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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 

 Italj;^ ; 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 

 after 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 



