OF
SCANDINAVIA.
INTRODUCTION.
UNCERTAINTY ATTENDING THE EARLY HISTORY OF ALL NATIONS.—MONSTROUS HYPOTHESES RESPECTING THAT OF NORTHERN EUROPE.—FABULOUS, OR AT LEAST DOUBTFUL, KINGS OF SWEDEN, NORWAY, AND DENMARK.—DISTINCTION OF RACES IN THE NORTH.—THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS, THE SWIONES, GOTTONES, DANKIONES, WERE PROBABLY THE SWEDES, GOTHS, AND DANES.—THE JUTES AND LAPPS AND FINNS DIFFERENT FROM THE NEW COMERS.—INFORMATION COLLECTED BY ALFRED RELATIVE TO THE NORTH.—NUMEROUS CHIEFS WITH THE REGAL TITLE.—KINGS OF DENMARK: DAN—HUMBLE—LOTHER—SKIOLD—GRAM, ETC.—WONDERFUL ADVENTURE OF HADDING AND OF THE GIANTESS HARDGRIPE.—FRODE I.—ODIN.—HIS ORIGIN ACCORDING TO SAXO.—ACCORDING TO THE YNGLINGA SAGA.—HIS SUPERNATURAL POWERS.—REASONS ASSIGNED FOR HIS EXISTENCE.—HODER AND BALDER.—THE FATAL SISTERS.—DEATH AND FUNERAL OF BALDER.—JOURNEY TO THE SHADES BELOW IN QUEST OF HIS SOUL.—HERMOD’S JOURNEY.—ODIN’S.—PROPHECY.—RINDA AND ODIN.—CHARACTER OF ODIN.—RURIC.—HAMLET PRINCE OF JUTLAND.—HIS REAL OR FABULOUS ADVENTURES.—FENGO.—DANISH KINGS AFTER RURIC.
Inquiries into the origin of nations have never been productive of much good. Over that of all, with the single exception of the Jews—an exception which we owe to inspiration—a cloud hangs, that no learning, no criticism can penetrate. It is easy to be speculative—it is easy to be ingenious—it is easy to make a considerable parade of learning by citing the opinions of various writers, and by attempting to show how little dependence is to be placed on any one of them; but, though the vanity of an author may be thus gratified, his labour must be useless. If he has not authority or legitimate inference for what he advances, he is worse than uselessly, he is perniciously employed: he is wasting his own time and that of his readers, and he is involving the subject, which he ought to elucidate, in greater confusion than it was before. Thus every age and every writer adds to the mass of fable, or at least of uncertainty, until the truth is for ever hidden beneath it.
These observations especially apply to northern history. Yet, dark and uncertain as this subject is, and monstrous as are the hypotheses which native ingenuity has framed respecting it, curiosity will be gratified with a mere glimpse at them. Thus, in regard to the Swedes, we shall find their origin wrapt in an obscurity deep as that which covers the cradle of most other people. Many are the fables which grave historians, listening only to tradition, or wresting to a certain purpose the words of some obscure writer, or confounding the actions of many people, or misled by a fancied analogy and similarity of names, have perpetuated on this subject. That sage authority, the archbishop of Upsal, has no doubt that Noah was king of the whole earth; that he settled in Scythia, which was inhabited a century before Italy; that his son Japhet, to whom Europe fell, spread his colonies still farther to the west; that Magog, the son of Japhet, was the first chief that colonised Sweden and Finland; that from Sweno, the son of Magog, sprung the Swedes, and from Gothar or Gog, another son, the Goths; that Thor, German, and Ubbo, brothers of Sweno, and his great vassals, were successful propagators of mankind; that Ubbo, who succeeded his brother Gothar, founded the city of Upsal, the most ancient metropolis of the north; that Siggo, successor of Ubbo, and the fifth king of the Goths, called Sigtuna into existence; that Eric, grandson of Gothar, and the sixth king of the Goths, began to reign about four hundred years after the universal deluge, and conferred great splendour on those northern regions; that, after his death, idolatry began in the north, the magnificent temple of Upsal being erected in honour of Thor, Odin, Frigga, and other divinities; that the Swiones or Swedes, and the Gothi or Goths, as being sprung from different roots, were frequently under different sceptres, though both regarding themselves as kindred, and for many generations living in harmony with each other; that, after the introduction of idolatry, this peaceful disposition began to be impaired, and in the course of a few reigns it wholly disappeared; that the Finns, Jutes, Gothones, Swiones, and other neighbouring people, became at length so numerous and so powerful, as to pillage the coasts of Sweden; that, to oppose them, no less than to procure the necessaries of life, which long-continued intestine wars had rendered very scarce, a large army was raised and a powerful fleet equipped, in about nine hundred years after the deluge; that the expedition, which extended along the southern no less than the northern shores of the Baltic, from Holstein to the confines of Lithuania, gave rise to a new kingdom; that at this period the empire of the Goths, comprising so many people beyond the bounds of Scandinavia, was one of the most powerful in the