An Abstract of a Book

IV. An Abstract of a Book, Entitled, Olaui Rudbeckij, Atlanticæ sive Manhemij pars secunda. In qua Solis, Lunæ & Terræ Cultus describitur, omnisque adeo superstitionis hujusce Origo parti Sueoniae Septentrionali, Terræ puta Cimmeriorum vindicatur; ex qua deinceps in orbem reliquum divulgata est, &c. Accedunt demonstrationes certissimæ, qua Septentrionales nostros, in maxime genuinum Solis ac Lunæ motum, indeq; pendentem accuratissimam temporum rationem, multo & prims & feli- cius quam gentem aliam ullam penetraffe declarant. Upsalæ. In Folio. This Learned Author, in this his second part of his Atlantica, or Manheim, [See an Account of the first part in Dr Hook’s Philosophical Collections, Numb. 4.] has continued to oblige the Learned World with a farther egregious Illustration of the Northern History and Antiquities, performed by no man as he has done. He divides this great Work into 11 Chapters. In the first he sets forth, that the Island Atlantica was neither sign’d by Plato, nor that it was America, nor Africa, nor the Canary Islands, nor that it was drown’d in the Sea, as many have thought, but that it’s Sweden itself; which tho he conceives to have already made forth by more than a hundred distinct signs or marks, not so fitly applicable to any part of the World whatsoever as to Sweden; yet forasmuch as beside the things already alleg’d by him, there are found many things in the Writings of the Ancients, both of his own Country and Foreigners, hid under the Veils of their Learned Fables, which make greatly for the Illustration of this Argument, and for which there there was no room in his first part, he has thought it fit and necessary to add somewhat of these here; permitting some things concerning the genuine way of drawing Truth from the Fables of the Ancients. Wherefore in his second Chapter he speaks of the Poetical Elogies of the Antient Poets, of the difficult explication of them, and of the genuine ways of explicating them. First then he says it's generally known it was a thing commonly in use among the Ancient Writers, to explain, in a Poetical way, the origine of the World, the Deluge, the more famous changes of things in the World, Wars, Marriages, and other affairs of great moment: And this, that these things might be read with the greater pleasure; and stick more tenaciously in the Readers Memories: he quotes many places of the Ancients abetting this position, and ascribing the Origine of Fables to the Thracians, and Samothracians: He says that Orpheus, who was also a Thracian, divulged the same Fables to the Egyptians, Greeks, and others; and that, in his Argonauticks, he professes himself to have learnt these things from the remotest Northern parts: But that after the Trojan War the Learned World began to be so blind in the search and diligent examination of this kind of Writing, that Learned Men, studious of these matters, have been driven into various and very contrary sentiments. Some, whatsoever they found in the Fables of the Antients, thought ought to be drawn to the Sun, Moon, Stars, Aether, Sea, and the like. Others thought the Manners, Virtues, and Vices of Men were delineated after that manner. Huetius thought most part of the Jewish affairs were comprehended in those Fables, and therefore he judged, in the Writings of the Poets, he could see the Shadows, or Images of the things done by Moses, the Patriarchs, and Prophets. After him Jacobus Hugo thought the Fables of the Antients were to be apply'd to the affairs of our Saviour Christ, and the Apostles, and thought it not absurd to give Christ the Names of Hercules, Mercury, Apollo, and Jason; to the Virgin Mary, the the Names Maja, Alcmena, Venus. The Name of Henam to Peter, of Pollux to Paul, and other Names of Pagan Deities to others of the Apostles. But, says our Author, It is not here the business, whether any man may efface, or give to another a foreign Name, when both have the same Virtue and Fortunate Success: But the point of the matter lies in the true Country of the Gods, that is, of the first Kings of the North, and their passing thence into the rest of the World, and in the search of the true Origine of their Names; which he conceives fairly to have made appear to be Gothick. And he gives what follows, as a more safe Guide to all Searchers into Antiquities. 1. That a man renders that Tongue familiar to him, in which are comprehended the things done by the Heroes, Kings or People to be describ'd: for since each man has got his first Titles or Praises in his Country Language, when these are brought to Foreigners, unless they are accurately understood, they will precipitate men, how learned soever otherwise, into most gross errors. Of this he gives an Instance in the word Jupiter, whose force and signification being understood by few Greek and Latin Writers, they interpreted it various ways; whereas it's only their Country that has retain'd this word as a Regal Title, from the most remote memory of their Ancestors, the Gothick word being Jofur, Jo denoting the Earth, and Fur, or Fadur, Father, Prince, or King. 2. That a man read with diligence and accuracy all Authors that are to be gotten, and compare them together. 3. That he faithfully and soberly inspect the Argument itself, it having been usual with the Poets to sport themselves with divers Significations of the same Word, as the nature of the Argument required, of which he gives some Instances. In his third Chapter he treats of the Fables of the Scalds, that is, of their Poets, which, together with their Gods, that is, with their Kings, past to the Greeks, Egyptians, Ly- Lyrians and Asiatics. To make out this, he tells us of a great familiarity there was betwixt Abaris the Scythian, and Pythagoras; that the former made a Voyage from the utmost parts of the North to the latter, and taught him many Arcana, many things also concerning the Superstition and Sacrifices of the Hyperboreans, and concerning the Origin and Genealogy of their Gods. And says that Pythagorus, Homer, Hesiod, and others of the Greeks had visited the remote Northern parts. And as neither the Gods, nor the Names of the Gods, nor the Fables concerning them, belong to the Greeks as the first Authors and Inventers of them, but that all these, by the Confession of the Greeks themselves, came from the Barbarians, or Hyperboreans, to them, and other Nations. So he here extracts a good part of the Fables from the Scalps and other Northern Monuments, and shews what answers to them in the fabulous History of the Greeks; and having laid before us 75 Fables so extracted, he concludes, as even Foreigners have done, that whatsoever there has been of Philosophy among the Europeans, Asiatics and Egyptians has flowed from the ancient Hyperboreans. And that the Names of the Gods and Goddesses and their Worship came from them to the Greeks, and from thence to the Romans. And he challenges the whole World to contend with them, concerning the Atlantick Island on these conditions. 