SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE. 



Ill 



gians ; and the Hispano-Arabic writers, Mantchoos. 

 From Sweden, Norway, the Danish islands, fron 

 Jutland and Sleswick, the rude adventurers sailed to 

 near and distant harbours, within and without the 

 Baltic, to Novgorod, Kiev, and Plotzk, to England, 

 Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Germany, France, Spain, 

 and Italy ; sometimes they only plundered and des- 

 troyed, and sometimes founded new states. See 

 Wheaton's History of the Northmen, and the article 

 Normans. 



Scandinavian, or Old Norse Literature, includes 

 the literature of the people of Norway, Sweden, and 

 Iceland, before their conversion to Christianity. It 

 goes back as far as the earliest history of the north, 

 and comes down to the period when the last traces 

 of heathenism disappeared. It is of great impor- 

 tance, both to Germany and England ; for, as they 

 were converted to Christianity much sooner than 

 the Scandinavians, they retain no literary monu- 

 ments of their heathen period. The old Norse li- 

 terature has preserved to us not only the old versi- 

 fication peculiar to all nations of Teutonic origin, 

 and distinct from that of all the other western na- 

 tions, but also a mythology which, rude as it is, 

 approaches, in the rich invention which it displays, 

 to the mythology of Greece. Not only the poetry, 

 and mythology, but likewise the history, the anti- 

 quities, of which the Runic monuments (see Runes} 

 are the principal, and the existing collections 

 of laws, afford rich materials for the knowledge 

 of the pagan period of the northern countries. 

 Julius Caesar, Lucan, and Tacitus furnished some 

 slight hints on the character of the Scandinavian 

 mythology. In the eighth century, native authors 

 appeared, who rescued the traditions of the past 

 from oblivion. The Lombard, Paulus Diaconus, 

 the first of these authors remaining (about the 

 end of the eighth century), gives us, from the 

 traditions of his own countrymen, a dialogue 

 between the deities Woden and Frea (Odin and 

 Freya). A war had broken out, as he relates, 

 between the Winiles and Wandeles. The latter 

 prayed to their god Woden for assistance and vic- 

 tory ; Woden replied, that he would give the victory 

 to the party which he should first see on the rising 

 of the sun. But the leaders of the Winiles, Ibor 

 and Ayo (Agio), who by Saxo are called Ebbo and 

 Aggo, had an ingenious mother, named Gambara, 

 who was related to the gods, and whose counsel 

 was esteemed by all the people. She went to 

 Odin's wife, Frea (Freya, or more properly Frigga), 

 and solicited victory for her countrymen and sub- 

 jects, the Winiles. Frigga advised that all the 

 women of the Winiles should station themselves, 

 at sunrise, with their husbands, opposite to the 

 place whence Odin was accustomed to look to the 

 east; and, in order that he might immediately 

 notice them, she directed that they should draw 

 their long hair over their faces, so as to make it 

 resemble a thick beard. The advice was followed, 

 and the bearded females immediately struck the eye 

 of Woden, who suddenly exclaimed, " Who are 

 those long-beards?" This was what Frigga ex- 

 pected; and, as it was an ancient custom that a 

 person who gave a name to a child, a hero, or a 

 nation, should give them a present, Frigga cried, 

 "They are the Winiles; and, as you have given 

 them another name, it is your duty to give them a 

 present: therefore give them victory." It was 

 agreed; and from that time, the Winiles were 

 called long-beards (whence Lombards"). That the 

 name of the people is founded on their long beards 



is mentioned by early authors, as Isidorus Ilispa- 

 lensis, who died in the first half of the seventh 

 century, as the general belief. Moreover, the days 

 of the week must have been named in very early 

 times, after the gods Tjr, Woden, Thor, and 

 Freya; for in the tin^ of Charlemagne, their names 

 had became so well settled, that when he gave 

 new names to the months, he did not venture to 

 alter the names of the days of the week. Adam 

 of Bremen (who died in 1076), in his book De 

 Situ Regnorum septentrionalium, gives an account 

 of the Swedes, when they were yet, in part, 

 heathens, of the temple of the gods at Upsal, and 

 of the gods Thor, Woden, and Frey (whom he 

 calls JWcco). He shows how they are represented, 

 but this is nearly all. Saxo Grammaticus, a Dane, 

 was distinguished, in the second half of the twelfth 

 century. His sixteen books of the Historia Danica 

 are a remarkable phenomenon. Using the language 

 of the Roman classics, and skilled alike in verse 

 and prose, he takes a course peculiar to himself. 

 The novelty of his subjects, the obscurity of his 

 sources, the wonderful character of his stories, the 

 charms of his style, produce a great effect. Samund 

 Frode (died 1133), Are Frode (died about 1148), 

 and Snorre Sturleson (murdered in 1241'), are also 

 writers of much merit. Till the invention of the 

 art of printing, little was known of the literature 

 of Scandinavia in the rest of Europe. The first 

 important light shed on it was by Arngrim Jonson's 

 discovery of a parchment manuscript of the prose 

 Edda, that is, of the younger Edda, composed by 

 Snorre Sturleson. In September, 1628, Jonson 

 sent to the celebrated physician Ole Worm (Olaus 

 Wormius) this manuscript, now preserved in the 

 library or the university at Copenhagen, with its 

 appendix, the Scallda. Ten years later, another 

 Icelander, Bryngulf Svenson, discovered a second 

 parchment manuscript of the prose Edda, and also 

 a parchment manuscript of the poetical Edda. 

 (See Edda.) Both were placed in the royal library 

 at Copenhagen. In the year 1665, Peter Resen, 

 or Resenius, published specimens of the poetical 

 Edda, and the whole prose Edda. The specimens 

 of the poetical part are entitled Ethica Othini pars 

 Edda Scemundi vocata Haavamaal, una cum ejusdem 

 Appendice appellata Runa Capitule a multis exop- 

 tata, nunc tandem Islandice et Latine in lucem pro- 

 ducta est per Petrum Joh. Resenium (Copenhagen, 

 1665); 2. Philosophia Antiquissima Norveyo-Danica 

 dicta Woluspa, qua est pars Eddce Scemundi, Edd& 

 Snorronis non brevi antiquioris, Islandice et Latine 

 publici Juris primum facta a Petro Joh. Resenio 

 (Copenhagen, A. D. 1665, 4 sheets, 4to), with the 

 variations in the text from the royal and Nolde 

 copy, and a Latin translation, by Stephen Olai, an 

 Icelander. The prose Edda bears the following 

 title: Edda Mandorum anno Chr. MCCXV. Is- 

 landice conscripta per Snorronem Sturla, Islandue 

 Nomophylacem, nunc primum Islandice, Danice et 

 Latine ex antiquis codicibus MSS. Bibliothecce 

 Regis et aliorum in Lucem prodit opera et stit'lio 

 Petri Johannis Resenii, etc. (Copenhagen, 1665). 

 The text is founded chiefly on the manuscript of 

 Stephen Stephanius, who died 1650, collated with 

 other copies. The various readings are drawn 

 from the royal copy and that of Worm. The Latin 

 version is by Magnus Olai (1629), with extracts 

 from a later and more accurate translation, by 

 Stephen Olai, of 1646. Neither of the Latin trans- 

 lations, however, extends further than to the 68th 

 Dcimisaaa. But a Latin translation from the 69th 



