The Primeval Antiquities of Denmark/Third Division

by Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae

 

THIRD DIVISION.

I. Importance or the Monuments of Antiquity for History.

From what has been already stated, it is clear that we are enabled, by means of the antiquities and barrows, to form much clearer ideas, as to the peopling and civilization of Denmark, in primeval times, than could be derived from the uncertain and imperfect written memorials of those times. This fact will best appear from a general review of the advantages which the investigation of these monuments of antiquity has afforded to history.

In the time of the aborigines, the stone-period as it is called, when Denmark was a rude and thickly wooded country, it was inhabited by a people who, for the most part, diffused themselves along the sea-coast. They occupied a low rank in civilization. The use of metals was unknown to them, and hence all their implements were made of stone, of bone, or of wood. With such tools the inhabitants could make no great progress in agriculture; on the contrary, hunting and fishing formed their chief sources of subsistence. For catching fish in rivers, and in the sea, they used hooks, harpoons, and lances of flint, and they possessed boats formed of stems of trees which had been hollowed out for the purpose^[1]. When hunting, they were armed not only with bows and arrows, but also with lances and hunting knives, the more easily to slay the large animals, whose skins served them for garments. Their dwellings were formed most probably of stone, wood, and earth, for they even buried their dead with much care in Cromlechs, which were formed of large stones, smooth on the inner side. By the side of the dead were laid their hunting and fishing implements, of bone and stone. Similar Cromlechs, with similar contents, are to be seen on the south coast of the Baltic, and on the north-west and west coasts of Europe, in England and Ireland, but have not been found either in the interior of Europe, in Norway, or in the northern parts of Sweden.

In the next period, or during the age of bronze, a greater degree of cultivation was introduced into the country, and by this means all previous relations were completely changed. The natives were now in possession of two metals, bronze, (a com- position of copper and tin,) and gold. They possessed woven cloth, and handsomely wrought trinkets, weapons, shields, helmets, and wind instruments, which were adorned with peculiar embellishments, particularly with the so-called spiral ornaments. Bronze tools gradually supplanted the implements of stone, which however continued for a long time to be used by the poorer classes; and hunting and fishing gave way to agriculture, which was then commencing. The forests in the interior of the country were cleared by degrees, in proportion as agriculture was more widely extended, and the population increased. Intercourse with other countries was opened, partly by means of warlike expeditions, partly by commerce: navigation acquired importance, and ships were built of a larger and better description, than the simple vessels formed of hollow trees. At this period it was customary to burn the bodies of the dead, and to deposit the bones which remained in cinerary urns, in small stone cists, or under heaps of stones in large mounds of earth. Sometimes the bodies were also interred unburnt in stone cists, which are however always totally different, both in size and form, from the Cromlechs of the stone-period. Barrows containing implements of bronze are found in great numbers over nearly the whole of Europe, except in Norway and Sweden, where they are extremely rare.

At length, and as appears about the eighth century, the third age, or the iron-period, was completely established. With it came into use in Denmark two metals, hitherto unknown and unused, iron and silver, but, of course, it took a long time before they came into general use. All cutting tools and weapons were now made of iron, instead of bronze, and were moreover completely altered in regard to form. The trinkets and ornaments were altered not only in form, but also in the material of which they were composed; being no longer made of bronze, (copper and tin,) but of brass, (copper and zinc.) On the whole, an entirely new taste prevailed in this period, which was a natural consequence of the connection of the North with other countries, which had attained to a higher civilization. By this means many foreign objects were brought thither, which were afterwards imitated by native smiths. To the east and south-east, the people of the North had connections in the way of trade with the eastern portion of the Roman empire, the countries of the Caspian sea, and the coasts of the Baltic.

A very great influence also on the developement of civilization in the North was produced by the frequent hostile expeditions of its inhabitants to the west, to England and France, from which countries were introduced the germs of many useful improvements. Agriculture made no particular progress in Denmark at this warlike period, since the people were constantly engaged, either in predatory expeditions into other countries, or in repelling the attacks of strangers at home. It was of course perfectly natural that the taste for agriculture and similar peaceful employments should be lost at a period, when expeditions by sea brought as much fame as booty. But, that no small decree of civilization must have existed at that time in Scandinavia appears from the splendid ornaments and weapons, and the powerful vessels, which the Northmen then possessed. The modes of interment were now somewhat different from those of the bronze-period. The corpses were chiefly buried unburnt, either in large barrows or mostly in natural beds of sand, and with them many beautiful and costly ornaments. The Viking was buried in his ship; and the hero was often accompanied in the grave by his weapons, and his favourite horse. The remains belonging to this period are incomparably more numerous in Norway and Sweden, than in Denmark.

This division of the ancient times in Denmark into three periods is solely and entirely founded on the accordant testimony of antiquities and barrows, for the ancient traditions do not mention that there ever was a time here, when, for want of iron, weapons and edged-tools were made of bronze. On this account, many maintain that no importance, or credibility, can be attached to this division into three eras, since the objects supposed to belong to such three periods may have proceeded from the same period, but from different classes of persons. Thus, they assume that the bronze objects, which are distinguished by their beauty of workmanship, may have been used by the rich; while the iron objects belonged to those less wealthy, and those of stone to the poor. This supposition is scarcely founded on probability, much less on a perfect acquaintance with the remains of antiquity.

It is quite true that tools and weapons of stone and bronze, and perhaps also of stone, bronze, and iron have, as has al- ready been remarked, been in use at the same time, in periods of transition, when bronze or iron was scarce in the country, and consequently very expensive; yet it is nevertheless no less true, that there were three distinct periods, in which the use of stone, bronze, and iron severally prevailed, in a most characteristic manner.

