THE VIKING LAND, AND THE VIKINGS
AT the period of which I write, the land of the Vikings embraced the
islands of the Baltic and those of the small and the great “Belt”
leading into that sea, the country known to-day as Scandinavia, which
embraces the large peninsula of Sweden and Norway, and the small
peninsula of Jutland. The whole land was virtually surrounded by sea.
Great fortifications had been built on the southern peninsula of Jutland
between the two fjords which enter it from opposite sides, so that no
incursion could take place from the land to the south.
The large islands, especially, were seats of great maritime power and
wealth. All the tribes were of a common origin and kindred; they had the
same customs and religion, practised the same burial rites,
intermarried, and spoke the same language which was called the Norranean
tongue.
These Vikings, as we have seen, were quite isolated from Central and
Western Europe, and formed a world of their own, having much intercourse
with the country forming the present Russia. Between them and Rome stood
the inaccessible swamps and forests of Germania, inhabited by wild and
barbaric tribes. Great, indeed, was the contrast that existed between
the Vikings and the tribes of Germania. All these tribes called
themselves Norsemen, or Northmen; they were intensely warlike, and had
been sea-faring people from immemorial time. The deeds done on the sea
in by-gone ages could only be seen or remembered by graves made
venerable by the centuries that had passed over them, or by the large
tracings deeply engraved upon the rocks, seen to this day, representing
sea-fights, raids, and invasions. Like the hieroglyphics of Egypt, they
were the mementos of a great past, forever forgotten.
The Norsemen of our period used only weapons of iron; those of bronze
had been given up centuries before, but they were proud of that former
civilization, and boasted that at that remote time no one excelled their
ancestors in the art of manufacturing arms of bronze—a boast that has
not been made vain to this day.
Long even before the time of Hjorvard the country was unable to support
its population, and the people had in consequence become more and more
aggressive towards the inhabitants of countries to the west of them as
years passed away. Through their voyages during the preceding
generations and during their own times, they had become thoroughly
acquainted with the countries and rivers of Friesland, Gaul, Britain,
and other countries, and had been seeking new homes there. Their fleets
swarmed over every sea, and no country was exempt from their attacks.
Year after year, an innumerable, irresistible, and apparently
inexhaustible host, they poured over Western Europe, and had become
complete masters of the sea. Fleet after fleet returned home laden with
Roman spoils of all kinds.
These expeditions were undertaken by chiefs living in very different
regions of the country, and the people flocked with their ships from
every part of the land, to enroll themselves under their standards, when
they announced that they were ready to make war on the Roman world. The
ever victorious Norsemen called themselves the chosen people of the
gods, the loved ones of Odin, and considering themselves the chosen,
they never tried to convert other nations; like the Jews of old, they
despised every other religion. Wherever they obtained a foothold, they
held the land and people under an iron sway. Death had no terror for
them; Valhalla, where Odin dwelt, was to be their future abode. They
believed also in Frey, Njord, Thor, Freya, and in other gods and
goddesses.
There were many conditions of men in the great Viking’s land; different
grades of society built up the social structure. The whole country was
divided into “herads,” forming separate realms; some had a much larger
tract of territory than others, and were more powerful. Most of the
estates composing them were inherited by laws of primogeniture or
entail. Over each herad ruled a Hersir, which was the highest hereditary
dignity in the land. The title of Drott, “Lord,” or High Priest, which
had come down from Odin’s time, had disappeared and given place to that
of Hersir; the name of king was yet unknown. Each herad had a
head-temple where the yearly sacrifices for all the people were made.
The Hersir was the head of the community. He was the leader in war, and
the administrator of justice. He was the high priest in regard to
worship, and as such took care of the temple, and superintended the
sacrifices and other religious ceremonies. He held the farms and estates
belonging to the temple in trust, received a temple tax from every man
for its maintenance and that of the sacrifices. He presided over the
general assembly of the herad, called Thing, which took place several
times during the year. Through his position he acquired great wealth,
and owned many landed estates at home and in the countries he or his
forefathers had subjugated. He distributed among his warriors and scalds
costly things and much gold. He stirred up war, reddened the fields of
battle, overthrew his enemies, in order to rule over more lands and
personal property.
