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THE NORMANS
[Illustration:/Frontispiece./ BIRTHPLACE OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
FALAISE.]
THE STORY OF THE NATIONS
THE NORMANS
TOLD CHIEFLY IN RELATION TO THEIR CONQUEST
OF ENGLAND
BY
SARAH ORNE JEWETT
NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN
1898
COPYRIGHT, 1886
BY
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
TO
MY DEAR GRANDFATHER
DOCTOR WILLIAM PERRY, OF EXETER
[Illustration: EUROPE
AT THE CLOSE OF THE 11^{TH} CENTURY]
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
I.
PAGE
THE MEN OF THE DRAGON SHIPS 1-29
The ancient Northmen, 1-3 — Manner of life, 4-6 — Hall-life
and hospitality, 7 — Sagamen, 8 — Sea-kings and vikings,
9 — Charlemagne and the vikings, 11 — Viking voyages and
settlements, 12-22 — The Northmen in France, 23-27 — Modern
inheritance from the Northmen, 28.
II.
ROLF THE GANGER 30-51
Harold Haarfager, 30 — Jarl Rögnwald, 32 — Rolf's outlawry,
33 — Charles the Simple, 35 — The Archbishop of Rouen, 37 —
Hasting, 38 — Siege of Bayeux, 40 — Rolf's character, 41 —
The founding of Normandy, 43 — The king's grant, 45 — Rolf's
christening, 46 — Law and order, 48 — Rolf's death, 50.
III.
WILLIAM LONGSWORD 52-65
French influences; Charlemagne; Charles the Fat, 52-54 —
Feudalism, 55 — The Franks, 55 — Norman loyalty to France,
57 — Longsword's politics, 60 — The Bayeux Northmen, 61 —
Longsword's love of the cloister, 63 — Longsword's character,
64.
IV.
RICHARD THE FEARLESS 66-89
Longsword's son, 66 — A Norman castle, 67 — News of
Longsword's death, 69 — His funeral, 70 — Richard made duke,
70 — The guardianship of Louis of France, 72 — Detention of
Richard and escape from Laon, 73-75 — Hugh of Paris, 76 —
Louis at Rouen, 77 — Norman plots, 80 — Harold Blaatand, 81 —
Normandy against France, 82 — Independence of Normandy, 84 —
Normandy and England, 85 — Gerberga, 85 — Alliance with Hugh of
Paris; with Hugh Capet, 86-88 — Death of Richard, 89.
V.
DUKE RICHARD THE GOOD 90-114
Richard the Good's succession, 90 — French influences, 91 —
Lack of records, 91 — Prosperity of the duchy, 92 — Richard's
love of courtliness and splendor, 92 — Wrongs of the common
people; their complaint, 93-95 — Raoul of Ivry, 96 — The
Flemish colony; the Falaise fair; Richard's brother William,
97, 98 — Robert of France, 99 — Richard's marriage, 101 —
Æthelred the Unready, 102 — The Danes in England, 103 — Emma of
Normandy, 105; Trouble with Burgundy, 107 — The lands of Dreux,
109 — The Count-Bishop of Chalons, 110; Norman chroniclers, 112
— Ermenoldus; the third Richard and his murder, 112-114.
VI.
ROBERT THE MAGNIFICENT 115-129
Power and wealth of Normandy, 115 — The English princes, 118
— Cnut of England and Queen Emma, 119 — Robert's lavishness;
Baldwin of Flanders, 120-122 — The tanner's daughter, 122 —
Norman pride and Robert's defiance of public opinion, 124 —
Robert's pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 125 — His death at Nicæa, 129.
VII.
THE NORMANS IN ITALY 130-148
Hasting the pirate, 130 — Early Norman colonies in the south
of Europe, 132 — The Norman character, 134 — Tancred de
Hauteville, 135 — Serlon de Hauteville, 136 — Sicily, 139 —
Pope Leo the Tenth, 140 — Robert Guiscard, 141 — Rapid progress
of the Norman-Italian States and their prosperity, 142 — Norman
architecture in Sicily, 145.
VIII.
THE YOUTH OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR 149-170
Typical character of William, 149 — Loneliness of his
childhood, 151 — William de Talvas, 152 — The feudal system,
153 — Christianity and knighthood, 156 — Ceremonies at the
making of a knight, 157 — The oaths of knighthood, 161 — The
Truce of God, 166-170.
IX.
ACROSS THE CHANNEL 171-194
Changes in England, 171 — Æthelred, 172 — The Danegelt, 173
— The Danes again, 175 — Swegen, 177 — Cnut, 178 — Eadmund
Ironside, 180 — Cnut's pilgrimage, 181 — Godwine, 184 — Eadward
the Confessor, 187 — The Dover quarrel, 189 — Normans in
England, 192 — Castles, 193.
X.
THE BATTLE OF VAL-ÈS-DUNES 195-214
Roger de Toesny, 196 — William's boyhood, 198 — Escape from
Valognes, 199 — The Lord of Rye, 200 — Guy of Burgundy, 201
— Rebellion, 202 — Val-ès-Dunes, 204 — Ralph of Tesson, 206
— Neal of St. Saviour, 208 — William's leniency, 211 — His
mastery, 213 — The siege of Alençon, 213.
XI.
