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SCALES OF NOTATION-SCALIGER.

sturgeon and the bony pike (Lepidosteus) have scales of this nature, but the finest examples of these scales are found in fossil fishes. Ctenoid scales (from kteis, a comb) are generally of a rounded or oval form, with teeth or projections on their posterior margin. They are devoid of enamel, and present an imbricated arrangement. The perch and many osseous fishes possess these scales. Cycloid scales (from the Gr. kyklos, a circle) consist of concentric layers of horn or bone, without spinous margins, and not covered by enamel. They are soft and flexible, present a variety of linear markings on their upper surface, and usually exhibit an imbricated arrangement. The carp, herring, salmon, &c., possess these scales. In many cases, two kinds of scales occur in the same fish, while in other cases the different species of a single genus exhibit different kinds of scales.

extent,' and that both the advantage and disadvantage diminish as we raise the scale. The selection of 'ten' as the ordinary scale is very prevalent, and was evidently suggested by the number of fingers; but the scales of two, three, four, five, six, and twenty have at various times been made use of by a few nations or tribes. The scale of 12 has long been generally employed in business among northern European nations, as is instanced by such terms as 'gross,' signifying 12 times 12, and 'double gross,' denoting 12 times 12 times 12; and it has also been largely introduced into the standard measurements of quantity, as inches, pence, ounces troy, &c., causing a considerable amount of complexity in calculation, as all abstract numerical calculation follows the decimal system. To remedy this acknowledged evil, it has been proposed to For anatomical details regarding the structure and introduce the decimal system in toto, as has been mode of development of scales, the reader is referred done in France, Italy, Russia, &c., or else to do the to Professor Huxley's article 'Tegumentary Organs' same with the duodecimal system. Those who in the Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, and hold to the first proposal have the argument of conto Professor Williamson's Memoirs in the Philoso- formity in their favour; those who support the phical Transactions, 1849-1852. In their chemical latter do so on the ground, that 12 has in proportion composition, the scales of fishes approximate to far more aliquot parts than 10 has, and that on this the bones, except that they contain more organic account the number of fractions, and the size of each matter. The brilliancy of tint exhibited by many numerator and denominator, would be diminished; fishes is due apparently to the phenomena of optical while both parties can bring overpowering argu interference, rather than to the presence of colour-ments against the continuance of the present method, ing matter. Figures of Ctenoid and Ganoid Scales or rather want of method. See DECIMAL SYSTEM. are given in the articles CTENOID FISHES and GANOID FISHES.

SCALES OF NOTATION are the various 'radices' which determine, as explained under NOTATION (q. v.), the form and digits of the number expressing any numerical quantity. Thus, the number 289, in the decimal or common system whose radix is 10, signifies 9 units, 8 tens, and 2 hundreds, | or 2 × 102 + 8 × 10 + 9. To express the same number in the quinary scale, for instance, we must group the 289 units into multiples and powers of 5; an operation which may be performed in either of two ways, as follows:

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It will be observed that the binary scale possesses only two symbols, 0 and 1, the ternary has 3, while the undenary would require a symbol in addition to the 9 digits and zero to express 10, which is a digit in that scale, and the duodecimal scale two additional symbols for 10 and 11. A glance at the above table shews at once that if the binary scale had been in ordinary use, great facility in the performance of arithmetical operations would have been obtained at the cost of largely increasing their

SCALIGER, JULIUS CESAR, one of the most famous men of letters that have appeared since their revival, was born in 1484. In after-life, he created for himself a noble pedigree, and made out that he was descended from the princely family of the Scalas of Verona, and that his birthplace was the castle of Riva, on the banks of the Lago di Guarda. According to his own account, he was educated first under the famous Fra Giocondo; was afterwards attached as a page to the Emperor Maximilian, whom he attended for 17 years in peace and war; was next made a pensioner of the Duke of Ferrara; thereafter studied at Bologna; commanded a troop of cavalry at Turin under the French viceroy; prosecuted his studies there in philology, philosophy, and medicine; and in 1525 went to Agen, in France, with the bishop of that diocese, a member of the Rovere family, to whose household he became physician. Tiraboschi's account, however, which is the more probable, represents him as having been born at Padua, the son of Benedict Bordoni, who was a geographer and miniature-painter of that city, and who, either from the sign of his shop or the name of the street he lived in, assumed the surname Della Scala. Up to his 42d year, young Giulio Bordoni resided chiefly in Venice or Padua, engaging in the study and practice of medicine, and appearing under his true name as an author. In 1525, he withdrew to Agen, either from some advantageous offer, or with a view to promote his fortune, and there fixed his abode. He became physician to the bishop of the diocese, and in that capacity sought in marriage Andietta de Roques-Lobejac, a young lady only 16 years of age, and of noble and rich parentage. An obstacle was thrown in the way of this alliance; and probably with the purpose of improving his position, and lessening the disparity in station between himself and the object of his affections, he procured, in 1528, letters of naturalisation as a French subject, under the name of Jules-César de Lescalle de Bordonis. This was probably the occasion when he added Cæsar to his baptismal name of Julius. The marriage took place in 1529, and was both happy and fruitful. He died in 1558, leaving behind him a mass of publications on various subjects, and a reputation for extent and depth of learning, which,

