BOOK IV. CHAP. I. The Political State of NORWAY, SWEDEN, and DENMARK, in the ALTHOUGH popular language, seldom accurate, has given the denomination of Danes to the invaders of England, they were composed of the nations who lived in the regions now known by the general appellations of Sweden and Norway, as well as of the inhabitants of Zealand and Jutland. Of these, the Swedes were the earliest civilised, and seem to have first abandoned the system of maritime piracy. The Norwegians continued their aggressions, though at long intervals, to the year wherein this history ends. The Danes, who headed the most terrible of the invasions, were also the most successful. Under Sweyn, Canute, and his children, they obtained the government of Britain. THE general aspect of the north, in the eighth century, was remarkable for two peculiarities, which were fitted to produce an age of piracy. These were, the numerous petty kings who ruled in its various regions, and the sea-kings who swarmed upon the ocean. CHAP. I. NORWAY, whose broken coast stretches along a State of tumultuous ocean, from the rocks of the Baltic Norway. into the arctic circle, was the most sterile of all IV. 1 BOOK the regions of the north. Its rugged mountains, and intolerable cold, were unfriendly to agricultural cultivation ; but they nurtured a hardy and vigorous race, who, possessing no luxuries, feared no invasion, but poured their fleets on other coasts, to seize the superfluities which happier climates produced. The navigator whom Alfred consulted and employed, describes this region, which he calls Northmanna land, as very long and very small. "All that man may use for pasture or plough lieth against the sea; and even this in some places very rocky. Wild moors lie against the east, and along the inhabited lands. In these moors the Finnas dwell. The cultivated land is broadest towards the east, but becomes continually smaller as it stretches towards the north."2 Ohthere added, that the "moors were in some places so broad, that a man would be two weeks in travelling over them; in others but six days." FROM these descriptions we may remark, that the natural state of the country favoured maritime depredations. The population was along the sea. The natives were hardy, and their subsistence scanty. Compelled by their penury, they roamed largely abroad, and returned, when plunder had enriched them.4 NORWAY, in the eighth century, was divided among numerous sovereignties, called fylki, which 1 Adam Bremen. Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. iv. c. 96. p. 71. ed. Lindenbrog. Franc. 1630. 2 See Ohthere's narration, inserted by Alfred in his Saxon translation of Orosius, p. 24. ed. Lond. 1773. The land subjected to human culture, he describes as about 60 miles broad in the eastward, about 30 in the middle; and northward, where smallest, it might be three miles to the moors. Ibid. 3 Ohthere, ibid. 4 Adam Brem. p. 71. I. an Icelandic Saga defines to have been a province CHAP. which could furnish twelve ships, containing each sixty or seventy well-armed men." Sometimes every fylki had an independent king. Sometimes more than one were under the same ruler. The chorographical description of Norway enumerates twenty-two of these fylki, besides the fylki of Trondheim, which contained eight more. The number of sovereignties probably varied according to the ambition and success of the several chiefs. The Hervarar Saga mentions, that at one period there were twelve kingdoms in Norway. In the ninth century they were very numerous. Snorre, the very ancient and most valuable historiographer of Norway, brings all the fylki kings to our view, in his history of Harald Harfragre, the descendant of a petty prince in the southern parts of Scandinavia, who acceded in 862.10 Harald swore to subdue all these little sovereigns, as Gormo had already conquered those of Denmark, 5 Olaf Tryggva-son's Saga, c. 41. Stephanius says, that the ancient Danes used the word fylki to signify a province now called Lon; but so populous as to furnish an army. In each of these a sovereign governed. Note in Saxon. Gram. p. 118. ed. Hafn. 1644. 6 Olaf's Saga, p. 97. 7 Stephanius recapitulates them, p. 118. 8 C. 18. p. 221. This Saga, whose author is unknown, is a kind of Icelandic Epopea. The original was published with a vernacular translation and Latin notes, by Verelius, in 1672. The last edition is valuable for its Latin version; but it has omitted, I think, with a diminution of its utility, and with injustice to Verelius, his learned notes. Some might have been retrenched, but the great body of them ought not to have been characterised as non momentosa.' 