life, which he had so often bravely hazarded in the field: but assembling the friends and companions of his fortune, he gave himself nine wounds in the form of a circle with the point of a lance, and many other cuts in his skin with his sword. As he was dying, he declared he was going back into Scythia to take his seat among the other Gods at an eternal banquet, where he would receive with great honours all who should expose themselves intrepidly in battle, and die bravely with their swords in their hands. As soon as he had breathed his last, they carried his body to Sigtuna, where conformably to a custom introduced by him into the north, his body was burnt with much pomp and magnificence.
Such was the end of this man, whose death was as extraordinary as his life. The loose sketches which we have here given of his character, might afford room for many curious conjectures, if they could be depended on as well founded. Among those which have been proposed, there is nevertheless one which deserves some attention. Several learned men have supposed that a desire of being revenged on the Romans was the ruling principle of his whole conduct. Driven from his country by those enemies of universal liberty; his resentment, say they, was so much the more
