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FROM -THE- LIBRARY- OF 
 - OTTO - BREMER- 
 
ON 
 
 NATIONALITY AND LANGUAGE 
 
 IN 
 
 THE DUCHY OF SLESWICK 
 
 SOUTH JUTLAND. 
 
 & ,<o / 
 
 J f ^f >^ 
 
 YIP\ 
 
 
 COPENHAGEN. 
 
 PRINTED IN THIELES OFFICE. 
 
 1848. 
 
JD U * 71 
 
 ON THE LANGUAGE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 PEOPLE IN THE DUCHY OF SLESWICK OR SOUTH 
 
 JUTLAND. 
 
 IT is first during the latest time that a consciousness 
 of the signification of what is characteristic and peculiar 
 to a people and which is found in every real nation, has 
 been properly awakened. This peculiarity has its founda- 
 tion, partly ?n that stamp which a people, from its first 
 beginning, lias received from the creator, partly in that 
 series of influences which the people during its historical 
 development has been the object for, either from the 
 exterior nature under which it has grown up, or from 
 the general historical events that have had an influence 
 thereon. Both together form by their operations what is 
 called the nationality of a people. This nationality reveals 
 itself in all the different w.ays in which the manners and 
 customs of a people express themselves: in habits and 
 customs, domestic life, laws and public institutions, litera- 
 ture and language, and particularly in the last, as the 
 nearest and most direct expression of the public mind. 
 These peculiarities, on the whole, give a certain character 
 to a people, whereby they distinguish themselves from all 
 other nations. 
 
The consciousness of nationality stands in a near 
 relation to political freedom, whether this has already 
 entered exteriorly, or is only present in the longing after, 
 and a fitness for it. If a people be not yet awakened 
 to any feeling for independence in the political life, they 
 will not trouble themselves much about their nationality. 
 They will only cling by habit to the customs, institutions 
 and language of their forefathers, but not find it particu- 
 larly mortifying if any damage be done to them, if only 
 the injury be not too violent and at the same time brings 
 \\iili ii inconveniences in the course of their daily life. 
 But when the citizen learns to regard himself as being 
 no Iciigc-j a tool in the state machine without a will of 
 his own, but as an independent member of the political 
 community: then will the language of his nation, its na- 
 tional peculiarities and those particular connexions and 
 institutions arising from its historical development become 
 important and dear to him, because he acknowledges 
 that they belong to his and his nations being, and are 
 the real grounds in which the freedom of political institu- 
 tions must take root, if they are to gain durability and 
 become a blessing and just as he himself now 7 respects 
 them as sacred, he will also demand respect for them 
 from others. 
 
 It is therefore, that a consciousness of nationality 
 has entered so late in life. It has come after or with 
 freedom, and therefore only in those countries which have 
 already either attained freedom or are on the way to it. 
 The first French revolution brought freedom to a conside- 
 rable part of Europe, but in most places the enjoyment 
 thereof was confined to the educated middle -classes and 
 the more wealthy parts of the community. But these 
 belong more to the general European refinement and this 
 
is, just on account of its generality in several respects, 
 rather inimical than favorable for nationalities. Therefore 
 it was not to be expected , that those classes of society 
 who gained most by the first French revolution, would 
 care much about nationality. Nor did they do so. Real 
 popularity must seek its foundation amongst the people 
 themselves. With the second French revolution a further 
 step forward was made, and with the third the freedom 
 of the people gained its decisive victory, as all classes 
 of the people who possessed municipal independence, were 
 also acknowledged as entitled to take part in the manage- 
 ment of civic affairs. 
 
 It is between the second and third French revolution 
 that the question of nationality has developed itself to its 
 present importance. The meaning of nationality which, 
 on contemplations on the future state of the world hitherto 
 lay entirely out of calculation, has become an universal 
 power, one of the great powers that sets the people in 
 motion and leads them forward in their development. It 
 has shown itself mighty, both to loosen and to bind. It 
 has cast a cleft between the Slavonic and German tribes 
 which nothing will easily be able to fill up, and it has 
 bound the Scandinavian nations together in one fraternal 
 community that promises a bright future to the North. 
 
 The question however appeared differently, accor- 
 ding to the different conditions of the people. With those 
 nations, for instance the French, who had no danger 
 to fear for their nationality from an intruded and superior 
 power, the sympathy for nationality showed itself parti- 
 cularly in a zealous occupation with the peoples' history 
 and language, in a care for the preservation of national 
 buildings and monuments, and bringing them forth from 
 forgetfulness , in an endeavour to purify the language 
 
from newly introduced elements and the employment of 
 a number of words from the old vigorous language, in 
 a respect for old national customs and habits and the 
 representation of them through the medium of writings 
 and pictures, and in the publication of the treasures of 
 ancient literature. 
 
 In many other parts of Europe where nationality 
 found itself under the pressure of a foreign race, who 
 governed in the land, this question produced one of the 
 most important materials of fermentation for the troubles 
 of the time. Thus in Bohemia and Poland and the many 
 other Slavonic tribes that are incorporated in Germany 
 and Hungary, with the Magyars, with the Flemings and 
 with the natives of Sleswick. Here also, as in other 
 places, they sought to aw r aken and nourish the national 
 feeling by literary and artistic activity, by keeping the 
 language and the national literature in honour, and labour- 
 ing for its diffusion among the people. But here \vere 
 also questions of a still graver nature. It concerned the 
 elevation of a degraded nationality and its release from 
 that pressure with which a foreign people had insultingly 
 and violently burthened it through centuries. Here the 
 matter became more serious and penetrated deeper: the 
 people were moved inwardly, and the combat attained 
 that stamp of earnestness which always accompanies a 
 contest where w^hole nations rise to maintain a sacred 
 right against protracted oppression. 
 
 It is worth while to regard the position a little closer, 
 which Germany has taken up with respect to the national 
 movements that have taken place within its territories or 
 in the neighbouring countries. This position has been 
 quite singular. However divided Germany has always 
 feecn. in itself, and however little effect it may have had 
 
on the course of historical events, when it should be 
 determined by exterior acts and deeds for in this, 
 Germany has mostly fallen short, and stopped half way 
 yet it has developed a mighty influence on the general 
 cultivation of mankind, by remarkable discoveries and by 
 going foremost for the development of religion and im- 
 portant branches in the domains of the more abstruse 
 matters of science. It has likewise revealed a remarkable 
 power of extension by propagating its customs and lan- 
 guage far beyond its national boundaries. It has no colo- 
 nies, in the common acceptation of this word, but it has 
 great colonies of language in the other parts of the globe. 
 An immense part of Germany itself is inhabited by Sla- 
 vonic tribes : the East side of Holstein , the whole of 
 Mecklenburg, Pomerania, East and West Prussia, Bran- 
 denburg, a considerable part of Saxony, the whole of 
 Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Lusatia, Carinthia, Stiria and 
 Istria have an original Slavonic population. All these 
 tribes have been deprived of their language, their laws, 
 their national usages, habits and customs, partly by vio- 
 lence and sanguinary oppression during the many centu- 
 ries they have been under German rulers. With some 
 the national elements have been entirely rooted out, with 
 others their nationality has only been depressed, not sup- 
 pressed, as if buried alive until the day of resurrection 
 and retaliation came, which showed astonished Germany 
 that what it thought was long since dead and enshrined, 
 w^as still in full life and invoked Nemesis. 
 
 Germany went over her own boundaries, oppressing 
 the original nationality and language of the population, of 
 Courland, Revel, and Livonia. The Germans also forced 
 their way into Denmark and made conquests, which how- 
 ever, when the real circumstances are presented in a 
 
true light, and not as they are deformed by cunning 
 versions and by a calculated confounding of the popular 
 language or mother tongue and a taught school-language, 
 were in extent much less than one should expect from 
 the neighbourhood of a people who have everywhere 
 shown themselves as the destroyers of language and na- 
 tionality amongst those foreign tribes they came in con- 
 tact with. And yet it was supported here in its Germa- 
 nising endeavours by unusually favorable outward circum- 
 stances , but at the same time met with a race that showed 
 a toughness in resistance which wSs entirely wanting 
 in the Slavonic nations, and in whose character enduring 
 firmness and an affectionate adherence to the customs and 
 usages of their forefathers is such an honorable trait 
 
 History cannot exhibit any other nation that has 
 been, to that degree, so destructive of language as the 
 German: led by a certain aristocratic conception of the 
 unequal value of languages, w 7 hich shows itself in the 
 terms high German and low German and as if to bring 
 about that national unity in the languages which they 
 wanted in a political relation, Germany has outraged her- 
 self on her own flesh and blood. The low German was 
 an entirely independent language, and as much used as 
 the high German, with an extensive and valuable litera- 
 ture, developed in a number of dialects and branches, 
 diffused amongst a population of several millions, who 
 used it both in daily and public life, in speaking and 
 writing, and as a diplomatic language extending far beyond 
 the boundaries of Germany. The low-German , which as 
 a book -language allures the reader by its naturality and 
 beautiful simplicity directly the opposite of high-German 
 has long since been expelled from literature and the schools, 
 and is more and more supplanted from existence by the 
 
high-German which will not bear anything by the side of 
 it except that which is itself. 
 
 When the national movements amongst the Slavonic 
 tribes began to stir with greater power and gained im- 
 portance day by day, Germany observed a peculiar position. 
 At first it appeared as if she would not notice them, as 
 if the whole had no particular importance, but would soon 
 fall of itself. Afterwards when a whole Slavonic literature 
 arose, when distinguished scholars treated the language 
 and history of Bohemia and other Slavonic lands in com- 
 prehensive and erudite works, when important literary 
 memorials of the ancient Slavonic literature were again 
 brought to light, when a successful endeavour showed 
 itself to unite several of the separated Slavonic spoken 
 dialects in one language: then the Germans took it 
 from the literary and learned side: it was an interesting 
 literary phenomenon; a new and great field, that was 
 opened for exploration; they likewise disputed about ,one 
 thing and another, warned the Slavonians leniently, not 
 to fall to any partiality and above all to take good care 
 not to transfer that to life and the real circumstances 
 which might have its rights within the domains of litera- 
 ture and research. But the Slavonic authors went further: 
 they spoke, not alone with pride about the ancient glory 
 of the Slavonic tribes, but also with acerbity about their 
 present oppression , about the debasement of the language 
 and nationality, about the wrongs which the Slavonians 
 had been compelled to suffer from the Germans from time 
 immemorial, nay, they even ventured to speak of a unity 
 of the Slavonic nationality in opposition to a German unity, 
 and a future for the Slavonians which was painted in 
 such colours as in no way pleased the Germans. The 
 latter now answered with contempt: the Slavonians have 
 
10 
 
 never played any part in history, never performed any- 
 thing great, nor will they ever come to do so; the 
 Slavonians were a spiritually barren race, a sterile 
 field, which could only become something by being fer- 
 tilized with the rich German spirit; the German press 
 overwhelmed the leaders of the Slavonian movement with 
 contumely, ransacked their private and public life, made 
 them suspected by the government as dangerous persons, 
 and above all showed the same levity, coarseness and 
 want of truth which it has, since then, clearly shown, to 
 its full extent, in the treatment of the affairs of Denmark 
 and the North. The knot was tightened more and more 
 and now T the tie has broken. The Germans drew the 
 sword against the Poles in Posen, and a sanguinary battle 
 broke out, which is not yet ended. The Bohemians, 
 Moravians and several Slavonic tribes declared that they 
 w 7 ould not acknowledge any unity with Germany, they 
 w 7 ould have a unity for themselves, a Slavonian kingdom. 
 The Germans answer: Slavonian nationality within the 
 territories of Germany is a chimera, Bohemia, Moravia, 
 Silesia, Lusatia are ancient German countries, the rulers 
 of Bohemia have also been German Electoral Princes; 
 besides it is not possible for Germany to acknowledge 
 the demands of the Slavonians, for what should become 
 of that great and united Germany, if nationality should 
 thus be set forth as the greatest and highest aim, if all 
 the Slavonic tribes in Germany should recover their na- 
 tionality and independence? The Germans have laid 
 their hand on the sword; but they have bethought them- 
 selves before drawing it; for the Slavonians are numerous 
 and powerful, and the combat would be terrible. 
 
 Whilst the Germans will hear nothing whatever of 
 the Slavonian nationality they have shown much sympathy 
 
il 
 
 for the endeavours of the Flemings to maintain their 
 nationality against the prevailing French -Wallon race in 
 Belgium. And this not without reason; for the Flemings 
 are virtually and originally a German race , who , with 
 difficulty, defend themselvelves against the downfall of 
 their nationality which is threatened by the French popu- 
 lation of Belgium, whose language is the prevailing one 
 in the direction of state affairs and all public concerns. 
 The Germans have also often spoken here, and at times 
 warmly, but their voice has however been gradually more 
 and more suppressed, as they became observant that, 
 with respect to the precarious situation in the Rhine pro- 
 vinces and its position to France, it was of importance 
 to preserve a good and friendly understanding with Belgium. 
 About Alsace which however was a worthy aim for 
 great Germany, both because it has here an equally great 
 power to dispute with, and because it would here not 
 be a question of making new conquests, but only to regain 
 what they have lost there is now and then heard a 
 little, but a very little sound, but it is soon deafened, 
 and the reason is not difficult to guess. About Courland, 
 Revel, and Livonia they have at times spoken a little 
 more loudly and complained of the oppression which the 
 German population is said to suffer in these so-called 
 German countries. The circumstances and state of affairs 
 here are only known from German descriptions , and we 
 are certainly not too bold, when we suppose that there 
 is a little exaggeration in them. So much is certain, that 
 the Germans here, are not the original inhabitants, but 
 have forced their way in, and with violence and sanguinary 
 oppression subdued the land, and afterwards carried on 
 a severe dominion during several centuries. They have 
 therefore only a right to be protected within the boun- 
 
12 
 
 daries they have now once acquired, but have no valid 
 claim to be henceforward the sole rulers over a subdued 
 population. 
 
 But the cry of the Germans has been highest and 
 loudest against Denmark which subdues the ancient German 
 land Sleswick with its old German population. No word 
 in the German language, so rich in strong words, has 
 been strong enough to express the pain and exasperation 
 which Germany feels on account of little Denmark having 
 dared to stand up against the great German nationality 
 and with many artifices and violence endeavoured to expel 
 Germanism from one of its old "districts". Thousands 
 and thousands of newspapers and pamphlets have showered 
 down in Germany, from the one end to the other, with 
 the deafening scream about the wrongs and contumely 
 that Sleswick's German nationality has suffered from fana- 
 tical Danes. They have invoked arms in order to save 
 ill treated Sleswick from its Danish oppressors and by 
 incorporating it with Germany which it long since and 
 for many reasons belongs to by right secure it 
 from such injustice in future. The call to arms has been 
 obeyed: a Prussian host and armed crowds from the 
 furthest districts of Germany have broken in over Den- 
 marks territories. They have set up the standard of 
 nationality, and it is a very good and useful flag, for 
 nationality is a powerful word in our days, it finds en- 
 trance every where. There is only this critical circum- 
 stance, that Germany on this occasion comes in such a 
 strong contradiction with itself. If they turn towards the 
 East, then they say, nationality is a nuisance that must 
 be put down by force; if they turn towards the North, 
 they say, nationality is a sacred right that must be main- 
 tained by arms. Towards the East they level their bayonets 
 
13 
 
 against nationality, towards the North they level them for 
 nationality. This appears to be a contradiction. But 
 perhaps there is more consistency in the proceedings of 
 the Germans than they themselves will acknowledge. Per- 
 haps it is not quite correct with respect to Sleswick's 
 German nationality, perhaps the flag of nationality that 
 the Germans set up against the North, is a false flag, 
 serviceable to conceal another aim, for instance: that 
 of gaining a good country, with excellent harbours and 
 a particularly convenient situation for Germany's aspirations 
 and desires to play a part amongst the naval powers of 
 Europe. If now it should on closer examination appear, 
 that Sleswick has in the main point, not a German but 
 a Danish nationality, though much oppressed by the Ger- 
 mans, so there would, as far as the Germans are con- 
 cerned, amongst other things be thus much gained, that 
 they not only on the present occasion act quite consistently, 
 both in the East and in the North, but also act and 
 have acted entirely in consistence with that principle which 
 goes through their history, namely, wherever they could 
 do so, to suppress foreign languages and foreign natio- 
 nality. We will now examine this matter more closely 
 in the following chapter. 
 
14 
 
 II. 
 
 As soon as the dawn of history begins, and its re- 
 lations and events gain a more precise form, in the history 
 of Denmark and the North at the close of the eighth century, 
 we find the frontiers of the kingdom of Denmark at the 
 Eider. From the district around this river the Danes 
 began their first serious battle against the Germans, when 
 Charles the Great, during his expedition against the Sax- 
 ons , marched forward into Northern Germany and at 
 last crossed the Elbe. The example of the subdued Sax- 
 ons taught the Danes what they had to expect, if they 
 did not in time place themselves in a posture of defence 
 against the advancing conqueror. The Kings of Jutland, 
 Sigfred and his bold brother Godfred, had an eye to 
 the danger. Sigfred gave protection to the Saxon chief 
 Widekind who had fled to him, and supported him in 
 his daring but unsuccessful resistance against the Franks. 
 Godfred himself went out with a powerful army and fleet. 
 He forced his way triumphantly by the Rhine and Elbe, 
 took the fortress which the Emperor had constructed by 
 the Elbe, subjugated Friesland and made such progress 
 that he thought, of visiting Charles the Great in his city 
 of Aix-la-chapelle, where he resided. The Emperor was 
 however delivered from this active and dangerous enemy r 
 as Godfred was assassinated by one of his own men. 
 
15 
 
 His less warlike successor Hemming entered into a treaty 
 of peace with the Emperor at a meeting which was held 
 near the Eider in the year 841. The Eider was thereby 
 fixed and settled as the frontiers of the kingdom of Den- 
 mark against Germany *). Godfred had however before 
 his death undertaken a work which, just as much as his 
 martial exploits, makes him worthy to be called the first 
 powerful guardian of the Danish frontiers against the 
 Irermans. This w 7 ork was the remarkable Kurvirke or 
 Kurgraven (from kure to guard), a high w^all of defence 
 with a single entrance, protected by a moat in front, 
 which he, during Charles the Great's threatening progress 
 in Holstein in the year 808, had thrown up, extending 
 from the Southernmost point of Slie-bay, called Selker- 
 Noor, to the river Trene or its arms. This wall was 
 for more than a century a defence for the Danes against 
 attacks from the South, until Thyra Dannebod, Queen of 
 Denmark secured the frontiers by a still firmer and stronger 
 fortified wall of defence , the celebrated Dannevirke , which 
 began at the most Western point of the Slie, a little 
 Northward from Godfred's wall, and ran in about the 
 same direction as it, but further towards the West, to 
 the marshes which surround the Eastern banks of the 
 Irene. In order to complete the works of defence to- 
 wacds the South another wall was still wanting to cover 
 the peninsula of Svanso. Such a one was found, and 
 without doubt still older than Godfreds, under the name 
 of the old wall or the East wall, which towards the 
 East began not far from the inward bay of Egernfiord, 
 which is called Vindeby-Noor, and in a Westerly direction 
 
 *) Adam of Bremen, hist. eccl. Pertzii scriptor. Germ, vol VII, p. 291 
 
 Hemming mox pacem cum imperatore faciens , Egdoram flu- 
 
 vinm accepit regni terminum. 
 
16 
 
 towards East -beck, which streamlet with its bed in a 
 deep valley, surrounded by steep declivities, formed a 
 sufficient defence for the rest of the way until that bay 
 of the Slie which is called Store -Noor. 
 
 By these several defences Denmark was as if closed 
 against attacks from her continental enemies in the South 
 If the enemy would go round about, on the outside of the 
 walls, on w 7 hich the sons of the soil, at times in union 
 with their Norwegian brothers, guarded the entrance, he 
 met with invincible hindrances; first towards the East 
 the broad Egernfiord, then, to the West of the old -wall, 
 the Slie which was here also of considerable breadth, and 
 lastly to the West of Kurvirke and Dannevirke impassable 
 morasses extended on both sides of the Irene until they 
 reached the land of the brave Frisians. Besides, at that 
 time the whole extent between the Irene and Eider was 
 waste and uninhabited, filled partly with immense forests, 
 as Eastward Danischwald, more Westward Jernved, and 
 partly with morasses and endless moors, so that a hos- 
 tile army, if it passed the Eider, had very considerable 
 difficulties to surmount before it could yet come to the 
 works of defence. , 
 
 But these fastnesses are not alone remarkable as 
 works of defence, but still more so because they in con- 
 junction with Egernfiord and the Slie likewise formed the 
 national frontier, the boundary towards the South, for 
 the Danish people and the Danish language: North of 
 this boundary all was Danish, South of it all was German, 
 as the waste districts situated to the South of it were by 
 degrees settled on by the natives of Holstein. This na- 
 tional frontier does not however date first from Godfred's 
 time; it can be proved to have existed some centuries 
 before. Namely when the Angles who dwelt in these 
 
17 
 
 districts and had their chief seat around the Slie, began 
 their emigrations to England in the middle of the fifth 
 century, the Danes who lived Northward of these districts 
 went into the deserted land and mingled with the Angles 
 who had remained behind. These two tribes, of whose 
 near relationship the old tradition bears witness, as it 
 makes their progenitors Dan and Angul brothers*), melted 
 easily together and their language equally so, so that 
 there remained but few peculiarities of that which origi- 
 nally separated them. 
 
 Towards the West the Danes had the Frisians for 
 neighbours. This once so strong and powerful, but now, 
 at least in a national respect, degenerating race, dwelt 
 along the coasls of the German ocean, towards the South 
 from the Eider, to\vards the North to Hbier, and in 
 ancient times without doubt still further Northwards; towards 
 the East their frontiers extended likewise further than now, 
 and towards the West the sea has taken from them the 
 half or perhaps still more of their original possessions. 
 
 If we go a little further forward in time, to the 
 close of the ninth century , we meet with a new witness of 
 the Danish people's boundary. This is the Norman Ottar, 
 who at that time undertook t\vo voyages to the Northern 
 lands and gave an account of them to King Alfred of 
 England. In this account he says about the city of Sles- 
 wick, or as it was called in Danish, Hedeby: "That har- 
 bour, which they call Hedeby (aet Haedum), lies between the 
 Wends, the Saxons and Angles, and belongs to the Danes." 
 
 *) The first words in the work of the old Danish historian Saxo, 
 who lived in the twelfth century are: Dan igitur et Angul, a quibus 
 Danorum coepit origo, patre Humblo procreali, non solum con- 
 ditores gentis noslra3, verum etiam rectores fuere. 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 Some years later, about the year 934, the political, 
 but not the national frontiers of Denmark, suffered an 
 encroachment for a time , as Henry Fuglefaenger *) passed 
 the Eider and after a successful war with Gorm the elder, 
 compelled him to surrender the waste districts between 
 the She and the Eider, which were added to the former 
 existing frontier county in the North of Holstein. Adam 
 of Bremen, w^ho lived about a century after this event, 
 adds from a verbal account, that the Emperor placed a 
 Margrave in the town of Sleswick itself and sent a German 
 colony thither. But this account, which in no way agrees 
 with what we know about the erection and situation of 
 Dannevirke, and what w 7 e besides know of the later his- 
 tory of these districts, has at length been given up by 
 the German historians , who have long disputed it with 
 the Danish. Dannevirke now continued as before to be 
 the national boundary, and it did not last a hundred 
 years before the above named patch of land between the 
 She and the Eider was again united with the kingdom, 
 as the Emperor Conrad the Second again surrendered it 
 to Canute the Great in the year 1027. The Eider thus 
 again became Denmark's frontier, and thus it has been 
 ever since. 
 
 Adam of Bremen may still be cited, who speaking as 
 a cotemporary witness , places the Danish people's Southern 
 boundary towards Germany, by the She. His words are: 
 "Nearest to us (the Germans) dwell the Danes, whom they 
 call Jutes, right up to the She." It is evident, as well 
 from the words themselves, as because he in another 
 place, somewhat previous, places the Eider as the frontier 
 
 *) The bird-catcher. 
 
1!) 
 
 boundary of the kingdom, that he by the Slie indicates 
 the nation's and the language's boundary. 
 
 From what has been adduced it may be clearly seen, 
 that the Danes have dwelt towards the South as far as 
 the Slie and Egernfiord from the remotest times, and that 
 the Eider, for more than a thousand years, with but a 
 short interruption, has been the frontier of the kingdom 
 towards Germany. 
 
 But there are other witnesses, just as important as 
 those adduced, for the rest incontestible historical proofs, 
 witnesses which the men of that time have themselves 
 handed down to us and wherein they speak with their 
 own voices to us, their late successors. These are the 
 runic stones with their old northern inscriptions. Several 
 such are found in South Jutland or Sleswick, namely the 
 stone near Haderslev, the stone in the church -yard wall 
 of Biolderup near Aabenraa, and a runic inscription with 
 iron nails In the chapter -house door in Sleswick. The 
 most remarkable and important however for the object 
 we have in view are the two so-called Sleswick Runic 
 stones. They were found in the years 1796-98 on the 
 most historic soil that Denmark certainly possesses , between 
 Thyre's Dannevirke and Godfreds Kurvirke, close by 
 Selker-Noor and near to the hamlet of Wedelspang. 
 
 The greater inscription reads thus: 
 
 purlf risj)i stin J>onsi himj)igi Svins eftir Erik felaga 
 sin ies varj> dauj>r f>o dregjar (drengjar) satu um Haif>abu, 
 ian han vas sturimadr, drigr (drengr) harda godr. 
 
 In the language of the present time it is: 
 "Thorlef reiste denne Steen, Svends Hjembo, efter sin 
 Stalbroder Erik, som dode, da Hellene sade om (beleirede) 
 Hedeby, men han var Styrmand en saare god Helt." 
 
20 
 
 "Thorlef erected this stone, inmate of Swain after his 
 comrade Erik, who died, when the heroes sat around 
 (besieged) Hedeby, but he was steersmate, a very good 
 hero." - 
 
 On the other runic stone the inscription is shorter: 
 Osfridr gerdi kumbl oft Sutrik sun sin 
 
 That is in the present language: 
 
 "Osfrid gjorde Ho'i efter Sutrik sin Son" 
 Osfrid made (a) hill after Sutrik his son. 
 These two runic inscriptions, which may certainly be re- 
 ferred to the tenth century, agree in the form of the 
 language with the old northern tongue, which was spoken 
 in all the lands of the North, and the contents have the 
 same peculiarly short and pithy manner of expression 
 that distinguishes the runic monuments. These inscrip- 
 tions therefore become undeniable witnesses that the same 
 tongue, which was heard everywhere in the North, has 
 also been heard by the banks of the Slie, and that the 
 popular customs and ideas, and the particular expressions 
 for them, which prevailed amongst the inhabitants of the 
 North on the whole, were also equally at home here. 
 
-21 
 
 III. 
 
 IF we go from ancient times to the following cen- 
 turies , we find in them, for a long period, only a con- 
 tinuation of the former, we find still in South as well as 
 North Jutland a Danish people, Danish language, Danish 
 manners and customs, laws, constitution and institutions. 
 
 The ancient Danish divisions into jurisdictions and 
 districts (Sysler and Herreder) was found already from 
 the olden time in South Jutland. When the North in the 
 year 1404 by the institution of the archbishoprick in 
 Lund w r as liberated from its former dependence to the 
 Hamburg archiepiscopal chair, the bishop of Sleswick or 
 Hedeby came, as it was natural, under the jurisdiction 
 of the archbishop of Lund, as well as the bishops of 
 Odense and Ribe who had certain parts of South Jutland 
 under their direction, and the general ordinances issued 
 by the archbishop of Lund had also validity in South 
 Jutland. As for agricultural matters, the division of land 
 and taxation were the same in South Jutland as in the 
 rest of Denmark. The provincial towns with their al- 
 dermen, burgomaster, town courts, townships , town judges, 
 peculiar taxation had their municipal institutions in com- 
 mon with the other Danish provincial towns. About the 
 guilds and the laws of these corporations w r hich played 
 so important a part in the development of the provincial 
 towns, the same remark applies. The constitutional law 
 
22 
 
 and the administration of justice was not different in South 
 Jutland from that of North Jutland or any other provinces 
 of the kingdom. Causes were decided here as well aj> 
 in other provinces of the kingdom in the court of the dis- 
 trict and at the general assizes by jurymen and crown 
 jurors, under the presidency of the commissary or magis- 
 trate; and the proofs were brought forward by witnesses 
 or co -jurors, in older times also by the ordeal of hot 
 iron. If the disputants were not satisfied with the deci- 
 sion of the district court and general assizes, they could 
 appeal to the supreme court of justice of the kingdom 
 called Dannehof. In matters of war it was the same as 
 with the other public institutions: what was usual in North 
 Jutland, Sealand and Sconia, was also applicable to South 
 Jutland. The noblemen (haermsend) were bound to constant 
 military service with their horses, and for this service they 
 enjoyed freedom from certain taxes called Inne , Sto'd and 
 Leding. For the sake of the naval force South Jutland 
 was divided, as other parts of Denmark, in certain districts 
 with their steersmen, the inhabitants had the same duties 
 here as elsewhere. The diocese of Sleswick is said to 
 have sent out one hundred and thirty ships on being 
 summoned to the naval armament. 
 
 In all these things w r e meet with pure Danish ele- 
 ments and nothing German. 
 
 The most important memorials that belong to a people's 
 nationality are its laws, both by their contents and lan- 
 guage. They show what customs and public institutions 
 the people have had, and what language they have used 
 in daily and public life*). 
 
 *) In our days, when a considerable part of Danish citizens have 
 been governed, up to the very latest tunes, by German laws and 
 
The oldest of the South Jutland laws is the elder 
 Sleswick municipal law, given without doubt in the year 
 1201, which was not alone used in the town of Sles- 
 wick, but was also made the foundation of the municipal 
 la\vs of Sonderborg, Flensborg and Egernfiord; amongst 
 the towns of North Jutland it was admitted for a long 
 time in Horsens and J^beltoft, and probably in several 
 other places. The oldest manuscript w 7 e have is in Latin, 
 but a number of Danish words, which remain standing 
 unchanged in the Latin text, bear witness of the people's 
 language. Perhaps there has also been an original 
 Danish text. 
 
