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IVAR THE VIKING
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IVAR THE VIKING
A ROMANTIC HISTORY
BASED UPON AUTHENTIC FACTS OF THE
THIRD AND FOURTH CENTURIES
BY
PAUL DU CHAILLU
AUTHOR OF “THE VIKING AGE,” “THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN,”
“EXPLORATIONS IN EQUATORIAL AFRICA,” “A JOURNEY TO
ASHANGO LAND,” ETC.
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY ALBEMARLE STREET
1893
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TO GEORGE W. CHILDS
My Dear Childs: Years of our unbroken friendship, going back more than a
quarter of a century, have passed away, and the recollection of all
your kindnesses during that time comes vividly before my mind. Many
a time your home in Philadelphia, at the sea-side, or at Wootton has
been my home, and many of the happy days of my life have been spent
with you and your kind wife. Three years ago I lay on a sick-bed at
your house, and all that tender nursing, the skill of the physician,
and loving hands could do that winter was done for me, and for all
that I am indebted to you and to Mrs. Childs. Now a twenty miles’
walk day after day does not fatigue me. “Ivar the Viking” was partly
written, after my recovery, under the shade trees of Wootton and in
the midst of the perfume of its flowers. To you, my dear old friend,
I dedicate the book as a token of the esteem and high regard I have
for your noble character, and in grateful remembrance of all you
have done for me.
PAUL DU CHAILLU.
NEW YORK, September, 1893.
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INTRODUCTION
THE story of “IVAR THE VIKING” depicts the actual life of Norse chiefs
who ruled at the period therein described, and also gives the customs,
religion, life, and mode of thinking which prevailed among the people.
My object in writing this story is to give a view, in a popular way, of
the life of these early ancestors of the English-speaking peoples, whose
seat of power was on the islands situated in the basin of the Baltic and
the countries known to-day as Scandinavia.
The reader of this volume will gain a correct idea of the civilization
of the Norsemen of that period, the men who came to the gates of Rome,
and settled in Britain, Gaul, Germania, on the shores of the
Mediterranean, and other countries.
I begin the story of my hero with his birth, accompanied by the
characteristic ceremonies attending it; then I tell of his fostering,
his education, his coming of age, of the precepts of wisdom he is
taught, of his foster-brothers, of the sacred ceremony of
foster-brotherhood, of his warlike expeditions and commercial voyages,
of the death and funeral of his father, of his accession to rule, and
other similarly typical Viking events.
I speak in the narrative of the dwellings of the people; how they lived;
of their “bys,” or burgs; of the different grades making up society; of
their feasts; of their temples; of their worship, religious ceremonies,
and sacrifices; of funerals; of Amazons; of athletic games; of women and
maidens; of love; of duels and sports; of dress; of men and women; of
marriages. In a word, the book is a life-like picture of the period. The
time which I have chosen is the epoch when the Norsemen were most surely
and swiftly sapping the power of Rome, and engaged in colonization on
the largest scale.
There is not an object, a jewel, either Norse, Roman, or Greek, or a
coin mentioned, that has not been found in the present Scandinavia, and
is not seen to-day in its museums, and often in great numbers.
The descriptions of customs interwoven in the narrative are derived from
authentic records, the sagas, the evidence of graves, and of antiquities
in general. These are more fully, scientifically, and technically
described in my work published three years ago, “The Viking Age.”
The descriptions of dresses of the women have been most carefully drawn
from the sagas, and from the handles of three keys seen in “The Viking
Age,” where three women in full dress are represented. The materials and
jewels with which I have adorned them are those found in their graves.
The attire of the men is from the garments, weapons, and ornaments of
that early period, found in graves and bogs, and from descriptions in
the sagas.
* * * * *
“The Viking Age” had hardly been published in England, when a storm of
protests and adverse criticisms arose from many quarters of that
conservative country; for it is there that the old belief in the Angle
and Anglo-Saxon descent of the modern English-speaking peoples is most
rooted, having indeed become a religion with many Englishmen.
I fully expected opposition to the new views I propounded. Had not my
former accounts of African travels been received with incredulity? Did
not the people laugh when I told that I had seen a race of pigmies and
been in their villages? Did they not doubt my descriptions of the great
equatorial forest, of gorillas, cannibals, etc.? I was before the time.
