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NORTHERN ANTIQUITIES:

OR

A DESCRIPTION

OF THE

Manners, Customs, Religion and Laws

OF THE

ANCIENT DANES,

INCLUDING THOSE OF

OUR OWN SAXON ANCESTORS.

WITH A TRANSLATION OF THE EDDA, OR
SYSTEM OF RUNIC MYTHOLOGY, AND
OTHER PIECES, FROM THE ANCIENT
ICELANDIC TONGUE.

Translated from "L'Introduction a l'Histoire de
Dannemarc, &c. Par Mons. MALLET."

WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE ENGLISH TRANSLATOR,
AND GORANSON'S LATIN VERSION OF THE EDDA,

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED BY C. STEWART,

ASHMOLEAN

OXFORD
LIBRARY

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TO HIS GRACE

THE

DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND.

MY LORD,

THE following work is inscribed to your Grace with the most genuine respect, and, I flatter myself, not without propriety, since it may possibly afford amusement to one of the most polished Noblemen of the present age, to observe from what rude and simple beginnings our highest improvements have been derived; and to trace to their source those peculiarities of character, manners and government, which so remarkably distin guish the Teutonic nations.

Among the historical digressions which our Author has scattered through his work, is a full relation of the first settlement of the NORMANS in France. This can not but be interesting to your Grace, as the great Fa mily, which you so nobly represent, derived their origin from one of the Northern Chiefs who assisted in that conquest. From the place of their residence in Lower Normandy*, they took the name of PERCY; a name which was afterwards eminently celebrated in our English annals, and which you have revived with additional Justre.

* Near Villedieu, in the District of St Lo.