SCALIGER-SCALP.

considering the ripe age at which he made the majority of his acquirements, redounds to the credit of his vigorous understanding and extraordinary memory. As a thinker, he was more independent than sound; and as a man, was of violently irritable temper and excessive vanity. His best known publications are-Commentarii in Hippocratis Librum de Insomniis (Commentaries on the Hippocratic Treatise on Dreams); De Causis Lingua Latina Libri XVIII., celebrated as the first considerable work written in the Latin language in modern times, and not without value even yet; his Latin translation of Aristotle's History of Animals; his Exercitationum Exotericarum liber quintus decimus de Subtilitate ad Hieronym. Cardanum; his seven books of Poetics (also in Latin, and on the whole his best work); his Commentaries on Aristotle and Theophrastus; his two orations against Erasmus; his Latin poems, &c.

SCALIGER, JOSEPH JUSTUS, the tenth son of J. C. Scaliger and Andietta de Roques-Lobejac, and much his father's superior in learning, was born in 1540 at Agen, whence, at the age of 11, he was sent, along with two of his brothers, to the college of Bordeaux, where for three years he studied Latin. A pestilence breaking out in the town, he was recalled by his father, who supplemented the scanty knowledge which his son brought home with him by making him write a Latin declamation every day upon any subject he chose. Under this training, he soon attained great proficiency as a Latinist; and in his 19th year, on the death of his father, he went to Paris, where he studied Greek under the famous Turnebus. He was less indebted, however, to any master than to himself; and finding that his progress was slow under his great preceptor, he closeted himself alone with Homer, and in 21 days read him through, with the aid of a Latin translation, and committed him to memory. In less than four months, he had mastered all the Greek poets. Next, Hebrew, Syriac, Persian, and the most of the modern European languages succumbed in rapid succession to his industry, while at the same time he was assiduous in his composition of verses both in Latin and Greek. About this time, he boasted that he could speak 13 languages, ancient and modern; and such was his ardour in study, that he allowed himself only a few hours' sleep at night, and would frequently pass whole days without rising from his books even for meals. His proficiency in literature, especially in the history, chronology, and antiquities of Greece and Rome, secured him, in 1583, an honourable engagement from Louis de la Roche Pozay, at that time French ambassador at the pontifical court. The year before, however, he had become a Protestant, which rendered it difficult for him to retain an appointment in France. Except that he travelled a good deal, at the generous instance of his patron, and visited the chief universities of France and Germany, and even found his way to Scotland, we know little of his life between 1565 and 1593. He is conjectured to have travelled in Italy, and to have gone as far as Naples. Certain it is, however, that in the year last named he complied with an invitation of the Dutch government, and went to fill the chair of Literature, vacated by Lipsius in Leyden University, where he spent the residue of his days. His labour now consisted chiefly in interpreting and illustrating the classical authors. He died of dropsy on the 21st January 1609, and was never married. We have said that he far excelled his father in learning; but it should be added that he was not a whit less irritable, arrogant, or vain; that he fully shared the paternal pride of pedigree, spurious as he probably knew his own to be; and that he endeavoured to

