leader of another band, took possession of Novgorod, and became the founder of the Russian empire, and the ancestor of a long line of princes, Feodor I., the last czar of his dy nasty, dying in 1598 *. When the Scandinavians had obtained a footing in Russia, they began to infest the shores of the Black Sea, and in the year 866 appeared before Constantinople, which was, however, too strongly fortified for them to think of attacking with any chance of success, though their retreat was ascribed by the Byzantines to the sacred homophorion, or chemise of the Virgin, which the priests carried in solemn procession and dipped in the seat. This, however, did not prevent the pagans from returning, and although the Byzantines were protected not only by the Virgin's chemise, but also by their celebrated Greek fire, the hardy sea-rovers seldom failed in extracting considerable sums from the degenerate emperors. An obscure account of one of their expeditions to the Caspian Sea, during the reign of Rurik's son • Rurik and his followers are said to have come from a district in Sweden called Roslagen, Rodeslagen, Roden, whence, according to the supposition of several eminent northern writers, they were called by the Slavonic tribes they subdued Russians, a name which was afterwards applied to the inha bitants of the country, who had previously been called Slavonians. Be this as it may, for we have no great confidence in such etymological disquisitions, it is certain that Constantine Porphyrogenitus designated by these names (ρωσιστι and σκλαβινιστι), the two races and languages in the middle of the tenth century, and it would appear that to this day the Finns have continued to call the Swedes Ruotsolaiset. See Geijer's Ges. Schw. i. 36, and a note to the Preface of Rask s Icelandic Grammar. The Virgin's chemises appear to have been regarded in those ages as the most efficacious arm that could be employed against the worshippers of Odin. The inhabitants of Chartres, for instance, ascribed the somewhat dubious victory which they gained over Rollo, in the year 911, to the wonder working properties of one of these chemises, which had long been the chief object of veneration in their cathedral, and which they had borne before them, suspended on a lance like a banner, when they sallied forth, with their bishop, to attack the Northmen : "Quant Rou si grant gent vei, si s'en est esbahi, Des relikes k'ils portent, è des cants k'il oï. De la Sainte Kemise ke la Dame vesti, says old Wace in his Roman de Rou. See Depping, lib. iii. c. 3. In this ex Igor (Ingvar), has also been transmitted to us pedition they carried their light barks from one river to another-from the Don to the Volga-as was frequently done by the Normans and Danes in France and England. The Scandinavian sea-rovers in the Baltic were known under the name of Varager, which corresponds to the Væringjar of the Icelandic Sagas and the Varangi (Baçayyo) of the Byzantine writers. In the year 902 the Emperor Alexis took seven hundred of these Varæger from Kiew in his pay, and from that period down to the fall of Constantinople the Byzantine emperors committed the care of their persons to a body-guard chiefly, if not wholly, composed of Scandinavian adventurers, at first of Russian Varæger, and, at a later period, of Danes, Norwegians and Icelanders. The Codex Flatoyensis gives the number of men in this guard, in the eleventh century, at three hundred, and distinguishes it from another corps of Franks and Flemings, also in the imperial service t. This celebrated Varangian body-guard, to use the words of Gibbon, "with their broad and double-edged battle-axes on their shoulders, attended the Greek emperor to the temple, the senate, and the hippodrome; he slept and feasted under their trusty guard; and the keys of the palace, the treasury, and the capital, were held by the firm and faithful hands of the Varangians." Our great historian might have added that The widow of this Czar, Olga, who was distinguished for what we are sorry to say appear to have been the two principal traits of the old Scandinavian character craft and cruelty-was baptized at Constantinople in 957, and introduced Christianity into Russia, which about thirty years later was firmly established by Vladimir, surnamed, like Canute, and with equal propriety, the Great. Vladimir, on his marriage with the Byzantine princess, Anna, caused the image of Perun-the Slavonic god of thunder-to be tied to a horse's tail, and after being dragged through the town to be thrown into the Dnieper. Shortly afterward, when another image of the same deity was thrown into the Volga at Novgorod, we are told-every superstition has had its speaking images-that it began to complain bitterly of the ingratitude of the people it had so long protected. See Grimm. Deut. Mythol. 733. + Cod. Flat. col. 507, quoted by Müller in his Sagabib. ii. 149. Gibbon. Dec. and Fall, ch. 55. When Gibbon further says that the Varangians preserved till the last age of the empire the inheritance of spotless loyalty, and the use of the Danish or English language," he can only mean the Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon, two distinct languages, which the writers of the last century were too apt to confound. (See note, page 181). And we presume that "the inheritance of spotless loyalty" is merely one of those on. these adventurers also plundered the palaces as well as guarded them, for it would appear that at the death of an emperor the Varangians were allowed to go through all the imperial palaces and take whatever they could lay their hands It was thus that the celebrated Harald Hardráda, who commanded the Varangians in the time of the Empress Zoe, was fortunate enough to be at Constantinople at the deaths of three of the nominal emperors whom that ambitious woman had placed on the throne; and what with the plunder of the palaces and the booty he acquired in his campaign against the Saracens, he amassed a treasure that enabled him to marry the daughter of the Russian czar, and gain possession of the throne of Norway *.] CHAPTER X. OF THE CUSTOMS AND MANNERS OF THE ANCIENT NORTHERN NATIONS t. WHOEVER attempts to delineate the manners of the ancient