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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:42:55 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13786-0.txt b/13786-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d87f11 --- /dev/null +++ b/13786-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3473 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13786 *** + +THE INFLUENCE OF OLD NORSE LITERATURE UPON ENGLISH LITERATURE + +by + +CONRAD HJALMAR NORDBY + +1901 + + + + + + + + Deyr fé + deyja frændr, + deyr siálfr it sama; + en orðstÃrr + deyr aldrigi + hveim er sér góðan getr. + _Hávamál_, 75. + + + Cattle die, + kindred die, + we ourselves also die; + but the fair fame + never dies + of him who has earned it. + Thorpe's _Edda_. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +The present publication is the only literary work left by its author. +Unfortunately it lacks a few pages which, as his manuscript shows, he +intended to add, and it also failed to receive his final revision. His +friends have nevertheless deemed it expedient to publish the result of +his studies conducted with so much ardor, in order that some memorial of +his life and work should remain for the wider public. To those +acquainted with him, no written words can represent the charm of his +personality or give anything approaching an adequate impression of his +ability and strength of character. + +Conrad Hjalmar Nordby was born September 20, 1867, at Christiania, +Norway. At the age of four he was brought to New York, where he was +educated in the public schools. He was graduated from the College of the +City of New York in 1886. From December of that year to June, 1893, he +taught in Grammar School No. 55, and in September, 1893, he was called +to his Alma Mater as Tutor in English. He was promoted to the rank of +Instructor in 1897, a position which he held at the time of his death. +He died in St. Luke's Hospital, October 28, 1900. In October, 1894, he +began his studies in the School of Philosophy of Columbia University, +taking courses in Philosophy and Education under Professor Nicholas +Murray Butler, and in Germanic Literatures and Germanic Philology under +Professors Boyesen, William H. Carpenter and Calvin Thomas. It was under +the guidance of Professor Carpenter that the present work was conceived +and executed. + +Such a brief outline of Mr. Nordby's career can, however, give but an +imperfect view of his activities, while it gives none at all of his +influence. He was a teacher who impressed his personality, not only upon +his students, but upon all who knew him. In his character were united +force and refinement, firmness and geniality. In his earnest work with +his pupils, in his lectures to the teachers of the New York Public +Schools and to other audiences, in his personal influence upon all with +whom he came in contact, he spread the taste for beauty, both of poetry +and of life. When his body was carried to the grave, the grief was not +confined to a few intimate friends; all who had known him felt that +something noble and beautiful had vanished from their lives. + +In this regard his career was, indeed, rich in achievement, but when we +consider what, with his large equipment, he might have done in the world +of scholarship, the promise, so untimely blighted, seems even richer. +From early youth he had been a true lover of books. To him they were not +dead things; they palpitated with the life blood of master spirits. The +enthusiasm for William Morris displayed in the present essay is typical +of his feeling for all that he considered best in literature. Such an +enthusiasm, communicated to those about him, rendered him a vital force +in every company where works of creative genius could be a theme of +conversation. + +A love of nature and of art accompanied and reinforced this love of +literature; and all combined to produce the effect of wholesome purity +and elevation which continually emanated from him. His influence, in +fact, was largely of that pervasive sort which depends, not on any +special word uttered, and above all, not on any preachment, but upon the +entire character and life of the man. It was for this reason that his +modesty never concealed his strength. He shrunk above all things from +pushing himself forward and demanding public notice, and yet few ever +met him without feeling the force of character that lay behind his +gentle and almost retiring demeanor. It was easy to recognize that here +was a man, self-centered and whole. + +In a discourse pronounced at a memorial meeting, the Rev. John Coleman +Adams justly said: "If I wished to set before my boy a type of what is +best and most lovable in the American youth, I think I could find no +more admirable character than that of Conrad Hjalmar Nordby. A young man +of the people, with all their unexhausted force, vitality and +enthusiasm; a man of simple aims and honest ways; as chivalrous and +high-minded as any knight of old; as pure in life as a woman; at once +gentle and brave, strong and sweet, just and loving; upright, but no +Pharisee; earnest, but never sanctimonious; who took his work as a +pleasure, and his pleasure as an innocent joy; a friend to be coveted; a +disciple such as the Saviour must have loved; a true son of God, who +dwelt in the Father's house. Of such youth our land may well be proud; +and no man need speak despairingly of a nation whose life and +institutions can ripen such a fruit." + + L.F.M. + COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, + May 15, 1901. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +It should not be hard for the general reader to understand that the +influence which is the theme of this dissertation is real and +explicable. If he will but call the roll of his favorite heroes, he will +find Sigurd there. In his gallery of wondrous women, he certainly +cherishes Brynhild. These poetic creations belong to the +English-speaking race, because they belong to the world. And if one will +but recall the close kinship of the Icelandic and the Anglo-Saxon +languages, he will not find it strange that the spirit of the old Norse +sagas lives again in our English song and story. + +The survey that this essay takes begins with Thomas Gray (1716-1771), +and comes down to the present day. It finds the fullest measure of the +old Norse poetic spirit in William Morris (1834-1896), and an increasing +interest and delight in it as we come toward our own time. The +enterprise of learned societies and enlightened book publishers has +spread a knowledge of Icelandic literature among the reading classes of +the present day; but the taste for it is not to be accounted for in the +same way. That is of nobler birth than of erudition or commercial pride. +Is it not another expression of that changed feeling for the things that +pertain to the common people, which distinguishes our century from the +last? The historian no longer limits his study to camp and court; the +poet deigns to leave the drawing-room and library for humbler scenes. +Folk-lore is now dignified into a science. The touch of nature has made +the whole world kin, and our highly civilized century is moved by the +records of the passions of the earlier society. + +This change in taste was long in coming, and the emotional phase of it +has preceded the intellectual. It is interesting to note that Gray and +Morris both failed to carry their public with them all the way. Gray, +the most cultured man of his time, produced art forms totally different +from those in vogue, and Walpole[1] said of these forms: "Gray has +added to his poems three ancient odes from Norway and Wales ... they are +not interesting, and do not, like his other poems, touch any passion.... +Who can care through what horrors a Runic savage arrived at all the joys +and glories they could conceive--the supreme felicity of boozing ale out +of the skull of an enemy in Odin's Hall?" + +Morris, the most versatile man of his time, found plenty of praise for +his art work, until he preached social reform to Englishmen. Thereafter +the art of William Morris was not so highly esteemed, and the best poet +in England failed to attain the laurel on the death of Tennyson. + +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. + +It was in the last four decades of the ninth century of our era that +Norsemen began to leave their own country and set up new homes in +Iceland. The sixty years ending with 930 A.D. were devoted to taking up +the land, and the hundred years that ensued after that date were devoted +to quarreling about that land. These quarrels were the origin of the +Icelandic family sagas. The year 1000 brought Christianity to the +island, and the period from 1030 to 1120 were years of peace in which +stories of the former time passed from mouth to mouth. The next century +saw these stories take written form, and the period from 1220 to 1260 +was the golden age of this literature. In 1264, Iceland passed under the +rule of Norway, and a decline of literature began, extending until 1400, +the end of literary production in Iceland. In the main, the authors of +Iceland are unknown[2]. + +There are several well-marked periods, therefore, in Icelandic literary +production. The earliest was devoted to poetry, Icelandic being no +different from most other languages in the precedence of that form. +Before the settlement of Iceland, the Norse lands were acquainted with +songs about gods and champions, written in a simple verse form. The +first settlers wrote down some of these, and forgot others. In the +_Codex Regius_, preserved in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, we have a +collection of these songs. This material was published in the +seventeenth century as the _Sæmundar Edda_, and came to be known as the +_Elder_ or _Poetic Edda_. Both titles are misnomers, for Sæmund had +nothing to do with the making of the book, and _Edda_ is a name +belonging to a book of later date and different purpose. + +This work--not a product of the soil as folk-songs are--is the fountain +head of Old Norse mythology, and of Old Norse heroic legends. _Völuspá_ +and _Hávamál_ are in this collection, and other songs that tell of Odin +and Baldur and Loki. The Helgi poems and the Völsung poems in their +earliest forms are also here. + +A second class of poetry in this ancient literature is that called +"Skaldic." Some of this deals with mythical material, and some with +historical material. A few of the skalds are known to us by name, +because their lives were written down in later sagas. Egill +SkallagrÃmsson, known to all readers of English and Scotch antiquities, +Eyvind Skáldaspillir and Sigvat are of this group. + +Poetic material that is very rich is found in Snorri Sturluson's work on +Old Norse poetics, entitled _The Edda_, and often referred to as the +_Younger_ or _Prose Edda_. + +More valuable than the poetry is the prose of this literature, +especially the _Sagas_. The saga is a prose epic, characteristic of the +Norse countries. It records the life of a hero, told according to fixed +rules. As we have said, the sagas were based upon careers run in +Iceland's stormy time. They are both mythical and historical. In the +mythical group are, among others, the _Völsunga Saga_, the _Hervarar +Saga_, _Friðthjófs Saga_ and _Ragnar Loðbróks Saga_. In the historical +group, the flowering time of which was 1200-1270, we find, for example, +_Egils Saga_, _Eyrbyggja Saga_, _Laxdæla Saga_, _Grettis Saga_, _Njáls +Saga_. A branch of the historic sagas is the Kings' Sagas, in which we +find _Heimskringla_, the _Saga of Olaf Tryggvason_, the _Flatey Book_, +and others. + +This sketch does not pretend to indicate the quantity of Old Norse +literature. An idea of that is obtained by considering the fact that +eleven columns of the ninth edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ are +devoted to recording the works of that body of writings. + + + + +II. + +THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF LATIN. + +THOMAS GRAY (1716-1771). + + +In the eighteenth century, Old Norse literature was the lore of +antiquarians. That it is not so to-day among English readers is due to a +line of writers, first of whom was Thomas Gray. In the thin volume of +his poetry, two pieces bear the sub-title: "An Ode. From the Norse +Tongue." These are "The Fatal Sisters," and "The Descent of Odin," both +written in 1761, though not published until 1768. These poems are among +the latest that Gray gave to the world, and are interesting aside from +our present purpose because they mark the limit of Gray's progress +toward Romanticism. + +We are not accustomed to think of Gray as a Romantic poet, although we +know well that the movement away from the so-called Classicism was begun +long before he died. The Romantic element in his poetry is not obvious; +only the close observer detects it, and then only in a few of the poems. +The Pindaric odes exhibit a treatment that is Romantic, and the Norse +and Welsh adaptations are on subjects that are Romantic. But we must go +to his letters to find proof positive of his sympathy with the breaking +away from Classicism. Here are records of a love of outdoors that +reveled in mountain-climbing and the buffeting of storms. Here are +appreciations of Shakespeare and of Milton, the like of which were not +often proclaimed in his generation. Here is ecstatic admiration of +ballads and of the Ossian imitations, all so unfashionable in the +literary culture of the day. While dates disprove Lowell's statement in +his essay on Gray that "those anti-classical yearnings of Gray began +after he had ceased producing," it is certain that very little of his +poetic work expressed these yearnings. "Elegance, sweetness, pathos, or +even majesty he could achieve, but never that force which vibrates in +every verse of larger moulded men." Change Lowell's word "could" to +"did," and this sentence will serve our purpose here. + +Our interest in Gray's Romanticism must confine itself to the two odes +from the Old Norse. It is to be noted that the first transplanting to +English poetry of Old Norse song came about through the scholar's +agency, not the poet's. It was Gray, the scholar, that made "The Descent +of Odin" and "The Fatal Sisters." They were intended to serve as +specimens of a forgotten literature in a history of English poetry. In +the "Advertisement" to "The Fatal Sisters" he tells how he came to give +up the plan: "The Author has long since drop'd his design, especially +after he heard, that it was already in the hands of a Person well +qualified to do it justice, both by his taste, and his researches into +antiquity." Thomas Warton's _History of English Poetry_ was the +execution of this design, but in that book no place was found for these +poems. + +In his absurd _Life of Gray_, Dr. Johnson said: "His translations of +Northern and Welsh Poetry deserve praise: the imagery is preserved, +perhaps often improved, but the language is unlike the language of other +poets." There are more correct statements in this sentence, perhaps, +than in any other in the essay, but this is because ignorance sometimes +hits the truth. It is not likely that the poems would have been +understood without the preface and the explanatory notes, and these, in +a measure, made the reader interested in the literature from which they +were drawn. Gray called the pieces "dreadful songs," and so in very +truth they are. Strength is the dominant note, rude, barbaric strength, +and only the art of Gray saved it from condemnation. To-day, with so +many imitations from Old Norse to draw upon, we cannot point to a single +poem which preserves spirit and form as well as those of Gray. Take the +stanza: + + Horror covers all the heath, + Clouds of carnage blot the sun, + Sisters, weave the web of death; + Sisters, cease, the work is done. + +The strophe is perfect in every detail. Short lines, each ending a +sentence; alliteration; words that echo the sense, and just four strokes +to paint a picture which has an atmosphere that whisks you into its own +world incontinently. It is no wonder that writers of later days who have +tried similar imitations ascribe to Thomas Gray the mastership. + +That this poet of the eighteenth century, who "equally despised what +was Greek and what was Gothic," should have entered so fully into the +spirit and letter of Old Norse poetry is little short of marvelous. If +Professor G.L. Kittredge had not gone so minutely into the question of +Gray's knowledge of Old Norse,[3] we might be pardoned for still +believing with Gosse[4] that the poet learned Icelandic in his later +life. Even after reading Professor Kittredge's essay, we cannot +understand how Gray could catch the metrical lilt of the Old Norse with +only a Latin version to transliterate the parallel Icelandic. We suspect +that Gray's knowledge was fuller than Professor Kittredge will allow, +although we must admit that superficial knowledge may coexist with a +fine interpretative spirit. Matthew Arnold's knowledge of Celtic +literature was meagre, yet he wrote memorably and beautifully on that +subject, as Celts themselves will acknowledge.[5] + + +THE SOURCES OF GRAY'S KNOWLEDGE. + +It has already been said that only antiquarians had knowledge of things +Icelandic in Gray's time. Most of this knowledge was in Latin, of +course, in ponderous tomes with wonderful, long titles; and the list of +them is awe-inspiring. In all likelihood Gray did not use them all, but +he met references to them in the books he did consult. Professor +Kittredge mentions them in the paper already quoted, but they are here +arranged in the order of publication, and the list is lengthened to +include some books that were inspired by the interest in Gray's +experiments. + +=1636= and =1651=. Wormius. _Seu Danica literatura antiquissima, +vulgo Gothica dicta, luci reddita opera Olai Wormii. Cui accessit de +prisca Danorum Poesi Dissertatio._ Hafniæ. 1636. Edit. II. 1651. + +The essay on poetry contains interlinear Latin translations of the +_Epicedium_ of Ragnar Loðbrók, and of the _Drápa_ of Egill +SkallagrÃmsson. Bound with the second edition of 1651, and bearing the +date 1650, is: _Specimen Lexici runici, obscuriorum quarundam vocum, quæ +in priscis occurrunt historiis et poetis Danicis enodationem exhibens. +Collectum a Magno Olavio pastore Laufasiensi, ... nunc in ordinem +redactum, auctum et locupletatum ab Olao Wormio_. Hafniæ. + +This glossary adduces illustrations from the great poems of Icelandic +literature. Thus early the names and forms of the ancient literature +were known. + + +=1665.= Resenius. _Edda Islandorum an. Chr. MCCXV islandice +conscripta per Snorronem Sturlæ Islandiæ. Nomophylacem nunc primum +islandice, danice et latine ... Petri Johannis Resenii_ ... Havniæ. +1665. + +A second part contains a disquisition on the philosophy of the _Völuspá_ +and the _Hávamál_. + + +=1670.= Sheringham. _De Anglorum Gentis Origine Disceptatio. Qua +eorum migrationes, variæ sedes, et ex parte res gestæ, a confusione +Linguarum, et dispersione Gentium, usque ad adventum eorum in Britanniam +investigantur; quædam de veterum Anglorum religione, Deorum cultu, +eorumque opinionibus de statu animæ post hanc vitam, explicantur._ +_Authore_ Roberto Sheringhamo. Cantabrigiæ. 1670. + +Chapter XII contains an account of Odin extracted from the _Edda_, +Snorri Sturluson and others. + + +=1679-92.= Temple. Two essays: "Of Heroic Virtue," "Of Poetry," +contained in The Works of Sir William Temple. London. 1757. Vol. 3, pp. +304-429. + + +=1689.= Bartholinus. _Thomæ Bartholini Antiquitatum Danicarum de +causis contemptæ a Danis adhuc gentilibus mortis libri III ex vetustis +codicibus et monumentis hactenus ineditis congestæ._ Hafniæ. 1689. + +The pages of this book are filled, with extracts from Old Norse sagas +and poetry which are translated into Latin. No student of the book could +fail to get a considerable knowledge of the spirit and the form of the +ancient literature. + + +=1691.= Verelius. _Index linguæ veteris Scytho-Scandicæ sive Gothicæ +ex vetusti ævi monumentis ... ed Rudbeck._ Upsalæ. 1691. + + +=1697=. Torfæus. _Orcades, seu rerum Orcadensium historiæ_. Havniæ. +1697. + + +=1697=. Perinskjöld. _Heimskringla, eller Snorre Sturlusons +Nordländske Konunga Sagor_. Stockholmiæ. 1697. + +Contains Latin and Swedish translation. + + +=1705=. Hickes. _Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium thesaurus +grammatico criticus et archæologicus_. Oxoniæ. 1703-5. + +This work is discussed later. + + +=1716=. Dryden. _Miscellany Poems. Containing Variety of New +Translations of the Ancient Poets_.... Published by Mr. Dryden. London. +1716. + + +=1720=. Keysler. _Antiquitates selectæ septentrionales et Celticæ +quibus plurima loca conciliorum et capitularium explanantur, dogmata +theologiæ ethnicæ Celtarum gentiumque septentrionalium cum moribus et +institutis maiorum nostrorum circa idola, aras, oracula, templa, lucos, +sacerdotes, regum electiones, comitia et monumenta sepulchralia una cum +reliquiis gentilismi in coetibus christianorum ex monumentis potissimum +hactenus ineditis fuse perquiruntur._ _Autore_ Joh. Georgio Keysler. +Hannoveræ. 1720. + + +=1755=. Mallet. _Introduction à l'Histoire de Dannemarc où l'on +traite de la Réligion, des Lois, des Moeurs, et des Usages des Anciens +Danois. Par_ M. Mallet. Copenhague. 1755. + +Discussed later. + + +=1756=. Mallet. _Monumens de la Mythologie et la Poësie des Celtes et +particulièrement des anciens Scandinaves ... Par_ M. Mallet. Copenhague. +1756. + + +=1763=. Percy. _Five Pieces of Runic Poetry translated from the +Islandic Language_. London. 1763. + +This book is described on a later page. + + +=1763=. Blair. _A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the +Son of Fingal_. [By Hugh Blair.] London. 1763. + + +=1770=. Percy. _Northern Antiquities: or a description of the +Manners, Customs, Religion and Laws of the ancient_ _Danes, and other +Northern Nations; including these of our own Saxon Ancestors. With a +translation of the Edda or System of Runic Mythology, and other Pieces +from the Ancient Icelandic Tongue. Translated from M. Mallet's +Introduction à l'Histoire de Dannemarc_. London. 1770. + + +=1774=. Warton. _The History of English Poetry_. By Thomas Warton. +London. 1774-81. + +In this book the prefatory essay entitled "On the Origin of Romantic +Fiction in Europe" is significant. It is treated at length later on. + + +SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE (1628-1699). + +From the above list it appears that the earliest mention in the English +language of Icelandic literature was Sir William Temple's. The two +essays noted above have many references to Northern customs and songs. +Macaulay's praise of Temple's style is well deserved, and the slighting +remarks about the matter do not apply to the passages in evidence here. +Temple's acknowledgments to Wormius indicate the source of his +information, and it is a commentary upon the exactness of the +antiquarian's knowledge that so many of the statements in Temple's +essays are perfectly good to-day. Of course the terms "Runic" and +"Gothic" were misused, but so were they a century later. Odin is "the +first and great hero of the western Scythians; he led a mighty swarm of +the Getes, under the name of Goths, from the Asiatic Scythia into the +farthest northwest parts of Europe; he seated and spread his kingdom +round the whole Baltic sea, and over all the islands in it, and extended +it westward to the ocean and southward to the Elve."[6] Temple places +Odin's expedition at two thousand years before his own time, but he gets +many other facts right. Take this summing up of the old Norse belief as +an example: + +"An opinion was fixed and general among them, that death was but the +entrance into another life; that all men who lived lazy and inactive +lives, and died natural deaths, by sickness, or by age, went into vast +caves under ground, all dark and miry, full of noisom creatures, usual +in such places, and there forever grovelled in endless stench and +misery. On the contrary, all who gave themselves to warlike actions and +enterprises, to the conquests of their neighbors, and slaughters of +enemies, and died in battle, or of violent deaths upon bold adventures +or resolutions, they went immediately to the vast hall or palace of +Odin, their god of war, who eternally kept open house for all such +guests, where they were entertained at infinite tables, in perpetual +feasts and mirth, carousing every man in bowls made of the skulls of +their enemies they had slain, according to which numbers, every one in +these mansions of pleasure was the most honoured and the best +entertained."[7] + +Thus before Gray was born, Temple had written intelligently in English +of the salient features of the Old Norse mythology. Later in the same +essay, he recognized that some of the civil and political procedures of +his country were traceable to the Northmen, and, what is more to our +immediate purpose, he recognized the poetic value of Old Norse song. On +p. 358 occurs this paragraph: + +"I am deceived, if in this sonnet (two stanzas of 'Regner Lodbrog'), and +a following ode of Scallogrim there be not a vein truly poetical, and in +its kind Pindaric, taking it with the allowance of the different +climates, fashions, opinions, and languages of such distant countries." + +Temple certainly had no knowledge of Old Norse, and yet, in 1679, he +could write so of a poem which he had to read through the Latin. Sir +William had a wide knowledge and a fine appreciation of literature, and +an enthusiasm for its dissemination. He takes evident delight in telling +the fact that princes and kings of the olden time did high honor to +bards. He regrets that classic culture was snuffed out by a barbarous +people, but he rejoices that a new kind came to take its place. "Some of +it wanted not the true spirit of poetry in some degree, or that natural +inspiration which has been said to arise from some spark of poetical +fire wherewith particular men are born; and such as it was, it served +the turn, not only to please, but even to charm, the ignorant and +barbarous vulgar, where it was in use."[8] + +It is proverbial that music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. +That savage music charms cultivated minds is not proverbial, but it is +nevertheless true. Here is Sir William Temple, scion of a cultured race, +bearing witness to the fact, and here is Gray, a life-long dweller in a +staid English university, endorsing it a half century later. As has been +intimated, this was unusual in the time in which they lived, when, in +Lowell's phrase, the "blight of propriety" was on all poetry. But it was +only the rude and savage in an unfamiliar literature that could give +pause in the age of Pope. The milder aspects of Old Norse song and saga +must await the stronger century to give them favor. "Behold, there was a +swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion." + + +GEORGE HICKES (1642-1715). + +The next book in the list that contains an English contribution to the +knowledge of our subject is the _Thesaurus_ of George Hickes. On p. 193 +of Part I, there is a prose translation of "The Awakening of Angantyr," +from the _Harvarar Saga_. Acknowledgment is given to Verelius for the +text of the poem, but Hickes seems to have chosen this poem as the gem +of the Saga. The translation is another proof of an antiquarian's taste +and judgment, and the reader does not wonder that it soon found a wider +audience through another publication. It was reprinted in the books of +1716 and 1770 in the above list. An extract or two will show that the +vigor of the old poem has not been altogether lost in the translation: + +_Hervor_.--Awake Angantyr, Hervor the only daughter of thee and Suafu +doth awaken thee. Give me out of the tombe, the hardned[9] sword, which +the dwarfs made for Suafurlama. Hervardur, Hiorvardur, Hrani, and +Angantyr, with helmet, and coat of mail, and a sharp sword, with sheild +and accoutrements, and bloody spear, I wake you all, under the roots of +trees. Are the sons of Andgrym, who delighted in mischief, now become +dust and ashes, can none of Eyvors sons now speak with me out of the +habitations of the dead! Harvardur, Hiorvardur! so may you all be within +your ribs, as a thing that is hanged up to putrifie among insects, +unlesse you deliver me the sword which the dwarfs made ... and the +glorious belt. + +_Angantyr_.--Daughter Hervor, full of spells to raise the dead, why +dost thou call so? wilt thou run on to thy own mischief? thou art mad, +and out of thy senses, who art desperatly resolved to waken dead men. I +was not buried either by father or other freinds. Two which lived after +me got Tirfing, one of whome is now possessor thereof. + +_Hervor_.--Thou dost not tell the truth: so let Odin hide thee in the +tombe, as thou hast Tirfing by thee. Art thou unwilling, Angantyr, to +give an inheritance to thy only child?... + +_Angantyr_.--Fals woman, thou dost not understand, that thou speakest +foolishly of that, in which thou dost rejoice, for Tirfing shall, if +thou wilt beleive me, maid, destroy all thy offspring. + +_Hervor_.--I must go to my seamen, here I have no mind to stay longer. +Little do I care, O Royall friend, what my sons hereafter quarrell +about. + +_Angantyr_.--Take and keep Hialmars bane, which thou shalt long have and +enjoy, touch but the edges of it, there is poyson in both of them, it is +a most cruell devourer of men. + +_Hervor_.--I shall keep, and take in hand, the sharp sword which thou +hast let me have: I do not fear, O slain father! what my sons hereafter +may quarrell about.... Dwell all of you safe in the tombe, I must be +gon, and hasten hence, for I seem to be, in the midst of a place where +fire burns round about me. + +One can well understand, who handles the ponderous _Thesaurus_, why the +first English lovers of Old Norse were antiquarians. "The Awakening of +Angantyr" is literally buried in this work, and only the student of +Anglo-Saxon prosody would come upon it unassisted, since it is an +illustration in a chapter of the _Grammaticæ Anglo-Saxonicæ et +Moeso-Gothicæ_. Students will remember in this connection that it was +a work on poetics that saved for us the original Icelandic _Edda_. The +Icelandic skald had to know his nation's mythology. + + +THOMAS PERCY (1729-1811). + +The title of Chapter XXIII in Hickes' work indicates that even among +learned doctors mistaken notions existed as to the relationship of the +Teutonic languages. It took more than a hundred years to set the error +right, but in the meanwhile the literature of Iceland was becoming +better known to English readers. To the French scholar, Paul Henri +Mallet (1730-1807), Europe owes the first popular presentation of +Northern antiquities and literature. Appointed professor of +belles-lettres in the Copenhagen academy he found himself with more time +than students on his hands, because not many Danes at that time +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. + +We have already noted that Gray's poems on Icelandic themes, though +written in 1761, were not published until 1768. Another delayed work on +similar themes was Percy's _Five Pieces of Runic Poetry_, which, the +author tells us, was prepared for the press in 1761, but, through an +accident, was not published until 1763. The preface has this interesting +sentence: "It would be as vain to deny, as it is perhaps impolitic to +mention, that this attempt is owing to the success of the Erse +fragments." The book has an appendix containing the Icelandic originals +of the poems translated, and that portion of the book shows that a +scholar's hand and interest made the volume. So, too, does the close of +the preface: "That the study of ancient northern literature hath its +important uses has been often evinced by able writers: and that it is +not dry or unamusive this little work it is hoped will demonstrate. Its +aim at least is to shew, that if those kind of studies are not always +employed on works of taste or classic elegance, they serve at least to +unlock the treasures of native genius; they present us with frequent +sallies of bold imagination, and constantly afford matter for +philosophical reflection by showing the workings of the human mind in +its almost original state of nature." + +That original state was certainly one of original sin, if these poems +are to be believed. Every page in this volume is drenched with blood, +and from this book, as from Gray's poems and the other Old Norse +imitations of the time, a picture of fierceness and fearfulness was the +only one possible. Percy intimates in his preface that Icelandic poetry +has other tales to tell besides the "Incantation of Hervor," the "Dying +Ode of Regner Lodbrog," the "Ransome of Egill the Scald," and the +"Funeral Song of Hacon," which are here set down; he offers the +"Complaint of Harold" as a slight indication that the old poets left +"behind them many pieces on the gentler subjects of love or friendship." +But the time had not come for the presentation of those pieces. + +All of these translations were from the Latin versions extant in Percy's +time. This volume copied Hickes's translation of "Hervor's Incantation" +modified in a few particulars, and like that one, the other translations +in this volume were in prose. The work is done as well as possible, and +it remained for later scholars to point out errors in translation. The +negative contractions in Icelandic were as yet unfamiliar, and so, as +Walter Scott pointed out (in _Edin. Rev._, Oct., 1806), Percy made +Regner Lodbrog say, "The pleasure of that day (of battle, p. 34 in this +_Five Pieces_) was like having a fair virgin placed beside one in the +bed," and "The pleasure of that day was like kissing a young widow at +the highest seat of the table," when the poet really made the contrary +statement. + +Of course, the value of this book depends upon the view that is taken of +it. Intrinsically, as literature, it is well-nigh valueless. It +indicates to us, however, a constantly growing interest in the +literature it reveals, and it undoubtedly directed the attention of the +poets of the succeeding generation to a field rich in romantic +possibilities. That no great work was then created out of this material +was not due to neglect. As we shall see, many puny poets strove to +breathe life into these bones, but the divine power was not in the +poets. Some who were not poets had yet the insight to feel the value of +this ancient literature, and they made known the facts concerning it. It +seems a mechanical and unpromising way to have great poetry written, +this calling out, "New Lamps for Old." Yet it is on record that great +poems have been written at just such instigation. + + +THOMAS WARTON (1728-1790). + +Historians[10] of Romanticism have marked Warton's _History of English +Poetry_ as one of the forces that made for the new idea in literature. +This record of a past which, though out of favor, was immeasurably +superior to the time of its historian, spread new views concerning the +poetic art among the rising generation, and suggested new subjects as +well as new treatments of old subjects. We have mentioned the fact that +Gray handed over to Warton his notes for a contemplated history of +poetry, and that Warton found no place in his work for Gray's +adaptations from the Old Norse. Warton was not blind to the beauties of +Gray's poems, nor did he fail to appreciate the merits of the literature +which they illustrated. His scheme relegated his remarks concerning that +poetry to the introductory dissertation, "Of the Origin of Romantic +Fiction in Europe." What he had to say was in support of a theory which +is not accepted to-day, and of course his statements concerning the +origin of the Scandinavian people were as wrong as those that we found +in Mallet and Temple. But with all his misinformation, Warton managed to +get at many truths about Icelandic poetry, and his presentation of them +was fresh and stimulating. Already the Old Norse mythology was well +known, even down to Valhalla and the mistletoe. Old Norse poetry was +well enough known to call forth this remark: + +"They (the 'Runic' odes) have a certain sublime and figurative cast of +diction, which is indeed one of their predominant characteristics.... +When obvious terms and phrases evidently occurred, the Runic poets are +fond of departing from the common and established diction. They appear +to use circumlocution and comparisons not as a matter of necessity, but +of choice and skill: nor are these metaphorical colourings so much the +result of want of words, as of warmth of fancy." The note gives these +examples: "Thus, a rainbow is called, the bridge of the gods. Poetry, +the mead of Odin. The earth, the vessel that floats on ages. A ship, the +horse of the waves. A tongue, the sword of words. Night, the veil of +cares." + +A study of the notes to Warton's dissertation reveals the fact that he +had made use of the books already mentioned in the list on a previous +page, and of no others that are significant. But such excellent use was +made of them, that it would seem as if nothing was left in them that +could be made valuable for spreading a knowledge of and an enthusiasm +for Icelandic literature. When it is remembered that Warton's purpose +was to prove the Saracenic origin of romantic fiction in Europe, through +the Moors in Spain, and that Icelandic literature was mentioned only to +account for a certain un-Arabian tinge in that romantic fiction, the +wonder grows that so full and fresh a presentation of Old Norse poetry +should have been made. He puts such passages as these into his +illustrative notes: "Tell my mother Suanhita in Denmark, that she will +not this summer comb the hair of her son. I had promised her to return, +but now my side shall feel the edge of the sword." There is an +appreciation of the poetic here, that makes us feel that Warton was not +an unworthy wearer of the laurel. He insists that the Saxon poetry was +powerfully affected by "the old scaldic fables and heroes," and gives in +the text a translation of the "Battle of Brunenburgh" to prove his +case. He admires "the scaldic dialogue at the tomb of Angantyr," but +wrongly attributes a beautiful translation of it to Gray. He quotes at +length from "a noble ode, called in the northern chronicles the Elogium +of Hacon, by the scald Eyvynd; who, for his superior skill in poetry was +called the Cross of Poets (Eyvindr Skálldaspillir), and fought in the +battle which he celebrated." + +He knows how Iceland touched England, as this passage will show: "That +the Icelandic bards were common in England during the Danish invasions, +there are numerous proofs. Egill, a celebrated Icelandic poet, having +murthered the son and many of the friends of Eric Blodaxe, king of +Denmark or Norway, then residing in Northumberland, and which he had +just conquered, procured a pardon by singing before the king, at the +command of his queen Gunhilde, an extemporaneous ode. Egill compliments +the king, who probably was his patron, with the appellation of the +English chief. 'I offer my freight to the king. I owe a poem for my +ransom. I present to the ENGLISH CHIEF the mead of Odin.' Afterwards he +calls this Danish conqueror the commander of the Scottish fleet. 'The +commander of the Scottish fleet fattened the ravenous birds. The sister +of Nera (Death) trampled on the foe: she trampled on the evening food of +the eagle.'" + +So wide a knowledge and so keen an appreciation of Old Norse in a +Warton, whose interest was chiefly elsewhere, argues for a spreading +popularity of the ancient literature. Thus far, only Gray has made +living English literature out of these old stories, and he only two +short poems. There were other attempts to achieve poetic success with +this foreign material, but a hundred exacting years have covered them +with oblivion. + + +DRAKE (1766-1836). MATHIAS (1754-1835). + +In the second decade of the nineteenth century, Nathan Drake, M.D., made +a strong effort to popularize Norse mythology and literature. The fourth +edition of his work entitled _Literary Hours_ (London, 1820) +contains[11] an appreciative article on the subject, the fullness of +which is indicated in these words from p. 309: + +"The most striking and characteristic parts of the Scandinavian +mythology, together with no inconsiderable portion of the manners and +customs of our northern ancestors, have now passed before the reader; +their theology, warfare, and poetry, their gallantry, religious rites, +and superstitions, have been separately, and, I trust, distinctly +reviewed." + + +The essay is written in an easy style that doubtless gained for it many +readers. All the available knowledge of the subject was used, and a +clearer view of it was presented than had been obtainable in Percy's +"Mallet." The author was a thoughtful man, able to detect errors in +Warton and Percy, but his zeal in his enterprise led him to praise +versifiers inordinately that had used the "Gothic fables." He quotes +liberally from writers whose books are not to be had in this country, +and certainly the uninspired verses merit the neglect that this fact +indicates. He calls Sayers' pen "masterly" that wrote these lines: + + Coucher of the ponderous spear, + Thou shout'st amid the battle's stound-- + The armed Sisters hear, + Viewless hurrying o'er the ground + They strike the destin'd chiefs and call them to the skies. + +(P. 168.) + +From Penrose he quotes such lines as these: + + The feast begins, the skull goes round, + Laughter shouts--the shouts resound. + The gust of war subsides--E'en now + The grim chief curls his cheek, and smooths his rugged brow. + +(P. 171.) + +From Sterling comes this imitation of Gray: + + Now the rage of combat burns, + Haughty chiefs on chiefs lie slain; + The battle glows and sinks by turns, + Death and carnage load the plain. + +(P 172.) + +From these extracts, it appears that the poets who imitated Gray +considered that only "dreadful songs," like his, were to be found in +Scandinavian poetry. + +Downman, Herbert and Mathias are also adduced by Dr. Drake as examples +of poets who have gained much by Old Norse borrowings, but these +borrowings are invariably scenes from a chamber of horrors. It occurs +to me that perhaps Dr. Drake had begun to tire of the spiritless echoes +of the classical schools, and that he fondly hoped that such shrieks and +groans as those he admired in this essay would satisfy his cravings for +better things in poetry. But the critic had no adequate knowledge of the +way in which genius works. His one desire in these studies of +Scandinavian mythology was "to recommend it to the votaries of the Muse, +as a machinery admirably constructed for their purpose" (p. 158). He +hopes for "a more extensive adoption of the Scandinavian mythology, +especially in our _epic_ and _lyric_ compositions" (p. 311). We smile at +the notion, to-day, but that very conception of poetry as "machinery" is +characteristic of a whole century of our English literature. + +The Mathias mentioned by Drake is Thomas James Mathias, whose book, +_Odes Chiefly from the Norse Tongue_ (London, 1781), received the +distinction of an American reprint (New York, 1806). Bartholinus +furnishes the material and Gray the spirit for these pieces. + + +AMOS S. COTTLE(1768-1800). WILLIAM HERBERT (1778-1847). + +In this period belong two works of translation that mark the approach of +the time when Old Norse prose and poetry were to be read in the +original. As literature they are of little value, and they had but +slight influence on succeeding writers. + +At Bristol, in 1797, was published _Icelandic Poetry, or, The Edda of +Saemund translated into English Verse_, by A.S. Cottle of Magdalen +College, Cambridge. This work has an Introduction containing nothing +worth discussing here, and an "Epistle" to A.S. Cottle from Robert +Southey. The laureate, in good blank verse, discourses on the Old Norse +heroes whom he happens to know about. They are the old favorites, Regner +Lodbrog and his sons; in Southey's poem the foeman's skull is, as usual, +the drinking cup. It was certainly time for new actors and new +properties to appear in English versions of Scandinavian stories. + +The translations are twelve in number, and evince an intelligent and +facile versifier. When all is said, these old songs could contribute to +the pleasure of very few. Only a student of history, or a poet, or an +antiquarian, would dwell with loving interest on the lays of +Vafthrudnis, Grimner, Skirner and Hymer (as Cottle spells them). +Besides, they are difficult to read, and must be abundantly annotated to +make them comprehensible. In such works as this of Cottle, a Scott might +find wherewith to lend color to a story or a poem, but the common man +would borrow Walpole's words, used in characterizing Gray's "Odes": +"They are not interesting, and do not ... touch any passion; our human +feelings ... are not here affected. Who can care through what horrors a +Runic savage arrived at all the joys and glories they could +conceive--the supreme felicity of boozing ale out of the skull of an +enemy in Odin's hall?"[12] + +In 1804 a book was published bearing this title-page: _Select Icelandic +Poetry, translated from the originals: with notes_. The preface was +signed by the author, William Herbert. The pieces are from Sæmund, +Bartholinus, Verelius, and Perinskjöld's edition of _Heimskringla_, and +were all translated with the assistance of the Latin versions. The notes +are explanatory of the allusions and the hiatuses in the poems. +Reference is made to MSS. of the Norse pieces existing in museums and +libraries, which the author had consulted. Thus we see scholarship +beginning to extend investigations. As for the verses themselves not +much need be said. They are not so good as Cottle's, although they +received a notice from Scott in the _Edinburgh Review_. The thing to +notice about the work is that it pretends to come direct from Old Norse, +not, as most of the work dealt with so far, _via_ Latin. + +Icelandic poetry is more difficult to read than Icelandic prose, and so +it seems strange that the former should have been attacked first by +English scholars. Yet so it was, and until 1844 our English literature +had no other inspiration in old Norse writings than the rude and rugged +songs that first lent their lilt to Gray. The _human_ North is in the +sagas, and when they were revealed to our people, Icelandic literature +began to mean something more than Valhalla and the mead-bouts there. The +scene was changed to earth, and the gods gave place to nobler actors, +men and women. The action was lifted to the eminence of a world-drama. +But before the change came Sir Walter Scott, and it is fitting that the +first period of Norse influence in English literature should close, as +it began, with a great master. + + +SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832). + +In 1792, Walter Scott was twenty-one years old, and one of his +note-books of that year contains this entry: "Vegtam's Kvitha or The +Descent of Odin, with the Latin of Thomas Bartholine, and the English +poetical version of Mr. Gray; with some account of the Death of Balder, +both as related in the Edda, and as handed down to us by the Northern +historians--_Auctore Gualtero Scott_." According to Lockhart,[13] the +Icelandic, Latin and English versions were here transcribed, and the +historical account that followed--seven closely written quarto +pages--was read before a debating society. + +It was to be expected that one so enthusiastic about antiquities as +Scott would early discover the treasury of Norse history and song. At +twenty-one, as we see, he is transcribing a song in a language he knew +nothing about, as well as in translations. Fourteen years later, he has +learned enough about the subject to write a review of Herbert's _Poems +and Translations_.[14] + +In 1813, he writes an account of the _Eyrbyggja Saga_ for _Illustrations +of Northern Antiquities_ (edited by Robert Jameson, Edinburgh, 1814). + +There are two of Scott's contributions to literature that possess more +than a mere tinge of Old Norse knowledge, namely, the long poem "Harold, +the Dauntless" (published in 1817), and the long story "The Pirate" +(published in 1821). The poem is weak, but it illustrates Scott's theory +of the usefulness of poetical antiquities to the modern poet. In another +connection Scott said: "In the rude song of the Scald, we regard less +the strained imagery and extravagance of epithet, than the wild +impressions which it conveys of the dauntless resolution, savage +superstition, rude festivity and ceaseless depredations of the ancient +Scandinavians."[15] The poet did his work in accordance with this +theory, and so in "Harold, the Dauntless," we note no flavor of the +older poetry in phrase or in method. Harold is fierce enough and grim +enough to measure up to the old ideal of a Norse hero. + +"I was rocked in a buckler and fed from a blade," is his boast before +his newly christened father, and in his apostrophe to his grandsire +Eric, the popular notion of early Norse antiquarianism is again +exhibited: + + In wild Valhalla hast thou quaffed + From foeman's skull metheglin draught? + +Scott's scholarship in Old Norse was largely derived from the Latin +tomes, and such conceptions as those quoted are therefore common in his +poem. That the poet realized the inadequacy of such knowledge, the +review of Herbert's poetry, published in the _Edinburgh Review_ for +October, 1806, shows. In this article he has a vision of what shall be +when men shall be able "to trace the Runic rhyme" itself. + +"The Pirate," exhibited the Wizard's skill in weaving the old and the +new together, the old being the traditions of the Shetlands, full of the +ancestral beliefs in Old Norse things, the new being the life in those +islands in a recent century. This is a stirring story, that comes into +our consideration because of its Scandinavian antiquities. Again we find +the Latin treasuries of Bartholinus, Torfæus, Perinskjöld and Olaus +Magnus in evidence, though here, too, mention is made of "Haco," and +Tryggvason and "Harfager." With a background of island scenery, with +which Scott became familiar during a light-house inspector's voyage made +in 1814, this story is a picture full of vivid colors and characters. In +Norna of the Fitful Head, he has created a mysterious personage in whose +mouth "Runic rhymes" are the only proper speech. She stills the tempest +with them, and "The Song of the Tempest" is a strong apostrophe, though +it is neither Runic nor rhymed. She preludes her life-story with verses +that are rhymed but not Runic, and she sings incantations in the same +wise. This _Reimkennar_ is an echo of the _Völuspá_, and is the only +kind of Norse woman that the time of Scott could imagine. Claud Halcro, +the poet, is fond of rhyming the only kind of Norseman known to his +time, and in his "Song of Harold Harfager" we hear the echoes of Gray's +odes. Scott's reading was wide in all ancient lore, and he never missed +a chance to introduce an odd custom if it would make an interesting +scene in his story. So here we have the "Sword Dance" (celebrated by +Olaus Magnus, though I have never read of it in Old Norse), the +"Questioning of the Sibyl" (like that in Gray's "Descent of Odin"), the +"Capture and Sharing of the Whale," and the "Promise of Odin." In most +of the natives there are turns of speech that recall the Norse ancestry +of the Shetlanders. + +In Scott, then, we see the lengthening out of the influence of the +antiquarians who wrote of a dead past in a dead language. The time was +at hand when that past was to live again, painted in the living words of +living men. + + + + +III. + +FROM THE SOURCES THEMSELVES. + + +In the preceding section we noted the achievements of English +scholarship and genius working under great disadvantages. Gray and Scott +may have had a smattering of Icelandic, but Latin translations were +necessary to reveal the meaning of what few Old Norse texts were +available to them. This paucity of material, more than the ignorance of +the language, was responsible for the slow progress in popularizing the +remarkable literature of the North. Scaldic and Eddie poems comprised +all that was known to English readers of that literature, and in them +the superhuman rather than the human elements were predominant. + +We have come now to a time when the field of our view broadens to +include not only more and different material, but more and different +men. The sagas were annexed to the old songs, and the body of literature +to attract attention was thus increased a thousand fold. The +antiquarians were supplanted by scholars who, although passionately +devoted to the study of the past, were still vitally interested in the +affairs of the time in which they lived. The second and greatest stage +of the development of Old Norse influence in England has a mark of +distinction that belongs to few literary epochs. The men who made it +lived lives that were as heroic in devotion to duty and principle as +many of those written down in the sagas themselves. I have sometimes +wondered whether it is merely accidental that English saga scholars were +so often men of high soul and strong action. Certain it is that Richard +Cleasby, and Samuel Laing, and George Webbe Dasent, and Robert Lowe are +types of men that the Icelanders would have celebrated, as having "left +a tale to tell" in their full and active lives. And no less certain is +it that Thomas Carlyle, and Matthew Arnold, and William Morris, and +Charles Kingsley, and Gerald Massey labored for a better manhood that +should rise to the stature and reflect the virtues of the heroes of the +Northland. + +RICHARD CLEASBY (1797-1847). + +In the forties of the nineteenth century several minds began to work, +independently of one another, in this wider field of Icelandic +literature. Richard Cleasby (1797-1847), an English merchant's son with +scholarly instincts, began the study of the sagas, but made slight +progress because of what he called an "unaccountable and most scandalous +blank," the want of a dictionary. This was in 1840, and for the next +seven years he labored to fill up that blank. The record[16] of those +years is a wonderful witness to the heroism and spirit of the scholar, +and justifies Sir George Dasent's characterization of Cleasby as "one of +the most indefatigable students that ever lived." The work thus begun +was not completed until many years afterward (it is dated 1874), and, by +untoward circumstances, very little of it is Richard Cleasby's. But +generous scholarship acknowledged its debt to the man who gave his +strength and his wealth to the work, by placing his name on the +title-page. No less shall we fail to honor his memory by mentioning his +labors here. Although the dictionary was not completed in the decade of +its inception, the study that it was designed to promote took hold on a +number of men and the results were remarkable for both literature and +scholarship. + + +THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881). + +First in order of time was the work of Thomas Carlyle. It will not seem +strange to the student of English literature to find that this writer +came under the influence of the old skalds and sagaman and spoke +appreciative words concerning them. His German studies had to take +cognizance of the Old Norse treasuries of poetry, and he became a +diligent reader of Icelandic literature in what translations he could +get at, German and English. The strongest utterance on the subject that +he left behind him is in "Lecture I" of the series "On Heroes, +Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History," dated May, 1840. This is a +treatment of Scandinavian mythology, rugged and thorough, like all of +this man's work. Carlyle evinces a scholar's instinct in more than one +place, as, for instance, when he doubts the _grandmother_ etymology of +_Edda_, an etymology repeated until a much later day by scholars of a +less sure sense.[17] But this lecture "On Heroes" is also a +glorification of the literature with which we are dealing, and in this +regard it is worthy of special note here. + +In the first place, Carlyle with true critical instinct caught the +essence of it; to him it seemed to have "a rude childlike way of +recognizing the divineness of Nature, the divineness of Man." For him +Scandinavian mythology was superior in sincerity to the Grecian, though +it lacked the grace of the latter. "Sincerity, I think, is better than +grace. I feel that these old Northmen were looking into Nature with open +eye and soul: most earnest, honest; childlike, and yet manlike; with a +great-hearted simplicity and depth and freshness, in a true, loving, +admiring, unfearing way. A right valiant, true old race of men." This is +a truer appreciation than Gray and Walpole had, eighty years before. In +the second place, Carlyle was not misled into thinking that valor in war +was the only characteristic of the rude Norseman, and skill in drinking +his only household virtue. "Beautiful traits of pity, too, and honest +pity." Then he tells of Baldur and Nanna, in his rugged prose account +anticipating Matthew Arnold. Other qualities of the literature appeal to +him. "I like much their robust simplicity; their veracity, directness of +conception. Thor 'draws down his brows' in a veritable Norse rage; +'grasps his hammer till the _knuckles grow white_." Again; "A great +broad Brobdignag grin of true humor is this Skrymir; mirth resting on +earnestness and sadness, as the rainbow on the black tempest: only a +right valiant heart is capable of that." Still again: "This law of +mutation, which also is a law written in man's inmost thought, has been +deciphered by these old earnest Thinkers in their rude style." + +Thomas Carlyle, seeking to explain the worship of a pagan divinity, +chose Odin as the noblest example of such a hero. The picture of Odin he +drew from the prose Edda, mainly, and his purpose required that he +paint the picture in the most attractive colors. So it happened that our +English literature got its first _complete_ view of Old Norse ethics and +art. The memory of Gray's "dreadful songs" had ruled for almost a +century, and ordinary readers might be pardoned for thinking that Old +Norse literature, like Old Norse history, was written in blood. We have +seen that Gray's imitators perpetuated the old idea, and that even Scott +sanctioned it, and now we see England's emancipation from it. The grouty +old Scotchman of Craigenputtoch knew no more Icelandic than most of his +fellow countrymen (be it noted that he said: "From the Humber upwards, +all over Scotland, the speech of the common people is still in a +singular degree Icelandic, its Germanism has still a peculiar Norse +tinge"); but he saw far more deeply into the heart of Icelandic +literature than anybody before him. His emphasis of its many sidedness, +of its sincerity, its humanity, its simplicity, its directness, its +humor and its wisdom, was the signal for a change in the popular +estimation of its worth to our modern art. Since his day we have had +Morris and Arnold and a host of minor singers, and the nineteenth +century revival of interest in Old Norse literature. + +The other work by Carlyle dealing directly with Old Norse material is +_The Early Kings of Norway_. Here he digests _Heimskringla_, which was +obtainable through Laing's translation, in a way to stir the blood. The +story, as he tells it, is breathlessly interesting, and it is a pity +that readers of Carlyle so often stop short of this work. As in the +_Hero-Worship_, he shows this Teutonic bias, and the religious training +that minified Greek literature. + +Snorri's work elicits from him repeated applause. Here, for instance, in +Chap. X: "It has, all of it, the description (and we see clearly the +fact itself had), a kind of pathetic grandeur, simplicity, and rude +nobleness; something Epic or Homeric, without the metre or the singing +of Homer, but with all the sincerity, rugged truth to nature, and much +more of piety, devoutness, reverence for what is ever high in this +universe, than meets us in those old Greek Ballad-mongers." + +SAMUEL LAING (1780-1868). + +It was the work of Samuel Laing that gave Carlyle the material for this +last-mentioned book.[18] Laing's translation of _Heimskringla_ bears the +date 1844, and although Mr. Dasent's quaint version of the _Prose Edda_ +preceded it by two years, _The Sagas of the Norse Kings_ was the +"epoch-making" book. It is true that a later version has superseded it +in literary and scholarly finish, but Laing's work was a pioneer of +sterling intrinsic value, and many there be that do it homage still. +Laing had the laudable ambition--so seldom found in these days--"to give +a plain, faithful translation into English of the _Heimskringla_, +unencumbered with antiquarian research, and suited to the plain English +reader."[19] With this work, then, Icelandic lore passes out of the +hands of the antiquarian into the hands of common readers. It matters +little that the audience is even still fit and few; from this time on he +that runs may read. + +For our purpose it will not be necessary to characterize the +translation. Laing commanded an excellent style, and he was enthusiastic +over his work. Indeed, the commonest criticism passed on the +"Preliminary Dissertation" was that the author's zeal had run away with +his good sense. Be that as it may, Laing called the attention of his +readers to the neglect of a literature and a history which should be +England's pride, as Anglo-Saxon literature and history even then were. +The reviews of the time made it appear as if another Battle of the Books +were impending--Anglo-Saxon versus Icelandic; a writer in the _English +Review_ (Vol. 82, p. 316), pro-Saxon in his zeal, admitting at last that +"of none of the children of the Norse, whether Goth or Frank, Saxon or +Scandinavian, have the others any reason to be ashamed. All have earned +the gratitude and admiration of the world, and their combined or +successive efforts have made England and Europe what they are." + +It is refreshing to come upon new views of Old Norse character, that +recognize "amidst anarchy and bloodshed, redeeming features of +kindliness and better feeling which tell of the mingled principles that +war within our nature for the mastery." Laing's translation accomplished +this for English readers, and with the years came a deeper knowledge +that showed those touches of tenderness and traits of beauty which, even +in 1844, were not perceptible to those readers. + + +HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882). + +JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891). + +_The Story of the Norse Kings_, thus translated by an Englishman, +suggested to our American poet, Longfellow, a series of lyrics on King +Olaf. The young college professor that wrote about _Frithjof's Saga_ in +the _North American Review_ for 1837, was bound, sooner or later, to +come back to the field when he found that the American reading public +would listen to whatever songs he sang to them. Before 1850, Longfellow +had written "The Challenge of Thor," a poem which imitated the form of +Icelandic verse and catches much of its spirit. In 1859, the thought +came to him "that a very good poem might be written on the Saga of King +Olaf, who converted the North to Christianity." Two years later he +completed the lyrics that compose "The Musician's Tale" in _The Tales of +a Wayside Inn_, published in 1863, and in this work "The Challenge of +Thor" serves as a prelude. The pieces after this prelude are not +imitations of the Icelandic verse, but are like Tegner's _Frithjof's +Saga_, in that each new portion has a meter of its own. There is not, +either, a consistent effort to put the flavor of the North into the +poetry, so that, properly speaking, we have here only the retelling of +an old tale. The ballad fervor and movement are often perceptible, +though nowhere does the poet strike the ringing note of "The Skeleton in +Armor," published in the volume of 1841. + +Truth to tell, Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf" is not a remarkable +work. One who reads the few chapters in Carlyle's _Early Kings of +Norway_ that deal with Olaf Tryggvason gets more of the fire and spirit +of the old saga at every turning. The poet chooses scenes and incidents +very skilfully, but for their proper presentation a terseness is +necessary that is not reconcilable with frequent rhymes. Compare the +saga account with the poem's: "What is this that has broken?" asked King +Olaf. "Norway from thy hand, King," answered Tamberskelver. + + "What was that?" said Olaf, standing + On the quarter deck. + "Something heard I like the stranding + Of a shattered wreck." + Einar then, the arrow taking + From the loosened string, + Answered, "That was Norway breaking + From thy hand, O King!" + +Nevertheless, Longfellow is to be thanked for acquainting a wide circle +of readers with the sterling saga literature. + +One other American poet was busy with the ancient Northern literature at +this time. James Russell Lowell wrote one notable poem that is Old Norse +in subject and spirit, "The Voyage to Vinland." The third part of the +poem, "Gudrida's Prophecy," hints at Icelandic versification, and the +short lines are hammer-strokes that warm the reader to enthusiasm. Far +more of the spirit of the old literature is in this short poem than is +to be found in the whole of Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf." The +character of Biörn is well drawn, recalling Bodli, of Morris' poem, in +its principal features. Certainly there is a reflection here of that Old +Norse conception of life which gave to men's deeds their due reward, and +which exalted the power of will. This poem was begun in 1850, but was +not published till 1868. + +In Lowell's poems are to be found many figures and allusions pointing to +his familiarity with Icelandic song and story. At the end of the third +strophe of the "Commemoration Ode," for instance, Truth is pictured as +Brynhild, + + plumed and mailed, + With sweet, stern face unveiled. + +In these borrowings of themes and allusions, Lowell is at one with most +of the poets of the present day. It used to be the fashion, and is +still, for tables of contents in volumes of verse to show titles like +these: "Prometheus"; "Iliad VIII, 542-561"; "Alectryon." Present-day +volumes are becoming more and more besprinkled with titles like these: +"Balder the Beautiful"; "The Death of Arnkel," etc. In this fact alone +is seen the turn of the tide. Heroes and heroines in dramas and novels +are beginning to bear Old Norse names, even where the setting is not +northern; witness Sidney Dobell's _Balder_, where not even a single +allusion is made to Icelandic matters. + +MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888). + +Matthew Arnold's strong sympathy with noble and virile literature of +whatever age or nation led him in time to Old Norse, and his poem +"Balder Dead" is of distinct importance among the works of the +nineteenth century in English literature. It is an addition of permanent +value to our poetry, because of its marked originality and its high +ethical tone. "Mallet, and his version of the Edda, is all the poem is +based upon," says Arnold.[20] It is the poet's divinely implanted +instinct that gathers from the few chapters of an old book a knowledge +wonderfully full and deep of the cosmogony and eschatology of the +northern nations of Europe. "Balder Dead" tells the familiar story of +the whitest of the gods, but it also contains the essence of Old +Icelandic religion; indeed there is no single short work in our language +which gives a tithe of the information about the North, its spirit, and +its philosophy, which this poem of Matthew Arnold's sets forth. In +future days a text-book of original English poems will be in the hands +of our boys and girls which will enable them to get, through the medium +of their own language, the message and the spirit of foreign literature. +Old Norse song will need no other representative than Matthew Arnold's +"Balder Dead." + +This is an original poem. It does not imitate the verse nor the word of +the older song, but the flavor of it is here. Gray and his imitators +drew from the Icelandic fountain "dreadful songs" and many poets since +have heard no milder note. Matthew Arnold's instincts were for peace and +the arts of peace, and he found in Balder a type for the ennobling of +our own century. Balder says to his brother who has come to lament that +Lok's machinations will keep the best beloved of the gods in Niflheim: + + For I am long since weary of your storm + Of carnage, and find, Hermod, in your life + Something too much of war and broils, which make + Life one perpetual fight, a bath of blood. + Mine eyes are dizzy with the arrowy hail; + Mine ears are stunn'd with blows, and sick for calm. + +Arnold has exalted the Revelator of the Northern mythology, and in +magnificent poetry sets forth his apocalyptic vision: + + Unarm'd, inglorious; I attend the course + Of ages, and my late return to light, + In times less alien to a spirit mild, + In new-recover'd seats, the happier day. + + . . . . . . . . . + + Far to the south, beyond the blue, there spreads + Another Heaven, the boundless--no one yet + Hath reach'd it; there hereafter shall arise + The second Asgard, with another name. + + . . . . . . . . . + + There re-assembling we shall see emerge + From the bright Ocean at our feet an earth + More fresh, more verdant than the last, with fruits + Self-springing, and a seed of man preserved, + Who then shall live in peace, as now in war. + +Here is the grandest message that the Old Norse religion had to give, +and Matthew Arnold concerned himself with that alone. It is a far cry +from Regner Lodbrog to this. There is a fine touch in the introduction +of Regner into the lamentation of Balder. Arnold makes the old warrior +say of the ruder skalds: + + But they harp ever on one string, and wake + Remembrance in our souls of war alone, + Such as on earth we valiantly have waged, + And blood, and ringing blows, and violent death. + But when thou sangest, Balder, thou didst strike + Another note, and, like a bird in spring, + Thy voice of joyance minded us, and youth, + And wife, and children, and our ancient home. + +Here is a human Norseman, a figure not often presented in the versions +of the old stories that English poets and romancers have given us. +Arnold did a good service to Icelandic literature when he put into +Regner's mouth mild sentiments and a love for home and family. The note +is not lacking in the ancient literature, but it took Englishmen three +centuries to find it. It was the scholar, Matthew Arnold, who first +repeated the gentler strain in the rude music of the North, as it was +the scholar, Thomas Gray, who first echoed the "dreadful songs" of that +old psalmody. Gray has all the culture of his age, when it was still +possible to compass all knowledge in one lifetime; Arnold had all the +literary culture of his fuller century when multiplied sciences force a +scholar to be content with one segment of human knowledge. The former +had music and architecture and other sciences among his accomplishments; +the latter spread out in literature, as "Sohrab and Rustum," "Empedocles +on Etna," "Tristram and Iseult," as well as "Balder Dead" attest. The +quatrain prefixed to the volume containing the narrative and elegiac +poems be-tokens what joy Arnold had in his literary work, and indicates +why these poems cannot fail to live: + + What poets feel not, when they make, + A pleasure in creating, + The world in its turn will not take + Pleasure in contemplating. + +Balder is the creation of Old Norse poetry that is most popular with +contemporary English writers, and Matthew Arnold first made him so. As +Bugge points out, no deed of his is "celebrated in song or story. His +personality only is described; of his activity in life almost no +external trait is recorded. All the stress is laid upon his death; and, +like Christ, Baldr dies in his youth."[21] + + +SIR GEORGE WEBBE DASENT (1820-1896). + +Among the scholars who have labored to give England the benefit of a +fuller and truer knowledge of Norse matters, none will be remembered +more gratefully than Sir George Webbe Dasent. Known to the reading +public most widely by his translations of the folk-tales of Asbjörnsen +and Moe, he has still a claim upon the attention of the students of +Icelandic. As we have seen, he gave out a translation of the _Younger +Edda_ in 1842, and during the half century and more that followed he +wrote other works of history and literature connected with our subject. +Two saga translations were published in 1861 and 1866, _The Story of +Burnt Njal_, and _The Story of Gisli the Outlaw_, which will always rank +high in this class of literature. _Njala_ especially is an excellent +piece of work, a classic among translations. The "Prolegomena" is rich +in information, and very little of it has been superseded by later +scholarship. In 1887 and 1894 he translated for the Master of the Rolls, +_The Orkney Saga_ and _The Saga of Hakon_, the texts of which Vigfusson +had printed in the same series some years before. The interest of the +government in Icelandic annals connected with English history is +indicated in these last publications, and England is fortunate to have +had such enthusiastic scholars as Vigfusson and Dasent to do the work. +These men had been collaborators on the Cleasby Dictionary, and in this +work as in all others Dasent displayed an eagerness to have his +countrymen know how significant England's relationship to Iceland was. +He was as certain as Laing had been before him of the preeminence of +this literature among the mediæval writings. Like Laing, too, he would +have the general reader turn to this body of work "which for its beauty +and richness is worthy of being known to the greatest possible number of +readers."[22] + +To mark the progress away from the old conception of unmitigated +brutality these words of Dasent stand here:[23] "The faults of these +Norsemen were the faults of their time; their virtues they possessed in +larger measure than the rest of their age, and thus when Christianity +had tamed their fury, they became the torch-bearers of civilization; and +though the plowshare of Destiny, when it planted them in Europe, +uprooted along its furrow many a pretty flower of feeling in the lands +which felt the fury of these Northern conquerers, their energy and +endurance gave a lasting temper to the West, and more especially to +England, which will wear so long as the world wears, and at the same +time implanted principles of freedom which shall never be rooted out. +Such results are a compensation for many bygone sorrows." + + +CHARLES KINGSLEY (1819-1875). + +In 1874, Charles Kingsley visited America and delivered some lectures. +Among these was one entitled "The First Discovery of America." This +interests us here because it displays an appreciation, if not a deep +knowledge, of Icelandic literature. In it the lecturer commended to +Longfellow's attention a ballad sung in the Faroes, begging him to +translate it some day, "as none but he can translate it." "It is so sad, +that no tenderness less exquisite than his can prevent its being +painful; and at least in its _denouement_, so naive, that no purity less +exquisite than his can prevent its being dreadful."[24] Later in the +lecture he commends to his hearers the _Heimskringla_ of Snorri +Sturluson, the "Homer of the North."[25] + +Speaking of the elements that mingled to produce the British character, +Kingsley says: "In manners as well as in religion, the Norse were +humanized and civilized by their contact with the Celts, both in +Scotland and in Ireland. Both peoples had valor, intellect, imagination: +but the Celt had that which the burly, angular Norse character, however +deep and stately, and however humorous, wanted; namely, music of nature, +tenderness, grace, rapidity, playfulness; just the qualities, combining +with the Scandinavian (and in Scotland with the Angle) elements of +character which have produced, in Ireland and in Scotland, two schools +of lyric poetry second to none in the world."[26] Over the page, +Kingsley has this to say: "For they were a sad people, those old Norse +forefathers of ours."[27] Humorous and sad are not inconsistent words in +these sentences; the Norseman had a sense of the ludicrous, and could +jest grimly in the face of death. Of the sadness of his life, no one +needs to be told who has read a saga or two. Kingsley says: "There is, +in the old sagas, none of that enjoyment of life which shines out +everywhere in Greek poetry, even through its deepest tragedies. Not in +complacency with Nature's beauty, but in the fierce struggle with her +wrath, does the Norseman feel pleasure."[28] + +This lecture shows a deeper acquaintance with Old Norse literature than +Kingsley was willing to acknowledge. Not only are the stories well +chosen which he uses throughout, but the intuitions are sound, and the +inferences based upon them. He anticipated the work of this +investigation in the last words of the address. He has been telling the +fine story of Thormod at Sticklestead: + +"I shall not insult your intelligence by any comment or even epithet of +my own. I shall but ask you, Was not this man your kinsman? Does not the +story sound, allowing for all change of manners as well as of time and +place, like a scene out of your own Bret Harte or Colonel John Hay's +writings; a scene of the dry humor, the rough heroism of your own far +West? Yes, as long as you have your _Jem Bludsos_ and _Tom Flynns of +Virginia City_, the old Norse blood is surely not extinct, the old Norse +spirit is not dead."[29] + + +EDMUND GOSSE (1849-). + +Among contemporary English poets who have taught the world of readers +that things Norse are worthy of attention, is Edmund Gosse. He has been +more intimately connected with the popularization of modern Norwegian +literature, notably of Ibsen, but he has also found in Old Norse story +themes for poetic treatment. We mention "The Death of Arnkel," found in +the volume _Firdausi in Exile_, more because it shows that our poets are +turning to _the gesta islandicorum_ for themes, than because it is a +remarkable poem. More pretentious is _King Erik, a Tragedy_, London, +1876. Here is a noble drama which displays an intimate acquaintance with +the literature that gave it its themes and inspiration. The author +dedicates it to Robert Browning, calling it: + + ... this lyric symbol of my labour, + This antique light that led my dreams so long, + This battered hull of a barbaric tabor, + Beaten to runic song. + +I have often thought that fate was very unkind to keep Browning so +persistently in the south of Europe, when, in Iceland and Norway, were +mines that he could have worked in to such supreme advantage. To be sure +his method clashes with the simplicity of the Old Norse manner, but from +him we should have had men and women superb in stature and virility, and +perhaps the Arctic influence would have killed the troublesome +tropicality of his language. + +This drama by Gosse is not strictly Icelandic in motive. Jealousy was +not the passion to loosen the tongue of the sagaman, and in so far as +that is the theme of "King Erik," the play is not Old Norse in origin. +Christian material, too, has been introduced that gives a modern tinge +to the drama, but there is enough of the genuine saga spirit to warrant +attention to it here. Something more than the names is Icelandic. Here +is a woman, Botilda, with strength of character enough to recall a +Brynhild or a Bergthora. Gisli is the foster-brother that takes up the +blood-feud for Grimur. Adalbjörg and Svanhilda are the whisperers of +slander and the workers of ill. Marcus is the skald who is making a poem +about the king. Here are customs and beliefs distinctly Norse: + + I loved him from the first, + And so the second midnight to the cliff + We went. I mind me how the round moon rose, + And how a great whale in the offing plunged, + Dark on the golden circle. There we cut + A space of turf, and lifted it, and ran + Our knife-points sharp into our arms, and drew + Blood that dripped into the warm mould and mixed. + So there under the turf our plighted faith + Starts in the dew of grasses. + +(Act. IV, Sc. II.) + + But all day long I hear amid the crowds, + + . . . . . . . . . + + A voice that murmurs in a monotone, + Strange, warning words that scarcely miss the ear, + Yet miss it altogether. + + _Botilda_. + + Oh! God grant, + You be not fey, nor truly near your end! + +(Act. IV, Sc. III.) + + +Although this work is dramatic in form, it is not so in spirit. The true +dramatist would have put such an incident as the swearing of brotherhood +into a scene, instead of into a speech. This effort is, however, the +nearest approach to a drama in English founded on saga material. It is +curious that our poets have inclined to every form but the drama in +reproducing Old Norse literature. It is not that saga-stuff is not +dramatic in possibilities. Ewald and Oehlenschläger have used this +material to excellent effect in Danish dramas. Had the sagas been +accessible to Englishmen in Shakespeare's time, we should certainly have +had dramas of Icelandic life. + + + + +IV. + +BY THE HAND OF THE MASTER. + + +Time has brought us to the man whose work in this field needs no +apology. The writer whom we consider next contributed almost as much +material to the English treasury of Northern gold as did all the writers +we have so far considered. Were it not for William Morris, the +examination that we are making would not not be worth while. The name +_literature_, in its narrow sense, belongs to only a few of the writings +that we have examined up to this point, but what we are now to inspect +deserves that title without the shadow of a doubt. For that reason we +set in a separate chapter the examination of Morris' Old Norse +adaptations and creations. + + +WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896). + +The biographer of William Morris fixes 1868 as the beginning of the +poet's Icelandic stories.