The Library of Scandinavian Literature
THE KING’S MIRROR
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE KING’S MIRROR
(SPECULUM REGALE—KONUNGS SKUGGSJÁ)
TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD NORSE
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY
LAURENCE MARCELLUS LARSON
[Illustration]
TWAYNE PUBLISHERS, INC., NEW YORK
&
THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN FOUNDATION
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Library of Scandinavian Literature
Erik J. Friis, General Editor
Volume 15
The King’s Mirror
Copyright © 1917 by The American-Scandinavian Foundation
Library of Congress catalog card number: 72-1542
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TO MY FATHER AND TO THE
MEMORY OF MY MOTHER
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOREWORD
Among the many arguments that have recently been advanced in support of
imperialistic ambitions and statesmanship, there is one that justifies
and demands aggression in the interest of human culture. According to
this rather plausible political philosophy, it is the destiny of the
smaller states to be absorbed into the larger and stronger. The
application is not to be limited to the so-called “backward races”; it
is also extended to the lesser peoples of Europe. These have, it is
held, no real right to an independent existence; only the great, the
powerful, and the mighty can claim this privilege, for they alone are
able to render the higher forms of service to civilization.
To this theory the history of the Scandinavian lands provides a complete
and striking refutation. In the drama of European development the
Northern countries have played important and honorable parts; but except
for a brilliant period in Swedish history (chiefly during the
seventeenth century) they have never weighed heavily in the Continental
balance. Their geographical situation is unfavorable and their economic
resources have never been comparable to those of the more prominent
states beyond the Baltic and the North Sea. But when we come to the
kingdom of intellect the story is a totally different one. The literary
annals of Europe in the nineteenth century give prominence to a series
of notable Scandinavian writers who not only achieved recognition in
their own lands but found a place in the competition for leadership in
the world at large. The productivity of the Northern mind is not of
recent origin, however; the literatures of Scandinavia have a history
that leads back into the days of heathen worship more than a thousand
years ago.
Perhaps the most effective illustration of what a fruitful intellect can
accomplish even when placed in the most unpromising environment is
medieval Iceland. Along the western and southwestern coasts of the
island lay a straggling settlement of Norwegian immigrants whose lives
were spent chiefly in a struggle to force the merest subsistence from a
niggardly soil. And yet, in the later middle ages and even earlier,
there was a literary activity on these Arctic shores which, in output as
well as in quality, compares favorably with that of any part of
contemporary Europe. Evidently intellectual greatness bears but slight
relation to economic advantages or political power. What was true of
Iceland was also true of Norway, though in a lesser degree. In that
country, too, life was in great measure a continuous struggle with the
soil and the sea. Still, even in that land and age, the spirits were
active, the arts flourished, and the North added her contribution to the
treasures of European culture.
The poems and tales of those virile days, the eddas and sagas, are too
familiar to need more than a mention in this connection. But the fact is
not so commonly known that the medieval Northmen were thinkers and
students as well as poets and romancers. They, too, were interested in
the mysteries of the universe, in the problems of science, and in the
intricate questions of social relationships. In their thinking on these
matters they showed more intellectual independence and less slavish
regard for venerable authority than was usually the case among medieval
writers. And of all the men who in that age of faith tried to analyse
and set in order their ideas of the world in which they moved, perhaps
none drew more largely on his own spiritual resources than the unknown
author of the _King’s Mirror_.
Unlike the sagas and related writings, the purpose of the _King’s
Mirror_ is utilitarian and didactic. The author has before him a group
of serious and important problems, which he proceeds to discuss for the
instruction of his readers. Consequently, certain qualities of style
that are often associated with Old Norse literature are not apparent in
his work to any marked degree. In his effort to make his language clear,
definite, and intelligible, the author sometimes finds it necessary to
repeat and restate his ideas, with the result that his literary style is
frequently stiff, labored, and pedantic. These defects are, however, not
characteristic of the book as a whole. Many of its chapters display rare
workmanship and prove that the author of the _King’s Mirror_ is one of
the great masters of Old Norse prose.
In preparing the translation of this unique work, my aim has been to
reproduce the author’s thought as faithfully as possible and to state it
in such a form as to satisfy the laws of English syntax. But I have also
felt that, so far as it can be done, the flavor of the original should
be retained and that a translator, in his effort to satisfy certain
conventional demands of modern composition, should not deviate too far
from the path of mental habit that the author has beaten in his roamings
through the fields of thought. Peculiarities of style and expression,
can, it is true, usually not be reproduced in another language; at the
same time it is possible to ignore these considerations to such an
extent that the product becomes a paraphrase rather than a translation;
and I have believed that such a rendition should be avoided, even at the
risk of erring on the side of literalness.
The importance of the _King’s Mirror_ as a source of information in the
study of medieval thought was first brought to my attention by Professor
Julius E. Olson of the University of Wisconsin, who has also, since the
work of preparing this edition was begun, followed its progress with
helpful interest. Professors G. T. Flom and A. H. Lybyer of the
University of Illinois, and Professor W. H. Schofield of Harvard
University, have read the manuscript in whole or part and have
contributed many valuable suggestions. My wife, Lillian May Larson, has
assisted in a great variety of ways, as in all my work. Dr. H. G. Leach
of the American-Scandinavian Foundation has read the proof sheets of the
entire volume and has suggested many improvements in the text. To all
these persons I wish to express my thanks. I am also deeply indebted to
the trustees of the American-Scandinavian Foundation whose generosity
has made it possible to publish the work at this time.
