it sailed out of Bergen. Magnus
heard that Sverri was in the Nore Fjord, a branch of
the Sogne Fjord, and eventually the two fleets came
into action near Femreite. Magnus' fleet was not much
the larger ; and, on the whole, the two parties were fairly
equal in strength, and they were animated by almost
equal animosity against their enemies, and determina-
tion not to yield. Magnus desired, above all things,
to come to a personal encounter with his rival; and
he made dispositions that his own ship and three others
should surround Sverri's ship, a vessel of unusual size
and strength. ' I was but five years old,' Magnus
thus addressed the comrades in arms who stood by
him as he gave them his final orders, ' when I was
chosen to fill the throne; and only seven when Arch-
bishop Eystein anointed me king. I had no care about286 Norway and the Norwegians

reigning. And up to now, that I am twenty-eight, I have
had but little pleasure of my royal state/ These last
words of the young king give a certain pathetic indi-
viduality to his character; just as those words of his
namesake and great-grandfather Magnus Barfod,' Kings
were meant for honour but not for long life,' give an
individuality to his. This Magnus Erlingsson was to
prove the truth of the latter saying. He had upheld
his cause with distinguished courage, and proved him-
self worthy to be the son of the great Earl Erling, or to
be the descendant through his mother of Sigurd the
Crusader, of Magnus Bare-foot and of Harald Hardradi.
Yet his rival, a mere adventurer, probably of ignoble
descent, was no less distinguished. If Magnus was only
twenty-seven, Sverri, though he had already lived
through many years of constant battle, was only thirty-
three. The fight raged from early in the afternoon till
past midnight. Magnus carried out his plan of bring-
ing four ships to attack Sverri's huge vessel. But the
latter kept the space clear between herself and the land,
and Sverri could land when he pleased. Sverri left his
ship to go among his fleet, and to encourage his men ;
when he sought to rejoin his own vessel it was under
so fierce a fire of darts and stones that he could not
do so. At last, however, one after another the ships
of Magnus' fleet were taken or sunk. So many crowded
on board those that remained that they began to sink
under the weight of their own crews. Magnus' ship
was one of these. The king jumped overboard, and
was drowned. Thus ended the lofty ambitions of the
house of Erling Skakki.

Sverri did not win peace by thus putting an end toSverri's Reforms	287

the family which rivalled his own; but he won a
firmer place on his throne. He had already begun to
carry out changes of government which were to effect
a revolution in the constitution and the destruction
of the old aristocratic lenderman class. He had begun
to establish a bureaucracy, dependent entirely 011 the
/ support of the crown. The new officers who were to
oust the lendermen from almost all their power were
called Syssel-men—District-men. The difference be-
tween them and the lendermen was that the latter had
been great landowners, and owed their consideration,
first of all, to their family and their estates, only in
a very secondary degree to the functions—of tax-
collecting, etc.—which they performed for the crown.
The Syssel-men, on the other hand, were officials and
nothing more. The difference may be illustrated for
us to-day by the difference between the unpaid and
the paid magistracy in England. For the unpaid
magistracy—the county justices of the peace—repre-
sent the last relics of aristocratic government in this
country.

Sverri, through all his years of adventure, had shown
himself—or professed himself—a man of almost fana-
tical piety. We constantly see him stopping to pray,
all exposed to the darts of his enemies, at the beginning
of a battle, or in its course. In his great battle in the
Sogne Fjord, it was at his raising the Kyrie Eleison that
his foes saw that the battle was going against them. For
all that, Sverri was the deadly foe to the pretensions
of the Church. We might call him a sort of Middle-
Age Puritan ; it is on this point that he comes nearest
in character to Cromwell. It was the object of the new288 Norway and the Norwegians

king to do away altogether with the claims of the Nor-
wegian Church, founded upon the compact between
Archbishop Eystein, on the one side, and Erling, for his
son Magnus, on the other, the well-known compact of
a.d. 1164—just twenty years before this battle in the
Sogne Fjord. The kingdom was not to be held any
longer ' as a fee of St. Olaf' from the Church. But men
were to go back to the old ' Law of St. Olaf;' and the
crown should once more be a freehold possession, as it
had been of old. Sverri, moreover, as we have seen, took
measures that, through the bureaucracy which he estab-
lished, the position of the throne should be much firmer
than it had been in old days. And no doubt he intended
that the law of primogeniture should be still preserved.

It was his attempts to wrest the kingdom from the
hands of the Norwegian Church which raised for Sverri
his most formidable opponents. And though a number
of different parties sprang up to contest his position, it
is only one of these which calls for mention here. This
was the Church party properly so called. It was
founded in 1196, not by the Archbishop of Thrond-
hjem—the great Eystein was dead before the foundation
of the party—but by Nicholas Arnason, Bishop of Oslo.
This party got the name of Baglerne—the Bagler, i.e.
Crozier Party. It gained great strength from the support
of Pope Innocent ill., who in a.d. 1198 excommunicated
Sverri.

By this time, however, Sverri had so firmly estab-
lished himself in the affections of his own followers
that nothing could shake him. The Birkibeinar were
no longer a poor and ragged regiment; they were half
the people of Norway, with a fixed tradition and policy,Hakon Hakonsson	289

and a feeling on matters of Church and State which,
allowing for the vast difference between the ages, may
be not unjustly compared to the feeling of the English
Puritans under Charles 1. The indomitable king died
in a.d. 1202, fighting to the last, after his twenty-five
years of so-called reign.

The civil war continued, but not so vehemently.
Sverri was succeeded by his son Hakon. But, unfortu-
nately, this prince only lived two years after his acces-
sion. He had approached the Church party with offers
of a compromise, and everything seemed to hold out
hopes of peace. Greater confusion than ever super-
vened upon Hakon's death, confusion so great that it
is in no way our business to trace it or its causes. At
the time of this Hakon Sverrason's death, his own
child, an illegitimate son, Hakon, was not yet born.
But at last this young prince succeeded in raising
his head above the storm of faction, and he was in
1217 recognised as king at the Throndhjem Ore Thing,
and later in the same year at Bergen. Bergen was
now the chief city of Norway, and it was the election
of Hakon (iv.) Hakonsson at the Thing held in this
city which gave the final seal to his title. It is this
scene that forms the opening one in one of Ibsen's
plays,Kong$emneme—'The Rivals.' After 1240, and the
death of a certain Skuli Jaii, long a rival of Hakon
and a friend of the Bagler party, complete peace was
established.

The old aristocratic party had been rooted out as
completely, and much in the same way as the old
baronage of England was rooted out by the Wars of
the Eoses. Honour to both though fallen; for they

t290 Norway and the Norwegians

fell because they knew that the business of leaders is
to lead; because they were ready to say, like King
Magnus, 'noblemen were meant for honour but not
for long life.' The result is that the house of Sverri
steps upon the scene much as the house of Tudor does
in English history, founding an almost autocratic
power through a well-ordered bureaucracy on the ruins
of the aristocracy and of the Church. Sars, a living
Norwegian historian, compares Hakon Hakonsson to
Louis xiv. of Prance. This reign was a period of
restoration for Norway. Hakon used his triumph
with the greatest moderation, and the passions of fac-
tion, fanned by a century of civil war, did at last .die
down. It is not an eventful reign; rather one of
those long periods of rest when a nation is happy in
having no history.

Outside the sphere of home politics Hakon accom-
plished one thing of importance, and made a conspicuous
failure in another, which as a failure was of even more
significance and importance.

During these years of civil war in Norway, Iceland
had imitated the mother state by embarking upon a
period of civil war at home. This is not the place to
speak of those internecine quarrels by which the old
aristocracy of landowners in the Icelandic Republic
brought about its own ruin. To a very large extent
the rivalries in Iceland followed the rivalries of parties
in Norway. The history is interesting enough, and it is
interestingly told. It is bound up closely with the
literary history of Iceland and Norway, for the family
which was most largely concerned in these feuds was
that of the famous Sturlungs, whose most illustriousAnnexation of Iceland	291

member, Snorri Sturluson, is the historian of Norway,
and one of the greatest literary men that Scandinavian
countries have produced. We have already said how
he was murdered at the instigation of Hakon, one year
after the fall of Earl Skuli in Norway. The result of
the long period of civil war in Iceland was, that when
Hakon had established himself firmly on the throne of
Norway, he found this daughter country utterly ex-
hausted, and had no difficulty in incorporating it in his
dominions. Iceland had, in early days, been theoreti-
cally a tributary country to Norway. We see that
when Olaf Tryggvason is doing his best to establish
Christianity in his own country, he takes measures,
almost as a matter of course, to introduce it likewise
into Iceland as into the Orkneys, and to the former
country he sends that Saxon priest Thangbrand, 'a
great man-slayer/ who used more force than persuasion
in his missionary work. But the tie between Norway
and its daughter republic remained of the loosest, till
Hakon really incorporated Iceland with Norway, a
union which has lasted ever since. He did the same
with Greenland, that little adventurous colony which
was still flourishing, but was destined in the following
century to come to a sad end. The Orkneys and
Faroes were already counted among the possessions of
the country.

What of those other parts of the Greater Scandi-
navia which lay among the British Isles ? Let us take
one final glance at them.

The Danish and Norse conquests in England had
long since been merged in the "English nation. Oppo-
site the Orkneys, in Caithness, there was still, probably,292 Norway and the Norwegians

a large Norse population, but they were now subjects
of the kings of Scotland as much as the men of North-
umbria were the subjects of the English king. The
Norsemen in Ireland, too, who had once put themselves
at the head of a federation of Scandinavians in the
western parts of Great Britain, who sent out rulers to
govern Man and the western islands of Scotland, these
Irish Norsemen (Ostmen, as they were called) had
likewise become, since the days of Strongbow, the
subjects of the English king.

But there still remained Man and the western islands
of Scotland; these were independent of the Scottish
king; they were still essentially Norse colonies. We
saw how Magnus Barefoot had spent his energies in
trying to revive the Norse power in Scotland; he lost
his life in trying to do the same in Ireland. The
names of one or two of the rulers of these Scottish
islands and of Man who lived subsequent to Magnus'
time have been preserved for us; one of these is the
well-known Sumerled or Sumerleda, from whom so
many of the heads of clans in the west of Scotland
claim descent, the family of Argyll among the number.
The western Scottish islands were now divided into
two groups, the dividing point being the most western
point of the Scottish mainland, the point of Ardna-
murchan. The expression Sudreyar, which had once
been the designation of the whole of the western islands
of Scotland, the Hebrides, par excellence, was now
applied only to the islands south of the Hebrides.
These sudreyar (in the latter sense) probably formed
with Man a single kingdom or earldom. This latter
kingdom it is which corresponds to the diocese of theHakoris Expedition to Scotland 293

Bishop of Sodor and Man. The Hebrides, now the
Nordreyar, formed another kingdom.

As the power of the kings of Scotland increased, and
the adventurous spirit of the Norsemen declined, it
must have become clear to these lesser kings and earls
that no prospect lay before them but of becoming feu-
datories of the Scottish king; well for them if, on these
terms, they could preserve their possessions. Of some
of them homage was obtained by the kings of Scotland
at the price of a grant of further territory on the main-
land, the undisputed possession of the Scottish kings.
Alexander 11. sent an embassy to Hakon offering to
purchase the claims of suzerainty over these islands of
the Norwegian crown; and the offer was repeated by
Alexander iil, but each time decisively rejected by the
King of Norway. Such a proposal was enough to put
him on the alert; and presently there came news to
Hakon that the Scots had been making forays in these
western islands, and had committed all sorts of atroci-
ties there.

It was time for him to stir if he would not let drop
for ever the claims of Norway to the suzerainty of these,
its ancient colonies. Hakon determined, as the crown-
ing achievement of his life—it was in the forty-sixth
year of his reign—to strike a great blow against the
power of the King of Scotland, and for the re-establish-
ment of the influence of Norway on that side of the
Northern Ocean. In the winter of a.d. 1262 he sent
messages throughout the country for the collecting
and arming of a fleet. It assembled the following
summer to be reviewed by the king, one of the largest
fleets which had ever sailed from Norwegian waters.294 Norway and the Norwegians

Hakon embarked in it, and sailed first of all to the
Orkneys.

There was a young king, Alexander hi., upon the
throne of Scotland. He was only twenty-two, and his
reign since he succeeded as quite a boy had been not
a little troubled by rival factions at home, and by
interference from England in the south. It cannot be
said, therefore, that Hakon's time was ill-chosen; and,
in fact, he never did encounter any direct opposition
on the part of the King of Scotland.

The enterprise failed rather through its own inherent
weakness. Hakon sailed from the Orkneys to the
Hebrides, and found in that kingdom a King John,
from whom he demanded homage and furtherance.
But John replied that he held more territories from the
King of Scotland than from the King of Norway, and
that he was bound by his oath not to take arms against
him. Another king, Magnus of Man, and the lord of
the southern islands, were more amenable, and Magnus
did no small amount of ravaging on the western coasts
of Scotland, which is described in inflated terms by the
poet of this expedition—of whom more presently.

At length Hakon brought his fleet round the Mull
of Kintyre, and anchored between Arran and Ayr.
Messengers came from the King of Scotland to nego-
tiate a peace. They even offered—according to the
Norse account—to restore to Norway the supremacy
over the western islands that she had possessed of old.
But Hakon asked for more. He must have the islands,
such as Bute and Arran, which were enclosed by the
mainland, and which had never formed part of the
Scandinavian group. Then the Scots began to spyThe Battle of Largs	295

hopes of help from another quarter. The summer had
passed; the equinox was near. They may have seen
signs that it was likely to be a stormy equinox. So
they prolonged the negotiations; and suddenly, as
Hakon's fleet was riding at anchor, the storm broke
upon it.

Many vessels dragged their anchors and drifted to
the north. A certain number of crews were obliged to
land at Largs. They were attacked by the Scots.
Hakon sent more boats' crews to their assistance. But
a larger and larger hosting assembled on the hills above
the beach. At length it came to something of a pitched
battle, which in the Scottish chronicles is known as the
Battle of Largs. We have, for any details, only the
Norse account of this battle. According to this the
Norsemen were victorious; but over what ? Only over
a local hosting, which the government of Scotland,
properly so called, had no share in organising. And
half of Hakon's fleet had been destroyed by the storm,
which still continued to blow. The Norse king had no
choice but to sail away to safer waters. , At last he got
to the Orkneys with the residue of his fleet. His expe-
dition had failed miserably, and he, an old man, had
been worn out by the fatigues of it. He died in the
Orkneys, and was buried in St. Magnus Cathedral
there.

Hakon's son, Magnus, formally renounced all the
claims which his father had sought to make good. He
retained only the supremacy over the earldom of
Orkney, to which, as yet, the Scottish kings had made
no claim.

This expedition of Hakon's is always considered296 Norway and the Norwegians

epochal, in the sense that it is the last flicker of the
Viking spirit before it finally expires. Magnus Bare-
foot's expeditions at the end of the eleventh century
fell far behind the achievements in the same parts of
the world of his forerunners of the ninth and tenth
centuries. But, compared to Hakon, in spite of the
vast preparations which had preceded the voyage of the
latter, Magnus Barefoot might be reckoned a successful
leader.

It is appropriate enough that we find a bard of these
later days celebrating Hakon's expedition in the inflated
style and false imagery to which the Norse poetry had
now descended, since, for many generations, it had
ceased to be really national, and had become merely an
affected versification, patronised at courts and kept up
for the glorification of its patrons. This last breath of
the old Norse poetry may be placed side by side with
the last flicker of the old Norse spirit of adventure.CHAPTER XII

HISTORY

Magnus the Law Reformer—The Union of Calmar— Transition to
Modern Times.

Hakon's son, Magnus, had remained behind in Norway
when his father set out to the west. He saw the use-
lessness of prosecuting the claims which his father had
put forward, and, as we have said, ceded by treaty all
his rights in Scotland, except that of the suzerainty of
the Orkneys.

Henceforward, save as a tradi#g country, Norway
had little to do with foreign affairs.

What we have now to note is the confirmation of a
sovereign power built upon the ruins of the old aristo-
cracy—the ruins of the adventurous and turbulent
spirit of bygone days ; and in place of these a new
industry at home, a new attachment to the works of
peace, and a longing on all sides for a reign of law and
order. To meet this longing rose Magnus, who is known
in history as Magnus Lagabmtir, or Magnus the Law-
Eeformer (1263-1280). As we are not concerned
with constitutional history, it is not necessary to enter
into the details of Magnus' law reforms. The general
effect of them was to carry on the work of centralisation

297298 Norway and the Norwegians

which had been begun by Sverri, and continued by
Hakon Hakonsson. The efforts of these two had been
chiefly in the direction of administrative centralisation
the efforts of Magnus Lagabsetir were directed towards
legal centralisation. Up to now the law had been dif-
ferent for different parts of the country. There were
four great Things, and each administered its own laws
for its own district. That is to say, latterly two of the
three districts, those of the Eidsvold Thing and the
Borgar Thing, had the same laws and customs, but these
differed from those of the other two Thing districts.

It will be understood that none of these laws—or
but very few—were codified; so that the law admini-
stered at the Things was what we should call' case-law.'
The law (according to the old custom, at any rate) was
administered for the peasants by the peasants. Gener-
ally the most venerable and the most respected bonder
was elected for life to be the exponent of the laws and
customs of the district. This man was called the law-
man (Lagamadhr). His business was to recite from
memory the known laws, what formed, in effect, the code
of the country, to decide the case-law, and to be a sort of
speaker for the local Thing in the presence of the king
or of the earl of the district—which is precisely what
the speaker of the English Parliament originally was.
This peasant-law of the Things did not directly apply
to the king or the higher aristocracy, the earls; but
they were bound to respect it, and in the govern-
ment of their own estates they were bound by its
provisions.

Across this district law there lay, so to say, a band
of church and king law, which had been introducedMagnus Lagabcztir	299

with the new religion by Olaf Tryggvason and St. Olaf.
It was not so much the formal change of faith which
awoke opposition to these innovators as the Church
or canon law which they introduced therewith, laws
relating to slavery, to ecclesiastical and moral offences,
such as sacrilege, adultery, and so forth. These reforms
had long been incorporated with the Thing laws; but
they came from outside, and were uniform for the whole
country.

The first task which Magnus undertook was the codi-
fying of the traditional law; the second, was the intro-
duction of a uniform code for the whole country. This
was the essential of his work. But incidentally certain
changes were introduced which had the effect of enlarg-
ing the kingly power, while it secured the greater inde-
pendence in many respects of the peasant class, but
destroyed the remaining power of the old aristocracy.

The chief of these latter changes was the abolition of
the picturesque and terrible, blood-feud which plays so
conspicuous a part in the history of the northern races
during their heathen or almost heathen days. We have
only to read the Icelandic Sagas to see how large a part
the blood-feud occupied in the life of families in those
days. The law of private revenge, which was involved
in the theory of the blood-feud, always lay rather out-
side the regular Thing-law of the country. That is to
say, it was recognised by law, but the chief efforts of
the Thing legislators were directed to limiting its appli-
cation. In Magnus' laws this right of private revenge
was abolished; and with it was abolished the right
which families claimed of determining for themselves
the blood fine for a murder, the compensation money300 Norway and the Norwegians

(as it in fact was) for which they would consent to
abandon their right of revenge.

Other changes related to the free holding of land.
Free possession, or what was called odal or udal right,
only vested in a family which could establish its pos-
session of the soil on which it lived through a number
of generations; failing that, the land by Harald Fair-
hair's law theoretically belonged to the king. He might
bestow it upon any among his servants or nobility, and
it was in this wise that some of the greater estates had
been acquired, and the powerful landed aristocracy of
lendermen had been formed. By Magnus' law sixty
years' possession established a title to an odal estate.
This law limited the power of the crown. But it also
tended to reduce the power of the aristocracy. The
result of all these reforms was that the greater aristo-
cracy of Norway (the lendermandsaetter) practically
disappeared, and the lower aristocracy (holdernesaetter)
became little distinguishable from the peasant class.

In Denmark and Sweden the yeoman class had
separated from, and raised out of itself an aristocratic
order; and this, in these countries, had in its turn
reduced the bonder class to a lower level, a level not
much above that of the peasants of Germany. In
Norway, on the other hand, the peasant class had
absorbed or re-absorbed the aristocracy which a warlike
age had evoked from it.

The future history of Norway alters little in this ,
social condition of things. For though after its union,
first with both Sweden and Denmark, afterwards with
Denmark alone, these countries imposed upon it some
of their own political and social ideas, their influenceChurch and Aristocracy	301

came from without and never much affected the people.
Thus when, in 1814, Norway once more obtained a con-
stitution of its own, it reverted instinctively, as it were,
to the condition of things to which it had been brought
by the warlike efforts of Sverri, his son and his grand-
son, and by the statesmanship of Magnus, the law-
reformer.

The Church in Norway was more successful in hold-
ing its own than the aristocracy. Sverri had succeeded
in spite of it. Hakon Hakonsson, though he made
peace with the Church, and was crowned by a papal
legate, receded very little from the attitude which his
grandfather had taken up towards the privileges of
churchmen. But his son Magnus came to an agree-
ment with the ecclesiastical body, and a sort of Con-
cordat was signed between the two powers, whereby
the king virtually gave up all jurisdiction in Church
affairs, conceding that very point which Becket had
attempted in vain to wring from Henry 11., which the
Constitutions of Clarendon were especially framed to
reject—that priests should be removed altogether from
lay jurisdiction.

