The Norsemen arrived in the Scandinavian peninsula, as we have seen, a century or two before the Christian era, and the whole body of their beliefs and legends, comprised in the Eddas, was written down mainly in the 14th century, so their gradual conception and evolution occupied several centuries. The lives of these people were passed in a hard struggle with Nature, in wild adventures by fjord and forest, and in constant warfare. The gods and giants seemed very near to them, to some even visible in those young days of the world. In the black clouds rolling down from the ice-fjells they saw the mighty Thor followed by the hosts of Asgard, just as they heard his pealing thunder. In the clang of battle the Val maidens, sweeping through the air on their celestial steeds, were realities. The temples and sacrificial ceremonies of the Norsemen were sacred. The seat-posts with deities carved on the ends, generally Odin and Thor, were the most venerated possessions of the chiefs. As time passed, the districts along the coasts and in the more accessible parts of the interior rapidly became populous. Constant strife necessitated chiefs and leaders, but the people loved their freedom, and the right of speaking and voting in their assemblies. A free race, divided into many communities by the obstacles of Nature, continued to work out its destinies, and to multiply on the isles and fjords until the crowded state of their homes and the wild spirit of adventure drove them to the building of ships and the search for new homes beyond sea. It is the proud boast of their descendants that the Norsemen were the first people who definitely abandoned the coast, and sailed boldly over the open sea. They crossed the North Sea to Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, and even Ireland, probably as early as the 6th century. They were also established in the Lofoten Islands and on the borders of Finmarken in those early days. There the tales of their folk-lore seemed to lure them further into the Arctic wilds. The fishermen of Værö and Röst, the most southerly of the Lofotens, when out at sea in stormy weather, fancied that they got a glimpse of a green and fertile island which they called Udröst, sometimes Alfland or the “elf land.” But when they sailed towards its shore, it always disappeared in the clouds. It was said that only the wise and good have ever been on Udröst, and then only in thought. So says the Lofoten song:-- “In the westerly sea, off the Halgoland shore, An isle floats alluring and bright. But as soon, we are told in the fishermen’s lore As a sail comes completely in sight, The clouds sink around it in darkness and mist And the ship turns away on her keel; For no man can land on those shores of the blest, Nor can mortal its secrets reveal. ’Tis only in thought that wisdom can dwell On the secrets of ice and of sea; ’Tis thus that the beautiful Alfland may well Yield her wealth to the true devotee.