Northern Antiquities/Chapter 12

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Northern Antiquities (1770)
by Paul Henri Mallet, translated by Thomas Percy

Chapter XII

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Paul Henri Mallet4595014Northern Antiquities — Chapter XII1770Thomas Percy

A numerous offspring was commonly produced from these marriages; but neither the rich, nor the poor scrupled to expose such of their children as they did not chuse to bring up^[1]. Both the Greeks and Romans were guilty of this barbarous practice, long before they can be said to have been corrupted by prosperity, luxury and the arts: So true is it that ignorance is no security from vice, and that men always know enough to invent crimes. It is no less remarkable, that a kind of infant baptism was practised in the North, long before the first dawning of Christianity had reached those parts. Snorro Sturleson, in his Chronicle, speaking of a Norwegian nobleman, who lived in the reign of Harald Harfagre, relates, that he poured water on the head of a new-born child, and called him Hacon, from the name of his father^[2]. Harald himself had been baptized in the fame manner, and it is noted of king Olave Tryggueson, that his mother Astride had him thus baptized and named as soon as he was born. The Livonians observed the same ceremony; which also prevailed among the Germans, as appears from a letter which the famous pope Gregory the Third sent to their apostle Boniface, directing him expressly how to act in this respect^[3]. It is probable that all these people might intend by such a rite to preserve their children from the sorceries and evil charms which wicked spirits might employ against them at the instant of their birth. Several nations of Asia and America have attributed such a power to ablutions of this kind; nor were the Romans without such a custom, though they did not wholly confine it to new-born infants.^[4]

I shall not here repeat what I have said above concerning the hardy way of bringing up children in the North. But I cannot omit mentioning the great advantages gained from it in respect to their health and bodily force. The Greek and Latin authors speak with surprize of the size and strength of the northern men. Cæfar obferves of the Suevi, that they feed chiefly on milk, and exercife them- felves much in hunting, which together with the free unreftrained life they lead, never being from their childhood impelled againft their inclinations to any difcipline or duty, he affigns as effective caufes of their very large and robuft make *. Vege- tius exprefsly affirms, that the tallness of the Germans gave them great advantage in combat over the leffer Romans. The lances, fwords and other arms which have been preferved to this time, and may yet continue to more remote ages, are objects of curiofity and aftonifhment to thofe whofe anceſtors were able to wield them. But the greateft proof of their prodigi- ous ftrength arifes from the rude enor- mous monuments of architecture which were raifed by thefe northern people. We have all heard of that monument on Sa- lifbury plain in England, where we fee a multitude of vaft ftones of monftrous weight fet up end-wife, and ferving as bafes to other ftones, many of which are in length fixteen feet. Nor are the monu- ments of this kind lefs aftonishing, which we meet with in Iceland, in Weftphalia, and particularly in Eaft-Friezeland, Brunf-

Bell. Gall. lib. iv. c. 1.

VOL. I. Chap. XII. Z wick, wick, Mecklenburg, and many parts of the North *. The dark ignorance of fuc- ceeding ages not being able to compre- hend how fuch ftupendous edifices could be conftructed by mortals, have attributed them to demons and giants. But although the founders of thefe had not probably alt the affiftance we derive from the mecha- nic powers, yet great things might be ac- complished by men of fuch mighty force co- operating together. The Americans, un- aided by the engines we apply to thefe pur-

