Five Pieces of Runic Poetry/Preface

PREFACE.

THE ancient inhabitants of the northern parts of Europe are 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. Their valour, their ferocity, their contempt of death, and passion for liberty, form the outlines of the picture we commonly draw of them: and if we sometimes revere them for that generous plan of government which they every where established, we cannot help lamenting that they raised the fabric upon the ruins of literature and the fine arts.

Yet is there one feature of their character of a more amiable cast; which, tho’ not so generally known, no less belongs to them: and that is, an amazing fondness for poetry. It will be thought a paradox, that the same people, whose furious ravages destroyed the last poor remains of expiring genius among the Romans, should cherish it with all possible care among their own countrymen: yet so it was. At least this was the case among the ancient Danes, and from the similarity of their religion, manners, and customs, is equally credible of the other nations of Teutonic race.

The ancient inhabitants of Sweden, Denmark and Norway retained their original manners and customs longer than any other of the Gothic tribes, and brought them down nearer to our own times. The remoteness of their situation rendered access to them slow and difficult: nor was it till the tenth and eleventh centuries that christianity had gained an establishment among them. Hence it is that we are better acquainted with the peculiarities of their character, and have more of their original compositions handed down to us, than of any other of the northern nations.

Of these compositions a great multitude are extant, some of them in print, others preserved in MS in the libraries of the north. All of them demonstrate that poetry was once held there in the highest estimation. The invention of it was attributed to the gods, and ranked among the most valuable gifts conferred on mortals. Those that excelled in it, were distinguished by the first honours of the state: were constant attendants on their kings, and were often employed on the most important commissions. These bards were called by the significant name of Scald, a word which implies “a smoother or polisher of language.” ^[1]

The Language in which their productions are preserved, and which once prevailed pretty extensively in the north, is commonly called Islandic: Iceland being the place where it was supposed to be spoken in the greatest purity, and where it is to this day in use. The Islandic is the mother of the modern Swedish and Danish tongues, in like manner as the Anglo-Saxon is the parent of our English, Both these mother-tongues are dialects of the ancient Gothic or Teutonic; and of so near affinity, that, in the opinion of the learned, what was spoken in one of them, was without much difficulty understood by those, who used the other. Hence it is, that such as study the originals of our own language have constantly found it necessary to call in the assistance of this ancient sister dialect.

The Characters, in which this language was originally written, were called Runic; from an Islandic word that signifies a furrow^[2]. As the materials used for writing in the first rude ages were only wood or stone, the convenience of sculpture required that the strokes should run chiefly in strait lines; and the resemblance to plowing suggested the appellation. The word Runic was at first applied to the letters only; tho’ later writers have extended it to the verses written in them.

A few Specimens of these are now offered to the public. It would be as vain to deny, as it is perhaps impolitic to mention, that this attempt is owing to the success of the Erse fragments. It is by no means for the interest of this little work, 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. It behoved him therefore to be as exact as possible. Sometimes indeed, where a sentence was obscure, he hath ventured to drop it, and the asterisks which occur will denote such omissions. Sometimes for the sake of perspicuity it was necessary to alter the arrangement of a period; and sometimes to throw in a few explanatory words: and even once or twice to substitute a more simple expression instead of the complex and enigmatic phrase of the original.

For the reader must be informed that the productions of the Islandic poets, tho’ quite original and underived, are far from being so easy and simple as might be expected: on the contrary, no compositions abound with more laboured metaphors, or more studied refinements. A proof that poetry had been cultivated among them for many ages. That daring spirit and vigour of imagination, which distinguished the northern warriors, naturally inclined them to bold and swelling figures: and as their mythology was grown very extensive and complicated, the frequent allusions to it could not but be a great source of obscurity to modern readers. It was the constant study of the northern Scalds to lift their poetic style as much as possible above that of their prose. So that they had at length formed to themselves in verse a kind of new language^[3], in which every idea was expressed by a peculiar term, never admitted into their ordinary converse. Some of these terms are founded on their mythology or the fabulous history of their gods: and others on some fancied analogy or resemblance. Thus if an Islandic poet had occasion to mention a rainbow, he called it, The bridge of the gods; if gold, The tears of Freya; if poesy, The gift of Odin. The earth was indifferently termed, Odin's spouse; the daughter of night, or the vessel that floats on the ages: In like manner a battle was to be styled, The bath of blood; The storm of Odin; or the clash of bucklers: the sea, The field of pirates, or the girdle of the earth. Ice was not insignificantly named, The greatest of bridges: a ship, The horse of the waves, &c.^[4]

From the following specimens it will be found, that the poetry of the Scalds chiefly displays itself in images of terror. Death and war were their favourite subjects, and in expressions on this head their language is amazingly copious and fruitful. If in the following versions there should be found too frequent a recurrence of synonymous phrases, it is entirely owing to the deficiency of our language, which did not afford a greater variety: for in the original the same thought is scarcely ever expressed twice in the same words. But tho’ most of the Islandic poetry, that has been printed, is of the rougher cast; we are not to suppose that the northern bards never addressed themselves to the softer passions, or that they did not leave behind them many pieces on the gentler subjects of love or friendship. The misfortune bas been, that their compositions have fallen into the hands of none but professed antiquarians: and these have only selected such poems for publication as confirmed some fact in history, or served to throw light on the antiquities of their country.

The Editor was in some doubt whether he should subjoin or suppress the originals. But as they lie within little compass, and as the books whence they are extracted are very scarce, he was tempted to add them as vouchers for the authenticity of his version. They have also a further use.—It has been said by some critics^[5] that the prevalence of rhyme in European poetry was derived from the Latin hymns, invented by the monks in the fourth and fifth centuries: but from the original of Egill’s Ode, it will be seen that the ancient Gothic poets occasionally used rhime with all the variety and exactness of our nicest moderns, long before their conversion to christianity; and therefore were not likely to adopt it from the monks; a race of men, whom they were either unacquainted with, or held in derision ^[6].

Upon the whole, it is hoped that the few pages assigned to the Islandic originals will not be thought an useless incumbrance by any readers; but it is presumed will be peculiarly acceptable to such curious persons, as study the ancient languages of the north. To these gentlemen this small publication is inscribed: One of the most learned and most eminent among them has honoured it so far as to compare the versions every where with the originals. But this was a small exertion of that extensive skill in languages, which the public has seen displayed with so much advantage in the fine editions of Junius’s Etymologicon and the Gothic Gospels—That the study of ancient northern literature hath its important uses has been often evinced by able writers^[7]: 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.

1. Skalld a depilando dicti videntur, quod rudem orationem tanquam evulsis pilis perpoliunt. Torfæi Præfat. ad Orcades. The name of Bard also [Isl. Barda] was not unknown among the Islandic poets.
2. Ryn Sulcus. Vid. Olaij Wormij Literat. Runica. 1636. 4to. p. 2, 3.
3. Called by them, after the manner of the ancient Greeks, (Asom-maal,) the language of the gods.
4. See these and more instances in 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 translation of this work is in great forwardness, and will speedily be published.
5. Crescembeni, &c.
6. Vide infra pag. 32.
7. See Dr. Hickes’s Dissertatio Epistolaris, &c.