THE ABBEY OF BEC 215-231
Cloistermen, 215 — Soldiery and scholarship, 216 — Building of
religious houses, 218 — Cathedrals, 220 — Benedictines, 222 —
Herluin and his abbey, 223 — Lanfranc, 226 — His influence in
Normandy, 229.
XII.
MATILDA OF FLANDERS 232-254
Flanders, 232 — Objections to William's marriage, 234 —
Marriage of William and Matilda at Eu, 236 — Mauger, 237 —
Rebuilding of churches, 239 — William's early visit to England,
242 — Godwine's return, 244 — His death, 245 — Jealousy of
France, 246 — The French invasion of Normandy, 247 — Battle of
Mortemer, 248 — The curfew bell, 251 — Battle of Varaville, 252
— Harold of England's visit, 254.
XIII.
HAROLD THE ENGLISHMAN 255-274
Causes and effects of war, 255 — Relations of William and
Harold, 256 — Harold's unfitness as a leader of the English,
257 — His shipwreck on the coast of Ponthieu, 260 — William's
palace in Rouen, 261 — News of Harold's imprisonment by Guy of
Ponthieu, 262 — Harold's release, 264 — His life in Normandy,
265 — His oath, 267 — Eadward's last illness, 269 — Harold
named as successor, 272.
XIV.
NEWS FROM ENGLAND 275-294
Harold made king, 275 — William hears the news, 276 — The
Normans begin to plan for war, 278 — William's embassy, 280
— The council at Lillebonne, 280 — The barons hold back, 282
— Lanfranc's influence at Rome, 286 — Tostig, 287 — Harold's
army, 290 — Harold Hardrada, 291 — The battle of Stamford
Bridge, 293.
XV.
THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS 295-311
Normandy makes ready for war, 295 — The army at St. Valery,
297 — William crosses the Channel, 298 — The camp at Hastings,
300 — Harold of England, 302 — Senlac, 304 — The battle array,
306 — The great fight, 308 — The Norman victory, 310.
XVI.
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR 312-344
Norman characteristics, 312 — William's coronation, 314 —
His plan of government, 316 — Return to Normandy, 320 — Caen,
322 — The Bayeux tapestry, 323 — Matilda crowned queen, 325
— Difficulties of government, 327 — The English forests, 330
— Decay of learning in Eadward's time, 331 — William's laws
against slavery, 332 — His son Robert, 333 — The queen's death,
335 — Odo's plot, 335 — William's injury at Mantes, 337 — His
illness and death, 339 — Description from /Roman de Rou/, 341.
XVII.
KINGDOM AND DUKEDOM 345-358
William Rufus, 345 — Robert of Normandy, 346 — William Rufus
in England, 349 — Duke Robert goes on pilgrimage, 351 — Murder
of William Rufus, 353 — Henry Beauclerc seizes the English
crown, 355 — Death of Prince William, 358.
XVIII.
CONCLUSION 359-366
Development of Norman character, 360 — Northern influences,
362 — The great inheritance, 365.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
BIRTHPLACE OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. FALAISE. /Frontispiece/
MAP—EUROPE AT CLOSE OF ELEVENTH CENTURY 1
IRON SPEAR AND CHISEL 5
VIKING SHIP 13
VIKING 17
NORSE BUCKLE 21
NORWEGIAN FIORD 31
FLAILS AS MILITARY WEAPONS 77
ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. OUEN. (ROUEN) 87
QUEEN EMMA OR ÆLFGIFU 105
NORMAN COSTUMES 117
ROBERT, DUKE OF NORMANDY, CARRIED IN A LITTER TO JERUSALEM 127
NORMAN PLOUGHMAN 153
ARMING A KNIGHT 157
CONFERRING KNIGHTHOOD ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 167
KING CNUT 179
DOORWAY OF CATHEDRAL, CHARTRES 217
CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL 221
CRYPT OF MOUNT ST. MICHEL 241
NORMAN ARCHER 253
GUY, COUNT OF PONTHIEU 259
MOUNT ST. MICHEL 263
OLD HOUSES, DÔL 265
FUNERAL OF EADWARD THE CONFESSOR 273
STIGAND, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 277
MAP—NORMANDY IN 1066 281
MAP—ENGLAND 289
NORMAN VESSEL 297
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR 301
NORMAN MINSTREL 305
SOLDIER IN CLOAK 309
DEATH OF HAROLD 325
NORMAN LADY 326
BATTLE-AXES 329
ODO, BISHOP OF BAYEUX 335
The ten illustrations in this volume which are from designs by Thomas
Macquoid, have been reproduced (through the courtesy of Messrs. Chatto
& Windus) from Mrs. Macquoid's "Pictures and Legends from Normandy
and Brittany," the American edition of which was published by G. P.
Putnam's Sons.
[Illustration]
DUKES OF THE NORMANS.
ROLF,
First Duke of the Normans,
r. 911-927.
|
WILLIAM
LONGSWORD,
r. 927-943.
|
RICHARD
THE FEARLESS,
r. 943-996.
|
+-----+------+
| |
RICHARD EMMA,
THE GOOD, m. 1. Æthelred II.
r. 996-1026. of England;
| m. 2. Cnut of England
| and Denmark.
|
+-------+----------+
| |
RICHARD III., ROBERT
r. 1026-1028. THE MAGNIFICENT,
r. 1028-1035.
|
WILLIAM
THE CONQUEROR,
r. 1035-1087.
|
+-------------------+----+--------+---------------+
| | | |
ROBERT II., WILLIAM HENRY I., ADELA,
r. 1087-1096 RUFUS, r. 1106-1135. m. Stephen,
(from 1096 to 1100 r. 1096-1100. | Count of Blois
the Duchy was MATILDA |
held by his m. GEOFFRY STEPHEN
brother William), COUNT OF OF BLOIS,
and 1100-1106 ANJOU s. 1135.