support his father's genealogical fictions in his wellknown letter to Dousa on the splendour of the Scaliger family. His writings abound with expressions of hatred and contempt towards his opponents, and he has enriched the vocabulary of learned abuse to an extent well nigh proverbial. He was, however, a man of immense vigour of understanding, and must be credited with having been the first to lay down, in his treatise De Emendatione Temporum (Paris, 1583), a complete system of chronology formed upon fixed principles. It was this most learned achievement, and his invention of the Julian period, that secured for him the title of the Father of Chronological Science. It was subjected to much emendatory criticien by censors like Petavius, and also by himself, its errors having been partly corrected by him in his later work, the Thesaurus Temporum, complectens Eusebii Pamphili Chronicon cum Isagogicis Chronologia Canonibus (Amst. 1658, 2 vols. fol.). Among the classical authors whom he criticised and annotated are Theocritus, Seneca (the tragedies), Varro, Ausonius, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Manilius, and Festus. His other works are De Tribus Sectis Judæorum; Dissertations on Subjects of Antiquity; Poemata; Epistola, a translation into Latin of two centuries of Arabian proverbs, &c. He numbered among his friends the most illustrious scholars of the time, such as Lipsius, Casaubon, Grotius, Heinsius, the Dupuys, Saumaise, Vossius, Velser, P. Pithou; and interesting notices of him are preserved in such works as the Huetiana, and above all, in the two vols. of Scaligerana, which embody his conversations, and which were collected and published after his death.

SCALLOP, more commonly ESCALLOP (q. v.), in Heraldry, a species of shell. It has been considered the badge of a pilgrim, and a symbol of the apostle St James the Greater, who is usually represented in the garb of a pilgrim.

SCALLOP-SHELL. See PECTEN.

SCALP, THE, is the term employed to designate the outer covering of the skull or brain-case. Except in the fact, that hair in both sexes grows more luxuriantly on the scalp than elsewhere, the skin of the scalp differs so slightly from ordinary skin that it is unnecessary to enter into any details on this point. But besides the skin, the scalp is composed of the expanded tendon of the occipitofrontal muscle, and of intermediate cellular tissue and blood-vessels. Injuries of the scalp, however slight, must be watched with great caution, for they may be followed by erysipelas, or by inflammation and suppuration under the occipito-frontal muscle, or within the cranium, or by suppuration of the veins of the cranial bones, and general pyæmia that may easily prove fatal.'-Druitt's Surgeon's Vade Mecum, 8th edition, p. 332. In the treatment of a wound of this region, no part of the scalp, however injured it may be, should be cut or torn away; and, if possible, the use of stitches should be avoided, as plasters and bandages will generally suffice to keep the separated parts in apposition. The chance of suppuration may be prevented by coagulating the blood externally, by dressing the wound with lint, saturated with Friars' Balsam (Tinctura Benzoin. Comp.), so as to seal up the injured part from the access of air. The patient should be confined to the house (and in severe cases to bed), should be moderately purged, and fed upon non-stimulating, but not too low diet.

Burns of the scalp are very liable to be followed by erysipelas and diffuse inflammation, but the brain is comparatively seldom affected in these cases.

Tumours of the scalp are not uncommon, the most

SCAMANDER-SCANDERBEG.

frequent being the cutaneous cysts popularly known as Wens (q. v.), and vascular tumours.

SCAMA'NDER, the ancient name of a river in the Troad (see TROY), which, according to Homer, was also called Xanthus (Gr. yellow) by the gods, and as a divinity took an important part in the Trojan war, its destructive floods doing serious injury to one party, and thus materially assisting the other. The S. rose in Mount Ida (q. v.), and, flowing west and north-west, discharged itself into the Hellespont, after being joined by the Simois, about two miles from its mouth: the two rivers, however, since the 1st c. A. D., have had separate courses. There has been much controversy as to what modern river corresponds to the ancient S.; Mr C. Maclaren, however, in his Plains of Troy, has clearly identified it with the Mendere. SCAMI'LLUS, a small plinth below the bases of Ionic, Corinthian, and other columns.

is superseded by the ample remedies of Criminal Information (q. v.), indictment, or action. A somewhat similar offence in Scotland is called Leasingmaking (q. v.).

