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and admired for their poetic talents, even in the courts of those princes whose territories were most invaded by their Danish countrymen. This he expressly affirms of the Anglo-Saxon and Irish kings; and it is to the full as likely to have been the case with the Welsh princes, who often concurred with the Danes in dis tressing the English. I am led to think that the latter Welsh BARDS might possibly have been excited to cultivate the alliterative versification more strictly, from the example of the Icelandic SCALDS, and their imitators, the Anglo-Saxon Poets; because the more ancient British Bards were nothing near so exact and strict in their alliterations, as those of the middle and latter ages; particularly after the Norman conquest of England, and even after king Edward the First's conquest of Wales*: whereas some centuries before this, the

A very learned and ingenious British Antiquary thus informs me, "Our profody depends entirely " on what you call ALLITERA"TION, and which our Gram"marians term Cyngbannedd, i. e. "Goncentus, vel Symphonia Consa"nantica. This at first was not

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by our Grammarians as a false " quantity by the Greeks and "Romans. They had six or se"ven different kinds of this con"sonantical harmony, some of " which were of a loose nature, " and were allowed in poetry as "well as the most strict Allitera "tion, &c."

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"The most ancient IRISH "POEMS were also ALLITERA "TIVE, according to Mr. "LIWYD of the Museum; and

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68 very strict; for the Bards of the « sixth century used it very spa"ringly, and were not circum"scribed by any rules. "Bards from the [Norman] con"quest to the death of Llewellyn, "our last prince, were more strict. But from thence to " queen Elizabeth's time, the rules of Alliteration were to be ob« served with great nicety; so "no person was better qualified " that a line not perfectly allite" to judge in this matter.”

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as he was well versed in all the "branches of the Celtic now ex"tant, viz. The British, Irish, "Armoric, Cornish, and Manks,

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the Icelandic metre had been brought to the highest pitch of alliterative exactness. This conjecture, however, that the Welsh Bards borrowed any thing from the Poets of any other country, will hardly be allowed me by the British Antiquaries, who, from a laudable partiality, are jealous of the honour of their countrymen ; nor is it worth contending for: It is sufficient to observe, that a spirited emulation between the BARDS and the SCALDS might excite each of them to improve their own native poetry, and to give it all that artificial polish, which they saw admired in the other language. Whoever would understand thoroughly the poetry of both people, and compare their respective metre, may examine, for the Icelandic

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It would be unfair to conceal the objections of the same learned person, especially as it would deprive the Reader of some very curious information concerning the ancient Celtic Poetry. "I "can by no means think that our Bards have borrowed their ALLITERATION from the Scalds of the north; for there are traces of it in some very old "pieces of the Druids still ex`tant, which I am persuaded are older th than the introduction of Christianity; and were com"posed long before we had any commerce or intercourse with "any of the inhabitants of Scandinavia, or any branch of the "Gothic race whatsoever, and I

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Icelandic, WORMIUS's Literatura Runica; and for the British, JOHN DAVID RHYS's Cambro-Britannicæ Cymraecave Linguæ institutiones et rudimenta, &c. Lond. 1592 *.]

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AN

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OF THE

MORE ANCIENT EDDA.

T is now time to describe what remains of the former EDDA, compiled by SOEMUND, surnamed the LEARNED, more than a hundred years before that of Snorro. It was a collection of very ancient poems, which had for their subject some article of the Religion and Morality of Odin. The share that Soemund had in them, was probably no more than that of first collecting and committing them to writing. This collection is at present considered as lost, excepting only three pieces, which I shall describe below: But some people have, not without good reason, imagined that this ancient EDDA, or at least the greatest part of it, is still preserved. It were to be wished, that the possessors of such a treasure could be induced to esteem the communication of it to the world, the greatest advantage they can reap from it; and they are now urged, in the name of the public, to this generous action. Be that as it may, the admirers of the antiquities of the north have, in the fragments of this work,

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