530 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



until tbey tlieniselves liave become melted and tlie new and old were 

 i'used and formed a solid mass. 



Thus much for the Bronze age; but this does not account for all the 

 prehistoric objects in bronze belonging- to that country. The prehis- 

 toric ages of iron have been divided into three epochs, covering a period 

 from some time anterior to the Christian era until about 1000 A. D., 

 when the historic period as represented in the known languages of 

 Europe began. The languages used in Scandinavia jidor to this time 

 were Runic. They were protohistoric but afterwards passed out of 

 use. Tlie term "iron age," while it denotes the use of iron, was princi- 

 pally applied to its use for cutting implements. Bronze did not cease 

 to be used for many purposes, and among the rest, for the luhrs or 

 trumpets or horns. Therefore many of these instruments of bronze 

 have been found which belonged to the prehistoric ages of iron. The 

 question of chronology can only be determined by critical examina- 

 tions of almost infinitesimal details in the manufacture, form, kind, 

 and use of imjdements, and of the objects associated with them, and 

 even then errors are not infrequent. This should be borne in mind in 

 criticising the assignment of any given instrument to a certain age or 

 period. 



In the last age of iron, when the runes had passed their final stage 

 of improvement and are capable of being read, we gain much infor- 

 mation therefrom concerning the life history of the people, and find they 

 made war, indulged in the chase, and played games, as other people 

 did then and have ever done. A social custom Avhich prevailed among 

 the Scandinavians, peculiar to them and to the Celts, and possibly 

 other peoples, was that of minstrelsy, whereby the instruments of 

 music Avere brought into use. Mr. Moutelius^ says: 



Of uinsical iiistnnnents, we read of the lyre, tlie lioni, the pipe, the fiddle, and 

 above all the liarji, one of the oldest and most prizetl. Snorri relates of Olaf Skiit- 

 Ivonung, that ^vhen the meats were set npon the king's table, the players stepped 

 forth with "liarps, ttddlcs, and other instruments." To the tones of the harp the 

 skalds geneially sang their songs. Skalds often A'isited at the conrt of the Swedish 

 kings; sometimes they came from Iceland. 



Of these, the liorn only seems to have been i>rehistoric, and it alone 

 has received attention in this paper. 



In 1801 eight of these large curved bronze horns were found in a 

 peat bog or turf bed, Brudevadte, in a field near Liunge in the neigh- 

 borhood of Frederick sborg. These were intact and comjilete, mouth- 

 piece and all, are in the museum at Copenhagen, and have lately been 

 played upon, as previou.sly related. The longest was 6 feet and some 

 inches, while the largest disk on the bell mouth was 11 inches in 

 diameter. 



Fragments of bronze horns had before been found throughout that 



'La Snede Prehistorique, p. 145; and Civilization of Sweden in Prehistoric Times, 

 p. 177. 



