' :•..-, m fim m BBHKi XiS;^:^:''- :«dit&J^ ' This series of SCANDINAVIAN MONOGRAPHS is published by the American-Scandinavian Foundation to promote the study of Scandinavian history and culture, in the belief that true knowledge of the North will contrib- ute to the common profit on both sides of the Atlantic SCANDINAVIAN MONOGRAPHS VOLUME III • THE KING'S MIRROR ESTABLISHED BY NIELS POULSON HE KING'S MIRROR (SPECULUM REGALE— KONUNGS SKUGGSJA) TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD NORWEGIAN BY LAURENCE MARCELLUS LARSON PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS NEW YORK THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN FOUNDATION LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1917 COPYRIGHT, 1917 BY THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN FOUNDATION F PRINTED AT THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U. S. A. TO MY FATHER AND TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER FOREWORD A MONG the many arguments that have recently -L\. been advanced in support of imperialistic am- bitions and statesmanship, there is one that justifies and demands aggression in the interest of human culture. According to this rather plausible political philosophy, it is the destiny of the smaller states to be absorbed into the larger and stronger. The application is not to be limited to the so-called " backward races"; it is also extended to the lesser peoples of Europe. JThese have, it is held, no real right to an independent existence; only the great, the powerful, and jjbf ""flk+y ^an^im th*'? priYlr, lege, for they alone are able to render the higher forms of service to civilization. To this theory thft hiatniy. of foe SngT^]'na.vJ5i.-n 1fl.TlHs r>TQVid**iSf cl COmpl^t** fl'rc.cl st^kinpf tvyf 1 1 tn/h nr| n In the drama of European development the North- ern countries have played important and honorable parts; but except for a brilliant period in Swedish history (chiefly during the seventeenth century) they have never weighed heavily in the Continental balance. /Their geographical situation is unfavor- able and their economic resources have never been comparable to those of the more prominent states beyond the Baltic and the North SeaA But when viii FOREWORD we come to the kingdom of intellect the story is a totally different one. The literary annals of Europe in the nineteenth century give prominence to a series of (notahle_gcandinavian writersWho not only achieved recognition in their own lands but found a place in the competition for leadership in the world at large. The productivity of the Northern mind is not of recent origin, however; the literatures of Scandinavia have a history that leads back into the days of heathen worship more than a thousand years ago. Perhaps the most effective illustration of £vhat a fruitful intellect can accomplish even when placed in the most unpromising environment is medieval IcelandLJ Along the western and southwestern coasts of the island lay a straggling settlement of Norwegian immigrants whose lives were spent chiefly in a struggle to force the merest subsistence from a niggardly soil. And yet, in the later middle ages and even earlier, there was a literary activity on these Arctic shores which, in output as well as in quality, compares favorably with that of any part of contemporary Europe. {Evidently intellectual greatness bears but slight relation to economic ad- vantages or political powerj What was true of Ice- land was also true of Norway, though in a lesser degree. In that country, too, life was in great measure a continuous struggle with the soil and the sea. Still, even in that land and age, the spirits FOREWORD ix were active, the arts flourished, and the North added her contribution to the treasures of Euro- pean culture. The poems and tales of those virile days, the eddas and sagas, are too familiar to need more than a mention in this connection. But the fact is not so commonly known that the medieval Northmen were thinkers and students as well as poets and romancers. They, too, were interested in the mysteries of the universe, in the problems of science, and in the intricate questions of social re- lationships. In their thinking on these matters d more int.plWtiifl.1 less slavisJLregard for venerable authority thap was usually the case among medieval writers. And of all the men who in that agf of faif K tnVH to analyse and set in order their ideas of the world in which they moved* perhaps none drew more largely on his own spiritual J^sourcfis than the unknown author of the King's Mirror. Unlike the sagas and related writings, the pur- pose of the King's Mirror jg utilitarian and didactic. The author has before him a group of serious and important problems, which he proceeds to discuss for the instruction of his readers. Consequently, certain qualities of style that are often associated with Old Norse literature are not apparent in his work to any marked degree. In his effort to make his language clear, definite, and intelligible, the X FOREWORD author sometimes finds it necessary to repeat and restate his ideas, with the result that his literary style is frequently stiff, labored, and pedantic. These defects are, however, not characteristic of the book as a whole. Many of its chapters display rare workmanship and prove that the author of the King's Mirror is one of the great masters of Old Norse prose. In preparing the translation of this unique work, my aim has been to reproduce the author's thought as faithfully as possible and to state it in such a form as to satisfy the laws of English syntax. But I have also felt that, so far as it can be done, the flavor of the original should be retained and that a translator, in his effort to satisfy certain conven- tional demands of modern composition, should not deviate too far from the path of mental habit that the author has beaten in his roamings through the fields of thought. Peculiarities of style and expres- sion, can, it is true, usually not be reproduced in another language; at the same time it is possible to ignore these considerations to such an extent that the product becomes a paraphrase rather than a translation; and I have believed that such a ren- dition should be avoided, even at the risk of erring on the side of literalness. The importance of the King's Mirror as a source of information in the^study of medieval though^) was first brought to my attention by Professor FOREWORD xi Julius E. Olson of the University of Wisconsin, who has also, since the work of preparing this edition was begun, followed its progress with helpful in- terest. Professors G. T. Flom and A. H. Lybyer of the University of Illinois, and Professor W. H. Schofield of Harvard University, have read the manuscript in whole or part and have contributed many valuable suggestions. My wife, Lillian May Larson, has assisted in a great variety of ways, as in all my work. Dr. H. G. Leach of the Ameri- can-Scandinavian Foundation has read the proof sheets of the entire volume and has suggested many improvements in the text. To all these persons I wish to express my thanks. I am also deeply indebted to the trustees of the American- Scandinavian Foundation whose generosity has made it possible to publish the work at this time. L. M. L, University of Illinois, August, 1917. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PAQ1J NORTHERN LITERATURE IN THE THIRTEENTH CEN- TURY 1 THE SPECULUM REGALE, OR KING'S MIRROR; SOURCES 6 SCIENTIFIC LORE AND THE BELIEF IN MARVELS 11 COURTESY AND THE KING'S HOUSEHOLD 26 THE THEORY OF THE DIVINE RIGHT OF NORWEGIAN KINGSHIP 33 ETHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL IDEAS OF THE WORK 49 MODERN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE KING'S MIRROR 53 THE PROBLEM OF AUTHORSHIP 54 DATE AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION 59 EDITIONS OF THE KING*S MIRROR 65 THE KING'S MIRROR I. INTRODUCTION: NAME AND PURPOSE OF THE WORK 72 II. " THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WIS- DOM " III. THE ACTIVITIES AND HABITS OF A MERCHANT 79 IV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 81 V. THE SUN AND THE WINDS 86 VI. THE TIDES AND THE CHANGES IN THE COURSE OF THE SUN 92 VII. THE SUBJECT OF THE SUN*S COURSE CONTINUED 95 VIII. THE MARVELS OF NORWAY 99 IX. POPULAR DOUBT AS TO THE GENUINENESS OF MARVELS 102 X. THE NATURAL WONDERS OF IRELAND 105 XI. IRISH MARVELS WHICH HAVE MIRACULOUS ORIGINS 111 XII. THE MARVELS OF THE ICELANDIC SEAS! WHALES; THE KRAKEN 119 XIII. THE WONDERS OF ICELAND 126 ziii xiv CONTENTS XIV. THE VOLCANIC FIRES OF ICELAND 130 XV. OTHER ICELANDIC WONDERS: ORE AND MINERAL SPRINGS 133 XVI. THE MARVELS OF THE WATERS ABOUT GREENLAND: MONSTERS, SEALS, AND WALRUSES 135 XVII. THE ANIMAL LIFE OF GREENLAND AND THE CHARACTER OF THE LAND IN THOSE REGIONS 141 XVin. THE PRODUCTS OF GREENLAND 144 xix. THE CLIMATE OF GREENLAND; THE NORTHERN LIGHTS 145 XX. THE SUBJECT OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS CONTINUED 151 XXI. THE ZONES OF HEAT AND COLD 153 XXII. THE WINDS WITH RESPECT TO NAVIGATION 156 XXIII. THE PROPER SEASON FOR NAVIGATION, END OF THE FIRST PART 161 XXIV. INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND PART: THE KING AND HIS COURT 162 XXV. THE IMPORTANCE OF COURTESY IN THE ROYAL SERVICE 165 XXVI. THE ADVANTAGES DERIVED FROM SERVICE IN THE KING'S HOUSEHOLD 167 XXVII. THE VARIOUS CLASSES AMONG THE KINGSMEN 170 XXVIII. THE HONORED POSITION OF THE KINGSMEN 173 XXIX. THE SUPERIOR ORDER OF KINGSMEN: THE HIRD 175 XXX. HOW A MAN WHO WISHES TO APPLY FOR ADMISSION TO THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD SERVICE SHOULD APPROACH THE KING 179 XXXI. WHY ONE SHOULD NOT WEAR A MANTLE IN THE ROYAL PRESENCE 181 XXXH. RULES OF SPEECH AND CONVERSATION IN THE KING'S HALL 186 XXXIII. THE PROPER USES OF " YOU " AND " THOU " 188 XXXIV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 189 ( XXXV. CONCERNING FAILURE OF CROPS AND DEARTH IN MORALS AND GOVERNMENT 193 THE CAUSES OF SUCH PERIODS OF DEARTH AND WHAT FORMS THE DEARTH MAY TAKE 195 XXXVII. THE DUTIES, ACTIVITIES, AND AMUSEMENTS OF THE ROYAL GUARDSMEN 20£ XXXVIII. WEAPONS FOR OFFENSE AND DEFENSE 217 CONTENTS xv XXXIX. MILITARY ENGINES 220 XL. THE PROPER MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF A ROYAL COURT XLJ. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED XLII. A DISCUSSION OF HOW GOD REWARDS RIGHTEOUSNESS, HUMILITY, AND FIDELITY, ILLUSTRATED BY EX- AMPLES DRAWN FROM SACRED AND PROFANE HIS- TORY 234 XLIII. THE DUTIES AND THE EXALTED POSITION OF THE KING XLIV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED XLV. CONCERNING THE MODERATION WHICH A KING MUST OBSERVE IN HIS JUDICIAL SENTENCES AND PENAL- TIES, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWN FROM THE STORY OF GOD'S JUDGMENT IN THE CASE OF ADAM AND EVE, IN WHICH CASE TRUTH AND JUSTICE WERE ASSOCI- ATED WITH PEACE AND MERCY 251 XLVI. AN EXAMPLE OF RIGHTEOUS SEVERITY IN JUDGMENT DRAWN FROM THE STORY OF GOD*S CONDEMNATION OF LUCIFER 258 XLVII. A FURTHER DISCUSSION OF VERDICTS AND PENALTIES WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE STORY OF LUCI- FER'S REBELLION AND DOWNFALL AND OF THE SIN AND PUNISHMENT OF THE FIRST MAN AND WOMAN 260 XLVHI. A COMMENTARY ON THE STORY OF LUCIFER 272 XLIX. INSTANCES IN WHICH GOD HAS ALLOWED THE DECISION TO BE FRAMED ACCORDING TO THE STERN DEMANDS OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE 277 L. OTHER INSTANCES IN WHICH THE ARGUMENTS OF PEACE AND MERCY HAVE HAD GREATER WEIGHT 279 LI. THE REASONS FOR THIS DIVERSITY IN THE VERDICTS OF GOD 283 LII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 284 LIII. INSTANCES IN WHICH GOD HAS MODIFIED HIS SEN- TENCES AND THE REASONS FOR SUCH MODIFICA- TIONS LIV. THE KING'S PRAYER LV. A FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THE KING'S BUSINESS PECIALLY HIS JUDICIAL DUTIES LVI. THE SPEECH OF WISDOM LVH. DIFFICULT DUTIES OF THE KING'S JUDICIAL WITH ILLUSTRATIONS xvi CONTENTS LVIII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED LIX. WHEN JUDGMENTS SHOULD BE SEVERE AND WHEN THEY SHOULD BE MERCIFUL 313 LX. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 316 LXI. CONCERNING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 318 LXII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 320 LXIII. THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD ILLUSTRATED BY THE STORY OF DAVID AND SAUL 321 LXIV. ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE JUDGMENTS OF SOLOMON 339 LXV. SOLOMON'S DECISION IN THE CASE OF SHIMEI 341 LXVI. SOLOMON'S JUDGMENT IN THE CASE OF ADONIJAH AND HIS FOLLOWERS 344 LXVII. WHY SOLOMON BROKE HIS PROMISE OF PEACE AND SECURITY TO JOAB 353 LXVIII. A DISCUSSION OF PROMISES! WHEN THEY MUST BE KEPT AND WHEN THEY SHOULD BE WITHDRAWN 355 LXIX. CONCERNING THE KINGSHIP AND THE CHURCH AND KING'S RESPONSIBILITY TO GOD ( 357 LXX. THE AUTHORITY OF KINGS AND BISHOPS. END OF THE SECOND PART BIBLIOGRAPHY 367 INDEX 373 THE KING'S MIRROR INTRODUCTION THE place of the thirteenth century in the history of human achievement is a subject upon which scholars have not yet come to a general agreement. There can be no doubt that it was, on the whole, an age of progress in many fields; but there is much in its his- tory that points to stagnation, if not to actual decline. From a superficial study of its annals one might be led to class it with the lesser centuries ; most writers are in- clined to rank it lower than the fourteenth century, and perhaps not even so high as the twelfth. It was in this period that the crusad^P rnnvpmpnt. finally flicfcerfifj ft1 it and the Christian world was compelled to leave the cradle of the holy faith in the hands of the infidel. In the thirteenth century, too, the medieval empire sank into hopeless inefficiency and all but expired. Hue. papacy, which more than any other power was responsible for the ruin of the imperial ambitions, also went into de- cline. Whether the loss in authority and prestige on the part of the holy sec^ was compensated by a renewed spiritual energy in the church at large may well be doubted: what evidence we have would indicate that the religion of the masses was gross and materialisticA that ethical standards were low, and that the improve- ) ment in clerical morals, which the church had hoped \ would follow the enforcement of celibacy, had failed to \ appear. J 2 THE KING'S MIRROR Yet the thirteenth century also had its attractive fig- ures and its important movements. The old social order bnt in its p1a.ce Appeared two fnrpps wliiVh wpre to inherit tjip power a.nd nppor- gnpjfl.1 ]jfp' these were wide sovereign powers, and the new national consciousness, which was able to think in larger units. In England the century saw the develop- ment of a new representative institution, which has be- come the mother of modern legislative assemblies. The Italian cities were growing rich from the profits of Ori- ental trade; in the Flemish towns the weaver's industry was building up new forms of municipal life; the great German Hansa was laying hold on the commerce of the northern seas. In the realms of higher intellect, in science, philosophy, and theology, the age was a notable one, with Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Thomas Aquinas as the leaders, each in his field. The century also meant much for the progress of geographical knowl- edge, for it was in this period that Marco Polo pene- trated the mysterious lands of the Far East. As the historian looks back into this age, he is, there- fore, able to find broad traces of much that is regarded as fundamental to modern life. Of first importance in this regard i^the employment of popular idioms in liter- ary productions^French literature saw its beginnings in the eleventh century with the chansons de geste, songs of valorous deeds from the heroic age of the Frankish kingdom. In the next century the poets began to use the themes of the Arthurian legends and sang the exploits of the famous British king and the knights of his Round THE KING'S MIRROR 3 Table. A little later came another cycle of poems based on the heroic tales of classical antiquity. The twelfth century witnessed a parallel movement in Germany, which at first was largely an imitation of contemporary French poetry. The poets, however, soon discovered literary treasures in the dim world of the Teutonic past, in the tales of the Nibelungs, in the heroic deeds of Theodoric, and in the exploits of other heroes. Thus in the first half of the thirteenth century there was a large body of French and German verse in circu- lation. The verses were borne from region to region and from land to land by professional entertainers, who chanted the poems, and by pilgrims and other travelers, who secured manuscript copies. In the course of time the new tales reached the Northern countries, and it was not long before/the Northmen were eagerly listening to the stories of chivalrous warfare, militant religion, and tragic love, that they had learned in the southlands^ The Northern peoples thus had a share in the fruitage of the later middle ages; but they also had a share in their achievements. Politically as wpll a the thirt-mith fpntnry wn* Q £"Ta,t rmvifm fmiintrimi The Danish kingdom rose to the high- est point of its power under Valdemar the Victorious, whose troubled reign began in 1202. Valdemar succeeded in extending the territories of Denmark along the entire southern coast of the Baltic Sea; but the greatness was short-lived : after the defeat of the Danes by the North Germans at Bornhoved in 1227, the decline of Danish imperialism began. In Sweden, too, men dreamed of conquest beyond the sea. Under the leadership of Earl 4 THE KING'S MIRROR Birger, the most eminent statesman of medieval Sweden, Swedish power was steadily extended into Finnish ter- ritory, and the foundations of Sweden as a great Euro- pean power was being laid. During the days of Valdemar and the great Birger Norway also reached its greatest territorial extent. After a century of factional warfare, the nation settled down to comparative peace. All the Norwegian colonies except those in Ireland, were definitely made subject to the Norwegian crown : these were the Isle of Man, the Heb- rides, the Orkneys, the Shetlands, the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland. In every field of national life there was vigor and enterprise. And on the throne sat a strong, wise, and learned monarch, Hakon IV, the ruler with the " great king-thought." The real greatness of the thirteenth century in the North lies, however, in the literary achievements of the age. It is not known when the Old Norse poets first be- gan to exercise their craft, but the earliest poems that have come down to us date from the ninth century. For two hundred years the literary production was in the form of alliterative verse; but after 1050 there came a time when scaldic poetry did not seem to thrive. This does not mean that the interest in literature died out; it merely took a new form: the age of poetry was fol- lowed by an age of prose. With the Christian faith came the Latin alphabet and writing materials, and there was no longer any need to memorize verse. The new form was the saga, which began to appear in the twelfth century and received many notable additions in the thirteenth. The literary movement on the continent, THE KING'S MIRROR 5 therefore, had its counterpart in the North; only here the writings took the form of prose, while there liter- ature was chiefly in verse. These two currents came into contact in the first half of the thirteenth century, when the men and women of the North began to take an interest in the Arthurian romances and other tales that had found their way into Norway. In this new form of Norwegian literature there could not be much originality; still its appearance testifies to a widening of the intellectual horizon. In ad- dition to sagas and romances the period was also pro- ductive of written laws, homilies, legends, Biblical narratives, histories, and various other forms of litera- ture. It is to be noted that virtually everything was written in the idiom of the common people. Latin was used to some extent in the North in the later middle ages, but it never came into such general use there as in other parts of Europe. In the thirteenth century it had almost passed out of use as a literary language. In our interest in tales and romances we must not overlook the fact that the thirteenth century also pro- duced an important literature of the didactic type. For centuries the Christian world had studied the encyclo- pedic works of Capella, Cassiodorus, and Isidore, or had read the writings of Bede and his many followers who had composed treatises " on the nature of things," in which they had striven to set in order the known or supposed facts of the physical world. The thirteenth century had an encyclopedist of its own in Vincent of Beauvais, who produced a vast compendium made up of several Specula, which were supposed to contain all 6 THE KING'S MIRROR the knowledge that the world possessed in science, his- tory, theology, and other fields of learning. The age also produced various other Latin works of the didactic sort, of which the Historia Scholastica of Petrus Comestor was perhaps the most significant for the intellectual history of the North. Norway had no encyclopedist, but the thirteenth century produced a Norwegian writer who undertook a task which was somewhat of the encyclopedic type. Some time during the reign of Hakon IV, perhaps while Vincent was composing his great Speculum Majus, a learned Norseman wrote the Speculum Regale, or King's Mirror, a work which a competent critic has character- ized as " one of the chief ornaments of Old Norse litera- ture." * Unlike the sagas and the romances, which have in view chiefly the entertainment of the reader, the King's Mirror is didactic throughout; in a few chapters only does the author depart from his serious purpose, and all but two of these are of distinct value. The pur- pffift of the work jfi +n prnvj/4*v o rwtmri VJTirl edge whickwilLLe of use to young men who are looking for ward Jam, carper Jn the higher pjofegsions. As outlined in the introductory chapter, the work was to deal with the four great orders of men in the Nor- wegian kingdom: the merchants and their interests; the king and his retainers; the church and the clergy; and the peasantry or husbandmen. In the form in which the King's Mirror has come down to modern times, how- ever, the first two divisions only are included; not the least fragment of any separate discussion of the clerical * B. Keyset in the introduction to the Christiania edition (p. xi). THE KING'S MIRROR 7 profession or of the agricultural classes has been found. It is, therefore, generally believed that the work was not completed beyond the point where the extant manu- scripts close. Why the book was left unfinished cannot be known; but it is a plausible conjecture that illness or perhaps death prevented the author, who was appar- ently an aged man, from completing the task that he had set before him. It is also possiblejthat the ideas ex- pressed in the closing chapters of the work, especially in the last chapter, which deals with the subject of clerical subordination to the secular powers, weze so repugnant to the ecclesiastical thought of the time that the au- thorities of the church discouraged or perhaps found means to prevent the continuation of the work into the third division, where the author had planned to deal with the church and the clergy. In form the Speculum is a dialog between a wise and learned father and his son, in which the larger part of the discussion naturally falls to the former. The son asks questions and suggests problems, which the father promptly answers or solves. In the choice of form there is nothing original: the dialog was frequently used by didactic writers in the middle ages, and it was the natural form to adopt. The title, Speculum Regale, is also of a kind that was common in those days.* Specula of many sorts were being produced : Speculum Ecclesiae, Speculum Stultorum, Speculum Naturale, and Speculum Perfectionis are some of the titles used for writings of a * It is believed that the title came into use in Europe in imitation of Hindu writers who wrote " Mirrors of Princes." Nansen, In Northern Mists, II, 242. 