 The next is the remarkable Jutlandish law, written 
 in Danish, and received by the people, during the reign 
 of King Waldemar the Victorious, at a general Dannehof 
 or parliament in Wordingborg in the month of March 
 1241. It was adhibited in North and South Jutland and 
 Funen with the adjoining islands. 
 
 The Flensborg municipal law, received by the citizens 
 probably between the years 1284 and 1295 and con- 
 firmed by Duke Waldemar the Fourth, is written in 
 Danish. 
 
 The Haderslev municipal law given by Duke Wal- 
 demar the Fourth in 1292 and agreed to by the citizens, 
 likewise in Danish. 
 
 Two appendices are found to the Flensborg muni- 
 cipal law drawn up in Danish, the one in the year 1295 
 the other in 1321. 
 
 And lastly \ve have the Aabenraa corporation law, 
 given by Duke Waldemar the Fifth, in the year 1335. 
 
 edicts, one cannot certainly dra\v such a conclusion, but in Iho 
 middle ages it \vas very different. 
 
It is in Latin, and has besides a low German text; 
 but the many Danish words that are interwoven with the 
 Latin text, witness sufficiently of the people's language 
 and seem to suppose an original Danish text. 
 
 Of Danish laws there are no later to be found in 
 South Jutland than the last quoted, unless it should be 
 the guild-law for St Canute's guild in Flensborg, which 
 with all probability may be referred in its present form 
 to the beginning of the fifteenth century. But there exists 
 a great number of Danish documents and letters written 
 in South Jutland in the first part of the fifteenth century. 
 
 The language in which these law s from the middle 
 ages are indited, distinguishes itself only from the Danish 
 of the present day , in so far as it stands nearer to an- 
 tiquity, which will be evident by some examples: 
 From the preface to the Jutland law from 1241. 
 
 1. Logh seal weerae aerlic, raet, tholic, aefter landens 
 wanae, quemlich oc thyrftaelic oc openbar, sua at alkie 
 men mughae witae oc understands huat loghaen saegher; 
 oc werae ei go'rth eth scriuen for ennens manz saerlic 
 wild, num efter ollae menz thirft, ther i land bor. jEngi 
 man seal do'mae geen then logh ther kunnung giuer oc 
 land taker with, num efter then logh seal land domes 
 oc raettes. Then logh ther kunnung giuer oc olt land 
 taker with, den ma han ei eftertakae seller skiftae uten 
 lanzens wili, ellcr oc hun ware openbare gen guth, oc 
 tho mattae han aey tha gen landsens williae*). 
 
 *) The law must be honest, right, tolerable, after the custom of the 
 country, convenient, necessary and clear, that all men may know 
 and understand what the law commands ; and the law must not 
 be made or written for the particular interest of any man, but for 
 the good of all men ; who live in the country. Nobody must judge 
 
From the appendix to the municipal law of Flens- 
 borg from the year 1321. 
 
 2. Thaennae skra , thaer haer naetheen ear scriusen, gaf 
 hsertog Erik, hsertogh Waldemar sun, oc both at scriuaes 
 til therae anna3n skra i Flensborgh, thet aar fra wars 
 hserrse aar thusind winter och thry hundreth wintaer oc 
 en wintaer och tiugh, sanctae Pauls dagh eeftser iul. 
 
 2. 01139 the lyus til altser offera3s, thsem skal 
 kirki Prasst hauee; hwa thsem burtfdr, baetaer sum fyme 
 ser sauth, och foraa tho the samaB lyus igeen*). 
 
 During the disputes which Erik of Pomerania carried 
 on with the Counts of Holstein in the first part of the 
 fifteenth century, about the possession of Sleswick, im- 
 portant information was brought forth respecting that land's 
 nationality. For the King just sought to support his right 
 by proving, that, between South Jutland and the rest of 
 Denmark, there prevailed and always had prevailed a 
 fellowship in nationality, language, laws and the admini- 
 stration of justice. For this object he had juridical wit- 
 nesses examined at the different assizes of the kingdom, 
 amongst others in Ribe, in 1421, when a numerous 
 
 against the law, that the king gives and the country admits; but 
 after this law the country shall be judged. The law, which the 
 king gives and the country admits, he (the king) must not abro- 
 gate nor change, unless it be openly against God; and even then, 
 he must not against the will of the country. 
 
 *) This law, which is written below, the Duke Erik, son of Duke 
 Waldemar gave and ordered to be written to the other law of 
 Flensborg, in the year of our Lord a thousand winters and three 
 hundred winters and one winter and twenty (1321) St Pauls day 
 after Christmas. 
 
 2. All the candles . that are offered to the altar, belong to 
 the priest of the church, and if any body carries them away, 
 he shall atone for it, as is said before, and besides restore the 
 candles. 
 
assembly met here, both from North and South Jutland, 
 laymen and churchmen, noblemen and citizens. Amongst 
 those who met were the bishops of Sleswick and Ribe 
 with their chapters, the abbots of Lygum cloister in North 
 Sleswick and Rye cloister in Angel, the burgomaster and 
 town councillors of Ribe, Haderslev, Aabenraa and Flens- 
 borg. They made a declaration in the Thing or general 
 assembly that Sleswick belonged to Denmark, " Which 
 thereby is to prove, that those in South Jutland use Danish 
 laics and have kept them since the law was made. For 
 the second , that all old privileges, which the chapters and 
 God's house have in Sleswick, Ribe and Haderslev, them 
 the kings of the realm have given. For the third, then 
 we know where the frontier boundaries are, that Denmark 
 and Holstein are separated, so much the more, as their 
 language in South Jutland is Danish to tliis day!' 
 
 W# 
 The original rjms thus: 
 
 "Huilket der aff er at beuise, at de vdi Sonder Jud- 
 land bruge Dansk ret oc haffue den holdet, siden Loven 
 gjordis. For det andet, at alle gamle Priuilegier, som 
 Capitele oc Guds hus haffue til Slesuig, Ribe, Haderslb'ff, 
 dem Laffuer Rigens Konger vdgiffuet. For det Tredie, 
 da veed mand huor Grentzerne ere, at Danmark oc Holsten 
 skillies adt, til met, da er jo deris Sprock vdi Sonder 
 Judland Danske paa denne Dag." 
 
 A few years later, in 1424, when the dispute was 
 referred to the decision of the Emperor Sigismund, the 
 imperial councillor Doctor Louis de Cataneis Veronensis 
 was sent to Flensborg to examine witnesses in the matter. 
 These declarations of all the witnesses, on oath, tend 
 to prove that South Jutland had, and from time imme- 
 
27 
 
 morial had had a language, laws and constitution in com- 
 mon with North Jutland and the rest of Denmark. 
 
 The Archbishop Peter Lykke of Lund thus declared 
 that the same laws , established customs and ordinances, 
 which the inhabitants of the kingdom of Denmark had 
 fixed for themselves were also in effect in South Jutland, 
 in the same manner as in North Jutland; he had seen 
 it thus during the whole of his life, and particularly the 
 last fifty years, which he well remembered. 
 
 Bishop Hans Jernskjeeg (John Ironbeard) of Roeskilde 
 bore witness that South Jutland belonged to Denmark, 
 because the whole land had one and the same language 
 and used the same laws as North Jutland and the rest 
 of Denmark, and the tribunals employed, both in matters 
 of inheritance and in all other cases the same edicts and 
 established usages as everywhere in Denmark. 
 
 Bishop Lage Glob of Viborg expressed himself in 
 the same manner respecting the agreement in the language 
 and laws, and added, that if in a judicial dispute in 
 South Jutland they were not satisfied with the given 
 verdict, the cause was taken before the general juridical 
 assembly of the kingdom in Viborg or to the king's judi- 
 cial assizes. 
 
 Marten Hansen (Johnson), officer in Viborg, made, a 
 declaration, that all the provincial towns, and provinces 
 in South Jutland used the same laws and legal provisions 
 as. North Jutland; the inhabitants had also the same mo- 
 ther-tongue, with the exception of the Frisians, whose 
 language and laws is different from the others. 
 
 Olavus , abbot of Bye cloister in Angel , bore witness, 
 that South Jutland belonged to Denmark, and that the 
 castle of Gottorp, as the proverb ran, w r as the lock and 
 
28 
 
 key of Denmark's realm. He further declared that South 
 Jutland had the same language and the same laws and 
 constitution as the rest of Denmark. 
 
 When he was asked how he knew that to be the 
 case, he answered, that he had been present at the ju- 
 dicial assembly for legal transactions in South Jutland, 
 and seen, that they here exercised and observed the 
 same laws and established customs as in North Jutland. 
 
29 
 
 IV. 
 
 IN the previous chapters we have gone through the 
 most important points in the history of Sleswick, which 
 have any signification for its nationality, and found it 
 still in the fifteenth century as a Danish land in every- 
 thing essential, its nationality on the whole unspoiled and 
 inviolated with respect to language, laws, habits and con- 
 stitution. 
 
 Changes had however, taken place for a long time 
 already, in the public situation of the country, which had 
 pernicious results for the language and nationality, and 
 whose effects in the following times become mpre and 
 more apparent. 
 
 The chief point herein, and that upon which all the 
 rest depends, was the transfer of South Jutland as a fief 
 to Count Gerhard of Holstein in 1386. 
 
 It is true, Waldemar the Victorious had already in 
 the year 1232 made an enfeoffment of South Jutland to 
 his son Abel, whose successors governed the land as 
 Danish vassals until 1375 when the race died out. But 
 though this became a source for endless disputes and 
 sanguinary and destructive wars , as it also gave the 
 Holstein Counts occasion to intermeddle with the concerns 
 of South Jutland Abel himself by marrying Mechtilde 
 of the house of the Counts of Holstein so inimical to 
 
30 
 
 Denmark, pointed out to his successors the politics they 
 had to pursue yet it was without any particular in- 
 fluence on the nationality. 
 
 These Danish Dukes governed the country in Danish, 
 the edicts that were published under them, and the mu- 
 nicipal laws they either gave, or after the citizens them- 
 selves had established them, confirmed, were indited in 
 the Danish language. They had no right to give the 
 general laws of the land, the general body of statute 
 laws was also valid for South Jutland, and the community 
 of law was continued under them , and long afterwards, 
 by the chief tribunals for the whole kingdom, the king's 
 judicial assembly and the DannehofF or parliament. The 
 Dukes w^ere besides, members of the king's council, and 
 it was their right as well as their duty to meet at the 
 general Dannehoff. The Dukes were also several times 
 recalled within the limits of the bar, which their position 
 as vassals demanded, when they forgot their obligation, 
 and compelled to acknowledge their subordination under 
 the King, their master, and their duties as vassals of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 The state of things was however different when Queen 
 Margaret, occupied with the thought of uniting the Nor- 
 thern kingdoms, threatened with an attack from Mecklen- 
 burg and King Albrecht of Sweden, and not sure of the 
 Hanse towns, determined to give South Jutland in fief to 
 the Holstein Count, Gerhard in 1386. It was without 
 doubt her purpose to give way only for the pressure ot 
 the moment, and afterward, at a favorable opportunity, 
 to take back what circumstances had obliged her to give 
 over, in which proceeding she followed her wise father, 
 Waldemar Atterdag's constant politics. She also made 
 a good beginning for this purpose, whilst she lived, but 
 
31 
 
 her thread of life was cut off too early to carry her plan 
 through, and her successor, Erik of Pomerania, was not 
 able to do it. South Jutland now came into the hands 
 of foreign, German Princes, the Counts of Schauenborg 
 in Holstein, \vhose whole previous life made them the 
 declared enemies of Denmark. Low German now became 
 the language of the court and government, and also by 
 degrees the language of men in office , in a considerable 
 part of the country, many of whom came from Holstein. 
 New laws and edicts were given in lo\v German, the 
 old Danish laws, both the law of the land and the mu- 
 nicipal laws were translated by degrees into low German. 
 It was just at this time, that they had begun to do 
 away with the Latin language in public letters and law 
 suits in Denmark, where it had hitherto been the usual 
 language, and the mother-tongue was adopted in its stead. 
 A similar change took place at the same time or a little 
 earlier in Northern Germany: here the low German took 
 the place of the Latin and became the prevailing diplo- 
 matic language to a wide extent. Under the existing cir- 
 cumstances it naturally forced its way into South Jutland 
 from Holstein. Thus at the same time that the mother- 
 tongue again gained ground in the rest of Denmark, it 
 was expelled from public life in South Jutland. Even the 
 country was not allowed to retain its name: the first Count 
 of Holstein, Gerhard, was also the first who wrote himself 
 Duke of Sleswick; the previous Dukes had all called them- 
 selves Dukes of Jutland or South Jutland. It is true 
 there also appears in the following times Danish royal- 
 letters .or letters patent, as for instance from King Hans 
 (John) and King Christian the Second; but only at. times; 
 and of legal documents, deeds of conveyance and extracts 
 of the records of assizes there are not a few in Danish, 
 
32 
 
 even to the close of ihe sixteenth century, so that Danish, 
 at least in the Northern part of the country, has not been 
 excluded from the tribunals of justice, but at the same 
 time and place there also appear documents in low Ger- 
 man. The people's language continued to be Danish. 
 
 About the election of Christiern the First in 4460 
 and the privileges given on that occasion this is not the 
 place to speak in detail. It is sufficient to remark that 
 the act from the time of its first foundation, as far as it 
 concerned Sleswick, wanted essential conditions for lega- 
 lity, and that its following history is a continual account 
 of its non- maintenance, uniil it at length died entirely 
 away and lay forgotten for a long period in the diplomatic 
 chest. It was first taken forth in latter times and hung 
 up as a useful flag for revolt. But in its first existence 
 this act became, by that political combination which it 
 brought about between Ilolstein and Sles\vick, an effective 
 means of drawing the latter to the former, and by con- 
 tinually increasing contacts to forward a transformation of 
 the language and introduce German cusloms and laws. 
 True it is that the act fixed and determined that Sleswick 
 and Holstein should each have its particular constitution, 
 its own legislative diet on Urnehoved and Bornehoved, etc. 
 etc., but for the election of the Prince a common diet 
 was fixed , and this became an excellent point of issue 
 for a further community. In 1469 already, the nobility 
 of Holstein and Slesw r ick, under a pretence of the pre- 
 vailing disturbances in the country concluded an alliance 
 for mulual defence, and fixed a meeting, to be held every 
 half year; but Chrisliern the First found this alliance so 
 threatening, that he dissolved it some years aflerw r ards. 
 But in the course of time the nobles however succeeded, 
 under favorable circumstances, in reaching their aim. 
 
Of all the evils that followed, for Sleswick, from the 
 dominion of the Holsteiners, there was however scarcely 
 anything, that in a higher degree worked unfortunately 
 on the nationality than the intrusion and settlement of 
 the Holstein nobility in the country. The only real 
 and durable conquests which the low German has won 
 from the Danish in the country (in the towns other cir- 
 cumstances co-operated) is owing to the immigration of 
 the Holstein nobility. Denmark and in some part Sweden, 
 as also Norway, through Denmark, has been overwhelmed 
 by German nobles; therefore one could so much the less 
 expect that the frontier land Sleswick should escape. If 
 we go through the noble families who are now 7 settled 
 in Sleswick , it is a matter of difficulty to find any one, 
 that has not, either corne direct from Holstein, or from 
 other parts of Germany through Holstein. And the Ger- 
 manizing which these emigrants brought with them, was 
 reallv solid; for they came not alone, but brought with 
 them a number of their dependants and servants to ma- 
 nage and cultivate the land. In the district where these 
 Holstein Lords of the soil established themselves, the Da- 
 nish tongue was silenced by degrees, and the Danish 
 peasants*) or small landholders became serfs. For vil- 
 leinage which was otherwise unknown in South Jutland 
 as well as in the rest of Denmark , was also one of 
 
 The English word peasant, does not ciisignate ihe Danish word 
 bonde, though it is generally employed in that sense, nor yet 
 does the word farmer. A bonde is either a small land -owner or, 
 a landholder. If a land owner he generally possesses landed pro- 
 perly varying in extent from twenty to a hundred acres , or more. 
 If a Fa3ste-Bonde or landholder he holds it at a low rental under 
 the proprietor of an estate or Lord of the Manor during his own 
 and his wife's life, nor can he or she he dispossessed of it during 
 that time. 
 
those blessings, that followed in the footsteps of the Hol- 
 stein nobility, and kept itself in those districts where the 
 nobility settled in masses, until the beginning of the pre- 
 sent century, when the Danish government succeeded in 
 doing away with it. The district that is here specially 
 alluded to, is the part between Dannevirke and the Eider, 
 also Da'nischwald, Svanso (Svansen) and the South East 
 part of Angel, and as far as nationality is concerned, the 
 two last named in particular; for the others may be sup- 
 posed to have lain waste, for the greatest part, at that 
 time, and to have been first cultivated by the Germans. 
 By early and often repeated mortgages of these parts 
 to the Counts of Holstein even before they were Dukes 
 in Sleswick, the entrance of Germanism was prepared 
 for here. 
 
 This advance of the Holstein nobles towards the North 
 and the expulsion of the Danish or Sleswick nobles, can 
 be clearly shown. The question about the possession ol 
 . the crown lands and the estates of the royal family, of 
 which a very considerable number just lay in the above 
 mentioned districts, was one of the most important amongst 
 the subjects for the continual disagreement betw r een the 
 Danish Dukes in South Jutland and the Kings of Den- 
 mark. To this was added the dispute about the admis- 
 sion of franklins, who for their engagement to do military 
 service at their own expense enjoyed freedom from taxa- 
 tion. The Dukes complained in particular that the Kings 
 availed themselves of their right to admit franklins, every- 
 where in the Duchy, in a manner that detracted from the 
 power as well as the incomes of the Dukes. This affair 
 was arranged by two agreements, as in the year 1313 
 Erik Menved made over to Duke Erik all the estates in 
 South Jutland belonging to the crown, and in 1317 en- 
 
gaged himself not to take more franklins in the Duchy 
 than those he already had, the Duke likewise promising 
 not to take any of the King's men into his service. The 
 natural results, as one might have expected from these 
 agreements were, that the Sleswick franklins or nobles 
 (for these notions now began to fall more and more toge- 
 ther) would have heen liberated from their connection 
 with the Danish, and that an independent and numerous 
 Sleswick nobility would have formed themselves, as the 
 crown estates, which the Duke had acquired, gave suf- 
 ficient means to furnish them with fiefs and increase their 
 numbers considerably. But in the last respect matters 
 went very differently. 
 
 On the death of Erik, which happened shortly after, 
 his son Waldemar, then a minor, succeeded to the go- 
 vernment; but the Holstein Counts, first Count Geert, and 
 afterwards his sons, governed the land entirely, partly 
 by violence and partly by the mortgages they had acqui- 
 red, until they at length, obtained it as a fief, after 
 Abel's race was extinct in 4375. The formation of an 
 independent Sleswick nobility did not at all suit their 
 plans, a Holstein nobility on the contrary was extremely 
 convenient. The native Sleswick nobility was therefore 
 more and more superseded. Whilst before the year 1325 
 the names of Sleswick noblemen in conjunction with Da- 
 nish appear constantly in documents, they disappear after 
 that time constantly more and more and are supplied by 
 those of Holstein. As fiefs for these noblemen the Hol- 
 stein Counts had abundant means in the crown lands, 
 made over in 1313. Those estates which form the pre- 
 sent noble districts in Sleswick, were almost all estab- 
 lished in the period of time 1313 to 1459, and as their 
 owners, there appear no others than Holstein families of 
 
 3* 
 
36 
 
 the nobility. Besides villeinage these noblemen brought 
 with them from their homes also a privilege of private 
 jurisdiction over their peasants and servants, which at 
 that time was scarcely known by the Sleswick or Danish 
 nobility. 
 
 That the natives looked with ill will on the many 
 llolstcin nobles, who came into the land, is natural, nor 
 is historical evidence wanting to prove it. A German 
 author informs us that a Holstein nobleman, who in that 
 time had acquired possessions in Sleswick, by marriage, 
 had to suffer much for a long time from the hatred and 
 contempt of the Danes, until he at length, by the advice 
 of his wife, sent for so many of his servants from Hol- 
 stein, that he could afterwards be in safety. 
 
 When w r e remember that it was the nobles espe- 
 cially, who in 1460 carried the union through, and that 
 the so-called Slesw r ick chivalry was nothing but Holstein 
 nobility: so we see what lot and part Sleswick itself had in 
 that act. The Danish historian Hvitfeld who lived in the XVI 
 century in speaking of Duke Frederick's (afterwards King 
 Frederick the First's) resolution to allow r the Duchies to 
 keep themselves neutral in the war between Denmark 
 and Lubeck in 1509, calls the nobility in Sleswick and 
 Holstein "den Holster Adel" (the holsteinish nobility) an 
 appellation which, quite correct and strikingly expresses 
 the real state of matters. 
 
 It is manifest that the Holstein nobles who had 
 entered the country, such as owners of estates, church 
 patrons, judges and those, who filled the other im- 
 portant offices of the kingdom, must \vork injuriously 
 on the nationality of the country in manifold relations 
 and in numberless ways. That it has also been an im- 
 portant co-operating cause that the laws were translated 
 
into low German, appears from a very remarkable passage 
 in the preface to the Jutland laws, in 1603, where the 
 translator expressly says, that one of the motives for his 
 undertaking the work was, "that he thereby wished to 
 serve those of the nobility who are unacquainted with 
 the Danish language, and who nevertheless, for the sake 
 of their patrimonial estates have a particular interest to 
 know what the Danish laws contain." Next after the 
 dominion of the Holstein Counts and the immigration of 
 the Holstein nobility into South Jutland nothing has affected 
 the nationality of the country more perniciously than the 
 far extended influence of the Hanse towns in Northern 
 Germany. It is well known how the merchants of the 
 Hanse towns, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth cen- 
 tury possessed themselves of the entire trade of the North, 
 both of importation and exportation, how they established 
 themselves in the towns of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, 
 where all employment passed into the hands of these 
 foreign traders, and even the public offices in several 
 places were filled, in preference, by Germans; and how 
 they for a lone; time acquired landed possessions and 
 domineered over the inhabitants. They everywhere left 
 traces of their presence, in language, laws and institu- 
 tions which were but slowly eradicated. When this was 
 the case in distant and more remote districts of the North, 
 as in Bergen, Gulland , and Bornholm, one can conceive 
 that the effect was not less in Sleswick, where the con- 
 junction with Holstein made the entrance easier. To this 
 may be added the immense crowds of German workmen 
 who at that time, as well as since, poured in over the 
 Northern lands and sought a living and employment here. 
 As the nobles especially, influenced the country, in Svanso 
 and South Angel, the influence of the Hanse towns and 
 
the German workmen was felt most in the towns: the 
 Germanizing of Egernfiord and Sleswick and, though less 
 perfect, that of Flensborg, may for the chief part be 
 ascribed to them. 
 
 It was reserved for Duke Frederick, as Danish King 
 called Frederick the First, to dissolve an important tie, 
 which from time immemorial bound South Jutland to the 
 rest of Denmark, and which consisted therein, that the 
 inhabitants in South Jutland could have their legal disputes 
 decided before a higher tribunal in Denmark, formerly 
 the Dannehoff or parliament, afterwards the Danish council 
 of the realm. This fellowship in judicial causes w r as also 
 an important means of preserving a commonalty in lan- 
 guage. But after Frederick the First had dethroned his 
 nephew Christiern the Second by a successful revolt and 
 he himself ascended the throne of Denmark with the assi- 
 stance of the men of Lubeck and the revolted nobility, 
 he annulled the appellation from the tribunals in Sleswick 
 to the Danish council of the realm, at a meeting in Kiel 
 in 1524; he likewise determined that the annual diet 
 should not be held longer at Urnehoved but in Flensborg. 
 This had for a result that the small landholders lost the 
 exercise of their rights to meet at the legislative diet; 
 for at the town hall in Flensborg w 7 here the diet was 
 afterwards held and within closed doors, the peasantry 
 could not be admitted for want of place. This exclusion 
 of the Danish -Sleswjck peasantry was a new r step forward 
 for the German nobles. 
 
 But just at this time, when Germanism broke forth 
 so powerfully, the peasantry and citizens of Sleswick gave 
 a proof of their Danish mind and attachment to Denmark. 
 Whilst the prelates 'and the knighthood paid homage to 
 Frederick the First as the ruler of the land, the citizens 
 
and peasants took the part of the Danish and popular 
 Christiern, against the German and aristocratically minded 
 Frederick. The peasantry or land -men would not acknow- 
 ledge Duke Frederick, they assembled and armed them- 
 selves for Christiern the Second and marched forward to 
 Urnehoved "tandsthing" or general assembly. Here the 
 judge of the district Nis Henriksen endeavoured in vain 
 to move the peasants to fall in for the new ruler: he 
 only saved his life with difficulty from the arrows of the 
 pursuing peasants. The peasantry or land -men could 
 not however accomplish anything as the German troops 
 called in by Frederick the First were too strong. Nor 
 were the citizens in the towns more successful, Aabenraa 
 in particular had to pay dearly for its attachment to its 
 lawful King. The town was taken by Frederick's soldiers, 
 plundered, and men and women shamefully maltreated. 
 
V. 
 
 THE Reformation took place not long after. This 
 event, so beneficial as it was in other respects, had how- 
 ever injurious results for the language and nationality 
 of Sleswick. Whilst the Reformation brought the mother 
 tongue to its right place and dignity in other places, by 
 expelling the Latin language from the church and church 
 service: the one injustice and absurdity only relieved the 
 other in Sleswick, instead of Latin, the low German by 
 degrees, and afterwards the high German, became the 
 language of religious edification in a great part of Sleswick, 
 and got likewise a far greater scope than the Latin had 
 had, as it also extended to instruction in the schools. The 
 religious movement began in Germany, the new doctrines 
 were acknowledged and introduced into Sleswick by pure 
 Germans, the teachers in the Duchy, both in church and 
 schools, got their theological and scientific knowledge in 
 the Universities of Germany. . Herman Tast, Bugenhagen 
 Johan Wandal, Eberhard Weidensee, Gerhard Sleeward, 
 whom Duke Frederick and Christian employed on the 
 introduction of the Reformation and the arrangement of 
 church matters in Sleswick, were all German born, and 
 spoke German. Even Johan Wandal, who after having 
 been lector in the chapter at Haderslev became Bishop 
 of Ribe, understood so little of Danish, that he on -making 
 
41 
 
 his visitations in his diocese was always obliged to have 
 a Danish clergyman with him who could serve him as 
 interpreter. The case was similar with Weidensee. In 
 order to make good his w r ant of insight in the Danish 
 language, he appointed a clergyman in every district, and 
 w r ho under the name of the district-deacon was to examine 
 the church accounts in his name and for him. That the 
 low German translation of Christian the Third's church- 
 ordinance was appointed for use in Sleswick as \vell as 
 for Holstein agrees perfectly w r ith the rest, yet there 
 is reason to suppose that the Danish translation was kept 
 in North Sleswick. 
 
 As that century, in w r hich the Holstein Counts secured 
 themselves in the dominion of Sleswick, was marked by 
 a change in the written language, as the Latin was suc- 
 ceeded in public acts and documents by the low German 
 of these foreign masters and not by the popular Danish 
 tongue so w r as the progress of the Germans also supported 
 in the time of the Reformation by a particular circum- 
 stance, which was unfortunate for the Danish language. 
 This circumstance w r as that just at that time a transition 
 from an older to a more modern form of language was 
 taking place. This dissolving and fermentation of the 
 elements of the language, this fluctuation and hovering 
 between the old and new, which accompanies such a 
 change, must naturally have weakened the resisting power 
 of the Danish language and eased the forward march of 
 the German. 
 
 In their zeal for the diffusion of the German language, 
 those who w-ere in power sometimes did not fail to use 
 violent means for the furtherance of it. There at least 
 appears one instance where a clergyman w r as deposed 
 because he would not preach German in a town that 
 
was entirely Danish. It is recorded that Henrik Mikkelsen, 
 who in the year 1635 was appointed deacon in Haderslev 
 was displaced from his office four years afterwards, be- 
 cause he set aside the German language and performed 
 the whole church service in Danish. 
 
 The church -superintendents in Sleswick in the Six- 
 teenth and Seventeenth centuries had by the powers of 
 their office no little occasion to work for the diffusion of 
 the German language, and, as they were all educated at 
 German Universities, and, with a few exceptions, all born 
 Germans, they seldom neglected to avail themselves of 
 the occasion. One of them Stephan Clotz, by birth a 
 Westphalian, who was General superintendent during the 
 long period of thirty two years, from 1636 to 1668, 
 is especially famous for his German patriotism and zeal 
 for the extermination of the Danish language. 
 
 Of this Clotz and the activity generally displayed by 
 the German clergy, after the introduction of the Refor- 
 mation, to supplant the popular language; the historian 
 Pontoppidan, expresses himself as follows: 
 
 "At that time they sent for German students from 
 Magdeburg and Wittenburg, without looking so particu- 
 larly to the language. Yet the church service still con- 
 tinued in most places to be in Danish for a long time. 
 But time after time, the clergy who alone studied in Ger- 
 many and found much trouble with the Danish language 
 sought to introduce German preaching in the country for 
 the sake of their ease, even in those districts where the 
 common people scarcely even understand a complete sen- 
 tence. In some places they began first to give every 
 fourth, then every second and at length all the sermons 
 in German. Such things could not happen, if the deacons 
 and especially the General superintendents, as German by 
 
birth, had not had the same principles as the clergy. 
 For as they in their visitations to the r congegrations often 
 could not effect anything, they wished to introduce that 
 which was best known to them, although almost foreign 
 to their congegration. In this respect I pretend that the 
 General superintendent Doctor Stephan Clotz has acted 
 very unjustifiably, as he in the middle of the former 
 century (the XVII), did away entirely with the Danish and 
 introduced the German language, to the great grief and 
 vexation of the common people, though to the satisfaction 
 of the priesthood in all the churches of Angeln, belonging 
 to the deanery and jurisdiction of Flensborg, where Danish 
 is spoken in every peasant's house, but \\here a Danish 
 sermon is never heard*). 
 
