Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/95

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CHAPTER II.

Of the first Inhabitants of Denmark, and particularly of the Cimbri.

IT is useless to enquire at what period of time Denmark began to be inhabited. Such a research would doubtless lead us up to an age when all Europe was plunged in ignorance and barbarity. These two words include in them almost all we know of the history of the first ages. It is very probable, that the first Danes were like all the other Teutonic nations, a colony of Scythians, who spread themselves at different times over the countries which lay towards the west. The resemblance of name might induce us to believe that it was from among the Cimmerian Scythians (whom the ancients placed to the north of the Euxine sea) that the first colonies were sent into Denmark; and that from this people they inherited the name of Cimbri, which they bare so long before