For if it be granted that bronze objects belonged only to the rich, how is it to be imagined that there were no, or rather exceedingly few, rich people in the northern parts of Sweden, and in the whole of Norway, where, it is well known, that, comparatively speaking, bronze objects belong to the rarest finds. Moreover it is scarcely probable that the rich would have used the inferior metal, bronze, for tools and weapons, while those less wealthy possessed the superior, iron. Beside, we meet with fewer trinkets, and in particular far fewer large gold ornaments, with the bronze ornaments than with those of iron; with the bronze objects, silver trinkets, and Cufic, or East Roman, coins are never found. Again, if we assume that iron objects were the property of the rich, and those of bronze of persons less wealthy, in short, of the poor, this supposition is alike improbable, since in this case there can scarcely have been poor men in all Norway and Sweden! With reference to the stone objects, or those assigned to the very poor, it is proper to observe that they are usually found in the large Cromlechs and Giants' chambers. But the Cromlechs and Giants' chambers are much larger and more splendid monuments than the barrows which contain the objects of bronze; one would therefore be driven to the conclusion that the rich were buried in a mere mound of earth, thrown up over an unimportant heap of stones, while the poor, on the other hand, were interred in chambers of stone, which from their size and their careful style of building, often excite the admiration of the present age. This, of course, is wholly incredible. Again, if the objects of bronze and of iron belonged to one and the same period, it would be highly probable that they would be wrought in the same fashion, or that, even when the metal was different, their forms and ornaments would exhibit some resemblance, however slight. But the bronze antiquities betray in their form, ornaments, and workmanship in general, a totally different character from that which is exhibited on objects of iron. Finally, if the different kinds of antiquities were really cotemporaneous, one must at any rate expect that our barrows, which must be regarded as cotemporaneous also, would possess as their chief characteristic, and particularly with reference to their modes of interment, a certain similarity to each other, which might easily be recognised. But we know that the large Cromlechs and Giants' chambers contain objects of stone and unhurnt corpses; that those barrows which contain bronze objects with burnt corpses have a totally different arrangement; and that barrows and other tombs with iron objects are essentially different from the other barrows. Since it cannot be supposed that, in ancient times, so strict a separation of the three classes, the rich, the middle class, and the poor, can have prevailed, that each class had its peculiar mode of interment, together with weapons, tools, and trinkets, which both in form and material were totally distinct from those of the other classes, it must therefore be regarded as an undoubted fact, that the often-named division of antiquities and barrows into three ages, is founded not on probability alone, but on positive facts, and on a much firmer basis, than might have been expected when the question relates to a period which lies beyond the limits of satisfactory historical details. We therefore have no hesitation in proceeding to the further enquiry, whether it was one race only which in ancient times developed itself in a gradual manner, or whether several races have from time to time penetrated into the country, and occasioned these changes in its civilization.

Experience has shewn us that modes of interment, and all circumstances appertaining to them, are most prized and preserved by nations in an inferior degree of civilization, and are only abandoned by them, when they have been subdued by foreigners more powerful than themselves, or when they have ceased to be an independent people. In the stone-period, and in that of bronze, the funeral ceremonies and barrows were completely different; and we are therefore justified in concluding that the race who inhabited Denmark in the bronze-period was different from that, which during that of stone, laid the foundation for peopling the country. This is clearly shewn by the antiquities, since there exists no gradual transition from the simple implements and weapons of stone, to the beautifully wrought tools and arms of bronze. On the other hand, it is not decided that the people of the iron-period must have been a third race, which had immigrated at a later date than that which inhabited the country during the bronze-period; for though the antiquities and barrows of these two periods are by no means of the same kind, yet the difference is neither so striking, nor so prominent, as to enable us to found on it the supposition of two totally different races of mankind. A greater developement of civilization, and in particular a more lively intercourse with other nations, might easily, during a more advanced period of paganism, have called forth a remarkable alteration both in the prevailing taste, and in the mode of interment. The most that we can say, at present, is that Denmark, during the iron-period may possibly, by small immigrations from the neighbouring countries, have received new constituent parts of its population. Since, therefore, it appears from the evidence of its monuments that Denmark was inhabited, in ancient times, by two different races, let us seek whether any sufficient explanation respecting the families of mankind, to which those races must be referred, is contained in the most ancient historical records, or whether we must be satisfied with the information which these monuments themselves afford us.

 

§ 1. The Stone-period.

History mentions the Fins and Celts as being among some of the first inhabitants of Europe. The Fins, or Laplanders, as they are called at the present day, now live far towards the north; at a former period, they reached farther to the south, at least over the greatest part of Sweden and Norway, and, in the opinion of many, even over other countries, from which they were driven eventually by the intrusion of later immigrants. The vestiges and remains of the Celts are likewise confined within very narrow limits, in England, Scotland, and Ireland; though, in remote ages, they were the most powerful and the most widely diffused nation in the west of Europe. From this circumstance, historians have hitherto assumed that the Fins and Celts, in ancient times, bordered on each other in the North, and that they here formed the first population of the northern part of Europe.

Hence it would naturally be believed that the inhabitants of Denmark, during the stone-period, were either Fins or Celts. Of the Fins we are told by Tacitus, who lived in the first century after the birth of Christ, that they were extremely rude and poor. They possessed neither weapons, horses, nor houses. They fed on roots, clothed themselves in the skins of beasts, and spread their couch on the bare earth. Their sole resource was their arrows, to which, from the want of iron, they affixed points of bone. Even their children had no refuge from storm and shower; they were merely covered with branches of trees twined in each other. This description of the mode of life of the Fins, agrees in every essential particular, with that contained in all other ancient records. As the inhabitants of Denmark, during the stone-period, were not acquainted with the use of any metal, but lived by hunting and fishing, the opinion has often been expressed that those ancient inhabitants of Denmark were Fins, and hence that all the Cromlechs, Giants' chambers, and antiquities of stone, were memorials of this aboriginal Finnish population. As a farther proof, appeal is made to the circumstance that stone implements, of the same kind, are often found in all the three northern kingdoms of Scandinavia, consequently that the whole of Scandinavia has been inhabited by the same race, and what people could it be but the Fins, who have inhabited Sweden, and Norway, from the earliest times.

