_The Viking Age--Ansgar, the Apostle of Sweden_
“In the North there is a great ocean, and in this ocean there is a
large island called Scandza, out of whose loins our race burst forth
like a swarm of bees and spread over Europe.” These were the words the
Gothic historian Jordanes put on parchment, inspired by the popular
traditions of a Teutonic migration from the North. Historic evidence is
lacking to prove or disprove the truth of these words. But they may be
applied to the phenomenon which has given its name to the _Viking Age_.
The Viking expeditions seem to stand in connection with the great
Teutonic migrations, at least to be related to them in nature. The
Teutons of the North were not directly affected by the migrations, but
at the close of the eighth century the same restlessness and desire of
expansion appear to have taken possession of the Northmen as in earlier
times of their relatives in more southerly lands. And it was a timely
move, for the energy and strength with which these had in their time
suffused Europe were dying out. Europe was in need of new blood and
iron to wake her from her anæmia and to build up new institutions. The
North was freed from a turbulent and lawless element and was brought in
closer contact than ever before with the learning and culture of the
world. For centuries the Northmen had through their southern kinsmen
been in contact with continental culture. But now they came out to see
for themselves, to make themselves a place in a wider and richer world,
or to bring home from there what they most desired of beauty, riches
and culture. They were not delicate as to means. Violence was with them
as natural as their freedom of individuality was indispensable. Yet
they were to play a most important part in the cultural development
of Europe, furnishing her with institutions of imperishable iron and
changing the darkness of the Middle Ages into an era of chivalry in
spirit and in deeds.
The Viking expeditions were always undertaken by free men, and were
in the North, from remotest times, considered not only an honest but
an honorable occupation. Slaves and freed men were excluded. The
leaders--often kings or their sons--were always men of noble descent or
of importance. As the Viking expeditions took on larger proportions,
they became more and more organized; from random expeditions,
undertaken by individuals, they developed into national undertakings,
led by the king or his chieftains, not for a pastime, but in completion
of a national policy. On account of this latest aspect, it is but
just to divide the field in which the Northmen were active according
to their respective nationalities. With such a division applied, the
Viking expeditions to the West, to Britain, France, Portugal and Spain
do not pertain to Swedish history, for they were planned and undertaken
principally by Danes and Norwegians. It is true that there were many
Swedish participants also in these expeditions, as the sagas and the
memorial stones on Swedish soil tell us; also true that some of the
later Swedish provinces, like Bohuslæn[1] and Scania, sent out their
large contingents of Vikings and sea-kings to the West, and that one of
the oldest Swedish homes of culture, West Gothland, had an appropriate
channel to the West, by way of the mighty Gotha River, through which
without doubt many a Viking expedition was sent; yet the leaders were
in a majority of cases Danish or Norwegian chieftains. For similar
reasons the Viking expeditions to the East belong by right to Swedish
history. In them the participants and chieftains were Swedes, to an
overwhelming majority, and, from time immemorial, Swedish districts
from which the expeditions were started.
To Russia the Swedes first went on marauding expeditions; but after the
countries of the North had been shaped into three large monarchies,
they came to Russia upon special invitation, in order to found there a
realm of strong and consistent government. This becomes evident from
the testimony of the Russian historian Nestor, a monk in Kief, who
lived in the latter part of the eleventh century. About the founding
of the Russian empire by the Swedes he has the following remarkable
statements:
“In the year 6367 (after the creation of the world, which is the 859th
after the birth of Christ) the Variagi (or Varangians) came across the
sea, taking tribute from the Tchud and the Slavs,” etc.--“In the year
6370 (862 A.D.) they chased the Variagi back across the sea, giving
them no tribute and commencing to govern themselves, but it turned out
badly with legal affairs, tribe rose against tribe, causing strife,
and a rebellion was started. Then they said between themselves: ‘Let
us seek a prince who will govern us and reason with us justly!’ And
they went across the sea to the Variagi, to the Russians, for thus
were the Variagi called, just as others were called Sviar, others
Nurmanni, others Anglii, and others Goths. And the Tchudi (the Slavs
of Novgorod), the Slavs, the Krivitchi and the Vessi said to the
Russians, ‘Our land is great and fruitful, but it lacks order and
justice; come and take possession, and govern us!’ And three brothers
with their followers were selected, and they took the whole of Rus with
them and came. And the oldest, Rurik, took his abode in Novgorod, the
second, Sineus, his in Bielo-Jesero, and the third, his in Isborsk;
his name was Truvor. After two years Sineus and his brother Truvor
died. Rurik then took the whole power into his hands and gave towns
over to his men, giving to one Polotsk, to another Rostof, and to a
third Bielo-Jesero. And into these towns the Variagi have migrated; the
earlier inhabitants in Novgorod were Slavs, in Polotsk, Krivitchi, in
Rostof, Meri, and in Bielo-Jesero, Vessi.”