 They however soon began to be no longer satisfied 
 with the introduction and enforcement of the low Ger- 
 man language. From the end of the Sixteenth and first 
 part of the Seventeenth century they occupied themselves 
 as zealously to make high German prevalent, first in the 
 management of temporal affairs , and afterwards also in 
 the churches and schools, as they had previously endea- 
 voured to diffuse the low German. Nor were they more 
 particular as to the means for enforcing the use of the 
 high German language by the exclusion of the low German, 
 
 *) Of this same Clotz. Pontoppidan expresses himself in his Ann. 
 eccl. Dan. IV. 121. in the following manner: "Dr. Glotz undertook 
 an affair of very important consequences , which did as little 
 honour to his office here, as it could be of use to those souls 
 committed to his care, when he as a man, who ex gratia majorum 
 had a free hand in almost every thing in the jurisdiction of Flens- 
 borg, did away partly with the Danish and partly with the low 
 German in church service, and in the place of these languages 
 forced on the poor peasants the high German, which, as long as 
 the church stands, \\ill place an insurmountable hindrance to all 
 edification. 
 
44 
 
 than they had before been to procure the entrance of 
 the latter at the expence of the Danish. Thus the Duchess 
 Elisabeth Maria commanded Ingvar Petrei, priest in Osten- 
 feld, who in the last part of the Seventeenth century 
 still preached low German, to preach high German on 
 pain of losing his office; her court chaplain, Volkhard 
 Paysen, was translated to another living because he could 
 not preach high German; the clerk Hans Lammert in 
 Ostenfeld was discharged from his office in the year 
 1678, by the superintendent because he could not or 
 would not sing anything but low German. These endea- 
 vours of the persons in power to diffuse the high German 
 language was however in one respect a fortunate circum- 
 stance for the preservation of the Danish tongue. For 
 to expel the Danish, first by the low German and after- 
 wards by the high German was a double w r ork and took 
 double time. It has not yet succeeded in making the 
 high German a popular language in any part of Sleswick, 
 neither in the South nor the North. 
 
 The frequent divisions of the Duchy in those times 
 threw 7 the Danes and Germans amongst each other, and, 
 as German was the language of the court and govern- 
 ment, the Danish tongue could not but be worsted by 
 these divisions and the joint government united with it. 
 Haderslev, where Duke Hans (John) the elder had his 
 seat, and where he founded a German grammar-school 
 for the inhabitants of the tow j n and neighbourhood, Nord- 
 borg, So'nderborg, Augustenborg , Gliicksborg, became just 
 as many outlets for German customs and German language 
 in the midst of a Danish population, so that it can only 
 be attributed to the people's love for their mother tongue 
 that the effect of these nurseries for Germanism were far 
 less than one could have supposed. 
 
45 
 
 Notwithstanding all the unfavorable conditions, under 
 which the Danish tongue now continued its existence for 
 several centuries, notwithstanding the many inimical endea- 
 avours to expel it from its old territories, notwithstanding 
 the German families of distinction, the German secular 
 officers, and in a considerable part of the country German 
 clergymen and German schoolmasters also: yet the popular 
 Danish language was not to be shaken from its old 
 boundaries. Still in the middle of the Seventeenth century 
 the Danish language and the frontiers of the nation were 
 the same as in older times, perhaps with the exception 
 of the district Svanso, South of the Slie, where low 
 German had already gained a footing as well as the 
 Danish. As a witness we will here cite an author who 
 wrote in 1652 and w 7 hom the Germans also generally 
 respect as a good authority: It is Caspar Danckw r erth, 
 who in his "Neue Landbeschreibung von Schleswich und 
 Holstein" expresses himself as follows about the frontier 
 boundary of the people and the language in his time: 
 
 "In this time of ours there dwells in this Dukedom 
 Danes or Jutes, Saxons and Frisians. The Jutes possess 
 the greater part thereof, as all , namely from Kolding to 
 the firth of Slie and the town of Sleswick are Jutes or 
 Danes, who speak the Danish language, the town of 
 Flensborg alone excepted, w r here Danish and Germans are 
 mingled. The town of Sleswick and what there besides 
 lies between the Slie and the Eider and Levens- rivulet 
 is for the most part inhabited by Saxons, who speak 
 the lower Saxon language, as do also the inhabitants of 
 the island of Femern on the East coast. From the fron- 
 tiers or the Skudborg- rivulet to Tondern there likewise 
 dwells none but real Jutes, but after them come the 
 North -Frisians, who are not alone in possession of the 
 
46 
 
 Marsh -lands from Tender to the Eider, but also inhabit 
 a part of Geesten or the high -land which, in former 
 times, was called the Frisian Foregeest. The Frisians 
 certainly speak at the present time common German or 
 lower Saxon; those who dwell towards the North can 
 also speak their Danish and besides that their old Frisian 
 language, so that this people are in a manner (trilingues) 
 three tongued." 
 
47 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE different Princes to whom the Danish Kings 
 resigned parts of Sleswick as feoffs, and namely the most 
 important amongst them, the Dukes of Gottorp shewed 
 but little gratitude towards the crown of Denmark, to 
 whom they owed their possessions. They always showed 
 themselves as not to be relied on in decisive moments 
 and at length went over to decided enmity against Den- 
 mark. When Wallenstein in 1627, during the time that 
 Christian the Fourth took part in the defence of the pro- 
 testant Religion against the emperor, fell into the penin- 
 sula, Duke Frederick the Third of Gottorp concluded a 
 separate agreement with him and garrisoned the imperial 
 troops in his castles and towns. His subjects, namely the 
 Frisians and Angles , showed however greater fidelity 
 towards Denmark than their regent, and yielded Christian 
 the Fourth powerful assistance against the enemies of the 
 country. It is worth while to notice these returning ex- 
 pressions of the people's attachment to Denmark in oppo- 
 sition to the very different conduct of the regents of the 
 country*). In the following war, which broke out w r ith 
 
 *) In laler times also, in the remarkable years 1801 and 1807 the 
 inhabitants of Sleswick showed a lively interest and enthusiasm for 
 the Danish cause. The celebrated Danish actor, Knudsen , travelled 
 about in Sleswick and gave performances in the different towns, 
 
48 
 
 Sweden in 1643 Duke Frederick the Third acted in the 
 same way, and on the breaking of peace in 1657 he 
 took open part for Sw r eden. With that success which 
 accompanied the arms of his son-in-law Charles the Tenth, 
 he succeeded at the peace of Roeskilde, in 1658, in 
 getting the sovereignty of his part of Sleswick made over 
 to him, that is to say, the abolition of his feoffment to 
 Denmark, yet only for himself and his male heirs. 
 
 The hostile position which the Dukes of Gottorp had 
 taken up against the realm, and which in the following 
 times was formed into a fixed political system, as they 
 concluded alliances with and constantly sought the support 
 and resort of the enemies of the country, could not but 
 call forth a similar determined and firm endeavour on 
 the part of the Danish government to humble a power 
 that had raised itself by foreign arms within the boun- 
 daries of the kingdom. An almost uninterrupted series 
 of violent disputes and bloody wars was the result hereof. 
 Hereby the Danish language and nationality of the inha- 
 bitants suffered much, as the Dukes vented their anger 
 on them, and in their oppression saw a means of loosen- 
 ing the land more completely from Denmark. Duke 
 Frederick the Fourth who bore an inveterate hatred to 
 Denmark made no concealment of it. By his command 
 the old national flag, Dannebrog, had to give way, in 
 1696, for a new r one composed by himself. He also 
 
 amongst others in Flensborg , for the benefit of the wounded and 
 prisoners in the battle of 1801 on the road of Copenhagen, whereby 
 rich contributions came in. During the events of 4807, the post 
 office in Flensborg was as if besieged at all limes by masses of 
 persons who wailed for the news from Sealand. A volunteer rifle 
 corps was formed to take part in the defence of the country. 
 National poems and songs were diffused in Sleswick , as well as 
 in the other parts of Denmark. 
 
49 
 
 made it often known, that it was his full intention to 
 root out the Danish language from all his churches in 
 the jurisdiction of Aabenraa, Lygum cloister and the juris- 
 diction of Tonder. His death on the field of battle in 
 Poland prevented him from executing this purpose. 
 
 Now and then arose a voice in the midst of the din 
 of battle, about the wrong and absurdity in the existing 
 state of the language and the unjustifiable suppression of 
 the mother tongue in Sleswick. Raupach a native of 
 Sleswick thus says in a work written by him in 1704: 
 "In my native land the popular language is Danish, but 
 the sermons and catechisings are for the most part held 
 in high German. What fruits are to be expected there- 
 from, what edification is to be hoped for? Can the ob- 
 ject of instruction be attained, if the children learn the 
 catechism by heart in the high German language, of which 
 they had scarcely heard a word before? This must 
 be much doubted." 
 
 But such single voices died away unnoticed in times that 
 were moved by quite other interests than respect for the 
 mother tongue and the peculiar character of the people. 
 
 At length King Frederick the Fourth, after a suc- 
 cessful war with the Duke of Gottorp in 1720, succeeded 
 in regaining the ducal part of Sleswick. This was united 
 in the following year with the royal part, and the whole 
 dukedom was incorporated in the Danish crown and sub- 
 jected, after oaths were taken by the then represen- 
 tatives of the land , the knights and prelates , to the same 
 law of succession as the kingdom. One should now have 
 expected that Frederick the Fourth would have completed 
 his \vork by taking earnest measures for the preservation 
 of the Danish tongue and nationality in Sleswick. Had 
 he directly introduced Danish instruction in the schools, 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 and by degrees also in the churches in all places where 
 the Danish language was still alive amongst the people, 
 and likewise, in the secular administration of the country, 
 by degrees appointed Danish men to office: then, if his 
 successors to the throne had worked in the same direc- 
 tion, the Danish tongue would now have sounded just 
 as purely and unmixed in the south of Sleswick to the 
 Slie, as it sounds in the north, and the complications of 
 the present time have been avoided. But nothing was 
 done. It is not the least, that Denmark has to complain 
 of her German - minded and partly German - speaking 
 Kings, that they in so high a degree neglected their call- 
 ing, that of maintaining and protecting the Danish lan- 
 guage and nationality in Sleswick: It must not be for- 
 gotten, that Germanizing had its free course, not only in 
 the ducal part of Sleswick but also in the royal part, 
 that the General superintendant Clotz, under King Frederick 
 the Third, about 1650, executed his work of destruction 
 unhindered; that German sheriffs, magistrates and judges, 
 governed just as fully in the royal part as in the ducal 
 part. If any excuse can be made available for those 
 Danish Kings, then it must be, that the mother tongue 
 and nationality were at that time empty words, to which 
 there was not any notion united in thought, and which 
 did not awaken any feeling in the heart. But yet we 
 have seen that the Duke of Gottorp, Duke Frederick the 
 Fourth, towards the close of the Seventeenth century, 
 understood very well their signification during the war 
 w T ith Denmark. 
 
 If we go somewhat further back in time, then it is 
 evident; that the progress of Germanism in South Jutland, 
 must have been powerfully forwarded by the German 
 Kings who, the one after the other, ascended the throne 
 
51 
 
 of Denmark, Erik of Pomerania, Christopher of Ba- 
 varia, and Christiern the First three German Kings 
 in the course of half a century; then Frederick the First 
 and Christian the Third, who even did not understand 
 Danish; at length Frederick the Third and Christian the 
 Fifth , at whose courts the German language and tone 
 was the ruling one, and whose favorites and confidants 
 were Germans. Therefore it is not alone of the Dukes 
 of Gottorp that one must complain. 
 
 It how r ever appeared as if Christian the Sixth would, 
 as far as possible, make good the fault of his father and 
 his predecessors. It cannot have been any particular 
 interest for the language or nationality that thus led the 
 King, for his usual conversation was German, and he 
 never wrote anything in Danish, but much in German, 
 and the whole of those about him were Germans. His 
 feeling of justice has been rather set in motion by learn- 
 ing the debasement and oppression which the Danish 
 language suffered in Sleswick; but it was however the 
 religious interest that drove him on most. As a pious 
 and Christian man he was apprehensive , that so many 
 souls would perhaps be lost, because the word of God 
 was made known to them in a language they did not 
 understand, and the doctrines of Christianity thus preached 
 as to the deaf. He felt himself pressed in his con- 
 science, that such things should take place during his 
 reign, and determined to see it remedied. The trans- 
 actions that were carried on, on this occasion, are not 
 so remarkable for the fruits they bore for they were 
 very inconsiderable and scarcely to be traced in the fol- 
 lowing times as thereby, that they shew the King's dis- 
 position and intentions, and give some not uninteresting 
 particulars about the state of the language at that time. 
 
 4' 
 
52 
 
 The King charged the clergy and secular dignitaries 
 of the Dukedom, by a command dated the Tenth of July 
 1739, to give in an account of the position between the 
 church and school language and that of the people towards 
 each other in the different districts of Sleswick. These 
 accounts, which came in by degrees, were all drawn up 
 in German. From the jurisdiction of Haderslev the ac- 
 count was satisfactory; the church language and that of 
 the people was here the same, namely Danish; in the 
 town of Haderslev they at that time preached three Danish 
 sermons a week for two German. They however added 
 this hint to the account, that it would not be unserviceable 
 if the inhabitants in the country, as \vell as in the town, 
 were instructed in German," in order that they might 
 in time be the better able to understand the laws of the 
 land, and edicts which were indited in the German lan- 
 guage, or whatever else was to be expedited in that 
 language." 
 
 It is this erroneous argument that has brought about 
 so much misfortune in Sleswick; they concluded that: 
 the Danish people ought to learn German because the 
 laws and ordinances are German; instead of which it 
 ought naturally to be: the laws and ordinances should be 
 in Danish, because the people are Danish. The accounts 
 from Aabenraa and the jurisdiction of Lygum- cloister are 
 most remarkable, because in these the secular dignitary, 
 the judge of the district, and the church dignitary, the 
 dean, stood up against each other; the former defending 
 the German, the latter defending the Danish. The dean 
 remarked, that in the country the church -and -school lan- 
 guage in both jurisdictions was everywhere Danish, but 
 in the hamlet of Lygum -cloister, though the inhabitants 
 only spoke Danish, and scarcely a thirtieth part under- 
 
53 
 
 stood German, yet in 1681 , when the place stood under 
 the rule of the Dukes of Gottorp, German had been in- 
 troduced and preached every second time instead of Danish, 
 which however on account of its inutility had been changed, 
 so that German was preached every third time. He pro- 
 posed that the use of German preaching should be restricted, 
 or as far more injurious than beneficial, entirely done 
 away with, or at least the bad custom abolished of singing 
 German psalms and saying the benedictions in German, 
 in the Danish church service. The judge of the district 
 meant differently: his proposition to the King was, that 
 everything ought to remain in the old way; for, firstly, 
 they were now once accustomed to it, secondly, the inhabi- 
 tants understood sufficient German, and thirdly that the 
 Hamburg lace merchants, who came to the place, would 
 be much displeased and perhaps plague the King with 
 their "peevishness", which might be avoided if they let 
 everything remain as it was. These reasons of the judge 
 were found valid by the King, who ordered, that it 
 should remain in that way which was now the custom; 
 yet German psalms and benedictions should be done 
 away with in the Danish divine service. 
 
 In the account from the jurisdiction of Tender the 
 Frisian parishes are reckoned , where the inhabitants 
 speak Frisian, but the church and school language was 
 German, then the Danish congegrations where the church 
 and school language is Danish, but lastly there is added 
 the parishes of Uberg, Lyguin, Humtrup, Braderup, Kar- 
 lum, Ladelund and Middelby, where the popular language 
 is Danish, but where, as it states, there was formerly 
 preached more German than Danish and the instruction 
 in the schools almost continually communicated in German. 
 Yet it is said, that they had already begun for some 
 
time before to forward the Danish more in several places, 
 and that in one of the parishes, Uberg, arrangements 
 were made for Danish preaching and examinations. How 
 it has gone in the following times with these congrega- 
 tions, so deserving of commiseration, we shall speak more 
 fully afterwards. Of the parish of Ho'ier it is remarked, 
 that the preaching is certainly in Danish, but that hitherto 
 they had sung in German; yet now care would be taken 
 that they always used Danish psalms. The King resolved 
 that in the appointment of the clergy and school teachers 
 in the whole jurisdiction it should be provided that those 
 appointed understood both languages. 
 
 In the account which came in from Gottorp it is 
 remarked . that according to the statements that had been 
 collected from all the parishes in Angel, belonging to the 
 jurisdiction of Gottorp, the inhabitants certainly spoke 
 Danish amongst themselves, but likewise understood Ger- 
 man so well, that instruction in the schools and church 
 could be communicated to them in the German language 
 without danger to their edification and progress. And 
 besides there was not found, in the whole jurisdiction of 
 Gottorp , a single clergyman or schoolmaster w ? ho was 
 able to fulfil the duties of his office in Danish. 
 
 There appears this remarkable expression in the 
 King's Resolution that it was his purpose, "by degrees 
 to introduce the Danish language again into the Duchy of 
 Sleswick, where it had fallen rather into disuse." He 
 therefore declared it as his will that the offices in the 
 church and schools should in future be filled by persons 
 who understood both Danish and German, and could 
 execute the duties of their office in both languages. 
 
 The statement from the jurisdiction of Flensborg. 
 which came in last, contained interesting information about 
 
55 
 
 the state of the language. In the whole deanery of 
 Flensborg and the district of Bredsted, high German was 
 the church -and -school language. About the Frisian dis- 
 trict, Bredsted, it is remarked that, the inhabitants use 
 the German (low German) together with the old Frisian 
 tongue, with the exception perhaps of the parishes of 
 Fiolde and Joldelund, where Danish has diffused itself as 
 well as the low German, notwithstanding the church-and- 
 school language is high German. In the four collective 
 districts which form the jurisdiction of Flensborg, namely 
 Husby-district, Ny-district, Ugel-district and Vies-district, 
 that is, North-Angel and the middle part of Sleswick, 
 the church -and -school language is high German, but the 
 language of the inhabitants Danish, and in none of these 
 districts are the inhabitants able to express themselves 
 perfectly in German, except perhaps in Ny-district, which 
 is the nearest to the jurisdiction of Gottorp. It would 
 therefore be useful if the clergy together \vith German 
 also understood Danish, as it is spoken here. But most 
 of the clergy there are also able to do so, as they are 
 born here in the country. 
 
 In Husby-district there are the parishes of Adelby, 
 Nylskov, Husby, Hyrup and Grumtoft. Here the Danish 
 is much more in use than in Ny-district, and in parti- 
 cular amongst the women, there are few who are able 
 to speak German. But in the three first named parishes, 
 the clergymen are also natives; whereas the two last 
 have native Germans for clergymen, who cannot make 
 themselves understood in Danish. 
 
 Of the five parishes which Ny-district includes, there 
 are native clergymen in the two, who in case of need 
 can speak Danish with their parishioners. The rest are 
 born Germans, who do not understand Danish, but it 
 
56 
 
 does not injure the edification of the inhabitants much, 
 as those in this district are not entirely strangers to the 
 German language. 
 
 In Uggel and Vies district Danish is spoken in all 
 the parishes, but the clergymen are also natives, who 
 in case of need can express themselves in the language 
 of their parishioners. 
 
 With regard to the clerks and schoolmasters , they 
 are altogether natives, and as such can avail themselves 
 of the Danish language as it is spoken here in the dis- 
 trict. In consequence of this statement the King com- 
 manded that, on the appointment of clergymen and school- 
 masters the preference should in future be given to those 
 persons who understood both German and Danish, and 
 the last particularly in that dialect which was spoken in 
 every place. 
 
 The resolutions and ordinances of Christian the Sixth 
 for the preservation of the Danish tongue in Sleswick 
 bore no fruit, and it may easily be seen why. If a 
 popular language is to be saved from the destruction w 7 ith 
 which it is threatened, on account of its having been 
 neglected for a long time, through the forced introduction of 
 a foreign tongue, and again raised to its lost dignity and 
 respect, then it is not enough, that the people's teachers 
 speak to them in the usual careless dialect of the com- 
 mon people; but they should raise and purify it by 
 using the language in its purest and noblest form, just 
 as it appears in the cultivated language of conversation, 
 and in a good and naturally written language. Besides 
 the clergymen were not even charged to preach Danish 
 to their Danish congregation, but only to understand the 
 common language, so as to be able to speak with such 
 of their parishioners as could not make themselves under- 
 
57 
 
 stood in any other way. There is no trace whatever to 
 be found that the language preached has in any place 
 been changed to Danish, where German was once intro- 
 duced. Next and it is one of the most important and 
 essential things the instruction in the schools continued 
 thenceforward to be German for the children who spoke 
 Danish; for the King commanded, not that Danish instruc- 
 tion in the schools should take the place of the German, 
 but only that the schoolmasters as well as the clergy 
 should understand both languages. Germanizing must 
 therefore no\v, as before, take root more and more and 
 make its sure, destructive course towards the North, if 
 other fortunate circumstances did not prevent its progress. 
 Not even the modest claim that the teachers in the church 
 and schools should understand the common language was ever 
 carried through. The many resolutions of Christian the 
 Sixth thus led to nothing; but it was not to be expected, 
 that his German counsellors would support his good will 
 by any sound and practical advice for the preservation 
 of the Danish language. 
 
58 
 
 VIL 
 
 WHAT was done by the Danish government in the 
 nearest subsequent time for the preservation of the Danish 
 language in Sleswick , is confined to a Patent of the 
 First of April 1743, where the Sleswick and Hoistein 
 students were encouraged to frequent the university in 
 Copenhagen, with the promise that their stay here should 
 be taken into consideration on their promotion, also that 
 they by an additional patent of the Twenty second of 
 June should be exempted, in such case, from taking 
 the examination for admission to the university of Copen- 
 hagen. But as there \vas no arrangement united with 
 the University to meet the necessities of the Sleswick 
 students for an education, that had regard to the parti- 
 cular state of their native district, namely by lectures on 
 the law and administration of Sleswick: it was of course 
 without any great fruits. The matter was besides badly 
 conceived, as the patent also extended to the German 
 students in Hoistein. From the reasons adduced, the 
 reasonable and otherwise correct resolution of the King, 
 dated the Twentieth of October 1758 to the theolo- 
 gical faculty, "that the native Sleswickers, no less 
 than other Danish or Norwegian students, should be ad- 
 mitted to enjoy board in the college, so that the subjects 
 in Sleswick ought not to be regarded otherwise than what 
 
59 
 
 they actually are, namely real Danes, and born within 
 the boundaries of Denmark's kingdom", had not any 
 particularly remarkable results*). A strange contrast to the 
 design, which one must suppose was the reason for those 
 two royal notifications, forms the edict published ten years 
 afterwards, viz in 1768, whereby it was a duty imposed 
 on the Sleswick students to stay at the university of Kiel 
 for two years. 
 
 One might reasonably have expected a greater and 
 more active care for the oppressed Danish language in 
 Sleswick, from the Guldberg ministry, which otherwise, 
 and that not without reason, was praised for its Danish 
 disposition , than that which expressed itself on the 
 appointment of a teacher in Danish for the students at 
 the university of Kiel, in 1781. It must be without 
 effect as long as the students, educated at the grammar 
 schools in Sleswick, which were all German, did not 
 bring with them any knowledge of the Danish language 
 or acquaintance with Danish literature. 
 
 Frederick the Sixth , who , if he did not possess 
 much policy, had however a popular mind and much feel- 
 ing for justice , could not look coolly on the pressure 
 and injustice that rested on the Danish population in Sles- 
 wick. He made known, by several royal ordinances, that 
 it was his will to see a change brought about in this 
 respect. Thus in 1807 all the royal colleges were charged 
 to make the royal ordinances known both in Danish and 
 
 In connexion with the above, it must be called to mind that Fre- 
 derick the Third, by a rescript of the 29th of December 1669, 
 referred Sleswick causes to the Danish Board of Justice, but his 
 successor on the throne abolished it a few months afterwards, by 
 instructions to the German Board of Justice of the 26th of July I670, 
 according to which most of the Sleswick causes were referred thereto. 
 
60 
 
 German. It was made known by several resolutions in 
 the year 1811 and following years, that in the appoint- 
 ment of persons to office, there would, under otherwise 
 equal circumstances, be a preference given to those can- 
 didates who possessed a knowledge of the Danish lan- 
 guage, and they were charged to produce evidence thereof 
 on petitioning for offices. It was particularly important 
 and very promising, that, by a rescript from the superior 
 tribunal of Gottorp , dated January the nineteenth 1811, 
 to all the magistrates in the Dukedom, it was declared 
 as the King's will, that the Danish language should by 
 degrees be introduced in divine service ; in instruction in 
 the schools, in the courts of justice and all public con- 
 cerns in those districts where it was spoken. To this 
 was added the ordinance of the Fifth of November 1811, 
 which gave the theological candidates, who had passed 
 their examination at the university of Copenhagen, the 
 right to appointment in the Dukedom. Lastly by an or- 
 dinance regarding the schools, in 1814, the Danish lan- 
 guage was introduced as an object of education in the 
 grammar schools. But the weakness and vacillation of 
 the Danish government, which we have oftener had occa- 
 sion to complain of, we must also complain of here. It 
 is true, the ordinances that were issued from the royal 
 colleges were made known both in Danish and German, 
 but the proclamations of the magistrates continued to be 
 issued only in German. Danish, it is true, was made 
 an object of instruction in the grammar schools, but how 
 it has been carried into effect with that instruction was 
 clearly seen some years ago, when the North Sleswick 
 juridical officers, a whole generation after the introduction 
 of the new school -ordinance into the grammar schools, 
 declared, that they did not rightly understand Danish! 
 
61 
 
 The most important and worst was however, that the 
 royal purpose, that of introducing the Danish language 
 into public life there, w r here it prevailed in the daily life, 
 was never realised. 
 
 One of the pressures that rested hard on the Danish 
 population of Sleswick, as a result of the ascendency of 
 Germanism was , that the German language had made 
 itself valid in the courts of law throughout the land, right 
 to Kongeaaen*). German laws and courts of justice and 
 the German language in those courts, was valid as well 
 as the Danish; which was not yet entirely rooted out; 
 not only in those districts where the church -and -school 
 language was German, if even the popular language were 
 Danish, but even in these jurisdictions where both the 
 popular language and school -and -church language was 
 Danish, on jEro and Als, in To'nder, Aabenraa, Lygum- 
 cloister and Haderslev jurisdictions: directly outside the 
 gates of Kolding one saw German placards with judicial 
 edicts, notices and proclamations stuck up. The Danish 
 citizen and farmer had to seek justice at a German tri- 
 bunal, the evidences and explanations made on oath, in 
 his mother tongue, were translated into German, Ger- 
 man advocates pleaded causes and German judges decided 
 them. Ruinous misunderstandings , perplexities in the 
 causes and endless law suits, were the inevitable results 
 thereof. Several of those German jurists afterwards de- 
 clared that they did not rightly understand Danish! 
 The many kinds of German laws which forced their way 
 in amongst the Danish, produced such a chaotic confusion 
 in the law and administration thereof, that it was almost 
 
 *) The King's rivulel, which forms the boundary between the king- 
 dom and the duchy of Sleswick. 
 
impossible for any man to know \vhat was juridically 
 right or wrong. More than thirty different statute laws 
 are valid to this day in the Duchies, besides numberless 
 edicts and resolutions, and in Sleswick alone there existed, 
 and certainly still exist, one hundred and fifty seven dis- 
 tricts for the administration of justice. Under such a 
 state of things, the advocates, of whom an immense num- 
 ber are found in this little land, thrive and flourish; 
 under such a state of things law suits have rich mainte- 
 nance, for which reason they also begin to be a common 
 fault with the inhabitants of the country, who are other- 
 wise so respectable in character. Christian the Eighth 
 marked the first year of his reign by an act of justice, 
 w T hich had for its aim the abrogation of an important part 
 of the evil, as he by a rescript of the Fourteenth of May 
 1840 ordained that the Danish language should hereafter 
 be introduced into the government affairs and causes in 
 the courts of justice in those districts where it was the 
 church -and -school language. His claim to a grateful ap- 
 preciation w r ould have been more undivided, if he had 
 possessed just as much power to make the law 7 valid, 
 as a feeling for justice and equity by affirming it. But 
 a terrible resistance arose from the whole host of Ger- 
 man jurists, and it became still more violent, when the 
 peasants according to Danish custom now also began to 
 introduce courts of arbitration amongst themselves, for 
 this was treading too close upon the advocates. Christian 
 the Eighth was not able to conquer the refractory parties, 
 he was obliged to give his just command several restric- 
 tions, and the law was, as the inhabitants complained, 
 continually avoided and set aside. 
 
 A nation is generally accustomed to find protection 
 and defence against injustice from its representatives. The 
 
63 
 
 Danish people in Sleswick have not been so fortunate. 
 One of the causes is the unpopular nature of the election 
 laws, which has prevented the people's wants and opinions 
 from being properly made known in the assembly of de- 
 puties; the strongly represented Sleswick aristocracy is 
 entirely German in mind and speech. Another cause is, 
 that the bureaucracy, which is likewise entirely German 
 and like a net encircles the whole of Sleswick, has, by 
 its influence in many places, been able to work on the 
 choice even of representatives. The advocates and jurists 
 of the town of Sleswick formed about a sixth part of 
 the assembly of representatives. There is no trace what- 
 ever in the ordinances of the assembly, of any special 
 care for the national benefit of the Danish population which 
 the condition of the country claimed in so commanding 
 a manner. 
 
 In the beginning the representative assembly showed 
 itself however reasonable; even in 1838 it gave in a 
 motion which, it is true was only received after vio- 
 lent opposition and with only a majority of five votes, 
 that the Danish language should be introduced in all go- 
 vernment and juridical causes in those districts of the 
 Dukedom where the church -and -school language is Da- 
 nish, also that the offices in the Danish part of Sleswick 
 should be filled by men who were fully masters of the 
 Danish language. But this was also only a mistake; the 
 assembly soon after came to its senses and a better 
 acknowledgement. At the next meeting already in the 
 year 1840 the assembly declared, in excusing itself, that 
 it, by the former motion "had allowed itself to be 
 led by a certain feeling of humanity" , it acknowledged 
 "its error", and now moved, with a great majority, 33 
 against 9 , that the rescript of the Fourteenth of May 
 
64 
 
 1840, which was called forth at its own request, might 
 be abrogated, or postponed for further consideration, as 
 far as it concerned the introduction of the Danish as a 
 judicial and business language! 
 