world, notwithstanding the fact that the conquered provinces on the European continent were subject to their own king (to him who had led the expedition from Sweden, and to his successors), while Sweden obeyed another king who had been left at home with the necessary authority; that the new empire, the seat of which was in Poland or Hungary, sent off its conquering swarms into Asia and Egypt; that, the regions of the Goths being too extensive for the government of one man, they at length elected rulers independent of one another, and thus broke this vast empire into numerous fragments; that the origin of the Hungarian dynasty, which was purely Gothic, added to the weakness of the race; that, while these events were passing in Europe and Asia, the Swedish monarchy subsisted, though weakened by the emigration of its chief warriors; that this diminution, alike of population and strength, emboldened the Danes, who had hitherto been tributary to the more northern kingdom, to assume the offensive, but being themselves assailed by the Saxons, and unable to resist that martial people, they eagerly submitted to the Swedes, and chose Dan, a Swedish prince, the son of Humel, or Humble, the sixteenth native king of the Goths, to rule over them; that this prince gave his name to the Danish kingdom, while his brother Angul, the first king of the English, left his name to that people; that Dan was succeeded by Lother his son, and Lother by Skiold,—while, in Sweden, Humble was followed by Gothilas and Sigtrug; that Gro, the daughter of Sigtrug, became the wife of Gram, son of Skiold, king of Denmark, but contrary to the wishes alike of her father Sigtrug and of the Swedes; that her abduction by Gram led to a war between the Danes and the Swedes, in which the latter were vanquished; that Scarin, the successor of Sigtrug, was slain in battle by Gram; that, on his death, Swibdager, king of Norway, was elected king of the Goths and the Swedes, who detested their conqueror and the whole Danish nation,—a detestation which was heartily returned; that, in revenge for the rape of Gro, a daughter of Gram was carried away into Norway; that Gram, arming to revenge the injury, was defeated and slain by Swibdager, who, however, had the generosity to place Guthrum, son of Gram, over the Danes; that they remained subject to the Swedes and Goths until Hadding rose against Asmund, the twenty-first king of the latter, and delivered his country from subjection. For these more recent events, for all subsequent to Skiold, the good archbishop has scarcely any other authority than Saxo, the Danish historian, whose facts, however, he does not scruple to alter whenever the honour of his country is concerned.[[1]]
So much for fable,—at least in regard to the greater portion of this rapid condensation of the archbishop’s history. If we had not already had enough of this ingenious trifling, the Atlantica of Olaus Rudbeck would supply us with enough to fill many such volumes as the present. This writer far outdoes the prelate, whom he exceeds alike in imagination and knowledge of tradition. To him the reader who may be fond of the marvellous, who may delight in traditionary lore, and who may wish to see on how slight a foundation the most gigantic theories can be erected, may have recourse.[[2]]
In claims to a remote origin Norway is by no means behind the former kingdom. According to Torfœus, one of the most learned, and, considering that he lived in recent times, least critical of mankind, the population of the whole country has been derived from four distinct sources. 1. Of these the giants were the most ancient. These, this historiographer contends to have been really what they are called, viz., much superior in bulk to the rest of mankind; and not that evil spirits, by magical rites, were permitted to effect such appearances. Though he rejects, as pure romance, the stories of many giants alleged to have been seen in comparatively modern times, he is sure that such a race did once inhabit the north; and he is inclined to derive them from Shem, the son of Noah. That they once lived, that their bones are still to be found in several regions of the world, that they may now live in Patagonia or some other country, cannot, he thinks, be disputed. We read of giants in Scripture; who, therefore, can doubt of their existence? As we have already intimated, he represents, as old women’s fables, all the stories, however rife in his time, of giants being produced by the prince of evil spirits; nor will he allow that they are the offspring of men and huge beasts. If they did not spring from either of these causes, they must, necessarily, have derived their origin from one of Noah’s sons. Nor can we be surprised at their appearance in the north of Europe, seeing that we have so many proofs of their existence in Canaan, Egypt, Greece, Spain, Britain, and, indeed, all the world over. Their arrival in the north, however, was no voluntary act; being expelled from Canaan in the time of Joshua, they were glad to seek other settlements; and while some spread themselves throughout northern Africa, northern and central Europe, and, perhaps, found their way to America, others directed their steps towards Sweden and Norway: yet, before the arrival of these exiles, others of the same race might, for ages, have been in that peninsula. 