792 



ECLOGUE KDELINCK. 



Earth's axis. See Astronomy, Degree, Equinoctial, 

 Day, &c. 



ECLOGUE, in poetry; a select piece, of any sort ; 

 in general, select poems, or sereral poems of the 

 same form ; thus the satires of Horace were called 

 eclogues. Since Virgil's Bucolics received this name 

 (front grammarians, probably, and not from the 

 poet), the term eclogues has usually been applied to 

 what Theocritus cjillt 1 idyls. short, highly finished 

 poems, principally of a pastoral nature. See Idyl. 



ECONOMY, POLITICAL. See Political Eco- 

 nomy. 



KDAM; a town of North Holland, near the 

 Zuyder-Xee ; twelve miles north of Amsterdam ; 

 Ion. 5 3' E. ; lat. 52 31' N. ; population, 2745. 

 It is built in a triangular form, and has a good port, 

 formed by the river Ey, on which it stands, and 

 which, will i the dam thrown up against the inunda- 

 tions of that river, gives its name to the town. This 

 place is chiefly noted for its trade in cheese : in 1801, 

 not less than 6,600,631 pounds of Dutch cheese were 

 weighed here. The two great divisions of Dutch 

 cheese are sweet milk and curds. The latter is also 

 called komyne (cummin) cheese, also kastert. The Edam 

 cheese is all sweet milk cheese, which is again divided 

 according to its rind, into red and white. Its mean 

 price is Irom twenty to twenty-five gilders for 100 

 pounds. A large quantity goes to England. The 

 whole annual production of cheese in Holland is 

 estimated at thirty millions of pounds. 



EDDA ; two collections of ancient Icelandic 

 poems, which, as they came from the Norwegians 

 (Normans), who emigrated to Iceland, are of Ger- 

 man origin. They are the chief source of the 

 mythology of the gods and heroes of the north of 

 Europe. The first of these collections, called the 

 Older or Samtindic Edda, is said to have been pre- 

 pared by Samund Sigfusson, a learned Icelandish 

 clergyman, and Are Frode, the oldest historian of 

 the north, who lived from 1056 to 1133, and studied 

 at Paris. Sigfusson's life lias been written by Arne 

 Magreeus, and is annexed to the first part of the 

 Edda. But this statement of its origin, as well as 

 its claim to the general name Edda, has been denied. 

 It consists of a number of the poems of the Scalds 

 and the most ancient traditionary songs ; hence the 

 name of Old Edda (mother of poetry). This Edda 

 was formerly concealed and forgotten in Iceland for 

 400 years. A part of it seems to be lost for ever. 

 In 1G43, the best copy extant of these old poems, 

 written on parchment, was found and rescued from 

 decay by bishop Brynjolf Svensen. The Edda has 

 since been considerably studied, and the following 

 portions have been published : Begthamgsnida, P'ol- 

 nspat (prophecies), Havamaal (elevated conversation) 

 and Run a Capitule, or the Runic chapter (in which 

 Odin boasts of his power in magic songs).' From 

 these poems, then complete, and other songs, the 

 prose extracts were formed, perhaps 120 years later, 

 called the Younger Edda, ascribed to Snorro Stur- 

 leson, lagmann of Iceland, and sewer of king Haco, 

 about A. D. 1200. This extract forms a kind of sys- 

 tem, and cycltts of those songs, and is to be considered 

 as a religious system (of course, no longer believed 

 at the time when it was compiled), and, as a compend 

 of the old Norse poetry, showing the versification and 

 grammatical structure of the language. It is of much 

 importance, too, on account of the numerous hiatuses 

 in the ancient songs of the country, of which it often 

 gives passages. The work was afterwards still more 

 extended and remodelled. It consists of three parts, 

 of which the first is dogmatical ; the second, narra- 

 tive ; and the third, entitled Scalda, contains an al- 

 phabetical index of the poetical idioms which are 

 lound in the preceding parts. The Icelandic text 



of this Edda, with numerous, but very erroneous 

 translations, was published by Resenius, Copenhagen, 

 1665, -ho : hence it is also called the Resenian Edda. 

