In Northern Mists Volume I Part 9

The statement that the Adogit had forty days' daylight in summer and a corresponding period of night in winter is, unfortunately, of no a.s.sistance in the form in which it is given for deciding the locality inhabited by them, for no such phenomenon occurs anywhere on the earth. If we suppose that the Adogit people themselves observed the rising and setting of the sun above a free horizon, then we must believe that they reckoned the unbroken summer day from the first to the last night on which the upper limb of the sun did not disappear below the edge of the sea. And they would have reckoned the unbroken winter night from the first day on which the sun's upper limb did not appear above the horizon at noon, until the first day when it again became visible.

If we reckon in this way, and take into account the horizontal refraction and the fact that the obliquity of the ecliptic about the year 500 was approximately 11' greater than now, we shall find that at that time the midnight sun was seen for forty days (i.e., from June 2 to July 12) in about 66 54' N. lat., or in the neighbourhood of Kunna, south of Bodo; but at the same place more than half the sun's disc would be above the horizon at noon at the winter solstice; it was therefore not hidden for a single day, much less for forty days. But, on the other hand, it was not until 68 51' N. lat., or about Harstad on Hinno, that they had an unbroken winter night, without seeing the rim of the sun, for forty days (from December 2 to January 11); but there they had the midnight sun in summer for about sixty-three days. The fable of a summer day of the same length as the unbroken winter night cannot therefore have originated with the Northerners; it must have been evolved in an entirely theoretical way by astronomical speculations (in ignorance of refraction) which were a survival of Greek science, where the length of the northern summer day was always a.s.sumed to be equal to that of the winter night. But that information had been received at this time from the Northerners is probable, since the statement of a forty days' summer day and winter night is not found in any known author of earlier date,[133] and Jordanes'

contemporary, Procopius, has an even more detailed statement, especially of this winter night (see later). The probability is that what the Northerners took particular notice of was the long night, during which, as Procopius also relates, they kept an accurate account of the days during which they had to do without the light of the sun, a time in which "they were very depressed, since they could not hold intercourse." This must also have been what they told to the Southerners, while they did not pay so much attention to the length of the summer day, when of course they would in any case have plenty of sunlight. We must therefore suppose that the lat.i.tude worked out according to the winter night of forty days is the correct one, and this gives us precisely Sophus Bugge's And--Ando, or, better still, Hinno.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The more important tribal names in Southern Scandinavia, according to Jordanes]

[Sidenote: Northern Tribal Names]

Jordanes counts about twenty-seven names of tribes or peoples in Sweden and Norway; a number of them are easily recognised, while others must be much corrupted and are difficult to interpret.[134] He mentions first the peoples of Sweden, then those of Norway. "Suehans" is certainly the Svear.

They, "like the Thuringians, have excellent horses. It is also they who through their commercial intercourse with innumerable other peoples send for the use of the Romans sappherine skins ('sappherinas pelles'), which skins are celebrated for their blackness.[135] While they live poorly they have the richest clothes."

We see then that at this time the fur trade with the North was well developed, as the amber trade was at a much earlier date. Adam of Bremen tells us of the "proud horses" of the Svear as though they were an article of export together with furs. In the Ynglinga Saga it is related [cf.

Sophus Bugge, 1907, p. 99] that Adils, King of the Svear at Upsalir,

"was very fond of good horses, he had the best horses of that time."

He sent a stallion "to Hlogaland to G.o.dgest the king; G.o.dgest the king rode it, and could not hold it, so he fell off and got his death; this was in Omd [Amd] in Hlogaland."

The original authority for the statement in Jordanes was probably King Rodulf, who perhaps came from the northern half of Norway, and it looks as though the Norwegians even at that time were acquainted with Swedish horses.

Jordanes further mentions five tribes who "dwell in a flat, fertile land [i.e., south Sweden], for which reason also they have to protect themselves against the attacks of other tribes ('gentium')." Among the tribes in Sweden are mentioned also the "Finnaithae"--doubtless in Finn-heden or Finn-veden (that is, either Finn-heath or Finn-wood), whose name must be due to an aboriginal people called Finns--further, the "Gautigoth," generally taken for the West Goter, who were a specially "brave and warlike people," the "Ostrogothae" [East Goter] and many more.

