300 erected on the summit of the bare solid rocky hills of primary formation, several hundred feet above the level of the water, and overlooking a panorama of fjords, sounds, barren islands and desolate coast, with the open seas beyond, and with the sun sinking below the horizon. The waves strike at their base, and with the wind sing mournfully a requiem over the forgotten dead; their work is done, the glorious mission they had to accomplish in the history of the world is ended, the mighty drama of the sword is closed. It is towards evening, before the twilight fades gradually into darkness, that the scene of this weird landscape is most impressive, and no one can really imagine its effects until he stands upon the spot and sees the view spread before him. Fig. 709. — Cairn, Bohuslän, Sweden. In some parts of Norway the contrast is often great in the extreme; the mounds there have huge mountains in the background with their summits clad in snow, and in the foreground the grand open sea. One of the bleakest spots in the country, where these have been erected, is on the flat gravelly coast of Lyster, which lies between the mountain and the sea; — there, over the last resting-places of those warriors, the wind blows

301 most fearfully in winter-time, and the sea dashes on the shore in huge foamy white waves. In Denmark and parts of Sweden there are places on the elevated points of the coast full of charms, looking over the Sound, the Cattegat, the Baltic, or the waters of some of the great lakes. Many of these resting-places of man are now covered by forests, and upon some of the mounds huge oaks sprung from the acorn of their sires tell forcibly of the centuries that have passed over them. Fig. 710. — Grave, Einang, Norway; diameter, 50 feet; earlier iron age. We can vividly realise why the people laid their dead to rest by that sea they loved so much during their lifetime, and upon which they had sailed so often. The mariner as he passed by could behold the graves of the dead and victorious champions, whose memory was always kept fresh by the scalds1 who sang his exploits generation after generation, thus filling the youth of the country with pride, and making them wish to emulate the deeds of these men, often their kinsmen of old, who had gone to Valhalla. The mounds and cairns are not always round, they are sometimes square, oblong, rectangular or triangular. The 1 Poets, see vol. ii. p. 389.

302 round mounds and cairns exist in different parts of the world, and in Scandinavia as far back as the stone and bronze ages; the vast number of bautastones seen all over the country shows also how well the injunctions of Odin were carried out by his followers in that respect. Some of these are very imposing, and their dark forms look weird enough against the landscape or the clear or gloomy sky. One of the finest stood in Brastod parish, Bohuslän, now lying prostrate and broken, its height being 26 feet; and its place was on one corner of a stone set of rectangular graves 40 feet in length and 28 feet in width. Fig. 711. — Bautastone (from grave shown on p. 301) with nineteen runes; 1/15 real size; 5 feet 8 inches in height; width, 3 feet 2 inches; 9 inches thick; length of rune, 2 feet 1½ inches.

303 Fig. 712. — Bautastone on a mound 200 feet in circumference and 7 feet high, Runesten Grimeton (Bohuslän), Halland; 19½ feet high, 4½ feet wide. Surrounding it are mounds and graves of various shapes. Fig. 713. — Oblong mound, Yttersala, Södermanland; 33 feet in diameter. In the vicinity are numerous other graves of various shapes. Fig. 714. — Square stone-set grave. Södermanland.

304 Fig. 715. — Rectangular stone-set graves with bautastones. Length, 70 feet; width, 24 feet. — Färentuna parish, Upland, Sweden.

305 Fig. 716. — Rows of mounds with bautastones from 4½ to nearly 6 feet high, Rekarnebygden, Södermanland. Near by are many other mounds and stone-set graves.

306 The most interesting of the graveyards which I have seen is that of Hjortehammar, situated in the province of Blekinge on a narrow promontory lost in the maze of islands which dot the coast of Sweden on this part of the Baltic. It is joined now to an island situated near its further end by a causeway and a small bridge. This is not only remarkable from its position Fig. 717. — Square stone-set graves with large boulders at the corners and centre. Fig. 718. — Triangular grave; sides of triangle about 50 feet; corner stones about 3 feet high. In the middle of the south-west side are two stones, 5 feet apart, with a slab between them, one 3 feet, the other 4 feet high. Thorsbacken, Nerike, Sweden.

