X.

CHAP. that now fubfift of this barbaric fuperftition are contained in the Edda, a fyftem of mythology, compiled in Iceland about the thirteenth cen tury, and ftudied by the learned of Denmark and Sweden, as the most valuable remains of their ancient traditions.

Inftitutions

of Odin.

Notwithstanding the myfterious obfcurity of and death the Edda, we can easily distinguish two perfons confounded under the name of Odin; the god of war, and the great legiflator of Scandinavia. The latter, the Mahomet of the North, inftituted a religion adapted to the climate and to the people. Numerous tribes on either fide of the Baltic were fubdued by the invincible valour of Odin, by his perfuafive eloquence, and by the fame, which he acquired, of a moft fkilful magician. The faith that he had propagated during a long and profperous life, he confirmed by a voluntary death. Apprehenfive of the ignominious approach of difeafe and infirmity, he refolved to expire as became a war. rior. In a folemn affembly of the Swedes and Goths, he wounded himself in nine mortal places, haftening away (as he afferted with his dying voice) to prepare the feast of heroes in the palace of the god of war 10,

Agreeable

ΤΟ

The native and proper habitation of Odin is but uncer- diftinguished by the appellation of As-gard. The happy refemblance of that name with As-burg,

tain hypo

thefis con

cerning

Odin.

his reign in the year 1075, and about fourscore years afterwards a Chriftian cathedral was erected on its ruins. See Dalin's Hiftory of Sweden, in the Bibliotheque Raisonnée.

10

Mallet, Introduction à l'Histoire du Dannemarc.

or

X.

or As-of", words of a fingular fignification, C H A P. has given rife to an hiftorical fyftem of fo pleafing a contexture, that we could almost wish to perfuade ourselves of its truth. It is fuppofed that Odin was the chief of a tribe of barbarians which dwelt on the banks of the lake Mæotis, till the fall of Mithridates and the arms of Pompey menaced the North with fervitude. That Odin yielding with indignant fury to a power which he was unable to refift, conducted his tribe from the frontiers of the Afiatic Sarmatia into Sweden, with the great defign of forming, in that inacceffible retreat of freedom, a religion and a people, which, in fome remote age, might be fubfervient to his immortal revenge; when his invincible Goths, armed with martial fanaticifm, fhould iffue in numerous fwarms from the neighbourhood of the Polar circle, to chaftife the oppreffors of mankind "2.

12

If fo many fucceffive generations of Goths Emigrawere capable of preferving a faint tradition of tion of the their Scandinavian origin, we must not expect, from Scan

"Mallet, c. iv. P. 55. has collected from Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and Stephanus Byzantinus, the vestiges of fuch a city and people.

12 This wonderful expedition of Odin, which, by deducing the enmity of the Goths and Romans from so memorable a cause, might supply the noble groundwork of an Epic poem, cannot safely be received as authentic hiftory. According to the obvious fenfe of the Edda, and the interpretation of the most skilful critics, As-gard, inftead of denoting a real city of the Afiatic Sarmatia, is the fictitious appellation of the mystic abode of the gods, the Olympus of Scandinavia: from whence the prophet was supposed to descend, when he announced his new religion to the Gothic nations, who were already feated in the fouthern parts of Sweden.

Goths

dinavia into Pruf

fia.

X.

CHAP. from fuch unlettered barbarians, any diftinct account of the time and circumftances of their emigration. To crofs the Baltic was an eafy and natural attempt. The inhabitants of Sweden were mafters of a fufficient number of large veffels, with oars 3, and the distance is little more than one hundred miles from Carlfcroon to the neareft ports of Pomerania and Pruffia. Here, at length, we land on firm and hiftoric ground. At least as early as the Chriftian æra, and as late as the age of the Antonines, the Goths were established towards the mouth of the Vistula, and in that fertile province where the commercial cities of Thorn, Elbing, Koningfberg, and Dantzick were long afterwards founded ". Weftward of the Goths, the numerous tribes of the Vandals were spread along the banks of the Oder, and the fea-coaft of Pomerania and Mecklenburgh. A ftriking resemblance of manners, complexion, religion, and language, feemed to indicate that the Vandals and the Goths were originally one great people". The latter appear to have been fub

13 Tacit. Germania, c. 44.

14 Tacit. Annal. ii. 62. If we could yield a firm affent to the navigations of Pytheas of Marseilles, we must allow that the Goths had passed the Baltic at least three hundred years before Christ.

