what their institutions and social spirit were at home, whether these bear any analogy to what sprung up in England afterwards, and whether to them or to the Anglo-Saxon race we are most indebted for our national character and free constitution of government. The translator of Snorro Sturleson's Chronicle hopes, too, that his labour will be of good service in the fields of literature, by bringing before the English public a work of great literary merit, one which the poet, or the reader for amusement, may place in his library, as well as the antiquary and reader of English history."

Our own readers will, perhaps, not be likely (at least not many of them) to come in the way of these three volumes which Mr. Laing has published: we therefore propose occasionally to furnish a few extracts from these old chronicles. They will be seen to be far beyond mere annals. The statements of both sayings and doings are generally given with a dramatic vividness and force, which bring the speakers or actors clearly before the mind, and rivet the attention of the reader, while, at the same time, they clearly show him what manner of people these his forefathers were.

Of the first volume, upwards of two hundred pages are occupied by a "Preliminary Dissertation," on the following subjects:-The Literature and intellectual Condition of the Northmen.-Their Religion.-Their social Condition.-The State of the useful Arts among them.-The Discovery by them of Greenland and America. To these five chapters is added one containing a Memoir of Snorro Sturleson himself. From these, also, we think we may be able to furnish some extracts that will be both useful and interesting.

In the present Number we can only give two extracts from the second chapter of the "Preliminary Dissertation," on the "Religion of the Northmen." In future Numbers we shall quote from the "Sagas " themselves (most curious pieces of composition); and, where necessary, illustrate them by remarks from other parts of the "Preliminary Dissertation.” We may just add, that at the foot of the celebrated peakmountain, Mam Tor, (the mother-hill,) in Derbyshire, there is a lead-mine which still bears the name of Odin.

OF THE RELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN.

"IT must strike every reader of saga literature, how very little we can gather from the sagas, of the doctrines and usages of the Paganism which existed among the Northmen down to a comparatively late period, and for five hundred years after the cognate Anglo-Saxon branch, both on the Continent and in England, had been entirely Christianized, and had been long under the full influence of the Church and priesthood. The Anglo-Saxons landed in England about the year 450. They appear at that time to have had a religion cognate to, if not identical with, that of the Northmen who landed in England three hundred years afterwards, or about the year 787. Odin, Thor, Friggia, were among their deities; Yule and Easter were religious festivals; and the eating of horse-flesh was prohibited in a Council held in Mercia in 785, as not done by Christians in the east;" which implies that among the Anglo-Saxons also it was a Pagan custom, derived from their ancestors. In about a century after the landing of the Saxons, namely, about 550, the Heptarchy was in existence; and in about another century, namely, about 640, Christianity was generally established among them. It was not till a century after their first expeditions, about 787, that the Pagan Northmen made a complete and permanent conquest of the kingdom of Northumberland, which they held under independent Danish Princes until 953, when independent Earls, only nominally subject to the English crown, succeeded; and even at the compilation of Doomsday-Book, by William the Conqueror, the lands of Northumberland, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and part of Lancashire, are omitted, as not belonging to England. Of these AngloNorthmen, the conversion cannot well be fixed to a date, because they had no scruple apparently of nominally adopting Christianity when it suited their interests; and they appear to have had no desire to convert, or to be converted, in their predatory expeditions. As late, however, as the beginning of the eleventh century, the Northmen and their Chiefs were still Pagans. Swein, indeed, and his son Canute, who in 1017 became sole Monarch of England, were zealous Chris

tians; but they and their contemporaries, Olaf Tryggvesson and Olaf the Saint, and the small Kings in Norway, were born Pagans; and their conversion, and the introduction of the Christian religion and religious institutions into Norway and its dependencies, cannot be dated higher than the first half of the eleventh century. It seems surprising that we know so little of a Pagan religion existing so near our times,— of this last remnant of Paganism among the European people, existing in vigour almost five hundred years after Christianity and the Romish Church establishment were diffused in every other country! What we know of it is from the Edda, compiled by Sæmund the Priest, a contemporary of Are, who compiled the historical sagas. Sæmund was born in 1057, and had travelled and studied in Germany and France. He lived consequently in an age when many who had been bred in and understood the religion of their forefathers, were still living, and in a country in which, if anywhere, its original doctrines and institutions would be preserved in purity.

