d at last, finding an abode in Italy, changed the ancient name of the
nation for their own.

Meanwhile, the land of the Danes, where the tillers laboured less and
less, and all traces of the furrows were covered with overgrowth, began
to look like a forest. Almost stripped of its pleasant native turf, it
bristled with the dense unshapely woods that grew up. Traces of this are
yet seen in the aspect of its fields. What were once acres fertile in
grain are now seen to be dotted with trunks of trees; and where of old
the tillers turned the earth up deep and scattered the huge clods there
has now sprung up a forest covering the fields, which still bear the
tracks of ancient tillage. Had not these lands remained untilled and
desolate with long overgrowth, the tenacious roots of trees could never
have shared the soil of one and the same land with the furrows made by
the plough. Moreover, the mounds which men laboriously built up of old
on the level ground for the burial of the dead are now covered by a mass
of woodland. Many piles of stones are also to be seen interspersed among
the forest glades. These were once scattered over the whole country, but
the peasants carefully gathered the boulders and piled them into a heap
that they might not prevent furrows being cut in all directions; for
they would sooner sacrifice a little of the land than find the whole of
it stubborn. From this work, done by the toil of the peasants for
the easier working of the fields, it is judged that the population in
ancient times was greater than the present one, which is satisfied with
small fields, and keeps its agriculture within narrower limits than
those of the ancient tillage. Thus the present generation is amazed to
behold that it has exchanged a soil which could once produce grain for
one only fit to grow acorns, and the plough-handle and the cornstalks
for a landscape studded with trees. Let this account of Snio, which I
have put together as truly as I could, suffice.

Snio was succeeded by BIORN; and after him HARALD became sovereign.
Harald's son GORM won no mean place of honour among the ancient generals
of the Danes by his record of doughty deeds. For he ventured into fresh
fields, preferring to practise his inherited valour, not in war, but in
searching the secrets of nature; and, just as other kings are stirred by
warlike ardour, so his heart thirsted to look into marvels; either what
he could experience himself, or what were merely m