THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA umvEpq|TyftF_NORTH CAROLINA THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA ENDOWED BY THE DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETIES G 89 .B38 y.2 c.2 UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 00036909836 This book is due at the LOUIS R. WILSON LIBRARY on the last date stamped under "Date Due." If not on hold it may be renewed by bringing it to the library. DATE RET DATE RFT DIE 5CT l^jgj 86T 1878 » Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.archive.org/details/dawnofmoderngeog2beaz THE DAWN OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY PART II THE DAWN OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY VOL, II A HISTORY OF EXPLORATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE FROM THE CLOSE OF THE NINTH TO THE MIDDLE OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY (c. A.D. 900-1260) By C. RAYMOND BEAZLEY, M.A., F.R.G.S. FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD WITH REPRODUCTIONS OF THE PRINCIPAL MAPS OF THE TIME LONDON HENRY FROWDE, AMEN CORNER This volume was originally published by Mr. John Murray in 1901. 1 THE DAWN OF MODEKN GEOGKAPHY PART II A HISTORY OF EXPLORATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE FROM THE CLOSE OF THE NINTH TO THE MIDDLE OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY (c. AD. 900—1260) By C. RAYMOND BEAZLEY, M.A., F.R.G.S. FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD WITH REPRODUCTIONS OF THE PRINCIPAL MAPS OF THE TIME LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1901 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN. PREFACE This volume carries on, into the Central Middle Ages, that History of Mediaeval Geography — in exploration, travel, and science — of which the first instalment was published in 1897. The former period, which must be regarded as the Dark Age of Geography, was taken as reaching from the Conversion of the Eoman Empire to the close of the ninth century ; the present, to which the name of ' Dawn ' is more strictly applicable, covers the period from the close of the ninth to the middle of the thirteenth century ; the two succeeding centuries, from the middle of the thirteenth century to the death of Henry the Navigator, in 1460, may be taken as completing the story of geographical action and research in the Middle Ages. In the present volume we have to deal with the central Mediaeval Period, and especially with (1) the explorations and enterprises of the Northmen down to about a.d. 1066, the eve of the Crusades ; (2) the history of pilgrim travel to the Holy Land, and of other intercourse between Syria and the Christian West, down to the middle of the thirteenth century ; (3) the Hebrew geographers and travellers, especi- ally the twelfth-century Benjamin of Tudela ; (4) the diplo- Vlll PREFACE matic and missionary travellers of the thirteenth century — especially Carpini and Rubruquis — who took advantage of the new routes and new conditions established by the Mongol Conquests to penetrate further afield than any one had yet ventured from Christian Europe ; (5) the commercial intercourse, especially of the Mediterranean basin, and the extension of Christian trade-adventure to more distant regions ; (6) certain typical geographical writings and plans of the Central Mediaeval time, and especially those of the Byzantine Emperor, Constantine VII. (Porphyrogennetos), of the German chronicler, Adam of Bremen, and of the map-makers, Beatus of Valcavado and his copyists, Henry of Mainz, Lambert of St. Omer, and various anonymous designers, A fuller treatment of the details of these map-schemes is given in an Appendix on Maps, pp. 591-642. Under these six main heads an account, it is hoped, will be found of every important geo- graphical enterprise or speculation in Christendom, and especially in Latin Christendom, during the Central Middle Ages (c. a.d. 880-1260). Two alterations from the original plan have been made necessary by want of space. It has not been possible to insert even an incomplete survey of Arab and Chinese exploration and ' earth-study ' in this time ; and it has only been possible to treat very partially the geosophical theorising of the Scholastics. Thus Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus, Plato of Tivoli and Gerard of Cremona, have been of necessity almost entirely omitted from this volume ; but this is not of any great moment, as all that is valuable for our purpose in the writings of the Crusading period finds a sufficient place PEEFACE IX in chapter vii. ; and the geographical mythology of the Middle Ages in general has been already considered at some length {Dawn of Modern Geography, i. ch. vi.). In the centuries that now concern us (from the tenth to the thirteenth) no fact is more significant (though none has been more frequently missed) than the steady but gradual waning of fanaticism, the ever-growing change from the conditions of an earlier period, when religious conceptions appear as of overwhelming importance. For, in spite of the fact that religious wars are officially the great interest of all classes, e.g. in the twelfth century, the ambitions and ideals of the merchant are really beginning to supplant these of the priest and the devotee ; it is under the spur of commercial as much as of political designs that Christian Europe sets about retrieving the position that had been lost during the Dark Ages ; and the discovery of a new world for trade is the permanent result of the Crusades and the sign and abiding symbol of a true Mediaeval Eenaissance (eleventh to thirteenth century). The maps of this time (c. a.d. 900-1260) are numerous and interesting, some of them showing a great advance on any older Christian designs in the West. Our illustrations (all taken from the original manuscript sources) include three examples of the Spanish ' Beatus ' group, the ' Cotton ' map of the tenth century (a possibly Irish work of singular merit), the Madaba Mosaic (a striking example of early Byzantine cartography), and several plans of Matthew Paris, including a map of England, which ranks among the best designs executed in any country before the fourteenth century and the beginning of the Portolani or compass coast- charts. Xll CONTENTS PAGE The discovery of Helluland, Markland, Vinland, and other ' American ' regions by the Norsemen — Rival narratives of the Vinland Voyages — The enterprises of Biarne Heriulfson and Leif Ericson — Leif Ericson's settlement in Vinland — Thorvald Ericson ; his voyage and death in Vinland — Fruitless venture of Thorstein Ericson — Voyage and settle- ment of Thorfinn Karlsefne — His contest with the Skrae- lings ; he abandons his purpose of Colonisation — Freydis, Red Eric's daughter ; her Vinland voyage — Additional details supplied by Red Eric's Saga, especially as to Thor- finn Karlsefne, the ' Wonder Strand,' ' Hop,' the ' Unipeds,' etc. — Later voyages to Vinland — ' White Man's Land ' and ' Great Ireland ' — Vinland Controversies — Possible identi- fications for Vinland and the Skraelings— Olaf Haraldson ; his early voyages in Western Europe ; succession to the crown of Norway — Thorir Hund in the White Sea — Olaf's intercourse with the Orkneys, Iceland, etc. — Olaf in the Far North ; his war with Cnut and flight to Novgorod — Olaf's fall ; minor travels, of Sighvat, etc. — Magnus the Good and Harald Hardrada ; early wanderings of the latter — Harald in Russia, at Constantinople and Jerusalem, and in the Mediterranean — His later enterprises and Polar projects 17-111 CHAPTER III PILGRIM TRAVEL (CIRC. A.D. 900-1260) Christian pilgrimage from the close of the ninth century to the time of Pope Gregory VII. — The outlook at the close of the First Millennium, especially in Latin Europe, Ire- land, the Byzantine Empire, the Eastern and Western Caliphates — Intercourse of the Latin world with Palestine — Growing Byzantine influences in the Levant, a.d. 880-1030 — Latin journeys of the tenth and eleventh centuries to Syria — Destruction of the Holy Sepulchre, a.d. 1010— French, German, and other pilgrimages of 1035, 1038, 1053, 1054, 1058, 1064 — New Era with Hildebrand ; the outlook about 1070 — Causes and results of the Crusades — Pilgrim travellers and writers at the time of the First Crusades — The Innominati; the first of their anonymous narratives described— Saewulf of Worcester ; his outward journey-- CONTENTS Xlll Saewnlf's travels in Greece, the Archipelago, and Asia Minor — Saewulf in Palestine ; storm at Jaffa — Saewulf in Jerusalem ; marvels related by him — Saewulf' s descrip- tion of Hebron, the Jordan, Galilee, and Lebanon — Saewnlf's return journey — Abbot Daniel of Kiev ; peculiar value of his journey and narrative — Daniel's outward journey, by Constantinople, Rhodes, and Cyprus, to Jaffa — Daniel in Jerusalem — Daniel's description of Mar Saba Convent, the Jordan, various sites of Galilee, etc.— Daniel's account of the Holy Fire ; his return to Russia — Scandinavian pilgrims and pilgrim routes — King Sigurd of Norway — His sea-journey to Palestine along the coast of Spain — Sigurd's exploits in Spain and the Balearics — Sigurd in Palestine ; the capture of Sidon— Sigurd at Constantinople ; his return-journey overland — Adelard of Bath ; his literary tour in the Levant — Later pilgrim journeys and narratives ; their great number and comparative unimportance — Chief sub-divisions — Fetellus ; his description of Jerusalem, Mount Sinai, etc. — Marvels and myths — John of Wiirzburg — John's merits ; vividness of his narrative — His protest on behalf of the Germans in the crusades — Theoderich ; artistic and observant character of his record — His probable connection with John of Wiirzburg — Johannes Phokas ; his references to Manuel Comnenus — The later Innominati — Fragmentary pilgrim notices down to 1187 — Pilgrim nar- ratives, 1187-1260 — The City of Jerusalem — Ernoul — James de Vitry — Antony of Novgorod — Wilbrand of Oldenburg — Thietmar — Sabbas of Servia — Fragmentary pilgrim notices, 1187-1260 112-217 CHAPTER IV BENJAMIN OF TUDELA AND OTHER JEWISH TRAVELLERS, TO THE MIDDLE OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY Importance of Jewish travel in Middle Ages — Hebrew wan- derers and geographers before Rabbi Benjamin — Jewish missionaries in Yemen and among the Khazars — Tenth century Correspondence between Chasdai at Cordova and King Joseph in Khazaria — Date of Benjamin's travels — His historical allusions — His profession as a merchant — Sub- divisions of his journey and narrative — Benjamin's outward XIV CONTENTS route, through Eastern Spain, the Narbonnese, Provence, Italy, Greece, etc. — His description of Constantinople — His voyage to Syria — Merits of his notes on Syria ; examples — His route from Damascus to Bagdad ; his account of the latter — Position of the Abbasside Caliph and the Jews of Bagdad, as portrayed by Benjamin — More legendary character of Benjamin's Eecords, after Bagdad — His stories of the Jews of Arabia, Persia, and Central Asia, of Babylon, of the Tombs of the Prophets, of David El Roy, and of the Assassins and Turks — Trade of the Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean — Malabar, Ceylon, and China — Aden, Nubia, the Nile, and Egypt — Benjamin in Cairo and Alex- andria— Catalogue of Merchants trading to Alexandria — Benjamin's return by Sicily — His remarks on Germany and Slavonia — Rabbi Moses Petachia of Ratisbon and Prague — His journey to Syria through Eastern Europe and the North of the Black Sea — His notes on ' Kedar ' and ' Meshech ' in Modern South Russia — Petachia in Georgia, Armenia, and Mesopotamia — His journey from Bagdad to Damascus — His account of Hebron and other Palestine sites — Later Jewish travellers and geographers, 1200-1260 218-274 CHAPTER V DIPLOMATIC AND MISSIONARY TRAVEL OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY CARPINI, RUBRUQUIS, ETC. New era created by the Mongul conquests — Christian attitude towards the Mongols — Embassies despatched to the Tartar Courts in 1245, 1247, 1249, 1252, etc.— the Mission, journey, and narrative of John de Piano Carpini — His account of the Tartar country, manners, history, etc. — Virtues and vices of the Nomades — Widespread destruction effected by the Mongols — Their skill in war ; their cruelty and avarice — Universal ambitions of Ghenghiz's successors ; Carpini's warning to Christendom — Carpini's outward route through Bohemia, Poland and Russia ; arrival at Kiev — Journey from the Dniepr to the Volga ; arrival at Batu's camp — Carpini's description of the Steppes and their great rivers — Journey from the Volga to Mongolia — Carpini's classifica- tion of the regions surrounding Batu's camp and the Lower Don — Arrival in the vallev of the Svr Daria — The ruined CONTENTS XV towns of Moslem Central Asia — Route by Lake Ala-Kul over the dividing range west of Mongolia — Arrival at the Great Khan's ' Horde ' — Ceremonial of the Court ; election of Kuyuk Khan — Carpini's audiences of the Mongol Emperor — Meetings with other Christians and Europeans, envoys, prisoners, hostages, etc. — Carpini receives Kuyuk's reply to the papal letters — His return by Batu's camp to Kiev — Italian traders on the Dniepr — Mission of Andrew of Longumeau — His ill-success — Peculiar route followed by Andrew — Mission of William of Rubruquis — His com- panions— Outward route by Constantinople and the Crimea — Rubruquis' Black Sea Geography — His route from Sudak to the Isthmus of Perekop — His account of the Tartar manners and customs, the dwellings, food, fashions, laws, and ceremonies of the Nomades — Rubruquis' journey to the Don and Volga ; his account of the Finns of the Forest Region to the North, and of the hill tribes of the Caucasus to the South — Rubruquis at the camp of Sartach near the Volga — Journey to the Camp of Batu — Passage of the Volga — Arrival and reception at Batu's Court — Journey from the Volga, over the Ural river, to the region of Lakes Balkhash and Ala-Kul — Rubruquis' description of the Uigurs, Tanguts, Tibetans, Cathayans, etc. ; his opinion of Nes- torian Christians — Journey from Lake Ala-Kul, over the dividing range, into Mongolia — Arrival at the Great Khan'a Court, and reception there — Europeans at Mangu's Court — Visit to Karakorum ; Rubruquis' account of the tribes of the Far North — Controversies with Nestorians, Moslems, Buddhists, Manichaeans, etc. — Mangu dismisses Rubruquis with letters to St. Louis — Numerous envoys from the distant parts at Mangu's Court — Rubruquis' return to Batu's camp — News of Hayton, King of Little Armenia — Journey from Batu's camp, through the Caucasus, to Armenia — Through the Sultanate of Iconium to the coast of Cilicia — Com- parative merits of Rubruquis and Carpini ; recent contro- versy— King Hayton of Little Armenia ; his journey to the Mongol Courts — Previous journey of the Constable Sempad ; his stay at Samarcand — Hayton's route through Kars, Derbent, and the Caucasus, to Batu on the Volga — Thence over the Ural to the Great Khan Mangu — Hayton's return through Eastern and Western ' Turkestan,' Ncrth Persia, South Armenia, etc. — Hayton's stories of Buddhist customs, etc. . 275-391 XVI CONTENTS CHAPTER VI COMMERCIAL TRAVEL (CIRC. A.D. 900-1260) Mercantile activity of Mediaeval Latin Europe centred in Italy — Commercial position of Constantinople — The results of the Crusades in the commercial opening of the world — Amain ; its early development — Wide extent of its eleventh-century trade — Decline after the first Crusade, especially from the Norman Conquest of 1131 — Amain and maritime law — Venice ; origins of its trade and influence — Early development of its constitution and prosperity — Close connection of Venice with Constantinople — Clandestine commerce with the Saracens — Intercourse of Arenice with Germany and the Levant — Import- ance of maritime routes to Syria during the Crusades — Concessions granted to Western traders by Crusading Princes ; various types of these concessions — Instances of maritime aid furnished by Venice, etc., to crusading armies — Venice and the Comneni — Close alliance with Alexius Comnenus against the Normans — Venetian quarrel with Manuel Comnenus — Struggle of Venice and her commercial rivals for ascendancy in Byzantine trade — The ' Crusade ' of 1202-4 — Period of Venetian ascendancy under the Latin Empire ; distant developments of their commerce — Venetian intercourse with Moslem States in thirteenth century — De- cline of Venetian influence in the Crusading States — Genoa ; its origin, early history, and especial sphere of energy in the Western Mediterranean — Active share of Genoa in the Crusades — Intercourse with Constantinople ; treaties with Manuel Comnenus — Intercourse with Egypt and North Africa, with Spain, the Narbonnese, Provence, etc. — Triumph of Genoa in Byzantine commerce at end of this period, through restoration of Greek Empire — Pisa ; origin and early history — Great prosperity in eleventh and twelfth centuries — Extreme activity in Crusades — The concessions of the Pisans in the Crusading States — Their rivalry with Venice, even at Constantinople — Intercourse with Egypt, North Africa, Spain, and the Provencal lands — Decline of Pisa in the thirteenth century — Marseilles ; its share in promoting pilgrimages and Crusades to Syria — Its prosperity in eleventh and twelfth centuries — Rivalry with Genoa — Intercourse with coasts of Western Medi- terranean— Montpellier, Narbonne, and Barcelona ; their CONTENTS XV11 early prosperity — Narbonne as an intermediary between England and Egypt — Influence of the Catalan seamen on commercial and maritime law — Invention of the Portolani perhaps due to Catalans — Biscayans, Castilians, Galicians, and Portuguese ; their share in Mediaeval trade — Com- mercial advances eastward from the Crusading States of the Levant — Centres of trade in the kingdom of Jerusalem, the Counties of Tripoli, Edessa, etc. — Damascus and Bagdad as emporia — Pisan, Venetian, and other Christian merchants in the Moslem Levant — Trebizond, Nicaea, and Little Armenia as gates of trade-intercourse between East and West — Trade route crossing Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Arabia — Christian merchants on the Euxine coasts, in the Steppe Country, and in Russia — The chief emporia of the Black Sea ; Kaffa, Matracha, Sudak, Tana, Kherson or Sevastopol, Trebizond, etc. — Little Ar- menia as a centre of trade — New trade routes opened by the Mongols — Importance of Egyptian commerce in central mediaeval period — Continued prosperity of Alexandria — Intercourse between Christendom and the Farther East through Egypt 392-464 CHAPTER VII GEOGRAPHICAL THEORY AND DESCRIPTION (CIRC. A.D. 900-1260) Two chief examples of geographical writing taken : (1) By- zantine, of tenth century ; (2) German of eleventh — With these we must also notice (3) maps of the Xth, Xlth, Xllth, and Xlllth centuries — (1) Constantine Porphyro- gennetos ; his position as a geographer — The work On the Administration of the Empire ; its high value and interest — The writings On the Themes, Ceremonies, etc., of Byzantine Empire — Summary of the Administration ; its main subdivisions — The Byzantine revival under the Macedonian Dynasty — Byzantine influence on the sur- rounding nations, especially the Slavonic — Range of By- zantine geography in tenth century — The Neighbours, friendly and hostile, of the Empire — The Bulgarians and Constantinople — The Hungarians and Constantinople — The Russians and Constantinople — The Petchinegs and Con- stantinople— The Khazars and Constantinople — The Arabs and Constantinople— Vassals of the Empire, especially in XV111 CONTENTS Italy, Dalraatia, the Crimea, the Caucasus, and Armenia — Geographical information, as to many of these, from By- zantine sources — Subjects of the Empire — The City of Constantinople itself the Empire — Its universal attractions — Employment of all races in its service — (2) Adam of Bremen ; his importance in mediaeval geography — Adam at the Court of Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen ; his opportunities there — Adalbert and Svein, King of Denmark, Adam's chief patrons and informants — Adam's other sources — Adam's general geographical theories — His description of the countries of Northern Europe — His ' Scythia ' — His account of the Scandinavian lands, of the Baltic coasts, and of the chief ports of these seas, especially Jumna and Birca — Adam's treatment of 'islands' in the Northern Ocean — His notices of Iceland, Greenland, and Vialand — The lands around Bremen and ' Saxonia ' — Christian and Pagan Slaves — Russia and its metropolis of Kiev, as treated by Adam — Finnish tribes of the Far North — Harald Hardrada's venture in search of the Northern limit of the world — (3) Maps of the Central Mediaeval Period — The Beatus group, ' St. Sever,' ' Osma,' etc. — Leading characteristics ; the Apostolic Pictures, etc. — Illustrative details ; connection with cartography of later imperial time — The so-called ' Jerome ' Maps — The 'Cottoniana ' or ' Arjglo-Saxon' Map; its merits, possible origin, and special purpose — Its possible connection with the Itinerary of Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury — The Map of Henry of Mainz ; connection with the ' Imago Mundi ' of Honorius of Autun, and with the ' Psalter,; ' Ebstorf,' and ' Hereford ' Maps— The ' Psalter ' Map- Illustrative details of all these related designs — Maps of Lambert of St. Omer ; their connection with the ' Macro- bius,' ' Sallust,' and T-0~sketches — Illustrative details of all these — The leading TO maPs ; their connection with classical schools — Map of Guiclo 'of Ravenna' — The Madaba Map and the ' Situs Hierusalem ' as examples of detailed ' Chorography ' — Illustrative details — Connection of the ' Situs ' with other works — Lost maps of this period 465-590 Appendix on Maps . , 591-642 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS >»-< TO FACE PAGE Examples of ' Beatus ' Cartography — (a). The Map of 'St. Sever,' of c. a.d. 1030 . . .550 (/3). The 'Turin' Map of c. a. D. 1150 552 (y). The British Museum or so-called ' Spanish Arabic ' Map of a.d. 1109 554 The 'Cotton' or so-called ' Anglo-Saxon' Map of c. a.d. 990 560 The World-Map of Henry of Mainz, of c. a.d. 1110 . . 564 The Larger 'Jerome' Map (so-called) of the Twelfth Century 566 The 'Psalter' Map of the Thirteenth Century . . . 568 The Macrobian ' Cotton ' Zone-Map of the Tenth Century . 574 The Climate Map of Petrus Alphonsus, c. a.d. 1110 . . 576 The Madaba Mosaic Map of the Sixth Century . . . 580 The 'Situs Hierusalem,' of c. a.d. 1100 582 Examples of Matthew Paris' Cartography (Middle of the Thirteenth Century) — (a). The ' England,' of the most finished ' Cotton ' form . 584 (/3). The ' World Map,' from the London copy . . .586 (>). The ' Itinerary ' from London to Apulia (South-Italian section) ......... 588 (5). The ' Palestine,' from the best London copy . . 590 The World-Map of Guidu, c. a.d. 1119 632 THE DAWN OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY CHAPTEE I INTRODUCTION. In a former volume we attempted to trace the story of geographical movements and the records of travellers and men of science from the conversion of the Eoman Empire to the close of the ninth century, thus arriving at one of the darkest periods of the Middle Ages. In the present, or second, part of this survey of mediaeval geography our task will be a different one. For here we begin upon a ground which seems well-nigh entirely barren; we cross that desert which separates the earlier and later Middle Age, the ' Eomanesque ' and the ' Gothic ' ; and we follow the streamlet of western enterprise as it leads us into a country far richer and more abundant than any we have traversed since the age of Constantine (a.d. 900-1260), Before the close of the eleventh century Christian Europe has rallied from its decadence and apparent torpor, and is on every side passing beyond its former bounds, reconquer- ing ancient possessions, and seeking new fields for its energy. The Crusades are the central expression of this revival, which, though defeated in some of its immediate A 2 INTRODUCTION [Ch. objects, was entirely successful in kindling a spirit of patriotism, of practical religious fervour, and of boundless enterprise, whereby our Western World finally attained to the discovery, conquest, colonisation, or trade-dominion of the best portions of the earth. The pilgrims, traders, and missionaries of the earlier Middle Age have already shown us how far Christian Europe, up to the close of the ninth century, was in touch with the outside world. In the central mediaeval era which now occupies us we find, on one side, a certain contraction, on another an immense extension, of geographical enterprise. In Central Asia and in the far East and South of that Continent the Nestorian Missions slowly decline as Islam advances, and as the Syrian starting-point of these same missions becomes more and more a centre of Mohammedan life. But to the north and west of Europe the Scandinavian mariners (first as heathen, then as Christian, explorers), dis- cover, ravage, or settle new lands beyond the furthest limits of ancient knowledge. And as these northern adventurers scatter themselves over the whole shore-line of the older Christendom, as well as the coasts of Greenland, Vinland, and North-Eastern Europe, they are slowly brought into the federation of the Western Church, and thus the pilgrim spirit is translated, as it were, into new and more powerful forms. Christendom had seen a wonderful expan- sion of the heathen North ; now that it had won the North- men to itself it was ready to imitate their example. The deliberate purpose of ecclesiastical statesmen gave direction to a universal feeling of capacity and ambition chafing under restraint. Even the struggle which, under Gregory VII., broke out between the Empire and the Papacy did not prevent the combined efforts of Christian peoples and warriors to win a new vantage ground in the Levant, and I.] THE NORTHMEN IN EXPLORATION 3 to reopen for European enterprise a way to the more distant East. The discoveries and conquests of the Northmen fall mainly within that first barren period to which we have referred ; during much of this time they go on quite apart from the life of Christendom, and at first appear in bitter hostility to it. But the gradual association, incorporation, or alliance of the Scandinavians with the nations they came to plunder or to destroy, is perhaps the most decisive fact in the story of the Christian Middle Ages, and affords a basis and starting-point for every subsequent development. The Crusades, the commercial and territorial expansion that follows the Crusading movement, and the extension of European spirit and influence towards ultimate predomin- ance in the outside world, are all related to the formative, provocative, and invigorative influence of the northern invasions. The travels and adventures of Ohthere and Wulf- stan, Eric Blood-axe and Eric Haraldson (c. a.d. 890, 918, 930), on the coasts of Lapland, the White Sea, and the Baltic; of Olaf Tryggveson and Olaf the Saint in Russia and Western Europe (c. 965-1015) ; the voyages of Thorir Hund to the Dvina in the track of Ohthere (c, 1025) ; of Nadodd, Gardar, Iugolf, Leif, Gunnbiorn, Red Eric, Leif Ericson, and Thorfinn Karlsefne to Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland (c. 805-1010) ; and of Harald Hardrada in Eastern Europe, in the Mediterranean, and in the Polar Seas (c. 1035-1055), stand out as the leading incidents in the history of this early Scandinavian exploration of the outer world, and give the outlines of a picture unmatched in the story of mediaeval geography. Apart from the work of the Norsemen, which must be considered as introductory to the rest, the geographical move- ments of the Latin world within this time (900-1260) fall 4 INTRODUCTION [Ch. into three main divisions. First, we have the pre-Crusad- ing journeys and writings of the tenth and eleventh centuries ; secondly, those which fall within the first century of Crusading activity ; thirdly, those which belong to the time that follows Saladin's overthrow of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. In the first of these epochs we have material of little importance in itself, and chiefly interesting as a preparation for what was to come ; in the second a notable extension of the horizon is obvious ; but it is not until the third that we see men from Catholic Europe travelling beyond the ancient limits, crossing the heart of Asia, and bringing to the Court of China first-hand evidence of the lands ' near the sunsetting.' Among the chief figures of these three periods we have in the first-named the famous Gerbert (Pope Sylvester II.), whom a later tradition makes an early preacher of Syrian Crusade, but whose alleged visit to the Holy Land is more than doubtful; Duke Eobert of Normandy, who certainly visited Jerusalem in 1035-1036 ; and his great contemporaries, Fulk the Black, Count of Anjou, Ealdred, Archbishop of York, Siegfried of Mainz, Hermann of Bamberg, William of Angouleme, and Svein son of God wine But there is no pilgrim journey of this time which stands out in any marked degree, or has left records of such im- portance as to bring into relief the personality of any par- ticular traveller or writer. This pilgrim literature, of which we have seen so many examples in the earlier Christian centuries, begins again with the second division of our subject, the century of the first three Crusades (1096-1191). And in this literature the first names of note are Saewulf of Worcester, Adelard or Athelard of Bath, and Daniel of Kiev, three of that host of peaceful wanderers who followed the conquerors of the First Crusade. Saewulf and Daniel have 1. 1 PILGRIMS OF THE CRUSADING AGE 5 left us their note-books, arid both of these belong to the new time, a time full of life and personal interest, in sharp contrast to the generations immediately preceding, when history is almost inarticulate, and when even the bare outlines of the world's leading figures are scarcely discernible. The hordes of tenth and eleventh century pilgrims give no sign of anything but the simplest penitential purpose, though every fresh conversion of the northern nations * (especially since the end of the First Millennium) had been bringing a new stream of devotees to Italy and the Levant. But now, when Mediaeval Christendom had begun to take shape, when a revival of intellectual life had shown itself, and when re- ligious passion had become more steady and less unworldly, the discoverer, the scientific observer, and the merchant, are blended with the pilgrim pure and simple in an ever larger number of those records that have come down to us. Thus Saewulf, the layman and the merchant; Adelard, the investigator of nature ; Daniel, the Prussian monk and patriot ; all show us something of the new face of things, and suggest changes still greater. And it is here, even more than in knowledge, or extent of travel, that these later pilgrims show so marked an advance on the chief of their predecessors. This is also the main interest in the journey of King Sigurd of Norway, at this very time (1107-1111), for, though his voyage added nothing definite to geographical knowledge, he represents, in his person as a Crusading Norseman, the meeting of two forces whose union was of infinite promise for the future. For here is dramatically combined the militant Christianity of the Western Church, and the daring spirit of that race which had restored the energies of European nations, and opened so much of land and sea to European enterprise. 1 In which Hungary must be included. 6 INTRODUCTION LCh. Our second period closes with the records of Benjamin of Tudela (1159-1173), and other less important travellers, whose horizon has broadened from the nearer East of the Levant to the Middle Orient, to the lands beyond Syria, the Euphrates, and the Caucasus. Thus the European is be- ginning to enter a world outside the influence of his own races and centres of power, even outside the purview of the contracted Christendom of the Dark Ages ; a world where the visitor becomes gradually conscious of a new light radiating from the far distant, self-contained, and long hidden1 civilisations of India and China. The third period that here concerns us (c. 1190-1260) brings the West into direct connection with those distant regions, incredibly rich and populous and attractive as they seemed to the Latin world of that time. Meantime, that Latin world had committed a criminal blunder, and had witnessed with apathy, almost with satisfaction, the fall of two great disasters (one self-inflicted, the other unforeseen and incalculable, but still more terrific) upon the common interests of European nations. On one side, the Crusaders of 1202-1204 had turned away from their promised work to seize Constantinople, and found a Latin empire on the ruins of the shrunken Byzantine State ; on another side, the Eoman Church had seen (from the year 1213) the rise of the Tartar Empire of Ghenghiz Khan and his successors, without raising a finger to save the Christians of the Eussian States, of Poland, or of Hungaiy. All else was forgotten ex- cept the partial truths that the Greeks had broken com- munion with Eome, and that the Tartars had weakened Islam ; wild hopes of Mongol conversion wrere entertained in the West; and Latin missions crossed Europe and Asia to the court of the Great Khan. Thus John de Piano 1 I.e. from Mediaeval Europe. I] COMMERCIAL, DIPLOMATIC, MISSIONARY TRAVEL 7 Carpini (1246-1247), William de Kubruquis (1253-1255), Nicolo and Matteo Polo,1 uncles of Marco (1255-1269), with many others, made their way to the headquarters of the Nomacle princes, to Sarai on the Volga, to Karakorum near Lake Baikal, and to the summer capital of Kublai Khan, beside the wall of China. Thus, by about 1260, we have reached a state of things which is, in all respects, an advance on the Dark Age Period, as shown in the seventh, eighth, or tenth centuries. The outlook of the European has greatly extended ; the all- absorbing ambitions of the first Saracens have been thwarted ; it is not likely now that Christendom, however endangered from time to time, will finally, and as a whole, succumb to Islam. In particular, its geographical outlook, its knowledge of the world, both practical and scientific, has been widened and deepened, while that of its great rival is already giving signs of an autumn, which, however splendid, is an autumn still. We must not be deceived by exceptions. No greater Moslem traveller ever lived than the fourteenth-century Doctor of Tangier; yet it is un- deniable that, in the fourteenth century, Moslem geography and Moslem science are declining. Turks and Tartars by successive invasions and devastations, Spanish Christians by their incessant attacks, were slowly ruining the higher culture of the Mohammedan world. We may, perhaps, see the beginnings of this ruin even from the time of the great encyclopaedist Yakut (f 1229); the slowly dying flame blazes up once more in a brilliant farewell with the work of Ibn Batuta and Abulfeda ; but after this there is little but cold and darkness. On the other hand, the close of the Crusading Era leaves us at the end of the great scholastic age, at the abortive 1 Whose journey lies just outside the period of this volume. 8 INTRODUCTION [Oh. conclusion of ail efforts for Latin domination in the Levant ; but it also brings us to the completion of a great and fruitful chapter of social and political growth, and to the beginning of an even more decisive advance. For, as the warlike spirit of Christendom seems to grow somewhat weary, and as its efforts at founding new kingdoms (in Antioch, Cyprus, Jerusalem, or Constantinople) appear more and more fruit- less, a still greater extension of European life and knowledge begins. The missionaries and merchants who followed the Crusading armies to the Euphrates, and crept on to Ceylon and the China Sea, brought Further and Central Asia — Thesauri Arctium et divitis Indiae — within the ken of the Frankish and Latin nations. Again, though baulked in the Eastern Mediterranean, and disappointed in their hopes of permanent advance along the Asiatic land-routes, the European races turned, with an energy and daring im- possible at an earlier time, to discover a maritime route to India and China. As early as 1270 these attempts began with the first voyages to the Canaries, and after two centuries of slow endeavour the way round Africa was laid open. We may notice that the Vinland voyages of the Northmen were discoveries rather of special than general interest or useful- ness ; unconnected as they were with the main lines of trade, or with the general life of Christendom, they were never realised or understood by the Western World at large. It was otherwise with the explorations of Carpini, of Paibruquis, of the Polos, and of the early Italian voyagers who first sought the ' way by sea to the ports of India to trade there.' And here we may repeat that the renaissance of Western Europe in the Crusading age was fully as much an intel- lectual as a material and political movement. Science was at last touched and changed by the new life as completely as the arts of war, of travel, of trade, or of missionary I.] PROGRESS OF GEOGRAPHICAL STUDY 9 enterprise. And among other branches of science none made greater progress than Geography. Eoger Bacon and Albert of Bollstadt made distinct advances on all previous mediaeval workers in this as in other fields. Plato of Tivoli, Gerard of Cremona, Adelard of Bath, represented the new spirit in Christian learning, which gladly confessed its obligations to Moslem teachers, and did good service in the translation and adaptation of Arabic texts for the use of Latin Christians. Descriptive geography shows a remark- able improvement, and may indeed be considered to have recovered no small part of the spirit of Strabo. The purely theoretical labours of Bacon, Albert, Adelard, and the rest, must be left to a subsequent part of this enquiry ; but they may fairly be alluded to here, as technically falling within the present period. On the other hand, some detailed reference is given in this volume to the Byzantine geography, so admirably represented by the ' Porphyrogennetos,' Con- stantine VII. (who, in the middle of the tenth century, described the neighbours, vassals, and subjects of the Graeco- Boman state), as well as to the principal Western rival, in pre- Crusading times, of the Imperial student of Constantinople. For, little more than a century after the appearance of the royal author's treatise on the Administration of the Eastern Empire (c. a.d. 953), Adam of Bremen gave a better survey of ' Northern Parts ' and of recent discoveries in the same, than had yet been attempted, better indeed than had yet been possible. The explorations of the Vikings had passed almost unnoticed by the main stream of European thought, but the Annalist of the Church of Hamburg (c. a.d. 1070) was a bright exception to a rule of ignorance and neglect. For even if mediaeval Catholicism showed little practical interest in the north-western movement of the tenth and eleventh centuries, at least it saved itself, by Adam's work, 10 INTRODUCTION [Ch. from the reproach of totally forgetting that movement, or of omitting to enter on its register the existence of a fact so memorable. Once more, the diplomatic and missionary travellers of the thirteenth century were not only explorers of a high order, but did excellent service also to anthropology by their careful observations of manners and customs, to philology by their judicious enquiries into language, and to ethnology by their truly scientific classification of the chie'f races of Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It must not be forgotten that they were the first Christian writers, with the exception of some Byzantines, to give a truly literary character to geographical writings ; and in the person of the encyclopaedist, Vincent of Beauvais, their work is closely connected with the Christian philosophy and universal science of the schoolmen's ideal. Eoger Bacon also is deeply indebted to Eubruquis, just as Eubruquis and all other practical travellers are indebted to Bacon for his fruitful study of nature, a study which included some of the earliest investigations upon the polar properties of the magnet. In the West, the Oxford scholar is only preceded, in this last-named discovery, by Alexander Neckam, the monk of St. Albans, by Guyot de Provins, the Languedoc satirist and man of letters, and, more doubtfully, by some of the daring voyagers of the Icelandic Sea.1 By the close of the period now in view (a.d. 900-1260) the magnet, fitted with the compass-card, has been fully adapted, at least in the Mediterranean, to the use of seamen ; an elementary but approximate method of ascertaining posi- tions has been secured by means of the Astrolabe ; and 1 CT. Lanclnamabok, as referred | the original text of Landnamabok,h\\t to in Nordenskjold, Periplus, 50; is an insertion of about 1290-1300. but this passage does not belong to | L] GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE AND CARTOGRAPHY 11 no less important advances seem to have been made in the delineation of the coast-lines of the world-surface. For, though no specimen has survived of the new Portolani, or Handy Outline-Maps, anterior to 1300, there can be no doubt that the drawing of such maps commenced some years before the Carte Piscine was executed ; and in these maps the use of the compass, the beginnings of modern survey-method, and the proper fixing of positions by astronomical determination, are for the first time observable in cartography. Within the limits of the Crusading time, indeed, no survivals have yet been discovered of this new type of map; on the contrary, our documents furnish us only with designs of the normal mediaeval types. But even here we have to notice a marked advance, both in quantity and quality, upon the map-work of the former or Dark Age period (a.d. 600-1000). The 'Beatus' examples, of which only one, and that the rudest of all, could in any sense be reckoned as falling within the first Christian Millennium, continue through the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries to be reproduced in monkish schools ; and though none of these copies are good in form, they occasionally contain a fair amount of matter. Especially in the ' St. Sever,' ' Osma,' and 'Gerona' manuscripts, this school of map-making shows to some advantage by the side of the usual Arabic monstrosities of this time ; and no student of mediaeval geography can afford to neglect the Spanish variety of pictured chart, for no one is more characteristic of the earlier Middle Ages. The eighth-century cosmo- graphy of the Anonymous Eavennese Geographer finds a certain, though slight, cartographical explanation in the twelfth-century maps of the so-called Guido or his copyist. Another important family of Western maps is to be found in the allied designs of Henry of Mainz, of the ' Psalter,' 1 2 INTRODUCTION [Ch. of Hereford, and of Ebstorf, all probably descendants of an eleventh-century original, and related also to certain twelfth- century editions of two ancient sketches illustrating the works of St. Jerome. Better in form than any of these, and in all probability a work of Irish scholarship, is the tenth century ' Cottoniana,' or ' Anglo-Saxon ' map, one of the geographical surprises of a period whose obscurity and barbarism are not without glimpses of light from quarters outside of, and neglected by, the Teutonic and Latin worlds. With this map we may probably connect the itinerary of Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury from England to Rome (a.d. 990-994); for the 'Cottoniana' was perhaps the work of an Irish scholar known to Sigeric, or resident in his household. Again, rough sketches with an educational purpose, exhibiting the various zones or climates and the distribution of the great land areas, or illustrating the geographical references of some favourite classical authors, are exceedingly common ; and examples of these may be found in Lambert of St. Omer, in the so-called T-O and ' climate-maps,' and in the Macrobius and Sallust- Designs. The work of Lambert, connected as it is with all these families of elementary geographical world-plan, is also a mappe-monde of considerable scope and content, clearly antique in its detail, and recalling in the twelfth century the pre-Christian theories of Greek speculators on the other land masses supposed to exist beyond the ocean to the south, west, or east of the Habitable World known to man. Lastly, the English chronicler Matthew Paris has left, at the very close of this era, a local map of England of unusual merit, along with an ordinary and dis- appointing mappe-monde, and several smaller essays in cartography. The same attempt at specialising and so improving draughtsmanship, by a rigid limitation of view to I] CHRISTIAN CARTOGRAPHY : MOSLEM GEOGRAPHY 13 an area with which the designer was well acquainted, is observable in the twelfth-century Plan of Jerusalem or Situs Hicrusalem. It is humiliating, if not surprising, to find that the Byzantine geographers of Justinian's age had executed an even better representation of the Holy City and its environs more than six hundred years before, as shown in the recently discovered mosaic of Madaba. Less ancient than this, and of far less value, but probably anterior to the first Crusade, and remarkable as, for the first time, showing us Jerusalem in the exact centre of a round world-sketch, is another Byzantine map of T-O pattern, the most elaborate example of its kind, which has survived in a Latin transcript of 1110. The Moslem Geography of this period (c, 950-1260) must be held over to a subsequent volume for want of space, but here we may very briefly notice how it continues during these centuries, as during the eighth and ninth, to pour out an enormous mass of work ; the greatest of Mohammedan encyclopaedists, Yakut the Greek, belongs to the later twelfth and earlier thirteenth century ; a century earlier, Edrisi of Ceuta and Palermo accomplishes the most famous of Arabic descriptions of the Oikoumene or Habitable World. In the tenth century Mukaddasi and Albiruni (or Abu Eihan) show themselves to be worthy successors of Masudi and Ibn Haukal ; the travels of Ibn Mohalhal recall the distant wanderings and hair-breadth escapes of Sinbad the Sailor ; Nasir-i-Khusrau of Merv, on the eve of the first Crusade, wins a reputation as a master in the literature of geography, if not in the annals of adventure ; Al Heravi of Herat, an earlier Ibn Batuta, traverses almost all the lands of Islam, ' scribbling his name on every wall ' ; and these are only the leading figures of a great company. On that more 14 INTRODUCTION [Ch. purely scientific side of geography, where the Moslem students of earlier time had accomplished so much, Albiruni is perhaps the greatest name of any Mussulman age or nation ; but as our period advances, and the Spanish successes of the tenth century are followed by the disasters of the eleventh, the re-action of the twelfth by the dis- ruption of the thirteenth, it becomes ever more apparent that Islam, as it recedes politically, is also intellectually on the decline. For the age of Philip Augustus and Louis IX. (118-1260) witnesses the overthrow of all the great Mohammedan States which had arisen on the disruption of the undivided Caliphate; witnesses the extinction of the chief line of the Prophet's successors, who for 500 years had wielded a papal, and often an imperial, power at Bagdad ; and finally witnesses, as the complement of these calamities, the ruin of the chief schools of Moslem culture. China,1 during most of this period, has much less to do with the Western world than before the revolution of a.d. 880. Internal troubles, partly caused by the older foreign intercourse, serve as the excuse for a long reign of com- parative exclusiveness ; but even during this time relations are not wholly broken off between Islam and the Middle Kingdom. The earlier Christianity of Nestorian type, so prominent in the eighth century and the time of the Singanf u inscription, fades almost entirely out of sight ; on the other hand, the faith of the Koran gains many proselytes. The incessant warlike activities of Central Asia and ' Chinese Turkestan' become at times a barrier to any overland travel : the unity of China itself is broken up ; kept over from this volume for want of space ; the following summary, however, gives the chief points of celestial activity. 