“It is remarkable that in the religion of Odin, as in that of Mahomet, women appear to have had no part in the future life. We find no allusion to any Valhalla for the female virtues. The Paradise of Mahomet, and the Valhalla of Odin, are the same; only the one offers sensual, and the other warlike enjoyments to the happy. They both exclude females. This is not the only coincidence. Odin appears to have stood in the same relation to Thor in Odinism, that Mahomet stands in to the Supreme Being in Mahometanism. The family of Mahomet, its semi-sacred character, and its rights, as successors to the Prophet, to the throne and supremacy of temporal power over Mahometans, and with equal rights of succession in equal degrees of affinity to this sacred source, is in fact the Yngling dynasty of Odinism. If Mahomet had existed four hundred years earlier, he would have been in modern history one of the Odins, perhaps the Odin, and the person or persons we call Odin would have merged in him. The coincidence between Odinism and Mahometanism in the ideas of a future state, in the exclusion of females from it, in the hereditary succession of a family to sacred and temporal power and function, show a coincidence in the ideas

and elements of society among the people among whom the two religions flourished; and this coincidence is, perhaps, sufficiently strong to prove that the religion of Odin must have sprung up originally in the East, among the same ideas and social elements as Mahometanism. The rapid conquest by Christianity over Odinism, about the beginning of the eleventh century, proves that the latter was not indigenous, but imported, and belonged to different physical circumstances and a different social state. The exclusion of females from a future life, and their virtues from reward, was not suited to the physical circumstances under which men live in the North; although among a people living on horseback in the plains of Asia, the female may hold no higher social estimation than the horse. Christianity, by including the female sex in its benefits, could not but prevail in the North over Odinism."

CONVENTUAL LIFE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

[IF antiquaries sometimes, in the course of their researches, gather up what, but for its antiquity, would have little or no value, they often, likewise, bring to light what both instructs and amuses. Very recently, a translation has been published of a manuscript in the British Museum, entitled, "The Chronicles of Jocelin of Brakelond." Good Brother Jocelin became a Monk in the abbey of Bury St. Edmund's in the year 1173; and these Chronicles are a plain, matter-of-fact journal of events taking place in the abbey, or in reference to it, till A. D. 1202. We cannot say that his events have no colouring; but it is just the actual colouring of nature, with not the slightest touch of the imaginative improvements of the painter. His descriptions are like the images furnished by the camera obscura. But herein consists the value of the journal. It shows us men and things just as they then were. A ruined cottage may make a beautiful painting; but when we want a residence, we wish to look at the actual place; not at a fine, and therefore a deceptive, picture.

[Occasionally, we will call our readers to a little friendly chat with the old Chronicler. And, as a specimen, he shall tell

them, this month, some of the doings in the abbey, both during the lifetime of Hugh, the Abbot, and at his death.ED. Y. I.]

Now it came to pass that Hugh the Abbot was old, “and his eyes were dim: a pious and kind man was he, a good and religious Monk, yet not wise or heedful in worldly affairs; one who too much trusted to his own creatures, and put faith in them, rather taking counsel of a stranger than abiding by his own judgment. To be sure, good governance and religion waxed warm in the cloister, but out-doors' affairs were badly managed; in fact, every one serving under a simple and already aged lord, did that which was right in his own eyes, not that which ought to have been done. The townships of the Abbot and all the hundreds were set to farm, the forests were destroyed, the manor-houses threatened to fall, everything daily got worse and worse. There was but one resource and relief to the Abbot, and that was to take up monies on interest, so that thereby he might be able in some measure to keep up the dignity of his house. There befell not a term of Easter or St. Michael, for eight years before his decease, but that one or two hundred pounds at least increased in principal debt: the securities were always renewed, and the interest which accrued was converted into principal. This laxity descended from the head to the members, from the superior to the subjects. Hence it came to pass, that every official of the house had a seal of his own, and bound himself in debt at his own pleasure, to Jews as well as to Christians. Oftentimes silken caps, and golden phials, and other ornaments of the Church, were pledged without the knowledge of the Convent. I myself saw a security passed to William Fitz Isabel for one thousand and forty pounds, but I never could learn the consideration or the cause. I also saw another security passed to Isaac the son of Rabbi Jocee, for three hundred pounds, but I know not wherefore. I also saw a third security passed to Benedict the Jew of Norwich, for eight hundred and fourscore pounds; and this was the origin of that debt. Our parlour was destroyed, and it was given in charge to William the Sacrist, will he, nill he, that he should