Such a conclusion is, however, by no means to be relied on. It is quite evident that the circumstance of implements of stone, which bear great similarity to each other, having been discovered in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, by no means justifies us in concluding that such implements were used by the same people. For since implements of stone, which are perfectly similar, occur in Japan, in America, in the South Sea islands, and elsewhere, we must, in case we adopt that conclusion, necessarily assume that branches of the same race, which, ill ancient times, inhabited the northern parts of Europe, must also have reached as far as those countries. Yet these antiquities can only shew that the races, who used the same objects of stone, stood in something like the same degree of civilization; but if more precise information of historical interest is desired, then the form and contents of the tombs, or of the still existing memorials, must necessarily be taken into consideration. It is, however, an acknowledged fact, that the peculiar Cromlechs and Giants' chambers of the stone-period, are never found either in the north of Sweden or Norway, (where, however, remains of the Fins, up to the historic period, have been preserved;) nor even in those countries which are still inhabited by the Finnish races. The associations are here totally different. The inhabitants, therefore, during the stone-period cannot have been Fins, who were gradually driven towards the North by other nations; for it is utterly incredible that during a retrograde movement, which they undertook in order to preserve their independence, they should on a sudden change their ancient modes of interment, and the customs which they had inherited from their ancestors. Beside they repaired to spots which abounded in granite rocks and loose blocks of stone, and where, consequently, it would have been easier for them to construct Cromlechs and Giants' chambers, than in Denmark.

The Fins, in fact, appear to have left no memorials of their abode in the southern districts of Scandinavia; they were in the earliest times, as now, little other than a mere nomadic race who had no regular or fixed abodes, and who might therefore easily disappear from a country without leaving any traces of their existence in it, as soon as it was no longer capable of supplying them with the means of subsistence. The inhabitants of Denmark during the stone- period must, doubtless, have attained a higher degree of civilization than the ancient Fins. They must, at all events, have possessed fixed dwellings, otherwise they would scarcely have constructed those remarkable Cromlechs and Giants' chambers of stone, which remain as lasting monuments of the energy and skill of the builders. It has, however, been supposed by some that the Fins, at the time they lived in Denmark, had fixed abodes, and that they first commenced their nomadic life, when they were driven by a newly invading and more powerful people, from the fertile southern part of Scandinavia, to the more northern parts, to the wild woody mountains of Sweden and Norway, which would account for the want of Cromlechs, in those countries. But it is evident that a people, who leave a country for the sake of defending their independence and nationality, neither give up their usual way of earning their livelihood, nor their old peculiar national customs; except when obliged to emigrate to a country where they are compelled to alter their mode of living because they cannot find the same means for subsistence, or when frequent attacks of their enemies will not allow them to settle quietly, and continue the observance of their religious customs, &c. Nothing of that kind could have happened to the Fins in going from the south, to the north of Scandinavia. Both Norway and Sweden have plenty of coasts, woods, and rivers, full of game and fish, which would afford to a fishing and hunting people, a most excellent opportunity for fixed abodes; perhaps even more so than Denmark. It must also be remarked, that it is said to have been the new invading people, in the bronze-period, who expelled the Fins from Denmark. But in Norway this new people do not seem to have settled, as there remain scarcely any monuments at all of them. In Norway, therefore, the Fins, after having been expelled from Denmark, could have settled quietly, and continued hunting and fishing, and burying their dead in Cromlechs and Giants' graves, after the manner of their forefathers, without being troubled by their enemies in Denmark.

It would nevertheless be a strong argument in favour of the Finnish origin of the Cromlechs, if, as some authors contend, the skulls and skeletons which are found in these graves, had exactly the same characteristic type, as the heads and crania of the present Laps. But hitherto so few skulls from Cromlechs have been preserved, that it is scarcely possible to found any argument upon them; though it seems that the skulls, which have as yet been excavated, so far from being of the same type, are so different, that a physiologist declared some of them to be of Caucasian origin. It is not sufficient to attribute this difference to an effect of the difference of climate, and the altered mode of living adopted by the Fins, when they went from the south to the north of Scandinavia, because this is only an hypothesis, which, as has already been shewn, is far from tenable. It is therefore not improbable that, thousands of years ago, a nomadic race connected with the Fins, whose existence it is, at this moment, impossible either entirely to deny, or to establish satisfactorily, may have wandered about Denmark; while this much is certain, that the inhabitants of Denmark during the stone-period cannot have been the Fins, whose descendants are the present inhabitants of Lapland.

From a conviction of this fact, other writers have argued that the Fins have formed the basis of the earliest population in Sweden and Norway only, but that the Celts were the most ancient inhabitants of Denmark. This view, at the first glance, seems a highly probable one, since it is known that the Cromlechs and antiquities of the stone-period occur on the coasts of the whole of the west of Europe, as well as in countries, which were certainly inhabited by the Celts from the earliest times. But in these countries there also exist Barrows, which exhibit a striking similarity to the Danish Barrows of the bronze-period. We might therefore with equal right maintain that such Barrows were constructed by the Celts, since they occur in countries which are known to have been inhabited at a very early period by that people. It is impossible to form any conclusions, in this respect, from the Barrows. The Celts, however, according to all historical records, were early distinguished by a certain degree of civilization; they possessed weapons and ornaments of metal, there were regular towns in their countries, and it has even been ascertained that, in certain districts, they coined money. Since it was their custom mostly to burn the bodies of their dead, and inter them in Barrows, it is clear that the Celts must have been a totally different people from the inhabitants in the stone-period, who interred their corpses unburnt in Cromlechs, and used mere simple implements of stone and bone. It may certainly well be imagined that the Celts originally existed in a lower state of civilization, and that by degrees they acquired a knowledge of the use of metals, and thereby the opportunity for greater improvement. It must here, however, be remembered that the Celts, at the period when they are first mentioned in history, spread themselves from Italy through the west of Europe (or Gaul), to England (Britain.) Thus they possessed about the same countries in which the Cromlechs occur. At that time, however, they had been driven by the German races towards the west. In previous times they had undoubtedly occupied a much greater extent of the present country of Germany, particularly its middle and southern parts, where the names of localities, mountains, and rivers, are very frequently of Celtic origin; in which regions, however, the characteristic Cromlechs with unburnt bodies, instruments of flint, and ornaments of amber, have not as yet been found. Had Cromlechs of this nature been the most ancient Celtic graves, we should certainly have expected to have found them in the countries first inhabited by the Celts. But, what is more, in the west of Europe there appears not to have been any transition from the Cromlech to the Barrow; they are totally different.

