NOTES FOR THE ENGLISH READER.
The foregoing ode hath been much admired by the lovers of northern literature. The historian esteems it for the light it throws upon several antient transactions, and the poet is entertain’d with the singularity of its composition. Even the Christian may learn a lesson from the arctic Tyrtæus. When he reflects on the natural ferocity of the human mind; its dark conceptions of Deity; and the gross notions which it forms of future happiness, he will be the more inclinable to set a just value on the discoveries of revelation.
Regner, king of Denmark, is generally believed to have flourished in the viii. tho’ the Ms. of Flatey places his birth in the beginning of the ix. century. After a variety of adventures he was at last made prisoner by Ella a Northumbrian prince. He was condemned to die by the bite of vipers, and, during the operation of their poison, is reported to have sung the Lodbrokar-quida.