SCANDERBEG (properly, Iskander-beg, 'the Prince Alexander,' the name given him by the Turks), the famous patriot chief of Epirus, was born in that country in 1414. His real name was George Castriota, and his father, John Castriota, was one of the great lords of Epirus, his mother, Voisava, being a Servian princess. In 1423, he was given as one of the hostages for the obedience of the Albanian chiefs, and his physical beauty and intelligence so pleased Amurath II., that he was lodged in the royal palace, and subsequently circumcised and brought up in Islamism, being also put under the tuition of skilful masters in the Turkish, Arabic, Slav, and Italian languages. In 1433, he greatly distinguished himself in Asia as a Turkish pasha (of one tail); but being offended at the confiscation SCA'MMONY is a gum-resin of an ashy-gray of his paternal domains, and being solicited by colour, and rough externally, and having a resinous, some Epirote friends to return to his native country splintering fracture. Few drugs are so uniformly to aid in the restoration of its independence, he adulterated as scammony, which, when pure, con- watched an opportunity of withdrawing from the tains from 81 to 83 per cent. of resin (which is the Turkish army. He had not long to wait, for the active purgative ingredient), 6 or 8 of gum, with a generous and unsuspicious sultan, who had caused little starch, sand, fibre, and water. The ordinary him to be brought up as if he had been his own son, adulterations are chalk, flour, guaiacum, resin, and gave him the command of a large division of the gum tragacanth. army which was destined to act against the HunScammony, when pure, is an excellent and trust-garian invaders. S., having concerted his plans with worthy cathartic of the drastic kind, well adapted 300 of his fellow-countrymen in the Turkish army, for cases of habitual constipation, and as an active deserted during the confusion of the first battle purgative for children. The resin of scammony, (1443), and having previously compelled Amurath's which is extracted from the crude drug by rectified secretary (whom he afterwards murdered to avoid spirit, possesses the advantage of being always of a detection) to prepare an order investing him with nearly uniform strength, and of being almost taste- the government of Croia (now Ak-hissar), the less. The Scammon Mixture, composed of four capital of Epirus, he and his companions fled thither grains of resin of scammony, triturated with two with all possible speed. The unsuspecting governor ounces of milk, until a uniform emulsion is obtained, at once resigned the town into his hands, and was forms an admirable purgative for young children massacred along with the garrison. At the news in doses of half an ounce or more. According to of S.'s success, the whole country rose in insurChristison, between 7 and 14 grains of resin, in the rection, and in 30 days he had driven every Turk, form of this emulsion, constitute a safe and effectual except the garrison of Sfetigrad, out of the country. purgative' for adults. Another popular form for In order to strengthen himself in his new position, the administration of scammony is the Compound he invited a number of the neighbouring princes and Powder of Scammony, composed of scammony, Albanian chiefs to a conference, at which it was jalap, and ginger, the dose for a child being from unanimously agreed to make no terms with the 2 to 5 grains, and for an adult from 6 to 12 grains. Turks, and to obey S. implicitly as their leader. S. Scammony is frequently given surreptitiously in the then raised an army of 15,000 men, with which he form of biscuit to children troubled with thread- completely scattered (1444) the 40,000 Turks whom the indignant sultan had sent against him, killing an immense number of them, and taking a few prisoners. Three other Turkish armies shared the same fate, and the 'animus' with which the contest was carried on may be imagined, when we consider that the number of prisoners taken in the last (1448) of these three battles amounted to seventytwo. Amurath himself in 1449 took the field, and stormed many of the principal fortresses, but being then ill of his fatal malady, he retired from before Croia, to die at Adrianople (1450). S.'s splendid successes brought in congratulations from the pope and the sovereigns of Italy and Aragon, but many of the Epirote chiefs were becoming wearied of the continual strife, and fell off from him, some of them even joining the Turks. S.'s career was now, in consequence, of a more chequered character, but in spite of occasional defeats, he stoutly refused all the liberal and fair proposals of the sultan, Mohammed II., who had a profound admiration for him, and sheltered by the mountainous nature of the country, carried on an unceasing warfare. At last an armed convention was agreed to in 1461, and S. profited by this leisure to pay off his debt to the pope and the king of Aragon (both of whom had supplied him with material assistance during his greatest need)

worms.

The plant which produces this valuable drug is Convolvulus Scammonia (see CONVOLVULUS), a native of the Levant. It is a perennial, with a thick fleshy tapering root, 3-4 feet long, and 3-4 inches in diameter, which sends up several smooth slender twining stems, with arrow-head-shaped leaves on long stalks. The root is full of an acrid milky juice, which indeed pervades the whole plant. The scammony plant is not cultivated, but the drug is collected from it where it grows wild. The ordinary mode of collecting scammony is by laying bare the upper part of the root, making incisions, and placing shells or small vessels to receive the juice as it flows, which soon dries and hardens in the air.

