3.
TC wrote in his Journal, 21 Jan.: “Reading Scandinavian things; set on by Frithiof's Saga. The real old Frithiof an excellent thing; Tegner the modernizer of it a watery singing man.— I have got some incipient notions of Iceland. Odde,
where Saegmund (first Edda) lived and Snorro was educated. Snorro's Farm; both still extant; Snorro's second Edda. Wish I could read these old Sagas for Frithiof's sake.” About this time TC had been reading a number of books about Iceland
and about Swedenborg, and he set down some purposeful notes as given below. Books he had been reading included Frithiof's Saga (mentioned at the start) as retold by the Swedish poet Esaias Tegnér (1782–1846), who was educated at Lund Univ., graduated 1802, and was appointed prof. of Greek, 1812. He remained at Lund till appointed bishop of Växjö, 1824. His greatest poem was Frithiof's Saga (1825), a cycle based on an Icelandic saga of the fourteenth cent., which became a national poem and was trans. into most European
languages. If TC read it in an English (rather than German) trans., there were several to choose from, such as George Stephens,
Frithiof's Saga, A Legend of the North (Stockholm and London, 1839), which included a trans. of the Sagann af Fridtheof Fraekna that it explained was taken “from the Icelandic text in Björner's Kampa Data.” Evidently unknown to TC, this was Nordiska Kämper Dater, ed. Enricus Julius Bjoerner (Stockholm, 1737). After this, TC made notes on Iceland; or the Journal of a Residence in that Island, during the years 1814 and 1815, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1818) by Ebenezer Henderson (1784–1854), Scots linguist, missionary and theological writer. TC refers to Finnr Jónsson, bishop of Skálholt, F. Johannæi … Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiae, 4 vols. (Copenhagen, 1772–78), but knew of his work only from a footnote by Henderson. He had evidently read Sir George Steuart Mackenzie, Travels in the Island of Iceland (Edinburgh, 1811). He speaks of using the edn. of Heims Kringla, eller Snorre Sturlusons, in Swedish, Latin and Icelandic, ed. J. Peringskiöld, 2 vols. (Stockholm, 1697), borrowed from Hensleigh Wedgwood, and notes having read the Narrative of an Expedition to the East Coast of Greenland … under the Command of Captn W. A. Graah, of the Danish Royal Navy
… translated from the Danish by the late G. Gordon MacDougall, F.R.S.N.A. (London, 1837). He evidently turned to the Introduction à L'Histoire de Dannemarc, où l'on traite de la religion, des loix, des moeurs, et des usages des anciens Danois, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1755–56), by Paul Henri Mallet (1730–1807). He makes a note about “Lindl's Faroe Isles,” evidently meaning A description of the Feroe Islands, containing an account of their Situation, Climate, and Productions (London, 1810; in Danish, 1800), by the Rev. Jørgen Jørgensen Landt (ca. 1753–1804). TC evidently knew of Hermes Scythicus; or, the Radical Affinities of the Greek and Latin Languages to the Gothic (Edinburgh, 1814), by Dr. John Jamieson (1759–1838); Popular Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh, 1806), ed. Robert Jamieson (1780?–1844); and works by the Rev. James Johnstone (d. 1798), British chaplain at Copenhagen, who was born in Edinburgh, trans. of The Norwegian Account of Haco's Expedition against Scotland A.D. 1263 (Copenhagen and Edinburgh, 1782) and author of Antiquitates Celto-Normanicae (Copenhagen, 1786). All of this reading is of particular interest because it antedates the lectures on Heroes, although the subject had not yet been decided on, so that the two interest appear to have converged. Two and a half years
later (5 Oct. 1842), TC returned to Frithiof's Saga, to set down the story in his own words (FC: Forster MS, F.48.E.36, f.95). His jottings on Emanuel Swedenborg (see also TC to JJGW, [28 Sept. 1839]) show that he had been reading a Life of Emanuel Swedenborg, with some account of his writings; together with a brief notice of the rise and progress of the
New Church (Boston, Mass., 1831); also the 1st vol. of Johann Friedrich Immanuel Tafel, ed. Sammlung von Urkunden betreffend das Leben und den Charakter E. Swedenborgs … aus den Quellen treu wiedergegeben und mit Anmerkungen, 3 vols. (Tübingen, 1839–42).
