Legends like the foregoing, which illustrate the opinions of mankind, are not to be rejected as childish. Wild as they are, they had once their believers,—and believers, for anything we know, they may have at this day, among the remote Lapps and Finns. Whether the inventors, who were probably priests of Thor or Odin, took this method of unfolding to their disciples some physical theory, we shall not inquire. The darkness which, as all men knew, overhung the polar sea during half the year, favoured the diffusion of such stories. But what will most have struck the reader, in the first of these legends, is, the similarity of some of its passages with those of the Odyssey and other classical productions. Many of the adventures in the second legend are to be found in the Edda, but ascribed to another individual. As Saxo could not borrow from the compilation of either Saemund or Snorro, all three must have drawn from some common source, and that source was tradition. But we have dwelt long enough on these fabulous times, and we must hasten to the historical.[89] If any faith can be placed in Saxo’s relation, which we see no reason to doubt, Gorm must have been contemporary with the first of the Carlovingian kings; for the historian expressly assures us that in this reign Denmark was christianised. And in that of _Godric_ his son, who is also called _Godfrey_, we are told that Charlemagne was subduing the Saxons. On referring, indeed, to the list which we have given at the beginning of this chapter, and which the best Danish critics regard as approximating nearer to the truth than any other yet constructed[90], the reader will perceive that there is no mention of Gorm or Godric. But here we must repeat what we have already frequently observed, that both might have reigned in Jutland, while Sigurd Ring and Ragnar Lodbrok and Sigurd Snogoje reigned in Zealand. And even if this were not so, we are by no means sure that the Icelandic authorities, which alone have weight with the modern historians of Denmark, ought to be followed to the utter exclusion of Saxo, who lived as near to the period as any of the former, and whose means of information must have been of easier access. Strange that in the eighth century—nay, even in the ninth—we should find so much darkness, so much contradiction in the history of a country which was now beginning to occupy the attention of the Frank historians! Yet such is the fact. “C’est un vrai labyrinthe,” says Mallet, “où l’on se perd dans les contradictions et les ténèbres.” The conjecture, however, which we have made, viz., that Godric or Godfrey might reign in one part of Denmark, while Sigurd Ring and Ragnar reigned in another, acquires some confirmation from the fact that the former, as rex Danorum in 803, is expressly mentioned by Ado of Vienne. And in the Saga of Olaf Trygveson, king of Norway, we read that this very Godfrey reigned in Jutland during the time of Charlemagne.