"the wife of another; and when you " find yourself among robbers. "Do not accustom yourself to mocking; neither laugh at your guest, or a "stranger: they who remain at home, " often know not who the stranger is that "cometh to their gate. "Where is there to be found a virtuous "man without some failing? or one fo "wicked as to have no good quality ? : "Laugh not at the gray-headed de"claimer, nor at thy aged grandfire. "There often come forth from the wrin"kles of the skin, words full of wisdom. "The fire drives away diseases: the oak "expels the stranguary: straws dissolve in"chantments *: Runic characters destroy the effect of imprecations: the earth " swallows up inundations; and death extinguishes hatred and quarrels." * Hence probably is derived the custom of laying two straws crosswife in the path where a witch is expected to come. : 1 P4 T HESE Fragments of the Ancient EDDA are followed, in the Edition of Resenius, by a little Poem called, The RUNIC CHAPTER, or the MAGIC OF ODIN. I have before observed, that the Conqueror, who usurped this name, attributed to himself the invention of Letters; of which, they had not probably any idea in Scandinavia before his time. But although this noble art is sufficiently wonderful in itself, to attract the veneration of an ignorant people towards the teacher of it: yet Odin caused it to be regarded as the ART of MAGIC by way of excellence, the art of working all forts of miracles: whether it was that this new piece of fallacy was fubfervient to his ambition, or whether he himself was barbarous enough to think there was something supernatural in writing. He speaks, at least in the following Poem, like a man who would make it so believed, i "Do you know (says he) how to engrave Runic characters? how to " explain them? how to procure them? "how to prove their virtue?" He then goes on to enumerate the wonders he could per perform, either by means of these letters, or by the operations of poetry. « * I am possessed of fongs: fuch as nei"ther the spouse of a king, nor any fon " of man can repeat; one of them is called "the HELPER: it will HELP thee at thy "need, in fickness, grief and all adver" fities. " I know a Song, which the fons of men " ought to fing, if they would become " skilful physicians. A "+ I know a Song, by which I soften " and inchant the arms of my enemies; " and render their weapons of none effect. " I know a Song, which I need only to "fing when men have loaded me with "bonds; for the moment I sing it, my "chains fall in pieces, and I walk forth at "liberty. " I know a Song, useful to all mankind; " for as foon as hatred inflames the fons of " men, the moment I fing it they are ap"peased. * Barthol. p. 658; † Ibid. p. 347. L "I know a Song, of such virtue, that " were I caught in a storm, I can hush " the winds, and render the air perfectly " calm." : One may remark upon this last prerogative of the verses known to Odin, that among all the Gothic and Celtic nations, the Magicians claimed a power over the Winds and Tempests. Pomponius Mela tells us, that in an island on the coast of Bretagne (he probably means the Ifle of SAINTS, opposite to Brest) there were priestesses, separated from the rest of the people, who were regarded as the Goddesses of Navigation, because they had the winds and tempefts at their disposal. There are penal statutes in the Capitularies of Charlemagne, in the canons of several councils, and in the ancient laws of Norway, against such as raise storms and tempests; Tempestarii is the name there given them. There were formerly of these impostors on the coafts of Norway, as there are at present on those of Lapland, to whom fear and superftition were long tributary. Hence filly travellers have, with much gravity, given us ridiculous accounts of witches who fold wind to the failors in those seas. It is no less true, that the very Norwegian fisher men 1 men would long fince have forgotten that fo foolish an opinion had ever existed, if foreign mariners, who were not disabused like them, did not often come to buy their wind of them, and pay them money for being the objects of their ridicule. The Miffionaries and first Bishops, were early in their endeavours to root out this pernicious weed from the foil where they wished to plant the Gospel. They attacked the Pagan religion with all forts of weapons. As they were often so credulous as to believe the false miracles of Paganism, they were weak enough to oppose them with others, that were no whit better, except in the purity of the intention. In an old Icelandic Chronicle *, we meet with a bishop laying a storm with Holy-water, and some other ceremonies. But to pro ceed on with the discourse of Odin: "When I fee, says he, Magicians tra"velling through the air, I disconcert "them by a fingle look, and force them " to abandon their enterprize." He had before spoken of these aerial travellers. "+ If I fee a man dead, and hanging "aloft on a tree, I engrave Runic charac * K. Oloff Trygguason Saga, c. 33. " ters |