66 9 Snorre Sturleson was born at Hvam, in West Iceland, 1178. In 1213 he was made supreme judge of Iceland. He was a poet as well as an historian. His moral character was not so distinguished as his genius. He was killed at Reickholt, in his sixty-third year. See his Life, prefixed to Schöning's edition of his Heimskringla, or Historia Regum Norvegicorum. Havn. 1777. 10 Annales Islandici vetustissimi, 2 Langbeck's Script. Dan. p. 186. IV. BOOK and Eric those of Sweden. He accomplished his vow. By his first efforts he destroyed the kings who governed in the eight fylki of Trondheim, and reduced these fylki under his dominion." The rest of his life was chiefly occupied by his wars with the other. The struggle ended in his uniting them all under one monarchy.12 State of SKIRTED by the Alps of Norway, Sweden was distinguished for its fertility, wealth, and commerce.13 Its population was numerous, warlike, and hospitable.1 The name of Sweden, though now applied to the whole region governed by the Swedish monarch, was in ancient times restricted to the territory about Upsal." Before the eighth century, it contained many provincial sovereigns, called Herads Konungr, of whom the king of Upsal was the chief. As cultivation spread, and deserts were converted into fields, new kingdoms rose. 16 Nineteen of these puny kingdoms are enumerated." The king of Upsal, subjecting these inferior rulers, received the denomination of Thiod 11 Snorre, Haralld's Saga, c. 8. p. 81. 12 See Snorre, Haralld's Saga, p. 83-112. The last chapters of the Ynglinga Saga are on the immediate ancestors of Harald, who sprang from the Ynglingi of Upsal. 13 Adam Brem. 68. Rembert, who obtained the archbishopric of Hamburg in 865, has left us some valuable expressions about Birca, which he calls the port of Sweden. He says, Ibi multi essent negotia. tores divites et abundantia totius boni atque pecunia thesaurorum multa. Vita Anfgar. 1 Langb. 459. 14 Adam Brem. p. 68. He says, the Swedes not only thought it a disgrace to refuse hospitality to the traveller, but they contended for the honour of entertaining him. Ibid. The Swedes had as many wives as they could maintain. Ibid. 15 Snorre calls this part Swithiod. He places here the Ynglingi, whose succession Ivar Vidfadme disturbed. Adam Brem. also distinguishes Suedia from the adjoining provinces of Gothland, p.68. 16 Snorre, Ynglinga Saga, c. 40. p. 48. 17 In Messenii Scond. Illust. i. p. 7. I. Kongr. 18 Ingialld, who perished in the invasion CHAP. Ivar Vidfadme, destroyed by treachery twelve of the petty kings.19 The king of Upsal received tribute from the rest, who were thence denominated Skatte Kongar, tributary kings." But these subordinate rulers sometimes amassed so much wealth by piracy, as to be more powerful than the superior lord.21 Sweden had not a very extensive population, till after the beginning of the eighth century: In the preceding age it was so full of woods and deserts, that it required many days' journey to pass over them. The father of Ingialld exerted himself to convert many forests and heaths into arable land.22 He made roads through parts which no human foot had explored; and by his wise industry, great extents of country were adorned for the first time by the cottages, corn, and people of a flourishing cultivation.23 This continent was, however, still so little peopled, that Olaf, the son of Ingialld, flying from Ivar, in the eighth century, found the country from the west of the kingdom of Upsal, to the Vener lake, an uninhabited forest. By the axe and by fire, he 18 Verelius in Got. et Rol. p.87. I observe in Snorre, that the ancient title of the kings of Sweden was Drottnar (lord). Dyggvi was first saluted Konungur (king), c. 20. p.24. His mother was the daughter of Dan the Magnificent, a quo Daniæ ortum est nomen, ibid. Snorre says, the Swedes call him their drottinn, who takes the skattgiafr, the tribute, from them, c. 11. p. 15. 19 Snorre, Yngl. c. 43. p. 53. 20 Peringskiold Monum. Upl. 10. He calls the kings of Upsal Enwalds, or Ofwer Konungar. The arms of Upland were a golden apple, or globe, surrounded with a belt, in allusion to the monarchy. Ibid. 21 Verelius Got. et Rolf. 75. 22 Snorre, Ynglinga Saga, c. 37. p. 45. 23 Snorre, p. 45. Loccenius, with truer chronology than others, places Aunund immediately before the father of Ragnar Lodbrog. Hist. Suec. p. 41. |