The name French or Monpelier Scammony is given to a substance which is prepared in the south of France, chiefly from the juice of Cynanchum Monspeliacum, a plant of the natural order Asclepiaceæ. It is a violent purgative.

SCAʼNDALUM MAGNAʼTUM. This offence was committed in speaking words in derogation of a peer, judge, or great officer of the realm, and a special action was brought for such words, the punishment being damages and imprisonment. But now this proceeding, though not expressly abolished,

SCANDINAVIA-SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

and crossing over to Italy, he routed the partisans of Anjou, and restored the kingdom of Naples to the latter of his benefactors, returning home laden with honours and benedictions. At the instigation of the pope, who had tried in vain to raise the other Christian princes of Europe against the Turks, S. broke the armed truce in 1464, and repeatedly defeated the Turks; but Mohammed becoming furious at these unprovoked aggressions, equipped two mighty armies, the first of which invested Croia, and the second, under his own leadership, advanced more leisurely. The first army was, after a desperate contest, defeated by S. in 1466; but the restless and indomitable chief, worn out with the incessant toil of 24 years, died at Alessio, 17th January 1467. The war continued to rage some time longer, but the great mainstay of the country was now wanting, and before the end of 1468, the Turkish standard floated undisturbed over Epirus. Barlesio, a fellow-countryman of S., who has written his biography (De Vita et Moribus ac rebus gestis Geo. Castrioti, Rome, 1537), remarks his sobriety, the purity of his manners, and the strictness of his religious belief. He had vanquished the Turks in 22 pitched battles.

either as the Dönsk túnga, 'Danish tongue,' or as the Norræna, Norse.' We never hear of the Swedish' or 'Gothic tongue,' and although different dialects no doubt existed, from a very early period, among the Scandinavian people, it is certain that substantially the same language was spoken by the Northmen generally till the 11th century. According to recent inquirers, the race of the Northmen, before their settlement in Sweden and Norway, was divided into an eastern and western branch, the former of which is supposed to have used the old language of Norway and Iceland, and the latter the Swedish and Danish dialects. These two divisions of the race had entered Scandinavia by different routes, the eastern having passed along the Gulf of Bothnia, through the country of the Finns and Lapps, while the western branch had crossed from Russia to the Aland Islands, and spread from thence southward and westward; and it seems natural to infer that in their respective lines of migration they may have incorporated into their own speech some of the special characteristics that belonged to the language of the peoples with whom they came in contact. But the differences thus introduced could not have been important, for SCANDINAVIA, a large peninsula in the north most ancient laws of the different people of Scanwe find the same language employed in the several of Europe, bounded on the N. by the Arctic Ocean; dinavia, while the two Eddas (q. v.)—the oldest on the W. by the Atlantic, North Sea, Skager Rack, Cattegat, and Sound; and on the S. and E. by the monuments of Scandinavian speech-which were Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia and Finland, with which compiled in Iceland, whither the Northmen had it is connected on the north-east by an isthmus 325 island in the 9th c., give evidence of an almost carried their language on their settlement in the miles wide. This peninsula comprises the two kingdoms, Norway (q.v.) and Sweden (q. v.); is complete identity of local and personal names. 1240 miles long, from 230 to 460 miles broad, area This unity of language is further proved by the 300,000 sq. miles. The ridge of mountains which agreement which is found to exist in all runic traverses the peninsula in the direction of its length Sweden, and from Zealand to the western shores inscriptions, from Slesvig to the northern parts of gives character to the whole conformation. The western division of the Scandinavian peninsula is of Iceland. All monuments of this old Northern covered with mountains; the eastern half, Sweden, not the Norræna or Norwegian form of it been caretongue would, however, have been lost to us, had consists principally of low-lying country. The mountains of S. extend from Waranger Fiord, in the fully preserved and cultivated in Iceland through the short songs (hljod or quida) relating to the extreme north-east, to the promontory of the Naze, in the extreme south-west, with an average breadth deeds of the gods and heroes of the north, which had existed as early probably as the 7th c., and of 180 miles. They consist principally of gneiss had passed with the religion and usages of Norway and micaceous schist, sometimes, but rarely, of porphyry, syenite, granite, and chalk; salt is not to the new colony. After the introduction of Chrisfound; silver, copper, and iron abound. The Scan- tianity into Iceland in the year 1000, schools were dinavian Mountains, though forming in reality Roman characters were adopted for the writing of founded there, classic literature was cultivated, and one great range, are considered as forming four the national tongue, but this did not interfere with sections-the Lapland Mountains, in the north, from 1000 to 2060 feet high; the Kjolen Mountains, the zeal with which the national laws and poems from 1500 to 2575 feet high; the Dovre Fjelde, from were collected and studied by native scholars. This 2500 to 3600 feet high; and lastly, the Southern literary activity continued unabated till the 13th Fjelde, 4000 to 5150 feet high. Though of incon-C., when the republic of Iceland, after having long siderable height, yet the numerous glaciers and snow-fields of the mountains of S. impart to this range almost an Alpine character. The climate of S. is much milder on the west than on the east side, a fact to be ascribed probably to the influence of the Gulf Stream. The character of the country, its physical features, industries, &c., are given under the

