第83章 LETTER XII(9)

Whether moved by an irresistible impulse,or impelled by more powerful neighbours,it is impossible to say;but certain it is that at some period,not perhaps very long before the Christian era,under the guidance of this personage,a sun-nurtured people moved across the face of Europe,in a north-westerly direction,and after leaving settlements along the southern shores of the Baltic,finally established themselves in the forests and valleys of what has come to be called the Scandinavian Peninsula.That children of the South should have sought out so inclement a habitation may excite surprise;but it must always be remembered that they were,probably,a comparatively scanty congregation,and that the unoccupied valleys of Norway and Sweden,teeming with fish and game,and rich in iron,were a preferable region to lands only to be colonised after they had been conquered.

Thus,under the leadership of Odin and his twelve Paladins,--to whom a grateful posterity afterwards conceded thrones in the halls of their chief's Valhalla,--the new emigrants spread themselves along the margin of the out-ocean,and round about the gloomy fiords,and up and down the deep valleys that fall away at right angles from the backbone,or keel,as the seafaring population soon learnt to call the flat,snow-capped ridge that runs down the centre of Norway.

Amid the rude but not ungenial influences of its bracing climate,was gradually fostered that gallant race which was destined to give an imperial dynasty to Russia,a nobility to England,and conquerors to every sea-board in Europe.

Upon the occupation of their new home,the ascendency of that mysterious hero,under whose auspices the settlement was conducted,appears to have remained more firmly established than ever,not only over the mass of the people,but also over the twelve subordinate chiefs who accompanied him;there never seems to have been the slightest attempt to question his authority,and,though afterwards themselves elevated into an order of celestial beings,every tradition which has descended is careful to maintain his human and divine supremacy.Through the obscurity,the exaggeration,and the ridiculous fables,with which his real existence has been overloaded,we can still see that this man evidently possessed a genius as superior to his contemporaries,as has ever given to any child of man the ascendency over his generation.In the simple language of the old chronicler,we are told,"that his countenance was so beautiful that,when sitting among his friends,the spirits of all were exhilarated by it;that when he spoke,all were persuaded;that when he went forth to meet his enemies,none could withstand him."Though subsequently made a god by the superstitious people he had benefited,his death seems to have been noble and religious.He summoned his friends around his pillow,intimated a belief in the immortality of his soul,and his hope that hereafter they should meet again in Paradise."Then,"we are told,"began the belief in Odin,and their calling upon him."On the settlement of the country,the land was divided and subdivided into lots--some as small as fifty acres--and each proprietor held his share--as their descendants do to this day--by udal right;that is,not as a fief of the Crown,or of any superior lord,but in absolute,inalienable possession,by the same udal right as the kings wore their crowns,to be transmitted,under the same title,to their descendants unto all generations.

These landed proprietors were called the Bonders,and formed the chief strength of the realm.It was they,their friends and servants,or thralls,who constituted the army.Without their consent the king could do nothing.

On stated occasions they met together,in solemn assembly,or Thing,(i.e.Parliament,)as it was called,for the transaction of public business,the administration of justice,the allotment of the scatt,or taxes.

Without a solemn induction at the Ore or Great Thing,even the most legitimately-descended sovereign could not mount the throne,and to that august assembly an appeal might ever lie against his authority.

To these Things,and to the Norse invasion that implanted them,and not to the Wittenagemotts of the Latinised Saxons,must be referred the existence of those Parliaments which are the boast of Englishmen.

Noiselessly and gradually did a belief in liberty,and an unconquerable love of independence,grow up among that simple people.No feudal despots oppressed the unprotected,for all were noble and udal born;no standing armies enabled the Crown to set popular opinion at defiance,for the swords of the Bonders sufficed to guard the realm;no military barons usurped an illegitimate authority,for the nature of the soil forbade the erection of feudal fortresses.Over the rest of Europe despotism rose up rank under the tutelage of a corrupt religion;while,year after year,amid the savage scenery of its Scandinavian nursery,that great race was maturing whose genial heartiness was destined to invigorate the sickly civilization of the Saxon with inexhaustible energy,and preserve to the world,even in the nineteenth century,one glorious example of a free European people.