Olaus Magnus: A Description of the Northern Peoples, 1555, Vol. 1 0904180433, 9780904180435

Citation preview

A S H G AT E E B O O K

Olaus Magnus, A Description of the Northern Peoples, 1555 Volume I

Edited by P.G. Foote

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East Suite 420 Union Road 101 Cherry Street Farnham Burlington Surrey, GU9 7PT VT 05401-4405 England USA www.ashgate.com Founded in 1846, the Hakluyt Society seeks to advance knowledge and education by the publication of scholarly editions of primary records of voyages, travels and other geographical material. In partnership with Ashgate, and using print-on-demand and e-book technology, the Society has made re-available all 290 volumes comprised in Series I and Series II of its publications in both print and digital editions. For a complete listing of titles and more information about these series, visit www.ashgate.com/hakluyt, and for information about the Hakluyt Society visit www.hakluyt.com.

ISBN 978-0-904180-43-5 (hbk) ISBN 978-1-4094-3368-2 (ebk)

Transfered to Digital Printing 2010

BY HAKLUYT OL.AUS MAGNUS DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN VOLUME 1

NO. 182

HAKLUYT SOCIETY COUNCIL AND OFFICERS, 1995-96 PRESIDENT

Professor P. E. H. HAIR VICE-PRESIDENTS

Professor D. B. QUINN HON.FBA tDr T. E. ARMSTRONG FBA Sir HAROLD SMEDLEY KCMG MBE Professor C. F. BECKINGHAM FBA Professor GLYNDWR WILLIAMS Professor C. R. BOXER FBA Mrs SARAH TYACKE COUNCIL (with date of election) Dr PETER JACKSON (1993) Dr JOHN APPLEBY (1995) Professor WENDY JAMES (1995) PETER BARBER (1995) J. C. H. KING (1991) Professor W. E. BUTLER (1992) Professor ROBIN LAw (1993) STEPHEN EASTON (Co-opted) A. N. RYAN (1991) A. J. FARRINGTON (1992) Royal Geographical Society Dr F. F. R. FERNANDEZ-ARMESTO (Dr J. H. HEMMING CMG) (1992) Mrs ANN SHIRLEY (1994) Professor JOHN B. HATTENDORF M. F. STRACHAN CBE FRSE (1994) (1994) TRUSTEES

Sir GEOFFREY ELLERTON CMG MBE H. H. L. SMITH G. H. WEBB CMG OBE Professor GLYNDWR WILLIAMS HONORARY TREASURER DAVID DARBYSHIRE FCA HONORARY SECRETARY ANTHONY PAYNE c/o BERNARD QUARITCH LTD, 5-8 LOWER JOHN STREET, GOLDEN SQUARE, LONDON W1R 4AU HONORARY SERIES EDITORS

Dr W. F. RYAN (Librarian) Warburg Institute, University of London, Woburn Square, London WC1H OAB Mrs SARAH TYACKE (Keeper of Public Records) Public Record Office, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU HONORARY SECRETARIES FOR OVERSEAS

Australia: Ms MAURA O'CONNOR, Curator of Maps, National Library of Australia, Canberra, A.C.T. 2601 Canada: Professor J. B. BIRD, Department of Geography, Burnside Hall, McGill University, Montreal, Qu6bec H3A 2K6 New Zealand: J. E. TRAUE, Department of Librarianship, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington South Africa: Dr F. R. BRADLOW, 401/402 French Bank Building, 4 Church Square, Cape Town 8001 U.S.A.: Dr NORMAN FIERING, Director and Librarian, The John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Providence, Rhode Island 02912 Professor NORMAN J. W. THROWER, Department of Geography, U.C.L.A., Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90024-1698 Western Europe: PAUL Purz, 54 rue Albert 1,1117 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Mrs FIONA EASTON (to whom queries and application for membership may be made) Fax 01986 - 788181 Telephone 01986 - 788359 POSTAL ADDRESS ONLY: Hakluyt Society, c/o The Map Library, The British Library, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG

OLAUS MAGNUS Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus Roma 1555

Description of the Northern Peoples Rome 1555 VOLUME I Translated by PETER FISHER and tHUMPHREY HIGGENS

Edited by PETER FOOTE

with Annotation derived from the Commentary by tJOHN GRANLUND abridged and augmented

THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY LONDON 1996

Published by the Hakluyt Society

©to The Map Library: Library, Great London WCIB 3DO SBR1BS EDITORS

w. F. RYAwand SARAH TYACKE ©The HaUuyt Society 1996 OBN 0904180 43 3

ISSN 0012

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catllogue record for tbis book is available from the British Library

Aai

Typeset by Wavcncy Typetetten,

ftinted in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge

CONTENTS Editor's

vii

Introduction.

xiii

Note on the Text and Annotation

ixxiii xe

Bibliography Table I

Table II

Rulers in Sweden 1319-1560

Map:

30

and the Baltic c. 1500

xci

xdi

xciii

Notes

1 3 13

Book One Notes

17 79

Book Two Notes

91 135

Dedication

Book Three

147

184

Book Four

193 224

Book Five Notei

231 281

This page has been left blank intentionally

EDITOR'S PREFACE This translation of Olaus Magnus's Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus has been long in the making. The idea of a translation was first mooted by W. E. D. Alien, a member of the Council of the Hakluyt Society, approved by Dr Terence Armstrong, the Society's Secretary, and after recommendations sought from myself and George D. Painter of the British Museum finally accepted, with the usual provisos, as a publication commitment by the Council of the Society in November 1972. Alien had seen from the start that some sort of scholar in the Scandina­ vian field should be associated with the work and had discussed the notion with me before making his formal proposal. My interest in Olaus Magnus had been roused some years earlier by the enthusiasm of my historian friend, the late Dr Bjorn Porsteinsson, of the University of Iceland, and I gladly agreed to act as an adviser and as an intermediary between the project and the Swedish scholars and institutions whose cooperation would be essential for its successful completion. In the event I have survived to oversee the whole work. Alien recruited Humphrey Higgens as the translator, a classicist who also knew Russian and had seen the White Sea in winter. 1 He had done other translation and research for Alien, and since he was a man of wide and curious learning he soon found translating Olaus Magnus a congenial task. He was provided with texts and other aids by the Department of 1 Humphrey R. A. Higgens, born in 1908, was educated at Eton and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read Classics for Part I and English for Part II of the Tripos. He taught at St Paul's 1935-9, joined the army at the outbreak of the Second World War, and on the strength of his knowledge of Russian was soon transferred to intelligence work in the RNVR. He saw service as an intelligence officer and interpreter in the Atlantic, on Arctic convoys and in Murmansk, ending the war as a Lieutenantcommander. Teaching no longer appealed to him after his six years in the Navy, and he had a spell at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, when he contributed to part of the Institute's survey of the years 1939-46, translated extensively from Russian, and published papers in the Central Asian Review. His revision of Constance Garnett's 1924 translation of Aleksandr I. Gertsen's memoirs appeared in 1968. He was then working with W. E. D. Alien, for whose Russian Embassies to the Georgian Kings, 1589-1605 (Hakluyt Society Publications, Second Series, 138-9, 1970), he provided bibliography and notes. He also published reviews of numerous books, on an extra­ ordinarily wide range of subjects, in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. When he began to translate Olaus Magnus, he was again working with Alien, now on a book on Anglo-Russian contacts through the centuries, unfinished when Alien died in October 1973.

vii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Scandinavian Studies, University College London, of which he became an Honorary Research Fellow in 1975, and was greatly assisted by the sympathetic scholarly interest of the late J. Scott, University College Librarian at the time. Alien had volunteered to see to the translator's remuneration, but the Department of Scandinavian Studies also obtained a three-year grant in aid from the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation through the good offices of the late Nils-Gustav Hildeman, then cultural attache at the Swedish embassy in London, subsequently director of the Swedish Insti­ tute in Stockholm. This enabled us to purchase the consent of the late Professor John Granlund of Stockholm to make free use of his indispens­ able 1951 commentary on the Historia. This accord was backed by the generous permission of his publishers, Michaelisgillet, who had spon­ sored the Swedish translation (1909-25), now completed by Granlund's massive volume of annotation. His death in 1982 deprived us of his willing support for the translation project and further profit from his immense erudition. 1 It was soon necessary to seek further assistance, for Alien died in 1973 and had made no provision for continuation of the project. Thanks to the interest and support of two great Swedish scholars in the field of folklore and ethnology, the late Dag Stromback and the late Gosta Berg, we received substantial donations from Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien for Folklivsforskning, Uppsala, and Kungl. Patriotiska Sallskapet, Stock­ holm; and we had smaller but nonetheless welcome grants from the Dorothea Coke Research Fund of University College London. By 1977 Humphrey Higgens was on Book 12, by 1979 on Book 16. But by then he was plagued by illness and inevitably slowed. He had a leg amputated and spent half of 1980 in hospital, but nevertheless he had finished Book 17 and begun Book 18 by the end of that year. In the circumstances, however, it was obvious that assistance would be neces­ sary. The difficulty was resolved by happy chance. In 1979 Peter Fisher published a highly commended translation of the first nine books of Saxo's Gesta Danorum, and in the same year met Dr Kurt Johannesson of Uppsala. In 1980 he asked Dr Johannesson about the possibility of undertaking an English translation of Olaus Magnus, and Dr Johannesson broached the matter at a meeting of Michaelisgillet soon afterwards. Professor Gosta Berg was present and was able to 1 John Granlund, born in 1901, spent years as assistant keeper and keeper in Nordiska Museet, Stockholm, and became professor of Nordic and Comparative Folklife Studies in the University of Stockholm in 1955, a chair he held until retirement in 1969. Notable memorial appreciations are to be found by Sten Carlsson in Saga och Sed, 1983, pp. 17-18, and by Nils-Arvid Bringeus in Rig, 66 (1983), pp. 65-70. The latter piece (pp. 70-71) has a completion, by Ingalill Granlund, of the bibliography published for his seventy-fifth birthday, John Granlunds tryckta skrifter 1929-1976 (Stockholm, 1976).

viii

EDITOR'S PREFACE

report on the situation of the translation work in progress in London. Peter Fisher was encouraged to get in touch with me, and we met in October 1981. He then readily agreed to undertake revision and comple­ tion of the translation as required, subject of course to Humphrey Higgens's agreement. This was easily obtained, with regret but without delay. (Humphrey Higgens never lost interest in the work, and I was able to report its progress regularly to him until his death in 1984.) In 1982 Peter Fisher began to translate the outstanding Books 18-22 - not the easiest books of the lot, full as they are of zoology real and fantastic - and on their completion to check and recast the draft English text of Books 1-17. He finished the work in 1991 - both translating and editing have, of course, been done on top of other bread-and-butter commitments - and on his way added much useful comment, on points of interpretation, sources and realia, now built into the annotation. His erudition, sense of style, energy and good will have made him an ideal collaborator. Find­ ing, as Humphrey Higgens had done, Olaus Magnus so congenial an author, he was keen to contribute a more general discussion of aspects of the Historia, and this will be found in the Introduction, part III. I on the other hand seemed better placed to say something needful about the Swedish background and the career of the inseparable Magnus brothers, now found in the Introduction, parts I and II. But we have profited throughout from each other's comment and material, and on occasion it would be hard to say whose copyright exists in any given sentence or paragraph. About the time Peter Fisher took over as translator, funds to provide even the modest fees he and Humphrey Higgens accepted were virtually exhausted. The project was saved only by another grant from Kungl. Patriotiska Sallskapet in 1981 and further support from the AngloSwedish Literary Foundation, 1983-5. A scholarship from the Swedish Institute enabled Peter Fisher to spend a term in Uppsala in the autumn of 1985; and the expenses of a fortnight I spent in bibliographic pursuit in Uppsala early in 1993 were met once more by the Literary Foundation, with further help from Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien. In 1989 the Hakluyt Society received a handsome subvention towards publication costs from Konung Gustav VI Adolfs Fond. It will be crystal-clear that without our Swedish benefactors this trans­ lation would have foundered within a year of its launch. Our gratitude is boundless. There are many individuals, other than those already named, to whom we are deeply indebted for information, advice and practical aid. We should especially wish to record our warm thanks to Professor Michael Barnes, University College London; Mr David Baxter, Anglia Polytech­ nic University, Cambridge; Mrs Gunnel Berg, Stockholm; the late Dr John Bernstrom, Stockholm; Mr Peter Cattermole, Anglia Polytechnic IX

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

University, Cambridge; Mrs Barbro Edwards, Secretary of the AngloSwedish Literary Foundation, London; Professor Sven Eklund, Uppsala University; Professor Lennart Elmevik, Secretary of Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien, Uppsala; Mr Paul Foote, The Queen's College, Oxford; Professor Ake Fridh, Gothenburg University; Mr Michal Giedroyc, Oxford; Dr Monica Hedlund, University Library, Uppsala; Profes­ sor Kurt Johannesson, Uppsala University; Professor Sven Lundstrom, Uppsala University; Dr David and Dr lan McDougall, Toronto; Dr Thomas Munch-Pedersen, University College London; Dr Caroline Oates, Folklore Society Library, University College London; Mrs Hilary Proudfoot (n6e Higgens), London; Dr Mai Reinhammar and her col­ leagues at Folkmals- och Folkminnesarkivet, Uppsala; Professor Peter Sawyer, Gothenburg University; Dr Goran Tegner, Historiska Museet, Stockholm; Mrs Angela Waite, Sheffield; and Cand. mag. Porbjorg Helgadottir, Den Arnamagnaeanske Ordbog, Copenhagen University. Finally it is a pleasure to acknowledge the patient encouragement we have had from the late Dr Terence Armstrong and Dr Will Ryan, his successor since 1991 as Joint Secretary of the Hakluyt Society. Will Ryan has seen these difficult volumes through the press. They could not have been in more capable hands. July 1993; July 1996

PETER FOOTE

NOTE ON THE TEXT AND ANNOTATION No manuscript drafts of any part of the Historia survive. The sole author­ ity for the text is consequently the 1555 edition, whose printing was personally supervised by Olaus Magnus. When the plan for translation emerged, this had recently been made available in two decent facsimile editions, one published in England in 1971, the other in Denmark in 1972 (see the Bibliography). Olaus Magnus included two pages of corrigenda at the end of the original edition, and these (where not themselves erroneous) have been followed in the translation. Other misprints were pointed out by Granlund in his commentary; and only a few fairly obvious ones remained for further correction (see e.g. 1:25, n. 6, 3:16, n. 2). Passages reproduced by Olaus Magnus from his many written sources, admittedly quite often known to him only in inferior texts, are not always accurate, and in consequence it has sometimes been necessary to follow a modern edition instead of his garbled version (these and other deviations from the 1555 print are duly recorded in the annotation). There is, however, a solitary instance where he himself drew attention to an alteration in the wording of a quotation, in an extract from St Ambrose's Hexameron in 21:40, but it may be that his care on this occasion was due more to his respect for the author than to any particular concern for textual minutiae. The chapters of the Historia have no paragraph divisions; those in the translation have been introduced by the editor. The first aim of the annotation is to show what is original to the author and what is derived from earlier writers. Granlund's commentary has been the chief guide, and it has only occasionally been possible to add to or correct his references. They have however been modified inasmuch as we have made use, as far as possible, of classical texts in modern stan­ dard series which have English or French translations accompanying them; and in the case of Vincent of Beauvais, for example, we refer to the 1624 Douai edition instead of the rather rare 1473 and 1475 Stras­ bourg and 1483 and 1486 Niirnberg editions cited by Granlund. It should be noted that in following up the references given in the notes on the translated text it will always be best to have first recourse to Granlund's commentary: he often quotes the source in extenso and thus saves the reader from scurrying about a library. The second aim of the annotation is to provide ample internal reference, XI

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

for it seems likely that the Historia will often be consulted on particular topics rather than read continuously. We trust that such cross-referencing, in conjunction with the Indexes, will be of material assistance in such a case. Again Granlund has been the chief guide. The third aim is to offer explanatory comment, doubtless too much for some readers and not enough for others. Much of it is abridged from Granlund, who should always be consulted in the first instance. Some additions and modifications have been made for the benefit of readers unfamiliar with the Scandinavian, and particularly the Swedish, back­ ground. The material in the Historia is so extensive and so diverse that an attempt to cover everything of possible relevance published since Granlund's commentary appeared in 1951 has been out of the question. References have however been included to some more recent papers and monographs and especially to the invaluable Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for nordisk middelalder, published in twenty-two volumes by Rosenkilde og Bagger, Copenhagen, between 1956 and 1978. Many articles there supplement Granlund's information, cover a wider Nordic field and, within the limits set by the publication dates, offer more recent biblio­ graphy. Contributions on natural history by the late Dr John Bernstrom have proved of the greatest value, and more of them have been consulted than find specific mention in the notes. His store of learning enabled him to consider almost every aspect of any creature from eagles to ants and sea urchins, covering with equal ease, and sometimes with a certain stubborn enthusiasm, etymology, nomenclature, classification, habitat, appearance, behaviour, fable, folklore and popular medicine. His com­ pressed studies are especially cited where they suggest novel identifica­ tions of Olaus Magnus's fish and fauna or enlarge and correct Granlund's commentary. Other notes on natural history are owed to Peter Fisher and his ornithologist friend, Peter Cattermole. In the Introduction, too, some suggestions for first further reading have been made by references to a handy one-volume English-language encyclopedia, recently pub­ lished, Medieval Scandinavia (ed. P. Pulsiano, New York and London, 1993).

XII

INTRODUCTION In his title, Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, Olaus Magnus used the word 'historia' in its primary sense of 'enquiry, description'. Some of his major preoccupations will not, however, be clearly understood without acquaintance with the history, in its more usual sense nowadays, of Swedish affairs from the fourteenth century to the lifetime of the Magnus brothers, Johannes (1488-1544) and Olaus himself (1490-1557). Part I of the Introduction is a cursory sketch of major developments and issues in the political and church history of the period (see also the tables and map on pp. xc-xciii). Part II traces the careers of the Magnus brothers. Part III is concerned with some aspects of the Historia itself. I The Nordic Countries in the Later Middle Ages In the course of the fourteenth century dynastic accident and a variety of political factors led to a situation in which the crowns of Norway, Den­ mark and Sweden could be joined in a single sovereignty. Norway at that time had the Atlantic communities of Orkney, Shetland, the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland under its rule, along with mainland 0stfold (now Swedish Bohuslan) to the south-east and Jamtland to the north-east (this province, ceded to Sweden in 1645, had always been part of the Uppsala diocese). Denmark comprised Jutland and the islands along with what are now the southernmost Swedish provinces of Halland, Skane and Blekinge. (These were long claimed by the Swedes, cf. 8:38, 20:28* and the Carta marina, but were not finally conquered by them until the seventeenth century.) Lund in Skane was the seat of the Danish arch­ bishop; he was theoretically primate of the Swedish church, though his precedence came to be totally disregarded in Sweden in the course of the fifteenth century. To the south Denmark had close, but often uneasy, 1 References in this form (as in the notes on the translated text) are to book and chapter of the Historia. Details of the authors and works mentioned in the Introduc­ tion and short titles used in the notes are to be found in the Bibliography. It is taken for granted that a reader in search of information about prominent Scandinavian individuals referred to in the Introduction will consult the national biographies (DEL, NBL, SBL). xin

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

relations with German and largely Germanicized Wendish neighbours, in Holstein, Mecklenburg and Pomerania. To Swedish mainland territory, circumscribed in comparison with its present extent, must be added western and southern Finland, which had been gradually but effectively attached to the Swedish crown by missionary efforts, campaigns and settlement from the twelfth century onwards. The south-eastern borders of the Swedish realm thus marched with Russian territory, as they did in the northern landmass between the Atlantic and the White Sea. These far northern expanses, sparsely populated by nomadic Lapps, had illdefined boundaries, or none, but were early exploited by hunters, fisher­ men and traders from the adjacent countries, and the number of settlers from Sweden and Finland steadily increased. 1 The Norwegians were inevitably orientated towards the Atlantic and built their trade on fish. The Swedes were rich in agriculture, fisheries and fur-bearing animals, and, exceptionally among the northern king­ doms, had immense mineral resources, especially iron, copper, and to some extent silver.2 As a western outlet, however, they had only Lodose on the Gota river, cramped by Norway to the north, by Denmark to the south, and easily cut off. They were thus more or less confined to the Baltic, with its drawback of winter freezing. In south-east Finland, however, they held an important strategic position. They commanded the north side of the entrance to the Ladoga region, the key to the Russian waterways, and in the course of the middle ages they made various attempts to complete their domination of that channel by estab­ lishing themselves on the opposite shore, an aim ultimately, but not lastingly, achieved by Gustavus Adolphus and his predecessors in the years around 1600. Gotland was also a significant strategic and commer­ cial node, technically a Swedish possession (and always part of the Linkoping diocese), but variously controlled from time to time by other powers, Danes, freebooters, and the Hanse League (cf. 2:24). The Danish situation was in general far more favourable, with both North Sea and Baltic access and easy control of the passage between them, the 0resund, commercially vital at any time but all the more so as the Russian trade developed. If any sort of hegemony existed in Scandinavia in this early period it can be said that it was primarily imposed not by any state but by the Hanse network. The nucleus of the League lay in the 'Wendish towns', situated precisely in the Holstein-Mecklenburg-Pomeranian duchies south and east of Denmark, with Lubeck emerging as their principal 1 For a recent survey (1994) of Nordic history from the ninth to the sixteenth century see Sawyer and Sawyer in the Bibliography below. On early Finland see Medieval Scandinavia, pp. 188-94; on Norwegian and Swedish Lapland, KL, IV, cols 281-7, X, cols 320-23; Medieval Scandinavia, pp. 379-80. 2 On early Sweden see Medieval Scandinavia, pp. 629-33. xiv

INTRODUCTION

power. With their counters in all the major ports of the Scandinavian countries and the carrying-traffic almost entirely in their vessels, they dominated Baltic trade, and with their financial and naval resources they played a major part in international politics. Sweden was prosperous but commercially vulnerable. Stockholm, for example, founded towards the end of the thirteenth century, came to have a large German element in its population, chiefly among the well-to-do burghers, with their presence so marked that half the city council and its officers were statutorily drawn from their number. Swedish exports, iron, copper, furs, hides, butter, fish, train-oil, tar, were collected and consigned through these merchants to Hanse markets, especially those in Liibeck and Gdansk. Hanse mer­ chants brought in salt, essential for preservation of the substantial sum­ mer surpluses of farming and fishing, and the cloth, wine, beer, spices, in demand among the upper classes and the commoners who could afford to follow their example. 1 By the end of the fifteenth century the population of Sweden (excluding Finland) is estimated at about 600,000, mostly scattered in rural households, though with some greater concentration in the mining districts and in and around the towns. Few of these market­ places, some associated with a castle or cathedral, are thought to have had more than a thousand inhabitants; Stockholm with some 6000 was by far the biggest. Precarious subsistence side by side with conspicuous consumption was perhaps not as markedly characteristic of Sweden as of some other countries in the middle ages, but it certainly existed here and there. The Union of the Scandinavian Crowns

When King Hakon V of Norway died in 1319, the heir to his throne was his three-year-old grandson, Magnus, son of Duke Erik of Vastergotland. Duke Erik had been recently done to death by his uncle, Birger, king of Sweden. Birger was soon ousted, and the Swedish magnates elected the boy Magnus as his successor too. This personal union of the Norwegian and Swedish crowns paved the way for a wider union which included Denmark by the end of the century. All three northern king­ doms had developed a Council of State institution, with one or more of their number usually named to the regency during a king's minority or other interregnum. The constitution and powers of the Swedish Council were laid down in the National Law (Landslagen) codified about 1350.2 Magnus Eriksson's reign saw much turbulence, conflict within the realm and with Denmark abroad, but two law codes, one the National 1 On the Hanseatic League and trade see Medieval Scandinavia, pp. 265-6, 649-53; on Swedish-Hanse relations KL, VI, cols 195-9. 2 On the institution see Medieval Scandinavia, pp. 110-13; on its Swedish form KL, XIV, cols 230-33. XV

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Law just mentioned, the other a Municipal Law (Stadslagen), proved solid monuments of his rule (both remained largely in force until 1736). Mecklenburg was a third power embroiled in Dano-Swedish affairs, and there were various shifts of alliance among the three states. In 1355 King Magnus assigned his throne of Norway to his younger son, Hakon, and in 1363 a diplomatic marriage was arranged for Hakon with Margaret, the ten-year-old daughter of the vigorous King Valdemar IV (Atterdag) of Denmark. It was not an alliance capable of saving King Magnus, who was deposed the following year by his dissatisfied people and spent the last ten years of his life, 1364-74, in retirement. In his place the magnates of the Council of State elected the candidate put forward by the Duke of Mecklenburg, his son Albrecht, Magnus Eriksson's nephew. The situation changed on the death of Valdemar Atterdag in 1375, when his grandson, Oluf, was elected to the Danish throne. This fiveyear-old was the offspring of that diplomatic marriage of 1363 between Hakon and Margaret, and Oluf inherited the throne of Norway when his father died in 1380. Mounting opposition in Sweden to the rule of Albrecht of Mecklenburg led to influential backing for young Oluf as a dynastically suitable candidate for the Swedish throne as well. Mean­ while, throughout his minority, his mother, Queen Margaret, proved an energetic and able regent. Oluf did not live to hold three sceptres. He died in 1387, and in his place Margaret was promptly accepted as ruler of Denmark and lifetime regent of Norway. The most powerful of the Swedish nobility then swore fealty to her in 1388, and in a campaign the following year her troops and theirs defeated King Albrecht's forces and captured the king himself. Norway was the only Scandinavian kingdom in which the principle of hereditary monarchy was firmly established. Denmark and Sweden were elective kingdoms, with the power to elect in the hands of the Council of State in each country. When Oluf died in 1387, Queen Margaret took steps to ensure the Norwegian succession. The Norwegian rules of inheri­ tance were complex and debatable. Technically the Mecklenburg house stood closest but current hostilities ruled out a choice in their favour, and the claim of Erik of Pomerania was preferred. He was the grandson of Queen Margaret's elder sister and had some royal Norwegian blood in his veins. When Erik came of age in 1397, an inter-Nordic assembly of magnates met at Kalmar and by a joint act of homage acknowledged his sovereignty in all three kingdoms. A full treaty of union was also discus­ sed and drafted, but whether it was formally ratified is disputed. Never­ theless, the idea, or ideal, of the union of the three Scandinavian states took firm hold and remained a political factor throughout the following century. 1 1 On the Union see KL, XIX, cols 293-300; Roberts, The Early Vasas, pp. 1-24. xvi

INTRODUCTION

Margaret successfully consolidated her authority in Sweden, and when she died in 1412 Erik of Pomerania's position as Union king met no early opposition. He had Baltic ambitions, however, and was at war for most of the years between 1416 and 1432, with Holstein and the Hanse his principal enemies. He made as much as he could from his control of the 0resund, strengthening fortifications and imposing tolls on shipping. But war was expensive, and the Swedes suffered from increased taxation, studied depreciation of the currency, and not least from Hanse embar­ goes. A recurrent cause of Swedish complaint was the appointment of Germans and Danes as officers of the crown, especially as governors of castles and their attached fiefs, which had begun under Albrecht of Mecklenburg and continued under Margaret and Erik. There was revolt in 1434. An uprising of mine-masters and workers in Bergslagen, the metal-producing districts in Vastmanland and Dalarna, led by Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, first made headway against local officials (cf. 8:27), and then, in coalition with prominent members of the nobility elsewhere in the country, and supported, it seems, by the merchant middlemen of Stockholm, they created a native regime. In theory King Erik was now confined to his constitutional rights, and in practice more or less barred from interference in internal Swedish affairs. The five or six years of the new order were full of negotiation and hostilities, but it was a moment when wider, more popular, interests than those of the magnates came to the fore and Swedish 'freedom' became a rallying cry. Engelbrekt himself, who was murdered in 1436, was remembered as a national hero, almost a national saint. In retrospect these departures have been seen as symbolized in meetings of the Estates that were held in these years. Such meetings brought together a wider consultative and enabling body, though with no regular role in affairs, in which burghers from the towns and freeholders from the countryside were represented as well as leading churchmen and the nobility. Later on meetings of the Estates were to be effectively used by national leaders in opposition to factions in favour of maintaining the Union. 1 From 1389 to 1434 the Swedes accepted foreign rulers and their foreign agents but it was an experience which appears to have made them more keenly aware of their national identity. After the Engelbrekt episode, from 1440 down to the accession of Gustav Vasa in 1523, occupants of the Danish throne reigned as Union monarchs in Sweden only intermit­ tently and for no more than twenty years between them. And in just those few Engelbrekt years sentiments associated with 'freedom' and 'fatherland' received an intellectual boost which was to prove a rapid formative influence on Swedish thinking and a long-lasting element in 1 On national assemblies see Medieval Scandinavia, pp. 544-5; and in Sweden KL, XIV, cols 438-^*2.

xvii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

policy and propaganda. In 1434, at the Council of Basel, Nicolaus Ragvaldi, bishop of Vaxjo and later archbishop of Uppsala, eloquently claimed precedence over other delegates on the grounds that his nation was the race from which the ancient Goths had sprung, his Swedish homeland their homeland, his Swedish kings descendants of their kings. The identification, which was not entirely novel, did not go unchallenged abroad, but became supremely orthodox in Sweden and suitably irksome to contemptuous Danes, whom the Swedes came more and more to regard as perfidious encroachers and oppressors. The tribal name of the 'Gotar', the people of the provinces of Vastergotland and Ostergotland, was regularly latinized as 'Gothi', and their identity with the famous Goths, who had finally broken Rome and succeeded to her empire, was self-evident. 1 Already in 1441, the proem to a partial revision of Magnus Eriksson's National Law could include the remark, 'The name of Goth does not permanently remain in any country except in the realm of the Swedes, because it was from them that the name of Goth spread out to other lands ... '. Much subsequent historical thinking and writing devel­ oped the theme, especially with the rediscovery and publication of the works of Jordanes, Procopius and Cassiodorus. Gothic history became a substantial part of the Swedish past and a paradigm for the Swedish future. This 'Gothicism', which had no bearing on constitutional think­ ing, for instance, but was all built on the glory of Gothic arms and Gothic magnanimity in victory, is a main plank in the historiography of the Magnus brothers and a constant source of national pride.2 There was at the same time and throughout the fifteenth century a steady flow of vernacular literature in Sweden and a concomitant in­ crease in literacy. Much that has survived is either devotional, especially from the great Brigittine monastery of Vadstena, or courtly, but there is also a notable body of rhymed chronicles, all more or less partisan, satires and political songs.3 The written word as nationalist, anti-Union, propaganda became significant in the middle of the century, and its employment was fostered by later leaders, Sten Sture and his successors in the regency. It was also found important to tell the world of Sweden's proud history, and that could only be done in Latin. About 1470 Ericus Olai, a learned canon of Uppsala, composed his Chronica regni 1 For the sake of clarity the term 'Gothi' has been rendered in two ways in the translation of the Historia. As a name for the ancient tribes it appears as the usual 'Goths', but as a name for Olaus's own countrymen it appears in Swedish form, 'Gotar'; 'Gothic' and 'Gota' are the corresponding adjectives. But Olaus and his brother, archbishops and authors from Ostergotland, have been allowed to keep their own proud style: Johannes Magnus the Goth, Olaus Magnus the Goth. 2 On Gothicism see especially Svennung, Geschichte der Goticismus, Nordstrom, Johannes Magnus, Johannesson, Gotisk renassans (tr. Larson, Renaissance of the Goths); and pp. Ix-lxiv below. 3 On vernacular literature of this kind see Medieval Scandinavia, pp. 81-4, 633-6. XVlll

INTRODUCTION

Gothorum, written in the spirit of patriotic Gothicism, but with the aim of glorifying the archiepiscopal see as well as the national past. His success was limited, but his book circulated in manuscript (it was not printed until 1613) and was often turned to by Johannes Magnus when, some seventy years later, he wrote his expansive separate works on the history of the Gothic and Swedish kings and the history of the Uppsala bishops (see p. xxxvi). That men of learning were to be found in Sweden was acknowledged in 1477, when the pope gave permission for the establishment of a studium generate in Uppsala (1:32). There was no need to recruit foreign scholars to open the faculties; Ericus Olai became the new university's first professor of theology. 1 A rapprochement between the leading men of Denmark and Sweden led to Erik of Pomerania's deposition in 1439. The Danes proceeded to elect Kristofer of Bavaria as king in 1440; the Swedes followed suit in 1441. Kristofer kept his throne till his death in 1448, one of the few fifteenth-century kings to do so. The following twenty years were con­ fused by discord within the Union and within the Swedish Council of State. The Council made one of their own number, Karl Knutsson Bonde, their candidate for the Swedish throne; the Danes elected Chris­ tian of Oldenburg. Karl maintained his position with difficulty until forced to withdraw in 1456, and Christian was duly elected king of Sweden the following year, with the accession assured in 1458 in the person of his infant son, Hans. Swedish dissatisfaction prompted the restoration of Karl Knutsson, who, with one intermission, then remained king of Sweden till his death in 1470. In the last years of his reign he seems to have been little more than a figure-head. Throughout the period authority in the country shifted among active members of the prominent noble families. Chief among them were the Oxenstierna and Vasa group, with Jons Bengtsson of the former family, archbishop of Uppsala (144867), and Kettil Karlsson of the latter family, bishop of Linkoping (145965), warlike prelates both, as key players in the confused politics of the time. Members of a newer family, the sons of Axel Pederson Thott, of Danish origin, Ake, Erik and Ivar, also emerged as great men (their mother was a daughter of King Karl Knutsson). These had more decided Union interests, for while they held land and fiefs in Sweden, their own possessions were concentrated in Danish Halland and Skane, and they were thus vassals of both crowns. They were the power behind the throne in Karl Knutsson's last years, but closest to him at the end seems to have been a nephew of his, Sten Sture of the Natt och Dag family, who was also the son-in-law of Ake Axelsson. On King Karl's death Sten Sture was quick to proclaim that Karl had assigned crown castles and property to his care. He probably, but not certainly, acted in collusion with his 1 See Lindroth, History of Uppsala University, pp. 1-14.

xix

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

wife's powerful family. At least, he met no unequivocal opposition from them when he proceeded to assume the title of regent. It was, however, an obvious moment for Danish intervention. King Christian sailed with a Danish fleet to Stockholm in 1471 and negotia­ tions were begun. They came to nothing and the issue was settled by the battle of Brunkeberg, fought in October that year on ground now in the middle of modern Stockholm (7:15, 9:37). The groupings on either side show the complex bedevilment created by Union and internal Swedish politics. King Christian had the support of the Oxenstierna-Vasa clan and was backed by the archbishop, now Jakob Ulvsson, and the people of Uppland. Sten Sture and his ally, Nils Bosson, of the Sture kindred through his mother, had mustered men from Bergslagen and Dalarna and some from the Gotaland provinces, and they had the burghers of Stockholm on their side. All the same, the decisive victory of Sten Sture and Nils Bosson was primarily remembered, and inflated, as a defeat of the national enemy, the Danes, and a triumphant step toward Swedish freedom. The Sture Regency and the End of the Union Sten Sture survived as de facto ruler of Sweden until his death in 1503. He had to contend with members of the nobility who, while not in favour of the Union, were hostile to his autocratic behaviour, and with others who were in favour of the Union and wanted King Hans of Denmark on the throne (he had succeeded his father, Christian I, in 1481). The regent also faced new problems in foreign affairs, chiefly in consequence of the Muscovites' success in investing Novgorod in 1478 and their active in­ terest in Baltic expansion. Their Ivangorod fortress, a counter to the Swedish Narva in Estonia, was begun in 1492. A Russian-Danish alliance in 1493 posed a serious threat, and a Russian drive into south-east Finland in 1495-6 brought it home more forcibly (11:1-4). Sten Sture had successfully cultivated popular support, and a meeting of the Estates which he then summoned halted the plans of the Council of State to bring in King Hans as the Union monarch. But not for long. In 1497 the Danes invaded by land and sea and with their Swedish allies defeated Sture forces at Rotebro, between Uppsala and Stockholm, and outside Stock­ holm itself. The regent was excommunicated and had to compromise, with the result that Hans was acknowledged as king. Sten was however soon able to benefit from further internal dissension and he and Svante Nilsson (his father was Nils Bosson of Brunkeberg fame), recently an enemy, now an ally, soon regained all the mainland strongholds except Kalmar. Svante Nilsson, a leader for whom Olaus Magnus appears to have had especially high regard (see 16:29 and 53), became regent after Sten Sture's death. He continued the struggle against the Danes and

xx

INTRODUCTION

faced the same internal opposition from the Unionists who favoured peace and acceptance of King Hans. Kalmar city changed hands more than once in the following period, but Kalmar castle, which could be supplied by Danish shipping, withstood a Swedish siege, largely directed by the energetic and experienced Hemming Gadh, bishop-elect of Linkoping, for some ten years (cf. 9:10 and 22). Svante Nilsson died in 1512, not long after Kalmar castle finally capitulated. Erik Trolle, a prominent opponent of the Sture regime, was elected to the regency but had to yield it to Svante Nilsson's son, Sten, usually known as Sten Sture the Younger to distinguish him from the earlier regent of that name. Sten held his father's castles and had wide popular support, but he met the same opposition as before in the Council of State, now led by the young Gustav Trolle (c. 1488-1535), son of the Erik Trolle recently ousted from the regency. Gustav was elected archbishop on the resignation of the aged Jakob Ulvsson in 1514, and he was consecrated and received the pallium in Rome in 1515. He and the pro-Union party were apparently thinking in terms of war. While in Rome he obtained a papal privilege confirming the castle and fief of Almarestak as an archiepiscopal appanage and his right to a retinue of four hundred men, ten times the normal number allowed the archbishop by Swedish law. King Hans had died in 1513 and was succeeded by his son, Christian II, born in 1481. He took his claim to the Swedish crown seriously, launch­ ing fleets with little success against Stockholm in 1517 and 1518, captur­ ing Oland and making incursions into Vastergotland in 1519. Archbishop Gustav Trolle was now a willing ally. His hostility to Sten Sture, marked from the start, seems to have become implacable when in December 1517 the regent, with popular and Council of State approval, took and razed his Almarestak fortress at the end of a fourteen-month siege, and forced the archbishop, now his prisoner, to resign his office. Gustav Trolle petitioned Rome and a bull threatening Sten Sture with excom­ munication was issued. There was no compliance by the regent, and the archbishop of Lund imposed the ban on him along with an ineffective interdict on Sweden as a whole. In January 1520 a Danish advance was met by Sten Sture on a frozen lake in Vastergotland. He was wounded in the action and died on the way back to Stockholm (cf. 11:24). The Danish army marched on to Vasteras and a settlement was concluded in Uppsala in March 1520. Christian was to be acknowledged as king and Gustav Trolle as archbishop; there was to be a general amnesty and the old native consti­ tution safeguarded. Christian reinforced his grip by concessions to the Hanse which led to an embargo on trade with Sweden, and the Sture garrison besieged in Stockholm castle capitulated in September. Prepara­ tions for Christian's coronation were made and the ceremony took place xxi

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

in Stockholm on 4 November. Along with the feasting some sort of judicial enquiry was held, with Archbishop Gustav Trolle as the most prominent member of the inquest. The details are obscure but the out­ come was the notorious 'Stockholm bloodbath' of 8-9 November (cf. 8:39). The dead Sten Sture was condemned as a heretic and traitor, and about ninety individuals from among the nobility, gentry and burghers were pricked off, rightly or wrongly, as guilty of the same charges and summarily executed. Two bishops were the first victims. The 'bloodbath' doubtless offered an opportunity to pay off old scores (not all those slaughtered are known to have been close adherents of the Sture party), but if its main intention was to crush the opposition, its success was short-lived. King Christian left Stockholm in January 1521, entrusting internal affairs to the Council of State, with Archbishop Gus­ tav and Didrik Slagheck, a ruthless German henchman of the king's, as his principal agents. Gustav Eriksson Vasa (born in 1495 or 1496) had returned to Sweden in May 1520 after a period as a hostage in Copen­ hagen and a sojourn in Liibeck. He was a cadet member of the oldestablished Vasa family; he had fought for Sten Sture the Younger and, as it happened, was the nearest adult male relative of Sten's widow, Kristina Gyllenstierna; his father, a staunch supporter of the Stures, had died in the 'bloodbath'. He proved a born leader, a skilful demagogue, and an efficient administrator with a fierce eye for detail. In response to the Union victory he sought popular support in the Sture tradition. He raised an army among the population of Dalarna and Bergslagen, de­ scendants of the people who began the Engelbrekt uprising in the late 1430s and provided the backbone of the older Sten Sture's host at Brunkeberg in 1471. On their way south they defeated troops brought against them by Didrik Slagheck and fought victorious actions against the archbishop's musters in Uppland. Gustav Vasa's success brought in members of the Council of State on his side, while both Slagheck and Archbishop Gustav Trolle left the country, and in August 1521, little more than six months after raising the standard, Gustav Vasa was elected regent. He spent the next two years reducing the fortresses still loyal to Christian as Union king. In June 1523, after Stockholm had finally capitulated to him, he was himself elected to the Swedish throne, though not crowned until 1528. Meanwhile he set about consolidating his author­ ity and laying hands on all the resources he could to secure it for the future. Recalcitrant members of the old Sture party and foreign hostility ensured that he did not have an easy time in the first ten years of his reign, and he had plenty of trouble after that too. 1 1 On Gustav Vasa and his reign see especially Roberts, The Early Vasas, pp. 25198.

xxii

INTRODUCTION

Gustav Vasa and the Church The crown's finances were limited at any time and particularly straitened by war. 1 Gustav Vasa's 'liberation' campaigns were paid for only by large loans from Liibeck. The farms that made the basic units throughout the country were owned freehold or leased from crown, church or lay land­ lords. The royal treasury had revenues from crown land and from the taxes payable by freeholders, but the property of the nobility and the Church (chiefly lands held by bishops, cathedral chapters and monasteries), whether under direct administration or rented out, was exempt from ordin­ ary taxation, though not entirely from special levies. The lay lords com­ prised groups that merged with one another in various ways. They ranged from members of an ancient ancestral nobility to a large number of men who had more recently acquired the status of riddare ('knight') or vdpner ('squire'), some specifically designated as armigerous, some not. (In most cases the titles were not at first hereditary but came to be widely maintained as such.) For their exemption from ordinary taxation they owed military service, a fully armed man and his warhorse as a minimum; and anyone with the means could apply to join the ranks of this knighthood. 2 Mean­ while the freeholders and tenants were also required to keep up their arms and training in order to muster as infantry forces, particularly strong in bowmen, when need arose. They provided the victorious 'peasant armies' of the Stures and Gustav Vasa, though it was generally recognized that they could not hold their own in conditions of fifteenth-century warfare unless stiffened by heavy cavalry and the trained bands of mercenaries, expensively recruited by Swedes and Danes alike from Liibeck employ or the German principalities. Experts in siege warfare and artillery were similarly needed and also mostly recruited from abroad. As elsewhere in Europe, castle strongholds, built with private, episco­ pal or crown funds, had become more and more significant in Sweden in the course of the middle ages, as key points for the defence of the realm and as residences and administrative centres for the governors of the fiefs into which the country was divided. It was constitutionally expected that these officers should be drawn from native magnates, particularly from among those who formed the Council of State. As a body the Council had become fully conscious of its own power when, through the elective constitution, it made and un-made kings from the early fourteenth cen­ tury onwards. The natural aim of these great men was to curb the autocratic pretensions to which kings and regents were found always prone, but they also had private interests to maintain and improve and they generally tended to identify the welfare of the nation as a whole with 1 On royal finances see Medieval Scandinavia, pp. 541-4. 2 Characteristics of Swedish 'feudalism' are assessed in Medieval Scandinavia, pp. 187-8. XXlll

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

the fortunes of their own families. Faction within the Council was more or less inevitable. Rulers on the other hand often preferred to choose their own lieutenants, whatever the social or national origin of these might be. Since governorships gave not only authority and prestige but also opportunities for enrichment, competition was keen and criticism and complaint constantly heard. The fief-holders had various revenues from their districts, but paid no dues to the crown, and they often found it easy to acquire wealth and estates in the region under their control. There were six mainland bishoprics and one, Abo, in Finland. They had the Uppsala metropolitan at their head. He had the shrine of St Erik, Sweden's patron, in his cathedral, and oversaw the vast Uppsala diocese, which took in all of North Sweden, vaguely defined, and the city of Stockholm as well. The other sees were in Vasteras and Strangnas, on the north and south shores of Malaren respectively, Linkoping in Ostergotland (which was at least as wealthy as Uppsala itself), Skara in Vastergotland, and Vaxjo in Smaland. Fifteenth-century bishops had incomes and responsibilities, some as fief-holders, which gave them a position on a par with that of officers of state. The archbishop was ex officio a leader in the Council of State, and other bishops were also regular members. The crown took a natural, and increasing, interest in episcopal elections, and nomination by Danish and German rulers of foreigners to Swedish sees bred further resentment against the Union. Some of the native bishops were ambitious members of noble families, others of humbler origin who had pursued their education in the Church and become senior cathedral clergy or monks. Of the several monasteries and convents in the country, the Brigittine foundation at Vadstena (50 km from Linkoping, Olaus Magnus's home town), with the shrines of St Birgitta and St Katerina, was the best known and wealthiest, a popular goal of pilgrimage. Some of the cathedral prebends went to members of the nobility who had chosen a clerical career; others were normally allotted to graduates on their return from study at foreign universities. Such men set and maintained the educational standards which made the foundation of Uppsala University possible (p. xix above); they were also needed as secretaries and diplomats in both ecclesiastical and secular service. Relations with Rome were close and became closer, partly by Swedish attendance at councils and episcopal visits to gain papal con­ firmation, partly by financial involvement in Peter's pence collection and indulgence trafficking, partly by papal provision to Swedish benefices, partly by employment of Swedish clerics as procurators in Rome to serve the diplomatic interests of both churchmen and statesmen. Swedish clerics had a base in Rome in the house, still standing on the Piazza Faraese, which was St Birgitta's home from about 1335 onwards and which remained a hospice in the ownership of Vadstena after her death. It was where Olaus Magnus spent his last years and printed his books. xxiv

INTRODUCTION

In the first years of his reign Gustav Vasa was saddled with debt, had vast outlay in prospect, mainly on defence, and an inadequate income from taxation and the property he had privately or officially inherited. He then looked with calculating eyes at the position of the Church in his realm. Lutheran arguments reached Sweden with the same speed as they spread elsewhere. Two of them appealed to him in particular. One was that within his country the king was the supreme head of both nation and Church; the other that within national territory people and Church must be identified as one. Therefore Church property was national property and its disposal lay with the sovereign. He first took large silver subsidies from the churches towards his Liibeck debts, and then moved decisively against their landed property, taking care to ensure that the lay lords would see their own advantage in his proposals. By 1527, when those proposals were finally ratified, there was little opposition from church­ men: the archbishop-elect, Johannes Magnus, was abroad, and other episcopal appointments were waiting on confirmation. Bishop Hans Brask of Linkoping did what he could to defend the old order, but he too left Sweden late in 1527 and lived the rest of his days in Polish exile. Lutheran reform was already under way, steered by two keen and cap­ able converts, Laurentius Andreae, Gustav Vasa's secretary from 1523, and Olaus Petri, from 1524 priest in charge of the 'Great Church', St Nicholas, in Stockholm and clerk of the city council. Olaus Petri intro­ duced a Swedish liturgy in his Stockholm church in 1525, the year in which he also became a married priest; and he and Laurentius together produced a Swedish New Testament, printed in 1526. Resolutions confirmed at a meeting of the Estates in Vasteras in 1527 put the crown in charge of diocesan property and gave lay lords the administration of monastic estates. Of more immediate importance, they permitted the resumption by donors or their descendants of any property given to churches from 1454 onwards, a matter in which Gustav Vasa had pressing personal interests. (For Olaus Magnus's views on this sacrilege see e.g. 16:22 and 16:40.) The reappropriation went on apace, not always with scrupulous regard to the terms of the enactment. It has been reliably calculated that in 1521 taxable households made about 50% and the taxexempt lands of the gentry about 22% of the total holdings in Sweden. Forty years later those proportions had hardly changed. In contrast, crown lands, including the Sture inheritance and the property of Gustav Vasa's family, amounted to a mere 5.5% in 1521 but had swelled to 28% by 1560. In the same period church holdings fell from 21% to zero. King Gustav's spoliation had been thorough. By the Vasteras settlement, ratified and extended by later enactments, the power of bishops was effectively broken. Otherwise reform of inter­ nal church organization and Mturgy went on at a gentler pace and led to none of the 'martyrdoms' elsewhere too common in sixteenth-century xxv

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

religious strife. There was abolition of holy days and other Catholic 'superstitions'; a Swedish service book was issued in 1529; a vernacular order for the mass was introduced in 1531 (and ousted the Latin order within fifteen years or so); finally, the whole Bible appeared in Swedish in 1541. In 1531 Laurentius Petri, younger brother of the Olaus Petri men­ tioned above, was consecrated archbishop. (Apostolic succession was assured by the chief officiant, Bishop Peder Mansson of Vasteras, who had himself been consecrated in Rome in 1524; cf. p. xxix below.) No papal approval was sought on this occasion, or when further bishoprics were filled with reform-minded clerics. Archbishop Laurentius had a long career (he died in 1573) and seems to have been influential in setting the generally tolerant tone of the Lutheran church in Sweden, which, in the end, was never swayed far from its middle way by either Calvinism or Counter-reformation. The new generation of clergy were poorer and perhaps less well educated than their Catholic predecessors, but they were more closely identified with their parishioners and represented no sort of alien authority. Loyalty to the old dispensation doubtless re­ mained natural and strong in some individuals and communities, but opposition to reform seems usually to have needed combination with other causes of complaint before it led to open revolt, as in the 'bell' rebellion in Dalarna 1530-32, so called because of the state's confiscation of church bells for the sake of the metal (cf. 12:16), and in the Dacke rebellion in Smaland in 1542, prompted among other things by further expropriation of silver vessels from churches. II The Magnus Brothers in Sweden At the time of the Vasteras assembly in 1527 Johannes Magnus, thirtynine years old and archbishop-elect of Uppsala, and his brother, Olaus, thirty-seven and dean of Strangnas cathedral, were both out of the country. They could have had no inkling that they would never see Sweden again. Yet without the challenge of Gustav Vasa's church poli­ cies and the brothers' exile in a cosmopolitan humanist world, it may be doubted whether they would, or even could, have composed the works for which they are famous. Together they put Sweden, its history, geo­ graphy and people, more firmly on the intellectual map of Europe than any other authors have ever done. Little is known of their early years. 1 They were born in Linkoping (cf. 1 Apart from state papers and the limited information to be found in the Historia itself, the chief sources on the personal history of the Magnus brothers are: (1) xxvi

INTRODUCTION

2:31), Johannes in 1488, Olaus in 1490. Their father was Mans (=Magnus) Pedersson, a burgher of the city but, as far as is known, of no particular prominence. (It was the brothers who adopted the nominative form 'Magnus' in their latinized names, instead of the patronymic genitive 'Magni'. It smacks of pretension or ambition, or both, whether they had some earlier genealogical warrant for it or not.) The family appears to have been well connected and necessarily of some substance, for a third brother also became a priest and the three daughters were educated, one of them taking the veil, at the Dominican convent in Skanninge, a school not open to everyone. Johannes and Magnus were obviously bright boys, and the means and patronage were available to set them on a clerical career, presumably first at the chapter school in Linkoping. Olaus refers to himself as a lad in his home town (6:13) and speaks of a visit he made to Oslo when he was about fifteen (cf. 2:9 and 26, 13:32). Johannes finished his schooling in Skara, Olaus in Vasteras (21 AS). 1 They were then preferred to cathedral prebends of the kind often reserved for promising scholars; they both had canonries at Linkoping, Johannes at Skara as well. Both then studied abroad. Johannes graduated from Rostock in 1513 and afterwards spent some time in Louvain and Cologne. Olaus attended German universities from 1510 to 1517 (on his return voyage cf. 2:29). He had an early spell in Rostock but the rest of his academic itinerary is obscure and it is not known where he obtained his title of 'magister'. On his return to Sweden, Johannes evidently enjoyed the trust and favour of his Church superiors and of the regent, the younger Sten Sture, for in 1517, aged 29, he was sent to Rome to act as Swedish emissary at the Curia. That was the year when Christian II first sent his fleet against Correspondence, published piecemeal by various editors. See the titles and register given in Buschbell, Briefe, pp. viii-x, xix-xxiv, supplemented by the references under Johannes and Olaus Magnus in the Bibliography below. (2) Olaus Magnus's autobio­ graphical notes, published by Hjarne in Literdra fragmenter. These exist only in a draft, put together in 1550-51. They are brief and lay itemized emphasis on Olaus's personal expenditure 'in causa religionis' (summed by him as 4624 ducats over 30 years). His intention was presumably to give Pope Julius III, newly elected and an old friend, an orderly record of his long, self-sacrificing service. (3) The biography of Johannes Magnus completed by Olaus as a supplement to the former's Historia metropolitanae ecclesiae Upsaliensis, which Olaus published in Rome in 1557. See SRS, 111:2, pp. 74-97. For substantial recent studies, from which this Introduction has greatly profited, see Granlund, 'Efterskrift' (tr. Foote, 'Introduction'); Richter, Olaus Magnus' Carta Marina; Grape, Olaus Magnus; and Johannesson, Gotisk renassans (Renaissance of the Goths). 1 That Olaus Magnus was at school in Vasteras and not merely on a visit has been satisfactorily established by Almquist, 'De enbarsplockande djaknarna'. He presents evidence to show that in Vasteras and elsewhere schoolboys paid masters partly in kind by collecting nuts and berries around St Bartholomew's day, 24 August. This fits neatly with Olaus's expression in 21:48, 'more scholarium in medio Augusti'. xxvn

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Stockholm in the summer, and Sten Sture forced Archbishop Gustav Trolle to resign the following winter (p. xxi above). It was also the year in which Olaus returned from his years of study in Germany. Olaus was appointed a canon of Uppsala soon after he came back. Early in 1518 the papal legate, Giovanni Angelo Arcimboldi, arrived in Sweden (9:22). He had been appointed legate four years earlier and especially commissioned to raise money for the papacy in northern Europe. He proved an unsuccessful mediator in the Dano-Swedish con­ flict, but in Sweden achieved some degree of official cooperation in his main mission. One outcome of this was that Olaus Magnus was deputed to act as his sub-collector in the vast north of the country. (This is the point where Olaus's autobiographical notes begin; see p. xxvi, n. 1 above.) It can probably be taken for granted that Olaus was expected to add missionary preaching and intelligence gathering to his task of fundraising. The observations he made in his northern travels, which included a visit to Tr0ndelag in Norway, are widely apparent in his Historia, whether he writes on Lapp marriage customs or the best way to deal with midges. He doubtless had commonplace books already full of his read­ ing; but he must now have begun to make notes and sketches of many of the novelties he encountered. He was away for perhaps eighteen months, spending some of the winter of 1518 across the border in Tr0ndelag, and reaching Tornio and going some way upstream from there in the summer of 1519, probably as far as Pello. He came south by sea that autumn (cf. 2:6). 1 We do not know where he spent the next twelvemonth, but in 1520 he was in Stockholm in time to witness the coronation of Christian II and the subsequent 'bloodbath' in early November (cf. 6: Preface, 8:28 and 39). He more than hints that he was himself in some danger at the time (8:40, ad fin.). He and his brother, still in Rome, had owed their employment to Sten Sture the Younger, but it is not known how far they were publicly aligned with the Sture party or what other protectors they may have had. At least for the time, however, Olaus must have obediently followed his superiors, Arch­ bishop Gustav Trolle and Bishop Hans Brask of Linkoping, in accepting the legitimacy of the regime under Christian. Within a few weeks of the 'bloodbath' he was in office as priest in charge of the Stockholm 'Great Church', probably the most influential pulpit in Sweden. 2 Nomination 1 For attempts to reconstruct the routes followed by Olaus see Richter, Olaus Magnus' Carta Marina, pp. 13-22, and in more detail Grape, 'Carta Marina som resejournal'. 2 It has been thought that Olaus Magnus was appointed to the Stockholm church before the city capitulated to King Christian, not least because he himself refers to 1520 in connection with an experience under siege (13:29). He is however not infre­ quently vague about dates and Carlsson, 'Olaus Magnus och hans forfattarskap', pp. 60-64, justifiably concludes that this is a mistake, stressing that Olaus was certainly in Stockholm 1521-2, when the city was besieged by Gustav Vasa. A date in 1520 is XXVlll

INTRODUCTION

and presentation to that post lay with the archbishop and the king, 1 so he was clearly found suitable by the supreme Union authorities. He served there for about two years, preaching incessantly, he says, against Lutheran heresy newly brought in by German merchants. From June 1521 the city was again under siege, now beleaguered by Gustav Vasa's forces. After eighteen months, in December 1522, the supply situation was such that some 300 non-combatants were sent away from the city,2 and Olaus was probably among them. The garrison and castle then held out until June 1523. (Other references to Olaus's stay in Stockholm are in 7:16 and 13:29.) That month which saw the capitulation of Stockholm and Gustav Vasa's election to the throne also saw Johannes Magnus's return from Rome, now invested with the powers of papal legate. He was promptly given the deanship of Strangnas cathedral, but resigned on his almost immediate election as archbishop by the Uppsala chapter, in place of Gustav Trolle, who had seen no option but to follow the fortunes of King Christian in exile from Sweden. The chapter's choice met Gustav Vasa's approval. Olaus meanwhile, whose credentials were evidently unim­ paired, was appointed to the vacant Strangnas deanery but had another, more urgent, task to accomplish. He was despatched to Rome to obtain papal confirmation of his brother's election, making a winter journey and arriving about the turn of the year. He never set foot in Sweden again. The Magnus Brothers 1523-37: Diplomacy and Exile In response to Olaus's mission the Curia proved wary, doubtless swayed by Danish diplomacy and the canonical legitimacy of Gustav Trolle's claims to the archbishopric. Johannes was confirmed as papal legate and as administrator of the archdiocese but not as metropolitan. In this his first visit to Rome Olaus stayed in St Birgitta's hospice, and spent energy and money in obtaining the consecration of the highly-regarded scholar, Peder Mansson, priest-monk of Vadstena and the house's curator since 1508, to the see of Vasteras. In the following year, 1525, Olaus arrived in

again implied by Olaus, but perhaps not altogether plainly, in a letter written many years later, in December 1555, to Pope Paul IV (Buschbell, Briefc, pp. 105-6). He describes a recent dream in which he had told the pope of a vision of the Blessed Virgin which he had experienced after the 'bloodbath' of 1520, 'cum impiissimus rex Christiernus ... me eciam requireret ad mortem', and of his sudden escape, among warships and running into the bows and swords of the enemy. Carlsson convincingly argues that Olaus's particular reference to Holy Innocents' Day in this context and the other circumstances mentioned by him cannot be appropriate to December 1520 (when there was no siege), but only to December 1522. 1 Dahlback, Medeltidens Stockholm, p. 138. 2 Conn, 'Kampen om Stockholm', p. 163. XXIX

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Liibeck, where he met Johannes, now employed by Gustav Vasa on treaty negotiations with the Netherlander. Johannes returned to Sweden and made a visitation in Jamtland early in 1526 (4:19), the first by any bishop for 28 years. He was obviously in a difficult situation because of Gustav Vasa's Lutheran leanings and the claims the king was already making on Church property. Later in 1526 he was sent abroad again, and in retrospect, if not at the time, he and his brother were convinced that this was a Lutheran plot to remove his authoritative and critical voice from the domestic arena. The diplomatic business this time was in pursuit of a possible match between Gustav Vasa and Princess Hedvig, daughter of King Sigismund of Poland. Olaus had first stayed on in Liibeck, from where he undertook various missions for King Gustav, but moved to join his brother in Gdansk in the latter part of 1526. While Church reform went steadily on in Sweden (pp. xxv-xxvi above), the Magnus brothers lived in Gdansk, still occupied at first in royal service. For Olaus it entailed a visit by way of Liibeck to the Low Countries in 1527, where he could interest himself in Dutch waterpumping methods as well as diplomacy (2:33, 6:5), and a journey into Poland in 1528, where he both discussed royal marriage prospects and inspected salt-mines (13:43). These were the last official missions of the Magnus brothers, though they continued to serve Swedish interests in various ways at least until 1534. In the winter of 1528-9 Gustav Vasa urged Johannes to return to Sweden, but made it plain that he would lose his right of domicile and his Swedish revenues if he refused. Olaus reports that he too was invited home, with the offer of the post of chancellor as inducement, but evidently on the same terms in the event of refusal. The Vasteras enactments of 1527 and other 'reforms' made it impossible for the brothers to comply. Early in 1530 their income was cut off, their property confiscated, and Johannes's election to the arch­ bishopric annulled. In 1531 Gustav Vasa saw to the election and con­ secration of his own candidate, Laurentius Petri, younger brother of the leading reformer, Olaus Petri (p. xxvi above). Even so, the king subse­ quently appears to have been under some diplomatic pressure to effect a reconciliation with Johannes and made new overtures. The Magnus brothers were not unwilling to contemplate return, but Johannes would not go home without the authority which only papal confirmation of his election as archbishop could confer. Setting off in December 1532, they made the journey to Italy, through Poland and by way of Vienna. The Curia had now abandoned Gustav Trolle, and at last, ten years after his election, Johannes was consecrated archbishop of Uppsala in Rome on 27 July 1533. They were not back in Gdansk before June 1534, partly delayed by the archbishop's illness on the way. The brothers presumably lived on their savings and on charity in their travels and in Rome; in Gdansk they became pensioners of the Polish xxx

INTRODUCTION

archbishop and of the city council. In their Polish years they sent con­ stant petitions far and wide to win support for Johannes's claims to his high office and reinstatement in his see. But it was not their only activity. Olaus began work on his Carta marina in 1527, a year after he settled in Gdansk. (Significant influences on his cartography may have been his visit to the Low Countries earlier in the year and the arrival in Gdansk later in the year of Bishop Hans Brask, also a map-maker.) Johannes completed his Historia metropolitanae ecclesiae Upsaliensis there in 1536. * Their humanist and patriotic scholarship was indissolubly linked with promotion of the Catholic cause in the northern countries. Olaus later professed that the object of the publication of the Carta marina in 1539 was to show pope and emperor how vast a territory had been seduced from the true faith; the Uppsala history, though not published until 1557, was still a demonstration of the unswerving loyalty of the ancient and authentic Swedish Church to orthodox belief and Rome. The Magnus Brothers in Venice and Rome 1537-57 Early in 1537 the Magnus brothers sold up in Gdansk and set off on an arduous journey to attend a council summoned by the pope. It was expected to meet in Mantua in May that year, but, like so many other councils, was then postponed. Johannes, whose constitution seems to have been much less robust than his brother's, fell ill on the way, and they did not arrive in Rome until October. They met with a friendly reception but little practical help. The planned council had appeared to offer them a welcome opportunity to air the problems of the Swedish province - the Vasteras edicts and the New Testament translation were particular monstrosities - and they now urged their concern in Rome. A committee of cardinals was appointed to hear Johannes give a three-day account of the situation, but they recommended that full consideration should await the new council, now mooted for Vicenza in May 1538. That assembly was also postponed. From September 1538 until the end of 1540 the Magnus brothers were the guests of the munificent Gerolamo Querini, patriarch of Venice. Querini provided the funds for the publica­ tion of Olaus's magnificent and influential Carta marina in 1539, printed from wood blocks on nine large sheets, and of the booklets in German and Italian which gave further summary explanations of the map's contents.2 Johannes spent nine months of 1540 in composing his Historia 1 Cf. p. xxvi, n. 1 above. 2 On Carta marina, which Olaus himself regularly refers to as 'my Gothic map', see e.g. Granlund, 'Efterskrift', pp. 581-6 ('Introduction', pp. 20-24); Lynam, Carta Marina; Richter, Olaus Magnus' Carta Marina; and Knauer, Die Carta Marina. The rare pamphlets, Ain kurze Auslegung and Opera breve, are conveniently reprinted in facsimile as an appendix in Richter's book. For translations see references under these titles in the Bibliography. xxxi

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

de omnibus Gothorum Sveonutnque regibus, ultimately published by Olausin 1554. l Pope Paul III then recalled them in haste to Rome. The Curia may perhaps have been disturbed by a letter from Johannes, written in Octo­ ber 1540, in which among other things he proposed that he be furnished with means to return to Germany and Poland in order to continue his Church's struggle at closer quarters. The brothers were sympathetically received on their arrival in Rome in the New Year 1541, but they were left in the dark as to the reason for their sudden summons and little was done to relieve their debt-ridden penury. After nearly a year's delay they were allotted a small monthly pension but, according to Olaus, they continued to eke out a miserable existence. Johannes's begging letters grew increasingly bitter, and his health certainly deteriorated. He died on 23 March 1544. In August Pope Paul ordered the consecration of Olaus as his brother's successor; he received the pallium in October, having been excused the customary subsidium, which was obviously far beyond his means. The new archbishop was then delegated, with the customary stipend, to attend the council, now summoned to meet at Trent. Olaus continued to receive the papal pension which had been allotted to his brother from the end of 1541. He must have been a prudent manager for henceforth his finances appear to have been on a secure footing. He ought to have received some income from Polish and German benefices conferred on him, but there are no records to show that he did. Gustav Vasa had appropriated church property, encroached on episco­ pal authority, interfered in the order of worship, and abolished sanc­ tioned forms of popular piety. Nevertheless, it seems that in these years the Magnus brothers must have continued to count on widespread sym­ pathy for the 'old' and 'true' religion among all ranks of Swedish society. They doubtless misread the situation, but various events could feed their hopes. Their situation in relation to the Curia was probably eased by the spread of Lutheranism in Denmark and its official adoption there in 1537. Although Johannes and Olaus were horrified by the reformers' treatment of the Danish bishops and appealed in many quarters on their behalf, they nevertheless no longer had to contend with their traditional enemies in Rome. In 1537 King Gustav made a second marriage, and his new wife was and remained, with some modification, a practising Catholic. In 1540 Gustav Vasa arraigned the principal architects of the Swedish Refor­ mation, Laurentius Andreae and Olaus Petri, on various treasonable charges. Their lives were spared and Laurentius went into retirement, but Olaus Petri was soon re-employed in the Stockholm 'Great Church' 1 On this work see especially Nordstrom, Johannes Magnus, and Johannesson, Gotisk renassans (Renaissance of the Goths). XXXH

INTRODUCTION

and the king's cause. In 1544 there was the Dacke rebellion in Smaland, a region always regarded by Olaus as an integral part of his own 'Gothic' province of Ostergotland. It was ruthlessly put down, but it had shocked the state and might be optimistically seen as a symptom of wider unrest. Nor perhaps did Olaus ever abandon hope of better things from Gustav Vasa's sons, whom he addressed from time to time in the 1550s and, indirectly but sternly, in 16:40-41. In his Historia Olaus Magnus constantly denigrates the people he sees as national enemies: the Danes are faithless, greedy and ruthless aggres­ sors (cf. pp. Hi, lix), the schismatic Russians are swindlers and barbarous (cf. pp. xlvii, lix). Otherwise, however, he reserves his fiercest condem­ nation for the tyrannous and sacrilegious ruler on the one hand and the heretical Lutherans on the other. Christian II is his prime example of the 'rex iniustus', but he more than once elsewhere speaks of the justifiable revolt of a people against a tyrant and the miserable fate that awaits him in this world and the next (cf. e.g. 9:26, 16:19 and 42, 18:14). There is little doubt but that he had Gustav Vasa in his sights, though he refrains from naming him in these contexts (see further pp. xlvii-xlix below). Of Lutherans he willingly believed any scurrility and any imputation of cruelty, and he castigates them in the crude language that was common enough in contemporary polemic (cf. pp. xlix-xl). Again in such passages he nowhere animadverts on Gustav Vasa's specific responsibility for the promotion of these beastly heretics in the Swedish Church. Earlier, however, the uncompromising attitude which he and his brother adopted had been made clear to the authorities in Rome. Kurt Johannesson has drawn attention to a document, unsigned but apparently in Olaus Magnus's hand, representing a memorandum drawn up for Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio, the Curia's great expert on English and German affairs. 1 The document is not dated, but it is most reasonable to refer it to the early part of 1538, as a preliminary to the Council sum­ moned to meet in Vicenza that summer (p. xxxi above). The announce­ ment of Cardinal Campeggio's nomination as president of the council was made in March 1538. He was seriously ill by August, when it was decided to postpone the meeting, and he died in July 1539. The memorandum must nominally have been submitted by Johannes, but since Olaus was both his brother and his official secretary, we can safely assume that they were at one on its wording and contents. They do not mince their words, 1 The document is printed by Johannesson, Gotisk renassans, pp. 286-9 (not inclu­ ded in Renaissance of the Goths), and discussed by him, ibid., pp. 193-4 (Renaissance of the Goths, pp. 141-2). He finds circumstantial evidence in favour of dating it to the beginning of 1545 and thinks Olaus Magnus is writing in his new dignity as archbishop. He overlooks the fact that in early 1545 Cardinal Campeggio, to whom the memoran­ dum is addressed, had been dead for nearly six years. On Campeggio's last years see Cardinal, Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio, pp. 165-82. XXXlll

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

urgently stating the need for papal action and propounding ways and means of restoring Sweden to the fold. They seek condemnation by pope and emperor of the decisions of the Vasteras assembly (1527) and the Orebro council (1529), and of the Swedish translation of Scripture, 'quae plusquam in mille locis per Hereticos corrupta est'. 1 They further propose for consideration whether or not Gustav Vasa should be excommuni­ cated (in fact, he never was) - 'quia notorius, et pertinax, ac intolerabilis Hereticus est' - and deposed, seeing that earlier popes had taken such action against other rulers 'pro culpis longo gradu inferioribus quam sunt demerita illius Gostavi', in comparison with whom Nero and Domitian and other persecutors could be counted gentlemen. After due examina­ tion of the case of 'that Tyrant', it might be considered whether the Swedish realm should not be adjudged a perpetual possession of the Holy See; or, if the pope could not proceed in this way, whether a Christian prince might not be empowered to reduce the kingdom and retain it as his own. This last proposal was in line with the Magnus brothers' lifelong political efforts to persuade the emperor, Charles V, to attempt armed intervention in the North or, failing that, to get papal support for a Mecklenburg invasion or for claims to the Swedish crown by Frederick of the Palatinate or Sigismund of Poland.2 Archbishop Olaus was present at the Tridentine Council from 1545 to 1549, at its sittings in both Trent and Bologna, with two visits to Venice in 1548 in connection with an auto da fe of heretical books in the city. In September 1549 he was back in Rome where he now installed himself as curator of Birgitta's house. (It was in a sorry state and he had to fight a vexatious claim to the property, one of long standing which was now pursued by an Italian fellow-prelate.) Then, with astonishing energy - he was now fifty-nine and had had a hard life - he fitted up a printing shop on the first floor and saw to the hire of a printer.3 His first publication, some prayers of St Birgitta, was issued in 1550. In October 1551 he was back in Trent for the reconvened council, which lingered on to small effect into the next year. It was at this gathering that he met the recently elected Archbishop Adolf von Schaumburg of Cologne, to whom, four years later, he dedicated his Historia. Archbishop Adolf was a zealous 1 In Olaus's biography of Johannes this same expression is twice used of the Swedish New Testament translation of 1526; see SRS, 111:2, pp. 81, 84. Other matter in the memorandum is echoed in his account of his brother's representations to the commit­ tee of cardinals late in 1537 (p. xxxi above). 2 Johannesson, Gotisk renassans, p. 194 (Renaissance of the Goths, p. 142). 3 For the Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sveonumque regibus and his own Historia (printed 1553-4) Olaus employed Joannes Maria de Viottis from Parma; for the Uppsala history and the Revelations of St Birgitta (printed 1556-7) Franciscus Mediolanensis from Ferrara. According to the inventory made after Olaus's death, he had two printing presses in his quarters in Birgitta's house. On the various prints issued by Olaus see Collijn, Sveriges bibliografi, II, 205-16, 221-7, 229-30, 234-7. xxxiv

INTRODUCTION

supporter of Charles V, and Olaus very probably hoped that he would engage the emperor's interest in Counter-reformation in the North. The years at the Council of Trent were fruitless for Olaus Magnus's diplomatic efforts on behalf of the Catholic cause in Sweden, but not for his work as an author. He had the leisure to put his mass of material into order and to add to it. (In Rome he must always have had access to books, but there were choice libraries in Trent and Bologna as well.) Among his fellow-prelates he seems to have had justifiable status as an expert on North and Central European affairs, and he enjoyed the esteem and friendship of numerous senior churchmen in Rome and elsewhere. His acquaintance and correspondence with a wide circle of humanist scholars, already begun in his years in Gdansk, kept him abreast of new learning, though, apart from a reference to Bude (8:18) and quotation from More's Utopia (8:32-33 and 38), he shows little sign of familiarity with recent French and English writings. New learning seems to have been always welcome to him, as long as it did not affect orthodoxy in any way. He was polite, fulsomely so in the style of the time, to the College of Cardinals and to his Italian hosts in general, though cynical enough about grasping and dilatory churchmen in and about the Curia and not always able to hide his disapproval of the moral laxity he saw around him. (He could blame a new Swedish taste for shameless depiction of the naked human body on the loose living encour­ aged by Lutheranism, but it was harder to impute the same cause in Rome.) He was hostile to anything he saw as meretricious, but by the standards of his time in Italy he may well have appeared straightlaced and old-fashioned. He adhered rigidly to unalterable ideals: Church unity and Church liberty, both ensured by obedience to the successors of St Peter. Olaus Magnus's Counter-reformation zeal could build on his pride in the glorious Gothic past of his nation and his confidence in the character of his 'Gothic' countrymen. His 'Gothicism' was not merely antiquarian: he could see it as the destiny of the modem Goths of Sweden to turn back the tide of Lutheran corruption that had flooded into the universal Church. He looked to Germany for allies, where men were born of kindred stock. He admired and often cited German historians and he supported the notable scholar and polemicist, Johannes Cochlaeus (1479-1552), with cash and encouragement. Between them they could extirpate heresy and restore stability to the world, even create a new Rome, as their Gothic ancestors had done centuries before. 1 Of course, he did not see his ideal realized, but the last five years of his life were still a time of triumphant achievement, when he ensured dis­ semination through the printed word of the 'truth' which he and his 1 Johannesson, Gotisk renassans, pp. 202-5 (Renaissance of the Goths, pp. 150-53). XXXV

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

brother had steadfastly stood for. In 1553 he published lives of St Birgitta and her daughter, St Katerina of Vadstena. In January 1554 Johannes's Historia de omnibus Gothorwn Sveonumque regibus was printed and in October of the same year Olaus's own Historia was ready from the press, though not issued until January 1555. In 1557 Johannes's history of the Uppsala see appeared, the last third of it taken up by Olaus's account of his brother's career, with numerous letters from and to him included. And when Olaus died on 1 August that year his print of the Revelations of St Birgitta was almost complete. His attention to the life and works of that compelling 'Gothic' lady, the only Swedish saint of international renown, was appropriate, for reasons of both piety and policy. She had been born and bred and was now enshrined in his own home diocese of Linkoping; and had she not in her time preached rigorous and militant sermons, backed by the authority of heavenly visions and voices, to king, emperor and pope alike? Johannes's work on the Gothic and Swedish kings was accepted as authoritative until the pendulum swung with the discovery of Icelandic 'sources' and the application of different standards of criticism a century or so later. But none of the books Olaus published served his aims of education and propaganda better, or has lasted longer in general esteem, than the lengthy and lively account of his homeland, and of much other lore besides, here translated complete into English for the first time. Ill The Inception of the Historia Olaus Magnus's Carta marina, published in 1539, includes a brief Latin commentary which ends with the author's assurance that he will supple­ ment it with 'books' offering more explanation and further describing northern marvels. Olaus repeats this undertaking in the two pamphlets elucidating the map (p. xxxi above), printed soon after it appeared, and in the Preface to his Description of the Northern Peoples, published sixteen years later, he reminds his readers that he has now kept his word. His programme was thus already clear in his mind: map and description went hand in hand, as he may be said to have visibly demonstrated by adopting intact no fewer than 124 of the map's illustrations for use in the Historia. He had fulfilled his part of a plan which we may surmise he and his brother Johannes had made early in their careers: a map and a full description of the contemporary North were to complement works by Johannes on the glorious past, a history of the Gothic kings and their successors in Sweden and of the metropolitan see of Uppsala. Obviously both the brothers had read widely and deeply during their years of study abroad, and that Olaus made notes and sketches on his xxxvi

INTRODUCTION

northern travels in 1518-19 is evident from his Book 4, which he devotes almost entirely to the Lapps and their customs. In the Dedication to Archbishop Adolf of Cologne Olaus says that it was the archbishop's scholarly curiosity about life in the frozen North, evinced when they met at the Council of Trent in 1551, that first set his thoughts on writing his account. He may have found Adolf von Schaumburg's interest a spur but, as already noted, his project had a much longer history, and in the Preface to the Description he writes more truthfully of the many years of toil and anxiety he had invested in his magnum opus. On the other hand, he was still putting finishing touches to his work up to the time of printing in 1554: he mentions, for example, Ippolito Salviani's book on fish which was only published in that year (20:27), and information on the shad came to him 'when my work was going to press' (21:50; cf. also 4:19, n. 2,16:35, n. 1). The Purpose of the Historia At the beginning of his Preface Olaus Magnus recalls ancient philo­ sophers who travelled widely in order to record their observations of peoples and places, and these were followed by a long line of commenta­ tors who described the natural features and the inhabitants of their regions. Olaus sees himself writing in this approved tradition, and doubt­ less had one eye on the achievements of German and other humanists who preceded him or were of his own time. He combines personal experience with the use of learned sources in a way reminiscent of Werner Rolewinck's Laus Saxoniae, written in the 1470s; and it is hard to believe that he had not come across the popular De omnium gentium ritibus of Boemus, first published in 1520. The influence of neither of these is directly discernible, but he knew Aeneas Sylvius on Bohemia, Matthew of Miechow on Poland, Paulus Jovius and Herberstein on Russia, and was especially indebted to the Germans, Albert Krantz, Franciscus Irenicus and Jakob Ziegler. Now, he believes, it is time to disseminate sounder information about the northernmost lands of Europe, including Iceland, of which foreigners have but a vague notion and about which much nonsense is talked. To show how specific he will be, he ends his Preface with a list of the practical topics he intends to cover - how routes are picked out across icefields, for example, how battles are fought on ice or snow, and how animals live in the bitter cold. In antiquity and the middle ages Scandinavia was primarily envisaged as a land gripped by cold and frost, in earth's outermost zone and full of wonders. Adam of Bremen, writing about 1075, was the first to describe the region, finding it surprisingly rich and productive and an outpost of Christianity. Around 1200 Saxo Grammaticus placed the centre of his world in Sjaelland and gave a fairly accurate account of the lands in the xxxvii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

immediate vicinity, moving the more bizarre manifestations of Nature to the outer edges, not least to Iceland with its strange phenomena of volcanoes and geysers. The tradition of mirabilia in the North persisted, and, to a certain extent, Olaus plays up to it with his account in the early books of the devastating effects of frost, snow, and ice, and with the seamonsters of Book 21. Yet although the North is harsh, it is also magnifi­ cent, frost and snow make the earth fertile in summer, and the cold air renders the natives strong, healthy and perspicacious. It contains places of great beauty and richness, like the island of Oland, with its fragrant meadows and many herds of horses, or Bothnia, where the inhabitants live in mild temperatures and idyllic surroundings, sustained by an unfail­ ing abundance of fish, which they barter with visiting merchants for their other necessities. Olaus certainly came into contact with Lapps on his travels in 1518-19, and he reserves special praise for these people of the far North, who maintain the primitive virtues of a golden age. Those who have been converted have become model Christians, prepared to travel immense distances to church. He was aware of how these people had been oppressed by government taxation, and he sets against this the benefactions of his brother, Archbishop Johannes (4:19-20). In contrast, Olaus's references to Italians tend to be rather scornful. He mentions their luxurious fashions, especially those of women, the poverty of selec­ tion when it comes to buying fish, and the oddly retiring nature of some 'eminent citizens' of Venice who, like certain monsters of the deep, never in a lifetime venture beyond the seaweed encircling their beaches (21:7). He likes to make implicit comparisons between southern Europe and Scandinavia, and there is an expatriate's pride in the many reminders to his foreign readers of the ruggedness of Northerners. These men are accustomed to eat mutton raw, after it has been smoked or salted, for it suits them to nourish their strength on uncooked meat or fish, whether they are at work on the farm or the battlefield (17:2, 20:26). Conditions of cold can themselves be attractive to the eye. When given colour by the sun's rays, frozen waterfalls and icicles delight the be­ holder. At the same time, in this frozen terrain, dangers always lurk for ignorant foreigners. They are a hazardous snare for enemies, and may prove troublesome to the curious, unsuspecting traveller from abroad. He will find himself confronted by unpleasant difficulties: not merely the severity of the elements and terrain, but lack of interpreters, disputes between rulers, suspicion of spying, robbers in ambush, even the un­ familiar food. One main purpose of the Historia is to show the northern lands, with their vast resources and pious people, as a desirable area for reclamation to the world of Catholic Europe (cf. pp. xxxii-xxxv above). In his Preface Olaus rejects the popular quotation from Jeremiah 1:14, which declares that evil breaks out of the north, the region where Satan's home was XXXVlll

INTRODUCTION

traditionally located, and substitutes for it words from Job 37:22 (RV): 'Out of the north cometh golden splendour' (which Olaus interprets as the 'bright sheen of innocence'). Hence his continued stress on the thriving trade, manufactures, and produce of those countries. Iron, sil­ ver, gold, and copper mining are described in detail in Book 5; there is great emphasis on the value of the many fur-bearing animals in Book 18; and there is constant reference to the superabundance of fish in rivers, lakes and sea. But as we know, Olaus's persuasive portrait of his home­ land was to no avail, and it was never restored to Catholic Christendom. A reader soon gains an impression of the Historia as an encyclopaedia and a work of practical instruction rolled into one. At one level Olaus gives all manner of detail to do with sowing, harvesting, baking, brewing, fishing under ice, building a dove-cote, or prescribing for gout; at another he advises legislators, governors and officials on the arts of ruling. The beginning of Book 8 betrays his keen interest in political structure and administrative hierarchy, natural in a dignitary of the Church and diplomat. In Chapter 4 of that book he moves to the peak of society, listing the qualities of a good king and the curbs he should impose on evildoers. Olaus pays great attention, too, to the proper conduct of a commander in war, whether he be prince or general (8:25), who must set a brave example to his men, continually encouraging or upbraiding them, both in and out of battle. Kurt Johannesson has emphasized the lack of basic books in Renais­ sance Sweden and believes that part of Olaus Magnus's intention was to provide the nobility with an encyclopedic work to cover all relevant subjects. 1 He took a lead from Peder Mansson, who had written and translated works on topics ranging from mining and agriculture to mari­ time and commercial law. His treatises were in Swedish but still primarily addressed to the leading members of society.2 So, too, Olaus presents practical instruction in the aristocratic arts of government, law and war­ fare, but he wrote in Latin and his work was consequently as open to an international audience as to his educated compatriots. Even when discus­ sing animals and birds, he still thinks of his upper-class countrymen in his precepts on handling dogs, horses or falcons, in his advice on hunting, and, as a matter of importance, in his warning about counterfeit pelts and ways of detecting them. Olaus is a keen and interested observer of the everyday life of ordinary men and women - it is one of his great strengths - but his account is always addressed to the superior social class, for whose benefit he is apt to draw moral lessons from the industry of commoners, their devotion to their families, and their respect for mar­ riage. It seems likely that Olaus got on well with everybody. 1 Johannesson, Gotisk renassans, pp. 246-7 (Renaissance of the Goths, pp. 187-8).

2 For a survey of Peder Mansson's works see KL, XIII, cols 155-7; for an apprecia­ tion, Granlund, 'Peder Mansson'. xxxix

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

The Design of the Historia In his Preface Olaus Magnus modestly hopes that the reader will be sympathetic to his 'immensely tangled work' and in the last chapter of the whole volume he again refers to the 'complicated scheme' of his project, which can no longer be allowed to cause tedium to readers by straying on and on. Yet even a cursory inspection of the contents reveals considered groupings of subject-matter. The first two books are mainly concerned with the meteorological phenomena and physical geography of the North, Books 9-11 provide a manual of instruction on warfare, and the last six books are devoted to natural history. It is also obvious that here in the latter part of the work he is systematically descending through the scale of being, from mankind to insects. He makes this clear in the Preface to Book 20: 'Now that I have dealt with birds of land and water in the preceding book, the scheme of my material spreads and descends to things that live and swim in the ocean and rivers.' The arrangement is not, however, without subtleties. After emphasiz­ ing the harsh but toughening conditions of the northern atmosphere in Book 1, and highlighting several significant regions in Book 2, ranging from inhospitable Greenland with its 'pygmies' to fertile Oland, in Book 3 he looks back to the superstitions of pre-Christian Scandinavia. This enables him not only to describe the old Norse gods and the rituals of their worship but also the magic arts which had been widely practised in those early times and, as everyone believed, still existed in his own day, particularly in more remote areas like Finland. (Book 16, dealing with orthodox religion and the institutions of the Church, represents a coun­ terpart to this in the second half of the Historia.) Book 4, which gives a full treatment of the Lapps, then forms a natural sequel. These 'men of the wild', though still largely pagan, have a way of life which in its simplicity and purity can set an example to their supposedly more civil­ ized neighbours to the south, and vital missionary work remains to be done among them. As a complement to this, Book 5, culled largely from Saxo, recalls early heathens like Starkather, who lived in an age of giants and champions. Here his main aim is to demonstrate the nobility, cour­ age and skill at arms of these 'Goths' of the distant past and to hold them up as models for his countrymen to emulate. The martial exploits of these heroes lead naturally to the long section on warfare, but this needs to be prefaced by a description of mining, metal-working, and munitions (Books 6-7). In the latter part of Book 7 Olaus outlines general prin­ ciples of fighting on different kinds of terrain before he embarks on what amounts to a full-scale treatise on the arts of war, on land, sea, and ice. But even this must be prepared for by a study of leadership, from the functions of the king downwards, for without the skills of government men cannot be trained as soldiers and the realm defended. The appalling

xl

INTRODUCTION

results of Danish aggression, culminating in the atrocities of Christian II (cf. p. xxii above), bring Book 8 to an end. Books 9-11 are then full of military instruction (cf. pp. xlvi-xlvii below), which seems designed both to improve Swedish preparedness at home and to impress on foreigners the impregnable defences of the Swedes, who have Nature herself as their ally. Near the start of Book 12 a poem, the only piece of verse by Olaus Magnus in the Historia, marks a turning-point. He now moves from the arts of war to those of peace. After a swift recapitulation of the first half of his work, finishing with the treaty by which warfare is necessarily concluded, Olaus points out that the craftsman's diligence must now restore what has been destroyed by an enemy. There follows an account of building-materials, houses, and ways of countering a natural hazard like fire. He then proceeds in an orderly way through the topics of food and agriculture to the compacts symbolized by marriage and a king's coronation and to law and education. Midway between formal education and sport is the essential training in archery and swordsmanship described in Book 15, along with leisure activities like festivals, tournaments, games of chess, dancing, playing instruments, painting, and the less reputable entertainments of acting and clowning. The central concern of men and women at any time, however, must be the Christian religion, and Olaus here places his long Book 16 in which he discusses the Church's role in society, not least in schooling the young. From the various activities of human beings he makes a smooth transition in Book 17 to those animals and birds which are employed to serve or amuse them. This is followed in Books 18-22 by an exhaustive account of beasts in the wild. As previously suggested, they are mainly seen as reciprocal to man's pursuits of hunting, fowling and fishing, but great whales and tiny midges equally engage his attention. His enthusiastic curiosity some­ times leads him to include creatures which do not exist in the North, and some indeed which have never existed anywhere. As Johannesson has observed, it is probably not accidental that Olaus executed his design in twenty-two books, or even, despite his disclaimer about not wishing to weary the reader any further, that he finishes Book 22 with Chapter 22. The Old Testament contains the same number of books, and the Hebrew alphabet has twenty-two letters. Nor perhaps is it fortuitous that he quotes from The City of God in his last chapter, since Augustine's work is also arranged in twenty-two books. 1 Nevertheless, if we grant the existence of a firm overall plan in the Historia, we must also recognize that Olaus wanted to discuss many topics which could be fitted into his scheme only with some ingenuity, and that some association or afterthought could easily lead him to wander. 1 Johannesson, Gotisk renassans, pp. 267-8 (Renaissance of the Goths, pp. 205-6). xli

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

In the description of war at sea, for instance, a casual mention of swimming (10:22) leads on to nine further chapters in which this skill is thoroughly treated. At other times a logical sequence is hard to detect. In 1:28, possibly linking the ideas of a pointed tool for cutting and one for making marks, he proceeds from ice-implements to rune-stones, and thence to a section which includes inscriptions, the alphabet, and devices for measuring time. Near the end of Book 22 Olaus apologizes for having forgotten to include pearls in his section on fish and tacks them on to a discussion of ants. Elsewhere there is a clearer process of association. An account of brewing and beers precedes an indictment of drunken be­ haviour, and this in turn introduces a chapter (13:42) on the even more deplorable custom of masquing which, along with paintings of nude women, Olaus condemns wholeheartedly. The egg-laying habits of various birds herald a disquisition on the properties of eggs in general (19:37). Bears' love of honey leads to a note on the huge quantity of honey produced in the Podolia region of Poland (18:28). An example of even freer association occurs in 21:29, where walrus tusks remind Olaus of a story about elephant tusks in the Life of the Emperor Aurelian, and then, because ivory is frequently carved into chessboards and chessmen, he goes on to discuss the use of this game by prospective fathers-in-law to test the characters of young men betrothed to their daughters. The Illustrations In his last chapter Olaus Magnus claims that in its constant variety his treatment of his subject-matter does at least mitigate boredom and, he says, this is also true of the diversity of his illustrations. In the Preface he gives high praise to the skill of painting, which he views as a spur to youths, stimulating them to copy the noble deeds they see depicted in historical subjects, and also as an encouragement to anyone to embrace further knowledge. Taking much of his argument from Bishop Franciscus Patricias (d. 1494), he cites Plato and Cicero in support of the concept of painting as a kind of silent poetry, combining lines, colours, and propor­ tion to create an accurate and pleasing representation of the world. Princes and other eminent persons, whose obligations make it impossible for them to leave their own countries, can receive a trustworthy impres­ sion of other lands and absorb much easy instruction from pictorial art. In harmony with this principle Olaus included woodcuts at the head of most chapters, and in his text he often refers to the accompanying vignette. They range from full-page illustrations (see e.g. p. 30) to smaller pictures portraying an extraordinary range of subjects - snowball fights, weddings, funerals, baths, whalers, bee-hives, snakes, and spiders, to mention just a few. Already before Olaus's time illustrated maps and books were popular, xlii

INTRODUCTION

and Olaus doubtless industriously collected pictorial material and ideas for illustrations in the years leading up to the completion of his Carta marina in 1539. l Many of his map pictures figure again with little or no change of design at the beginning of chapters in the Historia. An example is the portentous 'sea-pig', derived from a pamphlet printed in Rome in 1537, which purported to symbolize the monstrosity of Lutheran lies and heresies (21:27). The ornamental initial letters and some of the woodcuts used in the Historia had already been made for Johannes Magnus's History of the Gothic and Swedish Kings, published a year earlier, and some are taken from other sources: contributions from the younger Holbein's Old Testament illustrations, whose influence is already evident on the Carta marina, and from pictures in a print of Orlando Furioso have been chiefly identified.2 A work popular throughout Europe was Dyalogus creaturarum moralizatus, first printed in Gouda in 1480 and thereafter in numerous Latin editions and translated versions. (The Dyalogus is the first book known to have been printed in Sweden, published in Stockholm in 1483, reproduced in facsimile in Uppsala in 1983.) The origin of some of the pictures on the Carta marina and in the Historia can be traced to the Dyalogus (see e.g. 17:23 and 24, 18:22, 19:37,21:34). An equally popular book was Hortus sanitatis, published in Mainz in 1491 (possibly not the first print) and soon re-issued in both Latin and vernacular editions. The Hortus has also been identified as the source of a number of Olaus's illustrations (see e.g. 17:26, 18:1, 19:13, 22, 39 and 48). Many of the illustrations in the Description must however have been especially drawn to throw light on details of the text they accompany, and not a few, including some adapted from the Carta marina, are of animals, objects or scenes which could hardly have been visualized except by someone from Scandinavia. It seems probable that Olaus first produced sketches himself, but left it to his Italian engraver to complete his pictures with accessory figures, often rather stereotyped. Some Important Topics in the Historia (a) Northern marvels Already in the sixth century, Jordanes, writing about 'Scandza insula', 1 Few sources of the Carta marina pictures have been identified; cf. Lynam, Carta Marina, p. 4; Granlund, 'Efterskrift', pp. 585-6 ('Introduction', p. 24); OM 21: Pref., n. 1. 2 On the illustrations see Granlund, 'Efterskrift', pp. 594-6 ('Introduction', pp. 313). As the source for some of the vignettes and text-pictures Granlund refers to a 1549 print of Orlando Furioso without further identification. There were apparently four Venetian editions in that year, cf. Agnelli and Ravegnani, Annali, I 82-5. Of the two it has been possible to consult one is in quarto and one in octavo, both purporting to be from the press of Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari. They have the same illustrations, and presumably one or the other was Granlund's source.

xliii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

touches on a number of themes that were to become standard in descrip­ tions of the North: the long nights of winter, the beauty of the furs, the Scricfinns, who have no use for corn but live on the animals they hunt. By the time of the Renaissance such wonders of the North had become a commonplace and Olaus Magnus gives a plentiful supply of examples to cater for this developed interest among his more southerly readers. In 1:3 he is already telling a Rip Van Winkle story, located on the German coast and taken from Paulus Diaconus, which he parallels with the wellknown tale of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. But his main emphasis in Book 1 is on the ferocity of the elements. He tells of the north-west wind, Circius, which rages so violently in Iceland that armed horsemen are thrown to the ground like flax (1:10), and in 1:19 he lists many effects of cold, some injurious (lips stick fast to iron if they touch it), others benign (fish can be kept fresh for five or six months without any preservative), and others surprising (it makes nails spring out of walls, doors, and locks). Although he insists on the beauty of a snow-bound landscape, he writes at greater length about the more curious manifestations of Nature, such as the strange celestial phenomena of parhelia and other optical effects caused by the refraction of light by ice crystals in the air. Book 2 is likewise full of marvels: a boiling-hot lake near Vaxjo, men drowned in the seas off Iceland whose spirits appear to their friends, the huge booming sounds that emanate from caves on the shores of Angermanland, the hideous whirlpool in Lofoten (the original Maelstrom), the statues set up as waymarks on mountain passes but reputed to have once been giants, turned to stone by St Olaf for their mockery of devout Christians. In Book 3 Olaus turns to the wonders of folklore and wizardry, like the Finns' practice of selling winds, which can be released by untying magic knots. These arts naturally have their dangerous side, and it is unwise for ordinary mortals to pry too deep. Those, for example, who are curious to view the fettered magician Gilbert in his underground cave on Visingso in Lake Vattern suffocate from the stench and fumes that emerge from it (3:20). In Book 4 we learn about unusual customs among the Lapps: they perform dances in which they collapse into lamentation, they bind the planks of their boats together with reindeer tendons or tree roots, and they clothe their children's heads with birdskins. The most amazing features of the North are, however, reserved for Book 21, on monsters of the deep. Here whales have been magnified through sailors' yarns into ship-destroying leviathans, which can crunch the prow of a ship between their jaws and drown whole crews by spurting cascades of sea-water over them, or sea-serpents that will seize and devour mariners and whose appearance always presages a major calamity in the realm. In corroboration Olaus first quotes (as often, without acknowledgment), and later cites, a famous letter sent about 1520 to Pope Leo X by Archbishop Erik xliv

INTRODUCTION

Walkendorf of Nidaros, describing a Norwegian sea-monster; with the letter he sent 'the horrifying head of another monster' (apparently a walrus). But probably no proofs were needed to convince readers in other parts of Europe that marvels abounded in northern waters. (b) Warfare As an ever-present fact of life in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, war is a predominant feature of the Historia. It is not only pervasive in human relations but extends to the animal kingdom, where various species are in perpetual conflict, especially if it is a case of eat or be eaten. Even bees from different colonies quarrel and engage in hostili­ ties, so that 'each commander will summon his own supporters and the two confronting squadrons will be arranged in battle order' (22:15). When Olaus was completing his work in exile, his country was enjoying a period of comparative calm and prosperity. There had been no invasion for nearly thirty years, the power of Liibeck had been quelled, and the Dacke rebellion, the last of the revolts against Gustav Vasa, had been crushed (p. xxvi above). Nevertheless, from his boyhood onwards, Olaus must have had vivid memories of internal strife, Muscovite hostilities and Danish incursions. Reading the central books of the Historia, one cannot doubt but that Olaus saw his country under threat and counted the arts of defence and retaliation essential in the conduct of national affairs. Olaus devotes some space at the beginning of Book 7 to weapons, and he remarks that men collect these as some of their chief treasures (7:3). The mock battles fought by schoolboys as they defend or attack their snow-built castles (1:23) are seen as preparatory to the sterner stuff of adult conflict, just as exercises in swordsmanship (15:16) and the regular competitions of marksmen at holiday time (15:6) are regarded as vital practice for future battle. Early instruction in horse-riding and swimming serves the same end. Olaus mentions the harsh treatment to which the Spartans and ancient Goths subjected their male infants (8:7), for it was the beginning of a systematic toughening process, one which he strongly advocates for boys of his own day. Even the boisterous 'Pyrrhic dance' round the fire, in which the fellow at the end of the line usually finds himself swung into the flames, is commended for the way it instils endurance and self-discipline in young recruits (15:27). By gifts of handsome armour and weapons princes can encourage youths of noble birth to serve their country (8:9) and not give rein to vicious habits, a constant danger at this age. The pleasure they gain from these donations will palliate the rigours of military training. Efficient leaders, too, are always in demand. The qualities of a good king (8:4) have their counterpart in those of a good army commander (8:25), for without a head to the body the other members cannot perform their proper functions. He must be a shrewd psychologist, capable of assessing xlv

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

the characters of his men, so that he knows when to coax, when to threaten, when to restrain. After initial consideration of arrows and swords, two of the principal weapons of his age, Olaus spends most of Book 7 looking at the prelimi­ naries to engagement with the enemy: summoning men to arms and giving suitable orders to the assembled levies, guarding roads, lighting beacons, setting pointed stakes in the forests or off shore below the waterline, and laying ambushes among the trees. Eventually he comes back to subsidiary implements: caltrops, slings for casting red-hot frag­ ments of iron, and 'hundred-man rollers' - huge piles of logs rolled along to be set on fire under the walls and roofs of a stronghold. Despite its importance, Olaus makes only occasional reference to military training as such (in e.g. 8:15-16). With Book 9 we find what amounts to full coverage of military skills. A good deal of attention is paid to the handling of heavy artillery: cannon, bombards, cannon with clusters of barrels like organ pipes, and an extraordinary triangular piece, which seems more likely to have brought confusion on its users than on the enemy. The major part of the book, however, is taken up with various stratagems, like burning bridges before an advancing army, but in particular with methods of attacking and taking castles, and, for defenders, means of holding out under siege. Different kinds of assault are described: by raft, by sapping, or if the stronghold is on low-lying ground, by flooding a valley. Conversely, Olaus tells how the besieged can detect tunnelling, or how they can maintain food-supplies by grazing sheep on the inner roofs after these have been sown with grass (he is aware of the danger of scurvy). Descrip­ tions of the sieges of Kalmar and the famous battle of Brunkeberg (pp. xxi, xx above) provide historic examples of land warfare and are a warning to foreigners who think of meddling with Sweden. In similar fashion Book 10 gives a brief survey of the various vessels used for sea and river attacks. They include fireships and craft with iron blades fixed to the prow in order to cut through defence works below the waterline. Perhaps even more important are the measures to be taken to protect castles and shores against invasion by water, if necessary by diverting rivers or draining lakes. Instructions are given for screening ships and their crews from missiles, and these lead naturally on to the precautions a naval commander must take, and even to notice of the traditional punishments meted out to mutinous sailors. The book ends with chapters on the importance of swimming, with various instances of warriors in the past who have saved themselves by it. Immediately before this section, however, Olaus recalls an important facet of fighting on land which he had previously neglected, and he now gives his army leader more tuition: how to avoid retreat and how not to be tricked by an enemy's feigned flight. xlvi

INTRODUCTION

Despite the promise of its title, 'Of warfare on ice', Book 11 sees Olaus sidetracked even more than usual from his principal subject. After start­ ing with an account of an engagement between Swedes and Muscovites in the Gulf of Finland, whose frozen surface often becomes a battlefield, he moves into a long digression on the Russians and their perfidies. He does not resume his main theme until Chapter 16, when he describes methods of attacking castles over a surface of ice with siege engines and special protective screens. He pays rather more attention to stratagems of de­ fence: how beleaguered forces can prevent surrounding water from freezing by pouring train-oil into it, or how they should constantly pitch water down over the walls to coat them with ice on the outside. After­ wards he mainly discusses the effects of extreme cold, such as frostbite and the danger that ensues when horses gather balls of snow under their shod hooves. He completes his systematic treatment of warfare with this book, but by the end of it he is again laying down rules for the conduct of rulers and counsellors.

