Hero Tales of the Far North

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Jacob August Riis. Hero Tales of the Far North

FOREWORD

A KNIGHT ERRANT OF THE SEA

HANS EGEDE, THE APOSTLE TO GREENLAND

GUSTAV VASA, THE FATHER OF SWEDEN

ABSALON, WARRIOR BISHOP OF THE NORTH

KING VALDEMAR, AND THE STORY OF THE DANNEBROG

HOW THE GHOST OF THE HEATH WAS LAID

KING CHRISTIAN IV

GUSTAV ADOLF, THE SNOW-KING

KING AND SAILOR, HEROES OF COPENHAGEN

THE TROOPER WHO WON A WAR ALONE

CARL LINNÉ, KING OF THE FLOWERS

NIELS FINSEN, THE WOLF-SLAYER

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The Eighteenth Century broke upon a noisy family quarrel in the north of Europe. Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, the royal hotspur of all history, and Frederik of Denmark had fallen out. Like their people, they were first cousins, and therefore all the more bent on settling the old question which was the better man. After the fashion of the lion and the unicorn, they fought "all about the town," and, indeed, about every town that came in their way, now this and now that side having the best of it. On the sea, which was the more important because neither Swedes nor Danes could reach their fighting ground or keep up their armaments without command of the waterways, the victory rested finally with the Danes. And this was due almost wholly to one extraordinary figure, the like of which is scarce to be found in the annals of warfare, Peder Tordenskjold. Rising in ten brief years from the humblest place before the mast, a half-grown lad, to the rank of admiral, ennobled by his King and the idol of two nations, only to be assassinated on the "field of honor" at thirty, he seems the very incarnation of the stormy times of the Eleven Years' War, with which his sun rose and set; for the year in which peace was made also saw his death.

Peder Jansen Wessel was born on October 28, 1690, in the city of Trondhjem, Norway, which country in those days was united with Denmark under one king. His father was an alderman with eighteen children. Peder was the tenth of twelve wild boys. It is related that the father in sheer desperation once let make for him a pair of leathern breeches which he would not be able to tear. But the lad, not to be beaten so easily, sat on a grind-stone and had one of his school-fellows turn it till the seat was worn thin, a piece of bravado that probably cost him dear, for doubtless the exasperated father's stick found the attenuated spot.

.....

Captain Grip was game. "Good enough!" he shouted back. "The wind is fair, and we have all day. I am ready."

That was the council of war and its decision. Tordenskjold gave the signal to clear for action, and sailed in at the head of his handful of ships.

.....