continued to furnish Czars to the Russian throne until the death of Feodor, in 1598.

The work of the vikings is now finished: what is its sum? Three-fourths of the European continent has become Scandinavian, or has submitted to Scandinavian rule: thousands of lives have been sacrificed, and perhaps half the wealth of Europe has been plundered or destroyed. What is the compensation? We can only look to history for the answer. Here has been a great revolution; but revolutions are steps in human progress. Progress always demands as its price the best the age or generation has to give. The installation of the Goths and Teutons in Europe cost five centuries of woe and strife,—we can now see why; for it was destined to give the world a better civilization and a better leadership. But this leadership could not come from the Teuton alone: he is never prompted to enterprise in the world at large; he is never aggressive, he is strong only at home. Why then those six generations of viking conquest and mingling with the conquered, if not to supply this lack through the evolution of the British nation?

That England is the leader of this Teutonic age, that she alone has extended and is extending the borders of Teutonic influence, that it was she who enabled Protestantism to triumph and freedom to prevail, that it was she only who could lay the phantom of mediæval despotism which Napoleon raised—all this is undoubted. But is her leadership after all due to admixture of viking blood? Has she not become mistress of the seas simply because she is encompassed by them?

But island states do not grow strong by privileges of the sea; else would Ireland and Scotland have rivalled the power of England. Then there is a much larger Scandinavian element in the English people than is commonly supposed. We forget that Sweyn and Canute won England more through the Danes who were living there already than by the aid of new invaders from Scandinavia. We can also trace clearly in later England the Norse disposition and character. We can find it depicted in Chaucer’s Shipman (prologue to the Canterbury Tales, 388-410), who, after the lapse of four centuries, is still a viking of the old sort.

We find also the old quality of defiance well perpetuated. In his work on monarchy (written about the middle of the fifteenth century), Sir John Fortescue thus compares the Frenchman and the Englishman: “It is cowardice and lack of heart and courage that keepeth the Frenchman from rising, and not poverty; which courage no Frenchman hath like to the Englishman. It hath been often seen in England that three or four thieves, for poverty, have set upon seven or eight true men, and robbed them all. But it hath not been seen in France that seven or eight thieves have been hardy to rob three or four true men. Wherefore it is right said that no Frenchman be hanged for robbery, for that they have no hearts to do so terrible an act. There be therefore more men hanged in England, in a year, for robbery and manslaughter, than there be hanged in France for such cause of crime in seven years.”

We pass now to inquire what literary monuments or record the Northmen of the viking era have left behind them.

They wrote, as is well known, by means of an alphabet of runes. These were sixteen in number, corresponding in value to our F, U, Th, O, R, K, H, N, I, A, S, T, B, L, M, and Y. Their origin is unknown. From the Scandinavians they were borrowed by the Germans and Anglo-Saxons, and though never a common means of communication, were nevertheless at one time written and understood from Constantinople to Iceland. They are found preserved especially in monumental inscriptions, of which we take the following specimens from Stephens’s Runic Monuments, and Wimmer’s Runeskriftens Oprindelse:

Roman equivalents.
s a i l g æ r (th) r-h u i l i r-h e r-k u (th) g a t i e (th) i n a
a s l a k r-m a r k a (th) i m i k

Translation.
Salgarth rests here. God keep thee!
Aslak marked me.


2.—INSCRIPTION ON THE SO-CALLED SNOLDELEV STONE, FOUND 1768, NOT FAR FROM ROSKILDE, DENMARK.

Roman equivalents.
kun-ualtstain-sunar-ruhalts-(th)ular-osalhaukum

Translation.
Gunvald’s stone, son of hoald, speaks (or speaker—priest) at Salhowe.

Of the literature proper of the early Northmen, we will consider first the Sagas. These record the exploits of great chieftains, and are sometimes of historical value. They were never written out in runes, but owe their preservation to the Norwegian colonists who settled in Iceland. Some of them were composed there, but the greater part seem to have been brought over from the continent; and all were kept alive by tradition, like the Odyssey and the Iliad, until the age of writing.

In our last chapter we alluded to the attempts made by the vikings who discovered Vinland, to establish a colony there. For our first specimen we will translate from the Saga of Thorfin Karlsefne that part which describes the voyage of a band of these colonists, and their landing, as some believe, on the shores of Cape Cod.

“Now is to be told of Karlsefne, that he, together with Snorre and Bjarne, with their men, sailed southward along the coast. They sailed for a long time, until they came to a river which flowed down from the land above and into a bay and so into the sea; there was a broad beach and shoals there, so that it was impracticable to go up the stream except at high water. Karlsefne with his people sailed into the mouth of the stream, and called the place ‘Hóp’ (haven). They found there self-sown wheat-fields where there were lowlands, and grapevines wherever hills showed themselves. Every brook was full of fish. They dug ditches where land met water when the tide was highest, and when the tide went out there were halibut (holy fishes) in the ditches. There was a great plenty of game of all kinds in the woods. They stayed there half a month, for pleasure, and noticed nothing [of importance]; they had their cattle with them. But early one morning, as they were looking around, they saw a great number of skin boats; and poles were swinging in the air on board the boats. It seemed as though they were swinging a wisp of straw, and they swung them with the sun. Then said Karlsefne: ‘What does this mean?’ Snorre Thorbrandson answered him: ‘It may be that this is a token of peace; let us take a white shield and carry toward them;’ and so they did. Then the men in the boats rowed toward them, and looked with wonder at those that were there, and went ashore. They were dark men and ill-favored, and had ill-looking hair. They were large-eyed, and with high (broad) cheeks. They tarried awhile, and wondered at those they met there, and afterward rowed away southward past the cape.”

We will add also something from the celebrated Saga of Njál. This is the story: Gunnar, a friend and neighbor of Njál, had been sentenced to exile for murder. Njál had prophesied, in case Gunnar should not keep his word and leave the country, that it would lead to his death. Gunnar did not go, and becoming thus an outlaw, was not long after attacked by his enemies, and after a fierce resistance, killed. The prophecy of Njál was in this way fulfilled.

“When all of Gunnar’s goods were put on board, and the ship about ready for sea, then Gunnar rode to Bergthorshvál, and to other neighboring farms to speak to the men, and thanked them for standing by him—all those who had given him succor. The