Such was the condition of things in which Magnus
left the country. The two sons who followed*him
tried their best to shake the power of the Church, to
revoke the Concordat which Magnus had established,
and to return to the condition of things which Sverri
had bequeathed to Hakon. Magnus' immediate suc-
cessor, his eldest son Erik, was for this cause constantly
embroiled with the priesthood, and so got the name
of Erik the priest-hater (Praestehader). This Erik,302 Norway and the Norwegians

Magnus' son, is interesting as the father of Margaret,
the Scottish princess, who is known in history as the
Maid of Norway. He reigned from a.d. 1280-1299. He
was succeeded by his brother Hakon Magnusson (Hakon
v.), who reigned from a.d. 1299-1309. Hakon left only
a daughter Ingeborg, and thus the house of Sverri
became extinct in the male line. Ingeborg was married
to a Swede, Erik, Duke of Sondermanland, the heir to
the throne of Sweden. Their son Magnus, who is known
as Magnus Smeh, Magnus ' the Luxurious/ became King
of both Sweden and Norway, and the union of Norway
to other Scandinavian lands began (1319).

This union was broken again when Magnus was
deposed in 1355, and Hakon his son elected King of
Norway. Hakon's father continued for some years to
govern Sweden. But at last the Swedish nobles deter-
mined to offer the crown to Albert, Duke of Mecklen-
burg (1363). The troubles which ensued upon this
placing of a German upon the throne of Sweden be-
long to the history of that country.

Hakon, the son of Magnus, married Margaret, the
daughter of Waldemar, the King of Denmark—that
illustrious Queen Margaret whose reign shines out
as a brief period of prosperity in the troubled history
of the Scandinavian countries. The son of these two
was Olaf, under whom the crown of Norway was
united with that of Denmark; and this union proved
the permanent one. Eventually, after Olaf had died
(1387), his mother Margaret was made first regent,
and then sole monarch of both these countries. And
when the Swedes, growing tired of Albert and of his
German proclivities and German favourites, expelledThe Union of Calmar	303

him from his throne, Margaret became regent of Sweden
likewise, and the three countries were practically united
under one sceptre.

The actual and legal union of the three Scandinavian
countries, known as the Union of Calmar, took place
in 1397, when Erik of Pomerania, whom Margaret had
adopted as her heir, had been elected to the throne of
each of the three kingdoms. Margaret continued to be
the actual ruler of them until her death in 1412.

The history of Norway as a separate kingdom ends
with the union of Calmar, ends practically, in fact,
with the earlier union under Magnus Smek, The
country was left for the most part at peace, and its old
heroic character seemed to have deserted it. It had
lost its aristocracy, and had achieved the modest com-
fort of a people among whom there was no great wealth
and no abject poverty. But at the same time it had lost
the proud, the restless and adventurous spirit of former
days. It submitted without shame to be treated as
the mere appanage of one or other of the two larger
Scandinavian kingdoms. The political centre of gravity
now leaves this country, and if we wanted to know any-
thing of the outside influences which affected Nor-
wegian life for succeeding centuries, until in 1814 the
country once more sprang into virtual independence,
we should have to follow the histories of Sweden and
Denmark.

This, of course, we have not space to do. And it is
the less necessary to do so, that even then we should
have only a picture of the side influences on Norwegian
history. It is enough for us to notice some of the304 Norway and the Norwegians

great movements in Europe by which the life of the
Scandinavian countries, and Norway with the others,
was deeply affected.

The first great movement is the growth of the
Baltic trade, more especially of that great league of
the trading towns of Germany which were concerned
in the commerce of the north, and which succeeded in
absorbing it almost altogether. I mean the association
which went by the name qf the League—the Hansa.

The growth of the Hansa is an example of one of the
revenges which time brings about. For it had been
the Viking piracies in the first instance—the inveterate
marauding which generations of sea robberies had en-
gendered, which laid the germ of the great association
of the leading Baltic towns.

Not but that, as we have seen, there had been
Scandinavian merchants alongside of—nay, we may
say identical with—the Scandinavian pirates. When
speaking of the earliest days of Northern history and
of the doings of the Vikings in Europe, we took occa-
sion to point out how the adventurers who came from
Norway had a character and a career somewhat different
from those which they had who came out of the other
Scandinavian countries, Denmark or Sweden; how
while the two last were conquerors and colonisers
of Northern England, of Normandy, of Gardariki in
Russia, the Norsemen were par excellence conquerors
and tradesmen; so that what Ireland owes to its
Norse conquerors is not any great admixture of Scandi-
navian blood, but the founding of seaport towns in the
island and the first introduction of a coinage into the
country.The Hanseatic League	305

Later on, when we were picturing to ourselves the
domestic life of the Norsemen in the heroic age, we saw
how every landowner of any consideration, if his estate
lay near the coast, was sure to possess one or more
vessels built and armed by himself and manned by his
house-carls, which might be used as occasion required
either as merchant vessels or as ships of war. They
were used as both. Long after the true Yiking age was
over the custom obtained in families of the higher class
of sending the young son or sons of the house upon
expeditions half of warlike adventure and half of trade.
As our young gentry used a century ago to signalise
their entry into manhood by making the grand tour, so
used these young sprigs of Norse nobility to set out
upon their voyage of trade or war.

In this wise the Norwegians very early began to reap
some of the benefits of commerce. But it was likewise
this early proclivity towards trade which arrested the
development of Norway as a commercial nation. For
it prevented the growth of a distinct trading class, such
as had ere now developed in Europe proper, especially
in Northern Germany; a class which from generation
to generation had increased its power in the teeth of
feudalism, which through initial weakness had learnt
the need of union, until now through that union it had
grown so strong that it could set the kinghood and the
chivalry of many nations at defiance.

It so happens that the time when the great Yiking
expeditions came to an end, and were succeeded by a
series of petty raids directed by one of the northern nations
against another, or between rival parties in the same
state, was precisely the time when Norway might have

u306 Norway and the Norwegians

reaped greater commercial advantages than have since
fallen in her way. For in the full flower of the Middle
Ages, when the fasts of the church were rigidly observed,
fisheries, such as the northern cod-fisheries, were of the
greatest value in the economy of Europe. There was
no article of commerce from countries with a seaboard
to inland ones for which there was a more constant
demand than fish. Undoubtedly the northern fisheries
developed largely under the stimulus of this demand.
If at the same time a special merchant class had grown
up to stand as middlemen between the getter and the
consumer of this necessary article of diet, Norway might
have attained a high degree of commercial prosperity.

But what was not supplied from within the country
was supplied more or less forcibly from without. The
Hansa, or 'The League,' which had been hatched by
terror of the northern pirates, was now grown great
enough in its turn to be a terror to the Scandinavian
nations.

The town of Wisby, in Gothland, bears traces of the
great prosperity which it attained when it was the chief
Scandinavian city of this famous Hansa. There are
in that one city more G-othic churches of stone than
are to be found in all Norway. All along the southern
shore of the Baltic we come upon towns, strong-walled
towns as they were in the Middle Ages, with their walls
still standing, which were members of this mighty
League : Dantzig, for instance, which still contains the
immense warehouses which were built in the Middle
Ages. Stolpe is another of these towns which to-day
is half forgotten; but its old walls remain. Then we
come to a group of the Western Baltic cities, Stralsund,Denmark and the League	307

Eostock, Wismar, Liibeck (the most famous of all the
Hansa towns), which, with Hamburg, which had an out-
look to the German Ocean, were the founders of the
League. Other more inland towns, such as Cologne, joined
it. But originally it was designed to protect or to com-
mand the trade of the Baltic. Its greatest establishment
out of Germany proper was Wisby. It soon began to
have corresponding places of business or factories,
Kontors as they were called, in Bussia, in Scandinavia,
and in England. In Norway it had them at Oslo and
at Bergen. Bergen had, during the civil war, grown
to be the most important town in Norway; and the
Bergen Kontor of the Hansa soon began to absorb all
the trade of the country.

The Hansa did not establish its power unopposed.
There were frequent quarrels between the Germans and
the natives in Bergen. But the latter were so little
supported by their government that the foreigners soon
began to show the greatest insolence, and to act as if
the whole city were theirs. Then, about the middle
of the fourteenth century, the Hansa gave such a
display of its power that all the Scandinavian countries
were reduced to a virtual submission to it.

This state of things was provoked by the action of
the King of Denmark. During the fourteenth century,
while Norway was sinking more and more into a posi-
tion of dependence, and was preparing to be united to
the other Scandinavian countries, Denmark, after a long
period of internal struggle and consequent weakness,
once more rose to power under its king, Waldemar,
called Waldemar Atterdag or 'Day again.' It was
Waldemar who conceived'the idea of getting possession308 Norway and the Norwegians

of Wisby, the city of Hansa creation, the nucleus of the
Baltic trade of the League. He did take the city; but
his action brought about a warlike union of all the
Hansa cities, the like of which had never been seen
before. Hitherto the League had been apparently only
a peaceful corporation. It was its peaceful attitude
which deceived Waldemar into despising its power.
Now, under the leadership of Liibeck, the League
showed that it could put into the field an army superior
to any that the Scandinavian countries (once the scourge
of Europe) could oppose to it. How completely has
the whirligig of time brought its revenge, when we see
this league of northern traders defeating the children
of those adventurers who had in their day attacked and
taken half the chief cities of Europe!

After this famous war, which took place in the years
1368-9, so far as Norway was concerned, the unques-
tioned supremacy of the German traders was established.
Bergen may be said to have been given up to them. It
was not for two hundred years, till, that is to say, the
middle of the sixteenth century, that Norway succeeded
in wresting back again the trade in her own produc-
tions.

Up to the time of the monopolising of Norse trade
by the ' Lubeckers,' as the Hansa merchants were often
called in Norway, the commerce with the British Isles,
which the Yiking age had first introduced, continued to
be one of the chief branches of Norwegian external
trade. According to the legend, one of the boats
which came to Norway on this errand, brought with it
a strange and awful freight. The boat—a cock-boat it
is called in the history—came from England, and putThe Black Death	309

in at Bergen. It had several persons on board. But
before they were able to unload the ship all these
people fell dead, one after another, oif the landing-quay.
People did not like to see the cargo lying there useless, so
they set to work to carry it up to the town. They like-
wise died. Then the pest spread over the whole city.
It was the ' Black Death,' or, as the Norwegians call it,
the Msend-dod, the ' Mens-death,' ' The Death/ Men
began dying in thousands here in Bergen; and presently
the death spread over all the country. It was said that
two-thirds of the population of Norway died from this
plague. This is no doubt an exaggeration. One-third
would be a fairer reckoning. But at this lower estimate
the history of the disease is strange and terrible enough.
It seems to be a fact that whole villages were depopu-
lated : that sometimes the sites of them were re-absorbed
into the primeval forest, and lost to memory. There
are even stories of the emergence of a sort of race of
wild men of the woods, the grown-up children from
places where the whole adult population had died, and
the inhabited country had been, as it were, restored to
the empire of Nature.

The political events which affected Norway during
the fifteenth century arose from the rivalries of Sweden
and Denmark. The former of these two countries never
peaceably accepted the state of things sanctioned by
the Calmar Union. That meant that Sweden was to
be in effect governed from Copenhagen, from Den-
mark, and, therefore, in accordance with Danish ideas.
For Denmark was by far the most civilised of the three
Scandinavian kingdoms. It was, too, in much closer3i o Norway and the Norwegians

relationship with Germany than either of the other two.
Soon the time was to come when a dynasty would
ascend the Danish throne, whose founder could not
speak a word of Danish, so that, for a time, no Scandi-
navian tongue was spoken at the court of Copenhagen.

It was not likely that Sweden would submit to be
governed on such terms. And the whole of the fifteenth
century, and down to the year 1523, is the history of
the struggles for mastery in Sweden between the legiti-
mate royal line of Denmark, with the prestige of legiti-
macy and royalty behind it, and the leaders of the
Swedish nobility, who, sometimes with the kingly title,
sometimes with the name of regent only, but with the
power of kingship, succeeded in raising themselves to
the supremacy in Sweden. The Swedish national party
is, during this century, generally led by members of a
single family, or, say, by a succession of leaders allied
by blood; by Carl Cnutson, regent in 1436, king from
1448 to 1450, and again, 1464-66, 1467-70. Greater
names than this of Carl Cnutson are those of the mem-
bers of the Sture family, Sten Sture, the Elder, who
had not the royal title, but as regent and marshal
enjoyed a firmer rule than Cnutson's from 1471-1497,
and again from 1500-1503, and conferred greater bene-
fits upon his country; Svente Sture, regent between
1503-1512, and Sten Sture, the Younger, 1512-1520.
The battle of Brunkebjerge, near Stockholm, in which
Sten Sture, the Elder, defeated Christian I. of Denmark,
the founder of the German Oldenburg line (1471) is
celebrated in Swedish history.

Norway during this period trod timidly in the steps
of Sweden. It cannot be believed but that she desiredNorway under Danish Rule 311

at all times to shake off the Danish yoke, and that if it
was necessary for her to be attached to either nation she
would have preferred that that nation should be Sweden.
For a period Sten Sture the Elder added the regency of
Norway to that of Sweden, but the country remained
Danish subsequent to the first defeat of Sten in 1497.

Then arose in Denmark the remarkable Christian 11.,
that wise ruler of his own country, and cruel oppressor
of the Swedes. How his horrible execution or massacre
of eighty-two of the heads of Swedish houses, known
in history as the 'Stockholm Blood-bath,' led to the
rise of a new dynasty in Sweden, the dynasty of
Gustavus Yasa, under which that country was to attain
the summit of its glory, is known probably to most
readers. At any rate, it is not a part of Norwegian
history. In 1523 Gustavus was crowned King of
Sweden, and the Union of Calmar was for ever dis-
solved.

A play of Ibsen, Fru Inger til Osteraad (Lady Inger
of Osteraad) gives a picture from Norse history at this
time. It shows a party in Norway longing after a re-
union with Sweden, or, at any rate, after a severance
from Denmark, a party which represents the scattered
remnant of the old aristocratic houses, and which has
also the sympathy of the more patriotic among the
peasants. We see also how an intrusive aristocracy of
Danes—resting upon the firm support of the court—
has made its way into Norway, and by marrying the
heiresses of Norwegian houses has settled itself upon
the soil, and grown to be the strongest support of Danish
rule in the dependent kingdom. Doubtless the pic-
ture presented to us is, in its ftiain outlines, a true one:312 Norway and the Norwegians

though the actual characters, who cross the stage of the
play, and the actual series of events, may have been
changed to suit the requirements of the playwright.
The story turns upon the existence of a descendant of
the Stures, who is living concealed in Norway, and
whom it is the intention of the disaffected party to
bring forward at a fitting moment as the leader of the
peasantry.

For the Scandinavian nations altogether there is one
more great movement to be taken account of, and then
their history may be allowed to sink into the obscurity
and forgetfulness which hang over it during modern
times.

This movement is the Eeformation. The condition of
the Catholic Church in the north corresponded generally
with its condition in other parts of Europe during the
fifteenth century. It made, in many ways, a greater
display of power than ever; but it was slowly, but
inevitably, losing its hold upon the mass of the popula-
tion. Consequently in this age the first open collisions
occur. The first trial and execution for heresy in
Sweden belongs to this century. We may put it side
by side with the executions of the Lollards in this
country. Christian the Second, in his Swedish wars,
appeared as the friend of the Church, as the supporter
of the Primate, Archbishop Trolle, who had been
deposed by the patriot party for his traitorous corre-
spondence with Denmark. The trial—a mock trial—
which ended in the horrible ' Blood-bath of Stockholm,'
was conducted almost exclusively by ecclesiastics. It
was the last important exercise of ecclesiastical powerThe Reformation	313

in Sweden, and it must have struck a deadly blow at
that power.

At home, in Denmark, Christian the Second was a
reformer. The Eeformation in Denmark began under
his auspices in 1520. It was carried out in a
tolerably high-handed manner; and with as great an
admixture of impure and worldly motives as were
displayed in the English Eeformation under Henry vni.
and Edward vi. There is much in the character of
Christian 11. which resembles that of Henry viii. Still,
no doubt, the mass of the people were thoroughly pre-
pared for the change, and gladly welcomed the Lutheran
preachers whom Christian brought into Denmark. In
Sweden the Eeformation began with the rise of the
House of Yasa in 1523. There was an attempt made
to restore Catholicism by Gustavus' grandson, Sigis-
mund, who was King of Catholic Poland, as well as of
Sweden. But he and his schemes alike were defeated
by Sigismund's uncle Carl (Victory of Stangebro, a.d.
1599); and when the latter ascended the throne as
Charles ix., the ' Peasant's King,' as this champion of
the third estate was called, the Lutheran faith was
firmly established in Sweden. Norway was the least
ready of any of the three northern kingdoms to change
its creed: showing in this respect a conservatism in
religion which often characterises the people of a moun-
tainous country.

Then arises the Thirty Tears' War, and with it the
great Champion of Protestantism, Gustavus Adolphus
(1611-1632), the son of Charles ix., steps upon the
scene. Beside the greatness to which he and his mini-
sters raised their country, the rival Scandinavian State314 Norway and the Norwegians

the Dano-Norse kingdom, sank into insignificance.
Jealousy of the brother Scandinavian State was hence-
forward the chief motive force in Danish policy. The
balance between Denmark and Sweden was, to some
degree, redressed in favour of Denmark by Christian IV.
But in the following century there arose another
Swedish hero far inferior, indeed, to the great Gustavus,
but great enough to make his country once more—and
for the last time—blaze before the eyes of Europe, and
once more thoroughly to humiliate Denmark. I mean,
of course, Charles xii.

May it not be, as was suggested in an earlier page,
that the Swedish people were only now beginning to
enter upon their inheritance of victory, now that the
nations of the Danes and the Norsemen had burnt out
their heroism and achievement; that during the old
Saga era the Swedes had been, compared to their
brother Scandinavians, a peaceful people, and that
they had held their strength in reserve till now ?

However that may be, in all this history of the
rivalry between Denmark and Sweden, it is obvious
that Norway has no part.

For all the important period of our historical sketch
the Scandinavians have been for us what they seem to
be constituted by the formation of their country, the
youngest of the nations of Europe. But during the
latter years which we have rapidly run through—just
those years when Norway has, in fact, passed off the
historic stage—it is interesting to notice how a new
nation, a younger one still than any of the Scandin-
avians, steps upon the boards—Bussia. At one time, weRussia and Scandinavia	315

know, Eussia had been part of the Scandinavian con-
federacy ; and it had, as a rule, been the most powerful
of all the members of that group. That Jarisleif
(Yaroslav), to whose court came Harald Hardradi and
the Orkney Jarl Eognvald, is an important person in
Eussian history, for he is the first legislator for Eussia.
Not long after his time ends what has been called the
heroic era in Eussian history, which, like the heroic
era of Norway, is simply the Saga age. Then the old
Scandinavian stock becomes more and more mixed with
Slavonic elements, and finally, there comes the long
dominion of the Mongol Tartars, during which Eussian
nationality, though not extinguished, lies under a cloud.
During this period there had been some relations
between the Swedes and the Eussians, chiefly of a hos-
tile character, and when Norway came to be united with
Sweden she sometimes suffered from attacks from
Eussia.

We read of one, just before the union, in 1316, which
fell upon Halogaland, in the north of Norway; of others
in the succeeding century.

In the middle of the fifteenth century comes the
consolidation of the Grand Duchy of Eussia, under
Ivan ; and it is from this time forward that the country
begins to be known by trade, and otherwise, to the
other nations of Europe. We find in the reign of Ivan
the Terrible an Englishman of the name of Horsey,
going to Eussia as Ambassador from Queen Elizabeth,
in order to arrange a sort of commercial treaty between
the two countries. From this time forward the Eussian
trade was a very important element in the trade of the
Baltic.316 Norway and the Norwegians

After the death of Ivan there followed civil war,
during which Russia once more became insignificant;
but at the end of this period there arose the monarch,
who was the founder of modern Russia, Peter the
Great. We need not dwell on the history of the
wars between the last great king of Sweden, Charles xil,
and this great Tsar. But it is interesting to note that
the fall of the last famous Scandinavian ruler, the
last man whose personality recalls in any way that of
the old Saga heroes, is brought about by the first great
monarch of the Russian empire.

Charles xn. of Sweden lost his life, as every one
knows, in an attack on Norway, and in the siege of
Frederikshald, in that country (December 11, 1718).
Frederikshald lies in the part of Norway which
tourists rarely visit, that is to say, in the country which
stretches east of the Christiania Fjord, between it and
the Gota river, and close to the Swedish border. It
is near Frederickstad, the site of that * interesting
old town of Sarpsborg, which was built, we know,
by St. Olaf, and where the Borgar Thing was held.
This, too, is the country of the Bohuslan stone-carvings,
of which we spoke in the earlier chapters of this
volume. So that, altogether, we can trace more of the
footmarks of time here than in any other part of
Norway. For we may say that, with Frederikshald,
the light went out from the history of Scandinavia.

In Sweden a time of foreign rulers supervened, men
of German family, for a generation men not even born
in Sweden. The higher classes used the interval to
reduce the royal power almost to a shadow. When
Gustavus hi. arose, a native-born king, and tried to winRivalry of Sweden and Denmark 317

back something of what his predecessors had lost, the
nobles conspired his overthrow, and he was shot at a
masked ball by Ankerstrom, one of their number. The
nobility themselves were divided into two parties,
fiercely opposed, like the English Whigs and Tories of
the last century. They went by the names of the Hats
(Hattar) and Nightcaps (Nattmossor).

The one thing constant in Scandinavian history
during these later centuries was the enmity between
Sweden and Denmark. Towards the end of the seven-
teenth century Denmark recovered somewhat from
the position to which it had been reduced by Gus-
tavus Adolphus and his immediate successors. In the
war between Louis xiv. and Holland, as Sweden was
the ally of the French, Denmark joined the Dutch,
and the armies of the two Scandinavian countries
(under Christian v. and Charles XI.) met at Lund in
1676. It was Frederick iv. pf Denmark who provoked
the hostility of Charles xii.; and Denmark and Sweden
were again at war, almost continuously from A.D. 1709
to 1720. After this, there is nothing worth recording
in Danish history till the French Revolution, and the
wars which sprang therefrom, which affected every state
in Europe. In one respect, Denmark anticipated
the French Eevolution by the liberation, in 1788, of
the peasant class from the oppressive taxes and services
to which it had become liable.

