When we consider how many indications are still discoverable, by those
who know how to look for them, of the influence which the incursions of
the Danes and Northmen into Britain have exercised upon our language,
customs, and social and political condition; and that even the most
cursory glance at the map of these islands will show in so many local
names indisputable evidence of Danish occupation--evidence which is
amply confirmed by many of our archaisms or provincialisms, our popular
customs and observances,--when these things are considered, it is
obvious that a work which should give us the result of these incursions,
if written by a competent hand, must prove of great and general
interest. Just such a book has been issued by Mr. Murray, under the
title of _An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland,
and Ireland_, by J. J. A. Worsaae. All who had the pleasure of making
Mr. Worsaae's acquaintance when he visited this country in 1846-47, were
aware that he possessed two qualifications essentially necessary for the
proper execution of the task which he had undertaken. For his
archæological acquirements were made patent (even to those who were
unable to study his various antiquarian publications in Danish and
German) by the English version of his _Primæval Antiquities of Denmark_;
while his thorough mastery over our language was such as to enable him
to pursue his researches into the period of our country's history which
he proposed to illustrate, without the slightest let or hindrance. With
a theme, then, which may be considered as novel as it is interesting
(for it is the first attempt to view the subject _from the Danish
side_), and with such abilities to do it justice, it is no wonder that
Mr. Worsaae has produced a work which will, we are sure, be found to
possess the double merit of not only gratifying the antiquary, but also
of interesting, instructing, and amusing the general reader.
To form a complete Encyclopædia of Classical Antiquity, it was necessary
that to the _Dictionaries of Greek and Roman Antiquities_, and of _Greek
and Roman Biography and Mythology_, should be added a _Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Geography_. That want is in the course of being
supplied. The first Quarterly Part of such a _Dictionary_, called, for
the sake of uniformity, "_of Greek and Roman Geography_," but including
even Scriptural names, and so being in reality a _Dictionary of Ancient
Geography_, edited by Dr. Smith, written by the principal contributors
to the former works, and illustrated by numerous woodcuts, has just been
issued. It equals its predecessors in its claims to the support of all
students and lovers of classical learning; and we know no higher praise.
We learn from _The Athenæum_ that Mr. George Stephens, the translator of
Tegner's beautiful epic _Frithiof's Saga_, and whose intimate
acquaintance with the early literature of Sweden has been shown by the
collection of legends of that country which he has edited in conjunction
with Hylten-Cavallius, and by the various works superintended by him for
the _Svenska Fornskrift-Sällskapet_, a sort of Stockholm Camden Society,
has removed to Copenhagen in consequence of his having been appointed
Professor of the English Language and Literature in the University
there. The subject of his first course of lectures--to be delivered in
the present month--is, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. After this we shall
be quite prepared to hear of a Danish translation of this masterpiece of
the Father of English Poetry, as a companion to the recently published
Swedish translations of Shakspeare.
BOOKS RECEIVED.--_The Rhymed Chronicle of Edward Manlove concerning the
Liberties and Customs of the Lead Mines within the Wapentake of
Wirksworth, Derbyshire_, &c., edited by Thomas Tapping, Esq. This little
tract (which with its valuable Glossary, List of Cases, &c., occupies
but forty pages) is an extremely curious book; and the manner in which
it has been edited reflects great credit upon Mr. Tapping.--_Neander's
General History of the Christian Religion and Church_, vol. vi., forms
the new volume of Bohn's _Standard Library_. The same indefatigable
publisher has issued, as the new volume of his Classical Library, _The
Odes of Pindar, literally translated into English Prose_, by Dawson W.
Turner, M.A.; and, as if this was not sufficient, he has added the
_Metrical Version by the late Abraham Moore_--a translation which he
pronounces, and with great justice, to be distinguished for "poetry,
scholarship, and taste."