Page 75 - BV2

the words of Professor C.F. Hawkes: 'Europe was con- Greece who settled there after their pre-Exodus arrival
nected through the Aegean with the Orient....A single in Argos furnish a glimpse of the seafaring urge of
Egyptian product can now appear in the Aegean, Hun- Dan's pioneering clan. It is more than possible that the
gary, Moravia, Spain, Brittany, Holland, and above all, classical Voyages of Argo were stories based upon ac-
in Britain. Baltic amber appears in abundance from tual adventures of Danite sea and river rovers.
about this same date of 1600 B.C., in the Aegean
world. Pursuing the absorbing theme of Phoenicio-Danite
Vikings, and in line with Thor Heyerdahl's account of
According to Thor Heyerdahl the term 'Vikings' is Viking trading enterprises between Europe and Bible
somewhat of a misnomer: 'No ethnic groups were ever lands, it must not be forgotten that, remarkably, the
known as Vikings. To be a Viking was the term for a portaging rivers used by them bear names attributable
temporary undertaking of adventurous seafaring men to the patriarch, Dan. This patronymic cries aloud for
who sailed from Norway, Denmark and Sweden, to recognition from the river names, Don, Dnieper, Dni-
carry out commando raids abroad. To refer to all Scan- ester, Danube -- and even in the names Scandinavia and
dinavians of the first millennium as Vikings is as unfair Danmark, recalling the occasion when important Dan-
as referring to all seventeenth century Englishmen as ites split away from the main body of their tribe in Ca-
buccaneers.' naan, to move far to the north. Significantly, they
named their new home 'after the name of Dan, their
What drove the Vikings away from their northern father.'
homes? Certainly not famine or lack of living space.
'These Scandinavians,' says Heyerdahl, 'must have had Doubtless, tribes of Israel other than Danites made
an inherent urge to travel, long before their arrival in their way westwards to settle in what is now Norway,
their northern homes, according to their own early sa- Sweden, and Denmark. Most of their descendants,
gas, their first recorded king was forced by Roman made the final move across the North Sea to the Isles
military expansion to leave the Black Sea area, east of of the West -- the Appointed Place sanctuary 'prepared
the River Don on a northern migration, first to Den- of God' for the regathering and consolidating of His
mark and then to Sweden and Norway. They were sur- Servant People, against the time when they should
prisingly familiar with the complicated portage routes make their contribution, albeit fallible, to the prepara-
down the Russian rivers to Asia Minor and the Roman tion under His Son for His coming Kingdom on earth.
Empire, long before "Viking" times.'
There were those, however, who -- satisfied with their
Heyerdahl gives a fasinating saga-based account of Vi- Scandinavian homeland 'stayed put.' We are prepared to
king voyages to Greenland and on to North America. believe that the incomparable Thor Heyerdahl stems
There were certainly Viking settlements in Greenland, back to these -- surely to a roving Danite.
directly facing America, across the Davis Strait. From
there, from time to time, there returned to Scandinavia -- Wake Up! June, 1980.
intrepid mariners, bringing produce from the new col-
ony and information regarding its hardy colonists.
Woe to the Shepherds!
The 'goings on' of the Vikings is forcibly reminiscent
of the exploits and characteristics of the Israelite clans Through the centuries of her history, Israel has often
-- the Mariners of Israel -- whose allotted territory been dubiously served by her leaders. On numerous
marched and mingled with that of 'Phoenician' Tyre and occasions God, through His prophets, rebuked, re-
Sidon. The tribe of Dan was acknowledged to be a proached and castigated them for lack of vision, dere-
predatory community, with a propensity for the sea. liction of duty and 'feeding themselves,' instead of
Did not valiant Deborah petulantly rebuke the Danites their charges. The 'shepherds' here referred to [in
for attending to their ships, when they should have Ezekiel 34] are clearly the Israel nation's leaders in all
been lending their aid to hard-pressed brethren of Is- fields -- religious, political, social, economic -- and,
rael against Sisera? There can be no reasonable doubt of them, God's chilling stricture is that He will hold
that Danite sailormen produced the ships of Solomon's them answerable for His people's wayward conduct and
merchant 'navy of Tarshish' which companied with for the disastrous consequences which it has brought
those of Hiram of Tyre. The Danaans of ancient upon them.

75