At the beginning of the revolutionary war, Denmark
preserved a neutral attitude, a condition of armed
neutrality, in which she protected her own merchant
fleet, and carried goods to countries of either party.
This condition of things was viewed with a very evil318 Norway and the Norwegians

eye by England, and when, in 1800, Russia, Prussia,
and Sweden, seemed inclined to adopt the same attitude,
and made overtures to Denmark to form a league with
them, England determined to strike the latter country
at once, and to destroy its fleet. This led to the cele-
brated battle of Copenhagen (a.d. 1801), Nelson's first
great naval victory, and one of the hardest he ever gained;
one too, it must be said, of the least justifiable acts that
England ever committed. Bad, however, as this was,
it was not so blameworthy as the bombardment of
Copenhagen, and the seizure of the Danish fleet by
England again, in 1807, on the mere suspicion that
the country was going to form an alliance with
France.

This simply threw Frederick vi., the King of Den-
mark, into the arms of Napoleon. The Danish king
had no force at his command for the defence of his
country, which Sweden was once more threatening.
Wherefore Napoleon despatched to Denmark General
Bernadotte with an army of 30,000 men. But these
troops did nothing for the defence of the country, and
Denmark found herself obliged by the Treaty of Kiel
to cede Norway to Sweden, then the ally of England.

Sweden had left the French alliance. That same
Marshal Bernadotte, Napoleon's general, had been
selected as a successor to the reigning king of the
country, and received into the royal family. The
choice was made to flatter the susceptibilities of
Napoleon. But the latter soon became jealous of his
late subordinate, and even proposed to the English and
the German powers the dismemberment of Sweden.

When, by the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, Norway wasUnion of Norway and Sweden 319

taken from Denmark, and handed over to Sweden, the
Norwegians roused themselves to once more assert
their nationality. The Swedes appeared in force, by
land and sea, upon the frontiers of Norway. It was not,
however, until the latter country had been guaranteed
complete national independence that she consented to
a union of the countries under the one crown. The
agreement was made, and the constitution of Norway
granted on the 17th of May 1814, at which date the
contemporary history of Norway begins.CHAPTER XIII

modern norway

Constitution—Eeligion—Education.

On May 17, 1814, as we have seen, a Constitution
was granted to Norway. The Fundamental Law of
the constitution (Grundlov), which almost every peasant
farmer now-a-days has framed and hung up in the
chief room of his house, bears the date the 4th of
November 1814. The Act of Union with Sweden is
dated the 6th of August 1815.

The union of the two states is a union of the crown
alone, as, I suppose, every one now knows, seeing that
the union of Sweden and Norway has been one of the
most frequent examples cited in favour of the Home
Eule Bill for Ireland. (And the instance is more in
point, from the fact that we have already noted,
namely, that the political history of Norway has many
points of resemblance to the political history of Ire-
land.) Sweden and Norway form, like Great Britain,
a hereditary limited monarchy. One of the clauses in
the Act of Union provides that the king of the joint
countries must reside for a certain - part of the year in
Norway. But, as a matter of fact, this period is a
short one.

320\ The Constitution of Norway 321

In h'-S absence, the king is represented by the Council
of St^te (Statsraad), which must be composed entirely
of Norwegians, and consist of two Ministers of State
(Cabinet Ministers), and nine other Councillors of State.
As with us, the king personally can do no wrong; the
responsibility for his acts rests with his ministers. Of
the State Council, or Privy Council (above spoken of),
three members, one a Cabinet Minister, and two ordi-
nary members of the Privy Council, are always in attend-
ance upon the king, whether he is residing in Norway
or Sweden. The rest of the council forms the Norwegian
Government resident in the country. All functionaries
are appointed by the king, with the advice of this Council
of State. The officials, who form what we should call
the Government (as distinguished from what we should
call the Civil Service), together with the pr^fets (Amt-
men) and the higher grades of the army are, nominally,
removable by the king; but, if removed, they continue
to draw two-thirds of their salary until their case has
come before Parliament (the Stor-thing, Great Thing),
which decides upon their pensions. The king is
commander of the military and naval forces of the
country, and these cannot be augmented, except by
permission of Parliament. No foreign troops may be
brought into the country in time of peace; not even
Swedish, except for the quite temporary purpose of
joining the Norwegian troops in military manoeuvres.

In the same way, the Norwegian navy is quite
separate from the Swedish navy, and may not be
manned by other than Norwegian sailors. Neither
army nor navy can be employed in offensive operations
without the consent of Parliament.

x322 Norway and the Norwegians

This Storthing or Parliament of Norway consists of a
hundred and eleven members. The system of elation
to it is different from the system of election to the
English Parliament, and resembles more nearly thafe of
the Congress of America; that is to say, it is indirect.
In the rural electoral districts, each parish chooses
according to its population a certain number of electors;
and the college of electors, thus nominated, proceeds to
choose a representative. The chief towns of the
country have one, or more, representatives of their
own; the lesser towns are formed into groups, which
elect a representative among them. Bu;t in the towns,
as in the country, the first business is the election of
the college of electors. Two-thirds of the Storthing
(seventy-four members) are elected by the rural con-
stituencies, and the remaining third (thirty-seven mem-
bers) by the urban constituencies.

The franchise is enjoyed by the following classes :—
(1) In the country, those who have been in the use of
—as tenants or proprietors—land on which they have
paid taxes for five years; (2) those who, in the towns,
possess a certain, although very small, amount of real
property, or who have a patent as tradesmen, or artisans,
or as captains of ships; (3) those who have held any
of the public offices, the nomination to which rests with
the king. The possessors of real property, it will be
understood, are, in proportion, enormously in excess of
the same class in England; forming, in fact, about two-
thirds of the cultivators of the soil.

The Storthing is a triennial Parliament. Its sittings
are annual; but they cannot, without the king's consent,
last more than two months of the year. Until lately, itThe Storthing	323

was supposed to be part of the Constitution of Norway
that the ministry could not be members of the Storthing,
and could not be present at the debates of Parliament,
nor in its - committees. But in 1884 the Storthing
brought in a Bill abrogating this law, and making the
ministers more directly responsible to Parliament than
they had been hitherto. The ministers at that time
were Conservatives, but the Storthing was Liberal; and
it was on the motion of the Liberal leader, Svedrup, that
this Bill was introduced. The Constitution of Norway
(which in many ways follows the lines of the French
Constitution of 1791) allows the king a suspensive veto
on all legislation, but with regard to Svedrup's Bill it
was maintained by the Conserv^ve ministers that it
effected a change in the Constitution of the country;
and that the king might exercise not a suspensive, but
an absolute veto upon it. Again and again the Bill
was brought in, again and again it was vetoed. The
excitement in the country rose to a great height. The
present writer was in Norway at this time, and he
remembers one person who talked about the crisis to
him, comparing it to the contest between Charles 1. and
the Long Parliament. It must be said, however, that
all this political excitement lay beneath the surface of
life visible to the ordinary traveller; and, probably, not
one per cent, of the tourists in Norway during this
year was aware of what constitutional questions hung
in suspense. Finally, the king or his ministers gave
way, and the Bill was carried. It does not seem to us
a matter of enormous importance ; but it was the most
exciting political contest that Norway has passed
through for many years.324 Norway and the Norwegians

A recollection of this time of ferment has been pre-
served in Henrik Ibsen's social drama Bosmersholm. It
is said that the writer, returning to his country about
this time, was painfully impressed by the bitterness
which, through party feeling, had crept into all social life.
He, from the standpoint almost of a foreigner—for he
does not reside in Norway—is for ever satirizing the
pettiness, as he conceives it, of the life of his fellow-
countrymen. A strong Liberal himself—like Bjornson,
his contemporary—it is his object to rouse the Nor-
wegians from their contentment with their parochial life,
and with their traditional religion, and from their fear
of innovation. Thus it is the Conservative school-
master, Kroll,1 who Irresponsible for all the ill-feeling
and misrepresentation which embitters the lives of
Eosmer and Eebecca in this drama.

In 1876 the number of electors to the Storthing were
under a hundred and forty thousand, not more than 7*7
per cent, of the whole population. So that the fran-
chise was by no means a very wide one. Out of the
electors, nine-tenths were proprietors of some kind.
What is perhaps more curious, is that out of these
hundred and forty thousand voters, only a little over
eighty-four thousand had, before the previous elec-
tion, got themselves placed upon the register, and of
these only a little over thirty-seven thousand actually
took part in the election. So we see that that Parlia-
ment was actually elected by only about two per cent,
of the population.

1 jRector Kroll, he is called in the play, the title Rector being given in
Norway, not to the clergyman (who is Prseste or Pastor), but to the school-
master.Internal A dministration	325

In foreign affairs only does Norway not act as an
independent nation. There is a single foreign minister
for the two countries, and he is usually a Swede.

For the purposes of internal administration, Norway
is divided into twenty districts, called Amter—which
we may best translate ' Prefectures.' Of these, the two
chief towns of the country, Christiania (with its popula-
tion of 150,000) and Bergen (population about 50,000)
form each a separate Amt. The remaining eighteen
prefectures include both towns and rural districts ; all,
that is, except one, Sondre-Bergenhus, which is entirely
rural. These eighteen prefectures are divided into fifty-
six Fogderier (arrondissements), which among them con-
tain twenty-two ports; and into thirty-nine towns, each
of which has its own som-prS/et, who is also a magis-
trate.

The thirty-nine townships and eighteen of the ports
before mentioned constitute together fifty-seven urban
communities.

On their side, the rural districts throughout the
country are sub-divided into four hundred and fifty-
nine rural communities, or Hcereder; and in these are
included the four remaining small ports. The boun-
daries of the Haereder are very generally coincident
with those of the rural parishes.

We have thus five hundred and sixteen communities,
or, as we may fairly call them in the English sense,
townships, each one having its own electoral body and
two representative bodies. The larger of these two is
the Municipal or Parish Council (.Reprcesentantskab),
which consists of from nine to thirty-six members; and326 Norway and the Norwegians

a smaller body consisting of from three to twelve
persons, called Formandskab—literally Body of Chief
Men. We may translate it Local Government Board.
This, like our late County Boards, has the administra-
tion of most of the local affairs; but the budget, or, let
us say more simply, the local rates are settled by it
in conjunction with the Municipal Council. The last
body exercises no administrative functions separate
from those of the Local Board.

The matters committed to the care of these local
bodies are the maintenance of the roads and highways
(of most of them, that is to say), of quays, churches,
schools, hospitals, and other public buildings; free
education, hygiene, and the administration of the
public hospitals; the regulation of the water supply,
scavenging, and police—though of these last only the
main body of the force: the officers are paid by the
State.

These three last items apply only to the urban
administrative bodies. For, strange to say, there is
no police in the rural districts; and this fact shows
that, however turbulent and difficult to govern the
Norwegians were in the earlier years of their history,
they are very amenable to law and order now. In the
country districts the authority of the law is repre-
sented by the Fogder and the Lensmsend. But, as we
have not yet spoken of the executive authorities of
either town or country, we will devote a separate
section to explain what these are.

In most towns the executive authority is confined to
a Borgemester or a Baadmand. The larger towns have
one or two of these functionaries, their magistrates;Magistracy and Police	327

the smaller towns have but one in each. In certain
cases the magistrate is required to act on the advice of
the Municipal Council and the Administrative Board.

In the country there are three functionaries on whom
fall the duties of police and magistracy. The lowest of
these is the Lensmand, of whom there is one for each
rural township. He is not a magistrate, but should
rather be described as a police officer. But he is a police
officer without subordinates ; to carry out the orders of
the executive he has the right to call upon the assist-
ance of every private citizen, as indeed have the police
in this country; and this power in Norway is found
sufficient. The two superior officers, who are both
magistrates, are the Amt-men (Prefects), and their sub-
ordinates the Fogder (bailiffs), whose sphere of adminis-
tration are the Fogderier, as those of the Amt-men are the
Amter. The Lens-men are appointed by the Amt-men.

The revenue of the communities is derived from
rates, both upon real property and upon income. But
a very large source of their receipts come from the
liquor traffic, concerning which Norway has adopted a
system almost peculiar to the Scandinavian countries.
The main lines of it are nearly identical with that
which, in this country, is familiar under the name of
the Gothenburg system. And the essential part of the
system is, that the manufacture and sale of spirituous
liquors is not left to local enterprise. It is made a
monopoly of the township. The public-houses or inns
have no licence for the sale of spirits, which, as a
rule, can be purchased only in bottles, and only in the
licensed shops of grocers and so forth. It has been
found that, in effect, these simple regulations have328 Norway and the Norwegians

almost put an end to excessive drinking in Norway; at
any rate, that the country, which was at one time the
most intemperate in Europe, now holds a good place
for sobriety among the nations. The traveller is sure
to come across instances of drunkenness. These take
place generally on some occasion of special festivity,
such as a wedding. But the kind of continual drink-
ing in the public-houses and the streets, which we are
used to in our towns and villages, will not be found.

It is curious that the Scandinavian countries, Sweden
and Norway, have been among the last to keep up a
system of religious intolerance, almost of religious per-
secution. Until quite lately domicile was not allowed
except to the members of certain recognised creeds, of
which the Soman Catholic was not one. I do not
mean that there were no Eoman Catholics in the
country, but that they did not enjoy the rights of
citizenship. Even to-day these right's are not extended
freely to all denominations; still, only certain sects,
Evangelical (Lutheran), Eoman Catholic, Jewish,
one or two forms of ' orthodox ' dissent, are recognised.
And still no important public office is open to any one
but a Lutheran.

There are probably few countries in Europe in which
the ministers of religion have a greater influence in the
administration of the country and in the control of the
education of the people than they have in Norway.
Belgium may, perhaps, be parallel with it on the
Eoman Catholic side. However great the reluctance
of Norway to receive the Eeformed Eaith in the
sixteenth century, she has become deeply attached toReligion

329

it now. Of the amount of power intrusted to the
clergy in matters of education, etc., we shall show
some instances hereafter. That they do not misuse
their powers or interfere overmuch with the liberty of
the people, may be judged from the fact that there can
hardly be said to be in the country an anti-clerical
party.

There is nothing exciting or outwardly attractive
about the religious observances of Norway. The only
beauty that the modern Norwegian churches possess at
service time is imparted to them by their congregations,
the women in their picturesque bright dresses, long
fair hair, the men in their jackets and buttons and their
knee-breeches. But this dull decorum suits the Nor-
wegian peasant. Church-going with him is an ancient
custom; and it implies much more than a religious
ceremony. It affords the time and place of meeting
for men and women from distant parts, many of whom
lead very quiet and almost solitary lives. In the
intervals between the services they exchange gossip, and
even settle questions affecting the township—for the
township is generally identical with the parish. Thus
the traveller will see 011 Sundays the boats stealing
across the fjords on every hand, and the steamers
crowded with peasants in their Sunday dresses.

A few of the illuminati, such as Ibsen, who have
taken their ideas from abroad, may rail against the
narrowness and the formalism of the average Norwegian
prsest (as Ibsen does expressly in Brand and indirectly
in many of his social dramas); but no party in the
country is eager to curtail the authority of the Church.

The low standard of sexual morality in Norway330 Norway and the Norwegians

might be cited as a proof that the pastors do not do their
duty by the people; but there are many quasi-acci-
dental circumstances in Norwegian social life which
tend towards a low standard of morality, and cause
the large number of illegitimate births which mark the
social life of the country districts.

Free compulsory education obtains in Norway; but
it does not begin from such an early age as in Eng-
land ; in fact, it begins at a later age than in almost
any other European country, namely, at eight years.
The reason for beginning it so late is no doubt the
difficulty which children have in attending school,
the distances they have to walk, etc.,—owing to the
sparseness of the population. Parents are allowed to
send their children at seven, if they choose. The limit
at the other end is later than with us, and with most
other countries. It is made by the Confirmation, and
this, in Norway, generally takes place at the age of
fifteen.

The free public schools are, of course, under State
inspection. There are other schools which are not free.
Some of these are also State foundations ; some have
been founded by the townships ; and some are kept
by private persons. The masters of these private
schools are not obliged to obtain a licence to teach, nor
to undergo any examination^by the State; but, on the
other hand, the children instructed at these private
schools periodically undergo government inspection,
and, if the education they receive is not up to the
proper standard, the parents can be forced to send their
children to one of the public schools. If they chooseEducation

33i

to" continue likewise to pay fees to the private school-
master they can do so, but it is not likely that they
will. Parents neglecting to send their children to
school (either public or private) are fined; and if they
persist, or if the children are ill-treated at home, or.
receive a bad example there, they can be taken away
and placed in other families, the parents still being
forced to pay for their maintenance.

The Board Schools, as we may call them, are main-
tained by the townships or parishes. And they are
governed by a Board, of which the chairman is the
pastor of the parish; or, in the towns, one of the
pastors nominated by the bishop. This fact shows
how strong is the position which the State Eeligion
holds in Norway. A considerable part of the cost of
free education is defrayed out of the revenue of the
Church lands, which were alienated at the time of the
Eeformation. The balance of expenditure is made up
partly from what may be called rates, partly from State
grants, or, in other words, out of taxation. The object
of the primary education has been described as ' to com-
plete the home education; to sow the seeds of a true
Christian knowledge, and to give the minds of the
children such a formation as befits every citizen of the
State; and to impart such elements of knowledge as
may enable the children to continue their education
in later life according to their means.'

The subjects taught at these primary schools are read-
ing, religion, Bible history, according to the authorised
manuals, reading of the Bible and of the Psalms, reading
from some appointed books, which treat principally of
physical geography, natural science and history; writing,332 Norway and the Norwegians

and the reading of writing, arithmetic, singing; and, if
circumstances permit, gymnastics and military exercises.
To these subjects the Board may, if it thinks fit, add
grammar, higher geography, history and science, drawing,
surveying, and, for the girls, housework.

Even with us in England, with our dense population,
and by consequence the comparatively small area of
our school districts, a certain amount of hardship is
entailed in country places by the distances which
children have to walk to attend the board schools. In
many parts of Germany, where the education-acts are
more strictly enforced than they are here, these hard-
ships are sensibly increased. I remember myself once,
in North Germany, stopping to rest at the lodge of a
keeper in one of the great royal forests, which are so
numerous in East and West Prussia, and in Posen.
The children of this keeper had every day to walk four
or five miles to school at the nearest town; they had
to remain there the whole day, taking their dinner
with them, or buying it at a shop, between the morning
and afternoon school, with, perhaps, no sheltered place
in which to eat it. Then, summer and winter, they had to
trudge their four or five miles back through this dark and
intensely lonely pine forest. The father was a splendid
man (an old soldier, of course), and the children looked
charmingly healthy. But this discipline must have
been a severe trial, both of body and mind.

In Norway, with its narrow valleys, its numberless
forests and uncultivated mountains, and its solitary
farmsteads, the difficulties and hardships of this kind
would be increased a hundredfold, if there were not
some way of meeting them. The only course that canPeripatetic Schoolmasters	333

be adopted is, that the master, instead of the children,
should travel from place to place. He could not, of
course, do this each day, and teach the families one by
one. What has to be done is, that the families of each
district, under the charge of one master, are grouped
into much smaller districts; that the master travels
round to each in succession, and that, instead of there
being one school and one residence for the master, the
farmers of the lesser districts have to take it in turns to
give him board and lodging for the time that he is with
them, and to put at his disposal a room for a school-
room. This curious peripatetic life of several of the
board schoolmasters limits very much the possibilities
of receiving instruction on the part of their pupils. In
fact, the limit of compulsory attendance in many country
districts is only nine weeks in the year—nine weeks of
six days and thirty-six hours in the week. In the ma-
jority of country districts the compulsory attendance is
limited to twelve weeks. How the children taught on
this plan can retain any of their instruction, how,
during the remaining forty weeks of the year, they can
possibly remember what they learned during the golden
twelve, must be a matter of wonder and speculation
to any one who knows what the English child is
like.

As a rule, one master is appointed for every fifty or
sixty pupils. Manufacturers, etc., who employ as
many as thirty families, or heads of families, are com-
pelled to build a school for the instruction of the
children of their employes; and groups of neighbour-
ing small manufacturers are formed for the same
purpose up to the same number of hands.334 Norway and the Norwegians

The public examinations, or inspections, take place
yearly; and the inspectors are not appointed by the
school board. Boys and girls are generally taught
separately, but, as a rule, by the same master. Board
schoolmistresses, however, are beginning to be intro-
duced in the towns. Training colleges have been estab-
lished for schoolmasters and schoolmistresses.

At the end of 1875 the number of children of an
age to receive primary instruction in the towns and
in the country was 270,780. Of these 213,842 were
attending the fixed schools; 31,156 were being in-
structed by the peripatetic schoolmaster in the manner
that has been described above; 3000 were receiving
in private schools an education as good as that in the
Board schools; in addition to these, 18,000 were at-
tending the higher, or secondary schools, or receiving
private instruction of a higher grade: 4769 children
were receiving no education at all. The masters and
mistresses employed in this work were 3942. The
number of fixed schools at the same time in the country
was 4591. Of these, 2100 were buildings constructed
for that special purpose; the remaining 2491 buildings
hired, only temporarily, for the purpose. The number
of peripatetic schools was about 1860. The number
of children taught in both was 209,461. This for the
country; in the towns, instruction was given during
the same period to 35,537 children by 670 masters and
mistresses. The number of school buildings used for
this purpose I have not been able to ascertain. The
cost of educating the 209,461 children taught in the rural
districts was 3,950,000 kroners, or rather less than fifteen
shillings a head ; a cost which seems incredibly small—Higher Education

335

a cost calculated to make the English ratepayers mouth
water when he compares it with the cost of education
per head in this country. The 35,537 children educated
in the towns cost somewhat more, a fraction over
£1, 3s. 9d. a head.' But that was not a very ruinous
charge.

