History of Scandinavia, from the early times of the Northmen, the Seakings and Vikings, to the present day. ... First English edition, ... revised and largely augmented

Front matter

HISTORY OF SCANDINAVIA, FROM THE EARLY TIMES OP THE NORTHMEN, THE SEARINGS & VIKINGS, TO THE PRESENT DAY. BY PROFESSOR PAUL C. SINDING, OF COPENHAGEN, DENMARK ; FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OP THE CITY OP NEW YORK. ORRESPONDINQ MEMBER OP THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AND OP THE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP QUEBEC, CANADA. Non forte ac temere humana negotia aguntur atque volvuntur.— Curtius. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, THOROUGHLY REVISED AND LARGELY AUGMENTED. LONDON : JOHN EUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. MDCCCLXVX ro HIS ROYAL AND MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.. • CHRISTIAN .THE NINTH, |tm0 of gcnirarli, THE FATHER OP THE MUCH-BELOVED PRINCESS OF WALES, THIS WORK IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY HIS MOST HUMBLE AND DUTIFUL SERVANT, THE AUTHOR. A

Preface

. Although I soon learned by experience, after my arrival in the city of New York, only a few years ago, what indeed had been long before reported to me, that the enlightened people of the United States pay great attention to science and the arts, and specially among their intellectual pursuits, have explored some of the wide fields of history with zeal and success, I was yet almost immediately aware that Scandinavian affairs — the past history and present condition of a kindred people — were too little known in this country. Indeed by that ardent love of my native land, which might well prompt me to effort in such a case, and which is a feeling said to be peculiarly strong in the race of the Northmen, I resolved, as far VI

PREFACE.

. as lay in my power, to throw some light on this, here, almost terra incognita, by writing a brief history of the people of Scandinavia — a people and a land neither unknown nor undistin guished in the history of the past, having not only played an important part in the history of Europe, being even at one time the arbiter of the European system, but having also amongst their archives authentic records of early voya ges of adventure and discovery extending to this new Western world, even as much as five centuries before Columbus reached St. Salvador or Guanahany. But while thus making refer ence to these interesting traditions, which trace the discovery of this great western continent to the hardy and adventurous "Kings of the Northern Sea," let me not be understood as saying that these traditions, though certainly existing, and possibly even well known to Columbus himself, when he undertook his remarkable voy age, have at all eclipsed the splendor which never will cease to invest the name of this unex ampled discoverer. The value of history being so generally appreciated, I need offer no apology for attempt ing to write such a work as the present, espe-

PREFACE.

. VII eially as the aim was, not to supplant any previous work, but actually to meet a want which was felt, because no such work existed here. But in submitting to the American and English public my first essay in writing English — to the somewhat ambitious extent of a book, I mean — let me claim some forbearance and kindly criticism, where certain unavoidable diffi culties interposed themselves, and have not, per haps, in every case, even where most earnestly grappled with, been successfully overcome. Nevertheless, should the result of my labor, the work which I here offer as an Introduction to the History of Scandinavia, be found cal culated to promote even a little interest in the subject, my desire and purposes will be fully realized, and the great difficulties under which I have labored, amply rewarded.

THE AUTHOR. PROF. PAUL C. SINDING. My Dear Sir: The Scandinavian peninsulas — one hanging down from the mysterious North, the other jutting forth from the central mass of civilized Europe, to meet its comrade — are emblematic (in their geographical position) of the twofold historic interest with which they are clothed. While the legendary period of other peoples occupies a place subordinate to their clearer history, Scandinavia calls up before us, with equal power, the mist-robed Odin and the mail-clad Vasa. The strange adventures amid Northern seas, in a primitive age, are as prominent as the leadership of European politics in an age of remarkable light. We oddly mingle the old and the new, the dim and the bright, when we turn to Scandinavia, as we do with no other land. This double character naturally lends peculiar attraction to its history.

Yet, with all this attraction, the history of no part of Europe is less familiar to the general mind ; probably because the Scandinavian countries lie somewhat off from the world's great highways, and participate but moderately in the world's chief commerce. This should not be. The ignorance is a fault, especially among us of English descent, whose ancestral history is so intimately and variously associated with that of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The Norsemen have left the memorials of their habitation on the coasts and islands of Scotland, where Runic inscriptions tell the story of their prowess, while through much of England the familiar names of towns and hamlets are purely Norse. These are the fruits of the wild adventures of the Vikings. A Danish dynasty once ruled our fatherland, and the Con queror who founded the present succession of British monarchs, was himself of Scandinavian blood, transplanted to a more southern LETTER FROM PROFESSOR CROSBY.

