RASK, RASMUS CHRISTIAN

RASK, RASMUS CHRISTIAN, an eminent scholar and philologist, was born at Brendekilde, in the Island of Fyen or Funen in Denmark, in 1787. He studied at the uni-

Rask. versity of Copenhagen, and early distinguished himself by singular talent for the acquisition of languages. In the year 1808 he was appointed assistant-keeper of the university library, and some years afterwards made professor of literary history. In 1811 he published, in the Danish language, his Introduction to the Grammar of the Icelandic and other Ancient Northern Languages, the materials of which were entirely derived from the immense mass of manuscript and printed works which had been accumulated by his predecessors in the same field of research. This grammar appears to have given a fresh impulse to the study of the ancient northern languages, even in Germany. The reputation which Rask acquired by it recommended him to the Arne-Magnæan Institution, by which he was employed as editor of the Icelandic Lexicon of Bjorn Haldorsen, which had long remained in manuscript. To this work, which appeared in 1814, Bishop Müller contributed a preface, in which he pronounces a just eulogium on the talents and the spirit of research displayed by the youthful editor. About the same time, Rask who had never been in Iceland, paid a visit to that country, where he remained from 1813 to 1815, during which time he made himself completely master of the language, and familiarized himself with the literature, manners, and customs of the natives. To the interest with which they inspired him may probably be attributed the establishment at Copenhagen, early in 1816, of the Icelandic Literary Society, which was mainly instituted by his exertions, and of which he had the honour to be the first president.

Whilst thus employed, however, he was about to enter upon a more ample field of enterprise. In October 1816 he left Denmark on a literary expedition, which had been fitted out for the double purpose of prosecuting inquiries into the languages of the East, and collecting manuscripts for the University Library at Copenhagen. The King of Denmark having liberally provided him with the requisite means, he proceeded first to Sweden, where he remained two years, in the course of which he made an excursion into Finland, for the purpose of studying the language of that country. Here he published, in Swedish, his Anglo-Saxon Grammar in 1817; and during the same year there appeared at Copenhagen, in Danish, an Essay on the Origin of the Ancient Scandinavian or Icelandic Tongue, in which he traced the affinity of that remarkable idiom to the other European languages, particularly to the Latin and the Greek. In 1818 he published a second edition, very much improved, of his Icelandic Grammar, translated by himself into Swedish; and in the course of the same year he also brought out the first complete editions of Snorror's Edda, and Sæmund's Edda, in the original text, along with Swedish translations of both Eddas, the originals and the versions occupying each two volumes. From Stockholm he proceeded in 1819 to St Petersburg, where he wrote in German an interesting paper on "The Languages and Literature of Norway, Iceland, Sweden, and Finland," which was published in the sixth number of the Vienna Jahrbücher. From Russia, which he traversed, he proceeded through Tartary into Persia, and resided for some time at Tauris, Teheran, Persepolis, and Shiraz. It may be mentioned here, as an instance of his remarkable facility in acquiring languages, that in about six weeks he made himself sufficiently master of the Persian to be able to converse freely in that language with the natives. In 1820 he embarked at Abuschekr, in the Persian Gulf, for Bombay, which he reached in safety; and during his residence there he wrote in English "a Dissertation on the Authenticity of the Zend Language," which he addressed to the governor, the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, and which was afterwards published in the third volume of the Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay. The same production, with corrections and additions, was afterwards

deemed worthy of insertion in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society. From Bombay he proceeded through India to Ceylon, where he arrived in 1822, and soon afterwards wrote, in English, "A Dissertation respecting the best Method of expressing the Sounds of the Indian Languages in European Characters," which was printed in the Transactions of the Literary and Agricultural Society of Colombo. Professor Rask, having at length completed his researches on the scale prescribed, set out for Europe, and reached Copenhagen in the beginning of May 1823, after an absence of nearly seven years. He brought home with him a considerable collection of rare and curious oriental manuscripts, Persian, Zend, Pali, Cingalese, and others, which now enrich the university and royal libraries of the Danish capital.

Notwithstanding all his labours and exertions, this indefatigable scholar scarcely allowed himself an interval of repose. Between the period of his return from the East and that of his death, which occurred far too soon for the interests of philology, Professor Rask published in his native language a Spanish Grammar in 1824, an Italian Grammar and a Frisic Grammar in 1825, a Treatise respecting the Ancient Egyptian Chronology in 1827, the Ancient Jewish Chronology previous to Moses in 1828, and an Essay on Danish Orthography in the same year. He likewise edited an edition of Schneider's Danish Grammar for the use of Englishmen in 1829, and superintended the English translation of his Anglo-Saxon Grammar by Thorpe in 1830. This last work supplies what had long been a desideratum in English literature. Before its appearance persons whose taste might dispose them to investigate our early vernacular remains had no guides to direct them, and each had to form for himself a grammar and a dictionary of the Saxon. Hickes' was full of blunders, and in these Elstob, Lye, Manning, and others had religiously followed him, superadding their own contingents respectively. Rask's services to comparative philology were very great. He was the first to point out the connection between the ancient Northern and Gothic on the one hand, and of the Lithuanian, Slavonic, Greek, and Latin on the other. In private life the character of Professor Rask was such as to command admiration and respect. His manners, though somewhat retiring, were mild and gentle, and his morals unimpeachable. His mode of living was simple in the extreme, and his temperance almost that of an anchorite. The habits of study and application which he had acquired in his youth were never laid aside. In company he was diffident, and always expressed himself with modesty; but when the subject involved anything relative to his own history or pursuits, he evinced a reluctance to converse which seemed to grow upon him with years, and almost amounted to a morbid sensibility. His facility in the acquisition of languages was extraordinary; he appeared to gain a knowledge of them by a sort of intuition, and his mind seemed to recollect rather than to learn. In 1822 he was master of no less than twenty-five languages and dialects. His knowledge of English was extensive and correct. He spoke and wrote it with such fluency and precision that Englishmen to whom he was introduced were accustomed to ask him how long he had been in England, considering that such an acquaintance could only be gained by a residence in the country where it was spoken. Rask, in his personal appearance, was thin and spare, but well made; his habits of temperance, regularity, and exercise, had contributed to give him all the appearance of a healthy man, and he seemed destined to attain a ripe old age. He was capable of enduring much fatigue, and even the privation of necessary rest; changes of climate seemed to produce no impression upon his constitution; the scorching sun of India, and the biting frosts of Iceland, were equally braved and disregarded. But, with all this apparent superiority to ordinary infirmities, he

fell a victim to consumption, and died at Copenhagen on the 14th of November 1832, in the forty-fifth year of his age. His numerous philological manuscripts were given over to the king's library at Copenhagen. Rask's Anglo-Saxon, Danish, and Icelandic Grammars have been given to the English public by Thorpe, Repp, and Dasent respectively.