Gothlandic hypothesis[1], because it is built upon some pretended monuments found in the isle of Gothland on the coast of Sweden: monuments which bear so many marks of imposition, that at present they are by common consent thrown aside among the most ill-concerted impostures.
The celebrated Rudbeck, a learned Swede, zealous for the glory of his countrymen, hath endeavoured no less to procure them the honour of a very remote original; as if, after all, it were of any consequence, whether a people, who lived before us so many ages, and of whom we retain only a vain resemblance of name, were possessed sooner or later of those countries, which we quietly enjoy at present. As this author joined to the most extensive learning an imagination eminently fruitful, he wanted none of the
- ↑ Petreius is a Danish author of the 16th century: Lyschander was historiographer to king Christian IV. His work, printed in Denmark at Copenhagen in 1662, bears this title: “An abridgment of the Danish histories from the beginning of the world to our own times.” The arguments on which these authors found their accounts did not merit the pains, which Torfæus and others have taken to refute them. The reader may consult, on this subject, the last-cited writer in his “Series of kings of Denmark.” Lib. i. c. 8.
