to a modern tongue of the
_Edda_, and this volume, in consequence, attracted much attention. The
great English antiquarian, Thomas Percy, afterward Bishop of Dromore,
was early drawn to this work, and with the aid of friends he
accomplished a translation of it, which was published in 1770.

Mallet's work was very bad in its account of the racial affinities of
the nations commonly referred to as the barbarians that overturned the
Roman empire and culture. Percy, who had failed to edit the ballad MSS.
so as to please Ritson, was wise enough to see Mallet's error, and to
insist that Celtic and Gothic antiquities must not be confounded.
Mallet's translation of the _Edda_ was imperfect, too, because he had
followed the Latin version of Resenius, which was notoriously poor.
Percy's _Edda_ was no better, because it was only an English version of
Mallet. But we are not concerned with these critical considerations
here; and so it will be enough to record the fact that with the
publication of Percy's _Northern Antiquities_--the English name of
Mallet's work--in 1770, knowledge of Icelandic literature passed from
the exclusive control of learned antiquarians. More and more, as time
went on, men went to the Icelandic originals, and translations of poems
and sagas came from the press in increasing numbers. In the course of
time came original works that were inspired by Old Norse stories and Old
Norse conceptions.

We have already noted that Gray's poems on Icelandic themes, though
written in 1761, were not published until 1768. Another delayed work on
similar themes was Percy's _Five Pieces of Runic Poetry_, which, the
author tells us, was prepared for the press in 1761, but, through an
accident, was not published until 1763. The preface has this interesting
sentence: "It would be as vain to deny, as it is perhaps impolitic to
mention, that this attempt is owing to the success of the Erse
fragments." The book has an appendix containing the Icelandic originals
of the poems translated, and that portion of the book shows that a
scholar's hand and interest made the volume. So, too, does the close of
the preface: "That the study of ancient northern literature hath its
important uses has been often evinced by able writers: and that it is
not dry or unamusive this little work it is hoped will demonstrate. Its
aim at least is to shew, that if those kind of studies are not always
employed on works of taste or classic elegance, they serve at