New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-07-24
THE LAND OF THE VIKING.
A GOOD HANDBOOK OF NORWAY.

VI.
Scrlbner's Sons.
IT, is matter for cOngratulation that the author
of "Thc Vikings in Western Chrstendom' and
1.-THE MYTHOLOGY of the Eddas should have
turned his attention 10 the preparation of this
volume which, while assuming only the modest
place of handbook is really the most compre-
hensive yet succinct, accurate and interesting
account of Norway and its people that has been
written. He begins with rapid survey OF the
country itself; course peculiarly necessary In
regard to Norway, because the history OF the
Norwegians has been largely guided by the
character of the land in which they live. The
vikings who in the tenth century launched out
apon their long career of piracy and conquest,
md who for succeeding centuries were the terror
and the scourge of Europe, owed the nautical
kill which made their excursions possible TO the
formation Of those iords which served as nurseries
of seamen But the fiords could not have served
this purpose but for the outer guard OF islands
which converted them into landlocked waters and
sheltered them from the gales which swept the
open
Where, precisely, they first obtained the sails
without which they could not have harried the
coasts of Western Europe remains an unsettled
problem. Mr. Kcary suggests that they may
have derived the idea from the Romans That
is quite possible; but it is also possible that the
Norsemen may have evolved sails themselves
Certainly they had ample time and room for cx-
pertinent But much more interesting question
than where they got the sails is what was the
proximate cause Of the outbreak Of aggrcssiveS
ness which in a few years gave them so wide
spread and formidable name. For in the case
of the vikings can fix the year in which there
forays began, and we know that from the outset
they were serious The most natural suggestion
perhaps is that some sudden incentive to greed
arose such as rumor Of rich possessions to he
gained with ease. Not that prospect of diff
Guilty and danger would have deferred these
Scandinavians. They were Injured to hardship.
and fighting was their pastime. A people who
conceived such notion Of an afterllfe as that of
Valhalla, where everybody fought all day, where
at even all the wounds received were mirac-
ulously healed and where the night was spent
in qualling ale and mead and listening TO skalds,
could only have been race of warriors
Like the Phoencians, of whom they remind us
in other respects, the vikings were traders as well
rs pirates. Not many years AGO a curious illus
traton Of their mercantile side was found in
opening barrow where an Old Norseman had
been buried in his ship With his weapons there
lay a pair of scales, and doubtless the sword and
the balance were used together, though assurcdly
not as emblcms Of Justice. Mr. Keary holds that
the opening of the Viking Age was largely due to
the discovery of sails, and he argues from the fact
that the earliest recorded representations of ships
found on pictured rocks at Bohuslan in Sweden,
show no sails. Bat those Bohuslan pictures are
supposed TO have been drawn a thousand years
before the Viking Age, and ii is hard TO believe
that such a great period was required by people
already advanced beyond savagery, to secure that
one step forward. Specific evidence on the point
docs not indeed, exist and the archaeologist Is
reduced TO conjecture IL seems. however. proba
bic that some time must have passed after tho
discovery of sails before the Norwegians could
have become enough skilled in their use TO
venture upon ocean voyages
The vikings may be said TO have been specially
prepared for the career in which they were to
play so important part Tie early and indeed
much of the later history OF Norway. is a chron-
iclc Of anarchy civil war, family fcuds and ven
dcttas OF such matters the national literature,
the Eddas and the Sagas, is full, and in the
habitual fcrocity and cruelty Of the fighting done
a likeness may be traced to the manners Of the
American red men. A favoritc method in private
feuds was to watch the enemy until he ard his
men assembled at night fcastng and drinking,
then to surround the house carefully, guard the
exits, and set fire TO the place, killing all who
sought TO escape from the burning building.
From people so educated at home it would be
matter of fact the cruelty OF the vikings cqualed
their bravery and terrified the by no means gentle
or human nations upon whose shores they de.
scended. Why the Norsemen should have
always exhibited special animosity against
foreign religious establishments churches and
mOnaercS etc, is not easy to understand
Perhaps il was natural that they should kill
priests and monks wherever they found them,
inasmuch as the victims were dccnceless, and in
those days very few people hcsitated about nm
equal terms. Possibly superstition had some part
in the practice, for all alien religion was apt to
be regarded as evil magic not only before, but
some time after the advent of Christianity to
Scandinavia.
Mr.. Keary has not entered at any length into
Scandinavian mythology and popular superstition,
nor could the subjects have been treated adc-
Quately within the space at his command Here
too, however, the character OF the mythology is
largely influenced by the climate and lay of the
land. Snow and ice, the mysterious twilight Of
the North. the aurora borcalis, the dense foQs.
the mighty chasms of the great fiords, the masses
OF the glaciers, the perpetual roar OF the water
falls the swift sweep Of the unnavgablc rivers
the vDst solituds of the land-all are represented
in the myths Of its people. It's gods in the old
days merely idcalizcl vikings: stern and
hard, cruel and bloody, not immortal but sub
ject TO death We must 90 TO the "broodina
East" to find, In human religions, parallel to
the really stupendous conception Of Ragnarok,
which corresponds to Oriental speculations OF
Buddhist and Brahman philosophers For Racna-
rok is the destruction Of a universe. with its
deities, from the least even 10 the greatest They
all die in mutual combat, and in the last scene
the principle of destruction, the Fire-Wolf RACES
through the dead wuldo and swallows up every
thing.
Did the Scandinavians procure this idea Of
Ragnarok from the Orient? They even carried
1t far as to imagine something beyond the
universal destruction. Ragnarolk WIS not 10 be