Chapter 1 of 23 · 3990 words · ~20 min read

Part 1

The Library of Scandinavian Literature

THE KING’S MIRROR

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE KING’S MIRROR

(SPECULUM REGALE—KONUNGS SKUGGSJÁ)

TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD NORSE WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY LAURENCE MARCELLUS LARSON

[Illustration]

TWAYNE PUBLISHERS, INC., NEW YORK & THE AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN FOUNDATION

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Library of Scandinavian Literature Erik J. Friis, General Editor

Volume 15

The King’s Mirror

Copyright © 1917 by The American-Scandinavian Foundation Library of Congress catalog card number: 72-1542

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TO MY FATHER AND TO THE

MEMORY OF MY MOTHER

------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOREWORD

Among the many arguments that have recently been advanced in support of imperialistic ambitions and statesmanship, there is one that justifies and demands aggression in the interest of human culture. According to this rather plausible political philosophy, it is the destiny of the smaller states to be absorbed into the larger and stronger. The application is not to be limited to the so-called “backward races”; it is also extended to the lesser peoples of Europe. These have, it is held, no real right to an independent existence; only the great, the powerful, and the mighty can claim this privilege, for they alone are able to render the higher forms of service to civilization.

To this theory the history of the Scandinavian lands provides a complete and striking refutation. In the drama of European development the Northern countries have played important and honorable parts; but except for a brilliant period in Swedish history (chiefly during the seventeenth century) they have never weighed heavily in the Continental balance. Their geographical situation is unfavorable and their economic resources have never been comparable to those of the more prominent states beyond the Baltic and the North Sea. But when we come to the kingdom of intellect the story is a totally different one. The literary annals of Europe in the nineteenth century give prominence to a series of notable Scandinavian writers who not only achieved recognition in their own lands but found a place in the competition for leadership in the world at large. The productivity of the Northern mind is not of recent origin, however; the literatures of Scandinavia have a history that leads back into the days of heathen worship more than a thousand years ago.

Perhaps the most effective illustration of what a fruitful intellect can accomplish even when placed in the most unpromising environment is medieval Iceland. Along the western and southwestern coasts of the island lay a straggling settlement of Norwegian immigrants whose lives were spent chiefly in a struggle to force the merest subsistence from a niggardly soil. And yet, in the later middle ages and even earlier, there was a literary activity on these Arctic shores which, in output as well as in quality, compares favorably with that of any part of contemporary Europe. Evidently intellectual greatness bears but slight relation to economic advantages or political power. What was true of Iceland was also true of Norway, though in a lesser degree. In that country, too, life was in great measure a continuous struggle with the soil and the sea. Still, even in that land and age, the spirits were active, the arts flourished, and the North added her contribution to the treasures of European culture.

The poems and tales of those virile days, the eddas and sagas, are too familiar to need more than a mention in this connection. But the fact is not so commonly known that the medieval Northmen were thinkers and students as well as poets and romancers. They, too, were interested in the mysteries of the universe, in the problems of science, and in the intricate questions of social relationships. In their thinking on these matters they showed more intellectual independence and less slavish regard for venerable authority than was usually the case among medieval writers. And of all the men who in that age of faith tried to analyse and set in order their ideas of the world in which they moved, perhaps none drew more largely on his own spiritual resources than the unknown author of the _King’s Mirror_.

Unlike the sagas and related writings, the purpose of the _King’s Mirror_ is utilitarian and didactic. The author has before him a group of serious and important problems, which he proceeds to discuss for the instruction of his readers. Consequently, certain qualities of style that are often associated with Old Norse literature are not apparent in his work to any marked degree. In his effort to make his language clear, definite, and intelligible, the author sometimes finds it necessary to repeat and restate his ideas, with the result that his literary style is frequently stiff, labored, and pedantic. These defects are, however, not characteristic of the book as a whole. Many of its chapters display rare workmanship and prove that the author of the _King’s Mirror_ is one of the great masters of Old Norse prose.

In preparing the translation of this unique work, my aim has been to reproduce the author’s thought as faithfully as possible and to state it in such a form as to satisfy the laws of English syntax. But I have also felt that, so far as it can be done, the flavor of the original should be retained and that a translator, in his effort to satisfy certain conventional demands of modern composition, should not deviate too far from the path of mental habit that the author has beaten in his roamings through the fields of thought. Peculiarities of style and expression, can, it is true, usually not be reproduced in another language; at the same time it is possible to ignore these considerations to such an extent that the product becomes a paraphrase rather than a translation; and I have believed that such a rendition should be avoided, even at the risk of erring on the side of literalness.