I was too young; and these circumstances were against me. But then, as
in the case of “The Viking Age,” I found warm supporters and defenders
in England itself.
I knew that it was bold on my part to attack the Saxon idol which had
been worshipped so long among Englishmen, and to try to destroy the
faith in which they and their fathers had believed. Was the glorious
Anglo-Saxon name which the people had been shouting for so long, even in
America, to be overthrown? What, then, would become of the sturdy
qualities claimed as inherited from the so-called Anglo-Saxon race? The
qualities are there, only the name of Anglo-Saxon ought to be changed to
that of Norse.
Nothing but absolute conviction made me take this bold step. I had never
been satisfied with the assertions of historians, and could see no
evidence in their writings for the conclusions at which they had arrived
in regard to the name Anglo-Saxon and as to who were the conquerors and
settlers of Britain.
When I travelled in the Norselands, to the northern part of which I gave
the name of “The Land of the Midnight Sun,” a name which has been
generally adopted since, I became convinced that the conquerors of
Britain were Norse; for while visiting their museums, which contained
the Norse antiquities, I saw that these objects were the same as those
called in England by antiquarians, Angle, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Roman, and
in France, Frankish. These facts set me thinking, and ultimately
produced “The Viking Age.”
* * * * *
As soon as I brought before the public the evidence I had collected,
many voices rose and exclaimed: “Woe to him who tries to dispel our
belief and destroy our faith!” The world is full of such examples in the
treatment of new ideas. How could I escape hostility when I proclaimed
that the antiquities called in England by archæologists and others, and
classified in the museums as Angle, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Roman, are Norse,
consequently that the ancestors of the English-speaking people are from
the basin of the Baltic and present Scandinavia, and that it is only
there that one sees the antiquities of a most warlike and sea-faring
race of the period of the so-called _Saxon_ maritime expeditions?
Many apply the name of Anglo-Saxon to the people who settled in Britain,
without knowing why, except that they had been taught to believe it from
their school and college days, or because the majority believe so. I
maintain that the earlier England, popularly placed at the southern part
of the peninsula of Jutland, is mythical; that such antiquities pointed
out as Angle are not found there; that the word “eng” (Swedish äng) is a
common appellation all over Scandinavia; that “england,” or “äng land,”
to this day, is the name given to flat, grassy land by the Norse people,
as it was in earlier times. The probability is, that the Norsemen,
seeing the flat shores of Britain on the North Sea, called it “England,”
or Land of Meadows; and the people, in the course of time, were called
meadow-men, as we say mountaineers, in speaking of people inhabiting
mountainous regions.
* * * * *
Some of my critics took up the question of language. The reason they
gave for not agreeing with me was, that the English had the definite
article “the,” and the Icelandic saga-writings did not possess it; this
was, according to them, the most positive proof that the earlier English
people were not Norse. One might as well have argued that the French
language was not derived in great part from the Latin, as it has the
definite article, and the Latin had not. Who can ever tell when the
definite article was dropped or added in those languages?
I never expected that the appearance of “The Viking Age” would convert
to my views men who had spent their lives in trying to prove, or in
maintaining the belief in, the Anglo-Saxon myth, and who believed in the
diffuse, contradictory, and often incomprehensible writings of Bede and
Nennius, or in the earlier English chronicles, the authorship of which
cannot be traced. But I have often wondered why no one has compared
thoroughly the Norse archæology of that period with that of Britain,
which is claimed as that of the Angle, Anglo-Saxon, as being the early
settlers of Britain; and the only reason I could discover that anyone
had for calling these antiquities by those names was because of blind
confidence that these settlers were what the historians claimed them to
be.
Those who cling to the Anglo-Saxon belief point to here and there a few
graves in the ancient Friesland, similar to those found in England, as a
proof that the earlier settlers of Britain did not come from the Baltic.
As if it were possible that none of these Norsemen, who used to visit
Friesland as far back as before the time of Tacitus, could have failed
to die there during several centuries! They forget, also, that the
Romans never mentioned the people of that country as sea-faring. On the
contrary, the maritime tribes that harassed them “were living on the
most northern shores of the sea—in the ocean itself.” The antiquities
left by these sea-faring tribes are those that must give us light on the
subject.
