Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/24

felt in northern literature as soon as the North became converted to Christianity, and thus drawn into the current of European civilization. It prevented the continuation of an absolutely independent and distinct intellectual life. This influence was in its nature, and in a general sense, a European one, but inasmuch as it had to come to the North by way of Germany, we usually find it to be of a specific German character. Considering the important part acted by Germany in the history of European civilization, this was necessary and unavoidable. Christianity came by way of Germany, and so did the Reformation, the Renaissance, the enlightenment of the eighteenth century, etc., in short, for every material intellectual advancement, the North is indebted to Germany, since the impulse to every movement of great importance in the northern lands came from that country. This was both natural and beneficial, and upon the whole the foreign materials, which this influence brought into Scandinavia, were appropriated and remodeled in an independent manner by the peoples of the North. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the German influence occasionally, and sometimes through long periods, assumed such a character and became so decided that it must be said of it that it was injurious and obstructed an independent national development. There have been times when the independent intellectual life of the North has become nearly smothered by a too strong and one-sided influence from the leading nation of the Teutonic race, and this is especially true of Denmark, because this country has stood and still stands in so near a relation to Germany. And yet in the midst of all the severe trials to which the Scandinavian North has been exposed in this respect in the