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 HlSTOBICJL LlNGOISTIC, LlTMRY JND SCIENTIFIC 
 
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 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES; 
 
 IhEIR HlSTORICil, LiHGUISTIC, LiTEBiiRr AHD SCIENTIFIC 
 
 ELUCIDATED BY 
 
 QUOTATIONS FROM EMINENT AMERICAN, ENGLISH, 
 GERMAN AND FRENCH SCHOLARS. 
 
 NOTICKS OK TUESK LANGUAGES EY 
 
 U. W. LONGFELLOW, GEORGE P. MARSH, SAMUEL LAING, 
 
 ROBERT BUCHANAN, SCHLEGEL, MALLET 
 
 AND (JTHERS. 
 
 eELECTED AND EDITED WITH A FEW NOTES 
 
 BY R. B. ANDERSON, A. M., 
 
 INSTHL'CTOK AT THE VXIVEKSITY OF WISCONSIN. 
 
 MADISON, WIS.: 
 
 DEMOCRAT COMPANY TKINT, MIFFIJN ST. 
 1873.
 
 '~mA 
 
 To Ole j3ull, 
 
 •WHO WITU HIH CNKIVALED MUSIC UA3 CUEEUED THE nEAKTS Ol' 
 
 VILLIONS, AND BY I[IS GENIUS AND CONSTANT DEV0T10>f 
 
 TO HIS ART HAS DISTINGUISHED HIMSELF AND 
 
 HONORED NORWAY, 
 
 THESH PAGES ARE DEDICATED 
 
 AS A HUMBLE BUT SINCEKE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OK THE INTEREST 
 
 HE HAS MANIFESTED IN MAKING THE STUDENTS OF THIS COUNTBY 
 
 ACQUAINTED WITH THE HISTORY, LANGUAGE AND 
 
 LITERATURE OK NORWAY AND ICELAND, 
 
 ESPECIALLY BY PRESENTING ON 
 
 THE ITtii of may, 187'2, 
 ^ ^ANDSOME Norwegian J^ibrary 
 
 TO THE JJnIVERSITY OF y/'iSCONSIN. 
 
 R. B. ANDERSON.
 
 WHAT SCHOLARS SAY ABOUT 
 
 THE 
 
 Historical, Linguistic and Literary Value 
 
 OK THE 
 
 SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 " Der er (lagjja paa mast, och den visar ant N'orr, 
 Och 1 Norr er den elskade jord, 
 Jag vill folja de himmelska vindaraas gaang, 
 Jag vill styra tilbaka mot Nord." —Tigver. 
 
 ENGLISH VERSION. 
 
 " There's the flag on the mast, and it points to the North, 
 And the North holds the land that I love, 
 I will steer back to northward, the heavenly course 
 Of the winds, guiding sure from above." 
 
 Very little atteution has hitherto been given in this country to the 
 study of Scandinavian history, languages and literatures. We think 
 this branch of study would not be so much neglected, if it were more 
 generally known, what an extensive source of intellectual pleasure it 
 affords to the scholar, who is acquainted with it. We hope, therefore, 
 to serve a good cause by calling 3'our attention to a few quotations 
 from American, English, German and French scholars, who have given 
 much time and attention to the above named subjects, in order that it 
 may be known, what they, Avho may justly be considered competent to 
 judge, say of their importance. 
 
 I will add that I have not found a scholar, who has devoted himself 
 to this field of study and research, that has not at tlie same time become 
 an enthusiastic admirer of Scandinavian and particularly Icelandic 
 History, Languages and Literatures. 
 
 To scientific students it is sufficient to say, that a knowledge of the 
 Scandinavian languages at once introduces them to several writers of 
 great eminence in the scientific world. I will briefly mention a few:— 
 
 H.\.NS CuKiSTi.vN Oersted won for himself one of the greatest names 
 of the age. His discovery in 1820 of electro magnetism — the identity 
 of electricity and magnetism — which he not only discovered, but de- 
 monstrated incontestibly, placed him at once in the highest rank of
 
 6 ECANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 physical philosopliers, and has led to all the wonders of the electric 
 telegraph. His great work, "The Soul of Nature," in which he pro- 
 mulgates his grand doctrine of the universe, abundantly rejiays a care- 
 ful perusal. 
 
