2 CIVILISATION AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE NORTH. 



behold the dead warrior on his burning ship or on the pyre, 

 and surrounded by his weapons, horses, slaves, or fallen com- 

 panions who are to enter with him into Valhalla ; l look into 

 the death chamber, see the mounding and the Arvel, or inheri- 

 tance feast. 



These Norsemen had carriages or chariots, as well as 

 horses, and the numerous skeletons of this animal in graves or 

 bogs prove it to have been in common use at a very early 

 period. . Their dress, and the splendour of their riding equip- 

 ment for war, the richness of the ornamentation of their 

 weapons of offence and defence are often carefully described. 

 Everywhere we see that gold was in the greatest abundance. 

 The descriptions of such wealth might seem to be very much 

 exasperated ; but, as will be seen in the course of this work, 



OO 



the antiquities treasured in the museums of the North bear 

 witness to the truthfulness of the records. The spade has 

 developed the history of Scandinavia, as it has done that of 

 Assyria and Etruria, but in addition the Northmen had the 

 Saga and Edda literature to perpetuate their deeds. 



We are the more astonished as we peruse the Eddas and Sagas 

 giving the history of the North, and examine the antiquities 

 found in the country, for we hear hardly anything about the 

 customs of the people from the Roman writers, and our ideas 

 regarding them have been thoroughly vitiated by the earlier 

 Frankish and English chronicles and other monkish writings, 

 or by the historians who have taken these records as a trust- 

 worthy authority. 



Some writers, in order to give more weight to these 

 chronicles, and to show the great difference that existed 

 between the invaders and invaded, and how superior the latter 

 were to the former, paint in a graphic manner, without a 

 shadow of authority, the contrast between the two peoples. 

 England is described as being at that time a most beautiful 

 country, a panegyric which does not apply to fifteen or twenty 

 centuries ago ; while the country of the aggressor is depicted 

 as 'one of swamp and forest inhabited by wild and savage men. 

 It is forgotten that after a while the people of the country 

 attacked were the same people as those of the North or their 



' The hull and abode of the slain. 