1 The detailed account of Chinese explorations and geographical study during this time, from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, has also to be I.] MOSLEM AND CHINESE GEOGRAPHY 15 dynasty succeeds dynasty in a series of bewildering revolutions; both the North and South, both the Ho-ang-ho and the Yang-tse-kiang, are desolated by anarchy ; and the weakness of the divided nation exposes it to subjugation in detail by the arms of Ghenghiz Khan and his successors. After the Mongol conquest an extraordinary freedom of intercourse is restored ; even European and Christian travellers now penetrate to the Far East, and, what is still more noticeable, repeate 1 embassies make their way from China to the Western world. Just as in the remote past Chang-kiang (b.c. 135) and Pan-chao (a.d. 94-102) had travelled or conquered as far as the shores of the Caspian and the borders of Persia and India, so now in the earlier thirteenth century Chang-chun and others journey at the command of the new Tartar sovereigns of Asia to the Mongol camps in Afghanistan, Persia, and Georgia. Chinese spies are sent by the Mongol Government into the countries of Western Europe 1 in the same way that Carpini, Ptubruquis, Ascelin, and their companions are despatched by the Pope or the temporal sovereigns of Christendom to the courts and camps of the Tartar Empire. The opening of China and Central Asia (in a new and fuller sense) to the knowledge of the Christian AVest is the work of the unifying, levelling, and anti-fanatical Mongols, who break down the old walls of partition at the same time that they erase not a few of the old landmarks of former civilisation. With the restoration of a native Chinese dynasty, and with the expulsion of Kublai Khan's descendant from Pekin, the old exclusion, the old fanaticism, the old barriers, are restored ; but for 1 Cf. the later embassy of the Nes- i (c. a.d. 1282) Rome, Paris, and torian monk, Rabban Cauma, an Bordeaux, which he calls the capital Uigur, bom at Pekin, who visits | of England. 16 INTRODUCTION [Ch. I. Europeans the former ignorance, fear, and imprisonment of spirit has for ever passed away ; and among the practical objects of the new time none is more ardently pursued than the re-discovery and exploitation of Cathay and India. The overland missions end in failure, but their place is taken by the explorers, traders, and preachers who find new ways across the ocean ; to follow in the steps of Marco Polo becomes the dream of every adventurous spirit ; and the revelation which the thirteenth century brings to European civilisation has permanent and vitalising results for every Christian nation. ( 17 ) CHAPTEE II l'HE NORSEMEN IN THE HISTORY OF EXPLORATION TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CRUSADES The discoveries, conquests, and colonies of the Norsemen from the White Sea to America, throw the first glimpses of light upon many parts of that ' barbarian ' world of which ancient science, trade, and politics had known little or nothing.1 And, indeed, it was natural that here, if 1 The numerous Foreign Coins in Norse Countries of course do not prove that the Roman world had a first - hand knowledge of North- Eastern Europe, but they point to a considerable trading intercourse in the later classical time and the earlier Middle Age, such as is further illustrated by the notes of Pytheas upon the amber commerce, by the order of Germanicus to his fleet to sail to the amber island (Glaesaria), and hy the Knight sent to the amber coast by Julianus, Nero's manager of gladiatorial shows. Cf Pliny, Natural History, Book xxxvii., ch. ii. The 'Knight' here mentioned visited the amber markets of the Baltic coasts, traversed the regions of Germany abounding in amber, and brought back such a quantity that the nets used for pro- tecting the ' podium' (i.e. the spec- tators) at the amphitheatre against the wild beasts were studded with this article. Among the coins may be noticed e.g. — (1) Roman; of the following Emperors; Augustus, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellins, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Pertinax, Sep- timius Severus, Caracalla and Geta, Macrinus, Elagabalus, Alexander Severus, Valens, Valentinian I., Gratian, Gordian, Gallienus, Aur- elian, Tacitus, Decius, Probus, Cams, Numeric n, Carinus, Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius Chlorus, Licimus, Constantine the Great, Constantine II., Constantius, Con- stans, Honorius, Valentinian III., Majorian, Libius Severus, Anthemius, Romulus Augustulus, etc. ('2) Byzantine or of the Eastern Empire after Theodosius the Great ; Theodosius II.. Marcian, Leo I., Zeno, 18 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. anywhere, in 'Polar' lauds, rather than in Mediterranean countries, European enterprise should first show signs of new life after the paralysis of the Dark Ages. From the rise of Islam the Saracens controlled the great trade routes of the south and east. It was only on the west and north that the coast was clear — of all but natural dangers. In the Moslem world men 'of the market-place' were now busy in following up old lines of trade, or, as in Eastern Africa, were discovering and exploiting new and more promising routes ; men of science were commenting o?i the ancient texts of Greek and Latin learning, or adapting them to enlarged knowledge. But in Christendom, in the long atrophy of mental and physical activity which covers most of the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries of our era, the practical energy of heathen enemies (for the Northmen were not seriously touched by Christian influence till long after they had become a terror to Europe) was the first sign of permanent revival. Anastasius, Justin I., Justinian, Tiberius II., Maurice, Constantine Copronymus, Michael III. Several others belonging to co-emperors, pre- tenders, the lesser princelings of the last years of the Western Empire and consorts of various emperors have also been brought to light ; besides a vast number of barbaric imitations and of defaced and unreadable coins. The earliest coins found in Gottland are those of Augustus. Then follow those of Nero, and coins of all the different emperors to Alexander Severus ; the greatest number are those of Trajan ; Hadrian ; Antoninus Pius ; Faustina, wife of Antoninus Pius ; Marcus Aurelius ; Faustina, wife of Marcus Aurelius ; and Commodus. In Hagestaborg the most numerous were the three Antonines ; the earliest was one of Nero, the latest one of Septimius Severus. The Byzantine coins from Con- stantine the Great are mostly orna- mental. A few coins of the Re- publican Period have also been found in Norse countries ; e.g. of the families of Lucretia, Naevia, Sulpicia, Funa, Publicia, Postumia, Procelia. Tituria, Yeturia, Sicinia. Many Arabic and other mediaeval coins have also been found in Scan- dinavian lands (see pp. 462-4?z. of this volume), as well as an immense number of other objects from the Southern world. II. CHIEF LINES OF NORSE ACTIVITY 19 With the awakening of physical energy and daring came that of mental and spiritual vigour; the whole life of the Middle Ages began afresh with the conversion of Scandi- navia, of Kussia, and of Hungary ; but, in the abundant and brilliant force of the mediaeval renaissance, we must recognise the work of those Norsemen who had breathed something of their own spirit into every Christian nation. The Norse discoveries were not only the first, they were beyond comparison the chief, victories of European travel and enterprise, in the truly Unknown World, between the time of Constantine and the Crusades. The central fact of European expansion in the Dark Ages is the advance of the Scandinavian adventurers and settlers to the west, the south, and the east in the last two hundred years of the first Christian Millennium. Of the three main lines of northern advance, the first, the western or north-western, running by Caithness, the Orkneys, the Shetlands, and the Faroes, reached Iceland, Greenland, Baffin's Bay, and the shores of Newfoundland, Labrador, and Nova Scotia ; 1 but, from the settlements on the coasts and islands of Northern Britain, a fresh wave of pirates and colonists swept down south-west into the narrow seas of St. George's Channel, and beat upon the north and east of Ireland and upon the western coasts of England and of ' Bretland.' The second invasion ran along the North German shore, and, reaching the Straits of Dover, fell upon both sides of the Channel, only varying in strength as the resistance was stronger or weaker in England or in France. Pushing on along this sea-path, the more daring adventurers united (off 1 Perhaps even Massachusetts, but I Voyages, 344-67), it is not necessary as Dr. Storm has shown {Vinlancl I to bring Vinlaiid so far South. 20 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. Cornwall and the Scilly Isles) with their Ostmen brethren from Ireland, and sailed on to the plunder of the Bay of Biscay and of Northern Spain. It was not long before some of them had found out the wealth and weakness of the Moslem Kingdom of Cordova, and were trying to force their way up the Douro and the Tagus. From the great Northman settlement on the Seine new and ever more daring ventures brought little groups of ' Normans ' to South Italy and Sicily, who formed a kingdom of the two Sicilies, carried their ravages to the Saracen ports of North Africa, and gave to a Norman prince the momentary lordship over much of Tunis; just as from the same Normandy a greater stream of conquest flowed across the Narrow Sea to overwhelm the Old English State. On the third or eastern side of the Norse expansion there are likewise two main divisions ; one taking its road across the Baltic, and proceeding north-east to Finland and due east to Novgorod and Kussia, the other coasting along Norway to Fin mark and the North Cape of Europe, to the Murman coast of Lapland and the country of the Biarina- men T on the White Sea and the Dvina. The field of this activity was indeed immense, but it was covered with a rapidity no less astonishing. It was in the later years of Charles the Great (790 to 814) that the Viking Keels first alarmed the Frankish coasts. In 797 they made their first descent on England ; 2 before the middle of the ninth century they were threatening the whole shore-line of Christendom, from Galicia to the Elbe ; in 840 they founded their first kingdom in Ireland, and even earlier than this thev had become the terror of the Hebrides, 1 ' Perm.' 2 Cf. the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under the year 787, 'In his days' [i.e. the West-Saxon KingBerhtric's, a.d. 785-802] . . . 'first came three ships of Northmen. . . . The reeve rode to the place and would have driven them to the king's town and thev slew him,' ".] VALUE OF NORSK DISCOVERIES 21 the Shetlands, and the Orkneys;1 from 860 commenced their attempts upon Iceland ; in 802 Rurik and his men founded the Central State of mediaeval Russia. Pressing on into still wider fields, they sighted Greenland soon after 877 ;2 in the last quarter of the ninth century they brought their ships to the neighbourhood of the present" Arch- angel, and in the first years of the tenth they won Normandy from Charles the Simple by the treaty of Claire- sur-Epte (922).3 This advance is almost as rapid as that of the early Saracens. Within a hundred years from the first disturbance of the old local independence by the levelling power of the new national kingdoms, within three generations from Halfdan the Black, the Vikings, first as ocean rovers and buccaneers, then as rebellious emigrants, and finally as founders of new states, had reached and passed beyond the limits of the Old World to north and west, from ' Jacob's Land'4 to Finmark, and from Ireland to the Baltic. Much of this of course was only the passing of a more active race over ground, which had once been wrell known, even if much of it was now being forgotten. But in the far north-east and north-west, the Norsemen clearly enlarged the horizon of knowledge — in the plains of Eastern Europe, in the shorelands of North America, and along the coasts and islands of the Arctic Seas. On the side of America indeed the Norse discoveries were not only an advance upon all that the older geography had known ; they remained, throughout the Middle Ages, an 1 Cf. Dicuil, De Mensura Orbis terrae (written in 825), vii. 15 ( = vii. 2, 3, Letronne). 2 The traditional date of Gunn- biorn's discovery, winch the be.st modern critics would bring down a generation later, to the early years of the tenth century. 3 The ' Norman ' settlement began c. 912 ; the treaty was c. 922. 4 Galicia in North-West Spain, so named from the Shrine of St. James (Santiago) at Compostella. On the Scandinavians in Spain, see pp. Ill, 176-9, of this volume ; Dozy, Rcclier- ches. ii... especially pp. 295, 329-340. 22 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. unique achievement. The Venetian, Welsh, Arabic, and other claims to have rivalled the Scandinavians in this field are utterly unsubstantial and untrustworthy. Ic is a fairly certain fact that about the year of Christ 1000, the north- west line of Viking advance reached at least as far as the north-east shores of New England. Against all other mediaeval voyages to the Western Continent one verdict only can stand, a verdict of Not Proven. The other lines of Norse advance, though marked by equal daring and far greater military prowess, have less originality, and occupy a much smaller place in the history of exploration. There was roving and fighting in plenty, the giving and taking of hard knocks with every nation, from the White Sea to the Straits of Gibraltar, and from Limerick to Constantinople ; and, as the Vikings discovered new lands (new at least to themselves), they re-named most of the capes and coasts, the rivers, islands, and countries of Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. Thus, Galicia became ' Jacob's-Land ' ; Islam, outside ' Spanland,' passed into ' Serk-' or ' Saracen-Land ' ; the Negro or even the Moorish countries were the ' Lands of the Bluemen.' The Hebudes or Hebrides were the ' South Isles ' ; Northern and Western France ' Valland ' ; North Germany ' Saxland ' ; the East Slav or Russian country ' Gardar,' ' Gardariki,' or the ' Garth-realm.' The city of Constantine was the Great Town or ' Miklagarth' ; Novgorod was ' Holmgarth ' ; but this was a State which owed its greatness to a Viking migration, and was long connected by ties of peculiar intimacy with the Scandinavian lauds. Moreover, it belongs to the field where Norse enterprise broke fresh ground ; to the south and south-west, on the contrary, no rebel Vikings, or royalist hunters of such rebels, sailed the seas beyond the limits of the classical geography ; and, as II. 1 UBIQUITY OF THE NORSEMEN 23 pilgrims, traders, travellers, and conquerors in the Medi- terranean, their work was of course not one of exploration, They bore a foremost part in breaking down the Moslem rule in Southern Europe ; they visited the Holy Sites — 'When sacred Hierosolyma they'd relieved And fed their eyes on Jordan's holy Hood, Which the dear body of Lord God had laved,' — they fought as ' Varangian ' bodyguards in the armies of the great Byzantines, Nikephoros Phokas, John Tzi- miskes, Basil II., or Maniakes ; but in all this they dis- covered for themselves rather than for Europe. One of the most typical references to Geography in the Sagas is in the famous chapter at the beginning of the mythology of the Heimshringla : — ' On the situation of countries.' ' It is said that the earth - circle which the human race inhabits is much cut asunder with bights and bays, and that great seas run into the land from the outer ocean. Of a certainty, it is known that a sea goes in at Norva Sound,1 right up to the land of Jerusalem ; and from that sea, again, a long bay, which is called the Black Sea, goes off to the north-east, and it divides the two World- Ridings, that is to say, Asia on the east from Europe on the west. To the north of the Black Sea lies Sweden the Great, or the Cold ; and this is reckoned by some as not less in size than the Great Saracen-Land, or even the Great Land 1 Straits of Gibraltar, so named I honour to Skopti Ogmundson, at the traditionally from one Norva, sup- j beginning of the twelfth century, posed to be the first Norseman who j Skopti sailed with five long ships in passed through this channel, in the tenth century. But they had cer- tainly gone through the Straits in the ninth and even in the eighth century, harvest to Flanders ; was there the winter ; early in spring went on to Valland ; in summer passed through Norva Sound ; in harvest-time arrived as Dozy has shown, Recherches, vol. ii. j at Rome. There Skopti died. 'Men p. 295. On the other hand, Magnus said he was the first Norseman to sail Barefoot's Saga, ch. xxii., gives this through Norva Sound,' etc. 24 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. of the Bluemen.1 And the northern parts of this Sweden lie unpeopled by reason of the frost and the cold, just as the southern parts of Blue-Land 2 are waste because of the sun's burning. Mighty lordships are there in this Sweden, and peoples of manifold kind and speech ; there are giants and there are dwarfs — aye, and Bluemen,3 and folk of many kinds and marvellous, and wild beasts, and dragons wondrous great. Out of the north, from those mountains which lie outside of all peopled lands, there comes a river which is rightly called Tanais,4 and this falls into the ocean at the Black Sea, dividing Asia from Europe.' It seems impossible to identify with present-day sites the famous places of the Norse Mythology ; even Asgard,5 Asgarth, or Gods-town, can only be conjectured, and is, perhaps, no place-name at all, but a term like the 'Age of Gold,' expressive of a supposed condition of the race at an early period. Here and there, however, even the Mythical Sagas plainly refer to natural facts. Thus the great mountain barrier from north-east to south-west, which parted Great Sweden from other kingdoms, may well be an allusion to the Ural Bange.0 Again, we are told that Odin wandered westward to the Garth-realm or ' Gardariki,' and south to ' Saxland,' 7 where he made himself a great kingdom. These are the terms in regular use, by the Norsemen of the historical time, for the mediaeval Bussian and German lands. Once 1 Or Negroes. 2 Negro- Land. 8 Here perhaps Samoyedes. 4 The Don. Of old it was called Tanabranch or Yanabranch, adds the Saga ; the land between the Vana- niouths was then called Vanland or Vanhome ; cf. ch. i. of the Ynglinga Saga. 5 Those who attempt identification make Asgard either (1) Assor, or (2) Chasgar in the Caucasus, the As- purgum of Strabo. Ynglinga Saga, ch. ii., fixes Asgard east of Tana- branch in Asia, in the land of Asland or Ashome, of which it was the chief burg. 0 Ch. v. of Ynglinga Saga. 7 Ch. v. and ch. xxxii. of Ynglinga Saga. The term 'Garth-realm' is, though quite exceptionally, used also for the Byzantine empire. I'.] THE EARLIEST NORSE GEOGRAPHY 25 more, it is clear that a principal object of the mythological narratives is to tell ns about Odin's settlement in Sweden, and the daring exploits of the oldest Norsemen upon the ocean.1 Even in those days there were many ' Sea-Kings who ruled over men, but had no lands ' ; when ' he alone might be called a Sea-King who never slept beneath sooty roof timbers, and never drank at the hearth nook.' 2 Even then, too, it was known that Sweden had ' such great wild woods ' that it was many clays' journey across them. From this Sweden it was that one of the earliest and most im- portant Viking movements proceeded just a thousand years ago. In 860-862 the Russian Slavs of the North, — or a Scandinavian colony dominating these Slavs, and living about old Novgorod on Lake Ilmen. about Lake Ladoga, and about Isborsk, — asked for help against their hostile brethren of the South, living about Kiev ; and in answer to this appeal Rurik and his war-band arrived from the lands of Upsala, and founded those mediaeval Russian states, which in the tenth and eleventh centuries were first the stealthy plunderers, then the open enemies, and finally the allies in faith and in arms, of the Byzantine Empire. So the oldest Russian annals3 gave the story; and in its main lines it may be accepted as fairly repre- senting the truth of an early pre-Christian intercourse, between Scandinavia and the Eastern Slavs, which had results of the first importance, and practically created a new European national centre. From the ninth to the twelfth century the intercourse 1 Ch. vii. of Ynglinga Saga men- j 3 Cf. Nestor s Chronicle, chs. xiii. tions Odin's ship Skidbladnir, ' where- in he would fare over mighty seas,' and which he could ' fold together like a napkin.' " Ch. xxxiv. of Ynglinga Saga. xv. ; under the years, a.m. 6368-70 ( = a.d. S60-8G2). In a.D. 850, ac- cording to Nestor, the Russian land ' beffan to take its name.' 26 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. of Swedes, Danes, and Northmen with the Russian princi- palities of ' Gardariki ' was constant and close ; and perhaps most of all in the time of the Vinland voyages, when Vladimir and Yaroslav reigned in Novgorod, and when the two Olafs — the son of Tryggve and the Saint — found refuge at that Court from the troubles of their own distracted Norway. Marriage alliances between the Princes of Gardar and those of Sweden are recorded x at least half a century before the expedition of Rurik ; and in the later development of the Russian people this Scandinavian element perhaps counted for nearly as much as in some other countries where it has been more fashionable to trace, and sometimes to exaggerate, the 'influence of the Northmen.' Considered as an organised and united state, the Norse Kingdom began with Halfdan the Black and his son Harald Fairhair, at the same time that Danish unity was first achieved under Gorm the Old (860-935). These great chiefs attacked, shook, and finally brought to an end the old local independence ; and one result of this was a strengthening of the Scandinavian movement of expansion and aggression upon the outer world. For now, in the dis- content that arose ' when Harald seized on the lands 2 of Norway, the Outlands were found and peopled, and especially the Faroes, and Shetland, and Iceland,' and the rebel Vikings who fled before the new monarch took to piracy in the Western Sea ; in winter they made their home in the Orkneys and the Hebrides,3 and in summer they pillaged as far as Norway. But after some years Harald grew tired of chasing 1 Cf. Icelandic Landnamabok, p. 195, in the genealogy of Thorbiorn. ' Gorm was a duke in Sweden . . . nusson. Saga Library, vol. i., Pref. p. xviii. 2 I.e. the tribal kingdoms. his son married a daughter of Burislav, . 3 Sudreyar, the 'South isles' or King of Gardar, in the East ' (c. J the Hebrides, ch. xx. of Harald A. P. 820). Cf. also Morris and Mag- Fairhair's Saga. H-] HARALI) FAIRHAIR AND THE VIKINGS 27 the pirates away from his coast, and sailed out into the North Sea in pursuit of them. He drove them out of Shetlands and Orkneys and Hebrides, and even out of Man ; he ravaged the coasts of Scotland ; and in the islands that he subdued he left a deputy to govern in his name as Earl. Thus was founded, about 920, the Norse Principality of the Orkneys, whose troubled life was prolonged almost to the close of the fifteenth century, when it was finally absorbed by the Scottish Kingdom. From these Islands the Norsemen raided Caithness and Sutherland, winning easy triumphs over the Scots, and riding off to their ships with the heads of Scottish chieftains tied to their horses.1 But the Orkney settlements in the end gave more trouble than profit to the central kingdom, and in exploration (as in civilisation) they seem hardly ever to have become a real starting-point of further progress.2 Far more useful in these respects were the early Viking colonies in the Faroes. From these islands, as early as about 860, one of the Norse leaders, ' Nadodd,' pushing into the ocean to the far north-west, sighted Iceland. He gave it the name of ' Snowlancl,' and reported that he had found a desert land easy of settlement ; but his was not the first visit. As early as 795 Irish hermits had passed at least one winter on its shores, and the traces of their cells and chapels — bells and ruins and crosses — were quickly noticed by the Norsemen when they began to settle there.3 Nadodd was followed in 864 by Gardar 1 See example in Ha raid Fair- hair's Saga, ch, xxii. 2 Though rovers who haunted the Orkneys constantly went on to Iceland. 3 The ' Westman's Eyar ' or Irish- man's Islands, off the Iceland coast, are called after these ' papar ' or priests. The early Norse settle- ments in the Shetlands are curiously commemorated, among other things, by the name ' Sholto ' or ' the Shetlander ' — only to be found in Scotland nnd Iceland. 28 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. the Swede, who called the new land after himself; by Eaven Floke, who in 867 was guided by the flight of birds1 to the same country; and by the permanent settlers of 874,2 led by Ingolf and Leif and other sheep-farmers of the Faroes. Even this was not enough. Three years later, in 877, at the very time of the furthest Danish advance in England, when Guthorm had driven the English king into the Isle of Athelney, the Norsemen reached another stage in their north-western advance ; for now Gunnbiorn 3 sighted a reef or skerry and a great land in the ocean beyond Iceland, which lie called 'White Shirt ' from its snowflelds, and which Red Eric, a century later, re-named ' Greenland,' in the hope of a 'good name' attracting settlers. By this discovery the Old World had almost, as it were, stumbled upon the New. Geographically, this portion of the Arctic Continent falls to the share of North America ; and once its fiords had become in their turn centres of colonisation and of further progress, the reaching of Labrador and Newfound- land was natural enough. The real voyage lay between Cape Farewell and the European Mainland ; it was indeed a stormy and dangerous passage from the Bays of South Greenland to the western regions of ' Helluland' or 1 Ravens. These birds, saj^s an early addition (c. a.d. 1300) to the Icelandic Landuamabok, originally a work finished before 1148, were of great use as guides to the sailors of the northern countries, who had not yet any lodestone. Cf. Nordenskjold, Periplus, p. 50 (E. trans). - Some think all these dates are about thirty 3rears too early. y Some think, however, that Gunn- hiorn's voyage was of later date, about 910-920, and that the skerry which he saw was only part of the high reef or ridge in the sea be- tween Iceland and Greenland, now under water, but in the ninth and tenth centuries possibly above the sea in ceriain parts. One record says that Eric went to Greenland to dis- cover the land which Gunnbiorn, son of Ulf the Raven (Kraka), saw, when he was driven west to Iceland and discovered Gunnbiorn's reef. II] DISCOVERY OF ICELAND AND GREENLAND 29 'Markland,' but the journey was not long, and, as far as can be judged from scanty records, it was neither so cold nor so ice-bound as at present. But exploration had outrun settlement; the pace of the Norse advance on this side slackened for a hundred years; and it was not-till 984 or 986 that Eric the Tied, exiled for manslaughter by the Icelanders, first led his countrymen to plant themselves in ' Hvitserk.' In this venture Eric set out from Snowfield-Jokul in Iceland, and sailed west till he reached land — on the east coast of Greenland — which did not appear very suitable for a colony. From this landfall he coasted along to the south, rounded a Cape (which he named 'Hvarf'1 or ' Wrath,' and which moderns call 'Farewell '), and wintered on an island henceforth known by his name. Three years in all he spent on this coast, prospecting for his intended settlement ; then returning to Iceland, he brought back so good a report of the land, that twenty- five ships full of emigrants followed him on his final journey to the Green Country. Only half of these persevered to the end ; and with them the leader colonised Eric's Fiord, the starting-point of a still more distant and memorable series of adventures in the next generation. In the same age that witnessed the conquests of Halfdan the Black and Harald Fairhair, the fiercest attacks fell upon England, France, and the North German lauds from the coasts of Norway and Denmark. From the first descent upon Wessex, in 797, their invasions of Britain were incessant and terrible, but for a long time spasmodic and impermanent. But in 855 the raiders for the first time wintered in Northumbria, and in the next twenty years they pressed continuously, and at last 1 Properly ' Turn.' 30 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. overwhelmingly, upon a large part of England. By 870 they had mastered nearly the whole of Northumbria and Mercia ; and the following decade was marked by a desperate fight for the possession of Wessex, which resulted in the premature triumph of Guthorm, the final victory of iElfred, and the peace of Wedmore, which confined the invaders' rule to North and North -Eastern England (877-878). In 876 the Northmen had already made their first settlement in France, after many years of warfare ; l and it was from this side that Hasting drew the main part of his strength in the repeated onslaughts which he led upon Wessex at the end of Alfred's reign (891-896). The rule of Harald Fairhair, by its ruthless suppression of Viking piracy near home, also brought about the Norse con- quest of Normandy. Hrodulf, Eholf, or Eolf ' the Ganger,' the son of Eognvald the ' Mere Earl,' was an incor- rigible raider, and so huge that no horse could bear him ; ' wherefore he went always on foot, and from this got his name.' By his constant plundering on the Baltic coasts,2 he so enraged the king, that he made Eolf an ' outlaw from all Norway.' His father was Harald Fairhair's dearest friend, and his mother was a poetess ; 3 but neither the one nor the other could save their son from exile. He was driven west over 1 Marked by the sack of Limoges, Bordeaux, Tours, Saintes, Nantes, Toulouse, Orleans, Bayeux, Evreux, Rouen, and other places, the great simultaneous attack of 845 upon all the three Frankish kingdoms, and the various sieges of Paris, the first of which was in 845 (followed by those of 855, 861, and S85). 2 ' Eastlands.' 3 The Saga of Harold Fairhair, ch. xxiv., gives the verses that she sang to the king to dissuade him : — ' Thou hast cast off Nefia's namesake ; As a wolf from the land thou driv'st him ; 'Tis ill to be wild in quarrel With a wolf of Odin's war- board. If he fare wild in the forest He shall waste thy flock right sorely.' Rolf's mother, Hild, was the daughter of Rolf Nefia. II. 1 VOYAGES TO W. EUROPE AND WHITE SEA 31 sea to the Hebrides ; l thence he made his way to the North Coast of France and conquered Normandy. From Normandy, in later time, started the free lances, who built up a Norse Kingdom in South Italy, as well as the host who, under a certain Bastard "William, Eolf's greatest descendant, conquered the Island Kingdom to the north. The ambition of Harald Fairhair was not content with one expedition to Britain ; for soon after he went a second time to the Orkneys to crush the ever-turbulent pirates of the Western Islands ; but a far longer and more daring voyage was that of his son Eric in about 930. When the boy was twelve years old his father gave him five long ships,2 and he went on an eight-years' war- cruise in the Baltic, and along the Danish and German, the French and Flemish, the British and Irish coasts. Finally he sailed away north to Finmark, and right up to Biarmaland. This is one of the earliest voyages that the Sagas record to the region of the White Sea — the land of Perm, or the heathen Biarma-men — a country which in after days was often visited and plundered by Norse raiders and merchants, and became famous also for its furs, its idol- temple of Iomala, and the magic of its people. But early as it is, this voyage of Eric Haraldson was anything but a venture into the Unknown. Before the close of the previous century (c. A.D. 890) Ohthere of Halogaland (who afterwards described his journey to King iElfred of Wessex) sailed from his home to the mouth of the Dvina round the North Cape of Europe and along the Lapland or Finmark coast and the shores of the White Sea. He lived, as he thought, to the north of all the Northmen, on the mainland by the Western Sea ; to the North of him was a waste, peopled only by a few scattered Finns, hunters and fishers ; 1 ' Smith Isles.' 2 Cli. xxxiv. of ffara/d Fairlun'rs Saga. 32 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. with the inquisitive instinct of his race he determined to find out for himself how far this waste extended, and whether any men lived beyond it. He was probably not ignorant of the doings of Bjorgolf of Halogaland or Brynjolf his son,1 who about this time collected the tribute of the Finns for Harald Fairhair ; but even if such a rival had preceded Ohthere to the North Cape or beyond, there seems no clear evidence of any earlier Norseman picking out the whole of the Biarmaland route. His journey was first towards the pole for six days, till he had passed beyond the furthest haunts of the whalers and come to where the land turned eastward, running north no longer. Four days in the new direction brought him to a point where the shore began to run southward into the 'inland sea,' and for five days more he followed the coast as it bent inwards to the mouth of a great river, where the land was well tilled and all peopled by the Biarnia-men. All the way he had the waste upon his right and the open sea upon his left ; he did not dare to enter the Biarmaland, but he opened up a certain intercourse with the natives, and learnt from them many things about their own country and the regions near ; from his own observation he gave an excellent de- scription of the long and narrow district in which the Scandinavians of the Far North were hemmed in between the wild mountains of the Finns and the ocean. Ohthere was not only an explorer but a trader ; his White Sea voyage was partly in search of walrus-ivory, and hides, and some of the ' noble bones ' or tusks of this ' smallest of whales ' he probably displayed in later years among his trophies at the English Court. Nor was Ohthere the only precursor of Eric Haraldson on the Biarmaland route. In 918-99 Eric Blood-axe made 1 Cf. Egil Skallac/rimson's Saga, chs. vii.-i.w II- J VOYAGES TO THE WHITE SEA 33 a different sort of journey to the Dvina — an armed foray which ended in a great battle with, and triumph over, the Biarma-men, who mustered in great force to resist him.1 Meantime the fur trade of the Finmark coast had been growing, in the latter years of Harald Fairhair, into a high- prized monopoly of the crown ; and an impetus to Icelandic migration from Halogaland and other Arctic provinces of Norway was given by the King's quarrel with the house and friends of Bjorgolf, who had so long acted like little satraps on the Lapland coast. Thorolf, the heir of Bjorgolf's grandson Bard, not only travelled far and wide in Finmark as the royal steward, — collecting tribute, holding fairs, and killing or expelling rivals, — but made alliances and armed forays on his own account.2 Thus, in a.d. 897, in company with Faravid, King of the Kvens, he attacked ' Kirialaland,' in which we may possibly see the modern Korelia, to the west of Biarmaland proper ; 3 but soon after this his schemes of northern trade and dominion were abruptly checked by the suspicion and hostility of his overlord. Shortly before the introduction of Christianity into Ice- land (from a.d. 996) we find Hallvard the Easterling, a trader from the Bay of Christiania, urging the hero Gunnar of Lithend to sail abroad with him, and boasting how he had been to all lands between Norway and Ptussia, as well as to Biarmaland.4 To this same mysterious region many later journeys were made from the Norse Fiords throughout the tenth and eleventh centuries ; and here, where in after 1 fgWs Saga, ch. xxxvii. 2 EgWs Saga, chs. x., xiii. , xiv., xvii. 3 Korelia, according to Engelhardt, Russian Province of the Rorth, ch. ii., had been already attacked by the Scandinavians of King Eric Emimd- son, before a.d. 833. This depends on the identification of the Kvens whom Eric invaded with Korelia. Anyhow, Kvenland and Kiriala-land together may be taken to stretch over the region between the Gulf of Fin- land and the White Sea. 4 Burnt Njal's Saga, ch. xxviii. 34 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. time the traders of Great Novgorod gathered peltries for the Hanse markets, and where still later the Tsars of Muscovy gained their first outlet to the sea, the Northmen (in the age of our iEthelstan and Eadmund and iEthelred) seem to have done a profitable business. Thus King Harald Grey- cloak, or Greyskin (c. a.d. 970), sailed in the long days of summer to the banks of the Dvina, and 'gat exceeding wealth.' x A much more famous journey was that of Thorir Hund, about 1020 ; this is one of the most dramatic in- cidents of the Sagas ; and from its context we may gather that these voyages round the North Cape of Europe are typical of a much larger number, as to which we have only bare allusions or no record at all. The same, of course, is true of Norse exploits in other fields like the Baltic, where Halfdan the White and the Black followed Eolf Ganger's steps to Esthonia, and gained a famous name among the chief pioneers in one of the favourite scenes of Viking adventure.2 Harald Fairhair's successor, Hakon the Good, was in England at the Court of iEthelstan, when the first great King of Norway died (934). There was a struggle for the crown between Hakon and his brother Eric, and the usual 1 Ch. xiv. of Saga of Harald Grey- cloak; the same event has a song to commemorate it : — ' The conqueror of the boastful Reddened the fire- brand east there, All northward of the township, Where saw I ■Biarm folk running; Good word the men's appeaser Found on the side of Dvina.' - In this region the voyage of Wulfstan from Haddeby in Denmark is specially interesting, as apparently enterprised by an Englishman (c. a.d. 890) at a very low time of English trade and marine. JElfred describes this journey,in his Orosius,&s complet- ing a sort of periplus from the White Sea round to Esthonia. Ohthere's first voyage to the Dvina is followed by a second to Haddeby ; then comes Wulfstan, who, in seven days, reaches Truso, on or near the river Elbing, and describes the Wendland coast, the river Vistula, the Frisches Haff and Esthonia, — where stood many- towns, and in every town a king ; where the rich drank kumiss and the poor mead; where honey and fish abounded, and where strange burial customs were to be witnessed, II.] VIKINGS IN THE BALTIC 35 refuge was sought by the pretender when his schemes had failed. Eric sailed west over sea to the Orkneys, and then south to England and Scotland ; and there he harried ' all about.' yEthelstan gave him Northumberland, ' the fifth part of England,' to hold in fief ; and Eric had his seat at York, where Ragnar Lodbrok's sons had formerly dwelt, in a country mostly peopled by Northmen. But when King Eadmund came to the throne of Wessex, Eric was driven out, and had to take to piracy on the British and Irish coasts. Meantime, the earlier Viking descents on the Baltic shore-lands brought after them, as usual, the Norse king's fleet ; for now King Hakon sailed along Skaney,1 ' Selund,' and Gautland, slaying Vikings, both Danes or Wends.2 Here, again, a casual mention of the Saga opens a long chapter of history. These Wends, or Slavs, settled on the south Baltic coast, for centuries waged an incessant warfare with the Scandinavian kingdoms on the north- west, sometimes in alliance with one of their enemies against another. Many Viking rovers, such as the half- legendary hero Palnatoki, planted themselves along the Wendish or Pomeranian shore, and one of their nests at Jomsborg became especially famous. The struggle of ages between Scandinavians, Germans, Finns, and Slavs, for the control of the southern and eastern Baltic, opens in this remote period, and, passing through many changes, does not reach its present settlement till the time of Napoleon (1790-1815); — when the Swedes, representing Scandinavian influence, were finally thrust *out; when the Finns, who for six hundred years had been their 1 Scania (hence 'Scandinavia'), dur- ing most of the middle ages a Danish possession, in the extreme south of the modern Swedish Kingdom. 2 Germanic name for Slavs ; Saga of Hakon the Good, ch. viii, 36 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. subjects, were transferred by the agreement of Tilsit and the armed force of Alexander I. to a new allegiance ; and when Prussia representing Germanic, and Eussia representing Slavonic elements, divided the whole region as it is to-day. Apart from this Baltic voyage, Hakon the Good's reign does not give much evidence of Norse expansion or inter- course with the outer world ; and the same is true of the time of Harald Greycloak. We hear only of forays in Ireland and Britain ; of the voyage to Biarmaland above mentioned ; and of a poem by a celebrated skald * on the men of Iceland. But with the age of 01 af Tryggveson the range of Norse interests and adventures is suddenly widened, and we hear of exploits in all countries from Novgorod to Iceland, and from Spain to the Dvina. From its beginning the life of young Olaf was that of a wanderer. His first recollections were of exile, when his mother had fled through Sweden to the Baltic, where Vikings captured and enslaved them both, and where Olaf was sold to a man named Klerk ' for a right good he-goat.' But this time of misery did not last long ; for an uncle of Olaf's was then living in Ptussia, at the Court of St. Vladimir,2 and, coming into Esthonia to collect the taxes for the Lord of Novgorod, he was able to free his nephew in dramatic fashion, and to take him back to Holmgarth, keeping his kinship a secret. One clay, however, Olaf was stand- ing in the gate of Novgorod, already one of the greatest marts of the north, looking at the traders as they came and went, and seeing an old enemy, he brained him with an axe in the free and simple fashion of the Norsemen. The 1 Eyvind Skald-spiller. See the the Great (and Saint), Grand Prince Sagas, of Hakon, ch. ix. ; of Harald of Kiev, 980-1015. Earlier than Greycloak, chs. xiv. and xviii. this the Saga shows him reigning • 'Valdimar,' otherwise Vladimir as ' king ' at Novgorod. n.l SCANDINAVIANS AND THE BALTIC 37 barbarous Russian customs of the time put illiberal re- strictions on the blood-foud, and Olaf was charged with murder. But his uncle took him to the 'queen,' and the 'king' made peace and fixed the blood-money. Then the latter was told about Olaf's race and history, and at last he took him into his service. 'Olaf was nine winters old ' when he came to Novgorod,1 and he stayed nine years more with ' King' Vladimir (a.D. 972-981). It is perhaps worth notice in this narrative, not only how close is the connection 2 between the Scandinavian and Baltic Lands on one side, and the Russian Principalities on the other, but also how Novgorod — ' Lord Novgorod the Great,' on the Volkhov — is now, at the close of the tenth century, the principal centre of power and trade and 1 'Garth-realm.' - On this connection, besides the references in the HeimsJcringla, we may compare Laxdale Saga, ch. xii., where Gilli the Russian, apparently a Scandinavian trading on tire East Baltic coasts, sells the Icelandic Viking and traveller Hosknld, a girl slave, Melkorka, a daughter of Myrkiartan the Irish King. Gilli is noticed as weaiing a Russian hat. Perhaps the Greek hat which Thorkel, brother of Gisli, was wearing when slain was likewise Russian : Gisli the Outlaw's Saga, ch. xv. Also cf. Saga of Burnt Njal, ch. xxx., where Gunnar. of Lithend harries in Esthonia, near Revel, and in the isle of Osel, off the Esthonian coast ; ch. xxxi. of same, where among Gunnar's presents to the King of Denmark a Russian hat is recorded ; ch. lxxx. of same, where Kolskegg the Ice- lander, baptized in Denmark, fares east to Russia (Garth-realm) and stays there one winter on his way to Constantinople ; ch. cxviii. of same, where the half-fabulous ex- ploits of Thorkell Foulmouth on the east Baltic coasts are recounted, e.g. the slaying of a wild man of the woods (a half-human monster) as well as of a tire-dragon in Adalsyssla, etc. Again • in EgiVs Saga, ch. xlvi., Egil Skallagrimson harries in Cour- land : and in Eyrbyggia Saga, ch. xxix., Biom, afterwards the Cham- pion of the Broadvikings, banished from Iceland for manslaughter, takes service with Palnatoki, captain of the Jomsborg Vikings, and makes himself a great name in Baltic war- fare. Once more in the Heath- Slayings Saga, ch. xli., Bardi the Icelander goes to Russia, and be- comes one of the Russian Prince's Yaerings or Scandinavian guard, and wards the Prince's realm, but is killed at last in a naval battle, apparently while still in the Russian service. 