 But the assembly surpassed itself on meeting again 
 in 4842. At the close of that year, the notorious meet- 
 ings were held, in which the president of the assembly 
 refused the Danish deputy, Peter Hjort Lorenzen, to make 
 speeches in his Danish mother tongue, whilst the mem- 
 bers of the assembly made an alarm and uttered insulting 
 ejaculations during his speech, and at length the president 
 closed the last of these scandalous meetings with the de- 
 claration, that he would prohibit Peter Hjort Lorenzen by 
 force from admission to the hall, if he did not lay aside 
 his Danish speeches. The King of Denmark's representa- 
 tive in the assembly, Reventlow Criminil, president of the 
 Sleswick-Holstein board of justice, remained mute during 
 these scenes, though his assistance was called for; just 
 as he in previous transactions, when insulting expressions 
 w 7 ere used against Denmark, had shown himself hard of 
 hearing. The secretaries declared themselves unable to 
 undertake the entries in the minute book in the Danish 
 language, which they had however done often in the years 
 4838 and 4840, and Peter Hjort Lorenzen's speech was 
 given in the German and Danish edition of the "Provincial- 
 Estates Gazette" with the words "Peter Hjort Lorenzen 
 redete Danisch" and "Peter Hjort Lorenzen fortfuhr 
 Danish zu reden" ; Peter Hjort Lorenzen spoke Danish 
 and Peter Hjort Lorenzen continued to speak Da- 
 nish. These words have since, in all their brevity, be- 
 come an eulogium rich in matter, over this now deceased 
 man, to whom the Danish nation owes a great debt of 
 
65 
 
 gratitude for his manly and staunch conduct in a just 
 cause *). 
 
 The most sorrowful business in the whole affair was 
 however the decision it got from the King of Denmark, 
 who hereby left his own people alone in their combat 
 for their mother tongue, and disowned himself; for Chris- 
 tian the Eighth had however often given proofs of a 
 Danish mind, nor yet on the first decision of the case 
 disowned it, as he, in a rescript of the Second of De- 
 cember 1842, strongly disapproved of the proceedings 
 of the Assembly and designated it as "a violation of 
 the natural rights of the Danish -speaking deputies." 
 One should then have expected that the Danish King 
 would have maintained that which he himself declared as 
 a natural right; the whole nation expected a decision in 
 harmony with this declaration. But German counsellors 
 were mighty in the halls of the Danish King. The patent 
 of the Twenty ninth of March 1844 confined the use of 
 the Danish tongue to those "who do not believe them- 
 
 *) "The Sleswick Provincial states Gazette" 1842. (Danish edition) 
 Twenty second meeting , the Eleventh of November. On P. H. Loren- 
 zen's address to the royal commissary, Count Reventlow Criminil, 
 p. 718 the commissary declared: "That if the deputy wished for 
 a decisive answer, he must request him to express himself in the 
 German language , as he (the commissary) was not entirely master 
 of the Danish. 
 
 During the tumultuous scenes in the following meetings the 
 royal commissary remained entirely inactive. In the Twenty third 
 meeting, on the Fourteenth of November the transactions were 
 continued, H. P. Lorenzen "continuing to speak Danish." The 
 president of the assembly, Counsellor Falck, continued to refuse 
 him his right thereto , and the members of the assembly did not 
 cease to make a noise and scream, every time that he rose to 
 speak. At the close of the Twenty fourth meeting, on the Sixteenth 
 of November, the president declared (p. 771.) "that he would see 
 to take proper measures to prevent the deputy for Sondenborg 
 from again entering that hall." 
 
 5 
 
66 
 
 selves to be sufficiently masters of the German language, so 
 as to be able to avail themselves thereof in their speeches 
 in the assembly." Thus when they could not speak 
 German correctly, they then first got permission to use 
 their unworthy mother tongue! This was the mainte- 
 nance of the "natural rights"! Every Danish man felt 
 the blow that was given to the dignity of the Danish 
 language, every one felt his national honour humiliated 
 by this decision of the case. A petition with pressing 
 representations against the patent of the Twenty ninth of 
 March was set in motion and delivered to the King, con- 
 taining 20,000 signatures; the Sleswick union, con- 
 sisting of the small land owners of North Sleswick, like- 
 wise gave in an address to the King, wherein a bitter 
 feeling of humiliated right expressed itself, and several 
 of the North Sleswick deputies made a declaration that 
 they would not meet in the coming assembly of deputies, 
 as long as the patent of the Twenty ninth of March \vas 
 in force. But all was without effect. The German coun- 
 sellors were so powerful in the halls of the Danish King 
 even in these last times. The state of the language 
 remained thus , until the breaking out of the Augustenborg 
 revolt. 
 
67 
 
 VIIL 
 
 WE have seen, that that which government did for 
 the preservation of the Danish tongue and customs of the 
 people, in Sleswick, was extremely little; that it was 
 either accessory or careless, or, when it acted, weak and 
 irresolute, so that it either was not able or soon forgot 
 to procure strength and validity to those laws and ordi- 
 nances which itself gave. But what did the people then 
 do when the government attended so badly to its duty? 
 
 Under an absolute government, such as Denmark's, 
 the people are only passive and suffering good or 
 evil according to circumstances; the government is the 
 sole active element in the state. Therefore at that time 
 the people could do but little in exterior acts. But no 
 sooner had the absolute power received a considerable 
 modification, if not in form, yet in being, by the intro- 
 duction of the assembly of deputies , than the awakened 
 spirit of the people also moved powerlully amongst the 
 natives of Sleswick. Hitherto they had sighed and suffered 
 in silence: they now began to act, and as those, whom 
 it more especially concerned , to defend their rights and 
 their mother tongue themselves. It was a Sleswick peasant, 
 Nis Lorenzen, of Lilholdt, who, when the provincial as- 
 sembly met for the first time, in the year 1836, brought 
 forward the motion, lately mentioned, respecting the use 
 
68 
 
 of the Danish language in all public transactions, in those 
 districts where it was the church -and -school language. 
 At that time however the deputies could not find time 
 to discuss the motion; but repeated in the year 1838 
 and supported by many petitions, amongst wliich several 
 from the jurisdiction of Haderslev, with 1500 signatures, 
 it passed through, though after violent opposition. We 
 have already stated how the deputies sought to overturn 
 their own work in the following meeting in 1840, and 
 Peter Hjort Lorenzen's manly combat for the Danish lan- 
 guage in 1842. The union that was formed by native 
 Sleswickers in the year 1839, amongst whose members 
 the student and peasant's son, Nis Hansen, distinguished 
 himself by his activity, for the diffusion of Danish literature 
 in Sleswick. To those evils which resulted from the 
 unnatural condition that existed between Sleswick and 
 the mother country, there also belongs this: the Sles- 
 wickers were formerly almost excluded from the produc- 
 tions of the Danish literature. How vividly this restraint 
 had been felt, was shown by the eagerness with which 
 the aim of the union was met and supported by the 
 inhabitants of the country. Reading clubs were formed 
 everywhere and many thousands of Danish books were 
 distributed. To this there was suitably added the publica- 
 tion of a Danish newspaper, which, under the name of 
 Dannevirke was begun in 1838 by P. E. Koch, who has 
 edited it with much ability, until the present time. This 
 paper, which has gained an extensive circulation, has 
 from its first beginning contained almost entirely original 
 articles by native Sleswickers. Another Danish newspaper 
 afterwards appeared in Aabenraa, published by Fischer. 
 The indefaligableness and obstinacy of the German oppo- 
 sition party, at length taught the Danish population that, 
 
69 
 
 in order to effect anything they must join together and 
 act in unity. The fruit of this acknowledgement was 
 the foundation of the Sleswick union , for which the appeal 
 was made by twenty five peasants in the year 1843. 
 It has sustained many a hard struggle, and the time 
 following its commencement been the centre of almost all 
 endeavours that had for their object the defence of the 
 mother tongue, the nationality, and the people's rights. 
 During the combat they felt vividly the loss of that cul- 
 tivation which the higher schools and institutions for 
 education ought to give the children of the country, but 
 which is denied to the Danish Sleswicker, if he will not 
 give his mother tongue in payment as school money. In order 
 to remedy this want, four clergymen and ten peasants issued 
 an appeal for the purpose of founding a high -school for 
 peasants. This appeal met with a response, and the school 
 in Rbdding has now worked successfully for several years 
 to extend Danish spirit and education amongst the rural 
 population of Sleswick *). They have endeavoured to 
 strengthen one another and- enliven their courage and 
 spirit during the combat by meetings and public assem- 
 blies. Amongst these the popular meetings on Skamlings- 
 bank are particularly celebrated over the North. Here 
 the peasants Laurids Skau and young Ravn have shown 
 in eloquent speeches that they not only speak Danish in 
 Sleswick, but good Danish. 
 
 But even in those times, when the people were 
 excluded from public life, and dared not express them- 
 selves in outward acts, the Danish people in Sleswick 
 did however much: for they were persevering, they did 
 
 *) That all these endeavours of the Sleswickers found powerful sup- 
 ports in Denmark, it is almost needless lo say; or else Denmark 
 was not Danish. 
 
70 
 
 not give up their mother tongue. If it even durst not 
 sound from the judgement seat, if even the people might 
 not hear it in God's house, though another language was 
 imprinted on the children in the schools by force, nay 
 under threat of the schoolmaster's punishment they were 
 even charged to practise themselves, out of school hours, 
 in talking low or high German, as the school boys in 
 the middle ages practised themselves in Latin: yet all this 
 w ? as not able to root out that deeply rooted love for their 
 mother tongue. They did not forget it on this account: 
 in the domestic circle , amongst the members of the family, 
 during their daily occupations, in familiar intercourse with 
 neighbours and townsmen , it now sounded as before, 
 refreshed and nourished by an old chronicle about the 
 deeds of their forefathers, which in the early ages had 
 strayed into these districts, or was the remains of older 
 and better times. There is a strange power in that tongue, 
 which sounds by the cradle of the child , that clangs in 
 his ears during his growth up to the youth and man, 
 during life's pleasures and sorrows, great and small events; 
 there is in it a toughness and resisting power which 
 scarcely anything is able to conquer. The mother tongue 
 is bound up with a people's inward root and marrow; 
 it has a sort of immortality, for it lives as long as a 
 people themselves do not die bodily or spiritually. 
 
 It is owning to this peculiar life of the mother tongue, 
 and this true adherence to it received from their fathers, 
 in conjunction with different accidental and favorable out- 
 ward circumstances, which shall be afterwards touched 
 on, that the Danish tongue in Sleswick, after all the 
 pressure it has had, has still lost so proportionately little 
 of its old domains. Though covered with scars and bruises, 
 and bleeding with fresh wounds after the long combat, 
 
71 
 
 the Danish Sleswicker has still in our days the greatest 
 part of that domain of language in his possession which 
 has belonged to him from olden times. 
 
 We should not lay this aside without strengthening 
 it by unexceptionable evidence. We shall here, as we 
 have regularly done in the previous chapters, and will 
 do in the following, chiefly ground our assertions on those 
 of German authorities, born Germans, or German authors. 
 If we appealed to Danish authorities our antagonists would 
 naturally not neglect to make them suspected as partial 
 and willing witnesses. They belong to the close of the 
 former and the beginning of this century and thus have 
 the advantage, that they on the one side stand so far 
 from our time that its violent combat has not been able 
 to set their passions in motion and mislead their judge- 
 ment; on the other side they are so near it, that their 
 statements can also be applied to the situation of the 
 present time to denote its nature. 
 
 The German author L. A. Gebhardi writes thus in 
 1770: "In the tow r n of Sleswick itself and further on, in 
 a straight line, until Husum, one finds the Danish there 
 (towards the South) quite unknown and uncommon, but 
 directly in the next villages of Angel the common man speaks 
 only Danish." 
 
 J. F. Hansen, author of an esteemed work on the 
 Duchy of Sleswick, expressed himself in the following 
 terms, in 1770, respecting the relative proportions of 
 the language: "In the jurisdiction of Gottorp, as far as 
 the Slie lies to the North, and in the jurisdiction of Flens- 
 borg, Danish is generally spoken by the peasant } although 
 the Danish church service is only performed in high 
 German." 
 
J. A. Bolten, a native of Ditrnarsh, determines the 
 boundary in 1777, in the' following manner: 
 
 "Even to the present time one perceives by the lan- 
 guage how far the Danes and Saxons dwelt formerly, 
 as on the North of the Slie, at least in the conn try , all 
 speak Danish, but on the South, nothing is heard but 
 German." 
 
 H. 0. Scheel, a native of Rendsborg, in a work 
 which he wrote in German in 1785, and which was 
 .afterwards translated into Danish, expresses himself as 
 follows : 
 
 "That Jutland (North and South Jutland) has always 
 been an old cimbric and therefore Danish province, is 
 proved, not alone by the Danish language, which is spoken 
 as far as the Slie and the above mentioned South Jut- 
 land Boundaries, but also by the construction of the wall 
 Dannevirke." , 
 
 An anonymous German author, but one particularly 
 well acquainted with the nature of the subject, writes 
 in 1799: 
 
 "I will now point out the boundary between these 
 two people. This boundary is the Slie and the way from 
 Sleswick to Husum. Angel by the Slie is entirely Danish 
 and so are all the inhabitants on the North side of the 
 way between both named places and the environs. Those 
 who live nearest the South side of this way are not all 
 Germans, but for the most part a commingling of both 
 
 nations." 
 
 K. Aagaard, clergyman of the parish of Agerskov in 
 Sleswick , a clever man and one well acquainted with 
 the localities of the district, and who has written an 
 esteemed work on Torninglehn in Sleswick, speaks of the 
 
73 
 
 boundary of the language and its condition in the year 
 1815 in the following terms: 
 
 "Suppose the length of the Duchy from the Kongeaa 
 to the Eider to be seventy miles (English) then the Danish 
 language extends, in daily conversation, through fifty eight, 
 the low German through the twelve miles. A line between 
 the spoken Danish and the spoken low German must be 
 supposed to be drawn across the country, from about 
 Husum, a little to the North part of Sleswick, to the She, 
 which firth forms the parting line out towards the Baltic. 
 On the West side, with the exception of the Frisians, 
 Danish is spoken as far as Husum, for instance, in Sve- 
 sing; but in Husum, Mildsted , Ostenfeld and Hollingsted 
 the German. On the East side the Danish is spoken in 
 Angel almost to Sleswick , for instance in Helbsek on the 
 frontiers of the jurisdiction of Gottorp, six miles (English) 
 from Sleswick; in Idstaed the nearest town to the South 
 the German begins. To the South of the firth of Slie, 
 in Svansen, the German is spoken. The Danish language 
 in Angel and in those districts bordering on the German 
 frontiers is naturally not pure Danish but somewhat mixed, 
 the cause of which may be much attributed to the cir- 
 cumstance that all instruction is communicated not in Da- 
 nish, but in the German language, and that no one learns 
 to read in a Danish book." 
 
 The Frisian, Outzen, clergyman of the parish ol 
 Brecklum, near Brestved, states as follows in 1819: 
 
 "Towards the South there is still, taken on the whole, 
 the primitive boundary or frontier, namely from the East 
 to the Slie, by Sleswick, and from there likewise in a 
 direct line drawn to Husum; what lies on the South side 
 is German; towards the North, namely direct of the Fri- 
 sian's land, all is Danish." 
 
74 
 
 To this however the author adds the remark, that 
 just as Svanso', South of the Slie, was before Germanized, 
 so does the low German make its w y ay more and more 
 into South Angel, "as if the old language of their fore- 
 fathers was no longer good enough for them, just as if 
 the equally plain Holstein tongue was so much more ele- 
 gant. To these somewhat elder authorities we shall add 
 an evidence taken from the present time; that of J. G. Kohl, 
 so well known to the English reader, from his travels in 
 England and Ireland; and who has travelled and remained 
 in those districts we have alluded to , in order to make 
 himself acquainted with the state of the language and 
 nationality. He writes in the year 1847: 
 
 "It is certainly possible that the Danish language 
 will hereafter succumb much quicker and more completely 
 than before in the surrounding districts. I say it is pos- 
 sible, but until further this fact still stands fast, that the 
 German language since its first contact with the Danish 
 in the district around the Slie, during its combat with 
 the same for nearly a thousand years, has only perfectly 
 rooted it out in a little district of scarcely forty square 
 miles (English). Notwithstanding that many German knights, 
 and many German priests have immigrated thither; not- 
 withstanding German administration of justice, German laws 
 and German family customs are introduced and made valid 
 there, yet the German language has only gained ground 
 and driven the Danish entirely out of the eigtheenth part 
 of the area of the whole Duchy of Sleswick, about seven 
 hundred square miles. When we think that the whole 
 of Jutland with the Duchy of Sleswick is about two thou- 
 sand eight hundred square miles in extent, and that con- 
 sequently the former part contains about the seventieth 
 part of the whole of Jutland, which it has taken about 
 
75 
 
 a thousand years to conquer entirely, so one can after 
 that make a tolerable calculation of how long a time the 
 Germans have yet to wait before they see their wish 
 accomplished; namely those Germans who prate so much 
 about that lance shaft which the Emperor Otto once stuck 
 down in the soil of Jutland, by the Liimfiord; who prate 
 about its flourishing and shooting forth of branches; those 
 Germans namely, who find something glorious therein, 
 that the Danish language shall once be supplanted by the 
 German, which should then prevail right up to the cape 
 of Skagen"*). . 
 
 We have cited a series of witnesses from 1770 to 
 1847, and that witness, which even the most zealous 
 German will not be able to reject very well. According 
 to them therefore, it stands as certain, that the domain 
 of the Danish tongue during the long combat for its op- 
 pression has been expelled but very very little from its 
 old precincts, on the East side about eight miles (English) 
 towards the North; that it, besides Svanso', has only lost 
 a piece of Angel, along the firth of Slie; and that the 
 low German does not, even here, sit particularly fast, 
 we shall soon bring forth reasons for. We Danes do 
 not therefore complain so much of the loss we have suf- 
 fered (though it is always hard to lose any part of 
 those domains, which our forefathers have confided to 
 their successors from generation to generation as a sacred 
 inheritance, that they should guard and preserve them 
 undiminished until the latest times) , as of that con- 
 tempt, debasement and oppression, under which the Da- 
 nish language in Sleswick has suffered, and still suffers, 
 
 *) J. G. Kohl. Die Deutsche und danische Nalioualitet in Schlcsuig. 
 1847. P. 135-137. 
 
76 
 
 and of those dangers with which the future threatens it, 
 if a barrier be not placed against that encroaching Ger- 
 manism which now advances more strongly than before. 
 
 We shall now see more particularly how matters 
 stand within the old frontiers of the people and the lan- 
 guage, and take a view of the particular districts. 
 
 That part which is bounded on the North by Husum- 
 rrvulet, Irene, Dannevirke, the Slie, the remains 1 of the 
 Eastern -wall and Egernfiord, and towards the South by 
 the Eider and the old Levens-beck, which now forms a 
 part of the Eider canal, lies out of consideration, as well 
 as the island of Femern, which has partly a Slavonian, 
 and partly a German population that has emigrated 
 thereto afterwards. This part, which, as it has been 
 remarked, lay desert in the olden times, except towards 
 the West, where the Frisians dwelt, has been cultivated 
 by degrees and taken possession of by Germans and has 
 never been Danish. For the same reasons we will not 
 take notice of the Sleswick town Rendsborg, which lies 
 in the original German tract of land. With the Frisians 
 we have not properly anything to do either, if it were 
 not in order to draw attention to the remarkable fact, 
 that the Danish language in this part gains in extent, and 
 that quite peacefully and unconstrained. The parishes ot 
 Aventoft, Klixbo'l, Lsek, Joldelund, Fjolde, Olderup and 
 Svesing were originally Frisian and the Frisian language 
 was spoken there; but the Danish language has diffused 
 itself amongst them by degrees. That this is an entirely 
 peaceful acquisition, is best perceived thereby, that at the 
 same time that the Danish language has gained a fast 
 footing here, the high German both has been and is the 
 church-and-school language. One can be less astonished 
 that Eiderstedt and, generally, the whole tract of land 
 
77 
 
 between the Eider, Heverstream and Irene which was 
 originally Frisian, has adopted the low German language, 
 as German church -and -school language has been intro- 
 duced here ever since the time of the Reformation. But 
 the Frisians, once a strong and manly tribe are now 
 upon the whole a sinking and expiring race, who, without 
 showing any power of resistance against that which forces 
 itself on them from without, seek to secure themselves 
 by withdrawing within themselves. They have also shown 
 this in the present revolt, where they would sustain a 
 sort of neutral position, but on the other side also without 
 supporting their lawful prince. 
 
 The Frisian towns Tonning, Garding and Husum, 
 which have adopted the low German language, and Fre- 
 derickstadt, which is a Dutch colony , does not belong 
 to our province to speak of here. 
 
 The first tract of land we meet with above the 
 boundary we have pointed out, is the peninsula of Svanso' 
 between Egernfiord and the Slie, an old Danish land, 
 as Danish as any other can be. All the names of the 
 older villages and estates are Danish, such as: Flaakkeby, 
 Vindeby and the town Egernfiord, Eskilsmark, jErnum, 
 Nordby, Sonderby, Gammelby, Borreby, Stubbe, Krisby, 
 Sisby, Stavn, Vindemark, Svandsborg, Espenass, Nonass, 
 Ulpenaas, Bogenaes, Bogaa, Nyby, Skovby, Tumby, So'by, 
 Kothoved, Kobcek, Egholt, Eghoved, Barkelsby, and Bro- 
 dersby. The old Danish division into districts (herreder) 
 was used here, the inhabitants were free Danish peasants, 
 and spoke Danish. But in the middle of the Seventeenth 
 century already it had come so far, that one could say: 
 "The inhabitants make use of the low German and Da- 
 nish language." At the close of the Eighteenth century 
 it is stated in the Danish Atlas 4 78 4 : "Here low German 
 
78 
 
 is generally spoken, except in the towns by the Slie, 
 where they speak a corrupted Angel -Danish." And at 
 length in our days it is said there: "Within the memory 
 of man Danish has still been heard in some villages bv 
 the Slie." Now, Danish is neither heard nor spoken 
 there. Svanso is lost to the Danish language and natio- 
 nality. The Germanizing has been so well based that 
 even the German manner of building has dislodged the 
 Danish in many places, if not in most. If we ask the 
 cause, the answer is not far distant, when it is remembered 
 what w r as stated before about the intrusion of the Hoi- 
 stein nobility into these districts. This little land, about 
 seventeen square miles (English) in extent, with 10,000 
 inhabitants, numbers tw r enty seven noblemen's estates, on 
 w 7 hich the inhabitants are divided. The population \vas 
 until the year 1806 in a complete state of villeinage to 
 the nobility. 
 
 In Angel, that fine and fertile land between the Slie 
 and Flensborg - firth with a population of 50,000 persons 
 in sixty square miles (English) the combat has been 
 particularly violent and the oppression great. Here also 
 the Holstein nobility forced their w r ay into the inviting 
 districts by the Slie and the Baltic. Here are twenty 
 six estates of the nobility with a population of about 
 15,000 persons. Here also the Danish peasants were 
 the serfs of the Holstein nobility; but the rooting out of 
 the Danish language went on more slowly here than in 
 that little cut-off land Svauso, where besides the whole 
 population came under the nobility, whilst in Angel this 
 was only the case w r ith less than a third part, who in 
 the rest of the population of the country had thus a sup- 
 port for their language. This therefore maintained itself, 
 as we have seen, until the close of the former century 
 
79 
 
 as a general and popular language over the whole land, 
 direct to the Slie. Nor did the people of Angel always 
 willingly and quietly submit to their Holstein masters 
 giving them German clergymen. Thus the peasants on 
 the estate of Gelding made objections in the Sixteenth 
 century, against the appointment of a clergyman because 
 he did not understand Danish. We have before shown 
 how the Westphalian, Clotz, made use of his office, for 
 the diffusion of the German language. He found a worthy 
 successor in the Eighteenth century, 1750, in a clergy- 
 man in Hyrup, who amongst other things expressed him- 
 self thus to his congregation: *) 
 
 "Have I not tried to teach you German, you pack 
 of devils and wicked wretches? But of what use is it? 
 The devil's pack keeps to its senseless Danish tongue, at 
 home and everywhere!' 1 
 
 The congregation also entered an action at law against 
 him, which resulted in his dismissal, as his expressions 
 were proved by witnesses. Of the state of the three 
 parishes of Angel, Gelting, Sterup and Eksriis at the 
 close of the former and beginning of this century a valid 
 authority, Mr. Jensen parson in the parish of Gelting in 
 Angel relates the following: "The catechism was the chief 
 thing and even old people w r ere examined when they 
 went to confession, if they knew their catechism; but, 
 when the meaning of it was asked it was a difficult 
 matter for people to express themselves; for their stock 
 of German words and expressions was confined to what 
 they had learned by heart, and the old people were 
 
 *) "Habe ich euch Teufelsgesinde und Hollenbrande nicht Deutsch 
 reden lehren wollen? Was hilft es aber? Dieses Teufelsgesinde 
 bleibt bey ihrer tollen danischen Sprache im Hause unter sich 
 uud allenthalben." 
 
80 
 
 therefore well satisfied with Pastor Kiesby clergyman 
 in Gelling from 1782 to 1797, because he, being born 
 in Tender, could express himself with equal facility both 
 in Danish and German, also took Danish answers, and 
 when he could not make himself understood in any other 
 way, put his questions in Danish. Pastor Bielefeld of 
 Sterup 1758 to -1799 distinguished those children 
 who were able to answer with their own words and 
 encouraged them to it; for the German would not flow 
 freely from their tongues, when the sentences were not 
 learned by heart. Pastor Rinze of Esgrus i. e Eskriis 
 from 4766 to 4804 "the children's friend" as 
 he is still often called, paid much attention and care to 
 youth and brought the children to speak, by jesting 
 and seriousness. Directly on his taking the office, the 
 use of the stick was laid aside, without the help of which 
 they at that time thonght it was impossible to conduct 
 any school. That the clergymen and schoolmasters at 
 that time took much pains to bring the children to speak 
 German nay that there were those who punished the 
 children, when they spoke Danish amongst themselves, 
 has been much reprobated in some books about the 
 disputes respecting Danish and German; but one must 
 consider that this was necessary, when one would go 
 beyond a simple, thoughtless, learning by heart!" *) 
 
 *) N. A. Jensen. Beschreibung von Angeln. 1844. S. "146-47. , Jensen 
 was himself clergyman in Gelling until lately. That personal chas- 
 tisement has been applied of late to children, who spoke Danish, 
 G. Paulsen brings forward evidence in, Dannevirke No. 29. 1839. 
 P. 115. 
 
 For the rest Jensen, whose evidence we have often cited, 
 and will partly have occasion to cite, ought not to be judged by 
 his last, above mentioned expression about enforcing German by 
 help of the rod. He shows himself everywhere as a lover of 
 truth, and in many cases as a liberal thinking man, free from the 
 
81 
 
 After a combat and resistance of several centuries 
 duration a part of the inhabitants of Angel were tired of 
 it and gave way to the continued efforts of their clergy, 
 the schoolmasters, the magistrates and the noble owners 
 of the estates: they gave up their long defended Danish 
 tongue and became speakers of low German from the 
 beginning of this century. Yet this was the case only 
 with a proportionably small number, namely the inhabi- 
 tants of a strip of land which in about four miles (Eng- 
 lish) in breadth or somewhat more, extends from the town 
 of Sleswick and follows the Slie to its issue for a length 
 of twenty two miles. It makes about twenty eight square 
 miles. On this tract low German is spoken ; if one 
 comes to the .North of it, both Danish and low German 
 are equally spoken, and of course the further one comes 
 towards the North, the Danish is heard so much the 
 more. The relative proportion between both languages 
 is here in general this, that the peasant of Angel speaks 
 low German to the clergyman and schoolmaster, and his 
 superiors in office, as also to strangers; in his family 
 and amongst his equals he speaks Danish. As he sees 
 
 fanaticism of the Sleswick -Holsteiners Nevertheless his sympa- 
 thies are German. This shows itself therein . that he not alone 
 will not, that those districts where Danish and (on account of the 
 instruction in schools), low German are equally spoken, should be 
 regained for the Danish language by Danish school instruction, 
 but even not, that the mother tongue in those districts where the 
 inhabitants speak Danish exclusively, although the church-and-school 
 language is German, arid where the children as he himself says, 
 know not a word of German, when they come to school, should 
 again be placed in their natural rights. These questions are the 
 ordeals whereby one knows the Danish minded and the German 
 minded man. Kohl has still stronger German sympathies than Jen- 
 sen, though he now and then has shocks of cosmopolite impar- 
 tiality. Besides he does not possess such close acquaintance with 
 the matter as Jensen and therefore is often at fault. 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 the Danish despised amongst all the upper classes with 
 whom he comes in communication, the stranger generally 
 hears the taught German first, but when he continues 
 to speak Danish, the peasant soon comes forward with 
 his natural tongue. As the Germanizing even in that tr-act 
 of land, which we have designated as speaking low Ger- 
 man, has not gained the upper hand before the beginning 
 of this century, the inhabitants, as was to be expected, 
 in many places still understand the Danish; this is also 
 strengthened by creditable authority from the latest time *). 
 The previously cited German traveller, Kohl, found 
 even among the inhabitants of Angel who have been 
 Germanized , a striking agreement in person and manners 
 with the real Jutes and a strongly marked difference from 
 the German population South of the Slie. When the tra- 
 veller, for instance, asks about the way, the lower Saxon 
 then gives the stranger directions in a few and short 
 words and then lets him go on his way. It is different 
 when one comes over the Slie to the Angles. Here the 
 stranger's question is not first answered, the inhabitant 
 of Angel begins with a friendly mien to worm out of 
 the traveller, where he comes from, where he is going 
 to, what is the object of his journey, how the corn looks 
 in other places exactly like the Jute and then he 
 
 C. Paulsen, in Dannevirke No. 30. 1839. thus witnesses- that a 
 couple of years ago his Danish address was understood by young 
 men in Tolk and Urmark (Ohrfeld), which lies within the mentioned 
 boundary for the dominion of low German , and *in the list of cri- 
 minals for the first half part of the year 4832, the criminals from 
 RavnkjaBr and the estate 6 (likewise within the low German boun- 
 dary and close by the Slie) as speaking German and Danish. 
 Compare the same author "Ueber Volksthiunlichkeit im Herzogth. 
 Schleswig." P. 8. Note 2, where he speaks of having conversed in 
 Danish with peasants from a couple of parishes (Sigersted and 
 Sorup), which lie a little more Northward. 
 
