Copy 1, Volume 1

Northern antiquities: or a description of the manners, customs, religion and laws of the ancient Danes, including ... our own Saxon ancestors ... With a translation of the Edda, etc. ... Translated [by Bishop Percy] ... from "L'introduction à l'histoire de Dannemarc, &c., par Mons. Mallet." With additional notes by the English translator, and Goranson's Latin version of the Edda ... / [Paul Henri Mallet].

Paul Henri Mallet

Date:: 1809

Credit: Northern antiquities: or a description of the manners, customs, religion and laws of the ancient Danes, including ... our own Saxon ancestors ... With a translation of the Edda, etc. ... Translated [by Bishop Percy] ... from "L'introduction à l'histoire de Dannemarc, &c., par Mons. Mallet." With additional notes by the English translator, and Goranson's Latin version of the Edda ... / [Paul Henri Mallet]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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( 'I thc Sun, dwclleth the old witch of the foreft of “ yarnvid, There ilie brings forth the fons flie hath by Fenris. One of tliefe is become the mofl pow- erful of ail. He feecls himfelf with the lives of “ thofe who approach to their end. Cloathed with the fpoiis of the other Giants, he will one day ftain “ with blood the army of the Gods : the following Summcr the fight of the Sun fhill be cxtinguiflied. Noxious winds fliall l>low from ail quarters. Do Ilot jou comprehend this faying ?” REMARKS ON THE SIXTH FABLE. (a) “ The country of the Gi- » ants, &c.”] The're are great contefts ampng the learned about this country of yotunheim, or of the Giants ; which fo conftantly occurs in ail the ancient Chronicles of the north. I needed only hâve given a Iketch of thclr principal conjec- tures, to hâve produccd a note of jgreat érudition ; which would cer- tainly hâve tired my readers, but could hâve taught them nothing they wanted to know. (b) “ AU his father’s family.”] One may remark, that according to this allégorie genealogy, it is NiGHT that brings forth the Day. AU the Celtic, ‘ as well as Gothic’ nations, wére of this perfuafion. The ancient reafoners, more often even than thc modem, were redu- ced to the necefiity of explainmg what was obfcure, by what wa» ftill more obfcure. That was a method very well fuited, and cn- tirely analogous to the turn of the human mind, whofe curiofity it very voracious, but yet is eaüly fatisfied, and often as well with words as ideas. Nigut being thus the mother of Day, they thought themfelves obliged, in their computation of time, to pre- fer the name of the Mother to that of the Son. Befides, as they reckonedby months purely lunar, it was natural for them to com- pute the civil day from fun-fet, and from fhe time when the Moon appears above the horizon. It will not be amifs herc briefly to takc notice of the univerfality of this euftom : it was obfervçd by thc Gaulî,

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