1. That they shew a like connexion of their Fables with the Grecians, as he has here shewn of the Northern. 2. That they as fairly bring for themselves a most clear Confession of the Greeks, as he has done for the Hyperboreans, in this case: Which he thinks it impossible for them to do, all Nature, a good part of which is shadowed forth by those Fables, being against them, and forcing them to yield the point to the North; for which he gives several convincing proofs. In his fourth Chapter he brings some new suffrages of the Scalds unexplain'd before, and also of Greek and Latin Writers, in this case. And after having given us many quotations, he tells us that a certain over-great admiration of the Southern World, grown up in progress of time, thro' an oblivion or hatred of the Northern affairs, had led many Men into Errors, from the true Sense of the most Antient Writers, whose Words nevertheless they had preserv'd Religiously enough. In his fifth Chapter, which is large enough to make a good Volume of itself, he treats of the Heliolatria, or Sun-worship among the Atlantiques, and of its first Origin; and afterwards of its propagation thro' Europe, Asia and Africa. He says a Man would hardly think, that all Mankind being destroy'd after so wonderful a manner, by a Deluge, leaving Noah and his Family, his Posterity casting off all fear of a Deity, should so easily fall into Idolatry, and that within an Age or two after the Flood. But he notes, that as they are Vulgar, however, they know the King (whom they seldom or never see) is to be paid the greatest Honour, yet they are mov'd much more powerfully at the sight of his Deputies, Collectors, and other Officers, who are always present to them, whom they court with Words, Gestures and Presents, as expecting from them a present Good or Evil: So the Sons of Noah being depriv'd of the Sight and Speech of the Eternal Deity, stuck not to fall into an Admiration and Worship of things made by him, especially of the Sun, Moon and Earth, which they found to be the Fountains of Light, Heat, and all things necessary for the preservation of the Life of Men and Animals; mean while the Veneration of the true Deity vanisht. Now, he says, those who were so seated to the Sun, that they were forc'd to be without him yearly for entire Months, and who, instead of Light and Heat were forc'd to receive Darkness, Cold and Ice, so that neither Earth nor Sea were able to produce any thing for the use of Men or Animals: These These persons doubtless learnt most earnestly to desire the benefits of the Sun and the Earth, and to have the Authors of these benefits in a greater esteem and honour, than those to whom the Sun is always equally present, and the Earth always produces Fruits; as it is with the more Southerly Inhabitants, who are observ'd not to have made so great an account of the Sun, or of any of the Gods. He proceeds next to set forth in order the various names of the Sun, shewing that the Names he has among the Greeks, Latins, and other Nations, have their origin from the Gothick Language. Then he tells us of the time of the year formerly famous among them for the Feast of the Sun, of their publick mourning at the Sun's departure, of their publick rejoycings at his return, of the motion of the Sun being shadowed forth by Fables, of the Sacrifices, and finally, of the passing of these Sacred Rites to Foreign Nations. To determine rightly concerning the time of the year for the Feast of the Sun, he says, we must first know in what part of World the Sun-worship began, and then what part of Sweden their Ancestors first took to Inhabit: and here he observes, that after the Confusion of Babel, Men being disappointed of securing themselves from another Deluge, by their Intended Tower, many of them be took themselves to Mountains, and consequently to the North, where they had not only a secure habitation on Mountains, but had likewise the conveniencies of pursuing Game by Land, and of Fishing; the Northern part, as being the highest, first growing dry after the Flood, and first generating Animals. And he affirms Scythia to be so far higher than all other Lands, that all the Rivers there rising run into the Maeotis, Pontus Euxinus and the Egyptian Sea: And he confidently affirms that the Rivers Tanais and Volga were adventur'd on by their Ancestors, it being certain they went to the Greeks, Armenians, Persians and Indians by those Rivers; and that before this going and returning, according to their Historians, from the Sources of Tanais and Volga they came to the Finland Coast, and having made a circuit about those Ily Shoars of Finland, they made a descent upon the Land itself, and stopt not till they possess themselves of the highest Mountains of that Country. He adds, that all the Fables of their Ancestors concerning their Gods, that is, concerning the Sun, Moon, Earth, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, and others of their Kings, or of the most famous Mountains, to which the Names of their Kings formerly Inhabiting them are left, readily evince that the first and most ancient Seats of their Ancestors which came thither, were in the Tract and Mountains beyond the Toronafj. And the precipitation of the Sun and Moon into Eridanus (which he Interprets the Baltick) Celebrated by so many Writers, and almost all the Poets, can agree to no place but these very Mountains, and consequently it assigns so certainly and firmly to their Ancestors, the Authors of this Fable, their Seats in those Mountains, that this reason alone is convincing with him. To which if we joyn the Testimony of the Runick Calender, cut on Sticks, it will appear that this very Calender was first Invented, and began to be cut in those places, since in Upland, and the lower parts of their Country such a thing could not be excogitated with due success. And as to these Calenders, they ly under a mistake who have ascrib'd the Invention of them to the Danes, and Southern Swedes, which he affirms to be due to the Cimmerians, the most Northerly Nation of Sweden, from whom the Sun is taken away in the Winter time for 40 days together. In giving an account of the form of the Runick Calenders, he presents us with many Cuts of them, which in a Scheme he compares with the Calenders, and accounts of Times, of the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, and others, in which he is very large; and thinks he has found out, from the motions of the Sun and Moon, the age and first origine of the Runic Fafts; and so not only the first time of the North's being inhabited, but likewise the day that Mundilfarus began to observe the descent of the Sun and Moon into the Baltic Sea: And considering that the Phenicians, Greeks, Persians, Latins, and the Goths that liv'd out of their Country, as well as their Ancestors, us'd Letters for Members, he thinks it is most evident that their Runes were more ancient than the Letters of all the others; and says he has most clearly made out that their most ancient Runic Monuments are of 4000 years standing, viz. that they were set up and cut with Letters the in 17 hundredth Century after the Creation: Which if it will hold good, we may note, that this comes very near to the time of the Flood, according to the Hebrew Chronology, which the Author follows, and utterly refuses the Septuagint Chronology, as to Epochas of the Creation, and Deluge. He observes that Noah liv'd 350 years after the Flood, Gen. 9. 