 Carl von Linne (Linnseus) is the polar star in Botany. He was 
 Professor at the University of Sweden, died in 1788, and is the founder 
 of the established system of botany. As LinnjEUS is the father of 
 botany, so Bekzelius might be called the father of the present system 
 of chemistry. He is one of the greatest ornaments of science. He 
 devoted his whole life sedulously to the promotion and extension of his 
 favorite science, and to him is the world indebted for the discovery of 
 many new elementary principles and valuable chemical combinations 
 now in general use. He filled the chair of Chemistry in the University 
 of Stockholm for forty-two years, and died in 1848. Scheele, Mi- 
 chael Sars, Hansteen, and several others, are men who have distin- 
 guished themselves by their labors in the field of science, natural 
 history and astronomy. And now read the following quotations, which 
 we have promised to present. 
 
 Mr. North Ludlow Beamish says: '-The national literature of 
 Iceland holds a distinct and eminent position in the literature of 
 Europe. In that remote and cheerless isle * * * * religion 
 and learning took up their tranquil abode, before the south of Europe 
 had yet emerged from the mental darkness, which followed the fall of 
 the Roman Empire. There the unerring memories of the Skalds and 
 Sagamen were the depositories of past events, which, handed down, 
 from age to age, in one unbroken line of historical tradition, were 
 committed to writing on the introduction of Christianity, and now 
 come before us with an internal evidence of their truth, which places 
 them amongst the liighest order of Idstorical records.'''' 
 
 "To investigate the origin of this remarkable advancement in men- 
 tal culture and trace the progressive steps, by which Icehmdic literature 
 attained an eminence which even now imparts a lustre to tliat barren 
 land is an object of interesting and instructice inquiry." 
 
 "Among no other people of Europe can the conception and birth of 
 historical literature be more clearly traced than amongst the people of 
 Iceland. Here it can l)e shown how memory took root, and gave birth 
 to narrative; liow narriitivc multiplied and increased until it was coni- 
 raitted to writing, nnd how the Avritten relation cventUiilly became 
 lifted iuid arraut'cd in chronolouical order." 
 
 Samuel Laino, Esq. — "All that men hope for of good go%'erument 
 Jind future improvement in their physical and moral condition — all 
 that civilized men enjoy at tliis day of civil, religious, and political
 
 SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 7 
 
 liberty — the British (^oiistitutiou, rt'prc.seutalive legislature, the trial by 
 jury, security of property, freedom of mind and person, the influence 
 of public opinion over tlie conduct of public affairs, the Reformation, 
 the liberty of the press, the spirit of the aire, — all llial is or lias been 
 (:f value to man in modern times as a member of society, either in 
 Europe or in America, may be traced to the spark left burning upon 
 our shores by the Norwegian barbarians." 
 
 " There seems no good grounds for the favorite and hackneyed course 
 of all, who have written on the origin of the British constitution and 
 trial by jury, who unriddle a few dark phrases of Tacitus concerning 
 Wit institutions of the ancient Germanic tribes, and trace up to that ob- 
 scure source the origin of all political institutions connected with 
 freedom in modern Europe. In tlie (Norwegian) Sagas we find, at a 
 period immediately preceding the first traces of free institutions in our 
 tiistory, the riule but very vigorous demonstrations of similar institu- 
 tions existing in great activit}^ among those northern people, who were 
 Piasters of the country under Canute the Great, who for two genera- 
 tions before his time had occupied and inhabited a very large portion 
 of it, and of whom a branch under William of Normandy became its 
 ultimate and permanent conquerors. It may be more classical to search 
 in the pages of Tacitus for allusions to the customs of the tribes wan- 
 dering in his day through the forests of Germany, which may bear 
 some faint resemblance to modern institutions, or to wliat we fancy our 
 modern institutions may have been in their infancy; but it seems more 
 consistent witli correct principles of historic research to look for the 
 origin of our institutions at the nearest, not at the most remote, source; 
 not at wliat existed 1,000 years before in the woods of Germany, among 
 people, whom we must believe upon supposition to have been the an- 
 cestors of the invaders from the north of the Elbe, who conquered 
 England, and must again believe upon supposition, that when this 
 people were conquered successively by the Danes and Normans, they 
 imposed their own peculiar institutions upon their conqueror.'?, instead 
 of receiving institutions from them ; but at what actually existed, when 
 the first notice of assemblies for legislative purpo.ses can bo traced in 
 English history among the conquerors of tlie country, a cognate peo- 
 ple, long established by previous conquests in a large portion of it, 
 wlio used, if not the same, at least a language common to both, and 
 who had no occasion to borrow from the conquered, institutions, whicli 
 were flourishing at the time in their mother country in much greater 
 vigor. It is in these (Norwegian) Sagas, not in Tacitus, that we have 
 lo look for the origin of the political institutions of England. The 
 reference of all matters to the legislatire assemblies of the people, is one 
 of the most striking facts in the Sagas."
 