[30] Eirikr Magnusson, an Icelander, was his +guide, and the pupil made rapid progress. Dasent's work had drawn +Morris' attention to the sagas, and within a few months most of the +sagas had been read in the original. Although _The Saga of Gunnlang +Worm-tongue_ was published in the _Fortnightly Review_, for January, +1869, the _Grettis Saga_, of April, was the first published book on an +Old Norse subject. The next year gave the _Völsunga Saga_. In 1871, +Morris made a journey through Iceland, the fruits of which were +afterwards seen in many a noble work. In 1875, _Three Northern Love +Stories_ was published, and, in 1877, _The Story of Sigurd the Volsung +and the Fall of the Niblungs_. More than ten years passed before he +turned again to Icelandic work, the Romances of the years of 1889 to +1896 showing signs of it, and the translations in the _Saga Library_, +"Howard the Halt," "The Banded Men," _Eyrbyggja_ and _Heimskringla_ of +1891-95. These contributions to the subject of our examination are no +less valuable than voluminous, and we make no excuses for an extended +consideration of them. They deserve a wider public than they have yet +attained. + + +1. + +_The Story of Grettir the Strong_ is the title of Morris and Magnusson's +version of the _Grettis Saga_. The version impresses the reader as one +made with loving care by artistic hands. Certainly English readers will +read no other translation of this work, for this one is satisfactory as +a version and as an art-work. English readers will here get all the +flavor of the original that it is possible to get in a translation, and +those who can read Icelandic if put to it, will prefer to get _Grettla_ +through Morris and Magnusson. All the essentials are here, if not all +the nuances. + +The reader unfamiliar with sagas will need a little patience with the +genealogies that crop out in every chapter. The sagaman has a +squirrel-like agility in climbing family trees, and he is well +acquainted with their interlocking branches. There are chapters in the +_Grettis Saga_ where this vanity runs riot, and makes us suspect that +Iceland differed little from a country town of to-day in its love for +gossip about the family of neighbors whose names happen to come into the +conversation. If the reader will persevere through the early chapters, +until Grettir commands exclusive attention, he will come to a drama +which has not many peers in literature. The outlaw kills a man in every +other chapter, but this record is no vulgar list of brutal fights. Not +inhuman nature, but human nature is here shown, human nature struggling +with unrelenting fate, making a grand fight, and coming to its end +because it must, but without ignominy. How fine a touch it is that +refuses to the outlaw's murderer the price set upon Grettir's head, +because the getting of it was through a "nithings-deed," the murder of a +dying man! William Morris was most felicitous in envoys and dedicating +poems, and in the sonnet prefixed to this translation he was +particularly happy. The first eight lines describe the hero of the +saga--the last six lines the significance of this literary creation: + + A life scarce worth the living, a poor fame + Scarce worth the winning, in a wretched land, + Where fear and pain go upon either hand, + As toward the end men fare without an aim + Unto the dull grey dark from whence they came: + Let them alone, the unshadowed sheer rocks stand + Over the twilight graves of that poor band, + Who count so little in the great world's game! + + Nay, with the dead I deal not; this man lives, + And that which carried him through good and ill, + Stern against fate while his voice echoed still + From rock to rock, now he lies silent, strives + With wasting time, and through its long lapse gives + Another friend to me, life's void to fill. + + +2. + +In the three volumes of _The Earthly Paradise_, published by William +Morris in 1868-1870, there are three poems which hail from Old Norse +originals. They are "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon," and +"The Lovers of Gudrun," in Vol. II, and "The Fostering of Aslaug," in +Vol. III. Of these "The Lovers of Gudrun" forms a class by itself; it is +a poem to be reckoned with when the dozen greatest poems of the century +are listed. The late Laureate may have equalled it in the best of the +_Idylls of the King_, but he never excelled it. Let us look at it in +detail. + +First, be it said that "The Lovers of Gudrun" overtops all the other +poems in _The Earthly Paradise_. It would be possible to prove that +Morris was at his best when he worked with Old Norse material, but that +task shall not detain us now. It is enough to note that the "Prologue" +to _The Earthly Paradise_, called "The Wanderers," makes the leader of +these wanderers, who turn story-tellers when they reach the city by "the +borders of the Grecian sea," a Norseman. Born in Byzantium of a Greek +mother, he claimed Norway as his home, and on his father's death +returned to his kin. His speech to the Elder of the City reveals a +touching loyalty to his father's home and traditions: + + But when I reached one dying autumn-tide + My uncle's dwelling near the forest-side, + And saw the land so scanty and so bare, + And all the hard things men contend with there, + A little and unworthy land it seemed, + And yet the more of Asagard I dreamed, + And worthier seemed the ancient faith of praise. + +Here is the man, William Morris, in perfect miniature. Modern life and +training had given him a speech and aspect quite suave and cultured, but +the blood that flowed in his veins was red, and the tincture of iron was +in it. In religion, in art, in poetry, in economics, he loved the past +better than the present, though he was never unconscious of "our +glorious gains." In all departments of thought the scanty, the bare, the +hard, the unworthy, drew first his attention and then his love and +enthusiastic praise. And so perhaps it is explained that of all the +poems in _The Earthly Paradise_, the one indited first in the scarred +and dreadful land where neither wheat nor wine is at home, shall be the +finest in this latter-day retelling. + +The first seventy years of the thirteenth century were the blossoming +time of the historic saga in Iceland, and those writings that record the +doings of the families of the land form, with the old songs and the best +of the kingly sagas, the flower of Northern literature. These family +records never extend over more than one generation, and sometimes they +deal with but a few years. They are half-way between romance and +history, with the balance oftenest in favor of truth. In this group are +found _Egils Saga_, known at second hand to Warton, the _Eyrbyggja +Saga_, translated by Walter Scott, and the _Laxdæla Saga_. It is the +_Laxdæla Saga_ that gives the story told by Morris in "The Lovers of +Gudrun." Among sagas it is famous for its fine portrayal of character. + +The saga and the poem tell the story of two neighboring farms, Herdholt +and Bathsted, whose sons and daughters work out a dire tragedy. Kiartan +and Bodli are the son and foster-son of the first house, and Gudrun is +the daughter of the second. These are the principal personages in the +drama, though the list of the other _dramatis personæ_ is a long one. +Not only in the name of its heroine does the story suggest the +_Nibelungenlied_. The machinery of the Norse stories resembles the +German story's in many of its parts. In this version of Morris, the main +features of the saga are kept, and distracting details are properly +subordinated to the principal interest. Through the nineteen divisions +of this story the interest moves rapidly, and wonder as to the issue is +never lost. As a story-teller, Morris is distinctly powerful in this +poem, and all the qualities that endear the story-teller to us are here +found joined to many that make the poet a favorite with us. There are no +lyrics in the poem--the original saga was without the song-snatches that +are often found in sagas--but there are dramatic scenes that recall the +power of the Master-poet. Least of all the poems in the _Earthly +Paradise_ does "The Lovers of Gudrun" show the Chaucerian influence, and +the reader must be captious indeed who complains of the length of this +story. + +To the unenlightened reader this poem reveals no traits that are +un-English. What there is of Old Norse flavor here is purely spiritual. +The original story being in prose, no attempt could be made to keep +original characteristics in verse-form. So "The Lovers of Gudrun" can +stand on its own merits as an English poem; no excuses need be made for +it on the plea that it is a translation. + +Local color is not laid on the canvas after the figures have been +painted, but all the tints in the persons and the things are grandly +Norse. This story is a true romance, in that the scene is far removed +from the present day, and the atmosphere is very different from our own. +This story is a true picture of life, in that it sets forth the doings +of men and women in the power of the master passion. And so for the +purposes of literature this poem is not Norse, or rather, it is more +than Norse, it is universal. Now and then, to be sure, the displaced +Norse ideals are set forth in the poem, but in such wise that we almost +regret that the old order has passed away. The Wanderer who tells the +tale assures his listeners of the truth of it in these last words of the +interlude between "The Story of Rhodope" and "The Lovers of Gudrun": + + Know withal that we + Have ever deemed this tale as true to be, + As though those very Dwellers in Laxdale, + Risen from the dead had told us their own tale; + Who for the rest while yet they dwelt on earth + Wearied no God with prayers for more of mirth + Than dying men have; nor were ill-content + Because no God beside their sorrow went + Turning to flowery sward the rock-strewn way, + Weakness to strength, or darkness into day. + Therefore, no marvels hath my tale to tell, + But deals with such things as men know too well; + All that I have herein your hearts to move, + Is but the seed and fruit of bitter love. + +It is aside from our purpose to tell this story here. The more we study +this marvelous work, the more it is impressed upon us that in the reign +of love all men and all literatures are one. To the Englishman this +description of an Iceland maiden is no stranger than it was to the men +who sat about the spluttering fire in the Icelander's hall. It is the +form of Gudrun that is here described: + + That spring was she just come to her full height, + Low-bosomed yet she was, and slim and light, + Yet scarce might she grow fairer from that day; + Gold were the locks wherewith the wind did play, + Finer than silk, waved softly like the sea + After a three days' calm, and to her knee + Wellnigh they reached; fair were the white hands laid + Upon the door posts where the dragons played; + Her brow was smooth now, and a smile began + To cross her delicate mouth, the snare of man. + +(_Earthly Paradise_, Vol. II, p. 247.) + +Not less accustomed are we to such heroes as Kiartan: + + And now in every mouth was Kiartan's name, + And daily now must Gudrun's dull ears bear + Tales of the prowess of his youth to hear, + While in his cairn forgotten lay her love. + For this man, said they, all men's hearts did move, + Nor yet might envy cling to such an one, + So far beyond all dwellers 'neath the sun; + Great was he, yet so fair of face and limb + That all folk wondered much, beholding him, + How such a man could be; no fear he knew, + And all in manly deeds he could outdo; + Fleet-foot, a swimmer strong, an archer good, + Keen-eyed to know the dark waves' changing mood; + Sure on the crag, and with the sword so skilled, + That when he played therewith the air seemed filled + With light of gleaming blades; therewith was he + Of noble speech, though says not certainly + My tale, that aught of his he left behind + With rhyme and measure deftly intertwined. + +(P. 266.) + +The Old Norse touch here is in the last three lines which intimate that +the warrior was often a bard; but be it remembered that the Elizabethan +warrior could turn a sonnet, too. + +We have said that the _Laxdæla Saga_ is famous for its portrayal of +character. This English version falls not at all below the original in +this quality. The lines already quoted show Gudrun and Kiartan as to +exterior. But this is a drama of flesh and blood creations, and they are +men and women that move through it, not puppets. Souls are laid bare +here, in quivering, pulsating agony. The tremendous figure of this story +is not Kiartan, nor Gudrun, nor Refna, but Bodli, and certainly English +narrative poetry has no second creation like to him. The mind reverts to +Shakespeare to find fit companionship for Bodli in poetry, and to George +Eliot and Thomas Hardy in prose. The suggestion of Shakespearean +qualities in George Eliot has been made by several great critics, among +them Edmond Scherer;[31] in Hardy and Morris, here, we find the same +soul-searching powers. These writers have created sufferers of titanic +greatness, and in the presence of their tragedies we are dumb. + +An English artist has made Napoleon's voyage on H.M.S. _Bellerophon_ to +his prison-isle a picture that the memory refuses to forget. The picture +of Bodli as he sails back to Iceland, which, though his home, is to be +his prison and his death, is no less impressive: + + Fair goes the ship that beareth out Christ's truth + Mingled of hope, of sorrow, and of ruth, + And on the prow Bodli the Christian stands, + Sunk deep in thought of all the many lands + The world holds, and the folk that dwell therein, + And wondering why that grief and rage and sin + Was ever wrought; but wondering most of all + Why such wild passion on his heart should fall. + +(P. 294.) + +Here we have the poet's conception--and the sagaman's--of Bodli--a man +in the grip of terrible Fate, who can no more swerve from the paths she +marks out for him than he can add a cubit to his stature. The Greek +tragedy embodies this idea, and Old Norse literature is full of it. +Thomas Hardy gives it later in his contemporary novels. We sympathize +with Bodli's fate because his agony is so terrible, and we call him the +most striking figure in this story. But the others suffer, too, Gudrun, +Kiartan, Refna; they make a stand against their woe, and utter brave +words in the face of it. Only Bodli floats downward with the tide, +unresisting. Guest prophesies bitter things for Gudrun, but adds: + + Be merry yet! these things shall not be all + That unto thee in this thy life shall fall. + +(P. 254.) + +And Gudrun takes heart. When Thurid tells her brother Kiartan that +Gudrun has married another, his joy is shivered into atoms before him. +But he can say, even then: + + Now is this world clean changed for me + In this last minute, yet indeed I see + That still it will go on for all my pain; + Come then, my sister, let us back again; + I must meet folk, and face the life beyond, + And, as I may, walk 'neath the dreadful bond + Of ugly pain--such men our fathers were, + Not lightly bowed by any weight of care. + +(P. 311.) + +And Kiartan does his work in the world. Poor Refna, when she has married +Kiartan hears women talking of the love that still is between Gudrun and +Kiartan. She goes to Kiartan with the story, beginning with words whose +pathos must conquer the most stoical of readers: + + Indeed of all thy grief I knew, + But deemed if still thou saw'st me kind and true, + Not asking too much, yet not failing aught + To show that not far off need love be sought, + If thou shouldst need love--if thou sawest all this, + Thou wouldst not grudge to show me what a bliss + Thy whole love was, by giving unto me + As unto one who loved thee silently, + Now and again the broken crumbs thereof: + Alas! I, having then no part in love, + Knew not how naught, naught can allay the soul + Of that sad thirst, but love untouched and whole! + Kinder than e'er I durst have hoped thou art, + Forgive me then, that yet my craving heart + Is so unsatisfied; I know that thou + Art fain to dream that I am happy now, + And for that seeming ever do I strive; + Thy half-love, dearest, keeps me still alive + To love thee; and I bless it--but at whiles,-- + +(P. 343) + +And thus she gains strength to live her life. + +Here, then, in Bodli, is another of the great tragic figures in +literature--a sick man. There are many of them, even in the highest rank +of literary creations, Hamlet, Lear, Othello, Macbeth! Wrong-headed, +defective as they are, we would not have them otherwise. The pearl of +greatest price is the result of an abnormal or morbid process. + +Bodli comes to us from Icelandic literature, and in that fact we note +the solidarity of poetic geniuses. Not only is the great figure of Bodli +proof of this solidarity, but many other features of this poem prove it. +"Lively feeling for a situation and power to express it constitute the +poet," said Goethe. There are dramatic situations in "The Lovers of +Gudrun" which hold the reader in a breathless state till the last word +is said, and then leave him marveling at the imagination that could +conceive the scene, and the power that could express it. There are +gentler scenes, too, in the poem, where beauty and grace are conceived +as fair as ever poet dreamed, and the workmanship is thoroughly +adequate. As an example of the first, take the scene of Bodli's mourning +over Kiartan's dead body. It is here that we get that knowledge of +Bodli's woe that robs us of a cause against him. What agony is that +which can speak thus over the body of the dead rival! + + ... Didst thou quite + Know all the value of that dear delight + As I did? Kiartan, she is changed to thee; + Yea, and since hope is dead changed too to me, + What shall we do, if, each of each forgiven, + We three shall meet at last in that fair heaven + The new faith tells of? Thee and God I pray + Impute it not for sin to me to-day, + If no thought I can shape thereof but this: + O friend, O friend, when thee I meet in bliss, + Wilt thou not give my love Gudrun to me, + Since now indeed thine eyes made clear can see + That I of all the world must love her most? + +(P. 368.) + +Examples of the gentler scenes are scattered lavishly throughout the +poem and it is not necessary to enumerate. + +One other sign that the Icelandic sagaman's art was kin to the English +poet's. The last line of this poem is given thus by Morris: + + I did the worst to him I loved the most. + +These are the very words of Gudrun in the saga, and summing up as they +do her opinion of Kiartan, they stand as a model of that compression +which is so admired in our poetry. Many such _multum in parvo_ lines are +found in Morris' poem, and at times they have a beauty that is +marvelous. Joined with this quality is the special merit of +Morris--picturesqueness, and so the reader often feels, when he has +finished a book by Morris, like the Cook tourist after he has "done" a +country of Europe--it must be done again and again to give it its due. + +Of the other two Old Norse poems in _The Earthly Paradise_ not much need +be said. "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is a fairy +tale, in the strain of Morris' prose romances. It was suggested by +Thorpe's _Yule-tide Stories_, the tale coming from the _Völundar Saga_. +There is a witchery about it that makes it pleasant reading in a dreamy +hour, but except the names and a few scenes about the farmstead, there +is nothing Icelandic about it. The virile element of the best Icelandic +literature is wanting here, and the hero's excuse for leaving weapons at +home when he goes to his watch is not at all natural: + + Withal I shall not see + Men-folk belike, but faërie, + And all the arms within the seas + Should help me naught to deal with these; + Rather of such love were I fain + As fell to Sigurd Fafnir's-bane + When of the dragon's heart he ate. + +(Vol. II, p. 33.) + +This passage is nominally in the same meter as the opening lines of the +poem: + + In this your land there once did dwell + A certain carle who lived full well, + And lacked few things to make him glad; + And three fair sons this goodman had. + +According to old time English prosody, it is the same, too, as the meter +of Scott's Marmion! + +In the passages quoted from "The Lovers of Gudrun" we see a measure +called the same as that of Pope's _Essay on Man_! Not seldom in "The +Lovers" do we forget that the lines are rhymed in twos; indeed, often we +do not note the rhyme at all. We are sometimes tempted to think that in +this piece, if not in "The Land East of the Sun," rhyme might have been +dispensed with altogether, since it often forces archaic words and +expressions into use. But it is to be said generally of Morris's +management of the meter in the Old Norse pieces, that it was adequate to +gain his end always, whether that end was to tell an Old Norse story in +English, or to carry over an Old Norse spirit into English. Of this +second achievement we shall speak further in considering _Sigurd the +Volsung_. + +There is one more tale in _The Earthly Paradise_ which originated in +Norse legend. "The Fostering of Aslaug" is drawn from Thorpe's _Northern +Mythology_, which epitomizes older sources. Aslaug is the daughter of +Iceland's great hero, Sigurd, and Iceland's great heroine, Brynhild, and +her life is set down in this poem most beautifully. Again we note that +the added touches of later poets fail to leave the sense of the +strenuous in the picture. Aslaug is like a favorite representation of +Brynhild that we have seen, a lily-maid in aspect, or a Marguerite. Her +mother's masculinity is gone, and with it the Old Norse flavor. It is +the privilege of our age to enjoy both the virility of the Old Norse and +the delicacy of the mediæval conceptions, and William Morris has caught +both. + + +3. + +In the opening lines of "The Fostering of Aslaug," our poet wrote his +doubts about his ability to sing the life of Sigurd in be-fitting +manner. At that time he said: + + But now have I no heart to raise + That mighty sorrow laid asleep, + That love so sweet, so strong and deep, + That as ye hear the wonder told + In those few strenuous words of old, + The whole world seems to rend apart + When heart is torn away from heart. + +(Vol. III, p. 28.) + +It is a common complaint against the poetry of William Morris that it is +too long-winded. Each to his taste in this matter, but we beg to call +attention to one line in the above passage: + + In those few strenuous words of old. + +Whatever may have been Morris' tendency when he wrote his own poetry, he +knew when concision was a virtue in the poetry of others. There is no +better description of the _Völsunga Saga_ than the above line, and +William Morris gave the English people a literal version of the saga, if +mayhap that strenuous paucity might translate the old spirit. But, as if +he knew that many readers would fail to make much of this version, he +tried again on a larger scale, and the great volume _Sigurd the +Volsung_, epic in character and proportions, was the result. Of these +two we shall now speak. + +The _Völsunga Saga_ was published in 1870, only two years after Morris +had begun to study Icelandic with Eirikr Magnusson. The latter's name is +on the title page as the first of the two co-translators. The _Saga_ was +supplemented by certain songs from the _Elder Edda_ which were +introduced by the translators at points where they would come naturally +in the story. The work, both in prose and verse, is well done, and the +attempt was successful to make, as the preface proposes, the "rendering +close and accurate, and, if it might be so, at the same time, not over +prosaic." The last two paragraphs of this preface are particularly +interesting to one who is tracing the influence of Old Norse literature +on English literature, because they are words with power, that have +stirred men and will stir men to learn more about a wonderful land and +its lore. We copy them entire: + +"As to the literary quality of this work we might say much, but we think +we may well trust the reader of poetic insight to break through whatever +entanglement of strange manners or unused element may at first trouble +him, and to meet the nature and beauty with which it is filled: we +cannot doubt that such a reader will be intensely touched by finding, +amidst all its wildness and remoteness, such startling realism, such +subtilty, such close sympathy with all the passions that may move +himself to-day. + +"In conclusion, we must again say how strange it seems to us, that this +Volsung Tale, which is in fact an unversified poem, should never before +have been translated into English. For this is the Great Story of the +North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the +Greeks--to all our race first, and afterwards, when the change of the +world has made our race nothing more than a name of what has been--a +story too--then should it be to those that come after us no less than +the Tale of Troy has been to us." + +Morris wrote a prologue in verse for this volume, and it is an exquisite +poem, such as only he seemed able to indite. So often does the reader of +Morris come upon gems like this, that one is tempted to rail against the +common ignorance about him: + + O hearken, ye who speak the English Tongue, + How in a waste land ages long ago, + The very heart of the North bloomed into song + After long brooding o'er this tale of woe! + + . . . . . . . . . + + Yea, in the first gray dawning of our race, + This ruth-crowned tangle to sad hearts was dear. + + . . . . . . . . . + + So draw ye round and hearken, English Folk, + Unto the best tale pity ever wrought! + Of how from dark to dark bright Sigurd broke, + Of Brynhild's glorious soul with love distraught, + Of Gudrun's weary wandering unto naught, + Of utter love defeated utterly, + Of Grief too strong to give Love time to die! + + +4. + +Six years later, in 1877 (English edition), Morris published the long +poem, _The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and The Fall of the Niblungs_, +and in it gave the peerless crown of all English poems springing from +Old Norse sources. The poet considered this his most important work, and +he was prouder of it than of any other literary work that he did. One +who studies it can understand this pride, but he cannot understand the +neglect by the reading public of this remarkable poem. The history of +book-selling in the last decade shows strange revivals of interest in +authors long dead; it will be safe to prophesy such a revival for +William Morris, because valuable treasures will not always remain +hidden. In his case, however, it will not be a revival, because there +has not been an awakening yet. That awakening must come, and thousands +will see that William Morris was a great poet who have not yet heard of +his name. Let us look at his greatest work with some degree of +minuteness. + +The opening lines are a good model of the meter, and we find it +different from any that we have considered so far. There are certain +peculiarities about it that make it seem a perfect medium for +translating the Old Norse spirit. Most of these peculiarities are in the +opening lines, and so we may transfer them to this page:[32] + + There was a dwelling of Kings ere the world was waxen old; + Dukes were the door-wards there, and the roofs were thatched with gold; + Earls were the wrights that wrought it, and silver nailed its doors; + Earls' wives were the weaving-women, queens' daughters strewed its + floors, + And the masters of its song-craft were the mightiest men that cast + The sails of the storm of battle adown the bickering blast. + +Everybody knows that alliteration was a principle of Icelandic verse. It +strikes the ear that hears Icelandic poetry for the first time--or the +eye that sees it, since most of us read it silently--as unpleasantly +insistent, but on fuller acquaintance, we lose this sense of +obtrusiveness. Morris, in this poem, uses alliteration, but so skilfully +that only the reader that seeks it discovers it. A less superb artist +would have made it stick out in every line, so that the device would be +a hindrance to the story-telling. As it is, nowhere in the more than +nine thousand lines of _Sigurd the Volsung_ is this alliteration an +excrescence, but everywhere it is woven into the grand design of a +fabric which is the richer for its foreign workmanship. + +Notice that _duke_ and _battle_ and _master_ are the only words not +thoroughly Teutonic. This overwhelming predominance of the Anglo-Saxon +element over the French is in keeping with the original of the story. Of +course it is an accident that so small a proportion of Latin derivatives +is found in these six lines, but the fact remains that Morris set +himself to tell a Teutonic story in Teutonic idiom. That idiom is not +very strange to present-day readers, indeed we may say it has but a +fillip of strangeness. Archaisms are characteristic of poetic diction, +and those found in this poem that are not common to other poetry are +used to gain an Old Norse flavor. The following words taken from Book I +of the poem are the only unfamiliar ones: _benight_, meaning "at night"; +"so _win_ the long years over"; _eel-grig_; _sackless_; _bursten_, a +participle. The compounds _door-ward_ and _song-craft_ are +representative of others that are sprinkled in fair number through the +poem. They are the best that our language can do to reproduce the fine +combinations that the Icelandic language formed so readily. English +lends itself well to this device, as the many compounds show that Morris +took from common usage. Such words as _roof-tree_, _song-craft_, +_empty-handed_, _grave-mound_, _store-house_, taken at random from the +pages of this poem, show that the genius of our language permits such +formations. When Morris carries the practice a little further, and makes +for his poem such words as _door-ward_, _chance-hap_, _slumber-tide_, +_troth-word_, _God-home_, and a thousand others, he is not taking +liberties with the language, and he is using a powerful aid in +translating the Old Norse spirit. + +One more peculiar characteristic of Icelandic is admirably exhibited in +this poem. We have seen that Warton recognized in the "Runic poets" a +warmth of fancy which expressed itself in "circumlocution and +comparisons, not as a matter of necessity, but of choice and skill." +Certainly Morris in using these circumlocutions in _Sigurd the Volsung_, +has exercised remarkable skill in weaving them into his story. Like the +alliterations, they are part of an harmonious design. Examples abound, +like: + + Adown unto the swan-bath the Volsung Children ride; + +and this other for the same thing, the sea: + + While sleepeth the fields of the fishes amidst the summer-tide. + +Still others for the water are _swan-mead_, and "bed-gear of the swan." + +"The serpent of death" and _war-flame_, for sword; _earth-bone_, for +rock; _fight-sheaves_, for armed hosts; _seaburg_, for boats, are other +striking examples. + +So much for the mechanical details of this poem. Its literary features +are so exceptional that we must examine them at length. + +Book I is entitled "Sigmund" and the description is set at the head of +it. "In this book is told of the earlier days of the Volsungs, and of +Sigmund the father of Sigurd, and of his deeds, and of how he died while +Sigurd was yet unborn in his mother's womb." + +There are many departures from the _Völsunga Saga_ in this poetic +version, and all seem to be accounted for by a desire to impress +present-day readers with this story. The poem begins with Volsung, +omitting, therefore, the marvelous birth of that king and the oath of +the unborn child to "flee in fear from neither fire nor the sword." The +saga makes the wolf kill one of Volsung's sons every night; the poem +changes the number to two. A magnificent scene is invented by Morris in +the midnight visit of Signy to the wood where her brothers had been +slain. She speaks to the brother that is left, desiring to know what he +is doing: + + O yea, I am living indeed, and this labor of mine hand + Is to bury the bones of the Volsungs; and lo, it is well nigh done. + So draw near, Volsung's daughter, and pile we many a stone + Where lie the gray wolf s gleanings of what was once so good. + +(P. 23.) + +The dialogue of brother and sister is a mighty conception, and surely +the old Icelanders would have called Morris a rare singer. Sigmund tells +the story of the deaths of his brothers, adding: + + But now was I wroth with the Gods, that had made the Volsungs for + nought; + And I said: in the Day of their Doom a man's help shall they miss. + +(P. 24.) + +But Signy is reconciled to the workings of Fate: + + I am nothing so wroth as thou art with the ways of death and hell, + For thereof had I a deeming when all things were seeming well. + +The day to come shall set their woes right: + + There as thou drawest thy sword, thou shall think of the days that were + And the foul shall still seem foul, and the fair shall still seem fair; + But thy wit shall then be awakened, and thou shalt know indeed + Why the brave man's spear is broken, and his war shield fails at need; + Why the loving is unbeloved; why the just man falls from his state; + Why the liar gains in a day what the soothfast strives for late. + Yea, and thy deeds shalt thou know, and great shall thy gladness be; + As a picture all of gold thy life-days shalt thou see, + And know that thou wert a God to abide through the hurry and haste; + A God in the golden hall, a God in the rain-swept waste, + A God in the battle triumphant, a God on the heap of the slain: + And thine hope shall arise and blossom, and thy love shall be quickened + again: + And then shalt thou see before thee the face of all earthly ill; + Thou shalt drink of the cup of awakening that thine hand hath holpen to + fill; + By the side of the sons of Odin shalt thou fashion a tale to be told + In the hall of the happy Baldur. + +(P. 25.) + +In this wise one Christian might hearten another to accept the dealings +of Providence to-day. While we do not think that a worshipper of Odin +would have spoken all these words, they are not an undue exaggeration of +the noblest traits of the old Icelandic religion. + +The poem does not record the death of Siggeir's and Signy's son, though +the saga does. Morris adds a touch when he makes the imprisoned men +exult over the sword that Signy drops into their grave, and he also puts +into the mouth of Siggeir in the burning hall words that the saga does +not contain. The poem says that the women of the Gothfolk were permitted +to retire from the burning hall, but the saga has no such statement. The +war of foul words between Granmar and Sinfjötli is left in the saga, and +the cause of Gudrod's death is changed from rivalry over a woman to +anger over a division of war booty. In Sigmund's lament over his +childlessness we have another of the poet's additions, and certainly we +find no fault with the liberty: + + The tree was stalwart, but its boughs are old and worn. + Where now are the children departed, that amidst my life were born? + I know not the men about me, and they know not of my ways: + I am nought but a picture of battle, and a song for the people to + praise. + I must strive with the deeds of my kingship, and yet when mine hour is + come + It shall meet me as glad as the goodman when he bringeth the last load + home. + +(P. 56.) + +When the great hero dies, Morris puts into his mouth another of the +magnificent speeches that are the glory of this poem. Four lines from it +must suffice: + + When the gods for one deed asked me I ever gave them twain; + Spendthrift of glory I was, and great was my life-day's gain. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + Our wisdom and valour have kissed, and thine eyes shall see the fruit, + And the joy for his days that shall be hath pierced my heart to the + root. + +(P. 62.) + +It appears from this study of Book I that _Sigurd the Volsung_ has +adapted the saga story to our civilization and our art, holding to the +best of the old and supplementing it by new that is ever in keeping with +the old. Other instances of this eclectic habit may be seen in the other +three books, but we shall quote from these for other purposes. + +Book II is entitled "Regin." "Now this is the first book of the life and +death of Sigurd the Volsung, and therein is told of the birth of him, +and of his dealings with Regin the Master of Masters, and of his deeds +in the waste places of the earth." + +Morris was deeply read in Old Norse literature, and out of his stores of +knowledge he brought vivifying details for this poem. Such, for +instance, is the description of Sigurd's eyes, not found just here in +the saga: + + In the bed there lieth a man-child, and his eyes look straight on + the sun. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + Yet they shrank in their rejoicing before the eyes of the child. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + +In the naming of the child by an ancient name, the meaning of that name +is indicated: + + O _Sigurd_, Son of the Volsungs, O Victory yet to be! + +The festivities over the birth of the child are wonderfully described +in the brief lines, and they are a picture out of another book than the +saga: + + Earls think of marvellous stories, and along the golden strings + Flit words of banded brethren and names of war-fain Kings. + +Over and over again in this poem Morris records the Icelanders' desire +"to leave a tale to tell," and here are Sigurd's words to Regin who has +been egging him on to deeds: + + Yet I know that the world is wide, and filled with deeds unwrought; + And for e'en such work was I fashioned, lest the songcraft come to + nought, + When the harps of God-home tinkle, and the Gods are at stretch to + hearken: + Lest the hosts of the Gods be scanty when their day hath begun to + darken. + +(P. 82.) + +In Book II we have other great speeches that the poet has put into the +mouth of his characters with little or no justification in the original +saga. Chap. XIV of the saga contains Regin's tale of his brothers, and +of the gold called "Andvari's Hoard," and that tale is severely brief +and plain. The account in the poem is expanded greatly, and the +conception of Regin materially altered. In the saga he was not the +discontented youngest son of his father, prone to talk of his woes and +to lament his lot. In the poem he does this in so eloquent a fashion +that almost we are persuaded to sympathize with him. Certainly his lines +were hard, to have outlived his great deeds, and to hear his many +inventions ascribed to the gods. The speech of the released Odin to +Reidmar is modeled on Job's conception of omnipotence, and it is one of +the memorable parts of this book. Gripir's prophecy, too, is a majestic +work, and its original was three sentences in the saga and the poem +_GrÃpisspá_ in the heroic songs of the _Edda_. Here Morris rises to the +heights of Sigurd's greatness: + + Sigurd, Sigurd! O great, O early born! + O hope of the Kings first fashioned! O blossom of the morn! + Short day and long remembrance, fair summer of the North! + One day shall the worn world wonder how first thou wentest forth! + +(P. 111.) + +Those who have read William Morris know that he is a master of nature +description. The "Glittering Heath" offered a fine opportunity for this +sort of work, and in this piece we have another departure from the saga, +Morris made hundreds of pictures in this poem, but the pages describing +the journey to the "Glittering Heath" are packed with them to an +extraordinary degree. Here is Iceland in very fact, all dust and ashes +to the eye: + + More changeless than mid-ocean, as fruitless as its floor. + +We confess that there is something in the scene that holds us, all shorn +of beauty though it is. We do not want to go the length of Thomas Hardy, +however, who, in that wonderful first chapter of _The Return of the +Native_ has a similar heath to describe. "The new vale of Tempe," says +he, "may be a gaunt waste in Thule: human souls may find themselves in +closer and closer harmony with external things wearing a sombreness +distasteful to our race when it was young.... The time seems near, if it +has not actually arrived, when the mournful sublimity of a moor, a sea, +or a mountain, will be all of nature that is absolutely consonant with +the moods of the more thinking among mankind. And ultimately, to the +commonest tourist, spots like Iceland may become what the vineyards and +myrtlegardens of South Europe are to him now." Is it not a suggestive +thought that England and the nineteenth century evolved a pessimism +which poor Iceland on its ash-heap never could conceive? William Morris +was an Icelander, not an Englishman, in his philosophy. + +In this same scene, a notable deviation from the saga is the +conversation between Regin and Sigurd concerning the relations that +shall be between them after the slaying of Fafnir. Here Morris impresses +the lesson of Regin's greed, taking the un-Icelandic device of preaching +to serve his purpose: + + Let it lead thee up to heaven, let it lead thee down to hell, + The deed shall be done tomorrow: thou shalt have that measureless Gold, + And devour the garnered wisdom that blessed thy realm of old, + That hath lain unspent and begrudged in the, very heart of hate: + With the blood and the might of thy brother thine hunger shalt thou + sate: + And this deed shall be mine and thine; but take heed for what followeth + then! + +(P. 119.) + +In still another place has Morris departed far from the saga story. +According to the poem, Sigurd meets each warning of Fafnir that the gold +will be the curse of its possessor with the assurance that he will cast +the gold abroad, and let none of it cling to his fingers. The saga, +however, has this very frank confession: "Home would I ride and lose all +that wealth, if I deemed that by the losing thereof I should never die; +but every brave and true man will fain have his hand on wealth till that +last day." Here, again, we see an adaptation of the story of the poem to +modern conceptions of nobility. It remains to be said that the ernes +move Sigurd to take the gold for the gladdening of the world, and they +assure him that a son of the Volsung had nought to fear from the Curse. +The seven-times-repeated "Bind the red rings, O Sigurd," is an admirable +poem, but it does not contain information concerning Brynhild, as do the +strophes of _Reginsmál_ which are the model for this lay. + +Let us look at the art of Morris as it is shown in telling "How Sigurd +awoke Brynhild upon Hindfell." As in the saga, so in the English poem, +this incident has a setting most favorable to the display of its +remarkable beauties. It is a picture as pure and sweet as it has ever +entered into the mind of man to conceive. The conception belongs to the +poetic lore of many nations, and children are early introduced to the +story of "Sleeping Beauty." There are some features of the Old Norse +version that are especially charming, and first among them is the +address of the awakened Brynhild to the sun and the earth. We are told +that this maiden loved the radiant hero that here awoke her from her +age-long sleep, but not for him is her first greeting. A finer thrill +moves her than love for a man, and in Morris's poem, this feeling finds +singularly beautiful expression: + + All hail O Day and thy Sons, and thy kin of the coloured things! + Hail, following Night, and thy Daughter that leadeth thy wavering + wings! + Look down with unangry eyes on us today alive, + And give us the hearts victorious, and the gain for which we strive! + All hail, ye Lords of God-home, and ye Queens of the House of Gold! + Hail thou dear Earth that bearest, and thou Wealth of field and fold! + Give us, your noble children, the glory of wisdom and speech, + And the hearts and the hands of healing, and the mouths and hands that + teach! + +(P. 140.) + +In order to see just what the art of Morris has done for this poem, let +us compare this address with the rendering of the _Sigrdrifumál_, which +tell the same story and which Morris and Magnusson have incorporated +into their translation of the _Völsunga Saga_. The verses are not in the +original saga: + + Hail to the day come back! + Hail, sons of the daylight! + Hail to thee, dark night, and thy daughter! + Look with kind eyes a-down, + On us sitting here lonely, + And give unto us the gain that we long for. + Hail to the Æsir, + And the sweet Asyniur! + Hail to the fair earth fulfilled of plenty! + Fair words, wise hearts, + Would we win from you, + And healing hands while life we hold. + +To get the full benefit of the comparison of the old and the new, let us +set in conjunction with these versions a severely literal translation of +the _Edda_ strophes themselves: + + Hail, O Day, + Hail, O Sons of the Day, + Hail Night and kinswoman! + With unwroth eyes + look on us here + and give to us sitting ones victory. + Hail, O Gods, + Hail, O Goddesses, + Hail, O bounteous Earth! + Speech and wisdom + give to us, the excellent twain, + and healing hands during life. + +These stages in the progress of the gold from mine to mint furnish their +own commentary. The finished product will pass current with the most +exacting of assayers, as well as gladden the hearts of the poor one +whose hand seldom touches gold. + +If the skill of the poet in this case have merited resemblance to that +of the refiner of gold, what name less than alchemy can characterize his +achievement in the rest of this scene? From the first words of +Brynhild's life-story: + + I am she that loveth; I was born of the earthly folk; + +to the tender words that tell of the coming of another day: + + And fresh and all abundant abode the deeds of Day, + +there is a succession of beautiful scenes and glorious speeches such as +only a master of magic could have gotten out of the original story. The +Eddaic account of the Valkyr's disobedience to All-Father, pictures a +saucy and self-willed maiden. Sentence has been pronounced upon her, and +thus the story continues: "But I said I would vow a vow against it, and +marry no man that knew fear." The _Völsunga Saga_ gives exactly the same +account, but the poetic version of Morris saves the maiden for our +respect and admiration. It is not effrontery, but repentance that speaks +in the voice of Brynhild here: + + The thoughts of my heart overcame me, and the pride of my wisdom and + speech, + And I scorned the earth-folk's Framer, and the Lord of the world I must + teach. + +In the Icelandic version, Odin makes no speech at the dooming, but +Morris puts into his mouth this magnificent address: + + And he cried: "Thou hast thought in thy folly that the Gods have + friends and foes, + That they wake, and the world wends onward, that they sleep, and + the world slips back, + That they laugh, and the world's weal waxeth, that they frown and + fashion the wrack: + Thou hast cast up the curse against me; it shall aback on thine head; + Go back to the sons of repentance, with the children of sorrow wed! + For the Gods are great unholpen, and their grief is seldom seen, + And the wrong that they will and must be is soon as it hath not been." + +(P. 141.) + +Morris has here again exercised the poet's privilege of adding to the +story that was the pride of an entire age, in order to serve his own the +better. If he was wise in these additions, he was no less wise in +subtractions and in preservations. The saga has a long address by +Brynhild, opening with mystical advice concerning the power of runes, +and closing grandly with wise words that sound like a page from the Old +Testament. The former find no place in _Sigurd the Volsung_, but the +latter are turned into mighty phrases that wonderfully preserve the +spirit of the original. + +One passage more from Book II: + + So they climb the burg of Hindfell, and hand in hand they fare, + Till all about and above them is nought but the sunlit air, + And there close they cling together rejoicing in their mirth; + For far away beneath them lie the kingdoms of the earth, + And the garths of men-folk's dwellings and the streams that water them, + And the rich and plenteous acres, and the silver ocean's hem, + And the woodland wastes and the mountains, and all that holdeth all; + The house and the ship and the island, the loom and the mine and the + stall, + The beds of bane and healing, the crafts that slay and save, + The temple of God and the Doom-ring, the cradle and the grave. + +(P. 145.) + +These ten lines serve to illustrate very well one of the most remarkable +powers of Morris. Just consider for a moment the number of details that +are crowded into this picture, and then notice how few are the strokes +required to put them there. For this rapid painting of a crowded canvas +Morris is second to none among English poets. This power to put a whole +landscape or a complex personality into a few lines is the direct +outcome of his study of Old Norse literature. Icelandic poetry is +characterized by this quality. One has but to compare the account of the +end of the world as it is found in the last strophes of _Völuspá_, or in +the _Prose Edda_, with the similar account in _Revelations_ to see how +much two languages may differ in this respect. It would seem as if the +short verses characteristic of Icelandic poetry forbade lengthy +descriptions. The effect must be produced by a number of quick strokes: +there is never time to go over a line once made. A simile is never +elaborated, a new one is made when the poet wishes to insist on the +figure. Take the second strophe of the "Ancient Lay of Gudrun" as an +example, in the translation by Morris and Magnusson: + + Such was my Sigurd + Among the Sons of Giuki + As is the green leek + O'er the low grass waxen, + Or a hart high-limbed + Over hurrying deer, + Or gleed-red gold + Over grey silver. + +That is the Icelandic fashion; William Morris has caught it in the +_Story of Sigurd_. Matthew Arnold has not seen fit to use it in his +"Balder Dead," as these lines show: + + Him the blind Hoder met, as he came up + From the sea cityward, and knew his step; + Nor yet could Hermod see his brother's face, + For it grew dark; but Hermod touched his arm. + And as a spray of honeysuckle flowers + Brushes across a tired traveller's face + Who shuffles thro the deep-moistened dust, + On a May-evening, in the darkened lanes, + And starts him that he thinks a ghost went by-- + So Hoder brushed by Hermod's side. + +These are noble lines, but altogether foreign to Icelandic. + +Book III opens with the dream of Gudrun and Brynhild's interpretation of +it. This matter is managed in accordance with our own standards of art, +and thus differs materially from the saga story. In the latter a most +naïve procedure is adopted, for Brynhild prophesies that Sigurd shall +leave her for Gudrun, through Grimhild's guile, that strife shall come +between them, and that Sigurd shall die and Gudrun wed Atli. The whole +later story is thus revealed. This is not a story-teller's art, but it +sets clear the Old Norse acceptance of fate's dealings. Of course +Morris' poetic action explains the dream perfectly, but the details are +not so frankly given. + +"Thou shalt live and love and lose, and mingle in murder and war," is +the gist of Brynhild's message, and the whole future history is there. + +This poem has often been called an epic, and certainly there are many +epical characteristics in it. One of them is the recurrence of certain +formulas, and in Books III and IV these are rather more abundant than in +the first two books. Thus the sword of Sigurd is praised in the same +words, again and again: + + It hath not its like in the heavens nor has earth of its fellow told. + +Then, there is the "cloudy hall-roof" of the Niblungs. Gudrun is "the +white-armed"; Grimhild is "the wisest of women"; Hogni is the +"wise-heart"; the Niblungs are "the Cloudy People"; their beds are +"blue-covered"; "the Godson the hangings" is an expression that recurs +very often, and it recalls the fact that Morris was an artisan as well +as an artist. + +In the preceding books we have noted that Morris lengthened the saga +story in his poem by the introduction of speeches that find no place in +the original. In this book we see another lengthening process, which, +with that already noted, goes far to account for the difference in bulk +between the saga and the poem. Chap. XXVI of the saga, tells in less +than a thousands words how Sigurd comes to the Giukings and is wedded to +Gudrun. His reception is told in one hundred words; his abode with the +Giukings is set forth in even fewer words; Grimhild's plotting and +administering of the drugged drink are told in two hundred words; his +acceptance of Gudrun's hand and her brother's allegiance are as tersely +pictured; kingdoms are conquered, a son is born to Sigurd, and Grimhild +plots to have Sigurd get Brynhild for her son Gunnar, yet the record of +it all is compressed within one hundred and fifty words. Of course, the +modern poet can hem himself within no such narrow bounds as this. The +artistic value of these various incidents is priceless, and Morris has +lingered upon them lovingly and long. He spreads the story over forty +pages, or a thousand lines, and I avow, after a third reading of these +three sections of the poem, that I would spare no line of them. How we +love this Sigurd of the poet's painting! And what a noble gospel he +proclaims to the Giukings: + + For peace I bear unto thee, and to all the kings of the earth, + Who bear the sword aright, and are crowned with the crown of worth; + But unpeace to the lords of evil, and the battle and the death; + And the edge of the sword to the traitor, and the flame to the + slanderous breath: + And I would that the loving were loved, and I would that the weary + should sleep, + And that man should hearken to man, and that he that soweth should + reap. + +(P. 174.) + +Here, by the way, is the burden of Morris's preaching in the cause of a +better society. It recurs a few pages further on in the poem, where the +Niblungs bestow praise on this new hero: + + And they say, when the sun of summer shall come aback to the land, + It shall shine on the fields of the tiller that fears no heavy hand; + That the sleep shall be for the plougher, and the loaf for him that + sowed, + Through every furrowed acre where the Son of Sigmund rode. + +(P. 178.) + +It need hardly be remarked that this Sigurd is not the sagaman's ideal. +The Icelanders never evolved such high conceptions of man's obligations +to man, but in their ignorance they were no worse off than their +continental brethren, for these forgot their greatest Teacher's +teaching, and modern social science must point them back to it. + +This Sigurd that we love becomes the Sigurd that we pity in the drinking +of a draught. Sorrow takes the place of joy in his life, and "the soul +is changed in him," so that men may say that on this day they saw him +die the first time, who was to die a second time by Guttorm's sword. +Gloom spreads over all the earth with the quenching of Sigurd's joy: + + In the deedless dark he rideth, and all things he remembers save one, + And nought else hath he care to remember of all the deeds he hath done. + +Here is illustrated the essential difference between the sagaman's art +and the modern story-teller's. The Icelander must tell his story in +haste; the deeds of men are his care, not their divagations nor their +psychologizings. The modern writer must linger on every step in the +story until the motive and the meaning are laid bare. In the present-day +version Sigurd's mental sufferings are described at length, and our +hearts are wrung at his unmerited woes. The saga knows no such woes, and +to all appearance Sigurd's life is not unhappy to its very end. Indeed, +it appears in more than one place in Morris's poem that Sigurd has +become godlike through the hard experiences of his life. Take this +passage as an illustration: + + So is Sigurd yet with the Niblungs, and he loveth Gudrun his wife, + And wendeth afield with the brethren to the days of the dooming of + life; + And nought his glory waneth, nor falleth the flood of praise: + To every man he hearkeneth, nor gainsayeth any grace, + And, glad is the poor in the Doom-ring when he seeth his face mid + the Kings, + For the tangle straighteneth before him, and the maze of crooked + things. + But the smile is departed from him, and the laugh of Sigurd the + young, + And of few words now is he waxen, and his songs are seldom sung. + Howbeit of all the sad-faced was Sigurd loved the best; + And men say: Is the king's heart mighty beyond all hope of rest? + Lo, how he beareth the people! how heavy their woes are grown! + So oft were a God mid the Goth-folk, if he dwelt in the world alone. + +(P. 205.) + +Set this by the side of the saga: "This is truer," says Sigurd, "that I +loved thee better than myself, though I fell into the wiles from whence +our lives may not escape; for whenso my own heart and mind availed me, +then I sorrowed sore that thou wert not my wife; but as I might I put my +trouble from me, for in a king's dwelling was I; and withal and in spite +of all I was well content that we were all together. Well may it be, +that that shall come to pass which is foretold; neither shall I fear the +fulfilment thereof." (_Völunga Saga_, Chap. XXIX.) These words are +spoken to Brynhild after she has discovered what she regards as Sigurd's +treachery. His words are dictated by a noble resignation to fate, but +his very next remark shows a moral meanness not at all in keeping with +Morris's conception. Sigurd said: "This my heart would, that thou and I +should go into one bed together; even so wouldst thou be my wife." + +There have been many griefs depicted in this poem, but surely here are +set forth the most pitiless of them all. The guile-won Brynhild travels +in state to the Cloudy Hall of the Niblungs, and the whole people come +out to meet her. They are astonished at her beauty, and give her cordial +greeting and welcome to her husband's house. Proud and majestic, the +marvelous woman steps from her golden wain, and gives friendly but +passionless greeting to Gunnar as she places her hand in his. For each +of Gunnar's brothers she has a kindly word, as she has for Grimhild, +too. She asks to see the foster-brother of whom such wondrous tales are +told, and whose name she heard from Gunnar's lips with never a +tremor--"Sigurd, the Volsung, the best man ever born." Grimhild stands +between them for a time, but the meeting has to come. Then Brynhild +remembers, and Sigurd sees the unveiled past: + + Her heart ran back through the years, and yet her lips did move + With the words she spake on Hindfell, when they plighted troth of love. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + His face is exceeding glorious and awful to behold; + For of all his sorrow he knoweth and his hope smit dead and cold: + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + For the will of the Norns is accomplished, and outworn is Grimhild's + spell + And nought now shall blind or help him, and the tale shall be to tell. + +(P. 226.) + +There's the note of the whole history--the will of the Norns and the +note of a whole Northern literature, as it is of a whole Southern +literature. Man, the puppet, in the hands of Fate; however man may think +and reason and assure himself that the dispensation of Fate is just, the +supreme moment of realization will always be a tragedy: + + He hath seen the face of Brynhild, and he knows why she hath come, + And that his is the hand that hath drawn her to the Cloudy People's + home: + He knows of the net of the days, and the deeds that the Gods have bid, + And no whit of the sorrow that shall be from his wakened soul is hid. + +(P. 226.) + +In such an hour, what are conquests of a glorious past, what are honors, +crowns, loves, hates? The mind can think of little matters only: + + His heart speeds back to Hindfell, and the dawn of the wakening day; + And the hours betwixt are as nothing, and their deeds are fallen away. + +(P. 226.) + +Is aught to be said to one in such a crisis, the words are weak and +commonplace. There is Brynhild's greeting to Sigurd: + + If aught thy soul shall desire while yet thou livest on earth, + I pray that thou mayst win it, nor forget its might and worth. + +The shattered mind of Sigurd tries to grasp the meaning of the harmless +words, and like common sounds that are so fearful in the night, the +phrases assume a terrible import: + + All grief, sharp scorn, sore longing, stark death in her voice he knew. + +Then again conies the dominant note of this story: + + Gone forth is the doom of the Norns, and what shall be answer thereto, + While the death that amendeth lingers? + +Here is a hint of the end of all--"the death that amendeth," and from +this point to the end of the story there is no gleam of happiness for +anyone. + +Book IV brings to a majestic close this mighty history. We have dwelt so +long on the wonderful poetry of the other books that we must refrain +from further comment in this strain. As we read these eloquent +imaginings, we regret that the English reading public have left this +work through fear of its great length or the ignorance of its existence, +in the dust of half-forgotten shelves. Gold disused is true gold none +the less, and the ages to come may be more appreciative than the +present. + +For the sake of rounding out this story, be it noted concerning this +Book IV, that the poet has taken liberties with the saga story here, as +elsewhere. Motives more easily understood in our day are assigned for +the deeds of dread that throng these closing scenes. Gudrun weds King +Atli at her mother's bidding, and under the influence of a wicked +potion, but neither mother nor magic drives the memory of Sigurd from +her mind. She lives to bring destruction upon her husband's murderers, +and those murderers are her own flesh and blood. Through her appeals to +Atli's greed, and through Knefrud's lies in the Niblung court, the visit +of her proud brothers to her pliant husband is brought about. The saga +makes Atli the arch-plotter, and the motive his desire to possess the +gold. This sentence exculpates Gudrun from any wrong intention towards +her brothers: "Now the queen wots of their conspiring, and misdoubts her +that this would mean some beguiling of her brethren." (Chap. XXXIV.) In +Chap. XXXVIII, we are told that Gudrun fights on the side of her +brothers. We see at once the superiority of the poet's motive for a +modern tragedy. + +It is impressed upon the reader of an epic that the plan of its maker +does not call for fine analysis of character. The epic poet is concerned +necessarily with large considerations, and his personages do not split +hairs from the south to the southeast side. One sign of this is seen in +the epic formulæ employed to characterize the personages of the story. +Such formulas are in _Sigurd the Volsung_ in abundance, as we have noted +on another page. But there are also many departures from the epic model +in this poem. Some of these we have referred to in the remarks on Book +III, where we noted Sigurd's mental sufferings. In Book IV we have a +discrimination of character that is not epic, but dramatic in its +minuteness. In the speech and the deeds of the Niblungs their pride and +selfishness is clearly set forth, but the individual members of that +race are distinguished by traits very minutely drawn. Thus Hogni is the +wary Niblung, and is averse to accepting Atli's invitation: + + "I know not, I know not," said Hogni, "but an unsure bridge is the sea, + And such would I oft were builded betwixt my foeman and me. + I know a sorrow that sleepeth, and a wakened grief I know, + And the torment of the mighty is a strong and fearful foe." + +(P. 281.) + +Gunnar is here distinguished as a hypocrite by word and deed; Gudrun +remembers Sigurd in her exile and schemes and plots to make her husband +Atli work her vengeance on the Niblungs; Atli is greedy for gold and +Gudrun's task is not hard; Knefrud is a liar whose words are winning, +and overcome the scruples of the Niblungs. In these careful +discriminations of character we see a non-epical trait, and of necessity +therefore, a non-Icelandic trait. The sagaman was epic in his tone. + +As a last appreciation of the art of William Morris as it is displayed +in this poem, we would call attention to the tremendous battle-piece +entitled "Of the Battle in Atli's Hall." It is the climax of this +marvelous poem, and in no detail is it inadequate to its place in the +work. The poet's constructive power is here demonstrated to be of the +highest order, and in the majestic sweep of events that is here +depicted, we see the poet in his original role of _maker_. The sagaman's +skill had not the power to conceive this titanic drama, and the memory +of his battle-piece is quite effaced by the modern invention. In blood +and fire the story comes to an end with Gudrun, + + The white and silent woman above the slaughter set. + +As we turn from the scene and the book, that figure fades not away. And +it is fitting that the last memory of this poem should be a picture of +love and hate, inextricably bound together, for that is the irony of +Fate, and Fate was mistress of the Old Norseman's world. + + +5. + +Between the great works dealt with in the last two sections, which +belong together and were therefore so considered, came the book of 1875, +bearing the title _Three Northern Love Stories and Other Tales_. It is +as good a representation as Iceland can make in the love-story class. + +These tales are charmingly told in the translation of Morris and +Magnusson, the second one, "Frithiof the Bold," being a master-piece in +its kind. Men will dare much for the love of a woman, and that is why +the sagaman records love episodes at all. Frithiof's voyage to the +Orkneys in Chap. VI is a stormpiece that vies with anything of its kind +in modern literature. It is Norse to the core, and we love the peerless +young hero who forgets not his manhood in his chagrin of defeat at love. +Surely there is fitness in these outbursts of song in moments of extreme +exultation or despair! "And he sang withal: + + "Helgi it is that helpeth + The white-head billows' waxing; + Cold time unlike the kissing + In the close of Baldur's Meadow! + So is the hate of Helgi + To that heart's love she giveth. + O would that here I held her, + Gift high above all giving!" + +Modern literature has lost this conventionality of the older writings, +found in Hebrew as well as in Icelandic, and we think it has lost +something valuable. Morris thought so, too, for he restored the +interpolated song-snatches in his Romances. We are tempted to dwell on +these three love-stories, they are so fine; but we must leave them with +the remark that they show the poet's appreciation of the worth of a +foreign literature, and his great desire to have his countrymen share in +his admiration for them. "The Story of Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue and +Raven the Skald," and "The Story of Viglund the Fair," are the other two +stories that give the title to the volume, representing the thirteenth +and fifteenth centuries, as "Frithiof" represented the fourteenth. + +6. + +With _Sigurd the Volsung_ ended the first great Icelandic period of +Morris's work. More than a dozen years passed before he returned to the +field, and from 1889 until his death, in 1896, everything he wrote bore +proofs of his abiding interest in and affection for the ancient +literature. The remarkable series of romances, _The House of the +Wolfings_ (1889), _The Roots of the Mountains_ (1890), _The Story of the +Glittering Plain_ (1891), _The Wood Beyond the World_ (1895), _The Well +at the World's End_ (1896) and _The Sundering Flood_ (posthumous), are +none of them distinctively Old Norse in geography or in story, but they +all have the flavor of the saga-translations, and are all the better for +it. They are as original and as beautiful as the poet's tapestries and +furniture, and if they did not provoke imitation as did the tapestries +and furniture, it was not because they were not worth imitating: more +than likely there were no imitators equal to the task. In these romances +we have men and women with the characteristics of an olden time that are +most worthy of conservation in the present time. The ideals of womanfolk +and manfolk in _The House of the Wolfings_ and _The Roots of the +Mountains_, for instance, are such as an Englishman might well be proud +to have in his remote ancestry. Hall-Sun, Wood-Sun, Sunbeam, and Bowmay +are wholesome women to meet in a story, and Thiodolf, Gold-mane, +Iron-face and Hallward are every inch men for book-use or to commune +with every day. Weaklings, too, abide in these stories, and Penny-thumb +and Rusty and Fiddle and Wood-grey lend humanity to the company. + +The two romances last mentioned are so steeped in the atmosphere of the +sagas, that what with folk-motes and shut-beds, and byres, and +man-quellers, and handsels and speech-friends, we seem to lose ourselves +in yet another version of a northern tale. Morris retains the old idiom +that he invented for his translations, and keeps the tyro thumbing his +dictionary, but the charm is increased by the archaisms. As one seeks +the words in the dictionary, one learns that Chaucer, Spenser and the +Ballads were the wells from which he drew these rare words, and that his +employment of them is only another phase of his love for the old far-off +things. It is true that the language of Morris is not of any one +stadium of English, but it is a poet's privilege to draw upon all +history for his words as well as for his allusions, and the revivals in +question are of worthy words pushed aside by the press of newer, but not +necessarily better forms. + +These works are the kind that show the influence of Old Norse literature +as spiritual rather than substantial. The stories are not drawn from the +older literature, nor are the settings patterned after it; but the +impulses that swayed men and women in the sagaman's tale, and the +motives that uplifted them, are found here. We cannot think that the +English people will always be unmindful of the great debt that they owe +to the Muse of the North. + + +7. + +In 1891, Morris engaged in a literary enterprise that set the fashion +for similar enterprises in succeeding years. With Eirikr Magnusson he +undertook the making of _The Saga Library_, "addressed to the whole +reading public, and not only to students of Scandinavian history, +folk-lore and language."[33] With Bernard Quaritch's imprint on the +title pages, these volumes to the number of five were issued in +exceptional type and form. The munificence of the publisher was equalled +by the skill of the translators, and in their versions of "Howard, the +Halt," "The Banded Men," and "Hen Thorir" (in Vol. I, dated 1891), "The +Ere-Dwellers" (in Vol. II, dated 1892) and _Heimskringla_ (in Vols. III, +IV and V, dated 1893-4-5), the definitive translations of sterling sagas +were given. As was the case with their _Grettis Saga_, the works rise to +the dignity of masterpieces, and had we no other legacy from Morris' +wealth of Icelandic scholarship, these translations were precious enough +to keep us grateful through many generations. + + +8. + +One more contribution to English literature hailing from the North, and +we have done with William Morris's splendid gifts. The volume of 1891, +entitled _Poems by the Way_, contains several pieces that must be +reckoned with. The vividest recollections of Icelandic materials here +made use of are the poems "Iceland First Seen," and "To the Muses of the +North." No reader of the poet's biography can forget the remarkable +journey that Morris made through Iceland, nor how he prepared for that +journey with all the care and love of a pilgrim bound for a shrine of +his deepest devotion. Every foot of ground was visited that had been +hallowed by the noble souls and inspiring deeds of the past, and that +pilgrimage warmed him to loving literary creation through the remainder +of his life. The last two stanzas of the first of the poems just +mentioned show what a strong hold the forsaken island had upon his +affections, and go far to explain the success of his Icelandic work: + + O Queen of the grief without knowledge, + of the courage that may not avail, + Of the longing that may not attain, + of the love that shall never forget, + More joy than the gladness of laughter + thy voice hath amidst of its wail: + More hope than of pleasure fulfilled + amidst of thy blindness is set; + More glorious than gaining of all + thine unfaltering hand that shall fail: + For what is the mark on thy brow + but the brand that thy Brynhild doth bear? + Lone once, and loved and undone + by a love that no ages outwear. + + Ah! when thy Balder conies back, + and bears from the heart of the Sun + Peace and the healing of pain, + and the wisdom that waiteth no more; + And the lilies are laid on thy brow + 'mid the crown of the deeds thou hast done; + And the roses spring up by thy feet + that the rocks of the wilderness wore. + Ah! when thy Balder comes back + and we gather the gains he hath won, + Shall we not linger a little + to talk of thy sweetness of old, + Yea, turn back awhile to thy travail + whence the Gods stood aloof to behold? + +In several other poems in this volume he recurs to the practice of his +romances, Scandinavianizes where the tendency of other poets would be +to mediævalize. "Of the Wooing of Hallbiorn the Strong," and "The Raven +and the King's Daughter" are examples. Here we have ballads like those +that Coleridge and Keats conceived on occasion, full of the beauty that +lends itself so kindly to painted-glass decoration; clustered +spear-shafts, crested helms and curling banners, and everywhere lily +hands combing yellow hair or broidering silken standards. But the names +strike a strange note in these songs of Morris, and the accompaniments +are very different from the mediæval kind: + + Come ye carles of the south country, + Now shall we go our kin to see! + For the lambs are bleating in the south, + And the salmon swims towards Olfus mouth. + Girth and graithe and gather your gear! + And ho for the other Whitewater![34] + +The introduction of the homely arts of bread-winning distinguishes the +romance of Scandinavia from the romance of Southern Europe, and here +Morris struck into a new field for poetry. Wherever we turn to note the +effects of Icelandic tradition, we find this presence of daily toil, +always associated with dignity, never apologized for. The connection +between Morris' art and Morris' socialism is not hard to explain. + +No commentary can equal Morris' own poem, "To the Muse of the North," in +setting forth the charm that drew him to the literature of Iceland: + + O Muse that swayest the sad Northern Song, + Thy right hand full of smiting and of wrong, + Thy left hand holding pity; and thy breast + Heaving with hope of that so certain rest: + Thou, with the grey eyes kind and unafraid, + The soft lips trembling not, though they have said + The doom of the World and those that dwell therein. + The lips that smile not though thy children win + The fated Love that draws the fated Death. + O, borne adown the fresh stream of thy breath, + Let some word reach my ears and touch my heart, + That, if it may be, I may have a part + In that great sorrow of thy children dead + That vexed the brow, and bowed adown the head, + Whitened the hair, made life a wondrous dream, + And death the murmur of a restful stream, + But left no stain upon those souls of thine + Whose greatness through the tangled world doth shine. + O Mother, and Love and Sister all in one, + Come thou; for sure I am enough alone + That thou thine arms about my heart shouldst throw, + And wrap me in the grief of long ago. + + + + +V. + +IN THE LATTER DAYS. + +ECHOES OF ICELAND IN LATER POETS. + + +After William Morris the northern strain that we have been listening for +in the English poets seems feeble and not worth noting. Nevertheless, it +must be remarked that in the harp of a thousand strings that wakes to +music under the bard's hands, there is a sweep which thrills to the +ancient traditions of the Northland. Now and then the poet reaches for +these strings, and gladdens us with some reminiscence of + + old, unhappy, far-off things + And battles long ago. + +As had already been intimated, the table of contents in a present-day +volume of poetry is very apt to show an Old Norse title. Thus Robert +Lord Lytton's _Poems Historical and Characteristic_ (London, 1877) +reveals among the poems on European, Oriental, classic and mediaeval +subjects, "The Death of Earl Hacon," a strong piece inspired by an +incident in _Heimskringla_. In Robert Buchanan's multifarious versifying +occurs this title: "Balder the Beautiful, A Song of Divine Death," but +only the title is Old Norse; nothing in the poem suggests that origin +except a notion or two of the end of all things. "Hakon" is the title of +a short virile piece more nearly of the Norse spirit. Sidney Dobell's +drama _Balder_ has only the title to suggest the Icelandic, but Gerald +Massey has the true ring in a number of lyrics, with themes drawn from +the records of Norway's relations with England. In "The Norseman" there +is a trumpet strain that recalls the best of the border-ballads; there +is also a truthfulness of portraiture that argues a poet's, intuition in +Gerald Massey, if not an acquaintance with the sagas: + + The Norseman's King must stand up tall, + If he would be head over all; + Mainmast of Battle! when the plain + Is miry-red with bloody rain! + And grip his weapon for the fight, + Until his knuckles grin tooth-white, + The banner-staff he bears is best + If double handful for the rest: + When "follow me" cries the Norseman. + +He knows the gentler side of Old Norse character, too, a side which, as +we have seen, was not suspected till Carlyle came: + + He hides at heart of his rough life, + A world of sweetness for the Wife; + From his rude breast a Babe may press + Soft milk of human tenderness,-- + Make his eyes water, his heart dance, + And sunrise in his countenance: + In merriest mood his ale he quaffs + By firelight, and with jolly heart laughs + The blithe, great-hearted Norseman. + +The poem "Old King Hake," is as strikingly true in characterization as +the preceding. In half a dozen strophes Massey has told a whole saga, +and has found time, too, to describe "an iron hero of Norse mould." How +miserable a personage is the Italian that flits through Browning's pages +when contrasted with this hero: + + When angry, out the blood would start + With old King Hake; + Not sneak in dark caves of the heart, + Where curls the snake, + And secret Murder's hiss is heard + Ere the deed be done: + He wove no web of wile and word; + He bore with none. + When sharp within its sheath asleep + Lay his good sword, + He held it royal work to keep + His kingly word. + A man of valour, bloody and wild, + In Viking need; + And yet of firelight feeling mild + As honey-mead. + +Another poem, "The Banner-Bearer of King Olaf," pictures the strong +fighter in a death he rejoiced to die. It is a good poem of the class +that nerves men to die for the flag, and it has the Old Norse spirit. +These poems are all from Massey's volume _My Lyrical Life_ (London. +1889). + +A glance at the other poems in Gerald Massey's volumes shows that like +Morris, and like Kingsley, and like Carlyle, the poet was a workman +eager to do for the workman. Is it not suggestive that these men found +themselves drawn to Old Norse character and life? The Icelandic republic +cherished character as the highest quality of citizenship, and put few +or no social obstacles in the way of its achievement. The literature +inspired by that life reveals a fellowship among the members of that +republic that is the envy of social reformers of the present day. Morris +makes one of the personages in _The Story of the Glittering Plain_ +(Chap. I) say these words: "And as for Lord, I knew not this word, for +here dwell we the Sons of the Raven in good fellowship, with our wives +that we have wedded, and our mothers who have borne us, and our sisters +who serve us." Almost may this description serve for Iceland in its +golden age, and so it is no wonder that the socialist, the priest, and +the philosopher of our own disjointed times go back to the sagas for +ideals to serve their countrymen. + +We have no other poets to mention by name in connection with this Old +Norse influence, although doubtless a search through the countless +volumes that the presses drop into a cold and uncaring world would +reveal other poems with Scandinavian themes. We close this section of +our investigation with the remark already made, that, in the tables of +titles in volumes of contemporary verse, acknowledgment to Old Norse +poetry and prose are not the rarity they once were, and in poems of any +kind allusions to the same sources are very common. + + + +RECENT TRANSLATIONS. + + +We have already noted the beginning of serial publications of saga +translations, namely, Morris and Magnusson's _Saga Library_ which was +stopped by the death of Morris when the fifth volume had been completed. +By the last decade of the nineteenth century Icelandic had become one of +the languages that an ordinary scholar might boast, and in consequence +the list of translations began to lengthen very fast. Several English +publishers with scholarly instincts were attracted to this field, and +so the reading public may get at the sagas that were so long the +exclusive possession of learned professors. _The Northern Library_, +published by David Nutt, of London, already contains four volumes and +more are promised: _The Saga of King Olaf Tryggwason,_ by J. Sephton, +appeared in 1895; _The Tale of Thrond of Gate_ (_Færeyinga Saga_), by F. +York Powell, in 1896; _Hamlet in Iceland_ (_Ambales Saga_), by Israel +Gollancz, in 1898; _The Saga of King Sverri of Norway_ (_Sverris Saga_), +by J. Sephton, in 1899. If we cannot give to these the praise of being +great literature though translations, we can at least foresee that this +process of turning all the readable sagas into English will quicken +adaptations and increase the stock of allusions in modern writings. + +An example of the publishers' feeling that the reading public will find +an interest in the saga itself, is the translation of _Laxdæla Saga_ by +Muriel A.C. Press (London, 1899, J.M. Dent & Co.). William Morris made +this saga known to readers of English poetry by his magnificent "Lovers +of Gudrun." Mrs. Press lets us see the story in its original form. +Perhaps this translation will appeal as widely as any to those who read, +and we may note the differences between this form of writing and that to +which the modern times are accustomed. + +This saga is a story, but it is not like the work of fiction, nor like +the sketch of history which appeals to our interest to-day. It has not +the unity of purpose which marks the novel, nor the broad outlook over +events which characterizes the history. Plotting is abundant, but plot +in the technical sense there is none. Events are recorded in +chronological order, but there is no march of those events to a +_denouement_. While it would be wrong to say that there is no one hero +in a saga, it would be more correct to say that that hero's name is +legion. From generation to generation a saga-history wends its way, each +period dominated by a great hero. The annals of a family edited for +purposes of oral recitation, or the life of the principal member of that +family with an introduction dealing with the great deeds of as many of +his ancestors as he would be proud to own--this seems to be what a saga +was--_Laxdæla_, _Grettla_, _Njala_. + +This form permits many sterling literary qualities. Movement is the +most marked characteristic. This was essential to a spoken story, and +the sharpest impression left in the mind of an English reader is that of +relentless activity. Thus he finds it necessary to keep the bearings of +the story by consulting the list of _dramatis personæ_ and the map, both +indispensable accompaniments of a saga-translation. The chapter headings +make this list, and a glance at them for _Laxdæla_ reveals a procession +of notable personages--Ketill, Unn, Hoskuld, Olaf the Peacock, Kiartan, +Gudrun, Bolli, Thorgills, Thorkell, Thorleik, Bolli Bollison and Snorri. +Each of these is, in turn, the center of action, and only Gudrun keeps +prominent for any length of time. + +Character-portraiture, ever a remarkable achievement in literature, is +excellently done in the sagas. There was a necessity for this; so many +personages crowded the stage that, if they were not to be mere puppets, +they would have to be carefully discriminated. That they were so a +perusal of any saga will prove. + +In a novel love is almost indispensable; in a saga other forces are the +impelling motives. Love-making gets the novelist's tenderest interest +and solicitude, but it receives little attention from the sagaman. +Wooing under the Arctic Circle was a methodical bargaining, and there +was little room for sentiment. When Thorvald asked for Osvif's daughter +Gudrun, the father "said that against the match it would tell that he +and Gudrun were not of equal standing. Thorvald spoke gently and said he +was wooing a wife, not money. After that Gudrun was betrothed to +Thorvald.... He should also bring her jewels, so that no woman of equal +wealth should have better to show.... Gudrun was not asked about it and +took it much to heart, yet things went on quietly." (Chap. XXXIV of +_Laxdæla_.) In Iceland, as elsewhere, love was a source of discord, and +for that reason love is always present in the saga. It is not the tender +passion there, silvered with moonlight and attended by song. The saga is +a man's tale. + +The translation just referred to is in _The Temple Classics_, published +by J.M. Dent & Co., London, 1899, and edited by Israel Gollancz. The +editor promises (p. 273) other sagas in this form, if Mrs. Press's work +prove successful. He speaks of _Njala_ and _Volsunga_ as imminent. It is +to be hoped that the intention is to give the Dasent and the Morris +versions, for they cannot be excelled. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Quoted in Gray, by E.W. Gosse, English Men of Letters, p. +163.] + +[Footnote 2: B. Hoff. Hovedpunkter af den Oldislandske +litteratur-historie. København. 1873.] + +[Footnote 3: Pp. xli-l in Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas +Gray, edited by W.L. Phelps. Ginn & Co., Boston. 1894.] + +[Footnote 4: Life of Gray, pp. 160 ff.] + +[Footnote 5: Wm. Sharp in Lyra Celtica, p. xx. Patrick Geddes and +Colleagues. Edinburgh. 1896.] + +[Footnote 6: Of Heroic Virtue, p. 355, Vol. III of Sir William Temple's +Works. London. 1770.] + +[Footnote 7: Of Heroic Virtue, p. 356.] + +[Footnote 8: Of Poetry, p. 416.] + +[Footnote 9: Spelling and punctuation are as in the original.] + +[Footnote 10: Stopford Brooke, English Literature. D. Appleton & Co., +New York. 1884. p. 150.] + +[Footnote 11: Vol. 3, pp. 146-311.] + +[Footnote 12: Quoted in Introduction, p. vii.] + +[Footnote 13: Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., Vol. I, p. +231. Boston, Houghton, Osgood & Co. 1879.] + +[Footnote 14: Edinburgh Review, Oct., 1806.] + +[Footnote 15: Quoted in Lockhart's Life, Vol. III, p. 241.] + +[Footnote 16: In G.W. Dasent's Life of Cleasby, prefixed to the +Icelandic-English Dictionary. Based on the MS. collection of the late +Richard Cleasby, enlarged and completed by Gudbrand Vigfusson. Oxford. +1874.] + +[Footnote 17: In another work by Carlyle, _The Early Kings of Norway_ +(1875) he takes special delight in revealing to Englishmen name +etymologies that hark back to Norse times. Of this sort are Osborn from +Osbjorn; Tooley St. (London) from St. Olave, St. Oley, Stooley, Tooley, +(Chap. X).] + +[Footnote 18: _The Early Kings of Norway_ bears a later date--1875--than +the works we are considering just now, and it is dealt with here only +because Carlyle's _Heroes and Hero-Worship_ belongs in the decade we are +considering.] + +[Footnote 19: Chap. V of Preliminary Dissertation.] + +[Footnote 20: Letters, Vol. I, p. 55, dated Dec. 12, 1855.] + +[Footnote 21: Home of the Eddic Poems, p. xxxix. London, 1899. David +Nutt.] + +[Footnote 22: Introduction to the Cleasby Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 23: Oxford Essays, 1858, p. 214.] + +[Footnote 24: Lectures delivered in America in 1874, by Charles +Kingsley. London. 1875. p. 71.] + +[Footnote 25: P. 78.] + +[Footnote 26: P. 89.] + +[Footnote 27: P. 90.] + +[Footnote 28: P. 91.] + +[Footnote 29: P. 96.] + +[Footnote 30: The Life of William Morris, by J.W. Mackail. London, New +York, Bombay. Vol. I, p. 200.] + +[Footnote 31: Edmond Scherer. Essays on English Literature, p. 309.] + +[Footnote 32: Citations are from the 3d edition. Boston. 1881.] + +[Footnote 33: Preface to Vol. I, p. v.] + +[Footnote 34: The Wooing of Hallbiorn.] + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13786 *** diff --git a/13786-h/13786-h.htm b/13786-h/13786-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c45f436 --- /dev/null +++ b/13786-h/13786-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4030 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Influence of Old Norse Literature on English Literature, by Conrad Hjalmar Nordby</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em;} /* block indent */ + .hngindt {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; text-indent: -2em} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + + .poem {margin-left:30%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1.5em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.i5 {display: block; margin-left: 5em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 8em;} + .poem span.i9 {display: block; margin-left: 9em;} + + .ref {margin-left:10%; margin-right:30%; text-align:right;} + .ref span {display: block; margin: 0; } + + .sig {margin-left:15%; margin-right:10%; text-align:left;} + .sig span {display: block; margin: 0; } + .sig span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + + .toc {Margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left; font-size: 1.2em} + .toc span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .toc span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .toc span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em;} + .toc span.i7 {display: block; margin-left: 7em; white-space: pre;} + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 8pt;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13786 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Influence of Old Norse Literature on +English Literature, by Conrad Hjalmar Nordby</h1> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_i'></a>( i )</span> + +<h1>THE INFLUENCE</h1> + +<h1>OF</h1> + +<h1>OLD NORSE LITERATURE</h1> + +<h1>UPON</h1> + +<h1>ENGLISH LITERATURE</h1> +<br /> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>CONRAD HJALMAR NORDBY</h2> +<br /> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_ii'></a>( ii )</span> +<h4>1901</h4> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + + +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_iii'></a>( iii )</span> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Deyr fé<br /></span> +<span>deyja frændr,<br /></span> +<span>deyr siálfr it sama;<br /></span> +<span>en orðstírr<br /></span> +<span>deyr aldrigi<br /></span> +<span>hveim er sér góðan getr.<br /></span> +<div class='ref'> +<span><i>Hávamál</i>, 75.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Cattle die,<br /></span> +<span>kindred die,<br /></span> +<span>we ourselves also die;<br /></span> +<span>but the fair fame<br /></span> +<span>never dies<br /></span> +<span>of him who has earned it.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>Thorpe's <i>Edda</i>.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_v'></a>( v )</span> + +<a name='PREFATORY_NOTE'></a><h2>PREFATORY NOTE.</h2> +<br /> + +<p>The present publication is the only literary work left by its author. +Unfortunately it lacks a few pages which, as his manuscript shows, he +intended to add, and it also failed to receive his final revision. His +friends have nevertheless deemed it expedient to publish the result of +his studies conducted with so much ardor, in order that some memorial of +his life and work should remain for the wider public. To those +acquainted with him, no written words can represent the charm of his +personality or give anything approaching an adequate impression of his +ability and strength of character.