the EDDA. As for GYLFE, Snorro informs us in the beginning of his larger Chronicle; that this prince, who governed Sweden before the arrival of Odin and his Afiatics, was obliged to yield to the supernatural power, which those intruders employed against him, and to resign his kingdom up to them. This gave rise to the suppofition that Gylfe was willing to make trial himfelf of the skill and sagacity of these new-comers, by propofing to them a variety of captious questions. In the history of ancient Scandinavia, as well as that of all the eastern countries, we often see these contests or trials of skill between kings and princes, in which the victory is always affigned to him who could give an answer to every question, and assign a caufe (true or false) for every phieno. menon. This was called Science or Wisdom; words originally synonimous in all languages, but at present so easily diftinguished. It will be necessary here, to refer the reader to the account of Odin's arrival in the north, given in the former volume, (chap. II, III, &c.) for his more readily understanding this and the following chapters. 66 (A) " He resolved to go to Afgard."] Odin and his companions came from ASGARD: A word which signifies the " abode of Lords or Gods." Some words are difficult to be understood, because we cannot discover any meaning in them. Here on the contrary, the difficulty lies in the variety or multiplicity of fignifications. The word As; ' in the ancient languages * of Europe *,' generally signified Lord or God, but in the EDDA, and other Icelandic writings, it fignifies also Afiatics; and we know not in which of these senses the name is given to Odin and his companions. Eccard, in his treatise De Origine Germanorum, pag. 41. pretends that this word was never used in the laft sense, and that the arrival of Odin from Afia was a meer fiction, founded on the resemblance of sounds; * Fr. Dans toutes les Branches de la langue Celtique, or or that he certainly came from Vandalia, at present Pomerania. I refer the reader to the work itself, for the reasons on which this conjecture is founded; which would deserve the preference for its fimplicity, if a uniform and ancient tradition did not place the original country of the Scandinavians in the neighbourhood of the Tanais, See Vol. I. c. IV, &c. (B) "By their inchant"ments." It should be remembered that the author of the EDDA was a Christian: On this account he is unwilling to allow Odin the honour of having performed real miracles. It was believed, indeed, in our author's time, that it was impossi ble to do supernatural things, but that yet there was an art of perfuading others that they saw them done. The fame opinion still prevails among many of our contemporaries, [This note is only in the first edit. of the orig.] (c) "Diodolfe thus " describes it.") Diodolfe, or Thiodolfe, was a celebrated ancient SCALD, who composed a long poem, containing the history of more than thirty princes of Norway. We see in the text SNORRO'S care to quote almost always his authorities for whatever he relates: This will appear throughout his work. He has persued the fame method in his great Chronicle, where we find every fact confirmed by a fragment of some old hiftorical poem. This shows, at the fame time, both the great erudition of this historian, and the amazing quantity of fuch kind of verses that subsisted in his time. In like manner among the Gauls, their ancient poems were so numerous, that the young people found sufficient employment for several years in commit ting them to memory. (D) "Three thrones "... and on each fat " a man."] In the MS. copy of the Edda preserved at Upsal, there is a representation or drawing (very rudely done, as may be supposed) of these three thrones, and of the three persons fitting on B3 them. ८ them.. They have crowns on their heads; and Gangler is drawn in a fuppliant posture before them *. • These figures bear so great a refemblance to the Roman Catholic pictures of the Trinity, that we are not to won' der if fome have ima* gined them to be an al< lufion to that doctrine; particularly such as sup* pose it was already ' known to Plato, and fome other of the ancient Pagans.' T. He found therefore at Afgard, only his vicegerents, that ruled in his absence. The names that are given them, perhaps allude to their rank and employments. Upon this fupposition, there will be nothing in the relation but what is natural and easy. But I must here repeat it, that we must expect to see, throughout this Mythology, ODIN the conqueror of the north, every where confounded with ODIN the fupreme Deity: Whose name was ufurped by the other, at the fame time that he came to eftablish his worship in Scandinavia. JUPITER, the king of Crete, and the sovereign lord of Heaven and Earth; ZOROASTER, the founder of the worship of the Magi, and the God to whom that worship was addressed; ZAMOLXIS, the high-priest of the Thracians, and the supreme God of that people, have not been more constantly confounded, than these two ODINS. т. т. THE (E) " He who fits on "the highest throne."] Is it Odin, or fome one of his court that fills this throne? This it is not easy to decide. It appears to me, however, that throughout this whole preamble, the ODIN here spoke of, is only the prince, the conqueror of the north, and not ODIN the father and ruler of the Gods §. Gangler had betaken himself to Odin's court, while that prince was fubduing Sweden. * The reader may find it engraven on a copper-plate in Bartholini Caufa contemptæ à Danis mortis, &c. pag. 473. 4to. § The reader will remember the distinction made in pag. 60, 88, 89, &c. of the preceding volume. ..... G THE FIRST FABLE. Questions of Gangler. ANGLER thus began his discourse. Who is the fupreme or • first of the Gods? Har answers: We call him here ALFADER, or the universal father; but in the ancient Afgard, he hath twelve names (A). Gangler afks; Who * is this God? What is his power? and what hath he done to difplay his glory (B)? Har replies; He lives for ever; he governs all his kingdom; and directs the great things as well as the small. Jafnhar adds: He hath formed the heaven, the earth, and the air. Thridi proceeds, He hath done more; he hath made man, and given him a fpirit or foul, which shall live, even after the body shall have mouldered away. And then all the just shall dwell with him in a place * Goranson translates this, Ubi eft hic deus? HUAR ES SA GUD? Where is this God? Which is doubtless the true meaning. T. B 4 named : named Gimle (or Vingolf, the palace of friendship:) But wicked men shall go to HELA, or death, and from thence to NiAheim, or the abode of the wicked, which is below in the ninth world. Gangler then asked, how this God was employed before he made the heaven and the earth ? Har replied, He was then with the Giants (c). But, says Gangler, With what did he begin? or what was the beginning of things? Hear, replied Har, what is said in the poem of the VOLUSPA. "At the beginning of time, when nothing was " yet formed, neither shore, nor fea, nor " foundations beneath; the earth was no "where to be found below, nor the hea ven above: All was one vast abyss (D), "without plant or verdure." Jafnhar added, Many winters before the earth was made, Niflheim (E) or Hell was formed, and in the middle of it is a fountain named Hvergelmer. From this fountain run the following rivers, Anguish, the Enemy of Joy, the Abode of Death, Perdition, the Gulph, the Tempeft, the Whirlwind, the Bellowing and Howling, the Abyss. That which is called the Roaring runs near the grates of the Abode of Death. RE |