8 THE KING'S MIRROR didactic type. The German Sachsenspiegel is an instance of the title employed for a work in a vulgar idiom. There was also a Speculum Regum, or Mirror of Kings, and a century later an English ecclesiastic wrote a Speculum Regis, but the writer knows of no other work called the Speculum Regale. It is an interesting question whether the King's Mir- ror was inspired by any earlier work written along simi- lar lines. Originality was a rare virtue in the middle ages, and the good churchmen who wrote books in those days cannot have regarded plagiarism as a mortal sin. The great writers were freely copied by the lesser men, thoughts, titles, statements, and even the wording being often taken outright. It is, therefore, difficult to deter- mine the sources of statements found in the later works, as they may have been drawn from any one of a whole series of writings on the subject under discussion. The writer has not been able to make an exhaustive examina- tion of all the didactic and devotional literature of the centuries preceding the thirteenth, but the search that has been made has not proved fruitful. There is every reason to believe that the author of the King's Mirror was an independent thinker and writer. He was doubtless acquainted with a large number of books and had drawn information from a great variety of sources; but when the writing was actually done he had apparently a few volumes only at his disposal. In the region where the work seems to have been composed, on the northern edge of European civilization, there was neither cathe- dral nor monastery nor any other important ecclesias- tical foundation where a collection of books might be THE KING'S MIRROR 9 found.* It is likely, therefore, that the author had access to such books only as were in his own posses- sion. But he came to his task with a well-stocked mind, with a vast fund of information gathered by travel and from the experiences of an active life; and thus he drew largely from materials that had become the permanent possession of his memory. This fact, if it be a fact, will also help to explain why so many inaccuracies have crept into his quoted passages ; in but very few instances does he give the correct wording of a citation. There can be no doubt that the author had a copy of the Vulgate before him; at least one Biblical passage is correctly given, and it is quoted in its Latin form.f It has also been discovered that he had access to an Old Norse paraphrase of a part of the Old Testament, the books of Samuel and of the Kings, t It is likely that he was also acquainted with some of the works of Saint Augustine, and perhaps with the writings of certain other medieval authorities. Among these it seems safe to include the Disciplina Clericalis, a collection of tales and ethical observations by Petrus Alf onsus, a converted Jew who wrote in the first half of the twelfth century. The Disciplina is a somewhat fantastic production wholly unlike the sober pages of the Speculum Regale; nevertheless, the two works appear to show certain * There must have been important collections of manuscripts at Nidaros (Trondhjern), where there was a cathedral and several monastic institu- tions. The King's Mirror was probably composed in Namdalen, about one hundred miles northeast of Nidaros. See below, pp. 50-60. f See below, p. 237. J Storm, " Om Tidsforholdet mellem Kongespeilet og Stjorn saint Barlaams Saga " : Arkivfar nordisk Filologi, III, 83-88. 10 THE KING'S MIRROR points of resemblance which can hardly have been acci- dental. The Disciplina is a dialog and the part of the son is much the same as in the King's Mirror. In both works the young man expresses a desire to become ac- quainted with the customs of the royal court, inasmuch as he may some day decide to apply for admission to the king's household service.* The description of courtly manners and customs in the earlier dialog, though much briefer than the corresponding discussion in the Norwegian treatise, has some resemblance to the latter which suggests a possible relationship between the two works. The Norwegian author may also have used some of the many commentaries on the books of Holy Writ, in the production of which the medieval cloisters were so prolific. Of the influence of Petrus Comestor's Historia Scholastica the writer has found no distinct trace in the King's Mirror; but one can be quite sure that he knew and had used the Elucidarium of Honorius of Autun. The Elucidarium is a manual of medieval theology which was widely read in the later middle ages and was translated into Old Norse, probably before the King's Mirror was written.f But our Norwegian author was not a slavish follower of earlier authorities: in his use and treatment of materials drawn from the Scriptures he shows remarkable independence. Remarkable at least is his ability to make Biblical narratives serve to * See Disciplina Clericalis, fabula xxiv: Migne, Patrologia Latina, CLVII, 698-700. t A fragment of the Elucidarium, comprising, however, the greater part of the work, is published in Annalerfor nordisk Oldkyndighed, 1852 and 1853; in the former volume a Danish translation is given; the latter contains the Ice- landic text. THE KING'S MIRROR 11 illustrate his/owj theories of Norwegian kingship. He was acquainted with some of the legends that circulated through the church and made effective use of them. He must also have known a work on the marvels of Ireland * and the letter of Prester John to the Byzan- tine emperor, f in which that mythical priest-king re- counts the wonders of India. But the chief source of his work is a long life full of action, conflict, thought, and experience. The importRTirp of thp King's Mirror lies in the in- sight that, it givps into the ...state of culture and civiliqa- jJ2!L_flf ft1** N^rtk in thft late** midf^ flgfts- The interest follows seven different lines i^^^sjcaTsc^n^) espe- cially such matters as are of importance to navigators; geography/ particularly the geography of the Arctic lands and waters; the organization of the king's house- hold and the privileges and duties of the king's hench- men; military engines, weapons, and armour used in offensive and defensive warfare; ethical ideas, especially rules of conduct for courtiers and merchants; the royal office, the duties of the king and the divine origin of kingship; and the place of the church in the Norwegian state. In one of his earlier chapters the author enumerates the chief subjects of a scientific character that ought to be studied by every one who wishes to Won™ a suc- cessful merchant. These are the great luminaries of the sky, the motions and the paths of the heavenly bodies, the divisions of time and the changes that bring the seasons, the cardinal points of the compass, and the * See below, pp. 22-25. f See below, p. 101 (c. viii). 12 THE KING'S MIRROR tides and currents of the ocean.*J[n discussing these matters he is naturally led to a statement as to the shape of the earth. All through the middle ages there were thinkers who accepted the teachings of the classical astronomers who had taught that the earth is round like a sphere; but this belief was by no means general. Bede for one appears to have been convinced that the earth is of a spherical shape, though he explains that, because of mountains which rise high above the surface, it cannot be perfectly round.f Alexander Neckam, an English scientist who wrote two generations before the King's Mirror was composed, states in his Praise of Divine Wisdom that " the ancients have ventured to believe that the earth is round, though mountains rise high above its surface." { Neckam Js own ideas on this point are quite confused and he remains discreetly non- committal. But if the earth is a globe, there is every reason to be- lieve in the existence of antipodes; and _if ^ere_are an- tipodes, all cannot behold Christ coming in the clouds on the final day. To the medieval theologians, at least to the larger number of them, this argument disposed effectually of the Ptolemaic theory. Job does indeed say that God " hangeth the earth upon nothing," § and this passage might point to a spherical form; but then the Psalmist affirms that He " stretched out the earth above the waters," || and this statement would indicate * C. iv. See also Larson, " Scientific Knowledge in the North in the Thir- teenth Century ": Publications of the Society for the Advancement of Scandi- navian Study, 1, 139-146. t De Natura Rerum, c. xlvi: Migne, Patrologia Latina, XC, 264-265. j De Naturis Rerum, 441. § Job, xxvi, 7. 1 1 Psalms, cxxxvi, 6. THE KING'S MIRROR 13 that the inhabited part of the earth is an island floating upon the waters of the great Ocean, by which it is also surrounded. This belief was generally maintained in the earlier centuries of the classical world, and it had wide acceptance in the middle ages.' There were also those who held that beyond and around the outer Ocean is a great girdle of fire. It is likely, however, that many believed with Isidore of Seville that it is useless to spec- ulate on subjects of this sort. ' Whether it [the earth] is supported by the density of the air, or whether it is spread out upon the waters ... or how the yielding air can support such a vast mass as the earth, whether such an immense weight can be upheld by the waters without being submerged, or how the earth maintains its balance . . . these matters it is not permitted any mortal to know and they are not for us to discuss." * There can be no doubt that the author of tl\e KinQ9§ Mirror believed in the Ptolemaic theory of a spherical n speaking of our planet he uses the term jar- J( earth-sphere. In an effort to explain why some countries are hotter than others, he suggests an experi- ment with an apple. It is not clear how this can shed much light on the problem, but the author boldly states the point to be illustrated: " From this you may infer that the earth-circle is round like a ball." J Toward the close of the medieval period there were certain thinkers who attempted to reconcile the spheri- cal theory with the belief that the inhabited part of the earth is an island. These appear to have believed that * De Natura Rerum Liber, c. xlv: Migne, Palrologia Latina, LXXXIII, 1015. t See c. xix. J See c. vii. 14 THE KING'S MIRROR the earth is a globe partly submerged in a larger sphere composed of water.* The visible parts of the earth would rise above the surrounding ocean like a huge island, and the Biblical passages which had caused so much diffi- culty could thus be interpreted in accord with apparent facts. It is quite clear that the author of the King's Mirror held no such theory. In a poetic description of how the eight winds form their covenants of friendship at the approach of spring, he tells us that " at midnight the north wind goes forth to meet the coursing sun and leads him through rocky deserts toward the sparse-built shores." f The author, therefore, seems to believe that the earth is a sphere, that there are lands on the opposite side of the earth, and that these lands are in- habited. He also understands that the regions that lie beneath the midnight course of the sun in spring and summer must be thinly populated, as the sun's path on the opposite side of the earth during the season of lengthening days is constantly approaching nearer the pole. But while the author seems to accept the Ptolemaic theory of the universe, he is not able to divest his mind entirely of current geographical notions. There can be no doubt that he believed in the encircling outer ocean, and it is barely possible that he also looked with favor on the belief that the whole was encompassed by a girdle of fire. On this point, however, we cannot be sure: he mentions the belief merely as one that is current, not as one accepted by himself. { * Ruge, Geschichle des Zeitalters der Enldeckungen, 97. t C. v. J C. xix. THE KING'S MIRROR 15 It was commonly held in the middle ages that the earth is divided into five zones, only two of which may be inhabited. This was a theory advanced by a Greek scientist in the fifth century before our era,* and was given currency in medieval times chiefly, perhaps, through the works of Macrobius.f At first these zones were conceived as belts drawn across the heavens; later they came to be considered as divisions of the earth's surface. It will be noted that our author uses the older terminology and speaks of the zones as belts on the heaven; { it may be inferred, therefore, that he derived his information from one of the earlier Latin treatises on the nature of the universe. § For two thousand years it was believed that human life could not exist in the polar and torrid zones. Even as late as the fifteenth century European navigators had great fear of travel into the torrid zone, where the heat was thought to grow more intense as one traveled south, until a point might be reached where water in the sea would boil. Tfrp p.i]ffhm* of t.hf> King's Mirrnr sppms t.n rfpnbt all this. He regards the polar zones as generally uninhabitable; still, he is sure that Greenland lies within the arctic zone; and yet, Greenland " has beautiful sunshine and is said to have a rather pleasant climate." || He sees Henrly th.it the phyairn.1 nnture of n. rountry mny TTin^h to do V*k Himptir nrm Hit inns— Thfi cold of Iceland he ascribes in great part to its position near * Parmenides of Ela (ca. 480 B.C.). Nansen, In Northern Mists, I, 12. t See below, p. 147 (c. xix). Cf. Ibid., 123. J C. xix. § Probably from the writings of Isidore, who speaks of the zones as belts on the heavens. Etymologiae, iii, c. xliv; xiii, c. vi; De Natura Rentm, c. x. II C.xix. 16 THE KING'S MIRROR Greenland: "for it is to be expected that severe cold would come thence, since Greenland is ice-clad beyond all other lands." * He conceives the possibility that the south temperate zone is inhabited. "And if people live as near the cold belt on the southern side as the Green- landers do on the northern, I firmly believe that the north wind blows as warm to them as the south wind to us. For they must look north to see the midday and the sun's whole course, just as we, who dwell north of the sun, must look to the south." f On the questions of time and its divisions the author of the King's Mirror seems to have had nearly all the information that the age possessed. He divides the period of day and night into two " days " (dcegr) of twelve hours each. Each hour is again divided into smaller hours called ostenta in Latin.} Any division below the minute he apparently does not know. The length of the year he fixes at 365 days and six hours, every fourth year these additional hours make twenty- four and we have leap year.§ The waxing and waning of the moon and the tidal changes in the ocean are also reckoned with fair accuracy. || Medieval scientists found these movements in the ocean a great mystery. Some ascribed the tides to the influence of the moon; If others believed that they were caused by the collision of the waters of two arms of the ocean, an eastern arm and a western; still others * C. xiii. f C. xxi. J C. vi. %lUd. \\Ibid. IT The Venerable Bede held that the moon is in some way responsible for the tides. De Natura Rerum, c. xxxix: Migne, Patrologia Latina, XC, 258-259; see also iW., XC, 422-426 (De Tempore Ratione, c. xxix). THE KING'S MIRROR 17 imagined that somewhere there were " certain cavern- like abysses, which now swallow up the water, and now spew it forth again."* The author of the Speculum has no doubts on the subject: he believes that the tides are due to the waxing and waning of the moon.f In his discussion of the volcanic fires of Iceland he shows that on this subject he was completely under the influence of medieval conceptions. He has heard that Gregory the Great believed that the volcanic eruptions in Sicily have their origins in the infernal regions. Our author is inclined to question, however, that there is anything supernatural about the eruptions of Mount Etna; but he is quite sure that the volcanic fires of Ice- land rise from the places of pain. The fires of Sicily are living fires, inasmuch as they devour living materials, such as wood and earth; those of Iceland, on the other hand, consume nothing living but only dead matter like rock. And he therefore concludes that these fires must have their origin in the realms of death. { The author has a suspicion that earthquakes may be due to volcanic action, but he offers another explana- tion, though he does not give it as his own belief. Down in the bowels of the earth there is probably a large num- ber of caverns and empty passages. " At times it may happen that these passages and cavities will be so com- pletely packed with air either by the winds or by the power of the roaring breakers, that the pressure of the blast cannot be confined, and this may be the origin of those great earthquakes that occur in that country." § * Alexander Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, 138. f C. vi. J C. xiii. § Ibid. 18 THE KING'S MIRROR In this theory there is nothing new or original : the be- lief that the earth is of a spongy constitution and that earthquakes are caused by air currents is a very old one, which can be followed back through the writings of Alexander Neckam,* the Venerable Bede,f and others, at least as far as to Isidore.! The elder Pliny, who wrote his Natural History in the first century of the Christian era, seems to have held similar views: " I believe there can be no doubt that the winds are the cause -of earth- quakes." § The chapters that deal with the northern lights are interesting because they seem to imply that these lights were not visible in those parts of Norway where the King's Mirror was written. The editors of the Christi- ania edition of this work call attention to the fact that there have been periods when these phenomena were less prominent, and suggest that there may have been such a period in the thirteenth century. || The author discusses these lights as one of the wonders of Green- land, and the natural inference is that they were not known in Norway. But it is also true that he speaks of whales as if they were limited to the seas about Iceland and Greenland, which is manifestly incorrect. It is likely that the author merely wishes to emphasize the fact that the northern lights appear with greater fre- quency and in greater brilliance in Greenland than any- * De Naturis Rerum, 158. t De Natura Rerum, c. xlix: Migne, Patrologia Latina, XC, 275-276. t De Natura Rerum, c. xlvi: Migne, Patrologia Latina, LXXXIII, 1015. See also The Christian Topography of Cosmas (written about 547), 17-18; Cosmas scoffs at the theory. § Naturalis Historiae, I, 201 (ii, c. Ixxix). || P. ix, note. THE KING'S MIRROR 19 where in Norway. He gives three theories to account for these phenomena: some ascribe them to a girdle of fire which encircles the earth beyond the outer ocean; others hold that the lights are merely rays of the sun which find their way past the edges of the earth while the sun is coursing underneath; but his own belief is that frost and cold have attained to such a power in the Arctic that they are able to put forth light.* In his opinion cold is a positive force as much as heat or any other form of energy. To the men of the author's time there was nothing strange in this belief: it seems to have been held by many even before the thirteenth century that ice could under certain conditions produce heat and even burn.f Among the author's scientific notions very little that is really original can be found. It is Riant's belief that he drew to some extent from Oriental sources, the lore of the East having come into the North as the spoil of crusaders or as the acquisitions of Norwegian pilgrims .{ It may be doubted, however, whether the Saracenic contribution is a real one: almost everything that the author of the Speculum Regale presents as his belief can be found in the Latin scientific manuals of the middle ages. He alludes to the writings of Isidore of Seville, and * C. xix. t Thus Solinus (pp. xxxiv, xxxvii, 236) says " the sea-ice on this island ig- nites itself on collision, and when it is ignited it burns like wood." See Nan- sen, In Northern Mists, I, 193. Adam von Bremen (Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum, iv, 34) writes: " they report this remarkable thing about it that this ice appears so black and dry that, on account of its age, it burns when it is kindled." Ibid. The same belief appears in a German poem Meregarto: " Thereby the ice there becomes so hard as crystal, that they make a fire above it till the crystal glows." Ibid., I, 181. t Riant, Expeditions el Pelerinages des Scandinavcs en Terre Sainte, 440-441. 20 THE KING'S MIRROR there can be little doubt that he was acquainted with the ideas of the great Spaniard, though he does not ac- cept them all. His ideas as to the shape of the earth and the probable causes of earthquakes may have been de- rived from the writings of the Venerable Bede, or from one of his numerous followers. The divisions of time are discussed in many of the scientific treatises of the middle ages, but the division of the hour into sixtieths called ostenta is probably not found in any manual written be- fore the ninth century; so far as the writer has been able to determine, ostenta, meaning minutes, first appears in the works -of Rabanus Maurus.* The discussion of these scientific notions has its chief value in showing to what extent the Norwegians of the thirteenth century were acquainted with the best theo- ries of the age as to the great facts of the universe. The author's own contribution to the scientific learning of his time lies almost exclusively in the field of geography. " Beyond comparison the most important geographical writer of the medieval North," says Dr. Nansen, " and at the same time one of the first in the whole of medieval Europe, was the unknown author who wrote the King's Mirror. ... If one turns from contemporary or earlier European geographical literature, with all its supersti- tion and obscurity, to this masterly work, the difference is very striking." f This is doubtless due to the fact that pur author wfl^ riot. «. Roistered mon^ who was content to copy the ideas and expressions of his predecessors with such changes as would satisfy a theological mind, but a * Rabanus Maurus died in 856. t Nansen, In Northern Mists, II, 242. THE KING'S MIRROR 21 man who had been active in the secular world and was anxious to get at real facts. Among the chapters devoted to scientific lore the author has introduced several which are ostensibly in- tended to serve the purpose of entertainment; the author seems to fear that the interest of his readers is likely to flag, if the dry recital of physical facts is continued unbroken. It is in these chapters, which profess to deal with the marvels of Norway, Ireland, Iceland, Green- land, and the Arctic seas, that he introduces his geo- graphical data. In the description of Greenland are included such important and practical subjects as the general character of the land, the great ice fields, the products of the country, wild animals, and a few facts from the economic life of the people. In the chapters on Iceland the author limits himself to certain physical features, such as glaciers, geysers, mineral springs, vol- canoes, and earthquakes. He also gives a " description of the animal world of the northern seas to which there is no parallel in the earlier literature of the world." * He enumerates twenty-one different species of whales f and describes several of them with some fulness. He men- tions and describes six varieties of seals J and also gives a description of the walrus. The marvelous element is represented by detailed accounts of the " sea-hedges " (probably sea quakes) on the coasts of Greenland, the * Nansen, In Northern Mists, II, 243. t Ibid. " If we make allowance for three of them being probably sharks and for two being perhaps alternative names for the same whale, the total corre- sponds to the number of species that are known in northern waters." % Ibid. This " corresponds to the number of species living on the coasts of Norway and Greenland." 22 THE KING'S MIRROR merman, the mermaid, and the kraken.