in antiquities, is a system of the ancient Icelandic or Runic mythology, containing many curious particulars of the theology, philosophy, and manners, of the northern nations of Europe; or of the Scandinavians, who had migrated from Asia, and from whom our Saxon ancestors were descended. Mr Mallet apprehends that it was originally compiled, soon after the Pagan religion was abolished, as a course of poetical lectures, for the use of such young Icelanders as devoted themselves to the profession of a scald or poet. It consists of two principal parts; the first containing a brief system of mythology, properly called the Edda; and the second being a kind of art of poetry, and called scalda or poetics. The most ancient Edda was compiled by Soemund Sigfusson, furnamed the Learned, who was born in Iceland about the year 1057. This was abridged, and rendered more easy and intelligible, about 120 years afterwards, by Snorro Sturlefon, who was supreme judge of Iceland in the years 1215 and 1222; and it was published in the form of a dialogue. He added also the second part in the form of a dialogue, being a detail of different events transacted among the divinities. The only three pieces that are known to remain of the more ancient Edda of Soemund, are the Volupsa, the Havamal, and the Runic chapter. The Volupsa, or prophecy of Vola or Fola, appears to be the text, on which the Edda is the comment. It contains, in two or three hundred lines, the whole system of mythology disclosed in the Edda, and may be compared to the Sibylline verses, on account of its laconic yet bold style, and its imagery and obscurity. It is professedly a revelation of the decrees of the Father of nature, and the actions and operations of the gods. It describes the chaos, the formation of the world, with its various inhabitants, the functions of the gods, their most signal adventures, their quarrels with Loke their great adversary, and the vengeance that ensued; and 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. The Havamal, or Sublime Discourse, is attributed to the god Odin, who is supposed to have given these precepts of wisdom to mankind; it is comprised in about 120 stanzas, and resembles the book of Proverbs. Mr Mallet has given several extracts of this treatise on the Scandinavian ethics. The Runic chapter contains a short system of ancient magic, and especially of the enchantments wrought by the operation of Runic characters, of which Mr Mallet has also given a specimen. A manuscript copy of the Edda of Snorro is preserved in the library of the university of Upsal; the first part of which hath been published with a Swedish and Latin version by M. Goranson. The Latin version is printed as a supplement to M. Mallet's Northern Antiquities. The first edition of the Edda was published by Resenius, professor at Copenhagen, in a large quarto volume, in the year year 1665; containing the text of the Edda, a Latin translation by an Icelandic priest, a Danish version, and various readings from different MSS. M. Mallet has also given an English translation of the first part, accompanied with remarks; from which we learn, that the Edda teaches the doctrine of the Supreme, called the Universal Father, and Odin, who lives forever, governs all his kingdom, and directs the great things as well as the small; who formed the heaven, earth, and air; made man, and gave him a spirit or soul, which shall live after the body shall have moulder'd away; and then all the jutl shall dwell with him in a place Gimle or Vingolf; the palace of friendship; but wicked men shall go to Hela, or death, and from thence to Niflheim, or the abode of the wicked, which is below in the ninth world. It inculcates also the belief of several inferior gods and goddesses, the chief of whom is Frigg or Frea, i.e. lady, meaning hereby the earth, who was the spouse of Odin or the Supreme God; whence we may infer that, according to the opinion of these ancient philosophers, this Odin was the active principle or soul of the world, which uniting itself with matter, had thereby put it into a condition to produce the intelligences or inferior gods, and men and all other creatures. The Edda likewise teaches the existence of an evil being called Loke, the calumniator of the gods, the artificer of fraud, who surpasses all other beings in cunning and perfidy. It teaches the creation of all things out of an abyss or chaos; the final destruction of the world by fire; the absorption of the inferior divinities, both good and bad, into the bosom of the grand divinity, from whom all things proceed, as emanations of his essence, and who will survive all things; and the renovation of the earth in an improved state.