38 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. national intercourse among those Kussian principalities in their relation to the Baltic. We shall see that it keeps this position all through the period of these Sagas ; long after their records cease Old Novgorod is still one of the greatest cities, and especially one of the greatest markets, in Northern Europe. Its traders spread over all that we now call the North of Eussia, to the coast of Lapland, the North Sea, the Dvina, and the Petchora ; some of them appear to have reached and crossed the Ural Eange, and carried their wares into the lower valley of the Ob, a country often known as Yugria. This far-reaching commerce must not be too hastily construed as a political dominion ; such an idea would probably be false, if applied to the lands east and north of Lake Onega ; but, in the absence of any other organised power throughout these vast dis- tricts, this mercantile ascendency prepared the way for the political sovereignty of Moscow. At the end of the ninth century, or the beginning of the tenth, the men of Novgorod had already penetrated into the basin of the Northern Dvina ; x from about the year 1000 they begin their visits to the more distant Petchora ; and in the course of the next few years they make repeated attempts to cross the dividing ridge into the land of ' Yugria ' and the valley of the Ob. In 1032 they were repulsed by the natives in trying to cross a certain pass in the Urals, called the Iron Gates ; between 1096 and 1187 the trade dominion of the 1 See Charles Rahot, A travers la Russie boreale, 1894, pp. 160- 170; Tchulkoff, Gcschichte des rus- sichen Kommerzes ; and S. Somniier, Sirieni, Ostiacchi, e Samoiedi deWOb, 1887; also Engelhardt, Russian Pro- vince of the North, E. trans. 1899 ; chs. ii., v.; pp. 42, 54, 55, 107-8; Hakluyt Society, vol. i., p. 23. Kholmogori, the chief Slav settlement in the neighhourhood of the White Sea, before the foundation of Arch- angel in 1584, is mentioned by the Grand Duke Ivan Ivanovitch (Ivan II. of Moscow) in a letter to the Posadnik (Governor) of the Dvina in and Ear?ij Voyages to Russia, etc.. | 1355 or 1356. ii.] Novgorod's trade and exploration 39 Novgorod republic claimed to have reached a linn establish- ment both in the Petchora country and in Yugria ; but its tenure was really of a more uncertain kind. It was utterly extinguished between 1187 and 12G4; the attempts of the Hanse merchants to recover their position in 1193 was futile ; but in the later thirteenth century we find them again enjoying their older access to these regions, their older so-called tribute from the same. This mercantile ascend- ency, intermittent as it probably was, appears beyond dispute to have opened the way by which Ivan III. of Moscow, on his concpviest of Novgorod, advanced to the Arctic Ocean (1471-1478). Novgorod merchants also penetrated to the Murman, or north, coast of Lapland, at least as early as the opening of the thirteenth century ; even in the eleventh and twelfth it has been claimed that their settlements were to be found on the banks of the Dvina, Onega, and Mezen, and by the shores of the Northern Ocean. Hordes of freebooters from the great city plundered and subjected the Finnish tribes of Biarmaland, and the modern Pomors of Eussian Lapland are descendants of these adventurers, or loshJcuiniM. In the eleventh century the men of Novgorod are allied with the Korelians, to the South-west of the White Sea, against the Finnish Emi ; Kola is mentioned in 1264 by the Eussian Chronicles ; and in 1323 Prince Yuri Danilovitch of Novgorod concluded a treaty with Magnus, King of the Swedes, by which Sweden engaged to respect the trade- ascendency of Novgorod in Lapland, east of the Araranger Fiord. Even in the eleventh century 1 Yaroslav the Wise and St. Olaf of Norway concluded an arrangement about these same countries, leaving to the Novgorod sphere of trade- infiuence all the lands east of Lyngen Fiord. 1 According to Eric Berner (Works, Stockholm, 1740). 40 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. On another side Novgorod faced Western Europe. Along with Bruges and London it was from the thirteenth century the greatest Mart of the Hansa, or Hanseatic League, in extra- German lands. When other Russian or semi-Eussian peoples and states were submerged by the Tartars, Novgorod alone escaped. As time went on, it became more and more German and Hanseatic ; until at last Eussians were laid under heavy disabilities and treated as a subject race within its territories ; and Novgorod became, instead of a centre of Eussian life and trade, instead of an outlet to the Baltic, the firmest barrier between that Slavonic trade and the outer world. Thus from the Skra or code of the Hanseatic settlement, Court of the Germans, or Court of St. Peter, at Great Novgorod, we see that German trading settlements were fixed there as early as the eleventh century ; but the German ascendency dates from the privileges granted in 1269. The Hanseatic merchants enjoyed numerous ad- vantages ; for example, if a native Eussian were bankrupt German creditors must be paid first ; further, they had the right of banishing such a bankrupt from the city with his family. As tax, the Hanse merchants at first paid a piece of cloth and a pair of gloves for their monopoly of the whole trade of Livonia, afterwards nothing. No foreigner, except a Hanseatic, might learn Eussian, and so endanger their monopoly ; the whole province 1 was held responsible for the crime of such an interloper. Finally, no Eussian, under a penalty of 100 marks, was to be suffered to live in Livonia ; Eussians were strictly forbidden to trade on the sea, and punished with fine, imprisonment, and confisca- tion of goods, for attempting to do so. This policy proved the ruin of Novgorod; it became the ambition of the rising power of Moscow to break through this barrier, to crush 1 Of Livonia. II.] NOVGOROD IN MEDIAEVAL COMMERCE 41 the power of that Republic which, once Russian, had become the resolute enemy of Russia ; and the internal anarchy of the great city destroyed the last hope of effective resistance. In 1478 Tsar Ivan III. took it; a century later Ivan IV. destroyed it utterly, carried away most of its people, and removed its treasures, above all, its great bell that once had called the citizens to public meeting or to riot ; at this day it probably contains scarce a tenth of the numbers that crowded its streets in the fifteenth century.1 The ruthless- ness of the destruction proves the depth of the hatred it had roused ; it had become in Russian eyes a traitor city, which now strangled the commerce of its brethren, forbade them to expand, to reach the sea, to navigate, or to learn of other nations; cldenda est Carthago. But in the time of Olaf Tryggveson and of St. Vladimir, Novgorod was still Slav, still Russian 2 ; its trans- formation into an anti-Slav out-post of Germany was yet to come; nor was it accomplished till the end of the period covered by this volume. In about 995 young Olaf left Novgorod and sought his fortune on the sea, a fortune that might bring him at last to his own kingdom again. Vladimir had shown him all honour ; he was made a Captain in the standing army of defence ; with his own private wealth he formed a powerful war-band ; but after a time the king grew jealous, and Olaf took to the life of a Viking rover. First he put out into the Baltic, the ' East Salt Sea,' 1 Without adopting the exagger- ated figures of some chroniclers {e.g. 400,000), yet it seems probable that Novgorod, in the time of its greatest prosperity as a Hanseatic centre, must have contained nearly a quarter of a million of people ; in 1S97 it had 20.000. Moscow, Riga, Revel, Libau, ail profited by the depression of Old Novgorod ;»but above all the foundation and prosperity of St. Petersburg fatally diverted the course of trade. 'J Or rather Eusso-Scandinavian. / 42 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. and, sailing south, came to Wendland, where he married the king's daughter and became ' ruler of that realm with her.' * When the Emperor Otto II. attacked Denmark to make it ' take christening and the right troth,' Burislav, King of the Wends, followed him with Olaf Tryggveson, who had just come back from a Viking voyage to Gothland and Sweden.2 Olaf stayed in Wendland three years ; then his wife died, and he started again on his wanderings.3 From the Baltic he sailed to Friesland and Flanders, to England and Scotland and Ireland. He raided in the Hebrides and in Man, and thence made his way to the Scilly Isles, Brittany, and the north-west of France.4 Four years passed in these cruises, during which Olaf was christened,5 and married again. His second wife was the sister of the King of Dublin, Olaf Kuaran, of partly Norse, partly Irish family ; and this marriage brought Tryggveson again to Ireland. At this point happened the great change in his life. From the career of a Viking, a pirate chief, the possible founder of a new Norse kingdom in the west, he was suddenly recalled to his old home, to that scene of tierce dynastic and domestic strife which he had left while an infant of a few days old. After the fall of Harald Greycloak Norway had become a sub-kingdom of Denmark, and was ruled by Earl Hakon the Wise, one of the most capable and subtle statesmen that 1 Probably an exaggeration of the 4 ' Valland ' in which Normandy Saga. King Burislav, Olaf s father- ; was often included. indaw, evidently reigned down to 5 Before this he had called himself the time of Olaf Tryggveson's de- Oli the Garthman (Novgorodian),but parture from "Wendland. See chs. , in Scilly a hermit told him he should xxi., xxii., xxix. of Olaf Tryggveson's ' be a glorious king, 'and many other Saga. » : great works of Almighty God did he 2 Ch. xxv. and xxvi. of Olaf Trygg- , reveal' ; on which Olaf 'would fain veson's Saga be christened, and so was he with 3 Ch. xxx. to xxxv. of Olaf Trygg- \ all his men': ch. xxxii. of Olaf veson's Saga. \ Tryggveson's Saga. 1 ' And now so great,' says Snorri, ch. lvi. of Olaf Tryggvcson's Saga, 'was tlie enmity against Hakon that none durst name him other than "The Evil Earl" for long after. dealt ; for his high heart in battle and his good hap withal. As says Thorleif Redfellson : — Of no Earl ever heard we 'Neath the Moon's highway, Hakon, More famed than Yet for many things was he worthy thou.' But to Snorri his ruin was to be lord ; for the great stock he ; the decree of fate, the doom of his came of; for the wisdom and insight, j obstinate paganism, and his unbridled yea, and the bounty wherewith he license. II.] EARLY VOYAGES OF OLAF TRYGOYESON 43 men had seen in the north. This Hakon had long sought far and wide for young Tryggveson, and at last he heard news of him in Ireland. So he sent out his friend Thorir Klakka, who had ' gained a good knowledge of countries ' by piracy and by trade, and ordered him, under pretext of a merchant voyage to Dublin, to find Olaf, and entrap him. So Thorir came west from Norway to Ireland — a common voyage enough in those days — and soon he fell in with Tryggveson, who asked him many questions about Norway and Earl Hakon. And Thorir said the earl was indeed mighty, but all the people would rather have a king of the blood of Harald Fairhair. Olaf caught at the treacherous suggestion with the eagerness of an exile, and set sail at once with live ships, taking Thorir in his company. Passing through the Hebrides and Orkneys, he soon arrived in Norway, and hurried northward, night and day, so as to come unawares upon Earl Hakon, who was well informed of every movement of his foe. The earl would now have been sure of his prey but for one thing. Since he sent Thorir Klakka to the west, the great men of Norway had risen up in revolt; and now his own craft hod supplied the malcontents with a formidable leader. The whole country rallied round the young prince ; Hakon was forced to fly ; and the usurper was soon after murdered by a serf, who brought his head to Olaf, and lost his own head for his pains.1 44 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. In the time of Hakon's rule we have a curious reference to Pagan Iceland, its Norse settlers and their trade. 'It had been made a law in Iceland that for every nose in the land a scurvy rhyme should be made on the Dane King ' (Harald Gormson). For an Iceland ship had been cast away in Denmark, and the Danes had plundered it as lawful wreckage. To this a wild story is added of Harald's magic against the Icelanders. He sent out a wizard who could change his shape at will, and would have done infinite mischief, but that he was baffled by the spirits of the land — so, at least, the Iceland Sagas proudly recorded of their be- loved country, where the fells and the hills were all full of guardian monsters, and where mighty dragons and eagles, bulls and giants, watched over the shore that no enemy might enter.1 This was one repulse for Denmark ; it was a more serious matter when the Jomsborg Vikings from Wendland2 and Sweden, under King Svein, the son of Harald Gormson, failed to drive Hakon out of Norway 3 as they had sworn to do, and thus, breaking with their old ally, left him unaided before Olaf Tryggveson, whose victory was for Denmark the loss of a dependency. From this time we hear less of any dealings with the outer world, till, in referring to the conversion of Iceland, the Saga gives us the famous narratives of the Vinland, Markland, and other north-western voyages. We may notice 1 Chs. xxxvi. and xxxvii. of Olaf I their go-between in a peace with the Tryggveson' s Saga. 2 Wendland may be roughly taken as equal to the. modern Pomerania. 3 The Jomsborg Vikings had already helped Svein against the father Harald. Afterwards they had kidnapped him, and forced him to be Wends. This peace was connected with marriage alliances between the families of King Burislav and King Svein. Cnut the Great was a son of this Svein and his Wendish wife, and thus partly Slav. See chs. xxxviii. - xlvii. of Olaf Tryggveson a Saga. II.] INTERCOURSE OF ICELAND AND NORWAY 45 the eventful Baltic voyage of the merchant Lodin 1 which brought about the freeing of King Olaf's mother from slavery ; the journey of Dangbrandt 2 or Thangbrand, the ' Saxon ' priest, to Iceland, to preach the Christian Faith with the help of some timely violence ; the meeting of the King with the hero Kiartan and other men from Iceland ; and the visit of Leif the Greenlander, son of Ked Eric, to Norway;3 but the chief interest of the poet-chronicler is fastened upon the conversion of Norway. It is no business of ours here to follow Olaf Tryggveson along that track of blood and fire,4 by which he brought his subjects to enter the church ; along the incidents of his contests with the warlocks, or with ghosts, ' quickened in men's bodies by cunning of the Finns ' ; 5 or along the intricacies of the political struggle which at last crushed the King of Norway before the League of Danes, Swedes, Wends, and Norse rebels. But the Saga's references to Icelandic affairs, scanty as they are, begin to assume more importance, and are especially in- teresting as a preface to the record of that triumphant advance of Norse discovery, which for a time linked Ice- land with America. 1 Oh. lviii. of Olaf Tryggveson's Saga. The reality of this voyage is disputed by some. 2 Oh. lxxx. of Olaf Tryggveson's Saga; chs. xcvii., xcviii. of Burnt Xjal's Saga; and eh. xli. of the Laxdale Saga, which rails him a 'Court Priest ' 3 It was on his return from this visit that Leif found Vinland, accord- ing to Red Eric's Saga. 4 See oh. lxxxiii., lxxxvii., xeii. of Olaf Tryggveson's Saga : ' the grim- mest of all men was he in his wrath, and marvellous pains laid he on his foes. Some he burnt in the fire, some he let wild hounds tear, some he gave to serpents, some he stoned, some lie cast from high rocks.' Yet Olaf was also the 'gladdest and gamesomest of men, kind and lowly, exceeding eager, bountiful and glorious of attire, and before all men for heart in battle,' cli. xcii. of Olaf Tryggveson's Saga. On the King's intercourse with the Icelanders in Norway, and especially with Kiartan, and the famous swim- ming contest of these two strong men in the Nid, cf. the Laxdale Saga, chs. 40, 41, 42, 43, 46. 5 Ch. lxxxiii. and lxxx v. of Olaf Tryggveson's Saga. 46 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. The German Thangbrand1 was hardly the right man to deal with independent folk like the Icelanders. He may have been a good clerk, and a doughty man, but he was headstrong and quarrelsome, and the effect of his preaching was impaired by his frequent duels. Thus two skalds of the Island paid with their lives for some scurrilous verses ; and after three years the unlucky missionary came back to King Olaf, saying that his task was hopeless. But already the Icelanders who were in Norway had mostly ' taken christening ' at the King's wish,2 and with the baptism of Leif Ericson3 the conversion of Greenland was also begun. Thus Olaf's reckless proselytism triumphed at last in the north-west,4 but in the home kingdoms it seemed to rouse up foes on every side. Among the rest, Queen Sigrid of Sweden, a valuable ally to Norway, though infamous for her murder of King 'Vissavald' of Novgorod, and others who had trusted to her hospitality, was mortally affronted by Olaf over this very matter ; 5 and her marriage with Svein Forkbeard of Denmark added to the growing embarrassments of the new King of Norway. Olaf's marriage with Thyri, the fugitive wife of the Wend King Burislav, and the bitter enemy of her brother King Svein, was a crowning stroke of im- prudence. Moreover, he was not yet rid of all danger from the race and friends of Earl Hakon, and the Saga has some details of interest about the wanderings of Eric 1 Ch. lxxx., xci. of same. 2 Ch. lxxxviii., lxxxix., xc, xci. of same. 3 Ch. xciii. of same. Apparently a.d. 999. In ch. xciv. ' this summer,' is defined as 'when Olaf had ruled over Norway four winters.' 4 Ch. ciii. and civ. of same. Leifs old pagan father was fond of sajdng that all his son's good fortune in his Yinland voyage was hardly a set off to the bad luck he had brought on the land with his jugglers and their jugglery ; ch. civ. 5 Ch. xlviii. of same. The King's refusal to marry this ' faded heathen bitch,' and his blow in the face with a glove, after the formal betrothal had taken place, was accepted, as it was clearly meant, for an open act of political defiance. II.] LAST YEARS OF OLAF TRYGGVESON 47 Hakonson, the leader of this party, who now joined the alliance against Tryggveson. Eric had made friends with the King of the Swedes, another Olaf, always ready to aid those who threatened his western rival ; but at first, though ' much folk resorted from Norway to Earl Eric,' the time had not come for a decisive struggle. So he went on a Viking cruise to Gothland,1 waylaying ships of traders or of other Vikings ; and he harried wide along the borders of the sea. He sailed also south to Wendland, and to the East Baltic coast, and raided the country of King Valdimir, where he stormed the town of Aldeigia, on Lake Ladoga. At last the storm broke. In the year of Christ 1000 Olaf Tryggveson,2 returning from a Wendland voyage, was attacked off Svold, by his enemies, in overwhelming numbers, and perished in the struggle. The words of his careless scorn were long remembered. ' We fear not the Danes ; in those blenchers there is no heart ; and, for the Swedes, better were they at home licking their blood bowls, than coming here under our weapons.' In his great ship, the Long Serpent, he grappled with Eric Hakonson,3 and the fight was long ; but the forces of the League were over- powering. Even the great archer, Einar Thambarskelvir, could not save the day. A Finn bowman of Earl Eric's split Einar's bow asunder with an arrow, and at that loud sound, the Saga would have us think, men stopped their fighting for a moment, as in reverence for an omen of the approaching end. ' Then spake King Olaf, " What brake there so loud ? Norway, King, from thy hands," said Einar.' The rebel Norsemen now threw heavy beams on to the bulwarks of the Long Serjyent, so as to heel it over, and 1 The Island. :i After beating off the Swedes and - Ohs. evi.-cxx, of same. I Danes, 48 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. give their weapons play ; then at last they cleared the deck with repeated boarding rushes ; and Olaf leapt into the water, throwing up his shield over him, and disappeared. The Saga of Olaf Tryggveson inserts in the body of its narrative,1 shortly before the fatal venture of the hero in the Baltic, a record of the Xorse voyages in the far north- west. These voyages have naturally become the most famous, as they are the most brilliant and suggestive of Scandinavian explorations ; and as their chief events refer to the last years of this reign, it will be best, perhaps, to take them in this place. Various criticisms have been made upon portions of the narrative, and it seems probable that in the long accepted text of these chapters ' on Vinland Faring ' we have at least some interpolations, and even more displacements of time-order and of the proper sequence of events. In all examination or criticism of the Vinland tradition, we have to distinguish between the two forms in which this tradition has come down.2 The first, earlier, and shorter form, is in the so-called Saga of Brie the Reel (and of Thorfinn Karlsefne) ; the second, later, and more elaborate text, is that of the Flatey Booh, which has been adopted in certain manuscripts of the Heims- kringla, and is the narrative most commonly known. The Saga of Eric the Red survives in two manuscripts, the older of about a.d. 1334, the later of about 1400. The former is commonly known as the Boole of Hauk (i.e. of a man who claimed descent from Thorfinn Karlsefne). In its original form, the narrative was probably compiled about a.d. 1300, and the surviving texts are transcripts 1 After ch. civ. of Olaf Tryggveson's Saga, on the ' Christening of Green- land.' 2 Cf. Storm, Studies on the Vinland Voyages, especially pp. 319-325 ; Reeves, JVineland the Good, especi- ally pp. 19-52, 181-5, 79-83. II.] THE VINLAND VOYAGES : RIVAL TEXTS 49 of one which the scribes do not seem to have always understood. Those who have praised the Vinland narrative in this form as always preferable to that of the Matey Book, conveniently forget certain absurdities and contradictions which are sometimes as troublesome as in the despised version represented by the Heimshringla. But whatever its difficulties, the Red Eric Saga has at least, like the old Lord Lafeu, the ' privilege of antiquity upon it ' ; and in many parts, if not in all, it represents a tradition of considerable weight. On the whole it must be considered as of superior authority where its record clashes with Matey; but the case is different where the latter gives us matter not represented at all in Bed Eric. We cannot treat the omissions of the earlier manuscript as decisive against details recorded in the later ; arguments from silence are always dangerous, and doubly so in mediaeval enquiries ; and the agreements between the rival texts are sufficiently numerous to warrant the belief that the once-received text of Matey in the main presents a trust- worthy record. First of all, then, let us follow the story of the fuller though later chronicle. In the beginning we hear of the voyage of Biarne, the son of Heriulf. From his earliest youth he desired to go abroad — that is from Drepstok in Iceland, where his home was. At last, one year, when Biarne possessed a merchant- ship of his own, Heriulf went to Greenland with Eed Eric1 1 On this voyage Heriulf was accompanied by a ' Christian man, from the South isles ' (Hebrides), who composed the Sea-rollers Song, evi- dently in the stress of terrible weather ; one stave is quoted in Matey : ' Faultless searcher of monks' o'er mc ' (i.e. guard me with thy hand). Just before this Flatey describes Leif's journey to Norway, and his conversion by Olaf Trygg- veson, ' sixteen winters after Erie the Red went to colonise Greenland,' which was ' fifteen winters before hearts, He who Heaven's halls doth | Christianity was made law in Ice- rule, Hold the hawk's seat ever I land.' 50 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. and settled at Heriulfsness, while Eric planted himself at Brattahlid.1 Both settlements were in the extreme south- west of Greenland, near Cape Farewell ; while hard by, at Gardar, where afterwards the Bishops of Greenland had their seat, lived Eric's daughter Freydis with her husband Thorvard. Now, after a time, Biarne determined to go and spend the winter with his father, though neither he nor his men had ever been in the Greenland Sea before. He set out accordingly, and sailed for three days. Then a north wind with fog set in, and this lasted a great while. At the end they saw the sun once more, and could distinguish the quarters of the heaven ; and again they sailed on for a day and a night,2 and came in sight of land. But Biarne thought this could not be Greenland. They sailed close up to it and saw that the country was level, without moun- tains, and covered with wood, and that there were small hillocks inland. Then they left this land on the larboard side and sailed two days and nights, till again they sighted firm ground. But Biarne thought this was no more Green- land than what they had seen before. For this was flat and covered with trees, and in Greenland there were great ice-mountains. The ship's people would have landed here, but Biarne forbade it. They put to sea again with a south-west breeze and sailed for three clays and nights. Then they saw a high mountainous land with ice-mountains, which was clearly an island, so Biarne would not land here either. Once more they stood out to sea with the same breeze, and after three clays they came to Heriulfsness in Greenland.3 1 A.i). 984 or 986, according to tradition. 2 Lit. a doegr, which in the Sagas always means a period of twenty- i'onr hours, as Dr. Gustav Storm demonstrates. 3 This is reckoned to have been in the year of Christ 986, in the vulgar chronology, which is very un- certain. II.] VOYAGES OF BIARNE AND LEIF 51 The next section introduces Leif Ericson. After some time l Biarne came over from Greenland to Norway on a visit to Earl Eric, and told men about his journey. ' But folk thought he had not been eager to get knowledge,' as he could not give any account of the new lands he had visited. Soon he went (in the next summer) back to Greenland, having set all to talk about the discovery of unknown countries, One Norseman especially — and he a Greenlander — was anxious to do more than talk. Leif of Brattahlid, a son of Bed Eric, a large and powerful man and of most imposing presence, went over to Biarne and bought his ship. The loyal son urged his father to come in command, ' for with him they were most likely to have good luck ' ; but, when they were close to the ship Eric's horse stumbled, and the old heathen drew back. ' 'Tis not fated,' said he, ' that I should discover more lands than this one of Greenland.' So Leif went without him. Yet he had in the ship among his thirty-five companions, at least one trusty counsellor, his foster-father from the South Land,2 named Tyrker. They came first to the country which Biarne had seen last of all, and here they went on shore. There was no grass to be seen, but huge snowy mountains in the upland, and from the sea to those mountains the land was all like a table of flat rock, and it seemed to them a region of no profit. But they went on shore all the same, and Leif said : ' It has not been with us as with Biarne, that we have gone not upon the land ; I will give it a name, and the name shall be Helluland'3 (Slab-land). Then they put to sea and found another land, and there also they went on shore. Now this was flat and over- 1 The interval is left absolutely j some have conjectured for this visit, uncertain in Flatcy, and there is no | 2 Germany, authority for the year 994, which | 3 From ' hellu,' a flat stone. 52 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. grown with wood, low-lying towards the sea, and the beach had broad stretches of white sand. And Leif said : ' We will give this a name according to its kind, and call it Markland' (Woodland). Again they put to sea with an on-shore wind from the north-east, and after two days and nights they came to land once more. But first they went on to an island which lay on the north side of this land, and looked about them, for the weather was good. There was dew upon the grass, and they thought they had never tasted anything so sweet as this. Afterwards they sailed into a sound or strait which lay between this island and a ness that jutted out from the land on the north. Here was shallow water at ebb-tide, and the Norsemen ran their ship on land, but were not able at once to bring it right into port. They were too eager to wait for it to float again, so they rushed to the shore and came to a place where a river flowed out of a lake. And as soon as the vessel floated, they towed her up the stream into the lake, and there they cast anchor, carrying their beds out of the ship, and building themselves booths there. Then they put all things in order for wintering, and built a large house ; for the land seemed to them very good. They did not want for fish food ; there were salmon both in the river and in the lake, larger than they had ever seen. There was no frost in winter, and the grass was not much withered, so that no winter fodder, they thought, would be needed for cattle- Day and night here were more equal 1 than in Iceland or Greenland. 1 ' For on the shortest day the sun had fresh calculations made by two was in the sky between Eyktarstad ] eminent astronomers, this implies a and Dagmalstad,' lit. 'had Eyktar- stad and Dagmalstad on the short day.' According to Vigfusson (Dic- tionary, under the word Eykt), who day of seven hours ; according to Hildebrand, of six hours; and accord- ing to the editors of the Antiquitatcs Americanac, a day of nine hours is II.] LEIF ERICSON IN VINLAND 53 When they had finished their house-building, Leif said to his men : ' I will divide the crew in two parts', and so explore this country. Half shall stay here and do the work, while half shall search the land ; but these last shall come back at night and not wander from each other.' And this they did for some time. Leif himself, like his men, took turns in staying at home and exploring the country. One day there was a great discovery. Tyrker did not return at night,1 and Leif started with twelve men to find him ; but they had gone only a little way when Tyrker met them. He was very merry, and in the gladness of his heart he could only speak at first in German, smiling and rolling his eyes, but no one could understand him. After a while, growing calmer, he said in Norse : ' Something new have I found — vines and grapes ; believe me, it is true, for I was born where there is no lack of vines and grapes.' And Leif said : 'Now we have to divide our work, day and day about. We must gather grapes on the one, and on the other we must cut vines and fell wood to load our ship.' So a cargo of wood was hewn, and the stern boat was filled with the grapes that they had cut [and of the trees of that Vineland they took samples, and of the self-sown wheat of its fields, and of its maple wood 2], and in the meant. The last reckoning is en- dorsed by Laing and Anderson, Heimskringla, Preliminary Disserta- tion, and by the mnch higher autho- rity of Dr. Gustav Storm, Studies on Finland Voyages, pp. 307-12, and of Reeves, Wineland the Good, pp. 181-5. 1 Dr. Storm doubts the whole of the Tyrker story, and considers it an interpolation, like the narrative of Biarne ; but the former he regards as much more damaging to the credi- bility of the Flatey narrative. On the other hand, Tyrker is described in a vivid way that does not wholly suit this view. He had a prominent forehead, restless eyes and small features, was diminutive in stature, and though nothing much to look at, had great skill at handicraft. 2 ' Mosur.' These words are treated as an interpolation by Reeves, Wine- land the Good, p. 67. 54 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. spring they sailed away, and Leif called that country Vinland [the Good, from the produce of its grapes]. With a fair wind they came to Greenland,1 and its fells below the glaciers ; and thereafter was Leif called the Lucky, and gat much wealth and fame, and much talk was there of that Vinland journey of his. The third voyage was that of Leif's brother Thorvald. When all other men praised the deeds that had been lately done, he declared that it was not enough, and that the new country should be more narrowly explored ; and for that end he asked his brother to lend him his ship. Leif granted it forthwith, and Thorvald put to sea with thirty men. Nothing is told of their journey until they came to ' Leif's Booths ' in Vinland, where they remained all the winter. In the spring Thorvald ordered some of his men to go westward in the ship's long-boat and explore the coast. They did so, and found the land beautiful and well-wooded, with but a small distance between the sea and the woodland, great numbers of islands and shallows, and a beach of white sand. They saw no sign of dwelling for man or beast, save a wooden corn-barn upon an island far toward the west, and in the autumn they returned to Leif's Booths, where Thorvald passed another winter. The next spring (or summer) he went out himself, first eastward and then northward, to examine the land, apparently with part only of his crew. After a time the Norsemen came to a ness or cape,2 where a storm drove them upon land and broke their keel, and they stayed a 1 On the way home he resciied fifteen Norsemen including one Thorir, and Gudrid his wife. This Gudrid afterwards married Thorstein Ericson and the explorer Thorfinn Karlsefne ; hence the notice of this incident, which helps to link on the achieve- ments of Karlsefne to the family story of Red Eric's house. 2 ' Kjalarness,' often taken to mean Cape Cod, is perhaps better under- stood as a point in Nova Scotia. II] THORVALD ERICSON IN VINLAND 55 long while to repair the damage. And when they left, they raised the keel upon the ness and named the place KeeKNess [and so it was called by others after them]. Then they sailed along the land eastward and into the mouth of the adjoining firth, till at last they sighted a beautiful headland, covered with wood, where Thorvald moored the vessel and laid out gangways to the beach, and went on shore, saying : ' I would gladly set up my farm here.' But now they came upon the first traces of other men. Far off, upon the white sandy beach, three distant specks were sighted ; and these proved to be three skin boats of the natives,1 with three men hiding under each. All these people, save one, were taken and killed ; but he escaped with his boat to a place within the fiord, where there seemed to be several dwellings 'like little lumps on the ground.' A heavy drowsiness now fell upon the iSTorsemen, and they neglected to keep any watch, till a sudden cry aroused them, 'Awake, Thorvald, awake, thou and all thy comrades, if thou wilt save thy life.' And at the same moment came a countless host from up the fiord- in skin-boats, and laid themselves alongside. The Vikings put up their shield-wall along the gunwale, and kept off the arrows of the Skraelings till the foe was weary of the assault, and made away as fast as they could, leaving Thorvald with a mortal wound under the arm. He had but time to bid his men carry him to the point where he had wished to settle — for it was fated that he would stay there awhile, but with a cross at head and feet — when his speech failed and he died, the first victim of these hazardous western voyages. With his last breath Thorvald warned his men to retrace their steps and rejoin their companions: but they stayed in that country 1 Elsewhere called Skraelings, 56 THE NORSEMEN" AND EXPLORATION [Oh. another winter, gathering wood and grapes, and loading their ship ; next spring the united company returned to Eric's Fiord in Greenland, bringing heavy tidings to Leif. Another fruitless venture followed. Thorstein Ericson 1 had married Gudrid, the widow of Thorir the Easterlin", whom Leif his brother had rescued from a rock in the ocean. The misfortune of another brother made him take a keener interest in the new discoveries ; and he now bethought him that he would go to Vinland for Thorvald's body. He equipped Leif's vessel, and with his wife and twenty-five men he put to sea. But the whole summer he drove about in the ocean without finding land, or know- ing where he was ; and in the first week 2 of winter he came back without result to Lysu Fiord in the ' Western Bay ' of Greenland. Then follows in the Saga a long and highly fabulous story of Thorstein's death and the prophecies of his corpse. The practical issue of all this was to be found in the third marriage of Gudrid to an 'Iceland man,' as foretold3 by the ghost — in other words, to the famous Thorfinn Karlsefne, whose journey is next described. He came in a ship4 from Norway to Greenland in the year of Thorstein's death ; and stayed with Leif at Brattahlid, the home of Bed Eric's clan. In the same winter he married Gudrid, ' being a man of great wealth.' At this time, as before, much was said about a A'inland voyage; and both Gudrid and others urged Thorfinn to 1 At that time, adds Flatey [i.e. I :; The ghost also foretells that when Tliorvald was buried at ' Cross- | Gudrid will in later days ' go abroad and to the south,' i.e. (probably) make a pilgrimage to Rome. 4 No hint is given in Flatey of more than one ship in this expe- dition. ness'], Christianity had become law in Greenland, but Red Eric had already died. 2 The Icelanders reckoned winter from the first Saturday after the 14th of October, ■II.] THORSTEIN ERIGSON AND THORFINN KARLSEFNE 57 undertake the same. Bat he determined, if he went at all, to do more than reconnoitre and return. If possible, he was resolved to settle and colonise, if not to conquer. With these larger ambitions, an ampler force and greater resources were necessary. So he took with him [in his own ship] sixty men, five women, and cattle of all kinds ; with his followers he made agreement that he and they should .have equal shares in any gain that might be won ; Leif once more lent his Booths in Vinland ; and Thorhnn sailed out to the West, Probably he had with him men who had already been on the voyage, for he escaped Thorstein's ill-luck, and came direct to the Vine Country with all his men and goods. The new settlers were cheered to find that a storm had lately driven a whale on shore at Leif's Booths, and thus provided them with abundant food. They were soon busy gathering the grapes of the favoured land, and they felled wood diligently for shipping.1 The first winter passed quietly enough, but in the summer the Norsemen became aware of the presence of the Skraelings. Suddenly a great troop of. men issued from the woods with skin bundles, making as if they would trade in grey furs, sables, and all kinds of peltries, but coming dangerously near to the cattle. Frightened by the bellow- ing of a bull, they vanished again into the forest; but ere long they returned, once more offering to barter. Now they walked right up to the houses of Karlsefne's people, and even tried to come in, but this was not permitted. 1 Placing it upon a cliff to dry, I restless and vicious ; game and fish where the garrison often men was j are found in the country. One of the afterwards sent, Flatey adds various details which seem to point to a true record — the cattle heing turned out on the land, the males soon become Skraelings, who seemed their chief, kills one of his men with an axe be- longing to the Northmen. 58 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. Neither folk understood the speech of the other; but the Skraelings showed by signs that they would like to have weapons in exchange for their skins. Thorfmn forbade his men to sell their arms, but he told the women to take out milk and dairy stuff, and when the savages saw these things they were eager to buy them. So the Skraelings ' carried away their winnings in their stomachs,' and parted with their furs to small advantage. But the Norsemen, full of suspicion of their visitors, made a strong fence round the habitation, and put all ready for defence, when the time of need should come. At the beginning of the next winter reappeared the Skraelings in much greater number than before, with the same wares. And again Karlsefne told the women to carry out the same food as was best liked before, and nothing else. But this meeting was not destined to pass off so peace- ably, and the unseen powers showed plainly that a threaten- ing future hung over the colonists. A child had just been born to Thorfmn and Gudrid — Snorre, the earliest American of European parentage whom history records. While the mother sat by the cradle within the door there came a shadow to the entrance, and a woman went in with a black kirtle and a snood or fillet around her head; she had bright chestnut hair and was very pale, and her eyes were larger than are ever seen in the head of man. And the good wife put out her hand to her that she might sit clown beside her, ' and lo, there was a great noise and the woman was no longer there.' And at the same moment was one of the Skraelings slain because he would take the weapons of the Norsemen ; and all the savages tied. Then Karlsefne ordered that some should go to the woods and make a clearance for the cattle against the time that the Skraelings might come out of the forest, and that ten other men II.] THORFINN KARLSEFNE IN VINLAND 59 should go to a ness hard by.1 And just where he had foretold, at a place between the forest and a lake, the Norsemen fought with the Skraelings, and slew many of them, and the rest fled into the forest. With this outbreak all things were changed. The hope of a peaceful settlement was gone ; and Thorfinn seems to have despaired of settling in the new country on other than peaceful terms. The numbers and the subtlety of the barbarian foe ; their deadly arrows ; the warning fate of Thorvald ; the vast distance of the colonists from their nearest base in Greenland ; the scanty numbers of his people : — all these must have weighed with Karlsefne and led him to abandon the enterprise, so carefully prepared, so vigorously begun. He remained in Vinland the rest of that winter, but in the spring he returned with a heavy load of wood and grapes and peltries, but also with the weight of a great failure. For an enterprise had miscarried which, as we now can see, might have altered the course of history, which even at the time aroused great hopes, and which, if successful, would certainly have added a new chapter to the Middle-Age development of mankind. According to Reel Eric Saga (although this is not recorded in the Flaky Book) one of Thorfinn's lieutenants was Thorvard of Gardar, the husband of Freydis, a bastard daughter of Eed Eric and a woman of infinite villainy. He and his wife thus form a link between the voyage just recorded and that, of doubtful and highly mystical character, which follows next and last in Matey. In the same summer that Karlsefne returned from Vinland, a vessel arrived in Greenland from Norway under two brethren, of Iceland race, Helge and Finnboge, and they remained all that winter. ' And now men began to talk again about a Vinland 1 Probably a strategic point commanding the settlement, 60 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. voyage, as both a gainful thing and an honourable ; ' and Freydis, coming from Gardar, proposed to these new- comers that they should go with her to Vinland in their ship and share equally in all the profit they might make. Each side, Freydis and the brothers, had the right to take thirty men — besides the women — but the cunning daughter of Eric did not abide by the compact ; for her warriors were thirty-five in number. Leif again lent his Booths, and they sailed ; Helge and Finnboge having the larger ship, but fewer men ; Freydis and Thorvard the smaller vessel, with a stronger crew. When they came to Vinland, Freydis declared Leif's houses were for the sole use of herself, Leif's sister, and her people ; the others had no right there. Therefore Helge and his brother built them a shed further from the sea, on the borders of a lake. At first the settlers had some sports in common, the brethren doing all in their power to promote concord ; but as the leader of the other party was steadily in search of a quarrel, the games soon ceased, and none even went from one house to the other. The final catastrophe is among the most mysterious passages of the Saga, if the whole narrative of this voyage be not rejected as a legendary and obviously unhistorical addition. Thorvard, we are told, enraged to madness by the false charges of his wife against Helge and Finnboge, surprised and slaughtered them with all their followers, and among them five women, whom Freydis murdered with her own hand. The explanation is easy, that the massacre was an act of jealous vengeance ; that Freydis was an adulteress who urged Thorvard to this as a screen for her own guilt, and that her accusations were not wholly false ; but the Saga's extreme reticence and obscurity puts a certain difficulty into this reading of the story, and this difficulty is increased by the wholesale II.] PREYDIS IN VINLAND til character of the butchery, and the fate of the women. On the whole, passion does not seem to be the complete explana- tion of the tragedy, whose slow approach the Saga indicates with all the mystery, but little of the subtlety or the coher- ence, of a Greek dramatist. Early in the next summer the survivors returned to Eric's Fiord, pretending that their companions had stayed behind in Vinland. Freydis had bribed her people to conceal the crime, but most of it soon came out ; Leif dis- covering part by the argument of torture as applied to three of his sister's followers. The story ends with an incon- clusiveness which excellently suits the narrative. Leif, after all his vigorous efforts to ascertain the truth, does no more. ' I do not care to use severity,' he declares, more in the style of a modern humanitarian than of an old Norseman, ' and therefore I will not treat Freydis as she deserves, but this I will foretell of her, that her posterity can never thrive.' There is but little more recorded in the Flateyarbok of these Vinland voyages and their leaders, but a few words are added on Thorfhm Karlsefne. Freydis had only just returned to Eric's Fiord when he sailed from Greenland back to Norway, ' and it was common talk that never had a richer ship sailed on this voyage than the vessel that he steered.' Being both rich and prosperous, it is not astonishing that Thorfinn was now 'held in great esteem,' even among the landed men of the home kingdom. Next year he came again to Iceland, but soon after this he died ; his wife Gudrid became a nun ; Snorre, his Vinland- born son, seems never to have returned to his first home; and so darkness falls upon the chief record of early European discovery in the Atlantic Ocean. The Saga of Eric the lied, in so far as it differs from 62 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. the Flatey Book, or contains a fuller narrative, may be re- garded (as we have seen) in the light of a primary text; and it therefore remains for us to see what it adds to, or alters in, the narrative of Vinland voyages already summarised. Beginning with a reference to Leif Ericson as the discoverer of the western country, not direct from Greenland but on a return voyage from Norway to Eric's Fiord, and wholly ignoring the previous journey of Biarne recorded in Flatey, the Eric Saga adds a few points to the history of Thorstein's fruitless adventure. No separate voyage of Thorvald Ericson is admitted ; his fate is here associated with the great enterprise of Thorfinn Karlsefne ; and Thorstein's voyage is made an altogether earlier occurrence. Leif's account of the western lands had given rise to much talk of explora- tion, and both Bed Eric his father, and Thorstein his brother, made ready to follow up his discoveries. Some little time before there had arrived at Brattahlid1 a noble Icelander, Thorbiorn Vifilson, and his daughter Gudrid or Thurid. He was an old friend of Eric's, and a man of good name and family, but his fortune had decayed, and he now came to Greenland in a ship that plays a prominent part in the Saga. With it Eric and Thorstein now made their fruitless quest of Vinland, and with the same vessel (among others) Thorfinn Karlsefne renewed the enterprise some years later. Thorbiorn probably arrived at Eric's Eiord during Leif's absence in Norway and 'America'; and both he and all his household had already become Christians, before the new faith had been made law in Iceland. Eric and Thorstein, then, borrowed Thorbiorn's ship and set out with twenty men ; but they could not steer the course they wished, and were tossed about upon the ocean, once coming in sight of Iceland, and at another time seeing 1 First at Heriulfsness. n.] 