Then he crosses the Norwegian frontier and mentions

"The 'Raumarici'[of Romerike] and 'Ragnaricii' [of Ranrike or Bohuslen], the very mild [peaceful] 'Finns' ('Finni mitissimi'), who are milder than all the other inhabitants of Scandza;[136] further their equals the 'Vinoviloth'; the 'Suetidi' are known among this people ['hac gente' must doubtless mean the Scandinavians] as towering above the rest in bodily height, and yet the 'Danes,' who are descended from this very race [i.e., the Scandinavians ?] drove out the 'Heruli' from their own home, who claimed the greatest fame [i.e., of being the foremost] among the peoples ['nationes'] of Scandia for very great bodily size. Yet of the same height as these are also the 'Granii' [of Grenland, the coast-land of Bratsberg and Nedenes], the 'Augandzi' [people of Agder],[137] 'Eunix' [islanders, Holmryger in the islands ?], 'aetelrugi' [Ryger on the mainland in Ryfylke], 'Arochi' [== 'arothi,' i.e., Harudes, Horder of Hordaland], 'Ranii'

[in other MSS. 'Rannii' or 'Rami,' Sophus Bugge (1907) and A. Bugge see in this a corruption of '*Raumi,' that is, people of Romsdal], over whom not many years ago Roduulf was king, who, despising his own kingdom, hastened to the arms of Theodoric king of the Goths, and found what he had hankered after. These people fight with the savageness of beasts, more mighty than the Germans in body and soul."

The small (?), "very mild" Finns must, from the order in which they are named, have lived in the forest districts--Solor, Eidskogen, and perhaps farther south--on the Swedish border. P. A. Munch [1852, p. 83] saw in their kinsmen the "Vinoviloth" the inhabitants of "Vingulmark" (properly "vingel-skog," thick, impenetrable forest), which was the forest country on Christiania fjord from Glommen to Lier. Mullenhoff agrees with this [ii., 1887, pp. 65 f.], but thinks that "-oth," the last part of the word, belongs to the next name, Suetidi, and that "Vinovil" may be a corruption of Vingvili or Vinguli (cf. Paulus Warnefridi's "Vinili" ?). But however this may be, we must regard this people and the foregoing as "Finnish" and as inhabiting forest districts, as hunters, as well as a third Finnish people, "Finnaithae" in Smland. We shall return later to these "Finns" in Scandinavia. It has been thought that "Suetidi" may be from the same word as "Svijo"; but as Jordanes has already mentioned the Svear ("Suehans"), and as the name occurs among the Norwegian tribes, and there is evidently a certain order in their enumeration, Mullenhoff may be right in seeing in it a corruption of a Norwegian tribal name. He thinks that "Othsuetidi"

may be a corruption of "aethsaevii," i.e., "Eisivar" (cf. Eidsivathing), "Heisaevir" or "Heinir" in Hedemarken, who were certainly a very tall people. The mention of the Norwegian warriors has a certain interest in that it is due to the Roman statesman Ca.s.siodorus (or his authority), who glorified the Goths and had no special reason for praising the Northmen.[138] It shows that even at that time our northern ancestors were famed for courage and bodily size, and that too above all other Germanic peoples, who were highly esteemed by the Romans. It is not clear whether Rodulf was King of the "Ranii" (Raumer ?) alone, or of all the Norwegian tribes from Grenland to Romsdal. It may be supposed that he was a Norwegian chief who migrated south through Europe at the head of a band of warriors, composed of men from the tribes mentioned, and that finally on the Danube, hard pressed by other warlike people, he sought alliance and support from the mighty king of the Goths, Theodoric or Tjodrik (Dietrich of Berne). This may have been just before 489, when the latter made his expedition to Italy. Many circ.u.mstances combine to make such a hypothesis probable.[139]

We know that about 489 the Eruli were just north of the Danube, and were the Goths' nearest neighbours. Now, as we shall see later, Eruli was perhaps at first a common name for bands of northern warriors, and these Eruli on the Danube may therefore certainly have consisted to a greater or less extent of Norwegians. We know, further, that at this time there was a king of the Eruli to whom Theodoric sent as a gift a horse, sword and s.h.i.+eld, thereby making him his foster-son [cf. Ca.s.siodorus, Varia iii.

