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the belief of a divine origin, and the inheritance of
priestly sanctity. This authority, derived from a
warlike religion, was yet favourable to peace in the
intestine relations of the people. By it the use of
arms might be interdicted, a regulation observed
within the places of sacrifice, which were kept
under the seal of peace. Common participation in
the great sacrifices was a sign as well as a bond of
peace among the different communities of ancient
Suithiod. Of these many are enumerated, both in
domestic and extraneous accounts, and the so-called
monarchy of Tacitus embraced, as he himself mentions,
several states. It is remarkable that, according
to the same historian, the Goths, of all the
German tribes, most nearly resembled the Swedes
in respect to this disposition of supreme power [1].
Through the migration of the Germans to the
south, Scandinavia, unknown before, at once
attained widely greater consideration, and by them
its renown was diffused as the parent land of many
nations. The Goths and Lombards even declared
that they had themselves come forth from this far
extending region. Such is the account given us by
their own oldest historians, of whom the one appeals
to the historical ballads of his people [2], and
the other shows throughout his whole exposition
that he based his narrative upon similar ballads [3].
When after the emigration of the Gothic tribes, the
Franks and Saxons became powerful in Northern
Germany, and thence extended their dominion
further, the same tradition is repeated; both
derive their origin from the northern nations [4].
The notion of Scandinavia as a cradle and workshop
of nations [5], recurs in like manner perpetually
for centuries onwards in history. It gained strength
from the predatory expeditions of the Northmen,
and is not yet extinct in the Alps, where the
inhabitants of Haslidale still assert their Swedish
descent.
A tradition, bruited in so many quarters,
demands some explanation. Nothing authorizes us
to conclude that the northern countries have ever
been more populous than they are now; rather
the contrary might safely be laid down. But it is
not the less certain that Scandinavia formerly
contained, if not a great, yet a redundant population,
larger than the land was able to support, and
that this warlike multitude, of whose lofty stature,
strength, and fecundity so many witnesses speak,
deemed themselves therefore necessitated to live,
and in great part actually lived at the cost of the
rest of the world. Piratical expeditions formed
the business of the summer. Every year the
sea-kings went forth with the first open waters; and
the great spring sacrifice in ancient Sweden was
always offered for victory. From the same cause
proceeded those dreadful consequences, which,
according to the accounts we have, followed upon a
bad year; famine, civil conflicts, immolation of
kings to propitiate the gods (for this was the fate of
two of the Yngling line), and migrations in quest
of new dwelling-places.
We are told of the Norman expeditions, that on
account of the redundancy of population, an old law
or custom obtained in the north for those of the
young, on whom the lot should fall, to seek their
fortune abroad. It is said also that the father
usually drove out his sons who had grown up to
years of manhood, with the exception of one who
inherited his estate [6]. The Swiss legends of
migration contain the same statement, in which those of
the Lombards and Goths also agree. It is worthy
of remark, and confirmatory of the foregoing, that
no account of these migrations makes mention of
any very large mass of folk, as having come out of
Scandinavia Proper. The Northmen were at all
times more formidable from boldness than numbers
in their warlike enterprises. The Lombards are
first noted as a not very numerous band of
Scandinavian youth, driven out by lot from an island of
small extent [7], and with low shores, whence it is
conjectured to have been one of the Danish isles [8].
The Goths are said to have issued from Scandinavia
in three ships only [9]. Certain it is that not
until these had united with their kinsmen who
dwelt on the southern shores of the Baltic, and
afterwards probably with an elder branch of the
same stock on the Mæotis, did they grow up
into that mighty people, who made themselves the
terror of Rome.
Thus even in this most famous emigration,
according to the tradition, whether literally
understood or not, the numbers were by no means large.
But if all this places the movements themselves in
a new and truer light, the question will still remain
how the leaders of these warlike migratory swarms,
even if impelled by the same headlong passion for
adventures which, in the Norman expeditions of a
later age, was able to found new empires with
inconsiderable means, should have been hailed by
the consent of whole nations as fathers of their race.
Now if, in the olden time, the descent of the kings
was held ascribable to their people likewise, and
was traced up to gods adored by both, whose chief
abode was deemed to be in the north, the question
would receive an answer consonant with the spirit
of the ancient sagas. Scandinavia would be termed
in the elder legends of the migrations the
parent-land of so many peoples, as being the principal
seat of a widely-spread worship, the nursery of
princely families, who claiming to be descended
from divine ancestors, and appearing at the head
of wandering tribes, had either themselves really
come out of Scandinavia, or were derived by the
saga from that central home of ancient Paganism.
Every thing shows that the accounts of the northern
extraction of so many populations are connected
with the belief that their kingly houses were sprung
from Odin. With the tradition of the northern
kindred of the Saxons another was intertwined,
that the same Odin whom they revered in common
with the Northmen, was also the father of their
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