:

few of those Epithets; selecting fuch as have not already occurred in the EDDA.

"ODIN, the Father of the Ages; the Supercilious; the Eagle; the Father of " Verfes; the Whirlwind; the Incendiary; "he who causes the arrows to shower " down," &c.

THOR is defigned by twelve Epithets; the most common is that of "The son of "Odin and the earth."

LOKE is stiled, "The Father of the "Great Serpent; the Father of Death; "the Adversary, the Accuser, the Deceiver " of the Gods," &c.

FRIGGA IS The Queen of the Gods." FREYA, "The Goddess of Love; the " Norne or Fairy who weeps Golden Tears; " the Kind and Liberal Goddefs," &c.

After these Épithets of the Gods, follows an alphabetical list of the Words most commonly used in Poetry. Some of them are now unintelligible, some appear infipid, and others are like those idle Epithets of the ancient Classics, which follow a word as conftantly as the shade does the body, and are introduced rather to fill up the : measure of the verse, than to add to the fenfe. Some are nevertheless worth knowing, were it only for their fingularity. For instance, RIVERS are called by the SCALDS "the sweat of the earth;" and

the

" daughters of Misfortune;" " the hail"stones of helmets." The BATTLE-AX is " the handof the Homicide, or Slaughterer:" The EYE, " the torch or flambeau of the "countenance;" "the diamond of the "head." The Grass and HERBAGE, "the hair, and the fleece of the earth." HAIR, "the forest of the head:" and if it be white, "the snow of the brain." The EARTH is, "the vessel that floats on the

ages;" "the bafis, or foundation of the "air;" the daughter of the night." NIGHT, "the veil of discourse and cares." A COMBAT, "the crash of arms; the " shower of darts; the clangor of swords; "the bath of blood." The SEA is "the "field of pirates:" A SHIP, "their skate;" and "the horse of the waves." Rocks are "the bones of the earth." The WIND is "the tiger, the lyon, who darts himself

upon the houses and vessels," &c. &c. SNORRO'S work, as published by Refenius, concludes with this collection of Epithets; but in the old MS. preserved at Upsal, and in fome others, we find at the end of this Dictionary a small Treatise, by the fame Author, on the Conftruction and Mechanism of the Gothic or Icelandic Metre. If we had a greater number of the ancient Celtic verses remaining *, this work

1

work would be extremely valuable, fince it would then facilitate the knowlege of a species of Poetry, which might serve to many useful purposes: but it has the mif fortune to have become exceedingly obscure. However, as some persons of distinguished learning have undertaken to explain it, there is room to hope, that such curious Readers as are fond of researches of this kind, will shortly have nothing wanting to gratify their defires on this subject.

What we know of it at present is, that their art of Verfification consisted in combining together a number of syllables, with a regular repetition of the fame letter at the beginning or end of each verse, at once resembling the nature of our modern Versification with rhyme, and the tafte for acrosticks. Were this inquiry to be traced very far back, I believe we should find the original or model of this fort of Mechanism, to have been taken from some eastern nation, either from the ancient Perfians or the Hebrews. The Hebrew poetry abounded with acrostics of various kinds. The same are found in all the ancient Odes of our Icelandic Scalds. It is equally probable, that the verses of the BARDS, those ancient British and Gallic Poets, were of the same kind: some few fragments which we have of the poetry of Gaul or Bas Bretagne, put this matter out of doubt. The fact is still more certain with regard to such verses of the Anglo-Saxons as have been handed down to us.

REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING
PASSAGE.

[Our ingenious Author appears to me to have here thrown together several things, in their nature very different, without fufficient difcrimination.

In the first place it may be remarked, that even if we should admit that the LoGOGRYPHS of the Icelandic Scalds *, are composed in a taste not very different from that of the Hebrew ACROSTICS; yet these Acrostics ought by no means to be confounded with the ALLITERATIONS of the Runic or Scaldic Metre: for these are as natural to the Icelandic verse, as Dactyl and

* See Vol. I. p. 404-Wormij Literatura Runica,

P. 183. 4to.
VOL. II.

Spondes

Spondee feet are to the Greek and Latin numbers *. So that I must beg leave to differ from my Author, in thinking the Alliterative Metre of the Scalds similar either to the Taste for Acrostics, or our modern Rhyme. Not but the Scalds often used Rhyme in the same manner as the moderns, and that with very nice exactness +.

But granting that the Icelandic Scalds often composed little artificial poems, much in the taste of the Hebrew Acrostics, I fear it will be going too far, to fetch their Original from those of the Hebrews: for it may be safely affirmed, That all nations (without deriving it from each other) have, in the infancy of taste, run into all the species of False Wit. The Chinese, for example, deal in many little artificial forms of poetry, very much resembling the Rondeaus and Madrigals, so current among the French and us in the last age, and yet neither party will be suspected of imitation. So again, some of the other eastern