The Project Gutenberg EBook of The King's Mirror, by Anonymous This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: The King's Mirror Speculum regale-Konungs skuggsjá Author: Anonymous Translator: Laurence Marcellus Larson Release Date: January 29, 2020 [EBook #61264] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KING'S MIRROR *** Produced by Turgut Dincer, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain. The Library of Scandinavian Literature THE KING’S MIRROR 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 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. vii viii ix x xi 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 KINGSHIP 33 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 KRAKEN 119 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: MONSTERS, SEALS, AND WALRUSES 135 XVII. THE ANIMAL LIFE OF GREENLAND AND THE CHARACTER OF THE LAND IN THOSE REGIONS 141 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 PART 161 XXIV. INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND PART: THE KING AND HIS COURT 162 XXV. THE IMPORTANCE OF COURTESY IN THE ROYAL SERVICE 165 XXVI. THE ADVANTAGES DERIVED FROM SERVICE IN THE KING’S HOUSEHOLD 167 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 ROYAL HOUSEHOLD SERVICE SHOULD APPROACH THE KING 179 XXXI. WHY ONE SHOULD NOT WEAR A MANTLE IN THE ROYAL PRESENCE 184 XXXII. RULES OF SPEECH AND CONVERSATION IN THE KING’S HALL 186 XXXIII. THE PROPER USES OF “YOU” AND “THOU” 188 XXXIV. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 189 XXXV. CONCERNING FAILURE OF CROPS AND DEARTH IN MORALS AND GOVERNMENT 193 xiii xiv XXXVI. THE CAUSES OF SUCH PERIODS OF DEARTH AND WHAT FORMS THE DEARTH MAY TAKE 195 XXXVII. THE DUTIES, ACTIVITIES, AND AMUSEMENTS OF THE ROYAL GUARDSMEN 203 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, HUMILITY, AND FIDELITY, ILLUSTRATED BY EXAMPLES DRAWN FROM SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY 234 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 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 251 XLVI. AN EXAMPLE OF RIGHTEOUS SEVERITY IN JUDGMENT DRAWN FROM THE STORY OF GOD’S CONDEMNATION OF LUCIFER 258 XLVII. A FURTHER DISCUSSION OF VERDICTS AND PENALTIES WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE STORY OF LUCIFER’S REBELLION AND DOWNFALL AND OF THE SIN AND PUNISHMENT OF THE FIRST MAN AND WOMAN 260 XLVIII. A COMMENTARY ON THE STORY OF LUCIFER 272 XLIX. INSTANCES IN WHICH GOD HAS ALLOWED THE DECISION TO BE FRAMED ACCORDING TO THE STERN DEMANDS OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE 277 L. OTHER INSTANCES IN WHICH THE ARGUMENTS OF PEACE AND MERCY HAVE HAD GREATER WEIGHT 279 LI. THE REASONS FOR THIS DIVERSITY IN THE VERDICTS OF GOD 283 LII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 284 LIII. INSTANCES IN WHICH GOD HAS MODIFIED HIS SENTENCES AND THE REASONS FOR SUCH MODIFICATIONS 285 LIV. THE KING’S PRAYER 290 LV. A FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THE KING’S BUSINESS ESPECIALLY HIS JUDICIAL DUTIES 297 LVI. THE SPEECH OF WISDOM 299 LVII. DIFFICULT DUTIES OF THE KING’S JUDICIAL OFFICE WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 304 LVIII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 309 LIX. WHEN JUDGMENTS SHOULD BE SEVERE AND WHEN THEY SHOULD BE MERCIFUL 313 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 DAVID AND SAUL 321 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 FOLLOWERS 344 LXVII. WHY SOLOMON BROKE HIS PROMISE OF PEACE AND SECURITY TO JOAB 353 LXVIII. A DISCUSSION OF PROMISES: WHEN THEY MUST BE KEPT AND WHEN THEY SHOULD BE WITHDRAWN 355 LXIX. CONCERNING THE KINGSHIP AND THE CHURCH AND THE KING’S RESPONSIBILITY TO GOD 357 LXX. THE AUTHORITY OF KINGS AND BISHOPS. END OF THE SECOND PART 363 BIBLIOGRAPHY 369 INDEX 375 FOOTNOTES 403 xv xvi THE KING’S MIRROR 1 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 2 3 4 5 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. 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. It is an interesting question whether the King’s Mirror was inspired by any earlier work written along similar lines. Originality was a rare virtue in the middle ages, and the good churchmen who wrote books in those days cannot have regarded plagiarism as a mortal sin. The great writers were freely copied by the lesser men, thoughts, titles, statements, and even the wording being often taken outright. It is, therefore, difficult to determine the sources of statements found in the later works, as they may have been drawn from any one of a whole series of writings on the subject under discussion. The writer has not been able to make an exhaustive examination of all the didactic and devotional literature of the centuries preceding the thirteenth, but the search that has been made has not proved fruitful. There is every reason to believe that the author of the King’s Mirror was an independent thinker and writer. He was doubtless acquainted with a large number of books and had drawn information from a great variety of sources; but when the writing was actually done he had apparently a few volumes only at his disposal. In the region where the work seems to have been composed, on the northern edge of European civilization, there was neither cathedral nor monastery nor any other important ecclesiastical foundation where a collection of books might be found.[3] It is likely, therefore, that the author had access to such books only as were in his own possession. But he came to his task with a well-stocked mind, with a vast fund of information gathered by travel and from the experiences of an active life; and thus he drew largely from materials that had become the permanent possession of his memory. This fact, if it be a fact, will also help to explain why so many inaccuracies have crept into his quoted passages; in but very few instances does he give the correct wording of a citation. There can be no doubt that the author had a copy of the Vulgate before him; at least one Biblical passage is correctly given, and it is quoted in its Latin form.[4] It has also been discovered that he had access to an Old Norse paraphrase of a part of the Old Testament, the books of Samuel and of the Kings.[5] It is likely that he was also 6 7 8 9