3, iv. 2]. Finally, we know from Procopius that the Eruli just at this time had a king, Rodulf, who fell in battle against the Langobards (about 493). When we compare this with what Jordanes says about the Norwegian king Rodulf, who hastened to Theodoric's arms and found there what he sought, it will be easy to conclude that this Norwegian chief is the same as the chief of Eruli here spoken of. Rodulf, or "Hrodulfr," is a known Norwegian name. "Rod-," or "Hrod," is the same as the modern Norwegian "ros" (i.e., praise), and means probably here renowned.

One is further inclined to believe that it was from this Rodulf or his men, of whom some may have come from And in Hlogaland, that Ca.s.siodorus or his authority obtained the information about Scandinavia and northern Norway, which is also partly repeated in Procopius.

Sophus Bugge [cf. 1910, pp. 87 ff.; see also A. Bugge, 1906, pp. 35 f.] has suggested that the "Raulfr," who is mentioned in the runic inscription on the celebrated Rok-stone in ostergotland (of about the year 900), in which Theodoric ("iaurikr") is also mentioned, may be the same Norwegian chief Rodulf who came to Theodoric and who fell in battle with the Langobards. He even regards it as possible that it is an echo of this battle which is found in the inscription, where it is said that "twenty kings lie slain on the field"; in that case the battle has been moved north from the Danube to "Siulunt" (i.e., Sealand). There are other circ.u.mstances which agree with this: it is said of the Eruli that they had peace for three years before the battle [cf. Procopius]; on the Rok-stone it is stated that the twenty kings stayed in Siulunt four winters; the latter must have been Norwegian warriors of different tribes: Ryger, Horder, and Heiner (from Hedemarken), perhaps under a paramount king Raulfr, who settled in Sealand--while the Eruli were bands of northern warriors, who under a king Rodulf had established themselves on the north bank of the Danube. Bugge's supposition may be uncertain, but if it be correct it greatly strengthens the view (see p. 145) that the Eruli were largely Norwegian warriors, since in that case the king of the Eruli, Rodulf (== Raulfr), would have been in command of tribes for the most part Norwegian: Ryger, Horder, and Heiner.

[Sidenote: Procopius, circa 552 A.D.]

The Byzantine historian Procopius, of Caesarea (ob. after 562), became in 527 legal a.s.sistant, "a.s.sessor," to the general Belisarius, and accompanied him on his campaigns until 549, amongst others that against the Goths in Italy. In his work (in Greek) on the war against the Goths ("De bello Gothico," t. ii. c. 14 and 15), written about 552, he gives information about the North which is of great interest. He tells us of the warlike Germanic people, the Eruli, who from old time[140] were said to have lived on the north bank of the Danube, and who, with no better reason than that they had lived in peace for three whole years and were tired of it, attacked their neighbours the Langobards, but suffered a decisive defeat, and their king, Rodulf, fell in the battle (about 493).[141]

