fectly agrees with the existing monuments, and there is therefore little, or no doubt, that the Goths and Göths, the inhabitants of Southern Scandinavia in the bronze-period, were the first Scandinavian tribes who settled in the North, and who, of course, settled in the southern parts, as they were both the most fertile, and the easiest to cultivate. The Goths and Göths are thus to be regarded, as the real ancestors of the present inhabitants of Denmark, and of the southern part of Sweden; they afterwards became a good deal mixed with the Swedes, and Norwegians.
The knowledge of iron, and the higher civilization, which the Swedes and Norwegians brought to the South, and which enabled them both to cut down the immense woods, make roads over the mountains, cultivate the soil, and build large vessels, was, by degrees, through intercourse, marriage, and immigrations, spread over Götaland and Denmark. In Götaland, the use of iron had probably completely superseded the use of bronze, for weapons and implements, as early as the sixth century, as there were then in Götaland frequent attacks both from Norway and Sweden, and as Götaland, not long after, became connected with Sweden. In Denmark it took of course more time; but from the fifth or sixth century, the civilization of the iron-period had been completely introduced into Mecklenberg, by the Slavonic tribes; into England, by the Anglo-Saxons; into Norway, and Sweden, by the Norwegians, and the Svear. It is probable that both bronze and iron were in use together in Denmark during one or two centuries, until about the year 700, when the use of iron completely superseded that of bronze, for implements, and weapons. At that time, they still, in Norway and Sweden, burned the bodies of their dead, and buried them in barrows; but in Denmark, the custom was to bury the bodies unburnt in large burning-places, which shews an influence from the west and south of Europe, where a similar custom prevailed.
At this period, the mode of life in the North underwent a
