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at that time conquered the coasts of the Baltic, a great part 
of the British islands, of France, and some parts of Spain and 
Italy ; that, crossing the Atlantic so early as in the ninth and 
tenth century, they colonized Iceland and Greenland, and put 
their foot upon the mainland of America. It was immediately 
aiter great national calamities, that the attention of the Danish 
people was turned to that early period of their history, as a 
time from the contemplation of which their spirit of nationa- 
lity might gain support, and in whose memories they found 
the hope of a new and equally glorious era again. The North, 
too, has this great advantage, that a complete picture of the 
life of the old time has been preserved in the remarkable Ice- 
landic sagas, which, certainly, compared with other literary 
remains of that time, in regard to style and representation of 
character, are almost unique. In the year 1807, the Danish 
government, in compliance with the request of several lite- 
rary men, appointed a Royal Committee for the Preservation 
and Collection of National Antiquities, but the unfortunate 
war with England hindered the Committee, for the first seven 
or eight years, from making much progress. After the resto- 
ration of peace, it happened that a young man, a merchant’s 
son in Copenhagen, who, from his earliest childhood, had felt 
a great interest in all sorts of antiquities, was appointed Se- 
cretary of this Royal Committee. He found a few antiquities, 
mixed up with the most curious things, in a small room in the 
library of the University. He commenced with exceedingly 
small grants, and under very great difficulties. He had not 
only to contend with the prejudices of the unlearned, but 
also with the conflicting opinions and baseless theories of 
the learned men. Some believed that the antiquities of iron 
were the oldest, because they were most corroded; others 
believed that the antiquities of brass were older than the an- 
tiquities of stone; others, again, supposed, that the wealthy 
men had used iron, the middle classes brass, and the poor 
stone, However, he opened his small collection for public 
