60 SCANDINAVIA. 



Cimbri of the peninsula southwards to Gaul and Italy, the Heruli of the isles and 

 Chersonesus to Eorae, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes to Britain, another 

 people, yielding to the general westward movement, appeared at certain points of 

 the southern islands of Laaland, Falster, and Langeland. These immigrants were 

 Slavs, and their presence here is vouched for by tradition and local geographical 

 names. But the principal invaders were the Danes, an old confederation of 

 Norse tribes. After seizing the lands that have since become Denmark, these 

 tribes long continued to harass the West, as rivals of the Norwegian rovers 

 contending for centuries with the Anglo-Saxons for the possession of Great Britain, 

 and with the Celts for that of Ireland. 



The average of the pure blonde type, with light blue eyes, is on the whole 

 higher in Denmark than in Germany. More animated than the Dutch, the 

 Danes resemble them in the qualities of vigour, courage, and endurance. 

 Endowed with a good share of common sense, they act in general with sound 

 judgment, regarding the Germans as somewhat crack-brained and braggarts. 

 Still they have their days of revelry, when they are apt to forget themselves, 

 their wonted reserve breaking out in song and clamour. Beneath a quiet 

 expression the Dane harbours a fiery and poetic soul. He hears the billows 

 boom against his shores, and he recalls the daring life of his forefathers, who 

 overran the world in their frail wave-tossed craft. His literature cherishes a 

 precious inheritance of noble songs, which the young men recite at their festive 

 gatherings. The men of science are distinguished by vigorous thought, method, 

 and clearness. The people everywhere display a love of letters, and for them the 

 theatre is as much a school of literature as a place of amusement. " Not for 

 pleasure alone ! " says an inscription on the curtain of the national theatre at 

 Copenhagen. 



The Danish language, of Norse origin, but far less pure than the Icelandic, 

 had already been developed about the thirteenth century, but it scarcely acquired 

 any literary standing till the era of the Reformation, in the middle of the sixteenth 

 century. Its old sagas all belong to Scandinavian literature proper. Of all the 

 Danish dialects, including that of Bornholm, the most original and richest in old 

 -words is that of North Jylland, though it has not become the national standard. 

 The Sjiilland dialect has acquired the preponderance, thanks to the dominant 

 influence of the capital, and has thus gradually become identified with the Danish 

 language itself. With the successive literary epochs it has been enriched by terms 

 borrowed from Latin, Swedish, French, but especially High and Low German. 

 Many authors formerly wrote in both the latter languages ; but now the Dane 

 clings to his mother tongue all the more tenaciously that he feels his very political 

 existence threatened. He is enthusiastically attached to his national traditions, to 

 his old literature and poetry, flowing from the sagas, and filled with the memories 

 of the past. Since the time of the great Thorwaldscn Danish art also has 

 pursued an independent course, and even the industrial arts, porcelain, gold- 

 smiths' work, and furniture have sought their inspiration in the antiquities found 

 in the native land. 



