adjoining islands of Monen, Falster? and Laland, as the
proper country of thé Danes, where they are said to have
dwelt and exercised piracy for many ages before they attempted
the conquest , of J utland and other territories on, the^
continent.* It must;therefore be considered that their emigration
from Scandinavia rests on a remote and-merely mythical,
tradition.
The Swedes appear to have been .early a very powerful
people^ jTheir namejs used Jay Tacitus as a qomprehensiye
term for all the Germanic tribes in Scandinavia. They ^ e :
doubtless the-Suethidm of Jornandes. From Ajdarnof Bremen
we hare fuller accounts of them. That, ^writer was. struck
with the magnificence of the temple at, ÏTbsola, that is Up-
sala, which was situated not far from the cities ^ ^ e to n a and
Birca—Sigtuna and Bjerkoe. “ At this? temple,” he, says,
“ which is entirely ornamented with gold, the people worship
the statues.of three gods, the most.pgwerful of whom,;Thor,
is seated pn a conch in the middle, with Woden oironu vide
and Fricca on the other.” We have thus from^
an account of the paganism once common to $11 the ( ii-inr.mu*
tribes? still preserved in Scandinavia to th p ^ ^ ^ ^ 1 the vjug|yjp
who y|sifed the North and^deacribed it while subsistiaifm l ts
original splendour, long after it had disappeared f®m;Germanv
and from Saxon Britain.
. The Suiones of the ancients are the Sviar of the middle ag^esj
the inhabitants of Svea, and the Gutee-are the Goths or Gpth,-
landers. “ From Svea and Götaland,” says' the^old Swedish;
law, “ arose in heathen times the kingdom of Sweden,” but
the kingdom of the Goths is the oldest, as it is declared by
the earliest historian who wrote . at -• length the annals, o f
* Peter Olaas (Cbrtm. Beg. Dan. apud Langeb. i. 77- Zeuss, 509.) gives the following
summary of ihe Danish tradition from.the old Chronicles s 0 Ex ipso loco èt m u ltis
alii» ch ro h ic is Dan'orum colligitur, non esse verum, quod Jutia est Dania s sed secun-
dam chronica Sialandia, Lalandia, Falstria et Meonia est Dania, et illas terras primo
et principaliter comprehendit hoc nomen Dania. Dan.enim^d qpq fegnmn nomen
hahuit, multis annis dominabatur istis insulis, ante(jutim_ acquisivit Jutiam.”
« Fuit in UpsalaIctVÏtate Suethiae r.ex quidam Ypper nomine,-tres filios habens,
quorum unua Nori, alter Oesten,Terrids Dan dicebattir. Quem pater suus misit
ad has partes, quae nunc dicuntur Dania, ad regendum insulas quatuor, scilicet Sia-
land, Mon. Falster et Laland,.quae omnes uno vocabulo nuncupabantur Withsleeth.”
Sweden.* The SwedeS'Were the dominant race, for it became
their privilege tO’'gTve% monarch to'the united kingdom. The
chbil^was'madb at the! “ a ting allru Svia,” or assembly of all
.the; SW^des'at the Morasteine, an'd was confirmed at the “ ting
allr'a Gota^^x ^aksrim'bly'iof all the'Gothsj-f* and when the
W e's^fc^ths ventufe&H^sdh^>Sb%e Danish Magnus Nilsson for
dh|frf k4ngj th e ‘Swrides,'ad* Saxo says, “ veterem geritis suae
®6rb‘gativamin aliquanto obseurl&^' pgpulT invidia deporiere
passi nori’-sunCf® This union' Gothibd and the Sviar
^'gl^baftk' beyond the^age-Df i4utnelltic bistdry. It Misgiven
^p'figih, when-c'ompsired with th6‘;Mgend^' (sdrthb1-Yrigiinga saga;
Mating to the^conqiKstS -of Odin, trifan historical theorywvhich
■was set upfl'tj^g^ago by Maillet,madKhafe5.b^^^ with
great learning ’ rind**ii^lnWity by %he/e'ef@hrated ,‘fnodern historian;
of S^wed’en, M.1- Gefjjer'. This' "writer thinks it cannot
H^dgubtM that thede Count5 delivel'e®|ri''therY'hglihga!,saga ,of
thefr d@nc|u'es<fe-%f Odili|m%h4’'Niorth!and' th e immigfatio’U'jo^the
is the'Mrrative of afob^erit that|rm|'l^ hap^efifed^. But if
t'h^Seldtion is examined’ dj^toi the'eireiim'stab^l^t"prov.es:, as
he"think's,k,t'haf tffe^ffivaf of -Odirr: and tKervAsf. which it' re-
4brds,fw44 not the first entranefe df'a;peoj)Iri of German race,
and that a previou's-frivasibri Mdre?taken; p’llbe'-by-'people
^ f l \^ k iie 'k o c k . ©ct!h‘s settleme^ifa'thecountr^pfyvhich
hefebpk possession near the Malar- lakfe'jJiS^dp^fe^fehfed aSTCv
suiting from his. unton „with thqTormer' inhabitants,: his fol-
ifwers are never described as, expelling the conquered,, people
and taking possession of Jtb&',%buntryi” The assertion "that
Odin, introduced a new in^^the* Nbrfb, can' ndy^^ he
unffifsjtood to rnean that Wfy great Tarhily of J^guCagbs,, of
which the Saxon'as5 well d^tlie^Xxrs^aye;hranches,. originated
from him. We are by thesri kndgsimilar^lffiiderations forbidden
from regarding the; Scandinavians of th e time Jin|a^-
diately preceding the Icritranc.e^ of Od^;, 9.S merely.. Finnish
races.'- An -attentivfeis.urve<y^dfi the- histtp^, of the-North indicates
that Id tuns or^Finn arid Lappish tribes were the earliest
known inhabitants, that theYv^re subdued '^^Pexpellyd by a
Ericus Otói Hist. Suecórum Gothorumque libv ri,cited, by, Gbijer, Schwedens
U rg e sch ic h te ,360.
f Geijer, p. 361.