That the Variagi were of Swedish descent, and that it was they who
gave the name of Russia to the Slav countries, is proved beyond the
possibility of a doubt. A most weighty argument is the large number of
Swedish names in the list of Variag princes who reigned in Russia. It
would not have been possible for Nestor to devise the more than one
hundred leading names of Swedish origin which occur in his chronicle.
Furthermore, it has been shown that there are fifteen Swedish loanwords
in Russian. This is very much. Great and powerful nations have left
behind a good deal less in modern languages, the Vandals three words,
the Burgundians four or five, the Herulians one. Although the Swedes in
Russia had no literature in their ancestral language, they have left
behind more words than the majority of Teutonic tribes founding states
and nations. The Old Swedish equivalents to some of the most important
proper names which meet us in early Russian history are as follows:
Rurik--Hrœrekr, Sineus--Signjótr, Truvor--Tryggve, Oleg--Helge,
Olga--Helga, Igor--Inge, Ingvar.
For two hundred years after Rurik, all the leading men in Russian
history carry Swedish names, and all the czars of Russia were the
descendants of Rurik, up to the year 1598. The emperor and historian
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, speaking of Russia, makes the distinction
between the Slavs and the Russians proper. In his description of the
cataracts of the Dniepr, he gives to each the Russian and the Slav
name, and these Russian names are nearly all understood by reference
to old Swedish roots. Examples are Gellandri (Gellandi)--the Noisy,
Eyfórr--the Always Turbulent. Luitprand, the Italian chronicler,
speaking of the Russians, says: “The Greeks call them Russians, we call
them properly Northmen.” The annals of St. Bertinus tell how Emperor
Theophilus recommended some Russian envoys to Louis le Débonnaire, but
how he, taking them for Norman spies, threw them into prison. The first
Russian Code of Laws, compiled by Iaroslaf, presents a striking analogy
to the Old Swedish laws.
The Slavs must have originally borrowed the name Russian from the
Finns, who, up to the present day, call the Swedes _Ruotsi_. The name
is in Sweden connected with a part of the coast of Upland still called
Roslagen. The etymology of the name is Old Swedish _rodr_ (rudder)
and _roðsmenn_ (oarsmen). Roslagen means “associations of oarsmen.”
The district is famous for its large peculiar rowboats. By the term
Russians, the Slavs originally meant people from Roslagen, later Sweden
in general. But when these Russians had become the founders of a new
empire, south of the Baltic, it became necessary to devise a new name
for the inhabitants of Sweden. This name was found in Variagi. Only
the Swedes seeking employment as sworn warriors in the service of the
new Russian dynasty, or in the body-guard of the Byzantine emperors,
were originally thus called. But when the name of the new nation of
Swedes and Slavs became Russians, the Swedes, and the Scandinavians
in general, became known as Variagi. The etymology of the word has
been given as the Old Swedish _vár_ (_sacramentum_) and _væringar_
(_sacramentarii_, soldiers bound by oath). The same name applied to
Swedes, or Northmen, occurs frequently in slightly altered forms in
Greek and Arabic manuscripts.
While Rurik and his brothers were building towns, which probably
means the fortifying of ancient villages, two other Variagi, Askold
and Dir, who were not of the family of Rurik, went down to Kief, and
reigned over the Poliané. It was they who began the expeditions against
Byzantium in 865. In speaking of this, Nestor calls the Bosphorus
_Sud_, an Old Swedish word meaning a sound. The Bosphorus is also
called Sud on a Swedish memorial stone over a man who was killed in a
similar expedition.
Oleg, the fourth brother of Rurik, was his successor, his son Igor
being yet a minor. He was an energetic man and a great administrator.
Smolensk, Lubetch and Kief were captured, and Askold and Dir put to
death. Between the years 879-912, Oleg organized the Russian empire.
