universally assure us, that the Stoic philosophy established the existence of an eternal divinity, diffused through and pervading all nature; and being as it were, the soul and primum mobile of matter. From this divinity proceeded, as emanations from his essence, together with the world, certain intelligences ordained to govern under his directions, and who were to undergo the same revolutions as the world itself until the day appointed for the renovation of this universe. The fires concealed in the veins of the earth never cease to dry up the moisure contained therein, and will, in the end, set it all on flames: "A time will come," says Seneca, "when the world, ripe for a renovation, shall be wrapt in flames; when the opposite powers shall in conflict mutually destroy each other; when the constellations shall dash together; and when the whole universe, plunged in the same common fire, shall be consumed to ashes." (Senec. Consol. ad Marciam. cap. ult.) This general destruction was to be preceded by an inundation: and in this respect the Edda perfectly agrees with Zeno. Seneca treats this subject of a future deluge at large, in his Quæst. Natural. lib. iii. c. 29, which he asserts must contribute to purify and prepare the earth for a new race of inhabitants more innocent and virtuous than the present. But the consummation of the world by fire was the point most strongly insisted on by the Stoics. These verses of Seneca's kinsman, Lucan, are well known: "Hos populos si nunc non usserit Ignis, Uret cum terris, uret cum gurgite ponti; But the strongest proof of the agreement between these two systems is this, that the destruction of the world will involve in it that of the gods; that is to say all those created, or inferior divinities. This is expressed by Seneca, the tragedian, in most clear and precise terms, in those remarkable verses: "Jamjam legibus obrutis Mundo cum veniet dies: Amisso trepidus polo, Ortus atque obitus trahet; In another place Seneca explains what he means by this death of the gods. They were not to be absolutely annihilated; but to be once more reunited, by dissolution, to the soul of the world; being resolved and melted into that intelligence of fire, into that eternal and universal principle, from which they had originally been emanations. It was, without doubt, in this sense also that our northern philosophers understood the matter. We may, from analogy, supply this circumstance with the greater confidence, as the poets have been ever more attentive to adorn and embellish the received doctrines, than to deliver them with precision. But, lastly, what must render this parallel more complete and striking, is, that according to the school of Zeno, no less than in the Icelandic prophecies, this tremendous scene is succeeded by a new creation, evidently drawn in the same colours by both. "The world," says Seneca, "being melted and re-entered into the bosom of Jupiter, this god continues for some time totally concentered in himself, and remains concealed, as it were, wholly immersed in the contemplation of his own ideas; afterwards we see a new world spring from him, perfect in all its parts; animals are produced anew; an innocent race of men are formed under more favourable auspices, in order to people this earth, the worthy abode of virtue. In short, the whole face of nature becomes more pleasing and lovely." (Senec. Epist. 9. and Quæst. Nat. L. 3. c. ult.) The Edda gives us the same descriptions in other words. occur in the poem of the Völuspá above alluded to. They likewise The distance between Scandinavia and those countries where the Stoic philosophy prevailed, is certainly great, and must have been greater still in former ages than the present, when commerce and books lend wings to opinions, and diffuse them in a short time through the world. On the other hand, the system now under consideration is not such as all men would arrive at by mere dint of reflection. It appears then probable that all those who adopted it must have had it from the same hands; namely, from the eastern philosophers, and more particularly from the Persians. And history affords a sanction to this conjecture. We know that the Scandinavians came from some country of Asia. Zeno, who was born in Cyprus, of Phoenician parents, borrowed, in all probability, the principal tenets of his doctrine from the philosophers of the East. This doctrine was, in many respects, the same with that of the Magi. Zoroaster had taught that the conflict between Ormuzd and Ahriman (i. e. Light and Darkness, the Good and Evil Principle) should continue till the last day: and that then the Good Principle should be reunited to the supreme God, from whom it had first issued: the Evi should be overcome and subdued; darkness should be destroyed, and the world, purified by a universal conflagration, should become a luminous and shining abode, into which Evil should never more be permitted to enter. Some of the points of doctrine, which I have been displaying after the Edda, have been consecrated by revelation. See, for instance, 2 Pet. ch. 3, v. 7, 10, 