|861 to 862.|

About the fact which we have just related there is no difference of opinion among historians; but there is much between native and foreign writers, as to the circumstances which led to the establishment of the Varangian dynasty in Russia. According to one of the former, four of the great tribes, with the city of Novogrod, being struck with admiration at the wisdom, the justice, no less than the valour of the Northmen, and rendered miserable by their continual dissensions, sent an embassy over the sea for princes that might govern and protect them! “The interests of order and of domestic tranquillity,” says the historian already quoted[[12]], “induced them to lay down their national pride: the Slavi, says a tradition, influenced by the advice of an aged inhabitant of Novogrod, demanded sovereigns from the Varangians. Our ancient annals do not mention this sage; but if the tradition be true, his name is worthy of immortality, and of a glorious rank in our fasti.” It seems that the Novogrodians and the Krivitches were allies of the Finnish tribes on the borders of the Finland Gulf, and like them tributaries of the Varangians. Subject for some years to the same laws, they could easily draw closer the bonds of the alliance which had formerly united them. Thus, according to Nestor, they sent an embassy beyond the sea to the Varangians, saying, “Our country is extensive and fertile, but we are the prey of anarchy: come then to govern, to rule over us!” “Three brothers, Ruric, Sineas, and Truvor, illustrious alike for birth and valour, consented to assume the reins of government over a people who did not know how to use the liberty which their own right hands had won. Accompanied by a large body of Scandinavians, and prepared to defend by force of arms their own sovereign rights, these ambitious brothers for ever abandoned their own country. Ruric established himself at Novogrod; Sineas at Bielo-Ozero, amongst the Vessians, or Finnish people; and Truvor at Isborsk, a town of the Krivichians.” The internal improbability of this relation, in connection with the total absence of authority for it, must ensure its rejection by every critic.

The foreign historians of Russia, though relying on Russian authority, have given the only rational history of this event. They assure us that, after the three brothers had assisted Novogrod to humble her enemies, they were in no hurry to leave the country. Near the confluence of the Volkhof with the waters of the Ladoga Ruric built a town, which gave its name to that lake; and having fortified it, determined to make it a point of departure for his meditated conquests. His intention was but too evident to the people of Novogrod, who began to adopt measures for their defence. The Varangians were no less eager to profit by their superiority in arms; and to secure their great object, they combined their forces, and marched on the city. A mercantile people are seldom warlike. The inhabitants loudly expressed their determination to bury themselves amidst their houses rather than yield; but when the formidable enemy appeared before their gates, they preferred the part of submission, and from that moment received him as sovereign within their walls. Thus was a republican exchanged for a monarchical government, despotism for anarchy. Yet Ruric acted with much caution, and caused the weight of his power to sit as lightly as possible on the people he had subdued. He established a council of the chief inhabitants, whom he consulted for some time in every act of importance; and though he conferred most of the responsible offices on his own followers, his sway, at once moderate and firm, was an advantage to the people. His title of grand prince illustrates his wide ambition. His two brothers were princes; so were some others whom he placed over the local governments; but they were only his vassals, and their fiefs were reversible to him as their sovereign. Soon after his elevation, indeed, both the brothers died; and Ruric incorporated their states with his own. Both he and they must have been conquerors; for in a few years his authority extended from the northern extremity of the Ladoga lake to the western Dwina, and eastward to the confines of Yaroslaf.

But before the death of Ruric the Norman domination extended even to Kief. Two of his followers, Ascald and Dir, having apparently some reason for dissatisfaction, left Novogrod with the intention of doing what many other Scandinavians had done,—of offering their swords to the Greek emperor. On their way they perceived a little town, built on an eminence overlooking the Dnieper; and on inquiring to whom it belonged, they were told that it had been founded by three brothers long before dead, and that it was inhabited by a quiet inoffensive people, who paid tribute to the Khozars. The chieftains had a military eye: they saw at once the importance of such a position; that it might become the centre of a sovereignty, great perhaps as that of Novogrod; and with the armed force which they were leading they surprised the place. In a few years they were joined by great numbers of their countrymen, both from that city and from Scandinavia. This was the period, indeed, when Harald Harfagre was consolidating his empire by the reduction of the Norwegian chiefs, and securing tranquillity by the banishment of the more licentious pirates. Thousands and tens of thousands must, at this period, have left Norway in quest of new habitations. Hence Kief soon became very populous, and so confident of its strength that it sent its piratical sons to the very gates of Constantinople. Money induced them to retreat. The domination of the Khozars over Kief was at an end. The introduction of Christianity into that city did not much assuage the ferocity of the Normans: many adopted the mass without forsaking their warrior god.

|882.|

The establishment of two empires in Russia was soon found to be impolitic. After the death of Ruric, and during the minority of his son Igor, Oleg, to whom he had confided the administration, resolved to incorporate Kief with the northern principality. In his way, the regent took Smolensko and Lubetch; but on reaching the banks of the Dnieper beneath that city, he saw that it was too strong to be taken by force, and he had recourse to stratagem. By a pretended embassy, he lured the two princes into his power, and put them to death. The other conquests of Oleg, and his successful efforts to consolidate no less than to extend the infant empire, must be sought in the histories of that empire. Sufficient for our purpose is the fact, that these enterprising men established in Russia a sovereignty which still subsists. The family of Ruric held the throne of that empire above seven centuries; down to the accession of the present Romanoff dynasty.[[13]]

10. Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, &c.—During the Pagan age, the Northmen were on the coasts of all these countries, which they ravaged with success. Their visit to Italy, however, was but transient. Hastings, their leader, did no more than surprise a town at the mouth of the Tiber, and returned to Gaul, where a richer spoil invited him. In Spain, the Scandinavians abode for many years. The important city of Seville was in their power, and from it they made frequent and most disastrous incursions into the neighbouring provinces. They were long too powerful to be expelled by the monarch of Cordova, though that monarch was no other than the great Abderahman. On the coast of Galicia too, according to the ancient chroniclers of Castile, they abode for a season, and caused much mischief to the subjects of Pelayo’s successors. In Belgium and Spain their ravages were more frequent and more severe; in fact, there was no cessation to them until the north became Christianized. But though of their predatory expeditions a volume might be composed, they would little interest the reader, both because the description of one is the description of all, and because they left no permanent or important results behind them. In the expeditions which we have already contemplated, such results are to be found. In England they led to the formation of an independent kingdom in Northumbria, compelled even Alfred to retire into private life, and eventually placed Danish sovereigns on the throne. In France they occasioned the dismemberment of Normandy and Brittany from the crown. In Ireland they gave rise to many principalities, and continued, for centuries, to influence in the highest degree the fate of that country. In the Orkneys, they led to the establishment of a powerful dynasty, and produced a hardy race of men who still possess those islands. In Iceland there was the same result; and Iceland too became, what to literature is more important,—the refuge of the Norwegian language, religion, and learning. In Greenland, they called into existence a colony which subsisted above three hundred years. In Russia, they laid the foundation of the greatest empire which the world has yet seen. Even in North America, transient or unknown as were the results they produced, they exhibit a phenomenon as curious as it is interesting,—a handful of warlike shepherds, or adventurous mariners, traversing the wide Atlantic, and attempting to introduce their own institutions among the savages of another world. But those which were undertaken into the countries before us were not directed by master minds, and their motive was only sordid gain. The circumstances, therefore, which accompanied them may, for any thing we care, slumber in oblivion.[[14]]

CHAP. V.[[15]]
COSMOGONY AND RELIGION OF SCANDINAVIA.

INTRODUCTION.