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work, but which hath not always been observed, is to enter as much as possible into the views of its Author, and to transport ourselves, as it were, into the midst of the people for whom it was written.
It may be easily conceived, that the Edda first written in Iceland, but a short time after the Pagan Religion was abolished there, must have had a different use from that of making known doctrines, then scarcely forgotten. I believe, that on an attentive perusal of this work, its true purpose cannot be mistaken. The Edda then was neither more nor less than a Course of Poetical Lectures, drawn up for the use of such young Icelanders as devoted themselves to the profession of Scald or Poet. In this art, as in others, they who had first distinguished themselves, in proportion as they became ancients, acquired the right to be imitated scrupulously by those who came after them, and sometimes even in things the most arbitrary. The inhabitants of the north, accustomed to see Odin and Frigga, Genii and Fairies make a figure in their ancient poetry, expected still to find their names retained in succeeding Poems, to see them act, and to hear them speak agreeably to the ideas they had once formed of their characters and functions. From the same custom it arises, that in our