 S SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 "The Sagas, although composed of natives of Icehiud, arc properly 
 Korire.diati literature. The events, persons, manners, language, belong 
 to Nonpiy ; and they are productions, which like the works of Homer, 
 ■of Shakespeare, and of Scott, are strongly stamped witli nationality of 
 'Character and incident." 
 
 "A portion of that attention, which has exhausted classic mythology, 
 and which has too long dwelt in the Pantheons of Greece and Rome, 
 and is wearied with fruitless eftbrts to learn something more, where, 
 perhaps, notliing more is to be learnt, may very profitably, and very 
 successfully, be directed to the vast field of Gothic research. For we 
 are Goths and the descendants of Goths — 
 
 'The men, 
 
 Of earth's best blond, of titles manifold." 
 
 And it well becomes us to ask, Avhal has Zeus to do with the Erockeu, 
 Apollo with Efiersberg, or Poseidon with the Northern Sea? The 
 gods of our fathers Avere neither Jupiter, nor Saturn, nor Mercury, but 
 Odin, Bragc, or Eger. If we marvel at the pictures of heathen divini- 
 ties as painted by classical liands, let us not forget, that our ancestors 
 had deities of their own — gods as mighty in their attributes, as refined 
 in their tastes, as heroic in their doings, as the gods worshiped in the 
 Parthenon, or talked about in the forum." 
 
 M. Mallet says: " History has not recorded the annals of a people, 
 who have occasioned greater, more sudden, or more numerous revolu- 
 tions in Europe than the Scandinavians, or Avliose antiquities, at the 
 same time, are so little known. Had, indeed, their emigrations been 
 only like those sudden torrents of which all traces and remembrance 
 are soon effaced, the indifterence that has been shown to them, would 
 have been sufficiently justified by the barbarism, they have been ap- 
 proached with. But, during those general inundations, the face of 
 Europe underwent so total a change, and during the confusion they 
 occasioned, such diflercnt establishments took place; new societies 
 were formed, animated so entirely by the new spirit, that the historj' of 
 our own manners and institutions ought necessarily to ascend back, 
 and even dwell a considerable time upon a period, wliich discovers to 
 us their chief origin and source. 
 
 "But I ought not barely to assert this. Pcrniit nie to support the 
 assertions by proof. For this purpose, let us l)riclly run over all the 
 dillerent revolutions, which this part of the world underwent, during 
 the long course of ages whicli its history comprehends, in order to 
 ace what share the nations of the north have had in producing them. 
 H we recur back to the remotest times, we observe a nation issuing 
 step I)}' ste|) fi'onv the forests of Scytliia, inoessautly increasing and
 