</p> + +<p>Conrad Hjalmar Nordby was born September 20, 1867, at Christiania, +Norway. At the age of four he was brought to New York, where he was +educated in the public schools. He was graduated from the College of the +City of New York in 1886. From December of that year to June, 1893, he +taught in Grammar School No. 55, and in September, 1893, he was called +to his Alma Mater as Tutor in English. He was promoted to the rank of +Instructor in 1897, a position which he held at the time of his death. +He died in St. Luke's Hospital, October 28, 1900. In October, 1894, he +began his studies in the School of Philosophy of Columbia University, +taking courses in Philosophy and Education under Professor Nicholas +Murray Butler, and in Germanic Literatures and Germanic Philology under +Professors Boyesen, William H. Carpenter and Calvin Thomas. It was under +the guidance of Professor Carpenter that the present work was conceived +and executed.</p> + +<p>Such a brief outline of Mr. Nordby's career can, however, give but an +imperfect view of his activities, while it gives none at all of his +influence. He was a teacher who impressed his personality, not only upon +his students, but upon all who knew him. In his character were united +force and refinement, firmness and geniality. In his earnest work with +his pupils, in his lectures to + +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_vi'></a>( vi )</span> + +the teachers of the New York Public +Schools and to other audiences, in his personal influence upon all with +whom he came in contact, he spread the taste for beauty, both of poetry +and of life. When his body was carried to the grave, the grief was not +confined to a few intimate friends; all who had known him felt that +something noble and beautiful had vanished from their lives.</p> + +<p>In this regard his career was, indeed, rich in achievement, but when we +consider what, with his large equipment, he might have done in the world +of scholarship, the promise, so untimely blighted, seems even richer. +From early youth he had been a true lover of books. To him they were not +dead things; they palpitated with the life blood of master spirits. The +enthusiasm for William Morris displayed in the present essay is typical +of his feeling for all that he considered best in literature. Such an +enthusiasm, communicated to those about him, rendered him a vital force +in every company where works of creative genius could be a theme of +conversation.</p> + +<p>A love of nature and of art accompanied and reinforced this love of +literature; and all combined to produce the effect of wholesome purity +and elevation which continually emanated from him. His influence, in +fact, was largely of that pervasive sort which depends, not on any +special word uttered, and above all, not on any preachment, but upon the +entire character and life of the man. It was for this reason that his +modesty never concealed his strength. He shrunk above all things from +pushing himself forward and demanding public notice, and yet few ever +met him without feeling the force of character that lay behind his +gentle and almost retiring demeanor. It was easy to recognize that here +was a man, self-centered and whole.</p> + +<p>In a discourse pronounced at a memorial meeting, the Rev. John Coleman +Adams justly said: "If I wished to set before my boy a type of what is +best and most lovable in the American youth, I think I could find no +more admirable character than that of Conrad Hjalmar Nordby. A young man +of the people, with all their unexhausted force, vitality and +enthusiasm; a man of simple aims and honest ways; as chivalrous and +high-minded as any knight of old; as pure in life as a woman; at once +gentle and brave, strong and sweet, just and loving; upright, but no +Pharisee; earnest, but never sanctimonious; who took his work + +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_vii'></a>( vii )</span> + +as a pleasure, and his pleasure as an innocent joy; a friend to be coveted; a +disciple such as the Saviour must have loved; a true son of God, who +dwelt in the Father's house. Of such youth our land may well be proud; +and no man need speak despairingly of a nation whose life and +institutions can ripen such a fruit." </p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span>L.F.M.</span><br /> +<span>COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">May 15, 1901.<br /></span> +</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_ix'></a>( ix )</span> + +<a name='INTRODUCTORY'></a><h2>INTRODUCTORY.</h2> +<br /> + +<p>It should not be hard for the general reader to understand that the +influence which is the theme of this dissertation is real and +explicable. If he will but call the roll of his favorite heroes, he will +find Sigurd there. In his gallery of wondrous women, he certainly +cherishes Brynhild. These poetic creations belong to the +English-speaking race, because they belong to the world. And if one will +but recall the close kinship of the Icelandic and the Anglo-Saxon +languages, he will not find it strange that the spirit of the old Norse +sagas lives again in our English song and story.</p> + +<p>The survey that this essay takes begins with Thomas Gray (1716-1771), +and comes down to the present day. It finds the fullest measure of the +old Norse poetic spirit in William Morris (1834-1896), and an increasing +interest and delight in it as we come toward our own time. The +enterprise of learned societies and enlightened book publishers has +spread a knowledge of Icelandic literature among the reading classes of +the present day; but the taste for it is not to be accounted for in the +same way. That is of nobler birth than of erudition or commercial pride. +Is it not another expression of that changed feeling for the things that +pertain to the common people, which distinguishes our century from the +last? The historian no longer limits his study to camp and court; the +poet deigns to leave the drawing-room and library for humbler scenes. +Folk-lore is now dignified into a science. The touch of nature has made +the whole world kin, and our highly civilized century is moved by the +records of the passions of the earlier society.</p> + +<p>This change in taste was long in coming, and the emotional phase of it +has preceded the intellectual. It is interesting to note that Gray and +Morris both failed to carry their public with them all the way. Gray, +the most cultured man of his time, produced art forms totally different +from those in vogue, and Walpole +<a name='FNanchor_1_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_1'><sup>[1]</sup></a> said + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_x'></a>( x )</span> + +of these forms: "Gray has added to his poems three ancient odes from Norway and +Wales ... they are not interesting, and do not, like his other poems, touch any passion.... +Who can care through what horrors a Runic savage arrived at all the joys +and glories they could conceive—the supreme felicity of boozing ale out +of the skull of an enemy in Odin's Hall?"</p> + +<p>Morris, the most versatile man of his time, found plenty of praise for +his art work, until he preached social reform to Englishmen. Thereafter +the art of William Morris was not so highly esteemed, and the best poet +in England failed to attain the laurel on the death of Tennyson.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_xi'></a>( xi )</span> + +<a name='CONTENTS'></a><h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<br /> + +<div class="toc"> +<a href='#PREFATORY_NOTE'><span>Prefatory Note</span></a><br /> +<a href='#INTRODUCTORY'><span>Introductory</span></a><br /> +<a href='#I'><span class='i2'>I. The Body of Old Norse Literature</span></a><br /> +<a href='#II'><span class='i2'>II. Through the Medium of Latin</span></a> +<a href='#THOMAS_GRAY'><span class='i6'>Thomas Gray</span></a> +<a href='#GRAY_SOURCES'><span class='i6'>The Sources of Gray's Knowledge</span></a> +<a href='#WILLIAM_TEMPLE'><span class='i6'>Sir William Temple</span></a> +<a href='#GEORGE_HICKES'><span class='i6'>George Hickes</span></a> +<a href='#THOMAS_PERCY'><span class='i6'>Thomas Percy</span></a> +<a href='#THOMAS_WARTON'><span class='i6'>Thomas Warton</span></a> +<a href='#DRAKE_MATHIAS'><span class='i6'>Drake and Mathias</span></a> +<a href='#COTTLE_HERBERT'><span class='i6'>Cottle and Herbert</span></a> +<a href='#WALTER_SCOTT'><span class='i6'>Walter Scott</span></a><br /> +<a href='#III'><span class="i2">III. From the Sources Themselves</span></a> +<a href='#RICHARD_CLEASBY'><span class='i6'>Richard Cleasby</span></a> +<a href='#THOMAS_CARLYLE'><span class='i6'>Thomas Carlyle</span></a> +<a href='#SAMUEL_LAING'><span class='i6'>Samuel Laing</span></a> +<a href='#LONGFELLOW_LOWELL'><span class='i6'>Longfellow and Lowell</span></a> +<a href='#MATTHEW_ARNOLD'><span class='i6'>Matthew Arnold</span></a> +<a href='#GEORGE_DASENT'><span class='i6'>George Webbe Dasent</span></a> +<a href='#CHARLES_KINGSLEY'><span class='i6'>Charles Kingsley</span></a> +<a href='#EDMUND_GOSSE'><span class='i6'>Edmund Gosse</span></a><br /> +<a href='#IV'><span class='i2'>IV. By the Hand of the Master</span></a> +<a href='#WILLIAM_MORRIS'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works</span></a> +<a href='#1'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 1</span></a> +<a href='#2'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 2</span></a> +<a href='#3'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 3</span></a> +<a href='#4'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 4</span></a> +<a href='#5'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 5</span></a> +<a href='#6'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 6</span></a> +<a href='#7'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 7</span></a> +<a href='#8'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 8</span></a><br /> +<a href='#V'><span class='i2'>V. In the Latter Days</span></a> +<a href='#ECHOES'><span class='i6'>Echoes of Iceland in Later Poets</span></a> +<a href='#RECENT_TRANS'><span class='i6'>Recent Translations</span></a><br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_1'></a>( 1 )</span> + +<a name='I'></a><h2>I.</h2> + +<h2>THE BODY OF OLD NORSE LITERATURE.</h2> +<br /> + +<p>First, let us understand what the Old Norse literature was that has been +sending out this constantly increasing influence into the world of +poetry.</p> + +<p>It was in the last four decades of the ninth century of our era that +Norsemen began to leave their own country and set up new homes in +Iceland. The sixty years ending with 930 A.D. were devoted to taking up +the land, and the hundred years that ensued after that date were devoted +to quarreling about that land. These quarrels were the origin of the +Icelandic family sagas. The year 1000 brought Christianity to the +island, and the period from 1030 to 1120 were years of peace in which +stories of the former time passed from mouth to mouth. The next century +saw these stories take written form, and the period from 1220 to 1260 +was the golden age of this literature. In 1264, Iceland passed under the +rule of Norway, and a decline of literature began, extending until 1400, +the end of literary production in Iceland. In the main, the authors of +Iceland are unknown +<a name='FNanchor_2_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2]</sup></a>.</p> + +<p>There are several well-marked periods, therefore, in Icelandic literary +production. The earliest was devoted to poetry, Icelandic being no +different from most other languages in the precedence of that form. +Before the settlement of Iceland, the Norse lands were acquainted with +songs about gods and champions, written in a simple verse form. The +first settlers wrote down some of these, and forgot others. In the +<i>Codex Regius</i>, preserved in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, we have a +collection of these songs. This material was published in the +seventeenth century as the <i>Sæmundar Edda</i>, and came to be known as the +<i>Elder</i> or <i>Poetic Edda</i>. Both titles are misnomers, for Sæmund had +nothing to do with the making of the book, and <i>Edda</i> is a name +belonging to a book of later date and different purpose.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_2'></a>( 2 )</span> + +This work—not a product of the soil as folk-songs are—is the fountain +head of Old Norse mythology, and of Old Norse heroic legends. <i>Völuspá</i> +and <i>Hávamál</i> are in this collection, and other songs that tell of Odin +and Baldur and Loki. The Helgi poems and the Völsung poems in their +earliest forms are also here.</p> + +<p>A second class of poetry in this ancient literature is that called +"Skaldic." Some of this deals with mythical material, and some with +historical material. A few of the skalds are known to us by name, +because their lives were written down in later sagas. Egill +Skallagrímsson, known to all readers of English and Scotch antiquities, +Eyvind Skáldaspillir and Sigvat are of this group.</p> + +<p>Poetic material that is very rich is found in Snorri Sturluson's work on +Old Norse poetics, entitled <i>The Edda</i>, and often referred to as the +<i>Younger</i> or <i>Prose Edda</i>.</p> + +<p>More valuable than the poetry is the prose of this literature, +especially the <i>Sagas</i>. The saga is a prose epic, characteristic of the +Norse countries. It records the life of a hero, told according to fixed +rules. As we have said, the sagas were based upon careers run in +Iceland's stormy time. They are both mythical and historical. In the +mythical group are, among others, the <i>Völsunga Saga</i>, the <i>Hervarar +Saga</i>, <i>Friðthjófs Saga</i> and <i>Ragnar Loðbróks Saga</i>. In the historical +group, the flowering time of which was 1200-1270, we find, for example, +<i>Egils Saga</i>, <i>Eyrbyggja Saga</i>, <i>Laxdæla Saga</i>, <i>Grettis Saga</i>, <i>Njáls +Saga</i>. A branch of the historic sagas is the Kings' Sagas, in which we +find <i>Heimskringla</i>, the <i>Saga of Olaf Tryggvason</i>, the <i>Flatey Book</i>, +and others.</p> + +<p>This sketch does not pretend to indicate the quantity of Old Norse +literature. An idea of that is obtained by considering the fact that +eleven columns of the ninth edition of the <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i> are +devoted to recording the works of that body of writings.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_3'></a>( 3 )</span> + +<a name='II'></a><h2>II.</h2> + +<h2>THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF LATIN.</h2> +<br /><br /> + +<a name='THOMAS_GRAY'></a><h3>THOMAS GRAY (1716-1771).</h3> + +<p>In the eighteenth century, Old Norse literature was the lore of +antiquarians. That it is not so to-day among English readers is due to a +line of writers, first of whom was Thomas Gray. In the thin volume of +his poetry, two pieces bear the sub-title: "An Ode. From the Norse +Tongue." These are "The Fatal Sisters," and "The Descent of Odin," both +written in 1761, though not published until 1768. These poems are among +the latest that Gray gave to the world, and are interesting aside from +our present purpose because they mark the limit of Gray's progress +toward Romanticism.</p> + +<p>We are not accustomed to think of Gray as a Romantic poet, although we +know well that the movement away from the so-called Classicism was begun +long before he died. The Romantic element in his poetry is not obvious; +only the close observer detects it, and then only in a few of the poems. +The Pindaric odes exhibit a treatment that is Romantic, and the Norse +and Welsh adaptations are on subjects that are Romantic. But we must go +to his letters to find proof positive of his sympathy with the breaking +away from Classicism. Here are records of a love of outdoors that +reveled in mountain-climbing and the buffeting of storms. Here are +appreciations of Shakespeare and of Milton, the like of which were not +often proclaimed in his generation. Here is ecstatic admiration of +ballads and of the Ossian imitations, all so unfashionable in the +literary culture of the day. While dates disprove Lowell's statement in +his essay on Gray that "those anti-classical yearnings of Gray began +after he had ceased producing," it is certain that very little of his +poetic work expressed these yearnings. "Elegance, sweetness, pathos, or +even majesty he could achieve, but never that force which vibrates in +every verse of larger moulded men." Change Lowell's word "could" to +"did," and this sentence will serve our purpose here.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_4'></a>( 4 )</span> + +Our interest in Gray's Romanticism must confine itself to the two odes +from the Old Norse. It is to be noted that the first transplanting to +English poetry of Old Norse song came about through the scholar's +agency, not the poet's. It was Gray, the scholar, that made "The Descent +of Odin" and "The Fatal Sisters." They were intended to serve as +specimens of a forgotten literature in a history of English poetry. In +the "Advertisement" to "The Fatal Sisters" he tells how he came to give +up the plan: "The Author has long since drop'd his design, especially +after he heard, that it was already in the hands of a Person well +qualified to do it justice, both by his taste, and his researches into +antiquity." Thomas Warton's <i>History of English Poetry</i> was the +execution of this design, but in that book no place was found for these +poems.</p> + +<p>In his absurd <i>Life of Gray</i>, Dr. Johnson said: "His translations of +Northern and Welsh Poetry deserve praise: the imagery is preserved, +perhaps often improved, but the language is unlike the language of other +poets." There are more correct statements in this sentence, perhaps, +than in any other in the essay, but this is because ignorance sometimes +hits the truth. It is not likely that the poems would have been +understood without the preface and the explanatory notes, and these, in +a measure, made the reader interested in the literature from which they +were drawn. Gray called the pieces "dreadful songs," and so in very +truth they are. Strength is the dominant note, rude, barbaric strength, +and only the art of Gray saved it from condemnation. To-day, with so +many imitations from Old Norse to draw upon, we cannot point to a single +poem which preserves spirit and form as well as those of Gray. Take the +stanza:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Horror covers all the heath,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Clouds of carnage blot the sun,<br /></span> +<span>Sisters, weave the web of death;<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Sisters, cease, the work is done.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The strophe is perfect in every detail. Short lines, each ending a +sentence; alliteration; words that echo the sense, and just four strokes +to paint a picture which has an atmosphere that whisks you into its own +world incontinently. It is no wonder that writers of later days who have +tried similar imitations ascribe to Thomas Gray the mastership.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_5'></a>( 5 )</span> + +That this poet of the eighteenth century, who "equally despised what +was Greek and what was Gothic," should have entered so fully into the +spirit and letter of Old Norse poetry is little short of marvelous. If +Professor G.L. Kittredge had not gone so minutely into the question of +Gray's knowledge of Old Norse, +<a name='FNanchor_3_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_3'><sup>[3]</sup></a> +we might be pardoned for still +believing with Gosse +<a name='FNanchor_4_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_4'><sup>[4]</sup></a> +that the poet learned Icelandic in his later +life. Even after reading Professor Kittredge's essay, we cannot +understand how Gray could catch the metrical lilt of the Old Norse with +only a Latin version to transliterate the parallel Icelandic. We suspect +that Gray's knowledge was fuller than Professor Kittredge will allow, +although we must admit that superficial knowledge may coexist with a +fine interpretative spirit. Matthew Arnold's knowledge of Celtic +literature was meagre, yet he wrote memorably and beautifully on that +subject, as Celts themselves will acknowledge. +<a name='FNanchor_5_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_5'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> +<br /> + +<a name='GRAY_SOURCES'></a><h3>THE SOURCES OF GRAY'S KNOWLEDGE.</h3> + +<p>It has already been said that only antiquarians had knowledge of things +Icelandic in Gray's time. Most of this knowledge was in Latin, of +course, in ponderous tomes with wonderful, long titles; and the list of +them is awe-inspiring. In all likelihood Gray did not use them all, but +he met references to them in the books he did consult. Professor +Kittredge mentions them in the paper already quoted, but they are here +arranged in the order of publication, and the list is lengthened to +include some books that were inspired by the interest in Gray's +experiments.</p> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1636</b> and <b>1651</b>. Wormius. <i>Seu Danica literatura antiquissima, +vulgo Gothica dicta, luci reddita opera Olai Wormii. Cui accessit de +prisca Danorum Poesi Dissertatio.</i> Hafniæ. 1636. Edit. II. 1651.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">The essay on poetry contains interlinear Latin translations of the +<i>Epicedium</i> of Ragnar Loðbrók, and of the <i>Drápa</i> of Egill +Skallagrímsson. Bound with the second edition of 1651, and bearing the +date 1650, is: <i>Specimen Lexici runici, obscuriorum quarundam vocum, quæ +in</i> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_6'></a>( 6 )</span> + +<i>priscis occurrunt historiis et poetis Danicis enodationem exhibens. +Collectum a Magno Olavio pastore Laufasiensi, ... nunc in ordinem +redactum, auctum et locupletatum ab Olao Wormio</i>. Hafniæ.<br /> +<br /> +This glossary adduces illustrations from the great poems of Icelandic +literature. Thus early the names and forms of the ancient literature +were known.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1665.</b> Resenius. <i>Edda Islandorum an. Chr. MCCXV islandice +conscripta per Snorronem Sturlæ Islandiæ. Nomophylacem nunc primum +islandice, danice et latine ... Petri Johannis Resenii</i> ... Havniæ. +1665.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">A second part contains a disquisition on the philosophy of the <i>Völuspá</i> +and the <i>Hávamál</i>.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1670.</b> Sheringham. <i>De Anglorum Gentis Origine Disceptatio. Qua +eorum migrationes, variæ sedes, et ex parte res gestæ, a confusione +Linguarum, et dispersione Gentium, usque ad adventum eorum in Britanniam +investigantur; quædam de veterum Anglorum religione, Deorum cultu, +eorumque opinionibus de statu animæ post hanc vitam, explicantur.</i> +<i>Authore</i> Roberto Sheringhamo. Cantabrigiæ. 1670.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">Chapter XII contains an account of Odin extracted from the <i>Edda</i>, +Snorri Sturluson and others.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1679-92.</b> Temple. Two essays: "Of Heroic Virtue," "Of Poetry," +contained in The Works of Sir William Temple. London. 1757. Vol. 3, pp. +304-429.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1689.</b> Bartholinus. <i>Thomæ Bartholini Antiquitatum Danicarum de +causis contemptæ a Danis adhuc gentilibus mortis libri III ex vetustis +codicibus et monumentis hactenus ineditis congestæ.</i> Hafniæ. 1689.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">The pages of this book are filled, with extracts from Old Norse sagas +and poetry which are translated into Latin. No student of the book could +fail to get a considerable knowledge of the spirit and the form of the +ancient literature.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1691.</b> Verelius. <i>Index linguæ veteris Scytho-Scandicæ sive Gothicæ +ex vetusti ævi monumentis ... ed Rudbeck.</i> Upsalæ. 1691.</div> +<br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_7'></a>( 7 )</span> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1697</b>. Torfæus.<i>Orcades, seu rerum Orcadensium historiæ</i>. Havniæ. +1697.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1697</b>. Perinskjöld. <i>Heimskringla, eller Snorre Sturlusons +Nordländske Konunga Sagor</i>. Stockholmiæ. 1697.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">Contains Latin and Swedish translation.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1705</b>. Hickes. <i>Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium thesaurus +grammatico criticus et archæologicus</i>. Oxoniæ. 1703-5.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">This work is discussed later.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1716</b>. Dryden. <i>Miscellany Poems. Containing Variety of New +Translations of the Ancient Poets</i>.... Published by Mr. Dryden. London. +1716.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1720</b>. Keysler. <i>Antiquitates selectæ septentrionales et Celticæ +quibus plurima loca conciliorum et capitularium explanantur, dogmata +theologiæ ethnicæ Celtarum gentiumque septentrionalium cum moribus et +institutis maiorum nostrorum circa idola, aras, oracula, templa, lucos, +sacerdotes, regum electiones, comitia et monumenta sepulchralia una cum +reliquiis gentilismi in coetibus christianorum ex monumentis potissimum +hactenus ineditis fuse perquiruntur.</i> <i>Autore</i> Joh. Georgio Keysler. +Hannoveræ. 1720.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1755</b>. Mallet. <i>Introduction à l'Histoire de Dannemarc où l'on +traite de la Réligion, des Lois, des Moeurs, et des Usages des Anciens +Danois. Par</i> M. Mallet. Copenhague. 1755.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">Discussed later.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1756</b>. Mallet. <i>Monumens de la Mythologie et la Poësie des Celtes et +particulièrement des anciens Scandinaves ... Par</i> M. Mallet. Copenhague. +1756.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1763</b>. Percy. <i>Five Pieces of Runic Poetry translated from the +Islandic Language</i>. London. 1763.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">This book is described on a later page.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1763</b>. Blair. <i>A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the +Son of Fingal</i>. [By Hugh Blair.] London. 1763.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1770</b>. Percy. <i>Northern Antiquities: or a description of the +Manners, Customs, Religion and Laws of the ancient</i> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_8'></a>( 8 )</span> + +<i>Danes, and other +Northern Nations; including these of our own Saxon Ancestors. With a +translation of the Edda or System of Runic Mythology, and other Pieces +from the Ancient Icelandic Tongue. Translated from M. Mallet's +Introduction à l'Histoire de Dannemarc</i>. London. 1770.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1774</b>. Warton. <i>The History of English Poetry</i>. By Thomas Warton. +London. 1774-81.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">In this book the prefatory essay entitled "On the Origin of Romantic +Fiction in Europe" is significant. It is treated at length later on.</div> +<br /> + +<a name='WILLIAM_TEMPLE'></a><h3>SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE (1628-1699).</h3> + +<p>From the above list it appears that the earliest mention in the English +language of Icelandic literature was Sir William Temple's. The two +essays noted above have many references to Northern customs and songs. +Macaulay's praise of Temple's style is well deserved, and the slighting +remarks about the matter do not apply to the passages in evidence here. +Temple's acknowledgments to Wormius indicate the source of his +information, and it is a commentary upon the exactness of the +antiquarian's knowledge that so many of the statements in Temple's +essays are perfectly good to-day. Of course the terms "Runic" and +"Gothic" were misused, but so were they a century later. Odin is "the +first and great hero of the western Scythians; he led a mighty swarm of +the Getes, under the name of Goths, from the Asiatic Scythia into the +farthest northwest parts of Europe; he seated and spread his kingdom +round the whole Baltic sea, and over all the islands in it, and extended +it westward to the ocean and southward to the Elve." +<a name='FNanchor_6_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_6'><sup>[6]</sup></a> +Temple places +Odin's expedition at two thousand years before his own time, but he gets +many other facts right. Take this summing up of the old Norse belief as +an example:</p> + +<p>"An opinion was fixed and general among them, that death was but the +entrance into another life; that all men who lived lazy and inactive +lives, and died natural deaths, by sickness, or + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_9'></a>( 9 )</span> + +by age, went into vast +caves under ground, all dark and miry, full of noisom creatures, usual +in such places, and there forever grovelled in endless stench and +misery. On the contrary, all who gave themselves to warlike actions and +enterprises, to the conquests of their neighbors, and slaughters of +enemies, and died in battle, or of violent deaths upon bold adventures +or resolutions, they went immediately to the vast hall or palace of +Odin, their god of war, who eternally kept open house for all such +guests, where they were entertained at infinite tables, in perpetual +feasts and mirth, carousing every man in bowls made of the skulls of +their enemies they had slain, according to which numbers, every one in +these mansions of pleasure was the most honoured and the best +entertained." +<a name='FNanchor_7_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_7'><sup>[7]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Thus before Gray was born, Temple had written intelligently in English +of the salient features of the Old Norse mythology. Later in the same +essay, he recognized that some of the civil and political procedures of +his country were traceable to the Northmen, and, what is more to our +immediate purpose, he recognized the poetic value of Old Norse song. On +p. 358 occurs this paragraph:</p> + +<p>"I am deceived, if in this sonnet (two stanzas of 'Regner Lodbrog'), and +a following ode of Scallogrim there be not a vein truly poetical, and in +its kind Pindaric, taking it with the allowance of the different +climates, fashions, opinions, and languages of such distant countries."</p> + +<p>Temple certainly had no knowledge of Old Norse, and yet, in 1679, he +could write so of a poem which he had to read through the Latin. Sir +William had a wide knowledge and a fine appreciation of literature, and +an enthusiasm for its dissemination. He takes evident delight in telling +the fact that princes and kings of the olden time did high honor to +bards. He regrets that classic culture was snuffed out by a barbarous +people, but he rejoices that a new kind came to take its place. "Some of +it wanted not the true spirit of poetry in some degree, or that natural +inspiration which has been said to arise from some spark of poetical +fire wherewith particular men are born; and such as it was, it served +the turn, not only to please, but even to charm, the ignorant and +barbarous vulgar, where it was in use." +<a name='FNanchor_8_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_8'><sup>[8]</sup></a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_10'></a>( 10 )</span> + +It is proverbial that music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. +That savage music charms cultivated minds is not proverbial, but it is +nevertheless true. Here is Sir William Temple, scion of a cultured race, +bearing witness to the fact, and here is Gray, a life-long dweller in a +staid English university, endorsing it a half century later. As has been +intimated, this was unusual in the time in which they lived, when, in +Lowell's phrase, the "blight of propriety" was on all poetry. But it was +only the rude and savage in an unfamiliar literature that could give +pause in the age of Pope. The milder aspects of Old Norse song and saga +must await the stronger century to give them favor. "Behold, there was a +swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion."</p> +<br /> + +<a name='GEORGE_HICKES'></a><h3>GEORGE HICKES (1642-1715).</h3> + +<p>The next book in the list that contains an English contribution to the +knowledge of our subject is the <i>Thesaurus</i> of George Hickes. On p. 193 +of Part I, there is a prose translation of "The Awakening of Angantyr," +from the <i>Harvarar Saga</i>. Acknowledgment is given to Verelius for the +text of the poem, but Hickes seems to have chosen this poem as the gem +of the Saga. The translation is another proof of an antiquarian's taste +and judgment, and the reader does not wonder that it soon found a wider +audience through another publication. It was reprinted in the books of +1716 and 1770 in the above list. An extract or two will show that the +vigor of the old poem has not been altogether lost in the translation:</p> + +<p><i>Hervor</i>.—Awake Angantyr, Hervor the only daughter of thee and Suafu +doth awaken thee. Give me out of the tombe, the hardned +<a name='FNanchor_9_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_9'><sup>[9]</sup></a> +sword, which +the dwarfs made for Suafurlama. Hervardur, Hiorvardur, Hrani, and +Angantyr, with helmet, and coat of mail, and a sharp sword, with sheild +and accoutrements, and bloody spear, I wake you all, under the roots of +trees. Are the sons of Andgrym, who delighted in mischief, now become +dust and ashes, can none of Eyvors sons now speak with me out of the +habitations of the dead! Harvardur, Hiorvardur! so may you all be within +your ribs, as a thing that is hanged up to putrifie among insects, +unlesse you deliver me the sword which the dwarfs made ... and the +glorious belt.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_11'></a>( 11 )</span> + +<i>Angantyr</i>.—Daughter Hervor, full of spells to raise the dead, why +dost thou call so? wilt thou run on to thy own mischief? thou art mad, +and out of thy senses, who art desperatly resolved to waken dead men. I +was not buried either by father or other freinds. Two which lived after +me got Tirfing, one of whome is now possessor thereof.</p> + +<p><i>Hervor</i>.—Thou dost not tell the truth: so let Odin hide thee in the +tombe, as thou hast Tirfing by thee. Art thou unwilling, Angantyr, to +give an inheritance to thy only child?...</p> + +<p><i>Angantyr</i>.—Fals woman, thou dost not understand, that thou speakest +foolishly of that, in which thou dost rejoice, for Tirfing shall, if +thou wilt beleive me, maid, destroy all thy offspring.</p> + +<p><i>Hervor</i>.—I must go to my seamen, here I have no mind to stay longer. +Little do I care, O Royall friend, what my sons hereafter quarrell +about.</p> + +<p><i>Angantyr</i>.—Take and keep Hialmars bane, which thou shalt long have and +enjoy, touch but the edges of it, there is poyson in both of them, it is +a most cruell devourer of men.</p> + +<p><i>Hervor</i>.—I shall keep, and take in hand, the sharp sword which thou +hast let me have: I do not fear, O slain father! what my sons hereafter +may quarrell about.... Dwell all of you safe in the tombe, I must be +gon, and hasten hence, for I seem to be, in the midst of a place where +fire burns round about me.</p> + +<p>One can well understand, who handles the ponderous <i>Thesaurus</i>, why the +first English lovers of Old Norse were antiquarians. "The Awakening of +Angantyr" is literally buried in this work, and only the student of +Anglo-Saxon prosody would come upon it unassisted, since it is an +illustration in a chapter of the <i>Grammaticæ Anglo-Saxonicæ et +Moeso-Gothicæ</i>. Students will remember in this connection that it was +a work on poetics that saved for us the original Icelandic <i>Edda</i>. The +Icelandic skald had to know his nation's mythology.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='THOMAS_PERCY'></a><h3>THOMAS PERCY (1729-1811).</h3> + +<p>The title of Chapter XXIII in Hickes' work indicates that even among +learned doctors mistaken notions existed as to the relationship of the +Teutonic languages. It took more than a hundred years to set the error +right, but in the meanwhile the literature of + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_12'></a>( 12 )</span> + +Iceland was becoming +better known to English readers. To the French scholar, Paul Henri +Mallet (1730-1807), Europe owes the first popular presentation of +Northern antiquities and literature. Appointed professor of +belles-lettres in the Copenhagen academy he found himself with more time +than students on his hands, because not many Danes at that time +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 <i>Introduction a l'Histoire de Dannemarc où l'on +traite de la Réligion, des Lois, des Moeurs et des Usages des Anciens +Danois</i>, 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 +<i>Edda</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Edda</i> was imperfect, too, because he had +followed the Latin version of Resenius, which was notoriously poor. +Percy's <i>Edda</i> 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 <i>Northern Antiquities</i>—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.</p> + +<p>We have already noted that Gray's poems on Icelandic themes, though +written in 1761, were not published until 1768. Another + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_13'></a>( 13 )</span> + +delayed work on +similar themes was Percy's <i>Five Pieces of Runic Poetry</i>, which, the +author tells us, was prepared for the press in 1761, but, through an +accident, was not published until 1763. The preface has this interesting +sentence: "It would be as vain to deny, as it is perhaps impolitic to +mention, that this attempt is owing to the success of the Erse +fragments." The book has an appendix containing the Icelandic originals +of the poems translated, and that portion of the book shows that a +scholar's hand and interest made the volume. So, too, does the close of +the preface: "That the study of ancient northern literature hath its +important uses has been often evinced by able writers: and that it is +not dry or unamusive this little work it is hoped will demonstrate. Its +aim at least is to shew, that if those kind of studies are not always +employed on works of taste or classic elegance, they serve at least to +unlock the treasures of native genius; they present us with frequent +sallies of bold imagination, and constantly afford matter for +philosophical reflection by showing the workings of the human mind in +its almost original state of nature."</p> + +<p>That original state was certainly one of original sin, if these poems +are to be believed. Every page in this volume is drenched with blood, +and from this book, as from Gray's poems and the other Old Norse +imitations of the time, a picture of fierceness and fearfulness was the +only one possible. Percy intimates in his preface that Icelandic poetry +has other tales to tell besides the "Incantation of Hervor," the "Dying +Ode of Regner Lodbrog," the "Ransome of Egill the Scald," and the +"Funeral Song of Hacon," which are here set down; he offers the +"Complaint of Harold" as a slight indication that the old poets left +"behind them many pieces on the gentler subjects of love or friendship." +But the time had not come for the presentation of those pieces.</p> + +<p>All of these translations were from the Latin versions extant in Percy's +time. This volume copied Hickes's translation of "Hervor's Incantation" +modified in a few particulars, and like that one, the other translations +in this volume were in prose. The work is done as well as possible, and +it remained for later scholars to point out errors in translation. The +negative contractions in Icelandic were as yet unfamiliar, and so, as +Walter Scott pointed out (in <i>Edin. Rev.</i>, Oct., 1806), Percy made +Regner Lodbrog + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_14'></a>( 14 )</span> + +say, "The pleasure of that day (of battle, p. 34 in this +<i>Five Pieces</i>) was like having a fair virgin placed beside one in the +bed," and "The pleasure of that day was like kissing a young widow at +the highest seat of the table," when the poet really made the contrary +statement.</p> + +<p>Of course, the value of this book depends upon the view that is taken of +it. Intrinsically, as literature, it is well-nigh valueless. It +indicates to us, however, a constantly growing interest in the +literature it reveals, and it undoubtedly directed the attention of the +poets of the succeeding generation to a field rich in romantic +possibilities. That no great work was then created out of this material +was not due to neglect. As we shall see, many puny poets strove to +breathe life into these bones, but the divine power was not in the +poets. Some who were not poets had yet the insight to feel the value of +this ancient literature, and they made known the facts concerning it. It +seems a mechanical and unpromising way to have great poetry written, +this calling out, "New Lamps for Old." Yet it is on record that great +poems have been written at just such instigation.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='THOMAS_WARTON'></a><h3>THOMAS WARTON (1728-1790).</h3> + +<p>Historians +<a name='FNanchor_10_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_10'><sup>[10]</sup></a> +of Romanticism have marked Warton's <i>History of English +Poetry</i> as one of the forces that made for the new idea in literature. +This record of a past which, though out of favor, was immeasurably +superior to the time of its historian, spread new views concerning the +poetic art among the rising generation, and suggested new subjects as +well as new treatments of old subjects. We have mentioned the fact that +Gray handed over to Warton his notes for a contemplated history of +poetry, and that Warton found no place in his work for Gray's +adaptations from the Old Norse. Warton was not blind to the beauties of +Gray's poems, nor did he fail to appreciate the merits of the literature +which they illustrated. His scheme relegated his remarks concerning that +poetry to the introductory dissertation, "Of the Origin of Romantic +Fiction in Europe." What he had to say was in support of a theory which +is not accepted to-day, and of course his statements concerning the +origin of the Scandinavian + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_15'></a>( 15 )</span> + +people were as wrong as those that we found +in Mallet and Temple. But with all his misinformation, Warton managed to +get at many truths about Icelandic poetry, and his presentation of them +was fresh and stimulating. Already the Old Norse mythology was well +known, even down to Valhalla and the mistletoe. Old Norse poetry was +well enough known to call forth this remark:</p> + +<p>"They (the 'Runic' odes) have a certain sublime and figurative cast of +diction, which is indeed one of their predominant characteristics.... +When obvious terms and phrases evidently occurred, the Runic poets are +fond of departing from the common and established diction. They appear +to use circumlocution and comparisons not as a matter of necessity, but +of choice and skill: nor are these metaphorical colourings so much the +result of want of words, as of warmth of fancy." The note gives these +examples: "Thus, a rainbow is called, the bridge of the gods. Poetry, +the mead of Odin. The earth, the vessel that floats on ages. A ship, the +horse of the waves. A tongue, the sword of words. Night, the veil of +cares."</p> + +<p>A study of the notes to Warton's dissertation reveals the fact that he +had made use of the books already mentioned in the list on a previous +page, and of no others that are significant. But such excellent use was +made of them, that it would seem as if nothing was left in them that +could be made valuable for spreading a knowledge of and an enthusiasm +for Icelandic literature. When it is remembered that Warton's purpose +was to prove the Saracenic origin of romantic fiction in Europe, through +the Moors in Spain, and that Icelandic literature was mentioned only to +account for a certain un-Arabian tinge in that romantic fiction, the +wonder grows that so full and fresh a presentation of Old Norse poetry +should have been made. He puts such passages as these into his +illustrative notes: "Tell my mother Suanhita in Denmark, that she will +not this summer comb the hair of her son. I had promised her to return, +but now my side shall feel the edge of the sword." There is an +appreciation of the poetic here, that makes us feel that Warton was not +an unworthy wearer of the laurel. He insists that the Saxon poetry was +powerfully affected by "the old scaldic fables and heroes," and gives in +the text a translation of the "Battle of Brunenburgh" to prove his +case. + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_16'></a>( 16 )</span> + +He admires "the scaldic dialogue at the tomb of Angantyr," but +wrongly attributes a beautiful translation of it to Gray. He quotes at +length from "a noble ode, called in the northern chronicles the Elogium +of Hacon, by the scald Eyvynd; who, for his superior skill in poetry was +called the Cross of Poets (Eyvindr Skálldaspillir), and fought in the +battle which he celebrated."</p> + +<p>He knows how Iceland touched England, as this passage will show: "That +the Icelandic bards were common in England during the Danish invasions, +there are numerous proofs. Egill, a celebrated Icelandic poet, having +murthered the son and many of the friends of Eric Blodaxe, king of +Denmark or Norway, then residing in Northumberland, and which he had +just conquered, procured a pardon by singing before the king, at the +command of his queen Gunhilde, an extemporaneous ode. Egill compliments +the king, who probably was his patron, with the appellation of the +English chief. 'I offer my freight to the king. I owe a poem for my +ransom. I present to the ENGLISH CHIEF the mead of Odin.' Afterwards he +calls this Danish conqueror the commander of the Scottish fleet. 'The +commander of the Scottish fleet fattened the ravenous birds. The sister +of Nera (Death) trampled on the foe: she trampled on the evening food of +the eagle.'"</p> + +<p>So wide a knowledge and so keen an appreciation of Old Norse in a +Warton, whose interest was chiefly elsewhere, argues for a spreading +popularity of the ancient literature. Thus far, only Gray has made +living English literature out of these old stories, and he only two +short poems. There were other attempts to achieve poetic success with +this foreign material, but a hundred exacting years have covered them +with oblivion.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='DRAKE_MATHIAS'></a><h3>DRAKE (1766-1836). MATHIAS (1754-1835).</h3> + +<p>In the second decade of the nineteenth century, Nathan Drake, M.D., made +a strong effort to popularize Norse mythology and literature. The fourth +edition of his work entitled <i>Literary Hours</i> (London, 1820) +contains +<a name='FNanchor_11_11'></a><a href='#Footnote_11_11'><sup>[11]</sup></a> +an appreciative article on the subject, the fullness of +which is indicated in these words from p. 309:</p> + +<p>"The most striking and characteristic parts of the Scandinavian + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_17'></a> ( 17 )</span> + +mythology, together with no inconsiderable portion of the manners and +customs of our northern ancestors, have now passed before the reader; +their theology, warfare, and poetry, their gallantry, religious rites, +and superstitions, have been separately, and, I trust, distinctly +reviewed."</p> +<br /> + +<p>The essay is written in an easy style that doubtless gained for it many +readers. All the available knowledge of the subject was used, and a +clearer view of it was presented than had been obtainable in Percy's +"Mallet." The author was a thoughtful man, able to detect errors in +Warton and Percy, but his zeal in his enterprise led him to praise +versifiers inordinately that had used the "Gothic fables." He quotes +liberally from writers whose books are not to be had in this country, +and certainly the uninspired verses merit the neglect that this fact +indicates. He calls Sayers' pen "masterly" that wrote these lines:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Coucher of the ponderous spear,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Thou shout'st amid the battle's stound—<br /></span> +<span>The armed Sisters hear,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Viewless hurrying o'er the ground<br /></span> +<span>They strike the destin'd chiefs and call them to the skies.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 168.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>From Penrose he quotes such lines as these:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i2'>The feast begins, the skull goes round,<br /></span> +<span>Laughter shouts—the shouts resound.<br /></span> +<span>The gust of war subsides—E'en now<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>The grim chief curls his cheek, and smooths his rugged brow.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 171.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>From Sterling comes this imitation of Gray:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Now the rage of combat burns,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Haughty chiefs on chiefs lie slain;<br /></span> +<span>The battle glows and sinks by turns,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Death and carnage load the plain.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P 172.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>From these extracts, it appears that the poets who imitated Gray +considered that only "dreadful songs," like his, were to be found in +Scandinavian poetry.</p> + +<p>Downman, Herbert and Mathias are also adduced by Dr. Drake as examples +of poets who have gained much by Old Norse borrowings, but these +borrowings are invariably scenes from a + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_18'></a>( 18 )</span> + +chamber of horrors. It occurs +to me that perhaps Dr. Drake had begun to tire of the spiritless echoes +of the classical schools, and that he fondly hoped that such shrieks and +groans as those he admired in this essay would satisfy his cravings for +better things in poetry. But the critic had no adequate knowledge of the +way in which genius works. His one desire in these studies of +Scandinavian mythology was "to recommend it to the votaries of the Muse, +as a machinery admirably constructed for their purpose" (p. 158). He +hopes for "a more extensive adoption of the Scandinavian mythology, +especially in our <i>epic</i> and <i>lyric</i> compositions" (p. 311). We smile at +the notion, to-day, but that very conception of poetry as "machinery" is +characteristic of a whole century of our English literature.</p> + +<p>The Mathias mentioned by Drake is Thomas James Mathias, whose book, +<i>Odes Chiefly from the Norse Tongue</i> (London, 1781), received the +distinction of an American reprint (New York, 1806). Bartholinus +furnishes the material and Gray the spirit for these pieces.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='COTTLE_HERBERT'></a><h3>AMOS S. COTTLE(1768-1800). WILLIAM HERBERT (1778-1847).</h3> + +<p>In this period belong two works of translation that mark the approach of +the time when Old Norse prose and poetry were to be read in the +original. As literature they are of little value, and they had but +slight influence on succeeding writers.</p> + +<p>At Bristol, in 1797, was published <i>Icelandic Poetry, or, The Edda of +Saemund translated into English Verse</i>, by A.S. Cottle of Magdalen +College, Cambridge. This work has an Introduction containing nothing +worth discussing here, and an "Epistle" to A.S. Cottle from Robert +Southey. The laureate, in good blank verse, discourses on the Old Norse +heroes whom he happens to know about. They are the old favorites, Regner +Lodbrog and his sons; in Southey's poem the foeman's skull is, as usual, +the drinking cup. It was certainly time for new actors and new +properties to appear in English versions of Scandinavian stories.</p> + +<p>The translations are twelve in number, and evince an intelligent and +facile versifier. When all is said, these old songs could contribute to +the pleasure of very few. Only a student of history, + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_19'></a>( 19 )</span> + +or a poet, or an +antiquarian, would dwell with loving interest on the lays of +Vafthrudnis, Grimner, Skirner and Hymer (as Cottle spells them). +Besides, they are difficult to read, and must be abundantly annotated to +make them comprehensible. In such works as this of Cottle, a Scott might +find wherewith to lend color to a story or a poem, but the common man +would borrow Walpole's words, used in characterizing Gray's "Odes": +"They are not interesting, and do not ... touch any passion; our human +feelings ... are not here affected. Who can care through what horrors a +Runic savage arrived at all the joys and glories they could +conceive—the supreme felicity of boozing ale out of the skull of an +enemy in Odin's hall?" +<a name='FNanchor_12_12'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_12'><sup>[12]</sup></a></p> + +<p>In 1804 a book was published bearing this title-page: <i>Select Icelandic +Poetry, translated from the originals: with notes</i>. The preface was +signed by the author, William Herbert. The pieces are from Sæmund, +Bartholinus, Verelius, and Perinskjöld's edition of <i>Heimskringla</i>, and +were all translated with the assistance of the Latin versions. The notes +are explanatory of the allusions and the hiatuses in the poems. +Reference is made to MSS. of the Norse pieces existing in museums and +libraries, which the author had consulted. Thus we see scholarship +beginning to extend investigations. As for the verses themselves not +much need be said. They are not so good as Cottle's, although they +received a notice from Scott in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>. The thing to +notice about the work is that it pretends to come direct from Old Norse, +not, as most of the work dealt with so far, <i>via</i> Latin.</p> + +<p>Icelandic poetry is more difficult to read than Icelandic prose, and so +it seems strange that the former should have been attacked first by +English scholars. Yet so it was, and until 1844 our English literature +had no other inspiration in old Norse writings than the rude and rugged +songs that first lent their lilt to Gray. The <i>human</i> North is in the +sagas, and when they were revealed to our people, Icelandic literature +began to mean something more than Valhalla and the mead-bouts there. The +scene was changed to earth, and the gods gave place to nobler actors, +men and women. The action was lifted to the eminence of a world-drama. +But before the change came Sir Walter Scott, and it is + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_20'></a>( 20 )</span> + +fitting that the +first period of Norse influence in English literature should close, as +it began, with a great master.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='WALTER_SCOTT'></a><h3>SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832).</h3> + +<p>In 1792, Walter Scott was twenty-one years old, and one of his +note-books of that year contains this entry: "Vegtam's Kvitha or The +Descent of Odin, with the Latin of Thomas Bartholine, and the English +poetical version of Mr. Gray; with some account of the Death of Balder, +both as related in the Edda, and as handed down to us by the Northern +historians—<i>Auctore Gualtero Scott</i>." According to Lockhart, +<a name='FNanchor_13_13'></a><a href='#Footnote_13_13'><sup>[13]</sup></a> +the Icelandic, Latin and English versions were here transcribed, and the +historical account that followed—seven closely written quarto +pages—was read before a debating society.</p> + +<p>It was to be expected that one so enthusiastic about antiquities as +Scott would early discover the treasury of Norse history and song. At +twenty-one, as we see, he is transcribing a song in a language he knew +nothing about, as well as in translations. Fourteen years later, he has +learned enough about the subject to write a review of Herbert's <i>Poems +and Translations</i>. +<a name='FNanchor_14_14'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_14'><sup>[14]</sup></a></p> + +<p>In 1813, he writes an account of the <i>Eyrbyggja Saga</i> for <i>Illustrations +of Northern Antiquities</i> (edited by Robert Jameson, Edinburgh, 1814).</p> + +<p>There are two of Scott's contributions to literature that possess more +than a mere tinge of Old Norse knowledge, namely, the long poem "Harold, +the Dauntless" (published in 1817), and the long story "The Pirate" +(published in 1821). The poem is weak, but it illustrates Scott's theory +of the usefulness of poetical antiquities to the modern poet. In another +connection Scott said: "In the rude song of the Scald, we regard less +the strained imagery and extravagance of epithet, than the wild +impressions which it conveys of the dauntless resolution, savage +superstition, rude festivity and ceaseless depredations of the ancient +Scandinavians." +<a name='FNanchor_15_15'></a><a href='#Footnote_15_15'><sup>[15]</sup></a> +The poet did his work in accordance with this +theory, and so in "Harold, the Dauntless," we note no flavor of + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_21'></a>( 21 )</span> + +the older poetry in phrase or in method. Harold is fierce enough and grim +enough to measure up to the old ideal of a Norse hero.</p> + +<p>"I was rocked in a buckler and fed from a blade," is his boast before +his newly christened father, and in his apostrophe to his grandsire +Eric, the popular notion of early Norse antiquarianism is again +exhibited:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>In wild Valhalla hast thou quaffed<br /></span> +<span>From foeman's skull metheglin draught?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Scott's scholarship in Old Norse was largely derived from the Latin +tomes, and such conceptions as those quoted are therefore common in his +poem. That the poet realized the inadequacy of such knowledge, the +review of Herbert's poetry, published in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> for +October, 1806, shows. In this article he has a vision of what shall be +when men shall be able "to trace the Runic rhyme" itself.</p> + +<p>"The Pirate," exhibited the Wizard's skill in weaving the old and the +new together, the old being the traditions of the Shetlands, full of the +ancestral beliefs in Old Norse things, the new being the life in those +islands in a recent century. This is a stirring story, that comes into +our consideration because of its Scandinavian antiquities. Again we find +the Latin treasuries of Bartholinus, Torfæus, Perinskjöld and Olaus +Magnus in evidence, though here, too, mention is made of "Haco," and +Tryggvason and "Harfager." With a background of island scenery, with +which Scott became familiar during a light-house inspector's voyage made +in 1814, this story is a picture full of vivid colors and characters. In +Norna of the Fitful Head, he has created a mysterious personage in whose +mouth "Runic rhymes" are the only proper speech. She stills the tempest +with them, and "The Song of the Tempest" is a strong apostrophe, though +it is neither Runic nor rhymed. She preludes her life-story with verses +that are rhymed but not Runic, and she sings incantations in the same +wise. This <i>Reimkennar</i> is an echo of the <i>Völuspá</i>, and is the only +kind of Norse woman that the time of Scott could imagine. Claud Halcro, +the poet, is fond of rhyming the only kind of Norseman known to his +time, and in his "Song of Harold Harfager" we hear the echoes of Gray's +odes. Scott's reading was wide in all ancient lore, and he never missed +a chance to introduce an odd + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_22'></a>( 22 )</span> + +custom if it would make an interesting +scene in his story. So here we have the "Sword Dance" (celebrated by +Olaus Magnus, though I have never read of it in Old Norse), the +"Questioning of the Sibyl" (like that in Gray's "Descent of Odin"), the +"Capture and Sharing of the Whale," and the "Promise of Odin." In most +of the natives there are turns of speech that recall the Norse ancestry +of the Shetlanders.</p> + +<p>In Scott, then, we see the lengthening out of the influence of the +antiquarians who wrote of a dead past in a dead language. The time was +at hand when that past was to live again, painted in the living words of +living men.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_23'></a>( 23 )</span> + +<a name='III'></a><h2>III.</h2> + +<h2>FROM THE SOURCES THEMSELVES.</h2> +<br /> + +<p>In the preceding section we noted the achievements of English +scholarship and genius working under great disadvantages. Gray and Scott +may have had a smattering of Icelandic, but Latin translations were +necessary to reveal the meaning of what few Old Norse texts were +available to them. This paucity of material, more than the ignorance of +the language, was responsible for the slow progress in popularizing the +remarkable literature of the North. Scaldic and Eddie poems comprised +all that was known to English readers of that literature, and in them +the superhuman rather than the human elements were predominant.</p> + +<p>We have come now to a time when the field of our view broadens to +include not only more and different material, but more and different +men. The sagas were annexed to the old songs, and the body of literature +to attract attention was thus increased a thousand fold. The +antiquarians were supplanted by scholars who, although passionately +devoted to the study of the past, were still vitally interested in the +affairs of the time in which they lived. The second and greatest stage +of the development of Old Norse influence in England has a mark of +distinction that belongs to few literary epochs. The men who made it +lived lives that were as heroic in devotion to duty and principle as +many of those written down in the sagas themselves. I have sometimes +wondered whether it is merely accidental that English saga scholars were +so often men of high soul and strong action. Certain it is that Richard +Cleasby, and Samuel Laing, and George Webbe Dasent, and Robert Lowe are +types of men that the Icelanders would have celebrated, as having "left +a tale to tell" in their full and active lives. And no less certain is +it that Thomas Carlyle, and Matthew Arnold, and William Morris, and +Charles Kingsley, and Gerald Massey labored for a better manhood that +should rise to the stature and reflect the virtues of the heroes of the +Northland.</p><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_24'></a>( 24 )</span> +<a name='RICHARD_CLEASBY'></a><h3>RICHARD CLEASBY (1797-1847).</h3> + +<p>In the forties of the nineteenth century several minds began to work, +independently of one another, in this wider field of Icelandic +literature. Richard Cleasby (1797-1847), an English merchant's son with +scholarly instincts, began the study of the sagas, but made slight +progress because of what he called an "unaccountable and most scandalous +blank," the want of a dictionary. This was in 1840, and for the next +seven years he labored to fill up that blank. The record +<a name='FNanchor_16_16'></a><a href='#Footnote_16_16'><sup>[16]</sup></a> +of those years is a wonderful witness to the heroism and spirit of the scholar, +and justifies Sir George Dasent's characterization of Cleasby as "one of +the most indefatigable students that ever lived." The work thus begun +was not completed until many years afterward (it is dated 1874), and, by +untoward circumstances, very little of it is Richard Cleasby's. But +generous scholarship acknowledged its debt to the man who gave his +strength and his wealth to the work, by placing his name on the +title-page. No less shall we fail to honor his memory by mentioning his +labors here. Although the dictionary was not completed in the decade of +its inception, the study that it was designed to promote took hold on a +number of men and the results were remarkable for both literature and +scholarship.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='THOMAS_CARLYLE'></a><h3>THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881).</h3> + +<p>First in order of time was the work of Thomas Carlyle. It will not seem +strange to the student of English literature to find that this writer +came under the influence of the old skalds and sagaman and spoke +appreciative words concerning them. His German studies had to take +cognizance of the Old Norse treasuries of poetry, and he became a +diligent reader of Icelandic literature in what translations he could +get at, German and English. The strongest utterance on the subject that +he left behind him is in "Lecture I" of the series "On Heroes, +Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History," dated May, 1840. This is a +treatment of Scandinavian mythology, rugged and thorough, like all of +this man's work. Carlyle evinces a scholar's instinct in + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_25'></a>( 25 )</span> + +more than one +place, as, for instance, when he doubts the <i>grandmother</i> etymology of +<i>Edda</i>, an etymology repeated until a much later day by scholars of a +less sure sense. +<a name='FNanchor_17_17'></a><a href='#Footnote_17_17'><sup>[17]</sup></a> +But this lecture "On Heroes" is also a +glorification of the literature with which we are dealing, and in this +regard it is worthy of special note here.</p> + +<p>In the first place, Carlyle with true critical instinct caught the +essence of it; to him it seemed to have "a rude childlike way of +recognizing the divineness of Nature, the divineness of Man." For him +Scandinavian mythology was superior in sincerity to the Grecian, though +it lacked the grace of the latter. "Sincerity, I think, is better than +grace. I feel that these old Northmen were looking into Nature with open +eye and soul: most earnest, honest; childlike, and yet manlike; with a +great-hearted simplicity and depth and freshness, in a true, loving, +admiring, unfearing way. A right valiant, true old race of men." This is +a truer appreciation than Gray and Walpole had, eighty years before. In +the second place, Carlyle was not misled into thinking that valor in war +was the only characteristic of the rude Norseman, and skill in drinking +his only household virtue. "Beautiful traits of pity, too, and honest +pity." Then he tells of Baldur and Nanna, in his rugged prose account +anticipating Matthew Arnold. Other qualities of the literature appeal to +him. "I like much their robust simplicity; their veracity, directness of +conception. Thor 'draws down his brows' in a veritable Norse rage; +'grasps his hammer till the <i>knuckles grow white</i>." Again; "A great +broad Brobdignag grin of true humor is this Skrymir; mirth resting on +earnestness and sadness, as the rainbow on the black tempest: only a +right valiant heart is capable of that." Still again: "This law of +mutation, which also is a law written in man's inmost thought, has been +deciphered by these old earnest Thinkers in their rude style."</p> + +<p>Thomas Carlyle, seeking to explain the worship of a pagan divinity, +chose Odin as the noblest example of such a hero. The picture of Odin he +drew from the prose Edda, mainly, and his + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_26'></a>( 26 )</span> + +purpose required that he +paint the picture in the most attractive colors. So it happened that our +English literature got its first <i>complete</i> view of Old Norse ethics and +art. The memory of Gray's "dreadful songs" had ruled for almost a +century, and ordinary readers might be pardoned for thinking that Old +Norse literature, like Old Norse history, was written in blood. We have +seen that Gray's imitators perpetuated the old idea, and that even Scott +sanctioned it, and now we see England's emancipation from it. The grouty +old Scotchman of Craigenputtoch knew no more Icelandic than most of his +fellow countrymen (be it noted that he said: "From the Humber upwards, +all over Scotland, the speech of the common people is still in a +singular degree Icelandic, its Germanism has still a peculiar Norse +tinge"); but he saw far more deeply into the heart of Icelandic +literature than anybody before him. His emphasis of its many sidedness, +of its sincerity, its humanity, its simplicity, its directness, its +humor and its wisdom, was the signal for a change in the popular +estimation of its worth to our modern art. Since his day we have had +Morris and Arnold and a host of minor singers, and the nineteenth +century revival of interest in Old Norse literature.</p> + +<p>The other work by Carlyle dealing directly with Old Norse material is +<i>The Early Kings of Norway</i>. Here he digests <i>Heimskringla</i>, which was +obtainable through Laing's translation, in a way to stir the blood. The +story, as he tells it, is breathlessly interesting, and it is a pity +that readers of Carlyle so often stop short of this work. As in the +<i>Hero-Worship</i>, he shows this Teutonic bias, and the religious training +that minified Greek literature.</p> + +<p>Snorri's work elicits from him repeated applause. Here, for instance, in +Chap. X: "It has, all of it, the description (and we see clearly the +fact itself had), a kind of pathetic grandeur, simplicity, and rude +nobleness; something Epic or Homeric, without the metre or the singing +of Homer, but with all the sincerity, rugged truth to nature, and much +more of piety, devoutness, reverence for what is ever high in this +universe, than meets us in those old Greek Ballad-mongers."</p><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_27'></a>( 27 )</span> + +<a name='SAMUEL_LAING'></a><h3>SAMUEL LAING (1780-1868).</h3> + +<p>It was the work of Samuel Laing that gave Carlyle the material for this +last-mentioned book. +<a name='FNanchor_18_18'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_18'><sup>[18]</sup></a> +Laing's translation of <i>Heimskringla</i> bears the +date 1844, and although Mr. Dasent's quaint version of the <i>Prose Edda</i> +preceded it by two years, <i>The Sagas of the Norse Kings</i> was the +"epoch-making" book. It is true that a later version has superseded it +in literary and scholarly finish, but Laing's work was a pioneer of +sterling intrinsic value, and many there be that do it homage still. +Laing had the laudable ambition—so seldom found in these days—"to give +a plain, faithful translation into English of the <i>Heimskringla</i>, +unencumbered with antiquarian research, and suited to the plain English +reader." +<a name='FNanchor_19_19'></a><a href='#Footnote_19_19'><sup>[19]</sup></a> +With this work, then, Icelandic lore passes out of the +hands of the antiquarian into the hands of common readers. It matters +little that the audience is even still fit and few; from this time on he +that runs may read.</p> + +<p>For our purpose it will not be necessary to characterize the +translation. Laing commanded an excellent style, and he was enthusiastic +over his work. Indeed, the commonest criticism passed on the +"Preliminary Dissertation" was that the author's zeal had run away with +his good sense. Be that as it may, Laing called the attention of his +readers to the neglect of a literature and a history which should be +England's pride, as Anglo-Saxon literature and history even then were. +The reviews of the time made it appear as if another Battle of the Books +were impending—Anglo-Saxon versus Icelandic; a writer in the <i>English +Review</i> (Vol. 82, p. 316), pro-Saxon in his zeal, admitting at last that +"of none of the children of the Norse, whether Goth or Frank, Saxon or +Scandinavian, have the others any reason to be ashamed. All have earned +the gratitude and admiration of the world, and their combined or +successive efforts have made England and Europe what they are."</p> + +<p>It is refreshing to come upon new views of Old Norse character, that +recognize "amidst anarchy and bloodshed, redeeming features of +kindliness and better feeling which tell of the + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_28'></a>( 28 )</span> + +mingled principles that +war within our nature for the mastery." Laing's translation accomplished +this for English readers, and with the years came a deeper knowledge +that showed those touches of tenderness and traits of beauty which, even +in 1844, were not perceptible to those readers.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='LONGFELLOW_LOWELL'></a><h3>HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882).</h3> + +<h3>JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891).</h3> + +<p><i>The Story of the Norse Kings</i>, thus translated by an Englishman, +suggested to our American poet, Longfellow, a series of lyrics on King +Olaf. The young college professor that wrote about <i>Frithjof's Saga</i> in +the <i>North American Review</i> for 1837, was bound, sooner or later, to +come back to the field when he found that the American reading public +would listen to whatever songs he sang to them. Before 1850, Longfellow +had written "The Challenge of Thor," a poem which imitated the form of +Icelandic verse and catches much of its spirit. In 1859, the thought +came to him "that a very good poem might be written on the Saga of King +Olaf, who converted the North to Christianity." Two years later he +completed the lyrics that compose "The Musician's Tale" in <i>The Tales of +a Wayside Inn</i>, published in 1863, and in this work "The Challenge of +Thor" serves as a prelude. The pieces after this prelude are not +imitations of the Icelandic verse, but are like Tegner's <i>Frithjof's +Saga</i>, in that each new portion has a meter of its own. There is not, +either, a consistent effort to put the flavor of the North into the +poetry, so that, properly speaking, we have here only the retelling of +an old tale. The ballad fervor and movement are often perceptible, +though nowhere does the poet strike the ringing note of "The Skeleton in +Armor," published in the volume of 1841.</p> + +<p>Truth to tell, Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf" is not a remarkable +work. One who reads the few chapters in Carlyle's <i>Early Kings of +Norway</i> that deal with Olaf Tryggvason gets more of the fire and spirit +of the old saga at every turning. The poet chooses scenes and incidents +very skilfully, but for their proper presentation a terseness is +necessary that is not reconcilable with frequent rhymes. Compare the +saga account with the poem's: "What is this that has broken?" asked King +Olaf. "Norway from thy hand, King," answered Tamberskelver.</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_29'></a>( 29 )</span><div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"What was that?" said Olaf, standing<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>On the quarter deck.<br /></span> +<span>"Something heard I like the stranding<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Of a shattered wreck."<br /></span> +<span>Einar then, the arrow taking<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>From the loosened string,<br /></span> +<span>Answered, "That was Norway breaking<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>From thy hand, O King!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nevertheless, Longfellow is to be thanked for acquainting a wide circle +of readers with the sterling saga literature.</p> + +<p>One other American poet was busy with the ancient Northern literature at +this time. James Russell Lowell wrote one notable poem that is Old Norse +in subject and spirit, "The Voyage to Vinland." The third part of the +poem, "Gudrida's Prophecy," hints at Icelandic versification, and the +short lines are hammer-strokes that warm the reader to enthusiasm. Far +more of the spirit of the old literature is in this short poem than is +to be found in the whole of Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf." The +character of Biörn is well drawn, recalling Bodli, of Morris' poem, in +its principal features. Certainly there is a reflection here of that Old +Norse conception of life which gave to men's deeds their due reward, and +which exalted the power of will. This poem was begun in 1850, but was +not published till 1868.</p> + +<p>In Lowell's poems are to be found many figures and allusions pointing to +his familiarity with Icelandic song and story. At the end of the third +strophe of the "Commemoration Ode," for instance, Truth is pictured as +Brynhild,</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i5'>plumed and mailed,<br /></span> +<span>With sweet, stern face unveiled.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In these borrowings of themes and allusions, Lowell is at one with most +of the poets of the present day. It used to be the fashion, and is +still, for tables of contents in volumes of verse to show titles like +these: "Prometheus"; "Iliad VIII, 542-561"; "Alectryon." Present-day +volumes are becoming more and more besprinkled with titles like these: +"Balder the Beautiful"; "The Death of Arnkel," etc. In this fact alone +is seen the turn of the tide. Heroes and heroines in dramas and novels +are beginning to bear Old Norse names, even where the setting is not +northern; witness Sidney Dobell's <i>Balder</i>, where not even a single +allusion is made to Icelandic matters.</p><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_30'></a>( 30 )</span> + +<a name='MATTHEW_ARNOLD'></a><h3>MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888).</h3> + +<p>Matthew Arnold's strong sympathy with noble and virile literature of +whatever age or nation led him in time to Old Norse, and his poem +"Balder Dead" is of distinct importance among the works of the +nineteenth century in English literature. It is an addition of permanent +value to our poetry, because of its marked originality and its high +ethical tone. "Mallet, and his version of the Edda, is all the poem is +based upon," says Arnold. +<a name='FNanchor_20_20'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_20'><sup>[20]</sup></a> +It is the poet's divinely implanted +instinct that gathers from the few chapters of an old book a knowledge +wonderfully full and deep of the cosmogony and eschatology of the +northern nations of Europe. "Balder Dead" tells the familiar story of +the whitest of the gods, but it also contains the essence of Old +Icelandic religion; indeed there is no single short work in our language +which gives a tithe of the information about the North, its spirit, and +its philosophy, which this poem of Matthew Arnold's sets forth. In +future days a text-book of original English poems will be in the hands +of our boys and girls which will enable them to get, through the medium +of their own language, the message and the spirit of foreign literature. +Old Norse song will need no other representative than Matthew Arnold's +"Balder Dead."</p> + +<p>This is an original poem. It does not imitate the verse nor the word of +the older song, but the flavor of it is here. Gray and his imitators +drew from the Icelandic fountain "dreadful songs" and many poets since +have heard no milder note. Matthew Arnold's instincts were for peace and +the arts of peace, and he found in Balder a type for the ennobling of +our own century. Balder says to his brother who has come to lament that +Lok's machinations will keep the best beloved of the gods in Niflheim:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>For I am long since weary of your storm<br /></span> +<span>Of carnage, and find, Hermod, in your life<br /></span> +<span>Something too much of war and broils, which make<br /></span> +<span>Life one perpetual fight, a bath of blood.<br /></span> +<span>Mine eyes are dizzy with the arrowy hail;<br /></span> +<span>Mine ears are stunn'd with blows, and sick for calm.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Arnold has exalted the Revelator of the Northern mythology, and in +magnificent poetry sets forth his apocalyptic vision:</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_31'></a>( 31 )</span> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Unarm'd, inglorious; I attend the course<br /></span> +<span>Of ages, and my late return to light,<br /></span> +<span>In times less alien to a spirit mild,<br /></span> +<span>In new-recover'd seats, the happier day.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>Far to the south, beyond the blue, there spreads<br /></span> +<span>Another Heaven, the boundless—no one yet<br /></span> +<span>Hath reach'd it; there hereafter shall arise<br /></span> +<span>The second Asgard, with another name.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>There re-assembling we shall see emerge<br /></span> +<span>From the bright Ocean at our feet an earth<br /></span> +<span>More fresh, more verdant than the last, with fruits<br /></span> +<span>Self-springing, and a seed of man preserved,<br /></span> +<span>Who then shall live in peace, as now in war.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here is the grandest message that the Old Norse religion had to give, +and Matthew Arnold concerned himself with that alone. It is a far cry +from Regner Lodbrog to this. There is a fine touch in the introduction +of Regner into the lamentation of Balder. Arnold makes the old warrior +say of the ruder skalds:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>But they harp ever on one string, and wake<br /></span> +<span>Remembrance in our souls of war alone,<br /></span> +<span>Such as on earth we valiantly have waged,<br /></span> +<span>And blood, and ringing blows, and violent death.<br /></span> +<span>But when thou sangest, Balder, thou didst strike<br /></span> +<span>Another note, and, like a bird in spring,<br /></span> +<span>Thy voice of joyance minded us, and youth,<br /></span> +<span>And wife, and children, and our ancient home.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here is a human Norseman, a figure not often presented in the versions +of the old stories that English poets and romancers have given us. +Arnold did a good service to Icelandic literature when he put into +Regner's mouth mild sentiments and a love for home and family. The note +is not lacking in the ancient literature, but it took Englishmen three +centuries to find it. It was the scholar, Matthew Arnold, who first +repeated the gentler strain in the rude music of the North, as it was +the scholar, Thomas Gray, who first echoed the "dreadful songs" of that +old psalmody. Gray has all the culture of his age, when it was still +possible to compass all knowledge in one lifetime; Arnold had all the +literary culture of his fuller century when multiplied sciences force + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_32'></a>( 32 )</span> + +a scholar to be content with one segment of human knowledge. The former +had music and architecture and other sciences among his accomplishments; +the latter spread out in literature, as "Sohrab and Rustum," "Empedocles +on Etna," "Tristram and Iseult," as well as "Balder Dead" attest. The +quatrain prefixed to the volume containing the narrative and elegiac +poems be-tokens what joy Arnold had in his literary work, and indicates +why these poems cannot fail to live:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>What poets feel not, when they make,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>A pleasure in creating,<br /></span> +<span>The world in its turn will not take<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Pleasure in contemplating.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Balder is the creation of Old Norse poetry that is most popular with +contemporary English writers, and Matthew Arnold first made him so. As +Bugge points out, no deed of his is "celebrated in song or story. His +personality only is described; of his activity in life almost no +external trait is recorded. All the stress is laid upon his death; and, +like Christ, Baldr dies in his youth." +<a name='FNanchor_21_21'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_21'><sup>[21]</sup></a></p> +<br /> + +<a name='GEORGE_DASENT'></a><h3>SIR GEORGE WEBBE DASENT (1820-1896).</h3> + +<p>Among the scholars who have labored to give England the benefit of a +fuller and truer knowledge of Norse matters, none will be remembered +more gratefully than Sir George Webbe Dasent. Known to the reading +public most widely by his translations of the folk-tales of Asbjörnsen +and Moe, he has still a claim upon the attention of the students of +Icelandic. As we have seen, he gave out a translation of the <i>Younger +Edda</i> in 1842, and during the half century and more that followed he +wrote other works of history and literature connected with our subject. +Two saga translations were published in 1861 and 1866, <i>The Story of +Burnt Njal</i>, and <i>The Story of Gisli the Outlaw</i>, which will always rank +high in this class of literature. <i>Njala</i> especially is an excellent +piece of work, a classic among translations. The "Prolegomena" is rich +in information, and very little of it has been superseded by later +scholarship. In 1887 and 1894 he translated for the Master of the Rolls, +<i>The Orkney Saga</i> and <i>The Saga of Hakon</i>, the texts of which Vigfusson +had printed in the same series some years before. The interest + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_33'></a>( 33 )</span> + +of the government in Icelandic annals connected with English history is +indicated in these last publications, and England is fortunate to have +had such enthusiastic scholars as Vigfusson and Dasent to do the work. +These men had been collaborators on the Cleasby Dictionary, and in this +work as in all others Dasent displayed an eagerness to have his +countrymen know how significant England's relationship to Iceland was. +He was as certain as Laing had been before him of the preeminence of +this literature among the mediæval writings. Like Laing, too, he would +have the general reader turn to this body of work "which for its beauty +and richness is worthy of being known to the greatest possible number of +readers." +<a name='FNanchor_22_22'></a><a href='#Footnote_22_22'><sup>[22]</sup></a></p> + +<p>To mark the progress away from the old conception of unmitigated +brutality these words of Dasent stand here: +<a name='FNanchor_23_23'></a><a href='#Footnote_23_23'><sup>[23]</sup></a> +"The faults of these +Norsemen were the faults of their time; their virtues they possessed in +larger measure than the rest of their age, and thus when Christianity +had tamed their fury, they became the torch-bearers of civilization; and +though the plowshare of Destiny, when it planted them in Europe, +uprooted along its furrow many a pretty flower of feeling in the lands +which felt the fury of these Northern conquerers, their energy and +endurance gave a lasting temper to the West, and more especially to +England, which will wear so long as the world wears, and at the same +time implanted principles of freedom which shall never be rooted out. +Such results are a compensation for many bygone sorrows."</p> +<br /> + +<a name='CHARLES_KINGSLEY'></a><h3>CHARLES KINGSLEY (1819-1875).