Zigzag Journeys in Northern Lands Part 1

ZigZag Journeys in Northern Lands.

by Hezekiah b.u.t.terworth.

PREFACE.

This fifth volume of the Zigzag books, in which history is taught by a supposed tour of interesting places, might be called a German story-book.

It was the aim of "ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN EUROPE" and "ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN CLa.s.sIC LANDS" to make history interesting by stories and pictures of places. It was the purpose of "ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE ORIENT" to explain the Eastern Question, and of "ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE OCCIDENT"

to explain Homesteading in the West.

The purpose of this volume is the same as in "EUROPE" and "CLa.s.sIC LANDS." A light narrative of travel takes the reader to the places most conspicuously a.s.sociated with German history, tradition, literature, and art, and in a disconnected way gives a view of the most interesting events of those Northern countries that once const.i.tuted a great part of the empire of Charlemagne.

It is the aim of these books to stimulate a love of history, and to _suggest_ the best historical reading. To this end popular stories and pictures are freely used to adapt useful information to the tastes of the young. But in every page, story, and picture, right education and right influence are kept in view.

In this volume many German legends and fairy stories have been used, but they are so introduced and guarded as not to leave a wrong impression upon the minds of the young and immature.

H. B.

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN NORTHERN LANDS.

CHAPTER I.

THE RIVER OF STORY AND SONG.

The Rhine! River of what histories, tragedies, comedies, legends, stories, and songs! a.s.sociated with the greatest events of the history of Germany, France, and Northern Europe; with the Rome of Caesar and Aurelian; with the Rome of the Popes; with the Reformation; with the shadowy goblin lore and beautiful fairy tales of the twilight of Celtic civilization that have been evolved through centuries and have become the household stories of all enlightened lands!

A journey down the Rhine is like pa.s.sing through wonderland; wild stories, quaint stories, legendary and historic stories, are a.s.sociated with every rood of ground from the Alps to the ocean. It is a region of the stories of two thousand years. The Rhine is the river of the poet; its banks are the battle-fields of heroes; its forests and villages the fairy lands of old.

When Rome was queen of the world, Caesar carried his eagles over the Rhine; t.i.tus sent a part of his army which had conquered Jerusalem to the Rhine; Julian erected a fortress on the Rhine; and Valentinian began the castle-building that was to go on for a thousand years.

The period of the Goths, Huns, Celts, and Vandals came,--the conquerors of Rome; and the Rhine was strewn with Roman ruins. Charlemagne cleared away the ruins, and began anew the castle-building. A Christian soldier in one of the legions that destroyed Jerusalem and tore down the temple, first brought the Gospel to the Rhine. His name was Crescaitius. He was soon followed by missionaries of the Cross. Christianity was established upon the Rhine soon after it entered Rome.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INTRODUCING CHRISTIANITY INTO THE NORTH.]

The great conquests of modern history are directly or indirectly a.s.sociated with the wonderful river; Caesar, who conquered the world, crossed the Rhine; Attila, who conquered the city of the Caesars; Clovis, who founded the Christian religion in France; and Charlemagne, who established the Christian church in Germany. Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick the Great added l.u.s.tre to its growing history, and Napoleon gave a yet deeper coloring to its thrilling scenes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CASTLE IN RHINE LAND.]

When the Northern nations shattered the Roman power, people imagined that the dismantled castles of the Rhine became the abodes of mysterious beings: spirits of the rocks, forests, fens; strange maidens of the red marshes; enchanters, demons; the streams were the abodes of lovely water nymphs; the glens of the woods, of delightful fairies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOWER OF RuDESHEIM ON THE RHINE.]

Into these regions of shadow, mystery, of heroic history, of moral conflicts and Christian triumphs, it is always interesting to go. It is especially interesting to the American traveller, for his form of Christianity and republican principles came from the Rhine. Progress to him was cradled on the Rhine, like Moses on the Nile. In the Rhine lands Luther taught, and Robinson of Leyden lived and prayed; and from those lands to-day comes the great emigration that is peopling the golden empire of America in the West. "I would be proud of the Rhine were I a German," said Longfellow. "I love rivers," said Victor Hugo; "of all rivers I prefer the Rhine."

