1. Joannis Magni Gothorum Suenonumque Historia, lib. i. and ii. p. 18. to 74. edit. Rome, fol. 1554.
Native kings of Sweden who, according to the archbishop, Joannes Magnus, flourished before Christ.
In both lists, many of these names the reader will perceive to be identical with the Danish kings given by Saxo Grammaticus. That the two lists have been confounded there can be no doubt. And it as equally certain that many of these kings are unnecessarily multiplied,—those allowed to have reigned before, as well as after, the Christian era. Perhaps, however, none of these princes reigned before Odin; probably all are more recent still; and as so many were contemporary with each other, ample lists have easily been formed.
The compilers of our Universal History begin their list with the following:—
2. See the work, part i.
3. Torfœus Historia Norvegiæ, tom. i. p. 111–150.
4. Wheaton, History of the Northmen. Mallet, Histoire de Dannemarc, tom. i.
5. Vetustissima Regum Septentrionis Series Langfedgatal dicta. According to this “Series,” the list of Danish kings prior to Odin is as follows:—Noah, Japhet, Zechim, Ciprus, Celius, Saturn of Crete, Jupiter, Darius, Erichthon, Troes, Ilus, Laomedon, Priam of Troy, Memnon (the son-in-law of Priam), Tror or Thor, Lorith, Einrith, Vingethar, Vingener, Moda, Magus, Seskef, Bedoig, Athra, Iterman, Heremotr, Scealdna, Beaf, Eat, Godulf, Finn, Frealaf—Odin.
Here is a precious list, and we should vainly inquire where it was originally procured. One thing, however, is remarkable,—that of the immediate predecessors of Odin, most are the same as those contained in the Saxon Chronicle, in the genealogy of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Let us now transcribe that of Saxo Grammaticus, who flourished in the twelfth century, and is content with making Dan the ancestor of the Danes, about a thousand years before Christ.
Dan I., Humble, Lother, Skiold, Gram, Swibdager, Guthrum, Hadding, Frode I., Haldan, Roe and Helgo, Rolf or Rollo, Hoder, Ruric, Wiglet, Guitlach, Wermund, Olaf I., Dan II., Hugleth, Frode II., Dan III., Fridleif, Frode III. According to Saxo it was in the reign of Hadding that Odin first appeared in the north. In this case, the reader may say Odin must have flourished long before the period usually assigned, viz., A.C. 70. But most of these princes, doubtless, reigned after the birth of Christ, notwithstanding the positive assertion of Saxo (who is supported by some other chroniclers), that the Redeemer of mankind assumed our nature in the reign of Frode III. Sweyn Aggo is more rational than his contemporary Saxo; he rejects all the sovereigns prior to Odin, and commences his list with Skiold, a son of that deified hero. Undoubtedly Denmark, like the other states, had its kings before that period; but they were mere reguli, perpetually at war with each other in struggling for the ascendancy; and small reliance is to be placed on their alleged actions, or even their names. Saxo, in taking as authorities the popular songs of his country, followed the worst of all guides.
6. The list of Norwegian sovereigns prior to Odin is, according to the Landfedgatal, the same as for Denmark. These sovereigns, however, in neither case reigned in the north; they were regarded as Asiatic: it was Odin who first left the country of his ancestors, and established his empire in Scandinavia. In this view there is no inconsistency between that record and Saxo, who does not enumerate the Asiatic monarchs, and who confines himself to the native princes that held the country for ages before Odin was known. These, we have strong reason to infer, were not Gothic, but Finnish, or Jutish, or Lapponic, or whatever else was the denomination of the people who originally possessed the north. Sweyn Aggesen, therefore, by rejecting them, evidently confines himself to the foreign or Gothic dynasty—the dynasty of the conquerors.
