LITMIR.BIZ

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graves—Triangular graves—Anund’s mound.

      Mouldering bones and ashes of mighty heroes and noble women now forgotten under the mounds, or in the graves made hoary by the centuries that shroud you by their oblivion, I salute you! We also shall be forgotten.

      The thousands of mounds, cairns, bautasteinar (memorial stones) and graves found to this day all over the North show the high veneration the earlier English-speaking tribes had for their dead; these mounds or cairns are always situated on some conspicuous place by the coast, from which a magnificent view can often be had.

      We have already treated of graves at some length with special reference to the age—stone, bronze, or iron—to which they belonged, and also with relation to the objects found in them. Before, however, proceeding to speak of the burial customs of the Norsemen it may be well to give some further idea of the various classes of graves.

      Sweden is particularly rich in these mementoes of the past, in the midst of which the high roads not unfrequently pass, forming a most impressive scene. What emotion have I felt when standing upon many of these graves, deeply impressed by the beauty or loneliness of the site chosen and of its surroundings; perhaps never more so than on the coast of Bohuslän—the Viken of yore.¹⁸⁴ There the cairns have been erected on the summit of the bare solid rocky hills of primary formation, several hundred feet above the level of the water, and overlooking a panorama of fjords, sounds, barren islands and desolate coast, with the open seas beyond, and with the sun sinking below the horizon. The waves strike at their base, and with the wind sing mournfully a requiem over the forgotten dead; their work is done, the glorious mission they had to accomplish in the history of the world is ended, the mighty drama of the sword is closed.

      Fig. 709.—Cairn, Bohuslän, Sweden.

      It is towards evening, before the twilight fades gradually into darkness, that the scene of this weird landscape is most impressive, and no one can really imagine its effects until he stands upon the spot and sees the view spread before him.

      In some parts of Norway the contrast is often great in the extreme; the mounds there have huge mountains in the background with their summits clad in snow, and in the foreground the grand open sea. One of the bleakest spots in the country, where these have been erected, is on the flat gravelly coast of Lyster, which lies between the mountain and the sea;—there, over the last resting-places of those warriors, the wind blows most fearfully in winter-time, and the sea dashes on the shore in huge foamy white waves.

      In Denmark and parts of Sweden there are places on the elevated points of the coast full of charms, looking over the Sound, the Cattegat, the Baltic, or the waters of some of the great lakes. Many of these resting-places of man are now covered by forests, and upon some of the mounds huge oaks sprung from the acorn of their sires tell forcibly of the centuries that have passed over them.

      Fig. 710.—Grave, Einang, Norway; diameter, 50 feet; earlier iron age.

      We can vividly realise why the people laid their dead to rest by that sea they loved so much during their lifetime, and upon which they had sailed so often. The mariner as he passed by could behold the graves of the dead and victorious champions, whose memory was always kept fresh by the scalds¹⁸⁵ who sang his exploits generation after generation, thus filling the youth of the country with pride, and making them wish to emulate the deeds of these men, often their kinsmen of old, who had gone to Valhalla.

      The mounds and cairns are not always round, they are sometimes square, oblong, rectangular or triangular. The round mounds and cairns exist in different parts of the world, and in Scandinavia as far back as the stone and bronze ages; the vast number of bautastones seen all over the country shows also how well the injunctions of Odin were carried out by his followers in that respect. Some of these are very imposing, and their dark forms look weird enough against the landscape or the clear or gloomy sky. One of the finest stood in Brastod parish, Bohuslän, now lying prostrate and broken, its height being 26 feet; and its place was on one corner of a stone set of rectangular graves 40 feet in length and 28 feet in width.

      Fig. 711.—Bautastone (from grave shown on p. 301) with nineteen runes; 1

       15 real size; 5 feet 8 inches in height; width, 3 feet 2 inches; 9 inches thick; length of rune, 2 feet 1½ inches.

      Fig. 712.—Bautastone on a mound 200 feet in circumference and 7 feet high, Runesten Grimeton (Bohuslän), Halland; 19½ feet high, 4½ feet wide. Surrounding it are mounds and graves of various shapes.

      Fig. 713.—Oblong mound, Yttersala, Södermanland; 33 feet in diameter. In the vicinity are numerous other graves of various shapes.

      Fig. 714.—Square stone-set grave. Södermanland.

      Fig. 715.—Rectangular stone-set graves with bautastones. Length, 70 feet; width, 24 feet.—Färentuna parish, Upland, Sweden.

      Fig. 716.—Rows of mounds with bautastones from 4½ to nearly 6 feet high, Rekarnebygden, Södermanland. Near by are many other mounds and stone-set graves.

      Fig. 717.—Square stone-set graves with large boulders at the corners and centre.

      Fig. 718.—Triangular grave; sides of triangle about 50 feet; corner stones about 3 feet high. In the middle of the south-west side are two stones, 5 feet apart, with a slab between them, one 3 feet, the other 4 feet high. Thorsbacken, Nerike, Sweden.

      The most interesting of the graveyards which I have seen is that of Hjortehammar, situated in the province of Blekinge on a narrow promontory lost in the maze of islands which dot the coast of Sweden on this part of the Baltic. It is joined now to an island situated near its further end by a causeway and a small bridge. This is not only remarkable from its position and size, but on account of the numerous forms of graves of various sizes it contains. The length of the cape is about 1,200 feet, and its greatest breadth about 200 feet. The engraving gives an idea of the shape and size of the different graves, some of which are shown in large scale. This cape is but a continuation of a ridge full of graves; heather and juniper cover many of them; and well chosen was this secluded and quiet spot for the last resting-place of their departed kinsmen or friends.¹⁸⁶

      Fig. 719.—Hjortehammar burial-ground, with various shaped graves.

      In the Háleygjatal, a poem on the genealogy of the famous Hákon jarl, tracing his pedigree to Odin, there is a passage which recalls the burial-place Hjortehammar.

      Straumeyjar-nes which is

      Stone-marked

      Round the Fylkir’s¹⁸⁷ body

      Is widely known.

      Fig. 720.—Vedby ridge, Blekinge. The large stones are from 4 to 6 feet high. Length of each side, 40 feet.

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