 SCANDINAVIAN LANCJUAGES. 9 
 
 dividing {n take possession of thf uncultivated countrios, wiiich it met 
 with in its progress. Very soon after, we see the same people, like a 
 tree full of vigor, extending long branches over all Europe; we see 
 them also carrying with tliem, wherever they came, from tlie borders 
 of the Black Sea to the extremities of Spain, of Sicily, and of Greece, a 
 religion simple and martial as themselves, a form of government dic- 
 tated by good sense and lil)erty, a restless unconquered spirit, apt to 
 take fire at the very mention of subjection and constraint, and a fero- 
 cious courag<! nourislied Ijy a savage and vagabond life. While the 
 gentleness of the climate softened imperceptibly the ferocity of those 
 wlio settled in the south, colonies of Egyptians and Phcenicians mix- 
 ing with them upon the coasts of Greece, and thence passing over to 
 those of Italj', taught them at last to live in cities, to cultivate letters, 
 arts and commerce. Thus their opinions, tlieir customs and genius, 
 were blended together, and new states were formed upon new plans. 
 Home, in the mean time arose, and at length carried all before her. In 
 proportion as she increased in grandeur, she forgot her ancient man- 
 ners, and destroyed, among the nations whom she overpowered, the 
 original spirit with which thej^ were animated. But this spirit contin- 
 ued unaltered in the colder countries of Europe, and maintained itself 
 tiiere like the independency of the inhabitants. Scarce could fifteen 
 or sixteen centuries produce there any change in that spirit. There it 
 renewed itself incessantly ; for, during the whole of that long interval, 
 new adventurers issuing continually from the original inexhaustable 
 country, trod upon the heels of their fathers towards the north, and, 
 being in their turn succeeded by new troops of followers, they pushed 
 one another forward, like the waves of the sea. The northern coun- 
 tries, thus overstocked, and unable any longer to contain such restless 
 inhabitants, equally greedy of glory and plunder, discharged at length 
 upon the Roman Empire, the weight that oppressed them. The bar- 
 riers of the Empire, ill defended by a people whom prosperity had 
 enervated, were borne down on all sides by torrents of victorious 
 armies. We then sec the conquerors introducing, among the nations 
 they vanquished, viz., into the very bosom of slavery and sloth, that 
 spirit of independence, and equality, that elevation of soul, that taste 
 for rural and military life, which both the one and the other had origi- 
 nally derived from the same common source, but which were then 
 among the Romans breathing their last. Dispositions and principles 
 so opposite, struggled long with forces sufflcicntly equal, but they 
 united in the end, they coalesced together, and from their coalition 
 sprung those principles and that spirit which governed afterwards, 
 almost all the states of Europe, and which, notwithstanding the differ- 
 ences of climate, of religion, and particular accidents, do visibly reign 
 in them, and retain, to this day. more or less, the traces of their first 
 common origin.
 
 10 SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 " It is easy to sec, from this short sketch, how great]}' the iiu'ioiis of 
 the eartli have influenced the different fates of Europe ; and if it be 
 worth while to trace its revolutions to their causes, if the illustration 
 of its institutions, of its police, of its customs, of its manners, of its 
 laws, be a subject of useful and interesting inquiry' ; it must be allowed, 
 that the anti(iuitics of the nortlL, that is to say, everything which tends 
 to make us acquainted with its ancient inhabitants, merits a share iu 
 the attention of thinking men. But to render this obvious by a partic" 
 ular example : is it not well known that the most flourishing and cele- 
 brated states of Europe owe originally to the northern nations whatever 
 liberty they now enjoy, either in their constitution, or in the spirit of 
 their government? For although the Gothic form of government has 
 been almost everywhere altered or abolished, have we not retained, in 
 most things, the opinions, the customs, the manners which that govern- 
 ment had a tendency to produce? Is not this, in fact, the principle 
 source of that courage, of that aversion to slaver}^, of that empire of 
 honor which characterized in general the European nations; and of 
 that moderation, of that easiness of access, and peculiar attention to 
 the rights of humanity, which so happily distinguish our sovereigns 
 from the inaccessible and superb tyrants of Asia? The immense ex- 
 tent of the Roman Empire had rendered its constitution so despotic 
 and military, many of its Emperors were such ferocious monsters, its 
 senate was become so mean spirited and vile, that all elevation of sen- 
 timent, everything that was noble and manly, seems to have been for- 
 ever vanished from their hearts and minds; insomuch that if all 
 Europe had received the yoke of Rome in this her state of debasement, 
 this fine part of the world reduced to the inglorious condition of the 
 rest could not have avoided falling into that kind of barbarity, which 
 is of all others the most incurable; as, by making as many slaves as 
 there are men, it degrades them so low as not to leave them even a 
 thought or desire of bettering their condition. JJut nature had long 
 jirepared a remedy for such great evils, in that unsubmitting, uncou- 
 (lucrable spirit, with which she liad inspired the people of the north; 
 and thus she made amends to the human race, for all the calamities 
 which, in other respects, the inroads of these nations, and the over- 
 throw of the Roman Empire produced. 
 