</h3> + +<p>In 1874, Charles Kingsley visited America and delivered some lectures. +Among these was one entitled "The First Discovery of America." This +interests us here because it displays an appreciation, if not a deep +knowledge, of Icelandic literature. In it the lecturer commended to +Longfellow's attention a ballad sung in the Faroes, begging him to +translate it some day, "as none but he can translate it." "It is so sad, +that no tenderness less exquisite than his can prevent its being +painful; and at least in its <i>denouement</i>, so naive, that no purity less +exquisite than his can + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_34'></a>( 34 )</span> + +prevent its being dreadful." +<a name='FNanchor_24_24'></a><a href='#Footnote_24_24'><sup>[24]</sup></a> +Later in the +lecture he commends to his hearers the <i>Heimskringla</i> of Snorri +Sturluson, the "Homer of the North." +<a name='FNanchor_25_25'></a><a href='#Footnote_25_25'><sup>[25]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Speaking of the elements that mingled to produce the British character, +Kingsley says: "In manners as well as in religion, the Norse were +humanized and civilized by their contact with the Celts, both in +Scotland and in Ireland. Both peoples had valor, intellect, imagination: +but the Celt had that which the burly, angular Norse character, however +deep and stately, and however humorous, wanted; namely, music of nature, +tenderness, grace, rapidity, playfulness; just the qualities, combining +with the Scandinavian (and in Scotland with the Angle) elements of +character which have produced, in Ireland and in Scotland, two schools +of lyric poetry second to none in the world." +<a name='FNanchor_26_26'></a><a href='#Footnote_26_26'><sup>[26]</sup></a> +Over the page, +Kingsley has this to say: "For they were a sad people, those old Norse +forefathers of ours." +<a name='FNanchor_27_27'></a><a href='#Footnote_27_27'><sup>[27]</sup></a> +Humorous and sad are not inconsistent words in +these sentences; the Norseman had a sense of the ludicrous, and could +jest grimly in the face of death. Of the sadness of his life, no one +needs to be told who has read a saga or two. Kingsley says: "There is, +in the old sagas, none of that enjoyment of life which shines out +everywhere in Greek poetry, even through its deepest tragedies. Not in +complacency with Nature's beauty, but in the fierce struggle with her +wrath, does the Norseman feel pleasure." +<a name='FNanchor_28_28'></a><a href='#Footnote_28_28'><sup>[28]</sup></a></p> + +<p>This lecture shows a deeper acquaintance with Old Norse literature than +Kingsley was willing to acknowledge. Not only are the stories well +chosen which he uses throughout, but the intuitions are sound, and the +inferences based upon them. He anticipated the work of this +investigation in the last words of the address. He has been telling the +fine story of Thormod at Sticklestead:</p> + +<p>"I shall not insult your intelligence by any comment or even epithet of +my own. I shall but ask you, Was not this man your kinsman? Does not the +story sound, allowing for all change of + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_35'></a>( 35 )</span> + +manners as well as of time and +place, like a scene out of your own Bret Harte or Colonel John Hay's +writings; a scene of the dry humor, the rough heroism of your own far +West? Yes, as long as you have your <i>Jem Bludsos</i> and <i>Tom Flynns of +Virginia City</i>, the old Norse blood is surely not extinct, the old Norse +spirit is not dead." +<a name='FNanchor_29_29'></a><a href='#Footnote_29_29'><sup>[29]</sup></a></p> +<br /> + +<a name='EDMUND_GOSSE'></a><h3>EDMUND GOSSE (1849-).</h3> + +<p>Among contemporary English poets who have taught the world of readers +that things Norse are worthy of attention, is Edmund Gosse. He has been +more intimately connected with the popularization of modern Norwegian +literature, notably of Ibsen, but he has also found in Old Norse story +themes for poetic treatment. We mention "The Death of Arnkel," found in +the volume <i>Firdausi in Exile</i>, more because it shows that our poets are +turning to <i>the gesta islandicorum</i> for themes, than because it is a +remarkable poem. More pretentious is <i>King Erik, a Tragedy</i>, London, +1876. Here is a noble drama which displays an intimate acquaintance with +the literature that gave it its themes and inspiration. The author +dedicates it to Robert Browning, calling it:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i2'>. . . this lyric symbol of my labour,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>This antique light that led my dreams so long,<br /></span> +<span>This battered hull of a barbaric tabor,<br /></span> +<span class='i5'>Beaten to runic song.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I have often thought that fate was very unkind to keep Browning so +persistently in the south of Europe, when, in Iceland and Norway, were +mines that he could have worked in to such supreme advantage. To be sure +his method clashes with the simplicity of the Old Norse manner, but from +him we should have had men and women superb in stature and virility, and +perhaps the Arctic influence would have killed the troublesome +tropicality of his language.</p> + +<p>This drama by Gosse is not strictly Icelandic in motive. Jealousy was +not the passion to loosen the tongue of the sagaman, and in so far as +that is the theme of "King Erik," the play is not Old Norse in origin. +Christian material, too, has been introduced that gives a modern tinge +to the drama, but there is + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_36'></a>( 36 )</span> + +enough of the genuine saga spirit to warrant +attention to it here. Something more than the names is Icelandic. Here +is a woman, Botilda, with strength of character enough to recall a +Brynhild or a Bergthora. Gisli is the foster-brother that takes up the +blood-feud for Grimur. Adalbjörg and Svanhilda are the whisperers of +slander and the workers of ill. Marcus is the skald who is making a poem +about the king. Here are customs and beliefs distinctly Norse:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i6'>I loved him from the first,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>And so the second midnight to the cliff<br /></span> +<span>We went. I mind me how the round moon rose,<br /></span> +<span>And how a great whale in the offing plunged,<br /></span> +<span>Dark on the golden circle. There we cut<br /></span> +<span>A space of turf, and lifted it, and ran<br /></span> +<span>Our knife-points sharp into our arms, and drew<br /></span> +<span>Blood that dripped into the warm mould and mixed.<br /></span> +<span>So there under the turf our plighted faith<br /></span> +<span>Starts in the dew of grasses.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(Act. IV, Sc. II.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>But all day long I hear amid the crowds,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>A voice that murmurs in a monotone,<br /></span> +<span>Strange, warning words that scarcely miss the ear,<br /></span> +<span>Yet miss it altogether.<br /></span> +<span class='i6'><i>Botilda</i>.<br /></span> +<span class='i8'>Oh! God grant,<br /></span> +<span>You be not fey, nor truly near your end!<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(Act. IV, Sc. III.)</span> +</div></div></div> + + +<p>Although this work is dramatic in form, it is not so in spirit. The true +dramatist would have put such an incident as the swearing of brotherhood +into a scene, instead of into a speech. This effort is, however, the +nearest approach to a drama in English founded on saga material. It is +curious that our poets have inclined to every form but the drama in +reproducing Old Norse literature. It is not that saga-stuff is not +dramatic in possibilities. Ewald and Oehlenschläger have used this +material to excellent effect in Danish dramas. Had the sagas been +accessible to Englishmen in Shakespeare's time, we should certainly have +had dramas of Icelandic life.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_37'></a>( 37 )</span> + +<a name='IV'></a><h2>IV.</h2> + +<h2>BY THE HAND OF THE MASTER.</h2> +<br /> + +<p>Time has brought us to the man whose work in this field needs no +apology. The writer whom we consider next contributed almost as much +material to the English treasury of Northern gold as did all the writers +we have so far considered. Were it not for William Morris, the +examination that we are making would not not be worth while. The name +<i>literature</i>, in its narrow sense, belongs to only a few of the writings +that we have examined up to this point, but what we are now to inspect +deserves that title without the shadow of a doubt. For that reason we +set in a separate chapter the examination of Morris' Old Norse +adaptations and creations.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='WILLIAM_MORRIS'></a><h3>WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896).</h3> + +<p>The biographer of William Morris fixes 1868 as the beginning of the +poet's Icelandic stories. +<a name='FNanchor_30_30'></a><a href='#Footnote_30_30'><sup>[30]</sup></a> +Eirikr Magnusson, an Icelander, was his +guide, and the pupil made rapid progress. Dasent's work had drawn +Morris' attention to the sagas, and within a few months most of the +sagas had been read in the original. Although <i>The Saga of Gunnlang +Worm-tongue</i> was published in the <i>Fortnightly Review</i>, for January, +1869, the <i>Grettis Saga</i>, of April, was the first published book on an +Old Norse subject. The next year gave the <i>Völsunga Saga</i>. In 1871, +Morris made a journey through Iceland, the fruits of which were +afterwards seen in many a noble work. In 1875, <i>Three Northern Love +Stories</i> was published, and, in 1877, <i>The Story of Sigurd the Volsung +and the Fall of the Niblungs</i>. More than ten years passed before he +turned again to Icelandic work, the Romances of the years of 1889 to +1896 showing signs of it, and the translations in the <i>Saga Library</i>, +"Howard the Halt," "The Banded Men," <i>Eyrbyggja</i> and <i>Heimskringla</i> of +1891-95. These contributions + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_38'></a>( 38 )</span> + +to the subject of our examination are no +less valuable than voluminous, and we make no excuses for an extended +consideration of them. They deserve a wider public than they have yet +attained.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='1'></a><h4>1.</h4> + +<p><i>The Story of Grettir the Strong</i> is the title of Morris and Magnusson's +version of the <i>Grettis Saga</i>. The version impresses the reader as one +made with loving care by artistic hands. Certainly English readers will +read no other translation of this work, for this one is satisfactory as +a version and as an art-work. English readers will here get all the +flavor of the original that it is possible to get in a translation, and +those who can read Icelandic if put to it, will prefer to get <i>Grettla</i> +through Morris and Magnusson. All the essentials are here, if not all +the nuances.</p> + +<p>The reader unfamiliar with sagas will need a little patience with the +genealogies that crop out in every chapter. The sagaman has a +squirrel-like agility in climbing family trees, and he is well +acquainted with their interlocking branches. There are chapters in the +<i>Grettis Saga</i> where this vanity runs riot, and makes us suspect that +Iceland differed little from a country town of to-day in its love for +gossip about the family of neighbors whose names happen to come into the +conversation. If the reader will persevere through the early chapters, +until Grettir commands exclusive attention, he will come to a drama +which has not many peers in literature. The outlaw kills a man in every +other chapter, but this record is no vulgar list of brutal fights. Not +inhuman nature, but human nature is here shown, human nature struggling +with unrelenting fate, making a grand fight, and coming to its end +because it must, but without ignominy. How fine a touch it is that +refuses to the outlaw's murderer the price set upon Grettir's head, +because the getting of it was through a "nithings-deed," the murder of a +dying man! William Morris was most felicitous in envoys and dedicating +poems, and in the sonnet prefixed to this translation he was +particularly happy. The first eight lines describe the hero of the +saga—the last six lines the significance of this literary creation:</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_39'></a>( 39 )</span> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>A life scarce worth the living, a poor fame<br /></span> +<span>Scarce worth the winning, in a wretched land,<br /></span> +<span>Where fear and pain go upon either hand,<br /></span> +<span>As toward the end men fare without an aim<br /></span> +<span>Unto the dull grey dark from whence they came:<br /></span> +<span>Let them alone, the unshadowed sheer rocks stand<br /></span> +<span>Over the twilight graves of that poor band,<br /></span> +<span>Who count so little in the great world's game!<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>Nay, with the dead I deal not; this man lives,<br /></span> +<span>And that which carried him through good and ill,<br /></span> +<span>Stern against fate while his voice echoed still<br /></span> +<span>From rock to rock, now he lies silent, strives<br /></span> +<span>With wasting time, and through its long lapse gives<br /></span> +<span>Another friend to me, life's void to fill.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<br /> + +<a name='2'></a><h4>2.</h4> + +<p>In the three volumes of <i>The Earthly Paradise</i>, published by William +Morris in 1868-1870, there are three poems which hail from Old Norse +originals. They are "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon," and +"The Lovers of Gudrun," in Vol. II, and "The Fostering of Aslaug," in +Vol. III. Of these "The Lovers of Gudrun" forms a class by itself; it is +a poem to be reckoned with when the dozen greatest poems of the century +are listed. The late Laureate may have equalled it in the best of the +<i>Idylls of the King</i>, but he never excelled it. Let us look at it in +detail.</p> + +<p>First, be it said that "The Lovers of Gudrun" overtops all the other +poems in <i>The Earthly Paradise</i>. It would be possible to prove that +Morris was at his best when he worked with Old Norse material, but that +task shall not detain us now. It is enough to note that the "Prologue" +to <i>The Earthly Paradise</i>, called "The Wanderers," makes the leader of +these wanderers, who turn story-tellers when they reach the city by "the +borders of the Grecian sea," a Norseman. Born in Byzantium of a Greek +mother, he claimed Norway as his home, and on his father's death +returned to his kin. His speech to the Elder of the City reveals a +touching loyalty to his father's home and traditions:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>But when I reached one dying autumn-tide<br /></span> +<span>My uncle's dwelling near the forest-side,<br /></span> +<span>And saw the land so scanty and so bare,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_40'></a>( 40 )</span> +<span>And all the hard things men contend with there,<br /></span> +<span>A little and unworthy land it seemed,<br /></span> +<span>And yet the more of Asagard I dreamed,<br /></span> +<span>And worthier seemed the ancient faith of praise.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here is the man, William Morris, in perfect miniature. Modern life and +training had given him a speech and aspect quite suave and cultured, but +the blood that flowed in his veins was red, and the tincture of iron was +in it. In religion, in art, in poetry, in economics, he loved the past +better than the present, though he was never unconscious of "our +glorious gains." In all departments of thought the scanty, the bare, the +hard, the unworthy, drew first his attention and then his love and +enthusiastic praise. And so perhaps it is explained that of all the +poems in <i>The Earthly Paradise</i>, the one indited first in the scarred +and dreadful land where neither wheat nor wine is at home, shall be the +finest in this latter-day retelling.</p> + +<p>The first seventy years of the thirteenth century were the blossoming +time of the historic saga in Iceland, and those writings that record the +doings of the families of the land form, with the old songs and the best +of the kingly sagas, the flower of Northern literature. These family +records never extend over more than one generation, and sometimes they +deal with but a few years. They are half-way between romance and +history, with the balance oftenest in favor of truth. In this group are +found <i>Egils Saga</i>, known at second hand to Warton, the <i>Eyrbyggja +Saga</i>, translated by Walter Scott, and the <i>Laxdæla Saga</i>. It is the +<i>Laxdæla Saga</i> that gives the story told by Morris in "The Lovers of +Gudrun." Among sagas it is famous for its fine portrayal of character.</p> + +<p>The saga and the poem tell the story of two neighboring farms, Herdholt +and Bathsted, whose sons and daughters work out a dire tragedy. Kiartan +and Bodli are the son and foster-son of the first house, and Gudrun is +the daughter of the second. These are the principal personages in the +drama, though the list of the other <i>dramatis personæ</i> is a long one. +Not only in the name of its heroine does the story suggest the +<i>Nibelungenlied</i>. The machinery of the Norse stories resembles the +German story's in many of its parts. In this version of Morris, the main +features of the saga are kept, and distracting details are properly + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_41'></a>( 41 )</span> + +subordinated to the principal interest. Through the nineteen divisions +of this story the interest moves rapidly, and wonder as to the issue is +never lost. As a story-teller, Morris is distinctly powerful in this +poem, and all the qualities that endear the story-teller to us are here +found joined to many that make the poet a favorite with us. There are no +lyrics in the poem—the original saga was without the song-snatches that +are often found in sagas—but there are dramatic scenes that recall the +power of the Master-poet. Least of all the poems in the <i>Earthly +Paradise</i> does "The Lovers of Gudrun" show the Chaucerian influence, and +the reader must be captious indeed who complains of the length of this +story.</p> + +<p>To the unenlightened reader this poem reveals no traits that are +un-English. What there is of Old Norse flavor here is purely spiritual. +The original story being in prose, no attempt could be made to keep +original characteristics in verse-form. So "The Lovers of Gudrun" can +stand on its own merits as an English poem; no excuses need be made for +it on the plea that it is a translation.</p> + +<p>Local color is not laid on the canvas after the figures have been +painted, but all the tints in the persons and the things are grandly +Norse. This story is a true romance, in that the scene is far removed +from the present day, and the atmosphere is very different from our own. +This story is a true picture of life, in that it sets forth the doings +of men and women in the power of the master passion. And so for the +purposes of literature this poem is not Norse, or rather, it is more +than Norse, it is universal. Now and then, to be sure, the displaced +Norse ideals are set forth in the poem, but in such wise that we almost +regret that the old order has passed away. The Wanderer who tells the +tale assures his listeners of the truth of it in these last words of the +interlude between "The Story of Rhodope" and "The Lovers of Gudrun":</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i6'>Know withal that we<br /></span> +<span>Have ever deemed this tale as true to be,<br /></span> +<span>As though those very Dwellers in Laxdale,<br /></span> +<span>Risen from the dead had told us their own tale;<br /></span> +<span>Who for the rest while yet they dwelt on earth<br /></span> +<span>Wearied no God with prayers for more of mirth<br /></span> +<span>Than dying men have; nor were ill-content<br /></span> +<span>Because no God beside their sorrow went<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_42'></a>( 42 )</span> +<span>Turning to flowery sward the rock-strewn way,<br /></span> +<span>Weakness to strength, or darkness into day.<br /></span> +<span>Therefore, no marvels hath my tale to tell,<br /></span> +<span>But deals with such things as men know too well;<br /></span> +<span>All that I have herein your hearts to move,<br /></span> +<span>Is but the seed and fruit of bitter love.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is aside from our purpose to tell this story here. The more we study +this marvelous work, the more it is impressed upon us that in the reign +of love all men and all literatures are one. To the Englishman this +description of an Iceland maiden is no stranger than it was to the men +who sat about the spluttering fire in the Icelander's hall. It is the +form of Gudrun that is here described:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>That spring was she just come to her full height,<br /></span> +<span>Low-bosomed yet she was, and slim and light,<br /></span> +<span>Yet scarce might she grow fairer from that day;<br /></span> +<span>Gold were the locks wherewith the wind did play,<br /></span> +<span>Finer than silk, waved softly like the sea<br /></span> +<span>After a three days' calm, and to her knee<br /></span> +<span>Wellnigh they reached; fair were the white hands laid<br /></span> +<span>Upon the door posts where the dragons played;<br /></span> +<span>Her brow was smooth now, and a smile began<br /></span> +<span>To cross her delicate mouth, the snare of man.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(<i>Earthly Paradise</i>, Vol. II, p. 247.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Not less accustomed are we to such heroes as Kiartan:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>And now in every mouth was Kiartan's name,<br /></span> +<span>And daily now must Gudrun's dull ears bear<br /></span> +<span>Tales of the prowess of his youth to hear,<br /></span> +<span>While in his cairn forgotten lay her love.<br /></span> +<span>For this man, said they, all men's hearts did move,<br /></span> +<span>Nor yet might envy cling to such an one,<br /></span> +<span>So far beyond all dwellers 'neath the sun;<br /></span> +<span>Great was he, yet so fair of face and limb<br /></span> +<span>That all folk wondered much, beholding him,<br /></span> +<span>How such a man could be; no fear he knew,<br /></span> +<span>And all in manly deeds he could outdo;<br /></span> +<span>Fleet-foot, a swimmer strong, an archer good,<br /></span> +<span>Keen-eyed to know the dark waves' changing mood;<br /></span> +<span>Sure on the crag, and with the sword so skilled,<br /></span> +<span>That when he played therewith the air seemed filled<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_43'></a>( 43 )</span> +<span>With light of gleaming blades; therewith was he<br /></span> +<span>Of noble speech, though says not certainly<br /></span> +<span>My tale, that aught of his he left behind<br /></span> +<span>With rhyme and measure deftly intertwined.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 266.)</span> +</div></div></div> + + +<p>The Old Norse touch here is in the last three lines which intimate that +the warrior was often a bard; but be it remembered that the Elizabethan +warrior could turn a sonnet, too.</p> + +<p>We have said that the <i>Laxdæla Saga</i> is famous for its portrayal of +character. This English version falls not at all below the original in +this quality. The lines already quoted show Gudrun and Kiartan as to +exterior. But this is a drama of flesh and blood creations, and they are +men and women that move through it, not puppets. Souls are laid bare +here, in quivering, pulsating agony. The tremendous figure of this story +is not Kiartan, nor Gudrun, nor Refna, but Bodli, and certainly English +narrative poetry has no second creation like to him. The mind reverts to +Shakespeare to find fit companionship for Bodli in poetry, and to George +Eliot and Thomas Hardy in prose. The suggestion of Shakespearean +qualities in George Eliot has been made by several great critics, among +them Edmond Scherer; +<a name='FNanchor_31_31'></a><a href='#Footnote_31_31'><sup>[31]</sup></a> +in Hardy and Morris, here, we find the same +soul-searching powers. These writers have created sufferers of titanic +greatness, and in the presence of their tragedies we are dumb.</p> + +<p>An English artist has made Napoleon's voyage on H.M.S. <i>Bellerophon</i> to +his prison-isle a picture that the memory refuses to forget. The picture +of Bodli as he sails back to Iceland, which, though his home, is to be +his prison and his death, is no less impressive:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Fair goes the ship that beareth out Christ's truth<br /></span> +<span>Mingled of hope, of sorrow, and of ruth,<br /></span> +<span>And on the prow Bodli the Christian stands,<br /></span> +<span>Sunk deep in thought of all the many lands<br /></span> +<span>The world holds, and the folk that dwell therein,<br /></span> +<span>And wondering why that grief and rage and sin<br /></span> +<span>Was ever wrought; but wondering most of all<br /></span> +<span>Why such wild passion on his heart should fall.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 294.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_44'></a>( 44 )</span> + +Here we have the poet's conception—and the sagaman's—of Bodli—a man +in the grip of terrible Fate, who can no more swerve from the paths she +marks out for him than he can add a cubit to his stature. The Greek +tragedy embodies this idea, and Old Norse literature is full of it. +Thomas Hardy gives it later in his contemporary novels. We sympathize +with Bodli's fate because his agony is so terrible, and we call him the +most striking figure in this story. But the others suffer, too, Gudrun, +Kiartan, Refna; they make a stand against their woe, and utter brave +words in the face of it. Only Bodli floats downward with the tide, +unresisting. Guest prophesies bitter things for Gudrun, but adds:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Be merry yet! these things shall not be all<br /></span> +<span>That unto thee in this thy life shall fall.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 254.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>And Gudrun takes heart. When Thurid tells her brother Kiartan that +Gudrun has married another, his joy is shivered into atoms before him. +But he can say, even then:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Now is this world clean changed for me<br /></span> +<span>In this last minute, yet indeed I see<br /></span> +<span>That still it will go on for all my pain;<br /></span> +<span>Come then, my sister, let us back again;<br /></span> +<span>I must meet folk, and face the life beyond,<br /></span> +<span>And, as I may, walk 'neath the dreadful bond<br /></span> +<span>Of ugly pain—such men our fathers were,<br /></span> +<span>Not lightly bowed by any weight of care.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 311.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>And Kiartan does his work in the world. Poor Refna, when she has married +Kiartan hears women talking of the love that still is between Gudrun and +Kiartan. She goes to Kiartan with the story, beginning with words whose +pathos must conquer the most stoical of readers:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i4'>Indeed of all thy grief I knew,<br /></span> +<span>But deemed if still thou saw'st me kind and true,<br /></span> +<span>Not asking too much, yet not failing aught<br /></span> +<span>To show that not far off need love be sought,<br /></span> +<span>If thou shouldst need love—if thou sawest all this,<br /></span> +<span>Thou wouldst not grudge to show me what a bliss<br /></span> +<span>Thy whole love was, by giving unto me<br /></span> +<span>As unto one who loved thee silently,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_45'></a>( 45 )</span> +<span>Now and again the broken crumbs thereof:<br /></span> +<span>Alas! I, having then no part in love,<br /></span> +<span>Knew not how naught, naught can allay the soul<br /></span> +<span>Of that sad thirst, but love untouched and whole!<br /></span> +<span>Kinder than e'er I durst have hoped thou art,<br /></span> +<span>Forgive me then, that yet my craving heart<br /></span> +<span>Is so unsatisfied; I know that thou<br /></span> +<span>Art fain to dream that I am happy now,<br /></span> +<span>And for that seeming ever do I strive;<br /></span> +<span>Thy half-love, dearest, keeps me still alive<br /></span> +<span>To love thee; and I bless it—but at whiles,—<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 343)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>And thus she gains strength to live her life.</p> + +<p>Here, then, in Bodli, is another of the great tragic figures in +literature—a sick man. There are many of them, even in the highest rank +of literary creations, Hamlet, Lear, Othello, Macbeth! Wrong-headed, +defective as they are, we would not have them otherwise. The pearl of +greatest price is the result of an abnormal or morbid process.</p> + +<p>Bodli comes to us from Icelandic literature, and in that fact we note +the solidarity of poetic geniuses. Not only is the great figure of Bodli +proof of this solidarity, but many other features of this poem prove it. +"Lively feeling for a situation and power to express it constitute the +poet," said Goethe. There are dramatic situations in "The Lovers of +Gudrun" which hold the reader in a breathless state till the last word +is said, and then leave him marveling at the imagination that could +conceive the scene, and the power that could express it. There are +gentler scenes, too, in the poem, where beauty and grace are conceived +as fair as ever poet dreamed, and the workmanship is thoroughly +adequate. As an example of the first, take the scene of Bodli's mourning +over Kiartan's dead body. It is here that we get that knowledge of +Bodli's woe that robs us of a cause against him. What agony is that +which can speak thus over the body of the dead rival!</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i4'>. . . Didst thou quite<br /></span> +<span>Know all the value of that dear delight<br /></span> +<span>As I did? Kiartan, she is changed to thee;<br /></span> +<span>Yea, and since hope is dead changed too to me,<br /></span> +<span>What shall we do, if, each of each forgiven,<br /></span> +<span>We three shall meet at last in that fair heaven<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_46'></a>( 46 )</span> +<span>The new faith tells of? Thee and God I pray<br /></span> +<span>Impute it not for sin to me to-day,<br /></span> +<span>If no thought I can shape thereof but this:<br /></span> +<span>O friend, O friend, when thee I meet in bliss,<br /></span> +<span>Wilt thou not give my love Gudrun to me,<br /></span> +<span>Since now indeed thine eyes made clear can see<br /></span> +<span>That I of all the world must love her most?<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 368.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Examples of the gentler scenes are scattered lavishly throughout the +poem and it is not necessary to enumerate.</p> + +<p>One other sign that the Icelandic sagaman's art was kin to the English +poet's. The last line of this poem is given thus by Morris:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>I did the worst to him I loved the most.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>These are the very words of Gudrun in the saga, and summing up as they +do her opinion of Kiartan, they stand as a model of that compression +which is so admired in our poetry. Many such <i>multum in parvo</i> lines are +found in Morris' poem, and at times they have a beauty that is +marvelous. Joined with this quality is the special merit of +Morris—picturesqueness, and so the reader often feels, when he has +finished a book by Morris, like the Cook tourist after he has "done" a +country of Europe—it must be done again and again to give it its due.</p> + +<p>Of the other two Old Norse poems in <i>The Earthly Paradise</i> not much need +be said. "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is a fairy +tale, in the strain of Morris' prose romances. It was suggested by +Thorpe's <i>Yule-tide Stories</i>, the tale coming from the <i>Völundar Saga</i>. +There is a witchery about it that makes it pleasant reading in a dreamy +hour, but except the names and a few scenes about the farmstead, there +is nothing Icelandic about it. The virile element of the best Icelandic +literature is wanting here, and the hero's excuse for leaving weapons at +home when he goes to his watch is not at all natural:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i4'>Withal I shall not see<br /></span> +<span>Men-folk belike, but faërie,<br /></span> +<span>And all the arms within the seas<br /></span> +<span>Should help me naught to deal with these;<br /></span> +<span>Rather of such love were I fain<br /></span> +<span>As fell to Sigurd Fafnir's-bane<br /></span> +<span>When of the dragon's heart he ate.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(Vol. II, p. 33.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_47'></a>( 47 )</span> + +This passage is nominally in the same meter as the opening lines of the +poem:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>In this your land there once did dwell<br /></span> +<span>A certain carle who lived full well,<br /></span> +<span>And lacked few things to make him glad;<br /></span> +<span>And three fair sons this goodman had.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>According to old time English prosody, it is the same, too, as the meter +of Scott's Marmion!</p> + +<p>In the passages quoted from "The Lovers of Gudrun" we see a measure +called the same as that of Pope's <i>Essay on Man</i>! Not seldom in "The +Lovers" do we forget that the lines are rhymed in twos; indeed, often we +do not note the rhyme at all. We are sometimes tempted to think that in +this piece, if not in "The Land East of the Sun," rhyme might have been +dispensed with altogether, since it often forces archaic words and +expressions into use. But it is to be said generally of Morris's +management of the meter in the Old Norse pieces, that it was adequate to +gain his end always, whether that end was to tell an Old Norse story in +English, or to carry over an Old Norse spirit into English. Of this +second achievement we shall speak further in considering <i>Sigurd the +Volsung</i>.</p> + +<p>There is one more tale in <i>The Earthly Paradise</i> which originated in +Norse legend. "The Fostering of Aslaug" is drawn from Thorpe's <i>Northern +Mythology</i>, which epitomizes older sources. Aslaug is the daughter of +Iceland's great hero, Sigurd, and Iceland's great heroine, Brynhild, and +her life is set down in this poem most beautifully. Again we note that +the added touches of later poets fail to leave the sense of the +strenuous in the picture. Aslaug is like a favorite representation of +Brynhild that we have seen, a lily-maid in aspect, or a Marguerite. Her +mother's masculinity is gone, and with it the Old Norse flavor. It is +the privilege of our age to enjoy both the virility of the Old Norse and +the delicacy of the mediæval conceptions, and William Morris has caught +both.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='3'></a><h4>3.</h4> + +<p>In the opening lines of "The Fostering of Aslaug," our poet wrote his +doubts about his ability to sing the life of Sigurd in be-fitting +manner. At that time he said:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_48'></a>( 48 )</span> +<span>But now have I no heart to raise<br /></span> +<span>That mighty sorrow laid asleep,<br /></span> +<span>That love so sweet, so strong and deep,<br /></span> +<span>That as ye hear the wonder told<br /></span> +<span>In those few strenuous words of old,<br /></span> +<span>The whole world seems to rend apart<br /></span> +<span>When heart is torn away from heart.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(Vol. III, p. 28.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>It is a common complaint against the poetry of William Morris that it is +too long-winded. Each to his taste in this matter, but we beg to call +attention to one line in the above passage:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>In those few strenuous words of old.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Whatever may have been Morris' tendency when he wrote his own poetry, he +knew when concision was a virtue in the poetry of others. There is no +better description of the <i>Völsunga Saga</i> than the above line, and +William Morris gave the English people a literal version of the saga, if +mayhap that strenuous paucity might translate the old spirit. But, as if +he knew that many readers would fail to make much of this version, he +tried again on a larger scale, and the great volume <i>Sigurd the +Volsung</i>, epic in character and proportions, was the result. Of these +two we shall now speak.</p> + +<p>The <i>Völsunga Saga</i> was published in 1870, only two years after Morris +had begun to study Icelandic with Eirikr Magnusson. The latter's name is +on the title page as the first of the two co-translators. The <i>Saga</i> was +supplemented by certain songs from the <i>Elder Edda</i> which were +introduced by the translators at points where they would come naturally +in the story. The work, both in prose and verse, is well done, and the +attempt was successful to make, as the preface proposes, the "rendering +close and accurate, and, if it might be so, at the same time, not over +prosaic." The last two paragraphs of this preface are particularly +interesting to one who is tracing the influence of Old Norse literature +on English literature, because they are words with power, that have +stirred men and will stir men to learn more about a wonderful land and +its lore. We copy them entire:</p> + +<p>"As to the literary quality of this work we might say much, but we think +we may well trust the reader of poetic insight to break through whatever +entanglement of strange manners or unused + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_49'></a>( 49 )</span> + +element may at first trouble +him, and to meet the nature and beauty with which it is filled: we +cannot doubt that such a reader will be intensely touched by finding, +amidst all its wildness and remoteness, such startling realism, such +subtilty, such close sympathy with all the passions that may move +himself to-day.</p> + +<p>"In conclusion, we must again say how strange it seems to us, that this +Volsung Tale, which is in fact an unversified poem, should never before +have been translated into English. For this is the Great Story of the +North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the +Greeks—to all our race first, and afterwards, when the change of the +world has made our race nothing more than a name of what has been—a +story too—then should it be to those that come after us no less than +the Tale of Troy has been to us."</p> + +<p>Morris wrote a prologue in verse for this volume, and it is an exquisite +poem, such as only he seemed able to indite. So often does the reader of +Morris come upon gems like this, that one is tempted to rail against the +common ignorance about him:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>O hearken, ye who speak the English Tongue,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>How in a waste land ages long ago,<br /></span> +<span>The very heart of the North bloomed into song<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>After long brooding o'er this tale of woe!<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>Yea, in the first gray dawning of our race,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>This ruth-crowned tangle to sad hearts was dear.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>So draw ye round and hearken, English Folk,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Unto the best tale pity ever wrought!<br /></span> +<span>Of how from dark to dark bright Sigurd broke,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Of Brynhild's glorious soul with love distraught,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Of Gudrun's weary wandering unto naught,<br /></span> +<span>Of utter love defeated utterly,<br /></span> +<span>Of Grief too strong to give Love time to die!<br /></span> +</div></div> +<br /> + +<a name='4'></a><h4>4.</h4> + +<p>Six years later, in 1877 (English edition), Morris published the long +poem, <i>The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and The Fall of the Niblungs</i>, +and in it gave the peerless crown of all English + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_50'></a>( 50 )</span> + +poems springing from +Old Norse sources. The poet considered this his most important work, and +he was prouder of it than of any other literary work that he did. One +who studies it can understand this pride, but he cannot understand the +neglect by the reading public of this remarkable poem. The history of +book-selling in the last decade shows strange revivals of interest in +authors long dead; it will be safe to prophesy such a revival for +William Morris, because valuable treasures will not always remain +hidden. In his case, however, it will not be a revival, because there +has not been an awakening yet. That awakening must come, and thousands +will see that William Morris was a great poet who have not yet heard of +his name. Let us look at his greatest work with some degree of +minuteness.</p> + +<p>The opening lines are a good model of the meter, and we find it +different from any that we have considered so far. There are certain +peculiarities about it that make it seem a perfect medium for +translating the Old Norse spirit. Most of these peculiarities are in the +opening lines, and so we may transfer them to this page: +<a name='FNanchor_32_32'></a><a href='#Footnote_32_32'><sup>[32]</sup></a></p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>There was a dwelling of Kings ere the world was waxen old;<br /></span> +<span>Dukes were the door-wards there, and the roofs were thatched with gold;<br /></span> +<span>Earls were the wrights that wrought it, and silver nailed its doors;<br /></span> +<span>Earls' wives were the weaving-women, queens' daughters strewed its floors,<br /></span> +<span>And the masters of its song-craft were the mightiest men that cast<br /></span> +<span>The sails of the storm of battle adown the bickering blast.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Everybody knows that alliteration was a principle of Icelandic verse. It +strikes the ear that hears Icelandic poetry for the first time—or the +eye that sees it, since most of us read it silently—as unpleasantly +insistent, but on fuller acquaintance, we lose this sense of +obtrusiveness. Morris, in this poem, uses alliteration, but so skilfully +that only the reader that seeks it discovers it. A less superb artist +would have made it stick out in every line, so that the device would be +a hindrance to the story-telling. As it is, nowhere in the more than +nine thousand lines of <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i> is this alliteration an +excrescence, but everywhere it is woven into the grand design of a +fabric which is the richer for its foreign workmanship.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_51'></a>( 51 )</span> + +Notice that <i>duke</i> and <i>battle</i> and <i>master</i> are the only words not +thoroughly Teutonic. This overwhelming predominance of the Anglo-Saxon +element over the French is in keeping with the original of the story. Of +course it is an accident that so small a proportion of Latin derivatives +is found in these six lines, but the fact remains that Morris set +himself to tell a Teutonic story in Teutonic idiom. That idiom is not +very strange to present-day readers, indeed we may say it has but a +fillip of strangeness. Archaisms are characteristic of poetic diction, +and those found in this poem that are not common to other poetry are +used to gain an Old Norse flavor. The following words taken from Book I +of the poem are the only unfamiliar ones: <i>benight</i>, meaning "at night"; +"so <i>win</i> the long years over"; <i>eel-grig</i>; <i>sackless</i>; <i>bursten</i>, a +participle. The compounds <i>door-ward</i> and <i>song-craft</i> are +representative of others that are sprinkled in fair number through the +poem. They are the best that our language can do to reproduce the fine +combinations that the Icelandic language formed so readily. English +lends itself well to this device, as the many compounds show that Morris +took from common usage. Such words as <i>roof-tree</i>, <i>song-craft</i>, +<i>empty-handed</i>, <i>grave-mound</i>, <i>store-house</i>, taken at random from the +pages of this poem, show that the genius of our language permits such +formations. When Morris carries the practice a little further, and makes +for his poem such words as <i>door-ward</i>, <i>chance-hap</i>, <i>slumber-tide</i>, +<i>troth-word</i>, <i>God-home</i>, and a thousand others, he is not taking +liberties with the language, and he is using a powerful aid in +translating the Old Norse spirit.</p> + +<p>One more peculiar characteristic of Icelandic is admirably exhibited in +this poem. We have seen that Warton recognized in the "Runic poets" a +warmth of fancy which expressed itself in "circumlocution and +comparisons, not as a matter of necessity, but of choice and skill." +Certainly Morris in using these circumlocutions in <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i>, +has exercised remarkable skill in weaving them into his story. Like the +alliterations, they are part of an harmonious design. Examples abound, +like:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Adown unto the swan-bath the Volsung Children ride;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and this other for the same thing, the sea:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>While sleepeth the fields of the fishes amidst the summer-tide.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_52'></a>( 52 )</span> + +Still others for the water are <i>swan-mead</i>, and "bed-gear of the swan."</p> + +<p>"The serpent of death" and <i>war-flame</i>, for sword; <i>earth-bone</i>, for +rock; <i>fight-sheaves</i>, for armed hosts; <i>seaburg</i>, for boats, are other +striking examples.</p> + +<p>So much for the mechanical details of this poem. Its literary features +are so exceptional that we must examine them at length.</p> + +<p>Book I is entitled "Sigmund" and the description is set at the head of +it. "In this book is told of the earlier days of the Volsungs, and of +Sigmund the father of Sigurd, and of his deeds, and of how he died while +Sigurd was yet unborn in his mother's womb."</p> + +<p>There are many departures from the <i>Völsunga Saga</i> in this poetic +version, and all seem to be accounted for by a desire to impress +present-day readers with this story. The poem begins with Volsung, +omitting, therefore, the marvelous birth of that king and the oath of +the unborn child to "flee in fear from neither fire nor the sword." The +saga makes the wolf kill one of Volsung's sons every night; the poem +changes the number to two. A magnificent scene is invented by Morris in +the midnight visit of Signy to the wood where her brothers had been +slain. She speaks to the brother that is left, desiring to know what he +is doing:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>O yea, I am living indeed, and this labor of mine hand<br /></span> +<span>Is to bury the bones of the Volsungs; and lo, it is well nigh done.<br /></span> +<span>So draw near, Volsung's daughter, and pile we many a stone<br /></span> +<span>Where lie the gray wolf s gleanings of what was once so good.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 23.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>The dialogue of brother and sister is a mighty conception, and surely +the old Icelanders would have called Morris a rare singer. Sigmund tells +the story of the deaths of his brothers, adding:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>But now was I wroth with the Gods, that had made the Volsungs for nought;<br /></span> +<span>And I said: in the Day of their Doom a man's help shall they miss.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 24.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>But Signy is reconciled to the workings of Fate:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>I am nothing so wroth as thou art with the ways of death and hell,<br /></span> +<span>For thereof had I a deeming when all things were seeming well.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_53'></a>( 53 )</span> + +The day to come shall set their woes right:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>There as thou drawest thy sword, thou shall think of the days that were<br /></span> +<span>And the foul shall still seem foul, and the fair shall still seem fair;<br /></span> +<span>But thy wit shall then be awakened, and thou shalt know indeed<br /></span> +<span>Why the brave man's spear is broken, and his war shield fails at need;<br /></span> +<span>Why the loving is unbeloved; why the just man falls from his state;<br /></span> +<span>Why the liar gains in a day what the soothfast strives for late.<br /></span> +<span>Yea, and thy deeds shalt thou know, and great shall thy gladness be;<br /></span> +<span>As a picture all of gold thy life-days shalt thou see,<br /></span> +<span>And know that thou wert a God to abide through the hurry and haste;<br /></span> +<span>A God in the golden hall, a God in the rain-swept waste,<br /></span> +<span>A God in the battle triumphant, a God on the heap of the slain:<br /></span> +<span>And thine hope shall arise and blossom, and thy love shall be quickened again:<br /></span> +<span>And then shalt thou see before thee the face of all earthly ill;<br /></span> +<span>Thou shalt drink of the cup of awakening that thine hand hath holpen to fill;<br /></span> +<span>By the side of the sons of Odin shalt thou fashion a tale to be told<br /></span> +<span>In the hall of the happy Baldur.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 25.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>In this wise one Christian might hearten another to accept the dealings +of Providence to-day. While we do not think that a worshipper of Odin +would have spoken all these words, they are not an undue exaggeration of +the noblest traits of the old Icelandic religion.</p> + +<p>The poem does not record the death of Siggeir's and Signy's son, though +the saga does. Morris adds a touch when he makes the imprisoned men +exult over the sword that Signy drops into their grave, and he also puts +into the mouth of Siggeir in the burning hall words that the saga does +not contain. The poem says that the women of the Gothfolk were permitted +to retire from the burning hall, but the saga has no such statement. The +war of foul words between Granmar and Sinfjötli is left in the saga, and +the cause of Gudrod's death is changed from rivalry over a woman to +anger over a division of war booty. In Sigmund's lament over his +childlessness we have another of the poet's additions, and certainly we +find no fault with the liberty:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>The tree was stalwart, but its boughs are old and worn.<br /></span> +<span>Where now are the children departed, that amidst my life were born?<br /></span> +<span>I know not the men about me, and they know not of my ways:<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_54'></a>( 54 )</span> +<span>I am nought but a picture of battle, and a song for the people to praise.<br /></span> +<span>I must strive with the deeds of my kingship, and yet when mine hour is come<br /></span> +<span>It shall meet me as glad as the goodman when he bringeth the last load home.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 56.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>When the great hero dies, Morris puts into his mouth another of the +magnificent speeches that are the glory of this poem. Four lines from it +must suffice:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>When the gods for one deed asked me I ever gave them twain;<br /></span> +<span>Spendthrift of glory I was, and great was my life-day's gain.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . . + . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>Our wisdom and valour have kissed, and thine eyes shall see the fruit,<br /></span> +<span>And the joy for his days that shall be hath pierced my heart to the root.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 62.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>It appears from this study of Book I that <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i> has +adapted the saga story to our civilization and our art, holding to the +best of the old and supplementing it by new that is ever in keeping with +the old. Other instances of this eclectic habit may be seen in the other +three books, but we shall quote from these for other purposes.</p> + +<p>Book II is entitled "Regin." "Now this is the first book of the life and +death of Sigurd the Volsung, and therein is told of the birth of him, +and of his dealings with Regin the Master of Masters, and of his deeds +in the waste places of the earth."</p> + +<p>Morris was deeply read in Old Norse literature, and out of his stores of +knowledge he brought vivifying details for this poem. Such, for +instance, is the description of Sigurd's eyes, not found just here in +the saga:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>In the bed there lieth a man-child, and his eyes look straight on the sun.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . . + . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>Yet they shrank in their rejoicing before the eyes of the child.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . . + . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In the naming of the child by an ancient name, the meaning of that name +is indicated:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>O <i>Sigurd</i>, Son of the Volsungs, O Victory yet to be!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The festivities over the birth of the child are wonderfully + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_55'></a>( 55 )</span> + +described in the brief lines, and they are a picture out of another book than the +saga:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Earls think of marvellous stories, and along the golden strings<br /></span> +<span>Flit words of banded brethren and names of war-fain Kings.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Over and over again in this poem Morris records the Icelanders' desire +"to leave a tale to tell," and here are Sigurd's words to Regin who has +been egging him on to deeds:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Yet I know that the world is wide, and filled with deeds unwrought;<br /></span> +<span>And for e'en such work was I fashioned, lest the songcraft come to nought,<br /></span> +<span>When the harps of God-home tinkle, and the Gods are at stretch to hearken:<br /></span> +<span>Lest the hosts of the Gods be scanty when their day hath begun to darken.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 82.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>In Book II we have other great speeches that the poet has put into the +mouth of his characters with little or no justification in the original +saga. Chap. XIV of the saga contains Regin's tale of his brothers, and +of the gold called "Andvari's Hoard," and that tale is severely brief +and plain. The account in the poem is expanded greatly, and the +conception of Regin materially altered. In the saga he was not the +discontented youngest son of his father, prone to talk of his woes and +to lament his lot. In the poem he does this in so eloquent a fashion +that almost we are persuaded to sympathize with him. Certainly his lines +were hard, to have outlived his great deeds, and to hear his many +inventions ascribed to the gods. The speech of the released Odin to +Reidmar is modeled on Job's conception of omnipotence, and it is one of +the memorable parts of this book. Gripir's prophecy, too, is a majestic +work, and its original was three sentences in the saga and the poem +<i>Grípisspá</i> in the heroic songs of the <i>Edda</i>. Here Morris rises to the +heights of Sigurd's greatness:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i4'>Sigurd, Sigurd! O great, O early born!<br /></span> +<span>O hope of the Kings first fashioned! O blossom of the morn!<br /></span> +<span>Short day and long remembrance, fair summer of the North!<br /></span> +<span>One day shall the worn world wonder how first thou wentest forth!<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 111.)</span> +</div></div></div> + + +<p>Those who have read William Morris know that he is a master of nature +description. The "Glittering Heath" offered a fine + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_81'></a>( 56 )</span> + +opportunity for this +sort of work, and in this piece we have another departure from the saga, +Morris made hundreds of pictures in this poem, but the pages describing +the journey to the "Glittering Heath" are packed with them to an +extraordinary degree. Here is Iceland in very fact, all dust and ashes +to the eye:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>More changeless than mid-ocean, as fruitless as its floor.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We confess that there is something in the scene that holds us, all shorn +of beauty though it is. We do not want to go the length of Thomas Hardy, +however, who, in that wonderful first chapter of <i>The Return of the +Native</i> has a similar heath to describe. "The new vale of Tempe," says +he, "may be a gaunt waste in Thule: human souls may find themselves in +closer and closer harmony with external things wearing a sombreness +distasteful to our race when it was young.... The time seems near, if it +has not actually arrived, when the mournful sublimity of a moor, a sea, +or a mountain, will be all of nature that is absolutely consonant with +the moods of the more thinking among mankind. And ultimately, to the +commonest tourist, spots like Iceland may become what the vineyards and +myrtlegardens of South Europe are to him now." Is it not a suggestive +thought that England and the nineteenth century evolved a pessimism +which poor Iceland on its ash-heap never could conceive? William Morris +was an Icelander, not an Englishman, in his philosophy.</p> + +<p>In this same scene, a notable deviation from the saga is the +conversation between Regin and Sigurd concerning the relations that +shall be between them after the slaying of Fafnir. Here Morris impresses +the lesson of Regin's greed, taking the un-Icelandic device of preaching +to serve his purpose:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Let it lead thee up to heaven, let it lead thee down to hell,<br /></span> +<span>The deed shall be done tomorrow: thou shalt have that measureless Gold,<br /></span> +<span>And devour the garnered wisdom that blessed thy realm of old,<br /></span> +<span>That hath lain unspent and begrudged in the, very heart of hate:<br /></span> +<span>With the blood and the might of thy brother thine hunger shalt thou sate:<br /></span> +<span>And this deed shall be mine and thine; but take heed for what followeth then!<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 119.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_57'></a>( 57 )</span> + +In still another place has Morris departed far from the saga story. +According to the poem, Sigurd meets each warning of Fafnir that the gold +will be the curse of its possessor with the assurance that he will cast +the gold abroad, and let none of it cling to his fingers. The saga, +however, has this very frank confession: "Home would I ride and lose all +that wealth, if I deemed that by the losing thereof I should never die; +but every brave and true man will fain have his hand on wealth till that +last day." Here, again, we see an adaptation of the story of the poem to +modern conceptions of nobility. It remains to be said that the ernes +move Sigurd to take the gold for the gladdening of the world, and they +assure him that a son of the Volsung had nought to fear from the Curse. +The seven-times-repeated "Bind the red rings, O Sigurd," is an admirable +poem, but it does not contain information concerning Brynhild, as do the +strophes of <i>Reginsmál</i> which are the model for this lay.</p> + +<p>Let us look at the art of Morris as it is shown in telling "How Sigurd +awoke Brynhild upon Hindfell." As in the saga, so in the English poem, +this incident has a setting most favorable to the display of its +remarkable beauties. It is a picture as pure and sweet as it has ever +entered into the mind of man to conceive. The conception belongs to the +poetic lore of many nations, and children are early introduced to the +story of "Sleeping Beauty." There are some features of the Old Norse +version that are especially charming, and first among them is the +address of the awakened Brynhild to the sun and the earth. We are told +that this maiden loved the radiant hero that here awoke her from her +age-long sleep, but not for him is her first greeting. A finer thrill +moves her than love for a man, and in Morris's poem, this feeling finds +singularly beautiful expression:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>All hail O Day and thy Sons, and thy kin of the coloured things!<br /></span> +<span>Hail, following Night, and thy Daughter that leadeth thy wavering wings!<br /></span> +<span>Look down with unangry eyes on us today alive,<br /></span> +<span>And give us the hearts victorious, and the gain for which we strive!<br /></span> +<span>All hail, ye Lords of God-home, and ye Queens of the House of Gold!<br /></span> +<span>Hail thou dear Earth that bearest, and thou Wealth of field and fold!<br /></span> +<span>Give us, your noble children, the glory of wisdom and speech,<br /></span> +<span>And the hearts and the hands of healing, and the mouths and hands that teach!<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 140.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_58'></a>( 58 )</span> + +In order to see just what the art of Morris has done for this poem, let +us compare this address with the rendering of the <i>Sigrdrifumál</i>, which +tell the same story and which Morris and Magnusson have incorporated +into their translation of the <i>Völsunga Saga</i>. The verses are not in the +original saga:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i2'>Hail to the day come back!<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Hail, sons of the daylight!<br /></span> +<span>Hail to thee, dark night, and thy daughter!<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Look with kind eyes a-down,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>On us sitting here lonely,<br /></span> +<span>And give unto us the gain that we long for.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Hail to the Æsir,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>And the sweet Asyniur!<br /></span> +<span>Hail to the fair earth fulfilled of plenty!<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Fair words, wise hearts,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Would we win from you,<br /></span> +<span>And healing hands while life we hold.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>To get the full benefit of the comparison of the old and the new, let us +set in conjunction with these versions a severely literal translation of +the <i>Edda</i> strophes themselves:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Hail, O Day,<br /></span> +<span>Hail, O Sons of the Day,<br /></span> +<span>Hail Night and kinswoman!<br /></span> +<span>With unwroth eyes<br /></span> +<span>look on us here<br /></span> +<span>and give to us sitting ones victory.<br /></span> +<span>Hail, O Gods,<br /></span> +<span>Hail, O Goddesses,<br /></span> +<span>Hail, O bounteous Earth!<br /></span> +<span>Speech and wisdom<br /></span> +<span>give to us, the excellent twain,<br /></span> +<span>and healing hands during life.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>These stages in the progress of the gold from mine to mint furnish their +own commentary. The finished product will pass current with the most +exacting of assayers, as well as gladden the hearts of the poor one +whose hand seldom touches gold.</p> + +<p>If the skill of the poet in this case have merited resemblance to that +of the refiner of gold, what name less than alchemy can characterize his +achievement in the rest of this scene? From the first words of +Brynhild's life-story:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_59'></a>( 59 )</span> +<span>I am she that loveth; I was born of the earthly folk;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>to the tender words that tell of the coming of another day:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>And fresh and all abundant abode the deeds of Day,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>there is a succession of beautiful scenes and glorious speeches such as +only a master of magic could have gotten out of the original story. The +Eddaic account of the Valkyr's disobedience to All-Father, pictures a +saucy and self-willed maiden. Sentence has been pronounced upon her, and +thus the story continues: "But I said I would vow a vow against it, and +marry no man that knew fear." The <i>Völsunga Saga</i> gives exactly the same +account, but the poetic version of Morris saves the maiden for our +respect and admiration. It is not effrontery, but repentance that speaks +in the voice of Brynhild here:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>The thoughts of my heart overcame me, and the pride of my wisdom and speech,<br /></span> +<span>And I scorned the earth-folk's Framer, and the Lord of the world I must teach.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In the Icelandic version, Odin makes no speech at the dooming, but +Morris puts into his mouth this magnificent address:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>And he cried: "Thou hast thought in thy folly that the Gods have friends and foes,<br /></span> +<span>That they wake, and the world wends onward, that they sleep, and the world slips back,<br /></span> +<span>That they laugh, and the world's weal waxeth, that they frown and fashion the wrack:<br /></span> +<span>Thou hast cast up the curse against me; it shall aback on thine head;<br /></span> +<span>Go back to the sons of repentance, with the children of sorrow wed!<br /></span> +<span>For the Gods are great unholpen, and their grief is seldom seen,<br /></span> +<span>And the wrong that they will and must be is soon as it hath not been."<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 141.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Morris has here again exercised the poet's privilege of adding to the +story that was the pride of an entire age, in order to serve his own the +better. If he was wise in these additions, he was no less wise in +subtractions and in preservations. The saga has a long address by +Brynhild, opening with mystical advice concerning the power of runes, +and closing grandly with wise words that sound like a page from the Old +Testament. The former find no place in <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i>, but the +latter are + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_60'></a>( 60 )</span> + +turned into mighty phrases that wonderfully preserve the +spirit of the original.</p> + +<p>One passage more from Book II:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>So they climb the burg of Hindfell, and hand in hand they fare,<br /></span> +<span>Till all about and above them is nought but the sunlit air,<br /></span> +<span>And there close they cling together rejoicing in their mirth;<br /></span> +<span>For far away beneath them lie the kingdoms of the earth,<br /></span> +<span>And the garths of men-folk's dwellings and the streams that water them,<br /></span> +<span>And the rich and plenteous acres, and the silver ocean's hem,<br /></span> +<span>And the woodland wastes and the mountains, and all that holdeth all;<br /></span> +<span>The house and the ship and the island, the loom and the mine and the stall,<br /></span> +<span>The beds of bane and healing, the crafts that slay and save,<br /></span> +<span>The temple of God and the Doom-ring, the cradle and the grave.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 145.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>These ten lines serve to illustrate very well one of the most remarkable +powers of Morris. Just consider for a moment the number of details that +are crowded into this picture, and then notice how few are the strokes +required to put them there. For this rapid painting of a crowded canvas +Morris is second to none among English poets. This power to put a whole +landscape or a complex personality into a few lines is the direct +outcome of his study of Old Norse literature. Icelandic poetry is +characterized by this quality. One has but to compare the account of the +end of the world as it is found in the last strophes of <i>Völuspá</i>, or in +the <i>Prose Edda</i>, with the similar account in <i>Revelations</i> to see how +much two languages may differ in this respect. It would seem as if the +short verses characteristic of Icelandic poetry forbade lengthy +descriptions. The effect must be produced by a number of quick strokes: +there is never time to go over a line once made. A simile is never +elaborated, a new one is made when the poet wishes to insist on the +figure. Take the second strophe of the "Ancient Lay of Gudrun" as an +example, in the translation by Morris and Magnusson:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Such was my Sigurd<br /></span> +<span>Among the Sons of Giuki<br /></span> +<span>As is the green leek<br /></span> +<span>O'er the low grass waxen,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_61'></a>( 61 )</span> +<span>Or a hart high-limbed<br /></span> +<span>Over hurrying deer,<br /></span> +<span>Or gleed-red gold<br /></span> +<span>Over grey silver.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>That is the Icelandic fashion; William Morris has caught it in the +<i>Story of Sigurd</i>. Matthew Arnold has not seen fit to use it in his +"Balder Dead," as these lines show:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Him the blind Hoder met, as he came up<br /></span> +<span>From the sea cityward, and knew his step;<br /></span> +<span>Nor yet could Hermod see his brother's face,<br /></span> +<span>For it grew dark; but Hermod touched his arm.<br /></span> +<span>And as a spray of honeysuckle flowers<br /></span> +<span>Brushes across a tired traveller's face<br /></span> +<span>Who shuffles thro the deep-moistened dust,<br /></span> +<span>On a May-evening, in the darkened lanes,<br /></span> +<span>And starts him that he thinks a ghost went by—<br /></span> +<span>So Hoder brushed by Hermod's side.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>These are noble lines, but altogether foreign to Icelandic.</p> + +<p>Book III opens with the dream of Gudrun and Brynhild's interpretation of +it. This matter is managed in accordance with our own standards of art, +and thus differs materially from the saga story. In the latter a most +naïve procedure is adopted, for Brynhild prophesies that Sigurd shall +leave her for Gudrun, through Grimhild's guile, that strife shall come +between them, and that Sigurd shall die and Gudrun wed Atli. The whole +later story is thus revealed. This is not a story-teller's art, but it +sets clear the Old Norse acceptance of fate's dealings. Of course +Morris' poetic action explains the dream perfectly, but the details are +not so frankly given.</p> + +<p>"Thou shalt live and love and lose, and mingle in murder and war," is +the gist of Brynhild's message, and the whole future history is there.</p> + +<p>This poem has often been called an epic, and certainly there are many +epical characteristics in it. One of them is the recurrence of certain +formulas, and in Books III and IV these are rather more abundant than in +the first two books. Thus the sword of Sigurd is praised in the same +words, again and again:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>It hath not its like in the heavens nor has earth of its fellow told.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then, there is the "cloudy hall-roof" of the Niblungs. Gudrun + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_62'></a>( 62 )</span> + +is "the +white-armed"; Grimhild is "the wisest of women"; Hogni is the +"wise-heart"; the Niblungs are "the Cloudy People"; their beds are +"blue-covered"; "the Godson the hangings" is an expression that recurs +very often, and it recalls the fact that Morris was an artisan as well +as an artist.</p> + +<p>In the preceding books we have noted that Morris lengthened the saga +story in his poem by the introduction of speeches that find no place in +the original. In this book we see another lengthening process, which, +with that already noted, goes far to account for the difference in bulk +between the saga and the poem. Chap. XXVI of the saga, tells in less +than a thousands words how Sigurd comes to the Giukings and is wedded to +Gudrun. His reception is told in one hundred words; his abode with the +Giukings is set forth in even fewer words; Grimhild's plotting and +administering of the drugged drink are told in two hundred words; his +acceptance of Gudrun's hand and her brother's allegiance are as tersely +pictured; kingdoms are conquered, a son is born to Sigurd, and Grimhild +plots to have Sigurd get Brynhild for her son Gunnar, yet the record of +it all is compressed within one hundred and fifty words. Of course, the +modern poet can hem himself within no such narrow bounds as this. The +artistic value of these various incidents is priceless, and Morris has +lingered upon them lovingly and long. He spreads the story over forty +pages, or a thousand lines, and I avow, after a third reading of these +three sections of the poem, that I would spare no line of them. How we +love this Sigurd of the poet's painting! And what a noble gospel he +proclaims to the Giukings:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>For peace I bear unto thee, and to all the kings of the earth,<br /></span> +<span>Who bear the sword aright, and are crowned with the crown of worth;<br /></span> +<span>But unpeace to the lords of evil, and the battle and the death;<br /></span> +<span>And the edge of the sword to the traitor, and the flame to the slanderous breath:<br /></span> +<span>And I would that the loving were loved, and I would that the weary should sleep,<br /></span> +<span>And that man should hearken to man, and that he that soweth should reap.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 174.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Here, by the way, is the burden of Morris's preaching in the cause of a +better society. It recurs a few pages further on in the poem, where the +Niblungs bestow praise on this new hero:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_63'></a>( 63 )</span> +<span>And they say, when the sun of summer shall come aback to the land,<br /></span> +<span>It shall shine on the fields of the tiller that fears no heavy hand;<br /></span> +<span>That the sleep shall be for the plougher, and the loaf for him that sowed,<br /></span> +<span>Through every furrowed acre where the Son of Sigmund rode.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 178.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>It need hardly be remarked that this Sigurd is not the sagaman's ideal. +The Icelanders never evolved such high conceptions of man's obligations +to man, but in their ignorance they were no worse off than their +continental brethren, for these forgot their greatest Teacher's +teaching, and modern social science must point them back to it.</p> + +<p>This Sigurd that we love becomes the Sigurd that we pity in the drinking +of a draught. Sorrow takes the place of joy in his life, and "the soul +is changed in him," so that men may say that on this day they saw him +die the first time, who was to die a second time by Guttorm's sword. +Gloom spreads over all the earth with the quenching of Sigurd's joy:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>In the deedless dark he rideth, and all things he remembers save one,<br /></span> +<span>And nought else hath he care to remember of all the deeds he hath done.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here is illustrated the essential difference between the sagaman's art +and the modern story-teller's. The Icelander must tell his story in +haste; the deeds of men are his care, not their divagations nor their +psychologizings. The modern writer must linger on every step in the +story until the motive and the meaning are laid bare. In the present-day +version Sigurd's mental sufferings are described at length, and our +hearts are wrung at his unmerited woes. The saga knows no such woes, and +to all appearance Sigurd's life is not unhappy to its very end. Indeed, +it appears in more than one place in Morris's poem that Sigurd has +become godlike through the hard experiences of his life. Take this +passage as an illustration:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>So is Sigurd yet with the Niblungs, and he loveth Gudrun his wife,<br /></span> +<span>And wendeth afield with the brethren to the days of the dooming of life;<br /></span> +<span>And nought his glory waneth, nor falleth the flood of praise:<br /></span> +<span>To every man he hearkeneth, nor gainsayeth any grace,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_64'></a>( 64 )</span> +<span>And, glad is the poor in the Doom-ring when he seeth his face mid the Kings,<br /></span> +<span>For the tangle straighteneth before him, and the maze of crooked things.<br /></span> +<span>But the smile is departed from him, and the laugh of Sigurd the young,<br /></span> +<span>And of few words now is he waxen, and his songs are seldom sung.<br /></span> +<span>Howbeit of all the sad-faced was Sigurd loved the best;<br /></span> +<span>And men say: Is the king's heart mighty beyond all hope of rest?<br /></span> +<span>Lo, how he beareth the people! how heavy their woes are grown!<br /></span> +<span>So oft were a God mid the Goth-folk, if he dwelt in the world alone.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 205.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Set this by the side of the saga: "This is truer," says Sigurd, "that I +loved thee better than myself, though I fell into the wiles from whence +our lives may not escape; for whenso my own heart and mind availed me, +then I sorrowed sore that thou wert not my wife; but as I might I put my +trouble from me, for in a king's dwelling was I; and withal and in spite +of all I was well content that we were all together. Well may it be, +that that shall come to pass which is foretold; neither shall I fear the +fulfilment thereof." (<i>Völunga Saga</i>, Chap. XXIX.) These words are +spoken to Brynhild after she has discovered what she regards as Sigurd's +treachery. His words are dictated by a noble resignation to fate, but +his very next remark shows a moral meanness not at all in keeping with +Morris's conception. Sigurd said: "This my heart would, that thou and I +should go into one bed together; even so wouldst thou be my wife."</p> + +<p>There have been many griefs depicted in this poem, but surely here are +set forth the most pitiless of them all. The guile-won Brynhild travels +in state to the Cloudy Hall of the Niblungs, and the whole people come +out to meet her. They are astonished at her beauty, and give her cordial +greeting and welcome to her husband's house. Proud and majestic, the +marvelous woman steps from her golden wain, and gives friendly but +passionless greeting to Gunnar as she places her hand in his. For each +of Gunnar's brothers she has a kindly word, as she has for Grimhild, +too. She asks to see the foster-brother of whom such wondrous tales are +told, and whose name she heard from Gunnar's lips with never a +tremor—"Sigurd, the Volsung, the best man ever born." Grimhild stands +between them for a time, but the + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_65'></a>( 65 )</span> + +meeting has to come. Then Brynhild +remembers, and Sigurd sees the unveiled past:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Her heart ran back through the years, and yet her lips did move<br /></span> +<span>With the words she spake on Hindfell, when they plighted troth of love.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . . + . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>His face is exceeding glorious and awful to behold;<br /></span> +<span>For of all his sorrow he knoweth and his hope smit dead and cold:<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . . + . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>For the will of the Norns is accomplished, and outworn is Grimhild's spell<br /></span> +<span>And nought now shall blind or help him, and the tale shall be to tell.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 226.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>There's the note of the whole history—the will of the Norns and the +note of a whole Northern literature, as it is of a whole Southern +literature. Man, the puppet, in the hands of Fate; however man may think +and reason and assure himself that the dispensation of Fate is just, the +supreme moment of realization will always be a tragedy:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>He hath seen the face of Brynhild, and he knows why she hath come,<br /></span> +<span>And that his is the hand that hath drawn her to the Cloudy People's home:<br /></span> +<span>He knows of the net of the days, and the deeds that the Gods have bid,<br /></span> +<span>And no whit of the sorrow that shall be from his wakened soul is hid.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 226.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>In such an hour, what are conquests of a glorious past, what are honors, +crowns, loves, hates? The mind can think of little matters only:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>His heart speeds back to Hindfell, and the dawn of the wakening day;<br /></span> +<span>And the hours betwixt are as nothing, and their deeds are fallen away.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 226.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Is aught to be said to one in such a crisis, the words are weak and +commonplace. There is Brynhild's greeting to Sigurd:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>If aught thy soul shall desire while yet thou livest on earth,<br /></span> +<span>I pray that thou mayst win it, nor forget its might and worth.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The shattered mind of Sigurd tries to grasp the meaning of the harmless +words, and like common sounds that are so fearful in the night, the +phrases assume a terrible import:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>All grief, sharp scorn, sore longing, stark death in her voice he knew.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_66'></a>( 66 )</span> + +Then again conies the dominant note of this story:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Gone forth is the doom of the Norns, and what shall be answer thereto,<br /></span> +<span>While the death that amendeth lingers?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here is a hint of the end of all—"the death that amendeth," and from +this point to the end of the story there is no gleam of happiness for +anyone.</p> + +<p>Book IV brings to a majestic close this mighty history. We have dwelt so +long on the wonderful poetry of the other books that we must refrain +from further comment in this strain. As we read these eloquent +imaginings, we regret that the English reading public have left this +work through fear of its great length or the ignorance of its existence, +in the dust of half-forgotten shelves. Gold disused is true gold none +the less, and the ages to come may be more appreciative than the +present.</p> + +<p>For the sake of rounding out this story, be it noted concerning this +Book IV, that the poet has taken liberties with the saga story here, as +elsewhere. Motives more easily understood in our day are assigned for +the deeds of dread that throng these closing scenes. Gudrun weds King +Atli at her mother's bidding, and under the influence of a wicked +potion, but neither mother nor magic drives the memory of Sigurd from +her mind. She lives to bring destruction upon her husband's murderers, +and those murderers are her own flesh and blood. Through her appeals to +Atli's greed, and through Knefrud's lies in the Niblung court, the visit +of her proud brothers to her pliant husband is brought about. The saga +makes Atli the arch-plotter, and the motive his desire to possess the +gold. This sentence exculpates Gudrun from any wrong intention towards +her brothers: "Now the queen wots of their conspiring, and misdoubts her +that this would mean some beguiling of her brethren." (Chap. XXXIV.) In +Chap. XXXVIII, we are told that Gudrun fights on the side of her +brothers. We see at once the superiority of the poet's motive for a +modern tragedy.</p> + +<p>It is impressed upon the reader of an epic that the plan of its maker +does not call for fine analysis of character. The epic poet is concerned +necessarily with large considerations, and his personages do not split +hairs from the south to the southeast side. One sign of this is seen in +the epic formulæ employed to characterize + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_67'></a>( 67 )</span> + +the personages of the story. +Such formulas are in <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i> in abundance, as we have noted +on another page. But there are also many departures from the epic model +in this poem. Some of these we have referred to in the remarks on Book +III, where we noted Sigurd's mental sufferings. In Book IV we have a +discrimination of character that is not epic, but dramatic in its +minuteness. In the speech and the deeds of the Niblungs their pride and +selfishness is clearly set forth, but the individual members of that +race are distinguished by traits very minutely drawn. Thus Hogni is the +wary Niblung, and is averse to accepting Atli's invitation:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"I know not, I know not," said Hogni, "but an unsure bridge is the sea,<br /></span> +<span>And such would I oft were builded betwixt my foeman and me.<br /></span> +<span>I know a sorrow that sleepeth, and a wakened grief I know,<br /></span> +<span>And the torment of the mighty is a strong and fearful foe."