(when he was AND
overthrown at MAINE
Tinchebrai by his (who won the
brother Henry). Duchy from
Stephen).
|
HENRY II.,
invested with the
Duchy, 1150,
d. 1189.
|
+-----------+-------+
| |
RICHARD JOHN,
THE LION-HEART, r. 1199-1204
r. 1189-1199. (when Normandy
was conquered
by France).
[Pg001]
[Illustration]
THE STORY OF THE NORMANS.
I.
THE MEN OF THE DRAGON SHIPS.
"Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam,
Survey our empire and behold our home."—BYRON.
The gulf stream flows so near to the southern coast of Norway, and
to the Orkneys and Western Islands, that their climate is much less
severe than might be supposed. Yet no one can help wondering why they
were formerly so much more populous than now, and why the people
who came westward even so long ago as the great Aryan migration,
did not persist in turning aside to the more fertile countries that
lay farther southward. In spite of all their disadvantages, the
Scandinavian peninsula, and the sterile islands of the northern seas,
were inhabited by men and women whose enterprise and intelligence
ranked them above their neighbors.
Now, with the modern ease of travel and transportation, these poorer
countries can be supplied from other parts of the world. And though
the [Pg002] summers of Norway are misty and dark and short, and it
is difficult to raise even a little hay on the bits of meadow among
the rocky mountain slopes, commerce can make up for all deficiencies.
In early times there was no commerce except that carried on by the
pirates—if we may dignify their undertakings by such a respectable
name,—and it was hardly possible to make a living from the soil alone.
The sand dunes of Denmark and the cliffs of Norway alike gave little
encouragement to tillers of the ground, yet, in defiance of all our
ideas of successful colonization, when the people of these countries
left them, it was at first only to form new settlements in such places
as Iceland, or the Faroë or Orkney islands and stormiest Hebrides. But
it does not take us long to discover that the ancient Northmen were
not farmers, but hunters and fishermen. It had grown more and more
difficult to find food along the rivers and broad grassy wastes of
inland Europe, and pushing westward they had at last reached the place
where they could live beside waters that swarmed with fish and among
hills that sheltered plenty of game.
Besides this they had been obliged not only to make the long journey
by slow degrees, but to fight their way and to dispossess the people
who were already established. There is very little known of these
earlier dwellers in the east and north of Europe, except that they
were short of stature and dark-skinned, that they were cave dwellers,
and, in successive stages of development, used stone and bronze and
iron tools and weapons. Many relics of [Pg003] their home-life and
of their warfare have been discovered and preserved in museums, and
there are evidences of the descent of a small proportion of modern
Europeans from that remote ancestry. The Basques of the north of
Spain speak a different language and wear a different look from any
of the surrounding people, and even in Great Britain there are some
survivors of an older race of humanity, which the fairer-haired Celts
of Southern Europe and Teutons of Northern Europe have never been able
in the great natural war of races to wholly exterminate and supplant.
Many changes and minglings of the inhabitants of these countries,
long establishment of certain tribes, and favorable or unfavorable
conditions of existence have made the nations of Europe differ widely
from each other at the present day, but they are believed to have come
from a common stock, and certain words of the Sanscrit language can be
found repeated not only in Persian and Indian speech to-day, but in
English and Greek and Latin and German, and many dialects that have
been formed from these.
The tribes that settled in the North grew in time to have many
peculiarities of their own, and as their countries grew more and more
populous, they needed more things that could not easily be had, and a
fashion of plundering their neighbors began to prevail. Men were still
more or less beasts of prey. Invaders must be kept out, and at last
much of the industry of Scandinavia was connected with the carrying on
of an almost universal fighting and marauding. Ships must be built,
and there must be endless [Pg004] supplies of armor and weapons.
Stones were easily collected for missiles or made fit for arrows and
spear-heads, and metals were worked with great care. In Norway and
Sweden were the best places to find all these, and if the Northmen
planned to fight a great battle, they had to transport a huge quantity
of stones, iron, and bronze. It is easy to see why one day's battle
was almost always decisive in ancient times, for supplies could not
be quickly forwarded from point to point, and after the arrows were
all shot and the conquered were chased off the field, they had no
further means of offence except a hand-to-hand fight with those who
had won the right to pick up the fallen spears at their leisure. So,
too, an unexpected invasion was likely to prove successful; it was a
work of time to get ready for a battle, and when the Northmen swooped
down upon some shore town of Britain or Gaul, the unlucky citizens
were at their mercy. And while the Northmen had fish and game and were
mighty hunters, and their rocks and mines helped forward their warlike
enterprises, so the forests supplied them with ship timber, and they
gained renown as sailors wherever their fame extended.
There was a great difference, however, between the manner of life in
Norway and that of England or France. The Norwegian stone, however
useful for arrow-heads or axes, was not fit for building purposes.
There is hardly any clay there, either, to make bricks with, so that
wood has usually been the only material for houses. In the Southern
countries there had always been rude castles in which [Pg006] the
people could shelter themselves, but the Northmen could build no
castles that a torch could not destroy. They trusted much more to
their ships than to their houses, and some of their great captains
disdained to live on shore at all.
