CHAPTER III.
The grounds of the ancient history of Denmark, and of the different opinions concerning it.
ON whatever side we direct our inquiries concerning the first inhabitants of Denmark, I believe nothing certain can be added to the account given of them above. It is true, if we will take for our guides certain modern authors, our knowledge will not be confined within such scanty limits. They will lead us step by step through an uninterrupted succession of kings and judges, up to the first ages of the world, or at least to the deluge: and there, receiving the descendants of Noah, as soon as they set foot out of the ark, will conduct them across the vast extent of deserts into Scandinavia, in order to found those states and kingdoms, which subsist at present. Such is the scheme of Petreius, Lyschander, and other authors, who have followed what is called, among Danish historians, the
