PREFACE. THERE are two circumstances which have misled all modem
philologists, as well English as German, and which, until they are
put on a proper footing, will continue to mislead all future
inquirers, which may be stated as follows - 1. That the barbarous
nations which overthrew the Roman Empire in the fifth century, and
which are denominated by the historians of the middle ages the
Northern Hive, came from Scandinavia, a, nd that Scandinavia was
situated in the north of Europe, and limited to the modern kingdoms
of weden, Norway, and Denmark. 2. That the people first mentioned
by Herodotus, and denominated by him Celtz and Cynete, were a
perfectly distinct race, and spoke a language radically different
from the other great race, denominated by him Scythians or
Thracians, who are still regarded as the sole progenitors of the
Gothic or Teutonic race. It is almost certain that Celttl and
Scythz were merely different names of the same people, or, at any
rate, that they stand in the relation to each other of a part to
the whole, and that they have been regarded as perfectly distinct
merely from the circumstance that Herodotus mentions the former as
the inhabitants of the extreme west of Europe, and the latter of
the extreme north, that is, of the countries to the north of the
Danube, for his knowledge of Europe extended very little further
while DIAnville, following other ancient historians and
geographers, says expressly that the name of Celtica in the
earliest antiquity was extended to all the northern part of Europe.
S The first error originated partly from the ignorance of two
leading authorities of the middle ages, Jornandes and Procopius,
and partly from subsequent vritersmisunderstanding them, and
supposing them to refer to the Baltic, when they clearly intended
to refer to the Euxine and as if this were not enough, much of what
they have written has been industriously perverted by Grotius their
editor, in his anxiety to compliment and pay his PREFACE. V court
to Christina of Sweden, by exaggerating the antiquity and
importance of the northern kingdoms. Grotius misled Montesquieu and
Gibbon, and since their time the subject has excited very little
attention. The second emr, if it did not originate with, has at any
rate had currency given to it in England by, Dr. Percy, Bishop of
Dromore, the translator of Mallets Northern Antiquities, who has
exerted all his efforts to prove that the Celtic and the Teutonic
are radically different languages. No one doubts the difference
between Irish, and Welsh, and German, or English but that proves
nothing with respect to the Celtae and Scythians in the age of
Herodotus, or even of Jornandes a thousand years later. The most
considerable advance in a right direction that has been made. for
many years past appears to me to have been, by. a very
distinguished living author, Dr. Prichard, in his learned and
admirable little work, entitled The Eastern Origin 1 of the Celtic
Nations proved by a comparison of their Dialects with the Sanskrit,
Greek, Latin, and Teutonic Languages, which in great measure gave
birth to the following inquiry, which may be A 3 Vi PREFACE.
regarded to a considerable extent as a continuation of the
subject...
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