X clime. The stalwart men, who could venture upon unknown, cold, and stormy seas, in their small barks, on lengthy voyages, until, passing the new-found shores of Iceland, they landed among the green leaves of the Viinland coast, deserve to be known and saluted by every succeeding age. And their posterity, still maintaining the best characteristics of the fathers, invite our regard and claim our encomiums. The names of Tegner, Hans Andersen, Fredericka Bremer, in literature ; of Clausen, Madvig, and Rafn, in theological, philological, and archæ ological research ; of Thorvaldsen in art, and of Ole Bull and Jenny Lind in music, are as household words in our American homes. Our merited regard for these well known worthies of our own day, must render keener our appetite for Scandinavian knowledge.

This '■ppetite amounts to a necessity, when we mark, that our ancestral listory and mythology, and our composite philology, must be eluci dated by the light of these chronicles and languages of the Norsemen. It is, therefore, full time that our Universities should have their chairs of Scandinavian literature, as a needful part of the apparatus for a thorough English education, to render more complete the ex amination of the roots of our speech and race. While this want is felt, we may gladly hail any contribution to American literature which tends to open this interesting field of research. In your vol ume, my dear sir, I recognize such a pioneer, and rejoice to give ' welcome. In it may many laggards in this lore find an introduc tion to the old romantic legends of the Skalds, as well as to th more recent but no less romantic stories of the great and magnanimous Gustavus Vasa, Gustavus Adolphus, and the brilliant comets Tordenskjold (Thundershield) and Charles the Twelfth.

HOWARD CROSBY, A. M., Professor of Greek Language and Literature in th University of the City of New-York SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. The Origin of the People — Mythology — Language — Skalds or Bards — Runes — The Warfaring Life — Piracy — Duels — Foster brcfuer Covenant — State and Condition of the Female Sex — Means of getting a Livelihood by — Victuals — Trade — Dwelling-places — Weapons — Funeral Solemnities — State Affairs — King — Peasants and Prefects — Slaves — Viking Expeditions — The Oldest Kings Page 19-49 First Period, from A. D. 811-1241. 1. Promulgation of the Gospel by Ansgarius — Gorm the Old and his Queen Thyra Dannebod — Harold Bluetooth — Christianity — Civil War — Palnatoke — Swen Splitbeard — Viking Association — Battle by Svolder — Conquest of England — Harold — Canute the Great — England and Denmark united — Pilgrimage to Rome — Battle by Helge-River — Ulf Jarl (Earl) — Conquest of Norway — The Discovery of America by the Northmen — The Union with England ceases 50-86 2.

Magnus the Good— Swen Estrithson — Expedition to England — Ecclesiastical Affairs — Canute the Pious — NewExpedition against England — Eric the Good — Expedition to Venden — Canonization of Canute the Pious — Canute Lavard — Nicholas — Civil War between Swen Grathe, Canute Magnusson, and Waldemar — Frederick Barbarossa — Battle on Grathe-heath in Jutland 87-108 8. Waldemar I. the Great — -Absalon — Canute VI. — Bugislaw, of Pomerania — Waldemar II. the Conqueror — Conquests along the Baltic — Esthonia — The Captivity of the King — Science and the Arts 109-130 (si) SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. Second Period, from A. D. 1241-1536, the Introduction os the Reformation. 1. Eric Ploughpenning — Expedition to Esthonia — Abel — Christopher I. — Conflict with the Clergy — Archbishop Jacob Erlandson — Interdict — Eric Glipping — Battle on Loheath — War with Norway — Eric Menved — The Regicides — Archbishop John Grand — Peace with Norway — Expedition to Pomerania and Mecklenburg — The Hanseatic League 131—115 2.