The importance of the _King’s Mirror_ as a source of information in the study of medieval thought was first brought to my attention by Professor Julius E. Olson of the University of Wisconsin, who has also, since the work of preparing this edition was begun, followed its progress with helpful interest. Professors G. T. Flom and A. H. Lybyer of the University of Illinois, and Professor W. H. Schofield of Harvard University, have read the manuscript in whole or part and have contributed many valuable suggestions. My wife, Lillian May Larson, has assisted in a great variety of ways, as in all my work. Dr. H. G. Leach of the American-Scandinavian Foundation has read the proof sheets of the entire volume and has suggested many improvements in the text. To all these persons I wish to express my thanks. I am also deeply indebted to the trustees of the American-Scandinavian Foundation whose generosity has made it possible to publish the work at this time.

L. M. L.

_University of Illinois, August, 1917._

------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PAGE

NORTHERN LITERATURE IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 1

THE SPECULUM REGALE, OR KING’S MIRROR; SOURCES 6

SCIENTIFIC LORE AND THE BELIEF IN MARVELS 11

COURTESY AND THE KING’S HOUSEHOLD 26

THE THEORY OF THE DIVINE RIGHT OF NORWEGIAN 33 KINGSHIP

ETHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL IDEAS OF THE WORK 49

MODERN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE KING’S MIRROR 53

THE PROBLEM OF AUTHORSHIP 54

DATE AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION 59

EDITIONS OF THE KING’S MIRROR 65

THE KING’S MIRROR

I. INTRODUCTION: NAME AND PURPOSE OF THE WORK 72

II. “THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM” 76

III. THE ACTIVITIES AND HABITS OF A MERCHANT 79

IV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 81

V. THE SUN AND THE WINDS 86

VI. THE TIDES AND THE CHANGES IN THE COURSE OF THE SUN 92

VII. THE SUBJECT OF THE SUN’S COURSE CONTINUED 95

VIII. THE MARVELS OF NORWAY 99

IX. POPULAR DOUBT AS TO THE GENUINENESS OF MARVELS 102

X. THE NATURAL WONDERS OF IRELAND 105

XI. IRISH MARVELS WHICH HAVE MIRACULOUS ORIGINS 111

XII. THE MARVELS OF THE ICELANDIC SEAS: WHALES; THE 119 KRAKEN

XIII. THE WONDERS OF ICELAND 126

XIV. THE VOLCANIC FIRES OF ICELAND 130

XV. OTHER ICELANDIC WONDERS: ORE AND MINERAL SPRINGS 133

XVI. THE MARVELS OF THE WATERS ABOUT GREENLAND: 135 MONSTERS, SEALS, AND WALRUSES

XVII. THE ANIMAL LIFE OF GREENLAND AND THE CHARACTER OF 141 THE LAND IN THOSE REGIONS

XVIII. THE PRODUCTS OF GREENLAND 144

XIX. THE CLIMATE OF GREENLAND; THE NORTHERN LIGHTS 145

XX. THE SUBJECT OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS CONTINUED 151

XXI. THE ZONES OF HEAT AND COLD 153

XXII. THE WINDS WITH RESPECT TO NAVIGATION 156

XXIII. THE PROPER SEASON FOR NAVIGATION. END OF THE FIRST 161 PART

XXIV. INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND PART: THE KING AND HIS 162 COURT

XXV. THE IMPORTANCE OF COURTESY IN THE ROYAL SERVICE 165

XXVI. THE ADVANTAGES DERIVED FROM SERVICE IN THE KING’S 167 HOUSEHOLD

XXVII. THE VARIOUS CLASSES AMONG THE KINGSMEN 170

XXVIII. THE HONORED POSITION OF THE KINGSMEN 173

XXIX. THE SUPERIOR ORDER OF KINGSMEN: THE HIRD 175

XXX. HOW A MAN WHO WISHES TO APPLY FOR ADMISSION TO THE 179 ROYAL HOUSEHOLD SERVICE SHOULD APPROACH THE KING

XXXI. WHY ONE SHOULD NOT WEAR A MANTLE IN THE ROYAL 184 PRESENCE

XXXII. RULES OF SPEECH AND CONVERSATION IN THE KING’S 186 HALL

XXXIII. THE PROPER USES OF “YOU” AND “THOU” 188

XXXIV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 189

XXXV. CONCERNING FAILURE OF CROPS AND DEARTH IN MORALS 193 AND GOVERNMENT

XXXVI. THE CAUSES OF SUCH PERIODS OF DEARTH AND WHAT 195 FORMS THE DEARTH MAY TAKE

XXXVII. THE DUTIES, ACTIVITIES, AND AMUSEMENTS OF THE 203 ROYAL GUARDSMEN

XXXVIII. WEAPONS FOR OFFENSE AND DEFENSE 217

XXXIX. MILITARY ENGINES 220

XL. THE PROPER MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF A ROYAL COURT 226

XLI. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 231

XLII. A DISCUSSION OF HOW GOD REWARDS RIGHTEOUSNESS, 234 HUMILITY, AND FIDELITY, ILLUSTRATED BY EXAMPLES DRAWN FROM SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY

XLIII. THE DUTIES AND THE EXALTED POSITION OF THE KING 245

XLIV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 248

XLV. CONCERNING THE MODERATION WHICH A KING MUST 251 OBSERVE IN HIS JUDICIAL SENTENCES AND PENALTIES, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWN FROM THE STORY OF GOD’S JUDGMENT IN THE CASE OF ADAM AND EVE, IN WHICH CASE TRUTH AND JUSTICE WERE ASSOCIATED WITH PEACE AND MERCY

XLVI. AN EXAMPLE OF RIGHTEOUS SEVERITY IN JUDGMENT DRAWN 258 FROM THE STORY OF GOD’S CONDEMNATION OF LUCIFER

XLVII. A FURTHER DISCUSSION OF VERDICTS AND PENALTIES 260 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE STORY OF LUCIFER’S REBELLION AND DOWNFALL AND OF THE SIN AND PUNISHMENT OF THE FIRST MAN AND WOMAN

XLVIII. A COMMENTARY ON THE STORY OF LUCIFER 272

XLIX. INSTANCES IN WHICH GOD HAS ALLOWED THE DECISION TO 277 BE FRAMED ACCORDING TO THE STERN DEMANDS OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE

L. OTHER INSTANCES IN WHICH THE ARGUMENTS OF PEACE 279 AND MERCY HAVE HAD GREATER WEIGHT

LI. THE REASONS FOR THIS DIVERSITY IN THE VERDICTS OF 283 GOD

LII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 284

LIII. INSTANCES IN WHICH GOD HAS MODIFIED HIS SENTENCES 285 AND THE REASONS FOR SUCH MODIFICATIONS

LIV. THE KING’S PRAYER 290

LV. A FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THE KING’S BUSINESS 297 ESPECIALLY HIS JUDICIAL DUTIES

LVI. THE SPEECH OF WISDOM 299

LVII. DIFFICULT DUTIES OF THE KING’S JUDICIAL OFFICE 304 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

LVIII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 309

LIX. WHEN JUDGMENTS SHOULD BE SEVERE AND WHEN THEY 313 SHOULD BE MERCIFUL

LX. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 316

LXI. CONCERNING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 318

LXII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 320

LXIII. THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD ILLUSTRATED BY THE STORY OF 321 DAVID AND SAUL

LXIV. ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE JUDGMENTS OF SOLOMON 339

LXV. SOLOMON’S DECISION IN THE CASE OF SHIMEI 341

LXVI. SOLOMON’S JUDGMENT IN THE CASE OF ADONIJAH AND HIS 344 FOLLOWERS

LXVII. WHY SOLOMON BROKE HIS PROMISE OF PEACE AND 353 SECURITY TO JOAB

LXVIII. A DISCUSSION OF PROMISES: WHEN THEY MUST BE KEPT 355 AND WHEN THEY SHOULD BE WITHDRAWN

LXIX. CONCERNING THE KINGSHIP AND THE CHURCH AND THE 357 KING’S RESPONSIBILITY TO GOD

LXX. THE AUTHORITY OF KINGS AND BISHOPS. END OF THE 363 SECOND PART

BIBLIOGRAPHY 369

INDEX 375

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE KING’S MIRROR

INTRODUCTION

The place of the thirteenth century in the history of human achievement is a subject upon which scholars have not yet come to a general agreement. There can be no doubt that it was, on the whole, an age of progress in many fields; but there is much in its history that points to stagnation, if not to actual decline. From a superficial study of its annals one might be led to class it with the lesser centuries; most writers are inclined to rank it lower than the fourteenth century, and perhaps not even so high as the twelfth. It was in this period that the crusading movement finally flickered out and the Christian world was compelled to leave the cradle of the holy faith in the hands of the infidel. In the thirteenth century, too, the medieval empire sank into hopeless inefficiency and all but expired. The papacy, which more than any other power was responsible for the ruin of the imperial ambitions, also went into decline. Whether the loss in authority and prestige on the part of the holy see was compensated by a renewed spiritual energy in the church at large may well be doubted: what evidence we have would indicate that the religion of the masses was gross and materialistic, that ethical standards were low, and that the improvement in clerical morals, which the church had hoped would follow the enforcement of celibacy, had failed to appear.

Yet the thirteenth century also had its attractive figures and its important movements. The old social order was indeed crumbling, but in its place appeared two new forces which were to inherit the power and opportunities of feudalism and reshape social life: these were the new monarchy, enjoying wide sovereign powers, and the new national consciousness, which was able to think in larger units. In England the century saw the development of a new representative institution, which has become the mother of modern legislative assemblies. The Italian cities were growing rich from the profits of Oriental trade; in the Flemish towns the weaver’s industry was building up new forms of municipal life; the great German Hansa was laying hold on the commerce of the northern seas. In the realms of higher intellect, in science, philosophy, and theology, the age was a notable one, with Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Thomas Aquinas as the leaders, each in his field. The century also meant much for the progress of geographical knowledge, for it was in this period that Marco Polo penetrated the mysterious lands of the Far East.

