EMIGRATION FROM SWEDEN 



17 



drive these emigrants with their wives and children from their native soil, and 

 this mighty force was dire need. 



We have direct testimonies from ancient times to the eflfect that such need 

 compelled the old Scandinavians to emigration en masse. During some centuries 

 before the beginning of our epoch the Cimbri were a tribe dwelling at Limfjorden 

 in Jutland, in the district now called Himmerland with Aalborg as its capital. 

 Enormous floods from the encroaching sea had covered great stretches of culti« 

 vated land and pasture and deprived many of the surviving peasants of any possi« 

 bility of maintaining themselves. This occurred about 120 B. C. Together with 

 parts of other tribes living by the sea who had been overtaken by the same mis« 

 fortune at the same time the necessitous Cimbri marched through Germania down 

 to the Danube, penetrated into the rich Roman province of Gallia after having 

 repeatedly asked the Romans in vain to assign them land and seed for cultivation, 

 conquered the Roman armies sent against them, extended their invasions and 

 plundering expeditions to Spain, and at length invaded Italy itself. It was only 

 then that Marius, the great Roman statesman and soldier, succeeding in checking 

 their advance, definitely annihilated them in a great battle in 101. 



Thanks to classical writers, we probably possess with regard to the Cimbri 

 the most detailed and reliable information we have of any migrating tribe from 

 the time they left their native country until the tribe perished. This information 

 clearly shows us that the Cimbri left their home and their kinsmen in the North 

 because of what I have called temporary overpopulation, caused by floods. 



For the same reasons it is considered that the Langobards who migrated from 

 Scandinavia to the valley of the Elbe, the present Bardengau, partly abandoned 

 their native homes about 300 A. D.* 



The Celtic tribes at the mouth of the Rhine are also described by classical 

 writers as having emigrated because of floods. 



In the Scandinavian peninsula floods that are sufficiently serious to affect the 

 sustenance of the people are, on account of the nature of the country, very rare. 

 But we have here instead to contend with a natural catastrophe of the greatest 

 importance from this point of view, namely failure of the crops. This catastrophe 

 affects human life in these regions all the more, because in its severe forms it 

 recurs or rather in earlier stages recurred frequently during each century, often 

 several years in succession. 



Even the legends from preohistoric time tell us of serious failures of the crops, 

 and the more light is thrown on the past vicissitudes of our people, the more 

 distinctly we see the scope and effects of this terrible scourge. From the last 

 centuries of the middle ages we have a series of accounts of years of drought 

 or rains which caused famine and its concomitant diseases among human beings 

 and cattle. During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries these periods of distress 

 occurred almost regularly in every generation, and during the most severe ones, 

 which might last for a series of three, five, sometimes even as many as eight 

 years, hundreds and thousands of human beings perished from hunger and privations. 



The more rational agricultural methods of later times are able to an extent 

 undreamt of before to counteract or nullify the reverses of nature, and the disas* 



• See L. Schmidt, Allgem. Gesch. d. germ. Volker, p. 79. 



