Some people have maintained that all the Fables of the EDDA were nothing but the offspring of the Author's fancy. This even seems to have been the opinion of the famous HUET. We cannot pardon this learned man for the peremptory air he afsumes in treating on a subject he so little understood as the antiquities of the north. All he has faid upon this subject is full of inaccuracies *. To suppose that Snorro invented the Fables of the EDDA, plainly proves the maintainer of such an opinion, neither to have read that work, nor the ancient historians of the north, of Germany or of England. It shows him to be ignorant of this great truth, which all the ancient monuments and records of these countries; which all the Greek and Roman writers since the fixth century; which the Runic infcriptions, universal tradition, the popular superstitions, the names of the days, and many modes of speech still in * See his book De l'Origine des Romans, p. 116. What is most astonishing is, that he pretends to have himself seen in Denmark, the ancient histories of that country, written in Runic characters on the rocks. Another author, Mr. DESLANDES, in his History of Philosophy, affirms, that one finds engraven on those stones the mysteries of the ancient Religion. This shows how little one can rely upon the accounts given of one country in another that lies remote from it. ufe, 1 use, all unanimously depose, viz. That before the times of Christianity all these parts of Europe worshipped Odin and the Gods of the EDDA. Nevertheless, if it were necessary to anfwer an objection, which the bare perusal of the EDDA alone, and the Remarks I have added, will fufficiently obviate; the reader need only caft his eyes over fome Fragments of Poetry of the ancient northern SCALDS, which I have translated at the end of this book: He will there find, throughout, the same Mythology that is set forth in the EDDA; although the authors of these pieces lived in very different times and places from those in which Sæmund and Snorro flourished. These doubts being removed, it only remains to clear up fuch as may arife concerning the fidelity of these different tranflations. I freely confess my imperfect knowledge of the language in which the EDDA is written. It is to the modern Danish or Swedish languages, what the dialect of Ville-hardouin, or the Sire de Joinville is to modern French *. I fhould have been frequently at a loss, if it had not been for * i. e. As the language of CHAUCER OF PIERCE PLOWMAN, compared to modern English. т. the the affistance of Danish and Swedish verfions of the EDDA, made by learned men skilful in the old Icelandic tongue. I have not only confulted these translations, but by comparing the expreffions they employ with those of the original, I have generally afcertained the identity of the phrase, and attained to a pretty strong assurance that the sense of my text hath not escaped me. Where I suspected my guides, I have carefully confulted those, who have long made the EDDA, and the language in which it is written, their peculiar study. I stood particularly in need of this assistance, to render with exactness the two fragments of the more ancient EDDA, namely, the SUBLIME DISCOURSE OF ODIN, and the RUNIC CHAPTER; and here too my labours were more particularly assisted. This advantage I owe to Mr. ERICHSEN, a native of Iceland, who joins to a most extensive knowledge of the antiquities of his country, a judgment and a politeness not always united with great erudition. He has enabled me to give a more faithful tranflation of those two pieces than is to be met with in the EDDA OF RE SENIUS. I am however a good deal indebted to this last. J. P. RESENIUS, profeffor and magiftrate of Copenhagen towards the end of the last century, was a laborious and learned man, who in many works manifested his zeal for the honour of letters and of his country. He published the first edition of the Edda, and we may, in some respects, say it is hitherto the only one.. This edition, which forms a large quarto volume, appeared at Copenhagen in the year 1665, dedicated to King Frederick III. It contains the text of the EDDA, a Latin tranflation done in part by a learned Icelandic priest, named MAGNUS OLSEN or OLAï, and continued by TORFAEUS; together with a Danish version, by the historiographer STEPHEN OLAï, and various readings from different MSS. man, With regard to the text, Resenius hath taken the utmost care to give it correct and genuine. He collated many MSS. of which the major part are still preserved in the royal and university libraries; but what he chiefly made the greatest use of, was a MS. belonging to the King, which is judged to be the most ancient of all, being as old as the thirteenth, or at least the fourteenth century, and still extant. Exclusive of this, we do not find in the edition of Resenius any critical remarks, calculated to elucidate the contents of the EDDA. In truth, the Preface feems intended to make amends for this deficiency, fince that alone would fill a volume of the fize of this book; but, excepting cepting a very few pages, the whole confifts of learned excursions concerning Plato, the best editions of Ariftotle, the Nine Sybils, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, &c. From the manufcript copy of the EDDA preserved in the university library of Upsal, hath been published a few years since, a fecond edition of that work. This MS. which I have often had in my poffeffion, feems to have been of the fourteenth century. It is well preserved, legible, and very entire. Although this copy contains no effential difference from that which Refenius has followed, it notwithstanding afforded me afsistance in some obfcure pafsages; for I have not fcrupled to add a few words to fupply the sense, or to fupprefs a few others that feemed devoid of it, when I could do it upon manuscript authority: and of this I must beg my readers to take notice, whenever they would compare my version with the original: for if they judge of it by the text of Resenius, they will frequently find me faulty, fince I had always an eye to the Upsal MS, of which Mr. SOLBERG, a young learned Swede, well versed in these subjects, was so good as to furnish me with a correct copy. The text of this MS. being now printed, whoever will be at the trouble, may eafily fee, that I have never followed this new light, but when |