quest of Italy, the Goths, in possession of present greatness, very naturally indulged themselves in the prospect of past and future glory. They wished to preserve the memory of their ancestors, and to transmit to posterity their own achievements. The principal minister of the court of Ravenna, the learned Cassiodorus, gratified the inclination of the conquerors in a Gothic history, which consisted of twelve books, now reduced to the imperfect abridgment of Jornandes.* These writers passed with the most artful conciseness over the misfortunes of the nation, celebrated its successful valour, and adorned the triumph with many Asiatic trophies, that more properly belonged to the people of Scythia. On the faith of ancient songs, the uncertain, but the only memorials of barbarians, they deduced the first origin of the Goths from the vast island or peninsula of Scandinavia. That extreme country of the north was not unknown to the conquerors of Italy; the ties of ancient consanguinity had been strengthened by recent offices of friendship; and a Scandinavian king had cheerfully abdi * See the prefaces of Cassiodorus and Jornandes. It is surprising that the latter should be omitted in the excellent edition published by Grotius, of the Gothic writers. On the authority of Ablavius, Jornandes quotes some old Gothic chronicles in verse. De Reb. Geticis, c. 4. [This was most probably the "ultima Thule" of some Latin and Greek writers.-SCHREITER.] [Scandinavia was inhabited by Goths, but they did not originate there. This great nation was of the ancient Suevic race. From early ages to the time of Tacitus they occupied the countries since known as Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Southern Prussia, and the north-west of Poland. Shortly before the commencement of our era, and through some succeeding years, they were subject to Marbod, king of the Marcomanni. Catualda, a young Gothic prince, effected their emancipation, and subdued the Marcomanni, already weakened by the victorious arms of Tiberius. From that time the power of the Goths increased. From them, it is probable, that the Baltic Sea received its early name of Sinus Codanus, as it was afterwards called Mare Suevicum, and Mare Venedicum, when the Suevi and Venedi ruled on its shores. The period at which the Goths passed into Scandinavia is unknown. Adelung, Auc. Hist. p. 200. Gatterer, Hist. p. 458.-GUIZOT.] [Gibbon has himself admitted, in a later chapter, that he was in error here. The name of Goths has indeed been "improperly used" in various ways. One is that which reduces the patronymic of a race to be the designation of a tribe, and that tribe only a small portion of a great family. It is in vain to accept as authority the crude notions of historians and geographers, at variance with themselves. From the perplexities even of such "accurate observera” cated his savage greatness, that he might pass the remainder of his days in the peaceful and polished court of Ravenna.* Many vestiges, which cannot be ascribed to the arts of popular vanity, attest the ancient residence of the Goths in the countries beyond the Baltic. From the time of the geographer Ptolemy, the southern part of Sweden seems to have continued in the possession of the less enterprising remnant of the nation, and a large territory is even at present divided into east and west Gothland. During the middle ages (from the ninth to the twelfth century), whilst as Tacitus and Pliny, we must turn to seek for truth in the course of events, in the lights of language, and the genealogies of existing generations. We must forego, too, our incorrect soft pronunciation of the Latin c in Celta and Scythæ, in both which it represents and should be sounded like the Greek kappa. This false euphony has been the cause of much inattention to the origin, and confusion in the application of these ethnical terms. The name of Goths is found early in the corrupted forms of Massagetæ, Skutha (Scythians), and Getæ, which mark their progress from Asia to Western Europe, always interposed between the Celtic and Sarmatian, or Sclavonic, races. Its subsequently accepted use to denote that intermediate wave in the tide of population and all its incidents, attests its descent. Between these early and latter stages there is a mass of confusion, susceptible of no order but such as can be introduced, by bringing its separate portions into harmonious relation. The various subdivisions of this race, besides their common name of Goths, had their distinctive denominations of Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Suevi, Marcomanni, &c., and