PREFACE.
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.[1]
From the following specimens it willbe
- ↑ See these and more instances in a very elegant French book lately published in Denmark, and often quoted in the following pages, intitled
