fies, literally, grey geese. According to Mr Schlegel, it serves to distinguish the ancient from the modern law, which last was introduced about the end of the thirteenth century, when Iceland submitted to the dominion of the kings of Norway. The ancient Icelanders always used, even on ordinary occasions, a highly poetical and figurative language. It was a proverb among them, that the grey geese, especially those of a peculiar sort, called Hrota in Icelandic, and Brenta in old English, live to a very old age; and the Icelanders always using a highly figurative language to express even the most abstract ideas, this name has given rise to an erroneous opinion, that the laws in question were derived from the Norwegian code published by king Magnus the Good under the same title.

One of the most remarkable circumstances that strike the reader in this antique collection of laws is, the subtile genius of the Icelandic lawyers, almost rivalling that of the Roman jurisconsults, although it is quite clear that they had not the remotest notion of the civil Roman law when this system of legislation was adopted; and even if they had known it, it would have been wholly inapplicable to their local situation and usages. It also elucidates the frequent reference to remarkable trials for crimes, and to other litigations growing out of the hereditary feuds which vexed this singular community, and of which the old Sagas contain such ample

accounts.

This ancient Icelandic code was drawn up in the year 1117, by a deputation composed of the Laghman, or chief Man of the Law, and the cleverest lawyers of that time, from a previous collection called the laws of Ulsliot, made in 927, and the customs subsequently introduced, which were all revised and recompiled by the new commissioners so as to adapt them to the situation of the commonwealth and the interests of the people in the beginning of the twelfth century. Their projet was afterwards adopted by the people in the All-thing, or general assembly, in the following year (1118), and remained in force until 1275, when the republican government was abolished, and Iceland brought under the regal yoke of Norway. This of course introduced many alterations in the legislation of the country, some of them not for the better, and they are also to be regretted, inasmuch as the Grágás code is more extensive and detailed than the one introduced in 1280, and which still continues to be the principal law by which the island is governed.

Several additions were made to this last in 1130, and also in the thirteenth century. The faculty of interpreting the Grágás was attributed to the Chief Magistrate of the island, whose duty it was also to read portions of the code every year before the assembled people in the All-thing, with the necessary explanations, forms of VOL. XXX.-No. 67.

71

process, and actions, &c. The Grágás are divided into seven grand divisions or books, with a considerable regard to method and convenience of reference. The first treats of real actions; the second, of the descent of estates; the third, of infancy, and the condition of all others who, by the imbecility of their understandings, are placed under the peculiar protection of the civil magistrate; the fourth, of the nuptial contract; the fifth, of the contract of sale, and other conventions; the sixth, of criminal law, and especially of homicide; the seventh, of everything relating to the letting of lands and rural economy. At least this is the order of matters followed in the printed text, for the manuscripts on which it is founded pursue a different arrangement. The editors have consulted the text of two manuscripts of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, it is uncertain which, but which differ from each other in a remarkable manner. Professor Schlegel has endeavored to explain this difference, and seems to attribute the Codex Regius to the period between 1230 and 1250, and supposes that the Coder Arnæ Magnai may have been written from thirty to fifty years later. The text is accompanied with a Latin version, for the convenience of those who are unacquainted with the Icelandic language. Those who wish to study the original will find the necessary assistance in the Index Vocum, prepared by the translator, M. Sveinfivernsen.

3.-Danish Grammar, adapted to the Use of Englishmen, with Extracts and Dialogues, &c. By Professor ERASMUS RASK. Copenhagen. 1830. 8vo.

THIS small volume, by the great northern philologist, supplies what was very much wanted; for the old Danish grammar by Captain Schneider, which was published about thirty years ago, gave a very imperfect idea of the Danish language. The present work is adapted to the system of the old Scandinavian or Icelandic, and of the Anglo-Saxon and the ancient Gothic dialects. It will, therefore, not only be useful to the generality of students who wish to acquire a knowledge of the language sufficient for reading a book, or conversing with the natives of Denmark and Norway, but also to philologists, who wish to study and compare the different idioms of the North of Europe with each other, or to make use of them for the purposes of general grammar.

The grammatical part of the work is divided into four books; the first treating of orthography; the second, of inflection; the third, of the formation of words, or etymology, and the compounding of words; the fourth, of syntax. In treating of inflections,

our author rejects all cases formed by prepositions, and all tenses formed by auxiliary verbs, as Mr Grant has done in his English grammar. Of the use of the auxiliary verbs, Professor Rask treats in a separate section, but of their inflection he speaks in the class to which they bear the nearest relation. So also he divides the other irregulars between the regular conjugations and classes to which they seem naturally to belong, so that he has no chapter on the irregular verbs. In the nouns, he admits but of two cases, the nominative and genitive, but in some of the pronouns, three, there being also an objective case, just as in English; e. g.

In the verbs, our author has but two tenses, the present and past, so that if it were not for the compounding of the definite article with the nouns and for the passive voice in the verbs, the whole structure of the language, as exhibited by him, would be extremely like that of the English.

The grammar makes about one half of the volume, and contains an appendix on the Gothic or German alphabet, which is still much used in Denmark in printed works. In this part of the book the words are occasionally accented, and in the extracts almost always; and this is, so far as we know, the first Danish grammar, in any foreign language, where an accentuation of the words is attempted, though very material in order to distinguish the different sounds of e and o, as also the accented syllable in long words, which is as varied as in English.

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