Chapter VII: Part 7

[Footnote 7: Esrom Lake, situated about eight English miles from Elsinore, is a fair specimen of the placid lake scenery of Zealand. The monastery is still in part in a habitable state.]

[Footnote 8: "Axel and Valborg," one of the gems of Scandinavian poetry. The interest of the poem turns on the separation of the hero and heroine (who had been betrothed from childhood) by an interdict of the church, on the plea of the parties standing within a forbidden degree of affinity to each other. This affinity, however, consisted merely in having one common godmother. Circumstances like these, however trivial, were frequently made available by the church for the extension of its power, and the furtherance of its secular interests.]

[Footnote 9: Flynderborg, the castle at Elsinore, of which no vestiges now remain. Its site was not far from that of the present castle of Cronberg.]

[Footnote 10: At this period the Hanseatic merchants were absolute masters of the whole trade of the Baltic. The Danish fleet was in a reduced state, and the Hanse were therefore under the necessity of guarding the seas themselves, for the security of their trade. This was peculiarly the case during the disturbed reign of Eric Glipping, when the northern pirate, Alf Erlingsen, infested the Danish seas. This is the subject of a ballad still preserved among the Danish peasantry,--

"The German men they sailed up the sound,
With meal and with malt sailed they,
But Erlingsen's ships there to meet them they found,
And theirs he took all for his prey."

In the time of Eric Glipping the Hanse had no less than thirty armed vessels stationed in the sound at Elsinore.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 11: Carl the German.]

[Footnote 12: The Kareles were a heathen tribe of Livonia, conquered by the Swedes, under the command of Marsk Torkild Knudson.]

[Footnote 13: A characteristic exclamation of King Eric, who according to Holberg, scrupled making use of a stronger expression, even in confirmation of the most solemn engagements.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 14: In the early ages of Denmark the people bore an important part in the affairs of government, a fact of which there are traces at this day in the Norwegian constitution, in which the peasantry as a class are represented. The people at large decided on war or peace, nor was any royal decree considered valid until it had obtained their consent. Every town had its own "Ting," or place of assembly, in the open air; a large flat stone, placed in the centre of a circle of upright ones, served as a platform for the speakers. In these assemblies the peasants discussed, not only public affairs, but decided on all private differences, &c. Saxo Grammaticus blames King Svend Grathe for neglecting to attend these meetings of the people. In such assemblies the king was not permitted to take his leave until he had greeted even the meanest of his subjects, and sent a friendly greeting to his family. The English reader may perhaps require to be reminded of these facts, in order fully to perceive that Jeppe is a representative of his class in that age.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 15: Dyrendal, the name of Roland's sword, afterwards used for swords in general by the Danes. Scandinavian warriors esteemed their swords above all other treasures. If a sword had done good service, it was distinguished by some epithet expressive of the deeds it had achieved. The sword of King Hagen of Norway was called "quaern bider," or mill-stone biter, from having cut through a mill-stone. If the owner of such a sword had no immediate descendants, it was buried beside him in his grave.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 16: King Glipping, so called from his twinkling eye.]

[Footnote 17: Fragment of an old Danish ballad.]

[Footnote 18: A valuable collection of historical documents made by King Eric, called Congesta Menvedi.]

[Footnote 19: Sveno Agonis, a Danish historian contemporary with Saxo Grammaticus.]

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

London:
Printed by A. Spottiswoode,
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