COXE’s TRAVELS IN' DENMARK. 315
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the articles of religion, and have matters for the German, French , and Englifh lan-guages.
In general the Danifin literati have particularly turned their refearches to the hiftoryand antiquities of the north ; on'which fubjefts many curious works have been printed,and more are preparing for public infpe&ion. .Among thofe who have greatlydittinguilhed themfelves in this branch of learning, mutt be mentioned the names ofMeurfius, Flolberg, Olaus Wormius, Pontopidan ; and lately thofe of Langebek ,Schoening *, and Suhm.
Among the performances lately-printed on thefe topics, thofe in the Icelandic tonguedeferve particular notice ; as they tend to throw conttderable light on the antiquities,hiftory and mythology of the northern nations: Iceland being in the remote ages, whileSweden, Denmark, and Norway , were in a ftafe of perpetual warfare, the repofitory ofnorthern literature. On obferving fuch a number of Icelandic manufcripts as are con-tained in the Danifh libraries, I was greatly aftonifhed to find that Iceland , confideredby the antients as the Ultima Thule , or the extremity of the world, and by us as fcarcelyhabitable, abounded in learning and fcience, at a time when great part of Europe wasinvolved in darknefs.
Hiftory does not afcertain the firft population of Iceland ; when occupied by a co-lony of Norwegians in the latter end of the ninth century, it contained but few inhabi-tants, whofe anceftors were fuppofed to have emigrated from England or Ireland ; but'vhofe number was inadequate to refill the invaders. Afterwards other emigrantslanding from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark , the original inhabitants were loft amidthe fwarm of new, fettlers, who introduced the worlhip of Thor and Odin , and all therites and cuftoms which prevailed among the nations of the neighbouring continent.Their language was the old Gothic or Teutonic, the vernacular tongue of the Swedes,llanes, and Norwegians, which, on account of their infular fituation, was preferved purefor a conttderable time. The alphabet wascompofed of the Runic characters, only fix-teen in number; yet to thefe Icelanders we are indebted for almoft all the hiftoricalMonuments of the northern nations now remaining. From them fprung the Scalds,thofe antient bards who have tranfmitted, in their hiftorical poems, the principal eventsto’hich happened in thefe remote quarters of the world, from the arrival of Odin to themtroduclion ofxhriftianity ; a period of barbarifm and ignorance, which, without theirlabours, had been totally unknown to pofterity. Although thefe Scaldic odes blend oc-cafionally improbable narratives with hiftorical events ; y£t, as the intelligent criticsmay feparate fafts from fable, and truth from fiction; and being the only fources of in-formation relative to the early affairs of the north, they mult be confidered as valuableMonuments of antiquity. The recital alfo of thefe compofitions, at public entertain-ments, before the princes whofe deeds they celebrated, and who, as well as many otherperfons prefent, were well acquainted with the fubjefl; of the poem, affords a collateral
P r oof of their authenticity f. 0
Some
* Langebek , who, among other learned publications, has put forth 1 Scriptures Rernm. DamcarumMedii JEvi," printed at the King s expence, was a native of Jutland , and boin in ijio ; and, aftei a lifedevoted to the purfuits oflearning, died about 1776-
Schoening, the learned editor of Snorro Sturknfis Hiftoria, and many other interesting works, was bornat Schatnas in Norway , in 1722, and died in 1778 The curious reader, who. is deiirous of further infor-mation on this fubieft, will find an ample detail of the lives and writings of thefe two indefatigable anti-quaries, i n the prefaces to the fourth and fifth volumes of the Scriptores Rerum Danicarum, which publica-tiou is continued by Mr. Suhm, with the fame diligence and accuracy that dittinguilhed the judicious
t Snorro Sturlefon, wbo drew from thefe Scaldic odes many materials for his Chronicle of the Kings ofNorway ? thus fpeaks of them : >s 5 2 t( PfiEGipue
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