“Norse Literature
“Frithiof's Saga, by Tegner set me on that. Tegner's version of the old Saga worth nothing very immense; but the old Saga
itself an interesting thing (‘translated,’ it is said, ‘from Björner's Kämpa Dater,’ whatever that may be); I wish I had plenty more of them!
—————
“Henderson's Travel's [sic] in Iceland; a simple Book; the man a Traveller for Bible society business, has a pair of eyes, and one works something out of him. Was at the top of Snaefell Jökul. Gives one a notion of peaceable grass
vallies along the coast, of grim chaotic ice-solitudes, mud-volcanoes, lava-ruins, snow, heath, and steamy springs in the
interior; poverty, contentment, simplicity, dirt and cutaneous disorders; has great difficulties in fording rivers which roll
down from the snow-reservoirs very copiously in summer, carrying masses of ice; great difficulty in rough roads, precipices
and the like; lives all winter at Reykiavik seemingly in a torpid state,—a dirty punch-drinking card-playing set of Danish
shopclerks and supercargoes there, ‘with the pipe never out of their mouth.’ Sees Holum (anciently Hoolum) in the North; printing-house now a stable. Does not see Skalholt (once a printing-place too, and a School)
in the South. People all pilgrim to Reykiavik once a year (in spring, I think) to make their markets with the Danes; R. the
only village in Iceland,—for it too is but a village of some 500. The whole population guessed to be about 60,000.— Bessastad
a good stone house standing on the coast a few miles below Reykk (Once Snorro's property) is now the only public school: 25 scholars; beds of sea-weed ill-smelling, house dirty above & below;
dark room, of 1000 vol. mostly Greek Danish German theology, their library,—tend much to socinian courses. Holum, Skalholt
and a later school all suppressed, and this one made royal, since the middle of last century.— Henderson saw Oddé (Oddi, I find signifies linguila terrae), 30 miles S.W. of Heckla in the Rangarvalla Syssel;—where Saemund Sigfusson (elder Edda) had his abode. Saemund became a priest at Oddi (12 centy?), collected Edda, founded a school or two at Oddi. Still better, Snorro Sturleson (Sturluson, H. calls him) spent 16 of his young years here, under the tuition of Saemund's grandson one Jou Loptson, I suppose a
priest. Also there are ‘Oddé annals’—by whom? (Jonson, Hist. Eccles. Island.!) Well then, what kind of place is Oddi O Henderson? Alas, one cannot learn clearly! S.W. of Heckla and the Trehyrning (Three-horns) some 30 miles; lies itself on the S.E. of a number of ‘low hills very grassy’; mounting the highest of these H. saw Heckla (& Tr.) disappointingly, saw ‘the largest
plain in Iceland’ some twenty miles in diameter (that is, a low grassy tract, of knoles, called a plain, very grassy making a large Tun (Toon); very grassy, very pretty, snow mountain in the rear (sea I suppose in front), very pretty—and that is all!—
“H. was at Reykhollt (Reek-shaw, aspectum, collicolum saxeti), and the day before at Hvam (a ‘sloping valley’); the latter is Snorro's birthplace (1178), the former his chief and final residence, where he was assassinated in 1241, aged 63. One can make nothing out of H. except that Reykhollt stands in a confused streamy country, full of reek from boiling springs. What could one give for a view of it! There is Hunda-hver (dog-kettle) a Tungu-hver (tongue-kettle?) &c; one is the Ar-hver (river-kettle) which boils up
in the middle of the river ‘from a rock eight or ten feet high’ (does not M'Kenzie call it the Kaldaa, that river?) Snorro got this place by marriage with ‘the daughter of a rich priest who lived at Borg’ (southward a little,
on the Borgafiord.) His Bath still exists, H. bathed in it; water from the neighbouring hot marsh is brought in from a conduit. Snorro went
to Oddé (or Oddi?) as above said, at the age of 3,—19 when he left. Raised by marriage his fortune to ‘4000 rix dollars’ (not
£1000—was even that income annually, or property in whole?); he used to go [to] the Thing sometimes with 800 men at his heels. Was Lögsögumadur (chief magistrate) for a good many years. Had the Farm of Bessastad (where the school now is): a Patriarchal kind of man, with so many head of Nanta (Nowt!), with grassy meadows, hayricks, sheep, fleeces, webs,—collecting the Edda, Heimskringla, withal, and intriguing and polititianizing to all lengths! I find in all the North nothing that interests me more than old
Snorro. Heimskringla by Peringskiold not the good edition; first vol. of it here (Wedgwood's): have got little of it investigated yet. Snorro's Laugh (Bath) has a seat round it, will hold ‘30 persons’ (fancy old Snorro there!); is about 4 feet in the centre, shelves up saucer-wise
towards the seat.— Where is there any image to be got of Snorro? Try his Heimskringla? Vaut la chandelle [Worth the candle]?— Little or nothing more to be got from prosy Henderson.