 "'I'he great prerogative of Scandinavia (says the admirable author of 
 tlie Sjjirit of Laws), and what ought to recommend its inabitauts be- 
 yond every people ui)on earth, is, that they aflbrded the great resource 
 to the liberty of Europe, that is, to almost all the liberty that is among 
 men. The Goth Jornande, adds he, calls the north of Europe the forge 
 of mankind. I should rather call it the forge of those instruments 
 which broke the fetters manufactured in the south. It was there those 
 valiant nations were bred, who left their native climes to destroy ly
 
 SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 11 
 
 rants aud slaves;, and so lo tfucli nun ihal ii:i.tiuc huviiiu- made llu-in 
 equal, uo reason could be assigned lor lln-ir lii'coiniiiL'; dcpciidcnl, but 
 Ihc'ir mutual happiness." 
 
 U. W. IjONGpellow is an enthusiastic admirer of tlie Scaiulinavian 
 languages. Of the Icelandic he says: " The Icelandic is as remarka- 
 ble as the Anglo-Saxon for its abruptness, its obscurity and the bold- 
 ness of its metai)hors. Poets are called Songsmitiis; — poetry, the 
 Language of the Gods, — gold, the Daylight of Dwarfs; the heavens, the 
 Scull of Ymer; the rainbow, the Bridge of tiie Gods; — a ))attle, a Bath 
 of Blood, the Hail of Odin, the Meeting of Shields; — the tongue, the 
 Sword of Words ; — river, the Sweat of Earth, the Blood of the Valleys ; — 
 arrows, the Daugiiters of Misfortune, the Hailstones of Helmets; — the 
 earth, the Vessel that lloats on the Ages: — the sea, the Field of Pirates; 
 — a ship, the Skate of Pirates, the Horse of the Waves. The ancient 
 Ski'ild (Bard) smote the strings of his harp with as bold a hand as the 
 Berserk smote his foe. When heroes fell in battle he sang to them in 
 his Drapa, or death-song, that they had gone to drink "divine mead in 
 the secure and tranquil palaces of the gods" in that Valhalla upon 
 whose walls stood the watchman, lleimdal, whose ear was so acute, 
 that lie could hear the grass grow in the meadows of earth, and the 
 wool on the backs of sheep, lie lived in a credulous age; in the dim 
 twilight of the past. He was 
 
 '•Tlie sky-lark in the ditv.u of rean*, 
 The poet of tlie morn." 
 
 In the vast solitudes around him, the heart of Nature beat against his 
 own. From the midnight gloom of groves, the deep-voiced pines an- 
 swered the deeper-voiced and neighboring sea. To his ear, these were 
 not the voices of dead, but of living things. Demons rode the ocean 
 like a weary steed, and the gigantic pines flapped their sounding 
 wings to smite the spirit of the storm. 
 
 " Still wilder and fiercer were these influences of Nature in desolate 
 Iceland, than on the mainland of Scandinavia. Fields of lava, ice- 
 bergs, gej'sers, and volcanoes v.ere familiar sights. When the long 
 ■winter came, and the snoAvy Ileckla roared through the sunless air, 
 and the flames of the Northern Aurora flashed along the sky, like 
 phantoms from Valhalla, the soul of the poet was filled with images 
 of terror and dismay. lie bewailed the death of Baldur, the sun; and 
 saw in each eclipse the horrid form of the wolf, Managamer. who swal- 
 lowed the moon and stained the sky with blood." 
 
 Benjamin Lossing says: "It is back to the Norwegian Vikings we 
 mtist look for the hardiest elements of progress in the United States."
 