Christopher II.— Charter — War with Geert, Count of Holstein — Battle on Tapheath — Niels Ebbeson — Waldemar IV., Atterdag — Insurrection in Jutland — Magnus Smek of Sweden — War with the Hanseatic Towns — Rebellion — Waldemar leaves the country — Olaf — Queen Margarethe (the Semiramis of the North) — King Albrecht of Sweden — The Battle at Falk6ping in Sweden — The celebrated Union of Caimar 145— l'>7 3. Queen Margarethe — Attempts to regain Schleswig — Eric of Pomerania — Dispute about Schleswig — War with the Hanseatic Towns — Rebellion in Sweden — Engelbrechtson — Charles Canutson — Dethronement of the King in Denmark and Sweden — Christopher of Bavaria acknowledged King of all three Kingdoms — Rebellion of the Peasantry 168-182 4. The House of Oldenburg — Christian I., the first King of the House of Oldenburg — Charles Canutson — Archbishop Jens Bengtson — Steno Sture, the Elder — Battle on Brunkehill — Pilgrimage to Rome — University of Copenhagen — The Charter of King Hans (John) — Division of the Duchies — Expedition to Ditmarsh — Rebellion in Sweden and Norway — War again with the Hanse Towns — Christian II. the Tyrant — Expedition against Sweden — Archbishop Gustav Trolle — The Slaughter of Stockholm — Sigbrit- Dyveke — Torben Oxe — The Beginning of the Reformation — Rebellion — The King flees — Frederick I. — Civil War — Rebellion in Skane — Soren Norby — The Reformation spreads — John Tausen — Diet of Odensee — Diet of Copenhagen — The War of the Count — Christian 111. — Shipper Clemens — Battle by Oxenhill — Literature and Language 183-236 Third Period, from A.D. 1536-1660; the acknowledgment of Lutheranism until the Introduction of Absolute Sovereignty. 1.

Christian III — Diet of Copenhagen — Charter — The Reformation introduced into Iceland — Intolerance — University and School SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. XIII 2 I Affairs — Alliance with Sweden — New Division of the Duchies — Frederick II. — Conquest of Ditmarsh — Three Crowns — The Northern Seven Years' War — Daniel Ranzau — Peace in Stettin — Peter Oxen — Foundation of Kronborg — The Sound Dues — Liibeck — Hamburg — Science and Arts — Henrik Ranzau — Tycho Brahe — Christian IV. — The Queen-Dowager Sophia of Mecklenburg — Guardianship — Peasantry — Nobility 237-266 Christian IV.- — Care and Interest for Norway — Variance with Sweden — Caimar War — Peace at Knœrod — He encourages Science and the Arts — Commercial Affairs — Discoveries — Regulation of the Post Affairs — Manufactures — Buildings — Participation in the Thirty Years' War — Battle by Lutter, near the Barenberg — Peace of Lubeck — Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden plays a prominent part «n the Thirty Years' War — Dissatisfaction amongst the Peasantry and Burgher Class with the Aristocracy — Dispute with Hamburg — Sound Dues at Elsenore — War with Sweden — Inroad of the Swedish General, Torstenson — Battle of Colberg by Femern — Danish National Song — Peace of Bromsebro — Frederick III. — Election of King — The Charter — Alliance with Holland — Corfitz Ulfeldt — Rupture with Sweden — Peace of Roeskilde — Renewal of the War — Siege of Copenhagen — The Dutch Admiral Opdam — Battle at Nyborg — Peace of Copenhagen 266-301 Fourth Period, from A. D. 1660-1863 ; {from the introduction of the Absolute Sovereignty till the conclusion of the War with the rebellious Duchies.)

Frederick IlJ. — The Diet of Copenhagen — The Charter annihilated, and Absolute Sovereignty introduced — Kay Lykke — Corfitz Ulfeldt — Eleonora Christina — Dispute with Christian Albrecht of Gottorp — Christian V. — Acquisition of Oldenburg and Delmen horst — War with Sweden and France — Admiral Niels Juel — Peace of Lund and Fontainebleau — Griffenfeldt — Ole R6mer — The Peasantry — Olaf Rosenkranz — Masius and Bagger — Frede rick IV — War with the Duke of Gottorp — Peace of Travendal — Eleven Years' War with Sweden — The Brilliant Comets Charles XII. of Sweden, and the Danish Admiral Thundershield (Tordenskjold) ' — Peace of Fredericksborg — Hostile Terms with Russia — Hans Egede christianizes Greenland — Science and the Arts — Christian VI. — The Peasantry — Ecclesiastical Affairs — School Affairs — Science and the Arts — The Navy — Count Danneskjold Sams6 — SUMMARY OF CONTENTS.

Frederick V. — Hostile Terms with Russia — Peter III. of Russia murdered — Manufactures — Commercial and Financial state — The Peasantry — Science and the Arts 302-381 2.

