Northern Antiquities/Chapter 2

by Paul Henri Mallet

CHAPTER II.

Of the first Inhabitants of Denmark, and particularly of the Cimbri.

IT is useless to enquire at what period of time Denmark began to be inhabited. Such a research would doubtless lead us up to an age when all Europe was plunged in ignorance and barbarity. These two words include in them almost all we know of the history of the first ages. It is very probable, that the first Danes were like all the other Teutonic nations, a colony of Scythians, who spread themselves at different times over the countries which lay towards the west. The resemblance of name might induce us to believe that it was from among the Cimmerian Scythians (whom the ancients placed to the north of the Euxine sea) that the first colonies were sent into Denmark; and that from this people they inherited the name of Cimbri, which they bare so long before they assumed that of Danes^[1]. But this resemblance of name, which many historians produce as a solid proof, is liable to so many different explanations, that it is better to acknowledge once for all, that this subject is as incapable of certainty, as it is unworthy of research.

Whatever was the origin of the Cimbri, they for a long time before the birth of Christ inhabited the country, which received from them the name of the Cimbrica Chersonesus^[2], and probably comprehended Jutland, Sleswic, and Holstein, and perhaps some of the neighbouring provinces. The ancients considered this people as a branch of the Germans, and never distinguished the one from the other in the descriptions they have left us of the manners and customs of that nation. The historical monuments of the north give us still less information about them, and go no farther back than the arrival of Odin; the epoque of which, I am Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/97 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/98 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/99 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/100 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/101 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/102 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/103 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/104 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/105 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/106 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/107 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/108 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/109 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/110 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/111 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/112 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/113 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/114 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/115

1. The historians of the north do not inform us when this name began to be in use. Among foreign writers, Procopius an author of the VIth century, is the first who appears to have made use of it. We shall see below, what we are to think of the etymologies which have been given of this name.
2. Or Cimbric Peninsula.