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T is now time to defcribe 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 some article of the Religion and Morality of Odin, The fhare that Stemund had in them, was prohably 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 fhall defcribe below: But fome people have, not without good reason, imagined that this ancient EDDA, or at least the greatest part of it, is ftill preferved. It were to be wished,

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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 lefs interesting; and this may perhaps have been the cause of its being configned to oblivion.

THE first of these pieces is that which I have fo 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 ftrict 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 ftill nearer affinity to this of Vola, viz. that Sibyl, whom Horace (Epod. V.) calls Ariminenfis Folia. VOLA or FOLIA might perhaps be a general name for all the women of this kind. As these names are evidently connected with

the idea of FOLLY or Madness, they would at least be due to thofe enthufiaftick ravings and mad contortions with which such 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 seen difclofed in the EDDA; but this laconic brevity, and the obfoleteness of the language in which it is written, make it very difficult to be understood. This, however, does not prevent us from obferving frequent inftances 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,

doubtless, the real Sibylline verfes fo long preferved at Rome, and fo ill counterfeited afterwards. The Poem of the VOLUSPA is perhaps the only monument now remaining, capable of giving us a true idea of themi asub tilb

to I need not here quote any paffages from this Poem: the text of the EDDA, is (as we have seen) quite full of them; and I have given pretty long extracts from it in my Remarks. It is fufficient briefly to obferve, that the Prophetess having impofed filence on all intellectual beings, declares, that the is going to reveal the deerees of the Father of Nature, the actions and opera tions of the Gods, which no perfon ever knew before herself. She then begins with andefcription of the chaos; and proceeds to the formation of the world, and of that of its various fpecies of inhabitants, Giants, Men and Dwarfs. She then explains the employments of the Fairies or Deftinies 3 the functions of the Gods, their most re markable adventures, their quarrels with Loke, and the vengeance that enfued. At laft, the concludes with a long description of the final ftate of the univerfe, its diffo lution and conflagration: the battle of the inferior Deities and the Evil Beings: the renovation of the world: the happy lot of the good, and the punishment of the wicked. -iduob THAT

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