“Graah's voyage to (Icelandic) Greenland. Did not find East Bygd; does not think it ever was on the East coast of Greenland: ‘remains’ not a few exist on the W. coast; no light at all to be got of them out of this Book; Danish
antiquaries busy with them then (1828). A brave man this Lieutt Graah. ‘Seal's eyes flash fire’ when the Greenlander chaces them: how wrath and courage dwells everywhere!— Who are these strange bearded, dirty, frozen, famished Esquimaux? Something Chinese in their eyes, Graah says. Women annoint their hair with some urinary-liquid; a tub of which, horrible in smell, is kept in every hut. Very hospitable; have dances; have Angekkoks (swinderly, ventriloquism?)—a huge or even extremely dwarfish Monster at the bottom of the sea, ‘white seafowl swim in the oil of its lamp,’ seals &c. attending it, having great power and knowledge:
this is the kind of God the Angekkoks pretend to be in communication with. No worship or creed among the people at all (?). Northern lights are ‘the spirits of
the dead playing at football with the head of a Walrus’! They also throw entrails of seal into the sea, seemingly by way of
sacrifice. Great howlings when they meet, after a death has happened. Young Yak gets a javelin in his hand, shoots from the very birth of him; becomes incredibly expert. Young women learn to sew, build,
‘kill sharks in the moonlight of winter’; very fond of finery. Have a yearly Fair among them. Sorrel seems to be their best
vegetable. Hardly 500 souls in all on the East coast; and, these continually emigrating to the west, for warmer quarters and
the Moravian Mission aid. Go all off together on their dog-sledges when the provisions run utterly out. Their mode of lawsuit:
the injured man ‘composes a satirical song,’ gets the neighbours gathered; a ring round him; he sings his song with infinite
gesticulation ‘cuts figures of 8 with his backside,’ jerks, twists, shuffles and sings with the tambourine (wecht & handle to it),—in this way states his case: reply in the same fashion; deeply, rejoinder &c. till both parties have enough: then ‘force of public opinion’ decides it. They are extremely sensible to that,
and have no other law or government. Not unveracious; not thievish or unjust; revenge very prevalent, implacable when murder
happens.— Poor fellows; with their bone spears, with their stinking seal-flesh, with their urine-cosmetics: what a world!
—————
“Mallet's Northern Antiquities; the French original; very easy to read; precise, clear,—clear I find by omitting whatsoever could occasion obscurity! Kind of translation of Snorro's Edda, at least the main part of it, which seems a very ingenious didactic Fiction.— Great obscurity still rests for me over the
intrinsic nature, still more over the actual extrinsic condition and literary history, of both Eddas. Have some thoughts of learning Danish: that were the only complete plan. Worth while? Ah, what is worth while in an Earth like ours!
“Lindl's Faroe Isles. A simple intelligent Danish Parson's Book, crammed far too full of Natural History. Some corn does grow in Faroe; curious
mode of tilth by pealing off the soil, turning down the grass, and there planting in beds. Goose-taking; hay-gathering &c. Some villages ‘with the streets paved’ (Think any night at any hour, ‘what are they doing in those paved lanes’—a sort of thought that has haunted me often, in such cases, from of old. ‘They are there, doing something with the great void Night over them, the great homeless Sea round them; so far, so far away!’)