(c) Gustav Vasa Olaus Magnus's references to King Gustav Vasa are generally guarded (cf. p. xxxiii above). It is as if his recognition of Gustav's heroic libera­ tion of his homeland (6:14, 7:5) and his vigorous defence of its integrity thereafter will not allow him to criticize the king directly. His tone tends rather to be one of sorrow and regret as he depicts his brother and himself toiling patiently through years of exile for the honour of their country and sovereign, who is now surrounded by scoundrels and here­ tics (cf. 4:20). Still, like many others, Lutherans as well as Catholics, the Magnus brothers had good reason to regret the crafty, unscrupulous side of Gustav Vasa's character. Olaus points out that in all ages kings have needed wise counsel, and then proceeds to give it (8:33). If a prince does not tend his subjects like a shepherd, but so plunders them that he rules over mere beggars, he is likely to face rebellion. Kurt Johannesson has singled out a number of hints in the Historia which imply that King Gustav is in danger of becoming a tyrant and would do well to reconcile himself with the true Church. 1 After describing King Christian's 'bloodbath' in Stockholm, Olaus ends Book 8 with a sentence which speaks of the miseries that have since increasingly afflicted the Swedish people under oppressive laws. Another significant passage (11:11) contrasts the benevolence and humanity of certain princes in the North before they attain power with the fierce, grasping, suspicious nature they afterwards reveal: even those who had been their closest friends come to feel insecure. In 16:42 there is a formidable list of the evil qualities which characterize proud, overbearing rulers, the true enemies of the human 1 Johannesson, Gotisk renassans, pp. 254-61 (Renaissance ofthe Goths, pp. 193-200).

xlvii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

race. Earlier he has delivered a covert warning, remarking that although the common people have no right of assembly, they will use the occasion of a marriage feast or market day to rise in rebellion against a tyrant (16:19). In the lower right-hand corner of Carte marmathere is a picture of a lion bound to a pillar by a rope, with a mouse gnawing him free. The accompanying motto runs: 'En leo terribilis quern solvit mus laqueatum / Sic magni minima sepe iuvantur ope.' ('See, a frightening lion whose bonds a mouse is releasing. So are great ones often helped by the smallest.') The moral of this fable from Aesop was well known. A century before Olaus made his map, for example, its import was made clear by Bishop Thomas of Strangnas in a letter of expostulation to the regent, Karl Knutsson: 'I wrote to you last that a man should not despise a humble friend, nor a little horse, because they may yet be of some small service in time of need: so, with little strength and good will, the mouse freed the lion.' 1 The message to Gustav Vasa is hard to overlook: a time may come when he will need the aid of the Magnus brothers whom he had so long despised and neglected. Olaus refers to the pattern set almost sixty years before by the regent, Sten Sture, and the archbishop, Jakob Ulvsson (11:41). They had quarrelled through the machinations of troublemakers, but they settled their differences at a private conference and continued in amity for the rest of their lives. The implication is that if only Olaus and Johannes could talk things over with Gustav Vasa a way forward might be found. Time, moreover, will show that the costly tombs of kings and great men will crumble to dust and disappear sooner than the works of learned authors (16:48). Olaus is undoubtedly suggesting that, if there were a reconciliation, he might perform the agreeable task of perpetuating his sovereign's memory. (It is interesting to compare the condemnation of Gustav Vasa frankly voiced by the Magnus brothers in the memorandum to Cardinal Campeggio discussed on pp. xxxiii—xxxiv above.) In 8:4 Olaus sets up a contrasting model, the figure of the ideal prince, Ferdinand the Just of Castile, drawing on the life of him by Laurentius Valla. Would that such a man might exist in the North, writes Olaus wistfully. In him there was no arrogance, nothing but justice and gene­ rosity, especially in the furtherance of learning and true religion. In Olaus's view such a monarch would permit the perfect coalition of lay and clerical authority. For a brief golden age such a benevolent ruler had existed in Sweden, Magnus Ladulas, during whose reign in the thirteenth century no one had need of iron hasps to lock his barns. Magnus, like Sten Sture after him, had been led by schemers to quarrel with the 1 Gisela Vilhelmsdotter, 'Biskop Thomas brev', p. 73 (for the text), pp. 77-8 and 86 (on the date). The fable was also recommended as a lesson for princes by Peder Mansson and Erasmus; cf. Johannesson, Gotisk rendssans, p. 254 (Renaissance of the Goths, p. 193). J

xlviii

INTRODUCTION

Church but had then sought reconciliation: Olaus happily describes the occasion when the king knelt at the feet of Bishop Brynolf of Skara to beg forgiveness (16:29). With such precedents, surely another prince might one day make friends of misjudged prelates?

(d) Religion In the very last sentence of his work Olaus Magnus suggests that anyone who finds the matter in his volume not to his taste would do well to divert his attention to the study of real truth, that is, to religion. It is a subject he constantly turns to in the Historia, for, as he says, only God's support and his own faith in a happy outcome have sustained him through thirtythree years of persecution and exile (16:35). Book 16, in which the function of the Church is comprehensively addressed, is thus central to the Historia, for here he speaks in his rightful role as his country's primate. Religion in a family is a unifying factor, and so was the Church in his native land. Christian feasts, where parishioners make a communal meal under the auspices of the priest, have a beneficial, civilizing influ­ ence (16:16-17). The education of children is given pride of place at the start of the book, for where schools are a direct responsibility of the Church they are also the chief inculcators of virtuous piety and a love of the liberal arts, two of Olaus's intimate concerns. Not least they are the seed-bed for the next generation of clergy. Hence it is vital that there should be a supply of good teachers, and their pay should constitute a generous incentive to their labours. He describes many details of cere­ mony, from the ritual use of candles to the funeral processions and burials of great men (16:47). The language of the Church lends a special tone to this book. It is marked, for example, in the blessings he quotes, including some from a compilation by his fourteenth-century predeces­ sor, Archbishop Birger Gregersson, which are given in extenso. The idea of Christian magnanimity is easily joined in his mind to the virtue of hospitality, for he tells us that this sort of generosity is a natural charac­ teristic of his countrymen, bestowed on them by God. As is not surprising, much of this book is given over to accounts of sacrilege and the punishments justly visited on its perpetrators. The pagan superstitions recorded in Book 3 had been removed by the early missionaries centuries ago, and there is every reason to pronounce anathema on anyone who nowadays wilfully disregards orthodox reli­ gious practices. These include the preachers of impious dogmas, whom the northern princes have allowed to creep into their lands and to introduce a seductive permissiveness. In his autobiographical notes, 1 Olaus harps on 'abominabilis Lutheranismus' and 'inexorabilis barbaries Lutheranorum'. He strikes wherever he can at these heretical infiltrators, 1 See p. xxvi, n. 1 above. xlix

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

even suddenly prompted by his account of fire-fighting in 12:22 to an expostulation against the 'widespread conflagration ... raised by a single, irredeemably damned friar, the apostate Luther'. There are several signs, in fact, that Olaus Magnus took a rigidly traditional stance in doctrinal matters. He feels the faith is in danger if people are allowed to discuss theological questions on their own authority (16:34). Soon after his brother Johannes was elected archbishop in 1524, he was commissioned by Gustav Vasa to oversee a translation of the New Testament into Swedish. Johannes consented and shared out the work among cathedral chapters and monasteries. We do not know whether Olaus disapproved of his brother's undertaking - it seems unlikely - but he disapproved wholeheartedly of the Swedish version printed in 1526 because of Lutheran perversion of the text (cf. p. xxv). Possibly his views hardened still further with the appearance of the whole Bible in Swedish in 1541. In 14:22 and 16:39 he cites with approval a letter from Pope Gregory VII to Vratislav II of Bohemia, which he reads, rather selectively, as authority for condemning any translation of Scripture. 1 Sources and Tradition in the Historia In his Dedication Olaus Magnus says that his reports of strange pheno­ mena and customs can be strongly substantiated on the evidence of incontrovertible authorities, who have described even greater marvels, almost transcending belief. The 'almost' is significant. He makes his attitude clearer in the Preface: so many puzzling or incredible manifesta­ tions of Nature have appeared in the world throughout history that it is far safer to follow the statements and opinions of ancient authors, since these have been tested and approved by time. Pliny, Solinus, and, where appropriate, the Church Fathers therefore become the guarantors for many things that otherwise might scarcely be believed. Two of his authorities are singled out for special commendation, Marcus Aurelius Cassiodorus, the distinguished senator who had served as secretary to a succession of early Gothic rulers in Rome, and Saxo Grammaticus, an invaluable chronicler of Scandinavia's early history, from whom Olaus takes much of his material about the heroic age, especially in Book 5 (see p. lii below). Both these were Christian writers, each with a remarkable, individual style. More recent sources of information were the German humanists, like Albert Krantz and Franciscus Irenicus, and, closest of all to Olaus, Johannes, his brother, whose History of the Gothic and Swedish Kings had blazed a trail of learning for him to follow. Such an array of authorities will save him from making rash blunders and, he humbly adds, it may be that despite his limited talents he may himself have added 1 Cf. Grape, Det litterdra antik- och medeltidsarvet, p. 181. 1

INTRODUCTION

something new to the sum of human knowledge about northern lands. Similarly, in the last chapter of the last book he modestly declares that his loans, like handsome tableware borrowed to please guests, are far richer treasures than the results of his own meagre researches, in­ asmuch as the findings of the most scrupulous men of the past have been proved correct a thousand times before being bequeathed to posterity. 1 The runic inscription in the vignette to 1:29 means: 'Preserve the memorials of the past.' Granlund has calculated that more-or-less verba­ tim excerpts from earlier writers comprise about one-third of the His­ toria, though the quantity varies from book to book, and the amount of quotation in Books 6 to 15, where much of the matter depends on Olaus's own observation, is comparatively small.2 Judged by the number of references, he seems to have found the work of Pliny the Elder an inexhaustible treasure-house. It is easier for us to see that, while many of Pliny's reports are accurate, many are fantastically bizarre. His Natural History, inherited by the Renaissance and ourselves in severely truncated form, is still an amazing collection of material, revealing enormous energy and curiosity about the world, in many ways not unlike those of his Swedish admirer. Olaus's marginal rubric in 1:13, 'Things to be marvelled at rather than examined', can be related to Pliny's attitude, an acceptance of wonders that are perceptible but hardly explicable.3 From Pliny a chain of transmitters passed on this colourful mass of data as part of the repository of knowledge. Thirteenth-century encyclopaedists, like Thomas of Cantimpre and Vincent of Beauvais, plundered Pliny's work, and even when a more scientific investigator like Albertus Magnus, whose researches Olaus leans heavily upon in his books on natural history, recorded his first-hand observations of animals, birds and fish, the Roman author's lore (together now with much from Aristotle) was still passed on indiscriminately wherever uncertainty prevailed. If any­ thing, Pliny's popularity increased from the time he was first printed in 1469. Hundreds of editions were produced and read. Translations spread this familiarity further, and Pliny's marvels, almost all scientifically inde­ fensible, have been known to gain credence even today. Olaus relies on him throughout, sometimes directly, sometimes through the medieval 1 Olaus Magnus departs from his customary deference to other authors in his letter (quoted by Grape, Olaus Magnus. Forskare, p. 124) accompanying the copy of Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sveonumque regibus which he sent to Gustav Vasa in 1554. Referring to his own forthcoming Historia, he tells the king: "There is now at press another book on the glory of Sweden and Gotaland ... far more remarkable than anything ever written [sc. on the subject] from the beginning of the world to the present day.'

2 Granlund, 'Efterskrift', pp. 593-4 ('Introduction', p. 31). 3 Cf. Johannesson, Gotisk renassans, pp. 224-5, 236-7 (Renaissance of the Goths, pp. 170-71, 178-9).

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

encyclopaedists, whether the subject is the habits of the lynx or the appearance of the griffin. The Various Letters of Cassiodorus had been published for the first time by Johannes Cochlaeus (cf. p. xxxv) in 1529. It became one of the Magnus brothers' most cherished books. We may not share their rosy view of the early Gothic kings of Rome, but for Johannes and Olaus the details of court and administrative life provided by Cassiodorus amounted to an imposing picture of their virtuous and cultivated early ancestors. Saxo's Gesta Danorum, written about 1200 and first printed in 1514, presented something of a problem to a Swede. It was a work, admired as a stylistic tour deforce, which glorified the early Danes, the old enemies of Sweden. Some of the ancient heroes might, however, be counted common property, and the hardiest, most obdurate champion of all, Starkather, hailed either from Norway or, as Olaus affirms, from Tavastland in Finland. Rather than allow the Danes all the credit, Olaus occasionally twists Saxo's meaning. In 8:36-37 he follows the example of his brother Johannes in quoting Saxo to demonstrate the ingrained bloodthirstiness and treachery of the Danes, selecting examples of rulers in the Viking age whose ferocity the Danish chronicler had presented as admirable. Another selective use occurs in 7:22, in which an atrocity of the people of Finnveden in Smaland is described. They had stripped some Danish youths and drowned them under the ice of the River Nissan. Saxo referred to the perpetrators as 'barbarians', but Olaus replaced his term with the name of the inhabitants, 'the Finnved people'; and where Saxo wrote of 'this guile practised by a handful of peasants', Olaus adds his own comment, 'that is, by a just revenge'. Olaus made willing use of contemporary historians and commentators. He turned frequently to the Chronicle of the Northern Kingdoms by Albert Krantz (c. 1440-1517), a work not published until the 1540s but known much earlier to the Magnus brothers (Johannes made a copy of it in manuscript while in Liibeck in 1525). The Germaniae Exegesis of Franciscus Irenicus (c. 1493-1559), first published in 1518, was equally utilized; and most of the matter Olaus drew from Tacitus's Germania came to him from Irenicus. The works of Matthew of Miechow (Maciej z Miechowa; c. 1456-1526), with whom Johannes Magnus corresponded about the original homeland of the Goths, contributed information about Poland. Jakob Ziegler (c. 1470-1549) had been in Rome 1521-25, and profited from acquaintance there with Johannes Magnus and Peder Mansson from Sweden and Archbishop Erik Walkendorf and his succes­ sor, Olav Engelbriktsson, from Norway. Walkendorf was in Rome for some months before his death there in November 1522; Olav was there in 1523 on his visit to obtain papal confirmation of his election, and Ziegler speaks of the information he imparted with particularly warm lii

INTRODUCTION

gratitude. Walkendorf, archbishop of Nidaros from 1510, had under­ taken a visitation to Finnmark, probably in 1512, and his description of North Norway in the letter he wrote to Pope Leo X c. 1520 (see p. xlv) depended on his own experience as well as on reading and hearsay. He was interested in Greenland, too, had sailing directions from the four­ teenth century put into Danish, and worked out a set of instructions for a planned expedition, though it never came about. (It is not recorded that Olaus Magnus and Ziegler met - Olaus was in Rome in 1524 - but it seems inconceivable that they did not.) The knowledge Ziegler gained from this learned and zealous group of Northeners was incorporated in his influential Schondia, published in 1532, a book to which Olaus perhaps had all the more ready recourse because he knew the trust­ worthy informants behind it (not that he always agrees with Ziegler). Of a different nature as a 'source' was Sir Thomas More's Utopia, first published in Louvain in 1516, and then in half a dozen editions printed on the Continent in the next forty years or so. (Its early popularity is further attested by sixteenth-century translations into French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and English.) In the circumstances it is not surprising to find that Olaus adopts, though without acknowledgment, nearly two whole chapters of More's vivacious Latin when he proffers advice on good and evil counsellors (8:32-33 and 38). Olaus delights in finding antique parallels to northern customs. Travel­ lers in Scandinavia are accustomed to carry staves, both to lean on and in case the soft, dry snow gives way beneath them. Olaus explains this by reference to Strabo, who tells that travellers in parts of Armenia once did the same, so that if they sank into the snow they could stick the end of the staff above the surface and call attention to their plight (4:13). Reindeer graze with the neck slightly awry, as Solinus says cattle do among the Garamantians of Africa (17:26). We may note the present tense of 'do': it may still be so, as far as Olaus is aware. Some of the most entertaining passages of the Historia occur where he repeats or recasts matter from his sources. St Ambrose wrote on the Creation in his Hexameron, a depiction of the natural world which is suffused with loving imagination. Olaus borrows some of his best passages from Ambrose, the account of reproduction among fish, for example, and of the appearance and habitats of whales (21:16, 21:25). Indeed, we can see from the number of his quotations that the Hexameron appealed to him strongly, and he pays a fitting tribute to Ambrose at the end of 22:10. Another attractive passage, on the duties of bees (22:16), is taken straight from a contemporary Latin version of Aristotle's Historia de animalibus, though Olaus characteristically adds his own note about the weather a beekeeper can expect when his bees fail to emerge from the hive. Much of Olaus's information must have come to him by word of liii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

mouth, not least from the international company he kept while shut up in Stockholm 1520-22 and from the seafarers, merchants and fishermen he met at home, in Norway, the Low Countries and in Gdansk and other Hanse cities of the Baltic. He certainly seems to have taken a good deal on trust. A reader is not immediately convinced by his account of bears in the rigging of a ship (18:33), for example, or of bears in the wild rooting about in ants' nests to stop their noses itching (22:20). Many of his snippets from classical and medieval writers (St Donatus killing a dragon by spitting into its mouth, for instance) are engaging but clearly belong to the realm of folklore. The same is true of other pleasing fables from the animal world, like the story of beavers and badgers using one of their fellows as a sledge (18:5 and 22), which can be traced back as far as the twelfth century, and the story, now known internationally, of squir­ rels going afloat each using his tail as a sail (18:18). But the variety of the folklore in the Historia, whether drawn from books or people, is almost endless. Nevertheless Olaus can be seen to be not wholly undiscriminating. When it comes to portraying the fauna of the North, he says that he prefers Albertus Magnus, who was more closely acquainted with the region, to Aristotle and Pliny, despite their monumental authority (19:49). There are limits to his credulity, and he occasionally appears to have qualms even about his literary sources. Amid a great deal of material on dragons he writes, 'Volaterranus ... has it ('allegat') that there exist serpents a mile long,' but his verb may well imply doubt or suspicion (21:44). He slips in 'traditur' ('people say') when he reports that the skin of a flayed seal still retains some perception of the sea, with hairs that bristle as the tide begins to ebb (20:4). In the light of this, it is interesting to see how Olaus handles the subject of griffins. At the beginning of 19:27 he says that neither Pliny nor Albertus believes they are real, and in the following description he hedges his bets with phrases like '(they) are reckoned', 'we learn', 'we are told'. But the lore is too colourful, too diverting, to jettison, and Olaus gives all the traditional details of their appearance, habitat, hoarding of gold, and their battles with the Arimaspians, cheerfully forgetting that, whether real or not, they can hardly be deemed denizens of the North. Vincent of Beauvais has it that badgers' left legs are shorter than their right, and they can only run away if they find a cart track which allows them to compensate for the difference. This is too much for Olaus, who denies it on the evidence of his own eyes, though not without adding the authority of Albertus (18:23). But on the whole he is reluctant to dismiss a fact or tale on his own authority. Solinus asserts that the beaver castrates itself to prevent hunters gaining the precious castor to be found in its testicles. Pliny repeats the story but doubts its veracity, and Olaus also takes courage to believe that it is unlikely, and to say so (18:6). In other respects he is a liv

INTRODUCTION

child of his age in refusing to question the weight of traditional authority. On one matter, however, he is adamant. Against the scepticism of Herodotus and Pliny he stoutly maintains the existence of werwolves in northern Europe, especially in the south-eastern regions of the Baltic (18:45). The Author's Character and Interests Against his almost slavish adherence to written authority, one must stress Olaus's joy in observation and his sheer curiosity about every aspect of his world. 'Squirrels frolicking over the frozen surface of the snow are a pure delight to watch,' he writes (18:18). The fascination which his environment holds for him is perhaps most prominent in his detailed pictures of human activities. In his emphasis on everyday occupations and leisure pursuits he shows himself a pioneer in the writing of social history. Peder Mansson and others had contributed useful handbooks on technical subjects like mining, warfare, estate management and domestic economy, but the Historia differs in also offering a comprehensive descrip­ tion, in words and pictures, of early sixteenth-century Swedish life, engaging in itself and invaluable for the ethnographer. Not that the ethnographer has no problems to face in dealing with material in the Historia. Olaus can often be corroborated by Scandinavian customs and beliefs recorded in later times and sometimes by international compari­ son, but when he is the sole source of information, the possibility must be borne in mind that he misunderstood what he had seen or heard or that he generalized from a solitary instance. Nevertheless, Granlund, who has made the deepest study of ethnographic aspects of the Historia, conclu­ des that Olaus was incapable of invention and reproduced his own observations with the same literal authenticity as he reproduced his written sources. 1 So, to mention a couple of examples, we may rely on his account of the sword-dance and bow-dance (15:23-24) and of balladsinging as an accompaniment to dancing at festivals (15:10). Preservation of health is an important matter in Olaus's consideration of human activity, and animals and birds provide essential ingredients for medicinal treatment. In the absence of identifiable literary origins, it is often difficult to know whether his recommendations are drawn from foreign or native prescription, though whatever the source he is obviously bent on educating his readers, not necessarily only in Sweden. He counts partridge soup, for example, as invigorating to the stomach, and partridge brains, taken in three glassfuls of wine, as good for jaundice (19:41): but these recommendations are derived from Vincent of Beauvais, and in all 1 Granlund 'Olaus Magnus som folklivsskildrare'; idem, 'Efterskrift', pp. 596-600 ('Introduction', pp. 33-5). Iv

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

probability the partridge had not been introduced into Sweden in Olaus's lifetime. He is more on home ground in talking of hares: if you suffer from gout, stew a hare and steep your feet in the broth; alternatively, tie a hare's kidneys to them (18:11). Some of the prescriptions smack more of folk-magic. One, very likely of German origin, claims that the outer hoof of the right hind foot of a male elk that has not sired, cut from the live animal after mid-August, will immediately cure convulsions and epilepsy (18:2). The later books abound in recipes, ranging from a baked custard for noble ladies (13:18) to a compound for killing bedbugs (22:6). Olaus Magnus set out to satisfy a general curiosity about the North among foreigners, but he also saw himself, as noted earlier, as one of a long line of travellers and researchers who had recorded their investiga­ tions into the nature of things. As one born and bred in the North, he is aware that his own observations are a legitimate complement to what­ ever he draws from the best authors. Since he is the true Renaissance man, wishing to compass all fields of knowledge, there is virtually no­ thing in his environment that his enquiring mind does not touch. Hence, for example, he is the first known writer to consider topics like snowflakes or the level of the sea in the Baltic, and he has many perceptive remarks to make on such phenomena as earth tremors and celestial haloes. 'Although we can never be satisfied in our wonder at and investi­ gation of the world,' he says, 'it is man's misfortune that there are many occurrences for which he cannot supply causes, and he is forced to believe the evidence of his eyes, even when there is an absence of explanation' (21:37). At the end of his volume he refers approvingly to Augustine's statement that it is only our ignorance which assumes that anything in Nature is worthless. It is the duty of the investigator not to condemn something he is unable to grasp, but to make greater effort, in seeking, understanding, and judging, in order to determine what Nature is capable of. Because Olaus subscribes to this philosophy, there appears to be no subject that he will not turn aside to ponder. At one point he digresses to consider why the semen of living creatures is white (21:19). Much of his material comes from Albertus, but the interesting thing is that he is ready to discuss the subject at all. While Olaus's scientific curiosity is boundless, his attempts at taxonomy are crude, in line with the vague notions of species differentiation preva­ lent in his age. Like other early writers on natural history, he arranges his treatment of animals and birds in Books 17-19 mainly in close accord with the alphabetical sequence of their Latin names (this of course is not apparent in the translation). He makes some attempt to distinguish birds by beaks, wings, feathers, and feet (19:2), but his authorities are at odds, and when he makes a bid to list six species of eagle, he mingles these with the osprey, falcons, and even a vulture (19:6). He makes a brave effort to correct Aristotle's and Pliny's grouping of vultures, but again there is Ivi

INTRODUCTION

some confusion with eagles (19:49). Olaus would also like to categorize the main types of fish he describes, and does so in rudimentary fashion according to features such as body covering, shape, colour, and venom. Personal experience is an important element in the Historia, and one can well believe, for instance, that Olaus had watched a fishing community deal with a stranded whale (21:15), and had some first-hand knowledge of beekeeping (22:9-19). He is at his most compelling when speaking on topics with which he is well acquainted: how people on journeys protect themselves against attacks from wolves (18:13, but he also reports here the common folk-belief that wolves catch the scent of pregnant women and make for their unborn children); how coachmen use whale oil for lubricating carriage wheels and tanners for greasing hides (21:21); how to repel midges by sprinkling head and limbs with shoe-blacking mixed with singed and smoked juniper (22:6). And he had surely seen the dancing bears graphically described in 18:32. There are other attractive passages where we have no need to assume Olaus's eyewitness status because he assures us that he is recording his own experience. He tells, for example, how while in Stockholm under siege he got rid of his bladder stones by drinking old beer (13:29); how he and his comrades during that siege found to their surprise that biscuit weevils were not unpleasant to the taste (22:8); and how he and the archbishop of Cologne were the only delegates at the Council of Trent who relished cod (20:14). He recollects the occasion fifty years earlier when, as a schoolboy, a snake spat venom at him as he went to pick juniper berries in the meadows near Vasteras (21:48). At the other end of the scale he makes pardonable mistakes about things he knows only from his reading and can hardly conceive: to him, for instance, the hippopotamus is 'a fish in the River Nile' (21:38). The notion, just mentioned, that wolves prefer to attack pregnant women exemplifies a whole range of popular beliefs which Olaus seems anxious to record, though it is not entirely clear how far he put faith in them. 1 He registers other fancies about expectant mothers: a cock crow­ ing wards off evil spirits and is lucky for a woman in childbirth (19:12); if she eats hare or jumps over the head of one while she is pregnant, her child will be born with a hare-lip (18:11). There are various predictions from the behaviour of birds, many of them to do with the weather and some perhaps well founded (e.g. in 19:29). Other statements suggest 1 Cf. his accounts of wizardry in Book 3 (pp. xl, xliv above). In a letter of 1548 to Cardinal Marcello Cervini (Buschbell, Briefe, pp. 43-4) Olaus appears willing to take seriously an old prophecy, which he has to hand in German, foretelling momentous events in the current year, including the death of Charles V and insurrection in Sweden and Norway. The inventory after his death records the existence (in a dark lower chamber) of 'certi libri secreti artis archimiste'. But such interests were far from singular in his time, among learned and unlearned alike. His toleration of 'superstition' is, of course, related to the Augustinian precept referred to above, p. Ivi. Ivii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

belief in a kind of sympathetic influence. People who sleep under glutton skins will experience dreams connected with violence and greed (18:8); those who go to bed in houses with whalebone frames are liable to dream that they are labouring on the high seas (21:24). And although the pagan gods have been banished, there are still demons in the earth to do mischief to miners, and mermen in the sea to cause trouble for mariners. As a writer and churchman of his time Olaus Magnus has a natural fondness for emblems and symbols. He liked Ziegler's interpretation (Ziegler perhaps had it from Johannes Magnus) of the custom of Lapp parents striking fire from flint at weddings to ratify the marriage and its hopes, and repeats it verbatim: 'for as the flint holds inside itself fire ... so in either sex there is a life concealed, which at length, as a result of their reciprocal tie, is brought into the open to become a living child' (4:7). This interest in symbolism is nowhere more apparent than in his treatment of birds and animals. Different species had, of course, long been stamped with appropriate human qualities, and folktale is full of examples, from Renard the Fox to Brer Rabbit. Churchmen were quick to demonstrate moral lessons from natural history, as may be seen in medieval woodcarving and sculpture as well as in sermons and exempla. Man, asserts Olaus, could learn to live peacefully in society, as do many kinds of animals and fish. It hardly needs saying that the glutton was specifically created to shame people who display the same voracious habits (18:7). The significance of the sly fox has not radically changed even today. Olaus has two chapters 'de dolis vulpinis' (18:39-40), includ­ ing a graphic description of the fox lying on its back with its tongue lolling out, ready to snap its jaws as soon as unsuspecting birds descend. He tells us that treacherous animals of this sort are usually punished in the end, but in this case a reader feels that he is more eager to depict what he believes to be the natural behaviour of the fox than to point a moral. 1 The moralizing mentality of the middle ages is strong in him, yet at the same time he looks forward to an age when scientific observation be­ comes a paramount requirement. He often betrays an Ambrosian delight in living creatures for their own sake: cf. the astonishment he displays at the miraculous intricacy of insects in the Preface to Book 22. Symbolic interpretation becomes much more frequent when Olaus writes on birds. Already in Chapter 3 of Book 19 he takes a cue from Cassiodorus and equates birds and human beings, distinguishing between the rapacious solitary and the honest gregarious kind. In later chapters we learn that geese can teach mankind to preserve silence, that storks offer a model of love and respect for marriage and family, that crows should be imitated for their chastity, that Alexander the Great learnt his 1 For such a moral interpretation see e.g. Rowland, Animals with Human Faces p. 77.

Iviii

INTRODUCTION

vigilance from cranes, and, more surprisingly, that the vulture represents a pattern of dutiful conduct. Medieval commentators, following Fulgentius, had interpreted the raven's cry as the Latin 'eras, eras' ('tomorrow, tomorrow'), but Olaus gives it his own bitter twist: 'a very common phrase in the mouth of every promiser, and the ruin of many' (19:19). In the chapter entitled 'On paying heed to the good nature of birds' (19:26), we are again enjoined to learn salutary lessons from them. Later this is paralleled by 'A fine comparison between the nature of fish and men' (21:41). Whales, too, are seen as a wonderful example of parental devo­ tion, to an extent seldom discerned in mankind (21:16). The octopus, on the other hand, which loses its strength when in heat, should teach princes not to lead dissolute men out to battle (21:34). The Preface to the final book does not allow us to forget this didactic theme: ants remind us of diligent application, the spider issues a call to work, and locusts have such a system of equity that they can observe order in flight without a leader - though men cannot stick to their obligations even under a magistrate. Bees are manifestly good creatures. It is therefore not sur­ prising that 'thieves, pimps, and women during menstruation have a most detrimental effect on them' and they are made uncomfortable by couples making love near their hives (22:12). In this Olaus follows Pliny and Palladius, but his graphic account of how drunken men enrage bees, to their own painful cost, appears to be his own contribution (22:15). We meet Olaus face to face, as it were, when he is giving vent to animosity, occasions which often bring out his most forceful writing. He misses no opportunity to show his own nation's superiority over the Danes, even boasting that there were kings in Sweden and Gotaland 1370 years before the time of Dan, the legendary founder of the Danish kingdom. Many examples of Danish atrocities are scattered through the Historia, and Olaus is never happier than when cataloguing Danish defeats, a series which culminates in the 'liberation' war of his own lifetime. In 7:22 he gives a vivid picture of the sorry foe, limping home amid the rigours of winter, ragged, wounded, and harassed by the inhabi­ tants. In 8:38 he broaches ways in which the other Scandinavian realms could co-exist with Denmark, for example by forging kinship ties through marriage. Such means had been tried in earlier centuries, but predictably had come to nothing, foiled by Danish haughtiness. This ingrained hostil­ ity is one reason why Olaus embarked on a monumental work glorifying his own nation, intended as a counter to the patriotic history of Saxo, who some three centuries earlier had impressively extolled the feats of the Danes. Olaus's dislike of the Russians is hardly less bitter. They are cruel and cunning without exception, cheats and brigands (cf. e.g. 4:5. 6:13,18:19, 20:2). The Grand Duke of Muscovy is typical in his barbarity (11:11). Olaus reserves his full fury and contempt for Lutherans. Worthless, lix

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

deceitful, sadistic, seditious, and sacrilegious, no term of abuse is spared for these devils incarnate (see e.g. 6:6, 9:35, 14:2 and 15, 16:35). His language grows lurid when he thinks of them: thanks to them, it is now thought legitimate at a coronation to smear a king 'like turnips with pigfat from the kitchen' (14:5). They are capable of bringing in false weights and measures (13:47), but worse is their attitude to sex: they induce immodesty in women and are brazen enough to enjoy nude painting and statuary, calling it fine art (13:50). It was the permissiveness of Lutheranism which led to a public display of shameless dancing in Gdansk in 1530 (15:11). Conversely, Olaus gives high praise to the nuns in Liibeck and Rostock, who stoutly resisted Protestant persecution (16:35). These are the understandable feelings and prejudices of a Catholic dignitary at the time of the Reformation, and indeed many of his pronouncements stem from the natural predilections of a man with his background. But if only the Gothic heroes of old were alive today, they would deal fittingly with these filthy heretics! Moral comment occurs repeatedly in the Historia. A mention of Nero prompts a reflection from the book of Wisdom, 'The just man should be merciful' (18:14). Description of the eavesdropping habits of the Corycaeans leads to observations on busybodies (10:9). People in Vastergotland tend to gorge themselves on sweet, imported fruits, so they are liable to contract disease and even die through their greed - a lesson to everyone that an ungoverned appetite spells torment and anguish (2:22). Like many other critics of modern manners, Olaus harks back to the 'good old days'. In the past the sons of noblemen were brought up rigorously, not pampered as they are today (18:41). The Gothic Queen Amalasuintha is contrasted with degenerate modern women. Elsewhere he inveighs against present-day fashion, garments immodestly slashed which offer small evidence of chaste minds (18:21; cited pp. Ixvii-lxviii below). He suddenly fulminates at ladies who delight in decking them­ selves with pearls (22:21), and he is revolted by their use of 'gluey cosmetics', even warning them about the ravaging effect such poisons will have on their looks (14:14). He takes perhaps particular pleasure in recounting the penalties and mocking exposure to which sexual offenders are subjected (3:21, 14:16). The Gothic Inheritance In his allusions to and quotations from classical authors, Olaus seeks to find as many precedents and parallels as he can to apply to his own day. He has high esteem for Spartans and Romans, but still greater reverence for the tough, honest, clean-living Goths, his countrymen's ancestors, whose achievements had been described and lauded in his brother's History of the Gothic and Swedish Kings. They were not the barbarian

Ix

INTRODUCTION

vandals pictured by the Italian humanists, but a race of men who em­ braced justice and piety and liberated the Mediterranean lands from corrupt, oppressive rulers. Petrarch and his followers had little love for the ancient Goths, savages responsible for the sack of Rome in AD 410 and the beginning of the Dark Ages. For centuries 'Gothic' was to signify everything that was uncivilized and uncouth, and in their enthusiasm for classical Rome even artists like Vasari were to equate so-called 'Gothic' architecture with barbarism. But a counter-movement soon sprang up among German humanists, encouraged by the Reformation and wide­ spread anti-Italian sentiment. Turning to the authentic early sources, they sought to rehabilitate the Goths and claimed them as their own noble and heroic ancestors. Their ideas were stimulated by the redis­ covery of Tacitus's Germania, first published in Venice in 1470, in which the author had deliberately depicted the German tribes as uncorrupt and manly, implicitly comparing them with his effete Roman contempor­ aries. Albert Krantz, Franciscus Irenicus and other Renaissance writers in Germany warmly endorsed this view of their ancient forebears. The Germanic tribes had emigrated from their homelands, as the Goths had reputedly done from Sweden; they had established great kingdoms across Europe and finally embraced Christianity. When he came to formulate his account of the Gothic and Swedish kings, Johannes Magnus bewailed the fact that so few historians in the North had written adequately about their early ancestors. This dearth leads him to rely heavily on the compilation made by Jordanes from the lost Origin of the Goths by Cassiodorus. Jordanes, himself a Goth from the Balkans, completed his summary in 551. In it he preserves what is probably a folk-memory, telling of a migration of Goths from Scandza to Gothiscandza (probably East Pomerania and the region round the mouth of the Vistula). Cassiodorus had confused the Goths and the Getae, a tribe on the Lower Danube, of whose existence there is no record after the first century of our era. Jordanes thus speaks of the great antiquity of the Goths and Getae, superior in wisdom and bravery to all other barbarians. The Scythians, and sometimes even the Amazons, were also assimilated to the Gothic race. By the time Johannes Magnus repeated these legends, with many later accretions, the descent of the Goths was traced through the Scythians from Magog, son of Japhet and grandson of Noah, who found his way to present-day Finland and then sailed across to Sweden. Thus, the people he led, the Goths (or Getae), were an older and more religious race than the Romans. Unfortunately, like other tribes, they became idolaters (hence the building of the temple at Old Uppsala), though they were still able to pass on some of their antique virtue, valour, and wisdom to their progeny. An early member of the race, Zalmoxis, came as a slave into contact with Pythagoras and re­ turned to educate his countrymen. Ixi

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

The image of the early Goths as principled and God-fearing men had been lent authority by Augustine. In The City of God (I 7) he empha­ sized the humanity of Alaric and his Visigoths when they captured Rome. The fall of the city was due to God's vengeance but the Goths were His tools, and their extraordinary clemency must be attributed to Christ. In his Histories against the Pagans Orosius, Augustine's pupil, exalted the Goths still further, stressing their divinely-inspired courage and sense of justice. This reading of history passed on to Cassiodorus and through him to Jordanes. In fifth-century Gaul Salvianus took the same view and on occasion even spoke of the Goths as the educators of the Romans. Spain had a still longer claim to be a Gothic realm, and an influential champion of Gothic virtues appeared in Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636). He, too, wrote a history of this flourishing race, again tracing them back to Magog, and praising the worth of these conquerors of Europe. Swedes eagerly seized on the account of the Goths' original migration from their country, and by the middle of the fifteenth century they were beginning to see the fortitude of these supposed ancestors as a model for their own behaviour (cf. p. xviii above). The speech delivered at the Council of Basel by Bishop Nicolaus Ragvaldi, claiming precedence because of the Swedes' Gothic origin, is given full treatment by Johannes Magnus in his History of the Gothic and Swedish Kings. This work was widely read in Europe and fully appreciated for its glowing patriotism in Sweden, even by Gustav Vasa and his sons, to whom Olaus Magnus sent copies on its publication in 1554. l In his Preface Johannes explains that, when acting as Swedish representative at the Curia in the time of Leo X, he realized that the noblemen of his country had entirely forgotten the ancient Gothic virtues, and that he has written his book to rouse his compatriots to embrace those virtues once more. He shows Berik, who first led the Goths from their native land, as a consummately persuasive orator and then goes on to describe the invincible prowess of the Goths as they defeat one Roman emperor after another. When Johannes writes on the Ostrogoths and their Italian campaigns, he chiefly follows Procopius, but gives him a decidedly pro-Gothic slant, stressing the courage of the Goths and the treachery of the Byzantines (called 'Romans' by Procopius). Theoderic is an important figure be­ cause as a youth he learnt Roman manners at the Byzantine court before returning to the Goths and becoming their king. According to Johannes, the Italians appeal to him to liberate them from the tyranny of the German, Odoacer. Unfortunately Theoderic's successors did not live up to his standard, and Belisarius was sent to win back Italy for the Emperor 1 See Johannesson, Gotisk renassans, pp. 270-85 (Renaissance of the Goths pp. 207-29). Ixii

INTRODUCTION

Justinian. But even now the last Ostrogothic kings distinguish them­ selves. Totila is intelligent and trustworthy in traditional mould, and when he eventually retakes Rome, he makes his troops show the utmost respect for churches and shrines, as well as for the lives of citizens. Finally, however, Gothic fortunes turn when a huge army, which in­ cludes Langobards, Huns and Persians, is sent against them. King Teias, another fine orator, manages to hold out for three months, and three years after his death the last Goths capitulate to Justinian. Nevertheless, Johannes claims, the stock persists, and representatives can still be found cloaked under the name of Italians, especially in regions of Italy where the inhabitants have a reputation for kindness and generosity to strangers. After this he moves to the Visigoths, naturally adducing the testimony of Augustine and Orosius when he describes Alaric's leniency in the con­ quest of Rome. He sees the Visigoths as finally liberating Spain and Gaul from the Roman yoke and making the foundation of new kingdoms possible. The kings in Spain were converted from Arianism to the true faith by the end of the sixth century, but they were succeeded by tyrants who received their punishment when the country fell to the Saracens. Olaus Magnus clearly absorbed all his brother's facts and fancies about the Goths and in his Historia reflects the same attitude towards them. In describing Gotland (2:24) he affirms that this was the Goths' first stopping-place after they left their homeland. Zalmoxis appears again with Diceneus (both come ultimately from Herodotus's account of the Getae) as great educators, who believed in the immortality of the soul. Through this they can be directly connected with Pythagoras, though Olaus gives them precedence in time (3:20). In the Preface Augustine is again cited in support of the claim that the Visigoths were the most merciful of the barbarian invaders of Rome, and in 16:24 there is an extended description of their clemency, a quality also displayed by rulers of the Ostrogoths. Pride of place goes to Theoderic. It was he who re­ established the true Roman state, originally overthrown by Julius Caesar, and his justice and compassion, affirmed by the letters of Cassiodorus, are frequently recalled (e.g. in 9:43, 16:5 and 22). High praise is also given to Amalasuintha, Theoderic's daughter and mother of King Athalaric, who is presented as a model of womanhood, particularly distinguished for her sense of equity. Olaus extols the heroism of his ancestors: he tells of the tough upbring­ ing of their children (8:7), of the images of their weapons, standards, and shields carved on rocks (2:25), and of many instances of their bravery, especially in single combat, as related by Saxo (e.g. in 5:25). There were also fine builders among them, one of whom was Scarinus, founder of the ancient capital of Skara and the royal castle at Arnas (2:21). Olaus is excited to tell his readers of a legal book in Gothic script (presumably runes), discovered in Perugia in 1538 and given to Johannes to decipher, Ixiii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

for this proves to him that descendants of Goths still inhabit Italy (14:25). At the end of his volume he gives a list of Latin words which he claims still have near equivalents in Swedish. His idea seems to have been to show that the Goths left their mark on the speech of the Mediterranean lands they conquered. 1 Olaus's antiquarian interests are in constant evidence, often associated with his patriotism, for he is anxious to see constitutional laws and traditions as derived from the distant past. He is interested in ancient religious practices, though he shares with other writers the idea that the early pagans were deluded by the tricks of beings no better than jugglers, who encompassed them 'in the nooses of idle credulity' (3:4). He begins Book 8 by examining the ancient custom of electing as king the most dependable and altruistic member of society in a ceremony held at the Mora stone near Uppsala, a rite that can be traced back through many generations in the provincial laws of Sweden, and he follows this by looking at the old ways of taking oaths in northern lands. Sometimes he reveals interest in historic artefacts and customs for their own sake. He devotes a chapter to a description and interpretation of runic writings (1:29), and later comments on the ancient custom of hanging the dead bodies of princes in oak groves as a votive offering to the gods (16:37). Whenever he can, he likes to trace present-day practices to the Goths: setting up lodgings on ice in winter for the use of travellers is one example (1:26). Art Appreciation and Humour in the Historia There is no lack of talent in northern lands, says Olaus, but there are few eminent painters because the facilities do not exist for proper training. Nevertheless he singles out a certain Augustinus as a notable exponent of religious art; he worked in Vadstena monastery not long before 1500 and he is especially praised by Olaus for his depictions of the Passion (13:50). In his Preface Olaus discusses the ways in which a viewer is affected by a painting and does so in terms which show his own close appreciation of the techniques and impact of the art. He says that painting 'borders closely on the study and knowledge of the liberal disciplines, so much so that any man who loves the pursuit of letters would do well to embrace this craft too.' If we are right in thinking that he made the original sketches of northern subjects from which a good many of his woodcut illustrations were prepared, he evidently followed his own advice. He certainly seems to have had an artist's eye for beauty and a feeling for shape, light, and colour (see e.g. 9:34, 13:48). 1 The list, not included in the present translation, is analysed by Granlund, Kommentar, p. 559. Olaus's etymologies are inevitably quite unscientific. Ixiv

INTRODUCTION

Nature is the most consummate artist of all, so it is proper for crafts­ men to imitate her design of the snowflake on pottery and textiles (1:22) or the colours of the peacock's plumage in painting (19:39). Women who weave tapestries in the North copy the forms of flowers, the rainbow, or the reflection of leaves in sunlit water (13:48). His interest in art has its corollary in the graphic descriptions he gives of the world about him. His distant scenic view of the mountains between Norway and Sweden must be among the earliest of its kind in European literature: the perpetual snows make it appear as if bright clouds had solidified high up in the air (2:15). Salmon going upstream are 'like soldiers in glittering armour beneath the hot sun', although Olaus is oddly mistaken about their palered eggs, for he notes that they show 'a surface beautifully speckled with black dots' (20:3). He seems to show genuine aesthetic appreciation in describing how at night herring resemble flashes of lightning in the churning water when a swift-moving shoal suddenly turns back on itself (20:29). The tone of wonder in which he reminds us of the minute intricacy of spider's webs also reveals his ready response to Nature (22:1). In closely observing and warmly admiring her amazing manifesta­ tions, Olaus Magnus becomes a literary artist. The general tone of the Historia is one of sober, factual exposition, interrupted now and then by an outburst of anger at the enemies of the author and his nation. His indignation is occasionally touched by sardo­ nic humour. He tells, for instance, of the many futile attempts made by Danes to harass Vastergotland, but when they reached the Holveden forest by Lake Vattern, 'they at once found their graves, and were saved the necessity of marching on to further tribulations.' He adds that here, if not sooner, the Danish troops customarily got their first pay - in steel (20:18). An army invading Sweden is reduced to frustration, even to mutiny, through the "despicable resistance and cunning of the natives' (7:15). A lighter humour is evident in many of Olaus's examples of word­ play (cf. p. Ixviii below). Near the start of a section on the exploits of famous hunters he introduces the subject with a neat pun: 'To console people in the North [for lack of mention of such activities in their literature], it is only right to go hunting ('venari') elsewhere for noble instances' (18:42). And at the head of the following chapter on fighting wild beasts he has a rather whimsical zeugma: 'To prevent this pursuit ('venatio') from straying still farther among vast wildernesses and foreign examples ...' Olaus occasionally employs ridicule, in a way that suggests he had at least an elementary sense of fun. He mocks Paulus Jovius (unjustifiably, as it happens) for swallowing a story about the Muscovites punishing hardened criminals by dripping icy water on their heads; or perhaps, he conjectures, Jovius had not properly understood the Russian emissary who told him the tale (11:31; Jovius is again the target in 20:27). Ixv

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Instances also occur, however, where it seems likely enough that Olaus was himself taken in by informants (see e.g. 2:11 (ii), n. on the vignette, and 9:30, n. 2). He offers a wry and self-deprecating comment when he refers to the problem of knowing what Latin terms to use for the great variety of fish found in northern waters but not in the Mediterranean: Though their actual names cannot be derived from Greek or Latin, nor signified in those languages, they may very easily be forgiven because of their delectable flavour, for it is little use racking your brain over nomenclature ... when your stomach is famished ...' (20: Preface). Olaus can appreciate the entertainment value of jousting between squint­ ing or one-eyed men, but it is not ridiculous for, as he hastens to tell us, even such men, suitably trained, can achieve distinction on the battlefield (15:20). The Style of the Historia At the end of the Preface Olaus tells an anecdote about Favorinus, a rhetor and philosopher in the time of the Emperor Hadrian. Hearing a youth using an affected antique vocabulary, he advised him to 'live according to the manners of the past, but talk in the language of today'. Olaus is here defending what he calls his own 'simple, plain, and almost colloquial type of speech', that is, the everyday Latin of his time, which was as familiar to him as his mother-tongue and of far more use to him in conferring with colleagues wherever he went. One of the Magnus brothers' supporters in Rome was Cardinal Bembo (1470-1547), the most distinguished Italian proponent of Ciceronianism in the early six­ teenth century. The stylistic movement he represented would, ideally, not countenance the use of any word that Cicero himself had not em­ ployed. The demand was rejected by others, most influentially by Eras­ mus, who in his Ciceronianus (1528) argued that a language should grow naturally and not be fossilized. With Latin still the lingua franca of European scholars, this was a reasonable stance to take and although Olaus Magnus did not approve of Erasmus, he would hardly have dis­ agreed with him on this. That Olaus was capable of high style is proved by his Dedication, with its long periods packed with participial phrases, subordinate clauses, and sentence divisions carefully built up: the first full stop does not occur until the second page. This is the most florid piece of Latin in the Historia, probably more elaborate than any piece in the eloquent human­ ist style of his brother Johannes. The Preface is not quite as ornate, but it was obviously composed with care and, with the Dedication, it offers severer stylistic problems to a translator than any other parts of the Historia. Apparently anxious to divert criticism, Olaus again insists in his Preface that the reader should attach more importance to his good faith Ixvi

INTRODUCTION

and undeviating respect for truth than to his manner of writing. Another brief apologia comes in 20:27: 'My own works are austere, concerned as they are with the hardiest of races.' Indeed, when he is well into his subject-matter, he often makes little attempt to embellish his simple, factual statements, and we may well believe that this was his straight­ forward workaday Latin, used by deliberate choice. A typical example may be found in his account of the Stockholm fish-market in 20:24. His epistolary style is similarly brisk, with an occasional indignant exaggera­ tion or half-whimsical simile. Kurt Johannesson has noted Olaus's penchant for including vivid pic­ tures in his writing, some of them grounded in the Bible or saints' lives, some in classical myth. 1 This relates to a humanist trend, much favoured as a counter to scholastic abstraction, in which argument and instruction are conveyed by anecdotes, fables, and proverbs, and reinforced by deft employment of metaphor and simile. It is a style which has much in common with the word-pictures painted in medieval sermons, so that Olaus may appear now as a learned humanist, now as a popular preacher. An instance of such pictorial detail, with a distinctive moral slant, comes in his consideration of the behaviour of different types of men in battle (7:19): Normally the first to fly are those who are the greatest chatterers and babblers in taverns or at gatherings, for they quickly melt away like seafoam. Again there are the womanish ones, whose bodies are void of manly courage, seeing that their whole imagination is bound captive in the bosom of some slut.

Indeed, on closer inspection we find that Olaus's literary accomplishment can match his power of observation. His ability is evident, for example, in the encomium on Bishop Antonio del Monte in 16:49. It is a wellwrought and sincere compound of personal reminiscence and praise­ worthy, but distinctly individual, features of the cardinal's character. Book 16, on Church institutions, has a character of its own, because it not unnaturally contains much liturgical language and Biblical quotation, complemented and varied by the style of the warnings and anathemas addressed to the sacrilegious and heretical. But the cadences of the pulpit appear occasionally in other parts of the Historia, sometimes unex­ pectedly. Discussion of the ermine in 18:21, for example, leads to men­ tion of the use of its fur for garments, and then, with sustained metaphor: But, alas, fashion has now reached such a point that, with no heed given to respectability, clothes are slashed into a thousand sections, and reveal by their openings that scant shame, innocence, or safety for chastity dwell 1 Johannesson, Gotisk renassans, p. 223 (Renaissance of the Goths, p. 169).

Ixvii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

within that house, when the entire outside wall is either broken by door­ ways, or has all this number of open windows for the admittance of thieves.

Olaus Magnus is, of course, disposed to rely on earlier authors for much of his information. One imagines him rummaging through his notebooks before copying out long passages on this or that topic, fre­ quently forgetting to acknowledge the source and sometimes overlooking the fact that they have only a tenuous connection with the matter in hand. One would often like to give him credit for a splendid piece of writing, only to discover that he has lifted it whole from one of his sources (see e.g. 9:25 from Agathias, or 21:33 from Cassiodorus). The notes on the translation will show that sometimes a whole chapter is a tissue of borrowings from various authorities. Renaissance writers did not share our attitude to plagiarism, and it might be said that some of Olaus's borrowed plumes, like several of the extracts from Ambrose's Hexameron, for example, provide a picturesque contrast to his own more mundane style. In the years when Olaus wrote up the whole Historia, with printing in mind, he was either side of sixty and undoubtedly in haste to finish it. That may help to account both for his inclination to borrow wholesale and for a certain carelessness. Signs of hasty composition are not want­ ing and information is sometimes compressed to the point of obscurity. On the other hand, there is no gainsaying that Olaus has a feeling and fondness for language. Word-play in lighter mood was mentioned ear­ lier, and there are other instances where he seems to be punning on a word's two meanings. In 2:25, for instance, he says of the haven of Hango, 'omnes ... navigantes libere recipit in suum sinum', translated here, in an attempt to capture the double sense of 'sinus', as 'all mariners ... are received without hindrance into the bosom of its bay.' A twist of association is suddenly given at the end of a chapter on dogs (17:6). Olaus reports that Henry VIII of England sent an army which included 400 dogs to help Charles V against the king of France. Olaus wishes that these monarchs would compose their differences and join forces to destroy 'canes Turcicos', 'those dogs of Turks'. Olaus could certainly shape and turn an elegant sentence when he chose, and he could write well-constructed forceful passages, in particu­ lar when using the figure of congeries, piling up words, phrases, or parallel clauses for special effect. In the following sentence on tyrants from 16:42 the figure effectively serves to emphasize the writer's indigna­ tion: Severity, harshness, harassment of their subjects, extortion from them, and oppression of the innocent ensure that princes, ruined by excessive pride, reach such a pitch of obstinacy that they despise peace, spurn wholesome advice, and become stubborn of intent, dull of judgment, in purpose Ixviii

INTRODUCTION

incorrigible, in avarice insatiable, insufferable in the tributes they impose, disturbers of others' quiet, harsh, grim, ferocious, inflexible, inexorable, and crammed with a throng of vices of every sort, caring nothing for anybody.

(Cf. other instances, where he is again inveighing against the pitiless cruelty of overlords, in 8:38 and 9:26.) A rather more elaborate pattern, skilfully composed and depending on anaphora, is found in 8:1, where he outlines the qualities necessary in a man who is to be elected to the throne. It begins with a relative clause which piles up four objects before its infinitive verb: 'qui bonum publicum, regnique gloriam, pacem et concordiam semper tueri visus est', and this is followed by no fewer than five parallel relative clauses, of slightly varying length, before they are all picked up by the main clause: 'is ... rex appellandus elevatur.' Translating the Historia Apart from the Dedication and Preface, the fairly plain Latin of the Historia generally presents no major problems to the translator. Once or twice Olaus sets a puzzle by amusing himself with word-play, but far more taxing are some of the excerpts he quotes from one of his favourite books, Cassiodorus's Various Letters, which are cast in a self-consciously rhetorical and poetical mode. (Their level of difficulty is indicated by the fact that they have never been translated complete into any modern European language.) A chapter like 21:33, which is all from Cassiodorus, therefore presents a stimulating challenge. The real problems occur in the subject-matter, for Olaus encompasses such a wide range of Renaissance knowledge and technicalities, from refining metals to setting traps for wild animals, that it is hard for a nonspecialist to follow him everywhere, especially when, as in the case of traps, Olaus himself seems rather vague about how a particular mechan­ ism works (see e.g. 18:9). A translator should desirably also be familiar with a host of other matters, diseases of horses and falcons, for example, subjects for which it has sometimes been necessary to seek the aid of experts. Granlund's massive commentary on the Historia has fortunately made it possible to surmount a great many of the obstacles, and some further help has been given by the late medieval Latin-Swedish glossary published by E. Neuman. This establishes, for instance, that 'siligo' and 'siligineus' refer not to wheat as in classical Latin, but always to rye, as one might expect in sixteenth-century Sweden. When Olaus complains about the difficulty of finding Latin names for northern fish (cf. p. Ixvi), he strikes a sympathetic chord in the translator. His nomenclature can remain enigmatic - does 'orchis' refer to a flounder of some kind? - is 'boctis' a turbot? The bird and fish glossaries of D'Arcy Thompson have proved indispensable, and the same is true of Ixix

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

articles by John Bernstrom in the Kulturhistorisk Leksikon (cf. p. xii above). But the present translator has often looked up a word in Lewis and Short or the Oxford Latin Dictionary only to be confronted with no more than 'the name of a fish', perhaps with a reference to Pliny. In 20:32 we read of a fish called 'salpa', caught off Ibiza, where it is regarded as a delicacy, though elsewhere considered repulsive and in any case it needs beating with a stick before it can be properly cooked. The Swedish translation keeps 'salpa', which Granlund identifies as Sarpa salpa but says there is no name for it in Swedish. Grzimek's useful Animal Life Encyclopaedia does not list it, but a Multilingual Dictionary of Fish and Fish Products, published by the OECD, has it as a kind of sea-bream called the goldline. Thompson uses its French name, 'saupe', illustrates it, and helpfully informs us that it is common in the Mediterranean, especially round Algiers and Sete on the south coast of France (Ibiza is about midway between the two). The New English Dictionary, used throughout the translation as a general arbiter, unfortunately gives neither 'saupe' nor 'goldline', but has an entry for 'salpa', described as obsolete, last recorded in the 1706 edition of Edward Phillips, A New World of English Words, where we find 'Salpa or goldlin; a sort of fish'. The final decision here was to net Thompson's 'saupe'. But the translator of Olaus has his rewards, like the reader, for at every turn he comes on some fascinating surprise. The Popularity of the Historia Johannes Magnus's grandiose account of the Gothic and Swedish past came to be treated with diminishing respect abroad, but it made its mark on the ideology of Sweden's 'Great Power' period, its influence strength­ ened by the Swedish translation published by Ericus Schroderus in 1620. In the long run it was Olaus's work which gained wider and more lasting fame. For two hundred years and more it served European scholars as their chief key to knowledge of Scandinavia; and modern researchers still turn gratefully to his text and his pictures to find warrant for origins and continuity in many branches of ethnological study. Some half-dozen editions of the Historia appeared up to 1669, as well as a shortened version, quickly brought out by Cornelius Scribonius in Antwerp in 1558. This, too, was republished six times before 1690. Scribonius cut out most of the material from classical sources, omitted the Preface, pruned whole chapters which he found not directly informative about the northern kingdoms, and included very few of the woodcuts. His abridgment thus runs to less than a third of the original length. The Historia was also rapidly translated, an Italian version appearing in 1565 and a German version in 1567. (On the other hand, it did not appear in Swedish before the twentieth century, in four volumes published between 1909 and

Ixx

INTRODUCTION

1925. *) The epitome of 1558 was also quickly translated, appearing in French in 1560-61, Italian in 1561, and Dutch in 1562, for example, and after a century was turned by an anonymous hand into the only English version of the Historia hitherto available, A Compendious History of the Goths, Swedes, and Vandals, and Other Northern Nations (London, 1658). Its style is not distinguished, it has no illustrations, and the translator, or printer, was careless about proper names. It was dedicated to Bulstrode Whitelocke, Cromwell's ambassador to Sweden, whose Journal, published 1653-4, contains a store of first-hand information about Swedish conditions, the kind of work which eventually superseded the Historia as the main repository of knowledge about the North. The Historia in Italian translation was soon utilized by Tasso for a play set in Scandinavia, begun in 1573 as Galealto re di Norvegia, but aban­ doned and later completed in 1586 as Torrismondo. 2 Looking for north­ ern atmosphere and background, Tasso turned to 'Olao Magno' and ransacked the Historia for local detail. (The modern editor of the play cites numerous passages from Olaus to illustrate the loans.) Book 2 seems to have been a favourite quarry, and Torrismondo's seat is made 'Arane', the royal fortress of Arnas described by Olaus in 2:21. The Historia soon became known in England, partly perhaps because when Gustav Vasa's son, Erik XIV, sought the hand of Queen Elizabeth in 1561, he sent Lord Burleigh a copy along with Johannes's History of the Gothic and Swedish Kings. Both volumes appear in the first catalogue of the Bodleian Library, compiled in 1605.3 Edmund Spenser had cer­ tainly read it (though he seems not to have remembered it very clearly), for in A View of the Present State of Ireland, written about 1596, he several times mentions Olaus's ancient Goths, taking them to be Scythians and finding numerous resemblances between them and the Irish. Thomas Nashe, too, knows about the dead in Iceland coming back to converse with the living, and he refers to the roaring waters of Lake Vattern (misplaced by him in Iceland) when the ice begins to break up. 'Lapland sorcerers' and knotted winds were something of a common­ place by the 1590s.4 The early seventeenth-century polymaths, Robert 1 A 1976 reprint of the Swedish translation, Historia om de nordiska folken, is similarly in four volumes but each one also includes the relevant part of Granlund's Kommentar, published in 1951 to accompany the 1909-25 translation and counted as volume V of that series. In the 1976 edition a foreword by Mats Rehnberg gives a brief account of the printing history of the first edition and of the translators who produced the text. 2 Ed. R. Bigazzi, La tragedia del Cinquecento, II, pp. 425-552. See also Perelli, 'Olaus Magnus' History and Torquato Tasso's Torrismando'. 3 Seaton, Literary Relations, p. 345. This book is the source of much of the informa­ tion offered in this paragraph.

4 On Nashe see Seaton, Literary Relations, pp. 17, 282-3, 289; see further Page, 'Lapland Sorcerers', and for comment on the spread of the 'knotted wind' theme Almqvist, 'Irish Migratory Legends', p. 34. Ixxi

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Burton and Sir Thomas Browne, knew Olaus well, though probably in abridgement rather than in full. (Burton's copy of the 1558 epitome is in the Library of University College London; and Browne's daughter, Eli­ zabeth, recalled reading the epitome to him at nights.) Burton refers to the selling of winds in Lapland, and appears to be particularly familiar with Olaus's material on magic, witches, and werewolves. He retails, but with suspicion, the account of swallows found at the bottom of rivers (19:29). Browne refers to Olaus's 'History of some Northern Nations, that work of his which commonly passeth amongst us', but on the whole is sceptical of much of the information it contains, even of the geographi­ cal position of Biarmia given in the first line of the first book. 1 Milton, too, owned a copy of the 1558 abridgment and various images in the early books of Paradise Lost have been traced to Olaus's descriptions.2 The eighteenth century saw the publication of more and more eyewitness accounts of the Scandinavian countries, and references to the Historia become correspondingly sparser. In the Romantic period, however, some interest was shown in Olaus's account of northern marvels and customs, as for example Sir Walter Scott's notes on The Pirate reveal. Sir Thomas Browne described magnetic needles as being 'septentrionally excited'.3 If a new translation of Olaus Magnus arouses some similar excitement in a twentieth-century reader, it will not have been made in vain.

1 Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II § 3, III §§ 4 and 23, IV § 11, VI § 10; in The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, II, pp. 107, 167, 237, 239, 305, 462. 2 Cf. Seaton, Literary Relations, p. 30, n. 2; Hankins, 'Milton and Olaus Magnus'. The phrase occurs in Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II § 2; in The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, II, p. 95.

Ixxii

BIBLIOGRAPHY and abbreviated references The first aim of the following list is to provide the references necessary to support and clarify the notes accompanying the introduction and trans­ lated text. When John Granlund prepared his great Kommentar, he properly attempted to consult editions of classical and other authors printed before or in Olaus Magnus's time - they could often be plausibly or certainly identified as those known to Olaus himself - and he suc­ ceeded in large measure, despite the difficult conditions of the war years in which most of his work was done. We have checked his references against the same early prints where the British Library and Cambridge University Library could provide them, and against prints as close as possible in age and provenance where they could not. In our list we have however generally retained only those fifteenth- and sixteenth-century editions to which particular reference is made in the apparatus. Other­ wise, we have as far as possible noted more widely available modern editions and especially those which offer English or French versions parallel with the Greek or Latin texts. (It should be remembered too that OM often lifted quotations of classical and other writers from his more recent authorities.) Many works cited by Granlund are of course not repeated here because, while relevant to details in his commentary, they fall outside the scope of the notes on the present translation. The second aim of the list is to supplement Granlund's bibliography, published in 1951, by recording the comparatively few major studies of the Magnus brothers that have appeared in the past forty years or so. Shorter contributions from the same period, touching on particular sub­ jects or sections in the Historia, are also entered, but so multifarious are the topics treated by Olaus Magnus that it would be unwise to think that the inventory of such pieces is comprehensive. Place and date of publica­ tion are given when known, sometimes with a question mark; putative ascription is in brackets. Abbas Panormitanus: see Nicolaus de Tudeschis. Acciaiolus, Donatus, Vita Caroli Magni, in his Plutarchi vita, Basel, 1535. Acta etprocessus canonizacionis beate Birgitte, ed. I. Collijn, Uppsala, 1924-31. Adam of Bremen, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, ed. B. Schmeidler, 3rd ed., Hanover and Leipzig, 1917; ed. W. Trillmich, in Quellen des 9. Ixxiii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

und 1L Jahrhunderts zur Geschichte der Hamburgischen Kirche und des Reiches, Darmstadt, 1961; tr. F. J. Tschan, History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, New York, 1959. Aelian, De natura animalium. On the Characteristics of Animals., tr. A. F. Schol-

field, 3 vols, Loeb, 1958-9. Aeneas Silvius (Piccolomini), De Bohemorum ... gestis historia, Cologne, 1524. ——, Historia de Europa, in his Opera omnia, Basel, 1551. Aeneid: see Virgil. Aetius Amidenus, De cognoscendis et curandis morbis sermones sex, Basel, 1533. Agathias, Historiarum libri quinque, ed. S. Constanza, Messina, 1969; The His­ tories, tr. J. D. Frendo, Berlin and New York, 1975. Agnelli, G., and Ravegnani, G., Annali delle edizioni Ariostee, 2 vols, Bologna, 1933. Agricola, Georgius, Bermannus, sine de re metallica dialogus, Basel, 1546. Ain kurze Auslegung und Verklerung der neuuen Mappen von den alien Gottenreich vnd andern Nordlenden ... durch Olaum Magnum Gotthum ..., Venice, 1539; facsimile in Richter, q.v.; tr. in Billsten and Gamby, qq. v. Albertus Magnus, St, De animalibus libri XXVI, ed. H. Stadler (Beitrage zur Geschichte der Philosophic des Mittelalters, 15-16), Miinster i. W., 1916-21. Almquist, Sven, 'De enbarsplockande djaknarna. Kring en notis hos Olaus Mag­ nus', Rig, 63, 1980, pp. 124-5. Almqvist, Bo, 'Irish Migratory Legends on the Supernatural', Bealoideas, 59, 1991, pp. 1-43. Ambrose, St, De apologia, ed. F. Lucidi (Opera omnia di Sant' Ambrogio, V), Milan and Rome, 1981. ——, De officiis ministrorum, in PL, 16. ——, Hexameron, Exameron, ed. G. Banterle (Opera omnia di Sant' Ambrogio, I), Milan and Rome, 1979; tr. J. J. Savage (The Fathers of the Church, 42), New York, 1961. Apollonius, St: see Philostratus. Appian, Roman History, tr. H. White, 4 vols, Loeb, 1912-13. Arens, Ilmar, 'Vadermagi pa 1600-talet', Rig, 65, 1982, pp. 33-8. Aretino, Aretinus: see Bruni, L. Ariosto: see Orlando Furioso. Aristotle, De generations animalium, Generation of Animals, tr. A. L. Peck, Loeb, 1942, revised ed., 1953. ——, Hist, de animal: De historia animalium, Basel, 1542; History of Animals, tr. A. L. Peck and D. M. Balme, 3 vols, Loeb, 1965-91; see Thompson (1910). ——, De partibus animalium, Parts of Animals, tr. A. L. Peck, Loeb, 1937; revised ed., 1961. ——, Met.: Meteorologica, tr. H. D. P. Lee, Loeb, 1952. -, Problems: see Pseudo-Aristotle. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, The Deipnosophists, tr. C. B. Gulick, 7 vols, Loeb, 1927-41. Augustine, St, Civ. Dei: De civitate Dei, The City of God, tr. G. E. McCracken et fl/.,7vols, Loeb, 1957-72. ——, De Genesi ad litteram, in La Genese au sens litteral en douze livres, tr. Ixxiv

BIBLIOGRAPHY

P. Agaesse and A. Solignac, 2 vols (CEuvres de Saint Augustin, 48-49), Bruges, 1972. —, De moribus Manichaeorum, in La Morale chretienne, tr. B. RolandGosselin ((Euvres de Saint Augustin, 1), Bruges, 1949. —, De vera religione, in La Foi chretienne, tr. J. Pegon ((Euvres de Saint Augustin, 8), Bruges, 1951; second ed., Bar le Due, 1982. —, Enarrationes in Psalmos, ed. E. Dekkers and J. Fraipont, 3 vols (CCSL, 38-^0), Turnhout, 1956. -, Quaestionum in Heptateuchum libri VII. Locutionum in Heptateuchum libri VII, ed. J. Fraipont (CCSL, 33), Turnhout, 1958. AV: The Authorized Version of the English Bible, sc. The Holy Bible ..., London, 1611. Avicenna, Liber canonis. De medicinis cordialibus et cantica, Basel, 1556. Barnish, S. J. B., The 'Variae' of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator, Liver­ pool, 1992. Bartholomeus Anglicus, Liber de proprietatibus rerum, Strasbourg, 1505. Beans, George H., 'One of Olaus Magnus' Sources', Imago Mundi, 7, 1951 for 1950, p. 92. Beckman, N., Studier i outgivna fornsvenska handskrifter, Stockholm, 1917. Berg, Gosta, 'Alt klubba gadda och lake', Saga och Sed, 1964, pp. 98-106. ——, 'Lappland och Europa. Nagra anteckningar om renen som furstegavor', Svenska Landsmdl, 76-77, 1953-^, pp. 221^*4. ——, 'Tama bjornar, dansande bjornar och bjornforare', Fataburen, 1965, pp. 93-112. —, 'Tranlampor och sawekar', Saga och Sed, 1980, pp. 63-82. -, 'Zahme Elche in Tradition und Wirklichkeit', Arv, 34,1978, pp. 5-36. Beroald, P. (sen.): see Cicero, Tusculan Disputations. ——, Orationes etopuscula, ed. P. Beroald (jun.), Basel, 1515. Billsten, G. and W., tr., Beskrivning till Carta Marina, Stockholm, 1960. Birgitta, St: seeActa etprocessus. Bj0rnbo, A. A., and Petersen, Carl S., Fyenboen Claudius Clauss0n Swart, Copenhagen, 1904. ——, Der Dane Claudius Clauss0n Swart, Innsbruck, 1909. Blatt, Franz, Index verborum, in vol. II of Saxonis Gesta Danorum, ed. J. Olrik and H. Raeder, Copenhagen, 1931-57. Blomqvist, Gunnar, Den fornsvenska dikten om ettgyllene ar, Uppsala, 1970. Blondus, Flavius, De Roma triumphante libri X, Basel, 1559. Boccaccio, G.,De Claris mulieribus, ed. V. Zaccaria (Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio, 10), Milan, 1967. Boemus, J., Repertorium librorwn trium .. . de omnium gentium ritibus, Augs­ burg, 1520. Bondakonst: see Mansson. Bonge-Bergengren, Inge, 'Den nodvandige saltan', Fataburen, 1989, pp. 123-41. Bracciolini, Poggio, Lettere, ed. H. Harth, 3 vols, Florence, 1984-7. Bradbury, J., The Medieval Siege, Woodbridge, 1992, repr. 1994. Brink, Stefan, Ortnamnen och kulturlandskapet, Uppsala, 1983. Broadbent, Noel D., 'Bjuroklubbs arkeologi', Oknytt, 10,1989, pp. 15-23. Broberg, Gunnar, 'Olaus Magnus', SBL, 28, 1992-4, pp. 136-41. Ixxv

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Browne, Sir Thomas, Pseudodoxia epidemica, in The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, II, ed. G. Keynes, second ed., 4 vols, Oxford, 1964. Bruiningk, H. v., Der Werwolf in Livland (Mitteilungen aus der livlandischen Geschichte, 22), Riga, 1924-8. Bruni, Leonardo (Aretino, Aretinus), De hello Italico adversus Gothos, in Procopii Caesariensis de rebus Gothorum, Persarum ac Vandalorum libri VII, Basel, 1531. Brunus, Conradus, De legationibus libri quinque, Mainz, 1548. ——,... libri sex, de hcereticis in genere, Mainz, 1549. ——, De seditionibus libri sex, Mainz, 1550. Buchanan, J. L., Travels in the Western Hebrides from 1782 to 1790, London, 1793. Bud6, G., De asse etpartibus eius libri quinque, [Paris], 1514. Burton, M., Animal Legends, London, 1955. [Burton, R.J, Democritus Junior, The Anatomy of Melancholy, ed. Holbrook Jackson, 3 vols, London and Toronto, 1932, reprinted 1972. Buschbell, G., ed., Briefe von Johannes und Olaus Magnus (Historiska Handlingar, 28:3), Stockholm, 1932. Caesar, C. Julius (attr.), De bello Alexandrino, in Alexandrian, African and Spanish Wars, tr. A. G. Way, Loeb, 1955. ——, De bello civili, The Civil Wars, tr. A. G. Peskett, Loeb, 1914. ——, De bello Gallico, The Gallic War, tr. H. J. Edwards, Loeb, 1917. Cardinal, E. V., Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio, Boston, Mass., 1935. Carlsson, Gottfrid, Hemming Gadh, Uppsala, 1915. ——, 'Ett brev fran Johannes Magnus 1538', Kyrkohistorisk Arsskrift, 52, 1952, pp. 167-71. -, 'Olaus Magnus och bans forfattarskap', Rig, 35, 1952, pp. 58-70. Carte marina et descriptio septentrionalium terrarum ac mirabilium rerum in eis contentarum diligentissime elaborata, Venice, 1539; photographic reprint (Lychnos-Bibliotek, 11:1), Malmo, 1949. Cassiodorus Senator, Variae: Antiqua regum Italic? Gothics gentis rescripta, ex .12. libris epistolarum Cassiodori ... excerpta, ed. J. Cochlaeus, [Leipzig], 1529; Variarum libriXII, ed. A. J. Fridh (CCSL, 96), Turnhout, 1973; see also Barnish. Catharinus, Ambrosius Politus, Enarrationes in quinque priora capita libri Geneseos, Rome, 1551-2. Cato, M. Porcius (attr.), Ex libris Originum, in Fragmenta vetustissimorum autorum, Basel, 1530. CCSL: Corpus Christianorum. Series Latino. Celsus, A. Cornelius, De medicina, tr. W. G. Spencer, 3 vols, Loeb, 1935-8. Celtis, C. Protucius, Quattuor libri amorum secundum quattuor latera Germaniae. Germania generate, ed. F. Pindter, Leipzig, 1934. Chaucer, Geoffrey, The Complete Works, ed. W. W. Skeat, Cambridge, 1912. Chekin, Leonid S., 'Mappae Mundi and Scandinavia', Scandinavian Studies, 65, 1993, pp. 487-520. Christiansen, Eric: see Saxo. ——, The Northern Crusades: the Baltic and the Catholic Frontier, 1100-1525, London, 1980. Ixxvi

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chronologia anonymi, in SRS, 1:1. Cicero, M. Tullius, De divinatione, in De senectute... , tr. W. A. Falconer Loeb 1923. ——, Definibus bonorum et malorum, tr. H. Rackham, Loeb, 1914. ——, De officiis, tr. W. Miller, Loeb, 1913. ——, De natura deorum, tr. H. Rackham, Loeb, 1933. ——, De senectute, De amicitia, De divinatione, tr. W. A. Falconer, Loeb, 1923. ——, In Verrem, The Verrine Orations, tr. L. H. G. Greenwood, 2 vols, Loeb, 1928-35. ——, Oratiopro L. Valeria Flacco, in Cicero, The Speeches. In Catilinam ... , tr. C. Macdonald, Loeb, 1976. Tusculan Disputations: Commentarii questionum Tusculanarum, ed. P. Beroald (sen.), Bologna, 1496; tr. J. E. King, Loeb, 1927. Claudian(us), Claudius, In Rufinum, in Claudian, tr. M. Platnauer, 2 vols, Loeb, 1922. Claudius Clavus: see Bj0rnbo. CM: Carta Marina, q.v. Collijn, Isak, 'Johannes och Olaus Magnus i Uppsala Universitetsbibliotek forvarade bref till Johannes Dantiscus', Kyrkohistorisk Arsskrift, 11, 1910, Meddelanden och aktstycken, pp. 133-48. ——, Sveriges Bibliografi infill dr 1600, II, Uppsala, 1927-31. ——, Bibliografi over Olaus Magnus' Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, Stockholm, 1943. Columella, De re rustica, On Agriculture, tr. H. B. Ash etal., 3 vols, Loeb, 194155. // Consolato del mare, colla spiegazione di G. M. Casaregi, Turin, 1911. Constantinus (Africanus) (attr.), Omnia opera Ysaac ... Viaticum Ysaac quod Constantinus sibi attribuit ..., [Lyons], 1515. Constitutions et acta publica imperatorum et regum, ed. L. Weiland (MGH, Legum sectio IV, tomus II), Hanover, 1896. Copenhaver, Brian P., 'A Tale of Two Fishes: Magical Objects in Natural History from Antiquity through the Scientific Revolution', Journal of the History of Ideas, 52, 1991, pp. 373-98. Corin, Carl-Fredrik, 'Kampen om Stockholm 1521-1523', Samfundet S:t Eriks Arsbok 1928, pp. 120-80. Corpus iuris canonici, ed. E. L. Richter and E. Friedberg, Leipzig, 1879-81. Corpus iuris civilis, ed. P. Krueger etal., sixteenth ed., 3 vols, Berlin, 1954. Corpus iuris Sveo-Gotorum antiqui ... Samling af Sweriges gamla lagar, ed. D. H. S. Collin and D. C. J. Schlyter, 13 vols, Stockholm and Lund, 1827-77. Crudelitas: see Ziegler. CSEL: Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum. Curtius Rufus, Quintus, History of Alexander, tr. J. C. Rolfe, 2 vols, Loeb, 1946. Cysat, R.: see Hoffmann-Krayer. Dahlback, Goran, / medeltidens Stockholm, Stockholm, 1987. Damianus, Deploratio Lappiance gentis and Lappice descriptio, in Damiani a Goes .. . aliquot opuscula, Louvain, 1544. __t Legatio magni Indorum Imperatoris Presbyteri Joannis, [1534]. Ixxvii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Dancus Rex, Guillelmus Falconarius, Gerardus Falconarius, ed. G. Tilander (Cynegetica, 9), Lund, 1963. David, St: see James. Davidson, H. R. Ellis, The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford, 1962. Davis, R. H. C., The Medieval Warhorse, London, 1989. DBL: Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, 16 vols, Copenhagen, 1979-84. De arte venandi cum avibus: see Frederick II. De sphaera: see Sacrobosco. DI\ Diplomatarium Islandicum. Islenzktfornbrtfasafn, Copenhagen / Reykjavik, 1857-. Dio Cassius, Roman History, tr. E. Gary, 9 vols, Loeb, 1914-27. Diodorus Siculus, [Bibliotheca historica], Diodorus of Sicily, tr. C. H. Oldfather etaL, 12 vols, Loeb, 1933-67. Dioscorides, Pedacius, Pharmacorum simplicium reique medicae libri VIII, Stras­ bourg, 1529. DNB: Dictionary of National Biography, London, 1885-1900. Dyalogus creaturarum moralizatus, Gouda, 1480; Stockholm, 1483; facsimile ed. of the latter, with commentary by John Bernstrom and Swedish translation by Monica Hedlund, Uppsala, 1983. Douai-Reims (Bible), The Holy Bible translated from the Latin Vulgat... ,5 vols, [Dublin?], 1763-4. Egils saga Skallagrimssonar, ed. Sigurdur Nordal (fslenzk Fornrit, II), Reyk­ javik, 1933. Ehn,Wolter,'Nejon6gonfiskeiAlvkarleby',5vewA:aLand5mfl/,93,1970,pp.9-25. Eliade, M., Le Chamanisme et les techniques archaiques de I'extase, Paris, 1951, second ed., 1968; tr. W. R. Trask, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, revised ed., London, 1964. Ennius, Ajax, in Remains of Old Latin, tr. E. H. Warmington, 4 vols, Loeb, 1935-40. Erasmus, Desiderius, Dialogus cui titulus Ciceronianus, ed. and tr. Theresia Payr, Darmstadt, 1972; tr. in I. Scott, Controversies over the Imitation of Cicero, Part II, pp. 19-130, New York, 1910. Ericus Olai, Chronica regni Gothorum, in SRS, 11:1. Erikskronikan, ed. R. Pipping, Uppsala, 1963. Eschuid, Joannes, [John of Ashendon], Summa astrologies iudicialis ... , Venice, 1489. Eskil, St: see Legenda S. Eskilli. Eusebius, Evangelicae praeparationis libri XV, ed. E. H. Gifford, 5 vols, Oxford, 1903. Eutropius, Flavius, Breviarium ab urbe condita, ed. C. Santini, Teubner, Leipzig, 1979; tr. H. W. Bird, Liverpool, 1993. Festus, Sextus P., De verborum significant quae supersunt, ed. W. M. Lindsay, Teubner, Leipzig, 1913. Ficino, Marsilio, Liber de Christiana religione, Venice, 1500; and see Plato. Fisher, Peter: see Saxo. ——.' Ab aquilone aurum venit - Olaus Magnus's Description of the North and his Feelings for his Homeland', Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies, II, 1993, pp. 181-90. Ixxviii

BIBLIOGRAPHY

——, 'Olaus Magnus and the Limits of Credence', Acta Conventus Neo-Latini (Copenhagen), ed. A. Moss et a/., Binghampton, New York, 1994, pp. 409-17. Fjellstrom, Phebe, Samernas samhalle i tradition och nutid, second ed., Varnamo, 1986. Florus, Lucius A., Epitome of Roman History , tr. E. S. Forster, Loeb, 1929. Foote, P., and Wilson, D. M., The Viking Achievement, second ed., London, 1980. Franz, A., ed., Das Rituale von Sankt Florian, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1904.

——, Die kirchlichen Benediktionen im Mittelalter, 2 vols, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1909. Frederick II (Emperor, 1194-1250), De arte venandi cum avibus; tr. C. A. Wood and F. M. Fyfe, The Art of Falconry, Stanford, Cal., 1943. Freudenberger, Th., 'Neu aufgefundene Briefe des letzten katolischen Erzbischofs von Upsala, Olaus Magnus', Romische Quartalsschrift fur christliche Altertumskunde undfur Kirchengeschichte, 60, 1965, pp. 153-85. Frick, L., and Jonason, J., Carta Marina. Olaus Magnus beromda karta och vad den avslojar om livet i 1500-talets Sverige, Stockholm, 1970. Frontinus, Sextus J., The Stratagems and the Aqueducts of Rome, tr. C. E. Bennett, Loeb, 1925. Fulgentius, Fabius P., Mythologiae, in his Opera, ed. R. Helm, Teubner, Leipzig, 1898, reprinted Stuttgart, 1970. Gadh, Hemming (attr.), Oratio contra Danos a. 1509, in SRS, 111:1 (from JMGSH, 23:21). Gamby, E., ed., Carta Marina ... Venedig 1539 i faksimil och oversdttning, Uppsala, 1964. Gellius, Aulus, Nodes atticae, The Attic Nights, tr. J. C. Rolfe, 3 vols, Loeb, 1927. Gesner, Conrad, Hist, animal.: C. Gesneri... historiesanimalium, 5 vols, Zurich, 1551-87. Ginzburg, C., Ecstasies, London, 1989. Giovio, Paolo: see Jovius, Paulus. GIR: Konung Gustaf den forstes Registratur, 29 vols (Handlingar rorande Sveriges historia, ser. 1), Stockholm, 1861-1916. Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera, ed. J. S. Brewer et al., 8 vols, London, 1861-91. Goes, Damiao de: see Damianus. Granlund, John, 'Birdskin caps', Ethnos, 1953, pp. 125-42. ——, 'The Carta Marina of Olaus Magnus', Imago Mundi, 8, 1951, pp. 35^43. ——, 'Efterskrift', in JG, Kommentar, Stockholm, 1951, pp. 561-601; tr. P. Foote as 'Introduction' in OM, Historia ..., Copenhagen, 1972, pp. 5-37. ——, 'Lart och folkligt i traditionen om vaderleksmarken', Fataburen, 1976, pp. 85-104. ——, 'Olaus Magnus som folklivsskildrare', Saga och Sed, 1949, pp. 1-16. __ 'Peder Mansson och den senmedeltida humanismen', Saga och Sed, 1978, pp. 35-48. Grape, Hjalmar, 'Carta Marina som resejournal', Norbotten, 1971, pp. 89-128. __t Del litterara antik- och medeltidsarvet i Olaus Magnus patriotism, Stock­ holm, 1949. __t Olaus Magnus. Svensk landsflyktning och nordisk kulturapostel i Italien, Stockholm, 1961. Ixxix

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES -, Olaus Magnus. Forskare, moralist, konstnar, Stockholm, 1970. Gregory the Great, St, Epistolae: S. Gregorii Magni Registrum epistularum libri I-XIV, ed. Dag Norbert, 2 vols (CCSL, 140, 140A), Turnhout, 1982.

——, Moralia: S. Gregorii Magni Moralia in lob, ed. Marc Adriaen, 3 vols (CCSL, 143, 143A-B), Turnhout, 1979-85. Gregory VII, St, Registrum, in Monumenta Gregoriana, ed. P. Jaffe, Berlin, 1865. Gregory, St, of Nazianzus, Orationes, in Discours, 27-31, tr. P. Gallay (Sources chretiennes, 250), Paris, 1978. Gregory, St, of Tours, Hist. Francorum: Gregorii... libri historiarum X, ed. B.

Krusch and W. Levison (MGH, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, I, i), second ed., Hanover, 1951. Grynaeus, S., Novus orbis regionum ac insularum veteribus incognitarum ... , Basel, 1555. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, ed. B. Grzimek, 13 vols, New York, London, 1984. Gustavsson, A., Kyrktagningsseden i Sverige (Skrifter fran Folklivsarkivet i Lund, 13), Lund, 1972. Goransson, S., 'Om alnen i Norden', Saga och Sed, 1986, pp. 21-70. Haglund, J., and Svennung, J., 'Johannes Magnus' och Miechowitas brewaxling om goternas ursprung', Kyrkohistorisk Arsskrift, 49, 1949, pp. 178-98. Haly Abbas, Liber totius medicine necessaria continens, [Lyons], 1523. Hankins, J. E., 'Milton and Olaus Magnus', Studies in Honor ofT. W. Baldwin, ed. D. Cameron Alien, Urbana, 1958, pp. 205-10. Haraldur Sigurdsson, Kortasaga Islands, 2 vols, Reykjavik, 1971-8. ——, 'Olaus Magnus segir fra Islandi', Eldur er i nordri: afmcelisrit helgad Sigurdi Porarinssyni, Reykjavik, 1982, pp. 109-18. Harkness, R., and Murdoch, C., Birds of Prey in the Field, London, 1971. Hay, D., Polydore Vergil, Oxford, 1952. Heather, P., Goths and Romans 332-489, Oxford, 1991, pb. edn, 1994. Helinand(us), Chronicon, in PL, 212. Herberstein, Sigmund von, Rerum Moscouiticarum commentarii, Basel, 1551; tr. R. H. Major, Notes upon Russia, Hakluyt Society, 2 vols, London, 1851-2. Hermolaus Barbarus, Castigationes Plinianae et in Pomponium Melam, ed. G. Pozzi, 2 vols (Thesaurus mundi, 11, 14), Padua, 1973-4. Herodian, tr. C. R. Whittaker, 2 vols, Loeb, 1969-70. Herodotus, Historiarum libri IX, Cologne, 1526; tr. A. D. Godley, 4 vols, Loeb,

1920-5. Hervarar saga: Saga Heidreks Konungs ins Vitra. The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise, ed. C. Tolkien, London, 1960.

Hesychius (of Jerusalem), Isychii ...in Leviticum libri septem, 1527. Hildebrand, Hans, Sveriges medeltid, 3 vols, Stockholm, 1879-1903. Hind, A. M., Marcantonio and Italian Engravers and Etchers of the Sixteenth Century, London, 1912. Historia: Olaus Magnus, Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, Rome, 1555; see OM.

History of the Gothic and Swedish Kings: see JM. Hjarne, H., ed., Literara fragmenter af Olaus Magnus (Historiska Handlingar, 12:2, 1), Stockholm, 1892.

Ixxx

BIBLIOGRAPHY

——, ed., Handlingar angdende Olai Magni egendomsforvarf och qvarldtenskap (Historiska Handlingar, 12:2, 2), Stockholm, 1893. Hoffmann, Marta, 'Olaus Magnus "Historia om de nordiska folken" og spinning av lin pa handtein', Rig, 70, 1987, pp. 108-11. Hoffmann-Krayer, E., 'Cysatiana', Schweizerisches Archiv fur Volkskunde, 14, 1910, pp. 198-245. Hofsteen, Nils von, 'Medeltida kryddor i Sverige', Svenska Landsmdl, 87, 1964, pp. 28-40. Holbein, Hans, the Younger, Icones historiarum veteris testamenti, Lyons, 1547; facsimile reprint, ed. H. Green, Manchester and London, 1869. Horace, The Odes and Epodes, tr. C. E. Bennett, Loeb, 1914, revised reprint, 1968. ——, Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica, tr. H. R. Fairclough, Loeb, 1926. Homer: see Iliad and Odyssey. Hortus sanitatis, Mainz, 1491. Huitfeldt, Arild, Danmarckis Rigis Kr0nnicke, 9 vols, Copenhagen, 1595-1603; photographic reprint, Danmarks riges kr0nike, Copenhagen, 1976-8. Historiske Beskriffuelse om hues sig haffuer tildragit vnder Kong Christiern den Anden is in the part published Copenhagen, 1596. Hwb.: Handwdrterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, ed. E. Hoffmann-Krayer and H. Bachtold-Staubli, 10 vols, Berlin and Leipzig, 1927-42. Hyginus, Astronomica, ed. B. Bunte, Leipzig, 1875. The Iliad, tr. A. T. Murray, 2 vols, Loeb, 1924-5. Irenicus, Franciscus, Germaniae exegeseos volumina duodecim, Hagenau, 1518. Isidore, St, Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay, 2 vols, Oxford, 1911. ——, Historia Gothorum, in Chronica minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII., ed. Th. Mommsen (MGH, Auctores antiquissimi, XI), Berlin, 1894. Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea, ed. Th. Graesse, third ed., Dresden, 1890; photographic reprint, Osnabriick, 1965. James, J. W., ed., Rhigyfarch's Life of St David, Cardiff, 1967. Jerome, St, Interpretatio Chronicae Eusebii Pamphili, in PL, 27. ——, Liber Levitici, in PL, 28. ——. Liber Sapientiae, in PL, 29. ——, Libri duo adversus Jovinianum, in PL, 23. ——, Vita S. Hilarionis Eremitae, in PL, 23. JG: John Granlund, Olaus Magnus. Historia om de nordiska folken. Femte delen. Kommentar, Stockholm, 1951; cf. OM, Olaus Magnus. JM: Johannes Magnus. (For his correspondence see Buschbell, Carlsson, Collijn, Haglund, Kolberg, Larsson, Lindroth in SBL, 20, Sjodin.) JMGSH: Johannes Magnus, Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus, Rome, 1554; tr. Ericus Schroderus, Swea och Gotha cronica ... , Stock­ holm, 1620. JMHMEU: Johannes Magnus, Historia metropolitanae ecclesiae Upsaliensis, Rome, 1557; and in SRS, 111:2. Johan-Olsen, O., Unders0gelser over ost og ostejeering, I, Kristiania, 1905. Johannesson, Kurt, Gotisk renassans. Johannes och Olaus Magnus som politiker och historiker, Stockholm, 1982; tr. J. Larson, The Renaissance of the Goths in Sixteenth-century Sweden, Berkeley and Oxford, 1991. Ixxxi

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

John of Ashendon: see Eschuid. Jordanes, Romana et Getica, ed. Th. Mommsen (MGH, Auctorum antiquissimorum tomi V pars prior), Berlin, 1882. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities and The Jewish War, in Josephus, tr. H. St J. Thackeray et a/., 9 vols, Loeb, 1926-65. Jovius, Paulus, De legatione Moschovitarum libellus, in S. Grynaeus, Novus orbis regionum ... , Basel, 1555.

——,... de Romanispiscibus libellus, Rome, 1524. Justin, Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi, ed. O. Seel, Teubner, Leipzig, 1935, reprinted 1972; tr. E. Chambry and L. Th61y-Chambry, Abrege des histoires philippiques de Trogue Pompte, 2 vols, Paris, 1936. Juvenal, Satires, in Juvenal and Persius, tr. G. G. Ramsay, Loeb, 1918. Karlsson, H., 'Ortnamn kring Trollhattefalien', Namn och Bygd, 78, 1990, pp. 121-30. Keyland, N., 'Sentradsspinning, tenndragning och baltsmyckegjutning hos lapparna i norra Jamtland', Fataburen, 1920, pp. 145—77. Killermann, S., 'Das Tierbuch des Petrus Candidas', Zoologische Annalen, 6, 1914, pp. 113-222. Kjellstrom, R., 'Lapparnas frierier och brollop', Fataburen, 1969, pp. 193-218. KL: Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for nordisk middelalder, ed. Lis Jacobsen, Georg Rona, et al., 22 vols, Copenhagen, 1956-78. Knauer, Elfriede Regina, Die Carta Marina des Olaus Magnus van 1539, Gottingen, 1981. Kolberg, J., Aus dem Briefwechsel der Erzbischofe Johann und Olaus Magnus ... mit Bischof Johannes Dantiscus ... , Braunsberg, 1915. Konungs skuggsjd, ed. L. Holm-Olsen, second ed., Oslo, 1983. Krantz, A., Chronica regnorum aquilonarium, Daniae, Suetiae, Norvagiae ... , Strasbourg, 1548 (so in the colophon; 1546 on the t.p.). ——, Saxonia ... , Cologne, 1520. ——, Wandalia, Cologne, 1519. (King) Kristofer's National Law, in Corpus iuris Sveo-Gotorum, 12. Kromer, M., De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum libri XXX, Basel, 1555. Lactantius, Divinae institutions, in his Opera omnia, Pars I, ed. S. Brandt, (CSEL, XIX), Vienna, 1890. Lane, Margaret, The Tale of Beatrix Potter, revised ed., London, 1968. Larsson, Brita, Johannes Magnus' Latin Letters, Lund, 1992. Legenda aurea: see Jacobus de Voragine. Legenda 5. Eskilli, Vita S. Eskilli, in SRS, 11:1. Lewis, C. T., and Short, C., A Latin Dictionary, Oxford, 1879, and often reprinted. Lilius, Zacharias, Orbis breviarium, Naples, 1496. Lindroth, Sten, A History of Uppsala University 1477-1977, Uppsala, 1976. ——, 'Johannes Magnus', SBL, 20, 1973-5, pp. 220-6. Literara fragmenter: see Hjarne. Livy (and Livy, Periochd), tr. B. O. Foster etal., 14 vols, Loeb, 1919-59. Loeb: The Loeb Classical Library, ed. T. E. Page et al., variously London, New York and Cambridge, Mass., 1912 - ; the volumes often reprinted and some­ times revised. Ixxxii

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Low, J., 'Satt at fanga Uttrar lefvande, och inratta dem, at bara hem fisk', Kongl. Svenska Vetenskaps Academiens Handlinger, XIII, 1752, pp. 139-^45. Lucan, Pharsalia, tr. J. D. Duff, Loeb, 1928. Lucian, tr. A. M. Harmon etal., 8 vols, Loeb, 1913-67. Lucretius, De rerum natura, tr. W. H. D. Rouse, Loeb, 1924; fourth ed. revised

by M. F. Smith, 1975. Lynam, E., The Carta Marina of Olaus Magnus, Venice 1539 and Rome 1572, Jenkintown, 1949. Maciej z Miechowa: see Matthew of Miechow. Macrobius, Saturnalia, ed. J. Willis, Teubner, Leipzig, 1963. Maffei, Rafaello: see Volaterranus. (King) Magnus Eriksson's Municipal Law(s), in Corpus iuris Sveo-Gotorum, 11. (King) Magnus Eriksson's National Law, in Corpus iuris Sveo-Gotorum, 10; tr. Ake Holmback and Elias Wesson, Magnus Erikssons Landslag (Rattshistoriskt Bibliotek, 6), Lund-Stockholm, 1962. Major, John: Maior J. Scotus, Historia majoris Britanniae, tarn Angliae quam Scotiae, Paris, 1521; tr. A. Constable, A History of Greater Britain ... (Scottish History Society Publications, 10), Edinburgh, 1892. Mantuan(us): see Spagnuoli. Marcus, G. J., The Conquest of the North Atlantic, Woodbridge, 1980. Martial, Epigrams, tr. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, 3 vols, Loeb, 1993. Martyr, Petrus, De novo orbe ... , Madrid, 1530, in his Opera, facsimile ed., Graz, 1966; also in S. Grynaeus, Novus orbis ... , q.v. Matthew of Miechow, Chronica Polonorum, in Polonicae historiae corpus, II, Basel, 1582. ——, De Sarmatia, in S. Grynaeus, Novus orbis ... , q.v. Medieval Scandinavia. An Encyclopedia, ed. P. Pulsiano et al., New York and London,1993. Mela, Pomponius, De chorographia libri tres, ed. G. Ramstrand (Studia graeca et latina Gothoburgensia, 28), Gothenburg, 1971. Merula, Georgius, Vesceui montis conflagratio, in Index operum quce in hoc uolumine continentur. Censorini de die natale liber ... , Milan, 1503(7). Meurger, M., Jean de Nynauld, De la lycanthropie, transformation et extase des sorciers 1615, Paris, 1990. MGH: Monumenta Germaniae Historica, ed. G. H. Pertz etal., Hanover, 1826-Miechowita: see Matthew of Miechow. Monstrum in Oceano Germanico ... nuper captum, Rome, 1537: see Beans. More, Sir Thomas, Utopia, ed. E. Surtz and J. H. Hexter (Sir Thomas More, The Complete Works, 4), New Haven and London, 1965. Miinster, Sebastian, Cosmographiae universalis libri VI, Basel, 1552. Mysterud, I., 'Bj0rn og bj0rneforskning', Norveg, 23, 1980, pp. 101-23. Mansson, Peder, Peder M&nssons Bondakonst, ed. John Granlund, Uppsala, 1983. Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis, ed. C. Selmer, Notre Dame, 1959. NBL: Norsk Biografisk Leksikon, 19 vols, Oslo, 1923-83. Neckam, Alexander, De naturis rerum libri duo, ed. T. Wright, London, 1863. NED: A New English Dictionary ... , ed. J. A. Murray et al., second ed., 20 vols, Oxford, 1989. Ixxxiii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Neuman, E., ed., Latinskt-svenskt Glossarium efter Cod. Ups. C 20, 3 vols, Uppsala, 1918-73. See also Tjader. Nicolaus de Tudeschis (Abbas Panormitanus), Consiliorwn questiones & disputationes, Lyons, 1500. Nordman, V. A., Die Wandalia des Albert Krantz (Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae, Ser. B, 29, nr 3), Helsinki, 1934. ——, Die Chronica regnorum aquilonariwn des Albert Krantz (Annales Aca­ demiae Scientiarum Fennicae, Ser. B, 35, nr 2), Helsinki, 1936. Nordstrom, J., Johannes Magnus och den gotiska romantiken, Stockholm, 1975. ——, Tva okanda brev fran Olaus Magnus i Vatikanska biblioteket', Lychnos, 1943, pp. 255-65. The Odyssey, tr. A. T. Murray, 2 vols, Loeb, 1919. Olsen, Olaf, H0rg, hov og kirke, Copenhagen, 1966. OM: (1) Olaus Magnus. (For his correspondence see Buschbell, Collijn, Freudenberger, Hjarne, Nordstrom.) OM: (2) Olaus Magnus, Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, Rome, 1555; facsimile eds, Farnborough, 1971, and Copenhagen, 1972; Historia om de nordiska folken, utg. genom Michaelisgillet, 4 vols, Uppsala and Stockholm, 1909-25; second ed., 4 vols [with JG, Kommentar, q.v., built into the text], Ostersala, 1976; Historia delle genti et della natura delle cose settentrionali... , Venice, 1565; Olai Magni Historien der mittnachtigen Ldnder ..., Basel, 1567; Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus sic in epitomen redacta [by C. Scribonius], Antwerp, 1558; anon. tr. of the Scribonius epitome, A Compendious History of the Goths, Swedes and Vandals, and other Northern Nations, London, 1658. Opera breve, laqvale demonstra, e dechiara, ouero da il modo facile de intendere la charta, ouer delle terre frigidissime di Settentrione ... [by OM], Venice, 1539; facsimile in Richter, q.v.; English tr. in Sweden Illustrated, VIII, 1956, pp. 5-7. Oppian, in Oppian, Colluthus, Tryphiodorus, tr. A. W. Mair, Loeb, 1928. Oratio contra Danos: see Gadh. Orlando Furioso, ed. in 4to and ed. in 8vo, both with imprint of Gabriel Giolito, Venice, 1549; cf. Introd., p. xliii, n. 2. Orosius, Historiarum adversum paganos lib. VII, ed. K. Zangemeister, Teubner, Leipzig, 1889. Ovid, Fasti, tr. Sir James G. Frazer, Loeb, 1931; revised ed. by G. P. Goold, 1989. ——, Metamorphoses, tr. F. J. Miller, 2 vols, Loeb, 1916. ——, Tristia, tr. A. L. Wheeler, Loeb, 1924. Ovid (attr.), Halieutica, tr. J. H. Mozley, in The Art of Love and Other Poems, Loeb,1929. Oxford Latin Dictionary, ed. A. Souter etal., Oxford, 1968-82. Page, R. I., 'Lapland Sorcerers', Saga-Book [of the Viking Society for Northern Research], XVI:2-3, 1963-4, pp. 215-32. Palladius, Opus agriculturae, ed. R. H. Rodgers, Teubner, Leipzig, 1975. Partington, J. R., A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, Cambridge, 1960. Patricius, Franciscus (Patrizi, Francesco), De institution reipublicae libri IX, Strasbourg, 1595. ——, Enneas de regno et regis institutione libri IX, Paris, 1519. Paulus Diaconus (Warnefridus), Historia Langobardorum, ed. L. Bethmann and Ixxxiv

BIBLIOGRAPHY

G. Waitz (MGH, Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum, I), Hanover, 1878. Pausanias, Description of Greece, tr. W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod, 4 vols, Loeb, 1918-35. Payne-Gallwey, R., The Crossbow, second ed., London, 1958. Perelli, Antonella, 'Olaus Magnus' History and Torquato Tasso's Torrismondo', Tra testo e contesto. Studi di scandinavistica medievale, ed. C. Santini, Rome, 1994, pp. 13-20. Perottus, N., Cornucopiae latinae linguae, Basel, 1536. Petrus Candidus: see Killermann. PG: Patrologice cursus completus ... series grceca, ed. J.-P Migne, Paris, 18571936. Phillips, Edward, The New World of Words or Universal English Dictionary, sixth ed., London, 1706. Philostratus, Vita Apollonii, The Life of Apolionius of Tyana, tr. F. C. Conybeare, 2 vols, Loeb, 1912. Physiologus, ed. Francesco Sbordone, Milan, 1936, reprinted, Hildesheim, 1991; cf. The Bestiary ..., tr. T. H. White, eighth ed., New York, 1960. PL: Patrologice cursus completus ... series latino, ed. J.-P. Migne, Paris, 18441967. Platearius, De simplici medicina, ed. M. de Capella, Lyons, 1524. Plato, Epistles, in Timaeus ... , tr. R. G. Bury, Loeb, 1929. ——, Laws, tr. R. G. Bury, 2 vols, Loeb, 1926. ——, Phaedo, in Euthyphro ... , tr. H. N. Fowler, Loeb, 1914. ——, Republic, tr. P. Shorey, 2 vols, Loeb, 1930-5. Platonis opera, tr. Marsilio Ficino, Paris, 1518. Plautus, Pseudolus, in Plautus, 4, tr. P. Nixon, 5 vols, Loeb, 1916-38. Pliny, Natural History, in Caius Plinius Marco Suo Salutem, Venice, 1483; tr. H. Rackham et a/., 10 vols, Loeb, 1938-52. Pliny, the Younger, Epistolae, in his Letters and Panegyricus, tr. B. Radice, 2 vols, Loeb, 1969. Plutarch, Essays, tr. R. Waterfield, annotated I. Kidd, London, 1992. ——, Lives: Graecorum Romanorumque illustrium vitae, Basel, 1535; tr. B. Perrin, 11 vols, Loeb, 1914-26. -, Moralia: Ethica, sive moralia, opera quae extant omnia, Basel, 1573; tr. F. C. Babbitt et al., 17 vols, Loeb, 1927-. Pontificate Romanum dementis VIII ac Urbani VIII jussu editum ... , Paris, 1878. Popham, A. E., The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, second ed., London, 1947. Procopius, tr. Leonardo Bruni, De rebus Gothorum, Persarum ac Vandalorum libri VII, Basel, 1531; History of the Wars, tr. H. B. Dewing, 5 vols, Loeb, 1914-28. Propertius, Elegies, tr. G. P. Goold, Loeb, 1990. Pseudo-Aristotle, Problems, tr. W. S. Hett, 2 vols, Loeb, 1936-7; revised ed., 1953-7. Ptolemy, Geographia universalis, vetus et nova, Basel, 1540; tr. E. L. Stevenson, Geography of C. Ptolemy, New York, 1932. Punica: see Silius Italicus. Ixxxv

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Rausing, Gad, Ecology, Economy and Man, Lund, 1981. Regino (of Priim), Chronicon, ed. F. Kurze, Hanover, 1890. Richter, Hermann, Olaus Magnus' Carta Marina 1539 (Lychnos-Bibliotek, 11:2), Lund, 1967. Roberts, Michael, The Early Vasas. A History of Sweden, 1523-1611, Cambridge, 1968. Rogan, B., 'Isvekking, isbroer og isveier', Norveg, 25, 1982, pp. 7-67. Rolewinck, W., De laude veteris Saxoniae, ed. and tr. L. Tross, Cologne, 1865.