28. that is, to the year of the World 2006. The Deluge happen'd 1656 years after the Creation; and so he says he finds that Noah dyed a whole Age after the Lunar Circle was cut in the Runick Fasts, and two Ages after the same Fasts were compos'd by King Atlas, according to the motion of the Sun: And says the Atlantick Fasts were carried by Hercules into Egypt, and by Saturn into Tuscany, about the same time. He tells us, That, according to the opinion of their Ancestors, Ice or Ise gave a rise not only to the Earth, but likewise to all Terrestrial and Celestial Bodies whatsoever; and therefore their Writers call'd the Goddess Disa, also Isis, and Isia; whence the Egyptians got their Name of Isis. He says, Their Ancestors gave the Names of their Gods to the 7 days of the week: To their first day, from their God Logius, that is five, they gave the name of Logedag, or Loje-dag, as it were, the Day of Five; Logius being one of the names of Saturn; and in this respect this God is to be accounted the Father of Time, and of all things. To the three following days, they have given the names of the three most famous Bodies of the whole Universe, because they saw the Rise, Increase, Life and Motion of all Terrestrial Strial Bodies to depend of them: and therefore they call'd the second day of the week Sondagh, the third Mondagh, the fourth Tisfdagh, the day of Disa, or the Earth. As for the rest of the days, they call'd them by the names of their three greatest Heroes: The fifth day of the week, Odens- dagh, from Odinus, or Atinus, the Deity of War both by Land and Sea; that is, performing the parts both of Her- cules and Neptune: The sixth Torfdagh, from Thorus, or Jupiter, the chief Judge and Lord of the Earth: The sev- enth Fredag, from Freia, the Wife of Jupiter, not only the Goddess of Wedlock, but likewise Queen of the Northern Amazones, under whose conduct and example they learnt to handle both Distaff and Arms. The word June, he says, in their Language, signifies a whole, or round thing, and that from thence the June Feast is so call'd, because it follows the conversion and return of the Sun to their Ancestors, having been some time absent from them. And he gives an account of the Sports us'd at that Feast, much answering to ours at Christmas; and of the Sacrifices then us'd: And shews that many of the Poets Fables are in their nature such, that they cannot be apply'd with the like success to any foreign Kings, Commanders, Places, or Heaven. He ob- serves, as often as Learned men have asserted Osiris to be the Sun, they made his Country without all hesitation to be the North, since they could not get the fiction con- cerning the Sun's Country, but from the North itself: for since the Sun is not on the Earth, whatsoever is read concerning his Country on the Earth, must be referr'd to certain sights or aspects of him, as also to the kinds or points of his rising or setting in the Horizon, inhabited by this or that Nation; and so in this respect the North was said to be the Country of the Sun, because there he seem'd to have found some rest or refreshment from his labours. And he says many Fables for these causes are not only explain'd unsuccessfully, nay, ridiculously and uselessly, as many learned men confess; but also have lain neglected even to this day, for about 40 Ages. To wit, No Man has took upon him narrowly to inspect Nature itself, the North, the Poems of the Scalds, the aspect of the Sun and Moon in those Northern places, or the wonderful turns and changes of the Earth, Sea, Heavens, and Seasons there, wholly unknown to India, Ægypt and Africa. Therefore he here takes upon him to prove that all Fables of this kind were invented to represent the motion of the Sun in these places, and afterwards carried to Ægypt, and withal to draw forth their genuine sense, both from Nature, and the proofs of the Learned. He tells us from Herodotus, the Greeks were commanded by the Oracle of Dodona to preserve religiously all the various names of the Gods, brought to them by the Hyperboreans; nor was it any way lawful for them to change such for Greek Names. And here, as well as generally throughout his Book, he makes out from the Etymology of the Names of the Gods, Heroes and other things relating to them, that they generally own a Gothick Original. And says the design of their Poets seems as learned as elegant, who, seeing the Nature, Names and Number of Persons to agree with the Names and Number of Things themselves, that these ought to be so joyn'd and fitted together, that they might seem to agree together also in their very Names; of which he gives some instances. For rightly understanding the sense of their Fables, he says, we must consider it was usual with the Scalds to notify one and the same God, or King, with many Names in the same Fable, which Names nevertheless may be restrain'd by some common sign to some one person. Secondly, We must know and hold in general, that there are three mighty Bodies in the World, which were chiefly heeded to by fabulous Antiquity, employ'd in Inventions or Fictions, viz. the Earth, Moon and Sun; and that nothing more strongly vindicates the Invention of these Fables to the North, North, than their primary and only end, which is nought but to shadow forth the presence, absence, rising and setting of the Sun and Moon, as they happen in the Northern parts; where one while these two Planets seem to arise and begin their course, and labours from the Mountains and Woods, another while to return, and hide themselves in the same places, as it were, for sleep and rest. Tho it has seemed good to some Northern Poets, to delineate that great and Winter setting of the Sun, by his descent into, or drowning in Eridamus, and to join the mourning and sorrow of the Gods with that misfortune. The Fable of Deucalion and Pyrrha, he says, is owing to their Ancestors; as the confession of Foreigners, who call Deucalion a Scythian, and also the nature and origins of the Names, in the Gothick, Daffkallens och Burras make manifest. Daw, or Daff, in that Tongue signifying moist, dewy, watery; and kalle, a man; so that Daffkale, Deucalion denotes an Aquatic man, or a man concern'd in Waters, or a Deluge: And so Pyrrha descends from the Gothick word Burra, or Byra, that is, the Mother of many Children. And he says Writers generally own