AUTHORITIES.--J. P. Trap, _Statistisk Topographisk Beskrivelse af Kongeriget Danmark_ (Copenhagen, 1859-1860, 3 vols., 2nd ed., 1872-1879); V. Falbe-Hansen and W. Scharling, _Danmarks Statistik_ (Copenhagen, 1878-1891, 6 vols.). (Various writers) _Vort Folk i det nittende Aarhundrede_ (Copenhagen, 1899 et seq.), illustrated; J. Carlsen, H. Olrik and C. N. Starcke, _Le Danemark_ (Copenhagen, 1900), 700 pp.; illustrated, published in connexion with the Paris Exhibition. _Statistisk Aarbog_ (1896, &c.). Annual publication, and other publications of Statens Statistiske Bureau, Copenhagen; _Annuaire météorologique_, Danish Meteorological Institution, Copenhagen; E. Löffler, _Dänemarks Natur and Volk_ (Copenhagen, 1905); Margaret Thomas, _Denmark Past and Present_ (London, 1902). (C. A. G.; O. J. R. H.)
_Ancient._--Our earliest knowledge of Denmark is derived from Pliny, who speaks of three islands named "Skandiai," a name which is also applied to Sweden. He says nothing about the inhabitants of these islands, but tells us more about the Jutish peninsula, or Cimbric Chersonese as he calls it. He places the Saxons on the neck, above them the Sigoulones, Sabaliggoi and Kobandoi, then the Chaloi, then above them the Phoundousioi, then the Charondes and finally the Kimbroi. He also mentions the three islands called Alokiai, at the northern end of the peninsula. This would point to the fact that the Limfjord was then open at both ends, and agree with Adam of Bremen (iv. 16), who also speaks of three islands called Wendila, Morse and Thud. The Cimbri and Charydes are mentioned in the _Monumentum Ancyranum_ as sending embassies to Augustus in A.D. 5. The Promontorium Cimbrorum is spoken of in Pliny, who says that the Sinus Codanus lies between it and Mons Saevo. The latter place is probably to be found in the high-lying land on the N.E. coast of Germany, and the Sinus Codanus must be the S.W. corner of the Baltic, and not the whole sea. Pomponius Mela says that the Cimbri and Teutones dwelt on the Sinus Codanus, the latter also in Scandinavia (or Sweden). The Romans believed that these Cimbri and Teutones were the same as those who invaded Gaul and Italy at the end of the 2nd century B.C. The Cimbri may probably be traced in the province of Aalborg, formerly known as Himmerland; the Teutones, with less certainty, may be placed in Thyth or Thyland, north of the Limfjord. No further reference to these districts is found till towards the close of the migration period, about the beginning of the 6th century, when the Heruli (q.v.), a nation dwelling in or near the basin of the Elbe, were overthrown by the Langobardi. According to Procopius (_Bellum Gothicum_, ii. 15), a part of them made their way across the "desert of the Slavs," through the lands of the Warni and the Danes to Thoule (i.e. Sweden). This is the first recorded use of the name "Danes." It occurs again in Gregory of Tours (_Historiae Francorum_, iii. 3) in connexion with an irruption of a Götish (loosely called Danish) fleet into the Netherlands (c. 520). From this time the use of the name is fairly common. The heroic poetry of the Anglo-Saxons may carry the name further back, though probably it is not very ancient, at all events on the mainland.