to pass among the northern people for a formidable deity; and to found there a new worship, on which to establish his new dominion, and to eternize his hatred for the Romans, by planting among those valiant and populous nations a perpetual nursery of devoted enemies to everything that should bear that name. It is difficult to decide this question. The eye is lost and bewildered, when it endeavours to trace out events so remote and obscure. To unravel and distinguish the several causes, and to mark exactly the distinct influence of each, is what we can hardly do in the history of such ages as are the most enlightened and best known to us. Let us then confine ourselves within more narrow limits, and endeavour to sketch out a new picture of this same religion, as it was afterwards altered, and like a piece of cloth so profusely overcharged with false ornaments, as hardly to show the least glimpse of the original groundwork. This picture will take in a space of seven or eight centuries, which intervened between the time of Odin and the conversion of Denmark to the Christian faith. The Icelandic Edda, and some ancient pieces of poetry, wherein the same mythology is taught, are the sources whence I shall draw my information. But the fear of falling into