"They then hastily left their dwelling-places, and set out with their women and children to wander through the whole country [Hungary] which lies north of the Danube. When they came to the district where the Rogians had formerly dwelt, who had joined the army of the Goths and gone into Italy, they settled there; but as they were oppressed by famine in that district, which had been laid waste, they soon afterwards departed from it, and came near to the country of the Gepidae [Siebenburgen]. The Gepidae allowed them to establish themselves and to become their neighbours, but began thereupon, without the slightest cause, to commit the most revolting acts against them, ravis.h.i.+ng their women, robbing them of cattle and other goods, and omitting no kind of injustice, and finally began an unjust war against them." The Eruli then crossed the Danube to Illyria and settled somewhere about what is now Servia under the eastern emperor Anastasius (491-518). Some of the Eruli would not "cross the Danube, but decided to establish themselves in the uttermost ends of the inhabited world. Many chieftains of royal blood now undertaking their leaders.h.i.+p, they pa.s.sed through all the tribes of the Slavs one after another, went thence through a wide, uninhabited country, and came to the so-called Varn. Beyond them they pa.s.sed by the tribes of the Danes [in Jutland], without the barbarians there using violence towards them. When they thence came to the ocean [about the year 512] they took s.h.i.+p, and landed on the island of Thule [i.e., Scandinavia] and remained there. But Thule is beyond comparison the largest of all islands; for it is more than ten times as large as Britain. But it lies very far therefrom northwards. On this island the land is for the most part uninhabited. But in the inhabited regions there are thirteen populous tribes, each with a king. Every year an extraordinary thing takes place; for the sun, about the time of the summer solstice, does not set at all for forty days, but for the whole of this time remains uninterruptedly visible above the earth. No less than six months later, about the winter solstice, for forty days the sun is nowhere to be seen on this island; but continual night is spread over it, and therefore for the whole of that time the people are very depressed, since they can hold no intercourse. It is true that I have not succeeded, much as I should have wished it, in reaching this island and witnessing what is here spoken of; but from those who have come thence to us I have collected information of how they are able [to count the days] when the sun neither rises nor sets at the times referred to," etc. When, during the forty days that it is above the horizon, the sun in its daily course returns "to that place where the inhabitants first saw it rise, then according to their reckoning a day and a night have pa.s.sed. But when the period of night commences, they find a measure by observation of the moon's path, according to which they reckon the number of days. But when thirty-five days of the long night are pa.s.sed, certain people are sent up to the tops of mountains, as is the custom with them, and when from thence they can see some appearance of the sun, they send word to the inhabitants below that in five days the sun will s.h.i.+ne upon them. And the latter a.s.semble and celebrate, in the dark it is true, the feast of the glad tidings.

Among the people of Thule this is the greatest of all their festivals.

I believe that these islanders, although the same thing happens every year with them, nevertheless are in a state of fear lest some time the sun should be wholly lost to them.

"Among the barbarians inhabiting Thule, one people, who are called Skridfinns [Scrithifini], live after the manner of beasts. They do not wear clothes [i.e., of cloth] nor, when they walk, do they fasten anything under their feet, [i.e., they do not wear shoes], they neither drink wine nor eat anything from the land, because they neither cultivate the land themselves nor do the women provide them with anything from tilling it, but the men as well as the women occupy themselves solely and continually in hunting; for the extraordinarily great forests and mountains which rise in their country give them vast quant.i.ties of game and other beasts. They always eat the flesh of the animals they hunt and wear their skins, and they have no linen or anything else that they can sew with. But they fasten the skins together with the sinews of beasts, and thus cover their whole bodies.

The children even are not brought up among them as with other peoples; for the Skridfinns' children do not take women's milk, nor do they touch their mothers' b.r.e.a.s.t.s, but they are nourished solely with the marrow of slain beasts. As soon therefore as a woman has given birth, she winds the child in a skin, hangs it up in a tree, puts marrow into its mouth, and goes off hunting; for they follow this occupation in common with the men. Thus is the mode of life of these barbarians arranged.

"Nearly all of the remaining inhabitants of Thule do not, however, differ much from other peoples. They wors.h.i.+p a number of G.o.ds and higher powers in the heavens, the air, the earth and the sea, also certain other higher beings which are thought to dwell in the waters of springs and rivers. But they always slay all kinds of sacrifice and offer dead sacrifices. And to them the best of all sacrifices is the man they have taken prisoner by their arms. Him they sacrifice to the G.o.d of war, because they consider him to be the greatest. But they do not sacrifice him merely by using fire at the sacrifice; they also hang him up in a tree, or throw him among thorns, and slay him by other cruel modes of death. Such is the life of the inhabitants of Thule, among whom the most numerous people are the Gauti (Goter), with whom the immigrant Eruli settled."

[Sidenote: Erulian sources of Procopius]

[Sidenote: Common source of Procopius and Jordanes]

