, the
swan-song of unhappy Poland, chanted to young America again and
again, to help us all understand that we are kin in the things that
really count, and help us pull together as we must if we are to make
the most of our common country.

These were my--our--heroes, then. Every lad of Northern blood, whose
heart is in the right place, loves them. And he need make no excuses
for any of them. Nor has he need of bartering them for the great of
his new home; they go very well together. It is partly for his sake
I have set their stories down here. All too quickly he lets go his
grip on them, on the new shore. Let him keep them and cherish them
with the memories of the motherland. The immigrant America wants and
needs is he who brings the best of the old home to the new, not he
who threw it overboard on the voyage. In the great melting-pot it
will tell its story for the good of us all.

To those who wonder that I have left the Saga era of the North
untouched, I would say that I have preferred to deal here only with
downright historic figures. For valuable aid rendered in insuring
accuracy I am indebted to the services of Dr. P.A. Rydberg, Dr. J.
Emile Blomen, Gustaf V. Lindner, and Professor Joakim Reinhard. My
thanks are due likewise to many friends, Danes by birth like myself,
who have helped me with the illustrations.

J. A. R.
RICHMOND HILL,
June, 1910.

CONTENTS

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 LINNE, KING OF THE FLOWERS
NIELS FINSEN, THE WOLF-SLAYER

A KNIGHT ERRANT OF THE SEA

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 f