For the sake of commerce, he tried to preserve peace with the Greeks,
but when difficulties arose he called in new armies from Sweden and
great expeditions started against Byzantium. But these Variagi were
an unruly element, and, in order to satisfy their desire for war and
booty, the Russian rulers always let a plundering expedition to the
Caspian Sea follow every unsuccessful attack upon Byzantium; also when
war with the Greeks was avoided through decrees of peace, expeditions
to the Caspian Sea took place.
These expeditions against the Arabs, who inhabited the coasts of the
Caspian Sea, were neither in any marked degree successful. Masudi
is the first author among the Arabs who mentions the expeditions of
the Swedes. They came down the river Volga in their ships. The Arabs
describe the “Rûs” as blond and “tall as palm-trees.” The burial of a
Rûs is described by Ibn Fosslan, who visited Bulgaria in 921. “The hero
was burned in a ship with weapons, horses, dogs and a woman.” In 965,
the Israelite, Ibrahim Ibn Jakub, made a journey to Germany. He tells
that the Arabs in his day with Rûs (Russians) meant partly the Swedes
of Sweden, “who often came in ships from the West to plunder,” partly
the Swedes settled in Russia, “who speak the language of the Slavs, on
account of admixture with them.”
It was the destiny of the Swedes in Russia to exchange their language
for that of the Slavs and finally to absorb Slav customs. Such might
not have been the case if they had been greater in numbers, or if their
coming had been deferred to a later, Christian period, when to a strong
form of government would have been added a strong Church organization.
Yet their influence was greater than that of the Vikings in any other
country, for the Russian empire was entirely a Northern creation.
To follow further the Rurik dynasty would lead us away from Swedish
into Russian history. But let us mention that Oleg was succeeded
by Rurik’s son Igor, who also was a great war-lord, and undertook
the third expedition of Russians and Variagi against Byzantium. His
widow was the celebrated Olga, who was converted to Christianity
and afterward canonized. She reigned during the minority of her son
Sviatoslaf, whose conversion she was never able to effect. Sviatoslaf’s
son and grandson, Saint Vladimir and Jaroslaf the Great, were the
Clovis and the Charlemagne of Russia.
After the conquest of Kief, Oleg commanded a tribute to be paid to the
Variagi “for the preservation of peace.” This tribute to the Swedes
was paid up to the death of Jaroslaf, who in 1019 gave assurance to
the king of Upsala that it should be paid regularly, Vladimir having
neglected to do so. This tribute could be nothing else than a scat
paid to the king of Sweden by the rulers of Russia during the ninth
and tenth centuries. Sweden possessed in those days a large territory
south of the Baltic, which paid scat to the king of Upsala. It was
called Austria (_Austerike_), and reference to it under this name is
often made in sagas, chronicles and inscriptions. Ynglinga Saga gives
incidents of close Swedish connections to Finland and the Baltic
provinces, and archæological finds point to Swedish settlements in
Finland, already in the prehistoric period. Memories of conquests are
preserved in statements by the Icelanders and by Saxo, the Danish
historian, about the Austria of which the Swedish kings Ivar Vidfamne,
Harald Hildetand, “Sigurd” Ring and Ragnar “Lodbrok” were rulers.
Closest to an exact statement comes Snorre, who says that King Eric
Edmundson of Sweden ruled over Finland, Carelia, Esthonia, Courland
and “wide over all Austria.” These countries belonged to Sweden until
King Olof Skœtkonung “let all his scatlands get away from him.” The
chronicler Rimbert says that Courland, by which he means the Baltic
provinces, in 850 belonged to Sweden. Shortly after this date fall,
according to Nestor, those of the first Swedish contact with interior
Russia (859) and of the founding of the Russian empire by Rurik (862).
The Swedish dominion in the Baltic provinces, as well as the early
Russian empire, must consequently have held a position similar to the
one of Normandie to France and England.
The old Swedish name for Russia was Gardarike, for Novgorod Holmgard
and for Byzantium Miklagard, which mean “Country of towns,” “Island
town,” and “Great town,” respectively.
Vladimir of Russia, in 980, sent a number of Variagi to the emperor.
