Sweden.* The Swedes were the dominant race, for it became their privilege to give a monarch to the united kingdom. The choice was made at the "ä ting allra Svia," or assembly of all the Swedes at the Morasteine, and was confirmed at the "ting allra Göta," or assembly of all the Goths; and when the Westgoths ventured to choose the Danish Magnus Nilsson for their king, the Swedes, as Saxo says, "veterem gentis suæ prerogativam in aliquanto obscurioris populi invidia deponere passi non sunt." This union of the Gothiod and the Sviar goes back beyond the age of authentic history. It has given origin, when compared with the legends of the Ynglinga saga, relating to the conquests of Odin, to an historical theory which was set up long ago by Maillet, and has been supported with great learning and ingenuity by the celebrated modern historian of Sweden, M. Geijer. This writer thinks it cannot be doubted that the account delivered in the Ynglinga saga of the conquests of Odin in the North and the immigration of the Asi, is the narrative of an event that really happened. But if this relation is examined as to the circumstances, it proves, as he thinks, that the arrival of Odin and the Asi which it records, was not the first entrance of a people of German race, and that a previous invasion must have taken place by people of the same stock. Odin's settlement in the country of which he took possession near the Malar lake, is represented as resulting from his union with the former inhabitants: his followers are never described as expelling the conquered people and taking possession of their country. The assertion that Odin introduced a new idiom into the North, can never be understood to mean that the great family of languages, of which the Saxon as well as the Norse are branches, originated from him. We are by these and similar considerations forbidden from regarding the Scandinavians of the time inmediately preceding the entrance of Odin as merely Finnish An attentive survey of the history of the North indicates that Iotuns or Finn and Lappish tribes were the earliest known inhabitants, that they were subdued or expelled by a races. * Ericus Olai Hist. Suecorum Gothorumque lib. i. cited by Geijer, Schwedens Urgeschichte, s. 360. + Geijer, p. 361. race of different character, language, and religion. The leaders of this tribe kept possession of power till the rise of a third dynasty, who were the heroes of the Edda and the later Ynglinga saga. Both of these revolutions are alluded to by the Icelandic poets, who report that Odin and his Asi gave themselves out for the older Asi. These older Asi were the leaders of the Gothiod, that is, of a people descended from the gods, who overcame the aboriginal Iotuns, and Gotland thus at first comprehended all Svea-rik or Sweden, as well as the country of the Danes and other Northmen. The people worshipped the celestial Wodan, while Thor, or Thunder, was their chief divinity. A later Odin, represented in the Ynglinga saga as well as in the Edda as a seer, priest, and enchanter, brought in the Asi and the Sviar, who settled at first in the country above the Malar lake.* Suithiod, over which the dynasty of the Ynglinga Saga ruled, appears not to have comprehended the proper Götaland, but only the country to the northward of that lake. In the southern parts of Scandinavia the religion and language of the Goths were established already before Odin. That leader arrived at the head of his warlike Asi, and uniting with the Goths, expelled the remains of the Iotune or Finnish aborigines, or obliged them to take refuge in mountainous tracts, where they remained, as we have seen, on the remote borders of Sweden and Norway. * The Mälar Sea or Lake Lögur. At old Sigtun on that lake, Odin built a temple and instituted sacrifices according to the custom of the Aesci or Asi. He took possession of the surrounding country, which he named Sigtun. He assigned places where the chief priests were to preside; Njord dwelt in Noatun, Freya in Upsal, Heimdaller in Himinbjörg, Thor in Thrudvang, Balder in Breidablik: to all these he gave pleasant seats. All this account is given in the Ynglinga saga, in the Heimskringla of Snorro Sturleson. The germ of the tradition embodied in the prose sagas is to be found in the older Edda, but they are dressed out in a garb which evidently belongs to the romantic period of European literature, already opened in the time of Snorro. The zealous admirers of northern antiquity ascribe an ancient date and a mysterious eastern origin to a much greater portion of these compositions than is consistent with truth and candid investigation. What can be a more palpable proof of the adoption of modern ideas and representations than the mention of Tyrkland, Turkey, where it is said that Odin had great possessions? Tyrkland is rendered in the later version in Peringskiold's edition of the Heimskringla Teucria; the author of this version had in his mind the Trojan tale, which is mixed up with the sagas of almost all ancient nations. In the very beginning of the Ynglinga saga it is said that one of the three parts of the world, namely, the Western, is termed Europa, by some Enea. SECTION VI.-Physical Characters of the German Nations. It is well known that the German nations are universally described by the ancients as a people of tall stature, robust form, with fair complexion, red hair, and blue eyes. A great number of passages are cited from the classical writers in which these traits are described. The following are some of the most decisive. The great stature of the Germans and their fierceness and valour are adverted to by Cæsar. "Dum paucos dies ad Vesontionem rei frumentariæ caussa moratur, ex percunctatione nostrorum vocibusque Gallorum ac mercatorum, qui ingenti magnitudine corporum Germanos, incredibili virtute in armis esse prædicabant, sæpenumero sese cum eis congressos, ne vultum quidem et aciem oculorum ferre potuisse, subito timor exercitum occupavit."