7. Langebek, Scriptores, tom. i., passim.
8. Pinkerton, Dissertation on the Goths. Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. i.
9. Tacitus, Germania, cap. 34.–40. Wheaton, History of the Northmen, chap. i.
10. Mallet, Histoire de Dannemarc, tom. i. Pinkerton, Dissertation on the Goths, passim.
11. Saxonis Grammatici Historia Danica; necnon, Heimskringla Snorronis, passim.
12. Apud Langebek, Scriptores Rerum Danicarum, tom. ii.
13. Wheaton, History, p. 119.
14. Depping, Histoire des Expeditions Maritimes des Normands, tom. i. Wheaton, History of the Northmen.
15. Saxonis Grammatici Historia Danica, lib i.
16. The poetical dialogues of Gro with Bessus and Gram—dialogues in which Saxo (lib. i. p. 7, &c.) has put forth all his imagination and all his knowledge of Latin versification—may amuse the learned reader. We have no disposition to translate them.
17. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. i.
18. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. i.
19. In the Scandinavian superstition every rune was consecrated to some deity. Nearly all the magic of the north consisted in runes. They could raise or allay tempests; they could change times, and they could bring the most distant objects together. They could produce good or bad seasons; they could raise the dead: in short, they were omnipotent over all nature,—the invisible no less than the visible world.
20. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. i. p. 10, &c., edit. Stephanii, Soræ, 1644.
21. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. i. p. 10, &c., edit. Stephanii, Soræ, 1644.
22. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. i.
23. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. i.
24. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. ii. p. 20, &c.
25. Both Roe and Helge reigned some centuries after the time fixed by Saxo,—as recently as the fifth century of the Christian era.
26. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. ii.
27. Whether there was any other Rolf than the celebrated Rolf Krake, who is thought to have reigned in the sixth century after Christ, is doubtful. The best northern writers admit of no other.
28. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. ii.
29. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. i. p. 12., edit. Stephanii, Soræ, 1644. The diffusion of this superstitious notion is a curious subject of speculation. In Hungary, Russia, Wallachia, Greece, Crete, &c. it is rife at this day.
30. Ynglinga Saga, cap. i.–v. (apud Heimskringlam, tom. i. p. 1-10., edit. Hafn., 1777).
31. Ynglinga Saga, cap. v.–vii.
32. Langebek, Scriptores Rerum Danicarum, tom. i. pp. 7, 8. Torfœus, Historia Norvegica, tom. i. p. 138, &c.
33. S. Rembertus, Vita S. Anscarii (apud Bollandistas, Acta S. S. die Feb. iii. Adamus Bremensis, Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. i. cap. 12. &c. Konung Olaf Trygvason’s Saga, apud Snorronem Sturlonem Heimskringla tom. ii.).
34. Ihre, Dissert. de Institutione Regum Suio-Gotborum, ed. Upsala, 1752.—Geijr, Svea Rikes Häfder, tom. i. p. 432.
35. Suhm, Historie af Danmark, tom. i. p. 81. Critiske, Historie, tom. vii. p. 474.
36. Jamieson’s Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 444.
37. F. Magnussen, Edda Sæmundi, tom. iii. Rigis-Mál, Intro., pp. 147–159. Geijr, Svea Rikes Häfder, tom. i. pp. 486–495.
38. See the prose Edda published by Prof. Rask, Stockholm, 1818, ch. xxiii. But Snorre, in his Ynglinga Saga, ch. ix., says that she married Odin afterwards, and that they had many children together.
39. To this opinion, we do not subscribe. We have no proof of the existence of two Odins.
40. Münter, Kirchengeschichte, &c., tom. i. pp. 68–95. Wheaton, History of the Northmen.
41. Wheaton, History of the Northmen, ch. vi. Ynglinga Saga, passim.
42. Saxonis Grammatici Historia Danorum, lib. iii. p. 39, &c.
43. Saxonis Grammatici Historia Danorum, lib. iii. p. 41–43.
44. Edda Snorronis, Hist. 28. Stephanii Notæ ad Saxonem, lib. iii.
45. Edda Snorronis, Fab. 21.
46. Edda Snorronis, Historia, 29. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. notæ in lib. iii.
47. The names are mythologic, or rather abstract: Vegtam, the Spoiler; Valtam, Slaughter.
48.
