BOOK IV. which concurred with the fens to keep the interior unpeopled. Hence the maritime coasts, though full of incessant danger, from the pirates, were the parts frequented.32 The Danes also occupied Scania, on the Scandinavian continent. It was their richest province.33 This peninsula was almost an island; a tract of land, composed of deep forests and rugged mountains, divided it from Gothland.34 It produced Ivar, the king whose invasion destroyed the dynasty of the Ynglingi at Upsal, and who occupied part of England.35 Saxo mentions Hallandia and Blekingia as Danish possessions.36 Wulfstan, a navigator with whom Alfred conversed about the north-eastern countries of the Baltic, enumerated the isles of Langoland, Leland, Falster, and Sconey, as belonging at that period to Denemearca.37 The German chronicles at this time generally mean Jutland when they speak of Denmark, but the isles seem to have always formed an important part of the Danish population.38 Denmark was anciently possessed by many contemporary kings. The Knytlinga Saga, after enumerating the districts which Denmark contained in the time of Canute, adds, that although then under one sovereign, they had been formerly divided into many kingdoms.39 According to this document, 32 Adam Brem. 63. Reg. Dan. 86, 87. Jutland was anciently called Reidgotaland. Torfæus, Series The rest of Denmark was called Ey-gotaland, the insular Goth 36 In his preface he mentions the rock in Blekingia, so famous for its surprising inscriptions. He says, lib. vii. p. 138., Harald Hyldetand, as a monument to his father, caused his actions to be described on it. Wormius relates what remains of it. Monum. Dan. p. 221. 37 Alfred's Orosius, p. 25. 38 They were anciently called Witahedh, or Vitaslett. Verelius, Hist. Suio-Goth. Peter Olaus says, that the name Dania primo et principaliter comprehended the islands. Chron, Langb. i. 83. 16. Knytlinga Saga. Wormius, App. 36. Jutland contained five of these Konga-ryki, at Sles- CHAP. wick, Ripen, Arhusan, Wiburg, and Hording.40 The islands, and the continental provinces of Scania and Hallandia, had also their respective sovereigns, among whom the king of Lethra appears the most ancient and the most powerful.41 These petty kings were styled Fylki Kongr, people, or provincial kings. 42 Ambition, before the eighth century, had diminished the number of the rival thrones. Two monopolised Jutland; Fionia, Seeland, and Scania had each another.43 This number also lessened; and at the period of their first aggression on England, the Danish royalty was confined to a king in Jutland, and one over the isles. Soon afterwards one monarcha commanded the whole. Gormo Grandævus, who lived in the end of the ninth century, is stated to have destroyed the other reguli.44 In speaking of kings and kingdoms, we use words of swelling sound, and magnificent import. Splendour, extensive dominion, pomp, power, and venerated dignity are the majestic images which arise in our minds when we hear of thrones. But we must dismiss from our thoughts the fascinating appendages to modern royalty, when we contemplate the petty sovereigns of the North. Some of their kingdoms may have equalled an English county in extent, but many would have been rivalled by our hundreds. 40 In Canute's time the proportionate importance of these provinces may be inferred from the war-ships they furnished to the king. Heida bay, containing 350 kyrckna, or parishes, provided 130 ships. Ripen, 324 parishes, 110 or 120 ships. Arhusen, 210 parishes, 90 ships. Wiburg, 250 parishes, 100 ships. Hording, 160 parishes, 50 ships. Fionia, 300 parishes, 100 ships. Zealand, 309 churches, 120 ships. Scania, 353 churches, 150 ships. Worm. p. 34, 35. 41 Snorre generally calls the Danish kings, kings of Hleidra, as p. 9. 17. 41. 43, &c. Stephanius says, ab hac Lethra Daniæ reges in antiquissimis monumentis semper nominantur Kongar aff Ledru, p. 74. 42 Stephan. p. 103. Verelius informs us, that fylking is an embodied army, fylke a province furnishing a fylking, and fylke king its sovereign. In Got. et Rol. p. 27. 43 Anon. Roskild. Chron. Langb. i. 374. To the same purpose Stephanius, p. 103. Harald's Saga, 44 Torfæus Hist. Norv. i. p. 410. Snorre intimates as much. c. 3. p. 78. BOOK IV. Seated in their rural halls, with a small band of fol lowers scattered about, these northern fylki kings were often victims to pirates who assailed them. They had neither castles, cities, nor defensive fortifications.45 Even the Thiod-Kongr, the preponderant ruler, sometimes fell before one of his inferiors whom plunder had enriched. 