Most beautiful and best beloved of the Scandinavian divinities was Odin's son, Balder. He was represented as a gentle deity of innocence and righteousness. As long as he lived, evil could gain no real control in the world and the power of the G.o.ds would remain unshaken. To preserve Balder from all danger his mother Frigga required everything on earth to swear never to harm her son. Only a single plant, the mistletoe, did not take the oath. Then the traitor Loki gathered the mistletoe and came to an a.s.sembly where the G.o.ds were hurling all kinds of missiles at Balder, to show that nothing could hurt him. Loki asked the blind Hoder to throw the plant at Balder. Hoder did so, and Balder fell dead. The G.o.ds tried to recover him from Hel, the gloomy underworld, but Hel demanded as his ransom a tear from every living creature. G.o.ds, men, and even things inanimate wept for Balder, except one cruel giantess--Loki in disguise-- who would not give a single tear. She said, "Neither living nor dead was Balder of any use to me. Let Hel keep what it has."

"TWILIGHT OF THE G.o.dS"

Disasters followed Balder's death. An immense fire burned up the world and the human race. The giants invaded Asgard and slaughtered its inhabitants.

Odin fell a victim to the mighty wolf Fenris. Thor, having killed the Midgard serpent, was suffocated with the venom which the dying monster cast over him. The end of all things arrived. This was the catastrophe which had been predicted of old--the "Twilight of the G.o.ds."

VALHALLA

Besides the conception of Hel, the Northmen also framed the idea of Valhalla, [6] the abode to which Odin received the souls of those who had died, not ingloriously in their beds, but on the field of battle. A troop of divine maidens, the Valkyries, [7] rode through the air on Odin's service to determine the issue of battles and to select brave warriors for Valhalla. There on the broad plains they fought with one another by day, but at evening the slayer and the slain returned to Odin's hall to feast mightily on boar's flesh and drink deep draughts of mead.

SUPERNATURAL BEINGS

As with most heathen religions that of the Northmen was full of terrors.

Their lively imagination peopled the world with many strange figures.

Fiends and monsters inhabited the marshes, giants lived in the dark forest, evil spirits haunted all solitary places, and ghosts stalked over the land by night. The use of charms and spells to guard against such creatures pa.s.sed over into Christian times. Their memory also survives in folk tales, which are full of allusions to giants, dwarfs, goblins, and other supernatural beings.

CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE NORTHMEN

Christianity first gained a foothold in Denmark through the work of Roman Catholic missionaries sent out by Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious. [8]

Two centuries elapsed before the Danes were completely converted. From Denmark the new faith spread to Sweden. Norway owed its conversion largely to the crusading work of King Olaf (1016-1029 A.D.), whose zeal for Christianity won him the t.i.tle of Olaf the Saint. The Norwegians carried Christianity to Iceland, where it supplanted the old heathenism in the year 1000 A.D. With the general adoption of the Christian religion in Scandinavian lands, the Viking Age drew to an end.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORSE METAL WORK (Museum, Copenhagen) A door from a church in Iceland; date, tenth or eleventh century. The iron k.n.o.b is inlaid with silver. The slaying of a dragon is represented above and below is shown the Midgard serpent.]

141. THE NORTHMEN IN THE WEST

CAUSES OF THE VIKING MOVEMENT

The Northmen were still heathen when they set forth on their expeditions of plunder and conquest. Doubtless the princ.i.p.al cause of this Viking movement is to be sought in the same hunger for land which prompted the Germanic invasions and, in fact, has led to colonial expansion in all ages. By the ninth century Scandinavia could no longer support its rapidly growing population, and enforced emigration was the natural consequence.

The political condition of Scandinavia at this time also helps to explain the Viking expansion. Denmark and Norway had now become strong kingdoms, whose rulers forced all who would not submit to their sway to leave the country. Thus it resulted that the numbers of the emigrants were swelled by exiles, outlaws, and other adventurers who turned to the sea in hope of gain.

RAIDS OF THE NORTHMEN

The Northmen started out as pirates and fell on the coasts of England, France, and Germany. In their shallow boats they also found it easy to ascend the rivers and reach places lying far inland. The Northmen directed their attacks especially against the churches and monasteries, which were full of treasure and less easily defended than fortified towns. Their raids inspired such great terror that a special prayer was inserted in the church services: "From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver us."

THE NORTHMEN IN IRELAND, SCOTLAND, AND THE ISLANDS

At first the incursions of the Northmen took place only in summer, but before long they began to winter in the lands which they visited. Year by year their fleets became larger, and their attacks changed from mere forays of pirates to well-organized expeditions of conquest and colonization. Early in the ninth century we find them making permanent settlements in Ireland, and for a time bringing a considerable part of that country under their control. The first cities on Irish soil, including Dublin and Limerick, were founded by the Northmen. Almost simultaneously with the attacks on Ireland came those on the western coast of Scotland. In the course of their westward expeditions the Northmen had already discovered the Faroe Islands, the Orkneys, the Shetlands and the Hebrides. These barren and inhospitable islands received large numbers of Norse immigrants and long remained under Scandinavian control.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTHMEN IN THE WEST]

THE NORTHMEN IN ICELAND

The Northmen soon discovered Iceland, where Irish monks had previously settled. Colonization began in 874 A.D. [9] One of the most valuable of the sagas--the "Book of the Land-taking"--describes the emigration to the island and enumerates the Viking chiefs who took part in the movement.

Iceland soon became almost a second Norway in language, literature, and customs. It remains to-day an outpost of Scandinavian civilization.