The passage is a dark one. It probably alludes to the custom of the northern women, who uncovered their heads to mourn. These damsels did not uncover; they could weep at pleasure, that is, they were not afflicted. Were they the fatal sisters, who cannot be expected to feel sympathy for mortals? And was Vala their mother?
49. The meaning of these expressions will appear when we treat on the Scandinavian mythology.
50. DESCENT OF ODIN.
51. Vegtaams Quida (apud Edda Saemundar hinns Froda, tom. i. p. 234, &c. edit. Hafniæ, 1787).
53. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. iii. p. 44–46.
54. Ynglinga Saga, cap. 10. (apud Snorronem, Heimskringla, tom. i. p. 14.)
55. Quod, inquit, mulierum turpissima, gravissime criminis dissimulationem falso lamenti genere expetis, quæ scorti more lasciviens nefariam ac dedestabilem tori conditionem secuta, viri tui interfectorem pleno incesti sinu amplecteris, et ei qui prolistuæ parentem extinxerat, obscenissimis blandamentorem illecebris adularis?
56. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. iii. p. 46–52.
57. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. iii. p. 52, et lib. iv. p. 54, &c.
58. Idem, p. 56–59.
59. The list is worth transcribing.
| B.C. | |
| 1. Dan | 1038 |
| 2. Humble | 998 |
| 3. Lother | — |
| 4. Skiold | 966 |
| 5. Gram | 888 |
| 6. Swibdager | 856 |
| 7. Guthrum | — |
| 8. Hadding | 816 |
| 9. Frode I. | 761 |
| 10. Halden | 685 |
| 11. Roe and Helge | — |
| 12. Helge alone | 595 |
| 13. Rolf, or Rollo | 566 |
| 14. Hoder | — |
| 15. Ruric Slingeband | 483 |
Consequently Hamlet must have lived nearly four centuries before Christ. What thanks do we not owe to Saxo for his important account of Britain so many years before Cæsar! But to continue.
| B.C. | |
| 16. Wiglet | — |
| 17. Guitlach | — |
| 18. Wermund | 352 |
| 19. Olaf I. | 292 |
| 20. Dan II. | — |
| 21. Hungleth | — |
| 22. Frode II. | 172 |
| 23. Dan III. | — |
| 24. Fridleif | — |
| 25. Frode III. | — |
60. Scandinavia, Ancient and Modern (Edinburgh Cab. Lib.), vol. i. chap. ii.
61. List of kings after Christ, according to Saxo:—Frode III., Hiarn, Fridleif, Frode IV., Ingel, Olaf II., Frode V., Harald I., Halfdan II., Harald II., Ungwin, Siwald I., Sigar, Siwald II., Halfdan III., Harald III., Olo (or Olof), Omund, Siward I., Bathul, Jarmeric, Broder, Siwald III., Snio, Biorn, Gormo I., Goderic, Olaf III., Hemming, Siward IV., Ringo, Ragnar Lodbrog, Siward II., Eric I., Canute I., Frode IV., Gormo II., Harald IV., Gormo III., Harald V., Sweno.
Our English Universal History, like Sunning and Torfœus, adopts these names, but incorporates three more.
According to the Langfedgatal, which is derived from Norwegian authorities, while Saxo follows the metrical songs and traditions of Denmark:—
Odin, Skiold, Fridleif I., Frode I., Havar, Frode II., Vermund, Olaf, Dan, Frode III., Fridleif II., Frode IV., Ingell (or Ingiald), Halfdan I., Helge and Roe, Rolf Krake, Eric I., Frode V., Halfdan II., Eric II., Harald, Sigurd I., Ragnar Lodbrog, Sigurd II., Harda Canute, Gormo the Aged, Harald II., Sweyn.
