EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

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[18] So called from Abbas, an uncle of Mohammed.

[19] This was at first known as the emirate of Cordova, but in 929 A.D. it
became the caliphate of Cordova. See the map facing page 308.

[20] See page 333.

[21] See page 485. Descendants of the Abbasids subsequently took up their
abode in Egypt. Through them the claim to the caliphate passed in 1538
A.D. to the Ottoman Turks. The Sultan at Constantinople still calls
himself caliph of the Moslem world. However, in 1916 A.D. the Grand Sherif
of Mecca, a descendant of Mohammed, led a revolt against the Turks,
captured Mecca and Medina, and proclaimed Arab independence. Should the
European war end in favor of the Allies, the caliphate will undoubtedly go
back to the Arabs.

[22] Popularly called the _Arabian Nights_.

[23] See page 126.

[24] The European names of some common articles reveal the Arabic sources
from which they were first derived. Thus, _damask_ comes from Damascus,
_muslin_ from Mosul, _gauze_ from Gaza, _cordovan_ (a kind of leather)
from Cordova, and _morocco_ leather from North Africa.

[25] See page 133.

[26] See page 275.

[27] See page 131.

[28] Many words in European languages beginning with the prefix _al_ (the
definite article in Arabic) show how indebted was Europe to the Arabs for
scientific knowledge. In English these words include _alchemy_ (whence
_chemistry_), _alcohol_, _alembic_, _algebra_, _alkali_, _almanac_,
_Aldebaran_ (the star), etc.

[29] The translation of the _Rubaiyat_ by Edward Fitzgerald is almost an
English classic.

[30] See page 564.

[31] See the illustration, page 471.

[32] The Athenians had a similar practice. See page 257.

CHAPTER XVII

THE NORTHMEN AND THE NORMANS TO 1066 A.D. [1]

138. SCANDINAVIA AND THE NORTHMEN

A NEW SERIES OF MIGRATIONS

From the East we return once more to the West, from Asia to Europe, from
Arabia to Scandinavia. We have now to deal with the raids and settlements
of the Norsemen or Northmen. Like the Arabs the Northmen quitted a sterile
peninsula and went forth to find better homes in distant lands. Their
invasions, beginning toward the close of the eighth century, lasted about
three hundred years.

A TEUTONIC MOVEMENT

The Northmen belonged to the Teutonic family of peoples. They were kinsmen
of the Germans, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Dutch. Their migrations may be
regarded, therefore, as the last wave of that great Teutonic movement
which in earlier times had inundated western Europe and overwhelmed the
Roman Empire.

SCANDINAVIA

The Northmen lived, as their descendants still live, in Denmark, Sweden,
and Norway. The name Scandinavia is sometimes applied to all three
countries, but more commonly it is restricted to the peninsula comprising
Sweden and Norway.

[Illustration: SWEDISH ROCK CARVING
Shows a man plowing.]

SWEDEN

Sweden, with the exception of the northern highlands, is mostly a level
region, watered by copious streams, dotted with many lakes, and sinking
down gradually to the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. The fact that
Sweden faces these inland waters determined the course of her development
as a nation. She never has had any aspirations to become a great oceanic
power. Her whole historic life has centered about the Baltic.

[Illustration: A RUNIC STONE
A stone, twelve feet high and six feet wide, in the churchyard of Rok,
Ostergotland, Sweden. The runic inscription, which contains more than 760
letters, is the longest known.]

NORWAY

Norway, in contrast to Sweden, faces the Atlantic. The country is little
more than a strip of rugged seacoast reaching northward to well within the
Arctic Circle. Were it not for the influence of the "Gulf Stream drift,"
much of Norway would be a frozen waste for the greater part of the year.
Vast forests of fir, pine, and birch still cover the greater part of the
country, and the land which can be used for farming and grazing does not
exceed eleven per cent of the entire area. But Norway, like Greece, [2]
has an extent of shore-line out of all proportion to its superficial area.
So numerous are the fiords, or inlets of the sea, that the total length of
the coast approximates twelve thousand miles. Slight wonder that the
Vikings, [3] as they called themselves, should feel the lure of the ocean
and should put forth their frail barks upon the "pathway of the swans" in
search of booty and adventure.