 12 SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 13. F. De C'o.sta. — " Let us remember that in vindicating the North- 
 men we honor tliose who not only give us the first knowledge possessed 
 of the American continent, but to whom we are indebted for much 
 beside that we esteem valuable. For we fable in a great measure when 
 we speak of our Saxon inheritance. It is rather from the Northmen 
 that we have derived our vital energy, our freedom of thought and in 
 a measure that we do not yet suspect our strengtli of speech. Yet, 
 happily, the people are fast becoming conscious of their indebtedness ; 
 so that it is to be hoped, that the time is not far distant, when the 
 Northmen may be recognized in their right, social, political and liter- 
 ary characters, and at the same time, as navigators assume their true 
 position in the Pre-Columbian Discovery of America." 
 
 " The twelfth century was an era of great literary activity in Iceland, 
 and the century following showed the same zeal. Finally Iceland 
 possessed a body of prose literature superior in quantity and value to 
 that of any other modern nation of its time. Indeed the natives of 
 Europe at this period had no prose literature in any modern language 
 spoken by tlie people." 
 
 "Yet while other nations were without a literature, the intellect of 
 Iceland was in active exercise, and works were produced like the 
 Eddas and Heimskringla, works which being inspired by a lofty 
 genius will rank with the writings of Homer and Herodotus while 
 time itself endures." 
 
 Says Sir Edmund Head, in regard to the Norwegian Literature of 
 the ticelfth century : " No doubt there were translations in Anglo-Saxon 
 from the Latin, by Alfred, of an earlier date, but there was in truth no 
 vernacular literature. I cannot name," he says, " any work in high or 
 low German prose, which can be carried back to this period. In France, 
 prose writing cannot be said to have begun before the time of Ville- 
 hardouin (1204) and Joinville (1202), Castilian prose certainly did not 
 begin before the time of Alfonso X, (1253), Don Juan Manvel, the au- 
 thor of Conde Lucanor, was not born till 1282. The Cronica General de 
 Espana was not composed till at least the middle of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury. About the same time the language of Italy was acquiring that 
 softness and strength, wliich Avere destined to appear so conspicuously 
 in the prose of Boccaccio and the writers of the next century. 
 
 " Of course there was more or less poetry, yet poetry is something 
 that i.s early developed among the rudest nations, while good iiros^ 
 t(;lls that a jk'oijIc liavc Ijecome liighly advanced in mental culture." 
 
 WiujAM and Mauy Howitt. — "Tlicrc is nothing besides the Bible, 
 wliicli sits ill a divine tianquilil y of uiiai)i)r<)achablc nobility, like 3'
 
 SCANDINAVAIN LANGUAGES. 13 
 
 King of Kings iimongst all otlicr ))()oks, unci tiie poem ol' Ilouicr itself, 
 '.vhioli can compare in all the eloment-s of greatness with tlie Eddu. 
 There is a loftiness of stature, and a growth of muscle about it which 
 no poets of the same race have ever since reached. The obscurity 
 which hangs over some parts of it, like the deep sliadows crouching 
 mid the ruins of the past, is probably the result of delapidations; but 
 amid this stand forth the boldest masses of intellectual masonry. We 
 livv Hstonislu'd at the wisdom which is shaped into ma.tims, and at the 
 lempi'stuous strength of passions to which all modern emotions appear 
 puny and constrained. Amid the bright sun-light of ti far-oft" time, 
 surrounded by the densest shadows of forgotten ages, we come at once 
 into the midst of gods and heroes, godesses and fair women, giants and 
 dwarfs, moving about in a world of wonderful construction, unlike 
 any other worlds or creations which God has founded or man has im- 
 agined, but still beautiful beyond conception. 
 
 The Icelandip poems have no parallel in all the treasures of ancient 
 literature. They are the expressions of the souls of poets existing in 
 the primaeval and unefFeminated earth. They are limnings of men 
 and women of godlike beauty and endowments, full of the vigor of 
 simple, but impetuous natures. There are gigantic proportions about 
 them. Tliere are great and overwhelming tragedies in them, to which 
 those of Greece only present any parallels. 
 
 " The Edda is a structure of that grandeur and importance, that it 
 ■ deserves to be far better known to us generally, than it is. The spirit 
 in it is sublime and colossal." 
 
