mankind are divided according to the particular light in which every one views the subject *.

CHAPTER II.

THE GROUNDS OF THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF DENMARK, AND OF THE DIFFERENT OPINIONS CONCERNING IT

ON whatever side we direct our inquiries concerning the first inhabitants of Denmark, I believe nothing certain can be added to the account given of them above. It is true, if we will take for our guides certain modern authors, our knowledge will not be confined within such scanty limits. They will lead us step by step through an uninterrupted succession of kings and judges, up to the first ages of the world, or at least to the deluge: and there, receiving the descendants of Noah, as soon as they set foot out of the ark, will conduct them across the vast extent of deserts into Scandinavia, in order to found those states and kingdoms, which subist at present. Such is the scheme of Petreius, Lyschander, and other authors, who have followed what is called, among Danish historians, the Gothlandic hypothesis †, because it is built upon some pretended monuments found in the isle of Gothland, on the coast of Sweden: monuments which bear so many marks of imposition, that at present they are by common consent thrown aside among the most ill-concerted impostures.

The celebrated Rudbeck, a learned Swede, zealous for the glory of his countrymen, has endeavoured no less to procure

The reader will £nd, by referring to page 40, that at the present day, the Finnic language is no longer a mystery, and that so far from having nothing in common with that of any neighbouring people," it has every thing in common with the languages of the neighbouring Lapps, Esthonians, Permians, &c.-ED.

+ Petreius is a Danish author of the sixteenth century: Lyschander was historiographer to King Christian IV. His work, printed in Denmark at Copenhagen in 1669, bears this title: "An Abridgment of the Danish Histories from the beginning of the world to our own times." The arguments on which these authors found their accounts did not merit the pains which Torfæus and others have taken to refute them. The reader may consult, on this subject, the last-cited writer, in his "Series of Kings of Denmark," lib. i. c. 8.

them the honour of a very remote origin; as if, after all, it were of any consequence, whether a people, who lived before us so many ages, and of whom we retain only a vain resemblance of name, were possessed sooner or later of those countries, which we quietly enjoy at present. As this author joined to the most extensive learning an imagination eminently fruitful, he wanted none of the materials for erecting plausible and frivolous systems. He has found the art to apply to his own country a multitude of passages in ancient authors, who probably had never so much as heard of its name. According to him Sweden is the Atlantis of which Plato speaks, and for this reason he assumed that word for the title of his book. He makes no doubt but Japhet himself came thither with his family, and he undertakes to prove the antiquity of the Scandinavians by the expeditions, which according to him they have undertaken in the remotest ages*. The first of these he places in the time of Serug, in the year of the world 1900: the second under the direction of Hercules in the interval be

tween the years 2200, and 2500. He lays great stress upon the conformity which is found between the names, manners, and customs of certain nations of the South and those of the North, to prove that the former had been subdued by the latter; which he affirms could never have been done, if Scandinavia had not been for a long time back overcharged, as it were, with the number of its inhabitants. It doubtless cannot be expected that I should go out of my way to encounter such an hypothesis as this: it is very evident that Rudbeck and his followers have falsely attributed to the Goths of Scandinavia, whatever the Greek or Latin historians have said of the Getae, or Goths, who dwelt near the Euxine. And as to the arguments brought from a resemblance of names, we know how little these can be depended on. Proofs of this kind are easily found wherever they are sought for, and never fail to offer themselves in support of any system our heads are full of.

Having thus set aside these two pretended guides, there only remains to choose between Saxo Grammaticus + and * See Ol. Rudbeck. Atlantica, cap. xxxv.

Saxo, surnamed, on account of his learning, Grammaticus, or the Grammarian, wrote about the middle of the twelfth century, under the reigns of Valdemar the First, and Canute his son. He was provost of the cathedral

Thermod Torfæus. The first of these supposes that a certain person, named Dan, of whom we know nothing but that his father was named Humble, and his brother Angul, was the founder of the Danish monarchy, in the year of the world 2910 that from him Cimbria assumed the name of Denmark; and that it hath been ever since governed by his posterity. Saxo himself takes care to give us, in his preface, the grounds on which his account is founded. These are, first, the ancient hymns or songs, by which the Danes formerly preserved the memory of the great exploits of their heroes, the wars and most remarkable events of each reign, and even sometimes the genealogies of princes and famous men. Secondly, the inscriptions which are found up and down in the north, engraven on rocks and other durable materials. He also lays great stress on the Icelandic chronicles; and on the relations which he received from archbishop Absalon. It cannot be denied but Saxo's work is written with great elegance for the time in which it was com posed, but the rhetorician and the patriot are every where so apparent, as to make us distrust the fidelity of the historian, In short, to be convinced that this high antiquity, which he attributes to the Danish monarchy, is extremely uncertain, we need only examine the authorities on which he builds his hypothesis. Torfæus, a native of Iceland, and historiographer of Norway, has shown this at large in his learned "Series of Kings of Denmark." He there proves that those songs, from which Saxo pretends to have extracted part of what he advanced, are in very small number; that he can church of Roschild, then the capital of the kingdom. It was the celebrated Absalon, archbishop of Lund, one of the greatest men of his time, who engaged him to write the history of Denmark; for which he furnished him with various helps. Sweno, the son of Aggo, contemporary with Saxo, wrote also, at the same time, and by the command of the same prelate, a history of Denmark, which is still extant. But this author seems rather to lean to the Icelandic hypothesis; for he differs from Saxo in many essential points, and in particular concerning the founder of the monarchy, who, according to him, was Skiold the son of Odin, the same who, according to the Icelandic chroni cles, was the first King of Denmark.