As the historian looks back into this age, he is, therefore, able to find broad traces of much that is regarded as fundamental to modern life. Of first importance in this regard is the employment of popular idioms in literary productions. French literature saw its beginnings in the eleventh century with the _chansons de geste_, songs of valorous deeds from the heroic age of the Frankish kingdom. In the next century the poets began to use the themes of the Arthurian legends and sang the exploits of the famous British king and the knights of his Round Table. A little later came another cycle of poems based on the heroic tales of classical antiquity. The twelfth century witnessed a parallel movement in Germany, which at first was largely an imitation of contemporary French poetry. The poets, however, soon discovered literary treasures in the dim world of the Teutonic past, in the tales of the Nibelungs, in the heroic deeds of Theodoric, and in the exploits of other heroes.

Thus in the first half of the thirteenth century there was a large body of French and German verse in circulation. The verses were borne from region to region and from land to land by professional entertainers, who chanted the poems, and by pilgrims and other travelers, who secured manuscript copies. In the course of time the new tales reached the Northern countries, and it was not long before the Northmen were eagerly listening to the stories of chivalrous warfare, militant religion, and tragic love, that they had learned in the southlands.

The Northern peoples thus had a share in the fruitage of the later middle ages; but they also had a share in their achievements. Politically as well as intellectually the thirteenth century was a great age in the Scandinavian countries. The Danish kingdom rose to the highest point of its power under Valdemar the Victorious, whose troubled reign began in 1202. Valdemar succeeded in extending the territories of Denmark along the entire southern coast of the Baltic Sea; but the greatness was short-lived: after the defeat of the Danes by the North Germans at Börnhoved in 1227, the decline of Danish imperialism began. In Sweden, too, men dreamed of conquest beyond the sea. Under the leadership of Earl Birger, the most eminent statesman of medieval Sweden, Swedish power was steadily extended into Finnish territory, and the foundations of Sweden as a great European power was being laid.

During the days of Valdemar and the great Birger Norway also reached its greatest territorial extent. After a century of factional warfare, the nation settled down to comparative peace. All the Norwegian colonies except those in Ireland, were definitely made subject to the Norwegian crown: these were the Isle of Man, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, the Shetlands, the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland. In every field of national life there was vigor and enterprise. And on the throne sat a strong, wise, and learned monarch, Hakon IV, the ruler with the “great king-thought.”

The real greatness of the thirteenth century in the North lies, however, in the literary achievements of the age. It is not known when the Old Norse poets first began to exercise their craft, but the earliest poems that have come down to us date from the ninth century. For two hundred years the literary production was in the form of alliterative verse; but after 1050 there came a time when scaldic poetry did not seem to thrive. This does not mean that the interest in literature died out; it merely took a new form: the age of poetry was followed by an age of prose. With the Christian faith came the Latin alphabet and writing materials, and there was no longer any need to memorize verse. The new form was the saga, which began to appear in the twelfth century and received many notable additions in the thirteenth. The literary movement on the continent, therefore, had its counterpart in the North; only here the writings took the form of prose, while there literature was chiefly in verse.