articles NORWAY and SWEDEN.

The ancient Scandia, or S., included Northern Denmark, as well as the peninsula that still retains It is first mentioned by Pliny, who, unaware that the peninsula was attached to Finland on the north, considered S. as an island.

the name.

SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The language which was spoken during the heathen ages in all the northern or Scandinavian lands, and which, in accordance with traditionary belief, had been introduced by Odin and his companions, when the Gothic tribes supplanted the more ancient races of the Finns and Lapps, is always referred to by the oldest authorities

been distracted by the dissensions of the rival aristocratic families of the island, was conquered by Hakon VI., king of Norway. Since 1380, Iceland has since that period the colonists have partly sucformed part of the Danish dominions, and although cumbed to the cramping influences of the subordinate and dependent conditions in which they have been placed; the distance from the mothercountry, and the tenacity with which the people cling to all memorials of their former history, have enabled them to preserve their language so unchanged, that the Icelander of the present day can read the sagas of a thousand years since, and still writes in the same phraseology that his forefathers used ages ago. But while the old Scandinavian tongue was thus preserved in the far distant colony, it had undergone great changes in Norway; and when, by the union of Calmar in 1380, the latter country was united to Denmark, the Danish form of speech, that had in the meanwhile been changing under the modifying influences due to the introduction of Latin and to contact with other nations,

SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

supplanted the Norwegian language, which thence- which the latter has reached us. In the 9th and 10th forth being banished from the pulpit, the law courts, centuries the ancient epic and the simple songs of and from literature, split up into numerous dialects the older poets gave place to the artificial poetry of peculiar to special valleys and fijords, but unknown the skalds, which, from its earliest development, in the larger towns. manifested a realistic tendency, and made the real When we come to examine the Icelandic or ancient adventures of living men the subject of their composiScandinavian, which is closely allied to its sister tions. Many of these compositions, as the Eiriksmál, Teutonic languages, and like them betrays its eastern or the Death and Apotheosis of King Eric Bloodorigin, we find that it differs from the latter in several axe, who died in 952; the Hakonar-mal, or Fall of important points. It has this striking peculiarity, that the definite article, instead of coming before the noun, is appended as a termination to the end of the word. The adjective, moreover, which in its indefinite form is subject to inflections, for all genders and cases, undergoes, when in its definite form, fewer and slighter changes. Again, while in the German tongues the verb in the infinitive ends in a consonant, in the old Scandinavian it invariably terminates in a vowel. The old Scandinavian language has a passive form of the verb unknown to its Gothic sister tongues; and while in German the third person of the present tense differs from the second person, such is not the case in Old Northern. In the latter, the vowel sounds are greatly modified by a very perfect system of combinations, indicated by dots or accents; and in addition to the consonants of the Gothic languages, it has an aspirated d and t. It possesses, moreover, a flexibility and richness of construction, which admit of favourable comparison with those of the ancient classical languages, while in regard to the number and comprehensiveness of its words, and its consequent independence of foreign derivates, it presents a character of regularity and unity which is wanting to the other Germanic languages. Its mode of construction is simple in prose, and in the earlier forms of poetry, although in the later periods of the Skalds (q. v.) it degenerated into a state of artificial complexity. The chief feature of the metrical system employed in Old Northern poetry was alliteration (q. v.). The alliterative method was continued after the introduction of terminal rhyme, but the simplicity of the ancient lay gave way in the 10th c. to the most artificial complexity of versification in the metres invented by the skalds. Besides these skaldic measures, of which 106 are enumerated in the Hattalykli, or Key of Metres, drawn up in the 13th c. by the Icelander, Snorri Sturlesson (q. v.), the skalds were required to know the Kenningar, or poetic synonyms, of which there were an enormous number; some words, as Odin, island, &c., having upwards of 100. The main fea ture of the system was that nothing must be called by its right name: thus a ship was a beast of the sea, a serpent of the waters, a dragon of the ocean, &c.; a woman was a graceful tree, a fair pearl, &c.; a wife was her husband's Rune (q. v.), or his confidential and intimate friend, &c.

