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30 INTEODirCWION.
latedin 1766, and in 1766 Gerstenterg's " Letters on
the Curiosities of Literature" and "Poems of a
Skald " introduced the gods of the Old-North into
German Literature. Then the so-called "Bardic
School " took possession of them, and gave to the
literature a new direction, as Klopstock, in his
"Hermannschlacht"(ir69), and the "Bardic Odes"
(1791), Denis in " The Songs of Sined the Bard "
(1772),. and Ej-etschmann, as the "Barde Khingulph."
Denis attempted the translation of some
of the Eddaic poems, but Herder first successfullyopened
the way by his translation of the " Vegtamskvi5a"and
"Voluspa," in 1773, and the "Eunic
Chapter," in 1779. After Herder, Grater appeared
as the chief apostle of the Northern Gods, and labored
in their cause with great zeal, but without deep in-
sight. On the other hand, there arose a band of
skeptics with Schlozer at their head. He denied
the genuineness of the mythologic sources, declaring
them to be the productions of later times, and
their contents worthless fictions. After him came Ade-
lung, who declared " the whole Old-Scandinavian re-
ligion to be an imitation of Christianity, more or less
obscured by monstrous images and unknown allu-
sions, and decorated with Grecian or Eoman ideas."
But Adelung, though a distinguished philologist for
his time, was inexperienced in this field of learning,
and still more so was Delius, who repeated him,
and wrote against the Edda without having read it.
Eiihs stood higgler than bothj and, besides, did much
to spread the study of Northern literature in Germany.
In his arguments against it he not only de-