Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/360

342 them of Snorre Sturlason's Heimskringla—are works of great merit. published several antiquarian documents and rhymed chronicles. The first Swedish church history in the native tongue was written by —already mentioned as author of religious poems—and his was followed by several similar works. Characteristic of the mania of this period for combining very learned deductions with the wildest day-dreams is the church history of Bang (1675), which was not brought down to the time of Christ even, and in which the author insists that Adam was bishop in the little Swedish town Kälkstad.

During this period we also find the first works that made the Swedish the object of scientific treatment. wrote the first Swedish grammar (1696), and the works of the poet, a compendious grammar and a dictionary, are all the more important, since they established the orthography by substituting the spelling now in use for the older one.

The literary productions in all other scientific branches consisted chiefly in Latin dissertations, but several important exceptions are to be mentioned. (1641-1724) was one of the most many-sided scholars of his age. After having dabbled in his youth with dramatic compositions, he made medicine his main branch. As a member of a commission that had been appointed to inquire into witchcraft, he was the first to attempt a rational solution of an evil which had cost the life of so many persons. He was also the first to point out the importance of the Swedish mineral waters, and the science of mining, so important to Sweden,