L. M. L.
_University of Illinois,
August, 1917._
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PAGE
NORTHERN LITERATURE IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 1
THE SPECULUM REGALE, OR KING’S MIRROR; SOURCES 6
SCIENTIFIC LORE AND THE BELIEF IN MARVELS 11
COURTESY AND THE KING’S HOUSEHOLD 26
THE THEORY OF THE DIVINE RIGHT OF NORWEGIAN 33
KINGSHIP
ETHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL IDEAS OF THE WORK 49
MODERN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE KING’S MIRROR 53
THE PROBLEM OF AUTHORSHIP 54
DATE AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION 59
EDITIONS OF THE KING’S MIRROR 65
THE KING’S MIRROR
I. INTRODUCTION: NAME AND PURPOSE OF THE WORK 72
II. “THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM” 76
III. THE ACTIVITIES AND HABITS OF A MERCHANT 79
IV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 81
V. THE SUN AND THE WINDS 86
VI. THE TIDES AND THE CHANGES IN THE COURSE OF THE SUN 92
VII. THE SUBJECT OF THE SUN’S COURSE CONTINUED 95
VIII. THE MARVELS OF NORWAY 99
IX. POPULAR DOUBT AS TO THE GENUINENESS OF MARVELS 102
X. THE NATURAL WONDERS OF IRELAND 105
XI. IRISH MARVELS WHICH HAVE MIRACULOUS ORIGINS 111
XII. THE MARVELS OF THE ICELANDIC SEAS: WHALES; THE 119
KRAKEN
XIII. THE WONDERS OF ICELAND 126
XIV. THE VOLCANIC FIRES OF ICELAND 130
XV. OTHER ICELANDIC WONDERS: ORE AND MINERAL SPRINGS 133
XVI. THE MARVELS OF THE WATERS ABOUT GREENLAND: 135
MONSTERS, SEALS, AND WALRUSES
XVII. THE ANIMAL LIFE OF GREENLAND AND THE CHARACTER OF 141
THE LAND IN THOSE REGIONS
XVIII. THE PRODUCTS OF GREENLAND 144
XIX. THE CLIMATE OF GREENLAND; THE NORTHERN LIGHTS 145
XX. THE SUBJECT OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS CONTINUED 151
XXI. THE ZONES OF HEAT AND COLD 153
XXII. THE WINDS WITH RESPECT TO NAVIGATION 156
XXIII. THE PROPER SEASON FOR NAVIGATION. END OF THE FIRST 161
PART
XXIV. INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND PART: THE KING AND HIS 162
COURT
XXV. THE IMPORTANCE OF COURTESY IN THE ROYAL SERVICE 165
XXVI. THE ADVANTAGES DERIVED FROM SERVICE IN THE KING’S 167
HOUSEHOLD
XXVII. THE VARIOUS CLASSES AMONG THE KINGSMEN 170
XXVIII. THE HONORED POSITION OF THE KINGSMEN 173
XXIX. THE SUPERIOR ORDER OF KINGSMEN: THE HIRD 175
XXX. HOW A MAN WHO WISHES TO APPLY FOR ADMISSION TO THE 179
ROYAL HOUSEHOLD SERVICE SHOULD APPROACH THE KING
XXXI. WHY ONE SHOULD NOT WEAR A MANTLE IN THE ROYAL 184
PRESENCE
XXXII. RULES OF SPEECH AND CONVERSATION IN THE KING’S 186
HALL
XXXIII. THE PROPER USES OF “YOU” AND “THOU” 188
XXXIV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 189
XXXV. CONCERNING FAILURE OF CROPS AND DEARTH IN MORALS 193
AND GOVERNMENT
XXXVI. THE CAUSES OF SUCH PERIODS OF DEARTH AND WHAT 195
FORMS THE DEARTH MAY TAKE
XXXVII. THE DUTIES, ACTIVITIES, AND AMUSEMENTS OF THE 203
ROYAL GUARDSMEN
XXXVIII. WEAPONS FOR OFFENSE AND DEFENSE 217
XXXIX. MILITARY ENGINES 220
XL. THE PROPER MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF A ROYAL COURT 226
XLI. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 231
XLII. A DISCUSSION OF HOW GOD REWARDS RIGHTEOUSNESS, 234
HUMILITY, AND FIDELITY, ILLUSTRATED BY EXAMPLES
DRAWN FROM SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY
XLIII. THE DUTIES AND THE EXALTED POSITION OF THE KING 245
XLIV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 248
XLV. CONCERNING THE MODERATION WHICH A KING MUST 251
OBSERVE IN HIS JUDICIAL SENTENCES AND PENALTIES,
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWN FROM THE STORY OF GOD’S
JUDGMENT IN THE CASE OF ADAM AND EVE, IN WHICH
CASE TRUTH AND JUSTICE WERE ASSOCIATED WITH
PEACE AND MERCY
XLVI. AN EXAMPLE OF RIGHTEOUS SEVERITY IN JUDGMENT DRAWN 258
FROM THE STORY OF GOD’S CONDEMNATION OF LUCIFER
XLVII. A FURTHER DISCUSSION OF VERDICTS AND PENALTIES 260
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE STORY OF LUCIFER’S
REBELLION AND DOWNFALL AND OF THE SIN AND
PUNISHMENT OF THE FIRST MAN AND WOMAN
XLVIII. A COMMENTARY ON THE STORY OF LUCIFER 272
XLIX. INSTANCES IN WHICH GOD HAS ALLOWED THE DECISION TO 277
BE FRAMED ACCORDING TO THE STERN DEMANDS OF
TRUTH AND JUSTICE
L. OTHER INSTANCES IN WHICH THE ARGUMENTS OF PEACE 279
AND MERCY HAVE HAD GREATER WEIGHT
LI. THE REASONS FOR THIS DIVERSITY IN THE VERDICTS OF 283
GOD
LII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 284
LIII. INSTANCES IN WHICH GOD HAS MODIFIED HIS SENTENCES 285
AND THE REASONS FOR SUCH MODIFICATIONS
LIV. THE KING’S PRAYER 290
LV. A FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THE KING’S BUSINESS 297
ESPECIALLY HIS JUDICIAL DUTIES
LVI. THE SPEECH OF WISDOM 299
LVII. DIFFICULT DUTIES OF THE KING’S JUDICIAL OFFICE 304
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
LVIII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 309
LIX. WHEN JUDGMENTS SHOULD BE SEVERE AND WHEN THEY 313
SHOULD BE MERCIFUL
LX. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 316
LXI. CONCERNING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 318