Rooth, Anna B., 'Nidstangen och andra stanger', Saga och Sed, 1991, pp. 73-91. Rowland, Beryl, Animals with Human Faces. A Guide to Animal Symbolism, London, 1974. RV: The Revised Version of the Bible, London, 1881-5; and Apocrypha, London, 1895. Sabellicus, M. A. C., Enneades, Venice, 1504, and in his Opera omnia, 2 vols, Basel, 1560. Sacrobosco, Johannes de, De sphera, in Lynn Thorndyke, ed., The Sphere of Sacrobosco and its Commentators, Chicago, 1949. Sallander, H., 'Olaus Magnus' Carta marina av ar 1539. Nagra anteckningar i samband med ett nyupptackt andra exemplar', Nordisk tidskrift for bok- och biblioteksvdsen, 49, 1962, pp. 129-35. Sallust, Catiline, in Sallust, tr. J. C. Rolfe, revised ed., Loeb, 1931. Salviani, Ippolito, Aquatilium animalium historiae liber primus, Rome, 1554. Salvianus, De gubernatione Dei libri VIII, in his Opera omnia, ed. F. Pauly (CSEL, VIII), Vienna, 1883. Sarton, G., Introduction to the History of Science, 3 vols, Washington and Balti­ more, 1927-48. Sawyer, Birgit, and Sawyer, Peter, Medieval Scandinavia: from Conversion to Reformation, circa 800-1500, Minnesota, 1994. Saxo: Saxonis Gesta Danorum, ed. J. Olrik and H. Raeder, Copenhagen, 1931; tr. P. Fisher, Saxo Grammaticus, The History of the Danes [Books I-IXJ, ed. H. Ellis Davidson, Woodbridge, 1979; tr. E. Christiansen, Saxo Grammaticus Books X-XVI, 3 vols with continuous pagination, British Archaeological Re­ ports, International Series, 84 and 118, i-ii, Oxford 1980-1. Saxo, ed. princeps 1514: Danorum regum heroumque histories, ed. Chr. Pederson, Paris, 1514. Saxo, II: H. Ellis Davidson and P. Fisher, Saxo Grammaticus. The History of the Danes. Books I-IX. Commentary, Woodbridge, 1980. SBL: Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon [A-O], 28 vols so far, Stockholm, 1918-. Sbornik Imperatorskogo russkogo istoriceskogo obSdestva, 148 vols, St Peters­ burg, 1867-1916. Scarcia, Riccardo, 'La Tradition de la paradoxographie classique dans Pceuvre d'Olaus Magnus', Tra testo e contesto. Studi di scandinavistica medievale, ed. C. Santini, Rome, 1994, pp. 55-66. Scribonius, C.: see OM (2). Seaton, E., Literary Relations of England and Scandinavia in the Seventeenth Century, Oxford, 1935. Seneca, De dementia, in Seneca, Moral Essays, tr. J. W. Basore, 3 vols, Loeb, 1928-35. Ixxxvi

BIBLIOGRAPHY

——, Naturales quaestiones, tr. T. H. Corcoran, 2 vols, Loeb, 1971-2. SNA: Scriptores historiae Augustae, tr. D. Magie, 3 vols, Loeb, 1921-32. Sidonius Apollinaris, Poemata, in his Poems and Letters, tr. W. B. Anderson 2 vols, Loeb, 1936-65. Sigebert (of Gembloux), Chronica, ed. D. L. C. Bethmann (MGH, Scriptores, VI), Hanover, 1844. Sigfrid, St: see Vita S. Sigfridi. Silius Italicus, Punica, tr. J. D. Duff, 2 vols, Loeb, 1927-34. Sjoberg, Kjell, 'Exploitation of Lampreys in Europe', Ethnologia Scandinavica, 1982, pp. 94-108. Sjodin, Lars, 'Brevfynden i Roggeborgen', [Svensk] Historisk tidskrift, 1967, pp. 357-71. Smdlands runinskrifter, ed. R. Kinander, Stockholm, 1935-61. Solinus, Collectanea rerum memorabilium, ed. Th. Mommsen, second ed., Ber­ lin, 1895. Sozomenus, Historia ecclesiastica, in PG, 67. Spagnuoli, F. Baptista Mantuanus, Exhortationis in Turcas liber units, in Secundus operum B. Mantuani tomus, Paris, 1513. Speculum humane salvationis, Utrecht, c. 1470; facsimile ed. by J. P. Berjeau, London, 1861, and by Ernst Kloss, Munich, 1925. Spenser, Edmund, A View of the Present State of Ireland, ed. W. L. Renwick, London, 1934. SRS: Scriptores rerum Suecicarum medii aevi, ed. E. M. Fant et al., 3 vols, Uppsala, 1818-76. Stora, Nils, Massfdngst av sjofdgel i Nordeurasien (Acta Academiae Aboensis, Ser. A, 34, nr 2), Abo, 1968. ——, 'Vinterns tjanliga isar', Svenska Landsmdl, 114, 1991, pp. 115-33. Strabo, De situ orbis libri XVII, Basel, 1549; tr. H. L. Jones, Geography, 8 vols, Loeb,1917-32. Strom, Folke, On the Sacral Origin of the Germanic Death Penalties, Stockholm, 1942. Suetonius, C. Suetoni Tranquilli quae supersunt omnia [including Deperditorum librorum reliquae], ed. C. L. Roth, Teubner, Leipzig, 1882; tr. J. C. Rolfe, 2 vols, Loeb, 1913-14. Suidas, Suidae Lexicon, ed. Ada Adler, 5 vols, Teubner, Leipzig, 1928-38. Svennung, J., Scadinavia und Scandia (Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet i Uppsala, Skrifter, 44:1), Uppsala, 1963. ——, Zur Geschichte der Goticismus (Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet i Uppsala, Skrifter, 44:2 B), Uppsala, 1967. Sodermanland Law, in Corpus iuris Sveo-Gotorum, 4. Soderwall, SuppL: Soderwall, K. F., et al., Ordbok ofver svenska medeltidssprdket. Supplement, Lund, 1925-73. Tacitus, Germania, in Tacitus, Germania ... , tr. M. Hutton, Loeb, 1914; revised ed. by E. H. Warmington, 1970; Die Germania des Tacitus, erlautet von R. Much, ed. H. Jankuhn and W. Lange, Heidelberg, 1967. __t Histories and Annals, tr. C. H. Moore and J. Jackson, 4 vols, Loeb, 192537! Talve, Ilmar, 'Bastu och bastugor', Fataburen, 1970, pp. 55-68. Ixxxvii

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Tasso, Torquato, Torismondo, with commentary by R. Bigazzi, in // teatro italiano, II, La tragedia del Cinquecento, 2, ed. M. Ariani, 2 vols, Turin, 1977. Terence, Eunuchus, in Terence, tr. J. Sargeaunt, 2 vols, Loeb, 1912. Tertullian, Apologia and De Spectaculis, tr. T. R. Glover, Loeb, 1931. Thirslund, S. 'A Presumed Sun-compass from Narsarsuaq', Meddelelser om Gr0nland, Man and Society, 14, 1991, pp. 65-71; see also Vebaek. Thompson (1910): Historia animalium, tr. D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (The Works of Aristotle, ed. J. A. Smith etal., 4), Oxford, 1910. Thompson, Birds: Thompson, D'Arcy W., A Glossary of Greek Birds (St Andrews University Publications, 39), London, 1936. Thompson, Fishes: Thompson, D'Arcy W., A Glossary of Greek Fishes (St Andrews University Publications, 45), London, 1947. Thunaeus, Harald, Olets historia i Sverige, I, Stockholm, 1968. Tiberg, Erik, Zur Vorgeschichte des livlandischen Krieges. Die Beziehungen zwischen Moskau und Litauen 1549-62 (Studia historica Upsaliensia, 134),

Uppsala, 1984. Tibullus, Elegies, in Catullus, Tibullus and Pervigilium Veneris, tr. F. W. Cornish etal., Loeb, 1913; second ed. revised by G. P. Goold, 1988. Tillhagen, C.-H., 'Gruvskrock', Norveg, 12, 1965, pp. 113-60. Tjader, Borje, ed., Latinskt—svenskt Glossarium efter Cod. Ups. C 20, Hand 3, Uppsala, 1994. See also Neuman. Tyndale's Bible: The Byble, whych is all the holy Scripture ..., London, 1549. Tzetzes, Joannes, Historarium variorum chiliades: Historiae, ed. P. A. M. Leone (Publicazioni dell' istituto di filologia classica, 1), Naples, 1968. Uppland Law, in Corpus iuris Sveo-Gotorum, 3. Valerius Maximus, Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri novem, ed. K. Kempf, Teubner, Leipzig, 1888; tr. P. Constant, Paris, 1935. Valla, Laurentius, Gesta Ferdinandi regis Aragonum, ed. O. Besomi (Thesaurus mundi, 10), Padua, 1973. Varro, Res rusticae, in Marcus Porcius Cato, On Agriculture ..., tr. W. D. Hooper, Loeb, 1934. Vasmer, M., Russisches etymologisches Worterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg, 1953-8. Vebaek, C. L., and Thirslund, S., The Viking Compass, Skjern, 1992. Vegetius, Epitoma Rei Militaris, ed. K. Lang, second ed., Teubner, Leipzig, 1885; tr. L. F. Stelton (American University Studies, Series XVII, Classical Languages and Literature, 11), New York, 1990. 'The 1529 German Vegetius' is the (unpaginated) Vier Bucher der Ritterschafft, Augsburg, 1529. Vergil, Polydore, Dialogorum de prodigiis libri tres, Basel, 1531. Vilhelmsdotter, Gisela, 'Biskop Thomas brev till Karl Knutsson', Samlingar utgivna afSvenska Fornskriftsallskapet, Ser. 3, Hafte 1, 1993, pp. 71-88. Vilkuna, K., 'Pearl Fishing in Finland and Surrounding Areas', Ethnologia Scandinavica, 1980, pp. 133-51. Vincent (of Beauvais), Speculum historiale and Speculum naturale, vol. 4 and vol. 1 of Vincentius Bellovacensis, Bibliotheca mundi, 4 vols, Douai, 1624; fac­ simile ed., Speculum quadruplex, Graz, 1964-5. Vincentius Opsopoeus, De arte bibendi libri tres, Nurnberg, 1536. Virgil, Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid, tr. H. R. Fairclough, 2 vols, Loeb, 1916-18, revised ed., 1934-5. Ixxxviii

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Visby Municipal Law, in Corpus iuris Sveo-Gotorum, 8. Vita S. Sigfridi, in SRS, 11:1. Vitruvius, De Architectura, On Architecture, tr. F. Granger, 2 vols, Loeb, 1931-4. Vocabula: 'Appendix quorundam vocabulorum affinitatem cum Latino et Italico sermone habentium', pp. 803-10 in OM, Historia, q.v. Volaterranus, Raphael (Maffei, Rafaello), Commentariorum urbanorum Iibri38, Basel, 1544. Vastergotland Law (Vastgotalagen), 'Older' and 'Younger', in Corpus iuris SveoGotorum, 1. Waldmann, E., Die Niirnberger Kleinmeister, Leipzig, 1911. Walkendorf: 'Finmarkens Beskrivelse af Erkebiskop Erik Walkendorf', ed. K. H. Karlsson and G. Storm, Det norske geografiske selskabs aarbog, 12, 19001901, pp. 1-23. Walther, Hans, Proverbia sententiaeque Latinitatis medii (ac recentioris) aevi. Lateinische Sprichworter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters (und der friihen Neuzeit), 8 vols, Gottingen, 1963-86. Watson, Gilbert, Theriac and Mithridatium. A Study in Therapeutics, London, 1966. Weiser-Aall, Lily, 'Om haren i norsk overlevering', Norveg, 10,1963, pp. 1-58. Westerdahl, Christer, 'De forsta prasterna i Angermanlands lappmark', Oknytt, 10, 1989, pp. 55-75. Whitelocke, Bulstrode, A Journal of the Swedish Ambassy, in the years 1653 and 1654 ... ,2 vols, London, 1772. William of Malmesbury, De gestis regum Anglorum libri quinque, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols, London, 1887-9. Wood, C. A., and Fyfe, F. M.: see Frederick II. Xenophon, De arte equestri, Tubingen, 1539; in his Scripta minora, tr. E. C. Marchant, Loeb, 1925; tr. E. Delebecque, De I'Art equestre, Paris, 1950. Zedler, J. H., Universal-Lexicon, 64 vols, Leipzig and Halle, 1732-54. Ziegler, J., Crudelitas: in Qvce intvs continentvr. Syria ... Schondia ... Holmiae ... deplorabilis excidij per Christiernum ... regem historia, Strasbourg, 1532; second revised ed. in Terra; Sanctce ... et Schondia; doctissima descriptio ... , Strasbourg, 1536; and in SRS, 111:1. ——, Schondia: in Qvce intvs continentvr. Syria ... Schondia ... Holmiae ... deplorabilis excidij per Christiernum ... regem historia, Strasbourg, 1532; second ed. in Terra; Sanctce ... et Schondia; doctissima descriptio ..., Stras­ bourg, 1536; and in Svenska sailskapet for antropologi och geografi, Tidskrift, 1:2, 1878. Aldre Vastgotalagen, in Corpus iuris Sveo-Gotorum, 1. Orvar-Odds saga, ed. R. C. Boer (Altnordische Saga-Bibliothek, 2), Halle, 1892. Ostergotland Law (Ostgotalagen), in Corpus iuris Sveo-Gotorum, 2.

Ixxxix

TABLE I

Hakon V, KN, t!319 = Euphemia of Arnstein Ingeborg - Erik Magnusson, D. in Vftstergdtland, t!318 I Magnus, KS, deposed 1364, f!374 | Hakon VI, KN, t!380 Margaret (d. of Valdemar IV, KD; see Table II), Union Q, f!412

I Euphemia = Albrecht, D. of Mecklenburg I Albrecht, KS, 1364-89

Oluf, t!387

d. - daughter, D. = Duke, f. = father, K = king, KD = king of Denmark, KN = king of Norway, KS = king of Sweden, Q = Queen. The schematic Tables I and II are designed merely to aid the reader on his way through the brief history of Part I of the Introduction. No pan-Scandinavian movement has ever succeeded in persuading Danes, Norwegians and Swedes to spell proper names (or anything else) quite alike. The names used here are easily identifiable, but do not correspond exactly to any national habit.

TABLE II Christopher II, KD, H332 - Euphoria of Pomerania Valdemar IV, KD, fl375

I

X

0.

I Margaret, Union Q, f!412 = Hikon VI, KN, f!380

Ingeborg = Heinrich, D, of Mecklenburg

I

Albreclit, D. of Mecklenburg Ewphemia (d. of D, Erik Magmisson, see Table I) Albrecht, KS, 1364-89

I

Maria - Vartislav, D, of Pomerania I Erik of Pomerania, Union K, 1397-1439,11459

Oliif, t!387

Katharina — John of Bavaria Kristofer of Bavaria, Union K, tl448

RULERS IN SWEDEN 1319-1560

Magnus Eriksson, K, 1319-64 Albrecht of Mecklenburg, K, 1364-89 Margaret, Union Q, with Erik of Pomerania (Union K from 1397), 13891412 Erik of Pomerania, Union K, 1412-39 (with a virtual interregnum 143441 under Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, Karl Knutsson Bonde and other leaders) Kristofer of Bavaria, Union K, 1441-48 Karl Knutsson Bonde, K, 1448-561 Christian I, Union K, 1457-642 Karl Knutsson Bonde, K, 1464-65, 1467-701 Sten Sture, R, 1471-971 Hans, Union K, 1497-15012 Sten Sture, R, 1501-031 Svante Nilsson, R, 1504-11 1 Sten Sture the Younger, R, 1512-201 Christian II, Union K, 1520-212 Gustav Eriksson Vasa, K, 1523-601 K = king, Q = queen, R = regent. 1 The native kings, Karl Knutsson Bonde and Gustav Vasa, and the regents, Sten Sture, Svante Nilsson and Sten Sture the Younger, were elected to office and had no predominant dynastic claims to rule. 2 Christian (of Oldenburg) I, KD, 1448-81, was descended in the female line from Erik Klipping, KD, 1259-86 (father of Christopher II, see Table II). There was intermarriage between the Mecklenburg and Oldenburg houses. Hans, KD, 14811513, was Christian I's son, and Christian II, KD, 1513-23, the son of Hans. xcii

,?^/ll^»fe»—»

4sCL ^a, Andenaj LOFOTEI

B«rgen

'Hamburg Branwn

MECKLENBURG

0

100

Scandinavia and the Baltic c.1500. xcin

ZOO

MM

400

500km

A DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES, THEIR DIFFERENT POSITIONS, CUSTOMS, HABITS, WAYS OF LIFE, SUPERSTITIONS, methods of instruction, activities, government, food, wars, buildings, implements, metal mines, and marvels, together with almost all the living creatures that dwell in the North, and their characteristics.

A WORK THAT, AS IT IS DIVERSE AND PACKED WITH KNOWLEDGE OF A GREAT MANY FACTS illustrated with examples from abroad and pictures representing domestic matters, so it is filled with enjoyment and pleasure, readily instilling into the reader's mind the utmost delight. WRITTEN BY OLAUS MAGNUS THE GOTH ARCHBISHOP OF UPPSALA Primate of Sweden and Got aland.

WITH A MOST COPIOUS INDEX. PROTECTED BY LICENCE OF POPE JULIUS III from unauthorized printing for ten years. ROME 1555.

T

O the most venerable Father in Christ, most renowned Prince and Sire, Lord Adolf von Schaumburg, 1 Archbishop of Cologne, Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire in Italy, Prince Elector, Duke of Westphalia and Enger, etc., Olaus Magnus the Goth, Arch­ bishop of Uppsala, wishes happiness. Most illustrious Prince and mighty Archbishop, when you were attend­ ing the Council of Trent,2 which had gathered together for the benefit of the Christian commonwealth under the guidance of the highest, allbountiful God to settle the disagreements of heretics and restore peace to the world, your unfailing goodwill towards me and the completeness of your virtues, proclaimed by everyone, shone forth, joined with as much wonderful sagacity as refinement. You were discoursing seriously on several topics, circled round by many prelates and men of distinction, large numbers of whom flocked daily to your noble person as if to an earthly oracle of wisdom (inasmuch as you excel all others in recounting the manifold aspects of Nature), when you enquired of me at one point about the lands of the North: what huge and amazing variety of objects and peoples lay there, what wondrous features unknown to foreign nations; how the men and innumerable creatures in the North, numbed by the constant merciless cold, managed to withstand the harshness of the ele­ ments and the cruelty of the climate they have to live with; from what resources life was sustained, and in what way the frozen earth produced anything to favour them. From that day onward I turned my thoughts to this aim and fixed my attention on delineating within a single volume those subjects which would satisfy your esteemed wishes, and would more fully reveal my most firm devotion to you. Thus I may dedicate all this material, whatever its value, to your well-nigh unerring judgment, since you surpass everyone in the weight of your opinion and outstrip all men as much in the sanctity of your life as in your learning, eloquence, and all the noble qualities conferred upon you by God. I do not presume here to extol the endowments of one who is sprung from that most glorious and valiant line of all, the Saxon family of Schaumburg, and who as highest prelate, elector and prince of the Holy Roman Empire, governs and adorns the city of Cologne; but we offer thanks to God and congratulate ourselves that you have brought under control rough, unruly folk, enemies of the Catholic faith, that each day you perform admirable deeds on behalf of the Christian religion, and that your reputation reaches as full and lofty a fame throughout Italy as it is blazoned at the farthest bound­ aries of the earth. Everyone knows your persuasiveness when with that piety of yours you exhorted the fathers of the Church at the Tridentine Council. All leaned upon you, demanding nothing more than to depend

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

on your will and ask that such a disposition, truly and completely inspired by the Holy Ghost, should apply itself energetically to the undivided unity of the sacred Church and to apostolic truth. But after new disturbances and dangers broke out in Germany, in order to bring succour to its distress you were forced to depart, to the great anxiety and sorrow of that entire body of fathers, leaving every person with a longing for you, and though you yourself had ardently desired to visit Rome, seat of the apostles. Since, however, those events happen in accordance with the divine will, we trust that eventually, by the grace of that celestial, all-bountiful God, we may some day see an end to these apostasies, and the Church enjoy peace and calm. Therefore, most eminent Prince and Archbishop, as you glowed with a noble desire to learn about conditions in the North, liberally refreshed me, and marvellously kindled my aspirations and efforts, and because there exists no greater personage than you to whom I may offer these my labours, accept from your warmly devoted Olaus this promised sequence of descriptions of the northern regions, out of which issued, without question, a mighty band of warriors, who courageously subdued the most powerful realms, as writers of history unanimously acknowledge. Here one may look upon facts that are utterly astonishing, for those perplexing problems concerning the North that I have already noted are fully answered in this volume, and things which sound new and strange to mistrustful, uninformed ears may be seen freshly presented to the public at large. Be sure that everything I have reported, whether of natural phenomena or the customs among those races, can be strongly substanti­ ated on the evidence of incontrovertible authorities, who have put in writing even greater marvels, almost transcending belief. If I have appeared in some places to diverge from current suppositions or from the dubious and inadequately proved opinions of certain individuals, you should not consider it necessary to place unquestioning confidence in those others rather than in people who openly declare that they were born and bred on the shores from which these geographical investigations originate. If, when you read these words of mine, most exalted Prince, they are not entirely satisfactory to your learned ears, acute intelligence, and cultivated judgment, I would above all wish you to excuse me, inasmuch as I have endured so many vicissitudes of fate away from my native soil, and to understand that I have long been hurled to and fro in the shipwrecks of every hostile fortune. Therefore I beg you to look favourably on this gift of mine, which I dedicate with fond eagerness to your distinguished self; you must realize that nothing is more welcome to me in my deep affection for you than to bask in your shade. It is my fervent desire that your welfare and success may be promoted by the great, omnipotent, sole ruler of all things. Rome, 2 January, in the year 1555 after the birth of our Saviour.

A PREFACE BY OLAUS MAGNUS THE GOTH, ARCHBISHOP OF UPPSALA, TO HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES AND THE WORLD OF THE NORTH, ETC. 1 yk NCIENT philosophers bestowed high praise upon Democritus, /\ who travelled continually for more than eighty years in his desire A. A^to pursue wisdom, and had looked on many lands and cities by the time he finally reached the age of a hundred and eight. If he ever thought something could be learnt about a people or country, he would immediately set off for it, in case he neglected to track down anything anywhere which might offer material for human understanding. He accordingly directed his steps to Babylon, the capital of Assyria, perhaps to gaze on its walls, which had been constructed from brick baked with sulphur and iron at the expense and command of Queen Semiramis. From there he went away to Egypt to learn geometry from its priests, together with anything else that was unknown to him. Presently he was listening to the wise men of Persia and Chaldean astrologers, attaining from these a familiarity with theology and astronomy. He even crossed to India with the purpose of acquainting himself thoroughly with the special doctrines of the gymnosophists. Soon afterwards he passed beyond the Red Sea to Ethiopia, where he might meet with certain men of learning. 1 Yet Democritus is not the only person to be congratulated for this; other philosophers too, endeavouring to acquire greater wisdom, refused to hide themselves away in some solitary nook, for they considered, rightly, that knowledge must be sought from different quarters amid a variety of people. It could only be obtained from a large number of individuals who, as complete masters in their fields, comprehended every branch of erudi­ tion. 2Osiris, king of the Egyptian empire, traversed a large portion of the world; he was so proud of his achievement that he commanded this inscription to be engraved on a pillar of his tomb: 'I am King OSIRIS, elder son of Saturn. There remains no place on earth to which I have not penetrated, teaching men everything I have discovered beneficial to the human race/ Diodorus Siculus testifies to this in his first book. Alexander the Great, too, was avid for this kind of praise. So highly did he rate a knowledge of the universe that he commissioned Aristotle, the pre­ eminent philosopher, to employ his ingenuity to enquire into the nature of all things and then write the most careful account he could; he also issued orders that the complete resources of his treasury should be made available to facilitate his research. This superlative philosopher Aristotle

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

consequently accomplished a work of fifty volumes, most of which, even in our own times, are heard and read everlastingly in the seats of higher learning, a great wonder to men of consummate wisdom, and indeed a boon to everyone. In his extensive foreign travels Homer learnt cosmo­ graphy and geometry and, as Hipparchus has written, became the first of all teachers. With his keen, shrewd wits he crammed poetry with every type of instruction and revealed it as a most valuable aid to all scholars. Hecataeus of Miletus also, being the first to publish a book describing the world, wrote concisely on a few better-known topics, but left the obscurer parts for others to fathom. Yet we must thank him, since he did what he could, and with his short compendium spurred on the minds of his successors, inciting them to pursue more copious investigations. What Hecataeus had reduced to a brief commentary has been given a more extensive exposition by his successors, comprehending peoples, lands, cities, seas, rivers, lakes, marshes, springs, mountains, animals, trees, shrubs, plants and all similar features. But beyond these they have inserted the particular customs and behaviour of separate races, the different characteristics of mankind, and remarkable individuals famous for their bravery, feats of arms, wisdom, genius, erudition, skills, diligence, workmanship or eloquence. They reveal the distinguished achievements in peace or war of their own localities in such a way that nothing could contribute better to a citizen's education than this branch of learning. 2 According to Irenicus in his Bk I, the Greek geographer Dionysius in this manner confirms a great many things he saw himself. Ptolemy Claudius too, king of Alexandria, witnessed many sights, yet brought into his books far more information which had been faithfully reported to him by the envoys he sent at untold expense through the whole world to investi­ gate every country. In such circumstances, as Strabo tells us in Bk I, we must attribute a reliable integrity to trustworthy authors who write from hearsay about places and customs, and to those in particular who, record­ ing their facts in a scientific way, bring together a straightforward, concise description of the essential details of cities, not forgetting their shape and size. 3 And yet, seeing that the subject is vague and uncertain, some accurate conception, or at least one close to the truth, must be given of the northern lands, which till now have been known to few, and of which a good deal of nonsense is talked even by the very learned. My idea is, keeping to a fairly simple arrangement, to offer in writing and in pictures their manners and usages, the unusual displays of their battles, and descriptive accounts, long desired, of the different creatures that inhabit land, air, and water, including insects. This synopsis is directed especially towards those who, like the philosophers I have mentioned, never stop yearning for a chance to stay in these bitterly cold regions and to gain the experience, at their own risk, of all the marvels I shall be describing, by looking at them with their own eyes. The impossibility of this, or, at any rate, the difficulty, will be clear from the following reasons: the prodi­ giously long journey, ignorance of the many modes of speech, a lack of

PREFACE

interpreters, the disputes between rulers and countries, suspicions of spying, the uncommon severity of the elements, the unfamiliar taste of the foods, robber ambushes along the roads, the immensity of the forests, the voracity of the wild animals, the high cliffs and precipices, the expanses of water lying in the traveller's path, the stormy conditions for navigation, and the danger of losing one's personal peace and freedom. So, let those who are eager to venture into this northern quarter of the globe recognize, for their own safety's sake, all these and far rougher hardships which I have endured myself amid a thousand dangers; and let them give their trusting attention to the following words and pictures, as if these were unusually clear expositors, capable of illuminating and making more intel­ ligible all that is dark and problematical. 4An illustration not only gives satisfaction and a singular delight, but also preserves a record of the past and constantly brings glimpses of history before your eyes. Indeed, when we look at paintings where specta­ cular feats are represented, we feel an urge to strive for fame, and embark on great tasks. 4 Just so are young men fired with a violent, passionate desire to attain everlasting glory, when they have set their gaze on a painting and their eager minds have seized on a record of some remark­ able historical event. Certainly too it brings into being a foundation for great skills, for by this means any person of shrewder capacities is induced from his boyhood onwards to embark on all the finest branches of learn­ ing. 5So we read how Plato, Cicero, and many others were enthusiasts of this art, which they conceived as a kind of silent poetry,5 since it combines in harmony lines, colours, proportions, and an extremely accurate copy of the real world, and is considered, as it were, an eloquent teacher in the school of life, an advantage for which it is highly esteemed. 6Surely, whenever we view a first-rate picture, we can repeat the verses written by Valerius Martialis about the portrait of the puppy: Set Issa by the canvas, then you'll think that each one's real, or both are painted. Painting is an excellent art and borders closely on the study and know­ ledge of the liberal disciplines, so much so that any man who loves the pursuit of letters would do well to embrace this craft too. Whoever, like Apelles, has the artistic experience to bring a fit style and manner to his depiction of a person or thing, so that he does not commit excesses or distort the naturalness of his subject, is esteemed for his trained hand even alongside the best practitioners, just as the feeble inexperienced painter is criticized because, with his ignorance of how to put in decoration and detail, he includes either too much or too little. 6 Some, however, have drawn sombre shadows, others joyful likenesses; some have portrayed in their feigned shapes bulls which have been summoned by lowing, others birds which have been called to the nets and deceived by song.7 8An important advantage of such representation especially concerns princes and eminent men, for since, owing to the countless perils and heavy costs which I have already mentioned, they are unable to depart from their own

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

countries to gain experience of unknown lands and gaze on everything in person, with the help of such images they can at least grasp in their imagination what they have longed to see. Certainly there is in the works of painters, as Franciscus Patricius maintains, a wonderful power of in­ struction, produced by their charm and the variety of their impressions, so that the viewer is in no way allowed to feel indifferent. If there is anything amazing, novel, or unheard of that exists anywhere among peoples, places, and countries, it is handled so clearly by these practitioners that it seems as though the object were placed right before your eyes.8 9Art, the imitator of Nature in her perfection, creates a picture which makes it a joy to regard that likeness without offence or blame; whatever scene we are unable to have in front of us we may look on and retain in our memories through its painted resemblance. For this reason men of ancient times in gratitude set up in prominent places statues and portraits of the most renowned and valiant men, so that the hearts of young people everywhere might be stimulated to gain comparable praise, through laborious applica­ tion and vigorous military training. Such are the effigies of Alexander, Darius, Cyrus, Julius Caesar, Cato, and countless similar heroes, and also noble princes of the present age, as will be more plainly confirmed later by a number of examples in Bk XVI, Chs 37 and 48.9 Now as the Preface to this volume took for its beginning the high praise given to travelling philosophers, and the excellent qualities of pictures, nobody should think it surprising or superfluous that the whole of this book about northern matters and customs, after being composed for many years with protracted toil and anxiety in the shadows, one might say, and finally brought out into the world's light, should be illustrated by compari­ sons with other regions, by various historical examples, and by the diverse spectacles of Nature; and that, made much more elaborate in this way and beautified with a borrowed magnificence rather than by its own, it should be issued to the world for everyone's information, and perhaps provide no small benefit. This book comes to you, instructed and enriched by the universal ideas of two writers in particular: Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus, a Roman aristocrat, though by origin a Goth, who served as a chancellor of great wisdom under the many Gothic kings ruling Italy; and Saxo Grammaticus, the most eloquent of Danish historians. 10 Whereas the former revealed in outstanding fashion the manly exploits of the Goths in the region of Rome, the latter, a Dane and therefore closer to the northern zone, expounded in a remarkable style not merely Nature's secret operations, but also the achievements of princes as if in living pictures, and in the following books the teachings of both will be made evident in a concise manner. You will find quoted here other excellent authorities, especially those from an earlier age, such as Ablabius the Goth, Jordanes, Priscus, Paul the Deacon, Agathias, Procopius, and in more recent times, Albert Krantz and Franciscus Irenicus, unsurpassed commentators on German and Gothic affairs, and finally, among all these others, Johannes Magnus, my dearly beloved brother and predecessor as

PREFACE

archbishop of Uppsala, who, by collecting in his History the distinguished testimonies of the authors I have mentioned, and others too, has also paved a way for this book, so that it can be presented in a more substantial shape and as a more welcome offering for the intellectual gratification of every scholar. 11 Let my well-disposed reader not be displeased because a great many observations made by other writers are included in this volume, either in their original form, or repeated and explained in a more straightforward, briefer style, for, where there were ambiguities, obscurities, difficulties or details that were incredible, I thought it safer to add the judgment of older authors who for many ages past have won approval for their manifold knowledge of the universe, rather than make rash pronouncements, with­ out endorsement, on subtle and hidden facets of Nature, hitherto known to no one except the supreme Creator in his perfect goodness. 12Needless to say, it is an arduous undertaking to impart novelty to old matters, authority to what is new, a lustre to anything antique, light to dimness, charm to stale material, credibility to things that are doubtful, to impart, in fact, its proper nature to everything and to Nature all her features. Therefore even if writers have not achieved their aims, it is an extraordi­ narily fine and noble ambition to have wanted to do so (as Pliny testifies in the Preface to his Natural History), and a unique achievement for those who subordinate the popularity which stems from pleasing their readers to the usefulness of helping them by overcoming problems; so Pliny declares that he himself quite often, and also the famous author Titus Livius, have accomplished their work both for the honour of the people and as a private exercise for themselves. 12 Although my talents are more limited than theirs and hardly equal to the task, I believe that even I have revealed something to men of distinguished intellect (who should save their genius for more worthwhile studies) about these freezing lands of the far North, their climate, their worship of idols, their superstitions, their hardy inhabitants who practise magic, their powerful weapons, their method of fighting, and the different species of animals and sea monsters to be found there. By this means I may reasonably be considered to have left behind me a fair portion of commentary for the benefit of all scholars in this very varied field of scientific research, and afforded a convenient chance for a full consideration of more fruitful matters, so that the writer of Proverbs may appear justified when he says in Ch. 9: 'Give opportunity to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser, and if he be wise, he shall be wise for himself: but if he scorn, he alone shall bear it.'13 There is a common­ place objection raised by those who generally cannot or will not write anything useful for their fellow men, or at any rate for very few, whereby they have no hesitation in babbling, 'Of making many books there is no end', 14 and similar platitudes (even the blessed Ambrose recalled these same words in the face of his detractors). Then they vexatiously repeat that well-known proverb of Terence: 'There is nothing said which has not been said before.'15 Therefore, with all due respect to the opinions of

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

these short-sighted critics, one should bear in mind that other universally acknowledged proposition of Pliny, which will help to weaken this kind of reproach: 'No book is so bad that some part of it will not turn out to be useful'. 16 The truth of this will certainly be appreciated when the reader has used his sound judgment to confirm my reason for writing this book, together with its arrangement and purpose. I think he may grant this concession to my rhapsodizings: even if these materials have not been put together with superlative, or moderate, or even the minimum of eloquence, dignity, and weight of words (as this learned age demands, weighing and testing each single item as though on a pair of scales), nevertheless it will be discovered that they have been set down in this literary record at least in genuine good faith and with an undeviating respect for truth. For this reason I heartily wish that every well-disposed commentator or reader may be prompted by his humane feelings and judge these, the toils of my night hours, fairly and kindly, since nothing has driven me to this immensely tangled work, or more correctly, this dizzying labyrinth, apart from my love and sympathy for those who since the beginning of the world have anxiously yearned for knowledge and strive each day to learn what more might be expected beyond the well-worn saying of the prophet: 'Out of the north an evil shall break forth'. 17 In the meantime those who are tormented with this curiosity for searching into the earth's complexities, always giving an ear to miraculous accounts and absorbing themselves in the mysterious, should raise their eyes higher to look upon another prophet, that is, Job, and hear him declare in his Ch. 37: 'Out of the north cometh golden splendour', in other words (following St Gregory's interpretation) an unexpected elevation of life and a change in those cold sinners who, wearied with heresies on their difficult path and baffled by a thousand delusions, will at last be converted to a zeal for faith and virtuous activity, in which they will stay firm for ever. 18 I should not wish this 'gold' to be thought the same as the metal which is more injurious than steel, which ruins misers and forces princes to fight luckless wars that reduce them to indigence and their offspring to beggary and the plough. Beneath these afflictions they will mourn inconsolably, saying with Jeremiah: 'How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed!'19 This refers to our beneficial circumstances and our grandeur, saying that, whereas we were at one time raised to the topmost pinnacle, we can now scarcely draw breath on a vile dung-heap. Consequently we shall need to return to the gold that comes from the North, that is, the bright sheen of innocence; and let it suffice for the moment if I mention to the devout reader that a great good will spread down from the North, till something more exten­ sive is revealed in a further volume of the greatest piety written by my aforesaid brother and predecessor, Johannes Magnus, archbishop of Uppsala. Under the title The Metropolitan Church of Uppsala he com­ posed this book some time ago on the overthrow of idolatry, the planting of the Faith, and the holiness of many bishops and other loyal servants of God who were chosen and called from this northern sphere. 20

PREFACE

21 Although the Goths, when by God's will they first arrived in Italy from the North, are reported to have inflicted much severe damage on the city of Rome, the greatest authors, of whom the chief is St Augustine in his City of God, followed by a good many others, certainly mitigate this charge, each alike maintaining that among all the barbarous peoples who ever harassed Italy or encroached on the Roman Empire, no race was found more merciful or knew how to offer pardon more indulgently than the Gothic nation. Furthermore, when the city had been disfigured by one disaster after another, had fallen into dilapidation through age, and was enveloped in filth and squalor, they saw to its recovery by restoring the same laws and freedom which the tyrannical Sulla had abolished, and ensured that it should be governed by the sovereign power of the Roman people, especially while King Theodoric ruled. 21 Throughout, as my brother writes in Bk IX, Ch. 24, of his newly published History of the Goths, the ancient constitution of the state, which had been overthrown by that crusher of the republic, Julius Caesar, was re-established in its original condition at the decree of Theodoric, king of the Goths. He always loved the Italians, including every Roman, as if they were his most cherished sons and in turn, during his reign of almost forty years, he was regarded by them all as nothing less than their common father. His character was such that in beautifying and preserving Italy, defending her from outside threats of violence and keeping her citizens in deep peace and serenity, he outstripped all eminent monarchs who had ever preceded him, in justice, forbearance, integrity, and fair-mindedness. Procopius says that he was second to none among those who since the beginning had proved their worth in the rank of emperor. He treated Goths and Italians alike with supreme kindness and his own special humanity, so that his rule satisfied everybody, a particularly rare achievement. Moreover, in order to set the honour of Rome before his own fame, he forbade the minting of gold or silver coins in any other form than the ancient designs that had been used when the Roman republic was at the height of its prosperity. Again, to afford the inhabitants of Rome greater facilities in the construc­ tion of new or renovation of older buildings, he had kilns set up on many of the Italian islands for the manufacture of lime, and afterwards gener­ ously bestowed it, without charge, on any citizens who were seen to have laid foundations. He conferred many other benefits, beyond human be­ lief, to assist with the public and private restoration of the city. This is vouched for at some length by Cassiodorus in the books of his Various Letters, apart from which he declares that King Theodoric demonstrated his concern for Christianity, holy places, religious ceremonies, and the authority of the Popes of Rome more energetically than all preceding Christian emperors, and that he never neglected to perform any action that could be desired from an excellent prince. 22 Nor did the other Gothic kings fail to exhibit outstanding piety: Orosius bears witness that they did not merely order the restoration to the holy churches of the sacred vessels of gold and silver, which had been removed during the tumult of war and

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

were priceless because of their size and beauty, but spared those who had fled to sanctuary in their holy precincts while their enemies' swords were raging.23 24Indeed, even the victorious Totila responded to the appeals of Pelagius, the emissary sent by the Romans, and forbade any sword to be drawn against this people, who had been vanquished by his might; nor should anyone make sport with women's chastity, but the female sex should remain entirely unmolested. Again, I must not continue without reference to the way in which, long before Totila, Vitiges (according to the testimonies of Procopius and Aretinus), while besieging Rome, let no church or priest or divine service be disturbed, but allowed them to carry on their normal functions freely.24 In order to explain the features of the North included in this volume, which in most cases are of an amazing kind, by giving some clearer indication of the subject-matter, I must add a few of the book's items of profitable advice, which, along with other information, could often prove useful in men's affairs. Otherwise, perhaps, among such a number of important and varied facts, something may be missed that might be of signal service to the honour of God (for nothing should be thought more important than this), or to kings and their subjects, whether in peace or war, and from which a sense of duty, faith, prosperity, harmony, and all desirable good could be restored and established, after all these terrible slaughters that have lately occurred. Here then I put forward the following pieces of good advice, which, among other ideas no less deserving of consideration, should be judi­ ciously pondered.25 How, for instance, princes and warriors who have been driven into desolate wastes through enemy activity may find their way to human dwellings, or, if they are lost at sea, may reach harbour through their knowledge of the winds. How travellers may save themselves from suffocation under ice or snowdrifts. What kind of precautions knights, even when fully armed, should take to prevent themselves being dashed by the force of the winds from a mountain ridge, or from a bridge into the water. How our ancestors engaged in single combat to uphold chastity and champion justice. The rigorous and temperate life once led by giants, the upbringing of boys from distinguished families, and their training in horsemanship. The damage created by false coinage and the benefit of genuine cur­ rency. How various expensive furs may be detected as counterfeit. How a deadly war, fought for seven years between the kings of the North, was prepared for, and how it was brought to an end. How exchange of commodities occurs without payment, and of the huge markets that are held on the open ice. How and why public hostels are set up on the ice. How routes are picked out across the ice fields. 10

PREFACE

The severity with which spies, sycophants, and traitors are punished. How a handful of soldiers can wage battle against an innumerable horde. The many laborious stratagems of warriors. How one can fashion walls of iron on a battlefield by means of arrows. By what means the strongholds of tyrants who trample down all justice may be overthrown. The kind of necessary measures which must be given early considera­ tion by townsfolk, including those who are laid under any form of siege. How military commanders should behave in a battle that is uncertain and fluctuating. How unprofitable it is to take possession of another's domains and lose one's own. Also, the methods of procedure during a naval engagement, or a combat on ice or snow. How the spokesmen of royalty are received among the Russians. Further to this, the Russian mode of warfare, or brigandage. How animals live in the bitter cold of the North, together with the way they join in fierce encounters on the ice. Nevertheless there are perhaps other topics much more useful than these I have listed above, which might, when singled out, provide even greater pleasure and delight to those who examine them, for I am deter­ mined to leave nothing doubtful, nothing concealed which could be help­ ful to mankind. I do not want to seem inclined to suppress or to hide from students material I have obtained myself through long experience or gathered from others. Although at first glance these facts will appear incredible, after some scrutiny they illumine Nature's secrets and are found not only to win belief but to excite wonder (a great advantage to scholarship). In this way my feelings of goodwill should become known to all, for by such means I have wished to proclaim myself ready and eager to benefit everyone. People will discover that I have observed and toler­ ably fulfilled the promises I made some time ago, in the year 1539, with the publication of my drawing, or map, of the northern regions. In this present treatise on northern conditions and customs, prepared with an equal measure of sincerity and toil, and now sent out for the whole world to look upon (after I had the Gothic History of my brother and predeces­ sor printed at my own expense), I hope to have described for all future generations, clearly, plainly, and, so to speak, in natural colours, what I only sketched incidentally in that geographical work, which extended the maps of Ptolemy, compiled while I was in exile from my homeland for the Catholic faith. At the same time, provided I am given greater support, I still desire to keep to my purpose and with no less zeal be able to publish The Metropolitan Church of Uppsala, mentioned above, in which the abolition of idolatry, the planting of the Faith, the refutation of heresies, the lives of its archbishops, and means for restoring religion, are set out in writing with remarkable efficiency by its author, Johannes Magnus the 11

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Goth, once archbishop of that see. 26 However, I have had in mind to discharge my promises, and if I have not done so with high-sounding eloquence (and I admit that I have not achieved the slightest trickle of it), yet certainly I have written in a simple, plain, and almost colloquial style of speech, rather pursuing the truth about concealed matters than the glitter of empty verbiage. That famous remark of the philosopher Favorinus, to be found in Aulus Gellius, has not slipped my memory: when he heard a youth prattling foolishly and affectedly with an antiquated vocabulary, Favorinus remarked: 'You should live according to the manners of the past, but talk in the language of today.'27 Meanwhile may the great and most blessed Lord, who has established His Church on our northern coasts, foster and preserve all kindly critics of this volume and enlighten the spiteful and obtuse, so that they may have a proper perception of all His wonders, and every one of them speak the truth to his fellow man. And now for the better disclosure of my design, I should like to lay the following depiction of the island of Scandinavia before the eyes of my reader. 28

12

NOTES Dedication

1 Adolf of Schaumburg or Schauenburg ('a Schovvenborg' in OM) was born in 1511. In 1533 he became coadjutor of Archbishop Hermann of Cologne and was elected his successor in 1547. He died in 1556. 2 The Council of Trent sat in Trent 1545-7, in Bologna 1547-9, and again in Trent 1551-2. OM was a member throughout; Archbishop Adolf attended from October 1551 to March 1552. Cf. OM 20:14. Preface

1-1. 2-2 prom Franciscus Patricius, De regno, III 14, variously modified. The Greek philosopher, Democritus of Abdera, was born c. 480 BC; Hecataeus of Miletus, Greek geographer, fl. c. 500 BC; Hipparchus is cited by Patricius from Strabo, 11,2. 3 Based on Franciscus Irenicus, I 8, where Strabo, I 1, is cited. Dionysios Periegetes lived in the time of the Emperor Hadrian, who reigned AD 117-38. 4-*. 5-5, 6-6 Adapted from Franciscus Patricius, De institutione, I 10, 50-55. On the commonplace of pictorial art as silent poetry see e.g. Plutarch, Essays, tr. Waterfield, p. 157, n. 1. The verse is Martial, Epigrams, I 109, 21-3. 7 Cf. OM 13:51. 8-8 Partly verbatim from Franciscus Patricius, De regno, III 14. 9-9 Follows Franciscus Patricius, De institutione, 110, 51 and 53. Cf. OM 1:21-22, 13:48. 10 Cassiodorus Senator, c. AD 490-583; Saxo Grammaticus, died c. 1220. 11 Ablabius and Priscus were known to OM only through Jordanes who, like Procopius and Agathias, wrote in the sixth century. (On the possibility that Abla­ bius was a Visigothic historian, see Heather, Goths and Romans, pp. 63-7.) Paulus Diaconus lived in the eighth century. The German historians, Albert Krantz (died 1517; see KL, IX, cols. 248-50) and Franciscus Irenicus (died 1559) were OM's contemporaries. JM's Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus (= JMGSH) was published by OM in Rome in 1554; cf. Introd., pp. xxxii, xxxvi. 12-12 partiy verbatim from Pliny, Nat. hist., Praef. 15-16. 13 Proverbs 9:9 and 9:12 (with 'occasionem' included in the former and with third person for second in the latter). 14 Ecclesiastes 12:12. 15 Terence, Eunuchus, Prol. 41. 16 The Younger Pliny, Epist. HI 5 (quoting the Elder Pliny). 17 Jeremiah 1:14. The saying is used in its hackneyed sense in OM 3:22 and 16:10. 18 Job 37:22 (RV); 'gold' is taken literally by OM in OM 4:10, 6:12. Gregory, Moralia, XXVII 43. 19 Lamentations 4:1; cited by St Gregory, loc. cit. 20 JM's Historia pontificum metropolitanae ecclesiae Upsaliensis (= JMHMEU) was completed in 1536 and finally published with additions by OM in Rome in 1557. Cf. Introd., p. xxxvi. 21-21 Cf. Augustine, Civ. Dei, I 7 and III 29. 22 Mainly verbatim from JMGSH, IX 24-5. The phrase 'the Italians, including every Roman' translates '& Italos, & Romanes omnes' in JM and OM, but JG suggests that 'Romanes' was a slip for 'Gothos'. 13

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES 23 Cf. OM 16:24. 24-24 OM here follows JMGSH, XIII 22, XI 25. Cf. OM 11:40, 9:46. Of the Ostrogothic kings mentioned Vitiges besieged Rome unsuccessfully in AD 539; his successor, Totila, took the city in 549. The Italian humanist Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo (hence 'Aretinus', 'Aretino') lived 1370-1444. 25 There appears to be no system in OM's selection of the following topics. 26 OM published his Carta marina et descriptio septentrionalium terrarum (= CM) in Venice in 1539; see In trod., pp. xxxi, xliii. Ptolemy's Geography had been put into Latin in 1406 and furnished with additional maps by Claudius Clavus in 1427. On JM's works see nn. 11 and 20 above. 27 Favorinus, a second-century Roman philosopher; Aulus Gellius, Nodes atticae, 110. 28 Pliny thought Scandinavia was an island, and the notion recurs in Jordanes in the sixth century and Paulus Diaconus in the eighth. OM shows it as a peninsula on CM and refers to it as such in OM 14: Pref. The early sources on the Scandinavian 'island' are discussed in e.g. Svennung, Scadinavia und Scandia; on the develop­ ment of the peninsular concept see Chekin, 'Mappae Mundi and Scandinavia', esp. pp. 490-94.

14

This page has been left blank intentionally

fnioiTSr JflB« J.JL APPIA^5^TORNIA M

A sketch of the northern kingdoms, the subject of this work 16

OLAUS MAGNUS THE GOTH, ARCHBISHOP OF UPPSALA, ON THE WAY OF LIFE, PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT, AND WARFARING OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER ONE

On Biarmia, its situation and character

B

IARMIA1 is a territory in the far North, ^hose zenith is at the northern celestial pole itself. Its horizon is identical with the celes­ tial equator, and this, cutting the zodiac into two equal parts, causes one half of the year to become a single period of daylight and the other half night, so that the whole year there is like one twenty-four-hour day. But as the sun in those parts never sinks more than twenty-three degrees below the horizon, it appears (according to the author of The Sphere) that the people enjoy an everlasting, nightless day. In every part of the world daylight becomes visible, in Ptolemy's view, before the sun lifts above the horizon and while it is still eighteen degrees below it, or, according to others, about thirty degrees, that is to say, by the breadth of one zodiacal sign. To this extent the author of The Sphere gave his explanation in accordance with Nature. What he afterwards added, however, is unjust to Nature, for he should have calculated that she has greater foresight for the preservation of the universe. He wants to obscure 17

Opinion of the author of The Sphere

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Opinion of Pliny and Solinus

Biarmia divided into two

Very fertile pastures

Extraordinary people

Draught reindeer Memming the satyr

Great supply of fish and hunting

Idolaters

with incessant clouds the uninterrupted light granted by Nature's kind­ ness, and maintains that the sun's rays which shine there are so weak in strength that they can neither destroy nor clear away the mists that have risen from the earth. As a consequence, he asserts, no bright air or daylight exists there.2 Such was his opinion. But on the opposing side rise two great natural philosophers, Pliny and Solinus, who declare that through the ceaseless presence of the sun's light everything there is en­ dangered by that body's unbearable heat.3 So these, like the former writer, have gone astray, thrusting Nature from excessive cold to exces­ sive heat, and between them have rashly condemned her, furnishing other scholars too with an opportunity for error. If they had only pondered more deeply on God's providence and Nature's guidance, they would have spoken with greater qualification and not dashed against a Scylla or Charybdis. According to Saxo of Sjaelland, Biarmia is divided into a nearer and a farther region. 4The nearer part contains mountains blanketed with unmelting but harmless snow, and unaffected by the heat of summer; among them are numerous belts of trackless woods and forest glades. The coun­ try is extremely rich in pastures and teems with creatures unfamiliar elsewhere,4 as will be demonstrated later in the book about animals. 3 Its many rivers thunder and foam and swirl along their courses, because of the sharp rocks embedded in their channels. In the farther part of Biarmia live certain peoples, monstrous and strange. They are inaccessible, for the path of approach is beset by insurmountable perils, nor is it easily penetrable to mortal men, since most of that route is blocked by snows of vast depth all the year round. If any person should want to get beyond these, he must provide himself with reindeer yoked to a sledge (there is a copious supply of these creatures in that country, as of donkeys in Italy), by means of which he can cross the hard, thick-frozen ridges at an amazing speed. Saxo, whom I mentioned before, recalls a certain wood-satyr, Memming, endowed with wondrous treasures, who kept his dwelling there; the Swedish king, Mother, made a passage through to him with tame reindeer, obtained magnificent trophies and riches, and successfully escaped. 6 However, each of these territories, adorned with valleys and plains, would certainly yield crops if they sown; but the inexhaustible harvests of fish that are found everywhere and the constant hunting of wild beasts ensure that men feel no urgent need to eat bread. When the Biarmians plan to fight, they frequently exchange weapons for wizardry, for it is their custom to dissolve the sky into rain-storms with their spells, to upset the air's joyful aspect with a miserable downpour.7 These folk are idol-worshippers, live in wagons like Scythians,8 and are well versed in the enchantment of men. Through witchcraft of eyes, words, or some other device, they hold people spellbound, so that they lose their physical freedom and mental control, till they often reach a state of utter emaciation, waste away and perish. Solinus mentions sorcerers of 18

BOOK ONE

this kind in Africa. Pliny among the Triballi:9 if such individuals gave immoderate praise to beautiful trees, fertile cornfields, good-looking chil­ dren, splendid horses, or flocks which had attained their prime through pasturing or care, these things would suddenly die. But I must tell farther on of such warlocks, their conjuring and their paraphernalia. 10

CHAPTER TWO

Finnmark and its peoples

F

INNMARK is a region in the northern part of Norway, because of its size once distinguished with the title of kingdom. Even if this country has been allotted a relatively hard-frozen part of the world as a plot to cultivate and inhabit, it possesses men with tough bodies and great hearts, who are accustomed to defend themselves vigorously against the assault of enemies, as will be shown below when I deal with the wars of these men of Finnmark. 1 2The air of that land, as also of its neighbours, is always cold and clear, but harmless to the human frame, allowing rain to fall very scantily, and only in summertime; and such is the temperature in those parts that fish, unsalted but dried solely by the air, remain unrotted for ten years at a time, as I shall show below in the chapter on dangerous fishing in the book on fish. From the twenty-fifth of March till the eighth of September there is continuous daylight there, uninterrupted by darkness, and the sun is visible from the fourth of May right up to the first of August with no intervention of night. This is why you may sail the seas there without serious peril; otherwise, in the gloom, a voyage to that place would be very dangerous because of the concealed rocks.2 ^The zenith of Finnmark lies between the arctic circle and the pole of the universe, and the horizon of those people intersects the zodiac at two points equidistant from the beginning of Cancer; in the revolution of the firmament it happens that that portion of the zodiac which is cut off always remains above the horizon. From this it is clear that, as long as the sun is in that segment, there will be one continuous day with no night, and that, if that portion is equal to one sign of the zodiac, there will be uninterrupted 19

Hardy men

Air always cold but harmless Fish are dried in the air Continuous daylight

Zenith of Finnmark

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Continuous night Rising of the signs

Cause of the irregularity of nsing

Distance between places

No stars are seen in summer

Author of The Sphere

day there for a whole month, while if it extends over two signs, the daylight will be two months long. On the other hand, the portion of the zodiac cut away by the two points equidistant from the beginning of Capricorn always remains beneath the horizon; therefore, when the sun is in that cut-off segment, there will be one night without day, short or long according to the size of the portion separated. Now the remaining signs which rise and set here do so in the reverse order. Thus Taurus rises before Aries, Aries before Pisces, Pisces before Aquarius - in the reverse order, as I say: yet the signs opposite these rise in the correct order and set in reverse, as Scorpio before Libra, and Libra before Virgo; nevertheless the signs opposite these set in the regular way, those, that is to say, which rose in the reverse order, Taurus, etc. 3 My wish has been to describe these phenomena following what is said by the author of The Sphere, so that the reader may have an easier opportunity of speculating on these lands. Pliny, certainly, says in Bk II, Ch. 19: 'The cause of this irregularity is the slant of the zodiac, since the parts of the firmament above and below the earth are equal at all times. But those signs which rise directly upwards hold their light for a longer space of time, whereas those which rise obliquely pass more swiftly.'4 A stretch of more than 350 Gothic miles5 divides this country of Finnmark in the north from the more southerly lands of the Gotar, where in the middle of the nights at the summer solstice in different places, for example at Linkoping and Skara,6 the very tiniest letters can be read and written without a light, and even money counted. In these localities, too, at sixty degrees below the elevation of the arctic celestial pole, from the beginning of May till the coming in of August no stars at all are observed except the body of the moon, which at the full, during that season only a very short distance from the earth's surface, looks like a burning bush, to the wonder and dread of all. Moreover I think that it should be remarked here that the author of On the Nature of Things says: Tor all those to whom the sun is nearer, the day is longer and hotter; and those from whom it is more remote find the day shorter and colder. It is longer for one who travels towards the west than for one going towards the east.'7

20

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER THREE

The seven strange brothers

I

have now related the ways of the men of Finnmark and the harshness of their climate and soil, exposed to whose conditions incredible numbers of men have been nurtured and spread over the whole world, though more in days of old than in our times. I should particularly like to follow on with a story which is universally known (which Paul the Deacon, too, at the beginning of his History of the Lombards, mentions as a miracle) and to affirm my belief in it. ^n the farthest bounds of north­ west Germany, by the very shore of the Ocean, a cave is to be sighted, beneath a jutting rock, where seven men have been lying sunk in a protracted sleep, though it is doubtful for how long. Their bodies, and their clothing too, are so unscathed, according to the affirmation of the same author, that they are held in veneration among those same ignorant and barbarous nations, because they have lasted without corruption of any kind through the course of so many years. In fact, these men, on the evidence of their clothes, are understood to be Romans. While a man, impelled by inquisitive greed, was trying to strip one of them, his arms, it is said, quickly withered, and his punishment so thoroughly frightened others that no one dared to touch them any more. Thus it is evident to what end Providence has preserved them through so many ages. Perhaps it is by the preaching of these men (for they are thought to be none other than Christians) that those peoples are one day to be saved. 1 In the same way Sigebert mentions that in the year of our Lord 447 there were seven brothers at Ephesus who were tortured for the sake of Christ by the Emperor Decius. These brothers shut themselves in a cave where, after saying a prayer, they fell asleep; and after they had slept for about two hundred years, the mouth of the cave, which in his own time Decius had walled up, was by divine means thrown open. Then they rose 21

Unbelievable numbers of men of the North

The seven sleepers

The punishment of the inquisitive

Sigebert on the seven brothers sleeping for 200 years

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Testimony to resurrection made in the presence of Theodosius Their names

from sleep, and, having affirmed in the presence of the Emperor Theo­ dosius their belief in our resurrection, about which there was much uncer­ tainty, they are for a second time asleep in Christ. The names which they received at their baptism are these: Malchus, Maximinianus, Martini an us, Dionysius, loannes, Serapion and Constantinus.2

CHAPTER FOUR

Scricfinnia

A very swift means of racing on flat planks attached to the feet Size of the planks

Why hides are fixed beneath the planks

S

CRICFINNIA1 is the region between Biarmia and Finnmark, but one of its corners projects a good way towards the Gulf of Bothnia in the south, as if it were a tail. The country is so called chiefly because its inhabitants achieve a wonderful speed by means of certain flat planks, curved like bows at the front and attached to their feet. They steer themselves with sticks held in the hand, by means of which they move rapidly just as they choose, upwards, downwards, or aslant over the top of the snow; but with this proviso, that one plank is a foot longer than the other, whose length varies according to the height of the man or woman. So, if a man or woman is eight feet tall, the plank for one foot should be exactly the same number of feet long, but the other nine.2 They have seen to it beforehand that the planks are covered underneath with the very soft hide of a reindeer calf, which in shape and colour resembles a deer, but is much taller and bigger (their features will be discussed later in the book about animals).3 Various explanations are given as to why the planks are covered with such soft hides: that it enables these folk to make their way over deep snow with a swifter glide; that, by a crosswise movement, they can more readily avoid the chasms and precipices among the rocks; or that, when they are travelling uphill, they should not slip back; this is because the hairs, like bristles or the spines of a hedgehog, rise on end, and by the wonderful power of Nature prevent them from sliding back­ wards. Versed, therefore, in the skill of racing with such implements, they 22

BOOK ONE

penetrate to inaccessible places in the mountains and the bottoms of valleys, especially in wintertime. But this is not quite as easy in summer, even though they still have snow, for then it yields very quickly to the pressure of the planks. 4There is no fell steep enough to stop them reaching its summit by the skilful, roundabout route they take; first, leaving the depths of the valleys, they skim round the bases of the crags in winding circles, and so bend their course by frequent, slanting swerves until, threading their way through the twists and turns of the hills, they surmount the peak which is their goal.4 This they do sometimes in their zest for the hunt, sometimes when they are vying with each other in their expertise and mastership of the art, just like runners in races who are competing to win a set prize. Although, according to the Lord Filippo Archinto, Bishop of Saluzzo and Vicar-General of the Holy City, Pope Paul III refused to believe in these abilities and this way of speeding along,5 their method of travelling is precisely as I have described it above and shall again below. 6

They reach inaccessible parts of the mountains Their winding route

Pope Paul HI

CHAPTER FIVE

More about this country's situation and characteristics

W

HAT the ancient writers on Gothic affairs observed in their own age about the aspects of the stars in the extreme North, about the tribes and their customs, I shall set out in a few words. Jordanes affirms at the beginning of his histories that there lives a Jordanes people in the far North which is said to have continuous light for forty days and nights in the middle of summer, and also that in the winter season, for Days continuous the same length of time, they are unacquainted with any distinct light. So in summer, joy and woe come alternately; benefit and disadvantage are bestowed nights in winter unequally on them in comparison with others, for during the longer days they see the sun travelling back towards the east along the rim of the sky, but in the shorter days they observe it in quite a different way; the sun then passes through the southern signs and, whereas we see it rise from below the horizon, it is reckoned to circle those people along the edge of the earth. 23

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Scricfinns are without corn

Paul the Deacon Snow in summertime

Reindeer Very clear light in the nights

Very long nights Irenicus

Aristotle

Hyginus A day of six months A night of the same length

Pliny's opinion on the length of the day and night in Britain

Other folk there are the Erefennae (they ought more properly to have been called the Scricfinns), who do not demand corn for food but live on the flesh of wild beasts and birds, which breed so prolifically in the marshes that they furnish an increase to their kind and an ample suffi­ ciency for man as well. 1 This tribe seems, however, to feed with some frequency on fish dried in the sun and air. Paul the Deacon, the historian of the Lombards, says in Bk 1, Ch. 5,4 that in the North there live the Stritobini (whom he would more accurately have named the Scricfinns), who are not free of snow even in the summertime; they subsist on the raw flesh of wild animals, and from the shaggy hides of these they also piece together clothes for themselves. These people draw their name from leaping; for by means of leaps on a plank, the front part of which is ingeniously curved in the likeness of a bow, they pursue and overtake wild beasts. Among these is an animal that resembles a stag, from the hide of which, still bristling with hairs, I have seen a garment made in the form of a tunic, which reached as far as the knee. But of this animal, namely the reindeer, and the clothes made from its coat, I shall later give facts that are possibly even more amazing. Now, in these parts, round about the summer solstice, light is seen very clearly for some days even at night, and the days there are much longer than they experience in other places, whereas near the winter solstice, although daylight is present, the sun itself is not visible; the days are shortened more than anywhere else and the nights become longer, for the farther you recede from the sun, the nearer the sun seems to be to the earth and the shadows are extended. 2 Further to this, Franciscus Irenicus, a most careful writer, in Bk X, Ch. 9 of his work on Germany, adds something to this supposition of Paul the Deacon that nights are warmer among other nations than days are with the Germans. Aristotle, he says, affirms in his Problems, Section 27, that the reason for this is that the sun is nearer and that the air moves no less than after the day. He quotes Hyginus as saying in his last book that the sun, crossing from Aries to Scorpio, extends the day to six months for those who live under the Great and Little Bears. Similarly, on its journey all the way to Aries, it produces a day of six months in these regions. On the other hand, for those who live in the area of the North Pole, it brings about a night of six months. This is not to be wondered at since Homer, in the Odyssey, when he speaks of the Laestrygonians, writes what is reported about their shepherds, that when one is going out in the morning another is coming in at the same time, for day and night are so barely separated from each other.3 Pliny moreover, in Bk II, Ch. 77, discussing the longest and shortest day, relates that in Britain a day is seventeen hours long. The light nights there in summer undeniably reveal something which reason forces us to believe, namely that when round about the summer solstice the sun comes nearer to the earth's pole, owing to its narrow circuit of light the parts of the earth lying beneath it have uninterrupted day for six months, while to­ wards winter, when the sun has withdrawn, they have nights of the 24

BOOK ONE

same length. This occurs in Iceland, a six day's sail northward from Britain. 4

CHAPTER SIX On the names and effects of the winds

A

ISTOTLE relates in Bk I of his Meteorology that some scholars have called all the winds one wind, as if all rivers were by nature Opinions one river, supposing wind to be a motion of the air and that the about winds variety of winds results from differences of locality. But, since they have said this without due enquiry, a statement on the subject will be better and more correct when natural causes have been carefully observed. l Four winds and their 2Now it is very well known that there exist four principal winds, the properties meridional or south, the north, the east, and the west. The south wind, South wind because of its place of origin, but chiefly because of the course it takes, is warm and moist, gaining a powerful blast from the hot, dry airs that are added to it; but even if it reaches northern areas in wintertime, it is repelled at once by the harshness of the cold and dies away until, return­ ing with the sun's assistance, it forces the ice and snows to melt into rivers. The north wind, blowing from the opposite quarter, is cold and dry; this is North wind the result of its being too far away from the sun for, when the sun reaches the North, it is at its highest and far away from the earth; consequently there are clouds in the air and harder frosts there. The east wind is East wind moderate as far as heat and cold are concerned, for it takes on a change­ able quality from the winds on each side of it - from Vulturnus on its right hand the power of drying and from Eurus on its left the power of breeding clouds. In general easterly winds are always better than westerly ones. As the region out of which the west wind comes is temperate, inclining to cold West wind and moist, so is the wind that issues from it; if it should blow at the end of the night and beginning of the day, the winds will be denser and rougher, Different changes in since they come from a part of the air in which the sun has had no effect; the wind but if they blow at the end of the day and the beginning of the night they will be drier and slighter. 2 25

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Boreas

Auster

They cause ailments

North wind is the most healthy

Why vessels collide Origins of waves

Peculiar winds 400 ships were destroyed by the Hellespontine wind

Huge stones are dashed out to sea

3There are also eight other winds, the coadjutants of these, with a natural affinity to their principals but less violent. While each of these blows, the quality of the air and the constitutions of bodies are changed. For the north wind hardens and strengthens bodies, cleanses the humours and spirits, restores the brain, sharpens the senses, strengthens move­ ment, and restrains bad humours from diffusion into other limbs; all this occurs because it cools the surfaces of the body and the natural heat is fostered within. It brings coughs and pains in the chest because the respiratory system dries up; it constricts digestion and urine, makes the eyes hurt, and is harmful to bodies that are of a cold complexion. The south wind, on the other hand, slackens the muscles and brings disorder to bodies, humours, senses, and spirits; it causes hardness of hearing, dizziness, sluggishness, and torpid movement; the head is heavy and the power of digestion enfeebled, because this wind is warm and damp and vexes the brain with its moist humours, for all these symptoms indicate a moistening and exhaustion of the brain. Failure of digestion is the result of humours descending from the brain to the stomach. Now the easterly and westerly winds, when properly mingled, are soothing to bodies, while the eight others operate on bodies according to the quality of their principals, but in a more limited way.3 Pliny says that among all the winds the north is the most healthy, the south harmful and violent, but the others moderate. However, for the most part all the winds blow by turns, so that one begins as the contrary one ceases. When those winds rise which are next to the winds that fall, their movement is from east to west, like that of the sun. With the same wind by slackening the sheets men can sail in contrary directions, so that at night vessels meeting each other on opposite tacks commonly collide. Higher waves are produced by the south than by the north wind, since the former, being below, blows from the depths of the sea, the latter over the surface. By night the south wind is the more tempestuous, the north by day. Winds that blow from the east are longer-lasting than those that blow from the west. The sun's rising and setting swells the waves at noon and suppresses them in summer seasons; they are quelled also by excessive heat, cold, or rain.4 There are also winds peculiar to individual nations, like Circius, which drives down from Norway to the destruction of the Hollanders, or Dutch. In the Hellespont too (see Herodotus, Bk VII)5 the greatest part of Xerxes' fleet perished, no fewer than 400 ships, for the force of the wind could not be borne, as I shall reveal of Circius below. The winds Corus and Circius also rage for almost the whole year in the Gota or Baltic Sea with such irresistible storms that a vast number of ships are either sunk or in danger of a dreadful shipwreck.6 Indeed, there appear to be no walls of earth or stone on the seashore, however well strengthened and fixed together, that are not sometimes sucked up by these winds and dragged out by the receding waves into the bowels of the ocean, as I shall tell below.7 26

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER SEVEN

On necessary knowledge of the winds

T

HIS picture shows the wonderful observation made in various parts of the globe, chiefly in the north, of the sun's and moon's prop­ erties, considered in connection with the qualities of the air. 1Thus, the sun rising unclouded but not glowing hot heralds a fine day, but if it is pale in colour it forecasts hail. If however it has set the day before in a clear sky, and rises so, one may be all the more confident of fair weather. If it rises saffron-coloured, this signifies rain, and similarly wind when the clouds are reddened just before sunrise. But, if it comes up among clouds that glow red, this also is a sign that rain will appear. When the clouds round the setting sun turn pink, they guarantee fine weather for the day to come. Yet if at its rising they are scattered, some to the south, others to the north, even if the sky round the sun is fair and unclouded, these are, nevertheless, indications of rain and wind; and if it rains at the sun's setting, or its rays draw clouds towards themselves, this means there will be rough, stormy weather the next day. If, on the other hand, its beams do not project distinctly at sunrise, even though they are not encompassed by cloud they foretell rain. If the clouds are massed together before the sun rises, they give warning of violent rainfall; but if they are driven from the east and depart towards the west, you can expect good weather. If the clouds hem in the sun on all sides, but it is itself left unclouded, consisting of a single bright disk, the weather will then be very much wilder; but if in addition the disk is double, it will be even more terrible. Should this happen either at its rising or setting, in such a way that the clouds are reddened, a gigantic storm will arise. If the clouds do not encircle but settle over the sun, from whatever quarter the wind may blow, they presage the same thing; and if they come from the south, rain also. If the rising sun is enclosed in a halo, look for the wind from whatever quarter the sun breaks out of it. If the ring floats away whole and uniform, there will be fine weather. If its rays appear before the sun's rising, they forecast rain and wind; if there is a white ring round the setting sun, expect a mild storm that night; if there is fog, rather boisterous weather 27

Meaning of sun unclouded and of its other colours Saffroncoloured Meaning of sun red at setting

Beams more distinct at sunrise

Clouds

Wind direction White ring

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

will follow, and if this forms when the sun is on the point of setting, wind. Men watch the moon with equally careful attention on the fourth day. If, when it rises and shines out, it gleams with unclouded lustre, it is believed to predict calm weather; if it is ruddy, winds; if black, rain. If it is upright and notched, it is a sign of wind; if blunted, of rain. If the northern tip is sharp and angular, it foretells a north wind; if the lower is Horn of the moon sharp so, a south. If on the fourth day each tip is upright, it will be a windy night. If on that day the moon should be upright, it forebodes a harsh tempest at sea; but if it wears a halo, it shows in that way that the weather will not be stormy before the full moon. If, at its full, half the moon should be Full moon unclouded, it presages fine days; if it is red, winds; if it is growing dark, rains. If it should enclose cloud within its orb, this is a sign of winds; if it should break through the cloud and twin rings ascend, there will be a greater storm, and a wilder one still if there are three rings, depending on whether they are white or black, separated or torn right apart. If the waxing moon rises with its upper tip pointing to the Bears, it will produce New moon rain as it wanes. If the full moon should have a halo round it, this foretells wind from the direction in which it shines brightest. If at the rising of the moon the tips should be thick, this predicts a horrific storm. But if on the fourth day the moon has a ring, and the west wind is blowing, there will be wintry weather for the whole month. If on the fifteenth day the moon shows a strong fiery colour, this points to severe storms. There are also seven critical times of the moon, as often, that is, as it falls within the Moon's critical times angle of the sun, and most people only watch for portents at these times: the third, eighth, eleventh, fifteenth, nineteenth, twenty-third, and twenty-fifth day of its orbit. 1 Of the rays and streaks, solar and lunar, mentioned above, Seneca gives an adequate explanation in Bk VI of his Investigations of Nature, when he states that a particular kind consists of a single pencil of light, which appears when the beams, slender, extended, and separate from each other, are directed through narrow apertures in the clouds, and these are themselves indicators of rainfall. 2 If one is to believe Pliny, Bk II, Ch. 25, Comets comets seem nearly all to appear towards the north under the Milky Way, never in the western sky. The shortest number of days during which they have been observed is seven and the longest eighty. 3

28

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER EIGHT

On forecasting the nature of winds

V

ITRUVIUS, that celebrated man, has been awarded unceasing praise because in his work on the foundation and completion of buildings he discerned and taught people about the harmful and the healthy winds that should be either welcomed or avoided on dry land;1 how much more deserving of congratulation are those writers who have instructed us about which winds are to be sought or shunned on the huge expanse of the sea and in the rugged wastes, for knowledge of them will spell safety, ignorance certain death and destruction. It appears that unfortunate men, wandering through trackless forests among savage ani­ mals, sometimes by their experience and knowledge of winds escape no smaller hazards to their lives than others who evade frightful shipwrecks and imminent death in storms and tempests at sea. Versed in this art the Tartars and Scythians, though they have no roads in the deserts, quite often travel successfully even in time of war: perhaps taking as their guide this law of Nature, that the thicker tops and boughs of the trees, being drawn by the sun toward the south, very frequently point to the dwellings of men for those who are astray, just as such folk need to keep away from the longer shadows towards the west. Since fighting men, and also kings and princes, when they have on occasion been worsted or put to flight in unlucky battles, are forced to learn this by trial, it would be much more useful if, when they were at leisure, they would engross themselves in the properties of the winds rather than those of dice; otherwise, owing to their ignorance of such an easy and profitable piece of knowledge, they may fall into peril of their lives, or a thousand dangers, or captivity in the hands of the enemy where, groaning unceasingly, they would sooner be dead than alive. Now at sea, even if they seem to be safe from all the outrageous ferocity of wind and weather when piloted by someone else, it is from their own experience, should necessity weigh hard upon them, that they very often come off more successfully; and in this event, when one prince, king, or leader escapes, an immense number of people, or even whole realms, are restored 29

Vitruvius

Knowledge of winds necessary

Route to be found in a desert

Knowledge of winds necessary for soldiers

Safer flight

Escape of kings

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

to their former good fortune. How this generally happens is specifically set out below in the book about wars waged in the field and the stratagems practised during them. 2

CHAPTER NINE

On necessary knowledge of winds INCE I have introduced this discourse on the need to know about the winds, it is suitable to draw attention first to Isidore's Bk XIII, which defines 'wind' as follows: Wind (ventus) is air disturbed and driven about, and is so called because it is boisterous (vehemens) and 30

BOOK ONE

violent (violentus). 1 For the force of it is so great that it not only tears down rocks and trees, but also throws into commotion the sky and earth and stirs up the seas. 2It receives different names in accordance with the various parts of the sky. The principal wind-flows are four in number, of which the first arrives from the east, and is called Subsolanus. From the south comes Auster; from the west Favonius; and from the north (Septen­ trio) blows the wind of the same name. Of these each has a pair of collateral winds, one on each side. Subsolanus has Vulturnus on its right, on its left Eurus; on the right of Auster is Euroauster, on its left Austroafricus; Favonius, which is also called Zephyrus, has Africus on its right, Corus on its left. Septentrio has on its right Circius and on its left Aquilo. These twelve circle the globe with their gusts, and their names are allotted for reasons that are particular to each. Subsolanus is so called because it originates beneath the rising sun; Eurus because it blows from Eous, the morning star, that is, from the east. Vulturnus is joined with Subsolanus because it thunders from the deep; Auster because it draws up waters, with which it thickens the air and fosters clouds. This wind in Greek is called Notus because it sometimes corrupts the air; for the pestilence, which stems from corrupted air, is blown by Auster and passed on to the other parts of the world. But, just as Auster generates pesti­ lence, so Aquilo drives it away. Euroauster is so called because it has Eurus on one side and Auster on the other; and Austroafncus because it is joined with Auster and Africus on its two flanks. Zephyrus takes this name in Greek for the reason that flowers and seeds are quickened to life by its breath. In Latin this wind is called Favonius because it fosters (fovere) things after they are born. By Auster flowers are destroyed, by Zephyrus brought to life. Africus is named from its own part of the world, because it is there that its gales have their origin. Corus blows from the summery west: it is so named because with its breeze it marks off a circle, as though it were tracing a round dance (chorus). Septentrio arises from the ring of the Seven Stars which, veering away from the earth, seem to move with head bent backward. Circius is so called because it moves alongside Corus; Aquilo because it binds the waters (aquae) and scatters the clouds, for it is a cold, dry wind. It is the same wind as Boreas, which, blowing from the Hyperborean mountains of the extreme North, is naturally cold; for the quality of the northern winds is cold and dry, of the southern, warm and moist. Among all of them there are two principal winds, Septentrio and Auster. Besides these there are everywhere two air-currents rather than winds, a gentle breath on land and a breeze at sea.2 As well as the foregoing enumeration there occurs another way of dividing up the winds, which Vitruvius has in his first book, a system which comprises twenty-four winds.3 Lastly, those who sail the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga find it necessary, because of the islands and hidden rocks, to differentiate as many as thirty-two winds (provided they do not choose to hazard themselves every single moment) 31

There are four windflows Names of winds Subdivision into 12 winds

Notus Effects of winds Aquilo drives away pestilence

Pliny, Bk II, Ch.49

Circius Aquilo Boreas so called from mountains Principal winds

24 winds 32 winds

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

and to observe them carefully, steering into or away from them according to need.4

CHAPTER TEN

On the violence of the wind Circius

Wind Circius

Wrecker of earth and sky

Vestrabord, a harbour in Iceland

Stiflerof men's breath No trees germinate

S

INCE their natural causes are hidden from us, it will scarcely be possible to explain how great is the severity and ferocity of the winds in the regions of the North, except through their evident effects. This is especially true of Circius, which in its wildness is inferior to no other wind; so, not only in the North but everywhere, either through its own nature or because it has caught up force from a local exhalation, it sweeps away and shatters everything, so that it deserves to be called the wrecker of earth and sky. Now, since any number of instances of this kind of violence are reported from different parts of the world, and also recorded in books by great writers, I shall content myself with giving one or two examples, restricting myself to the might that it displays in the North. There is a harbour in Iceland (a land not far from the ice-bound sea, under the lordship of the Norwegian kingdom) called Western, Vestra­ bord in the vernacular,1 where on the level stretches by the seashore and in the fields armed men on horseback are thrown to the ground by the powerful blast of this wind Circius as if they had been flax.2 The same thing happens to the vault-dwellers, that is, people living in the cavities of rocks and in caves,3 particularly in the wintertime as the sun returns towards the zodiacal signs of the solstice, and when the winds have a more moderate effect on the sea's waves. There are, besides, mountains in several places in Ireland, rising to no great height, and, if anyone should try to journey among these when the Circius wind is blowing, he must expect not only danger and downfall but suffocation in the plunging abysses. Moreover, the inhabitants of the western shores of Norway and the foreigners who flock there are well aware of how fearsome and destructive the winds are; no one sees any tree or bush put out shoots 32

BOOK ONE

there because of the ferocity of this wind.4 Hence it is that for lack of such materials they use the bones of large fish for building fires and cooking food. 5 The natives too often experience the mighty rage of this wind on the westerly shores of Bothnia; it proves a source of great hardship to them, for it tears off whole roofs of houses and scatters them in pieces over vast areas,6 It is recorded by Cato and Procopius7 that this happened too among the people of Narbonne and Benevento, though differently in accordance with the nature of their situations: that is to say, the wind will thrust an armed man and a loaded wagon over a sheer drop. Histories bear witness that this occurred quite frequently in days gone by on the bridge at Vienna in the Duchy of Austria, until in recent times King Ferdinand,8 authoriz­ ing it with his provident magnanimity, has arranged for the overseers of toll collections to guide with their advice, and help with their strength, those at the entrance to the bridge who do not know the hazards, and particularly those approaching the towers, so that, with danger removed, they may pass over such long and immense bridges with greater security. Nor do they complain that they have performed these duties of citizenship for nothing, since they are generously rewarded by the travellers who have been plucked out of so great a peril. Procopius, who was cited a few lines above, may be allowed his own revealing interpretation of the name of Benevento, a town in Italy, concerning which he says in Bk I: Men of old once called it Maleventum; for this town is situated on the mainland opposite Dalmatia, where an extremely violent, bitter stream of air habi­ tually falls upon it, and whenever this wind begins to blow, every person takes pains not to journey out of doors but to confine himself to his home. The vehemence of this wind is such that it even snatches away a rider, horse and all, swiftly carries him aloft, and, after whirling him through the air for a long time, throws him down to his death, wherever chance may bring him. Maleventum, on a lofty site, took its name from this wind which is so hard to endure. 9 It was perhaps by such a wind that the army of Cambyses was overwhelmed, as Strabo relates in Bk XVII. 10

33

They cook food with the bones of fish Circius tears off roofs of houses People of Narbonne and Benevento

Ferdinand, present-day king of the Romans

Ancients called it Maleventum

Rider is hurled headlong Cambyses's army destroyed by this wind

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER ELEVEN

On the violence of whirlwind and tempest

T

HAT whirlwinds and tempests in northern places have a terrifying and dangerous force is unknown to none who has learnt the secrets of Nature and examines them, especially when the complex and unfailing causes of their origin and their components are discerned. 1A whirlwind (turbo), then, as Isidore says, is a gyration of winds, and is Whirlwind named from earth (terra); it occurs whenever a wind rises and drives particles of earth in a rotatory motion, the whirlwind being produced by several winds striving with one another, as Seneca testifies in his Investiga­ tions of Nature. It is generated and moves where there is land, and so tears up trees by the roots and strips bare whatever soil it falls upon; meanwhile it snatches up woods and houses, travelling mostly below the clouds and Woods and houses are certainly never higher. It is rounded in shape, and, rolling on like a snatched up spinning column, sweeps along faster than any cloud. Its movement is roving, discontinuous, and full of eddies; but it cannot last for long, for, Roving movement a wandering and unsettled breath of air has formed a spiral, the total when of the whirlwind force eventually yields to one wind. Therefore no great storm persists long; the more force wild tempests have, the shorter time they last, and, when the strength of their wind reaches its height, all their fury grows Nothing relaxed, for in their turmoil they necessarily draw towards extinction. No violent lasts one therefore has seen a whirlwind active for a whole day, or even a whole for ever hour. Its speed is marvellous and so is the briefness of its duration. The greater the violence and speed with which it rolls around the earth, the less dense it is, and for this reason it breaks up. Origin of the A whirlwind is produced also when an isolated gust is met by some whirlwind cloud and rolls round it, but, while circling it, is invigorated, so that it takes part of the cloud to itself, as if they were now inseparable. The whirlwind drives what it has seized round and round and, because it can find no way out, turns back again upon itself. Hence too it often sweeps Marvellous away water from under ships at sea and lifts them up high; it also snatches effect of a whirlwind up stones and animals from the land, and after a short time drops them. 1 Not only does it whirl these objects into the air, but also the leaden roofs 34

BOOK ONE

of churches and every kind of house and, indeed, even the stoutest beams; if another, stronger wind joins it, they are carried away for even longer distances. Very often, too, entire windmills with their huge millstones are enveloped by a whirlwind and, with the men still unhurt, are carried off to distant places; in fact, such a gigantic cyclone may descend that, encom­ passing towns, castles, and country houses, it will scatter the roofs at long distances over the fields, as I have mentioned and as Vincent bears witness in Bk XXV, Ch. 87 of his Mirror of History, and also in Bk XXVI, Ch. 26, where he mentions the whirlwind.2 Nor should we omit the testimony of Diodorus Siculus, who says in Bk VI of his History that in the regions of the North the power of the winds is astonishing. 3 For in the summer the winds blow from the west and north with such brutal force that they tear from the ground stones as big as a hand could hold and heap up piles of large pebbles as if they were sand; occasionally they snatch away men's weapons and clothes, and sometimes even a rider from his horse, as I recounted in the last chapter. Indeed, it happens now and again in the Vik of Norway4 that very large fish, which are intended to be dried in the air and by the heat of the sun, are with the impetus of the whirlwind swept like boards from the poles in a great mass from where the rich fishermen are and cast down on to the houses of poor people, who gather them up as though they were a gift sent from Heaven. Anyone who seeks to regain them has no case; for the decision is reserved to God, because he has come to the help of the needy.

Big stones are raised from the ground by the whirlwind

Fish out for drying are transported by a whirlwind

CHAPTER TWELVE

On the various effects of thunder, and strokes and flashes of lightning

P

EALS of thunder and the strokes and flashes of lightning have a of frightening energy and effect in northern lands, especially in parts Effect thunder lying towards the noonday sun, 1 on account of the dense vapour exhaled from fertile areas; 2for when this rises up moist to a cold region, 35

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Brilliance of lightning Lightning flash

Thunderbolt

Opinion of common folk

Effects of thunderbolt

People's ceremony for warding off the thunderbolt Eagle's feathers, seal-skins, and laurel leaves are believed to avert thunderbolts

in this case to the middle of the air, parts of it thicken and coalesce with various results, producing rain, hail, snow, and fog, according to the degree of their condensation by the cold.2 When however its warmth is restrained and, because of the cold, prevented from issuing from the sides of the clouds, it forcibly bursts the cloud apart and causes a furious clap of thunder. 3 Thunder comes also from the quenching of fire in the belly of a cloud.4 But the brilliance is a part of the air, which gleams through the violent impulse of the fire thus discharged. The lightning flash and thun­ derbolt are the strokes of a heavenly dart, being derived from ferire, 'strike', according to the pronouncement of Isidore, and also in the opinion of Virgil, who writes in his Georgics: The cloud-father's self, at midnight, right-handed Wields glittering lightnings. 5 Seneca however says that a thunderbolt is a lightning flash ignited, and that, wherever it falls, it retains the smell of sulphur. Certainly, when the thunderbolts and rain cease, sulphur the thickness of a bull's hide is sometimes picked up in the fields, although it is fit for nothing. 6 In regions of the North there very often appear, under a clear sky for whole nights in September, continual bright flashes which threaten rather than afflict the watchers, in that, for hidden reasons, the clouds from which they are drawn, though not far off, supply only slight material for the lightning. The common folk have a different opinion about this sort of flashing at night; they believe that countless shoals of plump fish, herrings, that is to say, by their continual twisting and leaping after the beginning of the autumn, project such a sheen up to the clouds that the brilliance drops down from the sky. Not one night lacks such a spectacle, as will be described below in the chapter about herrings contained in the book on fish.7 The thunderbolt, arising from the nature of the clouds and escaping from them with a clap of thunder, causes serious harm to mortals and to other objects in the vicinity; for it destroys many men who live in the higher localities, together with their beasts of burden. It also makes tall towers, and also, as is hardly remarkable, houses with a hard coating of tar go up in flames that cannot be extinguished. High trees are either split from top to bottom or shattered to pieces from the side. After the Catholic faith had been accepted, care was taken by means of a religious ceremony to prevent townships or ripe crops being dashed to the ground by a thunderbolt;8 and I believe that the custom is still maintained with ringing of bells, burning of sanctified wax candles and incense, and fervent prayers to turn aside the wrath of the Thunderer. 9It is understandable that this is done to better effect than if they performed it with eagle's feathers or the skins of seals or laurel leaves, and so promoted error through pagan superstition. 9 Pliny, in the last chapter of Bk XV, relates that the Emperor Tiberius, because of his fear of thunderbolts, used to don a crown of laurel leaves whenever the sky thundered. 10 But the futility of that deterrent is 36

BOOK ONE

demonstrated by Seneca in Bk VI of his Investigations of Nature, where he says that the army which Cambyses sent to Hammon was covered by sand like driven snow and thereupon engulfed, and that Marcus Herennius, a decurion, was struck by a thunderbolt on a clear day. 11 Herodotus in Bk VII states that a good many of Xerxes' army were killed by lightning and thunder. 12 Marcia, too, a Roman princess who was struck while pregnant and whose baby was killed, escaped alive without any other injury, as Pliny testifies, 13 and he also relates that there are many kinds of thunder­ bolt, for instance those which are dry when they strike scatter rather than burn; those that are moist when they descend do not scorch but darken. There are, however, some which are bright and rarified, and they drill a hole because of the unadulterated fineness of their flame. The third kind, which does burn, contains much earthy matter, and is more fire than flare.

Cambyses' army over­ whelmed by sand M. Heren­ nius died by a thunderbolt Her unborn baby killed, Marcia survived Several kinds of thunderbolt

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

On the astonishing effects of thunderbolts, etc.

I

T seems that we should not omit here what Seneca relates about the thunderbolt in Bk VI of his Investigations of Nature: that by its subtle power it will fuse silver inside small chests, which themselves remain whole and undamaged, and can melt a sword while the sheath remains unharmed; that although the wooden shaft of javelins is unhurt, all the iron liquefies; that when a great wine jar is broken the wine continues to stand upright, but its rigidity does not last for more than three days. This should equally be noted, that, of all men and animals that are struck, the head faces towards the source of the thunderbolt, and all trees that are struck stand up like spear shafts. In snakes and other animals which contain a lethal venom, all the poison is destroyed after they have been hit by a thunderbolt. In poisoned bodies maggots do not breed, but those struck by a thunderbolt grow maggot-ridden within a few days. 1 2These effects of the thunderbolt upon what it touches are more to be marvelled at than examined for their causes; for who has discovered the reason why 37

Effects of thunderbolt

Wine stands upright in a broken jar

Venom is destroyed Things to be marvelled at rather than examined

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

silver is sometimes fused inside small chests, which themselves are whole and undamaged, or why a sword melts while its sheath remains unharmed, why iron liquefies round hewn wood, why a thunderbolt makes wine stand firm in a broken jar, and the reasons for many other occurrences?2 None the less Seneca again demonstrates the causes of such effects in that same book when he affirms that the thunderbolt penetrates matter in different ways: objects that are stouter and more resistant it shatters with greater Things resistant are violence, but substances that are yielding it sometimes passes through shattered without harming. With stone, iron, and all the hardest materials it comes into collision, as it must seek a way through them; but it spares softer and more rarified matter because that furnishes less opposition.3 Earthquakes Earthquakes too occur in those cold lands, and these are very violent but seldom destructive or lasting. Where however they last longer, as in Italy, people observe that they also cause more harm, like the terrible instance that occurred recently in Scarperia near Florence. 4 The ancient and trustworthy historian Sigebert, on fol. XII under the entry Constan­ tinople, gives the following preventive, revealed from Heaven: that the Very beneficial people or the clergy should sing frequently and with devotion, 'Holy God, preventive for averting holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy upon us', adding nothing thunderbolts else. These are his exact words. 5

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

On winter circles and their effects Solar circles

U!

"P in the North, when deep snow covers the earth round about the vernal equinox, circles sometimes appear with the following for­ mation and position: the most spacious circle, spread over the horizon, is entirely white, as also are three small circles, each hanging separately from its circumference; towards the east, however, these are distinguished by their yellow colour, as if they are trying to resemble the sun; and even the body of the sun can be surrounded by a corona or halo of rainbow hues, and has reddish likenesses of itself attached on either side. From these likenesses, or if you wish, from these two suns, two semi38

BOOK ONE

circles, like bows, rise to intersect each other; eventually, after expanding as haloes do, they vanish. Around the navel or centre of the most spacious of these circles can be seen an inverted rainbow, which gleams in a cloud of fine vapour. Next there appears another blackish rainbow, opposite to the first in colour and position. Afterwards this bow, dusky but ever varying in colour, as is customary with the celestial arc or rainbow, extends towards the south, crossing through the most spacious of the circles. Now these circles, or haloes, hardly last longer than two and a half hours, and always cause, either by their own nature or for some other, hidden reason, the worst consequences in the time immediately following them: for example, ominous thunderings and thunderbolts which throw houses and animals to the ground; capturing and killing of nobles and common folk, and pillaging of the people in that region, not to speak of enemy fleets, pirate raids, and acts of arson; and when the circles dis­ appear at the end of spring, grains of sulphur commonly rain down in a stinking mist. 1 This is soon followed by terrifying thunder, that makes its hearers quake from head to foot; and swift rivers, more torrential than usual owing to the melting snows, overwhelm and scatter everything in their rush, as I shall describe more fully elsewhere when I deal with the properties of the northern rivers. 2 Pliny states in Bk II, Ch. 30, that suddenly-appearing circles of a reddish colour are the most ominous, since they predict wars, on account of the long eclipse and undiminishing paleness of the sun which accompanies them. If any of the planets should be surrounded by rings, it foretells rain. 3 As for the way in which, or the reasons why, circles of this sort come about, or coronas round the sun or other stars, Seneca treats this subject at length in Bk VI of his Investiga­ tions of Nature, saying among other things that when these coronas have uniformly dissolved and disappeared into themselves, it is a sign of calm in the atmosphere; but when they disperse after breaking at one point, wind comes from that direction. Therefore sailors, too, look for wind from that quarter when a corona's completeness disintegrates. If it begins to vanish from the north, Aquilo will blow, if from the west, Favonius; but, if coronas have broken in several places, storms arise. They are chiefly sighted during the night, round the moon and other stars, but seldom by day, because the light of the sun is stronger and the air, agitated and warmed by it, is looser and less dense. Now the force of the moon is weaker and is consequently more easily resisted by the surrounding atmosphere. The other stars too are feeble and their influence cannot thrust its way through the air. Their images, therefore, are caught up and preserved in more compact, less yielding matter. For the air ought not to be so dense that it shuts out and drives away light directed at it, nor so fine and loose that it furnishes no hind­ rance to rays that reach it. The proper condition occurs on milder nights when the stars, bearing no opposition or severity, strike with their gentle light and tinge the neighbouring air, which is denser than it usually is by day. 39

Vanishing circles

Effects of the circles

Sulphurous rain

Reddish circles are ominous Coronas round the sun

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Bow, stave, differ0™"3

There is a difference between a bow, a stave, and a corona. Bows may be associated with the sun or the moon, staves adjoin the sun alone, but coronas surround the sun, the moon, and other stars, attending them everywhere. 4

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

On circles that appear suddenly, and the effects of comets

C

IRCLES, or coronas, are in the habit of appearing in similar shapes during the spring season in certain years, particularly when the surface of the earth is covered in rather deep snow. This is what they look like: one circle, spacious and entirely white, forms in the Circles, suddenforming and clouds over the horizon, but with another on its inner edge, which is black dense from being more compressed in size. On their surface these very large circles have four lines, or round openings, distinguished by their saffron colour; between these, towards the south among white clouds that are filled with snow, appear two circles set opposite each other, one of which Properties is black on its outer rim and, on the inner, white. The other, lower circle, of the circles in the centre of which the disk of the sun is seen (this is intersected by the upper circle, which has a different centre), is white on the outer rim and dark on the inner, though the nearer the sun it lies, the whiter it is. Moreover, opposite the sun, round about the centre of the very large circle which spreads, as I said, over the horizon, there appears a bow lying diagonally, with colours like those of a rainbow amid thick clouds, reddish on the outside, purple or saffron-yellow in the middle, and green below. 1 Circles All these circles are more likely to present themselves between dawn appear more and noon when cloud has increased, and will barely last an hour and a half often between or two hours; for as the cloud thins out, the sun at once grows bright and dawn and brings on a terrible cold or, if the cloud has thickened (when the sun noon cannot shine for many days), it allows, through Nature's power, an intol­ erable mass of snow to descend upon all the territories beneath it. The reason for this is that the clouds, of extraordinary size and unusual appearance, rise up, now white, now black or dappled, according to the 40

BOOK ONE

material supplied by the gushes of water and mists, from the evaporations of which clouds are formed. It is no idle matter to discover not long afterwards what was indicated by ominous occurrences of this sort;2 for up in the air there arises an amazing antagonism between such vapours or clouds that have been lifted to that height: 3they assail each other with mutual impetuosity and in this way terrifying comets which, as Isidore testifies, are signs of famine, war, and savage gales, emerge to the north, where the air is thicker; these numb men and women with the horror they arouse no less than do the circles already mentioned. And no wonder: since we are so constituted, as Seneca says in Bk IV of his Investigations of Nature, that everyday things, even if they deserve our amazement, pass us by; on the other hand the slightest things, if they spring up in an unfamiliar way, become a pleasant spectacle. So it is that this congregation of the stars, by which the beauty of the whole universe is set off, does not assemble a crowd of people; but, when anything varies from normality, everyone's face is turned to the sky. The sun will have no spectator if it is not in eclipse. No one looks at the moon unless it is in distress. So natural is it to wonder more at the new than at the great. It is the same with comets. If a fiery star appears seldom and is of unusual aspect, every single person wants to know what is happening and, forget­ ting all else, seeks to find out about this foreign body, doubtful whether to marvel or fear; for there is no lack of people who seek to spread alarm and give warning of its grievous prognostications. So, enquiries are made by those who wish to discover whether such phenomena presage storms, winds, excessive rains, and all other weathers of that sort;3 and they are the more anxious inasmuch as 4they are afraid that a change in the existing order is impending, often alleging that certain events will be contrary to custom. For nothing behaves as it does without a cause and the universe is not entangled in casual accidents. The most terrifying experience is to endure for a long time what usually frightens people even when it occurs in a flash. It is a matter of dreadful foreboding to contemplate a winter without storms, a spring without mild weather, a summer without heat, or an autumn without rain. What would bring fruitfulness if the soil were not wanned in the summer months? What would open the seed if it did not receive rain again?4 These and similar subjects are carefully studied by the overseers of public services (most of all those whose concern it is to support a fighting fleet), who as a consequence regulate everything with foresight; so do shrewd farmers, too, who providently direct the distribu­ tion of the crop reaped the year before and maintain a fair price for vendors, so that they may keep an attentive eye on requirements for future years and seed times. The result is that by drawing on the fruits of earlier harvests they can alleviate current high prices and with great astuteness overcome imminent scarcity, or even assuage and restrain universal poverty.

