Northern Antiquities/Chapter 1

by Paul Henri Mallet

CHAPTER I.

Denmark described, and the several countries subject to its crown, viz. Norway, Iceland, Greenland.

THE several countries, which compose the Danish monarchy, have seldom justice done them by the other nations of Europe. The notions entertained of them are not commonly the most favourable or true. This is owing to various causes. The situation of some of the provinces is so remote, that skilful travellers have seldom had occasion to visit them; Those who have pretended to describe them have been generally wanting in fidelity or exactness; Some of their descriptions are grown obsolete, so that what was once true, is no longer so at present; Lastly, such confusion and prejudices have been occasioned by that vague term the North, that we are not to wonder if Denmark has been thought slightly of by the southern nations. To correct these mistakes I shall lay before the Reader a faithful account of the present state of these countries: In which I shall be more or less diffuse in proportion as they are more or less known to foreigners, for whom this work is principally designed. And if the picture I draw, presents nothing very agreeable or striking, I dare at least promise that it shall be very exact and faithful.

Denmark is naturally divided into continent, and islands. Among the islands, the first that merits attention, as well on account of its size as fertility, is Zealand. In this isle is seated Copenhagen, the capital of the whole kingdom; which derives its name from its harbour^[1], one of the finest in the world. This city is built upon the very edge of that channel, fo well known by the name of the SOUND, and re- ceives into its bofom a fmall arm of the fea, which divides Zealand from another ifle of lefs extent, but of very agreeable fituation, named AMAC. Copenhagen, which is at prefent very ftrong, wealthy, and populous, hath continually improved in its dimenfions and beauty ever fince king Chriftopher of Bavaria fixed his refidence there in the year 1443 but it owes its greateft fplendor to the laft reign, and that of the prefent king Frederic V. in which it hath been adorned with a palace worthy of the monarch who inhabits it, and with many ftately build- ings, as well public as private.

At fome leagues diftance towards the north, this channel, which washes the walls of Copenhagen, grows gradually nar- rower, being confined between the two oppofite coafts of Zealand and Schonen, till it forms at length what is properly called the Paffage of the Sound; one of the moft celebrated and moft frequented ftraits. in the world; and which opens the prin- cipal communication between the ocean and the Baltic. ELSENORE, which is fituated on the brink of the Sound, and defended by the fortrefs of CRONENBERG, enjoys the ever-moving picture of a multitude of fhips, which pafs and repafs, and come to pay their tribute to the king *. About a league diftant the oppofite fhore terminates the profpect in a very agreeable manner; and not far off, between the two banks, rifes the little ifle of WEME, famous for the obfervations of Tycho Brahe. Although the other parts of Zealand afford nothing fo ftriking as this; the eye will find enough to entertain it every where elfe. Here are vaft plains covered with a moft delightful verdure, which fprings earlier and continues longer than the fouthern nations would ima- gine. Thefe plains are interfperfed with little hills, lakes, and groves; and adorned with feveral palaces, many gentlemens feats, and a good number of cities and towns. The foil, though light and fome- what fandy, produces a great quantity of grain, particularly of oats and barley: nor is it deficient in woods and paftures. Be- fides, the fea and lakes furnish this ifland with fish in fuch abundance, as might well fupply the want of the other fruits of the earth in a country lefs fertile or lefs addicted to commerce.

But fertility is in a still more eminent degree the character of FUNEN, which is the second of the Danish isles in point of size,

• A certain toll paid by the merchant-fhips for

passing the Sound. T. † In French, Châteaux. but the firft in goodnefs of foil. This ifland rifes higher than that of Zealand, and is feparated from it by an arm of the fea, which, on account of its breadth, is called the GREAT BELT, to diftinguish it from another fmaller channel, that divides it from Jutland, and is called the LESSER BELT. Corn, pafture, and fruits grow plentifully in this ifland, which prefents the moft delightful appearance. In the middle of a vaft plain ftands ODENSEE, the capital of the province; and feven towns lefs confiderable adorn the fea-coafts at almoft equal diſtances.