83 
 
 first begins with great explicitness , and good natured 
 chat, to tell the stranger that he can come to that place 
 he is bound for, both by that way and that way. To 
 this Kohl joins a remark, which gives an almost touching 
 evidence of the continuing affection of the native of Angel 
 for his Danish fatherland, and at the same time contains 
 a remarkable elucidation of the state of the language. 
 His words are: "In many other things also the old Saga 
 is said to be confirmed, that Dan, the primitive father 
 of the Danes, and Angel, the primitive father of the 
 Angles, were brothers. Thus it is said, for instance, 
 that, even in the districts where German is spoken, a par- 
 ticular affection exists for the old Scandinavian traditions 
 as well as for the reading of the old Danish historians. 
 People, also now, assemble here and there around one 
 or another old man in the villages who still understands 
 Danish, and can read the old chronicles, or Saga -books 
 and listen attentively." 
 
 Kohl it is true , now adds , that only few quite 
 understand the reader, some give themselves trouble to 
 refresh their Danish, others express their sorrow that they 
 have forgotten it. But it is self evident, thai when we 
 gather around a man in order to hear him read some- 
 thing aloud, we then understand the language in which he 
 reads. The difference between him and his auditors can 
 only be this, that he can read Danish, which the others 
 cannot. 
 
 These expressions of Kohl find a remarkable confir- 
 mation and explanation in the notorious fact which appeared 
 during the advance of our army lately into Angel. Our 
 Jutland and Sealand soldiers to whom however the Ger- 
 mans have not yet awarded the German language as 
 something, of which they should already be in possession, 
 
 6* 
 
but only promised them as a gift in future, found in all 
 places, where they marched forward in Angel, no diffi- 
 culty whatever in speaking \vith the inhabitants, they 
 understood them and were understood by them. Jutes, 
 Sealanders , and Angles conversed like sons of the same 
 people in good Danish. It was as if the German varnish that 
 had been laid over the Danish in Angel, dissolved itself and 
 let the Danish appear again in its natural form and colours. 
 The soldiers showed the peasants the King's proclamation 
 to the Sleswickers. But read Danish they could not. The 
 soldiers read it up for them. Now they understood it well. 
 The towns Egernfiord and Sleswick belonging to Svanso 
 and Angel have long since, even earlier than the surrounding 
 land, been Germanized. The popular language in them 
 is low German. 
 
 The town of Flensborg has preserved its Danish 
 sympathies better than its Danish language. It is an old 
 damage, the reason for which must be sought, partly 
 in the general causes which effected the diffusion of the 
 German tongue in Sleswick, and partly in the steady and 
 extensive connection of this trading town in particular 
 with German places. Already "in the first part of the 
 Sixteenth century Danish and low German was spoken 
 one with the other. Yet the Danish is still in full vigour 
 with the simple man, and this language is preached every 
 Sunday in the church of the Holy Ghost; goods are cried 
 and offered for sale in the streets in Danish, and Danish 
 seamen's songs sound in the harbour. 
 
85 
 
 IX. 
 
 To the North of Angel we come at length to districts 
 where the Danish tongue is not only heard amongst the 
 people, but also in the church and school. It is spoken 
 in the greatest part of the jurisdiction of Timder, the 
 whole of Aabenraa, Lygum- cloister and Haderslev juris- 
 dictions with To'rninglehn, the islands of Als and jrb*. 
 Although the language has been far more protected here 
 than in Angel and Svansb, yet it has been annoyed in 
 manifold and various ways, as well by the heads of the 
 clergy with the general superintendant of the district at 
 their head *), by clergymen, who should preach Danish, 
 but did not understand it or did not care to do it pro- 
 perly **), as by the secular authorities, both the judges 
 and directors, who were German. These abuses extended 
 even to that remote place /Erb". They complained in the 
 
 *) Torninglehn together with eleven more Southern parishes are how- 
 ever to be excepted, as they, in ecclesiastical affairs, are under 
 the direction of the Danish board of justice and the Bishopric of 
 Ribe. 
 
 **) The many comic and partly scurrilous traits of misunderstanding 
 and corruption of the language, during the preaching and other 
 church service , caused by the want of a sufficient knowledge of 
 Danish in those clergymen appointed by the German church super- 
 intendant, we regard it as suitable to pass over here, although 
 the truth thereof is but too often strengthened by the peculiar na- 
 ture of the case. 
 
last part of the former century, "that the inhabitants were 
 continually treated in everything on a German footing, by 
 German officers; all orders, ordinances and decrees were 
 communicated to them in the German language" *). 
 
 In some places the German divine service even crept 
 in amongst the Danish population and the Danish churches 
 round about. It was just like an advanced post, that the 
 Germans sent out towards the North , in order to try if 
 there was any ground to be gained there. Thus in 
 Nordborg, Sonderborg, Augustenborg on Als, and Gra- 
 vensteen in Sundevid. Als and Sundevid together with 
 the jurisdiction of Glilcksborg in North Angel were divided 
 as fiefs amongst Princes of the Sonderborg line, who did 
 not neglect to extend the German as far as they could, 
 in the five churches 7 which the Gliicksborg princes had 
 in Sundevid , German, preaching was introduced alternately 
 with Danish, and the instruction in schools was changed 
 to German 1 It even happened once that they appointed 
 a clergyman without inquiring if he understood anything 
 of the people's language, and, as it appeared that he 
 onlv knew German, he had to be sent in haste to Co- 
 penhagen in order to learn a little Danish before he 
 entered on his office. After the decease of the last of 
 the Glilcksborg line, in 1779, Danish has again become 
 the church -and -school language. But in the church of 
 Gravensteen, w T hich belongs to the Duke of Augustenborg, 
 German is still preached every third Sunday. In the 
 
 *) Danish Atlas VII. 445. It is remarkable that, just as the island, 
 which had previously been divided amongst different lines of the 
 house of Sonderborg. came again, by degrees, under the Crown, 
 a German Sleswick court of justice was, after representation of 
 the German authorities, introduced here by the edict of 1731 and 
 1750, so that, for instance, Charles the Fifth's criminal law (Die 
 Karolina). is valid in this Danish land. 
 
87 
 
 whole jurisdiction of Gliicksborg in North Angeln , Ger- 
 man was preached to the Danish -speaking peasants and 
 the school instruction was German, as long as the princes 
 of Gliicksborg possessed the jurisdiction, and in this no 
 change was ^undertaken, as it devolved to the crown in 
 1779. In the palace church of Augustenborg German is 
 preached , and in Nordborg German is preached every 
 fourth Sunday. Not only princes but even a single Ger- 
 man nobleman who ventured so far up in Sleswick, could 
 not but draw Germanism with him. Thus German ser- 
 mons have been introduced every third Sunday in the 
 church of Kliplev, between Aabenraa and Flensborg, by 
 the Holstein nobles who have owned the estate of Sogaard, 
 to which the church belongs. 
 
 The towns in this part of Sleswick, ./Eroeskjobing, 
 Sonderborg, Aabenraa, Haderslev, Toncler and the hamlet 
 of Lygumcloister, are all Danish. Every man understands 
 Danish and speaks it also, except some of the authorities 
 and several others, who, from Sleswick-Holstein fanaticism 
 have determined not to speak anything but German, w ? hich 
 they have learned at school. For the language in the 
 school, and partly in the church, does not answer to the 
 people's language, with the exception of Jireskjbbing. In 
 Haderslev, where there still, in Christian the Sixth's time, 
 was Danish preaching three times a week, for twice Ger- 
 man, the Danish has since 1806 been referred to the 
 hospital church, where a Danish sermon is preached on 
 Sunday mornings at seven o'clock. In Aabenraa, German 
 is preached in the morning service by the parish clergy- 
 man, in the afternoon, or in summer in the morning 
 early, the curate preaches Danish; German psalms are 
 however sung to the Danish service! In Sbnderborg it 
 is the same as in Aabenraa: the parish clergyman preaches 
 
88 
 
 German in the morning service, the curate Danish in 
 the evening service. In all three places the instruction 
 in the schools is German, although the children, when 
 they come first to school, do not in general understand 
 a word of German. 
 
 In Tender there was formerly at least matins in 
 Danish every Sunday, and at the close of the former 
 century there was a Danish school; but in the year 1830 
 the matins were done away with during the winter, and 
 a half indemnification given in the afternoon service, every 
 other Sunday. In 1835 matins were also set aside in 
 the Summer, and compensated for in the same manner, 
 so that now, Danish service is only heard every other 
 Sunday afternoon. The school instruction has now become 
 exclusively German. 
 
 The hamlet of Lygum - cloister is the last outpost 
 that the Germans have sent forth towards the North West, 
 in the midst of a Danish population. Here they have 
 also been satisfied with a modest beginning; German is 
 preached only once a month , the school instruction is 
 Danish, and only a few hours a week are devoted to 
 the learning of German. This gives an index how they 
 have gone forward in other places, from the lesser to 
 the greater, until at length the mastery was gained. 
 
 With all this the language is yet, as we have said, 
 better secured in this part of Sleswick than elsewhere; 
 with the exception of those single spots where the Ger- 
 man has fixed itself like a parasitical plant, the Danish 
 church -and -school language gives the inhabitants a secu- 
 rity for their mother tongue. It however becomes other- 
 wise when we again turn towards the South and regard 
 the midland part of Sleswick, from the Southern part of 
 the jurisdiction of Tonder and down to Dannevirke, boun- 
 
89 
 
 ded towards the West by the Frisians-land and towards 
 the East by Angeln. Here the old story is repeated, and 
 if possible in a still worse form. A considerable tract 
 of land first meets us, about one hundred square miles 
 (English) in extent, with a population of 35,000 persons, 
 divided into, between thirty and forty parishes. The 
 whole of this population speaks only Danish; nevertheless 
 the school language is exclusively German, and with some 
 few exceptions, the church language is also German. 
 These exceptions are confined thereto, that the clergy in 
 some of the most northward parishes, when they have 
 the will and ability thereto, preach a Danish sermon once 
 a month or so , but the psalms are German. On the 
 South of this tract there is a spot where the people speak 
 Danish and low German alike, until the latter, down tow- 
 ards Dannevirke, gets the upper hand. The church-and- 
 school language here is likewise high German. 
 
 The debasement and suppression which the Danish 
 tongue has suffered, and still suffers in the above men- 
 tioned considerable tract of land, where the people's lan- 
 guage is Danish, and nothing but Danish, is the most 
 disgraceful that exists in the lamentable history of Sles- 
 wick's language. Here is such a full measure of injustice 
 and irrationality, such an offence against the most natural 
 and most sacred rights of a people, that one might be 
 tempted to regard it as an impossibility, if the fact were 
 not but too certain. It has happened through centuries, 
 and happens to the present day, that Danish children, in 
 a land that stands under a Danish government, are sent 
 from their parent's home to a school, in order to receive 
 instruction in religion and all the education they get, in 
 a language they never before knew. Formerly they re- 
 ceived many an admonition, much instruction about many 
 
90 
 
 things in life in the domestic circle, and learned infantile 
 prayers from a pious mother, all of which went easily 
 to the heart, because they sounded in the tones of their 
 mother tongue. But these shoots were to be broken, 
 the whole of this development was to be stopped as by 
 a sudden check, and everything begun anew, and now 
 in a language that sounded cold and strange, and which 
 they should first learn to understand. They are like plants 
 that are taken away from their natural soil and trans- 
 planted in a foreign one, where they are no longer nou- 
 rished by the dews of heaven and the fresh air, but by 
 artificial warmth and watering. They should exchange 
 life's riches in excitements and instruction, for the po- 
 verty of the school, and that of a school which is doubly 
 poor, because it must apply the most of its time to instil 
 a knowledge of the unknown language into the children, 
 and, as the expertness which can be acquired herein 
 during the school hours, must always be highly sparing, 
 from this reason alone the whole religious instruction and 
 everything that is taught besides, becomes something ex- 
 terior, something that does not penetrate to the heart, 
 or as the Germans themselves express it, "etnas auswendig 
 Erlerntes" (something outwardly learned). This is the bar- 
 barism of the middle ages, which again appears in these 
 later times, only that low German and high German take 
 the place of monkish Latin. Nor do the results hereof 
 conceal themselves. Every one that has travelled in these 
 districts, could not but have been struck by the dullness, 
 indolence and reserve which is found amongst the inhabi- 
 tants of these parts compared with the North-Sleswickers, 
 who in "general are lively and intelligent. 
 
 In order to secure ourselves against being accused 
 of exaggeration, we shall quote what an impartial German- 
 
91 
 
 writing author, (N. A. Jensen, clergyman in Angeln who 
 has published an account of that country), says about 
 several of these parishes. 
 
 About the parish of Uberg he says: 
 
 "The people's language is Danish; the church- and - 
 school language German. Danish is however sometimes 
 preached." 
 
 Of Sb'nderlygum: 
 
 "The language of daily life is Danish; the church 
 and-school language German; yet it is customary to -preach 
 Danish every fourth Sunday, many official duties also occur 
 in this language." 
 
 Of Ladelund: 
 
 "The parishioners are Danes and the children do 
 not understand German when they are put to school, 
 where German shall be taught, as in the church there is 
 also German psalm singing and for the most part Ger- 
 man is preached, yet every fourth Sunday Danish, as 
 also other official duties are occasionally performed in 
 this language." 
 
 Of Karlum: 
 
 "The school instruction is German, although all the 
 children speak Danish, the church language is also Ger- 
 man in general^ unless the clergyman will at times preach 
 a Danish sermon." 
 
 Of Humstrup : 
 
 "Most of the children do not understand one Ger- 
 man word when they come to school." 
 
 Of Braderup. 
 
 "The children do not understand one German word 
 when they are placed in school, where German is taught? 
 and where German is also preached in the church." 
 
Of Klixbol: 
 
 "The church -and -school language is German. The 
 people's for the most part Danish." 
 
 Of Middelby: 
 
 "The conversational language is Danish. The children 
 do not understand any German before they come to school. 
 Danish is also preached at times." 
 
 Of Leek : 
 
 "Partly Frisians and partly Danes Danish in the 
 
 villages of Stadum, Achterup, Sandacker, Sprakebull and 
 in several single places, where the German is mostly 
 unknown to the children before they come to school 
 church -and -school language high German. 
 
 Of Valsbdl: 
 
 "The popular language for the most part Danish 
 the church -and -school language German." 
 
 Of Joldelund: 
 
 "The children when they come to school only know 
 Danish" *). 
 
 What has been stated here will be more appa- 
 rent by the aid of some statistical observations. Outzen 
 w r as the first who attempted a statistic representation 
 of the state of things, and as a fundamental reason 
 for it he took the number of parishes. According to 
 his account there are in the land, when we leave the 
 town - churches out of consideration, about forty parishes 
 
 *) Jensen. Kirchl. Slatistik von Schleswig. p. 29. Jensen says of this 
 tract of land There are sixteen or twenty parishes between Ton- 
 dern, Bredstedt and Flensborg with a population of fifteen to 
 seventeen thousand persons . where the children when they come 
 to school must first begin by learning a foreign language ; how 
 disadvantageous this must be , and what an impropriety strikes 
 the observer." But both the parishes and the population is much 
 greater. See forward. 
 
93 
 
 in which Frisian is spoken, and full forty German, in 
 which that language is both spoken and employed in 
 church and school; one hundred and eighteen parishes in 
 which Danish is the conversational as well as the church- 
 and-school language, and about sixty parishes where Da- 
 nish is the popular language, but German that of the 
 school and church. The balance is therefore decidedly 
 on the Danish side; but although the number of parishes 
 is correct, this calculation would not however give any 
 correct picture of the actual state of things, as the more 
 Southern German parishes are better populated than the 
 more Northern Danish. We will therefore, (although it 
 ought not to be overlooked, that that area of the land 
 over which the Danish tongue is extended, has also some 
 weight in judging of the relative proportion of the lan- 
 guages), keep to the number of inhabitants and follow 
 Professor Paulsen in his representation. 
 
 According to the census of the year 1835. Sleswick 
 had on its surface of 680 square miles (English) a po- 
 pulation of 338,192 persons. Those parts of the country 
 in which Danish can be reckoned as entirely or partly 
 the popular language, may be placed under the three 
 following divisions : 
 
 First division 
 
 Where both the people's language and school-and-church 
 language is Danish: 
 
 On about 300 square miles in 116 parishes 113,256 
 
 Second division: 
 
 Where the people's language is Danish, but the 
 church -and -school language for the most part 
 German : 
 
 On about 1'00 square miles in 37 parishes 48.250 
 
 161,506 
 
__ 94 
 
 Transport 161,506 
 Third division: 
 Where the people for the most part understand 
 
 and in part still speak Danish 33,552 
 
 On about 500 square miles Total 195,058 
 
 The rest of the inhabitants of Sleswick are part 
 Frisians and part speak German. 
 
 Those speaking Frisian 26,815 
 
 Those speaking German 116,319 
 
 Total 338,192 
 
 By the census of 1835 the population in the Duchy 
 of Sleswick was 338,192; in the following five years it 
 rose to 348,526, in the year 1845 it was about 363,000. 
 Thus in the space of ten years, between 1835 and 1845 
 the population has got an increase of about 25,000 per- 
 sons. As it is a reasonable supposition, that the different 
 divisons of the language have increased during that time 
 in about the same equal proportion, w r e may without 
 danger of any fault of consequence, distribute this in- 
 crease in an equal ratio in the different divisions. Thereby 
 we get the following amount of numbers which will come 
 very near to the real state of the case at the present 
 moment: 
 
 First Division with Danish language 
 
 and the same church - and - school 
 
 language on an area of 300 square 
 
 miles (English) in 116 parishes . . 121,500 
 Second Division where the popular 
 
 language is Danish but the church- 
 
 and- school language German on an 
 
 area of about 100 square miles 
 
 (English) in 37 parishes 51,700 
 
On about 400 English square miles 
 
 in 153 parishes 173,200 
 
 Third Division, where the people for 
 the most part understand and where 
 they partly speak Danish 36,000 
 
 The whole of the Danish-speaking po- 
 pulation is then on an area of about 
 
 500 square miles . 209,200 
 
 Speaking Frisian 28,800 
 
 Speaking German 125,000 
 
 Together 363,000 
 
 Thus there are in Sleswick 173,200 persons, on an 
 area of 400 square miles out of 680 square miles, for 
 whom Danish is the mother tongue, pure and unmixed, 
 whilst only 125,000 speak low, or high German. The 
 proportion becomes still more favorable when we add to 
 this the third Danish Division, which we are entitled to, 
 as Danish is here the original and natural language, which 
 is understood and partly spoken by the most, and main- 
 tains its ground of itself, whilst the low German is a 
 forced language only kept alive by the German school 
 instruction. The proportion would then be as 209,000 
 Danish to 125,000 German. If we reckon the Frisians 
 to the Germans (which we are far less entitled to, as 
 the Frisian stock of words is almost equally as different 
 from the German as the Danish is from the German): 
 then the proportion would be 209,000 Danish to 154,000 
 German, consequently the majority is still considerably 
 on the Danish side. If however we exclude the third 
 Danish Division, but continue to reckon the Frisians to 
 those speaking German, then the result of the proportion 
 would be thus: 173,000 Danish and 154,000 German. 
 
96 
 
 If we leave the third Danish Division and the Frisians 
 out of consideration: we then get the first given propor- 
 tion of 173,000 speaking pure Danish, and 125,000 
 speaking low or high German. Consequently whichever 
 way we take it, the Danes have a majority over the 
 Germans, both with respect to population and that extent 
 of country they inhabit. 
 
 That the Danish language in Sleswick after having 
 gone through so many adversities has yet been able to 
 come to such a favorable result is owing to several 
 exterior and accidental circumstances which , in some 
 degree, have formed a counterbalance against the many 
 misfortunes. 
 
 To those must be first reckoned the geographical 
 situation of the country towards Germany. That line of 
 communication which Sleswick has in the South part with 
 Germany, by Dannevirke, between Trene and the Slie, 
 is extremely short in proportion to the size of the land. 
 Had the country, instead of offering this short line of 
 communication , extended itself in its whole length along 
 the frontiers of Germany, the circumstances w^ould have 
 been far more unfavorable and the German language more 
 difficult to keep out. The district nearest to the North of 
 that is also very thinly peopled. The many firths, which cut 
 their way into the land from the East and form just as 
 many peninsulas , were likewise an important hindrance 
 to the entrance of this foreign language. It is true, the 
 Holstein nobility passed over Egern- firth and occupied 
 Svanso', and afterwards over the Slie into the Southern 
 part of Angel: but that this geographical position has not , 
 been without import, may be concluded from this cir- 
 cumstance, that it is first from this century, that the low 
 German has got a sort of mastery over the Danish in 
 
97 
 
 the vicinity of the Slie. The islands of Als and YErb 
 were still more cut off and secured by their situation. 
 The next very fortunate circumstance was, that a con- 
 siderable number of parishes , about sixty , have stood 
 and still continue to stand, as regards the administration 
 of church affairs, under the Danish board of justice and 
 home department, and managed by Danish bishops. Under 
 the see of Ribe there are the clergy in 1) Tbrninglehn 
 (the western part of Haderslev jurisdiction) , which includes 
 twenty nine churches with twenty five clergymen. 2) Lo- 
 herred consisting of eight parishes. 3) Mbgeltbnder and 
 Ho'ier Herred with three parishes. The eleven last pa- 
 rishes stand likewise, in respect to secular matters, for 
 the greatest part under the jurisdiction of Ribe. If we 
 add to these Mano' and the two churches in Ribe, then 
 there are forty three parishes, within the boundaries of 
 the Duchy, that are under the see of Ribe. The islands 
 of Als and JEr'o formerly belonged to the diocese of 
 Funen, but in the later times they form a bishoprick of 
 themselves, whose eighteen churches with twenty clergy- 
 men, are under the direction of the Danish home depart- 
 ment, except two churches w j hich are under the general 
 superintendant. That this state of things has exercised 
 a very considerable influence on the preservation and 
 maintenance of the Danish language in these districts is 
 apparent in itself. The endeavours of the Germans to 
 carry everything to the point of perfection has been a 
 hindrance to them in the completion of their own plans. 
 They \vere, as we have remarked, not satisfied with 
 bringing the Danish population to speak low German, 
 they would also particularly in later times drive 
 them on to high German. This made the work of de- 
 struction proceed at a slower rate, as the promotion of 
 
 7 
 
98 
 
 two languages after each other, cost double work and 
 time, and poor as it is to reckon this amongst the for- 
 tunate circumstances, yet it must be added thereto. That 
 the German tongue , although it has been worked on 
 during centuries, has not been able to gain any ground 
 in that great district between Friesland and Angeln, where 
 Danish is spoken, must be almost entirely attributed to 
 the circumstance, that schooling is much more neglected 
 here than in any other place in Sleswick. The fields 
 in this part of the country are not enclosed , therefore 
 the children are employed a considerable part of the year 
 to watch cattle, and thus neglect the school. Unnatural 
 circumstances produce unnatural effects. What must be 
 complained of everywhere in the world under other cir- 
 cumstances as a misfortune, must Here be accounted as 
 a fortunate event. We Danes cannot but wish that the 
 German school instruction in these parts may continue 
 to be as bad as possible, that the schools may be much 
 neglected, until a natural state of things is brought about, 
 by the introduction of Danish school instruction. 
 
 But first and last it was however, as we have 
 already stated, the true and insurmountable affection of 
 the Danish population for their mother tongue , and its 
 own inexhaustible life and power of resistance, that placed 
 a barrier against the advance of Germanism. That the 
 Danish language in -Sleswick has a sound, fresh, and 
 strong living root, and where it is expelled is only 
 expelled by violence: of this the leaders of the Sleswick- 
 Holsteinism party must themselves bear witness. 
 
 Thus when the Sleswick deputy Drbhse, came for- 
 ward in the provincial states assembly in 1838 with the 
 assertion that Sleswick was a German land, he was 
 refuted by Counsellor Falck, who on the same occasion 
 
replied to several expressions in a similar spirit and 
 thereby remarked: 
 
 "I must deny that the German language will in a 
 short time become the general one in Sleswick, there is 
 no prospect of it whatever in those districts where the 
 Danish is church-and-school language. Thousands of years 
 can yet pass away before this be the case. The Danish 
 language has been expelled by violent measures in the 
 South Eastern part of the Duchy." 
 
 We attach weight to this testimony, not so much 
 for the case itself (for that is certain enough without it), 
 as because it emanates from a man, who is one of the 
 most renowned and indefatigable champions of Sleswick- 
 Holsteinism, a born Sleswicker, regarded as an able 
 historian and teacher of jurisprudence in the university 
 of Kiel. 
 
 This may perhaps serve to open the eyes and ears 
 of some of those Germans, who made blind and deaf by 
 fanaticism , will not believe the "one sided" Danish assertions. 
 
100 
 
 X. 
 
 BUT in order to complete the picture of that misery 
 whose pressure has, during a long time, rested and still 
 rests on the Danish language in Sleswick, some traits are 
 yet to be added which will make it understood how. the 
 German has been able to make its way into the upper 
 classes in the towns and extend itself in some districts 
 in the country. To this account there first belongs the 
 circumstance, that all the upper institutions for education 
 are German and under the direction of German teachers. 
 There is not to be found in the whole of Sleswick, a 
 grammar school, not a commercial school, nay scarcely 
 a school for the lower classes of the people in the towns 
 that is Danish ; the peasant schools in a part of the 
 country are the only Danish ones; but even these are 
 exposed to the influence of Germanism as there are no 
 Danish high-schools for school teachers; the only seminary 
 for parish schoolmasters is German , and founded in a 
 German-minded town, To'nder. When the students leave 
 the German grammar-schools they are, in consequence of 
 the edict of 1768, bound to stay at least two years at 
 the German university in Kiel. 
 
 Thus all the institutions whence the higher human 
 education and accomplishment is derived, where the na- 
 tional literature should be cultivated and the language 
 
101 
 
 nourished, are German, although the country has a Da- 
 nish population, which in number far exceeds the German. 
 It is first of late years that, by the endeavours of the 
 people, they have succeeded in founding a high -school 
 in Ro'dding for the sons of peasants , and a few days 
 before the breaking out of the revolt, the government 
 issued a command to transform Haderslev German gram- 
 mar school into a Danish one. This the government did 
 at last, having been for many years reminded and ex- 
 horted, both by petitions and through the press, to do 
 something in order to put an end to so unnatural a state 
 of things and help the reasonable and just complaints of 
 the Sleswickers. The effect of the whole of the public 
 instruction being given into the power of the Germans, 
 has shown itself in those days during the combat for 
 language, as a proportionally small number of native Sles- 
 wickers, who by their scientific education were called on 
 to defend their mother tongue, which was placed in dan- 
 ger , have fulfilled this duty , whilst many have insulted 
 it, disowned it and trod it under foot. A contempt for 
 the mother tongue could not do otherwise than develop 
 itself under that existing state of affairs. If Danish tones 
 only sounded by the cradle of the child and he heard 
 only this in daily life from his parents during his growth 
 up, so a stranger needed only to announce himself, who 
 was a little better off in the world than his parents, and 
 they directly came forth with the German Sunday language 
 and bungled at it, even if it went on never so miserably*). 
 
 We shall here give some examples of such genteel high German 
 in Sleswick according to Kohl (Nationalitet und Sprache in Herzog- 
 thuiu SchlesNvick. P. 212): ''0 in den Hinsehende steht der Ackerbau 
 in Fiin auf einem sehr hohen trin." "Ich blieb auszenvor." 
 "Ich mochte im Vorwege bemerken." ''Kin Paar rasr.he Madchen." 
 ''Das mag der Poker wissen." "Das soil ich wohl thun." "Ich 
 
102 
 
 If the boy afterwards went to school he got German 
 teachers and heard only German around him. He now 
 soon made the reasonable conclusion, that Danish must 
 be an extremely inferior and unworthy language, in com- 
 parison with the German, and useless except in the very 
 simplest circumstances. What the school had given, was 
 confirmed and continued at the university of Kiel, which 
 he at length left as a perfectly Germanised Sleswicker. 
 Thus the intelligent Sleswiqker has learned to despise his 
 mother tongue, and what one does not respect, it is dif- 
 ficult to love *). 
 
 kann Sie unter Zeiten nicht verstehen." "Du kannst schlecht nichts 
 machen." "Unsere hierseienden Mitbruder." ' ; Das soil ich noch 
 thun." [o: "I shall certainly do it", Danish: "Jeg skal nok gjore del."] 
 "Das ist nicht werth und fangen an." 
 
 A few other examples are communicated by C. Paulsen: (Ueber 
 Yolksthiimlichkeit im Schleswick) P. 37. Note 2: "Komm ein; 
 lauf aus; geh mil ihr durch und bring sie dann um." 
 
 Kohl therefore justly says about the Germanized Sleswickers 
 language P. 215: For the rest I must confess that amongst all those 
 who speak low German, they speak the least agreeable German. 
 
 As an example of low German we may cite "Jensen on Angeln." 
 P. 147: "Wi hem sonst Dansk wesen , men nu siin wi Diidsk 
 blawen ! - 
 
 Counsellor Falck may serve as an excellent example. One should 
 think that this man, who is born in Ihe town of Emmerlev in the 
 jurisdiction of Tender . where Danish is spoken, and where the 
 church even, belongs to the diocese of Ribe! would, both by 
 his birth and situation, regard himself as the born and appointed 
 guardian of his oppressed mother tongue, and embrace it with deep 
 affection. But far from it. He cannot, as a historian, avoid acknow- 
 ledging the existence of incontestible facts; but he has no kindness, 
 no feeling for the Danish language. This he has shown, amongst 
 other things , by standing up against those , who thought it most 
 just, that German church -and -school language should give place 
 to Ihe Danish in those districts where the people speak Danish. 
 Ten years ago he expressed himself as we have previously quoted; 
 if he would now do it after the more hostile position he has since 
 taken up, is doubtful, and it is not impossible that he has changed 
 his opinion about this, as he did about the succession in Sleswick, 
 which he once regarded as being the same as in Denmark. 
 
103 
 
 These effects even extended themselves further than 
 to those in public offices and the higher classes of citizens 
 in the towns: they also extended to the peasants. The 
 peasant, in general, stuck close to his mother tongue; 
 but when he heard the clergyman, the schoolmaster, the 
 judge, and the higher classes of citizens in the towns 
 speak their German, this opinion could not but be easily 
 confirmed in his mind , that German must be a far more 
 genteel language and that it was well if he could speak 
 it together with the Danish. The mismanagement and 
 complete want of care in the church-and-school, to w ? hich 
 the Danish language was submitted had however a much 
 worse effect. A popular language that is thus left ta 
 itself, stands in the greatest danger of being spoiled and 
 degenerated. Just as the book-language, in order to pre- 
 serve its freshness and naturality, requires to be fertilized 
 by the living stream of the popular tongue, so must this 
 again be held in awe by the stricter rules and discipline 
 of the book-language, if it shall not be broken down by 
 carelessness, dullness and ignorance. It is as by a mi- 
 racle that the popular tongue in these districts has main- 
 tained itself so long under such conditions, without re- 
 ceiving greater damage than it has. 
 
