Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-10-24
HISTORY OF THE VIKINGS.
Their Origin, History and Achieve
mentS.
They We're Not Barbarians Masters
of the Sea for Twelve Cen
turtles Great Conquerors.
By NJ. Paul Du Chailiu.

NJ
We are taught that on the withdrawal
of the Romans from Britain the island was
invaded and settled by a people called
Saxon or Anglo-Saxon. From the Roman
records we learn that the tribes of Ger
mania and Gaul were not civilized. Let
us now look northward towards that part
of Europe which embraces the present
Scandinavia and the eastern and southern
shores of the Baltic and especially the
islands of the sea- First we notice from
its archaeology that the people inhabiting
these regions possessed even during the
bronze period state of civilization diff
cult for US to realize, but testified to by,
among other things, the beauty of their
weapons and the subjects and ornaments
of gold. But it is only IN the following
period = in the period when iron came 10
be worked by the people In the Iron
age, that we find great many parts OF
the country, and especially some of the
large islands of the Baltic, thickly covered
with graves, which may be counted by
thousands = thus showing a dense and
overcrowded population, which sent of
swarms to sweep down over Central and
Western Europe, including Britain.
The spade has developed the history of
Scandinavia, as it has done that of Assyria
and Etruria, but in addition the No1t3l-
men had the Saga and Edda literature to
perpetuate their deeds. No country has
bequeathed to US such literature as thu /
of the North The striking fact brought
wildly before our mind is that the people
of the North. even before the time VIXEN
they carried their warfare into Gaul ar
Britain, possessed a degree Of civiliza ion
which would be difficult for us to realize
were it not that the antiquities help us IN
a most remarkable manner, and In many
essential points, to corroborate the truth
fulness of the Eddas and Sagas. The
museums of Copenhagen, Stockholm.
Christiania, Bergen, Lund, Gote5org and
many smaller ones In the principal towns
of the three Scandinavian Kingdoms S ow
a most wonderful collection of antiquities
which stand unrivaled in Central and
Northern Europe for their wealth o.
weapons and costly objects of gold and
silver belonging to the bronze and iron
age, and every year additions are made
Roman and Greek writers give US the
names of three maritime tribes of the
North, which were called by them Sueones,
Saxones and Franci. Roman writers after
| the time of Tacitus mention warliEe and
! Franks. Their names do not occur in
Tacitus, but it is not altogether improbable
| that these people, whom later writers
mentor as ravaging every country which
they could enter by sea or land, are the
people whom Tacitus knew as the Sueonas.
| The maritime power of the Sueones could
not have totally disappeared IN a century
! hypothesis which is borne out by the
! fact that after a lapse of seven centuries
| they are again mentioned in the time of
Charlemagne; nor could the supremacy of
| the so-called Saxons and Franks on the
| sea have arisen In a day; 1t must have
| been the growth Of generations before the
time of Tacitus. That the swarms Of
Sueones and so-called Saxons and Franks
seen on every sea in Europe could have
poured forth from small country is not
possible Such fleets as they possessed
could only have come from country
densely covered with oak forests.
We must come to the conclusion that
Sueones, Franks and Saxons were searGar-
ing tribes, belonging to one people. The
Roman writers did not seem to know the
precise locality inhabited by these peo-
pie. 1t would appear that these tribes
must have come from country further
eastward than the Roman province, and
that as they came with ships their homes
must have been on the shores of the Baltic,
the Cattegat and Norway; In fact, precise
ly the country which the numerous anviq
uities point to as inhabited by an ex
tremely warlike and maritime race, which
had great intercourse with the Greek and
Roman world. The dates given by the
Greek and Roman writers of the maritime
expeditions. inventions and settlements Of
the so-called SaxOns and Franks agree per-
fectly with the date of the objects found In
the north among which are numerous
Roman coins and remarkable objects of
Roman and Greek art, which must have
been procured either by the peaceful inter
course of trade or by the war. 1t is certain
that the Franks could not have lived on
the coast of Frisia, as they did later on,
for we know that the country of the Rhine
was held by the Romans, and moreover,
Julian refers to the Franks and SaXons as
dwelling above the Rhine. Moreover, till
they had given up the conquests, no men
ton is made by the Romans of native sea-
faring tribes inhabiting the shores of their
northern province, except the Venetl, and
they would have certainly tried to subju-
gate the rowing seamen that caused them so
much trouble In their newly acquired pro-
vinces if they had been within their reach.
From the Roman writers, who have been
partially confirmed by archaeology, we
knew that the tribes which inhabited the
country to which they gave the vague name
of Germania were not possessed of any CIV
ilization. The invaders of Britain, of the
Gallo and Mediterranean coasts could
therefore not have been the German tribes
referred to by the Roman writers, who, as
we see from Julius Caesar and other Roman
historians, were very far from possessing
the civilization which we know from the
antiquitiet, to have existed In the north.
Whatever may be the origin of local names
employed by the Roman writers, we must
| look to the north for the maritime tribes de
scribed by them; there we shall find the
home of the earlier English people, to
whose numerous warlike and ocean-loving
instincts we owe the transformation which
took place In Britain and the glorious in
heritance which they have left to their de-
scendants, scattered over many parts of
the world, In whom we recognize to this
day many of the very same traits of char
acter which their ancestors possessed.
Britain, being an island, could only be
settled or conquered by seafarlng tribes,
just in the same way that as to-day dis
tant lands can only be conquered by
nations possessing ships. From the
Roman writers we have the only knowledge
we possess in regard to the tribes inhabit-
ing the country to which they gave the
vague name Gernania. From the British
records we find that these tribes were not
civilized and that they were not seafar-
ing people. NJ du Chillu went on to say:
The story given in the English or Irish
chronicles of the appearance of the Danes