Sæm. pryms-quid. 13. vol. i. p. 187. and Edd. Snorr. fab. 30. Mythol.) was a famous collar. Its name is in the Gloss. to vol. i. of the Edd. Sæm, derived from its splendour, Nor. Brísing, ignis vehemens. Dr. Grimm, Gram. iii. 454. countenances another Etymon, but neither gets over the difficulty of Brósinga being a patronymic in the genitive pl. The origin of the name probably rests upon a myth as yet unknown to us; the reader will indeed find a very remarkable one in the Lexicon. Mythol. Edd. Sæm. vol. iii. in voce Brísíngr. Wéland, the famous smith, the Völundr of the Edd. Sæm. (vol. ii.) and the Welint of the Wilkina Saga is named as the maker of Beowulf's impenetrable corslet. And episodically, we have the tale of Fitela and his nephew, Sigmund the Wælsing, the Sigurþr Fafnisbani of the Edd. Sæm. (vol. ii.) the Sigurdur Swen of the Wilkina Saga, and many modern Danish legends, and the Sigfrid of the Nibelungen Lied. It has been hinted that Sigmund was nearly cotemporary with Beowulf: Torfæus, who is generally accurate, has striven very hard to bring Sigurþr Fafnisbani down to the time of Sigurþr Hring, i. e. eighth century: it is however very obvious how his mistake arose; later tradition had falsified history in order to give Ragnar Lodbrog a daughter of the great Sigurþr, and Torfæus chose to stand by this solitary and unauthoritative legend in opposition to all that was older and truer to history. Hermanaric, say Jornandes and the Edd. Sæm. slew Swanhilda, the daughter of Gudrun; he was thus traditionally, as well as in fact, contemporary with Attila. That this prince drew gradually into his traditional history the exploits of others, and more particularly those of Chlodowic and his sons, in the matter of the Burgundian kingdom, is quite clear to any one who will take the pains to look over the accounts of the Burgundian war in Gregory of Tours, where scarcely a name of note in the Nibelungen cyclus is wanting; and what is strange enough, the Wilkina saga gravely assures us that Attila was a Frankish prince. If my belief be tenable that the date of Beowulf is the end of the fifth or beginning of the sixth century, we shall have additional and nearly contemporary evidence to the truth of the older story. C. Whittingham, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane. Vol. I. Being one half the entire work, 4to. cloth boards, 2l. 12s. 6d. or, done up in Two Parts, cloth boards, 11. 6s. 6d. each. A Part is published on the first of every month, price 3s. 6d. each, to be completed in 30 parts, forming 2 vols. 4to. REVIEWS AND CRITICAL NOTICES. "MR. PICKERING has just put forth a New Dictionary of the English Language, which, whether we regard its extraordinary cheapness, or the extraordinary labour and ability by which it is characterised, bids fair to rival all similar publications. The work is to be completed in Thirty Parts, each Part to contain eighty 4to. pages, with three columns of Diamond type upon each page; the meaning of each word is illustrated by a greater number of passages from standard English writers than is to be found in any similar work; and the reading necessary for the supply of this immense body, must have been the labour of years. A part of this Dictionary appeared, we find, in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, and was spoken of by the Quarterly and other reviews, as the greatest lexicographical achievement of the age. In its complete form it will be, to judge from the sample before us, a work of unrivalled ability, labour and utility."Old England. "The compiler, who has already approved his ability for this work by what he has contributed of it to the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, justly observes, that Dr. Johnson did not execute his own project, and that the desideratum of a Dictionary to exhibit, first, the natural and primitive signification of words, then give the consequential, and then the metaphorical meaning, and the quotations to be arranged according to the ages of the authors,' is, at the distance of nearly ninety years, still more to be desiderated now, than in 1747, when the learned lexicographer made his proposition to Lord Chesterfield. Mr. Richardson CRITICAL NOTICES continued. derives considerable aid from Horne Tooke's philological labours; and from the part before us, we would anticipate a useful and interesting work.”—Literary Gazette. "The arrangement is founded upon the plan which Dr. Johnson put forth as the proper mode of proceeding with his great undertaking, though he did not, in the execution, adhere to his own scheme. The task which our great philologer left unfulfilled has been performed by Mr. Richardson, with a patient labour in research and collection, which Johnson, we suspect, never possessed, and with means at his disposal, by the resuscitation of our ancient writers, which Johnson certainly never had. Judging from the specimen before us, the result will be to present the world with the most complete Dictionary that ever was published, as regards the etymology and primitive meaning of the words, the successive growth of their secondary significations, the gradual advance and changes of the language, the vast body of quotations from all authors, whether ancient or modern, and, in consequence, the skeleton history of the English language which it indirectly presents; it will, in short, be a work indispensable to every one who is curious in his mother tongue, and without which no library can be considered complete."-Spectator. "It would be impossible to speak of the value of this work within the short space of a literary notice; but thus much we can assure our readers, that in its plan it is novel, and more comprehensive than any of its predecessors; that the quotations from the earliest poets, chroniclers, divines, &c. arranged in chronological order, in illustration of different words, supply an admirable view of the progress of the English tongue; that reference is made to chapter and verse for every quotation given; that it is cheap; and that the publisher engages to deliver all parts beyond thirty free of expense. No library should be without it."— Christian Remembrancer. "This laborious work, of which the two first Parts are before us, is understood to be completed in the manuscript; the subscriber, therefore, incurs no risk of disappointment from the non-accomplishment of the design. Of the care and diligence bestowed in getting up the New Dictionary we are prepared to speak in the highest praise. The paper is good, the type remarkably clear, the size convenient, in every respect becoming a work of national importance. The radical word with its derivatives, is placed at the head of the meaning, of the etymological derivation and of the quotations, by which their usages are illustrated. These quotations are selected and digested in the chronological order of the writers appealed to, so that one, with common sagacity, may trace the changes through which a word has passed down to its modern acceptation. The primitive signification is thus made to give a strength and clearness to our own perception of the word. We remember when it was the custom to characterize a dull heavy work by the remark, "I would as soon read a Dictionary_through." We may now say, without drawing upon the truth, that we have a Dictionary surpassing in entertainment and knowledge most books. The deep research and extensive reading which have amassed this wealth of quotations, make us acquainted with stores of thought, hitherto buried in the dust of time, or accessible only to the favoured few. The divines, the poets, the dramatists, the philosophers, the historians, who have helped to build up the noble fabric of our language, are made in short but appropriate sentences, to give us their own literary portraits; and, if style be an index to character, and expression to thought, we have here a fine opportunity of comparing age with age, not only in its literary, but also in its intellectual features. We add, that no deeper stain could be marked upon our national reputation, than that such a work, so grand in its design, and so perfect in its execution, should meet with indifference, or even with partial success."-Gloucestershire Chronicle. "We are inclined to consider the English language as having attained that fulness of maturity which leaves no wish for increase, but only anxiety for preservation. As helps to this, we have the various acceptations, in which every word has been used by approved writers, collected by Mr. Richardson, in a Dictionary, such as, perhaps, no other language could ever boast: and we have a new guide for the theory and use of languages, exemplifying his (Horne Tooke's) principles, by applying them to our own tongue."-Quarterly Review for March, 1827. Pickering's Publications, |