The ifles of LALAND and FALSTRIA yield not much in point of fertility to Funen, being both of them famous for their fine wheat: but the latter of thefe produces alfo fruits in fuch abundance, that one may juftly call it the Orchard of Denmark. Amidft the multitude of leffer iflands, that are fcattered round the principal ones, there are few which do not fupply their inhabitants with neceffaries, and even afford them an overplus for traffic. LANGLAND hath plenty of fine corn-fields. BORNHOLM, MONA, and SAMSOE have excellent paftures. AMAC is found very proper for pulfe, and is become a fruitful garden under the hands of thofe induftrious Flemings, who were brought hither by queen Elizabeth, wife of Chriftian II. and fifter of Charles V.

If we pafs over to the provinces on the continent, we fhall find new reafons to convince us, that Denmark plentifully fupports its inhabitants, and is able to enrich even a numerous people. JUTLAND, the largeft of thefe provinces, forms the head of that long peninfula, which is bounded by the ocean to the weft, by the gulph of Categade and the Baltic to the eaft, and which opens a communication into Germany towards the fouth. From this province they carry into Norway a great part of the corn ufed in that kingdom; and hence are exported thofe thoufands of head of cattle, which are every year brought into Holland and other countries. Here are alfo bred thofe Daniſh horfes, whofe beauty makes them fo much fought after in all parts of Europe. If the inland parts are barren in fome places, the coafts extremely abound with fish. This affords a refource fo much the greater, as they increafe and breed in the long bays, which run up into the country, in fuch a manner that almoft all the inhabitants enjoy the benefit of the fishery. The gulph of LIMFIORDE in particular reaches almoft from one fea to the other; and the fishing therein is fo rich, that, after it has fupplied the wants of the province, it conftantly produces large quantities for exportation *.

Nature hath been no lefs indulgent to the fouthern part of this peninfula, which forms the dutchy of SLESWIC. Although the inland parts of this country have large tracts of heath and barren fields, yet the fertility of its coafts, its advantageous fitu- ation between the ocean and the Baltic, the number and convenience of its harbours, and the large traffic which it carries on, have enriched many of its cities, and rendered it an agreeable and flourishing province +.

What I have faid of the dutchy of Slef- wic is pretty nearly applicable to the dut- chy of HOLSTEIN. This province is in general rich, fertile, and populous. Fat

• The principal ci-

ties of Jutland are AL- "BURG, NYCOPPING, « WYBURG, AARHU- RANDERS, HOR- SENS, WARDE, RIBE, "FREDERICIA, COLD- "ING, &c." First Edit.

+SLESWIC, an an- cient and confiderable city, is the capital of the dutchy. FLENSBURG hath an extenfive commerce. FREDERICKSTADT, TONDEREN, and TONNINGEN, are cities of tolerable size." First Edit.

Lord Molesworth obferves, that this country very much refembles ENG- LAND. Another traveller has remarked, that the in- habitants are in their per- fons very like the ENG- LISH. See "Howell's Let- ters," vol. i. sect. 6. lett. 4. It feems this writer was at Rendsburg (or as he calls it Rainsburg) when the and plentiful paftures; large and trading cities fituate near together; coafts abound- ing in fifh, and a large river* which termi- nates the province towards the fouth, form its principal advantages.

On the other fide of the Elb, after crof fing the country of Bremen, we find two fmall provinces, which have been long united to the crown of Denmark. Thefe are the counties of OLDENBURG and DELMENHORST, which are comprized within

king of Denmark held an affembly of the ſtates there in 1632. "Among other things, he fays, I put myfelf to mark the car- "riage of the Holftein "gentlemen, as they were "going in and out at the " parliament-houfe: and "obferving well their phy- "fiognomies, their com- plections, and gait; I "thought verily I was in "England; for they re- "femble the English more "than either Welsh or "Scot (though cohabiting upon the fame ifland) "or any other people that "ever I faw yet; which

• makes me verily believe,

that the English nation came firft from this « lower circle of Saxony; "and there is one thing 66 that ftrengtheneth me "in this belief; that there " is an ancient town hard "by, called Lunden, and "an ifland called Angles; "whence it may well be "that our country came " from Britannia to be "Anglia." This remark is confirmed by the moft diligent inquirers into this fubject, who place the coun- try of our Saxon ancestors in the Cimbric Cherfonefe, in the tracts of land fince known by the names of Jutland, Angelen, and Holftein. T.