307 and size, but on account of the numerous forms of graves of various sizes it contains. The length of the cape is about 1,200 feet, and its greatest breadth about 200 feet. The engraving gives an idea of the shape and size of the different graves, some of which are shown in large scale. This cape is but a continuation of a ridge full of graves; heather and juniper cover many of them; and well chosen was this secluded and quiet spot for the last resting-place of their departed kinsmen or friends.1 Fig. 719. — Hjortehammar burial-ground, with various shaped graves. In the Háleygjatal, a poem on the genealogy of the famous Hákon jarl, tracing his pedigree to Odin, there is a passage which recalls the burial place Hjortehammar.     Straumeyjar-nes which is Stone-marked Round the Fylkir’s2 body Is widely known. 1 I was sorry to see the place being gradually destroyed, the gravel taken away, and the embankments, made by the digging, falling down with the grave. 2 Gudlaug, Hakon’s ancestor.

308 Fig. 720. — Vedby ridge, Blekinge. The large stones are from 4 to 6 feet high. Length of each side, 40 feet. Fig. 721. — Stone-set grave, Blekinge. Length, 38 feet. Fig. 722. — Triangular grave. Sides 60 to 65 feet long, with a small elevation in the middle, and a bautastone nearly 5 feet high and 2 feet 6 inches broad. Lyngstad, Södermanland.

309 Among the most remarkable and not uncommon stone-set graves are those of the so-called “ship form” setting; they belong both to the earlier and later iron age. This peculiar form of grave is found on the peninsula of Scandinavia and on the islands of Götland, Öland, and other islands of the Baltic, in Courland and Livonia, and was also erected in England and Scotland by the people of the North. Fig. 723. — Blekinge. Diameter, 30 feet. Fig. 724. — Listerby ridge, Blekinge. Diameter, 18 feet. Fig. 725. — Graveyard with mounds and stone-set graves at Åshy, Södermanland.                                                                               Stone-set graves. One of the most interesting is that where the rowers’ seats

310 are marked, and even a stone placed in the position of the mast. The longest ship-form grave which I think is known is one near Kåsberga, a fishing village in the southern part of Sweden, with a length of 212 feet and a width of 60 feet. It is made by thirty-eight stones, the two forming the prow being 12 and 18 feet in height above the ground-the latter being the northern one. Fig. 726. — Ship-form grave, Karums parish, Öland. But the finest of all, though less in size, is the famous one of Blomsholm, near Strömstad, the whole neighbourhood of which is surrounded with mementoes of the past — graves, dom-rings, mounds, bautastones, and rock-tracings.1 1 At Eds, Upland, there is a very fine ship-form grave of twenty-eight stones, 182 feet long and 50 feet wide. The largest stone at one end is 9 feet in height, and is evidently a bautastone; the rest, although large, each measuring several feet in circumference, are common boulders. At the centre of the ship there lies a similar stone, where, as well as at the ends, there is a small mound-like elevation.    In the woods at Braidfloar, between Levide and Sproge in Götland, there is a ship-form grave 144 feet long, but only 16 feet at its widest part; the stones, however, are small, none being higher than 3 feet.    At Lungersas, Götland, Nerike, there is a ship-form grave in which stands a stone with an inscription in later runes. There is also a bautastone with runes, in one end of a ship-form at Lilla Lundley in Lids, Södermanland, upon which are the words “Spjute and Halfdan raised this stone after Skarde their brother. He went eastward with Roar. In Serkland lies the son.” (See p. 356 Yellow Book, Den yngre jernalder.)    A ship-form grave between the poststations of Ljungby and Hamneda province of Krouobergs is 92 feet long and 32 feet broad; the neighbourhood is full of grave-mounds and bautastones.    Another near the shoe-of the Baltic, in Eista parish, Götland, is 50 feet by 16 feet. A third, on the island of Faró, near Götland, is 50 feet by 8 feet.    We see by this that their breadth does not always bear the same proportion to their length.    In two ship forms at Hjortehammar, in Blekinge, there were found burned bones, ashes, two of the bowl-shaped fibulæ of bronze so common during the later iron age, a round fibula of silver, some glass beads, &c.    In one at Raftötaugen, in Tannin parish, was an urn filled with ashes, off the top of which lay a finely ornamented damascened sword of the later iron age.