LXII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 320
LXIII. THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD ILLUSTRATED BY THE STORY OF 321
DAVID AND SAUL
LXIV. ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE JUDGMENTS OF SOLOMON 339
LXV. SOLOMON’S DECISION IN THE CASE OF SHIMEI 341
LXVI. SOLOMON’S JUDGMENT IN THE CASE OF ADONIJAH AND HIS 344
FOLLOWERS
LXVII. WHY SOLOMON BROKE HIS PROMISE OF PEACE AND 353
SECURITY TO JOAB
LXVIII. A DISCUSSION OF PROMISES: WHEN THEY MUST BE KEPT 355
AND WHEN THEY SHOULD BE WITHDRAWN
LXIX. CONCERNING THE KINGSHIP AND THE CHURCH AND THE 357
KING’S RESPONSIBILITY TO GOD
LXX. THE AUTHORITY OF KINGS AND BISHOPS. END OF THE 363
SECOND PART
BIBLIOGRAPHY 369
INDEX 375
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE KING’S MIRROR
INTRODUCTION
The place of the thirteenth century in the history of human achievement
is a subject upon which scholars have not yet come to a general
agreement. There can be no doubt that it was, on the whole, an age of
progress in many fields; but there is much in its history that points to
stagnation, if not to actual decline. From a superficial study of its
annals one might be led to class it with the lesser centuries; most
writers are inclined to rank it lower than the fourteenth century, and
perhaps not even so high as the twelfth. It was in this period that the
crusading movement finally flickered out and the Christian world was
compelled to leave the cradle of the holy faith in the hands of the
infidel. In the thirteenth century, too, the medieval empire sank into
hopeless inefficiency and all but expired. The papacy, which more than
any other power was responsible for the ruin of the imperial ambitions,
also went into decline. Whether the loss in authority and prestige on
the part of the holy see was compensated by a renewed spiritual energy
in the church at large may well be doubted: what evidence we have would
indicate that the religion of the masses was gross and materialistic,
that ethical standards were low, and that the improvement in clerical
morals, which the church had hoped would follow the enforcement of
celibacy, had failed to appear.
Yet the thirteenth century also had its attractive figures and its
important movements. The old social order was indeed crumbling, but in
its place appeared two new forces which were to inherit the power and
opportunities of feudalism and reshape social life: these were the new
monarchy, enjoying wide sovereign powers, and the new national
consciousness, which was able to think in larger units. In England the
century saw the development of a new representative institution, which
has become the mother of modern legislative assemblies. The Italian
cities were growing rich from the profits of Oriental trade; in the
Flemish towns the weaver’s industry was building up new forms of
municipal life; the great German Hansa was laying hold on the commerce
of the northern seas. In the realms of higher intellect, in science,
philosophy, and theology, the age was a notable one, with Roger Bacon,
Albertus Magnus, and Thomas Aquinas as the leaders, each in his field.
The century also meant much for the progress of geographical knowledge,
for it was in this period that Marco Polo penetrated the mysterious
lands of the Far East.
As the historian looks back into this age, he is, therefore, able to
find broad traces of much that is regarded as fundamental to modern
life. Of first importance in this regard is the employment of popular
idioms in literary productions. French literature saw its beginnings in
the eleventh century with the _chansons de geste_, songs of valorous
deeds from the heroic age of the Frankish kingdom. In the next century
the poets began to use the themes of the Arthurian legends and sang the
exploits of the famous British king and the knights of his Round Table.
A little later came another cycle of poems based on the heroic tales of
classical antiquity. The twelfth century witnessed a parallel movement
in Germany, which at first was largely an imitation of contemporary
French poetry. The poets, however, soon discovered literary treasures in
the dim world of the Teutonic past, in the tales of the Nibelungs, in
the heroic deeds of Theodoric, and in the exploits of other heroes.
Thus in the first half of the thirteenth century there was a large body
of French and German verse in circulation. The verses were borne from
region to region and from land to land by professional entertainers, who
chanted the poems, and by pilgrims and other travelers, who secured
manuscript copies. In the course of time the new tales reached the
Northern countries, and it was not long before the Northmen were eagerly
listening to the stories of chivalrous warfare, militant religion, and
tragic love, that they had learned in the southlands.
The Northern peoples thus had a share in the fruitage of the later
middle ages; but they also had a share in their achievements.