Thermodius Torfæus, who was born in Iceland in the last century, and died about the beginning of the present, had received his education at Copenhagen, and passed the greatest part of his life in Norway. He was a man of great integrity and diligence, and extremely conversant in the antiquities of the north.

quote none of them for many entire books of his history; and that they cannot exhibit a chronological series of kings, nor ascertain the date of any one event. Nor could the inscriptions, adds he, afford greater assistance to that historian; they contain very few matters of importance, they are for the most part eaten away with time, and are very difficult to understand *. With regard to the Icelandic chronicles, Torfæus thinks that they might have been of great use to Saxo, had he often consulted them; but this, notwithstanding his assertions, does not sufficiently appear, since they rarely agree with his relations. Finally, the recitals of archbishop Absalon are doubtless of great weight for the times near to those in which that learned prelate lived; but we do not see from whence he could have drawn any information of what passed a long time before him. Upon the whole, therefore, Torfæus concludes, with reason, that Saxo's first books, that is to say, nearly half his history, scarce deserve any credit so far as regards the succession of the kings, and the dates of the principal events, although they abound with various passages, which contribute to throw light on the antiquities of the North. Having thus overturned the hypothesis of that ancient historian, let us now see whether Torfæus is equally successful in erecting a new one in its stead.

The knowledge which this learned man had of the old Icelandic language, enabled him to read a considerable number of ancient manuscripts, which have been found in Iceland at different times, and of which the greatest part relate to the history of that island and the neighbouring countries. After having carefully distinguished those which appeared to him most worthy of credit, from a multitude of others which strongly savoured of fiction and romance, he though the had found in the former materials for drawing up a complete

*Wormius had read almost all those which are found in Denmark and Norway, as Verelius had also done the greatest part of those which subsisted in his time, in Sweden. Both of them agree that they scarce throw any light upon ancient history. To be convinced of this, one need only to examine the copies and explanations they have given of them. See "Olai Wormii Monumenta Runica," lib. iv., and "Olai Verelii Runagraphia Scandica Antiqua," &c. Since Verelius's work there has been published a complete collection of all the inscriptions found in Sweden, by John Goransson; at Solm, 1750, folio.

series of Danish kings, beginning with Skjöld the son of Odin, who, according to him, began his reign a short time before the birth of Christ. Thus he not only cuts off from history all the reigns which, according to Saxo, preceded that era ; but he changes also the order of the kings, which succeeded it; affirming that Saxo had one while inserted foreign princes, another while lords or powerful vassals; that he had represented as living long before Christ some who did not reign till many years after; and that, in short, he has visibly enlarged his list of monarchs, whether with design to flatter his own nation by making the Danish monarchy one of the most ancient in the world, or whether he only too credulously followed the guides who seduced him.

It will appear pretty extraordinary to hear a historian of Denmark cite, for his authorities, the writers of Iceland, a country cut off, as it were, from the rest of the world, and lying almost under the northern pole. But this wonder, adds Torfæus, will cease, when the reader shall be informed, that from the earliest times the inhabitants of that island have had a particular fondness for history, and that from among them have sprung those poets, who, under the name of Skalds, rendered themselves so famous throughout the north for their songs, and for the credit they enjoyed with kings and people. In effect, the Icelanders have always taken great care to preserve the remembrance of every remarkable event that happened not only at home, but among their neighbours the Norwegians, the Danes, the Swedes, the Scots, the English, the Greenlanders, &c. The first inhabitants of Iceland were a colony of Norwegians, who, to withdraw themselves from the tyranny of Harold Hárfagra, retired thither in the year 874; and these might carry with them the verses and other historical monuments of former times. Besides, they kept up such a constant intercourse with the other people of the north, that they could readily learn from them whatever passed abroad. We must add, that the odes of these Icelandic Skalds were continually in every body's mouth, containing the genealogies and exploits of kings, princes, and heroes: and as the poets did not forget to arrange them according to the order of time, it was not difficult for the Icelandic historians to com-. pose afterwards, from such memoirs, the chronicles they have left us.