that in these Fables Noah and his Wife are shadowed forth; and that the Scalds call the same not only Daffkalle, Deucalion, but also Berghtelmer, Bure, Man, Thor, Jofur, and by other names. Upon the whole, he applys this whole story to the Sun and Moon, their Couching in the Sea, and their return again. In giving the Etymology of the word Proserpina, he says, it was usual with their Scalds, in framing or composing Names, to use words that have more than one signification, tho making some way to the thing; and that chiefly for this reason, that in one Name a whole Sentence, in a manner, might be seen and read. He shews, that, as the Sun in the Ancient Fables was shadowed forth under several names; so, among others, in in the Scalds, and their Histories he was shadowed forth by Fogelen Fanin, that is, the Bird Fanina: And that when this Fable came to the Greeks, of the name Fanina they made Phoenix, concerning the Age of which there is a general contention. Pliny counts 660 years for the space of his life, sometimes 640, sometimes 360. Ovid and Herodotus 500 years, Lactantius 1000, Sobinus 540, Vossius from Tacitus 1461, Johnstonus from Albertus 350, Salmatus 300, Tzetzes computes 7006 days for his age. But a Scald, a Poet of theirs, defines the age of the Bird Fanina, or the Phoenix, to be 300 days; and Furi a Scald makes three differing spaces of his life, one of 300 years, another of 1461, another of 6940: the years here being to be taken for days, after the most ancient Custom. And whereas the first Age of the Phoenix is said to be 300 days, and that he lies hid as dead 65 days, this denotes that the Sun is seen each year by the Cimmerians, at 69 degrees latitude, 300 days, and that he is wanting 65 days. The 2d way computes 1461 years, or rather days, which must be thus understood; the Sun not clearly returning each year to the same point of Time, or of the Heavens, and slower than expected from the East, they found it necessary to gather one day from those little parts of Time, and to add it to each fourth year, which they call the Leap-year, explicating this little stay, in the Fable, by somewhat a larger death of the Phoenix, or a more slow than fit generation of the Vermicle from the Ashes. For a clearer proof of this, 365 days 4 times numbed, make 1460, to which if you add that one day inserted, the whole will be 1461. The third way giving 40 days to the Age of the Phoenix, depends on this; that they saw the Sun return to himself various days and hours of the increasing or decreasing Moon, till 19 years had past, which being over, the points of rising and setting return'd to their former moments of time; hence therefore, that is, from 365 days nineteen times repeated, and gather'd into one summ, and also the five five dies Intercalares, or Inserted days (for so many in a manner ought to be numbred within the space of time) being added to that summ, a certain new space of Life, viz. of 6940 days arises to the Phoenix, in this Fable of our Ancestors. And he does not wonder that other Writers have generally err'd from this true account of time, because they seem neither to have known the Fable itself, nor the account of years whence this Age of the Phoenix is manifested. He says, it has always been accounted a thing very agreeable to the purpose of the Scalds and Poets, in their Fictions, to compose of the parts of several Bodies, those things whose Attributes, or Offices they saw differing: Therefore they made a Plough-man with a Man's Head and an Ox's Body, because in Ploughing a Man drove an Ox before the Plough-share: And composed a Horseman of a Horse and a Man, and a Seaman of a Man and a Fish; that we may know him to be a guider of an Horse in the Field, this of and a Ship in the Sea. As therefore they made Neptune of a Man and a Fish, so they did Jupiter, the Father of the Earth or Country, of a Man and an Ox, as a good Plough-man; and Mars, of a Man and a Horse: And wholly the same way is kept in forming the Images of the Cœlestial Bodies, to whose both motion and nature the Authors of Fables most diligently attended. And the Art and Industry of the Scalds shews itself particularly in this, that they undertook so to compose and adjust the Lives and famous Acts of their Heroes, with the Nature, Virtues and Motion of the Cœlestial and Terrestial Bodies; that on a due application, we may be no less able thence to learn the Genuine Nature and disposition of these, than the History of those: All Learning, according to the way of those times, for certain reasons, seeming to have been involv'd in Fables. Olaui The sixth Chapter treats concerning the Northern Geolatria, or Earth-worship, diffus'd in process of time, thro' the rest of Europe, Asia and Africa. Here the Author tells, that as the Sun-worship had its first rise in the Northern parts, so had likewise that of the Earth, which he here makes forth at large, and says, as to the Names of the Earth, that as the Greeks and Latins own the Worship of the Earth to have been brought to them from Foreign parts, so also they admired various names of the same, as barbarous and foreign to their Tongues. To pass by, that as often as Learned Men have endeavoured to draw such names from the Latin, Greek, Egyptian, or other Languages; they have wholly lost their Labours; the chief name given the Earth, he takes to be Ida, or Eida, which in the Ancient Gothick signifies Mother, and this not only for that it's so us'd, but in the thing itself, it being deducted from Idug, diligent and laborious as Mothers ought to be; and as we call in the Modern Gothick, a Mother Moder, from Moda Toil and Labour, which it's manifest do not so much follow the Office of a Mother, as fulfil it. He says also, that from Ida, or the Goddess Iduna, the Mountain Ida had its name, and not the Goddess from the Mountain, as some have thought; for Mountains, Cities or other places could not get their names but from Gods and Goddesses; at leastwise we may not think or conclude anything concerning certain names of Mountains before Gods or Men. If any say that many men have got their Names from their Seats or Places of Abode, and consequently often from Mountains; yet nothing hinders but the Names of such Places, Mountains or Seats were taken from other Men, viz. the first, or the Inventors of Names, and from the Inhabitants or Possessors of Places. And next, the Author proceeds to give Etymologies of other Names given the Earth: He says, it seems incredible and absurd to many that Hesiod, Homer and Orpheus were ever so diligent, faithful and fortunate searchers into the Affairs that were either transacted, or recorded in Writings in the North, or that in their Writings they set upon the History or Exposition of things so remote: Therefore he takes upon him here to shew what the most ancient of the Greek and Latin Writers have testify'd concerning these very Poets, and whence men so famous throughout the