CURSORY VIEW OF THE MONUMENTS AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE NORTH .

How undeniable soever the proposition that no history of a country , that is , a narrative of events and actions connected and chronologically arranged , can be conceived which shall be independent of written materials , or , as they are called , imme - diate sources , it is not less certain that monuments and remains of antiquity , other than literary , have a just claim to be con - sidered as indirect sources for the same historical result . Even if such may not avail to make us acquainted with new positive facts , if they fail to certify a list of sovereigns , or to fix a series of dates , they may yet serve , collectively considered , to give us a clearer perception of the religion , the culture , the external life , and other particulars of our forefathers than can be supplied even by the written sources , to which latter no such high antiquity can be ascribed , in which old traditions are mixed up with newer , and which , as they have been com - mitted to writing in later times , must have been liable to many corruptions of their text . The other remains of which we speak , form , some of them , a complement to the literary , extending our knowledge beyond the periods when the latter begin to deserve belief , and sometimes awakening and fortifying con - jectures as to emigrations and connexions of nations respecting which history is silent . But even the mute memorials have a still higher significance for us . They lead us back to the original population of our northern country , they make us live again our fathers ' life . A grave mound , a lonely circle of stones , a stone implement , a metal ornament excavated from the covered chamber of death , afford a livelier image of antiquity than Saxo or Snorre , the Eddas , or the Germany of Tacitus . And will not the explorer of the past contemplate a work of the arts of the middle ages , with an interest which no record can excite .

Accordingly there never has been a period since our hi - story began to be cultivaled and studied but these monuments

have formed an object of attention and investigation , although often viewed in a false light and though the subject has been treated in a tasteless and unscientific manner . Who can reflect without regret on the number of objects of this nature which in the course of the last two centuries have become irretrievably lost to us in despite of the exertions of our antiquaries Ole Worm , Bure , Resen and Rudbeck to transmit an account of them for the use of posterity , exertions not the less praiseworthy although now felt to be inadequate to their object . It must be so much the more gratifying to every one who takes an interest in the olden time to know that at no period were its monuments less exposed to the risk of being undervalued and destroyed than they are now . The interest in the study of Northern antiquity , and consequently in that of its monumental remains , has hardly been at any period more diffused or more active than at present . Discoveries relating to it are ever sure of being received with sympathy by the public . As in other educated countries , collections have been established here for the preservation of the remains of former ages . The parties con - nected with these hold profitable communication with each other . Scientific travellers in remote regions keep a watchful eye on the remains scattered over them .

But again the remains of the past requite the attention bestowed on them by assisting other scientific pursuits than the strictly historical . They assist to answer questions as to the natural history of our northern countries , their people , changes of climate and the like . To instance one subject , the in - terest of which has been lately revived , the solution of the problem of the ancient colonization of Greenland , and the posi - tion of the Icelandic settlements in that quarter , would appear to depend quite as much on the objects of antiquity lately discovered , particularly on Runic inscriptions , as on written documents and nautical evidence .

We may in pursuance hope that the following summary which has for its object to set forth what has been regarded as

the best authenticated and most worth knowing on the subject of the memorials of northern antiquity , may be found not un - worthy the notice of the educated public .