• The Elb.

+"The king of Den- "mark poffeffes here "RENDSBURG, a very "ftrong place, ALTONA, a town of great trade, and GLUCKERSTADT, "a good fortification." First Edit. the circle of Weftphalia, and have re- ceived their names from their two principal cities.

The temperature of the air is nearly the fame in the greateft part of thefe provinces, and, except in the north of Jutland, is much milder than their fituation would incline one to believe, being rarely fubject to very long or rigorous cold. To comprehend this, it will be fufficient to remind the rea- der, of this general obfervation, that coun- tries furrounded with the fea, have their atmoſphere loaded with vapours continually exhaling from it, which break and blunt the nitrous particles of the air, and foften its rigours. When the ftraits and gulphs, which furround the Danish iflands, become frozen in very sharp winters, it is lefs ow- ing to the prevalence of the froft there, than to the large flakes of ice, which are driven by the winds out of the northern feas, and are there affembled and united. The fummer feafon commonly begins with the month of May, and continues till Oc- tober: and during its continuance, the beauty of the country, the freshnefs and fhortness of the nights, and the convenience of navigation in a country furrounded and croffed by the fea, eafily repair and make the inhabitants forget the languors and in- terruptions, which winter caufes in their business and amusements.

If travellers for the moft part have not been very favourable in their accounts of Denmark, they have been ftill lefs tender of NORWAY. They have often confounded it with Lapland, and have given defcrip- tions of its inhabitants, and their man- ners, which are hardly applicable to the favages of that country. The notion that is generally entertained of the extreme coldnefs of the climate here is no lefs unjuft. It is true, that in a kingdom which extends thirteen degrees from north to fouth, the temperature of the air cannot every where be the fame: accordingly the moft northern parts of Norway, thofe which face the eaft, and which are not fheltered by the mountains from the fury of the north winds, are undoubtedly ex- pofed to rigorous winters. But almoft all that length of coaft, which is washed by the fea towards the weft, and which forms fo confiderable a part of Norway, com- monly enjoys an air tolerably temperate, even in the middle of winter. Here are none of thofe "defolate regions, where Winter hath eftablifhed his eternal empire, and where he reigns among horrid heaps of ice and fnow," as ignorance hath often led travellers, and a fondness for the marvellous induced poets to ſpeak of Norway. It is feldom that a very fharp froft lafts there a fortnight or three weeks together; it rains frequently at BERGEN in the midft of winter*, and the ports of Hamburg, Lubeck, and Amfterdam, are locked up with froft ten times for once that this city is fo expofed. In fhort, this is an accident that doth not happen more than two or three times in an age. The vapours, which rife from the ocean, con- tinually foften the ſharpneſs of the cold; and it is only in the coafts of Iceland, Fin- mark, and Greenland, that are found thoſe immenfe and eternal banks of ice, of which voyagers make fuch a noife, and which, when they are fevered, may fometimes float along the coafts of Norway.

The greatest inconvenience to which this vast country is expofed, arifes without difpute, from the inequality of the ground, from it's being almoft entirely covered with rocks and ftones, and croft every way by high and large mountains, which render a great part of it wild and defert. There grow, not- withstanding, feveral forts of grain in many of the provinces, as in the UPLANDS, the RYFOLKE, JEDEREN ; the reft which have not this advantage may eafily be fupplied from Jutland or the Danish iflands, by means of the navigation. Various

• See PONTOPPIDAN'S

natural history of Norway, vol. i.

+ HOLBERG'S Danm. og. Norg. Beskrivelse. [i. e. Description of Denmark and Norway.] p. 36. & seqq. products, with which this country abounds, sufficiently compenfate for that difadvan- tage.

