The next elements were Frisian; since traces of the Frisian occupancy are found as far north as the Liimfjord—and beyond it.
The present language is Danish.
Originally the area of the non-Germanic Jutæ, Jutland, took its first Germanic population from the Frisian area, its second from that of the early Scandinavians. Where this was, and what the Jutæ were, however, are complex questions which will be noticed towards the end of the chapter.
Iceland.—The Icelanders are one of the purest populations in the world. Foreign elements arising out of the admixture of any population antecedent to the present there are none. Foreign elements in the original stock are but few; since it was from Norway and not from Denmark that, in the ninth century, the island was peopled; and the Norwegians are the purest portion of the Scandinavian stock. As a general rule, the islanders are somewhat taller than the Norsemen of the continent. In the other external points of appearance they are similar. But an observation of Dr. Schleisner’s respecting their animal heat is important. “The internal warmth of the human body is between 36.50° and 37° centigrade, and this passes for being the general temperature in all latitudes, and in all climates, for all human beings, except new-born children. But with a very delicate thermometer, well-fitted for the purpose and which had previously been tried by other excellent instruments, I have found from experiments on twelve healthy individuals that the temperature within the cavity of the mouth was as follows:—
| AGE. | DEGREES. | |
| 23 | . . . | 37.3° |
| 18 | . . . | 37.5° |
| 17 | . . . | 37.2° |
| 19 | . . . | 37.5° |
| 24 | . . . | 37.° |
| 20 | . . . | 36.5° |
| 18 | . . . | 37.8° |
| 17 | . . . | 37.6° |
| 19 | . . . | 36.8° |
| 37 | . . . | 37.4° |
| 23 | . . . | 37.5° |
| 20 | . . . | 37.2° |
| Average | . . . | 37.27° centigrade.”[19] |
As far as this differs from that of the Norwegians—a point upon which our information is so incomplete as to make the previous table suggestive rather than conclusive—the difference must be put down to climate and similar external influences, rather than to that of what is called race.
The Icelandic language has altered so little within the last one thousand years that it is nearly the same as that of the old Sagas and poems; Sagas and poems which every Icelander can read. On the other hand, the change on the continent has been so great that no modern dialect of Norway, Sweden, or Denmark, is intelligible to an Icelander. Neither is any dialect that of the old Scandinavian literature.
Feroe Isles.—Here the population is from Norway, as pure as that of Iceland; and the form of speech is Icelandic also. The popular songs of the Feroe Islanders have drawn considerable attention, and been well illustrated. They read the critic a lesson of caution, in showing the extent to which a foreign subject may be thoroughly naturalized; so much so as to wear the appearance of being indigenous. Yet the subjects are those of the Nibelungen-Lied, and, as such, continental in their origin; in their immediate origin, Scandinavian, in their remote origin, German.
Norway.—The population of Norway is essentially Lapp and Norwegian, with the addition of a few Kwain settlements.
The Norwegian calls the Lapplander a Fin, so that the district or march of the Lapp population of Norway is called Fin-mark. But it is found considerably southwards as well.