and the SCALDS, might excite each of them to improve their own native poetry, and to give it all that artificial polish, which they faw admired in the other language. Whoever would understand thoroughly the Poetry of both people, and compare their respective metre, may examine, for the Icelandic, WORMIUS's Literatura Runica; and for the British, JOHN DAVID RHYS'S Cambro-Britannica Cymraecave Linguæ inftitutiones & rudimenta, &c. Lond. 1592 *.] ، or any « quest. Cæfar fays, myftical doctrines a"bout the Oak and the "Miffeltoe. These kind "of Verses are, by the "Britons, called Englyn "Milwr, or THE WAR"RIOR'S SONG, and con"fift of a triplet of fe"ven fyllables each verfe, "which are unirythm: "For Rhyme is as old "as poetry itself, in our T. "language. It is very "remarkable, that most "of our old Proverbs are "taken from the laft ❝verse of such a Triplet, "and the other two feem "almost nonsense; they mention the Oak, high "Mountains, and Snow, "with honour. Those "are certainly remains "of the Pagan Creed." *See alfo fome account of the Welsh Poetry in SELDEN's Remarks on DRAYTON'S Poliolbion. -And a remarkable paffage in GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS (Cambriæ Defcriptio, p. 260, 261.) beginning thus, Pra cunctis autem, &c. A N I DE A OF THE MORE ANCIENT E D D A. IT . is now time to describe what remains of the former EDDA, compiled by SOEMUND, furnamed the LEARNED, more than an hundred years before that of Snorro. It was a collection of very ancient poems, which had for their fubject fome article of the Religion and Morality of Odin. The hare that Sæmund had in them, was probably no more than that of firft collecting and committing them to writing. This collection is at prefent confidered as loft, excepting only three pieces, which I shall defcribe below: But fome people have, not without good reason, imagined that this ancient EDDA, or at least the greatest part of it, is still preferved. It were to be wished, wifhed, that the poffeffors of fuch a treafure could be induced to esteem the communication of it to the world, the greatest advantage they can reap from it; and they are now urged, in the name of the public, to this generous action. Be that as it may, the admirers of the antiquities of the north have, in the fragments of this work, which may be seen and confulted, fufficient to reward their researches. The remainder is probably less interefting; and this may perhaps have been the cause of its being configned to oblivion. THE first of these pieces is that which I have so often quoted under the title of VoLUSPA; a word which fignifies the Oracle, or the Prophefy of Vola. It is well known, that there were among the Celtic nations, women who foretold future events, uttered oracles, and maintained a strict commerce with the Divinity. Tacitus makes frequent mention of one of them, named Velleda, who was in high repute among the Bructeri, a people of Germany, and who was afterwards carried to Rome. There was one in Italy, whofe name had a still nearer affinity to this of Vola, viz. that Sibyl, whom Ho race (Epod. V.) calls Ariminenfis Folia. VOLA OF FOLIA might perhaps be a general name for all the women of this kind. As thefe names are evidently connected with the idea of FOLLY or Madness, they would, at least be due to thofe enthusiastick ravings and mad contortions with which fuch women delivered their pretended oracles. The word FOL bore the fame meaning in the ancient Gothic, as it does in French, English, and in almost all the languages of the north; in all which it fignifies either a Fool or a Madman *. This Poem attributed to the Sibyl of the north, contains within the compass of two or three hundred lines, that whole system of Mythology, which we have feen difclosed in the EDDA; but this laconic brevity, and the obsoleteness of the language in which it is written, make it very difficult to be understood. This, however, does not prevent us from obferving frequent instances of grandeur and fublimity, and many images extremely fine: then the general tenor of the work, the want of connection, and the confufion of the style, excite the idea of a very remote antiquity, no less than the matter and fubject itself. Such were, FooL, (antiq. Fol) Stultus, delirus, fatuus, rationis expers. Gallicè Fol. Islandicè Fol, ferox, iracundus, fatuus infipiens. Folska, Stultitia. Ang. Folly: Gall. Folie. Hinc forfan Ital. Fola, Ineptia, nuga, quid vanum, fatuum fabulofum, &c. Inde verbum Folare, Ineptias, aut ftultas & inanes fabulas recitare, nugas venditare. Hickes, in Junij Etymolog, a Lye Edit. T. doubt |