According to all probability we must, on the contrary, assume that the people who inhabited Denmark during the stone-period, and who, as we learn from the remaining memorials of ancient times, diffused themselves over the coasts of the north of Germany, and the west of Europe, as well as in England and Ireland, were not of Celtic origin; but that on the contrary they belonged to an older and still unknown race, who, in the course of time, have disappeared before the immigration of more powerful nations, without leaving behind them any memorials, except the Cromlechs of stone in which they deposited their dead, and the implements which, by the nature of their materials, were protected from decay. History has scarcely preserved to us the memory of all the nations who have from the beginning inhabited Europe; it is therefore a vain error to assume that certain races must incontestably be the most ancient, because they are the first which are mentioned in the few and uncertain written records, which we possess.

Meantime there is a method by which we may probably, in the course of time, be enabled to ascertain to what peculiar race of men the first inhabitants of Denmark belonged. By an examination and comparison of the different people, and the different regions of the earth, it has been found that the several races of men present remarkable varieties in their physical conformation, and that these varieties are most observable in the shape of the skull. Several men of science have, as already mentioned, commenced examining and describing the skulls and skeletons found in the Cromlechs, and Giants' chambers of the stone-period. It has, by this means, been proved that the people by whom these were erected were, with reference to corporeal structure, neither above nor below the middle size, but to what race of men they may most suitably be referred has not yet been fully ascertained. Formerly but little attention was paid to these skulls, for which reason comparatively very few, and those in an imperfect state, have been preserved in our collections. When greater interest shall have been awakened for the antiquities of our country, and consequently a larger number of skeletons shall have been procured, we may reasonably hope to acquire, by means of comparison, certain historical results which may possibly lead to other and more important discoveries, as to the descent of the aborigines.

Although history affords no explanation as to the race here mentioned, yet we may possibly, by means of probable conjectures, arrive at something like a knowledge of the place they occupy in the history of the people of the north, and west of Europe. All facts, for instance, seem to shew that Europe was not peopled at once, by a race of mankind who bore in themselves the germ of all future progress, but that this race has gradually received the addition of others, who continually supplanted the former, and laid the foundation for a more advanced civilization. The first people who inhabited the north of Europe were without doubt nomadic races, of whom the Laplanders, or as they were formerly called, the Fins, are the remains. They had no settled habitations, but wandered from place to place, and lived on vegetables, roots, hunting and fishing. After them came another race, who evidently advanced a step farther, since they did not follow this unsettled wandering life, but possessed regular and fixed habitations. This people diffused themselves along those coasts which afforded them fitting opportunities for hunting and fishing; while voyages by sea and agriculture also appear to have commenced among them. This race however seems not to have penetrated the interior parts of Europe, which were at that time full of immense woods and bogs; they wanted metal for felling trees and so opening the interior of the country, for which purpose their simple implements of stone were insufficient. They followed only the open coasts, and the shores of the rivers, or large lakes. To this period belong the Cromlechs, the Giants' chambers, and the antiquities of stone, and bone, exhumed from them.

Then again came races who possessed metals, and some degree of civilization, and they, being able to cut down the woods, occupied not only those regions of the coast which had been previously inhabited, but also the interior of the country. But they likewise appear, in the first instance, to have followed the course of the rivers, and, from them, in the progress of time, to have spread themselves more and more over the neighbouring countries. It was by them that agriculture, and its consequent civilization, were first regularly established. Among these races there were in the west the above-named Celts. The inhabitants of Denmark, and the west of Europe, in the stone-period, are therefore to be designated as forming the transition between the most ancient nomadic races, and the more recent agricultural and civilized nameless tribe.

It has been said, that it would be rendering little service to historical knowledge, to introduce such a nameless, and hitherto unknown, people into the history of Europe. A mere name is certainly of scarcely any importance. The principal thing is, that we have, by means of this people, discovered the way in which Europe was inhabited in the earliest time, a point upon which historical records do not furnish us with any account. We have seen quite a new step of civilization, and that is the first and important discovery made through the study of the primeval antiquities of Europe. It seems highly probable that this aboriginal people have not disappeared at once, but that they have been subdued by a new invading race, and by them, after the manner of other conquerors, reduced to slavery. The slaves in the North in pagan times, are described in the oldest traditions, as being entirely different in appearance from the other classes.

It mil at once be seen that the stone-period must be of extraordinary antiquity. If the Celts possessed settled abodes in the west of Europe, more than two thousand years ago, how much more ancient must be the population which preceded the arrival of the Celts. A great number of years must pass away before a people, like the Celts, could spread themselves over the west of Europe, and render the land productive; it is therefore no exaggeration if we attribute to the stone-period an antiquity of, at least, three thousand years. There are also geological reasons for believing that the bronze-period must have prevailed in Denmark, five or six hundred years before the birth of Christ.

 

§ 2. The Bronze-period.

The inhabitants of Denmark, during the bronze-period, were the people who first brought with them a peculiar degree of civilization. To them were owing the introduction of metals, the progress of agriculture and of navigation, not to mention that the previously uninhabited districts in the interior of the country were, by them, cleared of wood and rendered productive. This people stood therefore in the same degree of civilization as the Celts, and exercised as important an influence over the civilization of the north, as the Celts over that of the west of Europe. Is it then probable that the people of the bronze-period must themselves be regarded as a Celtic race?

