( xxx )
the assistance of Danish and Swedish versions of the Edda, made by learned men skilful in the old Icelandic tongue. I have not only consulted these translations, but by comparing the expressions they employ with those of the original, I have generally ascertained the identity of the phrase, and attained to a pretty strong assurance that the sense of my text hath not escaped me. Where I suspected my guides, I have carefully consulted those, who have long made the Edda, and the language in which it is written, their peculiar study. I stood particularly in need of this assistance, to render with exactness the two fragments of the more ancient Edda, namely, the Sublime Discourse of Odin, and the Runic Chapter; and here too my labours were more particularly assisted. This advantage I owe to Mr. Erichsen, a native of Iceland, who joins to a most extensive knowledge of the antiquities of his country, a judgment and a politeness not always united with great erudition. He has enabled me to give a more faithful translation of those two pieces than is to be met with in the Edda of Resenius.
I am however a good deal indebted to this last. J. P. Resenius, professor and magistrate of Copenhagen towards the end of the last century, was a laborious and learned
