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drive these emigrants with their wives and children from their native soil, and
this mighty force was dire need.
We have direct testimonies from ancient times to the effect that such need
compelled the old Scandinavians to emigration en masse. During some centuries
before the beginning of our epoch the Cimbri were a tribe dwelling at Limfjorden
in Jutland, in the district now called Himmerland with Aalborg as its Capital.
Enormous floods from the encroaching sea had covered great stretches of culti*
vated land and pasture and deprived many of the surviving peasants of any possi»
bility of maintaining themselves. This occurred about 120 B. C. Together with
parts of other tribes living by the sea who had been overtaken by the same mis«
fortune at the same time the necessitous Cimbri marched through Germania down
to the Danube, penetrated into the rich Roman province of Gallia after having
repeatedly asked the Romans in vain to assign them land and seed for cultivation,
conquered the Roman armies sent against them, extended their invasions and
plundering expeditions to Spain, and at length invaded Italy itself. It was only
then that Marius, the great Roman statesman and soldier, succeeding in checking
their advance, definitely annihilated them in a great battle in 101.
Thanks to classical writers, we probably possess with regard to the Cimbri
the most detailed and reliable information we have of any migrating tribe from
the time they left their native country until the tribe perished. This information
clearly shows us that the Cimbri left their home and their kinsmen in the North
because of what I have called temporary over^population, caused by floods.
For the same reasons it is considered that the Langobards who migrated from
Scandinavia to the valley of the Elbe, the present Bardengau, partly abandoned
their native homes about 300 A. D.*
The Celtic tribes at the mouth of the Rhine are also described by classical
writers as having emigrated because of floods.
In the Scandinavian peninsula floods that are sufficiently serious to affect the
sustenance of the people are, on account of the nature of the country, very rare.
But we have here instead to contend with a natural catastrophe of the greatest
importance from this point of view, namely failure of the crops. This catastrophe
affects human life in these regions all the more, because in its severe forms it
recurs or rather in earlier stages recurred frequently during each century, often
several years in succession.
Even the legends from pre*historic time tell us of serious failures of the crops,
and the more light is thrown on the past vicissitudes of our people, the more
distinctly we see the scope and effects of this terrible scourge. From the last
centuries of the middle ages we have a series of accounts of years of drought
or rains which caused famine and its concomitant diseases among human beings
and cattle. During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries these periods of distress
occurred almost regularly in every generation, and during the most severe ones,
which might last for a series of three, five, sometimes even as many as eight
years, hundreds and thousands of human beings perished from hunger and privations.
The more rational agricultural methods of later times are able to an extent
undreamt of before to counteract or nullify the reverses of nature, and the disas*
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