But already the emperors had probably surrounded themselves with
a small standing army of Variagi or Barangoi, as they were called
by the Greeks. They were treated with a good deal of respect and
consideration, and in the North it was considered a distinction
to have served in Miklagard, which even the sons of kings eagerly
sought for. Soon not only Swedes, but also Norwegians, Danes and
Icelanders were attracted, and Icelandic sources have a good many,
in part wildly exaggerated, accounts of the Variagi and their
experiences in Miklagard. The Northmen were relied upon to support the
tottering empire, and were despatched to the points where the hardest
combats were fought. They had officers of their own nationality,
and the strictest discipline was maintained. About the year 1050
a detachment of Variagi were accepted into the body-guard of the
emperor, surrounding his person on all great occasions and in public;
also keeping watch over the imperial palace. When the emperor died,
they had, according to Snorre, the privilege of passing through his
treasury, each taking along all he could carry off. Another privilege
of theirs was that they were allowed to keep their heathen faith in the
midst of the Christian surroundings.
Many and various as the reasons for the Viking expeditions must have
been, the principal cause that led to their abolition was the contact
with Christianity abroad, and the introduction of its teaching in the
heathen North. The first missionaries to Sweden were sent by Louis the
Pious, but Christianity was not entirely unknown before their arrival.
For centuries, the Swedes had through commercial expeditions stood
in direct or indirect contact with the Christian world, and this had
brought home some knowledge of “the white Christ” and his gospel of
peace. Many Northmen had been baptized while dwelling in foreign lands,
and many must the Christian thralls have been who continually were
brought into the country. The influence these elements exerted probably
could be traced to the ennobling and developing of heathen myths,
rather than to direct Christian conversions. And a similar influence of
Roman and Greek myths, without doubt, exerted upon the North in earlier
historic times.
Ansgar, a learned and pious monk from the convent of Corvey, became the
apostle of Sweden. He had spent two years in Denmark as a missionary
when called upon by Emperor Louis to visit Sweden. Louis the Pious had
received the assurance by Swedish emissaries that the new faith would
not meet with any obstacle, and that many were willing to embrace it.
Ansgar started in the year of 830, accompanied by Witmar, also of the
Corvey convent. They were well received by King Biœrn, and were able
to comfort many Christians in Swedish captivity, besides converting
some of the inhabitants. Among the converts was the powerful Jarl
Herger, who for a long period was the chief supporter of Christianity
in Sweden. After about a year and a half, Ansgar and Witmar returned
to the emperor, who, satisfied with the result of their mission,
erected a special archbishopric in Hamburg for the spiritual needs of
the North. Ansgar was made the archbishop and, with Ebo, archbishop
of Rheims, apostolic legate among Swedes, Danes and Slavs. At the
same time, Gauzbert was made the first bishop of Sweden under the
name of Simon. He went to Sweden and was well received by its king
and people. But a revolt against the new faith soon rose among the
heathens, not issuing from the king but from the people. Gauzbert
was captured and with contumely escorted out of the country, while
his relative, Nithard, was killed, thus becoming the first Christian
martyr in Sweden. For seven years the country was without a preacher
of the Gospel, until Ansgar sent thither a new missionary, Ardgar,
who stayed there preaching until the death of Herger. In the meantime
Vikings had destroyed Hamburg, and not before its bishopric had been
united to that of Bremen was Ansgar in a position to visit Sweden for
a second time. This he effected early in the fifties of the ninth
century, coming this time as a kind of ambassador from the kings of
Denmark and Germany to give more importance to his mission. The heathen
partisans, who recently had accepted the departed King Eric among the
gods, resented, and the reigning king, Olof, dared not grant Ansgar
the right to preach. The difficulty was solved through the ancient
custom of throwing dice. Ansgar was successful in the proceedings,
and his cause was then brought before the Thing (or Assembly) for
deliberation. The people decided that permission should be granted to
preach the Gospel, principally on the grounds set forth by an old man
who rose to remind the Thing that the new God had already helped a good
many, and that it was a good thing to have him to fall back on when
the old gods failed. After having built churches and baptized a great
number, Ansgar returned home, leaving behind Erimbert, a relative of
Gauzbert’s. Archbishop Rimbert was Ansgar’s successor, himself visiting
Sweden. After his death, the archbishops of the North seem to have
ceased taking interest in Swedish missions. The little church, left
to itself, soon succumbed. When at last one of the archbishops, Unne,
woke up to the necessity of visiting Sweden, he found that the Gospel
was forgotten. He was himself surprised by death while in Sweden, and
buried in the town of Birka, in 936. Numerous graves of the earlier
Christians in Sweden have been found on the site of the old commercial
centre of Birka in the island Biœrkœ, in the Lake Mælar, unburned
bodies in wooden coffins, and the graves without mounds.
