224 SKETCH OF THE STATE OF LITERATURE 
indeed, refers this separation to an earlier period. He supposes that 
some difference always existed among the three Scandinavian dia- 
lects, united under the generic name of Torrena Tungu or of Dan- 
ska Tungu, and his conjecture is not improbable. 
The most ancient monuments of the Danish language bear no 
higher date than the twelfth century. These are, the ecclesiastical 
ordinance of Scania in mcx.i, and that of Zealand in McLxx: but 
the manuscript of these ordinances is dated in the thirteenth centu- 
ry. Towards the conclusion of this century, Henry Harpestreng* 
composed a book on medicine. In the earliest applications of the 
new language, its Icelandic origin is abundantly apparent: it exhi- 
bits the same terminations of words, the same forms of diction. 
With regard to the elementary structure of the language, it is al- 
most pure Icelandic ; but the orthography had undergone an impor- 
tant change. Thus, the Danish speech advanced step by step, rest- 
ing on traditionary rules: ultimately, it was essentially modified 
by the German, from which it borrowed new modes and new words. 
These modifications chiefly distinguish it from the Icelandic, in mo- 
dern times. 
Four centuries elapsed before the Danish acquired a character 
sufficiently determinate to fit it for becoming a literary language. 
From their being engaged in perpetual wars and adventurous expe- 
ditions, the people did nothing towards promoting its development. 
At their courts, the ancient kings retained pilgrims only and scalds, 
who entertained their hearers with recitations from the sagas, or 
with songs in Icelandic verse. The priests and monks used nothing 
but latin: they concerned themselves exclusively with exercises in 
that tongue. Subsequently, the kings ceased to speak the Icelandic, 
and adopted the German language ; and, from the fourteenth centu- 
ry onwards, the influence of Germany continued to increase. Eric 
of Pomerania and Christopher of Bavaria and Christiern I the head 
of the reigning dynasty, all three were Germans. The first profes- 
sors of the metropolitan university, and the first printers in Den- 
mark, were brought from the German states. Whilst the learned 
persisted in using the latin, the German tongue prevailed among all 
ciously devised and skilfully accomplished, have proved eminently conducive 
to the elucidation of northern archzology. 
* Whatever might have been the advantages derivable from Henry Har- 
pestreng’s book of medicine of the ancient Danish dialect, these would 
necessarily be limited, by reason of the works remaining in manuscript. As 
an author, tbis person’s importance is unnoted in medical history. 
