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Getes and Scythians, removes it, but is to be
assigned apparently to the commencement of the
Christian era [1].
In our judgment, the Goths who gave their name
to the southern and earlier settled portion of the
peninsula, are the elder people in Scandinavia.
That the Gothic kingdom possessed the higher
antiquity, was an old belief in Sweden [2]; and in the
Edda it is said that the name of Gothland was
older in the north than either the Danish or
Swedish dominion. Further up in the mid region of
the land, the kingdom of the Swedes was founded
in Suithiod, properly so called, for the name has
both a wider and a narrower application [3]. Still
higher towards the north was Jotunhem, the
abode of wild and wandering tribes. The poets
style them Jotuners, giants (jättar), mountain
wolves, sons of the rock, the hill-folk, the folk of
the caves of earth; enemies of the Asæ, they
gathered round the altars of old Fornjoter, which
Thor, the thunder-darting, is said to have
overthrown. Their leader is called the chief of the
Finns (Finnehöfding) [4], and their country afterwards
Finnmark, embracing the northerly part of the
peninsula. The hills and woods of Kolmord and
Tived formed the boundary between Suithiod
Proper and the Gothic kingdom, as they do now
between Swedeland and Gothland; hence these
provinces were formerly known as the land north and
south of the forest (Nordan och Sunnanskogs).
The separateness of the two peoples appears clearly
marked even subsequently to the introduction of
Christianity. The annals of our middle age are
occupied in great part with contests between the
Swedes and Goths for the possession of a right to
give a king to the whole country. Even at the
present day the dialects of the Gothic provinces
are distinguished by broader and fuller verbal
forms, and a more plentiful use of diphthongs; in
Upper Sweden, on the other hand, words and
sounds are more abbreviated, though the latter
does not hold without some exceptions. The
dialect of the Dalecarlians on the one side, and that of
the Scanians or Smalanders on the other, exhibit
the two extreme points of variation.
The Ynglingasaga does not reckon Gothland as
part of the dominion of the Ynglings [5]. A line of
independent Gothic kings is mentioned, descending
from Gaut (a name of Odin), from whom Gothland
is said to have received its appellation [6].
Icelandic writers know in general little of these Gothic
kings, although domestic traditions refer to kingly
families much more numerous in Gothland than in
Sweden Proper. Nor have all these disappeared
from history without leaving any trace of their
existence. In them probably we may discern the
many kings of Sweden, unknown to the Icelanders,
of whom Saxo tells us; for all cannot have been
the product of his invention, and the vicinity of
Denmark would naturally make its inhabitants
better acquainted with the kings of Gothland.
On the subject of the ancient relations between
the Swedes and Goths, we have the testimony of an
Anglo-Saxon poem preserved to us; the unknown
author of which, though a Christian, is yet
demonstrably older than the Icelanders, while he
agrees with them in the peculiarities of the northern
poetic language, in references to the mythes of the
Edda, and in his portraiture of northern manners.
The scene of this poem lies in Denmark, Gothland,
and Suithiod, and episodically also in Jotunhem,
the king of which is named Finn; its hero is a
Gothic champion, Beowulf, the relative of Higelac
(Hugleik), king of the Goths, and his first
achievement is an expedition to Denmark for the delivery
of its king, Hrodgar, from the danger which
menaces him. The latter is the only personage whose
name at least may be recognized in the old
catalogues of the Danish kings, which style him Hroar;
in the Anglo-Saxon as in northern sagas he is brother
of Helge, son of Halfdan, descendant of Sköld,
whence in both the kings of Denmark are termed
Sköldingers. In the Ynglingasaga, Helge, brother
of Hroar, is contemporary with Adil, the Upsala
king. Consequently the otherwise unknown persons
and events of which the poem speaks, must
belong to the times of the Yngling family in
Sweden, although to the Icelandic saga neither of
the Swedish kings here mentioned is known. These
are represented as Skilfingers by family; and in the
Edda, Skilfing is a name of Odin. They are at war
with the kings of the Goths, and from the relations
here subsisting between these and the Swedes,
generally hostile in their tenor, it results, that
community of descent and religion in both nations did
not prevent mutuality of either independence or
enmity [7].
“Ivar Widfamne” (says Snorro) “brought all
Sweden under his own sway. He made himself
master also of the Danish kingdom, and a great
portion of Saxonland, besides the eastern lands and
the fifth part of England. Of his lineage were the
Swedish and Danish kings who came after.” The
dynasty which now succeeded in Sweden, therefore,
takes its name from Ivar, although descended from
him only on the mother’s side. It is called also
the line of Sigurd, from Sigurd Ring, or that of
Lodbroc, from the famous Ragnar. Its history is
obscure; even the order of succession of the kings
cannot be determined with certainty. Respecting
the earlier times only broken notes of legendary
song have reached us, which soon become
indistinguishable amidst the sanguinary confusion of the
Norman expeditions. These accounts relate chiefly
to the fight of Bravalla (the Brafield), of yore so
famous in the north, and the exploits of Ragnar
Lodbroc and his sons. Upon this battle a
fragment of an Icelandic saga is preserved. Herein
we find Ivar Widfamne, as king of all Sweden,
busying himself with designs for the subjugation of
Zealand, by sowing dissension and bloodshed in
the royal house of Denmark. His daughter Aud,
queen of that country, flies from the face of her
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