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doubtless, the real Sibylline verses so long preserved at Rome, and so ill counterfeited afterwards. The Poem of the Voluspa is perhaps the only monument now remaining, capable of giving us a true idea of them.
I need not here quote any passages from this Poem: the text of the Edda, is (as we have seen) quite full of them: and I have given pretty long extracts from it in my Remarks. It is sufficient briefly to observe, that the Prophetess having imposed silence on all intellectual beings, declares, that she is going to reveal the decrees of the Father of Nature, the actions and operations of the Gods, which no person ever knew before herself. She then begins with a description of the chaos; and proceeds to the formation of the world, and of that of its various species of inhabitants, Giants, Men and Dwarfs. She then explains the employments of the Fairies or Destinies; the functions of the Gods, their most remarkable adventures, their quarrels with Loke, and the vengeance that ensued. At last, she concludes with a long description of the final state of the universe, its dissolution and conflagration: the battle of the inferior Deities and the Evil Beings: the renovation of the world: the happy lot of the good, and the punishment of the wicked.