[Illustration: IRON CHISEL FOUND IN AAMOT
PARISH, OESTERDALEN.
IRON POINT OF A SPEAR WITH INLAID WORK OF SILVER,
FOUND AT NESNE, IN NORDLAND.]
There is something refreshing in the stories of old Norse life; of its
simplicity and freedom and childish zest. An old writer says that they
had "a hankering after pomp and pageantry," and by means of this they
came at last to doing things decently and in order, and to setting the
fashions for the rest of Europe. There was considerable dignity in the
manner of every-day life and housekeeping. Their houses were often
very large, even two hundred feet long, with the flaring fires on a
pavement in the middle of the floor, and the beds built next the walls
on three sides, sometimes hidden by wide tapestries or foreign cloth
that had been brought home in the viking ships. In front of the beds
were benches where each man had his seat and footstool, with his armor
and weapons hung high on the wall above. The master of the house had
a high seat on the north side in the middle of a long bench; opposite
was another bench for guests and strangers, while the women sat on
the third side. The roof was high, there were a few windows in it,
and those were covered by thin skins and let in but little light. The
smoke escaped through openings in the carved, soot-blackened roof, and
though in later times the rich men's houses were more like villages,
because they made groups of smaller buildings for store-houses, for
guest-rooms, or for workshops all around, [Pg007] still, the idea of
this primitive great hall or living-room has not even yet been lost.
The later copies of it in England and France that still remain are
most interesting; but what a fine sight it must have been at night
when the great fires blazed and the warriors sat on their benches in
solemn order, and the skalds recited their long sagas, of the host's
own bravery or the valiant deeds of his ancestors! Hospitality was
almost made chief among the virtues. There was a Norwegian woman named
Geirrid who went from Heligoland to Iceland and settled there. She
built her house directly across the public road, and used to sit in
the doorway on a little bench and invite all travellers to come in and
refresh themselves from a table that always stood ready, spread with
food. She was not the only one, either, who gave herself up to such an
exaggerated idea of the duties of a housekeeper.
When a distinguished company of guests was present, the pleasures of
the evening were made more important. Listening to the sagas was the
best entertainment that could be offered. "These productions were of
very ancient origin and entirely foreign to those countries where the
Latin language prevailed. They had little or nothing to do with either
chronology or general history; but were limited to the traditions of
some heroic families, relating their deeds and adventures in a style
that was always simple and sometimes poetic. These compositions, in
verse or prose, were the fruit of a wild Northern genius. They were
evolved without models, and disappeared at last without imitations;
and [Pg008] it is most remarkable that in the island of Iceland, of
which the name alone is sufficient hint of its frightful climate,
and where the very name of poet has almost become a wonder,—in this
very island the skalds (poets) have produced innumerable sagas and
other compositions during a space of time which covers the twelfth,
thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries."[1]
[1] Depping: "Maritimes Voyages des Normands."
The court poets or those attached to great families were most
important persons, and were treated with great respect and honor. No
doubt, they often fell into the dangers of either flattery or scandal,
but they were noted for their simple truthfulness. We cannot help
feeling such an atmosphere in those sagas that still exist, but the
world has always been very indulgent towards poetry that captivates
the imagination. Doubtless, nobody expected that a skald should always
limit himself to the part of a literal narrator. They were the makers
and keepers of legends and literature in their own peculiar form of
history, and as to worldly position, ranked much higher than the later
minstrels and troubadours or trouvères who wandered about France.
When we remember the scarcity and value of parchment even in the
Christianized countries of the South, it is a great wonder that so
many sagas were written down and preserved; while there must have been
a vast number of others that existed only in tradition and in the
memories of those who learned them in each generation.
If we try to get the story of the Northmen from [Pg009] the French
or British chronicler, it is one long, dreary complaint of their
barbarous customs and their heathen religion. In England the monks,
shut up in their monasteries, could find nothing bad enough to say
about the marauders who ravaged the shores of the country and did so
much mischief. If we believe them, we shall mistake the Norwegians and
their companions for wild beasts and heathen savages. We must read
what was written in their own language, and then we shall have more
respect for the vikings and sea-kings, always distinguishing between
these two; for, while any peasant who wished could be a viking—a
sea-robber—a sea-king was a king indeed, and must be connected with
the royal race of the country. He received the title of king by right
as soon as he took command of a ship's crew, though he need not have
any land or kingdom. Vikings were merely pirates; they might be
peasants and vikings by turn, and won their name from the inlets, the
viks or wicks, where they harbored their ships. A sea-king must be a
viking, but naturally very few of the vikings were sea-kings.
When we turn from the monks' records, written in Latin, to the
accounts given of themselves by the Northmen, in their own languages,
we are surprised enough to find how these ferocious pagans, these
merciless men, who burnt the Southern churches and villages, and
plundered and killed those of the inhabitants whom they did not drag
away into slavery,—how these Northmen really surpassed their enemies
in literature, as much as in military achievements. Their laws and
government, their history [Pg010] and poetry and social customs, were
better than those of the Anglo-Saxons and the Franks.
