download - Sage's Lore Library

26 mTEODUCTION.
Northern Archaeology, especially the Mythology,
which distinguished it in the eighteenth century. It
was he who first subjected the whole Icelandic litera-,
ture to a searching criticism, and arranged and sift-
ed the confused mass of knowledge which had been
collected in this field before him ; and it was he,
also, who introduced and sanctioned the purely his-
torical view of the myths, a view which was after-
wards accepted as ^.n axiom, and cultivated by his
followers and adorers with unmeaning prolixity and
foolish sagacity to the highest perversion. This
was by no means designed nor expressed by him,
but it was determined by the drift of his writings.
After him it was taken for granted that Odin and
the -iEsir were men, and the mythology only history
in disguise. There was much written during the
century by his followers, but only to dilute his system
; no new thoughts were presented ; everywhere
the same ideas, the same perversions; only
new hypotheses and new dogmatisms. Thousands
treated on the Northern Mythology during this period,
all driving his system to the extreme. Only
in the field of criticism some progress was made by
Ihre. It would be impossible to name aU the books
of the time in which the .^ir were mishandled.
There is not a history of Denmark, Sweden, or Nor-
tiquitatea septemtr.seu Series Uegum et Pynastarum Danse" (from
Skjold to Gorm the Old), Hafn. 1'702 ; "Historia Rerum Norve-
gioanim" (to the TJiiioii of Calmar), lb. IT 11, 4 vols, fol.; a Continuation
of the " Series Regum Danise " to Svend ; " Hrolfi Krakii
Historia;" Orkades, Vinlandia Antiqua, Greenlandia Ant., &e.
The publication of " Torfseana" (a Supplement to the Ser. Rer.
Dan.) was attended to by Suhpa, in Wj.