Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/395

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 383 kingdoms of the Heptarchy in England had been united, the notks. force of the country as a whole remained in a very ineffec- tive state, and not so fully organized that any considerable body could be drawn together suddenly to any locality ; and the Danes having the command of the sea, and their ships to retire to, could always invade, with superior numbers and superior supply of missiles, any part of the coast they pleased. IV. In the following chronological notes the fixed dates are taken from the chronological tables by Schoning and Thorlacius, affixed to the folio edition of the " Heimskringla," 1777; and in what is mythological or of uncertain date, it is to be re- membered that the authority of these great antiquaries, and of Torfeeus, should be of great weight, even if we differ from them on the data from which they assume a vast antiquity for Odin, and the mythology of the Odin worship and history. A man born about the year 333, and dying 78 years of age in 411, would, in respect of time, perfectly represent the per- sonage whom the Scandinavian genealogies and the Saxon concur in calling Odin and Woden, and to whom they reckon up as the root of their royal dynasties. The genealogy of Harald Haarfager, 26th in descent from Odin, and that of Hengist and Horsa the 4th in descent, of Cerdic the 9th, of Ida the 10th, of Ella the 11th in descent from Woden, all concur within that period — the last half of the 4th century — if the reasonable allowance of eighteen years be made as the average length of each step in the genealogies. It appears, therefore, more reasonable to assume this date for the his- torical Odin or Woden, than the year 105 before Christ, which is given by Schoning ; or 70 years after Christ, which is given by Torfaeus, with a supplemental Odin four or five hundred years earlier. Ivar Vidfadme, the 6th step above Harald Haarfager in the series, and who is said in the Ynglinga Saga to have con- quered or marauded in England, would, according to the same allowance to each step, have to be placed in the year 745, although the Saxon Chronicle states the year 787 as that of the first visit of the Northmen.