Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/297

 The Ancient Tentonic Priesthood. 285

Northern king, Guthred, assumes an arm-ring as a kind of coronation ceremony. This is to be compared with an incident in the story of the Danish king Hrolfr Kraki, as related in the prose Edda, namely his attempt to acquire from the Swedish king Adils the ring Sviagriss, which had belonged to Adils' forefathers.^ It is to be observed that the gods Ullr, Balder, and Fro are represented as possess- ing sacred arm-rings. Moreover, several facts show that Northern chiefs bore a more or less sacred character. In the prehistoric age they were, according to the legends, liable to be sacrificed in times of misfortune. Such was the fate of the Swedish kings Domaldi and Olafr Tretelgia." They were believed to be responsible for the famines which occurred during their reigns. This can hardly be explained, except on the supposition that the king was regarded as the representative of the god. The occurrence of the famine showed that the god was not satisfied with his representa- tive. Again, popular chiefs were sometimes worshipped after death. Such is said to have been the case with the legendary king Olafr Geirstada-alfr,^ and even with a small chief named Grimr, grandfather of one of the settlers of Iceland. Rembertus {Vita Anscliarii, c. 23) describes the formal deification of a Swedish king Ericus. Lastly the dwelling-places of Northern kings seem, like sanctuaries, to have been regarded as possessing a sacred peace. The term ' field of peace ' is found applied to the Swedish king's dwelling as early as Beowulf (1, 2960).*

III. The Northern Priestly System compared with

THAT OF THE AnCIENT GERMANS. In the preceding sections I have endeavoured to show

' Skaldsk, 51.

2 Yngl. s. 18, 47. The story of the South Norwegian king Vikar (Ga///>: s. 7) may also be compared.

» Ola/s. s. Helga (Flat), 6.

(Jakut, Russ). Here the king was so holy that he was not allowed to walk.
 * The most extreme case of sanctity is that of Ibn Fadhlan's Volga Russians