Politically as well as intellectually the thirteenth century was a great
age in the Scandinavian countries. The Danish kingdom rose to the
highest point of its power under Valdemar the Victorious, whose troubled
reign began in 1202. Valdemar succeeded in extending the territories of
Denmark along the entire southern coast of the Baltic Sea; but the
greatness was short-lived: after the defeat of the Danes by the North
Germans at Börnhoved in 1227, the decline of Danish imperialism began.
In Sweden, too, men dreamed of conquest beyond the sea. Under the
leadership of Earl Birger, the most eminent statesman of medieval
Sweden, Swedish power was steadily extended into Finnish territory, and
the foundations of Sweden as a great European power was being laid.
During the days of Valdemar and the great Birger Norway also reached its
greatest territorial extent. After a century of factional warfare, the
nation settled down to comparative peace. All the Norwegian colonies
except those in Ireland, were definitely made subject to the Norwegian
crown: these were the Isle of Man, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, the
Shetlands, the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland. In every field of
national life there was vigor and enterprise. And on the throne sat a
strong, wise, and learned monarch, Hakon IV, the ruler with the “great
king-thought.”
The real greatness of the thirteenth century in the North lies, however,
in the literary achievements of the age. It is not known when the Old
Norse poets first began to exercise their craft, but the earliest poems
that have come down to us date from the ninth century. For two hundred
years the literary production was in the form of alliterative verse; but
after 1050 there came a time when scaldic poetry did not seem to thrive.
This does not mean that the interest in literature died out; it merely
took a new form: the age of poetry was followed by an age of prose. With
the Christian faith came the Latin alphabet and writing materials, and
there was no longer any need to memorize verse. The new form was the
saga, which began to appear in the twelfth century and received many
notable additions in the thirteenth. The literary movement on the
continent, therefore, had its counterpart in the North; only here the
writings took the form of prose, while there literature was chiefly in
verse.
These two currents came into contact in the first half of the thirteenth
century, when the men and women of the North began to take an interest
in the Arthurian romances and other tales that had found their way into
Norway. In this new form of Norwegian literature there could not be much
originality; still its appearance testifies to a widening of the
intellectual horizon. In addition to sagas and romances the period was
also productive of written laws, homilies, legends, Biblical narratives,
histories, and various other forms of literature. It is to be noted that
virtually everything was written in the idiom of the common people.
Latin was used to some extent in the North in the later middle ages, but
it never came into such general use there as in other parts of Europe.
In the thirteenth century it had almost passed out of use as a literary
language.
In our interest in tales and romances we must not overlook the fact that
the thirteenth century also produced an important literature of the
didactic type. For centuries the Christian world had studied the
encyclopedic works of Capella, Cassiodorus, and Isidore, or had read the
writings of Bede and his many followers who had composed treatises “on
the nature of things,” in which they had striven to set in order the
known or supposed facts of the physical world. The thirteenth century
had an encyclopedist of its own in Vincent of Beauvais, who produced a
vast compendium made up of several _Specula_, which were supposed to
contain all the knowledge that the world possessed in science, history,
theology, and other fields of learning. The age also produced various
other Latin works of the didactic sort, of which the _Historia
Scholastica_ of Petrus Comestor was perhaps the most significant for the
intellectual history of the North.
Norway had no encyclopedist, but the thirteenth century produced a
Norwegian writer who undertook a task which was somewhat of the
encyclopedic type. Some time during the reign of Hakon IV, perhaps while
Vincent was composing his great _Speculum Majus_, a learned Norseman
wrote the _Speculum Regale_, or _King’s Mirror_, a work which a
competent critic has characterized as “one of the chief ornaments of Old
Norse literature.”[1] Unlike the sagas and the romances, which have in
view chiefly the entertainment of the reader, the _King’s Mirror_ is
didactic throughout; in a few chapters only does the author depart from
his serious purpose, and all but two of these are of distinct value. The
purpose of the work is to provide a certain kind of knowledge which will
be of use to young men who are looking forward to a career in the higher
professions.
Footnote 1:
R. Keyser in the introduction to the Christiania edition (p. xi).
As outlined in the introductory chapter, the work was to deal with the
four great orders of men in the Norwegian kingdom: the merchants and
their interests; the king and his retainers; the church and the clergy;
and the peasantry or husbandmen. In the form in which the _King’s
Mirror_ has come down to modern times, however, the first two divisions
only are included; not the least fragment of any separate discussion of
the clerical profession or of the agricultural classes has been found.
It is, therefore, generally believed that the work was not completed
beyond the point where the extant manuscripts close. Why the book was
left unfinished cannot be known; but it is a plausible conjecture that
illness or perhaps death prevented the author, who was apparently an
aged man, from completing the task that he had set before him. It is
also possible that the ideas expressed in the closing chapters of the
work, especially in the last chapter, which deals with the subject of
clerical subordination to the secular powers, were so repugnant to the
ecclesiastical thought of the time that the authorities of the church
discouraged or perhaps found means to prevent the continuation of the
work into the third division, where the author had planned to deal with
the church and the clergy.