PREHISTORIC TIMES IN SCANDINAVIA

The Swedes and Norwegians, together with their kinsmen, the Danes,
probably settled in Scandinavia long before the beginning of the Christian
era. During the earlier part of the prehistoric period the inhabitants
were still in the Stone Age, but the use of bronze, and then of iron, was
gradually introduced. Excavations in ancient grave mounds have revealed
implements of the finest polished stone, beautiful bronze swords, and
coats of iron ring mail, besides gold and silver ornaments which may have
been imported from southern Europe. The ancient Scandinavians have left to
us curious records of the past in their picture writing chiseled on the
flat surface of rocks. The objects represented include boats with as many
as thirty men in them, horses drawing two-wheeled carts, spans of oxen,
farmers engaged in ploughing, and warriors on horseback. By the close of
the prehistoric period the northern peoples were also familiar with a form
of the Greek alphabet (the "runes" [4]) and with the art of writing.

139. THE VIKING AGE

DAWN OF HISTORY IN SCANDINAVIA

The Viking Age, with which historic times begin in northern Europe,
extends from about 800 A.D. to the introduction of Christianity in the
tenth and eleventh centuries. This was the period when the Northmen, or
Vikings, realizing that the sea offered the quickest road to wealth and
conquest, began to make long voyages to foreign lands. In part they went
as traders and exchanged the furs, wool, and fish of Scandinavia for the
clothing, ornaments, and other articles of luxury found in neighboring
countries. But it was no far cry from merchant to freebooter, and, in
fact, expeditions for the sake of plunder seem to have been even more
popular with the Northmen than peaceful commerce.

THE NORTHMEN AS SAILORS

Whether the Northmen engaged in trade or in warfare, good ships and good
seamanship were indispensable to them. They became the boldest sailors of
the early Middle Ages. No longer hugging the coast, as timid mariners had
always done before them, the Northmen pushed out into the uncharted main
and steered their course only by observation of the sun and stars. In this
way the Northmen were led to make those remarkable explorations in the
Atlantic Ocean and the polar seas which added so greatly to geographical
knowledge.

SHIPS OF THE NORTHMEN

It was not uncommon for a Viking chieftain, after his days of sea-roving
had ended, to be buried in his ship, over which a grave chamber, covered
with earth, would be erected. The discovery of several of these burial
ships enables us to form a good idea of Viking vessels. The largest of
them might reach a length of seventy feet and hold as many as one hundred
and twenty men. A fleet of the Northmen, carrying several thousand
warriors, mail-clad and armed with spears, swords, and battle-axes, was
indeed formidable. During this period the Northmen were the masters of the
sea, as far as western Europe was concerned. This fact largely explains
their successful campaigns.

[Illustration: A VIKING SHIP
The Gokstad vessel is of oak, twenty-eight feet long and sixteen feet
broad in the center. It has seats for sixteen pairs of rowers, a mast for
a single sail, and a rudder on the right or starboard side. The gunwale
was decorated with a series of shields, painted alternately black and
gold. This ship, which probably dates from about 900 A.D., was found on
the shore of Christiania Fiord. A still larger ship, of about the same
date, was taken in 1904 A.D. from the grave of a Norwegian queen at
Oseberg. With the queen had been buried a four-wheeled wagon, three
sleighs, three beds, two chests, a chair, a large loom, and various
kitchen utensils, in fact everything needed for her comfort in the other
world.]

THE SAGAS

A very important source of information for the Viking Age consists of the
writings called sagas. [5] These narratives are in prose, but they were
based, in many instances, on the songs which the minstrels (_skalds_) sang
to appreciative audiences assembled at the banqueting board of a Viking
chieftain. It was not until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that the
sagas were committed to writing. This was done chiefly in Iceland, and so
it happens that we must look to that distant island for the beginnings of
Scandinavian literature.

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE SAGAS

The sagas belong to different classes. The oldest of them relate the deeds
of Viking heroes and their families. Others deal with the lives of
Norwegian kings. Some of the most important sagas describe the
explorations and settlements of the Northmen and hence possess
considerable value as historical records.

THE NORTHMEN AS SEEN IN THE SAGAS

The sagas throw much light on the character of the Northmen. Love of
adventure and contempt for the quiet joys of home comes out in the
description of Viking chiefs, who "never sought refuge under a roof nor
emptied their drinking-horns by a hearth." An immense love of fighting
breathes in the accounts of Viking warriors, "who are glad when they have
hopes of a battle; they will leap up in hot haste and ply the oars,
snapping the oar-thongs and cracking the tholes." The undaunted spirit of
Viking sailors, braving the storms of the northern ocean, expresses itself
in their sea songs: "The force of the tempest assists the arms of our
oarsmen; the hurricane is our servant, it drives us whithersoever we wish
to go." The sagas also reveal other characteristics of the Northmen: a
cruelty and faithlessness which made them a terror to their foes; an
almost barbaric love of gay clothing and ornament; a strong sense of
public order, giving rise to an elaborate legal system; and even a feeling
for the romantic beauty of their northern home, with its snow-clad
mountains, dark forests of pine, sparkling waterfalls, and deep, blue
fiords.