World drew their rise: And proves by the Testimony of Suidas and others, that Linus, Orpheus, Hesiod and Homer descended from the Hyperboreans. And, he says, that even to this day, among the most Northerly Inhabitants, among which he counts the Islanders, the love, study and care of preserving the Books of their Ancient Genealogies, and the Monuments left them by their Ancestors, is so great, that it's easily seen they prefer them before Silver and Gold. No wonder then if the Poets before mention'd labour'd to propagate to Posterity the names of their famous men of ancient Ages. He tells us, their Ancestors thought Ice, or Sifen, to be the first Matter of all things, or, if you had rather, the principle, or first basis of them; which having a deadness of itself, the Fire, moving and agitating all things by its force, frees it from its dead sort of State, and having divided it into most minute Particles, composes and sets it in order again after various ways: And he conceives they were led into this opinion from their general custom of beginning the year in the Winter; at which time the Sun and Moon passing under the Horizon, and darkness prevailing, whatsoever was there Watery was turn'd into Ice; the Earth being cover'd with Ice, became as hard as Rocks; the Reptiles, Insects, and a good part of the little Birds lay benum'd with Cold in their Nests or Caves, the other Birds flew away to other Countries; and, in short, all the Plants Plants in general were wholly overwhelm'd with Ice and Snow; and therefore they judg'd this so general a rest of all things very much to resemble, not only Death, but even Nothing itself: For whatsoever is void of Motion in these Earthly things, can neither change itself, nor produce any other thing. Therefore they made Ice, by which they saw the Earth and Waters converted into most hard and immovable Rocks, and all the warmth of the Air, and the life of the rest of things to be extinguish'd and destroy'd, as the Mother, Matter, and First Principle in producing all things. And when upon the Sun's return they saw the Ice, how hard soever, to be melted and resolve'd into Water by the force of Heat, they lookt upon Heat, as a Principle endued with a great power of acting and moving, (but foreign, and coming from the Southern World to the North) because being joyn'd with Ice, their Northern and Domestick Principle, it produc'd Water, which, after this manner, they not unfitly call'd, the Daughter of Ice. Again, as Water, whether it flow'd over the Earth, or stagnated, or were kept in a Vessel, always depos'd some thin or gross Mud to the bottom, so they call'd Earth the Daughter of Water: And seeing Plants and Fruits to grow from Earth a little dry'd, they call'd these the Daughters and Offspring of the Earth, and assign'd other rifes to other things. Now he says the Southern World could not pretend from their own Invention, to excogitate such a rise of things, they having no ground in Nature for it, but had it from the North, it being testified not only by their Seals, but likewise by other Writers, that whatsoever Orpheus, Hesiod and Homer say concerning the origine of the Gods, they had it thence: He advifes us also to note, that men studious of Natural Knowledge and Astronomy began to be call'd by the names of those things whose Nature, Motion, or Powers they searcht into; wholly after the same manner as Mundifurus was said to be the Father of the Sun and Moon; a name compounded from Mond the Moon, Ell the Sun, and Far Father, he being a famous Astronomer. He tell us, that Norland-Fowlers, seeing flocks of Birds coming to them yearly from Finland and Russia, make a great gain of them: for above 600 Cart-loads of Birds then taken and kill'd, are wont to be sent from Norland into Sweden in the Winter, nay, to the sole Metropolis of Sweden, Stockholm: At which time their Flesh becomes so hard, that they receive no taint from the Putrefaction for two or three months, whereas at other times they can scarce be kept two or three days from stinking. As to the flying away of those Birds, they are wont to begin their flight in the months of September and October, for the most part without danger: But if they chance to delay it till November or December, it's often disturb'd and interrupted, not only by the shortness of the Day-light, but likewise with most thick Fogs rising from the Baltick: For, falling into Darkness and Fogs in their flight, they first lose their way, and at length, being tir'd with continual flying, they fall into the Waters, their Bodies being found in heaps, driven to the Shores. Speaking of Isis, or Io, he says their Ancestors call'd the Earth a Cow, and made its Images in the form of a Cow, because, as among Animals, the Cow alone supplys Milk in a due quantity for humane uses, so the watery part of the Terrestrial Globe serves most of all for the production of all things, and so from this Northern Custom and Worship of Isis the Egyptians learnt to Worship Isis, or Io, and to look upon Cows as sacred. He says, that tho the first Author of Earth-worship gave the Earth several Names and Titles, as of Io, Troia, Frigga, Isis, Terra, Ceres, and many others, yet the Name of Dia, Diana, or Disa, which signifies a Nurse, was the most common and solemn name of all, given her because she she serves for feeding and nourishing Mankind: And says their Goddess *Disa*, of whom he has given Cuts, was represented with a Net about her, to intimate the Invention of Fishing and Fowling, which have greatly contributed to Man's subsistence. And in reference to Fowling he says, It's very well-known that nowhere better *Hawks* or *Falcons* are to be had, than in the most Northerly parts of Sweden, Norway, Island, and Muscovy; whence they are wont to be carried to the Kings and Princes of the Southern World, viz. of France, Germany, England, Spain, and even to the Egyptian, Persian, and Indian Kings and Rulers. He tells us, their Ancestors held the Immortality of the Soul, and that in their Monumental Inscriptions they were wont to pray to God, *Thoros*, *Odinus*, *Isis*, *Ida*; or other Deities, to preserve the Souls of the dead, and this long before Christianity was introduc'd among them. He tells us of wonderful performances, said to have been wrought by the means of their *Scipio Runicus*, or *Runstaff*, being anointed with a certain Magical Ointment, viz. of Men's flying in the Air on it, and the like. And says a more constant fame of nothing has remain'd in their Country from the remotest times of Paganism, than of such flights in the Air; and that nothing is more readily believ'd, than that the present Laplanders, who continue still in Paganism, use the same kind of flights now: And that beside *Runstaffs*, Sticks, Poles, Calves, Horses, Dogs, and other living Creatures, anointed with the same kind of Ointment, were thought to be able to carry their Riders to places design'd. And these things were