The ancient written accounts of the early times of the North afford no sufficient authority for assuming that the Celts ever lived in the North; but they contain certain indications which, it has been thought, may possibly refer to something of the kind. Tor instance, the earliest Scandinavian traditions and songs mention that those races who had last migrated into the North, lived on friendly terms with a people named the Alfs, who, at an earlier period, lived at Alfheim, in the south of Norway, and in the north of Jutland. Since the Alfs, from what is related of them, must have possessed some civilization, and have been acquainted with agriculture, several historians have recognised in them the remains of Celtic tribes, who had formerly possessed larger portions of Denmark, from which they had been gradually ejected by other races. It is likewise said, that the peninsula of Jutland was inhabited by the Cimbri, who were probably of Celtic origin, and hence that it acquired the name of the Cimbric peninsula. These Cimbri, in such case, were to be regarded as the remains of the ancient and universally diffused Celtic population. By means of such naturally unfounded conclusions, it might be rendered apparently probable, that the inhabitants of the country during the bronze-period were Celts, particularly as antiquities of bronze similar to the Danish ones, have frequently been found in all the countries which were formerly, and are still, inhabited by Celtic tribes. It has been said too, that the bronze weapons, implements, and ornaments were of Celtic origin only, because the Teutonic tribes had no miners, and did not understand how to prepare the bronze metal, or how to work it afterwards.

It is certainly very curious that the many weapons, implements, and ornaments of bronze, which have been discovered in Greece, Italy, Germany, France, England, and Scandinavia, have in many respects considerable resemblance to each other. The swords are all short, two-edged, and with small handles, which have been fixed with nails to the blade; the Celts have about the same form, and have been fixed nearly in the same manner into the handle. The forms of the hatchets, knives, arm and neck rings, &c., are also very much alike. They have all been cast in moulds, and the metal is of the same composition, nine-tenths copper and one-tenth tin. From this there would be farther reason to suppose that they all originated with one people.

But a careful examination and comparison of the antiquities themselves from these various countries will nevertheless shew that in different countries the antiquities of bronze are also somewhat different. First the patterns or ornaments are not at all the same in all countries. In the North, in Denmark, and Mecklenburg, the spiral ornaments are, as already shewn, the most prevailing; but farther south, and west, ring ornaments and lines, which sometimes form triangular figures, are alone to be seen. Of the forms too the details are different. In Denmark, the swords of bronze have more often peculiar bronze handles, richly ornamented, than in England; in Italy again the forms of the swords are a little different both from the English, and the Danish ones. The Celts in Italy, Switzerland, and Greece, are much flatter, and more ornamented, than the Celts in the north of Europe. The lance-heads in the British islands are distinctly different from the Danish, which unlike the British, never have loops at the side of the shaft-hole. There is no doubt but that, in time, we shall be able to point out quite distinctly the limits for the different forms and patterns.

From what has here been said, we may conclude that the antiquities of bronze do not belong exclusively to one people, in the north, west, or south of Europe; which is further confirmed by the discovery in nearly every country of Europe, of the moulds in which the various weapons and ornaments of bronze have been cast; a fact which shews beyond a doubt that such bronze objects were manufactured in those countries, and not imported. The only thing which was imported being of course the metal, which by trade and barter was spread, in different ways, over the whole of Europe.

It is also well known that the classical authors do not mention copper, or bronze, as having been used instead of iron exclusively by the Celtic tribes. On the contrary, they mostly mention iron weapons among the Celts, but speak of bronze weapons as used by people who were not Celts. It is stated by Homer, Hesiod, and other authors, that the Greeks in the most ancient time, before they had knowledge of iron, used bronze, which was also the case with the Romans. Herodotus, speaking of the Massagets, a Scythian or Finnic people, living to the east of the Caspian sea, says, that they had neither iron nor silver, which were not to be found in their country, but that they had plenty of copper and gold: on which account all their lance-heads, arrow-heads, and war-axes, were of copper, and their caps and belts ornamented with gold. The same author speaks also of other Scythians, who used weapons of copper; to which must be added, that the Egyptian, and Siberian tombs and barrows, often contain tools and weapons of bronze, and copper.

From these evidences it follows that the antiquities belonging to the bronze-period which are found in the different countries of Europe, can neither be attributed exclusively to the Celts, nor to the Greeks, Romans, Phœnicians, Sclavonians, nor to the Teutonic tribes. They do not belong exclusively to any one people, but have been used by the most different nations, at the same stage of civilization; and there is no historical evidence strong enough to prove that the Teutonic people were in that respect an exception. The forms and patterns of the various weapons, implements, and ornaments are so much alike, because such forms and patterns are the most natural, and the most simple. As we saw in the stone-period, how people at the lowest stage of civilization, by a sort of instinct, made their stone implements in the same shape, so we see now in the first traces of a higher civilization, that they exhibit in the mode of working objects of bronze, a similar general resemblance. But it is quite clear that the civilization in the bronze-period was only preparatory. It principally existed as long as the people spread themselves over the countries, cutting down woods, and beginning to cultivate the soil; in short, so long as they did not appear actively on the stage of history. At the moment they did so appear, we find them in possession of iron, and of the higher civilization which went along with it. Already in the time of Homer the Greeks had iron, although it was very scarce and expensive; the Romans seem to have had, and used iron, before the kings were expelled. It was partly an effect of Greek and Roman influence, that the use of iron was known at a comparatively early period in the northern parts of Italy, in South Germany, and Gallia, the inhabitants of which countries were thereby enabled to contend so gallantly with the Romans. Polybius mentions however, that the Gauls, who about two hundred years before Christ, fought against the Romans in the north of Italy, were obliged in their battles to straighten their swords by putting their feet upon them, because they bent when exposed to a heavy blow; a fact which shews that the Gauls did not then possess steel. The invention of making the iron hard is attributed to the Celts of Noricum; in the time of Augustus, the Noric swords were famous in Rome.