In form the _Speculum_ is a dialog between a wise and learned father and
his son, in which the larger part of the discussion naturally falls to
the former. The son asks questions and suggests problems, which the
father promptly answers or solves. In the choice of form there is
nothing original: the dialog was frequently used by didactic writers in
the middle ages, and it was the natural form to adopt. The title,
_Speculum Regale_, is also of a kind that was common in those days.[2]
_Specula_ of many sorts were being produced: _Speculum Ecclesiae_,
_Speculum Stultorum_, _Speculum Naturale_, and _Speculum Perfectionis_
are some of the titles used for writings of a didactic type. The German
_Sachsenspiegel_ is an instance of the title employed for a work in a
vulgar idiom. There was also a _Speculum Regum_, or _Mirror of Kings_,
and a century later an English ecclesiastic wrote a _Speculum Regis_,
but the writer knows of no other work called the _Speculum Regale_.
Footnote 2:
It is believed that the title came into use in Europe in imitation of
Hindu writers who wrote “Mirrors of Princes.” Nansen, _In Northern
Mists_, II, 242.
It is an interesting question whether the _King’s Mirror_ was inspired
by any earlier work written along similar lines. Originality was a rare
virtue in the middle ages, and the good churchmen who wrote books in
those days cannot have regarded plagiarism as a mortal sin. The great
writers were freely copied by the lesser men, thoughts, titles,
statements, and even the wording being often taken outright. It is,
therefore, difficult to determine the sources of statements found in the
later works, as they may have been drawn from any one of a whole series
of writings on the subject under discussion. The writer has not been
able to make an exhaustive examination of all the didactic and
devotional literature of the centuries preceding the thirteenth, but the
search that has been made has not proved fruitful. There is every reason
to believe that the author of the _King’s Mirror_ was an independent
thinker and writer. He was doubtless acquainted with a large number of
books and had drawn information from a great variety of sources; but
when the writing was actually done he had apparently a few volumes only
at his disposal. In the region where the work seems to have been
composed, on the northern edge of European civilization, there was
neither cathedral nor monastery nor any other important ecclesiastical
foundation where a collection of books might be found.[3] It is likely,
therefore, that the author had access to such books only as were in his
own possession. But he came to his task with a well-stocked mind, with a
vast fund of information gathered by travel and from the experiences of
an active life; and thus he drew largely from materials that had become
the permanent possession of his memory. This fact, if it be a fact, will
also help to explain why so many inaccuracies have crept into his quoted
passages; in but very few instances does he give the correct wording of
a citation.
Footnote 3:
There must have been important collections of manuscripts at Nidaros
(Trondhjem), where there was a cathedral and several monastic
institutions. The _King’s Mirror_ was probably composed in Namdalen,
about one hundred miles northeast of Nidaros. See below, pp. 59–60.
There can be no doubt that the author had a copy of the _Vulgate_ before
him; at least one Biblical passage is correctly given, and it is quoted
in its Latin form.[4] It has also been discovered that he had access to
an Old Norse paraphrase of a part of the Old Testament, the books of
Samuel and of the Kings.[5] It is likely that he was also acquainted
with some of the works of Saint Augustine, and perhaps with the writings
of certain other medieval authorities. Among these it seems safe to
include the _Disciplina Clericalis_, a collection of tales and ethical
observations by Petrus Alfonsus, a converted Jew who wrote in the first
half of the twelfth century. The _Disciplina_ is a somewhat fantastic
production wholly unlike the sober pages of the _Speculum Regale_;
nevertheless, the two works appear to show certain points of resemblance
which can hardly have been accidental. The _Disciplina_ is a dialog and
the part of the son is much the same as in the _King’s Mirror_. In both
works the young man expresses a desire to become acquainted with the
customs of the royal court, inasmuch as he may some day decide to apply
for admission to the king’s household service.[6] The description of
courtly manners and customs in the earlier dialog, though much briefer
than the corresponding discussion in the Norwegian treatise, has some
resemblance to the latter which suggests a possible relationship between
the two works.
Footnote 4:
See below, p. 237.
Footnote 5:
Storm, “Om Tidsforholdet mellem Kongespeilet og Stjórn samt Barlaams
Saga”: _Arkiv for nordisk Filologi_, III, 83-88.
Footnote 6:
See _Disciplina Clericalis_, fabula xxiv: Migne, _Patrologia Latina_,
CLVII, 698-700.
The Norwegian author may also have used some of the many commentaries on
the books of Holy Writ, in the production of which the medieval
cloisters were so prolific. Of the influence of Petrus Comestor’s
_Historia Scholastica_ the writer has found no distinct trace in the
_King’s Mirror_; but one can be quite sure that he knew and had used the
_Elucidarium_ of Honorius of Autun. The _Elucidarium_ is a manual of
medieval theology which was widely read in the later middle ages and was
translated into Old Norse, probably before the _King’s Mirror_ was
written.[7] But our Norwegian author was not a slavish follower of
earlier authorities: in his use and treatment of materials drawn from
the Scriptures he shows remarkable independence. Remarkable at least is
his ability to make Biblical narratives serve to illustrate his own
theories of Norwegian kingship. He was acquainted with some of the
legends that circulated through the church and made effective use of
them. He must also have known a work on the marvels of Ireland[8] and
the letter of Prester John to the Byzantine emperor,[9] in which that
mythical priest-king recounts the wonders of India. But the chief source
of his work is a long life full of action, conflict, thought, and
experience.
Footnote 7:
A fragment of the _Elucidarium_, comprising, however, the greater part
of the work, is published in _Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed_, 1852
and 1853; in the former volume a Danish translation is given; the
latter contains the Icelandic text.
Footnote 8:
See below, pp. 22–25.
Footnote 9:
See below, p. 101 (c. viii).