This description by Procopius of Thule (Scandinavia) and its people bears the stamp of a certain trustworthiness. If we ask whence he has derived his information, our thoughts are led at once to the Eruli, referred to by him in such detail, who in part were still the allies of the Eastern Empire, and of whom the emperor at Byzantium had a bodyguard in the sixth century. There were many of them in the army of the Eastern Empire both in Persia and in Italy; thus Procopius says that there were two thousand of them in the army under the eunuch Na.r.s.es, which came to Italy to join Belisarius. Procopius thus had ample opportunity for obtaining first-hand information from these northern warriors, and his account of them shows that the Eruli south of the Danube kept up communication with their kinsmen in Scandinavia, for when they had killed their king "Ochon"

without cause, since they wished to try being without a king, and had repented the experiment, they sent some of their foremost men to Thule to find a new king of the royal blood. They chose one and returned with him; but he died on the way when they had almost reached home, and they therefore turned again and went once more to Thule. This time they found another, "by name 'Datios' [or 'Todasios' == Tjodrik ?]. He was accompanied by his brother 'Aordos' [== Vard ?] and two hundred young men of the Eruli in Thule." Meanwhile, as they were so long absent, the Eruli of Singidunum (the modern Belgrade) had sent an emba.s.sy to the emperor Justinia.n.u.s at Byzantium asking him to give them a chief. He sent, therefore, the Erulian "Svartuas" (== Svartugle, i.e., black owl ?), who had been living with him for a long time. But when Datios from Thule approached, all the Eruli went over to him by night, and Svartuas had to flee quite alone, and returned to Byzantium. The emperor now exerted all his power to reinstate him; "but the Eruli, who feared the power of the Romans, decided to migrate to the Gepidae." This happened in Procopius's own time, and may therefore be regarded as trustworthy; it shows how easy communication must have been at that time between Scandinavia and the south, and also with Byzantium, so that Procopius may well have had his information by that channel. But he may also have received information from another quarter. His description of Thule shows such decided similarities with Jordanes' account of Scandza and its people that they point to some common source of knowledge, even though there are also dissimilarities. Among the latter it may be pointed out that Jordanes makes a distinction between Thule (north of Britain) and Scandza, while Procopius calls Scandinavia Thule, which, however, like Jordanes, he places to the north of Britain, and he does not mention Scandia. It may seem surprising that Jordanes' authority, Ca.s.siodorus (or Ablabius ?), should have known Ptolemy better than the Greek Procopius. The explanation may be that when Procopius heard from the statements of the Eruli themselves that some of them had crossed the ocean from the land of the Danes (Jutland) to a great island in the north, he could not have supposed that this was Scandia, which on Ptolemy's map lay east of the Cimbrian peninsula and farther south than its northern point; it would seem much more probable that it was Thule, which, however, as he saw, must lie farther from Britain and be larger than it was shown on Ptolemy's map; for which reason Procopius expressly a.s.serts that Thule was much larger than Britain and lay far to the north of it. As it was not Procopius's habit to make a show of unnecessary names, he keeps the well-known name of Thule and does not even mention Scandia. It may even be supposed that it was to west Norway itself, or the ancient Thule, that the Eruli sailed. If their king Rodulf was a Norwegian, as suggested above, this would be probable, as in that case many of themselves would have come from there too; besides which, we know of a people, the Harudes or Horder, who had formerly migrated by sea from Jutland to the west coast of Norway; there had therefore been an ancient connection, and perhaps, indeed, Horder from Norway and Harudes from Jutland may have been among Rodulf's men, and there may also have been Harudes among the Eruli whom the Danes, according to Jordanes, drove out of their home (in Jutland ?). There was also, from the very beginning of Norwegian history, much connection between Norway and Jutland.

Another disagreement between the descriptions of Procopius and Jordanes is that according to the former there were thirteen tribes, each with a king, in Thule, while Jordanes enumerates twice as many tribal names in Scandza, but of these perhaps several may have belonged to the same kingdom.[142]

A remarkable similarity between the two authors is the summer day forty days long and the equally long winter night among the people of Thule as with the Adogit, and the fact that in immediate connection therewith the Scrithifini and Screrefennae, which must originally be the same name, are mentioned. The description in Procopius of festivals on the reappearance of the sun, etc., points certainly to information from the North; but, as already pointed out, the statement in this form, that the summer day was of the same length as the winter night, cannot be due to the Nors.e.m.e.n themselves; it is a literary invention, which points to a common literary origin; for it would be more than remarkable if it had arisen independently both with the authority of Procopius and with that of Jordanes. An even more striking indication in the same direction is the resemblance which we find in the order of the two descriptions of Thule and of Scandza. First comes the geographical description of the island, which in both is of very great size and lies far out in the northern ocean; then occurs the statement that in this great island are many tribes.[143] Next we have in both the curious fact that the summer day and the winter night both last for forty days. Then follows in both a more detailed statement of how the long summer day and winter night come about, and of how the sun behaves during its course, etc. Immediately after this comes the description of the Skridfinns, who have a b.e.s.t.i.a.l way of life, and do not live on corn, but on the flesh of wild beasts, etc., with an addition in Jordanes about fen-fowl's eggs (perhaps taken from Mela), while Procopius has a more detailed description of their mode of life, which reminds one somewhat of Tacitus. Finally, there is a reference to the Germanic people of Thule or Scandza; but while Procopius mentions their religious beliefs and human sacrifices, and only gives the name of the most numerous tribe, the Gauti, Jordanes has for the most part a rigmarole of names.