2. After the giants, and, indeed, immediately after them, came the Goths; but the period cannot be fixed. Joannes Magnus and Rudbeck contend that it was immediately after the flood; but Torfœus dares not ascend to so high an antiquity, and he is satisfied with deriving the Goths from the Trojans, and with referring their arrival in the north to the age in which Troy was taken. 3. After the Goths came the Asae, or Scythians, whom he holds to be the third distinct race of men that helped to people the north. These were the followers of Odin, whose empire, at once spiritual and temporal, attested his policy and their prowess. 4. Yet it may be doubted whether these were the sole, or even the original, colonisers of Norway. The people of this as of every other country must have their indigenous families, or families, at least, who were here long before any strangers arrived. Thus, a certain man, Forniot by name, had three sons: Hler, ruler of the winds; Logi, lord of fire; Karl, sovereign of the sea. Snaer was the grandsire of this last-named monarch, and a celebrated prince he was. He had one son, Thor, and three daughters, Faunna, Drifa, and Miollis. Thor was more powerful than the father, since he reigned over the whole of the northern part of the Scandinavian peninsula, including Finland; and divine honours were paid to him by at least one great tribe of his subjects. Thor had three children, Nor and Gor, who were males, and Goe, a daughter. This princess being stolen away, her two brothers went in pursuit of her. Nor went westward, subduing and killing many native kings, among whom were Hemming and Hunding: in short, he conquered the whole of Norway, to which he gave his name. The ravisher of Goe was Rolf, or Rollo, the son of a great prince, who submitted to Thor, and whose sister, Hodda, had the honour to become that monarch’s bride. While he was performing these feats, his brother Gor was subduing all the islands of the Baltic and of the Icy Ocean, which constituted his dominion. The sons of Nor divided the vast region among themselves; hence the many separate principalities which were so long the bane of Norway.[[3]]
No reader will be at a loss to perceive that this fourth race of men is a mythologic creation. These rulers of the elements, fire, water, wind,—Snaer, or snow; Jokul, or frost; Faunn, or frozen snow; Snifa, or sleet,—with many others, sufficiently attest this curious fact. Whether the Norwegians invented these elemental gods first, and called their mortal heroes after them; or whether they elevated those heroes after death to the dignity of local gods, we shall not attempt to discuss. The probability is, that in this country, the march of the human mind was the same as in other countries, viz., that men celebrated for their great qualities were believed to have originally sprung from a divine source, and after this life to return to that source; to be invested in another state with a superiority akin to that which they enjoyed in this. As to a northern inhabitant, the sea and the winds were the most important elements, so the deities that they obeyed were the most powerful, the most dreaded, the most worshipped. Every page of the earliest Norwegian history (or fable, if the reader pleases) bears evidence to this inference, that long prior to the arrival of the Goths in that region there was a religion quite distinct from that which followed it; one of truly primitive character, which admitted of no refinement, which dealt with sensible objects, which appealed to the fears and hopes of mankind. The honour in which Thor, the father of Nor, and the common ancestor of all the Norwegian princes, was held, sufficiently accounts for his superiority over Odin himself, in the religious creed of that people. The Danes and Swedes held the former, the Norwegians the latter, to be the supreme god,—supreme, at least, as far as the government of this world is concerned. Hence there must, at some period subsequent to Odin’s arrival, have been an amalgamation of the two religions. If the successors of Odin in Denmark and Sweden forced the Norwegians to acknowledge him as a divinity, and to place his statue with that of Thor, it is manifest that they only paid him a secondary veneration; Thor sitting in state, surrounded by all the attributes of majesty, while the warrior god—the foreign Asiatic god—was made to stand beside him. On this subject, however, more in the proper place.[[4]]