, 



CHAPTEli IV 



THE EDDA AND ITS MYTHOLOGY 



Discovery of Iceland, Greenland, and America — Origin of Old Norse 

 Poetry— Tlie Mythology of the Edda. 



There is a third chapter in the history of northern 

 adventure different from the records of conquest of 

 which we have just spoken, and deserving of a place 

 to itself. 



It would seem that, almost contemporarily with the 

 coming of the Vikings to Great Britain, certain Irish or 

 Scottish monks, adventuring without compass or chart 

 into the North Sea, had found their way not only to 

 the Shetlands, to the Faroes, but even as far as Iceland: 

 nay, some think they got as far as America. It may 

 have been that from some of the Celts whom they had 

 conquered the Norsemen of Great Britain heard of 

 these far lands. Certain it is that the settlement of 

 the Northmen in our islands had not long taken place 

 before there set in another stream, not now of conquest 

 but rather of colonisation, towards these distant reirions. 

 The history of the first pioneers in this adventure is 

 lost to us ; but before very long people of consequence 

 began to interest themselves in the matter, and soon the 

 slender stream of emigration swelled almost into a 

 flood. 



S3 