THE NORTHMEN IN GREENLAND

The first settlement of Greenland was the work of an Icelander, Eric the Red, who reached the island toward the end of the tenth century. He called the country Greenland, not because it was green, but because, as he said, "there is nothing like a good name to attract settlers." Intercourse between Greenland and Iceland was often dangerous, and at times was entirely interrupted by ice. Leif Ericsson, the son of Eric the Red, established a new route of commerce and travel by sailing from Greenland to Norway by way of the Hebrides. This was the first voyage made directly across the Atlantic. Norway and Greenland continued to enjoy a flourishing trade for several centuries. After the connection with Norway had been severed, the Greenlanders joined the Eskimos and mingled with that primitive people.

THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA

Two of the sagas give accounts of a voyage which Leif Ericsson about 1000 A.D. made to regions lying southward from Greenland. In the sagas they are called h.e.l.luland (stone-land), Markland (wood-land), and Vinland. Just what part of the coast of North America these countries occupied is an unsolved problem. Leif Ericsson and the Greenlanders who followed him seem to have reached at least the sh.o.r.es of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. They may have gone even farther southward, for the sagas describe regions where the climate was mild enough for wild vines and wild wheat to grow. The Northmen, however, did not follow up their explorations by lasting settlements. Before long all memory of the far western lands faded from the minds of men. The curtain fell on the New World, not again to rise until the time of Columbus and Cabot.

142. THE NORTHMEN IN THE EAST

ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS OF THE NORTHMEN

In the Viking movement westward across the Atlantic the Norwegians took the leading part. They also sailed far northward, rounding the North Cape and reaching the mouth of the Dwina River in the White Sea. Viking sailors, therefore, have the credit for undertaking the first voyages of exploration into the Arctic.

THE NORTHMEN IN FINLAND

The Swedes, on account of their geographical position, were naturally the most active in expeditions to eastern lands. At a very early date they crossed the Gulf of Bothnia and paid frequent visits to Finland. Its rude inhabitants, the Finns, were related in language, and doubtless in blood also, to the Huns, Magyars, and other Asiatic peoples. Sweden ruled Finland throughout the Middle Ages. Russia obtained control of the country during the eighteenth century, but Swedish influence has made it largely Scandinavian in civilization.

THE NORTHMEN IN RUSSIA

The activities of the Swedes also led them to establish settlements on the southern sh.o.r.e of the Baltic and far inland along the waterways leading into Russia. An old Russian chronicler declares that in 862 A.D. the Slavs sent an emba.s.sy to the Swedes, whom they called "Rus," saying, "Our country is large and rich, but there is no order in it; come and rule over us." The Swedes were not slow to accept the invitation. Their leader, Ruric, established a dynasty which reigned in Russia for more than seven hundred years. [10]

NOVGOROD AND KIEV

The first Russian state centered in the city of Novgorod, near Lake Ilmen, where Ruric built a strong fortress. [11] Novgorod during the Middle Ages was an important station on the trade route between Constantinople and the Baltic. Some of Ruric's followers, pa.s.sing southward along the Dnieper River, took possession of the small town of Kiev. It subsequently became the capital of the Scandinavian possessions in Russia.

SCANDINAVIAN INFLUENCE IN RUSSIA

The Northmen in Russia maintained close intercourse with their mother country for about two centuries. During this period they did much to open up northeastern Europe to the forces of civilization and progress.

Colonies were founded, cities were built, commerce was fostered, and a stable government was established. Russia under the sway of the Northmen became for the first time a truly European state.

THE NORTHMEN AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST

Having penetrated the wilds of Russia, it was comparatively easy for the Northmen to sail down the Russian rivers to the Black Sea and thence to Constantinople. Some of them went as raiders and several times devastated the neighborhood of Constantinople, until bought off by the payment of tribute. [12] Many Northmen also joined the bodyguard of the eastern emperor and saw service under his standard in different parts of the Mediterranean.

CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA, 988 A.D.

During the reign of Vladimir, a descendant of Ruric, the Christian religion gained its first foothold in Russia. We are told that Vladimir, having made up his mind to embrace a new faith, sent commissioners to Rome and Constantinople, and also to the adherents of Islam and Judaism. His envoys reported in favor of the Greek Church, for their barbarian imagination had been so impressed by the majesty of the ceremonies performed in Sancta Sophia that "they did not know whether they were on earth or in heaven." Vladimir accepted their report, ordered the idols of Kiev to be thrown into the Dnieper, and had himself and his people baptized according to the rites of the Greek Church. At the same time he married a sister of the reigning emperor at Constantinople.

IMPORTANCE OF THE CONVERSION OF RUSSIA

Vladimir's decision to adopt the Greek form of Christianity is justly regarded as one of the formative influences in Russian history. It meant that the Slavs were to come under the religious influence of Constantinople, instead of under that of Rome. Furthermore, it meant that Byzantine civilization, then incomparably superior to the rude culture of the western peoples, would henceforth gain an entrance into Russia. The country profited by this rich civilization and during the early part of the Middle Ages took a foremost place in Europe.

CHARLEMAGNE AND THE NORTHMEN

No part of western Europe suffered more severely from the Northmen than France. They first appeared on the French coast toward the end of Charlemagne's reign. A well-known legend relates that the emperor, from window of his palace once saw the dark sails of the Vikings and wept at the thought of the misery which these daring pirates would some day inflict upon his realm.

THE NORTHMEN IN FRANCE

After Charlemagne's death the wars of his grandsons left the empire defenseless, and the Northmen in consequence redoubled their attacks. They sailed far up the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne to plunder and murder.

Paris, then a small but important city, lay in the path of the invaders and more than once suffered at their hands. The destruction by the Northmen of many monasteries was a loss to civilization, for the monastic establishments at this time were the chief centers of learning and culture. [13]