temporary or later Skalds. They express, in the strongest manner, the feelings by which the Northern warrior was notoriously actuated, and some of the expressions are substantially the same which history attributes to Ragnar on this occasion, the style only being more poetical.* The last strophe of this lay may be rendered as follows: 'Cease my strain! I hear Them call I soon shall quaff the drink of Gods. I fall! but laughing will I die! !' The best edition of this celebrated lay, is that published by Professor Rafn, at Copenhagen, in 1826, with Danish, Latin, and French versions, and a complete critical apparatus, under the title of "Krakumal sive Epicedium Ragnaris Lodbroci Regis Danix." The Disir-messengers of the gods. CHAPTER VIII. Wars of Charlemagne on the Elbe.-Invasion of France by Hastings and the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok.-Normans plunder the coasts of Spain and Italy, and enter the Mediterranean.-Sack of Luna by Hastings.-Return of Hastings to France.-His conversion to Christianity. THE empire of the Franks, which had been founded in Gaul at the end of the fifth century of the Christian æra, by Chlodowig, or Clovis, was constantly encroaching upon their more barbarous neighbours the Saxons. The latter at length sought aid from their Pagan brethren, the Danes, and appear to have received assistance from a petty prince of Jutland, named Hamleth, the prototype of Shakspeare's poetical creation. Once brought in contact with these great contending nations, they soon became familiarly acquainted with the coasts of Gaul, which had not yet acquired its modern name of France, and to which they gave the name of Valland, and afterwards of Frankland. The Frankish chroniclers mention, for the first time, an invasion of their country by the Scandinavians in the commencement of the sixth century. Clovis having been defeated by the treachery of several of his chieftains, one of them fled from the vengeance of his monarch, and found a refuge with Cochiliac, or Higelac, as he is called in the AngloSaxon poem of Bjowulf, who is supposed to have been a petty king who reigned in the island of Fionia.* To avenge the cause of his guest, the Danish prince fitted out an expedition against Walland; his vessels penetrated the mouths of the Meuse, and were already laden with booty; but the Vikingar, having remained too long on shore, were attacked by the Franks, who defeated them, and recovered back their plunder. This was the first and the last appearance of the Normans upon the coasts of France during the period of the Merovingian dynasty. Under that of the Carlovingian princes, they renewed their incursions, and even extended them to the southern coasts of Gaul. We are told that Charlemagne saw a fleet of Norman pirates from the windows of his palace, in the port of Norbonne, and, surprised at their audacity in approaching these distant coasts of his extensive empire, lamented the fate of his successors, who, he foresaw, would be unable to oppose an effectual barrier against their invasions. In the bloody war of extermination which he carried on against the Pagan Saxons, Charlemagne transported ten thousand of that nation into the interior of his possessions, and established in their stead a tribe of the Slaves, or Vends, called the Obotrites, (807,) who were hereditary enemies of the Danes. Gotrick, Gudrod, or Godofried, king of Jutland, attempted to expel the Obotrites from their new possessions in Nordalbingia. But Charlemagne, having assembled the counts and vassals of Friesland to defend the colony he had planted, Godefried, after having ravaged Nordalbingia, fled to the small island of the Danish archipelago, beyond the reach of the strong arm of his imperial competitor. This Jutish prince first erected the See Grundtvig's transl. of Bjowulf, Inledning, p. 61. wall of earth across the neck of the Cimbric Chersonesus, from the Eyder to the Schley, called Dannewerk, to serve as a bulwark to defend his little kingdom against the powerful monarchy of the Franks, whilst Charlemagne founded what has since become the rich and flourishing city of Hamburg, in order to bridle the barbarous nations north of the Elbe.* (810.) Godefrid soon afterwards again appeared on the coasts of Friesland with a fleet of two hundred barks, from which he landed with his followers at three different points, dispersed the Frisians who attempted to oppose his invasion, slew their duke Rurick, and levied a tribute of one hundred pounds of silver, which the Frisians brought to his treasurer, and threw into a basin of metal in his presence. The treasurer judged of the alloy in the metal by its sound, and confiscated all the money which did not ring to his satisfaction. Godefrid attempted, by a sudden movement, to surprise the emperor of the West in his palace at Aix la Chapelle, but was himself suddenly cut off in the midst of his designs by the assassin's dagger. Hemming, his nephew and successor, made a truce with Charlemagne, and in the treaty which followed, it was stipulated that the Eyder should form the boundary between the Danes and the vast empire of the Franks.† * Suhm Historie af Danmark, tom. ii. pp. 1-12. Depping, Histoire des Normands, tom. i. pp. 90-105. † Adam. Bremens. Hist. Eccles. tom. i. lib. i. cap. 13. Suhm, Historie af Danmark, tom. ii. p. 18. The Eyder has ever since continued the boundary between the Danish States and the German Empire, if we except only the perhaps doubtful conquests of Henry the Fowler, the first Emperor of the Saxon line, north of that river. The duchy of Holstein, south of the Eyder, is held by the Danish monarch under a different title from that of This empire rapidly decayed on the death of the great man by whose genius and activity it was upheld. Under his degenerate successor, Louis le Debonnaire, the means of defence were almost entirely neglected; "the great vassals of the crown were more intent upon their own personal aggrandizement than the safety of their country; and the wealth of the nation was wasted in lavish donations upon a rapacious clergy. In this state of helplessness, the Normans ravaged with fire and sword the coasts of the empire, from the Elbe to the Loire. In 827, they passed along the coasts of Gaul, and crossing the bay of Biscay, made a descent in Gallicia, where they were defeated by Ramiro, the Gothic king of Leon. The Normans continued their voyage along the shores of the Peninsula, penetrated into the Mediterranean, and landed upon the banks of the Guadalquiver, where they amassed a great booty at Seville.* The deadly feuds between the children of Louis le Debonnaire, and their unnatural rebellion against their the crown of Denmark, and had always formed a part of the German empire, until that empire was dissolved in 1806, when the Danish government published an ordinance re-uniting the duchy with the other states of the monarchy. The ancient inscription which had hitherto stood on the gates of Rendsburg, “EIDORI ROMANI TERMINUS IMPERII,”—was taken down, and deposited in the arsenal as a relic of antiquity. But on the formation of the present Germanic confederation, the king of Denmark joined the new league as duke of Holstein, and the duchy now forms one of the seventeen principal members of the confederation, and is represented in the diet at Frankfort, and contributes its quota to the military contingent of the federal army. Depping, tom. i. p. 110. Suhm, Historie af Danmark, tom. ii. |