Now in relation to these two Languages, a very interesting proposition has been established by Scandinavian scholars—and though they widely differ as to the cause of the results they discuss—they seem to be agreed with respect to the proposition itself. The Icelandic, they have shown, closely approaches to the Anglo-Saxon in numerous features in which it differs from the languages of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Moreover it has been pointed out by the writers who first noticed these resemblances, that—in their Literary and Bardic Institutions, as well as in their Language—the Icelanders approach to the Anglo-Saxons. In explanation of these facts, they propose the theory—that in the early ages of their history the Icelanders must have benefited by direct communication and instruction from the Anglo-Saxons.
These views have been fully discussed by Professor Rask, in a Preface prefixed to his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, which contains a valuable body of facts that serve to throw a new light on the history of the Scandinavian Tongues.(42) He does not deny the existence of these important common features in the Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon Languages and Remains; nor the absence of the same features as regards the Modern specimens of the Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian; but he maintains, nevertheless, that all these characteristics may be retraced in detail, either in the Ancient or in the Provincial specimens of those three Languages. In the present day the Icelandic differs widely from the Languages of the Mainland of Scandinavia, and those Languages also differ widely among themselves. But originally, he maintains, one common Speech, the ancient Scandinavian, (“Danska Tunge,”) was spoken from the coasts of Greenland to those of Finland, from the Frozen Ocean to the Eider.(43) As we ascend into the remoter periods of history we find the languages of Scandinavia gradually approximate to each other, and finally blend into one.(44) During the ninth century, and the period immediately succeeding, these tongues were perfectly identical.
Professor Rask’s proofs of this proposition may be said to consist of a reunion of the “Disjecta Membra” of the “Danska Tunge,” as found dispersed in the various kingdoms and provinces of the Scandinavian Mainland. Of these proofs I shall offer a few examples.