Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/235

Rh The high antiquity of the iron-worker's art is made apparent in the Voluspa, a poem containing the oldest traditions of the Northmen yet discovered, and which is an outline of the earliest Northern mythology. We are told how— At a later period, to be a proficient in metallurgical operations was the ambition of princes. Harold, for example, in the poem entitled his 'Complaint,' when describing his address as a warrior, relates: 'I am master of nine accomplishments. I play at chess; I know how to engrave Runic letters; I am apt at my book, and I know to handle the tools of a smith; I traverse the snow on skates of wood; I excel in shooting with the bow, and in managing the oar; I sing to the harp, and compose verses.'

From the Sagas and the history of this region, it is evident that in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark horses were shod at an early period. At first only the rich and noble, perhaps, resorted to the use of shoes for their steeds, and some of these only for display, others when they had to travel on hard roads or during frosty weather. When used for agriculture, the horses may have been deprived of these defences. Col. Smith states that horse-shoes were in use in Sweden before the Norman conquest of England, since the figure of one is struck on a Swedish coin without