wont to be ascrib'd to *Diana*, or *Disa*, as the first Inventress of them. He tells us, they ascribe the Origine of their Letters to *Isis*, and says their *Scalds* call'd the first Letter *Ise*, that is Ice, the Foreigners Isis. For when the Earth, the Niece of Ice, or Isis, after she began to be call'd and worshipp'd with the Names of her Grandmother, viz. Isis, and also Disa, Dis, and Diana, then likewise was ascrib'd to her that observation, by which the first forms of Ice upon freezing were discover'd, after the manner of which she afterward began to draw Letters. Now Water upon freezing into Ice, first discovers a certain straight line, after the imitation of which the Letter [I] is form'd, with one single stroke, which they call Is, Isis; afterwards, at the sides of this straight line, on both parts, there come transverse icy lines, which they call Kna, Knees, and from which Pattern Disa began to form all Runick Letters whatsoever, as being compos'd of meer straight and transverse lines, viz. of Is and Kna, that is, Isis or Ice, and Kne. He says, the Tympanum of the Mother of the Gods, so much Celebrated by Greek and Latin Writers, tho explain'd by none of them, as it ought, was nothing but a Copy of the Lapland Tympanum, convey'd to foreign parts by Disa, Isis, Idea, or Diana, whose Ring and Hammer were some time found in the Left Hand of the Figure of Isis at Rome, the Tympanum itself being over the Head of the Goddess, and there being marks under her Feet like to those that are seen in the Lapland Drums. The Egyptian Isis also, according to a Cut given of her by Pignorius, holds this Ring and Hammer in her Left Hand. And the Mother of the Gods (as Du Choul has set her forth) handles a Tympanum. And he thinks he has given much light to the Tympanum of Cybele, from that strange Superstition of their Ancestors, which reigns still in some parts of Lapland; and says in his Chronology, he will make out that the Daughter of Inachus going into Egypt a little before the time of Moses, taught the Egyptians Incantations, and which shew'd them that infamous abuse of of the Hieroglyphical Marks, with which Arts the Egyptian Magi afterwards contended with Moses before Pharaoh; tho he does not think that all the Goths were given to those Arts, for that the Testimonies of Histories, the Scalps, and of Snorro himself, free the most valiant of the Goths from that Infamy, those Arts being beneath their Valour and Dignity, and seem'd much to prejudice the Fame and Renown due to valiant Men, and therefore great punishments were inflicted on Men given to such Arts, by Magnanimous Kings. He says that their Ancestors were fully persuaded that the Waters proceeded from Ice, the Earth from the Waters (as is intimated before) and the Sun and Moon from the Earth and Waters, and consequently that these two Planets were Offsprings of the Sea and Earth; and for confirmation of this matter they laid down these four Positions; That the Sun and Moon in the production of this Universe, were posterior to the Earth; that in the remotest part North, dark for many months, first the Moon, and afterwards the Sun emerg'd from Evidanus; That sometimes displaying their Rays among the Clouds to the surface of the Sea and Earth, which Rays are conspicuous enough in a foggy Air, they were said by their vulgar to take their Food from the Sea and Earth: And lastly, That according to the common opinion of the Antients, those two Planets are said to have been carried in Ships. Now, he says, the Greeks, Latins and Egyptians delivered indeed such like things, but without a reason; nor could they be look'd upon as the Inventers of such Opinions; for the Sun and Moon never so receded from them; that they might seem to be reborn, or to emerge from the Sea at some place, after an Interval of time, to their admiration, which is the most fertile Mother of Judgments and Opinions. He tells us, as the Priests of the Earth were bound to castrate themselves with Knives of Stone or Flint, in honour of the Sun's passing under the Earth, and having depos'd his Power of generating in the North; so they were bound to cut their Hair and shave themselves in honour of the Earth, be it of Flowers, Leaves and the rest of its Ornaments: And tho' the Chaldeans, Greeks and Egyptians observ'd the same Rites, yet the Priests themselves, to whom the care of these Sacred Mysteries were committed, scarce understood what they meant, and so they own'd them to be rather Foreign than Domestick Rites. He says, they have a Fable which tells us, the Deity of the Earth washes herself in the River Almon, on the 6th of the Calends of April; for at that time their Earth throughout swims, as it were, with Floods, which the Snow melted by degrees by the heat of the Sun, diffuses thro all places, and Rains sometimes so encrease them, that no part of their Earth may be accounted free from them; and the Gothick Language call these Land Floods, Almanne-flod, that is, an universal Deluge, whence the Latins have made Almonem Fluviium: The word Alman, signifying Universal, Common, Publick. He tells us, That Homer, Pliny, Herodotus and others, call the Hyperboreans, the most Wise, Just and Prudent of Mankind, and that Plutarch says, a Man may there much more successfully advance himself in the Study of Astronomy in a month, than elsewhere in a very long space of time. The Seventh Chapter treats concerning the Rape of Proserpina, and of the first coming of Ceres into Sweden. Here the Author sets forth, that in the Southerly parts of the World Agriculture always flourished, Fruits also in ma- my places growing of their own accord, and consequently that the Inhabitants of such places, were the less mov'd to admire so easy and usual a thing, much less could be stirred to Worship the Earth, as a Deity to be solicited with Prayers. On the contrary, that the Northern parts were formerly wholly without Fruits, and that even now Desarts, Woods, and many Fields admit no cultivation, or at least produce no Fruit without cultivation and sowing. That instead of Corn at that time they had three Substitutes, to which poor people even now are wont to have recourse, viz. The sappy outward parts of the Pine and other Trees, which were wont to be taken off in the Spring, to be dry'd and pounded to Powder. 