Of this change of taste more will be said as this essay is developed. These introductory words must not be left, however, without an explanation of the word "Influence," as it is used in the subject-title. This paper will not undertake to prove that the course of English literature was diverted into new channels by the introduction of Old Norse elements, or that its nature was materially changed thereby. We find an expression and a justification of our present purpose in Richard Price's Preface to the 1824 edition of Warton's "History of English Poetry" (p. 15): "It was of importance to notice the successive acquisitions, in the shape of translation or imitation, from the more polished productions of Greece and Rome; and to mark the dawn of that æra, which, by directing the human mind to the study of classical antiquity, was to give a new impetus to science and literature, and by the changes it introduced to effect a total revolution in the laws which had previously governed them." Were Warton writing his history to-day, he would have to account for later eras as well as for the Elizabethan, and the method would be the same. How far the Old Norse literature has helped to form these later eras it is not easy to say, but the contributions may be counted up, and their literary value noted. These are the commission of the present essay. When the record is finished, we shall be in possession of information that may account for certain considerable writers of our day, and certain tendencies of thought. CONTENTS. Prefatory Note Introductory I. The Body of Old Norse Literature II. Through the Medium of Latin Thomas Gray The Sources of Gray's Knowledge Sir William Temple George Hickes Thomas Percy Thomas Warton Drake and Mathias Cottle and Herbert Walter Scott III. From the Sources Themselves Richard Cleasby Thomas Carlyle Samuel Laing Longfellow and Lowell Matthew Arnold George Webbe Dasent Charles Kingsley Edmund Gosse IV. By the Hand of the Master William Morris' works " " " 1 " " " 2 " " " 3 " " " 4 " " " 5 " " " 6 " " " 7 " " " 8 V. In the Latter Days Echoes of Iceland in Later Poets Recent Translations I. THE BODY OF OLD NORSE LITERATURE. First, let us understand what the Old Norse literature was that has been sending out this constantly increasing influence into the world of poetry.