History of the Northmen, or Danes and Normans : from the earliest times to the conquest of England by William of Normandy

Preface

In the following attempt to illustrate the early annals of the North, it has been the writer's aim to seize the principal points in the progress of society and manners in this remote period, which have been either entirely passed over or barely glanced at by the national historians of France and England, but which throw a strong and clear light upon the affairs of Europe during the middle ages, and illustrate the formation of the great monarchies now constituting some of its leading states. For this purpose, resort has, in general, been had to the original sources of information found in the multiplied collections of the learned men and associations of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden — to the ancient historical Songs and vi

PREFACE.

Sagas, and especially to the great historical work of Snorre Sturleson, written in the Icelandic or old Scandinavian language, prevailing in the three Northern kingdoms until the formation of the present living tongues of Denmark and Sweden. These sources embrace the most authentic and valuable historical monuments of early transactions possessed by any European nation, which have been illustrated with a diligence and critical skill that may fairly be said to be unrivalled by the antiquarian labours of any other country. In addition to these materials, the author has also made a free and full use of the modern national historians, Schoening, Suhm, and Geijer, — as well as Mr Turner's Eistory of the Anglo-Saxons, and M. Depping's valuable work upon the Maritime Expeditions of the Normans. It may be proper to add, that he has incorporated into the present work the substance of two papers in the North-American and Philadelphia Quarterly Reviews, written by himself, the one upon Scandinavian mythology and literature, and the other upon M. Depping's book. He has also

PREFACE.

Vll frequently had occasion to quote the first volume of the Ecclesiastical History of Denmark and Norway, by his learned friend, the late Dr Miinter, bishop of Zealand ; the Sagabibliothek of Professor (now Bishop) P, E. Miiller ; and the different publications of Professors F. Magniissen, Schlegel, Rafn, and Rask, upon the mythology, language, laws, and literature of the ancient North. He acknowledges, with pride and pleasure, the valuable assistance he has derived from the personal suggestions of these and other literary friends during his residence in this capital — a residence which will ever be associated with some of the most pleasing recollections of his life.

Copenhagen, April 1831«

Chapter I

Knowledge which the Greeks and Romans had of Scandinavia. — Cimbri and Teiitones. — Fenni, or Skrithfinni. — Migration of the Gothic Tribes. — Voeringjar at Constantinople. — Emigration of the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, to Britain. — Otter and Wulfstan's Periplus of the North Sea and Baltic Page 1

Chapter II

Discovery of Iceland by the Norwegians. — Physical features of that Island. — Settlement of Iceland by Ingolf. — Discovery of Greenland by Erik the Red. — Discovery of North America by Leif, the son of Erik the Red. — Vinland explored by Thorvald, brother of Leif — Thorvald slain by the native Esquimaux. — Settlement of Vinland by Thorfin and his companions. — Ultimate fate of the Norwegian colony in Vinland. — Voyages of the Venetian navigators, the brothers Zeni, in the Northern ocean 16

Chapter III

Permanent settlement of Iceland by the Norwegians. — Saga of Thorolf. — Religion of the first settlers. — Temples, sacrifices, and worship. — Authority of the pontifF-chieftains. — Local and general popular assemblies. — Legislation. — Laws of Ulfljot. — Laws preserved by local tradition. — Spirit of Freedom.— Various religious sects among the heathen Icelanders. — First Christian missionaries to Iceland. — Final establishment of Christianity. — Abolition of the Holmgdnga, or trial by battle. — Egill's Saga. — Forms of civil procedure . 32

X

CONTENTS.