But if the people in the neighbourhood of Rome, and influenced by Roman civilization, at the commencement of the Christian era, generally possessed weapons of iron, it does not follow that the people in the North had also, at so early a time, plenty of that metal. Cæsar says distinctly that, in Britain, iron was only to be found at the coasts, and that in such small quantities that the inhabitants used imported bronze, ("ære utuntur importato.") It must also be remembered, that he speaks of their using iron rings, as money. A century after Christ, the Britons seem to have got a great deal more iron, but the Germans had still so little of it, that they very rarely had swords, or large lance-heads, of that metal. It was when the Romans got colonies in Hungary, Germany, Gaul, and Britain, or about from the third century of the Christian era, that their civilization first got some influence in the northern part of Germany, and in Scandinavia, where however it evidently had a hard struggle with the old civilization.

This view is strongly supported by the antiquities and tombs in the different countries. The many Gaulish and British coins which, there is no doubt, were originally imitations of the coins of Philip, and Alexander the Great of Macedon, shew a very early Greek influence, which most likely spread itself over Gaul and Britain, from the Greek colony at Marseilles. But it is particularly important that all the antiquities which hitherto have been found in the large burying-places of the iron-period in Switzerland, Bavaria, Baden, France, England, and the North, exhibit traces more, or less, of Roman influence. The common pattern is an interlaced and arabesque ornament, (the snake ornament as it has been called above, p. 72,) which is not at all like any of the old ornaments in the bronze period, but bears a close resemblance to Roman patterns, and mosaic pavements, and many other objects of Roman art. In imitating the Roman patterns there have been added fantastic figures, and heads of animals, and men. In some of the large burying-places, as near Basle in Switzerland, the tombs were built of broken Roman tomb-stones; and in other tombs of the same period, both in Germany and England, there have frequently been found Roman coins, belonging to the first centuries after Christ, but none older. The objects found in those tombs, exhibit a remarkable general resemblance, not only in pattern, but also in form; this however affords no proof, that they were manufactured by one people, and by them spread over Europe, because the details differ in different countries. On the contrary in the iron-period we see again a common step of civilization for the European people; we find the first traces of the new civilization, which rose upon the ruins of the Roman civilization, but which necessarily commenced with imitations of the preceding one. But, at the same time, the tombs shew that this imitation commenced later in the north, and particularly in Scandinavia, than in the south, and west of Europe. In the Scandinavian tombs of the iron-period there have never been found, as in those of southern and western Europe, Roman coins dating from the first centuries after Christ; for the Roman coins, which have been discovered in the North, have been turned up in fields, sand-banks, &c., but never in tombs. Celtic coins have never been discovered in Scandinavia. The oldest coins which have been found in the North, in connection with antiquities of the iron-period, are Byzantine coins, or more commonly imitations of Byzantine coins, the bracteates of gold, which are for the most part imitated from coins of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries. The imitations of the coins are then of course of a still later date. Thus, the tombs of the iron-period in the south shew an earlier influence from Rome, but the northern tombs, of the same period, shew a much later influence from Byzantium. It is therefore not only easy to understand why the remains of the old civilization in the bronze-period are so rare in the south of Europe, and so numerous in the north, particularly in Ireland and Denmark, where the Romans never were, but it will also now be much easier to explain the monuments of the bronze and iron-period, in Scandinavia.

We have seen, not only that the antiquities of the iron-period are comparatively speaking very scarce in Denmark; but also that the cairns, stone-circles, and standing stones, which are characteristic of the iron-period, and which are to be found in such considerable numbers in Norway and Sweden, at once stop at the old borders of Denmark, where they are completely unknown, and where again the remains of the bronze-period, which are nearly unknown in Norway, and the northern part of Sweden, are exceedingly common. This seems to afford a strong argument that the civilization of the iron-period, which can first be traced with any certainty in Sweden and Norway, as late as the fourth and fifth centuries, must have been completely introduced into Denmark at a still later date. It is in that respect worth observing, that the tombs of this period in Norway, and Sweden, consist of barrows of the old fashion, in which the bodies were interred after having been burnt; but, that the tombs in Denmark belonging to the same period form large burying-grounds, in which the bodies were buried unburnt. This custom does seem not to have prevailed before, in the transition from paganism to Christianity ; on which account, there have been found in these burying-places, both in Switzerland and in the south of Germany, Christian inscriptions and Christian emblems.

The remains of the iron-period in Denmark are scarcely sufficient to fill up a couple of centuries, before the first commencement of Christianity, (826); and we cannot therefore carry the complete introduction of the civilization of the iron-period into Denmark farther back, than to the sixth and seventh centuries.

About the year 500, it seems to have been introduced into Mecklenburg, as the Slavonic people took possession of the land, which was left by the Saxon people, who went over to England. But the civilization was sooner and more easily introduced into Mecklenburg by the new invading people than into Denmark; where evidently, the same people who lived there in the bronze-period continued to keep possession of the country, and maintain the old civilization; if they had been expelled by a new invading people, who first settled in Sweden and Norway, we should of course expect to find the same monuments of the iron-period in Denmark, as in Norway and Sweden, which as we have seen, is not at all the case. It is however, natural, that those people who inhabited Denmark, at the time of the invasions into Norway and Sweden, should be mixed with some fresh elements.

