One year in Scandinavia

by Erastus Fairbanks Snow

I hope the scenes growing out of that public baptism, and the imprudent sayings of the brethren on that occasion, however painful the results, may serve as a lesson of wisdom and experience for all Saints in that land from henceforth.

Where a cold indifference prevails, a little healthy excitement to arouse the public mind to investigation may be profitable, provided it can be controlled, and the truth kept before the people. But Denmark is not England nor America—religious liberty is not grounded in the hearts of the people. They are under the influence of their priests and attached to their religion—once their feelings outraged, the voice of truth or reason cannot be heard. While a little fire kindled upon the hearth, in a cold day, is very convenient, all will admit the folly of firing the house, by which the inmates might be consumed or left houseless in mid winter.

Counsel the Saints in Aalborg to continue their little meetings for prayer and exhortation, if they can, without excitement: and if you can, you had better send them an Elder, not known there, to encourage and minister among them until I come, which I trust will not be long.

[DENMARK]

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE.

Denmark Proper is but a small state, including the peninsula of Jutland and the islands of the Cattegat, and those of the southern and western parts of the Baltic, to which is attached the dukedoms of Sleswick, Holstein, Oldenburg and Lauenburg, the most of whose inhabitants use the German language. Her foreign dependencies, like those of Great Britain, are far more extensive than her home dominions. These have their peculiar dialects, and use the Danish language only in part, chiefly in public affairs and business transactions, and even her home provinces and islands have great dialectic peculiarities, to a considerable extent unintelligible to each other. But the literature of Copenhagen is the regular and standard language, if in truth it can be said to have a standard. But the language, like the people, is so surrounded and intermixed with others, that changes and improvements are very considerable, and its laws quite unsettled.

In the State of Norway, the Danish language is spoken and written generally and taught in her schools. And although they maintain their rustic dialects, it is doubted if the old Norsk language has been used in printing since the days of the Reformation.

Iceland, probably, possesses quite as many associations of interest to the Danes as any other of their foreign dependencies. In my interviews with Professor Repp, he frequently took occasion to refer, with apparent pride and satisfaction, to his native Iceland, as the nursery of literature and keeper of the Danish records, during the barbarous and demoralizing wars that swept over Scandinavia. They still maintain their own literature, and have a translation of the Scriptures, but as their priests are educated in Copenhagen, and their merchants mostly Danish, the national religion, policy and impress of Denmark is stamped upon them as upon her other provinces. At present, with a territory larger than Denmark Proper, Iceland only numbers about sixty thousand inhabitants.

Denmark Proper is about in the latitude of Scotland, and has a climate somewhat similar. Unlike the cold mountainous regions of Norway and Sweden, it lies low, and by being to such an extent surrounded by water and interspersed with small lakes, preserves an equilibrium of temperature beyond what its latitude might otherwise indicate. Though it is sometimes visited with heavy falls of snow, and the severity of winter has congealed the salt water of the Belts and the sound, so that teams have crossed the ice between Denmark and Sweden. The islands, particularly Zealand and Fuen, the two largest, are rich and in a high state of cultivation. The country generally is poorly supplied with highways, and I sometimes found myself wandering from house to house and from village to village, through bye roads and footpaths, crossing sluiceways on a plank or pole, and at wet seasons, when the country was nearly half covered with water, obliged to wade through mud and water, or take a serpentine route through fields.

The country people, generally, live in small villages, miserable houses, with thatched roofs and clay floors, and are generally filthy and uncouth in their habits. In the large towns a degree of order and neatness is exhibited, and urbanity of manners, such as is common to English towns. Nearly every village, however insignificant, has its Church, and priest to receive their tithings, and attend to their spiritual wants. With regard to improvements, the Danes are sadly deficient in means or enterprise, probably both. They have but one piece of railroad, sixteen miles in length, from Copenhagen to a neighbouring town. The capital itself is still lighted with the old oil lamps, and the fire companies haul their hose and water on sheds with tubs and barrels. A telegraph is unknown in the country. The navy yard and fixtures, fortifications, public buildings, walks and gardens, of Copenhagen, would be a credit to any town or nation. The priests are often to be seen in the streets with their black gowns and white ruffles.