 Pi.iNY ^IiLES. — "The literary hi.story of Iceland in the early ages of 
 tlie Kepublic, is of a most interesting character. When we consider 
 tlie limited population of the country, and the many disadvantages 
 under which they labored, tlieir literature is tJte mod remarkable on record. 
 The old Icelanders, from the tenth to the sixteenth century, through a 
 period of the history of the world, when little intellectual light beamed 
 from the surrounding nations, were as devoted and ardent workers in 
 the fields of history and poetry as any community in the world under 
 tlie most favorable circumstances. Springing from the old Norse or 
 Norwegian stock, they carried the language and habits of their ances- 
 tors with them to their island home. Though a very large number of 
 inir English words arc derived direct from the Icelandic, yet the most 
 learned and indefatigable of our lexicographers, both in England and 
 America, have acknoAvledged their ignorance of tliis language. 
 
 "The Eddas abound in mythological machinery tp an extent quite 
 equal to tlie writings of Homer and Virgil.''
 
 14 SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 The learned German writer Schlegel, in his '•Esthetics and Miscel- 
 kmeou^ Works," says : " If any monument of the primitive northern 
 -world deserves a place amongst the earlier remains of the south, the 
 Icelandic Edda must be deemed worthy of that distinction. The spir- 
 itual veneration for nature, to which the sensual Cxreek was an entire 
 stranger, gushes forth in the mysterious language and prophetic tradi- 
 tions of the Northern Edda with a full tide of enthusiasm and inspira- 
 tion sufficient to endure for centuries, and to supply a whole race of 
 future bards and poets with a precious and animating elixir. The 
 vivid delineations, the rich glov.iug abundance and animation of the 
 Homeric pictures of the world, are not more decidedly superior to the 
 misty scenes and shadowy forms of Ossiau, tha7i the Northern Edda is 
 in its sublimity, to the works of Hesiod." 
 
 Prof. Dk. Dietkicii asserts "that the Scandinavian literature is ex- 
 traordinarily rich in all kinds of writings." 
 
 Hon. George P. Marsh. — " It must suffice to remark, that in the 
 opinion of those most competent to judge, the Icelandic literature has 
 never been surpassed, if equalled, in all that gives value to that portion 
 of history which consists of spirited delineations of character and 
 faithful and lively pictures of events among nations in a rude state of 
 society." 
 
 " That tlie study of the Old-Northern tongue may have an important 
 bearing on English grammar and etymology, will be obvious, when it 
 is known that the Icelandic is most closely allied to the Anglo-Saxon, 
 of which so fev,' monuments are extant; and a slight examination of 
 its structure and remarkable syntactical character, will satisfy the 
 reader, tliat it may well deserve the attention of the philologist." 
 
 KoBERT Bucu.VNAN, the eraincut English writer, in reviewing the 
 modern Scandinavian literature, says : " While German literature dark- 
 ens under the malignant star of Deutschthum, while French art sick- 
 ening of its long disease crawls like a Leper through the light and 
 Avholesome world, while all over the European continent one wan in- 
 fluence or another asserts its despair-engendering sway over books 
 and men, whither shall a bewildered student fly for one deep breath of 
 pure air and wholesome ozone? Goethe and Heine have sung their 
 best — and worst, Alfred de Musset is dead, and Victor Hugo is turned 
 politician. Grillparzer is still a mystery, tlianks partly to the darken- 
 ing medium of Carlyle's hostile criticism. From the ashes of Teutonic 
 transcendentalism rises Wagner like a Phoenix, — a bird too uncommon 
 for ordinary comprehension, but to all intents and purposes an anomaly
 
 SCANDINAVIAN LANi^.UAGE.'. 15 
 
 :it hot. One liro.i of iiiiomalic.s, one .'•iokciis of polilios, one shudders 
 at tlic petticoat literature first created at AVeimar; and looking east and 
 west, rangina; Avitli a true invalid's hunger the literary liorizon, one 
 searches for something more natural, for some form of indigenous 
 and unadorned loveliness, wherewith to fleet the time pleasantly, as 
 they did in the golden world." 
 