One might just as well assert one thousand years from now that the
people of English descent of the present time living at the Cape of Good
Hope were the ones that held sway over India, because they were nearer
than England to India, or that the solitary graves or little English
cemeteries found between England and India were those of the people who
governed India. A little more research would prove to them that the
great seat of power was in England. We learn from archæology where
Egypt, Greece, Rome, and many other fallen empires held their sway. So
we may know, from the traces left, where the Norsemen held theirs also,
and that nowhere did they hold it more firmly than in Britain.
The controversy, to me, seems very plain. I have maintained in “The
Viking Age,” and shall continue to do so, until I am shown to be
mistaken, that: It is in the basin of the Baltic, and in the Norselands,
that we see incontestable proofs as to who were the sea-faring people
whom the Romans called first Sueones and then Saxons, as shown by the
tens of thousands of graves of that period still existing; that these
graves and their antiquities are the same, and of the same type, as
those of a similar period in England; that in these Norse graves a great
many Roman coins of gold and silver, and many Roman and Greek objects
are found, showing that these sea-faring people had intercourse with
Rome, Greece, and the Mediterranean. Nay, do not the coins antedating
the Roman Empire, when patrician families of Rome coined their own
money, tell the tale of how early Norsemen went into the Mediterranean?
Are not Norse graves often seen on its shores, by the side of the graves
of the Etruscans?
I also maintain that neither at the mouth of the Elbe, nor anywhere else
out of the Norselands, do we see the remains of a dense, warlike, and
maritime population—a population which has left traces in the number of
its graves far greater than has Rome itself.
How could the host miscalled Saxon by the later Romans, which overran
Europe, till the downfall of the empire, for four centuries, avoid
leaving such traces? Their population must have been very dense in order
to allow them to send forth such vast fleets to fight and conquer the
Romans. How is it that the Saxons, whom we know as Saxons, were not a
sea-faring people in the time of Charlemagne, as we know they were not?
Simply because they never had been. How is it that in Charlemagne’s
time, on the other hand, the Sueones who must have been the Saxons of
the later Romans were dreaded by him as powerful at sea, just as they
are described by Tacitus?
Have not the races which have disappeared in America or elsewhere left
traces, and must we make an exception of the so-called Saxons of the
Romans? This would be against the evidence of everything before us.
It is by comparing the graves and antiquities of the Norselands with
those of England that we have the proof that the early settlers of
Britain were Norsemen. The scene in this volume, of Ivar going to visit
his kinsmen on the banks of the River Cam, in England, has been
described, because there is a cemetery there whose antiquities show its
Norse origin, and the Roman coins buried with them, of Trajanus, 98-117
A.D.; of Hadrianus, 117-138; Faustina, wife of Antoninus Pius, 138-161;
Marcus Aurelius, 161-180; of Maximianus, 286-305, show how early Norse
settlements began.
What are the objects found in that cemetery, and described in the
beautiful work of the Honorable R. C. Neville, “Saxon Obsequies,
Illustrated by Ornaments and Weapons Discovered in a Cemetery near
Little Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire,” printed in 1852? Swords, axes, umbos,
cinerary urns with burned bones, wooden buckets with bronze hoops,
bronze tweezers, spear and arrow heads of iron, ear picks, iron knives,
iron shears, brooches, beads of glass, and other material fired by
cremation.
I will quote the words of Mr. Neville himself: “That so large a number
of urns containing human remains should have been discovered in
conjunction with skeletons, affords a remarkably satisfactory
confirmation of the coexistence of these two modes of burial. My
experience enables me to state with confidence that the urns now
discovered differ entirely from any [Roman] I had before encountered,
and resemble closely those usually met with in Anglo-Saxon
burying-grounds, etc.”
If the reader opens “The Viking Age,” and looks over its thirteen
hundred and sixty illustrations, he will see the same objects as those
described and illustrated by Mr. Neville, and the same descriptions of
graves.