41

Effects of circles Comets

The smallest things that are unusual appear quite marvellous Wondrous portents

Cassiodorus, BkXII, letter to his son Nothing occurs without cause Dreadful portent

Naval precautions

Careful plan for the future

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

On circles in the spring Different kinds of circles

Effects of circles

Violent storms are shorter

Darkened air harmful

Effect of exhalations

O

THER circles too are brought into being, white, spacious, and dense, which enclose the rainbow and its colours, with a dusky circle on the under side, all of which, since they are caused by the reflection of the black clouds and the whiteness of the very thick snow which wholly covers the face of the earth, are chiefly seen in February and March, because of the distant, slanting position of the sun. They maintain effects which differ only slightly from those described above, 1 except that blacker clouds in the lower circle foretell that savager tempests are on the way; and it is of this that the ravenous sea-birds, fleeing from the sea to the fields, seem to have a presentiment and to predict with their unceasing jabber.2 But these tempests and their like, as was said earlier of the whirlwind,3 do not last long, for the greater their fury, the shorter their duration. It is noteworthy that, when the sun's light is beleaguered by mist, its globe looks pale, and it rises without brilliance, which happens at one time or another during the greater part of the year, so that only a feeble, slight warmth emanates from it. The air, therefore, being heavy, and darkened by the faintness of the heat dispersed, produces fruits half-ripened and undergrown, which fall because the flower did not bloom fully. The air is impreg­ nated with such freezing cold that, following from this, we see periods of dearth, much to be feared; and these occur, with similar but even more frightful afflictions, when the broader circles outside the orb of the sun are observed amid blacker rain clouds and thunder clouds. It happens also, whether through this or by some other cause of abominable exhalations, that huge trunks of trees are overthrown in the forests, rivers swell above their customary channels, ramparts are broken down, an infinite number of men and their animals are killed, the roads are rendered impassable by falls of very deep snow, and, when an unbearable frost comes on as well, travel­ lers, with neither the will nor the strength to escape by going ahead or back, are cut off, to their sudden misfortune.4 Of such plights more terrible accounts may be read below in the section on wars waged in the snow.5 42

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

On semblances of the sun

S

INCE in all the lands of the North brighter and more lasting sem­ blances of the sun habitually appear round its rim a short time after its rising and setting, I have thought it worthwhile to say something about the opinion or forecast which farmers or sailors generally draw from tokens of this kind; for, as their daily work to a great extent depends on the influences of the heavens, they must examine the appearance and effect of the stars with some attention and be guided by foresight and watchfulness. *So historians call these likenesses of the sun 'suns' and tell of double and triple ones, as Seneca testifies in his Investigations of Nature. The Greeks call them parhelion because they come into being fairly close to the sun, or else because to some degree they resemble the sun. But they have no heat and are weak and faint. Some explain them as follows: a parhelion is a rounded, shining cloud, similar to the sun; for at the time of an eclipse we set out basins, which we fill with oil or tar, in order to observe how the moon stations itself before the sun, because a viscous liquid is less easily disturbed and retains the images which it receives. Therefore as the images of the sun and moon are viewed like this on earth, so also it happens in the sky that when the air is condensed and pellucid, it takes upon itself the figure of the sun; other clouds catch this up, too, but pass it on if they are moving or are thin or contain impurities. For the moving ones scatter the image, the sparse ones let it escape, while the foul and filthy ones receive no impression of it, just as with us things that are stained give no reflection. Now it is customary to have double parhelia by the same theory; for there is nothing to prevent there being as many as there are clouds suitable for displaying the likeness of the sun. Some think that, whenever two such semblances appear, one is the likeness of the sun and the other an image of this same likeness, as occurs with looking-glasses placed directly opposite each other, for whatever a mirror sees, it reflects. The clouds that present this effect are said to be dense, light, brilliant, flat, and composed of compact matter; for this reason all the likenesses of the sun 43

Weather forecasts of countrymen and sailors

Parhelion

Experiment during an eclipse

Things stained give no reflection

A mirror reflects whatever it sees

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

which they present are white, and are similar to lunar haloes, because they shine by reflecting the light of the sun which has reached them obliquely. If a cloud is below the sun and rather close to it, the sun disperses it, while one situated far off will not reflect the beams nor yield any likeness; for mirrors placed close to us reflect our faces, but those at a distance do not Mirrors placed close do so at all, since our outgoing vision does not come back as far as ourselves. 1 Whenever there are these suns or likenesses of suns, farmers expect rain to come. If the image, lying towards the south, lasts a reasonably long Sowing in the hills, and time and only gradually loses its brilliance among the clouds, which the reason for it thereby become very much heavier, they then sow with greater confidence Ships1 in the hills, in spring and at the beginning of summer. Ships' captains are captains more attentive than usual to the sails, and to the tiller or rudder, if they see these images simultaneously contend with each other and vanish at the sides of the sun, for then they know through long experience that severe storms are blowing up. Pliny says in Bk II, Ch. 31, that several suns may be seen at once, never above or below the true sun but at an angle to it; Suns are never seen never alongside or opposite the earth and not at night, but always at above or below the sunrise or sunset. They are also reported to have been sighted once from real one the Bosphorus towards the south, and to have lasted from some time in Coronas the morning till the sun went down. Coronas, too, are observed round the disk of the sun and circles of various colours, by the influence of which princes and noblemen think, as Julius Caesar did, that everything may well happen as they hope. 2 Vincent also says in his Mirror of History, Bk Rebellion of XXV, Ch. 116, that at the time of the rebellion of Henry the Younger Henry the against his father the emperor, two disks appeared, solar in shape and Younger with their light resembling that of the daytime sun, yet emitting a display of beams of all colours, like those of a rainbow. 3 Often too in the Gota kingdoms, when it is not night in actuality but merely by estimation,4 it is common for two or three suns to be visible. In the illustrated history of the Three world a record is also found that, in the year of Our Lord 1313, three moons Three suns moons appeared in the sky. Besides this, three suns and three moons were were seen at seen in 1490, at the beginning of October: this was the time of my birth the time of my birth and that of many other men. 5

44

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

On the haloes of the moon, and more on the semblances of the sun

T

HE moon is sometimes observed with haloes of this kind when it lies in opposition to the sun; in winter conditions these declare much the same effects with regard to snow, cold, storms, and frost as they usually presage in summer by way of rains, hail, and spells of heat. lrThe most likely reason, according to Aristotle, is that the moon naturally has no power at all to initiate action on inferior bodies except by recipro­ cating and receiving light from the sun, which turns it, so to speak, into another sun. 1 Hence it is governed by the sun's brightness, as are all the other stars (according to Pliny's view in Bk II, Ch. 9), and it shines by a light which has been totally borrowed, such a light as we see shimmering in its reflections on water. Therefore it is only with a rather gentle and insufficient power that the moon causes moisture to evaporate, and even increases it, whereas the beams of the sun dry it up. As a consequence we perceive that the moon's light varies, because it is full only when opposite the sun, and on the remaining days reveals merely as much light to the earth as it receives from the sun, etc.2 Hence Pliny also relates, in the thirty-second chapter of the same book, that triple moons have been seen, which most people are in the habit of calling nocturnal suns. 3 4So the sun holds the basis of all colours in itself. When the moon is in conjunction with the sun, the whole half of the moon that is presented to us will be dark, because it lies between the earth and the sun. And when the moon goes before the sun towards the east it will be obscured on its eastern side and its light will be increased towards the west. The farther therefore it travels from the sun the more light appears to us in its body, according to its movement, until it is in opposition to the sun; and then the whole half exposed to us will be bright, since the earth then will lie between the sun and the moon. Now the reason why the moon has no light of its own as the other stars have is, as Helinand holds in his Chronicle, that the stars are all situated above the sun, in the purest ether, in which everything, whatever it may 45

Effects of haloes Weakness of the moon

Moon borrows light from the sun

Three moons nocturnal suns

Varying of the moon's light

Why the moon has no light of its own

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

be, constitutes its own, natural light, as Pliny bears witness in Bk II, Ch. 10. This light with all its fire falls on the sphere of the sun, so that the zones of the sky which are distant from the sun are overcome with eternal cold. But the moon, which lies below the sun and next to the region of all transitory things, which has no light of its own, could not have any light except from the sun, since this is positioned above the moon, which reflects it. Now the earth is only illuminated by the light it receives from Earth is illuminated the sun and does not reflect it; but the moon, like a mirror, sends out Substance of again the light by which it is lit. For, although it is of denser substance the moon is than the other heavenly bodies, the moon's composition is much less gross dense than that of earth and when it receives light that can penetrate, it sends it back again in such a way that it does not convey to us any feeling of heat. For when a ray of light reaches us from its origin, that is from the sun, it carries down with it the property of the fire from which it originates; but when the light of the moon is shed upon a body and gives it radiance, the Brightness of the moon without heat planet only pours out brightness, not heat, as appears if a mirror is placed opposite a fire.4

CHAPTER NINETEEN

On the harshness of the cold

Living things are frightened by cold

Evidence from the author's experience

T

HE huge power which the frost, or cold, possesses in the North, as if this were its own native region, can be demonstrated in many ways, through the sense of feeling rather than by authorities; for its forceful blight is felt by a great number of creatures who go in fear of it even though they live many thousands of furlongs1 away from that region; and, when it steals even slightly upon them, they shrink their bodies and limbs, and shudder violently. What would they not do where cold itself holds sway by its own strength and through the laws of Nature? Since I was born and lived subject to this cold, even at a latitude of about 86°,2 1 think that I am capable of proving this and, in many succeeding chapters, of showing somewhat more plainly than all those others who write from uncertain conjecture how savage and fearsome it is. It extends progressively, as 46

BOOK ONE

rays do, from the centre and at last over the whole world, in such a way that all peoples among whom it penetrates bear witness to the distressing effects of its harshness. It is therefore acknowledged as one of the first principles of physical science that the northern regions of the world have harder frost, or cold, than other parts, and a harsher winter than other places, in accordance with the nature of this hemisphere; for there at that season the sun revolves in a shorter circle and is farther away, while it moves obliquely through the winter signs of the zodiac, so that during this time earth and water, elements that are naturally cold, are more firmly hardened and frozen. Also, those places are situated under the positions of the Great and Little Bears, or Wains, the coldest constella­ tions, and by the Ocean, which, especially towards the north-west and east, is of an unfathomable depth; and, since according to Albertus, in Bk XIX, Ch. 6, the sun cannot reach as far as this, an even more dreadful cold, or frost, is produced. 3 A great many signs of a very bitter cold to come are delivered in advance, and the natural features of these are carefully studied, most of all if, when the sun is near to setting in the depths of winter, there lie clouds close round it (as the above picture shows) which display the form of a fiery sphere or column, much as though some vast city had been set ablaze. Moreover, tapering beams extend high up directly into the air, like pyramids, burning with incessant fire. Once these colours, glowing red, turn pale one after the other and disappear into the darkness of the night, they leave a devastating cold behind them. 4 There are a great many other indications that intense cold is on the way: a clear sky and stars traversing the heavens; clouds hanging from the peaks of mountains;5 the soot in hearths glittering with sparks; the gushing water in springs and channels steaming and swelling up; pigs carrying straw; cocks and geese crowing and cackling earlier than usual;6 woodpeckers seeking men's dwellings; the sound of unceasing chatter among water-fowl;7 the noisy movement of wild birds; the rumbling of ice masses, like great peals of thunder. In these circumstances Cold burns the eyes of animals and stiffens their hairs. Cold makes wild beasts seek out men's dwellings, wanting to relieve their hunger. Cold sometimes deprives wolves living near the pole of their eyesight. 8 Cold makes wolves fiercer than normal to all animals and also to each other. Cold makes wolves gather in a great pack to hunt their food. Cold causes the pelts of all animals to be thicker and handsomer. Cold allows fish to be kept fresh for five or six months without salt.9 Cold causes fish to die of suffocation under the ice if it is not broken. Cold always stimulates greater voracity in animals. Cold turns white the crests of cocks and the beaks and feet of geese. 10 Cold makes hares, foxes, and ermines change colour. Cold causes copper, glass, and earthenware vessels to break. 11 47

Furthest peoples are smitten by the harshness of winter Reason for harder frost in the North

Another theory Coldest constellations

Signs of very bitter cold

Fiery cloud Tapering or pyramid-like beams Signs of frightful cold unmistakable Indications of keenest cold

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Cold causes axes, picks, and saws to break. Cold allows games and most delightful shows to be held on the ice. 12 Cold opens up all pathless territories to travellers and hunters. Cold makes contests keener on horseback and on foot. Cold causes dry and leafy tree-trunks to produce a huge noise when they crack. Cold causes clothes, when slightly damp, to stick to iron, if they touch it. Cold makes the skin peel off one's lips, fingers, and nostrils, if they touch iron. Cold causes grooms to breathe upon bits, so that they will not harm the horses' mouths. Cold makes all seeds sown in the ground come up in greater abundance. 13 Cold ripens certain kinds of apples and pears about the time of the winter solstice. Cold causes inns to be set up, markets to be held, and wars to take place on frozen waters. 14 Cold swiftly kills mules and asses brought from elsewhere. 15 Cold does not permit African negroes taken in war, or arriving in some other way, to live for very long. Cold causes nails to spring out from walls, doors and locks. Cold breaks stones in the fields, earthenware, and glass jars. Cold compresses greased shoes or leggings till they are as hard as bone. Cold causes coughs, colds, and similar ailments. Cold makes lips that touch iron stick to it as if held by indissoluble pitch. Look for other things of the same sort further on, where I deal with wars on the ice. 16

48

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY

On hoar-frosts and snowfalls

I

N northern lands the power of frost and falls of snow are generally so severe, and the weather with its thick, sudden mists, which darken the air, so dreadful, that travellers cannot even tell whether a person they meet at close quarters is friend or foe, nor can they avoid him. Every kind of difficulty is presented in situations where on each side either lofty precipices overhang them or packed snow stands up so high that people carrying loads can hardly clear each other by going either to right or left. Nevertheless, because there is rarely any desirable means of circumvent­ ing the cliffs themselves, with reciprocal efforts they loosen the snow in front of the halted pack-animals, and then draw their upturned sledges over it, so that they can complete their intended journey. 1 They do this as quickly as if they were being impelled by a swift conflagration and the rapid need to avert a grievous danger, in case, if there is a longer interval, the ways and woods are choked up by a sudden snowfall and frost so that roads and fields can scarcely be distinguished. On the ice however one never, or seldom, meets any difficulty, since here everything presents itself to travellers as acceptably level; even so they should take warning of a fissure in the ice from the marks set up at the jaws of a crevasse. These marks are displayed either as pieces of icy crust left at the mouth of the hole, or by leafy branches of fir or juniper frozen in the ice and standing up. By a long succession of these over many miles the fishermen diligently, and at their own expense, make quite certain that travellers shall not go astray, as I shall demonstrate further on where inns and markets on the ice are described.2 In the forests considerable obstacles caused by the breaking or move­ ment of trees are sometimes encountered by people who meet one another. The trees, especially poplars, are weighed down by the thickness of snow lying on them and stand like bent bows, so that at the least motion of the tree a huge mass of snow falls upon the wayfarers. Not only does this cause them considerable delay, but the trees themselves, being shat­ tered, and falling under the weight of the snow in a lattice-like pattern, 49

Frost Snow They cannot distinguish friend or foe Difficulty of journeys An answer

Ways are engulfed by snow Caution while travel­ ling on ice Marks of a safe route

Trees weighed down by snow

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Experience of the author

make the track utterly impassable, and the travellers are only able to find a way out by using axes, which they carry with them for this purpose. I can guarantee that this has happened quite often to myself and my companions.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

On different kinds of ice

F

URTHERMORE, the magnitude and fierceness of the cold in binding earth and water and other moist objects is demonstrated in the accompanying picture and the theories I append here; this however must be said first, that the frost (gelu) is so called because the Gelu earth is fettered by it: for the earth is called ge. 1 It occurs with greater Ge Signs of cold severity when the nights appear longer and clearer, and the sky is spread with the azure that is left behind after sunset among thick clouds. This kind of cold, or frost, the people of the North call 'grey';2 it is bitterly Ice, frost, feared by living creatures and most harmful to them. Glades (ice) is and water derived from gelu (frost) and aqua (water), as though the word were Ice gelacies, that is gelata aqua (frozen water).3 Ice is, too, a bonding of cold and moist which, from its excessive frigidity, takes on such a quality that people quite often name one for the other, that is, 'frozen' for 'cold'. Therefore, when pools and lakes which have gathered on high ground are frozen hard by immense cold, yet swell through an influx of water added from hidden caves and channels, Nature allots them a place which slopes downhill, where they may quickly discharge a vast quantity of it. Hence it occurs that, with their hissing fall and swift flow, the waters throw up a steamy mist into the heights and in their descent form inverted Pyramids pyramids of ice at the side, coloured like rainbows, so that they seem to formed from have been arranged in a determined order with artistry and skill. This vapour sight, when the beams of the sun fall upon it and the reflection shines with a more glittering splendour, looks like golden pedestals or, when it is lit up by the light of the moon, like silver ones. Nor is it only these forms that appear suspended high up during the whole winter, but an assortment of 50

BOOK ONE

other shapes fashioned in a thousand ways and a thousand colours by Nature's skill; from their wonderfully beautiful diversity clever painters strive to embellish their works of art and gauge the right mixture of colours. There are other ice formations, too, that hang down from the roofs of houses like tallow candles or lances, with different colours and in various positions, as though the pipes of an organ were placed vertically next to the walls, especially under the roofs of heated cabins,4 in which the natives protect themselves against harsh winters, as I shall set out below when I describe the architecture of houses in the North. 5 Now when it reaches northern tracts, the south wind in winter has such force that with its powerful breath it fixes firm the snows that were scudding far and wide over the fields like whirlwinds, as if it were laying a skin on top of them; but the masses of snow which were hanging down among the branches of trees it thaws into water. 6 However, while it is striving to bring this about, the water, falling in drops when the severity of the northern blast or of its companion winds lights upon it, is at once hard bound throughout those spacious forests, and there may be seen dangling from the leaves countless icicles in the shape of stakes or poles. From sheets of ice people also construct windows for storehouses and stables, and even tables out of doors, just as seats, too, are made of packed snow by the dwellers in these areas, when they so wish. Whenever the husbandmen see huge masses of snow hanging down from the trees in January and February, they rejoice all the more in hope of future abundance; they recognize that plentiful crops are forthcoming in the year ahead when the ground will be more fertile for fostering the seeds because of the protracted cold. This supposition is not without authority or reasonable probability, for Gregory says in Bk XXV of his Morals: 'Now, when soil is rained on, the seeds cast upon it are better fixed and become more fruitful; but again, if the rain waters it overmuch, it encourages richness and strength in the stem of the corn. Yet if the sown seed is gripped by frost after rain it strikes root into the soil more prolifically, etc.'7 1 shall explain this below in the chapter of Bk XIII about burn-beaten fields and land cultivated in the woods. 8

51

Colours of nature Painters are taught Hanging icicles

Effect of the south wind

Force of the north wind

Windows of ice Tables of ice Seats of snow Joyful prognostic Fields are fertilized by cold and snow Evidence of St Gregory

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

On the different shapes of snow Why winds and whirlwinds happen Causes of celestial phenomena Augustine on Genesis Air

Reasons for phenomena are motions of planets

Hoar-frost Snow Hail

B

Y way of explanation of these pictures of snow on windows I must ask you to observe that ^here are in the sky certain aerial causes why winds and whirlwinds occur; certain aqueous causes for clouds, rain, snow, hail, arcs, rainbows, and the like; and certain igneous causes of lightning, thunderbolts, sparkling effects, peals of thunder, and the various manifestations of fiery phenomena, including comets. To enable us to understand this more clearly Augustine states in his commen­ tary on Genesis: This lower, murky air grows thick with a moist exhalation and, when it is disturbed, gives rise to winds; when more violently agi­ tated, fires and peals of thunder; when compressed, mists; when con­ densed, rain; when frozen, snow; when turbulent, hail; and if expanded, clear weather. All this takes place at the secret commands of God, who governs all things from the highest to the lowest which He has created. So, with this air, which closely compasses the earth and is therefore allotted the lowest place, fine breaths are mingled in the form of vapour and interweave gentle breezes. When these are also made heavier by severe nights, they drip down clear dew; but if the cold is more powerful and the frost whiter, they themselves turn white. Moreover Aristotle says in the first book of his Meteorology that the first cause which sets in motion exhalations from the earth and water is the movement of the planets, that is of the sun and the rest, and when these vapours have risen up they produce phenomena in the sky. As the sun approaches or recedes from these materials of earth and water, it is the cause of their generation and corruption, that is of those qualities that are engendered in them. When the sun's heat enters the earth, a moist or a dry vapour rises from it and then separates into its different components. If violent cold attaches to and affects the rising vapour, it turns into hoar-frost, which is vapour that has frozen in cool, cloudy regions, and from such vapour descend snow, frost, and hail. Snow comes from clouds in which cold and vapour have frozen together. Hail however falls from clouds a long way from the earth1 and is formed from congealed rain, more by day than by night; it thaws 52

BOOK ONE

into water much more quickly than snow does, so that when it falls at its heaviest it is called a storm. Therefore, since all the above effects come about through particular and separate causes, for reasons of place and time, and on account of the stars, which alter such influences, it is quite obvious what a multiplicity of wonderful shapes and figures of snow can be found and examined every­ where, principally in the regions of the North and those lands which lie alongside them; indeed the farther one goes towards the Arctic Pole, the more the falling snows are seen to vary in their quantity and quality; consequently it seems more a matter for amazement than enquiry why and how so many shapes and forms, which elude the skill of any artist you choose to name, are so suddenly stamped upon such soft, tiny objects. In fact during the same day and night you may encounter fifteen to twenty distinct patterns, and sometimes more. Besides, just as much variety can be seen on the panes of glass which are set to keep out the cold in the windows of warmed cabins. For, while such places are heated against the enormous depth of frost to provide a higher temperature within, the cold outside and the wonderful handwork of Nature are seen to have so embroidered those panes with such different patterns that any artist you like, when he had looked at them, would be more capable of marvelling at her genius than of copying it. When, however, talent is applied, very many of these designs are contrived and perfected by the diligence of craftsmen for the elegance and embellishment of our homes, such works of art as can hardly be obtained from other nations by prayer or payment. As a result you may see how, by using these capacities, they have created many silver bowls of admir­ able workmanship, woollen and linen fabrics, too, of great value, and wonderfully handsome paintings; something of this will be related further on when I describe painters and textiles.2 Thus the peoples of the North, who are endowed with a skill that certainly merits praise, are just as well taught by the most beautiful objects in Nature as are artists elsewhere in the world by the talents of a master. As regards the descent of monstrous hailstones as big as a man's or calf s head, the local people see in this a token of approaching death. Nor do they lack proof, since cold and snow harm the eyes, as vinegar does the teeth and thorns the feet.

53

Storm Place Time Star Snows vary towards the North

Rather for amazement than enquiry 20 shapes are seen in one day

Silver bowls Woollen and linen garments

Cold and snow harm the eyes, vinegar the teeth, thorns the feet

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

On snow castles built by young lads Warlike exercises of young lads

Snow is hardened by water

Darkcoloured banners among the snows Snowballs

They play the rabbit

I

T is the custom of the northern peoples in their foresight and shrewd­ ness to train young lads in various warlike exercises and in the theory and practice of attacking castles; so, they spur them on, since they think it is a particularly enjoyable occupation for such youths to address themselves to this beginners' use of arms, with neither slaughter, blood­ shed, nor any kind of danger to their lives. Every winter, while the snow lasts, the young fellows, urged on by their elders, assemble in bands at some elevated spot, all working alike to fetch huge masses of snow. With these, at least while they are on holiday, they busily erect defences shaped like the walls of military camps; a building of this sort, which is fitted with windows, they sprinkle continually with water, so that the snow, being bound together by the water, may become more effectively hardened as the cold comes on. By their care and enthusiasm the forts are made so strong that they could stand up not only to light blows but to brazen balls and even, if necessary, to the shock of tortoise formations. 1 When such preparations have been made, these youngsters are divided into different squads, some of whom go inside the walls to defend them, while others remain outside for the attack. In these white forts there is no shortage of black or dark-grey banners, or there are green juniper bushes. Under these, desiring not money but only praise, they embark on their enjoyable combat; neither party employs any other weapons except snow­ balls, thrown by hand from each side at the other. There is a fixed penalty, of being plunged naked into icy water,2 to deter any of the throwers from enclosing a stone or a piece of iron, wood, or ice in one of these snowballs. There are moreover among the attackers those who burrow like rabbits through the lower foundations of the snow walls and make their way in, to force the defenders of the rampart from their positions. 3 Nor is it all that long, as they fight hand to hand, before one side has their banner seized and they surrender, to triumph, if they can, over the winning side when the battle is renewed at some other time in the same fortifications. They engage in games of this sort and bring them to completion no more 54

BOOK ONE

indolently or feebly than if they were fighting in a real battle under the gaze of all for their fatherland, laws, altars, and, as the saying goes, for hearth and home. Absconders, however, and any timid creatures who quit the field, have snow put down their backs between their skin and clothing when they have been caught and, after being chastened with insults and abuse, are set free, so that they may come back on a later occasion with more courage and perseverance to defend the camp with greater zeal. Some are disciplined by having freezing water poured drop by drop onto their heads or necks in a period of dreadful cold, as I shall set out more clearly below in my description of punishments with ice.4 All these things are done as diverting sights to inflict relatively mild penalties on the disobedient and the doltish. This custom has been reported here perhaps at greater length than is proper, since to some readers it may seem downright ridiculous (which I do not deny) and not to deserve space on this paper; but whoever would like some keener merriment and has as much time for laughter as for tears should look at the deeds, or rather the folly, of the Emperor Gallienus, which Trebellius5 relates to outline as follows: 'Lest his pitiful ingenuity should be passed over, I must tell you that he had bedrooms of roses made in springtime; he constructed castles of apples; he kept grapes for three years on end; he produced melons in the depth of winter; he always had buffoons and mimes by him for the second course; with all the palace attendants looking on he had killed in one day more men than may be told. With the strength and courage of these men he would have done better to make good his filial piety and honourably free his own father, the Emperor Valerian, from shameful captivity at the hands of the king of Persia, whose footstool he had been made.'6 This arrogant prince's com­ mand to build castles out of apples must all be put down to pure silliness (to use no unpleasanter word), since no kind of manliness, which is the boast of princes, made such an act seemly, such a manliness as may be inferred from the engagements at the snow castles mentioned above; for in these, boys and youths train themselves with their snowball-throwing to undergo future combats bravely. They are not weakened or wearied by any rigour of the climate or the elements, as long as they are duly brought up to play such tough games in winters as harsh as these. Strabo, too, recalls a similar sort of event in Bk X, where he discusses the laws of Lycurgus, declaring that it is a very fine sight, for he says: On certain days boys fight against boys, etc., and he tells about the way they carry off their loved ones and how they learn their letters. 7

55

Punishment

by abuse

Punishments with ice

Folly of the Emperor Gallienus Bedrooms of roses Castles of apples Buffoons

Fine passage in Strabo

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

On horse-racing over the ice to win cloaks

E

VEN if this picture may appear quite self-explanatory when one looks at the swift-running horses, it still offers a useful and in­ teresting exposition, giving us occasion to recall to mind various ceremonies of the northern folk and neighbouring nations. In ancient times this practice was observed with loyal devotion and even now it is Ancient custom faithfully maintained in just the same way. There was at one time a custom among the ancient Gotar in winter, towards the end of December (a period when, owing to the snow and cold, lakes, pools, and land everywhere were shackled by the powerful grip of ice), to assemble all the best and most handsome horses in separate provinces for the purpose of giving public shows. They were moved to do this by two particular motives: first, that whichever horse or horses they picked out as excelling all the rest Purposes of horse-racing in speed, they should without fail present for sacrifice to the divine powers, as a gift of the highest value to be immolated at the altar or burnt; for they thought that by such an offering they would prove superior to all their enemies according to the degree that the sacrificial victim was in faultless and unblemished condition. Herodotus gives us similar information about the Massagetae on the last page of his first book, and indeed Strabo does too in Bk X about those early ancestors of the Massagetae who believed that the sun was God and slaughtered a horse in his honour. 1 The second purpose was that they should offer to the royal prince or to his emissaries their fastest horses with which, by means of speedy couriers, they might investigate uprisings, wherever they threatened within the kingdom or on the boundaries, and fight them off. Although each has the same sort of The stronger quality, in those days they thought more highly of strong horses than the not the fast ones which we prefer, because of the heavy lances, or pikes, and the swifter thicker covering of armour they had to carry (I shall say more of this in the BkVIII, proper place).2 At no time is there any lack of very swift horses and riders Ch. 13 to guard the kingdom's ports, whenever they are needed. Frozen As far as delightful spectacles are concerned, on 26 December there rivers like assemble on the frozen lakes and rivers, which glitter like mirrors, an mirrors 56

BOOK ONE

infinite number of natives from one or another province (although they keep with those of their own community), to compete on the more nimble horses for a prize and for fame. The distance to the goal, or winning-post, in a race of this sort is between four and six Italian miles. The prize consists of some measures, or pecks, of seed-corn, and the winner is decked in new clothes; lastly, any horse that does not reach the post falls to the lot of the victor. Nowhere in the North are these shows on the ice given before bigger crowds than among the people of Ostergotland and Vastergotland. Their country abounds in luxuriant pastures for studs of horses of up to many thousands, containing choice grasses that Nature has made exactly right for nourishing these animals,3 though this grazing land is not contained in a single meadow but consists of spacious, rolling plains; Strabo in the last folio but one of Bk X mentions plains like these in Armenia, and says that the royal herds are pastured there, numbering fifty thousand horses. Moreover in Bk XVI he states that Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander kept in pastures round Laodicea more than thirty thousand mares, with three hundred stallions. Here horse-tamers were also assembled, together with military instructors and any who were skilled in the arts of fighting. 4

Luxuriant pastures

50 thousand horses in the royal herds Philip of Macedon Alexander the Great

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

On men's racing over the ice for a prize

I

N this picture are shown two kinds of men rushing swiftly over a race­ course for a prize, by means of the art described earlier. 1 The first are men of the wild,2 or Lapps, who, with curving planks or long stakes attached to the soles of their feet, move over the snow in valleys and on mountains, steering a headlong course in their winding but calculated Course winding but progress. This they do with the most perfect skill, no matter whether they calculated have to contend with dangerous situations or engage in pleasant hunting expeditions, from which they gain their livelihood; they achieve abundant fortunes, whether they pursue it for the sake of a prize or fame. This kind of person is found especially among the Scricfinns, whose more important 57

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

qualities have been related in Chs. 4 and 5 of this book; later I shall proceed to recall something of their valour in war. Here it is enough to say that these men, when they traverse the peaks of snow-covered mountains, Very swift progress they even do in competition, have a speed and nimbleness that which over others can hardly attain with the support of flatter and shorter implements mountain peaks on smooth, level ice.3 Indeed, those who travel over the snow will even shoot down with their arrows a wild animal that runs in their way and still reach the set mark. Yet anyone who persists in skimming over the ice is Racing on ice hardly safe from the fissures that lurk beneath, as I shall tell later in the dangerous passage about wars waged on the ice. 4 The other kind of men are those who attach to the soles of their feet a piece of flat, polished iron, a foot long, or the flat bones of deer or oxen, the shin bones, that is.5 These are slippery by nature because they have an inherent greasiness and achieve a very great speed, though only on Very swift speed over smooth ice, and continue shooting forward without pause as long as the ice remains level. Among this sort too there are found everywhere men Racing for a who take pleasure in racing for a prize. Their race-course over frozen lakes prize as smooth as a mirror6 is fixed at eight to twelve Italian miles7 from one end to the other, or it can be less. The prizes are silver spoons, copper Kinds of prizes pots, swords, new clothes, and young horses, but more often the last. 8 The rest are outrun by those competitors in the race who attach to the soles of their feet the shin-bones of deer thoroughly smoothed and greased with pork fat, since, when the cold drops of water rise as it were Pork fat through the pores of the ice during fierce cold, the bones smeared in this way cannot be hampered or kept in check, as iron can however much it is Shin-bones polished or greased. For no greasing suits iron as much as it does the shinof deer bones of deer or bullocks, which have an innate slipperiness of their own. Thickness of In this way, whenever the ice, two or three fingers thick, is clear and bared ice of snow, these shows are performed easily and with little fear of danger; but this is by no means the case at other times, for you are never in greater When peril or nearer to death than when you set off skating while the ice is dangerous to race covered with even the thinnest layer of snow. For rivers or brooks, silently Brooks and swiftly entering the lake from its shores, wear away the ice by their eating away constant movement so that it cannot grow thick and firm, unless the the ice streams themselves are held in check by a very hard frost. But sometimes rash skaters, ignorant of or scorning the properties of ice9 and racing with Heads are cut off by more temerity than caution, are drowned, their bodies lamentably left sharpness10 under the ice and on top of it their heads, which have been sliced off by of ice the sharp edge of the ice as if by an axe. Nevertheless the natives seldom lose their lives through this or any Drowning of similar hazard, but only foreigners who are spying out the regions; these, spies and in order to accomplish their seditious activities more quickly, concentrate traitors on taking short cuts and are swallowed by the sudden treachery and brittleness of the ice. So they leave for others an example of how those who as the agents of hatred and slaughter persevere against the course of Nature very often perish as Nature's rightful victims. There is a lake 58

BOOK ONE

within the boundaries of Ostergotland called Sommen, 11 in which many Lake Danish spies have been engulfed and died this kind of death; so also in Sommen rivers bordering upon it and in the lakes of other Swedish provinces.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

On lodgings upon the ice for travellers

A

THOUGH this picture was drawn and printed on my Gothic map at Venice in the Patriarchate during the year 1539, and covered a long stretch of sea off the shores of the Baltic, there were not as many explanations with it as were needed to make it plain. 1 I have therefore thought it right to present it more fully and with clearer argu­ ments and reasons, to make it better known that warm accommodation for the use of men, or beasts of burden, can be kept firm for quite a long time on the ice, especially since this will hardly seem probable (or even impossible, as the ignorant will say). So, if I give a reliable account of it, this practice, taken from the arrangements of the ancient Gotar, will come to be extended to neighbouring coasts as well. For custom has it that when the public roads are blocked in times of storms by the fall of timber, or of whole woods, they are to be repaired with axes and picks at the common expense and by the labour of the community; but when they are choked with thick snow, they are to be opened up by the individuals who pass with beasts of burden or sledges; and by the sea-shores or on the frozen sea itself they must set up signs on the ice and prepare paths for everyone's use, to leave an unobstructed way open to men's dwellings.2 For a similar reason the North Germans who live in the Wendish towns and districts show amazing diligence in setting up inns on the sea-shore, on flat rocks, and even on the open ice, so that the great traffic of their traders is not hampered by the vast quantity of snow that fills up the routes through the forests or over the land. They put down rectangular beams, which jut to a height of two or three feet above the ice, arranging them to mark out the foundations and ground plan of the building,3 and place on top of them the houses that they need, these being floored from side to 59

Feeble discernment of ignorant

Public roads to be cleared

Method of clearing roads Ways on ice for use of all Lodgings on shore or ice

Beams for a foundation

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

No robbers Safer quarters on ice than in a palace South wind disperses the inns Evidence of Albert Krantz 1323

1399

1423

1294

Julius II led a mighty army across the frozen Po 1300 The wicked William Bridges broken Farming abandoned Plague followed Dying lack care and the dead a grave

side, and they make lavish use of charcoal braziers in their cabins, as indeed they do of all other things that are necessary for cheerful entertain­ ment. They have no apprehension of cunning spies, robbers, or footpads, for they rejoice in having acquired greater freedom from care on the ice than they would have in a palace. The keener the cold and the stronger the gales, the more carefree and high-spirited they continue to be. The winds blow in under the foundations of the inns, make them firmer and more compact, and preserve them until, about the spring equinox, the warm breath of the south wind melts away the whole fabric supporting these buildings, which float away to dry land, with no rent paid for the site where the lodgings stood. About the cold over that German, or Baltic, Sea more has been related by Albert Krantz, who has written with the utmost diligence on all these regions, for he says that in the year of our Lord 1323 the sea was bound by the most bitter cold, so that it could be crossed on foot from the shore at Liibeck to Denmark and to Prussia, and lodgings were set up here and there at suitable places on the ice. Throughout the winter of 1399 the frost gripped lands and seas so hard that people came dryshod over the sound from Liibeck to the town of Stralsund and crossed from there to Den­ mark. In the year 1423 such an unparalleled, unheard-of frost lasted throughout the winter that horsemen crossed quite safely by the sailors' route from Gdansk in Prussia to Lubeck and then from Mecklenburg over the sea to Denmark, using lodgings on the ice.4 In 1294 the Skagerrak was frozen, so that it was possible to ride from Jutland to Oslo. 5 Furthermore, for many centuries since then there have been extremely hard frosts and river estuaries have frozen up, yet, as this has taken place quite often, it is only with difficulty that any records are found. A proof of how great the force of the cold is in its own place of origin6 is the freezing experienced in southern regions, such as occurs on the Rhine, the Danube, and the Po. Pope Julius II, on his way to fight against the French for the freedom of the Church, an event within living memory, ordered bronze machines for shooting missiles, that is war-cannon, to be dragged over the last-named river without fear of danger. 7 Vincent also, in his Mirror of History, Bk XXV, Ch. 87, relates how in England, about the year of our Lord 1300, in the sixth year of wicked King William's reign, there was a flood from such a deluge of rain as no one could recall ever happening before. Winter soon came on and the rivers froze, so that they were passable for horses, wagons drawn by a team of four, and carts. When the thaw came, bridges were broken down by blocks of ice rushing violently against them. For this reason, and because the tribute which had to be rendered to the king was insupportable, farming fell into decay and famine followed. When this grew worse, human mortality increased at such a rate that the dying lacked care and the dead a grave. 8

60

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

On crossing the ice among chasms

I

N the previous chapter about lodgings on the ice I described rather too briefly the signs by which travellers in snowy or frosty weather are guided to reach their chosen inns. The passage before them traverses such vast, flat spaces that for the most part nothing can be seen except sky, ice, and snow, while, that is, they are exerting themselves in the severity of winter, helped by nimble beasts of burden, to advance along the same path on which in summer great fleets have sailed at high speed before the winds. 1 You should therefore take note that holes are made a short way into the ice and junipers or fir trees are customarily set up in the sea along the route, a furlong apart, so that they may be frozen in as they stand upright. 2 This is chiefly done where close investigation of these roadways has ascertained that the ice is reasonably strong. If there were no such marks, there would be just as much reason for fear and as much danger to life looming among the icy chasms as for unarmed sailors on the high seas among merciless pirates, or for men surrounded by savage monsters in a frightful wilderness. It has therefore been decreed by a very strict law that no one shall alter or remove such marks, except in time of war because of traitors and spies. The reasons why it is so perilous for men to journey among the abysses in the ice, noted above, I shall explain in what follows. Before anything else it must be stated that all the lakes and standing water usually start to freeze in October,3 and that in most places, as the cold grows more intense, the ice becomes so thick that, where channels of running water do not flow into the lakes and ponds, it may be observed when the ice melts that the fish beneath it have been stifled to death. To ensure that their suffocation does not cause great inconvenience, fishermen pay careful attention and continually break the ice in case the water should freeze right over, as I shall describe below in the book about winter fishing.4 So, at the beginning and middle of winter the ice is so strong and holds so well that with a compactness, or thickness, of two inches it will support a man walking; of three inches an armoured horseman; of one and a half 61

Nothing but ice and sky are visible to travellers In summer fleets sail by the same route Marks for keeping to the right path

Law that marks should not be removed Precaution against spies

Beginning of cold and ice Fish are suffocated

Strength of the ice

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Ice bears squadrons of horses and armies of foot A cleft in the ice Sound of ice like peals of thunder

Ice untrustworthy in April

Plank bridges Lake Vattem, of which more below Its amazing properties

Travellers remain on pieces of broken ice A lake in Norway that cannot freeze

spans military squadrons or detachments; of four spans a whole battalion or thousands of people,5 as I must record later where I discuss wars fought in winter.6 Although the strength of this ice looks so reliable, it is under­ mined by natural rills and by vapours seething below it in many places, as also by various fissures7 or cavities, so that for a very long distance this produces a cleft, like a country road or street. When the experienced traveller, however, comes to such an opening, he circles round it to avoid losing the route and timing he has decided on. When clefts of this sort form, particularly at night, you can hear the sound in the distance, just like furious peals of thunder or booming earthquakes. This is why the careful traveller leaves nothing untried if he is to complete a journey which leads him among these gulfs. However, as the season verges on the beginning of April,8 no one trusts the thickness, still less the strength, of the ice, unless he walks on it at dawn; the ice becomes so brittle during the day under the eye of the sun that, where a short time before it supported armoured riders, it can now hardly bear one unarmed man. Because of the hardness occasioned by the cold, which has made the winter tracks thicker and more substantial, they remain in being longer over the lakes, like bridges. Nevertheless, when travellers are about to step from the ice onto the land, or vice versa, they need to have a bridge of planks, for the sun warms the shore and diminishes all the ice's cohesion. I think, too, that I should not omit to mention here that there is a lake, sixty Italian miles long and twenty miles broad, called Vattern,9 in the realm of Ostergotland, which possesses this feature: 10when it has been frozen by a sweeping wind, and the time is ripe for it to thaw, the waters begin to bubble and stir up from the bottom with a powerful rumbling noise and to break violently through small cracks and rents which appear in the ice. In a rather short time it makes these chinks quite broad, though hitherto the ice has been at least one and a half to three feet thick. Then, under the impact of the elements above, the whole surface of the ice separates into many fragments, 10 and travellers who are stranded on these can hardly manage to reach the shores unless God preserves them. The reason is that the power of Nature works there more secretly and miraculously than in any other lake. There is also a lake near Trondheim, the metropolitan city of Norway, which never freezes. 11

62

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

On tools for dealing with ice

A

the nations of a hot or temperate zone are clearly quite free from frost, cold, snow, rime, ice, and howling winter storms, they can hardly grasp the diversity of skills, facilities and appliances with which those who live in the bitter cold of the North defend themselves and make arrangements to deal with severities of this kind. 1The might and majesty of Nature are never to be trusted at any moment. If a man's mind can only comprehend parts of her, and not the whole, how many things must he reckon to be incapable of happening before they actually occur? 1 For if Nature herself has fortified wild creatures with many wonderful limbs and joints to make them complete, what should she not grant, for his comfort, to the feebleness of man?2 It is her will that he shall be born naked, shortly to be exposed to innumerable misfortunes, so that he may overcome such hazards by his intelligence and abilities, something he could not accomplish with his strength and implements alone. She has ordained, too, that he shall always have means of help ready to hand when he is beset by many hindrances, and these hard to surmount. For this reason the ice-instruments depicted above are most con­ veniently used for different tasks exclusively in periods of cold, and not merely out of necessity, but for the usefulness and satisfaction they afford to men and their draught animals; thus, when it is impossible to travel fast over the slippery ice or to carry very heavy loads across it to the most distant destinations unless some piece of cunning is devised, there are (as shown above) wooden shoes fitted with iron spikes on the under side to support men and assist their stamina, since these are well suited to the employ­ ments of travellers, fishermen, and soldiers. Apart from these they use tncuspid nails, that is iron triangles with sharp points, manufactured with three corners for steadier walking. Finally they have pliant, circular shoes with points sticking out from all sides, like sharp teeth. Very strong straps are attached to all of these, to hold them close to the feet; this confers a stability which ensures that a person's passage or crossing will be safer, 63

Difference

between nations

Majesty of Nature is not to be trusted

Man is bom naked

Many means of help Tools

Tricuspid nails Straps

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Heaviest burdens become very light on ice Pickaxes

Vessels are conveyed over the ice to open sea

Picks Axes of iron and steel are broken by the cold

Ice must be kept away from ships Felt boots

and that any burden can be quite easily conveyed by the strength of one or two men, a load which otherwise, in sand or snow, could not be drawn even by powerful horses. There are also picks, or axes,3 the principal tools suited to making holes in all types of ice, for with such implements frozen rivers are opened up for many furlongs when a naval expedition has to be made against pirates, or when the business of the state appears to be so urgent that emissaries must be sent overseas. In the latter event the vessels are very swiftly brought down from towns and castles on sledges pulled by mules over the ice to the open sea, in order that, sped by wind and sail, they can complete in a quick voyage by water a journey which, if drawn by animals, they would not have been able to accomplish inside many days. You can also see iron picks engraved in the illustration here, because thick, hardened ice, which will not give way to other iron tools, is quite easily broken up with these. Whereas other axes, alloyed with steel, when struck against the surface of the ice or a green tree during a very hard frost, break like glass,4 these picks I mentioned, or iron crowbars, remain strong and intact. As for the rest, you may see grappling-hooks with bent points, whereby the lumps of ice, broken up with the other tools specified, are more easily dragged wherever you need, or pushed away, even on the open sea at the time of the winter solstice, both when provision has to be made against the ice-mass to keep it from staving in ships, and when sailors have to contend with hidden rocks or, indeed, with cruel enemies. Next you can observe felt boots, or socks. These allow you to choose your movements more conveniently when fighting upon the ice, either to make a brave resistance or a prudent retreat; by wearing these you may tread more safely on the slippery surface, as will eventually be shown later in the description of wars waged on the ice. 5

64

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

On the military obelisks and upright stones of the Gotar

I

T was a very ancient custom of the old Gotar and Swedes to set upright stones, in the manner of Egyptian pyramids, wherever they had undertaken and successfully accomplished their fiercer fights, either on the plains or in the mountains. They thought that by carving some brief inscription of such famous deeds on the stones, they were perpetuating the memory of these men's names and exploits; similarly, by the custom of those times songs composed in rhythmic stanzas and handed down uninterruptedly through the centuries till the present day have transmitted an account of those feats to posterity. In the regions of the North stand very hard mountains, grey in colour and far surpassing marble in their toughness. 1 Very often these are shaken so vigorously by an earthquake, lightning, or other natural shock, that rocks are broken away and, falling downhill, take on a particular shape, some with a pointed top, some of a squared pillar, and some of cubes and obelisks, as if they had been fashioned by the extraordinary craftmanship of Nature, so that it would seem idle and useless to add anything more to them. These pillars were first extracted from the earth and set up by giants on flat ground or in higher places, some marked with writings, others en­ graved. Virgil in the Aeneid bears witness to such giants2 when he writes: Scarcely could the necks of twelve picked men support it, Men of such frame as the earth now engenders. 3 There are more of these pyramids or pillars to be found in Halsingland than anywhere else in the North; but obelisks, or tall stones, erected by mighty giants and champions, are observed nowhere oftener than in Ostergotland and Vastergotland and the more northerly parts of Sweden, at places where two or three roads meet; they also appear in empty wastes which, long since emptied of their original inhabitants through plague, famine, and wars, have not yet, because of the unskilfulness or negligence of the local people, been brought back to their former state of cultivation (until now the ground has been left to itself to run riot, except in one or 65

High mountains Fragments become obelisks

Giants

Pyramids Obelisks

Lands are deserted through plague, famine, and wars

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Height of stones Wonderful inscriptions about exploits of champions Reason for the arrange­ ment of stones Order of the letters

Content of inscriptions Epitaphs

Strabo on Thebes Armies of 1,000,000 men Pyramids No money should be left for the ungrateful

two cases where it has been given over to fallow land). 4 The stones, which were raised in a great many places, are ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty or more feet high, and four to six feet broad. 5 Their sites are wonderful, their arrangement even more so, but most wonderful of all are the inscriptions. They have been put there for a variety of reasons: when the stones are marked with letters and put in a long, straight line they mark the contests of champions; square stones show the fights of cavalry squadrons; rounded ones indicate the burials of near kinsmen; wedge-shaped mem­ orials testify that battle-lines of horsemen and foot were happily victorious at that spot or nearby. Now the inscriptions begin at the right-hand side of the foot of the stones, continue to the top, then turn back and come to an end on the left side of the base; or they may rise up a second time in the same direction inside the first line, run downwards, and stop. Each letter is as thick and as long as a man's middle finger. 6 Although many letters at the bottom of the stones have been damaged and eroded by rain and mud because of their immense age, other similar records of achievements can be quite clearly read, as for example the following: 'I, Uffi, fighting for my country, slew thirty-two champions and at last was slain by Rolf, the champion, and lie here at rest.' Also: 'Tamer of the violent and defender of the oppressed, with my full share of scars and old age and with my sword girt about me, here I, Ingolf, lie.' 'Though others sought glory by warlike means, I, Halsten, diligently keeping peace, have earned undying praise.'7 Strabo, too, claims that at Thebes there are some letters, written on obelisks, which blazon the riches and the power of its kings, their domin­ ion which extended as far as Scythia and India, etc., the great store of tribute they received, and their armies of about a million men.8 The existence of many marvellous pyramids is testified by Isidore, in Bk XV, Ch. 11, Strabo, Bk XVII, and Pliny, Bk XXXVI, Ch. 2.9 But those which Solinus in Ch. 45 says were raised to a higher pinnacle than any other were perhaps built for the sake of idle show, 10 in other words so that no money might remain to the builders' successors, or to those looking for a chance to rival them. 11 Pomponius Laetus pursues this subject at great length, maintaining that each stone was three hundred feet thick. 12

66

BOOK ONE

v

CHAPTER THIRTY

On gravestones

N

EITHER the ancient Gotar nor the other nations in the North were so forgetful of their ancestors that they could neglect to display lofty stones as monuments in honour of those whom they resolved to bury in the earth. Even today you can see enormous rocks, wonderfully fitted together, with a horizontal set across uprights, raised by the might of giants in the fashion of an immensely high, wide doorway. A notable example may be viewed two long miles from the town of Skara on the way to the country parish of Kallby. 1 There, in a place where three roads meet, can be seen three enormous rocks of the sort referred to above, most beautifully carved with Gothic inscriptions. If any curious investigator is willing to traverse wildernesses and open plains in order to examine such stones, he will discover innumerable marvels to gaze at, which it would be unnecessary and irksome to introduce here. One reason for pursuing this subject, however, might suggest itself quite readily, that at no great distance from the ancient town of Skara was situated the royal castle called Arnas (particular mention of this will be made elsewhere2), over which extremely bitter wars were waged in suc­ cessive centuries and generations. About these my dearest brother and predecessor, Johannes, archbishop of Uppsala, has written admirably.3 Likewise, in Ostergotland and Sweden farther to the north, there are fortresses belonging to magnates and noblemen, erected far and wide throughout their territories in places which are naturally defensible. In their walls and fields the huge stones of the ancients are seen stuck fast in the ground, wedge-shaped, rounded, oblong, or upright, and their lofty markings in Gothic letters give instruction, as if at the command of some ruler then alive, of what is to be pursued and what shunned by their successors, that is, they are to embrace virtue and abominate vices, etc. We must not doubt, either, that in those times a similar ordinance was observed in the kingdoms of the North against embalming the bodies of evil-natured princes and tyrants, to prevent them obtaining an honourable 67

Monuments of ancients

Very great number of standing stones

Stones of Ostergot­ land

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

burial, just as the Roman Senate decreed, according to Marius Maximus and Aelius Lampridius,4 against the Emperor Commodus in the following words: 'Let the foe of his fatherland have his honours taken away; let the murderer's honours be taken away; let the murderer be dragged in the dust; let the foe of his fatherland, the murderer, the gladiator, be torn to pieces in the mortuary; the enemy of the gods, the butcher of the Senate; the enemy of the gods, the murderer of the Senate, let him be dragged with the hook; he who slew the innocent, let him be dragged with the hook, etc. Let the statues of the murderer be pulled down; let the slaughterer of citizens be dragged with the hook. Crueller than Domitian, fouler than Nero; as he acted, so let him suffer. The man who killed everyone, let him be dragged with the hook. The man who plundered the living, let him be dragged with the hook; the man who annulled wills, let him be dragged with the hook; the man who killed those of every age, let him be dragged with the hook; the man who killed those of both sexes, let him be dragged with the hook; the man who stripped temples, let him be dragged with the hook; the man who Robberof temples extorted fees for men's lives and then broke faith, let him be dragged with the hook. The man who put the Senate up for sale, who seized the inheritance from men's sons, let him be dragged with the hook: because he lived for the ruin of the citizens and for his own disgrace. Therefore his statues are to be removed and his name erased from all places public and Statues and name of What was yelled, and perpetrated, against the dead Caligula, private.'5 tyrants to be effaced too, and Vitellius, and such co-heirs of the Prince of Darkness,6 would be impossible to set out in the very largest volumes, just as no eternity seems long enough to relate the excellence of the best monarchs; for their portraits and statues are always more venerable in that men now suffering Statues of good men to misfortune, when they call such heroes to mind, remember their own more be revered fortunate days and pray unceasingly for their everlasting bliss. It can still Stones be plainly seen that, many centuries before the Catholic faith was im­ marked with planted in northern realms, the obelisks and stones of such virtuous the sign of the holy princes were marked with the sign of the Cross, and carried an inscription Cross rather like this: 'After I was led away by the deceit of demons and Ancient epitaph of wandered astray I, Germund, was converted to the God of the Christians, one Gerdied, and am buried here to await His judgment.' Moreover these words mund Another are found on a stone elsewhere: 'Dead to the forsaken worship of idols epitaph for Holmsten and alive in the faith of Christ, I, Holmsten, rest beneath this stone.'7 The burial of this man and his like, marked with a single obelisk, will surely be reckoned more splendid than all the pyramids of tyrants raised by Egyptian vainglory, as has been demonstrated to some extent in the previous chapter, and especially by the evidence of Pliny in Bk XXXVI, Ch. 12. 8 He brings out these vanities by listing their causes, costs, sites, times, and even the prostitutes whose shameful employment raised these towering pyramids amongst this race of weaklings, whereas among the hardy Northerners such females would have had their ears and noses cropped for their infamous conduct. Harlots do indeed exist in the north­ ern lands, but their gait and behaviour are so immodest that the wretched

Horrifying judgment on a tyrant

68

BOOK ONE

women, even if they are very rich, are given names which equate them with the vilest objects, because of the bad reputation and disgrace that attach to them. As Augustine says, we see that a latrine in one part of the Latrine house is more bearable than that the whole house should be a bilge for the fostering of filth.9

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

On the monuments of two brothers

I

N another place one may also discover stone panels, high and fairly broad, pressed into the ground by the strength of giants. These have engraved on them the figures of dragons, serpents, and bears, against which no lesser victories were won than against armed men, as I shall make plain below in the book about giants and champions. 1 There are, too, conspicuous stones set into banks by the side of waters, which in the ancient style of writing tell that in those localities famous persons had been killed in various accidents caused by rivers, storms, lightning, and whirlwinds, or had been destroyed by villains lying in wait. Since then the renown given to them has stood through all time. There are also tall stones, by whose appearance and signification the most ancient posses­ sions of provinces, boroughs, fortresses, communities, noblemen, and commoners are peaceably authorized to each one to hold, without laws, lawsuits, or legal settlements: a proof exhibited to all other nations that among these simple people more justice and equity proceed from bound­ ary stones than there is in many volumes of written laws in other places where men consider themselves better educated and civilized. In South Gotaland there exist twin monuments dedicated to two brothers,2 dating from this distant age and celebrated right up to the present day, because, when the pair were hardly more than youths, it was foretold by soothsayers that each should die by the other's hand. Dread­ ing this destiny and desiring to ayoid it, they went away separately to distant parts of the world, intending to travel abroad continually. But, when old age and infirmity overtook them, they returned to their native 69

Figures of animals

Monuments

Boundaries

Stones of two brothers

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Fate finds a way

Heaps of stones

Shipwrecks are avoided

Mora sten

land, each imagining that the long lapse of time would have put an end to his brother and his doom. However, it turned out otherwise, and fate found out a way. Some furlongs from the town of Jonkoping the two old men met and exchanged greetings without recognizing one another. They had rested for only a short while by the highway in the glade of a pine forest when their dogs began to fight. A similar quarrel broke out between the men themselves, who inflicted wounds on each other; then, while they were taking breath, they recognized each other as brothers and gave up the ghost. However, these happenings have been presented as a record of antiquity rather than matter for approval. Round about that area are to be seen high heaps of countless pebbles, piled up solely by the hands of travellers who threw them; for it is the custom of that people, while they are making a journey, to throw great numbers of stones down at those notable places where omens or marvels have occur­ red. Perhaps they do this to clear the stony roads under the pretext of performing a pious act, or prompted by some other blameless motive. 3 On the shores there are also stones of some height which bear no inscriptions, but were set up by the diligent men of old and turned to face treacherous harbours as a conspicuous mark to alert mariners and allow them to avoid shipwreck.4 There is also a huge, round stone which has twelve smaller stones round it and is raised a little from the ground on tapering rocks. This is not far from the metropolitan city of Uppsala and is called the Mora sten. When a new king is to be elected he is lifted up on this in the presence of an innumerable throng of people, and presently, after he has taken the oath to defend the faith, he is established as the king with sacred rites performed by the Catholic bishops. 5

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Clocks

S

INCH a clear description of the inventors of clocks and the division of the hours can be found almost anywhere in the world, it would be more troublesome than fruitful for me to repeat something so obvious 70

BOOK ONE

here. Nevertheless I shall have to confess that the division of days and hours which other nations employ today (and with the use of bells, too) came very late to the peoples of the North, because of our ancestors' ignorance and the simplicity of ancient times. Yet now, in almost the whole of the northern region such well-finished clocks, easy to use and accurate, have been constructed by the skill of both foreigners and natives, that clearly nothing more is needed for them than shrewd man­ agement. In the metropolitan church of Uppsala (where, or near which, on certain hills idols were worshipped six hundred years ago) is kept a marvellous clock of great value, through whose daily and nightly move­ ment the approach and regression of the planets, the sun, and the moon are observed by a most cunning method. 1 The clock was made in recent years, when Archbishop Jakob was in office2 (who also set up a university by charter in this city of his), at a cost that was considerable but never to be regretted, since all the learned men of those parts, just as they are inclined to favour other excellences, are extremely eager to discover the courses, properties, and effects of the stars and constellations. I should like this statement to be understood also of other clerics in the cathedral churches, to whom our gracious God has granted distinguished abilities in the highest degree. Bjorn, a man of great intelligence who came from Vastergotland, was employed before all others by King Frederick III in his most weighty deliberations.3 In the same way Pope Alexander VI used Gadh from Ostergotland, who was afterwards ensnared and killed by the Danes.4 It is not to be wondered at that the use of modern clocks came rather slowly to the lands of the North, 5since it is said that Rome, so inquisitive into all knowledge, for long ages had no method of dividing up the daylight until Scipio Nasica first distinguished separate hours by means of a water-clock, just as Vitruvius the architect after him divided up both day and night. Scipio had that clock under his roof in the year 595 after the foundation of the city. Since then clocks have been invented made of metal, sand, or even egg-shells. Nowadays they tell the time by means of toothed wheels, weights, small bells, and cords, and provide a comfort for great men. There is indeed another kind of clock powered only by a coil of steel bound round with catgut; unwinding little by little, this spring turns the wheels without the use of weights.5 The price of a piece of workmanship of this kind rises to such a height for its rarity alone that, when it is fashioned with gold, silver, and valuable pearls, one can some­ times be seen worth over a thousand ducats. I have looked at a clock of this sort in the hands of a certain nobleman whose weapons of war could hardly be valued at fifty ducats. Might not the state, afflicted with hun­ dreds of wrongs, justly complain of such an extravagant citizen, in the same way as Pliny, in Bk XIII, Chs. 1 and 3, cries out against perfumers as men who have discovered how to manufacture a new kind of theft?6

71

Use of

clocks came late to the North Bells

The excellent clock at Uppsala

University at Uppsala

Dis­ tinguished abilities of Northerners Frederick III Gadh

Reason for the late arrival of clocks Year of the city 595 Various kinds of clocks

Cheap weapons, valuable clocks Discoverers of a new theft

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

On shadow clocks

I

believe I have made it sufficiently clear in the first chapters of this book that men living in the subarctic region have continuous daylight for six months, and as many months of darkness. 1 Nevertheless I Where daylight think that from this point onwards I shall be bound to meet the astonish­ last for six months ment of many readers at the clever inventions with which they apportion their times for rest and work by distinguishing between days, nights, and hours. You must know therefore that the inhabitants of the extreme North, who live beyond a latitude of 86°,2 have no use for a sundial such as Sundial Anaximenes Anaximenes of Miletus is said (for example by Pliny) to have discovered when he was in Sparta,3 nor for any other clock, whether constructed with weights, wheels, water, or a scale of spaced lines. They use only the very Points of high and low points of rocks, arranged partly by Nature, partly by human cliffs used skill, and by their shadows cast from the sun's rays these give unerring for clocks guidance, so that people can distinguish one section of a day from another; in winter both by day and night, even though the moon is not shining, their experience enables them to gauge the sequence of time very Numberless accurately through the voices and behaviour of birds and land animals, of birds which there is an infinite abundance there.4 So they are satisfied with such Wild creatures signs as pointed rocks or clues from wild animals. The means of navigation indicate the used by those who dwell on the shores of the Ice Sea or the Scythian Sea hours when they are sailing beneath the Arctic Pole I shall describe elsewhere, as also the work of those who toil by the light of the moon.5 But what I said above, about the way in which men who live under the Pole recognize and distinguish the hours of the day by the calls and behaviour of wild animals, is nothing wonderful, since Nature prompts both domestic and wild creatures to observe times in order of succession, as is evident to folk with experience. 6The practice of partitioning days, however, derives Hermes originally, we believe, from Hermes Trismegistus, who divided up the day Trismegistus 72

BOOK ONE

and hours by an Egyptian animal's urinating twice six times. 6 People say indication; on 25 March it brays at that the wild ass givesi a •similar « • i * A /• day and as often during the night, the in times frequent intervals, twelve as a sign that it is then the equinox. 7

Hourshown ^yunnatin8 tiQiiinox is indicated by braying -•---—- of wild ass

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

On staves

I

N the same way as Latin and Greek writers state that the Goths enjoy a high degree of skill and circumspection in arms and military train­ ing, so Gothic writers, too, say that at home and abroad their people possess practical accomplishments in many useful subjects, especially knowledge of the stars, by which they have the special ability to foretell the future, 1 as the attached picture partly demonstrates. We see here an old and a young man each holding a staff marked with Gothic characters. From these engraved sticks we can perceive the implements with which, in very ancient times before books were in use, they found out with unfailing success the properties and influences of the moon, the sun, and the other heavenly bodies, a skill shared by nearly all present-day inhabitants of the North. The staff is adapted to the height of a man, with the number of weeks in a year on each side, and for each week seven Gothic letters, by which the golden numbers and, after the acceptance of Christianity, the dominical letters are marked off in the vernacular by characters.2 Through a cycle of many ages they used no other books in the interpre­ tation of the stars,3 granting that 4in antiquity these small artefacts of the ancients were called 'book', just as we still today give the skin of living wood the same name. But it was improper to entrust brilliant erudition to rude boards and to stamp on dull sticks of wood whatever the refinement of the senses could discover. This suited those earlier men, since their unskilled beginnings needed to hit on some invention, as Cassiodorus says, which might challenge the abilities of their followers until the ways of a more cultivated age should bring knowledge to a richer state and entrust it to the keeping of thin pages; then what is there imprinted more 73

Training in arms Skill in the stars Description and property of staff Golden number, dominical letter, and lunations are declared by staves Ambiguity of 'book'

More elegant usage of the age

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

securely can be heard in the same way at all times. Though memory, in fact, holds subjects fast, it very often changes words and jettisons a great deal.4 There were none the less, among so countless a people, men of very distinguished intellect who committed to the secret guardianship of books something more admirable than others did, for public use and honour and to make permanent the greatest attainments of science; several examples of this in Gothic writing are found in the metropolis of Uppsala, in the Books written in church at Skara, and in renowned places elsewhere. There are such rones are kept in the astronomers also alive today and very learned teachers of other faculties. metropolis But it has been observed of the common people that, just as they of Uppsala received the knowledge and practice of astronomy handed down by their forbears in those staves and inscriptions shown above, so they persisted unshakably in receiving and passing this on, even after taking up the holy faith, in such a way that countrymen, or peasants, are found to be so Skill of northern countrymen skilled that they can foretell to one day what each golden number is, the dominical letters, a leap year, intervals of time, movable feasts, and what the very changes of the moon will be after ten, six hundred, or even a Authority of thousand years. They share with the priests this passionate interest in experience festivals and similar events, which instigates them to ask questions and Parents furnish answers. Besides, parents teach their sons who are laymen, and teach their mothers their daughters, either at home on holy days or on their way to sons church, so that they become daily more perfect in this skill, no less by instruction than by practice in the art. By an ancient custom of this people laymen support themselves with these staves on the lengthy journeys they make across the countryside to attend their churches,5 and likewise, when Future they meet together they draw on certain reckonings and foretell quite events reliably the characteristics of the coming year, more accurately than others, perhaps, would do by adhering to the speculative sciences or deceitful prophetic signs. Moreover they watch the northern celestial pole They watch signs and with amazing care, regarding it as the gnomon of the whole heavenly constel­ lations clock, and also the Wains, or the Great and Little Bears, and Frigg's distaff and spindle,6 as well-known tokens of ancient divine power. By considering the properties of these they make admirable provision for Nature coming events, very wisely observing that Nature wishes no one to be idle, allows but to learn or discover more and more, and to add strength to one's nothing to be idle discoveries. Memory

74

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

On the significations of thunder in different months

A

THOUGH at any time of the year you can normally see vapours and mists, from which thunder and thunderbolts are generated by the reverberation of clouds, yet they happen most of all in summer, when they are attracted from the earth more profusely and raised to a greater height by virtue of the heat, a fact that is quite obvious to everyone. Although mist and thick vapours are ejected rather than drawn out from the bowels of the earth in winter and spring, they do not however rise as high because of lack of heat but remain in the lower air, inducing rain and wind later. In the autumn, which, as Seneca bears witness, is cold and dry, there is neither moisture to be raised nor heat to raise it, since everything is plainly consumed by very harsh frost. 1 Even though these conditions customarily happen by the general process of Nature almost everywhere throughout the world, in northern areas, as even Herodotus agrees, ominous thunders sometimes occur in winter, perhaps on account of the hot exhalations from the mines, which are plentiful in those parts, and where the veins of sulphur, as I shall relate below, in the coldest winter do not allow certain lakes to freeze at all. 2 Though these claps of thunder come at an unusual time of year, farmers and ships' captains are not greatly astonished or disturbed by them; for, even if they judge such winter thunder as portents, they look for the effects of them only in the month when they occur. In January thunders mean higher winds than usual and taller growth of the earth's crops. In February, that death will come to a great many, particularly those who live luxuriously. In March, that strong winds are ready to burst out, that there will be a fruitful season, and noisy legal disputes. In April, that rain will fall, which will be good for the crops, and the fields will wear a cheerful face all the year long. In May they signify everything adverse: a dearth of crops and every commodity frighteningly expensive. 75

Thunder more frequent in summer Vapours are ejected Autumn cold and dry

Ominous thunders in winter Veins of sulphur Farmers and captains are not disturbed by thunder Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.

Winds Showers Rains Damp Wind Thunder in the morning Thunder most ominous from the north Height of good Fortune Man seldom dies by a thunderbolt Wounds from a thunderbolt Beasts perish at once

In June they forecast a more plentiful fertility, but sickness is much to be feared. In July too an abundant supply of corn, but ruin for peas, beans, and fruit. In August, that men shall live together at peace, yet there will be terrify­ ing illness. In September, that a fruitful season is at hand, together with wars, civil discord, and carnage. In October any thunder is reckoned to be ominous, showing that tempests are threatening on land and sea. In November, though they happen in very infrequent years, they promise fruitfulness in the coming year. In December thunders are a sign of general plenty and that men shall live agreeably together. 3 There are, again, other precepts with regard to lightning and thunder, stated by Pliny in the last chapter of Bk XVIII, which the peoples of the North also commonly pay heed to. If in summer the thunder is more violent than the lightning, it foretells that wind will blow from that quarter. Conversely, if there is less thunder, there will be rain-showers. When lightning comes out of a clear sky, rain and thunder will appear and it will be wintry; this will be more savage when it flashes from all four corners of the sky. When from the north-east alone, it forecasts that the next day will be damp. When it flashes from a northerly direction, wind; when from the south, or north-west, or west on a clear night, it will portend wind and showers from the same quarters. Thunder in the morn­ ing is a sign of wind; at noon of teeming rain. Besides this it is of great importance where the thunderbolts come from and in what direction they withdraw. Those are most ominous which go from north to west, and most favourable when they return to the region from which they have risen; when they come from the first quarter of the sky and go back to the same place, it foretells the height of good fortune; but all other parts of the heavens remain unlucky. It is at night time rather than by day that lightning flashes occur without thunder. Nature has granted this privilege to man, that he seldom loses his life by a thunderbolt; but when this does happen it is more devout to bury the man than to cremate him. The wounds it inflicts are colder than any others. Beasts perish immediately from its first stroke, but no animal, except a dead one, is set on fire by a thunderbolt.4

76

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

On the alphabet of the Goths

F

ROM a primeval age, when there were giants in the northern lands, 1 2long, that is, before the Latin letters were invented and before Carmenta reached the mouth of the Tiber from Greece and set foot with Evander on Roman soil, drove out the Aborigines, and taught manners and literacy to the ignorant and wholly rustic people, the kingdoms of the North had a script of their own. Evidence of this is furnished by stones of extraordinary size attached to the tombs and caverns of the ancients.2 If anyone doubts that this was accomplished by the strength of giants in very early times, let him go there and see greater and more staggering wonders than any piece of writing could promise or provide. So, as my dearest brother and predecessor, Johannes Magnus, archbishop of Uppsala, tells in Bk I, Ch. 7, of his History, by inscribing on these stones the exploits they performed, they have passed them on to everlasting memory. 3 4Some also, for their private reckonings, used various figures of animals for letters, as the Egyptians did, and to this day they do so with their own native resourcefulness, as I shall shortly describe below. Similar carvings may be looked at even now on old obelisks at Rome, in which single characters stood for single words; for example a wolf meant 'miserly', a fox 'artful', and a bee 'king', because the governor of the people ought to wield the sting of justice tempered with the honey of mercy. 4 Moreover, as letters written on paper are now sent from one person to another, so once the natives of the North directed to each other letters incised on wood, since this was the best-known form of writing material. Indeed, even now, if paper runs out in military camps or cities under siege, they resort to using for their letters the bark or wood of a birch tree cut apart into slivers or, rather, into thin sheets; this they may do with greater peace of mind because bark of this sort is not spoilt by any damage from rain or snow. Peter Martyr records also, in Bk VIII, that the Chaldeans still write on the leaves of trees and that these were used by the 77

Northern giants Letters of northern peoples more ancient Letters carved on stones

Egyptian letters

Wolf Fox. Bee Sting of justice, honey of mercy

Letters are written on the bark of trees

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Discoverers of the New World

Alphabets are formed from the shapes of objects Ink

Deeds greater than writings Exploits are repeated in songs Parthians Medes

Portuguese, first discoverers of the New World, when they were com­ pelled to set up a system of mutual defence in order to put down an insurrection of the natives. 5 One finds in the northern zone, too, men of such shrewd wits that, although they have never learnt the Gothic or Latin script, they put together an alphabet for themselves from the shapes of different objects and from implements, and employ these to assist their memories by writing them one after the other on hide, paper, or bark. They communicate this secret to none except members of their own household, ordering ink to be made of powdered charcoal with milk or ordinary water. A great many excellent memorials from men of the earliest times would therefore still be in our possession for the instruction of the present age, if those people, born for eminent feats, had left for their successors writings as extensive as their deeds were glorious; for we perceive what a slender enjoyment of letters they had, compared with their vast pleasure in arms and violent wars.6 Nevertheless, they handed down the active achieve­ ments of that unpolished age, to be sung by their descendants repeatedly and spiritedly in rhythmical melodies, as is still done nowadays. 7 The Parthians and Medes, on the other hand, weave letters into garments, rather than put them on parchment or paper.8 Perottus also records that before the discovery of letters the men of antiquity had used nails for a similar purpose.9 END OF BOOK ONE

78

NOTES OM1:1

The vignette illustrates the chapter in a rudimentary way. 1 Biarmia, part of the Kola Peninsula; see KL, I, cols 647-51. 2-2 Mostly from De sphaera, pp. 109-10. OM puts Biarmia too far north; on the Kola Peninsula (66°-70°N.) there are at most some 65 days of continuous light in summer, 60 days of dark in winter. 3 Neither geographer makes a precise statement to this effect. 4-4 From Saxo 8, XIV 6 (tr. Fisher, p. 263). Saxo refers only to 'further' Biarmia; OM changes it to 'nearer'. 5 See OM 17:26-30, on reindeer. 6 Cf. Saxo 3, II 5 (tr. Fisher, p. 70); OM 3:12. 7 Cf. OM 3:19. 8 I.e., they live as nomads. 9 Cf. Solinus, 1101; Pliny, Nat. hist., VII2,16. 10 OM 3:16-19. OM1:2

On what the vignette signifies see the second sentence of OM 1:1. 'Cf. OM 3:19, 4:1. 2-2 Largely from Walkendorf, §§ 2-3. Open-air fish-drying is not now considered practical in Finnmark and Lofoten. OM's reference is to OM 21:1. 3-3 From De sphaera, pp. 108-9. The 'arctic circle' in the first sentence is that of the heavens, at 66° in the celestial sphere, corresponding to the terrestrial Arctic Circle. 4 Pliny,Ato. tor., II17, 81. 5 OM worked with 10 'Gothic' or 'Swedish' miles to 15 'German' miles, and 10 'German' miles to 40 'Italian' miles. The length of a mile varied from place to place, and it is not certain whether OM's 'Italian' mile was 1-48 or 1-23 km. In Denmark and Central Sweden the medieval mile was about 9-5 km, but elsewhere in Sweden it varied from as few as 6 to as many as 15 km Cf. KL, XI, cols 626-7. 6 58° 22' and 58° 21'N respectively. 7 Not from De sphaera, as the shoulder rubric says, but from Thomas of Cantimpr£. OM's references to Thomas's De natura rerum are all derived from Vincent of Beauvais, here from Spec. nat., XV 77. OM1:3

The vignette of the Seven Sleepers illustrates the chapter. 1-1 More or less verbatim from Paulus Diaconus, I 4. The word 'indociles', 'ignorant' (so Paulus Diaconus), is read for OM's 'deciles'. On the legend see KL, XXI, cols 313-14. 2 Sigebert, Chronicon, s.a. 447. OM1:4

The vignette appears to be adapted from an original that illustrated conditions hardly compatible with the skis on the man's feet and the following description. 1 The first element in 'Scricfinni' and 'Scricfinnia' is from "skripk-, a derivation from the root in ON skrida, 'slide, glide; go on skis or snowshoes' (Sw. skrida, German schreiten); cf. Sw. dialectal skricka, 'slide, skate'. In foreign writers the 79

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES first element usually appears in root-form, e.g. 'Skrithiphinoi' in Procopius, 'Scridefinnas' in Old English, though OM met remoter spelling variants in the passages he cites from Jordanes and Paulus Diaconus on p. 24 below. 2 The Central Nordic (or Scandic) ski-type has a long left ski to slide on and a short right ski to give propulsion. The difference in length between them is greater than the measurements given by OM. The type appears to have been developed in the late middle ages and it then prevailed over the whole of N. Scandinavia and N. Finland and in the northern parts of Russian Karelia. Only one stick was used. Cf. KL, XV, cols 498-9. When OM speaks of men eight feet tall, he was presumably bent on impressing a Continental audience. 3 OM 17:26-30. *~* From Saxo, Praef. II9 (tr. Fisher, p. 9). 5 Filippo Archinto, bishop of Saluzzo from 1546, played a prominent part in the Council of Trent. Alessandro Farnese (1468-1549) became Pope Paul III in 1534. 6 Cf. OM 1:25, 4:1, 4:12. OM1:5 The vignette is adapted from CM, litt. B (N. Finnmark). It is used again before OM 4:12; cf. also the vignette to OM 20:17. 1 From Jordanes, III 19-21. 'Erefennae' is a variant of erroneous 'Screrefennae'; on OM's parenthesis cf. OM 1:4, n. 1. 2 The preceding is from Paulus Diaconus, I 5, with brief comment by OM. 'Stritobini' is an error for 'Scritobini'. On reindeer cf. OM 17:26-30, 4:12. 3 From Franciscus Irenicus, X 9. Bk. XXV of Pseudo-Aristotle, Problems, deals with the air and temperatures but contains nothing exactly corresponding to Fran­ ciscus Irenicus's statement, which as it stands makes little sense. The Hyginus reference is to Astronomica, IV 3; the Homer to Odyssey, X 82-6. 4 Pliny, Nat. hist., II 77, 186-7. Iceland renders OM's 'Tyle'. On CM Tyle' appears as an island south-west of the Faroes, though in Ain kurze Auslegung and Opera breve OM mentions that some people say that 'Tile' is Iceland. In OM 2:3 he himself refers to Iceland as 'ultimum Tyle'. OM1:6 The ship in the picture is also found on CM between Gotland and Kurland. Except for references to Nordic winds, al! the matter in the chapter is derivative. The following diagram, from JG, p. 20, is helpful:

W

80

BOOK ONE

1 From Aristotle, Met., 1 13 (349A), by way of Vincent, Spec. not., IV 34. 2-2 From Vincent, Spec, nat., IV 35, 38 and 36, with some modification. In classical Latin both Vulturnus and Eurus stand for the south-east wind. ^3 More or less verbatim from Vincent, Spec. not., IV 38. 4 From Pliny, Nat. hist., II 48, 127-9. Pliny's punctuation is followed, not OM's. Latin 'A levo latere in dextrum' is rendered 'east to west' (Pliny imagined the observer facing south). In the last sentence we keep OM's 'fluctus' ('waves'), for Pliny's 'flatus* ('winds'). 5 Herodotus, VII 188-90. 6 Cf. OM 1:10, n. 6. 7 This is Dutch, not Swedish, coastal protection; cf. OM 2:33, 6:5, 13:11. OM1:7

The man-of-war in the picture suggests that OM intended to stress the naval importance of his instruction on winds. i"1 From Vincent, Spec, not., XV 6 and 12, with slight modification; the matter goes back to Pliny, Nat. hist. , XVIII 78-9, 342-50. Many of the signs given by OM here and in later chapters can be paralleled in more recent Scandinavian weather lore; cf. KL, XX, cols 334-6; Granlund, 'Lart och folkligt i traditionen om vaderleksmarken', esp. pp. 96-101. In 'If ... its beams do not project', Pliny's negative, omitted in Vincent and OM, is restored. Vincent and OM read 'insecta', 'notched'; Pliny has 'infesta', 'threatening'. 2 Seneca, Nat. quaest., 111,1. 3 Pliny, Nat. hist., II 22, 90-91. OM 1:8

The vignette apparently illustrates OM 1:6 on the nature of the south wind, with melting airs coming from the right, cold from the left. 1 Vitruvius, De architecture, I 6. 2 Reference uncertain, perhaps to OM 7:20 and 13. OM1:9

This chapter continues OM 1:6 on the effect of winds. The top part of the full-page illustration shows the effects of dry and cold winds (cf. also OM 1:10). The lower part shows the cold, damp west wind, the warm, damp south wind, and the east wind, usually dry and temperate but here bringing snow. 1 Isidore, Etym., XIII11,1, by way of Vincent, Spec, not., IV 26. 2-2 From Vincent, Spec. not., IV 34, much of it from Isidore, Etym., XIII11,2-14. 'The wind... Notus', Latin nothus, borrowed from Greek, meant 'bastard', so 'spuri­ ous, false'. The 'two principal winds' mentioned are thought to be those that prevailed in Greece. The marginal reference is probably to Pliny, Nat. hist., II 47, 122. 3 Vitruvius, De architectura, I 6, 10.

4 A rose with an inner circle showing 32 points is also found in 'Oceanus Britannicus' on CM. Division into 32 points must have been well known in the fourteenth century; cf. Chaucer's 'Treatise on the Astrolabe' (1391), § 31: 'Now is thyn orisonte departed in 24 parties by thy azimutz ... al-be-it so that shipmen rikne thilke partiez in 32' (The Complete Works, p. 411). In N. Atlantic navigation it may have been known long before. A fragmentary wooden dial found in prethirteenth-century Norse levels in Uunartoq Fjord in Greenland has been confi­ dently identified as part of a 'sun-compass' (a bearing dial with a gnomon curve); it had 32 points. See Thirslund, 'A Presumed Sun-compass'. OM 1:10

The armed horseman trying to flee from Circius in the vignette is also found on CM, litt. A (N. Iceland). 1 Vestrabord is probably a corruption of the name of NW Iceland, Vestfirdir, 81

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES 'West-firths'. On CM the name appears in an appropriate westerly position but without marking a single obvious settlement. On the opposite coast CM has Ostrabord (perhaps from Icelandic Austfirdir, 'East-firths'), evidently marking a harbour. It has however also been suggested that these names might represent Vesturhorn and Austurhorn, two outstanding sea-marks some 25 km apart in the SE corner of Iceland, the customary landfall. 2 Cf. OM 7:23. 3 OM's 'portucryptici', 'vault-dwellers', is presumably a nonce-word formed by inversion from 'cryptoportici', the term used on CM, litt. A (Iceland), and again (in the singular) on the vignette to OM 7:23. In the pictures the word refers to what looks like a series of cave-mouths, though of regular shape. In Ain kurze Auslegung and Opera breve, litt. A o, he explains they indicate that many people live under­ ground because of the cold, as Africans do because of the heat. They might depend on some account of turf-covered shelters such as were used in Iceland for tempor­ ary or seasonal accommodation, possibly even of the low-built turf-covered 'pas­ sage houses' typical of late medieval Iceland. Caves have been put to use in Iceland, but there was no tradition of cave-dwelling there. 4 OM is probably referring to Lofoten and neighbouring regions. 5 Cf. OM 21:2, 21:20 (and vignette); CM, litt. B (south of Lofoten). 6 In comparison with north and north-east winds (in spring and summer) and south winds (in autumn and winter), northwesterlies are in fact rare in this region. 7 OM's Procopius is an error for Perottus; see Perottus, col. 342; M. Cato in libris originum, reproduced by Aulus Gellius, Nodes atticae, II 22, 29. 8 Ferdinand I (1503-64), king of the Romans 1531, emperor 1556. 9 Paraphrase of Procopius, V, 15, 4-7. 10 Strabo, XVII 1, 54. OM 1:11 The vignette illustrates the contents of the chapter. 1-1 From Vincent, Spec. not., IV 39; cf. Isidore, Etym., XIII11,19; Seneca, Nat. quaest., VII 8, 2; 9, 2-3; 10, 3. There is some corruption in OM's Latin. In 'when a wandering ... one wind' the translation follows Seneca, Nat. quaest., VII9,2. The original sense of 'The greater the violence ... breaks up' was probably, 'It rolls over the earth with great violence and speed; the higher it goes, the less dense and so the more diffused it becomes.' 2 Vincent, Spec. hist., XXV 87, XXVI 26. 3 Diodorus Siculus, V 26,1. 4 The Vik is the Oslofjord region. OM 1:12 The man in the picture blows his horn to ward off the thunder. Cf. also the vignette to OM 1:13. 1 I.e. the southern parts of Sweden, where thunder occurs much more often than in the north of the country. 2-2 From Vincent, Spec. not., IV 54, following Aristotle, Met., HI 1 (370B). 3 Cf. Seneca, Nat. quaest., II 54. 4 From Vincent, Spec. not., IV 54. 5 OM appears to be recalling the ancient division of a thunderstorm into com­ ponents of din, light and stroke. The references are to Isidore, Etym., XIII 9 1; Virgil, Georgics, I 328-9. 6 Seneca, Nat. quaest., II 53; Vincent, Spec, not., IV 59. The note on the thickness of the sulphur layer is OM's. 7 Cf. OM 20:29 on 'herring lightning', Sw. sttlblixtar, phosphorescence associ­ ated with fish-shoals. 8 OM is presumably thinking of practices in Sweden.

82

BOOK ONE

9-9 The matter is from Pliny, Nat. hist., II 56, 146, referring to Roman custom. Cf. OM 13:20. 10 Pliny, Nat. hist., XV 40, 135. 11 Seneca, Nat. quaest., II 30, 2; also in Vincent, Spec, not., IV 58. Seneca connects the fate of Cambyses's army with a thunderstorm, something not clear from OM. The reference to Marcus Herennius is from Pliny, Nat. hist., II 52, 137, not from Seneca, as OM implies. 12 Herodotus, VII 42. 13 Pliny, Nat. hist., II 52, 137; also in Vincent, Spec, not., IV 62. The rest of the chapter is from Vincent, Spec. not. , IV 61, abridged from Pliny, Nat. hist. II 52 137. OM 1:13

The vignette illustrates OM 1:12 as well as the present chapter. 1 Seneca, Nat. quaest., II 31, cited from Vincent, Spec, not., IV 62. 2~2 From Vincent, Spec. not. , IV 62, citing William of Conches. 3 From Vincent, Spec. not. , IV 63; the Seneca reference is to Nat. quaest. , II 52, 1. 4 The earthquake at Scarperia, north of Florence, occurred on 21 June 1542. 5 Sigebert, Chronicon, s.a. 444. OM 1:14

The vignette here has been shifted from its mistaken location before OM 1:15. If given a quarter turn to the right, it shows striking similarity to a picture set up in the Stockholm church, Storkyrkan, following the appearance over the city in April 1535 of peculiar halo phenomena that gave rise to much apprehension. OM must have had accounts of this and seen some version of the picture. The position of the sun between east and south suggests 0900 as the time of day. The Storkyrkan painting gives 0700-0900, 20 April (OS), as the time of the halo phenomena it depicts. The whole picture is reproduced in Dahlback, Medeltidens Stockholm, p. 34, and details from it, ibid., pp. 44, 77, 94, 136, 141, 148, 183. 1 'Sulphur' rain is a mingled precipitation, particularly of pollen from conifers which is often deposited as a yellow slime. 2 OM 2: 18 and 30. 3 Pliny, Nat. hist. , II 29-30, 98, XVIII 80, 352; compressed by OM. 4 From Seneca, Nat. quaest. , 1 2 (5, 8, 10, 11), by way of Vincent, Spec. not. , IV 81-2. In 'when these coronas have . . . dissolved' and 'the force of the moon is weaker', Seneca's 'dilapsae' and 'inertior' are translated for OM's 'delapsae', 'interior'. The sailors' weather sign is also found in OM 1:7. Bow, stave and corona are Latin arcus, virga, corona, answering to Gk OM 1:15

In OM this vignette mistakenly appears before OM 1:14. It shows the aureole round the sun intersected by a multicoloured circle. It is dark on the inner side; the text says it should be dark on the outer side. The time of day depicted is about 0900, cf. the companion picture given before OM 1:14 above and the opening of the second paragraph. OM writes 'lower circle' and 'upper circle' in his text: the picture shows that the adjectives should be reversed. 1 The colour sequence in a halo (caused by refraction by ice crystals) is the reverse of that in a corona and the primary arc of a rainbow (caused by diffraction), with red on the inside, violet on the outside. OM follows classical and medieval custom in distinguishing only three or four colours. 2 Cf. OM1:14. " From Vincent, Spec, not., XV 58; cf. Isidore, Etym., Ill 71, 16. Cf. OM 1:7, 14 and 16-18. The Seneca reference is to Nat. quaest., VII 1, 1. In 'unless it is in 83

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES distress' correct 'laborantem' (the 'labouring' moon, the moon in eclipse) is read for 'laborantes' in OM and Vincent. «-* From Cassiodorus, Var., XII 25, 1-3. OM 1:16 The vignette, illustrating a halo effect, is not of OM's usual kind; no source is known. 1 OM 1:14-15. 2 Cf. OM 19:31 and 52. 3 OM1:11. 4 These effects find individual mention in OM 1:11,14, 6 and 20. 5 Probably refers to OM 11:38. OM 1:17 The picture shows another halo effect. 1-1 More or less verbatim from Vincent, Spec. nat., IV 83, itself derived, not very accurately, from Seneca, Nat. quaest., I 11, 2-3; 12, 1-2; 13, 1-2. In 'before the sun', Seneca's 'soli', omitted in Vincent and OM, is restored. The clause 'if they are moving' translates Seneca's 'aut mobiles sunt'; Vincent and OM have 'non mobiles sunt'. 2 Pliny, Nat. hist., II 31, 99; 28, 98. Pliny refers to Augustus, not Julius Caesar. 3 Vincent, Spec, hist., XXV 116. Emperor Henry V forced the resignation of Henry IV in 1105 and reigned 1106-25. 4 I.e. in summer. 5 The three moons are recorded in various sources. OM's 'illustrated history' has not been identified. OM 1:18 On moon haloes as illustrated in the vignette see OM 1:17. 1-1 From Vincent, Spec. nat. , XV 9. 2 Pliny,Mrt. hist., II 6, 45. 3 Pliny, Nat. hist., II 32, 99. 4-4 Vincent, Spec, nat., XV 9. In 'because it lies between the earth and the sun', the translation corrects Vincent and OM, who say that it is because the earth is between the moon and the sun. The French chronicler, Helinand (died c. 1227), is cited by OM only from Vincent, as here. OM 1:19 On the picture cf. the second paragraph. 1 Latin stadium is translated 'furlong'; it is properly some 185 m. 2 Latitude 86° is repeated in OM 1:33. In his autobiographical notes he says he travelled as far north as 84°. It has been conjectured that in fact he went as far as Pello on the Torne river, c. 66° 48'N. 3 Albertus Magnus, XIX 6, 30. 4 Red clouds at sunset are generally thought to presage wind or fair weather. JG suggests that it was some aurora manifestation that occasioned OM's remarks; the aurora is usually taken as a forecast of cold weather. 5 Cf. Pliny, Nat. hist., XVIII 82, 356. 6 For pigs carrying straw cf. the vignette to OM 17:24. This weather omen is known in Gotaland but is there taken to mean that rain is coming, as early cackling is as well. 7 Cf. OM 19:52. 8 Cf. Jordanes, III 18. 9 On frozen fish cf. OM 20:14. 10 Cf. OM 19:12, 18:10 and 20. 11 Presumably when their contents freeze; cf. OM 13:35. 84

BOOK ONE

12 Cf. OM 1:24-25. 13 Cf. OMl:21,orf)2fi. 14 Cf. OM 1:26, 4:5-6. 15 Cf. OM 4:14, 15:36. OM's words suggest that mules had been tried in Sweden (good riding mules were princely gifts in the later middle ages). That donkeys could not stand winter cold was well known in antiquity. Cf. KL, XII, cols 2-4, XX, cols 458-63. 16 See OM 11. OM 1:20 The picture shows a winter landscape in snowfall in N. Sweden. The harness of the horse is more or less complete, but not that of the reindeer; cf. the vignette, derived from CM, litt. C k, found before OM 11:37, 17:29.

1 When two drivers meet head-on in conditions like those described by OM, it is still the custom that they loosen the snow in front of and alongside their stationary animals and turn their sledges on their side in order to move past each other on the narrow track. 2 On marks see OM 1:27; such marking, earlier regarded as a customary obligation, was imposed by law in 1687. On inns and markets see OM 1:26, 4:6.

OM 1:21 The vignette shows a church with a frozen waterfall and a building with long icicles to the right of it. What the left-hand side depicts is uncertain; the ice there is reminiscent of CM, litt. A e (Iceland); the faces might then represent souls suffering in an icy hell, mentioned in OM's Latin commentary on CM and in Ain kurze Auslegung under litt. A e; cf. Saxo, Praef. II 7 (tr. Fisher, p. 8). 1 Vincent, Spec. not., V 89, citing Isidore, Etym., XIII 10, 7.

2 OM's 'grisium' is taken to be a rendering of Sw. grdkall, lit. 'grey-cold'; Norwegian has the same expression. 3 From Vincent, Spec. nat.,V 89, citing Isidore, Etym., XIII10, 6.

4 OM's 'tecta evaporaria' are presumably cabins heated in sauna fashion, Sw. rokhus, 'vapour-house', badstuga, bastu, 'bath-cabin'; but OM might perhaps use the term of any cabin. In OM's 'fistulae organorum, vel hydraulic?' the words 'organa' and 'hydraulica' appear to be no more than synonyms, rendered here by the one word 'organ'.

5 Cf. OM 12:2-3. 6 Cf. OM 1:20.

7 This passage from Gregory, Moralia, XXIX 30 (OM's reference is mistaken), is taken from Vincent, Spec. not. , V 89.

8 See OM 13:5.

OM 1:22 The picture shows frost formations on window-panes top left, snowfall beneath them, and a variety of snow crystals on the right. No one seems to have attempted to study and illustrate snow-flakes before OM. 1-1 From Vincent, Spec. not. , V 24-5; chiefly drawn from Augustine, De Genesi, III 10, and Aristotle, Met., 19-11. In 'the lowest place' correct 'infimae' is read for 'infirmae' in OM. 2 See OM 13:48. OM1:23 The vignette illustrates the chapter. 1 OM uses Latin testudo, 'tortoise', in its military sense of soldiers in compact formation with overhead and front protection provided by interlocked shields or timber contraptions; cf. OM 9:18.

2 Cf. OM 11:32.

85

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES 3 Cf. OM 9:18.

4 See OM 11:31. 5 Trebellius Pollio, one of the putative authors of the SHA collection. 6 Cf. SHA, The Two Gallieni, 16, 2; 17 7; 18, 1; OM's text is not exact and has some addition. 7 Strabo,X4,20-21. OM1:24 The vignette, used again before the next chapter, shows a horse-race on ice. The horses have no saddles; their shoes are spiked. The front man in the background is on bone skates, punting himself along with the aid of a pole thrust between his legs. Cf. CM, litt. F1, and the vignettes to OM 11:36,20:17. On horse-shoes see KL, VI, col. 546; on skates KL, VII, cols 513-15. 1 OM mingles recent Swedish custom and antique sources. Herodotus, I 216; Strabo, XI (not X as in OM) 8, 6. The Massagetae lived between the Aral and the Caspian. Medieval writers tended to include them among the Goths (who were already assimilated to the Getae), as OM himself must have done.

2 OM describes arms and armour in many more places than in OM 8:13, the reference given in the margin; cf. the Index. 3 On horse-breeding in Gotaland see OM 17:16-17. 4 Strabo, XI (not X as in OM) 12, 4. What follows is from Strabo, XVI 2,10.

OM 1:25 On the vignette see OM 1:24. 1 See OM 1:4. 2 For Lapps OM (and other writers) used 'Genus silvestre', 'homines silvestres' (translated here as 'men of the wild'), apparently without any distinction like that now made between Forest Lapps, Mountain Lapps and Coast Lapps (cf. however OM 3:2, n. 1). It was of course Forest Lapps who were best known to the Swedish authorities and whom OM encountered on his northern travels in 1518-19. 3 I.e. with skates. 4 See OM 11:38.

5 Skates are not in use among Lapps or any Arctic people. 6 Reading 'lacus instar speculi glabros', where for the last word OM has the unintelligible 'glaridos'. 7 I.e. over distances of about 12 to 18 km. 8 Cf. OM 1:24, 11:35.

9 The translation revises OM's punctuation in 'cursores glacierum, naturam ignorantes'.

10 Reading 'acumine' for OM's 'lacumine'. 11 Sommen is a lake which lies on a NW.-SE. line 30 km east of Vattern. In its frozen state it offered up to 30 km of easy passage among otherwise difficult terrain. OM1:26 The vignette, also used at the end of Ain kurze Auslegung and Opera breve, is designed to illustrate the chapter but is not in complete conformity with it. The sign marking the inn, a pole with a wreath on it, was common on the Continent but is not known to have been used in Sweden. 1 The patriarchate of Venice was created by Pope Nicholas V in 1451. On CM, litt. H c, buildings are shown on ice on the south-east Baltic shore but with no illustration of paths or travellers. 2 Keeping roads clear of snow did not become a public responsibility in Sweden before the seventeenth century. On marks set up on ice cf. OM 1:20 3 Cf. OM 12:10. 4 From Krantz, Wandalia, VIII 7, IX 37, X 40, with modifications.

86

BOOK ONE 5 The ultimate source is Chronologia Anonymi, in SRS, 1:1, p. 55, which has the correct date, 12%. 6 Cf. OM1:19. 7 The events described probably occurred in the winter campaign of 1511-12, which ended with the expulsion of the French from Italy. The weather is said to have been exceptionally severe. 8 Vincent, Spec, hist., XXV 87. OM gets William Rufus's dates (1087-1100) wrong by a couple of centuries. The word 'fames' (so Vincent; 'famine'), is mis­ printed 'fimes' in OM. OM 1:27

The vignettes for this chapter and the next were printed in reverse order. A marginal rubric (not translated) explains the error, which is made good here. Details of the picture are modelled on illustrations on CM, litt. F a and litt. A. 1 Cf. OM 11:2. 2 Cf. OM 1:20. 3 Such freezing is rare before late October. By 2 November it has now usually occurred inland of a line from the north of Dalarna to just north of Haparanda. OM is referring to N. Sweden. 4 OM20:13. 5 Counting ice-thickness by the span (about 22 cm) is common practice. Modern military authorities reckon 5 cm of ice safe for individual personnel, 10 cm for a cavalry patrol, 30 cm for an infantry battalion in column of march, 75 cm for a 25ton tracked vehicle. See further (and on all kinds of ice-lore) Stora, 'Vinterns tjanliga isar', esp. p. 117. 6 OM 11:2 and 21-22. 7 Reading Tunis' for "riuis' in OM. 8 This is true of Central and S. Sweden. 9 Vattern is c. 128 km long, 31 km broad. On OM's 'Italian' miles see OM 1:2, n. 5. In OM 20:18 the width of Vattern is given as 16 'Italian' miles. 10-10 YI^ aear jo be a direct loan from the record of a miracle in the dossier prepared for St Birgitta's canonization; cf. Acta etprocessus, p. 114. OM probably had some part of Trondheimsfjord in mind. OM1:28

The vignette (cf. OM 1:27) is used again before OM 20:15. OM does not describe the use of the flexible-shafted trident or the long curved implement beside it. The first is probably a grapnel; the second either another kind of grapnel or perhaps an implement for laying nets under ice. " Pliny, Nat. hist., VII 1, 7. 2 Cf. OM 7: land 3. 3 Cf. OM 20:15. 'Ice-bills' like those pictured ('dolabrae' in OM) were still used to clear channels in Oslofjord ice in the nineteenth century; see Rogan, 'Isvekking, isbroer og isveier', esp. p. 63, n. 11. 4 Cf. OM 1:19. 5 In OM 11:29 'lanei calcei', 'felt shoes', are specifically recommended, in prefer­ ence to leather footwear, for soldiers fighting on ice. OM 1:29

From CM the picture can be localized to Vastergotland, with the waterfall, Trollhatten, on the Gota river at the extreme left; cf . OM 2:20. The settlements marked include Skara, with twin-towered cathedral, and Lidkoping and Arnas above it. The eminence in the centre is Kinnekulle, with the 'garden' described in OM 2:22 and the lake Vanern beyond it. The runic inscription reads 'antikua serua', 'Pre­ serve antiquities!', presumably referring to the stylized monuments on the bottom line; cf. the vignette before OM 1:30 and n. 87

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

1 I.e. granite; cf. OM 12:1. 2 OM took the view that in Sweden's Heroic Age the country was inhabited by giants. See OM 5. 3 Aeneid, XII 899-900. 4 The Malar provinces, Uppland and Sodermanland, have the largest number of rune stones; they are sparse in Halsingland, with some small concentration north of Hudiksvall. Remote, isolated rune stones are often taken to be an indication of early medieval routes long since abandoned. 5 OM cannot be thinking only of rune-stone monuments. 6 Inscriptions are often laid out in the way described by OM. Runes are fre­ quently a finger tall, but not a finger thick. 7 Although OM must have made up these inscriptions from memory, the names he gives, with the exception of Uffi, are found on rune stones. 8 Strabo, XVII1, 46. 9 Isidore, Etym., XV 11,4; Strabo, XVII1, 33; Pliny, Nat. hist., XXXVI16-17, 75-82. 10 Solinus, XXXII 44. 11 Pliny, Nat. hist., XXXVI 16, 75. 12 The reference has not been traced in the extensive works of the Italian humanist, Giulio Pomponio Leto (1428-98). OM1:30 The trilith in the top right of the picture, like the rune-inscribed one in the vignette to OM 1:29, possibly represents the so-called Kallby 'halls' at the south-east corner of Vanern; cf. the opening of the chapter. Cf. also OM 1:29. 1 Kallby is some 16 km north of Skara. 2 OM2:21.

3 JMGSH, II 7.

4 Aelius Lampridius was counted one of the authors of SHA, and the name of L. Marius Maximus (fl. c. AD 200) was taken from that source. 5 Cf. SHA, Commodus, 18-20. Commodus reigned AD 180-192. 6 The 'Prince of Darkness' is Pluto in OM. 7 Many rune stones from the eleventh century, the period of Sweden's conver­ sion to Christianity, have crosses in their decoration. OM again invents his inscrip­ tions, though with proper names attested in runic sources. 8 Pliny, Nat. hist. , XXXVI17, 82. 9 The Augustine passage has not been traced. OM 1:31 The vignette illustrates the chapter, but the artist had evidently never seen a rune stone. 'QMS:!. 2 OM has 'in Gothia Meridionali', using his regular term for Smaland, a region of scattered settlement to the south of Gotaland proper, which formally became a separate province in the seventeenth century. It was and remained in the diocese of Linkoping. An eleventh-century rune stone at Brodrahalla, the site OM refers to, in Reftele parish, was erected by a father to commemorate his two sons; cf. Smalands runinskrifter, pp. 161-4. 3 OM here gives the first recorded account of a widespread legend, still known in modern tradition, in this case kept alive locally by the proximity of the rune stone and the stone heaps augmented by wayfarers; OM does his best to rationalize the latter. 4 Cf. OM 12:19. 5 Cf. OM8:1.

88

BOOK ONE OM 1:32 Between the two clock-faces the picture shows a semicircular sundial with runes answering to the first eight letters of the roman alphabet, A-H. 1 This clock was made by Petrus Astronomus, monk of Vadstena, in 1506; it was finally destroyed in the fire of 1702. OM's hills near Uppsala must be the famous burial mounds at Old Uppsala. 2 Jakob Ulvsson, archbishop 1469-1514, to whom OM unequivocally ascribes the foundation of Uppsala University (1477); see Introd., p. xix. 3 Bjorn Magnusson, latinized 'Bero Magni', studied and taught in the University of Vienna from 1429 till his death in 1465. Frederick III was emperor 1440-93. 4 On Hemming Gadh see OM 9:22, n. 1. 5-5 Probably based on Perottus, col. 779, with some rearrangement and addition. Pliny, Nat. hist., VII 60, 215, attributes the introduction of a water-clock to Scipio Nasica, consul 138 BC. The Vitruvius reference is to De architectura, IX 8. The two sentences, 'Since then ... great men', are slightly expanded in the translation to make more obvious sense. (Sand and pulverized eggshell were used in hour­ glasses.) JG took the last sentence to refer to pocket watches, but it more probably describes spring-driven table-clocks with fusees. 6 Pliny, Nat. hist., XIII 2, 17. OM 1:33 The illustration is related to the first half of the chapter, but the association is not perspicuous. 1 Cf. OM 1:1 and 5. 2 Cf. OM 1:19. 3 Pliny, Nat. hist., II 78, 187. 4 Cf. OM 19:12 and 52. 5 'Mare glaciale' on CM is the sea between Iceland and N. Norway, and 'Oceanus Scithicus' is the sea north of Biarmia. On the means of navigation cf. OM 2:7-8 (on 'gnomon nauticus'); on those who sail by moonlight cf. OM 4:9. *-* From Perottus, col. 779. 7 Vincent, Spec, not., XIX 94. 25 March is a correction of OM's 15 March. Antique authors gave the former, correct date for the equinox, but Thomas of Cantimpr6, Vincent and others who followed their authority gave the latter, erro­ neous one. Cf. KL, XX, cols 458-63. OM1:34 The vignette illustrates the text. The ladies are in typical late fifteenth-century dress; the seated father's garb is like that of 'professional' men of the early sixteenth century; cf. the vignettes to OM 14:8,16:50, 19:18. 1 Probably a reference to Jordanes, XI 69. By 'foretell the future' OM appears to mean no more than 'forecast the weather'. 2 On the size of staves cf. the end of the chapter and the vignette to OM 1:35. On runic calendars and calendar staves see KL, VIII, cols 147-50, XIV, cols 494-6. 3 Cf. OM 16:20. 4~* From Cassiodorus, Var., XI 38, 4-6, with modification. Latin liber means both 'book' and 'tree-bark'; similarly, 'book' and 'beech' in the Germanic lan­ guages were originally the same words. 5 Cf. the vignette before the next chapter. 6 A vernacular name for Orion's Belt is 'Frigg's (sometimes Freyja's) distaff which, since it is associated with pre-Christian goddesses, is presumably of antique origin. OM's Latin is 'colum ac fusum Veneris'. OM 1:35 The initials on the central ring in the vignette stand for the names of the months, starting at the bottom, left of the device, and going clockwise. Rain and thunder are

89

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

shown in the summer half, snow and moderate thunder in the winter half. The men appear to be modelled on two representations of Moses in Hans Holbein the Younger's illustrations for Exodus 16:4 and Numbers 21:9. 1-1 Adapted from Vincent, Spec, not., IV 60. 2 Cf. Herodotus, IV 28. OM refers forward to OM 2:1.

3 OM has here reproduced a so-called tonitruale, a 'thunder-almanac', of the kind arranged in a monthly sequence; his precise source has not been identified. 4 Pliny, Nat. hist., XVIII 81, 354; II 55, 143-4. Some of the same prognostica­ tions occur in more recent popular lore in Sweden; cf. OM 1:7, n. 1. The 'first quarter of the sky' appears to be the north-east. OM1:36

The illustration gives a runic alphabet in roman sequence; the second and fourth lines offer variant characters for those immediately above them. The Viking Age rune series had only sixteen characters; in the early middle ages it was augmented, especially by the use of so-called 'dotted' runes (cf. those for '§' and 'p' in the vignette), to match the resources of the roman alphabet. 1 Cf. OM 1:29, 5:1. 2-2 From JMGSH, 17, with matter from Perottus, col. 513, ultimately from Saxo, Praef. Ill 1 (tr. Fisher, p. 9). Carmenta, a Roman goddess of prophecy, went from Arcadia with her son, Evander, to settle in Latium. 3 From JMGSH, 1 7.

4-4 Perottus, col. 515. OM refers forward to the sentence below, beginning 'One finds in the northern zone', though it is not easy to understand what he is there describing. 5 Inaccurately reproduced from Petrus Martyr, De novo orbe, III 8, who is describing native practices in Haiti, discovered by Columbus in December 1492.

6 Cf. OM 5:25. 7 Cf. OM 1:29.

8 Pliny, Nat. hist., XIII 22, 73. 9 From Perottus, col. 220. OM ends abruptly in this fashion. Perottus talks about using nails to count years.

