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so great a reward. We have seen what motives this religion offered to its votaries and we cannot fail to recall them in reading some instances of that courage which distinguished the ancient Scandinavians, and of their contempt of death itself, which I shall produce from the most authentic chronicles of Iceland.
History informs us, that Harold surnamed Blaatand or Blue Tooth (a king of Denmark, who reigned in the middle of the tenth century) had founded on the coasts of Pomerania, which he had subdued, a city named Julin or Jomsburg; where he sent a colony of young Danes, and bestowed the government on a celebrated warrior named Palnatoko. This new Lycurgus had made of that city a second Sparta, and every thing was directed to this single end, to form complete soldiers. The author who has left us the history of this colony assures us, that “it was forbidden there so much as to mention the name of Fear, even in the most imminent dangers[1].” No citizen of Jomsburg was to yield to any number however great, but to fight intrepidly without flying, even from a very superior force.
- ↑ See Jomswikinga Saga, in Bartholin. de caus. contempt. mort. lib. i. c. 5.