Still, this difference of cost is significant. It shows
the superior educational advantages of the towns
beginning to display itself. The superiority is more
marked when we pass from the primary or elementary
school to the secondary schools. Attendance in these
secondary schools is not compulsory. Beside these
State secondary schools there have been established
of recent years a number of High Schools, called by
that name (Hoiskoler), the plan of which, like that of
our High Schools, is, of course, derived from the Ger-
man Hochschule. From schools of this class there
were in 1875 only 780 country pupils who received
instruction. In the towns, on the other hand, there
were 2529 pupils educated at the secondary schools,
and 6574 educated at the High Schools—9103 in all.
From this point the superior educational advantages of
the towns manifest themselves decisively. Following
upon those numbers, we have in the towns 2390 pupils
receiving a still higher education, fitting them for entry
into the university.

The University of Norway has its seat at Christiania,
and is commonly spoken of as the University of Chris-
tiania. It is, it need scarcely be said, a university of
the continental pattern, an establishment for the con-
ferring of degrees and giving of lectures, not a collec-
tion of colleges such as are Oxford and Cambridge.CHAPTER XIY

modern norway
Land Tenure and the means of living.

In the earlier chapters of this book we have spoken
about the way in which the land of Norway was settled,
and the system on which it was held, that system of
free tenure or udal right which Harald Harfagr sought
to convert into a semblance of the feudal system. We
saw how his efforts failed in essential particulars; and
that his successor, Hakon the Good, obtained his crown
at the price of restoring to the bonders their free
tenure of the land. Attempts were made by succeed-
ing princes to go back to the policy of Harald Harfagr,
but their measures were generally revoked by the next
successor. When Norway was under the rule of Den-
mark more persistent efforts were made to introduce
feudality, and in certain parts of the country, in some
which lie near Christiania, others which lie near Bergen,
there existed until almost the other day one or two large
manors (counties or baronies) which bore witness to the
partial success of these efforts.

In travelling by rail from Christiania to Tonsberg—
that oldest of Norwegian towns which the traveller
interested in history ought not to miss seeing—we see

836Land Tenure

337

on tlie right, a few miles before reaching Tonsberg,
the old castle of Jarlsberg, which is a reminiscence of
the last which remained of these feudal earldoms.
Other feudal manors were the Earldom of Laurvik on
the Laurvik Fjord—that eventually devolved to the
crown,—and the barony of Rosendal, which lies on the
Hardanger Fjord. The owners of this barony bore the
title of Barons of Eosenkrone.

All titles of nobility were abolished in Norway by an
Act of 1821. This, as was said in an earlier chapter, is
rather a return to the condition of things which existed
before Norway had any political connection with Den-
mark than an absolutely new departure. The other
side of the feudal system, serfdom, has never existed
to any great extent in Norway.

The house-carls who figure so much at the courts of
kings and earls during the Saga-age were but the
development for purposes of war and state of the
ancient race of husmcend, which is represented still on
the estate of each considerable farmer. The house-
men of to-day were probably the thralls of a former
age; now they are in much the same position as many
of the peasant proprietors in North Germany, that is to
say, theygpossess and cultivate land of their own; but
they are compelled for a certain number of days to
work upon their master's farm. This is too, of course,
the corvee of the French peasant previous to the Re-
volution. The number of these house-men in Norway
does not very sensibly increase.

The system of udal tenure (odalsret) as it exists in
Norway, though it implies the free holding of the land,
does not include free sale. In fact, a proprietor cannot,

r338 Norway and the Norwegians

properly speaking, do more than mortgage his landed
possessions. He or his descendants have the right of
re-entry on the repayment of the purchase-money, if
this payment is made within three years of the sale.
Even when this is not done the new holder does not
acquire udal right in his tenure until he has held it
for twenty years.

The inheritance of property in former days vested
in equal shares in the sons of the house; but the
daughters, as a rule, inherited personal property only.
Later on, the share of each daughter in the real property
of her father was half that of each of the sons. But
since 1860 the rights of all children have been
equalised. The power of testamentary disposition
moreover is limited to one-fourth only of the property
of the testator. It will be seen that in framing these
laws concerning property, as in framing its constitution,
Norway, while it has in many ways done not much
more than legalize the customs which already existed,
has yet in effect run pretty closely on the lines of
legislation in France since the Bevolution.

.This law of the compulsory partition of estates, of
course, tends to the splitting up of properties into
very small divisions. But it is partly modified by a
certain option of purchase accorded to the inheritors
in order to prevent the farms being further divided.
This power of purchase goes by the name of Aascedesret.

As it is, however, the land often becomes subdivided
in a most ridiculous manner. For the Norwegians, like
peasant proprietors in all countries, are very jealous of
their rights, and by 110 means very reasonable in assert-
ing them. The extreme variableness in the character ofPartition of Land

339

the soil too, throws difficulties in the way of valuation
and exchange; so that each proprietor is disposed to
cling to his own little patches. A traveller along the
Norwegian roads cannot fail to notice some curious
evidences of this subdivision of the land; for by law
the peasant proprietors are obliged to keep in repair
the roads which their properties adjoin. The result is,
that you may see a constant succession of posts along
the roadside with such inscriptions as ' Thor Andresson,
3 metres,' 'Knut Fogelberg, 10 metres/ ' Praestegaard
(the glebe lands), 100 metres.' Then may come again
Fogelberg with 6 metres more, then a new proprietor
with 50 metres, then Andresson with another 4 or 5
metres, and so on. In former times there existed
restrictions on this continual division of property; but
these restrictions were all abolished before the end of
the last century.

All landed property formerly paid a land-tax, except
that in Finmark, which was excepted, it may be pre-
sumed, on. account of the extreme poverty of the soil.
But in 1836, this impost, which had undergone suc-
cessive reductions, was finally abolished. There still
remain succession-duties, and a certain number of what
we should call rates levied on land.

Although, as was said, the system of what has been
called the village community did not exist in Norway
to the extent that it existed in other European countries,
there has been at different times, and still is, a good
deal of agricultural land held in common. This is, of
course, chiefly the uncultivated pasture-land. In 1870
13*4 per cent, of the landed property of Norway was
common land. Holdings of this type obtain chiefly in34o Norway and the Norwegians

the west, from Lindisnses, in the extreme south, as far
as the Throndhjem Fjord. Over this district the propor-
tion of common properties rose as high as 30 per cent.

Those again of the forests of Norway which were
not crown land were originally common land. And
when the rights in them came to be distributed they
were often settled in a very curious and complicated
way. Over the same area one man might possess the
right of pasturing his cattle beneath the trees; another,
of stripping off the birch bark, which in old days had
so many more uses than it has to-day, being used, for
example, to make leaves to write upon, and sometimes
being used for clothing; then a third might have the
right of felling these birch-trees, but these trees only ;
a fourth might have the right of cutting conifers—the
firs, and pines. The legislature has tried hard to remedy
the inconveniences caused by the stripping up of the
land into fragments, and by the complication of com-
mon rights.

The great land hunger which exists in Norway, and
is quite as strong there as it is in Ireland, will have
been already suggested by the facts which we have
detailed. During the whole of this century the propor-
tion of proprietors to tenants of the land has been con-
stantly on the increase. Thus in 1825 the proprietors
constituted 66 per cent, of the cultivators of the soil, and
in the succeeding five decades they increased succes-
sively to form a proportion of 70, 76, 81, and 85 per cent.

Equally marked has been the absolute increase in
the number of the peasant proprietors. Thus, in the
thirty years between 1840 and 1870, the number of
landed proprietors in the country grew from 109,154Productive Industries	341

to 149,013, or by 36 per cent.; about an average
increase of 1 per cent, per annum. The amount of
reclaimed soil increased between these dates at almost
exactly the same rate.

The chief productive industries of Norway are three—
Fishing, Agriculture (including with that what is the
chief industry in Norway of this kind, cattle-breeding),
and the Felling of trees. I cite them in this order, not
because it represents the scale of their importance, but
because it is the order in which they first strike the
attention of the traveller. Probably one of his first
experiences in Norway will be a visit to the fish-market
at Bergen, where the women in their picturesque dresses
and headgear, looking as if they had come straight out
of some drawing by Holbein, are to be seen bargain-
ing from the quay with men in round, rough caps,
in short jackets, and fishing-boots, who stand in their
boats just below them. Immediately on our landing in
any part of Norway, the rich hill-pastures, the cattle on
the mountain-sides, suggest the second industry of the
country. But in all the neighbourhood of the sea-
coast the trees are weather-worn and stunted. We
have to travel into the interior of the country, into the
upland region, which lies between the two Scandinavian
countries, before we come to the scene of the third great
industry of Norway, tree-felling.

This order, too—Fishing, Agriculture, Wood-cutting
■—which is the order of our acquaintance with them, is
likewise the order in which these industries have
become known to the people of Norway. The thought
of fishing carries us back to those extremely ancient pre-342 Norway and the Norwegians

historic people who, thousands of years before the Chris-
tian era, lived dotted about on the sea-coast of the
Baltic, in Denmark, in Southern Sweden, in a few
places in Norway. These primitive people lived chiefly
on the shell-fish which they found in their neighbour-
hood. But they did venture out sometimes into deep
water, for some bones of deep-sea fish have been dis-
covered among their remains. In later ages fishermen
settled all along the sea-coast of Norway. Long before
there was much cultivation of the interior, there were,
no doubt, colonies of them scattered far up the coast.
These gained their livelihood by fishing in the fjords,
and their frail boats were protected from storms by the
belt of islands outside.

Then came the time of agriculture and of cattle-
breeding, and at the beginning of the historical era
these were so far developed that the two most fertile
parts of the land, the region which lies behind the
Christiania Fjord and the region which lies round the
Throndhjem Fjord, were the most thickly inhabited, and
were politically the most important parts of the country.

It is just at the dawn of the historical period that
we begin to hear of adventurers penetrating into the
forest regions, and clearing out from the midst of them
space for a fresh settlement, which sometimes grows
into a little kingdom. Tree-felling of this kind was for
the sake of clearance merely, and was not in itself a
productive industry. We have to come down to the
sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, before the exploita-
tion of the forests takes its place as a branch of
industry and commerce. Of late it has proved a more
productive industry than the fisheries.Fishing

343

1. Fishing remains an industry of very great import-
ance, without which the coast population from Stavanger
to the far north could not be supported. The fisheries
are chiefly of two kinds of fish, cod and herring. Both
sorts can rarely be carried on in the same district:
where the cod are numerous the herrings soon begin
to disappear. Then the cod, their nourishment failing,
take their departure, and the herrings come back. This
alternation has been very curiously illustrated near the
island of Karmo, by Stavanger. In the far north the
chief food of the cod is the lodde or capelan (malotus
arcticus), an arctic fish of the salmon species. The
codfish (torsJc) fished in Norway are of two sorts, the
fjord-torsk and the hav-torsk, sea-cod or skrei. The
taking of the fjord-cod goes on throughout the fjords,
the taking of the sea-cod is limited to certain places
and to certain seasons, the scenes and times for the
spawning of the fish. The chief locality for this sea-
cod fishery are the Lofoten Islands, and the main-
land opposite. There are to be seen the great fleets of
fishing boats of antique build, which are so like Yiking
fleets of the Saga-age.

There are two methods of preparing the cod for ex-
portation, and according to the way it is prepared it is
called klipfisk (splitfish) or stokfisk (stickfish). The
making into stokfisk is much the oldest method of
preparation. The name comes from the fish being
(after cleaning) hung upon sticks and dried in the
wind. The f splitfish' method, which was introduced
into Norway from this country, is simply that of split-
ting and salting, as is practised with herrings and
haddocks among ourselves. At the time that the fish344 Norway and the Norwegians

is cleaned the liver is sold for the manufacture of cod
liver oil.

The herring fishery («sildfisTc), which comes next in
importance to that of the cod, is not so widely spread
as the former. The herring is scarce]y found in the
Skaggerak, and not in great quantities north of Statt-
land, the promontory which lies between the Nordfjord
and the Voldenfjord. There are three seasons for this
fishery—spring, summer, and winter, of which the last
is the most important; and there are two distinct
varieties of herrings fished on the Norwegian coast: the
ordinary herring and the large herring, called storsild,
which is only found in the extreme north.

The cod and herring fisheries are the ones which are
chiefly made for foreign exportation, and are distin-
guished as the great fisheries of the country. Beside
these there are the fisheries for home consumption, of
which the chief are mackerel and haddock.

The salmon fishery stands somewhat apart now that
it is so much sought by English (and in a less degree
by Americans), who occupy almost all the salmon rivers
of the country. The capital which the pursuit of this
sport incidentally brings into Norway must be very
great. The immediate yield, since the rivers have been
more carefully preserved, has been sensibly diminished.
Till within comparatively recent years there seemed a
danger that the salmon would become extinct in
Norwegian waters, so reckless was the way in which
the fish were netted. And further restrictions are still
required on this practice if the breed is to be kept up.

2. Agriculture was the industry Norway developed
next after fishing; and its earliest developments were, soAgriculture

345

far as we can judge, in the countries of the Christiania
Fjord, and of the Throndhjem Fjord. And it is a
curious fact that, at this very day, it is in these two
districts that the greatest advance in agriculture has
been made; in these that steam winnowing-machines
have almost entirely superseded the old-fashioned flails,
and that steam ploughs and harrows are coming into
common use.

We use here the general term agriculture to include
all means of raising products for consumption from the
soil. But anybody who has travelled in Norway, or
indeed heard any description of the country, does not
require to be told that the chief employment of the
farming population is in tending and breeding cattle
and horses.

The general principles of farming in Norway closely
resemble those in Switzerland. The following are per-
haps the chief points of difference: Like Switzerland,
Norway is essentially a pasture and grazing country. The
extreme moisture of the climate and the constant supply
of water in the northern country makes the preserva-
tion of the water of much less importance there; the
result is that we see much fewer water-meadows in
Norway than in Switzerland. On account, likewise, of
the abundance of rain in Norway, the making of hay
is attended with great difficulties. The result is that
there has been adopted there a system of haymaking
which is peculiar to the Scandinavian countries, and is
the first feature in their agriculture which is likely to
attract the attention of the traveller. He will probably,
indeed, have previously heard how the Norwegians are
accustomed to dry their grass, not by leaving it upon346 Norway and the Norwegians

the ground, but by packing it between the bars of
hurdles, which remain constantly standing in their fields
for this purpose. The pasture in the low-lying meadows
is often extremely abundant, though it is very apt to
be coarse, and is generally full of wild flowers. It is
chiefly in the lower pastures that we find water-meadows,
and in them that we see hay-making going on. In
order that the grass may be allowed to grow for this
purpose, the cattle are transported to higher pastures
among the mountains, where they are kept all the
summer months. This, again, is a custom which has
its parallel in the farming of Switzerland; but nowhere
does it exist to such an extent as in Norway, to the life
of which country it has given one of its most char-
acteristic features.

The mountain pastures of Norway are known by the
name of sceters. It is on account of the long duration
of winter there, and of its heavy snows that these
saeters have such a rich and short-lived vegetation,
of which it is necessary to make full use. To the
sseters the cattle of the lower lands are transported
for the whole period during which they are available.
This involves driving the beasts up steep mountain paths
which it would be impossible for them to frequently
ascend and descend. Wherefore a colony of attendants
on the cattle is formed from the farm in the valley;
and these attendants transport themselves to the saeters
practically for the whole summer. Cottages are built
for their accommodation. We have already spoken of
these one-roomed sseter-houses, which are often not
even provided with a chimney. It is the fact that they
are only designed for summer use, which allows theSetters

347

most primitive type of house building to be retained
here, when it has long since been abandoned in the
plains.

The saeter system is so engrained in the farming of
Norway that it is common for even the smaller proper-
ties to include a portion of mountain pasture as well as
of land in the plain or the valley. The larger farms
have generally their own saeters. But many saeters
consist of a combination of small holdings, whose owners
act almost as if the property was held in common.
Sometimes the portions of land are individually too
small to maintain a single head of cattle; and the owners
combine to maintain a certain number of beasts among
them. The life in these saeters forms probably the most
agreeable episode of Norwegian country life. The men
and women are occupied together in tending and milk-
ing the cattle and in cheese-making, the great industry
of this saeter-life. They carry down their produce into
the valley in enormous baskets, which are strapped upon
their backs, and which none but mountaineers could
carry up and down such paths ; and they return to the
saeter at night with their baskets full of provisions. The
tourist who toils up these steep mountain ways, a
guide, maybe, carrying his knapsack for him, is put to
shame by quite old men, or quite young girls who trip
past him laden with what appear enormous burdens.

Cattle-breeding is by no means carried on to the exclu-
sion of that of sheep, for which the mountain pastures
likewise afford great facilities. Goats are also cultivated,
but not in numbers at all comparable to those in
Switzerland. Horses, too, are bred in considerable num-
bers, for almost the sole means of transport inland is by348 Norway and the Norwegians

road, and they are the only beasts of burden. Asses
and mules are practically unknown in the country ; and
only in a very few districts—some of those bordering on
Sweden—are cattle used for ploughing.

3. Forestry.—The third productive industry of Nor-
way is the felling of trees, chiefly soft-wood trees, fir or
pine. Her exportation of the wood (deal) from these
trees forms the chief commercial link between Nor-
way and Sweden and our own country; so that it is this
wood-felling that we naturally think of as the charac-
teristic industry of Scandinavia. No part of Europe
does more in that way, in proportion to its size, than
this. Our word ' deal' is derived from the Swedish
dcely a piece; deal properly signifying the planks of
wood after the tree-trunk has been cut up, as distin-
guished from the mere trunk itself, and having nothing
to do with the material of which the pieces are made.
But, as a matter of fact, all the planks which come from
Scandinavia to England, being made out of soft-wood
trees, deal has come with us to stand for wood of this
kind.

In early historic days there was no thought of ex-
porting wood from the country; but the houses were
then, as they are to-day, built almost entirely of wood,
and tree-felling was required for this purpose as well as
for the supply of firewood. In the earliest days the
Norsemen had no idea of cutting peat or turf for their
fires. The first Norseman who ever thought of doing
this was Einar, the second Earl of the Orkneys. He
learnt the art no doubt from some of the Celts of the
islands. Since Einar's days the practice of peat-cutting
has been quite naturalised in Norway; and the travellerTree-felling

349

will not have made many drives in the country without
having seen instances of this turf-cutting in progress.
For there are many parts of Norway which are very
scantily supplied with trees. The extreme north of the
country produces no firs; nothing but a little scrub
birch. Then, again (to go farther south), the Lofoten
and the Yesteraalen islands, Bergenhus (farther south
still), and the ' Amt' of Stavanger, have not enough
wood for the construction of their houses, and are
obliged to purchase it from districts farther east.

It is when we get to the lands sloping up towards
the backbone of Scandinavia, and those near the
Swedish border, that we meet with the largest forests
and the finest trees. The total forest area of Norway
is reckoned to be a little more than one-fifth of the
whole area of the country. This forest district includes,
however, large tracts which are marshy and swampy
and bare of trees, or only produce stunted bushes.

Theoretically after the days of Harald Harfagr the
forest rights in Norway belonged to the crown; for
Hakon's restoration to the bonders of their udal pos-
sessions did not affect the unsettled portions of the
country. But the crown rights were very little enforced
for many centuries; and the forests were very^little
protected. They sometimes suffered the most fearfully
destructive fires; and this was especially the case during
the civil wars of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Certain rights, moreover, were preserved to the
people, such as the right to cut wood for building pur-
poses; a right which was obviously liable to a great
deal of abuse, because it was impossible to say in
cutting down a tree what portion of it would prove to350 Norway and the Norewgians

be available for building purposes and what refuse
there would be which must be sold as firewood. Only
since 1884 have serious attempts been made to put
restrictions upon the felling of trees. Even now the
regulations are not, properly speaking, in the hands of
the State.

Common rights in the forest have been revised and
re-arranged, and now these rights have become once
more really the property of the Communes. They are
regulated by a commission composed of representa-
tives both of the proprietors of forest lands themselves
and those who have only forest rights. These last
take precedence of the rights of the proprietors of the
soil. The commission of the Commune (Bygdealmen-
ning) has full powers to regulate the felling of trees,
and to take measures, by planting, etc., to preserve the
forests. At the present moment about eight-ninths of
the forest land of Norway is under the regulation of the
representatives of the Bygdealmenninger. The remain-
ing one-ninth consists chiefly of forests belonging to the
State or to the fund of public instruction (what was for-
merly Church land). The State sets aside the small sum
of £3600 per annum for the purchase of forests.

The, life of the forester while he is at his work of
tree-felling is an extremely hard one, and is not with-
out its spice of adventure. For the time at which
the trees have to be cut down is after all their foliage
has withered and the sap which it contained has re-
turned to the trunk of the tree: then is the wood at
its hardest and in best condition. Thus all the tree-
felling goes on in late autumn and winter. The wood-
cutter goes by himself far into the depths of the forest,Life of the Wood-cutters	351

and lives in a little hut which he himself has made, and
whither he carries a good store of provisions. If he is
reasonably near the inhabited parts of the country he
may make frequent returns to his family and friends;
but this is not always possible, for the distances to
which he removes are often very great. The ground
during all this time is probably covered with a gar-
ment of snow, and has the intense stillness which
belongs to this condition; a stillness, however, which
is from time to time broken by the roaring sound of
the wind, which in pine forests can be heard from an
immense distance. The great distances over which the
woodman may have to travel, if he goes back to the
inhabited country, and the roughness of the ground
over which he passes, are both lessened for him by this
friendly covering of snow. For he does not walk over
it, but skates on his snow-skates or sMs (skier)—instru-
ments very unlike the skates with which we are
acquainted. Their runners are of great length, much
longer even than those of Dutch skates, and likewise
much broader, and they are made of wood. In the
intense cold of these winter nights the woodcutter has
to keep a fire continually burning in his hut to pre-
vent himself from being frozen to death. He does not,
however, keep himself warm by drinking spirits to the
extent that a labourer similarly situated would do in
Great Britain or North Germany. His chief beverage
is coffee. The horses that are used to drag the felled
trees sometimes suffer extremely from the cold; and
probably no other horses but the Norwegian could
endure it. As it is, they are often obliged to be
worked in the night to prevent them from being frozen352 Norway and the Norwegians

to death. It is a curious fact that it is found that hay
and not oats is the diet best suited to give the animals
warmth sufficient to resist the cold.