And thus, in about twenty different lists which we have examined, there is only diversity, or rather confusion. Those of modern date are not more uniform. Thus Mallet:—
Skiold, Fridleif I., Frode I., Fridleif II., Havar, Frode II., Wermund, Olaf I., Dan, Frode III., Halfdan I., Fridleif III., Olaf II., Frode IV., Ingel, Halfdan II., Frode V., Roe and Helge, Rolf, Ivar, Harald I., Sigurd I., Ragnar Lodbrog, Sigurd II., Harda Canute, Harald II.
The dates of these reigns in the modern histories of Denmark—for the ancient ones do not condescend to such trifles—are beautifully confounded, sometimes a whole century being assigned to a single reign.
62. The Skioldungs, or descendants of Odin:—
| Names. | Died. B.C. |
| Skiold | 40 |
| Fridleif I. | 23 |
| A.D. | |
| Frode I. | 35 |
| Fridleif II. | 47 |
| Havar | 59 |
| Frode II. | 87 |
| Wermund the Sage | 140 |
| Olaf the Mild | 190 |
| Dan Mykillati | 270 |
| Frode III., surnamed the Pacific | 310 |
| Halfdan I. | 324 |
| Fridleif III. | 348 |
| Frode IV. | 407 |
| Ingild (or Ingel) | 436 |
| Halfdan II. | 447 |
| Frode V. | 460 |
| Helge and Roe | 494 |
| Frode VI. | 510 |
| Rolf Krake | 522 |
| Frode VII. | 548 |
| Halfdan III. | 580 |
| Ruric Slyngebande | 588 |
| Ivar Vidfadme | 647 |
| Harald Hildetand | 735 |
| Sigurd Ring | 750 |
| Ragnar Lodbrog | 794 |
| Sigurd Snogoje | 803 |
| Harda Canute | 850 |
| Eric I. | 854 |
| Eric II. | 883 |
| Gorm the Old | 941 |
| Harald Blaatand | 991 |
| Sweyn | 1014 |
This is the list of Suhm, the most critical of the Danish historians. Yet there can be no doubt that some of Saxo’s kings ought to be incorporated with it.
63. See the dates assigned to the above kings by our Universal History and by Mallet. The difference between them and those given by Suhm may amuse the reader.
64. Saxonis Grammatici Historia Danorum, passim. Mallet, Histoire de Danemarc, tom. iii. Langebek, Scriptores Rerum Danicarum, tom. i. Adamus Bremensis, Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. i.
65. Saxonis Grammatici Hist., passim.
67. History of the Germanic Empire (Cab. Cyc.), vol. i.
68. Saxo Grammatici, Hist. Dan. lib. v. Suenonis Aggonis Historia Rerum Danicarum, cap. i. (apud Langebek, i. 44.). Petri Olai Roskildensis Chronica Regum Danorum, p. 15. (apud eundem, tom. i.).
69. Saxonis Grammatici Hist. Dan. lib. v.
70. According to the Hervarar Saga, this adventure of the sword took place long before the arrival of Arngrim,—in fact, before the union of Swafurlam with Eyvor, whom he won with the magic weapon. There are many variations, too, in the different MSS. of this Saga, so as to greatly alter the circumstances.
71. Hervarar Saga, cap. i., ii. p. 1-13., edit. Hafniæ, 1785. Taylor, Historic Survey of German Poetry, vol. i. The account in the text is considerably more amplified than that in the original Saga. This amplification is the work of succeeding Scalds, whose language, from its graphic superiority, and its being more characteristic of northern manners, we have often preferred.
72. Hervarar Saga, cap. iii.–v. p. 13–42.
73.
[Here the tomb opens, the inside of which is all fire, and the following dialogue is chaunted:—]