Christian VII. — Alterations among the Higher Officers of State — C?re for the Peasantry — The King's going abroad — Struensee and Brandt beheaded — The Queen banished — Ove Guldberg — The Queen-dowager Juliane Marie — Prince Frederick — Deed of Exchange with Russia — A. P. Bernstorff — The Armed Neutrality — The Finances — The Press — The Peasantry — Care for the Danish Language and Literature — The Charter of Naturalization — Crown Prince Frederick, afterwards Frederick VI. — A. P. Bernstorff — Henrik Stampe — Reventlow — C. Colbjornson — Hostilities with Sweden — Neutrality during the French Revolutionary War — Independence of the United States acknowledged by Sweden and Denmark — Tripoli — Hostilities with England — Renewal of the Armed Neutrality — The Horrible Battle of the Baltic — Copenhagen cruelly bombarded, and the fleet carried away — War with Sweden — Peace of J6nk6ping — Prince Christian August of Augustenburg — His Death — Charles John Bernadotte, Prince of Pontecorvo, elected Crown-prince of Sweden; later, King of Sweden — He dies — Oscar I. King of Sweden, died 1859, and Carl XV. ascends the Throne — War with Sweden, Russia, and Prussia — Alliance with France — Fierce Fight at Sehestedt in Schleswig — Norway granted a Free Constitution from the Danish Prince, Christian Frederick — Denmark loses Norway forever in the Peace of Kiel — Emancipation of the Peasantry from Feudal Bondage — Other important alterations in different branches of the Government — Care of the King for Public Instruction — University and School Affairs — Literature — Pecuniary Affairs — Representative Council given Denmark and the Duchies — Christian VIII. — School Affairs in Copenhagen and in the Country — Iceland — The Danish East India Possessions disposed of — Care for the Danish Language in the Northern part of Schleswig — Railroads — Frederick VII. — He gives Denmark a Free Constitution — Horrible War with the rebellious Duchies — Treaty in London — Marriage of the Princess Alexandra with the Prince of Wales — Death of Frederick VII., and accession of Christian IX. to the Crown — The Second Sleswick-Holstein War — Review of the Succession Dispute — Austro-Prussian Invasion — The Danish Army, overpowered by numbers, evacuates the Duchies — Their cession — Peace concluded 382-471 There is a wide difference between History and Philo sophy.

History is the delineation from the past and the present of both the active and the passive forces, and intel ligence of human nature and human action. Philosophy excludes from its consideration human action, and deals with thought as referable to reason alone. History in forms us of the product of human passion and thought. Philosophy considers the latter undisturbed by the weakness of the former. But, nevertheless, if the cultivator of History is not guided by Philosophy, or the rules of reason, History will to him be only a barren act of memory, without life or nourishment for the under standing and heart ; in short, History will not be a science to him ; he will not clearly comprehend the consequences of events in their pragmatical connection " It little concerns us to know," says Rollin, " that there were once such men as Genghis-Khan, Cæsar, Alexander, Gustavus Adolphus, Napoleon, Washington, and so on, and that they lived in this or that period, or died in this or that day ; but it highly concerns us to know the steps by which they rose to the exalted pitch of grandeur we cannot but admire, what it was that constituted their glory and felicity, what were the causes of their declension and fall, and how in religious and moral respects they have influenced their own and after-ages ; all of which we cannot obtain but by Philosophy, or more properly, by the Philosophy of History, through which we ascertain the causes of things or their phenomena.

History itself is immense in reference to compass, circumference, and contents. A boundless ocean of facts and events lies behind us, while each day and each hour the stream of time is swelling in new and large billows of events, visions, and names ; all of which, seen in the light of truth and pragmatical connection, are of exceeding interest and use. And of such great interest and use is the History of the Scandinavian Kingdoms, taken, as all History must be, in due connection with the contemporaneous History of other lands. This History is that of a brave and interesting people, which, on a large scale, has influenced the world, and is yet so little known to the United States, and even, I am told, to the mass of the people of Great Britain. A talented young American wrote, a few years ago, an eloquent article in the Journal of Commerce, inscribed " Scan dinavian History, — a Work Wanted," wherein he says : " There is a nation, even now extant, possess ing as brave a History as that of the Romans, as poetic as that of the Greeks ; a nation that has con trolled the World's History in many things, and at many times, and whose achievements in war and in letters, are worthy the most heroic age of Rome and the most finished period of Greece ; a nation whose Philo sophy outran their age, and anticipated results that have been slowly occurring ever since.