* But on the whole these chapters give evidence of careful, discrimi- nating observation and a desire to give accurate knowl- edge. For all but the two chapters on Ireland the sources of the author's geographical information are evidently the tales of travelers and his own personal experiences; of literary sources there is no trace. The account of the marvels of Ireland, however, gives rise to certain prob- lems. It may be that the Norwegian geographer based these chapters on literary sources that are still extant, or he may have had access to writings which have since disappeared. It is also possible that some of the infor- mation was contributed by travelers who sailed the western seas and had sojourned on the " western isles ; " for it must be remembered that Norway still had colo- nies as far south as the Isle of Man, and that Norsemen were still living in Ireland, though under English rule. When Hakon IV made his expedition into these regions in 1263, some of these Norwegian colonists in Ireland sought his aid in the hope that English rule might be overthrown.! It has long been known that many of the tales of Irish wonders and miracles that are recounted in the Speculum Regale are also told in the Topographia Hiber- nica by Giraldus Cambrensis. The famous Welshman wrote his work several decades before the King's Mirror was composed; and it is not impossible that the author of the latter had access to the " Irish Topography." Moreover, the Speculum Regale and the Topographia * Cc. xii, xvi. f Hdkonar Saga, c. 322. THE KING'S MIRROR 23 Hibernica have certain common features which corre- spond so closely that literary kinship seems quite prob- able. The resemblances, however, are not so much in the details as in the plan and the viewpoint. In the second book of his " Topography," Giraldus recounts " first those things that nature has planted in the land itself; " and next " those things that have been miraculously performed through the merits of the saints." * The au- thor of the King's Mirror has adopted a similar group- ing. After having discussed some of the wonders of the island he continues: " There still remain certain things that may be thought marvelous; these, however, are not native to the land but have originated in the miracu- lous powers of holy men."f This correspondence in the general plan is too remarkable to be wholly accidental; at least it should lead us to look for other resemblances elsewhere. In his general description of Ireland the author of the Norwegian work calls attention to the excellence of the land and its temperate climate: " for all through the winter the cattle find their feed in the open." J Giraldus informs us that grass grows in winter as well as in sum- mer, and he adds: " therefore they are accustomed nei- ther to cut hay for fodder nor to provide stables for the cattle." § Both writers emphasize the fact that grapes do not grow on the island. In both writings attention is called to the sacred character of the Irish soil, which makes it impossible for reptiles and venomous animals to live on the land, though Giraldus has his doubts as to the supernatural phase of the matter. Both writers * Topographia Hibernica, ii, introd.: Opera, V, 74. f C. xi. t c. x. § Topographia Hibernica, i, c. xxxiii: Opera, V, 67. 24 THE KING'S MIRROR add that if sand or dust is brought from Ireland to another country and scattered about a reptile, it will perish.* Both characterize the Irish people as savage and murderous, but they also call attention to their kind treatment of holy men, of whom the island has always had many.f In fact, every statement in the King's Mirror as to the nature of the land and the character of the inhabitants can be duplicated in Giral- dus' description of Ireland, except, perhaps, the single observation that the Irish people, because of the mild- ness of the climate, often wear no clothes. But even if Giraldus' work is to be regarded as one of the sources which the Norwegian author may have used in writing his chapters on the Irish mirabilia, it cannot have been the only or even the principal source. The account of these marvels in the King's Mirror does not wholly agree with that of the Welshman's work. In some instances the wonders are told with details that are wanting in the earlier narrative. Frequently, too, the Norwegian version is more explicit as to localities and gives proper names where Giraldus has none. It also records marvels and miracles which are not found in the Topographia Hibernica. In an edition of the Irish Nennius the editor has added as an appendix a brief account of the " Wonders of Ireland," many of the tales of which have interesting parallels in the King's Mirror. There is also a medieval poem on the same theme t which contains allusions to much that the Norwegian author has recorded with * Giraldus, Opera, V, 62-64; King's Mirror, c. x. t Topographia Hibernica, Hi, c. 28; King's Mirror, c. x. t See Wright-Halliwell, Reliquiae Antiquae, II, 103-107. THE KING'S MIRROR 25 greater fulness. Neither of these works, however, can have been the source from which the chapters on Ireland in the Speculum Regale have been derived. The learned editors of the Christiania edition of the King's Mirror reached the conclusion that the author did not draw from any literary source but derived his information from current tales and other oral accounts.* This is also the opinion of Dr. Kuno Meyer, the emi- nent student of Celtic philology.f Dr. Meyer bases his belief on the form of the Irish proper names. As written in the Speculum Regale they can not have been copied, as the spelling is not normally Irish; he believes, there- fore, that they show an effort on the author's part to reproduce phonetically these names as he heard them spoken. But this theory ignores the fact that in writing them the author employs combinations of consonants which are unusual to say the least. Combinations of ch and gh are used in writing nearly all the Irish proper names that occur in the King's Mirror and the ^-com- bination is found nowhere else in the work. J It was probably coming into the language in the century to which the work is credited, but the author uses it only as indicated above. It seems likely, therefore, that he had access to a written source, though it is also likely that he did not have this account before him when the writing was actually done. As has already been stated, * P. x. f Erin, IV., 14-16. J In a letter to the writer Professor Meyer expresses the belief that the use of gh in the Irish proper names is an invention by the author. The combina- tion of c and h is also used in certain other proper names, the system varying in the different manuscripts. For a discussion of the writing of proper names in the chief manuscript, see the American Facsimile Edition of the Konungs Skuggsjd (edited by G. T. Flom), xxxvii-xxxix. 26 THE KING'S MIRROR the author seems to have written largely from memory, and his memory is not always accurate. Having discussed the subjects which he considers of chief importance for the education of a merchant, the learned father proceeds to describe jj}£- king's hold anH jt.s nrgfl.nigfl.t.i'on, the at n.mirtfc1 and fa* business thai, is before a king. For the part which deals with the royal court, it is probable that no literary sources were used. The author evidently wrote from long experience in the king's rvitirmg- frg is rmt rh'gr»ngging an irl^ft] organisation hr>"«**holr| as it was in J^ergpTi n his own ^fly If he drew from any written de- scription of courtly manners, it may have been from some book like Petrus Alfonsus' Disciplina Clericalis, which has already been mentioned * and which seems to have had a wide circulation throughout western Europe in the later middle ages. The chapters that are devoted to the discussion 0f the duties and activities ^4-4h^ king*f guaHsm^n^ to the manners and fiuptoT^0 whirh sh^iiM -nil0 ir t"h° kf^g'0 jgaxiJb, and to the ethical ideas on which these were largely based are of great interest to the student of me- •^ dieval culture. They reveal a, progress in the direction ^\ j)f rf>-finp^| ]f"ff> find .po^gn^>.irl Ty>ATinpr.^ which one should scarcely expect to find in the Northern lands. JThe de= velopment of courtes}^ and refined manners may have been accelerated by the new literature which was com- ing into Scandinavia from France and Germany, a literature that dealt so largely with the doings of * See above, pp. 9-10. THE KING'S MIRROR 27 Jgniffhts and kings:* but it was probably not so much a matter of bookish instruction as of direct imitation. The Northmen, though they lived far from the great centers of culture, were always in close touch with the rest of the world. In the earlier centuries the viking sailed his dreaded craft wherever there was wealth and plunder and civilized life. After him and often as his companion came the merchant who brought away new ideas along with other desirable wares. After a time Christianity was introduced from the southlands, and the pilgrim and the crusader took the place of the heathen pirate. And all these classes helped to reshape the life of cour- tesy in the Northern countries. It is difficult to overestimate the influence of the crusader as a pioneer of Christian culture in Scandina- via, but it seems possible that the pilgrim was even more important in this respect. It was no doubt largely through his journeys that German influences began to be felt in the Scandinavian lands, though it is possible that the wide activities of the Hanseatic merchants should also be credited with some importance for the spread of Teutonic culture. It is told in the King's Mirror that a new mode of dressing the hair and the beard had been introduced from Germany since the author had retired from the royal court. f It is signifi- cant that the routes usually followed by Norwegian pilgrims who sought the Eternal City and the holy places in the Orient ran through German lands. As a rule the pilgrims traveled through Jutland, Holstein, and the Old Saxon territories and reached the Rhine at * See above, pp. 2-3. f C. rxx. 28 THE KING'S MIRROR Mainz. It was also possible to take a more easterly route, and sometimes the travelers would go by sea to the Low Countries and thence southward past Utrecht and Cologne; but all these three routes converged at Mainz, whence the journey led up the Rhine and across the Alps. It will be noted that a long stretch of the jour- ney from Norway to Rome would lead through the German kingdom. Concerning the people of the Old Saxon or German lands an Icelandic scribe makes the following significant remark: " In that country the people are more polished and courteous than in most places and the Northmen imitate their customs quite generally." * The cultural influences which followed in the wake of the returning crusaders were no doubt largely of Frank- ish origin. As a rule the crusading expeditions followed the sea route along the coasts of France and the Spanish peninsula; thus the Northern warriors came in contact with French ideas and customs in the Frankish home- land as well as in the Christian armies, which were largely made up of enthusiastic and venturesome knights from Frankland. The author of the King's Mirror urges his son to learn Latin and French, " for these idioms are most widely used." f One of the reasons why the~son wishes to master the mercantile profession! is that he desires to travel and * Nikolas Ssemundarson, abbot of Thingeyrar, who made a journey to the Holy Land about 1151, wrote an itinerary for the use of pilgrims from which the above quotation is taken. The itinerary is summarized in Riant, Exp6- ditions et Pelerinages des Scandinaves en Terre Sainte, 80-87. t C. iii. It is likely that English culture found its way into the North along with the French. When King Sigurd sailed to the Orient in 1107, he spent the winter of 1107-1108 at the English court. THE KING'S MIRROR 29 learn the customs of other lands.* In the thirteenth century the Norwegian trade still seems to have been largely with England and the other parts of the British Isles. It is also important to remember that the Nor- wegian church was a daughter of the church of England, and that occasionally English churchmen were elevated to high office in the Norwegian establishment. It is likely that Master William, who was Hakon IV's chap- lain, was an Englishman; at least he bore an English name.f Information as to foreign civilization and the rules of courteous behavior could also pass from land to land and from court to court with the diplomatic missions of the time. The wise father states that envoys who I come and go are careful to observe the manners that \ obtain at the courts to which they are sent.f Frequent \ embassies must have passed between the capitals of England and Norway in the thirteenth century. It is recorded that both King John and his son Henry III re- ceived envoys from the king of Norway, and that they brought very acceptable gifts, such as hawks and elks,§ especially the former: in twelve different years Hakon IV sent hawks to the English king.|| Embassies also came quite frequently from the im- perial court in Germany. It was during the reign of Hakon IV that the Hohenstaufens were waging their last fight with the papacy, and both sides in the conflict seemed anxious to secure the friendship of the great * C. iii. t Bdkonar Saga, c. 228. J C. xxix. § Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum, I, 382, 506, 509. 1 1 Olafsen, " Falkefangsten i Norge " : Histarisk Tidsskrift, Femte Rsekke, III, 351. 30 THE KING'S MIRROR Norwegian king. The Saga of Hakon relates that early in the king's reign " missions began between the em- peror and King Hakon." * In 1241, " when King Hakon came to the King's Crag, that man came to him whose name was Matthew, sent from the emperor Frederick with many noble gifts. Along with him came from abroad five Bluemen (negroes)." f Just how acceptable such a gift would be in medieval Norway the chronicler does not state. There can be no doubt, however, that Hakon returned the courtesy. The saga mentions several men who were sent on flipl nm aj-.j c erra.n fa to the imperial court. One of these(eniissarl^ had to go as far as Sicily, " and the emperor received him well."! The *" The King's Mirror states that kings fin^ i* ripppggpry f,o Q£ pnmmr>Ti thf> mpm^pi of thp variou nrrrfully thfr tniitQintii mH mnnnrn of th^ other groups^ These meetings were usually held at some point near the mouth of the Gota River, where the boundaries of the three kingdoms touched a common point. In 1254 such a meeting was held at which Hakon of Norway, Christopher of Denmark, and the great Earl Birger of Sweden were in attendance with their respective retinues. 1 1 j^The kings of the North were not limited, however, in their diplomatic intercourse to the neighboring monarch- ies; their ambassadors went out to the remotest parts * Hdkonar Saga, c. 191. f Und-, c. 243. J Ibid., c. 191. § C. xxix. 1 1 Hdkonar Saga, c. 281. THE KING'S MIRROR 31 of Europe and even to Af ricaJ Valdemar the Victorious, in his day one of the greatest rulers in Christendom, married as his first wife Dragomir, a Bohemian princess who brought the Dagmar name into Denmark, and took as his second consort Berengaria of Portugal, Queen Bengjerd, whose lofty pride is enshrined in the Danish ballads of the age. Hakon IV married the daugh- ter of his restless rival, Duke Skule; but his daughter Christina was sought in marriage by a prince in far- away Spain. The luckless princess was sent to Castile and was married at Valladolid to a son of Alfonso the Wise.* Louis IX of France was anxious to enlist the support of the Norwegian king for his crusading ven- tures and sent the noted English historian Matthew Paris to present the matter to King Hakon. f The mis- sion, however, was without results. Norwegian diplo- macy was concerned even with the courts of the infidel : in 1262 an embassy was sent to the Mohammedan sultan of Tunis " with many falcons and those other things which were there hard to get. And when they got out the Soldan received them well, and they stayed there long that winter."! An important event of the diplomatic type was the coming of Cardinal William of Sabina as papal legate to crown King Hakon. The coronation ceremony was performed in Bergen, July 29, 1247. At the coronation banquet the cardinal made a speech in which, as the Saga of Hakon reports his remarks, he called particular attention to the polished manners of the Northmen. * Hdkonar Saga, c. 294. f Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, IV, 651-652. t Hdkonar Saga, c. 313. 32 THE KING'S MIRROR " It was told me that I would here see few men; but even though I saw some, they would be liker to beasts in their behaviour than to men; but now I see here a countless multitude of the folk of this land, and, as it seems to me, with good behaviour." * Tf the King's g""»« * ™rrpnt statement of what was ronntM nnH prnpff finnf1"** nt t}lp lY, the ^iHrr1'0 i"""0** 1 kingdom, Many causes, he tells us, may combine to bring calamities upon a land, and if the evils continue any length of time, the realm will be ruined.* There may come dearth upon the fields and the fishing grounds near the shores; plagues may carry away cattle, and the huntsman may find a scarcity of game; but worst of all is the dearth which sometimes comes upon the intellects and the moral nature of men. As a prolific source of calamities of the last sort, the author mentions the jnst-itllt-1'™1 "f joint kingship, *V>^ wila nf whinh h^ rlisniigggg a.f cnm^ Ipngth His chapter on this subject is an epitome of Norwegian history in the twelfth century when joint kingship was the rule. to the laws of medieval Norway before- allo.dial possession and was inherited by his sons, at his death. All his sons were legaLheir&y-tko&e.ol illegitimate birth as well as .those j^JxajKereuho *C.xxxv. 34 THE KING'S MIRROR there was mo££jJia,n one hJejr3_theJkingsHp was helc all the *»i«"'nr»mt« rpr»pivinff th^ . permissioaJaunaintain e«^ *"'* »wn household Usually a part of the realm was assigned to each; but it was the not th*> imgHnm itself, which seen that^nch a system would rights were at-Jbest of a, doubtful the Norwegian throne. It is an interesting fact that two of these, the strenuous Sverre and the wise Hakon IV, must be counted among the strongest, ablest, and most attractive kings in the history of Norway. Though there had been instances of joint rule before the twelfth century, the history of that unfortunate form of administration properly begins with the death of Magnus Bareleg on an Irish battlefield in 1103. Three illegitimate sons, the oldest being only fourteen years of age, succeeded to the royal title. One of these was the famous Sigurd Jerusalemfarer, who took part in the later stages of the first crusade. About twenty years after King Magnus' death, a young Irishman, Harold Gilchrist by name, appeared at the Norwegian court and claimed royal rights as a son of the fallen king. King Sigurd forced him to prove his birthright by an appeal to the ordeal, but the Irishman walked un- hurt over the hot plowshares. Harold became king in 1130 as joint ruler with Sigurd's son Magnus, later called " the Blind." * Three of his sons succeeded to the * The strife that followed the accession of Harold Gille and Magnus the Blind is the subject of Bjornson's great historical drama, Sigurd Slembe (English translation by William Morton Payne). THE KING'S MIRROR 35 kingship in 1136. During the next century several pre- tenders appeared and civil war became almost the nor- mal state of the country. Between 1103 and 1217 fifteen princes were honored with the royal title; eleven of these were minors. The period closed with the defeat and death of King Hakon's father-in-law, the pretender Skule, in 1240. It was thp history of these hundred years and mnrp nf loirit kin fif S rp *"* of pretenders, of minorities Q^>H r>f fivil ™hiVh thf* author of thf* King'ft Mirror hod in rnjp.fl '« gloomy r>Viflpf Pr nn t^e calamities Perhaps ne was thinking more es- pecially of the unnatural conflict between King Hakon and Duke Skule,* which was fought out in 1240, and the memory of which was still fresh at the time when the King's Mirror was being written. Of the king and his duties as ruler and judge the Speculum Regale has much to say; but as these matters offer no problems that call for discussion, it will not be necessary to examine them in detail. Wholly different is the case of the Ring's rpfafjpn t.p thfi r,hurrh3 of the position, of the church in the state, of the divine origin .ol .Jkingfthifi, of the fuhe^oLthe rpyaj authority jQr these questions the author's opinions and arguments are of great importance :(in the history of the theory of king- ship by the grace of God and divine right and of abso- lute monarchy, the Speculum Regale is an important landmarkA In the discussion of the origin and powers of the royal office, the King's Mirror again shows unmistakably the * See below, p. 48. 36 THE KING'S MIRROR influence of events in the preceding century of Nor- wegian history. So long as thfijehurch-of Norway was umfcr th*> gnpftrincinn ^LJarpigT] firchbishops. first the metropolitan of distant Hamburg and later the arch- bishop of the Danish (now Swedish) see of Lund, there. of anv serious-dash betwe«a-*he. rival powers of f^11T>rh and ctqt^ But when, in 1152, an see was established at Nidaros (Trond- hjem) trouble broke out at once. Thejvave of enthusi- ^sjfl for a powerful and indepgHpPf phnrffr, which Jlgl Developed «iir»>i vijofor in the Havs oLfiregorv VII. was gftfl) rising high. Able men were appointed to the new metropolitan office and the Norwegian church very soon put forth the usual demands of the time: separate eccle- siastical courts and immunity from anything that looked like taxation or forced contribution to the state. At first these claims had no reality in fact, as the kings would not allow them; but in 1163 * an opportunity came for the church to make its demands effective. In that year a victorious faction asked for the coronation of a new king whose claims to the throne came through Jbis mother only* The pretender was a mere child and tjie actual power was in the hands of his capable and am- bitious father^ Erling Skakke. The imperious archbishog Eystein agreed to consecrate the boy king if he would consent to become the vassal of Saint Olaf, or, in other words, of the archbishop of Nidaros. Erling acquiesced and young Magnus was duly crowned. It was further . Stipulated that j * The date usually given is 1164; but Ebbe Hertzberg argues quite conclu- sively for the earlier year. " Den f orste norske Kongekroning " : Historisk Tidsskrift, Fjerde Rtekke, III, 30-37. THE KING'S MIRROR 37 final decision should- rest, with the bishopsJ4 The_jita±e £ Wfl.s formally ma HP gnhjWf; f|O ftfo r»lmrr»li It must be rioted, however, that it. wa.s not. tjhf* hparl r)f Cat.hnHn marl** t.Tip|gfi glfliTingj V»nf the chief prft1a.t.p Of thp naiinrml Norwegian churchy The theory was doubtless this, that if the pope is superioy tp ^Tppprnr thp arpTiVnghnp jfi fillpfrJW to the king. The new arrangement did not long remain lenged. In 1177 the opposition to the ecclesiastical faction found a leader in Sverre, called Sigurdsson, an adventurer from the Faroe Islands, who pretended to be a grandson of Harold Gilchrist, though the proba- bilities are that his father was one Unas, a native of the Faroes. f Sverre's followers were known as Birchshanks, because they had been reduced to such straits that they had to bind birch bark around their legs. The faction in control of the government was called the Croziermen and was composed of the higher clergy with an impor- tant following among the aristocracy. Sverre's fight was, therefore, not against King Magnus alone but against the Guelph party of Norway. For half a century there was intermittent civil warfare between the supporters of an independent and vigorous kingship on the one side and the partisans of clerical control on the other. King Sverre's great service to Norway was that he broke the * According to the new rules of succession the oldest legitimate son, if quali-N fied for the office, should inherit the throne. The oldest might be passed over, i however, in favor of a younger legitimate son, or even in favor of an illegiti- mate descendant, if the bishops should find such a procedure expedient. Gjerset, History of the Norwegian People, I, 364. t While it seems probable that Sverre was not of royal blood he was not necessarily an impostor; he may have believed his mother's assertions. For a discussion of the problem see ibid., 376-377. 38 THE KING'S MIRROR chain of ecclesiastical domination. The conflict was long and bitter and the great king died while it was still on; but when it ended the cause of the Croziermen was lost. The church attained to greatjiower in state, but it never gained complete domination. Sverre was a man of great intellectual strength; he was a born leader of men, a capable warrior, and a re- sourceful captain. When it began to look as if victory would crown his efforts, the archbishop fled to England and from his refuge in Saint Edmundsbury excommuni- cated the king. But exile is irksome to an ambitious man, and after a time the fiery prelate retuned to Norway and was reconciled to the strenuous ruler. System's successor, however, took up the fight once more; and when Sverre made Norway too uncomfortable for him, he fled to Denmark and excommunicated his royal op- ponent. A few years later, Innocent III, who had just ascended the papal throne, also excommunicated Sverre, and threatened the kingdom with an interdict.