ABSTRACT

In this way there has appeared in Denmark, through the learned endeavours of a fellow citizen, the most important product which Old English literature possesses, and one of the most remarkable memorials of antiquity which have been rescued from oblivion in several centuries. We have here a till now unknown epic poem of significant extent for us, whose present form and content seem to have an age which approaches the days of Claudian or others of the later classics. This heroic poem is of northern origin, it gives us the clearest impression of our fathers’ life in a period we had till now thought hidden in deepest mirk; it reports at length on the glorious exploits of unknown Danish and Swedish kings. It portrays for us the deeds of the Skioldungs and the Danish name spread across the whole North in times when the English name had as yet not come into existence, when the Frankish monarchy was not yet founded, when all kinds of barbarians roamed Germany in wild disorder.