<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 281.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Gunnar is here distinguished as a hypocrite by word and deed; Gudrun +remembers Sigurd in her exile and schemes and plots to make her husband +Atli work her vengeance on the Niblungs; Atli is greedy for gold and +Gudrun's task is not hard; Knefrud is a liar whose words are winning, +and overcome the scruples of the Niblungs. In these careful +discriminations of character we see a non-epical trait, and of necessity +therefore, a non-Icelandic trait. The sagaman was epic in his tone.</p> + +<p>As a last appreciation of the art of William Morris as it is displayed +in this poem, we would call attention to the tremendous battle-piece +entitled "Of the Battle in Atli's Hall." It is the climax of this +marvelous poem, and in no detail is it inadequate to its place in the +work. The poet's constructive power is here demonstrated to be of the +highest order, and in the majestic sweep of events that is here +depicted, we see the poet in his original role of <i>maker</i>. The sagaman's +skill had not the power to conceive this titanic drama, and the memory +of his battle-piece is quite effaced by the modern invention. In blood +and fire the story comes to an end with Gudrun,</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>The white and silent woman above the slaughter set.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As we turn from the scene and the book, that figure fades not + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_68'></a>( 68 )</span> + +away. And +it is fitting that the last memory of this poem should be a picture of +love and hate, inextricably bound together, for that is the irony of +Fate, and Fate was mistress of the Old Norseman's world.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='5'></a><h4>5.</h4> + +<p>Between the great works dealt with in the last two sections, which +belong together and were therefore so considered, came the book of 1875, +bearing the title <i>Three Northern Love Stories and Other Tales</i>. It is +as good a representation as Iceland can make in the love-story class.</p> + +<p>These tales are charmingly told in the translation of Morris and +Magnusson, the second one, "Frithiof the Bold," being a master-piece in +its kind. Men will dare much for the love of a woman, and that is why +the sagaman records love episodes at all. Frithiof's voyage to the +Orkneys in Chap. VI is a stormpiece that vies with anything of its kind +in modern literature. It is Norse to the core, and we love the peerless +young hero who forgets not his manhood in his chagrin of defeat at love. +Surely there is fitness in these outbursts of song in moments of extreme +exultation or despair! "And he sang withal:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Helgi it is that helpeth<br /></span> +<span>The white-head billows' waxing;<br /></span> +<span>Cold time unlike the kissing<br /></span> +<span>In the close of Baldur's Meadow!<br /></span> +<span>So is the hate of Helgi<br /></span> +<span>To that heart's love she giveth.<br /></span> +<span>O would that here I held her,<br /></span> +<span>Gift high above all giving!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Modern literature has lost this conventionality of the older writings, +found in Hebrew as well as in Icelandic, and we think it has lost +something valuable. Morris thought so, too, for he restored the +interpolated song-snatches in his Romances. We are tempted to dwell on +these three love-stories, they are so fine; but we must leave them with +the remark that they show the poet's appreciation of the worth of a +foreign literature, and his great desire to have his countrymen share in +his admiration for them. "The Story of Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue and +Raven the Skald," and "The Story of Viglund the Fair," are the other two +stories that give the title to the volume, representing the thirteenth +and fifteenth centuries, as "Frithiof" represented the fourteenth.</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_69'></a>( 69 )</span> +<a name='6'></a><h4>6.</h4> + +<p>With <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i> ended the first great Icelandic period of +Morris's work. More than a dozen years passed before he returned to the +field, and from 1889 until his death, in 1896, everything he wrote bore +proofs of his abiding interest in and affection for the ancient +literature. The remarkable series of romances, <i>The House of the +Wolfings</i> (1889), <i>The Roots of the Mountains</i> (1890), <i>The Story of the +Glittering Plain</i> (1891), <i>The Wood Beyond the World</i> (1895), <i>The Well +at the World's End</i> (1896) and <i>The Sundering Flood</i> (posthumous), are +none of them distinctively Old Norse in geography or in story, but they +all have the flavor of the saga-translations, and are all the better for +it. They are as original and as beautiful as the poet's tapestries and +furniture, and if they did not provoke imitation as did the tapestries +and furniture, it was not because they were not worth imitating: more +than likely there were no imitators equal to the task. In these romances +we have men and women with the characteristics of an olden time that are +most worthy of conservation in the present time. The ideals of womanfolk +and manfolk in <i>The House of the Wolfings</i> and <i>The Roots of the +Mountains</i>, for instance, are such as an Englishman might well be proud +to have in his remote ancestry. Hall-Sun, Wood-Sun, Sunbeam, and Bowmay +are wholesome women to meet in a story, and Thiodolf, Gold-mane, +Iron-face and Hallward are every inch men for book-use or to commune +with every day. Weaklings, too, abide in these stories, and Penny-thumb +and Rusty and Fiddle and Wood-grey lend humanity to the company.</p> + +<p>The two romances last mentioned are so steeped in the atmosphere of the +sagas, that what with folk-motes and shut-beds, and byres, and +man-quellers, and handsels and speech-friends, we seem to lose ourselves +in yet another version of a northern tale. Morris retains the old idiom +that he invented for his translations, and keeps the tyro thumbing his +dictionary, but the charm is increased by the archaisms. As one seeks +the words in the dictionary, one learns that Chaucer, Spenser and the +Ballads were the wells from which he drew these rare words, and that his +employment of them is only another phase of his love for the old far-off +things. It is true that the language of Morris is not of + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_70'></a>( 70 )</span> + +any one +stadium of English, but it is a poet's privilege to draw upon all +history for his words as well as for his allusions, and the revivals in +question are of worthy words pushed aside by the press of newer, but not +necessarily better forms.</p> + +<p>These works are the kind that show the influence of Old Norse literature +as spiritual rather than substantial. The stories are not drawn from the +older literature, nor are the settings patterned after it; but the +impulses that swayed men and women in the sagaman's tale, and the +motives that uplifted them, are found here. We cannot think that the +English people will always be unmindful of the great debt that they owe +to the Muse of the North.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='7'></a><h4>7.</h4> + +<p>In 1891, Morris engaged in a literary enterprise that set the fashion +for similar enterprises in succeeding years. With Eirikr Magnusson he +undertook the making of <i>The Saga Library</i>, "addressed to the whole +reading public, and not only to students of Scandinavian history, +folk-lore and language." +<a name='FNanchor_33_33'></a><a href='#Footnote_33_33'><sup>[33]</sup></a> +With Bernard Quaritch's imprint on the +title pages, these volumes to the number of five were issued in +exceptional type and form. The munificence of the publisher was equalled +by the skill of the translators, and in their versions of "Howard, the +Halt," "The Banded Men," and "Hen Thorir" (in Vol. I, dated 1891), "The +Ere-Dwellers" (in Vol. II, dated 1892) and <i>Heimskringla</i> (in Vols. III, +IV and V, dated 1893-4-5), the definitive translations of sterling sagas +were given. As was the case with their <i>Grettis Saga</i>, the works rise to +the dignity of masterpieces, and had we no other legacy from Morris' +wealth of Icelandic scholarship, these translations were precious enough +to keep us grateful through many generations.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='8'></a><h4>8.</h4> + +<p>One more contribution to English literature hailing from the North, and +we have done with William Morris's splendid gifts. The volume of 1891, +entitled <i>Poems by the Way</i>, contains several pieces that must be +reckoned with. The vividest recollections of Icelandic materials here +made use of are the poems "Iceland First Seen," and "To the Muses of the +North." No + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_71'></a>( 71 )</span> + +reader of the poet's biography can forget the remarkable +journey that Morris made through Iceland, nor how he prepared for that +journey with all the care and love of a pilgrim bound for a shrine of +his deepest devotion. Every foot of ground was visited that had been +hallowed by the noble souls and inspiring deeds of the past, and that +pilgrimage warmed him to loving literary creation through the remainder +of his life. The last two stanzas of the first of the poems just +mentioned show what a strong hold the forsaken island had upon his +affections, and go far to explain the success of his Icelandic work:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>O Queen of the grief without knowledge,<br /></span> +<span>of the courage that may not avail,<br /></span> +<span>Of the longing that may not attain,<br /></span> +<span>of the love that shall never forget,<br /></span> +<span>More joy than the gladness of laughter<br /></span> +<span>thy voice hath amidst of its wail:<br /></span> +<span>More hope than of pleasure fulfilled<br /></span> +<span>amidst of thy blindness is set;<br /></span> +<span>More glorious than gaining of all<br /></span> +<span>thine unfaltering hand that shall fail:<br /></span> +<span>For what is the mark on thy brow<br /></span> +<span>but the brand that thy Brynhild doth bear?<br /></span> +<span>Lone once, and loved and undone<br /></span> +<span>by a love that no ages outwear.<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>Ah! when thy Balder conies back,<br /></span> +<span>and bears from the heart of the Sun<br /></span> +<span>Peace and the healing of pain,<br /></span> +<span>and the wisdom that waiteth no more;<br /></span> +<span>And the lilies are laid on thy brow<br /></span> +<span>'mid the crown of the deeds thou hast done;<br /></span> +<span>And the roses spring up by thy feet<br /></span> +<span>that the rocks of the wilderness wore.<br /></span> +<span>Ah! when thy Balder comes back<br /></span> +<span>and we gather the gains he hath won,<br /></span> +<span>Shall we not linger a little<br /></span> +<span>to talk of thy sweetness of old,<br /></span> +<span>Yea, turn back awhile to thy travail<br /></span> +<span>whence the Gods stood aloof to behold?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In several other poems in this volume he recurs to the practice of his +romances, Scandinavianizes where the tendency of other + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_72'></a>( 72 )</span> + +poets would be +to mediævalize. "Of the Wooing of Hallbiorn the Strong," and "The Raven +and the King's Daughter" are examples. Here we have ballads like those +that Coleridge and Keats conceived on occasion, full of the beauty that +lends itself so kindly to painted-glass decoration; clustered +spear-shafts, crested helms and curling banners, and everywhere lily +hands combing yellow hair or broidering silken standards. But the names +strike a strange note in these songs of Morris, and the accompaniments +are very different from the mediæval kind:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Come ye carles of the south country,<br /></span> +<span>Now shall we go our kin to see!<br /></span> +<span>For the lambs are bleating in the south,<br /></span> +<span>And the salmon swims towards Olfus mouth.<br /></span> +<span>Girth and graithe and gather your gear!<br /></span> +<span>And ho for the other Whitewater! +<a name='FNanchor_34_34'></a><a href='#Footnote_34_34'><sup>[34]</sup></a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The introduction of the homely arts of bread-winning distinguishes the +romance of Scandinavia from the romance of Southern Europe, and here +Morris struck into a new field for poetry. Wherever we turn to note the +effects of Icelandic tradition, we find this presence of daily toil, +always associated with dignity, never apologized for. The connection +between Morris' art and Morris' socialism is not hard to explain.</p> + +<p>No commentary can equal Morris' own poem, "To the Muse of the North," in +setting forth the charm that drew him to the literature of Iceland:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>O Muse that swayest the sad Northern Song,<br /></span> +<span>Thy right hand full of smiting and of wrong,<br /></span> +<span>Thy left hand holding pity; and thy breast<br /></span> +<span>Heaving with hope of that so certain rest:<br /></span> +<span>Thou, with the grey eyes kind and unafraid,<br /></span> +<span>The soft lips trembling not, though they have said<br /></span> +<span>The doom of the World and those that dwell therein.<br /></span> +<span>The lips that smile not though thy children win<br /></span> +<span>The fated Love that draws the fated Death.<br /></span> +<span>O, borne adown the fresh stream of thy breath,<br /></span> +<span>Let some word reach my ears and touch my heart,<br /></span> +<span>That, if it may be, I may have a part<br /></span> +<span>In that great sorrow of thy children dead<br /></span> +<span>That vexed the brow, and bowed adown the head,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_98'></a>( 73 )</span> +<span>Whitened the hair, made life a wondrous dream,<br /></span> +<span>And death the murmur of a restful stream,<br /></span> +<span>But left no stain upon those souls of thine<br /></span> +<span>Whose greatness through the tangled world doth shine.<br /></span> +<span>O Mother, and Love and Sister all in one,<br /></span> +<span>Come thou; for sure I am enough alone<br /></span> +<span>That thou thine arms about my heart shouldst throw,<br /></span> +<span>And wrap me in the grief of long ago.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_74'></a>( 74 )</span> +<a name='V'></a><h2>V.</h2> + +<h2>IN THE LATTER DAYS.</h2> +<br /> + +<a name='ECHOES'></a><h3>ECHOES OF ICELAND IN LATER POETS.</h3> + + +<p>After William Morris the northern strain that we have been listening for +in the English poets seems feeble and not worth noting. Nevertheless, it +must be remarked that in the harp of a thousand strings that wakes to +music under the bard's hands, there is a sweep which thrills to the +ancient traditions of the Northland. Now and then the poet reaches for +these strings, and gladdens us with some reminiscence of</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i2'>old, unhappy, far-off things<br /></span> +<span>And battles long ago.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As had already been intimated, the table of contents in a present-day +volume of poetry is very apt to show an Old Norse title. Thus Robert +Lord Lytton's <i>Poems Historical and Characteristic</i> (London, 1877) +reveals among the poems on European, Oriental, classic and mediaeval +subjects, "The Death of Earl Hacon," a strong piece inspired by an +incident in <i>Heimskringla</i>. In Robert Buchanan's multifarious versifying +occurs this title: "Balder the Beautiful, A Song of Divine Death," but +only the title is Old Norse; nothing in the poem suggests that origin +except a notion or two of the end of all things. "Hakon" is the title of +a short virile piece more nearly of the Norse spirit. Sidney Dobell's +drama <i>Balder</i> has only the title to suggest the Icelandic, but Gerald +Massey has the true ring in a number of lyrics, with themes drawn from +the records of Norway's relations with England. In "The Norseman" there +is a trumpet strain that recalls the best of the border-ballads; there +is also a truthfulness of portraiture that argues a poet's, intuition in +Gerald Massey, if not an acquaintance with the sagas:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>The Norseman's King must stand up tall,<br /></span> +<span>If he would be head over all;<br /></span> +<span>Mainmast of Battle! when the plain<br /></span> +<span>Is miry-red with bloody rain!<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_75'></a>( 75 )</span> +<span>And grip his weapon for the fight,<br /></span> +<span>Until his knuckles grin tooth-white,<br /></span> +<span>The banner-staff he bears is best<br /></span> +<span>If double handful for the rest:<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>When "follow me" cries the Norseman.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He knows the gentler side of Old Norse character, too, a side which, as +we have seen, was not suspected till Carlyle came:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>He hides at heart of his rough life,<br /></span> +<span>A world of sweetness for the Wife;<br /></span> +<span>From his rude breast a Babe may press<br /></span> +<span>Soft milk of human tenderness,—<br /></span> +<span>Make his eyes water, his heart dance,<br /></span> +<span>And sunrise in his countenance:<br /></span> +<span>In merriest mood his ale he quaffs<br /></span> +<span>By firelight, and with jolly heart laughs<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>The blithe, great-hearted Norseman.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The poem "Old King Hake," is as strikingly true in characterization as +the preceding. In half a dozen strophes Massey has told a whole saga, +and has found time, too, to describe "an iron hero of Norse mould." How +miserable a personage is the Italian that flits through Browning's pages +when contrasted with this hero:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>When angry, out the blood would start<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>With old King Hake;<br /></span> +<span>Not sneak in dark caves of the heart,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Where curls the snake,<br /></span> +<span>And secret Murder's hiss is heard<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Ere the deed be done:<br /></span> +<span>He wove no web of wile and word;<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>He bore with none.<br /></span> +<span>When sharp within its sheath asleep<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Lay his good sword,<br /></span> +<span>He held it royal work to keep<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>His kingly word.<br /></span> +<span>A man of valour, bloody and wild,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>In Viking need;<br /></span> +<span>And yet of firelight feeling mild<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>As honey-mead.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Another poem, "The Banner-Bearer of King Olaf," pictures the strong +fighter in a death he rejoiced to die. It is a good + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_76'></a>( 76 )</span> + +poem of the class +that nerves men to die for the flag, and it has the Old Norse spirit. +These poems are all from Massey's volume <i>My Lyrical Life</i> (London. +1889).</p> + +<p>A glance at the other poems in Gerald Massey's volumes shows that like +Morris, and like Kingsley, and like Carlyle, the poet was a workman +eager to do for the workman. Is it not suggestive that these men found +themselves drawn to Old Norse character and life? The Icelandic republic +cherished character as the highest quality of citizenship, and put few +or no social obstacles in the way of its achievement. The literature +inspired by that life reveals a fellowship among the members of that +republic that is the envy of social reformers of the present day. Morris +makes one of the personages in <i>The Story of the Glittering Plain</i> +(Chap. I) say these words: "And as for Lord, I knew not this word, for +here dwell we the Sons of the Raven in good fellowship, with our wives +that we have wedded, and our mothers who have borne us, and our sisters +who serve us." Almost may this description serve for Iceland in its +golden age, and so it is no wonder that the socialist, the priest, and +the philosopher of our own disjointed times go back to the sagas for +ideals to serve their countrymen.</p> + +<p>We have no other poets to mention by name in connection with this Old +Norse influence, although doubtless a search through the countless +volumes that the presses drop into a cold and uncaring world would +reveal other poems with Scandinavian themes. We close this section of +our investigation with the remark already made, that, in the tables of +titles in volumes of contemporary verse, acknowledgment to Old Norse +poetry and prose are not the rarity they once were, and in poems of any +kind allusions to the same sources are very common.</p> + +<br /> + +<a name='RECENT_TRANS'></a><h3>RECENT TRANSLATIONS.</h3> + + +<p>We have already noted the beginning of serial publications of saga +translations, namely, Morris and Magnusson's <i>Saga Library</i> which was +stopped by the death of Morris when the fifth volume had been completed. +By the last decade of the nineteenth century Icelandic had become one of +the languages that an ordinary scholar might boast, and in consequence +the list of translations began to lengthen very fast. Several English +publishers with + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_77'></a>( 77 )</span> + +scholarly instincts were attracted to this field, and +so the reading public may get at the sagas that were so long the +exclusive possession of learned professors. <i>The Northern Library</i>, +published by David Nutt, of London, already contains four volumes and +more are promised: <i>The Saga of King Olaf Tryggwason,</i> by J. Sephton, +appeared in 1895; <i>The Tale of Thrond of Gate</i> (<i>Færeyinga Saga</i>), by F. +York Powell, in 1896; <i>Hamlet in Iceland</i> (<i>Ambales Saga</i>), by Israel +Gollancz, in 1898; <i>The Saga of King Sverri of Norway</i> (<i>Sverris Saga</i>), +by J. Sephton, in 1899. If we cannot give to these the praise of being +great literature though translations, we can at least foresee that this +process of turning all the readable sagas into English will quicken +adaptations and increase the stock of allusions in modern writings.</p> + +<p>An example of the publishers' feeling that the reading public will find +an interest in the saga itself, is the translation of <i>Laxdæla Saga</i> by +Muriel A.C. Press (London, 1899, J.M. Dent & Co.). William Morris made +this saga known to readers of English poetry by his magnificent "Lovers +of Gudrun." Mrs. Press lets us see the story in its original form. +Perhaps this translation will appeal as widely as any to those who read, +and we may note the differences between this form of writing and that to +which the modern times are accustomed.</p> + +<p>This saga is a story, but it is not like the work of fiction, nor like +the sketch of history which appeals to our interest to-day. It has not +the unity of purpose which marks the novel, nor the broad outlook over +events which characterizes the history. Plotting is abundant, but plot +in the technical sense there is none. Events are recorded in +chronological order, but there is no march of those events to a +<i>denouement</i>. While it would be wrong to say that there is no one hero +in a saga, it would be more correct to say that that hero's name is +legion. From generation to generation a saga-history wends its way, each +period dominated by a great hero. The annals of a family edited for +purposes of oral recitation, or the life of the principal member of that +family with an introduction dealing with the great deeds of as many of +his ancestors as he would be proud to own—this seems to be what a saga +was—<i>Laxdæla</i>, <i>Grettla</i>, <i>Njala</i>.</p> + +<p>This form permits many sterling literary qualities. Movement + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_78'></a>( 78 )</span> + +is the +most marked characteristic. This was essential to a spoken story, and +the sharpest impression left in the mind of an English reader is that of +relentless activity. Thus he finds it necessary to keep the bearings of +the story by consulting the list of <i>dramatis personæ</i> and the map, both +indispensable accompaniments of a saga-translation. The chapter headings +make this list, and a glance at them for <i>Laxdæla</i> reveals a procession +of notable personages—Ketill, Unn, Hoskuld, Olaf the Peacock, Kiartan, +Gudrun, Bolli, Thorgills, Thorkell, Thorleik, Bolli Bollison and Snorri. +Each of these is, in turn, the center of action, and only Gudrun keeps +prominent for any length of time.</p> + +<p>Character-portraiture, ever a remarkable achievement in literature, is +excellently done in the sagas. There was a necessity for this; so many +personages crowded the stage that, if they were not to be mere puppets, +they would have to be carefully discriminated. That they were so a +perusal of any saga will prove.</p> + +<p>In a novel love is almost indispensable; in a saga other forces are the +impelling motives. Love-making gets the novelist's tenderest interest +and solicitude, but it receives little attention from the sagaman. +Wooing under the Arctic Circle was a methodical bargaining, and there +was little room for sentiment. When Thorvald asked for Osvif's daughter +Gudrun, the father "said that against the match it would tell that he +and Gudrun were not of equal standing. Thorvald spoke gently and said he +was wooing a wife, not money. After that Gudrun was betrothed to +Thorvald.... He should also bring her jewels, so that no woman of equal +wealth should have better to show.... Gudrun was not asked about it and +took it much to heart, yet things went on quietly." (Chap. XXXIV of +<i>Laxdæla</i>.) In Iceland, as elsewhere, love was a source of discord, and +for that reason love is always present in the saga. It is not the tender +passion there, silvered with moonlight and attended by song. The saga is +a man's tale.</p> + +<p>The translation just referred to is in <i>The Temple Classics</i>, published +by J.M. Dent & Co., London, 1899, and edited by Israel Gollancz. The +editor promises (p. 273) other sagas in this form, if Mrs. Press's work +prove successful. He speaks of <i>Njala</i> and <i>Volsunga</i> as imminent. It is +to be hoped that the intention is to give the Dasent and the Morris +versions, for they cannot be excelled.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='FOOTNOTES'></a><h2>FOOTNOTES:</h2> + +<a name='Footnote_1_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_1'>[1]</a><div class='note'><p> +Quoted in Gray, by E.W. Gosse, English Men of Letters, p. +163.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_2'>[2]</a><div class='note'><p> B. +Hoff. Hovedpunkter af den Oldislandske +litteratur-historie. København. 1873.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_3'>[3]</a><div class='note'><p> Pp. +xli-l in Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas +Gray, edited by W.L. Phelps. Ginn & Co., Boston. 1894.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_4'>[4]</a><div class='note'><p> Life +of Gray, pp. 160 ff.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_5'>[5]</a><div class='note'><p> Wm. +Sharp in Lyra Celtica, p. xx. Patrick Geddes and +Colleagues. Edinburgh. 1896.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_6_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_6'>[6]</a><div class='note'><p> Of +Heroic Virtue, p. 355, Vol. III of Sir William Temple's +Works. London. 1770.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_7_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_7'>[7]</a><div class='note'><p> Of +Heroic Virtue, p. 356.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_8'>[8]</a><div class='note'><p> Of +Poetry, p. 416.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_9_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_9_9'>[9]</a><div class='note'><p> Spelling +and punctuation are as in the original.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_10_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_10_10'>[10]</a><div class='note'><p> +Stopford Brooke, English Literature. D. Appleton & Co., +New York. 1884. p. 150.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_11_11'></a><a href='#FNanchor_11_11'>[11]</a><div class='note'><p> +Vol. 3, pp. 146-311.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_12_12'></a><a href='#FNanchor_12_12'>[12]</a><div class='note'><p> +Quoted in Introduction, p. vii.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_13_13'></a><a href='#FNanchor_13_13'>[13]</a><div class='note'><p> +Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., Vol. I, p. +231. Boston, Houghton, Osgood & Co. 1879.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_14_14'></a><a href='#FNanchor_14_14'>[14]</a><div class='note'><p> +Edinburgh Review, Oct., 1806.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_15_15'></a><a href='#FNanchor_15_15'>[15]</a><div class='note'><p> +Quoted in Lockhart's Life, Vol. III, p. 241.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_16_16'></a><a href='#FNanchor_16_16'>[16]</a><div class='note'><p> +In G.W. Dasent's Life of Cleasby, prefixed to the +Icelandic-English Dictionary. Based on the MS. collection of the late +Richard Cleasby, enlarged and completed by Gudbrand Vigfusson. Oxford. +1874.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_17_17'></a><a href='#FNanchor_17_17'>[17]</a><div class='note'><p> +In another work by Carlyle, <i>The Early Kings of Norway</i> +(1875) he takes special delight in revealing to Englishmen name +etymologies that hark back to Norse times. Of this sort are Osborn from +Osbjorn; Tooley St. (London) from St. Olave, St. Oley, Stooley, Tooley, +(Chap. X).</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_18_18'></a><a href='#FNanchor_18_18'>[18]</a><div class='note'><p> +<i>The Early Kings of Norway</i> bears a later date—1875—than +the works we are considering just now, and it is dealt with here only +because Carlyle's <i>Heroes and Hero-Worship</i> belongs in the decade we are +considering.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_19_19'></a><a href='#FNanchor_19_19'>[19]</a><div class='note'><p> +Chap. V of Preliminary Dissertation.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_20_20'></a><a href='#FNanchor_20_20'>[20]</a><div class='note'><p> +Letters, Vol. I, p. 55, dated Dec. 12, 1855.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_21_21'></a><a href='#FNanchor_21_21'>[21]</a><div class='note'><p> +Home of the Eddic Poems, p. xxxix. London, 1899. David +Nutt.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_22_22'></a><a href='#FNanchor_22_22'>[22]</a><div class='note'><p> +Introduction to the Cleasby Dictionary.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_23_23'></a><a href='#FNanchor_23_23'>[23]</a><div class='note'><p> +Oxford Essays, 1858, p. 214.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_24_24'></a><a href='#FNanchor_24_24'>[24]</a><div class='note'><p> +Lectures delivered in America in 1874, by Charles +Kingsley. London. 1875. p. 71.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_25_25'></a><a href='#FNanchor_25_25'>[25]</a><div class='note'><p> +P. 78.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_26_26'></a><a href='#FNanchor_26_26'>[26]</a><div class='note'><p> +P. 89.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_27_27'></a><a href='#FNanchor_27_27'>[27]</a><div class='note'><p> +P. 90.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_28_28'></a><a href='#FNanchor_28_28'>[28]</a><div class='note'><p> +P. 91.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_29_29'></a><a href='#FNanchor_29_29'>[29]</a><div class='note'><p> +P. 96.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_30_30'></a><a href='#FNanchor_30_30'>[30]</a><div class='note'><p> +The Life of William Morris, by J.W. Mackail. London, New +York, Bombay. Vol. I, p. 200.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_31_31'></a><a href='#FNanchor_31_31'>[31]</a><div class='note'><p> +Edmond Scherer. Essays on English Literature, p. 309.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_32_32'></a><a href='#FNanchor_32_32'>[32]</a><div class='note'><p> +Citations are from the 3d edition. Boston. 1881.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_33_33'></a><a href='#FNanchor_33_33'>[33]</a><div class='note'><p> +Preface to Vol. I, p. v.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_34_34'></a><a href='#FNanchor_34_34'>[34]</a><div class='note'><p> +The Wooing of Hallbiorn.</p></div> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13786 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9fb141 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13786 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13786) diff --git a/old/13786-8.txt b/old/13786-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..22f4c40 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13786-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3866 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Influence of Old Norse Literature on +English Literature, by Conrad Hjalmar Nordby + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Influence of Old Norse Literature on English Literature + +Author: Conrad Hjalmar Nordby + +Release Date: October 18, 2004 [eBook #13786] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INFLUENCE OF OLD NORSE +LITERATURE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE*** + + +E-text prepared by David Starner and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE INFLUENCE OF OLD NORSE LITERATURE UPON ENGLISH LITERATURE + +by + +CONRAD HJALMAR NORDBY + +1901 + + + + + + + + Deyr fé + deyja frændr, + deyr siálfr it sama; + en orðstírr + deyr aldrigi + hveim er sér góðan getr. + _Hávamál_, 75. + + + Cattle die, + kindred die, + we ourselves also die; + but the fair fame + never dies + of him who has earned it. + Thorpe's _Edda_. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +The present publication is the only literary work left by its author. +Unfortunately it lacks a few pages which, as his manuscript shows, he +intended to add, and it also failed to receive his final revision. His +friends have nevertheless deemed it expedient to publish the result of +his studies conducted with so much ardor, in order that some memorial of +his life and work should remain for the wider public. To those +acquainted with him, no written words can represent the charm of his +personality or give anything approaching an adequate impression of his +ability and strength of character. + +Conrad Hjalmar Nordby was born September 20, 1867, at Christiania, +Norway. At the age of four he was brought to New York, where he was +educated in the public schools. He was graduated from the College of the +City of New York in 1886. From December of that year to June, 1893, he +taught in Grammar School No. 55, and in September, 1893, he was called +to his Alma Mater as Tutor in English. He was promoted to the rank of +Instructor in 1897, a position which he held at the time of his death. +He died in St. Luke's Hospital, October 28, 1900. In October, 1894, he +began his studies in the School of Philosophy of Columbia University, +taking courses in Philosophy and Education under Professor Nicholas +Murray Butler, and in Germanic Literatures and Germanic Philology under +Professors Boyesen, William H. Carpenter and Calvin Thomas. It was under +the guidance of Professor Carpenter that the present work was conceived +and executed. + +Such a brief outline of Mr. Nordby's career can, however, give but an +imperfect view of his activities, while it gives none at all of his +influence. He was a teacher who impressed his personality, not only upon +his students, but upon all who knew him. In his character were united +force and refinement, firmness and geniality. In his earnest work with +his pupils, in his lectures to the teachers of the New York Public +Schools and to other audiences, in his personal influence upon all with +whom he came in contact, he spread the taste for beauty, both of poetry +and of life. When his body was carried to the grave, the grief was not +confined to a few intimate friends; all who had known him felt that +something noble and beautiful had vanished from their lives. + +In this regard his career was, indeed, rich in achievement, but when we +consider what, with his large equipment, he might have done in the world +of scholarship, the promise, so untimely blighted, seems even richer. +From early youth he had been a true lover of books. To him they were not +dead things; they palpitated with the life blood of master spirits. The +enthusiasm for William Morris displayed in the present essay is typical +of his feeling for all that he considered best in literature. Such an +enthusiasm, communicated to those about him, rendered him a vital force +in every company where works of creative genius could be a theme of +conversation. + +A love of nature and of art accompanied and reinforced this love of +literature; and all combined to produce the effect of wholesome purity +and elevation which continually emanated from him. His influence, in +fact, was largely of that pervasive sort which depends, not on any +special word uttered, and above all, not on any preachment, but upon the +entire character and life of the man. It was for this reason that his +modesty never concealed his strength. He shrunk above all things from +pushing himself forward and demanding public notice, and yet few ever +met him without feeling the force of character that lay behind his +gentle and almost retiring demeanor. It was easy to recognize that here +was a man, self-centered and whole. + +In a discourse pronounced at a memorial meeting, the Rev. John Coleman +Adams justly said: "If I wished to set before my boy a type of what is +best and most lovable in the American youth, I think I could find no +more admirable character than that of Conrad Hjalmar Nordby. A young man +of the people, with all their unexhausted force, vitality and +enthusiasm; a man of simple aims and honest ways; as chivalrous and +high-minded as any knight of old; as pure in life as a woman; at once +gentle and brave, strong and sweet, just and loving; upright, but no +Pharisee; earnest, but never sanctimonious; who took his work as a +pleasure, and his pleasure as an innocent joy; a friend to be coveted; a +disciple such as the Saviour must have loved; a true son of God, who +dwelt in the Father's house. Of such youth our land may well be proud; +and no man need speak despairingly of a nation whose life and +institutions can ripen such a fruit." + + L.F.M. + COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, + May 15, 1901. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +It should not be hard for the general reader to understand that the +influence which is the theme of this dissertation is real and +explicable. If he will but call the roll of his favorite heroes, he will +find Sigurd there. In his gallery of wondrous women, he certainly +cherishes Brynhild. These poetic creations belong to the +English-speaking race, because they belong to the world. And if one will +but recall the close kinship of the Icelandic and the Anglo-Saxon +languages, he will not find it strange that the spirit of the old Norse +sagas lives again in our English song and story. + +The survey that this essay takes begins with Thomas Gray (1716-1771), +and comes down to the present day. It finds the fullest measure of the +old Norse poetic spirit in William Morris (1834-1896), and an increasing +interest and delight in it as we come toward our own time. The +enterprise of learned societies and enlightened book publishers has +spread a knowledge of Icelandic literature among the reading classes of +the present day; but the taste for it is not to be accounted for in the +same way. That is of nobler birth than of erudition or commercial pride. +Is it not another expression of that changed feeling for the things that +pertain to the common people, which distinguishes our century from the +last? The historian no longer limits his study to camp and court; the +poet deigns to leave the drawing-room and library for humbler scenes. +Folk-lore is now dignified into a science. The touch of nature has made +the whole world kin, and our highly civilized century is moved by the +records of the passions of the earlier society. + +This change in taste was long in coming, and the emotional phase of it +has preceded the intellectual. It is interesting to note that Gray and +Morris both failed to carry their public with them all the way. Gray, +the most cultured man of his time, produced art forms totally different +from those in vogue, and Walpole[1] said of these forms: "Gray has +added to his poems three ancient odes from Norway and Wales ... they are +not interesting, and do not, like his other poems, touch any passion.... +Who can care through what horrors a Runic savage arrived at all the joys +and glories they could conceive--the supreme felicity of boozing ale out +of the skull of an enemy in Odin's Hall?" + +Morris, the most versatile man of his time, found plenty of praise for +his art work, until he preached social reform to Englishmen. Thereafter +the art of William Morris was not so highly esteemed, and the best poet +in England failed to attain the laurel on the death of Tennyson. + +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. + +It was in the last four decades of the ninth century of our era that +Norsemen began to leave their own country and set up new homes in +Iceland. The sixty years ending with 930 A.D. were devoted to taking up +the land, and the hundred years that ensued after that date were devoted +to quarreling about that land. These quarrels were the origin of the +Icelandic family sagas. The year 1000 brought Christianity to the +island, and the period from 1030 to 1120 were years of peace in which +stories of the former time passed from mouth to mouth. The next century +saw these stories take written form, and the period from 1220 to 1260 +was the golden age of this literature. In 1264, Iceland passed under the +rule of Norway, and a decline of literature began, extending until 1400, +the end of literary production in Iceland. In the main, the authors of +Iceland are unknown[2]. + +There are several well-marked periods, therefore, in Icelandic literary +production. The earliest was devoted to poetry, Icelandic being no +different from most other languages in the precedence of that form. +Before the settlement of Iceland, the Norse lands were acquainted with +songs about gods and champions, written in a simple verse form. The +first settlers wrote down some of these, and forgot others. In the +_Codex Regius_, preserved in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, we have a +collection of these songs. This material was published in the +seventeenth century as the _Sæmundar Edda_, and came to be known as the +_Elder_ or _Poetic Edda_. Both titles are misnomers, for Sæmund had +nothing to do with the making of the book, and _Edda_ is a name +belonging to a book of later date and different purpose. + +This work--not a product of the soil as folk-songs are--is the fountain +head of Old Norse mythology, and of Old Norse heroic legends. _Völuspá_ +and _Hávamál_ are in this collection, and other songs that tell of Odin +and Baldur and Loki. The Helgi poems and the Völsung poems in their +earliest forms are also here. + +A second class of poetry in this ancient literature is that called +"Skaldic." Some of this deals with mythical material, and some with +historical material. A few of the skalds are known to us by name, +because their lives were written down in later sagas. Egill +Skallagrímsson, known to all readers of English and Scotch antiquities, +Eyvind Skáldaspillir and Sigvat are of this group. + +Poetic material that is very rich is found in Snorri Sturluson's work on +Old Norse poetics, entitled _The Edda_, and often referred to as the +_Younger_ or _Prose Edda_. + +More valuable than the poetry is the prose of this literature, +especially the _Sagas_. The saga is a prose epic, characteristic of the +Norse countries. It records the life of a hero, told according to fixed +rules. As we have said, the sagas were based upon careers run in +Iceland's stormy time. They are both mythical and historical. In the +mythical group are, among others, the _Völsunga Saga_, the _Hervarar +Saga_, _Friðthjófs Saga_ and _Ragnar Loðbróks Saga_. In the historical +group, the flowering time of which was 1200-1270, we find, for example, +_Egils Saga_, _Eyrbyggja Saga_, _Laxdæla Saga_, _Grettis Saga_, _Njáls +Saga_. A branch of the historic sagas is the Kings' Sagas, in which we +find _Heimskringla_, the _Saga of Olaf Tryggvason_, the _Flatey Book_, +and others. + +This sketch does not pretend to indicate the quantity of Old Norse +literature. An idea of that is obtained by considering the fact that +eleven columns of the ninth edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ are +devoted to recording the works of that body of writings. + + + + +II. + +THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF LATIN. + +THOMAS GRAY (1716-1771). + + +In the eighteenth century, Old Norse literature was the lore of +antiquarians. That it is not so to-day among English readers is due to a +line of writers, first of whom was Thomas Gray. In the thin volume of +his poetry, two pieces bear the sub-title: "An Ode. From the Norse +Tongue." These are "The Fatal Sisters," and "The Descent of Odin," both +written in 1761, though not published until 1768. These poems are among +the latest that Gray gave to the world, and are interesting aside from +our present purpose because they mark the limit of Gray's progress +toward Romanticism. + +We are not accustomed to think of Gray as a Romantic poet, although we +know well that the movement away from the so-called Classicism was begun +long before he died. The Romantic element in his poetry is not obvious; +only the close observer detects it, and then only in a few of the poems. +The Pindaric odes exhibit a treatment that is Romantic, and the Norse +and Welsh adaptations are on subjects that are Romantic. But we must go +to his letters to find proof positive of his sympathy with the breaking +away from Classicism. Here are records of a love of outdoors that +reveled in mountain-climbing and the buffeting of storms. Here are +appreciations of Shakespeare and of Milton, the like of which were not +often proclaimed in his generation. Here is ecstatic admiration of +ballads and of the Ossian imitations, all so unfashionable in the +literary culture of the day. While dates disprove Lowell's statement in +his essay on Gray that "those anti-classical yearnings of Gray began +after he had ceased producing," it is certain that very little of his +poetic work expressed these yearnings. "Elegance, sweetness, pathos, or +even majesty he could achieve, but never that force which vibrates in +every verse of larger moulded men." Change Lowell's word "could" to +"did," and this sentence will serve our purpose here. + +Our interest in Gray's Romanticism must confine itself to the two odes +from the Old Norse. It is to be noted that the first transplanting to +English poetry of Old Norse song came about through the scholar's +agency, not the poet's. It was Gray, the scholar, that made "The Descent +of Odin" and "The Fatal Sisters." They were intended to serve as +specimens of a forgotten literature in a history of English poetry. In +the "Advertisement" to "The Fatal Sisters" he tells how he came to give +up the plan: "The Author has long since drop'd his design, especially +after he heard, that it was already in the hands of a Person well +qualified to do it justice, both by his taste, and his researches into +antiquity." Thomas Warton's _History of English Poetry_ was the +execution of this design, but in that book no place was found for these +poems. + +In his absurd _Life of Gray_, Dr. Johnson said: "His translations of +Northern and Welsh Poetry deserve praise: the imagery is preserved, +perhaps often improved, but the language is unlike the language of other +poets." There are more correct statements in this sentence, perhaps, +than in any other in the essay, but this is because ignorance sometimes +hits the truth. It is not likely that the poems would have been +understood without the preface and the explanatory notes, and these, in +a measure, made the reader interested in the literature from which they +were drawn. Gray called the pieces "dreadful songs," and so in very +truth they are. Strength is the dominant note, rude, barbaric strength, +and only the art of Gray saved it from condemnation. To-day, with so +many imitations from Old Norse to draw upon, we cannot point to a single +poem which preserves spirit and form as well as those of Gray. Take the +stanza: + + Horror covers all the heath, + Clouds of carnage blot the sun, + Sisters, weave the web of death; + Sisters, cease, the work is done. + +The strophe is perfect in every detail. Short lines, each ending a +sentence; alliteration; words that echo the sense, and just four strokes +to paint a picture which has an atmosphere that whisks you into its own +world incontinently. It is no wonder that writers of later days who have +tried similar imitations ascribe to Thomas Gray the mastership. + +That this poet of the eighteenth century, who "equally despised what +was Greek and what was Gothic," should have entered so fully into the +spirit and letter of Old Norse poetry is little short of marvelous. If +Professor G.L. Kittredge had not gone so minutely into the question of +Gray's knowledge of Old Norse,[3] we might be pardoned for still +believing with Gosse[4] that the poet learned Icelandic in his later +life. Even after reading Professor Kittredge's essay, we cannot +understand how Gray could catch the metrical lilt of the Old Norse with +only a Latin version to transliterate the parallel Icelandic. We suspect +that Gray's knowledge was fuller than Professor Kittredge will allow, +although we must admit that superficial knowledge may coexist with a +fine interpretative spirit. Matthew Arnold's knowledge of Celtic +literature was meagre, yet he wrote memorably and beautifully on that +subject, as Celts themselves will acknowledge.[5] + + +THE SOURCES OF GRAY'S KNOWLEDGE. + +It has already been said that only antiquarians had knowledge of things +Icelandic in Gray's time. Most of this knowledge was in Latin, of +course, in ponderous tomes with wonderful, long titles; and the list of +them is awe-inspiring. In all likelihood Gray did not use them all, but +he met references to them in the books he did consult. Professor +Kittredge mentions them in the paper already quoted, but they are here +arranged in the order of publication, and the list is lengthened to +include some books that were inspired by the interest in Gray's +experiments. + +=1636= and =1651=. Wormius. _Seu Danica literatura antiquissima, +vulgo Gothica dicta, luci reddita opera Olai Wormii. Cui accessit de +prisca Danorum Poesi Dissertatio._ Hafniæ. 1636. Edit. II. 1651. + +The essay on poetry contains interlinear Latin translations of the +_Epicedium_ of Ragnar Loðbrók, and of the _Drápa_ of Egill +Skallagrímsson. Bound with the second edition of 1651, and bearing the +date 1650, is: _Specimen Lexici runici, obscuriorum quarundam vocum, quæ +in priscis occurrunt historiis et poetis Danicis enodationem exhibens. +Collectum a Magno Olavio pastore Laufasiensi, ... nunc in ordinem +redactum, auctum et locupletatum ab Olao Wormio_. Hafniæ. + +This glossary adduces illustrations from the great poems of Icelandic +literature. Thus early the names and forms of the ancient literature +were known. + + +=1665.= Resenius. _Edda Islandorum an. Chr. MCCXV islandice +conscripta per Snorronem Sturlæ Islandiæ. Nomophylacem nunc primum +islandice, danice et latine ... Petri Johannis Resenii_ ... Havniæ. +1665. + +A second part contains a disquisition on the philosophy of the _Völuspá_ +and the _Hávamál_. + + +=1670.= Sheringham. _De Anglorum Gentis Origine Disceptatio. Qua +eorum migrationes, variæ sedes, et ex parte res gestæ, a confusione +Linguarum, et dispersione Gentium, usque ad adventum eorum in Britanniam +investigantur; quædam de veterum Anglorum religione, Deorum cultu, +eorumque opinionibus de statu animæ post hanc vitam, explicantur._ +_Authore_ Roberto Sheringhamo. Cantabrigiæ. 1670. + +Chapter XII contains an account of Odin extracted from the _Edda_, +Snorri Sturluson and others. + + +=1679-92.= Temple. Two essays: "Of Heroic Virtue," "Of Poetry," +contained in The Works of Sir William Temple. London. 1757. Vol. 3, pp. +304-429. + + +=1689.= Bartholinus. _Thomæ Bartholini Antiquitatum Danicarum de +causis contemptæ a Danis adhuc gentilibus mortis libri III ex vetustis +codicibus et monumentis hactenus ineditis congestæ._ Hafniæ. 1689. + +The pages of this book are filled, with extracts from Old Norse sagas +and poetry which are translated into Latin. No student of the book could +fail to get a considerable knowledge of the spirit and the form of the +ancient literature. + + +=1691.= Verelius. _Index linguæ veteris Scytho-Scandicæ sive Gothicæ +ex vetusti ævi monumentis ... ed Rudbeck._ Upsalæ. 1691. + + +=1697=. Torfæus. _Orcades, seu rerum Orcadensium historiæ_. Havniæ. +1697. + + +=1697=. Perinskjöld. _Heimskringla, eller Snorre Sturlusons +Nordländske Konunga Sagor_. Stockholmiæ. 1697. + +Contains Latin and Swedish translation. + + +=1705=. Hickes. _Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium thesaurus +grammatico criticus et archæologicus_. Oxoniæ. 1703-5. + +This work is discussed later. + + +=1716=. Dryden. _Miscellany Poems. Containing Variety of New +Translations of the Ancient Poets_.... Published by Mr. Dryden. London. +1716. + + +=1720=. Keysler. _Antiquitates selectæ septentrionales et Celticæ +quibus plurima loca conciliorum et capitularium explanantur, dogmata +theologiæ ethnicæ Celtarum gentiumque septentrionalium cum moribus et +institutis maiorum nostrorum circa idola, aras, oracula, templa, lucos, +sacerdotes, regum electiones, comitia et monumenta sepulchralia una cum +reliquiis gentilismi in coetibus christianorum ex monumentis potissimum +hactenus ineditis fuse perquiruntur._ _Autore_ Joh. Georgio Keysler. +Hannoveræ. 1720. + + +=1755=. Mallet. _Introduction à l'Histoire de Dannemarc où l'on +traite de la Réligion, des Lois, des Moeurs, et des Usages des Anciens +Danois. Par_ M. Mallet. Copenhague. 1755. + +Discussed later. + + +=1756=. Mallet. _Monumens de la Mythologie et la Poësie des Celtes et +particulièrement des anciens Scandinaves ... Par_ M. Mallet. Copenhague. +1756. + + +=1763=. Percy. _Five Pieces of Runic Poetry translated from the +Islandic Language_. London. 1763. + +This book is described on a later page. + + +=1763=. Blair. _A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the +Son of Fingal_. [By Hugh Blair.] London. 1763. + + +=1770=. Percy. _Northern Antiquities: or a description of the +Manners, Customs, Religion and Laws of the ancient_ _Danes, and other +Northern Nations; including these of our own Saxon Ancestors. With a +translation of the Edda or System of Runic Mythology, and other Pieces +from the Ancient Icelandic Tongue. Translated from M. Mallet's +Introduction à l'Histoire de Dannemarc_. London. 1770. + + +=1774=. Warton. _The History of English Poetry_. By Thomas Warton. +London. 1774-81. + +In this book the prefatory essay entitled "On the Origin of Romantic +Fiction in Europe" is significant. It is treated at length later on. + + +SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE (1628-1699). + +From the above list it appears that the earliest mention in the English +language of Icelandic literature was Sir William Temple's. The two +essays noted above have many references to Northern customs and songs. +Macaulay's praise of Temple's style is well deserved, and the slighting +remarks about the matter do not apply to the passages in evidence here. +Temple's acknowledgments to Wormius indicate the source of his +information, and it is a commentary upon the exactness of the +antiquarian's knowledge that so many of the statements in Temple's +essays are perfectly good to-day. Of course the terms "Runic" and +"Gothic" were misused, but so were they a century later. Odin is "the +first and great hero of the western Scythians; he led a mighty swarm of +the Getes, under the name of Goths, from the Asiatic Scythia into the +farthest northwest parts of Europe; he seated and spread his kingdom +round the whole Baltic sea, and over all the islands in it, and extended +it westward to the ocean and southward to the Elve."[6] Temple places +Odin's expedition at two thousand years before his own time, but he gets +many other facts right. Take this summing up of the old Norse belief as +an example: + +"An opinion was fixed and general among them, that death was but the +entrance into another life; that all men who lived lazy and inactive +lives, and died natural deaths, by sickness, or by age, went into vast +caves under ground, all dark and miry, full of noisom creatures, usual +in such places, and there forever grovelled in endless stench and +misery. On the contrary, all who gave themselves to warlike actions and +enterprises, to the conquests of their neighbors, and slaughters of +enemies, and died in battle, or of violent deaths upon bold adventures +or resolutions, they went immediately to the vast hall or palace of +Odin, their god of war, who eternally kept open house for all such +guests, where they were entertained at infinite tables, in perpetual +feasts and mirth, carousing every man in bowls made of the skulls of +their enemies they had slain, according to which numbers, every one in +these mansions of pleasure was the most honoured and the best +entertained."[7] + +Thus before Gray was born, Temple had written intelligently in English +of the salient features of the Old Norse mythology. Later in the same +essay, he recognized that some of the civil and political procedures of +his country were traceable to the Northmen, and, what is more to our +immediate purpose, he recognized the poetic value of Old Norse song. On +p. 358 occurs this paragraph: + +"I am deceived, if in this sonnet (two stanzas of 'Regner Lodbrog'), and +a following ode of Scallogrim there be not a vein truly poetical, and in +its kind Pindaric, taking it with the allowance of the different +climates, fashions, opinions, and languages of such distant countries." + +Temple certainly had no knowledge of Old Norse, and yet, in 1679, he +could write so of a poem which he had to read through the Latin. Sir +William had a wide knowledge and a fine appreciation of literature, and +an enthusiasm for its dissemination. He takes evident delight in telling +the fact that princes and kings of the olden time did high honor to +bards. He regrets that classic culture was snuffed out by a barbarous +people, but he rejoices that a new kind came to take its place. "Some of +it wanted not the true spirit of poetry in some degree, or that natural +inspiration which has been said to arise from some spark of poetical +fire wherewith particular men are born; and such as it was, it served +the turn, not only to please, but even to charm, the ignorant and +barbarous vulgar, where it was in use."[8] + +It is proverbial that music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. +That savage music charms cultivated minds is not proverbial, but it is +nevertheless true. Here is Sir William Temple, scion of a cultured race, +bearing witness to the fact, and here is Gray, a life-long dweller in a +staid English university, endorsing it a half century later. As has been +intimated, this was unusual in the time in which they lived, when, in +Lowell's phrase, the "blight of propriety" was on all poetry. But it was +only the rude and savage in an unfamiliar literature that could give +pause in the age of Pope. The milder aspects of Old Norse song and saga +must await the stronger century to give them favor. "Behold, there was a +swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion." + + +GEORGE HICKES (1642-1715). + +The next book in the list that contains an English contribution to the +knowledge of our subject is the _Thesaurus_ of George Hickes. On p. 193 +of Part I, there is a prose translation of "The Awakening of Angantyr," +from the _Harvarar Saga_. Acknowledgment is given to Verelius for the +text of the poem, but Hickes seems to have chosen this poem as the gem +of the Saga. The translation is another proof of an antiquarian's taste +and judgment, and the reader does not wonder that it soon found a wider +audience through another publication. It was reprinted in the books of +1716 and 1770 in the above list. An extract or two will show that the +vigor of the old poem has not been altogether lost in the translation: + +_Hervor_.--Awake Angantyr, Hervor the only daughter of thee and Suafu +doth awaken thee. Give me out of the tombe, the hardned[9] sword, which +the dwarfs made for Suafurlama. Hervardur, Hiorvardur, Hrani, and +Angantyr, with helmet, and coat of mail, and a sharp sword, with sheild +and accoutrements, and bloody spear, I wake you all, under the roots of +trees. Are the sons of Andgrym, who delighted in mischief, now become +dust and ashes, can none of Eyvors sons now speak with me out of the +habitations of the dead! Harvardur, Hiorvardur! so may you all be within +your ribs, as a thing that is hanged up to putrifie among insects, +unlesse you deliver me the sword which the dwarfs made ... and the +glorious belt. + +_Angantyr_.--Daughter Hervor, full of spells to raise the dead, why +dost thou call so? wilt thou run on to thy own mischief? thou art mad, +and out of thy senses, who art desperatly resolved to waken dead men. I +was not buried either by father or other freinds. Two which lived after +me got Tirfing, one of whome is now possessor thereof. + +_Hervor_.--Thou dost not tell the truth: so let Odin hide thee in the +tombe, as thou hast Tirfing by thee. Art thou unwilling, Angantyr, to +give an inheritance to thy only child?... + +_Angantyr_.--Fals woman, thou dost not understand, that thou speakest +foolishly of that, in which thou dost rejoice, for Tirfing shall, if +thou wilt beleive me, maid, destroy all thy offspring. + +_Hervor_.--I must go to my seamen, here I have no mind to stay longer. +Little do I care, O Royall friend, what my sons hereafter quarrell +about. + +_Angantyr_.--Take and keep Hialmars bane, which thou shalt long have and +enjoy, touch but the edges of it, there is poyson in both of them, it is +a most cruell devourer of men. + +_Hervor_.--I shall keep, and take in hand, the sharp sword which thou +hast let me have: I do not fear, O slain father! what my sons hereafter +may quarrell about.... Dwell all of you safe in the tombe, I must be +gon, and hasten hence, for I seem to be, in the midst of a place where +fire burns round about me. + +One can well understand, who handles the ponderous _Thesaurus_, why the +first English lovers of Old Norse were antiquarians. "The Awakening of +Angantyr" is literally buried in this work, and only the student of +Anglo-Saxon prosody would come upon it unassisted, since it is an +illustration in a chapter of the _Grammaticæ Anglo-Saxonicæ et +Moeso-Gothicæ_. Students will remember in this connection that it was +a work on poetics that saved for us the original Icelandic _Edda_. The +Icelandic skald had to know his nation's mythology. + + +THOMAS PERCY (1729-1811). + +The title of Chapter XXIII in Hickes' work indicates that even among +learned doctors mistaken notions existed as to the relationship of the +Teutonic languages. It took more than a hundred years to set the error +right, but in the meanwhile the literature of Iceland was becoming +better known to English readers. To the French scholar, Paul Henri +Mallet (1730-1807), Europe owes the first popular presentation of +Northern antiquities and literature. Appointed professor of +belles-lettres in the Copenhagen academy he found himself with more time +than students on his hands, because not many Danes at that time +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. + +We have already noted that Gray's poems on Icelandic themes, though +written in 1761, were not published until 1768. Another delayed work on +similar themes was Percy's _Five Pieces of Runic Poetry_, which, the +author tells us, was prepared for the press in 1761, but, through an +accident, was not published until 1763. The preface has this interesting +sentence: "It would be as vain to deny, as it is perhaps impolitic to +mention, that this attempt is owing to the success of the Erse +fragments." The book has an appendix containing the Icelandic originals +of the poems translated, and that portion of the book shows that a +scholar's hand and interest made the volume. So, too, does the close of +the preface: "That the study of ancient northern literature hath its +important uses has been often evinced by able writers: and that it is +not dry or unamusive this little work it is hoped will demonstrate. Its +aim at least is to shew, that if those kind of studies are not always +employed on works of taste or classic elegance, they serve at least to +unlock the treasures of native genius; they present us with frequent +sallies of bold imagination, and constantly afford matter for +philosophical reflection by showing the workings of the human mind in +its almost original state of nature." + +That original state was certainly one of original sin, if these poems +are to be believed. Every page in this volume is drenched with blood, +and from this book, as from Gray's poems and the other Old Norse +imitations of the time, a picture of fierceness and fearfulness was the +only one possible. Percy intimates in his preface that Icelandic poetry +has other tales to tell besides the "Incantation of Hervor," the "Dying +Ode of Regner Lodbrog," the "Ransome of Egill the Scald," and the +"Funeral Song of Hacon," which are here set down; he offers the +"Complaint of Harold" as a slight indication that the old poets left +"behind them many pieces on the gentler subjects of love or friendship." +But the time had not come for the presentation of those pieces. + +All of these translations were from the Latin versions extant in Percy's +time. This volume copied Hickes's translation of "Hervor's Incantation" +modified in a few particulars, and like that one, the other translations +in this volume were in prose. The work is done as well as possible, and +it remained for later scholars to point out errors in translation. The +negative contractions in Icelandic were as yet unfamiliar, and so, as +Walter Scott pointed out (in _Edin. Rev._, Oct., 1806), Percy made +Regner Lodbrog say, "The pleasure of that day (of battle, p. 34 in this +_Five Pieces_) was like having a fair virgin placed beside one in the +bed," and "The pleasure of that day was like kissing a young widow at +the highest seat of the table," when the poet really made the contrary +statement. + +Of course, the value of this book depends upon the view that is taken of +it. Intrinsically, as literature, it is well-nigh valueless. It +indicates to us, however, a constantly growing interest in the +literature it reveals, and it undoubtedly directed the attention of the +poets of the succeeding generation to a field rich in romantic +possibilities. That no great work was then created out of this material +was not due to neglect. As we shall see, many puny poets strove to +breathe life into these bones, but the divine power was not in the +poets. Some who were not poets had yet the insight to feel the value of +this ancient literature, and they made known the facts concerning it. It +seems a mechanical and unpromising way to have great poetry written, +this calling out, "New Lamps for Old." Yet it is on record that great +poems have been written at just such instigation. + + +THOMAS WARTON (1728-1790). + +Historians[10] of Romanticism have marked Warton's _History of English +Poetry_ as one of the forces that made for the new idea in literature. +This record of a past which, though out of favor, was immeasurably +superior to the time of its historian, spread new views concerning the +poetic art among the rising generation, and suggested new subjects as +well as new treatments of old subjects. We have mentioned the fact that +Gray handed over to Warton his notes for a contemplated history of +poetry, and that Warton found no place in his work for Gray's +adaptations from the Old Norse. Warton was not blind to the beauties of +Gray's poems, nor did he fail to appreciate the merits of the literature +which they illustrated. His scheme relegated his remarks concerning that +poetry to the introductory dissertation, "Of the Origin of Romantic +Fiction in Europe." What he had to say was in support of a theory which +is not accepted to-day, and of course his statements concerning the +origin of the Scandinavian people were as wrong as those that we found +in Mallet and Temple. But with all his misinformation, Warton managed to +get at many truths about Icelandic poetry, and his presentation of them +was fresh and stimulating. Already the Old Norse mythology was well +known, even down to Valhalla and the mistletoe. Old Norse poetry was +well enough known to call forth this remark: + +"They (the 'Runic' odes) have a certain sublime and figurative cast of +diction, which is indeed one of their predominant characteristics.... +When obvious terms and phrases evidently occurred, the Runic poets are +fond of departing from the common and established diction. They appear +to use circumlocution and comparisons not as a matter of necessity, but +of choice and skill: nor are these metaphorical colourings so much the +result of want of words, as of warmth of fancy." The note gives these +examples: "Thus, a rainbow is called, the bridge of the gods. Poetry, +the mead of Odin. The earth, the vessel that floats on ages. A ship, the +horse of the waves. A tongue, the sword of words. Night, the veil of +cares." + +A study of the notes to Warton's dissertation reveals the fact that he +had made use of the books already mentioned in the list on a previous +page, and of no others that are significant. But such excellent use was +made of them, that it would seem as if nothing was left in them that +could be made valuable for spreading a knowledge of and an enthusiasm +for Icelandic literature. When it is remembered that Warton's purpose +was to prove the Saracenic origin of romantic fiction in Europe, through +the Moors in Spain, and that Icelandic literature was mentioned only to +account for a certain un-Arabian tinge in that romantic fiction, the +wonder grows that so full and fresh a presentation of Old Norse poetry +should have been made. He puts such passages as these into his +illustrative notes: "Tell my mother Suanhita in Denmark, that she will +not this summer comb the hair of her son. I had promised her to return, +but now my side shall feel the edge of the sword." There is an +appreciation of the poetic here, that makes us feel that Warton was not +an unworthy wearer of the laurel. He insists that the Saxon poetry was +powerfully affected by "the old scaldic fables and heroes," and gives in +the text a translation of the "Battle of Brunenburgh" to prove his +case. He admires "the scaldic dialogue at the tomb of Angantyr," but +wrongly attributes a beautiful translation of it to Gray. He quotes at +length from "a noble ode, called in the northern chronicles the Elogium +of Hacon, by the scald Eyvynd; who, for his superior skill in poetry was +called the Cross of Poets (Eyvindr Skálldaspillir), and fought in the +battle which he celebrated." + +He knows how Iceland touched England, as this passage will show: "That +the Icelandic bards were common in England during the Danish invasions, +there are numerous proofs. Egill, a celebrated Icelandic poet, having +murthered the son and many of the friends of Eric Blodaxe, king of +Denmark or Norway, then residing in Northumberland, and which he had +just conquered, procured a pardon by singing before the king, at the +command of his queen Gunhilde, an extemporaneous ode. Egill compliments +the king, who probably was his patron, with the appellation of the +English chief. 'I offer my freight to the king. I owe a poem for my +ransom. I present to the ENGLISH CHIEF the mead of Odin.' Afterwards he +calls this Danish conqueror the commander of the Scottish fleet. 'The +commander of the Scottish fleet fattened the ravenous birds. The sister +of Nera (Death) trampled on the foe: she trampled on the evening food of +the eagle.'" + +So wide a knowledge and so keen an appreciation of Old Norse in a +Warton, whose interest was chiefly elsewhere, argues for a spreading +popularity of the ancient literature. Thus far, only Gray has made +living English literature out of these old stories, and he only two +short poems. There were other attempts to achieve poetic success with +this foreign material, but a hundred exacting years have covered them +with oblivion. + + +DRAKE (1766-1836). MATHIAS (1754-1835). + +In the second decade of the nineteenth century, Nathan Drake, M.D., made +a strong effort to popularize Norse mythology and literature. The fourth +edition of his work entitled _Literary Hours_ (London, 1820) +contains[11] an appreciative article on the subject, the fullness of +which is indicated in these words from p. 309: + +"The most striking and characteristic parts of the Scandinavian +mythology, together with no inconsiderable portion of the manners and +customs of our northern ancestors, have now passed before the reader; +their theology, warfare, and poetry, their gallantry, religious rites, +and superstitions, have been separately, and, I trust, distinctly +reviewed." + + +The essay is written in an easy style that doubtless gained for it many +readers. All the available knowledge of the subject was used, and a +clearer view of it was presented than had been obtainable in Percy's +"Mallet." The author was a thoughtful man, able to detect errors in +Warton and Percy, but his zeal in his enterprise led him to praise +versifiers inordinately that had used the "Gothic fables." He quotes +liberally from writers whose books are not to be had in this country, +and certainly the uninspired verses merit the neglect that this fact +indicates. He calls Sayers' pen "masterly" that wrote these lines: + + Coucher of the ponderous spear, + Thou shout'st amid the battle's stound-- + The armed Sisters hear, + Viewless hurrying o'er the ground + They strike the destin'd chiefs and call them to the skies. + +(P. 168.) + +From Penrose he quotes such lines as these: + + The feast begins, the skull goes round, + Laughter shouts--the shouts resound. + The gust of war subsides--E'en now + The grim chief curls his cheek, and smooths his rugged brow. + +(P. 171.) + +From Sterling comes this imitation of Gray: + + Now the rage of combat burns, + Haughty chiefs on chiefs lie slain; + The battle glows and sinks by turns, + Death and carnage load the plain. + +(P 172.) + +From these extracts, it appears that the poets who imitated Gray +considered that only "dreadful songs," like his, were to be found in +Scandinavian poetry. + +Downman, Herbert and Mathias are also adduced by Dr. Drake as examples +of poets who have gained much by Old Norse borrowings, but these +borrowings are invariably scenes from a chamber of horrors. It occurs +to me that perhaps Dr. Drake had begun to tire of the spiritless echoes +of the classical schools, and that he fondly hoped that such shrieks and +groans as those he admired in this essay would satisfy his cravings for +better things in poetry. But the critic had no adequate knowledge of the +way in which genius works. His one desire in these studies of +Scandinavian mythology was "to recommend it to the votaries of the Muse, +as a machinery admirably constructed for their purpose" (p. 158). He +hopes for "a more extensive adoption of the Scandinavian mythology, +especially in our _epic_ and _lyric_ compositions" (p. 311). We smile at +the notion, to-day, but that very conception of poetry as "machinery" is +characteristic of a whole century of our English literature. + +The Mathias mentioned by Drake is Thomas James Mathias, whose book, +_Odes Chiefly from the Norse Tongue_ (London, 1781), received the +distinction of an American reprint (New York, 1806). Bartholinus +furnishes the material and Gray the spirit for these pieces. + + +AMOS S. COTTLE(1768-1800). WILLIAM HERBERT (1778-1847). + +In this period belong two works of translation that mark the approach of +the time when Old Norse prose and poetry were to be read in the +original. As literature they are of little value, and they had but +slight influence on succeeding writers. + +At Bristol, in 1797, was published _Icelandic Poetry, or, The Edda of +Saemund translated into English Verse_, by A.S. Cottle of Magdalen +College, Cambridge. This work has an Introduction containing nothing +worth discussing here, and an "Epistle" to A.S. Cottle from Robert +Southey. The laureate, in good blank verse, discourses on the Old Norse +heroes whom he happens to know about. They are the old favorites, Regner +Lodbrog and his sons; in Southey's poem the foeman's skull is, as usual, +the drinking cup. It was certainly time for new actors and new +properties to appear in English versions of Scandinavian stories. + +The translations are twelve in number, and evince an intelligent and +facile versifier. When all is said, these old songs could contribute to +the pleasure of very few. Only a student of history, or a poet, or an +antiquarian, would dwell with loving interest on the lays of +Vafthrudnis, Grimner, Skirner and Hymer (as Cottle spells them). +Besides, they are difficult to read, and must be abundantly annotated to +make them comprehensible. In such works as this of Cottle, a Scott might +find wherewith to lend color to a story or a poem, but the common man +would borrow Walpole's words, used in characterizing Gray's "Odes": +"They are not interesting, and do not ... touch any passion; our human +feelings ... are not here affected. Who can care through what horrors a +Runic savage arrived at all the joys and glories they could +conceive--the supreme felicity of boozing ale out of the skull of an +enemy in Odin's hall?"[12] + +In 1804 a book was published bearing this title-page: _Select Icelandic +Poetry, translated from the originals: with notes_. The preface was +signed by the author, William Herbert. The pieces are from Sæmund, +Bartholinus, Verelius, and Perinskjöld's edition of _Heimskringla_, and +were all translated with the assistance of the Latin versions. The notes +are explanatory of the allusions and the hiatuses in the poems. +Reference is made to MSS. of the Norse pieces existing in museums and +libraries, which the author had consulted. Thus we see scholarship +beginning to extend investigations. As for the verses themselves not +much need be said. They are not so good as Cottle's, although they +received a notice from Scott in the _Edinburgh Review_. The thing to +notice about the work is that it pretends to come direct from Old Norse, +not, as most of the work dealt with so far, _via_ Latin. + +Icelandic poetry is more difficult to read than Icelandic prose, and so +it seems strange that the former should have been attacked first by +English scholars. Yet so it was, and until 1844 our English literature +had no other inspiration in old Norse writings than the rude and rugged +songs that first lent their lilt to Gray. The _human_ North is in the +sagas, and when they were revealed to our people, Icelandic literature +began to mean something more than Valhalla and the mead-bouts there. The +scene was changed to earth, and the gods gave place to nobler actors, +men and women. The action was lifted to the eminence of a world-drama. +But before the change came Sir Walter Scott, and it is fitting that the +first period of Norse influence in English literature should close, as +it began, with a great master. + + +SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832). + +In 1792, Walter Scott was twenty-one years old, and one of his +note-books of that year contains this entry: "Vegtam's Kvitha or The +Descent of Odin, with the Latin of Thomas Bartholine, and the English +poetical version of Mr. Gray; with some account of the Death of Balder, +both as related in the Edda, and as handed down to us by the Northern +historians--_Auctore Gualtero Scott_." According to Lockhart,[13] the +Icelandic, Latin and English versions were here transcribed, and the +historical account that followed--seven closely written quarto +pages--was read before a debating society. + +It was to be expected that one so enthusiastic about antiquities as +Scott would early discover the treasury of Norse history and song. At +twenty-one, as we see, he is transcribing a song in a language he knew +nothing about, as well as in translations. Fourteen years later, he has +learned enough about the subject to write a review of Herbert's _Poems +and Translations_.[14] + +In 1813, he writes an account of the _Eyrbyggja Saga_ for _Illustrations +of Northern Antiquities_ (edited by Robert Jameson, Edinburgh, 1814). + +There are two of Scott's contributions to literature that possess more +than a mere tinge of Old Norse knowledge, namely, the long poem "Harold, +the Dauntless" (published in 1817), and the long story "The Pirate" +(published in 1821). The poem is weak, but it illustrates Scott's theory +of the usefulness of poetical antiquities to the modern poet. In another +connection Scott said: "In the rude song of the Scald, we regard less +the strained imagery and extravagance of epithet, than the wild +impressions which it conveys of the dauntless resolution, savage +superstition, rude festivity and ceaseless depredations of the ancient +Scandinavians."[15] The poet did his work in accordance with this +theory, and so in "Harold, the Dauntless," we note no flavor of the +older poetry in phrase or in method. Harold is fierce enough and grim +enough to measure up to the old ideal of a Norse hero. + +"I was rocked in a buckler and fed from a blade," is his boast before +his newly christened father, and in his apostrophe to his grandsire +Eric, the popular notion of early Norse antiquarianism is again +exhibited: + + In wild Valhalla hast thou quaffed + From foeman's skull metheglin draught? + +Scott's scholarship in Old Norse was largely derived from the Latin +tomes, and such conceptions as those quoted are therefore common in his +poem. That the poet realized the inadequacy of such knowledge, the +review of Herbert's poetry, published in the _Edinburgh Review_ for +October, 1806, shows. In this article he has a vision of what shall be +when men shall be able "to trace the Runic rhyme" itself. + +"The Pirate," exhibited the Wizard's skill in weaving the old and the +new together, the old being the traditions of the Shetlands, full of the +ancestral beliefs in Old Norse things, the new being the life in those +islands in a recent century. This is a stirring story, that comes into +our consideration because of its Scandinavian antiquities. Again we find +the Latin treasuries of Bartholinus, Torfæus, Perinskjöld and Olaus +Magnus in evidence, though here, too, mention is made of "Haco," and +Tryggvason and "Harfager." With a background of island scenery, with +which Scott became familiar during a light-house inspector's voyage made +in 1814, this story is a picture full of vivid colors and characters. In +Norna of the Fitful Head, he has created a mysterious personage in whose +mouth "Runic rhymes" are the only proper speech. She stills the tempest +with them, and "The Song of the Tempest" is a strong apostrophe, though +it is neither Runic nor rhymed. She preludes her life-story with verses +that are rhymed but not Runic, and she sings incantations in the same +wise. This _Reimkennar_ is an echo of the _Völuspá_, and is the only +kind of Norse woman that the time of Scott could imagine. Claud Halcro, +the poet, is fond of rhyming the only kind of Norseman known to his +time, and in his "Song of Harold Harfager" we hear the echoes of Gray's +odes. Scott's reading was wide in all ancient lore, and he never missed +a chance to introduce an odd custom if it would make an interesting +scene in his story. So here we have the "Sword Dance" (celebrated by +Olaus Magnus, though I have never read of it in Old Norse), the +"Questioning of the Sibyl" (like that in Gray's "Descent of Odin"), the +"Capture and Sharing of the Whale," and the "Promise of Odin." In most +of the natives there are turns of speech that recall the Norse ancestry +of the Shetlanders. + +In Scott, then, we see the lengthening out of the influence of the +antiquarians who wrote of a dead past in a dead language. The time was +at hand when that past was to live again, painted in the living words of +living men. + + + + +III. + +FROM THE SOURCES THEMSELVES. + + +In the preceding section we noted the achievements of English +scholarship and genius working under great disadvantages. Gray and Scott +may have had a smattering of Icelandic, but Latin translations were +necessary to reveal the meaning of what few Old Norse texts were +available to them. This paucity of material, more than the ignorance of +the language, was responsible for the slow progress in popularizing the +remarkable literature of the North. Scaldic and Eddie poems comprised +all that was known to English readers of that literature, and in them +the superhuman rather than the human elements were predominant. + +We have come now to a time when the field of our view broadens to +include not only more and different material, but more and different +men. The sagas were annexed to the old songs, and the body of literature +to attract attention was thus increased a thousand fold. The +antiquarians were supplanted by scholars who, although passionately +devoted to the study of the past, were still vitally interested in the +affairs of the time in which they lived. The second and greatest stage +of the development of Old Norse influence in England has a mark of +distinction that belongs to few literary epochs. The men who made it +lived lives that were as heroic in devotion to duty and principle as +many of those written down in the sagas themselves. I have sometimes +wondered whether it is merely accidental that English saga scholars were +so often men of high soul and strong action. Certain it is that Richard +Cleasby, and Samuel Laing, and George Webbe Dasent, and Robert Lowe are +types of men that the Icelanders would have celebrated, as having "left +a tale to tell" in their full and active lives. And no less certain is +it that Thomas Carlyle, and Matthew Arnold, and William Morris, and +Charles Kingsley, and Gerald Massey labored for a better manhood that +should rise to the stature and reflect the virtues of the heroes of the +Northland. + +RICHARD CLEASBY (1797-1847). + +In the forties of the nineteenth century several minds began to work, +independently of one another, in this wider field of Icelandic +literature. Richard Cleasby (1797-1847), an English merchant's son with +scholarly instincts, began the study of the sagas, but made slight +progress because of what he called an "unaccountable and most scandalous +blank," the want of a dictionary. This was in 1840, and for the next +seven years he labored to fill up that blank. The record[16] of those +years is a wonderful witness to the heroism and spirit of the scholar, +and justifies Sir George Dasent's characterization of Cleasby as "one of +the most indefatigable students that ever lived." The work thus begun +was not completed until many years afterward (it is dated 1874), and, by +untoward circumstances, very little of it is Richard Cleasby's. But +generous scholarship acknowledged its debt to the man who gave his +strength and his wealth to the work, by placing his name on the +title-page. No less shall we fail to honor his memory by mentioning his +labors here. Although the dictionary was not completed in the decade of +its inception, the study that it was designed to promote took hold on a +number of men and the results were remarkable for both literature and +scholarship. + + +THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881). + +First in order of time was the work of Thomas Carlyle. It will not seem +strange to the student of English literature to find that this writer +came under the influence of the old skalds and sagaman and spoke +appreciative words concerning them. His German studies had to take +cognizance of the Old Norse treasuries of poetry, and he became a +diligent reader of Icelandic literature in what translations he could +get at, German and English. The strongest utterance on the subject that +he left behind him is in "Lecture I" of the series "On Heroes, +Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History," dated May, 1840. This is a +treatment of Scandinavian mythology, rugged and thorough, like all of +this man's work. Carlyle evinces a scholar's instinct in more than one +place, as, for instance, when he doubts the _grandmother_ etymology of +_Edda_, an etymology repeated until a much later day by scholars of a +less sure sense.