It is time that the views of antiquarians and historians of the old
school should be entirely set aside or remodelled; and that the old
England, placed popularly as existing in the southern part of the
peninsula of Jutland, and comprising a territory of a few square miles,
be considered a myth that had no reality, except in the brain of its
inventors. When I say that the antiquities found in England are the same
and of the same type as those found in the Norselands, I call this a
fact and not a theory; and when I say also that these are not found in
the Saxon lands, I call this a fact and not a theory. When I say that
the antiquities found in England are not found in the so-called earlier
England of the historian, I call this a fact and not a theory; and if I
am wrong it can be easily disproved.
But let me add, that after the appearance of “The Viking Age,” everybody
was far from being against me in England. I found there many adherents
to my views, and some even went so far as to write to me, that after the
publication of the work, and upon seeing its illustrations, they did not
believe that Stonehenge was Druidical, but was simply of Norse origin,
for there were many graves containing Viking remains in the country
round about.
The Roman records are correct. No countries but the islands of the
Baltic and Scandinavia correspond to their description. It is there that
we find a great number of Roman objects. Coins are there found from the
time of the foundation of the empire—those of Augustus 29 B.C. to 14
A.D., of Tiberius 14-37, Claudius 41-54; then in increased number those
of Nero 54-68, Vitellius 69, Vespasian 69-79, of Titus 79-81; in still
greater number those of Trajan 98-117, Antoninus Pius 138-161, of
Faustina the elder, wife of Antoninus Pius, of Marcus Aurelius 161-180,
of Faustina his wife, of Commodus 180-192; then in decreasing quantities
the coins of the subsequent emperors. By the side of these coins and
other Roman objects are Norse objects, and these Norse objects are, as I
have said, similar to those found in the England of a corresponding
period. The mode of burial is also identical in both countries. These
facts tell plainly who were the people who settled in Britain before and
after the time of Ivar the Viking and of the Roman occupation.
While the controversy was going on in England, knowing the receptive and
impartial mind of Mr. Gladstone, and having been several times the
recipient, in years past, of his kind hospitality, and remembering the
interest he had taken in my African travels, I took the liberty of
addressing to him a request for his opinion in regard to the position I
had taken. Mr. Gladstone, who was then in Oxford for the purpose of
delivering a lecture on Homer, replied the same day. I append his
letter:
DEAR MR. DU CHAILLU:
You have done me great honor by appealing to me, but I fear your
appeal is to a person prepossessed and ignorant.
My prepossessions are on your side. But I have not yet been able,
although very desirous, to examine the argument on your side as it
deserves, nor that of your adversaries.
I am a man of _Scotch_ blood only, half Highland, and half Lowland,
near the Border. A branch of my family settled in Scandinavia, in
the first half, I think, of the seventeenth century.
When I have been in Norway, or Denmark, or among Scandinavians, I
have felt something like a cry of nature from within, asserting
(credibly or otherwise) my nearness to them. In Norway I have never
felt as if in a foreign country; and this, I have learned, is a very
common experience with British travellers.
The love of freedom in combination with settled order, which we hope
is characteristic of this country, is, I apprehend, markedly
characteristic of Norway and of Denmark. I have not spoken of
Sweden, simply because I have not been there.
The ethnography of northern and insular Scotland, down even to the
Isle of Man, and the history, seem to show a very broad and durable
connection.
Still I cannot call these more than feeble generalities. I earnestly
hope, when I am a little more free, that I may be able to get some
real hold of the subject.
I think a good deal of the argument suggested by our fishing
population, and by the _curious_ persistency with which, in some
districts, Scandinavian terminations have been preserved.
