navian Runes, as is evident from several other passages in which allusion is made to his travels in Germany. Grimm has further shown, in the most clear and satisfactory manner, that the Anglo-Saxon Runic alphabet was derived from the Scandinavian at a period when it had only sixteen letters, the complementary letters of the two alphabets having been formed on principles that offer not the slightest analogy. Hence we may safely infer that the Scandinavians were acquainted with Runic letters in the sixth century, and, in all probability, at a much earlier period, though it is certainly very extraordinary that they should have made so little use of them. Grimm, after having established by the most conclusive arguments the facts above stated, attempts to trace the sixteen original Runes* to a remote Asiatic source, founding his conjectures on their inadequacy to express all the sounds of the Old Norse language, and therefore assuming that they must necessarily have been borrowed from a more primitive tongue. Into this inquiry we will not follow him, as we deem the assumption to be somewhat gratuitous †, but leave the reader to draw his own conclusions from a comparison of the three Runic alphabets which we give in the next page, together with the characters said to have been invented by Ulphilus, but which Grimm supposes were known to the Maso-Goths long before their learned bishop's translation of the Gospels, their original form having been somewhat changed when the Goths became acquainted with the Greek alphabet, and further modified by Ulphilus rendering them more adaptable for writing.

Not having as yet met with a satisfactory etymology of the word Rune, we will not give that generally adopted, as it is probably the most erroneous of all, but merely observe that the Norse û corresponds to the German au, and that the famous root mandragora or rather the demon conjured out of it, is designated in old German by the word alraun. See Will. Grimm's Deutsche Runen, p. 67, and Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, p. 376.

In modern German, for instance, the sounds represented by B and P are equally as distinct as in English, yet these sounds are so confounded in some of the provincial dialects, that we much question whether an Austrian village schoolmaster, if called upon to form an alphabet for the jargon he teaches his scholars, would not discard one of them as superfluous.

*.* C, K, and Q represent the same sound in Anglo-Saxon, two of these letters are consequently superfluous. Rask only uses twenty-four characters in his Anglo-Saxon grammar.

We may remark, in conclusion, that no Runic lapidary inscriptions in any of the ancient Upper Germanic languages have hitherto been discovered, and we believe not more than two or three in Anglo-Saxon *.]

Mankind, every where essentially the same, have been al ways led to poetical composition prior to that of prose. This seems at present the reverse of the natural order; but we think so either through our prejudices or for want of putting ourselves in the place of a people who are ignorant of the art of writing. Pleasing sounds and the attractions of harmony would strike at first every ear; but song could not long subsist without poetry. No sooner was it observed how these two united powers fixed and impressed those images on the mind, which the memory was desirous of retaining, than they acquired a new degree of esteem, especially among such as aspired to a lasting fame. Verse was made use of to preserve the memory of remarkable events and great actions. The laws of a people, their religious ceremonies and rural labours were also recorded in numbers, because these are subjects which, consisting of a great variety of particulars, might easily fall into oblivion. Hence it was that Greece could already boast of an Homer, an Hesiod, and of many other poets, several ages before Pherecydes had written in prose. Hence among the Gauls and other Celtic nations there were poems composed on

• One of these, cut on a stone cross, was found in Nottinghamshire, and a copy of it sent by Spelman, in 1618, to the famous northern antiquary, Olaus Wormius, who has given it in his Monum. Dan. page 161. The inscription consists of thirteen very legible Anglo-Saxon Runes. Wormius, how. ever, taking for granted that the inscription was in the old Norse language, and not being able to extract any meaning from the letters as they stood, did not hesitate to transpose some and add others, by dint of which legerdemain, he at length brought out "Rino satu Runa stina, Rino set this Runic stone. Another erudite northern antiquary, Helverschov, tortured them into "vilos eros ateos," the barbarous Latin for vilis ero atheis, but William Grimm reads, without changing a letter, the Anglo-Saxon phrase, Rices dryhtnes, the dominion of the kingdom, which may mean the dominion of the kingdom of heaven over that of earth, or the dominion of a civil jurisdiction, the cross being probably placed to mark the boundary of a parish or a hundred. This anecdote will serve to show the reader that the present generation of northern antiquaries, in having recourse to the Jonathan Oldbuck manner of deciphering lapidary inscriptions--an amusing instance of which will be found in the next chapter--merely tread in the footsteps of their illustrious predecessors.