2dly, Acorns, now given to Swine, but then guarded with accurate Sanctions of Laws. 3dly, The Roots of Filipendula, which were of a grateful savour, and Food for the best Persons, and now greedily hunted after by Swine, who root up the ground for them. But as soon as their Ancestors came to know there was a more plentiful growth of Fruits in the Southern Countries, it appears, from the History of Adonis, that he went forth of their Country, and took by force from elsewhere a Kings Daughter, who greatly delighted in Agriculture and Gardening, and brought together with her those Arts and Studies into his Country. Now the first name of this Virgin among them, he says, was Korve, that is, Grain, or Seed, because she taught them how to sow, called by the Latins, Ceres, the same name being given her Mother; and then he tells us, how she came by the name, Proserpine. To make good what is said of Adonis, he says all agree that a certain King formerly took away a Virgin by force, and married her. The Scalds call him Oaden, the Greeks Aedess, and Aidoneus; the Gothick Writers, Bluter, the Latins, Pluto: Again, some of theirs call him Theyffe, and Wejefur; foreign Writers Dis, and Vejovis. In this so great diversity of Names we shall best know who he was from his Country and Kingdom: For since he is call'd by all the King of Darkness, he must be Northern; and for the same cause he is call'd Rex Manium, the King of Ghosts, Manheims Kong, and Rex Orci, Joroens Kong, and Rex Acherontis, Agronders Kong, Rex Eleusinorum, Gly-walos Kong, &c. He reflects on the Opinion of Wormius and others, as Childish, by whom the affairs of the Goths Feast Juel are said to have had their Name from Julius Caesar; for that all those things, both in name and reality, were in use among their Ancestors 15 Ages before Caesar, in honour of Atinnus (the Sun), Frigga (the Moon), and Freia, or Ceres (the Earth). For a Conclusion, he says, that some time after Adonis had brought the Daughter of Ceres, and with her the exercise of Agriculture, from Sicily into their Country, both the Daughter, and the Mother seeking the Daughter, and under their Names the Earth, undergoing one while Summer, another while Winter, began to be had in very great Honour. That neither in the Writings of the Ancient Greek or Latin Poets, nor of their Scalds, by the name of Inferi, is to be understood any Coelestial or Subterraneous Place, much less Hell itself, which some late Writers have plac'd in the Æther, others, with a like folly, in the Center of the Earth: For who can say, that either for entering such places there was need of a Southern Wind, or for leaving them of a North? Who could expect in them the exercise of Agriculture? Who will say, it matters whether persons there feed on Acorns, or Bread Corn? &c. That rather, in a manner all the marks of the Inferi, given by the Ancients, most exactly agree to Northern Sweden, viz. 1. An Abyss, or Chaos, that is, a barren and desert place, such as Saxo has describ'd under the Pole. 2. A sharp and Snowy Winter, much spoken of by Ovid. 3. A dark Pole, known to Claudian; and many many other signs he sets down; and quotes Plutarch, saying that Homer had the subject of his Fable concerning the Inferi from their Country, and that their Barbarians past thence into Italy, and were first call'd Cimmerij, and since, not improperly, Cimbri. But he says he shall say more of this affair, where he shall treat again of the Inferi, in another Volume; where he will also shew, that besides the Inferi and Elysij that Inhabit the Polar Earth, other subterranean Inferi and Elysij under the same Pole have been excogitated by their Ancestors to represent the pains of all the Wicked, and the Joys of the Good after Death. The eighth Chapter treats of Selenolatria, or Moon-worship of the North: Here he tells us from Olaus Magnus, that their Ancestors worshipp'd the Moon as well as the Sun, because in Winter, in the Sun's absence, they continually us'd the light of the Moon, which failing at the New, they order'd all their actions, even in the daytime, by the light of their bright Stars increas'd by the whiteness of the Snow: But he says, because the Worship of the Sun and Earth could not be well expounded before by him, but withal, he was forc'd to speak of the Moon, and draw from the Fables of the Antients, those things that belong'd to its Worship, therefore he here only tells us the brief heads of what he had written before. The Ninth Chapter treats concerning the Runick-Fasts. He tells us, the Inventor of these Fasts was Atlas, King of the North. The cause of so noble an Invention, was a better and more ready way of finding out the annual Rotations of the Sun, and Menstrual of the Moon, as also among the full Moons, that chiefly which ought next to follow the Sun yearly returning. Now, from their Cimmerians, by whom such things were observ'd, the Sun was wont to be wanting 40 days, and the full Moon next infusing the Suns return, was called the Jule full Moon; and so diligent and accurate an account of this full Moon, above all others, was then taken, because at that time, at the publick Rejoycings for the Restoration of Light to the Northern World, not only all the little Kings and Governors within their Kingdom, but also Foreign Kings and Tributaries, or such as were any way obnoxious to the Kings of the North, were bound to be present. The Runick Fasts, he says, began the year from that day in which the Sun, after 40 days absence in Eridanus, first shin'd to those that inhabited the Low Lands, among the Cimmerians: And that the Kings of the Cimmerians leaving the Notherly parts, brought these Fasts with them to the Southerly parts of Sweden, even to Upsal, as the most ready Instrument for calculating the Year. And he here explains at large the use of the Runick Fasts; and observes that tho the Sun lies hid under the Horizon of the Northern Inhabitants for many days in the Winter, yet it displays its Rays of Light about noon, like a dawning or break of day, or as a Beard. As to the Age of the Runick Fasts, he says it may be ultimately refer'd to about the year of the World 1800, and that those Fasts receiv'd their last perfection about the year of the World 2200. This Science he says increas'd by long and diligent Observations of the Sun and Moon passing round the Earth: for it was not a labour of a few days, but of years and ages, by which the names of Attilus, Atlas, Saturn and many more Northern Men, rose to an Immortal Glory, as under whose hands a Science so excellent and necessary grew up; and these Labours had place 500 or 600 years before the Trojan War, as Diodorus, who in his first six Books treats professedly of Affairs more ancient than the Trojan War, seems to have own'd 1700 years since. He assures himself, he has here set forth, for the greatest part, whatsoever can make for the explanation of the Runick Fasts; and dares aver that no Nation in the World has penetrated to that accurate Theory of the Sun and Moon before their Ancestors, but rather that the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans have borrowed many things from them, and at length, casting off their Antient Custom, whereby they made the Vernal or Autumnal Equinox, or the Summer Solstice, the Sun always high raised above the Horizon, the beginning of their Year, they betook themselves to the usage of his Ancestors, who joyn'd the beginning of their Year, with the first return of the Sun, after having been for some time absent. And here he explains at large a Cut he has given, in a precedent