The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
IVAR THE VIKING
My Dear Childs: Years of our unbroken friendship, goingback more than a quarter of a century, have passed away,and the recollection of all your kindnesses during that timecomes vividly before my mind. Many a time your homein Philadelphia, at the sea-side, or at Wootton has been myhome, and many of the happy days of my life have been spentwith you and your kind wife. Three years ago I lay on asick-bed at your house, and all that tender nursing, the skillof the physician, and loving hands could do that winter wasdone for me, and for all that I am indebted to you and to Mrs.Childs. Now a twenty miles’ walk day after day does notfatigue me. “Ivar the Viking” was partly written, after myrecovery, under the shade trees of Wootton and in the midstof the perfume of its flowers. To you, my dear old friend,I dedicate the book as a token of the esteem and high regard Ihave for your noble character, and in grateful remembrance ofall you have done for me.
PAUL DU CHAILLU.
New York, September, 1893.
INTRODUCTION
The story of “Ivar the Viking” depicts theactual life of Norse chiefs who ruled at the periodtherein described, and also gives the customs, religion,life, and mode of thinking which prevailedamong the people. My object in writing thisstory is to give a view, in a popular way, of thelife of these early ancestors of the English-speakingpeoples, whose seat of power was on theislands situated in the basin of the Baltic andthe countries known to-day as Scandinavia.
The reader of this volume will gain a correctidea of the civilization of the Norsemen of thatperiod, the men who came to the gates of Rome,and settled in Britain, Gaul, Germania, on theshores of the Mediterranean, and other countries.
I begin the story of my hero with his birth,accompanied by the characteristic ceremonies attendingit; then I tell of his fostering, his education,his coming of age, of the precepts of wisdomhe