'red eric's saga': fresh points 63 birds from the Irish coast. At the beginning of winter they came back, exhausted and disappointed, to their home, where Thorstein consoled himself with Thorbiorn's daughter. Both texts agree in describing his death and the ghostly wonders x that accompanied it, as well as the speed)^ arrival of Thorfinn Karlsefne ; but from this point the Eric Saga passes into a Thorfinn Saga, and is clearly based upon better and fuller tradition than the Matey narrative. Thorfinn is described as a successful and far-travelled merchant, but no mere chapman, being of good family and a great grand- son of the famous Icelander Thord the Yeller, a son of the no less respectable Thord Horse-Head, and a descendant on his great-grandmother's side of the Irish King Kiarval. In his own ship he brought forty men from Norway to Green- land, and he was accompanied by three friends, afterwards prominent in the Vinland explorations, Snorre Thorbrandson, Biarne Grimolfson, and Thorhall Cramlison ; the two latter together commanded another vessel. He was cordially re- ceived at Brattahlid, married the widow2 of Thorstein Ericson, and adopted (with his new relationship) the Vinland ambitions of Red Eric's house. With the aid of Snorre he fitted out his own ship for the passage ; Biarne and Thor- hall made ready theirs ; and a third, Thorbiorn's vessel, in which Thorstein had ventured, was equipped by Thorvard, the husband of Ereydis, Thorvald Ericson, and Thorhall the huntsman, Eric's old steward and trusted adviser. This Thorhall was a poor Christian, adds the Saga, but he had a wide knowledge of unsettled lands; in appear- ance he was dark and of giant build; he wTas elderly, over- bearing, and taciturn, underhand in his dealings, offensive in his language, always ready to stir up evil — in a word, Eric's bad genius and the curse of Thorfmn's enterprise. 1 Though differing in various details. 2 Gudrid. Thorbiorn's daughter. 64 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. The Saga suggests that he was no better than a wizard ; he boasted openly that his patron, Thor the Trusty, was of more avail than Christ ; he opposed Karlsefne in his plans, and composed ribald verses on the poor success of the enter- prise and the lack of vines in ' Vinland.' The sixty men and five women of Thorfinn's company, as given in Flateij, may have been the crew of his own ship ; but they evidently formed only a part of the expedition. The whole fleet carried one hundred and sixty persons. They sailed first from Eric's Fiord, near Cape Earewell in Greenland, northwards to the ' Western Bay,' just within Davis Straits, and so to 'Biarne' [or Disco Island.1] From this point they came south two days and nights to Hellu- land, where they found many Arctic foxes and great slabs of stone, some a dozen ells across. Two days further to the south they came to Markland,'2 which they described as well-wooded and stocked with animals ; thence, sailing on to the south for a long space, they had land to starboard, and at last came to a cape where they found a ship's keel, and so named Keel-Ness. Here there were great strands and long sand-beaches, and they called them the Wonder Strands, because they were so long to sail by. After this the shore was much broken with inlets ; and here they put on land two of their swiftest people to explore the country. Both these runners were Gaels (or Irish); they were named Haki and Hakia ; and King Olaf Tryggveson had in former days given them 3 to Leif Ericson. In three ' half days ' the Gaels 1 The ' Bear isle ' would be in N. Lat. 60=, if this identification can be maintained. 2 An island, adds the Saga here, lay off this Forest land to the South- East, and there they found a Bear, and they called this Bear island (Biarne), the same name as the first place they reached after leaving the West Bight or Vestribygd. 3 They were no doubt among the captives he took on his Viking cruises. The woman's name is also written Hekia and Haekia ; these Gaels were fleeter than deer, we are II-] THORFINN KARLSEFNE : FULLER RECORDS 65 returned from the south with grapes and ears of wheat1 which grew wild, as they said. So the Norsemen sailed on till they came to where the shore was broken with inlets ; and they put into a fiord running into the land. And in the mouth of this was an island swarming with eider ducks, and round the island [and high into the fiord there ran strong currents. So from these currents they named them ' Stream Island ' and ' Stream Firth.' - Here Karlsefne settled for the winter, enjoying the ' fine hilly country there- abouts.' In the spring he dividedjiis people; northwards he sent Thorhall with eight men to seek for Vinland,3 beyond the Wonder Strands ; while he himself, with one hundred and fifty followers, went south. Thorhall's party passed the Wonder Strands and Keel-Ness, intending to cruise west- ward around the Cape, but they were driven by westerly gales away from the coast and out to sea. Finally, they were thrown ashore in Ireland, where they were seized and enslaved, Thorhall himself perishing. Meantime Thoriinn, with the main body, cruised south for a long time until they came to a river that flowed down from the upland into a lake and so into the sea. At the mouth of this stream were great bars, and it could only be entered at the height of the flood-tide. They called the place ' Hop ' (a small land- locked bay), and in the lowlands hereabouts they found self-sown wheat fields, and vines upon the higher ground. Every brook was full of fish, and the settlers caught halibut in pits upon the shores. In the woods around were many also told ; they were on board Karlsefne's own ship ; they each wore a garment [Irish ? ] called Kiafal, open at the sides, sleeve- loss, with a hood at the top, and fastened between the legs with buttons and loops. 1 In another reading, ' A bunch of grapes and an ear of new-sown wheat. ' 2 Straum-ey and Straum-fiord. n Here in the narrower sense, ap- parently : viz. the country at Leif's Booths. No distinction of this kind appears in Flatey. 66 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. wild animals of various kinds. They stayed here a fortnight with their live stock in great contentment ; in their fancied security they kept no watch. But early one morning there came to them a fleet of skin-canoes, full of ill-looking folk, of sallow colour, with large eyes, broad cheeks, and ugly heads of hair.1 These people surveyed the strangers for a time,2 and then paddled away to the southward, and were lost to sight behind a cape that was near. Thorfinn Karlsefne decided to winter at ' Hop,' and put up dwelling-houses for his men a little above the bay, some of their booths being near the lake, and others further away. The weather was mild, without so much as one fall of snow, and the Norsemen's cattle were able to live in the open field. [On the shortest day the sun was above the horizon during the watch before and after that of mid-day.] After a time, when spring opened, the skin-canoes came again from the south in such numbers that it was as if coals had been scattered broadcast out before the bay, their crews steering up close to the habitations of the colony. At first they bartered grey furs for bits of red cloth and milk soup, but soon they endeavoured to obtain weapons for their peltries, and above all, spears and swords. Thorfinn and Snorre, however, took care to prevent this exchange. As the barter went on, an ever larger stock of furs was sold for the same amount of red cloth, which the Skraelings would often bind round their heads. Suddenly a bull that belonged to the Northmen ran out of the woods bellowing, and the Skraelings 1 This has, of course, been termed a ' pretty accurate description of Esquimaux, and, unless an interpola- tion, almost conclusive on the Skraelings' identity. ' men took this for a sign of peace and held up a white shield in answer. On the Skraelings' second visit this was repeated ; but on the third, the natives, now becoming hostile, waved 3 The Saga adds that on their ap- ' their staves in a direction contrary pearance they brandished staves with to the sun, and were answered with a noise like Hails in the same direc- ; red shields. tion as the sun moves. The Norse- II.] THOEFINN KARLSEFNE : FULLER DETAILS 67 took fright and rowed away to the south along the coast. For three weeks no more was seen of them ; but then they approached again from the south in great numbers, as if a stream were pouring down, brandishing staves in a menacing manner, and uttering loud cries. Thorfinn, taking all these signs as hostile, hoisted a red shield, and prepared to fight : while the Skraelings sprang from their boats and discharged missiles from slings upon Ivarlsefne's men. After a time a weird thing happened. The natives raised on a pole a thing like a ball, blackish in colour, and about the size of a sheep's belly, and hurled this upon the ground above the Northmen. It fell with a frightful noise and struck a panic into the colonists, who fled up along the river-banks to some jutting crags, where they fought again. The terror and confusion of the Northmen was complete ; in vain Eed Eric's daughter attempted to rally them ; one and all took refuge in the forest. But the Skraelings in their turn were frightened by the action of Freydis, who appeared to them like a super- natural being. Thorbrand Snorreson lay dead on the ground, his skull broken by a flat stone (the Saga here conveys the impression that the Skraelings mysteriously surrounded and destroyed their foes), but Freydis snatched up his sword, pregnant as she was, bared her bosom, and struck herself on the breast with it. At this portent the natives rushed back to the shore, jumped into their boats, and rowed away. After the battle, Karlsefne's people returned to their homes, and began to ' weigh carefully what throng of men that could have been, which had seemed to descend upon them from the land.' They came to the strange conclusion that this party of their assailants was only a delusion of their own1 and that the real attack came from one 1 Apparently effected by witch- craft. A story is added about the savages finding an axe and trying it first upon wood, then upon stone ; as it failed to cut the latter they threw it away. 08 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. side only, from the sea and skin-canoes ; yet the settlers were so dispirited by the enmity of the natives that they resolved to abandon Hop. So they sailed away along the coast, where, to the northward, they found and killed five Skraelings, looking like banished men, and clad in skin doublets, who were lying asleep on the beach, with their boat beside them, containing some animal marrow mixed with blood. Proceeding onwards, Thorfinn and his men came to a cape that looked like a cake of dung from the animals that lay there at night. Arriving again at Stream Firth, they found abundance of all necessaries, and here Biarne and Freydis remained behind (as some say) with one hundred of the settlers ; while Thorfinn Karlsefne, and Snorre Thorbrandson went to the south with forty others ; this last force stayed at Hop about two months, or a little less, and returned again to the Stream Island and Bay in the same summer. After this, Thorfinn left most of his people at Stream Fiord, going on himself with one ship to look for Thorhall and the eight lost men. He sailed round Keel-Ness, keeping northward at first, and afterwards west, but could find no one. All this time he had the land to larboard of him, covered with thick forests and fringed with hills ; and these hills, he thought, were all one range with the high ground at Hop, Stream Fiord being about equidistant between the two. Karlsefne and his men coasted along this forest shore- land till they came to a river which flowed from east to west ; into the mouth of this they sailed, and lay to by the southern bank of the same. Here a marvellous adventure occurred : a Vnipecl, or one-legged man, came up close to the ships and killed Thorvald Ericson, shooting an arrow into his vitals, as he sat at the helm. Thorvald drew out the ii] thorfinn's enterprise : fuller details G9 arrow before he died, and exclaimed : ' There is fat around my paunch ; we have hit upon a faithful country, and yet we are not like to get much profit by it.' The first clause of this dying speech is exactly the same as part of the last song of Thormod the Coal-brow Skald after the battle of Stiklestad ; and the whole adventure is probably a compilation from the fashionable mirabilia of the Middle Ages, which placed the One-Legged Folk in various outlandish regions, usually in the south of Africa. Some have thought the story is introduced to give embellishment to the death of Thorvald Ericson, who was too important a person to be dismissed in an ordinary manner, and who, as we may fairly assume from the general coincidence of this narrative with Flatey, really perished in the new world. The explorers now sailed away from the land of the Unipeds ; they spent yet a third winter in the new world, at Stream Fiord ; but here quarrels broke out between the colonists over the women of their company, and in the spring they returned to Greenland. Sailing with southerly winds they came first to Markland ; and here they fell in with five Skraelings. Two of these, who were boys, they took with them, and taught the Norse tongue ; and from them they learned much about the SkraeKng folk — as, for instance, that they had a father named Uvaegi, a mother called Vaetilldi, and two kinms, Avaldamon and Valdidada, that they had no houses, that they lived in holes and caves, and that they knew of a land ' on the other side ' over against their country, inhabited by a race clothed in white, wdio had a way of yelling loudly, and often carried poles before them with rags attached. The North- men believed this country must have been White Man's Land or Ireland the Great. Karlsefne had, in the early part of his venture, become separated from Thorhall ; now, 70 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. on his return, he lost the company of one of his other captains, Biarne Grimolfson, who was driven by storms into the Irish Ocean, into waters so infested with worms that his ship was like to sink, and it went hard with the crew to save even a part of their number in the long-boat.1 So much for the narrative of the Western voyages enter- prised by Bed Eric's House and friends, as told in Matey and the Eric Saga ; these give us by far the most impor- tant aud ample treatment of ' America ' in Scandinavian literature ; and with their conclusion it only remains to add a few scattered data to the most remarkable chapter in mediaeval exploration. There are, however, some later references to a continued but extremely slender intercourse between Vinland and the Greenlandic and Icelandic settle- ments of the Norsemen. Thus we hear of Bishop Eric going to the Grape Country from Eric's Fiord in 1121 ; and, more doubtfully, of clergy from the Greenland diocese of Gardar, in the Austribygd, sailing to lands in the west, far north of Vinland, in 1266; of the two Helgasons dis- covering a country west of Iceland in 1285 ; and of a voyage from Greenland to Markland in 1347, undertaken by a crew of only seventeen men. From 1112 to 1409 there was a regular succession of Greenland bishops, and the names of seventeen have been preserved, beginning with Arnold in 1124.2 Earlier than this, in 1075, Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen had been requested, by the Norse colonists of this remote Christian 1 Thorfinn's son Snorre, says Red Eric Saga, was born during the first Preliminary Dissertation to theHeims- kringla, especially p. 186 ; and autumn of Thoriinn Karlsefne's ex- Rasmus Anderson, America not pedition, and was three winters old when they took their departure. discovered by Columbus, a good study of the Vinland Voyages, with ! See S.Laing and Rasmus Anderson, i an absurd title, 1883. II.] LATER VOYAGES TO VINLAND 71 outpost, to send them clergy to baptize, bury, and perform the sacraments of the Church.1 At the end of the Crusading Period these Greenland colonists, in their two chief settle- ments of the Eastern and Western Bays, were still maintain- ing themselves against the climate and the savages, against the ice and the Esquimaux. In the Austribygd or East Bight, which was by far the more important, was placed the Cathedral and the Bishop's home, eleven other churches, two monasteries, and one hundred and ninety farms or groups of dwellings, composing two little boroughs or towns ; in the Vestribygd were three churches and ninety farms. At other places, probably a good way to the north of these plantations, definite traces of the old European life and religion have been found,2 as at Kakortok and elsewhere in the latitude of 60° — 60° 55' ; and the existence of these well-built stone churches certainly confirms the Saga's references to possible missionary efforts of the Greenland priesthood in Vinland. But in the island of Kingiktorsoak, to the north-west of Disco, and in north latitude 72° 55', west longitude 56° 5', there is a more specific evidence of the ultimate American direction of the more daring Scandinavian keels. Here, on this barren islet at the entrance of Baffin's Bay, an inscription in runes, dis- 1 So Adam of Bremen, iii. 11 (ch. 127 and Appendix). 2 Among the chief remains of ancient settlement in Greenland are (1) At Kakortok or Karkortok, on Igalikko Fiord, N. Lat. 60° 50', W. Long. Greemv. 44° 37', near the settlement of Juliana Hope ; here the ruined church measures 51 feet by 25, with its stone walls, 4 feet thick, rising to heights of 16 and 18 feet. Two round arched windows, four windows not arched, and two doorways, can still be traced. (2) At the extremity of Igalikko Fiord, N. Lat. 60° 55' the foundations of a building, pro- bably a church, have been discovered (in 1830) ; these foundations measured 96 feet by 48 ; here was also a Runic inscription in memory of one Vigdis, a woman. (3) Foundations of build- ings 120 feet by 100, apparently the base of rows of dwellings ; founda- tions of single houses ; and sepulchral slabs, have also been brought to light in and about Lat. N. 60\ Cf. Laing and Anderson, Prelim. Dissert., pp. 188-190. 72 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. covered in 1824, tells Low ' Erling Sigvatson and Biarne Thordarson and Eindrid Oddson, in the Saturday before Ascension Week, raised these marks and cleared ground, in the year of Christ 1135.' Now, unless we can assume an entire change of climate, the sea in the neighbourhood of this island could not be navigated at any time in the early summer within which Ascension Day must fall ; and the inscription in this case would show that the men who raised the marks and cleared the ground had also wintered there. Besides these references to, or evidences of, later movements towards the American strand, we have a little group of stories, variously understood as bearing on Vinland, on the far south of North America, or on the Canary Islands. Thus from a certain Rafn, a trader to Limerick, his great-great-grandson, Are Frode,1 derived a tradition which described how, about the year of Christ 983, one Are Marson, of Iieykianess in Iceland, was driven by storms out into the Western Sea, and came at last to a country vhich he called White Man's Land, and others termed Great Ireland. Thither he was followed in 999 by Biarne Asbrandson, and in 1029 by Gudleif Gudlangson, surnamed ' the wealthy,' a settler at Stream Firth in Iceland, and a great sea-farer, who owned a large trading ship. This Ireland the Great — which men said was originally peopled by Christians from Ireland — 'lay westward, in the Main, near 1 Are, the Learned, ' the first man in Iceland who wrote down in the Norse tongue both old and new narratives of events,' c. A.D. 1067- 1147(8). He wrote ' 240 years after the first settlement of Iceland by the Norsem3iv e. a.d. 1117; but early writer as he was, another preceded him, viz. Isleif, the first bishop of Iceland (appointed by Adalbert of Bremen, and diedc. 1047), who com- piled Histories of the Norse kings, from Harald Fairhair to Magnus the Good. Are's contemporary Saemund (a.d. 1056-1133) was the author of similar works. On the story of Are Marson, see Landnamabok, ch. xxii. Rafn was distantly related both to Are Marson and Leif Ericson, Landnama, Part II., ch. xxi. II] WHITE MAN'S LAND AND GREAT IRELAND 73 Vinland the Good, and it was called six days' voyage west- ward from Ireland thereto.' Are Marson was not able to leave that land, as he desired, but was forced to stay, ' and there, being among Christians, he was baptized, and held in honour.' Bafn, of Limerick, was the first who told of this ; but a certain Thorkel Gelleson also had somewhat to relate about the same. For certain Icelanders told him that they had heard from Thorfinn,1 Earl of the Orkneys, how the aforesaid Are Marson had been recognised by some of their countrymen in White Alan's Land, and how he had sent back a token by which his friends knew that it was he indeed. Of the discovery of Gudleif Gudlaugson the Eyrbgggia Saga gives a more or less detailed account. Towards the end of the reign of St. Olaf (c, a.d. 1030), Gudleif went to Dublin, on a trading voyage from Iceland to Ireland ; on his return he sailed round Ireland by the west, and was overtaken by a heavy storm from the east and north-east, which drove him far out to sea in a south-westerly direction. Neither he nor any of his men knew where they were, and they drove about in the Ocean for the greater part of the summer before they came to land. Here they were seized by the natives, who came in crowds to the vessel, and spoke a language which none of the Norse- men understood, but which some thought a little like Irish. The visitors observed that their captors were disputing whether to make slaves of them or to put them to death. But meantime a grand old man, of majestic presence, with white hair, came riding along, and all the natives received him with the greatest respect. He accosted the Icelanders in the Norse language, and asked if Snorre, one of the chief persons in Iceland, was still alive, and his sister Thurid. 1 Probably the great Earl Thorfinn II. (+1064) see p. 95. 74 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. He would not tell his name, and advised the strangers not to come there again, as the inhabitants were fierce and inhospitable, and the land had no good harbours. He gave them a gold ring to give to Thurid, whom he loved much better than Snorre, her brother, and a sword for Thurid's son. Gudleif brought these back to Dublin, and the next summer home to Iceland, and it was thought that this friend in distress was a certain Biorn,1 a skald and warrior much respected, who had left Iceland in a ship about 998, and had been lost sight of since. He had been in love with Thurid, and was therefore persecuted by her family, and especially by her brother and her husband ; and this, concludes the story, was the ' whole truth known concerning Biorn.' 2 It was in 1697 that Peringskjold published the first edition of the Heimskringla, with Swedish and Latin trans- lations of the original Icelandic. The manuscripts he used are not now extant, but they were merely transcripts of other manuscripts which we still possess.3 In 1777 Scheming commenced a new issue, under the auspices of the Danish government, from the collation of three manuscripts and from Peringskj old's edition.4 The eight chapters which contain the main Vinland narrative are often supposed to be an interpolation in one of the manuscripts used by the first editor. They do not occur in the three extant manu- 1 Biorn Breiclvikinga Kappa, the , Tryggveson in a swimming contest 'champion of the Broad vikings,' who in the Nicl. first won himself a great name in ; 3 See Tor fa,exis,Historia Vinland iae Baltic Viking warfare. Here he ; Antiquac. joined the men of Jomsborg ; cf. 4 In six volumes folio. The mami- Eyrhyggia Saga, chapters xlvii. and scripts were those in the Arne lxiv. Magnaeus collection. This edition 2 Thurid's son (by Biorn, as com- was finished by Thorlacius and monly supposed) was the famous Werlauff in 1826. Kiartan who tried strength with Olaf II.] VINLAND CONTROVERSIES 75 scripts of the Heimskringla, but they must certainly be earlier than the end of the fourteenth century, for they may be found verbatim in a Codex1 written between 1387 and 1395. The narrative of the Vinland voyages has unfortunately next to no confirmation from monuments, but draws its authority almost entirely from documents, of which some were committed to writing in the latter, some in the earlier years of the fourteenth century. The inscribed rocks, the buildings, and the skeletons, which have been supposed to witness to the truth of the Saga on American soil, have been, with one exception, abandoned as evidence by all but en- thusiasts. Thus the Dighton Writing Rock on the Taunton River, near P>erkley in Massachusetts (in N. Lat. 41° 44'), once claimed as a Runic inscription recording the voyage of Thorfinn Karlsefne, is now generally supposed to be of Indian origin, though it has certainly been tampered with in very modern times.2 The Old Stone Mill at Newport in Rhode Island is a still more doubtful relic ; and it seems probable that, even if part of the structure is Indian and 1 The Codex Flateycnsis, which numbers them as chs. cv.-cxiii. of Olaf TryggxcsonJ s Saga, the same position which they occupy in Per- ingskjold's edition, and one which they could not have held in Snorre's original text. The Coder Flateycnsis is not an original work of one author, but a collection of Sagas transcribed from older manuscripts. The ar- rangement is chronological, and the various narratives are artificially grouped together under the reign in which the several events happened, even though not otherwise connected. This most important manuscript is so named from the Island of Flatey in Brcidatiord in Iceland, where it was long kept. In 1650 Bishop Brynjolf Sveinson of Skalholt bought it from the owner, Jonas Torfason, for King Frederick III. of Denmark, who gave in exchange perpetual exemption from land-tax to Jonas for his small estate. The annals of the Codex Flateycnsis end at a.d. 1395, and they were written out by the Priest Magnus Thorhalson. 2 Of. Laing and Anderson, Pre- liminary Dissertation, pp. 214-223. These editors believe the marks on the Dighton Rock are not letters at all, but scratches or primitive draw- ings made at various times. 76 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. only in part due to Governor Benedict Arnold,1 none of it can with any certainty be attributed to the Norsemen. The Skeleton in Armour, discovered in the early part of the present century at Fall Eiver in Massachusetts, carries with it, in spite of Longfellow's poem, no decisive evidence of Norse origin. This, in fact, can only be asserted of one such monument or material object west of G-reenland — the rock inscription of Kingiktorsoak near the entrance of Baffin's Bay.2 In examining the narratives we must distinguish between the general drift, which is credible enough, and the par- ticular details, which are sometimes consistent and historical, but sometimes the reverse. In other words, we cannot doubt that the Norsemen, as recorded in this narrative, really discovered lands to the west of Iceland and Greenland which must be identified with parts of the American Con- tinent ; but we may well doubt whether the record of this great discovery is free from legendary and unhistorical admixture. One point of some interest and importance, though not expressly noticed3 in these Sagas as a reason of the explorations, may be brought to corroborate their evidence on the general facts they record. The scarcity of wood in Iceland and Greenland not improbably exercised an influence on the search for new lands. In the famous Book of the Iceland settlers, known as the Landnamaboh, it is told as a wonderful thing that one of the primitive 1 Later half of the seventeenth century. Of. Laing and Anderson, Preliminary Dissertation, pp. 226- 230. 1 All these relics are discussed by Torfaeus and Arne Magnaeus, who both incline to fix Vinland near the month of the St. Lawrence, or in Newfoundland. Storm appears to argue with greater force for Nova Scotia. See Studies on the Vinland Voyages in Memoires de la Societe royale des Antiquaircs du Nord, nouvelle serie, 1888, pp. 344-346, 350-357, etc. 3 It is, however, in a sense alluded to in the story about Karlsefne's Vinland Wood, quoted below, and in the frequent mention of shiploads of wood brought from Norway and the south and west by various mariners, traders and explorers. II. J YINLAND CONTROVERSIES 77 colonists, named Avang, found ' such great plenty of wood where he settled, that he built himself a long-ship there- with ' ; and in another Saga ] it is mentioned, with the same astonishment, that the famous Hialte Skeggieson made for himself at his own home a vessel so large that he sailed therein to Norway. As a rule, the men of Iceland and Greenland had to get their sea-going vessels from the forests of Scandinavia ; for even in Iceland trees were rare, and the drift-wood on their shores was an uncertain material both in its supply and durability. Now, when once the wooded countries of Yinland, Markland, and Helluland had been discovered, it was natural enough to go in quest of these western lands from which came so much of the precious jetsam to the northern coasts of the Viking settlements. Every explorer in the Flatey narrative loads his ship with wood ; it is the first thing men seek on landing ; to the last they are busied in adding to their stock of the same. Thorfinn Karlsefne, on his return to Norway, even disposes of some of this wood at a high price ; he sold, we read, a piece of mosur or maple wood of Vinland for a door bar or a besom, and a Bremen merchant paid half a mark of gold for the same, Some of the other details, however, as given in Flatey, offer easy material for criticism and objection. For instance, Leif and his successors arrive in Vinland in the spring, and we can hardly suppose that a later month than June can here be understood. It would indeed be a remarkable land which was then producing grapes, ripe or almost ripe, and ears of wheat. At the same time that the Norsemen were gathering these precocious fruits, the eider ducks had just laid their eggs on the Stream Isle,2 which would throw us back to an early date in spring. 1 The Kristni Saya. 2 Straum-ey. 78 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. The ducks and the grapes raise other difficulties. In modern times the eider is hardly ever seen lower than 60° north latitude ; yet here we have it in proximity to a country that in many respects may be said to answer to New England, or at least to the south of Nova Scotia. Again, the whole story of Tyrker the German, tipsy with eating grapes, reads like the fiction of an ale-drinker of the north, who knew no more of wine than that it was the juice of the grape. To some the language of the Saga about the Skraelings presents equal difficulties, and is no more credible than its suggestions that grapes would intoxicate without vinous fermentation, that wheat would grow without being sown, / and that a corn — or kiln — barn could be found in a land without dwelling-houses. The question of these mysterious people would seem, however, to belong to quite a different category, and to be incapable of such hasty and con- temptuous treatment. We must return to this point later on, only expressing here our belief, first, that the Skraelings may rather be identified with some vanished races of North American Indians (such as the Beothuks or the Micmacs) than with the Esquimaux; and secondly, that some of the tribes of the latter race were living in the tenth and eleventh centuries much further to the south than they have been found in modern times. It is unfortunately obvious, as various critics have pointed out, that the Saga's account of the time occupied in sailing from land to land in the Vinland voyages leads to no satisfactory result, for we do not know how much was usually accomplished in the ' day' of twenty-four hours. The action of strong currents from the south-west might often make them lose in one part of the ' day ' almost as much as they had gained in another. Thus it is by no means easy either to estimate the exact II.] VINLAND CONTROVERSIES 79 value of the Saga's language on this point1 or to calculate the position of the new discovered lands from such shadowy data. Again, the descriptions of these new lands are in many cases equally vague and uncertain. The stony soil, scattered with fragments of slate and affording little vegetation — this applies equally to all the coast-line from Newfoundland northwards ; and the name of Helluland or Slab-land would suit almost any part of Labrador just as well as the Island of Terra Nova. Once more, the notice of Markland, level and covered with thick forests, might be written about countless points of the North American shore ; and even some of the details which seem conclusive do not really take us much further. An island with a sound between it and the mainland, a low shore with white sandy cliffs and shallow water, a fiord or inlet of the sea, a river running out of a lake, a bay between two headlands, these are facts which look promising at first sight, but appear more and more evasive when one seriously tries to fix the position of the locality. For they are features common to nearly all sea-coasts, and discoverable everywhere. . On the other hand, more definite conceptions may be drawn from the general picture of the Norse settlements in this region, of their mode of life, and of the natural products which they discovered. Putting aside for the moment some inconsistent details of the winter climate, obviously exaggerated in expression, it is clear that we have to deal with countries which cannot be placed much further south than the latitude of 41° North, or further north than the latitude of 49° 55', according'2 to the estimate of the shortest 1 'They sailed three days,' 'two days,' etc. 2 According to the best interpreta- tion of the perplexing words, 'The sun was in the sky between Eyktarstad and Dagmalastad on the shortest day,' lit., 'The sun had there Eyktarstad and Dagmalastad on the short day.' i ( 80 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. day given us in the narrative of Leif's voyage and planta- tion. On this day, it is said, the sun was above the horizon in the watches immediately before and after that of mid- day. Now in Iceland, on the shortest day, the whole course of the sun was included in the one mid-day watch, which began at 10.30 in the morning and ended at 1.30 in the afternoon. The preceding watch would begin at 7.30 in the morning; the succeeding watch would end at 4.30 in the afternoon. According to the most natural reading of the Saga's words, we must surely understand, not merely that the sun rose sometime in the earliest and set sometime in the latest watch, but that it was above the horizon throughout these three watches. This would give us a day of nine hours (7.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.) and a latitude of 41° 24' 10", lying between Seaconnet and Judith Points, which form the entrance to Mount Hope Bay in Massachusetts. This Bay, and its river the Taunton, corre- spond well with the Hop of the Saga and its neighbourhood. It may or may not be conceivable that the name of Hop, given by the Norsemen, was preserved in native tradition,1 and so passed to the Puritan settlers of the seventeenth century ; if so, this would be one of the most curious survivals in history ; but neither this verbal identifi- cation, nor the various local correspondencies of the Mount Hope Bay district with the Norse descriptions, seem so convincing, in reference to the general position of Vinland, as another detail. The Saga tells us with the utmost distinctness that there was no 2 frost in winter ; that winter fodder was not3 needed for the cattle ; that day and night 1 In the form of Haup. 2 Admitting exaggeration here, we may read 'little,' i.e. nothing that could be named in comparison with Iceland or Greenland. " ' Would not be needed as they thought' may surely be understood as a positive statement, for we are never told afterwards that they were wrong in their supposition. II.] VINLAND CONTROVERSIES 81 here were more equal than in Iceland or (the extreme south of) Greenland ; and that wild vines grew in profusion, and were such a feature of the land, that the Norsemen named it from this very circumstance. It can hardly be maintained that if these points are thrust aside, we can any longer attach definite value to the narrative, which would then become, at the best, an account of a true dis- covery recorded in an entirely mythical form. And if these details are accepted it seems useless to talk any longer of looking for Vinland to the north of the St. Lawrence, where a winter fully as severe as that of Iceland prevails. In other words, we are absolutely compelled, either to reject the whole body of the narrative, allowing truth only to a general fact which the particulars have utterly distorted ; or else to seek our Vinland at least as far south as Southern Nova Scotia, where the northern limit of the wild vine is to be found. The exact place matters little ; claimants as good as Mount Hope Bay may be found to the north, and have this advantage, that here, as in Nova Scotia, it is more possible to bring together in one locality the wild vines of Vinland and the skin-canoes of the Skraelings, the self-sown wheat of the fields, and the sables, grey skins, and white furs of the forest animals. What we are concerned with is the impossibility of a far northern locality, so often and so confidently assumed, for the site of Leif's Booths and Thorfinn's Colony. A word more on the question of the Skraelings. It has been suggested that the terror of these folk at the bellowing of Karlsefne's bull belongs to the emotions of an island people who had never seen such an animal before ; whereas any tribe living on the Continent would have known the bison or musk ox. Those who support the identification of these natives F 82 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. with the Esquimaux are entitled to argue rather strongly from the fact that, although now confined to the far north, it is tolerably certain that they were once spread over a wider and more temperate area. From this, as from many other points of view, it is truly unfortunate that the North American Indians are extinct as a race in these regions, and have left no written records. Among collectors of their traditions it is often said that these same Indians were once acquainted with the Esquimaux as near neighbours, and regarded them with exactly the same feelings of dread as the Norsemen, Danes and Swedes felt for the wizard and dwarfish Finns and Lapps of the North of Europe. From the details given in the Saga about the skin-boats of the savages and other matters, the same school derives still more confidence. We have here, they say, a simple choice. In other words, we must either take the Skraelings of the narrative to be Esquimaux, or we must look upon the whole description here given of these strange people as untrustworthy and beyond verification. As to one reference we may be positive. Unquestionably the ugly, sallow, large- eyed, broad-cheeked, shock-headed natives, who came in skin-canoes to reconnoitre, and then advanced to trade, and finally to fight, with Thorfinn's men, were Esquimaux and nothing else. Again, as to the insular ignorance of this people, who had never seen cattle, and who seemed so dwarfish to the North- men, what better terms could be chosen to draw a life-like picture of the Esquimaux ? Some additional support is given to this theory by the tradition which Are Frode professed to give from the recollections of Thorkell Gelleson of Helgafell (c. a.d. 1050-1150) who knew Greenland well, and had spoken with one of Red Eric's original comrades. The Norse colonists, according to Thorkell, found in Green- H.J THE SKRAELINGS ; THEIR IDENTITY 83 land traces of human dwellings, fragments of boats, and stone implements, from which ' one might guess that people of the kind formerly inhabiting Vinland, and known among the Greenlanders as Skraelings, must have passed there.' l But the matter is not so easy of settlement. The words preserved from the speech of the Skraeling boys taken in Markland are entirely inconsistent with the tongue of the Esquimaux, but agree somewhat better with the relics pre- served of the Micmac and Beothuk languages spoken by savages whom the sixteenth-century explorers discovered in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The Saga's picture of the physical characteristics of the Skraelings, of their skin-canoes and cave (or boat) dwellings, would suit the Beothuks or Micmacs quite as closely as the Esquimaux, to judge from the descriptions of the former that have been collected. While the fierce and treacherous nature of the enemies of Thorvald Ericson and Thorfinn Karlsefne, and their eagerness to trade in skins and furs, seem almost decisive against the exclusive Esquimaux theory. May it not be possible to hold that the Icelandic records here contain references to both the races whose respective claims to be the true and only Skraelings have been so vigorously set in opposition.2 1 Cf. Are Frode's still extant Libel- his Islandorum ; and Storm, Studies mi Vinland Voyages, pp. 315, 316. 2 Undoubtedly the Skraelings of Greenland were Esquimaux. But the Norsemen probably applied the name without much discrimination to very dissimilar natives of the new-found western lands 'over against' Green- land. The word Skraelings was used in the Sagas for decrepit people, of low physique and culture. On the skin-boats, also called ships, and said to be rowed with several oars, the Saga obviously mixes up details suitable in some cases to Esquimaux, in others to American Indians and birch-bark canoes. The 'big-eyed' appearance of the Skraelings agrees well with that of the Micmacs, as described by Lescarbot ; while the narrowing forehead of the Indians gives the broad-cheeked appearance. The ' malicious look ' does not at all suit the merry, bland, Esquimaux. Cf. Storm, Studies on Vinland Voy- ages, pp. 360-7. 84 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. After the fall of Olaf Tryggveson the Heimskringla leaves Norway and Norwegian matters, as it has already left them more than once, to follow the early Viking career of a future King. This was Olaf the younger, the later St. Olaf, a son of Harald of Greenland, and the central figure in the conversion of Scandinavia. Around him obviously gathers the main interest of the narrative of the long series of Norse rulers whom Snorre Sturleson describes ; only two others appear in the Eoyal Sagas as comparable to him ; — Olaf the son of Tryggve and Harald Hardrada. These two share indeed in the first class of Snorre's heroes, but not in the first place with St. Olaf. His early adventures, his reign — officially described as fatal to heathendom — his tragic end, the malice, witchcraft, and subtlety of his enemies, the miracles of his relics, these form the largest canvas on which the poet and the annalist has exercised his skill throughout the whole of the Sagas. The pre-eminent position thus assigned to Olaf Haraldson is plainly due to Christian influence. He is first because no other place can be given to the Eoyal Saint, the saviour of his people, their guide within the fold of the Catholic federation. Like St. Stephen of Hungary, like St. Vladimir of Russia, like iEthelberht of Kent, Olaf the Holy begins the history of his nation as a Christian, and therefore as a civilised, state. What had gone before Olaf Tryggveson was glorious but unhallowed ; the son of Tryggve had begun the work but had not been able to finish ; and his cruelty was so enormous that the Church shrank from canonising such a man of blood. But the milder virtues of his successor, firm as a king, gentle as a Christian, won the homage of those to whom the Catholic religion meant light and heathendom darkness. Judged by other standards, neither the reign nor the II] EARLY VOYAGES OF ST. OLAF 85 person of St. Olaf were quite so important. Politically, his figure is insignificant by the side of his great rival, Cnut of Denmark, who ousts him from his kingdom. He can scarcely be thought to equal the daring genius of Harakl Hardrada. Still less can an impartial judgment place him alongside the first of Norsemen, the greatest of their states- men and empire builders. William the Conqueror or Eobert Guiscard.1 Geographically, that is in relation to the side of history with which we are here concerned, St. Olaf's reign is likewise of secondary importance. It is true we have a fair number of details, from this period, of undoubted value in the chronicle of northern travel ; but of these perhaps the chief item is the Biarma-land voyage of St. Olaf's wizard enemy, Thorir Hund. Here again the life of Harakl Hardrada offers us a more representative figure, and a wider outlook on the great world beyond Norway. When he was but twelve years old, young Olaf Haraldson, like the son of Tryggve, started on a Viking voyage. First he sailed to Sweden and Gothland ; then to Finland,2 where at this early age the future saint fought victoriously against the wizardry of these dangerous heathens ; then to Friesland and England,3 where the kingdom of Wessex was now in its death-struggle with the Dane. ' At that time Svein Forkbeard and his men had gone wide over England, and King ^Ethelred had fled to Valland,' or Normandy. Olaf took up the cause of the English and fought bravely for iEthelred. First he made for London, which the Danes 1 Or even the more shadowy Rmik, if we look at the future importance of that chieftain's life and work. 2 Chs. iv. to ix. of *S7. Olaf's Saga. 3 Chs. x., xi. of same. When Olaf was coasting along Friesland he lay off ' high Kinnliinside,' says the Saga, in heavy weather. Some have identi- fied this with the Texel, in spite of the epithet ' high.' 86 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. held ; and here Olaf and iEthelred went up the Thames and made an onset on the bridge across the river, between the city and the cheaping town of Southwark. Now this bridge was so broad that waggons might pass each other thereon ; and here were castles and bulwarks looking down the stream : and under the bridge were piles stuck into the bottom of the river. And when /Ethelred could not take the bridge, Olaf, with a great raft cunningly devised, broke it down, and so won the city. He had flake-hurdles made of willow twigs and green wood, and laid all over his ships sheds of wicker-work, and underneath the sheds he planted staves so thick and high that it was a good palisade to fight from. So he forced his way right up under London Bridge, through showers of missiles, lashed cables round the piles that upheld the structure, and then rowed down stream, dragging the piles till they were loosened from under the bridge, and all on top fell in.1 Four years 2 he stayed in England after this and won battles for iEthelred ; but when the old King of Wessex died he went south over sea, apparently to Normandy 3 and 1 Ch. xii. of St. Olaf's Saga. 2 Seemingly four ; though the Saga says ' three ' cf. eh. xiii. beginning, xv. beginning, and xiv. end, of St. Ulafs Saga. 3 Chs. xv., xvi. of St. Olafs Saga. In 'Valland,' he visited 'Kingnrth,' ' Grislapool,' ' Willianisby,' 'Fettle- firth,' 'Seliupool,' "' Gunvaldsborg,' a 'great and ancient' town, and 'Charles' Water.' In nearly all these places, which mostly appear hopeless of identification, he fough and won battles against other Vik- ings,— a fresh proof, if any were needed, of the universal activity of his race at this time. Ringfirth and its castle on the heights, ' where Vikings sat,' were perhaps in the neighbourhood of Coutar.ces (?) or at Mont St. 