understood French. His leisure time was applied to the study of the
antiquities of his adopted country, the King's commission for a history
of Denmark making that necessary. As a preface to this work he
published, in 1755, an _Introduction a l'Histoire de Dannemarc où l'on
traite de la Réligion, des Lois, des Moeurs et des Usages des Anciens
Danois_, and, in 1756, the work in the list on a previous page. In this
second book was the first translation into a modern tongue of the
_Edda_, and this volume, in consequence, attracted much attention. The
great English antiquarian, Thomas Percy, afterward Bishop of Dromore,
was early drawn to this work, and with the aid of friends he
accomplished a translation of it, which was published in 1770.

Mallet's work was very bad in its account of the racial affinities of
the nations commonly referred to as the barbarians that overturned the
Roman empire and culture. Percy, who had failed to edit the ballad MSS.
so as to please Ritson, was wise enough to see Mallet's error, and to
insist that Celtic and Gothic antiquities must not be confounded.
Mallet's translation of the _Edda_ was imperfect, too, because he had
followed the Latin version of Resenius, which was notoriously poor.
Percy's _Edda_ was no better, because it was only an English version of
Mallet. But we are not concerned with these critical considerations
here; and so it will be enough to record the fact that with the
publication of Percy's _Northern Antiquities_--the English name of
Mallet's work--in 1770, knowledge of Icelandic literature passed from
the exclusive control of learned antiquarians. More and more, as time
went on, men went to the Icelandic originals, and translations of poems
and sagas came from the press in increasing numbers. In the course of
time came original works that were inspired by Old Norse stories and Old
Norse conceptions.