This reference," he says, " can be true of but one people, and that people is the Norsemen, the dwellers in Scandinavia, who lived as heroes, lords, and conquerors ; who, sailing out of the ice and desolation in which they were born and nurtured, conquered England, Scotland and Ireland ; ravaged Brittany and Normandy ; discovered and colo nized Iceland and Greenland ; and they can be said, with confidence, to have crossed the Atlantic in their crazy harks, and to have discovered this very continent, before Columbus, to have anchored in Vineyard f?ound, and left a monument behind them ; and where soever they went, they went as lords and rulers. And then their religion," he continues — " what a wild, massive, manly mythology ! With nothing of the soft sentimentalities of more southern people, but continent of much that revelation has assured us to be true in 1; doctrine — preaching ever the necessity of right, and doing right — of manliness, honesty and responsibility rewards and punishments."

And he thus concludes : " Is there not some one who will plunge in medias res, and, bringing order out of confusion, give us this so greatly desiderated History of Scandinavia ?" These eloquent words, a correspondence with the talented writer, and later, an interview with him, have inspired me, a native Dane, having completed my studies at the University of Copenhagen, and im bued with patriotic feelings, with a mind and courage to plunge in medias res, and to the best of my ability to do justice to that undeniably interesting sub ject. Jacta est alea, and I will commence by describing the state and condition of Denmark, in the most ancient times, until the Provincial Territories were united, and Christianity began to be promulgated by Ansgarius, a learned and pious monk from Westphalia, in Cermany.

The Origin of the People — Mythology and Public Worship — Language Skalds or Bards — Runes — The Warfaring Life of the People — Piracy — Duels — Foster-brother Covenant — State and Condition of the Female Sex — Means of getting a livelihood by — Victuals — Trade — Dwelling-places — Weapons — Funeral Solemnities — State Affairs — King — Peasants and Prefects — Slaves — Norse Expeditions — The Oldest Kings. The present inhabitants of Denmark, as well as of Norway and Sweden, are successors of the enormous Gothic tribe formerly dwelling round about the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, to which district this tribe seems to have come from yet more eastern regions, afterwards wandering up to the northern coasts of the Baltic, whence the one branch of the Gothic tribe departed to the opposite tracts of Scandinavia, peopling and settling the southern part of Sweden, Skane, Hal land, and Bleking, the Danish islands, together with the northern part of the Jutlandish peninsula, and likewise spreading itself over the greater part of Norway.

The other branch of these ancient and distinguished Goths remained south of the Baltic, and oftentimes b2 changing their dwellings, afterwards prevailed in Ger a. d., many, scattering under the great European 375 emigration over a great part of southern Europe, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and France, making considerable conquests, and even often exacting tribute. a. d., Divided here into Ostro and Visi-Goths, they 493- erected, under their chief leader, Theodorik, the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, and the Visigothic in A. d., Spain under Astulph, and their influence and 423- that of their descendants have since been per manent in Europe and the world. On the southern borders of Denmark, in the present Duchy of Holstein, dwelt the Saxons, belonging to the German Goths ; higher up in Schleswig and in the southern and western part of Jutland dwelt the Angles and Jutlanders, forming, in a certain way, an intermediate line between the Scandinavian and German Goths.

But as a great a. d., number of Angles, Saxons, and Jutlanders, in the 449- middle of the fifth century, led by the brothers, Hengist and Horst, departed for England, founding there the Saxon Heptarchy, the more northern Goths settling in the regions which those had left, were after wards the prevailing tribe in all Jutland and Schleswig. On the entrance of the Goths into Scandinavia, the land was inhabited by two reciprocally kindred nations, whose present names are Laplanders and Finns. Both of them had come from the east, but the Laplanders were forced by the Finns up to the remotest parts of Norway and Sweden, where remnants of them are yet to be found. The Finns themselves were, after a vabant resistance, pressed back by the Goths, whose descendants at present live in Finland, which now belongs to the Russian Empire.

It is also possible that some Celtic tribes, the primitive inhabitants of the south and west of Europe, have lived in the Scandi navian countries. The culture of the oldest dwellers of the north was at a very low ebb ; they lived dispersed, rambling about the immense and impenetrable forests, and on the coasts adjacent to the ocean and the numerous lakes, many of which are now transformed into moors and marshy land, or dried up altogether. Game from the forests, and fish from the sea and lakes, supplied the inhabitants with nutriment and hides and furs to protect their bodies against the severe cbmate ; and in such respects they were very well off, wanting nothing fortune could supply. Their weapons and hunting-tools were stones, but often made with curious and admirable workmanship — the use of metals being yet unknown.