90

BOOK TWO OF OLAUS MAGNUS THE GOTH, ARCHBISHOP OF UPPSALA, ON THE WONDERS OF NATURE IN THE NORTH

PREFACE

M

ANY writers, and celebrated ones at that, have tried to reveal how many marvels there are connected with the waters, espe­ cially in the vast Ocean towards the north of the Norwegian kingdom and its numerous islands, but relying more perhaps on the declarations of others than their own observation or experience. Although anyone making a true or even probable estimate will not agree with these authors in every respect owing to the impossibility of fathoming Nature's splendours, yet a great part of their writings, on whatever rationale they are based, will not fail to command belief. Such great wonders (some of which I shall append below1) have their being in that huge extent of Ocean, that even a person of surpassing talents can hardly describe them; these will be shown later, if God is gracious, where I have to deal with strange beasts and monsters. Whatever matters still need to be examined with deeper arguments I shall set out in the following chapters; and, where the theories of earlier times and writers are insufficient, I shall not bar the way to prevent later authorities bringing such subjects more clearly to light, when they so wish and have the requisite ability.

91

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER ONE

On burning waters Veins of sulphur

Vaxjo's muddy lake

Trondheim, metropoli­ tan city of Norway Sulphur has warming influence Sun dries

Elements in league

Cure is obtained without anguish, remedy without dread, health without danger

T

HERE are certain veins of sulphur adjacent to streams of water, which quite often catch fire, ranging widely, as flames do, to lay waste everything about them. In Iceland and Scotland, countries that are very cold, the inhabitants can view this sight and feel the con­ tinuous increase of heat. 1 In Southern Gotaland, too, in the countryside not far from the town of Vaxjo, there is a muddy lake whose fiery quality is such that, when anything that can be cooked is let down into it and drawn out with a rope, it is returned instantly, or in a short space of time, either baked or completely burnt.2 It has been discovered also that a similar lake near Trondheim, the metropolitan city in the kingdom of Norway, pos­ sesses the same property; the chief evidence for this is that in the middle of cold seasons it never freezes, as was briefly set out above and, should it be needed, will be found mentioned below in the chapter on springs.3 There is also the fact that in the mines beneath the northern mountains the sulphur has a warming influence, rather like the sun with its drying effect. 4It is pleasing to light upon a hidden phenomenon: a liquid giving off fiery steam, and a burning heat ceaselessly descending in companionship with the flowing waters, which would normally extinguish any flames. For this reason philosophers say that the elements are bound together in mutual embrace, joined in an amazing alliance, inasmuch as a wet sub­ stance brings forth vapours that are alight, yet in their difference from and opposition to each other they are commonly understood to be at war. Though it inflames the air as it pours out through these channels, when it is cooled to a lower temperature it most conveniently becomes suitable, at the wish of those who draw off these streams, to provide the delightful benefits and pleasures of the baths; indeed, it is administered as though it were a soothing medicine, so that a cure is obtained without anguish, a remedy without dread, and health without danger. Hence the sulphurous baths, that take their origin and at the same time their nourishment from the fiery veins of the earth, are split up in ducts which generate warmth until the hot vapour has dissipated and they pass to a cold state. 4 The 92

BOOK TWO

scriptural saying which is stated in the last chapter of the Wisdom of Solomon remains true: 'The fire had power in the water, forgetting his own virtue: and the water forgat his own quenching nature. On the other side, the flames wasted not the flesh of the corruptible living things, though they walked therein: neither melted they the icy kind of heavenly meat, that was of nature apt to melt.'5 'There is also the story told by Augustine, that the sacrificial fire, which had remained alight under water during the seventy years of the Baby­ lonian captivity, went out when Antiochus sold the office of priesthood to Jason. 6 Jerome adds that the nature of this fire was such that, when sufficient combustible matter was fed into it, it did not merely flare up, but would consume everything, water as well as rocks.7 Cassiodorus, too, in Bk III of his Letters, mentions Mount Volcanus; it seems marvellous that, kindled by an accumulation of such huge flames, it should still have remained covered by the waves of the sea, and that the heat should have thriven there ceaselessly when it was visibly overwhelmed by so much water. 8 Besides, whoever cares to look into Volaterranus, Bk XXV, will discover that there is a kind of tar and a species of serpent which put out fire; that there is indeed a stone in Egypt of such a nature that whenever it is drenched with water it gives off flames9 just like quicklime, which does not ignite if pitch, oil, resin, animal fat, or any other fluid is applied to it, but only in contact with water, as Augustine testifies in Bk XXI of The City of God, where he shows diligent enquirers how much secret working takes place in natural bodies. 10 Certainly Pliny says in Bk XIV, Ch. 20, that dried lees of wine can take fire and blaze by themselves without fuel. All the other marvels of fire and water the same author enumerates at length in the last few chapters of Bk II. 11

93

Fire thrives in water

Augustine on the sacrificial fire Jerome Cassiodorus

Fire covered by waters Volater­ ranus Water raises fire Augustine, The City of God, Bk XXI Lees of wine

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWO

On the mysterious nature of some mountains

T

HERE are many mountains throughout the world which, because of their size and loftiness, their marvellous and diverse characteris­ tics and appearance, are extolled by great writers in different Vesuvius Etna accounts for various reasons: such are Vesuvius, Etna, Campanus,1 and Campanus others, whose names are mostly familiar from the individual descriptions of these men. No mountains, however, are more constantly remembered by Northerners than those of Spain, which in times past well-born and distinguished people, and also those of lower class, traversed with great hardship on their pilgrimage to Compostella, praising to the skies the Splendid splendid guest-houses of the kings, since here they were welcomed in a guest-houses In Germany, too, of Spaniards most hospitable manner and were excellently refreshed. for their remarkable less no mountains, wonderful and are found huge height and size than for their unique properties. An amazing feature Bellowing of reported about Vesuvius is that it often emits a sound not unlike bellow­ mountain ing; generally, when this happens, it is reckoned to be caused by the prodigious force through which ash is expelled. An eruption very similar to that of Mount Vesuvius is the one which Jerome says occurred in the first year of Titus's reign; it belched out so much fire and started such a blaze that it burnt up woods, fields, meadows, and all the countryside around. 2 I now think that almost the whole world has learnt about the nature of Mountains the mountains in Iceland, for, going beyond what the ancients have to say of Iceland and supplementing Ptolemy's description in my Gothic map,3 I have demonstrated how extraordinary their situation and properties are; on Snow on their peaks the snow is almost everlasting, yet in their depths sulphurous peak, fire at fire blazes away incessantly without consuming itself. Those who bottom approach too close are easily suffocated by the quantity of dust and Glowing-hot embers gushing out, and most of all when glowing-hot chasms appear in chasms many places filled with the ash of burnt-up mountains and valleys Here growing silently up from below, the sulphur increases, as though following a natural cycle, until these ravines become ready for burning again. 94

BOOK TWO

Within the frontiers of Norway there are also huge mountains, of enor­ mous altitude, which take four days to climb and another four to descend from the summit. 4 How lofty the mountains are in my own northern land I shall point out below as opportunity offers. 5 Multitudinous and very high, they never fail to sustain trees and animals of various kinds.

Very high mountains in Norway Mountains in N. Sweden

CHAPTER THREE

On the apparitions of drowned men

I

N order to make the present chapter clear it must be remarked that Iceland is an island lying beneath the celestial Arctic Pole; 1 it is mainly exposed to the wind Circius and close to the Sea of Ice. For this reason it deserves the name Ice Land (terra glacialis) or remotest Thule,2 which none of the ancients has failed to mention. 3Its inhabitants are said by Saxo of Sjaelland to be extremely temperate. They are very good Christians, have their own writing, and a history of glorious feats. Even today they write down the deeds of their own age, which they recall in rhythmical songs, carving them on headlands or rocks, so that none may be lost to posterity except through the harm done by Nature. 3 The island stretches from north to south over a length of a hundred German miles.4 Most of it is mountainous and uncultivated, especially towards its north­ ern tract, owing to the harsh breath of the wind Circius already referred to,5 which does not even allow shrubs to grow. 6Praise is due to this island for its unusual marvels. It contains a rock or promontory, as I mentioned in the last chapter, which, like Etna, seethes with perpetual fires. It is believed that a place of punishment and expia­ tion exists there for unclean souls. Undoubtedly the spirits or ghosts of the drowned, or of those who have met some other violent death, are to be seen there exhibiting themselves in human occupations. These spectres make themselves so apparent to gatherings of their acquaintances that those who are ignorant of their death receive them as though they were alive and offer their right hands; nor is the mistake detected before the shades have vanished. The Icelanders often have a foreknowledge of 95

Why Iceland is so called Remotest Thule They recount the feats of their ancestors in rhythmical songs Extent of Iceland Circius

Spirits or ghosts exhibit themselves to men Mistake is detected at their departure

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

princes' fates6 and, through the revelations of the spectres who present themselves, are aware of what is taking place a good way off in the world, as I shall set out more clearly below in the chapter on magical illusions.7 These mysteries were not hidden from Virgil, who writes: At once voices were heard: prodigious wailing and souls of infants weeping at the threshold . . . Not far away, extending in all directions may be seen the Woeful Plains, for so men name them. 8

CHAPTER FOUR

On the frightful sound heard from caves by the shore Angermanland Hunters

Farmers Method of reparing ind for sowing

E

Very high mountains Gulf of Bothnia

I

N the regions of the North there is also a famous province called Angermanland, whose inhabitants are very skilful hunters; in fact through that employment, by the sale, that is, of valuable skins, they attain enormous wealth. 1 Besides this they are such excellent farmers that, as well as cultivating the flat and sloping fields, they have found out how to make the high mountain-sides equal in quality to the most fertile land. They do so with the help of fire and snow, for at the autumn equinox they set fire to thick brushwood and grasses, and carefully spread the dust and ashes which this produces over the fallen snow which arrives after­ wards, so that the sliminess fertilizes the fields, just as if it were cattle manure. 2 So they manage to garner a more luxuriant crop from them and gain a more copious harvest. I shall speak of this later when I come to the subject of agriculture. This province also contains a large number of very high mountains, whose peaks, white with perpetual snow, display their towering presence all the year round to men sailing in the Gulf of Bothnia, so that when they sight these most conspicuous of landmarks they can avoid a great many hideous dangers and reach harbours that are quite safe. Furthermore, when seamen, either by mishap or design, approach their roots, which 96

BOOK TWO

stand in the very depths of the sea, they experience such dread as the tall waves dash together that, unless they escape by rowing pell-mell or with the help of a strong wind, they almost give up the ghost from fear alone and, with brains whirling, hardly emerge in command of their former health and senses even after many days have passed. The foundations of these mountains have twisting cracks, or clefts, formed by the amazing craftmanship of Nature, where the waters rush in and out; it is inside these, within a long chasm, that a terrifying sound is produced, a kind of subterranean thunder. Sometimes, when audacious young people have approached with more curiosity than caution in order to explore the cause of this, their boats have been swamped then and there by water from the fissures above them and by the shrieking winds, and, in amazement, they have lost their lives. Yet the enormous height of the mountains and the snowy whiteness of their summits present a gleaming mark for sailors who are a long way out to sea, helping them to avoid this peril and warning them to anticipate flight, lest Nature, begetter of this unfathomable noise, should turn out to have granted no aid to combat the unseen calamity lurking against them. Apart from this the frightening sound discharged from these mountains travels through the air for many miles to the ears of mariners, urging them to flee far from the destruction proclaimed by its dismal clamour, which they would not be able to endure if they lay close to. 3 What Vincent thinks about a similar subject I shall set out in his own words, just as they stand in Bk XXXI, Ch. 24, of his Mirror of History: 'Among the Tartars there rises a small mountain where, they say, there is an opening from which in winter such violent storms of wind issue that men can hardly pass across the mouth, and even then only with great danger. In summer, it is true, some murmurs of wind are always to be heard there, but it merely blows gently out of the aperture.'4 Dion Merula of Alexandria also asserts that among the mountains round about Vesu­ vius such a furious noise is sometimes heard in the caverns underground that people say it bears a close resemblance to peals of thunder; and indeed they can also be heard from above, so that they appear to be bellowing within the earth. 5 In the lakes of the North, which are frozen from the surface downwards, there may be heard, because of the air trapped inside them, no lesser noise than when raging thunder bursts out after being compressed within the sides of thick clouds. Something about this will be explained below in the chapters about fishing beneath the ice. 6 Pliny also mentions, in Bk II, Ch. 82, that a noise is heard above moun­ tains, which is caused by their hollowness. 7 8It is fairly well known that according to Suidas there are cataracts on the Danube; here rocks stand up above the water like hillocks, and the river rolls round these projec­ tions, but where it strikes them it is dashed back with a great boom.8

97

Dread of the thunderous sound

Winding clefts in the mountains

Nature teaches how to avoid peril

Dismal clamour of the waters

Mountain of the Tartars

Mount Vesuvius Noise under the ground like peals of thunder

Falling waters raise a great noise

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER FIVE

On the sea rock named the Monk

S

UBJECT to the once very wealthy kingdom of Norway, near Faroe Island, there is a mountain that rears up from the Ocean, which seamen call by the apt name of the Monk. 1 Through its natural situation and by incisions made into parts of it, especially of its top pieces, it wears what looks like a woven cowl, together with the faculty of sustaining and comforting in complete security all who seek refuge there during a dreadful storm. On the other hand, woe to all who, tossed by the force of the wind, do not make the hem or lap of its garment; for the The winds of northerly winds and Circius rage so intensely in those parts that, if the Circius sailors are to escape their ferocity, they are forced to apply themselves at every moment with their strictest skill, energy, exertion, and utmost experience, and to keep watch to see how they may escape to that Monk, as if to a safe harbour. Mountains There are other mountains, too, named from a similar happening, named from nature, site, or peculiarity; Valla, for example, in his History mentions a an event Ass's Mouth mountain in Spain which is called the Ass's Mouth, and another, the in Spain Mount of Love, perhaps because, as the people there are prone to love, so the mountain itself has enlarged its extent. 2 Whatever the facts may be Mountains with regard to love, there are many more mountains of misery, so named of misery and so in reality, which thrust foolish lovers into the ass's mouth to be ground by two rows of teeth: that is to say, by their own repentance and by the falseness of a wild partner. Very seldom does one find in such a struggle mounts of victory or triumph. Mountains There are, too, in northern waters a great many soaring mountains indicate which appear to signal a place where a safe haven may be sought in any harbours Unseen conditions of storm or calm. But before the entrance to them many rocks rocks, lurk unseen, and although these sink many vessels in a mild breeze, if a dashed by waves, avert tempest blows up, ships are miraculously preserved, since the foaming shipwrecks waves are then lifted high. There are also mountains named after falcons, Falcon, eagle, and eagles, and ravens, which indicate safety to mariners who are about to raven mountains approach them, or a warning to those who are in flight not to come near.

Faroe Island Rock called the Monk

98

BOOK TWO

Over and above these are mounts of strife, or rather mighty fortresses, Mounts of especially in eastern Finland, which were built at the time of the battles with strife Kivaneb the Russians above rocky defiles and strengthened by such skill in fortifica­ tion and by Nature that, from wherever an attack may come, it is easier for the besiegers to possess the mountains than the strongholds themselves.3

CHAPTER SIX

On the crowned rock and the abundance of fish

T

O avoid passing over any work of natural creation in silence, I shall point out here that towards the extreme north of Vasterbotten, in the parish of Lule, belonging to the diocese of Uppsala, there lies a rock in the sea, called the Bjuroklubb in the vernacular, which sailors can see from far off, with three prongs, or a crown, on its lofty peak. 1 If the expert local fishermen did not enjoy the benefit of its conspicuousness, shelter, or anchorage, they would neither lead a safe life nor find con­ venient food; for it is so amazingly high that, if a thick, dark mist has arisen, when it has been sighted in the midst of the waters (as I experi­ enced in the year of our Lord 1519)2 , those who are off course find safety. The gloom and darkness of the dense air is generally so heavy that in a small vessel one whose station is at the bow can hardly be picked out from the stern. Yet when you come in towards the shore, such an abundance of fish is to be seen at its base on every side that you are dumbfounded at the sight, and your appetite can be wholly satisfied. Some of the fishes of this sort, sprinkled with brine from the sea, are commonly spread out over two or three acres of the flat, level ground at the foot of the mountain, to be parched and dried by the wind; some, chiefly fish of the larger kind, are hoisted on poles or spread out on racks, to be dehydrated by the sun and air. They are all reserved for consumption at home or for the lucrative profit of tradesmen, and also for the needs and pleasure of people living overseas, chiefly in order that, by bartering these fish, the Northerners may obtain plenty of grain, which in that part of the world ripens rather 99

Vasterbotten Lule Bjuroklubb

This author was preserved from shipwreck, 1519

Abundance of fish to be dried by the winds

Means of drying fish to be exported by ship to Germany

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Sure supply of food is maintained by barter of goods Varied gifts Pliny Stench of fish oppressive Shipwreck is avoided by the smell

indifferently because of the besetting cold; they can also offer them as luxuries to those who live in lonely areas in order to receive in return the riches of the forests in the form of valuable pelts. God's foresight, there­ fore, has established that they shall nourish each other by bartering, for each party has been favoured with different kinds of commodity. Some possess a wealth of fish, others of wild animals, and others of lands to provide a joyful banquet, so that through the dissimilarity of their pro­ ducts they acquire from their goods a brisk, reliable benefit and a desir­ able union of their hearts. Pliny, however, thinks that fish are granted to the inhabitants of a country by the favour of Nature, and are denied them for some other reason. 3 From the foot, then, of this crowned mountain there rises such a stench of fish hung up to dry that far out at sea sailors as they approach are aware of it flying out to meet them. As soon as they perceive that smell when struggling beneath the darkness of a storm, they realize it is necessary to preserve themselves and their cargo from impend­ ing shipwreck.

CHAPTER SEVEN

On the tide or ebb and flow of the Ocean

Rost Lofoten Whirlpool

Highly skilled captains are needed

O

N my Gothic map, 1 or delineation of the northern regions, are

I engraved certain bights of the Ocean off the shores of Norway; I

refer to Rost and Lofoten, between which there is in the sea such a great chasm, or whirlpool, that, when mariners approach it carelessly, their helmsman is deprived of his strength and resourcefulness and they are swallowed up in an instant by the sudden swirl of water. 2 These are chiefly sailors who do not know the temper of the sea in that area, those driven there by the force of a storm, or those who despise and belittle the peril that looms. For this reason men wishing to sail thither from the shores of Germany hire the most skilful captains or helmsmen who have learnt from long experience how they may safely avoid these dangers by steering a devious course. Here they are in the habit of directing their 100

BOOK TWO

voyage on varying routes over a long sea passage by the guidance of a gnomon,3 so that they will not plunge into a whirlpool. They particularly do this near the populous settlements of Andenes, Trondenes,4 and 5three other islands, where that stretch of sea is situated called Moskenstraumen and the tide rises higher than in all the other waters round about. For in this locality, during the flood tide, the sea wells up within the caves and at ebb tide it falls again, with a force as powerful as when torrents or swift rivers come rushing down. As I have said, navigation upon this sea is extremely perilous, for those who sail at the wrong time are suddenly snatched down into spiralling abysses. The debris of shipwrecks is very seldom cast up and, if it is, the timbers are so battered by being dashed against the rocks that they look as though they have been wrapped in fluff and smashed to pieces. Here the might of Nature may plainly be seen outdoing the mythical Symplegades, the dreaded Cape Malea, Charybdis of Sicily, and other great marvels.5 Scientific investigators confirm how difficult it is to ascribe a cause for this; nevertheless, they attribute it to some divine power, which bursts out and operates freely in whatever way, to whatever extent, and wherever it will.

Gnomon, compass Andenes Trondenes Mosken­ straumen

Spiralling abysses Debris of shipwrecks is not yielded up A divine power freely works where, when, and as it will

CHAPTER EIGHT

On the whirlpool and on the wonderful property of ice

I

have related in the chapter immediately preceding this how danger­ ous seafaring is in the Norwegian Ocean, especially where for some impenetrable reason mariners, unless they have immense foresight, run the danger of a huge whirlpool; and I think, now, that, when some have escaped a peril of this sort, it should be assigned hardly at all to human courage but to the protection of God. This principally occurs in the case of those who, impelled by raging storms to stray far and wide over the sea, are driven to such a region, like stranger guests ignorant of the places they have reached; such I believe the Spaniards or the French to be, 1 who with hostile intentions, or a burning desire for plunder, land on an un­ known shore. True, it must be admitted that they are very skilful in 101

Seafaring perilous on the northern sea

Strangers ignorant of places

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

handling the mariner's gnomon, or compass, and in taking soundings with the lead, but the appearance of the coast in this land of ours is different from that of the Africans or Moors. Here the nights are very long, the cold keenly bitter, rocks like towers may lie anywhere hidden from view, and there exist ferocious, terrifying sea-monsters, which I shall describe below Terrors of mariners where I write about monstrous beasts. 2 Moreover there are icebergs like the walls of huge houses demolished by storms, which from their close proximity look as though they will bring about unavoidable shipwreck. Yet whichever of these dangers you may encounter, all this is more bearable than to experience the compassion of the people of Ireland, Custom of the Irish whose custom it is (as might be proved by many instances which I here omit) with tears in their eyes to invite distressed sailors to take shelter with them, only to send them back to their shattered ships half dead and stripped of their goods. 3 However much else we are called upon to wonder at in the nature of Wonderful nature of ice ice, 4this remains certain, that it is driven on to the shore of Iceland in great masses, as Saxo testifies, and, if a fragment of this is kept in a container, however carefully, it vanishes at once when all the rest of that ice drifts away from the promontory into the deep sea.4 Yet people preserve it in the wide, desolate areas, chiefly under juniper needles and Ice keeps in summer also under chaff from great barns and deal shavings, even while the sun is still in Leo.5 Sophisticated drinkers take it from these places, while the heat of the sun continues, and plunge it into their wine or ale. None of them, however, mixes snow into any cups of liquor that they mean to Snow worms drain, because of its sticky, unclean condition, for it has hidden worms innate in it, as tufts of wool do. 6 Requisites of mariners

CHAPTER NINE

On the boats of Greenland made of hide or leather The picture belonging to this chapter has been destroyed Port of Vestrabord Hvitsark Craft of hide

E

ARLIER, in the third chapter of this book, I explained a good deal about the nature and characteristics of that frozen country, Iceland, together with the appearance of the spirits of folk who had gone fishing and had recently been drowned in those waters. Here I must describe the passage from the Icelandic port of Vestrabord to the lofty sea rock called Hvitsark, which marks the mid-point in the passage to Greenland. 1 On this rock a kind of pirate is found who sails about in craft made of hide, with no set goal, and lies in wait so that he can bore into the bilges of merchant ships from below, rather than above the waterline. I saw two such boats of hide in the year 1505 above the west door 102

BOOK TWO

inside the cathedral church at Oslo, dedicated to St Hallvard and hung up on the wall as exhibits. King Hakon of that kingdom was said to have picked them up as he was sailing with a fleet of war-ships past the shores of Greenland, in case those on board might be harbouring a design to sink his vessels.2 For the natives of that region habitually gain no small profit from robbery through these and similar stratagems. With stealthy skill, as I have said, they silently bore through the planks of ships from below, letting in the water and sinking the ship there and then. The Britons, however, according to Pliny in Bk VI, Ch. 16, have wicker vessels round which have been sewn very strong hides.3 The Russians and the men of Bothnia in the North sail ships bound together with osiers and roots and daubed with tar, without any iron at all, as I shall set out later when I discuss the Muscovite robbers. 4 The boats in Ceylon are made of papyrus and their occupants use anchors at the bow and stern because of the shoals in the sea, the bed of which is divided into many deep channels like troughs. Certainly they never venture to entrust their anchors to these channels, since they cannot sound the bottom. Pliny tells us this in Bk VI, Ch. 22.5

Hakon, king of the Norwegian realm Twin boats of leather

Ships without iron Boats of papyrus

CHAPTER TEN

On shipwrecks off Greenland

W

HAT I have to expound will be shown well enough by this shocking picture without my using many roundabout turns of phrase and expression; yet a short time must be spent in reveal­ ing whence and by what means these disasters occur. The shores of that part of the world, you see, are very sandy1 and filled with gulfs, as though one had to navigate through deep valleys and high mountains, on the summit of which trees have been torn away by the violence of storms and, rotting where they have been thrown down, stick fast, and with a mere touch will drive holes in ships.2 Even if the sailors exert themselves skilfully in desiring to escape these dangers, the force of the raging winds will in no way allow them to do so. For the wind Circius, whose fury has 103

Sandy chasms

Wind Circius

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Winds fiercer at the full moon

Harbourless shores

Hvitsark, refuge of pirates Vardohus

been sufficiently referred to above in Book I,3 is so violent in northern waters, especially when it coincides with the full moon, that all who are sailing there must fear its horrifying and lethal effects. Anyone in this situation has before him the example of the Portuguese who were off to seek lands hitherto unknown in order to perpetuate the renown of their nation (rather than to win riches). 4 Spanish and French ships have also been driven by ferocious winds and, having landed against their will on these inhospitable shores, have suffered a double hardship, for they did not know how to converse in the language of those people, nor had they any evidence of their trustworthiness.5 Moreover they saw men's dwellings on the shore that looked like boats turned keel upwards; and so it was, for the natives make houses out of the ribs of whales, as if they were massive timbers, carefully covering them with moss and brush­ wood to keep off the snow and rain. 6 The eastern parts of Greenland, with the rock Hvitsark, already mentioned, lying between, face Norway, and stretch towards Vardohus, the unconquerable fortress of the king of Norway; but towards the north and the westward parts extend lands and waters with no known limit. 7

CHAPTER ELEVEN (i)

On the Pygmies of Greenland, and Hvitsark Rock Hvitsark Pirates, Pining and Pothorst

I!:

N the last chapter you will notice that I referred briefly to the lofty rock, Hvitsark, which lies in the middle of the sea between Iceland and Greenland: it will be worthwhile if I go back and describe it in fuller detail. About the year of Our Lord 1494 two notorious pirates, Pining and Pothorst, had been totally barred from the communities of men by a very strict decree of the kings of the North for the way they conducted the most cruel brigandage in apparent scorn and contempt of all realms and their soldiers; they lived there outlawed with their fellowrovers and inflicted many atrocities on every seafarer, whether sailing close at hand or at a distance, 1 just as in another, earlier time the more 104

BOOK TWO

numerous and notable pirates, the Vitalians, as they were called, commit­ Vitalians, on see ted many crimes and in the end, by the combined forces of all the northern whom Albert kingdoms, were removed from among the living. 2 So also in the year 1525 Krantz in Wandalia the men of Hamburg dragged a certain Kniphoff with seventy of his Kniphoff accomplices from a powerful ship known as a galleon and, after being condemned to death, these fellows were broken on the wheel. 3 On the brow of this very high rock a compass was shaped under the Compass hands of these sea-robbers, Pining and Pothorst, with circles and straight lines of lead, which occupied a fairly large round space;4 by this means a shorter distance to their goal was afforded to would-be freebooters, since they knew in what exact directions they could range to carry out more profitable plundering forays. You can also see in the picture above a fight between two men of differing sizes. The little dwarf fearlessly attacks his Pygmies or bigger opponent and triumphs in his victory, for at every opportunity he dwarves assaults taller men with no less courage than if he could boast of a giant's might and so have the upper hand.

CHAPTER ELEVEN (ii)

More on Pygmies

G

REENLAND (Gmntlandid) takes the name from its battlements or high sand-banks, or, as others have it, from its greenness. 1 I should hardly believe men's often-repeated account of this coun­ try's marvels, an account given to me, too, by men of some authority, who tell how the natives of this land have to wage war against large flocks of cranes,2 if Pliny, in Bk VII, Ch. 2, where he speaks of the Scythian tribes, did not recount similar tales supported by rational arguments and by other writers. For he says in this passage: 'Beyond the tribe of the Astomi, in the farthest part of the mountains, the Spithamaean Pygmies, who are only three spans high, that is, not taller than twenty-seven inches, are said to live. Theirs is a healthy climate where it is always spring, as the mountains face away from the north wind. Homer too reports that they are molested by cranes. The tradition is that the Pygmies, mounted on the 105

Greenland's battlements

Spithamaean Pygmies Homer

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Eggs are devoured lest their enemies multiply Pygmies driven out by horde of cranes

They ballast themselves Leader of cranes

Evidence of sailors Character of cranes

backs of rams and she-goats and armed with arrows, all band together in springtime and go down to the sea, where they devour the eggs and chicks of these birds; they complete their campaign in three months, for unless they did this, they would be unable to withstand the swarms of cranes that would result in the future.'3 Solinus seems not to disagree with this opinion in Ch. 15, where he says that the Pygmies had been driven out of the city of Gerania by a vast horde of cranes, adding that in winter cranes are clearly known to fly in great flocks as far as the northern regions. Nor is it irksome to recall how these cranes guide their expeditions. They travel in obedience to military signals and, in order that the blast of the winds may not impede them as they proceed to their destinations, they swallow sand and, by taking up little pebbles, ballast themselves to a regulated weight; then they soar to great heights so that, from a more elevated observation point, they may measure the distance to the lands they are seeking. One confident of the course leads the flocks, punishes slothfulness in flight, and holds the band together with its cries. Once this crane's voice has grown hoarse, another crane takes its place. When they are about to cross the sea, they search for narrow straits; indeed their eyes readily discern them, as also places beneath, where they may free their feet from their loads of pebbles. This is the tale told by sailors who have often been rained upon by a falling shower of stones. They only vomit up the sand when they are certain of their new home. All unite to care for the over-weary, so much so that, if any fail to keep up, the remainder come together and continually sustain the ones that are fatigued until their strength has been restored by repose. At night they share out the watches in such a way that one in every ten is awake to sound an alarm; they betray negligence if they let fall a pebble.4 With age their feathers darken, as I shall demonstrate more fully below in the chapter on cranes and Pygmies.5

106

BOOK TWO

CHAPTER TWELVE

On the unfathomable depths off the coasts of Norway

S

UCH is the immeasurable depth of water off many of the moun­ tainous coasts of Norway that, however long the sounding-lines with which they can fill the largest ship, if a leaden plummet is let down, no bottom may be found. 1 The power of Nature, too, is such that, the higher the mountains jut upwards, the more unfathomable will the depth appear at their roots, though their great height above the earth is con­ sidered to be quite insignificant in relation to the sky. The feet also of these mountains are so full of hollows, and these so deep and crooked, that when lines have been lowered into them it is very difficult to discover in what direction the cleft goes. There are shores, too, in the land of Ceylon, as Pliny tells us in Bk II, Ch. 7, separated from each other by sandy channels of indeterminable depth. The natives have very little confidence in lowering anchors into them. 2 Again, in the island of Bornholm, which is subject to the Danish king, lakes of no great size are found, whose depth cannot be known. Then, among the Dalecarlians who live in the mountains (their name in fact means 'men of the valleys') there is a lake Runn (that is, 'round'), which never allows its floor to be fathomed. 3 Finally, not far from the royal palace of Stockholm in Sweden there is a place among the rocks by the sea commonly called Rundisvalia, that is, 'round chasm'; here, too, it is impossible to probe and ascertain how deep the bottom is. 4 Many wells are found, besides, and small lakes whose depth has very often been investigated but has been impossible to discover. Very long but exceedingly narrow caverns can also be observed in cliffs and mountains, which run into dark recesses, as though they had been hollowed out or quarried with iron tools. When the booming waters enter these, either in calm or tempest, a fearful noise is raised. If people coming into the vicinity do not quickly withdraw their ears from this, they are overwhelmed by such a shattering roar that for several hours they remain languishing in deafness, owing to the exceptional phenomenon they have encountered. 5 107

Unfathom­ able depth Great height of moun­ tains is held very slight when compared with sky

Ships are held without anchors Bornholm Dalecarlians

Rundisvalia, a round chasm

Fearful noise

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

On harbours with iron rings

I

Iron rings fastened to mountains

Ships are moored

Rocky coast

Enemies die of hunger and cold

Christian II, king of the Danes

have spoken in the above chapter about the impossibility of sounding the depths of water off the Norwegian shores where there are high mountains. Now I must show how those who sail among these wind­ ing, rocky abysses can, in good safety and without anchors, find secure places to moor. This is why you may see there, at various places along the fjords, iron rings, bigger than a soldier's round shield, fastened with melted lead to the sides of many of the mountains. 1 These were set there in times past through the magnanimity and at the expense of virtuous kings, chiefly on the way to the wealthy city of Bergen, so that, when sailors were hard pressed by swell or tempest, they might instantly pass hawsers through the rings; in this way great vessels would be held steady, just as though they were in secluded recesses. But it will be advisable for those who are willing to commit themselves to such a perilous labyrinth not to be ignorant of the passages. For the coast is so beset with cliffs and rocks that inexperienced navigators can neither make their way out nor proceed on their course. Indeed, the difficulty and harshness of this and similar places (as I shall relate more particularly below where I deal with enemy fleets) will ensure their shipwreck. 2 And if men-of-war or pirate ships put in to carry out a hostile assault, or are driven there by storms, deprived of good advice and assistance they very frequently perish from hunger, cold, or the attacks of the natives; they present a wretched sight, looking as if they were trying to do battle against the elements. The disastrous outcome of a similar calamity, utterly horrifying, will be found by anyone who consults the annals of the Norwegians and Danes, especially the accounts of King Christian II. 3 Therefore enemies are very often deterred from going in among these crags, lest they meet with a severer pounding from visible or hidden rocks in these lonely waters amid the mountains than from foes out in the open.

108

BOOK TWO

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

On the perilous crossing over Skars and Sula, mountains between Sweden and Norway

T

HERE is a province in the northern kingdoms known as Jamtland, with a manor or domain called Vasterhus, which has been a lord­ ship of the archbishop of Uppsala from time immemorial. 1 In summer the natives and foreign travellers journey from Jamtland by a route that is no less frightening than dangerous across the lofty mountains mentioned in the title of this chapter; whereas in winter they make their way whenever they wish by short cuts and footpaths over frozen marshes, lakes and rivers. For those mountains are enormous and hardly to be paralleled in Europe. On the eastern side they have at the entrance to the foothills gates or openings of the hardest flint, some cloven by Nature, some hewn out or pierced through for the use of the people and paid for by monarchs in the past. Beyond these, within the flanks of the moun­ tains, such cold is felt even in the middle of summer that, unless the travellers fortify themselves in winter fashion by wearing many layers of clothing, they encounter an almost fatal hazard from the sudden change in air temperature, which lasts until they are able to quit these bowels of the mountains and freezing valleys. Then, as they are preparing to descend from those altitudes, itself a journey of many days, they are sometimes menaced by a greater danger, when hanging bridges, fastened to the sides of ravines by wooden supports, are seen to be smashed or half broken down by the fall of snow, of trees torn away by a storm, or of rocks. There is no other hope to sustain them in their dilemma than to hope that the bridge can be repaired by the efforts of all the local men working together, since there is no detour to be discovered over these soaring heights and deep valleys. If travellers have foreseen these and similar threats, they take sufficient money with them, just as if they were soldiers about to suffer a siege of their camp and be forced to remain there. Apart from this they pay little heed to their baggage animals, for there is plenty of green stuff and convenient watering places; springs gush out profusely from the shoulders 109

Jamtland Vasterhus Journey dangerous in

Confined cold almost deadly

Hanging bridges

No detour

Plentiful grazing

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

of the mountains during the whole passage and these are approved by everyone for their rather pleasant taste. It is no wonder that men journey­ ing along that route have to endure so much hardship because of the steep and rugged places among the rocks, which can be avoided or made good only with the greatest difficulty; you clearly need the shrewdest cunning to penetrate everywhere, particularly when one place is impassable and another blocked by falls of rock. The tracks, moreover, are so narrow that they cause travellers and their beasts, especially if they are unused to this trek, giddiness in the head, mistiness of vision, and often a fatal fall.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

On statues along the ways across snow-covered mountains Dovrine Alps

Travellers are some­ times over­ whelmed by the mass of snow Statues set up

Giants turned to stone Demons StOlafthe king

T

HESE mountains which separate Sweden from Norway are com­ monly called by another name, Dovrefjell or, if you prefer it, the Dovrine Alps. 1 They are so tall and massive that to men making a journey of many days westwards or eastwards they appear, on account of their unmelting snows, to be perpetually white, as though bright clouds were solidified very high in the air. Consequently travellers there regularly see their routes cut off by a sudden fall of snow, and in the end they struggle to extricate themselves with exertions no less laborious than they would make in striving to emerge from the clutch of icy waves.2 Therefore ancient kings, who were at one time very pious in Norway, with foresight and magnanimity had tall statues carved out of the living rock where they could be seen rising up all along the summits of the mountains, steadied very firmly with lead or iron so that they might not topple under the force of the winds.3 There are even some who believe that these stone statues were once giants who, because of the tricks they played upon adherents of the Catholic faith, were turned into statues of this kind by the prayers of St Olaf, king, martyr, and patron saint, so that they might forever be landmarks for the preservation of travellers in these snow-swept mountains. Indeed, it is both rumoured and supposed that these statues were once demons and were made to return to the bodily 110

BOOK TWO

shape they had assumed when they made a mock of men who were to be converted to the faith of Christ; this was done by the prayers of that same St Olaf so that they might not hinder his preaching. Be that as it may, it is certainly no fable that the snows are of vast depth on that interminable journey, among the ridges of the highest mountains, the rugged cliffs, and the terrifying, pointed rocks. So, too, we must devoutly believe that, failing the help of man, the compassionate God who snatched Jonah from the sea and the youths from the fire4 has given his leave for signposts to be set up in order to preserve men's lives; to prevent them from being smothered and expiring in such a crisis, He has commanded that their safety should be made surer by these and similar means of assistance. Nor is it any wonder that this occurs where snows so constant and deep are found in a place so suited to them, when both the ashes of Etna and the sands in Ethiopia habitually overwhelm and envelop the natives, merchants, and armed soldiers, and indeed crush churches and houses, and overload forests until they fall, so that everything is shattered and destroyed on the spot through their insupportable weight. A witness of this is Procopius in Bk II of his Gothic Wars, who gives warning that a fearfully high price of corn is threatened when there is a disgorgement of volcanic ash. 5 It has also been found in Swedish territories that small birds in flight have set moving little balls of snow which grow as they roll down and, if the wind blows from the south, demolish castles and towns. However, a hostel is maintained on the Dovrefjell, where those who travel by this perilous route may be refreshed; nevertheless they are not provided with wine, as is done in the Apennines or the Spanish mountains, where people are luckier even if they are unaware of their own good fortune.6

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

On making one's passage in the dark

S

OMETIMES, too, when they are impelled by expediency or neces­ sity, the northern people have a rather clever means of making their way through woods at night time, and even by day when in the 111

Signs for the preservation of travellers

Ashes of Etna and Ethiopian sands

Procopius On the Gothic Wars

Snowballs

grow in size and

overthrow castles Hostel

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Endless nights Pieces of oak bark for light Agaric glows by night Fireflies die of cold

Winter barns People who can see in the dark Ceylon

regions of the more extreme North, before and after the winter solstice, there is perpetual night. Those who need these aids seek out rotten pieces of oak bark and place these at certain intervals on the way they have determined to go, so that the luminosity will enable them to complete their journey. 1 It is not only the bark that furnishes this light, but the trunk, too, if it has rotted, and a fungus called agaric2 which grows at the very top of this acorn-bearing tree; it has the property of glowing at night, as also do fireflies which take wing about the time of the autumnal equinox, though these, since they soon die when attacked by the cold, are reckoned to be of no benefit. Therefore it is more often rotten oak and agaric that they collect (since these betray their whereabouts by their own light), for use, as I said before, in the woods, or at home; that is to say, so that by its glow, as though by a burning light, they may more safely approach places full of combustible stuff, such as winter barns, crammed with ripe harvested corn and hay, which I shall describe later in a chapter about threshing in winter. 3 People are found, too, endowed with such a sharp vision that they boast of being able to see and handle almost anything without any physical light whatever. Pliny says that many more such men are undoubtedly to be found in Ceylon than anywhere else in the world. 4

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

On lights, and torches of tar

Various kinds of lights Use of fish fat Traan or lyse

T!

1HE people of the North (as I revealed at the beginning of this book) are exposed to nights of great length; consequently they use various kinds of lights to carry out the indispensable duties that contribute to their ease at home. It must therefore be indicated that in winter men and women in the sub-polar regions pursue their lives using the fat of sea-beasts to procure every advantage for themselves, as I shall later describe when I discuss the benefits derived from whales and seals. 1 This fat the common folk call traan, or lyse (from the light it gives), for when it is poured into lamps it shines very clearly and brightly,2 particularly 112

BOOK TWO

in the houses of great families, and in churches, where an ever-present illumination is needed in veneration of Our Lord's Body. But to avoid its being drunk up by night ravens or owls or bats, they keep the mouths of the lamps closed off with small iron grilles, as I shall show below when I deal with the different species of night-birds.3 Moreover pine torches, which contain a natural tar, appear in every form and are used throughout the North just as ordinary candles are. This is how they manage it: they tuck a certain number of pine shingles, cut thin, under their belts and, when both hands are busy, they put a splinter into their mouth, or their headgear, with the other end alight; so they go about where they choose, without finding the wind at all a nuisance, and perform any other tasks they please. But this may be done more safely in the open air owing to the smell of the pine, which not everyone can endure as well as the scent of candles, especially women about to give birth, for they customarily find the stench so noxious that it can even cause a miscarriage. However, in order to allow such harmful fumes to escape outside the house, tapering flues are raised up through a vent at the pitch of the roof.4 Some use ordinary lighted candles as long as a man's arm, to match the great length of the nights. Now in time of wars, which, for reasons mentioned before and to be repeated below,5 are waged more often in the long, dark winter than in the light of summer, the troops of horse and foot advance by the light of tar torches prepared with choice pitch or, even more easily, with resin from fir-trees; at the sight of these, if Solinus is to be believed, their horses are incited to battle, just as elephants are when they see shed blood or squashed fruit from a mulberry tree. 6

Night ravens and owls Pine torches Way of using torches

Smell of pine dangerous to women about to give birth Remedy for this Candles as long as the arm

Horses are incited to war by the sight of fire

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

On the overflowing and assault of waters MONO the spectacles presented by water in the North is one that is not so much frequent as harmful to the inhabitants of Medelpad Medeipad province, towards the northern parts of Upper Sweden, where 113

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

almost more men than not are given the name of Hun, as if the people had once warred gloriously against the Huns and been victorious. 1 In that province there is a very wide river, ^hose waters are carried down with Swift river such a headlong swirl that animals, losing their power to swim, in most cases sink to the bottom. This river, flowing down from the topmost peaks of the mountains, passes through the rugged steeps and is dashed against the rocks which stand in its way, until it tumbles into the deep valleys with a redoubled roar of its waters. Yet, although it is hurled back by the rocks that persistently block its path, the speed of its onrush is always main­ tained at the same rate; since therefore its waves are thrown into an unrelieved turmoil along the whole of its bed, a foaming whiteness abounds everywhere.2 But we must examine the terrifying nature of this river: in some years, a little before the summer solstice, it is filled up and choked in three places by such a huge, interlocked mass of floating ice and trees that, when the river is about to break the dam and burst its banks, Inhabitants those who live along the sides of the lower reaches are compelled to flee flee from the to higher ground. Meanwhile by employing scouts they try to find out torrent what point it has reached in its terrifying descent, so that it may not wreak wanton violence in its swift course. In fact, according to Pliny in Bk XIII, this is the element which has Water holds dominion over all the others, for it eats up the land and extinguishes fire. dominion Water mounts up to the heights and claims the sky, too, for itself. By spreading out a veil of clouds it stifles the spirit of life and causes lightning to strike the world, throwing the whole cosmos into discord. 3 So, even if the river itself, as I said above, menaces all the people nearby whenever it makes its assault, nevertheless with its plentifulness of choice fish, that Plenty of is to say, salmon and other species, it brings a rich profit to everyone; salmon these catches not only suffice for the household needs of that land's inhabitants, but are also transported beyond the coastal regions in great vessels. The river never fails to retain this merit: the nearer it approaches the sea-bed in its course, the finer are the fish that teem in it. There is River always a generous and gratifying display of fish there, on offer to any new abounds in guest who would like to accept such gifts. fish Huns

114

BOOK TWO

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Three famous lakes of the Gotar

A

great many notable lakes lie in the northern countries, remark­ able for their size and situation. The chief of these, Lake Vanern, Lake Vanern is in Vastergotland, and is a hundred and thirty Italian miles in length and almost the same in breadth. 1 It is broken up by a multitude of different islands, and although it is fed by the wide rivers that flow into it, 24 rivers which are very large and number more than twenty-four, it has only a entering the lake have single outlet (of this I shall shortly say something below). On this lake and one outlet around it are built many splendid houses belonging to the nobility, the Bishop of chief of which is the castle of Lacko, constructed through the exertion of Skara's with a the bishops of Skara; it has a well, more than two hundred feet deep, Lacko well 200 feet deep hewn out of the granite. Now this boring was done not only with iron tools but with flames fed by the grease from three hundred sides of the fattest 300 pigs' pigs, the fire being introduced and built up on successive days; for those sides people have discovered that nothing pierces the hardness of rock more quickly than the lard, or fat, of pigs.2 Adjacent to this lake are situated the Fat ancient towns of Lidkoping and Tingvalla,3 which maintain a rich profit Lidkoping Tingvalla from their mines with the production of choice iron and steel. Mines of There is another lake, too, named Vattern, with waters so clear and choice iron transparent that, although they are greenish in colour, a penny4 can be Lake Vattern seen on the very bottom. By this lake is the famous monastery of the The beautiful blessed Birgitta, or Bridget, and her daughter St Catherine, founded and monastery of blessed endowed by the wealth and devotion of these two women.5 There is again the Birgitta, widow another town, named Jonkoping, on its southern shore, worthy to be Jonkoping remembered in all future ages for the magnificent royal courts held there. There are also unexhausted mines towards the north-facing banks of this lake. Lastly there is the monastery of Alvastra, built and endowed at great Motala expense in the time of St Bernard. 7 Nearby, in the village of Tolstad, King Alvastra King Sverker was murdered on the night of Christ's birth by one of his stable­ killedSverker men, who used a bridle for a weapon.8 Lake The third lake is called Malaren, on whose shores towns, castles and the Malaren 115

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Castles of noblemen Royal wealth Lakes of the Lule marshes All lakes abound in fish White Lake Paijanne

splendid mansions of noblemen are situated; moreover, not far away inland lie unexhausted mines of silver, copper, and iron, valuable beyond the assessment of man. Hence it is that the king of Sweden and Gotaland never is, nor ever has been, inferior in riches to the other monarchs of Europe with all their hoard of treasure. There are also lakes of fresh water in the mountains of Lappland called the Lule marshes, three hundred Italian miles long and a hundred and twenty in breadth. 9 Alongside these there are many pools of standing water and lakes, somewhat shorter and narrower, and so full of fish that in the whole of Europe, in fact even in the entire world, you can hardly find any to compare with them. Then there is the renowned White Lake beneath the Pole, and lastly Paijanne in Finland, 10 together with innumer­ able lakes, pools, rivers, and deep-lying watercourses of the same kind.

CHAPTER TWENTY

On caverns used for treacherous purposes 24 great rivers enter one lake

Huge noise Trollhatten Robbers' cave

Thieves are betrayed by smoke

I

T has been said in the preceding chapter that twenty-four vast rivers flow from the highest mountains of Norway and Sweden into one lake, Vanern; and, although they enter it hissing loudly and eddying, the mountains obstruct them in such a wide, round chain that in all their passage they can find only this single exit. Here the water issues with such a speed and roar that it may be heard more than twenty Italian miles away. 1 In the vernacular it is called Trollhatten, that is, the demon's hood, perhaps because of the terror inspired by the thunderous noise it makes as it drops into the marshy flats, or because under its headlong fall a notori­ ous cave of robbers is to be found. 2 The approach to this is by a narrow footpath frequented only by the thieves and brigands themselves, since this river, so swift and full of eddies, removes from everyone the suspicion that there could conceivably be a band of evildoers gathered there, particularly in summer; but in winter they are detected by the evidence of their smoke as it wafts into the air, and are swiftly seized and carried off to punishment, 3while their 116

BOOK TWO

plunder, consisting of valuable furniture, silver, gold, and precious furs, goes to the royal treasury. If within the space of six months no legitimate plaintiff presents himself, to whom by law and custom the stolen goods should be restored, the monarch, in order to maintain peace in the state, commands that from the value of these goods ships shall be built and launched on rivers that flow into the sea, or that it shall be allotted through the wisdom of provincial governors to other defences, namely, ditches or walls. 3 But alas, in this wretched age we see no hour, not even a moment, reserved for any offer of restitution, however legitimate a claimant may have come forward, especially after merchants have been shipwrecked; yet some time ago the humanity of princes gave orders that, when the labour of those who collected goods cast up on shore had been paid for, everything should be restored to the owners. I have seen perfectly fair regulations on this subject issued by the kings of the North, in particular those of Denmark and Norway, where this tragedy is suffered more frequently than in other regions, except in Ireland and among the Kurlanders of Livonia. 4

Restitution of stolen goods is seldom seen

Ship­ wrecked property must be restored

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

On the ancient and magnificent royal castle of Arnas in Vastergotland

A

THOUGH the Gothic princes of old had a greater eagerness for wars than delight in any other pleasures, 1 and although they thought that the finest diversion for both mind and body was to wield arms sternly and to secure a variety of conquests in the most hardfought battles, yet a number of them designed to add to this pleasure some­ thing more splendid and left to their descendants buildings both costly and serviceable. 2We find that a certain Scarinus, the most powerful ruler in the whole Gota principality, carried out such schemes in a way peculiar to himself, especially in the territory of Vastergotland, which he frequently 117

Delight of the Goths in wielding weapons

King Scarinus

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

City of Skara

Arnas, once a most noble castle

Advantages of the castle Plenty of

fish Protection by marshes

40 bridges Veins of sulphur prevent freezing Pleasant meadows, fertile fields, and hunting Reasons for the land's being forsaken Heaps of stones

illumined with his presence; he did this for the benefit of his neighbour, Sidager, king of Norway, to whom, since they were related by blood, he wished also to be closer in friendship and in the lands where he resided. This monarch built Skara, the city of Vastergotland named after him, erecting it in a place well-protected by fens and bogs, with as much foresight as his successors short-sightedly allowed it to become deserted and ruinous. This was the ancient seat of Gothic kingship; however, not far from it there still exist the remains of a second royal palace called Arnas, whose site, walls, and architecture so excite the wonder of every viewer that all steadfastly declare no building of that era has been found to surpass it in the whole of the North or in all Europe. But what is not changed by long life, old age, and the passage of time?2 Let these ruins serve at least as tokens to prompt future generations to remember the grandeur displayed by those heroes of old. This castle had within its purlieus all the advantages that any fortunate dwelling of mortal men could ever ask and obtain from those on high; for on its north-western flank it had the great lake Vanern, already men­ tioned, full of fish for the pleasure of the king and his table. Over a vast area on the other, southern, side there was a foul, boggy swamp to assure constant freedom from danger. The surface of this, clothed in tender grass and shrubs, not only refuses to support the soles of the feet, but sucks down even those who tread lightly upon it; for, as the mud oozes to the bottom, this slough dissolves into miry chasms and a conflux of slime, so that it drags down anyone who steps onto it. Similarly the many, deep brooks, running hither and thither like arteries through the marshes, deny any approach to the castle, so that it would be impossible to reach it except by a vast network of bridges (of which there used to be forty) and by taking long, winding routes as if in a labyrinth. This difficulty persists in the harshest winter, for, because of the warm vapours rising from veins of sulphur, those bogs very seldom freeze.3 On the eastward side, oppo­ site the main gate of the castle, the only entrance which can be approached on firm ground, there were such pleasant meadows and fertile ploughland for the comfort of life in a castle that nothing more could have been coveted from the kindness of Nature; there were pastures, too, and excellent hunting on the plains and in the woodlands, all of which is indicated by the appearance of the land today.4 Although through wars, famine, plague, and civil strife it has for many years and many generations now lacked cultivation and has become covered with dense, fearsome woods, it also reveals to any who inspect it traces of furrows and plough­ shares, and the same place offers to the eye, among the lofty trees, frequent heaps of stones, which are commonly piled up to clear and extend the fields with a view to greater productivity. This has left firm proof to posterity that the population of that former age was much greater in number, and was satisfied with narrower plots of land than one sees in our own time. This castle, then, seems to have flourished most prosperously about the 118

BOOK TWO

year of Our Lord 955, when the glorious King Olaf, who was given the name Skottkonung, was baptized by St Sigfrid, archbishop of York, who set out from England to preach the faith of Christ to that same ruler at the earnest request of Eldred, or Mildred, king of England. 5 St Sigfrid also stayed for a short time in this castle until another royal residence, called Husaby, could be prepared and consecrated for the use of himself and his clergy.6 When that had been accomplished, he baptized those pagans and idolaters after they had been instructed in the Catholic faith, a ceremony undertaken by three of the Archbishop's nephews, Unaman, Sunaman, and Vinaman, who had been left behind elsewhere, in Varend. Of these one performed the office of priest, the second that of deacon, and the third that of sub-deacon. Yet like St John the Baptist, they were all put to death with the sword because of the displeasure of an adulterous woman. 7 Their bodies lie in the cathedral church at Vaxjo and are revered with great honour by everyone. But this has been set out at greater length in the appropriate sections of the History written by my most dear brother and predecessor, Johannes Magnus the Goth.8

A.D. 955 King Olaf baptized St Sigfrid

Husaby

Unaman, Sunaman, Vinaman Killed by order of an adultress

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

On the wonderful garden of Mount Kindaberg1 near the above-mentioned castle

T

HERE is a very prominent mountain among the Western Gotar, which is not far from the royal castle mentioned above or from Lake Vanern; in the vulgar tongue it is called Kinnekulle. Its height is such that, to those voyaging far off, more than forty Italian miles away on that lake, it has the appearance of a black cloud amid the expanses of the sky.2 So, many who are shaken by storms and the force of the wind bend all their efforts to reach its foot, where they know that a very peaceful haven awaits them. On the top of this mountain you may find such a pleasing view of leaves, herbs, and fruits of various trees (except the vine) that grow wild there just as if they were sown or planted, as rare as they are delightful, that scarcely any more attractive spot can be sought or discovered in the whole area of the North. Indescribable sweet­ ness is there, multiplied too by the mingled songs of different birds, though not that of the parrot. Yet this charming situation is known to only very few people, and they are old folk. It may not be shown very easily to persons of more frolicsome years, just in case, if strict restraint should be relaxed, they should throw themselves headlong into every pleasure, (or, to put it more truly, filth), and would only with great difficulty, if ever, be 119

Kindaberg

Pleasantness of the mountain

Birdsong Known to old folk Pleasure

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Various fruits Apples and pears ripen in the cold

Foreign fruits harmful Ungoyerned appetite Fruits of Armenia No hunger

reclaimed to virtue and good behaviour. For pleasure itself induces and constrains people to its use and habit, habit to necessity, and necessity to desperate courses. Outside this place on the mountain, and indeed far and wide elsewhere thoughout the North, very wholesome, sweet fruits are to be found, namely, pears, apples, cherries, and plums, but none are mature before the middle of July, and hardly then as ripe as they should be. Yet certain varieties of fruit here, both cultivated and wild, ripen only when the frosts are coming on, and even remain for the greater part of the year hanging from the branches after these have been stripped of all their leaves. But these fruits are the more desirable in producing a certain vinegar with a rather agreeable flavour, even though they are extremely small because of the constant cold round about them. The natives eat foreign fruit im­ ported by sea from the shores of Germany (since apples are brought over very quickly) with such greed, owing to the sweetness of the juice within them, that they seldom, or never, escape without the risk of various diseases (especially the French diseases) or of death. Hence comes a warning that every ungoverned appetite is its own torment and anguish. According to Strabo, in Bk XII, there are also some mountainous tracts or plains to be found in Armenia which produce such an abundant and spontaneous growth of wild apples that, at whatever season of the year the natives desire them, they are always plenteous, and for this reason they never feel hunger; for sometimes the fruit is still hanging on the trees, sometimes it lies on a deep bed of fallen leaves scattered on the ground.3

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

On the beauty and fecundity of Oland, an island of the Gotar Oland Great fertility of the island

E

LANDIA, or Oland, is one of the islands in the Baltic Sea, separated by a very narrow strait from Southern Gotaland. l It is the most beautiful of all the islands, for it is filled with a host of good things and the fertility of the soil makes up for its diminutive size, which a 120

BOOK TWO

two-day journey will compass. The meadows and fields are astonishing in their scent of herbs, and pleasing beyond description. There are numerous herds of horses, small but very strong, inasmuch as they surpass many large-bodied horses in their vigour and speed. Native and foreign mer­ chants buy these beasts for their pleasure and export them to distant lands to be sold as if they were marvels of Nature. They are so highly intelligent that they can be taught to leap and dance to the sound of the trumpet or drum by those whose practice it is to make a living from such shows. Over and above this, they are trained to jump, like dogs, through fairly small hoops made of iron or wood, and with a prancing gait, lively and agile, to turn in a circle. When they are addressed by their individual names they perform more or less complex movements, just as their master chooses. 2 When the need arises, horses of this kind are fed on fish baked by the sun, and on branches of fir;3 and they are given ale and wine to drink even till they become drunk. Something similar is told below about elks. 4 This island, then, contains an abundance of fruits, pastures, flocks, herds, and fish, sufficient for its own comforts and those of people else­ where; and, exported overseas, its beeves, sheep, and butter are as much favoured and valued as if they were medicinal. The island once had many castles constructed in the most advantageous places and fortified both by the protection of Nature and the skill of man. Some of these have been converted into churches for Christian ceremonies, and nowadays they are no less devoted to the defence of their country than to the service of religion. 5 Others have been utterly unpeopled by the whirlwinds of war. There is one, however, which right up to this present age has remained higher and stronger than any, and its name is Borgholm; its lofty towers are still used, as if they were a beacon to give the bearings of winds and havens, by those who are sailing far out on the Baltic Sea, especially the English, Scots, Sjaellanders, and Dutch, for whom it is particularly neces­ sary to be able to recognize well-known localities on that sea. This island is almost wholly surrounded up and down the coasts by limestone rocks, just offshore and twenty to thirty feet in height, as if they had been purposely set there by the hands of craftsmen. Certainly on its eastern shores, which lie facing the open sea, there are many picturesque har­ bours that voyagers from overseas are in the habit of coming to look at as much from curiosity as from need, as though they were sights provided by Nature. In peacetime the kings of the Gotar and Swedes used to pass their summers on this island because of its outstanding attractiveness and to indulge in hunting. Another reason was that by a passage over the neighbouring waters princes from overseas could more conveniently join them there to settle difficult issues. Moreover a tall mountain rises near the northern coast of the island, which the common sailors, in order to shun an unlucky omen and storms at sea, call the Virgin. Those who spend a while in its haven have a habit of giving little presents to the girls, for instance, gloves, belts of silk, and such keepsakes, as a kind of friendly gift to conciliate them. They seem to 121

Horses small but excellent

Horses dancing in a circle Horses jump through hoops Horses are fed on fish and branches, and are made drunk on ale and wine Choicest butter, as if medicinal

Borgholm Indicators necessary for mariners

Natural walls Picturesque harbours

Royal hunts

Mountain is called the Virgin, and the reason why

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Coven of northern witches and punishment of late­ comers Following one's belief

think that the divinity of the mountain is not ungrateful, for an old tale recalls what happened once: a voice came down from above and someone who had given a present was ordered to change his anchorage to avoid running into danger; by doing this he remained unhurt when others were wrecked. It is said that at certain seasons of the year a coven of northern witches assembles on this mountain to try out their spells. Any who comes at all late to this devil-worship undergoes a dreadful chastising; but in these matters it is better to follow one's belief, rather than people's assertions.6

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

On the most renowned island of the Gotar called Gotland

Goth means good,and All things good

Market town of Visby Names of peoples

Conflict Ruins of limestone

G

OTLAND (Gothlandid) lies off the eastern side of Gotaland, and is so called as being the land of the Goths, or a good homeland, since Goth means good, or God, in the Gothic language, and land means land. The land is good for many reasons: the people in it are good; there are good, safe harbours in its compass; there is good, choice soil in it; and it is good for its herds of horses and cattle, fishing, hunting, waters, woods, pastures, the most beautiful limestone, and everything requisite for the use of humankind. In the northern sector is the famous town of Visby, within which there is a well-fortified castle. This city was once the market town of the Gotar and of many other regions, stocked with such wealth and merchandise that hardly any trading-place in Europe was reckoned its equal. To it streamed men from Gotaland, Swedes, Russians or Ruthenians, Danes, Prussians, Englishmen, Scots, Flemings, Frenchmen, Finns, Wends, Sax­ ons, and Spaniards; each separate race had its own quarters and streets, and access to the town was forbidden to none. 1 Those who entered by land or sea found everything peaceful until 2the town was turned upside down by conflict, the most destructive waster of kingdoms and men, a fate that has befallen an infinite number of other nations which were originally in a flourishing condition.2 Ruins of limestone exist today which bear 122

BOOK TWO

witness to its former renown, importance, and long life. 3There are still to be seen houses with archways, iron doors, and copper or bronze windows,3 which were once plated with silver or gilded, displaying proof of wealth beyond estimation. As a consequence the people, divided by a hatred and guile which sprang from the arrogant use of these riches, departed to the cities of the Wends, which were no little enriched by the wealth of such guests, as once was Rome when Carthage had been destroyed.4 5On this island, after leaving their own land, descended the first armed encampment of Goths, who were out to seek new lands in Europe and Asia owing to the intolerable numbers of their own race.5 Lastly, when many centuries had elapsed, the Lombards, leaving the island of Scandi­ navia for the same or a more serious reason, passed by way of Gotland to Rugen and emigrated in a huge band to foreign parts, where, having at length established a kingdom, they made a firm settlement in Italy, as Paul the Deacon, their historian, testifies in Bk I. 6 Moreover in the year of Our Lord 1288 Magnus, king of Sweden, allayed a dangerous war which was being fought between the citizens of Visby and the other inhabitants of that island; he allowed the citizens to restore the ruined walls of that city and to fortify it on all sides with bulwarks and ramparts. When Albrecht, king of Sweden, was asked by the princes of Lower Germany to rid their sea of those powerful buccaneers, the Vitalians, he pawned this island of Gotland to the Grand Master of Prussia for twenty thousand doubloons, that is, nobles. This sum was collected from her country by Albrecht's successor, Queen Margaret, who thereby restored the island to the laws and ownership of the Swedish realm, to be possessed by right for ever.7 8Saxo Grammaticus, the famous historian of the Danes, affirms without hesitation in many of his writings that this island belongs to Sweden. He brings forward many proofs of it: that they employ the same language, laws, and customs, that they observe the same usages, that they are permanent neighbours, and also because they come under the jurisdiction of the Gota bishop of Linkoping, since he was the first to plant the Christian faith among them and from him they ask and obtain episcopal decrees.8 It is from this island, too, and especially from the civic council of Visby, that authority is sought in every dispute between mariners, and legal rules and a definitive decision given about what is or is not to be permitted. Certainly this body of law for merchants and seamen, com­ posed with great discretion, dispels quarrels on the rolling wave more quickly than the judgment of others on firm ground.9

123

Bronze and iron doors gilded

First halt of the depart­ ing Goths Lombards leave Scandinavia

Magnus, king of Sweden Albrecht, king of Sweden Vitalian pirates By perpetual right it belongs to Sweden and Gotaland Saxo Gram­ maticus, Danish historian, confirms this This island under the bishop of Linkoping

Maritime rights must be sought and awaited here

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

On the shields of princes carved on the mountains at Hango Weapons and shields attest the race's excellence Hango,a very safe harbour

The port is a sort of castle

The neigh­ bourhood useful

St Erik

Unteachable rabble Great love for ancestral traditions

H

OW careful the kings and princes of the Gotar once were to perpetuate their celebrated renown and fame in war is clearly shown by the weapons, standards, and shields of theirs which have been carved in conspicuous places and left for posterity to see. This is especially so in Ostergotland, Vastergotland, and in southern Finland at the splendid port called Hango, which is so pleasant and safe that, in the whole Baltic Sea, and perhaps in all the wide Ocean, it has none equal or worthy of comparison. All mariners, wherever they are sailing from, are received without hindrance into the bosom of its bay, and, when they are safely within, it protects them by its natural defences and keeps them from both storms and hostile fleets (provided they are not lax in looking after themselves). 1 For this harbour is attractively situated, just like a magnificent castle, in the midst of mountains and valleys. It bears on its rocks, in a continuous line, the extremely ancient badges of Gothic and Swedish heroes, engraved with the simplicity of older times. 2 They serve chiefly to demon­ strate to men of later ages that a fleet once kept its station there in permanent readiness to defend the kingdoms against any assaults by an enemy, and as often as was necessary set out from this port to make open war. Today, too, for similar reasons, both the monarch and noblemen quite often keep war-fleets in this same harbour, mainly because the neigh­ bourhood can supply everything which may suddenly be needed for a combined fighting fleet, and which can be turned against foes with damaging effect, should they approach this haven to cause destruction. There was one occasion when St Erik, king of the Gotar and Swedes, after his offer of peace had been scorned, completely vanquished the Tavastians, Karelians, and Bothnians with a fleet of warships and an expeditionary force of cavalry, and speedily compelled them to adopt the faith and religion of Christ; for the ineducable race of barbarians could not be driven, drawn, or induced to assume the yoke of Christ except by force of arms. Without doubt men entertain a deep love for the traditions passed on by their fathers, as Albert Krantz records in Bk IX, Ch. 37, of 124

BOOK TWO

his Wandalia. 3 The Italians, too, were stubborn for a long time, thinking themselves the most cultivated and honourable of all mankind; yet how many thousands of martyrs did they destroy before they began to believe in Christ? When a fleet has been or is being fitted out, it is in this harbour that the Swedish kings, provoked by some serious affront, customarily declare war on princes overseas, more especially on the Russians or Muscovites; and here, in return, they usually ordain or accept peace treaties on fair conditions when they deal with the emissaries of those same princes. Because this happened more frequently here than elsewhere, the ancient respect shown by our ancestors to these devices which they had imprinted upon the mountains prompted them, after they had perceived the lasting endurance of these markings (which they believed would be beneficial to the state), to establish them there for their descendants. These, too, might then take heed of them with the same unanimous agreement and an oath sworn on the arms and freedom of their forbears. The weapons and shields, then, which the old Gotar and Swedes made use of in their own country and abroad may be perceived from the emblems visible here, and further shown by comment. For instance, a crowned lion, leaping vigorously and looking backward, over three white streams on a field of azure, was a device once used by the Goths, and is kept now only by those who live in the land of their origin. These arms signify that they are to be merciful in victory, to be wary and look behind them, bounding away very swiftly from an attack. 4Methodius, however, chooses to claim that the Gothic princes, when warring and conquering in foreign lands, had a bear depicted on their standards. But those who traced their lineage from these same Goths, as being their early progeni­ tors, were distinguished by a variety of images corresponding to the different peoples: the Cimbri had a bull, the Slavs a dragon, the Gepids a boat, and the Alans, Burgundians, and Swabians a cat in their military standards, as Plutarch holds. 4 Now the Swedes, or Svear, from ancient times onwards carried heraldic devices showing two virgins crowned and clothed in gold, embracing each other in a green forest,5 as though to exhibit the perfection of the divine nymphs in their land. Now, however, the Swedish princes bear three golden crowns on an azure field on account of the immeasurable extent of their dominions, their splendid feats in arms, and the inexhaustible wealth of their country's mineral deposits. There are also the coats of arms belonging to private noblemen, which display a wonderful variety of decoration; so do those of cities and provinces, in order that such multitudes of men may be guided more visibly towards one ultimate goal on campaigns undertaken for their country and in the maintenance of the laws, as will be set out at greater length below when I deal with the disposition of an armed host.6

125

Italians once stubborn

Conditions of peace

Much is done at sight of their forbears' arms Arms of Gotar

Reasons for arms Of old a bear on arms of Goths

Bull. Dragon Boat. Cat Two virgins crownedfor Swedish coat of arms Three crowns and the reason for them Various arms of distinguished noblemen

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

On crystal and the magnet Ice like morsels

Snow Nature of Cypriot wool Plentiful profit Birds' feathers in the Indies

Sword of King Hakon

Property of the magnet

T

HESE words of scripture are worthy of respect: 'The Lord giveth snow like wool: He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice (crystallum) like morsels: who can stand before his cold, etc. 1 Certainly, if that book, which can be very obscure, could be illuminated with the brightness of crystal, even this would not be adequate to explain the foregoing sentences, because everything is full of mystery, notwithstanding the fact that the small number of words ought properly to make it comprehensible. The Bible says: 'Who giveth snow like wool.' Snow (as all seem to agree) is generated from the clouds, falls, and spreads profusely far and wide. But it is only Cypriot wool that falls, when it is ripened, from a shrub or its parent plant sown for that purpose, covering and whitening the whole plain, so that to the local inhabitants it looks as though it were snow coming down from the sky. From this the natives make a very rich profit; for it is dispersed to all parts of the world, especially where it is subject to cold in order to conserve warmth, just as birds' feathers in the Indies are seen to serve usefully as a natural protec­ tion and to moderate the heat when gently fanned. To see the truth of the words, 'He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes,' one need only glance briefly at Bk I, Ch. 20, of this work, which treats of frost and hoarfrost. Moreover the fact that, 'He casteth out his ice like morsels,' is clear from its fragments, of which there is certainly a great abundance. They are called morsels because of their brittleness, since they are very easily crushed by moderate grinding, as if between the molars. Among the ancients crystal was more commonly used than among people of today, especially on chests and in the hilts of swords, as you may see in the cathedral church at Oslo in the kingdom of Norway, where the famous sword of King Hakon is preserved as a splendid sight. 2 Also in the extreme North are found magnets, by which sailors steer their course at sea, as they do by taking bearings from mountains. The influence of these magnets is so powerful that, if they are laid touching certain sticks of beech wood, they communicate to them a hardness like 126

BOOK TWO

their own, with the property of attraction.3 As for stones seen hurled up Wood is turned to high as though they were flying, no one disbelieves that this can happen stone through the force of a sulphurous explosion, as with cannon.4 Great clods of turf, too, are cut out without hands, lifted up into the air, and shot forward for long distances.5

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

On the helmeted rocks

I

F you sail northwards for three days out of the North Sea, before you sight the entrance to Stockholm, the royal city of the Swedish king­ dom, you light upon a wonderful harbour called in the vernacular Hjalmsnabben, or Algsnabben, because the wild asses which they call elks1 habitually flock to it, attracted by the freshness of the wind, or again because the mountains, at whose sides the havens lie, appear to have been so shaped by Nature that you might imagine soldiers' helmets had been carved on them, as though in the forging of weapons the skill of man were not sufficient unless Nature too should show the warlike people who live in the North what suits them when it comes to handling arms. In fact, although this harbour is famous for the shelter it provides from all winds and storms, insomuch that the whole of Europe hardly possesses one like it, it is also so spattered with the blood of enemies that one might say that here could be found the beginning, middle, and end of all wars fought in the North. For often an enemy fleet, driven in here because of stormy weather in which it could not fight an action and take the chance of war on the open sea, is compelled to seek a truce from its opponents, or to offer it, either voluntarily or as a ruse; otherwise it will risk unavoidable death or captivity, since it can find no way of escaping under arms. If the fleet puts out from the shore of the harbour, hidden reefs and threatening rocks present themselves; one simple movement will pitch the enemy into the flood, so that he must offer peace. Even if he should wish to make the open sea, he is fronted by terrifying weather conditions which the sight cannot endure for one blink of an eye, for the north-east wind in that 127

Hjalmsnabb­ en or Algsnabben Helmets on mountains Nature shows hardy people a model for arms Harbour excellent but blood­ stained Unfavour­ able situation recommends peace Hidden rocks Frightening

weather

conditions

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Gale When seamarks on shore are removed, enemies are drowned

neighbourhood blows a full gale. Moreover, in a time of hostilities the inhabitants of that territory remove the seamarks from the shore, so that the foe may not have the barest chance of escaping vengeance. 2 Otherwise fleets of pirates and gangs of godless fellows would attack them with unremitting savagery and seize this port; none the less, engagements preliminary to wars at sea are quite often begun there.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

On the narrows in rock-bound ports

City of Stockholm

Stendorren Various shapes of waterways

Rocks under the waters Many thousands of enemies drowned

T

HERE are, besides, narrow outlets and entrances in northern waters, which cause no little alarm, especially when one is sailing in from the open sea towards the city of Stockholm. This is a royal city, notably fortified by Nature and art, 1 so that those who purpose to attack it are rightly compelled to worry about the loyalty or treachery of their mariners in trying to overcome successfully the perils confronting them. However, the principal and most dangerous place is Stendorren, whose name signifies 'the door of stone', since the approach twists every way through narrow straits and crescent-shaped reaches, sometimes in the form of a Scythian bow, sometimes with the appearance of a sword point, where sailors must steer clear of the banks. 2 Among these they may chance to go astray in far greater danger, because of the thick mists and fogs that arise, than they would encounter in the wide expanses of Ocean at the onset of the strongest gale. Not far from this point on the coast there are menacing, craggy rocks, which lie hidden under the water, and any who light upon these are as good as buried alive. Nor do the Gota histories fail to record that in the past many thousands of Germans and Danes suddenly foundered and perished here,3 for they sailed into these rock-bound straits with greater boldness than experience in navigation, just as other men have sailed into other bays in the North which appear to those at sea exactly like a cluster of huge beams jutting out of the water, the mere sight of which terrifies the beholders. They take their names from some happening, cause, feat, 128

BOOK TWO

or natural quality, as I have demonstrated earlier in this book about floodwaters. They look more frightening to piratical enemies than any battlelines equipped with weapons of war. 4

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

On rocky cliffs and a narrow passage

O

VER and above these there lie off the shores of Ostergotland and Svealand huge rocks, some visible, some lurking hidden, in a very long ridge like benches fitted together by skill or hard work, named in the vulgar tongue Ido bdnkar, on which unfortunate shipwrecked mariners are regularly stranded. 1 These rocks were ready to have me, too, if, during a great storm in the year of the Lord 1517, God had not lent His aid. 2 My ship was being driven by the violence of the winds onto those submerged reefs, whose long line resembles the sloping walls of towns or camps. Those who strike these rocks, either through carelessness or an unavoidable tempest, especially enemy fleets bent on realizing their greed for plunder at the expense of the coastal population (who are not without wealth), are surely to be considered the most wretched of all men, since they are surrounded by foes, both on land and sea, in a more daunting way than if they were in prison. Because the natives flee with their flocks, herds, and household goods in the face of this sudden enemy incursion, on land they will be very swiftly consumed by famine, the worst foe of all, and with cold, which is a greater agony than any torture. At sea, too, they will be destroyed because, as I have said, the weather there is generally of the harshest kind; even if they should try to extricate themselves by skill and toil, it will in no way avail them to withstand Nature's ferocity. For everywhere, besides the onslaught of the wind mentioned above, there is the danger presented by the boulders, or rocks, which rise to a sharp point, like spires. These are betrayed by the spray, so that through quick perception and steering a bending, flexible, and indirect course, they may be circumvented. 3 In these places the admirals of a war-fleet commonly employ ruses 129

Ido bankar Danger for the author Walls lurking under the water

Famine on land Storm at sea

Perilous rocks

Ruses

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Bones of the dead frighten those approaching

during hostilities; they purposely station a few warships, or ships made to resemble them, flying the colours of their foes, in order that the enemy fleet, after sighting them, may dash heedlessly into the danger.4 My country's annals bear witness to the fate of enemy ships cut off in this way, so I need say no more on the subject; and the bones of her molesters, scattered over the rocks, clearly show what they should take great care to avoid.5

CHAPTER THIRTY

On swift torrents Swift torrents

Skanninge

Skenan Tannefors

Knoden

Friuli

Relief by deflecting the water

A

seemingly countless number of swift torrents may be discovered in northern lands, principally after the end of April, the time when the snow and ice melt, and they bring huge destruction to the inhabitants; for by their wild and catastrophic onrush they snatch and carry away villages, hamlets, houses, and stone bridges, as well as trees planted by man's skill and those that have taken root in the earth through natural propagation, as I related above how in other circumstances lakes burst their banks. 1 With their surging violence these torrents stamp their names on cities and other localities where they sweep by. Skanninge, for example, an extremely ancient town in Ostergotland, takes the name from its river, or rather torrent, which, because of its very swift current, is called Skenan in the vernacular, as if it were a horse, its reins cast aside, roused to career in any direction.2 Another river, moreover, no great distance away, has taken its name from the perpetual sound of grinding teeth.3 So, too, a swift torrent in the province of Medelpad, described above, has received the name of the Knot, because in spate it violently tears away and conveys with it trees and even huge rocks embedded in encrusted masses of ice, like knots; and because its alarming progress so swiftly overwhelms provinces and people, it induces still greater fear.4 Those who have passed through Friuli while travelling from Germany to Venice will acknowledge, without this superfluous testimony of mine, what an avalanche of waters like this has done, or is accustomed to do, remembering what they have seen with their own eyes of the mountain passes and their watercourses around Trento. 5 No other relief for this horrifying devastation6 has so far been dis­ covered than for every man to set to work and with the strength of the whole community to dig through the hills and change the course of the river. But, although the people of the North do divert it in several places, they still allow it to retain its furious speed so that waterfalls are formed;

130

BOOK TWO

they then defeat their unheeding foe through its precipitous plunges, and so its 'knots' are untied. 7 Although, as you have seen, names have been applied to torrents from some misfortune (I shall also relate elsewhere how these have arisen from bishops drowned while journeying to preach the Gospel, from wedding pranks, and from the abduction of virgins),8 yet the more judicious have preferred that a thing should take its name from triumphs and victories, not from disasters.

Names should be given from a happier event

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

On the various shapes of rocks along the shore

O

N the shores of Ostergotland, in the firth called Braviken, where through the town of Norrkoping a violent torrent also flows, stones are found on the seashore of very different shapes, as though they had been carved or polished by the skill of man; but this is judged without any doubt to happen through the hidden influence of the sky and elements. Some of these stones have the shape of a human head, and hands, feet, toes, and fingers. Their forms are not combined as an entire body, but the pieces are made separate and so given their finish by Nature. 1 The people there are so used to sights like these that they do not trouble themselves at all about them or others like them, except insofar as they can serve to strengthen their walls and other buildings. Among mountains far distant from the sea, rocks are also found whose natural structure forms a round hollow, so that one would think they were some vast bronze cauldron or bath-tub. This may be seen in Ostergotland on the mountain called Kettilberg in the native tongue, that is, Cauldron Moun­ tain, near the city of Linkoping, my own birthplace.3 If the Italians could carry off from this region the ancient monuments of Nature, their spirit of enquiry would certainly have no small acquisition in which to take joy, seeing that none or few of them get their fill of probing into such matters. One may see in many valleys among the mountains an infinite number of stones shaped like a ball, between the size of a calf s head and that of a goose egg, or a bit bigger or smaller, which are ready for use in cannon 131

Braviken Norrkoping

Everyday sights grow stale2

Kettilberg Author's birthplace

Natural stones used forcannon balls

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Whetstones Marble stones

Crystal stones Soderkoping

Reason for restraint in decoration

Decoration of Northerners in their arms Tarred arms

without needing any additional handiwork from craftsmen. Whetstones that are flat and long are also found and put to good use there. Similarly, in Vastergotland, there are boulders possessing the nature of marble, of such varying colour and size that they may be put to use as tombstones without employing a chisel, for they seem already carved, a matter I shall demonstrate in Bk XII with reference to the natural diversity of rocks which may be used for any and every kind of building. 4 There are also crystal stones not far from Soderkoping in Ostergotland,5 hexagonal in shape and hanging downwards, the size of a fist or finger; with the benefit of their brilliance houses could certainly be built with a keener eye for embellishment, if the local inhabitants cared more for beauty than for solidity. Of course, giving thought to the fact that the rage of an enemy could and would ruthlessly lay everything waste because of the elegance of building, they prefer to fortify rather than adorn any of their homes. Within doors, however, these are commonly decorated with notable taste, but principally, as I shall describe below, they are furnished with glittering arms, that is to say, breastplates, helmets, and shields.6 People of that race think that all beauty lies in these objects, since a great part of their defence and safety depends on them; nevertheless, some are tarred black, for reasons to do with wars which I shall give below.7

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

On the rocks of giants and on gushing springs

Saxo

Ragnar, the Danish king

E

ARLIER I described the obelisks of the heathen, of kings, cham­ pions, and giants, by means of which they thought their eminent feats were accorded the highest reputation for all succeeding generations1 . In such a way Saxo of Sjaelland recalls of his Ragnar, the Danish king, that, after fighting a five years' war in the North against the Muscovites and Russians, he left a record of his achievements carved on high rocks, so that what he had accomplished for the splendour of his fame amid such straits and hardships might not vanish into oblivion.2 So is 132

BOOK TWO

it also with many kings and heroes among the Gotar and Swedes, the greatness of whose deeds can still be distinguished in the most lofty situations throughout the northern regions. Those among them are con­ sidered and judged to have led more celebrated lives who so managed their concern for glory in war that they were seen to have advanced the common good of all their people. 3 Such were King Ubbi, founder of the ancient city of Uppsala, Scarinus, Erik, and several others. 4 Their im­ perishable memory is not only to be viewed inscribed on rocks in the plains and on the mountains, but is perpetuated in songs handed down from father to son, by musical instruments, and by traditional dances at places and on days of greater festivity. 5 For it was a strong concern of these illustrious men, when all was at peace, that the governors of pro­ vinces (apart from their supervision of weapon-training), aided by the services of the local inhabitants, should be charged with the task of bringing streams of water, where they tumbled headlong down, to drive mills, or of building fountains for the common benefit wherever they were needed. 6 Apart from those, streams flow down out of the rocks, in many places so full and abundant that, brought down swiftly by Nature and art, these long reaches of water, very beautiful to look at, turn between fifteen and thirty water mills. Falbygden, a famous province in Vastergotland, and populous Halsingland, as I shall show later where I write about ironsmiths,7 have just such sights to show with all their advantages. To these cold lands there is no need to summon men skilled in laying water-pipes from African countries, where a great number of creatures' lives are endangered for lack of water, for here everlasting snow and numberless rivers and springs are to be found everywhere. In fact, people in these parts are so shrewd in interpreting Nature's clues that from the surface of the ground they are able to predict with certainty how many ells, fathoms, or feet one must dig down into the earth for it to spout water, and in what direction the underground channels bend or run straight.

Kings of the

Gotar are

celebrated for distinguished deeds The kings Ubbi, Scarinus, and Erik Record is retained in traditional songs

Falbygden Halsingland

Creatures die from lack of water in Africa

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

On the signs by which springs can be recognized

T

HE signs for recognizing underground watercourses are given by Cassiodorus Magnus at the end of Book III in a letter of Theodoric, king of the Goths, namely, high green grasses and tall trees nearby. Ground where fresh water is not far below the surface is always favoured by an abundance of growth in particular plants: there are the bulrush, the 133

Green grasses Tall trees Rush

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Reed, bramble, willow, poplar Wool

Flies Steam

Taste

East. South North. West

light reed or cane, the stout bramble, the lissom willow, the flourishing poplar, and all the other kinds of trees, provided they rise rank and luxuriant beyond their natural height. There are other indications also to be observed in this art: when at the approach of night dry wool is laid on ground where water is suspected to be and is left there covered with an earthenware pot, then, if water is pleasingly close, in the morning the wool will be found damp. As soon as the sun becomes visible, experts carefully examine these spots and, where they observe any cloud of minute flies hovering above the soil, they joyfully promise that the object of their search will easily be found. They also add that a column of very fine steam may be seen and they know that, to whatever height it extends upwards, waters lurk below at the same depth. It is a wonderful thing that by these and other alternative signs they can foretell and accurately measure the depth at which they will come upon their objective. They also predict the taste of the waters, so that they will not waste costly labour seeking bitter water, nor will palatable water, such as is wanted, be despised as if it were of no account. They say that the waters that break from the ground towards the east and south are found to be fresh and clear and, through their softness, very conducive to health; those however which flow towards the north and west prove to be very cold, certainly, but from their hardness and cloudy quality, disagreeable to drink. 1 Highly valued and respected are the hydrological engineers who find watercourses where they know how to bring up by their skill weighty quantities of water which have no power to rise naturally.2 Therefore: Skill lifts the load and the Muse eases labour. END OF BOOK TWO

134

NOTES OM 2: Preface

1 See especially OM 21.

OM2:1

The main elements of the vignette are found on CM, litt. A (SW Iceland). OM intends to illustrate a solfatara region, cf. the opening of the chapter. 1 On sulphur in Iceland see KL, XVII, cols 589-91. 2 Helgavarma, rapid water by the lake called Helgasjon, just north of Vaxjo (Smaland). The second element of the name (related to English 'warm') implies it is a stretch of water which never freezes. OM has lent it the characteristics of an Icelandic hot spring, perhaps misled by his awareness of 'Helga-' names in Iceland. 3 Cf. OM 1:27; OM does not return to this Norwegian example. 4-4 More or less verbatim from Cassiodorus, Var., II 39, where the reference is to Fons Aponus, now Albano, near Padua. Cf. OM 15:35, where OM remarks that warm sulphur baths are not found in Sweden. 5 Wisdom 19:20-21. 6-6 From Vincent, Spec. hist. , V 63; cf. 2 Maccabees 4:7-10. 7 The Jerome reference has not been traced. 8 Cassiodorus, Var., Ill 47; he refers to Vulcano, one of the Lipari Islands. 9 Volaterranus, p. 600, refers to the stone in Egypt which flames but not to the tar and serpent which put out fire. 10 Paraphrase of Civ. Dei, XXI 4, 3. 11 Pliny, Nat. hist., XIV 26, 131; II107-11, 235-41. OM2:2

The chief elements of the picture are found on CM, litt. A (S. Iceland); cf. the descriptions in the Latin commentary, Ain kurze Auslegung and Opera breve under litt. A a. Mons Crucis is unidentifiable. Chaos is derived from Ziegler, Schondia, 1532, fol. 93v, where in the form 'Choas' it represents a corruption of the word Thoos', spelt out as the name of the runic letter '/>' on Claudius Clavus's map of Iceland (after 1415, before 1427). Cf. Haraldur Sigurdsson, Kortasaga Islands, I, pp. 72, 171. In Ain kurze Auslegung and Opera breve the unnamed volcano is identified as a Helgafell, presumably the one on Heimaey (Vestmannaeyjar). The springs are probably those typical of Iceland, some depositing siliceous sinter, others giving carbonated water, the so-called olkeldur, 'ale-springs'. Cf. Franciscus Irenicus, X 18; Saxo, Praef. II7 (tr. Fisher, pp. 7-8). The man on the ladder might perhaps be a sulphur-gatherer. 1 Campi Flegrei, the sulphur-rich area just west of Naples, with La Solfatara itself as a minor part of it. 2 Jerome, in PL, 27, cols 597-8. 3 In the Historia OM always refers to CM as his 'Gothic map'; cf. e.g. OM 2:7, and see In trod., p. xxxi. 4 Probably Dovrefjell in Norway; cf. OM 2:15, 4:13-14. 3 Cf. OM 2:4 and 14 (Skuleberg, Skars, Sula), and 2:19 (mountains of Lappland). OM2:3

The vignette is based on the depiction of Iceland on CM. Scalholdin is Skalholt, the cathedral establishment in the south of the country. The apparitions look rather

135

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES jolly, but in Ain kurze Auslegung, litt. A c, and more briefly in Opera breve, OM says that, when addressed, they reply with heavy sighs that they must be off to Hekla and forthwith disappear; cf. below.

1 The Icelandic mainland lies between 63° 23-4' and 66° 32-3'N. 2 See OM 1:5, n. 4.

3~3 Partly verbatim from Ziegler, Schondia, 1532, fol. 93r. Cf. Saxo, Praef. I 4 (tr. Fisher, p. 5).

4 I.e. 400 'Italian' miles, cf. OM 1:2, n. 5. The actual extent is approx. 300 km N-S, 480 km E-W. 5 On Circius cf. OM 1:10. 6-6 From Ziegler, Schondia, 1532, fol. 93r. The 'rock or promontory' is Hekla. 7 OM 3:22. 8 Aeneid, VI426-7, 440-41.

OM2:4 The picture shows Skuleberget, complete with 'frightful sound' issuing from caves by the shore; see the second paragraph.

1 Fur-bearing animals gave the greatest return but elk-hunting was also impor­ tant.

2 This represents normal autumn treatment of cropland, not burn-beating as such.

3 In this paragraph OM appears to be chiefly referring to Skuleberget, on the Swedish coast just north of the sixty-third parallel. The mountain is 293 m; it is not snow-capped in summer. In this region there has been uplift of 4-5 m since the early sixteenth century, so the configuration of the present coast is very different from that seen by OM.

4 From Vincent, Spec, hist., XXXI 24 (an extract from Carpini's report of his travels in 1245). 5 Dion Merula is OM's careless conflation of the author, Dio Cassius, and the translator, Giovanni Merula, who published Vesaeui mentis conflagratio in Milan in or about 1503. An eruption of Vesuvius is described in Dio Cassius, LXVI 22, 3. Cf. OM 11:5. 6 OM20:13, 16-17. 7 Pliny, Nat. hist., II 82, 193; Pliny is talking of sound in connection with earthquakes. 8-8 From Franciscus Irenicus, VIII 20, where Suidas is cited. OM2:5 The picture is found in the southern part of the Faroes on CM. On the map and in OM's Latin commentary under litt. D a, the name is singular, as in the first sentence below. The islands are portrayed as a group on CM but older maps show only one island, hence the singular form of the name. OM was probably following Ziegler, Schondia, 1532, fol. 94r ('Farensis insula'; also depicted as a single island in Ziegler's 'Octava Tabula'). 1 The stack called the Monk (Sunnbiarsteinur in Faroese), 6 km south of Suduroy and once 22 m high, collapsed in 1885. It is now c. 10 m. 2 From Valla, I 11, 2 and 13; 15, 3. OM's explanation is oddly unworldly. Valla tells a story of lovers who, pursued by the lady's father, threw themselves off the crag. 3 'Monies litium', glossed 'Kivaneb' in the margin. Sw. kivendbb (cf. MLG kiven, 'to fight, wrangle') is used of a kind of blockhouse, free standing or part of a larger fortification. OM refers to the border area in S. Karelia, where Kivinebb (Kivennapa in Finnish) is a parish-name, first attested in 1445. The defensive position which gave the parish its name was on the road between the Russian border and the strategically important crown estate, Muolaa. Cf. KL, II cols 5-6, V, col. 499.

136

BOOK TWO OM2:6 The picture is based on an illustration on CM , litt. C, considerably modified. 1 Bjuroklubb was (and is) in the parish of Lovanger but in the deanery of Lule. The uplift here has been over 5 m since OM's time and the eminence is now landfast to the south. 2 OM's experience probably goes back to his return voyage from Norrland in the autumn of 1519 (when the stench of drying fish would be strongest, cf. below). There were at least four fishing stations in the vicinity, but the main one was then closer to Bjuroklubb than it has been since. Numerous large piles of stones round about are taken to have served as bases for sea-marks; possibly the three 'prongs' on the eminence were similar heaps; cf. Broadbent, 'Bjuroklubbs arkeologi'. 3 The comment attributed to Pliny has not been traced. OM2:7 The illustration is based on CM, litt. B. The names of the islands, Rost and Lofoten, should be transposed. 1 Cf. OM 2:2 and n. 3 there. 2 OM refers to the best-known maelstrom of all, Moskenstraumen, between Moskenes0ya and Mosken (north of Vaer0y); cf. KL, XI, cols 302-3. 3 OM uses 'gnomon' but adds 'compass' in the margin; cf. OM 2:8. He is perhaps referring to a compass which combined a small sundial and a magnetic needle. 4 Cf. OM21:1. 5-5 More or less word for word from Ziegler, Schondia, 1532, fol. lOlv. OM2:8 The vignette illustrates the contents of the chapter. The barrel presumably repre­ sents the 'container' ('vas' in OM's Latin) mentioned at the start of the second paragraph. 1 OM may not have distinguished between voyages of Spaniards and Portuguese, but cf. OM 2:10. He may have had particular experiences in mind, e.g. the voyages of Caspar Corte Real in 1501 and of Jacques Carrier 1534-41. 2 Cf. OM 21:5-11. 3 Cf. OM 2:20. It was commonplace to describe the Irish as fierce and inhospit­ able. ^ From Ziegler, Schondia, 1532, fol. 93, with 'in a container7 added by OM. Cf. Saxo, Praef. II 7 (tr. Fisher, p. 8). 5 Ice-stacks doubtless existed in Sweden in OM's time, though mentioned by no other author. Ice-cellars were in early use in Russia and the Baltic countries. 6 Cf. OM 19:36. Perottus, col. 389, uses the phrase 'tineae nivales', 'snow worms', following Aristotle, Hist, de animal., V 19, where animal life is said to appear in old snow, with red hairy larvae. (Redness in snow is actually due to algae.) OM2:9 The destroyed vignette was in all probability based on the part of Greenland depicted on CM to the north-east of Iceland. * OM does not in fact describe the passage. On Vestrabord cf. OM 1:10, n. 1. OM is muddled about Hvitsark (ON Hvitserkr), which was probably a peak south of Angmagssalik. Halfway across on the shortest route from Iceland to Greenland, this and the Snaefell glacier (Snaefellsjokull) were said to be both visible. OM probably had notes drawn from sailing directions collected by Erik Walkendorf, archbishop of Nidaros 1510-22; cf. Introd., pp. lii-liii. 2 Soon after 1400 Claudius Clavus had similarly seen two such craft, identified as a (smaller) kayak and a (bigger) umiak, hanging in the cathedral in Trondheim. As far as we know, no King Hakon ever went anywhere near Greenland. OM may have heard stories of conflict between the Greenlanders of Norse stock and Eskimoes.

137

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES The colony was established from Iceland just before AD 1000. It existed in two settlements on the west coast, one about 60-61°N (the Eastern Settlement), the other about 64-65°N (the Western Settlement). The latter is not heard of after c. 1350; the former had disappeared by c. 1500. 3 Pliny, Nat. hist., IV 16, 104. 4 See OM 4: 10, 11:7. 5 Pliny, Nat. hist. , VI 24, 82. OM 2:10 Cf. the vignette with CM, litt. A (the part of Greenland shown north-west of Iceland). The houses built of whale bones and the human figures are lacking on CM. 1 Cf. the interpretation of the name of Greenland in OM 2:ll(ii). 2 The driftwood is correctly reported but not its origin. 3 Cf. OM 1:10. 4 OM may have had Henry the Navigator in mind. 5 Cf. OM 2:8. 6 Cf. OM 21:24. No report of this widespread practice is found in literary sources prior to OM. 7 There were contending views on Greenland, some geographers believing it to be an island, others an arm of the Eurasian landmass, either from the west or the east. CM shows that OM probably belonged to the former camp or perhaps compromised between them (cf. Richter, Olaus Magnus' Carta Marina, pp. 132-8). His location of Hvitsark here differs from that given in OM 2:9 and 2:ll(i) and on CM. The Vardo fortification (Vardohus), just west of the northern extremity of Varangerfjord, was built in the reign of Hakon V Magnusson of Norway, 12991319. OM 2:

The vignette is derived from CM, litt. A, the part of Greenland depicted north-west of Iceland, with Hvitsark to the southward. The inhabited whalebone-structured house (cf. OM 2:10) is an addition. 1 OM's choice of date, 1494, cannot be explained. Diderik Pining and Hans Pothorst were Germans in Danish and Oldenburg service, chiefly as privateers. They took part in a voyage of exploration to Greenland waters c. 1472, engaging in piracy as they went. Pining was governor of all or part of Iceland from 1478, though without spending much time in the country. He is last heard of in 1490, when he was also commandant of Vardohus. Pothorst took part in the maritime war be­ tween Denmark and England 1484-90 and apparently died at sea in or soon after the latter year. He had settled in Helsing0r, where a portrait of him is preserved in the St Mary church of the Carmelites. Cf. DEL, XI, pp. 381, 459. 2 The Victual or Vitalian Brothers are first mentioned in 1392, privateers in Mecklenburg service in the Baltic, particularly active against Hanse vessels and the Scandinavian centres of Hanse commerce, Bergen, Malmo and Visby. From 1395 they continued their piracy but now in the face of concerted opposition from Scandinavian and Mecklenburg authorities. Some remained based in Gotland; others transferred their activities to the North Sea. A defeat in 1400 reduced their power but some continued to operate from Dutch and perhaps Norwegian ports. In the late 1420s they assisted the Hanse towns against the Union king, Erik of Pomerania; see Introd., p. xvii; KL, XX, cols 197-200. 3 Klaus Kniphoff commanded a fleet on behalf of the exiled Christian II of Denmark. In 1525 he was defeated off the mouth of the Ems by a Hamburg force; he and many of his men then went to the block for piracy. 4 A tradition from 1599 reports that a compass rose was cut on the top of North Cape, and an early seventeenth-century record says that one was cut on the island of Vinga, some 20 km off Gothenburg. 138

BOOK TWO

OM 2:ll(ii)

The vignette (used again before OM 19:28) illustrates the Pliny passage cited in the chapter. The two cranes flying with what look like candles in their beaks are not explained in the text, but they probably reflect a well-known Swedish saying: Tranan bar ljus i sang', 'The crane brings light to go to bed by.' (A less plausible explanation is given in KL, XVIII, cols 554-5.) The arrival of cranes in spring marks the advent of the season when it is not dark at bed-time, usually associated with Lady Day, 25 March. John Bernstrom, KL, XVIII, cols 555-6, suggests that the vignette is derived from two woodcuts in Hortus sanitatis, 1491 (animalia 116 and aves 59). He remarks that the 'men of some authority' who gave OM his information may have been 'not without a sense of humour'. 1 The precise meaning of OM's 'batalissus' ('bastions, battlements'?) is uncer­ tain. OM seems to have had the notion that the Greenland coasts are 'palisaded' by the sand-banks whose existence he infers from his erroneous interpretation of the first element of 'Gronland' as grund, 'shallow, shoal'. It certainly means 'green', however, as suggested by OM's alternative explanation. OM knew Ziegler, for example, who glossed the name as 'uirens terra', see Schondia, 1532, fol. 92r. 2 It appears that a legend of dwarves fighting cranes was known among Finns and Lapps. OM must have heard it and then been glad to confirm it from classical sources. 3 From Pliny, Nat. hist. , VII 2, 26. 4 From Solinus, X 11-16. The place-name Gerania is derived from Greek yfeoavos, "crane'. 5 See OM 19:28.

OM 2:12

The right half of the picture is found on CM, litt. E d, on the north side of Sognefjord beside 'Hornilla buk' (i.e. Hornelen, 896 m, south of the entrance to Nordfjord). 1 On the use of the lead cf. OM 12:19. 2 Quoted earlier in OM 2:9, with the right reference to Pliny, Nat. hist. , VI 24, 82. 3 The lake called Runn is immediately south of Falun. That it is bottomless has remained a piece of folklore to the present day. 4 Rundisvalia is identified as Havssvalget, the stretch of water outside BjorkoArholma and Gisslingp (off Norrtaljeviken, c. 80 km from Stockholm). It is not very deep, but in the Aland Sea to the north of it one of the greatest Baltic depths is recorded, 267 m. 5 Cf. OM 2:4.

OM 2:13

The picture is intended to illustrate the approach to Bergen. 1 OM is the first to mention these mooring rings. He probably thought vessels were moored fore and aft lying across the fjord. 2 See OM 10:11. 3 OM may not be referring to written accounts. Christian II, deposed king of Denmark, mounted an invasion of Norway (then under the Danish crown) in the autumn of 1531; his ships were dispersed by gales and several lost.

OM 2:14

OM had made the journey illustrated by the vignette, probably in the autumn of 1518. Cf. OM 2:15, 4:13-14. The route is the track (south of the main modern motor road) which goes by Skalstugan, north of Skalsvatten, across the Norwegian border to Sulstuen in Verdal, leading down to Levanger on Trondheimsfjord. Skars represents the gen. of ON skard, 'gap, notch, mountain pass'. The name is

139

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

thought to have belonged more particularly to the part of the track called Marraskalet close to Marraskarfjall. 1 On CM Vasterhus is marked just north of the crown estate on Froson (in Storsjon). In the first sentence 'manerio' is read for 'manerie' in OM. OM 2:15 The picture, partly based on CM, litt. E, shows travellers on the Verdal-Skalstugan route with the statue-like signposts described in the chapter. It was a well-trodden pilgrim route to St Olaf s shrine in Trondheim.

1 The Dovrefjell are properly the mountains between Tr0ndelag and Gudbrandsdal in Norway. 'Doffrinae alpes', 'Dovrine Alps', is from Saxo 8, VII 5 (tr. Fisher, p. 246). 2 Cf. OM 1:20.

3 Cairns of various kinds and posts were used as markers. OM's figures are reminiscent of harbour marks, sometimes cut in human shape. 4 Jonah 2; Daniel 3.

5 Cf. OM 1:12. The reference is probably to Herodotus, III 25-6. Procopius, VI 4, 29, speaks of Vesuvius, not Etna, and says that a fall of ash makes the land very fertile. 6 A reminiscence of Virgil, Georgics, II 458-9: 'O fortunati nimium sua si bona norint / agricolae.' OM 2:16

The vignette illustrates the chapter.

1 OM spoils his emphasis on lack of light in midwinter when he goes on to talk of oak bark, native only to S. Sweden. The luminosity he describes is caused by phosphorescent fungoid organisms. 2 Late Latin agaricus appears to be used as a general term for tree-fungus. 3 The use of such glimmers has been recorded in modern times in various parts of Sweden, though not in the north of the country. On threshing see OM 13:7.

4 Pliny, Nat, hist., VII 2, 12, speaks of a people in 'Albania' (eastern Caucasus) who see better by night than day. OM's source conceivably read 'in Taprobana' for 'in Albania', or his memory may have been at fault.

OM 2:17 Marta Hoffmann, 'Olaus Magnus og spinning av lin pa handtein', thinks the figure of the woman with the unspun flax tied to her head may have been contributed by OM's Italian draughtsman. While the Scandinavian habit was to have it on a distaff under the arm, the depiction here answers to Yugoslav practice as observed in the twentieth century, and presumably known elsewhere in Mediterranean countries. (On the other hand, she also notes that a source from 1601 shows that the same method was in use in Westphalia. Westphalians were numerous among German immigrants to Sweden in the fifteenth century, and conceivably they imported the practice for OM to observe in his years in Stockholm.) 1 See OM 20:5-6; 21:20-28. On means of lighting in general see KL, XVIII, cols 549-52; Gosta Berg, 'Tranlampor och sawekar'.

2 The word tran, like English 'train(-oil)', is a loanword from Low German; on its production and use see KL, XVIII, cols 549-52. The word lyse in this sense is not otherwise recorded in early Sw. but is known in dialects. It corresponds to the usual word for fish-oil in ON, lysi, 'that which gives light' (from adjective lidss, 'light, bright'). 3 See OM 19:48, though OM does not return to this particular subject.