'Michel (?) : cf. Dozy, lie- cherches su?' I'histoire . . . de FEspagm, edition of 1881, ii. pp. 308-14, according to which ' Charles' Water ' is the Bay of Cadiz. The fragments of an older redaction of St. Olafs Saga declare that at the 'Karlsar ' or ' Charles' Water, ' Olaf found idola- ters, whose deities, a Siren and a Boar, he kdled ; and here he got a wind favourable for passing the Strait, but was turned back by the vision. Charles, or Karl, is here viewed by Doz}T as merely a Norseman's version of Hercules ('the great man'), and this eminent scholar contends with II.] EARLY VOYAGES OF ST. OLAF 87 Brittany, and the coasts of the Bay of Biscay and western Spain, and after many victories determined to sail on to Norva Sound or Gibraltar Straits, and so to Jerusalem. But now there came to him in a dream a man, noble-looking and well-favoured, yet awful, who bade him give up his purpose, and go back to the lands of his birthright, ' for thou, said he, shalt be a King of Norway for time everlasting.' We may suppose that Olaf had now reached beyond the Garonne and the Bay of Biscay as far as Cadiz and the Pillars of Hercules ; but after this vision he turned back to the valley of the Loire, and ravaged Poitou and Touraine, raiding as far as the market town of Parthenay, a little west of Poitiers.1 Thence he slowly retraced his steps to Normandy. ' And now thirteen years had passed from the fall of Olaf Tryggveson. And in Normandy there were then two earls, William and Pobert, Lords of Rouen and sons of Richard, who was the grandson of William Long- sword,2 who was himself son of Rolf Ganger, who won Normandy. And Emma, wife of /Ethelred, King of the English, was sister of these earls ; who were akin to the lords of Norway, and at all times the greatest friends of the Northmen. So Olaf tarried the winter in Seine-water, and had there a land of peace.' Meantime Cnut the Dane had won 3 England from iEthelred's sons ; and these last came to Rouen, while Olaf much skill and persuasiveness for the reality of the tradition that as late as a.d. 1145 a colossal statue of Hercules stood in the Bay of Cadiz on a lofty pedestal ; at last it was destroyed by the Moslems, to whom (e.g. Masudi) we owe the most exact description of the marvel which gave name to the ' Strait of the Idols of Copper.' 1 See chs. xvii. and xviii. of St. Olafs Saga. The appearance in the vision was afterwards supposed to be the spirit of Olaf Tryggveson. 2 The Saga calls him Lcng-.<y ear, eh. xix. of St. Olafs Saga. :! Earl Eric of Normandy was Ins ally in the conquest; and died ' of blood letting in England,' just as he was setting out on pilgrimage to Rome. Ch. xxiii. of St. Olafs Saga. 88 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. was there, fresh from his western voyage. ' And they were all together that winter in Normandy, and agreed that Olaf should have Northumberland if they could get England from the Danes.' In the spring the allies made a descent upon England, but Cnut's men were too many for them ; so Olaf, after winning a battle in Northumberland,1 sailed off to Norway, where all the people welcomed him as their king.2 The rest of this long Saga — though containing a goodly- number of allusions to foreign lands, and especially to Iceland and Greenland, the Orkneys and Shetlands, the north of Scotland, Ireland, and Russia — has little direct bearing on exploration, travel, or war, in distant parts. Thorir Hund's Biartna-land or White Sea journey is the chief glimpse afforded us of the outer world within this period ; 3 and the story of this is as follows. One winter (probably of the year 1023 or 1024) Olaf sent a trusty servant of his to the north. This servant was Karli of Halogaland, the most northerly province of Norway proper, to which iElfred's Ohthere also belonged. Karli had more to do than collect the King's moneys and leave his messages in the uplands of Norway ; he was to sail right away north to the White Sea and the Dvina. It was before all a com- mercial venture ; the King and Karli joined in fitting out a ship, and each was to have one half of the profits. So Karli steered north to Halogaland early in the spring with Gunstein his brother, and coasted up to Finmark. Going 1 The raid was at ' Youngford, ' the battle at ' Wald ' ; ch. xxvi. of St. Olaf's Saga. 2 Chs. xxvi., xxvii., xxviii., xxxvi. of St. Olaf's Saxja. We may notice in ch. xxxii. the Cordovan boots and hose which King Sigurd Sow wore at his meeting with Olaf— a trace of the early intercourse of the Northmen with Southern Spain. Cf. Dozy, Rccherches sur Vhistoire ale la Mttirature de I'Espagne pendant lemoyenage, third edition, 1881, vol. II. pp. 250-871. :J 1015-1030. See ch. cxliii. of St. Olaf's Saga. II] THORIR HUND IN THE WHITE SEA 89 thus, they passed close by the home of Thorir Hund of Birch-Isle,1 who had a blood-feud to settle with Karli. Thorir accordingly sent messages of the friendliest kind to the passing ship, saying that he also was minded to fare that summer to Biarma-land in their company and share evenly in all winnings. So Karli and his brother bade him join them with a force of the same strength as they had (five-and-twenty men), but he brought a huge buss, manned with his own house-carles, nearly eighty in number. Then Gunstein became suspicious and would have turned back, but Karli persisted, only remonstrating with Thorir about his vessel and its crew. But Thorir declared in such a venturous voyage one could not have too many good men. All the summer they sailed on in company, sometimes one ship being ahead and sometimes the other, along Finmark and round the North Cape and past the Murman Coast of Lapland and over the White Sea to Biarma-land, where they found a good market ; at this ' cheaping stead ' Thorir got some grey wares and beaver-skins and sables. and Karli, with his well-filled purse, bought many peltries. When the bartering was over they turned their prows for home and sailed down the river Dvina. For all the traffic was at a place some way from the mouth of the stream, probably near the later Kholmogori, so famous in the time of Queen Elizabeth and Tsar Ivan IV., of Chancellor and Jenkinson and Burrough. While business lasted there had been, as usual, a ' peace with the folk of the land ' ; but now this was proclaimed to be at an end, and, for any more profit, plunder was needed. So when they came out to the sea, the crews met together, and Thorir asked if any one was willing to go on land and gain wealth for himself ; 1 ' Biark-ey.' 90 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. for wealth there was to be had, buried in the woods, or under mounds, ' according to the wont of that land.' Thorir was well acquainted with the grave hoards and other buried treasures of the Biarma-men ; probably he had often made the White Sea voyage before. And all said they would venture if wealth was to be looked for. Thorir bade them prepare to start at night ; they left a few men behind to guard the ships, and the rest went on land and set out. ' At first there were ilat fields and then a thick wood- land.' Thorir went ahead, and ordered his followers to move on silently, barking the trees to show the way back. At last they came out into a great clearing in the wood ; and in the clearing was a treasure-mound with a high palisade and a door securely fastened. But Thorir had timed it well ; one watch had just gone home, and the next had not yet arrived. The Norse leader hastened up to the fence, and, hooking his axe on the top, hauled himself over, hand over hand, and opened the door from within. He warned his men only to dig up the gold and silver, ' for here also stands Iomala the God of the Biarma-men, and let none dare to rob him.' But when they had loaded themselves with booty, Thorir turned back to Iomala, and took a silver bowl which stood in his lap, full of silver pennies, and poured them into his cloak, while upon his arm he slipped a bow which was over the bowl. By that time all the men had got out through the faggot fence, and became aware that Thorir had stayed behind. So Karli turned back to look for him, and they met inside the gate, and Karli saw that Thorir had got the silver bowl. Then Karli himself ran into Iomala, and saw that a thick collar was about his neck ; with his axe he smote asunder the string at the back of the neck and took II.] THORIR HUND IN THE WHITE SEA 91 the collar ; but the stroke was so mighty that Iomala's head fell off, and a marvellous crash was heard. ' And straightway when that befell, the warders came forth into the clearing and blew their horns ; and now trumpets were heard on every side. So the Northmen rushed into the wood, but behind they heard constant whooping and crying, for the Biarma-men had come.' They were lost but for Thorir. He had guided them to the place, and now he guarded the rear, guarded it above all with his wondrous witchery. Before him walked two men carrying a great bag, 'and what was therein seemed most like to ashes.' And Thorir dipped his hand in it, and sowed it about their path, and at times he cast it forth over his company, making them invisible. ' Thus they fared out of the wood and into the open fields, while the Biarma-men rushed after them, behind and on both sides, crying and yelling ; yet saw they never the Norsemen and their weapons came not near. At the ships Karli and his people went first aboard, and cast off into the main ' ; then Thorir too sailed across the White Sea.1 The nights were still bright (it was the time of the white nights of midsummer), and the Northmen sailed the whole ' day ' and every day (of four-and-twenty hours) till they came one evening to certain islands. There they struck sail and cast anchor, waiting for the ebb, as there was a strong current before them. And Thorir called upon Karli to deliver up the collar of the idol Iomala, ' for then ye had to thank me,' said he, ' for your lives ; and thou, Karli, didst run us into the greatest peril.' But Karli replied that the collar was King Olaf's. ' Thereafter Karli tried to get away from Thorir, sailing as fast as he might ; but he could not ; and so they came both to Geirsver. And 1 ' Witch-wick.' 92 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. this is the first place where one who comes from the North may lie to at a pier.' Thorir lay up the haven and Karli further out. For the last time Thorir asked that they should share the booty ; and on a final refusal, he killed his rival and seized the precious collar ; he would have sent Gunstein and all the rest after Karli, but they escaped to King Olaf, abandoning their ship and its rich cargo. ' And thus Thorir Hund became one of the chief foes of the king.' The full effect of this was seen later, when Cnut the Great's ambition threw him across Olaf's path, and when every element of disaffection in Norway gathered round the claims of the Danish king. Meantime Thorir remained in his far northern Finmark home, carefully watching events ; ever on his guard against king's messengers from the South ; and again, more than once (if we may trust some later allusions), going on the White Sea voyage, buying reindeer skins, and gaining a deeper knowledge of the witchcraft of the mysterious North. St. Olaf's relations with Iceland are not of special im- portance, but such as they are, they may be briefly noticed. For instance, one Sighvat the Skald, whose father met the king while he was on his western Viking voyage, became a favourite poet of the Court. Both he and his father were typical Icelanders in their keenness for long trading journeys,1 and the king's favourite talk was with old rovers (such as he himself had once been) about the distant countries they had visited, such as Iceland and Shetland and Faroe and Orkney ; 2 but in spite of his fondness for these topics he did not fail to lay heavy 1 Ch. xli. of St. Olaf's Saga. 2 Ch. lvi. of the same. See also chs. lxix. end, lxxi. Cf. moreover in chs. xlv. , xlvii., the Saga's remark on Olaf s contingent of '100 men in Welsh Helms, ' on his ship the Karl's Head. II.] ST. OLAF, ICELAND, THE ORKNEYS, ETC. 93 dues upon Iceland ships, and to threaten Icelandic independence. At times St. Olaf used these distant islands as convenient places of exile for his foes ; thus he sent his rebellious vassal Eoerek 1 to Leif Ericson in charge of Thorarin the Icelander, ' of all men the sagest,' and a great seafarer, who had been 'long in the Outlands, and was then dighting a merchant ship of his own ' for Iceland. Greenland and Eric's Fiord, however, he had never visited, and indeed he seemed loath to take so great a voyage ; reluctantly yielding in words to the king's wish, he found in stormy weather a good excuse for keeping to his beaten track, and never delivered his royal prisoner to Leif. ' From all this we can better understand the Saga when it tells us how much the king had to do with the western colonies of the Northmen, and how steadily he aimed at binding them more closely to Norway itself. His political schemes were foiled in Iceland, but he completed the con- version of that country; he subjugated the Orkneys afresh; and in all the Outlands he put down, at least for a time, the eating of horse-flesh aod the exposure of infants, practices viewed with about equal horror, as decisive marks of paganism. The history of the Orkneys during this time offers the same savage and repulsive aspect as before. Nowhere did the Viking nature degenerate into more aimless brutality than in their settlements on the coasts and islands of Northern Britain. The very names are significant. Eric Blood-axe, Thorfinn Skull-cleaver, Ottar the Swart, Eyvind 1 Otherwise 'Roderie' or 'Rurik,' an 'under-king,' afterwards famous as the only sovereign buried in Iceland, whom Olaf had blinded ; in revenge Olaf in church ; felt that the saint had no armour on ; and aimed a dagger-stab at his heart, narrowly missing his prey. Chs. lxxxv., lxxxvi. the victim watched his time ; sat by | of St. Olafs Saga. 94 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. Urochs-horn, Einar Wry-mouth, these are among the most prominent personages in the endless squabbles of kites and crows which till the chronicle of the Norse Earldoms in Caithness, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and the Shetlands. Before Harald Fairhair the Orkneys were but a Viking lair ; 1 in his days they were ' builded,' that is, reduced to order and made prosperous, according to the cheerful optimism of the Heimskringla. In reality, they remained almost as lawless and piratical as before ; their dependence on Norway was vague and slight, and was openly disavowed whenever it was found convenient to do so ; their efforts to extend Norse rule in Scotland ended at last in complete failure ; and, in contrast to Iceland, as we have already noticed, they do not seem to have formed a starting-point (to any appreciable extent) either of new exploration or of new literature. Here, about 995, Olaf Tryggveson, passing round these islands on his way home from his early wanderings, 2 seized the reigning Earl Sigurd ; and, in his usual hearty manner, offered him christening or death. Sigurd's son, ' the Whelp,' he took with him as a hostage to Norway ; but old Sigurd, when the storm had passed, paid no more attention to his over- lord, married the daughter of Malcolm, King of Scots, and busied himself with raiding in Ireland. Just then hopes of conquest were high among the western Norsemen — hopes that from their Ostman kingdoms on the east coast they might conquer the whole of Erin; but in 1014, Brian Boru3 1 See chs. xcix.-cix., of St. Olafs Saga. On Norse travel to and from Orkney, Shetland, etc., cf. also Saga of Burnt Njal, chs. ix., lxxxiv., Ixxxviii.-ix. , cli.-iii., cliv.-clvi ; Eyr- iiyggia Saga, chs. i., v., xxix. ; EgiVs Saga, chs. iv., xxxiii., lxii. ; Grcttir's Saga, chs. i.-iii., iv.-v. ; Laxdale Saga, chs. iv., xi.. li. 2 Ch. Hi. of Olaf Tryggveson' s Saga. 3 The Munster-man, High King of Ireland. His victory was won largely by statesman dike alliance with the Ostmen of the South and West. II.] THE NORSEMEN IN THE ORKNEYS, FAROES. ETC. 95 overthrew the invaders at the great battle of Clontarf, and among them fell Sigurd. His children inherited, not only Orkney, hut Caithness and Sutherland, as fiefs of the King of Scots ; one son, Einar Wry -mouth, was a famous raider ' about Ireland and Scotland and Bretland,' and suffered a great defeat at the hands of the Irish under their King Konofogor.1 Like a cuckoo in the nest, another and more famous son, Thorfinn Skull-cleaver, as descendant of the great Scot king Malcolm, devoted his restless energies and high abilities to the ousting of his brothers from their share in the inheri- tance, until at last one of the injured appealed to St. Olaf. The king seized the chance to assert in a more formal way his supreme lordship in Orkney and Shetland : but his dis- astrous struggle with Cnut of Denmark again changed the face of things ; Thorfinn became more powerful than of old, and rose to be the ' noblest of all Earls of the Islands,' winning- Shetland, and Orkney, and the Hebrides, and a great dominion in Scotland and Ireland. ' From the Giant Isles to Dublin/ sang a skald, ' each man was counted Thorfinn's.' 2 The Faroe Islanders, at this time, also gave their allegiance to the King of Norway ; and there it was settled that such law and land-right should be held as he should frame, and such tax paid as he should settle. But in practice the gathering of Norway dues and the enforcing of Norway laws proved to be a harder thing.3 1 Ch. lxxxvii. of St. Olaf's Saga. It was in the same autumn that Eyvind TJrocks-horn, a Norseman high in favour with Olaf, was murdered by Einar on his way back to Norway from Ireland. See ch. ciii. of St. Olaf's Saga. - Ch. cix. of St. Olaf's Saga, As to Olafa first successes, a skald sang : ' The Shetlanders grown leal now, To thee for thanes are counted, Ne'er yet was seen an Yngling In East-land who beneath him Brake down the Isles of West Land,' eh. cviii. of St. Olaf s Saga. Harald Fairhair's exploits are con- veniently forgotten. 3 Ch. cxxxvi. of St. Olaf's Saga. 96 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. St. Olaf's reign was largely passed in a struggle against three enemies, Onut of Denmark, Olaf of Sweden, and the malcontents of his own country, led by Thorir Hund of Birch Isle and Harek of Thiotta, In this connection we hear again of Holmgarth or Novgorod, and of King Yaro- slav. Olaf of Sweden, resolved at all costs to prevent the marriage of his daughter with Olaf of Norway, gave her to the Russian Prince ; and as her jointure she had ' Ladoga l and the earldom thereto appertaining' (a.d. 1019). It is now that Sweden, perhaps the oldest of Scandinavian Kingdoms, begins to play a larger part in Scandinavian history ; and the Heimskringla stops to give it a short description,2 telling us of its ' Gautland ' Bishop and his 1100 Churches, and of Upsala, with the King's Seat and the Archbishop's Chair, and the Hoard or Treasury, and the place of the National Assembly. ' For in all matters the Swedes yield to Upsala law, and the King's revenue is called " Upsala wealth." St. Olaf's fate was, after all, to be allied with the House of Sweden, while its King continued his bitterest foe. One Princess was snatched from him, but he was at last married to another, a daughter of the Swede King by a Wendish or West-Slav mistress.3 Another link with Baltic and Russian lands in this same time is the story of Gudleik — Gudleik of Novgorod, as he was called, though a Norseman, from his frequent journeys and large business in the North-Slav countries. King Olaf, ever ready, 1 Already mentioned as ' Aldeigia- I Saga. Swedish 'public opinion,' borg.' See chs. xcii., xcv. and was hotly in favour of the alliance lxxxviii. - xci. of St. Olaf's Saga. with Norway. For our object their Sigh vat, ch. xcii., hints perhaps that Novgorod's money was de- cisive : — 'I learned of many a matter Of the good gold ward in promise is of interest, that, if Olaf the Swede gives his daughter to Olaf 'the Thick' (St. Olaf), they will help him to win Estland, Finland, Garth-realm. . . .' I Courland, Kir ial aland, and wide 2 Ch. lxxvi. of St. Olafs Saga. about the East Lands (Baltic a Ch. lxxxix., xeiv. of St. Olaf's ' Coasts). Ch. lxxxi. II.] OLAF IN HALOGALAND ; WAR WITH CNUT 97 as we have seen him before, to do some trading on his own account, employed Gudleik to buy him things that were hard to get in Norway, choice clothes for robes of state, and furs of great price, and a rich table service. Let us now turn from east to north. After he had been king five years, Olaf took a journey to Halogaland, with the double purpose of fixing his own power more firmly, and of promoting the Christian Faith in those out- lying regions.1 Here he stayed most of the summer, and the chief landowners submitted outwardly to his power and became his men. All the people of the region ' took christening ' also at the king's order ; but after he had gone it was seen that the new creed was but skin-deep in Halogaland. Olaf was now recalled to the South by a pressing danger, and the storm that had long threatened from the West broke at last upon his head. King Cnut ' the Kich,' ' the Ancient,' or ' the Great,' Lord of Denmark by inheritance, and of England by conquest, set himself to realize the full scope of his ambition — a Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon Empire of the North, which should finally embrace all lands possessed or settled by Danes, Swedes, and Norsemen from Ireland to Finland, from the Eyder to the North Cape of Europe, and from the Channel to Greenland. The Lordship of Norway was necessary for his plans, and he had little scruple in ' craving the whole for his own.' He sent a splendid embassy out of England to Norway, and ' right gloriously was their journey arrayed ' ; they argued long with Olaf about their Mission — how Cnut's forefathers had the realm in old time, how the Scot kings in Fife had become his men, and so forth — but they could get no submission, 'lhen the war broke out; just in time to 1 Chs. ex.. cxi. of St. Olaf s Saga. c 98 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. save the men of the Faroes, of Iceland, and of Halogaland from an open struggle with Olaf.1 For that very spring a ship had sailed from Norway to the Faroes with orders which would have been difficult to evade, for the instant despatch of a mission to Court, Similar, but even more stringent, demands had been made upon Iceland, demands of absolute submission, the acceptance of the laws of Norway, and the payment of thane-tax and nose-tax, ' for every nose a penny ' ; but the Icelanders with one accord had refused all such talliages. Once more, Finn Arnison was despatched to Halogaland, where he levied taxes and fined Thorir Hund for the slaying of Ivarli and the seizing of goods that were in his charge for the king. But Thorir was again too skilful for his foes ; he cheated Finn Arnison with a mere fraction of the fine, and fled to Cnut with nearly all his Biarmaland wealth.2 Curious figures flit about the stage as the crisis approaches ; Stein the Icelander, who fared abroad in a ship of his own to the western coast of ' Gizki,' 3 was outlawed for a murder and fled to Cnut ; Thorod, of the same land, who went to gather taxes for Olaf in the border country between Sweden and Norway, and afterwards returned to his Island- home after a terrible adventure with a witch- wife ; Sighvat the Skald, who wandered from Norway to Eome, and from Rouen to England, on a merchant voyage ; Karl-o'-mere,4 ' one of the greatest of lifters/ who turned from his Viking life to become a firm friend and servant of St. Olaf, and was killed 1 Chs. cxlv. , cxlvi., cxlviii., cxlix. | humorous and dramatic incidents in of St. Olaf's Saga. the Sagas ; ch. cxlix. of St. Olaf's 2 Thorir was forced to hand over Saga. the gold collar of Iomala, but he 3 An isle off the Norwegian coast, carried off great treasures of grey I in N. Lat. 62° 30'. Ch. cxlviii. of skins and beaver. The story of St. Olaf's Saga. his crafty fencing with his enemies 4 Chs. cli. , clii. , cliii. of St. Olaf's in this difficulty is one of the most | Saga. II.] ST. OLAF IN RUSSIA 99 in the Faroes, gathering in the Eoyal dues. All these incidents show us the wide range of Norway's power at this time, and show us, too, how feeble and uncertain was the tenure of that power in the saintly but impolitic hands from which the rule of the North was now slowly passing. Cnut's first attack was indecisive ; but in the second campaign a universal defection, added to the immense armaments of the invader, threw Norway into the hands of the new ' Emperor of the Arctic,' and Olaf fled, where so many Norse chieftains had fled before, to Novgorod.1 Here King Yaroslav welcomed him heartily, and offered him the government of Old Bulgaria on the Volga, over which the Eussian Grand Prince now '2 claimed dominion. Here, in the country of the Modern Kazan, the people were not yet Christianised ; and the exile thought well of this offer ; but his men were all loath to follow him so far. It was better, they said, for him to try his fortune again in his own king- dom before attempting anything more distant. It would not have been an easy task to convert the Moslems of ' Bolghar,' which had formed a part of Islam from the close of the ninth century, and which was never thoroughly conquered by the Eussian princes of the Middle Ages, though on occasion it acknowledged the vague suzerainty of some of the most powerful East Slav rulers.3 For his own part St. Olaf would have preferred to go on pilgrimage 1 Clis. clxxx., cxci. of the same, a.d. 1020. 2 Ch. cxcviii. of same ; the ' domin- ion called Volgaria, which is one part of Garth-realm, where the folk was heathen.' 3 On this Old Bulgaria of the Middle Volga and Lower Kama, cf. pp. 105«., 292n,, 303, 335, 341-2, 462-4/t. of this volume ; Ibn Da^ta in Bossier's llomanische Studied, pp. 359-362, etc. ; Saveliev in Erman's Archie, vi. pp. 91 -S ; Frahn's Ibn Foslan, pp. 226, etc., 147, 168, 258, 266 ; Frahn in the Memoires de VAcademie de St. Pitersbourg, serie vi. torn. i. pp. 183-199 ; Masudi, ii. 15, ed. Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille. 100 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. right away to ' Jerusalem world/ and leave the struggles of this life to others ; but the heavenly powers themselves turned him from this abdication. A vision of Olaf Tryggve- son,1 coupled with the persuasion of Biorn the marshal, determined the king to try once more the chances of a restoration ; and in the face of all dissuasion from the prudent Yaroslav, he persisted in this resolution. He crossed the ice, made his way to the open Baltic, and by the time of the spring thaws appeared in Sweden. Meantime Thorir Hund had been prospering since his return with Cnut's host. He had made the Finn-journey two winters and been long on the fells ; measureless wealth had he won by chafferings with the Finns. Most notable of all, he had made for himself twelve coats of reindeer skins of Lapland, with such wizardry, that no weapon could bite on them, ' aye, less than on ring-mail.' And both he and Harek of Thiotta made ready to fight against Olaf if he should come from the East. On the other hand, some of the nobles stood for the old king, and chief among the last was his young half-brother, afterwards famons as Harald Hardrada, but as yet only a boy, fifteen years of age. With Swedish guides St. Olaf moved slowly through the Ironstone Land and Iamtland to Norway. And as he moved he had a vision, the vision of his race ; he saw over Thrandheim and all Norway, and ' ever wider over all the world, both land and sea ; those homesteads where he had been, and just as clearly those which he had never seen, aye, and those of which he had never heard tell, both peopled homesteads and unpeopled wastes, as wide as is the world.' The two armies met at Stiklestad ; and there Thorir 1 Cf. St. Olafs Saga, chs. cxciv.- cxcviii. , ccii.-cciii. The same vision had already turned him back from his early Viking life. See above, p. 87. II] ST. OLAF'S FALL ; MINOR TRAVELS 101 Hund, with his reindeer skins and his witchcraft, proved too strong for the king. So he fell before the ' Hound whom steel would not bite ' ; yet the same man was among the first, after the death of Christ's anointed, to proclaim his saintship and to attest his miracles. It was during the time of his exile at Novgorod that Olaf really laid aside the ruler and became the saint ; and the national feeling of Norway, outraged by the rule of the Danish Usurper, made the victim of Stiklestad a royal martyr, and the reverence for his memory became the emblem of patriotism. When St. Olaf left Novgorod and the kingdom of Yaroslav to make another struggle for the crown, his young son Magnus remained in the care of the Russian prince; and after the battle of Stiklestad his step-brother Harald, the future Hardrada, sought a like refuge at Holmgarth.1 It was not long before one of the royal martyr's greatest foes also came to Ladoga and Novgorod, and swore allegiance to Magnus Olafson. Kalf Arnison2 had been one of the three who cut down the old king at Stiklestad ; now, like the great archer Einar,3 he was in revolt against King Cnut and had to fly to Sweden and Gardariki.4 Sighvat the Skald, St. Olaf's friend and favourite singer, was another prominent Norse- man on whom Magnus could count. He came home soon after the death of his old patron, and, staying in Sweden during Magnus' exile, asked news of Olaf's son from all the traders that he met on their way to or from Novgorod. The distant wanderings of his race were typified in Sighvat; whose home was in Iceland ; who had traded in England and Valland;5 who had been to Rome on pilgrimage; and who heard of Olaf's death while he was on his way from the 1 Novgorod. 4 Russia. 2 Ch. ccxl. of St. Olaf a Saga. 5 North and West France. 3 Tharabarskelfir. I 102 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. South across the Alps.1 Now he had travelled down into Sweden with thoughts of a journey to Eussia, for, as he sang, news from the East was full of the praises of the young king in his exile, and even the birds of passage spoke of him.2 Before many months came a far more decisive change of fortune ; for Cnut the Great, so long ' held in worship ' by all men of the North, died in England. But even earlier than this the Loyalists were beginning to move once more. From Novgorod to Ladoga, from Ladoga to the Baltic, and across the narrow sea to Sweden, by the same route that his father had gone on his last journey, Magnus Olafson made his way back to Norway with very different prospects. He was welcomed by almost every class and every district as universally as his father had been rejected. The disappear- ance of the Saint's rebel enemies soon followed. Thorir Hund, the repentant chief of them, went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, — never, as some said, to return again. Harek of Thiotta was killed ; Kalf Arnison had to fly the country ; while others became Vikings in the Western Seas, and long plundered the coasts and isles of Scotland, Ireland, and the Hebrides.3 Magnus' reign was a brilliant one for Norway. Under the misrule of Harald and Harthacnut, the Great Cnut's work was all undone ; Norway was now able to gain the better of Denmark;4 and St. Olafs son even made a claim on that realm of England, from which Cnut had ruled his 1 ' On Alps by a burg one morning, I stood and thought of the King.' Ch. ix. of Magnus Good's Saga. 2 ' h'en though there fly betwixt us The smallest fowls air-cleaving, I hear of the snjall king's son As he fares and my hopeisholiien.' Ch. ix. of Magnus Saga. 3 See chs. xii., xiii.-xv. of Magnus Saga, a.d. 1035-1047. 4 So far, at least, as to force Har- thacnut to an agreement that who- ever outlived the other should inherit his kingdom. Under this treaty Magnus ruled Denmark, 1042-1047, chs. vii., xix. of Magnus Saga. H.J MAGNUS GOOD ; HARALD HARDRADA 103 Empire, but which had now passed back to" the West Saxon House in the person of Edward the Confessor. At the peaceful answer of the English king, who would offer no resistance, but simply appealed to the common justice of princes, Magnus ' the Good,' with a sort of shame, waived his demands. Now that England had cast out the race of Cnut there seemed no shadow of quarrel; and meantime there was work enough in the new dominions on the Baltic and in wars with Wends,1 Courlanders, and Saxons. What Magnus abandoned was left for a more daring spirit and a more grasping ambition twenty years later. That spirit and that ambition were incarnate in Harald Hardrada. His life is perhaps the most perfect example of the Norse type, as pirate-wanderer, free lance, and conquering king. William the Conqueror, Cnut the Ancient, Eobert Guiscard, Eoger of Sicily, are all in a sense greater men of the same race — greater as organisers, law-givers, administrators, and masters of statecraft. But among all the Scandinavians there is no rover, no ad- venturer, like the man who, after fighting in well-nigh every land of Christians, or of the neighbours and enemies of Christendom, yet hoped for time to sail off to the new- found countries ' under the pole,' and so perfect a life of unmatched variety by unmatched discovery. Fate, which granted him many things, denied him the chance of being a Barentz or a Hudson of the eleventh century. He had fought with wild beasts in the Hippodrome of Constanti- 1 See chs. xxiv., xxv., xxvii. of i Here 'the Wends fell as thick and same. In these campaigns Magnus fast as if they lay in wave drifts,' captured Jomsborg, the famous stronghold of Baltic Vikings, which the Dane kings had so dreaded, and won a great victory over his Slav and Lettish adversaries at Heathby near ' ch. xxix. of same. Skotborg- Water on Lyrshaw Heath. ch. xxix. Duke Otto of Brunswick 'in Saxland,' son-in-law of St. Olaf, was with him in this battle. Certain (two) Iceland men were also present, 104 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. nople ; he had bathed in the Jordan and cleared the Syrian roads of robbers ; he had stormed eighty castles in Africa ; he had succoured the Icelanders in famine ; and men knew and feared him alike in Eussia and England. He lived as a prince, a conqueror, or a guest, in Norway and in Novgorod, in Sicily and in Yorkshire ; in his own songs he boasts that he had sailed round Europe ; yet he never led his followers into that unknown world where his countrymen had shown the way. A true forerunner, in spirit, of those explorers who have most greatly dared, he fell without one discovery. Men of his own nation and time had been before him every where ; but he united in himself the deeds and the adventures, the conquests and the enterprises, of many. Never more clearly than in him may be recognised that northern spirit which was the very ground and impulse of the movement of Europe towards the outer world, in which lay, hidden yet certain, the future triumph of the Christian nations over every rival. To Snorre Sturleson, St. Olaf the Christianiser — the weak, obstinate, religious king, who thought it sin even to cut chips from a block of wood on the Sunday — is the central figure in his country's history. And in a sense, for good or for evil, Snorre was right. The conversion of the Scandinavian people was indeed a turning point in their history. They ceased to be the terror, they became the leaders, of the Christian world. Yet the Norse genius for exploration, though not for war, seems to decay with the conversion of the race, and the subtlety and craft that is so marked in the pagan Scandinavians is often replaced by an exceptional simplicity and want of foresight among the later Christian types of Norse nationality. The fierce contempt of life, the unflinching pursuit of material gain, alike by strategy or by force, never turned from its object by discouragement II-] SCANDINAVIAN CHARACTEKlSTlCy 105 or resistance, disdaining no means to reach the goal, never more dangerous than when repulsed, never more watchful than when reposing, generous to a fault with friends, but implacable with foes, waiting any time for vengeance, yet never sacrificing, for a sentimental vengeance, solid gain — these qualities, which mark so unmistakably Thorir Hund or Harald Hardrada, Robert Guiscard or William of Normandy, appear slowly to die out in the later generations of Christian Northmen. In truth, men like Gustavus III. or Charles XII. recall the prominent type of heathen Norsemen far less than do some of the empire-builders of another country where the Scandinavian blood had also left its mark. Ivan III., the ' Collector of Russian land,' and Harald Fairhair, the Unifier of Norway ; Ivan IV. and Cnut of Denmark ; Yermak, the Conqueror of Siberia, and Rolf the Conqueror of ' Valland,' offer us parallels of no little suggestiveness. In both race- histories there is a similar spirit at work, but working on very different material. Out of a people all composed of adventurers, it was perhaps harder to form a perfectly unified state; leadership was more difficult where so many could dispute the lead, and where so few were willing to be led. But on the submissive and ductile nature of the Slav there could be more easily impressed a sense of sub- ordination and of discipline, which was not without its value as a servant of high political ends. Harald Hardrada was wounded in the battle where Holy Olaf1 fell, but he was hidden by friends, healed of his wounds, and sent east through Sweden to ' Garthrealm.' 1 See ch. i. of Harald Hardrada 's a skald (Bolverk) : — 'But the next Saga and the verses : — ' The Burner year east in Garthrealm Ne'er heard of the Bulgars There well availed his we of peace-waster Waxing more brother,' etc. As to his life in Russia, famed than thou . . . Until at ship's the Saga says nothing more of his bows Harald Saw Miklagarth's bright wars against the (Volga) Bulgarians metals.' 'Miklagarth,' the 'Great (ch. ii.), except to quote the lines of City,' is, of course, Constantinople. 106 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Oh. There he remained some years with King Yaroslav, and ' fared wide about the East Ways,' till at last he went on to seek his fortune in the service of the Byzantines, the richest paymasters of Mediaeval Christendom, to whose banner so many of Harald's countrymen had already flocked. Zoe the Wealthy then reigned at Constantinople in the name of Constantine Monomach, and employment was at once given to the new-comer. First he fought for the Empire in the ' Greek Sea,' and put down the Corsairs that infested the Archipelago ; then he performed brilliant deeds in more distant regions. After a time all the Varangians of the Foreign Guard were put under Harald's command, and he became the trusted leader of the motley host, a Norse general not only over Norsemen, but over Slavs, English, Germans, and men of Latin speech. But he and his mercenaries claimed to be independent of the Greek troops and their officer, declaring they were ' masters of their own matters and bound in service only to the kino.' i 1 Cf. chs. ii.-iv. of Harold Har- drada's Saga. As to earlier journeys of Northmen to Constantinople, cf. e.g. (1) Grettir the Strong's Saga, chs. lxxxviii. -xcv., where Thorbiorn Angle, after slaying Grettir in Ice- land, goes abroad to Norway and Miklagarth, in the time of Michael Katalaktos, when ' many Northmen ' were going to Byzantium and taking ' war-wage ' there. Like Thorbiorn Angle, Thorstein Dromund, Grettir' s avenger, enters the Vaering Guard, wherein he discovers Thorbiorn. A long story follows of his intrigues with 'the lady Spes,' wife of one Sigurd, but apparently herself a Greek. ' In those days Harald Sigurdson (Hardrada) was at Mikla- garth.' Thorstein and Spes go to Norway, and finally on pilgrimage to Rome. (2) Slaying Stir's Saga, under a.d. 1008-9, records how Guest Thorhallson, after a manslaughter, flies to Norway and Miklagarth, where he prospers and remains. Thorstein Stirson pursues but never finds Guest. (3) Laxdale Saga, chs. lxxii.-iii., lxxvii., tells how Bolli Bollison goes abroad into southern lands, ' for a man he thought was deemed benighted who learnt nothing further a-field than what was to be seen in Iceland.' Bolli journeys to Norway and Denmark, and so to Miklagarth, where he stays many winters. He enters the Vaering Guard, and is the first Northman to ' take war- wage from the Greek King,' who on parting with him bestows If.] hardrada's early travels 107 United action became impossible, and most of the Byzantines went back to the capital ; while Harald and his men started to attack the Moslem lands of North Africa, the richest country upon earth, as the Northmen believed. Here followed many years of war and plunder and ad- venture, and Harald gained ' exceeding much gold and all kind of precious goods.' But the whole of this wealth which he did not need for his own use, he sent back to Novgorod by the hands of trusty men, and stored it up in the keeping of his friend the Grand Duke Yaroslav. ; And after that he went to Sicily and took there various Burgs with cunning devices ; and then fared he back to Constantinople with his host, and arrayed his journey for Jerusalem. All his wage-gold from the Greek king he left behind, and so did the Vaerings who went to the Holy City with him. Thus he came out to Jerusalem-laud, and there all towns and castles, aye, and all the country, came unburnt and unwasted into the power of Harald. And he went to Jordan aud bathed him there, as is the way of Palmers, and bestowed a great wealth on the Grave of the Lord, and on the Holy Cross, and on the other relics of Jerusalem-land. Moreover, he made safe the road to Jordan, and slew folk that plundered and wasted there.' 1 But when he came back to Constantinople he heard that Magnus Olafson2 had become King of Norway and Den- mark. So he 'gave word' to the King of the Greeks that he would leave his service. Then Zoe charged Harald with many splendid gifts, clothes of fur, I Emperor, and his becoming Captain a scarlet cape, a gilt saddle, and other things. (4) Burnt Njal's Saga, ch. lxxx., narrates the journey of Kolskegg through Russia to Mikla- of the Vaeriug Guard. 1 See chs. vi.-xii. of Harald Har- drada's Saga. 2 His 'brother's' son; a mistake irth, his taking service under the | of the Saga for ' half-brother.' 108 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. keeping back some of the booty which belonged to the emperor ; and on this charge the captain of the Varangian Guard was thrown into prison, and put in danger of his life. But with the aid of St. Olaf, or by his own skill and strength, he escaped from this peril, as from so many others before, and took a savage vengeance as he tied. At the head of his men he forced his way into the sleeping chamber of the emperor and blinded him ; 1 then, seizing the Princess Mary — whom he had fruitlessly wooed, and for whose sake Zoe had become his enemy — he sailed out into the Bosphorus with two galleys.2 Skilfully 'leap- ing ' the chain that guarded the entrance, he passed over the Euxine and the Sea of Azov,3 and so returned, probably by way of Kiev and the Dniepr, to Novgorod and the Court of Yaroslav the Law-giver. Here he took into his own keeping all the treasures which he had sent before from the South, ' and in that hoard was so much wealth that no man of the North had ever seen such in one man's owning.' For besides what he had won in battle, Harald had the good fortune to earn palace spoil three times in Constantinople, and ' that is the custom whereby, when the G-reek King died,' his Vaering Guards might go over all the king's palace-hoards and take whatsoever they could carry off. That winter Yaroslav gave Harald his daughter Elizabeth ; and towards spring Hardrada and his wife journeyed from Novgorod to Ladoga, equipped a fleet, and sailed away from the East. First the adventurers turned aside into Sweden, where they met with one Svein, after- 1 Chs. xiii. and xiv. of Harald Hardrada' 's Saga. 2 Harald weighted his vessel, first behind, till his prow was half across the chain, and then before, so that the galley fell forwards into the sea on the other side, the crew rushing first to one end, then to the other. 