The other nations of Europe cannot be ignorant that great part of the pitch and tar, of the mafts, planks, and different forts of timber, which are every where ufed, come from Norway. Thefe articles alone would be fufficient to procure an eafy competence for the inhabitants of the inland and eaftern parts of this country. The weſtern coaft hath a refource not lefs rich or lefs certain, in the prodigious abundance of its fifh. Cod, falmon and herrings are no where found in greater quantities. The Norwe- gians fupply part of Europe with thefe; and this fruitful branch of commerce be- comes every day more extenfive by the care of a wife adminiftration. The very moun- tains of this country, which at firft fight, appear fo barren, often conceal great riches in their bofoms. Some of them are intire quarries of fine marble, which the luxury of all the cities of Europe could never ex- hauft. In others are found jafper, cryftal and fome precious ftones; feveral mines of gold, though hitherto not very rich; two mines of filver by no means fcanty; much copper; but above all fo great a quantity of iron, that this fingle article brings almoft as much money into the kingdom, as what arises from the fale of its timber.

At the northern extremity of this kingdom and of Europe, dwells a people, which, from the earlieft ages, have differed from the other inhabitants of Scandinavia, in figure, manners, and language. This nation, known by the name of FINNS, or LAPLANDERS, not only poffefs the northern parts of Norway, but alfo vaft countries in Mufcovy and Sweden. They are a coarfe and favage race of men, yet by no means barbarous, if we underftand by this word mifchievous and cruel. Such of them as live upon the fea-coafts fupport themfelves by fishing, and by a traffic they carry on with a fort of little barks, which they make and fell to the Norwegians. The reft wander up and down in the mountains without any fixed habitation, and gain a fcanty subsistence by hunting, by their pelteries, and their rain-deer. Such of them as are neighbours to the Norwegians have embraced chriftianity, and are fomewhat civilized by their commerce with that people. The reft live ftill in ignorance, not knowing fo much as the names of the other nations of the world; preferved by their poverty and their climate from the evils which difturb the enjoyments of more opulent countries. Their whole religion confifts in fome confufed notions of an invifible and tremendous being: and a few fuperftitious ceremonies compofe their worship. They have no laws, and fcarce any magiftrates: yet have they great humanity, a natural foftnefs of difpofition, and a very hofpitable temper.

They were nearly the fame in the time of Tacitus. "The FINNS *," he fays, live in extreme favageneſs, in fquallid poverty: have neither arms, nor fteeds, nor houfes. Herbs are their food, fkins their cloathing, the earth their bed. All their refource is their arrows, which they point with fifh-bones, for want of iron. Their women live by hunting, as well as the men. For they every where accompany them, and gain their fhare of the prey. A rude hovel ſhelters their infants from the inclemencies of the weather, and the beafts of prey. Such is the home to which their young men return; the afylum to which the old retire. This kind of life they think more happy, than the painful toils of agriculture, than the various labours of domeftic management, than that circle of hopes and fears, in which men are involved by their attention to the fortune of themſelves and others. Equally secure both as to gods and men, the Finns

FENNI. TACIT. De morib. Germ. ad fin.

This seems to contradict the paffage above, that herbs are their food: I suppose herbs were their ordinary food; flefh gained by hunting their regale. have attained that rare privilege, not to form a fingle wifh."

I ought not to feparate ICELAND from Norway. This ifland, the largeſt in Europe next to Great Britain, is furrounded by that part of the northern fea, which geographers have been pleafed to call the Deucalidonian ocean. Its length from eaft to weft is about 112 Danifh miles (12 to a degree) and its mean breadth may be 50 of thofe miles t. Nature itfelf hath marked out the divifion of this country *. Two long chains of mountains run from the middle of the eaftern and weftern coafts, rifing by degrees till they meet in the center of the iſland: from whence two other chains of fmaller hills gradually defcend till they reach the coafts that lie north and fouth; thus making a primary divifion of the country into four quarters (fierdingers) which are distinguished by the four points of the compafs towards which they lie.

