2 G. Stephens, 



Both these works are described, with short extracts, by Prof. J. 

 H. Schröder in his »Incunabula Artis Typographicae in Svecia», 4*°, Up- 

 saliae 1842, pp. 12, 18. 



For the communication of »Dyäfwlsens Frastilse» to the general 

 public, we have to thank the well-known enthusiastic energy of the Swe- 

 dish Riks-librarian G. E. Klemming, by whom it was issued in Photo- 

 lithographic facsimile in 1876, first privately, and then as Part 60 of 

 the valuable publications of the Swedish Early Text Society (Svenska 

 Fornskrift Sällskapet). 



I am not aware that this remarkable book has attracted any notice. 

 Yet it is of high interest, not onl}^ in itself as a literary curiosity, the 

 first appearance of the printed mothertung in Sweden, but also as a 

 philological monument. 



For this first S'ffedish appeal to the Swedish folk thro the newl}^ 

 in-taken Printing-press could not but be an important event. It was 

 carried thro by the powerful and enlightened Archbishop of the land, 

 and the version was by a learned dignitary of his Cathedral. Its object 

 was the religious instruction of the people, a duty as needful then as 

 now, and the language used to reach the eyes and hearts of Swedes was 

 of course SWEDISH. 



But what is Swedish? 



The foolish modern talk about the »one language» spoken in all 

 Scandinavia in the oldest time, from »Lapland's border to the Eider», is 

 mere wind; and the dictum that this impossible »one language» was 

 modern Icelandic^ is a ridiculous joke. Sweden and Denmark had been 

 mighty lands, and had the art of writing — their RUNES, more than a 

 thousand years before Iceland was even discovered, and their many and 

 ancient dialects stand on far older ground than the oldest Icelandic yet 

 known to us. What the first mitt tung was that sprang up in Iceland at 

 its settlement we do not know; only it must have been largely made up 

 of West-Norse folk-talks. It was certainly vastly older than and different 

 from the language in the oldest written Icelandic (the Homilies, etc.), 

 which is 300 years later than Iceland's colonization, but whose words 

 and forms are of course ignored in all the »Grammars» ^), — like as this 

 Homily-dialect is vastly older than and diff'erent from the 150 years 



') The only man who as yet has used these costly materials for purposes of 

 comparative philology is — the Swede JoH. Er. Rydqvist. I called attention to this 

 subject in 1872, in my notice of Prof. Th. Wisén's edition of the Icelandic Homily- 

 book in Stockholm. See »Dansk Kirke-tidende», Sept. 8, 1872, p. 5(37 — 576. 



