Landsmaal was happily introduced just about the time when a sense of national consciousness began to dawn on Norwegian minds. By a number of enactments of the Storting the study of the new national tongue was made compulsory. This body first acted in May 1885 by requesting the Government “to adopt the necessary measures so that the people’s language, as school and official language, be placed side by side with our ordinary written speech.”[80] Then, in 1892, the following law for elementary schools was framed: “The school board (in each district) shall decide whether the school readers and text-books shall be composed in Landsmaal or the ordinary book-‘maal’ and in which of these languages the pupil’s written exercises shall in general be composed. But the pupil must learn to read both languages.” Finally, in 1896, the study of Landsmaal was made obligatory in the high schools. After Norway secured complete national independence, in 1905, the Landsmaal advanced rapidly. Its use was permitted in university examinations. By 1909 one hundred and twenty-five out of six hundred and fifty school districts had adopted “New Norse” as the medium of instruction.[81] In the bishopric of Bergen the new language came to stay in 56 out of 101 country parishes. The issue between Landsmaal and Riksmaal being closely linked with nationalism in Norway, many Norwegians have now come to look upon the Danish tongue as a sign of former vassalage. New Norse, on the other hand, embodies the newly acquired national independence. In the eyes of patriots it is the language which is most closely allied to the saga tongue of their Viking ancestors. And yet it is stated that less than a thousand persons in Norway actually use New Norse in their conversation.[82] The supplanting of Norwego-Danish by the made-to-order Landsmaal bids fair to take time. But the process of welding Norwegian dialects into a single national language is going on. In this must be sought the significance of Norway’s language agitation. A Norwegian tongue which will be spoken within Norwegian boundaries is being formed. In recent years it has been customary to publish all acts of Parliament both in Norwego-Danish and in Landsmaal. The Swedish language differs from Norwegian by a typical accentuation. The growth of the language to its present form may be traced back to the Runic period of the thirteenth century. At that time Swedish was free from foreign admixture. The influence of Latin and of Middle and Low German was felt later. The language passed successively through the period of Old Swedish (1200-1500) and Early Modern Swedish (1500-1730). Its present form belongs to the Later Modern School, although it is spoken now without much change from the language of the middle eighteenth century.