Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/147

 countries under his sway, none of the Christian populations of Europe in the 7th, 8th, or 9th centuries, had ships and men capable of such a voyage. The comparative state of ship-building and navigation, in two countries with sea coasts, is a better test of their comparative civilisation and advance in all the useful arts than that of their church-building. Compared to Italy, Sicily, or Bavaria, Great Britain or Scandinavia, or the United States of America, would be utterly barbarous and uncivilised, if structures of stone were a measure of the civilisation and general diffusion of the useful arts among a people. It is to be observed, also, that the ships of the Northmen in those ages did not belong to the king, or to the state, but to private adventurers and peasants, and were fitted out by them; and were gathered by a levy or impressment, from all the country, when required for the king's service. The arts connected with the building and fitting out such ships must have been generally diffused. The fleets were not, like those of King Alfred, created by, and belonging to, the king. We need not have any great notion of the kind and size of the vessels gathered by a levy from the pea¬ santry; but the worst and least of them must have been sea-worthy, and of a size to navigate along the coast from the most northerly district, such as Halogaland, to the Baltic,—a distance of twelve degrees of latitude; they must have been of a size to carry and shelter men, with their provisions, clothes, and arms; and the arms of those days required great room for stowage. Stones were an ammunition which it was necessary to carry in every ship; because on the rocky steep coasts of Norway, or on the muddy shores of the Baltic, pebbly beaches at which this kind of ammunition could be replaced are not common. Swords, spears, battle-axes, arrow-heads, bows, and bow-strings had all to be kept dry, and out of the sea-spray; for