The fragments of Old Northern poetry that have come down to us in the Eddas, belong for the most part to the 8th c., or even perhaps to the 7th c.; and consist of short songs (hljod or quida), which are either mystic, didactic, mythic, or mytho-historic in their character. See EDDA. It is supposed that some of these compositions, and several of the poems which celebrate the adventures of the gods, giants, and elves, were composed prior to the immigration into Scandinavia of Odin and his followers; while, on the other hand, the local colouring of others sufficiently proves their northern origin. In addition to the subjects belonging to the Odinic mythology, we have in the mytho-historic lays, known as the songs of the famous Smith Völundr, or the Völundar-quida, a cyclus of heroic poems similar to the Old German epic the Nibelungenlied, (q.v.); but much more ancient in form than that in

Hakon the Good; and several poems by the famous Icelandic skald Egill Skalagrimson, while they afford valuable materials for the early history of the north, are among the latest of the skaldic productions that preceded the more degenerate periods of the art. To the 11th and 12th centuries belong the poems known as Grongaldr and Solar-ljod, which were composed in imitation of the ancient compositions, and consist of moral and didactic maxims, the former conceived from an assumed heathen, and the latter from a Christian point of view. In the 13th c., the skaldic art thoroughly declined, and gave place, in Iceland, to a puerile literature, based upon Biblical stories and saints' legends. In Scandinavia Proper, a more modern form of national literature was in the meanwhile being gradually developed by means of oral transmission, whence arose the folk-lore and popular songs of Norway and Sweden, and the noble Danish ballads known as the Kampe viser, whose composition in the Old Northern or Icelandic tongue may probably be referred to the 14th century. The earliest Icelandic prose belongs to the beginning of the 12th c., when Ari hinns Frode,' or the Wise, composed a history of his native island and its population in the Islendinga-bok and Landnama-bok, the latter of which was continued by others. He was the first northern writer who attempted to assign fixed dates to events by reference to a definite chronology, and his work is remarkable as the earliest historical composition written in the old Danish or Norse, as it still remains in the living language of Iceland. These works, which have since perished, entered largely into the composition of the annals of the early kings of Norway, compiled a century later by Snorri Sturlesson under the title of the Heimskringla. Throughout the middle ages the literature of Iceland was enriched with numerous national and other sagas, the materials of which were drawn from skaldic songs, folk-lore, local traditions and family histories; and in its later stages of development included among its subjects the mythic cycle of Arthur and his knights, Merlin, Alexander, Charlemagne, &c. The compilation of the laws of the island attracted the attention of the Icelanders at an early period; and in 1118 a complete code, known as the Gragas, which had been derived from the ancient Norse law, was submitted to the Allthing or popular assembly, and a few years later the canons of the church, or the Kristinrettr, were settled and reduced to writing. A collection of those enactments in the ancient and subsequent codes, which are still in force in Iceland, has been made by Stephensen and Sigurdsson (Copen. 1853), under the title of Lagasafn handa Islandi; while the ancient Norse laws, beginning with the Gulathings-lôg and the Hirdskra of Hakon the Good, which date from the 10th c., have been ably and critically edited in Norway under the title of Norges gamle Love (Christ. 1846-1849). The study of the Old Northern language and literature, which was successfully inaugurated by the native scholars of Iceland in the 17th c., was soon prosecuted with equally happy results in Denmark and Sweden, and within the last 25 years in Norway, where the subject forms a necessary introduction to the investigation of the language and history of the

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