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Pearsall Surname Project
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Surname
History and Genealogy
of the Pearsall Family in England
and America:
Volume I
Front Cover
Inside Front Cover
The Motive
Thanks
Illustrations
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Appendix I
Volume II
Volume III
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came among them.
Hence the saga specially states that they did not become of kingly rank
until they were so selected and appointed by the voice of the people of Denmark.
To the name Bel the Skalds prefixed the title
Hum to signify that when he came he was accompanied with a force that was
so large that it made a noise like the prolonged droning sound of a bee
in action. All this indicates that Humble was not only a stranger but a
man born of a woman in the usual course of the history of his people. The
founding of the kingdom of Denmark preceded that of Odin by more than a
century, as there were five kings of Denmark before Odin appeared on the
Scandinavian peninsula. Odin was a great and very far-travelled
warrior, who conquered many kingdoms, and so successful was he that in
every battle the victory was on his side. It was the belief of his people
that victory belonged to him in every battle. It was his custom when he
sent his men into battle, or on any expedition, that he first laid his
hand upon their heads, and called down a blessing upon them; and then
they believed their undertaking would be successful.
There goes a
great mountain barrier from northeast to southwest which divides the
Greater Sweden from other kingdoms. South of this mountain ridge it is
not far to Turkland, where Odin had great
possessions. But Odin, having foreknowledge, and magic-sight, knew that
his posterity would come to settle and dwell in the northern half of the
world. In those times the Roman chiefs went wide around in the world,
subduing to themselves all people; and on this account many chiefs fled
from their domains. Odin set his brothers Ve
and Vitir over Asgaard;
and he himself, with all the gods and a great many other people, wandered
out, first westward to Gardarige, that is Russia, and then south to Saxland or Germany. He had many sons,
and after having subdued an extensive kingdom in Saxland,
he set his sons to defend the country. He himself went northwards to the
sea, and took up his abode in an island which is called Odinsö in Fyen. Then he
sent Gefion across the sound to the north, to
discover new countries; and she came to King Gylfe,
(who was already established as King of Sweden) who gave her a ploughgate of land. Then she went to Jotunheim, and bore four sons to a giant, and
transformed them into a yoke of oxen, and yoked them to a plough, and
broke out the land into the ocean right opposite to Odinsö,
which land was called Sealand, where she afterwards
settled and dwelt. Skiold, a son of Odin,
married her, and they dwelt at Leidre, or Hleidre, or Leire, at the
end of Isafiord, in the county
of Lithraborg,
which is considered the oldest royal seat in Denmark. Where the ploughed
land is a lake or sea called Laage. In the
Swedish land the Fiords or Laage correspond to
the nesses in Sealand. This fable is possibly
the echo of some tradition of a convulsion in which the ocean broke into
the Baltic through the Sound and Belts, or in which the island of Sealand was raised from
the deep.
Now when Odin
heard that things were in a prosperous condition in the land to the east
beside Gylfe, he went thither to Snithiod, or Sweden, and Gylfe made a peace with him, for Gylfe
thought he had no strength to oppose the people of Asaland.
Odin and Gylfe had many tricks and enchantments
against each other; by the Asaland people had
always the superiority. Odin took up his residence at Maelare Lake, at the place now called Sigtun. Thus it appears that there was
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