een Carola
of Saxony, the only living granddaughter of Gustavus, repeated proofs
of esteem and considerate distinction.

King Oscar with his two crowns received as an inheritance two
important problems to be solved--the reorganization of the Swedish
army and the settlement of the difficulties between Norway and Sweden.
How he handled the latter has been told about in the preceding
chapter. The reorganization of the Swedish army was not effected until
after twenty years of parliamentary struggle, but is now, thanks to
the energies and perseverance of King Oscar, on a solid basis.

During the nearly one hundred years of peace which Sweden has enjoyed
under the rule of the Bernadotte dynasty, she has developed her
constitutional liberty and her material prosperity in a high degree.
The dreams of glory by conquest belonged to the days gone by, but in
the fields of peaceable industries she has attained a greatness which
the world begins to realize. At the expositions of Paris in 1867,
1878, and 1889, of Vienna in 1873, of Philadelphia in 1876, and of
Chicago in 1893, Swedish industry and art have taken part with
honor in the international competition. The railways of Sweden have
incessantly spun a more and more extended network of steel over the
country, opening connections for enterprises in new districts, and
furthering commerce and industrial art in a wide measure.

In all this advancement, King Oscar took a lively initiative, and that
his policy will be continued by his successor, who has been so short
a time on the throne, is not to be doubted, since the reins of
government were in his hands practically long before the death of his
father, who for several years suffered ill health. To say the least,
Sweden, in the nineteenth century, played an important part in the
strengthening of the great Scandinavian amalgamation, Norway, Sweden,
and Denmark, which greets the twentieth century,[c]

CHAPTER IV

THE RELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN

The religion of the ancient Norwegians was of the same origin as
that of all other Germanic nations, and, as it is the basis of their
national life, a brief outline of it will be necessary in these pages.

In the beginning of time there were two worlds: in the South was
Muspelheim, luminous and flaming, with Surt as a ruler; in the North
was Niflheim, cold and dark, with the spring Hvergelmer, where the
dragon Nidhugger dwells. Between these worlds was the yawning abyss
Ginungagap