that was taken in battle. Victor diverfam aciem Marti ac Mercurio facraverat: quo voto, equi, viri, cunēta vieta occidioni dantur. The poor remains of the legions under Varus fuffered in fome degree the fame fate. 5 Lucis propinquis barbara ara, apud quas Tribunos, ac primorum ordinum centuriones mactaverant. There were many places destined for this purpose all over Gaul and Germany; but especially in the mighty woods of Arduenna, and the great Hercinian forest; a wild, that extended above thirty days journey in length. The places fet apart for this folemnity were held in the utmost reverence; and only approached at particular seasons. Lucan mentions a grove of this fort near Maffilia, which even the Roman foldiers were afraid to violate, though commanded by Cafar. It was one of those set apart for the facrifices of the country. 6 7 Lucus erat longo nunquam violatus ab ævo, Claudian compliments Stilico, that, among other advantages accruing to the Roman armies through his conduct, they could now venture into the awful forest of Hercinia; and follow the chafe in those so much dreaded woods, and otherwife make use of them. 8 Ut procul Herciniæ per vafta filentia fylvæ Relligione truces, et robora numinis inftar 4 Tacitus. Annal. Lib. 13. Cap. 57. 5 Tacitus. Annal. Lib. 1. Cap. 61. Thefe • Erici Olai Hiftoria Suecorum Gothorumque. Holmiæ 1654. pag. 2. 7 Lucan. Lib. 3. v. 399. $ Claudian, in Laudes Stiliconis. Lib. 1. v. 228. These practices prevailed among all the people of the north, of whatever 9 denomination. The Maffagete, the Scythians, the Getes, the Sarmatians, all the various nations upon the Baltick, particularly the Suevi and Scandinavians, held it as a fixed principle, that their happiness and fecurity could not be obtained, but at the expence of the lives of others. Their chief gods were 2 Thor, and 3Woden; whom they thought, they could never fufficiently glut with blood. They had many very celebrated places of worship; efpecially in the island 4Rugen, near the mouth of the Oder; and in 5 Zeeland: fome too very famous among the 'Semnones, and 7Naharvalli. But the most reverenced of all, and the most frequented, was at Upfal; where there was every year a grand celebrity, which con 9 Jornandes de Rebus Geticis.of the Gaths. Procopius de Bello Goth. Lib. 2.-of the Franks and other nations. Trithemius-of the Sicambri. Helmoldi Annal. Sclavorum. Lib. 1. Cap. 53.-of the Rugians, &c. Dithmar Epifc. Merfburg. Lib. 1. pag. 12. of the Danes and Nor wegians. Tacit. Annal. Lib. 14. Cap. 30.-of the Britons in the island of MaExcifi luci fævis fuperftitionibus facri. Nam cruore captivo adolere aras, et hominum fibris confulere Deos, fas habebant. na. I Quin vulgata inter omnes opinio, ut Crantzius in Vandalicis, Lib. 3. Cap. 22. notat, delectari fanguine Deos. P. Hachenberg. Germania Media. pag. 286. 2 Stephanus Stephanius, quoting Dudo of St. Quintin, fays; Cæterùm facrificant venerantes Thur dominum fuum, cui non aliquid pecudum, vel pecorum, Sed fanguinem maltabant bominum, bolocauftum omnium putantes pretiofiffimum. In Librum tertium Saxonis Gram. pag. 93. 3 Othinum, qui bellis præfidebat, cruore et morte captivorum placabant ; opinantes bellorum præfidem aptiùs humano cruore placari. Olaus Magnus. Lib. 3. Cap. 7. 4 Črantzius. Lib. 5. Cap. 12, 13. See Tacitus de Mor. German. Cap. 40. Eft in infulâ Oceàni vastum nemus, dicatumque in eo vehiculum. 5 Dithmar Epifc. Merfburg. Lib. 1. pag. 12. . 6 Adam Bremenfis de fitu Daniæ. Cap. 233. 7 Tacitus de Mor. German. Cap. 43. & Scheifferi Upfal. Cap. 16. Olai Wormii Monumenta Danica. Lib. 1. Cap. 5. M m Olai continued for nine days. During this term they sacrificed animals of all forts: but the most acceptable victims, and the most numerous were men. 91pfas victimas apud plerofque commendabat humanus fanguis, effufus ante Deorum aras, et diro carmine devotus: introdu&tâ immani illâ, ac barbarâ Scytharum confuetudine, qui Deos immortales hominum fcelere et fanguine placari poffe arbitrabantur. Of these facrifices none were esteemed fo aufpicious, and falutary, as a facrifice of the prince of the country. When the lot fell for the king to die, it was received with univerfal acclamations, and every expreffion of joy; as it 'once happened in the time of a famine, when they caft lots, and it fell to king Domalder to be the people's victim: and he was accordingly put to death. Olaus Tretelger, another prince, was burnt alive to Woden. They did not spare their own children. Harald the fon of Gunild, the first of that name, flew two of his children to obtain a ftorm of wind. "He did not let," fays 3 Verftegan, "to facrifice "two of his fons unto his idols, to th' end he might obtain of "them such a tempest at sea, as should break and disperse the shipping of Harald king of Denmark." Saxo Grammaticus men Olai Magni Hift. de Gent. Septentrion. Epitome. Lib. 3. Cap. 5. Antverp. 1558. Steirnbook de jure Sueorum et Goth. vetufto. Cap. ult. pag.399. 9 Pauli Hachenbergi P. P. Germania Media. Differt. 8. p. 286. Cap. 30. pag. 287. concerning king Domalder. * Snorro Sturlefon. Ynglinga Saga. pag. 18: from whom Loccenius feems to have borrowed the account, which he gives. Sub eo Rege [Dömalder] tantâ fame Suecia affli&ta eft, ut ei vix gravior unquam incubuerit. Cives inter fe diffidentes, cùm pænam deli&orum divinam agnofcerent, primo anno boves, altero bomines, tertio regem ipfum, velut iræ cæleftis piaculum, ut fibi perfuafum babebant, Odine immolabant. Loccenii Antiq. SueoGothicæ. Lib. 1. pag. 5. 2 Snorro Sturlefon. above. Chronic. Norvegicum. Johannes Magnus. Lib. 1. Cap. 12. Romæ. 1554. Accidit nonnunquam reges ipfos eâdem forte delectos immolari. He speaks of it as fau ftiffimum regno facrificium. 3 Antiquities. Antwerp. 1605. pag. 81, mentions a like fact. He calls the king Haquin; and speaks of the perfons put to death; as two very hopeful young princes: 4duos præftantiffimæ indolis filios, boftiarum more, aris admotos, potiundæ victoriæ caufâ, nefariâ litatione mactavit. Another king flew nine fons, in order to prolong his own 5 life; in hopes, I suppose, that, what they were abridged of, would in great measure be added to himself. Such instances however occur not often: but the common victims were without end. Adam Bremenfis, speaking of the awful grove at Upfal, where these horrid rites were celebrated, fays, that there was not a single tree, but what was reverenced, as if it were gifted with some portion of divinity: and all this, because they were stained with gore, and foul with human putrefaction. Lucus tam facer eft gentilibus, ut fingula arbores ejus ex morte vel tabo immolatorum divina videantur. The fame is obferved by Scheiffer in his account of this place. 7 Deorum facer ille lucus erat: in arboribus fingulis Dii ipfi babitare credebantur: ergo ad earum ramos corpora illa, veluti munera quædam Diis gratiffima, fufpendebant. The manner, in which the victims were flaughtered, was diverse in different places. Some of the Gaulish nations chined them with a stroke of an ax. The Celta placed the man, who was to be offered for a facrifice, upon a block, or an altar, with his breast upwards; and with a sword struck him forcibly across the fernum: then tumbling him to the ground, from his agonies and convulfions, as well as from the 4 Saxo Grammaticus. Lib. 10. pag. 183. Sora 1644. Patris nomine, quàm patria, carere maluit. 5 Olaus Wormius. pag. 28. Rex Suecia Aune Rovem filios Othino ma Elavit, ut ætatis obtineret prorogationem. 6 Adam Bremenfis de fitu Daniæ. Cap. 234. 7 Scheiffer of Upfal, and Eric Olaus above. Corpora verò in luco quodam proximo fufpendebant, putantes arbores ipfas ex morte immolatorum divas et facras. 8 Strabo. Lib. 4. pag. 303. the effufion of blood, they formed a judgement of future 9 events. The 'Cimbri ripped open the bowels; and from them they pretended to divine. In Norway they beat mens brains out with an ox-yoke. The fame operation was performed in 3Iceland, by dafhing them againft an altar of stone. In many places they transfixed them with arrows. After they were dead, they fufpended them upon the trees, and left them to putrefy. One of the 4 writers, above quoted, mentions, that in his time, feventy carcafes of this fort were found in a wood of the Suevi. Dithmar of Mersburgh, an author of nearly the fame age, speaks of a place called Ledur in Zeeland, where there were every year ninety and nine perfons facrificed to the god 5Swantowite. During thefe bloody feftivals a general joy prevailed; and banquets were most royally ferved. They fed; they caroufed; and gave a loose to indulgence, which at other times was not permitted. "Dum facrificia bac peragebantur, varii adhibiti funt ritus, et litationis modi: convivia celebrata magnifica: pars fanguinis poftibus illita: pars adflantibus propinata. They imagined, that there was fomething mysterious in the number nine: for which rea 9 Παραδοξον και άπιστον εχεσί νομιμον. — Άνθρωπον γαρ κατασπείσαντες τυ πτεσι μάχαιρα κατα τον ύπερ το διαφραγμα τοπους και πεσοντος το πληγέντος, εκ της πτώσεως, και το σπαραγμό των μελών, ετι δε της το αίματος ῥύσεως, τα MEλλOV VOXOS. Diod. Sicul. Lib. 5. pag. 308. • Strabo. Lib. 7. pag. 451. 2 Dudo of St. Quintin, quoted by Olaus Wormius. Lib. 1. Cap. 5. Juga boum und vice diriter icebantur in capite. 3 Arngrim Jonas. Crymogea, feu Rerum Inlandic. defcriptio. Hamburg. 1609. Lib.1. Cap. 4, 7. See Bertholinus de caufis contemptæ apud Danos mortis. Hafniæ.1699. Lib. 2. Cap. 1. pag. 218. Lib. 3. Cap. 3. pag. 662. 4 Adam Bremenfis de fitu Daniæ. Cap. 234. He flourished in the tenth century. 5 Lib. 1. pag. 12. Dithmar was born A. D. 976. 6 Olai Wormii Monumenta Danica. Lib. 1. Cap. 5. pag. 28. The like in Tacitus. Læti tunc dies-Non bella inibant, non arma fumebant: claufum omne ferrum: pax et quies tunc tantum nota; tunc tantum amata. De mor. Germ. Lib. 40. |