The importance of the _King’s Mirror_ lies in the insight that it gives
into the state of culture and civilization of the North in the later
middle ages. The interest follows seven different lines: physical
science, especially such matters as are of importance to navigators;
geography, particularly the geography of the Arctic lands and waters;
the organization of the king’s household and the privileges and duties
of the king’s henchmen; military engines, weapons, and armour used in
offensive and defensive warfare; ethical ideas, especially rules of
conduct for courtiers and merchants; the royal office, the duties of the
king and the divine origin of kingship; and the place of the church in
the Norwegian state.
In one of his earlier chapters the author enumerates the chief subjects
of a scientific character that ought to be studied by every one who
wishes to become a successful merchant. These are the great luminaries
of the sky, the motions and the paths of the heavenly bodies, the
divisions of time and the changes that bring the seasons, the cardinal
points of the compass, and the tides and currents of the ocean.[10] In
discussing these matters he is naturally led to a statement as to the
shape of the earth. All through the middle ages there were thinkers who
accepted the teachings of the classical astronomers who had taught that
the earth is round like a sphere; but this belief was by no means
general. Bede for one appears to have been convinced that the earth is
of a spherical shape, though he explains that, because of mountains
which rise high above the surface, it cannot be perfectly round.[11]
Alexander Neckam, an English scientist who wrote two generations before
the _King’s Mirror_ was composed, states in his _Praise of Divine
Wisdom_ that “the ancients have ventured to believe that the earth is
round, though mountains rise high above its surface.”[12] Neckam’s own
ideas on this point are quite confused and he remains discreetly
non-committal.
Footnote 10:
C. iv. See also Larson, “Scientific Knowledge in the North in the
Thirteenth Century”: _Publications of the Society for the Advancement
of Scandinavian Study_, I, 139-146.
Footnote 11:
_De Natura Rerum_, c. xlvi: Migne, _Patrologia Latina_, XC, 264-265.
Footnote 12:
_De Naturis Rerum_, 441.
But if the earth is a globe, there is every reason to believe in the
existence of antipodes; and if there are antipodes, all cannot behold
Christ coming in the clouds on the final day. To the medieval
theologians, at least to the larger number of them, this argument
disposed effectually of the Ptolemaic theory. Job does indeed say that
God “hangeth the earth upon nothing,”[13] and this passage might point
to a spherical form; but then the Psalmist affirms that He “stretched
out the earth above the waters,”[14] and this statement would indicate
that the inhabited part of the earth is an island floating upon the
waters of the great Ocean, by which it is also surrounded. This belief
was generally maintained in the earlier centuries of the classical
world, and it had wide acceptance in the middle ages. There were also
those who held that beyond and around the outer Ocean is a great girdle
of fire. It is likely, however, that many believed with Isidore of
Seville that it is useless to speculate on subjects of this sort.
“Whether it [the earth] is supported by the density of the air, or
whether it is spread out upon the waters ... or how the yielding air can
support such a vast mass as the earth, whether such an immense weight
can be upheld by the waters without being submerged, or how the earth
maintains its balance ... these matters it is not permitted any mortal
to know and they are not for us to discuss.”[15]
Footnote 13:
_Job_, xxvi, 7.
Footnote 14:
_Psalms_, cxxxvi, 6.
Footnote 15:
_De Natura Rerum Liber_, c. xlv: Migne, _Patrologia Latina_, LXXXIII,
1015.
There can be no doubt that the author of the _King’s Mirror_ believed in
the Ptolemaic theory of a spherical earth. In speaking of our planet he
uses the term _jarðarbollr_,[16] earth-sphere. In an effort to explain
why some countries are hotter than others, he suggests an experiment
with an apple. It is not clear how this can shed much light on the
problem, but the author boldly states the point to be illustrated: “From
this you may infer that the earth-circle is round like a ball.”[17]
Footnote 16:
See c. xix.
Footnote 17:
See c. vii.
Toward the close of the medieval period there were certain thinkers who
attempted to reconcile the spherical theory with the belief that the
inhabited part of the earth is an island. These appear to have believed
that the earth is a globe partly submerged in a larger sphere composed
of water.[18] The visible parts of the earth would rise above the
surrounding ocean like a huge island, and the Biblical passages which
had caused so much difficulty could thus be interpreted in accord with
apparent facts. It is quite clear that the author of the _King’s Mirror_
held no such theory. In a poetic description of how the eight winds form
their covenants of friendship at the approach of spring, he tells us
that “at midnight the north wind goes forth to meet the coursing sun and
leads him through rocky deserts toward the sparse-built shores.”[19] The
author, therefore, seems to believe that the earth is a sphere, that
there are lands on the opposite side of the earth, and that these lands
are inhabited. He also understands that the regions that lie beneath the
midnight course of the sun in spring and summer must be thinly
populated, as the sun’s path on the opposite side of the earth during
the season of lengthening days is constantly approaching nearer the
pole.
Footnote 18:
Ruge, _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_, 97.