Yours faithfully,
W. E. GLADSTONE.
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CONTENTS
-------
CHAP. PAGE
I HJORVARD AND GOTLAND 1
II THE VIKING LAND, AND THE 11
VIKINGS
III HJORVARD CONSULTS THE ORACLE 18
IV IVAR’S BIRTH AND LIFE FORECAST 25
V THE FOSTERING OF IVAR 31
VI IVAR ATTAINS HIS MAJORITY 47
VII IVAR’S FIRST EXPEDITION 54
VIII THE YULE SACRIFICE 80
IX IVAR’S DEFEAT OF THE ROMANS 91
X IVAR’S VISIT TO BRITAIN 99
XI THE DAUGHTERS OF RAN 108
XII ROMANTIC ADVENTURES OF SIGURD 116
XIII A VOYAGE TO THE CASPIAN 130
XIV HAKI’S BURNING JOURNEY TO 139
VALHALLA
XV DEATH AND BURNING OF HJORVARD 147
XVI HELGI AND THE VALKYRIAS 158
XVII THE INHERITANCE FEAST OF 167
HJORVARD
XVIII IVAR SPURNS STARKAD’S 176
INDEMNITY
XIX THE SLAYING OF STARKAD 182
XX THE SESSION OF THE THING 197
XXI IVAR’S VISIT TO YNGVI 202
XXII YNGVI’S POETS AND CHAMPIONS 214
XXIII YNGVI’S THREE BEAUTIFUL 221
DAUGHTERS
XXIV THE GUESTS OF THE HERSIR OF 229
SVITHJOD
XXV BEGINNING OF THE ATHLETIC 234
GAMES
XXVI GREAT FEATS OF IVAR AND 241
HJALMAR
XXVII THE FOSTER-BROTHERS FALL IN 260
LOVE
XXVIII BETROTHAL OF IVAR AND RANDALIN 268
XXIX IVAR’S DUEL WITH KETIL 275
XXX DEATH OF HJALMAR AND ASTRID 287
XXXI THE WEDDING OF IVAR AND 298
RANDALIN
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[Illustration: Letter, page 1]
[Illustration: Letter, page 2]
[Illustration: Letter, page 3]
[Illustration: Letter, page 4]
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IVAR THE VIKING
CHAPTER I
HJORVARD AND GOTLAND
THE mariner sailing in the Baltic, as he skirts the shores of Gotland,
sees on a promontory of that island several large cairns and mounds
overlooking the sea, and the country that surrounds them. This
promontory was the burial place of a family of great Vikings and rulers
who held sway over the whole island a few centuries before and after our
era. Among the most conspicuous cairns two are pointed out to the
stranger, those of Hjorvard and his son Ivar, the hero of the present
narrative.
The events of which I am going to speak to you relate to them, and to
what happened during their lives, towards the latter end of the third
and the beginning of the fourth century, between the years A.D. 270 and
320, or about sixteen hundred years ago.
Hjorvard, “the wide spreading,” so called on account of the widely
extended maritime expeditions he had undertaken, was one of the most
renowned Vikings of his time. In all his expeditions he had been
successful and always victorious in his battles. The Roman fleets had
never dared to attack him as he sailed with his numerous ships along the
coasts of their wide empire to make war upon the different countries
over which they held dominion.
Hjorvard’s ancestors, by the side of whom he now lies buried, had been
great warriors and sea-faring men like himself. They had sailed from the
Baltic to the Caspian Sea, by the present Gulf of Finland, and also
westward, along the coast of Friesland, Gaul, Britain, and as far south
as the Mediterranean. The ships used by them in their river expeditions
or along the coast during the summer months were unlike those of the
Romans, and were much admired by them. Even in the first century the
Romans feared these men of the north on account of the great fleets they
possessed, and placed them as living on the most northern shores of the
sea, in the very ocean itself. They called them Sueones; and all they
knew of their country was what these Sueones told them about it, for the
Baltic was an unknown sea to the Romans.
Hjorvard was of high lineage, for he was descended from Odin, and he
belonged to that branch of the family of Odin called Ynglingar, which
ruled over Svithjod, a realm that embraced a great part of the present
Sweden.
Sigrlin, his wife, was a very handsome woman, and possessed all the
accomplishments belonging to women of her high rank. She was also of
Odin’s kin; was a direct descendant of Skjöld (the Norse word for
shield), one of the sons of Odin, from whom the Skjöldungar are
descended. The Skjöldungar ruled over that part of the land which to-day
is called Denmark, but which was then called Gotland. Her father was
called Halfdan, and resided at Hleidra, not far from where Copenhagen
stands to-day, and was one of the great rulers of the north.
Not far from the cairns and mounds just mentioned was Dampstadir, the
head “by,” or burg, the residence of Hjorvard and of the rulers of
Gotland. From this place a long panorama of coast and land could be
seen, and the eye lost itself in the dim horizon of the sea. There
Hjorvard lived in great splendor. The buildings which made up Dampstadir
were among the finest of the northern lands; they were of different
sizes and varied architecture, and, like all the structures of those
days in the north, were entirely of wood. They were roofed with
shingles, heavily tarred, their dark color contrasting pleasantly with
that of the log walls of the houses.