 A Sleswick clergyman expressed himself in the follow- 
 ing manner, at the close of the former century respecting 
 several of these points in question: 
 
 "One cannot imagine anything so unnatural, and for 
 a Dane so offensive, as that sway which the German 
 language has obtained in a real Danish province, where 
 the whole of the commonalty scarcely understand a com- 
 plete German sentence. At the tribunals where the good 
 old King Waldemar's Jutland law should still be valid, 
 all causes are carried on in German. You can easily 
 
104 
 
 imagine the foolishness of eight Danish peasants having 
 to stand as public witnesses and listening to what two 
 German pettifoggers quarrel about at the general assizes. 
 How grievous it w^ould be for you or me to hear our 
 cause pleaded and judged in the Russian language. I 
 pray you to imagine curiosity and stupidity painted in 
 the faces of my congregation when I must read from the 
 pulpit a German edict, placard or order, whose stilus curice 
 in its long and screwed up meanings is so incomprehen- 
 sible to myself, that I must previously arrange a short 
 context thereof in Danish, and, after the original has 
 been read, tell my congregation, in our mother tongue, 
 what it is. Here never comes the least order from the 
 bailiff of the district, the chief clerk, or the estate bailiff, 
 except it be in German. One might wonder how this 
 could be, as most of the bailiffs who come to Sleswick, 
 are Danish, but the cause is easy enough to conceive: 
 a Danish courtier who formerly, so much the worse, heard 
 more German than Danish at court, comes to live here 
 
 in a provincial town here he hears the traders and 
 
 public officers all speak German, such as it is; for their 
 every -day language is miserable; and from this he con- 
 cludes that the whole jurisdiction is German, when how- 
 ever, if he spoke with a thousand peasants in his district 
 not ten of them could answer him in German. In the 
 next place, if such a Danish courtier comes into office 
 and into business that he is unacquainted with, he can- 
 not for the sake of formality even use his good Danish 
 sense. He goes carefully forward, foot by foot, after 
 old custom, in his revolutions; a practised and accustomed 
 clerk must be taken; this clerk who does not know how 
 to write a line of Danish, publishes everything after an- 
 cient forms in German, and always the same terms in 
 
105 
 
 similar cases; thereby everything remains and goes on 
 in its regular German tone amongst Danish subjects. But 
 the inconveniences that arise from this, are greater than 
 can be imagined. Hence come the long, expensive and 
 entirely destructive law suits; hence comes the usual in- 
 convenience between the Danish and German board of 
 justice, with much more"*). 
 
 An anonymous German tourist, who travelled in 
 Sleswick in the year 1800 describes the German nation- 
 ality of the higher classes in the following terms: 
 
 "Whoever does not wear wooden shoes in the North- 
 ern districts of the Duchy of Sleswick, or whoever 
 drives with mounted harness, or has a calesche .or hood 
 on his waggon, or rides on an English saddle, or is a 
 clergyman, or a great public officer, or dressed in fash- 
 ionable clothes, such a one you may address in Ger- 
 man, for he understands the German language. All the 
 rest speak Danish." 
 
 When the Germans bring forward a support for their 
 assertion about the German nationality of Sleswick, from 
 the circumstance that the low German has made its way 
 into some few tracts of the land: then this assertion has 
 not any particularly firm ground to stand on. The low 
 German and high German are not the same, they are 
 two different languages. The low German is by no means 
 in proportion to the high German as a common dialect 
 is to the conversational and written language of the well 
 educated. The high German has its common dialects, 
 and low German, which was once a written language, 
 has its different dialects. Low German differs in the con- 
 
 J. A. Dyssel, clergyman in Nuslrup. Travels in the eounlry in 
 1763. 
 
106 
 
 slruction of the language, the syntax and the whole gram- 
 mar, very considerably from high German; of the stock of 
 words it has a far greater mass in common with Danish, 
 than the Danish and high German have reciprocally in com- 
 mon; it approaches by its simplicity and naturality in the 
 construction of the words and spirit of the language just as 
 much to the Northern tongue, as it is removed from the 
 affected and perverted construction of sentences and high 
 flown bombast of the high German. When there now 
 comes to the former original approach and agreement 
 between low German and Danish, this circumstance, that 
 in those districts, where the low German has forced its 
 way in. between the Danish, it has been in a very con- 
 siderable degree penetrated and sprinkled with Danish, 
 filled up with Danish words, peculiar Danish expressions 
 and turns: so we shall find it reasonable, that this low 
 German has a far greater resemblance with Danish than 
 with high German, and that the reason which the Ger- 
 mans adduce from this kind of language, in order to prove 
 that Sleswick is a German land, does not signify much. 
 We then also understand, that a language of this nature 
 could find a much easier entrance into the Daish fron- 
 tier districts. 
 
107 
 
 XI. 
 
 BUT the Germans have not been satisfied with sup- 
 pressing and, as far as it lay in their power, rooting 
 out the Danish language in Sleswick; they have even 
 sought to deprive it of the name of Danish. "Bin Volks- 
 patois, Rabendanish" (A vulgar patois, gibberish) are 
 the honourable titles with which they designate this lan- 
 guage; it is so hateful to them because it is a living 
 witness of Sleswick's Danish nationality, of which, how- 
 ever willingly they would, they cannot in any way get 
 rid of. Yes , if they should say their real meaning , so 
 it is in fact a German language, which by the help of 
 the Danish church -and -school language has only got a 
 sort of appearance of Danish, "eine danische Farbung"*). 
 
 "Twelve Fables in the North Sleswick dialect with a translation in 
 the written language. Collected by Dr. Gottlieb (probably pseudo- 
 nym). With a preface by Dr. C. Heiberg. Husum 1844. Page 7 
 Dr. Heiberg says: "That the dialect in the North of Sleswick has 
 more of a Danish colour, is simply explained thus, that the original 
 popular tongue has, centuries ago, been enriched by the modern 
 Danish church-and-school language. Thereby they have received 
 by degrees "a Danish colouring". The twelve Fables in the North 
 Sleswick popular tongue, as the title says, are translated into the 
 written language: and that written language in which they are trans- 
 lated, is German. Counsellor Falck has also understood Dr. Heiberg, 
 who does not express himself in very intelligible words, as if he 
 meant, that the Danish in Sleswick was in fact German. 
 
108 
 
 We might in fact leave these assertions to themselves, 
 as long as they are not supported by any reasonable 
 grounds, and confine ourselves to advise such a doubting 
 German first to learn Danish, so that he can perfectly 
 understand it, and not only be able to spell his way 
 through a book, and then set out for Sleswick, hear the 
 people speak, and then believe his own ears. Yet we 
 will not refuse to meet our opponents on this point, 
 although we are in some perplexity, as w r e seek for their 
 reasons and cannot find them anywhere. We come in- 
 voluntarily, on hearing these German judgements about 
 the Danish language in Sleswick, to think of the story 
 about the Frenchman, who made a trip to Germany and 
 came back and told his countrymen, that they had no 
 proper language in Germany, but spoke a sort of gibberish 
 which no one could understand. Yet added he , they 
 know well enough how to make themselves mutually 
 understood. 
 
 In every country there will always be a considerable 
 difference between the written language and the spoken 
 language; and the spoken language of the educated classes 
 will again diviate much from that of the less educated. 
 But the difference will be still greater if we look to the 
 different provinces of which a land consists. Many pecu- 
 liarities appear here which have their foundation in the 
 different ways in which the words are pronounced; in 
 one province they are fond of long vowels or dipthongs, 
 in another short; the transposition of certain letters is 
 favoured more in one place than another, in some pro- 
 vinces certain consonants are exchanged for others ; and 
 lastly the accent and the whole modulation of speech 
 differs very much in the different provinces. In the North 
 of England they do not speak as in the South of Eng- 
 
109 
 
 land; but it will therefore never be a reason for any one 
 to assert, that an inhabitant of the North of England 
 does not speak English, any more than a Parisian will 
 assert than they do not speak French in the South or 
 West of France. 
 
 Another important reason why the spoken language 
 in a province deviates from the book-language or written 
 language, is founded on this cause, that the inhabitants 
 of provinces, with regard to language, are in general 
 more conservative than the inhabitants of great tow T ns. 
 It is a very general observation in all countries, that the 
 inhabitants of provinces have preserved a great number 
 of good old words, wdiich are obsolete in the written 
 language and have disappeared from the spoken language 
 of the refined classes, who keep nearest to the written 
 language. 
 
 On account of these circumstances, both the pecu- 
 liarities of the pronunciation and the greater fidelity in 
 preserving the old language, the conversational language 
 of the commonalty in the country will always differ con- 
 siderably from the w r ritten language, and this applies not 
 less -to North Jutland, Funen and Bornholm, than to Soutfy 
 Jutland. But to declare the language of a province as 
 not Danish for these reasons: there certainly belongs great 
 thoughtlessness and more than common ignorance of lan- 
 guages, or a bad will. 
 
 We will here cite the words of a man, w^hose as- 
 sertions can certainly counterbalance those of the former. 
 They are those of the celebrated linguist Outzen, a native 
 of Sleswick, who, in a work published in German, states 
 as follows about the Danish language of the people in 
 South Jutland. 
 
no 
 
 "Without placing our language in comparison \vilii 
 any other language whatever, \vith6ut praising it in any 
 way or extolling it at the expense of any other language, 
 or debasing it by comparison with other languages, I 
 will only say this one thing about it: it is our real old 
 language. 
 
 For in the country, where we do not meet with 
 such a mixture of foreigners and foreign languages; where 
 they in general like to keep to old customs, the language 
 is, generally regarded, still the same, on the whole still 
 unchanged , although a little different according to the 
 dialects I believe that a lower or a higher dialect of 
 one and the same language can very well exist and be 
 suffered beside each other. Yet the peasant in Sealand and 
 Funen not only speaks quite differently to the townsman 
 of Copenhagen and Odensee, but much more so than in a 
 Danish book. And has this ever been otherwise amongst 
 persons speaking a more or less refined language? So 
 it was in Italy, and so it was in Greece." 
 
 There is a peculiarity in the popular language both 
 in South Jutland and the greater part of North Jutland 
 that may be stated in a few ,w T ords. It consists in this, 
 that the inhabitants do not affix the definite article to the 
 end of the word, which is the custom in Danish and 
 generally in Scandinavian languages, but instead thereof 
 place an 33 before the substantive in the singular as well 
 as in the plural, and therefore do not say Manden, (the 
 man), Huset (the house), but 33 Mand, 33 Huus (the man. 
 the house) not MaBndene, Husene (the men, the houses) 
 but 33 Ms3nd, 33 Huus. This peculiarity is extended over 
 the whole Danish part of South and North Jutland up 
 to the lakes around Skanderborg and Himmelbierg, then 
 
ill 
 
 follows the Guden-rivulet until it bends towards the East, 
 then turns towards the West and passes to the East of 
 Viborg up towards the Liimfiord , likewise including Thy. 
 This peculiarity, in connection with the natural frontiers, 
 certainly indicates an ancient separation between the tribes 
 of the peninsula but it is not sufficient to make the 
 Danish , either in North or South Jutland , German. Nor 
 has it ever been received into the w r ritten language: 
 neither in runic inscriptions nor in the laws of South 
 Jutland is there any trace of it. 
 
 What most perplexes our German judges of language, 
 who are so little acquainted with the Danish and Northern 
 tongue , is the number of words and inflections that appear 
 in the popular language of South Jutland, but have gone 
 out of use in the printed language, or have never had 
 a place there. A great number of these are to be found 
 again in the Old-Northern or Icelandic. Icelanders who 
 have travelled in South Jutland have been astonished at 
 the great number of Icelandic words and phrases that 
 still existed there in the popular tongue. The most of 
 them appear likewise in other Danish lands, in the lan- 
 guage of the commonalty or are found in the elder Danish 
 book -language; others are used in Norway and Sweden, 
 partly in the written language and partly amongst the 
 people; some also are to be found in the English lan- 
 guage, which is near akin to the Danish. 
 
 W T e shall make this clear by a few examples: 
 
 Aabod, remuneration; used in the elder judicial lan- 
 guage; Seeland abot. 
 
 Aussel, excrescence; Icelandic, aexl or aexli. 
 
 Davre, breakfast; used amongst the common people 
 in most of the provinces; Icelandic dagverdr. 
 
112 
 
 Fikke, a pocket; elder Danish and still used in 
 Swedish, Icelandic ficki. 
 
 fige, to strive, to hanker after; appears in elder 
 Danish, still used in Swedish; Icelandic, at fykjast. 
 
 feig, death's, destined to die; still used in this 
 signification in Norway ; Icelandic, feigr. 
 
 Gild, able, brisk, active; elder Danish. Icelandic 
 gildr. 
 
 Grande, Grandestevne; neighbour, a meeting of neigh- 
 bours and townsmen, elder Danish and still used 
 in Norway and Sweden. Icelandic granni and 
 grannastefna. 
 
 Jatte, to promise, to say yes; Icelandic jata. 
 
 Kaad, cot, hut; elder Danish; Icelandic kot. 
 
 Karm, a state carriage; elder Danish. 
 
 kno'v, wntty, smart, active; used in several provinces; 
 Icelandic , knaafr. 
 
 knyste, to cough slightly; used also in North Jutland 
 and Funen. 
 
 Krik, a cricket. 
 
 Leve, a loaf; elder Danish, Icelandic, leifr. 
 
 Lime, a sweeping-brush; elder Danish, used also in 
 North Jutland and several places in Sweden, Ice- 
 landic, limi. 
 
 Mool, a thick cloud; Swedish Moln. 
 
 Mulle, a number; akin with mylre; Icelandic miigi, 
 number. 
 
 Mude, to bribe; still used in Norwegian and Swedish, 
 Icelandic, at miita. 
 
 Skranne, to roar with laughter; used both in North 
 and South Jutland; Swedish skratta. 
 
 Stout, proud; elder Danish and used both in North 
 and South Jutland. 
 
113 
 
 Swime, to swoon; elder Danish, Icelandic at svima. 
 
 Svarrer, a turner; Swedish svarfvare; Icelandic, 
 sverfa, to scrape off, to file. 
 
 Sone, deny, refuse; Icelandic, at synja. 
 
 Unne, dinner; used in North and South Jutland and 
 Funen , as well as in several Swedish provinces. 
 
 Tois, twice; in elder Danish tosser, Icel. tysvar. 
 
 Vante, to w r ant; Icelandic, at vanta. 
 
 Ove, to shout; Icelandic, at sepa. 
 
 To these may still be added a number of expres- 
 sions, which indicate ancient Danish agricultural affairs, 
 such as Alminding (a common), Tofte (an enclosed field 
 near a house, or the home-field.) Vang (an enclosed field, 
 or close.) Stuvland (land taken from a larger quantity 
 and enclosed.) Srermserker (separate fields), Ornum, (an 
 old Danish word signifying ground taken from a larger 
 parcel belonging to several, and made over to one man.) 
 Aftaegt, (annual allowance to one who has given up his 
 farm to another.) etc. etc. 
 
 Such words bring our German philologists somewhat 
 into perplexity, but they however soon help themselves 
 out of it, by declaring such expressions to be either 
 German or by reckoning them to this "low Danish" 
 or "gibberish" , which no person can understand. We 
 believe however that we have cited reasons enough to 
 show that the .popular language in South Jutland is good 
 old Danish and derives its origin from the old Scandi- 
 navian language. 
 
 Some years ago an attempt was made to give a 
 clear proof that the popular tongue in South Jutland was 
 not Danish, but, if it should be called a language, on 
 the w T hole, it was nearest to, and originally German, 
 which in the course of time had got a Danish colouring. 
 
 8 
 
114 
 
 This proof was the before mentioned twelve fables 
 published by Advocate Heiberg, in the South Jutland po- 
 pular language, with a translation, as it was called, in 
 the written language, which was German. This attempt 
 however ended in a complete prostitution. The publisher 
 was so unfortunate as to prove directly the contrary of 
 that he intended and wished. He hovered between the 
 endeavour to show that they spoke gibberish or German 
 in South Jutland, and unfortunately came to give proofs 
 that the common people there speak just as good Danish 
 as in any other part of Denmark. 
 
 As examples w r e shall present the two first pieces 
 with which the book begins: 
 
 The popular language. 
 
 Da oil e Dyr i gammel 
 Dau kund' snak med hvor- 
 anner, var der en Mand. 
 som tit ga Aut deraa, hva 
 di soy, aa skro'v et op i en 
 gammel Bog. De er saadan 
 Historer, som e Bb'rn gjen 
 la dem forta3l, aa som gam- 
 mel Folk har Nytt aa Gaun 
 a, aa derfor heller ei let 
 glemmer. Vi har no sogt 
 nauer Fortyellinger ur a den 
 gammel Bog, aa no kan I 
 sjell lo'is dem aa see, hva 
 Forstand der er deri. 
 
 The written language. 
 
 Da alle Dyrene i gamle 
 Dage kunde snakke med 
 hverandre , var der en Mand 
 som tit gav Agt paa, hvad 
 de sagde, og skrev det op 
 i en gammel Bog. Der er 
 saadanne Historier som Bor- 
 nene gjerne lade dem for- 
 tffille, og som gamle Folk 
 har Nytte og Gavn af, og 
 derfor heller ikke let glem- 
 mer. Vi har nu sogt nogle 
 Fortaellinger ud af den gamle 
 Bog, og nu kan I selv taese 
 dem og see hvad Forstand 
 der er deri. 
 
115 
 
 "See, soy den lille Mikkel, 
 der bar e Raun taun den 
 Vost, som vi saa laeng bar 
 hay Lyst te; kund vi it tei 
 en fra ham, hvonser vi oil 
 sammel gik lois aa ham?" 
 
 "De gaaer it," soy den 
 gammel Mikkel, "seer do it 
 han er olleree flo'ven op aa 
 de ho'iest Tra3." 
 
 "See, sagde den lille Mik- 
 kel, der har Ravnen taget 
 den Ost, som vi saa Isenge 
 har havt Lyst til; kunde vi 
 ikke tage den fra ham , naar vi 
 allesammen gik los paa ham?" 
 
 "Det gaaer ikke an" 
 sagde den gamle Mikkel, 
 "seer du ikke han er allerede 
 flb'ien op paa den ho'ieste Trae." 
 
 English translation. 
 
 When all the animals in former days could talk with 
 one another, there was a man who often paid attention 
 to what they said, and wrote it down in an old book. 
 They are such stories as children are fond of hearing 
 related, and which old folks have use and profit of, and 
 therefore do not easily forget. We have now taken some 
 tales out of this old book, and now you can read them 
 yourself and see what sense there is in them. 
 
 "See there, said the little fox, the raven has taken 
 the cheese we have so long had a desire for; could we 
 not take it from him, if we all together rushed upon him?" 
 
 "It will not do," said the old fox, "don't you see 
 that he has already flown up into the highest tree." 
 
 Of the story of the Prodigal son we communicate 
 the following as a specimen of Danish spoken in the 
 province of Angel: 
 
116 
 
 Anglo - danish. 
 En Man hoi to Sonner, o 
 den yngest a dem soi te ae 
 Far: Far gi mae den Diel 
 a se Goss, der hor rase (te). 
 ban dield ae Goss imeirm 
 dem. int laant deretter, 
 saa saankedt den yngest 
 S5n olt sammel o drauw ur 
 a ae Land laant vaek o for- 
 komm der sit Goss mae 
 lirrele Loevnd. Elauv ban 
 no hoi fortaert olt sit, saa 
 blo'w der en stur dyr Ti i 
 hiel Land o ban begyndt' 
 aa vant. ban gik hen 
 o holdt S33 te jin a ae Folk 
 der i ae Land; den skikked 
 ham te Marks o varr aa ae 
 Sviin. O ban var tefraees aa 
 fylU sin Mau mae Mask te 
 83 Sviin aad o Inne ga ham 
 naur. 
 
 Danish. 
 
 En Mand havde to Sonner, 
 og den yngste af dem sagde 
 til Faderen: Fader giv mig 
 den Deel af Godset, der 
 hb'rer mig til. Og ban deelte 
 Godset imellem dem. Og 
 ikke laenge derefter saa san- 
 kede den yngste Son alt 
 sammen og drog ud af Lan- 
 det langt vaek og forkom der 
 sit Gods med liderligt Lev- 
 net. Da ban nu havde for- 
 taeret alt sit, saa blev der 
 en stor dyr Tid i hele Lan- 
 det og ban begyndte at 
 mangle. Og ban gik hen 
 og holdt sig til en af Folket 
 der i Landet; denne skik- 
 kede ham til Marks at tage 
 vare paa Svinene. Og ban 
 var tilfreds at fylde sin Mave 
 med Mask som Svinene aad 
 og Ingen gav ham noget. 
 
 A man had two sons , and the younger of them said 
 to his father; Father give me that part of the estate that 
 falleth to me. And he divided the estate between them. 
 And not long afterwards the younger son gathered all 
 together , and took his way into a far country , and there 
 wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he 
 had spent all ? there arose a mighty famine in that land, 
 
117 
 
 and he began to be in want. And he went and joined 
 himself to a .citizen of that country; and he sent him into 
 his fields to look after the swine. And he would fain 
 have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did 
 eat; and no man gave unto him. 
 
 The above is pure, thorough Danish; nothing German 
 is to be found therein. The word "vante" , wants, is 
 used not only in South Jutland but also in North Jutland 
 as well on the East as on the west side, and is an old 
 Northern word, which appears also in older Danish and 
 Norwegian authors. (Icelandic, at vanta). 
 
 As a comparison with the Anglo-danish we give the 
 following piece from the West - Jutland popular tongue : 
 
 West- Jutland. 
 No blow a ledt alvorle, 
 o saa saae a te ham: "viid' 
 du da heller skilles free di 
 Muer o di Faaer? Hwem sku' 
 saa hjaelpp mae o dryww e 
 Goer, naeer a blywwer gam- 
 mel o swaggele? hwem skuld 1 
 arre 'en alter mae? Na3er a 
 braekked naat op aa e Hie 
 o wor Haer lod deile Kuen 
 groe daeer, hu der faer stoj 
 Lyong te e Knaeer, saa waa 
 de alstej mi stost Glee o 
 
 teenkk 
 dtej." 
 
 te a arbeded faa 
 
 Danish. 
 
 Nu blev jeg lidt alvorlig, 
 og saa sagde jeg til ham: 
 "vilde (iu da heller skilles 
 fra din Moder og din Fader? 
 Hvem skulde saa hjaelpe mig 
 at drive Gaarden, naar jeg 
 bliver gammel og svagelig? 
 Hvem skulde arve den efter 
 mig? Naar jeg braekkede 
 noget op af Heclen og vor 
 Herre lod deilig Korn groe 
 der, hvor der for stod Lyng 
 til Knaeerne , saa var det altid 
 min storste Glaede at taenke, 
 at jeg arbeidede for dig/' 
 
118 
 
 (English translation.) 
 
 1 now became a little serious and so I said to him: 
 will you then rather be separated from your father and 
 your mother? Who should then help me to cultivate the 
 farm when I become old and feeble? Who should inherit 
 it after me? When I broke up some of the heath and 
 the Lord let fine corn grow there, where there before 
 stood ling up to the knees, so it was always my greatest 
 pleasure to think, that I worked for you." 
 
 It must appear to everybody, that the examples taken 
 from the popular language of South- Jutland and Angel, 
 are just as near, if not nearer, to the written language, 
 as those of North-Jutland. 
 
 The attempt, previously mentioned was so clumsy, 
 that one of the parties' own spokesmen, Counsellor Falck, 
 found himself called on to reply against it and express 
 his disapproval, both of the form and contents, of Dr. 
 Heiberg's libel, and thereby he did his own party, who 
 had been too much prostituted , a good service. 
 His words are as follow: 
 
 "That the language w 7 hich is spoken in the Northern 
 part of Sleswick belongs to the Danish family of lan- 
 guages , no philologist or impartial man can for one mo- 
 ment be in doubt. The honourable editor (Dr. Heiberg) 
 certainly seems to doubt if the dialects in the Northern 
 part of Sleswick belong to the Danish language or not. 
 If we understand him rightly, he regards the dialects of 
 North Sleswick as German. He describes them in part 
 as not Danish, and partly he asserts without further cir- 
 cumstance that these dialects have received a Danish 
 colouring from the modern school -and -church language; 
 thus they must in fact be German. The same view of 
 
119 
 
 the case is expressed in the title of the book. How such 
 a conception of the matter can have taken place is in- 
 conceivable to me. According to all reason there cannot 
 exist any doubt whatever, as the case is clear in itself. 
 Every possible doubt must entirely disappear if we only 
 compare the North Sleswick dialect with the Danish people's 
 dialects in the different parts of the kingdom." 
 
120 
 
 XII. 
 
 As the German philologists are thus not able to 
 make the popular tongue in Sleswick to anything else 
 than what it is, namely Danish: so there is another 
 point, in which it may seem that their endeavours might 
 be crowned with better success. If even they must acknow- 
 ledge, that the language of the commonalty is Danish, 
 they affirm, that the intelligent part is exclusively Ger- 
 man, that the whole of the higher and spiritual life touches 
 and moves on German ground. 
 
 We have previously stated, how the Danish Sles- 
 wicker, if he will not abandon his mother tongue and 
 nationality, is excluded from all the institutions for educa- 
 tion, through \vhich the state everywhere else procures 
 her future men of science, poets, national authors and 
 place -men that higher education, which is the condition 
 for their future activity, as all the Latin schools, commer- 
 cial schools and serninarys for schoolmasters are German, 
 and the foreign university, w r here the students are bound 
 to stay at least two years, is likewise German. If there- 
 fore the matter stood exactly thus, as our opponents 
 assert, no one would find it strange or unexpected, but 
 only regret it as a result of that great injustice, which 
 is done to the Danish Sleswicker. 
 
1-21 
 
 Should it on the contrary appear, that there is both 
 found in Sleswick a considerable element of Danish edu- 
 cation and intelligence, and that Danish literature has 
 received considerable ornaments and enrichments, from 
 men who are born in Danish-speaking districts of Sleswick, 
 even in a greater proportion than the German literature 
 from the same districts, so it is clear that the previous 
 assertion must be understood with considerable restriction, 
 and that the Danish veins in Sleswick (which the many 
 other facts we have cited, also indicate) must possess an 
 unusual strength, since Danism is thus able to break its 
 way through all bars, which they place before it, and 
 all the hindrances, with which they seek to subdue and 
 suppress it. 
 
 There are one hundred and seventeen parishes in 
 Sleswick, in which the Danish church-and-school language 
 reigns exclusively; the clergymen and schoolmasters of 
 these parishes can just as little be supposed to be ex- 
 cluded from the number of the educated , as one can 
 suppose that they should be strangers to Danish literature 
 and Danish scientific refinement. This charge certainly 
 cannot be applied to that half part of them who are ap- 
 pointed through the Danish board of justice, nor can it 
 in general apply to the other half part, who are appointed 
 through the German board of justice. For even if some 
 be found amongst them who keep to the German, and 
 in several respects attend badly to their calling as Danish 
 ministers of the gospel, yet the most of them will, even 
 by the nature of their office and with regard to the Da- 
 nish congregation, whose spiritual welfare is committed 
 to their care, and whose development and cultivation they 
 must watch over, be led involuntarily to occupy them- 
 selves with Danish literature and matters of science. 
 
122 
 
 Amongst the agriculturists also, and amongst the citizens 
 in the towns there are found many Danish-speaking Sles- 
 wickers, who may lay good claim to he reckoned amongst 
 the educated classes. 
 
 As representatives for Danish-Sleswick education and 
 refinement we must further reckon those men of science 
 and the many civil and military officers, who born in 
 Danish districts of Sleswick, are afterwards appointed to 
 places in the kingdom; the painters, sculptors, and mu- 
 sicians who leave their native place for the capital, which 
 opens a wider field for their activity, and offers them 
 means for improvement and cultivation, which they felt 
 the want of at home. They live here as Danes, speak 
 and write Danish, and no one observes any difference 
 between them and Danes from other parts of the king- 
 dom. This one cannot regard as something accidental, 
 nor can it be explained as a result of the influence of 
 the Danish circle wherein they live. For there are also 
 many Holsteiners who live in Copenhagen, but they are, 
 and remain, German, although their circle of friends must 
 also have an influence on them, if there were not some- 
 thing in themselves that prevented it, and that is their 
 foreign nationality. But the Danish Sleswicker feels and 
 behaves himself like a Dane amongst Danes, because the 
 nationality is the same. This is just the bond of union. 
 
 Other Sleswickers have passed through the fiery 
 ordeal, for their mother tongue and nationality, of the 
 German schools and German university, without losing 
 their affection for them, and have stood up in their own 
 homes as their defenders with so much greater zeal and 
 warmth, as they of their own long experience knew, in 
 what debasement their mother tongue was held. As such 
 we may name the chief defenders in the combat for the Sles- 
 
123 
 
 wick language and nationality, C. Wimpfen and C. Paulsen; 
 as well as Nis Hansen, who was educated at the Ger- 
 man grammar-school in Sleswick and has since shown 
 himself as an able workman in the Danish cause. 
 
 The state of things that shows itself is remarkable, 
 when we consider the connection of the Danish Sleswickers 
 with literature. According to the assertion of the Ger- 
 mans respecting their sole possession of the intelligence, 
 cultivation , and education throughout the whole Duchy, 
 one might expect that all or yet most of the Sleswickers 
 had deposited the fruits of their literary labours in Ger- 
 man, and none or few in the Danish literature. But the 
 state of things is quite otherwise. 
 
 If we examine Lybkers and Schroders "authors- 
 lexicon", which comprehends the period from 1796 to 
 1828 and regard those authors who wrote in that period 
 and w r ere born in that part of Steswick where Danish is 
 exclusively or in preference spoken: then we shall find, 
 that a considerable number of Sleswickers have been active 
 fellow workmen in the Danish literature. 
 
