When we come to examine the Icelandic or ancient Scandinavian, which is closely allied to its sister Teutonic languages, and like them betrays its eastern origin, we find that it differs from the latter in several important points, It has this striking peculiarity, that the definite article, instead of coming before the noun, is appended as a termination to the end of the word. The adjective, moreover, which in its indefinite form is subject to inflections, for all genders and cases, undergoes, when in its definite forth, fewer and slighter changes. Again, while in the German tongues the verb in the infinitive ends in a consonant, in the old Scandinavian it invariably terminates in a vowel. The old Scan dinavian language has a passive form of the verb unknown to its Gothic sister tongues; and while in German the third person of the present tense differs from the second person, such is not the case in Old Northern. In the latter, the vowel sounds are greatly modi fied by a very perfect system of combinations, indicated by dots or accents; and in addi tion to the consonants of the Gothic languages, it has an aspirated if and t. It possesses. moreover, a flexibility and richness of construction, which admit of favorable compari son with those of the ancient classical languages, while in regard to the number aid comprehensiveness of its words, and its consequent independence of foreign derivatcs, it presents a character of regularity and unity which is wanting to the -other Germanic languages. Its mode of construction is simple in prose, and in the earlier forms of poetry, although in the latter periods of the skalds (q.v.) it degenerated into a state of artificial complexity. The chief feature of the metrical system employed hi Old North ern poetry was alliteration (q.v.). The alliterative method was continued after the introduction of terminal rhyme, but the simplicity of the ancient lay gave way in the 10th c. to the most artificial complexity of versification in the meters invented by the skalds. Besides these skaldic measures, of which 100 are enumerated in the Hattritykii, or Key of Meters, drawn up in time 13th c. by the Icelander, Snorri Sturlessou (q.v.). the ikalds were required to know the Kenningar, or poetic synonyms, of which there were an enormous number; some words, as Odin, island, etc., having upward of 100. The main feature of the system was that nothing must be called by its right name; thus a ship was a beast of the sea, a serpent of the waters, a dragon of the ocean, etc.; a woman was a graceful tree, a fair pearl, etc.; a wife was a husband's Rune (q.v.), or his confidential and intimate friend, etc.
The fragments of old northern poetry that have come down to us in the Eddos belong for the most part to the 8th c., or even perhaps to the 7th c.; and consist of short songs (lifjod or quid a), which are either mystic, didactic, mythic, or mytho-historic in their character. Sec EDDA. It is supposed that some of these compositions, and several of the poems which celebrate the adventures of the gods, giants, and elves, were composed prior to the immigration into Scandinavia of Odiu and his followers; while, on the other hand, the local coloring of others sufficiently prove their northern origin. In addition to the subjects belonging to the Odinic mythology, we have in the mytho-historic lays, known as the songs of the famous Smith Wands, or the Volundctr-quisbs, a eyclus of heroic poems similar to the old German epic the Xibe/ungenlled (q.v.); but much more ancient in form than that in which the hitter has reached us. In the 9th and 10th cen turies the ancient epic and the simple songs of the older poets gave place to the artificial poetry of the skalds, which, from its earliest development, manifested a realistic tendency, and made the real adventures of living men the subject of their compositions. Many of these compositions, as the Eirikenuil, or the Death and Apotheosis of King Eric Bloodaxe, who died in 952; the Hakonarmal, or Fall of Elakon the Good; and several poems by the famous Icelandic skald Egill Skalagrimson, while they afford valuable materials for the early history of the north, are among the latest of the skaldic productions that preceded the more degenerate periods of the art. To the 11th and 12th centuries belong the poems known as drongaldr and Soa•-ljod, which were composed in imitation of the ancient compositions, and consist of moral and didactic maxims, the former conceived from an assumed heathen, and the latter from a Christian point of view. In the 13th c. the
skaldic art thproughly declined, and gave place, in Iceland, to a puerile literature, based upon biblical stories and saints' legends. In Scandinavia proper, a more modern font of national literature was in the meanwhile being gradually developed by means of oral transmission, whence arose the folk-lore and popular songs of Norway and Sweden, and the noble Danish ballads known as the Rowe riser, whose composition in tlm old northern or Icelandic tongue may probably be referred to the 14th century. The earliest Icelandic prose belongs to the beginning of the 12th c., when Ari "hint's Erode," or the wise, composed a history of his native island and its population in the isiendiassa-Sals and Landneima-bok, the latter of which was continued by others. Ile was the first northern writer who attempted to assign fixed dates to events by reference to a definite chronology, and his work is remarkable as the earliest historical composition written in the old Danish or Norse. as it still remains in the living- language of Iceland. These works, which have since perished, entered largely into the composition of the annals of the early kings of Norway, compiled a century later by Snorri Sturlesson nuder the title of the Ileimkeingla. Throughout the middle ages the literature of Iceland was enriched with numerous national and other sagas, the materials of which were drawn from skaldic songs, folk-lore, local traditions, and family histories; and in its later stages of development included among its subjects the mythic cycle of Arthur and his knights, Merlin, Alexander, Charlemagne, etc. The compilation of the laws of the island attracted the attention of the Icelanders at an early period; and in 1118 a complete code, known as the Gragas, which had been derived from the ancient Norse law, was Submit ted to the Whiling or popular assembly, and a few years late: the canons of the church, or the Kristim•tb• were settled and reduced to writing. A collection of those enact ments in the ancient and subsequent codes, which are sill] in force in Iceland, has been made by Stephensen and Sigurdsson (Copen. 1853), under the title of Lugusqfn handa lx!andi; while the ancient Norse laws, beginning with the and the Hied ekra of Hakon the good, which date from the 10th c., have been ably and critically edited in Norway tinder the title of Norgee gamic Lo-re (Christ. 1840-49). The study of the old northern language and literature, which was successfully inaugurated by the native scholars of Iceland in the 17th c., was soon with equally happy results in Denmark and Sweden, and within the last 20 years in Norway, where the sub ject forms a necessary introduction to the investigation of the lamsunsse and history of the country. Copenhagen has, however. in recent limes, been the principal sent of these inquiries, the successful prosecution of which has heen materially facilitated by the large numher of important Icelandic MSS. contained in its Mistiness and by the foundation of the Arne-Nlagnussen collection in 1772; and the different societies espe cially designed to promote the study of Icelandic and of northern antiquarian monuments. Among the Icelandic and Danish scholars who have gained pre-eminent distinction in these departments of researell. we may instance A rne-Magnussen, Torfreus, Olevsen, Finn Slassinissen, Worm, I lesenitIA. Thorlavins, ltask, Earn, Keyser, hunch, Unger. Lange, etc. In the study of the grammar and comparative structure of the language, which excited an interest as early as the 13th c., as is proved by the gram matical treatises and rules of prosody incorporated in the youmser Md.), no one hat evinced a higher order of scientific actunen and critical than Risk (q.v.), who ill his erudite work Om (let gamic -Vordiske Oprinde4e (Ejopenh. 1818) threw a floott.
of new and important light on the subject; while the labors of Jakob Grimm, Munch, and others, have tended materially to exhibit the affinities between the old northern and the Teutonic languages, and to assign to it its right position among the kindred ludo Germanic tongues.