EDDAIC POEMS

It is to the Viking Age also that we owe the composition of the poems
going by the name of the _Elder Edda_. These poems, as well as the prose
sagas, were collected and arranged in Iceland during the later Middle
Ages. The _Elder Edda_ is a storehouse of old Norse mythology. It forms
our chief source of knowledge concerning Scandinavian heathenism before
the introduction of Christianity.

140. SCANDINAVIAN HEATHENISM

THE GOD ODIN

The religion of the Northmen bore a close resemblance to that of the other
Teutonic peoples. The leading deity was Odin (German _Woden_), whose
exploits are celebrated in many of the songs of the _Elder Edda_. Odin was
represented as a tall, gray-bearded chieftain, carrying a shield and a
spear which never missed its mark. Though a god of battle, Odin was also a
lover of wisdom. He discovered the runes which gave him secret knowledge
of all things. Legend told how Odin killed a mighty giant, whose body was
cut into pieces to form the world: the earth was his flesh, the water his
blood, the rocks his bones, and the heavens his skull. Having created the
world and peopled it with human beings, Odin retired to the sacred city of
Asgard, where he reigned in company with his children.

THE GOD THOR

Enthroned beside Odin sat his oldest son, Thor (German _Thunor_), god of
thunder and lightning. His weapon, the thunderbolt, was imagined as a
hammer, and was especially used by him to protect gods and men against the
giants. The hammer, when thrown, returned to his hand of its own accord.
Thor also possessed a belt of strength, which, when girded about him,
doubled his power.

THOR'S DEEDS OF STRENGTH

Many stories were told of Thor's adventures, when visiting Joetunheim, the
abode of the giants. In a drinking-match he tried to drain a horn of
liquor, not knowing that one end of the horn reached the sea, which was
appreciably lowered by the god's huge draughts. He sought to lift from the
ground a large, gray cat, but struggle as he might, could raise only one
of the animal's feet. What Thor took for a cat, however, was really the
Midgard serpent, which, with its tail in its mouth, encircled the earth.
In the last trial of strength Thor wrestled with an old woman, and after a
violent contest was thrown down upon one knee. But the hag was in truth
relentless old age, who sooner or later lays low all men.

MYTH OF BALDER

Most beautiful and best beloved of the Scandinavian divinities was Odin's
son, Balder. He was represented as a gentle deity of innocence and
righteousness. As long as he lived, evil could gain no real control in the
world and the power of the gods would remain unshaken. To preserve Balder
from all danger his mother Frigga required everything on earth to swear
never to harm her son. Only a single plant, the mistletoe, did not take
the oath. Then the traitor Loki gathered the mistletoe and came to an
assembly where the gods were hurling all kinds of missiles at Balder, to
show that nothing could hurt him. Loki asked the blind Hoeder to throw the
plant at Balder. Hoeder did so, and Balder fell dead. The gods tried to
recover him from Hel, the gloomy underworld, but Hel demanded as his
ransom a tear from every living creature. Gods, men, and even things
inanimate wept for Balder, except one cruel giantess--Loki in disguise--
who would not give a single tear. She said, "Neither living nor dead was
Balder of any use to me. Let Hel keep what it has."

"TWILIGHT OF THE GODS"

Disasters followed Balder's death. An immense fire burned up the world and
the human race. The giants invaded Asgard and slaughtered its inhabitants.
Odin fell a victim to the mighty wolf Fenris. Thor, having killed the
Midgard serpent, was suffocated with the venom which the dying monster
cast over him. The end of all things arrived. This was the catastrophe
which had been predicted of old--the "Twilight of the Gods."

VALHALLA

Besides the conception of Hel, the Northmen also framed the idea of
Valhalla, [6] the abode to which Odin received the souls of those who had
died, not ingloriously in their beds, but on the field of battle. A troop
of divine maidens, the Valkyries, [7] rode through the air on Odin's
service to determine the issue of battles and to select brave warriors for
Valhalla. There on the broad plains they fought with one another by day,
but at evening the slayer and the slain returned to Odin's hall to feast
mightily on boar's flesh and drink deep draughts of mead.

