AT HOME WITH TILE OLD NORSEMEN.• Ix the peaceful, sluggish,
home-loving character of the present. inhabitants of Scandinavia, it is scarcely possible to recognize the descendants of that active and adventurous race of pirates who not only were the scourge of Western Europe from the days of Charlemagne down to William the Conqueror, but whose restless energy carried colonies of them to the ice-bound regions of Ice- land and Greenland, and, as American antiquarians declare, landed them even on the shores of Massachusetts and New York_ As to the role which the possession of but a little knowledge of some of the arts of a later time on the part of these pre-Columbian, discoverers of America might have enabled their descendants to play in the world's history it is useless now to speculate. The sons of Odin unlearned their piracy as they learned Christianity ; but, in making them a more civilized and stay-at-home people, was it the same cause, we are fain to ask, which relaxed the springs of that. lusty life, that exuberant energy, that daring enterprise, apparently marking them out for a place among the future dominant races of the earth? The modern Dane has, doubtless, much of the toughness• and pertinacity of his forefathers, but compared with what we know of the old Norsemen, with their irrepressible activity and enterprise, he seems to us, we confess, what his ancestors would have called a " cinder-biter " (p. 14). It was, no doubt, anything but an agreeable sort of activity, that of the old Norsemen, for their neighbours. "Take the map" (says the historian of Nor-. mandy and England, who is describing their doings only in Gaul, Belgium, and the border territories), "and colour with ver- milion the provinces, districts, and shores which the North- men visited, as the record of each invasion. The colouring will have to be repeated more than ninety times successively- before you arrive at the conclusion of the Carlovingian dynasty. Furthermore, mark by the um' tl symbol of war, two. crossed swords, the localities where battles were fought by or against the pirates ; where they were defeated or triumphant, or where they pillaged, burned, or destroyed ; and the valleye and banks of the Elbe, Rhine, and Moselle, Scheldt, Meuse, Somme, and Seine, Loire, Garonne, and Adour, the inland Allier, and all the coasts and coast lands between estuary and estuary, and the countries between the river streams will appear bristling as with chevaux-de-frise." 'rite old Norsemen have unquestionably left their mark on France, and still more on England ; but it is by having contributed certain elements to our laws, our customs, andl our national character, and then lost their individuality in ours. They have given us our forest laws, our game laws, our laud laws, perhaps our law of primogeniture. They have helped to make 1.13 the athletic, sporting, horse-racing nation that we are. But they have not transformed us into Norsemen, nor converted England into a Norse province.
Of this race, which, nevertheless, must ever possess a deep interest for us, as having exercised a most powerful influence on our national character and destiny, books of history have hitherto. told us little but their exploits abroad. Of their ordinary private life in their Scandinavian homes we have had nothing but frag- mentary and disjointed pictures. In the modest little volume before us we find this gap supplied. Professor Keyser has- patiently collected together the numerous details of the domestic. life of the old Norsemen scattered through the old Sagas and Eddas, and from these materials has succeeded in constructing a very complete and interesting picture of the every-day scenes and
• ne /wen* Life of me oh/ Sort/won. Tranalated from the Posthumous Works of It. Kepler. late l'rofent.:or of History in Clirletlania University, by the Bev. M. It.. Barnard, M.A. London: Chapman and Mall. Ittaa. occupations amid which the old Scandinavians passed from the cradle to the grave. The Norwegian professor's little book does for old Norseman what W. A. Becker's Charicles does for the people of ancient Athens. The picture of old Norse family life as thus presented before us is by no means one of shadow, unrelieved by features of a cheerful human interest. But the prepon-_ derating hues are nevertheless sufficiently in keeping with the character which the old Norsemen earned for themselves in those expeditions with which their name is indissolubly connected. The Norseman was indeed born to perils and hardships. A fearful -ordeal awaited him at the very threshold of his mundane existence. 44 It was a law in those days," says the Saga, " that poor folk might expose their children if they pleased ; but," it is quaintly added, " it does not appear to have been a good law." Even in wealthy families superstitions beliefs, differences be- tween man and wife, and quarrels among the relatives of 'the parents often prompted acts of infanticide. The female doctor,—and it may be parenthetically observed that the profession of medicine and surgery was almost a monopoly of the gentler sex of man among the Norsemen,—laid the newly-born child on the ground, where it remained untouched until its fate was decided. If the decision, which lay with the father, was favourable, "the -child was taken up from off the ground, and carried to the father, -who, by taking it in his arms, or by covering it with his cloak, publicly acknowledged that lie took upon himself the duty of rearing it." The treatment of exposed children may be gathered from the following example :—" The child of Orny and Ivar Ljome