Chapter IV

Icelandic language and literature. — History and poetry preserved by oral tradition. — Skalds. — Their poetry influenced by the wild beauty of Northern scenery. — Saga-man, or story-teller. — Saemund Sigfussen. — Compilation of the poetic or elder Edda. — Runic characters and writing. — Arrangement of the different Songs contained in Saemund's Edda. — Mythology and Ethics of the ancient religion of the North. — Authenticity of the poetic Edda. — Prose Edda of Snorre Sturleson — Skalda. — Icelandic versification . . Page 49

Chapter V

Icelandic Sagas — Mythic, romantic, and historical Sagas. — Historical value of the Sagas. — Ari Erode, the first Icelandic historian. — Life and character of Snorre Sturleson. — Composition of his great historical work, Hemskrmgla . . 94

Chapter VI

Legend of Odin, from the Ynlinga-saga. — Its historical interpretation.— Finns. — Goths. — Sviar. — Mythology and religious rites of the ancient North. — Religious system preceding that of Odin. — Ynglings in Sweden, and Skjoldungs in Denmark. — State of society and manners. — Rigsmal. — Anglo-Saxon poem of Bjowulf . .110

Chapter VII

Causes of the Scandinavian maritime expeditions to the South of Europe. — Wild spirit of adventure. — Sea-Kings. — Religion. — Champions and Berscerher. — Amazons, or Skjold-meyar. — Art of ship-building. — Battle of Bravalla. — First incursions to Scotland, the Orcades, Hebrides, and Ireland. — Invasions of England. — Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok. — His death-song • 133

Chapter VIII

Wars of Charlemagne on the Elbe.— Invasion of France by Hastings and the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok.— Normans plunder

CONTENTS.

xi the coasts of Spain and Italy, and enter the Mediterranean.-— Sack of Luna by Hastings. — Return of Hastings to France. — His conversion to Christianity . . . Page 155

Chapter IX

First Attempts to convert the North to Christianity. — Missionaries, Ebbo and Halitgar.— Conversion and baptism of Harald Klak. — His intercourse with Louis-le-Debonnaire. — Character and first mission of Ancharius, the apostle of the North. — His first visit to Sweden. — Obstacles to the progress of the new religion. — Papal bull erecting archiepisco[)al See of Hamburg. — Sack of that city by the Danes, and flight of Ancharius. — His second mission to Sweden. — Death and canonization of Ancharius . . ... .172

Chapter X

Expedition of the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok to England. — Defeat and death of king Ella. — Conquest of Northumbria. — Death of Edmund, king of East-Anglia. — Conquest of that kingdom. — Wars of Alfred, king of the West-Saxons, with the Northmen. — Peace between Alfred and Godrun, by which the Danes are permanently confirmed in the possession of East-Anglia. — Invasion of England by Hastings the Younger. — Desperate contest between him and Alfred. — Final expulsion of Hastings from the island . . . 187

Chapter XI

Reign of Harald Hdrfager in Norway. — Battle of Hafursfjord. — His intercourse with king Athelstane, — Endeavours to extirpate piracy. — Battle of Brunaburgh. — Anglo-Saxon lay. — Egill's Saga. — Norman invasion of France continued. — Siege of Paris 206

Chapter XII

Origin and early life of Rollo, first duke of Normandy.— The Jarls of iMaere. — Prohibition of piracy by Harald Harfager. — Banishment of Rollo from Norway. — Condition of France xii

CONTENTS.

under Charles le Simple. — Landing of Rollo at Rouen.—- Defeats the Franks, and ravages Neustria. — Negociation between Charles and Rollo. — Cession of Neustria to the Normans. — Baptism of Rollo. — Settlement of Normandy. — Legislation of Rollo. — Clanieurde Haro. — Trial by battle. — Norman architecture and poetry. — Romantic literature. — Norman historians. — Robert Wace . . . Page 233

Chapter XIII

Reign of Gorm the Old in Denmark. — Constitution of the monarchy. — Free spirit of the people. — Expulsion of Erik Blodoexe from Norway. — His death and Drdpa. — Hakon the Good attempts to introduce Christianity into Norway. — Opposition of the nation. — Sigurd Jarl. — Death of Hakon. — The Hdkonar-mdl, or elegiac lay of Hakon . . . 266