All the numerous buildings formed a vast quadrangle, enclosing a large
plot of grass called “tun,” or town. From the centre of the square the
sight was extremely beautiful and picturesque, for there were not two
buildings of the same appearance or size. Some were finer than others,
of course, but all were quaint; from their roofs and sides, gargoyles,
representing heads of horses or dragons and other wild beasts, stuck out
boldly into the air from every side, or looked, with heads inclined
downward, towards the ground. There were a few houses with towers,
called lofts; in these towers were a number of sleeping-rooms, and from
their tops, in time of war, a sharp lookout was kept for the enemy’s
vessels. Many buildings were also used as store-houses.
Before the doors of many houses were porches, ornamented with carvings,
while others had belfries and dark piazzas with ladder-like stairs
leading to them, their weather-beaten walls of hard logs seeming to defy
the ravages of time, for many of them, at that time even, dated
centuries back. Some were specially for the use of the women members of
the family of Hjorvard and for their household, for it was customary for
women to have their “skemmas,” or bowers, all to themselves. There they
received their friends and spent their time in sewing and embroidering.
There were several festive halls for every-day use. During the winter
long fires ran along the centre of these, the smoke escaping through
openings in the roof, which openings could be closed when necessary.
Along the walls ran long benches, and tables were set in front of them.
The light came in through windows; instead of glass, the transparent
membrane enclosing the new-born calf was stretched over what were called
the light-holes.
The every-day life of Hjorvard was very simple. At the principal, or day
meal, Sigrlin sat on the left hand of her husband, the seats next to
this, on both sides, being the most dignified for men and women, while
the farthest ones, near the door, were the least so. The most high-born,
oldest, and wisest man—for it was the custom for rulers to have wise men
with them who knew the ancient examples and customs of their
forefathers—sat on the northern high seat, called the lower high seat,
opposite that of Hjorvard, on whose right hand were women, the men being
on his left. It was also the custom for chiefs to carry the ale over the
fire, and drink to the man opposite the high seat, and it was thought to
be a great honor to be toasted by the host.
The most imposing and striking of all the structures along that enormous
square was the great banqueting hall; of all the buildings, this was the
one in which the chiefs and rulers took the greatest pride, for it was
there that they received their most honored guests and gave their most
splendid feasts. The banqueting hall at Dampstadir was ranked the sixth
for beauty and grandeur in the land of the Vikings, and was very old.
Two superb doors at the two ends led into the interior. The door-ways,
or jambs, of these were of solid oak, about two and a half feet wide,
and several inches thick; these were adorned with beautiful carvings,
representing scenes belonging to the religious history of the race, and
varying greatly in depth, so as to give a fine artistic effect of light
and shade. The doors themselves were of solid oak also, and were
ornamented with intricate designs made with flat iron bands, of
exquisite beauty, and perfect gems of art. A massive gold knocker
adorned each door. By one door the women entered, by the other the men.
The inside of this banqueting hall was a sight not to be soon forgotten.
The first artists and wood-carvers of the North had been employed, and
had shown wonderful skill in the elaboration and grouping of their
designs—the scenes represented including many of the deeds and
expeditions of Hjorvard’s ancestors. The carvings were considered so
beautiful that even the finest tapestry was not hung over them, and the
wood itself had become richly dark during the centuries that had elapsed
since the hall had been built. All along the walls hung shields of
variegated designs and bright colors, ornamented with gold and silver,
overlapping each other, and, of course, adding much to the gorgeousness
of the spectacle.
As was customary, this hall had been built east and west, the long walls
running north and south; along the latter were the benches for the
guests, and just in the middle of them were the two high seats, facing
each other. The most important bench ran along the northern walls, and
there the great high seat, the more honored of the two, stood facing the
sun. It was for the master of the house; and to be placed on the high
seat opposite was the greatest honor that could be shown to any guest,
consequently this seat was always assigned to the most prominent men.
The nearer the places on the benches assigned to any one were to the
high seat, the greater the honor; the places farther away, near the
door, being the lowest. These two high seats were beautifully carved,
with arms on both sides, and two pillars which were both painted and
ornamented with carving representing historical subjects.
