Ditmarsh, it was the scene
of violent internal conflict in regard to the religious questions of the
time; and, thus weakened, it was obliged in 1559 to submit to partition
among its three conquerors--King Frederick II. of Denmark and Dukes John
and Adolphus. A new division took place on Duke John's death in 1581, by
which Frederick obtained South Ditmarsh, with its chief town of Meldorf,
and Adolphus obtained North Ditmarsh, with its chief town of Heide; and
this arrangement continued till 1773, when all the Gottorp possessions
were incorporated with the Danish crown.

See Dahlmann's edition of Neocorus, _Chronik von Dithmarschen_ (Kiel,
1827), and _Geschichte Danemarks_ (1840-1844); Michelsen,
_Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte des Landes Dithmarschen_ (1834),
_Sammlung altdithmarscher Rechtsquellen_ (1842), and _Dithmarschen im
Verhaltniss zum bremischen Erzstift_; Kolster, _Geschichte
Dithmarschens, nach F. R. Dahlmanns Vorlesungen_ (1873).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] That is, the right of claiming military service, and the right of
bringing capital offenders to justice.

DITHYRAMBIC POETRY, the description of poetry in which the character of
the dithyramb is preserved. It remains quite uncertain what the
derivation or even the primitive meaning of the Greek word [Greek:
dithyrambos] is, although many conjectures have been attempted. It was,
however, connected from earliest times with the choral worship of
Dionysus. A dithyramb is defined by Grote as a round choric dance and
song in honour of the wine-god. The earliest dithyrambic poetry was
probably improvised by priests of Bacchus at solemn feasts, and
expressed, in disordered numbers, the excitement and frenzy felt by the
worshippers. This element of unrestrained and intoxicated vehemence is
prominent in all poetry of this class. The dithyramb was traditionally
first practised in Naxos; it spread to other islands, to Boeotia and
finally to Athens. Arion is said to have introduced it at Corinth, and
to have allied it to the worship of Pan. It was thus "merged," as
Professor G. G. Murray says, "into the Satyr-choir of wild
mountain-goats" out of which sprang the earliest form of tragedy. But
when tragic drama had so far developed as to be quite independent, the
dithyramb did not, on that account, disappear. It flourished in Athens
until after the age of Aristotle. So far as we can distinguish the form
of the ancient Greek dithyramb, it must have been a