Chapter XIV

William Long-Sword (Son of Rollo) second duke of Normandy.— His son Richard succeeds, and is aided by Harald Blaatand, king of Denmark, against Louis d'Outremer. — Harald Graafeld and the other sons of Gunilhda reign in Norway. — Hakon Jarl, son of Sigurd. — His relations with Harald Blaatand, king of Denmark. — Wars of the latter with the emperor Otho. — Republic of Vikingar at Jomsborg. — Joint expedition of the Jomsvikingar and Danes against Hakon Jarl. — Spartan courage of the Jomsvikingar youth. — Reaction and triumph of heathenism in Norway under Hakon Jarl. — Life and adventures of Olaf Tryggvason, — His accession to the throne of Norway. — Death of Hakon Jarl. — Olaf converts Norway by fire and sword. — League against Olaf. — His death and character ..... 287

Chapter XV

Svend Haraldson, king of Denmark. — Renewal of the Northern invasions of England. — Ethelred the Unready. — Death of Svend. — His son Canute succeeds him, — Causes of the decline of the Anglo-Saxon race. — Conquest of England by

CONTENTS.

Xlll

Canute. — His legislation. — Pilgrimage to Rome. — Assassination of Ulfr Jarl. — State of Christianity in Denmark. — St Olaf, king of Norway. — Conquest of Norway by Canute. — Exile, return, and death of Olaf . . . Page 314

Chapter XVI

Harald Harefoot. — Hardecanute. — Magnus, king of Norway. — Svend Estrithson. — Adventures of Harald Sigurdson at Constantinople. — His return to the North, and accession to the crown of Norway. — State of the North during the reign of Svend Estrithson in Denmark. — State of the duchy of Normandy. — Accession of duke William. — Conquest of Naples and Sicily by the Normans.— Reign of Edward the Confessor in England. — Earl Godwin and his sons. — Visit of Harold, son of Godwin, to Normandy. — Death of Edward the Confessor. — Preparations of duke William for the invasion of England. — Tostig, son of Godwin, the fugitive Earl of Northumberland, applies for aid to the king of Norway. — Invasion of Northumbria by the Norwegians. — Defeat and death of Harald Sigurdson. — Battle of Hastings. — Death of Harold, son of Godwin . . .... 336 a

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THE NORTHMEN.

Chapter 1

Knowledge which the Greeks and Romans had of Scandinavia. — Cimbri and Teutones. — Fenni or Skrithfinni. — Migration of the Gothic Tribes. — Voeringjar at Constantinople. — Emigration of the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes to Britain. — Otter and Wulfstan's Periplus of the North Sea and Baltic.

The fruitful imagination of the ancients attached mysterious ideas to the Northern portion of the earth. This was the region of darkness: but as day sprung from night, so, according to their notions, light and the other beneficent powers and elements of nature were first produced from the North. The Hindus placed in that quarter their fabled mount Meru, where the deities shrouded their divine attributes in darkness and mystery. Latona (the Night) brought forth those two lights of heaven, Apollo and Artemis, in the land of the Hyperboreans, which the Greeks placed in the extreme North. Here was the abode of the Scandinavian gods, from whence they directed their ken over the rest of the world ; and when the long nights of winter were illu-

B mined with the glorious flashes of the Aurora Borealis streaming above the horizon, the awful forms of the deities, radiant with celestial halos, became distinctlyvisible to the untutored children of nature, by whom they were devoutly worshipped. Thus, too, the father of history relates how the Hyperboreans — of all the human race the most virtuous and happy, dwell in perpetual peace and delightful companionship with the deities, under cloudless skies, in fields clothed with perpetual verdure, where the fruitful soil yields twiceyearly harvests, its blest inhabitants attain extreme old age, and at last, when satiated with life, joyfully crown their heads with flowers, and plunge headlong from the mountain steeps into the depths of the sea.*

All this is mythic and poetic fiction, whose origin must be sought in the propensity of our restless nature to place the felicity for which it longs, in abodes far removed from the actual scene of our being, and to be attained only on the wings of imagination. What is certain and authentic respecting the knowledge which the classic nations of antiquity had of the Northern peninsula of Europe, may be comprised in a short compass.