A defcription of moft

of the monuments above- mentioned, with their fi- gures engraven on cop- per-plates, may be feen in KEYSLER. Antiq. Select. Septen. Sect. i. cap. 1. (cui titulus Defcriptio mo- numenti Salisburienfis, fimi- liumque que in Germania in Germania terrifque Artois cernuntur.) T. + In an ancient Ice- landic chronicle mention is made of a Norwegian named FINBOG, celebrat- ed for his ftrength. One day, fays the Author, he pulled up an enormous ftone, that was deep fixed in the earth, he took two other great ftones and placed them upon it, he carried them all three up- on his belly for fome mi- nutes, and at length threw them from him with fuch violence that the greateſt of them remained buried a great way in the earth. (Vid. Chrift. Worm. Diff. de Aræ Multifc. vit. & fcript. p. 172.) A multitude of fuch men uniting together might be able to difplace large and heavy fragments of rocks, and by means of the fcaffolding they ufed, viz. artificial banks, &c. might be able to fet them upright. Firft Edit. IX.qedpofes, Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/414 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/415 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/416 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/417 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/418 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/419 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/420 Germany^[5]. The person who had been interred there, seems to have been a lover of good chear; for he had carried with him several utensils of cookery, together with flagons and drinking vessels of all sizes. In the British Isles, in Germany, in Scandinavia, and in many countries in the northern and eastern parts of Asia, are found monuments of the ancient inhabitants, in the form of little round hills and often surrounded with stones, on open plains or near some road. It is the received opinion that these are the burying places of giants, and indeed bones larger than the human size are often found in them; but we must remember that as the ancients durst not approach the palace of Odin on foot, and for that reason had their horses buried with them, it is very probable that the bones of these animals are often

mistaken for those of men.

CHAPTER XIII.

Sequel of the customs, arts and Sciences of the ancient Scandinavians.

THE arts which are necessary to the convenience of life, are but indifferently cultivated among a people, who neglect the more pleasing and refined ones. The Scandinavians held them all equally in contempt: What little attention they bestowed on any, was chiefly on such as were subservient to their darling passion. This contempt for the arts, which mens’ desire of justifying their own sloth inspires, received additional strength from their sanguinary religion, from their extravagant fondness for liberty, which could not brook a long confinement in the same place, and especially from their rough, fiery and quarrelsome temper, which taught them to place all the happiness and glory of man in being able to brave his equals and to repel insults.

As long as this inclination had its full sway among a people, who were perpetually migrating from one forest to another, and entirely maintained from the produce of their flocks and herds, they never thought of cultivating the soil. In the time of Tacitus, the Germans were little used to agriculture. “They cultivate,” says that historian, “sometimes one part of the country, and sometimes another; and then make a new division of the lands. They will much easier be persuaded to attack and reap wounds from an enemy, than to till the ground and wait the produce. They consider it as an indication of effeminacy and want of courage to gain by the sweat of their brow, what they may acquire at the price of their blood^[6].” This prejudice gradually wore out, and they applied themselves more to agriculture. The great consumption of grain in a country, where the principal part of their food and their ordinary liquor was chiefly made of nothing else, could not but produce this effect. In the ninth and tenth centuries we see the free-men, the nobility and the men of great property, directing the operations of husbandry themselves^[7]. At length Christianity

↑ Vid. Verel. Not. ad Hervor. cap. vi. p. 87.
↑ Vid. Snor. Sturles. c. lxx.
↑ Vid. Epist. 122. apud Nic. Serar. in Epist. Sti Bonifacii martyris.
↑ Vid. Keysler. Antiq. Select. p. 313. who has a very learned Note on this subject, where he has collected together a number of curious passages from authors ancient and modern, Classic and Barbarous writers, relating to this practice. T.
↑ Nimischæ in pago uno milliari a Gubena distante universus adparatus culinarius erutus, cacabi, ollæ, catini, phialæ, patinæ, urceoli, lagenulæ, &c. Vide Keysler. Antiq. Select. Septen. p. 173. T.
↑ Tac. Germ. c. 14, &c.
↑ Vid. Arng. Jon. Crymog. lib. i. p. 52.

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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[1] Vid. Verel. Not. ad Hervor. cap. vi. p. 87.

[2] Vid. Snor. Sturles. c. lxx.

[3] Vid. Epist. 122. apud Nic. Serar. in Epist. Sti Bonifacii martyris.

[4] Vid. Keysler. Antiq. Select. p. 313. who has a very learned Note on this subject, where he has collected together a number of curious passages from authors ancient and modern, Classic and Barbarous writers, relating to this practice. T.

[5] Nimischæ in pago uno milliari a Gubena distante universus adparatus culinarius erutus, cacabi, ollæ, catini, phialæ, patinæ, urceoli, lagenulæ, &c. Vide Keysler. Antiq. Select. Septen. p. 173. T.

[6] Tac. Germ. c. 14, &c.

[7] Vid. Arng. Jon. Crymog. lib. i. p. 52.

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