13; Mat. ch. 24, v. 10, 12; Mark, ch. 18, v. 24, 25; Luke, ch. 21. v. 25, 26; Rev. ch. 6, v. 12, 13, 14; ch. 12, v. 1, 2, 4; ch. 21, v. 1, 4, 18, 23, 27. In the new earth, which was to succeed that which we inhabit, there were to be again subaltern divinities to govern it; and men to people it. This, in general, is what the Edda means to tell us: although the circumstances of the relation are darkly and allegorically delivered: yet not so obscurely, but that one easily sees it was the idea of the northern philosophers, as well as of the Stoics, that the world was to be renovated, and spring forth again more perfect and more beautiful. This is what is expressed here with regard to the sun and moon. Lif signifies life; which is a farther proof, that by the fable of these two human beings who are to survive the destruction of the world, these northern philosophers meant to say that there still existed in the earth a vivifying principle, and seed proper to repair the loss of the former inhabitants. ABSTRACT OF THE EYRBYGGJA-SAGA; BEING THE EARLY ANNALS OF THAT DISTRICT OF ICELAND LYING AROUND THE PROMONTORY CALLED SNÆFELLS *. BY SIR WALTER SCOTT. Or the various records of Icelandic history and literature, there is none more interesting than the Eyrbyggja-Saga, composed (as has been conjectured by the learned Thorkelin) before the year 1264, when Iceland was still subject to the dominion of Norway +. The name of the author is unknown, but the simplicity of his annals seems a sufficient warrant for their fidelity. They contain the history of a particular territory of the Island of Iceland, lying around the promontory called Snæfells, from its first settlement by emigrants from Norway: and the chronicle details, at great length, the feuds which took place among the families by whom the land was occupied, the advances which they made towards a more regular state of society, their habits, their superstitions, and their domestic laws and customs. If the events which are commemorated in these provincial annals are not in themselves of great importance, the reader may, in recompense, derive, from the minuteness with which they are detailed, an acquaintance with the manners of the northern nations, not to be acquired from the perusal of more general history. It is, therefore, presumed, that an abstract of the more interesting parts of the Eyrbyggja-Saga may be acceptable to the readers of the Northern Antiquities. The learned Thorkelin published a correct edition of this history in 1787, executed at the expense of Suhm, the illustrious and munificent patron of northern literature. A Latin version, supplied by the well-known accuracy of the editor, assists the difficulties of those who are imperfectly acquainted with the original Icelandic. In the year of God 883, a Norwegian nobleman, named Biorn, having been declared an exile by Harold, King of Norway, had recourse to the This abstract of the Eyrbyggja Saga, is printed verbatim from the "Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, 1 vol. 4to. Edinb. 1814.-ED. This must be a lapsus calami of our great novelist, for it was in the year 1264 that Iceland became "subject to the dominion of Norway." See page 297.-ED. protection of Rolf, or Rollo, who united the qualities of a priest and a warrior, and kept the temple of Thor in the Island of Mestur. Biorn was kindly received, and furnished with a vessel to pursue his fortune in the spring. But finding that by this proceeding he had incurred the resentment of Harold, Rolf, or, as he was called from his sacred office, Thorolf, (quasi Thor's-Rolf,) resolved to abandon his habitation and to set sail for Iceland, where, ten years before, a colony had been settled by Ingolf, the son of Arne. Thorolf made an immense sacrifice to Thor preparatory to his departure; and having received or fabricated an oracle authorizing his change of residence, he set sail, carrying with him the earth upon which the throne of Thor had been placed, the image of the Mace-Bearer itself, and the wooden work of his temple. When the vessel of the adventurer approached Iceland, Thorolf cast the columns of the idol's sanctuary into the sea, and declared his purpose of establishing his new residence wherever they should be thrown on shore. Chance, and the current of the tides, directed the pillars to a promontory or peninsula, called from that circumstance Thorsness. Here, therefore, Thorolf established himself and his followers, and, mindful of his tutelar deity, erected a temple for Thor, the ample scale of which testified the zeal of his devotion. An inner sanctuary contained the altar of the deity, on which was placed a silver ring, weighing two ounces, which was used in the ministration of every solemn oath, and which decorated the person of the priest of Thor upon all occasions of public meeting. Here also was deposited the vessel which contained the blood of the sacrifices, and the sacred implement for sprinkling it upon the altar and the worshippers. Idols, representing the various deities of Scandinavian mythology, were placed around the altar, and a tax was imposed upon all the settlers for the maintenance of the solemn rites and sacrifices by which they were to be propitiated; Thorolf reserving to himself the office of high-priest, with the duty of maintaining the temple and superintending the ritual. series of curious ordinances marked the foundation and extent of his authority. The whole promontory of Thorsness was under the protection of the deity, but a small eminence entitled Helgafels (i. e. the Holy Mount) was so peculiarly sacred, that none of the settlers were to look upon it until they had performed their morning ablutions, and each living creature which should trespass upon its precincts was liable to be punished with death. To the terrors of religion were added the solemnities of legal authority. Near the Holy Mount was established the place of justice, where the popular assemblies were heldt. This spot was also sacred, neither to be defiled by blood, A Thorsness seems to have been that small peninsula, mentioned by Sir George Mackenzie in his Survey of the Gold-bringe Syssell of Iceland, which is itself a huge indented promontory on the south-western coast of that island. Near the peninsula the travellers saw the Helgafels, on which there is still a small hamlet, which, they observe, derives its name from the superstitious usages with which it was anciently connected.-Travels in Iceland, p. 186, 7. Each little district of settlers had its provincial assembly, for the purpose of making laws, imposing punishments, and accommodating differences. At a later period, general assemblies of the whole Icelandic people, called nor polluted by any of the baser necessities of nature, for satisfying which a neighbouring rock was appointed. In these institutions we recognise the rude commencement of social order and public law. The infant settlement of Thorolf was strengthened by the arrival of Biorn, the fugitive upon whose account he had incurred the indignation of King Harold, and by that of other northern chiefs, whom the fate of war, or the love of adventure, had banished from their respective homes. Each chose his habitation according to his pleasure, and the settlement began to be divided into three districts, called Eyrarvert, Alpta-fiord, and Breida-wick, all of which acknowledged the authority of the Pontiff Thorolf, and the sanctity of his institutions. The death of Thorolf, however, led the way to internal dissension. A patriarch, called from the number of his family Barna-Kiallak (rich in children), was tempted to dispute the sanctity of the territory of Thorsness, which had been sedulously stipulated. His tribe, confident in their numbers, openly disputed the power of Thorstein, who had succeeded his father Thorolf as pontiff, and announced that when occasion pressed they would pay no more respect to the soil of the sacred territory than to unconsecrated ground, nor would they take the trouble to secede to the rock appointed for such purposes. With this foul intent they marched towards Thorsness, and were met by Thorstein at the head of his tribe, servants, and allies, who, after a sharp skirmish, was fortunately able to prevent the intended profanation of the sacred soil. But, as neither party could beast decisive success, an armistice was agreed upon, and a congress opened under the mediation of an aged settler called Thordus. This ingenious referee at once removed the ostensible cause of dispute, by declaring that the territory, having been polluted by human blood shed in the conflict, had lost its sanctity in future, and, to take away the secret cause of contention, he declared that Thorgrim, one of the sons of Kiallak, should be conjoined with Thorstein in the charge of the temple of Thor, with an equal share in the duties and revenues of the office of pontiff, and in the charge of protecting from sacrilege a new place of justice, which was now to be established. It is described as a circular range of upright stones, within which one more eminent marked the stone of Thor, where human victims were immolated to the Thunderer, by breaking or crushing the spine. And this description may confute those antiquaries who are disposed to refer such circles exclusively to the Celtic tribes, and their priests the Druids. Thorstein, son of Thorolf, perished by shipwreck. His grandson Snorro became the most distinguished support of his family, and the following commencement of his history marks the singular system of laws which already prevailed in Iceland, as well as the high honours in which the female sex was held in that early period of society. The tutelage of Snorro, whose father died young, had devolved upon Borko the Fat, his father's brother, who had married Thordisa, his mother, and was thus at once his uncle and father-in-law. At the age of fourteen, Snorro, with two companions, went abroad to visit his relations in Norway, and returned to Iceland after the lapse of a year. His companion Thorlef was splendid in dress, arms, and Althing, were held at a place called Thingvalla, on the shores of a salt-water lake. See Mackenzie's Travels. |