The horses drag the trunks down some prepared
route which ends at the side of a mountain stream.
By the bank huge piles of 'lumber' are made;
these are visited by the proprietors, and each trunk
marked or branded with the proprietor's mark. Dur-
ing the winter months the piles accumulate (they
are called Tommervcelter or Tommerlunder, ' lumber
piles'); but when the spring comes round and the
snow melts, commences the difficult and dangerous
operation of floating the lumber down the stream.
When, as frequently happens, the tree-trunks get caught
on their way down stream and accumulate in large
masses, the woodmen who superintend their pass-
age have to jump upon them to free, with the boat-
hooks which they carry, the log which bars the passage,
and then jump ashore again before the whole mass is
once more whirled down by the stream. It need not
be said that this work requires great agility, and is
attended by no small danger. On some of the streams
where waterfalls or rapids would absolutely debar the
passage of the wood, canals have to be made to give
it transit.

The life of the woodcutter is thus not only very soli-
tary, but is attended with considerable hardship and
danger. It is, however, a great resource for the Norse-
men during the long winter months when the ground
is covered with snow, and all agricultural occupations
would be impossible. It is an occupation most suited
for unmarried men, and the great majority of the wood-Conveyance	353

men belong to this class. The value of the Norwegian
forests has been estimated at £22,000,000 sterling.
Including those employed in match-making, preparing
the birch-bark for paper, etc., from sixty to seventy
thousand persons are supported by industries connected
with the tree-felling. The annual value of the exportation
of wood from Norway is about two and a quarter millions.

The traveller may be left to himself to discover the
peculiarities of Norwegian life; the appearance of the
houses ; their position and size ; the people, their dress
jand their food; the modes of conveyance by land and
by water; only remembering what we have already said
which touches these subjects, and adding thereto the
following incidental observations which may direct his
attention to some points which he would otherwise have
missed.

His guide-books will have explained to him the
method of inland conveyance by posting. The pre-
sent system of posting dates from the year 1816, at
which time a law was passed creating what are called
the ' fast' stations (properly fixed stations—Faste
Stationer) on certain routes. At these stations (certain
specified farmhouses) the farmer is compelled to keep
horses in constant readiness for use in posting, for
which service he is indemnified at a rate fixed by
the State. The conveyances used in this inland post-
ing are of three kinds, the well-known cariole or kariol,
a two-wheeled conveyance for one person only, the
stolhjcerre, which is only an enlarged cariole fit for hold-
ing two persons, and the vogn, which is a four-wheeled
conveyance resembling a smaller fly or drosky.

z354 Norway and the Norwegians

On the fjords and lakes there exist water stations,
which supply four-oared boats on much the same con-
ditions and terms as the conveyances are supplied
by land. But, owing to the increase in the number of
steamers which ply along the coast, this kind of water-
posting is, comparatively speaking, very little used.

In the appearance of the Norse people themselves,
the traveller who is full of reminiscences from the
Sagas, or has heard much talk of hardy Norsemen,
is liable to be disappointed. The men are generally
thickly and strongly built, but they are certainly
not men of exceptional height. The Swedes are on
the whole, a much finer race; indeed, the Swedes
are said to have the greatest average height of any
European nation. In North Germany, again, the men are
much finer-looking than the Norsemen; and they are
so too, I think, in Yorkshire, and indeed in most of the
northern counties of England (at any rate in the eastern
ones), and in the eastern counties of Scotland. Probably
the finest men of the nation are drained away by emi-
gration. Certainly it has been my own experience that
the only Norsemen of exceptional size that I have met
in the country were returned emigrants.

With regard to two other matters, the national cos-
tume and the food, the casual visitor to Norway is
somewhat liable to be deceived. As is the case in
Switzerland, the national costume is kept up in Nor-
way to a great extent for the benefit of travellers. The
tourist finds the picturesque Hardanger costume very
prevalent among the hotel waitresses throughout the
country, thus extending into regions to which byDress and Diet

355

right it does not belong. Nevertheless, there are many-
specimens of national costume still to be found, and
these are well worth noticing. For the men the
characteristic dress is a short round jacket, buttoned
below the neck only, and made picturesque by two
rows of metal buttons, which, in the case of the richer
peasants, are often of silver. The material is a thick
home-spun cloth. They have waistcoats to match,
ornamented with smaller buttons, and knee-breeches,
generally of home-spun, but sometimes of leather;
coarse woollen socks, and shoes, which occasionally
have buckles. Their head-dress is generally a round
skin cap, of the kind that in our imagination we
generally think of as Russian or Polish. In some parts
a tall cylindrical felt hat is worn, not unlike the hats
which Welsh women used to wear.

The picturesque dress, especially the head-dress, of
the Bergen women should be noticed. The ensemble
reminds one of the women whom Holbein drew. In
Bergen, too, we should notice the number of people
wearing sabots, for this kind of chaussure is rare in
Norway. The full costume of the women of the
Hardanger district is the most beautiful which is worn
in Norway, and is the one usually adopted in fa,ncy-
dress balls, or in festivals wherein the national costume
has to be represented. It consists of a dark skirt of
green or blue; of a bodice of scarlet, edged with ribbon
or with gold lace, over a muslin shirt, with full sleeves,
and much plaited in front. The married women wear
caps of exquisitely white muslin; the unmarried women
go bare-headed. Eound the neck and round the waist
are worn specimens of the beautiful ' old silver' (fre-356 Norway and the Norwegians

quently gilt), if any heirlooms of this are left in the
family; but the high prices which foreigners are willing
to give for this ' gammel solv' is bringing an immense
quantity into the market. All of this, of course, goes
out of the country. The present writer found that in
an interval of seven years the price of the old silver
had gone up enormously.

The casual traveller must not expect that in the
hotels to which he very likely will confine himself he
will find any true representative of the food of the
people, any more than he found one of the national
costume. There he will get salmon and fresh meat in
abundance. But in the interior of the country, in
many parts, at any rate, the people only rarely eat
fresh meat or fresh fish. The meat which they do
consume has been smoked or dried and kept for months
—for a year may be—hung up in their stabur or store-
houses. To our taste it is uneatable. Salt herrings are
very much consumed in the country. But farinaceous
food forms the staple of the national diet. It is usually
eaten not in the form of bread but of porridge, called
in the Norse grod. In the rural districts the bread is
generally of two kinds, black bread made of rye, and
resembling in almost every particular the German rye
bread, and a curious very thin biscuit-bread no thicker
than mill-board, which goes by the name of flat bread
(flatbrod). It is made of barley or oatmeal, often with
a little potato-meal added. Potatoes, though they were
not introduced into Norway till the middle of the last
century, have become a favourite article of food.

In the constitution and the domestic life of the
country, as we have described it, we seem to haveRepttblican Institutions	357

reached the ideal of a republic where there is no great
wealth and no abject poverty, where the abolition of
titles should secure that there shall be as much equality
among men in social life as there is in the eye of the
law. It is interesting, then, and it is instructive to ask
how far the condition of Norway justifies the hopes and
efforts of those who are striving constantly to bring
about a similar condition of things among ourselves.

If we were to take as an answer to this question the
picture which Ibsen presents us of social life in Norway,
we should say that the result was wholly unsatisfactory;
that the only effect of the strivings of Norway after
republican equality had been to produce a people who,
in their private life, were sordid, selfish, by no means
very moral (the proportion of illegitimate births in
Norway is very large), and in their public life were
narrow, self-interested, conventional, hypocritical. But
this estimate of Ibsen's cannot be a fair one. One of
the things which proves that the Norwegians are cap-
able of a wise and far-sighted self-government is the
way in which they have dealt with the liquor traffic,
and have succeeded in cleansing the nation from one of
its greatest vices—excessive intemperance.

The absence of anything like abject poverty is, again,
a remarkable and a most pleasing feature of the social
condition of the country; and a still more remarkable
and more pleasing one is the almost total absence of
serious crime in the rural districts; so that, as we have
already pointed out, there exists in these country
districts no regular police. It must be acknowledged
by any one who has conversed with the better sort of
members of the bonder class, that for education and358 Norway and the Norwegians

intelligence they compare favourably with the small
proprietors of 9ther countries. It is true that they are
not very energetic; and that, though (like the Irish,
with whom we have more than once compared them)
the Norwegian peasant proprietors interest themselves
a good deal in politics, they have no very extended
political views, and they have never been able for many
hundred years—perhaps never in the course of their
history—to form any wide political combinations. But
if Ibsen in Peer Gynt gives a poor and unlovely picture
of the Norwegian peasant, what a picture does Zola
give of the French one in La Terre I

On the other hand, it cannot be said that the aboli-
tion of titles, and the social equality of all citizens in
the eye of the law have had the effect of bringing about
a real feeling of equality, or of obliterating the mean
ambitions which belong to small communities. On the
contrary, there are few places (outside Eussia) in which
the smaller government offices are more sought after for
the sake of the distinction which they confer than they
are in Norway, or where official titles of distinction,
such as chamberlain (Jcammerherre), are more the
objects of petty striving and petty jealousy. This State
of feeling produces the narrow bureaucracy which is
characteristic chiefly of the town communities of
Norway; and it is this which is the subject of endless
animadversion and satire in Ibsen's social dramas.CHAPTER XY

norse literature

The Saga literature, of which we have already spoken
fully, and given so many examples of in the course of
the historical chapters in this volume, is not in the
proper sense a literature of Norway, but of Iceland.
When this Saga literature comes to an end there
follows the true mediaeval period of Norse history,
during which the country was, as we have seen, a prey
to civil war, and when there was no room for literature
to flourish. We saw a sort of last echo of the old Saga
literature in the account of Hakon's expedition to
Scotland, and in the verses which were composed as
a record of it. After this period comes the time of
union between Norway and Denmark. The latter
country was much ahead of Norway in point of culture;
and therefore throughout all. the period of union it
impressed its character on the writings of the Norse-
men of the epoch. All the Norsemen who wished to
educate themselves had to go to the University of
Copenhagen, and to imbibe there the culture of Den-
mark.

It was only after the creation of a native University
at Christiania (1811), and the severance of the connec-
tion with Denmark, which followed almost immediately

359360 Norway and the Norwegians

after (1814), that a genuine Norse literature once more
arose. It is usual to date the beginning of it from
the appearance of the patriotic effusions, pamphlets,
and poems which celebrated the proclamation of a
separate constitution for Norway. The poetry, espe-
cially, which this event called forth, was voluminous
in quantity; but of a quality which left much to be
desired. The date of the proclamation of the Norse
Constitution was the 17th of May 1814. Wherefore
this class of poetry went by the name of 17th of May
poetry (' Syttendemai Poesi'). The authors were called
* Syttendemai7 poets.

This literature attained its zenith in the writings
of a poet of much higher inspiration than the others,
Peter Wergeland by name, the father, as he is
generally reckoned, of modern Norse poetry. Werge-
land's writing is distinguished by the sort of graceful
and facile optimism which is most popular with the
half educated; and the reading class ill Norway was
then—nay, it still is—composed mainly of the half
educated. To compare Wergeland to Longfellow will
perhaps give the English reader the best notion of
what I mean by the facile and graceful, but it must
be also added rather cheap and conventional poetry of
this author. The best known of Wergeland's poems is
' Den Engilske Lods,' ' The English Pilot/ It gives a
series of travel-pictures very largely of English coast
scenery in graceful and agreeable verse.

Welhaven is the writer next in importance after
Wergeland, of whom he was the contemporary, and
to whom he presents in many points an almost
exact antithesis. Welhaven has little sympathy withWergeland and Welhaven	361

the ' sy ttendemai' movement. He is severely cultured
and critical; and he looks back with a certain amount
of regret to the days of the connection with Denmark,
and of a higher culture which existed at the Danish
capital as compared with the somewhat raw enthusiasm
of Christiania. The best of Welhaven's poems are of a
satirical kind, and are contained in a volume entitled
Norges Dcemring (Norway's Dawn—the title is satirical).
He is the intellectual godfather of Henrik Ibsen. Two
other poets of this earlier period are Andreas Munch
and Jorge Moe. This early Norse poetry is filled with
allusions, rather stagey some of them are, to the heroic
days of Norse history and to the heathen beliefs of the
past; of these last the writers show a very inadequate
knowledge. When they are not dealing with these
subjects they write of the pastoral life and picturesque
beauties of the country itself. Many of these writers
of the earlier years of the century are extremely grace-
ful ; but there is not one who can fairly be called power-
ful. Anybody who has acquired the Norse may read
them with pleasure; there is no one of them whom it
is the least necessary for us to read, if we are in search
of the finest fruits of European culture.

It is different with two other Norse writers who are
now living, and of whom we shall have to speak pre-
sently ; I mean Ibsen and Bjornson.

Side by side with this very decided, though not very
deep vein of poetry which the earlier Norse literature
of this century reveals to us, we see growing up in
prose a school of very painstaking historians and anti-
quaries, some of whom rise to a very high place in
their class. The Scandinavians have, during the present362 Norway and the Norwegians

century, been eminent in antiquarian and historical
studies. The names of the Danish antiquaries Nielsen,
Thomson, Worsaae, and others of a past generation,
will be familiar to many readers. They will know
that it was due to the researches of these men that
the records of the past, contained in the buried imple-
ments of prehistoric men, were first brought to light and
made the subject of serious and scientific study. To
them was due the first division of the prehistoric ages
into the now familiar Stone, Bronze, and Iron Periods.
The two Steenstrups, father and son, the two Miillers,
father and son, our countryman George Stephens, are
other distinguished names in Denmark; and in Sweden
the two Hildebrands, Montelius, Pederson, and many
others. Norway has produced Unger, Holmboe, Schive,
Bugge, Bang, and Storm. But the most distinguished
among the antiquarian-historians of the north was
Peder Andreas Munch, the author of Det Norske Folks
Historie, 'The history of the Norse people.' It is a
work of immense research, conceived upon the German
pattern, but wanting in the graces of style which mark
the best English and French histories. A contemporary
Norse historian whose work may be strongly recom-
mended to the Englishman (with a knowledge of Norse)
who is studying the history of the country, is J. E. Sars.1
We now come to speak of the only two writers
who can claim a place in the Walhalla of the higher
European literature, Bjornson and Ibsen. I will speak
of Bjornson first, because, though he is the younger of
the two, it is best to leave Ibsen, as the greatest name
in Norse literature, to be spoken of at the end.

1 Udsight over det Norske Historie (1873, etc.).Bjdrnson

363

Bjdrnstierne Bjornson is a most voluminous writer, and
has written in almost every department of light litera-
ture—lyrics, dramas, novels, comedies—besides political
pamphlets and addresses. He is a man of super-
abundant energy and self-confidence. He is the opti-
mistic spirit of Norse literature, as Ibsen is the pessi-
mistic. Intellectually, these two may be compared and
contrasted as the Schiller and the Goethe of Norway.
Each one is, of course, inferior to his prototype. But
each of them is under a deep debt of gratitude to
German literature; and this they have repaid by
gaining as high appreciation almost in Germany as in
their own country. But it is Bjornson who, in his
plays, has gained most from Schiller, and Ibsen who
has modelled some of his finest work upon the poetry
of Goethe.

In another way Bjornson may be called the Muscular
Christian of Norway. His writings remind one some-
times of the utterances of the Muscular Christian school
in England, especially of those of Charles Kingsley.
He has something of the robust self-confidence and
versatility of the English writer. But as a name in
literature, the Norseman stands much the higher.

Bjornson was the son of a Norse pastor, and was
born (in 1832) in the wild and barren Dovrefjeld. But
a great part of his childhood was passed in the Boms-
dal. And the traveller who has read Bjornson's beauti-
ful descriptions of Norse scenery should especially bear
them in mind when he goes up this lovely valley. In
this country and in America Bjornson will always be
known as essentially the novelist of Norwegian country
life. Probably it is as this that he will go down to364 Norway and the Norwegians

posterity. He seems by his character, his physique
(he is a man of powerful and robust frame), and the
circumstances of his birth, to be the poet not only of
Norse scenery, but of the Norse peasant, and of his
rough and strenuous life seen at its best. Bjornson's
finest work in this kind is to be found in what may be
called the novels of his early and middle period, such
as Synnove Solbakken, Arne (Arne is a poet-peasant,
illegitimate son of a drunken father, a fiddler who has
a touch of genius in him along with ferocity and even
semi-insanity), En glad Gut (The Happy Boy), Fiske-
jenten (The Fisher Maiden). This last is more psycho-
logical, and has a wider scope than the preceding ones.
It is a transition towards the novels of Bjornson's later
manner, of which we have to speak hereafter.

It is to be noted that here again in the peasant tales,
there was a prototype for Bjornson in the German
peasant novel, the Bauerngeschichten of writers such as
Auerbach and Werner.

There are, beside, the numerous plays which Bjornson
has written. One is of great length, a ' trilogy' on Sigurd
Slembe (Slembidjakn, the rival of Harald Gilli), which,
we may assume with confidence, has taken Wallenstein
for its model. Another of Bjornson's historical dramas
is Mallem Drabningerne (Between the Tights), a one-act
tragedy, which is concerned with the picturesque time
of the rivalry between Sverri and Magnus. This wras
one of Bjornson's earliest dramatic efforts. He has also
written Kong Sverri and Sigurd Jorslafar, the last, in
my opinion, the least successful of his dramas, and,
not fearing to associate his name with that of Schiller,
Maria Stuart i Skotland. Halte Hulda (Lame Hulda) isBjdrnson

365

a powerful drama, not strictly speaking historical, Be
Nygifte (The Newly-Married Pair), En Hanske (A
Glove), G-eografi og Kjmrlighed (Love and Geography),
En Fallit, show him in a lighter vein. Some of the
dramas, Halte Hulda, for instance, and some of the
novels, are interspersed with beautiful lyrics. We
have also from Bjornson a volume of Bigte og Sange
(Poems and Lyrics), and Arnljot Gelline, a story in verse.

Of late Bjornson has come much under two influences;
first, that of the Naturalistic school of writers, and
next under that of Ibsen. Under these influences his
writings have become, not in the strict sense books
with a purpose, but what the Germans call Tendenz-
Schriften, books which illustrate certain particular lean-
ings or tendencies in human nature. One of his plays,
Redaktoren (The Editor), is modelled on Ibsen's social
dramas, and his two latest novels Paa Guds Veje (In
God's Way), and Bet flager i By en og paa Eavnen
(Literally flags are flying in the town and harbour),1 are
books of tendency. Bet flager deals with the effects of
heredity, and shows how, by careful training, they may
be eradicated. It deals also, in a modern sense, with
the question of the relation of the sexes, the same
question which has exercised the pens of so many con-
temporary writers of fiction in the east and north of
Europe, as (for one instance) Tolstoi in the Kreutzer
Sonata. It is the same question which reappears in
many of Ibsen's plays, as in 'Love's Comedy,' the
' Doll's House,' and ' The Lady from the Sea.'

1 Paa Guds Veje, the latest of Bjornson's novels, lias been translated
in Heinemann's International Library. A translation of Bet jlager is
promised for the same series.366 Norway and the Norwegians

We now come to the greatest name in Norse litera-
ture, the only one, perhaps, which is of very great
weight and of importance for the literature of Europe
generally; I mean Henrik Ibsen. In this country
Ibsen is only beginning to be generally known. When
a translation of ' The Doll's House' (Et Dukkehjem—
literally ' a Doll's house') was put upon the stage in
London in 1889, this was the first time that the
majority of the public, and even of writers for the
press, had heard Ibsen's name. Even then he was
generally spoken of as an eccentric rather than a great
writer. The acting of Hedda G-abler last year brought
one of his works into pretty general notice; and since
then it is probable that the volumes containing his
prose dramas, translated by Mr. William Archer, have
been a good deal studied.

As long ago, however, as 1873, Mr. Edmund Gosse
contributed to the Fortnightly Review an article on
' Ibsen, the Norwegian Satirist,' which turned the atten-
tion of the more literary to Ibsen; and induced some
persons to learn Norse in order to read him. The
article was written before Ibsen had begun to write
his prose dramas of social life.

In Germany Ibsen is much better known, and much
more highly appreciated than in this country. No
plays by living German authors are played there more
frequently than Ibsen's are. That the Norse poet and
dramatist should find a cordial reception in Germany
is only right; for certainly in many respects his muse
can trace its parentage to the best muse of Germany.

Ibsen is associated in our minds almost exclusively
with his realistic dramas of modern social life. But toIbsen

367

confine our attention to them is to have gained but a
limited notion of this writer's achievement.

We have said that Ibsen shows, in his work, as
marked traces of the influence of Goethe as does
Bjornson of the influence of Schiller. This is especially-
patent in two long dramatic poems of a didactic-
satirical kind, Brand and Peer Gynt. These are, in my
judgment, the finest of Ibsen's works. No fair estimate
can be formed of the powers of the writer of The
Doll's House and the rest of the social dramas, unless
the critic is likewise acquainted with these two poems.
They are written chiefly in octosyllabic verse, with
irregular rhymes, in character varying from passages
of great lyrical beauty to others of a doggerel versi-
fication : this is as much as to say, that their
versification is modelled upon that of the greater
part of Faust. In Brand, Ibsen satirises the formal-
ity and sloth of the average Norse parish prcest, and
draws a picture of one of an ideally high type. Peer
Gynt is a more grotesque satire upon the average Norse
peasant, and may be reckoned a counterblast to the
fulsome praise which the majority of writers, from the
days of the ' syttendemai' poets to those of Bjornson,
have lavished upon him.