* The same writer describing the Suevi says that their habit of life nourishes their strength, and renders them "immani corporum magnitudine homines." It may be observed, that in these passages he seems to compare the Germans in some degree with the Gauls, as well as with the smaller Italians, and to assure us that the northern Germans especially were taller than the Celts. Pomponius Mela says, "Qui habitant Germaniam immanes sunt animis atque corporibus." Appian, following Cæsar, terms the soldiers of Ariovistusτὰ μεγέθη μείζους τῶν μεγίστων. Josephus represents Agrippa as saying to the Jews, "Who among you has not heard of the multitude of the Germans? You have often observed their prowess and their large stature."|| Herodian notices—τῶν Γερμανῶν σώματα ἐπιμήκη,—the tall bodies of the Germans. Coluinella says, "Germaniam decoravit Natura altissimorum hominum exercitibus."** Livy describes the eastern Germans, namely, the Bastarnæ, in like manner-"Bastarnarum procera et immania corpora;" and Plutarch mentions them in similar terms.++ Velleius speaks of the "juventus immensa corporibus" of the Chauci, and Tacitus De Situ Orbis, iii. 3. § Appian. de Bell. Gall. c. iii. || Fl. Josephus, Bell. Jud. ii. 16. ¶ Herodian, vi. 7. ** Columella de Re Rust. 38. †† Livii, xli. 15. * Bell. Gall. i. 39. † Bell. Gall. iv. 1. 392 PHYSICAL CHARACTERS OF THE GERMANS. of the "procera membra" of the Cherusci and the Batavi.* Eunapius gives a strange description of the Goths. He says their bodies are drawn out to an useless length, and that they are heavy in the feet, and drawn in about the middle, as Aristotle describes insects to be.† Ammianus terms the Alemanni “robusti et celsiores, grandissimis corporibus freti." Lastly, the Arabian traveller Ibn Foszlan, whose itinerary has been published by Frähn, compares the Northmen to palm-trees.§ 66 With respect to their complexion, Tacitus speaks of the "rutila coma" of the Germans ; || Ammianus of the comas rutilantes ex more" of the Alemanni;¶ Seneca of the "rufus crinis ;' ”** Herodian of the “ κόμας ξανθὰς τῶν Γερμανῶν.”†† Juvenal :++ Horace :§§ Cœrula quis stupuit Germani lumina, flavam Nec fera cœruleâ domuit Germania pube. Calpurnius Flaccus says, "rutili sunt Germanorum vultus et flava proceritas ;"|||| Silius Italicus has," Auricomus, flavus Batavus."¶¶ Claudian and Sidonius Apollinaris mention the "flavi Sicambri,,, and Lucan the "flavi Suevi."*** Ausonius terms a Suevian virgin " oculos cœrula, flava comas."+++ Procopius says that the Gothic nations are all of white bodies and yellow hair;"‡‡‡ and St. Jerom terms their armies "red and yellow bands."§§§ More particular observations are made by some writers; Diodorus says that the youth of the Galatæ,―here meaning the Germans, whom he often confounds with the Gauls,-are born with white hair, and as they grow up come to resemble their parents in colour.|||||| We have cited Strabo, who declares that the Germans scarcely differ from the Celtic race—TOũ KελTɩKOυ *Velleius, ii. 106. Tacit. Ann. i. 64. Hist. iv. 14. + Eunap. in Exc. legat. p. 47. Amm. Marcell. xvi. 12. § Frähn's Ibn Foszlan. Zeuss. || Tacit. Germ. c. 4. ¶ Ammian. xxvii. 2. §§§ Getarum, i.e. Gothorum, rutilus et flavus exercitus ecclesiarum circumfert tentoria. (Epist. ad Heliodor. Zeuss, ubi supra.) Diodor. Sic. Bibl. v. 32. púλov, in their roughness of manners, their greatness of stature, or their yellowness of hair.* Manilius ascribes greater redness of hair to the Germans, from which we may conclude that the Gauls were rather xanthous.† Flava per ingentes surgit Germania partus, And the same fact is most explicitly declared by Galen in his Commentary on Hippocrates, in a passage which is quite conclusive: οὕτως γοῦν τινές ὁμομάζουσι τοὺς Γερμανοὺς ξανθοὺς, καί τοί γε οὐκ ὄντας ξανθοὺς, ἐὰν ἀκριβῶς τὶς ἐθέλοι καλεῖν, ἀλλὰ πυῤῥούς. "In the same manner some term the Germans xanthous, although they are not xanthous in the proper sense of the term, but red-haired."+ From all these assertions, some more general, some more particular and explicit than others, we must conclude that a lofty stature, yellow or rather red hair and blue eyes, with a fair complexion, were almost universal characters of the Germans at the period of their wars with the Romans. How they lost these characters as distinguishing traits and became assimilated to the other nations of northern Europe, is a question that cannot be speedily answered. One remark occurs to be made on this subject, which is that the climate and physical condition of Germany and the manners of its inhabitants have been assimilated in a nearly equal degree to those of the neighbouring countries. Some further observations on this subject may be found, in connection with my remarks on the physical characters of the Celtic race, in a preceding chapter of this volume. With regard to the form of the head in the ancient Germans we have no information from classical writers. This subject might be elucidated from the remains of ancient tombs; but I am not aware that such an attempt has been made in a comprehensive manner. The modern Germans are well known to have large heads, with the anterior part of the cranium elevated and fully developed. They have this peculiarity of form in a greater degree than either the French or English. * Strabo, vii. p. 290. |