 A better edition was published by Uask, Stockholm, 

 1818. Nyerup published a Danish translation 

 (Copenhagen, 1808), and has done much for the gene- 

 ral elucidation of the Edda. There is a German 

 translation by Bulls (Berlin, 1812). The first part 

 of the Older or Samundic Edda was printed in the 

 original text, 1787, by the Magnaean institute, ani- 

 mated by the zeal of Suhm, accompanied with a 

 Latin translation and a glossary, both prepared 

 principally by Gudemand Magnreus. The second 

 part was published in 1818, by the Magnaean insti- 

 tute, containing the Vofandarqulda, and all the poems 

 wliich form the connexion of the Scandinavian and 

 German heroic era. New editions and translations 

 of the parts already known, have been prepared 

 among the Germans, by Denis, Schimmehnann, 

 Grater, Herder, and Fred. Majer. Some of the 

 sagas of the Edda, before imprinted, have been lately 

 published by von der Hagen and Grimm, in the origi- 

 nal, and subsequently in German. Adelung, Schlozer, 

 and, lately, Huhs, have doubted the genuineness 

 and antiquity of the Older Edda. Their opponents 

 are P. C. Muller (On the Genuineness of the Doctrine 

 Asa, and the Value of the Edda of Snorro, Copen- 

 hagen, 1811, and On the Origin and Decline of 

 Icelandic Historiography, with an Appendix on the 

 nationality of the old Norse Poems, Copenhagen, 

 1815), von der Hagen, the brothers Grimm, Docen, 

 and others ; and truth seems to be jon their side. 

 For not only the inherent verisimilitude and peculiar 

 development of the doctrine of the Edda, but vari- 

 ous historical traces, vouch for its antiquity and 

 genuineness. On the connexion of the German 

 Niebelungenlied and the Heldenbuch (the Book of 

 Heroes) with the Edda, interesting investigations 

 have been instituted by the authors last named. 



EDDYSTONE ROCKS ; well known to seamen 

 who navigate the English channel, consisting of 

 three principal ridges, and extending 600 or 700 

 yards in length. They lie nearly in the fair way 

 from the Start to the Lizard, and are therefore an 

 object of the utmost importance to mariners. Hence 

 it is, that on the summit of the largest rock & light- 

 house has been erected, to serve as a beacon or sig- 

 nal to avoid the danger, as they are covered at the 

 flood tide, but become dry at the ebb. The founda- 

 tion of the lighthouse is one entire solid mass of 

 stones to the height of 35 feet, engrafted into eat h 

 other, and united by every means of additional 

 strength. It is about 80 feet in height ; 15 S.S. \V. 

 Plymouth, 45 E. Lizard point; Ion. 4 13 W., lat. 

 50 11' N. The swell at these rocks is tremendous. 

 After a storm, when the sea is to all appearance 

 quite smooth, and its surface unruffled by the slightest 

 breeze, the ground-swell or under-current meeting 

 the slope of the rocks, the sea often rises above the 

 lighthouse in a magnificent manner, overtopping it 

 as with a canopy of foam. Henry Winstanley, in 

 1696, built the first lighthouse, but, in 1703, perished 

 in it, having too much confidence in his building's 

 standing any storm. Another lighthouse stood from 

 1709 till 1755. The third was. begun in 1757. by 

 the late Mr John Smeaton, and finishe:! in 1759. It 

 lias withstood all the rage of the weather. The 

 structure of the edifice of Mr Smeaton is highly in- 

 teresting. In the beginning of 1830, the upper 

 structure had become so racked, that it was deemed 

 necessary to rebuild it. 



EDELINCK, GERARD, a painter, and distinguish- 

 ed engraver, was born at Antwerp, in 1649. He 

 learned the elements of his art in his native city, but 

 fully developed his talents in France. Louis XIV. 