* But the papal weapons had little effect in the far North; the king forced priests and prelates to remain loyal and to continue in their duties. No doubt they obeyed the ex- communicated ruler with great reluctance and much misgiving; but no other course was possible, jor thew nation was with the king. The militant Faroese was a man with strong literary interests; he was educated for the priesthood and it is believed that he had actually taken orders. He was elo- * It is usually stated that Innocent III actually did lay an interdict on the land, but this appears to be an error. He authorized the bishops to do so, but they seem not to have made use of the authorization. See Bull, " Inter- diktet mot Sverre": Historisk Tidsskrift, Femte Rsekke, III, 321-324. THE KING'S MIRROR 39 quent in speech, but he realized the power of the written as well as of the spoken word. It is a fact worth noting that among the Northmen of the thirteenth century learning was not confined to the clergy. While the author nf tVio gVafiji'o Mt'rrnr urges the prospective flierchant to ]egrj| T^fl.tin and Preriph., he fljpo warns him hisjmather tongue., King Sverre replied to the ecclesi-/ astical decrees with a manifesto in the Norwegian Ian- - guage in which he stated his position and his claims for f^ the royal office. This pamphlet, which is commonly ^ known as " 4B-Address against the Bishops," was issued about 1199 and was sent to all the shire courts to be read to the freemen. It was a cleverly written document and seems to have been very effective. In spite of the fact that the king was under the ban, ^he^mas.sfi& re- mained loyal. Between the political theory of the Address and the ideas of kingship expressed in the King's Mirror there is an agreement which can hardly be accidental. It is more likely that we have in this case literary kinship of tfre first degree. It has been thought that King Sverre may have prepared his manifesto himself, but this is scarcely probable. Some one of his court, however, must have composed it, perhaps some clerk in the royal scrip- torium, for the ideas developed in the document are clearly those of the king. It has also been suggested that the Address and the Speculum Regale may have been written by the same hand; * but the only evidence in support of such a conclusion is this agreement of political * This appears to be Heffermehl's opinion. See Historiske Skrifter tilegnede Ludvig Daae, 87. 40 THE KING'S MIRROR ideas, which may have originated in a careful study of the earlier document by the author of the later work. King Sverre's Address begins with a violent attack on the higher clergy: the bishops have brought sorrow upon the land and confusion into holy church. This deplorable condition is ascribed chiefly to a reckless use of the power of excommunication. In this connection the king is careful to absolve the pope from all guilt: his unfortu- nate deeds were due to ignorance and to false represen- tations on the part of the bishops. It is next argued that excommunication is valid only when the sentence of anathema is just; an unjust sentence is not only invalid but it recoils upon the head of him who is the author of the anathema. In support of this contention the author of the manifesto quotes the opinions of such eminent fathers as Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine, Pope Gregory the Great, and other authorities on canon law. It will be remembered that the king himself was under the ban at the time. The author argues further that his view is supported by reason as well as by the law of the church. Bishops have been appointed shepherds of the flocks of God; they are to watch over them, not drive them away into the jaws of the wolves. But if a bishop excommuni- cates one who is without guilt, he consigns him to hell; and if his decree is effective, he destroys one of God's sheep. From this subject the Address passes to the nature of the royal office. " So great a number of examples show clearly that the salvation of a man's soul is at stake if he does not observe complete loyalty, kingly worship, and a right obedience; for kingly rule is created by God's THE KING'S MIRROR 41 command and not by the ordinance of man, and no man can obtain royal authority except by divine dispensa- tion." The king is not a secular ruler only, he also has holy church in his power and keeping. It is his right and duty to appoint church officials, and the churchmen owe him absolute loyalty the same as his other subjects. Christ pointed out the duty of church officials quite clearly when he paid tribute to his earthly ruler, one who was, moreover, a heathen.* It will be seen that the Address puts forth four claims of far-reaching importance: kingship is of Hi vino ™»igJQ flFld thp king T2]lfg_hy t^Q grn™» fif froH; the royalty extends, t.o fop r»hiirr*h «« WP]| a,<^ t.n t-b*VtStat** includes the power fo aj>pnint. the, r^ferf} o/f flip disloyalty to the king is a mortal sin; an unjust sentence of excommunication is invalid and iniures him onlv who publishes the anathema*. On all these points the King's Mirror is in complete agreement with Sverre's mani- festo. In the course of the dialog in the Speculum Regale the son requests his father to take up and discuss the office and business of the king; for, says he, " he is so highly honored and exalted upon earth that all must bend and bow before him as before God." f Th^ father ac- r>mmt« fnr tn*> p gnV>rnit t^. An....fifl.rt.h1y_.AiitIinrit^Lp To this the father replies that * C. xliii. f C. xliv. J Ibid. e THE KING'S MIRROR 43 .s a. fmpst. /f no is Yft thft divine j^yt^iitinTi nf lrJngcnip pf any bonftr Of '••dignity i* The author evidently deems it important, to t*"> retention: for if Christ. Caesar a,,i to n rigfr**"1 on+K/M-jf.Y, tli^ f»h]|rf>h in Secular r"lfTg ^"1^ g^Qrrp]y p]pim tr> V>o fnllnaring in footsteps of the faster. It seems to be a safe conclusion that the doctrine of the divine character of kingship as developed in the King's Mirror is derived from King Sverre's Address, unless it should be that the two have drawn from a com- mon source. There is nothing novel about Sverre's ideas except the form in which they are stated; fundamentally they are a return to the original Norwegian theory of kingship. The Norwegian kings of heathen times were descendants of divine ancestors. Thpy recognized ft"* will Qgg^mKli^g Qg Q T^Q] lirm'tQ + iryn on tJ1fjr Dow^ers but fif) TP! 10*1 one fl.iitnoTit.v f^oiilri dflim su~ pprinrit,y +^ +1h^ Tnl^r The j^ing was inH^f^ himseh6 a priest.r ft. media/tor between the gods and men. The Christian Irincrs in a very real manner; they had bishops and ha.H also on nrrasinn remnvpH thprn claini of the archbishop to overlordshii) was therefore distinctly an innovation. The king makes use of argu- ments from the Bible to support his theory, not because it was based on Scriptural truths, but because to a Christian people these would prove the most convincing. In his statement of the filings and majesty ^ *^g xnynl pow^r, the author of the Speculum Regale goes, * C. xliv. 44 THE KING'S MIRROR however, far beyond the author of the Address. So com- plete is the king's power, " that he may dispose as he likes of the lives of all who live in his kingdom." * He " owns the entire kingdom as well as all the people in it, so that all the men who are in his kingdom owe him service whenever his needs demand it."f These sen- tences would indicate that the author's position lies close to the verge of absolutism. But Norwegian king- was anything bi]f PibH11*^ f>1F ^'"ff in tJiegovexiimeni. Professor Ludvig Daae has put forth the hypothesis that the author of the King's Mirror was acquainted with the governmental system of Frederick II in his Italian kingdom, which he governed as an abso- lute monarch, t There may be some truth in this for there is no doubt that the character of Frederick's government was known to the Northmen; but it is also possible that the theory of absolute monarchy had a separate Norse origin, that the insistence on divine right in the long fight with the church had driven the parti- sans of monarchy far forward along the highway that led to practical absolutism. Less than a generation after the King's Mirror was composed, the newer ideas of kingship appear in the legislation of Magnus Lawmen- der. Kings have received their authority from God, for " God Himself deigns to call Himself by their name; " and the preamble continues: "he is, indeed, in great danger before God, who does not with perfect love and reverence uphold them in the authority to which God * C. xliii. f C. xxviii. f'Studier angaaende Kongespeilet " : Aarboger for nordisk Oldkyndighed, 1896, 189. THE KING'S MIRROR has appointed them."* This is the doctrine of the Ad- dress as well as of the Speculum; the significant fact is that the principle has now been introduced into the constitution of the monarchy. It is possible that author of the King's Mirror states an alien principle; but it is more probable that he merely gives form to a belief that had been growing among Northmen for some time. On the question of thervalidity of excommunication] the teachings of the Speculum Regale are in perfect ac- cord with those of the Address. The uncompromising position and methods of Innocent III had given point to an exceedingly practical question: was a Christian permitted to nbpy a king wl^n was under thp fran of church ? Of Jif rally thp nhiirnli liplH thflt-oborlionofv thfi rirninastaTKWfr- would -ho ninful. The author of the Speculum Hi'gt.inginalipg pl^ly. however, between just and • unj ust sentences- of excommunication established two houses ypon fftrth, f altar and the house of the judgment seat.f There Js^ therefore, a legitimatp sphere ^f f^^ti^^ ^r *he bishop fl.fi_ well as for frhft Icinpr, JRn-t a.n apt, is not npoessarily rjghi:- eous henausfiJt-emanates ffmn lijgh authority fit^pr in o /VA>^ the .chiirrJi ,or JLa~the stater If ihg^i^g pronnnnnps ^n iinjiist jiiHgmpntj his apt is mnrHpr.} if a.hishnp ax^nm- municates a Christian without proper reasons, the ban is-oLao .effect, except that it reacts upon the offending prelate himself .J After the author has thus denied the right of the church to use the sword of excommunication in certain * Norgesgamle Love, II, 23; Gjerset, History of the Norwegian People, 1, 463. fC.lxix. JC.lxx. 46 THE KING'S MIRROR cases, there remains the question : Jias the .king., any, su- perior authority over the church ? The answer is that king has such authority;) and the author fortifies his position by recalling the story bow Solomon punished Ahinthnr the high p™^ or bishop as he is called in the King's Mirror. l^^^U^^h^ whether SolamfflLd^^ Abiathar of the high-pxiestly office, the father, affirms ..thatJiie acted properly and according to law. The king-is for th ft reason that he must not jpnly -bis-own house .ol judgment, -but a] so the pf the ^JtajywhiVh is ordinarily in the, bishnp^ keeping. Abiathar had sinned in becoming a party to the treasonable intrigues of Adonijah, who was plotting to seize the throne of Israel while his father David was still living, [inasmuch as the high priest had attempted to deprive the Lord's anointed of his royal rights, Solo- mon would have been guiltless even if he had taken Abiathar's lifeTJThe author also calls attention to the fact that Abiathar was elevated to the high-priestly office by David himself .* On the qimst^" of the king's right tn pprHrol ppi's^n- pal appointments the Kin (fa Mirror is also in agreement with the earlier Address. On the death of Archbishop John, the Address tells us, " Inge appointed Eystein, his own chaplain, to the archiepiscopal office f . . • with- out consulting any cleric in Trondhjem, either the canons or any one else; and he drove Bishop Paul from the episcopal throne in Bergen and chose Nicholas Petersson to be his successor." Doubtless the philosopher * C. Ixx. f Archbishop Eystein was consecrated in 1161. THE KING'S MIRROR 47 of the King's Mirror, when he wrote of the fall of Abiathar, was also thinking of the many Abiathars of Norwegian history in the twelfth century, especially, perhaps, of the bishops of Sverre's reign, who had striven so valiantly to rid the nation of its energetic king. There can be no doubt, however, that he regarded t.fip frrr^y as jnfpri'nr to thp secular government. who iinright.pni]fi1.y excommunicates a Norwegian king and ai.t.emptsjjnjjbis way to render hi™ iTnpftfiSj^1p as a rnWr fojfci'tff pnt nnly his nffW hut Lie lifp There was another problem in the middle ages which. also involved the question of jecclesiastical authority] as opposed to[secular jurisdictionj the rjght of There can be no doubt that " it. wa,s,wp11 that tbflfi an accused might find security for a time at least; but the right of sanctuary was much abused, too frequently it served to shield the guilty.. The King's Mirror teaches unequivocally that the right of sanctuary cannot be in- yoked against the orders of the king. As usual the author finds support for his position in the Scriptures. Joab fled to God's tabernacle and laid hold on the horns of the altar ; nevertheless, King Solomon ordered him to be slain, and the command was carried out.* Solomon appears to have reasoned in this wise: "It is my duty to carry out the provisions of the sacred law, no matter where the man happens to be whose case is to be determined." It was not his duty to remove Joab by force, for all just decisions are God's decisions and not the king's; and " God's holy altar will not be defiled or desecrated by *C.kvi. 48 THE KING'S MIRROR Joab's blood, for it will be shed in righteous punish- ment." * And the author is careful to emphasize the fact that God's tabernacle was the only house in all the world that was dedicated to Him, and must consequently have had an even greater claim tosacredness than the churches of the author's own day, of which there was a vast number, f There was a Norwegian Joab in the first half of the thirteenth century, who, like the chieftain of old, plotted against his rightful monarch and was finally slain within the sacred precincts of an Augustinian convent. Skule, King Hakon's father-in-law, was a man of restless am- bition, who could not find complete satisfaction in the titles of earl and duke, but stretched forth his hand to seize the crown itself. In 1239 he assumed the royal title, but a few months later (1240) his forces were sur- prised in Nidaros by the king's army, and the rebellion came to a sudden end. Skule's men fled to the churches; his son Peter found refuge in one of the buildings be- longing to the monastery of Elgesseter, but was dis- covered and slain. After a few days Duke Skule himself sought security in the same monastery; but the angry Birchshanks, in spite of the solemn warnings and threatenings of the offended monks, slew the pretender and burned the monastery.! This was an act of violence which must have caused much trouble for the king's partisans, and it is most likely the act which the author of the King's Mirror had in his thoughts when he wrote of the fate of Joab. *C.lxix. fC.lxvii. J Hdkonar Saga, cc. 239-241; Munch, Del norske Folks Historic, III, 977-978. THE KING'S MIRROR 49 Writers on political philosophy usually begin their specific discussion of the theory of divine right of king- ship when they come to the great political theorists of the fourteenth century.* The most famous of these is Mar- siglio of Padua, who wrote his Defensor Pacis in 1324. In this work he ^iP nlmrfh; he warnsJhis son to shun f every sort; -fr*» rmigf a|gQ aypiH gambling, ajirl r[jjpTriTig to excess.* In some respects the author's jnora,L code is Scandinavian rather than Christian: in the, em- phasis that he places upon reputation and the regardjn which one is held by one's neighbors he seems to echojjie sentiment that runs through the earlier Eddie poetry, especially the " Song of the High One." " One thing I know that always remains," says Woden, " judgment passed on the dead." f And the Christian scribe more than three centuries later writes thus of one who has departed this life: " But if he lived uprightly while on earth and made proper provision for his soul before he died, then you may take comfort in the good repute that lives after him, and even more in the blissful happiness which you believe he will enjoy with God in the other world." t And again he says: " Now you will appreciate what I told you earlier in our conversation, namely that much depends on the example that a man leaves after him."§ The author is also Norse in his emphasis on modera- tion in every form of indulgence, on the control of one's passion, and in permitting private revenge. His attitude toward this present world isjSot medievajQ we may enjfi$L. the good things of creation, though not to excess«X)n the matter of revenge, however, his ideas are character- istically medievaJL Private warfare was allowed almost everywhere in the middle ages, and it appears to have a place in the political system of the Speculum Regale* * Cc. iii-iv, xxxvii. % C. xli. t Hdvamdl, 40: Corpus Poeticum Boreale, I, 8. § C. xlii. THE KING'S MIRROR 51 HM But on this point too the author urges moderation. "When \ you hear things in the speech of other men which offend \ you much, be sure to investigate with reasonable care \ whether the tales be true or false; but if they prove to be true and it is proper for you to seek revenge, take / it with reason and moderation and never when heated / or irritated." * The theology of the King's Mirror, as far as it can be discerned, is also medieval, though it is remarkable that the Virgin and the saints find only incidental mention in the work. No doubt if the author had been able to com- plete his treatise as outlined in his introduction, he would have discussed the forms and institutions of the church at greater length and we should be able to know to what extent his theological notions were in agreement with the religious thought of the age. In this connection his t.hfnry a^ crime . is of peculiar interest. He makes con- siderable use of Biblical narratives to illustrate his teachings and refers at length to some of the less worthy characters of Holy Writ, including certain men who suffered death for criminal offenses. Almost invariably he justifies the punishment by arguing that it was betten. for the criminal to suffer a swift punishment in death. than to suffer eternally in hell. Apparently his theory is that a criminal can cleanse himself in his own blood, that a temporal death can save him from eternal punish- ment^ The idolaters who were slain by Moses and the Levites f " were cleansed in their penance and in the pangs which they suffered when they died; and it was * C. xli. t Exodus, xxxii. 52 THE KING'S MIRROR much better for them to suffer a brief pain in death than a long torture in hell." The sacramental efficiency of the death penalty seems also to extend to the one who exe- cutes punishment: for those who assisted Moses in the slaughter sanctified their hands in the blood of those who were slain. In the same way "a king cleanses himself in the blood of the unjust, if he slays them as a rightful punishment to fulfil the sacred laws."* There can be little doubt that this doctrine of the death penalty also shows the influence of the great civil conflict which ended with the death of Duke Skule in 1240. During a century of factional warfare there had been much violence, much slaughter, much " swift punishment." Applied to Norwegian history the au- thor's argument amounts to a justification of the slaugh- ter at Elgesseter; for Skule and his partisans had re- belled against the Lord's anointed. The hands of the Birchshanks were cleansed and sanctified in the blood of the rebels; but the author also has this comforting assurance for the kinsmen of the fallen, that their souls were not lost: Skule and his companions were cleansed from their sins in the last great penance of death. It may also be that this same long record of violence^, treason, and rebellion was responsible for the prom^ nence that the King's Mirror gives to the duty of obedi- ence. In the political ethics of the work obedience is the chief virtue and the central principle. Conversely diso- bedience is the greatest of all sins. When Saul spared the Amalekites, whom the Lord had ordered him to destroy, he sinned far more grievously than did David when he * C. Ixi. THE KING'S MIRROR 53 dishonored Uriah's wife and afterward brought about Uriah's death; for Saul neglected to carry out the com- mands of God, and " no offense is graver than to be disobedient toward one's superiors." * The King's Mirror is a medieval document; it was in large part inspired by the course of events in Norway during the century of the civil wars; it records the scien- tific and political thought of a certain definite period in Norwegian history. But even though the author of the work must be classed among the thinkers of his own time, his place is far in advance of most of his fellows. His outlook on the world is broader than that of most medieval writers. In matters of science he is less credu- lous and IgssJKpupH hy thpftJ^giVal tli™igV than others who wrote on these subjects in his own century or earlier. On such questions as the cause of earthquakes and the source of the northern lights he shows an ppen- mindedness, which is rarely met with in the middle ages.| For the author's view of life was not wholly me- dieval; on many subjects we find him giving utterance to thoughts which have a distinctly modern appearance. His theory of tViP staip anH itc fiinntinng ic Hi\ He should reward all whose conduct is good, but should discipline and compel those to observe good morals who => r\v cannot learn without threats. Although the book is first and foremost a king's mirror, yet it is intended for every one as a common possession; since whoever wishes is free to look into it and to seek information, as he may desire, about his own conduct, or any other type of manners which he may find discussed in the book. And I believe that no man will be considered unwise or un- mannerly who carefully observes everything that he finds in this work which is suited to his mode of living, no matter what his rank or title may be. If any one desires or is curious to hear or study this book, he need not inquire about the name or the stand- ing of the man who composed and wrote it, lest per- chance he should reject what may be found useful in it because of contempt, envy, or hostile feeling of some sort for the author.* * It seems probable that the form in which the author of the Speculum ex- presses his desire to remain anonymous shows the influence of the Old Norse version of the Elucidarium, a theological discussion in dialog form, which dates from the twelfth century and is ascribed to Honor ius of Autun. The author of the Elucidarium writes as follows in his preface: " My name, how- ever, I have purposely withheld, lest wicked men should be prompted by a feeling of envy to cast aside a useful work." For the original Latin preface to the Elucidarium see Migne, Patrohgia Latina, CLXXII, 1110; the Old Norse version is given in Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed, 1857, p. 240, 1858, p. 24. 