SCANDINAVIA, 



CHAPTER I. 



DENMARK. 



EEPER though she is of the Baltic portals, and mistress of Iceland 

 and the Fiiroer, besides the vast uninhabited Greenland wastes and 

 three West India islands, Denmark is nevertheless nothing more 

 than an historic fragment. Of all European states it has the smallest 

 population next to Greece, ranking even after the Hellenic world, 

 if account be taken of those of kindred stock and speech living beyond the political 

 bounds of the respective countries. The Greeks of the Archipelago, of Thessah^ 

 Epirus, Thrace, Macedonia, and Asia Minor are far more numerous than those of 

 the kingdom itself, whereas the Danes, pent up within their narrow limits, have 

 only a small group of kinsmen beyond the frontiers. And even these remain 

 henceforth deprived of their national autonomy, notwithstanding the stipulations 

 of a solemn treaty, which Germany now feels justified in violating. 



A mere remnant of a vanished land, formerly connecting Scandinavia with 

 North Germany, Denmark has been in its history constantly associated with 

 both countries. She formerly possessed extensive tracts on the Baltic seaboard, 

 including Esthonia itself. In 1397 the union of Kalmar placed her at the head 

 of the Scandinavian political system, and she possessed Norway till the year 1814. 

 South of the Baltic various lands, since become German, also belonged to her, and 

 till recently the German provinces of Holstein, South Schleswig, and Lauenburg 

 formed an integral part of the monarch 3'. 



No other European people have made such extensive conquests as the Danes, 

 for it was from Jylland (Jutland) and the islands, no less than from the Norwegian 

 and Swedish fiords, that the terrible Norsemen issued forth. They settled every- 

 where as conquerors — in the British Isles, on the coast of France, the Mediter- 

 ranean seaboard, and even the northern shores of the New World, discovered by 

 the Scandinavians long before the days of Columbus. Denmark must have become 



