238 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [XII. 



Upon the occupation of their new home, the ascendency 

 of that mysterious hero, under whose auspices the settlement 

 was conducted, appears to have remained more firmly estab- 

 lished than ever, not only over the mass of the people, but 

 also over the twelve subordinate chiefs who accompanied 

 him ; there never seems to have been the slightest attempt 

 to question his authority, and, though afterwards themselves 

 elevated into an order of celestial beings, every tradition 

 which has descended is careful to maintain his human and 

 divine supremacy. Through the obscurity, the exaggera- 

 tion, and the ridiculous fables, with which his real existence 

 has been overloaded, we can still see that this man evidently 

 possessed a genius as superior to his contemporaries, as has 

 ever given to any child of man the ascendency over his 

 generation. In the simple language of the old chronicler, 

 we are told, "that his countenance was so beautiful that, 

 when sitting among his friends, the spirits of all were 

 exhilarated by it ; that when he spoke, all were persuaded ; 

 that when he went forth to meet his enemies, none could 

 withstand him." Though subsequently made a god by the 

 superstitious people he had benefited, his death seems to 

 have been noble and religious. He summoned his friends 

 around his pillow, intimated a belief in the immortality of 

 his soul, and his hope that hereafter they should meet again 

 in Paradise. "Then," we are told, "began the belief in 

 Odin, and their calling upon him." 



On the settlement of the country, the land was divided 

 and subdivided into lots — some as small as fifty acres — and 

 each proprietor held his share — as their descendants do to 

 this day — by udal right ; that is, not as a fief of the Crown, 

 or of any superior lord, but in absolute, inalienable posses- 

 sion, by the same udal right as the kings wore their crowns, 

 to be transmitted, under the same title, to their descendants 

 unto all generations. 



These landed proprietors were called the Bonders, and 

 formed the chief strength of the realm. It was they, their 

 friends and servants, or thralls, who constituted the army. 



