able to piece together out of our various
sources, English, Icelandic, and Scandinavian. In the twilight of Yore
every glowworm is a helper to the searcher.

There are a few MAXIMS of various times, but all seemingly drawn from
custom cited or implied by Saxo as authoritative:--

"It is disgraceful to be ruled by a woman."--The great men of Teutonic
nations held to this maxim. There is no Boudicea or Maidhbh in our own
annals till after the accession of the Tudors, when Great Eliza rivals
her elder kins-women's glories. Though Tacitus expressly notices one
tribe or confederacy, the Sitones, within the compass of his Germania,
ruled by a woman, as an exceptional case, it was contrary to the feeling
of mediaeval Christendom for a woman to be emperor; it was not till late
in the Middle Ages that Spain saw a queen regnant, and France has never
yet allowed such rule. It was not till long after Saxo that the great
queen of the North, Margaret, wielded a wider sway than that rejected by
Gustavus' wayward daughter.

"The suitor ought to urge his own suit."--This, an axiom of the most
archaic law, gets evaded bit by bit till the professional advocate takes
the place of the plaintiff. "Njal's Saga", in its legal scenes, shows
the transition period, when, as at Rome, a great and skilled chief
was sought by his client as the supporter of his cause at the Moot. In
England, the idea of representation at law is, as is well known, late
and largely derived from canon law practice.

"To exact the blood-fine was as honourable as to take vengeance."--This
maxim, begotten by Interest upon Legality, established itself both in
Scandinavia and Arabia. It marks the first stage in a progress which,
if carried out wholly, substitutes law for feud. In the society of the
heathen Danes the maxim was a novelty; even in Christian Denmark men
sometimes preferred blood to fees.

MARRIAGE.--There are many reminiscences of "archaic marriage customs
in Saxo." The capture marriage has left traces in the guarded king's
daughters, the challenging of kings to fight or hand over their
daughters, in the promises to give a daughter or sister as a reward to
a hero who shall accomplish some feat. The existence of polygamy is
attested, and it went on till the days of Charles the Great and Harold
Fairhair in singular instances, in the case of great kings, and finally
disappeared before the strict ecclesiastic regulations.

But there are evidences also of lat