[132] This fact was not unknown to Bishop Warburton and to Lord Herbert of Cherbury. In the Egyptian hymn to Phthah we read: “Praised be thy countenance, Ruler of the World!” Ausonius thus explains the multitude of synonyms:
“Ogygia ME Bacchum vocat;
Osirin Ægyptus putat;
Mystæ Phanacen nominant;
Dionyson Indi existimant;
Romana sacra Liberum;
Arabica gens Adoneum;
Lucianus Pantheum.”
Those who see in ancient myths the eternal contest of sunlight and darkness; of summer and winter, and, in the moral world, of intelligence and ignorance, will find strong confirmation in Eddaic poetry and prose.
[133] Properly written Thórr, a congener of the Mæso-Gothic Thunrs, the Thunder-god who named our Thursday. Whilst his golden-haired wife, Sif, who represented mother earth, with her sheaves of ripe grain, and the sanctity of wedlock and the family, is wholly forgotten, this terrigenous deity still lives, as we shall see, in modern Icelandic names. It is usually said that Iceland, following Norway, preferred Thórr, whilst the Danes paid the highest honours to Odin, and the Swedes to Freya (Venus), or rather to Freyr, her brother, the sun-god, who presided over the seasons and bestowed peace, fertility, and riches.
[134] The reader may remember, in the late Rev. Frederick Robertson’s Lectures to Working Men, a fine passage upon the same subject.
[135] Væringi (plur.-jar) Warings, or the name of the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon warriors serving as bodyguards to the Emperors of Constantinople.
[136] Of the monks proper (Icel. Múnkr, = μονὸς, monachus), only Benedictines were found in Iceland. They were accompanied by the regular canons of St Augustine. There were no “brothers” (fratres) or religious mendicants, as Dominicans and Franciscans; nor “regular clerks,” as Jesuits, Theatines, etc., who date since the sixteenth century; nor secular priests united in congregations like Oratorians and Lazarists.
[137] As will be seen, modern law recognises, or rather compels, an official arbitration before causes can be brought into court.
[138] The author would by no means make the invidious assertion that the Danish treatment of colonies was worse than that of other contemporary nations. On the contrary, in Africa, India, and the West Indian Islands, it has been a favourable contrast to most of the rest. But Europe in the fourteenth century, and in the ages which followed it, presents a melancholy contrast with the refined and civilised usage of her settlements by Republican and Imperial Rome.
[139] Of this process there were two forms, which began to be passed (circa) A.D. 1180. Bann, or Meira Bann was E. Major; Minna Bann was E. Minor, whilst the interdict was called For-boð, the German Verbot.