Northern Antiquities - 1 Author:Paul Henri Mallet Subtitle: Including Those of Our Own Saxon Ancestors. With a Translation of the Edda, or System of Runic Mythology, and Other Pieces, From the Ancient Islandic Tongue ... Volume: 1 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1770 Original Publisher: T. Carnan and Co. Subjects: Scandinavia Northmen Greenland Edda... more »s History / Medieval History / Europe / Scandinavia History / Polar Regions Juvenile Nonfiction / History / Medieval Literary Criticism / European / German Travel / Europe / Scandinavia Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: C H A P T E R V. A general idea of the ancient religion of tfe northern nations. IT is not eafy to form an exaft notion of the religion formerly profeffed in the north of Europe. What the Latin and Greek authors have written on this fubjeft is commonly deficient in point of exadlnefs. They had for many ages little or no inter- courfe with the inhabitants of thefe countries, whom they ftyled Barbarians j they were ignorant of their language, and, as moft of thefe' nations made a fcruple of unfolding the grounds of their religious dodTrines to ftrangers, the latter, who were thereby reduced to be meer fpedtatora oftheir outward forms of worfhip, could not eafily enter into the fpirit of it. And yet if we bring together the few fhort fketches which thefe different writers have pre- ferved of it, if we correct them by one another, if we compare their accounts with thofe of the ancient poets and hiftorians of thefe nations themfelves, I flatter myfelf, we mall throw light enough upon this fub- jecl: to be able to diftinguifh the moft important objects in it. Particularly all thofe of Celtic origin. The author had exprefled it limply " As all the Cel- '...« less