all subjects from the earliest ages, which the Druids, who were appointed to educate the youth, frequently employed twenty years in teaching them to repeat *. This custom, rendered sacred by its high antiquity, which ever commands respect from the people, was in force many ages after the art of writing had pointed out a more perfect method of preserving the memorials of human knowledge. In like manner the Scandina vians for a long time applied their Runic letters only to the senseless purposes above mentioned; nor did they, during so many years, ever think of committing to writing those verses with which their memories were loaded; and it is probable that they only wrote down a small quantity of them at last. The idea of making a book never entered into the heads of those fierce warriors, who knew no medium between the violent exercises and fatigues of war or hunting and a stupid lethargic state of inaction. Among the innumerable advantages which accrued to the northern nations from the introduction of the Christian religion, that of teaching them to apply the knowledge of letters to useful purposes, is not the least valuable. Nor could a motive less sacred have eradicated that habitual and barbarous prejudice which caused them to neglect so admirable a secret. The churches and monasteries were at least so many asylums where this secret was preserved, while the ferocity of manners which prevailed in the dark again to consign it to oblivion.

ages tended So long as paganism prevailed in the north, the use of letters being very limited, it is no paradox to say that verse was a necessary medium of knowledge, and the poet an essential officer of the state. And if it requires a peculiar and uncommon genius to excel in this art, the professors of it would of course acquire a very high degree of esteem and respect. All the historical monuments of the north are full of the honours paid this order of men both by princes and people; nor can the annals of poetry produce any age or country which reflects more glory and lustre upon it. The ancient chronicles constantly represent the kings of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden as attended by one or more Skalds; for this was the name they gave their poets. They were more especially honoured and caressed at the courts of those princes, who

*Cesar, Comment. lib. vi. 14.

distinguished themselves by their great actions and passion for glory. Harald Hárfagra, for instance, placed them at his feasts above all the other officers of his court. Many princes entrusted them both in peace and war with commissions of the utmost importance. They never set out on any considerable expedition without some of them in their train. Hakon, Earl of Norway, had five celebrated Skalds along with him in that famous battle, when the warriors of Jomsburg were defeated; and history records that they sung each an ode to animate the soldiers before they engaged. But they enjoyed another advantage, which would be more the envy of the poets of these days. They were rewarded for the poems they composed in honour of the kings and heroes with magnificent presents; we never find the Skald singing his verses at the courts of princes without being recompensed with golden rings, glittering arms, and rich apparel. Their respect for this or der of men often extended so far as to remit the punishment of crimes they had committed, on condition they sued out their pardon in verse. In a word, the poetic art was held in such high estimation, that great lords and even kings did not disdain to cultivate it with the utmost pains themselves. Raguvald, Earl of the Orkney islands, passed for a very able poet; he boasts himself, in a song of his which is still extant, that he knew how to compose verses on all subjects. Ragnar Lodbrok was no less distinguished for his skill in poetry, than in war and navigation. Many of his poems were long preserved in the north, and may be found inserted in the history of his life and it is well known that he died no less like a poet than a hero.

The respect, however, which the northern nations paid to their Skalds was not owing to the nobility of their extraction. A people whose object was glory, could not fail of showing a great deference to those who both published it abroad and consigned it to futurity, let their origin be what it would. A prince or illustrious warrior oftentimes exposed his life with so much intrepidity only to be praised by his Skald, who was both the witness and judge of his bravery. It is affirmed that this kind of men, although poets, were never guilty of flattery, and never lavished their praises on heroes and kings themselves unless their gallant exploits were quite incontestable *

Vid. Bartholin. p. 154, et cap. 10. lib. i. passim.-P.