The Hersir’s wife was generally of Odin’s kin, and their children were
wrapped in silk and the finest of linen; their descendants were the
highest in the land.
Their sons broke horses, bent shields, smoothed shafts, shook ashen
spears, rowed and sailed ships, were believed to be able to write magic
runes to save the lives of men; to blunt the edges of weapons and calm
the sea by spells; to understand the language of birds; to quench fire,
read minds, allay sorrows, and to have the strength and energy of eight
men. Their chief occupation was to go to war and fell the enemy. Their
hair was fair, their cheeks bright and healthy, and their eyes as keen
as those of a young snake.
The Hersir’s daughters were slender-fingered, their hands and arms were
soft, their hearts lighter and their necks whiter than pure snow. They
were fair and gentle, endowed with all the accomplishments belonging to
high-born women; when they married they were clad in white bridal linen,
according to the custom of high-born people, and walked under a bridal
veil.
Next in rank to the Hersir were the Haulds, the highest class of
dwellers in the land. They lived on the estates that had descended to
them for generations. As a body of men, they were the power of the land,
and no Hersir could ever rule without their consent.
Their sons, as they grew up, learned how to handle the shield, bend the
elm, or make bows, shaft the arrow, throw the spear, ride horses, set on
the hounds, brandish the sword, practise swimming, to write runes, play
chess, wrestle, and be foremost in all athletic games. They had the same
education as the Hersir’s children; their daughters were dressed in
white, also, when they married.
After the Hauld came another class of land owners, the Bondi, whose
estates were also entailed. These people throve well on the land, broke
oxen, made ploughs, timbered houses, made barns and carts, and drove the
plough. Their daughters carried keys hanging at their side, and helped
their mothers. When they married, they too were allowed to wear white,
like the daughters of Hersirs and Haulds, to set up a household, and
sleep under linen bed-clothes; they divided wealth with their husbands.
There was another class of freemen who rented lands, for they had no
estate. The doors of the houses of these were always ajar; there was a
fire in the middle of the floor; a lumpy loaf, heavy and thick,
hand-mixed, was on the trencher; broth in a bowl, and veal, considered
the choicest of dainties, were often seen on the table.
A poorer class of freemen existed. Their doors were also always ajar;
husband and wife were always busy with their work; his beard was
trimmed, his hair lay on his forehead, his shirt was tight. His wife
twirled a distaff, stretched out her arms, and made cloth. She wore a
head-dress on her head, to show that she was no longer a maiden; a
kerchief on her neck, and brooches fastening the folds of the dress on
the shoulders.
Then came the slave, distinct from all, dressed always in thick, white
woollen stuff, with his hair cropped close, in contrast to the long hair
worn by the freeman. Such was his badge of servitude. He was always of
foreign birth or origin. He had been captured in war, or bought at a
market-place or at a fair in distant lands, and generations of slavery
had degraded him; nevertheless he also throve well in the land, but the
wrinkled skin and crooked knuckles, the thick fingers, the ugly face,
the bent back, the long heels, told the tale of his slavery and of that
of his forefathers. His life was passed in trying to learn how much he
could endure and bear; his time was employed in binding bark or bast, in
making loads, and in carrying these the live-long day. His wife came
home in the evening, weary of standing up all day. Scars were on the
soles of her feet, her arms were sunburnt, her appearance told of her
bondage. After she had come in, she sat down on the middle of the
household bench, and her son sat at her side. Husband and wife lived
happily with their children; when these grew up, they laid the fences,
tended swine, herded goats, cut wood, or dug peat. Such were the classes
that made up the population of that great and powerful Viking land.
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