King _Eric Edmundson_ was a contemporary of Rimbert. He was engaged in
building up a Swedish dominion in Finland and on the southern shores
of the Baltic. With King Harald Fairhair of Norway he was disputing
the supremacy over the province of Vermland. He was succeeded by his
son _Biœrn_ who is said to have reigned for fifty years. _Olof_ and
_Eric_, Biœrn’s two sons, succeeded him, the former dying suddenly at
a banquet. His young son, _Styrbiœrn Starke_ (the Strong), one of the
most famous of Swedish heroes, demanded his share of the kingdom when
only twelve years old. When King Eric told him he was yet too young,
Styrbiœrn two springs in succession installed himself on the mound of
his father, by so doing making claim upon his inheritance, according
to old usage. But when he came to the Thing to demand his share in the
government he was chased away with stone-throwing. King Eric gave him
sixty ships with men and weapons to try his luck in Viking expeditions.
Styrbiœrn won great fame during several years of continual warfare in
the Baltic, capturing the mighty Jomsborg, a celebrated Viking nest in
the island of Wollin, later turning his weapons upon Denmark, where he
made the Danish king Harald Gormson Bluetooth a prisoner. He now felt
strong enough to attack his uncle, King Eric. Harald Bluetooth was to
help him, but failed to do so. Styrbiœrn sailed with a fleet to Sweden;
after having landed he burned his ships to make a return impossible.
King Eric met him at the Fyrisvols and fought a battle which was said
to have lasted for three days. Styrbiœrn fell, and with him the larger
part of his army. His uncle, the king, was after this called _Eric
Segersæll_ (the Victorious). After the battle the king ascended a high
mound, promising a great compensation to the one who could compose a
song in praise of the victory. The Icelander Thorvald Hialte, who never
previously or afterward appeared as a scald, came forth and recited
two strophes which are preserved to our day, receiving a costly armlet
of gold as reward. This battle--next to the one at Bravols, the most
famous in the heathen North--was fought in 988.
King Eric invaded Denmark and took possession of the country, making
the son of Harald Bluetooth an exile, to which facts Saxo, the Danish
historian, testifies. In Denmark Eric was baptized, the first Swedish
king about whom this is said. But upon his return to Sweden he also
returned to the old gods. Eric Segersæll was king of Sweden and Denmark
until his death, which occurred in 994. His first consort, Sigrid
Storrada (the Proud), from whom he later separated, played quite an
important part in the history of her time. After the death of Eric,
she married the exiled Svend Tjufvuskægg (their son being Canute the
Great), who through this matrimony came to the throne of Denmark.
_Olof Skœtkonung_, the son of Eric and Sigrid, succeeded his father.
His surname is supposed to mean “the lap king,” but he was no longer
a minor at the death of King Eric. King Olof was not a powerful or
energetic ruler, like the father. He let go, one after the other, the
lands of his crown. Denmark regained its independence, and he lost
also the scat-paying dominions south of the Baltic. Shortly after Olof
ascended the throne, the Norwegian king, Olaf Tryggvason, had demanded
Sigrid Storrada in marriage and obtained her consent. But when King
Olaf asked her to become a Christian, she refused to change faith,
whereupon he insulted her. Sigrid told him that this should cause his
death. Two years later, when Sigrid was the wife of King Svend of
Denmark, she prevailed upon her son and her husband to join hands in
assailing Olaf Tryggvason, who was expected back from an expedition
to the lands of the Vends. The compact was made, and the Norwegian
jarls, Eric and Svein, entered it. These all collected an immense
fleet, which assailed the unsuspecting Olaf at Svolder, close by the
coast of Pomerania. The Norwegian king lost the day and his life. This
famous battle was fought in 1000, the kings of Sweden and Denmark also
taking a personal part in it. Norway was divided between the victors.
The Swedish king received as his share the districts of Drontheim and
Bohuslæn. These he granted to Jarl Svein, who was the betrothed of
his sister Holmfrid. Fifteen years later they were recaptured by the
Norwegian king.
