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48(5
iv. education and mental culture.
9. LITERATURE.
The achievements of a people within the spheres of literature and art, as
well as that of science, constitute, as it were, the crown and blossom of its
intellectual culture. A work which treats of Sweden and its People would
be incomplete without a brief account of the subject, although space
forbids more than a few brief references.
With regard to literature, the love of nature inherent in the Swedish
people, and their lively power of imagination, have found expression in
very rich lyric, or, lyric-epic poetry. On the other hand, dramatic
literature has, as a rule, been of less importance. The epochs of Swedish
literature, on the whole, synchronise with corresponding epochs of
universal literature or — before the beginning of a more intimate cultural
intercourse with the peoples of Southern Europe — still more exactly
with different phases of that culture which, for a long period, was
largely common to the Scandinavian peoples.
In all probability Sweden has had an ancient literature of the same kind
as the Icelandic Eddas and the Anglo-Saxon Poem of Beowulf. Many facts
point to the last-mentioned epic as having founded on poems of Swedish origin,
and inscriptions on stones have proved that at least some of the sagas which
form the subjects of the Eddas were known also in Sweden. At the sacrificial
festivals in Old Uppsala, according to Adam of Bremen, many songs were
sung. The traces of this very ancient literature are, however, very rare and
consist principally of short inscriptions on the runestones. The number of such
stones in Sweden is very abundant; there are about 2 000, half of which are found
in Uppland. The oldest among them originate from the sixth century, but most
belong to the period of transition between Paganism and Christianity. Some of
the inscriptions are executed in alliterative versification and contain extracts from
long poems now lost. This is particularly the case with the inscription on the
stone called "Rökstenen" in Östergötland, the longest one known in the world,
consisting of 750 runes.
Another branch of literature, for which our ancient times are also noted,
comprises the Laws of the Provinces, which exhibit an original and independent
conception of justice. These laws were, to begin with, written in brief metrical
sentences, for the purpose of being better remembered, but at times they
expanded into actual verses. The laws preserved, however, with inconsiderable
exceptions, are plain prose. The oldest of the written laws is "Västgötalagen"
(the Västgöta Laws), which date back to the commencement of the thirteenth
century.
On the introduction of Christianity and the incorporation of Sweden with
the Catholic Church, this pagan literature vanished. Latin became the language
of the learned; and religious literature became predominant. It is the age
of mysticism and scholasticism. Saint Bridget (1303—73), the most eminent
Swedish author of the Middle Ages, is the representative of mysticism. Her
"Revelations", first written in Swedish and then translated into Latin by her
father confessor, are distinguished by glowing fancy and imagery.
At this time the Swedes made acquaintance with the chivalry of Europe.
This gave them a taste for the romanticism of the Middle Ages, which was
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