Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/55

 then known lands. Sweden had a still stronger attraction for the warlike tribes from the interior of Asia, who were pressing upon the population of Europe south of the Baltic, and which has been overlooked by the historians who treat of the migrations of mankind from or to the north in the rude ages. Sweden alone had iron and copper for arms and utensils close to the surface of the earth, and, from the richness of the ores, to be obtained by the simplest processes of smelting. This natural advantage must, in those ages, have made Sweden a rallying point for the Asiatic populations coming into Europe from the north of Asia, and from countries destitute of the useful metals in any abundant or easily obtained supply. To them Sweden was a Mexico or Peru, or rather an arsenal from which they must draw their weapons before they could proceed to Germany. This circumstance itself may account for the apparently absurd opinion of the swarms of Goths who invaded Europe having come from Scandinavia; and for the apparently absurd tradition of Odin, or the Asiatics invading and occupying Scandinavia in preference to the more genial countries and climes to the south of the Baltic; and for the historical fact of a considerable trade having existed, from the most remote times, between Novogorod and Sweden, and of which, in the very earliest ages, Wisby, in the Isle of Gotland, was the entrepôt or meeting-place for the exchange of products. The great importance of this physical advantage of Scandinavia in the abundance of copper and iron, to an ancient warlike population, will be understood best if we take the trouble to calculate what quantity of iron or copper must have been expended in those days as ammunition, in missile weapons, by an ordinary army in an ordinary battle. We cannot reckon less than one ounce weight of iron, on an average, to each arrowhead, from twenty to twenty-four drop, or an ounce