The ancient Greeks and Romans considered Scandinavia, Scandia (or Suevia), as an island, or cluster '•of islands, in the northern ocean. Pytheas, a celebrated navigator of Marseilles, who lived a short time before Alexander the Great, had penetrated to these sequestered regions of the globe, and the ancient geographers have left us some notices of his voyage and discoveries. He visited the island oi Albion^ and describes,

* Geijer, Svea Rikes Hiifder. torn. i. p. 53.

I. ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE NORTH. 3

at six days' sail to the north-east from thence, an island or country which he calls Thule, and which some suppose to be a part of the coast of Jutland, which is to this day called Thy or Thy-land, or in the ancient language of the North, Thjoda. Others, with more probability, have traced the name of the ancient Thule in Tellemark, a province of South -Norway, from whence Pytheas, or those whose narratives he gathered, may have entered the Sound and the Baltic, where the Phenicians had been before attracted in pursuit of amber. He represents the northern parts of Thule as wild and uncultivated, and peopled by. savages who lived by hunting and fishing. The inhabitants of the South were farther advanced in the arts of life : cultivated grain, reared bees, and brewed hydromel, which was their favorite drink. But they were all marked by the same ferocious and warlike character.*

Among the Scandinavian tribes, the ancient geographers and historians enumerated the Sviones, or in the Northern language of the middle ages, the Sviar ; the Guttones, Gutse, or Goths ; and the Daukiones, adjacent to the Goths, who are probably the Danes, whose original seat was in Scania, and who are called, in the ancient language of the North, Danir or Danskir.f Pomponius Mela describes a great gulph which makes into the land northwardly from the mouth of the Elbe, which he calls Sinus Codanus, and the great island of

* Ptolem. Geogr. lib. ii. cap. 2. See Murray's Dissertation de Pythea Massiliensi in Nov. Comm. Getting, torn. \L and Dr BredsdorfF's Dissertation upon the Ancient Geography of the North, in the Transactions of the Skandinavisk Litteraturselskab for 1824, p. 204..

f Tac, Germ. cap. xlv. Plin. lib. iv. cap. 13.

HISTORY OF TflE NORTHMEN.

Codononia (probably the peninsula of Jutland), which he says was inhabited by the Teutones.* Pliny the Elder, the first ancient writer who expressly calls this northern region by the name of Scandinavia, also mentions the existence of the Codanian gulf, beyond the Cimbrian promontory, and filled with an archipelago of islands.f Tacitus speaks of the Northern columns of Hercules, referring, doubtless, to the narrow passage of the Sound into the Baltic, so much resembling the Straits of Gibraltar. The fleet of Drusus had failed to pass or even to approach this passage, which was impenetrable to him as it had been to Hercules ; and the knowledge which the Romans acquired of the maritime nations on the shores of the Baltic, was obtained by their land journies in search of amber. J

According to the great Roman historian, the Sviones were a rich and powerful maritime nation. Their monarchs possessed despotic power, such as the traditions of the North attribute to the pontiff-kings, the immediate successors of Odin. Being secured by the sea against sudden invasion, the people were not even trusted with arms for their own defence. They were kept in the custody of the king's slaves. One of the tribes of this nation, the Sitones, were like the rest in all respects, except that they were ruled by a woman : they had not only fallen olF in liberty, but (according to Roman ideas) submitted to the last degradation of slavery. 1 1

* De Situ Orbis. lib. iii. cap. 3. fTIist. Nat. lib. iv. cap. 27.

