SCALD. 
history of the Scandinavians. A bard named Thiodolfe, 
celebrated in his verses the exploits of Harold and thirty of 
his predecessors; another called Eyvind, composed an histo¬ 
rical poem which went back as far as Odin. Such are the 
sources whence Saxo drew his materials for the first six or 
seven books of his history; and he might, doubtless, have 
derived great assistance from them, if he had not happened 
to live in an age wholly destitute of that exact skill in criti¬ 
cism, which knows how to separate facts from the fictions 
with which they are blended. 
The necessity there was for poets, the natural attractions 
of the art itself, and those it derived from the manners of 
the age, greatly multiplied the number of Scalds. An ancient 
Icelandic manuscript has preserved a list of all such as dis¬ 
tinguished themselves in the three northern kingdoms, from 
the reign of Regner Lodbrog to that of Valdemar II. They 
are in number two hundred and thirty, among whom we 
find more than one crowned head. But what is not less 
remarkable is, that most of them are natives of Iceland. 
The style of these ancient poems is very enigmatical and 
figurative, very remote from the common language, and, for 
that reason, grand, but tumid; sublime, but obscure. If it 
be the character of poetry to have nothing in common with 
prose; if the language of-the gods ought to be quite different 
from that of men; if every thing should be expressed by 
imagery, figures, hyperboles, and allegories, the Scandina¬ 
vians may rank in the highest class of poets: nor is this un¬ 
accountable. The soaring flights of fancy may possibly 
more peculiarly belong to a rude and uncultivated, than to 
a civilized people. The great objects of nature strike more 
forcibly on rude imaginations. Their passions are not im¬ 
paired by the constraint of laws and education. The paucity 
of their ideas, and the bairenness of their language, oblige 
them to borrow from all nature images fit to clothe their con¬ 
ceptions in. 
The most affecting and most striking passages in the an¬ 
cient northern poetry, were such as now seem to us the most 
whimsical, unintelligible, and overstrained: so different are 
our modes of thinking from theirs. We can admit of nothing 
but what is accurate and perspicuous. They only required 
bold and astonishing images, which appear to us hyperbolical 
and gigantic. What also contributes to render their poetry 
very obscure at present is that the language of it is borrowed 
from their mythology; a mythology not so familiar to us as 
that of the Greeks and Romans. When they did not allude 
to their own fables, they took their metaphors from other 
subjects, which were commonly very far-fetched and remote. 
Each of their deities might be expressed by an infinite variety 
of phrases. In short, a peculiar study of this kind of lan¬ 
guage was necessary to constitute a poet; for which reason 
they early composed a dictionary of it for the use as well of 
the Scalds as their readers. The same Rogvald, earl of the 
Orkneys, before spoken of, is said to have composed a work 
of this sort, which, according to Wormius, is still extant, 
uuder the name of the Poetical Key. Another is found at 
the end of. the Icelandic Edda, and is intitled Scalda, or the 
Art of Poetry. This is a collection of epithets and synony¬ 
mous words selected from their best poets, very like those 
which are put into the hands of young people when they 
first apply themselves to Latin poetry. 
Yet they sometimes composed verses in a more simple style, 
and nearer approaching to common language; but this only 
happened when in conversation a Scald, either to shew his 
happy talent, or to do more honour to the person with whom 
he conversed, answered in extemporary metre. This singu¬ 
lar mode of expressing themselves was very common among 
the ancient Scandinavians, and proves in what degree of 
esteem this people held the art of poetry. The chronicles 
have preserved a great number of such conversations in verse ; 
and there is reason to believe, that these poems, which might 
be sung at first, and easily committed to memory, were often¬ 
times the text of which succeeding chronicles were nothing 
more than commentaries or expositions. There is no appear¬ 
ance that the verses wa - e composed by the authors of those 
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histories: they are never assigned to any but the Scalds by 
profession ; and are quoted by the historians as their proofs 
and vouchers: and besides, it is known to have been usual 
with the Scalds to interlard their discourse with extemporary 
verses. 
We are not to imagine that these poets were wholly un- 
confiued by rales, or that they were not subject to such as 
were very severe. It is an erroneous opinion, that rhyme 
was wholly unknown to the northern Scalds, and by parity 
of reason to all the Gothic poets; whereas it was undoubtedly 
from these that this modern ornament of verse derived its 
origin and use. 
The Scandinavian bards, of whom we have now given an 
account, appear to have been esteemed and entertained in 
other countries besides their own, and by these means to 
have probably communicated their fictions to various parts 
of Europe. The northern emigrants, who, by their emi¬ 
grations and invasions, visited England, Ireland, Scotland, 
and the Orkney Islands, were undoubtedly attended by their 
Scalds or poets. And even in time of peace, these Scandi¬ 
navian Scalds, possessing a specious and pleasing talent, fre- 
quenteddhe courts of the British, Scottish, and Irish chief¬ 
tains. They were itinerants by their institution, and made 
voyages out of curiosity, or in quest of rewards, to those 
islands or coasts which lay within the circle of their maritime 
knowledge. By these means they established an interest, 
rendered their profession popular, propagated their art, and 
circulated their fictions in other countries, and at a distance 
from home. Torfseus (Prsef. ad Oread.) asserts positively, 
that various Icelandic odes now remain, which were sung 
by the Scandinavian bards, before the kings of England 
and Ireland, and for which they received liberal gratuities. 
Wormius informs us (Lit. Dan. p. 195. 4to.) that the north¬ 
ern Scalds, in great numbers, constantly resided in the courts 
of the kings of Sweden, Denmark, and England; from 
which circumstance it has been inferred, that Odin’s lan¬ 
guage was originally used, not only in Denmark, Sweden, 
and Norway, but even in England. From these sugges¬ 
tions, it may be naturally concluded, that the Scandinavian 
tongue became familiar in the British islands by the songs of 
the Scalds; unless it be rather presumed that a previous 
knowledge of that tongue in Britain was the means of faci¬ 
litating the admission of those poets, and of preparing the 
way for their reception. Moreover, the fictions of Odin 
and of his Scandinavians, must have taken still deeper root 
in the British islands, at least in England, from the Saxon 
and Danish invasions. That the tales of the Scandinavian 
Scalds flourished among the Saxons, who succeeded to the 
Britons, and became possessors of England in the sixth 
century, may be justly presumed; for the Saxons were a 
branch of the Scandinavian tribes, and boasted of the de¬ 
scent of their princes from Odin. They imported with them 
into England, the old Runic language and letters. And 
even after the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity, when 
they became a more mild and polished people, their poems 
were chiefly moral rhapsodies, scriptural histories, or reli¬ 
gious invocations, in which occur frequent allusions to the 
old Scaldic fables and heroes. 
' As literature, together with true religion and civilization, 
gained ground among the Saxons, poetry was no longer 
regarded as a separate science, and the profession of bard, 
under the appropriated characteristics and peculiar appoint¬ 
ment which he sustained among the Scandinavian Pagans, 
declined; and instead of the old Scaldic a new rank of poets 
arose, called Gleemen (corresponding to Joculatores ), or 
harpers; and these probably gave rise to the order of English 
minstrels, who flourished till the sixteenth century. 
The songs of the Irish bards are conceived by some per¬ 
sons to be strongly marked with the traces of Scaldic imagi¬ 
nation, which are believed still to survive among a species 
of poetical historians, called “ tale-tellers,” supposed to be 
descendants of the original Irish bards. Nor is it impro¬ 
bable, that the Welsh bards might have been acquainted 
with the Scandinavian Scalds. We may also observe, that 
the 