If we stop to think about this, we see that it would be impossible
for a few hundred men to land from their great row-boats and subdue
wide tracts of country unless they were superior in mental power, and
gifted with astonishing quickness and bravery. The great leaders of
armies are not those who can lift the heaviest weights or strike the
hardest blow, but those who have the mind to plan and to organize
and discipline and, above all, to persevere and be ready to take
a dangerous risk. The countries to the southward were tamed and
spiritless, and bound down by church influence and superstition
until they had lost the energy and even the intellectual power of
their ancestors five centuries back. The Roman Empire had helped to
change the Englishmen and many of the Frenchmen of that time into
a population of slaves and laborers, with no property in the soil,
nothing to fight for but their own lives.
The viking had rights in his own country, and knew what it was to
enjoy those rights; if he could win more land, he would know how to
govern it, and he knew what he was fighting for and meant to win.
If we wonder why all this energy was spent on the high seas, and in
strange countries, there are two answers: first, that fighting was
the natural employment of the men, and that no right could be held
that could not be defended; but beside this, one form of their energy
was showing itself at home in rude attempts at literature. It is
surprising enough to find that both the quality and the quantity
[Pg011] of the old sagas far surpass all that can be found of either
Latin or English writing of that time in England. These sagas are all
in the familiar tongue, so that everybody could understand them, and
be amused or taught by them. They were not meant only for the monks
and the people who lived in cloisters. The legends of their ancestors'
beauty or bravery belonged to every man alike, and that made the
Norwegians one nation of men, working and sympathizing with each
other—not a mere herd of individuals.
The more that we know of the Northmen, the more we are convinced how
superior they were in their knowledge of the useful arts to the people
whom they conquered. There is a legend that when Charlemagne, in the
ninth century, saw some pirate ships cruising in the Mediterranean,
along the shores of which they had at last found their way, he
covered his face and burst into tears. He was not so much afraid
of their cruelty and barbarism as of their civilization. Nobody
knew better that none of the Christian countries under his rule had
ships or men that could make such a daring voyage. He knew that
they were skilful workers in wood and iron, and had learned to be
rope-makers and weavers; that they could make casks for their supply
of drinking-water, and understood how to prepare food for their long
cruises. All their swords and spears and bow-strings had to be made
and kept in good condition, and sheltered from the sea-spray.
It is interesting to remember that the Northmen's [Pg012] fleets were
not like a royal navy, though the king could claim the use of all the
war-ships when he needed them for the country's service. They were
fitted out by anybody who chose, private adventurers and peasants, all
along the rocky shores. They were not very grand affairs for the most
part, but they were all seaworthy, and must have had a good deal of
room for stowing all the things that were to be carried, beside the
vikings themselves. Sometimes there were transport vessels to take
the arms and the food and bring back the plunder. Perhaps most of
the peasants' boats were only thirty or forty feet long, but when we
remember how many hundreds used to put to sea after the small crops
were planted every summer, we cannot help knowing that there were a
great many men who knew how to build strong ships in Norway, and how
to fit them out sufficiently well, and man them and fight in them
afterward. You never hear of any fleets being fitted out in the French
and English harbors equalling these in numbers or efficiency.
[Illustration: VIKING SHIP.]
When we picture the famous sea-kings' ships to ourselves, we do not
wonder that the Northmen were so proud of them, or that the skalds
were never tired of recounting their glories. There were two kinds of
vessels: the last-ships, that carried cargoes; and the long-ships, or
ships-of-war. Listen to the splendors of the "Long Serpent," which
was the largest ship ever built in Norway. A dragon-ship, to begin
with, because all the long ships had a dragon for a figure-head,
except the smallest of them, which were called cutters, and only
carried [Pg014] ten or twenty rowers on a side. The "Long Serpent"
had thirty-four rowers' benches on a side, and she was a hundred and
eleven feet long. Over the sides were hung the shining red and white
shields of the vikings, the gilded dragon's head towered high at the
prow, and at the stern a gilded tail went curling off over the head of
the steersman. Then, from the long body, the heavy oars swept forward
and back through the water, the double thirty-four of them, and as it
came down the fiord, the "Long Serpent" must have looked like some
enormous centipede creeping out of its den on an awful errand, and
heading out across the rough water toward its prey.
The crew used to sleep on the deck, and ship-tents were necessary for
shelter. There was no deep hold or comfortable cabin, for the ships
were built so that they could be easily hauled up on a sloping beach.
They had sails, and these were often made of gay colors, or striped
with red and blue and white cloths, and a great many years later than
this we hear of a crusader waiting long for a fair wind at the Straits
of the Dardanelles, so that he could set all his fine sails, and look
splendid as he went by the foreign shores.
To-day in Bergen harbor, in Norway, you are likely to see at least
one or two Norland ships that belong to the great fleet that bring
down furs and dried fish every year from Hammerfest and Trondhjem
and the North Cape. They do not carry the red and white shields, or
rows of long oars, but they are built with high prow and stern, and
spread a great [Pg015] square brown sail. You are tempted to think
that a belated company of vikings has just come into port after a long
cruise. These descendants of the long-ships and the last-ships look
little like peaceful merchantmen, as they go floating solemnly along
the calm waters of the Bergen-fiord.
The voyages were often disastrous in spite of much clever seamanship.