3 ' Ellipalta,' chs. xv. , xvi. of Harald Hardrada's Saga. n.] haiidrada's early travels 109 wards famous as Svein Estrithsou or Wolfson,1 Kiug of Denmark (1047-1074). Harald and lie formed a league, plundered Zealand and other coasts of Denmark, and threatened Norway ; Magnus in alarm called out his host against them ; but before joining battle he offered Harald, as his kinsman, one-half of the kingdom, and a division of all the loose wealth they had between them. The offer was accepted, and so Hardrada came home to Norway as joint king. ' And to Magnus and his court men he gave wondrous things from the goods of the Greek King ' — a mazer girt with silver, and a bowl of silver gilt filled with silver pennies, and two gold rings that together weighed a mark, and a cloak of brown purple lined with white skins — and other noble presents from that land ' where men say there are houses full of red gold.' 2 And not long after this Magnus died, and Harald became sole king.3 We have nothing to do here with his wars against Denmark and his old ally Svein Estrithson ; but his friendship with the Icelanders is another matter. For 'great are the tales of King Harald that are set forth in those songs which Icelandmen brought to him or his sons, so firm a friend was he to all the folk of that land. Yea, once when there was a dearth in Iceland, Harald sent thither four ships with meal, and caused that meal to be sold right cheap ; also he suffered the poor folk who could get victuals over sea to fare abroad ; and he sent to Iceland a church bell,' to the same church for which St. Olaf had given4 the wood. The king's Iceland friends, Thorleik 1 See chs. xvii. -xviii. of Harald | from his southern treasures, though Hardrada's Saga, and the verses of ! the skins might be Russian or Valgard of the Mead : 'Thou ! Finnish. steer'st forth thy ship, 0 Harald, | sa.i>. 1047. 'Neath fairest freight ; thou sailest, | 4 Cf. eh. xxxvi. of Harald Har- With bottomless gold from the east drada's Saga. A bell given by St. land, From Holmgarth.' ... i Olaf to a church in Iceland is also 2 All these, we may suppose, came ' recorded. 11.0 THE NORSEMEN AND EXPLORATION [Ch. the Fair, Halclor the son of Snorre, Wolf the son of Uspak, and the rest left deeply printed on the Icelandic poetry and chronicles the tradition of Hardrada's splendid personality. ' Masterful was he, and given to rule, a mighty warrior, and the boldest under weapons, more strong and deft in war than any other lMn ; and so sage and cunning withal that, as all men said, no lord ever was in northern lands so deep- witted or so nimble of counsel.' But all men were not so contented with his reign of iron. Like the chief kings of Norway before him, Harald set himself to break down the power of the landowners. He cut off or drove into exile, one after another, all the nobles who opposed him ; and the landsmen, says Hardrada's own Saga,1 wanted nothing but a leader to rise in open revolt against him. Several of the exiles fled to Svein Estrithson in Denmark, and took service with him against the Vikings of the East Ways, the Wends, and the Courlanders, as well as against Norway ; others took refuge in England or Normandy,2 or went on Viking cruises in the Western Seas. One curious incident is the intercourse between King Harald and his nephew Guthorm of Dublin, who often came over to see his uncle, but whose business was freebooting in the West, where he joined the Irish chieftain Margath3 in ravaging the coasts of Wales, Cambria, and Cornwall. After a long4 but indecisive struggle of seventeen years with Svein, Hardrada made peace ' on these terms, that he should have Norway and Svein Denmark, unto the land- borders which of old had been between Norway and Denmark' ; and it was now, in the ensuing time of rest, 1 Chs. xxxvi. xlv. of Harald Har- I 3 Otherwise Margad. Chs. lvi., lvii. drada's Saga, of same. 2 See chs. 1., li., liii.-lv. of same. 4 1047-1064 A.D. II.] HARDRADAS LATER ENTERPRISES 111 that Harald seems to have projected those Greenland, Vin- land, and Polar journeys which made his name famous in the North as that of no other kin" had been.1 But all these schemes were cut short by the fatal English venture of 1066. Here after several triumphs Harald failed and perished ; but in falling he brought down his foe with him. The two chief Norsemen of the world threw themselves on England in the same year and season ; to crush the Northern invader the South had been left bare ; and William of Normandy landed in the same days of early autumn which ended the struggle in Yorkshire. 1 See Adam of Bremen, GestaPonti- ficum Hammaburgensis ecclesiae, iv. 38(247,Lappenberg). As to the North- men's more distant wanderings, we may notice : — (1) About a.d. 1000, Gris Saeniingson is recorded as the first Scandinavian merchant in Constanti- nople ; cf. Antiquites russes, ii. 113; Heyd, Covimcrce du Levant, i. 74. (2) Before the conversion of the North- men, Visby in Gothland was a great centre of commerce ; and hoards of Anglo-Saxon and Arab coins, anterior to a.d. 1000, bear witness to this ; cf. Bonnel, Russisch-Livlandisehe Chron- ologic, Commentar, p. 24 ; Heyd, Commerce, i. 63, 64. (3) Scandi- navian, and especially Swedish, inter- course with Russia, particularly with Novgorod and its fairs, 860-1060, is shown by many details in Kunik, Bervfung der Schwedischcn Rodsen, ii. 131, etc.; Rafn, Antiquites russes, i. 295, 359, 432 ; ii. 119. (4) Accord- ing to one tradition, the Goths of the Crimea originated in a ninth-century migration from Gothland, passing through 'Gardariki'; cf. hiiant, Ex- peditions des Scandinaves en Terrc Sainte, 64-5. (5) On the 'Majuj,' or Vikings, in Spain, their invasions of 844, 858-61, 966-71, and 1014, and embassy from Abderrahman II. to distant isle (Orkneys ?) inhabited by these ' Magogs,' cf. Dozy, Jtecherches, ii. 252-340 ; Sebastian of Salamanca, ch. 26 ; Dudo of St. Quentin, in Duchesne, Hist. Norm. Script. 144 c- 152 a. In 844, besides attacking Brigantia Pharos (near Corunna), threatening Lisbon, and raiding Seville, the Northmen made descents on Africa, where a harbour near Arzilla was long known as 'the Majuj port.' Abderrahman II. 's envoy, Al Ghazal of Jaen, went from Silves by sea to Pirates' Court and returned via Compostella. In 858-61 the Vikings passed Straits of Gibraltar and went as far as 'Greece' ; even before Charle- magne's death (814) they had ap- peared oft' the Narbonnese. In 1014, they apparently sacked Tuy, which some identify with St. Olaf's ' Gunn- valdsborg'; Olaf's 'Seliupool' has likewise been conjecturally fixed at estuary of Sil or Minho. (6) On early Norse descents in Erin, especi- ally" in a.d. 851, 852, S54, S59, 866, 869, 870, cf. Annals of Ireland, Dublin, 1860, pp. 159-163, 169. 175, 185. 189, 193. ( 112 ; CHAPTER III PILGRIM TRAVEL In the first part of this survey of Mediaeval Geography we brought the record of pilgrim-travel to the close of the ninth century. The present chapter endeavours to supply an account of this religious exploration during the next 350 years, reaching to the end of the Crusading era, the fall of the Bagdad Caliphate, and the establishment of the empire of the Mongol Tartars as the dominant power in Asia and Eastern Europe. This long period may be sub- divided into three ; the pre-Crusading time, closing with the election of Gregory VII. to the Eoman See ; the time of the first three Crusades, closing with the Saracen re- capture of Jerusalem in 1187 ; and the time of the later Crusading struggles, closing with the middle years of the thirteenth century, when the hopes of the Latin Kingdoms in the East were finally overthrown, and when new forces had worked a revolution in the relations of Europe with the Levant, Central Asia, and the Further East. The first of these three epochs is naturally the least interesting. Beginning with the era of the collapse of the Frankish Monarchy of Charles the Great, it ends with the accession of that great Pontiff, under whose inspiration the Crusading movement finds its true commencement. With Ch. III.] CHRISTIAN PILGRIMAGE C.A.D. 880-1070 113 this movement opens a new era for Western pilgrims. Masters at length of the land so dear and so coveted, lords of the house where they had so long been servants, the Christians of the Latin world flocked in crowds to the re- covered capital of the Holy Fields. On the other hand, in the two centuries before this revolution we have but a few records of Syrian pilgrimage, showing little activity in comparison of some earlier times, the age of Constantine, the age of Justinian, or the age of Charlemagne. And it would be unreasonable to expect otherwise. There is no darker century of Christian History than the tenth — at least in the lands west of the Adriatic ; practical enterprise and scientific interest were never more nearly extinct in the races whose only bond of union was the Homan Christianity, now becoming so sharply antagonistic to the Churches of the East. Where men should have looked for a leader and a gospel, there was now but a very sorry ghost of the ancient Empire, sitting with crown and sceptre among the ruins of pagan power. For this was the age of the Pornocracy at Rome, and the Imperial Church was dis- credited and incapacitated for leadership by a succession of ' human monsters ' (in the words of Baronius),1 who neither took thought for decent morals nor good government, but only for the favour of Theodora, Marozia, and other ' patronesses,' for the enjoyment of such poor luxury as the age afforded, and for a complete immunity from the cares of administration. The Imperial Frankish State was a victim to the same effeminacy, and the same lack of govern- ance ; and the result to the Temporal power was a complete suspension for nearly a century of the Imperial name and fact in the West, the collapse of the first Komano-German 1 ' Homines monstruosi, vita turpissimi, moribus perditissimi, usfpie- quarpie f'oedissinri.' II 114 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Oh. kingdom of Charles the Great, Charles the Bald, and Charles the Fat. From 888 to 962 this interregnum lasted, and when at last the vitality of the German people once more made head against internal discord and external in- vasion, the Empire which Otto I. restored was even in theory a narrower and less powerful body than the great State which, to all seeming, Charlemagne had so firmly welded together. The West Frank region, the France of the later Middle Age, was now for ever detached from the Eastern and more purely Germanic lands ; but this detach- ment gave at first little promise of a strong and well-ordered state on the west of the Rhone, Saone, and Meuse. Nowhere in Christendom was the paralysis of the central power and the victory of political feudalism more complete. In Spain, at the close of the first millennium, the ruin of the Christian kingdoms seemed almost as absolute as in the eighth century. Barcelona and Compostella were both captured by the ' Hagib Almanzor,' the great Moslem general of the Caliph Hisham of Cordova (976-1002); Leon was overrun; the Christian ad- vance in the central plateau was beaten back ; and the Western Caliphate once more reached to the Pyrenees and the Asturias. In England, the development of Wessex, under King iElfred and his first successors, gave better hopes of a united realm covering the main part of Britain, absorbing the settled Danes and Northmen, and bidding defiance to fresh Scandinavian attacks ; but the last quarter of the tenth century blighted all this prospect. The new English King- dom fell into hopeless decrepitude under iEthelred II. ; and a similar decrepitude under Otto II. also threatened the revived German Empire at this very time. On every side the history of Latin Christendom in the tenth century is a sombre record. The weakness, the comparative anarchy, and the III.] OUTLOOK AT CLOSE OF FIRST MILLENNIUM 115 ignoranee of one civilisation is often in strong contrast with the firm rule and developed culture of others ; and at this time Irish, Norse, Byzantine, and Moslem politics and society appear to absorb all the light that has passed away from the Latin world. The people, church, and schools of Ireland close the most brilliant period of their history just as the rest of the mediaeval Christian states are entering upon the Renaissance of the Crusading age. In the terrible pressure of Viking attacks a higher political life was de- veloped, and while England was falling under Dane and Norseman, Ireland seemed to be reaching its unity as a great kingdom in the victory of Clontarf (1014). All through the dark age of the Imperial interregnum and the Saxon Dynasty the Irish school of art and literature, even of geography, was probably superior to any other in Western Europe ; and here we may remember that no map of the earlier Middle Age has the accuracy of one attributed to an Irish scholar-monk.1 Still more remarkable is the position of the Byzantine Empire at this time (880-1025). In an age of general Catholic and Latin weakness and barbarism the Orthodox, Greek, or Eastern realm shows itself a better inheritor of the name and glory of Old Koine : its Church pre- serves a greater decency and displays a far larger measure of activity ; its culture and literature suffer even less in the comparison. While Islam is crushing for the second time the Nazavenes of Spain, the Nazarenes of Nikephoros Phokas, John Tzimiskes and Basil II. are win- ning victories in the Levant, and lightening the hostile pressure upon Christendom at large. While the missions of the Latin Church are neglecting to carry forward the work of St. Ansgar in the North, or of Cyril and Methodius 1 The ' Cottoniana. ' 116 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Oh. in the East, the Eussian lands are won to the Orthodox Faith by the more persuasive influence and more gorgeous ceremonial of the New Eome. In contrast to the atrophy of all higher literature among the Franks of the tenth century, the writings of Constantine VII., Born in the Purple? are worthy of more notice than they might claim at another time ; for his works are typical of a school of culture which could hardly be found in Italy, France, Germany, or England ill this age. They are typical also of a national and ad- ministrative activity which soon after recovered Crete and Cyprus, Antioch and Edessa, the suzerainty of Armenia and the Crimea, and the ancient Imperial paramountcy in all those Thracian lands which had been overrun- by the migration of the Turkish Bulgarians from the Volga. Once more the misery and poverty, the inaction and barbarism of Latin countries in the later ninth century, and the whole of the tenth, contrasts with an extraordinary activity of Northern and heathen peoples. The Scandinavian Vikings are not only the ravagers of Frankland and England ; they are the superiors of Franks and English in the arts of life and in literary instinct, as much as in military skill ; above all, their spirit of enterprise and movement marks them out as the leaders, if they were not to be the supplanters, of European civilisation. Outside the limits of the Christian world, Islam claims in this period as much glory for its science and letters, as much praise for its brilliant and tolerant culture, though hardly as much attention for its universal ambitions, as in the first centuries of the Caliphate. But in spite of all appearances, the evidence of political, if not of social, decay is now becoming too strong to be ignored, and when the strength of Islam is regenerated for a time by Moors 1 Porphyrogennetos. HI.] OUTLOOK AT CLOSE OF FIRST MILLENNIUM 117 and Berbers in the West, and by Turks in the East, it is a regeneration of arms and manhood, but not of science or of culture. Neither Seljuks nor Ottomans could found a second Bagdad ; neither Almoravides nor Almohades could permanently restore the prosperity of Cordova and Kair- wan. Yet, until its political ruin in the thirteenth century, the capital of Moslem Spain retained much of its intellectual glory ; the name of Averroes was linked with the closing years of Mohammedan rule in the valley of the Guadal- quivir ; and even in its last and weakest time the Abbasside Caliphate maintained a centre of Moslem learning at the Home of Peace upon the Tigris. Prom this survey we may gather that the Latin Geo- graphy of the later ninth, the tenth, and the early eleventh centuries, will prove to be a chronicle of little interest; on the other hand, this chronicle, the record of Western pilgrim-travel, is the necessary introduction to a decisive period ; and however meagre in its interest or debased in its form, yet it is saved from oblivion by a certain rough abundance of material. We must begin by briefly reviewing the somewhat arid though lengthy catalogue of journeys, religious, diplomatic and other, which alone furnish us with a sketch, one cannot say a picture, of the relations between the Holy Places of Syria and the nations of Western Europe, in the troublous times we have now reached. The Pontificate of John VIII. opens a new stage in these relations, about the year 880. For now we have, for the first time, a definite pronouncement from the Apostolic See on a point of high practical import- ance to the would-be Crusaders of that time which prepared men for the Crusades. All warriors killed in fighting against Pagans and Unbelievers — were they, whatever their sins, certain of Eternal Salvation ? This question had been some- 118 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. what disputed, and the affirmative answer of John VIII. was a victory for the spirit of Islam within the bosom of Christendom. Before the rise of the Moslem danger, the balance of opinion in the Church would probably have been against such an unconditional absolution ; but the seventh century had worked a change in the most peaceful of Catholics ; and a repetition of seventh-century woes seemed again to threaten Christendom, as men saw the Karling empire dissolve. The papal pronouncement on this matter (c. 876-882) may be specially connected with the embassies of Theodosius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and of Elias III., his successor, to the Church of Rome, the ' kings of the race of Charles, and the Clergy of the West' (a.d. 878, 881).1 Of these missions the former made a long stay in Italy ; as late as the 2nd of May, 879, the envoys are still with Pope John, who writes to Jerusalem excusing the delay, and promising JOn these, (1) 'John VIII. to the Bishops of Louis ["le Begue " or "the Stammerer," King of France],' of. Mansi, Concilia, xvii. 104 ; on (2) the 881 embassy of Elks III. to ' Charles the younger, Emperor, and to all bishops, princes, and nobles of the Kingdom of Gaul, ' (April- October), cf. AA. SS., i.e. Acta Sanctorum (May iii. , xlii.) ; Spicile- gium Acherianum, ii. 370 ; on (3) that of Theodosius, cf. Jaffe, Regesta Ponti- ficum Romanorum, 2462 (= Jafle- Wattenbach, 3242 ; ' Theodosius, David, and Sabas, sent to John VIII. by Theo losius, Patriarch of Jerusa'em, 878'); for John VIIL'sex- cuses on account of delay, cf. AA. SS. May vii. 699 ; Jaffe, 2462 {Archives de V Orient Latin, i. '22-31.). Count Riant well contrasts the. declaration of Johu VIII. with the letter of Adrian I. to Charles the Great (778) when the Frank King was starting on a Spanish campaign. In this no allusion whatever is made to this as a Holy War, though waged against Moslems. Leo IV., in 848, is the only Pontiff who in any measure anticipates John VIII. Calling the Franks to the help of Rome against the Saracens, he speaks of the certainty of Celestial Reward for any one killed in defending the capital of Christendom. But (1) the defence of Rome was a special matter and quite different from a general state of war against Saracens ; (2) Leo's language ii vague ; (3) John VIII. 's pronounce- ment includes aggressive as well as defensive war. In 963, at the in- stigation of St. Polyeuctes, Nike- pforos Phokas issued a similar edict, declaring that the soldiers killed in his Syrian wars were martyrs of the Church. (Cedrenus II., 368 (Bonn ed.); Zonaras, bk. xvi. ). III. I PALESTINE AND THE LATIN WORLD 119 in explanation a consignment of money and necessaries for the faithful of the Holy City. The Eastern Brethren must remain to take back these gifts , they only awaited the complete collection of the same. As to the second mission of Elias III. in 881 (entrusted to a pair of monks, named Gisbert and Reinard, who from their names must be Western and not Syrian ecclesiastics), this was avowedly for the collection of subsidies to free the Church of Jerusalem from various building debts. The credentials of this' embassy, a letter from the Patriarch to Charles the Fat, last of the immediate successors of Charlemagne, gained sume notoriety in the West ; a century later it was known in England, and it is noticed of Asser the historian that he had read the document in question. About the same time as this appeal to the generosity of the Franks, and probably in the year 883, occurs the famous journey of the West Saxons Sighelm and JEthelstan. These ' gift-bearers,' probably priests, ' carried to Rome the alms which King iElfred had vowed to send thither, and also to India, to St. Thomas and St. Bartholemew.' Between Rome and Malabar the mission probably visited Jerusalem, and the English king, in return for his offerings to these distant churches, received presents of silks, spices, gums, and Eastern shawls.1 All these journeys to and from the Levant have a certain similarity ; they are all connected with the poverty, and so with the relief, of the subject Christians of the East; and they may all be paralleled by earlier missions. Pope John VIII. received the envoys of Theodosius and Elias III., and helped them to collect money in the West, just as earlier popes had done in past time : Martin I. in 649 and 1 Of. William of Malmesbury, Gesta Begum Anglorum, bk. ii. § 122 ; Florence of Worcester, Chron., a.d. SS3 : Roger of Wendover, Flores i Hist. , ed. Coxe, i. 154 ; Sighelm returned, and afterwards became Bishop of Sherborne. 120 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. 652-3 ; Gregory the Great in 596, 600, and 603 ; Leo the Great in 453; Leo III. in 799, 800, 803, 807, and 809; Gregory IV. in 834 and 840. On all these occasions ( servants of God ' from the Holy Land brought the letters, the appeals for money, and the requests for military or diplomatic aid, which the Eastern Christian poured out with ever increasing frequency after the Moslem conquest of Syria and Egypt. This was one side of the correspon- dence. The other was shown in the Papal embassies to Jerusalem, such as these of Julius I. in 342 ; of Anastasius I. in 400 ; of Innocent L in 417 ; of Coelestine I. in 430 ; of Leo the Great in 453, 454, and 457; of Gregory the Great in 591, 597, 601, and 603; it is also manifested in the Frankish missions, of 765 from King Pepin, and of 797, 799, and 803 from Charles the Emperor. Of these last, the greater number (if not all) probably visited Jerusalem, but as a rule they seem to have been in the first place addressed to the Caliph at Bagdad. Thus they called out the return of courtesies from the Mussulman side, in the missions of 800, 802, and 807, from Harun-al-Eashid,1 just as the embassy of 825 from Lewis the Pious2 had its response in that of 831 from Al-Mamun. In the period we have now reached, this diplomatic intercourse is almost the only evidence of travel from 1 The last of which is especially i to Rome from Syria, cf. Acta famous. 2 Entrusted to the monk Ragana- rius. On the papal embassies to Syria (Jerusalem) above noticed, cf. Jaffe, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, 81, 120, 156, 277-8, 291, 302, 728, 1127, 1396, 1515, 2462 '( = Jaffe- Watten- bach, 282, 325, 373, etc.) ; for similar Roman letters and missions to Antioch, ibid. 102-7, 156, 169, 171, 993; 994, 1105, 1112, 1209, 2029, 2493, 3287, etc., extending from a n. 415 to 1054. On the appeals Sanctorum., May iii., i.-lxxii., Trac- tatus praelhninaris ale episcopis et patriarchis Sa* Hierosae EcclM ; as well as the Appendix in the vol. May vii., 696-706, of the Acta (pro- perly an addition to the vol. May iii.), on the Bishops and Patriarchs of Jerusalem ; Archives de V Orient Latin, i. 26-38, and especially 27-28 ; and Jaff6, Reg. Pont. Rom., 291, 1110, 1396, 1515, 2462, etc. ; Jaffe, Monu- mental Carolina, 382, 383, 3S6. III.] PALESTINE AND THE LATIN WORLD 121 Western Europe to Western Asia, and we are obliged there- fore to notice in some details these meagre traces, which alone survive, of geographical movement in the tenth century. About the year 900, the Patriarch Elias III. makes another appeal to the Christian West — and in this appeal he is joined by Pope Benedict IV. Their Holinesses address two encyclicals to the faithful ; and both these letters introduce to the charity of good Christians a certain Malacena, Bishop of Amasia, and his mission of ransom. Some of his monks had been taken captive by the Turks of the Caspian, and he had started for Europe to collect the means for regaining their freedom. The rich and powerful Christendom of the West is again called to aid the elder sister of the East — on evil times now fallen, and evil tongues. And yet one thinks of Western Christendom, at this time, as in the darkest of its dark ages. In 932 a letter from the ' Bishop of the Holy City ' was read at a council in Erfurt ; but this is the last trace for a time of the Franco-Syrian connection and of the quasi- protectorate of the Western Emperors over Christian interests in Palestine which had been marked by so many incidents : — by Charlemagne's buildings in Jerusalem, for the comfort of Latin pilgrims ; by his acquisition of the Keys of the Holy Sepulchre as a friendly gift from the ' Just ' Harun ; by the landed possession of the Syrian Church in France and Italy;1 by the frequent embassies from Syria 1 Thus the Church of Jerusalem had lands of its own at Neuvy and Manriac, and apparently other real property held in common with the Abbey of Conques, cf. Archives de V Orient Latin, i. 28 ; the Church of Sinai also had property in Normandy, cf. AA. SS., June i. 87-104, especially 89; Pertz, M.G. SS. ( = Monumenta Germaniac, Scriptores), viii. 209, 210, 211, cf. AA. SS., June i. 87-104, on the life and travels of St. Symeon, the ' recluse of the Gate of Trier.' He is sent (c. a.d. 1034-35) from the Monastery of Mount Sinai into the West to collect moneys pro- 122 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. to Frankland aud from Frankland to Syria ; as well as by the alms sent yearly from the Karling Court to Jerusalem during a great part of the reigns of Pepin, of Charles, and of Louis the Pious. Before the end of the ninth century this quasi- protectorate had passed from the Franks to the Byzantines ; and during the next hundred years successive emperors of Constantinople asserted more and more closely their position as guardians of the subject Christians of the Levant. Thus Constantine VII.1 in 947 sends gifts to the Patriarch of Jerusalem ; and in April of the same year the clerk Niketas, in a letter to the Divine Emperor, inheritor of the name and virtues of Constantine the Great, describes the Easter Eve miracle of the Holy Fire, and the recent attempt of a ' cursed Emir' to abrogate this festival. Several matters of later date show the continuance of this Byzantine influence ; the re-conquest of a great part of Syria by John Tzimiskes, a strik- ing though temporary proof of the revived power of the Old Empire (968-975) ; the introductions which Fulk the Black of Anjou carried from Pope Sergius IV. to Basil II. (1011); and the treaty of 1021 with the Fatimite Caliph of Cairo, whereby the position of Constantinople as spokesman and champion of Eastern Christianity was fully recognised. Another proof of the same fact may be drawn from an interesting letter of Pope Victor II. to the Empress-Begent Theodora, in which mised by Richard, Duke of the Nor- mans. One Eberwin, returning from Palestine with a certain Richard, Abbot of Verdun, meets him at Antioch. Symeon tries to go with Eberwin and Richard overland, but is stopped at Belgrade ; he returns to the sea, and so goes by Rome to ' Francia,' comes to Rouen, finds Duke Richard just dead, and stays with Abbot Richard and Eberwin. Poppo, Archbishop of Trier, soon after goes to Palestine and takes Symeon with him and back. Finally Symeon makes himself a cell at the Porta Negra of Trier, and dies in great sanctity. 1 Porphyrogennetos or ' Porphyro- genitus.' For the interesting letter of Niketas, 'least among clerics,' cf. Archives cle VOrient Latin, i. 375-382. IH. I PALESTINE AND THE LATIN WORLD 123 the Pontiff complains of the exactions which the Greek guardians of the Holy Places levied upon Western pilgrims (1054-1057). A recent journey of Bishop Helinand of Laon was probably the immediate reason of this appeal ; the story of his troubles in Jerusalem had turned back Lietbert of Cambrai after a toilsome pilgrimage as far as Laodicea ; and loud and bitter were the complaints of Greek ' in- tolerance ' now heard at Eome. Once more, the well-known tract, On the Situation of Jerusalem,1 which by some critics has been assigned to the epoch of the First Crusade, more probably belongs to the period of Byzantine dominion in Syria during the middle of the tenth century, and this period is also marked by various imperial letters to distant rulers,2 expressive of the revived power of the Greek rulers in Western Asia. Towards the close of the tenth century we have rather more frequent notices of Palestine pilgrimages from Western and Northern Europe. One St. John of Parma visits the Holy Sites six times, especially in 982. In 985, 986, and 988, the same journey is made by various monks from Monte Cassino, John of Beneventum,. Leo, brother of Abbot Aligernus, and others, together with a certain Count Malefrid and his son. In 987 two Icelanders, Thorvald Kodranson and Stefnir Thorgilson, make their appearance at the Sepulchre of Christ — early results of that conversion of the Northmen whose consequences for Europe, for civilisation, and for Christendom were so deep and so far-reaching. Not without dramatic interest is the scene called up by this brief notice ; the picturesque historian 1 Quallter seta est civitas Hieru- i King of Armenia, probably spurious. salem. For Victor II. 's complaint, cf. Aligne, 2 Kg. from John Tzimiskes to Patrologia Latina, cxlix. 961-962 ; Leon, governor of Daron, probabiy Jane, Reg. Pout. Rum., no. 4015. genuine; and from the same to Aschod, 124 PILGRIM TRAVEL [On. might well enlarge upon the meeting of the huge-limbed, fair-haired, blue-eyed sea-rovers from the North with those Christians, knights and merchants, priests and monks, whose most terrible enemies they had been, whose best allies they were yet to be. About 990 Poppo, Abbot of Stavelot, and in 997 Frederic, Count of Verdun, each with a party of attendants, follow in the same 'holy road.' In 993 1 another noble, Hugh, Marquis of Tuscany, and his wife, Juliette, send2 gifts of value to the Tomb of the Lord and to the Monastery of Sta. Maria Latina in Jerusalem ; while about the same time (995) Orestes the Patriarch despatches an embassy to Pope John XV. (after the fashion of an earlier period), asking questions about various matters of ritual and discipline. A more doubtful record assigns to this epoch an urgent appeal from the ' immaculate Spouse of God ' to the sympathy and succour of the West. This outcry against an even more unbearable Saracen oppression pro- fessed to come through the famous Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester IL ; but it is probably one of those rhetorical exercises to which the Crusading movement gave rise, and it may be referred to an epoch sixty or seventy years later than the great Pope who has so long stood sponsor for its eloquence. The story of Gerbert's pilgrimage need not perhaps be altogether discredited (c. a.d. 986) ; but his famous letter is surrounded by too many difficulties for modern enquiry to accept it, like Michaud,3 as a ' precious monument' of the first pope who expressed the Crusading sentiment.4 1 Charta of St. Victor of Marseilles, in Martene, Amplissima Collcctio, i., 347-348. 2 29th October 993. 3 Michaud, Bibliotheque des Croisa- des, ii., 491, ed. of 1829. 4 Cf. Archives dc F Orient Latin, i., pp. 31-38, especially 34, note; 35, note. III.] JOURNEYS OF X™ AND XI'H CENTURIES 125 With the eleventh century, as we have already noticed, a new age begins : old things are passing away ; all things are becoming new. It is the same in travel as in every- thing else. Pilgrims are multiplied tenfold; and in the words of Ralph Glaber, ' first went the meaner folk, then men of middle rank, then many kings and counts, marquises and bishops; yea, and even women also, a thing unknown before.' Emmerad, a monk of Anzy ;x Makko of Constance, about the year 1000, passing from West to East, cross the path, but without meeting the person, of Simeon the Armenian, who in the same year goes from East to West with the commendatory letters of the Patriarch Arsenius. We do not know if, at the Holy Sepulchre, they met with some of the many pilgrims from Georgia, who also entered ' Sacred Hierosolyma ' this year. But this is only one occasion out of many when such a meeting between the furthest East and the furthest West of the Christian world may have taken place, or did actually happen by the side of the tomb of Christ. In 1002-3 an unnamed monk of Tours, a hermit from Bamberg, and the terrible Black Count of Anjou, Fulk Nerra, are the chief figures of our Travellers' Register. Fulk made in all three journeys to Syria ; his death in 1040, at Metz, was the closing incident of the third and last of these expeditions. On his second visit (it is said) he had to buy admission to the Holy City for himself and his comrades. He was only allowed to approach the 'all holy grave of the Lord' on promising to insult the Cross ; evading this ordeal, he contrived to bite off a piece of the rock with his ' teeth of iron,' and returned with this relic to his own country, where he 1 Emmirad, Erairard or Emmerad, passes nearly seven years at Jerusalem according to AA. SS. April ii., 770. The Acta for Jul. vi., 327, say of Simeon the Armenian that he also made the pilgrimage to Rome. 126 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. presented it in triumph to his Abbey of Beaulieu. Pilgrim- age, like adversity, sometimes made strange companions ; in 1003 we have the legend of one Guy, a hermit from Brabant, appearing at Jerusalem at the same time as Olaf Tryggveson, the first Christian King of Norway.1 A whole flock of Scandinavian devotees were said to have followed soon after ; and two French abbots, Gauzlin of Fleury in 1004, and Eoger of Figeac in 1005, probably met some of these Northmen at the Holy Sepulchre. Many travellers perished on the way ; Leger the deacon of Auxerre, who was ' given the sea for his grave ' ; Andrew the knight, buried at Jerusalem itself; Hictarius 'the blessed, taken from earth by the mercy of God,' before he had reached the tomb of Christ.2 A terrible event startled the pilgrim world in the first years of the eleventh century (1010). Hakim Biamrillah,3 Fatimite Caliph, and temporal sovereign of Palestine, in that madness which the Druses recognise as a Divine 1 This story is quite legendary. Olaf Tryggveson died in 1000 at the battle of Svold ; but his people clung to a belief in his escape and continued life in exile, and the tale of his pilgrimage to Jerusalem formed a part of this patriotic myth. 2 Cf. Migne, P.L., cxxxviii. 1229, 1232, 1252. On the other journeys of St. John of Parma, etc., etc., here referred to, cf. Archives de I'Orient Latin, i. 34, note ; and AA. SS. Roll. May v. 179-180; [July iv. 281]; April ii. 770 ; July vi. 327 ; Sept. vi. 722 ; Sept. iv. 43 ; also Pertz, M.G. SS., vii. 63, 636-642 ; xi. 295; iv. 49 ; xx. 635 ; ix. 59 ; Thorvald's Saga, ch. x., ed. Arne Magnaeus, pp. 334-7 ; Constantine Porph., De ochninistrando imperio, Bonn edition, p. 199 ; Fornmanna Sogur, iii. 32- 34; x. 370; N. Arch. f. a. d. G., iii. 353 ; Mabillon, Ann. O.S.B., iv. 170 ; Riant, Expeditions . . . des Scandinaves en terre sainte, 102-5, 117, 118 ; Bin. Lat. Hicros., II. series chronolog. peregrin, a.d. 1064 ; JRccueil des historiens de la France, x. 282; x. 15 (= Ralph Glaber, ii. 4, on Fulk). See also page 217 note. 3 On Hakim, cf. what Nasir i- Khusrau says at the end of his account of Syria. On the destruc- tion and reconstruction of the Holy Sepulchre, cf. Ralph Glaber, Chron., iii. ch i. ; Will. Tyre, i. ch. iv. ; Cedrenus, ed. Bonn, pp. 515, 521 : Zonaras, xvii. : Makrizi, in De Sacy, Chrcstomathie arabe, i. 98, Ill] DESTRUCTION OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE 127 Emanation,1 destroyed the Christian buildings at the Holy Sepulchre ; a few years later they were reconstructed (a.d. 1021 ) ; but a wild cry of vengeance was raised by many Catholics, and the Vandalism of Hakim unques- tionably hastened the movement which, slowly gathering strength during the next eighty years (1020-1096), burst upon the Levant with the armed strength of the Crusaders. The treaty of 1020-1, which put the Syrian Christians under the special protection of the Byzantine Emperors, has been already noticed, and is significant of the increased prestige and power of Constantinople ; but it is perhaps even more noteworthy, in view of future events, that so many Western and Latin sovereigns now began to take up again the part of Charlemagne in Palestine. Thus the newly-converted Kings of Hungary, and especially the great St. Stephen, came forward as founders and benefactors, and more than one hospice for Roman pilgrims was due to their liberality.2 Their example was followed in 1063-70, by the Republic of Amain', which shared so prominently with Pisa and Venice in maintaining the naval department of the Crusading, armaments a genera- tion later. The Norman Dukes also showed a keen interest in the Christian East ; and Richard I., William Longsword, and Richard II. all sent messengers with alms and presents to 1 The letters from the Jews of Western Europe inciting him to this action, which have passed into documentary history, were probably forgeries of a later date, invented to justify the anti-Semitism of the Cru- sading Era itself ; cf. Adhemar of Chabanais, in Pertz, M.G. S.S., iv., 137 ; viii. 210, 399 ; Ralph Glaber, iii. ch. vii. route from Western Europe to Syria. ' Nearly all those who wished to go from Italy and Gaul to Jerusalem began to forsake the accustomed way by sea, and to make their passage through this king's country (Stephen's). He made the way very safe for all, and thus allured by his benevolence a countless multitude, both of noble and common people, 2 For Hungary, on joining the , to start for Jerusalem.' R. Glaber, Latin communion, became a main I Chron., iii. c. 1 (M.G., SS., vii. 62). 128 PILGRIM TRAVEL [On. the Grave of Jesus. An embassy of Richard II. 's in 1026 is specially recorded: on this occasion a namesake, the Abbot of Grace Dieu, made the pilgrimage on the Duke's behalf. Like Pope Gregory I., Richard II. also exchanged gifts and greetings with the monks of Mount Sinai. His successor, Robert the Magnificent, father of William the Conqueror, did even more. In 1035 he left his Duchy and went in person to Jerusalem ; on his return he died at Nicaea, and was laid in the Church of the Panagia in that city. Once more, the Lords of Aquitaine, perhaps the greatest Christian sovereigns in South-West Europe at this time, joined in the prevailing fashion. Duke William III., l father of monks, founder of churches, friend of the Roman See,' made several pilgrimages both to Rome and to Compostella, where the Shrine of St. James was rising into fame. Unable himself to go as far as Syria, he sent there his trusty minister, William of Angouleme, with a great company of lords and prelates. This little army journeyed by the land route through Hungary, received the hospitality of St. Stephen, and enjoyed a prosperous and speedy ' accom- plishment of vows.' Setting out in October, they were in Jerusalem by March, and home again at Angouleme in June. Yet again, not a few eminent pilgrims came from England about this time, and especially during the reign of Edward the Confessor. Thus Svein or Swegen, the eldest son of Earl Godwine, and the scandal of his house, made his way to Jerusalem from Bruges at the time of the first Norman ascendency in England and consequent exile of the Godwine clan (1051-1052). His evil life had a good ending. He died upon the Sacred Road, at the city of Constantine, ' on Michael's Mass ' (1053). Some years later, in 1058, Ealdred, Bishop of Worcester, more famous as Archbishop of HI.] JOURNEYS OF ELEVENTH CENTURY 129 York l in the era of the Norman Conquest, went to Jerusalem ' with such splendour as none other had displayed before him ; there he devoted himself to God ; and a worthy gift he offered at the Lord's tomb, even a golden chalice of wondrous work.' Lastly, among many instances of German pilgrimage at this time, let us take three famous journeys from the middle of the eleventh century. In 1038 Poppo, Arch- bishop of Trier, makes his way to Palestine along with the hermit Symeon, afterwards canonised by Pope Benedict IX. Again, in 1054, Pulcher, Arch-Chaplain of the Empire and Vidame of Arras, takes leave of his master, the Emperor Henry III., as he is on the point of setting out for the Holy Land with Lietbert, Bishop of Cambrai and Arras. This voyage was a sad failure ; the pilgrims fell among thieves, were ransomed by the Catapan of Cyprus, and at Laodicea abandoned their further journey. For here they met with Helinand, Bishop of Laon, returning from Jerusalem, and he drew such a picture of the troubles that awaited them in the Holy City, that they decided to tempt God no further.2 Once more, in 1064, Siegfried, Archbishop of Mainz, and Giinther, Bishop of Bamberg, with two other prelates, the Bishops of Utrecht and Eatisbon, conduct an army of 7000 1 He acted at the Coronation of William the Norman as chief Pre- late (1066), Stigand of Canterbury not being recognised by the Con- queror. 2 Riant suggests that Victor's appeal to the Empress Theodora (see pp. 122-3) was the result of a meeting at Cologne between the Pope and the Bishop of Cambrai. Lietbert had just returned from Laodicea with the account of Helinand's miserable ex- perience in Palestine ; Victor had gone to Germany to gather aid against the Saracens of the Mediterranean ; we may notice that his complaint to the Byzantine Government is written from Cologne (at the beginning of December 1056). With this we may connect and contrast the alleged Firman of the Caliph Mozaffer in favour of the Christian Holy Places (1023). The last, however, was re- jected as spurious by Heyd, in the original (German) edition of the Com- merce du Levant, i., 116 ; cf. Archives de r Orient Latin, i. 52 ; Bore, Lieux Saints, p. 5. I 130 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. pilgrims to Syria. Their numbers and their adventures have led many chroniclers to call their journey a Crusade. From their losses it might well have been an armed attack on Islam, for of the seven thousand only two l returned. Attacked by Saracen robbers near Jaffa, and 'hunted for their rich apparel,' the party fled to a fortress, where they held out three days,2 and then yielded, more from panic than real necessity. Offering their money for their life, they admitted the Moslem leaders within the wall. Seventeen Saracens entered, and one who ' took the head- ship of them ' singled out the Bishop of Bamberg as his special victim. Unrolling his turban, he flung it round the Prelate's neck with a joyful cry — ' Thou and all thou hast are mine.' But the fighting bishops of the West were different from the broken-spirited Christians of Syria. The Prankish Churchman felled his captor with a blow of his fist ; the rest of the company, regaining courage, seized and bound all the other brigands who had come into their power, then, closing the gates against the hordes outside, they held the fort till the Lord of Eamleh came to their relief.3 One other thing may be recorded of this journey. From letters of the Provost of Passau we see how Bishop Giinther, of Bamberg, had arranged for his journey through the neighbour- 57 ; Archives de I'Orient Latin, i. 53-56. On Fulcher or Foucher of Arras, cf. Su<iendorf, Eegistrum, iii. No. 6, pp. 12-13. 3 The Latin accounts do not dis- tinguish enough between the Saracen brigands (Bedouins, etc.) and the settled inhabitants and garrisons, who generally treated visitors well, for the sake of commerce; e.g. in this case, where the Egyptian garrison at Jerusalem rescues the prisoners at Ramleh. 1 Tbousand. 2 Cf. Marianus Scottus, Chronicle, a.d. 1064 : the pilgrims when attacked by the Arabs, fled to a 'castellum vacuum Cavar Salini nomine' (i.e. probably Kafar Sallam, abandoned in the eleventh century by its inhabitants ; cf. Schefer's Nasir - i - Khusrau, p. 63). On Siegfried's journey, cf. Eccard, Corp. hist. meal. aev. ii. 122-3 ; Sudendorf, Regisirum, ii., No. 12, pp. 14-15 ; Ibid. iii. No. 16, p. 28; Jaffe, Mon. Bamb. No. 28, p. 54, No. 29, pp. 56, III.] NEW ERA WITH HILDEBRAND 131 ing districts, and how elaborate such arrangements could be, even in 1064. In the spring of 1065 Giinther writes to his Diocesans, describing to them the course of his journey down to his arrival at Laodicea, on the homeward way ; but soon after this he died without reaching Germany. With the accession of Hildebrand to the "Roman Pon- tificate as Gregor}7 VII., we enter upon a new phase of development. For this daring statesman first definitely raised the question of a Crusade or armed expedition, under the sanction of the Christian Church, to recover the Holy Places of Palestine from the Saracens. The Byzantine re- conquest had been only temporary, and the advance of the Seljuk Turks had driven back Eastern Christendom into narrower limits than ever before. Nothing but internal trouble, and particularly the quarrel with the Empire, seems to have taken from Gregory VII., and given to Urban II., the actual preaching and direction of the expedition which was planned for 1075 or 1076, but did not start till 1097, and was indefinitely postponed, in the opinion of most men, by the outbreak of the struggle with Henry IV. and the incident of Canossa. In the letters and appeals of Hilde- brand we may see, moreover, the natural development of the policy of a Holy War, entailing salvation on all who took part therein. The close of the eleventh century realises the aspirations of Leo IV. and John VIII.1 Now, also, we may see a natural result of the conversion of the Hungarians and the Northmen ; events which reopened to Western Europe the long-interrupted land routes along the Danube Valley, which furnished more direct means of access to the Levant, and which supplied a new energy to Christendom. Once more, the end of the First Millennium and the excite- 1 John VIII. to the Bishops of Louis [the Stammerer], cf. p. 118. 