Under these circumstances, it cannot possibly be imagined that the inhabitants of Denmark in the bronze-period should have been Celts. If they also, as late as the sixth and seventh centuries, had mixed with the Scandinavian people, which is in the highest degree improbable, we should have reason to expect that the present Danish language would exhibit a considerable number of Celtic words and expressions, not to be found either in the Swedish, or in the Norwegian language; but this is very far from being the case. The oldest Runic inscriptions in Denmark, are as pure Scandinavian, as any other in the North. In the very place, in Norway, where Celts are supposed to have lived, tombs and antiquities of the bronze-period have never, as yet, been discovered. In fact, there does not exist any historical record of Celtic inhabitants in the North. The Roman authors say, certainly, that the Cimbri lived on the peninsula of Jutland. But the same authors speak of them as a Germanic people; and it must be remarked, too, that geographical knowledge was at that time exceedingly limited, so that accounts which refer to the northern peninsula of Holland, have sometimes been transferred to the peninsula of Jutland. The question here is not, how far a single, or small Celtic tribe, may have lived for a short time, during the bronze-period, on the peninsula of Jütland; but what people it was, who, during that period, was spread over the whole of the present Denmark, and the southern part of Sweden, and who have left behind them such a quantity of monuments.

Already, from the first centuries of the Christian era, the Roman authors mention Gothic inhabitants of Scandinavia, which is farther confirmed by accounts in some of the oldest Icelandic Sagas, and chronicles of the North. It is there said, that Denmark, in the earliest time, was called Eygotland (the island of the Goths) and Reiðgotland, (the continent of the Goths,) or, by one name, Gotland. In the fifth century the Goths (Jütes) went over to England from Jutland, which country was still, in the ninth century, called by the Anglo-Saxons Gotland. "From Svea and Götaland the kingdom of Sweden has been formed in pagan times," says the old Swedish lawbook. As therefore the remains of the bronze-period necessarily extend to the sixth and seventh centuries, there can be very little doubt, that the inhabitants of Denmark, in the bronze-period, were a Gothic tribe. It has however been said, that they were a Gotho-Germanic, and not a Gotho-Scandinavian race; and that they were quite subdued or expelled from Sweden and Denmark, by the Scandinavian people. But against this we have not only, as already shewn, the testimony of the monuments, but also the testimony of the history of Scandinavia. A general review of the iron-period will further prove, that this Gothic tribe must necessarily have been the first Scandinavian people, who settled in the North.

 

§ 3. The Iron-period.

The numerous remains belonging to the iron-period in Norway and Sweden must, without all doubt, be ascribed to the same people as the present Swedes, and Norwegians, (Svear og Nordmænd;) who, according to all tradition, came from the East, and who on their arrival in the northern parts of Scandinavia, either completely subdued the nomadic Finnic tribes living there, or drove them to the most northern part of Europe, where remnants of them exist to this day. Already, in the first century of the Christian era, Tacitus mentions the "Sviones" (Svear?) as having settlements in the North, on the borders of the Ocean. But if it is not to be supposed that the Svioncs were the Goths, who in the bronze-period seem to have lived along the eastern and north-eastern coast of Sweden, and around the Mœlar lake, it is clear that there must have been later invasions. Both the oldest traditions and the monuments point to that. The whole civilization of the iron-period, which appears so suddenly in Sweden and Norway, that it must have come with a newly invading people, is evidently built upon the Roman civilization; the many Byzantine coins from the fifth and sixth centuries, which are found in the North, besides the imitations of them, the gold bracteates, the constant intercourse which, from that time, existed between the North and Byzantium, where the Northmen so frequently served as life-guards of the emperors, all seem, in a remarkable manner, to confirm the statement, preserved by the renowned Icelandic historian, Suorro Sturleson, that Odin and his followers, at the time of the Roman invasions of the countries of the Black sea, first left their settlement there, and went to the north-eastern part of Sweden, to the country around the Mœlar lake. It is quite natural that then, about a couple of centuries after Christ, new tribes should have entered Scandinavia, as it was at the time of the great "migration of people" (Germ. Völkerwanderung, Dan. Folkevandring), when nearly all the other countries of Europe were filled by new inhabitants.

The Svear, or as tradition says, Odin and his followers, came probably before the Norwegians. They appear to have passed from Russia, through Finland, over the Aoland islands, to the shores of the Mœlar lake, when they made their principal settlement in Upland, which was afterwards also called Mannheim, or the home of the men, or the people, and where the chief temple, or principal place of worship was, (at Upsala). From Upland, they peopled the neighbouring counties, which, from their situation with reference to Upland, were called Södermanland, Westmanland, &c., and which, together with Upland, were called Svithiod. The Norwegians, who came after the Svear, or Swedes, were now obliged to proceed still farther north and to cross over the Kjölen mountains, into Norway. From Halogaland far north, they went down to Tröndelagen, around Drontheim, from whence they spread themselves both along the coasts, and over the Dovre mountains, over the interior, and southern parts of Norway.

About the year 400, or 500, Scandinavia was thus peopled by Norwegians, Swedes, and Goths, who were divided into Göths in Götaland, and Goths in Denmark. It is said that the Swedes and Norwegians now expelled the Göths and Goths, and took possession of their countries. But the Swedes were separated from the Göths in Götaland, by wild mountains and the immense forests Kolmorden and Tiveden, from which Svithiod was called the land north of the wood (Nordenskovs), and Götaland, the land south of the wood (Söndenskovs); this made it, of course, very difficult for the Swedes to attack the Göths. The Göths were first, in a later period, about the eighth or ninth century, under the Swedish kings, but that they were neither expelled, nor completely subdued, appears from the circumstance, that in the middle ages, they still retained their own peculiar laws and customs, and regarded themselves altogether as a distinct people. Until nearly the fifteenth century, the Göths continued to contend with the Swedes, respecting their share in the election of the sovereign, &c.; and to this day, a difference both of dialect and customs, serves to indicate that the Svear and Göths were two nearly related, but, at the same time, two perfectly distinct people. The dialect, however, by no means shews that the Göths spoke a German language; the dialects of Götaland, as well as those of Denmark, were originally as pure Scandinavian, as the Swedish and Norwegian dialects. In the middle ages, only, they were perhaps more intermixed with German than the Swedish and Norwegian, because they had more intercourse with Germany. It will easily be seen, that as the Swedes could not expel the Göths, who were their neighbours, the Swedes and Norwegians could still less expel the Goths in Denmark, who lived south of the Göths. This perfectly agrees with the existing monuments, and there is therefore little, or no doubt, that the Goths and Göths, the inhabitants of Southern Scandinavia in the bronze-period, were the first Scandinavian tribes who settled in the North, and who, of course, settled in the southern parts, as they were both the most fertile, and the easiest to cultivate. The Goths and Göths are thus to be regarded, as the real ancestors of the present inhabitants of Denmark, and of the southern part of Sweden; they afterwards became a good deal mixed with the Swedes, and Norwegians.