They knew nothing of the mariner's compass, and found their way
chiefly by the aid of the stars—inconstant pilots enough on such
foggy, stormy seas. They carried birds too, oftenest ravens, and
used to let them loose and follow them toward the nearest land. The
black raven was the vikings' favorite symbol for their flags, and
familiar enough it became in other harbors than their own. They were
bold, hardy fellows, and held fast to a rude code of honor and rank
of knighthood. To join the most renowned company of vikings in Harold
Haarfager's time, it was necessary that the champion should lift a
great stone that lay before the king's door, as first proof that he
was worth initiating. We are gravely told that this stone could not be
moved by the strength of twelve ordinary men.
They were obliged to take oath that they would not capture women and
children, or seek refuge during a tempest, or stop to dress their
wounds before a battle was over. Sometimes they were possessed by a
strange madness, caused either by a frenzy of rivalry and the wild
excitement of their rude sports or by intoxicating liquors or drugs,
when they foamed at the mouth and danced wildly about, swallowing
burning coals, uprooting the very rocks and trees, destroying [Pg016]
their own property, and striking indiscriminately at friends and
foes. This berserker rage seems to have been much applauded, and
gained the possessed viking a noble distinction in the eyes of his
companions. If a sea-king heard of a fair damsel anywhere along the
neighboring coast, he simply took ship in that direction, fought for
her, and carried her away in triumph with as many of her goods as he
was lucky enough to seize beside. Their very gods were gods of war
and destruction, though beside Thor, the thunderer, they worshipped
Balder, the fair-faced, the god of gentle speech and purity, with
Freyr, who rules over sunshine and growing things. Their hell was a
place of cold and darkness, and their heaven was to be a place where
fighting went on from sunrise until the time came to ride back to
Valhalla and feast together in the great hall. Those who died of old
age or sickness, instead of in battle, must go to hell. Odin, who was
chief of all the gods, made man, and gave him a soul which should
never perish, and Frigga, his wife, knew the fate of all men, but
never told her secrets.
[Illustration: VIKING.]
The Northmen spread themselves at length over a great extent of
country. We can only wonder why, after their energy and valor led them
to found a thriving colony in Iceland and in Russia, to even venture
among the icebergs and perilous dismal coasts of Greenland, and from
thence downward to the pleasanter shores of New England, why they did
not seize these possessions and keep the credit of discovering and
settling America. What a change that would have made in the world's
history! Historians [Pg018] have been much perplexed at the fact of
Leif Ericson's lack of interest in the fertile Vinland, New England
now, which he visited in 986 and praised eloquently when he left it
to its fate. Vinland waited hundreds of years after that for the
hardy Icelander's kindred to come from old England to build their
houses and spend the rest of their lives upon its good corn-land and
among the shadows of its great pine-trees. There was room enough
for all Greenland, and to spare, but we cannot help suspecting that
the Northmen were not very good farmers, that they loved fighting
too well, and would rather go a thousand miles across a stormy sea
to plunder another man of his crops than to patiently raise their
own corn and wool and make an honest living at home. So, instead of
understanding what a good fortune it would be for their descendants,
if they seized and held the great western continent that stretched
westward from Vinland until it met another sea, they kept on with
their eastward raids, and the valleys of the Elbe and the Rhine, of
the Seine and Loire, made a famous hunting-ground for the dragon ships
to seek. The rich seaports and trading towns, the strongly walled
Roman cities, the venerated abbeys and cathedrals with their store of
wealth and provisions, were all equally exposed to the fury of such
attacks, and were soon stunned and desolated. What a horror must have
fallen upon a defenceless harbor-side when a fleet of the Northmen's
ships was seen sweeping in from sea at daybreak! What a smoke of
burning houses and shrieking of frightened people all day long; and
as [Pg019] the twilight fell and the few survivors of the assault
dared to creep out from their hiding-places to see the ruins of their
homes, and the ships putting out to sea again loaded deep with their
possessions!—we can hardly picture it to ourselves in these quiet days.
The people who lived in France were of another sort, but they often
knew how to defend themselves as well as the Northmen knew how to
attack. There are few early French records for us to read, for the
literature of that early day was almost wholly destroyed in the
religious houses and public buildings of France. Here and there a few
pages of a poem or of a biography or chronicle have been kept, but
from this very fact we can understand the miserable condition of the
country.
In the year 810 the Danish Norsemen, under their king, Gottfried,
overran Friesland, but the Emperor Charlemagne was too powerful for
them and drove them back. After his death they were ready to try
again, and because his huge kingdom had been divided under many
rulers, who were all fighting among themselves, the Danes were more
lucky, and after robbing Hamburg several times they ravaged the coasts
and finally settled themselves as comfortably as possible at the mouth
of the Loire in France. Soon they were not satisfied with going to
and fro along the seaboard, and took their smaller craft and voyaged
inland, swarming up the French rivers by hundreds, devastating the
country everywhere they went.
In 845 they went up the Seine to Paris, and plundered [Pg020] Paris
too, more than once; and forty years later, forty thousand of them,
led by a man named Siegfried, went up from Rouen with seven hundred
vessels and besieged the poor capital for ten months, until they were
bought off at the enormous price of the whole province of Burgundy.
See what power that was to put into the hands of the sea-kings' crews!
But no price was too dear, the people of Paris must have thought, to
get rid of such an army in the heart of Gaul. They could make whatever
terms they pleased by this time, and there is a tradition that a few
years afterward some bands of Danish rovers, who perhaps had gone to
take a look at Burgundy, pushed on farther and settled themselves in
Switzerland.