Olaf Tryggvason had been a devout Christian. His sister Ingeborg was
married to Jarl Ragnvald of West Gothland, who was baptized and invited
Christian missionaries to Sweden. Through such influences King Olof
Skœtkonung was at last converted and baptized by Sigfrid, a German
missionary, at Husaby in West Gothland, in the year 1008. Sigfrid, who
has been supposed to be of English parentage and a bishop of York,
evidently came from Germany. He preached for a long period in West
Gothland and Værend, in the latter district once being attacked by
heathen men, who killed three of his companions. King Olof himself saw
to it that the murderers were punished, and Sigfrid continued his noble
work without molestation. He was later worshipped as a saint. Among
other missionaries who were active in converting the various provinces
may be mentioned the Anglo-Saxon St. David, the apostle of Westmanland,
the Anglo-Saxon St. Eskil and the Swede St. Botvid, the apostles of
Sœdermanland, and the German Stenfi, or Simon, the apostle of Norrland.
St. David was a contemporary of St. Sigfrid, while the others were a
few generations younger. It was first through influence from England
and Denmark, during the reign of Canute the Great, that Swedish
conversions became more widespread and general.
King Olof’s conversion met with a great deal of opposition, especially
in Svealand, which longest remained heathen. Upsala, with its temple,
was the heathen stronghold of the North, and there the king had always,
as one of his principal duties, to preside over the great sacrifices.
King Olof was forced to accept the decision of a Thing which granted
him freedom to select some part of the kingdom wherein to build
churches and perform the duties of the new cult, but which forbade
him to use his influence toward the conversion of his subjects. For
this reason Olof dwelt principally in the more and more christianized
West Gothland, in the capital of which province, Skara, a bishop
was installed. The name of the first bishop was Turgot. Only after
more than two centuries of endeavor was the Christian Church firmly
established in Sweden, in the middle of the eleventh century; but
even at that time the great mass of the people were heathen in name.
The heathen party was so strong that it could for a long time, and
occasionally with success, keep up the battle against Christianity. It
took yet another century before the complete victory of Christianity
was an assured fact.
The reasons for the slow progress of Christianity in Sweden were many,
the principal one not being an opposition to the Christian doctrines.
The superstitious change easily from one cult to another. The sceptics
do not believe more in one god than in another. Of heathen sceptics
there were a great many in the North who believed in nothing else
than their own strength. But it was the Christian morals which were
so difficult for the Swedes to accept. Accustomed to great personal
liberty, they could not endure the restraint which Christian morals
placed upon the individual. The very spirit of Christianity, with its
kindliness and meekness, was not attractive to the Northman, who
in his own mental and physical force found a tower of strength. The
period of the first attempts at conversion was not well chosen. The
whole North was inflamed by the Viking rage for war and plunder. Then
followed a period of disinterestedness when the good seed was sown but
the field neglected. Later the too arduous zeal of the priests called
forth criticism and resistance from the Swedes, so tardy in making a
decision and so careful in weighing reasons for and against.
To this must be added the great prestige of the Upsala temple as the
heathen arc of worship in the North, and the influence of the scalds
and saga men of Iceland. Iceland was discovered in 870, and settled
principally by Norsemen from the British Isles and from the western
coast of Norway, but also to some extent by Swedes and Danes. Sudden
and brilliant was the rise of Icelandic culture, and Icelandic scalds
overran the whole territory of the North. At the court of every king
and jarl these were at home, sometimes in great numbers, and soon
to the exclusion of the native poets. For their poetry, both as to
contents and form, they were chiefly dependent upon the heathen myths
and traditions, and the result of their popularity must have been a
perfect heathen revival in those days of growing scepticism. Through
intercourse with Christians in Britain, the Icelanders had borrowed
many a noble trait, and their taste found admirers in the old North,
where such influence must have been felt through centuries of indirect
contact with lands of classical or Christian culture. We are told
of the great number of southern coins found in Swedish soil. Which
travel further and faster, thoughts or coins, and which are the more
impressionable? So although it would be unjust to deprive the Icelandic
poetry, the impressive and grand Eddic songs and the more artificial
court-poetry, of any of its beauty or originality, it is not right to
ascribe all the culture, whose blossom it is, to Iceland, or Iceland
and Norway, to the exclusion of Sweden and Denmark, or the Teutonic
world at large. Good epic poetry has been written all over Teutondom.
