Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/347

Rh German. Both the brothers Petri composed a number of religious poems, and Olaus wrote one about "Christi pina och uppstandelse" (The passion and resurrection of Christ). The only secular productions in the line of poetry were a few rhymed chronicles and historical poems without any artistic value whatever.

Purely scientific study, which in the fifteenth century eked out a poor existence, was revived again, when the religious fermentation had somewhat subsided. Sweden's "learned period" began and developed essentially in the same manner as in Denmark, that is, by investigating and accumulating a mass of details without the power of systematizing them. The intellectual insipidity and pedantry with which the work was undertaken prevented the creation of a genuine scientific taste, so that Sweden in this field must be said to have played a rather inferior part. At the same time the pursuit of learning resulted in a certain amount of good, inasmuch as it laid the foundation of the extensive knowledge of the polyhistors, which characterized the following period. Science had, however, no influence on the literature of this period, and the number of learned writers was very small. or (1568-1652) is a solitary exception. His studies embraced all sciences and in the most of them he has written works which give evidence of vast learning, though they are more or less tainted by the superstition and mysticism of the age. His most meritorious efforts had for their object the introduction of the study of northern antiquities, especially of the runes. His works in this direction, as well as his establishment of a rational system of the laws of the national vernacular, have now but little value, but in their day they were of great importance. It was he, moreover, who first discovered and published the above-mentioned excellent work, "Um styrilsi Kununga ok Höfdinga." It can scarcely be called an illusion to maintain that he was the main cause of the national and humane character of the succeeding age, for both the men who in the seventeenth