% Tac. Germ. cap. xxxiv. Graeters Suhm. torn. i. p. 358. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, &c. vol. iv. p. 241. j| Tac. Germ, cap xliv. I

I. ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE NOTRH. 5

Several other tribes are also enumerated by Tacitus, who probably were members of the nation, or rather confederation of the Saxons ; all of whom worshipped the Scandinavian goddess Hertha, or Mother-Earth, whose statue consecrated in a sacred grove, situated in an island of the sea (probably Zealand) was adored with dark and mysterious rites.* On the western shores of the Baltic, called by him the Suevic sea, the same historian had been told of the ^styi, whose manners and customs were identical Avith those of the German Suevi, whose language resembled that of the Britons. This tribe adored the Mother of the Gods, in whose honour they carried the image of a boar, the animal consecrated to the goddess Freya of the Northern mythology. They gathered upon the shores of the sea the yellow amber cast up by its waves, and were astonished at the price paid by the luxury of Rome for this commodity, which to them seemed valueless.f

The Chersonesus Cimbrica, the modern peninsula of Jutland, was the country from which, according to the notions of the Romans, migrated the famous nation of the Cimbri, who invaded Italy with a formidable host about a century before the Christian sera. " Not a small tribe," says Tacitus, " but mighty in fame : the vestiges of their ancient glory still remain in fortifications by the magnitude of which you may measure their former greatness. Our city reckoned six hundred and forty years from its foundation, when the rumour of the Cimbric incursion was first heard, during the consulship of Cecilius Metellus and Papirius Carbo : from which, if we reckon to the late consulship of the emperor

* Tac. Germ. cap. xl.

f Tac. Germ. cap. xlv.

Trajan, two hundred and ten years have elapsed to our own times. What a prodigious length of time has the conquest of Germany required, and in the course of such a protracted war, what a succession of events alternately fortunate and calamitous ! No other nation has so often given us cause to dread their arms : not the Samnites, nor Carthagenians, nor Spaniards and Gauls, nor even the Parthians : for the despotic energy of the Arsacidse is less to be dreaded than the German arm nerved by freedom. After all, if you except the defeat of Crassus, what triumphs can the subject East boast over the eagles of Rome ? But the Germans have captured or defeated five armies of the republic, commanded by consular generals, besides the fatal destruction of Varus and his three legions under Augustus Caesar. Nor were they driven back to their native wilds by the consul Marius from Italy, by the divine Julius from Gaul, and by Drusus, Tiberius, and Germanicus from the banks of the Rhine, without great sacrifices on our part. The immense preparations and boastful threats of Caligula were only the object of their ridicule. After a period of some tranquillity, they have again profited of our internal discords and civil wars to break up the winter quarters of the legions and threaten the Gauls, and though recently repelled, they have been rather triumphed over than conquered."*

Tacitus doubts whether he should consider the Fenni as a Sarmatian or a German tribe. Ptolemy seats them in the south-eastern parts of Lithuania; Tacitus still further north. They were, according to the historian's account, a savage race, living in squalid poverty and

* Tac. Germ. 36.

I. ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE NORTH. 7 misery : they had neither arms, nor horses, nor homes : feeding upon the grass of the fields, lying upon the bare ground, clothed with the skins of wild beasts; their sole trust was in their arrows, which for want of iron they pointed with bones. Both men and women hunted together, and shared the produce of the chace. Their infant children had no other shelter from the wild beasts and the elements than the interwoven boughs of the trees ; which formed in youth their place of repose, in old age their last asylum. Still they esteemed their lot happier than that of those who, cultivating fields and building habitations, were the alternate slaves of hope and fear.*

Such is a brief summary of the imperfect accounts to be gleaned from the classic writers of Greece and Rome, concerning the ancient North. In the decline of the Roman empire, the history of the wars, by which the kingdom of the Goths was established in Italy and that of the Vandals in Africa, was written by Procopius, the secretary of Belisarius, who speaks of the Goths, Vandals, and Gepidae as in fact one people, in respect to their origin, language, manners, and institutions. " They are all," says he, of a fair complexion, have red or yellow hair, and a tall manly stature ; are governed by the same laws and customs, were all formerly of the same heathen religion, and are now universally Arian Christians. Their language is that called the Gothic, and they regard themselves as one nation, descended from the same common stock." He also describes the migration and wanderings of the Heruli in the fifth and sixth centuries, from the banks of the Danube to the northern

Tac. Germ. 46.