[17] But this lecture "On Heroes" is also a +glorification of the literature with which we are dealing, and in this +regard it is worthy of special note here. + +In the first place, Carlyle with true critical instinct caught the +essence of it; to him it seemed to have "a rude childlike way of +recognizing the divineness of Nature, the divineness of Man." For him +Scandinavian mythology was superior in sincerity to the Grecian, though +it lacked the grace of the latter. "Sincerity, I think, is better than +grace. I feel that these old Northmen were looking into Nature with open +eye and soul: most earnest, honest; childlike, and yet manlike; with a +great-hearted simplicity and depth and freshness, in a true, loving, +admiring, unfearing way. A right valiant, true old race of men." This is +a truer appreciation than Gray and Walpole had, eighty years before. In +the second place, Carlyle was not misled into thinking that valor in war +was the only characteristic of the rude Norseman, and skill in drinking +his only household virtue. "Beautiful traits of pity, too, and honest +pity." Then he tells of Baldur and Nanna, in his rugged prose account +anticipating Matthew Arnold. Other qualities of the literature appeal to +him. "I like much their robust simplicity; their veracity, directness of +conception. Thor 'draws down his brows' in a veritable Norse rage; +'grasps his hammer till the _knuckles grow white_." Again; "A great +broad Brobdignag grin of true humor is this Skrymir; mirth resting on +earnestness and sadness, as the rainbow on the black tempest: only a +right valiant heart is capable of that." Still again: "This law of +mutation, which also is a law written in man's inmost thought, has been +deciphered by these old earnest Thinkers in their rude style." + +Thomas Carlyle, seeking to explain the worship of a pagan divinity, +chose Odin as the noblest example of such a hero. The picture of Odin he +drew from the prose Edda, mainly, and his purpose required that he +paint the picture in the most attractive colors. So it happened that our +English literature got its first _complete_ view of Old Norse ethics and +art. The memory of Gray's "dreadful songs" had ruled for almost a +century, and ordinary readers might be pardoned for thinking that Old +Norse literature, like Old Norse history, was written in blood. We have +seen that Gray's imitators perpetuated the old idea, and that even Scott +sanctioned it, and now we see England's emancipation from it. The grouty +old Scotchman of Craigenputtoch knew no more Icelandic than most of his +fellow countrymen (be it noted that he said: "From the Humber upwards, +all over Scotland, the speech of the common people is still in a +singular degree Icelandic, its Germanism has still a peculiar Norse +tinge"); but he saw far more deeply into the heart of Icelandic +literature than anybody before him. His emphasis of its many sidedness, +of its sincerity, its humanity, its simplicity, its directness, its +humor and its wisdom, was the signal for a change in the popular +estimation of its worth to our modern art. Since his day we have had +Morris and Arnold and a host of minor singers, and the nineteenth +century revival of interest in Old Norse literature. + +The other work by Carlyle dealing directly with Old Norse material is +_The Early Kings of Norway_. Here he digests _Heimskringla_, which was +obtainable through Laing's translation, in a way to stir the blood. The +story, as he tells it, is breathlessly interesting, and it is a pity +that readers of Carlyle so often stop short of this work. As in the +_Hero-Worship_, he shows this Teutonic bias, and the religious training +that minified Greek literature. + +Snorri's work elicits from him repeated applause. Here, for instance, in +Chap. X: "It has, all of it, the description (and we see clearly the +fact itself had), a kind of pathetic grandeur, simplicity, and rude +nobleness; something Epic or Homeric, without the metre or the singing +of Homer, but with all the sincerity, rugged truth to nature, and much +more of piety, devoutness, reverence for what is ever high in this +universe, than meets us in those old Greek Ballad-mongers." + +SAMUEL LAING (1780-1868). + +It was the work of Samuel Laing that gave Carlyle the material for this +last-mentioned book.[18] Laing's translation of _Heimskringla_ bears the +date 1844, and although Mr. Dasent's quaint version of the _Prose Edda_ +preceded it by two years, _The Sagas of the Norse Kings_ was the +"epoch-making" book. It is true that a later version has superseded it +in literary and scholarly finish, but Laing's work was a pioneer of +sterling intrinsic value, and many there be that do it homage still. +Laing had the laudable ambition--so seldom found in these days--"to give +a plain, faithful translation into English of the _Heimskringla_, +unencumbered with antiquarian research, and suited to the plain English +reader."[19] With this work, then, Icelandic lore passes out of the +hands of the antiquarian into the hands of common readers. It matters +little that the audience is even still fit and few; from this time on he +that runs may read. + +For our purpose it will not be necessary to characterize the +translation. Laing commanded an excellent style, and he was enthusiastic +over his work. Indeed, the commonest criticism passed on the +"Preliminary Dissertation" was that the author's zeal had run away with +his good sense. Be that as it may, Laing called the attention of his +readers to the neglect of a literature and a history which should be +England's pride, as Anglo-Saxon literature and history even then were. +The reviews of the time made it appear as if another Battle of the Books +were impending--Anglo-Saxon versus Icelandic; a writer in the _English +Review_ (Vol. 82, p. 316), pro-Saxon in his zeal, admitting at last that +"of none of the children of the Norse, whether Goth or Frank, Saxon or +Scandinavian, have the others any reason to be ashamed. All have earned +the gratitude and admiration of the world, and their combined or +successive efforts have made England and Europe what they are." + +It is refreshing to come upon new views of Old Norse character, that +recognize "amidst anarchy and bloodshed, redeeming features of +kindliness and better feeling which tell of the mingled principles that +war within our nature for the mastery." Laing's translation accomplished +this for English readers, and with the years came a deeper knowledge +that showed those touches of tenderness and traits of beauty which, even +in 1844, were not perceptible to those readers. + + +HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882). + +JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891). + +_The Story of the Norse Kings_, thus translated by an Englishman, +suggested to our American poet, Longfellow, a series of lyrics on King +Olaf. The young college professor that wrote about _Frithjof's Saga_ in +the _North American Review_ for 1837, was bound, sooner or later, to +come back to the field when he found that the American reading public +would listen to whatever songs he sang to them. Before 1850, Longfellow +had written "The Challenge of Thor," a poem which imitated the form of +Icelandic verse and catches much of its spirit. In 1859, the thought +came to him "that a very good poem might be written on the Saga of King +Olaf, who converted the North to Christianity." Two years later he +completed the lyrics that compose "The Musician's Tale" in _The Tales of +a Wayside Inn_, published in 1863, and in this work "The Challenge of +Thor" serves as a prelude. The pieces after this prelude are not +imitations of the Icelandic verse, but are like Tegner's _Frithjof's +Saga_, in that each new portion has a meter of its own. There is not, +either, a consistent effort to put the flavor of the North into the +poetry, so that, properly speaking, we have here only the retelling of +an old tale. The ballad fervor and movement are often perceptible, +though nowhere does the poet strike the ringing note of "The Skeleton in +Armor," published in the volume of 1841. + +Truth to tell, Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf" is not a remarkable +work. One who reads the few chapters in Carlyle's _Early Kings of +Norway_ that deal with Olaf Tryggvason gets more of the fire and spirit +of the old saga at every turning. The poet chooses scenes and incidents +very skilfully, but for their proper presentation a terseness is +necessary that is not reconcilable with frequent rhymes. Compare the +saga account with the poem's: "What is this that has broken?" asked King +Olaf. "Norway from thy hand, King," answered Tamberskelver. + + "What was that?" said Olaf, standing + On the quarter deck. + "Something heard I like the stranding + Of a shattered wreck." + Einar then, the arrow taking + From the loosened string, + Answered, "That was Norway breaking + From thy hand, O King!" + +Nevertheless, Longfellow is to be thanked for acquainting a wide circle +of readers with the sterling saga literature. + +One other American poet was busy with the ancient Northern literature at +this time. James Russell Lowell wrote one notable poem that is Old Norse +in subject and spirit, "The Voyage to Vinland." The third part of the +poem, "Gudrida's Prophecy," hints at Icelandic versification, and the +short lines are hammer-strokes that warm the reader to enthusiasm. Far +more of the spirit of the old literature is in this short poem than is +to be found in the whole of Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf." The +character of Biörn is well drawn, recalling Bodli, of Morris' poem, in +its principal features. Certainly there is a reflection here of that Old +Norse conception of life which gave to men's deeds their due reward, and +which exalted the power of will. This poem was begun in 1850, but was +not published till 1868. + +In Lowell's poems are to be found many figures and allusions pointing to +his familiarity with Icelandic song and story. At the end of the third +strophe of the "Commemoration Ode," for instance, Truth is pictured as +Brynhild, + + plumed and mailed, + With sweet, stern face unveiled. + +In these borrowings of themes and allusions, Lowell is at one with most +of the poets of the present day. It used to be the fashion, and is +still, for tables of contents in volumes of verse to show titles like +these: "Prometheus"; "Iliad VIII, 542-561"; "Alectryon." Present-day +volumes are becoming more and more besprinkled with titles like these: +"Balder the Beautiful"; "The Death of Arnkel," etc. In this fact alone +is seen the turn of the tide. Heroes and heroines in dramas and novels +are beginning to bear Old Norse names, even where the setting is not +northern; witness Sidney Dobell's _Balder_, where not even a single +allusion is made to Icelandic matters. + +MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888). + +Matthew Arnold's strong sympathy with noble and virile literature of +whatever age or nation led him in time to Old Norse, and his poem +"Balder Dead" is of distinct importance among the works of the +nineteenth century in English literature. It is an addition of permanent +value to our poetry, because of its marked originality and its high +ethical tone. "Mallet, and his version of the Edda, is all the poem is +based upon," says Arnold.[20] It is the poet's divinely implanted +instinct that gathers from the few chapters of an old book a knowledge +wonderfully full and deep of the cosmogony and eschatology of the +northern nations of Europe. "Balder Dead" tells the familiar story of +the whitest of the gods, but it also contains the essence of Old +Icelandic religion; indeed there is no single short work in our language +which gives a tithe of the information about the North, its spirit, and +its philosophy, which this poem of Matthew Arnold's sets forth. In +future days a text-book of original English poems will be in the hands +of our boys and girls which will enable them to get, through the medium +of their own language, the message and the spirit of foreign literature. +Old Norse song will need no other representative than Matthew Arnold's +"Balder Dead." + +This is an original poem. It does not imitate the verse nor the word of +the older song, but the flavor of it is here. Gray and his imitators +drew from the Icelandic fountain "dreadful songs" and many poets since +have heard no milder note. Matthew Arnold's instincts were for peace and +the arts of peace, and he found in Balder a type for the ennobling of +our own century. Balder says to his brother who has come to lament that +Lok's machinations will keep the best beloved of the gods in Niflheim: + + For I am long since weary of your storm + Of carnage, and find, Hermod, in your life + Something too much of war and broils, which make + Life one perpetual fight, a bath of blood. + Mine eyes are dizzy with the arrowy hail; + Mine ears are stunn'd with blows, and sick for calm. + +Arnold has exalted the Revelator of the Northern mythology, and in +magnificent poetry sets forth his apocalyptic vision: + + Unarm'd, inglorious; I attend the course + Of ages, and my late return to light, + In times less alien to a spirit mild, + In new-recover'd seats, the happier day. + + . . . . . . . . . + + Far to the south, beyond the blue, there spreads + Another Heaven, the boundless--no one yet + Hath reach'd it; there hereafter shall arise + The second Asgard, with another name. + + . . . . . . . . . + + There re-assembling we shall see emerge + From the bright Ocean at our feet an earth + More fresh, more verdant than the last, with fruits + Self-springing, and a seed of man preserved, + Who then shall live in peace, as now in war. + +Here is the grandest message that the Old Norse religion had to give, +and Matthew Arnold concerned himself with that alone. It is a far cry +from Regner Lodbrog to this. There is a fine touch in the introduction +of Regner into the lamentation of Balder. Arnold makes the old warrior +say of the ruder skalds: + + But they harp ever on one string, and wake + Remembrance in our souls of war alone, + Such as on earth we valiantly have waged, + And blood, and ringing blows, and violent death. + But when thou sangest, Balder, thou didst strike + Another note, and, like a bird in spring, + Thy voice of joyance minded us, and youth, + And wife, and children, and our ancient home. + +Here is a human Norseman, a figure not often presented in the versions +of the old stories that English poets and romancers have given us. +Arnold did a good service to Icelandic literature when he put into +Regner's mouth mild sentiments and a love for home and family. The note +is not lacking in the ancient literature, but it took Englishmen three +centuries to find it. It was the scholar, Matthew Arnold, who first +repeated the gentler strain in the rude music of the North, as it was +the scholar, Thomas Gray, who first echoed the "dreadful songs" of that +old psalmody. Gray has all the culture of his age, when it was still +possible to compass all knowledge in one lifetime; Arnold had all the +literary culture of his fuller century when multiplied sciences force a +scholar to be content with one segment of human knowledge. The former +had music and architecture and other sciences among his accomplishments; +the latter spread out in literature, as "Sohrab and Rustum," "Empedocles +on Etna," "Tristram and Iseult," as well as "Balder Dead" attest. The +quatrain prefixed to the volume containing the narrative and elegiac +poems be-tokens what joy Arnold had in his literary work, and indicates +why these poems cannot fail to live: + + What poets feel not, when they make, + A pleasure in creating, + The world in its turn will not take + Pleasure in contemplating. + +Balder is the creation of Old Norse poetry that is most popular with +contemporary English writers, and Matthew Arnold first made him so. As +Bugge points out, no deed of his is "celebrated in song or story. His +personality only is described; of his activity in life almost no +external trait is recorded. All the stress is laid upon his death; and, +like Christ, Baldr dies in his youth."[21] + + +SIR GEORGE WEBBE DASENT (1820-1896). + +Among the scholars who have labored to give England the benefit of a +fuller and truer knowledge of Norse matters, none will be remembered +more gratefully than Sir George Webbe Dasent. Known to the reading +public most widely by his translations of the folk-tales of Asbjörnsen +and Moe, he has still a claim upon the attention of the students of +Icelandic. As we have seen, he gave out a translation of the _Younger +Edda_ in 1842, and during the half century and more that followed he +wrote other works of history and literature connected with our subject. +Two saga translations were published in 1861 and 1866, _The Story of +Burnt Njal_, and _The Story of Gisli the Outlaw_, which will always rank +high in this class of literature. _Njala_ especially is an excellent +piece of work, a classic among translations. The "Prolegomena" is rich +in information, and very little of it has been superseded by later +scholarship. In 1887 and 1894 he translated for the Master of the Rolls, +_The Orkney Saga_ and _The Saga of Hakon_, the texts of which Vigfusson +had printed in the same series some years before. The interest of the +government in Icelandic annals connected with English history is +indicated in these last publications, and England is fortunate to have +had such enthusiastic scholars as Vigfusson and Dasent to do the work. +These men had been collaborators on the Cleasby Dictionary, and in this +work as in all others Dasent displayed an eagerness to have his +countrymen know how significant England's relationship to Iceland was. +He was as certain as Laing had been before him of the preeminence of +this literature among the mediæval writings. Like Laing, too, he would +have the general reader turn to this body of work "which for its beauty +and richness is worthy of being known to the greatest possible number of +readers."[22] + +To mark the progress away from the old conception of unmitigated +brutality these words of Dasent stand here:[23] "The faults of these +Norsemen were the faults of their time; their virtues they possessed in +larger measure than the rest of their age, and thus when Christianity +had tamed their fury, they became the torch-bearers of civilization; and +though the plowshare of Destiny, when it planted them in Europe, +uprooted along its furrow many a pretty flower of feeling in the lands +which felt the fury of these Northern conquerers, their energy and +endurance gave a lasting temper to the West, and more especially to +England, which will wear so long as the world wears, and at the same +time implanted principles of freedom which shall never be rooted out. +Such results are a compensation for many bygone sorrows." + + +CHARLES KINGSLEY (1819-1875). + +In 1874, Charles Kingsley visited America and delivered some lectures. +Among these was one entitled "The First Discovery of America." This +interests us here because it displays an appreciation, if not a deep +knowledge, of Icelandic literature. In it the lecturer commended to +Longfellow's attention a ballad sung in the Faroes, begging him to +translate it some day, "as none but he can translate it." "It is so sad, +that no tenderness less exquisite than his can prevent its being +painful; and at least in its _denouement_, so naive, that no purity less +exquisite than his can prevent its being dreadful."[24] Later in the +lecture he commends to his hearers the _Heimskringla_ of Snorri +Sturluson, the "Homer of the North."[25] + +Speaking of the elements that mingled to produce the British character, +Kingsley says: "In manners as well as in religion, the Norse were +humanized and civilized by their contact with the Celts, both in +Scotland and in Ireland. Both peoples had valor, intellect, imagination: +but the Celt had that which the burly, angular Norse character, however +deep and stately, and however humorous, wanted; namely, music of nature, +tenderness, grace, rapidity, playfulness; just the qualities, combining +with the Scandinavian (and in Scotland with the Angle) elements of +character which have produced, in Ireland and in Scotland, two schools +of lyric poetry second to none in the world."[26] Over the page, +Kingsley has this to say: "For they were a sad people, those old Norse +forefathers of ours."[27] Humorous and sad are not inconsistent words in +these sentences; the Norseman had a sense of the ludicrous, and could +jest grimly in the face of death. Of the sadness of his life, no one +needs to be told who has read a saga or two. Kingsley says: "There is, +in the old sagas, none of that enjoyment of life which shines out +everywhere in Greek poetry, even through its deepest tragedies. Not in +complacency with Nature's beauty, but in the fierce struggle with her +wrath, does the Norseman feel pleasure."[28] + +This lecture shows a deeper acquaintance with Old Norse literature than +Kingsley was willing to acknowledge. Not only are the stories well +chosen which he uses throughout, but the intuitions are sound, and the +inferences based upon them. He anticipated the work of this +investigation in the last words of the address. He has been telling the +fine story of Thormod at Sticklestead: + +"I shall not insult your intelligence by any comment or even epithet of +my own. I shall but ask you, Was not this man your kinsman? Does not the +story sound, allowing for all change of manners as well as of time and +place, like a scene out of your own Bret Harte or Colonel John Hay's +writings; a scene of the dry humor, the rough heroism of your own far +West? Yes, as long as you have your _Jem Bludsos_ and _Tom Flynns of +Virginia City_, the old Norse blood is surely not extinct, the old Norse +spirit is not dead."[29] + + +EDMUND GOSSE (1849-). + +Among contemporary English poets who have taught the world of readers +that things Norse are worthy of attention, is Edmund Gosse. He has been +more intimately connected with the popularization of modern Norwegian +literature, notably of Ibsen, but he has also found in Old Norse story +themes for poetic treatment. We mention "The Death of Arnkel," found in +the volume _Firdausi in Exile_, more because it shows that our poets are +turning to _the gesta islandicorum_ for themes, than because it is a +remarkable poem. More pretentious is _King Erik, a Tragedy_, London, +1876. Here is a noble drama which displays an intimate acquaintance with +the literature that gave it its themes and inspiration. The author +dedicates it to Robert Browning, calling it: + + ... this lyric symbol of my labour, + This antique light that led my dreams so long, + This battered hull of a barbaric tabor, + Beaten to runic song. + +I have often thought that fate was very unkind to keep Browning so +persistently in the south of Europe, when, in Iceland and Norway, were +mines that he could have worked in to such supreme advantage. To be sure +his method clashes with the simplicity of the Old Norse manner, but from +him we should have had men and women superb in stature and virility, and +perhaps the Arctic influence would have killed the troublesome +tropicality of his language. + +This drama by Gosse is not strictly Icelandic in motive. Jealousy was +not the passion to loosen the tongue of the sagaman, and in so far as +that is the theme of "King Erik," the play is not Old Norse in origin. +Christian material, too, has been introduced that gives a modern tinge +to the drama, but there is enough of the genuine saga spirit to warrant +attention to it here. Something more than the names is Icelandic. Here +is a woman, Botilda, with strength of character enough to recall a +Brynhild or a Bergthora. Gisli is the foster-brother that takes up the +blood-feud for Grimur. Adalbjörg and Svanhilda are the whisperers of +slander and the workers of ill. Marcus is the skald who is making a poem +about the king. Here are customs and beliefs distinctly Norse: + + I loved him from the first, + And so the second midnight to the cliff + We went. I mind me how the round moon rose, + And how a great whale in the offing plunged, + Dark on the golden circle. There we cut + A space of turf, and lifted it, and ran + Our knife-points sharp into our arms, and drew + Blood that dripped into the warm mould and mixed. + So there under the turf our plighted faith + Starts in the dew of grasses. + +(Act. IV, Sc. II.) + + But all day long I hear amid the crowds, + + . . . . . . . . . + + A voice that murmurs in a monotone, + Strange, warning words that scarcely miss the ear, + Yet miss it altogether. + + _Botilda_. + + Oh! God grant, + You be not fey, nor truly near your end! + +(Act. IV, Sc. III.) + + +Although this work is dramatic in form, it is not so in spirit. The true +dramatist would have put such an incident as the swearing of brotherhood +into a scene, instead of into a speech. This effort is, however, the +nearest approach to a drama in English founded on saga material. It is +curious that our poets have inclined to every form but the drama in +reproducing Old Norse literature. It is not that saga-stuff is not +dramatic in possibilities. Ewald and Oehlenschläger have used this +material to excellent effect in Danish dramas. Had the sagas been +accessible to Englishmen in Shakespeare's time, we should certainly have +had dramas of Icelandic life. + + + + +IV. + +BY THE HAND OF THE MASTER. + + +Time has brought us to the man whose work in this field needs no +apology. The writer whom we consider next contributed almost as much +material to the English treasury of Northern gold as did all the writers +we have so far considered. Were it not for William Morris, the +examination that we are making would not not be worth while. The name +_literature_, in its narrow sense, belongs to only a few of the writings +that we have examined up to this point, but what we are now to inspect +deserves that title without the shadow of a doubt. For that reason we +set in a separate chapter the examination of Morris' Old Norse +adaptations and creations. + + +WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896). + +The biographer of William Morris fixes 1868 as the beginning of the +poet's Icelandic stories.[30] Eirikr Magnusson, an Icelander, was his +guide, and the pupil made rapid progress. Dasent's work had drawn +Morris' attention to the sagas, and within a few months most of the +sagas had been read in the original. Although _The Saga of Gunnlang +Worm-tongue_ was published in the _Fortnightly Review_, for January, +1869, the _Grettis Saga_, of April, was the first published book on an +Old Norse subject. The next year gave the _Völsunga Saga_. In 1871, +Morris made a journey through Iceland, the fruits of which were +afterwards seen in many a noble work. In 1875, _Three Northern Love +Stories_ was published, and, in 1877, _The Story of Sigurd the Volsung +and the Fall of the Niblungs_. More than ten years passed before he +turned again to Icelandic work, the Romances of the years of 1889 to +1896 showing signs of it, and the translations in the _Saga Library_, +"Howard the Halt," "The Banded Men," _Eyrbyggja_ and _Heimskringla_ of +1891-95. These contributions to the subject of our examination are no +less valuable than voluminous, and we make no excuses for an extended +consideration of them. They deserve a wider public than they have yet +attained. + + +1. + +_The Story of Grettir the Strong_ is the title of Morris and Magnusson's +version of the _Grettis Saga_. The version impresses the reader as one +made with loving care by artistic hands. Certainly English readers will +read no other translation of this work, for this one is satisfactory as +a version and as an art-work. English readers will here get all the +flavor of the original that it is possible to get in a translation, and +those who can read Icelandic if put to it, will prefer to get _Grettla_ +through Morris and Magnusson. All the essentials are here, if not all +the nuances. + +The reader unfamiliar with sagas will need a little patience with the +genealogies that crop out in every chapter. The sagaman has a +squirrel-like agility in climbing family trees, and he is well +acquainted with their interlocking branches. There are chapters in the +_Grettis Saga_ where this vanity runs riot, and makes us suspect that +Iceland differed little from a country town of to-day in its love for +gossip about the family of neighbors whose names happen to come into the +conversation. If the reader will persevere through the early chapters, +until Grettir commands exclusive attention, he will come to a drama +which has not many peers in literature. The outlaw kills a man in every +other chapter, but this record is no vulgar list of brutal fights. Not +inhuman nature, but human nature is here shown, human nature struggling +with unrelenting fate, making a grand fight, and coming to its end +because it must, but without ignominy. How fine a touch it is that +refuses to the outlaw's murderer the price set upon Grettir's head, +because the getting of it was through a "nithings-deed," the murder of a +dying man! William Morris was most felicitous in envoys and dedicating +poems, and in the sonnet prefixed to this translation he was +particularly happy. The first eight lines describe the hero of the +saga--the last six lines the significance of this literary creation: + + A life scarce worth the living, a poor fame + Scarce worth the winning, in a wretched land, + Where fear and pain go upon either hand, + As toward the end men fare without an aim + Unto the dull grey dark from whence they came: + Let them alone, the unshadowed sheer rocks stand + Over the twilight graves of that poor band, + Who count so little in the great world's game! + + Nay, with the dead I deal not; this man lives, + And that which carried him through good and ill, + Stern against fate while his voice echoed still + From rock to rock, now he lies silent, strives + With wasting time, and through its long lapse gives + Another friend to me, life's void to fill. + + +2. + +In the three volumes of _The Earthly Paradise_, published by William +Morris in 1868-1870, there are three poems which hail from Old Norse +originals. They are "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon," and +"The Lovers of Gudrun," in Vol. II, and "The Fostering of Aslaug," in +Vol. III. Of these "The Lovers of Gudrun" forms a class by itself; it is +a poem to be reckoned with when the dozen greatest poems of the century +are listed. The late Laureate may have equalled it in the best of the +_Idylls of the King_, but he never excelled it. Let us look at it in +detail. + +First, be it said that "The Lovers of Gudrun" overtops all the other +poems in _The Earthly Paradise_. It would be possible to prove that +Morris was at his best when he worked with Old Norse material, but that +task shall not detain us now. It is enough to note that the "Prologue" +to _The Earthly Paradise_, called "The Wanderers," makes the leader of +these wanderers, who turn story-tellers when they reach the city by "the +borders of the Grecian sea," a Norseman. Born in Byzantium of a Greek +mother, he claimed Norway as his home, and on his father's death +returned to his kin. His speech to the Elder of the City reveals a +touching loyalty to his father's home and traditions: + + But when I reached one dying autumn-tide + My uncle's dwelling near the forest-side, + And saw the land so scanty and so bare, + And all the hard things men contend with there, + A little and unworthy land it seemed, + And yet the more of Asagard I dreamed, + And worthier seemed the ancient faith of praise. + +Here is the man, William Morris, in perfect miniature. Modern life and +training had given him a speech and aspect quite suave and cultured, but +the blood that flowed in his veins was red, and the tincture of iron was +in it. In religion, in art, in poetry, in economics, he loved the past +better than the present, though he was never unconscious of "our +glorious gains." In all departments of thought the scanty, the bare, the +hard, the unworthy, drew first his attention and then his love and +enthusiastic praise. And so perhaps it is explained that of all the +poems in _The Earthly Paradise_, the one indited first in the scarred +and dreadful land where neither wheat nor wine is at home, shall be the +finest in this latter-day retelling. + +The first seventy years of the thirteenth century were the blossoming +time of the historic saga in Iceland, and those writings that record the +doings of the families of the land form, with the old songs and the best +of the kingly sagas, the flower of Northern literature. These family +records never extend over more than one generation, and sometimes they +deal with but a few years. They are half-way between romance and +history, with the balance oftenest in favor of truth. In this group are +found _Egils Saga_, known at second hand to Warton, the _Eyrbyggja +Saga_, translated by Walter Scott, and the _Laxdæla Saga_. It is the +_Laxdæla Saga_ that gives the story told by Morris in "The Lovers of +Gudrun." Among sagas it is famous for its fine portrayal of character. + +The saga and the poem tell the story of two neighboring farms, Herdholt +and Bathsted, whose sons and daughters work out a dire tragedy. Kiartan +and Bodli are the son and foster-son of the first house, and Gudrun is +the daughter of the second. These are the principal personages in the +drama, though the list of the other _dramatis personæ_ is a long one. +Not only in the name of its heroine does the story suggest the +_Nibelungenlied_. The machinery of the Norse stories resembles the +German story's in many of its parts. In this version of Morris, the main +features of the saga are kept, and distracting details are properly +subordinated to the principal interest. Through the nineteen divisions +of this story the interest moves rapidly, and wonder as to the issue is +never lost. As a story-teller, Morris is distinctly powerful in this +poem, and all the qualities that endear the story-teller to us are here +found joined to many that make the poet a favorite with us. There are no +lyrics in the poem--the original saga was without the song-snatches that +are often found in sagas--but there are dramatic scenes that recall the +power of the Master-poet. Least of all the poems in the _Earthly +Paradise_ does "The Lovers of Gudrun" show the Chaucerian influence, and +the reader must be captious indeed who complains of the length of this +story. + +To the unenlightened reader this poem reveals no traits that are +un-English. What there is of Old Norse flavor here is purely spiritual. +The original story being in prose, no attempt could be made to keep +original characteristics in verse-form. So "The Lovers of Gudrun" can +stand on its own merits as an English poem; no excuses need be made for +it on the plea that it is a translation. + +Local color is not laid on the canvas after the figures have been +painted, but all the tints in the persons and the things are grandly +Norse. This story is a true romance, in that the scene is far removed +from the present day, and the atmosphere is very different from our own. +This story is a true picture of life, in that it sets forth the doings +of men and women in the power of the master passion. And so for the +purposes of literature this poem is not Norse, or rather, it is more +than Norse, it is universal. Now and then, to be sure, the displaced +Norse ideals are set forth in the poem, but in such wise that we almost +regret that the old order has passed away. The Wanderer who tells the +tale assures his listeners of the truth of it in these last words of the +interlude between "The Story of Rhodope" and "The Lovers of Gudrun": + + Know withal that we + Have ever deemed this tale as true to be, + As though those very Dwellers in Laxdale, + Risen from the dead had told us their own tale; + Who for the rest while yet they dwelt on earth + Wearied no God with prayers for more of mirth + Than dying men have; nor were ill-content + Because no God beside their sorrow went + Turning to flowery sward the rock-strewn way, + Weakness to strength, or darkness into day. + Therefore, no marvels hath my tale to tell, + But deals with such things as men know too well; + All that I have herein your hearts to move, + Is but the seed and fruit of bitter love. + +It is aside from our purpose to tell this story here. The more we study +this marvelous work, the more it is impressed upon us that in the reign +of love all men and all literatures are one. To the Englishman this +description of an Iceland maiden is no stranger than it was to the men +who sat about the spluttering fire in the Icelander's hall. It is the +form of Gudrun that is here described: + + That spring was she just come to her full height, + Low-bosomed yet she was, and slim and light, + Yet scarce might she grow fairer from that day; + Gold were the locks wherewith the wind did play, + Finer than silk, waved softly like the sea + After a three days' calm, and to her knee + Wellnigh they reached; fair were the white hands laid + Upon the door posts where the dragons played; + Her brow was smooth now, and a smile began + To cross her delicate mouth, the snare of man. + +(_Earthly Paradise_, Vol. II, p. 247.) + +Not less accustomed are we to such heroes as Kiartan: + + And now in every mouth was Kiartan's name, + And daily now must Gudrun's dull ears bear + Tales of the prowess of his youth to hear, + While in his cairn forgotten lay her love. + For this man, said they, all men's hearts did move, + Nor yet might envy cling to such an one, + So far beyond all dwellers 'neath the sun; + Great was he, yet so fair of face and limb + That all folk wondered much, beholding him, + How such a man could be; no fear he knew, + And all in manly deeds he could outdo; + Fleet-foot, a swimmer strong, an archer good, + Keen-eyed to know the dark waves' changing mood; + Sure on the crag, and with the sword so skilled, + That when he played therewith the air seemed filled + With light of gleaming blades; therewith was he + Of noble speech, though says not certainly + My tale, that aught of his he left behind + With rhyme and measure deftly intertwined. + +(P. 266.) + +The Old Norse touch here is in the last three lines which intimate that +the warrior was often a bard; but be it remembered that the Elizabethan +warrior could turn a sonnet, too. + +We have said that the _Laxdæla Saga_ is famous for its portrayal of +character. This English version falls not at all below the original in +this quality. The lines already quoted show Gudrun and Kiartan as to +exterior. But this is a drama of flesh and blood creations, and they are +men and women that move through it, not puppets. Souls are laid bare +here, in quivering, pulsating agony. The tremendous figure of this story +is not Kiartan, nor Gudrun, nor Refna, but Bodli, and certainly English +narrative poetry has no second creation like to him. The mind reverts to +Shakespeare to find fit companionship for Bodli in poetry, and to George +Eliot and Thomas Hardy in prose. The suggestion of Shakespearean +qualities in George Eliot has been made by several great critics, among +them Edmond Scherer;[31] in Hardy and Morris, here, we find the same +soul-searching powers. These writers have created sufferers of titanic +greatness, and in the presence of their tragedies we are dumb. + +An English artist has made Napoleon's voyage on H.M.S. _Bellerophon_ to +his prison-isle a picture that the memory refuses to forget. The picture +of Bodli as he sails back to Iceland, which, though his home, is to be +his prison and his death, is no less impressive: + + Fair goes the ship that beareth out Christ's truth + Mingled of hope, of sorrow, and of ruth, + And on the prow Bodli the Christian stands, + Sunk deep in thought of all the many lands + The world holds, and the folk that dwell therein, + And wondering why that grief and rage and sin + Was ever wrought; but wondering most of all + Why such wild passion on his heart should fall. + +(P. 294.) + +Here we have the poet's conception--and the sagaman's--of Bodli--a man +in the grip of terrible Fate, who can no more swerve from the paths she +marks out for him than he can add a cubit to his stature. The Greek +tragedy embodies this idea, and Old Norse literature is full of it. +Thomas Hardy gives it later in his contemporary novels. We sympathize +with Bodli's fate because his agony is so terrible, and we call him the +most striking figure in this story. But the others suffer, too, Gudrun, +Kiartan, Refna; they make a stand against their woe, and utter brave +words in the face of it. Only Bodli floats downward with the tide, +unresisting. Guest prophesies bitter things for Gudrun, but adds: + + Be merry yet! these things shall not be all + That unto thee in this thy life shall fall. + +(P. 254.) + +And Gudrun takes heart. When Thurid tells her brother Kiartan that +Gudrun has married another, his joy is shivered into atoms before him. +But he can say, even then: + + Now is this world clean changed for me + In this last minute, yet indeed I see + That still it will go on for all my pain; + Come then, my sister, let us back again; + I must meet folk, and face the life beyond, + And, as I may, walk 'neath the dreadful bond + Of ugly pain--such men our fathers were, + Not lightly bowed by any weight of care. + +(P. 311.) + +And Kiartan does his work in the world. Poor Refna, when she has married +Kiartan hears women talking of the love that still is between Gudrun and +Kiartan. She goes to Kiartan with the story, beginning with words whose +pathos must conquer the most stoical of readers: + + Indeed of all thy grief I knew, + But deemed if still thou saw'st me kind and true, + Not asking too much, yet not failing aught + To show that not far off need love be sought, + If thou shouldst need love--if thou sawest all this, + Thou wouldst not grudge to show me what a bliss + Thy whole love was, by giving unto me + As unto one who loved thee silently, + Now and again the broken crumbs thereof: + Alas! I, having then no part in love, + Knew not how naught, naught can allay the soul + Of that sad thirst, but love untouched and whole! + Kinder than e'er I durst have hoped thou art, + Forgive me then, that yet my craving heart + Is so unsatisfied; I know that thou + Art fain to dream that I am happy now, + And for that seeming ever do I strive; + Thy half-love, dearest, keeps me still alive + To love thee; and I bless it--but at whiles,-- + +(P. 343) + +And thus she gains strength to live her life. + +Here, then, in Bodli, is another of the great tragic figures in +literature--a sick man. There are many of them, even in the highest rank +of literary creations, Hamlet, Lear, Othello, Macbeth! Wrong-headed, +defective as they are, we would not have them otherwise. The pearl of +greatest price is the result of an abnormal or morbid process. + +Bodli comes to us from Icelandic literature, and in that fact we note +the solidarity of poetic geniuses. Not only is the great figure of Bodli +proof of this solidarity, but many other features of this poem prove it. +"Lively feeling for a situation and power to express it constitute the +poet," said Goethe. There are dramatic situations in "The Lovers of +Gudrun" which hold the reader in a breathless state till the last word +is said, and then leave him marveling at the imagination that could +conceive the scene, and the power that could express it. There are +gentler scenes, too, in the poem, where beauty and grace are conceived +as fair as ever poet dreamed, and the workmanship is thoroughly +adequate. As an example of the first, take the scene of Bodli's mourning +over Kiartan's dead body. It is here that we get that knowledge of +Bodli's woe that robs us of a cause against him. What agony is that +which can speak thus over the body of the dead rival! + + ... Didst thou quite + Know all the value of that dear delight + As I did? Kiartan, she is changed to thee; + Yea, and since hope is dead changed too to me, + What shall we do, if, each of each forgiven, + We three shall meet at last in that fair heaven + The new faith tells of? Thee and God I pray + Impute it not for sin to me to-day, + If no thought I can shape thereof but this: + O friend, O friend, when thee I meet in bliss, + Wilt thou not give my love Gudrun to me, + Since now indeed thine eyes made clear can see + That I of all the world must love her most? + +(P. 368.) + +Examples of the gentler scenes are scattered lavishly throughout the +poem and it is not necessary to enumerate. + +One other sign that the Icelandic sagaman's art was kin to the English +poet's. The last line of this poem is given thus by Morris: + + I did the worst to him I loved the most. + +These are the very words of Gudrun in the saga, and summing up as they +do her opinion of Kiartan, they stand as a model of that compression +which is so admired in our poetry. Many such _multum in parvo_ lines are +found in Morris' poem, and at times they have a beauty that is +marvelous. Joined with this quality is the special merit of +Morris--picturesqueness, and so the reader often feels, when he has +finished a book by Morris, like the Cook tourist after he has "done" a +country of Europe--it must be done again and again to give it its due. + +Of the other two Old Norse poems in _The Earthly Paradise_ not much need +be said. "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is a fairy +tale, in the strain of Morris' prose romances. It was suggested by +Thorpe's _Yule-tide Stories_, the tale coming from the _Völundar Saga_. +There is a witchery about it that makes it pleasant reading in a dreamy +hour, but except the names and a few scenes about the farmstead, there +is nothing Icelandic about it. The virile element of the best Icelandic +literature is wanting here, and the hero's excuse for leaving weapons at +home when he goes to his watch is not at all natural: + + Withal I shall not see + Men-folk belike, but faërie, + And all the arms within the seas + Should help me naught to deal with these; + Rather of such love were I fain + As fell to Sigurd Fafnir's-bane + When of the dragon's heart he ate. + +(Vol. II, p. 33.) + +This passage is nominally in the same meter as the opening lines of the +poem: + + In this your land there once did dwell + A certain carle who lived full well, + And lacked few things to make him glad; + And three fair sons this goodman had. + +According to old time English prosody, it is the same, too, as the meter +of Scott's Marmion! + +In the passages quoted from "The Lovers of Gudrun" we see a measure +called the same as that of Pope's _Essay on Man_! Not seldom in "The +Lovers" do we forget that the lines are rhymed in twos; indeed, often we +do not note the rhyme at all. We are sometimes tempted to think that in +this piece, if not in "The Land East of the Sun," rhyme might have been +dispensed with altogether, since it often forces archaic words and +expressions into use. But it is to be said generally of Morris's +management of the meter in the Old Norse pieces, that it was adequate to +gain his end always, whether that end was to tell an Old Norse story in +English, or to carry over an Old Norse spirit into English. Of this +second achievement we shall speak further in considering _Sigurd the +Volsung_. + +There is one more tale in _The Earthly Paradise_ which originated in +Norse legend. "The Fostering of Aslaug" is drawn from Thorpe's _Northern +Mythology_, which epitomizes older sources. Aslaug is the daughter of +Iceland's great hero, Sigurd, and Iceland's great heroine, Brynhild, and +her life is set down in this poem most beautifully. Again we note that +the added touches of later poets fail to leave the sense of the +strenuous in the picture. Aslaug is like a favorite representation of +Brynhild that we have seen, a lily-maid in aspect, or a Marguerite. Her +mother's masculinity is gone, and with it the Old Norse flavor. It is +the privilege of our age to enjoy both the virility of the Old Norse and +the delicacy of the mediæval conceptions, and William Morris has caught +both. + + +3. + +In the opening lines of "The Fostering of Aslaug," our poet wrote his +doubts about his ability to sing the life of Sigurd in be-fitting +manner. At that time he said: + + But now have I no heart to raise + That mighty sorrow laid asleep, + That love so sweet, so strong and deep, + That as ye hear the wonder told + In those few strenuous words of old, + The whole world seems to rend apart + When heart is torn away from heart. + +(Vol. III, p. 28.) + +It is a common complaint against the poetry of William Morris that it is +too long-winded. Each to his taste in this matter, but we beg to call +attention to one line in the above passage: + + In those few strenuous words of old. + +Whatever may have been Morris' tendency when he wrote his own poetry, he +knew when concision was a virtue in the poetry of others. There is no +better description of the _Völsunga Saga_ than the above line, and +William Morris gave the English people a literal version of the saga, if +mayhap that strenuous paucity might translate the old spirit. But, as if +he knew that many readers would fail to make much of this version, he +tried again on a larger scale, and the great volume _Sigurd the +Volsung_, epic in character and proportions, was the result. Of these +two we shall now speak. + +The _Völsunga Saga_ was published in 1870, only two years after Morris +had begun to study Icelandic with Eirikr Magnusson. The latter's name is +on the title page as the first of the two co-translators. The _Saga_ was +supplemented by certain songs from the _Elder Edda_ which were +introduced by the translators at points where they would come naturally +in the story. The work, both in prose and verse, is well done, and the +attempt was successful to make, as the preface proposes, the "rendering +close and accurate, and, if it might be so, at the same time, not over +prosaic." The last two paragraphs of this preface are particularly +interesting to one who is tracing the influence of Old Norse literature +on English literature, because they are words with power, that have +stirred men and will stir men to learn more about a wonderful land and +its lore. We copy them entire: + +"As to the literary quality of this work we might say much, but we think +we may well trust the reader of poetic insight to break through whatever +entanglement of strange manners or unused element may at first trouble +him, and to meet the nature and beauty with which it is filled: we +cannot doubt that such a reader will be intensely touched by finding, +amidst all its wildness and remoteness, such startling realism, such +subtilty, such close sympathy with all the passions that may move +himself to-day. + +"In conclusion, we must again say how strange it seems to us, that this +Volsung Tale, which is in fact an unversified poem, should never before +have been translated into English. For this is the Great Story of the +North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the +Greeks--to all our race first, and afterwards, when the change of the +world has made our race nothing more than a name of what has been--a +story too--then should it be to those that come after us no less than +the Tale of Troy has been to us." + +Morris wrote a prologue in verse for this volume, and it is an exquisite +poem, such as only he seemed able to indite. So often does the reader of +Morris come upon gems like this, that one is tempted to rail against the +common ignorance about him: + + O hearken, ye who speak the English Tongue, + How in a waste land ages long ago, + The very heart of the North bloomed into song + After long brooding o'er this tale of woe! + + . . . . . . . . . + + Yea, in the first gray dawning of our race, + This ruth-crowned tangle to sad hearts was dear. + + . . . . . . . . . + + So draw ye round and hearken, English Folk, + Unto the best tale pity ever wrought! + Of how from dark to dark bright Sigurd broke, + Of Brynhild's glorious soul with love distraught, + Of Gudrun's weary wandering unto naught, + Of utter love defeated utterly, + Of Grief too strong to give Love time to die! + + +4. + +Six years later, in 1877 (English edition), Morris published the long +poem, _The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and The Fall of the Niblungs_, +and in it gave the peerless crown of all English poems springing from +Old Norse sources. The poet considered this his most important work, and +he was prouder of it than of any other literary work that he did. One +who studies it can understand this pride, but he cannot understand the +neglect by the reading public of this remarkable poem. The history of +book-selling in the last decade shows strange revivals of interest in +authors long dead; it will be safe to prophesy such a revival for +William Morris, because valuable treasures will not always remain +hidden. In his case, however, it will not be a revival, because there +has not been an awakening yet. That awakening must come, and thousands +will see that William Morris was a great poet who have not yet heard of +his name. Let us look at his greatest work with some degree of +minuteness. + +The opening lines are a good model of the meter, and we find it +different from any that we have considered so far. There are certain +peculiarities about it that make it seem a perfect medium for +translating the Old Norse spirit. Most of these peculiarities are in the +opening lines, and so we may transfer them to this page:[32] + + There was a dwelling of Kings ere the world was waxen old; + Dukes were the door-wards there, and the roofs were thatched with gold; + Earls were the wrights that wrought it, and silver nailed its doors; + Earls' wives were the weaving-women, queens' daughters strewed its + floors, + And the masters of its song-craft were the mightiest men that cast + The sails of the storm of battle adown the bickering blast. + +Everybody knows that alliteration was a principle of Icelandic verse. It +strikes the ear that hears Icelandic poetry for the first time--or the +eye that sees it, since most of us read it silently--as unpleasantly +insistent, but on fuller acquaintance, we lose this sense of +obtrusiveness. Morris, in this poem, uses alliteration, but so skilfully +that only the reader that seeks it discovers it. A less superb artist +would have made it stick out in every line, so that the device would be +a hindrance to the story-telling. As it is, nowhere in the more than +nine thousand lines of _Sigurd the Volsung_ is this alliteration an +excrescence, but everywhere it is woven into the grand design of a +fabric which is the richer for its foreign workmanship. + +Notice that _duke_ and _battle_ and _master_ are the only words not +thoroughly Teutonic. This overwhelming predominance of the Anglo-Saxon +element over the French is in keeping with the original of the story. Of +course it is an accident that so small a proportion of Latin derivatives +is found in these six lines, but the fact remains that Morris set +himself to tell a Teutonic story in Teutonic idiom. That idiom is not +very strange to present-day readers, indeed we may say it has but a +fillip of strangeness. Archaisms are characteristic of poetic diction, +and those found in this poem that are not common to other poetry are +used to gain an Old Norse flavor. The following words taken from Book I +of the poem are the only unfamiliar ones: _benight_, meaning "at night"; +"so _win_ the long years over"; _eel-grig_; _sackless_; _bursten_, a +participle. The compounds _door-ward_ and _song-craft_ are +representative of others that are sprinkled in fair number through the +poem. They are the best that our language can do to reproduce the fine +combinations that the Icelandic language formed so readily. English +lends itself well to this device, as the many compounds show that Morris +took from common usage. Such words as _roof-tree_, _song-craft_, +_empty-handed_, _grave-mound_, _store-house_, taken at random from the +pages of this poem, show that the genius of our language permits such +formations. When Morris carries the practice a little further, and makes +for his poem such words as _door-ward_, _chance-hap_, _slumber-tide_, +_troth-word_, _God-home_, and a thousand others, he is not taking +liberties with the language, and he is using a powerful aid in +translating the Old Norse spirit. + +One more peculiar characteristic of Icelandic is admirably exhibited in +this poem. We have seen that Warton recognized in the "Runic poets" a +warmth of fancy which expressed itself in "circumlocution and +comparisons, not as a matter of necessity, but of choice and skill." +Certainly Morris in using these circumlocutions in _Sigurd the Volsung_, +has exercised remarkable skill in weaving them into his story. Like the +alliterations, they are part of an harmonious design. Examples abound, +like: + + Adown unto the swan-bath the Volsung Children ride; + +and this other for the same thing, the sea: + + While sleepeth the fields of the fishes amidst the summer-tide. + +Still others for the water are _swan-mead_, and "bed-gear of the swan." + +"The serpent of death" and _war-flame_, for sword; _earth-bone_, for +rock; _fight-sheaves_, for armed hosts; _seaburg_, for boats, are other +striking examples. + +So much for the mechanical details of this poem. Its literary features +are so exceptional that we must examine them at length. + +Book I is entitled "Sigmund" and the description is set at the head of +it. "In this book is told of the earlier days of the Volsungs, and of +Sigmund the father of Sigurd, and of his deeds, and of how he died while +Sigurd was yet unborn in his mother's womb." + +There are many departures from the _Völsunga Saga_ in this poetic +version, and all seem to be accounted for by a desire to impress +present-day readers with this story. The poem begins with Volsung, +omitting, therefore, the marvelous birth of that king and the oath of +the unborn child to "flee in fear from neither fire nor the sword." The +saga makes the wolf kill one of Volsung's sons every night; the poem +changes the number to two. A magnificent scene is invented by Morris in +the midnight visit of Signy to the wood where her brothers had been +slain. She speaks to the brother that is left, desiring to know what he +is doing: + + O yea, I am living indeed, and this labor of mine hand + Is to bury the bones of the Volsungs; and lo, it is well nigh done. + So draw near, Volsung's daughter, and pile we many a stone + Where lie the gray wolf s gleanings of what was once so good. + +(P. 23.) + +The dialogue of brother and sister is a mighty conception, and surely +the old Icelanders would have called Morris a rare singer. Sigmund tells +the story of the deaths of his brothers, adding: + + But now was I wroth with the Gods, that had made the Volsungs for + nought; + And I said: in the Day of their Doom a man's help shall they miss. + +(P. 24.) + +But Signy is reconciled to the workings of Fate: + + I am nothing so wroth as thou art with the ways of death and hell, + For thereof had I a deeming when all things were seeming well. + +The day to come shall set their woes right: + + There as thou drawest thy sword, thou shall think of the days that were + And the foul shall still seem foul, and the fair shall still seem fair; + But thy wit shall then be awakened, and thou shalt know indeed + Why the brave man's spear is broken, and his war shield fails at need; + Why the loving is unbeloved; why the just man falls from his state; + Why the liar gains in a day what the soothfast strives for late. + Yea, and thy deeds shalt thou know, and great shall thy gladness be; + As a picture all of gold thy life-days shalt thou see, + And know that thou wert a God to abide through the hurry and haste; + A God in the golden hall, a God in the rain-swept waste, + A God in the battle triumphant, a God on the heap of the slain: + And thine hope shall arise and blossom, and thy love shall be quickened + again: + And then shalt thou see before thee the face of all earthly ill; + Thou shalt drink of the cup of awakening that thine hand hath holpen to + fill; + By the side of the sons of Odin shalt thou fashion a tale to be told + In the hall of the happy Baldur. + +(P. 25.) + +In this wise one Christian might hearten another to accept the dealings +of Providence to-day. While we do not think that a worshipper of Odin +would have spoken all these words, they are not an undue exaggeration of +the noblest traits of the old Icelandic religion. + +The poem does not record the death of Siggeir's and Signy's son, though +the saga does. Morris adds a touch when he makes the imprisoned men +exult over the sword that Signy drops into their grave, and he also puts +into the mouth of Siggeir in the burning hall words that the saga does +not contain. The poem says that the women of the Gothfolk were permitted +to retire from the burning hall, but the saga has no such statement. The +war of foul words between Granmar and Sinfjötli is left in the saga, and +the cause of Gudrod's death is changed from rivalry over a woman to +anger over a division of war booty. In Sigmund's lament over his +childlessness we have another of the poet's additions, and certainly we +find no fault with the liberty: + + The tree was stalwart, but its boughs are old and worn. + Where now are the children departed, that amidst my life were born? + I know not the men about me, and they know not of my ways: + I am nought but a picture of battle, and a song for the people to + praise. + I must strive with the deeds of my kingship, and yet when mine hour is + come + It shall meet me as glad as the goodman when he bringeth the last load + home. + +(P. 56.) + +When the great hero dies, Morris puts into his mouth another of the +magnificent speeches that are the glory of this poem. Four lines from it +must suffice: + + When the gods for one deed asked me I ever gave them twain; + Spendthrift of glory I was, and great was my life-day's gain. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + Our wisdom and valour have kissed, and thine eyes shall see the fruit, + And the joy for his days that shall be hath pierced my heart to the + root. + +(P. 62.) + +It appears from this study of Book I that _Sigurd the Volsung_ has +adapted the saga story to our civilization and our art, holding to the +best of the old and supplementing it by new that is ever in keeping with +the old. Other instances of this eclectic habit may be seen in the other +three books, but we shall quote from these for other purposes. + +Book II is entitled "Regin." "Now this is the first book of the life and +death of Sigurd the Volsung, and therein is told of the birth of him, +and of his dealings with Regin the Master of Masters, and of his deeds +in the waste places of the earth." + +Morris was deeply read in Old Norse literature, and out of his stores of +knowledge he brought vivifying details for this poem. Such, for +instance, is the description of Sigurd's eyes, not found just here in +the saga: + + In the bed there lieth a man-child, and his eyes look straight on + the sun. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + Yet they shrank in their rejoicing before the eyes of the child. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + +In the naming of the child by an ancient name, the meaning of that name +is indicated: + + O _Sigurd_, Son of the Volsungs, O Victory yet to be! + +The festivities over the birth of the child are wonderfully described +in the brief lines, and they are a picture out of another book than the +saga: + + Earls think of marvellous stories, and along the golden strings + Flit words of banded brethren and names of war-fain Kings. + +Over and over again in this poem Morris records the Icelanders' desire +"to leave a tale to tell," and here are Sigurd's words to Regin who has +been egging him on to deeds: + + Yet I know that the world is wide, and filled with deeds unwrought; + And for e'en such work was I fashioned, lest the songcraft come to + nought, + When the harps of God-home tinkle, and the Gods are at stretch to + hearken: + Lest the hosts of the Gods be scanty when their day hath begun to + darken. + +(P. 82.) + +In Book II we have other great speeches that the poet has put into the +mouth of his characters with little or no justification in the original +saga. Chap. XIV of the saga contains Regin's tale of his brothers, and +of the gold called "Andvari's Hoard," and that tale is severely brief +and plain. The account in the poem is expanded greatly, and the +conception of Regin materially altered. In the saga he was not the +discontented youngest son of his father, prone to talk of his woes and +to lament his lot. In the poem he does this in so eloquent a fashion +that almost we are persuaded to sympathize with him. Certainly his lines +were hard, to have outlived his great deeds, and to hear his many +inventions ascribed to the gods. The speech of the released Odin to +Reidmar is modeled on Job's conception of omnipotence, and it is one of +the memorable parts of this book. Gripir's prophecy, too, is a majestic +work, and its original was three sentences in the saga and the poem +_Grípisspá_ in the heroic songs of the _Edda_. Here Morris rises to the +heights of Sigurd's greatness: + + Sigurd, Sigurd! O great, O early born! + O hope of the Kings first fashioned! O blossom of the morn! + Short day and long remembrance, fair summer of the North! + One day shall the worn world wonder how first thou wentest forth! + +(P. 111.) + +Those who have read William Morris know that he is a master of nature +description. The "Glittering Heath" offered a fine opportunity for this +sort of work, and in this piece we have another departure from the saga, +Morris made hundreds of pictures in this poem, but the pages describing +the journey to the "Glittering Heath" are packed with them to an +extraordinary degree. Here is Iceland in very fact, all dust and ashes +to the eye: + + More changeless than mid-ocean, as fruitless as its floor. + +We confess that there is something in the scene that holds us, all shorn +of beauty though it is. We do not want to go the length of Thomas Hardy, +however, who, in that wonderful first chapter of _The Return of the +Native_ has a similar heath to describe. "The new vale of Tempe," says +he, "may be a gaunt waste in Thule: human souls may find themselves in +closer and closer harmony with external things wearing a sombreness +distasteful to our race when it was young.... The time seems near, if it +has not actually arrived, when the mournful sublimity of a moor, a sea, +or a mountain, will be all of nature that is absolutely consonant with +the moods of the more thinking among mankind. And ultimately, to the +commonest tourist, spots like Iceland may become what the vineyards and +myrtlegardens of South Europe are to him now." Is it not a suggestive +thought that England and the nineteenth century evolved a pessimism +which poor Iceland on its ash-heap never could conceive? William Morris +was an Icelander, not an Englishman, in his philosophy. + +In this same scene, a notable deviation from the saga is the +conversation between Regin and Sigurd concerning the relations that +shall be between them after the slaying of Fafnir. Here Morris impresses +the lesson of Regin's greed, taking the un-Icelandic device of preaching +to serve his purpose: + + Let it lead thee up to heaven, let it lead thee down to hell, + The deed shall be done tomorrow: thou shalt have that measureless Gold, + And devour the garnered wisdom that blessed thy realm of old, + That hath lain unspent and begrudged in the, very heart of hate: + With the blood and the might of thy brother thine hunger shalt thou + sate: + And this deed shall be mine and thine; but take heed for what followeth + then! + +(P. 119.) + +In still another place has Morris departed far from the saga story. +According to the poem, Sigurd meets each warning of Fafnir that the gold +will be the curse of its possessor with the assurance that he will cast +the gold abroad, and let none of it cling to his fingers. The saga, +however, has this very frank confession: "Home would I ride and lose all +that wealth, if I deemed that by the losing thereof I should never die; +but every brave and true man will fain have his hand on wealth till that +last day." Here, again, we see an adaptation of the story of the poem to +modern conceptions of nobility. It remains to be said that the ernes +move Sigurd to take the gold for the gladdening of the world, and they +assure him that a son of the Volsung had nought to fear from the Curse. +The seven-times-repeated "Bind the red rings, O Sigurd," is an admirable +poem, but it does not contain information concerning Brynhild, as do the +strophes of _Reginsmál_ which are the model for this lay. + +Let us look at the art of Morris as it is shown in telling "How Sigurd +awoke Brynhild upon Hindfell." As in the saga, so in the English poem, +this incident has a setting most favorable to the display of its +remarkable beauties. It is a picture as pure and sweet as it has ever +entered into the mind of man to conceive. The conception belongs to the +poetic lore of many nations, and children are early introduced to the +story of "Sleeping Beauty." There are some features of the Old Norse +version that are especially charming, and first among them is the +address of the awakened Brynhild to the sun and the earth. We are told +that this maiden loved the radiant hero that here awoke her from her +age-long sleep, but not for him is her first greeting. A finer thrill +moves her than love for a man, and in Morris's poem, this feeling finds +singularly beautiful expression: + + All hail O Day and thy Sons, and thy kin of the coloured things! + Hail, following Night, and thy Daughter that leadeth thy wavering + wings! + Look down with unangry eyes on us today alive, + And give us the hearts victorious, and the gain for which we strive! + All hail, ye Lords of God-home, and ye Queens of the House of Gold! + Hail thou dear Earth that bearest, and thou Wealth of field and fold! + Give us, your noble children, the glory of wisdom and speech, + And the hearts and the hands of healing, and the mouths and hands that + teach! + +(P. 140.) + +In order to see just what the art of Morris has done for this poem, let +us compare this address with the rendering of the _Sigrdrifumál_, which +tell the same story and which Morris and Magnusson have incorporated +into their translation of the _Völsunga Saga_. The verses are not in the +original saga: + + Hail to the day come back! + Hail, sons of the daylight! + Hail to thee, dark night, and thy daughter! + Look with kind eyes a-down, + On us sitting here lonely, + And give unto us the gain that we long for. + Hail to the Æsir, + And the sweet Asyniur! + Hail to the fair earth fulfilled of plenty! + Fair words, wise hearts, + Would we win from you, + And healing hands while life we hold. + +To get the full benefit of the comparison of the old and the new, let us +set in conjunction with these versions a severely literal translation of +the _Edda_ strophes themselves: + + Hail, O Day, + Hail, O Sons of the Day, + Hail Night and kinswoman! + With unwroth eyes + look on us here + and give to us sitting ones victory. + Hail, O Gods, + Hail, O Goddesses, + Hail, O bounteous Earth! + Speech and wisdom + give to us, the excellent twain, + and healing hands during life. + +These stages in the progress of the gold from mine to mint furnish their +own commentary. The finished product will pass current with the most +exacting of assayers, as well as gladden the hearts of the poor one +whose hand seldom touches gold. + +If the skill of the poet in this case have merited resemblance to that +of the refiner of gold, what name less than alchemy can characterize his +achievement in the rest of this scene? From the first words of +Brynhild's life-story: + + I am she that loveth; I was born of the earthly folk; + +to the tender words that tell of the coming of another day: + + And fresh and all abundant abode the deeds of Day, + +there is a succession of beautiful scenes and glorious speeches such as +only a master of magic could have gotten out of the original story. The +Eddaic account of the Valkyr's disobedience to All-Father, pictures a +saucy and self-willed maiden. Sentence has been pronounced upon her, and +thus the story continues: "But I said I would vow a vow against it, and +marry no man that knew fear." The _Völsunga Saga_ gives exactly the same +account, but the poetic version of Morris saves the maiden for our +respect and admiration. It is not effrontery, but repentance that speaks +in the voice of Brynhild here: + + The thoughts of my heart overcame me, and the pride of my wisdom and + speech, + And I scorned the earth-folk's Framer, and the Lord of the world I must + teach. + +In the Icelandic version, Odin makes no speech at the dooming, but +Morris puts into his mouth this magnificent address: + + And he cried: "Thou hast thought in thy folly that the Gods have + friends and foes, + That they wake, and the world wends onward, that they sleep, and + the world slips back, + That they laugh, and the world's weal waxeth, that they frown and + fashion the wrack: + Thou hast cast up the curse against me; it shall aback on thine head; + Go back to the sons of repentance, with the children of sorrow wed! + For the Gods are great unholpen, and their grief is seldom seen, + And the wrong that they will and must be is soon as it hath not been." + +(P. 141.) + +Morris has here again exercised the poet's privilege of adding to the +story that was the pride of an entire age, in order to serve his own the +better. If he was wise in these additions, he was no less wise in +subtractions and in preservations. The saga has a long address by +Brynhild, opening with mystical advice concerning the power of runes, +and closing grandly with wise words that sound like a page from the Old +Testament. The former find no place in _Sigurd the Volsung_, but the +latter are turned into mighty phrases that wonderfully preserve the +spirit of the original. + +One passage more from Book II: + + So they climb the burg of Hindfell, and hand in hand they fare, + Till all about and above them is nought but the sunlit air, + And there close they cling together rejoicing in their mirth; + For far away beneath them lie the kingdoms of the earth, + And the garths of men-folk's dwellings and the streams that water them, + And the rich and plenteous acres, and the silver ocean's hem, + And the woodland wastes and the mountains, and all that holdeth all; + The house and the ship and the island, the loom and the mine and the + stall, + The beds of bane and healing, the crafts that slay and save, + The temple of God and the Doom-ring, the cradle and the grave. + +(P. 145.) + +These ten lines serve to illustrate very well one of the most remarkable +powers of Morris. Just consider for a moment the number of details that +are crowded into this picture, and then notice how few are the strokes +required to put them there. For this rapid painting of a crowded canvas +Morris is second to none among English poets. This power to put a whole +landscape or a complex personality into a few lines is the direct +outcome of his study of Old Norse literature. Icelandic poetry is +characterized by this quality. One has but to compare the account of the +end of the world as it is found in the last strophes of _Völuspá_, or in +the _Prose Edda_, with the similar account in _Revelations_ to see how +much two languages may differ in this respect. It would seem as if the +short verses characteristic of Icelandic poetry forbade lengthy +descriptions. The effect must be produced by a number of quick strokes: +there is never time to go over a line once made. A simile is never +elaborated, a new one is made when the poet wishes to insist on the +figure. Take the second strophe of the "Ancient Lay of Gudrun" as an +example, in the translation by Morris and Magnusson: + + Such was my Sigurd + Among the Sons of Giuki + As is the green leek + O'er the low grass waxen, + Or a hart high-limbed + Over hurrying deer, + Or gleed-red gold + Over grey silver. + +That is the Icelandic fashion; William Morris has caught it in the +_Story of Sigurd_. Matthew Arnold has not seen fit to use it in his +"Balder Dead," as these lines show: + + Him the blind Hoder met, as he came up + From the sea cityward, and knew his step; + Nor yet could Hermod see his brother's face, + For it grew dark; but Hermod touched his arm. + And as a spray of honeysuckle flowers + Brushes across a tired traveller's face + Who shuffles thro the deep-moistened dust, + On a May-evening, in the darkened lanes, + And starts him that he thinks a ghost went by-- + So Hoder brushed by Hermod's side. + +These are noble lines, but altogether foreign to Icelandic. + +Book III opens with the dream of Gudrun and Brynhild's interpretation of +it. This matter is managed in accordance with our own standards of art, +and thus differs materially from the saga story. In the latter a most +naïve procedure is adopted, for Brynhild prophesies that Sigurd shall +leave her for Gudrun, through Grimhild's guile, that strife shall come +between them, and that Sigurd shall die and Gudrun wed Atli. The whole +later story is thus revealed. This is not a story-teller's art, but it +sets clear the Old Norse acceptance of fate's dealings. Of course +Morris' poetic action explains the dream perfectly, but the details are +not so frankly given. + +"Thou shalt live and love and lose, and mingle in murder and war," is +the gist of Brynhild's message, and the whole future history is there. + +This poem has often been called an epic, and certainly there are many +epical characteristics in it. One of them is the recurrence of certain +formulas, and in Books III and IV these are rather more abundant than in +the first two books. Thus the sword of Sigurd is praised in the same +words, again and again: + + It hath not its like in the heavens nor has earth of its fellow told. + +Then, there is the "cloudy hall-roof" of the Niblungs. Gudrun is "the +white-armed"; Grimhild is "the wisest of women"; Hogni is the +"wise-heart"; the Niblungs are "the Cloudy People"; their beds are +"blue-covered"; "the Godson the hangings" is an expression that recurs +very often, and it recalls the fact that Morris was an artisan as well +as an artist. + +In the preceding books we have noted that Morris lengthened the saga +story in his poem by the introduction of speeches that find no place in +the original. In this book we see another lengthening process, which, +with that already noted, goes far to account for the difference in bulk +between the saga and the poem. Chap. XXVI of the saga, tells in less +than a thousands words how Sigurd comes to the Giukings and is wedded to +Gudrun. His reception is told in one hundred words; his abode with the +Giukings is set forth in even fewer words; Grimhild's plotting and +administering of the drugged drink are told in two hundred words; his +acceptance of Gudrun's hand and her brother's allegiance are as tersely +pictured; kingdoms are conquered, a son is born to Sigurd, and Grimhild +plots to have Sigurd get Brynhild for her son Gunnar, yet the record of +it all is compressed within one hundred and fifty words. Of course, the +modern poet can hem himself within no such narrow bounds as this. The +artistic value of these various incidents is priceless, and Morris has +lingered upon them lovingly and long. He spreads the story over forty +pages, or a thousand lines, and I avow, after a third reading of these +three sections of the poem, that I would spare no line of them. How we +love this Sigurd of the poet's painting! And what a noble gospel he +proclaims to the Giukings: + + For peace I bear unto thee, and to all the kings of the earth, + Who bear the sword aright, and are crowned with the crown of worth; + But unpeace to the lords of evil, and the battle and the death; + And the edge of the sword to the traitor, and the flame to the + slanderous breath: + And I would that the loving were loved, and I would that the weary + should sleep, + And that man should hearken to man, and that he that soweth should + reap. + +(P. 174.) + +Here, by the way, is the burden of Morris's preaching in the cause of a +better society. It recurs a few pages further on in the poem, where the +Niblungs bestow praise on this new hero: + + And they say, when the sun of summer shall come aback to the land, + It shall shine on the fields of the tiller that fears no heavy hand; + That the sleep shall be for the plougher, and the loaf for him that + sowed, + Through every furrowed acre where the Son of Sigmund rode. + +(P. 178.) + +It need hardly be remarked that this Sigurd is not the sagaman's ideal. +The Icelanders never evolved such high conceptions of man's obligations +to man, but in their ignorance they were no worse off than their +continental brethren, for these forgot their greatest Teacher's +teaching, and modern social science must point them back to it. + +This Sigurd that we love becomes the Sigurd that we pity in the drinking +of a draught. Sorrow takes the place of joy in his life, and "the soul +is changed in him," so that men may say that on this day they saw him +die the first time, who was to die a second time by Guttorm's sword. +Gloom spreads over all the earth with the quenching of Sigurd's joy: + + In the deedless dark he rideth, and all things he remembers save one, + And nought else hath he care to remember of all the deeds he hath done. + +Here is illustrated the essential difference between the sagaman's art +and the modern story-teller's. The Icelander must tell his story in +haste; the deeds of men are his care, not their divagations nor their +psychologizings. The modern writer must linger on every step in the +story until the motive and the meaning are laid bare. In the present-day +version Sigurd's mental sufferings are described at length, and our +hearts are wrung at his unmerited woes. The saga knows no such woes, and +to all appearance Sigurd's life is not unhappy to its very end. Indeed, +it appears in more than one place in Morris's poem that Sigurd has +become godlike through the hard experiences of his life. Take this +passage as an illustration: + + So is Sigurd yet with the Niblungs, and he loveth Gudrun his wife, + And wendeth afield with the brethren to the days of the dooming of + life; + And nought his glory waneth, nor falleth the flood of praise: + To every man he hearkeneth, nor gainsayeth any grace, + And, glad is the poor in the Doom-ring when he seeth his face mid + the Kings, + For the tangle straighteneth before him, and the maze of crooked + things. + But the smile is departed from him, and the laugh of Sigurd the + young, + And of few words now is he waxen, and his songs are seldom sung. + Howbeit of all the sad-faced was Sigurd loved the best; + And men say: Is the king's heart mighty beyond all hope of rest? + Lo, how he beareth the people! how heavy their woes are grown! + So oft were a God mid the Goth-folk, if he dwelt in the world alone. + +(P. 205.) + +Set this by the side of the saga: "This is truer," says Sigurd, "that I +loved thee better than myself, though I fell into the wiles from whence +our lives may not escape; for whenso my own heart and mind availed me, +then I sorrowed sore that thou wert not my wife; but as I might I put my +trouble from me, for in a king's dwelling was I; and withal and in spite +of all I was well content that we were all together. Well may it be, +that that shall come to pass which is foretold; neither shall I fear the +fulfilment thereof." (_Völunga Saga_, Chap. XXIX.) These words are +spoken to Brynhild after she has discovered what she regards as Sigurd's +treachery. His words are dictated by a noble resignation to fate, but +his very next remark shows a moral meanness not at all in keeping with +Morris's conception. Sigurd said: "This my heart would, that thou and I +should go into one bed together; even so wouldst thou be my wife." + +There have been many griefs depicted in this poem, but surely here are +set forth the most pitiless of them all. The guile-won Brynhild travels +in state to the Cloudy Hall of the Niblungs, and the whole people come +out to meet her. They are astonished at her beauty, and give her cordial +greeting and welcome to her husband's house. Proud and majestic, the +marvelous woman steps from her golden wain, and gives friendly but +passionless greeting to Gunnar as she places her hand in his. For each +of Gunnar's brothers she has a kindly word, as she has for Grimhild, +too. She asks to see the foster-brother of whom such wondrous tales are +told, and whose name she heard from Gunnar's lips with never a +tremor--"Sigurd, the Volsung, the best man ever born." Grimhild stands +between them for a time, but the meeting has to come. Then Brynhild +remembers, and Sigurd sees the unveiled past: + + Her heart ran back through the years, and yet her lips did move + With the words she spake on Hindfell, when they plighted troth of love. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + His face is exceeding glorious and awful to behold; + For of all his sorrow he knoweth and his hope smit dead and cold: + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + For the will of the Norns is accomplished, and outworn is Grimhild's + spell + And nought now shall blind or help him, and the tale shall be to tell. + +(P. 226.) + +There's the note of the whole history--the will of the Norns and the +note of a whole Northern literature, as it is of a whole Southern +literature. Man, the puppet, in the hands of Fate; however man may think +and reason and assure himself that the dispensation of Fate is just, the +supreme moment of realization will always be a tragedy: + + He hath seen the face of Brynhild, and he knows why she hath come, + And that his is the hand that hath drawn her to the Cloudy People's + home: + He knows of the net of the days, and the deeds that the Gods have bid, + And no whit of the sorrow that shall be from his wakened soul is hid. + +(P. 226.) + +In such an hour, what are conquests of a glorious past, what are honors, +crowns, loves, hates? The mind can think of little matters only: + + His heart speeds back to Hindfell, and the dawn of the wakening day; + And the hours betwixt are as nothing, and their deeds are fallen away. + +(P. 226.) + +Is aught to be said to one in such a crisis, the words are weak and +commonplace. There is Brynhild's greeting to Sigurd: + + If aught thy soul shall desire while yet thou livest on earth, + I pray that thou mayst win it, nor forget its might and worth. + +The shattered mind of Sigurd tries to grasp the meaning of the harmless +words, and like common sounds that are so fearful in the night, the +phrases assume a terrible import: + + All grief, sharp scorn, sore longing, stark death in her voice he knew. + +Then again conies the dominant note of this story: + + Gone forth is the doom of the Norns, and what shall be answer thereto, + While the death that amendeth lingers? + +Here is a hint of the end of all--"the death that amendeth," and from +this point to the end of the story there is no gleam of happiness for +anyone. + +Book IV brings to a majestic close this mighty history. We have dwelt so +long on the wonderful poetry of the other books that we must refrain +from further comment in this strain. As we read these eloquent +imaginings, we regret that the English reading public have left this +work through fear of its great length or the ignorance of its existence, +in the dust of half-forgotten shelves. Gold disused is true gold none +the less, and the ages to come may be more appreciative than the +present. + +For the sake of rounding out this story, be it noted concerning this +Book IV, that the poet has taken liberties with the saga story here, as +elsewhere. Motives more easily understood in our day are assigned for +the deeds of dread that throng these closing scenes. Gudrun weds King +Atli at her mother's bidding, and under the influence of a wicked +potion, but neither mother nor magic drives the memory of Sigurd from +her mind. She lives to bring destruction upon her husband's murderers, +and those murderers are her own flesh and blood. Through her appeals to +Atli's greed, and through Knefrud's lies in the Niblung court, the visit +of her proud brothers to her pliant husband is brought about. The saga +makes Atli the arch-plotter, and the motive his desire to possess the +gold. This sentence exculpates Gudrun from any wrong intention towards +her brothers: "Now the queen wots of their conspiring, and misdoubts her +that this would mean some beguiling of her brethren." (Chap. XXXIV.) In +Chap. XXXVIII, we are told that Gudrun fights on the side of her +brothers. We see at once the superiority of the poet's motive for a +modern tragedy. + +It is impressed upon the reader of an epic that the plan of its maker +does not call for fine analysis of character. The epic poet is concerned +necessarily with large considerations, and his personages do not split +hairs from the south to the southeast side. One sign of this is seen in +the epic formulæ employed to characterize the personages of the story. +Such formulas are in _Sigurd the Volsung_ in abundance, as we have noted +on another page. But there are also many departures from the epic model +in this poem. Some of these we have referred to in the remarks on Book +III, where we noted Sigurd's mental sufferings. In Book IV we have a +discrimination of character that is not epic, but dramatic in its +minuteness. In the speech and the deeds of the Niblungs their pride and +selfishness is clearly set forth, but the individual members of that +race are distinguished by traits very minutely drawn. Thus Hogni is the +wary Niblung, and is averse to accepting Atli's invitation: + + "I know not, I know not," said Hogni, "but an unsure bridge is the sea, + And such would I oft were builded betwixt my foeman and me. + I know a sorrow that sleepeth, and a wakened grief I know, + And the torment of the mighty is a strong and fearful foe." + +(P. 281.) + +Gunnar is here distinguished as a hypocrite by word and deed; Gudrun +remembers Sigurd in her exile and schemes and plots to make her husband +Atli work her vengeance on the Niblungs; Atli is greedy for gold and +Gudrun's task is not hard; Knefrud is a liar whose words are winning, +and overcome the scruples of the Niblungs. In these careful +discriminations of character we see a non-epical trait, and of necessity +therefore, a non-Icelandic trait. The sagaman was epic in his tone. + +As a last appreciation of the art of William Morris as it is displayed +in this poem, we would call attention to the tremendous battle-piece +entitled "Of the Battle in Atli's Hall." It is the climax of this +marvelous poem, and in no detail is it inadequate to its place in the +work. The poet's constructive power is here demonstrated to be of the +highest order, and in the majestic sweep of events that is here +depicted, we see the poet in his original role of _maker_. The sagaman's +skill had not the power to conceive this titanic drama, and the memory +of his battle-piece is quite effaced by the modern invention. In blood +and fire the story comes to an end with Gudrun, + + The white and silent woman above the slaughter set. + +As we turn from the scene and the book, that figure fades not away. And +it is fitting that the last memory of this poem should be a picture of +love and hate, inextricably bound together, for that is the irony of +Fate, and Fate was mistress of the Old Norseman's world. + + +5. + +Between the great works dealt with in the last two sections, which +belong together and were therefore so considered, came the book of 1875, +bearing the title _Three Northern Love Stories and Other Tales_. It is +as good a representation as Iceland can make in the love-story class. + +These tales are charmingly told in the translation of Morris and +Magnusson, the second one, "Frithiof the Bold," being a master-piece in +its kind. Men will dare much for the love of a woman, and that is why +the sagaman records love episodes at all. Frithiof's voyage to the +Orkneys in Chap. VI is a stormpiece that vies with anything of its kind +in modern literature. It is Norse to the core, and we love the peerless +young hero who forgets not his manhood in his chagrin of defeat at love. +Surely there is fitness in these outbursts of song in moments of extreme +exultation or despair! "And he sang withal: + + "Helgi it is that helpeth + The white-head billows' waxing; + Cold time unlike the kissing + In the close of Baldur's Meadow! + So is the hate of Helgi + To that heart's love she giveth. + O would that here I held her, + Gift high above all giving!" + +Modern literature has lost this conventionality of the older writings, +found in Hebrew as well as in Icelandic, and we think it has lost +something valuable. Morris thought so, too, for he restored the +interpolated song-snatches in his Romances. We are tempted to dwell on +these three love-stories, they are so fine; but we must leave them with +the remark that they show the poet's appreciation of the worth of a +foreign literature, and his great desire to have his countrymen share in +his admiration for them. "The Story of Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue and +Raven the Skald," and "The Story of Viglund the Fair," are the other two +stories that give the title to the volume, representing the thirteenth +and fifteenth centuries, as "Frithiof" represented the fourteenth. + +6. + +With _Sigurd the Volsung_ ended the first great Icelandic period of +Morris's work. More than a dozen years passed before he returned to the +field, and from 1889 until his death, in 1896, everything he wrote bore +proofs of his abiding interest in and affection for the ancient +literature. The remarkable series of romances, _The House of the +Wolfings_ (1889), _The Roots of the Mountains_ (1890), _The Story of the +Glittering Plain_ (1891), _The Wood Beyond the World_ (1895), _The Well +at the World's End_ (1896) and _The Sundering Flood_ (posthumous), are +none of them distinctively Old Norse in geography or in story, but they +all have the flavor of the saga-translations, and are all the better for +it. They are as original and as beautiful as the poet's tapestries and +furniture, and if they did not provoke imitation as did the tapestries +and furniture, it was not because they were not worth imitating: more +than likely there were no imitators equal to the task. In these romances +we have men and women with the characteristics of an olden time that are +most worthy of conservation in the present time. The ideals of womanfolk +and manfolk in _The House of the Wolfings_ and _The Roots of the +Mountains_, for instance, are such as an Englishman might well be proud +to have in his remote ancestry. Hall-Sun, Wood-Sun, Sunbeam, and Bowmay +are wholesome women to meet in a story, and Thiodolf, Gold-mane, +Iron-face and Hallward are every inch men for book-use or to commune +with every day. Weaklings, too, abide in these stories, and Penny-thumb +and Rusty and Fiddle and Wood-grey lend humanity to the company. + +The two romances last mentioned are so steeped in the atmosphere of the +sagas, that what with folk-motes and shut-beds, and byres, and +man-quellers, and handsels and speech-friends, we seem to lose ourselves +in yet another version of a northern tale. Morris retains the old idiom +that he invented for his translations, and keeps the tyro thumbing his +dictionary, but the charm is increased by the archaisms. As one seeks +the words in the dictionary, one learns that Chaucer, Spenser and the +Ballads were the wells from which he drew these rare words, and that his +employment of them is only another phase of his love for the old far-off +things. It is true that the language of Morris is not of any one +stadium of English, but it is a poet's privilege to draw upon all +history for his words as well as for his allusions, and the revivals in +question are of worthy words pushed aside by the press of newer, but not +necessarily better forms. + +These works are the kind that show the influence of Old Norse literature +as spiritual rather than substantial. The stories are not drawn from the +older literature, nor are the settings patterned after it; but the +impulses that swayed men and women in the sagaman's tale, and the +motives that uplifted them, are found here. We cannot think that the +English people will always be unmindful of the great debt that they owe +to the Muse of the North. + + +7. + +In 1891, Morris engaged in a literary enterprise that set the fashion +for similar enterprises in succeeding years. With Eirikr Magnusson he +undertook the making of _The Saga Library_, "addressed to the whole +reading public, and not only to students of Scandinavian history, +folk-lore and language."[33] With Bernard Quaritch's imprint on the +title pages, these volumes to the number of five were issued in +exceptional type and form. The munificence of the publisher was equalled +by the skill of the translators, and in their versions of "Howard, the +Halt," "The Banded Men," and "Hen Thorir" (in Vol. I, dated 1891), "The +Ere-Dwellers" (in Vol. II, dated 1892) and _Heimskringla_ (in Vols. III, +IV and V, dated 1893-4-5), the definitive translations of sterling sagas +were given. As was the case with their _Grettis Saga_, the works rise to +the dignity of masterpieces, and had we no other legacy from Morris' +wealth of Icelandic scholarship, these translations were precious enough +to keep us grateful through many generations. + + +8. + +One more contribution to English literature hailing from the North, and +we have done with William Morris's splendid gifts. The volume of 1891, +entitled _Poems by the Way_, contains several pieces that must be +reckoned with. The vividest recollections of Icelandic materials here +made use of are the poems "Iceland First Seen," and "To the Muses of the +North." No reader of the poet's biography can forget the remarkable +journey that Morris made through Iceland, nor how he prepared for that +journey with all the care and love of a pilgrim bound for a shrine of +his deepest devotion. Every foot of ground was visited that had been +hallowed by the noble souls and inspiring deeds of the past, and that +pilgrimage warmed him to loving literary creation through the remainder +of his life. The last two stanzas of the first of the poems just +mentioned show what a strong hold the forsaken island had upon his +affections, and go far to explain the success of his Icelandic work: + + O Queen of the grief without knowledge, + of the courage that may not avail, + Of the longing that may not attain, + of the love that shall never forget, + More joy than the gladness of laughter + thy voice hath amidst of its wail: + More hope than of pleasure fulfilled + amidst of thy blindness is set; + More glorious than gaining of all + thine unfaltering hand that shall fail: + For what is the mark on thy brow + but the brand that thy Brynhild doth bear? + Lone once, and loved and undone + by a love that no ages outwear. + + Ah! when thy Balder conies back, + and bears from the heart of the Sun + Peace and the healing of pain, + and the wisdom that waiteth no more; + And the lilies are laid on thy brow + 'mid the crown of the deeds thou hast done; + And the roses spring up by thy feet + that the rocks of the wilderness wore. + Ah! when thy Balder comes back + and we gather the gains he hath won, + Shall we not linger a little + to talk of thy sweetness of old, + Yea, turn back awhile to thy travail + whence the Gods stood aloof to behold? + +In several other poems in this volume he recurs to the practice of his +romances, Scandinavianizes where the tendency of other poets would be +to mediævalize. "Of the Wooing of Hallbiorn the Strong," and "The Raven +and the King's Daughter" are examples. Here we have ballads like those +that Coleridge and Keats conceived on occasion, full of the beauty that +lends itself so kindly to painted-glass decoration; clustered +spear-shafts, crested helms and curling banners, and everywhere lily +hands combing yellow hair or broidering silken standards. But the names +strike a strange note in these songs of Morris, and the accompaniments +are very different from the mediæval kind: + + Come ye carles of the south country, + Now shall we go our kin to see! + For the lambs are bleating in the south, + And the salmon swims towards Olfus mouth. + Girth and graithe and gather your gear! + And ho for the other Whitewater![34] + +The introduction of the homely arts of bread-winning distinguishes the +romance of Scandinavia from the romance of Southern Europe, and here +Morris struck into a new field for poetry. Wherever we turn to note the +effects of Icelandic tradition, we find this presence of daily toil, +always associated with dignity, never apologized for. The connection +between Morris' art and Morris' socialism is not hard to explain. + +No commentary can equal Morris' own poem, "To the Muse of the North," in +setting forth the charm that drew him to the literature of Iceland: + + O Muse that swayest the sad Northern Song, + Thy right hand full of smiting and of wrong, + Thy left hand holding pity; and thy breast + Heaving with hope of that so certain rest: + Thou, with the grey eyes kind and unafraid, + The soft lips trembling not, though they have said + The doom of the World and those that dwell therein. + The lips that smile not though thy children win + The fated Love that draws the fated Death. + O, borne adown the fresh stream of thy breath, + Let some word reach my ears and touch my heart, + That, if it may be, I may have a part + In that great sorrow of thy children dead + That vexed the brow, and bowed adown the head, + Whitened the hair, made life a wondrous dream, + And death the murmur of a restful stream, + But left no stain upon those souls of thine + Whose greatness through the tangled world doth shine. + O Mother, and Love and Sister all in one, + Come thou; for sure I am enough alone + That thou thine arms about my heart shouldst throw, + And wrap me in the grief of long ago. + + + + +V. + +IN THE LATTER DAYS. + +ECHOES OF ICELAND IN LATER POETS. + + +After William Morris the northern strain that we have been listening for +in the English poets seems feeble and not worth noting. Nevertheless, it +must be remarked that in the harp of a thousand strings that wakes to +music under the bard's hands, there is a sweep which thrills to the +ancient traditions of the Northland. Now and then the poet reaches for +these strings, and gladdens us with some reminiscence of + + old, unhappy, far-off things + And battles long ago. + +As had already been intimated, the table of contents in a present-day +volume of poetry is very apt to show an Old Norse title. Thus Robert +Lord Lytton's _Poems Historical and Characteristic_ (London, 1877) +reveals among the poems on European, Oriental, classic and mediaeval +subjects, "The Death of Earl Hacon," a strong piece inspired by an +incident in _Heimskringla_. In Robert Buchanan's multifarious versifying +occurs this title: "Balder the Beautiful, A Song of Divine Death," but +only the title is Old Norse; nothing in the poem suggests that origin +except a notion or two of the end of all things. "Hakon" is the title of +a short virile piece more nearly of the Norse spirit. Sidney Dobell's +drama _Balder_ has only the title to suggest the Icelandic, but Gerald +Massey has the true ring in a number of lyrics, with themes drawn from +the records of Norway's relations with England. In "The Norseman" there +is a trumpet strain that recalls the best of the border-ballads; there +is also a truthfulness of portraiture that argues a poet's, intuition in +Gerald Massey, if not an acquaintance with the sagas: + + The Norseman's King must stand up tall, + If he would be head over all; + Mainmast of Battle! when the plain + Is miry-red with bloody rain! + And grip his weapon for the fight, + Until his knuckles grin tooth-white, + The banner-staff he bears is best + If double handful for the rest: + When "follow me" cries the Norseman. + +He knows the gentler side of Old Norse character, too, a side which, as +we have seen, was not suspected till Carlyle came: + + He hides at heart of his rough life, + A world of sweetness for the Wife; + From his rude breast a Babe may press + Soft milk of human tenderness,-- + Make his eyes water, his heart dance, + And sunrise in his countenance: + In merriest mood his ale he quaffs + By firelight, and with jolly heart laughs + The blithe, great-hearted Norseman. + +The poem "Old King Hake," is as strikingly true in characterization as +the preceding. In half a dozen strophes Massey has told a whole saga, +and has found time, too, to describe "an iron hero of Norse mould." How +miserable a personage is the Italian that flits through Browning's pages +when contrasted with this hero: + + When angry, out the blood would start + With old King Hake; + Not sneak in dark caves of the heart, + Where curls the snake, + And secret Murder's hiss is heard + Ere the deed be done: + He wove no web of wile and word; + He bore with none. + When sharp within its sheath asleep + Lay his good sword, + He held it royal work to keep + His kingly word. + A man of valour, bloody and wild, + In Viking need; + And yet of firelight feeling mild + As honey-mead. + +Another poem, "The Banner-Bearer of King Olaf," pictures the strong +fighter in a death he rejoiced to die. It is a good poem of the class +that nerves men to die for the flag, and it has the Old Norse spirit. +These poems are all from Massey's volume _My Lyrical Life_ (London. +1889). + +A glance at the other poems in Gerald Massey's volumes shows that like +Morris, and like Kingsley, and like Carlyle, the poet was a workman +eager to do for the workman. Is it not suggestive that these men found +themselves drawn to Old Norse character and life? The Icelandic republic +cherished character as the highest quality of citizenship, and put few +or no social obstacles in the way of its achievement. The literature +inspired by that life reveals a fellowship among the members of that +republic that is the envy of social reformers of the present day. Morris +makes one of the personages in _The Story of the Glittering Plain_ +(Chap. I) say these words: "And as for Lord, I knew not this word, for +here dwell we the Sons of the Raven in good fellowship, with our wives +that we have wedded, and our mothers who have borne us, and our sisters +who serve us." Almost may this description serve for Iceland in its +golden age, and so it is no wonder that the socialist, the priest, and +the philosopher of our own disjointed times go back to the sagas for +ideals to serve their countrymen. + +We have no other poets to mention by name in connection with this Old +Norse influence, although doubtless a search through the countless +volumes that the presses drop into a cold and uncaring world would +reveal other poems with Scandinavian themes. We close this section of +our investigation with the remark already made, that, in the tables of +titles in volumes of contemporary verse, acknowledgment to Old Norse +poetry and prose are not the rarity they once were, and in poems of any +kind allusions to the same sources are very common. + + + +RECENT TRANSLATIONS. + + +We have already noted the beginning of serial publications of saga +translations, namely, Morris and Magnusson's _Saga Library_ which was +stopped by the death of Morris when the fifth volume had been completed. +By the last decade of the nineteenth century Icelandic had become one of +the languages that an ordinary scholar might boast, and in consequence +the list of translations began to lengthen very fast. Several English +publishers with scholarly instincts were attracted to this field, and +so the reading public may get at the sagas that were so long the +exclusive possession of learned professors. _The Northern Library_, +published by David Nutt, of London, already contains four volumes and +more are promised: _The Saga of King Olaf Tryggwason,_ by J. Sephton, +appeared in 1895; _The Tale of Thrond of Gate_ (_Færeyinga Saga_), by F. +York Powell, in 1896; _Hamlet in Iceland_ (_Ambales Saga_), by Israel +Gollancz, in 1898; _The Saga of King Sverri of Norway_ (_Sverris Saga_), +by J. Sephton, in 1899. If we cannot give to these the praise of being +great literature though translations, we can at least foresee that this +process of turning all the readable sagas into English will quicken +adaptations and increase the stock of allusions in modern writings. + +An example of the publishers' feeling that the reading public will find +an interest in the saga itself, is the translation of _Laxdæla Saga_ by +Muriel A.C. Press (London, 1899, J.M. Dent & Co.). William Morris made +this saga known to readers of English poetry by his magnificent "Lovers +of Gudrun." Mrs. Press lets us see the story in its original form. +Perhaps this translation will appeal as widely as any to those who read, +and we may note the differences between this form of writing and that to +which the modern times are accustomed. + +This saga is a story, but it is not like the work of fiction, nor like +the sketch of history which appeals to our interest to-day. It has not +the unity of purpose which marks the novel, nor the broad outlook over +events which characterizes the history. Plotting is abundant, but plot +in the technical sense there is none. Events are recorded in +chronological order, but there is no march of those events to a +_denouement_. While it would be wrong to say that there is no one hero +in a saga, it would be more correct to say that that hero's name is +legion. From generation to generation a saga-history wends its way, each +period dominated by a great hero. The annals of a family edited for +purposes of oral recitation, or the life of the principal member of that +family with an introduction dealing with the great deeds of as many of +his ancestors as he would be proud to own--this seems to be what a saga +was--_Laxdæla_, _Grettla_, _Njala_. + +This form permits many sterling literary qualities. Movement is the +most marked characteristic. This was essential to a spoken story, and +the sharpest impression left in the mind of an English reader is that of +relentless activity. Thus he finds it necessary to keep the bearings of +the story by consulting the list of _dramatis personæ_ and the map, both +indispensable accompaniments of a saga-translation. The chapter headings +make this list, and a glance at them for _Laxdæla_ reveals a procession +of notable personages--Ketill, Unn, Hoskuld, Olaf the Peacock, Kiartan, +Gudrun, Bolli, Thorgills, Thorkell, Thorleik, Bolli Bollison and Snorri. +Each of these is, in turn, the center of action, and only Gudrun keeps +prominent for any length of time. + +Character-portraiture, ever a remarkable achievement in literature, is +excellently done in the sagas. There was a necessity for this; so many +personages crowded the stage that, if they were not to be mere puppets, +they would have to be carefully discriminated. That they were so a +perusal of any saga will prove. + +In a novel love is almost indispensable; in a saga other forces are the +impelling motives. Love-making gets the novelist's tenderest interest +and solicitude, but it receives little attention from the sagaman. +Wooing under the Arctic Circle was a methodical bargaining, and there +was little room for sentiment. When Thorvald asked for Osvif's daughter +Gudrun, the father "said that against the match it would tell that he +and Gudrun were not of equal standing. Thorvald spoke gently and said he +was wooing a wife, not money. After that Gudrun was betrothed to +Thorvald.... He should also bring her jewels, so that no woman of equal +wealth should have better to show.... Gudrun was not asked about it and +took it much to heart, yet things went on quietly." (Chap. XXXIV of +_Laxdæla_.) In Iceland, as elsewhere, love was a source of discord, and +for that reason love is always present in the saga. It is not the tender +passion there, silvered with moonlight and attended by song. The saga is +a man's tale. + +The translation just referred to is in _The Temple Classics_, published +by J.M. Dent & Co., London, 1899, and edited by Israel Gollancz. The +editor promises (p. 273) other sagas in this form, if Mrs. Press's work +prove successful. He speaks of _Njala_ and _Volsunga_ as imminent. It is +to be hoped that the intention is to give the Dasent and the Morris +versions, for they cannot be excelled. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Quoted in Gray, by E.W. Gosse, English Men of Letters, p. +163.] + +[Footnote 2: B. Hoff. Hovedpunkter af den Oldislandske +litteratur-historie. København. 1873.] + +[Footnote 3: Pp. xli-l in Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas +Gray, edited by W.L. Phelps. Ginn & Co., Boston. 1894.] + +[Footnote 4: Life of Gray, pp. 160 ff.] + +[Footnote 5: Wm. Sharp in Lyra Celtica, p. xx. Patrick Geddes and +Colleagues. Edinburgh. 1896.] + +[Footnote 6: Of Heroic Virtue, p. 355, Vol. III of Sir William Temple's +Works. London. 1770.] + +[Footnote 7: Of Heroic Virtue, p. 356.] + +[Footnote 8: Of Poetry, p. 416.] + +[Footnote 9: Spelling and punctuation are as in the original.] + +[Footnote 10: Stopford Brooke, English Literature. D. Appleton & Co., +New York. 1884. p. 150.] + +[Footnote 11: Vol. 3, pp. 146-311.] + +[Footnote 12: Quoted in Introduction, p. vii.] + +[Footnote 13: Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., Vol. I, p. +231. Boston, Houghton, Osgood & Co. 1879.] + +[Footnote 14: Edinburgh Review, Oct., 1806.] + +[Footnote 15: Quoted in Lockhart's Life, Vol. III, p. 241.] + +[Footnote 16: In G.W. Dasent's Life of Cleasby, prefixed to the +Icelandic-English Dictionary. Based on the MS. collection of the late +Richard Cleasby, enlarged and completed by Gudbrand Vigfusson. Oxford. +1874.] + +[Footnote 17: In another work by Carlyle, _The Early Kings of Norway_ +(1875) he takes special delight in revealing to Englishmen name +etymologies that hark back to Norse times. Of this sort are Osborn from +Osbjorn; Tooley St. (London) from St. Olave, St. Oley, Stooley, Tooley, +(Chap. X).] + +[Footnote 18: _The Early Kings of Norway_ bears a later date--1875--than +the works we are considering just now, and it is dealt with here only +because Carlyle's _Heroes and Hero-Worship_ belongs in the decade we are +considering.] + +[Footnote 19: Chap. V of Preliminary Dissertation.] + +[Footnote 20: Letters, Vol. I, p. 55, dated Dec. 12, 1855.] + +[Footnote 21: Home of the Eddic Poems, p. xxxix. London, 1899. David +Nutt.] + +[Footnote 22: Introduction to the Cleasby Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 23: Oxford Essays, 1858, p. 214.] + +[Footnote 24: Lectures delivered in America in 1874, by Charles +Kingsley. London. 1875. p. 71.] + +[Footnote 25: P. 78.] + +[Footnote 26: P. 89.] + +[Footnote 27: P. 90.] + +[Footnote 28: P. 91.] + +[Footnote 29: P. 96.] + +[Footnote 30: The Life of William Morris, by J.W. Mackail. London, New +York, Bombay. Vol. I, p. 200.] + +[Footnote 31: Edmond Scherer. Essays on English Literature, p. 309.] + +[Footnote 32: Citations are from the 3d edition. Boston. 1881.] + +[Footnote 33: Preface to Vol. I, p. v.] + +[Footnote 34: The Wooing of Hallbiorn.] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INFLUENCE OF OLD NORSE +LITERATURE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE*** + + +******* This file should be named 13786-8.txt or 13786-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/7/8/13786 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Influence of Old Norse Literature on English Literature</p> +<p>Author: Conrad Hjalmar Nordby</p> +<p>Release Date: October 18, 2004 [eBook #13786]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INFLUENCE OF OLD NORSE LITERATURE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE***</p> +<br><br><h3>E-text prepared by David Starner<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3><br><br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_i'></a>( i )</span> + +<h1>THE INFLUENCE</h1> + +<h1>OF</h1> + +<h1>OLD NORSE LITERATURE</h1> + +<h1>UPON</h1> + +<h1>ENGLISH LITERATURE</h1> +<br /> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>CONRAD HJALMAR NORDBY</h2> +<br /> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_ii'></a>( ii )</span> +<h4>1901</h4> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + + +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_iii'></a>( iii )</span> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Deyr fé<br /></span> +<span>deyja frændr,<br /></span> +<span>deyr siálfr it sama;<br /></span> +<span>en orðstírr<br /></span> +<span>deyr aldrigi<br /></span> +<span>hveim er sér góðan getr.<br /></span> +<div class='ref'> +<span><i>Hávamál</i>, 75.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Cattle die,<br /></span> +<span>kindred die,<br /></span> +<span>we ourselves also die;<br /></span> +<span>but the fair fame<br /></span> +<span>never dies<br /></span> +<span>of him who has earned it.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>Thorpe's <i>Edda</i>.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_v'></a>( v )</span> + +<a name='PREFATORY_NOTE'></a><h2>PREFATORY NOTE.</h2> +<br /> + +<p>The present publication is the only literary work left by its author. +Unfortunately it lacks a few pages which, as his manuscript shows, he +intended to add, and it also failed to receive his final revision. His +friends have nevertheless deemed it expedient to publish the result of +his studies conducted with so much ardor, in order that some memorial of +his life and work should remain for the wider public. To those +acquainted with him, no written words can represent the charm of his +personality or give anything approaching an adequate impression of his +ability and strength of character.</p> + +<p>Conrad Hjalmar Nordby was born September 20, 1867, at Christiania, +Norway. At the age of four he was brought to New York, where he was +educated in the public schools. He was graduated from the College of the +City of New York in 1886. From December of that year to June, 1893, he +taught in Grammar School No. 55, and in September, 1893, he was called +to his Alma Mater as Tutor in English. He was promoted to the rank of +Instructor in 1897, a position which he held at the time of his death. +He died in St. Luke's Hospital, October 28, 1900. In October, 1894, he +began his studies in the School of Philosophy of Columbia University, +taking courses in Philosophy and Education under Professor Nicholas +Murray Butler, and in Germanic Literatures and Germanic Philology under +Professors Boyesen, William H. Carpenter and Calvin Thomas. It was under +the guidance of Professor Carpenter that the present work was conceived +and executed.</p> + +<p>Such a brief outline of Mr. Nordby's career can, however, give but an +imperfect view of his activities, while it gives none at all of his +influence. He was a teacher who impressed his personality, not only upon +his students, but upon all who knew him. In his character were united +force and refinement, firmness and geniality. In his earnest work with +his pupils, in his lectures to + +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_vi'></a>( vi )</span> + +the teachers of the New York Public +Schools and to other audiences, in his personal influence upon all with +whom he came in contact, he spread the taste for beauty, both of poetry +and of life. When his body was carried to the grave, the grief was not +confined to a few intimate friends; all who had known him felt that +something noble and beautiful had vanished from their lives.</p> + +<p>In this regard his career was, indeed, rich in achievement, but when we +consider what, with his large equipment, he might have done in the world +of scholarship, the promise, so untimely blighted, seems even richer. +From early youth he had been a true lover of books. To him they were not +dead things; they palpitated with the life blood of master spirits. The +enthusiasm for William Morris displayed in the present essay is typical +of his feeling for all that he considered best in literature. Such an +enthusiasm, communicated to those about him, rendered him a vital force +in every company where works of creative genius could be a theme of +conversation.</p> + +<p>A love of nature and of art accompanied and reinforced this love of +literature; and all combined to produce the effect of wholesome purity +and elevation which continually emanated from him. His influence, in +fact, was largely of that pervasive sort which depends, not on any +special word uttered, and above all, not on any preachment, but upon the +entire character and life of the man. It was for this reason that his +modesty never concealed his strength. He shrunk above all things from +pushing himself forward and demanding public notice, and yet few ever +met him without feeling the force of character that lay behind his +gentle and almost retiring demeanor. It was easy to recognize that here +was a man, self-centered and whole.</p> + +<p>In a discourse pronounced at a memorial meeting, the Rev. John Coleman +Adams justly said: "If I wished to set before my boy a type of what is +best and most lovable in the American youth, I think I could find no +more admirable character than that of Conrad Hjalmar Nordby. A young man +of the people, with all their unexhausted force, vitality and +enthusiasm; a man of simple aims and honest ways; as chivalrous and +high-minded as any knight of old; as pure in life as a woman; at once +gentle and brave, strong and sweet, just and loving; upright, but no +Pharisee; earnest, but never sanctimonious; who took his work + +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_vii'></a>( vii )</span> + +as a pleasure, and his pleasure as an innocent joy; a friend to be coveted; a +disciple such as the Saviour must have loved; a true son of God, who +dwelt in the Father's house. Of such youth our land may well be proud; +and no man need speak despairingly of a nation whose life and +institutions can ripen such a fruit." </p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span>L.F.M.</span><br /> +<span>COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">May 15, 1901.<br /></span> +</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_ix'></a>( ix )</span> + +<a name='INTRODUCTORY'></a><h2>INTRODUCTORY.</h2> +<br /> + +<p>It should not be hard for the general reader to understand that the +influence which is the theme of this dissertation is real and +explicable. If he will but call the roll of his favorite heroes, he will +find Sigurd there. In his gallery of wondrous women, he certainly +cherishes Brynhild. These poetic creations belong to the +English-speaking race, because they belong to the world. And if one will +but recall the close kinship of the Icelandic and the Anglo-Saxon +languages, he will not find it strange that the spirit of the old Norse +sagas lives again in our English song and story.</p> + +<p>The survey that this essay takes begins with Thomas Gray (1716-1771), +and comes down to the present day. It finds the fullest measure of the +old Norse poetic spirit in William Morris (1834-1896), and an increasing +interest and delight in it as we come toward our own time. The +enterprise of learned societies and enlightened book publishers has +spread a knowledge of Icelandic literature among the reading classes of +the present day; but the taste for it is not to be accounted for in the +same way. That is of nobler birth than of erudition or commercial pride. +Is it not another expression of that changed feeling for the things that +pertain to the common people, which distinguishes our century from the +last? The historian no longer limits his study to camp and court; the +poet deigns to leave the drawing-room and library for humbler scenes. +Folk-lore is now dignified into a science. The touch of nature has made +the whole world kin, and our highly civilized century is moved by the +records of the passions of the earlier society.</p> + +<p>This change in taste was long in coming, and the emotional phase of it +has preceded the intellectual. It is interesting to note that Gray and +Morris both failed to carry their public with them all the way. Gray, +the most cultured man of his time, produced art forms totally different +from those in vogue, and Walpole +<a name='FNanchor_1_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_1'><sup>[1]</sup></a> said + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_x'></a>( x )</span> + +of these forms: "Gray has added to his poems three ancient odes from Norway and +Wales ... they are not interesting, and do not, like his other poems, touch any passion.... +Who can care through what horrors a Runic savage arrived at all the joys +and glories they could conceive—the supreme felicity of boozing ale out +of the skull of an enemy in Odin's Hall?"</p> + +<p>Morris, the most versatile man of his time, found plenty of praise for +his art work, until he preached social reform to Englishmen. Thereafter +the art of William Morris was not so highly esteemed, and the best poet +in England failed to attain the laurel on the death of Tennyson.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_xi'></a>( xi )</span> + +<a name='CONTENTS'></a><h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<br /> + +<div class="toc"> +<a href='#PREFATORY_NOTE'><span>Prefatory Note</span></a><br /> +<a href='#INTRODUCTORY'><span>Introductory</span></a><br /> +<a href='#I'><span class='i2'>I. The Body of Old Norse Literature</span></a><br /> +<a href='#II'><span class='i2'>II. Through the Medium of Latin</span></a> +<a href='#THOMAS_GRAY'><span class='i6'>Thomas Gray</span></a> +<a href='#GRAY_SOURCES'><span class='i6'>The Sources of Gray's Knowledge</span></a> +<a href='#WILLIAM_TEMPLE'><span class='i6'>Sir William Temple</span></a> +<a href='#GEORGE_HICKES'><span class='i6'>George Hickes</span></a> +<a href='#THOMAS_PERCY'><span class='i6'>Thomas Percy</span></a> +<a href='#THOMAS_WARTON'><span class='i6'>Thomas Warton</span></a> +<a href='#DRAKE_MATHIAS'><span class='i6'>Drake and Mathias</span></a> +<a href='#COTTLE_HERBERT'><span class='i6'>Cottle and Herbert</span></a> +<a href='#WALTER_SCOTT'><span class='i6'>Walter Scott</span></a><br /> +<a href='#III'><span class="i2">III. From the Sources Themselves</span></a> +<a href='#RICHARD_CLEASBY'><span class='i6'>Richard Cleasby</span></a> +<a href='#THOMAS_CARLYLE'><span class='i6'>Thomas Carlyle</span></a> +<a href='#SAMUEL_LAING'><span class='i6'>Samuel Laing</span></a> +<a href='#LONGFELLOW_LOWELL'><span class='i6'>Longfellow and Lowell</span></a> +<a href='#MATTHEW_ARNOLD'><span class='i6'>Matthew Arnold</span></a> +<a href='#GEORGE_DASENT'><span class='i6'>George Webbe Dasent</span></a> +<a href='#CHARLES_KINGSLEY'><span class='i6'>Charles Kingsley</span></a> +<a href='#EDMUND_GOSSE'><span class='i6'>Edmund Gosse</span></a><br /> +<a href='#IV'><span class='i2'>IV. By the Hand of the Master</span></a> +<a href='#WILLIAM_MORRIS'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works</span></a> +<a href='#1'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 1</span></a> +<a href='#2'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 2</span></a> +<a href='#3'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 3</span></a> +<a href='#4'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 4</span></a> +<a href='#5'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 5</span></a> +<a href='#6'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 6</span></a> +<a href='#7'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 7</span></a> +<a href='#8'><span class='i6'>William Morris' works 8</span></a><br /> +<a href='#V'><span class='i2'>V. In the Latter Days</span></a> +<a href='#ECHOES'><span class='i6'>Echoes of Iceland in Later Poets</span></a> +<a href='#RECENT_TRANS'><span class='i6'>Recent Translations</span></a><br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_1'></a>( 1 )</span> + +<a name='I'></a><h2>I.</h2> + +<h2>THE BODY OF OLD NORSE LITERATURE.</h2> +<br /> + +<p>First, let us understand what the Old Norse literature was that has been +sending out this constantly increasing influence into the world of +poetry.</p> + +<p>It was in the last four decades of the ninth century of our era that +Norsemen began to leave their own country and set up new homes in +Iceland. The sixty years ending with 930 A.D. were devoted to taking up +the land, and the hundred years that ensued after that date were devoted +to quarreling about that land. These quarrels were the origin of the +Icelandic family sagas. The year 1000 brought Christianity to the +island, and the period from 1030 to 1120 were years of peace in which +stories of the former time passed from mouth to mouth. The next century +saw these stories take written form, and the period from 1220 to 1260 +was the golden age of this literature. In 1264, Iceland passed under the +rule of Norway, and a decline of literature began, extending until 1400, +the end of literary production in Iceland. In the main, the authors of +Iceland are unknown +<a name='FNanchor_2_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2]</sup></a>.</p> + +<p>There are several well-marked periods, therefore, in Icelandic literary +production. The earliest was devoted to poetry, Icelandic being no +different from most other languages in the precedence of that form. +Before the settlement of Iceland, the Norse lands were acquainted with +songs about gods and champions, written in a simple verse form. The +first settlers wrote down some of these, and forgot others. In the +<i>Codex Regius</i>, preserved in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, we have a +collection of these songs. This material was published in the +seventeenth century as the <i>Sæmundar Edda</i>, and came to be known as the +<i>Elder</i> or <i>Poetic Edda</i>. Both titles are misnomers, for Sæmund had +nothing to do with the making of the book, and <i>Edda</i> is a name +belonging to a book of later date and different purpose.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_2'></a>( 2 )</span> + +This work—not a product of the soil as folk-songs are—is the fountain +head of Old Norse mythology, and of Old Norse heroic legends. <i>Völuspá</i> +and <i>Hávamál</i> are in this collection, and other songs that tell of Odin +and Baldur and Loki. The Helgi poems and the Völsung poems in their +earliest forms are also here.</p> + +<p>A second class of poetry in this ancient literature is that called +"Skaldic." Some of this deals with mythical material, and some with +historical material. A few of the skalds are known to us by name, +because their lives were written down in later sagas. Egill +Skallagrímsson, known to all readers of English and Scotch antiquities, +Eyvind Skáldaspillir and Sigvat are of this group.</p> + +<p>Poetic material that is very rich is found in Snorri Sturluson's work on +Old Norse poetics, entitled <i>The Edda</i>, and often referred to as the +<i>Younger</i> or <i>Prose Edda</i>.</p> + +<p>More valuable than the poetry is the prose of this literature, +especially the <i>Sagas</i>. The saga is a prose epic, characteristic of the +Norse countries. It records the life of a hero, told according to fixed +rules. As we have said, the sagas were based upon careers run in +Iceland's stormy time. They are both mythical and historical. In the +mythical group are, among others, the <i>Völsunga Saga</i>, the <i>Hervarar +Saga</i>, <i>Friðthjófs Saga</i> and <i>Ragnar Loðbróks Saga</i>. In the historical +group, the flowering time of which was 1200-1270, we find, for example, +<i>Egils Saga</i>, <i>Eyrbyggja Saga</i>, <i>Laxdæla Saga</i>, <i>Grettis Saga</i>, <i>Njáls +Saga</i>. A branch of the historic sagas is the Kings' Sagas, in which we +find <i>Heimskringla</i>, the <i>Saga of Olaf Tryggvason</i>, the <i>Flatey Book</i>, +and others.</p> + +<p>This sketch does not pretend to indicate the quantity of Old Norse +literature. An idea of that is obtained by considering the fact that +eleven columns of the ninth edition of the <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i> are +devoted to recording the works of that body of writings.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_3'></a>( 3 )</span> + +<a name='II'></a><h2>II.</h2> + +<h2>THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF LATIN.</h2> +<br /><br /> + +<a name='THOMAS_GRAY'></a><h3>THOMAS GRAY (1716-1771).</h3> + +<p>In the eighteenth century, Old Norse literature was the lore of +antiquarians. That it is not so to-day among English readers is due to a +line of writers, first of whom was Thomas Gray. In the thin volume of +his poetry, two pieces bear the sub-title: "An Ode. From the Norse +Tongue." These are "The Fatal Sisters," and "The Descent of Odin," both +written in 1761, though not published until 1768. These poems are among +the latest that Gray gave to the world, and are interesting aside from +our present purpose because they mark the limit of Gray's progress +toward Romanticism.</p> + +<p>We are not accustomed to think of Gray as a Romantic poet, although we +know well that the movement away from the so-called Classicism was begun +long before he died. The Romantic element in his poetry is not obvious; +only the close observer detects it, and then only in a few of the poems. +The Pindaric odes exhibit a treatment that is Romantic, and the Norse +and Welsh adaptations are on subjects that are Romantic. But we must go +to his letters to find proof positive of his sympathy with the breaking +away from Classicism. Here are records of a love of outdoors that +reveled in mountain-climbing and the buffeting of storms. Here are +appreciations of Shakespeare and of Milton, the like of which were not +often proclaimed in his generation. Here is ecstatic admiration of +ballads and of the Ossian imitations, all so unfashionable in the +literary culture of the day. While dates disprove Lowell's statement in +his essay on Gray that "those anti-classical yearnings of Gray began +after he had ceased producing," it is certain that very little of his +poetic work expressed these yearnings. "Elegance, sweetness, pathos, or +even majesty he could achieve, but never that force which vibrates in +every verse of larger moulded men." Change Lowell's word "could" to +"did," and this sentence will serve our purpose here.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_4'></a>( 4 )</span> + +Our interest in Gray's Romanticism must confine itself to the two odes +from the Old Norse. It is to be noted that the first transplanting to +English poetry of Old Norse song came about through the scholar's +agency, not the poet's. It was Gray, the scholar, that made "The Descent +of Odin" and "The Fatal Sisters." They were intended to serve as +specimens of a forgotten literature in a history of English poetry. In +the "Advertisement" to "The Fatal Sisters" he tells how he came to give +up the plan: "The Author has long since drop'd his design, especially +after he heard, that it was already in the hands of a Person well +qualified to do it justice, both by his taste, and his researches into +antiquity." Thomas Warton's <i>History of English Poetry</i> was the +execution of this design, but in that book no place was found for these +poems.</p> + +<p>In his absurd <i>Life of Gray</i>, Dr. Johnson said: "His translations of +Northern and Welsh Poetry deserve praise: the imagery is preserved, +perhaps often improved, but the language is unlike the language of other +poets." There are more correct statements in this sentence, perhaps, +than in any other in the essay, but this is because ignorance sometimes +hits the truth. It is not likely that the poems would have been +understood without the preface and the explanatory notes, and these, in +a measure, made the reader interested in the literature from which they +were drawn. Gray called the pieces "dreadful songs," and so in very +truth they are. Strength is the dominant note, rude, barbaric strength, +and only the art of Gray saved it from condemnation. To-day, with so +many imitations from Old Norse to draw upon, we cannot point to a single +poem which preserves spirit and form as well as those of Gray. Take the +stanza:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Horror covers all the heath,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Clouds of carnage blot the sun,<br /></span> +<span>Sisters, weave the web of death;<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Sisters, cease, the work is done.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The strophe is perfect in every detail. Short lines, each ending a +sentence; alliteration; words that echo the sense, and just four strokes +to paint a picture which has an atmosphere that whisks you into its own +world incontinently. It is no wonder that writers of later days who have +tried similar imitations ascribe to Thomas Gray the mastership.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_5'></a>( 5 )</span> + +That this poet of the eighteenth century, who "equally despised what +was Greek and what was Gothic," should have entered so fully into the +spirit and letter of Old Norse poetry is little short of marvelous. If +Professor G.L. Kittredge had not gone so minutely into the question of +Gray's knowledge of Old Norse, +<a name='FNanchor_3_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_3'><sup>[3]</sup></a> +we might be pardoned for still +believing with Gosse +<a name='FNanchor_4_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_4'><sup>[4]</sup></a> +that the poet learned Icelandic in his later +life. Even after reading Professor Kittredge's essay, we cannot +understand how Gray could catch the metrical lilt of the Old Norse with +only a Latin version to transliterate the parallel Icelandic. We suspect +that Gray's knowledge was fuller than Professor Kittredge will allow, +although we must admit that superficial knowledge may coexist with a +fine interpretative spirit. Matthew Arnold's knowledge of Celtic +literature was meagre, yet he wrote memorably and beautifully on that +subject, as Celts themselves will acknowledge. +<a name='FNanchor_5_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_5'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> +<br /> + +<a name='GRAY_SOURCES'></a><h3>THE SOURCES OF GRAY'S KNOWLEDGE.</h3> + +<p>It has already been said that only antiquarians had knowledge of things +Icelandic in Gray's time. Most of this knowledge was in Latin, of +course, in ponderous tomes with wonderful, long titles; and the list of +them is awe-inspiring. In all likelihood Gray did not use them all, but +he met references to them in the books he did consult. Professor +Kittredge mentions them in the paper already quoted, but they are here +arranged in the order of publication, and the list is lengthened to +include some books that were inspired by the interest in Gray's +experiments.</p> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1636</b> and <b>1651</b>. Wormius. <i>Seu Danica literatura antiquissima, +vulgo Gothica dicta, luci reddita opera Olai Wormii. Cui accessit de +prisca Danorum Poesi Dissertatio.</i> Hafniæ. 1636. Edit. II. 1651.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">The essay on poetry contains interlinear Latin translations of the +<i>Epicedium</i> of Ragnar Loðbrók, and of the <i>Drápa</i> of Egill +Skallagrímsson. Bound with the second edition of 1651, and bearing the +date 1650, is: <i>Specimen Lexici runici, obscuriorum quarundam vocum, quæ +in</i> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_6'></a>( 6 )</span> + +<i>priscis occurrunt historiis et poetis Danicis enodationem exhibens. +Collectum a Magno Olavio pastore Laufasiensi, ... nunc in ordinem +redactum, auctum et locupletatum ab Olao Wormio</i>. Hafniæ.<br /> +<br /> +This glossary adduces illustrations from the great poems of Icelandic +literature. Thus early the names and forms of the ancient literature +were known.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1665.</b> Resenius. <i>Edda Islandorum an. Chr. MCCXV islandice +conscripta per Snorronem Sturlæ Islandiæ. Nomophylacem nunc primum +islandice, danice et latine ... Petri Johannis Resenii</i> ... Havniæ. +1665.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">A second part contains a disquisition on the philosophy of the <i>Völuspá</i> +and the <i>Hávamál</i>.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1670.</b> Sheringham. <i>De Anglorum Gentis Origine Disceptatio. Qua +eorum migrationes, variæ sedes, et ex parte res gestæ, a confusione +Linguarum, et dispersione Gentium, usque ad adventum eorum in Britanniam +investigantur; quædam de veterum Anglorum religione, Deorum cultu, +eorumque opinionibus de statu animæ post hanc vitam, explicantur.</i> +<i>Authore</i> Roberto Sheringhamo. Cantabrigiæ. 1670.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">Chapter XII contains an account of Odin extracted from the <i>Edda</i>, +Snorri Sturluson and others.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1679-92.</b> Temple. Two essays: "Of Heroic Virtue," "Of Poetry," +contained in The Works of Sir William Temple. London. 1757. Vol. 3, pp. +304-429.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1689.</b> Bartholinus. <i>Thomæ Bartholini Antiquitatum Danicarum de +causis contemptæ a Danis adhuc gentilibus mortis libri III ex vetustis +codicibus et monumentis hactenus ineditis congestæ.</i> Hafniæ. 1689.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">The pages of this book are filled, with extracts from Old Norse sagas +and poetry which are translated into Latin. No student of the book could +fail to get a considerable knowledge of the spirit and the form of the +ancient literature.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1691.</b> Verelius. <i>Index linguæ veteris Scytho-Scandicæ sive Gothicæ +ex vetusti ævi monumentis ... ed Rudbeck.</i> Upsalæ. 1691.</div> +<br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_7'></a>( 7 )</span> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1697</b>. Torfæus.<i>Orcades, seu rerum Orcadensium historiæ</i>. Havniæ. +1697.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1697</b>. Perinskjöld. <i>Heimskringla, eller Snorre Sturlusons +Nordländske Konunga Sagor</i>. Stockholmiæ. 1697.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">Contains Latin and Swedish translation.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1705</b>. Hickes. <i>Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium thesaurus +grammatico criticus et archæologicus</i>. Oxoniæ. 1703-5.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">This work is discussed later.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1716</b>. Dryden. <i>Miscellany Poems. Containing Variety of New +Translations of the Ancient Poets</i>.... Published by Mr. Dryden. London. +1716.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1720</b>. Keysler. <i>Antiquitates selectæ septentrionales et Celticæ +quibus plurima loca conciliorum et capitularium explanantur, dogmata +theologiæ ethnicæ Celtarum gentiumque septentrionalium cum moribus et +institutis maiorum nostrorum circa idola, aras, oracula, templa, lucos, +sacerdotes, regum electiones, comitia et monumenta sepulchralia una cum +reliquiis gentilismi in coetibus christianorum ex monumentis potissimum +hactenus ineditis fuse perquiruntur.</i> <i>Autore</i> Joh. Georgio Keysler. +Hannoveræ. 1720.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1755</b>. Mallet. <i>Introduction à l'Histoire de Dannemarc où l'on +traite de la Réligion, des Lois, des Moeurs, et des Usages des Anciens +Danois. Par</i> M. Mallet. Copenhague. 1755.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">Discussed later.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1756</b>. Mallet. <i>Monumens de la Mythologie et la Poësie des Celtes et +particulièrement des anciens Scandinaves ... Par</i> M. Mallet. Copenhague. +1756.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1763</b>. Percy. <i>Five Pieces of Runic Poetry translated from the +Islandic Language</i>. London. 1763.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">This book is described on a later page.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1763</b>. Blair. <i>A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the +Son of Fingal</i>. [By Hugh Blair.] London. 1763.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1770</b>. Percy. <i>Northern Antiquities: or a description of the +Manners, Customs, Religion and Laws of the ancient</i> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_8'></a>( 8 )</span> + +<i>Danes, and other +Northern Nations; including these of our own Saxon Ancestors. With a +translation of the Edda or System of Runic Mythology, and other Pieces +from the Ancient Icelandic Tongue. Translated from M. Mallet's +Introduction à l'Histoire de Dannemarc</i>. London. 1770.</div> +<br /> + +<div class="hngindt"><b>1774</b>. Warton. <i>The History of English Poetry</i>. By Thomas Warton. +London. 1774-81.</div><br /> + +<div class="blkquot">In this book the prefatory essay entitled "On the Origin of Romantic +Fiction in Europe" is significant. It is treated at length later on.</div> +<br /> + +<a name='WILLIAM_TEMPLE'></a><h3>SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE (1628-1699).</h3> + +<p>From the above list it appears that the earliest mention in the English +language of Icelandic literature was Sir William Temple's. The two +essays noted above have many references to Northern customs and songs. +Macaulay's praise of Temple's style is well deserved, and the slighting +remarks about the matter do not apply to the passages in evidence here. +Temple's acknowledgments to Wormius indicate the source of his +information, and it is a commentary upon the exactness of the +antiquarian's knowledge that so many of the statements in Temple's +essays are perfectly good to-day. Of course the terms "Runic" and +"Gothic" were misused, but so were they a century later. Odin is "the +first and great hero of the western Scythians; he led a mighty swarm of +the Getes, under the name of Goths, from the Asiatic Scythia into the +farthest northwest parts of Europe; he seated and spread his kingdom +round the whole Baltic sea, and over all the islands in it, and extended +it westward to the ocean and southward to the Elve." +<a name='FNanchor_6_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_6'><sup>[6]</sup></a> +Temple places +Odin's expedition at two thousand years before his own time, but he gets +many other facts right. Take this summing up of the old Norse belief as +an example:</p> + +<p>"An opinion was fixed and general among them, that death was but the +entrance into another life; that all men who lived lazy and inactive +lives, and died natural deaths, by sickness, or + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_9'></a>( 9 )</span> + +by age, went into vast +caves under ground, all dark and miry, full of noisom creatures, usual +in such places, and there forever grovelled in endless stench and +misery. On the contrary, all who gave themselves to warlike actions and +enterprises, to the conquests of their neighbors, and slaughters of +enemies, and died in battle, or of violent deaths upon bold adventures +or resolutions, they went immediately to the vast hall or palace of +Odin, their god of war, who eternally kept open house for all such +guests, where they were entertained at infinite tables, in perpetual +feasts and mirth, carousing every man in bowls made of the skulls of +their enemies they had slain, according to which numbers, every one in +these mansions of pleasure was the most honoured and the best +entertained." +<a name='FNanchor_7_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_7'><sup>[7]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Thus before Gray was born, Temple had written intelligently in English +of the salient features of the Old Norse mythology. Later in the same +essay, he recognized that some of the civil and political procedures of +his country were traceable to the Northmen, and, what is more to our +immediate purpose, he recognized the poetic value of Old Norse song. On +p. 358 occurs this paragraph:</p> + +<p>"I am deceived, if in this sonnet (two stanzas of 'Regner Lodbrog'), and +a following ode of Scallogrim there be not a vein truly poetical, and in +its kind Pindaric, taking it with the allowance of the different +climates, fashions, opinions, and languages of such distant countries."</p> + +<p>Temple certainly had no knowledge of Old Norse, and yet, in 1679, he +could write so of a poem which he had to read through the Latin. Sir +William had a wide knowledge and a fine appreciation of literature, and +an enthusiasm for its dissemination. He takes evident delight in telling +the fact that princes and kings of the olden time did high honor to +bards. He regrets that classic culture was snuffed out by a barbarous +people, but he rejoices that a new kind came to take its place. "Some of +it wanted not the true spirit of poetry in some degree, or that natural +inspiration which has been said to arise from some spark of poetical +fire wherewith particular men are born; and such as it was, it served +the turn, not only to please, but even to charm, the ignorant and +barbarous vulgar, where it was in use." +<a name='FNanchor_8_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_8'><sup>[8]</sup></a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_10'></a>( 10 )</span> + +It is proverbial that music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. +That savage music charms cultivated minds is not proverbial, but it is +nevertheless true. Here is Sir William Temple, scion of a cultured race, +bearing witness to the fact, and here is Gray, a life-long dweller in a +staid English university, endorsing it a half century later. As has been +intimated, this was unusual in the time in which they lived, when, in +Lowell's phrase, the "blight of propriety" was on all poetry. But it was +only the rude and savage in an unfamiliar literature that could give +pause in the age of Pope. The milder aspects of Old Norse song and saga +must await the stronger century to give them favor. "Behold, there was a +swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion."</p> +<br /> + +<a name='GEORGE_HICKES'></a><h3>GEORGE HICKES (1642-1715).</h3> + +<p>The next book in the list that contains an English contribution to the +knowledge of our subject is the <i>Thesaurus</i> of George Hickes. On p. 193 +of Part I, there is a prose translation of "The Awakening of Angantyr," +from the <i>Harvarar Saga</i>. Acknowledgment is given to Verelius for the +text of the poem, but Hickes seems to have chosen this poem as the gem +of the Saga. The translation is another proof of an antiquarian's taste +and judgment, and the reader does not wonder that it soon found a wider +audience through another publication. It was reprinted in the books of +1716 and 1770 in the above list. An extract or two will show that the +vigor of the old poem has not been altogether lost in the translation:</p> + +<p><i>Hervor</i>.—Awake Angantyr, Hervor the only daughter of thee and Suafu +doth awaken thee. Give me out of the tombe, the hardned +<a name='FNanchor_9_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_9'><sup>[9]</sup></a> +sword, which +the dwarfs made for Suafurlama. Hervardur, Hiorvardur, Hrani, and +Angantyr, with helmet, and coat of mail, and a sharp sword, with sheild +and accoutrements, and bloody spear, I wake you all, under the roots of +trees. Are the sons of Andgrym, who delighted in mischief, now become +dust and ashes, can none of Eyvors sons now speak with me out of the +habitations of the dead! Harvardur, Hiorvardur! so may you all be within +your ribs, as a thing that is hanged up to putrifie among insects, +unlesse you deliver me the sword which the dwarfs made ... and the +glorious belt.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_11'></a>( 11 )</span> + +<i>Angantyr</i>.—Daughter Hervor, full of spells to raise the dead, why +dost thou call so? wilt thou run on to thy own mischief? thou art mad, +and out of thy senses, who art desperatly resolved to waken dead men. I +was not buried either by father or other freinds. Two which lived after +me got Tirfing, one of whome is now possessor thereof.</p> + +<p><i>Hervor</i>.—Thou dost not tell the truth: so let Odin hide thee in the +tombe, as thou hast Tirfing by thee. Art thou unwilling, Angantyr, to +give an inheritance to thy only child?...</p> + +<p><i>Angantyr</i>.—Fals woman, thou dost not understand, that thou speakest +foolishly of that, in which thou dost rejoice, for Tirfing shall, if +thou wilt beleive me, maid, destroy all thy offspring.</p> + +<p><i>Hervor</i>.—I must go to my seamen, here I have no mind to stay longer. +Little do I care, O Royall friend, what my sons hereafter quarrell +about.</p> + +<p><i>Angantyr</i>.—Take and keep Hialmars bane, which thou shalt long have and +enjoy, touch but the edges of it, there is poyson in both of them, it is +a most cruell devourer of men.</p> + +<p><i>Hervor</i>.—I shall keep, and take in hand, the sharp sword which thou +hast let me have: I do not fear, O slain father! what my sons hereafter +may quarrell about.... Dwell all of you safe in the tombe, I must be +gon, and hasten hence, for I seem to be, in the midst of a place where +fire burns round about me.</p> + +<p>One can well understand, who handles the ponderous <i>Thesaurus</i>, why the +first English lovers of Old Norse were antiquarians. "The Awakening of +Angantyr" is literally buried in this work, and only the student of +Anglo-Saxon prosody would come upon it unassisted, since it is an +illustration in a chapter of the <i>Grammaticæ Anglo-Saxonicæ et +Moeso-Gothicæ</i>. Students will remember in this connection that it was +a work on poetics that saved for us the original Icelandic <i>Edda</i>. The +Icelandic skald had to know his nation's mythology.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='THOMAS_PERCY'></a><h3>THOMAS PERCY (1729-1811).</h3> + +<p>The title of Chapter XXIII in Hickes' work indicates that even among +learned doctors mistaken notions existed as to the relationship of the +Teutonic languages. It took more than a hundred years to set the error +right, but in the meanwhile the literature of + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_12'></a>( 12 )</span> + +Iceland was becoming +better known to English readers. To the French scholar, Paul Henri +Mallet (1730-1807), Europe owes the first popular presentation of +Northern antiquities and literature. Appointed professor of +belles-lettres in the Copenhagen academy he found himself with more time +than students on his hands, because not many Danes at that time +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 <i>Introduction a l'Histoire de Dannemarc où l'on +traite de la Réligion, des Lois, des Moeurs et des Usages des Anciens +Danois</i>, 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 +<i>Edda</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Edda</i> was imperfect, too, because he had +followed the Latin version of Resenius, which was notoriously poor. +Percy's <i>Edda</i> 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 <i>Northern Antiquities</i>—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.</p> + +<p>We have already noted that Gray's poems on Icelandic themes, though +written in 1761, were not published until 1768. Another + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_13'></a>( 13 )</span> + +delayed work on +similar themes was Percy's <i>Five Pieces of Runic Poetry</i>, which, the +author tells us, was prepared for the press in 1761, but, through an +accident, was not published until 1763. The preface has this interesting +sentence: "It would be as vain to deny, as it is perhaps impolitic to +mention, that this attempt is owing to the success of the Erse +fragments." The book has an appendix containing the Icelandic originals +of the poems translated, and that portion of the book shows that a +scholar's hand and interest made the volume. So, too, does the close of +the preface: "That the study of ancient northern literature hath its +important uses has been often evinced by able writers: and that it is +not dry or unamusive this little work it is hoped will demonstrate. Its +aim at least is to shew, that if those kind of studies are not always +employed on works of taste or classic elegance, they serve at least to +unlock the treasures of native genius; they present us with frequent +sallies of bold imagination, and constantly afford matter for +philosophical reflection by showing the workings of the human mind in +its almost original state of nature."</p> + +<p>That original state was certainly one of original sin, if these poems +are to be believed. Every page in this volume is drenched with blood, +and from this book, as from Gray's poems and the other Old Norse +imitations of the time, a picture of fierceness and fearfulness was the +only one possible. Percy intimates in his preface that Icelandic poetry +has other tales to tell besides the "Incantation of Hervor," the "Dying +Ode of Regner Lodbrog," the "Ransome of Egill the Scald," and the +"Funeral Song of Hacon," which are here set down; he offers the +"Complaint of Harold" as a slight indication that the old poets left +"behind them many pieces on the gentler subjects of love or friendship." +But the time had not come for the presentation of those pieces.</p> + +<p>All of these translations were from the Latin versions extant in Percy's +time. This volume copied Hickes's translation of "Hervor's Incantation" +modified in a few particulars, and like that one, the other translations +in this volume were in prose. The work is done as well as possible, and +it remained for later scholars to point out errors in translation. The +negative contractions in Icelandic were as yet unfamiliar, and so, as +Walter Scott pointed out (in <i>Edin. Rev.</i>, Oct., 1806), Percy made +Regner Lodbrog + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_14'></a>( 14 )</span> + +say, "The pleasure of that day (of battle, p. 34 in this +<i>Five Pieces</i>) was like having a fair virgin placed beside one in the +bed," and "The pleasure of that day was like kissing a young widow at +the highest seat of the table," when the poet really made the contrary +statement.</p> + +<p>Of course, the value of this book depends upon the view that is taken of +it. Intrinsically, as literature, it is well-nigh valueless. It +indicates to us, however, a constantly growing interest in the +literature it reveals, and it undoubtedly directed the attention of the +poets of the succeeding generation to a field rich in romantic +possibilities. That no great work was then created out of this material +was not due to neglect. As we shall see, many puny poets strove to +breathe life into these bones, but the divine power was not in the +poets. Some who were not poets had yet the insight to feel the value of +this ancient literature, and they made known the facts concerning it. It +seems a mechanical and unpromising way to have great poetry written, +this calling out, "New Lamps for Old." Yet it is on record that great +poems have been written at just such instigation.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='THOMAS_WARTON'></a><h3>THOMAS WARTON (1728-1790).</h3> + +<p>Historians +<a name='FNanchor_10_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_10'><sup>[10]</sup></a> +of Romanticism have marked Warton's <i>History of English +Poetry</i> as one of the forces that made for the new idea in literature. +This record of a past which, though out of favor, was immeasurably +superior to the time of its historian, spread new views concerning the +poetic art among the rising generation, and suggested new subjects as +well as new treatments of old subjects. We have mentioned the fact that +Gray handed over to Warton his notes for a contemplated history of +poetry, and that Warton found no place in his work for Gray's +adaptations from the Old Norse. Warton was not blind to the beauties of +Gray's poems, nor did he fail to appreciate the merits of the literature +which they illustrated. His scheme relegated his remarks concerning that +poetry to the introductory dissertation, "Of the Origin of Romantic +Fiction in Europe." What he had to say was in support of a theory which +is not accepted to-day, and of course his statements concerning the +origin of the Scandinavian + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_15'></a>( 15 )</span> + +people were as wrong as those that we found +in Mallet and Temple. But with all his misinformation, Warton managed to +get at many truths about Icelandic poetry, and his presentation of them +was fresh and stimulating. Already the Old Norse mythology was well +known, even down to Valhalla and the mistletoe. Old Norse poetry was +well enough known to call forth this remark:</p> + +<p>"They (the 'Runic' odes) have a certain sublime and figurative cast of +diction, which is indeed one of their predominant characteristics.... +When obvious terms and phrases evidently occurred, the Runic poets are +fond of departing from the common and established diction. They appear +to use circumlocution and comparisons not as a matter of necessity, but +of choice and skill: nor are these metaphorical colourings so much the +result of want of words, as of warmth of fancy." The note gives these +examples: "Thus, a rainbow is called, the bridge of the gods. Poetry, +the mead of Odin. The earth, the vessel that floats on ages. A ship, the +horse of the waves. A tongue, the sword of words. Night, the veil of +cares."</p> + +<p>A study of the notes to Warton's dissertation reveals the fact that he +had made use of the books already mentioned in the list on a previous +page, and of no others that are significant. But such excellent use was +made of them, that it would seem as if nothing was left in them that +could be made valuable for spreading a knowledge of and an enthusiasm +for Icelandic literature. When it is remembered that Warton's purpose +was to prove the Saracenic origin of romantic fiction in Europe, through +the Moors in Spain, and that Icelandic literature was mentioned only to +account for a certain un-Arabian tinge in that romantic fiction, the +wonder grows that so full and fresh a presentation of Old Norse poetry +should have been made. He puts such passages as these into his +illustrative notes: "Tell my mother Suanhita in Denmark, that she will +not this summer comb the hair of her son. I had promised her to return, +but now my side shall feel the edge of the sword." There is an +appreciation of the poetic here, that makes us feel that Warton was not +an unworthy wearer of the laurel. He insists that the Saxon poetry was +powerfully affected by "the old scaldic fables and heroes," and gives in +the text a translation of the "Battle of Brunenburgh" to prove his +case. + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_16'></a>( 16 )</span> + +He admires "the scaldic dialogue at the tomb of Angantyr," but +wrongly attributes a beautiful translation of it to Gray. He quotes at +length from "a noble ode, called in the northern chronicles the Elogium +of Hacon, by the scald Eyvynd; who, for his superior skill in poetry was +called the Cross of Poets (Eyvindr Skálldaspillir), and fought in the +battle which he celebrated."</p> + +<p>He knows how Iceland touched England, as this passage will show: "That +the Icelandic bards were common in England during the Danish invasions, +there are numerous proofs. Egill, a celebrated Icelandic poet, having +murthered the son and many of the friends of Eric Blodaxe, king of +Denmark or Norway, then residing in Northumberland, and which he had +just conquered, procured a pardon by singing before the king, at the +command of his queen Gunhilde, an extemporaneous ode. Egill compliments +the king, who probably was his patron, with the appellation of the +English chief. 'I offer my freight to the king. I owe a poem for my +ransom. I present to the ENGLISH CHIEF the mead of Odin.' Afterwards he +calls this Danish conqueror the commander of the Scottish fleet. 'The +commander of the Scottish fleet fattened the ravenous birds. The sister +of Nera (Death) trampled on the foe: she trampled on the evening food of +the eagle.'"</p> + +<p>So wide a knowledge and so keen an appreciation of Old Norse in a +Warton, whose interest was chiefly elsewhere, argues for a spreading +popularity of the ancient literature. Thus far, only Gray has made +living English literature out of these old stories, and he only two +short poems. There were other attempts to achieve poetic success with +this foreign material, but a hundred exacting years have covered them +with oblivion.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='DRAKE_MATHIAS'></a><h3>DRAKE (1766-1836). MATHIAS (1754-1835).</h3> + +<p>In the second decade of the nineteenth century, Nathan Drake, M.D., made +a strong effort to popularize Norse mythology and literature. The fourth +edition of his work entitled <i>Literary Hours</i> (London, 1820) +contains +<a name='FNanchor_11_11'></a><a href='#Footnote_11_11'><sup>[11]</sup></a> +an appreciative article on the subject, the fullness of +which is indicated in these words from p. 309:</p> + +<p>"The most striking and characteristic parts of the Scandinavian + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_17'></a> ( 17 )</span> + +mythology, together with no inconsiderable portion of the manners and +customs of our northern ancestors, have now passed before the reader; +their theology, warfare, and poetry, their gallantry, religious rites, +and superstitions, have been separately, and, I trust, distinctly +reviewed."</p> +<br /> + +<p>The essay is written in an easy style that doubtless gained for it many +readers. All the available knowledge of the subject was used, and a +clearer view of it was presented than had been obtainable in Percy's +"Mallet." The author was a thoughtful man, able to detect errors in +Warton and Percy, but his zeal in his enterprise led him to praise +versifiers inordinately that had used the "Gothic fables." He quotes +liberally from writers whose books are not to be had in this country, +and certainly the uninspired verses merit the neglect that this fact +indicates. He calls Sayers' pen "masterly" that wrote these lines:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Coucher of the ponderous spear,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Thou shout'st amid the battle's stound—<br /></span> +<span>The armed Sisters hear,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Viewless hurrying o'er the ground<br /></span> +<span>They strike the destin'd chiefs and call them to the skies.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 168.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>From Penrose he quotes such lines as these:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i2'>The feast begins, the skull goes round,<br /></span> +<span>Laughter shouts—the shouts resound.<br /></span> +<span>The gust of war subsides—E'en now<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>The grim chief curls his cheek, and smooths his rugged brow.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 171.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>From Sterling comes this imitation of Gray:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Now the rage of combat burns,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Haughty chiefs on chiefs lie slain;<br /></span> +<span>The battle glows and sinks by turns,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Death and carnage load the plain.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P 172.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>From these extracts, it appears that the poets who imitated Gray +considered that only "dreadful songs," like his, were to be found in +Scandinavian poetry.</p> + +<p>Downman, Herbert and Mathias are also adduced by Dr. Drake as examples +of poets who have gained much by Old Norse borrowings, but these +borrowings are invariably scenes from a + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_18'></a>( 18 )</span> + +chamber of horrors. It occurs +to me that perhaps Dr. Drake had begun to tire of the spiritless echoes +of the classical schools, and that he fondly hoped that such shrieks and +groans as those he admired in this essay would satisfy his cravings for +better things in poetry. But the critic had no adequate knowledge of the +way in which genius works. His one desire in these studies of +Scandinavian mythology was "to recommend it to the votaries of the Muse, +as a machinery admirably constructed for their purpose" (p. 158). He +hopes for "a more extensive adoption of the Scandinavian mythology, +especially in our <i>epic</i> and <i>lyric</i> compositions" (p. 311). We smile at +the notion, to-day, but that very conception of poetry as "machinery" is +characteristic of a whole century of our English literature.</p> + +<p>The Mathias mentioned by Drake is Thomas James Mathias, whose book, +<i>Odes Chiefly from the Norse Tongue</i> (London, 1781), received the +distinction of an American reprint (New York, 1806). Bartholinus +furnishes the material and Gray the spirit for these pieces.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='COTTLE_HERBERT'></a><h3>AMOS S. COTTLE(1768-1800). WILLIAM HERBERT (1778-1847).</h3> + +<p>In this period belong two works of translation that mark the approach of +the time when Old Norse prose and poetry were to be read in the +original. As literature they are of little value, and they had but +slight influence on succeeding writers.</p> + +<p>At Bristol, in 1797, was published <i>Icelandic Poetry, or, The Edda of +Saemund translated into English Verse</i>, by A.S. Cottle of Magdalen +College, Cambridge. This work has an Introduction containing nothing +worth discussing here, and an "Epistle" to A.S. Cottle from Robert +Southey. The laureate, in good blank verse, discourses on the Old Norse +heroes whom he happens to know about. They are the old favorites, Regner +Lodbrog and his sons; in Southey's poem the foeman's skull is, as usual, +the drinking cup. It was certainly time for new actors and new +properties to appear in English versions of Scandinavian stories.</p> + +<p>The translations are twelve in number, and evince an intelligent and +facile versifier. When all is said, these old songs could contribute to +the pleasure of very few. Only a student of history, + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_19'></a>( 19 )</span> + +or a poet, or an +antiquarian, would dwell with loving interest on the lays of +Vafthrudnis, Grimner, Skirner and Hymer (as Cottle spells them). +Besides, they are difficult to read, and must be abundantly annotated to +make them comprehensible. In such works as this of Cottle, a Scott might +find wherewith to lend color to a story or a poem, but the common man +would borrow Walpole's words, used in characterizing Gray's "Odes": +"They are not interesting, and do not ... touch any passion; our human +feelings ... are not here affected. Who can care through what horrors a +Runic savage arrived at all the joys and glories they could +conceive—the supreme felicity of boozing ale out of the skull of an +enemy in Odin's hall?" +<a name='FNanchor_12_12'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_12'><sup>[12]</sup></a></p> + +<p>In 1804 a book was published bearing this title-page: <i>Select Icelandic +Poetry, translated from the originals: with notes</i>. The preface was +signed by the author, William Herbert. The pieces are from Sæmund, +Bartholinus, Verelius, and Perinskjöld's edition of <i>Heimskringla</i>, and +were all translated with the assistance of the Latin versions. The notes +are explanatory of the allusions and the hiatuses in the poems. +Reference is made to MSS. of the Norse pieces existing in museums and +libraries, which the author had consulted. Thus we see scholarship +beginning to extend investigations. As for the verses themselves not +much need be said. They are not so good as Cottle's, although they +received a notice from Scott in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>. The thing to +notice about the work is that it pretends to come direct from Old Norse, +not, as most of the work dealt with so far, <i>via</i> Latin.</p> + +<p>Icelandic poetry is more difficult to read than Icelandic prose, and so +it seems strange that the former should have been attacked first by +English scholars. Yet so it was, and until 1844 our English literature +had no other inspiration in old Norse writings than the rude and rugged +songs that first lent their lilt to Gray. The <i>human</i> North is in the +sagas, and when they were revealed to our people, Icelandic literature +began to mean something more than Valhalla and the mead-bouts there. The +scene was changed to earth, and the gods gave place to nobler actors, +men and women. The action was lifted to the eminence of a world-drama. +But before the change came Sir Walter Scott, and it is + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_20'></a>( 20 )</span> + +fitting that the +first period of Norse influence in English literature should close, as +it began, with a great master.