The whole ifland can only be confidered as one vaft mountain, interfperfed with long and deep vallies, concealing in its bofom heaps of minerals, of vitrified and bituminous fubftances, and rifing on all fides out of the ocean in the form of a fhort blunted cone +.

About 560 Engliſh miles long, and 250 broad. T.

• EGERH. OLAI

Enarrat. Histor. de Island. p. 18. § 6.

+ Vid. HORREBOW'S Natural History of Iceland, passim. Earthquakes and volcanoes have thro' all ages laid wafte this unhappy ifland. Hecla, the only one of thefe volcanoes, which is known by name to the reft of Europe, feems at prefent extinct; but the principles of fire, which lie concealed all over the ifland, often break out in other places. There have been already within this century many eruptions, as dreadful, as they were unexpected. From the bofom of thefe enormous heaps of ice we have lately feen afcend torrents of fmoke, of flame, and melted or calcined fubftances, which ſpread fire and inundation wide over the neighbouring fields, whilft they filled the air with thick clouds, and hideous roarings caufed by the melting of fuch immenfe quantities of fnow and ice. One meets almoft every where in travelling through this country with marks of the fame confufion and diforder. One fees enormous piles of fharp and broken rocks, which are fometimes porous and half calcined, and often frightful on account of their blacknefs, and the traces of fire, which they ftill retain. The clefts and hollows of the rocks are only filled with thofe hideous and barren ruins; but in the valleys, which are formed between the mountains, and which are fcattered here and there all over the ifland very often at a confiderable diftance from each other, are found very extenfive and delightful plains, where nature, who always mingles fome allay with the rigour of her feverities, affords a tolerable afylum for men who know no better, and a moft plentiful and delicate nourishment for cattle.

I ought to beftow a word or two upon another northern country dependent on the kingdom of Norway, as well as Iceland, but much more extenfive, more unknown, and more favage: I mean GREENLAND, a vaft country, which one knows not whether to call an ifland or continent. It extends from the 60th to the 80th degree of latitude; farther than that men have not penetrated. All that we can know for certain of it is, that this country, little known to geographers, ftretches away from its fouthern point, named Cape Farewel, continually widening both towards the eaft and weft. The eaſtern coaft in fome places is not diftant more than 40 miles from Iceland, but the ice, which furrounds it, or other unknown caufes, make it now pafs for inacceffable. Yet it was chiefly on this coaft, that the Norwegians formerly eftablifhed a colony, as we fhall fhow hereafter: a colony which at this time is either deftroyed, or perhaps only neglected, and cut off from all communication with the reft of the world. With regard to the western coaft, which alone is frequented by the Danes at present; it is known no farther than the 70th degree. It is very probable that on this side, Greenland joins to the continent of America. Yet no one hath hitherto reached the bottom of the Bay, or Straits of Davies. The Savages whom the Danes have found on this coast, are not unlike the Laplanders in figure, yet speak a language quite different from theirs. They are short of stature, and thick-set, their visage is broad and tawny, their lips are thick, and their hair black and coarse. They are robust, phlegmatic, incurious, and even stupid when their own interest is not immediately concerned. Yet their children have been found capable of the same instructions, as those of Europeans. They live without laws, and without superiors, yet with great union and tranquility. They are neither quarrelsome, nor mischievous, nor warlike; being greatly afraid of those that are: and they keep fair with the Europeans from this motive. Theft, blows and murder are almost unknown to them. They are chaste before marriage, and love their children tenderly. Their nastiness is so great, that it renders their hospitality almost useless to Europeans; and their simplicity hath not been able to preserve them from having priests, who pass among them for enchanters, and are in truth very great and dexterous cheats. As to their religion it consists in the belief of certain good and evil Genii, and of a Land of Souls, to which, however, they pay little or no regard in their actions.

1. It's name in the Danish language is Kiobenhaffn; which literally is a “Haven for merchandize or traffic;” from Kiobe, Mercari, and Haffn, Portus. This city has been reckoned by travellers to be about the size of Bristol. T.