( xxxiii )
when it appeared a surer guide than Resenius. M. Goranson, a Swede, hath published it with a Swedish and Latin version, but he has only given us the first part of the Edda: Prefixed to which, is a long Dissertation on the Hyperborean Antiquities; wherein the famous Rudbeck seems to revive in the person of the Author[1].
Notwithstanding these helps, it must be confessed, that the Edda hath been quoted by and known to a very small number of the learned. The edition of Resenius, which doubtless supposes much knowledge and application in the Editor, presents itself under a very unengaging form; we there neither meet with observations on the parallel opinions of other Celtic ‘or Gothic’ people, nor any lights thrown on the customs illuded to. Nothing but a patriotic zeal for the Antiquities of the North can carry one through it. Besides, that book is grown very scarce; but few impressions were
- ↑ The Latin Version of M. Goranson is printed at the end of this Volume, by way of Supplement to M. Mallet’s Work. The curiosity of the subject, and literal exactness of the Version, it is hoped will atone with the Reader of taste, for the barbarous coarseness of the Latinity. In a piece of this kind, classic elegance is less to be desired than such a strict minute (even barbarous) faithfulness, as may give one a very exact knowledge of all the peculiarities of the original. T.