The knowledge of iron, and the higher civilization, which the Swedes and Norwegians brought to the South, and which enabled them both to cut down the immense woods, make roads over the mountains, cultivate the soil, and build large vessels, was, by degrees, through intercourse, marriage, and immigrations, spread over Götaland and Denmark. In Götaland, the use of iron had probably completely superseded the use of bronze, for weapons and implements, as early as the sixth century, as there were then in Götaland frequent attacks both from Norway and Sweden, and as Götaland, not long after, became connected with Sweden. In Denmark it took of course more time; but from the fifth or sixth century, the civilization of the iron-period had been completely introduced into Mecklenberg, by the Slavonic tribes; into England, by the Anglo-Saxons; into Norway, and Sweden, by the Norwegians, and the Svear. It is probable that both bronze and iron were in use together in Denmark during one or two centuries, until about the year 700, when the use of iron completely superseded that of bronze, for implements, and weapons. At that time, they still, in Norway and Sweden, burned the bodies of their dead, and buried them in barrows; but in Denmark, the custom was to bury the bodies unburnt in large burning-places, which shews an influence from the west and south of Europe, where a similar custom prevailed.

At this period, the mode of life in the North underwent a great change. The Northmen were now so powerful that they made large settlements in the West, in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, &c.; and in the East, in Russia; which made Scandinavia, during several centuries, the central-point for an extensive commerce between the East, and the northern parts of Europe. Both by Viking expeditions, and by commerce, a higher civilization was brought from the West to the North. The many emigrations from Scandinavia weakened the power of the numerous small kingdoms; and when Christianity was introduced into the North, independent conquering kings formed three larger kingdoms, of which Denmark contained the flat, and fertile, portions; Norway the remote mountainous; and Sweden the transition parts. It was now, that the three principal Scandinavian tribes, the Norwegians, Swedes, and the Danish Goths, got each their king.

We have thus seen how the antiquities and barrows serve to prove, that the flat fertile Denmark must have been peopled earlier, than the northern parts of Sweden and Norway, which were full of immense forests and mountains. The monuments shew the peopling of Scandinavia in a natural point of view; which view finds confirmation, and that in a remarkable degree, rather than contradiction, in the most ancient and trustworthy of our historical records. Meantime, it is obvious, that most points of the present review of our subject can only receive their due explanation from future researches; for science is as yet too young to furnish us, at once, with all the explanations which we require.

It has therefore been the peculiar object of the present work, merely to collect and compare the results obtained by science, up to the present moment, with the information afforded by history, in order to prove, to how great a degree, the antiquities and barrows have already afforded, and doubtless will continue to afford, important and indispensable information, not only to the ancient history of the North; but, at the same time, to that of all Europe. With regard to the value of the information already acquired by these investigations into the monuments of antiquity, opinions will, of course, be divided ; but, on the following point, all will certainly be of one opinion, namely, that a complete comparison of the antiquarian relics of different countries, with reference to the first peopling of Europe, and the most ancient history of the human race, will yield information, of the extent and importance of which, we are, at present, unable to form any adequate idea.

 

II. Importance or the Monuments of Antiquity as regards Nationality.

The age preceding the Christian era, on the consideration of which we have here dwelt for some time, forms a peculiar and very remarkable portion of the history of Denmark. We find our forefathers, it is true, devoted to a cruel and savage heathenism, but we cannot refuse them our admiration. Their love for freedom and for home, their truth and their bravery, which were the terror of the mightiest states in Europe, afford proofs of a nobleness of soul, and an energy, which are worthy of imitation at the present day. And, since it is certain, that the perusal of our glorious ancient traditions will powerfully contribute to excite the feeling for our independence of character, so, is it also certain, that antiquities and barrows, inasmuch as they explain these traditions, have also a deep importance for us, as national memorials. By their means, antiquity stands, as it were, revealed before our eyes. We see our fore- fathers penetrating, for the first time, into Denmark; and armed with sharp weapons subduing the uncivilized people who then dwelt here; we see them diffuse the knowledge of metals, of agriculture, and a higher degree of general civilization. We hold in our hands the swords, with which they made the Danish name respected and feared; we can even shew the trinkets and ornaments, which they brought home as booty, from their expeditions to foreign lands. The remains of antiquity thus bind us more firmly to our native land; hills and vales, fields and meadows, become connected with us, in a more intimate degree; for by the barrows, which rise on their surface, and the antiquities, which they have preserved for centuries in their bosom, they constantly recal to our recollection, that our forefathers lived in this country, from time immemorial, a free and independent people, and so call on us to defend our territories with energy, that no foreigner may ever rule over that soil, which contains the bones of our ancestors, and with which our most sacred and reverential recollections are associated.

The attention which the monuments of antiquity have already received, is therefore not without deep foundation. It is an omen that the Danish people, in their present advanced condition of improvement, will not seek to associate themselves with other nations; but rather, with looks turned to their native country, endeavour to combine the fervour and energy of the past, with the skill and ability of the present; and will, thus, maintain themselves free, and independent.

1. While these sheets have been passing through the press, several remarkable specimens of these ancient canoes have been discovered in this country. One found in the neighbourhood of Southampton is described in the Literary Gazette of the 2nd of July; another, measuring about twenty-two feet in length, was taken out of the Tay at Sleepless Island in the early part of the present year; and a third has been discovered at Glasgow, fifteen feet below the old Cross of that town.—T.