46 The more settled kings of Denmark became known more distinctly to us in the time of Charlemagne. During his life, Godfrid reigned in Jutland, who had subdued the Frisians, and also the Obotriti and a part of the Slavi. He threatened Charlemagne with war. He was succeeded by Hemming, his cousin, who made peace with the Frankish monarch, and the Eyder was established as their common boundary. On Hemming's death, the Danish sovereignty was contested between Sigefrid and Ring, in whose warfare 11,000 men, with both the competitors, perished. 45 We have a remarkable instance of this in Birca, the port and chief commercial emporium of Sweden. Rembert, who lived about 865, states this Birca to have been so defenceless, that on the approach of the Danes, the people fled from it to a neighbouring civitatem. This civitas was also non multum firma. They offered 120 pounds of silver to save Birca. Ansch, vita, p. 460. Langb. i. 46 Verelius in Hervarar Saga, 142. CHAP. II. The Sea-Kings and Vikingr of the North. СНАР. kings. WHEN we review these kings and sub-kings of the North, we behold only a part of its political situation. There were also sovereigns who possessed neither The seacountry nor regular subjects, and yet filled the regions adjacent with blood and misery. The seakings of the North were a race of beings whom Europe beheld with horror. Without a yard of territorial property, without any towns, or visible nation1, with no wealth but their ships, no force but their crews, and no hope but from their swords, the sea-kings swarmed on the boisterous ocean, and plundered in every district they could approach. Never to sleep under a smoky roof, nor to indulge in the cheerful cup over a hearth2, were the boasts of these watery sovereigns, who not only flourished in the plunder of the sea and its shores, but who sometimes amassed so much booty, and enlisted so many followers, as to be able to assault provinces for permanent conquest. Thus Haki and Hagbard were sea-kings; their reputation induced many bands of rovers to join their fortunes. They attacked the king of Upsal, whom Haki defeated and succeeded.3 Some years afterwards, the sons of Yngvi, who had become sea-kings, and lived wholly in their war-ships, 1 Multi enim reges hinc fuere maritimi (Sæ-konungar) qui maximis quidem copiis sed nulli præerant regioni. Snorre, Yngl. Saga, c. 34. p. 43. Multi insuper qui nec ditiones nec subditos habebant sed piratica tantum et latrociniis opes quærebant, Wiik-kungar et Naak-kungar, i. e. reges maritimi dicebantur. Verelius, Hist. Suio-Gott. p. 6. 2 Snorre, p. 43. Snorre, Yngling. c. 25. p. 30, 31. BOOK roamed the ocean in search of adventures. They encountered the king of Haley-ia, and hanged him. They also assaulted Haki, and overpowered him.1 Solvi was a sea-king, and infested the eastern regions of the Baltic with his depredations. He suddenly landed in Sweden in the night, surrounded the house where the king of Upsal was sleeping, and, applying firebrands, reduced all who were in it to ashes. Such was the generous warfare of these royal pirates. It is declared to have been a law or custom in the North, that one of the male children should be selected to remain at home, to inherit the government. The rest were exiled to the ocean, to wield their sceptres amid the turbulent waters. The consent of the northern societies entitled all men of royal descent, who assumed piracy as a profession, to enjoy the name of kings, though they possessed no territory. Hence the sea-kings were the kinsmen of the land-sovereigns. While the eldest son ascended the paternal throne, the rest of the family hastened, like petty Neptunes, to establish their kingdoms in the waves; and, if any of the fylkikongr, or thiod-kongr, were expelled their inheritance by others, they also sought a continuance of their dignity upon the ocean. When the younger branches of a reigning dynasty were about to become sea-kings, the ships and their requisite equipments Snorre, p 31, 32. The practice of hanging the chief they overpowered, seems to have furnished their scalds with some gloomy wit. One of them calls the tree from which the king was suspended, the horse of Sigar. Ibid. 31. 5 Snorre, p. 43. Snorre has given a par- 6 Mæssenius Scond. i. p. 4.; and see Wallingford, 533. Olaf Trygg. Saga ap. Bartholin. Antiq. Dan. 446. ticular instance of this. Saga af Olafi, Hinom. Helga, c. 4. the same custom. Mon. Dan. 269. 8 See Verelius, Hist. Suio-G. p. 6. Pontanus, Hist. Dan. p. 87. Stephanius in Sax. p. 152. Thus, a grandson of the famous Ragnar Lodbrog was a sea-king, while his brother succeeded to the crown of Sweden. Filii Biornis jarnsidæ fuere Eirikus et Refillus, hic erat Herkongr oc Sækongr. Hervarar Saga, 225. 9 Thus Gudrum: ab eo regno pulsus piratico more vixit, Langb. i. 480. Thus also Biorn, ii. 1. 10. 89. |