Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and UsesFergusson, James
History
Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and Uses
Fergusson, James
Megalithic monuments
Only one other group need be mentioned here. On a spot of land, in the
island of Freyrsö, off the entrance of the Drontheim Fiord, in the year
958, Hakon, the son of Harald Harfagar, overthrew his nephews, the sons
of Erik Blodoxe, in three battles. The first and second of these, as
shown in the plan (woodcut No. 104), are marked by cairns and mounds;
and the third by eight large barrows, three of which are of that shape
known in Scandinavia as ship barrows, and measure from 100 to 140 feet
in length. There are also three tumuli at 4 in the woodcut, in one
of which one of Erik Blodoxe's sons is said to be buried. It is not
clear whether the five large mounds that stud the plain do not cover
the remains of those also who fell in this fight. It does not appear
that any excavations have been made in them. The interest of this
battle-field to us is not so much because it shows the persistence
of this plan of marking battle-fields at so late a date--later ones
have just been quoted--but because all the actors in the scene are
familiar to us from the part they took in the transactions in the
Orkneys in the tenth century. If they, in their own country, adhered
to these old-world practices, we should not be astonished at their
having erected circles or buried in mounds in their new possessions. It
is true that none of these Scandinavian circles can compare in extent
with the Standing Stones of Stennis or the Ring of Brogar, but this
would not be the first time that such a thing has happened. The Greeks
erected larger and, in proportion to the population, more numerous
Doric temples in Sicily than they possessed in their own country;
and the Northmen may have done the same thing in Orcadia, where they
possessed a conquered, probably an enslaved, race to execute these
works.
[Illustration: 104. Battle-field at Freyrsö. From Sjöborg, vol. i. pl.
16.]
TUMULI.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account