THREE DEGREES FROM THE ARCTIC CIRCLE TRONDHJEM CATHEDRAL [ Frontispiece CAPITALS OF THE NORTHLANDS TALES OF TEN CITIES BY IAN C. HANNAH, M.A. AUTHOR OF "EASTERN ASIA: A HISTORY," "THE SUSSEX COAST," "THE BERWICK AND LOTHIAN COASTS," ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY EDITH BRAND HANNAH HEATH CRANTON & OUSELEY, LTD. FLEET LANE, LONDON, E.C. TO THE LOVED MEMORY OF THE BEST OF MOTHERS WITH WHOM I ONCE MADE A PILGRIMAGE TO THE SHRINE OF ST. OLAF...

Many excellent things have been written about the cities of the South, but little, comparatively speaking, about the cities of the North. True, indeed, they have not moulded kingdoms and shaped the culture of a continent, but England, like Scandinavia, is not a country city-built; she was formed by the dwellers on the land. Yet the less prominent part that they have played does not make our cities less noteworthy than those of the South. Few and peculiarly interesting are the cities of the North

Firm in fight they proudly vie With him whose might will make them fly, Of Eastmen kings the warlike head. Forth his gallant fleet he drew, Soon as the hope of battle grew, But many a buckler brake ere Long-chin bled. Fled the lusty Kiotvi then Before the Shock-head king of men, And bade the islands shield his flight. Warriors wounded in the fray, Beneath the thwarts all gasping lay, Where head-long cast they mourned the loss of light. So does an Icelandic skald describe the most important battl

The Great Pyramid and the Chinese Wall themselves would be lost, St. Peter's would appear a mere pebble, amid those gigantic stretches of lonely mountain. And during the very darkest days of early mediæval times a small handful of men in these remote solitudes were to play a part in history that is perfectly unique, to endow humanity with something it could ill afford to put away. Here, on the dark winter nights of a region only just without the Arctic Circle, were written and enjoyed those saga

But, even if one has not realised the fact amid the romantic scenery of those fjords where the works of man are confined to tiny fields like handkerchiefs scantily stretched upon the mountain sides, and settlements of wooden huts which are lost among the towering mountains of God, in Trondhjem Fjord one can hardly ignore the fact that this northern land has a history and a mythology of no mean kind, and one that is her very own. Though they have added less to the general sum of human action than

For Norge , translated by Lady Wilde . Cleaving the Skager Rak from the Cattegat the small peninsula of Jutland projects far into the large gulf by which the Scandinavian mountain mass is riven on the south. And at the head of the gulf a lovely island-dotted fjord penetrates far among the hills that encircle the long and narrow Norway Lakes. The shores of the fjord are rocky, in places eaten into cliffs, pines cover all the slopes from which they are not cleared. Just here and there distant moun

The story of Roskilde takes us pretty near the dawn of strictly Danish history, when the country was closely linked in politics with the British Isles. At the present time, however, it is not so picturesque a city as Copenhagen; there are but few old houses and only a single mediæval church, that of St. Mary, has survived, in addition to the great Cathedral of St. Lucius. Even the Raadhus, or Town Hall, in the very ample market place, was rebuilt not long ago. The founder of the Danish monarchy

A flight of but a dozen miles would carry an aeroplane on to Swedish soil; only twice that distance off is the University city of Lund, so famous in the annals of the Northern Church and so long on Danish soil. Copenhagen is a very pleasant town, and almost all its chief buildings exemplify the architectural ideals of the Renaissance. Street upon street of houses, white stucco or red brick, adorned with pilaster and pediment and cornice, covered with tall pantiled roofs; many bearing the dates o

The Goths, who did so much to overturn the Empire of Rome and at the same time to rejuvenate the South of Europe, have left no other account of themselves in literature than the version of Holy Writ that was made in their language by Ulfilas, a missionary great and good, however deplorably incorrect his views about the Trinity may have been (p. 191 ). But to this beautiful island of limestone in the heart of their oldest homelands the Goths gave at any rate a name; and such is the charm and inte

He spake: from priest and people rose up the answering cry— "If God the Lord be with us, all danger we defy!" Scarce through the aisles is dying their mingled voices' din, A pallid slave, disordered, comes rushing wildly in. "Now God us aid!—Skalater, the Dane, has come again, Fast pouring down the mountains with seven hundred men!" King Eric's glance grew prouder; he grasped the golden Rood— He held it high to heaven, as on Skalater strode: Lo! from each wound, the seven, pour forth a thousand

Small steamers lie in little coves so near the rockbound shore that it almost seems their rigging is likely to get tangled among boughs of oak, and their crews can pick wild strawberries the moment they step on land. For a mile or two the channel from the Baltic to Stockholm is most intricate and extremely narrow, then great lake-like expanses are traversed before the vessel enters another narrow gate. Little painted houses dot the woods, but they are few. The general effect of the constantly sh

Of the Slavs themselves, indeed, we do not learn a great deal. The saga writers were not much interested in foreign countries except as they affected the Norse, but the regard for law in Russia evidently made an impression, as did also the respect entertained for woman there, at any rate as she was represented by the queen. The chief town of Russia in those days was called by the Norsemen Holmgarth, because it stood on an island, to the Slavs it was known as Novgorod, or new town, although about