Other of Ibsen's works are :—

Cataline [sic], a drama in blank verse. This was
Ibsen's earliest work. It was written, Ibsen
tells us, in the winter of the revolutionary year
1848-9. Its object is to whitewash the man
whom Sallust and Cicero describe as a con-
spirator, but who, according to Ibsen, was a
reformer, with ideas far in advance of those of368 Norway and the Norwegians

his age. There is no great beauty in the versi-
fication of this play.

Fru linger til Osteraad (Lady Inger of Osteraad). A
prose historical drama of the early years of the
sixteenth century. The characters—or at any
rate the names of the characters—and the gene-
ral setting of the play are historical. But there
is little historical in the development of the plot.
It is a work of great power.

Gildet jpaa Solhaug (The Feast of Solhaug). A
mythico-historical drama in verse.

Hcermcendene paa Helgeland (The Heroes of Halo-
galand). This is the finest of the historical or
quasi-historical dramas which belong to Ibsen's
earlier period. It is in prose, and the plot is
chiefly founded on the Yolsunga Legend, with a
touch borrowed (and not well borrowed) from the
Njals Saga, and another, better adapted, from
the Flyting of Loki (Lolcasenna) in the Edda.

Kjcerlighedens Komedie(Love's Comedy). This drama
in verse puts forth views against love-marriages,
resembling those to which Tolstoi has given ex-
pression in the Kreutzer Sonata.

Kongs Emnerne (The Eivals for the Throne). An-
other prose historical drama. The period in which
the action takes place lies in the early years
of Hakon Hakonsson, the grandson of Sverri.

De Unges Forbund (The League of Youth), the fore-
runner of Ibsen's social dramas. These social
dramas turn mainly upon the play of two forces
(tendencies) in social life : the force of public
opinion (especially as this is wielded by theIbsen s Works

369

press), with the consequent dread of scandals and
exposure; and the relations of the sexes; these
last are considered as modified , by what Ibsen
considers conventional rules, and thus by the
other tendency, the force of public opinion.
Hedda Gabler and ' Ghosts' (Genganere) do not
come under these two categories.

Keiser og Galilceer. A long prose drama, of which
the action falls in the reign of the Emperor
Julian. It is, in fact, inspired by the well-
known (if mythical) exclamation— Vicisti Gali-
Icee. It is not a piece of great merit.

Then come the rest of the Social Dramas, namely—
JEt Duhhehjem (The Doll's House). The story, with
which most readers are probably familiar, of
a young wife treated as a child or a puppet by
her husband, who learns to despise him and
decides to live her own life.

En Folhefjende (The Enemy of the People). The
plot of this drama, as of the Pillars of Society,
turns very largely on the narrow self-interest,
and at the same time terror of public opinion
(especially of newspaper opinion) which, accord-
ing to Ibsen, forms a leading characteristic of
Norse town life.

Fruen fra Havet (The Lady from the Sea). This
play is concerned chiefly with the question of
the tie of marriage as against that of love. The
heroine loses her husband, and forms a connec-
tion with her earlier love. The husband (a
sailor) has not died, and appears again upon the
scene. She has to decide between the two men.

2 A37° Norway and the Norwegians

Her husband leaves her to her first love. But
she changes her mind, and goes back to her
husband.

Samfundets Stotter (The Pillars of Society). The
Pillars of Society are persons who, for their own
interests, but professedly for the good of the
community (Samfund), are busy in promoting
certain industrial schemes, shipbuilding, rail-
ways, etc. They live in dread of the local
press, and of any exposure of the misdoings of
their youth; though, in fact, such exposure
need imply no unfitness for their present posi-
tion ; and they are even ready to commit crimes
simply to avoid the scandal. The chief char-
acter is a less criminal Bulstrode.

Vildanden (The Wild Duck). This is the one of
Ibsen's plays perhaps the least suited to the
general reader. It is concerned with the com-
bination of the two forces spoken of above,
sexual relations, and the unequal severity with
which the sins of the two sexes are dealt with.

Rosmersholm. This was written at the time of the
political crisis of 1884 (spoken of in Chapter
xiii.), and it represents the bitterness of poli-
tical feeling at the time.

Genganere (Ghosts). A tragic, and it must be said
repulsive, picture of the inheritance of disease by
the son of a dissipated father.

Hedda Gabler. The typical girl of the period made
tragic through her utter self-absorption.

The first thing which strikes us in reviewing
bsen's work as a whole is—in no offensive sense beIbsen s Early Life

371

it spoken—its essentially bourgeois character. We
have already said how, when literature revived in the
country, men were at first led to go back for inspiration
to the great days of Norse history. Moreover, Europe
generally was in the beginning of the romantic revival.
Thus the early Norse literature is romantic too; and
when it is lyric or pastoral it is full of enthusiasm
for this land of heroes, for the beauty of the Norse
scenery, the constant interchange of hill and valley.
As Ibsen's critic and biographer, Jaeger, says, when
you read these poems you think that Norway is
never to be seen save in the summer; or if a winter
picture do intervene it is a picture only of the
delights of the season, of sledge drives, of the beauty of
the forests under their burden of snow. In a word, the
literature of the revival of letters in Norway is mildly
romantic, and above all it is optimistic. Into the midst
of this circle of writers there stepped the strange figure
of this new poet and satirist. He is scarcely a Norse-
man. At any rate he has a large immixture of Danish
and Scottish blood. His name Ibsen is Danish. Born in
1828 in the small, though ancient, town of Skien (near
Laurvik), and passing his youth in the smaller one of
Grimstad (where, like Keats, he was apprenticed to an
apothecary), Ibsen really knew little of Norway in his
early years, save its narrow bourgeois life. These towns
are on the southern coast of Norway, far away from its
grander scenery. At the age of twenty Ibsen went to
Christiania to go through the University course. At a
later time he lived in Bergen. But though this writer
had in his early years none of the same sort of inspira-
tion which produced the poems of the old skalds of372 Norway and the Norwegians

Norway, he had in his character all the energy and all
the perverseness which marks their works. We might
give him the title which was applied to a bard of Olaf
Tryggvason's court, and call him Vandraeda Skald, the
perverse poet.

Kefusing absolutely to go by hearsay and tradition
or to accept anything on authority, this apothecary's
apprentice with the spirit of the viking, soon set him-
self to. work to destroy all his country's illusions about
the simplicity and beauty of Norwegian society, the
hardiness and worth of the people. He began, it is
true, like his predecessors, with historic and mythic
dramas, such as the Heroes in Helgoland, of which we
have spoken. But he very soon changed from that tone
to one of criticism and satire; and in this tone he has
continued ever since, with scarcely any break, whether
he express himself in verse as in Brand and Peer Gynt,
or in prose as in the social dramas.

Ibsen is generally spoken of as a realist. But we
must use the word, which is employed in so many
different senses, in rather a peculiar one if we apply it
to him. His characters are all natural. But the object
of the writer has not been merely to follow the bent of
his own imagination, and to mirror nature from out of
his own experiences. What has been said of Bjornson's
later work must be said of all Ibsen's social dramas,
that though not precisely works with a purpose, they
are works with a' tendency,' which has been mapped
out for the characters by the author. We hardly see
character moulding destiny as upon the whole it does
in real life; more, at any rate, than it fulfils any
fixed destiny prescribed for it by fate, or heredity, orLie and Kjelland

373

social tendencies. I hardly think that when they are
stripped, as time must strip them, of the rather adventi-
tious aid of their connection with burning questions of
the day, Ibsen's social dramas will hold a very high place
among creative works. But a certain place they will
hold; and they are far above the average dramas of
our age.

Two more recent writers, who have scarcely yet come
to the knowledge of English readers, are Jonas Lie
and Alexander Kjelland. Both are voluminous writers,
who have given to the world novels and dramas. The
best of the novels of the former are those which deal
with the life of the sea, such as Lodsen og hans Husfru
(The Pilot and his Wife), Rutland, En. Mcelstrom,
Trcemasteren Fremtiden (The Ship Future). Kjelland
is a friend, and in a large degree a disciple of Bjornson,
a strong liberal, ready to use his pen for the propaganda
of his social and religious views, but at the same time
deeply impressed by the methods of the French
realists. Two of his best novels are Garman og Worse
(The Firm of Garman and Worse), and Skipper Worse
—the second to some extent a continuation of the first.
Both deal, rather after Bjornson's later manner and
that of Ibsen's social dramas, with the provincial town
life of Norway in its prosy aspects.CHAPTER XYI

the wild flowers of norway

By Eya Tindall

Part I.—Peculiarity of Distribution

The most casual observer will have noticed, whilst
travelling in Norway, the unusually large size and
brilliancy of colouring of even such common wild
flowers as the Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) and
the Pansy {Viola tricolor), besides the frequent occur-
rence of specimens hitherto totally unknown to him.
To one more deeply interested in the study of botany,
the peculiarity of the distribution of the Norwegian
flora will suggest matter for consideration. He will
have observed that the flora of one locality differs
greatly from that of another, and that for no apparent
reason. If he has not confined his excursion to the
coast, but travelled inland, and crossed on foot moun-
tains varying from 3000 to 5000 feet in height, he will
have found one mountain-top covered with greyish
yellow lichens, whilst at a similar height on another
mountain, especially on slaty ground, he will have met
with a profusion of alpine plants, some few inches in

374Wild Flowers

375

height, particularly distinguished by the largeness of
their flowers, and the purity and brilliancy of their
colour. He will have seen masses of the lovely white
blossoms of the Ranunculus glacialis (Glacier Crow-
foot), intermingled with the handsome yellow corolla
of the Ranunculus nivalis (Snow Crowfoot), and the
brilliant pink flowers of the Saxifraga oppositifolia,
and, probably, as on Knudsho in the Dovrefjeld, one or
two specimens to be found here only in the Old
World.

Professor Blytt, the distinguished scientist and pro-
fessor of botany at Christiania University, explains
this seeming incongruity in his interesting pamphlets
—which are published in Christiania, and unfortunately
have no circulation in England—entitled ' On Varia-
tions of Climate in the Course of Time/ and c Essay on
the Immigration of the Norwegian Flora during alter-
nate Rainy and Dry Periods.' The former pamphlet
begins as follows :—'If we examine the meteorological
charts of Norway, we observe at once what a great
influence the sea and the mountains exercise over the
climate in "various parts. Nearly all the climatological
lines run more or less with the shape of the coast, so
that we encounter far greater variations when proceed-
ing from the centre coastwards, than from south to
north. In keeping with this peculiarity are the varia-
tions of the flora.'

He then proceeds to call attention to the following
facts:—

The alpine flora of the slaty tracts in the mountains
of Norway is also found in Arctic regions, and is there-
fore of an Arctic character. As these plants naturally376 Norway and the Norwegians

put forth shoots at a low temperature, they cannot
stand the mild and variable winters of the coast, and
are therefore found in patches separated by long dis-
tances, but always sheltered from the sea-wind, which
patches, from the fact that the sea lies principally to
the south and west, and the ruling winds in Norway
are from those quarters, are found on the east and
north-east of the highest mountains and largest glaciers,
those acting as barriers against the mild climate of the
coast. In such patches the botanist might fancy him-
self transported to Spitsbergen or North Greenland,
and, if he follows the Arctic flora to Spitzbergen, he
will find that there it also shuns the sea.

But besides the mountain plants, there is a lowland
flora which shuns the coast, and which, like the moun-
tain flora, has a scattered extension. It is richest in
the tracts round Christiania, gradually becomes poorer
along the coast westwards, almost entirely disappears
on the coast of the province of Bergen, but reappears
at the bottom of the Sogne, Hardanger, and along
the Throndhjem Fjords, which fjords are separated from
the eastern districts by high mountains. Plants be-
longing to this description of lowland flora grow in the
finer ddbris found in the higher parts of screes, consist-
ing of different kinds of rocks, and facing the south,
screes which so frequently occur under precipitous
mountains. In such places flourish a number of highly-
scented Labiatae, and several Papilionaceae, besides
deciduous trees and shrubs, such as the elm, lime,
maple, wild apple, dog-rose, etc.

Near the open sea the flora becomes poorer in
species, and of a less interesting character. On a mapWild Flowers

377

coloured according to the places where certain groups
are most abundant, we find the same colours occurring
in smaller or larger patches, but those of the same
colour separated by great spaces of a different tint.

The explanation of this problem seems to have been
solved by Edward Forbes. He, as well as many other
modern botanists, maintains that' The climatic varia-
tions of the past are reflected in the fauna and flora of
the present/ and was probably the first to demonstrate
that the Glacial Age has left its distinct mark on the
flora of the present day. During the Glacial Age, the
Arctic species which are now found on mountains in
temperate climates, grew in the plains; but as the
climate became milder, they receded to the far north
and the high mountains, their places in the plains being
taken by new species.

It has been already said how, not long since, geologi-
cally speaking, the whole of Norway and Sweden was
covered with an inland sea of ice, above which only
solitary mountain-tops arose, at which period the
majority of the present flora could not have existed in
Norway. But it is proved by the fact that specimens
of the present flora are found in coal strata older than
the Glacial Period, that the flora itself is older. For
instance, yew, fir, and spruce, hazel, willow, etc., have
been found in old peat-bogs of England and Switzer-
land, which are covered by the bottom moraine of the
inland ice. The present flora must have existed, there-
fore, in other countries which were free from ice during
the Glacial Age, and have immigrated to Norway as
the climate became milder and the ice receded.

But to account for the variety of species existing in378 Norway and the Norwegians

Norway, we must suppose that there were repeated
changes of climate, several thousands of years of a
severer climate, during which the northern and eastern
species immigrated, followed by thousands of years
during which the milder climate favoured the immigra-
tion of the flora from the south and south-west, com-
pelling the older flora, less suited to this change of
temperature, to retreat. In this manner the climate
must have changed several times since the Glacial Age,
and the distribution of plants must have changed in
accordance.

Professor Blytt gives, as proof of alternating dry and
rainy periods in the climate of the Scandinavian
Peninsula, the result of his investigations in Norwegian
bogs—besides referring to those of Professor Steenstrup
in the Danish bogs—in the oldest of which he has, by
boring, found four layers of peat, separated by three
layers of stumps of trees, some standing upright, showing
four wet periods during which the four layers of peat
were formed, separated by three drier periods, when the
growth of the peat was arrested, and the bogs covered
with trees.

When a dry period was succeeded by a moist period,
the continental species, that is, the species which shun
the coast, became rarer, and when a moist was followed
by a dry period, the plants which love moisture became
scarce.

The mode of immigration is still a matter of surmise,
but it is probable that the migration of the greater part
of the present flora, during the gradual change of
climate, has proceeded slowly and step by step across
connected tracts of country.Wild Flowers

379

As the struggle for existence, the struggle between
rival species, has exerted so much influence in the
distribution of the Norwegian flora, the following
extract from Professor Bly tt's ' Essay on the Immigra-
tion of the Norwegian Flora/ pp. 35 and 36, may be
interesting:—

' The struggle between rival species has an essential
influence in deciding the nature of the locality where
any species can grow ; for we frequently see that plants,
when exempted from that disadvantage, are very inde-
pendent of the conditions of such locality. Thus I
have found Parnassia palustris (Common Grass of
Parnassus), which otherwise is a marsh plant, on the
dry shifting sand of Jaederen, thriving excellently in
company with Carex arenaria (Sand Sedge). Iris
pseudacorus (Yellow Flag) is usually a water plant—X
have found it several times on dry sand-shores, once
even in flower. These species could have scarcely been
able to grow on the dry sand, if the covering of the
vegetation on the sand had not been so thinly spread;
that is to say, had there been other species to dispute the
place with them. Several species grow naturally only
where they are moistened with snow water; many
species are naturally bound to a salt soil, many to
marshy places; when cultivated, they are found to
thrive remarkably well under conditions which we
should think would be anything but favourable to
them. Thus, in our botanical garden, Catabrosa
algida is cultivated, and thrives excellently with-
out snow water; it is known that shore plants can
thrive, when cultivated, without requiring salt; species
which naturally only grow in very marshy places, are380 Norway and the Norwegians

cultivated in the botanical garden in dry ground, and
are not more watered than the others, but thrive never-
theless remarkably well; for instance, Veronica Becca-
bung a (Brooklime), Anagallis scutellata (Shielded
Pimpernel), Carex chordorhiza (a sedge), Epipactis
palustris (Marsh Helleborine), Naumburgia thyrsiflora
(Tufted Loosestrife), etc. The explanation of this lies
in the fact that the gardener who removes the weeds
takes on himself the functions of the snow water, salt
and swampiness, the keeping off the competitors for
a place in the soil. When, therefore, the climate
changes, for instance from dry to wet, all the species
which like moisture will be able to extend themselves
at the expense of the others; because many places
which before were dry, will, in the humid climate,
become moist. Even if the climate does not absolutely
prevent any species from growing on a given sub-
stratum, it may yet happen that the climate favours
certain rivals to such an extent as to enable the latter
to appropriate the soil/

Part II.

Localities in which the various groups are found.

From the foregoing it will be seen that there is no
hard and fast rule as to the distribution of plants in
Norway with regard to latitude, or elevation above the
sea-level, but that the greatest variety of the alpine
plants is found in rubbles and shale rocks, which are
best sheltered from the sea-winds, and in places more
or less inaccessible to the other species of flora.

We will. turn our attention first to this mountainWild Flowers

flora, to which the name of the Dryas formation is
applied, from Dryas octopetala (Mountain Avens) (2),1
the most frequent and most conspicuous of the species
which distinguish it. The other three species which
characterise this flora are Salix reticulata (Willow),
Thalictrum alpinum (Alpine Meadow-Eue), and Car ex
rupestris (Eock Sedge). Dryas often forms on the
ground a shining white flower-carpet, variegated with,
may be, the pretty blue of tjie Veronica saxatilis (Blue
Eock Speedwell), the yellow of the Potentilla* nivea
(Snow Potentilla), and the violet of Oxytropis lapponica
(Lapland Oxytropis) (11). Dryas octopetala (Mountain
Avens) (2) grows on the mountains of Norway,
especially above the birch limit, from the most southern
part of the province of Christiansand as far as to the
North^ Cape and Yaranger. In the southern parts of
the country it is occasionally found in the lower regions,
growing, for instance, abundantly on the limestone and
argillaceous slate rocks at Sangesund, 59° north lati-
tude, nearly on a level with the sea; also at Yaraldsen
in the Hardanger, and on the shore cliffs at Frosten in
the Throndhjem Fjord, living side by side in these low-
lying places with a more southern flora, But it is not
until we come to the islands in the sea at Helgeland
(about 66° north latitude) that the Dryas group,
which in Southern Norway is generally limited to the
mountains, descends to the sea.

Beginning in the south, we find on the black shining
shale around Grananuten and Haarteigen, in the

1 The figures refer to corresponding ones in Part ill., where the flowers,
which are numbered, are fully described, some of them for the first time in
English.382 Norway and the Norwegians

Hardanger tractILatabrosa algida and Koenigia Islandica
(Persicaria Tribe) (1), which have here their southern
limit in Europe, and Alsine stricta (a Chickweed) and
Armaria ciliata (Fringed Sandwort), which are not
found farther south in Scandinavia.

Further north in the Urland Mountains in Sogn,
especially at Eavonanaasi, are similar shales, with a rich
alpine flora. Car ex rufina (Pink Sedge) has here its
southern limit in Europe, Potentilla nivea (Snow
Potentilla) its southern limit in Norway, Arenaria
ciliata (Fringed Sandwort) and many other rarer alpine
plants, grow here. On Vasendlifjeld, at Helinstrand, in
Yalders, on the shales, are found a similar vegetation.
Ranunculus nivalis (Snow Crowfoot), Draba nivalis
(Snow Whitlowgrass), and Papaver nudicaule (Iceland
Poppy) (10) have here their southern limits.

In Lom and Yaage are found for the first time Cam-
panula unijlora, Draba alpina (Alpine Whitlowgrass),
Alsine nirta, Sagina nivalis (Snow Pearlwort), Salix
polaris (Polar Willow), Rhododendron lapponicum
(Lapland Ehododendron), Phaca frigida (Frigid Moun-
tain Lentil) (9), Astragalus Oroboedes (a Yetch), Saxi-
fraga hieracifolia (a Saxifrage), several of which have
here their southern limits in Europe. But by. far the
richest district of all Norway in rare alpine flowers is
the Dovrefjeld, where the shales of Gula and Thrond-
hjem occur; besides, most of the species already men-
tioned there grow here: Artemisia Norvegica (Nor-
wegian Wormwood) (8), which is not found elsewhere in
the Old World, Luzula arctica, Saxifraga stellaris (Starry
Saxifrage), variety. comosa (6), Carex misandra, Poa
stricta, Primula stricta, which have their southernWild Flowers

383

limits here, and many others. Some few of the rare
alpine plants are also found, but only in small numbers,
in Beieren, Salangen, Ofsten, Sorreisen, at Sylfjeldene,
Bygdin, and Horungerne.

' If we arrange the localities named according to the
number of the rare alpine plants found in each of them,
the order of the series will be as follows. (By rare is
meant such species as have special localities indicated
for them in the flora):—

Lapmark of Lulea, .	50	Tromso, .	29
Dovre and Foldalen,	46	Maalselven,	28
Lapmark of Tornea,.	45	Ranen, .	. 28
Yaage and Lom,	44	Tonset, .	. 16
Salten,	43	Urland, .	14
Lapmark of Pitea, .	40	Vasendli,	14
Alten,	37	Haarteigen,	8
Here we see clearly how the number of rare			species

decreases towards the south and west; the richest
regions lie farthest from the ocean, or are the best pro-
tected from it/

Our limited space will not allow us to mention all
the species of Arctic flora found far north, but we will
content ourselves with saying that no place is known
which can be compared with the Dovre for richness in
rare plants, nor do we again find a rich mountain flora
before arriving nearly at the Arctic Circle. We would
strongly recommend any interested in the mountain
flora of Norway to make a stay at Kongsvold, which
lies at the foot of Knudsho, a mountain justly cele-
brated for its rich Arctic flora. During the months of
June and July this comfortable ' station' in the Dovre384 Norway and the Norwegians

is visited by Norwegian, Swedish, and German botanists,
of whose kindness in imparting valuable information,
and giving invaluable help, experienced by myself
in the summer of 1890, I cannot speak too highly.
Within the last few years many rare new species
have been discovered there, which are fully described
in Professor Blytt's condensed Norsk Flora, to be
published within the next few years.

