beginning to interest themselves in various sorts of hitherto despised vernacular mediæval literature. These “romantic” tendencies to revert to the Middle Ages have been so often explained and are so generally understood that it is sufficient to remind the reader that by 1760 people were losing their heads over James Macpherson's Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands of Scotland; that by 1764 Evan Evans had completed and published Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh Bards, and that by 1765 a steadily growing popular interest in old English ballads had culminated in Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. The early lays of the Scandinavian North are surely of quite as much intrinsic interest as those of Scotland, Wales, or England. With this appetite for outlandish literature once aroused in England, then, and with Worm, Resenius, Bartholin, and Mallet (about whom more presently) available to English scholars, it was to be expected that to these English renderings from Gaelic and British bards somebody should add, sooner or later, specimens of the composition of the Norse skalds. As a matter of fact, “runic poetry" did not have to wait long for such a champion. 1 See, for example, Phelps, English Romantic Movement, particularly chaps. vi-ix; Beers, History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1899, chap. vi. 2 It should be noted that some of the critical writings that were influential in shaping the Romantic movement tended indirectly to encourage an interest in Norse literature. Goldsmith's Polite Learning in Europe, published in 1759, called attention to the Edda and mentioned two or three of the Northern antiquaries. Thomas Warton's Observations on the Faery Queen, 1754, makes half a dozen allusions to Scandinavian mythology, usually with a citation of Hickes. Richard Hurd's dialogue, On the Age of Queen Elizabeth, 1759, and the same author's Letters on Chivalry and Romance, 1762, though not dealing specifically with Scandinavian literature, would foster a taste for it. CHAPTER II PERCY, GRAY, AND BRUCE The earliest work in the English language intended primarily to arouse popular interest in Norse literature appears to have been a little meagre book whose title-page reads: Five Pieces of Runic Poetry Translated from the Islandic Language. [Six lines of runes on copperplate and a motto from Lucan.] London : Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, in Pall-mall MD CC LXIII. A note upon the reverse of the title-page runs as follows: “N.B. This little tract was drawn up for the press in the year 1761: but publication has been delayed by an accident.” Although the editor is mentioned by name nowhere in the book, he was presently known to be Thomas Percy, famous later as the compiler of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Percy's Preface is, significantly, an apology for thrusting upon the attention of cultivated Englishmen specimens of the literary efforts of a people “generally known under no other character than that of a hardy and unpolished race, who subdued all the southern nations by dint of courage and of numbers,” and who, though they established a "generous plan of government, . ... raised the fabric upon the ruins of literature and the fine arts." But there is “one feature of their character,” our editor protests, “ of a more amiable cast; which, tho' not so generally known, no less belongs to them: and that is, an amazing fondness for poetry.” He goes on to say something about the characteristics of the poetry produced by the ancient inhabitants of Sweden, Denmark and Norway," and of the language in which it was written. With the debate over the authenticity of Macpherson's Ossianic fragments in mind, Percy had printed at the end of his volume the Norse texts from which his translations were indirectly derived. For the insertion of these texts he finds it necessary to make a special apology in his Preface. He has printed them, he explains, as vouchers for the authenticity of his version, since “the books whence they are extracted are very scarce." He hopes, too, that they may be "peculiarly acceptable to such curious persons, as study the ancient languages of the north. To these gentlemen,” he continues, “this small publication is inscribed. One of the most learned and most eminent among them (the Reverend Edward Lye] has honoured it so far as to compare the versions everywhere with the originals.” He concludes with an appeal to the lay reader : “ That the study of ancient northern literature hath its important uses has often been evinced by able writers [he cites Dr. Hickes in a footnote] : and that it is not dry or unamusive this little work it is hoped will demonstrate. Its aim at least is to shew, that if those kind of studies are not always employed on works of taste or classic elegance, they serve at least to unlock the treasures of native genius; they present us with frequent sallies of bold imagination, and constantly afford matter for philosophical reflection by showing the workings of the human mind in its almost original state of nature.” All this is somewhat faint-hearted, but we may be tolerably certain that Percy would have lacked the courage of even these convictions had he not found an incentive to publication in the popular enthusiasm over Macpherson's Ossianic fragments. “It would be as vain to deny as it is perhaps impolitic to mention,” he confesses, in the Preface, “that this attempt is owing to the success of the ERSE fragments. The immediate source of Percy's interest in Norse poetry is revealed by a footnote which cites “a very elegant French book lately published in Denmark and often quoted in the following pages, intitled L’introduction a l'histoire de Dannemarc par le Chev. Mallet, 4to. Which contains a most curious and entertaining account of the ancient manners, customs, religion and mythology of the northern nations; besides many striking specimens of their composition. A 1 These were published in 1760. “It is by no means for the interest of this little work,” Percy goes on, “to have it brought into a