The weapons of Hjorvard hung above his high seat—his “sax,” or
single-edged sword, his best double-edged sword, also his shield, his
“brynja,” or chain-armor, and helmet of gold. His double-edged sword,
called “Hrotti,” was a magnificent weapon. The hilt was all ornamented
with gold, and so was the scabbard; the blade was of most exquisite
damascened workmanship. This sword was in its sheath, which was wrapped
with bands called “peace bands”—for there was profound peace over the
land at the time we are speaking of—and no one but Hjorvard could
unloose them, for these were holy, and it was only when war had been
declared that it could be done.
Mementos of the expeditions of Hjorvard and of his forefathers were
scattered here and there, treasured as heirlooms. Along the walls hung
several Roman swords with Latin inscriptions upon them, which had been
in the family for two hundred years. There were Roman statuettes, bronze
vessels, and various other bronze objects, and a collection of Roman
coins of every emperor from the time of Augustus, the first Roman
emperor, to the time of Hjorvard. Among the gems of art were lovely
Grecian cups, bowls, and drinking horns of glass, some of the glass cups
and bowls adorned with charming paintings representing rural scenes,
with wild beasts, lions, bulls, birds of variegated colors, and even men
boxing with boxing gloves, all looking as fresh as the day they were
painted.
At the foot of Dampstadir was a beautiful land-locked bay where the
ships of Hjorvard lay at anchor, while on its shores were numerous
sheds, under which stood many of the ships which were thus protected
from the weather; there were also building yards, where busy carpenters
were always at work constructing or repairing vessels.
The finest ships to be seen there were the “drekis,” or dragon-ships.
These were the largest and most formidable of all warships, and derived
their names from the fact that their prows and sterns were ornamented
with the head or tail of one or more dragons. Some were covered with
sheets of solid gold, which gave a superb appearance to the ships,
especially when the sun shone upon their sides. Many of these drekis
could carry a crew of from five hundred to seven hundred men.
Besides the dragon-ships there were other war-vessels called “skeids,”
“snekkjas,” “skutas,” “buzas,” “karfi,” “ask,” and also many provision
ships which followed the fleets on their expeditions. The skeid was a
formidable war-vessel, almost equal in power to the dragon-ships, a very
fast sailer, which carried two hundred and forty men or more. The
snekkja was a smaller ship of the same general description. The skutta
was a smaller craft still, which could be manœuvred very quickly. It was
generally used for boarding other ships, the upper part of its gunwale
being so built that warriors could more easily leap upon other vessels.
All these vessels, small or large, had only one mast.
Among these ships could be seen some of the old-fashioned type which has
been described by Tacitus, with no mast, and entirely propelled by oars;
they were very sharp pointed at both ends, much like the whale-boats of
to-day, about eighty feet long, and in the widest part ten or eleven
feet broad, with fifteen or sixteen benches about three feet apart.
These boats were propelled by thirty or thirty-two oars, varying
somewhat in length, and of an average of about twelve feet. Two men, and
sometimes three, pulled each oar, and a man with a shield protected the
oarsmen on each outer side. The thole-pins were fastened to the gunwales
with “bast” ropes, and were adorned with graceful carved designs, no two
being alike. On the side, at the stern, was the rudder, resembling a
large, broad oar. They were so shaped that they could be rowed in either
direction. At the time of which we are speaking, this model of naval
architecture was fast going out of fashion, and sailing vessels
exclusively were coming into general use. All the vessels were of oak,
“clinch-built;” that is, the planks overlapped each other, and were made
fast together by large iron bolts.
* * * * *
The island of Gotland, over which Hjorvard ruled, had a very dense
population, and was, on account of its size and geographical position, a
great emporium of commerce, and with its war and trading ships occupied
at this time about the same position as the England of our days. Its
inhabitants were wealthy, and traded extensively, as their fathers had
done, with provinces of Rome, with Greece, and the countries round the
Caspian, the Black, and the Mediterranean Seas. From such distant lands
as these they brought superb bronze vessels, exquisite glass vases,
velvets and silks, beautiful objects of leather, embroidered gold and
silver textile material for dress, and many other costly objects which
the rich prized very highly, as well as wine.
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