INTRODUCTION. 



ANCIENT HISTORY OF GREENLAND. 



X HE history of northern nations is much involved in the 

 mists of antiquity, which, hke the fogs constantly met with 

 in northern regions, are apt to magnify objects beheld 

 through such a medium. The poems of Ossian owe their 

 beautiful imagery to such delineation ; the Icelandic Annals, 

 detailing splendours highly apocryphal, maj^ be looked upon 

 as a venerable, but appropriate illustration of the same 

 remark ; and no portion of the globe, with regard to early 

 times, affords more instances of such fondness for the sub- 

 lime, than may be found in the History of Ireland. 



Ancient Scandinavia also, on the weather-beaten and 

 lichen-clad rock, presents many Runic carvings expressive 

 of the fame of early heroes, Avho, in the admiration of their 

 followers, became objects of deification. The ruins of an 

 extensive city on the banks of the Irtish excited the curiosity 

 of some travellers, and they there found vellum manuscripts 

 stored up, which were watched with religious care by the 



B 