 " That something may be found v.ilhout traveling very far. Turn 
 northward, in the footsteps of Teuftdsdroehk, traversing the great 
 valleys of Scandinavia, and not lialting until, like llic piiilosopher, 
 vou look upon ' that slowly heaving Polar Ocean, over which in the 
 utmost north the great sun hangs low.' (>uiet and peaceful lies Norway 
 yet as in the world's morning. The Hocks of summer tourists alight 
 upon her shores, and scatter themselves to their numljerless stations, 
 without disturl)ing the peaceful serenity of her social life. * * * 
 The government is a virtual democracy, such as would gladden the 
 lieart of Gambetta, the Swedish monarch's rule over Norway being 
 merely titular. There are no hereditary nobles. There is no 'gag' on 
 the press. Science and poetry alike flourish on thi.5 free soil. The 
 science is grand as Nature herself, cosmic as well as jnicroscopic. The 
 poetry is fresh, light, and pellucid, worthy of the race and altogether 
 free from Parisian taint." 
 
 BjOiiNSTJERKE Bjornson,"''= one of the most eminent of living Nor- 
 wegian authors, is something more than even the finest pastoral tale- 
 teller of this generation. He is a dramatist of extraordinary power. 
 He does not possess the power of imaginative fancy shown by Werge- 
 hmd** (in such pieces as Jan ean IIuysumH Blomsler-'^tijkke) nor "W'elha- 
 vcn'sf refinement of phrase, nor the wild melodious abandon of his 
 greatest rival, the author of Peer Gyut;X but to my thinking, at least, 
 he stands as a poet in a far higher rank than any of these writers. 
 
 In more than one respect, particularly in the loose, disjointed struc- 
 ture of the piece, ''Sigurd Slemhc,'" reminds one of Goethe's "f/o(?<3," 
 but it deals with materials far hardc-r to a.>simihite, and is on the whole 
 
 *Bjornstjernk Bjornson was born in 18:33, has written several novels, dramas, 
 iind epic poemti. "Sigurd Slembe" \i u drama, publi.shed in 186',i, of whicU Robert 
 Ouchiinan say.s " It is, besides being a masterpiece by its author, a drama of which 
 any living European author might be justly proud." Several of his novels, including 
 "Arne," "A Happy Boy," "The Fishermaiden," have been translated into English. 
 
 ** HKNIRK .\KN0Li) WEP.CKL.VND was bom iu 18C8 and died in 1845. He is the Jhjron 
 01" the North, llis work comprise nine ponderou.s volumes. He excelled in lyrics. 
 
 + JOHN SEB.VSTI.VN Wkiji.vvfn, born in 1807, still living. Remarkable for the ele- 
 gance and chastene:<s of his style. No poet has more beautifully and correctly de- 
 .joribed the natural scenery of Norway. 
 
 .{The author of " Peer Gynt" is HKNBIK IBSE.V, born in 1828. Was engaged by Ole 
 Bull as instructor at the theatre in Bergen, which position he occupied six years. He 
 has written several dramatic works, chiefly of a polemic and exceedingly satirical 
 nature. Many of his countrymen preler Ibsen to Bjornson.
 
 16 SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 
 
 a finer picture of romantic manners. Audliild (a prominent character 
 in "'Sigurd Skmhe,'''') is a creation worlliy of Goethe at his best; worthy, 
 in my opinion, to rank witli Cla?rchen, Marguerite, and Mignon, as a 
 master-piece of delicate cliaracterization. And here I may observe, 
 incidentally, that Bjornson excels in his pictures of delicate feminine 
 types, — a proof, if proof were wanting, that he is worthy to take rank 
 with the highest class of poetic creators." 
 
 1 might add to tlie above quotations from Max Muller, the brothers 
 Grimm and many other eminent writers, but in the first place this ar- 
 ticle is long enough, and in the next place the works of the last named 
 authors are accessible to all, who may wish to investigate this subject 
 further. My object has been to show, that, in the opinion of those 
 who have studied the subject, the North has a history, language, and 
 literature deserving and amply rewarding some attention from Amer- 
 ican students. Of the good or ill performance of this task the reader, 
 whom I earnestly request carefully to consider tlie contents of these 
 pages, must be the judge.
 
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