76 THE KING'S MIRROR This request, however, which surely may be granted to any man, we should like to make: we ask all good men who hear this book to give it careful thought and study; and if there should be aught which seems neces- sary to the work but has not been included, whether concerning morals and conduct or discreet and proper forms of speech, let them insert it in proper form and connection. And if they find any matters which seem to impair the work or to have been discussed at too great length, let them discreetly remove all such and thus, amending our ignorance in kindness, help our work to be appreciated in proper spirit. For it was not pride that impelled us to labor but good- will toward all who seemed to need and desire knowledge of this sort. When I went to my father with these inquiries that I have now mentioned, I learned in the very first words £//*' ^thatfr addressed to him, how every one ought to salute C or address one's father /] II "THE FEAR OF THE LORD is THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM" Son. Good day,* sire ! I have come to see you as it be- hooves a humble and obedient son to approach a loving and renowned father; and I pray you to listen with pa- tience to the questions that I have in mind to ask and kindly to vouchsafe an answer to each one. Father. Inasmuch as you are my only son, I am pleased to have you come often to see me, for there are many subjects which we ought to discuss. I shall be glad to * Good day (God dag) is still the common form of greeting among Norwegians and other Scandinavians. THE KING'S MIRROR 77 hear what you wish to inquire about and to answer such questions as are (Hiscreetly asked/] „/., Son. I have heard the common report (which I be- lieve is true) as to your wisdom, that in all the land it would be difficult to find a man who has greater insight into every form of knowledge than you have; for all those who have difficult matters to settle are eager to get your decision. I have also been told that the same was true (when you were at the royal court, and thaO c » the entire government, lawmaking, treaty making, and every other sort of business, seemed to be guided fcy your opinion] Now as I am the [lawful heir to y*ur worldly possessionsj I should also like to share some- what in the heritage of your wisdom. Wherefore I wish to have you point out to me the beginnings and the al- phabet of wisdom, as far as I am able to learn them from you, so that I may later be able to read all your learned writings, and thus follow in your footsteps. [F*r I am 7 sure that after your decease many will rely on your hav- ^ ing trained me after your own ways. ~] Father. It pleases me to hear you speak in this wise, and I shall be glad to answer; for it is algreat comfort to me that I shall leave much wealth for my own true son to enjoy after my daysj but 5 should scarcely regard him as a son, though I had begotten him, if he were a fool.] Now if you seek understanding, I will show you the basis and the beginning of all wisdom, as a great and wise man once expressed it:[j:o fear Almighty God, this is the be- 2 ginning of wisdom. *JBut He is not to be feared as an^ * Proverbs, ix, 10. In the use of Scriptural quotations the author is seldom accurate. 78 THE KING'S MIRROR enemy, but rather with the fear of love, as the Son of God taught the man who asked him what the substance of the law was. For the Son of God referred him to the Scripture that reads as follows: Thou shalt love God with all thy heart and with all thy strength and with all thy might.* Now one should love God above everything else and fear Him at all times when evil desires arise; he should banish evil longings for God's sake, though he were bold enough to cherish them for men's sake. Now if you wish to know what are the beginnings and the first steps in the pursuit of wisdom, this is the true be- ""' C ginning, and there is none other. Cfnd whoever learns ~/T~* **•*#/ this and observes it shall not be wanting in true knowl- /, „ kr*/ V -> edge or in any form of goodness, j Son. This is indeed loving counsel, such as one might expect from you; besides, it is good and easily learned f by every one whom fortune follows. Stilljjf one is to be reputed a wise man, it will surely be necessary to take up many things that pertain to the various crafts .J Father. This is the beginning and the alphabet of every good thing. But through the alphabet one learns to read books, and in the same way it is always better the more crafts are added to this art. For through the crafts a man gains wisdom whatever the calling that he intends to follow, whether that ofCkingsman,t yeo- man, or merchant// * St. Luke, x, 27. t A " kingsman " (konungsma&r) was any one who had formally entered into the king's personal service, whether he was actually employed at court or not. See below, cc. xxiv S. c THE KING'S MIRROR 79 III THE ACTIVITIES AND HABITS OF A MERCHANT Son. I am now in my most vigorous years and have a desire to travel abroad; for[I would not venture to seek*) employment at court before I had observed the customs T of other menJSuch is my intention at present, unless you should give me other advice. Father. Although I have been a kingsman rather than a merchant, I have no fault to find with that calling, for often the best of men are chosen for it. But(much de- pends on whether the man is more like those who are true merchants, or those who take the merchant's name but are mere frauds and foisterers, buying and selling c- Son. [It would be more seemly for me to be like the ~) $^j rightful ones; for it would be worse than one might L think likely, if your son were to imitate those who are \ not as they ought.] But whatever my fate is to be, I de-s sire to have you inform me as to the practices of such men as seem to be capable in that business. Father. The man who is to be a trader will have to brave many perils, sometimes at sea and sometimes in heathen lands,* but nearly always among alien peoples; and it must be his constant purpose to act discreetly wherever he happens to be. On the sea he must be alert and fearless. * These " heathen lands " were probably the regions along the Arctic in- habited by the Finns; it is also possible that the author alludes to trading voyages to lands occupied by Esquimaux, though he makes no mention of these people anywhere in his work. 80 THE KING'S MIRROR / wonders of those lands, such as fire and strange bodies of water, or the various kinds of fish and the monsters that dash about in the ocean, or the boundless ice both in the sea and on the land, or what the Greenlanders call the " northern lights," or the " sea-hedges " that are found in the waters of Greenland. Father. I am not much disposed to discuss the won- ders that exist among us here in the North, though my reason may be rather trivial : many a man is inclined to be suspicious and think everything fiction that he has not seen with his own eyes; and therefore I do not like to discuss such topics, if my statements are to be called fabrications later on, even though I know them to be true beyond doubt, inasmuch as I have seen some of these things with mine own eyes and have had daily opportunity to inquire about the others from men whom we know to be trustworthy and who have actually seen and examined them, and therefore know them to be genuine beyond question. My reason for bringing up this objection is that a little book has recently come into our country, which is said to have been written in India and recounts the wonders of that country. The book states that it was sent to Emmanuel, emperor of the Greeks.* Now it is the belief of most men who have * Manuel I, Comnenus, 1143-1180. The " little book " is thought to have been one of the many forms of the legend of Prester John, a fabulous Chris- tian ruler of India of whom much was heard in the middle ages. About 1165 a letter from the " Presbyter Johannes " addressed to the emperor Manuel Comnenus was circulated through Europe and later found its way into the North. In the extant copies of this letter many marvels are told, though the wonder mentioned in the Speculum Regale does not appear. See Zarncke, Der Priester Johannes, 83-98. 102 THE KING'S MIRROR heard the book read, that such wonders are impossible, and that what is told in the book is mere falsehood. But if our own country were carefully searched, there would be found no fewer things here than are numbered in that book which would seem as wonderful, or even more so, to men of other lands who have not seen or heard anything like them. Now we call those things fiction because we had not seen them here or heard of them before the coming of that book which I have just men- tioned. That little book has, however, been widely circu- lated, though it has always been questioned and charged with falsehood; and it seems to me that no one has de- rived honor from it, neither those who have doubted it nor the one who wrote it, even though his work has been widely distributed and has served to amuse and tickle the ear, seeing that what is written in it has always been called fiction. IX POPULAR DOUBT AS TO THE GENUINENESS OF MARVELS Son. Of course I cannot know how widely our talks will travel either in our days or later; and yet, with your permission, I will again ask the pleasure of hearing fur- ther speech concerning those matters that we might think strange in other lands, but which we know are surely genuine. And we need not be so very skeptical of this book which is said to have been written in India, though many marvels are told in it; for there are many things in our own country, which, though not strange to us, would seem wonderful to other people, if our words should fly so far as to come thither where such things THE KING'S MIRROR 103 are unheard of. But if I should express surprise at any of those tales that are told in that book, it seems to me not least wonderful that manikins are able to subdue those great winged dragons which infest the mountains and desert places there, as the book tells us, and tame them so completely that men are able to ride them just as they please like horses, fierce and venomous beasts though they are said to be and not inclined to allow men in their neighborhood, still less to be tamed and to do service. Father. Both such and many other tales are told in that book which seem so marvelous that many express their doubts about them; but it seems to me that there is no need to compare the wonders that are described there with those that we have in our own country, which would seem as strange to men yonder as those that you have just mentioned seem to us. For it must be possible to tame wild beasts and other animals, though they be fierce and difficult to manage. But it would seem a greater marvel to hear about men who are able to tame trees and boards, so that by fastening boards seven or eight ells long under his feet, a man, who is no fleeter than other men when he is barefooted or shod merely with shoes, is made able to pass the bird on the wing, or the fleetest greyhound that runs in the race, or the reindeer which leaps twice as fast as the hart. For there is a large number of men who run so well on skis that they can strike down nine reindeer with a spear, or even more, in a single run. Now such things must seem incred- ible, unlikely, and marvelous in all those lands where men do not know with what skill and cleverness it is possible to train the board to such great fleetness that 104 THE KING'S MIRROR on the mountain side nothing of all that walks the earth can escape the swift movements of the man who is shod with such boards. But as soon as he removes the boards from his feet, he is no more agile than any other man. In other places, where men are not trained to such arts, it would be difficult to find a man, no matter how swift, who would not lose all his fleetness if such pieces of wood as we have talked about were bound to his feet. We, however, have sure information and, when snow lies in winter, have opportunity to see men in plenty who are expert in this art. Not long since, we mentioned a certain fact which must be thought exceedingly strange elsewhere, as it runs wholly counter to the order which holds good in most places with respect to the change from night to day, namely, that here the sun shines as bright and fair and with as much warmth by night as by day through a large part of the summer. In our own country, in More, there is a bog called the Bjarkudal bog, which must also seem wonderful: for every sort of wood that is thrown into it and left there three winters loses its nature as wood and turns into stone.* If it is thrown upon the fire, it will glow like stone, though before it would have burned like wood. I have seen and handled many such stones of which the half that rose above the mire was wooden, while the part submerged in the bog was wholly petrified. Now we must call that a marvel, for the bog is located in a * The " Birchdale " bog seems to be a myth; but that stories of such a marvel were current is evident from a statement by Giraldus Cambrensis, who has heard that there was such a bog in Norway. Opera, V, 86. More is an old Norwegian shire lying to the west of Trondhjem along the coast. THE KING'S MIRROR 105 forest which is heavily wooded with young trees of all sorts; and these are not injured so long as they are green and growing, but as soon as one is hewn down and, hav- ing begun to decay, is thrown into the bog, it turns into stone. ^ ^i a f^/Lj A^vwfc^W X THE NATURAL WONDERS OF IRELAND Son. I am familiar with all these things since they are found in our own country, and I have seen them all. But I have no knowledge of all those other marvels which are to be found in Iceland, Greenland, and Ire- land, and in the seas about those lands, for of those things I have heard rumors only. Father. Those lands, if we are to speak more fully about them, differ much in character and are not all of the same appearance. For the wonders of Iceland and Greenland consist in great frost and boundless ice, or in unusual display of flame and fire, or in large fishes and other sea monsters. And these countries are every- where barren and unfruitful and consequently almost unfit for habitation /But Ireland comes near being the > best land that is known to man, though the grape vine V f ~i \ '*«-X^^ does not grow there.'lyAnd there are many marvels in^ r (Jreland, some of which are of such a character that this country may be called holier than all others. 7 The country lies on that side of the world where heat and cold are so well tempered that the weather is never very hot or very cold. For all through the winter the cattle find their feed in the open, and the inhabitants * Cf. Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera, V, 26-28. Giraldus quotes Bede (Historia Ecclesiastica, i, c. 1). See also Isidore, Etymologiae, xiv, 6. 106 THE KING'S MIRROR wear almost no clothes there either in winter or in sum- mer. And so holy is this land beyond all others that no venomous animal can exist there, either snake or toad.* When such animals are brought in from other countries, they die as soon as they touch the bare earth or rock.f And if wood, earth, or sand is taken from that country and brought to a land where venomous beasts are found, and the sand or earth is strewn around them where they lie, they will never be able to cross the circle but must remain within it and perish. In the same way, if you take a stick of wood which has come from the country of which we now speak and trace a circle around them with it by scratching the soil with the stick, they will soon all lie dead within the circle. It is told of Ireland that men scarcely know of another island of equal size where there are so many holy men. We are also told that /the inhabitants of the country are by nature fierce and murderous and very immoral. But bloodthirsty though 'they be, they have never slain any of the saints who are so numerous in the land; the holy men who have dwelt there have all died in sick bed. For the Irish have been kindly disposed toward all good and holy men, though they have dealt savagely with each other. J There is a lake in that country concerning the nature of which strange tales are told; it is called Logechag § * Cf. Giraldus, Opera, V, 62; see also Bede, Hist. Eccles., i, c. 1. f "Wonders of Ireland" (Irish Nennius, 219); this writer states that the ex- periment has been made. t Giraldus tells us that the Irish are faithless and treacherous (Opera, V, 165) but that the island has no martyrs (ibid., 174). Cf. firiu, IV, 4 (Meyer, "Irish Memorabilia in the Speculum Regale "). § The editor of the Irish Nennius gives this name as Loch n-Echach (Lough Neagh). P. 195, note. THE KING'S MIRROR 107 in the native speech. It is quite an extensive lake and has this property, that if you take a stick of the wood that some call holm and others holly but is called acri- folium * in Latin and fix it in the lake so that part of it is in the earth, a part in the water, and a part rising above, the part in the earth will turn into iron, the part in the water into stone, while that which stands out above will remain as before. But if you set any other sort of wood in the lake, its nature will not change.f Again, there are two springs on a mountain called Blandina,{ which is almost a desert mountain; these have a peculiar nature. One of them has this property that if you take either a white sheep, cow, or horse, or a man with white hair, and wash any one of these with the water, the white will immediately turn to coal black. And such is the nature of the other spring in that place that if a man washes himself in its water, his hair will turn to a snowy white as if he were an aged man, no matter what its color be before, whether red or white or black. § There is also a lake in that country which the natives call Loycha. In that lake there is what appears to be a little floating island; for it floats about in the lake, here * Error for aquifolium. f See the " Wonders of Ireland " (Irish Nennius, 195) where a similar ac- count is given; but according to this " the part of it that sinks into the earth will be stone, the part that remains in the water will be iron." Giraldus writes of a petrifying well (fons) in the north of Ulster, but gives no place name. Opera, V, 86. See also Wright-Halliwell, Reliquiae Antiquae, II, 103. (Latin poem on the wonders of Ireland.) J Blandina (Bladina, Bladma) is the Slieve-Bloom range in central Ireland. § Giraldus has heard of such springs, but he locates the one in Ulster and the other in Munster. Opera, V, 84. A spring that whitens hair is mentioned in Wright-Halliwell, Reliquiae Antiquae, II, 104, and in the Irish Nennius, 195. 108 THE KING'S MIRROR and there approaching the shore sometimes so near that one may step out upon it; and this occurs most fre- quently on Sundays. And such is the property of this islet that if one who is ill steps out upon it and partakes of the herbs that grow there, he is healed at once, no matter what his ailment may be. Another singular fact is this, that never more than one can come upon it at one time, though many may wish to do so; for as soon as one has landed, the island immediately floats away. It also has this peculiarity that it floats constantly about in the lake for seven winters; but as soon as the seventh winter is past, it floats to the shore somewhere and unites with the other land, as if it had always been joined to it. But when that moment has come, a crash like a peal of thunder is heard, and, when the din is past, another island can be seen in the lake of the same size and character as the earlier one. Thus it happens regu- larly every seventh year that, as soon as the one island has joined the mainland, another appears, though no one knows whence it comes.* There is another little island in that country, which the natives call Inhisgluer.f There is a large village on this island and also a church; for the population is about large enough for a parish. But when people die there, they are not buried in the earth but are set up around the church along the churchyard fence, and there they * See £riu, IV, 6. Kuno Meyer knows of no such story in Irish folklore, but refers to similar tales told of floating islands in Wales and Scotland, f Inhisgluair, now Inishglory, is on the west coast of Ireland in county Mayo. Giraldus mentions the legend but assigns it to a different locality; see Opera, V, 83 and note. The Irish Nennius (193) adds that the nails and hair grow and that unsalted meat does not decay on the island. The island is also re- ferred to in the Reliquiae Antiquae, II, 103. THE KING'S MIRROR 109 stand like living men with their limbs all shriveled but their hair and nails unmarred. They never decay and birds never light on them. And every one who is living is able to recognize his father or grandfather and all the successive ancestors from whom he has descended. There is still another quite extensive lake that is called Logri.* In that lake is an islet inhabited by men who live a celibate life and may be called, as one likes, either monks or hermits; they live there in such num- bers that they fill the island, though at times they are fewer. It is said concerning this isle that it is healthful and quite free from diseases, so that people grow aged more slowly there than elsewhere in the land. But when one does grow very old and sickly and can see the end of the days allotted by the Lord, he has to be carried to some place on the mainland to die; for no one can die of disease on the island. One may sicken and suffer there, but his spirit cannot depart from the body before he has been removed from the island. There is another large lake which the natives call Log- herne.f In this lake there is a great abundance of fish of the sort that we call salmon; and the fish is sent into all the country about in such quantities that all have plenty for table use. In this lake there are also many islands, one of which is called Kertinagh by the natives. This * Giraldus refers briefly to this legend. Opera, V, 81. The editor of Giraldus' writings adds in a note (ibid.): " the isle of the living was three miles from Roscrea, parish of Cobally, in a lake called Loch Cre, now dried up." Roscrea is near the north edge of Munster not far from the Slieve Bloom mountains. See also the Irish Nennius, 217. Meyer identifies Logri with Loch Ree in west central Ireland. £riu, IV, 7. t Probably Lough Erne, though Loch Uair, now Lough Owel, in Westmeath has also been suggested. 110 THE KING'S MIRROR island might very well be inhabited, as far as size is concerned, if men dared occupy it. But it is reported about this island that the powers of evil have as great authority over one-half of it as they have in hell itself. Venturesome men who have tried to settle there have said that they suffered as great trouble and torment as souls are believed to suffer in hell. But on the other half of the island there is a church with a churchyard about it. Both halves are now deserted, however, though we are told that over the half where the church is the demons have no power.* It once happened in that country (and this seems in- deed strange) that a living creature was caught in the forest as to which no one could say definitely whether it was a man or some other animal; for no one could get a word from it or be sure that it understood human speech. It had the human shape, however, in every de- tail, both as to hands and face and feet; but the entire body was covered with hair as the beasts are, and down the back it had a long coarse mane like that of a horse, which fell to both sides and trailed along the ground when the creature stooped in walking. I believe I have now recounted most of the marvels that have their ori- gin in the nature of the land itself, so far as we seem to have sure knowledge concerning them. * Giraldus calls this island the Purgatory of Saint Patrick; but this famous place was " on an island in Lough Derg, in county Donegal." Opera, V, 82-83 and note. It seems likely, however, that two different legends have been con- fused in the Welshman's account. THE KING'S MIRROR 111 XI IRISH MARVELS WHICH HAVE MIRACULOUS ORIGINS . Son. I consider it fortunate that I had some curiosity^ » \^ to know about these matters, for there are no doubt J AJ(P many so ill-informed that they have never heard about j such things. Most men who may hear these accounts / are likely to find them marvelous, though also somewhat / informing. But since I gather from your remarks that there may be certain other things that are wonderful and seem worth discussing, either native to the land or having some other origin, I wish to request that nothing be omitted which you consider worth men- / tioning, now that we have taken up these subjects. 1 1 / Father. There still remain certain things that may be thought marvelous; these, however, are not native to the land but have originated in the miraculous powers of holy men, and we know of a truth that these do exist Certain things are told, too, of which we cannot be sure whether they are credible or merely the talk of men, though they are common rumor in that country; but what follows we know to be true beyond a doubt. In that same lake that I mentioned earlier which is called Logri, lies a little island named Inisclodran. Once there was a holy man named Diermicius who had a church on the isle near which he lived. Injto_jthjs_church he is JliejDatron no Jemale dJto enjter. All beasts are aware of this, for both birds and other animals which are without human reason avoid it as carefully as humans do. And THE KING'S MIRROR no creature of the female sex ever ventures into that churchyard, nor could it enter if it tried.