From the settlements they had made in the province of Aquitania, they
had long before this gone on to Spain, because the rich Spanish cities
were too tempting to be resisted. They had forced their way all along
the shore of the sea, and in at the gate of the Mediterranean; they
wasted and made havoc as they went, in Spain, Africa, and the Balearic
islands, and pushed their way up the Rhone to Valence. We can trace
them in Italy, where they burned the cities of Pisa and Lucca, and
even in Greece, where at last the pirate ships were turned about,
and set their sails for home. Think of those clumsy little ships out
on such a journey with their single masts and long oars! Think of
the stories that must have been told from town to town after these
strange, wild Northern foes had come and gone! They were like hawks
that came swooping down out of the sky, and though [Pg021] Spain and
Rome and Greece were well enough acquainted with wars, they must have
felt when the Northmen came, as we should feel if some wild beast from
the heart of the forest came biting and tearing its way through a city
street at noontime.
[Illustration: NORSE BUCKLE WITH BYZANTINE DECORATION.]
The whole second half of the ninth century is taken up with the
histories of these invasions. We must follow for a while the progress
of events in Gaul, or France as we call it now, though it was made
up [Pg022] then of a number of smaller kingdoms. The result of the
great siege of Paris was only a settling of affairs with the Northmen
for the time being; one part of the country was delivered from them
at the expense of another. They could be bought off and bribed for a
time, but there was never to be any such thing as their going back
to their own country and letting France alone for good and all. But
as they gained at length whole tracts of country, instead of the
little wealth of a few men to take away in their ships as at first,
they began to settle down in their new lands and to become conquerors
and colonists instead of mere plunderers. Instead of continually
ravaging and attacking the kingdoms, they slowly became the owners
and occupiers of the conquered territory; they pushed their way from
point to point. At first, as you have seen already, they trusted to
their ships, and always left their wives and children at home in the
North countries, but as time went on, they brought their families with
them and made new homes, for which they would have to fight many a
battle yet. It would be no wonder if the women had become possessed
by a love for adventure too, and had insisted upon seeing the lands
from which the rich booty was brought to them, and that they had been
saying for a long time: "Show us the places where the grapes grow
and the fruit-trees bloom, where men build great houses and live in
them splendidly. We are tired of seeing only the long larchen beams
of their high roofs, and the purple and red and gold cloths, and the
red wine and yellow wheat that you bring away. Why should we not
go [Pg023] to live in that country, instead of your breaking it to
pieces, and going there so many of you, every year, only to be slain
as its enemies? We are tired of our sterile Norway and our great
Danish deserts of sand, of our cold winds and wet weather, and our
long winters that pass by so slowly while the fleets are gone. We
would rather see Seville and Paris themselves, than only their gold
and merchandise and the rafters of their churches that you bring home
for ship timber." One of the old ballads of love and valor lingers yet
that the women used to sing: "/Myklagard and the land of Spain lie
wide away o'er the lee/." There was room enough in those far countries
where the ships went—why then do they stay at home in Friesland and
Norway and Denmark, crowded and hungry kingdoms that they were, of the
wandering sea-kings?
As the years went on, the Northern lands themselves became more
peaceful, and the voyages of the pirates came to an end. Though the
Northmen still waged wars enough, they were Danes or Norwegians
against England and France, one realm against another, instead of
every man plundering for himself.
The kingdoms of France had been divided and weakened, and, while
we find a great many fine examples of resistance, and some great
victories over the Northmen, they were not pushed out and checked
altogether. Instead, they gradually changed into Frenchmen themselves,
different from other Frenchmen only in being more spirited, vigorous,
and alert. They inspired every new growth of the [Pg024] religion,
language, or manners, with their own splendid vitality. They were like
plants that have grown in dry, thin soil, transplanted to a richer
spot of ground, and sending out fresh shoots in the doubled moisture
and sunshine. And presently we shall find the Northman becoming the
Norman of history. As the Northman, almost the first thing we admire
about him is his character, his glorious energy; as the Norman, we see
that energy turned into better channels, and bringing a new element
into the progress of civilization.
