Page:The Prose Edda, Brodeur (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1916).djvu/25

Rh in his original. One poem that he mentions is lacking in the Poetic Edda as we know it: Heimdallargaldr the Song or Incantation of Heimdallr; moreover, he makes seventeen citations from other poems which, although lost to us, evidently formed portions of the original Eddic collections, or belonged to the same traditional stock. The disappearance of the manuscript which Snorri used is a great loss.

The first translation of the Prose Edda was published at Copenhagen in 1665, when the complete text appeared, with Latin and Danish interpretation. This was entitled ''Edda islandorum an, Chr. 1215 islandice conscripta per Snorronem Sturlæ, nunc primum islandice, danice, et latine ex antiquis codicibus in lucem prodit opera P. J. Resenii.'' The standard Danish translation is that of R. Nyerup, Copenhagen, 1865. In 1746, J. Goransson printed at Upsala the first Swedish version, with a Latin translation. Goransson's original was the Codex Upsaliensis. Anders Uppstrom made an independent translation in 1859.

In 1755–56 there appeared at Copenhagen a work of the greatest importance for the study of Scandinavian antiquities in England: Mallet's Monumens de la Mythologie et de la Poesie des Celtes et Particulièrement des Anciens Scandinaves. This book, which comprised a general introduction on the ancient Scandinavian civilization, a translation of Gylfaginning and a synopsis of Skáldskaparmál and Háttatal was turned into English by Bishop Percyy, under the title of Northern Antiquities. Percy claimed to know Göransson's text as well as the French. Northern Antiquities was published at London in 1770, and was reprinted at Edinburgh in 1809, with additions by Sir Walter Scott.

The best-known translation, and the only complete one which is at all trustworthy, is that in Latin, combined, with