We will now turn our attention to the lowland flora,
which has a nearly uniform distribution throughout the
whole country, and is for the most part poor in varieties
of species. This is especially the case with the flora of
the pine and birch forests, which consists principally of
Vaccinium (Bilberry), Galluna (Ling), and Empetrum
(Crow Berry); and in a less degree with the flora of
the luxuriant grass-covered moist slopes, often found in
the belts of willow, birch, and pine flora, consisting of
Girsium heterophyllum (a Thistle), Mulgedium alpinum
(Alpine Sow-thistle), Ranunculus aconitifolius (Aconite-
leaved Crowfoot) (3), etc. The unwooded west coast is
mostly carpeted with monotonous heather.

But there are localities which are exceptions to this
general uniformity. Under steep walls of rock are often
seen dry rubbles of fallen stones, and when these
rubbles are exposed to the sun, we find growing in
them a remarkably rich and diversified flora. A great
many of the more delicate deciduous trees and shrubs
(for instance, lime, elm, hazel, oak, sycamore, apple,
etc.) form in such places small groves and brushwood,
sheltering amongst others the following:—Gonvallaria
polygonatum (Solomon's Seal), Daphne Mezereum (Spurge
Laurel), Dmtaria lulbifera (Bulbiferous Coral-root),Wild Flowers

385

Uchinospermum defiexum (Viper's Bugloss), and E. Lap-
<pulay Orobus vernus (Spring Vetch), and Vicia pisi-
formis (a Vetch). The flora of such rubbles is very
similar in all parts of the country, and is not affected
by the chemical composition of the rock.

The flora of the dry limestone and shale rocks has
the greatest resemblance to that of the hard rock
rubbles, especially in the part of the country west of
the mountains. In the less elevated Silurian regions
east of the mountains the flora has a still more diversi-
fied character, and in the limestone and argillaceous
slate in the lowest regions—as in the Skiens Fjord and
the Christiania Fjord—are the richest flora in Norway.
Besides most of the species found in the rubbles,
sheltered by deciduous trees, are to be found Phleum
phalanoides (a Grass), Libanotis montana (Mountain
Meadow Saxifrage), Fragaria collina (Hill Strawberry),
etc.; and the rare species, Cirsium acaule (a Thistle),
Ononus campestris (Best Harrow), Trifolium montanum
(Mountain Trefoil), Cephalanthera rubra, and several
others.

The sand and detritus on the shores have also a
peculiar flora. In the shore region of northern Norway
are found Car ex arctica, Plantago borealis (Northern
Plantain), Gentiana serrata (a Gentian), Primula Sibirica
(Siberian Primrose), Stellaria numifusa (a Stitchwort),
which are wanting on the mountains. Mountain
plants have also been found on the shores in other
districts/which are not elsewhere found in the low-
lands. Thus Peristylis viridis and Saussurea alpina
grow on the sandy beaches of Jaederen, Sedum villosum
(Hairy Stonecrop) on the shores of Sogn, Gentiana

2 B386 Norway and the Norwegians

tenella (Tender Gentian) in Salten. On the shores are
also found some of the species of the rubble-slope and
of the Silurian formation.

Several uncommon species occur in sandy and
gravelly river-banks, such as Vahlbergella affinis on
the banks of the Alten river; Arabis petraea (Alpine
Kock-cress) on the river-banks in Sogn; and in other
places, Hippophae rhamnoides (Sea Buckthorn), Myri-
caria Germanica (German Myrtle), Salix daphnoides
(Laurel Willow), etc.

We see, therefore, that the physical condition of the
substratum, as well as the climate, exercises great in-
fluence on the distribution of plants in Norway.
Generally speaking, the flora of the western parts
resembles that of the Scottish Highlands, whilst that
of the mountains, besides consisting of the greater
number of alpine flowers to be found in Switzerland, is
rich in Arctic species.

Paut III.

Description of Flowers.

Amongst the numerous interesting and beautiful
flowers found in Norway, it is most difficult to select a
limited number for description. A preference has been
given to those peculiar to Norway, and to alpine flowers
found also in the mountainous parts of Switzerland,
but the number described is necessarily limited. They
are arranged according to the colour of their corollas.
The reason why figures are prefixed is explained in
Part ir.Wild Flowers

387

FLOWERS GREEN.

1.	Kcenigia Islandica, a mountain plant belonging
to the Polygonacese. It is smooth and succulent, and
of stunted growth. The stem is from J to 3 inches high,
either undivided or with straggling stalks. The leaves
lowest on the stem grow opposite each other, those
higher up are alternate, the highest of all almost
entirely surround the flowers; all of them have short
stalks, are inversely egg-shaped, entire and thick. The
flowers are very small and green, and bloom from July
to September.

FLOWERS WHITE.

2.	Dryas octopetala, in Norwegian, Reinblom, i.e. Pure
Flower. A mountain plant also found in Switzerland
and belonging to the Eosacese. It is easily distinguished
by its oval, roundly-toothed, deeply-furrowed leaves,
which spring from the root, and are of a shiny dark
green on the upper side and downy beneath. The
pretty shiny white flowers are usually the size of a
shilling, and have eight petals; The stamens and
pistils are yellow. It flowers in July and August.

3.	jRanunculus aconitifolius, in Norwegian, Hvid
Soleie, i.e. White Eanunculus. The upright stem is from
1 to 4 feet high; it is round, smooth, and branched at the
top. The leaves are shiny and veined, either entirely
smooth or somewhat hairy at the margins. Those from
the root have long stalks, are palmate and divided into
from 5 to 7 segments; those from the stem have short
stalks, and are less deeply divided; those from the
flowers are narrow and entire. There are numerous388 Norway and the Norwegians

flowers which grow singly at the end of smooth or
slightly hairy stems, which are from 2 to 4 inches long.
The oval sepals fall off immediately after the buds have
opened. The petals are white, inversely egg-shaped,
and are about f of an inch long, which is double the
length of the sepals.

4. Ranunculus glacialis, Norwegian, Is Soleie, i.e. Ice
Eanunculus, A mountain plant found at a great height,

5. Saxifraga cotyledon, the most beautiful of all the
saxifrages, for which the Norwegian country people have
many names, amongst others, Mountain Eose (Fjeld-
rose), Mountain Bride (Bergfrue). It grows in clefts of
the rocks, and varies from 6 to 12 inches in height, or

RANUNCULUS GLACIALIS.

often close to ever-
lasting snow, also
met with in Swit-
zerland. The
flowers are either
solitary or in pairs,
and grow on a stem
from 4 to 6 inches
high. The root
leaves are stalked,
and divided into
three lobes, the
stem leaves are
sessile (i.e. without
stalks). The large
white flowers turn
a pale reddish
violet when about
to fade.Wild Flowers

389

even more. It is branched throughout, and bears on
its stiff stems numerous pretty white flowers, which
have five petals, and an equal number of sepals. At
the root it has a rosette of thick, fleshy, serrated
leaves, which are ever-green. It is also found in
Switzerland.

6.	Saxifraga stellaris, Norwegian, Stjernesildre, grow-
ing from 3 to 5 inches high. Its leaves are oblong,
wedge-shaped, toothed towards the ends, and grow
round the base of the stalk. The flower consists of five
rather large white petals, with two small yellow spots
near the base of each. The anthers are orange-coloured.
It is also found in Scotland, Ireland, and but rarely in
the North of England. The variety comosa has most
frequently one flower, and a panicle formed by the
crowding together of small leaves resembling bracts.

7.	Bubus chamcemorus, Norwegian, Moltebser. Its
leaves somewhat resemble those of the blackberry, to
which genus of the rose tribe it belongs, and are 3 to 7
lobed. The large solitary white flowers, which have five
petals, grow at the end of a stem about 8 inches high,
and bear the stamens and pistils on separate plants.
The fruit is first red, but turns yellow when ripe. Every
traveller in Norway must have tasted this fruit stewed
and served with sugar and cream.

FLOWERS YELLOW.

8.	Artemisia norvegica, belonging to the Composite,
has an upright, usually undivided stem from 2 inches to
1 foot high, which is furrowed and woolly, more
especially towards the top. The divisions of the finely390 Norway and the Norwegians

divided leaves are narrow, of even breadth, and slightly
pointed; they are hairy, especially underneath, and
green on both sides. The lower leaves are stalked, the
upper ones embrace the stem. The flower-heads are
very large, and few in number, there being seldom more
than six on one plant. They are drooping, and grow
singly on woolly stems which spring from the axils of
the upper leaves, and are 1 to 4 inches long. The in-
volucre is hemispherical; its scales are oval or oblong,
green at the back, hairy, especially at the base, and have
a broad dark-brown border. The receptacle is smooth.
The corolla is yellow and hairy; the root thick and
strong. It flowers in August and September.

9.	Phaca frigida, a mountain plant, belonging to the
Leguminosse or Pea and Bean Tribe. The smooth stem is
upright, from 6 to 12 inches high, the lower part pro-
vided with egg-shaped broad scales. The leaves grow
in pairs of 4 to 5, with large egg-shaped stipules, and
oblong blunt leaflets, which are rather hairy, and of a
bluish green underneath. The stalk on which the
numerous flowers grow is about the length of the leaf-
stalk. The yellow drooping flowers grow on much
shorter dark-haired stalks. The standard (upper petal)
is a little longer than the keels (lower petals) and
wings (side petals). The drooping pod is covered with
dark hairs; it is oblong and narrower at each end.
It flowers in July.

10.	Papaver nudicaule. All the leaves are collected
together at the root, are covered with stiff hairs, are
stalked, and are unevenly divided into egg-shaped divi-
sions which point forward. There are one or more
upright stems, which are covered with stiff hairs, areWild Flowers

391

from 2 to 8 inches long, and bear one flower each. The
sepals are oval, and thickly covered with stiff dark-
brown hair. The petals are yellow, inversely egg-
shaped, \ to f inches long, nearly twice as long as the
sepals. The seed-vessels are oval, about J inch long,
and thickly covered with brown stiff hairs. The seeds
are crescent-shaped, blunt at both ends, and striped
lengthwise. It flowers in July.

FLOWERS BLUE.

11.	Oxytropis lapponica, a mountain plant, belonging
to the Leguminosse. The leaves are unequally pinnate,
growing in from 8 to 12 pairs, leaflets narrow and pointed,
with white hairs on both sides. The root is strong and
tough, and sends out numerous spreading upright
hairy stems from 1 to 2 inches long. The stalk on which
the raceme of flowers grows is very long. The flowers
are nearly sessile (without stalks), and of a dark-blue
colour. It flowers in July and August.

Of the eight species of gentians found in Norway three
are selected for description here, one of which will be
found amongst the flowers with red corollas.

12.	Gentiana nivalis has a square, upright stem from
1 to 6 inches high, usually branched from the base. The
stalks are also upright, and of about the same length as
the stem. The root-leaves grow in a rosette, and are
oval and blunt, the stem-leaves opposite each other, and
are entire and egg-shaped. The flowers grow singly at
the end of the stem and stalks. The calyx is divided
to about the middle, into five narrow pointed sepals.
The corolla is from J to f inches long, with five entire
petals which stand out horizontally. The corolla,392 Norway and the Norwegians

especially in the inside, is a pretty bright blue. It
flowers from June to August.

13.	Gentiana tenella much resembles the last in
form of growth, but the calyx is divided almost to its
base into 4 to 5 sepals, which are shorter than the throat
of the corolla. The corolla is pale blue and \ inch long,
and consists of 4 to 5 petals. The white variety is rare.
It flowers in July and August.

14.	Aconitum septentrionale, belonging to the Eanun-
culaceae. The upright hollow stem is from 4 to 6 feet
high, and covered with soft hairs. The leaves are
palmate with 5 to 7divisions, and covered with soft hairs.
The divisions are narrower and entire at the base, but
divided at the upper end. The lower leaves are very
large and stalked, the upper ones are less deeply
divided and without stalks, the highest of all are narrow.
The numerous 5-cleft flowers are covered with soft
hairs, and grow in a terminal raceme on upright stalks
(which are also covered with soft hairs) of about the
length of the flowers. The follicle (seed-vessel) is
smooth. The flowers are dark blue in colour, rarely
white, and somewhat resemble those of the larkspur.
It flowers in July and August.

FLOWERS RED.

15. Gentiana purpurea. The whole plant is smooth.
The root is strong and thick, and of a very bitter taste.
The round upright stem is undivided, leafy, and from
1 to 1 \ feet high. The pointed, entire leaves are from 5
to 6 inches long and If inches broad,and have five curvedWild Flowers

393

veins. Those from the root are stalked; those from the
stem are entirely or nearly without stalks, and grow
opposite each other; those
from the flowers are egg-
shaped. The flowers grow
without stalks from the
upper leaf-axils, and in a
terminal 3 to 6 flowered
cyme, surrounded by egg-
shaped leaves. The corolla
is large (1| inches long),

salver-shaped (same shape
as the primrose), rather
yellow in the inside, dark
red on the outside, with
5 to 6 blunt entire petals.

It flowers in August, and
is only found on the
mountains in the south-
west of Norway.

FLOWERS PINK.

16. Linncea borealis,

belonging to the Caprifo-
liaceae or Woodbine Tribe.

A. pretty little plant with	gentiana purpurea

thin, trailing, reddish, hairy, and leafy stems, which are
1 to 3 feet long, and upright stalks 2 to 4 inches long,
which are leafy in the lower part, and usually bear two
drooping flowers. The evergreen leaves have short
stalks, are nearly round or oval, are roundly toothea,
and hairy on the upper side and at the edges. The394 Norway and the Norwegians

flowers grow on short hairy stalks, which are of about
the same length as the flower, and at the base of which
are two tiny narrow leaves. Sometimes each stalk bears
three to four flowers. At the base of each flower are

LINN^EA BOREALIS.

four hairy leaves, which apparently form an outer
calyx, and enclose the seed. The bell-shaped corolla is
white, but the pink stripes on the inside give it a
decidedly pale pink appearance. It smells like almonds,
and flowers from June to August. It is found in fir
woods in all parts of Norway.GENEALOGICAL TABLES.

KINGS OF NORWAY.

HARALD HARFAGR

ERIK BLODOX
m. Gunhild.

HARALD GRAFELD

(?)
Olaf

I ,

Tryggvi

d)

Bjorn

Gudrod

HAKON THE GOOD

OLAF TRYGGVAS. Harald GraznsM=Aasta,=Sigurd Syr

ST. OLAF HARALD HARDRADI
MAGNUS THE GOOD '

MAGNUS

OLAF KYRRI

HAKON

MAGNUS BERFCETT

EYSTEIN

SIGURD
JORSALAF.

OLA

I

(?)

HARALD

GILLI

(?)

Sigurd
SlemMdjakn

Christina = Erling Skakki

MAGNUS SIGURD
BLIND	I

STGI

EYSTEIN MAGNUS

MAGNUS
ERLINGSSON

ERIK

I

Margaret
(Maid of Norway)

(?)
SVERRI
I

HAKON

HAKON (IV.)

MAGNUS
LAGABJETR

_I_

HAKON HERDIBREID

HAKON (V.)

Ingeborg == Erik, heir of Sweden

MAGNUS SMEK
King of Sweden and Norway

EARLS OF LADI.
HAKON

Sigurd
Hakon the Bad

I

I.

Griotgard

Erik
I

Hakon

SveinINDEX.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.

Aalesund, 178.

Agder, 147, 149.

Akers Stream, 252.

Aldeigjuborg (Ladoga), 241.
America, 87.

Bergen, 59, 152, 161, 187, 263,

278, 284, 285, 309.

Bergenhus, 21, 349.

Bkeking, 147.

Bohuslan, 37, 61, 316.

Borgar Thing, 298.

Borgund, 267.

Brattalid, 85.

Bremanger Island, 187.

Brestad {Sweden), 38.
Brunkebjerge, 310.

Caithness, 70, 84, 217.

Calmar, 303.

Canal, Norwegian, 17.

Cape Stad, 18.

Cattegat, 144.

Christiania, 37, 252, 266, 335,
359.

Christianiafjord, 18, 20, 275.
Clontarf, 138.

Copenhagen, 318.

396

Dalecarlia, 226.

Dovrefjeld, 11, 19, 29, 208.

East Agder, 21.

Eidsvold, 144, 298.

Faroes, 83, 84, 142, 186, 291.
Finmark, 20, 339.

Fjarlefjord, 26.

Fjord districts, the, 230.
Folgefond, 10, 25, 26.
Frsedarberg, 159.

Frsedo, 159.

Frederikshald, 316.

Frederikstad, 316.

Gardariki, 169 sqq., 304. See
also Greater Suithiod, Russian
Sweden.

Glaciers, Norwegian, 25.
Glommen River, 144.

Gokstad, 62.

Gota River, 212, 242, 274, 316.
Greenland, 21.

Greater Scandinavia, 88.

Greater Suithiod, 86, 169 sqq.,
241.Index

39 7

Greater Sweden, 246.
Gredungsbrae, 11.

Greenland, 85, 87.

Gronaas, 3.

Gudbrandsdal, 20, 21, 147, 208.

Hadaland, 208.

Hafirsfjord, 149, 240.

Halland, 147.

Halogaland, 20, 144, 186, 217,
230.

Hansa towns, 306.

Hardanger, 149.

Hardangerfjord, 12, 13, 26, 53.

Hardanger Vidde, 19.

Hauge, 152.

Hebrides, 69, 84, 292.

Hedemark, 21, 208.

Helge-Aar, 222.

Hellesylt, 3, 178.

Hitterdal, 267.

Hitterdalselv, 267.

Hladir. See Ladi.

Holmgaard (Novgorod), 86, 171,

240, 246.

Holmensgraa, 273.

Hordaland, 21, 147, 230.

Horedo, 275.

Horland. See Hordaland.
Hornelen, 187.

Iceland, 83 sqq., 122 sqq., 134,
186, 211, 218, 290.

tLEDERENS REF, 149.

Jemtland, 226, 282.

Jomsborg, 87, 195, 243.
Jorundfjord, 178.

Jostedalsbrse, 10, 11, 25, 26, 58.
Jotunfjeld, 11, 19.

Jotunheim, 29.

KarmG, 158.

Karmo Island, 152.

Kaupstad, 192, 262.

Keel, the, 19, 29, 144, 278.

Kiel, 318.

Kjendalsbrse, 11.

Kjolen, 19.

Kongsberg, 53, 267.

Konsghalle, 274.

Koppang, 29.

Ladehammer, 192.

Ladi, 147, 153, 165, 185, 194, 205,

208, 239, 254, 270.

Ladoga, 81. See also Aldeigju-

borg.

Lserdal, 176, 267.

Largs, 294.

Laurvik, 210.

Leire, Kingdom of, 147.
Lindisnses, 340.

Lofoten Islands, 8, 186, 349.
Liibeck, 307 sq.

Lund, 317.

Lyrskog Heath, 244.

Lysterfjord, 26.

miera, 184-5.

Mjosen, Lake, 144, 208, 283.
Molde, 187.

Moldefjord, 159.

More, 148, 157, 205.

Nessjar, 210.

Mdar, 192.

Nidaros (Throndhjem), 187,192-3,

262, 263, 278, 282-3.
Nigardsbrse, 11.

Nordfjord, 187.

Nordlandsamt, 20.

Norwegian Canal, 17.39§

Index

Novgorod, 81. See also Holm-
gaard.

Odde, 53.

Odensjo, 97.

Odinshog, 97.

Opslo or Oslo, 252, 262, 266, 275,
278, 288.

Ore, 145.

Orkneys, 69, 70, 84, 103, 138,
142,146, 165, 186, 211, 217, 268,
291, 294.

Osterdal, 21.

Rennebo (in Orkedal), 45.
Ringariki, 21.

Rogaland, 149, 183, 230.
Romariki, 21, 147, 208.

Romsdal, 20, 21, 46, 58, 158, 205.
Roraas, 29.

Riigen, 195.

Russia, 225, 228.

Russian Sweden, 169 sqq.
Rydiokul, 277.

Saltenfjord, 186.

Sarpsborg, 144, 266, 316.
Satersdal, 144.

Seim, 152.

Shetlands, 69, 70, 83, 103, 146,

165, 186.

Sjovik, Lake, 222.

Skagerrak, 18, 144.

Skane, 147.

Skjaergaard, 8, 12.

Skone, 35.

Sleswick, 244.

Smaland, 147.

Sogn, 21, 238.

Sogndalsfjord, 26.

Sognefjord, 13, 18, 26, 176, 267,
285.

Sondre-More, 21.

South More, 178.

Stad, Cape, 18.

Stamford Bridge, 250.

Stangebro, 313.

Stavanger, 149, 152,161, 266, 268,
349.

Stavangeramt, 183.

Stavanger fjord, 8.

Stiklestad, 229 sqq., 245.
Stockholm, 311.

Stordo, 161.

Sudreyar, the, 69, 292.

Suithiod, 147.

Suithiod, Greater, 86, 169 sqq.,
241.

Sulen Islands, 249.

Svold, 196, 209, 260.

Tanum {Sweden), 38.
Thelemarken, 53, 144, 282.
Thoten, 208.

Tonsberg, 337. See also Tuna.
Troldfjord, 59.