inhabitants of the north, will find their love of war and passion for arms amongst the most characteristic and expresssive lines of the portrait. Their prejudices, their customs, stereotype phrases which historians frequently make use of to give due weight to a sentence. * Snorri tells us some strange stories respecting the adventurous life Harald led when he was in the service of the Byzantine emperors, which, although they cannot be regarded as historical facts, have at least furnished Ehlenschläger with excellent materials for his tragedy entitled "The Varangians in Constantinople;" Væringerne i Miklagord.' See Heimsk. ix. 1-17. Harald, as is well known, lost his life in the battle of Stamford Bridge, but it has not, we think, been sufficiently remarked that his alliance with Tostig, by draw ing off the forces of our last Anglo-Saxon monarch to the north, greatly facili tated the Norman conquest. + We have omitted a chapter in which Mr. Mallet gave an account of the discovery of Greenland and America by the Scandinavians, the sources which were available when his work was published (in the year 1755) being too meagre and defective to furnish him with correct information on the subject. The reader will find an account of this discovery, taken from the most recent and authentic works that have been published relating to it, in our first supplementary chapter.-ED. their daily occupations, their amusements, in short, every action of their lives, were all impressed with this passion. They passed the greatest part of their time either in camps or on board their fleets, employed in real engagements, in preparations for them, or in sham fights; for whenever they were constrained to live in peace, the resemblance of war furnished out their highest entertainment. They then had reviews, mock battles, which frequently ended in real ones, tournaments, the bodily exercises of wrestling, boxing, racing, &c. The rest of their time was commonly spent in hunting, public business, drinking and sleeping. "The Germans," says Tacitus, "when not engaged in war, pass their time in indolence, feasting and sleep. The bravest and most warlike among them do nothing themselves; but transfer the whole care of the house, family and possessions to the females, the old men and such as are infirm among them: and the same people, by a strange contradiction of nature, both love inaction and hate peace." All the Celtic nations lie under the same reproach from the Greek and Roman authors; and it is easy to conceive, that a people who affixed ideas of contempt to all labour of body and mind, had for the most part nothing else to do but to carouse and sleep, whenever the state did not call them to arms. This was the badge and noblest privilege of their liberty; every free man placed his glory and happiness in being often invited to solemn entertainments; and the hopes of partaking of eternal feasts filled, as we have seen, the north with heroes. Other pleasures and other rewards have been conceived under the influence of other climes: all nations have in their infancy been governed by the force of climate; and their first legislators, far from endeavouring to stem this torrent, but borne away with it themselves, have ever by their laws and institutions enlarged and increased its natural prevalence. We find remarkable instances in the Icelandic Sagas of frequent and excessive feastings. Tacitus observes, that the plentiful tables of the chiefs, were, among the Germans, the wages of their dependents. Nor could a great lord or chieftain take a readier way to attract a numerous train of followers, than by often making magnificent entertainments. It was at table that the Germans consulted together on their most important concerns, such as the electing of their princes, the entering into war, or the concluding of peace, &c. On the morrow they re-considered the resolutions of the preceding night, supposing, adds the same historian, "that the proper time to take each other's opinions was when the soul was too open for disguise; and to determine, when it was too cautious to err. The common liquors at these carousals were either beer, mead, or wine, when they could get it: these they drank out of earthen or wooden pitchers, or else out of the horns of wild bulls, with which their forests abounded. The principal person at the table took the cup first, and rising up, saluted by name either him who sat next him, or him who was nearest in rank; then he drank it off, and causing it to be filled up again to the brim, presented it to the man whom he had saluted t. Hence came the custom of drinking to the health of the guests: but I know not whether that of drinking to the honour of the gods was generally practised among all the Teutonic people, or only among the Scandinavians. Snorri Sturlason says, "that in the solemn festivals, such as usually followed the sacrifices, they emptied what was called the cup of Odin, to obtain victory and a glorious reign; then the cups of Njörd and of Frey, for a plentiful season; after which several used to take off another to Bragi, the God of Eloquence and Poetry." The Scandinavians were so much addicted to this custom, that the first missionaries, unable to abolish it, were forced instead of these false deities to substitute the true God, Jesus Christ, and the saints; to whose honour they devoutly drank for many ages. In the pagan times, they also drank to the heroes, and to such of their friends as had fallen bravely in battle. Lastly, it was at these feasts, for the most part, that those associations were formed and confirmed which the old chronicles so often mention. There was scarcely a valiant man who was not a member of one or more of these societies; the chief tie of which was a solemn obligation entered into, to defend and protect their companions on all occasions, and to revenge their deaths at the hazard of * Tac. de mor. Germ. c. 14. This ancient ceremony is still kept up, at solemn feasts, in some of the Colleges in our Universities.—In like manner our custom of drinking to the memory of departed persons, is evidently a relic of the ancient superstition of drinking to the manes of their heroes, kings and friends.-P. |