* Once there was a holy man in that country named Kevinus, who lived in a place called Glumelaga.f At the time he lived almost as a hermit, and the event which we shall now relate occurred in his day. It so befell that a young man was living with him, a kinsman of his who was his servant, and the saint loved the youth very much. But the lad fell ill before his eyes, and the malady grew so heavy and severe that death seemed imminent. It was in the spring time, in the month of March, when the man's illness was at the worst. Then it happened that the youth asked his kinsman Kevinus to give him an apple, saying that he would find relief from his illness if he got what he asked for. It seemed unlikely, however, that apples could be gotten in that season, as the buds had only just begun to swell and sprout forth leaves on the fruit trees. But because the holy Kevinus grieved sorely over the illness of his kinsman, and also because he was unable to procure what he had requested, he knelt down in prayer and implored God to send him somewhat of those things, so that his kinsman might find the relief that he yearned for. Having risen from prayer, he stepped outside and looked around. Near the house * The holy island which is shunned by all females is mentioned by Giraldus (Opera, V, 80-81), but he fails to give the name of either the lake or the island. In the "Wonders of Ireland" (Irish Nennius, 217) this island is also the one on which no one is permitted to die. A similar legend is alluded to in Reliquiae Antiquae, II, 107. Meyer believes that " the Norse version offers a combina- tion or confusion of two different Irish stories, one relating to Diarmait's churchyard in Inis Clothrann, and the other relating to an island on Loch Cre." £riu, IV, 9. t Glendalough. St. Kevin was the founder of the great abbey of Glendalough. The year of his death is variously given as 617 and 618. THE KING'S MIRROR 113 stood a willow of large growth. Kevinus looked up among the branches of the willow as if expecting to find help and comfort there; then he saw that apples had grown upon the willow, just as there would be on an apple tree in the proper season. He picked three apples and gave them to the youth, and after the lad had eaten of these, his illness began to leave him and he was cured of the malady. But the willow has ever since continued to keep the gift that God gave it on that occasion, for every year it bears apples like an apple tree; and since that day these have always been called Saint Kevinus' apples.* They have been carried into all parts of Ire- land in order that those who are ill may partake of them; and they seem to have virtue in all human ailments, for those who eat of them appear to get relief. But they are not sweet in taste and would not be wanted if men did not prize them for their healing properties. Many won- derful things have come to pass in Ireland which certain > highly endowed saints have brought about in an in- / stant; and these, too, must seem very marvelous. Thus / far, however, we have spoken only of such things as have j been achieved through a holiness so great that they re-^ main as a testimony to this day and seem as wonderful now as on the day when they first occurred. But those other matters that men regard as surely genuine and speak of as actual facts we may now proceed to point out. In that country there is also a place called Themar,t which in olden times was apparently a capital or royal * For a less detailed account of Saint Kevin and the wonderful willow, see Giraldus, Opera, V, 113. Cf. £riu, IV, 9. t Themar was the ancient royal seat Temhair, now Tara. It seems to be al- luded to in Reliquiae Antiquae, II, 105. Cf. Eriu, IV, 10. 114 THE KING'S MIRROR borough; now, however, it is deserted, for no one dares to dwell there. It was this event that caused the place to be abandoned: all the people in the land believed that the king who resided at Themar would always ren- der just decisions and never do otherwise; although they /^were heathen in other respects and did not have the true faith concerning God, they held firmly to their be- lief that every case would be decided properly if that king passed upon it; and never, they thought, could an unrighteous decision come from his throne. On what seems to have been the highest point of the borough, the king had a handsome and well built castle in which was a large and beautiful hall, where he was accustomed to sit in judgment. But once it happened that certain lawsuits came before the king for decision in which his friends and acquaintances were interested on the one side, and he was anxious to support their contentions in every way. But those who were interested in the suits on the other side were hostile toward him, and he was their enemy. So the outcome was that the king shaped his decision more according to his own wish than to justice. But because an unrighteous judgment had come whence all people expected just decisions and because of this popular belief, the judgment seat was overturned and the hall and the castle likewise, even to their very foundations. The site, too, was overturned, so that those parts of the earth which had formerly pointed down- ward were now turned upward; and all the houses and halls were turned down into the earth and thus it has been ever since. But because such a great miracle hap- pened there, no one has since dared to inhabit the place, THE KING'S MIRROR 115 nor has any king ventured to set up his throne there; and yet, it is the loveliest place known in all that coun- try. It is also thought that if men should attempt to re- build the town, not a single day would pass without the appearance of some new marvel. There is still another wonder in that country which must seem quite incredible; nevertheless, those who dwell in the land affirm the truth of it and ascribe it to the anger of a holy man. It is told that when the holy Patricius * preached Christianity in that country, there was one clan which opposed him more stubbornly than any other people in the land; and these people strove to do insult in many ways both to God and to the holy man. And when he was preaching the faith to them as to others and came to confer with them where they held their assemblies, they adopted the plan of howling at him like wolves. When he saw that he could do very little to promote his mission among these people, he grew very wroth and prayed God to send some form of affliction upon them to be shared by their posterity as a constant reminder of their disobedience. Later these clansmen did suffer a fitting and severe though very marvelous punishment, for it is told that all the mem- bers of that clan are changed into wolves for a period and roam through the woods feeding upon the same food as wolves; but they are worse than wolves, for in all their wiles they have the wit of men, though they are as eager to devour men as to destroy other creatures. It is reported that to some this affliction comes every seventh winter, while in the intervening years they are * Saint Patrick. 116 THE KING'S MIRROR men; others suffer it continuously for seven winters all told and are never stricken again.* There is still another matter, that about the men who are called " gelts," | which must seem wonderful. Men appear to become gelts in this way: when hostile forces meet and are drawn up in two lines and both set up a terrifying battle-cry, it happens that timid and youth- ful men who have never been in the host before are sometimes seized with such fear and terror that they lose their wits and run away from the rest into the for- est, where they seek food like beasts and shun the meet- ing of men like wild animals. It is also told that if these people live in the woods for twenty winters in this way, feathers will grow upon their bodies as on birds; these serve to protect them from frost and cold, but they have no large feathers to use in flight as birds have. But so great is their fleetness said to be that it is not possible for other men or even for greyhounds to come near them; for those men can dash up into a tree almost as swiftly as apes or squirrels. There happened something once in the borough called Cloena,} which will also seem marvelous. In this town * See the poem on the "Wonders of Ireland" (Reliquiae Antiquae, II, 105), where this transformation is alluded to. Stories of men who have become wolves are also told in Giraldus, Opera, V, 101, and in the Irish Nennius, 205; but these differ widely from the account given above. Stories of werewolves and lycanthropy are found in folklore everywhere. t Gelt (gjalti) is evidently a Celtic loanword, a form of the Irish geilt, mean- ing mad or madman. Cf . the Adventures of Suibhne Geilt, translated by J. G. O'Keefe. Suibhne was an Irish king who lost his reason in battle and for years afterwards led a wild life in the woods. O'Keefe thinks that the author of the King's Mirror must have heard the tale of Suibhne (pp. xxxiv-xxxv). See also Eriu, IV, 12. J Kuno Meyer identifies Cloena with Clomnacnois. £riu, IV, 12. Clonmac- nois is in King's county eight miles southwest of Athlone. THE KING'S MIRROR 117 there is a church dedicated to the memory of a saint named Kiranus.* One Sunday while the populace was at church hearing mass, it befell that an anchor was dropped from the sky as if thrown from a ship; for a rope was attached to it, and one of the flukes of the anchor got caught in the arch above the church door. The people all rushed out of the church and marveled much as their eyes followed the rope upward. They saw a ship with men on board floating before the anchor cable; and soon they saw a man leap overboard and dive down to the anchor as if to release it. The movements of his hands and feet and all his actions appeared like those of a man swimming in the water. When he came down to the anchor, he tried to loosen it, but the people imme- diately rushed up and attempted to seize him. In this church where the anchor was caught, there is a bishop's throne. The bishop was present when this occurred and forbade his people to hold the man; for, said he, it might prove fatal as when one is held under water. As soon as the man was released, he hurried back up to the ship; and when he was up the crew cut the rope and the ship sailed away out of sight. But the anchor has remained in the church since then as a testimony to this event.f * St. Ciaran (Kiranus) of Clonmacnois was the founder of a great monastery there. The year of his death is given as 547. t In the Irish Nennius (211-213) the following version of this tale appears. " Congalach, son of Maelmithig, was at the fair of Teltown on a certain day, when he saw a ship (sailing) along in the air. One of the crew cast a dart at a salmon. The dart fell down in the presence of the gathering, and a man came out of the ship after it. When he seized its end from above, a man from below seized it from below. Upon which the man from above said: * I am being drowned,' said he. ' Let him go,' said Congalach; and he is allowed to go up, and then he goes from them swimming." The translation is by Kuno Meyer: £riu, IV, 13. Congalach was an Irish king (944-956); Teltown is in county 118 THE KING'S MIRROR I believe we have now mentioned all the features of this country that are most worth discussing. But there is one other matter that I can tell about, if you wish, for the sport or amusement of it. Long time ago a clownish fellow lived in that country; he was a Christian, how- ever, and his name was Klefsan.* It is told of this one that there never was a man who, when he saw Klefsan, was not compelled to laugh at his amusing and absurd remarks. Even though a man was heavy at heart, he could not restrain his laughter, we are told, when he heard that man talk. But Klefsan fell ill and died and was buried in the churchyard like other men. He lay long in the earth until the flesh had decayed from his bones, and his bones, too, were largely crumbled. Then it came to pass that other corpses were buried in the same churchyard, and graves were dug so near the place where Klefsan lay that his skull was unearthed, and it was whole. They set it up on a high rock in the church- yard, where it has remained ever since. But whoever comes to that place and sees that skull and looks into the opening where the mouth and tongue once were im- mediately begins to laugh, even though he were in a sorrowful mood before he caught sight of that skull. Thus his dead bones make almost as many people laugh as he himself did when alive. Now I know of no further facts about that country which appear to be suitable materials with which to lengthen a talk like this. Meath. The legend is alluded to in Reliquiae Antiquae, II, 105, with some dif- ference in details. * A somewhat different version of this tale is found in the poem on the "Wonders of Ireland" (Reliquiae Antiquae, II, 105). See also £riu, IV, 14. THE KING'S MIRROR 119 XII THE MARVELS OF THE ICELANDIC SEAS: WHALES; THE KRAKEN Son. Now since we have discussed everything in Ire- land that may be counted marvelous, let us have a talk about Iceland and the wonders that are found in the Icelandic seas. Father. Aside from the whales in the ocean, there are, I should say, but few things in the Icelandic waters which are worth mentioning or discussing. The whales vary much both in kind and size. Those that are called Oblubber-cutters — and they are the most numerous - grow to a length of twenty ells; * a great many of them are, however, so small that they measure only ten ells; the rest are in between, each having its own size. These fishes have neither teeth nor whalebone, nor are they dangerous either to ships or men, but are rather disposed to avoid the fishermen. Nevertheless, they are con- stantly being caught and driven to land by the hun- dreds, and where many are caught, they provide much food for men.fyThere are also other varieties of small whales, such as the porpoise, which is never longer than five ells, and the caaing whale, which has a length of seven ells only. There is another kind of whales called the grampus, which grow no longer than twelve ells and have teeth * An ell was approximately eighteen inches. t Whale fishing is an ancient industry in Norway; it is mentioned as early as the ninth century in the writings of Alfred the Great. See Nansen, In North- ern Mists, I, 172. 120 THE KING'S MIRROR in proportion to their size very much as dpgs have. They are also ravenous for other whales just as dogs are for other beasts. They gather in flocks and attack large whales, and, when a large one is caught alone, they worry and bite it till it succumbs. It is likely, how- ever, that this one, while defending itself with mighty blows, kills a large number of them before it perishes. There are two other varieties, the beaked whale and the "hog whale, " the largest of which are not more than twenty-five ells in length. These are not fit to be eaten, for the fat that is drawn from them cannot be digested either by man or by any beast that may partake of it. For it runs through them and even through wood; and after it has stood a while, scarcely any vessel can con- tain it, even if made of horn. There are certain other types which are worth a passing mention only, namely the " raven whale " and the white whale.* The white whales are so named because of their show white color, while most other varieties are black, except that some of them have spots, such as the " shield whale," the " spear whale," and the baleen whale. All these kinds that I have just mentioned may be freely eaten and many other kinds too. There is another sort of whales called the " fish driver," f which is perhaps the most useful of all to * Probably the beluga, also called white whale. The other varieties named in this paragraph, excepting the beaked whale and the baleen whale seem not to have been identified with any known types of whales. It has been sug- gested that some of them may have been sharks. See Nansen, In Northern Mists, II, 243. t The editor of the Sor5 edition identifies this with the nor-caper (Balcena gla- cialis), though he thinks it possible that the fin-fish (Bcdcenoptera laticeps) may be meant (p. 125). THE KING'S MIRROR men; for it drives the herring and all other kinds of fish in toward the land from the ocean outside, as if (Appointed and sent by the Lord for this purposed/This j~\ is its duty and office as long as the fishermen keep the \ peace on the fishing grounds. Its nature is also peculiar \ in this, that it seemingly knows how to spare both ships and men. Butfwhen the fishermen fall to quarreling and ~j fighting, so that blood is spilt, this whale seems able to perceive it; for it moves in between the land and the fish and chases the shoals back into the ocean, just as it earlier had driven them in toward the men.jThese whales are not more than thirty ells in length, or forty at the very largest. They would provide good food, if men were allowed to hunt them, but no one is permitted to catch or harm them, since they are of such great and constant service to men. Another kind is called the sperm whale. These are toothed whales, though the teeth are barely large enough to be carved into fair-sized knife handles or chess men. They are neither fierce nor savage, but rather of a gentle nature, and so far as possible they avoid the fishermen. In size they are about like those that I men- tioned last. Their teeth are so numerous that more than seventy can be found in the head of a single whale of this sort. Still another species is called the right whale; * this has no fins along the spine and is about as large as the sort that we mentioned last. Sea-faring men fear it very much, for it is by nature disposed to sport with ships. * Balcena mysticetus; also called bowhead or Greenland whale. THE KING'S MIRROR There is another kind called the Greenland shark,* which is peculiar in this, that it has caul and fat in the abdomen like cattle. The largest of these whales grow to a length of thirty ells at most. There are certain varieties that are fierce and savage toward men and are constantly seeking to destroy them at every chance. One of these is called the " horse whale," and another the " red comb." f They are very voracious and malicious and never grow tired of slaying men. They roam about in all the seas looking for ships, and when they find one they leap up, for in that way they are able to sink and destroy it the more quickly. CThese fishes are unfit for human food; being the natural _ enemies of mankind, they are, in fact, loathsome]] The ~* largest of this type never grow more than thirty or forty ells in length. There is still another sort called the narwhal, which may not be eaten for fear of disease, for men fall ill and die if they eat of it. This whale is not large in size; it never grows longer than twenty ells. It is not at all savage but rather tries to avoid fishermen. It has teeth in its head, all small but one which projects from the front of the upper jaw. This tooth is handsome, well formed, and straight as an onion stem. It may grow to a length of seven ells and is as even and smooth as if shaped with a tool. It projects straight forward from the head when the whale is traveling; but sharp and straight though it is, it is of no service as a defensive weapon; for the whale * It is possible that the basking sharks are meant rather than the Greenland sharks; they are larger than the Greenland sharks, but do not seem to be common in the Arctic waters, t The " horse whale " and the " red comb " have not been identified. THE KING'S MIRROR 123 is so fond and careful of its tusk that it allows nothing to come near it. I know of no other varieties of whales that are unfit for human food, only these five that I have now enumerated: the two that I mentioned first were the beaked whale and the " hog whale; " the three mentioned later were the " horse whale," the " red comb," and the narwhal. There are certain varieties of even greater size which I have not yet described; and all those that I shall now discuss may be eaten by men. Some of them are danger- ous for men to meet, while others are gentle and peace- able. One of these is called humpback; this fish is large and very dangerous to ships. It has a habit of striking at the vessel with its fins and of lying and floating just in front of the prow where sailors travel. Though the ship turn aside, the whale will continue to keep in front, so there is no choice but to sail upon it; but if a ship does sail upon it, the whale will throw the vessel and destroy all on board. The largest of these fishes grow to a length of seventy or eighty ells; they are good to eat. Then there is that kind which is called the Greenland whale.* This fish grows to a length of eighty or even ninety ells and is as large around as it is long; for a rope that is stretched the length of one will just reach around it where it is bulkiest. Its head is so large that it comprises fully a third of the entire bulk. This fish is very cleanly in choice of food; for people say that it subsists wholly on mist and rain and whatever falls into the sea from the air above. When one is caught and its * This is another name for the right whale described above; the author's classification in this case must have been based on size only. 124 THE KING'S MIRROR ^ entrails are examined, nothing is found in its abdomen like what is found in other fishes that take food, for the abdomen is empty and clean. It cannot readily open and close its mouth, for the whalebone which grows in it will rise * and stand upright in the mouth when it is opened wide; and consequently whales of this type often perish because of their inability to close the mouth. This whale rarely gives trouble to ships. It has no teeth and/is fat and good to eat.J Then there is a kind of whale called the rorqual, and this fish is the best of all for food. It is of a peaceful dis- position and does not bother ships, though it may swim very close to them. This fish is of great size and length; it is reported that the largest thus far caught have meas- ured thirteen times ten ells, that is, one hundred and thirty ells by the ten-count. Because of its quiet and peaceful behavior it often falls a prey to whale fishers. /It is better for eating and smells better than any of the other fishes that we have talked about, though it is said to be very fat; it has no teeth. It has been asserted, too, that if one can get some of the sperm of this whale and be perfectly sure that it came from this sort and no other, it will be found a most effective remedy for eye troubles, leprosy, ague, headache, and for every other ill that afflicts mankind. Sperm from other whales also makes good medicinev, though not so good as this sort.J And now I have enumerated nearly all the varieties of whales that are hunted by men. * The author seems to believe that the whalebone rises from the lower jaw or the floor of the mouth; as a matter of fact it is fastened to the palate. THE KING'S MIRROR 125 There is a fish not yet mentioned which it is scarcely advisable to speak about on account of its size, which to most men will seem incredible. There are, moreover, but very few who can tell anything definite about it, inasmuch as it is rarely seen by men; for it almost never approaches the shore or appears where fishermen can see it, and I doubt that this sort of fish is very plentiful in the sea. In our language it is usually called the "kra- ken." I can say nothing definite as to its length in ells, for on those occasions when men have seen it, it has appeared more like an island than a fish. Nor have I heard that one has ever been caught or found dead. It seems likely that there are but two in all the ocean and that these beget no offspring, for I believe it is always the same ones that appear. Nor would it be well for other fishes if they were as numerous as the other whales, seeing that they are so immense and need so much food. It is said, that when these fishes want something to eat, they are in the habit of giving forth a violent belch, which brings up so much food that all sorts of fish in the neighborhood, both large and small, will rush up in the hope of getting nourishment and good fare. Meanwhile the monster keeps it mouth open, and inasmuch as its opening is about as wide as a sound or fjord, the fishes cannot help crowding in in great numbers. But as soon as its mouth and belly are full, the monster closes its mouth and thus catches and shuts in all the fishes that just previously had rushed in eagerly to seek food.