1825.] 
for the imagination, the discovery of a new 
poetical world.” 
This new world is already antiquated ; 
and, if they must make choice between 
them, the majority of readers still pre- 
fer the more ancient, more gay, more 
varied, and, above all, more familiar 
superstition. It appears to me, that 
the author employs a bold argument, 
when he defends the Scandinavian 
wonders, by the great beauties which the 
author of the Caroleide has drawn from 
this théogonie—p. 11. These beauties 
are of rather an equivocal kind, and I 
would not counsel any writer to imitate 
them. So M. d’Arlincourt may say, 
without scruple— 
Baldr vint a son tour, resérénant les airs, 
Astre paisible et pur, consoler Punivers. 
Then Balder’s star* serenes again the sky, 
Calms the pure air, and spreads the bound- 
less joy. 
The thunderer was but a secondary deity 
in the system of the Eddas. He ruled, in- 
deed, the elements ; but the War-god (with 
his hundred descriptive namés or epithets) 
was the God of Gods—the All- Father, the 
Fountain of all—the fountain of knowledge 
—the awarder of victory—the omniscient, 
the dispenser of justice, the oracle of the 
decrees of destiny, &c. &c.—and his scep- 
tre was not the thunder-mace, but the sax, 
or scimetar—the scythe of war. 
* Balder was one of the sons of Woden; 
and guided the horse of the sun—for the 
gods of the Scandmavians were not cha- 
rioteers, as those of the Celts, from na- 
tional] customs, inevitably would be, but 
equestrians. He was killed with a branch 
of misletoe, by his brother Hoder, through 
the malice of Lok; and, not dying in 
battle, descended to the regions of Hela. 
This is an eyident allusion to the hostility 
between the Celtic and Scandinavian 
races and mythologies, which, nevertheless, 
the French antiquaries invariably con- 
found. The mythological fables of the 
north, in general so wildiy terrific and 
sublime, abound, in reference to this mys- 
tery, as also in reference to the mythic le- 
gends of Frea, Iduna, &c. with passages and 
incidents of exquisite beautyand tenderness: 
and Balder and his steed might furnish 
images and descriptions of splendour not 
inferior to any which can now be added 
to those we have derived from the classic 
Apollo on his Grecian car. The following 
description of morning, from the lips of a 
Saxon votary of the Scandinavian super- 
stition, may be quoted as an attempt to ap- 
ply such images to the purposes of poetry. 
The scene is the lake of Savadan (Llan- 
gorse Pool). The sun rising above the 
neighbouring mountains—_ 
Northern Mythology. 
229 
But, though I might overlook this 
boldness in him, I do not hesitate to 
blame it in M. St. Géniés, who, gene- 
rally, writes more chastely. It is the 
same in the foliowing couplet of this 
unusual construction of verse :— 
Et tu vois les jours sans alarmes, 
Comme les flots de mers, innombrables, couler, 
And thou, unwarn’d, canst see thy days 
below, 
Unnumber’d, like the waves of ocean, flow. 
And in this other instance :— 
De lewrs jeux belliques ils placent les appréts ; 
Ld, les priv des vainqueurs; la, le but de 
lcurs traits, 
The means they there of hostile sport prepare, 
There place the victor’s prize, the quarrel’s * 
object there. 
M. de° Lamartine, himself, could not, 
with impunity, have said, ?un sur un, 
“the one upon the one.” 
I might produce other blemishes 
which disfigure the poetry, otherwise 
correct and elegant, of M.de St. Géniés; 
who is distinguishable for his facility of 
composition, but which he sometimes 
abuses. Tne greatest fault of his versi- 
fication is, that it is too negligent :—it 
may be read, indeed, without any effort, 
and frequently with pleasure; and it 
would be more easy for me to justify 
this praise, than to expose his faults, — 
T select the passage painting the desola- 
tion which followed the death of Balder, 
the hero of the poem :— 
Du trépas de Balder la nouvelle sanglante, 
A rempli de terreur la nature tremblante : 
Le soleil, sans rayons, somdre, decoloré, 
Pleure le deuil du monde et Balder expiré. 
On 
Rowenna.—The shades of night disperse, and o’er 
the hills 
(The eastern bound of Cambria) Balder’s steed 
Rushes with reinless neck, and to the winds 
Gives his bright mane of orient, streaming far © 
Through the illumin’d sky. The dazzling ray, 
With tint reflective, over stream and lake, 
Plays with the morning breeze; and leaf and flow’r, 
Moist with the tears of evening, bend surcharg'd 
With mimic radiance: every crystal sphere 
Pencill'd with rays minute—as though instinct, 
Each with its fairy sun—a fairy world. 
Fairy of the Lake. 
* The criticism is in this instance so verbal 
and idiomatic, that the passage seems to 
defy illustrative translation. The word 
quarrel. must here be accepted in the 
archer’s sense, —now,|like the military games 
of archery to which it pertains, become 
obsolete. The quarrel is the arrow of the 
cross bow ; and the quarrel’s object must, 
_ therefore, be received as signifying the but, 
or aim of the arrows. 
