Old Northern have been best preserved in the provincial dialects of the northern kingdoms, and considerable light has been thrown on the history of the development of the Swedish language by a study of the various forms of the so-called "bondespråk," or peasant-speech, which still maintain their ground in different parts of Sweden.
The Forn-Svenskan, or Old Swedish, can scarcely be said to have lost its status as the spoken tongue of the people till the beginning of the sixteenth century, when, with the emancipation of Sweden from the dominion of Denmark, and its political and social regeneration under Gustaf Vasa, a new era began in the language, as well as in the political and national life of the people. Gustaf, partly from policy perhaps as much as from conviction, early gave his support to the Reformers, whose zealous endeavours to provide the laity with trustworthy vernacular translations of the Scriptures he warmly seconded, encouraging the most learned of the Swedish adherents of the Lutheran doctrines to take part in this praiseworthy labour. Amongst these, the most eminent was Olaus Petri, who, although of peasant birth, was an elegant scholar, alike well versed in the literature of his native land, and in the learning of the schools, which he had acquired while studying at the German universities under the immediate direction of Luther. His translation of the New Testament, which appeared in 1536, and is the earliest Swedish version of the