comparison with those beautiful pieces, after which it must appear to the greatest disadvantage. And yet till the Translator of those poems thinks proper to produce his originals, it is impossible to say whether they do not owe their superiority, if not their whole existence entirely to himself. The Editor of these pieces had no such boundless field for licence. Every poem here produced has been already published accompanied with a Latin or Swedish version, by which every deviation would at once be detected.” translation of this work," adds the editor, “is in great forwardness, and will speedily be published."1 The first volume of Mallet's ” book had appeared at Copenhagen in 1755; the second, which contained copious translations from Snorri's Prose Edda and portions of three of Percy's five pieces, in 1756.2 Professor Phelps hardly exaggerates the importance of Mallet's Introduction when he traces back to it “all subsequent Norse study and all the revival of the Norse element in English literature." 8 Grenville Pigott credits Mallet with being “the first author who gave to [Northern mythology] a popular dress,” 4 and we have plenty of contemporary evidence that the book was widely read. 5 5 1 This translation, by Percy himself, was published in two volumes, anonymously, in 1770, under the title Northern Antiquities (see below, pp. 39 f.). Mallet is cited frequently in Percy's Reliques. See Mallet's letters to Percy in Nichols's Illustrations, VIII, 170 ff. 2 For some account of this book and its author, see Phelps, Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement, Boston, 1893, pp. 139-141 ; Kittredge's note in Phelps's Gray, p. xlii; Vigfusson and Powell's C.P.B., I, xcv. 3 Romantic Movement, p. 141. Vigfusson thinks that it “ had an influence quite out of proportion to its merits” (C.P.B., I, xcv). The second volume was reviewed by Goldsmith in the Monthly Review for April, 1757 (Works, Bohn ed., 1885, IV, 233). The editor of the Bohn edition of Goldsmith notes (IV, 238, n.) that this review was probably Mallet's introduction, as a student of Scandinavian literature, to England. The review was, however, little more than an abstract of certain parts of the book. Walpole wrote to George Montagu, Feb. 19, 1765 (Letters, ed. Cunningham, 1857, IV, 326 f.): “I have been a perfect hermit this fortnight, and buried in Runic poetry and Danish wars. In short I have been deep in a late history of Denmark, written by one Mallet, a Frenchman, a sensible man, but I cannot say he has the art of making a very tiresome subject agreeable. There are six volumes, and I am stuck fast in the fourth.” Walpole must have been reading the complete Histoire de Dannemarc, 6 vols., Geneva, 1763, to which the volumes I have mentioned formed the Introduction. A second edition of the entire work was printed at Geneva in 5 vols., 1771-1777, and a third at the same place in 9 vols., 1787–1788. In Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works (London, 1814, III, 231-238) is printed “ An Examination of Mallet's Introduction to the History of Denmark with a Translation of the Edda, the sacred book of the ancient Celts” (the term “Celts” should be noted), in which Gibbon concludes Mallet to be “a man of sense and candour,” though he finds tḥat part of the book beyond the Introduction “ treated dryly and without taste.” Gray mentions Mallet's book to Mason in his letters of It should be observed that Percy makes no pretence to a knowledge of the Norse tongue. The alleged literal prose translations which comprise his Five Pieces were made, he tells us, not directly from the Norse, but from certain Latin, Swedish, and French versions of the originals. For their absolute correctness, the Rev. Edward Lye's collation is Percy's only guarantee. Each of the pieces is preceded by an Introduction and accompanied by footnotes. Percy's titles and his account of his sources are as follows: 66 1 1. The Incantation of Hervor, “extracted” from the Hervarar Saga, ed. Verelius, Upsala, 1672." This Piece is published," says the editor, “ from the translation of Dr. Hickes, with some considerable emendations." 2. The Dying Ode of Regner Lodbrog, “ translated from the Islandic original published by Olaus Wormius in his Literatura Runica, Hafniæ, 4to. 1631” (an error for 1636). 3. The Ransome of Egill the Scald. This is also from Worm. 4. The Funeral Song of Hacon. “ The Islandic original of this poem,” says the editor, “is preserved in Snorro Sturleson's Hist. Regum Septentrionalium.” It appears that Percy used Peringskjöld's edition of Snorri (Stockholm, 1697) in Norse, Swedish, and Latin, for he observes (p. 61) Jan. 13, 1758 (Works, ed. Gosse, II, 352), and Oct. 5, 1766 (id., III, 252). Grainger refers to “Mallet's lately imported books” in a letter to Percy dated April 6, 1764 (see Nichols's Illustrations, VII, 287, and cf. p. 719). It is interesting to find “Mallet's Northern Antiquities” cited frequently in the footnotes to Charlotte Brooke's Reliques of Irish Poetry, Dublin, 1789. Miss Brooke quotes (p. 96) a line of the Incantation of Hervor from Percy's Five Pieces, and mentions (p. 139) “Torf. Bartholin,” apparently confusing two well-known antiquaries. A curious witness to the interest which Mallet's book aroused is to be found in a volume of Political Miscellanies bound in with a copy of The Rolliad and some other pieces (London, 1795) belonging to the Harvard University Library. Among these Miscellanies are some so-called Foreign Epigrams reflecting upon the Rev. Dr. Prettyman. At the end of No. xii, which purports to be “in the language of Terra Incognita,” the editor asserts that he has contracted with “ the celebrated Caslon” for the casting of some runic characters in order that he may print an epigram contributed by Mons. Maillet. The book long continued to be an authority on Scandinavian subjects, particularly Scandinavian literature, and a very large proportion of the translators mentioned in the following pages cite it, usually in Percy's translation. 1 This ode had been translated in part by Mallet in the second volume of his Introduction, pp. 228 ff. |