Very interesting, deep, and instructive is the religion or the mythology of the Norsemen, wherein their character and peculiar views of life have received a proper embodiment, containing much of the spirit of obedience, for which St. Paul praises the heathens that are without the law, but do by nature the things contained in the law, showing the work of the law written in their hearts. Their religion, better, perhaps, called their mythology, announced also clearly the important doc trine of future responsibility — rewards and punishments. At all events, it was great, nervous, and poetic, and, in many respects, fit for facilitating the introduction of the higher light of Revelation, which first in the ninth century was brought to them. In the abyss of ages — thus read the old Sagas — all was without form and life, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, on which B. c., the warmth was continually operating, until 70- Ymer, a giant sprang forth.

But Odin, a Scandinavian Deity, yet supposed to be a historical person, having come from Asgard on the river Don (Tanais) in southern Russia, killed Ymer and his whole offspring ; the bad and evil letters and Thyrsers (giants) were drowned in that stream of blood proceeding and flowing from Ymer's corpse, except one, who propagated the generation of Jetters or Thyrsers, and lived in con tinual enmity with gods and men. Of Ymer's body — thus read the old Sagas — Odin moulded and framed the ordained and settled world with mountains, rivers, lakes, trees, and clouds ; and of the great ash-tree, Yggdrasill, whose topmost branches were said todance eternally in the heavenly light, he moulded the first couple of men, Askur and Embla, who resided in Midgard. The gods themselves live in Asgard, close by Upsala, in Sweden.

Odin, superior to all the other gods, is father of gods and men, and rules the whole world, which he, by his wise and judicious eye, contemplates and views from his high Hlidskjalfi his heavenly seat, his royal palace. The peculiar God of War and Thunder is Thor. a son of Odin, most ardently worshipped by the warlike Norsemen, and kept long in memory even after the other gods were thrown into oblivion. He being consi dered the good principle, and chosen to bruise the head of all the evil principles, is incessantly fighting with the Jetters, slaying them with his hammer, the heavy Mjolnir. The brave having found an honorable death on the. battle field were taken up to the mansion of the gods, and came to the splendid castle, Valhalla, radia ting with shining shields and glittering swords, and where Odin, Thor, Freia, Frigga, and the Nornas, with their irrevocable decrees, were assembled.

Odin's maidens, the Valkyriers, were continually rushing through the ether, seeking in all countries for the bravest heroes, whom they marked with their spear point, when the hour of death had come. The departed heroes, called Einheriars, pass their time in Valhalla, having every day the pleasure of arming themselves, marshaling themselves in military order, fighting and knocking down one another ; but in the evening they get up again and return to Valhalla, where a festival meal is prepared for them, consisting of the flesh of a boar, called Sahrimner, which, though butchered every day, returns to bfe again, and the beautiful virgins, the Valkyriers, present to them the mead -horn, of which they drink till they are in a state of intoxication ; but the pleasures of love do not enter at all into the joys of this extraordinary Paradise.

Odin sits by himself at a particular table. A different lot or fate fell to the cowards who feared the battle and dangers of war, and allowed themselves to be cut off by disease. Cast down to Helheim (hell) they had to continue their fife there, as silent, trembling shadows, without pleasure and exploits, and under the perpetual suffering of anguish, remorse, and famine. Odin him self, Thor, and the keen Tyr, belonged to the Asatribe; while Freia, the goddess of love, together with Njord and Frigga, disposing of tranquil occupations, hunting, fishing, favorable winds on the ocean, and plenteous years, were ascribed to the gentle Vane-tribe. Nevertheless, the dominion of the Valhalla gods was not to last forever, but the power to be given to another god, who should judge men conformably to a higher law, not as they were brave or cowardly, but as they were good or evil, for the Edda of Snorro says: "The world shall be judged in righteousness."

The Valhalla gods, however, were safe as long as Baldur, the wisest and most righteous of all gods, and protector of innocence, was living. But the cunnino and designing Loke, the evil deity and the father of treachery, by birth half related to the gods, half to the Jetters, and father of Hela, the Fenriswolf and the dreadful Midgards serpent, smuggling himself into the fellowship of the gods, so prevailed, by his crafti ness, upon Baldur's own brother, as to kill him. Now nothing can avert the declension of the gods and the perdition of the world. The sun becomes eclipsed, the ocean overflows, and the Midgards serpent rises from the deep. Loke and Jetters confederated with the burning and consuming Surtur, rush now upon Valhalla, which, together with Niftheim (Helheim) perish in Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods.