This book is an attempt to ask and to answer that question for my own people, in a very small and simple way, it is true, but perhaps abler pens with more leisure than mine may follow the trail it has blazed. I should like to see some Swede write of the heroes of his noble, chivalrous people, whom lack of space has made me slight here, though I count them with my own. I should like to hear the epic of United Italy, of proud and freedom-loving Hungary, the swan-song of unhappy Poland, chanted to young America again and again, to help us all understand that we are kin in the things that really count, and help us pull together as we must if we are to make the most of our common country. These were my—our—heroes, then. Every lad of Northern blood, whose heart is in the right place, loves them. And he need make no excuses for any of them. Nor has he need of bartering them for the great of his new home; they go very well together. It is partly for his sake I have set their stories down here. All too quickly he lets go his grip on them, on the new shore. Let him keep them and cherish them with the memories of the motherland. The immigrant America wants and needs is he who brings the best of the old home to the new, not he who threw it overboard on the voyage. In the great melting-pot it will tell its story for the good of us all. To those who wonder that I have left the Saga era of the North untouched, I would say that I have preferred to deal here only with downright historic figures. For valuable aid rendered in insuring accuracy I am indebted to the services of Dr. P.A. Rydberg, Dr. J. Emile Blomén, Gustaf V. Lindner, and Professor Joakim Reinhard. My thanks are due likewise to many friends, Danes by birth like myself, who have helped me with the illustrations. J. A. R. RICHMOND HILL, June, 1910. CONTENTS A KNIGHT ERRANT OF THE SEA 1 HANS EGEDE, THE APOSTLE TO GREENLAND 31 GUSTAV VASA, THE FATHER OF SWEDEN 61 ABSALON, WARRIOR BISHOP OF THE NORTH 87 KING VALDEMAR, AND THE STORY OF THE DANNEBROG 125 HOW THE GHOST OF THE HEATH WAS LAID 153 KING CHRISTIAN IV 179 GUSTAV ADOLF, THE SNOW-KING 205 KING AND SAILOR, HEROES OF COPENHAGEN 239 THE TROOPER WHO WON A WAR ALONE 263 CARL LINNÉ, KING OF THE FLOWERS 277 NIELS FINSEN, THE WOLF-SLAYER 305 A KNIGHT ERRANT OF THE SEA