15 Ptolemy, 1. ii.

16 By the German colonies who followed the arms of the Teutonic knights. The conqueft and converfion of Pruffia were completed by thofe adventurers in the thirteenth century.

"7 Pliny (Hift. Natur. iv. 14.) and Procopius (in Bell. Vandal. I. i. c. 1.) agree in this opinion. They lived in diftant ages, and poffeffed different means of inveftigating the truth.

X.

divided into Oftrogoths, Vifigoths, and Gepida". CHA P. The diftinction among the Vandals was more ftrongly marked by the independent names of Heruli, Burgundians, Lombards, and a variety of other petty states, many of which, in a future age, expanded themfelves into powerful monarchies.

Ukraine.

In the age of the Antonines, the Goths were From Prufftill feated in Pruffia. About the reign of Alex-fia to the ander Severus, the Roman province of Dacia had already experienced their proximity by frequent and destructive inroads". In this interval, therefore, of about feventy years, we muft place the fecond migration of the Goths from the Baltic to the Euxine; but the caufe that produced it lies concealed among the various motives which actuate the conduct of unfettled barbarians. Either a peftilence, or a famine, a victory, or a defeat, an oracle of the gods, or the eloquence of a daring leader, were fufficient to impel the Gothic arms on the milder climates of the fouth. Befides the influence of a martial religion, the numbers and spirit of the Goths were equal to the most dangerous

The Oftro and Visi, the eastern and western Goths, obtained those denominations from their original feats in Scandinavia. In all their future marches and fettlements, they preferved, with their names, the fame relative fituation. When they first departed from Sweden, the infant colony was contained in three veffels. The third being a heavy failer, lagged behind, and the crew, which afterwards fwelled into a nation, received from that circumstance the appellation of Gepida or Loiterers. Jornandes, c. 17.

19 See a fragment of Peter Patricius in the Excerpta Legationum; and with regard to its probable date, See Tillemont, Hift. des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 346.

adven

X.

CHA P. adventures. The ufe of round bucklers and fhort fwords rendered them formidable in a clofe engagement: the manly obedience which they yielded to hereditary kings, gave uncom mon union and ftability to their councils 20: and the renowned Amala, the hero of that age, and the tenth ancestor of Theodoric, King of Italy, enforced, by the afcendant of personal merit, the prerogative of his birth, which he derived from the Anfes, or demi-gods of the Gothic nation 21.

The Gothic nation inits march.

creases in

The fame of a great enterprise excited the braveft warriors from all the Vandalic states of Germany, many of whom are feen a few years afterwards combating under the common ftandard of the Goths 22. The first motions of the emigrants carried them to the banks of the Prypec, a river univerfally conceived by the ancients to be the fouthern branch of the Boryfthenes 23. The windings of that great stream through the plains of Poland and Ruffia gave a direction to their line of march, and a constant supply of fresh water and pafturage to their numerous herds of

2 Omnium harum gentium infigne, rotunda fcuta, breves gladii, et erga reges obfequium. Tacit. Germania, c. 43. The Goths probably acquired their iron by the commerce of amber.

21 Jornandes, c. 13, 14.

22 The Heruli, and the Uregundi or Burgundi, are particularly mentioned. See Mafcou's Hiftory of the Germans, 1. v. A passage in the Auguftan Hiftory, p. 28. feems to allude to this great emigration. The Marcomannic war was partly occafioned by the preffure of barbarous tribes, who fled before the arms of more northern barbarians.

23 D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, and the third part of his incomparable map of Europe.

cattle.