132 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. ment it had caused may not have been wholly without its influence on the Crusading movement. Many had expected the end of the world with the year 1000 ; the fatal era had come and gone without result ; but the excitement thus aroused found a sedative in the passionate devotion of pilgrimage and an outlet in the fiercer delights of a Crusade. It is therefore in the general awakening and expansive vigour 1 of the Christendom of Hildebrand's time that we must look for the primary cause of the Crusades. The outrages of Hakim, and the tyranny of the new Seljuk rule at the Holy Places, were but secondary causes ; the victories of the Spanish Christians, and their renewed peril from the Almoravide invasion, only contributed what we may call details of encouragement or stimulus; the root of the whole movement lay in that new life stirring within the Christian people, even before the Council of Clermont, and finding more and more active expression in pilgrim travel, in merchant enterprise, in revived scientific enquiry, in an unappeasable and unmistakable determination to burst the bonds which Islam and heathendom had wound so tightly around Latin civilisation. But, granting this, the secondary causes are none the less essential. Because history lias been often too much occupied with the more obvious and more personal springs of action, yet in this, as in other epochs, it remains true in the nature of things, that historical wilting must always deal more fully with the clear-cut incidents of secondary importance than with the vaguer and more general, even if more vital, conditions of national or racial fitness. We must recognise that the imminent danger of the Byzantine 1 In 10S7 Bari Mariners are si id to have stolen the body of St. Nicolas from Myra or Myrrha, in Lyoia ; cf. the story of the Venetians in the ninth century carrying off St. Mark's body from Alexandria, HI.] NEW ERA WITH HILDEBRAND 133 Empire from the Seljuk Turks, the cruel treatment of pilgrims at the Holy Places, the preaching of Peter the Hermit, the critical events in Spain, the writings and personal leadership of Hildebrand and Urban II., would have been useless without the revived strength and ambition of the Christian peoples ; we may admit that this revived strength and ambition would perhaps have found their outlet in a similar movement without any of these particular incite- ments ; but, after all, as events shaped themselves, it was the sting of these incitements which immediately set in motion the hitherto sluggish mass of Western Christendom and united its long-scattered forces. We must therefore look one moment at those events, or groups of incidents, which had so profound an effect on the Christian world of the eleventh century. First, in the Levant itself, the rise of the Turks had certainly produced before a.d. 1080 a deep, dangerous, and irritating change in the position and prospects of Oriental Christendom, and so, in a measure, of all Christians. As early as the time of Justinian the formidable power of those Tartar tribes had caused Byzantine statesmen to look beyond the Oxus for a counterpoise to their Persian enemies. But it was in the tenth century that the Turks first began to play a leading part in the politics of the nearer East. As the Caliphate of Bagdad decayed, Turkish soldiers were more and more enlisted in its armies, and Turkish com- manders put in charge of the palace and the capital, until the Pontiff of Islam became a tool in their hands. The action of Al Eadi (a.d. 940), in creating the office of Emir al Omra, or Military Vizier, for the chiefs of these Turkish bands, was a practical abdication of the remnants of Temporal Power on the part of the Bagdad Caliphate, and the state of things thus produced was in many ways similar to 134 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. that of the old Prankish monarchy in the time of the later Merwings and Charles Martel. Finally, a new immigration from Central Asia completed the change. In 1055, the Seljuk Turks, after cutting short the dominions of the Ghaznevides and humbling the successor of Mahmud, pressed into the valley of the Tigris, and formally received from the reigning Abbasside all the secular power of the Commander of the Faithful. The new champions of Islam soon cut short that Byzantine revival which in the tenth and early eleventh centuries had restored so much of the monarchy of Justinian.1 In 1065-1068 Armenia and Georgia fell away to the Seljuk Empire; in 1071 a decisive struggle between Turks and Romans took place at Manzikert. Here were lost, at one blow, all the acquisitions of the last century beyond Mount Taurus ; and this disaster was followed by the inroads of the Turkish cavalry to the shores of the Archipelago, the Hellespont, and the Bosphorus. Nor were these inroads transitory. It was now that the upland of Asia Minor permanently became a Turkish possession and a new home of the Turkish race. This was a heavier loss than Eastern Christendom had suffered since the first conquests of the Saracens ; and the Byzantine Empire was now reduced in Asia to a narrow strip of coast, and was forced to recognise by treaty the permanent cession of Galatia, Phrygia, and the other provinces of the interior. The Turkish outposts established at Nicaea made the Greeks tremble for the safety of Constantinople itself ; any year might see a further Turkish advance into Europe ; and what the Ottomans achieved in the fourteenth and 1 E.g. Crete, Cyprus, most of Northern Syria, including Antioch, and reaching as far South as Tripoli, Northern Mesopotamia, and a suzerainty over Armenia. Georgia, Albania, the other regions of what is now the Trans-Caucasus Province of Russia and the South of the Crimea. HI.] NEW ERA WITH HILDEBRAND 135 fifteenth centuries was threatened as no vague contingency at the close of the eleventh. Such was the political problem facing Gregory VII. when he looked eastwards ; and the most sluggish of the states- men in Western Europe might well think it time to stir very actively against the impending approach of Islam to the Adriatic and the Valley of the Danube. Secondly, the Seljuk Turks, in becoming masters of the Abbasside dominions, acquired the control of Palestine. The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was now guarded by a band of Turcomans ; and their treatment of all Christians, both residents and visitors, was harsh and oppressive. Pilgrims returned to the West with terrible stories of insult and cruelty ; and the nations which had tamely suffered the sacrilege of Hakim, rose as one man to avenge the wrongs proclaimed by Peter of Amiens. Thirdly, the political dangers and popular resentments of the East were reflected in the furthest West. After many changes, it became clear, as the eleventh century drew on, that Spanish Islam was declining. Before his death in 1002, the Vizier Almanzor had restored the Mohammedan sway from Catalonia to Galicia ; but in the next generation the Christian Kingdoms of Northern Spain had already recovered, and more than recovered, their position as it had stood before the accession of Abderrahman III. Meanwhile in 1031, the Western Emirate, or Caliphate,1 came with startling suddenness to an end, after a few years of violent anarchy, and its dominions fell apart into various princi- palities. The result of this was soon apparent. More and more of the Central Highland was won back by the kings of Leon and Castile ; the Valley of the Douro and the western coast down to Coimbra, fell again into Christian ' 'Caliphate' in name, only from Abderrahman III. 136 PILGKIM TRAVEL [Ch. hands; and in 1084 Alfonso VI. recaptured the old capital of Toledo, and became master of the Upper Tagus, the natural heart of the peninsula. He was checked by a new and unexpected foe. In their despair the Spanish Moslems called in the aid of that religious and political movement in North Africa, which is generally known from its ' Marabut,' or Prophet, as the ' Almoravide ' Revival. The Moorish enthusiasts responded to the appeal, and in 1086 their leader Yusuf Ibn Tashfin crossed over into Andalusia and defeated Alfonso in the battle of Zalacca. Succeeding waves of Berber invasion held Spanish Christendom at bay during most of the twelfth century ; and after the disaster of 1086 a certain alarm was even felt lest Islam should again advance to the Bay of Biscay and the Narbonnese ; but with the aid of volunteers from the other kingdoms of the West the new African peril was stubbornly faced and finally repelled. As originally conceived by Gregory VII. and his successors, it is probable that the Crusading impulse was directed, in part at least, to the more complete overthrow of Mohammedan power in the peninsula ; but the em- bittered character of the eastern pilgrim-grievances, and the extreme danger of the Byzantine world, finally directed the entire stress of the new Christian armaments upon the Levant. It is clear, however, that Leon and Castile, Aragon and Portugal, shared at any rate in the benefits of the diversion created by the Syrian wars, and in the support thus incidentally afforded to Christian politics everywhere ; while several incidents of the second and third Crusades showed very effectively the strength and closeness of the military alliance of the Catholic nations. Lisbon and the Algarve were both reconquered with the aid of men from Germany, France, England, and the Netherlands on their way to Palestine ; and the close of the Crusading age saw Ill-] CAUSES AND RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES 137 the Latin warriors triumphant in Spain, however unsuccess- ful in the East. Lastly, without attaching too much weight to the Voltairean innuendo that the Popes and the Clerical Order conceived and pressed on the religious wars with the object of killing off the dangerous manhood of the Western kingdoms, it is undeniable that we must give to the Clerical Order the credit of organising and directing the great Christian Jihad. The Church supplied the controll- ing intelligence ; its exchequer supplied the funds for much that was undertaken ; and, without the ecclesiastical inspiration, the Crusades, though perhaps in some form inevitable, would have had a very different character. At the same time, it must be recognised that this clerical inspiration gave the European nations of the Middle Age their first glimpses of essential unity ; and that, along with some political reverses, the new federation of the Western- World under papal leadership won successes of the first- order in commercial and social progress, and certain negative advantages of no small moment in the military struggle. For even if the Holy Land was not finally recovered, nor the union of Eastern and Western Churches accomplished, yet Islam was checked for a time in the Levant, and permanently thrown back in Spain ; the incursions of the Turco-Tartar hordes into Europe by way of Constantinople were postponed ; and the land-travels of men who started from the Latin Kingdoms of the East led to a decisive and abiding extension of knowledge and civilisation. Thus the indirect, unexpected, and sometimes unwelcome results of the mediaeval duel of Cross and Crescent proved a rich compensation for the barren and abortive character of the central struggle in Palestine : European life was not im- poverished but enriched by the religious wars ; and the only 138 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ce. doubt must be whether it was necessary through such tribulation to enter into the brighter age of the great discoveries. Among the pilgrim travellers who may be traced between the accession of Gregory VII. and the first Crusade, perhaps the most important is the Anonymous devotee x who has left us a brief note-book made up partly of his own observa- tions, partly of extracts from much older records. The earlier sections of this tract bear a close resemblance to passages of the fourth-century Bordeaux Pilgrim, but otherwise these jottings are almost without interest. The ' chamber covered with a single stone,' where Solomon wrote the Book of Wisdom, is a repetition from the most ancient surviving type of pilgrim-itinerary ; 2 the water-pot of Mount Sinai, which incessantly ran with oil, may be compared with a similar story in Thietmar ; 3 and in the confusion of ' Abraham's Castle ' at Hebron with a similar fortress at Tekoa, there is only the repetition of what is often met with elsewhere. It is, perhaps, more curious that this work places Isaac's Mount of Sacrifice in the neighbour- hood of the Patriarch's Castle, a more southerly location than is given by any other pilgrim. With this little tract we leave the earlier Middle Ages and come to the transition period of the Holy Wars. One of the last aggressions of the New Turkish Islam was the reconquest of Antioch in 1084, after 116 years of Byzantine rule; but in November, 1095, the Council of Clermont decided that the Will of God4 was the re- covery of Jerusalem and all Syria: in the summer of i Usually known a9 ' Innominatus I 2 E.g. the Bordeaux Pilgrim I.,' the first of a long series of un- of 333. named pilgrim travellers of this i 3 a.d. 1217. period, see pp. 203-7. 4 Dcus vult. III.] THE 'FIRST ANONYMOUS*: SAEWULP 139 1096 the main host of the Crusaders set out in five divisions ; Antioch was won in the beginning of June 1098; and on the 14th of July, 1099, the great object of the enterprise was achieved, and the Cross was planted on the walls of Sion. The victory was followed by its natural results, and prominent among these was the arrival of pilgrims who possessed the leisure and the ability to do what had not been attempted since Bernard the Wise gave men a full description in the Latin tongue of all the Holy Places. The earliest of this new group of writers came from a remote country of the West, the most recent conquest of the Norman Dukes of Eouen. This was the Englishman Saewulf or Saewlf, a native of Worcester, certainly not the first pilgrim traveller who followed in the wake of the first Crusade, but the first who has left us the narrative of his journey. He was evidently an ' Anglo-Saxon,' not a Norman or French follower of the invaders of 1066 ; and he pursued the despised calling of a trader. At least so we may fairly gather from William of Malmesbury's account. The latter tells us of one Saewulf, a merchant, who was in the habit of confessing to Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester (1062-1096), the last survivor of the Old English Episcopate. Wulfstan, himself a man of saintly life, so much respected that the Norman policy of ' No more Saxon Bishops ' made an ex- ception of his case, often urged the monastic vows upon Saewulf, whose morals, he thought, needed stricter discipline But his penitent clung to the freedom of his lay estate, and the Bishop fell back on a prophecy, that the sinner would in the future eagerly seek for and embrace that calling which he now refused when offered. William the chronicler lived to see the fulfilment of this prediction, 140 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. when in his old age Saewulf became a monk in the Abbey of Malmesbury.1 It was probably in a fit of penitence that our merchant undertook his pilgrimage, sometime before his profession as a monk, in the years 1102 and 1103. We can only date the journey from the internal evidence of the narrative, but this is circumstantial enough for our purpose, and we may con- clude with tolerable certainty that Saewulf's outward journey was in the summer of 1102, and his return in the summer of 1103. We may even go further, with the help of a fresh study of the text, and say that he started east- wards from Monopoli in Apulia on Sunday, the 13th of July, 1102, and that he began his return journey from Jaffa on the 17th of May, 1103. The following details support this conclusion. Saewulf tells us that Baldwin, ' the Flower of Kings,' possessed Jaffa, Haifa, and other places on the Syrian Coast at the time of his visit; now Baldwin was elected in succession to Godfrey of Bouillon on Christmas Day, 1100. Again Tortosa was then in the possession of 'Duke' Raymond; from other sources we know that the Count of Toulouse took this city on the 12th of March, 1102, almost three years before his death, which occurred on the 28th of February, 1105. Once more, our pilgrim implies, though in a rather vague and negative manner, that Acre was still in the hands of the Saracens; and this state of things lasted till the 15th of May, 1104. Fourthly, Saewulf left Monopoli on the 'third day before the Ides of July,' the Feast of St, Mildred, an 'Egyptian' or unlucky day for sailors, and a Sunday; 1 Cf. Will. Malm., Gest. Pontif., p. j with seven other fragments of an- 282; T. Wright, Biog. Brit. Lit., Anglo - Norman period, p. 38. In the one existing MS. of Saewulf, this narrative is bound up cient works. Avezac suggests that 'Saewulf is only a nickname from frequent journeys, like 'Sea-dog,' but this is rather improbable. in.] saewulf's outward journey 141 even without the definite statement first quoted, we could fix the date here to the 13th of July 1102, which answers all the other requirements, and which, with the 22nd of July,1 was notoriously ill-omened, according to the mediaeval calendars. Lastly, the traveller's embarkation at Jaffa, ' on the Day of Pentecost,' after the completion of his journey in the Holy Land, points to the Whitsunday of 1103 (17th May), as in 1104 the festival occurred on the 5th of June, three weeks after the fall of Acre, an event which he would scarcely have omitted. Besides these allusions, hasty and slight enough, though not without their importance, there is little reference in Saewulf to the events of his time or to the facts of general in- terest in geography. He stops at Cephalonia to tell us that there Robert Guiscard died ; 2 the great Norman conqueror was too recent and too mighty a figure in Mediterranean history for even a pilgrim to leave unnoticed ; and it is possible that Saewulf's account of Constantinople contained more notices of contemporary men and matters. But both the openiug and the close of the narrative appear to have been lost. As to Saewulf's outward journey, we may notice that he does not go by way of Egypt, for the most obvious reasons. Egypt was a Moslem country, whose people, except for special circumstances, would naturally make common cause with their brethren of Syria against the invading Christians. In earlier times the route through Alexandiia had been common enough, but now Christian pilgrims followed in the wake of their victorious armies and Meets along the northern shores, or through the northern waters, of the Mediterranean. Our present narrative shows us the traveller following the most adven- 1 When Saewulf left 'Biandia' or Brmdisi. 2 July, 1085. 142 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. turous route, not troubling to take the safer and longer way by Constantinople, but trusting to the new-grown Christian power and trade at sea, and pressing directly forward from Italy to the Ionian islands, from Negropont to Ehodes, and from Rhodes to Palestine. Greece, on the other hand, he crosses by land, probably in preference to the troublesome circuit of the Morea ; but the rest of his journey is on shipboard. His whole record demonstrates how great was the recent increase of European influence in the Levant, alike in war, in commerce, and in pilgrimage. Nowhere is this more clearly marked than in his picture of the great fleet at Jaffa, laden with palmers and merchan- dise, which was destroyed by a tempest in that perilous and unsheltered roadstead before his eyes. Even the small amount of land travel performed by Saewulf was against his inclination; 'conscious of his unworthiness,' he is uncertain whether it was his sins, or the badness of his ship, that hindered him from taking without intermission, the ' direct course of the open sea.' Of the first part of his journey — presumably from England to South Italy — he says nothing, and professes only to begin with a mention of the different islands at which he touched. But his narrative really commences with a list of the chief pilgrim ports — Bari, Barletta,1 Siponte or Manfredonia, Trani, and Otranto, the 'entrance- harbour' of Apulia, then and later the favoured rival of Brindisi for the narrow passage from Italy to Albania. Saewulf himself did not make use of any of these ; he took ship at the little harbour of Monopoli, about twenty miles from Bari, on Sunday, the Feast of St. Mildred (13th July, 1102). 'But,' he laments, 'as we set out at an unlucky hour, we had not proceeded more than three 1 Saewulf s 'Barlo' or 'Barium,' ni.] saewulf's outward journey 143 miles, when the violence of the waves wrecked our vessel.' Refitting at Brindisi, and once more putting to sea with strange persistence on an ill-omened day, the pilgrim had a stormy passage to the isthmus of Corinth, by way of Corfu (24th July), Cephalonia (1st August), and Patras, famous for the martyrdom of St. Andrew. In this ' island ' the relics of the apostle had long been kept before their translation to Constantinople ; here Saewulf probably refers to the coast town near the entrance of the Corinthian Gulf ; but, like other mediaeval writers, he employs the term of ' isle ' in a generous sense for any seaboard place, without much attention to the precisions of geographical terminology. In Corinth, where he ' suffered many hardships,' the traveller begins to notice St. Paul's journeys and their coincidences with his own wanderings, illustrating these by occasional explanations of singular perversity. In the Gulf of Corinth the sea route ended for a time, — after Saewulf had crossed to ' Hosta ' or Livadostro, whence the party made their way, ' some on foot, some on asses.' over the Boeotian neck of land to the Strait of Euboea and the port of Negropont (23rd August). On this march they passed by the city of Thebes, or ' Stivas,' then celebrated as the seat of the largest Jewish colony in the Byzantine Empire. The voyage from Negropont brought Saewulf into the iEgaean, and he touched at a number of islands and harbours in his very devious course upon these waters — Petali or Spili, near Marathon ; Andros, noted for its silk, samit, and ' sindals ' (thin shavings of gold and silver, from which the precious tissues were made) ; Ancho, or Cos, where Hippocrates was born (for so we may correct the pilgrim's 'Galen'); Naxos, Patmos, and Ehodes. He does not appear to have visited Athens, 'where Paul preached/ and 144 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. where a miraculous lamp still attested the sanctity of the. place, nor the ' notable island ' of Crete, nor Ephesus, ' where St. John entered the sepulchre living ' ; but he certainly spent some time at various points on the eastern side of the Archipelago, including Cnidus,1 Syra, Samos, Scio, and Mitylene. At Rhodes he stays a little to tell us of its vanished marvel, the ' idol called Colossus,' one of the seven wonders of the world. This was 125 feet high ; but in spite of its bulk ' the Persians destroyed it, with nearly all the land of Romania, when on their way to Spain. These were the Colossians to whom St. Paul wrote.' This ingenious confusion occurs in several of the later pilgrims, who, like Saewulf, mix up Colossae and Phrygia with the ' idol of Ehodes,' and name the people of the country after their great monument. But here the Persians are also confounded with the early Arabic Saracens, and the Levant conquests of the latter appear as part of the Moslem advance through North Africa into the West of Europe. Saewulf's Romania is, of course, the Roman Empire 2 of the East, and nothing else ; it is an official and perfectly correct designation; but a very slight knowledge of Mohammedan history would have reminded the traveller that, when the Arabs conquered Rhodes, their capitals were at Mecca and Damascus, that Persia was then in no way the central country of Islam, and that a century was yet to elapse before the foundation of Bagdad.3 Once more, the effects of the great earthquake in the third century B.C., and the damage wrought by 1 Lido. 2 From his later use of the term Romania, it may he that here also only the Asiatic Provinces are in- tended. 3 A.D. 651, Conquest of Rhodes ; a.d. 762, Foundation of Bagdad. However, the Persians of Chosroes II. captured Rhodes for a moment in 616. This may partly account for Saewulf's language here. III-l SAEWULFS OUTWARD JOURNEY 145 subsequent calamities, are, of course, forgotten ; and the ruin of the Colossus is imputed wholly to the infidels who carted away for building purposes the remains of the fallen statue in the seventh century after Christ, under the first Ommeyad Caliph Moawiyah. From Rhodes Saewulf made his way to Patara in Lycia, the home of St. Nicolas, and one of the resting- places of the English pilgrim Willibald 'during the rigour of the winter' of 722. Not far off was the town of Myra, where the Wonder-worker had his bishopric and became famous throughout the Orient of the fourth century. Here the saint died and was buried in the year 342 ; but his relics had been translated to Bari shortly before the time of Saewulf (a.d. 1087), perhaps to escape desecration at the hands of the advancing Turks. Now, at the opening of the twelfth century, Myra was an important harbour, the anchorage-in-chief for the shipping of the ' Adriatic ' or Eastern Mediterranean, just as Constantinople was for the marine of the /Egaean Sea. Here, again, the English traveller reproduces a common usage of his time ; exactly the same meaning is attached to the 'Adriatic' Sea by Matthew Paris and many other writers of the central mediaeval period. Near Patara Saewulf describes an entirely desolate town » called ' Mogronissi,1 or the Long Island of St. Mary,' which, from its churches and other buildings, appeared to have been inhabited by the Christians after they had been driven by the Turks from ' Alexandria,' or Alexandretta, at the head of the Gulf of Scanderoon. This Long Island was perhaps the modern Kakava, on the west side of which Avezac has pointed out the ruins of a church and town ; Saewulf's remark is one more evidence of the changes wrought by the recent advance of Islam 1 Makro-nesos. K 146 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Oh. under the devastating leadership of the Seljuk Turks. After worshipping at the Sepulchre of St, Nicolas, the pilgrim sailed to the ' Island called Xindacopo,1 or Sixty Oars, on account of the force of the sea ' ; this is apparently the ancient Chelidonia at the south end of Finica Bay, and from this point Saewulf took to the open sea, and crossed the broad part of the 'Adriatic' to Paffus, Paphos or Paffo,2 in the island of Cyprus. Another long voyage out of sight of land brought the wanderer, after seven days, to the coast of Palestine ; one night the stormy weather forced his ship almost back to Cyprus ; but at last the sunrise of the eighth day displayed the shore of the port of Jaffa, and with extraordinary and unexpected joy he landed in Syria on Sunday, the 12th of October, 1102. His journey from Monopoli had consumed no less than thirteen weeks, and all the time he had ' dwelt on the waves of the sea, or in islands or deserted cots and sheds,' hoping in vain for the hospitality of the suspicious and unfriendly Greeks. On the advice of one who spoke, as Saewulf afterwards believed, by divine inspiration, the pilgrim went on shore at once, and thus escaped a terrible visitation. Next morn- ing, as he returned from church, he heard the roaring of the sea and the shouts of the people. Dragged along with the crowd to the shore, he saw waves swelling higher than mountains, and countless bodies of the drowned scattered over the beach, while fragments of ships were floating on every side. The rage of the sea and the crashing of the vessels drowned the clamour of the spectators. ' Our own ship, being very large and strong, and others laden with 1 Apparently a corruption of e^-q- Kovra KcoTrai shortened to '£ojt<x Kwiral. 2 Here Saewulf makes a short ex- cursion into the History of the Early Church, the Mission of Barnabas, and the life of St. Peter, confusing Acts xiii. 2-4 with Acts xv. 22. IH.] SAEWULF AT JAFFA: THE STORM 147 corn and merchandise, or with pilgrims going and returning, still held by their anchors ; but how they were tossed by the waves, how the crews were filled with terror, how they cast overboard their merchandise. What eye could refrain from tears ? ' Before long the ships were driven from their anchors by the violence of the waves, which threw them, now up aloft, now down below, until they were hurled upon the rocks, and there beaten to and fro till they were dashed all to pieces. ' For the violence of the wind would not allow them to put out to sea, and the nature of the coast did not permit them to put in to shore. Among the sailors and pilgrims who had lost all hope of safety some remained on the ships; others laid hold of the masts or beams of wood; many, in a state of stupor, were drowned without any attempt to save themselves. Some (incredible as this may seem), before my very eyes, had their heads knocked off by the rafters to which they clung for safety; while others were swept out to sea on the beams which they hoped would wash them to land. Even those who could swim had not strength to battle with the waves, and very few who thus trusted their own power reached the shore alive. Thus, out of thirty very large ships, of which some were (as they call them) Dromunds, some GuWfres, and some Cats, scarce seven were saved. Of men and women there perished more than a thousand.' All the chief kinds of twelfth-century vessel were here represented, and all alike suffered severely, an incidental penalty of the new spirit of naval enterprise which was drawing the marine of the Italian and Provencal cities, with such force and suddenness, to the new homes of Chris: ian power in the Levant. The Byzantine Emperor,1 at this very time was famous for his navy of Dromunds or light 1 Alexius Comnenus. 148 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. galleys ; these ships appear to have been biremes, each tier of oars having twenty-five benches, and each bench two rowers ; while the Cats of the narrative have been conjectured to resemble a modern Norwegian collier with a narrow stern, projecting quarters, and deep waist. With the mis- fortunes and terrors of Saewulfs companions we may contrast the good luck and daring valour of Godric the Pirate, a native of the same distant land as the Worcester pilgrim, who, a few years later, fought his way through the Saracen fleet, outside the same perilous roadstead, with a spear-shaft for his banner. From Jaffa Saewulf went up to Jerusalem by a road which he, like Daniel of Kiev, found ' mountainous, rough, and dangerous on account of the Saracens, who lay in wait in the caves of the hills to surprise the Christians.' These brigands were swift and subtle in their movements : at one moment you saw them on every side ; at another they were nowhere to be seen. On this road many travellers perished, poor and weak, rich and strong alike ; many cut off by the Saracens, more by heat and thirst ; many from want of drink, more from too much drinking. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was now only in its third, year, and Acre and Ascalon (or Askelon) were still Moslem citadels. It was little wonder, then, that roads were still unsafe. Entering the Holy City from the west, under the citadel of King David, by the Gate of David (or of Jaffa)> Saewulf first visited the Holy Sepulchre ' built by the Archbishop Maximus, with the patronage of the Emperor Constantine, after the discovery of the Lord's Cross.' Like the Eussian Daniel, he notices that the church was open to the sky ; it was situated, he avers, on the slope of Mount Sion. This was the third Christian building which had marked the great scenes of the Crucifixion and Eesurrection ; the III.] SAEWULF IN JERUSALEM 149 first, that of Helena or of Constantine, had been destroyed by Chosroes and his Persians, the ' Pagans ' of Saewulf, in 614; the second had been demolished by Hakim Biamrillah in 1010; the third, standing in the traveller's day, was an erection of the years 1020-1026. Saewulf makes no clear distinction between these, and seems to think that what he visited was the original foundation of the fourth century ; both here and elsewhere he was apparently at the mercy of the Syrian or ' Assyrian ' Christians who undertook the duty or the pleasure of guiding or misguiding the ignorant but eager and credulous pilgrims from the West. In Jerusalem Saewulf displays a good deal of learning, often without any close relation to fact. Titus and Vespasian destroyed Jerusalem to revenge Christ. Hadrian first extended the city westwards to the Tower of David. Justinian was said by some to have rebuilt the town and the Temple of the Lord, but this was not true, according to the witness of the Assyrians. The ordinary relics and holy sites are elaborately described by our pilgrim. He quotes the sentences x of Augustine on the question of Adam's burial, not at Golgotha, but at Hebron ; and he locates Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, not on Moriah, but on Calvary. One geographical monument is especially noticed. At the ' head ' of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the outside wall, and not far from the place of Calvary, was the spot called Compas, which our Lord Himself signified and measured with His own hands as the middle of the world, according to the Psalmist's words : For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth? 1 Not in the standard collection of distributed among the sons of Noah, these sentences by Prosper of Aqui- I and of Sheni burying the head in taine. This story of Saewulf's is per- Judaea, haps derived from James of Edessa, 2 Ps. lxxiii. 12. who talks about Adan.'s bones being 150 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Oh. Thus we find the same legends supported by the same texts in the sixth, the seventh, and the twelfth centuries ; and, from Saewulfs time, the centre of the world at Jerusalem, as a definite object which could be seen and touched, became more and more a fixed article of common belief ; most of the anonymous pilgrims of the next centuries reproduce the story in exact verbal agreement ; and with the Byzantine- Latin sketch of 1110 the same feature begins to appear in mediaeval maps. Reverence for tradition allied itself with convenience ; and thus Com/pas, late into the fifteenth century, was retained as the favourite umbilical spot. In the Temple area Saewulf professes to recognise the Beautiful Gate and the site of Bethel.1 The Holy of Holies, he learnt, was in the hollow underneath the Bock of Sacrifice ; there, too, the Lord, wearied with the insolence of the Jews, was accustomed to hide and to repose Himself ; and there were to be seen the footsteps of the Son of God. As to the Golden Gate on the east side of the temple area, Saewulf relates the story of Heraclius' entering here, with the Lord's Cross, on his victorious return from Persia, when 'the stones fell down and closed the passage, until, humbling himself at the admonition of an angel, he de- scended from his horse, and so the entrance was opened unto him.' Near the Holy Sepulchre was the famous monastery of St. John the Baptist, the centre and home of the Order of the Hospital which drew its first origin from a small founda- tion of some pious merchants of Amalfi in the middle of the eleventh century (a.d. 1048), and assumed its military character (in 1118) shortly after the visit of Saewulf. In this memorable year the Order of the Temple also took 1 We may contrast Saewulfs uncritical talk about Bethel with the accurate remarks of John of Wiirzburg. III.] SAEWULF IN JERUSALEM 151 definite shape ; but the name of the greater society does not occur in our present narrative ; and this omission, coupled with the reference to the earlier and less celebrated Hospital, in its primitive formr is another confirmation of our traveller's date, at the very commencement of the twelfth century. The name of JElm (or ' Helias ') for Jerusalem, we are told, was interpreted by some as meaning ' House of God ' ; this Hebrew fable is accompanied by some Christian legends hardly less wild, such as that of St. John as the first holder of the 'Pontificate' of Jerusalem, or of St. Saba1 as one of the ' Seventy-two disciples of the Lord.' The ' Chapel of Galilee ' on the summit of Mount Olivet, the ' place of Galilee ' on Mount Sion, the ' great city 2 of Galilee ' by Mount Tabor, Nazareth on the Lake of Tiberias, the Garden of Abraham in Jericho, the Bethlehem cistern wherein the star3 of the Magi fell (according to the report of some), are balanced, as instances of pious fable, by Saewulf's matter-of-fact relations about the tombs of Jerome, Paula and Eustochium, and the St. Saba monastery with its 300 inmates. Most of these religious men had been slain by the Saracens a short time before Saewulf's visit, and the survivors had fled to a convent of the same name (also noticed by Daniel of Kiev) within the walls of Jerusalem, near the Tower of David and the Jaffa Gate. Saewulf's description of the sites of Hebron is especially detailed and interesting; he enlarges on the ancient work- manship of the patriarchal tombs and the smell of the precious aromatics in the same, the strong castle that 1 St. Saba died 5th December, 532, aged 94. 2 Cana (?) 3 In Willibald the figure of the star is reflected in a well, c. 12. The Saewulfian form of the story occurs also in Mandeville. 152 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. surrounded the sacred monuments, and the humbler burial- place of Joseph at the extremity of the fortress. In a digression upon the Jordan the pilgrim gives us a characteristic piece of his geographical phraseology : ' On this side of the river Judaea extends to the Adriatic Sea, to the port of Joppa ; on the other side is Arabia, hostile to Christians and hateful to all who worship God, but possessing the mount whence Elijah was carried into Heaven in a fiery chariot.' Our pilgrim seems to have visited the Ghor in the Jericho region, after which he went North to Sichem, Haifa, Nazareth, and Cana of Galilee, where nothing was left standing except the ' Monastery called after Architriclinius.' Here again Saewulf preserves a characteristic mediaeval corruption, which, copied by hosts of later writers, appears (among others) in several of the Anonymous pilgrims and in John of Wiirzburg ; and thus the ' Euler of the Feast,' named after his title x becomes the patron saint of a celebrated con- vent and an important figure in the literature of mediaeval Christian devotion. Mount Tabor, ' covered in a marvellous manner with grass and flowers,' rose in the middle of the green plain of Galilee, overtopping all the mountains which surrounded it. On the summit Saewulf notices the three tabernacles or monasteries described by earlier visitors ; and from this point the narrative now takes us six miles to the Sea of Galilee, and so, after some wanderings, to Mount Libanus. At the foot of this the Jordan boiled out in a very rapid stream from the two fountains of Jor and Dan, and far into its last home in the Dead Sea the milky waters of the river, whiter than any other, could be distinguished by their colour. And so we come to the return journey. ' Having worshipped to the best of our power,' concludes Saewulf, ' at 1 As given in the Gospel of St. John iii. 8, 9. HI] SAKWDLF IN PALESTINE: RETURN JOURNEY 153 all the holy places in Jerusalem and round about, we took ship at Joppa, on the day of Pentecost' (1103); but fearing to meet with Saracen rovers in the open sea, the ship's captain sailed close along the shore, past various port-towns, some yet unconquered, some newly fallen into the hands of the Franks. Among the latter were Azotum l or Arsuf, Caesarea, Cayphas or Haifa, and Tortosa ; among the former Tyre, Sidon, Acre, Byblus or Jebeil, Beyrout, Antaradus, Tripolis, Laodicea or Latakiyeh, and Gabala or Gibel, ' where are the mountains of Gilboa.' But in spite of their caution the travellers did not quite escape. Between Acre and Haifa, under the lee of Mount Carmel, they sighted a large Saracen fleet, led by the Admiral of Tyre and Sidon, who was ' carrying an army to Babylonia to assist the Chaldaeans in making war on Jerusalem.' For the Fatimites of Cairo were now sending relief to their brethren in Ascalon, hard pressed by King Baldwin ; just as on the Northern frontier the Moslems were recovering from their defeats, attacking Edessa, and besieging the Norman Bohemond in his own conquest of Antioch. With his usual recklessness Saewulf confuses the mediaeval Babylon of Egypt with the Scriptural Babylon of the Chaldees, and the enterprises of Moslems in the twelfth century with the expeditions of various heathen enemies of the Chosen People before the Christian Era. All was one to him. But in the present crisis matters at first were threaten- ing ; the Christians could only muster three vessels ; and two of these, full of unwarlike and timid palmers, incon- tinently made off to Caesarea, disappearing with unpleasant speed round the great headland of Carmel ; but their flight did not dismay the men of the Dromund, in which Saewulf 1 The ancient Apollonia, north I Azotus or Ashdod to the south of of Jaffa, not to he confnsed with | Jaffa, 154 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Oh. had trusted himself. In all they numbered two hundred warriors, and they were determined not to yield without a struggle. The ship's stern-castle was garrisoned and every- thing made ready for so stout a defence, that the infidels went on their way. It was not the first or the last time that a brave countenance proved the remedy in a desperate case. This was on the Wednesday after Pentecost ; and eight days later, striking across the open sea to Cyprus, the wanderers arrived at St. Andrew's Haven, near the north- east extremity of the island. Thence they reached the mainland of Asia Minor, and coasted along to Ehodes, passing Antiochetta, Myra,1 Satalia, and many other ports, and narrowly escaping capture by pirates and shipwreck by sudden tempests. Hiring a smaller vessel at Rhodes, on the 23rd of June, that they might proceed more rapidly, they hastened on to Constantinople, touching at Stromlo, the ancient Astypalaea, ' a fair city entirely wasted by the Turks,' Scio, where they changed their bark again, and Tenit or Tenedos, near which, on the coast of 'Romania,' was the ancient and renowned city of Troy. Saewulf learnt from his Greek informants that the ruins of this place were still visible over a space of many miles ; but he did not land here, any more than at the 'great town of Smyrna,' which he also passed at a distance, and briefly noticed in his narrative, now shrunken to a series of very meagre jot- tings. Coasting along the Troad, Saewulf entered the narrow sea which the Ancient World knew as the Hellespont, and the Middle Ages as the Strait of St. George. In the pilgrim's language, it divided the two lands of Romania and Macedonia, and through the narrow passage he sailed towards Byzan- tium, ' having Greece on the right and Macedonia on the 1 Stamirra here. This, like I corruption of Myra or Myrrha in Astamirle, was a regular mediaeval | Lycia. II'.] SAEWULF'S RETURN: DANIEL OF KIEV 155 left.' The new meaning here given to ' Greece,' as if synonymous with Mysia, is even more strange than the arbitrary limitation of the terms Romania and Macedonia, the one to Asiatic, the other to the European, provinces of the Byzantine Empire. In the Dardanelles the traveller notices the 'keys' of Constantinople, St. Phemius1 and Samthe, perhaps the ancient Eleonta and Xanthos, so close together, though on opposite sides of the Strait, that two or three bow shots would reach across. Here, then, the capital was almost impregnable from the sea. Saewulf passed the 'Arm of St. George' about Michaelmas time in 1103, and soon after this festival he arrived at Rodosto 2 with the weari- some experience of some four months' voyage from Jaffa. Our pilgrim was now close to Constantinople, and before returning to his home he wished to perform his devotions in the capital of Eastern Christendom ; but his narrative breaks off abruptly at the ' noble' place of Eaclea or Heraclea, the modern Eregli, on the north shore of the sea of Marmora, ' whence, as the Greeks say, Helen was carried off by Paris Alexander.' With Abbot Daniel of Kiev we come upon a new line of pilgrim travel. He is not the earliest Russian devotee whose journey to the Holy Land has been recorded. For among instances of this tendency we have some unnamed examples of 1022,3 and the mention of St. Varlaam, Abbot4 of the Lavra of Kiev, under the year 1062. But no record, journal, or note-book, kept by a Russian traveller of this age has yet been found.5 Daniel, at the opening of the 1 'St. Phemius the bishop.' Ap- ^'YlyovfjAvos — Abbot or Prior, which parently a mistake for the Virgin is a! so Daniel's title. and Martyr Euphemia. 5 Cf. H. M. Hagenmayer, Ekke- 2 'Rothostoca' in Saewulf. hardi uraugunsis abbatis ' Hicrosoly- 3 Mentioned in the life of Theo- mite'— Tubingen, 1877, pp. .360-362. dosius of Kiev. I 156 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. twelfth century, is the oldest Eussian author, sacred or secular, who has described a journey from his country to any part of the outer world. More than that, he is among the very earliest names in Eussian literature of any sort. Part of 'Nestor's' chronicle (a.d. 1066-1115) maybe some ten or fifteen years older, or even more ; but the father of Russian history is Daniel's only important predecessor. The present narrative was evidently much valued by our pilgrim's countrymen, for seventy-five manuscripts of it exist, the oldest being of a.d. 1-475. Daniel's pilgrim record may be fixed to the years 1106-7, with fair probability, from internal evidence. For one thing, he tells us that his journey was in the reign of the Grand Prince (Michael or) Mikhail Sviatopolk, son of Isiaslav and grandson of Yaroslav the Law-giver, who ruled at Kiev from 1093 to 1113. Again, he has a good deal to say of his intercourse with Baldwin, King of Jerusalem from 1100 to 1118, and of the peculiar kindness shown him by the Latin Prince. Thirdly, he notices that when he passed through the Holy Land, Acre belonged to the Franks. It was taken by them on the 26th of May, 1104, so Daniel's visit must have been subsequent to this and to the time of Saewulf's departure. Fourthly, he claims to have accom- panied Baldwin on his expedition against Damascus ; this appears to have been undertaken not earlier than 1106 or later than 1108. These are the chief marks of time. But it may also be remembered that Daniel, in his careful de- scription of the miracle of the Holy Fire on Easter Eve, makes no allusion to any Latin Patriarch, but puts one of the Prankish bishops into the place which, as we know from other sources,1 was usually assigned to his superior. This coincides with the well-attested fact that there was no 1 Especially Fuleher of Chartres, in.] Daniel's narrative: its value 157 Latin Patriarch at the date of Easter, 1107 ; for the See was then vacant. Dagobert left the Holy City in 1103; and Ebremar, his substitute, also started for Home towards the end of 1106. Once more, Daniel specially mentions the dangers from the Saracen outpost at Ascalon to Christian troops and travellers in Syria ; and in this some have seen not only a general statement, but a particular reference to an attack of the Ascalon Moslems upon some passing Christians on the way between Jaffa and Jerusalem, in the year which saw the abortive commencement of the siege of Sidon (1107).1 Our next pilgrim, King Sigurd of Norway, helped (as we shall see), to bring this enterprise to a suc- cessful end in 1110. Daniel was the abbot,2 or in modern Greek-Church phrase, the Archimandrite, of a Russian monastery, whose name and position are unknown. From his reference to the River Snov, a tributary of the Desna, which flows into the Dniepr by Kiev, we may conjecture that his home was in the Province of Tchernigov. Some have identified him with a certain Daniel, who was Bishop of Suriev in 1115, and died on 9th September 1122. In any case, he was closely con- nected with the Mother of Russian Cities, when at the height of her power and splendour, a good half-century before her first overthrow in 1169. The Eastern Slavs had been making steady progress since the migration of Rurik and his Scandinavians to Old Novgorod in the ninth century.3 The reigns of Oleg, who established the 'Varan- gian ' power in Kiev ; of Igor and Sviatoslav, the great pagan Rurikides, feared even at the Court of the Eastern Empire ; and of Vladimir the Saint and Yaroslav the 1 Of. William of Tyre, and Des \ " Hegotimenos or ' Igumen.' choses avenues cnJatcrre d'Outremer, \ 3 Traditionally, a.d. 862. xi. 4, Paris, 1879, vol. i. 384. 