Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/194

of Danish, received the title of "philologus regius linguæ Danicæ." He published various works on the Danish language. His first work especially, "Betænkninger om det Cimbriske Sprog" (Remarks on the Cimbrian language), is marked by great freshness and enthusiasm. Its main purpose is to inquire into what ought to be done in one way and another to promote the culture of Danish in order that it may be restored to its place of honor, but at the same time the author also discusses purely philological problems. Already in this work Syv proves himself one of the best informed and most profound scholars in this field, and he continued to the day of his death to work with indefatigable zeal for the advancement of Danish. His "Danske Sprogkunst," published in 1685, is especially interesting as the first Danish grammar written in Danish. In 1668 a "Grammatica Danica," written in Latin, had been published by the well known theological writer Erik Pontoppidan, a rather interesting work and particularly valuable on account of its digression on comparative philology. One of Peder Syv's remarks which recurs again and again in his writings is most characteristic of the "learned age" in which he lived. He seems almost to beg pardon for taking the liberty of writing in Danish and he now and then finds it necessary "to reproduce the whole sentence in Latin in order that it may be better understood." Peder Syv also edited Vedel's collection of popular ballads with many additions, and a vast collection of proverbs, which has justly been called the "treasury of Danish proverbs," and this it has in fact been even down to our times. It contains all that could be found of genuine old Danish proverbs, saws, adages, etc., gathered from the lips of the people and from a number of printed and written sources. A history of literature by him, entitled "den danske Boglade" (The Danish Library) and containing many instructive notices of the old Danish literature, exists only in manuscript. He was also engaged on a compilation of a Danish