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About The Northman. (Portland, Or.) 1920-192? | View Entire Issue (May 20, 1920)
THE NORTHMAN ...................................................................................................... Tales and Legends of The Northlands .................................................................................................. ................ . GOTLAND, THE EYE OF THE BALTIC mediately extended. At length the king asked: “What news from Gotland?” A STRIKING EXAMPLE of the shifting “None,” replied Long-legs, “except that courses of commerce and the conse a mare on the island has foaled three colts quent rise and decline of cities is seen in at a birth!” the ancient and once proud city of Visby, “So, So!” said the king. “And what does on the Island of Gotland, in the Baltic sea, the third colt do when the other two are approximately one hundred miles south sucking ?” and a few miles east of Stockholm, equidis “He does as I do,” replied Long-legs. tant between Sweden and Russia. In me “ He stands and looks on.” dieval days Visby was the Queen City, of The laugh went round and Long-legs was the Baltic and the metropolis of the North. It was probably the greatest emporium of invited to a seat at the table, and was all Europe and was rivaled only by Venice, entertained most royally.' His visit ended Queen of the Adriatic, in the south. About in a treaty in which Gotland agreed to the Isle of Gotland and this ancient city is pay a certain sum annually to the king woven myths of strange interest and stir and his jarl and in turn receive protection when necessary and requested. ring history of the Viking period. Gotland continued to flourish on ac Out of the mist of tradition comes the saga of the discovery and settlement of the count of its advantageous position to the island. Far back in the days when magic sea traders and early in the eleventh cen held sway and the most wondrous things tury the city of Visby was founded near were worked by ever warring spirits of a safe harbor beneath a cliff on the west good and evil, the ancient mariner ventur coast, the scene of many sacrifices by the ing far out on the wild Baltic, or storm old Pagan priests. The name itself signi driven, now and anon caught sight of a fies the city, or place of sacrifice. It grew mysterious isle, which, plainly visible in rapidly in power and importance. Mer the dim and shimmering moonlight, dis chant ships permeated the waterways of appeared with the coming of the dawn. Russia and to all the water-washed coun The island was visible only at night. In the tries of Northern Europe. Wares from the morning it sank beneath the surface of Orient, and particularly India and Persia, the sea and drifted about as a phantom found their way by land or sea to Visby, and were distributed to all parts of the ship. Finally from the north came the stal known world. Rich merchants from all wart chieftain Thjelvar, the Indusrious, over Europe established houses in this, the who sailed from the coast of Sweden with most important mart on the line of the the avowed purpose of landing on the mys world’s greatest traffic. Many amassed terious ile, and he succeeded in locating it. great wealth. So rich did some become When his foot struck the land a magic that the doors of their dwellings were made flame was ignited which swept over the of beaten copper and the frames of win island driving out the trolls and imps of dows were gilded with gold, while jewels darkness that had held possession, and the gathered from the four corners of the wandering isle became fixed and stable in earth were displayed most lavishly. In the twelfth century a league of mer its location and Thjelvar and his followers established themselves upon it in comfort chants was formed whose decrees governed and security. traffic in all the Hanse towns and out of The colony prospered and spread over which grew the mighty Hanseatic league, all the island, which is thirty-five miles which, in the height of its power embraced wide and twice that distance in length. eighty-one cities and was sufficiently pow They built ships and sailed out to the erful to defy and to dictate to kings. Here, neighboring countries pn trading expedi also, was formulated the maritime code tions. They were thrifty and venturesome which forms much of the groundwork of and soon grew rich from the profits of the admiralty law of the world to this very their traffic and the booty of their forays. day. A great wall was built about the city for On account of its commanding position the island became known as the ‘Eye of the protection against invaders. This massive Baltic” and was coveted by many of the bulwark was of stone thirty feet high and petty kings and lords, but the Gotlanders was surmounted by forty-eight great tow managed by dint of hard fighting to main ers, and on the walls from tower to tower, tain their independence. But growing night and day, walked armed sentries. The weary of being almost continuously har- population of the