when they united in leagues, styled themselves Gar-mannen, or Allemannen. It was sometimes by the generic, sometimes by the confederative, sometimes by the class-name that these in succession became known to the Romans, who, neither understanding the language nor comprehending the distinction, mistook Gothi for the appellation of some separate tribe, and diversified their error, by putting it occasionally into such shapes as Gothones, Gothini, Gutthones, Jutæ, &c. When they became at last better informed, and the rude tribes themselves, perhaps, somewhat more organized, the whole collective nation were recognized as Gothi. Goths, although at subsequent periods outlying tribes, like the Saxons, and combinations, like the Franks, come forward in history. This explanation will remove every difficulty and reconcile every contradiction, while it preserves a consistent view of the uniform course of population from east to west. The Goths who settled in Scandinavia, probably passed thither through Russia, Finland, and the isles of the Gulf of Bothnia, at some very remote and unascertainable date.-ED.] * Jornandes, c. 3. + Valuable information on this subject, with a careful comparison of the appa rently contradictory statements of early geographers, may be found in Baron Vou Wedel Jarlsberg's treatise on the ancient Scandinavian 304 THE GOTHS. [CH X Christianity was advancing with a slow progress into the north, the Goths and the Swedes composed two distinct and sometimes hostile members of the same monarchy.* The latter of these two names has prevailed without extinguishing the former. The Swedes, who might well be satisfied with their own fame in arms, have in every age claimed the kindred glory of the Goths. In a moment of discontent against the court of Rome, Charles the Twelfth insinuated that his victorious troops were not degenerated from their brave ancestors, who had already subdued the mistress of the world.t Till the end of the eleventh century, a celebrated temple subsisted at Upsal, the most considerable town of the Swedes and Goths. It was enriched with the gold which the Scandinavians had acquired in their piratical adventures, and sanctified by the uncouth representations of the three principal deities, the god of war, the goddess of generation, and the god of thunder. In the general festival that was solemnized nine animals of every species every ninth year, (without excepting the human) were sacrificed, and their bleeding bodies suspended in the sacred grove adjacent to the temple.§ The only traces that now subsist of this barbaric superstition are contained in the Edda, a system of mythology, compiled in Iceland about the thirteenth century, and studied by the learned of Denmark and Sweden as the most valuable remains of their ancient traditions.¶ history of the Cimbri and Gothi.-SCHREITER. * See in the Prolegomena of Grotius some large extracts from Adam of Bremen, and Saxo-Grammaticus. The former wrote in the year 1077, the latter flourished about the year 1200. + Voltaire, Histoire de Charles XIL lib. 3. When the Austrians desired the aid of the court of Rome against Gustavus Adolphus, they always represented that conqueror as the lineal successor of Alaric. Hart's History of Gustavus, vol. ii, p. 123. Some place this temple at Sigtuna, not at Upsal.SCHREITER. § See Adam of Bremen, in Grotii Prolegomenis, p. 104. The temple of Upsal was destroyed by Ingo, king of Sweden, who began his reign in the year 1075, and about fourscore years afterward a Christian cathedral was erected on its ruins. See Dalin's History of Sweden. ¶ The accounts furnished by the so-called Edda, of the religion and manners of the northern nations, are not the only ones or the most to be depended on. This collection, which has been far from critically examined by M. Ihre, in his work on the Icelandic Edda, is nothing less than "a system of mythology." See note to the preceding chapter.-SCHREITER. Notwithstanding the mysterious obscurity of the Edda, we can easily distinguish two persons confounded under the name of Odin; the god of war, and the great legislator of Scandinavia.