E10 
‘ We find in feveral other ancient fables 
the conflifs of the Scythians and Celtes 
apparently reprefented by battles of gods 
and giants. This is the moft probable 
interpretation of the fables of Jupiter's 
War wich the Titans,* and of many of the 
exploits of Hercules (which we know to 
have been a common name tor adveoturers: 
who conducted emigrations from Afia into 
the South cf Europe}, as his Battle with 
the Giant Albion, the Son of Neptune.t 
The whole of the intercourfe between 
the gods aad the giants in the Edda is an 
sntercourfe of hoitilities. The gods begin 
hy deflroying the giants, with the excep- 
tion of only one, and afterwards give to 
the defcendants of this giant the fhores of 
the fea for their habitation. What can we 
eonceive a more probable hifory of the 
firtt invafion of the Ale, or Scythians, 
than that they fhould exterminate, as far 
as-they were able, the Celtic inhabitants 
of the inland country, and oblige the few 
who efcaped their fury to take refuge in 
their boats, whence they afterwards ob- 
tained fettlements on the coalt whilft the 
fife, the gods, we find, fortified them- 
felves againft them as ftrongly as they 
could in the interior of the country. 
M. Maliet him/‘elf fhews clearly that 
the dwarfs {poken of in the Edda were in- 
tended to allegorize the Laplandeis.— 
What is more likely, therefore, than that 
the Celtes, who exhibited fuch a contrat 
to them in ftature and firength, and whom 
all writers agree in celebrating for the fize 
and robuftneis of their bodies, fhould be 
diftinguifhed as giants. 
The epithe: piven to the giants, as 
« siants of the froft,”” appears indicative 
of the Celtic natives of Scandinavia. 
The name of Norway leads us to de- 
cuce the origin of the inhabitants of that 
country from the f:llowing paflage in the 
Edda: —- ‘* The giant Nor was the firt 
who inhabited the country of Jotunheim.” 
Does not the name of this father of the 
Scandinavian Celtes indicate alio the ety- 
mology of the word North ?f 

* See on, this fable the An. Um Hiftory, 
yok vi., p.39, &¢. 
 f dtis worthy of remark, that Niord, the 
Neptune of the Edda, is faid to be “* not of 
the lineage of the gods.” 
${ Junius derives the word eaf? from nae, 
aurora. Xs it not at leat as probable that this 
quarter of the globe owes its name to the 
Afe? Asevery one knows the near connec- 
tion between the founds of a and c in the 
Di&ionary of the French Academy, 
[Sept. 1, 
’ The giants are reprefented as fkilled in 
magic.—Vid. Mal., vol. ii., p. 130, &c. 
Tie charge of magic has been a general 
expedient employed by the apoftles of new 
religions for the fubverfion of old ones ; 
and as the religion of the giants or Celtes 
was thus reproached by the Goths, fothat 
af the latter fuffered in its turn the fame 
reproach from the Chriftian miffionaries 
and their difciples. It might be curious 
to inquire whether any traces of the’ Dru- 
idical fuperftition of the Celtes are to be 
fuund in the magical operations afcribed 
in the giants. 
Iam fenfible that thefe reafons in be- 
half of the conje€ture which I have ad- 
vanced, mult appear to diiadvantage from 
being given in fo {uperficial a manner ; 
but the recollection of any perfon ac- 
quainted with Northern antiquities, will, 
I truft, eafily fupply their defeéts. 
Loudon, Fuly 13. A... ¥. 
P. S. I thould be zlad to know what rea- 
fon Meirion has for thinking the guttura} 
found foceign to the Gothic pronunciation. 
See Mag. for May. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N looking over, yeur entertaining Mif- 
cellany, I find (Vol. 9, No. 56, Mareh 
1, 1800, p. 158), mention made of a 
‘© Joud complaint’? of a ‘* French philo- 
logical critic,” that in the new Diétionary 
of the French Academy ‘¢ the calculations 
and dates are all made after the ancjent 
regime ; now, fo far as this relates to the 
date of this new edition, which is the fifth, 
this affertion is wrong, for it is mentioned 
in the title-page to be printed @ Paris, 
{An 6 de la Republique, anfwermg to 
1793. Another article of complaint is, 
tnat the new weights and meafures are 
omitted, and nothing faid of the Infiitut 
National. Thisis a miftake likewile, in- 
almuch as they are to be found in the 
Supplément contenant les Mots Nouveaux 
en ufage depuis la Rewolution. Of this 
Supplement it is faid, in the concluding 
paragraph of the Preface, ¢* Il était indi‘. 
peniable d’ajouter a ce Dictignnaires /es 
Mots que la Rewolution et la Republique 
ont ajoutes ala Langue. Celt ce qu’on 
a fait dans un Appendice. On s’elt ad- 
dreffé pour ce nouveau trayail a des 

Teutonic diale&s, the German orthography of 
this word, of, will prefent little ebjeCtion to 
this etymology, which I offer, however, 
merely as a conjettutes 
Hommes: 