city is not given in the old rassed they finally decided to form an al chronicles, but it is stated that twelve thou liance with some powerful nation in order sand merchants resided within the walls. to receive protection, and with this object All artisans and craftsmen save bakers fn view an ambassador was chosen to jour and goldsmiths resided without the walls, ney to the court of Sweden at Upsala. so that it will be seen that it was a large This representative of the Gotlanders to city for that period, though but a village the Swedish court was a man of extraor compared with the large cities of the world dinary physical proportions and was called today. The guild halls of the people were Strabajn, or “long-legs.” This ambassador furnished most sumptuously and pilgrim was well fitted for his mission physically merchants and princes were entertained as well as mentally, and in due time his with royal hospitality. good long legs brought him to Upsala and The far-famed wealth of Visby caused to the royal palace. The monarch and his many war-like chieftains to plot and plan courts were at dinner and Ambassador its capture, but was not until 1361 that Longlegs, making his way to the portal of this transpired. King Waldemar Atterdag, the dining hall, announced his name and of Denmark, landed on Gotland with an stated his mission. The king was not very army and advanced upon the city. The cordially disposed toward the Gotlanders proud burghers advanced to meet him and and for some little time their representa a decisive battle was fought without the tive was ignored, the customary invitation walls. The invaders were successful and to find a place at the board not being im the gates of the city were opened to King 7 Valdemar and his men. The conqueror set out upon the great market place three of the largest ale vats to be found in the city and commanded that they should be filled with gold and silver within three hours. The terror-stricken inhabitants brought out their treasures and the vats, were filled long before the allotted time had expired. But the conqueror was not yet satisfied. The city was plundered and immense booty secured. Nearly every faith of every nation of Northern Europe had built its house of worship in Visby each with its treasures in accordance with the customs of the period. There were sixteen large churches besides a numbdr of monasteries which yielded great booty. High in the west gable of St. Nikolaus, the monastery chapel of the Dominicans, in the center of beau tiful rose windows, one legend relates, there were two huge carbuncles of priceless value. At night these jewels shone with the splendor of the noonday sun, serving as beacons to guide the storm-tossed mar iner to safety in the city’s harbor. They were the most precious possessions of the church. Twenty soldiers constantly guard ed the gems and after setting of the sun none might approach the sanctuary on pain of death. These jowels King Valde mar ruthlessly tore from their setting and placed them on board his ship with sacred vessels and other booty and put out to sea. Hardly had he left land until a violent storm arose and the ship bearing the sa cred spoils was wrecked, just off the coast, and the king himself was saved with diffi culty. And to this day, says the saga, when quiescence rests on a tranquil sea, a deep and ruddy glow comes welling up from the still depths, spreading far and wide over the face of the waters. It is the light that “never was on sea or land,” the luster of the lost jewels beaming from the bottom of the ocean. The plundering of Visby marked the de cline of the emporium of the Baltic. Some thirty years later Russia was invaded by the Mongolians under Tamerlane, who de stroyed the city of Astrakhan, on the Cas pian sea, at the mouth of the Volga, cut ting off the rich trade from the Orient. Then came the discovery of America and the new route to India around the cape of Good Hope an easier route than across the steppes of Russia, and so the commerce once centered in Visby gradually deserted the City of Sacrifice, leaving it stranded, a pitiable wreck of its former greatness. Visby is today a town of less than ten thousand people, but the traveler finds it a place of interesting ruins and rich in tales and legends of the days when in her glory she ruled as the Queen of the Baltic and ranked with the greatest marts of the world. THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. Henrik Ibsen. What you call liberty I call liberties; and what I call the struggle for liberty is nothing but the constant living assimila tion of the idea of freedom. He who pos sesses liberty otherwise than as a thing to be striven for,possesses it dead and soul less; for the idea of liberty has undoubt edly this characteristic, that it develops steadily during its assimilation. So that a man who stops in the midst of the strug gle and says, “Now I have it!” thereby shows that he has lost it. IT REQUIRES COURAGE To live according to your convictions. Not to bend the knee to popular prejudice.