Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/181

Rh the side of them existed a whole literature of stories about devils and witches. In these the superstition of the age is reflected, and they furnish a striking illustration of the low condition of intellectual culture at a time when erudite theology monopolized the pulpit and the educational institutions.

Besides, there prevailed during this period a decided taste for, which, in most cases, led to superficiality in all branches of knowledge. When the period of learning, therefore, in spite of these noxious tendencies, in spite of all the pedantry and of the growing restraining influence of the censure, still produced a number of distinguished men in the various departments of knowledge, then these scholars surely deserve all the more credit.

One of the most marked individuals of the period was (born 1546), who belonged to one of the oldest noble families of Denmark. Prom his early youth he occupied himself with astronomy, and already in his sixteenth year he began to make observations, which he carefully recorded. In 1572 he discovered a new star, and reported his discovery in his first work, "De Stella Nova." But by his scientific works, and especially by his marriage to a girl of humble parentage, he aroused the ill-will of his noble family to such an extent that he preferred to leave Denmark in 1575. King Frederik II, however, induced him to return, made him a present of the little island Hveen, in Öresund, and gave him liberal help in the building of two grand observatories, Uranienborg and Stjerneborg. From here his fame soon spread throughout Europe, and the little island in the sound became the trysting-place of savants from all lands; even kings and princes did not think it beneath their dignity to make pilgrimages to the Isle of Hveen. But when in