“— —Oe, ey, or the like, means Island in the Northern tongues. ‘I-colmkill’ Far-oe (Far-isles). Chelsea (Chel-sey, who is Chel? Battersea, Balders-ey?), Athelney, Edeln-ey, ‘Sodor and Man,’ Sudneyar [‘Hebrides’ above line] and Man. Orkn-ey &c Nay our word Island is the Germ. Ey-land Ramsoe (Ramsey in Man). Two years ago my two brothers and I sitting on the head of Scotsbrig moor looked long at the Isle of Man,
and were surprised to observe it as if divided by the sea. I (foolish oblivious I!) had forgotten the ‘Calf of Man’ altogether! A small Island near a big one is always called the calf or progeny of the latter. Graah and the Danes talk perpetually of the Icebergs calving; a metaphor not much to my taste.
“Hermes Scythicus by Jamieson: full of forced etymologies, with some curious natural ones; and here and there a ray of plausible conjecture amid whirlpools
without limit of unplausible, sometimes of impossible.— Seems to have had many Dictionaries;—but many languages? Does next to nothing for me. The other Jamieson's Ballads are Scotch; and do not even pretend to anything for me.
“One Johnstone an Irish-Danish Chaplain has written some things: Haco's Battle of Largs and another called Chronicle of Man (Island) &c: worth nothing, I fear or indeed know.— Wohin? Wohin [Whither]!”
(13th feby 1840)
[Overleaf notes continue]
“LIFE OF SWEDENBORG: Boston, 1831 (Nw Engld)—‘Loud laughter has place in men of unoccupied minds and in such as are possessed by love of themselves’ (S. says; in Œconomia,
concerng rational Psychology) p. 104—a significant trait.
“Shearsmith the Perukemaker (26?) Coldbath fields, says ‘Sg was 5 f 9 high, rather thin and of a brown complexn: eyes brown grey, nearly hazel, and rather small: he was never seen to laugh, had always a cheerful smile on his countence. Dark brown coat and waistcoat, black velvet breeches; except in the morning when he had a long gown’ (Rennthierfellen for winter says Tafel): full dressed his clothes were all of velvet, with a cocked hat, and a sword in silver scabbard. Spectacles;
and whenever he walked out, had ‘gold-headed cane.’ (p. 104).—milk and vegetables, tea and coffee; together with gingerbread,
which he would freqly bring home with him and share with the childn (ibid)— Scarcely anything else notable in that little book; except a catalogue raisonné of S's writings, and some notices of the Swedenbian church and its origins.—
—————
“Tafel: Sammlung von Urkunden betreffend &c Tübingen, 1839—
“The Prussian Cavalier's statement (p. 133); contradicted or qualified by a Swedish officer, whose letter in French (1788) is at p. 142.—
“Wesley's story that he ran out naked into the streets; given pretty much at large p. 151 et seq. (et a?).— Shearsmith's affidavit fuller in Tafel than in Boston (p. 173)—
“In great sorrow because his visions were gone, soon before his death, after the paralytic stroke (172); they returned—
“Monthly Review Novr 1778 something about S. (p. 148)—Citation from St. Augustin (about apparitions in dreams) p. 121.—
“David Paulus ab Indagine (who the deuce?), seemingly a kind of Amsterdam divine (p 114 et seq) has some curious particulars. ‘S. sleeps 13 hours’ (117), but has his visions to transact then withal. When I told him his
work de Telluribus was translated, it gave him special joy, and his ohnehin meisters lächelnden augen [master's smiling eyes moreover] were at once made heiter [glad] (118)—. S. very accessible to everybody; goes and dines with whoever asks him. His enormous velocity in writing. Has
seen the King of Sweden that morning (119) &c &c.
“Kant's Letter about him (ends p. 122); rather more fully in the Boston book: dated 10 Augt 1758.
“Pernetty (?) a Berlin French Priest: from him comes that story of the vision in the London Inn; rather discredited by the
Swedenbns now—(given in Biog Universelle too)—
“Genl Tuxen's conversations with S. are worth something: S had a love in Italy in his young days. The way he was sitting in the Cabin at Elsinore. Hopken's Letters very diplomatic, worth
little.
“Pernetty it is that gives the Stockholm garden house (p. ).”
