Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - I. Introductory Lecture.—The Country and its Inhabitants in the Heathen Period up to 1000 A.D. - § 9. General idea of the character and life of the people
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
9- LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 39
acknowledged central character of the Upsala Ting, and
the custom of all the provinces to attend it
every nine years,
helped to establish the pre-eminence of the Sveas from
very ancient times. The image of a State Church was thus
presented at a very early stage of the nation s history, with
the Upland king as its pontiff, and this thought had an
influence in Sweden, just as the fact that Constantine the
Great was Pontifex Maximus had an influence upon the
Council of Nicasa and the Church of the fourth century and
on later Byzantine religion.
The king was, therefore, a national priest, and every
father of a family was priest in his own household. Just
as in the temple there was a high-seat on which the priest
sat, adorned with emblems or images of the gods, so it
was in the household of which the father was priest, judge
and leader. Marriage was held in honour, and adultery
and rape were considered great crimes, but much laxity
was allowed to the man. This was a blot upon Swedish
character, of which Adam de Bremen speaks, and on
account of which he contrasts the Swedes unfavourably
with the Norwegians, while he has much to praise in the
Swedish character in other respects. Polygamy was prac
tically permitted, and no reproach attached to the man who
had children born to him from handmaids or slaves in his
house a point which we must remember when we come to
speak of the mediaeval clergy and even of much later days.
I feel bound, however, to say that equal laxity seems to
have prevailed in such Norwegian households as that of
St. Olaf and his son Magnus the Good, and in a number of
other cases. The father (as in ancient Greece or Rome)
was free to take up or expose an infant born in his house.
If he took it up and had it sprinkled with water (the heathen
form of baptism) and named in the presence of his chief
kinsmen it became his child.
28
28
This ceremony of heathen baptism is well attested. So we
read in Halfdan the Black s Saga, ch. 7 :
"
Queen Ragnhild
gave birth to a son, and water was poured over him, and the
name Harald given him." This was Harald Harfager. His
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