Chapter, of a Runick Almanack. The tenth Chapter treats of the Tympana Laponica; or Lapland Drums; which he says are generally divided into three Regions, the highest Region contains the Heavens and all Cælestial things, and all Volatils; the middle Region contains the Earth, with Men and all Animals; the lowest Region contains Infernal and Subterraneous places and then proceeds to give a particular and genuine Explication of all the Figures on Marks that are on the said Tympana. And in the conclusion he owns that the greatest part of these Figures and Animals are drawn to other affairs by the Laplanders, who beat their Drums with great Impiety and Superstition: For if they would know whether, when they go on Hunting, they shall have success, they beat their Drum with Thor's Hammer, and diligently observe a certain Ring leaping on the Drum, which if they see rest on the Image of a Ranger, they no way doubt but they shall kill a wild Ranger that day: If it rests on a Wolf, they conclude they shall have a Wolf for their prey. But the Author says he passes by these things as being beside his purpose, and refers those who are delighted with them to Shefferus's Lapponia, to Olans Magnus, and others. However, I shall give you here what seems to be the Authors sense concerning what may now be expected from the Superstitious use of the Lapland Drums, inserted by him in the fifth Chapter of this Book, p. 283. It is as follows. Since the Doctrine of Christ came to Lapland, Men could not but forget many things relating to Superstition, and execrate and cast off other things, or at least be at an uncertainty in many things, mixing Superstition with the Truth, nothing being more certain than that Paganism is not yet quite extinct in those places. Whether therefore the Laplanders themselves are now ignorant of the make of the most antient Drums, or whether so differing a fitting of the Drums deprives them of the knowledge of a thing so extremlly vain, they now suffer themselves with extreme difficulty to be drawn to make known their Superstition to others: Perhaps also shame or fear in a manner deters some. To pass by that the chief Arcanum of Superstition will not be revealed, be it as it will, you shall now hardly find any Man, who knows rightly how to manage this Drum, or to explain it to others. And those who think they know somewhat of this kind, either so obstinately conceal it, or so dissemble their skill, that those labour in a manner in vain, who with any Gifts how great soever, or high Drinking, (which is wont to go a great way with them otherwise) endeavour to break or conquer that silence; but among Gifts (if any Man will purchase this Art of them) the Laplanders are most earnest Lovers of Imperial Rix Dollars. The last Chapter treats concerning the Mensa Istaica, or the Table of Isis: And here the Author says, the World owes great thanks to Pignorius, for having preserved so great a piece of Antiquity from oblivion, and for having illustrated it with the Commentaries and Conjectures of other Men as well as his own: But whereas his account of it is very imperfect, the Author says, he undertakes the explication of this Monument, which he had never dar'd to attempt, had not the situation of his Country, the custom of the Inhabitants, the motion and operations of the Sun and Moon about their Earth, the Runick Fasts, the Lapland Drums, the Fables and Traditions of the Northern Inhabitants, given some light to the undertaking: for as the Egyptians receiv'd their Worship of the Sun, Moon and Earth from Io, the Daughter of Inachus, who was a Northern Goddess, so also their Table of Isis has its figures so disposed, that they represent exactly enough the motions and Monthly changes of the Sun and Moon throughout the whole year, as the North requires or admits: He therefore has given us the same Cut with Pignorius of the Table of Isis, divided into 12 Months. And this is the order of that Table, that to each month three figures belong, and besides all these there is one figure in the midst of the rest, sitting on a Throne. Now it came in the Authors mind, that by the three Images belonging to each month, the Sun, Moon and Earth ought to be understood: And the whole Table is divided into three parts, for the Winter, Summer and Autumn, which their Ancestors receiv'd; and as each of these parts of the year contains twelve figures, three always answer to one month, that is, ten days will belong to each figure, and thirty days to each month; and this is according to the manner and custom of the North. And therefore to the greater parts of the year, or to each Season 120 days are to be allowed, which being thrice counted for so many parts of the year, they will produce in all 360; the Image therefore remaining and sitting on its Throne, stands for the dies intercalares, which being added, there will arise the Annual space of 365 days and the vantage; and he proceeds to give us a succinct explication of all the Images or Figures in particulars; and tell us, the Figure of Osiris holds in one hand a Cross with a Ring to it; and Pignorius owns, that the Cross was known and us'd by the Egyptians and other Profane Nations, before the times of Christ: And quotes Suidas, saying, that while Theodosius the Great was Emperor, when the Temples of the Gentiles were demolished, in the Temple of Serapis were found Hieroglyphical Letters, having the form of a Cross, being seen by the Greek Christians, they said that the Cross among the skilful in Hieroglyphical Characters signified a Life to come. This kind of Cross, he says, is drawn on the Lapland Drums; but as often as we see this Cross there given to Thor, it wants the Ring, and Thor's Hammer is signified by it: And now the Laplanders sever that Ringed Cross into two parts, making the Cross or Hammer of Tinn, and the Ring of Brass, Iron, Orihalcum or of Silver, and beat the Drum with the Hammer; and from the various motions of the Ring leaping on the Drum, they make conjectures of the events of Diseases, the fates of Men, the happy or unhappy state of dying Persons after death, of the state and conditions of things far distant, and of all other hidden and abstruse matters: And he concludes this second part of his Atlantica, in which he took upon him chiefly to consider these three Bodies of the Universe, the Sun, Moon and Earth, after the manner of the Antients, with the words of the learned Hoperus, in his Themis Hyperborea, and also with those of the Learn-Guliel. Stiehlins; the former saying, that whatsoever there was of Philosophy among the Europeans, Asiaticks and Ægyptians, flow'd from the Antient Hyperboreans; the latter, that the Names and likewise the Worship of the Gods and Goddesses came from the North to the Greeks, and thence to the Romans. London, Printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, Printers to the Royal Society, at the Princes Arms in St Paul's Church-yard, 1705.