Even if the method of treating the material is thus very different in the two works, the order in which the material is arranged, and to some extent also the material itself, are in such complete agreement that there must be a historical connection, and undoubtedly a common literary source, through a greater or less number of intermediaries, is the basis of both descriptions. One might think of the unknown Ablabius, or perhaps of the unknown Gothic scholar Aithanarit, whom the Ravenna geographer mentions in connection with his reference to the Skridfinns, if indeed he did not live later than Procopius. It is striking also that the pa.s.sage about Thule in Procopius gives rather the impression of having been inserted in the middle of his narrative about the Eruli, without any very intimate connection therewith, and it may therefore be for the most part taken from an earlier author, perhaps with alterations and additions by Procopius himself; but it is not his habit to inform us of his authorities.

[Sidenote: The Eruli are Nors.e.m.e.n]

Procopius's description of the Eruli is of great interest. It is a remarkable feature in the history of the world that at certain intervals, even from the earliest times, roving warrior peoples appear in Europe, coming from the unknown North, who for a time fill the world with dread, and then disappear again. One of these northern peoples was perhaps, as already mentioned, the "Cimmerians," who in the eighth century B.C. made an inroad into Asia Minor. Six hundred years later, in the second century B.C., bands of Cimbri and Teutones came down from northern Europe and were pressing towards Rome, till they were defeated by Marius and gradually disappeared. Five hundred years later still, in the third to the fifth centuries A.D., the Eruli come on the scene, and after they have disappeared come the Saxons and Danes, and then the Normans. We may perhaps suppose, to a certain extent at all events, that the races which formed these restless and adventurous bands were in part the same, and that it is the names that have changed. The Eruli are also mentioned by Jordanes and by many other authorities besides Procopius. Together with the Goths they played a part in the "Scythian" war in the third century, but afterwards disappear to the north of the Black Sea. They must have been the most migratory people of their time; we find them roaming over the whole of Europe, from Scandinavia on the north to Byzantium on the south, from the Black Sea on the east to Spain on the west; from the third to the fifth century we find Eruli from Scandinavia as pirates on the coasts of western Europe, and even in the Mediterranean itself, where in 455 they reached Lucca in Italy [cf. Zeuss, 1837, p. 477 f.; Mullenhoff, 1889, p. 19]. When we read in Procopius that some of the Eruli would not "cross the Danube, but determined to establish themselves in the uttermost ends of the world," this means, of course, that they had come from thence, and that rather than be subject to the Eastern Empire they would return home to Scandinavia. The name also frequently appears in its primitive Norse form, "erilaR," in Northern runic inscriptions.[144] Since "erilaR"

(in Norwegian "jarl," in English "earl") means leader in war, and is not known in Scandinavia as the original name of a tribe which has given its name to any district in the North, we must suppose that it was more probably an appellative in use in the more southern parts of Europe for bands of northern warriors of one or more Scandinavian tribes [cf. P. A.

Munch, 1852, p. 53]. They may have called themselves so; it was, in fact, characteristic of the Scandinavian warrior that he was not disposed to acknowledge any superior; they were all free men and chiefs in contradistinction to thralls. Gradually these bands in foreign countries may have coalesced into one nation [cf. A. Bugge, 1906, p. 32]. But as expeditions of Eruli are spoken of in such widely different parts of Europe, the name must, up to the end of the fifth century, have often been used for Nors.e.m.e.n in general, to distinguish them from the nations of Germany, like the designation Normans, and sometimes also Danes, in later times. That the latter was used as an appellative as early as the time of Procopius seems to result from his mentioning the tribes ("ethne") of the Danes in just the same way as he speaks of those of the Slavs. What is said about the Eruli suits the Scandinavians: they were very tall (cf.