It is our purpose in this story-telling volume to relate why the Zigzag Club was led to make the Rhine the subject of its winter evening study, and to give an account of an excursion that some of its members had made from Constance to Rotterdam and into the countries of the North Sea.

"All hail, thou broad torrent, so golden and green, Ye castles and churches, ye hamlets serene, Ye cornfields, that wave in the breeze as it sweeps, Ye forests and ravines, ye towering steeps, Ye mountains e'er clad in the sun-illumed vine!

Wherever I go is my heart on the Rhine!

"I greet thee, O life, with a yearning so strong, In the maze of the dance, o'er the goblet and song.

All hail, beloved race, men so honest and true, And maids who speak raptures with eyes of bright blue!

May success round your brows e'er its garlands entwine!

Wherever I go is my heart on the Rhine!

"On the Rhine is my heart, where affection holds sway!

On the Rhine is my heart, where encradled I lay, Where around me friends bloom, where I dreamt away youth, Where the heart of my love glows with rapture and truth!

May for me your hearts e'er the same jewels enshrine.

Wherever I go is my heart on the Rhine!"

WOLFGANG MuLLER.

CHAPTER II.

GHOST STORIES.

THE ZIGZAG CLUB AGAIN.--SOME "GHOST" STORIES.

The Academy had opened again. September again colored the leaves of the old elms of Yule. The Blue Hills, as lovely as when the Northmen beheld them nearly nine hundred years ago, were radiant with the autumn tinges of foliage and sky, changing from turquoise to sapphire in the intense twilight, and to purple as the shades of evening fell.

The boys were back again, all except the graduating cla.s.s, some of whom were at Harvard, Brown, and Yale. Master Lewis was in his old place, and Mr. Beal was again his a.s.sistant.

The Zigzag Club was broken by the final departure of the graduating cla.s.s. But Charlie Leland, William Clifton, and Herman Reed, who made a journey on the Rhine under the direction of Mr. Beal, had returned, and they had been active members of the school society known as the Club.

We should say here, to make the narrative clear to those who have not read "Zigzag Journeys in Cla.s.sic Lands" and "Zigzag Journeys in the Orient," that the boys of the Academy of Yule had been accustomed each year to form a society for the study of the history, geography, legends, and household stories of some chosen country, and during the long summer vacation as many of the society as could do so, visited, under the direction of their teachers, the lands about which they had studied. This society was called the Zigzag Club, because it aimed to visit historic places without regard to direct routes of travel. It zigzagged in its travels from the a.s.sociations of one historic story to another, and was influenced by the school text-book or the works of some pleasing author, rather than the guide-book.

The Zigzag books have been kindly received;[1] and we may here remark parenthetically that they do not aim so much to present narratives of travel as the histories, traditions, romances, and stories of places.

They seek to tell stories at the places where the events occurred and amid the a.s.sociations of the events that still remain. The Zigzag Club go seeking what is old rather than what is new, and thus change the past tense of history to the present tense.

[1] More than one hundred thousand volumes have been sold.

Charlie Leland was seated one day on the piazza of the Academy, after school, reading Hawthorne's "Twice-Told Tales." Master Lewis presently took a seat beside him; and "Gentleman Jo," whom we introduced to our readers in "Zigzags in the Occident," was resting on the steps near them.

Gentleman Jo was the janitor. He was a relative of Master Lewis, and a very intelligent man. He had been somewhat disabled in military service in the West, and was thus compelled to accept a situation at Yule that was quite below his intelligence and personal worth. The boys loved and respected him, sought his advice often, and sometimes invited him to meetings of their Society.

"Have you called together the Club yet?" asked Master Lewis of Charlie, when the latter had ceased reading.

"We had an informal meeting in my room last evening."

"What is your plan of study?"