ENGLAND. (ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.) 



13 



before they set out on their warlike expeditions, in 

 order to obtain victory from that warlike divinity. 

 Besides these three great festivals, in honour of 

 Thor, Frigga, and Odin, their three greatest gods, 

 they kept many others at different seasons, in honour 

 of their inferior gods. 



Such was the superstition that reigned over all 

 those parts of England possessed by the Saxons 

 and Danes, previous to their conversion to Chris- 

 tianity. The reader will observe, that though it 

 bore a general resemblance to the ancient druidism 

 of the Britons in several particulars, it differed 

 greatly from it in other respects. The Saxon and 

 Danish priests were neither held in such profound 

 veneration, nor enjoyed so much power, especially in 

 civil affairs, as the druids. Their speculative opinions 

 in many things were very different ; as were also the 

 obj ects, the seasons, and ceremonies of their wor- 

 shi p. 



Martial valour was the peculiar boast of the 

 ancient nations of Germany and Scandinavia, and 

 their distinguishing characteristic. The genuine 

 spirit and sentiments of all those nations are expres- 

 sed in the following words of one of their chieftains : 

 (as handed down to us by the sententious and 

 philosophic Tacitus.) " Valour is the most glorious 

 attribute of man, which endears him to the gods, who 

 never forsake the valiant." It was this undaunted 

 valour that enabled the northern nations to triumph 

 over the Roman discipline, effectually to resist their 

 arms, and, at length, to overturn their empire. Nor 

 were any of these nations (except the Scandinavians, 

 who were the scourge of all Europe for several cen- 

 turies) more renowned than the Saxons. Their very 

 religion was adapted to their ferocious disposition, 

 and contributed to preserve that romantic valour, 

 that eager thirst after military renown and spirit of 

 adventure, which characterized the Saxons, and, after 

 them, the Danes. Animated by the warlike genius 

 of the religion of Woden, the Danes, who afterwards 

 constituted so great a proportion of the inhabitants of 

 England, rode triumphant through all the seas of 

 Europe ; and carried terror and desolation to the 

 coasts of Germany, France, Spain, Italy, England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland. Their admission to the hall 

 of Odin, (the father of slaughter, and the god of fire 

 and desolation,) and all their future happiness, they 

 were taught to believe, depended on the violence of 

 their own death, and on the number of their 

 x enemies which they had slain in battle. This belief 

 inspired them with a contempt of life, a fondness for 

 a violent death, and a thirst for blood ; which are 

 happily unknown, and seem incredible to us, who live 

 in modern times. Their education, no less than their 

 religion, contributed to foster this martial disposition. 

 Many, if not the most of them, had been born in 

 camps and fleets ; and the first objects on which their 

 eyes were fixed, were arms, storms, battles, blood, 

 and slaughter. Nursed and brought up in the midst 

 of these terrible objects, they gradually became 

 familiar, and, at length, delightful. Their childhood 

 and their dawn of youth was wholly spent in running, 

 leaping, climbing, swimming, wrestling, boxing, 

 fighting, and such exercises as hardened both their 

 souls and bodies, and disposed and fitted them for the 

 toils of war. As soon as they began to lisp, they 

 were taught to sing the exploits and victories of their 

 ancestors ; their memories were stored with nothing 

 but tales of warlike and piratical expeditions ; and of 

 defeating their enemies, burning cities, plundering 

 provinces, and of the wealth and glory thus acquired. 



This martial spirit of the pagan Danes exerted and 

 spent itself in piratical expeditions principally, and 

 they were so universally addicted to this practice in 

 the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries, that a Dane and a 



pirate became synonymous terms in the languages of 

 several nations, and particularly in that of the Anglo- 

 Saxons. Some of these pirates grew so wealthy and 

 famous, and had such numerous fleets at their com- 

 mand, that they were called sea-kings ; and though 

 not possessed of a single foot of land, made the 

 greatest nations, and most powerful monarchs, trem- 

 ble. " Helghi," says Bartholinus, " was a hero of 

 invincible strength and valour, and spent his whole 

 life in piracy. He plundered and depopulated ah 1 

 surrounding coasts, by his fleets, and justly acquired 

 the honourable title of a sea-king." 



The cruelty of the Danes is painted in the strongest 

 colours by our most ancient historians, who lived 

 near this time. " The cruel Guthrum," says one of 

 these historians, " arrived in England A. D. 878, at 

 the head of an army of pagan Danes, as cruel as 

 himself, who, like inhuman savages, destroyed all 

 before them with fire and sword, involving cities, 

 towns, and villages, with their inhabitants, in devour- 

 ing flame, and cutting those in pieces with their bat- 

 tle-axes who attempted to escape from their burning 

 houses. The tears, cries, and lamentations, of men, 

 women, and children, made no impression on their 

 unrelenting hearts ; even the most tempting bribes, 

 and the humblest offers of becoming their slaves, had 

 no effect. All the towns through which they passed, 

 exhibited the most deplorable scenes of misery and 

 desolation, such as venerable old men lying with 

 their throats cut, the streets covered with the bodies 

 of young men and children, without heads, and arms, 

 and of matrons and virgins, who had first been pub- 

 licly dishonoured, and then put to death. It is said 

 to have been the common practice among those bar- 

 barous pagans, to tear the infants of the English from 

 the breasts of their mothers, toss them up into the 

 air, and catch them on the point of their spears, as 

 they were falling down." One Oliver, a famous 

 pirate of those days, was much celebrated for 

 humanity, and acquired the name of Barnakaie, or 

 child preserver, because he denied his followers the 

 privilege of tossing infants on their spears. Even 

 after the Danes and Anglo-Saxons had embraced 

 Christianity, they long retained too great a tincture 

 of their former ferocity. It is a sufficient proof of 

 this, that the horrid operation of scalping, peculiar 

 to the North American savages, was occasionally 

 performed by these nations on their enemies towards 

 the latter end of this period. "Earl Godwin," says 

 an ancient historian, "intercepted prince Alfred, the 

 brother of Edward the Confessor, at Guildford, in his 

 way to London, seized his person, and defeated his 

 guards, some of which he imprisoned, some he 

 sold for slaves, some he blinded by putting out 

 their eyes, some he maimed by cutting off their hands 

 and feet, some he tortured by cutting off the skin of 

 their heads, and, by various torments, put about 600 

 men to death." 



Intemperance and excess in eating and drinking 

 were, of all others, the most prevalent vices of our 

 Anglo-Saxon and Danish ancestors ; in which they 

 would have spent whole days and nights, without 

 intermission, even after they were Christianized. This 

 propensity showed itself at their religious festivals, 

 for when the festival of St Augustine, the English 

 apostle, was held by king Edmund I. with all his 

 courtiers and nobility, they were all so intoxicated with 

 liquor, that they beheld their sovereign butchered by 

 a lawless ruffian, without having either strength or 

 presence of mind to give him the least assistance. 

 Some endeavours to check these shameful excesses 

 were made by his successor, Edgar ; and one of his 

 regulations is so curious that it merits insertion. It 

 was the custom in those days, that a whole company 

 drank out of one large vessel, which was handed 