4 OM is probably describing some kind of fireplace designed to give light rather than heat. 5 OM 1:19 and 28; 11:1-6.

6 Solinus, XLV 12, quoted by Vincent, Spec, nat., XVIII48; OM's comment on 140

BOOK TWO

the elephants is from Vincent, Spec. not. , XIX 43. Forms of Solinus are misprinted Solon- in OM. OM 2:18

The picture illustrates this chapter and the opening of OM 2:30 below. The rivers in spate are (above) Indalsalv in central Jamtland and (below) Ljungen in southern Jamtland and Medelpad. The spate now usually occurs about the beginning of May. On its effects and importance see e.g. Brink, Ortnamnen och kulturlandskapet, pp. 11-17. 1 The existence of local legends (see KL, VII, col. 87) probably contributed to OM's gratuitous association of the personal name, Une, common in Medelpad (and known elsewhere in Scandinavia), with the name of the Huns. 2-2 From Saxo 6, II4 (tr. Fisher, p. 163). 3 OM here quotes Pliny from Vincent, Spec, not., V 6. OM 2:19

The vignette, based on CM but with the three great lakes squeezed together and given a NW-SE axis, illustrates the chapter. The symbols are explained in the Latin commentary on CM and in Ain kurze Auslegung and Opera breve. The circles represent iron mines, the lozenges copper mines, and the rectangles silver mines. 1 Cf. OM 1:2, n. 5. Vanern is some 155 km long, 88 km wide. 2 Just inside the north outer wall at Lacko there is the so-called 'pork pit', a medieval shaft some 2 m in diameter and 27 m deep. 3 Tingvalla is now Karlstad. 4 OM uses Latin obolus. The penny was the smallest minted Swedish coin in OM's time, with 24 of them making one ore. 5 Vadstena was founded in 1370 by St Birgitta (c. 1302-73; canonized 1391). St Catherine (Katarina) was her daughter (c. 1330-81; papal sanction for her venera­ tion 1489). 6 Refers to meetings of the Estates in 1351 and 1448. 7 The Cistercian monastery at Alvastra was founded in 1143. St Bernard of Clairvaux was born in 1090, died in 1153. Motala, named only in the margin, is on the Vattern coast, 16 km north of Vadstena. 8 OM is the first writer to report that King Sverker was murdered with this weapon and in this place (probably V. Tollstad, just south of Alvastra). The tradition that he was killed by his ostler is first found in the regnal list included in the manuscript of Aldre Vastgotalagen, B 59 in the Royal Library, Stockholm, copied in the 1280s. For OM Lapponia, Lappland, represented the southern continuation of Biarmia, or of Finnmark and the land of the Scricfinns, described in OM 1:1-2 and 1:45. Cf. KL, X, cols 316-23. He appears to have made into one sheet of water the great lakes (some interconnected) that run NW-SE through Lappland: Rebnesjaure, Hornavan, Uddjaur and Storavan. Their total length is some 150 km but the lakes are at no point more than c. 20 km broad. 10 I.e. the White Sea. OM's form of the Finnish name is 'Pieuthen'. OM 2:20

The picture illustrates the chapter, with an impression of the Trollhatte falls in the Gota river and the robbers' cave on the left. The churches mark Lidkoping and Skara with its twin-towered cathedral. Cf. the vignette to OM 1:29. 1 On 'Italian' miles see OM 1:2, n. 5. The distance here is c. 30 km. 2 The name Trollhatten, 'the troll hood', was probably first applied to the fall itself, pictured as the flopping cowl of a water-troll, though it has also been seen as descriptive of the precipitous bank on the west side of it. See Karlsson, 'Ortnamn kring Trollhattefalien', pp. 124-7. Tjuvhalan, 'the thieves' cavern', disappeared in a landslip in 1922.

141

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

3-3 This passage is probably based on OM's recollection of provisions in Magnus Eriksson's National Law of c. 1350. 4 OM is apparently referring to Christian II's 'Law of wrecks and wreckage', issued in 1521 in 1000 printed copies. On the Irish cf. OM 2:8. In the Latin commentary on CM and Ain kurze Auslegung OM remarks on the small mercy shown by Kurlanders to shipwrecked mariners. OM 2:21

The vignette shows Arnas castle, viewed from the east, with a defensive boom laid in Vanern top and right background. 1 Cf. OM 1:36, ad fin. 2~2 From JMGSH, II 7, with 'or in all Europe' added by OM. The last sentence is verbatim from Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia I 3. Scarinus is an invention from the place-name Skara. In origin Skara is a plural topographic name, meaning 'edge, brow (of an incline)'. 3 Cf. OM 2:1. 4 Building began at Arnas in the twelfth or early thirteenth century; the fortress was razed not long after 1300. 5 Little is known for sure about the English missionary bishop, St Sigfrid. He was certainly not archbishop of York, as his Vita and OM report, and the date 955 is wide of the mark. He came to Sweden in the time of Ethelred II (978-1016), whose name is garbled above. Olaf 'Skottkonung' (the meaning of his eke-name is uncer­ tain) reigned from c. 995 to the 1020s. 6 OM is the only source to suggest that Sigfrid had an association with Arnas. His mission was in Vastergotland, where Husaby, which was ecclesiastical property throughout the middle ages, may have been an early donation, though JMGSH and OM here are the only sources that say so. 7 OM has this material on St Sigfrid's companions, left in Varend where they were martyred, from the Vita, but the 'adulterous woman' is an addition. Vaxjo cathedral is dedicated to St John the Baptist. 8 See JMGSH, XVII20. OM 2:22 1 Kindaberg, now Kinnekulle, and its 'garden' are pictured before OM 1:29. 2 The summit of Kinnekulle is c. 263 m above Vanern, 307 m above sea-level. On 'Italian' miles see OM 1:2, n. 5. 3 Strabo, XII 3,15, referring to Themiscyra in Cappadocia. OM2:23 The vignette, schematically derived from CM, litt. H, represents Oland seen from the east with seals and shipping in the foreground, the Smaland coast in the background, Kalmar to the left, Stakeholm near Vastervik to the right. 1 I.e. Smaland; cf. OM 1:31, n. 2. 2 On horses cf. OM 17:8,16 and 18. 3 Cf. OM 9:44. 4 See OM 18:1.

5 Oland churches that have a central tower probably served as strongholds in the middle ages. Oland also has numerous hill forts (Ismanstorp and Graborg are best known), most probably from the beginning of the Vendel Period (c. AD 550-800). 6 OM is the first to record the folklore associated with Jungfrun, 'the Virgin', an island in the north middle of Kalmarsund (represented by the 'crowned' islet in the vignette). An older name for it was Blakulla, 'Black Peak', a name generally associated with witches' sabbaths. 142

BOOK TWO

OM2:24

The picture, based on CM, is of Gotland seen from the east. The Neptune figure is derived from Krantz, Wandalia, II20. 1 OM is describing Visby before it was sacked in 1361. 2~2 From Krantz, Wandalia, II 20, on Vineta (Wollin). 3-3 From Krantz, Wandalia, II 20, on Visby. 4 Cf. OM 10:16. The people who moved to the Wendish cities were the Hanse merchants. Visby, where the merchant class was largely of German origin, be­ longed to the Hanse League from 1288 to 1450-70. 5-5 From Jordanes, IV 25-6. He speaks of the Goths coming by sea to the place called Gothiscandza, identified as Gotland by JM and OM, probably following Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia, I 3. 6 Based on Paulus Diaconus, I 1-20 (cf. Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia, I 3), describing the emigration of the Langobards. They were settled in N. Italy by about 570. 7 OM here probably follows the fifteenth-century Swedish historian, Ericus Olai, in SRS, 11:1, pp. 120-1. Gotland was a bone of contention between Sweden and Denmark in the early sixteenth century; OM here makes his contribution to the argument. On King Albrecht and Queen Margaret see In trod., pp. xvi-xvii; on the Victual Brothers see OM 2:ll(i). The Grand Master of Prussia was the head of the Teutonic Knights, who had control of Gotland 1398-1408. ^ Adapted from JMGSH, XXIII2. Gotland belonged to the Linkoping diocese from the early twelfth century until 1570. 9 Cf. OM 10:16. The so-called Municipal Law of Visby was an independently developed code of civil, maritime and commercial law, widely used in the Baltic and Scandinavia. The earliest redaction is from the 1340s but it had much older roots in the seafaring and trading customs developed in Sweden and throughout Scandinavia in the Viking Age (the so-called Birka Law, ON Bjarkeyjarr6ttr). The civil law sections of the Visby code show more similarity to regulations of the Hanse towns, particularly those of Hamburg and Liibeck. See KL, XX, cols 164-8. OM2:25

The vignette shows Hango harbour, with heraldic shields bearing the devices of some of the leading noble families of Sweden. The royal three crowns are on the central shield, cf. e.g. the vignettes before OM 8:7 and 8:9; the lion to the right of it is the Gotaland badge, cf. paragraph three below. 1 Hango early became an important haven for Swedish-Finnish traffic and for Baltic shipping on routes between Denmark and Estonia. 2 The devices are cut on two bare cliff-faces; the oldest date found there is 1505. None of the bearings illustrated by OM is found among them. The custom of inscribing these rock surfaces continued to the nineteenth century. 3 St Erik, killed c. 1160, undertook a crusade to Finland in the mid-1150s; cf. OM 4:18. The reference to Krantz is correct. 4-4 From Franciscus Irenicus, IV 31, but not verbatim. The references to Metho­ dius and Plutarch are copied from there. 5 OM's 'in virenti sylva', 'in a green forest', is odd in heraldic context; Ain kurze Auslegung has a more natural expression, 'in aim greunen felt'. 6 See OM 7:6, 8:10. OM 2:26

The relevance of the illustration is hard to see. It is possibly an Icelandic scene, but whether OM knew of Iceland as a source of rock crystal, or perhaps of Iceland spar, cannot be told. 1 Psalm 147:16-17. 2 Hakon V Magnusson, 1299-1319. The sword is no longer known. 3 The same information recurs in OM 12:1. 143

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES 4 Cf. OM 2:2 (where the vignette shows a volcanic 'bomb')5 A known kind of seismic disturbance. OM 2:27 The picture shows the island Alvsnabben (properly Algs-, as OM gives it, 'Elkpromontory') on the right and probably Gubbholmen on the left, seen from the east. Musko is the land in the background. The peaks on the left-hand island probably depict OM's 'helmeted rocks'; cf. the first name he gives, Hjalmsnabben, 'Helmet-promontory'. The floe here, 35 km south of Stockholm, was the Swedish navy's chief base, only transferred to Karlskrona in Blekinge in 1680. 1 On the equation of the wild ass (Latin onager) and the elk see OM 18:1. 2 Cf. OM 12:19. OM 2:28 The picture is based on CM. It is a northern continuation of the scene before OM 2:27, showing the Stockholm approaches, viewed from the east. The city is in the top right-hand corner; the land on the left is Sodertorn, with Varmdd in the foreground. Cf. the shore marks with those in the vignette to OM 2:6 and the signposts on the mountain route in the vignette to OM 2:15. 1 Cf. OM 9:36. 2 Stendorren is a narrow sound north of Dalaro on the passage in to Stockholm. 3 OM's statement is not confirmed by any record; he was probably going by stories he had heard. 4 Cf. OM 2:29

The picture shows the rocky reefs described in the chapter. 1 Skerries south-east of Ido (off Vastervik in Smaland). Kristofer of Bavaria, king of Sweden 1441-8, was wrecked there in 1446. 2 On OM's return in 1517 from his years of study in Germany. 3 On the preceding cf. OM 7:9 and 24. 4 Cf. OM 10:7, 12:19. 5 Cf. OM 7:18. By 'my country's annals' ('patriae annales') OM may have meant oral rather than written reports. OM2:30

1 Cf. OM 1:14 and 16, 2: 18. 2 Skanninge means 'dweller(s) by the river Sken'. OM is probably right to associate the river-name with the verb skena, 'to run wild, gallop away'. 3 Tannefors is the name of falls in the river Siangan (Linkoping). OM associated the first element with Sw. tan (modern tand), 'tooth', but the etymology is uncer­ tain. 4 See OM 2: 18. 5 OM enjoyed the mountainous Trentino countryside. (He was in Trent 1545-7, 1551-2; see Introd., p. xxxiv.) In October 1545 he wrote in a letter: 'Hie etenim inter frigora, nives, glacies, grandines, vapores et pruinas bonum mini est esse, quia deliciae sunt patriae meae' (Buschbell, Briefe, p. 12). 6 OM returns to the theme of spate in Swedish rivers. 7 Cf. OM 10:8, describing the battle of Helgea, c. AD 1025. 8 OM does not return to these topics. OM 2:31

The vignette shows Braviken seen from the north, with Norrkoping on the right. The black blobs indicate iron mines but appear to be misplaced. On the 'crystal' stones depicted in the bottom left see the opening of paragraph two and OM 12:1. 1 The description is probably accounted for by the existence of various rock 144

BOOK TWO

configurations along the north shore of Braviken between Kvarsebo and Geta. It has also been pointed out that different stretches of the coastline here are named after parts of the body. OM may have put two and two together. 2 OM's text has 'lescunt'; it is taken to be a remnant of intended 'obsolescunt', 'grow stale1 . 3 Kettilberg, OM's 'Mons cacabi', is some 40 km south of Linkoping; it has a potlike hollow in its summit. 4 Cf. OM 12:1. 5 No deposits of rock crystal are now known in Ostergotland. 6 OM 13:49; cf. OM 7:3. 7 See OM 10:20. OM 2:32 The vignette illustrates the contents of the chapter, but the plants showing the presence of sweet water refer to the opening of OM 2:33. 1 Cf. OM 1:29-31. 2 Saxo 9, IV 25 (tr. Fisher, p. 287). 3 Cf. OM 1:30. 4 Ubbi was regarded as the eponymous founder of Uppsala (the first element of which is in reality the same as English 'up', as a topographic term meaning 'higher' or 'inner'); cf. JMGSH, I 5-7. On Scarinus cf. OM 2:21. In JMGSH, 1 8, Erik figures as the sixth king of the Goths. 5 Cf. OM 1:36. 6 Cf. OM 13:11, 26 and 2:33. 7 See OM 6:6. OM 2:33

1 All the preceding is from Cassiodorus, Var., III 53, who quotes Palladius, IX 89. Peder Mansson translates the same passage from Palladius in Bondakonst, 43-4. 2 Probably a reflection of OM's study of Dutch water engineering during his stay in Holland in 1527. Cf. OM 6:5 and n. 1 there.

145

This page has been left blank intentionally

BOOK THREE OF OLAUS MAGNUS THE GOTH, ARCHBISHOP OF UPPSALA, ON THE SUPERSTITIOUS WORSHIP OF DEMONS BY THE PEOPLE OF THE NORTH

PREFACE

I

am going to disclose the gross errors of the northern people in their worthless veneration of idols, which were brought in by the guile of demons after simple mortals had been led astray in antiquity; how­ ever, I see that it is particularly important for me to begin by writing something about this kind of worship in neighbouring countries, especially Lithuania, which has its place on my Gothic map. I must tell how the malignity and craft of the devil have for so many past centuries held that country imprisoned in frightful delusions (as indeed every other nation), until in recent years it has been summoned to the communion of the Catholic faith by the praiseworthy devotion and activity of the Polish king; and we must incessantly beseech the good God that it may perpetually remain there. 1 1 believe that Lithuania is called a Grand Duchy because it is especially abundant and rich in wax, honey, and herds, and is notable for its valuable pelts; also because it contains horses that are mettlesome and vigorous in battle. Again it is notable because it has often overcome the Tartars, Muscovites, and Vlachs in bitterly-fought battles and led them away in triumph. Notable too because, freed now from the worship of demons, it could become greater still, especially if it maintains a genuine agreement with the Poles; otherwise, if even a slight dissension should arise and is not checked, it could be reduced to a negligible power or to servitude. 2 Nor is the duchy of Finland, subject to the king of Sweden, by any means small. Adorned with royal title and authority, this land too was once spellbound under its reverence for demons. It is three hundred German, or Gothic, miles long and sixty broad.3 In its southern region this duchy of Finland was united about four hundred years ago with the 147

Lithuania, worshipper of idols

Lithuania a Grand Duchy and the reason for it

Duchy of Finland

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

neighbouring worshippers of Christ through the military might of the kings and the preaching of the bishops of Sweden. 4

CHAPTER ONE

On the superstitious worship of the pagan Lithuanians Albert Krantz Matthew of Miechow Divinities of the Lithuanians Fire Fire a living beast Forest Virgil

Kings burnt or hung up when dead Serpents Thessalians

Norway Varmland

A

BERT Krantz, the reliable German historian who achieved re­ nown about 1500, and after him Matthew of Miechow, the Pole, maintain that during the time of paganism these Lithuanians, as long as they were held by the errors of heathendom, revered three main divinities, fire, woods, and serpents. 1 Fire, because it features in every sacrifice, or because they had been led astray by Persian custom and thought that fire itself was a god, as we read in Herodotus; or through following the belief of the Egyptians, who were persuaded that fire was a living beast, eating up everything that was born and, when it was glutted with what it had consumed, dying along with the very thing it had devoured. 2 3Woods they thought holy and, again like the Egyptians, held that all animals which lived in them were gods;3 as the poet states: The gods, too, have dwelt in the woods. 4 Led on by this persuasion and in order that their kings and princes should either become gods or be raised up among the deities, many nations burned their dead bodies with fire or suspended them with solemn rites in forests and groves by a golden neck-chain, as if by such sacrifices they might earn praise for a crime and gain divinity for their pretended god. 5 6Moreover they worshipped serpents as sacred creatures, provided they were seen to harm no one, believing them to be the guardian gods of the house,6 like those which the Thessalians bury in a lofty mound, as Hero­ dotus affirms in Bk II. 7 Yet though these superstitious rites appear to have been utterly removed, remnants of them still persist through the instiga­ tion of demons in some lonely houses in remote parts, as for instance in the northern realms of Norway and Varmland.8 However, we read that the Lithuanians, whom we are discussing, were cleansed of that impious error in the year of Our Lord 1386, for then, 148

BOOK THREE

according to Matthew of Miechow, their mighty prince Jagiello with his eight brothers attained to the faith of Christ, in which that people con­ tinues steadfastly to this day with increasing devoutness. 9 The historian I have just mentioned records also that on the borders of Lithuania and Russia a statue has been set up by the public highway, which in that country's language is called Zlotababa, meaning 'the little old woman of gold'. Individual travellers seek to propitiate it with certain small presents, even if they are worth a mere trifle. 10 Otherwise they imagine they will have no safety in the journey they have undertaken, just as I said above in Bk II, Ch. 23, about the Virgin Island. 11 Albert Krantz bears witness to the same thing in his Wandalia, along with other awesome wonders. 12

Jagiello with his eight brothers converted to the faith, 1386 Zlotababa

Virgin Island Wandalia

CHAPTER TWO

On the superstitious practices of those who live beneath the Pole

N

OR is the very farthest part of the North, which most men think uninhabitable because of the intense cold, free from sacrilegious rites and devotion to evil spirits, which must be offered at set times. For those savage peoples, like other nations in the world which seem more civilized than they, have good reasons for seeking and main­ taining a common delusion and seeing a false godhead even in paltry objects. 1 They worship the sun, which shines upon them during the whole course of the summer, giving thanks to him for bringing light to oppose the darkness which they have endured, and warmth to dispel the im­ measurable cold; and however unbearable darkness and cold seem to be, they never reproach or curse them as certain Indians do, but say only: These cold spells are silly and foolish, and the darkness is excessive, etc.'2 For a similar reason they worship the moon, because in winter when the sun has withdrawn they make constant use of her light; and when, at the time of the new moon, this light is absent, they carry on whatever business they may have, even their daytime activities, under the bright stars, which 149

Men beneath the Pole worship the sun Cold is not cursed Winter silly Moon

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Red rag

Concept of red Ships daubed red Red herald Shrewd man Combatants are pleased to die with handsome show Colour red belongs to dukes Romans Ethiopians

Birds Animals Stag-beetle

Scarab dung-beetle Egyptian gods

Gods of the Greeks, Persians and Romans Augustine

Image of God in all

glitter more brilliantly owing to the whiteness of the snow; this topic I shall consider later in Bk IV, Ch. 6. 3 Moreover, those races that live under the Pole are ridiculed by an even more senseless deception of the demons: they venerate with earnest prayers and elaborate ceremonies a red rag suspended on a pole or spear, thinking that it contains some divine power because of its colour, which resembles the blood of animals; similarly, they suppose that by looking upon this rag they will be luckier in hunting down beasts, whose blood they quaff, as I shall describe below when I deal with the customs of the Lapplanders. 4 Now this conception of the colour red as bringing calamity to an enemy was observed in ancient times. It is confirmed by Herodotus in Bk III, for he says: 'By an ancient ordinance all ships were daubed with red ochre, etc.,' and he justified this from a Delphic oracle which declared that ships were a wooden army on the march and that they would have a red herald, who by this indication would be distinguishable from their other foes; and a cunning man must assist them to take note of the army of wood and the red herald. 5 Pliny too, in Bk XXXV, Ch. 7, says of colours displayed by fleets that it delights the combatants to sail towards death, or at any rate towards bloodshed, under a handsome appearance.6 Perhaps this is observed also in Germany when, if they have been de­ tected in some remarkable crime, a red cloth is put beneath peers and magnates when they are executed.7 Vopiscus also will have it that red is the distinguishing mark of ducal rank. He says also that Roman triumphs were dignified by the colour red and that the Ethiopians mark their holy days in the same way. 8 It is a custom among some peoples of the North that, whatever living thing is seen at dawn in sky, earth, or water, shall be faithfully revered as a divine spirit until twilight of the same day, as, for instance, birds, animals, fish, even snakes and worms, and especially the stag-beetle.9 They accord honour to this last-named as one of the nobler specimens of creeping things because of the horns with which young men adorn their heads, in the same way that 10the Egyptians venerate scarab beetles, which roll up little balls of dung, as Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny bear witness. These authors also say the witless Egyptians attained such a degree of madness that they thought the cow sacred, and that the croco­ dile, dog, sheep, wolf, satyrs, fish, lion, he- and she-goat, mouse, spider, cat, hawk, and ibis were gods and worshipped them with particular sac­ rifices, adducing reasons which are not in the least valid, though they themselves believed them. 10 That these gods, or rather demons, were superstitiously worshipped by the Greeks, Persians, and Romans no one who has read their writers and chronicles can fail to be aware. Augustine, for example, records it amply in many books of his City of God, and he is not ashamed to acknowledge the truth of ancient history and religion so that, by exposing the filthy ceremonies and practices of devil-worship, he may encourage everyone to know and love the one true God, in whose image all human beings have been created. 11 150

BOOK THREE

The men of the North I have been speaking of, in order not to appear empty-handed in the sight of their deities, also deliver certain offerings comprising the bones of wild beasts and of great whales and fishes they Bones of have hunted. However, they do not burn these bones in the summer animals months, in case they should seem to mock the light or heat of the sun, but, when the fearsome winter comes on, they consume them with fire at a public assembly to mark certain festival days, imagining that by such a sacrifice they are paying due respect to their deities. So great is the superstitious regard of these tribes for paltry things. Nor is it imputed as a fault if any person worships the gods in whatever way he can. For example, people may seek a favourable omen by means of grain, ground and salted, if they have no incense, as Pliny writes in his letter to Titus Salted grain Vespasian. 12 Of these modes of worship, too, Augustine writes much and to the point in Bk VIII, Ch. 23, etc.

CHAPTER THREE

On the three greater gods of the Goths

D

URING the period when the ancient Goths were pagans, as my most dear brother and predecessor, Johannes Magnus, archbishop of Uppsala, distinctly states at the beginning of his History, they had three gods who were honoured with deepest reverence. Three gods Of these the first was the mighty Thor, who was worshipped sitting in the middle of a cushioned couch, flanked on each side by two other deities, Odin and Frigga. Thor, they say, rules in the air, thundering and lighten­ Thor the thunderer ing, controlling winds, clouds, and fair weather, having under his care all the fruits and crops of the earth, and removing plagues. The second, Odin, meaning 'the strong one', holds sway over wars, affording men Odin the warrior help against their foes. 1 2He was set at the right hand of Thor himself, and his reputation was of such splendour that all peoples cherished him exactly as if he were a light granted to the world, and there was no place on earth, as Saxo testifies, which did not submit to the might of his Frigga the godhead.2 3Frigga, the third, regulated peace and pleasure. Her image peace-maker 151

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

also shamelessly flaunted its sex and for this reason was worshipped among the Goths as Venus was among the Romans; she keeps Friday, Venus Frigedag Venus's day, sacred to herself even into our own times. She was painted with a sword and a bow: these weapons meant that in those lands either Each sex armed sex was always perfectly ready to take up arms. Thor, however, was depicted with a crown and sceptre and with twelve stars, since people 12 stars thought there was nothing of equal worth that could be compared to his grandeur. He held jurisdiction over one day in the week, and indeed over Torsdag the first month of the whole year, which we now call January.3 4Odin is certainly sculptured in arms, as Mars was among the Romans by a similar superstition of the heathens, and he took for himself a day which has been Odens dag dedicated to his memory for all time.4 5Since in his lifetime he attained the honour of godhead throughout Europe because he yielded to none in the art of war, men believe this is why the Goths maintained (as Dio the Greek, Ablabius, and Jordanes testify) that Mars, whom antiquity re­ Mars, god of garded as the god of war, was the first-born among them, as the poet also war states: Father Gradivus, guide of Getic arms. The Goths always sought to appease him with the harshest rites, that is to He is say with the death of their prisoners, supposing that the presider over wars appeased with human was more fitly appeased with human blood. 5 In return they learnt from blood him the whole business of waging war to such perfection that, in conquer­ ing the most powerful empires of Europe and Asia, they gained for themselves the highest accolade for valour.

CHAPTER FOUR

On three lesser gods Three lesser gods

B

ESIDES these three gods several others were also worshipped, who, as Saxo says, after winning possession of simple folk's minds by their skill in some marvellous trick of jugglery, laid claim to the rank of deity. For not only the Goths but all the northern provinces too were encompassed by them in nooses of idle credulity, excited with zeal to 152

BOOK THREE

pay them worship, and, worst of all, defiled with their derisive contamina­ tion. The effect of their deception became so prevalent that the other nations, revering a divine power in these impostors and thinking them to be gods, or confederates of gods, offered solemn prayers to such inventors of sorceries and devoted to sacrilegious error the regard which properly belongs to sacred beings. Among them was one Methotin, eminent in the magic art, who secured for himself an exceedingly high reputation for a grandeur that was purely imaginary. By report of his skilful trickery he led astray the minds of ordinary people and induced them to submit idolatrous offerings to him. Since this man was the chief priest of the gods, he so distinguished and regulated sacrificial rites that a particular form of worship and libation was celebrated for each of those on high, for he asserted that offences done to the gods could not be atoned through oblations shared by all or with mingled ceremonies. His crimes were at length discovered and he was killed at a public assembly, but after his death he destroyed a great number of people with the pestilent infection from his corpse, until he was dragged out of his grave-mound and impaled upon a stake, as his vain­ glorious illusions deserved. Freyr, too, a deputy of the gods, had his seat not far from Uppsala, where he changed the ancient custom of sacrificing, followed by so many peoples for so many centuries, for a dismal and abominable expiation; initiating the slaughter of human victims, he ren­ dered foul offerings to those above. After he had finally been translated to the company of the gods, black victims were slain on his behalf because he was held to be the god of blood, and banquets of the gods and nocturnal games were dedicated to him whenever the annual feast days came round, as once they were at Rome to Dis and Proserpina. 1 Vagnhofthi and Hading were worshipped with no less honour because they were believed to be prompt in bringing special aid during bitterlyfought wars. It was thought that, because during his life Rostiof the Finn had been foremost in the carefully-thought-out study of divination, he was removed after death to the society of the gods. 2 ^o these may be added Rostar, whose incredible savagery so desired to be appeased with offer­ ings of human blood that his worshippers would dedicate to him the souls of those whom they were about to destroy. 3 Finally there were thought to be several other sons of the mighty Thor or of Odin, who were granted divine honours by the people and deemed worthy of public sacrifices. But the cunning methods by which these and their like acquired such a godly reputation and worship may be seen below in Bk V, on giants and champions, towards the end of Ch. 1. We have also the evidence of Augustine about the divine breed of such gods, in Bk HI, Ch. 4, of The City of God.4

153

Solemn prayers Methotin, a sorcerer

Priest of the gods distinguished sacrifices

He is killed and impaled on a stake Freyr of Uppsala

Foul offerings God of blood

Vagnhofthi Hading Rostiof the Finn Rostar

Sons and grandsons

Augustine on divine breed in The City of God

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER FIVE

On the chastisement suffered by the lesser gods Controversy between gods of Goths and Byzantines Byzantine gods more famous for crime

Power of infamy harms the community

Religion is held a mockery

Penalty everlasting or varied Ten years' penalty

With arts of pretence

T

HERE arose in those days a great controversy between the gods of the Goths and those of Byzantium as to which should pronounce or carry out the penalty of correction upon the other if an offence deserving punishment were committed when one of them deviated from proper conduct. *If, in fact, the Gothic gods were ever discovered to have stained their divine lustre by some act of abominable villainy, the Byzan­ tine gods, being the greater (through the fame of their crimes rather than the merit of their virtues), had the authority not only to expel them from their guild of deities but to drive them from their place of eminence, strip them of their local honour and worship, outlaw them, and afflict them with other sufferings. Tradition has it that they quite often exercised this privilege with severity, thinking it preferable that the power of some infamous god should be demolished than that a nation's religion should be violated by any instance of sacrilege, and fearing that they might find the penalties due to another's crime transferred to themselves. Indeed they discovered that, when crimes of their fellow gods had been commonly reported, worshippers of their own godhead had substituted scorn for obedience and mockery for divine worship; holy rites were held to be a profanation and regular, solemn ceremonies were valued no more than stage plays. So, by removing those and putting others in their places, they showed by this very act that they were gods and kings with the power to create and to demote. Such a penalty did not always last for ever but, according to the degree of the fault, one might be of a month, one of a year, one of three years, and some of ten years or even longer. When the penalty had been paid, the gods took compassion on the rigour of their banishment and the exiles came back to the glory of their former splendour, especially when the intervening period had purged them of the stain of their former disgrace. It also happened sometimes, as Saxo tells us, that those who by their arts of pretence or other unseemly activities were prevented from recovering the divine honour which they had lost, or from winning it afresh (partly by 154

BOOK THREE

fawning on the chief gods, partly by appeasing them with bribes), pur­ chased the state of supernatural majesty and at the price of a huge sum of money gained access to honours for which they were in other respects quite unfit. If you wish to know how much they paid for this, ask those who have learnt the price of a godhead. 1 However, you ought to know that what Tertullian wrote about the household gods is true: "Those who gave the most tribute were held to be the most holy; and indeed those who were the holiest gave the most tribute, for they were not allowed to be gods for nothing.'2 3One ought not to think it marvellous that the estimation of such gods should have been so high in this nation of ours when, among the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the most judicious men of all, the Romans, these ignoble creatures of myth were venerated and dignified with temples; such were Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and Mercury, as Augustine affirms at length in Bk VI, Ch. 9, of The City of God. He declares that they had once been mortal men, more criminal than even the Gothic gods, that their tombs were known, and that the whole of their former life had been crammed with foul, disgraceful acts.3 Lactantius says, in Bk I, Ch. 10, that Apollo was a debaucher and murderer; Mars an adulterer and cut-throat; Castor and Pollux the most sorry ravishers of all; Mercury a rogue, thief, and trick­ ster; Jupiter was the killer of his father, who was very old but did not look for death, and, beyond that, a seducer and one who even committed unnatural adultery.4 These, then, are the gods whose statues and estab­ lished reputation are venerated to this day in exalted courts with a more than religious veneration. Pliny too, in Bk XXX, Ch. 11, records that with strange rites a great part of Egypt worshipped the scarab beetle as one of its deities, which rolls together little balls of dung. Strabo also states in Bk XVII that these Egyptians paid homage to the dog, cat, mouse, and other animals, whose foul corpses they would have done better to shudder at.5

155

They are reinstated through flattery Unsuitable

persons rise

by payment The greater the contribution, the holier

Gods foul, disgraceful, and known by their tombs Apollo a debaucher, Mars an adulterer & cut-throat, Castor & Pollux ravishers, Mercury a rascal Jupiter a parricide, seducer, and adulterer Scarab Dog Cat, mouse

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER SIX

On the sumptuous temple of the northern gods

S

A temple stood at Uppsala in the time of Ninus River Sala

Glittering with gold Golden chain

Religious grandeur Evergreen tree of unknown species

A spring

INCE almost the whole world was once deluded everywhere with innumerable superstitions at the instigation of devils, I have thought it fitting here to indicate plainly in what localities the Gothic (or Swedish) and northern people, led astray by pagan superstitions, submit­ ted to their crazy idols, so that it may be understood that, just as there were many kinds of demons, so there were many places where the people offered worship that was quite unwarranted. A temple (which my dearest brother and predecessor, Johannes, Lord Archbishop of Uppsala, men­ tions in Bk I of his History), famous since the time of Ninus, stood by the River Sala, where today the seat of the primate and archbishop of the Swedes and Gotar lies. 1 2This they so revered, erected as it was in rich magnificence, that you could have seen no part of its inner walls, panelled ceilings, or pillars that did not glitter with gold. The whole roof, more­ over, shone with gold, and it is recorded that a golden chain hung down from it to encircle the whole temple including the outer walls and tops of the building. Hence it came about that the temple, situated on a wide plain, with its shining splendour implanted in any persons approaching it an awesome sense of religious grandeur. At its doors stood a huge tree of unknown species, with wide-spreading branches, and leaves green in summer and winter alike. 2 Yet it was not among the kinds of tree which include bay, olive, palm, and myrtle, for these are seen to be green from a property all their own. Indeed, in the North no olive or bay tree has ever been observed to grow, except as a small shrub on display at Vadstena. 3 4Close to the temple there was a spring that gushed out into the sacrificial area, of which I shall soon say more below. 4 Let this be enough to enable foreign nations to understand something of the falsity of such rites among the Goths. It is now proper for me to turn again to the people of the North and show them that it was not only they who were enmeshed and deluded by this meaningless belief. In the matter of evergreen trees we find Pliny giving much information in Bk XVI, Ch. 20, but most of all he writes at 156

BOOK THREE

some length in Bk XV, Ch. 29, about the shrine of Quirinus, that is, Romulus, saying that there were two myrtle trees before the temple of Venus itself, which were endowed with qualities of prediction; one of these was called patrician, the other plebeian. For many years the patri­ cian tree was the stronger, luxuriant and fertile, while the plebeian tree languished. As long as the senate prospered the former flourished, but the plebeian tree was parched and sterile. Afterwards, however, the latter grew stronger and the patrician tree drooped during the war with the Marsi; meanwhile the authority of the Fathers became feeble and gra­ dually their dignity withered away to barrenness. An ancient altar had also been dedicated to Venus Myrtea whom they call Murcia. 5 6In the multiplicity of their superstitions the ancient pagans certainly set up the most splendid temples to other deities, who, none the less, they were aware had been human beings; in Egypt, for example, there was a temple to Serapis, and one to Isis, who came from Greece and taught letters to the Egyptians. Besides these there was another temple in Crete erected to Jupiter, whom they called Optimus, though he had been incestuous in his family and licentious among strangers; he was depicted in the shape now of a ram, now of a bull, now of a boy, now of a swan, now of an eagle, now of a serpent, as though he were furnishing a model and evidence for all the filthiest vices. Elsewhere at Rome there also existed a temple of Romulus, or Quirinus, where there was a very ancient statue of a she-wolf offering her teats to be sucked, the tasting of which was later followed by fratricide. 6 Among the Latins there was a temple of Faunus, which foretold the future by certain signs, not with the voice. 7 Again there stood a temple of Minerva at Athens, then at Samos one to Juno, and one to Venus at Paphos, not to speak of innumerable other temples set up for idols. The huge magnificence of Diana's temple at Ephesus Pliny shows plainly in Bk XXXVI, Ch. 14, yet the same author, in Bk II, Ch. 7, ridicules the wretched pride of all mortal beings, which is so heartily subservient to countless obscene monstrosities, whose images are even carried on their finger-rings. 8 They so contract themselves to these that they love neither marriage, children, nor, in the end, anything at all, except at the behest of suchlike gods. Others, when their affairs are going well, honour Fortune for caressing them, and yet damn her with horrible curses if fate turns against them; so it happens, as Isidore says in Bk VIII of his Etymologies, that, where truth lies dormant, there is room to invent any falsity. 9 But it was quite infamous to build temples to gods whose characters were such as no human being could ever decently imitate. Here, however, I must bear witness to the fact that by God's favour, in that place, namely Uppsala, at all times but especially on 19 May, 10 Catholic ser­ mons on our holy religion are preached to an almost limitless congregation, in the presence of the king, the princes, and nobles of both sexes, and all this where once so many godless impurities and abominations were practised, together with the slaughter of men, including even dear relatives and friends. 157

Quirinus and Romulus the same Two pro­ phetic trees Patrician Plebeian

Ancient altar Splendid temples To Serapis and Isis To Jupiter in Crete, who was incestuous, lewd, and impure Romulus or Quirinus Statue of a she-wolf Temple of Faunus Of Minerva Of Juno Of Venus Of Diana Wretched pride of mortals

Differences in worship

Change of divine homage11

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER SEVEN

On the rites and sacrifices of the Goths Reverence for the number nine Pythagoras's philosophy

Nine kinds of living creatures Nine days' festival A man

Man hung up Kings sacrificed

Goths were admirable students of philosophy

A

one time, as is recounted in the History of the Swedes and Goths, Bk I, Ch. 12, 1 the number nine was particularly esteemed in the sacrifices of the Goths, perhaps because the philosophy of Pytha­ goras, which they had learnt from Zamolxis and Diceneus,2 instructed them that an odd number should be set before all others. And, though they paid weekly and daily the most exalted adoration to their own gods, yet every ninth month, by way of offering more solemn reverence to these very gods, they devoted nine days to dispatching sacrifices with due religious observance. On each separate day they offered up nine kinds of living creatures, to which they also added human victims. Then, after this nine-day period, in a solemn gathering of the whole kingdom a vast number of the inhabitants would go to see the temple at Uppsala which I have described; and there, at a nine days' festival and with an appointed number of sacrifices, they slew victims to the gods at the altar. 3 Now the man whom chance had presented for immolation would be plunged alive into the spring of water which gushed out by the sacrificial precinct. If he quickly breathed his last, the priests proclaimed that the votive offering had been auspicious, soon carried him off from there into a nearby grove, which they believed sacred, and hung him up, asserting that he had been transported into the assembly of the gods.4 As a con­ sequence he thought himself blessed when he left the company of the living by being slain in this way. Sometimes it occurred that even kings were chosen by lot in similar fashion to be sacrificed, and since this was considered to be an offering most favourable for the kingdom, the whole mass of the people would attend such an eminent victim and wish him utmost joy. To be sure, they were convinced that those who died in this way had not perished at all but were immortal no less than themselves.5 They traced this belief chiefly from Zalmoxis, Zeuta, and Diceneus, as Dio, Ablabius, Jordanes, Strabo, and others affirm.6 These writers also report that the Goths in many respects were admir­ able students of philosophy; Consequently they had assumed a belief in 158

BOOK THREE

the immortality of the soul, for, as Herodotus says in Bk IV, they did not reckon that they died themselves and said that those who had lived out their lives departed to some other, pleasanter place. Here, they solemnly asserted, a god Bleyxis was ruler; and to him, apart from performing the ritual set out above, they constantly sent, in a boat propelled by five rowers, some emissary chosen by lot from among themselves, giving him instructions which would enable them to obtain their needs from the generous deity. The way in which the emissary was dispatched was as follows: certain of them held a number of sharp spears pointing upwards, and others, seizing the hands and feet of the man who was fated to be sent, threw him on top of them; if in his fall he was killed at once, they imagined that the god was well disposed to them, because he had received their emissary without demur; but, if the outcome was different, they blamed the emissary himself for being a wicked man and unworthy of being appointed to visit the gods. So he was cast aside and they set about sending another, giving him orders while he was still alive, which he must follow when he came into the god's presence. After he had expired by being thrown on the spear points in the manner I have related, they delivered his corpse to the sea's abyss with the help of the five oarsmen.7 What delusion, what pathetic deception, to worship a deity that is appeased by men's deaths, as Cassiodorus says in his Letters* Strabo writes similarly in Bk XI9 and Herodotus in Bk IV. Pliny too, in Bk III, Ch. 25, declares that, when they saw a comet, the Romans believed that the soul of Caesar was being set among the stars, and so the comet was worshipped in a temple at Rome. Pliny also brings forward several reasons in Bk XII, Ch. 1, for the worship of gods in a grove. 10

CHAPTER EIGHT

On the superstitions of the Goths about thunder

M

OREOVER they attended so steadfastly to the worship of their gods (as is also noted in the same History of the Goths and Swedes, Bk I, Ch. 12),* that, when a great booming arose in the

159

Goths believed in immortality Bleyxis Five-man boat Way of sending an emissary to the god

A wicked man

O wretched delusion Comet was worshipped at Rome

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES They thought they helped the gods with arrows Hammers of Jove Claudian thunders

Use of hammers ceased in 1130 Magnus, king of Gotar Horses were sacrificed at the altar Horses' heads

Womanish acting Kinds of offering

Pagan priests Archflamens Flamens Dancing priests Augurs Equal power of Kings and high priests

Cap-wearers and Devout, from whom kings were chosen

clouds, they would discharge arrows from their bows into the air to show that they were willing to bring aid to their gods who, they thought, were at that moment being assailed by other gods. 2Not content with this unthinking superstition, they had hammers of extraordinary weight, which they called the hammers of Jove, surrounded with a great mass of copper and held in great reverence. These they used, like the Claudian thunders and other common means of imitation, to bang out the same noises as those in the sky, which they believed were set going by hammers, and in copying with this great din the powerful sound of a smith's tools, they thought they had quite conscientiously assisted in the wars of their gods. This use of the hammers of Jove lasted until the year of Our Lord 1130, when Magnus, king of the Gotar, full of zeal for Christian teaching and loathing pagan superstition, held it his pious duty to deprive the temple of its ceremonies and Jove of his marks of honour. Magnus was for many years therefore regarded by the Gotar as nothing less than a sacri­ legious plunderer, who took for his spoil what belonged to those on high.2 3The Goths also, as they were about to march into battle, used to sacrifice horses at their altars. They cut off their heads and set them up on poles, made them gape by inserting blocks between their jaws, and carried them before their line of battle. Not only did they offer sacrifices before a war but also immolated victims after they overcame their enemies, and performed splendid plays in honour of the gods, in which they presented womanish movements of the body, the clatter of players on the stage, and the tinkling of little bells or the clashing of bronze cymbals. 3 They would specially enact these and other extraordinary kinds of offerings so that with the help of the gods they might avoid being overcome in any violent warfare. So great was their affection for weapons and so great their constant practice with them that they thought no other human accom­ plishments could in any way be compared with the soldier's art. Different ranks of priest had charge of these rites: high priests, archflamens, flamens, dancing priests, and augurs. Of these the first, the high priests, were granted a power equal with the kings and such authority that, if they advised or ordered any course, then, as though the utterance had sounded from heaven, the king and the whole people carried it out promptly and cheerfully. They taught much wisdom to the people, selected the priests, and made the religion secure. Dio the Greek testifies that in no age had this people lacked chief priests to educate them in practical knowledge. Among them were high priests of a more distin­ guished kind, whom they called the Cap-wearers and the Devout. From these they elected their kings and priests, as Jordanes describes at greater length, for he says that they were called Devout, and, in order to appease the gods, used to go out of the city gates with harps and white robes to meet their Gothic kinsmen when they were returning in triumph.4

160

BOOK THREE

CHAPTER NINE

On the assault against the gods

T

HEY sank to yet another folly and superstition, for, if the gods did not favour or assist them in their warlike forays, they aimed weapons of different kinds against heaven, thinking that they could subdue it and, by threats or intimidation, compel the gods to do what they demanded. While they carried out this useless activity, they thought that they themselves on earth were no less powerful, terrifying, and awesome than those situated above or in the underworld. Such men, however, take no note of the ancient proverb of the Gotar: 'Do not cast a pole against heaven, for a thicker club will be hurled back.'1 How foolish it is to be so presumptuous Augustine must be called on to testify, when he states in Bk X, Ch. 11, of The City of God that, when Hercules was taking his ease among the people of Locri, he ordered the god to restrain the chirping cicadas. 2 Herodotus, in Bk I, tells how Croesus acted in much the same way when he sent men from Lydia, ordering chains and shackles to be fixed to the threshold of the Delphic god's temple and a threat to be delivered because the god was not showing him favour. He received the answer that he could not escape his appointed lot, for it behoved him to atone for the crime committed five generations earlier by his great-great­ grandfather, who had killed his own master through guile. When he learnt this, he acknowledged that it was his own fault, not the god's. So also King Pheros was struck blind because he committed the outrage of flinging a spear into the midst of the Nile's eddies as they were rising to a height of over twenty-seven feet. So Xerxes, when his immensely long bridges of seven furlongs had been broken by a great storm, commanded in a violent rage that three hundred lashes be dealt to the Hellespont and a pair of shackles be thrown into that sea. Lastly he sent messengers with further orders to brand it and to strike and buffet it with their fists, speaking wild, insane words which went something like this: 'O bitter water, your master imposes this punishment upon you, because you have injured him who deserved no evil from you. Yet Xerxes crosses you, whether you wish it or not; you deserve no sacrifice from any mortal, crafty and ill-natured flood 161

Threats are made idly against the gods

A club for a pole Hercules orders gods to remove cicadas Croesus

Fifth generation from greatgreat­ grandfather is punished King Pheros Xerxes Bridges 7 furlongs

long

Three

hundred

lashes,

brandings, and blows

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES He ordered the overseers to be beheaded 360 biremes and triremes 314 anchors

Sons of Noah built the Tower of Babel after the Flood

that you are.' He even proceeded to order those who had been in charge of building the bridges to be beheaded, rewarding them for their great labour with unwelcome wages. Indeed, to avoid suffering a similar penalty, other builders joined together three hundred and sixty biremes and triremes on the side towards the Black Sea and held them steady by making them fast on the other side with three hundred and fourteen enormous anchors and cables.3 I purposely wanted to have the account of these amazingly long bridges brought in here, in case it is perhaps required of someone, as a matter of need or convenience to devise a method of crossing channels and rivers. I think, too, that I should not omit Josephus's testimony at the beginning of his Antiquities', he tells how after the Flood the sons of Noah wished to make a covenant to stand together, so that a deluge from God might not sweep them away a second time, should they be separated from each other as their peoples multiplied. It was for this reason that the building at Babel was begun, with the intention that the power of Heaven might be fended off by the combined forces of mankind.4

CHAPTER TEN

On the sister Fates and the nymphs Temples of Diana and Ceres

Nymphs

Ti

IHERE were, besides, in the lands of the North a number of temples consecrated to Diana and Ceres, and shrines of the sister Fates built by some magic art without human aid. JMen of old, wishing to consult the oracles of the Fates about their children's futures, came habitually to these sites to make their solemn vows and entreaties. When they looked into the sanctuary they perceived seats, sometimes three, sometimes more, occupied by nymphs, of whom some would grant boys a noble figure and abundant favour among men, others would present them with exceptional generosity or other virtues, and lastly, others of a more capricious nature, eager to spoil the gifts of the others, would attach to the future character of the boys the fault of meanness or some other defect. 1 It was not only boys, but even those more advanced in years, and 162

BOOK THREE

sometimes kings, who are known to have been tricked by such magical deceptions; ^or when H0ther, king of Sweden and Denmark, was out hunting, he went astray in a mist and found himself a great distance away from those who were setting the snares. He came upon a cabin belonging to wood-maidens, who greeted him by his name, and he in turn asked who they might be. They gave him to understand that it was chiefly by their guidance and influence that the fortune of wars was directed, and told him they had often invisibly taken part in battles and by their secret support furnished desired successes to their friends; in fact they said they were able to procure victory or inflict defeat as they pleased; and they urged him not to engage in combat with Balder, since he had been born from the mysterious seed of the gods. When he had heard this, H0ther suddenly found himself left without the cover of the tumbledown shelter, aban­ doned in the open air, and alone in the middle of the open fields with nothing above to protect his head. He was especially amazed at the swift disappearance of the maidens, the changeable aspect of the scenery, and the deceptive appearance of the shrine, for he could not tell what had taken place all round him. Had it been merely a trick and empty decep­ tion, contrived by magic?2 'Eventually, when several years had rolled by, this same H0ther, worn down with bitter fighting, wandered off through remote, unfrequented terrain. He passed through a grove unvisited by mortals and chanced to light on a cave inhabited by unknown maidens. It proved that they were the same who had once presented him with an impregnable garment. When they asked him why he had come there, he replied that it was the unfortunate outcome of war, and, cursing their bad faith, he began to bewail the misfortune that had accompanied his ventures and his melan­ choly experiences, complaining that things had fallen out very differently for him than the goddesses had promised. But the nymphs said that, although he had seldom come off victorious, he had nevertheless inflicted equal devastation on his foe and had wrought no less carnage than he had suffered himself. However, he would defeat them if he could first seize upon the food with which it was planned to increase his enemy's strength; then he would see everything follow according to his wishes. With these words he was dismissed, after which he restored his own forces and recruited soldiers against the enemy. When he, ever watchful, was spying on his adversaries' camp one night, he saw three nymphs come out bearing a mysterious banquet. He ran after them, since their footsteps in the dew showed the way they had sped, and came at last to a building which they often frequented. By playing to them with surpassing sweetness on the lyre, in which he had great skill, he obtained from them a highly-polished belt and a girdle which was powerful in bestow­ ing victory. He returned by the way he had come and met his enemy, whom he laid low on the spot with a mortal wound, so that on the next day he was dispatched to Proserpina, whom he had seen standing by his side in his sleep. 3 163

King H0ther

Power of the nymphs

Balder

Changeable aspect of the place A trick

Unfre­ quented grove Impregnable garment

Equal loss is inflicted on enemy Food

Footsteps in dew Girdle of victory Proserpina

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER ELEVEN

On the nocturnal dance of elves, that is, spectres

T Grim dance of ghosts

Virgil

RAVELLERS by night and those who stay alert to watch their flocks and herds are often encompassed by monstrosities of various kinds. Of these Saxo of Sjaelland has sung as follows: A savage choir of spectres hurtle along the wind, raising their deafening howl to the stars. Satyrs and fauns, horned and hoofed, with wrathful gaze fight alongside the ghosts. Here too flock bird-headed fiends pressing their way, deadly ghouls and witches together, furies bound forward, with them devil-gods thronging, jostled by the hell-hag and baboon-faced demons. 1

Virgil writes about similar beings in these words: And you, Fauns, who are ever present to countrymen2

Ovid

And Ovid: I have demi-gods and nymphs, rustic deities; though as yet we grant them no honourable place in heaven, let us allow them to inhabit the domains assigned them. 3

Horace

Horace has: Faunus, lover of the fleeing nymphs, move nimbly over my lands and sunny fields.4

Atlas Solinus Dances of Aegipans

5Other people call this god a satyr. Pomponius Mela writes that beyond Atlas, a mountain in Mauretania, lights have very often been seen at night, and the clashing of cymbals and the melody of piping heard, but by day no one has been discovered there. Solinus declares the same thing in Ch. 38, where he says, The mountain thunders on all sides with the dancing of Aegipans, that is, men with goats' feet.' In Ch. 44 he also 164

BOOK THREE

mentions satyrs, and the Himantopodes, who are supposed to be strapfooted, showing the ridiculousness of blind pagan beliefs.5 It is therefore considered a certainty that such fauns and satyrs are like those supernatural beings which, in many places within the northern regions, especially at night time, habitually dance round in a circle, with all the Muses singing in harmony. After sunrise they can sometimes be detected by their footprints in the dew, as was done by King H0ther (as we saw from Saxo in the previous chapter), who followed the three maidens to their cave and obtained from them the girdle and belt of victory. Sometimes, it is true, they press so deep into the earth in their leaping that the area they constantly use is worn away in a ring by the extraordinary heat and grows no new grass on its parched sod. 6 This nocturnal play of supernatural beings the natives call 'the dance of the elves', and this is their belief about them: that the souls of people who devote themselves to bodily pleasures (becoming as it were their ser­ vants), giving way to the incitement of their lusts and profaning the laws of God and man, assume corporeal form and are whirled about the earth. It is reckoned that among them are numbered those who still in our own age customarily take human shape and apply themselves to the service of men by working during the night and tending horses and beasts of burden, as I shall describe below in Ch. 22 of this book, on the services performed by demons. 7

Satyrs Himanto­ podes Fauns

Belt of victory

Dance of the elves

Belief in punishments Familiar spirits

CHAPTER TWELVE

On fighting against evil spirits

S

INCE antiquity bears witness that various monsters and sorcery of innumerable kinds once appeared through most of the world, that is to say, ghosts, devils, satyrs, phantoms, eagle-headed demons, night hags, witches, spirits, and the hordes of Pan, by which men were shame­ fully deluded through false blandishments, or with unspeakable terror and mangling were cruelly snatched away to their ultimate doom, I did not think I should remain silent about the contrivances and weapons with 165

Ghosts Devils. Satyrs Phantoms Eagle-headed demons Night hags Witches Spirits. Wood creatures

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

which the peoples of the North would oppose spectres of this sort. For tradition has it that celebrated fighters among the Goths often strove in single combat with monsters and beasts of uncommon savagery, either to set weak men and women at liberty or for the sake of testing their own valour, and they took care that no beast should be attacked by a larger band of comrades than the custom of brave men allowed. 1 Ragnar, 2Ragnar, the champion who became king of the Swedes, spent a whole king and night struggling against the most repulsive gangs of nocturnal monsters, champion launched against him by his step-mother, Thorild, a most cruel woman; Thorild and when daylight had been restored he realized that the shapes of various phantoms and figures of extraordinary appearance had fallen all over the fields, among which was to be seen the form of Thorild herself, covered with numerous wounds. By doing this he achieved fame for his physical prowess and wrested his father's kingdom from his enemies.2 3Apart from this, a certain Broder, together with Buchi and King Broder Buchi Gorm, possessed of unusual boldness and wishing to cultivate the heredi­ tary Gothic spirit by tracing and investigating the phenomena of Nature, set out on a route fraught with every kind of danger and almost impass­ Impassable route able for mortal men. Sailing the Ocean that surrounds the world, putting Ocean that the sun and stars behind them, and journeying beneath the realm of night, surrounds the world they came at last to those regions beyond the land of Biarmia, which are subject to perpetual darkness without a glimmer of light (as I demon­ Band of strated in the first chapter of Bk I). Here they fought with an unbelievable monsters band of monsters. Indeed, hurling darts on every side, they assailed the phantoms that were attacking them, and with bows and slings crushed the regiment of apparitions, as Saxo, historian of the Danes and the most King Gorm careful investigator of ancient happenings, tells of King Gorm in Bk VIII. 3 King H0ther 4A story is brought into the old accounts of how H0ther, son of the king of Sweden, being listless with the worries on which his mind was fixed and Mimming lying awake at night, struck with his spear at the satyr Mimming whose shadow fell across his tent. Mimming was prostrated by the thrust and had not sufficient strength to flee. H0ther held him fast in chains and at last, after threatening him with words of the utmost violence, demanded the Armlets sword and armlets which he knew the satyr possessed. Mimming was not slow to hand over the required ransom in return for his safety. Life comes Life dearer so much before all other things, and to a mortal creature there is nothing than all else dearer than his breath.4

166

BOOK THREE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

On divination

T

O complete the above picture and title satisfactorily, I ought first to quote the words of the Catholic doctor Chrysostom, who says in a homily: 'There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, etc., that there exists no creature which so much desires to know the future as man does, etc.' 1 2Having considered this we shall have to admit also that there has never been a nation so polished and so learned, or indeed any so wild or barbarous, that it did not systematically forecast the future, trying to understand and predict it from certain tokens.2 This especially applies to people in the North, who I find were preoccupied with learning how to prophesy the future, since they thought that by the flight of birds, the leaping and noise of fishes, music wafting from the mountains and the ejection of vapour from them, future events were made known by signs that were quite definite.3 Neither war nor public business, either at home or on campaign, was carried out without first taking auspices. 4 The skilled practices of soothsayers and diviners, aeromancy, geomancy, pyromancy, necromancy, and over and above these, impressive dreams, should any of them appear to concern the state, were accepted and approved by the chief rulers. 5When King Hading was about to wage war against Locher, lord of the Kurlanders, Odin prophesied to him that he would be taken prisoner, and this occurred exactly as he had foretold. Gevar, the king of Norway, was so skilled in divination and so practised in the prescient art that he foresaw whatever was being undertaken against him in Saxony, even though his home was in Norway, more than a hundred German miles away. 5 6When Gorm, nicknamed the Ungodly, had his mind relaxed in sleep, he imagined that his wife gave birth to two birds, one bigger than the other. Hovering in the air, they soared swiftly to the heavens, but after a very short time returned and sat upon his hands, one on each. A second time, too, and a third, when they had refreshed themselves with a brief rest, they spread their wings and entrusted themselves to the air; but eventually the smaller one came back to him without its companion, its feathers daubed with 167

Man desires to know the future

People of the North They know the future by many signs

Training of soothsayers

Odin Gevar, king of Norway

Gorm Two birds born

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Two sons

Magnus, king of Norway

Eagle is killed The king triumphs King Valdemar King Sven Bj0rn

King Fridlef

Roman books Attila Stork Augurs

Monk

blood. The true meaning of this dream was made clear in the following manner: Gorm's two sons, after subduing the English, the Slavs, and the Irish, lived a life of prosperity and good fortune until the elder died during a war, so that the younger, bereft of his brother, seemed to bring back his wings smeared with blood. 6 7When Magnus, king of Norway and Denmark, had fallen asleep during the night that preceded his war with the Slavs, the apparition of someone moved about before him in his sleep and foretold that he would overcome his enemy, saying that he would gain an omen and confirmation of his victory from the death of an eagle. When the king had woken up he proclaimed the sequence of events in his vision, to everyone's great amazement. Once the army had marched forward, he observed nearby the eagle he had been shown in his dream. Galloping rapidly towards it, he aimed his spear and forestalled the bird's escape with the flying missile. As a consequence the army seized upon the augury and, snatching the first opportunity of waging a battle, fought with the same outcome as had been forecast, and vanquished the enemy. 7 8It is said that when the army of King Valdemar was marching off to war, such numerous flocks of ravens flew among the ranks that many of them sped to their death on the upright spears of the soldiers. King Sven and his whole army were overthrown by Valdemar and lay scattered for the ravens to tear apart; in this way they demonstrated the outcome of the omen. 8 9When Bj0rn, a famous fighter, with a chosen band of champions had captured an island which was defended by an encircling river with a very swift current, he dreamt that there issued from the waters a beast which, ejecting terrible flames from its jaws, set everything in a continuous blaze by the following dawn. King Fridlef, passing over the furious swirling river, consumed with his sword all the champions except Bj0rn and brought the form of his dream to its due completion.9 These few out of many possible examples have been adduced so that the auguries, revelations, and omens of the North may be compared with the ancient books of the Romans, in which it was laid down that any bird might give an omen, and on it should depend whether a war be under­ taken that day or postponed. 10 Pliny has parallel types of surmise in Bk II, Ch. 31, and Procopius in Bk III affirms the same of Attila, who, if a stork was seen carrying her chicks away from a wall, would himself retreat. 11 There are also highly skilled augurs in these northern lands who, by the flight and cry of birds, meeting with wild animals, and similar occurrences, know how to foretell many events, as I shall relate below when I write on birds. 12 The belief of these augurs, which came to birth in ancient times, has become an article of faith among men in later ages. Those who refuse to confess their sins declare that it is an unlucky omen to see a monk or priest.

168

BOOK THREE

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

On the magic arts of Erik Windhat and others

T

HIS Erik, a king of Sweden, was held in his time to be second to King Erik none in magical skills, and he was on such good terms with evil spirits, devoting most of his time to their honour, that in whatever direction he turned his hat the desired wind at once blew from that quarter. From this circumstance the name Windhat was given to him. Windhat Many believed that it was under the guidance of this Erik that the Danish king, Ragnar, his uncle, successfully carried his piratical expeditions to King Ragnar the farthest parts of the world, where Erik's cleverness enabled him to subdue many provinces and well-fortified cities, and in the end it was through his nephew's co-operation that the nobility unanimously voted for his appointment to the Swedish throne. He enjoyed a long and propitious reign before he eventually died of old age. 1 2There was another Erik, surnamed Emune, who had resolved to go on Erik Emune a voyage. In a dream one of the sailors saw himself riding over wild mountain ridges on a rather mettlesome horse, which broke into a faster gallop and pitched him down into dark depths among the valleys, and there a flock of owls tore him to shreds with their talons. The following Owls morning he related his story jokingly to his shipmates, but the king, who was as familiar with divination as with magic, forewarned by the vision, which seemed to point to danger, gave orders that he himself should be conveyed to a different boat, since he had no wish to have that sailor as a travelling-companion; and whereas his associates perished, the king's vessel sailed safely to its destination. 2 We have it on Saxo's authority that after the Danish monarch, Frothi, King Frothi had treacherously murdered his own brother Harald, the guardians of the king's nephews, Harald and Haldan, wishing to save these innocent boys from a brutal death, kept them in an underground cave disguised as Young puppies and fed them there, devising various fabrications to suggest that princes' cave they had been devoured by wolves in the night. Frothi, however, refusing with to accept the report of their deaths, set a skilful female soothsayer to Witch powerful discover their hiding-place. Such was the force of her spells that she could spells 169

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

apparently summon to her grasp a far-away object visible to her alone, however intricate a string of knots it was tied with. This woman affirmed that a man named Regni had been bringing them up under cover, and to maintain secrecy had given them the names of dogs. When the boys perceived that they were drawn out of hiding by the potency of her uncanny spells and were being pulled under the enchantress's gaze, to avoid having to surrender themselves to such a terrible and powerful compulsion, they dashed into her lap a shower of gold, which they had King's sons are freed by received from their guardians; on receiving this present she suddenly gold affected to be sick and fell down as if lifeless. When the king's servants sought the cause of such a sudden collapse, she said that it was impossible to investigate the boys' escape because some extraordinary force influ­ enced the outcome of her most formidable incantations. Thus she con­ Great peril is avoided at tented herself with a small reward and ceased to expect a greater one from small price the king. 3 So by these and similar proofs one may grasp how greatly skill in divination and the magic arts was revered in olden days. This is now Divination is neglected and destroyed through a kind of indifference, the result of neglected, replacing that ancient skill by observing auspices, taking auguries, inspect­ and reason why ing entrails, fire-gazing, examining water and tracks,4 and a thousand other sacrilegious practices devised by the deceits of wicked spirits. None the less, certain kinds of divination are performed to this day, though at the same time the principles of natural phenomena are recognized. We also cast lots, throwing two, three, or more spills of wood into a vessel, so that by their colours, white, brown, or red, people's inheritances may be apportioned. 5

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

On sorceresses Hagberta, a polymorph

H

OW proficient some women among the people of the North once were in magical skills I shall show by means of a few instances. Hagberta, daughter of the giant Vagnhofthi, could change the 170

BOOK THREE

shape of her body as she pleased, giving extraordinary appearances to her size: sometimes she would dwindle to a small, thin, shrivelled object, at other times she would swell to huge proportions. At one moment she would be tall enough to reach the sky, then contract into a person of dwarfish dimensions. 1 She was believed able to bring down the heavens, hang up the earth, solidify springs of water, melt mountains, lift ships into the air, bring low the gods, put out the stars, and light up the underworld.2 3When King Hading was at dinner, another woman who was skilled in the same art, carrying stalks of hemlock, was observed to raise her head from the ground near to a brazier and, extending the lap of her garment, to ask in what part of the world such fresh plants had grown in winter-time. As the king desired to know, she wrapped him in her mantle and vanished away with him under the earth. When she had shown him the wonders of the lower regions she at last restored him to the upper world. Kraka, a Norwegian woman, intending to provide for the future good fortune of her son Roller, prepared a dish of food, into which she let drip the putrid saliva of three vipers hanging above it from a slender cord. But Erik, Kraka's stepson, transferred the dish meant for her son, Roller, to himself; refreshed by this lucky meal, he came, through its inward work­ ings, to the highest pitch of human wisdom. Indeed, the food's potency implanted in him an abundance of every sort of knowledge, quite beyond belief, to the extent that he became versed in understanding the voices of wild beasts and domestic animals. Nor was he expert only in men's affairs, but could also interpret the way animal noises made sense and indicated feelings (see Pliny on a parallel case in Bk XXVI, Ch. 4, where he cites Democritus as witness). Moreover his conversation was so graceful and refined that, whatever he desired to discuss, he would at once adorn with a flow of proverbial wit. 3 4It was on this man's good advice that King Frothi vanquished a mighty army of Huns mustered with the help of a hundred and seventy kings. Eventually Gestiblind, king of the Goths, appointed this Erik to be his successor on the throne of Sweden; this took place at the time of Christ's birth. Somewhere on a seashore a witch who had turned herself into a cow attacked King Frothi with her horns and he fell dead. Guthrun suddenly blinded the fighting-men belonging to King Jarmerik and made them turn their weapons against one another.4 The picture above, in which a woman is seen pouring out the contents of a cauldron, shows that all witches use this kind of utensil, where they can boil down juices, herbs, reptiles, and entrails, and with such poisonous fare entice idle persons to follow their wishes; and, in accordance with the bubbling of the pot, they stimulate the speed of ships or riders or runners. What is more, they stick a horse's head on a pole, raise it up with its mouth gaping and teeth bared, and place it opposite a camp of soldiers to arouse their fear;5 furthermore they add incantations, so that a complete army appears to be drawn up in line of battle, bent on the immediate destruction of their enemy. But then, as for the power witches have to darken the moon's beams, raise tempests, uproot trees and plants, and 171

Marvellous power of magic

King Hading Fresh plants in winter­ time King led under the earth Kraka What the spittle of vipers is seen to bestow

Sounds and feelings of brute beasts are understood Erik the Eloquent King Frothi Gestiblind Witch, turned into a cow, kills king with her horns Guthrun Innumerable effects of pouring out cauldron Horse's head

Power of witches

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Virgil

enfeeble cattle and horses, I let these matters alone, well known as they are to everyone who closely investigates these pointless activities, and quote the familiar lines of Virgil: This witch I have seen draw down the moon from heaven and lead the sown crops into another field. 6

Augustine Castor and Pollux

Cassiodorus Sorcerers to be punished

As we do not know the merits of such beings, we frequently wonder at God's judgments; this is a topic on which Augustine discourses at length in Bk VIII, Ch. 19, of The City of God and elsewhere. We also have the testimony of Lactantius, who affirms that, in the Latin war, Castor and Pollux were seen washing the sweat from their horses at the lake of Juturna, and during the Macedonian war the same twins, riding white horses, are said to have appeared to Publius Vicinius, who had come to Rome by night, and to have proclaimed to him that King Perseus had that day been conquered and captured; a few days later this was verified by a letter from Paullus.7 Cassiodorus, however, in Bk IX, urges us to take total vengeance on enchanters when he says: 'It is wicked not to chastise sorcerers, whom Heaven's justice does not allow to go unpunished. What sort of folly is it to abandon the creator of life and prefer to follow the originator of death?'8

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

On the wizards and witches of the Finns

T

Britain

HE picture above displays succinctly the power that wizards and sorcerers have to influence the elements, when they have put spells on them either by their own hand or by another's in order to regulate the natural order and make it milder or harsher. I would first like to say this: that Finland, the northernmost land, together with Lappland, was once during pagan times as learned in witchcraft as if it had had Zoroaster the Persian for its instructor in this damnable science; yet the other peoples by the Ocean, too, such as the Britons (as Pliny certifies in 172

BOOK THREE

Bk XXX, Ch. I), 1 were said to be bewitched by this madness, so franticall does the whole world, having much the same attitude to this and similar evil practices, indulge in the art of sorcery. There was a time when the Finns, among other pagan delusions, would offer wind for sale to traders who were detained on their coasts by off­ shore gales, and when payment had been brought would give them in return three magic knots tied in a strap not likely to break. This is how these knots were to be managed: when they undid the first they would have gentle breezes; when they unloosed the second the winds would be stiffer; but when they untied the third they must endure such raging gales that, their strength exhausted, they would have no eye to look out for rocks from the bow, nor a footing either in the body of the ship to strike the sails or at the stern to guide the helm. 2 Those who have scornfully proclaimed there is no such power in the knots have suffered greater misfortune and this they deserve, for all those who consult wizards and seek prophecies or omens for doing their business are always uneasy and, eager for what is to come, are never at rest between fear and expectancy. If the seers announce good fortune, they begin there and then to rejoice in an empty, groundless hope, yet if they hear the opposite, they are seized at once by a melancholic apathy. Alas for wretched mortals! The feebleness of their talents and the dullness of their minds drag them hither and thither and keep them in uncertainty. Crazy indeed are the proofs which our credulity has devised so that we may be all the more cruelly tormented. If only such a fiction would depart from men's minds, since it has even been shown by our forbears to be false and insignificant. But through the restraint of the law these people of the North have never, since the acceptance of Christianity, been seen to practise magical skills openly; nor have they passed it on and taught it to others, on peril of their lives. It is a pity that it cannot at some time be based not on fabrications but on genuine principles and then transmitted, as Pliny says in Bk XXX, Ch. 2, but the whole expertise of magic rests upon the most deceptive foundations. 3 With deep reasoning, therefore, Pliny writes a marvellous tirade against Nero, who in the vicious depths of his mind and with his utmost being aspired to this science and favoured it above all others in order to gain power enough to give orders to the gods. Since this chapter of mine makes special mention of winds and gales, it is fitting to refer to Ch.2 of the same book where the author tells how the well-known sorcerer, Tiridates, came to Nero, bringing with him a retinue to celebrate the triumph over himself in Armenia, thereby laying a heavy burden on the provinces. He had been unwilling to come by ship because he considered it wrong to spit into the sea, or to profane that element in other ways through the natural human functions. He had brought magicians with him, and initiated Nero into their feasts. Nevertheless he was unable to acquire the art from Tiridates, nor would he ever have done so, even if he had signed and sealed his authority over to him. 4 5Again Sivald the Swede, a rival of King Haldan, 173

Whole world of one mind Finns Wind for sale Three knots 1.2.3.

A fiction to be repelled Sorcery restrained

Magic relies on deceptions

Nero

Tiridates

Nature is profaned The art is dear to magicians

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES 7 sons of a king, skilled in magic Great violence of magicians Herodotus 400 ships

had seven sons, who were so skilled in the practice of sorcery that they were often infected by sudden powerful fits of madness and would emit savage roars, bite at their shields, swallow down live coals, and walk through any bonfire; these passionate bouts of frenzy, once they had got a grip, could not be moderated except by chaining them rigorously or offering them a human victim for slaughter.5 Herodotus gives testimony in Bk VII to what I declared above about winds being sold; he says of Xerxes's chief officers that during a three days' gale they lost four hundred ships until on the fourth day the magicians curbed the gale by cutting themselves with knives, charming the wind with their spells, and sacrific­ ing to Thetis and the Nereids; or else this gale ceased to blow for some other reason.6

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

On the magical implements of Bothnia Northern magicians

Champions Women

Huge force of charms Means of conjuring or demonstra­ tion

A

ONG the Bothnian people of the North wizards and magicians were found everywhere, as if it were their particular home. 1 By their immense skill in deceiving the eye they knew well how to disguise their own and other persons' countenances with different appear­ ances, and to render their true features unrecognizable by means of deceptive shapes. 2Not only champion fighters but women and delicate virgins would at a wish borrow from the thin air masks that were horrify­ ing in their livid foulness and faces marked with a pallor not their own; then again they would dispel the mist of cloud that had overshadowed them and dissipate the darkness that had extended before their faces, to make them bright and clear once more.2 It is well established that there was such great force in their charms that, however far away a thing might be and however intricate the knots with which it was trussed up, they made it visible and ready to hand.3 They demonstrate their hocus-pocus as follows: anyone desiring to know the condition of his friends or enemies who are between five hun­ dred and a thousand miles distant overland makes a present, for example, 174

BOOK THREE

a linen garment or a bow, to a Lapp or a Finn adept in this business, and asks for a test to be carried out to discover where his friends or enemies are and what they are doing. The wizard then enters a room, satisfied to have with him his wife and one other companion, and strikes over an anvil a prescribed number of blows with a hammer on a copper frog or serpent; muttering spells, he spins this way and that and, suddenly falling, is caught in a trance, in whch he lies for a short time as though dead. Meanwhile the companion I mentioned guards him very carefully against the touch of anything alive, whether it be a gnat, or fly, or any other creature. For by the power of his spells his spirit, led by an evil demon, brings back from far away tokens (a ring or knife) that his embassage or errand has been fulfilled. Rising up instantly he reveals these tokens, together with all the other relevant details, to the person who has engaged him. They are also said to be no less potent in destroying men with various sicknesses; for they make short magic darts of lead, about the length of a finger, and launch them over any distance they like against folk they seek vengeance on. These, infected by a cancerous growth in the leg or arm, die within three days in agonizing pain. 4 5People also remember the illusions or sorceries inflicted on the men of Halsingland, whose prince, Vitolf, deprived those he wished of their sense of sight, so that they could neither catch a glimpse of their houses standing close by nor find their way to them with a sure tread; so skilful was he in impairing the use of people's eyes by a deceptive mist.5 6Visinn, too, a fighter of extraordinary reputation, had the habit of reducing the edge of all weapons to a state of bluntness merely by his glance. Nevertheless he perished by the sword of the Swedish giant, Starkather, of whom I shall speak later. The latter always kept his sword covered with a very fine skin, which is reckoned to be the only antidote to this power of dulling the blade.6 Yet no art or spell can deaden the force of stones hurled vigor­ ously and prevent them causing injury. 7

175

A room

Evil demon leads Ring or knife, tokens of an errand carried out Leaden darts They die stricken by cancer Vitolf of Halsingland blinded his Visinn, the fighter Starkather A fine skin is useful against men who blunt swords

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

On sea-wizards Holler

Odin He crossed the seas on a bone Nothing prevails against death Oddi the pirate

Cruel to merchants, kind to farmers Drowned at last in the deep

A

ONG the other powers of the North a magician named Holler was also revered, who, as much by his deceit as through their extraordinary superstition, arrogated to himself the prestige of divinity and worship among these people fascinated by mysteries. He attained a grandeur among the gods equal to that of Odin and achieved such fame in his use of weapons and conjuring that instead of a ship to cross the seas he employed a bone, which he had engraved with fearful spells, and on this he skimmed over the waters in his path as speedily as he could have done with wind-filled sails. In the end, in order that his godhead might be proved mortal, he was destroyed by his rivals with a most ferocious form of death. 1 2Oddi, the Dane, a great pirate, was so learned in the arts of magic that, roaming the deep sea without a ship, he often capsized enemy vessels through the tempests which he stirred up by his incantations. Therefore, to avoid stooping to a trial of strength with pirates at sea, he would cause the waves and winds to rage by means of his sorcery and induce them to wreck his foes. This man was as cruel to merchants as he was indulgent to farmers, having one opinion of the purity of country life and another of the squalid ways in which men gain their money. This man, too, possessed the marvellous ability of blunting steel by a spell, but eventually he was outwitted by an enemy more skilful than himself, and he who was once accustomed to walk over the churning seas by chanting his cunning spells was drowned in its flood.2

176

BOOK THREE

CHAPTER NINETEEN

On these same magicians and others like them ATER, Odin, one of the greater and older wizards, used his King Hading magical illusions to make a shameful mock of one Hading, king of deceived ^ Denmark, snatching him far away from his friends and kindred, and then returning with him on horseback to his own country and people over the empty expanses of the sea. When Hading was being brought back, with intense amazement he kept casting keen glances through the slits in the mantle under which he hid trembling, and observed that the waters lay stretched out beneath the horse's hoofs; when he was forbidden to look at what was not permitted, he turned his astonished gaze away from the terrifying view of his journey. I shall speak next of Hakon, a King Hakon prince of Norway; when he was about to fight against the Danes, he raised a pelting storm by magic and so beat upon the heads of his enemies with a freak bombardment of hailstones that their eyes were assailed, as it were, Hail by sharp arrows from the clouds and utterly deprived of the power of sight, with the result that they felt that they were having a harder fight Harder fight with the with the elements than with the enemy. Moreover, when the men of elements Biarmia, who are near neighbours to the Arctic Pole, intended to fight in the North against that most powerful king, Ragnar, they assailed the Ragnar heavens with charms and impelled the clouds they had stirred up to a tempest of the utmost violence. Then the storm suddenly abated and the Danes were scorched by a furnace of raging heat. These two wicked extremes of weather following one upon the other broke the men's King is deprived of constitutions and robbed them of victory. 1 But this strife and others like it health and among the men of Biarmia, Finnmark, and Scricfinnia has been described victory above at greater length, in the first and following chapters of Bk I. However, in the most recent centuries all persons of either sex found guilty of this perversion have suffered the sharpest penalty, punishment by fire, as often as the need arose;2 for in Christian times no one has been permitted to dabble in magic, as Cassiodorus recalls in his Bk IV on the edicts of Theodoric, king of the Goths, who desired that the laws should Theodoric, king of the not allow offenders to escape. 3 Moreover, in Bk IX there occurs this Goths Athalaric, decision of Athalaric, another king of the Goths: sorcerers, or any who king of the have trusted to obtain something from such men's impious deeds, are to Goths be punished with the strictness of the law; it is wicked for those to be condoned whom Heaven's justice does not allow to go unpunished, as I observed earlier in Ch. 15 of this book, and people who have taken part in these forbidden enormities must bear the statutory penalty.4

177

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWENTY

On the bound magician Lake Vattern Visingso island Cavern

Gilbert, the bound wizard Kettil

Crafty advice

Punishment of the inconsider­ ate

Labyrinth of Daedalus

A

ONG the Eastern Gotar is a very large fresh-water lake called Vattern, 1 about which a good deal has been said above, with a pleasant, longish island at its very centre, containing two parish churches; under one of them is found a cavern, immeasurably deep, with a long underground entrance and exit. Only for vain display and curiosity do men go down into this cavern, equipped with lighted lamps and balls of twine to enable them to find their way back. Their chief purpose in doing this is to gaze at a certain wizard named Gilbert2 who, by means of magic, from which sprang his own ruin, was in very ancient times overcome and bound fast by his master, Kettil,3 to whom he had ventured to be insolent. It was done like this: a small staff, engraved with certain Gothic or Russian characters, was thrown towards him by his master and when Gilbert caught it in his hands he remained fettered and unable to move. Nor could he free himself when he applied his teeth to it, for it was as if they were stuck together with an adhesive pitch, nor with his feet when, on the crafty advice of his master, he tried to use them. Although many would-be spectators of a heedless nature hasten with compulsive wonder to gape at him, they are not rash enough to approach too closely, in case their breathing should be hampered and their throats blocked by the stench of the cave's poisonous vapours, and they should die of suffocation. They are kept away also by earth walls and obstructions put up by local people, who fear that, scorning their own danger and acting insanely, these folk may go in never to emerge. As well as these precautions, care has been taken by passing a very strict law, like one that deals with people who have tried to commit suicide; it decrees that those who realize the dangers should not incite others who are unacquainted with them to go and examine this kind of spectacle, or take inside any whose appetites have been whetted, since it is very well known from many precedents that a large number of people have been endangered in that cave even to the verge of death. 4It would have been easier to penetrate and escape from that monstrous labyrinth of Daedalus in Crete, with its 178

BOOK THREE

roundabout routes and intricate comings and goings, with its multitude of doors leading to false exits and a return to the same wanderings, than to do so in this deep cavern with its tortuous paths.4 Strabo recalls something similar in Bk XIII, when he says: 'The Pluto­ nium is an opening on a small brow of the mountain that rises above it, large enough to admit a man and of amazing depth. There is set round this a square rampart enclosing about a quarter of an acre; this was erected because the hole is full of a thick, foggy vapour, so that people approaching the barrier can hardly see the ground. The air is harmless and free from that miasma when the winds are still, for it then remains within the surrounding rampart. But if an animal goes inside it dies at once. For this reason bulls that are led in collapse and are brought out dead. Sparrows too suddenly die; but gelded cocks approach unharmed, coming right up to look into the mouth of the cavern, and descend as far as they can hold their breath.'5 If anyone should have the time to enrich his experience of such sights even further, let him view the labyrinth of King Porsenna of Etruria; for, if he should enter this maze without a ball of twine, he has no means of getting out.6 Many similar stories about Gilbert might be introduced here, like that which, according to Vincent in The Mirror of History, Bk VI, Ch. 61, Helinandus tells of Virgil;7 but only a few words suffice to show that stupidity knows no bounds. Caves also exist quite deep in the earth to help men avoid thunderbolts.8 There are even buildings underground, such as appear to have been constructed by Zalmoxis, a man, or demon, among the Goths (see Herodotus, Bk IV), who lived long before Pythagoras; perhaps he did this so that, shut up there and then returning after some years had elapsed, he might pretend that he had gazed upon wonders in the world below.9 To this passage, too, might be added the well-known remarks of Justin and Solinus about the giant Typhon. 10 This island of Visingso, then, bears a high reputation as a pleasant and safe abode of kings who have afterwards died and been buried there. 11

179

Plutonium

Foggy vapour Animal dies immediately Gelded cocks unharmed Labyrinth of Porsenna

Caves Zalmoxis, a Gothic demon

Pleasant abode for kings

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

On punishment of witches Words of Vincent

Woman soothsayer and witch Pet raven

Wretched woman's confession

Conductors of punishment

I

N case you should think the witches of the North are brought in here merely as dismal spectacles, Vincent comes to my support in Bk XXV, Ch. 26, of The Mirror of History, where he affirms that an English-woman, having been deluded into practising magic, was, after cruel tortures and uttering horrible cries, snatched away into the air by demons. His words are as follows: 'At Berkeley, an English village, a woman who was a soothsayer and a witch was eating a meal one day when her pet raven, which she doted on, cawed somewhat more noisily than usual. When its owner heard this, her knife fell from her hand and at the same time her face grew pale. She heaved sighs for a very long time and said: "Today my plough has reached its last furrow. Today I shall hear of, and shall suffer, a great misfortune." While she was still speaking a messenger came to her saying: "Today your son has died and his whole household has met with sudden death." When she heard this she took to her bed, smitten with incessant grief, and ordered her surviving children, a monk and a nun, to be summoned. To them she said sobbing, "It has been my pitiable destiny always to have devoted myself to devil's work. I have been a sink of all iniquity and a mistress of enticements. I trans­ gressed the precepts of your religion and have despaired of myself. Now, therefore, as I know that I am to have my punishment superintended by the demons whom I took as counsellors in my sin, I beg you, by your mother's womb, to try to lessen my torments; as for my soul, you will not be able to repeal its sentence of damnation. Sew up my body, then, in a stag's hide and enclose it in a stone sarcophagus; bind the cover with iron and lead, and surround the stone itself with three great chains. If I lie like this undisturbed for three nights, you shall bury me in the ground on the fourth day, although I fear that the earth may refuse to receive me because of my sorceries. Let singers chant psalms for fifty nights, and for the same number of days have masses sung for me." Things were done as she directed, but to no avail. On the first two nights, when the choirs of clerks were intoning psalms round her body, 180

BOOK THREE

demons one by one easily smashed in the door of the church, which had been bolted with an enormous bar, and snapped apart the two outer chains, though the middle one, which had been manufactured with greater pains, remained unimpaired. On the third night, about cockcrow, the din of its foes advancing upon it appeared to shift the whole monastery from its foundation. One of them, taller than the others and possessing a more terrifying countenance, shattered the doors with huge violence and threw them down in fragments. He advanced with a haughty stride towards the coffin, called upon her by name, and commanded her to rise. When she replied, "I cannot because of the chains," he cried, "You shall be set free to your cost." At once, without any effort, as if it were tow, he burst apart the chain which had baffled the ferocity of the others, and kicked away the lid of the tomb; then, seizing her hand, he dragged her out of the church doors while all looked on. There, whinnying proudly, a black horse was standing ready, with iron hooks sticking out all over it. The wretched woman was set upon these and, with the whole lawless gang, vanished from the gaze of those watching. Yet her pitiful shrieks, imploring assis­ tance, were heard for almost four miles.' 1 The devil's sport which afflicted the unhappy folk of Riigen, in the city of Karentia, owing to their worship of demons, is told by Saxo in Bk XIV. Here, through the mockery of fiends, people were first invited to lewd conduct and eventually, in the very act of debauchery, were abominably punished on the spot. For in that city, when males called in women to lie with them, they used to cling to them in the way dogs do. And now they could not be pulled apart from them even after a long wait. In the meantime each couple was hung up against each other on long poles, and provided the citizens with a laughable spectacle because of this unusual conjunction. As a result of that unseemly marvel men began to pay solemn worship to base images; and it was believed that their power accomplished what had been sketched out by the evil tricks of demons,2 for such occurrences, as St Augustine testifies in Bk VIII of The City of God, are permitted, according to men's deserts, by the lofty and just discretion of God. It is fair, then, that these folk should be assailed by evil beings or even subdued and misled. Whoever neither desires a blessed life to come nor wants to lead a devout life now can practise such rites and seek an execrable death in the nether regions; and whoever wishes to have no companionship with malign spirits ought not to be deeply frightened by the baneful, superstitious acts with which they are worshipped, but should acknowledge the true religion, by means of which they are revealed and vanquished. 3

181

Demons broke down the door

Taller demon

Chain is broken Black horse Shrieks are heard for four miles Karentia on Riigen

Like dogs

Unseemly marvel Sketched out by evil tricks of demons Impious are justly snared by devils

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

On the services performed by demons

I

Demons inflict injuries

Those possessed by

demons

Demoniacs speak various tongues

Jerome Hilarion

N what I have said so far I have cited much patent evidence from sacred and profane writings on how demons become visible and are of service to human beings and, by playing tricks upon them in a thousand different ways, lead them by innumerable, inexplicable methods into various fallacies and perils; nevertheless I shall have to recapitulate in part the material I introduced in Bk II, Ch. 2, and other, recent chapters in this third book, namely, that in the regions under the Seven Stars, in other words the North (where in a quite literal sense the abode of Satan lies1), demons, with unspeakable derision and in diverse shapes, express their encouragement to people who live in those parts; and indeed they also do them injury, that is, by overturning their houses, killing their cattle, destroying their fields, and ruining their castles and watercourses in every way. It is superfluous to demonstrate to the learned and wise all these examples of demonic hoaxes, whether they are deeply concealed or more openly displayed, just as it is utterly useless to discover their full details to the inquisitive and empty-headed, who are satisfied by no reasons or authorities. None the less it has been authenticated, as was indicated by the passage I quoted in Ch. 3 of the preceding book, that spirits or ghosts appear to their friends, give them their right hands, and make known with groans and sighs where they are bound for.2 Until now it has been believed, and duly regarded as one of the greater marvels, that demons pay visits in the semblance of men who have been recently drowned in the waters of Iceland, or that the spirits of the dead come themselves. I must, however, make it clear that those possessed by demons speak in various tongues, but chiefly with the harsh sound of High Germany, even though it is six hundred miles from the lands of the North, and call by name whomsoever they wish, albeit with a muddled pronunciation.3 This is what the blessed Jerome affirms of a similar occurrence: that St Hilarion drove out from a demoniac a multitude of different devils, which answered in various voices, that is, one in Greek, another in Hebrew, another in Arabic, and all from one mouth, as has happened in other cases.4 It is not 182

BOOK THREE

wonderful or unusual that demons are seen, especially by holy men; we read this of Martin, who saw with his own eyes a devil sitting behind a prince and drove it away.5 For it is not enough for holy men to make use of heavenly powers, unless these powers can be clearly seen by other human beings with their own eyes. Indeed, it is known that even profane and heathen men have seen them: Plutarch, for instance, at the end of his Life of Caesar, recalls an anecdote about Brutus, Caesar's murderer; there appeared to him the terrifying image of a man, of unusual size and formidable appearance, who sat beside him on his bed. When he asked who it was, it answered: 'I am your evil genius. You shall see me at Philippi.' It appeared once again but said nothing. Later Brutus committed suicide by throwing himself from a steep hill onto the dagger with which he had killed Caesar.6 Saxo, too, in Bk XIV, tells of an incident that befell the armed Saxons. After a demon in terrifying shape had appeared on top of a mountain, they were destroyed by the Slavs, who took it to be the good omen they were praying for; encouraged by that portent, as though by the arrival of a leader sent from above, the Slavs, accepting it as an auspice of victory, unexpectedly attacked these Saxons and slaughtered them to the last man.7 END OF BOOK THREE

183

Operation of powers

Plutarch Terrifying image Evil genius

Demon seei

NOTES OM 3: Preface

»Cf. OM3:1. 2 A union of Lithuania and Poland was effected in 1386; cf. OM 3:1, n. 9. The Teutonic Knights in East Prussia were secularized in 1525. Albrecht, erstwhile grandmaster of the Order there, became duke and a vassal of the king of Poland. 3 See OM 1:2, n. 5. 4 Cf. OM 4:18 on the conversion of the Finns to Christianity. OM3:1 The vignette illustrates the chapter. The top part is based on CM, litt. I k. The man in the bottom right corner is reminiscent of Hans Holbein the Younger's illustration for Numbers 21:9. 1 From Matthew of Miechow, De Sarmatia, II 2. 2 From Herodotus, III 16. 3-3 Matthew of Miechow, De Sarmatia, II 2. 4 Virgil, Eclogues, II 60.

5 Cf. OM 3:5 and 7. No precise source for the golden neck-chain has been found. 6-6 Matthew of Miechow, De Sarmatia, II 2. 7 Cf. Herodotus, II 74, where the reference is to Thebes in Egypt, not in Thessaly; there the snakes are not said to be buried in mounds but in the temple of Zeus. 8 Cf. OM 21:48. In parts of Sweden and Norway grass snakes were accepted as more or less domesticated; called 'house' or 'farm snakes' (husormar, tomtormar in Sw., buormer in Norwegian); their attachment to a place was thought to be lucky. Cf. KL, XIII, cols 8-10, XVI, cols 179-80. Varmland, the border province between Norway and Sweden, remained comparatively isolated, and paganism was thought to linger there centuries after the official eleventh-century conversion of the Swe­ des. 9 Probably from Krantz, Wandalia, IX 10. The 'eight brothers' are a mistake on OM's part. After accepting baptism and marrying Princess ladwiga (Hedvig) in 1386, Grand Duke Jagiello ('lagello' in OM) of Lithuania became king of Poland and founder of the dynasty that bore his name. 10 From Matthew of Miechow, De Sarmatia, II 4. The idol in question is often referred to in sixteenth-century literature and included on maps. Cf. e.g. Herberstein, 1551, p. 86, who locates it on the right bank of the River Ob'. 11 See OM 2:23, n. 6. 12 The reference is too vague to be identified. OM3:2 The vignette is derived, with additions, from CM, litt. C b. 1 OM is evidently referring to the Coast Lapps of Russian Lappland or E. Finnmark. 2 Herodotus, IV 184, followed by Pliny, Nat. hist., V 8, 45, and other authors, describes a people in NW Africa (not in India, as OM has it) who curse the sun. 3 The correct reference is to OM 4:9. 4 See OM 5:16. 5 See Herodotus, III 57-8; the riddling oracle there warns the Siphnians of attack by a Samian fleet.

184

BOOK THREE

6 Pliny, Nat. hist., XXXV 31, 49. 7 Cf. OM14:19. 8 SHA, Aurelian, 4, 5; 28, 5; 29, 1-3; the putative author, Flavius Vopiscus, uses the word purpura. 9 OM is doubtless not confining his thoughts to Lappland, He presumably knew the belief about the stag-beetle as an omen from his home province, but how widespread this piece of folklore was is not known; cf. KL, XIX, col. 98. lo-ib Cf pliny Naf hisf XXX 3Q 99 11 Cf. Civ. Dei, VIII23 and 26, IX 7; and the last line of the present chapter. 12 Titus Vespasian died in AD 81. Pliny's extant letters begin in AD 97. Titus may be a slip for Trajan, an emperor who certainly received letters from Pliny. OM3:3 The same depiction of the old gods is used in JMGSH, 1 10. Several details of the central figure are drawn from Hans Holbein the Younger's illustration for 1 Chroni­ cles 9:1. 1 From JMGSH, I 9; Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia, Prol., following Adam of Bremen, IV 26. 2~2 From JMGSH, I 9, following Saxo, 3, IV 13 (tr. Fisher, p. 79). 3-3 From JMGSH, I 9. Adam of Bremen, IV 26, describes images of three gods in the Uppsala temple, Thor, Odin and Frey. He calls the last of these Fricco, a name reproduced as Frigh in early Sw. versions of the account. This in turn was misinterpreted as the name of the goddess, Frigg. JM and OM thus achieved a trio corresponding to Jupiter, Mars and Venus in the Roman pantheon. Cf. Krantz, Chronica... Suetia, Prol., following Adam of Bremen, IV 26. Frigg's day is Friday, Latin dies Veneris. Thor's day is Thursday. The ON name for the month between mid-January and mid-February was porri; its etymology is uncertain but it cannot be related to the name Thor in the way OM assumes. 4-4 JMGSH, I 9. Wednesday is Odin's day. JM's sources are Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia, Prol. (from Adam of Bremen, IV 26) and Saxo, 6, V 4 (tr. Fisher, p. 171). 5-5 From JMGSH, 1 9, derived from Jordanes, V 40-41. Dio Chrysostomus was used by Ablabius and both writers were known to OM through Jordanes. Cf. OM Pref., n. 11. OM's 'progenitum' is read as 'primogenitum', 'first born' (OM means that Mars was the divine ancestor of the Goths). The verse is Aeneid, III 35, with 'armis' in JM and OM for 'arvis' in Virgil and Jordanes, a reading possibly influ­ enced by Ovid, Fasti, 3, 85: 'Mars ... praesidet armis'. Gradivus was used as a name of Mars. The adjective Geticus was used loosely for 'Thracian' (as here in Virgil) but medieval and renaissance authors commonly identified the Getae with the Goths; see In trod., p. Ixi. OM3:4 The figures in the vignette cannot be confidently identified. Details of the left-hand and central figure suggest influence from Hans Holbein the Younger's illustrations for Numbers 21:9 and Genesis 37:28. 1-1 Cf. JMGSH, I 10. The text is derived, some virtually verbatim, some para­ phrased, from Saxo, 6, V 3; 1, VII 2; 3, II13; 1, VIII12 (tr. Fisher, pp. 170-1; 26; 73; 30). 2 Saxo does not say that these characters were deified. Rostiof (ON Hrosspjdfr, 'horse-thief) appears as 'Rostirphus' in Saxo, 3, IV 1, as 'Rosthicphus' in OM. 3-3 From Saxo, 3, IV 2 (tr. Fisher, p. 76). 'Rostarus' is a corrupt form of ON Hroptr, one of Odin's many names. 4 In Civ. Dei, III 4, Augustine discusses 'the opinion of Varro that it was to the public good that some men should pass themselves off as begotten by gods'. 185

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

OM 3:5

The same vignette, showing Odin, Thor, and one of the gods of Byzantium (cf. the opening lines), is used in JMGSH, I 11. Details go back to Hans Holbein the Younger's illustrations for Deuteronomy 1:3 and Tobit 2:10. 1-1 In part from JMGSH, 111, derived from Saxo, 3, IV 9 and 11 (tr. Fisher, pp. 78-9). 2 Tertullian, Apologia, XIII 6. In the second century the emperor apparently expected tribute money to be paid from shrines of gods. " Inspired by Saxo, 6, V 3 (tr. Fisher, pp. 170-1). The passage in Civ. Dei does not refer to the gods named by OM, but the view he takes is Augustinian. 4 Lactantius, Divin. institut., 1 10, 3-13.

5 These passages were cited in OM 3:2 above. OM3:6

The same illustration is found in JMGSH, I 9. Reminiscences of Uppsala cathedral have been detected in it.

1 Cf. JMGSH, 11 and 6. As the (unauthentic) name of the Uppsala river, Sala is first attested in JM and OM. Fyrisan, the name now used, is a learned seventeenthcentury construct based on the form Ffri, found in early Icelandic sources. An early Sw. *Fyri, *Fori must have existed to give the modern name Foret, properly used of the two small lakes into which the river broadens. 2-2 From JMGSH, I 8, based on Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia, Prol., following Adam of Bremen, IV 26 and Schol. 139. For a full discussion of the pagan temple at Old Uppsala see Olsen, H0rg, hov og kirke. 3 OM is presumably referring to the monastery gardens at Vadstena. 4-4 From Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia, Prol., following Adam of Bremen, Schol. 138. The reference forward is to OM 3:7.

5 Pliny, Nat. hist., XVI33,79; XV 36,120-1. Venus Myrtea is Venus -goddess of the myrtle'.

6-6 A summary based on Isidore, Etym., VIII 11, 1, 34-6, 84, with some addi­ tions. 7 Cf. e.g. Aeneid, VII 81-91 (though there the god also speaks).

8 Pliny, Nat. hist., XXXVI21, 95-6; II 5, 20-1. 9 Cf. Isidore, Etym., VIII11,29. 10 The feast-day of Sweden's patron saint, Erik, king and martyr, is 18 May. 11 This is an attempt to render OM's 'Mutatio dexterae excelsi'.

OM3:7

The same vignette is in JMGSH, I 12. Details in the standing figure on the right bear some resemblance to Hans Holbein the Younger's illustration for Deuter­ onomy 4:1. 1 The following, as far as 'The way in which the emissary was dispatched ...', is from JMGSH, 112. 2 Based on Franciscus Irenicus, II 9. Cf. Herodotus, IV 94-6; Strabo, VII 3, 5 (referring to the Getae; in JM and OM again identified as Goths). 3 JM and OM have strangely misunderstood their source, Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia, Prol., from Adam of Bremen, IV 27. There the great sacrifice at Uppsala is said to take place 'after nine years' (to be understood as 'every ninth year'). The doubling of the nine-day period of sacrificing is a further confusion. 4 Ultimately from Adam of Bremen, IV 27 and Schol. 138, most probably by way of Krantz, Chronica . .. Suetia, Prol., and Ericus Olai in SRS, 11:1, p. 6. Chance selection of a victim and belief in his translation to the home of the gods are additions of JM and OM. 5 Cf. Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia, 132; Herodotus, IV 94. 6 Following Jordanes, V 39. 186

BOOK THREE 7~7 Cf. Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia, I 32, ultimately derived from Herodotus, IV 94. In Herodotus Bleyxis is named Gebeleizis. 8 Cassiodorus, Var., V 42, 3.

9 Strabo, XI 4, 7; on human sacrifice among 'Albanians', somewhere in the eastern Caucasus. 10 From Pliny, Nat. hist., II (not III as in OM), 23, 93-4; XII, 2, 3-5.

OM3:8 The same vignette, illustrating the opening of the chapter, is in JMGSH, 113.

1 Until the clauses from Jordanes at the end of the chapter this is all from JMGSH, 113 (not 12 as in OM). 2-2 A free version of Saxo, 13, V 5 (tr. Christiansen, p. 120). Small hammershaped amulets, known as Thor's hammers (cf. OM's 'hammers of Jove*) are comparatively common among late Viking Age finds, and other objects marked with a hammer sign are known from the same period; cf. KL, XVIII, cols 502-6. Large specimens are not recorded in Scandinavia, but in his Hist, de Europa, ch. 26 (Opera omnia, p. 418), Aeneas Silvius (1405-64) reports that such big hammers were found in Lithuania, presumably similar to those referred to by Saxo (and OM). In 'Claudian thunders' OM refers to a device for simulating thunder in the Roman theatre, named after Appius Claudius Pulcher. Magnus, not a king of the Gotar, was son of King Niels of Denmark. His foray probably took place c. 1125 (he died in 1134) but its objectives are unknown. 3-3 Mostly from Saxo, 5, III 7; 6, V 10 (tr. Fisher, pp. 128, 172). OM returns to the 'shame pole' in 3:15. The practice described is best known from early Icelandic texts, especially Egils saga Skallagrimssonar, ch. 57. For discussion in a wider context see Rooth, 'Nidstangen och andra stanger'. 4 a. Jordanes, XI 71, X 65. OM3:9 The vignette illustrates the opening of the chapter. 1 Cf. the opening of OM 3:8.

2 The reference to Civ. Dei, X 11, is correct but something has been omitted, possibly a reference to Solinus, II 40, where the story of the silent cicadas of Regium (S. Italy) is told. 3 The preceding is freely abridged from Herodotus, I 90-91, II 111, VII 35-6. Xerxes's 'bridge' must have been about a mile long.

4 Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 14,109-17. OM has Babylon for Babel, following Josephus, who says that the tower of Babel gave its name to that city when it was built. OM 3:10

The vignette pictures the situation of the second paragraph. 1-1 Based on Saxo, 6, IV 12 (tr. Fisher, p. 169). 2-2 Largely verbatim from Saxo, 3, II4 (tr. Fisher, pp. 69-70). Saxo's version of the Baldr story differs in many respects from the ON mythological sources. In them Hodr (H0ther), like Baldr one of the divine >Esir, becomes his unwitting slayer. 3-3 Part verbatim, part paraphrased and abridged from Saxo, 3, III 4, 6-7 (tr. Fisher, pp. 74-5). See further OM 3:11. The narrative suffers in the abridgment. OM does not make it clear that H0ther's enemy at the end is Balder. JL u OM 3:11 The vignette illustrates the 'dance of the elves', somewhat misconstrued by the draughtsman; cf. the end of the chapter. 1 From Saxo, 2, II 2 (tr. Fisher, p. 43).

2 Georgics, 110.

3 Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1192-5 (OM omits 193). 187

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES 4 Horace, Odes, III 18, 1-3. OM has 'leuis', 'nimbly', for generally accepted 'lenis', 'kindly'; probably a misprint, cf. e.g. OM 19:15, n. 7. 5-5 The first passage is from Perottus, col. 528; cf. Pomponius Mela, III 9, 95. The others are from Solinus, XXIV 10 and XXXI 5-6, with the Himantopodes introduced from Pliny, Nat. hist., V 8, 46 (they have feet like thongs and crawl instead of walk). OM perhaps saw some of these instances as parallels of Swedish folk-beliefs to do with mysterious fire seen by night over veins of ore and buried treasure. Cf. OM 20:20. 6 OM ends this sentence with a hexameter, presumably on purpose: *non parit arenti redivivum cespite gramen'. He is of course describing 'fairy rings', circles where dead fungi have affected the colour of the grass. 7 A correction of OM's mistaken reference to OM 3:20. OM 3:12 The vignette illustrates the third paragraph. 1 See the following examples and OM 5:16-18, 21-22. 2-2 From Saxo, 2, II 9 (tr. Fisher, p. 45). M Based on Saxo, 8, XIV 1-19 (tr. Fisher, pp. 262-7). *"* More or less verbatim from Saxo, 3, II 6 (tr. Fisher, p. 70). Cf. OM 3:10. OM 3:13 The vignette illustrates the means of divination discussed in the chapter. 1 The source of this passage attributed to Chrysostom, with Luke 21:25 as the text, has not been traced. 2~2 More or less exact from Cicero, De divin., 11,2. 3 OM 19 contains many examples of auguries from birds; on fish as omens see OM21:1. 4 Based on Saxo, 14, XXXIX 10 (tr. Christiansen, pp. 496-7). 5-5 Saxo, 1, VI 8 and 10; 3, II7 (tr. Fisher, pp. 24-5, 70). Saxo's name-forms are Locherus and Gevarus, reintroduced here for OM's locherus and Govarus. On 'German' miles see OM 1:2, n. 5. 6-6 From Saxo, 9, XI 4, with the conclusion based on 9, XI 5-6 (tr. Fisher, pp. 295-7). 7~7 Partly verbatim from Saxo, 10, XXII 2-3 (tr. Christiansen, p. 50). Magnus the Good was king of Norway 1035^47, of Denmark from 1042. 8-8 From Saxo, 14, XIX 13-15 (tr. Christiansen, pp. 414-15). Valdemar the Great was king of Denmark 1157-82. In 'numerous flocks of ravens' the adjective translates Saxo's 'crebri'; OM has 'celeri'. 9-9 Based on Saxo, 6, II 9-10 (tr. Fisher, pp. 164-5). 10 Cf. above and OM 3:14. 11 Pliny, Nat. hist., II 31, 99; cf. OM 1:17, n. 2. Cf. Procopius, III 4, 30-35, where it is said, however, that when Attila saw the family of storks flying from the walls, he decided to continue the siege. 12 Cf. OM 19:52. OM 3:14 The picture relates to the opening of the chapter. 1 The preceding is mostly verbatim from JMGSH, XVII 12, whose source is Ericus Olai, SRS, 11:1, p. 24, with some reference also to Saxo, 9, IV 33 (tr. Fisher, pp. 289-90). The chronology in medieval sources would suggest that Erik Windhat reigned in the latter part of the ninth century. ~2 More or less verbatim from Saxo, 14, I 10 (tr. Christiansen, p. 354), with minor additions. Erik Emune (miswritten Edmundus in OM) was king of Denmark 1134-7. 3 The preceding is from Saxo, 7,1 4-5 (tr. Fisher, pp. 201-2).

