. Social Scandinavia in the Viking age. -ent day sense, and also causeways. Perhaps it was mostfrequently employed in the latter sense, for during theperiod considered the areas of undrained land were muchgreater than at present, and in many cases the only wayin which transportation across them could be made pos-sible was by means of high, artificial roadways madeof layers of stone and gravel, edged by large heavy stonesheld in place by long ones standing on end, or by a sup- 2 Norges Gamle Love, I, 44. TRANSPORTATION 193 port of wood.^ But bridges in the present meaning ofthe term were also b
. Social Scandinavia in the Viking age. -ent day sense, and also causeways. Perhaps it was mostfrequently employed in the latter sense, for during theperiod considered the areas of undrained land were muchgreater than at present, and in many cases the only wayin which transportation across them could be made pos-sible was by means of high, artificial roadways madeof layers of stone and gravel, edged by large heavy stonesheld in place by long ones standing on end, or by a sup- 2 Norges Gamle Love, I, 44. TRANSPORTATION 193 port of wood.^ But bridges in the present meaning ofthe term were also built. These were of wood, though attimes upon stone foundations, and some of them spanneddeep, wide streams.* No charge appears to have beenmade for their use, but the law protected the ownersagainst damage done to them.^ The coming of Christianity gave an impetus through-out the North to road-making and the building of cause-ways, bridges, and ferries; for wayfarers, like the sickand the poor, were regarded as fit objects for pity and. Fig. 24. Engraving from Rune Stone from a Memorial Bridge. (FromSteenstrups Danmarks Ilistorie.) assistance. Hence, pious men and women constructedfree public aids to traveling for the good of their ownsouls, or for the benefit of the spirits of departed rela-tives or friends. These were known as *soul-roads,soul-ferries, and soul-bridges; and in Sweden, atleast, they were marked by monumental stones bearingexplanatory inscriptions. The famous Sigurd Fafnes-bane runestone (Fig. 24), which dates from the first halfof the eleventh century, is such a memorial stone, and itwas used to mark a bona fide bridge.^ 3 Lindqvist, Sune, Ramsundsbron vid Sigurdsristningen och en Stor-bondesliikt fran Missionstiden, in Fornviinnen, 1914, p. 203.*Ihid., 204-205. 5 \orf!es (lamle Love, T, 106. 6 Brii, in Cleasby and Vigfussons Dictionary; Lindqvist. Ramsunds-bron vid Sigurdsristningen, in Fornviinnen, 1914, 203-204. The inscrip- 194 SOCIAL SCANDINAVIA IN THE VI
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