THE KING'S MIRROR 27 



Jgniffhts and kings:* but it was probably not so much a 

 matter of bookish instruction as of direct imitation. The 

 Northmen, though they lived far from the great centers 

 of culture, were always in close touch with the rest of 

 the world. In the earlier centuries the viking sailed his 

 dreaded craft wherever there was wealth and plunder 

 and civilized life. After him and often as his companion 

 came the merchant who brought away new ideas along 

 with other desirable wares. After a time Christianity 

 was introduced from the southlands, and the pilgrim 

 and the crusader took the place of the heathen pirate. 

 And all these classes helped to reshape the life of cour- 

 tesy in the Northern countries. 



It is difficult to overestimate the influence of the 

 crusader as a pioneer of Christian culture in Scandina- 

 via, but it seems possible that the pilgrim was even more 

 important in this respect. It was no doubt largely 

 through his journeys that German influences began to 

 be felt in the Scandinavian lands, though it is possible 

 that the wide activities of the Hanseatic merchants 

 should also be credited with some importance for the 

 spread of Teutonic culture. It is told in the King's 

 Mirror that a new mode of dressing the hair and the 

 beard had been introduced from Germany since the 

 author had retired from the royal court. f It is signifi- 

 cant that the routes usually followed by Norwegian 

 pilgrims who sought the Eternal City and the holy 

 places in the Orient ran through German lands. As a 

 rule the pilgrims traveled through Jutland, Holstein, 

 and the Old Saxon territories and reached the Rhine at 



* See above, pp. 2-3. f C. rxx. 



