Part 72 (1/2)

Most beautiful and best beloved of the Scandinavian divinities was Odin's son, Balder. He was represented as a gentle deity of innocence and righteousness. As long as he lived, evil could gain no real control in the world and the power of the G.o.ds would remain unshaken. To preserve Balder from all danger his mother Frigga required everything on earth to swear never to harm her son. Only a single plant, the mistletoe, did not take the oath. Then the traitor Loki gathered the mistletoe and came to an a.s.sembly where the G.o.ds were hurling all kinds of missiles at Balder, to show that nothing could hurt him. Loki asked the blind Hoder to throw the plant at Balder. Hoder did so, and Balder fell dead. The G.o.ds tried to recover him from Hel, the gloomy underworld, but Hel demanded as his ransom a tear from every living creature. G.o.ds, men, and even things inanimate wept for Balder, except one cruel giantess--Loki in disguise-- who would not give a single tear. She said, ”Neither living nor dead was Balder of any use to me. Let Hel keep what it has.”

”TWILIGHT OF THE G.o.dS”

Disasters followed Balder's death. An immense fire burned up the world and the human race. The giants invaded Asgard and slaughtered its inhabitants.

Odin fell a victim to the mighty wolf Fenris. Thor, having killed the Midgard serpent, was suffocated with the venom which the dying monster cast over him. The end of all things arrived. This was the catastrophe which had been predicted of old--the ”Twilight of the G.o.ds.”

VALHALLA

Besides the conception of Hel, the Northmen also framed the idea of Valhalla, [6] the abode to which Odin received the souls of those who had died, not ingloriously in their beds, but on the field of battle. A troop of divine maidens, the Valkyries, [7] rode through the air on Odin's service to determine the issue of battles and to select brave warriors for Valhalla. There on the broad plains they fought with one another by day, but at evening the slayer and the slain returned to Odin's hall to feast mightily on boar's flesh and drink deep draughts of mead.

SUPERNATURAL BEINGS

As with most heathen religions that of the Northmen was full of terrors.

Their lively imagination peopled the world with many strange figures.

Fiends and monsters inhabited the marshes, giants lived in the dark forest, evil spirits haunted all solitary places, and ghosts stalked over the land by night. The use of charms and spells to guard against such creatures pa.s.sed over into Christian times. Their memory also survives in folk tales, which are full of allusions to giants, dwarfs, goblins, and other supernatural beings.

CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE NORTHMEN

Christianity first gained a foothold in Denmark through the work of Roman Catholic missionaries sent out by Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious. [8]

Two centuries elapsed before the Danes were completely converted. From Denmark the new faith spread to Sweden. Norway owed its conversion largely to the crusading work of King Olaf (1016-1029 A.D.), whose zeal for Christianity won him the t.i.tle of Olaf the Saint. The Norwegians carried Christianity to Iceland, where it supplanted the old heathenism in the year 1000 A.D. With the general adoption of the Christian religion in Scandinavian lands, the Viking Age drew to an end.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORSE METAL WORK (Museum, Copenhagen) A door from a church in Iceland; date, tenth or eleventh century. The iron k.n.o.b is inlaid with silver. The slaying of a dragon is represented above and below is shown the Midgard serpent.]

141. THE NORTHMEN IN THE WEST

CAUSES OF THE VIKING MOVEMENT

The Northmen were still heathen when they set forth on their expeditions of plunder and conquest. Doubtless the princ.i.p.al cause of this Viking movement is to be sought in the same hunger for land which prompted the Germanic invasions and, in fact, has led to colonial expansion in all ages. By the ninth century Scandinavia could no longer support its rapidly growing population, and enforced emigration was the natural consequence.

The political condition of Scandinavia at this time also helps to explain the Viking expansion. Denmark and Norway had now become strong kingdoms, whose rulers forced all who would not submit to their sway to leave the country. Thus it resulted that the numbers of the emigrants were swelled by exiles, outlaws, and other adventurers who turned to the sea in hope of gain.

RAIDS OF THE NORTHMEN

The Northmen started out as pirates and fell on the coasts of England, France, and Germany. In their shallow boats they also found it easy to ascend the rivers and reach places lying far inland. The Northmen directed their attacks especially against the churches and monasteries, which were full of treasure and less easily defended than fortified towns. Their raids inspired such great terror that a special prayer was inserted in the church services: ”From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver us.”

THE NORTHMEN IN IRELAND, SCOTLAND, AND THE ISLANDS

At first the incursions of the Northmen took place only in summer, but before long they began to winter in the lands which they visited. Year by year their fleets became larger, and their attacks changed from mere forays of pirates to well-organized expeditions of conquest and colonization. Early in the ninth century we find them making permanent settlements in Ireland, and for a time bringing a considerable part of that country under their control. The first cities on Irish soil, including Dublin and Limerick, were founded by the Northmen. Almost simultaneously with the attacks on Ireland came those on the western coast of Scotland. In the course of their westward expeditions the Northmen had already discovered the Faroe Islands, the Orkneys, the Shetlands and the Hebrides. These barren and inhospitable islands received large numbers of Norse immigrants and long remained under Scandinavian control.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTHMEN IN THE WEST]

THE NORTHMEN IN ICELAND

The Northmen soon discovered Iceland, where Irish monks had previously settled. Colonization began in 874 A.D. [9] One of the most valuable of the sagas--the ”Book of the Land-taking”--describes the emigration to the island and enumerates the Viking chiefs who took part in the movement.

Iceland soon became almost a second Norway in language, literature, and customs. It remains to-day an outpost of Scandinavian civilization.

THE NORTHMEN IN GREENLAND