158 PILGRIM TRAVEL IP«-. Legislator, who brought their country within the pale of Christian civilisation, were glorious memories of Daniel's countrymen, even at this early time. Nor were these memories only of war and conquest, of victory over heathen enemies, or of daring raids upon the Imperial City on the Bosphorus. The Russia of the eleventh and twelfth cen- turies, though loosely knit in political organisation, was now a different thing from the barbarian country a described by Ibn Foslan and the other Arab explorers 200 years before. Jury trial, justices in assize, and other refinements of the higher mediaeval society, it had developed in a manner closely similar to the lines of western progress. On the other hand, its Church and faith and architecture, its code of manners and morals, came to it from the Byzantines. When Abbot Daniel started on his journey, few could have suspected the weakness of the Russian States which seemed so flourishing, so continuous in the advance of their pros- perity and power. The next generations were yet to show the fatal effects of a weak and doubtful centre, of divided sovereignty, of unchecked feudalism in government. The field covered by Daniel's pilgrimage was much wider than that of most western devotees. Had he but recorded the early stages of his journey from the middle Dniepr, his work might perhaps have risen into the primary class of mediaeval travel narratives. Even as it is, we must recog- nise the value of those glimpses of Eastern Europe which he gives us, those allusions to the pre-Mongolian princi- palities of Eussia, whose life was so sternly cut short just a century after his time by the Tartar sword, but whose slavery proved the training for a second and greater time of national growth. 1 Inhabited by people ' the most umvashen of all the men whom God has made ' (Ibn Fozlan). ii] daniel's narrative: its value 159 We must notice, moreover, in the present narrative, its fulness of detail, its evident good faith, its anxiety to verify by personal experience. Daniel is not without the credulity of the wonder-seeker, and he makes terrible slips at times; but wherever he has been himself his record is almost always a true one, and where he has not been, he frankly tells us that he only repeats the words of others. He makes no pretence to rhetoric. ' Forgive me,1 my fathers, my brethren, and my lords,' — so he closes one of his last chapters, — ' do not despise the ignorance in which I have been led to describe these holy places, in simple words, without the skill of letters. If I have written without learning, there is here at least no lie ; for I described nothing that I did not see with my very eyes.' Daniel's narrative shows us — if other evidence were lacking — that Palestine was far from settled in the early days of the Latin Kingdom. The roads from Jaffa to Jerusalem, from Bethlehem to Hebron, from Jerusalem to Jericho, were in constant danger from Saracen raiders. The garrison of Ascalon were especially feared in the neighbourhood of Lydda, in the wooded hill country near Solomon's Pools, and in the Wilderness of Judaea. In Central Palestine, Scythopolis or Bethshan was almost as great a centre for Moslem hostility. So the ways from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee, from Mount Tabor to Nazareth, and from one side of the Lebanon to the other, were all unsafe without an escort. Panthers and wild asses were noticed by Daniel in the plateau land to the west of the Dead Sea ; lions in the almost tropical jungle of the Jordan Valley ; and date-palms in the hot lowlands of Jericho and Bethshan. The Russian pilgrim shows no sectarian feeling ; no 1 Ch. xcvi. in Itiniraircs ricsses, Sociele de FOrient Latin, 1889. 160 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Oh. hostility is apparent — only once a shade of contempt1 — in his language about the dominant Latin Church. On the other hand, his religion ' humbles his unworthiness in the dust.' We need not of course take too literally in his case, any more than in Bunyan's, the violent self-accusation of one who declares himself to be a scandal to the holy way, given up to every vice, and incapable of doing good. It is prob- able that our monk was led to undertake his journey, among other things,2 by the news of the Christian conquest of Jerusalem ; but he himself assigns his own sins as the sole cause of this act of penitence. Yet with a breadth of view which has often been an honour to the best men of the Orthodox Church, he rejoices to think how many holy souls, by practising good works, had reached the sacred land in spirit, and been acceptable to God, without once leaving home ; while sinners there were (' of whom I am chief) who visited the holy places, and, swollen with pride, lost all the fruit of their labour. Abbot Daniel was apparently entertained at the various Greek and Orthodox, even sometimes at the Latin Monas- teries in Palestine ; and in particular, he seems to have owed not a little to the guidance of an old monk from the Lavra of St. Saba in the Kedron Gorge. Naturally, his traditions are those of the Eastern Church ; 3 his knowledge of the Bible and the Apocryphal Gospels is a knowledge of the Greek text, as we may notice in the case of the pseudo- Apostolic Protevangeliimi of James, from which he derives some of his sacred lore. 1 In describing the service of the descent of the Holy Fire, ' The Latins began to mumble after their manner.' - But we must remember that though records are scanty, it is clear that Russian Pilgrimage had begun first Crusade ; and both in dress and manners the Eastern Slavic peoples, from their greater similarity to Oriental standards, may have found a better reception in the Levant than Latin travellers. to flow steadily to Syria before the 3 The ' Assyrians ' of Saewulf. in.] Daniel's narrative : its value 161 From the present record it would appear that Orthodox and Catholic, Greek and Latin, were now on friendly terms in Syria, as in other parts of the Levant ; the same is attested by the historians of this period ; and, indeed, it is not till after the failure of the Council of Florence (1439- 1443) that the Eastern and Western Communions frankly and entirely abandon the ground of common Christian feeling for that of sectarian hatred. As examples of this we may notice, among other points, the deference paid by the King of Jerusalem to the clergy and monks of St. Saba ; the Orthodox control of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, even its keys being in Greek hands ; the superior honour allowed to the hitter during some of the Eastern ceremonies when the ' Orthodox lamps ' were placed on the sepulchre itself, while those of the Latins were only hung around ; and the union of the Franks with the Eastern Christians in the service for Holy Saturday, and in the cry of Kyrie Elcisoa. On the other hand, we have a somewhat different account from Fulcher of Chartres, Daniel's chief parallel, who was present on a famous Easter Eve, when the Holy Fire failed to descend. For, while confirming Daniel in almost all points, he says that in the Easter Eve service the Lections were first read by the Latins in Latin, and then by the Greeks in Greek ; also that the Patriarch of the Latins opened the door of the sepulchre, whereas in Daniel this is done by one of the Greek bishops. Along with many excellences Daniel has the defects of a scanty book- and place-knowledge. He puts Capernaum on the sea coast near Carmel. He identifies Lydda l with 1 ' Formerly called Lydda, now seems to have recognised a Caper- Rambilieh' (ch. lxiii. ). Daniel also naum on the Mediterranean near identifies the Rama of Jeremiah, Carmel as well as a Capharnaum on perhaps the modern Kuriet el'Enab, the Sea of Galilee. Daniel notices with Rama, 4 versts from Emmaus the latter in ch. lxxxiii. (cc. lxi. lxii.). The twelfth century 162 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Oh. Earaleh ; Caesarea Philippi with the greater Caesarea on the coast ; Samaria, Sebaste, or ' Sevastopol ' with Nablus or Shechem ; Bethshan, the ' City of the Scythians,' with Bashan, the home of Og. On the Sea of Galilee, the rivers that flow into it, and the town of Decapolis, he has some very strange geography. Andrew and Peter are the ' sons of Zebedee.' l These and other surprises, especially the often extravagant measurements of distance, can all be paralleled from the narratives of Western pilgrims; they are perhaps sometimes due to corruptions of the text ; and they usually relate to parts which the Archimandrite did not personally visit. Abbot Daniel's account of the Holy Places, like Saewulf's, has the special interest of preserving some record of a state of things, and especially of buildings, which in great measure passed away under the Frank rule in Syria, as larger schemes of Western adaptation were carried out. Compar- ing his narrative with that of the Worcester pilgrim, we may say that it is in general fuller, as well as more accurate and more observant ; several details 2 of interest in the Topo- graphy of Palestine, omitted by his predecessor, are supplied by him ; while there is scarcely anything in Saewulf which is not also to be found in Daniel. His three excursions, to the Jordan and Dead Sea, to Bethlehem and Hebron, and to Damascus, were more extensive and more thorough than those of most other devotees ; on the last-named journey he had the advantage of accompanying Baldwin and his troops, and thus of visiting places which no Christian could have seen without an escort. Lastly, his account of Jeru- salem is remarkably clear, minute, and accurate, the result 1 A confusion of Maik i. 16, 18, with Mark i. 19, 20. 2 E.g. the Pit of Jeremiah. Hi-] Daniel's outward journey 163 of his long and studious sojourn at the Metochion of the Community of St. Saba, near the Jaffa Gate. On his outward way from Russia to Jerusalem Daniel's record is somewhat meagre. Unfortunately, he begins with Constantinople, so that we learn nothing about the first part of his route. From the Bosphorus he goes over much the same ground as Saewulf traverses on his return, by Heraclea or Eregli, Gallipoli, and the north coast of the Sea of Marmora, through the Dardanelles, and so into the Mediterranean or ' Great Sea.'" Here Russian pilgrims turned to the left for Jerusalem, and to the right for the Holy Mountain of Athos or for the city of Old Rome. Near Heraclea a sacred oil rose from the depths of the sea, in honour of the martyrs who had suffered thereabout. With this story of Daniel's we may compare a remark of Strabo on the discharge of ' asphalt ' into the iEgaean from Mount Athos, at the foot of which was another Heraclea.1 Thence by way of Teuedos, Chios, and Ephesus (where he tells us the usual wonders about the Tomb of St. John '2 and the Seven Sleepers), to Patmos, the rich and populous Isle of Cos, Telos or Nisyros, celebrated for its production of sulphur or 'Herod's torment,' and Rhodes. In this island Prince Oleg the Rurikide had spent two summers and winters ; this is abundantly confirmed from other sources ; it was in 1079, according to the Russian annals, that he was made prisoner and carried to ' Greece.' From Rhodes Daniel, like Saewulf, coasted along Lycia, famous for the Tomb of St. Nicolas and the storax that was gathered upon the hills near the coast. Cyprus was notable not only for the relics of St. Epiphanius, but also for a miraculous cross of the 1 Now Eraulitza ; cf. Strabo, frag- I - E.<j. the holy dust rising yearly tnent 56. I from this sepulchre. 164 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. Empress Helena, which, standing on a high mountain,1 did not rest upon the ground but hung in space, supported by divine power. ' I, the unworthy, worshipped this holy and miraculous thing, and saw with my sinful eyes the divine favour resting on this place.' From Cyprus to Jaffa the pilgrim reckons 400 versts, or about 270 miles ; from Con- stantinople to Rhodes it was 800 versts ; and from Rhodes to Jaffa 800 more, making in all 1600 for the sea voyage to Palestine. These distances, like the 30 versts given for the way from Jaffa to Jerusalem, are fairly accurate ; but with them we may contrast the 80 versts' interval between Gallipoli and Abydos, the 40 versts allowed for the length and breadth of Merom or Gennesareth, and the hardly less exaggerated dimensions of the Sea of Tiberias or Galilee, which is reckoned as 20 versts by 50.- In explanation or excuse we must not forget that the Roman Itineraries had now fallen out of use and memory, and that all measure- ments had to be worked out afresh. Ten versts from Jaffa brought Daniel to St. George of Lydda, where pilgrims often rested, ' but in great fear,' for the place was desolate, and unpleasantly near to the Saracen stronghold of Ascalon. On the foundation of the Moslem Ramleh in the early years of the eighth century,3 the whole population of Lydda had been moved to the new town, and the ancient site had been a waste ever since ; now, with the Crusading period, a partial revival of the old town began again. Approaching Jerusalem, the traveller first saw the Tower of David, which then, as now, marked the entrance from 1 Mount Troodos. 2 All these are more than double the true figures ; from Gallipoli to Abydos is about 30 versts ; Merom is about 10 versts by 5 (7 by 3i miles) ; the Sea of Galilee 18 versts by 10 (12£ miles by 7). 3 Ramleh was founded by Sulei- man Ibn Abd el Melek, a.d. 716 : cf. Z.D.P.V. ( = ZeUschrift deutsch, Palasti na-Vcreins), iv. 88. III.] DANIEL IN JERUSALEM 165 Jaffa and the Mediterranean ; and, reaching a plateau 1 which commanded the city about a verst from the walls, he dis- mounted and ' adored the holy resurrection with the sign of the cross.' Like almost all pilgrims, whether from West or North, Daniel entered by the Western or Jaffa Gate, otherwise known as the Gate of Benjamin, 'near to the house of the Psalmist.' At that time the ' Portal of King David,' as Saewulf calls it, belonged to a wall of narrower circuit than the present, and so lay somewhat to the east of the modern site. In exact agreement with his English predecessor, the Eussian pilgrim notes that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre wTas open to the sky in the middle of the rotunda, and contained the Navel of the Earth.- Adjoin- ing the umbilical spot, he adds, was the representation of Christ in mosaic, with the inscription : The Sole of my Foot is the 3/easurc3 for the Heaven and the Earth. To the ' Tower of David ' he was admitted, though the ' lowliest of men,' with one companion, a certain Isdeslav ; he gives an excellent description of this important fortress ; and, like Bernard the Wise, he notices the neighbouring church of St. Mamilla, where so many martyrs had suffered in the Persian massacre of 614, 'when Heraclius was emperor.' A little further to the west of the city he also mentions an interesting link with the farthest west, an Iberian or Spanish Convent, which is probably the famous Monastery of the Cross. Like St. Silvia of Aquitaine, Daniel shows an occasional reluctance to accept or even to repeat every sacred story : 1 Perhaps an elevation on the way to Bethel, now called ' El Mesharif.' 2 Some think the ' hell ' described by Daniel near the Church of St. Stephen, which split asunder at the time of Christ's Crucifixion, is the mount above 'Jeremiah's Grotto' just outside the present north wall. 3 Daniel gives all his measurements of buildings in Russian Sagenes. A little later he quotes some striking passages from the Holy Week anthems of the Eastern Church, 166 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Oh. the traces of the blood of Zacharias ' slain between the Temple and the Altar ' was a favourite pilgrim wonder ; but Daniel will not admit that these traces were any longer visible. ' Formerly they were, but not now.' Many devotees also had discoursed on the marvellous remains of the ancient temple. These had utterly disappeared, says Daniel ; only some foundations were left. The present church was built by a 'Saracen chief named Amor.' In spite of the corruption of Omar's l name, it is sufficiently remark- able to find a Christian pilgrim so far informed about Moslem sovereigns and buildings. We may suppose it was during the latter part of his stay in Palestine that the Eussian Archimandrite passed sixteen months'2 in the Jerusalem House, Metochion, or Filiale, of the Lavra of St. Saba. This daughter-settlement, a stone's-throw only from the Tower of David, was now oc- cupied, and apparently even crowded, by the monks who had just escaped from the destruction of the Mother-House and the slaughter of their brethren in the Kedron Valley. It is also noticed by Saewulf and by John of Wiirzburg ; and it affords a good example of the constitution of the typical Lavra of the Eastern Church. Here monks were lodged in separate cells, though under a common superior ; and it was easy to form out-settlements under this system, which afforded a sort of compromise between the original Hermit- or Anchorite-life of the earliest monks, and the community-life of later times and of Western pattern. Whether before, or after, the sack and massacre which had desolated the original House in the wilderness of Judaea, Abbot Daniel paid a visit also to this celebrated spot ; and his account of the hanging monastery may be verified in all its details — the cells of the Lavra attached to the rock, 'like stars in the firmament,' and 1 Of. William of Tyre, i. 2 ; viii. 3, for the Omar tradition. 2 Ch. i III.] DANIEL IN PALESTINE 167 the dry torrent bed ' of utmost depth ' beneath, shut in between high walls of rock, from which the habitations of the monks projected like the nests of birds. One of the brethren, an aged man, ' well versed in Scripture,' became the friend and guide of the Orthodox visitor, and under his direction Daniel journeyed to the Sea of Tiberias, to Tabor, to Nazareth, to Hebron, and to the Jordan. Another holy man of Daniel's acquaintance, an anchorite, ' terrifying of aspect, austere, and old,' lived as a Stylite or Pillar-saint in a deep cavern on the south side of the Mount of Olives, by the ' tomb * of St. Pelagia the courtezan ' ; and this is probably the same ascetic whom the Frank army consulted at the siege of Jerusalem in 1099.'2 From one or other of these informants the Eussian pilgrim may have learnt the time-honoured and absurd traditions which placed Mount Herinon close to Jerusalem, and maintained the literal and annual turning back or retrocession of the stream of Jordan by a fanciful interpretation of certain passages in the Psalms.3 But it was not from any ' Assyrian ' Christian or native dragoman that he derived his suggestive comparison of the Sacred Eiver with an object near his home and familiar to himself. Never before or after in travel literature, we may conjecture, was the Jordan likened to the Snov in Little Eussia. Yet ' in every respect they were alike, both in size and in depth, and in their winding and rapid course.' Also the width of the Jordan at the 'Place of Baptism,' near Jericho, was the same as that of the Snov at its mouth ; the numerous creeks of the two streams, and their great sheets of stagnant water, offered other points of likeness. 1 This is very frequently noticed by pilgrims., e.g. by nearly all the Innominati or Anonymous Pilgrims. - According to Albert ot Aix. 3 Ct'. Ps. xlii. 8 ; cxiv. 5 ; Antoni- nus Martyr, oh. xi, 168 PILGRIM TRAVEL [ClT. Daniel was not able to visit the Sea of Sodom, partly for fear of ' miscreant Saracens,' partly from the dissuasions of the faithful, who told him of the fetid smell rising from the infernal lake, which none could approach without torment. Speaking, therefore, only from hearsay, he naturally repeats the fashionable fables : ' The Sea of Sodom exhales a burning and malignant breath, which lays waste all the neighbour- hood; it is dead and contains no living creature; and if the Jordan carries any fish into it, they perish immediately and cannot live one hour. A black pitch rises from the bottom and covers the banks, and the foul vapours are like burning- sulphur; the torments of hell lie under the sea.' Beyond Jordan, adds Daniel, inverting the sense of a famous text, was the land of Zebulon and Naphthali. Here many of the western pilgrims, especially in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, had placed the Hill of Hermon ; but the Slavonic visitor, with a certain independence not un- common even in his traditionalism, locates it on the west or opposite bank of the river.1 Hard by was the place where, at the baptism of Jesus, the Jordan turned back and the Sea of Sodom fled, ' seeing the Divinity in the midst of the waters;' in the same neighbourhood was Mount Grabaon, over which the sun stood still for half a day, so that Joshua might triumph when he fought against Og, King of Bashan. Along with this we may take some other distortions ; the death of Absalom in a wood near Hebron ; the house of the 1 Rasing this on an interpretation of Psalm xlii. 8, Daniel also describes (eh. xxxiv. ) the Epiphany baptism of Catechumens in the Jordan at mid- night 'like Christ Himself ; in chs. lv lvi. . he seems to place the sites of both Sodom and Zoar west of the Dead Sea. The place of the sacrifice of Abraham at Hebron was one verst from the double cavern of Macpelah and also one verst from the valley of Greznova, which was two versts from Sigor or Zoar ; the picture of the B.V.M., noticed in the Church of St Gerasinus near Jericho, is now in the Patriarchal Church of St. Con- stantine at Jerusalem. III.] DANIEL IN PALESTINE 169 Shunamite in the Saracen village of Jericho ; and the healing of the two blind men at Bethshan or Bashan. The fertility of the Hebron region arouses Daniel's admira- tion ; but the town he describes, like Saewulf, as now a mere waste. Here both these Christian travellers may be usefully compared with Benjamin of Tudela ; but it is not likely that either of them was able to anticipate the Jewish traveller, and to enter those caves at Machpelah, which were only made accessible in 1119.1 In the wooded hills near Mamre, where 'God paved the soil with white marble like the pavement of a church,' Daniel was in great danger from the Moslem brigands of the highlands and the ' miscreants ' of Ascalon ; but he came through in safety, with a good and numerous company, under the escort of a Saracen chief, and saw with his own eyes the stone column of Lot's wife near Segor, and many other places of ' inde- scribable sanctity,' on the west of the Dead Sea.2 After enumerating and describing all the places in and around Jerusalem,15 the liussian pilgrim attempts a sort of Itinerary of Northern and Central Palestine ; and here it is he makes some of his strangest slips. Caesarea Philijypi, on the coast of Palestine, thirty versts from Jaffa, was but eight versts from Capernaum, which itself was not far from the Great Sea or Mediterranean. With this we may com- pare Benjamin of Tudela, who puts Capernaum four para- sangs from the Kishon, and six from Caesarea : probably both travellers intended by the term some place on the 1 Cf. Comte Riant. Archives de ' place is now shown near Mar /'Orient Latin, iii. 411-421. Elias, between Jerusalem and Bethle- 2 Among these was the field near Bethlehem, whence the angel carried away the prophet Habakkuk to Babylon and back again in the same day and hour. Cf. Daniel, eh. Ivi. ; Lievin, Guide Indica /ear, 331. This hem. :: Among other peculiarities here, we may notice Daniel's 'Anatolia,' apparently meant for 'Araunalr: like his ' Aphrodisius ' for ' Epa- phroditns,' 170 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. Syrian coast near Mount Carrnel.1 However this may be, here Antichrist was one day to manifest himself, and for this reason the Latins had abandoned the town. Six versts from Capernaum brought one to Mount Carmel, where Elias slew the priests of Babel. Thence to Acre, now occupied by the Franks, and the coast towns to the north, ' philosophic ' Beyrout, Great Antioch, Byblus, Tripolis, Latakiyeh, Little Antioch in Cilicia, and Satalia or Adalia, Most of these places Daniel passed without landing ; 2 he probably took ship at Beyrout, and returned to Constantinople by the same way that he had come. But all this was after his tour in Galilee, a province of which he gives a detailed account. It lay, he believed, to the east or ' summer sun- rising ' of Jerusalem ; Daniel's fondness for fixing his places by the position of the sun at the winter or summer solstice is a reminiscence of the days when clocks and watches did not exist, and., when 'pointer-stones were set3 up to mark the sun's furthest deviation north and south.' From the Holy City to Tiberias the pilgrim travelled in the company of King Baldwin, who was now 'making a road' against Damascus and the sources of the Jordan. Thus he passed in safety the Mountains of Gilboa,4 on which no dew ever fell, and by way of the land of Samaria,5 a district 1 Athlit and Klid el Keniseh have both been suggested. The latter is apparently the Capernaum of William of Tyre, Geoffrey de Vinsauf, and James de Vitry. See Guerin, Samarie, ii. 274-282, and Sir C. Wilson in the P.P.T. Soc. Edu. of Daniel. 2 Sir C. Wilson thinks Daniel travelled by land either to Beyrout or to Sueidiah, the port of Antioch, and then embarked for Constanti- nople. At Beyrout Daniel also mentions the famous Eikon which shed blood and water on being pierced with a lance by blasphemous Jews. 3 Cf. Sir C. Wilson in P.P.T. Soc. Edn. of Daniel. 4 Gilboa was only 14 versts, 9h miles, from Jerusalem, according to Daniel. He is thinking, perhaps, of Lubb&n, between Jerusalem and Nablus. 5 Daniel repeats his confusion of Samaria with Nablus in ch. xcv, III.] DANIEL IN PALESTINE 171 so fertile as to be the Granary of Jerusalem,1 descended into the great trough of the Ghor down to the Sea of Galilee. The Jordan poured out of this lake, he tells us, in two branches? one called Jor and the other Dan (here is an improvement on the older stories) ; and near this exit Prince Baldwin dined with all his troops. From this point the Crusading army parted company with their guest, crossing the Jordan at the old bridge, just below the lake ; while Abbot Daniel pushed on to Tiberias, Tabor, and Nazareth, escaping from the perils of lions, and the still more dangerous, powerful, and impious Saracens of the Bethshan country. : Unworthy sinner that I am, God granted me to see all this land of Galilee upon which I never hoped to set my eyes, all the holy places upon which Christ, our God, set His feet.' Truthfully and fully, declares the pilgrim, has he described all these places ; some others had not been able properly to explore all they would fain tell of, and so had been led into error ; others again had sought refuge in lies and fables. But the company of Baldwin's troops and the guidance of the old Sabaite monk, who had passed thirty years in Galilee, saved the writer from such mischance. He was able even to make trial of the fish of the lake — especially a kind of carp, of taste excelling all other fish. The Lake of Merom he only saw from a distance, and he describes it very loosely, under the name of ' Gennesareth,' as larger in area than the sea of Tiberias, with which it was linked by a river, clearly a different stream from the Jordan of his 1 At Bethshan, Daniel locates the stories of the Tribute Money, the Stater in the Fish's Month, and the healing of the Two Blind Men. See Matthew xvii. 24-27 ; xxii. 17-21 ; xx. 30-34. 2 Instead of the usnal ' fountains ' ; the two branches which formed the Jordan below the Sea of Galilee may be our Jordan and Yennak (Hieromax), or two arms of the Jor- dan itself, which then perhaps en- circled Kerak of Galilee (Sennabrin). It is evident that in Daniel's mind the Jordan began at the Sea of Galilee. 172 PILGRIM TRAVEL [OH. geography. In this region was the great town of Decapolis, and towards the east Mount Lebanon, infested by Saracens, and therefore unapproachable, but from which (it was said) there poured down twelve large streams, six towards the east, and six towards the south ; the latter fell into Gennesareth, the others flowed towards Antioch the Great ; and the country between them was that Mesopotamia, or Land between the rivers, wherein Abraham's ' Charran ' was to be found.1 Lebanon was out of Daniel's reach ; but Tabor, a ' marvellous work of God,' he ascended with six hours of ' toilsome labour.' His description is photo- graphic. ' It is the highest of neighbouring mountains, and is perfectly isolated, rising in majesty from the middle of the plain like a round hay-cock, formed by art, and of a great circuit withal.' Here2 took place not only the Transfiguration, but the meeting of Melchisedek and Abraham. In Nazareth, which had now passed into the hands of the Crusaders, the Orthodox traveller was re- ceived by the Latin bishop ; and from this point, or rather from Cana of Galilee, he retraced his steps to Jerusalem in the company of a large caravan, by way of Acre, Haifa, Caesarea, and ' Samaria.' 3 The narrative ends with an elaborate account of the Easter services in the Holy City, with some words of praise and thanksgiving on the accom- plishment of the traveller's pious hopes, and with a commemoration of those countrymen of his whose names he inscribed for the prayers of the faithful at the Lavra of St, Saba. Desirous of witnessing the descent of the Heavenly 1 All the mythical matter just pre- ceding, like much in Saewulf. was probably derived from that licensed monstrosity, the ' Palestine Guide.' 2 Or close by, between Nazareth and Tabor. ' Melchisedek often comes there [still] to celebrate the liturgy.' adds Daniel, eh. lxxxviii. :f Nablus or Sliechem. III.] DANIEL AND THE HOLY FIRE : RETURN 173 Fire,1 ' when it comes down invisibly from Heaven and lights all the lamps in the tomb of our Lord,' Daniel obtained an audience of Prince Baldwin. ' On the Wednesday in Holy Week, at the first hour of the day, wicked and un- worthy as I was, I presented myself before the Prince and saluted him. Perceiving my insignificance, he affectionately called me to him, and said : " What will'st thou, Russian Abbot ? " Fur he knew and loved me, being himself a man of little pride and of great goodness and humility. And I said : " My Prince and my Lord, I beg thee, for the sake of God and of the Eussian Princes, permit me to place my lamp on the Holy Sepulchre in the name of the whole Russian land." ' Permission was granted with special graciousness, and Daniel records with triumph that his own lamp, being inside the Holy Grave, caught fire, but none of the Frank lamps which hung above the Tomb were so fortunate. On Baldwin's entrance into the Church on Holy Saturday ' about the seventh hour,' Daniel walked by his side with the Abbot of St. Saba, and close by? among the throng of worshippers, were various friends and companions from Kiev and Novgorod — Isiaslav Ivanovitch, Gorodislav Mikhailovitch, the two Kashkitch, and others. 'Thanks be unto the mercy of God,' concludes Daniel, 'who has permitted my unworthiness to inscribe the names of the Russian Princes in the Lavra of St. Saba — to wit Mikhail Sviatopolk Isiaslavovitch,- in whose reign I made this pilgrimage, Vassili Vladimirovitch, David Sviatoslavitch, Mikhail, Oleg, and Pancrati Sviatoslavitch, and Gleb of Minsk. Their names and those of their wives and children > and of the Russian bishops, abbots, and boyars, together with lOn the Holy Fire, cf. Tobler, Golgotha, 460-483. - He was the grandson of Yaroslav ' the Great,' Grand Prince of Kiev, famous for his Black Sea expeditions against Constantinople (1016-1054). 174 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. all faithful Christians, I did not forget to commemorate at each of the Holy Places.' On his homeward journey, the Slav pilgrim was (like Saewulf), attacked by pirates near Patara in Lycia — unlike Saewulf, he did not wholly escape ; but though plundered by the four galleys of these brigands, he saved his life, and returned at last to the city of Constantine and Holy Eussia. At the end of his wanderings he returns thanks to God for his singular good fortune. Brigands, wild-beasts, and disease had all threatened, but none had been able to touch his life. Like an eagle taking its flight, he had been sustained by the Divine Power ; like a stag, he had gone boldly forward, without fatigue and without loitering. To his own country- men and to modern students there is another interest in the pilgrimage of Abbot Daniel ; for it is an expression in written form of one of the chief elements of Slavonic life ; it is among the earliest landmarks in the history of a great people ; and it illustrates the truth that (with races as with individuals) internal progress is constantly associated with external activities, with an irresistible tendency to move out into the world, to travel, to explore, perhaps to colonise and to conquer. From the time of the conversion of the Northmen a constant stream of Scandinavian pilgrims had flowed to the Levant. In the first quarter of the eleventh century, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway had all alike thrown off their national and official heathendom, though a local and unrecognised paganism long survived in country districts; and it was not long before some of the greatest Northmen are found upon the pilgrim way. Three chief routes were followed by Scandinavians bound for the Holy Places of Syria — the Eastern, the Western, and the Eoman. The first of these, HI.] SCANDINAVIAN PILGEIM-ROUTES 17 5 also called the Vaerings' Path, was historically the earliest and led through the Slavo-Scandinavian principalities of Russia to the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, and the Levant. The second, or long sea - way, led round the coasts of Northern and Western Europe and through the Straits of Gibraltar. The third, or overland track, conducted the Northman from any of the North Sea ports to Italy and the Threshold of the Apostles, leaving him to proceed eastward from one of the havens of ' Pouille.' We have already seen how Thorir Hund, ' according to the talk of many,' went off to the Holy Land after the battle of Stiklestad ; and how Skopti Ogmundson, in the reign of King Magnus Barefoot, sailed with five ships along Flanders and France and Spain into the Mediterranean. Some said l that Skopti was the first Northman to sail through the Straits of Gibraltar ; 2 in any case, he and his sons died on the journey, Skopti himself in Rome, others of his company in Sicily, others again in Palestine or Constantinople. But some of Skopti's followers made their way home again and brought with them wonderful stories of the splendid or sacred countries of the South ; and herewith they roused the sons3 of King Magnus among others to imitate their example. Magnus himself had been famous for his voyages and conquests in the British Seas and Isles ; his children, like most men in Norway, had the same old yearning for glory and novelty and adventure ; and, where Harald Hadrada had gone, ins successors were eager to follow. As in Harald's time, Northmen could still win fabulous wealth in the service" of the Byzantines; and whatever might be the fate of men in this world, they were certain of the next, if they journeyed in his steps to the Holy Places. 1 So Magnus Barcfool's Saga, ch. I - After the almost mythical Nona. Xxii. ; cf. Sigurd's Saga, eh. i. 3 But see p. 23, note. 176 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Cfc. And other weiglity reasons induced the sons of Magnus Barefoot to take up the part of pilgrim warriors. The Latin Conquest of Jerusalem had created new centres of attraction for the enterprise, the commerce, the valour, and the religion of every Christian country ; and North- men might hope to carve out for themselves a kingdom in the Levant as good as the new principalities of Syria. In the Western Mediterranean such a kingdom had re- warded the daring and the persistence of a few Norman adventurers ; and, beside the examples of Kobert Guiscard and Roger of Sicily, there were the still greater achieve- ments of William the Bastard in Valland and in England, to say nothing of the older feats of Bunk and of Rolf. It was four years after the defeat and death of King Magnus in Ireland (1103) that Sigurd, his son, began his famous journey to Jerusalem (1107). First of all, he sailed to England with sixty ships, and, arriving there about the close of autumn, passed the winter at the Court of Henry the Norman.1 In the spring of 1108 he set out again, coasted along the West of France, and came about the time of harvest to the ' James-land ' of Galicia, already famous from its Shrine of Santiago at Compostella. Here the Norsemen spent the next winter, and here they soon fell to disputing, and then to fighting, with the ' Earl ' or Ruler of the country, over their food supply, ' for it was a poor barren land.' To replenish their larder they plundered one of the Earl's castles, and sailed down along the west shore-land of Spain in search of better quarters. Near the mouth of the Tagus Sigurd met with a fleet of ' heathen Vikings,' and took eight of their galleys ; 2 perhaps the reference here is rather to a Moslem than to a Norse pirate-squadron, for Sigurd's host had now arrived on 1 Ch. iii. of Sigurd's Saga. 2 Ch. iv. of Sigurd's Saga. in.] sigurd's outward journey 177 a field where the struggle between Christendom and islam was proceeding very briskly. The successes of Alfonso VI. of Leon and Castile had been checked in Central Spain by the arrival of the Almoravides and the battle of Zalacca (1086); but he continued to win ground along the Western coast till 1093, even pushing up to the Tagus and storming Lisbon. In the next year, however, the Christian advance was forced back on this side also, Lisbon was retaken, and Alfonso summoned the chivalry of Christendom to his aid. Among the free lances who responded to the call was one Henry of Burgundy, an ancestor of kings, though never crowned himself ; he showed himself a valuable and faithful ally, and he was rewarded with a partnership. In 1095 Alfonso conferred on Henry that county of Portugal which, like the Austrian Duchy, began as a military frontier against the heathen world, and which proved so useful and so important in checking the renewed attack of Islam on the West. The creation of this county or military district was especially to guard Oporto, ' the port ' of Galicia ; it had been effected only thirteen years before Sigurd's arrival at the mouth of the Douro ; and it may be viewed as a second and more successful essay in a scheme of frontier defence, which in 1093 had set up a Lisbon County for Sueiro Mendes, and which, though defeated on the Tagus, was still maintain- ing the line of the Mondego at the time of Sigurd's visit. The Northern Crusaders, like their followers in 1147 and 11S9, rendered yeoman service to the struggling Christians of Spain under the Norse king's leadership (1108-9). The Castle of Cintra, near Lisbon, was a centre of Moslem raids, and Sigurd began by capturing it with all its stores and putting its defenders to the sword.1 Next he attacked the 1 Ch. iv. Sigurd's Saga, of which here quotes the court poet, ftalldor Gabbler: ' No man he spared who would not take The Christian faith for Jesus' sake.' M 178 PILGRIM TRAVEL [Ch. great city of Lisbon, which even then, perhaps, contained 200,000 inhabitants, and which the Saga describes as half Christian and half heathen, marking the dividing line be- tween the rival faiths and politics of Spain.1 Since the year 716, it had been under Moslem rule, but for three brief intervals, — in 792,2 851, and 1093, — it had fallen back under Leon or Castile ; now, in 1109, though fiercely attacked by Sigurd from the sea, and by ' Portugal ' from the land, it was too strong to be taken, and its fate was deferred for almost forty years, when the same kind of combination won the decisive victory of 1147. The Norse fleet, though perforce content with an empty victory and some plunder outside Lisbon, did better work at Alcac,er 3 do Sal (a little further to the south), which fell into their hands after another battle. From this point King Sigurd made straight for Norva Sound, and so entered the Middle Sea in the teeth of a great pirate host, which vainly tried to bar his passage ; 4 here again the ' Vikings ' of the Saga may be translated as Saracen rovers, or even perhaps as a more national force ecpuipped by the Moslems of Andalus and Barbary against their new enemy. Soon the Mussulmans had to meet an attack from a fresh quarter. Not satisfied with their Crusade in the west of Spain, the Northmen now fall upon the east coast and the Balearics. Here, where the ships of Moors or ' Bluemen ' had so long found a refuge, a storehouse, and a fortress, the Christian warriors chased the Saracens into the hills, penned them up in caverns, and harried, slew, and burnt wide over Minorca and Iviga and Forminterra. In the last and smallest of these islands a great throng of the Unbelievers 1 Ch. v. of Sigurd's Saga. j Algeciras, and the ' Moorish palace 2 On this occasion it Avas retained near Seville, called Alcasir,' have also by the Christians till 812. been conjectured. 3 ' Alcasse ' in the Saga of King 4 Ch. vi. of Sigurd's Saga. Sigurd, ch. v. The African Alcacers, III.] SIGUET) IN SPAIN AND SICILY 179 took shelter in a cave, whose entrance was fortified with two stone walls, an outer and an inner, exceedingly difficult to capture, or even to approach. For ' this cave lay on a cliff, very sheer and steep, but with a rock hanging over it from above. And the heathen kept guard well, and were not afraid of the Northmen, but defied and taunted them as cowards. Then Sigurd took a pair of ships'-boats and drew them up the rock above the mouth of the cave ; and he had thick ropes fastened around the stem and stern and hull of each. Now in the boats went as many men as could find room, and they were lowered by the ropes to the mouth of the cave ; ' and so the heathen were driven with slings and missiles from their defence. Then Sigurd went up the rock with his host, and forced his way into the den, but the heathen fled behind their inner rampart. ' And upon this the king brought great trees, and made a pile of wood at the mouth of the cavern, and set fire to it; and thus he slew or burned all who were therein.' J It was a foretaste of the permanent Christian conquest under James of Aragon a century later. Next spring the Northmen came to Sicily 2 and stayed there a long time with their kinsman, Duke Eoger II. The vanity or ignorance of the Saga-writer here inserts a patriotic tale of Sigurd's condescension and generosity. Roger had bidden his visitor to a feast and served him with his own hand. But after six days of good cheer, the guest took his host by the hand ' and led him up to the high seat and gave him the name and right of King ; but before there had been only 1 As the skald Thorarin Curtfell ( = ' Stuttfeld ') sang : — ' The king's men up the mountain-side Drag two boats from the ocean's tide, The two boats lay Like hill wolves gray, Now o'er the rocks on ropes they're swinging Well-manned, and death to Bluemen bringing, They hang before The robbers door,' eh. vi. of Sigurd's Saga. 2 Cli. viii. of Sigurd's Saga, 180 PILGRIM TRAVEL LCh. Earls in Sicily.' On the other hand, the Great Counts of the Norman Dynasty dated their kingly title from the papal grant of 1129 ; and if Roger, one of the most powerful and civilised of Christian princes, had wished for any such investiture by a temporal lord, he might have had it from the Eastern or Western Emperor. In any case, it is clear that if Sigurd really made any pretence of crowning the future patron of Edrisi and conqueror of Tunis, then a boy of thirteen years, it was only treated as a piece of pageantry by the Court of Sicily. In the summer, the Norse leader went on his way over the ' Greek ' Sea to Palestine,1 landed at Acre (or at Beyrout,) 2 and went up to Jerusalem, where King Baldwin greeted him well. The Latin Prince knew how to make the most of so useful an ally in the critical struggle on the frontiers of Christendom, and he showed his guest all the honour in his power, even riding down with him to the Jordan and back again. ' And he made him a goodly banquet and gave him many relics, yea, a splinter out of the Holy Cross.' Yet the Norse king had not quite forgotten the heathen traditions of his people. For when he came to the sacred river, as he boasted on his return, he swam over the stream, and there, in a copse that was on the bank, he tied a knot and spoke over it a spell, and till that knot was loosed he thought his luck would not depart from him. But at the same time he promised to spread the faith in Norway to the best of his power, to pay his tithes, and to found an Archbishop's See, if that were possible. Still better, he showed himself for- 1 Ch. x. of Sigurd's Saga. i the golden horse-shoes at Constan- - According to William of Tyre, j tinople, which are inserted to prove Sigurd landed at Beyrout. The best that no riches could dazzle the North- text of K. Sigurd's Saga, chs. x.-xi. men, or find them unprepared with does not give the well-known fables an equal display of power and of the clothes at Jerusalem, or of grandeur. HI.] SIGURD IN PALESTINE AND