* * The kraken myth probably came to the North with the legend of St. Bren- dan, an Irish abbot, who was believed to have made a journey into the At- 126 THE KING'S MIRROR Now we have mentioned and described most of those things in the Icelandic waters that would be counted wonderful, and among them a few that are more plenti- ful in other seas than in those which we have just dis- cussed. XIII THE WONDERS OF ICELAND Son. Now since we have named most of the species of fish that roam about in the ocean, those that are worth mentioning or discussing, I should like to hear about those features of the land itself that are most worthy of mention. What do you think of the extraordinary fire which rages constantly in that country ? Does it rise out of some natural peculiarity of the land, or can it be that it has its origin in the spirit world ? And what do you think about those terrifying earthquakes that can occur there, or those marvelous lakes, or the ice which covers all the higher levels ? Father. As to the ice that is found in Iceland, I am inclined to believe that it is a penalty which th£ land suffers for lying so close to Greenland; for it is to be expected that severe cold would come thence, since Greenland is ice-clad beyond all other lands. Now since Iceland gets so much cold from that side and receives but little heat from the sun, it necessarily has an over- abundance of ice on the mountain ridges. But concern- ing the extraordinary fires which burn there, I scarcely know what to say, for they possess a strange nature. I lantic about the middle of the sixth century. The oldest extant form of the legend, the Navigatio Brendani, dates from the eleventh century. For earlier versions of the myth see Nansen, In Northern Mists, II, 234. THE KING'S MIRROR have heard that in Sicily there is an immense fire of un- usual power which consumes both earth and wood. I have also heard that Saint Gregory has stated in his Dialogues * that there are places of torment f in the fires of Sicily. But men are much more inclined to be- lieve that there must be such places of torment in those fires in Iceland. For the fires in Sicily feed on living things, as they consume both earth and wood. Trees x live; they grow and put forth green leaves; but they dry up and wither when they begin to die; therefore, since they die when they wither, they must be called ; , *, living while they are green. The earth, too, must be / ! called living, inasmuch as it sometimes yields much / fruitage; and as soon as one crop is fallen into decay, / it gives new growth. All living creatures, too, are formea of earth, and therefore it surely must be called living. Both these things, earth and wood, the fires of Sicily can burn and consume as nourishment. The fire of Ice- land, however, will burn neither earth nor wood, though these be cast upon it; but it feeds upon stone and hard rock and draws vigor from these as other fires do from dry wood. And never is rock or stone so hard but that this fire will melt it like wax and then burn it like fat oil. But when a tree is cast upon the fire, it will not burn but be scorched only. Now since this fire feeds on dead things only and rejects everything that other fires de- vour, it must surely be said that it is a dead fire; and it * Dialogorum Libri IV. Pope Gregory died in 604. The Icelandic version of Gregory's Dialogues is published in Heilagra Manna Sogur, I. t It is difficult to determine whether the author uses " places of torment " as a term for hell or for purgatory; it seems probable, however, that in this case hell is meant. 128 THE KING'S MIRROR seems most likely that it is the fire of hell, for in hell all things are dead. I am also disposed to believe that certain bodies of water in Iceland must be of the same dead nature as the fire that we have described. For there are springs which boil furiously all the time both winter and summer. At times the boiling is so violent that the heated water is thrown high into the air. But whatever is laid near the spring at the time of spouting, whether it be cloth or wood or anything else that the water may touch when it falls down again, will turn to stone. This seems to lead to the conclusion that this water must be dead, seeing that it gives a dead character to whatever it sprinkles and moistens; for the nature of stone is dead. But if the fire should not be dead but have its origin in some peculiarity of the country, the most reasonable theory as to the formation of the land seems to be that there must be many veins, empty passages, and wide cavities in its foundations. At times it may happen that these passages and cavities will be so completely packed with air, either by the winds or by the power of the roar- ing breakers, that the pressure of the blast cannot be confined, and this may be the origin of those great earth- quakes that occur in that country.* Now if this should seem a reasonable or plausible explanation, it may be that the great and powerful activity of the air within the foundations of the earth also causes those great fires to be lit and to appear, which burst forth in various parts of the land.f * For the history of this theory see above, pp. 17-18. t The number of volcanoes hi Iceland is variously given, but the more reli- able authorities give 107. THE KING'S MIRROR 129 Now it must not be regarded as settled that the facts are as we have just said; we have merely tried to bring together and compare various opinions in order to de- termine what seems most reasonable. For we see that all fire originates in force. If a hard stone is stricken against hard iron, fire comes out of the iron and out of the energy of the stroke when they clash. You can also rub pieces of wood against each other in such a way that their antagonism will produce fire. It also happens fre- quently that two winds rising at the same time will go against each other; and when they meet in the air, heavy blows fall, and these blows give forth a great fire which spreads widely over the sky.* At times it also happens that this fire is driven to the earth where it causes much damage by burning houses and sometimes forests and ships at sea. But all the fires that I have now named, whether they come from iron, or winds colliding in the air, or any of those mighty forces which can produce fire, will consume trees, forests, and earth: while the fire which we discussed earlier and which appears in Iceland refuses all these things, as I have already shown. Now these facts lead to this conclusion as to its nature, that it is more likely to have arisen from dead things or from like sources, than those other fires that we have now discussed. And in case it is as we have imagined, it is likely that the great earthquakes of that country origi- nate in the power of those mighty fires that well through the bowels of the land. * The common belief of medieval scientists was that lightning was caused by the collision of clouds. 130 THE KING'S MIRROR XIV THE VOLCANIC FIRES OF ICELAND C* 'V fc Son. Hi should like very much, with your permission, l(Jlf. ^_to ask further about this firejYou stated earlier in your remarks that Gregory has written in his Dialogues that there are places of torment in Sicily; but to me it seems more likely that those places are in Iceland. You also said that so vast are the fires in the bowels of the land that earthquakes arise out of their violent movements; but if the fires are so destructive to stone and rock that it melts them like wax and feeds wholly upon them, I should imagine that it would soon consume all the foun- dations beneath the land and all the mountains as well. Though you may think I am asking childish questions about these things, still I entreat you to give indulgent replies; for, of course, one can ask many questions that reveal youth rather than wisdom. Father. I have no doubt that there are places of tor- ment in Iceland even in places where there is no burn- ing; for in that country the power of frost and ice is as boundless as that of fire. There are those springs of boil- ing water which we have mentioned earlier. There are also ice-cold streams which flow out of the glaciers with such violence that the earth and the neighboring moun- tains tremble; for when water flows with such a swift and furious current, mountains will shake because of its vast mass and overpowering strength. And no men can go out upon those river banks to view them unless they bring long ropes to be tied around those who wish to explore, while farther away others sit holding fast the THE KING'S MIRROR 131 rope, so that they may be ready and able to pull them back if the turbulence of the current should make them dizzy. Now it seems evident to me that wherever such a great violence appears and in such terrible forms, there surely must be places of torment. And God has made such great and terrifying things manifest upon earth to man, not only that men may be the more vigilant, and may reflect that these tortures are indeed heavy to think upon, although after they depart this life they will have to suffer those that they see while still on earth; but even more to make them reflect that greater still are the things invisible, which they are not per- mitted to see. But these things are a testimony, that it is not untrue what we have been told, that those men who will not beware of evil deeds and unrighteousness, while they live on earth, may expect to suffer torment when they leave this world. For many a simple-minded man might think that all this was mere deception un- worthy of notice and told merely to terrify, if there were no such evidence as what we have now pointed out. But now no one can deny what he sees before his own eyes, since we hear exactly the same things about the tor- tures of hell as those which one can see on the island called Iceland: for there are vast and boundless fire, overpowering frost and glaciers, boiling springs, and violent ice-cold streams.* But what you suggested just now, namely that this fire is likely to melt and consume the mountains and the * The belief that hell was a region of extreme cold as well as of heat was com- mon in the middle ages. The author of the King's Mirror probably derived his ideas of hell in part from the Old Norse version of the Elucidarium of Honorius of Autun. See Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed, 1857, 292. 132 THE KING'S MIRROR foundations of the earth, so that the entire land will be destroyed, that cannot come to pass before the time that God has appointed. For neither this created force , nor any other governs itself £but all things are compelled " " * <^ to move as God's providence has ordained from the be- CginningJAnd you will understand this better if I take up certain events that can be used to illustrate these things. When the lord of death wished to tempt Job, he had no power to do so before he had asked permission; and when this had been granted, he did not have power to carry out his will farther than the permission extended; for he would gladly have slain Job at once, if that had been allowed. He was allowed to take away Job's wealth and he took it all at the first stroke; but he was not per- mitted to destroy the man himself. As he yearned for permission to tempt him even more severely than he had already, he was suffered to carry out his will upon Job's body and upon all the possessions that belonged to him. But he was not permitted to separate soul from body, before the hour should come that He had fixed, Who has all power over life and destiny. But as soon as Satan had received permission to carry out his desires upon Job, he showed immediately how eager he was to act in such matters as were within his power. For it is written that Satan took away from Job his abundant wealth and his seven sons and three daughters, and smote his body with terrible leprosy from the crown to the sole of his feet. /**£ Now the meaning of this (which ought to be noted J carefully in our minds) is that the Lord of life has power THE KING'S MIRROR 133 over all things and is kindly disposed; while the lord of death has an evil will, but has power over nothing, ex- cept as he receives authority beforehand from Him Who rules over all, Who is Almighty GodjThe devil can, therefore, injure no one to such an extent that he is consumed either by the fires of death which he has kindled and continues to maintain by means of dread- ful earthquakes, or by such other fiendish enmity or malignity as he delights in. For he is allowed to do nothing more than the task at hand, as is evident from what I have just related about the case of Job. And if it should be thought necessary to cite several examples in one speech, it will be found that instances of this sort are both plentiful and convincing. XV OTHER ICELANDIC WONDERS! ORE AND MINERAL SPRINGS Son. It seems evident that the more examples I can hear you cite of the sort that leads to knowledge, the better it will be; and from the instance that you have just given I can see clearly that if Satan was not able to carry out his will against one man, except as far as he was permitted, he will surely have even less power to carry out his desires against many thousands, either by his own effort or through a servant, except as far as per- mission has been given. Now if we are to go on with this entertaining conversation, as we have been doing, I should like to know, whether there are any other things about this island which you think are worth discussing or which seem remarkable. 134 THE KING'S MIRROR Father. We have already mentioned nearly every- thing in Iceland that is really worth noticing; but there are a few other things which I may discuss, if you wish. In that country there is an abundance of the ore that iron is made of: it is called " swamp-ore " in the speech of the people there, and the same term is used among ourselves. It has happened at times that great deposits of this ore have been found, and men have prepared to go thither the next day to smelt it and make iron of it, only to find it gone, and none can tell what becomes of it. This is called the " ore-marvel " in that country. There is still another marvel that men wonder at. It is reported that in Iceland there are springs which men call \y^ **jf ale-springs. f They are so called because the water that • ^e * ) runs from them smells more like ale than water; and i fas ( in THE KING'S MIRROR which sometimes appears to shade and becloud the light till it seems almost quenched; for to me it seems more likely that the smoke is due to heat than to frost. There is one more thing that looks strange to me which you mentioned earlier in your speech, namely that you consider Greenland as having a good climate, even though it is full of ice and glaciers. It is hard for me to understand how such a land can have a good climate. Father. When you say, in asking about the smoke that sometimes appears to accompany the northern lights, that you think it more likely that the smoke xjomes from heat than from cold, I agree with you. But you must also know that wherever the earth is thawed under the ice, it always retains some heat down in the ^ — » depths. In the same way the ocean under the ice re- tains some warmth in its depths. But if the earth were wholly without warmth or heat, it would be one mass of ice from the surface down to its lowest foundations. Likewise, if the ocean were without any heat, it would be solid ice from the surface to the bottom. Now large rifts may appear in the ice that covers the land as well as openings in the ice upon the sea. But wherever the earth thaws out and lies bare, whether in places where there is no ice or under the yawning rifts in the glacier, and wherever the sea lies bare in the openings that have formed in the ice, there steam is emitted from the lower depths; and it may be that this vapor collects and ap- pears like smoke or dark fog; and that, whenever it looks as if the lights are about to be quenched by smoke or fog, it is this vapor that collects before them. THE KING'S MIRROR 153 In reply to your remark about the climate of Green- land, that you think it strange that it is called a good climate, I shall tell you something about the nature of the land. When storms do come, they are more severe than in most other places, both with respect to keen winds and vast masses of ice and snow. But usually these spells of rough weather last only a short while and come at long intervals only. In the meantime the weather is fair, though the cold is intense. For it is in the nature of the glacier to emit a cold and continuous breath which drives the storm clouds away from its face so that the sky above is usually clear.* But the neighboring lands often have to suffer because of this; for all the regions that lie near get severe weather from this ice, inasmuch as all the storms that the glacier drives away from itself come upon others with keen blasts. Now if this is clear to you, I believe there is no need of giving any further explanation of the subject than what you have now heard. XXI THE ZONES OF HEAT AND COLD Son. These things are all clear to me and it seems reasonable that they should be as you say. Still, there are a few things that you mentioned a little earlier in your talk, which I wish to ask about, if you permit^You said that both sides of the earth are cold, the southern * By glacier the author evidently means the great inland ice masses. On the effect of this inland ice on the climate of Greenland and neighboring regions, see Nansen, In Northern Mists, II 247 154 THE KING'S MIRROR [I-g as well as the northern jBut I hear it said by all men who come from the regions to the south that the farther south one travels, the hotter the lands are. Likewise all the winds that come from the south are both moister and milder than other winds. In the winter those winds always bring a good thaw, while other winds are so cold that they bring frost, and ice is formed. And during the summer the south wind is still warmer than other winds. Now if my questions do not tire you and I do not seem to ask too much, I should like to have you answer this question too. Father. When I told you that in the skies three belts are traced under which it is difficult to cross, one torrid and two frigid, I added that the hot belt curves from east to west. But if I have stated this correctly, it will be evident that the cold must be as severe in the south- (ern parts as in the northern.* I believe, however, that all the regions lying near the hot belt, whether on the south side or on the north, are also hot; but I believe those lands to be frigid which lie very far in either di- rection*. You have stated that all men tell us that the farther south one travels, the greater the heat; but that, [ I believe, is due to the fact that you have never found any one who has traveled as far south of the hot belt as ; those lands which we have now talked of lie to the north. You have also said that the winds which come from a southerly direction are warmer than the rest. But it is reasonable that the south wind should be warm when it * Cf. Macrobius, 601. "... for both the northern and the southern extrem- ities lie stiff with perpetual frost, and they are like two zones with which the earth is girdled, but narrow as if they were circlets drawn about the farthest regions." THE KING'S MIRROR 155 reaches us, even though it comes from the frozen south! $J side of the earth, for it blows through the curved ring of the torrid belt.* Consequently, though it blows cold from the south, it is warm when it emerges on the north- ern side. And if people live as near the cold belt on the southern side as the Greenlanders do on the northern, I firmly believe that the north wind blows as warm to them as the south wind to us. For they must look north to see the midday and the sun's whole course, just as we, who dwell north of the sun, must look to the south. We have said earlier that in winter the sun's course here is short, but of such extraordinary length in sum- mer that we then have day nearly all the time. From this you may conclude that the sun's path is quite broad and that its course is not narrow and straight as if it were always following a certain line. As soon as it reaches the outer edge of its sloping circuit toward the south, those who live on the extreme side of the world to the south have summer and long sun paths, while we have winter and little sunlight. And when the sun comes to the extreme edge of its circuit to the north, we have long-continued sunshine, while they have cold winter. For it is always this way, that the sun rises higher in the north when its path declines in the south: and when its course begins to decline in the north, it begins to wax on the southern side. * Macrobius states the same belief in quite similar terms: the south wind comes from a frozen clime just as the north wind does; but " since it comes to us through the flames of the torrid zone and mixes with the fire, it becomes hot, so that what was cold in the beginning comes to us with warmth." (P. 603.) jr THE KING'S MIRROR f/You should also know that the change from day to night is due to the movements of the sunj For some places have midday when others have midnight; and the day dawns and brightens in some places just when darkness begins and night falls in other places.* For the day and the light always follow the sun, while the shadows flee from it; still they follow after it as it moves away; and there is always night where the shadows are, but always day where the light is. Now if you under- stand all these things that we have discussed in these hours, the change in day and night, the course of the sun, and all the other matters that we have talked / , | about, you may count yourself thoroughly prepared ^ C r \ for the trader's calling, inasmuch as few only have had I more instruction in these subjects than you have had. XXII THE WINDS WITH RESPECT TO NAVIGATION Son. I should indeed consider it highly informing, if I could remember all the things that you have now told me. I gather from your remarks, however, that you seem to think that I have asked about too many things in these our talks. But if you are not wearied with my questions, there still remains a little matter which, with your permission, I should like to ask about, one that also seems to belong to the knowledge of seafarers. In a talk some time ago you said that whoever wishes (^ to be a (merchant ought to be prepared early in spring, J and be careful not to remain out at sea too late in the * Cf. Capella, Satiricon, 204. THE KING'S MIRROR 157 autumn; but you did not indicate the earliest time in / the spring when you think one may risk a journey over- y seas to other countries, nor how late you consider it / safe to sail the seas in autumnjYou told how the ocean / manages to quiet its storms, but you did not show un- der what circumstances it begins to grow restless. There- fore I would fain ask you again to answer this question, - even if it does annoy you, for I think that a time may come when it will seem both needful to know this and instructive to understand it. Father. The matters to which you are now referring can scarcely be grouped under one head; for the seas are not all alike, nor are they all of equal extent. Small seas have no great perils, and one may risk crossing them at almost any time; for one has to make sure of fair winds to last a day or two only, which is not diffi- cult for men who understand the weather. And there are many lands where harbors are plentiful as soon as the shore is reached. If the circumstances are such that a man can wait for winds in a good haven or may confi- dently expect to find good harbors as soon as he has crossed, or if the sea is so narrow that he needs to pro- vide for a journey of only a day or two, then he may ven- ture to sail over such waters almost whenever he wishes. But where travel is beset with greater perils, whether because the sea is wide and full of dangerous currents, or because the prow points toward shores where the harbors are rendered insecure by rocks, breakers, shal- lows, or sand bars, — wherever the situation is such, one needs to use great caution; and no one should ven- ture to travel over such waters when the season is late. 158 THE KING'S MIRROR Now as to the time that you asked about, it seems to me most correct to say that one should hardly venture over-seas later than the beginning of October. For at that time the sea begins to grow very restless, and the tempests always increase in violence as autumn passes 'and winter approaches. [And about the time when we [date thefsixteenth of Octoberjthe east wind begins to look sorrowful and thinks himself disgraced, now that Ihis headgear, the golden crown, is taken away. He puts a cloud-covered hat on his head and breathes heavily and violently, as if mourning a recent loss. But when the southeast wind sees how vexed his neighbor is, he is stricken with a double grief: the one sorrow is that he fears the same deprivation as the east wind has suf- fered; the other is grief over the misfortunes of his good and estimable neighbor. Stirred by the distress of a re- sentful mind, he knits his brows under the hiding clouds and blows the froth violently about him. When the south wind sees the wrath of his near neighbors, he wraps him- self in a cloud-lined mantle in which he conceals his treas- ures and his wealth of warm rays and blows vigorously as if in terrifying defence. And when the southwest wind observes how friendship has cooled, now that the truce is broken, he sobs forth his soul's grief in heavy showers, rolls