Jordanes, above, p. 136) and fair, were specially famed for their activity, and were lightly armed; they went into battle without helmet or coat of mail, protected only by a s.h.i.+eld and a thick tunic, which they tucked up into a belt. Their thralls, indeed, had to fight without s.h.i.+elds; but when they had shown their courage they were allowed to carry a s.h.i.+eld [Procopius, De bello Pers., ii. 25]. "At that time," says Jordanes, "there was no nation that had not chosen the light-armed men of its army from among them. But if their activity had often helped them in other wars, they were vanquished by the slow steadiness of the Goths," and they had to submit to Hermanaric, King of the Goths by the Black Sea, the same who is called Jormunrek in the Volsunga Saga. The people here described can scarcely have been typical dwellers in plains, who are usually slow and heavy; we should rather think of them as tough and active Scandinavian mountaineers, who by their hard life in the hills had become light of foot and practised in the use of their limbs; but who, on the other hand, had been ill-supplied with heavier weapons and had had scant opportunities of exercise as heavy-armed men, for which indeed they had no taste. This also explains their remarkable mobility. We are thus led once more to think of Norway as the possible home of some of the Eruli. To sum up, we find then that they had a king with the Norse name Rodulf, and there are many indications that he was the same as the Norwegian king Rodulf (from Romsdal ?) who came to Theodoric. They returned through Jutland and sailed thence to Thule, where they settled by the side of the Gauti, i.e., to the west of them in Norway, which from old time had had frequent communication with Jutland, from whence the Horder (and probably also the Ryger ?) had immigrated. They are described as having characteristics which are typical of mountaineers, but not of lowlanders.

An Erulian name, "Aruth" (?????), mentioned by Procopius [De bello Goth., iv. 26], also points to Norway, since it appears to be the same as the Norwegian tribal name "Horder" ("*Harur," gen. "Harus," on the Rok-stone [cf. S. Bugge, 1910, p. 98], or "Arothi" in Jordanes).

Other Erulian names in Procopius may be common to the northern Germanic languages. In the opinion of Professor Alf Torp it is probable that "Visandos" is bison, "Aluith" is Alvid or Alvith (all-knowing); in "Fanitheos" the first syllable may be "fan" or "fen"

(English, fen) and the second part "-theos" may be the Scandinavian termination "-ther"; "Aordos" may be Vard. The King's name "Ochon"

seems to resemble the Norwegian Hkon; but the latter name cannot have had such a form at that time, it must have been longer.

What Procopius tells us [De bello Goth., ii. 14] about the manners and customs of the Eruli agrees with what we know of the Nors.e.m.e.n generally.

They wors.h.i.+pped many G.o.ds, whom they considered it their sacred duty to propitiate with human sacrifices. Aged and sick persons were obliged to ask their relatives to help them to get rid of life;[145] they were killed with a dagger by one who did not belong to the family, and were burnt on a great pile, after which the bones were collected and buried, as was the custom in western Norway amongst other places. "When an Erulian died, his wife, if she wished to show her virtue and leave a good name behind her, had to hang herself not long after with a rope by her husband's grave and thus make an end of herself. If she did not do this, she lost respect for the future, and was an offence to her husband's family. This custom was observed by the Eruli from old time." Their many G.o.ds and human sacrifices agree, as we see, with Procopius's description of the inhabitants of Thule, and with what we know of the Scandinavians from other quarters. As human sacrifices with most peoples were connected with banquets, at which slain enemies were eaten,[146] the a.s.sertion that our Germanic ancestors did not practise cannibalism rests upon uncertain ground. When, therefore, in finds of the Stone Age in Denmark, Sweden and Norway broken or sc.r.a.ped human bones occur, which point to cannibalism, it cannot be argued from this, as is done by Dr. A. M. Hansen [1907], that the finds belong to a non-Germanic people.

For the rest, Procopius paints the Eruli in crude colours; they are covetous, domineering and violent towards their fellow men, without being ashamed of it. They are addicted to the grossest debauchery, are the most wicked of men, and utterly depraved.

