Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Georg Stiernhielm
Georg Stiernhielm (August 7, 1598 - April 22, 1672) was a Swedish civil servant, linguist and poet. Stiernhielm was born in a middle-class family in the village Svartskärs in Vika parish in Dalecarlia. The surname Stiernhielm, literally "Star Helmet", was taken in later life when he was raised into the Swedish nobility.
He grew up in the Bergslagen region where his father worked with the mining industry. Stiernhielm received his first schooling at Västerås, but he was also educated in Germany and Holland.
He was a pioneer of linguistics, and even if many of his conclusions later proved wrong they were accepted by his contemporaries. Stiernhielm tried to prove that Gothic, which he equated with Old Norse was the origin of all languages, as well as the Nordic countries was Vagina gentium, the human birth place.
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