311 Fig. 727. — Ship-form graves, Blosholm, Bohuslan, made of forty-nine upright stones (formerly there were fifty-one). Length, 141 feet; greatest breadth, 31½ feet; prows north and south, the northern headstone 11 feet high, the southern 14½, the stones gradually diminishing in size towards the centre; where the largest is about 3 feet. Built on a small mound or elevation which was higher in former times.

312 Fig. 728. — Sjusta mound, Skog parish, Upland; 204 feet in circumference; 28 feet high; with a row of stones at its base. At the south end is another stone-set mound.

313 Fig. 729. — Type of Mound with bautastone at the top and circle of stones at the base. Fig. 730. — Mound, 3 feet high, with bautastone, Balunda parish, Westmanland.

314 Fig. 731. — Triangular graves; stone forming the apex, with runes, is about 25 feet from the two others, which are 14 feet apart. — Björktorp, Blekinge. Fig. 732. — Incomplete mound; 50 feet in circumference; 10 feet high; largest stone over 6 feet high; in Thortuna parish, Westmanland.

315 Fig. 733. — Mounds on Kjula-ridge. Södermanland. Fig. 734. — Mound set with boulder-stones, Dalsland; circumference of boulders, 100 feet; height of mound, 4 feet, on the top of which are two flat stones standing on edges. Near it is a boulder stone-setting, probably a dom-ring.

316 Many of the cairns, which are often beautifully arranged, are small, being 4 or 5 feet in height, or sometimes almost even with the ground, their diameter varying from 20 to 80 feet. Numbers of them have stone-settings, sometimes close, sometimes not. Fig. 735. — Diameter, 20 feet. Fig. 736. — Diameter, 16 feet. Fig. 737. — Diameter, 16 feet. Cairns — Blekinge. Fig. 738. — Round cairn at Björkeby, Foresund, Södermanland. Fig. 739. — Square cairn, island of Öland.

317 Fig. 740. — Anund’s mound, Vestmanland. Circumference, 652 feet; height 84 feet. A great number of standing or fallen bautastones are found near the mound.

318 One of the most interesting graves which have been recently opened in England is one belonging to the manor of Taplow, near Maidenhead, about fifty miles by river above London. The mound, 240 feet in circumference, and 15 feet high, overlooks the Thames and the surrounding lands. Fig. 741. — Gold fibula ornamented with garnets and red glass. 2/3 real size. Taplow, England. Fig. 742. — Fibula of bronze, ½ real size, the edge of the triangle and nail heads of bronze, the middle a thin silver plate. Found in a mound with 14 urns and burned bones, a spear point of iron, &c. Zeeland, Denmark. Among the objects were two shield bones, one sword, fragments of others, fragments of a spear head, one bronze vessel, one wooden bucket so common in the graves of the North, with bronze hoops, &c., two pairs of glass vessels (one of which is here represented) similar to one found with a burial ship in Vold in Norway, forty checkers, two pairs of ornaments for drinking horns (all of silver gilt), one green glass bead, &c. &c.; a fibula of the same form as those of the North. But the most remarkable article was a quantity of gold thread belonging to a garment, the triangular form of the pattern still remaining. This grave, like the one of King Gorm of Denmark and several others of the North, is in the old churchyard where the ancient parish church stood. On the slope of the mound

319 itself several Christian graves are seen. The viking, like some of the chiefs of the North, was probably buried on his estate, on the land that had descended to him through his ancestors or which possibly he might have conquered from some of his foes. These antiquities by their form seem to belong to the later iron age. Fig. 743. — Vessel of green glass. 2/3 real size. Taplow, England. 11 1/8 inches in height. Fig. 744. — Ornament of silver gilt, showing end of drinking horn. ½ real size. Fig. 745. — Silver gilt ornamentation for mouth of drinking horn. ½ real size. The horn itself, found in a mass of small fragments. Taplow, England.