 As examples we shall only name a few: 
 
 J. D. Herholdt, Professor, (born in Aabenraa). A 
 celebrated author, particularly in physiology. /. W. Horne- 
 mann, Professor, (born in JEro). A celebrated botanist. 
 C. Viborg, Professor, Director of the Veterinary school, 
 (born in Aabenraa jurisdiction). A celebrated author in 
 botany and Veterinary science. G* Zoega, (born in Dahler). 
 A celebrated archaeologist. 
 
 Also from those districts which lie more to the South 
 than the boundary line here mentioned, there are not a 
 few Danish authors: amongst others, Captain Abrahamson, 
 (born in the town of Sleswick). A renowned Danish poet 
 and excellent popular author, who has written many 
 
124 
 
 distinguished works on Northern literature and antiquities. 
 Manicus, (born in Angeln). Author of writings relating 
 to medicinal, historical and antiquarian subjects. 
 
 It deserves to be remarked that those authors who 
 have been named here , from amongst a vast number, 
 have a prominent place in the Danish literature and belong 
 to its best ornaments. Herholdt , Hornemann , C. Viborg 
 and G. Zoega are celebrated names, known far beyond 
 the boundaries of Denmark. Nor must it remain unno- 
 ticed that amongst the Danish Sleswickers there are two 
 renowned orators, H. G. Clausen, Dean, (born in Karlum 
 in the jurisdiction of To'nder) and F. C. Gutfeldt, Dean, 
 (born in Haderslev jurisdiction) for eloquence is of a na- 
 tional nature, and it seldom or never happens, that any 
 one obtains a name for eloquence in a foreign tongue. 
 
 If we go through the range of those authors from 
 the same districts of Sleswick, who have kept to the 
 German literature and observe the same rules in present- 
 ing them to the reader, as we have done with the pre- 
 vious ones, named in Lubkers and Schroders author's- 
 lexicon, we can at most find but two or three names 
 of any great importance, and the most important of these, 
 the Entomologist Fabricius, wrote mostly in latin. The 
 number of those not named here, as being of less impor- 
 tance, both in Danish and German, is much less in the latter 
 than the former, and the contributions which these Ger- 
 man-writing Sleswickers have given to German literature 
 cannot in any way be compared to that which the Danish 
 literature owes to the Danish-writing Sleswickers. 
 
 In the most popular and national of all the branches 
 of literature, poetry, there is not to be found in that 
 period of time we have named or in any other, any 
 important name amongst Sleswick's German-writing authors, 
 
125 
 
 whilst amongst the Danish there are found both orators 
 and a popular poet, such as Abrahamson. 
 
 From all that has been stated it may certainly be 
 taken for granted that the German's assertion of a sole 
 possession of the intelligence, cultivation and refinement 
 in Sleswick, must suffer a very considerable restriction, 
 and that the Danish language and nationality, although 
 they have done everything to keep them down, yet shoot 
 forth vigorous stems, like certain plants, that thrive and 
 flourish although we tread them under foot. 
 
Xffl. 
 
 THAT language which a people uses, is not only 
 living on the lips of the people or preserved in their 
 writings, but it is repeated in personal names and the 
 names of towns, villages, farms, streams and rivulets etc. 
 
 The last class are, almost without exception, formed 
 of words, that find an explanation in the language of the 
 country. This remark also applies, for a great part to 
 personal names; yet there are also several to be found 
 which are borrowed from other places, namely from the 
 bible; but even in these, nationality does not hide itself, 
 as the people show a preference for certain groups of 
 names, and reject others. 
 
 Now if Sleswick were a German land, as our op- 
 ponents assert: we should then find German words in 
 the names of towns and places, and the names of per- 
 sons must likewise agree with the general German names. 
 But the case is quite different. The far greater mass of 
 those personal names which are found in Sleswick are 
 Danish and Scandinavian; a far less part emanate from 
 German families, who have 'immigrated thither and have 
 taken up their abode in the country; amongst them are 
 a number of the families of the Holstein nobles, which 
 still partly exist as noble names, and have been adopted 
 partly by inferiors and servants of the nobility. All the 
 
127 
 
 older names of villages, farms,, and towns are Danish, 
 and only a part of the newer farms, bought or built by 
 the immigrant Holstein families, have got German names. 
 This we shall show more particularly. 
 
 It is a peculiarity with Danish and generally Scan- 
 divian (as also with English) family names, that they are 
 frequently formed by the addition of son or sen, annexed 
 to the proper personal name. 
 
 This manner of forming names, which is foreign to 
 Germany, appears very frequently in Sleswick names. As 
 instances we may quote the following, at random: Lassen, 
 Knudsen, Nissen, Jepsen, Henriksen, Kallesen, Johansen, 
 Bondesen, Brorsen, Klausen, Feddersen, Nansen, Jensen, 
 Hansen, Jessen, Petersen, Henningsen, Ebsen, Nielsen, 
 Ipsen, Olsen, Paulsen, Christensen, Mikkelsen, Fallesen, 
 Jespersen, Andersen, Sdrensen, Jb'rgensen. 
 
 Further: Eriksen, Magnussen, Johnsen, Thygesen, 
 Villadsen, Thb'stesen, Adsersen, Lauesen, Iversen, Ketilsen, 
 Thorsen, Nigelsen, Gunnesen, \Truelsen. 
 
 We may observe how very general and extended 
 over the whole of Denmark the first part of the above 
 quoted names are, and what a stamp of ancient Danish 
 and Scandinavian origin the last have; several of them 
 appear in our ancient manuscripts and must be explained 
 by the old Northern language. 
 
 Other current names are these: Bruun, Juel, Uldal, 
 Birkedal, Mbrk, Skou, Storm, Lund, Krogh, Hjort, Ravn, 
 Bjorn, Barfod, Balslbv. These names are also well known 
 to Danish ears, and the very signification of the word 
 proclaims them Danish *). 
 
 *) Bruun signifies Brown; Juel sign. Wheel; Uldal sign. Wolfsdale; 
 Birkedal sign. Birchdale; Mork sign. Dark; Skou sign. Wood; 
 Ravn sign. Raven; Barfod sign. Barefoot; Biorn sign. Bear etc. 
 
128 
 
 Besides the many amongst the custom ary Danish 
 Christian names, such as Knud, Peder, Niels Hans, Ole, 
 Christen, Jens, Jeppe, and the less frequent, but ancient, 
 as Thyge, Thoste, Laue, Adser, Ketil, Gunner, Truels, 
 Iver, Erik, Magnus, which are already amongst the family 
 names we have cited as ending in sen, we should add 
 Arent, Boe, Broder, Bonde, Enevold, Trelle, Gyde, Hagen, 
 Ingvar, Mogens, Ove, Thorsten, Tjelle or Tjelluf; and the 
 names of women, as Bodil, Thyre, Gunder, Gye, Voldborg. 
 
 We should have much difficulty to find anything 
 German in these names: all is Danish and Northern. 
 
 The same remark is repeated when we regard the 
 names of places in Sleswick. We shall go through a 
 part of them after their endings*). 
 
 Aa, (rivulet) Lindaa, Bondeaa. 
 
 Ager, (field) Broager. 
 
 Bsek, (brook) Egebask, Holbask, Vedba3k, Torbsek, 
 Leerbsek, ^Esbask. 
 
 Bro, (bridge) Stokkebro. 
 
 By, (town) Borreby, Gunnelsby, Kjaerby, Ketelsby, 
 Svensby, Drengesby, Gammelby, Brodersby, Viby, 
 Adelby, Truelsby etc. etc. 
 
 Bel, bolle, balle, (dwelling place) Thorsbolle, Skov- 
 
 The most of these endings are intelligible of themselves ; an ex- 
 planation of a few only is necessary: the ending ild is supposed 
 to signify hill, and is of Northern origin, urn or om is the old 
 dative in plural, which was used to indicate a place; rup, drup, 
 trup, comes from the word Torp , and signifies a town, which is 
 built out of and erected from the chief town, Adelbyen; ry, ryde, 
 r6d indicates that the place is erected by the rooting out of 
 woods; the frequent ending lev or lov comes from the Icelandic 
 leifd (effects of a person deceased) or in plural leifar (ancient 
 remains) and then it signifies landed property. The ending vid 
 or ved signifies forest, wood. 
 
129 
 
 bolle, Oxbo'lle, Nybolle, Adserballe, Thorsballe, 
 
 Langballe. 
 
 Borg, (borough) Svenborg. 
 Drup, trup, rup, (village) Sverdrup, Estrup, Hastrup, 
 
 Hostrup , Lovtrup , Vilslrup , Satrup , Kolstrup, 
 
 Fjelstrup , Ulslrup , Tostrup , Kollerup , Frorup. 
 Gaard, (manor) Vraagaard, Heegaard, Havgaard, 
 
 Ogaard, Lundsgaard , Drengesgaard. 
 Have, (garden) Kallehave. 
 Hoved, (head) Graahoved, Egehoved. 
 Hoi, (hill) Snogho'i, Storhoi. 
 
 Holm, (holm) Kyholm, Hestholin, Vipholm, Brunsholm. 
 lid, (hill) Arrild, Abbild, Vonsild. 
 Kjser, (moor) Eskjasr, Ellekjasr, Holmkjeer, Koldkjaer. 
 Kilde, (well) Thorskilde, Hvidkilde. 
 Lev or lov, (field) Bollerslev, Thinglev, Froslev, 
 
 Seierslev, Tolveslev, Harrislev. 
 Lund, (grove) Ellund, Joldelund, Fruerlund, Gam- 
 
 mellund, Bdgelund, Iverslund, Skadelund, Gyl- 
 
 denlund. 
 Lokke, (enclosure) Emmerlbkke, Hestelokke, Faare- 
 
 lokke, Gammelldkke. 
 Mark, (field) Eskilsmark. 
 Nakke, (neck) Birkenakke. 
 Nass, (promontory, ness) Grimsnses, Bd'gena3S, Ege- 
 
 naes, Espenaas, Ulpenaas. 
 Riis, (bosket) Eskriis. 
 Ry, ryde, ro'd, (plain) Bregnry, Binnery, Gudero'd, 
 
 Bb'gerod. 
 
 Skov, (wood) Thingskov, Juulskov, Bo'geskov, Aaskov. 
 Sted, (stead) Rungsted, Sigersted, Thorsted, Drengsted. 
 So, (sea) verso, Traaso. 
 Thing, (thing) Gelthing. 
 
130 
 
 Toft, (a small field) Ha vetoft, Gjentoft, Terkilstoft, Bir- 
 restoft, Faaretoft, Hestetoft, Koltoft, Valdemarstoft, 
 Lyngtoft, Runetoft. 
 
 Vad, (ford) Bredvad, Bbgvad, Dybvad. 
 
 Vang, (a small field) Gaardvang, Sevang. 
 
 Vid or ved, (wood) Handeved , Sundevid, Lindevid, 
 
 Vraa, (nook) Sb'llingvraa , Foldevraa, Aabenraa. 
 
 Urn or om, Stubbum, Lygum, Bbrlum, Karlum, Klintum. 
 
 O, (isle) Vseverb. 
 
 These names sound familiar and homely to every 
 Dane; they appear in all districts of Denmark, several 
 of them also in Norway and Sweden. A great number 
 have also become far extended family names. They are 
 taken from different parts of Sleswick, but principally 
 from the Southern part where Germanism has more or 
 less forced its way in. Many occur however two or three 
 times , both in South Angel and Svansb' and likewise in 
 the most Northern parts of the Duchy. 
 
 In the jurisdiction of Husum and the Southern dis- 
 tricts of the jurisdiction of Gottorp and Flensborg, the 
 following are found amongst several more : Joldelund, Skov- 
 bolle, Vandrup 7 Tornskov, Sigersted, Stendrup, Gammel- 
 lund, Sbllerup, Huusby, Bregnry, Hunding, Esberstofl, 
 Kraglund, Thorsbaek, etc. etc. 
 
 In Angel there also appears the following amongst 
 others: Osbaek, Thorbaek, Thorsted, Thorsballe, Thorskilde, 
 Svensby, Gunnelsby, Ketilsby, Borreby, Brodersby, Truelsby, 
 Bondeaa, Kollerup, Sattrup, Ulstrup, Tostrup , Arrild, 
 Eskjajr, Ellekjaer, Egehoved, Storhb'i, Iverslund, Bbgelund. 
 Kyholm , Hestholm , Faarelbkke , Gammellbkke , Grimsnaes, 
 Eskriis, Birkenakke, Vinnery, Bbgerbd, Gjentofte, Bune- 
 toft, Terkilstoft, Hestetoft, Thingskov, Gaardvang, Linde- 
 vid, Vaevero etc. 
 
131 
 
 What a mass of Danish names there appears in 
 Svanso, has been already stated, (P. 77). 
 
 A great number of these names have, it is true, 
 been turned and distorted by German writers, bailiffs and 
 estate owners. Thus Snoghoi is made to Schnaghoi, 
 Eskriis to Esgrus, Koldkjaer to Kaltenkirchen , Kirkeby to 
 Karby, Eskilsmark to Eschelsmark, Urmark to Ohrfeld 
 Rdnhave to Ronhof, Bregning to Brekling, Ryekloster to 
 Ruheklosler, Ulvekrat to Ulegraf, Nisvraa to Niesgrau, 
 Smaabol to Schmol, Thorskilde to Tordschil, Skovlund to 
 Schaaflund, Lyngsted to Lovenstedt, Tolveslev to Tollschlag, 
 Runetoft to Rundhof, Grumtoft to Grundhof or Griinhof. 
 
 Here it must however be remarked that this dis- 
 tortion of names, is retained only by German writers 
 and men in office; the common man, even in the Southern 
 districts generally pronounces the names correctly. The 
 common man says Harslov, and not Hadersleben; Ovvenraa, 
 and not Apenrade, Lyksborg, and not Glucksborg; Graa- 
 steen and not Gravensteen; Runtout (Runtoft in South 
 Angeln), and not Rundhof; Grumtout, (Grumtoft in North 
 Angeln), and not Grundhof or Griinhof. 
 
 That German writers have thus been able to bungle 
 and spoil Danish names, one cannot however be so much 
 astonished at, when one reads in German works such 
 learned explanations of Danish words, as appear in the 
 agricultural affairs of Sleswick, stated thus: "Bonde must 
 be derived from "einem gebundenen Manne"*}; whereas 
 the meaning of the Danish w r ord Bonde is one who pos- 
 sesses landed property, originally by purchase or gift 
 from the lord of the soil. 
 
 A bounden man or bondman. 
 
 9* 
 
132 
 
 Landgilde, is derived from "einen landlichen Feste"*), 
 whereas it signifies the yearly rent which a Fsesteboncle 
 or farmer pays to the owner of the estate; Ornum (an 
 old Danish word signifying ground that is taken out, from 
 a community of landed property, for a single person's 
 possession) explained by "heiligen Hainen von Ornus- 
 baumen anpflanzt?' **) ! the German's explanation of this 
 word becomes doubly ridiculous, when it is remembered 
 that Manna-ash (Ornusbaumen) does not appear in the 
 North of Europe, the most Northern part where it ap- 
 pears is in Tyrol and Karnthen! 
 
 They do not however fare much better with their 
 own language which they fill with a number of Danish 
 expressions, borrowed in particular from the language of 
 the courts of law and agricultural affairs which have a 
 very strange appearance in German. 
 
 *) A rural feast. 
 **) A consecrated grove planted with Manna-ash (Ornusbaumen). 
 
133 
 
 XIV. 
 
 DENMARK is rich in old traditions, which go as far 
 as the Danish tongue is heard. The Saga or tradition 
 is like a new language, through which the people's mind 
 reveals itself to us. When we say that the spiritual pe- 
 culiarities of a people appear in their history, laws, man- 
 ners and customs: then it is assuredly true; but the thing 
 is to separate the accidental and foreign parts of these 
 elements in order to come to a right view of what is 
 the general part and that which in fact expresses the po- 
 pular peculiarities. In the popular traditions the people 
 have themselves done this work for us already. The 
 spiritual form and character of the people meets us here 
 of itself, and it seems as if we could seize it, as it 
 shines through , every where, scarcely veiled by the covering 
 of words. Tradition comprises every thing that sets a 
 peoples thoughts, feelings, and power of imagination in 
 movement; the memorials of history and hopes of the 
 future, the passions of the soul and the manifold combats 
 and endeavours of mankind, nature as it shows itself to 
 the eye and its mysterious effects in the interior of the 
 earth, the life that moves in the hidden depths of the sea 
 and the 'gloominess of the forests: everything becomes a 
 subject for this popular composition, which shoots forth 
 just as involuntarily from the minds of the people as the 
 
134 
 
 flowers from the bosom of the earth. The deeds of the 
 old heroes and of departed days draw tradition within 
 its circle, and unconcerned about the words of history, 
 the people transform them according to their own image, 
 fashion them so as they must be, that they may acknow- 
 ledge them as theirs. 
 
 If then Sleswick really be a Danish land, and its 
 Danish-speaking inhabitants of Danish root and extraction 
 just as well as those of North Jutland and Funen: then 
 it will not disown itself in the domains of tradition; a 
 communion of mind gives a common world of tradition. 
 Though this place does not admit of a detailed treatment 
 of this rich theme, yet we shall adduce so much, as to 
 make it clear that it is Danish ground we tread on, when 
 we move amongst the traditions which live in the memo- 
 rials and conversation of the Danish population in Sles- 
 wick, that they are the remembrances of antiquity, Danish 
 feelings, representations and images of the mind w r hich 
 we meet with here. 
 
 There is an old tradition existing both in North and 
 South Jutland, respecting the changes that the Jutlandish 
 peninsula has suffered in remote times. It is said on the 
 island of Sylt, and in the country around Nissum- firth 
 in North Jutland and in the interior of South Jutland, for 
 instance, in the parish of Agerskov, that a Queen of Eng- 
 land has caused this damage, through vindictiveness. She 
 was betrothed with a King of Denmark, but he w 7 ould 
 not keep the promise of marriage that he had given to 
 her. In order to be revenged she commanded the neck 
 of land, that united England and France to be cut through, 
 this work lasted seven years, but when completed the 
 sea burst violently in and washed away a great part ot 
 the peninsula of Jutland. Geologists, by an examination 
 
135 
 
 of the physical condition of the localities , find it confirmed, 
 that one of the oldest and greatest inundations, which 
 has destroyed Jutland, was caused by a breaking through 
 of the sea, whereby the channel between England and 
 France was formed. 
 
 The traditions about the old Gods are near to be 
 extinguished in the Northern lands; it is only here and 
 there, in solitary and remote districts that a single tone 
 is now and then heard from the most distant times of 
 antiquity. The most durable are those memorials that 
 attach themselves to the names of places, as they bear 
 witness that the Gods have been cultivated here, or that 
 events have happened which the people have placed in 
 connection with the history of the Gods. Of such names 
 not a few 7 are to be found in South Jutland. In the 
 parish of Bjert in Tyrstrup Herred (jurisdiction) there is 
 a large place, near the village of Binderup, two hundred 
 and sixty feet in circumference, surrounded by enormous 
 blocks of granite, the peasants show this place and still 
 call it Thor's Have (Thors garden) (Icelandic, hof, the 
 house of the Gods). In the South of Sleswick the name 
 of this God is likewise frequently to be met with; thus 
 we find in Angeln Thorsbaek (Thor's brook), Thorskilde 
 (Thor's well), Thorsted (Thor's place) and several others, 
 as well as the names of persons. Thor and Thorsen, which 
 are very frequent. Odin's name lies in Vonsild, i e 
 Odiusild or Odinshoi (Odin's hill), in Vonsbsek, i e Odins 
 Bsek (Odins Beck). Freis name is refound in Froslev, 
 Frorup. Tyrstrup and Tiislund or Tirslund bear witness 
 of the God Tyr. B alders name appears not only in Bol- 
 lerslev and Biolderup but the tradition still exists of his 
 being slain by the God Hoder or Hader, whose name is 
 found again in the neighbouring town of Haderslev. The 
 
136 
 
 game of Balder Rune, which also reminds us of this God, 
 is still practised by children in several places of South 
 Jutland, namely in the neighbourhood of Flensborg and 
 in the jurisdiction of Haderslev. This may surely be 
 sufficient to show that Sleswick also has had lot and 
 part in the old mythology of the North*). 
 
 The hero of Northern tradition, Stcerkodder , is not 
 forgotten in Sleswick where they point out the places 
 which he frequented, and it is still less the case with 
 Holger Danske (Olger the Dane). Some few years ago, 
 W 7 hen a Sleswick -Holsteiner in the provincial parliament, 
 conjured the Emperor Frederick Red-beard's shadow from 
 the grave, as a terror to all Danes, a Slesw r ick peasant, 
 Nis Lorenzen from Lilholdt, was not behind hand in pre- 
 senting him Holger Danske to meet him in the field. 
 Holger Danske is one of the heroes of past times with 
 whom the common people of Denmark are best acquainted 
 and on whose deeds they love best to dwell. He sits 
 in his burial vault, prepared to step forth as the saviour 
 of Denmark in the time of need. 
 
 The North Jutlanders relate that the Turk w 7 ith 
 this name they signify the dangerous enemy shall once 
 in time come so far that he can water his horses in 
 Viborg lake; but then Holger Danske will step forth and 
 put him to flight. But the South Jutlanders do not allow 7 
 the Turk to come further than to Kongeaaen (the King's 
 rivulet) , which forms the boundary between South and 
 North - Jutland. When he has reached it, Holger Danske 
 steps forth from his sepulchral chamber in the hill near 
 Mogeltonder and saves Denmark, as he expels the enemy 
 
 *) Odin (Wodan). Thor, Frey, Balder, Tyr are the most celebrated 
 Gods in the Scandinavian mythology. 
 
137 
 
 with an army of boys of twelve years; for there are no 
 others remaining after the previous sanguinary battle. 
 
 Traditions of entirely the same stamp as are found 
 everywhere in Denmark, are attached to the many tumuli 
 or barrows that are found round about in Slesw-ick. The 
 commonalty in general also know the names of the buried 
 heroes, and they are always the same as those who have 
 gained fame in the ancient traditions of Denmark. A 
 number of barrows are to be seen in the fields around 
 the villages of Havetoft, Loit and Thorsballe in Angeln. 
 It is said that a great battle took place here in the olden 
 times. The inhabitants of those parts say, that King Frode 
 rests in the largest of these hills, and strengthen their 
 statement by citing some verses which are common in that 
 place. According to the tradition, two heroes named 
 Grim and Vogn lie buried in a hill near Kirkeby (juris- 
 diction of Haderslev). The Sleswick tradition says of King 
 Dan, that he had his residence in the city of Sleswick, 
 and commanded that his body should be buried in a hill 
 near Kurberg , and surrounded by immense granite blocks. 
 King Hiarnes hill is shown near Kliplev (jurisdiction of 
 Tender); others assert that the- right place is Hiarneby 
 near Flensborg. In the parish of Qvaern in Angeln they 
 say that a hero lies buried with his horse, armour and 
 a valuable sw^ord in Ravnshoi (Raven's hill). It is said 
 that an old King, Sigurd Falle, lies buried in a tumulus, 
 which they call Kongsie-Ho'i (the King's hill) in the village 
 of Selk near the Slie. 
 
 The beautiful tradition about Hagbart and Signe still 
 exists on Als, although according to the usual varying of 
 time in the popular tradition, it is placed to the age of 
 chivalry. In Sundevid they give an account of a pious 
 knight who once lived in Broager and who had made a 
 
138 
 
 vow to wander as a pilgrim to the holy sepulchre. On 
 his departure he begged his wife , who was pregnant, 
 that if she gave birth to a son, that she would then have 
 a steeple built to the church in Broager; but if she gave 
 birth to a daughter, she should then let the church remain 
 without, as it was. When after completing his pilgrim- 
 age, he returned and approached his home he saw two 
 steeples rise above Broager church: his wife had born 
 him two sons. This is the tradition about Adser Ryg of 
 Fjenneslovlille and his two sons, Absalon and Esbern Snare, 
 celebrated in the history of Denmark and which tradition 
 has wandered from Sealand over to Sundevid. 
 
 Not only the old ballad beginning with the words: 
 "i Lunde Kirke yppes en Stevne", ("in Lunde church a 
 meeting took place") announced the sanguinary contest that 
 took place in Tiislunde church, where Tule Vognsen slew 
 Svend Graa, who had insulted his mother, but the tradi- 
 tion exists in the place itself. The scene for the song 
 about Mr. Tonne or "the power of the runes", is the 
 island of Als. 
 
 Queen Margaret, who the common people, on account 
 of the dark colour of her face, called Black Peggy, or 
 the Horse burster, because she rode so swiftly, is known 
 in history as a woman of a masculine and strong willed 
 character, who governed the kingdom in difficult times 
 with much wisdom and prudence. Tradition does not 
 however speak much about her in the rest of Denmark, 
 but so much the more in Sleswick J which was the chiei 
 theatre for her operations *). 
 
 *) She lived in the 13th century and must not be confounded \\illi 
 the other celebrated Queen Margaret, \\lio lived in the -1 4th century 
 and in the end of that century brought about the union between 
 the three Scandinavian kingdoms. 
 
139 
 
 Here she herself took the field in order to maintain 
 the rights of her son Erik Clipping, a boy of twelve 
 years , against the Counts of Holstein , here she made 
 herself famous by fortifying Dannevirke anew, as it had 
 become ruinous, and which the commonalty in that part 
 still frequently call, after her, Margaret's wall. 
 
 Queen Margaret was never the people's favorite, any 
 more than King Valdemar Atterclag, great as his merits 
 were. Her dark, serious aspect, which was increased 
 by the black dress she wore as a widow, the severity 
 she showed, the hard works she imposed on them, and 
 her unwomanly manners, as they thought, did not please 
 the common people. They accuse her of having had the 
 assistance of evil spirits in completing the fortification of 
 Dannevirke; they therefore often see her at night in her 
 black dress, sitting on a snow-white steed and darting 
 restlessly away over Dannevirke between Hedeby and 
 Hollingsted. If any one has laid out plantations or erected 
 buildings on the rampart, she then destroys them; for 
 she does not like that people build or dig in the ram- 
 part which she has erected for the defence of the king- 
 dom. They show a hill on Kropheden, between Danne- 
 virke a\id the Eider, which is called Dronningehoien (the 
 Queen's hill), wherein a hostile prince, whom she slew 
 in single combat, is said to be buried. Even down in 
 Holstein and Northern Germany, they show fortifications 
 that she is said to have erected when she besieged hos- 
 tile towns. She appears often at night to the fishermen 
 by the Slie, and procures them a good draught of fishes, 
 when they obey her commands, but if they trespass against 
 them, it then becomes their ruin. She conquered her 
 enemies just as much by stratagem as by bravery; when 
 she rode about in the country, she often had her horse's 
 
140 
 
 shoes placed the wrong way on the hoofs, so that no 
 one knew where she was. She also possessed the gift 
 of prophecy , and has left many prophecies about Den- 
 mark's future state. 
 
 It was not only Gurre castle, between Elsinore and 
 Fredensborg , which King Valdemar Atterdag loved so 
 highly, that he would willingly resign the joys of heaven 
 if he might only be allowed to hunt in the forest around 
 Gurre. The Sleswick tradition attributes to him the same 
 affection for the country around Bau near Flensborg. Here 
 he one day, during the pleasures of the chase, let fall 
 the same presumptuous words; but as a punishment he 
 must now hunt there till doomsday. The noise of his 
 wild hunting tumult even forces its way down to the 
 moat by Flensborg, when he at night, with his retinue 
 of huntsmen and dogs, darts through the air. This the 
 commonalty call "Kong Volmers Jagt" (King Valdemars 
 chase). 
 
 Nor is tradition quite silent about the battles of the 
 Danish Kings with the later Dukes of Sleswick. It is 
 related, that a Danish King, whose name it not given, 
 was surprised in Bollerslev by the people of the Duke 
 and had nearly been taken prisoner. But a faithful Sles- 
 wicker saved the King, by stratagem, from the suspend- 
 ing danger, and as a reward he got an exemption from 
 taxes for the property he owned in Bollerslev. The farm 
 is called Friplov (i. e free plough) and still preserves its 
 old exemption from taxation. 
 
 The whole w r orld of supernatural beings, with which 
 the common people of Denmark like so much to occupy 
 their imagination with, belongs just as much to Sleswick 
 as any other place in Denmark. The Elves (Ellepigerne) 
 perform their light dances in the meadows or the open 
 
141 
 
 places in the woods by moonlight; the mermaids raise 
 their beautiful bodies above the surface of the sea and 
 seek, by alluring songs, to draw the unwary, who con- 
 fide themselves to them, down into the deep; the dwarfs 
 or the subterranean people, as they are called, wander 
 about under ground and hold their banquets, their birth 
 day feasts and marriages like human beings on the earth; 
 the Nisse or brownie springs about with his little red 
 cap on, in the stable, kitchen and cellar, and performs 
 all sorts of little mischievous tricks. In all this there is 
 no difference, whether one be to the West or the East 
 of the little Belt, to the South or the North of Kongeaaen. 
 Near the village of Haverslund , not far from Aabenraa, 
 there is a hill where the Elves often use to wander. A 
 farmers man had laid down to sleep there, but was 
 awakened in the middle of the night by the most delightful 
 music sounding in his ears. He now distinctly saw before 
 him two girls who danced lightly about, and put several 
 questions to him. But he remained silent, for he knew 
 that it was dangerous to enter into conversation with 
 such beings. He then heard them sing: 
 
 "Aa hor, do Ungersven! aa vil do int> 
 Mee 6s i Auten taeP, 
 
 Saa skal inden Kok gael' di' solslavn Kniv 
 Ret lig dint Hiaert' i Dvael." 
 
 The meaning is to the following effect. 
 
 "Oh hear thou young swain! oh, wilt thou not 
 With us this night have aught to say; 
 Then ere the cock crow, the silver mounted knife 
 Thy heart shall hide in rest from the day." 
 
 When he heard this , he became terrified and was about 
 to speak, but just at that moment the cock crowed, and 
 the elf girls disappeared. 
 
142 
 
 Also in Angeln and several other places, they often 
 hear similar beautiful music sound from the hills. 
 
