Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/124

106 is neither annalist nor collector of legends as are most of the other historians of the middle ages, but he selects his favorite leading character and groups around him all his materials. He depicts the life and deeds of his hero in a singularly vigorous and picturesque manner, and presents with rare force and skill the most prominent traits of character and the leading events.

In this way he succeeds in giving us a general picture of the development of the Danish people from the remote antiquity down to his own time precisely as it presented itself to his poetic mind. And for this reason his history of Denmark, despite the various elements of which it consists, became, taken as a whole, a thoroughly harmonious one. It is an inspiring and fascinating book for all time.

The other historical works written in Latin in the middle age, are scarcely worthy of mention. They consist simply of a few biographies, conventual stories, chronicles or annals, the most important and best of which belong to the second half of the twelfth and to the thirteenth centuries. The most valuable of them all is the so-called "Chronicles of Zealand," which closes with the year 1282. From this period the contents of these productions, considered from a literary point of view, grow more and more meagre, but in spite of their intrinsic poverty, they are of great importance as they are the sole sources of Danish history during the middle age. The only attempt at writing a connected history of Denmark is the above-mentioned digest of Saxo's chronicle by Thomas Gheysmer, together with his continuation of the same.

While theology and historiography constituted the chief literary occupation in the convents, some attention was also paid to medicine, natural science and other researches. Great results were, however, not attained, and the number of scientific works from that time, either preserved or known to have existed, is very limited.