188

BOOK THREE

4 The translation, 'examining water and tracks', is conjectural for OM's obscure 'hydraulicis, sortibus vestigiariis'. 5 Cf. Saxo, 14, XXXIX 11 (tr. Christiansen, p. 497). Casting lots was commonly prescribed for deciding precedence and allocation of property in medieval Scan­ dinavian laws; in some circumstances it was used in later centuries as well. Cf KL XI, cols 14-16. OM 3:15

The picture showing a witch in action builds on details from the latter part of the chapter. 1 Following Saxo, 1, VI 3 (tr. Fisher, pp. 22-3). The lady's name in Saxo is Harthgrepa. OM's 'corrugata' is read as 'corrugati' and taken with 'corporis' ('shrivelled object') as in Saxo. 2 This description of a witch's powers has classical antecedents. It is not in Saxo. 3-3 Largely verbatim from Saxo, 1, VIII14; 5, II6-8 (tr. Fisher, pp. 30-31,124). Cf. OM 21:48. In 'the future good fortune of her son' OM's 'futuri' is read as 'futurae'; as it stands, OM's text would mean 'the fortune of her son-to-be'. The Pliny reference appears to be mistaken. *^ Culled from Saxo, 5, VII1-13, X 1, XV 3, XVI2; 8, X 14 (tr. Fisher, pp. 1448, 149-50, 157, 258). 5 Cf. OM 3:8, n. 3. 6 The first line is a conflation of Tibullus, I 2, 43, and I 8, 21; the second is from Virgil, Eclogues, VIII 99. The contamination in the first line stems from a careless reading of Perottus, col. 646, where the Virgil line is also found; Civ. Dei, VIII19, referred to below, also has the Virgil verse. 7 Verbatim from Lactantius, Divin. institut., II 7, 9-10. 8 Cassiodorus, Var., IX 18, 9. OM 3:16

The vignette shows a man proffering a rope with magic knots which when untied will produce the desired wind. 1 Pliny, Nat. hist., XXX 4, 13. 2 The oldest account of this superstition seems to be a passage on Finland in Bartholomeus Anglicus, XV 172. On 'wind-magic' see KL, XX, cols 98-100. Seventeenth-century evidence suggests such practices had also spread to S. Sweden; see Arens, 'Vadermagi pa 1600-talet'. In 'tied in a strap not likely to break' 'non cassabundo loro constrictos' is read for OM's 'non cassioticos loro constrictos'. An adjective cassioticus appears to be nowhere else attested and it is not difficult to think that the following 'constrictos' has affected the form in OM. 3 See further OM 3:19. Pliny, Nat. hist., XXX 1,1. 4 Pliny, Nat. hist., XXX 5-6, 14-17. The conquered Tiridates came to Rome to join in the triumph decreed to celebrate his defeat. 5-5 Virtually verbatim from Saxo, 7, II 7 (tr. Fisher, p. 205). On the berserks described here cf. OM 5:5 and 10. 6 Herodotus, VII 191; used earlier in OM 1:6. OM 3:17

The vignette relates to the second paragraph. The demon-like dragon is not mentioned in the text. Cf. the vignette to OM 3:22. 1 Bothnia refers to Norrbotten in general, the combined provinces of Vasterbotten and Osterbotten. Cf. OM 3:10, 12 and 16. 2~2 Drawn from Saxo, 2, II 6-7 (tr. Fisher, pp. 44-5). In 'bright and clear' 'suda perspicuitate' (as in Saxo,) is read for 'sudis perspicuitate' in OM. 3 From Saxo, 7,1 5 (tr. Fisher, p. 202). The episode is told in OM 3:14. 4 There is a large literature on the shamanistic practices of Lapps and Finns; see e.g. KL, XV, cols 7-14; Eliade, Le Chamanisme. 189

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES 5-5 From Saxo, 7, II 2 (tr. Fisher, p. 203). In Saxo Vitolf appears as a retired soldier, not a prince. 6-6 Paraphrased from Saxo, 6, V 14 (tr. Fisher, p. 173). Cf. OM 5:7. On Starkather see OM 5:3-9. 7 On the execution of warlocks by stoning see OM 3:19; cf. Folke Strain, On the Sacral Origin of the Germanic Death Penalties, pp. 102-15. OM 3:18 The vignette illustrates the opening of the chapter, though the charming scene on the shore answers to nothing in the text. 1 The preceding text is largely the same in JMGSH1 10, drawn from Saxo, 3, IV 12 (tr. Fisher, p. 79). Holler is the Norse god Ullr. Of his death Saxo says only that he was 'killed by the Danes'. 2~2 From Saxo, 5, II4 (tr. Fisher, p. 123). OM 3:19 M Part verbatim from Saxo, 1, VI 7-9; 10, IV 3; 9, IV 22 (tr. Fisher, pp. 24-5, 286; tr. Christiansen, p. 8). The reference in the middle is to accounts of the battle of Hjorungavdgr (probably Liavagen, Hareidlandet, Sunnm0re) when Earl Hakon the Mighty of Norway defeated the J6msvikings c. AD 985. 2 The national and provincial laws of medieval Sweden prescribed the death penalty for sorcery, but burning was not the only mode of execution laid down. 3 From Cassiodorus, Var., IV 22. 4 Partly verbatim from Cassiodorus, Var., IX 18, 9. OM3:20 The vignette shows the island, Visingso, in Vattern, with the warlock Gilbert fettered by two sticks with random runes on them. 1 On Vattern, which OM regards as part of Ostergotland, see OM 1:27, 2:19. 2 OM's Gilbert goes back to Gerbert, Pope Sylvester II (999-1003), who had a legendary reputation for wizardry; cf. KL, VIII, col. 387. 3 Numerous folk-tales are associated with Kettil Runske,' K. the rune-skilled'. 4-4 Apparently based on Perottus, col. 483, with Pliny, Nat. hist., XXXVI19,85, as the source. 5 Strabo, XIII 4, 14 (almost exactly as in the 1549 Latin ed., p. 600). Strabo refers to the Plutonium at Hierapolis, so named because it was thought (like other Plutonia) to be an entrance to the underworld. Such openings were full of mephitic vapour, and marsh gas probably accounted for the polluted atmosphere of the Visingso cavern. Cf. OM 2:4. The phrase 'gelded cocks' translates OM's 'galli execti', but Strabo was in fact referring to the eunuch priests of Cybele, rdXXoi. In the 1549 Latin ed. (and others) the word 'Galli' comes at the beginning of a sentence and could thus not be certainly distinguished as a proper name. 6 From Perottus, col. 483; the source is Pliny, Nat. hist., XXXVI19,91. 7 The story is of Virgil as a sorcerer from Vincent, Spec. hist. , VI 61. 8 Cf. OM 1:12. 9 Herodotus, IV 95. 10 Solinus, XXXVIII 8. The reference to Justin is mistaken; it should probably be to Pomponius Mela, 113,76. Typhon, a representative of destructive force, was often confused with giants in general. He is supposed to lie bound in Etna, for instance. 11 Kings are known to have died on Visingso in the twelfth and thirteenth century but none is known to have been buried there. OM 3:21 The picture relates especially to the end of the Berkeley anecdote. Narrative details

190

BOOK THREE that belong inside the church, like the figures with aspergill and thurible on the right, find depiction outside it. 1 From Vincent, Spec, hist., XXV 26, ultimately from William of Malmesbury, De gestis regum Anglorum, II 204. Berkeley (Gloucestershire) is Berhelia in Vin­ cent and OM, Berkeleia in the ed. of William consulted. 2 More or less verbatim from Saxo, 14, XXXIX 43 (tr. Christiansen, p. 509). Karentia was by Garz in S. Riigen; see Christiansen, n. 514 (p. 844) on the site, and n. 524 (pp. 846-7) on the topic of the report. 3 From Civ. Dei, VIII17, but not verbatim. OM 3:22 The vignette gathers together several of the items discussed in OM 3. The middle part is based on CM, litt. B k, and shows a supernatural being helping in a stable at night. On the left a -mine-elf is at work (cf. OM 6:10). At the top left a witch, facing backwards, rides some sort of dragon (cf. the vignette to OM 3:17); a driverless wagon rides over clouds to the right, while underneath a gleeful troll produces wind. 1 Cf. OM Pref., p. 8 above; OM 16:10. 2 See OM 2:3. In 'where they are bound for' 'they' perhaps refers to 'their friends' rather than to the 'spirits or ghosts'. These are well-disposed manifesta­ tions, unlike the demons of the next sentence who were thought to cause night­ mares. 3 OM's source for this remarkable statement is unknown. 4 Jerome, in PL, 23, cols 39-40. OM mistakenly has Hilarius for Hilarion. OM's Latin ends 'aliud Arabica: aliud ex uno ore'. Possibly the name of a fourth language has been omitted after the last 'aliud'. Jerome has a fourth tongue, 'Franca lingua', but mentions it first. 5 Paraphrased from Vincent, Spec, hist., XVIII30. 6 From Plutarch, Life of Caesar, 69, but in OM's own words. The dagger referred to by Plutarch is the one used by Cassius to kill Caesar and later himself. 7 From Saxo, 14, XXX 4 (tr. Christiansen, p. 474), but not verbatim. Saxo is describing a battle near Demmin, south-east of Greifswald, in 1164. OM gives a wrong reference, corrected in the text above.

191

This page has been left blank intentionally

BOOK FOUR OF OLAUS MAGNUS THE GOTH, ARCHBISHOP OF UPPSALA, ON THE WARS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PAGAN DWELLERS IN THE WILD AND THEIR NEIGHBOURS

PREFACE

N

ow that I am about to display the wars fought by the inhabitants of the wild in the farthest North, their harsh customs, amazing activities, diversity of languages, the situation of their dwellingplaces, and their unfamiliar way of travelling1 among rocky precipices, deep snows, pathless marshes, miry chasms, and rivers dashing headlong through forests that are uninhabited over vast areas, I refer the inquisitive reader, if he wishes to pursue the subject, to the achievements of Alexan- Alexander der, who left nothing unattempted; and, among his other exploits, to the theGreat triumphs that he sought to gain over a helpless Indian tribe who, driven from their homes, chose for their defence a steep or, rather, pointed rock that was a natural fortification, and slaughtered many soldiers who rashly came against them on Alexander's orders. He himself, figuring as an attacker of steeps and cliffs more than a conqueror of men, came very close to death, being wounded and, as it seemed, likely to perish; for after several of his generals had been killed, he fought with reckless overconfidence and with greater ferocity than caution. Anyone who desires to read more about these feats of his should look into the accounts by Quintus Curtius, Justin, and Plutarch. 2

193

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER ONE

T!

IHAT most renowned writer of Danish history, Saxo Grammaticus, tells us that Ragnar, king of the Danes, after making raids on the coasts of Russia for a full five years, resolved to attack the neigh­ bouring Biarmians, that is to say, the people inhabiting the northern mountains and plains, in order to bring them low by armed aggression and his incomparable might. As soon as they became aware of his arrival, they Sky is stirred assailed the sky with magic spells and by agitating the clouds brought with spells about rain-storms of the utmost violence. For some time this prevented Ragnar from sailing and removed any means of provisioning his men; then Changes in suddenly the tempests abated, whereupon he and his men were scorched the elements by a baking fiery heat, a plague which certainly proved no more bearable than the intense cold that had been conjured up against them. So, this double evil, the twin extremes of temperature which played in succession upon his soldiers, broke their constitutions under the affliction of each excessive climatic condition. But when the king took note that he was hampered by a spurious, rather than a genuine, power in the air, he returned to make a second, surprise attack, in order to bring retribution on the Biarmians for their arrogance. The king of the Biarmians, relying King Ragnar

194

BOOK FOUR

on the highly skilled service of bowmen belonging to his neighbour, the Duke of Finnmark, shattered the army of Ragnar, who was wintering in Biarmia, without his being able to retaliate. The Finns, as I mentioned at the beginning of Bk I, habitually speed their progress by gliding swiftly on smooth-sliding boards and dart along as fast as ever they wish, so gaining the ability to be on the spot or far off at a moment's notice; for as soon as they have inflicted mischief on their enemy, they will shoot away with the same rapidity as they flew to the scene, and then turn just as promptly to launch into the offensive again. So, through the nimbleness of their skis and their own bodies, they have a most expert ability to attack and withdraw. One must believe, as Saxo again reports, that this most powerful of kings suffered the adversity in his fortunes with astonishment when he, who had once triumphed over the Holy Roman Empire at the height of its power, saw himself swept into extreme hazard by an unarmed, undisciplined body of men. He who had skilfully crushed the glittering pride of the imperial armies and the renowned troops of the greatest and most illustrious leader yielded to a squalid band of peasants and their miserable, flimsy equipment. He whose brilliance in war the might of the most courageous nation had hitherto been able to dim was unable to withstand a meagre handful of fellows 195

Army is shattered without retaliation Use of smoothsliding boards

King of Denmark put to flight by peasants

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Artifice by night

Arngrim, the Swedish champion

Fierce people of Italy

from a contemptible race. The result was that, accompanied by a force with which he had gallantly destroyed the world's most illustrious parade of power and the weightiest machine of military might, with which he had clearly subdued all that thunder of infantry, camps, and horsemen, he brought himself to march against a worthless, obscure little people by stealth and, one might say, like a bandit. He did not blush to sully the famous reputation that he had gained publicly in the daylight by a subter­ fuge played at night-time, employing a secret ambush instead of open-air bravery. As it was ugly in the doing, so was this indeed paltry in its outcome, and he might recite the familiar verse: What swift misfortunes shatter mighty works. 1 2Moreover, when Arngrim overcame Tengild, king of Finnmark, and Egbert, king of the Biarmians, after they had withstood the Danish King Frothi so stubbornly and forcefully, Frothi gave his daughter, of whom he was singularly fond, as wife to Arngrim, the Swedish champion, since this man had challenged Egbert to single combat and vanquished him; for he thought it entirely fitting to be seen as the father-in-law of someone who had won such honourable distinction for his deeds, removed a bitter foe, and built up a mighty reputation for himself far and wide. 2 Again, when he describes the first Punic War, Lucius Florus demonstrates the fierce­ ness and daring which characterized that people of Italy, who, although they were rough herdsmen, were full of confidence in gaining and keeping their dominion; for he says of this race: 'There was never any question of their courage, whether the fighting was on horseback or on board ship, on land or at sea.'3

CHAPTER TWO

On the savagery of the dwellers of the wild

B

ECAUSE of the violent roar made by the sun when it is about to rise and the terrifying noise which occurs when hidden vapours are stirred up from the bowels of the earth, the eastern peoples who 196

BOOK FOUR

live in the Caspian mountains resort to caves in order to preserve their lives, and stop up both their ears to give themselves greater protection at that oppressive hour. 1 In the same way those who are placed on the farthest coasts of the Norwegian Ocean, because of the violent wind Circius, which I spoke of in Bk I, and the depth of the snows which are heaped on the lofty mountains, have underground caves, where they live on fish and the meat of wild animals. 2 These folk shrink from meeting men who have sailed from other countries, as though they were robbers, fearing they may perhaps be led away into captivity. Nevertheless, any fugitives who have been oppressed by the cruelty of a tyrant they allow in as comrades for their protection and their own, and teach them how to lay a trap in order to intercept or kill pirates who put in to their shores. They can do this by pretending to be runaways themselves or by offering their services to those who are ignorant of the harbours, as if to enable them to escape the hazards, though all they wish to do is to put a ring of dangers round them. But when strangers do not appear and such practices as these are impossible because the sea is frozen, they are forced by wind and snow to remain in cells or vaults, built from the ribs and other bones of sea-beasts. These vaults appear quite ingeniously built like the upturned keels of boats, roofed with seaweed on the outside; this is due to the violence of the winds, which are no less formidable here than are the dreadful tem­ pests raised up from the depths of the sea. 3 There are also among them certain men, resembling the nomads dwelling on the shore of the Caspian Sea,4 who block up the entrances to their little huts with bushes bound with turves or seaweed or mountain moss, so that no one coming up from the sea can approach to investigate them or their secrets. Perhaps it is not unwillingly that they endure this harshness of the climate, the ground, and their caves, for here they can be exempt from paying insufferable and never-sufficient tribute to cruel tyrants, to whom the boundless Ocean seems merely a small water-pot. Strabo, also, mentions in Bk XII the savage tribes of the Heptacometae, who live in treetops and towers, and feed on wild beasts' flesh and fruit from the trees. These men leap down from the branches and attack foreign travellers. They were so strong that by their armed stratagems they cut down three of Pompey's cohorts while they were crossing the mountains; for they had mixed in drinking bowls the maddening honey which the boughs of the trees bear, and when the Romans drank it, they were deprived of their wits; then the Heptacometae fell on them and destroyed them with great ease. This is not unlike the men of the wild I have been speaking of, who drove off a most powerful enemy by a combination of dense snows and a thick rain of arrows. 5 Pliny, in Bk XVI, Ch. 2, also has a substantial and amazing account of tribes in the North who live on mounds by the surging Ocean. He says a wretched race exist there who occupy high mounds or hand-built platforms, with cabins set on them, the elevation depending on their observation of 197

Caves as a refuge

Wind Circius Caves

Trap

Sea frozen Cells built from bones Fearful winds Nomads

Ocean a little pot to the greedy Treedwellers

Three cohorts of Pompey perished

Tribes living on mounds

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Fish are dried in the wind Fate spares many for their own punishment

the highest tide. The people are like sailors at sea when the waters cover the surrounding land, but like shipwrecked mariners when the waters have withdrawn. Round about their huts they catch the fish that are trying to escape with the ebbing sea, and those they get in this way they dry in the wind rather than the sun. The reason why they are not conquered and enslaved by other nations is that fate spares them for their own peculiar punishment.6

CHAPTER THREE

More about the fierceness of these men of the wild1 Extent of king of Sweden's dominions Breastplates of elk hide

Anacharsis

Each Scythian carries his house with him In winter

they repose

on river

banks

T

OWARDS the White Sea in the farthest North, where the king's domain and the realm of Sweden is of very wide extent, extremely fierce tribes live everywhere about, wearing no breastplates except those made from the hides of wild asses, otherwise known as elks. Simi­ larly they use bows, and spears that have a very small prong fixed at each end.2 By twisting and circling in every direction with marvellous agility (as I said above in Bk I about the Scricfinns), they are adept at eluding or averting any charge of the enemy. This they are especially able to do on the peaks that rise above the valleys, for these summits are totally covered with a perpetual layer of thick snow, as I described earlier in numerous chapters of the first, second, and third books, as the occasion arose.3 One might almost say of these folk what Anacharsis, the foremost philosopher of the Scythians, wrote about his people's customs: that no one who approaches them can escape, and they themselves cannot be caught, or even detected and seized, if they do not wish it. Since they have erected no towns or walls, each man carries his house with him; their foot-soldiers are archers, and they live not on bread but on fish and by hunting wild creatures.4 As houses they have wagons and tents, with either the tanned hides of animals or the bark of trees for a covering. In winter, however, they relax by the banks of rivers and in summer among bushes and trees and in shady places, moving from one spot to another. For headgear they quite frequently wear the skins of geese, or of wild ducks and cocks, for, 198

BOOK FOUR

as well as other birds, great multitudes of these are to be found there. 5 Hundreds of valuable furs can also be obtained in that region, but by barter rather than by offering a large number of coins. 6

CHAPTER FOUR

On the five languages of the northern kingdoms

T

HIS variety in their dress and weapons shows how great a differ­ ence and distance exist between these territories, and the tongues, length of life, and activities of their peoples. The countries are many, great, and powerful, and include those of the Lapps, Russians, Swedes, Gotar, Varmlanders, Dalecarlians, Highlanders, 1 and Norwe­ gians; their extent in length and breadth is greater than that of Italy, Spain, and France taken together, so that it was not unreasonable for Pliny, because of their undiscovered size, to call them a second world.2 No wonder, then, that in this zone five languages should be spoken: that of the northern Lapps or Bothnians, that of the Muscovites or Russians, that of the Finns, that of the Swedes and Gotar, and that of the Germans. Now the lives of people in those cold regions extend up to a hundred and sixty years or more, and this occurs, too, in England and Scotland, where indeed the bishop, St David, lived till he was over a hundred and seventy.3 The activity of these people, that is to say those who inhabit the northern wastes, is concentrated on hunting and fishing, and they live by bartering with the Muscovites. 4 The Finns (or Finnings) practise agricul­ ture, fishing, and hewing wood, the Gotar and Swedes devote themselves to the same occupations, while the German immigrants pursue their trading in various goods and live by their profit, accepting the laws of the local people and importing everything which men can see pertains to a mellower sort of life, articles such as silk garments, cloth of gold, and different wines. The weapons they use, and the nature of these, I shall tell of partly here and partly below, at greater length, in the description of land battles. Here, however, I wish it to be clear that in archery the Gotar, among all 199

Names of regions

Second world

Length of life Activities Muscovites Finns German immigrants

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Art of archery Finns

Swedes

Attire

Russians Lapps

300 peoples, each with a different Rugge areas 26 tongues

Unnatural power of speech Courage will need no guardian

the peoples of the North, are the most skilled and rapid in handling crossbows, just as the Finns are acknowledged to be with their handbows. The Swedes customarily fight in battle with single- or double-headed axes and with spears. 5 The attire of the Gotar, according to ancient custom, is normally short and tight-fitting, except for their boots, which are looser. The Swedes, on the other hand, wear fuller garments, more according to the German style, whereas the Russians wear their clothes long in the Greek fashion. All these are true Northerners. Now the Lapps of the wild clothe themselves in the valuable pelts of various wild animals, not for show but from necessity. 6 That there should be a great diversity of tongues in provinces that are so far from each other will seem marvellous to no one, seeing that Strabo, in Bk XI, declares (though his statement is based on conjecture) that seventy, or possibly up to three hundred, tribes who live round about the Caspian Sea speak as many distinct languages in their mercantile dealings, because they live in areas that are rugged and almost impassable. 7 The majority of these are Sarmatians, but they all live in the Caucasus. A little farther on he affirms that at one time twenty-six tongues were distributed among the Albanian people; each division had its own king and respected him,8 and it may be that each had its own individual facial appearance, so that the amazing diversity of both tribes and languages could be plainly discerned. From this the variations of their singing and intonation, and the expression of their minds, by means of which man is distinguished from the beasts, could be clearly recognized. Any child who can speak before the age prescribed by Nature, as did Croesus's son at six months old, is an unnatural creature and points to the overthrow of that child's people and parents. 9 Courage, however, makes its possessor come of age, so that whoever has the hardihood to run his enemy through seems scarcely in need of guardians. 10

200

BOOK FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

On the exchange of goods and merchandise without money

T

HOUGH all cheating is understood to be a serious matter and hateful in any business transaction, 1 it is even more unjust, insup­ portable, and sour when it proves to be practised at the expense of simple folk, particularly when counterfeit or debased coinage is passed, as I shall demonstrate below, in Bk VI, when I deal with the different kinds of currency. 2 This is why the race of Lapps, or Bothnians, a people of the wilds, is held to be as tranquil at home as it is unknown to the rest of the world outside. It is not troubled by this hazard of deceit for, since these folk have an eye to reckoning the value of goods rather than coins, they obtain what they wish in a pleasant state of serenity. ^They are therefore ignorant of frenzied clamour and live free from civil discord, dwelling together without envy and sharing everything in common, unaware of deception. Their only striving is to avoid poverty, and not to love riches. These people do not know how to be seekers after gain, for they are unwilling to torment themselves with any cunning dealings. Conse­ quently, living an unruffled existence, they wish only to acquire a modest fortune, so that they may not lack a healthy feeling of prosperity; for them it is a notorious sin to seize what is not their own and they are incapable of purloining another's property.3 However, since they are not so blessed in every respect that they do not need each other's help and goods for their own better convenience, they therefore faithfully carry on their commercial dealings without money, adhering to good, trustworthy barter. Nevertheless, they do not signify agreement by word of mouth (see the next chapter), for the race is made up of many tribes; this is not due to any natural incapacity or the ways of barbarians, but because each tribe has a tongue peculiar to itself and scarcely known to the rest of its neighbours. Places are appointed, too, either on flat ground in the country or on frozen lakes, where each year they hold a kind of market for carrying on this trade; here they may display to everyone goods which they can safely say they have procured by their own skill, either at home or abroad.4 Nor do they refrain in the 201

Cheating hateful

A people unknown to the world

Blessed life

A sin to steal or seize

Individual language Markets on the ice

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Common wares among peoples of the North Fish bought by the cane, not by the pound Bergchara, collectors of tribute for the king of Sweden

They do not fight unless provoked Fearful way of fighting

meantime from similar trading when their wants are offered to them by foreigners. Herodotus gives a fine parallel to this in Bk IV, where he talks of the Pillars of Hercules, not far from which dwell a people who ascertain the value of things and reach an agreement about them by means of smoke and flame.5 But there gold comes into the business, a commodity that is utterly unknown among the race I am now describing; for valuable pelts, woollen and linen cloth, salt, corn, and fish are much prized, and the last are sold in bundles, measured much as the Romans do by the cane's length, rather than by the pound. 6 With the general agreement of the people they have respected over­ seers who are called bergchara, meaning 'men of the mountains',7 and to them they also pay valuable pelts and many sorts of fish, to be rendered to the king of Sweden both as tribute and as presents given through their own generosity. These officers are distinguished from the rest by being clothed in red. They also pay the same sort of tribute to the king of Norway and to the prince of the Muscovites, since they acknowledge the jurisdiction of these lords. They never wage war either against their immediate neighbours or against far-off tribes, unless they have been roused by a gross injustice; then they assail their enemies almost unappeasably, not only with the weapons with which their fury equips them but also uttering dreadful incantations, as I mentioned in the last book and also at the beginning of this, thereby numbing the limbs of their foes so devastatingly that they can neither raise a hand nor strike with their swords, and are scarcely permitted to run away. 8 Of the exchange of goods in the island of Ceylon let anyone who so wishes inspect Pliny, Bk VI, Ch. 22, where much excellent information is to be found.9

CHAPTER SIX

About markets on the ice

I

N this picture is shown the very ancient custom of setting up markets on the ice, held on flat, open surfaces in many provinces and attended by very wealthy merchants. A notable site for these is the archiepiscopal 202

BOOK FOUR

city of Uppsala in Sweden, through the middle of which a great river flows, where, about the beginning of February, the water quite often freezes to such a thickness that it supports the weight of a countless throng of people, draught animals, and merchandise of all kinds. From very early times such a market has been called, and is still called, disting, meaning 'the judgment-place of the most wise Queen Disa'. 1 The reason is that, on the failure of crops and produce through the harsh influence of the climate, this woman of exalted soul and shrewd purpose saw that a vast number of people were in danger of death from bitter hunger. She therefore persuaded them that, rather than suffer loss of life at the grim behest of improvident men, they would do better, after drawing lots, to leave their native country and seek a habitation in strange lands across the sea. Once they had found it, they should live there in mutual concord and cultivate it industriously.2 However, this departure of tribes from the Scandinavian peninsula is not the same as the one involv­ ing the Langobards, which Paul the Deacon records.3 The cause of the second may have been like that of the first; but there was a very long lapse of time between the two, and there were differences due to the authority, status, and methods of this Queen Disa, and through the countless num­ bers of people and their might. Yet, since my dearest brother and prede­ cessor, Johannes Magnus, archbishop of Uppsala, mentions this in his History, I refer the concerned reader to his words and return to markets on the ice.4 I must tell you that it is by a fixed sign and at an invariable time that all the peoples of the North and the neighbouring races are in the regular habit of holding such markets. It is done in this way: when the moon which first rises after Epiphany in January - that is, after midnight on that day - is at the full, then that gives the unquestionable indication and season at which all men may travel to these markets held in locations known to everyone. There is one reservation, however: they may under­ take their market visits before, during, and after the full moon but it must be possible for each person to be shown his way back to the place he came from by the light of the waning moon.5 The wares which are handled there, following the wishes and custom of the merchants, are of every kind, that is to say, valuable pelts from various animals; then silver for use at table and for the adornment of women (which can never be satisfied); then grain of different kinds; metals, including iron and copper; lastly, pieces of cloth and foodstuffs. These are more often sold by a fair valua­ tion than by the use of weights, with cheerful mutual agreement.6 Excep­ tions are those goods which the shrewd forethought of the officials sees that the local inhabitants may require for their present and future needs. Such are fruits, war-horses, and runny foods like butter, cheese and lard. If war is looming, a public proclamation forbids foreign businessmen or their agents, at the risk of penalties, to take such commodities out of the country. On another frozen lake, too, called Malaren, a market is held on the ice 203

Markets on ice are held at Uppsala

Disting from Queen Disa

Causes of tribes' departure

Markets are held at full moon

Wares or goods

Buying is done by valuation, not by weight Precautions in time of war

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Strangnas Oviken ice in May

towards the end of February, near the walls of the city of Strangnas. Further, a market is also held on the ice in the middle of March at a place called Oviken, among the mountains in the province of Jamtland, on the borders of Sweden and Norway. 7 Indeed, there are several places where at the middle or end of May troops of horsemen advance over the widespreading frozen waters, with peaceful or warlike intent, at the same time as people in Rome are normally eating tender fruit. 8

CHAPTER SEVEN

On the marriages of Lapps by means of fire Marriages are validated by iron, flint, and fire, and why

Romans

Flint

Child

Wax candles

I:

N the presence of friends and blood-relations parents ratify the union of their children by means of fire, which they strike with iron out of flintstone. For marriages are joined with fire and flint, which repre­ sent, as it were, a wedded partnership, to make them fitter and more fortunate than they would be by any other token of mutuality, and this by the acceptance of a custom as maturely reflected upon as if the knowledge of it had originally come from the centre of Greece or Latium. Now it is not only these folk who esteem fire above everything, for there was a time, as Ziegler believes, when the Romans, greatest of all peoples, joyfully observed this rite. The motive they wish to indicate is this: the fire struck out of a flint and again enclosed within it reveals symbolically that it contains the bond or strength of indestructible love. For, as the flint holds inside itself fire, which is its close partner and which flashes out when the flint is struck, so in either sex there is a life concealed, which at length, as the result of their reciprocal tie, is brought into the open to become a living child. 1 But fire to enhance the rites of marriage is also used by other, more civilized, Christian peoples in the North. When they are about to go to church for the priestly blessing, every groom and bride, according to the excellence of their rank and birth, order to be borne before them tall candles of various hues, made with wonderful skill out of soft wax, with similarly coloured silken drapes hanging from them. After the solemnization has 204

BOOK FOUR

been performed, they allow these to remain there together with their splendid offerings, and in the meantime the candle-bearers, like persons demented, divide the pieces of silk among themselves as a rich prize. 2 Moreover, women who have been delivered of children go after the birth with burning candles to give thanks to God;3 and certainly all believers in Christ are carried to the grave with lights flaming, as once before at baptism, when with a lamp burning, they entered the world. 4 As far as these Lapps and their ceremonies are concerned, I must add also that, when the marriage service has been performed by means of fire in the manner I related above, the bride is adorned with ermine and sable furs,5 her relatives mount her on a reindeer, as if it were a pet stag, and she is attended by a distinguished company of friends, befitting the nobility of her descent; so they bring her into the bridal chamber, or tent, to the accompaniment of exultant dances, and they pray for her health and fertility. The husband then enters, decked with lynx or marten skins, as if he were some Venetian magnifico; from the value of his furs he is considered as important as others are who are laden with jewels or gilded neck-chains. 6 But the bridegroom, and his bride with him, deserve high praise, as indeed does the whole of that race, in that it is not by capricious lust but by honourable marriage, attended with such celebrations as these, that they consent to be united. It was not so with the Ethopians in Africa, of whom Solinus writes in Ch. 43 that among all peoples they are deemed ignoble and utterly worthless. They certainly merit this reputation, for, having overthrown the habit of chastity, they have lost, by their depraved customs, any notion of family succession. 7 For these reasons they should be reckoned exceedingly like men and women in our own unhappy age, inasmuch as they profane the holy bond of wedlock by seeking to produce bastards, to whom they apportion a legacy not theirs by right; what in fact they beget are unwearying strife and massacre.8

205

Purification after delivery

Bride is brought home

Venetian magnifico Capricious lust most foul

Spurious offspring

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER EIGHT

On dances of sighing or mourning Alternate light and darkness

Dance turns to lament They are revived and feast The nature of their forbears' exploits

Better to die than to live

T

HESE Lapp people, who live in the harshest of northern climates where periods of light and darkness alternate, seem to endure existence like dwellers in the desert, yet they mingle joy with their woe. For these folk arrange lively banquets to which fiddlers are invited to make the guests merrier (even though their meals consist of the toughest meats) and stimulate them to dance. As the fiddler strikes up more briskly, they tread the measure, at the the same time singing to traditional rhythms and tunes the famous deeds of their ancient heroes and giants, that is to say, the praise and glory they won by their valour, and in so doing they melt into groans and deep sighs, and then proceed to lamenta­ tion, tears, and keening, till the pattern of the dance is broken up and they sink to the ground. Many of the bystanders act in the same fashion, wishing to be seen conforming to the movements of the others. Eventually the fiddlers revive them and they rise to pleasanter amusements, singing nothing further that will incite them to grief. 1 They were chiefly moved to sorrow because they have no means, or very few, of imitating the famous exploits of their ancestors or winning a comparable name, by defending the purity of virgins, for example, and removing ferocious tyrants; now, by the crafty dissembling of those in authority these godless crimes are done, or allowed to be done, with impunity.2 Therefore these people think it is far and away safer to die than to live; for the most part they greet the birth of a child with lamentation and death with a joyous song. 3

206

BOOK FOUR

CHAPTER NINE

On activities by moonlight

P

EOPLE often ask what the northern races do during the pitchdark, unbroken nights before and after the winter solstice, at a time when men and women, especially those who live beneath the celes­ tial Pole, need to enjoy the favour of the sun's light to pursue their occupations; and again people ask what they do during the season of continuous light in the summer, when no darkness at all appears for almost six months. Therefore, with reference to the material I have set out previously in some of the earlier chapters of Bk I, 1 we should here consider the information given by Ptolemy in Bk II, Ch. 6, of his Almagest. He tells us that on the thirty-ninth parallel the longest day lasts six months; under this parallel are situated the peoples and regions which are most remote and nearest to the Pole, in other words, the Lapplanders, Bothnians, and the islanders of Iceland. At the thirty-eighth parallel the longest day is of five months; here lie Svealand, Halsingland, Angermanland, and the northern parts of Norway. At the thirty-sixth parallel, where Gotaland, Muscovy, Russia, and Livonia are situated, the longest day is thought to last for three months. 2 The people, then, who live in that endless summer sunlight, or in the darkness that is the converse of it, have well learnt (and expediency makes it a habit) to perform their regular tasks differently in the darkness; that is to say that in place of the daylight they set fire to the fat of sea beasts and, attaching their own wick to it, use this in their houses, or in the fields and woods. 3 Employing the tendons of animals instead of threads, chiefly those of the reindeer (which I shall touch on below in my discussion of animals),4 they sew together pieces of cloth and garments, especially those made of fleecy hides; these tendons they make slender and adjust to their use, the reason being that, in those furthermost lands, because of the unparalleled cold, flax is not sown nor does it grow. Moreover, those who work out in the country can see things by making use of this animal fat, or fish oil (which the winds cannot impair), or the brilliant radiance of the moon, or the light of the stars reflected in the snows. 207

Perpetual night

Perpetual daylight

Lapps, Bothnians, Icelanders Upper Sweden Gotaland

Light from animal fat

Winds do not put out the light

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Harder work in winter

Everything level

Huge loads are drawn by two draught animals Very troublesome mosquitoes

Indeed by moonlight they can do harder work in the forests or fields, on the ice, or in the snows, just as they can accomplish longer journeys with greater ease than they can in the summer by sunlight. For in summer­ time the winding valleys and sloping hills, the steep rocks and lofty mountains are impassable, so that carts cannot be brought up nor success­ ful journeys made, whereas in winter everything is, as it were, level and suitable for completing any sort of travel with convenience. 5 And as I have said above and will demonstrate below where I treat of wars on the ice, such is their useful adaptability and the ease with which they move that two draught animals can draw a greater load over slippery ice or welltrodden snow than ten horses could pull in wagons over a plain. 6 As for the exceptional sunlight, to stop it spoiling their hours of sleep they have very adequate means of subduing it in their houses or tents. In fact, neither the bright reddish-yellow light nor its heat annoys the natives as much as the wretched mosquitoes, which are perhaps a greater pest than those of Egypt. You may read later about these mosquitoes and remedies to combat them. 7

CHAPTER TEN

On ships fastened together with tendons and roots

I!

'N the farthest lands of the North no mines of iron, copper, or silver have yet been discovered, even though the most blessed Job says that Gold comes .gold comes out of the North; 1 consequently, owing to the waters that from the cover a vast area, men there have a huge and unavoidable need for North vessels, which should properly be strengthened with iron. So, when they are about to build boats, chiefly for the use of fishermen, they reduce the Fir trees that easily split pines and firs in their forests to thin planks and, as there are no can be split iron nails, tie them together with outstanding skill by means of young, freshly extracted tree roots, which are as good as cords made of hemp. Others bind their boats with ropes made from pliant withes of poplar or other trees, apart from the oak, which does not grow nearer than about two hundred Gothic or German miles away. But the firs and pines grow so 208

BOOK FOUR

high and straight that they are most appropriate for all needs, and also for those who have a passion for gain and want to make a rich profit, since they can be sold to merchants from overseas. Others when building vessels tie the planks together with animal tendons, chiefly reindeer's, which they have adapted by pounding them and letting them dry in the sun and wind. But, as is done with tow, these tendons are separated from the finer sinews from which they grow, while the latter are cleaned for use as thread, as I shall show elsewhere, when I deal with the usefulness of the reindeer in the book on animals. 2 Now all the craft, whatever materials they are constructed from and held together by, are very carefully daubed with pine tar, of which there is an inexhaustible supply there, and are then firmly reinforced inside and out, wherever necessary, with wooden dowels. 3 The boats, since they are destined for the waves of the sea, are quite short and of shallow draught, but are built very broad in the beam, due proportion being kept for the use of sail in storms. The reason for this is that the waves are choppy and foaming, lashed up by the rocks that lie hidden beneath the surface. For the most part they yield to the waves, as would a leather bag, and to the rebounding billows; this is because they are fastened not with hard, unbreakable iron, but with pliant yet very tough twigs and sinews. They will last a long time undamaged by the elements, because of the tar that belongs to their construction. They use anchors made from the curved roots of sturdy trees complemented by a weight of stones, and with ropes of poplar or birch withes to provide a sufficient length of cable; for a sail they have woollen cloth, or bark from trees, chiefly on the waters of lakes, very seldom on the salt sea. Each of these craft is called scutha, just as another, rectangular kind, employed in the Bothnian Gulf and inland waters, is called hdper, very accurately fitted together without any iron at all. 4 As this ship is remark­ ably long, it boasts a most unusual speed and at a gentle puff of wind seems to fly. It is kept only for swift rivers that flow down from higher terrain and for fishing in the summer. It was in this kind of boat that I was carried down the network of mountain rivers in the year 1518 to my very great danger; because of public business that had to be done I was compelled to entrust my soul and safety to this frail piece of wood, and the passage was all the more terrifying when further marks became visible on the bank to indicate that persons of great importance had been drowned there by the violence of those waterways.5

209

Tendons in place of nails

Thread from sinews Tar

Boats short

Tough craft Anchors from trees Woollen sails Scutha Hdper

Peril of the author

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER ELEVEN

On training in archery

S

Way of life

Handbows Training in archery

Searching for lost arrows

Prize for skill Pin as mark for an arrow

Houses in trees Guarding of pregnant

women

KILL in archery is sought after by all the peoples of the North as though it were an inborn vocation; in the main they use handbows, which are allowed to every age-group, and at every time, place, and occasion, as is shown in the picture above; here too are depicted the agerange, the sport itself, and the way of life in which its practitioners engage. Children start in their early years, at which period concerned parents teach their offspring of either sex, but chiefly the males, how to hold their handbows (for they practise no other kind of archery), and raise or lower or deflect them when they discharge their bolts. If they do not hit the target and the bolt or arrow disappears among trees, grass or snow, or if, discharged from high up, it is hidden among shrubs and bushes, the parents show them how it can be recovered, that is, by shooting another arrow, or more than one, and by keeping the bow at the same elevation, maintaining the original height and distance, so that they may trace it from where this second flight falls. It will be found not far from the one which the archer shot before. This method of recovering shafts is followed by bowmen over the whole northern region. So that boys may take greater pains to hit the target, they are presented with a white belt, in which they take wonderful delight, and new bows. In similar manner the girls are given something to wear made of linen. They grow up to be so skilful that they unerringly hit a small coin or a pin at great range, as long as they can actually discern it; I saw this for myself in the year I have mentioned, 1518, when I was living in their territory. 1 This race is mostly small in stature and of limited understanding since they do not live in towns or castles, but either in villages, tents, or wagons or in the barren wastes.2 Some of them actually set up their homes in trees that grow to form a square, so that they may not be suffocated in the open country by a dense fall of snow, or be devoured by famished beasts which assemble in a horde which they cannot overcome. 3 In the latter event great care is taken to guard pregnant women and small children, which the wild animals seek out more voraciously, for they constitute a tenderer 210

BOOK FOUR

dish, as I shall relate below when I deal with the nature of wolves.4 The women and girls of those regions are exceedingly fertile and good-looking, chiefly for this reason, that the craftsmanship of Nature has given them a special combination of white and red in their complexions, making them appear all the more beautiful. They know nothing of rouge, nor would they wish to, even if Nature had denied them beauty. I believe that many of the most distinguished men of the Italian nation, particularly the Venetians, would feel more composure about the pleasantness and chastity of their homes if their sportive ladies did not have this rouge to deck themselves with, bought with much hard cash and anxious zeal from Ethiopia or Egypt. It was the custom of my dearest brother and predecessor, Johannes Magnus the Goth, Lord Archbishop of Uppsala, when conferring the sacrament of confirmation in the name of that most worthy man, Gerolamo Querini, the Venetian patriarch,5 and it is mine after him, to say: 'What lovely creatures of God these little girls are, if only they could, and would, attain an agreeable old age without painting their faces.' But this costly vanity, when the pricks of a troubled conscience ensue and old age, sickness, the itch, and giddiness set in, makes them the foulest of all creatures. There­ fore these people I have been depicting are safer inhabiting the forests and empty wastes, where they reflect the beauty and innocence of Nature, than those who live under the laws of powerful states and in fear of penalties. The fact that you can see, in the picture above, a hairy fellow with a tail, you must understand to signify that the fathers and mothers cover the bodies of their youths and boys with the dried skins of animals, chiefly of young bears. Nor is this to be considered a fault in a people who are trained in these simple and innocent habits.6

211

Women beautiful and fertile

Wanton women

Gerolamo Querini

Hairy men

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWELVE

How the Lapps hunt

Way of hunting

Women huntresses

Man shares out the quarry

Innumer­ able birds

Use of pelts

Vain boasting

I

have written elsewhere, in Bk I, Ch. 2, about the customs and life of the Scricfinns, the Biarmians, and the people of Finnmark. 1 Here I shall have to add an account of how, on curved, broad planks or smooth-sliding boards bound to their feet, they glide at lightning speed over the valleys, the snows, and peaks of the mountains, and swoop on the wild animals which they are out to hunt with their bows and arrows. 2 Here you may see a woman, her hair loose, aiming arrows; nor is it any wonder, because those who live under the celestial Pole find in the huge compass of their forests such rich abundance of game that the men alone would not suffice to hunt them down if their womenfolk did not race to their sides. Therefore the women join the chase with the same swiftness as the men, perhaps even with greater. 3 But it is the man who shares out the quarry and points out what is to be roasted on the spit; he distributes it with dependable generosity, saying what shall be given to his household and what to his neighbours. 4 This acuteness in hunting relates not only to earth-bound animals, which must be sought with both cunning and open pursuit, but also the different kinds of birds which inhabit the vast wildernesses; people use their softer down for beds and the tougher feathers instead of sinews for sewing fabrics together. The flesh of these beasts they eat more often roasted than boiled. They fit out the bodies of their young or adolescent children with the pelts, as I mentioned in the previous chapter, and use the skins of birds as head-gear. Therefore many folk rashly believe that they have hairy bodies, like animals or brute beasts; this perhaps arises from ignorance or from the pleasure that a great many people take in telling, in a way which is beyond belief, of all they have discovered in faroff lands, as Paulus Jovius liked to do. 5

212

BOOK FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

How horses cross the snowy mountains

T

HE passage of this man and his horse, as though they were walking on soldiers' shields, is to be understood as follows: on the frontier of the northern kingdoms of Sweden and Norway there are lofty mountains called Dovrefjell1 and others like them, which in wintertime are covered in such dense, deep snow that it is quite impossible for travellers to find a firm route over them in the usual way. Yet, to overcome a difficulty of this sort by their ingenuity and skilfully lighten their loads, the traders of those parts fasten to their own and their horses' feet wickerwork shoes, or light, broad half-circles of cork or lime bark and, even though they are weighed down with a heavy burden, tread the ridges of snow without fear of sinking. 2 On a day's journey they only complete two mountain miles, the equivalent of twelve Italian,3 because of the shortness of the days, but at night, when the moon gives a brilliant light, they travel two or three times as far. Nor is this a disadvantage since, by the reflection from the white surface, the shimmering brightness illu­ minates the elevated and sloping snowfields, so that they may pick out from far off the mountain precipices and harmful beasts that have to be avoided.4 Among these the most deadly are mountain wolves which, when it is bitterly cold, especially in the month of January, mass together in a great pack, as I shall relate below when I write of the danger from wolves. 5 The goods which are carried with such resourcefulness and toil are salt, bars of iron, linen and woollen cloth, in some places silver and copper ore, and valuable pelts. 6 Now in order to train the horses more carefully for their snowy journey, they take them from their early years and in snow-filled valleys tie to their feet thin pieces of wickerwork, like baskets; here they are led about every day with a light burden so that they can become accustomed to carrying heavier weights. It is just as important for the men who lead them, with baskets bound under the soles of their feet, to equip themselves with a staff which is broad at the lower end and support themselves with it;7 so by means of these preparatory walks they may, when the time comes, be 213

Dovrefjell

Baskets, wickerwork, or halfcircles under the feet By the light of the moon they shun dangers

Wolves most deadly Goods and merchandise

Travellers are helped by a staff

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Woe to him that is alone Strabo

They seek help with raised staves Men are dug out and rescued Foresight must be employed

able to escape from an emergency and the death that threatens them. You see, travellers find that when the south wind is blowing the snow becomes very soft and, unless this precaution has been taken, when the feet of horse or man dig into it the surface will give way as though it were an open chasm; and if he is not accompanied by trustworthy men, there is no one to drag someone up again who is alone with his beast of burden. If on many occasions the saying, 'Woe to him that is alone,'8 is true, it is certainly one to be shuddered at in such a situation, if a person has no one to pull him out when an accident of this sort occurs. I think I should not omit reference here to the respected writer Strabo, who in Bk XI, dealing with the regions of Armenia, quotes some mishaps very like this in these words: Tart of Armenia is Faunena, and there is Comisena, and Orchistena, which has an abundance of horses. Chorsena and Cambisena lie to the north and snow falls heavily there, for they border on the Caucasus mountains, Iberia, and Colchis. Those who travel here over the topmost peaks of the mountains are said to become buried by snow, for a great quantity falls there. They therefore carry staves in case of perils of this kind, which they thrust up to the surface of the snow so that they can breathe and can use them as a signal to obtain help from any people who may arrive at that spot. By this means they are often dug out and rescued.'9 It is obvious, then, from this evidence that the more westerly nations of the Gotar, Swedes, and Norwegians have regard for their safety through their skill and shrewdness, and have more foresight than to expose themselves to evident dangers and to require compassion from another, of which they cannot be certain.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

On the perilous passage among the mountains

Very tiny snowflakes more dangerous

Ai

still greater danger overhangs travellers among mountains that are full of caves, for through the concentration of tiny snowflakes .there one can observe the blasts and gusts of wind roused to such violence in those places that, unless they bring along shovels or ice-picks 214

BOOK FOUR

with which to clear the way, they have hardly any hope of emerging from mountains so high and valleys so deep. These, then, are the principal mountains: Dovre, Skars, Sula, and Hornilla, 1 and there are many others like them, from whose feet, or hearts, issue enormous rivers, some to the east, some to the west. The mountains are continuous, their ridges stretching in a line which runs from south to north in an unbroken hump.2 Their names are taken from provinces, rivers, or the shape of the land, or from the wild beasts that live in them, as for instance, bears, wolves, and stags, or from beavers and other animals that are completely covered in fur, for, to suit the nature of their habitat, these are extremely well clad against the violence of the cold. This is why, if lions, camels, apes, asses, or mules are transported there, they can scarcely survive, as I reported in Bk I about the horrific cold. 3 The natives make their way into these mountains in winter-time using reindeer like yoked stags to bear quite heavy burdens for a distance of almost two hundred Italian miles. 4 A single man will own forty tame reindeer, of which any one can sustain a weight of two hundred pounds or more. 5

Names of mountains Huge rivers

Names of mountains from hairy animals There are no lions, camels, etc. in the North

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

On the law that ravens are to be killed

I

N Iceland, that is, the icy land that from long ago has been and still is Iceland subject to Norway, it is stipulated by law that whoever slaughters a dangerous beast shall receive from the treasury or from the royal governor a set reward, graded according to the ferocity of the creature which he has killed and whose carcase he has produced. Since ravens, therefore, including the white variety, are more savage than in other lands in the way they kill lambs and piglets with their swooping attacks and snatching talons, the young fellows of that country energetically train and harden themselves to hunt the ravens and to avenge their ravages by killing a great many of them with arrows. Those who are seeking a reward show as a token to those in authority only the beaks strung on cords. This 215

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

recompense is bestowed most generously, for they receive arrows equal in number to the predators slain. 1 The same regard is paid to other injurious animals over the whole northern region, except that the pelts of great bears, especially of white ones, are spread under the seats before sacred altars, to prevent the cold from hurting the priests. 2 Among the Spanish tribes mice were hunted in a similar manner, as Spanish mice Strabo testifies, for the natives of those lands, in order to keep the grain safe from their gnawing, used to hire exterminators of these pests at public expense, although their energetic measures met with no success.3 Moreover, not very different from this is the fact that two rabbits, intro­ duced on an island somewhere near the Pillars of Hercules and Gades, would have ruined almost the whole of it if the Romans had not brought Rabbits are overcome by help as quickly as they could. Now, however, as a result of incessant a Roman army hunting, they have been destroyed and there is no trace of them.4 Again, in Rome I once saw to my amazement the excellent authority of the Romans in operation when they instituted payment from the treasury to Grass­ countrymen in order to get them to exterminate the locusts, or grasshop­ hoppers or pers as they call them, which in intermittent seasons and years devastated locusts not only the fields but the trees and every green thing. The price was reckoned according to a certain size and number of locusts killed, until these vicious swarms were diminished. 5 It will not be inappropriate, either, to recall here the Mysian embassy to Cyrus which delivered this message: 'O King, there has appeared in our Boar country something very great, a boar, which destroys all our work in the fields. Despite all our most assiduous attempts we have not yet succeeded in killing it. Now therefore we beseech you to send with us your son, together with chosen young men and dogs, so that we may remove the Answer of brute from our country.' He replied that he would not send his son, King Cyrus because of his newly-married wife, but would send select men from the Lydians and all his huntsmen with their hounds, instructing them to drive the brute from the country as swiftly as possible. However, the son of Cyrus, not wishing to seem a coward, speedily took it upon himself, with the aid of his horses and hounds, to put a spear through the beast. By a King's son most unlucky chance he was killed from a blow of the lance with which the killed boar was to have been dispatched.6

Arrows are given as a reward White bears Skins at the feet of altars

216

BOOK FOUR

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

On reverence for the aged

N

OW the great concern that the northern peoples have for the aged, both their parents and others who are weighed down by their venerable years, is quickly shown by the picture at the head of this chapter, where an old man, who is about to descend a steep mountain or hill, is placed upon a bearskin, on which he is to be brought to the bottom by the good offices of his sons or servants; however, this precaution is observed, that the rear part of the skin or hide should be turned to the front, so that the hairs are made to stand up and his passage over the snow or slippery ice consequently retarded. So, sliding slowly down, he and his loads are borne unharmed from the higher ground to the lowest level. But this respect and courtesy towards the old also ensure that, when it is impossible for them to descend in this way by an icy route, they are carried steadily by their sons, who twist and circle about as they make their way down to the flat ground. Again, if slippery ice has to be crossed on the way up, in case the cart grows too heavy and slithers backwards, they will bring it to a halt and lodge a branch of wood or twopronged bar of iron as a chock beneath the wheels, enabling the draught animals to draw breath. This forethought is useful and necessary on long journeys, when men are ascending for two or three days or more, and then working down for just as long into the marshy levels, which are totally frozen. It is no unusual thing for these people to make way for an elderly man, whenever he meets them in the road or in a house, to show deference to him and to accept and carry out, according to his expressed opinion, any decision he gives, as I shall make plain below in Bk XIV, where I discuss courts of justice in the wilds. 1 As a further example of the obedience due to one's elders I can add the case of the two Argive sons who, as their oxen were not available, yoked themselves to the cart and drew their mother for forty-five furlongs to the temple of Juno, exciting the esteem and wonder of all (see Herodotus, Bk I). When their mother prayed that her sons might obtain the best thing that could be granted to mortal men, they died on the spot, leaving 217

Respect for the aged

Way of descending

Way of ascending

Frozen marsh Opinion of old men prevails

Two sons under yoke drew their mother to a temple

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Gambaruk

Those to leave their country set apart by lot

Admirable instinct of the stork

O parricide, impious man, what are you doing?5 Old are held in lasting regard

evidence to posterity that it is preferable for a person to die than to live, as I have written earlier in Ch. 8 of this book.2 In Bk. VIII Saxo recalls the useful counsel which the wise mother, Gambaruk, gave her sons before the departure of the Langobards from the North, to prevent an immeasur­ able number of their people perishing. Her advice was that 'those who were to leave their native land should be chosen by lot, yet at the same time a sense of duty towards their parents and children should be main­ tained. If the choice were to fall on the old and infirm, the hardier individuals should offer themselves as emigrants in their stead and should voluntarily undertake and endure the burden of exile on behalf of the weaker ones. Whoever could bear to purchase life at the price of sin and impiety, she said, and inflict such an atrocious decision on parents and offspring, did not deserve to live; for in place of loving kindness they would be administering a cruel favour. Lastly, all those served their country ill in whom regard for their own lives carried greater weight than devotion to their parents or children.'3 Those are Saxo's words. Animals, too, do not lack a sense of duty and obedience to their parents, for among others the storks, heralds of joy and of the returning year, when their parents lose their feathers because of old age and are not strong enough to seek food for themselves, cover them with their own downy plumes, relieve their hunger, and refresh their weary bodies, till the aged wings are restored to their former vigour. So by this dutiful exchange they compensate for the life that they have received from their parents.4 How, then, ought human beings to behave, when they learn that such loyalty exists even in dumb creatures? Again, it is the custom among the northern peoples for the younger to give way to the older and turn to one side when they meet them; by rising from their seats when their elders draw near they also show them a lasting respect.

218

BOOK FOUR

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

On the baptism of children among those who dwell in the wild

M

UCH has been said about the idolaters and their superstitious rites in this most northerly region of the world, and how there is hope that one day they will hear the true preaching of the divine word and not be slow to enter the communion of believers in Christ. 1 Nevertheless, persuaded by devout homilies of Catholic priests, a large number of the people of the wild have already been drawn in and a better hope is born that in time, when heresies elsewhere are put down, these races will with one accord come to seek admission. 2 Indeed, the reason for their apparent slowness is quite clear: they live a great way off, that is to say, two hundred or more Italian miles from the churches of Christians, which they are seldom able to come near on account of this enormous distance. 3 However, those who have yielded themselves to Christian observance are found to be very obedient, though because of the distance I have referred to they visit their baptismal churches only once or twice a year, bringing with them their unweaned babies to be baptized, in carriers or baskets strapped to their backs, together with other burdens and gifts of pelts, especially of the valuable kinds, to be given to the priest in lieu of tithes. But the remoteness and the inconvenience entailed in converting men to the Faith must be deplored, not only in the case of the Bothnians, who live to the north, but also in that of the Varmlanders to the west; and since these regions are trackless and full of perils, priests can seldom enter those wildernesses, and bishops never. 4

219

Hope for idolaters

Huge distance

They carry babies in baskets They give tithes

Trackless

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

On the conversion of northern and eastern Finland, and the very fine hospitality in those parts

A

one time this country in the extreme north was perverted by pagan superstition, as were many of the adjacent lands; it was astray from the path of truth, insolent to God, and ferocious towards its neighbours. When, about the year of our salvation 1155, the 1155 Finns had scorned the peace offered to them, those two brilliant lumi­ naries and most holy men, Erik, king of Sweden, and the blessed Henry, St Erik the king, St archbishop of Uppsala, with a victorious hand subjected them to the Henry the archbishop Christian faith and to the kingdom of Sweden. 1 After these two saints had preached the divine word, erected churches, and appointed priests to Finns are supervise them, these people became special lovers of all the virtues, converted Generosity particularly those of generosity and hospitality, which the inhabitants Hospitality show with the utmost goodwill to all newcomers and foreigners. They are kindly to each other, unassuming, and slow to anger; but if they have been baited for a long time, they will compensate for their tardiness with They live in powerful vengeance. They live in small communities dispersed among small communities parishes and villages. They have splendidly built churches, occupy them­ selves strenuously in erecting new ones, and show the greatest reverence for their priests, paying tithes from everything. Again, they are so well Sermon instructed by them in the divine law, with an interpreter employed in the through an pulpit according to custom, that their former errors have been eradicated interpreter and they prove most ready and eager, in noble frame of mind, to follow every honourable practice. The dwellers in western Bothnia2 are supposed to be not unlike them, Law of for, lacking the learning of the schools, they are so taught by the law of Nature Nature that vices are abhorred and virtues embraced; they perceive that all bounties are showered upon those who live uprightly and harm no one, while, in contrast, because of loathsome crimes that have been commit­ ted, namely fornications, adulteries, thefts, and murders, birds and beasts have quite frequently deserted the woods and fishes the waters belonging 220

BOOK FOUR

to those criminals, and have not returned before the vexed Deity has been appeased by the prayers and blessings of holy ministers of the faith. I shall say more about this below in Bk XVI, and also about the many remedies against the various outrages of those who profane the Church and injure the poor, remedies whose effect may be confidently awaited. 3

Scarcity is averted by prayers Remedies are to be awaited

CHAPTER NINETEEN

On the reasons for delay in the conversion of the northern peoples

T

HE reason why the peoples of the farthest North were not called as one to the Catholic faith during so many past ages and centuries seems to be first attributable to the inscrutable providence of God, which fixed in its own power the hours and moments when this most holy work might be accomplished. Meanwhile, however, we must constantly pray that, since the harvest is plenteous, He will deign to send out capable and effectual labourers at the right season. 1 If I too seemed needed, I should never refuse to undertake such sacred labour, in case God in His majesty should vouchsafe to put it into the heart of the king of Sweden to allow me, whose most burning desire it is, to perform so excellent a work; since I assumed the title of archbishop of those parts eleven years ago,2 I have unceasingly desired it, for the honour of God on high and the everlasting safety of all those who dwell there. Nor could I doubt that with His help I should increase the number of this kingdom's subjects in places which I have seen in the past to be highly suitable, so that areas where no one now lives I should within ten years turn into a fit and ample habitation for many thousands of people, who would dwell there in very favourable conditions; hence what is God's would be paid to God and what is the king's to the king, fully and in every way. 3 But alas, we do not perceive a time at hand when we might be confident that such a useful enterprise could be undertaken and brought to a successful conclusion. In his book on northern geography, Ziegler, a maintainer of Luther's madness, falsely accuses the northern bishops of culpability because those peoples of the North are not being converted to the most holy communion of believers in Christ; he implies that they were scared away and estranged from sacred baptism and the true Church, since they anticipated having to give an intolerable sum in tribute to the popes.4 In fact this statement is false and sacrilegious, insofar as God, who is truth, recognizes and de­ clares that the higher clergy are not at fault if this most pious task is deferred. Because of persecution by certain great men infected by heresies, 221

Reason for the tardy call to the people of the North The harvest is plenteous the labourers few

Most pious desire of th« author

Dues of kin] and Church to be very easily increased Impious slanders of Ziegler

Higher clergy not at fault

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Fullness of the gentiles

Jamtland Generosity ofJohannes Magnus, archbishop of Uppsala

the bishops can scarcely protect the flock which they had earlier gained by their work and precept in the southern provinces of their dioceses. How much less are they able to add a new flock by travelling into the territories of the farthest North, until it may be that the fullness of the gentiles be come in, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd?5 However, in order to defend the rights and authority of the metropolitan church of Uppsala, Johannes Magnus, at that time archbishop-elect, albeit legate of the apostolic see, made a visitation in the year of our salvation 1526 to the farthest part of Jamtland, where he paid out more of his income for the relief of the poor than he kept for his own needs; as may be seen at greater length in his Life, in the work entitled The Metropolitan See of Uppsala.6

CHAPTER TWENTY

How peoples are drawn to the true religion and kept loyal to it

Kindness of Job. Magnus, archbishop of Uppsala From fines he bestows money on the dis­ tressed Finding of salt Gift of salt­ pans

W

HEN his election as archbishop had been confirmed, the peoples in far-off regions1 tried with wholehearted eagerness to demon­ strate all kinds of obedience and friendliness, 2but he still strove in every way to surpass their goodwill with his own, so that they might all acknowledge him as the pattern of that true shepherd who knows and feeds his sheep. The amends which people, according to divine law, were accustomed to offer the high priest to atone for their sins, he generously paid out for the needs of the poor, and also aided those who were brought low by loss of their possessions through fire and those who were otherwise oppressed through the ferocity of tyrants. Moreover, to those who suf­ fered intolerably from a lack of salt he not only taught the art of decocting it, a skill he had acquired during his studies abroad, but he also had salt­ works and evaporating pans set up on the shores of the sea without any profit to himself, paying out towards this beneficial and needful practice a sum equivalent to 1000 marks of good money. Yet however much esteem and applause he acquired from true followers of the Catholic faith for this and similar exertions of enormous kindness, 222

BOOK FOUR

he still incurred just as much hatred on the side of the infamous Lutherans when they beheld him after his return from his long visitation.2 Nevertheless, determined to follow the pattern of Him who like a lamb before his shearer opened not his mouth,3 he never ceased, even during an exile of nineteen years, to toil with indescribable patience and loyalty for the honour of King Gustav and that of his fatherland, which was being wickedly harassed by the Lutheran devils, so that he might overcome evil with good.4 All the good that he and God's other revered bishops did in ample measure for the salvation of his very harsh, not to say ungrateful, country will, as far as is necessary, be shown to everybody by outstanding examples in his book on the Metropolitan See of Uppsala and in his Apologia.5 So ends this fourth book, and the way lies open for the ancient histories of champions and giants who, if they were now alive and had to deal forcibly with wild beasts, that is foul heretics, would not refuse to engage them in combat. END OF BOOK FOUR

223

Hatred instead of esteem 19 years' exile

Ungrateful country Metropolis Apologia

Fighting with beasts

NOTES OM 4: Preface

1 I.e. on skis, cf. OM 1:4, 1:25. On Lappland and Lapps in general see KL, X, cols 316-23. 2 Quintus Curtius, VIII11; Justin, XII 7,12-13; Plutarch, Life of Alexander, 59. OM4:1 The large vignettes are expanded from CM, litt. C i, where according to the legend the left-hand picture shows Tengillus (Tengild) and his Scricfinns, the right-hand picture Arngrim. Saxo, OM's main source, makes no mention of reindeer cavalry, and they are pure fantasy. 1 All the preceding is from Saxo 9, IV 22-25 (tr. Fisher, pp. 286-7), with some paraphrase and omission. In the last sentence OM has 'vilis', 'paltry', for Saxo's 'utilis'; possibly an intentional substitution. The verse, added by OM, is from Claudian, In Rufinum, II49, with 'causis' for Claudian's 'fatis'. M Follows Saxo, 5, XIII1-3 (tr. Fisher, pp. 152-3). Egbert is Egtherus in Saxo. 3 From Florus, I 18, 4. OM4:2 The picture is derived with modifications from CM, litt. C a. Lapps in Finnmark fight off sea-raiders. 1~1 From Vincent, Spec, hist., XXXI 12. 2 Referring to the Lapps of Finnmark, portrayed as hunters and fishers. On their dwellings cf. below. On Circius see OM 1:10. 3 In ON the word gammi was used especially of the typical huts of the Lapps and in modern forms it remains a semi-technical term for them. In the commonest type a lath-filled timber framework was covered first with bark and then with turf, with a round or oval floor space. Cf. KL, V, cols 179-83; Fjellstrom, Samernas samhdlle, pp. 232-41. On whale bones as frame elements cf. OM 2:10. 4 Cf. Strabo, XI 5, 7, on Caucasian troglodytes. 5 Strabo, XII 3, 18. Strabo's Heptacometae appear as Neptacometae in OM. 6 From Pliny, Nat. hist., XVI1,3-4; he is describing the Chauci on the North Sea coast between the Ems and Elbe, and implies that they would be better off under Roman rule. OM's punctuation is modified in the translation in order to follow Pliny more literally. OM4:3

The picture shows armed Lapps on skis. 1 On 'men of the wild' cf. OM 1:25, n. 2. 2 In OM 11:14 it is said that elk-hide as body armour is distinctive of the Finns. Spear-headed ski-staves with pronged butts were also typical Finnish military equipment. 3 Cf. OM 1:4 and 25. 4 From Herodotus, IV 46. Where OM has 'pedestres', 'foot-soldiers', the 1526 Latin ed. of Herodotus (p. 114) has 'equestres'. According to Herodotus, Anacharsis was a Scythian sage who travelled widely to observe peoples' customs in the sixth century BC. 5 OM adds this information on the typical bark or hide tent (k&ta) of the Lapps and on their bird-skin headwear. On the former cf. KL, X, col. 51; Fjellstrom, 224

BOOK FOUR Samernas samhalle, pp. 241-51; on the latter OM 17:26 (vignette) and Granlund, 'Birdskin caps'. 6 See OM 4:5. OM4:4 The figures in the vignette can be identified from the text. From left to right we see a Muscovite (offering a counterfeit coin, cf. OM 6:12), a Swede (armed with an axe), a Lapp (in furs, with a handbow), a man from Gotaland (with a crossbow). The Swede in long trousers (common garb in medieval Scandinavia) and the Gotalander in newfangled hose may represent a distinction visible in OM's time. 1 OM's 'Dalensium, Montanorum', 'Dalecarlians, Highlanders', are possibly to be taken together. Elsewhere he refers to Dalecarlians as 'montani' or 'montani Dalcarli'. 2 Pliny, Nat. hist., IV 13, 96. Cf. OM 14: Pref. 3 Rhigyfarch, writing in the late eleventh century, says that St David was 147 when he died; see James, Rhigyfarch's Life of St David, p. 25. 4 See OM 4:5. 5 Cf. OM7:l-5. 6 On Lapp clothing see further OM 4:11 and 13:48. 7 Based on Strabo, XI 2, 16. In the Greek Strabo says that they were divided by arrogance and savagery. 8 Strabo, XI 4, 6. His Albania is a country in the eastern Caucasus. 9 Probably from Pliny, Nat. hist., XI 112, 270, but ultimately from Herodotus, I 34 and 85. 10 Modified from Cassiodorus, Var. , I 38, 2. OM4:5 The vignette, used again in OM 20:2, is derived, with additions, from CM, litt. C h, depicting barter between Northerners (on the left) and Muscovites. In the sixteenth century taxes from Lappland were paid in naturalia and tables recording the value of different wares are extant. According to these, the ermine pelt held up by the Russian was worth the three axes seen on the left, while the dried pike (by the lispound) held up by the man on the left could buy the dozen arrows shown on the right. 1 From Cassiodorus, Var., XII, 11, 2. 2 See OM 6:13. 3-3 From Cassiodorus, Var., XII11, 2. 4 On markets see OM 4:6. 5 From Herodotus, IV 196. 6 The fish had to be of a certain length. On dried fish measures see further OM 20:2 and 26, 21:3. 7 Birkarlar are taken by OM to be bergkarlar, 'mountain-men' (his '-chara' represents kara from older karlar). The term is in fact believed to be derived from Pirkkala, the name of the region round Tampere and once used of all the eastern half of upper Satakunta in Finland. The birkarlar were thus originally Finns who, with Swedes among them, were settled in the Bothnian coastal districts of Kemi, Tornea, Lulea and Pitea. From the thirteenth century they acted as privileged tax gatherers in Lappland on behalf of the Swedish crown and they enjoyed a certain monopoly of trade as middlemen between the Lapps and foreign merchants. Their activity northward was limited by the competing interests of Norwegians and Russians. Cf. KL, I, cols 594-600. 8 Cf. OM 4:1-2, 3:16-17. 9 Pliny, Nat. hist., VI 24, 88. OM4:6 The picture shows the disting market on the frozen Fyrisa at Uppsala. On other markets see KL, XI, cols 449-52.

225

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

1 Disting is from early Sw. dfsafwg, 'assembly(-place) of the disir', who were female tutelary spirits. There was no Queen Disa, but there is an early reference to 'the great dis\ probably Freyja, the chief goddess of fertility in pre-Christian Norse belief. 2 OM is the first to report this legend in connection with Queen Disa; variants have been recorded in modern times. 3 Paulus Diaconus, I 1-20, possibly the ultimate source of all legends of migra­ tion from Scandinavia; cf. OM 2:24, 4:16, 9:45. 4 JMGSH, 114-15. 5 OM is the first to state this rule for the date of the disting. It appears to have been generally observed, with the market regularly held when the new moon rising next after midnight on 6 January was at the full. The market was not finally abolished until 1895; from 1802 it had been held at the beginning of February without regard to the moon's phase. 6 Cf. OM 4:5. Weights and measures were so heterogeneous that it was probably impractical to impose standards on markets attended by people from many dif­ ferent regions. 7 The central market in Jamtland was usually held on Froson, 30 km north of Oviken. 8 This may refer to the legally required muster for the inspection of weapons which in some places was associated with market meetings and might take place in winter. None is known in the sort of cold May OM describes. OM4:7 The vignette, based on CM, litt. C g, with additions, illustrates the chapter. 1-1 The passage is derived, partly verbatim, from Ziegler, Schondia, 1532, fol. 95v. Cf. Introd., pp. lii-liii, Iviii. On courtship and bridal customs among Lapps see Kjellstrom, 'Lapparnas frierier och brollop'. 2 It is an upper-class wedding that OM is describing. 3 See further OM 16:6. 4 In 'with a lamp burning' OM is echoing the words of the baptismal rite, when the officiant puts a candle in the hand of the infant, saying 'N., receive a lamp burning and blameless ...' 5 The only source of the valuable sable was N. and E. Russia, probably brought to N. Sweden chiefly by Karelian middlemen. It is otherwise attested in sixteenthcentury Sweden only in inventories of the richest people's possessions. Cf. OM 11:12,18:19; KL, XVI, cols 354-8. 6 The service was held elsewhere, not in the bridal tent. No other source speaks of a bridal procession mounted on reindeer. 7 Solinus, XXX 3. 8 See further OM 14:12-14. OM4:8

The vignette illustrates the ring-dance which, as described by OM, was accompa­ nied by both instruments and sung ballad. 1 The Lapps had no stringed instruments and OM is probably describing Finnish custom. As dance accompaniment narrative ballads are now best known from Finns in NE. Karelia and the region south-east of St Petersburg. OM moves without a break to another sort of ballad, probably of a kind most familiar from S. Karelia and Ingermanland, where laments have remained a common element in 'passagerite' festivals, especially weddings. 2 See further OM 5:5,12-13, and 18. 3 Following Franciscus Patricius, De regno, I 8; cf. Herodotus, V 4- Strabo XI 11,8. 226

BOOK FOUR OM4:9

The picture is intended to illustrate the chapter but with mixed success. The man riding the reindeer (a piece of fantasy) is a birkarl on official business. 1 See OM 1:1 and 2. 2 The 'parallels' are, of course, not of latitude but the Ptolemaic lines of equidistance, dividing the klimata or zones. According to JMGSH, Praef. 5, the 39th parallel corresponds to 85°-90°N., the 38th to 80°-84°N., the 36th to 71°-74°N. (The information on CM on the other hand is quite inconsistent with such measure­ ment.) The countries listed here by OM lie between c. 56° and 70°N. 3 Train-oil lamps were in use only in Finnmark. Cf. OM 2:17, 21:20. 4 See OM 17:26-27. 5 Cf. OM 1:19-21, 4:13. 6 See OM 1:28,11:21. 7 See OM 22:5-6. OM 4:10 The picture is chiefly based on CM, litt. C q, but the artist has misunderstood some details. Clinker-built boats with tendons or withes as fastenings are in an ancient tradition. This method of boat-building in N. Europe is thought by many experts, but not by all, to have been influenced by the hide-covered craft of Arctic peoples. Cf. KL, II, cols 475-6. 1 So the Vulgate, Job 37:22, 'ab aquilone splendor auri venit'; the AV has 'Fair weather cometh out of the north', the RV 'Out of the north cometh golden splendour'. Cf. OM Pref., p. 8, and OM 6:12. 2 On turning tendons into thread see Key land, 'Sentradsspinning . . .', esp. pp. 152-4. 3 The preceding offers an accurate description of boat-building as it continued to be practised down to the eighteenth century in Swedish Lappland and down to modern times in the Pechenga (Petsamo) region north-west of Murmansk. On 'Gothic or German' miles cf. OM 1:2, n. 5. The internal reference is to OM 17:27 and 30. In the last sentence OM is presumably referring to the fact that the holes bored to take the sewing material were subsequently plugged. 4 Sw. skuta is a general term for smaller sea-going craft. The hdp(er) was not a single variety of boat either, though OM only uses the term of river craft. OM has 'Haaper' in the margin, 'Haapar' in the text, the latter probably a generic plural (used with a singular verb). The word is from Finnish haapa, 'aspen'. Cf. KL, II, cols 473-4. 5 On OM's travels cf. Introd., p. xxviii, and on such marks OM 1:31, 7:15. OM 4:11 The vignette illustrates the chapter. The Lapps, of different ages, are all fur-clad, the second from the right in a complete bearskin; cf. the end of the chapter. 1 Where OM travelled among Lapps is not precisely known. 2 Following Paulus Jovius, De legatione Moschovitarum, p. 487. Cf. the Herodo­ tus passage in OM 4:3. 3 Probably a recollection of Lapp storehouses mounted on tall poles or trees to keep them out of reach of animals; cf. the vignette to OM 12:2; Fjellstrom, Samernas samhdlle, pp. 251-3. 4 See OM 18:13 and 15. 5 Gerolamo Querini, Patriarch of Venice 1524-54, gave JM and OM shelter and support from the winter of 1538 until the beginning of 1541. See Introd., p. xxxi. 6 Bearskins are not mentioned in OM 6:20. Lapps are not known to have masked themselves in such a way for hunting. OM's remarks may possibly reflect a belief among their neighbours that Lapps could adopt bear shape.

227

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES OM 4:12

The same vignette is used before OM 1:5. 1 A fuller reference would be to OM 1:1-2, 4—5. 2 Cf. OM1:4, 4: land 3. 3 Tacitus, Germania, ch. 46, said, justifiably or not, that women among the Fenni were hunters equally with men, and OM may build on this notion rather than on observation. In more recent times women in Lappland and parts of Finland have participated in catching and trapping close to home but they are not known to have joined in the chase. 4 In such a hunting society it is customary for the game to be counted the property of the group, not of the individual. 5 This last sentence is more or less verbatim from Ziegler, Schondia, 1532, fol. 94v. OM 4:13

The picture is derived from CM, litt. E f, where the man is crossing the border mountains, Kolen, from Harjedal into Norway: here his direction is reversed. 'Cf. OM2:15. 2 This type of snowshoe is the chief 'northern' kind in Scandinavia, used through­ out Swedish Norrland (but not by Lapps) and in Norway as far south as Telemark and Hardanger. Cf. KL, XVIII, cols 718-20. 3 I.e. getting on for 18 km. 4 Cf. OM 4:9. 5 See OM 18:13 and 15. 6 Apart from salt (see OM 13:44), the wares represent articles of export from Sweden. 7 The picture shows a staff with a circular attachment of the kind familiar from ski-sticks. 8 Ecclesiastes 4:10. 9 Strabo, XI14, 4. OM 4:14 The vignette was used before OM 2:14; see n. ad loc. 1 On these mountains see OM 2:12 and 14-15. Hornilla is misprinted 'Horuilla' inOM. 2 I.e. Kolen, 'the Keel', dividing Norway and Sweden. 3 OM 1:19. 4 I.e. nearly 300 km. 5 I.e. a weight of some 83 kg, probably an exaggeration; a more normal load is up to 50 kg. OM 4:15 The vignette illustrates the beginning of the chapter. 1 This 'beak toll' is known in the Faroes, but not in Iceland. On ravens, including the white variety, cf. OM 7:23, 19:19. 2 In the early 1530s Piero Quirini reported polar-bear skins before the altar in the cathedral in Nidaros (Trondheim). There are numerous records of their use in Icelandic churches. Cf. OM 18:24, 16:20; KL, VII, cols 467-71. 3 Loosely from Strabo, HI 4,18. 4 From Strabo, III 5, 2. Rabbits on the Balearics were wiped out by ferrets. 5 See OM 22:2. An edict to this effect is known from 1543. 6 From Herodotus, I 36-43. Cyrus is OM's mistake for Croesus. 228

BOOK FOUR

OM 4:16

The picture is intended to illustrate the chapter; among various discrepancies it will be noted that the bearskin is the wrong way round to act as a drag. 1 See OM 14:17. 2 OM's version of Herodotus, I 31. The 'Argive sons' were Cleobis and Biton. 3 From Saxo, 8, XIII 1-2 (tr. Fisher, pp. 260-1). Saxo embroiders on the mention of Gambara (Gambaruc in Saxo) in Paulus Diaconus, I 8. Cf. OM 2:24, 4:6, 9:45. 4 Cf. OM 19:14. 5 These words, 'O parricida & sacrilege quid agis?', echo Plautus, Pseudolus, 1 362-3. OM 4:17

The vignette illustrates the middle part of the chapter. The church as drawn is not a Scandinavian type. The man's staff and basket show influence from elements in the initial M at the start of canto 6 in 1549 prints of Orlando Furioso. 1 Cf. especially OM 3:2 and 17, 4:7. 2 Various efforts to spread Christianity among Lapps were made in the four­ teenth and fifteenth centuries. OM doubtless had the same interest at heart in his northern travels in 1518-19, though if he himself had then undertaken serious missionary work, one might expect him to mention it when he is on the defensive on the subject here and at the end of OM 4:19 below. In a letter to the pope in 1523 Gustav Vasa undertook to make efforts to promote the conversion of the Lapps, and in 1526 he directed Benedictus Petri, priest-monk of Vadstena and previously a canon of Skara, to work in the Lapp missionary field. (It may be taken for granted that Benedictus had connections with the Magnus brothers.) Cf. Westerdahl, 'De forsta prasterna i Angermanlands lappmark'. 3 See further OM 4:19. The distance is in the region of 300 km. 4 Cf. OM 3:1, n. 8. In the late middle ages Varmland belonged to the diocese of Skara (Vastergotland) and contained, it is said, 50-60 churches. A visitation made by the Lutheran superintendent in 1588 was the first for a century. OM4:18

The picture, used again before OM 16:12, chiefly relates to the theme of hospital­ ity. In Tornedal and N. Finland a tree with lopped branches is a sign of welcome; cf. KL, VIII, cols 308-11. The two travellers are modifications of figures in Hans Holbein the Younger's illustration for Ezra 1:6. 1 Cf. OM 2:25. Bishop Henry, said to be of English origin, was probably conse­ crated in 1152; King Erik was killed in or about 1160. Their 'crusade' to Finland probably took place in 1155, and Bishop Henry was killed a year later in the vicinity of Nousis, 30 km north-west of Abo. This was not the first mission to Finland, nor did it mark a time of national conversion. 2 I.e. the Lapps. Cf. OM 20:1. 3 Cf. OM 13:4, 16:9. OM 4:19

1 On evangelization among the Lapps as a contemporary issue see OM 14:17 and n. 2 there. The last sentence echoes Matthew 9:37. 2 If this is exact, OM must have written (or revised) this chapter between August and October 1554, while the Historia was at press; cf. Introd., p. xxxvii. 3 Luke 20:25, paraphrased. 4 Ziegler, Schondia, 1532, fol. 95. 5 A conflation of Romans 11:25 and John 10:16. 6 See OM 4:20, n. 2.

229

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES OM4:20

The symbol, apparently a palm branch, presumably signifies the celestial reward of the victorious, cf. the Latin tag surrounding it. F and V in the bottom corners perhaps stand for 'Fides' and 'Victoria', cf. 1 John 5:4. 1 Jamtland is particularly meant. 2~2 Practically the same words are used by OM in the biography of JM which he added to JMHMEU, in SRS, 111:2, pp. 76-7. Cf. Introd., pp. xxx, xxxvi. The Jamtland visitation took place in February-March 1526 (on episcopal visitations in general see KL, XX, cols 418-20). Cf. OM 11:46, 12:22. On JM and salt-making see further OM 13:44. 3 Acts 8:32, quoting Isaiah 53:7. 4 An echo of OM's motto, 'Vince in bono malum' (Romans 12:21), found on CM and on the full-page frontispiece to OM 12, which is repeated at the end of the Historia (p. 815); cf. OM 16:28. 5 I.e. OM's life of his brother, added by him to JMHMEU; cf. Introd., p. xxxvi.

230

BOOK FIVE OF OLAUS MAGNUS THE GOTH, ARCHBISHOP OF UPPSALA, ON GIANTS

CHAPTER ONE

S

ACRED and profane historians clearly report the great feats of giants and champions, stating distinctly the reason, time, and geo­ graphical location of their deeds, together with their mode of life. Nevertheless it will not be a superfluous task for me to add to these some pieces of evidence that have been unearthed from the rocks and boulders of the northern regions, and openly publicize them to everyone through­ out the world, seeing that they have been recorded in books only by very ancient and inaccessible writers. The far-distant areas, elsewhere depicted on my Gothic map, namely Finnmark, Biarmia, Scricfinnia, Halsingland, etc., everywhere display such obvious monuments of giants to inquisitive observers, or those wishful to learn, that their bounding wonder leaves them no option but to believe that such lofty blocks of stone and such a huge assemblage of mounds were built and completed not by any short method of Nature, but by men of extraordinary strength. 1 So similar rocks are to be seen everywhere2 in the plains, forests, and mountains of the Swedish, Gota, and Norwegian realms. What Saxo Grammaticus, that most conscientious historian of the Danes, has to say on this subject with 231

Feats of ancestors have been culled from rocks Gothic map, published 1539 at Venice

Assemblage of mounds Saxo

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

regard to his own land of Denmark, the diligent reader may find by looking, as much as it pleases him, near the end of the Preface to his Histories', there he will learn that the Danish land was once cultivated by a civilization of giants, as is borne out by the stones of amazing size placed by ancient tombs and caves. Now, if anyone doubts whether these were feats of superhuman strength, let him scan the heights of certain mounds and say, if he can, who carried such enormous boulders to their summits. For it is unthinkable to anyone who assesses this marvel that a rocky mass, Immovable mass of rock which on flat ground can scarcely be moved, and that only with difficulty, should be raised to so high a point by human toil alone, or by the ordinary efforts of human energy. But Saxo admits that he has gained little know­ ledge from the antiquities of Denmark as to whether the builders of such works were giants who came into being after the Flood, or were men endowed with preternatural physical strength. 3 Perhaps if he had scruti­ nized the rocks and boulders of Upper Sweden and Gotaland he would, Sweden and Gotaland with his wonderful talent, have transmitted to posterity some of these had kings 1370 years ancient people's splendid achievements, for Svealand and Gotaland had before kings and princes thirteen hundred and seventy years before Dan, the first Denmark king in Denmark, began to reign,4 and their magnificent deeds, carved on rocks,5 are pored over in our day by those eager for knowledge. Three kinds Saxo himself, however, makes a distinction in saying that three sorts of of magician wizard once existed in the form of giants and champions, each practising their own strange and miraculous illusions. The first of these were men of 1. Giants an unusual kind called giants, who exceeded ordinary human size in their 2. Sooth­ bodily stature. Second were the soothsayers, who possessed the art of sayers prophecy; although in bulk they yielded precedence to the former, they excelled them just as much in quickness of intellect. Between these and the giants there was constant warring for supremacy, until the seers conquered the titan race by force of arms and appropriated to themselves 3. the right to rule and the esteem due to gods. But the third sort, sprung from a union of the other two, corresponded to them neither in physical size nor in the practice of magic arts. However, they acquired, in minds beguiled by their juggling tricks, a reputation for godhead, as was related Simple in many chapters of Bk III. It is no surprise that through their marvels barbarians simple barbarians should have acquiesced in counterfeit rites of religion, when at one time the immeasurable wisdom of the Romans was deceived Wisdom of the Romans by the false honours paid to some such mortals. 6 Of these the blessed deluded Augustine in The City of God, Bk II, Ch. 4, and Bk VI, Ch. 9, adduces a great many examples when he discusses, with more moderation than the horror of the crime demands, the foulest services performed for the gods, and reveals the ugliness, irrationality, vileness, and spuriousness of their impious worship. 7

232

BOOK FIVE

CHAPTER TWO

On the difference between giants and champions

O

NCE, in the kingdom of Halsingland, which is now a northerly dependency of the Swedish king, there was a giant named Harthben, whose towering frame stretched to thirteen and a half feet. As companions he had a dozen champions, who were notably tall but still only half his size. 1 There was another, a certain Starkather, once famous throughout Europe for his repeated victories, as I shall tell later on. Like­ wise there were Arngrim and Arvarodd, whose surpassing feats will also be related below. 2 However, in case I should seem to borrow patterns of great size or strength only from ancient times, it is right to bring forward some men, still fresh in memory, both from the mineral-producing and from other provinces of Svealand and Gotaland, men endowed with such massive strength that each could lift up onto his shoulders a horse or a huge ox, or indeed an iron vessel of six hundred, eight hundred, or a thousand pounds (even some girls can lift such a vessel) and carry it for several furlongs. 3 A man has also been seen who, not only through his nimbleness but also by main force, hurled or thrust to the ground an armed horseman suddenly coming in his way. I am pleased to draw from Holy Scripture an instance similar to that of Harthben, mentioned above: according to Deuteronomy, Ch. 3, Og, the king of Bashan, born from giant stock, had an iron bedstead nine cubits in length and four in breadth, taking a cubit as the length of a man's forearm.4 It is shameless not to agree with this authority, and St Augus­ tine also testifies to it, speaking of giants, in Bk XV, Ch. 9, of The City of God, where he says that men once had far larger bodies than in this age of ours. 5 Solinus, too, says that the son of Euthymenes from Salamis grew to over four and a half feet in three years, but that his walk was slow and his senses dull; his voice was strong and he reached puberty early, but soon died from diseases.6 The same author goes on to remark that during the Cretan war the rivers rose and, driving down with more than their usual strength, burst their banks; when they receded, a human body was found 233

People of Halsingland Harthben 12 cham­ pions Starkather Arngrim Arverodd

Horse can be carried Strength of girls

Og, king of Bashan Iron bed 9 cubits long

Son of Euthymenes grew over four and a half feet in three years

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Human body nearly SO feet tall

Girl 75 feet long Colossus

Two men held in one hand to be devoured Men 75 feet tall Others of 12 feet Tibia of 90 feet Maximinus the Goth

almost fifty feet tall. Lucius Flaccus, the legate, and Metellus himself, desirous of seeing this, for they were greatly captivated by the marvel, accepted with their eyes what their ears had resisted. 7 The following is taken8 from the book on the qualities of things. A girl was also found in the lands of the West, wounded in the head and lifeless, nor does anyone know from which part of the Ocean the streaming waves had carried her; she was attired in a purple cloak, was seventy-five feet long, and six from shoulder to shoulder. Colossus was a man quite out of the ordinary, for when he had been killed the River Tiber was unable to cover him, and the stain of his red blood even spread far out to sea, as Aldhelm informs us. Moreover a man was once seen of such a size that, lying on his back in his cave, he held two men in one hand intending to devour them raw.8 Pliny reports in Bk VII, Ch. 2, that men are found in Scythia over seventyfive feet tall.9 Isidore says that among the Indians the Macrobii are believed to be twelve feet in stature. 10 Strabo in Bk XVII mentions Gabinius, a Roman author, who, writing about the tomb of Antaeus, maintained that his tibia was ninety feet long. 11 Even the military boot of the Emperor Maximinus the Goth would certainly not have fitted such a shin. 12

CHAPTER THREE

On the temperance of the giants and champions

Starkather the Tavastian

Abstemious­ ness

S

AXO, that most famous writer on Danish affairs, who has been referred to above and will often have to be referred to later, re­ counts that, among other very vigorous men of the North, giants in size and endowed with might, there was a certain Starkather from Tavastland, whose amazing, heroical qualities he praises so becomingly that it seems he can have had in his time few peers in Europe or in the whole world, and perhaps has had no more to this day, nor will have in future. 1 While he attributes a great many virtues to that same lofty, spirited individual, among the rest is that abstemiousness which is so utterly essential in a powerful man, and which ought to be added to this account 234

BOOK FIVE

of mine, as a mirror for our wanton age and one which should be gazed into with deep attention. Saxo informs us that the real strength of this Starkather lay in a love of frugality and an aversion to lavish feasting. He always neglected pleasure, regarded virtue highly, and followed the ancient customs of moderation; he aimed to provide himself with a countryman's food and was disgusted by the expense of a costly dinner. Rejecting, therefore, an extravagant fondness for banquets, he stemmed his hunger with smoky, rancid fare, which tasted all the better for being plain. He had no desire to slacken the muscles of true manliness by contamination with the synthetic sweetness of foreign delicacies, nor break his old established rule of moderation with rituals of rare gluttony. Moreover it vexed him to find them going to the cost of roasting and boiling the same sort of meat at a single meal, and he regarded as an abomination food which, steeped in the aromas of the kitchen, the diligent stuffing-cook had rubbed all over with many different kinds of seasoning. 2 Therefore, in order to discourage the Danes from excesses which had been introduced after the German fashion and were making them turn womanish, he sang, among other things, the following, in the manner of his country. 3 (Much has been omitted.) 4Valiant men eat raw rations. No need of a sumptuous feast, I think, for stout-hearted breasts that contemplate the trade of war. Fitter for you to sink your teeth in your bristly beard, bite and rend it, than greedily drain that bowl of cream with cavernous mouth. I've shunned the taint of this lavish cook-shop, staying my hunger with rancid fare. Few took joy in days gone by in simmering sauces. A plate of ram's and pig's flesh was provided, without the smack of herbs; through sparing habits no man was defiled by over-indulgence. You there, licking your milk-white fat, I implore you, put on a manly spirit; remember your father Frothi and take revenge for his death! The worthless, quaking heart shall die; it cannot fend off nor escape the lash of Fate, though it hides in a dell or crouches in shadowy caves. 235

Strength

Country food The plainer, the more tasty

Meat roasted or boiled Stuffingcook German fashion

Starkather's song on moderation

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Once I was one of eleven jarls, devoted liegemen of royal Haki, when Begath sat at meals above Belgi in order of precedence. He allowed himself to take the keen edge off his hunger with a rump of shrivelled ham; to tame the fire in his belly a hard crust was provided. No one looked for steaming tit-bits; each would fill up with commonplace foods. Only plain preparations were needed to banquet the powerful. The people avoided foreign cuisine; the greatest craved no feasts and the king himself remembered to lead a temperate life costing little. He despised the honey flavour of mead, drank hot ale with his friends, nor shrank from serving uncooked provisions, for he hated roasted meats. His table was always laid modestly, with its only luxury a meagre salt-cellar, so that tested tradition should no way be changed by imported fashions. At one time no one decked the board with flagons and wine bowls. A steward filled our cups from the barrel; there was no abundance of painted pottery. None who revered past generations placed polished jars beside the tankards, nor were viands once piled on a platter by a spruce lackey. No vain host would embellish his supper with small shell-shaped dishes or smooth ladles, but this shameful parade of modern manners has ousted all that.4 Moderation nSJrdmnk Continence

With such representations he persuaded a large number of people to moderation, sobriety, and all the other virtues; consequently many were found who are reported never to have yielded to intoxicating liquor, in case their continence, the chief bond of resolution, should be frustrated by the potency of riotous living. Their inclinations were so far removed from 236

BOOK FIVE

all wantonness that they utterly disdained to look on at mimic actors or buffoons; they would not provide luxurious banquets, or have an appetite for the sumptuous preparations resulting from the activities of another's kitchen, or taste such a repast when it was set before them; nor would they expose their mind or powers to any baleful pleasure which might enervate them. All this they avoided for fear of weakening the sinews of true manliness or tarnishing their brilliance in war with any blemish of vice. 5

Mimes and buffoons

Sinews of manliness

CHAPTER FOUR

On the fine qualities of the valorous Starkather

I

N view of the temperance, discussed in the previous chapter, which Starkather was able to add1 fitly as a bond to his other virtues, all those who study the labours of the heathen recognize that his merits would have been even more illustrious had he been as near a neighbour to the teaching of Christ as he was to His birth. 2However, he lived through the life-spans of three men, a brave and unconquered champion, endowed with an extraor­ dinary and incredible courage, of stature far above that of ordinary human beings, display­ ing a gigantic bulk, yet with a tough strength and resolution of mind that corresponded to the size of his body, so that people reckoned there was no mortal to surpass him in valour and virtues. His glory was so widely spread abroad that the great fame of his deeds and name have lasted to this very day, for in all the northern kingdoms and those bordering on them he won the most brilliant memorials. First, by murdering Vikar, king of Nor­ way, he dedicated his initial exploits to pleas­ ing the gods; then, on piratical expeditions he reduced provinces far and wide, attacked Russia, overcame Flokk, its king, and despoiled him of a huge treasure. Because of this splendid beginning to his fighting career he was summoned by the champions of Biarmia, who were then held to be pre-eminent, and when he had per­ formed among them many achievements worthy of remembrance he en­ tered Swedish territory. After a seven years' campaign he then went off to Denmark, and from there to Ireland, in order to explore even the most distant abodes of humankind; here he engaged two eminent champions in 237

Starkather at time of Christ's birth Most valiant, he lived through three generations His bravery correspon­ ded to size of his body

King Flokk Champions of Biarmia Seven years' campaign Ireland, most distant dwellingplace in the world

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

combat and emerged as their conqueror. Shortly afterwards he hastened to the eastern parts of Russia against Visinn, a swordsman of high repute, who had harassed provinces far and near with every sort of violence, had seized the wives of honourable men, and dragged them to be raped before their husbands' eyes. Starkather, roused like a second Hercules by the report of this enormity, made for Russia with the intention of removing the perpetrator. He challenged this ravisher to single combat and took his life. Ravisher is slain He then proceeded even farther eastwards and came to Byzantium, where, Byzantium relying on his own physical prowess, he wrestled with a giant renowned Giant Tanna for his invincibility, Tanna by name, overthrew him, proclaimed him an outlaw, and compelled him to go off into unknown regions of the world. Then, when no harshness of fate had been able to cheat his great strength Poland Vasche, of victory, he invaded Polish soil and overcame Vasche, or Vasza, a Polish champion celebrated champion, in a duel. Not long afterwards he engaged with Hama, a boxer who was very Hama, the famous among the Saxons for his pre-eminence in bodily exercises. Star­ Saxon kather is reported to have been struck down initially by this man's fist and brought to his knees so that he touched the ground with his chin. For throwing him off balance he took a notable revenge on Hama: as soon as he regained his feet and had a hand free to draw his blade, he chopped Hama's body cut in Hama's body in half. By this victory he brought the Saxons under the rule two of the Danes, but the latter misused them harshly, compelling the Saxons as a sign of their servitude to pay a sum every year for every cubit's length Tribute by the cubit of their limbs.2 However this fierce sovereignty did not last long. Swordsman Visinn

CHAPTER FIVE

'Wi

On his protection of the oppressed

HEN he had brought off all these triumphant victories in foreign lands, he returned to Sweden, his own country, and in the closest friendship with Haldan served as his soldier. He never ceased to practise warfare, so that his mind, withdrawn from pleasures, was directed towards arms with a ceaseless fixation, and he was said never r

Soldiering for Haldan

Always in arms

238

BOOK FIVE

to have allowed himself any inebriating drink. He could never bear to be invited to feasts, asserting that it was the custom of jesters and parasites to rush towards the smell of another's kitchen to provide themselves with richer eating. For this reason, just as if he had been severely offended, he used to inflict stern punishments on any who extended an invitation to him. King Helgi of Norway was due to engage in combat with nine cham­ pions of outstanding strength on the very day of his wedding, for they wished to carry off his bride and had challenged him to fight. Once the king had begged and besought Starkather to lend him help in this crisis, the other agreed so readily to his pleas that, before starting out himself, he let several days go by after Helgi had gone ahead to the meeting-place, and yet is reported to have covered as much ground on foot in a day's journey as those who had gone before are said to have traversed on horseback in twelve days. When he was asked by the champions whether he had manliness enough to fight, he answered that he had resolution and strength enough to meet not one alone but as many as entered the contest. On the following day he took the field, disdaining his opponents, and sought out a place to sit under the slope of a mountain, where he exposed his body to gales and snow. There, as though it had been a time for basking in the spring sunshine, he removed his outer clothing and set about ridding himself of fleas. The purple mantle which he had recently been given by Helga, the royal bride, he threw on to some brambles, in case anyone should imagine he had a mind to use the shelter of his garments against the violent darts of hail. Next the champions appeared, approaching the mountain from the opposite quarter, for they were looking for a place to sit out of the wind. There they lit a fire to fend off the cold. Then, as there was no sign of Starkather, they sent someone to the top of the mountain to observe his arrival as from a look-out post. On the sloping hillside he caught sight of the old man covered with a blanket of snow right up to his shoulder blades. The fellow shouted to ask whether he might be the one who was to play his promised part in the battle. When Starkather affirmed that he was, the rest came up and enquired whether he had resolved to deal with them all at once or individually. He replied: 'Whenever a sorry pack of curs bark at me, I usually send them scamper­ ing off all together, not one at a time.' By this remark he indicated that he would rather tackle them as a group than one by one, reckoning he ought to show his contempt for these opponents in words before he did so with weapons. Once the fight began, he laid low six of them without receiving a single gash in return. The three that remained, although he was many times wounded by them, Starkather destroyed as he had their brothers. 1 2The care of his wounds he would entrust only to a countryman's son, out of respect for his calling. This person restored to their former place the parts of his stomach that had been torn out and tightly bound in the protruding 239

Never drunk nor a banqueter Custom of jesters

Helgi, king of Norway 9 champions

He made a day's journey equal to one of twelve One against 9 at the same time

Purple mantle

Look-out post

Sorry pack of curs With words before arms 9 champions

are destroyed

Tended by a countryman

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

mass of his intestines by knotting plaited withes around him. Not wishing to leave the young man's humanity unrewarded, he repaid his proffered kindness with the mantle which had been cast into the briers. 2

CHAPTER SIX

Ingeld, king of Denmark Squalid cap­ tive to riotous liv­ ing

Load of charcoal

Starkather most brave and eloquent Venerator of manliness

'N!

On the activities of this Starkather

"OW while Starkather was serving with the king of Sweden, he had learned that Ingeld, king of Denmark, had surrendered him­ self absolutely to the most lascivious allurements of debauchery and had embraced vices in place of virtue; that he neglected the duties of royalty and had become a squalid captive to riotous living. Starkather was grieved that a young man of such natural ability should have renounced his connection with a father who had been so famous. Therefore, when he was about to go into Denmark, he put a great bundle of charcoal on his shoulder, as though it were a precious load. When passers-by asked why he was carrying so unusual a burden, he stated that with these coals he was going to forge a keen edge to King Ingeld's blunted brains. And he achieved no less than he said; for such was the effect of an admonishment from that most valiant and eloquent man that Ingeld, from being an enervated, weakly slave to temptations, turned into a high-spirited venera­ tor of manliness, and the murderers of his father, whom he had elevated to the first rank of friendship, he put to the sword. When this had been accomplished, Starkather, glad at heart, and thankful that his counsel had been complied with, is reported to have sung, among other things, many fine verses in praise of the old way of fighting, after the following manner: When, King Haki, I was a young, beardless soldier following your leadership, I hated men who were wanton and extravagant, for I worshipped nothing but warfare. Exercising mind and body, I banished everything godless from my heart, shunned delights of the belly 240

BOOK FIVE

and embraced valour with my soul; those whose profession was arms once wore only rough-and-ready clothing. Rest was rare, sleep short; toil pushed leisure right out and time slipped by with little cost. There were none, as now, in whom the insatiate appetite of a blind maw obscured rational vision. One of these, dressed in elaborate mantle, delicately turns his steed, unknots his spreading hair and allows his unbraided tresses to float. He joys to hold forth at assemblies and covets his mean pittance, fondly solacing a sluggish life by handling entrusted commisions with venal tongue. He infringes laws by violence, assaults men's rights with the sword, tramples down innocents, feeds on debtors, loves greed and lechery, sneers with his biting laugh at fellowship and picks out whores as a hoe weeds grass. Faint-hearts perish, though battlefields in peace-time are silent. Though he lies at the heart of a vale, no screen will protect one who fears fate. Eventual doom snatches everyone alive; there is no hole for evading death. But after shaking the entire world with defeats, unwounded, I shall meet a peaceful end through the pressure of illness and be raised up to the stars. Besides this, Starkather always kept his mind so far removed from licentiousness that he would not allow himself even to watch it. He never preferred ease to activity, and was not willing in the slightest to assent to luxurious living, for he despised unmanly and timid creatures. Whenever he found play-actors, buffoons, and spongers among men at war, he had them flogged, thinking it better to pronounce a laughable sentence on a petty bunch of men to make them lose their skins than to impose a drear judgment which carried the forfeiture of their lives. In the same way he was content to punish a low, vulgar mob of attendant clowns by chastising them with the shaming mockery of the lash, being loth to lend his renowned hands to the slaughter of such base men. 1 2In that most famous of Swedish wars which Ring, king of Sweden, waged against Harald, the Danish ruler, Starkather was himself the chief pillar. Nobody recalls any greater war fought in the kingdoms of the North. After victory went to the Swedish monarch, he ruled over the Danes. Twelve thousand illustrious Swedish noblemen died there, and among the Danes thirty thousand distinguished warriors; but of the common people killed on each side no count was made.2

241

Never given to licen­ tiousness Never at leisure He had buffoons flogged His renown­ ed hands not to be defiled with buffoons Harald 12,000 illustrious Swedes, 30,000 illustrious Danes; no count of rest

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

'W!