was taken out into the forest by their bondsman Freyetein, who wrapped it up in a cloth, and placing a piece of --salt pork in its mouth, deposited it in a hole under the roots of a tree, not leaving it till he had arranged everything in the best way he could." It was, however, not uncommon for exposed -children to be discovered and adopted by strangers. Norse boys -appear to have been much the same as boys have ever been. The typical boy of the period was a very self-willed, unruly _youth, addicted to playing rough practical jokes on his elders, and not unfrequently bringing himself and others to an untimely end in the process. Ills education consisted principally in athletic exercises. He was trained " to use any kind of weapon, to be a proficient in sword exercise, to throw a spear, to shoot with a bow, to ride, to swim, to run on ' ski' (a kind of snow skate), row, wrestle, to work in wood and in metals ; to which may be added the exercise of hunting with hounds, training falcons or hawks, and skill in playing upon the harp." The mental or literary accomplishments open to him included a know- ledge of Runes, the art of verse - making, acquaintance with the laws and the old religious and historical myths, in -addition to some training in the art of public speaking, and in :some cases even the acquisition of foreign tongues. In the -earliest periods of Norse history, even the girls appear to have been trained in the same athletic arts as the boys, for the Eddas leave no doubt that, like the Amazons, unmarried females at -one time took an active part iu warfare. "Towards the end of the pagan era, however, it was considered a monstrous thing for females to have anything to do with manly exercises, or with weapons ;" and accordingly, in later ages, the education of girls was principally such as would fit them to become good house- wives. As we have previously intimated, however, some girls were trained to exercise the profession of physicians.
The swains and damsels could not complain that the customs of the country did not afford them sufficient opportunities for form- ing an acquaintance with each other. They frequently met at the public games and assemblies as well as at banquets, where 'the cupbearers were always of the gentler sex, and where it was the custom for men and women to drink with each other. At the meetings of the Thing or public Courts, to which large numbers of people used to flock, a kind of athletic festival, somewhat analogous to the Olympic games, was generally held, in which the young men exhibited their prowess and proficiency in all kinds of manly .sports. "The approval of the maidens was by no means an object of indifference to the competitors, and many a first im- pression was there made which resulted in a connection of a more intimate character. Neither were the maidens, on the other band, inexpert in finding opportunities to hold a conversation with their favourites." The result of these athletic contests was, however, by no means always of an uniformly peaceful nature. It is mentioned, more especially in cases where the young men of one district had challenged those of another to a trial of skill, that the conquerors by their insolent behaviour frequently exasperated the defeated party to such a pitch that from friendly games the combatants passed to a deadly encounter, in which blood was freely spilt and lives were often taken.
In the account which our author gives of the banquets and drinking customs which formed so distinguishing a feature in Norse life, in the description of the various kinds of games and sports to which the old Scandinavians were addicted, including
hunting with hounds, falconry, horse-racing, wrestling, boating, &c.,—subjects into which we have not space to go,—the English reader cannot fail to remark the striking similarity between the amusements of the old Norsemen and those of his own countrymen in the present day. We will conclude our imperfect sketch of the contents of this interesting volume by quoting the
only passage in which the freebooting expeditions of the Norse- men is referred to, and which exhibits the systematic and business- like manner in which they blended the pursuits of war and peace :—
" The Viking expeditions, which throughout the whole duration of paganism, and far on into the Christian age, bad been a source of wealth and a favourite occupation for the Norwegian chiefs and wealthy bonder (yeomen), did not so entirely absorb the whole of the attention as to render them careless in the management of their households or in the prosecution of agricultural pursuits. It was customary, say the records, for the owner of a farm to sow his seed in the spring of the year, and then to set out on the so-called 'Spring Viking.' He returned home about midsummer, and, after seeing his crops housed, again set out, on the Autumn Viking,' from which he did not return till about the end of November, when he remained quietly with his followers at home over the winter. Besides this, when the bonde had got into years, he would confine himself entirely to agriculture, and let one or other of his younger sons go on the Viking ' instead."
We have only to add further that Mr. Barnard has performed his part of translator very fairly, and that the little work he has put into an English dress deserves to be recommended not only to the general reader, who will be both instructed and entertained by it, but also to the young student of the Norse language and litera- ture, to whom it cannot fail to prove of great assistance.
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