[Sidenote: Skridfinns]

The "Scrithifini" of Procopius (and Jordanes' corrupted form, "Screrefennae" or "Scretefennae") are undoubtedly a people of the same kind as Tacitus's "Fenni" (Ptolemy-Marinus's "Finni"); but they have here acquired the descriptive prefix "scrithi-," which is generally understood as the Norse "skria" (== to slide, e.g., on the ice, to glide; cf.

Swedish "skridsko," skate). The Nors.e.m.e.n must have characterised their Finnish (i.e., Lappish) neighbours on the north as sliding (walking) on ski ("skria a skium"), to distinguish them from other peoples in the outlying districts whom they also called Finns. If this is so, it is the first time that a reference to ski-running is found in literature. There is, moreover, considerable similarity between Procopius's description of these hunters and Tacitus's account of the "Fenni," who must certainly also have lived in Scandinavia (see above, p. 113), and who may have been the same people. They have many peculiar characteristics in common, e.g., that both men and women go hunting; and the statement that while the mothers go hunting, the children, in Tacitus, are hidden in a shelter of boughs (i.e., a tent), and in Procopius are hung up in a tree (perhaps the Lapps' "komse," i.e., a cradle made of wood to hang up in the tent).

Procopius himself probably did not know Tacitus's "Germania," but it is possible that his unknown authority did so, although this work was generally forgotten at that time. But even if the description of Procopius may thus be partly derived from Tacitus, in any case fresh information has been added, the name Skridfinns itself to begin with, and certain correct details, such as their fastening the skins together with the sinews of beasts. The fable that the children did not touch their mothers' b.r.e.a.s.t.s may (like the masculine occupation of the women) be due to legends about the Amazons, who were not brought up on their mothers' milk. That the children were given marrow instead may be due to the fact that this people of hunters, like the Lapps of the present day, ate much animal fat and marrow. The Eskimo often give their children raw blubber to chew.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map of the world in the MS. of Isidore, tenth century, St.

Gallen (K. Miller)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The oldest known map of the world, from the MS. of Isidore of the end of the seventh century, St. Gallen (K. Miller)]

[Sidenote: Isidorus Hispalensis, before 636 A.D.]

Thus while valuable information about the North is to be found in the early mediaeval authors we have mentioned, this is not the case with the well-known Isidorus Hispalensis of Seville (ob. 636, as bishop of that city), who, however, exercised the greatest influence on the geographical ideas of the Middle Ages. His geographical knowledge was derived from late Latin authors, especially Orosius, Hieronymus and Solinus, and contributed nothing new of value. But as he was one of the most widely read authors of the early Middle Ages, he is of importance for having in that dark time continued the thread of the learning of antiquity, even though that thread was thin and weak. He was also to have an influence on cartography. With his fondness for bad etymological interpretations he derived the word "rotunditas," for the roundness of the earth, from "rota," wheel, and he taught that "the word 'orbis' is used on account of the roundness of the circ.u.mference, since it is like a wheel. For in every part the circ.u.mfluent ocean surrounds its borders in a circle." Hence the conception of the earth's disc as a wheel came to be general in the early Middle Ages, and hence the designation of wheel-maps. Isidore divided the earth's disc into three parts, Asia (including Paradise) at the top of the wheel-map, and Europe and Africa, also called Lybia, at the bottom; and the boundaries between these continents formed a =T= with the rivers Tanais and Nile horizontally at the top, and the Mediterranean ("Mare Magnum") below. Therefore maps of this type, which was maintained for a long time, are also called =T=-maps.[147] Otherwise Isidore declared clearly enough in favour of the spherical form of the earth.

[Sidenote: Bede, 673-735]

The Anglo-Saxon monk and scholar, Beda Venerabilis (673-735), who in his work "Liber de natura rerum" also mentions the countries of the earth, but without making any fresh statement about the North, was strongly influenced by Isidore. He a.s.serts, however, the spherical form of the earth in an intelligent way, giving, amongst other reasons, that of the ancient Greeks, that earth and water are attracted towards a central point. The form of a sphere was also the only one that would explain why certain stars were visible in the north, but not in the south.