In Sweden strophes in the very metre of the majority of Eddic poems
have been found on tombstones. In the same manner with the contents
of the Eddic poems. Granting important exceptions, we think that the
heathen myths have been the same in the East as in the extreme West.
The very fact that Icelandic court-poetry was accepted and enjoyed by
continental chieftains presupposes a thorough knowledge and mastery of
the more popular poetry of Eddic songs of gods and heroes.
Hence the revival of heathendom in the North, by which a king like Olof
Skœtkonung for a long time was influenced, finding his chief delight in
the association with poets and saga men.
In Norway, Olaf Haraldson had ascended the throne, and he put an end to
Swedish dominion in the Norwegian districts. This caused strife, and
also considerable annoyance to the provinces touching the frontier.
Popular feeling rose high in Sweden, when the demands for a peace
guarantee with Norway were disregarded by King Olof. Jarl Ragnvald
sided with the people, desiring a union between the Norwegian king and
King Olof’s daughter Ingegerd. At a great Thing held in Upsala, in
1018, King Olof listened to Norwegian emissaries pleading for peace
and a royal marriage. Jarl Ragnvald complained of the annoyance caused
to his people of West Gothland. King Olof became indignant, but was,
through the forcible yet dignified appeal for peace by Torgny, the
_lagman_ (justice) of Tiundaland, compelled to a promise of peace and
a concession of marriage. But the king did not keep his promises. A
betrothal was arranged but soon annulled by Olof, and the Norwegian
king was in vain expecting his promised bride. At the instigation of
Jarl Ragnvald, Olaf Haraldson married King Olof’s illegitimate daughter
Astrid. As this was done without the consent of her father, Ragnvald
dared not remain in Sweden. He went to Gardarike (Russia), where he
died shortly afterward, in 1019, his widow, the princess Ingegerd, in
Novgorod becoming the wife of the Russian ruler Jaroslaf.
In Sweden, trouble was brewing against the king, who had broken faith
with his people, and in order to avoid open revolt King Olof was
forced to divide his power with one of his sons, who, although yet
a minor, was solemnly elected king. He had in baptism received the
name of _Jacob_, which so displeased his heathen subjects that it
was changed to _Anund_. King Olof also agreed to maintain peace with
Norway, meeting his son-in-law at Konghæll, in Bohuslæn, in 1019, for
a peace agreement. King Olof died two years later and was buried by
the church of Husaby, where he was baptized. He was the first king who
introduced coinage into Sweden. The earliest coins were made of silver
by Anglo-Saxons settled in Sigtuma, and resemble closely Anglo-Saxon
coins of the same period.
After the death of his father King Anund ruled alone. He entered into
an alliance with his brother-in-law of Norway against Canute, who now
was king both of Denmark and England. During Canute’s absence, Anund
and Olaf invaded Denmark. In the subsequent strife between Olaf and
Canute, Anund took no active part. King Olaf had to flee to Russia.
Upon his return he gathered an army in Sweden, with the help of Anund,
and entered Norway through Jemtland. At Stiklastad he met the much
superior Norwegian army, and lost his battle and his life, in 1030.
After his death, the sentiment in Norway changed radically, and he was
worshipped as a saint throughout the North.
Of Anund’s reign little is known. Adam of Bremen, an ecclesiastic,
whose history of the diocese of Hamburg and Bremen, during the period
788-1072, is one of the most important sources of Swedish history
in heathen times, says of Anund: “Young in years, he excelled in
wisdom and piety all his predecessors; no king was more beloved by
the Swedish people than Anund.” The historian gives as his authority
the Danish king Svend Estridsen, who as an exile stayed at Anund’s
court. Anund died in 1050 and was succeeded by his older half-brother
_Emund_, surnamed _the Old_. He was the son of a freed woman, the
daughter of a Vendish chief. For this reason he had been passed over
at the first election. Emund was educated by his mother’s relatives,
was baptized, but was not much of a Christian. He was popular neither
with the new Christian church nor with the people at large. Emund’s
unpopularity with the masses was caused by an agreement with Denmark in
regard to the boundaries when he ceded the province of Bleking. Emund
died in 1060. With him the old royal line became extinct. A new line
comes to the throne of Sweden, where, with the general acceptance of
Christianity, a new era commences.