P" 



20 EMIGRATION FROM SWEDEN 



How are we to imagine that our ancessors met these periods of failure of the 

 crops, which certainly occurred almost every generation? They could endure a 

 single bad year by tightening the belt and mixing bark in the bread baked from 

 the previous year's savings. In case of need they could of course also kill some 

 of their cattle. But if two or more bad years came in succession it was worse. The 

 cattlestock, which was underfed during the winter with heather and spruce brush, 

 found no pasture on the ground during the dry early summer. It dried up, grew 

 still more thin, and was seized by diseases. The people, exhausted by the star* 

 vation of autumn, winter and spring, saw in front of them the certainty of a 

 half or thirdpart harvest again. Something might perhaps be obtained by sea from 

 friendly and more fortunate neighbouring tribes by offering them precious things, 

 gold and silver, jewels and selling at a low price the skins that were generally 

 the most important object of exchange in foreign trade. But what was the little 

 that could be procured with the undeveloped communications of the time among 

 so many who were starving? And in most cases the effects of the bad times 

 extended to neighbouring tribes as well. They too were in the same trouble and 

 misery or had at least nothing to give up. By midsummer it was evident that 

 thousands would perish during the terrible year that was imminent, unless so* 

 mething was done in time. They sacrificed and prayed to wrathful gods, and 

 magicians and witches eagerly exerted their magic arts so as to move the powers 

 of the elements. But god helps those who help themselves*, says an old Swe* 

 dish proverb. They were not to fold their arms and trust blindly to the grace of 

 gods and powers, and it was no part of the Scandinavian temperament to await 

 passively a harsh fate, however convinced they were that what the Norns had 

 decided must be fulfilled. In despair voices were raised to kill the aged people, 

 and even the young children. 



But in a nation of born organizers wise men had even thousands of years 

 before found a more humane and more practical expedient, which though despe* 

 rate, could still be attempted wich greater equity. In order to decrease the num* 

 ber of those who were competing for the exceedingly small supply that existed 

 and could be expressed from the coming harvest, lots were drawn to decide who 

 were to set out and seek deliverance in foreign countries. From very different 

 sources and times we have legends showing that this expedient was used. Thus 

 Paulus Diaconus in his history of the Langobards relates that a third of the tribe 

 living in Scandinavia, after drawing lots, set out from their national land to dwell 

 on the south coast of the Baltic. It is true that he states that this happened be* 

 cause the people had so increased in number during the course of time that the 

 country could not feed them all. But for reasons shown above this is probably 

 incorrect. It was much more probable that a temporary overpopulation, caused 

 by famine, drove them forth from hearth and home. 



The Danish historian Saxo,* who lived in the later part of the 12th cen* 

 tury, recounts an old tradition of a severe failure of the crops that visited Den* 

 mark in ancient times during the days of King Snio. At first the king prohibited 

 all luxury, among other things the brewing of beer. But it turned out to be as 

 impossible to enforce this total prohibition as to enforce a strict rationing in our 



* See Grundtvigs translation, f. 378, cf. Steenstrup, Norm. I, p. 197. 



-J 



