To

the ancient inhabitants of the North. the powers of Poetry, to the martial song of the Scald, the dying hero looked up for the perpetuity of his fame, nor has the generous hope been frustrated. Few nations have cultivated this charming art, with more enthusiasm than the Scandinavians, few with more energy and effect. To do justice, therefore, to a theme, involving much of their national character, and which laid a permanent foundation for their military glory, it is my intention to devote the succeeding number to a consideration of the influence and operation of poetry, on the minds and manners of our northern ancestors.

13

NUMBER LV.

Call forth the song

-the Minstrels came

The theme was glorious war, the dear delight Of shining best in field, and daring most in fight. PENROSE.

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A LOVE for poetry has been ever prevalent in the earliest stages of society, and those whom we have usually designated by the term barbarians, have generally cultivated it with the greatest ardour and success. It would pear, indeed, from the history of mankind, that the powers of melody and song, the union of sweet sounds with measured language, were long anterior to prose, and employed, by all rude nations, as the vehicle of their religion, laws, education, and traditions. Memory was thus assisted by the regular return of harmonious periods, and the passions agitated by the recitation of glorious achiev

ments, in diction of the most bold and figurative cast. Hence Homer and Hesiod flourished several centuries before the appearance of Pherecydes, and poetry, in every country, from the gardens of Schiras to the mountains of Lapland, has even made rapid strides to perfection, at a time when prose, as a composition, could not be said to exist.

No people, however, have been more devoted to this art, or derived more important consequences from it, than the ancient inhabitants of Scandinavia. With their religion, warfare, politics and manners, it was closely interwoven, and their glory, immortality and happiness, rested on its basis. Odin, indeed, when he conducted his colony from the Caspian to the shores of the Baltic, placed himself at the head of a nation, already addicted to the charms of poetry, and even familiar, perhaps, with the rich landscape of Georgia; but, in the wilds of Scandinavia, where Nature assumes a more terrific shape, where all is savage, gigantic and sublime, imagination soon became more powerfully affected, and forcibly combined with the martial mytho

logy of their leader, in imparting a sterner tone to the Muses, an air of loftier enthusiasm.

Hence the Scald's strong verse

Partook the savage wildness.

For

Amid such scenes as these, the Poet's soul

Might best attain full growth; pine-cover'd rocks,
And mountain forests of eternal shade,
And glens and vales, on whose green quietness
The lingering eye reposes, and fair lakes
That image the light foliage of the beech,
Or the gray glitter of the aspen leaves
On the still bough thin trembling.

SOUTHEY.

In the Edda, therefore, as containing the peculiar tenets of Odin, we might naturally expect that much honour would be paid, and much importance annexed to the influence of poetry and music, and accordingly a deity in Valhalla, under the name of BRAGA, presides over those delightful arts, which, in allusion to his name, have been usually termed Brager. To him the Bard or Scald offered a devotion, warm from the heart, for to him he attributed the inspiration, which procured him the most distinguished honours, and which wrought such wonders on the fascinated hearers of the