 The belief in mountain-folks or dwarfs or subterranean 
 people, as they are called, is extended over the whole 
 of Sleswick. It is found not less in Angeln and Sundevid 
 than in North and West Sleswick, and what is more 
 remarkable, they have preserved the old name Finn, with 
 w r hich such demons or sprites were designated in the 
 antiquity of the North. They are still skilful smiths, as 
 is the olden time, and the traveller can often hear them 
 at \vork with hammer and file within the hill. Sometimes 
 the hill rises and stands on glowing pillars so that one 
 can see rightly, what they are occupied with therein. 
 They have much familiar intercourse with human beings, 
 borrow r their work-tools and furniture, which they return 
 punctually when they have used them, are often self 
 invited guests at festivals and marriages and take a secret 
 part in the meal. This does not happen now so often 
 as before , as the King of Denmark is said to have ordered 
 their places of exit to be closed and placed sentinels 
 before them, so that they can only escape with difficulty. 
 
 In Sleswick they also call the Nisser or brownies, 
 little boys or Nisse-boys, because they look like little 
 boys. In other respects they also say the same about 
 them there, as everywhere else in Denmark. They are 
 active beings, always in motion both day and night; when 
 they are well treated and get their dish of groats in 
 right time, they are very useful, help the servants with 
 all sorts of household jobs and bring luck to the house 
 they stay in; but if any harm be done to them, they 
 then do not neglect to revenge themselves effectually. 
 
 The belief in the Were -wolf or w r olf-man prevails 
 also in Sleswick, and there are many tales about the de- 
 
143 
 
 testable Helhest*), which is so much feared by the Danish 
 commonalty. Proverbial Danisms are also attached to 
 this belief. Thus they say of one who has escaped from 
 a dangerous illness: "Han har givet Doden en Skjmppe 
 Havre" or "han har afkjobt sig med Hel" , (han har kjobt 
 sicj af med ce Hel.) i. e. He has given death a peck of 
 oats, or he has bought himself off with Hel. To one 
 who performs an errand slowly, they say: "Du er god at 
 skikke efter ce Hel" (You are good to send after Hel.) 
 The word is, as is w 7 ell known, an old Scandinavian one. 
 
 That the dwarfs exchange the children of Christians 
 and place an oaf in their stead, likewise belongs to the 
 common belief in Sleswick, and they apply the same 
 means of precaution against the exchange as everywhere 
 else in Denmark. Nor are tales wanting about hidden 
 treasures, dragons and griffins, that brood over them. 
 Amongst others a great treasure is said to be buried in 
 the ruins of the old castle of Duborg near Flensborg, 
 where there is also a serpent with a crown on its head. 
 
 There were giants (Jsetter) as well as dwarfs (D verger) 
 in the country formerly. As proofs of this are the im- 
 mensely large stones w T hich are often found not far from 
 the churches. These stones the heathen giants would have 
 slung against the churches, but they have mistaken their 
 aim so that the stones have fallen down at some distance 
 from them. Such stones are seen, for instance, near 
 Arrild, Spandet, and Middelby churches. A giant would 
 once throw such a stone from Sundevid over Flensborg 
 firth and far into Angeln against the church in Qvsern, 
 but it came no further than to Hatlund where it still lies. 
 
 *) The fabled three legged horse; from Hel the goddess of death in 
 the Northern Mythology. 
 
144 
 
 Near Dollerup in Angela there lies a large stone, which 
 a giant has thrown over from Funen; it is called the 
 Funen stone to this day. Near Dyppelbjerg in Sundevid 
 there is a stone \vhich, although they have taken much 
 of it away by blasting, is still one hundred feet in cir- 
 cumference. It lay before on Als; but a giantess slung 
 it over the sound (Alssund) after a giant, who had in- 
 sulted her. 
 
 There are numerous traditions united with churches, 
 tow r ers, steeples, bells, baptismal fonts and other sacred 
 objects, \vhich explain the cause of the church having 
 been built, the reason why it lies on that place, and not 
 in any other, which seems far more convenient, or relate 
 about the punishment that has fallen on them, w r ho have 
 sinned against w r hat is sacred. They are repeated with 
 almost stereotypical invariableness everywhere in Denmark. 
 The most prominent feature in these traditions is the pe- 
 culiar pleasure which the popular belief has found in 
 letting what is sacred be accomplished just by profane 
 powers, w T ho have lent their assistance in the hope of 
 destroying Christian souls, but disappointed in their wicked 
 calculations have been obliged to work without reward. 
 To cite an instance, it is related of Egvad's church that 
 the builder had undertaken to have it finished at a certain 
 time , but saw himself unable to keep his word. Troubled 
 in his mind he went about and pondered over what he 
 should do. Then there carne a little being, a dwarf, up 
 to him and offered to complete the church within the 
 given time; but then the builder should find out his name, 
 or else belong to him with life and soul. The builder 
 laughed at the little fellow, who he thought could not 
 execute the great thing he promised, and without thinking 
 further about it he entered into the proposal. He thought 
 
145 
 
 that he could in all cases get to know the little fellow's 
 name of his assistants. But the little being employed no 
 assistants and the work went on so quickly that the 
 church was nearly finished. The builder was now in 
 despair and in his fear \vent out into the fields; as he 
 walked about here he suddenly heard a singing voice 
 which sounded from within a hill: 
 
 "Vys! vaer still Baen mint, 
 
 Maaen kommer Faer Zi (pronounced Zee.; 
 
 Ma3 christen Bloi te dae/' 
 
 "Tush! be still my child. 
 To morrow comes father Zi 
 With Christian blood to thee." 
 
 The builder w ; as now saved and became glad. Next 
 morning, just as the wizard was about to set the last 
 stone in its place, he went up to him and said: 
 
 "Go Maaen' Zi! Go Maaen Zi! , 
 Sa3tter do no den siste Steen i!" 
 
 Good morrow Zi ! Good morrow Zi ! 
 You now put the last stone in I see!" 
 
 On hearing himself addressed by his name the wizard 
 became furious , flung the stone far away and ran his 
 way. They have never since succeeded in walling up 
 the little hole that remained, however often they have 
 attempted it; the stone continually falls out. 
 
 Munkebrarup church in Angeln was built in a similar 
 manner. Here the wizards name was Sipp. 
 
 We may further name the belief in Cyprianus's 
 celebrated books and the, so called, black arts, the pow 7 er 
 of the clergy to abolish witchcraft, to show spirits, to 
 exorcise the devil and evil spirits, which is so diffused 
 and rooted into the Danish commonalty and generally in 
 the North, whilst it is foreign to Germany. 
 
 10 
 
146 
 
 . 
 
 We have pointed out a part of the more prominent 
 features in the popular belief of the Sleswick people and 
 found, that the traditions both in contents and form agree 
 with those which exist amongst the rest of the Danish 
 commonalty. This common agreement in the traditions is 
 not less demonstrative of the nationality of the population 
 than the community of language: for both are direct ex- 
 pressions of the popular mind. What we have here stated 
 we can, if necessary, strengthen by the evidence of a 
 German author. Mr. Mullenhoff, who possesses a cele- 
 brated name in traditional literature, states, in a work he 
 has lately published , (Sagen Marchen und Linder aus Schles- 
 wig, Holstein und Lauenburg, Kiel 1845.) after 
 having mentioned different peculiar Danish traditions, that 
 are met with in Sleswick, p. VI that these traditions 
 prove just as definitively as the language, that the German 
 nationality has here found its boundary. 
 
147 
 
 XV. 
 
 PROVERBS, adages and figurative phrases are of no 
 mean signification as expressions of a people's peculiarity. 
 They have once been pronounced, have been received 
 and diffused themselves amongst the whole nation. They 
 pass as sentences between man and man, which, short 
 and pithy, found an opinion, express a view of the 
 condition of life or an observation of mans nature, and 
 no one ever thinks of impugning their authority. But they 
 only acquire such authority because they are an expres- 
 sion of the people's views, meanings and convictions; and 
 just as their contents express the national peculiarity, so 
 is their form also determined by the same. In order to 
 illumine Sleswick's nationality from this side also, we shall 
 here quote some few proverbs and sayings, which are 
 general amongst the Sleswick commonalty. Most of them 
 are used everywhere in Denmark, and the few that are 
 peculiar to Sleswick, every Dane will directly acknowledge 
 as Danish in form and spirit. 
 
 En Tosse kan sporge mere end ti Vise kan besvare. 
 
 One fool can ask more than ten wise men can. answer. 
 
 Som man raaber i Skoven , faaer man Svar. 
 
 As we shout in the w r ood, so we get an answer. 
 
 10* 
 
148 
 
 Det er for sildig at spare , naar man er kommen 
 til Bunden. 
 
 It is too late to spare, when we have come to the 
 bottom. 
 
 Rigmands Batter og Fattigmands Stud bliver ikke 
 gammel i Gaard. 
 
 The rich man's danghter and the poor man's ox do 
 not get old in the farm. 
 
 Naar man slaaer iblandt en Flok Hunde, da piber 
 den man rammer. 
 
 When we strike amongst a pack of dogs then the 
 one that w ; e hit howls. 
 
 Det gaaer lystigt, sagde Tordenskjold , da Kuglerne 
 peb ham om Orene. 
 
 It goes merrily, said Tordenskjold, when the balls 
 whistled about his ears. (Tordenskjold is a renowned 
 naval hero). 
 
 Som man reder, saa ligger man. 
 
 As we make our bed so we must lie. 
 
 Den der giver, til han tigger, skal slaaes til hau ligger. 
 He that gives til he begs, shall be beaten till he falls. 
 
 Rom er ikke bygget paa een Dag. 
 Rome was not built in one day. 
 
 Nye Koste feie bedst. 
 New brooms sweep best. 
 
 Een Svale gjor ingen Sommer. 
 One swallow makes no summer. 
 
 Det er kun en overgang, sagde Raeven, da man 
 trak Baelgen af ham. 
 
 It is only a change, said the fox, when they pulled 
 his skin off him. 
 
149 
 
 De ere sure , sagde Rceven , da han ikke kunde naae 
 Rbnnebaerrene. 
 
 They are sour, said the fox, when he could not 
 reach the roan-berries. 
 
 The following proverb which is used in Angeln has 
 the same signification: 
 
 Jeg bar ingen Tid, sagde Trolden, jeg skal til Vak- 
 kerballe. 
 
 I have no time, said the wizard, I must go to Vak- 
 kerballe. 
 
 Det er ikke godt at gabe imod Ovnens Mund. 
 It is not good to gape against the oven's mouth. 
 (The meaning is, that it is not good to quarrel with 
 the powerful). 
 
 Den Fugl, der synger for tidlig om Morgenen, tager 
 Ho'gen inden Aften. 
 
 That bird which sings too early in the morning, the 
 hawk takes before evening. 
 
 Det er ikke alt Guld, der glimmer. 
 It is not all gold, that glitters. 
 
 Hvad kommer det Svinet ved, hvad Flaesket koster. 
 What is it to the swine, what the pork costs. 
 Hvo der ikke roser sine Varer, saelger ikke dyrt. 
 He who does not praise his wares, does not sell dear. 
 Han kjo'rer ud, men gaaer hjem, ligesom Svinene. 
 He drives out, but walks home, like the swine. 
 (This proverb is derived from the custom of driving 
 the little pigs out in waggons to the forest to be fed 
 with mast, and then driving them home on foot after they 
 had become fat swine). 
 
 Hvo Intet vover, han Intet vinder. 
 
 He who nothing ventures, he nothing wins. 
 
150 
 
 Del er en daarlig Kone, der laster sin egen Kaal. 
 She is a bad wife, who blames her own cabbage. 
 Naar Krybben er torn, slaaes Hestene. 
 When the crib is empty, the horses strike. 
 Naar Musen er ma3t, er Melet beesk. 
 When the mouse is sated, the meal is bitter. 
 Naeste Aar kommer alter en Juleaften. 
 Next year there comes again a Christmas-eve. 
 Tyv troer hver Mand stjasler. 
 The thief thinks every man steals. 
 Den kommer tidsnok, som bliver haangt ved Lys. 
 He comes time enough, who is to be hanged by 
 candle light. 
 
 Dagen er en Herre til at sye Poise ved. 
 
 The day is a master to make sausages by. 
 t Jeg tvivlede nok, sagde Peer Taekker, da ban fik 
 nei i Helvede *). 
 
 I had my doubts, said Peter Thatcher, when he was 
 refused in Hell. 
 
 I Mjols, der spiser man Bro'd til Pols. 
 
 In Mjols, there they eat bread to sausage. 
 
 (They are fond of fat dishes in Sleswick, but Mjols 
 lies in a poor district where they must live frugally, 
 which is expressed in this manner). 
 
 *) Helvede, (Hell) is a road -side inn, where Peter courted the 
 girl and was refused. 
 
151 
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE faithful adherence to what is old in customs, 
 memorials, language, proverbs, sayings etc., which, not- 
 withstanding the many changes that have taken place, 
 shows itself so clearly in the Sleswicker, also betrays 
 itself in the preservation of various old Danish institutions, 
 which have maintained themselves here, at least by name, 
 whilst they have disappeared in the rest of Denmark, or 
 only appear quite exceptionally. In Sleswick they have 
 still Sandemcend and Sandemcendstog , Ransncevninger and 
 Allemandsthing. (Names of various ancient institutions for 
 the administration of law). In North Angeln the assizes 
 were still held, in 47 2! 5, in the open air, on the grounds 
 of the former Ry-cloister. Even the old Danish mode of 
 valuing the soil after mark gold and mark silver is still 
 retained in certain districts of Sleswick, though the names 
 now do not naturally denote the same value as in the 
 olden times. On the whole these things stand more as 
 shadows and memorials of past times, than having any 
 signification in the present. When the judicial proceedings 
 became German, the Danish jurymen and crown jurors 
 must naturally ' have become an insignificant form. 
 
 But there are other sides of life and manners of 
 living in Sleswick where ancient things have maintained 
 themselves in full strength up to our days, as they also 
 
agree with what is the custom everywhere in Denmark. 
 To these we w ill first reckon the style of building. Over 
 the whole of Danish Sleswick it is perfectly Danish in 
 its character, and substantially different from the German 
 or Saxon style of building, which begins to the South of 
 the Slie and Dannevirke. 
 
 The peculiarity of the Danish style of building con- 
 sists, as it is well known, in this, that the farm buildings 
 are formed by four rows of buildings, which are built 
 together in a square and enclose the farm yard. That 
 the dwelling is strictly separated from the other parts of 
 the building, which are used as stables, barn, granary 
 etc. etc.; and that it has chimneys, and that its whole 
 length forms the front or facade. The dwelling house 
 extends in a direction from East to West and has the 
 garden behind it. The two ranges of buildings extend 
 up to the ends of the dwelling house, opposite to which 
 is the fourth range, applied to different uses such as 
 waggon -sheds etc. etc., and here also the entrance into 
 the yard is found; the side buildings form the stables, 
 barn etc. Sometimes there are two entrances, one by 
 end of the barn and another by the end of the stable. 
 In the middle of the yard is the dunghill which is kept 
 very neat in Sleswick , so that they can bleach yarn on 
 it. Some few deviations from this rule may appear, such 
 as that of the four ranges of building not being joined 
 directly together, for the sake of danger from fire, but 
 yet they form a square. The cattle and horses stand in 
 the stable in stalls with their heads turned towards the 
 outer walls. 
 
 The entrance to the dwelling house is through the 
 lobby into the kitchen, from which a door leads into the 
 parlour or daily room, which is generally towards the 
 
153 
 
 South; by the side of this is the large room, and behind 
 this some smaller chambers, such as a guest's room, and 
 sometimes the bridal chamber with the bridal -bed. By 
 the side of the kitchen is the brewhouse and baking oven, 
 and to this is attached the turf house. Yet it is often 
 the case that there is a separate outhouse for the baking 
 oven and brewery. The chambers have their peculiar 
 South Jutland names. The parlour or daily room is called 
 Dorns , the large room Pesel and the chamber that is 
 used as a guest's room or as a lumber room, is called 
 Klo've. Icelandic klefi). 
 
 The German or Saxon style of building which is 
 used towards the North as far as the Slie, Dannevirke 
 and Husum is entirely different from the Danish. The 
 peculiar character of this style of building is, that it does 
 not form a square, but one long building, which encloses 
 men as well as cattle; it does not present the long side, 
 but the gable end as a facade out towards the road or 
 street; there is also an entrance in the gable end to drive 
 in at, but no throughfare; there is no chimney, but only 
 a hearth, from which the smoke finds its way along the 
 ceiling and out through the gateway. When we come 
 through this gateway, we see the cattle and horses standing 
 in the stables on both sides, with their heads turned out 
 towards the person entering, the floor between the cows 
 and horses stables serves as a barn floor where they 
 thrash the corn; further on we see on each side smaller 
 divisions, such as the dairy, the pantry, the servant-girls' 
 rooms etc. etc., and before us is the hearth. Behind this 
 and directly opposite the gateway we see the entrance 
 to the rooms of the dwelling house, the parlour and bed- 
 rooms. Both these different styles of building stand in 
 close connection with the different manners of living of 
 
154 
 
 the inhabitants. For the Danish population agriculture is 
 the chief thing, and the breeding of cattle a subordinate 
 matter; for the German population on the contrary, the 
 breeding of cattle is the main source of their subsistence, 
 together with the preparation of cheese and butter , smoked 
 meats etc. Travellers have remarked that the German 
 population have darker coloured countenances than the 
 Danish, and explain this circumstance by the continual 
 smoke in which they live; for when the weather is not 
 still the whole house is filled with a smoke that is in- 
 supportable to those w 7 ho are not accustomed to it. Other- 
 wise it ascends and passes along the ceiling, smoking the 
 quantity of sausages , hams and beef that is hung up there. 
 The smoke also penetrates through the crevices and open- 
 ings in the ceiling, into the corn and fodder that is laid 
 up there and smokes it through. But the cattle are so 
 accustomed to this smoked fodder that, when they come 
 into Danish districts, they will not at first eat the fodder 
 that is not smoked. 
 
 The style of building in Angeln departs from the 
 general Danish style in so much that it has not the square 
 form; but otherwise it has everything in common with it. 
 It has chimneys and not the characteristic Saxon hearth, 
 and the rooms in the dwelling house are separated from 
 the stables and barn; the side range and not the gable 
 end forms the facade towards the road. A thoroughfare 
 passes right through the building dividing it according to 
 the breadth in two principal divisions; on the one side 
 they have dwelling house and all belonging to it, on the 
 other side the stables and barn. From the thoroughfare 
 there is an entrance leading into the kitchen, which by 
 a door stands in connection with the daily room that lies 
 towards the South; behind this is the large room and at 
 
155 
 
 the side the guest's and bridal chamber. As the disposi- 
 tion of the rooms is the same as in South Jutland, so 
 are also the names of them, namely Doras, Pesel and 
 Klove. On the other side of the thoroughfare there are 
 stables on each side for the horses and cattle, and the 
 floor between is used as a barn floor. 
 
 In Germanized Svanso, on the contrary, the Danish 
 style of building has in a great measure given way to 
 the Saxon. 
 
 It is self evident, that deviations from the style here 
 noticed can appear in different places in particular details ; 
 wealth and poverty, fancy and accident, can do much. 
 But the fundamental type we have here mentioned appears 
 again in all places. 
 
 . In many other traits also of the manner of living, 
 the fraternal resemblance between the South and North 
 Jutlander and on the whole with the entire Danish com- 
 monalty does not disown itself. At marriage feasts (as 
 also at funerals) the wealthier peasants invite an immense 
 number of guests, at times amounting to several hundreds. 
 The festivities last three days; but on the third day the 
 nearest relations only remain. Every waggon or carriage 
 with new guests is received with drums and trumpets, 
 or flutes and violins. The procession to the church is 
 opened by a number of horsemen, and Sometimes with 
 music before them. After returning from the church the 
 dinner begins, which lasts several hours, and in which 
 rice, boiled in milk and sweetened, (called Risengrod) 
 never fails to be one of the chief dishes. The great 
 expenses which the feast occasions, are compensated by 
 the bridal presents of the guests, which consist of silver 
 articles, furniture, provisions, &c. &c. Every one who 
 has been present at a peasants wedding in North Jutland 
 
156 
 
 or Sealand will recognise these traits. The strict ordin- 
 ance respecting the precedence of rank between Gaard- 
 mcend and Huusmcend, (farmers who cultivate their own 
 land, and cottagers who own a house and a slip of land), 
 \vhich is so rooted in the Danish peasantry, and which 
 expresses itself as well in other relations, as therein, 
 that the farmer will seldom or ever give his daughter in 
 marriage to a cottagers son, is also found in Sleswick. 
 
 Even in eatables and dishes, one can observe a 
 remarkable difference between the Danish and German 
 population. When the Danish Sleswicker makes a feast 
 the first dish that comes on the table is yellow pease 
 boiled thick with a lump of butter in the middle of the 
 dish; the next dish is beef or hen soup, with the meat 
 in the soup, to which is generally added boiled plums; 
 the third dish is the favored boiled rice with butter. It 
 is more seldom that white cabbage comes instead of the 
 soup, and still more seldom stockfish. 
 
 The german population have other dishes; but they 
 are not so fixed as amongst the Danish, nor yet are they 
 alike in all parts of the country. They have generally 
 several dishes, amongst which there is usually meat soup 
 or broth, and thick rice is not wanting. The two other 
 dishes are of meat, but different in the different districts. 
 In some places a roast goose stuffed with apples and 
 plums, in other places flour dumplings with bacon and 
 fat sauce (the German dumplings). 
 
 The daily food of the inhabitants of Angeln in the 
 morning and evening is Vselling, (barley grits boiled in 
 milk), or thick milk porridge with bread and butter or 
 sandwiches; and that of the North Sleswickers is the same. 
 Mead is a favorite drink, at least in North Sieswick. 
 
157 
 
 The national dresses yield more and more in our 
 days to the influence of all -levelling culture, particularly 
 in a land with a pretty close population, many towns 
 and a lively intercourse. The dresses of the town's in- 
 habitants, which again change after the fashion, are con- 
 tinually extended in the country. From this we can 
 therefore draw no conclusions. Yet the glaring colours, 
 scarlet and light green, which the women of Angeln 
 used not long ago for their clothes, the caps inlaid with 
 gold, the head dress with the fine lace and the many 
 double-folded, silk neckerchiefs, reminds one strongly of 
 the Danish commonalty's fondness for various colours and 
 a rich head dress, which has still maintained itself in 
 several districts. There is however one part of the dress 
 that has resisted the influence of fashion, and which at 
 the same time characteristically separates the Danish po- 
 pulation from the German. It is the covering for the 
 feet. The German population use boots and shoes of 
 leather, exclusively. But as soon as we come over the 
 Slie and Dannevirke , wooden shoes are usually worn. 
 Both servant men and women in Angeln go with wooden 
 shoes, and this is the case further Northward. The 
 women's wooden shoes differ from the men's in this, that 
 they are neater made and prettily ornamented with a 
 brass band. This covering for the foot, which keeps them 
 warm and dry, has resisted the change of fashion by its 
 appropriateness in a damp climate with a clayey soil. In 
 the manner also in which rural occupations are performed 
 there is a difference between the Danish and German po- 
 pulation. One need only to go into a barn and look at 
 the men thrashing in order to discover directly, which is 
 Danish and which German. The Dane swings his flail to 
 the right side, the German, on the contrary, to the left. 
 
158 
 
 XVII, 
 
 WE have gone through the most important points of 
 the history of Sleswick, as far as they concern the na- 
 tionality. In much it has been a sorrowful history. In 
 former times, in the days of antiquity and a great part 
 of the middle ages, there was no difference between the 
 Jutes to the North and South of Kongeaaen, between the 
 Danes to the East and West of the little Belt. Danish 
 was heard pure and unmixed from the Slie to Skagen; 
 and as the language was, so were the customs, laws and 
 institutions Danish, one feeling for their common father- 
 land embraced all. No one longed at that time for Ger- 
 man, but met with sword or glave on Dannevirke or 
 Margaret's wall to a manly defence against the hostile 
 tribes of the South. 
 
 But it became otherwise. Holstein Counts became 
 masters in South Jutland, and Holstein noblemen found 
 it agreeable to dwell by Egernfiord and the Slie; they 
 made Danish men and women their serfs and thralls, 
 and at last deprived them of their mother tongue as 
 they had deprived them of property and freedom. Ger- 
 man Hanse-town merchants established themselves in the 
 towns and appropriated to themselves the sources of the 
 wealth and riches of the country. The German laws and 
 the low German language now began to govern. The 
 
159 
 
 Reformation came, which otherwise brought with it into 
 all parts of the world emancipation from the thraldom of 
 the mind and abuses of barbarism; truth, made known 
 in the words ot the mother tongue in church and school, 
 caused prejudice and error to yield. Thus it was in 
 other places, but not so in South Jutland. Monkish Latin 
 was expelled the church, but low German took its place, 
 and the people gained nothing; they should now, as be- 
 fore, seek their edification in a language they did not 
 understand. This barbarism of the middle ages has not, 
 for a great part, disappeared in our days. 
 
 The teachers of congregations and the guides of youth, 
 whose duty it was above all others , to defend and preserve 
 those shoots which nature had implanted in the people, 
 and by their development lead them on to that degree 
 of cultivation which they, according to their peculiarities 
 could reach, sinned most of all against the people's nature. 
 They were the most active labourers in the work of de- 
 stroying the language, and their workshops were the 
 churches and the schools. Corporeal punishment was 
 employed in the school when the children spoke that 
 language which they had brought with them from their 
 parents' home, and at times oaths and curses sounded 
 in God's house from the lips of the clergyman against the 
 full grown congregation , who would not forget their mother 
 tongue. The public authorities went hand in hand with 
 the endeavours of the clergy. 
 
 Thus it went on for many centuries and no one 
 thought it could go further. But it went further. A 
 humilitation was reserved for the Danish nation, that no 
 one was prepared for. In that land where the Danish 
 tongue was heard uncontrolled from the Slie to Konge- 
 aaen; where it had been absolute in public and private 
 
160 
 
 life, during the serious deliberations of men in the public 
 parliament, in the administration of justice from the judge- 
 ment seat, as well as in the familiar intercourse of the 
 domestic circle: in that land it durst not longer be heard 
 even as equal to the German in that hall, where the most 
 important concerns of the country should be canvassed. 
 Danish speeches should be entirely silenced according to 
 the will of German rulers. Thereby the cup of bitterness 
 was filled to the brim, this was the full measure of in- 
 justice. But now all Danes also perceived what the real 
 question was, and had the opposition not been serious 
 and energetic before, it now became so. 
 
 Such is the sorrowful picture that the past shows 
 us. But we Danes need not to be disheartened, nor the 
 Sleswicker to blush; he has defended his mother tongue 
 honorably. The German nation, whose armies, with per- 
 jured rebels for their auxiliaries, lately passed beyond 
 Dannevirke, have outraged the mother tongue of numerous 
 tribes; in many places oppression has succeeded, in some 
 places it has found resistance. But nowhere was the 
 resistance so persevering, nowhere was the love for the 
 mother tongue so rooted and immoveable, nowhere did 
 its ever young and fresh life show such an inexhaustible 
 power of resistance against aggressions, and nowhere has 
 there been conquests so insignificant in proportion to the 
 endeavours and the long period of time (the Germans 
 themselves confess it with astonishment) as there, where 
 Danish and German tried their strength with each other, 
 to the North of Dannevirke and the Slie. 
 
 What have the Germans gained by all their endea- 
 vours and all their injustice? Sheriffs and bailiffs have 
 governed in German, advocates conducted their causes 
 and judges pronounced sentence in German, clergymen 
 
J61 
 
 preached and taught in German, schoolmasters imprinted 
 German in Danish boys and girls with the cane and ferule. 
 Thus it has gone on, day out and day in, year out and 
 year in, and the years at last became many centuries. 
 And yet the whole gain has not been greater for the 
 Germans, than that the peasant must say: "I am educated 
 in German, it is true, but I speak Danish"*). But these 
 words contain a world of wrongs. If we turn a little 
 further towards the South, to the frontier districts, where 
 to all the rest of hostile influences there came that power, 
 which lies in the neighbourhood of Germanism and the 
 daily intercourse with Germans, and where the combat 
 has gone on, not during centuries, but in a millenary: 
 how poor then is not Germany's gain, even here. The 
 inhabitants of Swansoe and an inferior number of the 
 Angles have, thanks to the Holstein nobility who took up 
 their seats there, been compelled to see their mother 
 tongue wrested from them, the former having defended 
 it for many centuries and the latter during a millenary, 
 or just up to the beginning of the present century. 
 
 More than the half part of the population of Sleswick 
 still speak Danish, and they are not alone Danish in 
 speech, but also in mind, habits and customs, and manner 
 of thinking; they have memorials of antiquity, views of 
 life, opinions and convictions in common with the whole 
 Danish commonalty. Only a little more than a third part 
 speak German, and this third part is formed for the very 
 greatest part of the original German population between 
 the Eider and the Slie, as well as of the Frisians; only 
 a very proportionally small number won by conquest. 
 
 *) This is the usual answer one gets of the peasant, if one expresses 
 astonishment at seeing German school and psalm books in his 
 house, although he speaks Danish. 
 
 11 
 
162 
 
 If even the German has forced its way into tho 
 country from some of the districts by the frontiers, and 
 mixed itself with the Danish: then we must not forget 
 that it sits very loosely on the surface. It is only a kind 
 of mould that has been drawn over Danism in these 
 parts, which have for a long time been removed from 
 the effects of the common nationality. If natural circum- 
 stances and the fresh current of a common nationality be 
 again allowed to act here, the mould will then disappear, 
 as it only thrives in an impure and mixed air. 
 
 The German nationality, which would pass for that 
 of the whole land, has in the last revolt produced an 
 evidence of itself. When in our times a real nationality 
 arises in order to deliver itself from oppressions, it has 
 an immense power , which it is difficult for anything to 
 resist. Every man flies to defend it, no sacrifice is avoided, 
 the noblest powers devote themselves willingly, to gain 
 a holy right for the people. This spectacle has been 
 shown in several parts of Europe in our days. But it 
 is not thus with the Sleswick-Holsteiners. Although they 
 did not disdain to avail themselves of the meanest weapon 
 of treachery, although the revolt came unexpectedly and 
 by surprise, yet it fell to the ground after a three days 
 campaign; no enthusiasm, no sacrifice on a great scale, 
 no active participation from the people's side, showed that 
 it was a national cause. Foreign bayonets were the resort 
 and support of the rebels. Their own conduct has shown 
 the world what it shall judge of them and their assertions. 
 
 The Danish people will therefore look towards the 
 future with intrepidity and firmness. What is right, must 
 surely triumph, if even its way goes through adversities. 
 

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