These two currents came into contact in the first half of the thirteenth century, when the men and women of the North began to take an interest in the Arthurian romances and other tales that had found their way into Norway. In this new form of Norwegian literature there could not be much originality; still its appearance testifies to a widening of the intellectual horizon. In addition to sagas and romances the period was also productive of written laws, homilies, legends, Biblical narratives, histories, and various other forms of literature. It is to be noted that virtually everything was written in the idiom of the common people. Latin was used to some extent in the North in the later middle ages, but it never came into such general use there as in other parts of Europe. In the thirteenth century it had almost passed out of use as a literary language.

In our interest in tales and romances we must not overlook the fact that the thirteenth century also produced an important literature of the didactic type. For centuries the Christian world had studied the encyclopedic works of Capella, Cassiodorus, and Isidore, or had read the writings of Bede and his many followers who had composed treatises “on the nature of things,” in which they had striven to set in order the known or supposed facts of the physical world. The thirteenth century had an encyclopedist of its own in Vincent of Beauvais, who produced a vast compendium made up of several _Specula_, which were supposed to contain all the knowledge that the world possessed in science, history, theology, and other fields of learning. The age also produced various other Latin works of the didactic sort, of which the _Historia Scholastica_ of Petrus Comestor was perhaps the most significant for the intellectual history of the North.

Norway had no encyclopedist, but the thirteenth century produced a Norwegian writer who undertook a task which was somewhat of the encyclopedic type. Some time during the reign of Hakon IV, perhaps while Vincent was composing his great _Speculum Majus_, a learned Norseman wrote the _Speculum Regale_, or _King’s Mirror_, a work which a competent critic has characterized as “one of the chief ornaments of Old Norse literature.”[1] Unlike the sagas and the romances, which have in view chiefly the entertainment of the reader, the _King’s Mirror_ is didactic throughout; in a few chapters only does the author depart from his serious purpose, and all but two of these are of distinct value. The purpose of the work is to provide a certain kind of knowledge which will be of use to young men who are looking forward to a career in the higher professions.

Footnote 1:

R. Keyser in the introduction to the Christiania edition (p. xi).

As outlined in the introductory chapter, the work was to deal with the four great orders of men in the Norwegian kingdom: the merchants and their interests; the king and his retainers; the church and the clergy; and the peasantry or husbandmen. In the form in which the _King’s Mirror_ has come down to modern times, however, the first two divisions only are included; not the least fragment of any separate discussion of the clerical profession or of the agricultural classes has been found. It is, therefore, generally believed that the work was not completed beyond the point where the extant manuscripts close. Why the book was left unfinished cannot be known; but it is a plausible conjecture that illness or perhaps death prevented the author, who was apparently an aged man, from completing the task that he had set before him. It is also possible that the ideas expressed in the closing chapters of the work, especially in the last chapter, which deals with the subject of clerical subordination to the secular powers, were so repugnant to the ecclesiastical thought of the time that the authorities of the church discouraged or perhaps found means to prevent the continuation of the work into the third division, where the author had planned to deal with the church and the clergy.

In form the _Speculum_ is a dialog between a wise and learned father and his son, in which the larger part of the discussion naturally falls to the former. The son asks questions and suggests problems, which the father promptly answers or solves. In the choice of form there is nothing original: the dialog was frequently used by didactic writers in the middle ages, and it was the natural form to adopt. The title, _Speculum Regale_, is also of a kind that was common in those days.[2] _Specula_ of many sorts were being produced: _Speculum Ecclesiae_, _Speculum Stultorum_, _Speculum Naturale_, and _Speculum Perfectionis_ are some of the titles used for writings of a didactic type. The German _Sachsenspiegel_ is an instance of the title employed for a work in a vulgar idiom. There was also a _Speculum Regum_, or _Mirror of Kings_, and a century later an English ecclesiastic wrote a _Speculum Regis_, but the writer knows of no other work called the _Speculum Regale_.

Footnote 2:

It is believed that the title came into use in Europe in imitation of Hindu writers who wrote “Mirrors of Princes.” Nansen, _In Northern Mists_, II, 242.