Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Introductory Chapters By the late Professor York Powell - II. Mother-Land and Peoples
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food, and handicraft the Scandinavian differed little
from his cousin the Englishman, who had preceded
him in his western exodus. Only in cultivation of
land, and possibly of cattle, was the Scandinavian
of the northern peninsula behind-hand. The Englishman
had succeeded to the system of agriculture set
up by the Romans in Britain, whereas the Scandinavian
still possessed the more primitive cultivation
of the early Teutons, and dwelt in a land that was
still but half reclaimed from the forest. In art the
Scandinavian had already developed a peculiar type
of ornament, of which the bronze collections at
Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Christiania preserve
ample specimens,[1] a type which, while it runs parallel
to the Celtic metal work, has markworthy characteristics
of its own.
Though writing was not used for books or letters,
yet the art of writing was known, and weapons, gravestones,
and ornaments have inscriptions on them.
The peculiar letters known as runes are of the older
general North and West Teutonic type, derived from
some classic alphabet (that of an Hellenic Black Sea
colony possibly, as Canon Taylor thinks; the North
Etruscan alphabet, as Professor Bugge believes; or
as Dr. Wimmer with less probability affirms, from the
Latin alphabet).
The letters were arranged in an order, the reason
for which is as yet unknown, as follows:—
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