SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE SCAPOLITE. 



to the 78th and last JXimisiiga (ten fables, which 

 comprehend the German tales of the Nibehmgen), 

 was prepared afterwards by Thormod Torffnis 

 (born 1636, died at Copenhagen 1719). 1" the 

 sixty-eight JXimisagas is unfolded the entire 

 mythology of the north. The story of the char- 

 acters and achievements of the gods is introduced 

 by a fiction, relating how Gylfs, the king of 

 Sweden, undertook a journey to the Asers (gods), 

 to learn from their own mouths their nature and 

 laws. He received from the eldest of the gods an 

 account of the beginning of the world, the primi- 

 tive giant Ymir, and the sons of Bor, the origin of 

 men, the giant Niorwi, the creation of the sun and 

 moon, the celestial bridge of Bifrost, the building 

 of the city of the gods, the dwarfs, the holy places 

 of the gods, and the ash-tree of Ygdrasil, the 

 dwellings of the gods, the origin of the wind, 

 of summer and winter, and finally of all the Asers, 

 and their mysterious history. But this is only the 

 first part of this Edda. The other (Annar partur 

 Eddu) treats of the names of the gods, and of all 

 the synonyms and circumlocutions admissible in 

 poetry, in alphabetical order, a genuine northern 

 Gradus ad Parnassum. It has since appeared that 

 there is still a third part of this Edda, containing 

 the rules for one hundred different kinds of verse, 

 and entitled Hattatal, Clavis metrica. Unfortu- 

 nately (at least this was the story about thirty 

 years ago), nearly the whole edition of the work of 

 Resen was burnt ; only six copies were saved, and 

 the library of the university of Gottingen procured 

 one of them for 100 ducats. But, whether this 

 account is true or not, the Edda of Resen is a 

 great literary curiosity. Notwithstanding these 

 rich materials, to which Thomas Bartholin made 

 extensive additions of old Norse songs, in his work 

 Antiqvitatum Danicarum Libri tres (Copenhagen, 

 1689), a century elapsed before this new and wild 

 mythology produced any considerable excitement 

 in Scandinavia and Germany. Before the time of 

 Resen, the lovers of northern antiquities had 

 received from Ole Worm his Runic Monuments, 

 in six books (1643); from Stephen Stephanius, a 

 new edition, and full commentary on Saxo Gram- 

 maticus (1644); from Olaus Verelius, the Herva- 

 rarsaga (1672), and the Runographia Scandica 

 (1675). Scheffer's Upsalia Antiqua (in 1666, 

 about the time of Resen) afforded interesting 

 views of the doctrines and worship of the north, 

 and Rudbeck, in his Atlantica (1689), excited sur- 

 prise for a time. Gbranson, a Swede, commenced, 

 in 1746, a new edition of the prose Edda, and, in 

 1750, of the Voluspaa. About the same time, 

 Gottfried Schiitze, a patriotic German, wrote 

 Apologies for the ancient Tribes of Germany and 

 the North. The result of Grater's researches into 

 the manuscripts containing remains of old northern 

 literature in the library of the university at Halle, 

 was a collection called Northern Flowers (Leipsic, 

 1789, by Graff). His Bragur stimulated the 

 learned, particularly of Germany and Denmark, to 

 further investigations. A new spur was given to 

 the study of Scandinavian literature by a rifaci- 

 mento of the Nibelungenlied, by Hagen, in 1807, 

 presenting the same matter in a German and Chris- 

 tian form, which the long expected second part of 

 the poetic Edda was to have given in a northern 

 and heathen form; and the appearance, at length, 

 of an Icelandic grammar and a dictionary by Rask. 

 The principal subsequent publications on this sub- 

 ject are the commentary on the collective songs of 



the Edda Den irhlrc Edda (1821 '23, 4 vols.), 

 by Finn Magmisen, the comprehensive examination 

 of all the historical and poetieal traditions of the 

 north, by Erasmus Miiller, in his Sagabibliothck 

 (1817 20, 3 vols.), and his work On the Rise and 

 Decay of Icelandic Historiography, with an Ap- 

 pendix on the Nationality of the old Norse Poems, 

 translated by Sander (Copenhagen, 1815). The 

 investigation of the Runes (q. v.) have also been of 

 much interest. The old northern sagas, or heroic 

 tales, which were translated into Danish, and pub- 

 lished from the Icelandic manuscripts, by C. Chr. 

 Rafn, secretary of the society of Scandinavian lite- 

 rature (Copenhagen, 1821 24, 3 vols.) are of four 

 sorts mythic, mythico-historical, historical, and 

 romantic. These traditions are mostly of Icelandic 

 origin. They were composed by monks, and written 

 on calfskin, before the sixteenth century. The 

 learned Icelander, Arne Magnusen (died 1730) col- 

 lected 1554 of these manuscripts, and left by his 

 will a large sum for their publication. This fund 

 led professor Rafn, in connexion with doctor Bryn- 

 julfon (who died in 1827), Egilson, and Gudmuns- 

 son, of Iceland, to found a society for the publica- 

 tion of old Norse manuscripts, which now includes 

 145 members. (Professor Rask is the president.) 

 Of the amended text of the Sagas there have ap- 

 peared three editions; one in Icelandic, one in 

 Danish, and one in Latin: the title of the last is, 

 Scripta historica Islandorum de Rebus Gestis vete- 

 rum Borealium. Of this edition, three volumes 

 had appeared in 1827, which contain the saga of 

 the Norwegian king Olaf Trygveson, and other 

 short sagas. See Northern Mythology; also the 

 work of Wheaton, referred to above, and an article 

 on Icelandic Literature, in the 17th number of the 

 Foreign Quarterly Review. 



SCANIA. See Schonen. 



SCANNING in poetry; the measuring of a verse 

 by feet, in order to see whether the quantities be 

 duly observed. The term is chiefly used in regard 

 to Greek and Latin verses. Thus a hexameter 

 verse is scanned by resolving it into six feet; a 

 pentameter, by resolving it into five feet, &c. 



SCAPE GOAT, in Jewish antiquities; the 

 goal which was set at liberty on the day of solemn 

 expiation, typically to bear away the sins of the 

 people. 



SCAPEMENT. See Watch and Clock making. 



SCAPOLITE. A mineral which has presented 

 itself under a great variety of aspects, and has 

 hence been mistaken as affording, in its varieties, 

 the foundation of several new species ; instances of 

 which are the following: Meionite, Dipyre, Bery- 

 manite, Wernerite, Gabbronite, Ekebergite, and 

 Nuttallite, all of which are now recognised as 

 coalescing with scapolite. It is often seen in well 

 defined cystals, which are right, square prisms, 

 terminated at one or both extremities by four-sided 

 pyramids. The length of the prism is about double 

 its diameter. It is sometimes truncated on its 

 lateral edges, and thus converted into an octagonal 

 prism ; cleavage not very distinct ; fracture imper- 

 fect, conchoidal, uneven; surface of the prism 

 sometimes longitudinally streaked; lustre vitreous, 

 inclining to resinous upon the cleavage; colour 

 various shades of white, gray, and green; occasion- 

 ally, also, red or purple; transparent, translucent, 

 and opaque ; brittle ; hardness between apatite and 

 feldspar; specific gravity, 2-6 2-8. The massive 

 varieties are columnar, granular, and compact. As 

 respects some of the varieties which gave origin to 