CHAPTER SEVEN

On the sum total of Starkather's feats

HEN Starkather was eventually inclining towards old age, after acquiring extraordinary praise for his exploits, he succinctly described the endeavour of his whole life and warfare in a brief song, for which Saxo is the authority: 1 P

Song of Starkather on his own life

Son of Fridlef

2Fate, as I recall, appointed me at my birth to pursue battle and fall in battle, mingle in the uproar, lavish attention on weapons and lead a life of bloodshed. Denied repose I haunted the camp and disdaining peace grew old under your standards, War-god, amid maximum danger; I have thought it fine to skirmish, vanquishing fear, a disgrace to remain idle, glorious to commit widespread carnage and ply slaughter on slaughter. Often have I seen monarchs stern in combat clash, shields and head-pieces smashed, the fields steeped in blood, breast-mail broken with the spear-points still embedded, hauberks everywhere yielding to the thrust of the sword, and wild beasts revelling as they fed on the unburied soldiers. Then, as someone by chance was bent on a noble exploit, hands powerful in strife, while he wrestled in a circle of foes, another split the corselet drawn over his head, perforated the helmet and plunged the blade into his scalp. This sword, unsheathed and driven by my arm in war, cleaving men's headgear, has often severed their skulls.2 3On that day in utmost peril I stood champion for the son of Fridlef. Truly amid that gathering this hand could break a sabre or rend any obstacle, so weighty was its blow. What of the time when first I taught them to run 242

BOOK FIVE

on wood-shod feet down the shore of Kurland, that path strewn with countless spikes? When I purposed to enter those fields thick with iron caltrops, their torn soles were armed beneath with pattens. Then I killed Hama, who met me with massive strength; soon together with Vin, son of the chieftain Flebax, I crushed the Kurlanders and those races reared in Estland and in Semgallia. Later, attacking Telemark, I came away with my crown bruised and stained with blood from the strokes of hammers, battered by the tools of smiths. Here I first learnt what power is contained in the implements of anvils and how much spirit lies in the common people. The Teutons too were punished by my hand when I felled your sons, Sverting, over their cups, men who were guilty of Frothi's wicked murder, the master I avenged. No lesser deed was wrought when for a precious maid I slaughtered seven brothers in a single contest, where the wasted ground, in which the parched sod never gives birth to new grass, witnessed my entrails escaping. Soon we subdued Kerr the commander, as he designed a war at sea, his ships crammed with superlative soldiers. Then I dealt death to Vasza, punished the shameless smith by puncturing his buttocks, and destroyed Visinn with my sword though he blunted weapons from his snowy cliffs. Next I defeated the four sons of Ler and the champions of Biarmia. After seizing the king of the Irish people, I ravaged Dublin's wealth; but my courage shall always remain in view from the trophies of Bravalla. What more? My valiant achievements surpass number, and if I try to recount and celebrate in their entirety the feats of this hand, I give up; the total sum transcends description, performance defeats reporting, nor can speech correspond with my actions. 3 This man without doubt highly deserved all the praise due to a warrior, for he was unparalleled not only in the force of his mind but also in his physical prowess, particularly in swiftness of foot, so that in walking at speed from Upper Sweden into Denmark he spent one day only, a journey which others have scarcely accomplished when they walked for twelve days without a stop.4 Nor should we believe this inconsistent with the truth, since Solinus states that the runners of Alexander the Great covered twelve hundred furlongs in one day, which by a strict reckoning can make almost thirty-two German miles. 5 So Procopius.6 Moreover, 243

Kurlanders

Wooden

soles

Hama Kurlanders

Norwegians

Teutons Sverting

Seven brothers

Kerr Polish Vasza Russian Visinn Biarmians

Bravalla Heath

Starkather worthy of martial praise Very swift

Alexander the Great's runners Furlongs

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Emperor Probus

this Starkather was so invincible in body that, because of his unceasing activity and in order to increase his strength, he could not be persuaded, even in feats that required great vigour, to allow himself any slackening of effort. The Emperor Probus is shown to have frequently done the same. 7

CHAPTER EIGHT

On the great and terrible war fought by the Swedes and the Gotar, in which Starkather was in command against the Danes King Hakon King Harald Saxo Krantz Johannes, archbishop of Uppsala

T

HE cause, beginning, progress, and outcome of the very fierce battle between Hakon Ring, king of the Swedes and Gotar, and Harald Hildetann, king of the Danes, has been handed on and made famous to all successive ages by Saxo of Sjaelland, that most distin­ guished writer of Danish history, in his eighth book. 1 After Saxo, and now fifty years ago, Albert Krantz touched incidentally on the same battle,2 and most recently my dearest brother and predecessor, Johannes Magnus, archbishop of Uppsala, has written an account of this enormous and unparalleled war (a subject he could hardly avoid) in his History of the Goths and Swedes with the truth that befits a trustworthy historian.3 I think that it concerns me to make at least some mention here of a 244

BOOK FIVE

terrifying clash of this kind between champions and giants, especially since in no battle of the northern kingdoms, and scarcely ever even in the whole of Europe, can you read that so many gallant men met in battle, leaders of forces that were each very powerful both on land and sea. For seven years they had groomed themselves for war with strong eagerness and passion, as the authors I have mentioned faithfully set down in their closely corresponding accounts of these countries and kings.

4Listed first are the most famous fighters on the side of the Danes, their places of origin, and the descent of the more illustrious. Also among these were two females, to whom Nature had granted the courage of a man who had acquired the skills of soldiering through professional experience. They were Hetha and Visna, both distinguished women of Slav stock. Of these one was a commanding officer, but the second, knowledgeable beyond all others in the business of war, bore the chief standard and, during the fight when Starkather was pushing forward the ranks of Swedes and Gotar, lost both the banner and her right arm, as I shall relate below. Likewise on the opposing side the eminent leaders are enumerated, but the principal account concerns Starkather: how he was the chief marshal in the army of Ring, king of Sweden, and how among his troops was Vebiorg, a girl who was an extremely fierce fighter, as I shall show later. When counted, Ring's ships, on the side of the Swedes and Gotar, were found to be two thousand five hundred, but the Danes' ships matched them in number. When, therefore, the line of battle had been drawn up on both sides, 245

Scarcely any greater battle in Europe War prepared for seven years

Famous warriors and women

Hetha Visna Bereft of standard and right

arm

Starkather marshals the

battle

Girl Vebiorg Swedes' ships 2500 Danes' more numerous Battle-lines

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Clash of arms Steam from wounds Work of the slingers Javelins Iron-clad maces

Soti the champion Archers of Gotland Arrows pierce breastplates like water Ubbi died pierced by 144 arrows Harald killed by his charioteer's club Queen Hetha set over the Danes

now in the form of a wedge, now of a crescent, and when the remaining preparations for conflict had been made, the trumpets sounded and this savage engagement was joined in a war between the most valiant nations, so long and ardently prepared and with such fervour for the invasion and defence of their dominions. Saxo declares that you would have imagined the sky was suddenly assailing the earth, woods and fields were subsiding, all creation was in turmoil and primeval chaos come again, that every­ thing, divine and human, was being thrown into convulsion by a raging tempest, and all things were tumbling together into destruction. For, when the armies came within javelin-range of one another, the intolerable hiss of weapons filled all the air with a din that was unbelievable. The steam from men's wounds spread a sudden mist across the sky, and daylight was concealed under the hail of missiles. In that combat the work of the slingers was of no small account. When the shafts had been dis­ charged either by hand or from catapults, the fighting was done at close quarters with swords and iron-clad maces. It was then indeed that most blood was shed. Sweat began to stream from their weary bodies, while the clash of blades could be heard miles away. Here Starkather, who was the first to make known the sequence of this war's events in his native tongue, and who fought foremost in the line, recalls how he laid low King Harald's noblemen, Hun and Elli, Hort and Burgha, and sheared off Visna's right arm. Another girl, fighting in the Swedish line, Vebiorg by name, cut down the champion Soti, but she herself was attacked by a second enemy and killed. The men of Gotland, skilled archers, stretched their bowstrings with such vigour that they even transfixed bucklers with their arrows; no other weapon proved more deadly. The points of their arrows pierced breastplates and helmets as if they were defenceless bodies. A certain Ubbi, fighting very bravely, was transfixed by one hundred and forty-four arrows before he perished. Owing to the great power of the archers and an attack by the Dalecarlians, the battle against the Danes kept constantly flaring up again. Eventually Harald, the Danish king, was toppled out of his chariot and killed, brained by the club of his own charioteer. Thirty thousand noblemen of his line and twelve thousand men of similar rank on the side of the Swedes and Gotar also perished; but the number of common folk killed was endless. 4 By the command of Ring, king of Sweden, Hetha was made ruler of the Danish kingdom, the forty-sixth person to govern it.5 She was succeeded by OH. He was killed by Starkather, who had been brought in by conspirators and bribed with money.6

246

BOOK FIVE

'Ai

CHAPTER NINE

On the death of Starkather

last, when he was now exhausted by his prolonged life and labours, Starkather felt loth to lose his long-standing dignity and .glory through the failings of old age; it would be to his honour if he were to embrace a voluntary death and hasten his end by his own decision, for in olden times it was accounted shameful for men devoted to the business of war to die of illness. He carried hanging round his neck the hundred and twenty pounds of gold which he had earned long before by killing the tyrant Oli; this was for purchasing someone to strike him down, for he thought it completely appropriate that he should spend the gold which he had received for slaying another man on the loss of his own life. Therefore, when he came upon Hather, a man of high birth whose father he had formerly killed, Starkather exhorted him not to feel any qualms about inflicting punishment on his father's slayer, and promised that, if he did so, Hather should obtain the gold which he had on his person. In order to work Hather into a savage rage against himself, men tell how he egged him on with words like these: Again, Hather, I bereaved you of Lenni, your father; pay me back, I beg, strike down an old man who longs to die, seek my gullet with avenging steel. For my spirit yearns for this service from a noble headsman, but shrinks from demanding its doom from the right hand of a coward. A man may permissibly choose to anticipate Destiny's law; what you cannot flee, you may even take in advance. A young tree must be nourished, an ancient one hewn down. Whoever overthrows what is close to its fate and fells what cannot stand is an instrument of Nature. Death comes best when sought for, life becomes tedious when the end is craved; do not let disagreeable age prolong an insupportable existence. 247

Shameful for warriors to die of illness Reward of 120 pounds in gold for the death he sought Hather

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Money

Starkather's manly death

Starkather's head bit the ground Killer fears penalty

Reling Emperor Hadrian

As he said this he drew out the purse and proffered the money. Hather, stirred with a desire to enjoy the fee no less than to take revenge for his father, promised he would obey Starkather's requests and not refuse the reward. The old man eagerly furnished him with his sword and then bent his head beneath it, urging him not to be squeamish in his work of executioner nor handle the blade like a woman; he predicted that if, when Hather had killed him but before his body fell, he could leap in between the head and the trunk, he would be rendered proof against any weapon. Hather, therefore, driving the sword vigorously, lopped off the old man's head. The story goes that after it was severed from the torso and struck the earth, it snapped at the soil with its teeth, demonstrating Starkather's fierce nature by the fury of his dying jaws. His killer, however, fearing that treachery might have lain beneath the promise, refrained from leap­ ing; for if he had thoughtlessly done so, he might have been crushed by the impact of the falling body, and have paid for the old man's murder with his own life. But not wishing to let such a great champion lie without a tomb, he saw to it that his corpse was committed to burial on the heath which people call Reling. 1 In much the same way the Emperor Hadrian, who suffered acutely from dropsy, tried to compel and to tempt, with threats and offers of gifts, a doughty barbarian to stab him to death beneath his nipples; but the savage fellow could not be persuaded to perform such a deed, for, as Dio Cassius writes in his life of Hadrian, he fled from the scene. 2

CHAPTER TEN

On Haldan and other champions vanquished by him

Haldan the champion King Karl

T

JHERE also comes to mind another Gota champion of famous memory, whose name was Haldan. He was born of a Gota father during the reign of King Karl, and flourished in those times. 1 The greater the extraordinary valour from which his marvellous deeds and exploits are known to have proceeded, the more care I shall take to 248

BOOK FIVE

include them in this book. He first passed his years as a fighting man in piracy, and later joined a campaign against the Swedes. 2During this war he learned that a champion, Hakon, was present, whose skill was to blunt steel by manufacturing spells; consequently he fitted iron studs to a gigantic club and made it into a battering instrument, calculating that its wooden strength would prevail against the power of sorcery. Eventually, excelling the rest in his conspicuously valiant bearing, and finding himself among his fiercest foes, his head covered by a helmet, but without a shield, he poised and swung his cudgel with both hands against the opposing rampart of shields; however robust the obstacle, it was smashed to splinters at the impact of his bludgeon. Hence, when the champion came running against him through the fray, he was laid low when Haldan's weapon came crashing furiously down on him. 2 3Even so he was wounded and over­ come, yielded to the might of the Swedes, and escaped to distant lands. Restored to strength by the ministrations of an old soldier, who had long before learned the art of healing through tending his own wounds, he took as his companion Thori, an illustrious champion, once more met the Swedes with a first-rate stratagem, and came away victorious. There was a certain Sivald and his seven sons, who were extremely savage by nature and habit; they had been planning a fresh assault when Haldan, incited by this and using a very roughly shaped club, destroyed them like all the rest. Next he encountered a certain Harthben, a giant of Halsingland, over thirteen feet high (as I said above), who reckoned it glorious bravado to kidnap and ravish princesses, having a taste for aristocratic married women rather than those of lesser standing; he would calculate that the higher ranking the women he could violate, the more it redounded to his credit. Haldan battered him down vigorously with an incredibly large hammer, together with Harthben's six fighting-men, who raged with the same wicked ferocity. 3 4Again, he challenged Egther the Finn, since he was a pirate who was harassing a good many folk in various regions and could not be overcome in a battle at sea. In the subsequent duel Haldan overthrew him. Next he discovered that Grimmi, a warrior of extraordinary powers, was aspiring to the hand of Thorild, daughter of Hather, King of the Norwegians, and was threatening to fight for her in single combat; moreover it had been proclaimed by her father that whoever did away with the champion should win the girl. Haldan, though he had reached old age a bachelor, was spurred on no less by the king's promise than by the fighter's impudence, and came to the fighting arena. Assaulting Grimmi, he cut through the meshes at the edge of his corselet and severed the bottom rim of his shield. Grimmi, astonished at his action, said: 'I don't remember a little old fellow fighting with more spirit,' and at once wrenching out his blade, he shattered the shield Haldan had thrust forward. But as his right hand lingered over the stroke, Haldan swept it off with his sword and, wounding him also in the thigh, left him maimed for ever; furthermore he compelled Grimmi to pay a money fine in order to keep what little life remained to him. 4 249

Hakon the champion Steel is blunted Club made sharp with nails

Old soldiers are skilled physicians Thori the champion Sivald and his 7 sons Harthben of Halsingland over 13 feet high

Harthben is killed Egther the Finn

Princess Thorild

Grimmi the fighter

Money fine

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Ebbi the pirate

Combat by night

5Finally there was Ebbi, a low-born but renowned pirate, who, assured of his own prowess, demanded the Gota king's daughter and half his realm as a dowry. Haldan checked him with such intrepidity that he did not presume to mingle his own vile, contemptible species with the lustre of outstanding nobility, far less aspire to a partnership in the kingdom. When his challenge had been issued, there was insufficient daylight, so he slew Ebbi under a bright moon, as though it were only appropriate to offer combat to a monster by night.5

CHAPTER ELEVEN

On another Haldan and his exploits Haldan

Presenti­ ment of triumph to come Pirate Rothi

A despic­ able robber is named after Rothi

A

ONG the bravest champions a second Haldan, the son of Borkar, a Norwegian, and Drot, of royal blood, retains no less fame in men's memories. *During his early manhood general opinion considered him a dolt, but in the years that followed he turned out to be notable for the brilliance of his achievements and became celebrated for the great marks of distinction in his life. As a stripling he was cuffed by a renowned fighter for making childish fun of him, whereupon Haldan went for him with the staff he was holding and killed him. This incident left everyone with a presentiment of the full courage and strength with which he would triumph over his enemies. In those days Rothi, a Russian pirate, was devastating many provinces with barbarous pillage and violence; his behaviour was so inhuman that, where any others would spare their prisoners from going completely naked, this man found nothing objectionable in stripping the clothing from the most intimate parts of their bodies. To this very day the name 4r0thoran' is given to harsh and brutal plundering. 1 2He had also another bestially savage mode of torture, which out of modesty I prefer to pass over. Infuriated by such enormities, Borkar, Haldan's father, moved against Rothi, and the war in which they both engaged brought destruc­ tion to both. Haldan was wounded and quitted that fight. One of his gashes was more apparent because he had taken it on the mouth and its 250

BOOK FIVE

scar was very conspicuous in that the skin refused to grow and mend again even after the rest had healed. This gained for him the name of Wrymouth, though it should more justly have earned him everlasting fame, fighting as he did for the honour of his country. But what worthy return was ever made to virtue by the depreciatory comments of malicious folk? Nevertheless his reputation as a fighter so flourished that he was every­ where regarded as formidable through his outstanding valour. 2 3So it came about that, impelled by self-confidence, he began to desire as his partner the high-born maiden Gurith, at that period the only living heiress of the kingly stock of Denmark; to guard herself from molestation she had her bedchamber protected by a chosen band of warriors. On one occasion, during the absence of her band of champions, one of whose brothers Haldan in his youth had killed, he chanced to visit her. She ought, he said, to exchange austere virginity for the honourable and seemly estate of wedlock, so that by forming a bond with him she might restore the lapsed guidance of the kingdom. As he was himself of eminent birth, he urged, she should look on him with a view to marriage, for it seemed that only for the reason he had given would she grant him access to this joy. From her response he learnt that not only did she consider him her inferior in family distinction but that his facial disfigurement was also a matter of reproach. He begged her not to allow any man access to her bed until she should have reliable information of his return or death. The champions were vexed to find that he had spoken to Gurith and on his departure sought to run him down. When he saw them coming he quickly cut down an oak and shaped it into a club. Then alone he fought hand to hand with all twelve and took their lives. Next, in the name of enhancing his reputation he went off to Russia and was received by everyone with the highest acclaim. A bitter war was then raging between the Swedes and Russians and in a short time he slew many of the Swedish champions who presented themselves at his challenge to single combat. Among these last he killed his own brother, Hildiger, who had dispatched seventy champions, for when Haldan revealed their rela­ tionship, he did not subordinate bravery to fraternal duty. Haldan had wrapped his sword in rags so that its edge might not be dulled by magic spells.3 4Later, because Sivar the Saxon wished to abduct Gurith, his betrothed, from the wedding celebrations, he swiftly returned to Den­ mark and overthrew him among his fellow banqueters. Having gained possession of his betrothed amid joyful acclamation he fathered on her Harald Hildetann who has been spoken of in Ch. 8.4 5Eventually he was killed by Veseti, a famous champion, while fighting in Sjaelland for the restoration of his mangled country.5

251

Wry-mouth

Deprecia­ tory comments

Gurith Bedchamber

Austere virginity Haldan urges marriage

Cutting down an oak he laid 12 low

Hildiger, slayer of 70 champions Sword is blunted Sivar the Saxon

King Harald Hildetann Veseti

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWELVE

On Oli the Brisk OH the Brisk boldly enters upon chivalry Gunni the robber

Savage dog

One is killed with the sword, the other by the dog He is cured by the dog's licks 12 cham­ pions slain King of the Thronds' daughter Companion dressed as a woman Swords were carried in hollowed sticks 70 kings are killed

O

LI the Brisk entered boldly upon a life of chivalry when he was

I scarcely fifteen years old, for, becoming aware that very near his

own home Gunni haunted the forests, committed dreadful rob­ beries, and destroyed innocent men, he was deeply displeased by such crimes; to avoid letting a time which should be devoted to courageous deeds slip away in idleness, he begged and received weapons from his father, a Norwegian prince. He took with him a savage dog and a horse, and proceeded into the depths of the forest, where he recognized men's footmarks imprinted in the snow. Following this trail and overcoming many perils, he at last discovered the robbers' dwelling, surrounded by banks. He tore their stableman limb from limb and after killing him threw the pieces across into the house. Then, when the father and son came running to avenge so severe an affront, his sword accounted for one and his dog for the other. But even he did not win victory without losing blood; as he confronted them he received a wound, but the dog licked it busily, and he soon found it healed. Shortly afterwards he ordered that the heads and trunks of the robbers be fastened to posts as a sign that safety had been restored. 1 With the same valour he also overwhelmed twelve champions who wished to violate the chastity of the daughter of the king of the Thronds, encountering them on a very small island, as I shall describe in the next chapter. 2He had, moreover, an acuteness of intellect combined with his strength, so that it was easy for him to finish off his fiercest foes or put them to flight, happy to be accompanied by only a single attendant dressed as a woman. This was his procedure: he would see to it that his and his companion's swords were concealed inside hollow staves until he was about to fight at close quarters, at which point he would draw his sword from its stick and be able to sink it unexpectedly into anyone he wished. By employing this ruse he frequently overthrew powerful oppo­ nents. Next, with his soldier's weapons he pursued piratical expeditions far and wide until he put an end to seventy maritime kings in a contest of 252

BOOK FIVE

strength at sea. Hence it came about that the more famous warriors sought league with him and many young men of headstrong temperament joined his retinue. Furnished with these powers he so held in check the neighbouring rulers by his mere reputation that he deprived them of the troops, the concern, and the presumption needed to make war against him.2 3Eventually he found his way to King Ring of Sweden, and became dearer to him, the more he resembled the other princes of the court in his remarkable valour. For this reason he was appointed admiral of the sea­ going fleet of two thousand five hundred ships, as I wrote above in Ch. 8. Oli commanded it, helped by the strength and advice of seven resolute kings who had attached themselves to him; with such discipline and piratical zeal he overcame the powerful fleet of the Danes and won a victor's renown, just as King Ring stood out as the conquering leader of the whole Swedish army on land. Eventually, as I related in Ch. 8, having been made king of Denmark, he was murdered for his sheer cruelty by Starkather, the Swedish champion. 3

Admiral of the sea­ going fleet Fleet is commanded with the piratical zeal of 7 kings Ring, king of Sweden, victor over the Danes

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

More about how Oli fought victoriously on behalf of chastity

I

N the mountainous parts of Norway lying near the frontiers of Vastergotland there lived twin brothers, champions, named Skat and Hial, who assumed such excessive insolence that, in their unbridled wantonness, they would tear from their parents virgins of exquisite beauty and defile them sexually. *So it occurred that, marking out for rape even Esa, the daughter of Olaf, ruler of the Varmlanders, they charged her father that, if he did not wish her to be submitted to foreigners' lust, he, or some deputy, must do battle to defend his child. This was highly ignominious for a fond father, and even though he was already gasping under the disadvantages of a broken old age, he still tried to rouse the 253

Skat Hial

Esa, king of Varmland's daughter

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

OH the Norwegian

King's daughter is promised to her defender Girls gaze at the faces of guests

Amazement numbs our powers

Kind promise of a guest cheers all

It is disgraceful to come stealthily from behind 12 men killed

Omund His action was repeated on himself

worn-out muscles of his body to the fully justified defence of his daughter, and to enlist the skill and strength of his relations. Meanwhile Oli, the young Norwegian who had been born to a distin­ guished rank and family, horrified at this outrage and joyful at the opportunity of combat offered, borrowed a countryman's attire and made his way to Olaf s palace. Here, given one of the lowest places at table, he gazed at the king's sorrowful household and purposely invited his son closer in order to enquire why everyone looked so mournful. The prince stressed that, unless someone intervened quickly to champion her, his sister's chastity would soon be violated by those fierce warriors. Oli then asked what prize the man would receive who staked his life for the girl. The king's son accordingly put the question to his father, who answered that he would give his daughter to her successful defender. This response fired Oli with an especial desire to submit himself to the hazard. Now, as Saxo relates, it was the girl's habit (just as the custom is today among the northern peoples) to come quite close to guests and push forward a light to inspect their faces as intently as she could, thereby gaining a clearer perception of their manners and dress, and then, when she had observed all the features of their physical appearance, to report them to her parents for them to pass judgment. 1 2After looking Oli up and down in the way I have described, she was so stunned with awe at his strange eyes that she fell down half-dead (for amazement so numbs our powers), and at once revealed to her father the reason for her consternation. When he thought about this, the young man was careful to cover his pupils closely with his eyelids, in case he frightened the onlookers, and, putting off the cap which obscured his face, told the bystanders to dismiss all fear and let their hearts be cheerful. This was no sooner said than done, and it quickly came about that a single guest's kindly promise dispelled the terror shared by everyone.2 3Meanwhile Hial and Skat, arriving on the scene with ten of their henchmen as though they intended to carry off the princess there and then, shouted boisterously and called the king out to fight unless he put his daughter at their disposal. Oli immediately met their mad antics with a promise of combat, adding the proviso that no one should stealthily attack an opponent from behind while he was fighting; combatants must only meet face to face. Then, with the sword he had inherited from his forbears he laid low twelve men single-handed, achieving a feat beyond his years. Now the fight was staged on an island, and not far from there lies a village whose name right up to the present day recalls those of the slaughtered brothers.3 The girl, who was given to Oli as the reward for his victory, bore him a son, Omund.4 Afterwards he emerged from hard-fought battles with higher renown from day to day, but in the end he was treacherously killed in his bath, as had long before been prophesied to him by a certain old man, at the time when he violated the laws of hospitality and slew Prince Thori. 5 254

BOOK FIVE

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

On the feats of the champions Arngrim and Arvarodd1

H

ERE I must not neglect to tell how, on the advice of the Swedish king, Erik the Eloquent, who will be referred to later on,2 Arngrim, a famous Swedish champion, fought against the north­ ern kings of Scricfinnia and Biarmia and triumphed over them. As a result he became the son-in-law of King Frothi of Denmark, for by his achieve­ ments he had added the utmost bounds of mankind to Frothi's dominions and by the extraordinary fame of his exploits had extended the king's renown, spreading it far and wide throughout the world. According to Saxo, his wife Ofura bore him twelve sons, who from their youth upwards applied themselves to the business of piracy. One day Fate brought them all in one vessel to the island of Sams0, where they found lying offshore the two ships of Hjalmar and Arvarodd, Norwegian pirates. They forcibly boarded these and, in the absence of the helmsmen, soon cleared them of rowers, but were somewhat cast down because they had not killed the captains. For this reason they scorned the victory they had gained as useless and insecure, considering that in any battles to come they would undergo greater risks and perhaps be unluckier in the outcome. In fact the pirates I mentioned, one of whose rudders had some time before been torn away when their craft were badly damaged by a storm, had gone off into the forest to cut another. They pared down an unformed mass of timber, working round it with axes until it had been shaped into the sailing implement. They were carrying this back to the beach on their shoulders, knowing nothing of the disaster that had befallen their shipmates, when, challenged by the sons of Arngrim, still dripping with the recently shed blood of their victims, the two of them were compelled to fight with their swords against these superior numbers. Indeed it was no equal encounter, where the hands of a dozen men engaged those of a mere pair, but winning does not go by arithmetic and, after Hjalmar had fallen, all the twelve were slain, so that Arvarodd, the sole, fortunate survivor of all those warrior associates, was not cheated of the honours of victory. Swinging the tree-trunk rudder, still roughly shaped, 255

Arngrim the champion Frothi, king of Denmark

Ofura bore 12 sons Island of Sams0 Pirates

Two strive with many Hands of a dozen engage those of two Arvarodd the victor

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

12 are slain strafe oft£e

with incredible force, he smashed it with such violence into the bodies of his foes that with a single stroke he crushed and battered to death all

timber

twelve of them.4

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

More about the same Arngrim and the spells of the Finns King Egther King Thengil Ofura, daughter of the Danish king

Use of weapons Spells

Illusions

Volume of waters No resource for flight

T

HIS Swedish champion, Arngrim, also fought against the powerful rulers of the most northern part of the world, Egther of the Biarmians and Thengil of the Scricfinns, of whom something was said at the beginning of Bk IV. 1 His aim was that, if he gained conquest over them, then for his deserts and triumphs he might gain as his bed-mate Ofura, the daughter of King Frothi of Denmark, and in the event this was how it proved. Meanwhile, however, realizing he was about to encounter these people of the wild, he raised a strong army to protect himself and set out northwards. Right away he found that he would have to wage a tough war not only with fierce men but against the elements, as will be shown later in Bk XI, about wars fought among the forests. 2Now these folk are very keen in their use of missiles, and the arrows they shoot in their battles are large and broad. They devote themselves no less to magical skills, and know how to receive or inflict blows by attacking and fleeing on curved boards across the snowfields. These men Arngrim assaulted and crushed, as Saxo testifies, for the sake of winning fame. After they had had the worst of the conflict and had dispersed in flight, they threw behind them three pebbles and made them appear to their foes like three mountains. Arngrim therefore, stunned by the uncertainty of his deluded vision, recalled his troops from the pursuit, believing that he was cut off from the enemy by a wall of towering cliffs. The next day they encountered him again and, when they were beaten, scattered snow on the ground, giving it the semblance of a mighty river. The Swedes, utterly deceived by the illusion, completely misread the situation and thought that an extraordinary volume of roaring waters lay before them. As the victors quaked at this meaningless apparition, the Finns made good their escape. On the third day the fighting was again renewed, but now they no longer had any effectual resource enabling them to flee; as soon as they saw their line giving way, they surrendered to the power of their con­ queror. Then Arngrim challenged the Biarmian leader, Egther, to single combat and overcame him. Subsequently, enriched with plunder and trophies of victory, he took to wife Ofura, the king of Denmark's daughter, after the Swedish king had 256

BOOK FIVE

acted as judge and mediator. Saxo tells us how she bore him twelve sons, who were named as follows: Brander, Biarbi, Brodder, Hiarrandi, Tander, Tirvingar, two Hadings, Hiorthvar, Hiarthvar, Rani, and Angantir.2 All these, as has been said above, practised piracy, and were finally killed. 3

The very names of the 12 sons are frightening

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

AMi

On the killing of a bear and the drinking of its blood

MONO the northern champions there was one named Biarki, who always used a sword of extraordinary length, which he thought it .a pleasure to draw against any fighting man of arrogant ways, with a challenge to single combat. By this means he would not permit men given to the meanest behaviour to disgrace the renown of real champions by their wretched example. So he compelled many fellows on such an occasion either utterly to renounce their insolence or to put their lives in peril. While he was rejoicing in these triumphant feats, a new kind of victory was furnished to him by a wild beast, for when an enormous bear encountered him among the thickets he dispatched it with his sword. He then ordered Hialti, his companion, to fasten his mouth to the beast and swallow the blood that flowed from it in order to become a stronger person, for it was believed that a drink of this kind gave an increase in bodily physique. 1 Similarly, as Pliny vouches at the beginning of Bk XXVIII, it was once accepted as one of the most sovereign remedies to drink gladiators' blood, so that people who consumed it might keep away attacks of epilepsy. 'It is horrifying enough when in the same arena we see beasts doing this, but these people reckon it is highly effective to suck it from the man himself while he is still warm and breathing, and by putting their lips to his wounds draw in the man's very soul along with it; yet it is not customary for men to apply their mouths even to the wounds of wild animals, as if it could be considered healthy for man to turn into a beast, etc. Who devised these wonders? What can have been the origin of such medicine? etc.' So writes Pliny.2 257

Biarki stew many by the length of his sword

He kills a bear Hialti drinks the blood to become stronger Pliny Blood of gladiators

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES Arrogance of a champion

Forehead is twisted to the back of his head

Kunipert, the Lombard king Ragnar, king of Norway A fighting girl Bear and dog as guardians

Lathgertha

3At a banquet a certain champion fell into all manner of wild, reckless revelry and started throwing knobbly bones at the seated guests. Biarki received a violent blow on the head, but thought it demeaning to repay the insult by the use of his sword. He in his turn therefore hurled the bone back at the one who was flinging them, twisting the front of the fellow's head to the back, and the back to the front; by such retaliation he punished the man's crooked mind by distorting his face, perhaps to ensure that ever afterwards he would have a horror of throwing bones. 3 Paul the Deacon also recalls in his History of the Lombards, Bk V, Ch. 40, that Kunipert, their king, was endued with such strength of arm that, even while still a boy, he seized two amazingly large wethers by the wool on their backs and lifted them one in each hand from the ground;4 he could find no rival among those of his own age to match his example. 5Moreover Ragnar, a Norwegian, while serving the apprenticeship of his distin­ guished military career, saw in his allies' camp a girl of remarkable valour, who struck down the enemy on all sides. He was so taken with love for her that he could not remain content until he had killed a huge bear and fierce dog which guarded the maiden's bedchamber. Even though he had pre­ viously entreated her and she had promised him access to her love, she set up these savage animals as a barrier to see who could destroy them; to him she would then grant the surrender of her strong chastity, which she had so long guarded. The name of this girl was Lathgertha, and of her courage something will be shown a little later on, in my account of women fighters. 5

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

On Ragnar, nicknamed Shaggy-breeches Heroth, king of Sweden Custom of ancients in guarding chastity

T

HE explanation of this picture is that there was a king of Sweden, Heroth by name, who, troubled in mind about the guarding of his beautiful daughter's chastity, was hard put to it to decide whether he should rely upon a beast to protect her, as was then the custom of certain princes, or whether he should trust her to human beings. But since 258

BOOK FIVE

he preferred the cruelty of wild animals to man's fidelity, he soon chose something that would be more dangerous and harmful. 1When he had taken himself off to the forest to hunt, his companions found some snakes there, which he brought back for his daughter to rear. She readily obeyed her father's bidding and fostered these reptiles with her own maidenly hands. In case they should suffer by being deprived of suitable food, the careful father commanded that the whole carcase of an ox should be supplied for them to gorge on, not realizing that by his private feeding he was nourishing a public bane. When they reached maturity they scorched the whole neighbourhood with their venomous breath, and the king, repenting the useless pains he had taken, proclaimed that whoever would do away with this plague should gain his daughter. Once general report had made known the entire affair, Ragnar, the Norwegian, born of a kingly line and chief among the many men who were rivals for the girl's hand, asked his nurse if she would give him a woollen cape and some hairy breeches, with which he might thwart any bites the serpents could inflict on him. When his ship touched the Swedish coast, he purposely allowed his clothes to become frozen hard with the water that he poured over them; clad in this fashion, and armed with a sword and a spear, he made his way alone to the palace. As he proceeded, two snakes of unusual size slithered towards him, intending to kill the young man by squeezing him with their tails and spewing their venom over him. But Ragnar, relying on the stiffness of his frozen apparel, battled tirelessly against their poison with his clothing and against their bites with his shield as he pressed them back. Finally he hurled his thonged spear and drove it vigorously into their bodies. Then, as he mangled the guts of each with his two-edged sword, his cunningly-fought and perilous combat ended in a glad victory. The king examined his clothing with some curiosity and, having observed that it was hairy all down the back and particularly that he wore a rough style of trousers, jokingly gave Ragnar the surname of Lothbrok, that is Shaggy-breeches. To refresh him after his labours, Heroth also summoned him and his friends to a feast. Ragnar said that he must first go back to visit the comrades he had left, and these, elegantly clad like himself, he presented at the royal table. Lastly, when this had been done, he received the pledge of his victory, on whom he begot further pledges of noble quality; 1 and he gained the more genuine love from her to content him, in proportion to the great perils and talents through which she recognized she had acquired him as a partner. When at length Thora, this excellent wife of his, was dead, Fate made sport of him in various ways, and he whose arms had flashed throughout the world had to smart with the pain of defeat at the hands of the unarmed Finns and Biarmians, as I related earlier. 2 Later, too, he was thrown among snakes by Ella, a prince of the Irish, and so ended his life. 3

259

Snakes to be reared as guardians

Private feeding, publicbane

Ragnar Woollen cape

Two snakes

Poison is met by clothing, bites by a shield

Lothbrok, that is, Shaggy-

Thora King was thrown to snakes and dies

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

On Alf, the defender of chastity King Sivard Alvild Custom of chaste Two serpents

Penalty added

Alt

Covering of a bloody hide Red-hot steel

Daughter's agreement

I YARD, king of the Gotar, had two sons, Vemund and Osten, and a daughter, Alvild. Almost from her cradle she displayed such true modesty that she constantly veiled her face with her mantle to prevent her beauty arousing anyone's passions. Her father kept her apart under strict guard and gave her two poisonous serpents to rear, intending that these reptiles should be protectors of her chastity when they at last came to full size; he also wished it to be clear that he would allow only men who were famous for their strength and valour to approach the virgin, after they had overcome these enormous hazards. The king added that, if any man made the attempt and failed, he would immediately have his head cut off and impaled on a stake, to discourage anyone else from being incited by his forward nature to venture on such a feat of presump­ tion against royal blood. As soon as this came to the knowledge of Alf, son of King Sigar of Denmark, relying not so much on his strength as on his wits, and believing the more perilous an enterprise the more renown it would bring, he presented himself as a suitor and attacked the beasts which guarded the girl's chamber, to try to finish them off, especially as he knew by the proclamation that only the man who overcame them should enjoy the girl's embraces. In order to endure with more fortitude their rage roused against him, he draped his body in a raw hide, wet with blood. Wrapped in this, he soon approached the confining doors where, grasping a bar of red-hot steel in a pair of tongs, he thrust it down the gaping jaws of one of the snakes and laid it lifeless on the floor. Next, as the other came at him in a rippling glide, he hurled his lance into its open fangs and destroyed it; or, as the more ancient accounts of the Gotar relate, he put it to death with a hot iron spear-blade, using its point like a knife. When he asked for the token of his victory according to the terms of the agreement, King Sivard answered that he would only take as his son-in-law the man his daughter chose freely and genuinely. As the mother was the only one to grudge the suitor's petition, she examined the girl's feelings in 260

BOOK FIVE

an intimate conversation. When the princess was surprised into praising her suitor rather too warmly for his bravery, she shouted and railed at her daughter: she had lost all sense of shame and was being captivated by the lure of outward appearance; she had neglected the judgment of virtue and gazed with a wanton mind on the flattering enticements of his good looks. 1 The girl, therefore, silently acknowledging the justice of her mother's opinion, found out a clever way by which, although the creatures that had been her guardians were slain, she would not only show that her modesty was unimpaired, but would strengthen it and make it shine with greater beauty by some notable and daring deed. 2Having soon been prevailed upon to despise the young Dane, she exchanged her woman's clothes and disposition for a man's, and from having been an entirely bashful girl, she began to play the role of a fierce pirate.2 For she so much preferred a life of valour to one of ease that, when she might have enjoyed the pleasure of royalty, drawn by a woman's madness she suddenly plunged into the hazards of war. Her determination to stay chaste was so steadfast that she began to reject all men and firmly resolved with herself never to have intercourse with any, but from then on to equal, or even to surpass, male courage in the practice of piracy.3

Lure of appearance

Modest girl a robber

She surpasses men in the practice of piracy

CHAPTER NINETEEN

On the stratagems of Fridlef rE still remember the famous exploits of a certain Fridlef, who was furnished with confidence, partly through the bravery which was natural to him, but also by his tunic, or cuirass, which defied any steel. He wore this garment in public battles and private quarrels, regarding it as a guarantee of safety, and destroyed a great many powerful foes after they had become exhausted by bitter fighting. Among these was one Gunholm, whose habit it was to dull the weapon of his enemy by charms; Fridlef took his life by repeated blows with the hilt of his sword, but while he was strenuously grasping the blade with his hand, 261

Fridlef Cuirass as a garment of safety

Gunholm's habit to blunt steel

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Dublin He fixed fire to the wings of swallows

Corpses upright Desire to flee

the tendons were severed and he lost the use of his fingers, which were clamped to the palm and remained perpetually bent. While Fridlef was besieging Dublin, a town in Ireland, he perceived that the solidity of the walls made it impossible to take the town by storm; emulating the shrewdness of Hading, he ordered fungi to be ignited and attached to the wings of swallows. As soon as the birds returned to their nests the house roofs became lit with flames. When the townsfolk came running to extinguish them, more concerned to put out the fire than guard themselves against the enemy, he took possession of the city. Later, when he had lost soldiers fighting in Britain and it appeared that he would experience difficulty in retreating to the seashore, he set upright the corpses of his casualties and put them in line, producing such a fine simulation of his former massed army that it seemed as if he had suffered no losses. This action not only deprived the enemy of sufficient assurance to come to grips with him, but even inspired in them a desire to take flight. 1

CHAPTER TWENTY

On artifices of the same kind by means of birds Hading, king ofthe Danes

Town of Duna Handvan

Birds lodging in homes With ignited fungi

Artifice Savagery to be curbed by moderation Birds are slaughtered by decree

W

HAT has been said above about the shrewdness of Hading is to be understood as follows. Hading, king of the Danes, passed the first years of his youth with great promise. He avoided all concern for pleasure but was continually fired by the practice of arms, considering in his valiant soul that he must spend his whole lifetime in great military endeavours. 1 2This man made war at the town of Duna against Handvan, king of the Hellespont, who was entrenched within impregnable defence works and withstood Hading behind rebuilt fortifica­ tions. The height of the parapet prevented assailants from scaling it. Hading then ordered various kinds of birds which lodged in men's homes there to be caught by skilled fowlers. He saw to it that ignited fungi were fixed under their wings, and they, returning to the refuge of their nests, set the whole city ablaze. The townspeople rushed about to extinguish the fire leaving the gates bare of defenders. In this way he attacked and captured Handvan and, by way of a ransom, allowed him to pay his own weight in gold. Although he might have dispatched his enemy, he preferred to grant him his life, so much did he temper savagery with mercy.2 Nevertheless, after this, whenever a siege threatened, birds living nearby were slaught­ ered by royal decree.3 Pliny, too, records in Bk X, Ch. 24, an equally marvellous quality of 262

BOOK FIVE

swallows. He writes: 'Caecina from Volaterrae, of the equestrian order and owner of a chariot and four, bringing with him to Rome some of these birds which he had caught, would send them out to his friends as couriers of victory, for they would return to the same nest after being painted with the winner's colours. Fabius Pictor, too, relates in his Annals that, when a Roman military post was besieged by Ligurians, a swallow was taken away from her chicks and brought to him with a letter, so that he could indicate, by means of knots in a thread tied to its leg, how many days would pass before help arrived and a sally must be made.'4 Moreover, in Ch. 37 of the same book Pliny affirms that pigeons were used as go-betweens in impor­ tant affairs during the siege of Mutina, and dispatches sent by Decimus Brutus were carried attached to their legs into the camp of the consuls. 'Of what use to Antony were the rampart, the watchful besiegers, and even the nets stretched out in the river, when the message went by air?'5 Whoever wishes may also read in Krantz and others how under-water swimmers between Cologne and Neuss, which was once laid under siege by Philip of Burgundy, travelled beneath the surface to give instructions about the city's guard and defence. 6 Finally, the skill of these divers under water is commonly thwarted, where and when it is necessary, by nets, which are laid as though to catch beavers.

Letter tied to the feet of a swallow

Pigeons

Message going iroughthe thn sky Messengers under water are caught by spread nets

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

On King Harald's fight against a captive dragon1

H

"ARALD Hardradi, that most famous king of Norway, stayed in his youth with the king of Byzantium, but, being found guilty of __ _.the crime of manslaughter, was ordered to pit himself against a captive dragon, so that he might be torn to pieces. As he was going to the dungeon, a servant, nobly devoted to him, spontaneously offered himself as a companion to share in his penalty. The guard commander examined each of them carefully and, when he had searched them and found no weapons, sent them in through the mouth of the cave. He stripped the servant naked, but made an exception of Harald and, for the sake of 263

Harald, king of Norway Captive dragon Faithful servant

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Armlet Small fish Scales give light in darkness

Barber's razor

Load of bones

Alexander the Great

Courage of a Pole

Count of Holstein

The Lion, Duke of Brunswick

decency, let him wear a linen loin-cloth, though nothing else. Harald secretly gave an armlet to the guard, who then strewed the floor with small fish, so that the dragon might have something to bate the onset of its first hunger, and that the eyes of the prisoners, dulled by the darkness of the prison, should at least gain some slender means of seeing from the gleam of the fishes' scales. Then Harald chose out bones from the skeletons there and wrapped them closely and tightly in his loin-cloth, gathering them together into one round mass, and made something resembling a club. When the dragon came gliding and rushing with huge rapacity upon the prey offered to it, Harald, leaping swiftly on to its back, sank into its navel, the only part of it that was accessible to a steel weapon, a barber's razor, which he had managed to conceal on his person when he came; for the reptile, covered with very tough scales, repelled any cut in the rest of its body. Now Harald, because of the height at which he was sitting, could not be snatched by the beast's vast mouth, nor hurt by its sharp teeth, nor crushed in the coils of its tail, and his servant, using the solid load of bones which he held, beat and pounded the creature about the head until it bled and died from the many heavy blows. When the king heard of this his desire for vengeance turned into wonder and he remitted the punishment on account of their bravery; he gave them a ship together with a sum of money, and allowed them to depart.2 3Alexander the Great was no less astonished when he learned that Lysimachus whom, because he had hastened the death of Callisthenes, he had thrown to a savage lion to be devoured, had wrapped his hand in his cloak, thrust it into the lion's mouth, wrenched out the brute's tongue, and killed it.3 4Similarly Mattias, the king of Hungary, was amazed at the feat of a certain Polish nobleman, who took away its food from a lion that was unconfined and famished, and so terrified the animal that it did not dare even to roar or to stir from where it stood.4 It is known from the testimony of Krantz that a king of England felt much the same when he saw an action performed by a certain count of Holstein. Some jealous rivals had goaded a very ferocious lion to destroy this man, but he gripped it by its thick mane with his strong hand and led it into its cage to be tied up again. He shackled it with an iron chain and emerged free and unhurt.5 Whoever cares to learn what Krantz records of Henry the Lion, Duke of Brunswick, may look into his Saxonia, where he recounts marvellous events. 6

264

BOOK FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

How Frothi and Fridlef each fought against a serpent

Fi

1 ROTHI, the Danish champion and king, had scarcely passed the Frothi

years of adolescence when he fought single-handed against a ser­ pent of wondrous size and ferocity. The beast spurned any blow from the sword of an assailant because of its rough, bristling skin, and, when javelins were hurled at it, it escaped harm from the thrower's attempt, for they rebounded without effect. But Frothi plunged his sword into its belly and killed it. 1 2We must regard Fridlef also as no less brave, for he, desiring both to Fridlef test his courage and to gain a hidden treasure, attacked a snake that was exceedingly formidable because of the strength of its body and the poison­ ous bite of its fangs. Time after time he hurled spears in vain at its scaly sides, for the hard rind of its torso neutralized the impact of his missiles. Hard rind The serpent itself, shaking its many coils, would overturn by the roots any trees that it passed and touched with the entwining loops of its tail; by frequently slithering its body along it had hollowed out the earth down to the bedrock and had thrown up a steep bank on either side, just as one sees in certain places hills standing opposite each other with a valley in between. Fridlef, then, seeing that the upper parts of the brute were invulnerable, tested its underside with his sword. He pierced it round about the groin and drew out the venom from the quivering beast. When it was dead he dug up the hoard from its vault and bore it away.2 3There was also a giant, Hithin by name. Taking the shape of a monster, he Hithin carried off the son of the king of Telemark, while he was playing a boy's game, and employed him as an oarsman. Fridlef lopped a foot and a hand off the giant, completely overcame him, and set free the youth who had been his prisoner. 3

265

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

More about Fridlef Fridlef overcame 12 champions

Hiarni

Conspicuous scars

River

Snake 120 feet long

H!

"E also overcame twelve Norwegian champions, even though they were famous for their victories over giants, celebrated for the .trophies that they had taken from tribes, and rich in spoils, since they used to plague their neighbours with frequent incursions. He was led to do this not from covetousness so much as from his eager love of virtue. There was also a certain Hiarni, a rival for the kingship, who, under pretext of close friendship and a great show of allegiance, keenly sought to waylay Fridlef and to take his life; however, he was detected in his bath when Fridlef recognized him by the many, shocking scars he bore. They met in single combat and Fridlef slew him. 1 It is hardly remarkable that, in this chapter and in other passages of this book, one may witness fierce fighting against extraordinary beasts and terrifying serpents, hideous in their colossal size, for so many authorita­ tive writers testify to contests of this kind, giving clear accounts together with places and times. It is well known, for Pliny tells the story in Bk VIII, that during the Punic wars near the River Bagrada, a snake was killed which was a hundred and twenty feet in length. Its skin and jaws were preserved in a temple at Rome until the Numantine war. These facts are made more credible by the serpents in Italy called boas, which reach such a size that during the principate of the deified Claudius a whole child was observed in the stomach of one killed on the Vatican Hill. 2 Paulus Orosius, in Bk IV, Ch. 7, has a fine, lengthy description of Regulus's battle against a serpent,3 as will be recounted later in my book about sea monsters, within the chapter on the Norwegian serpent.4

266

BOOK FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

On a tug of war with a hoop

A

the time of Christ's birth, Erik the Eloquent, because of his invincible oratory and verbal fluency and his activity as a soldier, was held distinguished among the nations of the North as one who could not be surpassed in the weight of his judgments, for in those days famous and noble persons took as deep a pleasure in fine speaking as they did in the use of arms. 1 2Another kind of contest was therefore invented with the purpose of overthrowing his renown by sheer force. A certain Vestmar, one of the highest in rank among the governors of King Frothi of Denmark, did not hesitate to assail with his strength one whom he was unable to overcome with words or wisdom, setting as the prize for the victor the death of the vanquished, so that each of their lives was seen to be at stake. Erik did not refuse the terms in case his tongue should be judged readier than his arm. Now the form of the contest was as follows: the competitors would be presented with a hoop of plaited osier or rope, which they had to pull furiously in opposite directions with all the force of their feet and hands until the stronger took the prize; the contestant who snatched it away from the other was declared the winner. Exerting himself in this manner, Erik seized the rope with greater vigour and wrested it from the hands of his adversary. When Frothi saw this he said: 'I think it's hard to tug at a rope against a strong man.' 'Hard, certainly,' said Erik, 'when you have a tumour on your body, or a hump on your back.' At the same instant he kicked the old man down and killed him by fracturing his aged neck and spine.2 Vestmar's great enmity towards Erik had arisen a short time earlier when Erik had been challenged to combat by Vestmar's sons and had crushed them briskly. 3The cause of the fight was that Erik had accused the eldest son in the king's presence of committing adultery with the queen. Since this was quickly proved by the obvious tokens of the queen's shame and Grep's guilty conscience, the latter was filled with mad rage and strove to put Erik to death with his spear. He failed to do this because Roller, Erik's brother, drove him off with his drawn sword, 267

Erik the Eloquent

Arms joined to eloquence Vestmar, a governor Prize Ready with tongue and arm Form of the contest

Tumour Hump

Shame and guilty conscience indicate crime

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Fir-tar

Frozen surface of the sea G0tvara Weight of gold

whereupon Grep called his accuser to fight alongside his whole company, so that he could clear himself of the accusation. Erik, being challenged, asked for three days' truce and during that time prepared shoes from the hide of a newly-slaughtered ox; these, smeared with fir-tar well mixed with sand, he fitted to his own feet and those of his men in order to make their foothold surer. Afterwards, at the agreed time, he and his followers advanced onto the ice-covered surface of the sea. Finding it slippery and treacherous underfoot, all the Greps and their fellow-fighters slithered about, while Erik, relying on the stability of his men's soles, laid them low. 3 ""Then, through the skill of his replies, he overcame G0tvara, the mother of the Grep brothers, who was quite shameless in the use of her tongue, and forced her, the vanquished, to give an extraordinary weight of gold to him, the victor. 4 5Later, when he was sleeping with his wife, two assassins sought to kill him, but he heard the noise they made and woke up. He defended himself and killed them both with the help of his wife, who also wielded a weapon.5

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

On the single combat of champions

1rrniJHE champions of the Gotar thought that no kind of contest was

1;

more effective for winning the palm of valour than single combat, for in this you relied on your own bravery and excluded the help of another's hand. 1 2It was then accepted by all classes of people that who­ ever declined to submit himself to the decision of a fight was held to be the loser;2 3kings and princes were thought to have disgraced themselves for ever if they refused such a challenge, even though it might have been issued by men of the lowest condition. Princes of old derived their fame more from prowess in arms than from riches, especially when a matter which could not be settled by hazarding all might be decided through the fate of a few. Their eagerness to meet in single combat was as great as the usual delight of our womanish aristocrats when they are invited to sump­ tuous banquets. Indeed, in those days they gave themselves up more 268

BOOK FIVE

cheerfully to the pleasures of feasting if the entertainment was to be completed by a duel. The victors had unparalleled renown bestowed on them for their valour; garlanded with the ivy crown of war, adorned with the prizes of victory, they earned well-deserved praise for their bravery. The coward won no palm and came back with no glory in arms; baseness of life was the ultimate dishonour, the greatest unhappiness attended the indolent. 3 To be sure, just as the Romans extolled with highest eulogies the feats of their Camilli, Curii, Fabricii, Collatini, Scipios, Marcelli, Maximi, Paulli, and Marii,4 so the men of the North would have heaped everlasting commendations on the achievements of their heroes if they had learned to match their daring deeds with skill in writing. The reward for undergoing a perilous duel was the topmost place among brave cham­ pions and marriage to some nobly-born or beautiful maiden. They nourished the utmost hatred for riches and were worried in case they might seem to have put their courage in the pay of avarice; consequently they showed themselves much more eager for honour than devoted to gain and set valour before greed for money. It was made plain that glory rested not in a paid fee but in nobility of mind. 5Nor were the vanquished always denied the honour due to them, inasmuch as the victors often attended to the last rites of the defeated; for, although differences of mind had divided them, the laws of Nature still brought them together. In these, they thought, lay the highest duties of human­ kind; ill will was laid to rest in death and feuding ceased in the grave, and, although hatred had come between them during life, one escorted the ashes of the other to his tomb. It was the victor's boast that he gave his conquered foe a splendid funeral and energetically devoted his goodwill to him once he was departed. No less must help be given, they reckoned, for such a grievous injury as the loss of part of their bodies, which may sometimes happen to men while they are still alive. For if, though their lives were unimpaired, men suffered in fight the deprivation of any limb, amends used to be made for the injury by paying as many talents of gold as had been agreed upon between the combatants. Indeed, such a fate was thought to be more melancholy than any death, because the latter took away recollection of everything, but while a man lived he could not ignore the mutilation of his own body.5 In Bk IV Saxo writes that in purposing revenge men should not be so foolhardy as to join combat when their strength is weak and ineffectual. In striving for another's downfall they may well meet their own death and will waste their promising talents by a premature thirst for glory. Let them therefore be careful of their life and of their youth, and not be possessed by a rash desire to perish, etc.,6 for champions must think warily about cases of private vengeance and consider what the outcome may be. 269

Prizes of victory Cowardly win no palm Romans Northerners write less and act more bravely Hatred of riches Nobility of mind

Natural duties unite people

Energetic goodwill

Death

Very wise cautioning against duels

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

On boxing gloves and gymnic contests

Strong men use hands as a hammer Cord of the gloves

Virgil, Aeneid V

C

ONTESTS with boxing gloves were thought to be a very good test of strength among northern fighting-men, yet they were seldom practised, because the men's hands were so weighty and powerful that those who engaged with each other had no need of leather, or of lead sewn into it, to strike a heavier blow; they could crush the head or body confronting them with their fist alone, as though with a hammer. For it is well known that Hhe cord of the gloves used by ancient pugilists was nothing other than a strip of ox-hide wound round the hands, enabling them to feel an impact less and hit their opponent with more force. Furthermore, when they sewed lumps of lead into the leather it was highly dangerous, or even fatal, as they pummelled each other's shoulders. Of these thongs, which we find used only by the strongest men, the poet relates: Into the ring he threw two gloves of immense weight, which the violent Eryx was wont to wear for combat, wrapping the tough leather round his arms. Men were astounded to see seven huge bull-hides, stiff with the lead and iron sewn inside them. 1

However, gymnic contests to win honour, that is with bodies naked and oiled, very seldom happened except with individual fighters. Although, to take vengeance for a humiliation, fist-fights, wrestling matches, or other exhibitions by swordsmen are undertaken, yet these are not performed with naked bodies, unless the right arm alone is bared during jousts or tournaments in an idle display for the noble damsels looking on. Of such engagements virtually none, or very few, are to be found, because of an Shame at inborn feeling of shame at stripping one's body in the sight of every single baring the body spectator. However, Saxo recalls that Frothi was outstanding not so much King Frothi for his monarch's embellishments as for the gymnic contests in which he King H0ther distinguished himself among other champions. 2 Moreover H0ther, one of royal blood, was famous among his contemporaries for his skill with boxing Cymric contests to win honour

270

BOOK FIVE

gloves, and also for his dexterity in military exercises. 3 Nor does St Augustine omit the names of these contests in Bk XVIII, Ch. 17, of The City of God, addressed to Marcellinus, where the commentator glosses Names of the word pugilatum: 'Among the Greek contests were wrestling, running, contests jumping, throwing, etc. What they call boxing (caestus) the Greeks term wrestling matches

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

On piracy by noble maidens

O

N the occasion described earlier in Ch. 18, Alvild, a nobly-born began to engage in savage piracy and enrolled in her fighting company many young women of the same inclination. She happened to arrive at a place where a band of sea-robbers were lamenting the death of their leader, who had been lost in war. Because of her beauty and spirit she was elected as pirate chief by these fellows and performed feats beyond a normal woman's courage. Alf undertook many voyages in her pursuit until, during winter, he came upon a fleet of the Blakmanni; in that season the waters solidify with the frost, and a mass of ice generally grips vessels so that, however strongly and skilfully they are rowed, they can make no progress. As the prolonged cold guaranteed a fairly safe footing to the trapped men, Alf ordered his followers to dispense with their slippery shoes, and to walk upon the icy surface only in their stocking-feet; this way they would have an easy encounter and exhaust the enemy, whose greasy shoes would make them unsteady in their balance. Once he had subdued them in this fashion, and the ice had melted, he set his course for the Finns, or Finlanders, as he had intended. He entered the narrow fjord of Hango and, after sending in men to reconnoitre, found that the harbour had been occupied before him by other ships. It was Alvild, in fact, who had anticipated him in entering these straits with her fleet and, when from a distance she spied unfamiliar vessels making in, she rowed swiftly to meet them, deciding that it would answer better to burst into the enemy than to be overwhelmed by them.

I girl,

271

Alvild

Alf Ships are fettered by ice Cold Way of walking on the ice

Hango

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

With kisses, not with weapons

Girl is most elegantly attired By the custom of his forbears SO years' peace Stikla Rusila

Man put to flight by a virgin

Hvirvil, prince of Oland

They began the sea-fight and sustained it on either side with high regard for their fame and courage. Then came the lucky moment the young man had been waiting for when he leapt onto Alvild's bows and, surrounded by soldiers who were fresher and more numerous, forced his way right up to the stern, slaughtering all who withstood him. Borkar, his companion, struck off Alvild's helmet and, as soon as he saw the delicacy of her countenance, realized that they should be going to work with kisses, not with weapons; they should lay aside their hard spears and handle their foe with more persuasive attentions. Alf was overjoyed when, beyond all hope, he had presented to him the girl he had sought indefatigably over land and sea despite so many perilous obstacles. He seized her passion­ ately and straight away had her adorned with the most elegant and feminine clothing. Following the praiseworthy custom of his forbears, he married her and afterwards had by her a daughter, Gurith. 1 2Gurith in turn obtained Haldan as her husband and gave birth to Harald Hildetann. The kingdom of Denmark had many, many times been torn by internal strife, but now enjoyed peace for fifty years while Harald restored the realm to its former dignity. 2 3Stikla and Rusila, two warlike virgins, strove with a war-fleet against the king of the Thronds for the lordship of the realm; with remarkable dexterity Harald vanquished and overthrew them. Yet his great-nephew Omund, the son of Oli, gained no such glory, for he attacked with a powerful force Rusla, another virgin, who as a pirate was contending against her brother for the kingdom of Norway. Omund was routed by her, but, when she was harassed by a stealthily-contrived rebellion of the citizens, he put her to flight and wickedly exposed her to pursuit and butchery by her brother after she had made her escape. I must not neglect to mention the powerful Hvirvil, prince of Oland; through a mighty feat of arms, he crushed Rusila, a virgin of Norway, who strove to excel in warlike exploits. 3

272

BOOK FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

On the warlike activities of women1

I

N case what I have just stated should need the celebrated evidence of other writers about the upbringing, activities, and triumphs of Gothic women, let the reader look at Justin, Bk II, where he sets out the origin of the Amazons.2 Paulus Orosius was indebted to him when he composed his account of the Scythian women, to which he adds a refer­ ence to the Goths, intending to demonstrate the root from which the Amazons issued. 3 Jordanes also, following Dio the Greek and Ablabius, the Roman senator, testifies in clear language that it was from the Goths that the Amazons first sprang.4 Jordanes also bears witness that he read time and again the twelve books by a senator upon the same subject,5 and that it was from these that he preserved in his memory what he wrote. Perhaps if these books were to hand, much plainer and surer evidence on this subject could be brought forward. None the less he asserts that out of the whole troop of these women two chief queens were set in authority, for the vigorous management of affairs at home and abroad. One was called Lampedo, who regulated and watched over affairs at home, while the other, Marpesia, directed cam­ paigns abroad. The latter, taking charge of the female regiment, which was provided with many kinds of weapons, that is to say, bows, javelins, axes, light shields, and leather helmets,6 crushed in war diverse tribes of Asia, pitching camp for some time by Mount Caucasus, to which, as Virgil testifies, she left her name: As stands hard flint, as stands Marpesian rock.7 They left this position and seized Armenia, Cilicia, Syria, Galatia, Pisidia, and many other places in Asia Minor. There they lingered for quite a long time and founded Ephesus, Smyrna, Cyme, Myrine, Paphe, and other ancient monuments. 8 At Ephesus they built a temple of marvellous beauty to Diana, which was highly famed throughout the world; they did so because of her fondness for hunting and archery, to the practice of which they themselves were devoted. 273

Origin of the Amazons

12 books by a Roman senator Two queens Lampedo Marpesia Kinds of weapons Virgil

Places overcome Places founded Temple of Diana

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Girls of Bohemia

Overcome by guile, they perished

Although the valour of the Amazons is supported by the evidence of many writers, it is not without its analogies for, many centuries after this, there were found in the Bohemian nation girls who hated every kind of male and held dominion for many years. They were skilled in fighting, and for a great while they laid low by an open display of force every battalion of men which came to encounter them. Eventually they were overcome by guile, according to report deluded rather than conquered, as Aeneas Silvius confirms in the first book of his History of Bohemia, and also Albert Krantz. 9

'Wl

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

On women of the same kind: instances from abroad

HAT is recorded by Plutarch, a most diligent investigator of ancient customs, in his book, Famous Women among the Greeks, and what Giovanni Boccaccio writes of them among the Italians, the painstaking reader must find out for himself. He may read Fierceness also how in his book of Chronicles Eusebius supports Orosius, Floras, and of Hungarian Regino of Priim, when they state that among the Hungarians men and women women were equally fierce. Jordanes, moreover, affirms that the Gothic Gothic women first the first to be engaged in the line of battle. Then Ravius in the battle- women were line Vopiscus, Blondus, and others bear witness that ten extremely belligerent 10 women women, dressed as men, fought against Aurelian with the greatest cour­ dressed as men age, and these he led in his triumph. 1 Paul the Deacon states that, when the men of the Lombards began to droop, their women took up arms and went forward in their place; the slaughter they in­ Treatise on flicted was as man-like as it was terrifying.2 In his the 30 treatise on the thirty pretenders Trebellius also men­ pretenders Victoria tions Victoria, a noble woman, who was distinguished by such great achievement and renown that she called herself the mother of the camp and, giving her grand­ son Tetricus the title of Caesar, set him to rule over Zenobia the Gallic provinces. What does the same writer more gallant than her record, too, about Zenobia, that powerful woman, husband, Odaenathus bringing in evidence a good many instances of her

Plutarch

r

274

BOOK FIVE

feats? He says that in the considered opinion of many people she was more gallant than her husband, the warlike Odaenathus, that she was the noblest lady among all the women of the East, and also, as Cornelius Capitolinus testifies, the most beautiful. 3 About her something even more remarkable will be set out below.4 Vincent also, in Bk. XXX, Ch. 93, of his Mirror of History, says that Georgian women of knightly rank can expect to receive instruction on how to fight in battle.5 Herodotus, too, relates at length in Bk IV that the Amazons shoot with the bow, throw javelins, ride horses, and know nothing of women's work. Moreover they go hunting on horseback and advance into battle as men do, though wearing robes. But since the time when Amazons living in the farthest tracts of European Scythia permitted men to wed them, no virgin marries before she has killed one of her race's foes; and so before they can marry some of them die as old women, because they are unable to fulfil the law.6

Georgian women Weapons of the Amazons Those who kill no man become old maids

CHAPTER THIRTY

On wars in which distinguished women have fought

T

HE fact that at one time Gothic women in particular took part in the heaviest fighting should not be lightly marvelled at or dis­ believed, for from the very cradle they were brought up to strict conduct and soldierly training, *and did not permit the sinews of their valour to be instructed by riotous living, unseemly behaviour, or wantonness, but rather at almost every moment by the use of arms; shrinking from a dainty way of life, they were able to steel their bodies and spirits with endurance and toil, cast away all feminine irresolution and skittishness, and exchange a woman's temperament for a virile ruthlessness, especially those girls in whom signs denoting forcefulness of character or nimbleness of body were more evidently conspicuous. Just as if they were 275

Women trained in arms from the cradle

Signs of fierce spirit and nimbleness

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

Arms before love; spears before spindles

Chastity unsullied

Stikla Alvild

oblivious of the sex into which they had been born, they preferred toughness to allure, conflicts to kisses, the clash of arms to the arm's embrace, and chose swords before sweethearts, since their taste was for blood rather than lips. Their hands, which should have been given to weaving, they applied to weapons, so that now, with an eye not to the couch but the kill, they attacked with lances those whom they could have softened by their looks alone. 1 No small number of them relinquished pleasures and answered with great readiness to this prospect of military service. The reasons why their parents allowed this to happen were by no means negligible: with their weapons these females wished to preserve their chastity unsullied by arrogant champions who were not restrained by any dread of crime and rape from inflicting dishonour on the other sex; nor did they want to let the violence of malevolent men trouble their country, their parents, and innocent people, whom Nature's bounty had protected with a gracious exemption from harm. Among these women we find Stikla, a Norwegian girl of high renown,2 and Alvild, as was related above in Ch. 27.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

More on the same subject

B

Strabo's supposition Cunning natures of women

Plato

Y the genius and valour, therefore, of such great women at home and abroad kingdoms and empires were extended and, in their enlarged form, 1 were protected with notable vigour, as was proved with the passage of time by the manifest achievements of their first offspring and Amazons who followed their example. 2In Bk XI, however, Strabo believes that, whatever remote antiquity may say about the splen­ did feats of these women, it is very far from being trustworthy, for he argues that no state could be established by Amazons without the help of men; it would be impossible, he says, for the natural folly and cunning natures of women, especially those who have been born in a harsh cli­ mate, to be toughened and trained as soldiers and to discharge the violent duties of war. But in this statement, or argument, he differs widely from Plato, who writes in Bk VII of his Dialogue on the Laws that in his own age countless thousands of women round about the Black Sea served as 276

BOOK FIVE

soldiers. These concerned themselves not only with horses but with bows and all other weapons, and used them too. Not much farther on he gives an account of the Amazons' courage in warfare. 2 It may be added that Virgil speaks, among other things, of the Amazons in Bk II of his Aeneid: Virgil The Amazons' ranks, with their crescent shields, are led by Penthesilea, raging amid her thousands; with a golden belt bound beneath her naked breast, the virgin warrior dares to clash with men. 3 And again: They who say Mars begot them hurl their spears, and, equally brave with her axe, fights Penthesilea.4 One should see also Sabellicus, Bk I, about the virgins of Sarmatia, and Vegetius, in Bk II, about Artemisia of the Rhodians. 5 Herodotus, too, in Bk VII, marvels at Artemisia, who, driven by no necessity but her ex­ cellent spirit and manliness, agreed to join the campaign against Greece. 6 7Plutarch, also, in his Life of Marius, says: 'The women of the Cimbri snatched away their enemies' weapons; then, when the fortunes of their menfolk had waned, they threw their children out of their chariots and, with the madness of women but the violence of men, killed them in case they should fall into the hands of the enemy: a fearful sight for those who witnessed it and a terrible memory for generations to come.' Other women, according to Orosius, Valerius Maximus, and Eutropius, when they could not obtain permission from Marius to join the vestal virgins in perpetual confinement, committed suicide. Caesar, moreover, states at length in Bk I of his Commentaries that the wives begged their husbands with tears to persevere and not reduce themselves and their families to slavery; and they set the wagons in their way to prevent them fleeing.7 Again Florus and Cornelius Tacitus relate that, when certain ranks had already wavered and begun to give way in battle, they were restored by their womenfolk, who constantly besought the men, stood before them with bared breasts, and showed them that capture was at hand; it was not so much this they shrank from as that they feared being made a sport of and raped abominably. 8 9Flavius Vopiscus tells of Proculus Caesar on a similar occasion that he thought himself a mighty champion, a half giant, when, within the space of fifteen days, he debauched a hundred Sarmatian virgins who had been discovered in the battle-line. What Claudius did to the Gothic women he had overcome the inquisitive reader will easily find in Trebellius, Blondus, and Sabellicus. 9

277

Sabellicus Vegetius Herodotus

Plutarch

Orosius Val. Max. Eutropius

Florus Cor. Tacitus

Fl. Vopiscus Proculus Caesar Claudius Trebellius Blondus Sabellicus

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

More about warrior women and the most distinguished Queen Amalasuintha1

Orithyia Antiope Thalestris Minuthyia

Hetha Vebiorg

Lathgertha Alvild Rusila Sela Stikla

Libussa Valisca Visna

Camilla

Amalasuintha

Admirable praiseworthiness of this woman

T

HERE were, besides, many other warlike females, not only not­ able ones of Gothic strain but numerous others also, famous and steadfast women of different nations. Turning first towards the North, we there meet, besides those mentioned above, Orithyia, Antiope, and Thalestris2 or Minuthyia in the first book of the Gothic Histories, Ch. 32, all carefully named by my beloved brother, together with references to the Amazons and their exploits. 3 Then there are those who were involved in civil wars (and very bitter wars they were), as may be seen above in Ch. 8 of this book: such women as Hetha, Vebiorg, Lathgertha, Alvild, Rusila, Sela, and Stikla. 4 Refer­ ence to these and similar hostilities must be made later, as the need arises. Albert Krantz, too, dean of Hamburg, the most accurate writer of any nation, makes mention of many remarkable girls among the Vandals, such as Libussa, Valisca, and Visna, who fought vigorously both in defence of their chastity and in their yearning for fame and honour. 5 Just as Penthesilea and Artemisia, those scarcely paralleled women, battled against the Greeks at Troy, and Camilla among the Romans,6 so did that heroine Libussa among the Bohemians and Vandals. Yet in the end they were mainly destroyed by wiles rather than conquered in war, especially Valisca among the Bohe­ mians, after she, with her maidens, had led them energetically for seven years. 7Also numbered among the Gothic women was the famous and judi­ cious Amalasuintha, daughter of Theodoric, king of the Goths and of Italy. Many celebrated authors have mentioned this woman, both Greek and Latin, such as Jordanes, Procopius, and others; but Suidas writes at much greater length: Amalasuintha, the mother of Athalaric, supported justice and in her qualities resembled the excellence of a man; as long as she governed the City, she never physically punished or fined any of the Romans, nor, when the Goths wished to ravage the City, would she by any means give her consent to it. She wished her son, too, to be included among the holders of office at Rome and to share their way of living, so that she made him listen to men of liberal education. Choosing from among the Gothic princes those who were distinguished for their years, 278

BOOK FIVE

experience of government, and self-restraint, she attached them to Athalaric, her son, as companions who could all take part in his boyhood lessons.7 8Moreover, the words of Theodahad, another king of the Goths, about Amalasuintha were as follows: 'In this very woman is the glory of all kingdoms; in her blossoms the honour of our lineage. Whatever gleam of distinction illuminates us we receive from her bright renown; for she has not only conferred praise upon her relatives but has also adorned the human race itself. Who could utter words sufficient to describe her sense of duty and the mass of good qualities by which she is distinguished? Indeed, philosophers would learn new knowledge if they should see her, and confess that slighter things were treated of in their books than those they knew were bestowed upon this woman, so keen in her dealings but in speaking so weighty and restrained. Without doubt this is the virtue of royalty: to be swift in perceiving what is required, but slower to break into speech. For a monarch cannot say anything of which he will have to repent, if he first subjects to his own scrutiny what is to be uttered. Blessed is the republic which can boast the guidance of such a sovereign lady, etc.'8 Pursuing more fully all the other good characteristics of this glorious queen, Albert Krantz displays them clearly in a fine and orderly fashion for all who desire to examine them. 9

Athaianc Amalasuintha

Greatest excellences Virtue of royalty

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

On the recommendation of chastity

N

OW that we have seen the heroic virtue of such an incomparable queen, it is right for me to show, by indicating some features of womanly worth, from where she drew them and was able to spread them abroad, for she has deserved, by those noble and magnificent titles of outstanding praise, either to be ranked above almost all the famous women of her time, or set on a par with them; and it is right to introduce others to her, so that they may have the strength to imitate her and similar women of distinction. One must believe, then, that she had been so trained by her parents through examples of modesty, honourable behaviour, and instruction in purity that nowhere, at home or abroad, by gesture or word, approval or negligence, did she permit men with lewd gaze or bawds, the most foul ensnarers of all chastity, to approach her. The Gotar of old, 1 particularly the noble families, cultivated a very 279

Queen's virtue

Honourable upbringing Foulest ensnarers of chastity

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

strict system of rearing their children, to nurture them in upright habits and honest practices suitable to their developing years as will be shown later in Bk XIV, Chs 2, 3 and 4. In other words males were taught the elements of soldiering and females quietness, modesty, and how to make sensible attire for themselves at home. They were not to wear costly apparel decked with gold or tricked out with jewels, enticements to Simple attire lewdness and lust, but simple clothing, a confederate in guarding chastity, the guardian so that not even the slightest suggestion of wantonness might be out­ of chastity wardly visible, to proclaim that inwardly, in a corrupted mind, an im­ proper acquiescence was fermenting. This can be removed only by turning Eyes to be averted down the eyes; then no hearsay may be kindled, insinuat­ from shame­ away or casting ful sights ing that virtue has been or is about to be dishonoured. For since nothing flies about with less foundation or with greater speed, so any suspicion or appearance of evil must be carefully averted. 2She who is once ill spoken 111 repute originates whether justly or even unjustly, can regain people's good opinion only of, swiftly with great difficulty, for a woman whose chastity is suspect leads a wretched life. Although even the best of women cannot possess every advantage, chastity is the one thing that repairs all deficiencies. If her dowry is small, Chastity praise­ it increases it; unshapeliness it not only embellishes but raises to a sem­ worthy: its virtues blance of beauty; obscurity it renders illustrious. In a word it makes good all the things that may anywhere be lacking. Lady Chastity causes a married woman to be pleasing to her parents and the older generation, and she makes a woman whose blood she believes is untainted by any There must be no adultery highly valued by her children: they need never blush for their suspicion of adultery mother nor have doubt about their father. Finally her purity ensures that she fears neither quarrelling nor suspicion, since she knows that she is innocent of any carnal union with a man not her husband. For this she Struggle for must not only strive but, as was stated above in Ch. 30, undergo any chastity struggle to avoid losing her chastity or virginity. 2 This has been made Evidence of clear, without need of further repetition, in the histories of sacred and Scripture profane authors who have written of many steadfast maidens. However, this kind of triumphal conqueror is considered all the more worthy of everlasting praise, since in every sort of war it is difficult enough to Shameless subvert one's own emotions. Now a woman who is overcome by the lures woman the of the flesh will, committing the worst of sins, wear a different sort of wickedest clothing, totally lay aside shame and modesty, and rush into all the filthiest acts of vice. Everyone must shun her wickedness like a deadly poison.

Children to be brought up in virtuous habits

END OF BOOK FIVE

280

NOTES OM5:1

The vignette shows two Swedish champions of old ('giants' to OM), portrayed in pleasantly anachronistic fashion. The material in this book is drawn almost entirely from Saxo, though OM mostly selects heroes associated with Sweden and stories that provided suitable exempla for his own time. 1 Cf. OM 1:29. Here and in OM 5:28 OM writes 'munimenta' but it evidently represents 'monumenta'. * Reading 'ubique' for 'ubi' in OM. 3 From Saxo, Praef. Ill, with minor changes (tr. Fisher, p. 9). Judging by his choice of examples in the rest of the book, OM leans to the latter identification of the primeval builders. 4 It cannot be seen how OM arrived at this figure. 5 Cf. OM 1:30, 2:32. 6 From Saxo, 1, V 2-6 (tr. Fisher, pp. 21-2). The internal reference is to OM 3:4-5, 9-10. 7 The references to Civ. Dei are correct. OM5:2

Harthben with his spiked club is seen on the left of the picture. 1 From Saxo, 7, II 11 (tr. Fisher, p. 206), though Saxo has no comment on the size of the twelve champions. 2 See OM 5:3-9 and 14. Arvarodd is ON Orvar-Oddr, 'Arrow-Odd', Arvaroddus in Saxo, Arverodus in OM. 3 The vessel envisaged was probably a wooden barrel-shaped container for socalled 'osmund' iron, cf. OM 6:8. The conventional weight of one of these when full was one ship-pound (=20 lispounds), c. 240 Ib avoirdupois in the earlier middle ages, subsequently (and in OM's time) c. 200 Ib. 4 Deuteronomy 3:11. 5 The reference to Augustine is correct but the quotation is not literal. 6 Solinus, I 92. 7 Solinus, 191. Quintus Caecilius Metellus was the commander-in-chief. 8-8 Vincent, Spec, nat., XXXI 125; Vincent begins, 'Ex libro de natura renim', i.e. from the work by Thomas of Cantimpre, known to OM only through Vincent. Aldhelmus is read for misspelt Adelinus in Vincent and OM. 9 This report has not been traced in Pliny. 10 From Vincent, Spec, nat., XXXI127, citing Isidore, Etym., XI3, 26. 11 Strabo, XVII 3, 8. See OM 16:46. 12 Maximinus Thrax, born AD 173, was renowned for his stature and strength. OM is referring to an anecdote told in SHA, The Two Maximini, 28, 8-9. OM5:3

The picture is designed to illustrate the simple manners and modest fare of the antique champions. It appears to have been modelled on an original closely related to a block used in Speculum humane salvationis, fol. 31. 1 According to Saxo, 6, V 2 (tr. Fisher, p. 170), Starkather came from the country east of Sweden where Estonians and other nations now live. In early times the borders of Tavastland (Hame, the large south central province of Finland) were ill defined. 281

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES

2 Virtually verbatim but with some omissions from Saxo, 6, VIII 5-6 (tr. Fisher, pp. 184-5). a. OM 9:19. 3 OM is generalizing from a particular scene in Saxo, 6, VIII-IX (tr. Fisher, pp. 184-95), where Starkather incites Ingeld to vengeance. *•** From Saxo, 6, IX 10-12 (tr. Fisher, pp. 190-1); the English above is closely based on the translation cited. In stanza 7 Belgi is a correction. The 1514 ed. princeps of Saxo and OM have mistaken Helgo (= Helgi). 5 In this last paragraph OM follows Saxo, 6, VIII11-12 (tr. Fisher, pp. 186-7), but mostly in his own words. OM5:4

The picture, based on CM, litt. C c, is also used in JMGSH, V 6. The runic letters read 'Starcaterus pugil Sucticus' (CM has correct 'Sueticus'). 1 Reading 'applicare', 'add', for 'ampliare' in OM. 2-2 With minor modification from JMGSH, V 6-7, derived there from Saxo, 6, V 1, 6, 9-15, 17-18 (tr. Fisher, pp. 170-4). OM adds the last sentence, also from Saxo, 6, V 18 (tr. Fisher, p. 174). See further OM 5:7. OM5:5

The vignette, of no special relevance to the text, shows Starkather at the head of a host, with arms and armour visualized in late fifteenth-century fashion. 1-1 Virtually verbatim from JMGSH, V 7-8, derived from Saxo, 6, VI13 and VII 2-5, 7-9 (tr. Fisher, pp. 179-81) 2~2 From Saxo, 6, VII14 (tr. Fisher, pp. 182-3). OM5:6

The picture illustrates the opening of the chapter. 1-1 Virtually the same text as in JMGSH, V 9-10, derived (with some additional links) from Saxo, 6, VIII 1, IX 20, and V 13 (tr. Fisher, pp. 183, 195, 173). The English text of the poem is lifted with small alteration from the translation cited. In line 15 and 24 of the verse Saxo's 'dicere', 'hold forth', and 'quemque', 'everyone', are read for OM's 'discere' and 'quaeque'. The last sentence of the poem was probably intended to be interrogative and it is marked as such in the 1514 ed. princeps of Saxo. A question would be in better keeping (cf. the sentiment of Starkather's verse in OM 5:9), and OM may have taken it to be one (his own use of the question mark appears sporadic rather than regular). In the first sentence after the verse 'ne ... quidem', 'not... even', is read for 'ne' in OM. In the last sentence of the passage Saxo's 'verberum', 'blows', is read for 'verborum' in OM. 2-2 The same text is in JMGSH, V 10; the casualty figures are from Saxo, 8, IV 9 (tr. Fisher, p. 243). OM5:7

The picture is of Starkather victorious on the battlefield. 1-1 The same words are in JMGSH, V 11. 2-2 From Saxo, 8, VIII 6 (tr. Fisher, pp. 248-9), translated with slight modifica­ tion of OM's punctuation. 3-3 OM jumps without notice to a point halfway through Starkather's next speech in Saxo, 8, VIII 9 (tr. Fisher, pp. 250-1). In line 23 'Fridlevi... nati', 'for the son of Fridlev', is read (following J. Olrik and others) for 'ter Olonis ... nati' in Saxo and OM. (Frothi, Starkather's old leader, was Fridlefs son.) In line 32 Winus, 'Vin', is read (with J. Olrik and others) for Rinus in Saxo and OM. In line 45 Saxo's 'peresus', 'wasted', is translated; OM has 'perosus'. 4 Already told in OM 5:5. 5 Solinus, I 98. Here and elsewhere 'furlong' is used for Latin stadium. If OM was consistent in using the measure indicated, his 'German' mile would be c. 7 km, his 'Swedish' mile 10.5 km. Cf. OM 1:2, n. 5. 282

BOOK FIVE 6 The Procopius reference is a mystery. 7 In SHA, Probus, 20, the emperor is said to have been murdered because he never allowed any soldier to be idle. OM5:8 The same pictures are used in JMGSH, VIII 9. They show the famous defeat of King Harald Hildetann of Denmark (falling from his chariot, top left), by King Sigurd Ring of Gotaland. The Danes are on the left, retreating by land and sea. Starkather leads the foot-soldiers on the right. The site of this legendary battle of Bravellir, fought about the middle of the eighth century, has been identified as Braviken, north of Norrkoping (Ostergotland). Saxo's chief source on the battle was a lost vernacular poem, probably of Norwegian provenance. Cf. KL, II, cols 295-7. 1 Cf. Saxo, 8,1-V (tr. Fisher, pp. 238-44).

2 Krantz, Chronica . .. Dania, II11, Suetia, II 21.

3 See JMGSH, VIII7-11. 4-4 Based on the muster-roll given by Saxo, 8, II-III, and on Saxo, 8, IV 3-9, V 2 (tr. Fisher, pp. 238-40, 241-4). On the wedge-shaped or 'swine-snout' battle formation (porcinum caput in Saxo, svinfyIking in ON) see e.g. KL, IX, cols 2656; Saxo, II, pp. 36-7. According to Saxo, Vebiorg was a Danish shield-maiden, Soti a Swede. OM takes Saxo's 'eosque qui Dala provinciam colunt' to mean the Swedish Dalecarlians, but Saxo was referring to the men of Gudbrandsdal in Norway. 5 OM's calculation is inexplicable. 6 On Oli see OM 5:9 and 12. OM5:9 The vignette illustrates the chapter. 1-1 Drawn from Saxo 8, VIII1 and 10-12 (tr. Fisher, pp. 246, 251-2). The first paragraph appears in virtually the same form in JMGSH, V 12. In the second marginal rubric 'petitae', 'sought', is read for 'petita' in OM. 'Again' at the start of the verse is explained by the fact that in Saxo this is Starkather's third speech to Hather. The final place-name is identified as Roljung (in Skane); cf. Saxo, II, p. 137. 2 From Dio Cassius, LXIX 22, but not verbatim. OM 5:10 The picture shows Haldan's combat with Harthben; it is rather remote from the text. 1 In Saxo, 7,1 2 and 4 (tr. Fisher, pp. 201-2) it says that Haldan was a grandson of the Karl who ruled in Gotaland. On Haldan's childhood see OM 3:14. M From Saxo, 7, II1 (tr. Fisher, p. 203). M Based on Saxo, 7, II3,7-11 (tr. Fisher, pp. 204-6). Cf. OM 3:16-17 and 5:2. *-* From Saxo, 7, II12-13 (tr. Fisher, pp. 206-7). Cf. OM 4:4, 5:15. According to Saxo, it was Grimmi who wounded Haldan in the thigh. *-5 Based on Saxo, 7, III 1 (tr. Fisher, p. 207). OM 5:11 For elucidation of the picture see the end of the third paragraph. 1-1 More or less verbatim from Saxo, 7, IX 6-7 (tr. Fisher, p. 221). Rothi is R0tho in Saxo, Retho in OM. The compound 'r0thoran' has nothing to do with a proper name; it is ON raufardn, Ted (= arrant) seizure'. 2-2 Freely rendered from Saxo, 7, IX 7-8 (tr. Fisher, pp. 221-2). The mode of execution omitted by OM was tearing men in two: one leg was anchored to the ground, the other attached to a bent tree which was then sprung.

283

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES 3-3 5:27, 4-4 "

Abridged from Saxo, 7, IX 9-13 (tr. Fisher, pp. 222-3). On Gurith see OM 7:20. Abridged from Saxo, 7, IX 17, 20 and X 1 (tr. Fisher, pp. 224-5). From Saxo, 7, X 4 (tr. Fisher, p. 225).

OM 5:12 The vignette illustrates the opening of the chapter.

1-1 Based on Saxo, 7, XI1-3, 6 (tr. Fisher, pp. 228-30). Saxo says the corpses of the robbers were put up on gibbets. 2~2 Abridged from Saxo, 7, XI11-13 (tr. Fisher, pp. 231-2). 3-3 Cf. OM 5:8. OM has a superfluous 'in' in 'in septem regum manu', ignored in the translation, 'by the strength ... of seven ... kings'.

OM 5:13 For the picture cf. the chapter's last paragraph.

1-1 More or less verbatim from Saxo, 7, XI7-8 (tr. Fisher, pp. 230-1), with some additions (most notably the parenthesis, 'just as the custom is ...'). 2-2 From Saxo, 7, XI 8-9 (tr. Fisher, pp. 230-1). The first marginal rubric reads 'Vigor stuporem hebetat', with an inversion corrected in the translation.

3-3 From Saxo, 7, XI 9-11 (tr. Fisher, p. 231). The most plausible identification of the village mentioned at the end of the passage is Hjalleskata, Millesvik parish, Varmland.

4 Reading Omund (the Old Danish name 0mund), as in Saxo, for Odmund in OM.

5 He was killed by Starkather; see OM 5:8 and 12; cf. Saxo, 7, XI11-12; 8, VI 3 (tr. Fisher, pp. 232, 244).

OM 5:14 For the picture see the latter part of the chapter. 1 Cf. OM 5:2, n. 2. Two Icelandic sagas of 'mythical-heroic' kind, Orvar-Odds saga and Hervarar saga, tell versions of the story of the Samse fight. These texts are probably from the late thirteenth century but have vestiges of much older poetry and story-telling in them. 2 See OM 5:24. On Arngrim see OM 4:1, 5:15. 3 Reading 'gener', 'son-in-law', for OM's 'socer', 'father-in-law'. 4 The preceding is largely verbatim from Saxo, 5, XIII 4 (tr. Fisher, pp. 153-4). Here and in OM 5:15 OM misprints Saxo's Ofura as Osura. Saxo does not identify Hjalmar and Arvarodd as Norwegians. OM 5:15 1 Egtherus and Thengillus are Saxo's forms; OM has Egbertus and Tengildus; on the former cf. OM 4:1, 5:10 (where OM also has Egtherus). 2~2 Based on Saxo, 5, XIII 1-4 (tr. Fisher, pp. 152-3), with some verbatim quotation. The names of the twelve sons are recognizably the same as in Saxo but there are spelling variations. 3 See OM 5:14. OM 5:16

The illustration relates to the topic of the first paragraph. 1-1 From Saxo, 2, VI11 (tr. Fisher, p. 55), with addition by OM (particularly the second sentence).

2 From Pliny, Nat. hist., XXVIII 2, 4 and 6, but with some confusion in OM's text made good in the translation by resort to the source. OM inserts 'as one of the most sovereign remedies', doubtless reflecting a common current belief; people in the nineteenth century were still collecting fresh blood at public executions with similar purposes in mind. 284

BOOK FIVE 3-3

Partly verbatim from Saxo, 2, VI 9 (tr. Fisher, p. 54). The joke at the end is OM's. 4 Paulus Diaconus, V 40. 5-5 Abstract of Saxo, 9, IV 2-3 (tr. Fisher, pp. 280-1). OM differs from Saxo in describing Ragnar as Norwegian. In Saxo he is Danish but with a king of Norway as his paternal grandfather, and Ragnar gradually enlarges his rule to include Norway. On bears as guards cf. OM 18:32. The reference forward is to OM 5:32. OM 5:17

This vignette, illustrating the events of the chapter, was mistakenly printed before

OM5:18. 1-1 Largely verbatim, but with omissions, from Saxo, 9, IV 5-8 (tr. Fisher, DD. 281-2). 2 See OM 4:1. 3 Cf. Saxo, 9, IV 38-39 (tr. Fisher, p. 291). OM misremembers in identifying King iElla of Northumbria as a prince of the Irish. OM 5:18

The picture, illustrating the story told in the chapter, was mistakenly printed before OM5:17.

1-1 From Saxo, 7, VI 1-3 (tr. Fisher, pp. 210-11), part verbatim and with small additions by OM, including the allusion to 'more ancient accounts of the Gotar', where his source is unknown. Alvild follows Saxo's form of the name; OM has both Alvilda and Alvida. 2~2 From Saxo, 7, VI4 (tr. Fisher, p. 211). 3 Cf. OM 5:30. OM returns to her marriage to Alf in OM 5:27.

OM 5:19 The vignette brings together a motif (sending incendiary birds to set fire to a town) proper to the Fridlef of this chapter and another (killing a serpent) proper to the different Fridlef of OM 5:22.

1-1 From Saxo, 4, X 3-4 (tr. Fisher, p. Ill), largely verbatim. On the widely reported stratagem of sending incendiary birds against a town cf. Saxo, II, p. 32, and OM 5:20.

OM 5:20 1 Cf. OM 3:4, 13, 15 and 19.

2~2 Practically verbatim from Saxo, 1, VI10 (tr. Fisher, p. 25). Duna is identified as Daugavpils, a fortified hill-town on the W. Dvina. Hellespont is used by Saxo to refer to the E. Baltic corner which gave Scandinavians access to the Russian waterways and routes to the Black Sea. Cf. Saxo, II, p. 31. 3 Cf. Saxo, 2,1 8 (tr. Fisher, p. 42). 4 From Pliny, Nat. hist., X 34, 71; with correction of OM's 'illico' to Pliny's 'inlito', *painted'.

5 From Pliny, Nat. hist., X 53, 110, recording the first known military pigeon post. Pliny's 'vigil', 'watchful besiegers', is translated for OM's 'vigilum'.

6 Krantz does not give this information and OM's source is unknown. The distance between Cologne and Neuss is 30 km or more.

OM 5:21 The picture illustrates the opening of the chapter, though there is some discrepancy in detail between it and the account of Harald's encounter with the dragon.

1 Haraldr hardradi Sigurdsson was sole king in Norway from 1047. He had previously spent some 15 years among the Varangian troops in Byzantine service. He was killed at Stamford Bridge in 1066. 2~2 More or less word for word from Saxo, 11, III (tr. Christiansen, p. 54). In the 285

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES last sentence 'admirationem' (so Saxo), 'wonder', is read for 'administrationem' in OM (which is erroneously emended to 'animi rationem' in the Corrigenda at the end of the Historia, p. 811).

^ From Justin, XV 3,1-9. 4-4 From Krantz, Saxonia, IX 24; Mattias is Matthew Corvin, reigned 1458-90. 5 Krantz, Saxonia, IX 24, on Edward III (1312-77) and Count Henry of Holstein (1317-86). 6 Krantz, Saxonia, VII 8.

OM 5:22 The vignette illustrates the chapter; it might portray either of the heroes men­ tioned. 1-1 From Saxo, 2,13 (tr. Fisher, p. 40). M From Saxo, 6, IV 10 (tr. Fisher, p. 169). 3-3 Based on Saxo, 6, IV 5 and 7 (tr. Fisher, p. 167). Hithin is properly the name of the boy from Telemark but it is attached to the giant in the 1514 ed. princeps of Saxo. Saxo's 'curtatum', 'lopped', is read for 'curatum' in OM.

OM5:23

1-1 Based on Saxo, 6, II 2-3, 10, and 6, III 3 (tr. Fisher, pp. 162-3, 165-6).

2 Largely word for word from Pliny, Nat. hist., VIII14, 37. Cf. OM 21:43.

3 Orosius, IV 8, 9-15. 4 See OM 21:43. OM5:24

The picture shows King Frothi handing over the tug-of-war hoop; see the middle of the first paragraph. 1 See the account of Erik the Eloquent in Saxo, 5, II-XIV (tr. Fisher, pp. 122-54). 2-2 Almost verbatim from Saxo, 5, III 18 (tr. Fisher, p. 133). 3-3 A summary of Saxo, 5, III 11-12 and 16 (tr. Fisher, pp. 130-2). There were three brothers called Grep. The name-form here is Saxo's; OM has Grepp-. 4-4 From Saxo, 5, HI 16-18 (tr. Fisher, pp. 132-3). G0tvara is Saxo's form; OM has Gutmara. M From Saxo, 5, III 34 (tr. Fisher, p. 140). OM5:25 The subject of the vignette and text illustration is obvious.

1-1 From Saxo, 3, VI 2 (tr. Fisher, p. 82). 2-2 From Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia, I 12.

3-3 The beginning is from Saxo, 8, VII7 (tr. Fisher, pp. 246-7). The remainder is garnered from Saxo, 3, V 2-3 and 6 (tr. Fisher, pp. 80-1), with some reference to Saxo, 2, IV 1 (tr. Fisher, p. 50). Cf. also Pliny, Nat. hist., XV 38,125, cited in OM 8:14.

4 These characters are drawn from Plutarch's Lives; OM's spelling for Collatini is Calatin-. 5-5 From Saxo, 3, VI 2 (tr. Fisher, pp. 82-3).

6 Virtually verbatim from Saxo, 4, III 15 (tr. Fisher, p. 105). This is from a speech, so some modification of pronouns has been necessary in the translation. OM5:26

The vignette goes with the Virgil quotation below. It is based on an illustration of the same passage by Marco dente da Ravenna; cf. Hind, Marcantonio and Italian Engravers, pi. 48. 1-1 Practically verbatim from Perottus, cols 74-5. OM appears to have checked the Virgil passage, Aeneid, V 401-5, for himself. 2 Cf. Saxo, 4, VIII1 (tr. Fisher, p. 110). 286

BOOK FIVE

3 Cf. Saxo, 3, II1 (tr. Fisher, p. 69). 4 The Augustine reference is accurate. The reading 'pugilatum' improves OM's 'Ad pugillatum'. OM 5:27 The picture shows shield-maidens, probably Alvild and Gro, meeting Alf in battle at sea. 1-1 With some omission and addition from Saxo, 7, VI 4-7 (tr. Fisher, pp. 21112). Blakmanni probably represents ON Blokumenn, used of the Wallachians (Vlachs). Saxo has Alf s followers exchange their slippery shoes for some kind of rough brogues; OM knows the virtue of felt or wool on ice, cf. OM 1:28. On Hango cf. OM 2:25. M From Saxo, 7, X 1 and 11 (tr. Fisher, pp. 225,228). 3-3 From Saxo, 7, X 8; 8, VII 5-6; 4, X 1 (tr. Fisher, pp. 227, 246, 110). On Omund cf. OM 5:13. Rusla and Rusila are probably the same girl. Cf. Saxo, II, p. 134. 5:28 The picture chiefly illustrates the second paragraph. 1 The whole chapter is a loan from Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia, 17-8, with some additions and omissions. 2 Justin, II1 and 4. 3 Orosius, 115-16. 4 Jordanes, VII 49 - IX 60. 5 Reading 'senatoris' (referring to Cassiodorus; so Jordanes, Prol. 1) for pi. 'senatorum' in OM. 6 OM adds the identification of the kinds of arms. 7 Misquoted from Aeneid, VI471, 'quam si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes'. The rock is from Marpessus in Paros, Parian marble. 8 This sentence is inserted by OM from Strabo, XI 5, 4. The name-forms have been improved in the translation. Paphe is not a real place-name but a distortion of Strabo's original rafyoi, 'tombs'. OM again has 'munimenta' for 'monu­ ment a', cf. OM5:1. 9 Aeneas Silvius, Bohemorum ... historia, 15 and 7-8 (Opera omnia, pp. 85,869). On Krantz cf. n. 1 above. OM 5:29

The vignette is derived from an engraving before Canto 14 in 1549 prints of Orlando Furioso. The text illustration was used in JMGSH, I 27 (and elsewhere), and again in OM 15:21. 1-1 Following Franciscus Irenicus, IV 21, referring to Plutarch, Moralia, III, Bravery of women, and Boccaccio's De Claris mulieribus. Eusebius speaks of Cimbrians, not Huns as in Franciscus Irenicus, corrected in turn by OM to Hunga­ rians; cf. Regino, Chronicon, s.a. 889. For Flavius Vopiscus see SHA, Aurelian, 34. Flavius Blondus, De Roma triumphante, X, fol. 212E. 2 The reference to Paulus Diaconus is in Franciscus Irenicus, but the rest of the sentence is OM's. 3 From SHA, The Thirty Pretenders, 31 and 15, 8. Victoria is read for OM's Victorina. Queen Zenobia of Palmyra was exhibited as a captive at Aurelian's triumph in Rome in AD 274. 4 OM does not revert to her. 5 The Vincent reference is correct. 6 Herodotus, IV 114 and 117.

287

OLAUS MAGNUS: DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES OM5:30 The vignette pictures shield-maidens but has no specific relation to the text. 1-1 Derived from Saxo, 7, VI8 (tr. Fisher, p. 212), partly verbatim. Reading 'non ... permitterent', 'did not permit', for 'non ... permitterentur' in OM. 2 On Stikla cf. Saxo, 5, XI 2 (tr. Fisher, p. 150). OM 5:31 The vignette is unrelated to the text. Models for some of the figures are detected in illustrations before Cantos 16 and 17 in 1549 prints of Orlando Furioso. 1 OM has 'actaque', read here as 'auctaque'. 2-2 JMGSH, 1 32, has a more or less identical text. Cf. Strabo, XI5,3. The Plato reference is to Laws, VII 804E. 3 Aeneid, 1490-3. 4 The source of these lines has not been traced. 5 Sabellicus, 15, 105-6. Vegetius does not mention Artemisia. 6 Herodotus, VII 99. 7~7 From Franciscus Irenicus, IV 21. Cf. Plutarch, Life ofMarius, 19, 7 and 27, 2; he says the women threw their children under the chariots, not out of them. See further Orosius, V 16, 9; Valerius Maximus, VI 1, Ext. 3. They are speaking of Gauls. OM adds the authority of Eutropius, but his Breviarum ab urbe condita does not have the anecdote. In Bell. Gall. I 51, Caesar says it was the men who placed the wagons round the battle-line. 8 Tacitus, Germania, 8, 1. The Floras reference may be to I 38, 16-17. 9-9 From Franciscus Irenicus, IV 21. Cf. SHA, The Four Tyrants, 12, 6-8. OM 5:32 The text illustration is also used in JMGSH, I 28 (and elsewhere). 1 The name of Queen Amalasuintha (the preferred form) is variously spelt; OM has Amalasuenta. 2 Reading Thalestris for Calestris in OM. 3 JMGSH, I 30 and 32. 4 Lathgertha is Landgertha here in OM, but Latgertha in OM 5:16. Cf. OM 5:16, and for some of the other shield-maidens OM 5:27. On Sela cf. Saxo, 3, VI 3 (tr. Fisher, p. 83). 5 Krantz, Wandalia, I 17-18. 6 On Camilla see Aeneid, XI 532-867. 7~7 From Franciscus Irenicus, III 9, partly verbatim. From 'Amalasuintha, the mother of Athalaric ...' the passage is largely a paraphrase of Suidas, Lexikon, s.n. AuoXaooi3v6a. 8-8 From Cassiodorus, Var., X 4. Theodahad appears as Theodat in OM.

9 Krantz, Chronica ... Suetia, III 20.

OM 5:33 1 'Veteres Gothi' in OM but he is now back in his own time. 2-2 This jerky sequence consists of short excerpts from Franciscus Patricius, De institutione, IV 5, fol. LX. The last sentence is recast by OM. He inadvertently omits the adverb male in 'ill spoken of.

288