EARLY KINGS OF NORWAY.

by Thomas Carlyle




The Icelanders, in their long winter, had a great habit of writing;
and were, and still are, excellent in penmanship, says Dahlmann. It
is to this fact, that any little history there is of the Norse Kings
and their old tragedies, crimes and heroisms, is almost all due. The
Icelanders, it seems, not only made beautiful letters on their paper
or parchment, but were laudably observant and desirous of accuracy;
and have left us such a collection of narratives (_Sagas_, literally
"Says") as, for quantity and quality, is unexampled among rude
nations. Snorro Sturleson's History of the Norse Kings is built out
of these old Sagas; and has in it a great deal of poetic fire, not a
little faithful sagacity applied in sifting and adjusting these old
Sagas; and, in a word, deserves, were it once well edited, furnished
with accurate maps, chronological summaries, &c., to be reckoned among
the great history-books of the world. It is from these sources,
greatly aided by accurate, learned and unwearied Dahlmann,[1] the
German Professor, that the following rough notes of the early Norway
Kings are hastily thrown together. In Histories of England (Rapin's
excepted) next to nothing has been shown of the many and strong
threads of connection between English affairs and Norse.



CHAPTER I.