GENERAL INTRODUCTION
testantism. They are distinguished for the earnestness of their religious worship, for their ardent advocacy of the cause of civil and religious liberty and for the well-nigh total absence of great crimes. Wherever they settle in the world, we find them associated with the most loyal and law-abiding citizens, giving their best energies to culture, law and order. Proofs of this statement are abundant both in Russia, Normandy and England, and in their more recent settlements in the various western states of America.
As stated, they have enriched the world with a whole class of literature, which is held in deserved respect. Is not Beowulf, the most important surviving monument of Anglo-Saxon poetry, a Swedish and Danish poem, and was it not first published from the British Museum manuscript by the great Danish scholar, G. J. Thorkelin? And does not the world owe to Denmark and her traditions Hamlet, the greatest drama of the immortal Shakespeare? In Saxo Hamlet is found as the son of the viceroy Horvendel, in Jutland, and of Gerude, who was the daughter of Rerek, King at Leire in Seland, Denmark.
The Scandinavians present to all oppressed nationalities the gratifying example of a people who, being true to their countries and to the traditions handed down from the mists of ages in the far past, have vindicated for themselves against many opposing and oppressing powers and in the midst of many obstacles and vicissitudes, their distinctive rights and liberties. A mere glance at the history of Scandinavia is sufficient to reveal to the student many events and the names of many individuals of far-reaching importance.
I have already enumerated a few of the many services rendered to the world by the Scandinavians of antiquity, and in this connection I may be permitted to mention a few Scandinavians who in more recent times have achieved world-wide fame. I do this with a view of demonstrating that the Scandinavians, though comparatively few in number, easily rank with the most prominent nations in the domains of science, art and literature. There is the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, one of the most marked individuals of the 16th century. From his Uranienborg observatory his
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