his eyes above his tear-moistened beard, puffs his cheeks under the cloudy helmet, blows the chilling scud violently forward, leads forth huge billows, wide- breasted waves, and breakers that yearn for ships, and orders all the tempests to dash forward in angry contest. But when the west wind observes that a wrathful blast and a sorrowful sighing are coming across to him THE KING'S MIRROR 159 from the east, whence formerly he was accustomed to receive shining beams with festive gifts, he understands clearly that the covenant is broken and that all treaties are renounced. Deeply grieved and pained because of the unpeace, he puts on a black robe of mourning over which he pulls a cloud-gray cloak, and, sitting with wrinkled nose and pouting lips, he breathes heavily with regretful care. And when the ill-tempered northwest wind observes how sorrowful his neighbors look, and sees how he himself has suffered the loss of the evening beauty which he was formerly accustomed to display, he shows at once his temper in stern wrath : he knits his brows fiercely, throws rattling hail violently about, and sends forth the rolling thunder with terrifying gleams of lightning, thus displaying on his part a fearful and merciless anger. But when the north wind misses the friendliness and the kind gifts which he was wont to get from the south wind, he seeks out his hidden treasures and displays the wealth that he has most of: he brings out a dim sheen which glitters with frost, places an ice- cold helmet on his head above his frozen beard, and blows hard against the hail-bearing cloud-heaps. But the chill northeast wind sits wrathful with snowy beard and breathes coldly through his wind-swollen nostrils. Glaring fiercely under his rimy brows, he wrinkles his cheeks beneath his cold and cloudy temples, puffs his jowl with his icy tongue, and blows the piercing drjft- snow vigorously forth. But since peace has been broken among these eight chiefs and the winds are stirred to stormy violence, it is no longer advisable for men to travel over-seas"7 160 THE KING'S MIRROR from shore to shore because of great perils: the days shorten; the nights grow darker; the sea becomes rest- less; the waves grow stronger and the surf is colder; showers increase and storms arise; the breakers swell and the shores refuse good harbors; the sailors become exhausted, the lading is lost, and there is great and con- stant destruction of life due to a too great venturesome- ness; souls are placed in perils of judgment because of recklessness and sudden death. Therefore all sensible men should beware and not venture upon the sea too late in the season; for there are many dangers to look out for and not one alone, if a man dares too much at such times. Consequently, the better plan is to sail while summer is at its best; for one is not likely to meet mis- fortune if there has been careful and wise forethought. But it would surely pass all expectations if that were to succeed which was foolishly advised and planned at e beginning, though sometimes the outcome may be f favorable.Q consider it a more sensible plan for a man 1 to remain quiet as long as much danger may be looked j for, and to enjoy during the winter in proper style and ( in restful leisure what he labored to win during the sum- merjthan to risk in a little while through his own ob- stinate contriving the loss of all the profit which he strove to gain in the summer. But first of all a man must have care for his own person; for he can have no further profit, if it fares so ill that he himself goes under. THE KING'S MIRROR 161 XXIII THE PROPER SEASON FOR NAVIGATION. END OF THE FIRST PART Son. I did wisely to continue my inquiries when we had our last talk; for you have given replies which will be useful as well as instructive for all who have the sense to understand and profit by such matters as we have discussed. But I wish to ask you again to tell me briefly how early in the spring and at what stated time you think one may venture to travel over-seas to other I shores, just as I asked in my earlier inquiries. y Father. [Men may venture out upon almost any sea J f except the largest as early as the beginning of April. For at the time when we date the sixteenth of March,J the days lengthen, the sun rises higher, and the nights grow shorter. The north wind gently clears up the face of heaven with a light and cool breeze, brushes away the restless and storm-laden clouds, and j?vith blithe per- -i /> , ' suasiveness asks for a new covenant. Then peace is re- V newed among the winds, for they all yearn for rest after \ the season of violent wrath and wearisome blasts fj so > they make a covenant once more in the way that we told earlier when we described the peace making. The showers cease, the waves sink to rest, the breakers flag, the swell of the noisy ocean dies away, all the storms weaken, and quiet follows upon restless turmoil. Now I have done as you requested: I have pointed out the seasons with definite dates both in spring and fall, when it seems most advisable to brave the perils' of the sea. I have also informed you as to the times that 162 THE KING'S MIRROR seem more suitable for rest than for travel. I have like- wise described briefly the sources of light in the sky and the belts that are drawn across the heaven, those under which travel is difficult and those which allow travel. And if you keep carefully in mind all these things that I have discussed with you, you will never be counted among the ignorant navigators, if you shall decide to try the trader's calling. My advice, therefore, is first to fix in your mind all the facts which you have now heard; and later you shall have a chance to ask further questions, if you should wish to do so. XXIV INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND PART: THE KING AND HIS COURT Son. The last time that I had a talk with you, sire, I heard a wise speech from your lips, one that should profit every man who intends to follow the craft with which our conversation was concerned. Since then I have meditated on that speech, and I believe that I have fixed firmly in memory most of the facts that were brought out at the time, whatever luck I may have later in trying to apply them. No doubt I ought, like every- one else, to observe carefully all the good which I have been taught; and more is to be expected from those who take thought than from those who forget. But whatever [success or good fortune I may have in the practice, I •'-delight to learn while I have the opportunity. Now I ^ *r s^ nave some subjects in mind which I wish to in- \V ^ quire about, but[J am going to ask your consent to a THE KING'S MIRROR 163 discussion before I bring up the questions in which I am now interested j and when I have presented these, I shall await your answers. Father. When we last met and talked about the do- ings and mode of living of merchants, we mentioned, I believe, most of the things that were in real need of discussion; and I feel sure that no man will have ill repute from his conduct who everywhere observes with care what was then brought out. But if you still wish and are anxious to make further inquiries into these matters, I shall be glad to answer, if I can. And , if you wish to open another discussion, I shall also be glad to answer, as far as I have knowledge. You have permission, therefore, to_askjust asyoujike; and on my side there shall be such replies as God enables me to give. Son. The talk that I last heard you give concerning the business of merchants was delivered with more evi- dent wisdom in the answers than in the questions; and I shall now let that subject rest. As I have in mind, with your permission, to try that business, it may be that a very long time will pass between our conversa- tions. And when I am far away from you, I shall have no opportunity to seek your advice, though I should wish to do so, in case my mind should turn to some craft or business other than that of the merchant's trade. But though, God willing, we may meet again in good health, it seems to me advisable to ask about those v things that I am interested in, while I have sure op^Ay portunity to learn. And while there is opportunity we ) should learn what we do not know, for this reason es- / 164 THE KING'S MIRROR pecially, that we cannot be sure of a chance to inquire when it seems most needful to seek knowledge. Now after having learned the trader's mode of_ living and how to travel in unknown lands, it might happen that I should want to visit the king's court, where I could see more perfect manners than thosejto be seen on my commercial tours; and therefore I should like to learn from you, while here at home,lsuch manners as are most needful to know, when one is at court^though it is not sure that I shall have to use them. Now if such an in- terest does not seem worthless to you, I should like to have you inform me as to those customs that I have mentioned. Father. It cannot be called worthless curiosity to wish to know what customs prevail and must be ob- j** — ~ '^ -" i .> f served at the king's court ;lf or all rnurt.esy and proper conduct have their origin there, if the mode_qf life is ^as it ought to V»ft and fts it was ordained of old.MStilK customs at court are by no means of one sort only, for there isfa multitude of services and offices about the kingjandfthose of his men who are less in rank are usu- ally not held to strict manners. Those who are higher ~* / in the service often differ much in manners and deport- ^ V mentjso that the men who observe the better customs are, unfortunately, fewer, as a rule, than those who are moderately courteous, or scarcely so much. Now I do not know whose conduct you are interested in, that of the more mannerly or of the greater number. THE KING'S MIRROR 165 XXV THE IMPORTANCE OF COURTESY IN THE ROYAL SERVICE Son. It would be most profitable both for me and for all others who are interested in unfamiliar subjects, whether good breeding or other knowledge, to learn what is best and most useful. For there are but few masters who can teach such things, and they are all more difficult to grasp than those subjects which are of but slight value or wholly worthless. Now since I hear that there are differences both in the duties of men and in the customs of the court, I shall ask you to inform me as to the regulations there and to explain how the services differ and what belongs to each; also to point out the customs which seem good to you and which are surely needful to learn, if one wishes to serve a king with honor, as well as those which one who wishes to be reputed a moral man should shun and beware of. I have this reason, too, for seeking this information so earnestly, that/J have seen men come from a king's household, whose conduct I have noted carefully, most L of whom seemed only about as well bred as those who j had never been at court, or even less than theyJNowy I do not know which is the more likely, whether I do not understand what good breeding means, or that the facts are as they seemed to me. Father. If it should be your fate to serve at court and you wish to be called courtly and polite, you will need to beware of what happens to those who come to court without manners and leave without refinement. But since you have asked how the services and the usages 166 THE KING'S MIRROR at a royal court differ, I shall now explain that to you, and also show why some return thence rude and un- polished. When a dull man fares to court, it is as when an ignorant fellow travels to Jerusalem, or a simpleton enters a good school. An ignorant man who has been to Jerusalem believes himself well informed and tells many things about his journey, though chiefly what Aeems worthless to a knowing man, or mere sport and I foolery. In the same way the simpleton who comes from ( school believes himself to be perfectly educated; he V struts about and shows great disdain whenever he meets \one who knows nothing. But when he meets one who is a real scholar, he himself knows naught. So it is, too, when stupid men come to the king's court: they promptly seek out men of their own kind and learn from them such things as are most easily grasped and into which they had gotten some insight earlier; but this is mere folly and unwisdom. And when they return from court, they will display such manners and courtesy as they learned there. And yet, many who come from strange places, whether from other lands or courts, will behave in this way; but when those who have remained at home find that these men bring great tidings, they come to regard them at once as thoroughly informed, both as to customs and happenings, seeing that they ^ have visited alien peoples and foreign lands; and this is most often the case with dull men. Now if you aim at good breeding, beware lest you fall into such un- wisdom. We may now take up the question how the duties of the men at court differ and what belongs to each service. THE KING'S MIRROR 167 the men who have gone to the king's hand * are housecarles Jbut honors and authority \are distributed among them according to the merits of each and as the king wishes to grant.)[Thus one class of housecarles is made up of men who are always present at court, but draw no wages, and do not eat and drink where thejiird- men take their meals. They have to do such service in the king's garth as the steward shall assign, whether it be to go on a journey or to do manual labor in the garth.] XXVI THE ADVANTAGES DERIVED FROM SERVICE IN THE KING'S HOUSEHOLD Son. I pray you, sire, not to regard me as thoughtless or as wishing to interrupt your discourse, if I inquire briefly about the duties of these men. Father. While we are on this subject, you had better ask what you like, or you may regret it later, having come away ill informed about what you wanted to hear, because you did not inquire sufficiently. Son. Since those whom you have just mentioned live by labor and manual toil in the king's garth and have no greater honors than at home in the country, what advantage do they find in being with the king more than in serving their parents or kinsmen in the country or engaging in trade and winning wealth in that way ? Father. There are many reasons why such men would rather be at court than live in the country or engage in * To go to the king's hand (ganga konungi til handa) is the technical term for the formal initiation into the royal service. " The king was in his high-seat with his guard grouped about him; across his knees lay a sword, his right 168 THE KING'S MIRROR trade {Some prefer being at court to living in the coun- try (though in the king's service thetr labor is as bur- densome, or more so) because, though they are of excel- lent kinship, they have little wealth and cannot engage in trade on account of their poverty .Jlf they take up work in the country, they find many who have more wealth, though they are no higher in kinship, or scarcely so high.^And when quarrels arise, the rich find protec- -< tion in their wealth and thrust the poor aside, so that C these can get no justice in their law suitsj Consequently Jfeikz^' such men think it better to toil in security at court than *£( without protection in the country. (Others may have J committed manslaughter or have come into other diffi- " / culties which make it urgent for them to seek security L in the king's powerJSome there are, too, who always find pleasure in being in a throng; they also feel more secure there, whatever may happen. When these come back to the country where earlier they seemed so utterly defenseless, they regard themselves as the peers of every one, because of the protection which they enjoy as kings- men .[if one of them is slain in single combat, the king will take forty marks * in thegn money \ for him as for hand grasping the hilt. The candidate approached, knelt, touched the sword- hilt, and kissed the royal hand. He then arose and took the oath of fealty. ^ Kneeling once more he placed his folded hands between those of the king and kissed his new lord." Larson, " The Household of the Norwegian Kings in the Thirteenth Century:" American Historical Review, XIII, 461. * The mark as a standard of value was widely used in the middle ages. Origi- nally it was a measure of weight equivalent to eight ounces of gold or silver. Its value varied at different times and in different places. Dr. Gjerset esti- mates the purchasing power of a mark of silver in the fourteenth century as equal to that of $80 at the present time. History of the Norwegian People, II, 18-19, note. t Thegn money (]>egngildi) was a fine paid to the king by one who had been guilty of manslaughter. THE KING'S MIRROR 169 his other thegns, and, in addition, one mark gold asf housecarle fine,* which he exacts whenever a housecarle 1 is slain 7j You shall also know that/many come to court fronT^ the country who were considered of little consequence / there; and yet, it often happens that the king gives high C* honors to such men in return for their servicefjif they J perform it well, though they are but slightly honored in their own homes. Those, on the other hand, whom the cotters in the country seemed to value highly for their wealth, kindred, and fellowship, are often no more re- garded at the royal court than in their home commu- nities and sometimes even less. Indeed, those who come to the king with riches are often honored less than those who come in poverty. [Frequently, men who come to court with little wealth or none at all and have no choice but to accept what the king graciously offers are set so high in riches and power that they tower above their kinsmen, though before they came to the king they were not regarded as their equalsjThey win this either by bravery in warfare and good deportment at court, or by being faithful to the king in all things and striving to be discreet and loving toward himlJFor the king helps and promotes those whom he finds to be anxious to remain truly affectionate toward him and to serve him in loyal friendship. For these reasons asking by an act of grace."? will very often exalt those who are lacking in riches ;JT and therefore many such are encouraged to seek service at court, where they all expect to win rewards, high honors, and marked advancement in position. * The housecarle fine was higher than that exacted for the death of a common ~1 fc*. ^ subject because the housecarle stood in a personal relation to the king. J - «* THE KING'S MIRROR XXVII THE VARIOUS CLASSES AMONG THE KINGSMEN Son. I believe I have now had correct and adequate answers, and it no longer seems strange to me that such men as you have just talked about would rather be kingsmen than remain in the country, even though their duties are as toilsome as those of the farmer, or even more so. But now I wish to ask you to describe the other services at the king's court, so that I may, if possible, gain some knowledge of every one of them. Father. That is surely possible, and since you are in- terested in such matters, I shall give you what informa- tion I have concerning them. There are certain other housecarles at the king's court, who, in addition to the housecarle's title, have a by-name and are called | /"" gests." ^ They have this name from their manifold 1 duties; for they visit the homes of many, though not 1 always with friendly intent £ These men are also in the king's pay and get half the wages of " hirdmen.'J] These 1 are the duties that belong to the office of these menfthey serve as spies throughout the king's domain to make • / &i,~t*\ sure whether he has any enemies in his kingdom;] and I if such are found/jtne gests are to slay themjjif they are (,** 1\ \ able to do so.£But if the king sends his gests upon his 5«^ ^ ~£0 1 enemies and those against whom they are sent are slain, f // fa f I they are to have for their trouble as much of the ene- l mies' wealth as they can carry away at the time, only / no gold, for that is the king's, as is all the rest that the / gests are unable to bring away. And whenever the king * See American Historical Review, XIII, 469-471. THE KING'S MIRROR 171 becomes aware of an enemy, it is the gest's duty to pursue the foeman and thus to cleanse the realm. When- ever they are present at court, they keep the various watches about the king, just as the others do who share the king's bounty in the royal garth, except the head- ward; * this they do not keep; nor do they sit at table to eat or drink in the house where the king dines with his hirdmen, except at Christmas and Easter, when they are to eat with the hirdmen in the king's hall, but at no other time. If any of these men be slain in single com- bat, the king exacts as large a fine both in thegn money and housecarle fine as for the death of those whom we discussed earlier. There is still another class of royal housecarles who do not share the king's tables and but rarely come to court; these receive nothing from the king but protec- tion and support in securing justice from others; but these, too, are kingsmen. In case any of these are slain, the king exacts the same housecarle fine in addition to the thegn money as in the case of those housecarles who dine at his tables. These men come into his service from various walks of life: some are peasants, some mer- chants, and some laymen. But this service they owe the king before all his other subjects, namely, that wherever the king's officials come at his command to present the king's causes or business, and these housecarles of whom we are speaking are present, they must Join tbe retinue of these officials and render such assistance as they cnn in all the king's business. These, too, may claim support * The head-ward was stationed near the king's person, usually outside the door of the chamber where he slept. See American Historical Review, XIII, 462. » THE KING'S MIRROR from the kingsmen in their efforts to obtain justice, wherever they have suits to bring up. Likewise if any of these men are slain, the fines due the king will be increased as much as for those whom we spoke of earlier. There is another class of royal housecarles who re- ceive money payments from the king, some twelve aura? some two marks, some three marks, and others more, in proportion as the king finds them likely to add f to his strength and credit IThese men do not dine with \ the king at court; they are abroad in the realm in a sort ) of ^official capacity, for some of them are sons of the L king's landedmen,fj while others are peasants, though so wealthy that they seem to rank with the landedmen. These royal housecarles owe the king the same kind of service as those whom we have just mentioned, but more, inasmuch as they haye greater prestige and_en- joy greater favors from the kin^; and the fines due the king in case these men are ill used will be increased about as much as has been stated before. From all these kingsmen that we have now told about, who do not dine at his tables, the king may demand such service as he finds each capable of: some are called to pilot the long- ships when the king sets out on a naval campaign; some are sent abroad in embassies to foreign rulers and other princes; while others are sent out upon the sea as traders * The Eyrir (pi. aura, from Latin aurum ?) was an ounce of silver, or one- eighth of a mark. f The landedman (lendir raaoV) was one who enjoyed a fief granted by the king. The term was also used in a more restricted sense for the local chieftains who in return for the fief enjoyed gave certain assistance in the local admin- istration. See N&rges Gamle Love, V, 396-397; Gjerset, History of the Nor- wegian People, I, 387-388; American Historical Review, XIII, 467-468. THE KING'S MIRROR 173 with the king's wares or ships. *JThese are the duties s that they are bound to perform with such other duties as may arise out of the king's needs. Now I have told you about several classes of the king's servants, and you will have to determine which of those enumerated seem to you most likely to know much about courtly behavior and the manners that ought by right to be found at a king's court; they are all kingsmen, however. And from this you will observe that every man cannot become perfect in all courtly customs and manners just as soon as he sees the king and his men; for a man will have to be both quick^-i witted and quick to learn, who, if he lacks in breeding, I is to learn perfect courtliness in a year's time, even K* though every day of the year is spent at court among-' the hirdmen in the king's own presence. Now you shalH know this of a truth, that there are many at court who( have spent a large part of their lives there and have\, daily opportunities to see good deportment, and yet 1 c^ they never become either courtly or well-bred. ^ Jfa XXVIII THE HONORED POSITION OF THE KINGSMEN