Footnote 19:
C. v.
But while the author seems to accept the Ptolemaic theory of the
universe, he is not able to divest his mind entirely of current
geographical notions. There can be no doubt that he believed in the
encircling outer ocean, and it is barely possible that he also looked
with favor on the belief that the whole was encompassed by a girdle of
fire. On this point, however, we cannot be sure: he mentions the belief
merely as one that is current, not as one accepted by himself.[20]
Footnote 20:
C. xix.
It was commonly held in the middle ages that the earth is divided into
five zones, only two of which may be inhabited. This was a theory
advanced by a Greek scientist in the fifth century before our era,[21]
and was given currency in medieval times chiefly, perhaps, through the
works of Macrobius.[22] At first these zones were conceived as belts
drawn across the heavens; later they came to be considered as divisions
of the earth’s surface. It will be noted that our author uses the older
terminology and speaks of the zones as belts on the heaven;[23] it may
be inferred, therefore, that he derived his information from one of the
earlier Latin treatises on the nature of the universe.[24] For two
thousand years it was believed that human life could not exist in the
polar and torrid zones. Even as late as the fifteenth century European
navigators had great fear of travel into the torrid zone, where the heat
was thought to grow more intense as one traveled south, until a point
might be reached where water in the sea would boil. The author of the
_King’s Mirror_ seems to doubt all this. He regards the polar zones as
generally uninhabitable; still, he is sure that Greenland lies within
the arctic zone; and yet, Greenland “has beautiful sunshine and is said
to have a rather pleasant climate.”[25] He sees quite clearly that the
physical nature of a country may have much to do with climatic
conditions. The cold of Iceland he ascribes in great part to its
position near Greenland: “for it is to be expected that severe cold
would come thence, since Greenland is ice-clad beyond all other
lands.”[26] He conceives the possibility that the south temperate zone
is inhabited. “And if people live as near the cold belt on the southern
side as the Greenlanders do on the northern, I firmly believe that the
north wind blows as warm to them as the south wind to us. For they must
look north to see the midday and the sun’s whole course, just as we, who
dwell north of the sun, must look to the south.”[27]
Footnote 21:
Parmenides of Ela (ca. 480 B.C.). Nansen, _In Northern Mists_, I, 12.
Footnote 22:
See below, p. 147 (c. xix). Cf. _Ibid._, 123.
Footnote 23:
C. xix.
Footnote 24:
Probably from the writings of Isidore, who speaks of the zones as
belts on the heavens. _Etymologiae_, iii, c. xliv; xiii, c. vi; _De
Natura Rerum_, c. x.
Footnote 25:
C. xix.
Footnote 26:
C. xiii.
Footnote 27:
C. xxi.
On the questions of time and its divisions the author of the _King’s
Mirror_ seems to have had nearly all the information that the age
possessed. He divides the period of day and night into two “days”
(_dægr_) of twelve hours each. Each hour is again divided into smaller
hours called _ostenta_ in Latin.[28] Any division below the minute he
apparently does not know. The length of the year he fixes at 365 days
and six hours, every fourth year these additional hours make twenty-four
and we have leap year.[29] The waxing and waning of the moon and the
tidal changes in the ocean are also reckoned with fair accuracy.[30]
Footnote 28:
C. vi.
Footnote 29:
_Ibid._
Footnote 30:
_Ibid._
Medieval scientists found these movements in the ocean a great mystery.
Some ascribed the tides to the influence of the moon;[31] others
believed that they were caused by the collision of the waters of two
arms of the ocean, an eastern arm and a western; still others imagined
that somewhere there were “certain cavern-like abysses, which now
swallow up the water, and now spew it forth again.”[32] The author of
the _Speculum_ has no doubts on the subject: he believes that the tides
are due to the waxing and waning of the moon.[33]
Footnote 31:
The Venerable Bede held that the moon is in some way responsible for
the tides. _De Natura Rerum_, c. xxxix: Migne, _Patrologia Latina_,
XC, 258-259; see also _ibid._, XC, 422-426 (_De Tempore Ratione_, c.
xxix).
Footnote 32:
Alexander Neckam, _De Naturis Rerum_, 138.
Footnote 33:
C. vi.
In his discussion of the volcanic fires of Iceland he shows that on this
subject he was completely under the influence of medieval conceptions.
He has heard that Gregory the Great believed that the volcanic eruptions
in Sicily have their origins in the infernal regions. Our author is
inclined to question, however, that there is anything supernatural about
the eruptions of Mount Etna; but he is quite sure that the volcanic
fires of Iceland rise from the places of pain. The fires of Sicily are
living fires, inasmuch as they devour living materials, such as wood and
earth; those of Iceland, on the other hand, consume nothing living but
only dead matter like rock. And he therefore concludes that these fires
must have their origin in the realms of death.[34]
Footnote 34:
C. xiii.
The author has a suspicion that earthquakes may be due to volcanic
action, but he offers another explanation, though he does not give it as
his own belief. Down in the bowels of the earth there is probably a
large number of caverns and empty passages. “At times it may happen that
these passages and cavities will be so completely packed with air either
by the winds or by the power of the roaring breakers, that the pressure
of the blast cannot be confined, and this may be the origin of those
great earthquakes that occur in that country.”[35] In this theory there
is nothing new or original: the belief that the earth is of a spongy
constitution and that earthquakes are caused by air currents is a very
old one, which can be followed back through the writings of Alexander
Neckam,[36] the Venerable Bede,[37] and others, at least as far as to
Isidore.[38] The elder Pliny, who wrote his _Natural History_ in the
first century of the Christian era, seems to have held similar views: “I
believe there can be no doubt that the winds are the cause of
earthquakes.”[39]
Footnote 35:
_Ibid._
Footnote 36:
_De Naturis Rerum_, 158.
Footnote 37:
_De Natura Rerum_, c. xlix: Migne, _Patrologia Latina_, XC, 275-276.
Footnote 38:
_De Natura Rerum_, c. xlvi: Migne, _Patrologia Latina_, LXXXIII, 1015.
