Page:EB1911 - Volume 08.djvu/948

 of the epidermis which leads to the formation of cracks, and is hence called eczema rimosum.

The disease can best be treated by a combination of internal and external remedies. Internally, when the inflammation is acute, nothing is so good as antimony, since this relieves the arterial tension and thus reduces the local inflammation. But this must never be given when the patient is suffering from depression. In other cases, especially for babies and children, small doses of calomel are very beneficial; strychnine, phosphorus and ergot are all useful at times. When nervous excitement is marked it must be treated with sedatives. Arsenic and iron are both contra-indicated in this disease, since they increase blood formation and hence stimulate the eczematous process. Internal treatment is always best when combined with local treatment, but as a preliminary to this all crusts and scales must first be removed to allow the remedy free access to the disease. Locally the aim is (1) to overcome any source of irritation, (2) to protect the inflamed surface from the air and from microbic infection, and (3) to relieve the itching. The diet should be simple but nourishing, and all hygienic precautions must be taken.

 EDAM, a town of Holland in the province of North Holland, close to the Zuider Zee, about 13 m. N.N.E. of Amsterdam by steam tramway. It is connected with the Zuider Zee by a fine canal protected by a large sea-lock (1828), and has regular steam-boat communication in various directions. Pop. (1900) 6444. The many quaint old brick houses form the chief feature of interest in the town. The façades are frequently adorned with carvings and inscriptions, one of which records the legend of the capture of a siren in 1403, who lived for some time among the people of Edam, but escaped again to the sea. The Great Church of St Nicholas, probably founded in the 14th century, was largely rebuilt after a fire in 1602, which, originating in the church, destroyed nearly the whole town. It contains some fine stained glass and carved woodwork of this period. The Little Church (15th century) was demolished in 1883, except for a portion of the nave and the old tower and steeple, from which the bells curiously project. The town hall dates from 1737, and there is a museum founded in 1895. Edam has some trade in timber, while shipbuilding, rope-spinning and salt-boiling are also carried on. It gives its name to the description of “sweet-milk cheese” (zoetemelks kaas) made throughout North Holland, which is familiar on account of its round shape and red rind.

Edam took its name and origin from the dam built on the little river Ye which joined the great Purmer lake close by. Free access to the Zuider Zee was obtained by the construction of a new dock in 1357, in which year the town also received civic rights from William V. of Bavaria, count of Holland. Owing to the danger of the extension of the Purmer and Beemster lakes, Philip II. of Spain caused a sluice to be built into the dock in 1567. In the next century Edam was a great shipbuilding centre, and nearly the whole of Admiral de Ruyter’s fleet was built here; but in the same century the harbour began to get blocked up, and the importance and industrial activity of the city slowly waned.

 EDDA, the title given to two very remarkable collections of old Icelandic literature. Of these only one bears that title from antiquity; the other is called Edda by a comparatively modern misnomer. The word is unknown to any ancient northern language, and is first met with in Rigspula, a fragmentary poem at the end of Codex Wormianus, dated about 1200, where it is introduced as the name or title of a great-grandmother. From the 14th to the 17th century, this word—but no one has formed a reasonable conjecture why—was used to signify the technical laws of Icelandic court metre, Eddu regla, and “Never to have seen Edda” was a modest apology for ignorance of the highest poetic art. The only work known by this name to the ancients was the miscellaneous group of writings put together by (q.v.; 1178–1241), the greatest name in old Scandinavian literature. It is believed that the Edda, as he left it, was completed about 1222. Whether he gave this name to the work is doubtful; the title first occurs in the Upsala Codex, transcribed about fifty years after his death. The collection of Snorri is now known as the Prose or Younger Edda, the title of the Elder Edda being given to a book of ancient mythological poems, discovered by the Icelandic bishop of Skálaholt, Brynjulf Sveinsson, in 1643, and erroneously named by him the Edda of Saemund.

1. The Prose Edda, properly known as Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, was arranged and modified by Snorri, but actually composed, as has been conjectured, between the years 1140 and 1160. It is divided into five parts, the Preface or Formáli, Gylfaginning, Bragaraeður, Skáldskaparmál and Háttatal. The preface bears a very modern character, and simply gives a history of the world from Adam and Eve, in accordance with the Christian tradition. Gylfaginning, or the Delusion of Gylfi, on the other hand, is the most precious compendium which we possess of the mythological system of the ancient inhabitants of Scandinavia. Commencing with the adventures of a mythical king Gylfi and the giantess Gefion, and the miraculous formation of the island of Zealand, it tells us that the Aesir, led by Odin, invaded Svithjod or Sweden, the land of Gylfi, and settled there. It is from the Ynglingasaga and from the Gylfaginning that we gain all the information we possess about the conquering deities or heroes who set their stamp upon the religion of the North. Advancing from the Black Sea northwards through Russia, and westward through Esthonia, the Aesir seem to have overrun the south lands of Scandinavia, not as a horde but as an immigrant aristocracy. The Eddaic version, however, of the history of the gods is not so circumstantial as that in the Ynglingasaga; it is, on the other hand, distinguished by an exquisite simplicity and archaic force of style, which give an entirely classical character to its mythical legends of Odin and of Loki. The Gylfaginning is written in prose, with brief poetic insertions. The Bragaraeður, or sayings of Bragi, are further legends of the deities, attributed to Bragi, the god of poetry, or to a poet of the same name. The Skáldskaparmál, or Art of Poetry, commonly called Skálda, contains the instructions given by Bragi to Aegir, and consists of the rules and theories of ancient verse, exemplified in copious extracts from Eyvindr Skáldaspillir and other eminent Icelandic poets. The word Skáldskapr refers to the form rather than the substance of verse, and this treatise is almost solely technical in character. It is by far the largest of the sections of the Edda of Snorri, and comprises not only extracts but some long poems, notably the Thorsdrapa of Eilifr Guðrúnarson and the Haustlaung of Thjóðólfr. The fifth section of the Edda, the Háttatal, or Number of Metres, is a running technical commentary on the text of Snorri’s three poems written in honour of Haakon, king of Norway. Affixed to some MS. of the Younger Edda are a list of poets, and a number of philological treatises and grammatical studies. These belong, however, to a later period than the life of Snorri Sturlason.

2. The Elder Edda, Poetic Edda or Saemundar Edda hins froða was entirely unknown until about 1643, when it came into the hands of Brynjulf Sveinsson, who, puzzled to classify it, gave it the title of Edda Saemundi multiscii. Saemund Sigfusson, who was thus credited with the collection of these poems, was a scion of the royal house of Norway, and lived from about 1055 to 1132 in Iceland. The poems themselves date in all probability from the 10th and 11th centuries, and are many of them only fragments of longer heroic chants now otherwise entirely lost. They treat of mythical and religious legends of an early Scandinavian civilization, and are composed in the simplest and most archaic forms of Icelandic verse. The author of no one of them is mentioned. It is evident that they were collected from oral tradition; and the fact that the same story is occasionally