SUPERNATURAL BEINGS

As with most heathen religions that of the Northmen was full of terrors.
Their lively imagination peopled the world with many strange figures.
Fiends and monsters inhabited the marshes, giants lived in the dark
forest, evil spirits haunted all solitary places, and ghosts stalked over
the land by night. The use of charms and spells to guard against such
creatures passed over into Christian times. Their memory also survives in
folk tales, which are full of allusions to giants, dwarfs, goblins, and
other supernatural beings.

CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE NORTHMEN

Christianity first gained a foothold in Denmark through the work of Roman
Catholic missionaries sent out by Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious. [8]
Two centuries elapsed before the Danes were completely converted. From
Denmark the new faith spread to Sweden. Norway owed its conversion largely
to the crusading work of King Olaf (1016-1029 A.D.), whose zeal for
Christianity won him the title of Olaf the Saint. The Norwegians carried
Christianity to Iceland, where it supplanted the old heathenism in the
year 1000 A.D. With the general adoption of the Christian religion in
Scandinavian lands, the Viking Age drew to an end.

[Illustration: NORSE METAL WORK (Museum, Copenhagen)
A door from a church in Iceland; date, tenth or eleventh century. The iron
knob is inlaid with silver. The slaying of a dragon is represented above
and below is shown the Midgard serpent.]

141. THE NORTHMEN IN THE WEST

CAUSES OF THE VIKING MOVEMENT

The Northmen were still heathen when they set forth on their expeditions
of plunder and conquest. Doubtless the principal cause of this Viking
movement is to be sought in the same hunger for land which prompted the
Germanic invasions and, in fact, has led to colonial expansion in all
ages. By the ninth century Scandinavia could no longer support its rapidly
growing population, and enforced emigration was the natural consequence.
The political condition of Scandinavia at this time also helps to explain
the Viking expansion. Denmark and Norway had now become strong kingdoms,
whose rulers forced all who would not submit to their sway to leave the
country. Thus it resulted that the numbers of the emigrants were swelled
by exiles, outlaws, and other adventurers who turned to the sea in hope of
gain.

RAIDS OF THE NORTHMEN

The Northmen started out as pirates and fell on the coasts of England,
France, and Germany. In their shallow boats they also found it easy to
ascend the rivers and reach places lying far inland. The Northmen directed
their attacks especially against the churches and monasteries, which were
full of treasure and less easily defended than fortified towns. Their
raids inspired such great terror that a special prayer was inserted in the
church services: "From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver us."

THE NORTHMEN IN IRELAND, SCOTLAND, AND THE ISLANDS

At first the incursions of the Northmen took place only in summer, but
before long they began to winter in the lands which they visited. Year by
year their fleets became larger, and their attacks changed from mere
forays of pirates to well-organized expeditions of conquest and
colonization. Early in the ninth century we find them making permanent
settlements in Ireland, and for a time bringing a considerable part of
that country under their control. The first cities on Irish soil,
including Dublin and Limerick, were founded by the Northmen. Almost
simultaneously with the attacks on Ireland came those on the western coast
of Scotland. In the course of their westward expeditions the Northmen had
already discovered the Faroe Islands, the Orkneys, the Shetlands and the
Hebrides. These barren and inhospitable islands received large numbers of
Norse immigrants and long remained under Scandinavian control.

[Illustration: Map, DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTHMEN IN THE WEST]

THE NORTHMEN IN ICELAND

The Northmen soon discovered Iceland, where Irish monks had previously
settled. Colonization began in 874 A.D. [9] One of the most valuable of
the sagas--the "Book of the Land-taking"--describes the emigration to the
island and enumerates the Viking chiefs who took part in the movement.
Iceland soon became almost a second Norway in language, literature, and
customs. It remains to-day an outpost of Scandinavian civilization.

THE NORTHMEN IN GREENLAND

The first settlement of Greenland was the work of an Icelander, Eric the
Red, who reached the island toward the end of the tenth century. He called
the country Greenland, not because it was green, but because, as he said,
"there is nothing like a good name to attract settlers." Intercourse
between Greenland and Iceland was often dangerous, and at times was
entirely interrupted by ice. Leif Ericsson, the son of Eric the Red,
established a new route of commerce and travel by sailing from Greenland
to Norway by way of the Hebrides. This was the first voyage made directly
across the Atlantic. Norway and Greenland continued to enjoy a flourishing
trade for several centuries. After the connection with Norway had been
severed, the Greenlanders joined the Eskimos and mingled with that
primitive people.

THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA

Two of the sagas give accounts of a voyage which Leif Ericsson about 1000
A.D. made to regions lying southward from Greenland. In the sagas they are
called Helluland (stone-land), Markland (wood-land), and Vinland. Just
what part of the coast of North America these countries occupied is an
unsolved problem. Leif Ericsson and the Greenlanders who followed him seem
to have reached at least the shores of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova
Scotia. They may have gone even farther southward, for the sagas describe
regions where the climate was mild enough for wild vines and wild wheat to
grow. The Northmen, however, did not follow up their explorations by
lasting settlements. Before long all memory of the far western lands faded
from the minds of men. The curtain fell on the New World, not again to
rise until the time of Columbus and Cabot.

142. THE NORTHMEN IN THE EAST

ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS OF THE NORTHMEN

In the Viking movement westward across the Atlantic the Norwegians took
the leading part. They also sailed far northward, rounding the North Cape
and reaching the mouth of the Dwina River in the White Sea. Viking
sailors, therefore, have the credit for undertaking the first voyages of
exploration into the Arctic.

THE NORTHMEN IN FINLAND

The Swedes, on account of their geographical position, were naturally the
most active in expeditions to eastern lands. At a very early date they
crossed the Gulf of Bothnia and paid frequent visits to Finland. Its rude
inhabitants, the Finns, were related in language, and doubtless in blood
also, to the Huns, Magyars, and other Asiatic peoples. Sweden ruled
Finland throughout the Middle Ages. Russia obtained control of the country
during the eighteenth century, but Swedish influence has made it largely
Scandinavian in civilization.

THE NORTHMEN IN RUSSIA

The activities of the Swedes also led them to establish settlements on the
southern shore of the Baltic and far inland along the waterways leading
into Russia. An old Russian chronicler declares that in 862 A.D. the Slavs
sent an embassy to the Swedes, whom they called "Rus," saying, "Our
country is large and rich, but there is no order in it; come and rule over
us." The Swedes were not slow to accept the invitation. Their leader,
Ruric, established a dynasty which reigned in Russia for more than seven
hundred years. [10]

NOVGOROD AND KIEV

The first Russian state centered in the city of Novgorod, near Lake Ilmen,
where Ruric built a strong fortress. [11] Novgorod during the Middle Ages
was an important station on the trade route between Constantinople and the
Baltic. Some of Ruric's followers, passing southward along the Dnieper
River, took possession of the small town of Kiev. It subsequently became
the capital of the Scandinavian possessions in Russia.

SCANDINAVIAN INFLUENCE IN RUSSIA

The Northmen in Russia maintained close intercourse with their mother
country for about two centuries. During this period they did much to open
up northeastern Europe to the forces of civilization and progress.
Colonies were founded, cities were built, commerce was fostered, and a
stable government was established. Russia under the sway of the Northmen
became for the first time a truly European state.

THE NORTHMEN AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST

Having penetrated the wilds of Russia, it was comparatively easy for the
Northmen to sail down the Russian rivers to the Black Sea and thence to
Constantinople. Some of them went as raiders and several times devastated
the neighborhood of Constantinople, until bought off by the payment of
tribute. [12] Many Northmen also joined the bodyguard of the eastern
emperor and saw service under his standard in different parts of the
Mediterranean.

CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA, 988 A.D.

During the reign of Vladimir, a descendant of Ruric, the Christian
religion gained its first foothold in Russia. We are told that Vladimir,
having made up his mind to embrace a new faith, sent commissioners to Rome
and Constantinople, and also to the adherents of Islam and Judaism. His
envoys reported in favor of the Greek Church, for their barbarian
imagination had been so impressed by the majesty of the ceremonies
performed in Sancta Sophia that "they did not know whether they were on
earth or in heaven." Vladimir accepted their report, ordered the idols of
Kiev to be thrown into the Dnieper, and had himself and his people
baptized according to the rites of the Greek Church. At the same time he
married a sister of the reigning emperor at Constantinople.

IMPORTANCE OF THE CONVERSION OF RUSSIA

Vladimir's decision to adopt the Greek form of Christianity is justly
regarded as one of the formative influences in Russian history. It meant
that the Slavs were to come under the religious influence of
Constantinople, instead of under that of Rome. Furthermore, it meant that
Byzantine civilization, then incomparably superior to the rude culture of
the western peoples, would henceforth gain an entrance into Russia. The
country profited by this rich civilization and during the early part of
the Middle Ages took a foremost place in Europe.