Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/327

Rh by the Society for the advancement of popular education, and in this journal he wrote many valuable articles.

But of all the branches of science none has been cultivated with greater ardor and success than that of history, and Peter Andreas Munch (1810-1863), and Rudolph Keyser (1803-1864), have especially done much toward laying a solid foundation for the study of history, by their numerous works, which abound in valuable materials. Both published a history of Norway. Munch's work, though extending only to the Calmar Union, comprises eight stout volumes. Keyser also wrote a history of Norwegian literature in the middle ages, and a special essay on the origin and descent of the Norwegians, in which he was the first to give utterance to the Norwegian theory peculiar to the Keyser-Munch historical school in regard to the early settlement of the North. This theory, which met with considerable opposition in various quarters and also in Norway, and which must now be regarded as exploded, was advocated with great partiality, but it led to researches which have contributed much to the elucidation of important questions. A very valuable work by Rudolph Keyser is also his "Den norske Kirkes Historie under Katholicismen." Both these historians have, moreover, written very profound and scholarly dissertations on various subjects relating to the history and culture of antiquity. After them Johan Ernst Sars (born 1835) is the most distinguished historian of Norway. He is particularly noted for his careful researches into obscure points in Norwegian history. His works in general, and especially his