HISTORY OF THE NORTHMEN.

ocean, quite to the country of the Danes, whence they crossed the sea and came to the island of Thule, where they resided in the time of Procopius. Thule was a very large island, much larger than Britain, but quite uninhabited in the extreme northern parts. The inhabited part was divided among three nations or tribes, each of which had its king. Among these, he describes the Skrithfinni, (SicjO^t^tvot) with the same features which Tacitus has ascribed to his Fenni; the Gauten, who were the most numerous; and the Heruli, then recently established in the neighbourhood of the former. All the nations of Thule worshipped numerous gods and demons, who inhabited the earth, air, and waters — both the sea, and the fountains or living streams. To these they offered various kinds of sacrifices, and especially human. Thus they frequently sacrificed their prisoners taken in war to Mars, whom they revered as the most powerful of the gods.*

Cassiodorus, the principal minister at the court of Theodoric, the Gothic King of Italy, gratified the pride of the barbarian conquerors with a history of their nation, compiled from the ancient songs and tales which were preserved among them by tradition. The original of this history is lost, and the abridgment of Jornandes affords but an imperfect idea of its contents. But this latter writer was himself a Goth, and the notices he has given of the migrations and wanderings of that nation harmonize with the ancient traditions of the North as preserved by the native authors. According to Jornandes, the Goths crossed the northern seas from the

* Procopius, de Bello Vandalico. lib. i. cap. 2. De Bello Gothico. lib. ii. cap. 14, 15.

I. ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE NORTH. 9 great island of Scandia or Scanzia, under tlie command of their king Berk, and the place where they landed on the southern shore of the Baltic was called Gothiscanzia. They subjugated the Vandals on the sea-coast, and several generations afterwards migrated to Scythia on the borders of the Black Sea, from whence they moved to attack the Roman empire. They were divided into Ostrogoths and Visogoths, East and West Goths, — from their original seats in Scandinavia, a distinction which they always preserved, wherever they transferred their abodes. They traced the genealogies of their hereditary princes up to the gods or demigods, called the Arises, and the exploits of these heroes were celebrated in traditionary songs and tales.*

In the history of the Lower or Greek empire, we find other traces of contact between the Scandinavian nations and the southern countries of Europe. The Baltic sea was the earliest scene of their maritime achievements. They were saluted by the native tribes in the gulf of Finnland with the appropriate name of Varsengers ( Vseringjar) or sea-rovers. In the latter part of the ninth century, the chief of one of these bands of adventurers established himself at Austergard, or Novogorod ; founded the first dynasty of the Tzars, and mingling the blood of his Norman followers with that of the native Slaves, formed the original germ of the present gigantic nation and empire of Russia. Other adventurers followed in the track of their countrymen. Some passed through Russia (Gardarlki) and sought employment in the service of the Greek emperors at Constantinople. They

* Jornandes, de Rebis Geticis. cap* 3, 4, 13 — 17. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, &c. vol. i. p. 332.

were retained by these degenerate monarchs as body-guards ; their strength was recruited by numerous bands of Icelanders, Norwegians and Danes, who came by the Atlantic and Mediterranean from the ' Island of Thule;' and the brave Vseringjar afterwards defended with tried fidelity the tottering throne of the Cgesars.*