Troldkirketind, 58.

Troldstol, 58.

Troldvand, 58.

Trollabrug, 59.

Trollhattan {Sweden), 38.
Trolltinder, 58.

Tromsoamt, 20.

Trondhjem, 20, 59, 144, 145 sqq.,
158, 165, 180, 230, 254, 262, 263,
266, 268, 278, 282, 288.
Throndhjemfjord, 185, 340.
Throndhjemsamt, 20.

Tun, 62.

Tuna, or Tiinsberg, 145, 152.Index

399

Uplands, the, 21, 144, 217.
Upsala, 97.

valders, 208.

Vendland, 193.

Verdal, 226, 228.

Vesteraalen Islands, 349.

Viken, 145,148, 165,177, 211,223.

"Village community, 50.
Vingelmark, 21.

Vingulmark, 147.

Vinland, 86.

Westfold, 21, 144, 147, 148.
Wisby, 306.

HISTORICAL INDEX.

Aasta, 206, 226, 245.

Adrian iv., Pope, 276.

Agantyr, 111.

Agriculture, 341, 344 sqq.
Afarfasti, 233.

Albert of Mecklenburg, 302.
Alexander n., K. of Scotland, 293.
Alexander hi., ,, ,, 294.
Alfifa, 240.

Alfred the Great, 72, 80, 89.
Allogia, 169.

Alphabet, runic, 34.

Amter, 325.

Ankerstrom, 317.

Arnliot Gellini, 233.

Asgaard, 105.

Astrid, 167, 170, 184, 187.

Atila, 117.

Aud the Wise, 84, 129, 139.

Baglerne, The, 288-9.
Balder, 101, 116.

Bergthora, 133.

Bernadotte, 318.

Birkibeinar, the, 279 sqq..
Bjorn the Marshall, 213, 235.

Bjorn (son of Harald), 152.

Black Death, the, 309.

Blood-bath of Stockholm, 311.
Borgar Thing, The, 144, 298, 316.
Borgemester, 326.

Bragi, 105.

Breakspeare, Nicolas. See Adrian

iv., Pope.

Bui, Leader of Joms Yikings, 178.
Burislaf, 193.

Calmar, Union of, 303, 309.

Carl Cnutson, 310.

Garlus (ship), 260.

Charles ix., 313.

Charles xi., K. of Sweden, 317.

Charles xn., ,, „ 99, 314,

316-17.

Charlemagne, 67.

Christian n., K. of Denmark, 311.
Christian iv., ,, ,, 314.
Christian v., ,, „ 317.
Christina, 275.

Church, the, 301, 312.

Cnut Svendsson, K. of Denmark
and England, 172, 206 sqq.,
229 sqq.,'238.400

Index

Common Land, 340.

Communes (Bygdealmenninger),
350.

Constitution of Norway, 320.
Conveyance, 353.

Costume, 354.

Crane (ship), 195 sq., 200.

Dag Hringsson, 232, 234, 236.
Der Straler Sund, 196.

Diet, 356.

Digri, 211. See Olaf, St.

Edmund, St., of England, 238.
Education, 330 sqq.

Edward the Confessor, 254.
Edwine, E. of Northumbria, 250.
Egil, 159.

Egil Skalagrimsson, 187.

Eidvold Thing, 298.

Einar, E. of the Orkneys, 348.
Einar Tambarskelfir, 201, 209,

219 sq., 240, 270.

Eormanrik, 117.

Erik Blodox, 119, 152 sqq.

Erik, Duke of Sondermanland,
302.

Erik, K. of Hardanger, 149.

Erik, Earl of Ladi, 260.

Erik Hakonsson, 177 sqq., 194

sqq., 206 sq.

Erik, K. of Sweden, 173.

Erik of Pomerania, 303.

Erik the Priest-hater, 301.

Erik the Red, 85.

Erik's Sons. See Gunhild's Sons.
Erling Skakki, 275.

Erling Skjalgsson, 184, 209, 219

sq., 224, 270.

Erling, son of Thorfinn, 250.
Etzel, 117.

Eystein, Archbp. of Trondhjem,
276, 288.

Eystein Haraldsson, K. of Nor-
way, 273-4.

Eystein Meyla, 279, 282.

Eyvind, 162.

Fenrir, 114.

Finn Arnason, 225 sq., 229 sqq.,
270.

Fishing, 341 sqq.

Forestry. See Wood-cutting.
Formandskab, 326.

Frederick iv. of Denmark, 317.
Frederick vi., K. of Denmark,
318.

Frey, 98 sq., 115, 148.

Freyja, 106.

Frigg, 106.

Frosta Thing, The, 144.

Gamle Eriksson, 160.

Garm, 115.

Gauka Thorir, 233.

Gissur Gulbraa, 234.

Gissur the Black, 213.

Gissur the White, 187.

Glacial Age, 4 sq.

Glum, 132.

Godfred {Dane), 67.

Godwin, 254.

Gola Thing, The, 144.

Gorm the Old, 157.

Gregorius Dagsson, 274-5.

Grettir, 129.

Grim, 134 sqq.

Griotgaard, 165.

Groa, 109.

Gudbrand, Hersir, 147.

Gudleif, 186.

Gunhild, 120, 153 sqq.Index

401

Gunhild's Sons, 157 sqq.

Gunnar, 133.

Gunnar of Litharendi, 122.
Gustavus Adolphus, 99, 313.
Gustavus Vasa, 311.

Guthorm (Dane), 181.

Guthrum (Dane), 72.

Gyda, Sister of Earl Ulf, 254.
Gyda, Sister of Olaf Quaran, 175.
Gyda, Wife of Harald, 148.

Hjereder,, 325.

Hakoti iv., 141, 289 sqq., 359.

Hakon v., 302.

Hakon, E. of Ladi,166s#g.,176sqq.
Hakon Eriksson, 208, 224, 239.
Hakon the Good, 22, 120, 156 sqq.
Hakon Herdibreid, 274-5, 280.
Hakon Sverrason, 289.

Halfdan the Black, 147 sq., 154.
Halfred Vandrsedaskald, 121, 189.
Hallgerda, 132 sqq.

Hansa, The, 263, 305.

Harald Bluetooth (Blaetand), K. of
Denmark, 157, 167, 176, 182 sq.
H&raldFairhair, 85,119, 129, 147,
280.

Harald Gilli, 271, 276, 280.

Harald Godwinsson, K. of Eng-
land, 249 sqq., 250, 254.

Harald (Gold), 167 sq.

Harald Orcenslce, 206.

Harald Graf eld. See Harald Grey-
skin.

Harald Grey skin, 165 sq.

Harald Hardradi, 226, 245 sqq.,

262, 266, 315.

Harald Harfagr. See Harald Fair-
hair.

Harald Sigurdsson. See Harald
Hardradi.

2

Hardacnut, K. of Denmark and

England, 239, 242.

Harek of Thiottd, 230 sqq.
Hasting, 247.

Hattar, 317.

Hauskuld, 132.

Heimdal, 106, 115.

Hel, 101.

Helgi, 134 sqq.

Hermodhr, 106.

Hersar, 143.

Hervor, 111.

Hjalti Skaggjason, 187, 213 sqq.
Holdernesscetter, 300.
House-building, 41 sqq.

Hrolf. See Rolf.

Hrut, 132.

ffusmcend, 337.

idun, 106.

Ingegerd, Swedish Princess, 214,

246.

Ingiborg, 302.

Ingi Haraldsson, 273.

Internal Administration of Nor-
way, 325 sqq.

Iron Beard (ship), 200.

Ivan the Terrible, 315.

Jacob. See Onund.

Jarisleif (Yaroslav), 170, 173, 246,
315.

Joms Vikings, The, 87, 142, 174,

177 sqq., 206.

Jormungandr, 115.

Jotnar, 95.

Jotunheim, 108.

Jotuns. See Jotnar.

Kalf Ar^ason, 224 sq., 228, 238,
240.

n402

Index

Kalf, relative of Kalf Arnason,

235.

Kark, 180.

Ketil Flatnose, 84.

Kiotvi the Rich, 149.

Kjartan Olafsson,' 187 sqq.
Klserkon, 170, 171.

Kolbjorn, 203-4.

LagabvEtir. See Magnus the Law

Reformer.

Lagamadhr, The, 214, 298.
Lag-man. See Lagamadhr.

Land tenure, 300, 337.

Law, 298.

Lendermen, The, 287, 300.
Lensmand, 327.

Lewis, The Debonair, 75.

Loki, 102, 106, 114.

■Long Serpent (ship), 192, 195 sqq.,

259.

Lund, 317.

Magnus Bareleg, 269, 271, 273.
Magnus Erlingsson, 275, 277.
Magnus Haraldssonx 273.

Magnus, St., 268.

Magnus SmeJc, 302 sq.

Magnus the Good, 240 sqq., 248.
Magnus, the Law Reformer, 295,
297.

Malcolm Ccenmore, 249.

Margaret, Maid of Norway, 302.
Margaret, the Great Queen, 302.
Menglod, 109 sq.

Midsummer Fires, 55.

Morality, 329.

Morcar, 250.

Nanna, 106.

Napoleon, 318.

Nattmossor, 317.

Nelson, Lord, 318.

Nicholas Arnason, Bishop, 288.

Niordhr, 106.

Njal, 129, 133, 186.

Odalsret, 337.

Odin, 97 sqq., 102 sqq., 112 sqq.,
153.

(Eger, 106.

Olaf (Haraldsson), 210 sq.

Olaf, K. of Sweden, 194.

Olaf Kyrri, 264.

Olaf Quaran, 175, 181.

Olaf, relative of Kalf Arnason, 235.

Olaf, St., 22, 120, 172, 184, 206
sqq., 211, 240, 243, 260, 262,
266, 280.

Olaf SJcattkonung, K. of Sweden,
209, 212 sqq., 173.

Olaf, son of Magnus, 302.

Olaf the White, 84, 139.

Olaf Tryggvason, 22, 71, 120, 141,
167, 169 sqq., 180, 209, 217, 260,
262, 280, 291.

Onund, K. of Sweden, 216, 221
sqq.

Ore Thing, The, 145.

Ottar the Black, 213.

Palnatoki, 87.

Parliament. See Storthing.

Paul, E. of Orkney, 250, peat-
cutting, 348.

Peter the Great, 315.

Raadmand, 326.

Ragnarok, the Doom of the Gods,
114 sqq.

Ragnhild, 148.

Rani, the Far-travelled, 206.Index

403

Reformation, The, 312.

Religion, 328 sqq.
ReprcesentantsJcab, 325.
Rock-carvings in Bohuslan, 37.
Rognvald Brusason, E. of Orkney,

218, 245 sq., 315.

Rognvald, E. of W. Gothland, 212,

214 sqq.

Rolf or Rollo, 81.

Runic Alphabet, 34.

Russia, rise of, 314.

SMETERS, 346.

Schools, 331 sqq.

Schools, High, 335.

Ships, Prehistoric, 39.

Ships, Viking, 39, 61 sqq., 258.
/Short Serpent (ship), 192, 195 sqq.,
200.

Siegfred. See Sigurd.

Sigismund, K. of Sweden, 313.
Sigmund, 134, 136 sq.

Sigrid the Haughty, 192.

Sigrod. See Sigurd.

Sigurd, 110, 117. '

Sigurd, Earl, 165.

Sigurd Haraldsson, 273-4.

Sigurd Arund, 280.

Sigurd Slembidjakn, 272, 281.
Sigurd, son of Bui, 179.

Sigurd Syr, 206, 208, 226, 245,
257.

Sigurd the Crusader (Jorsalfari),

141, 253, 269, 271-2.

Sigvald, chief of the Joms Vikings,

174, 177 sqq., 194.

Skarphedinn, 134 sqq.

Skiolld, 136 sq.

Skirnir, 106, 110.

Skuli, Earl, 141, 289.

Sten Sture the Elder, 310.

Sten Sture the Younger, 310.
Storthing, The, 321.

Stralsund, 196.

Stratsraad, The, 320.

Suiones, The, 35 sq.

Sulki, 149.

Sumerleda, 292.

Surt, 115.

Svein, Earl of Ladi, 208, 209.
SvendEstridsson, 240,242sg#. ,248.
Svend, son of Cnut, K. of Den-
mark, 240.

Svend, K. of Denmark, 172, 174,

192 sqq., 239.

Svente Sture, 310.

Sverdrup, 323.

Sverri, 280 sqq.

Svipdag, 109 sq.

Svold, 196, 262.

Syssel-men, The, 287.

Thangbrand, Saxon priest, 186

sq., 291.

Theodoric, 117.

Thing, The, 143.

Thirty Years' War, 313.

Thokk, 102.

Thor, 96 sqq.

Thorarin, 132.

Thorberg Arnason, 237.

Thorfinn, E. of Orkney, 218, 245.
Thorfinn Munn, 234.

Thorgeir of Kviststad, 232, 234.
Thorgils, 170.

Thorgisl, Viking leader, 70, 79.
Thorgnyr, a Lawman, 214.

Thorir Hund, 230 sqq. '

Thorkil Leire, 179.

Thorolf, 170, 171.

Thorstein Knarrarsmed, 230, 235.
Thorstein the Bed, 84.4°4

Index

Thursar, 58, 95.

Thyri, 193.

Tostig Godwinsson, 249 sqq.
Trolle, Primate of Sweden, 312.
Tryggvi, a Pretender, 240.
Tryggvi Olafsson, 165, 167.
Tyr, 98, 101, 115.

Udal Tenure, 337.

Ulf, E. (Dane), 242.

Ulf the Red, 199.

Ulf (Tellander), 85.

Union of Calmar, 303.

University of Norway, 335, 359.

Valdemar or Yladomir, 169 sqq.
Valholl (Walhalla), 105, 114, 119.
Valkyriur, The, 104 sq.

Vegtam, 112.

Vends, 243.

Vierendehler Strom, 196.

Viking Age, The, 305.

Viking ships, 39, 61 sqq., 258.
Vikings, The, 60 sqq., 97, 146,
304-5.

Waldemar Atterdag, 302, 307 sq.
Walhalla. See Valholl.

William of Normandy, 249, 252.
Woden. See Odin.

Wood-cutting, 341, 348 sqq.

Ynglings, The, 100, 148.

Yngvi, 100.

Zoe, Empress, 247.

LITERARY INDEX.1

Ari Frodi, 139.

Arne, 364.

Arnljot Gellini, 365.

Bang, 362.

Beowulf, 9 sq.

Bjornson, Bjornstierne, 324, 361,

sqq.

Brand, 140.

Brand, 367, 372.

Bugge, 362.

Cataline, 367.

jDen Engilske Lods, 360.

De Nygifte, 365.

Descent of Odin, The, 112.
Det flager i Byen og paa Havnen,
365.

Det Norske Folks Historie, 362.

1 The names in italics are those

De Vnges Forbund, 368.

Digte og Sange, 365.

Edda, 90 sqq.

Edda, Prose, 101, 141, 205.

Egils Saga, 129.

Eiriksdrapa (quoted), 119.
Encomiae or Laudatory Ballads,
118.

Et Diikkehjem, 366, 369.
En Fallit, 365.

En Folkefend, 369.

En Glad Gut, 364.

En Hanske, 365.

En Mcelstrom, 373.

Eyrbryggia Saga, 129.

Erik Oddsson, 140.

Fcereyinga Saga, 142.

of works referred to in the text.Index

405

Fiskejenten, 364.

Fjolsvissmdl, 109.

Fruen fra Havet, 369.

Prw Inger til Osteraad, 311, 368.

Garman og Worse, 373.

Genganere, 370.

Geografi og Kjcerlighed, 365.
Gildet paa Solhungf 368.

Gfo/a tfagra Sursonnar, 128.

Grettis Saga, 129.

Grougaldr, 109.

Gull-horis Saga, 127.

Gunnlang the Monk, 141.
Gunnlaugs Saga Ormstungu, 128.
Gylfaginning, 93, 141.

Hamsa-horis Saga, 127.
Hcprmcendene jpaa Helgeland, 368,
372.

Hulda, 364-5.

Hatdar Saga, or Hdlmsvega Saga,

127.

Hdttataly 142.

Hedda Gabler, 366, 370.
Heimskringla Saga, 141.

Hervarar Saga oh Heidreks, 111.
Holmboe, 362.

Tliorsteins Saga Sidu Halls Sonar,

128.

Hrafnkels Saga Freysgoda, 128.

Ibsen, Henrik, 289, 311, 324, 329,

357, 361-2, 365, 371
Islendinga~b6k, 140.

Islendinga Saga, 142.

Jarla-Sogur, 138, 245. See Or&-

neyinga Saga.

Jomsvikinga Saga, 142.

Karl Jonsson, 140.

Keiser og Galitceer, 369.
Kjcerlighedens Komedie, 368.
Kjelland, Alexander, 373.
Kolskegg Asbjornsson, 140.
Kongs Emnerne, 289, 368.
Kong Sverri, 364.
Konunga-b6k, 140.

Kormaks Saga, 127.

Landnama-b6k, 140.

Laxdcela Saga, 129.

Lie, Jonas, 373.

Lodsen og hans Husfru, 373.

Mallem Drabningerne, 364.
Maria Stuart i Skotland, 364.
Moe, Jorge, 361.

Munch, Andreas, 361.

Munch, Peter Andreas, 362.

Nibelu^gen, 117.

Nj-ala, 122, 129, 135 sgg.
JVJafe £a#a, 186.

Norges Dcemring, 361.

Odd the Monk, 141.
Olafs-Saga (the Longer), 170.
Orkneyinga Saga, 142, 245.

Paa GMs Fe/e, 365.

Peer 367, 372.

Peter Wergeland, 360.

Redaktoren, 365.

Rosmershobn, 324, 370.
Rutland, 373.

S^emund Frodi, 140.

Sagas, The, 122
Samfundets Slotter, 370.406

Index

I Thorgils Saga, 142.

j Troem aster en Fremtiden, 373.

Udsight over det Nor she Historie,
j 362.

! Unger, 362.

j

Vapnfirdhinga Saga, 128.
Vatnsdcela Saga, 128.
Vegtamshvidha (quoted), 112.

Vigu Olums Saga, 128.

Vildanden, 370.

Volsung Cycle of Poems, 110.
Voluspdy 113 sqq.

Welhaven, 360 sq.

BOTANICAL INDEX.

Aconitum septentrionale, 392.

Alsine nirta, 382.

Alsine stricta, 382.

Anagallis scutellata, 380.

Arabis petraea, 386.

Arenaria cAliata, 382.

Artemisia norvegica, 382, 389.

Astragalus Oroboedes, 382.

Campanula rotundifolia, 374.

Campanula uniflora, 382.

Calluna) 384.

Carex arctica, 385.

Car ex arenaria, 379.

Carex misandra, 382.

Carex rupestris, 381.

Carex rupina, 392.

Catabrosa algida, 379.

Cephalanthera rubra, 385.

Carex chordorhiza, 380.

Sars, J. E., 290, 362.
Schive, 362.

Sigurd Jorsalfari, 364.
Sigurd Slembe, 364.
Skalds, 119.
SkaldsJcaparmdl, 142.
Shipper Worse, 373.
Shirnisfor, 110.
Shjoldunga Saga, 142.
Snorri, 101, 274.

Snorri Sturluson, 94, 141.
Storm, 362.

Sturla Thordsson, 142.
Sturlunga Sogur, 142.
Svarfdcela Saga, 128, 131.
Synnove Solbahhen, 364.
' Syttendemai Poesi,' 360.

Cirsium acaule, 385.

Cirsium heterophyllum, 384.
Convallaria polygonatum, 384.

Daphne Mezereum, 384.
Dentaria bulbifera, 384.

Drdba alpina, 382.

Draba nivalis, 382.

Dryas octopetala, 381, 387.

Echinospermum deflexum, 385.
i7. Lappula, 385.

Empetrum, 384.

Epipactis palustris, 380.

Fragaria collina, 385.

Oentiana nivalis, 391.
Gentiana purpurea, 392.
Gentiana serrata, 385.
Gentiana tenella, 386, 392.Index

407

Hippophae rhamnoides, 386.

Iris pseudacorus, 379.

Koenigia Islandica, 382, 387.

Latabrosa algida, 382.
Libanotis montana, 385.
Linncea borecdis, 393.

Luzula arctica, 382.

Mulgedium alpinum, 384.
Myricaria Germanica, 386.

Naumburgia thyrsiflora, 380.

Ononus campestris, 385.
Orobus vernus, 385.

Oxytropis lapponica, 381, 391.

Papaver nudicaule, 382, 390.
Parnassia pahistrisy 379.
Peristylis viridis, 385.

Phaca frigida, 382, 390.
Phleum phalanoides, 385.
Plantago borealis, 385.
Poa stricta, 382.

Potentilla nivea, 381-2.
Primula Sibirica, 385.
Primula stricta, 382.

Ranunculus aconitifolius, 384,
387.

Ranunculus gracialis, 375, 388.
Ranunculus nivalusf 375, 382.
Rhododendron lapponicum, 382.
Rubus chamcemorus, 389.

Sagina nivalis, 382.

/Satar daphnoides, 386.

Salix polaris, 382.

reticulata, 381.

Saussurea alpina, 385.

Saxifraga cotyledon, 388.
Saxifraga hieracifolia, 382.
Saxifraga oppositi/olia, 375.
Saxifraga stellaris, 382, 389.
Sedum villosum, 385.

Stellaria numi/usa, 385.

Thalictrum alpinum, 381.
Trifolium montanum, 385.

Vaccinium, 384.

Vahlbergella affinis, 386.

Feromca Beccabunga, 380.
Veronica saxatilis, 381.

Vicia pisiformis, 385.

Fio/a tricolor, 374.SCANDINAVIAN
SETTLEMENTS

NORTHERN EUROPE

D a JUNG THE

XVfcXI? CENTURIES

Er\glish Milt*.

=b~at;tt

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