The Northmen had come in great numbers to settle in Gaul, but they
were scattered about, and so it was easier to count themselves into
the population, instead of keeping themselves separate. Some of
these settlements were a good way inland, and everywhere they mixed
their language with the French for a time, but finally dropped it
almost altogether. In a very few years, comparatively speaking, they
were not Danes or Norwegians at all; they had forgotten their old
customs, and even their pagan gods of the Northern countries from
which their ancestors had come. At last we come to a time when we
begin to distinguish some of the chieftains and other brave men from
the crowd of their companions. The old chronicles of Scandinavia and
Denmark and Iceland cannot be relied upon like the histories of Greece
or Rome. The student who tries to discover when this man was born,
and that man died, from a saga, is apt to be disappointed. The more
he studies these histories of the sea-kings and their countries, the
more distinct picture he gets of a [Pg025] great crowd of men taking
their little ships every year and leaving the rocky, barren coasts
of their own country to go southward. As we have seen, France and
England and Flanders and Spain were all richer and more fruitful, and
they would go ashore, now at this harbor, now that, to steal all they
could, even the very land they trod upon. Now and then we hear the
name of some great man, a stronger and more daring sailor and fighter
than the rest. There is a dismal story of a year of famine in France,
when the north wind blew all through the weeks of a leafless spring,
the roots of the vines were frozen, and the fruit blossoms chilled
to the heart. The wild creatures of the forest, crazed with hunger,
ventured into the farms and villages, and the monks fasted more than
they thought best, and prayed the more heartily for succor in their
poverty. But down from the North came Ragnar Lodbrok, the great Danish
captain, with his stout-built vessels, "ten times twelve dragons of
the sea," and he and his men, in their shaggy fur garments, went
crashing through the ice of the French rivers, to make an easy prey
of the hungry Frenchmen—to conquer everywhere they went. And for one
Ragnar Lodbrok, read fifty or a hundred; for, though there are many
stories told about him, just as we think that we can picture him and
his black-sailed ships in our minds, we are told that this is only a
legend, and that there never was any Ragnar Lodbrok at all who was
taken by his enemies and thrown into a horrible dungeon filled with
vipers, to sing a gallant saga about his life and misdeeds. But if
there were no hero of [Pg026] this name, we put together little by
little from one hint and another legend a very good idea of those
quarrelsome times, when to be great it was necessary to be a pirate,
and to kill as many men and steal as much of their possession as one
possibly could. These Northmen set as bad an example as any traveller
since the world began. More than ninety times we can hear of them in
France and Spain and the north of Germany, and always burning and
ruining, not only the walled cities, but all the territory round
about. Shipload after shipload left their bones on foreign soil; again
and again companies of them were pushed out of France and England and
defeated, but from generation to generation the quarrels went on, and
we begin to wonder why the sea-coasts were not altogether deserted,
until we remember that the spirit of those days was warlike, and
that, while the people were plundered one year, they succeeded in
proving themselves masters the next, and so life was filled with hope
of military glory, and the tide of conquest swept now north, and now
south.
From the fjords of Norway a splendid, hardy race of young men were
pushing their boats to sea every year. Remember that their own country
was a very hard one to live in with its long, dark winters, its rainy,
short summers when the crops would not ripen, its rocky, mountainous
surface, and its natural poverty. Even now if it were not for the
fishing the Norwegian peasant people would find great trouble in
gaining food enough. In early days, when the tilling of the ground was
less understood, it must [Pg027] have been hard work tempting those
yellow-haired, eager young adventurers to stay at home, when they
could live on the sea in their rude, stanch little ships, as well as
on land; when they were told great stories of the sunshiny, fruitful
countries that lay to the south, where plenty of food and bright
clothes and gold and silver might be bought in the market of war for
the blows of their axes and the strength and courage of their right
arms. No wonder that it seemed a waste of time to stay at home in
Norway!
And as for the old men who had been to the fights and followed the
sea-kings and brought home treasures, we are sure that they were
always talking over their valiant deeds and successes, and urging
their sons and grandsons to go to the South. The women wished their
husbands and brothers to be as brave as the rest, while they cared
a great deal for the rich booty which was brought back from such
expeditions. What a hard thing it must have seemed to the boys who
were sick or lame or deformed, but who had all the desire for glory
that belonged to any of the vikings, and yet must stay at home with
the women!
When we think of all this, of the barren country, and the crowd of
people who lived in it, of the natural relish for a life of adventure,
and the hope of splendid riches and fame, what wonder that in all
these hundreds of years the Northmen followed their barbarous trade
and went a-ravaging, and finally took great pieces of the Southern
countries for their own and held them fast.
As we go on with this story of the Normans, you [Pg028] will watch
these followers of the sea-kings keeping always some trace of their
old habits and customs. Indeed you may know them yet. The Northmen
were vikings, always restless and on the move, stealing and fighting
their way as best they might, daring, adventurous. The Norman of the
twelfth century was a crusader. A madness to go crusading against
the Saracen possessed him, not alone for religion's sake or for the
holy city of Jerusalem, and so in all the ages since one excuse after
another has set the same wild blood leaping and made the Northern
blue eyes shine. Look where you may, you find Englishmen of the same
stamp—Sir Walter Raleigh and Lord Nelson, Stanley and Dr. Livingstone
and General Gordon, show the old sea-kings' courage and recklessness.
Snorro Sturleson's best saga has been followed by Drayton's "Battle of
Agincourt" and Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" and "Ballad
of Sir Richard Grenville." I venture to say that there is not an
English-speaking boy or girl who can hear that sea-king's ballad this
very day in peaceful England or America without a great thrill of
sympathy.
"At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay,
And a pinnace, like a fluttered bird, came flying from far away:
'Spanish ships of war at sea! We have sighted fifty-three.'"——
Go and read that; the whole of the spirited story; but there is one
thing I ask you to remember first in all this long story of the
Normans: that however much it seems to you a long chapter of bloody
wars and miseries and treacheries that get to be almost [Pg029]
tiresome in their folly and brutality; however little profit it may
seem sometimes to read about the Norman wars, yet everywhere you will
catch a gleam of the glorious courage and steadfastness that have won
not only the petty principalities and dukedoms of those early days,
but the great English and American discoveries and inventions and
noble advancement of all the centuries since.
On the island of Vigr, in the Folden-fiord, the peasants still show
some rude hollows in the shore where the ships of Rolf-Ganger were
drawn up in winter, and whence he launched them to sail away to the
Hebrides and France—the beginning of as great changes as one man's
voyage ever wrought.
[Illustration]
[Pg030]
[Illustration]
II.
ROLF THE GANGER.
"Far had I wandered from this northern shore,
Far from the bare heights and the wintry seas,
Dreaming of these
No more." —A. F.