kept in memory than by the Men of Norway themselves.
About 240 years after this (A. D. 1114)
their History began to be written by one Saemund,
surnam'd Frode or the wise; who (in nine years'
travel through Italy, Germany and England) had
amass'd together a mighty Collection of Historical
Treatises. With these he return'd full fraught into
Island; where he also drew up an account of
the affairs of his own Country. Many of his
Works are now said to be lost: But there is still an
Edda, consisting of several Odes (whence I suspect
its Name is derived) written by many several hands,
and at different times, which bears his Name.
The Book is a Collection of Mythological Fables,
relating to the ancient State and Behaviour of the
Great Woden and his followers, in terms poetical
and adapted to the Service of those that were employ'd
in the composure of their old Rhymes and Sonnets.

"There is likewise extant a couple of Norwegian
Histories of good Authentic Credit; which explains
a great many particulars relating to the Exploits of
the Danish Kings in Great Britain, which our own
Historians have either wholly omitted or very
darkly recorded. The former of these was written
soon after the year 1130, by one Theodoric a Monk,
who acknowledges his whole Fabrick to be built
upon Tradition, and that the old Northern History
is no where now to be had save only ab Islendingorum
antiquis Carminibus.