17. Hogmor and Hogrin.
[2]. See the work, part i.
[3]. Torfœus Historia Norvegiæ, tom. i. p. 111–150.
[4]. Wheaton, History of the Northmen. Mallet, Histoire de Dannemarc, tom. i.
[5]. Vetustissima Regum Septentrionis Series Langfedgatal dicta. According to this “Series,” the list of Danish kings prior to Odin is as follows:—Noah, Japhet, Zechim, Ciprus, Celius, Saturn of Crete, Jupiter, Darius, Erichthon, Troes, Ilus, Laomedon, Priam of Troy, Memnon (the son-in-law of Priam), Tror or Thor, Lorith, Einrith, Vingethar, Vingener, Moda, Magus, Seskef, Bedoig, Athra, Iterman, Heremotr, Scealdna, Beaf, Eat, Godulf, Finn, Frealaf—Odin.
Here is a precious list, and we should vainly inquire where it was originally procured. One thing, however, is remarkable,—that of the immediate predecessors of Odin, most are the same as those contained in the Saxon Chronicle, in the genealogy of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Let us now transcribe that of Saxo Grammaticus, who flourished in the twelfth century, and is content with making Dan the ancestor of the Danes, about a thousand years before Christ.
Dan I., Humble, Lother, Skiold, Gram, Swibdager, Guthrum, Hadding, Frode I., Haldan, Roe and Helgo, Rolf or Rollo, Hoder, Ruric, Wiglet, Guitlach, Wermund, Olaf I., Dan II., Hugleth, Frode II., Dan III., Fridleif, Frode III. According to Saxo it was in the reign of Hadding that Odin first appeared in the north. In this case, the reader may say Odin must have flourished long before the period usually assigned, viz., A.C. 70. But most of these princes, doubtless, reigned after the birth of Christ, notwithstanding the positive assertion of Saxo (who is supported by some other chroniclers), that the Redeemer of mankind assumed our nature in the reign of Frode III. Sweyn Aggo is more rational than his contemporary Saxo; he rejects all the sovereigns prior to Odin, and commences his list with Skiold, a son of that deified hero. Undoubtedly Denmark, like the other states, had its kings before that period; but they were mere reguli, perpetually at war with each other in struggling for the ascendancy; and small reliance is to be placed on their alleged actions, or even their names. Saxo, in taking as authorities the popular songs of his country, followed the worst of all guides.
[6]. The list of Norwegian sovereigns prior to Odin is, according to the Landfedgatal, the same as for Denmark. These sovereigns, however, in neither case reigned in the north; they were regarded as Asiatic: it was Odin who first left the country of his ancestors, and established his empire in Scandinavia. In this view there is no inconsistency between that record and Saxo, who does not enumerate the Asiatic monarchs, and who confines himself to the native princes that held the country for ages before Odin was known. These, we have strong reason to infer, were not Gothic, but Finnish, or Jutish, or Lapponic, or whatever else was the denomination of the people who originally possessed the north. Sweyn Aggesen, therefore, by rejecting them, evidently confines himself to the foreign or Gothic dynasty—the dynasty of the conquerors.
[7]. Langebek, Scriptores, tom. i., passim.
[8]. Pinkerton, Dissertation on the Goths. Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. i.