In the latter part of the fifth century of the Christian sera, the island of Britain, deserted by its Roman masters, was invaded and subdued by three different tribes of Barbarians who dwelt between the Elbe and the Baltic sea, — the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. The history of the Anglo-Saxon nation, which was formed by the blending of these tribes, is intimately connected with that of the Scandinavians, and it has for us an interest lively and enduring, since from it we trace the origin of the English name and nation. But the race of the Anglo-Saxons belongs to the Teutonic, not the Scandinavian family ; and though they participated in the widely diffused worship of Odin, the language spoken by them is perfectly distinct from the ancient Northern, or Icelandic tongue. The Jutes, who came from the northern parts of the Cimbric Chersonesus, were the least numerous of these emigrating tribes. The Angles dwelt in the present duchy of Sleswick,

* Gibbon, Decline and Fall, &c. vol. x. ch. 55. Leveque, Historie de Russie. torn. i. p. 16. Karamsin, Geschichte des Russischen Reiches. torn. i. p. 37, 91. Suhm, Historie af Danmark, torn. ii. p. 91. Note (a). Gibbon states, that among these adventurers were Anglo-Saxons, but I am not able to find, from an examination of the authorities he cites, that there is any proof that there were among them any considerable proportion of our Saxon ancestors, unless, indeed, it be after the Norman conquest, though it is very probable there may have been some before.

I. PERIPLUS OF THE NORTH SEA. 11 which they entirely abandoned, leaving the country a perfect desert. The Saxons were of that tribe of the Saxon confederation who inhabited Nordalbingia, or the territory between the Elbe and the Eyder.*

Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, was the first sovereign in modern Europe after Charlemagne, who had a proper sense of his public duties, and who aimed to promote the general welfare of society as the object of government, instead of living and reigning merely for his own personal gratification. His talents for the business of war and government were associated with a taste for the useful and elegant arts. His inquisitive mind, insatiable in its thirst for knowledge, was directed with untiring activity towards everything that could contribute to the improvement of society. Among other translations of Latin writers into the Anglo-Saxon tongue, for the instruction of his countrymen, he made a version of the epitome of ancient history of Orosius, to which he added some account of the geography of Europe, derived from the result of his own enquiries. In this work Alfred has inserted the narrative given him by Otter, or Ohter, a Norwegian navigator, of his voyages and discoveries during

* Rask, Angelsaxisk Sprogloere, &c. Professor Rask has quoted from the Saxon Chronicle the following account of the descent of the different portions of the nation from these tribes : — " From the Jutes are descended the men of Kent and of Wight, likewise that tribe of West- Saxons still called Jutland tribe. From the Old- Saxons, the East-Saxons take their origin, as well as the South- Saxons and West-Saxons. From the Angles, whose original country ever after was a desert between the Jutlanders and the Saxons, came the East-Angles, Middle-Angles, Mercians, and all the Northumbrians." Beda Venerabilis gives a similar account of the origin of the Engliah in his Hist. Eccl. lib. i. cap. 15.

HISTORY OF THE NORTHMEN.

the reign of Harald Harfager. In this narrative, Ohter stated to king Alfred that he lived to the north of all the Northmen at Halgoland, opposite to the west sea, and that the land further north was a waste, except in a few places where the Finnas dwelt, for hunting in the summer, and in the winter for fishing. He once sailed round the North cape on a voyage of discovery, and proceeded as far as the White Sea, to the east of which he found another tribe, the Beormas, who spoke nearly the same language as the Finnas. " Ohter," says the king, was a very rich man in such goods as are valuable in those countries, and had at the time he visited King Alfred six hundred tame deer, besides six decoy rein deer, which were much valued by the Finnas, because they catch the wild ones with them. Ohter was one of the most considerable men in those parts, yet he ha/i not more than twenty horned cattle, twenty sheep, and twenty swine, and what little he ploughed was with horses. The rents in this country consist chiefly of what is paid by the Finnas, in deer skins, feathers, and whalebone, ship-ropes made of whale hides or those of seals. Every one pays according to his substance; the wealthiest pay the skins of fifteen martins, five rein- deer, one bear-skin, ten bushels of feathers, a cloak of bear's or otter's skin, two ship-ropes, (each sixty ells long,) one made of whale's, and the other of seal's skin.