That part also of the Teutonic race which lay altogether beyond the bounds of the Empire now begins to be of importance. ♦The Danes.♦ The _Danes_ are heard of as early as the days of Justinian; but neither they nor the other Scandinavian nations play any great part in history before the time of Charles the Great. A great number of small states gradually settled down into three great kingdoms, which remain still, though their boundaries have greatly changed. The boundary between Denmark and the Empire was, as we have seen, fixed at the Eider. ♦Extent of Denmark and Norway.♦ Besides the peninsula of Jutland and the islands which still belong to it, Denmark took in _Scania_ and other lands in the south of the great peninsula that now forms _Sweden_ and _Norway_. Norway, on the other hand, ran much further inland, and came down much further south than it does now. These points are of importance, because they show the causes of the later history of the three Scandinavian states. ♦Sweden.♦ Both Denmark and Norway had a great front to the Ocean, while _Swithiod_ and _Gauthiod_, the districts which formed the beginning of the kingdom of Sweden, had no opening that way, but were altogether turned towards the Baltic. It thus came about that for some centuries both Denmark and Norway played a much greater part in the general affairs of Europe than Sweden did. ♦Danish and Norwegian settlements.♦ Denmark was an immediate neighbour of the Empire, and from both Denmark and Norway men went out to conquer and settle in various parts of Britain, Ireland and Gaul, besides colonizing the more distant and uninhabited lands of _Iceland_ and _Greenland_. ♦Pressure of Swedes to the East.♦ Meanwhile, the Swedes pressed eastward on the Finnish and Slavonic people beyond the Baltic. In this last way they had a great effect on the history of the Eastern Empire; but in Western history Sweden counts for very little till a much later time. * * * * * ♦Summary.♦