See also _The Christian Topography_ of Cosmas (written about 547),
17-18; Cosmas scoffs at the theory.
Footnote 39:
_Naturalis Historiae_, I, 201 (ii, c. lxxix).
The chapters that deal with the northern lights are interesting because
they seem to imply that these lights were not visible in those parts of
Norway where the _King’s Mirror_ was written. The editors of the
Christiania edition of this work call attention to the fact that there
have been periods when these phenomena were less prominent, and suggest
that there may have been such a period in the thirteenth century.[40]
The author discusses these lights as one of the wonders of Greenland,
and the natural inference is that they were not known in Norway. But it
is also true that he speaks of whales as if they were limited to the
seas about Iceland and Greenland, which is manifestly incorrect. It is
likely that the author merely wishes to emphasize the fact that the
northern lights appear with greater frequency and in greater brilliance
in Greenland than anywhere in Norway. He gives three theories to account
for these phenomena: some ascribe them to a girdle of fire which
encircles the earth beyond the outer ocean; others hold that the lights
are merely rays of the sun which find their way past the edges of the
earth while the sun is coursing underneath; but his own belief is that
frost and cold have attained to such a power in the Arctic that they are
able to put forth light.[41] In his opinion cold is a positive force as
much as heat or any other form of energy. To the men of the author’s
time there was nothing strange in this belief: it seems to have been
held by many even before the thirteenth century that ice could under
certain conditions produce heat and even burn.[42]
Footnote 40:
P. ix, note.
Footnote 41:
C. xix.
Footnote 42:
Thus Solinus (pp. xxxiv, xxxvii, 236) says “the sea-ice on this island
ignites itself on collision, and when it is ignited it burns like
wood.” See Nansen, _In Northern Mists_, I, 193. Adam von Bremen
(_Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum_, iv, 34) writes: “they
report this remarkable thing about it that this ice appears so black
and dry that, on account of its age, it burns when it is kindled.”
_Ibid._ The same belief appears in a German poem _Meregarto_: “Thereby
the ice there becomes so hard as crystal, that they make a fire above
it till the crystal glows.” _Ibid._, I, 181.
Among the author’s scientific notions very little that is really
original can be found. It is Riant’s belief that he drew to some extent
from Oriental sources, the lore of the East having come into the North
as the spoil of crusaders or as the acquisitions of Norwegian
pilgrims.[43] It may be doubted, however, whether the Saracenic
contribution is a real one: almost everything that the author of the
_Speculum Regale_ presents as his belief can be found in the Latin
scientific manuals of the middle ages. He alludes to the writings of
Isidore of Seville, and there can be little doubt that he was acquainted
with the ideas of the great Spaniard, though he does not accept them
all. His ideas as to the shape of the earth and the probable causes of
earthquakes may have been derived from the writings of the Venerable
Bede, or from one of his numerous followers. The divisions of time are
discussed in many of the scientific treatises of the middle ages, but
the division of the hour into sixtieths called _ostenta_ is probably not
found in any manual written before the ninth century; so far as the
writer has been able to determine, _ostenta_, meaning minutes, first
appears in the works of Rabanus Maurus.[44]
Footnote 43:
Riant, _Expéditions et Pèlerinages des Scandinaves en Terre Sainte_,
440-441.
Footnote 44:
Rabanus Maurus died in 856.
The discussion of these scientific notions has its chief value in
showing to what extent the Norwegians of the thirteenth century were
acquainted with the best theories of the age as to the great facts of
the universe. The author’s own contribution to the scientific learning
of his time lies almost exclusively in the field of geography. “Beyond
comparison the most important geographical writer of the medieval
North,” says Dr. Nansen, “and at the same time one of the first in the
whole of medieval Europe, was the unknown author who wrote the _King’s
Mirror_.... If one turns from contemporary or earlier European
geographical literature, with all its superstition and obscurity, to
this masterly work, the difference is very striking.”[45] This is
doubtless due to the fact that our author was not a cloistered monk who
was content to copy the ideas and expressions of his predecessors with
such changes as would satisfy a theological mind, but a man who had been
active in the secular world and was anxious to get at real facts.
Footnote 45:
Nansen, _In Northern Mists_, II, 242.
Among the chapters devoted to scientific lore the author has introduced
several which are ostensibly intended to serve the purpose of
entertainment; the author seems to fear that the interest of his readers
is likely to flag, if the dry recital of physical facts is continued
unbroken. It is in these chapters, which profess to deal with the
marvels of Norway, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, and the Arctic seas,
that he introduces his geographical data. In the description of
Greenland are included such important and practical subjects as the
general character of the land, the great ice fields, the products of the
country, wild animals, and a few facts from the economic life of the
people. In the chapters on Iceland the author limits himself to certain
physical features, such as glaciers, geysers, mineral springs,
volcanoes, and earthquakes. He also gives a “description of the animal
world of the northern seas to which there is no parallel in the earlier
literature of the world.”[46] He enumerates twenty-one different species
of whales[47] and describes several of them with some fulness. He
mentions and describes six varieties of seals[48] and also gives a
description of the walrus. The marvelous element is represented by
detailed accounts of the “sea-hedges” (probably sea quakes) on the
coasts of Greenland, the merman, the mermaid, and the kraken.[49] But on
the whole these chapters give evidence of careful, discriminating
observation and a desire to give accurate knowledge.
Footnote 46:
Nansen, _In Northern Mists_, II, 243.
Footnote 47: