25
CURSORY VIEW OF THE MONUMENTS AND
ANTIQUITIES OF THE NORTH.
How undeniable soever the proposition that no history
of a country, that is, a
narrative of events and actions connected
and chronologically arranged, can be
conceived which shall be
independent of written materials, or, as they are
called, imme-
diate sources, it is not less certain that monuments and
remains
of antiquity, other than literary, have a just claim to be
con-
sidered as indirect sources for the same historical result. Even
if such
may not avail to make us acquainted with new positive
facts, if they fail to
certify a list of sovereigns, or to fix a
series of dates, they may yet serve,
collectively considered, to
give us a clearer perception of the religion, the
culture, the
external life, and other particulars of our forefathers than
can
be supplied even by the written sources, to which latter no
such high
antiquity can be ascribed, in which old traditions
are mixed up with newer, and
which, as they have been com-
mitted to writing in later times, must have been
liable to many
corruptions of their text. The other remains of which we
speak,
form, some of them, a complement to the literary, extending
our
knowledge beyond the periods when the latter begin
to deserve belief, and
sometimes awakening and fortifying con-
jectures as to emigrations and connexions
of nations respecting
which history is silent. But even the mute memorials have
a
still higher significance for us. They lead us back to the
original
population of our northern country, they make us live
again our fathers' life. A
grave mound, a lonely circle of stones,
a stone implement, a metal ornament
excavated from the covered
chamber of death, afford a livelier image of antiquity
than Saxo
or Snorre, the Eddas, or the Germany of Tacitus. And will
not the
explorer of the past contemplate a work of the arts
of the middle ages, with an
interest which no record can excite.
Accordingly there never has been a period since our hi-
story began to be
cultivaled and studied but these monuments
26
VIEW OF THE MONUMENTS OF THE NORTH.
have formed an object of attention and investigation, although
often viewed in a
false light and though the subject has been treated
in a tasteless and
unscientific manner. Who can reflect without
regret on the number of objects of
this nature which in the
course of the last two centuries have become
irretrievably lost
to us in despite of the exertions of our antiquaries Ole
Worm,
Bure, Resen and Rudbeck to transmit an account of them
for the use of
posterity, exertions not the less praiseworthy
although now felt to be inadequate
to their object. It must
be so much the more gratifying to every one who takes
an
interest in the olden time to know that at no period were its
monuments
less exposed to the risk of being undervalued and
destroyed than they are now.
The interest in the study of
Northern antiquity, and consequently in that of its
monumental
remains, has hardly been at any period more diffused or
more
active than at present. Discoveries relating to it are ever sure
of being
received with sympathy by the public. As in other
educated countries, collections
have been established here for the
preservation of the remains of former ages.
The parties con-
nected with these hold profitable communication with
each
other. Scientific travellers in remote regions keep a watchful
eye on
the remains scattered over them.
But again the remains of the past requite the attention
bestowed on them by
assisting other scientific pursuits than the
strictly historical. They assist to
answer questions as to the
natural history of our northern countries, their
people, changes
of climate and the like. To instance one subject, the
in-
terest of which has been lately revived, the solution of the
problem of
the ancient colonization of Greenland, and the posi-
tion of the Icelandic
settlements in that quarter, would appear
to depend quite as much on the objects
of antiquity lately
discovered, particularly on Runic inscriptions, as on
written
documents and nautical evidence.
We may in pursuance hope that the following summary
which has for its object to
set forth what has been regarded as
27
GRAVE MOUNDS AND PLACES OF BURIAL.
the best authenticated and most worth knowing on the subject
of the memorials of
northern antiquity, may be found not un-
worthy the notice of the educated
public.
GRAVE MOUNDS AND PLACES OF BURIAL.
In the North, as in almost all other countries, the tomb
is the oldest memorial
of the past. The desire to preserve the
loved and lost, in remembrance at least,
is so deeply implanted
in human nature, that we find evidence of it even among
the
most savage tribes. In the North the fashion of the grave has
greatly
varied with different periods. One of the reasons for
this is the difference
which has from time to time occurred
in the mode of dealing with the corpse. At
some periods the
body was deposited in sand in a chamber or a large
stone
chest; at others it was burnt, and nothing but the ashes or
burnt bones
were preserved in urns or smaller stone coffins;
sometimes it was interred in a
sitting posture. Sometimes the
same receptacle contained not a single corpse, but
whole families,
or many warriors fallen in a battle; sometimes not only
the
human dead, but his caparisoned horse, his dog and other
animals which it
was wished should accompany him to another
world. It is obvious that customs so
varied required arrange-
ments equally diversified. In almost all the districts
of the
North we meet with a number of mounds greater or smaller,
the work of
human hands. Experiment proves that most of
them have served for burial, and that
they are not inaccurately
termed grave mounds. As a general remark we may
observe
that the greater number of them is met with on the coast, and
in
positions which command a view of the ocean, or at least
of an arm of the sea,
but that they are very seldom found in
what is now morass or meadow land. On the
other hand they
are found in considerable number on the sandy heaths of
our
country. Some of these mounds, we must here remark, may
have had another
purpose; they may have served for signal
stations, or what were formerly called
Baunehöie, spots for