institutions of Sweden and Denmark, for all reliable inland sources of information are wanting, and all the highest authorities on this subject of investigation, such as Rudolph Keyser, P. A. Munch, Ernst Sars, N. M. Petersen and others, unanimously declare, that although the ancient Norse-Icelandic writings not unfrequently treat of heathen religious affairs in Sweden and Denmark, yet, when they do, it is always in such a manner that the conception is clearly Norse, and the delineation is throughout adapted to institutions as they existed in Norway. We are aware that there are those who will feel inclined to criticise us for not calling this mythology Scandinavian or Northern (a more elastic term), but we would earnestly recommend them to examine carefully the writings of the above named writers before waxing too zealous on the subject.
As we closed the previous chapter, with an extract from Thomas Carlyle, so we will close this chapter with a brief quotation frown an equally eminent scholar, the author of Chips from a German Workshop. In the second volume of that work Max Müller says:[1]
There is, after Anglo-Saxon, no language, no literature, no
mythology so full of interest for the elucidation of the earliest
history of the race which now inhabits these British isles as the
Icelandic. Nay, in one respect Icelandic beats every other dialect
of the great Teutonic family of speech, not excepting Anglo-Saxon
and Old High German and Gothic. It is in Icelandic alone
that we find complete remains of genuine Teutonic heathendom.
Gothic as a language, is more ancient than Icelandic; but the
only literary work which we we possess in Gothic is a translation
of the Bible. The Anglo-Saxon literature, with the exception of
the Beowulf, is Christian. The old heroes of the Niebelunge,
such as we find them represented in the Suabian epic, have been
converted into church-going knights; whereas, in the ballads of
- ↑ Max Müller's Review of Dr. Dasent's The Norseman in Iceland.
