Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XVI - The Royal Museum of Northern Antiquities
<< 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.
246
COPENHAGEN.
Chap. XVI.
of later years, surrounded and by their presence
protected the tottering throne of the Eastern Emperor, and
by their constant connexion with Constantinople
inundated the North with coins and ornaments of the later
and degraded period of Byzantine art.
Our old friends, too, the Vikings, of glorious memory,
after spreading fire and devastation far and wide—
pushing their marauding adventures even to the coasts
of Italy and Spain—returned loaded with spoil and
plunder, and then, when, wearied with the chains of
home and domestic life, thev were about to set out on
some fresh expedition, they buried and concealed their
treasures in some secret place, unknown, to all, even to
the wives of their bosoms. There—the owner slain in
some robber fight—they lay for centuries hidden in the
bowels of the earth, and are now occasionally turned up
by the plough. The fact that the objects were procured
from so many different sources renders it very difficult
to determine which may be really of Scandinavian origin.
The mode of burying the dead, too, at this period of
history, seems to have been in a state of transition—a
question vexée, as the French term it. Urns of pottery
have been frequently discovered, containing the ashes
of the deceased, with the iron sword, bent or broken,
laid across the top of the vessel. It is probable that
many people remained constant to the old-fashioned
habit, disliking new-fangled ideas, as certain old English
ladies of the last century insisted on not being buried,
as was then the law, in a woollen shroud, thereby causing
deserted Britain after its conquest by the Normans, and took service at
Constantinople. They were styled by the Greeks “ Hatchet-bearers ”
from the arm they used, which was called in England
the Danish axe.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