* The latter, the Mahomet of the north, instituted a religion adapted to the climate and to the people. Numerous tribes on either side of the Baltic were subdued by the invincible valour of Odin, by his persuasive eloquence, and by the fame which he acquired, of a most skilful magician. The faith that he had propagated during a long and prosperous life, he confirmed by a voluntary death. Appre hensive of the ignominious approach of disease and infirmity, he resolved to expire as became a warrior. In a solemn assembly of the Swedes and Goths, he wounded himself in nine mortal places, hastening away (as he asserted with his dying voice) to prepare the feast of heroes in the palace of the god of war.t The native and proper habitation of Odin is distinguished by the appellation of As-gard. The happy resemblance of that name with As-burg, or As-of, words of similar signification, has given rise to an historical system of so pleasing a contexture, that we could almost wish to persuade ourselves of its truth. It is supposed that Odin was the chief of a tribe of barbarians which dwelt on the banks of the lake Mæotis, till the fall of Mithridates and the arms of Pompey menaced the north with servitude. That Odin, yielding with indignant fury to a power which he was unable to resist, conducted his tribe from the frontiers of Asiatic Sarmatia into Sweden, with the great design of forming, in that inaccessible retreat of freedom, a religion and a people, * Historic inquiry raises many doubts as to the existence of the great legislator and prophet of Scandinavia. Schlözer, Iceland Lit. p. 128, note 28.-SCHREITER. Mallet, Introduction à l'Histoire du Dannemarc. Mallet, c. 4, p. 55, has collected from Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and Stephanus Byzantinus, the vestiges of such a city and people. [This cannot be correct. Bayer has proved that the city of Asof did not exist till the twelfth century of our era. See his dissertation on the history of Asof, in the collection of Russian Histories, vol. ii.-Guizor.] [As-gard, according to its etymology, should be the city of the Asans, or comers from Asia. As the Edda makes mention of an Old As-gard, sharp-sighted interpreters have inferred that there must have been New As-gard, which could be no other than the celebrated Upsal, while the other must have been the far-famed Troy! In his ΤΟΣ. Ι. 806 LEGENDS OF THE CH. X which, in some remote age, might be subservient to his Immortal revenge; when his invincible Goths, armed with martial fanaticism, should issue in numerous swarms from the neighbourhood of the polar circle, to chastise the op pressors of mankind.* If so many successive generations of Goths were capable of preserving a faint tradition of their Scandinavian origin, we must not expect, from such unlettered barbarians, any distinct account of the time and circumstances of their emigration. To cross the Baltic was an easy and natural attempt. The inhabitants of Sweden were masters of a sufficient number of large vessels with oars,† and the distance is little more than one hundred miles from Carlscroon to the nearest ports of Pomerania and Prussia. Here, at length, we land on firm and historic ground. At least as early as the Christian era,‡ and as late as the age of the Antonines,§ the Goths were established towards the mouth of the Vistula, and in that fertile province where the commercial cities of Thorn, Elbing, Konigsberg, and Dantzic, were long afterwards founded. Westward of the Goths, the nume rous tribes of the Vandals were spread along the banks of the Oder, and the sea-coast of Pomerania and Mecklen burgh, next note Gibbon notices another explanation still more mystical.SCHREITER.] *This wonderful expedition of Odin, which, by deducing the enmity of the Goths and Romans from so memorable a cause, might supply the groundwork of an epic poem, cannot safely be received as authentic history. According to the obvious sense of the Edda, and the interpretation of the most skilful critics, As-gard, instead of denoting a real city of the Asiatic Sarmatia, is the fictitious appellation of the mystic abode of the gods, the Olympus of Scandinavia, from whence the prophet was supposed to descend, when he announced his new religion to the Gothic nations, who were already seated in the southern parts of Sweden. [On this subject curious information may be found in a letter written by M. Ihre, chancery councillor at Upsal, where it was published in 1772, by Edman. A German translation by M. Schlözer was published at Göttingen, in 1773, by Dieterichs.-GUIZOT.] + Tacit. Germania.c. 44. Tacit. Annal. 2, 62. If we could yield a firm assent to the navigations of Pytheas of Marseilles, we must allow that the Goths had passed the Baltic at least three hundred years before Christ. [The credibility of Pytheas has been ably discussed by M. Schlözer (Icelandic Lit. p. 112.)-SCHREITER.] § Ptolemy, 1. 2. By the Ger man colonies, who followed the arms of the Teutonic knights The |