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='WALTER_SCOTT'></a><h3>SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832).</h3> + +<p>In 1792, Walter Scott was twenty-one years old, and one of his +note-books of that year contains this entry: "Vegtam's Kvitha or The +Descent of Odin, with the Latin of Thomas Bartholine, and the English +poetical version of Mr. Gray; with some account of the Death of Balder, +both as related in the Edda, and as handed down to us by the Northern +historians—<i>Auctore Gualtero Scott</i>." According to Lockhart, +<a name='FNanchor_13_13'></a><a href='#Footnote_13_13'><sup>[13]</sup></a> +the Icelandic, Latin and English versions were here transcribed, and the +historical account that followed—seven closely written quarto +pages—was read before a debating society.</p> + +<p>It was to be expected that one so enthusiastic about antiquities as +Scott would early discover the treasury of Norse history and song. At +twenty-one, as we see, he is transcribing a song in a language he knew +nothing about, as well as in translations. Fourteen years later, he has +learned enough about the subject to write a review of Herbert's <i>Poems +and Translations</i>. +<a name='FNanchor_14_14'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_14'><sup>[14]</sup></a></p> + +<p>In 1813, he writes an account of the <i>Eyrbyggja Saga</i> for <i>Illustrations +of Northern Antiquities</i> (edited by Robert Jameson, Edinburgh, 1814).</p> + +<p>There are two of Scott's contributions to literature that possess more +than a mere tinge of Old Norse knowledge, namely, the long poem "Harold, +the Dauntless" (published in 1817), and the long story "The Pirate" +(published in 1821). The poem is weak, but it illustrates Scott's theory +of the usefulness of poetical antiquities to the modern poet. In another +connection Scott said: "In the rude song of the Scald, we regard less +the strained imagery and extravagance of epithet, than the wild +impressions which it conveys of the dauntless resolution, savage +superstition, rude festivity and ceaseless depredations of the ancient +Scandinavians." +<a name='FNanchor_15_15'></a><a href='#Footnote_15_15'><sup>[15]</sup></a> +The poet did his work in accordance with this +theory, and so in "Harold, the Dauntless," we note no flavor of + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_21'></a>( 21 )</span> + +the older poetry in phrase or in method. Harold is fierce enough and grim +enough to measure up to the old ideal of a Norse hero.</p> + +<p>"I was rocked in a buckler and fed from a blade," is his boast before +his newly christened father, and in his apostrophe to his grandsire +Eric, the popular notion of early Norse antiquarianism is again +exhibited:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>In wild Valhalla hast thou quaffed<br /></span> +<span>From foeman's skull metheglin draught?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Scott's scholarship in Old Norse was largely derived from the Latin +tomes, and such conceptions as those quoted are therefore common in his +poem. That the poet realized the inadequacy of such knowledge, the +review of Herbert's poetry, published in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> for +October, 1806, shows. In this article he has a vision of what shall be +when men shall be able "to trace the Runic rhyme" itself.</p> + +<p>"The Pirate," exhibited the Wizard's skill in weaving the old and the +new together, the old being the traditions of the Shetlands, full of the +ancestral beliefs in Old Norse things, the new being the life in those +islands in a recent century. This is a stirring story, that comes into +our consideration because of its Scandinavian antiquities. Again we find +the Latin treasuries of Bartholinus, Torfæus, Perinskjöld and Olaus +Magnus in evidence, though here, too, mention is made of "Haco," and +Tryggvason and "Harfager." With a background of island scenery, with +which Scott became familiar during a light-house inspector's voyage made +in 1814, this story is a picture full of vivid colors and characters. In +Norna of the Fitful Head, he has created a mysterious personage in whose +mouth "Runic rhymes" are the only proper speech. She stills the tempest +with them, and "The Song of the Tempest" is a strong apostrophe, though +it is neither Runic nor rhymed. She preludes her life-story with verses +that are rhymed but not Runic, and she sings incantations in the same +wise. This <i>Reimkennar</i> is an echo of the <i>Völuspá</i>, and is the only +kind of Norse woman that the time of Scott could imagine. Claud Halcro, +the poet, is fond of rhyming the only kind of Norseman known to his +time, and in his "Song of Harold Harfager" we hear the echoes of Gray's +odes. Scott's reading was wide in all ancient lore, and he never missed +a chance to introduce an odd + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_22'></a>( 22 )</span> + +custom if it would make an interesting +scene in his story. So here we have the "Sword Dance" (celebrated by +Olaus Magnus, though I have never read of it in Old Norse), the +"Questioning of the Sibyl" (like that in Gray's "Descent of Odin"), the +"Capture and Sharing of the Whale," and the "Promise of Odin." In most +of the natives there are turns of speech that recall the Norse ancestry +of the Shetlanders.</p> + +<p>In Scott, then, we see the lengthening out of the influence of the +antiquarians who wrote of a dead past in a dead language. The time was +at hand when that past was to live again, painted in the living words of +living men.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_23'></a>( 23 )</span> + +<a name='III'></a><h2>III.</h2> + +<h2>FROM THE SOURCES THEMSELVES.</h2> +<br /> + +<p>In the preceding section we noted the achievements of English +scholarship and genius working under great disadvantages. Gray and Scott +may have had a smattering of Icelandic, but Latin translations were +necessary to reveal the meaning of what few Old Norse texts were +available to them. This paucity of material, more than the ignorance of +the language, was responsible for the slow progress in popularizing the +remarkable literature of the North. Scaldic and Eddie poems comprised +all that was known to English readers of that literature, and in them +the superhuman rather than the human elements were predominant.</p> + +<p>We have come now to a time when the field of our view broadens to +include not only more and different material, but more and different +men. The sagas were annexed to the old songs, and the body of literature +to attract attention was thus increased a thousand fold. The +antiquarians were supplanted by scholars who, although passionately +devoted to the study of the past, were still vitally interested in the +affairs of the time in which they lived. The second and greatest stage +of the development of Old Norse influence in England has a mark of +distinction that belongs to few literary epochs. The men who made it +lived lives that were as heroic in devotion to duty and principle as +many of those written down in the sagas themselves. I have sometimes +wondered whether it is merely accidental that English saga scholars were +so often men of high soul and strong action. Certain it is that Richard +Cleasby, and Samuel Laing, and George Webbe Dasent, and Robert Lowe are +types of men that the Icelanders would have celebrated, as having "left +a tale to tell" in their full and active lives. And no less certain is +it that Thomas Carlyle, and Matthew Arnold, and William Morris, and +Charles Kingsley, and Gerald Massey labored for a better manhood that +should rise to the stature and reflect the virtues of the heroes of the +Northland.</p><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_24'></a>( 24 )</span> +<a name='RICHARD_CLEASBY'></a><h3>RICHARD CLEASBY (1797-1847).</h3> + +<p>In the forties of the nineteenth century several minds began to work, +independently of one another, in this wider field of Icelandic +literature. Richard Cleasby (1797-1847), an English merchant's son with +scholarly instincts, began the study of the sagas, but made slight +progress because of what he called an "unaccountable and most scandalous +blank," the want of a dictionary. This was in 1840, and for the next +seven years he labored to fill up that blank. The record +<a name='FNanchor_16_16'></a><a href='#Footnote_16_16'><sup>[16]</sup></a> +of those years is a wonderful witness to the heroism and spirit of the scholar, +and justifies Sir George Dasent's characterization of Cleasby as "one of +the most indefatigable students that ever lived." The work thus begun +was not completed until many years afterward (it is dated 1874), and, by +untoward circumstances, very little of it is Richard Cleasby's. But +generous scholarship acknowledged its debt to the man who gave his +strength and his wealth to the work, by placing his name on the +title-page. No less shall we fail to honor his memory by mentioning his +labors here. Although the dictionary was not completed in the decade of +its inception, the study that it was designed to promote took hold on a +number of men and the results were remarkable for both literature and +scholarship.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='THOMAS_CARLYLE'></a><h3>THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881).</h3> + +<p>First in order of time was the work of Thomas Carlyle. It will not seem +strange to the student of English literature to find that this writer +came under the influence of the old skalds and sagaman and spoke +appreciative words concerning them. His German studies had to take +cognizance of the Old Norse treasuries of poetry, and he became a +diligent reader of Icelandic literature in what translations he could +get at, German and English. The strongest utterance on the subject that +he left behind him is in "Lecture I" of the series "On Heroes, +Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History," dated May, 1840. This is a +treatment of Scandinavian mythology, rugged and thorough, like all of +this man's work. Carlyle evinces a scholar's instinct in + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_25'></a>( 25 )</span> + +more than one +place, as, for instance, when he doubts the <i>grandmother</i> etymology of +<i>Edda</i>, an etymology repeated until a much later day by scholars of a +less sure sense. +<a name='FNanchor_17_17'></a><a href='#Footnote_17_17'><sup>[17]</sup></a> +But this lecture "On Heroes" is also a +glorification of the literature with which we are dealing, and in this +regard it is worthy of special note here.</p> + +<p>In the first place, Carlyle with true critical instinct caught the +essence of it; to him it seemed to have "a rude childlike way of +recognizing the divineness of Nature, the divineness of Man." For him +Scandinavian mythology was superior in sincerity to the Grecian, though +it lacked the grace of the latter. "Sincerity, I think, is better than +grace. I feel that these old Northmen were looking into Nature with open +eye and soul: most earnest, honest; childlike, and yet manlike; with a +great-hearted simplicity and depth and freshness, in a true, loving, +admiring, unfearing way. A right valiant, true old race of men." This is +a truer appreciation than Gray and Walpole had, eighty years before. In +the second place, Carlyle was not misled into thinking that valor in war +was the only characteristic of the rude Norseman, and skill in drinking +his only household virtue. "Beautiful traits of pity, too, and honest +pity." Then he tells of Baldur and Nanna, in his rugged prose account +anticipating Matthew Arnold. Other qualities of the literature appeal to +him. "I like much their robust simplicity; their veracity, directness of +conception. Thor 'draws down his brows' in a veritable Norse rage; +'grasps his hammer till the <i>knuckles grow white</i>." Again; "A great +broad Brobdignag grin of true humor is this Skrymir; mirth resting on +earnestness and sadness, as the rainbow on the black tempest: only a +right valiant heart is capable of that." Still again: "This law of +mutation, which also is a law written in man's inmost thought, has been +deciphered by these old earnest Thinkers in their rude style."</p> + +<p>Thomas Carlyle, seeking to explain the worship of a pagan divinity, +chose Odin as the noblest example of such a hero. The picture of Odin he +drew from the prose Edda, mainly, and his + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_26'></a>( 26 )</span> + +purpose required that he +paint the picture in the most attractive colors. So it happened that our +English literature got its first <i>complete</i> view of Old Norse ethics and +art. The memory of Gray's "dreadful songs" had ruled for almost a +century, and ordinary readers might be pardoned for thinking that Old +Norse literature, like Old Norse history, was written in blood. We have +seen that Gray's imitators perpetuated the old idea, and that even Scott +sanctioned it, and now we see England's emancipation from it. The grouty +old Scotchman of Craigenputtoch knew no more Icelandic than most of his +fellow countrymen (be it noted that he said: "From the Humber upwards, +all over Scotland, the speech of the common people is still in a +singular degree Icelandic, its Germanism has still a peculiar Norse +tinge"); but he saw far more deeply into the heart of Icelandic +literature than anybody before him. His emphasis of its many sidedness, +of its sincerity, its humanity, its simplicity, its directness, its +humor and its wisdom, was the signal for a change in the popular +estimation of its worth to our modern art. Since his day we have had +Morris and Arnold and a host of minor singers, and the nineteenth +century revival of interest in Old Norse literature.</p> + +<p>The other work by Carlyle dealing directly with Old Norse material is +<i>The Early Kings of Norway</i>. Here he digests <i>Heimskringla</i>, which was +obtainable through Laing's translation, in a way to stir the blood. The +story, as he tells it, is breathlessly interesting, and it is a pity +that readers of Carlyle so often stop short of this work. As in the +<i>Hero-Worship</i>, he shows this Teutonic bias, and the religious training +that minified Greek literature.</p> + +<p>Snorri's work elicits from him repeated applause. Here, for instance, in +Chap. X: "It has, all of it, the description (and we see clearly the +fact itself had), a kind of pathetic grandeur, simplicity, and rude +nobleness; something Epic or Homeric, without the metre or the singing +of Homer, but with all the sincerity, rugged truth to nature, and much +more of piety, devoutness, reverence for what is ever high in this +universe, than meets us in those old Greek Ballad-mongers."</p><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_27'></a>( 27 )</span> + +<a name='SAMUEL_LAING'></a><h3>SAMUEL LAING (1780-1868).</h3> + +<p>It was the work of Samuel Laing that gave Carlyle the material for this +last-mentioned book. +<a name='FNanchor_18_18'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_18'><sup>[18]</sup></a> +Laing's translation of <i>Heimskringla</i> bears the +date 1844, and although Mr. Dasent's quaint version of the <i>Prose Edda</i> +preceded it by two years, <i>The Sagas of the Norse Kings</i> was the +"epoch-making" book. It is true that a later version has superseded it +in literary and scholarly finish, but Laing's work was a pioneer of +sterling intrinsic value, and many there be that do it homage still. +Laing had the laudable ambition—so seldom found in these days—"to give +a plain, faithful translation into English of the <i>Heimskringla</i>, +unencumbered with antiquarian research, and suited to the plain English +reader." +<a name='FNanchor_19_19'></a><a href='#Footnote_19_19'><sup>[19]</sup></a> +With this work, then, Icelandic lore passes out of the +hands of the antiquarian into the hands of common readers. It matters +little that the audience is even still fit and few; from this time on he +that runs may read.</p> + +<p>For our purpose it will not be necessary to characterize the +translation. Laing commanded an excellent style, and he was enthusiastic +over his work. Indeed, the commonest criticism passed on the +"Preliminary Dissertation" was that the author's zeal had run away with +his good sense. Be that as it may, Laing called the attention of his +readers to the neglect of a literature and a history which should be +England's pride, as Anglo-Saxon literature and history even then were. +The reviews of the time made it appear as if another Battle of the Books +were impending—Anglo-Saxon versus Icelandic; a writer in the <i>English +Review</i> (Vol. 82, p. 316), pro-Saxon in his zeal, admitting at last that +"of none of the children of the Norse, whether Goth or Frank, Saxon or +Scandinavian, have the others any reason to be ashamed. All have earned +the gratitude and admiration of the world, and their combined or +successive efforts have made England and Europe what they are."</p> + +<p>It is refreshing to come upon new views of Old Norse character, that +recognize "amidst anarchy and bloodshed, redeeming features of +kindliness and better feeling which tell of the + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_28'></a>( 28 )</span> + +mingled principles that +war within our nature for the mastery." Laing's translation accomplished +this for English readers, and with the years came a deeper knowledge +that showed those touches of tenderness and traits of beauty which, even +in 1844, were not perceptible to those readers.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='LONGFELLOW_LOWELL'></a><h3>HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882).</h3> + +<h3>JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891).</h3> + +<p><i>The Story of the Norse Kings</i>, thus translated by an Englishman, +suggested to our American poet, Longfellow, a series of lyrics on King +Olaf. The young college professor that wrote about <i>Frithjof's Saga</i> in +the <i>North American Review</i> for 1837, was bound, sooner or later, to +come back to the field when he found that the American reading public +would listen to whatever songs he sang to them. Before 1850, Longfellow +had written "The Challenge of Thor," a poem which imitated the form of +Icelandic verse and catches much of its spirit. In 1859, the thought +came to him "that a very good poem might be written on the Saga of King +Olaf, who converted the North to Christianity." Two years later he +completed the lyrics that compose "The Musician's Tale" in <i>The Tales of +a Wayside Inn</i>, published in 1863, and in this work "The Challenge of +Thor" serves as a prelude. The pieces after this prelude are not +imitations of the Icelandic verse, but are like Tegner's <i>Frithjof's +Saga</i>, in that each new portion has a meter of its own. There is not, +either, a consistent effort to put the flavor of the North into the +poetry, so that, properly speaking, we have here only the retelling of +an old tale. The ballad fervor and movement are often perceptible, +though nowhere does the poet strike the ringing note of "The Skeleton in +Armor," published in the volume of 1841.</p> + +<p>Truth to tell, Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf" is not a remarkable +work. One who reads the few chapters in Carlyle's <i>Early Kings of +Norway</i> that deal with Olaf Tryggvason gets more of the fire and spirit +of the old saga at every turning. The poet chooses scenes and incidents +very skilfully, but for their proper presentation a terseness is +necessary that is not reconcilable with frequent rhymes. Compare the +saga account with the poem's: "What is this that has broken?" asked King +Olaf. "Norway from thy hand, King," answered Tamberskelver.</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_29'></a>( 29 )</span><div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"What was that?" said Olaf, standing<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>On the quarter deck.<br /></span> +<span>"Something heard I like the stranding<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Of a shattered wreck."<br /></span> +<span>Einar then, the arrow taking<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>From the loosened string,<br /></span> +<span>Answered, "That was Norway breaking<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>From thy hand, O King!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nevertheless, Longfellow is to be thanked for acquainting a wide circle +of readers with the sterling saga literature.</p> + +<p>One other American poet was busy with the ancient Northern literature at +this time. James Russell Lowell wrote one notable poem that is Old Norse +in subject and spirit, "The Voyage to Vinland." The third part of the +poem, "Gudrida's Prophecy," hints at Icelandic versification, and the +short lines are hammer-strokes that warm the reader to enthusiasm. Far +more of the spirit of the old literature is in this short poem than is +to be found in the whole of Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf." The +character of Biörn is well drawn, recalling Bodli, of Morris' poem, in +its principal features. Certainly there is a reflection here of that Old +Norse conception of life which gave to men's deeds their due reward, and +which exalted the power of will. This poem was begun in 1850, but was +not published till 1868.</p> + +<p>In Lowell's poems are to be found many figures and allusions pointing to +his familiarity with Icelandic song and story. At the end of the third +strophe of the "Commemoration Ode," for instance, Truth is pictured as +Brynhild,</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i5'>plumed and mailed,<br /></span> +<span>With sweet, stern face unveiled.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In these borrowings of themes and allusions, Lowell is at one with most +of the poets of the present day. It used to be the fashion, and is +still, for tables of contents in volumes of verse to show titles like +these: "Prometheus"; "Iliad VIII, 542-561"; "Alectryon." Present-day +volumes are becoming more and more besprinkled with titles like these: +"Balder the Beautiful"; "The Death of Arnkel," etc. In this fact alone +is seen the turn of the tide. Heroes and heroines in dramas and novels +are beginning to bear Old Norse names, even where the setting is not +northern; witness Sidney Dobell's <i>Balder</i>, where not even a single +allusion is made to Icelandic matters.</p><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_30'></a>( 30 )</span> + +<a name='MATTHEW_ARNOLD'></a><h3>MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888).</h3> + +<p>Matthew Arnold's strong sympathy with noble and virile literature of +whatever age or nation led him in time to Old Norse, and his poem +"Balder Dead" is of distinct importance among the works of the +nineteenth century in English literature. It is an addition of permanent +value to our poetry, because of its marked originality and its high +ethical tone. "Mallet, and his version of the Edda, is all the poem is +based upon," says Arnold. +<a name='FNanchor_20_20'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_20'><sup>[20]</sup></a> +It is the poet's divinely implanted +instinct that gathers from the few chapters of an old book a knowledge +wonderfully full and deep of the cosmogony and eschatology of the +northern nations of Europe. "Balder Dead" tells the familiar story of +the whitest of the gods, but it also contains the essence of Old +Icelandic religion; indeed there is no single short work in our language +which gives a tithe of the information about the North, its spirit, and +its philosophy, which this poem of Matthew Arnold's sets forth. In +future days a text-book of original English poems will be in the hands +of our boys and girls which will enable them to get, through the medium +of their own language, the message and the spirit of foreign literature. +Old Norse song will need no other representative than Matthew Arnold's +"Balder Dead."</p> + +<p>This is an original poem. It does not imitate the verse nor the word of +the older song, but the flavor of it is here. Gray and his imitators +drew from the Icelandic fountain "dreadful songs" and many poets since +have heard no milder note. Matthew Arnold's instincts were for peace and +the arts of peace, and he found in Balder a type for the ennobling of +our own century. Balder says to his brother who has come to lament that +Lok's machinations will keep the best beloved of the gods in Niflheim:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>For I am long since weary of your storm<br /></span> +<span>Of carnage, and find, Hermod, in your life<br /></span> +<span>Something too much of war and broils, which make<br /></span> +<span>Life one perpetual fight, a bath of blood.<br /></span> +<span>Mine eyes are dizzy with the arrowy hail;<br /></span> +<span>Mine ears are stunn'd with blows, and sick for calm.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Arnold has exalted the Revelator of the Northern mythology, and in +magnificent poetry sets forth his apocalyptic vision:</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_31'></a>( 31 )</span> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Unarm'd, inglorious; I attend the course<br /></span> +<span>Of ages, and my late return to light,<br /></span> +<span>In times less alien to a spirit mild,<br /></span> +<span>In new-recover'd seats, the happier day.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>Far to the south, beyond the blue, there spreads<br /></span> +<span>Another Heaven, the boundless—no one yet<br /></span> +<span>Hath reach'd it; there hereafter shall arise<br /></span> +<span>The second Asgard, with another name.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>There re-assembling we shall see emerge<br /></span> +<span>From the bright Ocean at our feet an earth<br /></span> +<span>More fresh, more verdant than the last, with fruits<br /></span> +<span>Self-springing, and a seed of man preserved,<br /></span> +<span>Who then shall live in peace, as now in war.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here is the grandest message that the Old Norse religion had to give, +and Matthew Arnold concerned himself with that alone. It is a far cry +from Regner Lodbrog to this. There is a fine touch in the introduction +of Regner into the lamentation of Balder. Arnold makes the old warrior +say of the ruder skalds:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>But they harp ever on one string, and wake<br /></span> +<span>Remembrance in our souls of war alone,<br /></span> +<span>Such as on earth we valiantly have waged,<br /></span> +<span>And blood, and ringing blows, and violent death.<br /></span> +<span>But when thou sangest, Balder, thou didst strike<br /></span> +<span>Another note, and, like a bird in spring,<br /></span> +<span>Thy voice of joyance minded us, and youth,<br /></span> +<span>And wife, and children, and our ancient home.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here is a human Norseman, a figure not often presented in the versions +of the old stories that English poets and romancers have given us. +Arnold did a good service to Icelandic literature when he put into +Regner's mouth mild sentiments and a love for home and family. The note +is not lacking in the ancient literature, but it took Englishmen three +centuries to find it. It was the scholar, Matthew Arnold, who first +repeated the gentler strain in the rude music of the North, as it was +the scholar, Thomas Gray, who first echoed the "dreadful songs" of that +old psalmody. Gray has all the culture of his age, when it was still +possible to compass all knowledge in one lifetime; Arnold had all the +literary culture of his fuller century when multiplied sciences force + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_32'></a>( 32 )</span> + +a scholar to be content with one segment of human knowledge. The former +had music and architecture and other sciences among his accomplishments; +the latter spread out in literature, as "Sohrab and Rustum," "Empedocles +on Etna," "Tristram and Iseult," as well as "Balder Dead" attest. The +quatrain prefixed to the volume containing the narrative and elegiac +poems be-tokens what joy Arnold had in his literary work, and indicates +why these poems cannot fail to live:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>What poets feel not, when they make,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>A pleasure in creating,<br /></span> +<span>The world in its turn will not take<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Pleasure in contemplating.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Balder is the creation of Old Norse poetry that is most popular with +contemporary English writers, and Matthew Arnold first made him so. As +Bugge points out, no deed of his is "celebrated in song or story. His +personality only is described; of his activity in life almost no +external trait is recorded. All the stress is laid upon his death; and, +like Christ, Baldr dies in his youth." +<a name='FNanchor_21_21'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_21'><sup>[21]</sup></a></p> +<br /> + +<a name='GEORGE_DASENT'></a><h3>SIR GEORGE WEBBE DASENT (1820-1896).</h3> + +<p>Among the scholars who have labored to give England the benefit of a +fuller and truer knowledge of Norse matters, none will be remembered +more gratefully than Sir George Webbe Dasent. Known to the reading +public most widely by his translations of the folk-tales of Asbjörnsen +and Moe, he has still a claim upon the attention of the students of +Icelandic. As we have seen, he gave out a translation of the <i>Younger +Edda</i> in 1842, and during the half century and more that followed he +wrote other works of history and literature connected with our subject. +Two saga translations were published in 1861 and 1866, <i>The Story of +Burnt Njal</i>, and <i>The Story of Gisli the Outlaw</i>, which will always rank +high in this class of literature. <i>Njala</i> especially is an excellent +piece of work, a classic among translations. The "Prolegomena" is rich +in information, and very little of it has been superseded by later +scholarship. In 1887 and 1894 he translated for the Master of the Rolls, +<i>The Orkney Saga</i> and <i>The Saga of Hakon</i>, the texts of which Vigfusson +had printed in the same series some years before. The interest + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_33'></a>( 33 )</span> + +of the government in Icelandic annals connected with English history is +indicated in these last publications, and England is fortunate to have +had such enthusiastic scholars as Vigfusson and Dasent to do the work. +These men had been collaborators on the Cleasby Dictionary, and in this +work as in all others Dasent displayed an eagerness to have his +countrymen know how significant England's relationship to Iceland was. +He was as certain as Laing had been before him of the preeminence of +this literature among the mediæval writings. Like Laing, too, he would +have the general reader turn to this body of work "which for its beauty +and richness is worthy of being known to the greatest possible number of +readers." +<a name='FNanchor_22_22'></a><a href='#Footnote_22_22'><sup>[22]</sup></a></p> + +<p>To mark the progress away from the old conception of unmitigated +brutality these words of Dasent stand here: +<a name='FNanchor_23_23'></a><a href='#Footnote_23_23'><sup>[23]</sup></a> +"The faults of these +Norsemen were the faults of their time; their virtues they possessed in +larger measure than the rest of their age, and thus when Christianity +had tamed their fury, they became the torch-bearers of civilization; and +though the plowshare of Destiny, when it planted them in Europe, +uprooted along its furrow many a pretty flower of feeling in the lands +which felt the fury of these Northern conquerers, their energy and +endurance gave a lasting temper to the West, and more especially to +England, which will wear so long as the world wears, and at the same +time implanted principles of freedom which shall never be rooted out. +Such results are a compensation for many bygone sorrows."</p> +<br /> + +<a name='CHARLES_KINGSLEY'></a><h3>CHARLES KINGSLEY (1819-1875).</h3> + +<p>In 1874, Charles Kingsley visited America and delivered some lectures. +Among these was one entitled "The First Discovery of America." This +interests us here because it displays an appreciation, if not a deep +knowledge, of Icelandic literature. In it the lecturer commended to +Longfellow's attention a ballad sung in the Faroes, begging him to +translate it some day, "as none but he can translate it." "It is so sad, +that no tenderness less exquisite than his can prevent its being +painful; and at least in its <i>denouement</i>, so naive, that no purity less +exquisite than his can + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_34'></a>( 34 )</span> + +prevent its being dreadful." +<a name='FNanchor_24_24'></a><a href='#Footnote_24_24'><sup>[24]</sup></a> +Later in the +lecture he commends to his hearers the <i>Heimskringla</i> of Snorri +Sturluson, the "Homer of the North." +<a name='FNanchor_25_25'></a><a href='#Footnote_25_25'><sup>[25]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Speaking of the elements that mingled to produce the British character, +Kingsley says: "In manners as well as in religion, the Norse were +humanized and civilized by their contact with the Celts, both in +Scotland and in Ireland. Both peoples had valor, intellect, imagination: +but the Celt had that which the burly, angular Norse character, however +deep and stately, and however humorous, wanted; namely, music of nature, +tenderness, grace, rapidity, playfulness; just the qualities, combining +with the Scandinavian (and in Scotland with the Angle) elements of +character which have produced, in Ireland and in Scotland, two schools +of lyric poetry second to none in the world." +<a name='FNanchor_26_26'></a><a href='#Footnote_26_26'><sup>[26]</sup></a> +Over the page, +Kingsley has this to say: "For they were a sad people, those old Norse +forefathers of ours." +<a name='FNanchor_27_27'></a><a href='#Footnote_27_27'><sup>[27]</sup></a> +Humorous and sad are not inconsistent words in +these sentences; the Norseman had a sense of the ludicrous, and could +jest grimly in the face of death. Of the sadness of his life, no one +needs to be told who has read a saga or two. Kingsley says: "There is, +in the old sagas, none of that enjoyment of life which shines out +everywhere in Greek poetry, even through its deepest tragedies. Not in +complacency with Nature's beauty, but in the fierce struggle with her +wrath, does the Norseman feel pleasure." +<a name='FNanchor_28_28'></a><a href='#Footnote_28_28'><sup>[28]</sup></a></p> + +<p>This lecture shows a deeper acquaintance with Old Norse literature than +Kingsley was willing to acknowledge. Not only are the stories well +chosen which he uses throughout, but the intuitions are sound, and the +inferences based upon them. He anticipated the work of this +investigation in the last words of the address. He has been telling the +fine story of Thormod at Sticklestead:</p> + +<p>"I shall not insult your intelligence by any comment or even epithet of +my own. I shall but ask you, Was not this man your kinsman? Does not the +story sound, allowing for all change of + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_35'></a>( 35 )</span> + +manners as well as of time and +place, like a scene out of your own Bret Harte or Colonel John Hay's +writings; a scene of the dry humor, the rough heroism of your own far +West? Yes, as long as you have your <i>Jem Bludsos</i> and <i>Tom Flynns of +Virginia City</i>, the old Norse blood is surely not extinct, the old Norse +spirit is not dead." +<a name='FNanchor_29_29'></a><a href='#Footnote_29_29'><sup>[29]</sup></a></p> +<br /> + +<a name='EDMUND_GOSSE'></a><h3>EDMUND GOSSE (1849-).</h3> + +<p>Among contemporary English poets who have taught the world of readers +that things Norse are worthy of attention, is Edmund Gosse. He has been +more intimately connected with the popularization of modern Norwegian +literature, notably of Ibsen, but he has also found in Old Norse story +themes for poetic treatment. We mention "The Death of Arnkel," found in +the volume <i>Firdausi in Exile</i>, more because it shows that our poets are +turning to <i>the gesta islandicorum</i> for themes, than because it is a +remarkable poem. More pretentious is <i>King Erik, a Tragedy</i>, London, +1876. Here is a noble drama which displays an intimate acquaintance with +the literature that gave it its themes and inspiration. The author +dedicates it to Robert Browning, calling it:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i2'>. . . this lyric symbol of my labour,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>This antique light that led my dreams so long,<br /></span> +<span>This battered hull of a barbaric tabor,<br /></span> +<span class='i5'>Beaten to runic song.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I have often thought that fate was very unkind to keep Browning so +persistently in the south of Europe, when, in Iceland and Norway, were +mines that he could have worked in to such supreme advantage. To be sure +his method clashes with the simplicity of the Old Norse manner, but from +him we should have had men and women superb in stature and virility, and +perhaps the Arctic influence would have killed the troublesome +tropicality of his language.</p> + +<p>This drama by Gosse is not strictly Icelandic in motive. Jealousy was +not the passion to loosen the tongue of the sagaman, and in so far as +that is the theme of "King Erik," the play is not Old Norse in origin. +Christian material, too, has been introduced that gives a modern tinge +to the drama, but there is + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_36'></a>( 36 )</span> + +enough of the genuine saga spirit to warrant +attention to it here. Something more than the names is Icelandic. Here +is a woman, Botilda, with strength of character enough to recall a +Brynhild or a Bergthora. Gisli is the foster-brother that takes up the +blood-feud for Grimur. Adalbjörg and Svanhilda are the whisperers of +slander and the workers of ill. Marcus is the skald who is making a poem +about the king. Here are customs and beliefs distinctly Norse:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i6'>I loved him from the first,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>And so the second midnight to the cliff<br /></span> +<span>We went. I mind me how the round moon rose,<br /></span> +<span>And how a great whale in the offing plunged,<br /></span> +<span>Dark on the golden circle. There we cut<br /></span> +<span>A space of turf, and lifted it, and ran<br /></span> +<span>Our knife-points sharp into our arms, and drew<br /></span> +<span>Blood that dripped into the warm mould and mixed.<br /></span> +<span>So there under the turf our plighted faith<br /></span> +<span>Starts in the dew of grasses.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(Act. IV, Sc. II.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>But all day long I hear amid the crowds,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>A voice that murmurs in a monotone,<br /></span> +<span>Strange, warning words that scarcely miss the ear,<br /></span> +<span>Yet miss it altogether.<br /></span> +<span class='i6'><i>Botilda</i>.<br /></span> +<span class='i8'>Oh! God grant,<br /></span> +<span>You be not fey, nor truly near your end!<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(Act. IV, Sc. III.)</span> +</div></div></div> + + +<p>Although this work is dramatic in form, it is not so in spirit. The true +dramatist would have put such an incident as the swearing of brotherhood +into a scene, instead of into a speech. This effort is, however, the +nearest approach to a drama in English founded on saga material. It is +curious that our poets have inclined to every form but the drama in +reproducing Old Norse literature. It is not that saga-stuff is not +dramatic in possibilities. Ewald and Oehlenschläger have used this +material to excellent effect in Danish dramas. Had the sagas been +accessible to Englishmen in Shakespeare's time, we should certainly have +had dramas of Icelandic life.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_37'></a>( 37 )</span> + +<a name='IV'></a><h2>IV.</h2> + +<h2>BY THE HAND OF THE MASTER.</h2> +<br /> + +<p>Time has brought us to the man whose work in this field needs no +apology. The writer whom we consider next contributed almost as much +material to the English treasury of Northern gold as did all the writers +we have so far considered. Were it not for William Morris, the +examination that we are making would not not be worth while. The name +<i>literature</i>, in its narrow sense, belongs to only a few of the writings +that we have examined up to this point, but what we are now to inspect +deserves that title without the shadow of a doubt. For that reason we +set in a separate chapter the examination of Morris' Old Norse +adaptations and creations.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='WILLIAM_MORRIS'></a><h3>WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896).</h3> + +<p>The biographer of William Morris fixes 1868 as the beginning of the +poet's Icelandic stories. +<a name='FNanchor_30_30'></a><a href='#Footnote_30_30'><sup>[30]</sup></a> +Eirikr Magnusson, an Icelander, was his +guide, and the pupil made rapid progress. Dasent's work had drawn +Morris' attention to the sagas, and within a few months most of the +sagas had been read in the original. Although <i>The Saga of Gunnlang +Worm-tongue</i> was published in the <i>Fortnightly Review</i>, for January, +1869, the <i>Grettis Saga</i>, of April, was the first published book on an +Old Norse subject. The next year gave the <i>Völsunga Saga</i>. In 1871, +Morris made a journey through Iceland, the fruits of which were +afterwards seen in many a noble work. In 1875, <i>Three Northern Love +Stories</i> was published, and, in 1877, <i>The Story of Sigurd the Volsung +and the Fall of the Niblungs</i>. More than ten years passed before he +turned again to Icelandic work, the Romances of the years of 1889 to +1896 showing signs of it, and the translations in the <i>Saga Library</i>, +"Howard the Halt," "The Banded Men," <i>Eyrbyggja</i> and <i>Heimskringla</i> of +1891-95. These contributions + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_38'></a>( 38 )</span> + +to the subject of our examination are no +less valuable than voluminous, and we make no excuses for an extended +consideration of them. They deserve a wider public than they have yet +attained.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='1'></a><h4>1.</h4> + +<p><i>The Story of Grettir the Strong</i> is the title of Morris and Magnusson's +version of the <i>Grettis Saga</i>. The version impresses the reader as one +made with loving care by artistic hands. Certainly English readers will +read no other translation of this work, for this one is satisfactory as +a version and as an art-work. English readers will here get all the +flavor of the original that it is possible to get in a translation, and +those who can read Icelandic if put to it, will prefer to get <i>Grettla</i> +through Morris and Magnusson. All the essentials are here, if not all +the nuances.</p> + +<p>The reader unfamiliar with sagas will need a little patience with the +genealogies that crop out in every chapter. The sagaman has a +squirrel-like agility in climbing family trees, and he is well +acquainted with their interlocking branches. There are chapters in the +<i>Grettis Saga</i> where this vanity runs riot, and makes us suspect that +Iceland differed little from a country town of to-day in its love for +gossip about the family of neighbors whose names happen to come into the +conversation. If the reader will persevere through the early chapters, +until Grettir commands exclusive attention, he will come to a drama +which has not many peers in literature. The outlaw kills a man in every +other chapter, but this record is no vulgar list of brutal fights. Not +inhuman nature, but human nature is here shown, human nature struggling +with unrelenting fate, making a grand fight, and coming to its end +because it must, but without ignominy. How fine a touch it is that +refuses to the outlaw's murderer the price set upon Grettir's head, +because the getting of it was through a "nithings-deed," the murder of a +dying man! William Morris was most felicitous in envoys and dedicating +poems, and in the sonnet prefixed to this translation he was +particularly happy. The first eight lines describe the hero of the +saga—the last six lines the significance of this literary creation:</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_39'></a>( 39 )</span> +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>A life scarce worth the living, a poor fame<br /></span> +<span>Scarce worth the winning, in a wretched land,<br /></span> +<span>Where fear and pain go upon either hand,<br /></span> +<span>As toward the end men fare without an aim<br /></span> +<span>Unto the dull grey dark from whence they came:<br /></span> +<span>Let them alone, the unshadowed sheer rocks stand<br /></span> +<span>Over the twilight graves of that poor band,<br /></span> +<span>Who count so little in the great world's game!<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>Nay, with the dead I deal not; this man lives,<br /></span> +<span>And that which carried him through good and ill,<br /></span> +<span>Stern against fate while his voice echoed still<br /></span> +<span>From rock to rock, now he lies silent, strives<br /></span> +<span>With wasting time, and through its long lapse gives<br /></span> +<span>Another friend to me, life's void to fill.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<br /> + +<a name='2'></a><h4>2.</h4> + +<p>In the three volumes of <i>The Earthly Paradise</i>, published by William +Morris in 1868-1870, there are three poems which hail from Old Norse +originals. They are "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon," and +"The Lovers of Gudrun," in Vol. II, and "The Fostering of Aslaug," in +Vol. III. Of these "The Lovers of Gudrun" forms a class by itself; it is +a poem to be reckoned with when the dozen greatest poems of the century +are listed. The late Laureate may have equalled it in the best of the +<i>Idylls of the King</i>, but he never excelled it. Let us look at it in +detail.</p> + +<p>First, be it said that "The Lovers of Gudrun" overtops all the other +poems in <i>The Earthly Paradise</i>. It would be possible to prove that +Morris was at his best when he worked with Old Norse material, but that +task shall not detain us now. It is enough to note that the "Prologue" +to <i>The Earthly Paradise</i>, called "The Wanderers," makes the leader of +these wanderers, who turn story-tellers when they reach the city by "the +borders of the Grecian sea," a Norseman. Born in Byzantium of a Greek +mother, he claimed Norway as his home, and on his father's death +returned to his kin. His speech to the Elder of the City reveals a +touching loyalty to his father's home and traditions:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>But when I reached one dying autumn-tide<br /></span> +<span>My uncle's dwelling near the forest-side,<br /></span> +<span>And saw the land so scanty and so bare,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_40'></a>( 40 )</span> +<span>And all the hard things men contend with there,<br /></span> +<span>A little and unworthy land it seemed,<br /></span> +<span>And yet the more of Asagard I dreamed,<br /></span> +<span>And worthier seemed the ancient faith of praise.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here is the man, William Morris, in perfect miniature. Modern life and +training had given him a speech and aspect quite suave and cultured, but +the blood that flowed in his veins was red, and the tincture of iron was +in it. In religion, in art, in poetry, in economics, he loved the past +better than the present, though he was never unconscious of "our +glorious gains." In all departments of thought the scanty, the bare, the +hard, the unworthy, drew first his attention and then his love and +enthusiastic praise. And so perhaps it is explained that of all the +poems in <i>The Earthly Paradise</i>, the one indited first in the scarred +and dreadful land where neither wheat nor wine is at home, shall be the +finest in this latter-day retelling.</p> + +<p>The first seventy years of the thirteenth century were the blossoming +time of the historic saga in Iceland, and those writings that record the +doings of the families of the land form, with the old songs and the best +of the kingly sagas, the flower of Northern literature. These family +records never extend over more than one generation, and sometimes they +deal with but a few years. They are half-way between romance and +history, with the balance oftenest in favor of truth. In this group are +found <i>Egils Saga</i>, known at second hand to Warton, the <i>Eyrbyggja +Saga</i>, translated by Walter Scott, and the <i>Laxdæla Saga</i>. It is the +<i>Laxdæla Saga</i> that gives the story told by Morris in "The Lovers of +Gudrun." Among sagas it is famous for its fine portrayal of character.</p> + +<p>The saga and the poem tell the story of two neighboring farms, Herdholt +and Bathsted, whose sons and daughters work out a dire tragedy. Kiartan +and Bodli are the son and foster-son of the first house, and Gudrun is +the daughter of the second. These are the principal personages in the +drama, though the list of the other <i>dramatis personæ</i> is a long one. +Not only in the name of its heroine does the story suggest the +<i>Nibelungenlied</i>. The machinery of the Norse stories resembles the +German story's in many of its parts. In this version of Morris, the main +features of the saga are kept, and distracting details are properly + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_41'></a>( 41 )</span> + +subordinated to the principal interest. Through the nineteen divisions +of this story the interest moves rapidly, and wonder as to the issue is +never lost. As a story-teller, Morris is distinctly powerful in this +poem, and all the qualities that endear the story-teller to us are here +found joined to many that make the poet a favorite with us. There are no +lyrics in the poem—the original saga was without the song-snatches that +are often found in sagas—but there are dramatic scenes that recall the +power of the Master-poet. Least of all the poems in the <i>Earthly +Paradise</i> does "The Lovers of Gudrun" show the Chaucerian influence, and +the reader must be captious indeed who complains of the length of this +story.</p> + +<p>To the unenlightened reader this poem reveals no traits that are +un-English. What there is of Old Norse flavor here is purely spiritual. +The original story being in prose, no attempt could be made to keep +original characteristics in verse-form. So "The Lovers of Gudrun" can +stand on its own merits as an English poem; no excuses need be made for +it on the plea that it is a translation.</p> + +<p>Local color is not laid on the canvas after the figures have been +painted, but all the tints in the persons and the things are grandly +Norse. This story is a true romance, in that the scene is far removed +from the present day, and the atmosphere is very different from our own. +This story is a true picture of life, in that it sets forth the doings +of men and women in the power of the master passion. And so for the +purposes of literature this poem is not Norse, or rather, it is more +than Norse, it is universal. Now and then, to be sure, the displaced +Norse ideals are set forth in the poem, but in such wise that we almost +regret that the old order has passed away. The Wanderer who tells the +tale assures his listeners of the truth of it in these last words of the +interlude between "The Story of Rhodope" and "The Lovers of Gudrun":</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i6'>Know withal that we<br /></span> +<span>Have ever deemed this tale as true to be,<br /></span> +<span>As though those very Dwellers in Laxdale,<br /></span> +<span>Risen from the dead had told us their own tale;<br /></span> +<span>Who for the rest while yet they dwelt on earth<br /></span> +<span>Wearied no God with prayers for more of mirth<br /></span> +<span>Than dying men have; nor were ill-content<br /></span> +<span>Because no God beside their sorrow went<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_42'></a>( 42 )</span> +<span>Turning to flowery sward the rock-strewn way,<br /></span> +<span>Weakness to strength, or darkness into day.<br /></span> +<span>Therefore, no marvels hath my tale to tell,<br /></span> +<span>But deals with such things as men know too well;<br /></span> +<span>All that I have herein your hearts to move,<br /></span> +<span>Is but the seed and fruit of bitter love.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is aside from our purpose to tell this story here. The more we study +this marvelous work, the more it is impressed upon us that in the reign +of love all men and all literatures are one. To the Englishman this +description of an Iceland maiden is no stranger than it was to the men +who sat about the spluttering fire in the Icelander's hall. It is the +form of Gudrun that is here described:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>That spring was she just come to her full height,<br /></span> +<span>Low-bosomed yet she was, and slim and light,<br /></span> +<span>Yet scarce might she grow fairer from that day;<br /></span> +<span>Gold were the locks wherewith the wind did play,<br /></span> +<span>Finer than silk, waved softly like the sea<br /></span> +<span>After a three days' calm, and to her knee<br /></span> +<span>Wellnigh they reached; fair were the white hands laid<br /></span> +<span>Upon the door posts where the dragons played;<br /></span> +<span>Her brow was smooth now, and a smile began<br /></span> +<span>To cross her delicate mouth, the snare of man.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(<i>Earthly Paradise</i>, Vol. II, p. 247.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Not less accustomed are we to such heroes as Kiartan:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>And now in every mouth was Kiartan's name,<br /></span> +<span>And daily now must Gudrun's dull ears bear<br /></span> +<span>Tales of the prowess of his youth to hear,<br /></span> +<span>While in his cairn forgotten lay her love.<br /></span> +<span>For this man, said they, all men's hearts did move,<br /></span> +<span>Nor yet might envy cling to such an one,<br /></span> +<span>So far beyond all dwellers 'neath the sun;<br /></span> +<span>Great was he, yet so fair of face and limb<br /></span> +<span>That all folk wondered much, beholding him,<br /></span> +<span>How such a man could be; no fear he knew,<br /></span> +<span>And all in manly deeds he could outdo;<br /></span> +<span>Fleet-foot, a swimmer strong, an archer good,<br /></span> +<span>Keen-eyed to know the dark waves' changing mood;<br /></span> +<span>Sure on the crag, and with the sword so skilled,<br /></span> +<span>That when he played therewith the air seemed filled<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_43'></a>( 43 )</span> +<span>With light of gleaming blades; therewith was he<br /></span> +<span>Of noble speech, though says not certainly<br /></span> +<span>My tale, that aught of his he left behind<br /></span> +<span>With rhyme and measure deftly intertwined.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 266.)</span> +</div></div></div> + + +<p>The Old Norse touch here is in the last three lines which intimate that +the warrior was often a bard; but be it remembered that the Elizabethan +warrior could turn a sonnet, too.</p> + +<p>We have said that the <i>Laxdæla Saga</i> is famous for its portrayal of +character. This English version falls not at all below the original in +this quality. The lines already quoted show Gudrun and Kiartan as to +exterior. But this is a drama of flesh and blood creations, and they are +men and women that move through it, not puppets. Souls are laid bare +here, in quivering, pulsating agony. The tremendous figure of this story +is not Kiartan, nor Gudrun, nor Refna, but Bodli, and certainly English +narrative poetry has no second creation like to him. The mind reverts to +Shakespeare to find fit companionship for Bodli in poetry, and to George +Eliot and Thomas Hardy in prose. The suggestion of Shakespearean +qualities in George Eliot has been made by several great critics, among +them Edmond Scherer; +<a name='FNanchor_31_31'></a><a href='#Footnote_31_31'><sup>[31]</sup></a> +in Hardy and Morris, here, we find the same +soul-searching powers. These writers have created sufferers of titanic +greatness, and in the presence of their tragedies we are dumb.</p> + +<p>An English artist has made Napoleon's voyage on H.M.S. <i>Bellerophon</i> to +his prison-isle a picture that the memory refuses to forget. The picture +of Bodli as he sails back to Iceland, which, though his home, is to be +his prison and his death, is no less impressive:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Fair goes the ship that beareth out Christ's truth<br /></span> +<span>Mingled of hope, of sorrow, and of ruth,<br /></span> +<span>And on the prow Bodli the Christian stands,<br /></span> +<span>Sunk deep in thought of all the many lands<br /></span> +<span>The world holds, and the folk that dwell therein,<br /></span> +<span>And wondering why that grief and rage and sin<br /></span> +<span>Was ever wrought; but wondering most of all<br /></span> +<span>Why such wild passion on his heart should fall.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 294.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_44'></a>( 44 )</span> + +Here we have the poet's conception—and the sagaman's—of Bodli—a man +in the grip of terrible Fate, who can no more swerve from the paths she +marks out for him than he can add a cubit to his stature. The Greek +tragedy embodies this idea, and Old Norse literature is full of it. +Thomas Hardy gives it later in his contemporary novels. We sympathize +with Bodli's fate because his agony is so terrible, and we call him the +most striking figure in this story. But the others suffer, too, Gudrun, +Kiartan, Refna; they make a stand against their woe, and utter brave +words in the face of it. Only Bodli floats downward with the tide, +unresisting. Guest prophesies bitter things for Gudrun, but adds:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Be merry yet! these things shall not be all<br /></span> +<span>That unto thee in this thy life shall fall.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 254.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>And Gudrun takes heart. When Thurid tells her brother Kiartan that +Gudrun has married another, his joy is shivered into atoms before him. +But he can say, even then:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Now is this world clean changed for me<br /></span> +<span>In this last minute, yet indeed I see<br /></span> +<span>That still it will go on for all my pain;<br /></span> +<span>Come then, my sister, let us back again;<br /></span> +<span>I must meet folk, and face the life beyond,<br /></span> +<span>And, as I may, walk 'neath the dreadful bond<br /></span> +<span>Of ugly pain—such men our fathers were,<br /></span> +<span>Not lightly bowed by any weight of care.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 311.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>And Kiartan does his work in the world. Poor Refna, when she has married +Kiartan hears women talking of the love that still is between Gudrun and +Kiartan. She goes to Kiartan with the story, beginning with words whose +pathos must conquer the most stoical of readers:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i4'>Indeed of all thy grief I knew,<br /></span> +<span>But deemed if still thou saw'st me kind and true,<br /></span> +<span>Not asking too much, yet not failing aught<br /></span> +<span>To show that not far off need love be sought,<br /></span> +<span>If thou shouldst need love—if thou sawest all this,<br /></span> +<span>Thou wouldst not grudge to show me what a bliss<br /></span> +<span>Thy whole love was, by giving unto me<br /></span> +<span>As unto one who loved thee silently,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_45'></a>( 45 )</span> +<span>Now and again the broken crumbs thereof:<br /></span> +<span>Alas! I, having then no part in love,<br /></span> +<span>Knew not how naught, naught can allay the soul<br /></span> +<span>Of that sad thirst, but love untouched and whole!<br /></span> +<span>Kinder than e'er I durst have hoped thou art,<br /></span> +<span>Forgive me then, that yet my craving heart<br /></span> +<span>Is so unsatisfied; I know that thou<br /></span> +<span>Art fain to dream that I am happy now,<br /></span> +<span>And for that seeming ever do I strive;<br /></span> +<span>Thy half-love, dearest, keeps me still alive<br /></span> +<span>To love thee; and I bless it—but at whiles,—<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 343)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>And thus she gains strength to live her life.</p> + +<p>Here, then, in Bodli, is another of the great tragic figures in +literature—a sick man. There are many of them, even in the highest rank +of literary creations, Hamlet, Lear, Othello, Macbeth! Wrong-headed, +defective as they are, we would not have them otherwise. The pearl of +greatest price is the result of an abnormal or morbid process.</p> + +<p>Bodli comes to us from Icelandic literature, and in that fact we note +the solidarity of poetic geniuses. Not only is the great figure of Bodli +proof of this solidarity, but many other features of this poem prove it. +"Lively feeling for a situation and power to express it constitute the +poet," said Goethe. There are dramatic situations in "The Lovers of +Gudrun" which hold the reader in a breathless state till the last word +is said, and then leave him marveling at the imagination that could +conceive the scene, and the power that could express it. There are +gentler scenes, too, in the poem, where beauty and grace are conceived +as fair as ever poet dreamed, and the workmanship is thoroughly +adequate. As an example of the first, take the scene of Bodli's mourning +over Kiartan's dead body. It is here that we get that knowledge of +Bodli's woe that robs us of a cause against him. What agony is that +which can speak thus over the body of the dead rival!</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i4'>. . . Didst thou quite<br /></span> +<span>Know all the value of that dear delight<br /></span> +<span>As I did? Kiartan, she is changed to thee;<br /></span> +<span>Yea, and since hope is dead changed too to me,<br /></span> +<span>What shall we do, if, each of each forgiven,<br /></span> +<span>We three shall meet at last in that fair heaven<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_46'></a>( 46 )</span> +<span>The new faith tells of? Thee and God I pray<br /></span> +<span>Impute it not for sin to me to-day,<br /></span> +<span>If no thought I can shape thereof but this:<br /></span> +<span>O friend, O friend, when thee I meet in bliss,<br /></span> +<span>Wilt thou not give my love Gudrun to me,<br /></span> +<span>Since now indeed thine eyes made clear can see<br /></span> +<span>That I of all the world must love her most?<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 368.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Examples of the gentler scenes are scattered lavishly throughout the +poem and it is not necessary to enumerate.</p> + +<p>One other sign that the Icelandic sagaman's art was kin to the English +poet's. The last line of this poem is given thus by Morris:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>I did the worst to him I loved the most.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>These are the very words of Gudrun in the saga, and summing up as they +do her opinion of Kiartan, they stand as a model of that compression +which is so admired in our poetry. Many such <i>multum in parvo</i> lines are +found in Morris' poem, and at times they have a beauty that is +marvelous. Joined with this quality is the special merit of +Morris—picturesqueness, and so the reader often feels, when he has +finished a book by Morris, like the Cook tourist after he has "done" a +country of Europe—it must be done again and again to give it its due.</p> + +<p>Of the other two Old Norse poems in <i>The Earthly Paradise</i> not much need +be said. "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is a fairy +tale, in the strain of Morris' prose romances. It was suggested by +Thorpe's <i>Yule-tide Stories</i>, the tale coming from the <i>Völundar Saga</i>. +There is a witchery about it that makes it pleasant reading in a dreamy +hour, but except the names and a few scenes about the farmstead, there +is nothing Icelandic about it. The virile element of the best Icelandic +literature is wanting here, and the hero's excuse for leaving weapons at +home when he goes to his watch is not at all natural:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i4'>Withal I shall not see<br /></span> +<span>Men-folk belike, but faërie,<br /></span> +<span>And all the arms within the seas<br /></span> +<span>Should help me naught to deal with these;<br /></span> +<span>Rather of such love were I fain<br /></span> +<span>As fell to Sigurd Fafnir's-bane<br /></span> +<span>When of the dragon's heart he ate.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(Vol. II, p. 33.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_47'></a>( 47 )</span> + +This passage is nominally in the same meter as the opening lines of the +poem:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>In this your land there once did dwell<br /></span> +<span>A certain carle who lived full well,<br /></span> +<span>And lacked few things to make him glad;<br /></span> +<span>And three fair sons this goodman had.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>According to old time English prosody, it is the same, too, as the meter +of Scott's Marmion!</p> + +<p>In the passages quoted from "The Lovers of Gudrun" we see a measure +called the same as that of Pope's <i>Essay on Man</i>! Not seldom in "The +Lovers" do we forget that the lines are rhymed in twos; indeed, often we +do not note the rhyme at all. We are sometimes tempted to think that in +this piece, if not in "The Land East of the Sun," rhyme might have been +dispensed with altogether, since it often forces archaic words and +expressions into use. But it is to be said generally of Morris's +management of the meter in the Old Norse pieces, that it was adequate to +gain his end always, whether that end was to tell an Old Norse story in +English, or to carry over an Old Norse spirit into English. Of this +second achievement we shall speak further in considering <i>Sigurd the +Volsung</i>.</p> + +<p>There is one more tale in <i>The Earthly Paradise</i> which originated in +Norse legend. "The Fostering of Aslaug" is drawn from Thorpe's <i>Northern +Mythology</i>, which epitomizes older sources. Aslaug is the daughter of +Iceland's great hero, Sigurd, and Iceland's great heroine, Brynhild, and +her life is set down in this poem most beautifully. Again we note that +the added touches of later poets fail to leave the sense of the +strenuous in the picture. Aslaug is like a favorite representation of +Brynhild that we have seen, a lily-maid in aspect, or a Marguerite. Her +mother's masculinity is gone, and with it the Old Norse flavor. It is +the privilege of our age to enjoy both the virility of the Old Norse and +the delicacy of the mediæval conceptions, and William Morris has caught +both.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='3'></a><h4>3.</h4> + +<p>In the opening lines of "The Fostering of Aslaug," our poet wrote his +doubts about his ability to sing the life of Sigurd in be-fitting +manner. At that time he said:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_48'></a>( 48 )</span> +<span>But now have I no heart to raise<br /></span> +<span>That mighty sorrow laid asleep,<br /></span> +<span>That love so sweet, so strong and deep,<br /></span> +<span>That as ye hear the wonder told<br /></span> +<span>In those few strenuous words of old,<br /></span> +<span>The whole world seems to rend apart<br /></span> +<span>When heart is torn away from heart.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(Vol. III, p. 28.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>It is a common complaint against the poetry of William Morris that it is +too long-winded. Each to his taste in this matter, but we beg to call +attention to one line in the above passage:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>In those few strenuous words of old.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Whatever may have been Morris' tendency when he wrote his own poetry, he +knew when concision was a virtue in the poetry of others. There is no +better description of the <i>Völsunga Saga</i> than the above line, and +William Morris gave the English people a literal version of the saga, if +mayhap that strenuous paucity might translate the old spirit. But, as if +he knew that many readers would fail to make much of this version, he +tried again on a larger scale, and the great volume <i>Sigurd the +Volsung</i>, epic in character and proportions, was the result. Of these +two we shall now speak.</p> + +<p>The <i>Völsunga Saga</i> was published in 1870, only two years after Morris +had begun to study Icelandic with Eirikr Magnusson. The latter's name is +on the title page as the first of the two co-translators. The <i>Saga</i> was +supplemented by certain songs from the <i>Elder Edda</i> which were +introduced by the translators at points where they would come naturally +in the story. The work, both in prose and verse, is well done, and the +attempt was successful to make, as the preface proposes, the "rendering +close and accurate, and, if it might be so, at the same time, not over +prosaic." The last two paragraphs of this preface are particularly +interesting to one who is tracing the influence of Old Norse literature +on English literature, because they are words with power, that have +stirred men and will stir men to learn more about a wonderful land and +its lore. We copy them entire:</p> + +<p>"As to the literary quality of this work we might say much, but we think +we may well trust the reader of poetic insight to break through whatever +entanglement of strange manners or unused + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_49'></a>( 49 )</span> + +element may at first trouble +him, and to meet the nature and beauty with which it is filled: we +cannot doubt that such a reader will be intensely touched by finding, +amidst all its wildness and remoteness, such startling realism, such +subtilty, such close sympathy with all the passions that may move +himself to-day.</p> + +<p>"In conclusion, we must again say how strange it seems to us, that this +Volsung Tale, which is in fact an unversified poem, should never before +have been translated into English. For this is the Great Story of the +North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the +Greeks—to all our race first, and afterwards, when the change of the +world has made our race nothing more than a name of what has been—a +story too—then should it be to those that come after us no less than +the Tale of Troy has been to us."</p> + +<p>Morris wrote a prologue in verse for this volume, and it is an exquisite +poem, such as only he seemed able to indite. So often does the reader of +Morris come upon gems like this, that one is tempted to rail against the +common ignorance about him:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>O hearken, ye who speak the English Tongue,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>How in a waste land ages long ago,<br /></span> +<span>The very heart of the North bloomed into song<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>After long brooding o'er this tale of woe!<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>Yea, in the first gray dawning of our race,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>This ruth-crowned tangle to sad hearts was dear.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>So draw ye round and hearken, English Folk,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Unto the best tale pity ever wrought!<br /></span> +<span>Of how from dark to dark bright Sigurd broke,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Of Brynhild's glorious soul with love distraught,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Of Gudrun's weary wandering unto naught,<br /></span> +<span>Of utter love defeated utterly,<br /></span> +<span>Of Grief too strong to give Love time to die!<br /></span> +</div></div> +<br /> + +<a name='4'></a><h4>4.</h4> + +<p>Six years later, in 1877 (English edition), Morris published the long +poem, <i>The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and The Fall of the Niblungs</i>, +and in it gave the peerless crown of all English + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_50'></a>( 50 )</span> + +poems springing from +Old Norse sources. The poet considered this his most important work, and +he was prouder of it than of any other literary work that he did. One +who studies it can understand this pride, but he cannot understand the +neglect by the reading public of this remarkable poem. The history of +book-selling in the last decade shows strange revivals of interest in +authors long dead; it will be safe to prophesy such a revival for +William Morris, because valuable treasures will not always remain +hidden. In his case, however, it will not be a revival, because there +has not been an awakening yet. That awakening must come, and thousands +will see that William Morris was a great poet who have not yet heard of +his name. Let us look at his greatest work with some degree of +minuteness.</p> + +<p>The opening lines are a good model of the meter, and we find it +different from any that we have considered so far. There are certain +peculiarities about it that make it seem a perfect medium for +translating the Old Norse spirit. Most of these peculiarities are in the +opening lines, and so we may transfer them to this page: +<a name='FNanchor_32_32'></a><a href='#Footnote_32_32'><sup>[32]</sup></a></p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>There was a dwelling of Kings ere the world was waxen old;<br /></span> +<span>Dukes were the door-wards there, and the roofs were thatched with gold;<br /></span> +<span>Earls were the wrights that wrought it, and silver nailed its doors;<br /></span> +<span>Earls' wives were the weaving-women, queens' daughters strewed its floors,<br /></span> +<span>And the masters of its song-craft were the mightiest men that cast<br /></span> +<span>The sails of the storm of battle adown the bickering blast.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Everybody knows that alliteration was a principle of Icelandic verse. It +strikes the ear that hears Icelandic poetry for the first time—or the +eye that sees it, since most of us read it silently—as unpleasantly +insistent, but on fuller acquaintance, we lose this sense of +obtrusiveness. Morris, in this poem, uses alliteration, but so skilfully +that only the reader that seeks it discovers it. A less superb artist +would have made it stick out in every line, so that the device would be +a hindrance to the story-telling. As it is, nowhere in the more than +nine thousand lines of <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i> is this alliteration an +excrescence, but everywhere it is woven into the grand design of a +fabric which is the richer for its foreign workmanship.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_51'></a>( 51 )</span> + +Notice that <i>duke</i> and <i>battle</i> and <i>master</i> are the only words not +thoroughly Teutonic. This overwhelming predominance of the Anglo-Saxon +element over the French is in keeping with the original of the story. Of +course it is an accident that so small a proportion of Latin derivatives +is found in these six lines, but the fact remains that Morris set +himself to tell a Teutonic story in Teutonic idiom. That idiom is not +very strange to present-day readers, indeed we may say it has but a +fillip of strangeness. Archaisms are characteristic of poetic diction, +and those found in this poem that are not common to other poetry are +used to gain an Old Norse flavor. The following words taken from Book I +of the poem are the only unfamiliar ones: <i>benight</i>, meaning "at night"; +"so <i>win</i> the long years over"; <i>eel-grig</i>; <i>sackless</i>; <i>bursten</i>, a +participle. The compounds <i>door-ward</i> and <i>song-craft</i> are +representative of others that are sprinkled in fair number through the +poem. They are the best that our language can do to reproduce the fine +combinations that the Icelandic language formed so readily. English +lends itself well to this device, as the many compounds show that Morris +took from common usage. Such words as <i>roof-tree</i>, <i>song-craft</i>, +<i>empty-handed</i>, <i>grave-mound</i>, <i>store-house</i>, taken at random from the +pages of this poem, show that the genius of our language permits such +formations. When Morris carries the practice a little further, and makes +for his poem such words as <i>door-ward</i>, <i>chance-hap</i>, <i>slumber-tide</i>, +<i>troth-word</i>, <i>God-home</i>, and a thousand others, he is not taking +liberties with the language, and he is using a powerful aid in +translating the Old Norse spirit.</p> + +<p>One more peculiar characteristic of Icelandic is admirably exhibited in +this poem. We have seen that Warton recognized in the "Runic poets" a +warmth of fancy which expressed itself in "circumlocution and +comparisons, not as a matter of necessity, but of choice and skill." +Certainly Morris in using these circumlocutions in <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i>, +has exercised remarkable skill in weaving them into his story. Like the +alliterations, they are part of an harmonious design. Examples abound, +like:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Adown unto the swan-bath the Volsung Children ride;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and this other for the same thing, the sea:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>While sleepeth the fields of the fishes amidst the summer-tide.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_52'></a>( 52 )</span> + +Still others for the water are <i>swan-mead</i>, and "bed-gear of the swan."</p> + +<p>"The serpent of death" and <i>war-flame</i>, for sword; <i>earth-bone</i>, for +rock; <i>fight-sheaves</i>, for armed hosts; <i>seaburg</i>, for boats, are other +striking examples.</p> + +<p>So much for the mechanical details of this poem. Its literary features +are so exceptional that we must examine them at length.</p> + +<p>Book I is entitled "Sigmund" and the description is set at the head of +it. "In this book is told of the earlier days of the Volsungs, and of +Sigmund the father of Sigurd, and of his deeds, and of how he died while +Sigurd was yet unborn in his mother's womb."</p> + +<p>There are many departures from the <i>Völsunga Saga</i> in this poetic +version, and all seem to be accounted for by a desire to impress +present-day readers with this story. The poem begins with Volsung, +omitting, therefore, the marvelous birth of that king and the oath of +the unborn child to "flee in fear from neither fire nor the sword." The +saga makes the wolf kill one of Volsung's sons every night; the poem +changes the number to two. A magnificent scene is invented by Morris in +the midnight visit of Signy to the wood where her brothers had been +slain. She speaks to the brother that is left, desiring to know what he +is doing:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>O yea, I am living indeed, and this labor of mine hand<br /></span> +<span>Is to bury the bones of the Volsungs; and lo, it is well nigh done.<br /></span> +<span>So draw near, Volsung's daughter, and pile we many a stone<br /></span> +<span>Where lie the gray wolf s gleanings of what was once so good.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 23.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>The dialogue of brother and sister is a mighty conception, and surely +the old Icelanders would have called Morris a rare singer. Sigmund tells +the story of the deaths of his brothers, adding:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>But now was I wroth with the Gods, that had made the Volsungs for nought;<br /></span> +<span>And I said: in the Day of their Doom a man's help shall they miss.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 24.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>But Signy is reconciled to the workings of Fate:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>I am nothing so wroth as thou art with the ways of death and hell,<br /></span> +<span>For thereof had I a deeming when all things were seeming well.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_53'></a>( 53 )</span> + +The day to come shall set their woes right:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>There as thou drawest thy sword, thou shall think of the days that were<br /></span> +<span>And the foul shall still seem foul, and the fair shall still seem fair;<br /></span> +<span>But thy wit shall then be awakened, and thou shalt know indeed<br /></span> +<span>Why the brave man's spear is broken, and his war shield fails at need;<br /></span> +<span>Why the loving is unbeloved; why the just man falls from his state;<br /></span> +<span>Why the liar gains in a day what the soothfast strives for late.<br /></span> +<span>Yea, and thy deeds shalt thou know, and great shall thy gladness be;<br /></span> +<span>As a picture all of gold thy life-days shalt thou see,<br /></span> +<span>And know that thou wert a God to abide through the hurry and haste;<br /></span> +<span>A God in the golden hall, a God in the rain-swept waste,<br /></span> +<span>A God in the battle triumphant, a God on the heap of the slain:<br /></span> +<span>And thine hope shall arise and blossom, and thy love shall be quickened again:<br /></span> +<span>And then shalt thou see before thee the face of all earthly ill;<br /></span> +<span>Thou shalt drink of the cup of awakening that thine hand hath holpen to fill;<br /></span> +<span>By the side of the sons of Odin shalt thou fashion a tale to be told<br /></span> +<span>In the hall of the happy Baldur.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 25.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>In this wise one Christian might hearten another to accept the dealings +of Providence to-day. While we do not think that a worshipper of Odin +would have spoken all these words, they are not an undue exaggeration of +the noblest traits of the old Icelandic religion.</p> + +<p>The poem does not record the death of Siggeir's and Signy's son, though +the saga does. Morris adds a touch when he makes the imprisoned men +exult over the sword that Signy drops into their grave, and he also puts +into the mouth of Siggeir in the burning hall words that the saga does +not contain. The poem says that the women of the Gothfolk were permitted +to retire from the burning hall, but the saga has no such statement. The +war of foul words between Granmar and Sinfjötli is left in the saga, and +the cause of Gudrod's death is changed from rivalry over a woman to +anger over a division of war booty. In Sigmund's lament over his +childlessness we have another of the poet's additions, and certainly we +find no fault with the liberty:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>The tree was stalwart, but its boughs are old and worn.<br /></span> +<span>Where now are the children departed, that amidst my life were born?<br /></span> +<span>I know not the men about me, and they know not of my ways:<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_54'></a>( 54 )</span> +<span>I am nought but a picture of battle, and a song for the people to praise.<br /></span> +<span>I must strive with the deeds of my kingship, and yet when mine hour is come<br /></span> +<span>It shall meet me as glad as the goodman when he bringeth the last load home.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 56.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>When the great hero dies, Morris puts into his mouth another of the +magnificent speeches that are the glory of this poem. Four lines from it +must suffice:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>When the gods for one deed asked me I ever gave them twain;<br /></span> +<span>Spendthrift of glory I was, and great was my life-day's gain.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . . + . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>Our wisdom and valour have kissed, and thine eyes shall see the fruit,<br /></span> +<span>And the joy for his days that shall be hath pierced my heart to the root.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 62.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>It appears from this study of Book I that <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i> has +adapted the saga story to our civilization and our art, holding to the +best of the old and supplementing it by new that is ever in keeping with +the old. Other instances of this eclectic habit may be seen in the other +three books, but we shall quote from these for other purposes.</p> + +<p>Book II is entitled "Regin." "Now this is the first book of the life and +death of Sigurd the Volsung, and therein is told of the birth of him, +and of his dealings with Regin the Master of Masters, and of his deeds +in the waste places of the earth."</p> + +<p>Morris was deeply read in Old Norse literature, and out of his stores of +knowledge he brought vivifying details for this poem. Such, for +instance, is the description of Sigurd's eyes, not found just here in +the saga:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>In the bed there lieth a man-child, and his eyes look straight on the sun.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . . + . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>Yet they shrank in their rejoicing before the eyes of the child.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . . + . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In the naming of the child by an ancient name, the meaning of that name +is indicated:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>O <i>Sigurd</i>, Son of the Volsungs, O Victory yet to be!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The festivities over the birth of the child are wonderfully + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_55'></a>( 55 )</span> + +described in the brief lines, and they are a picture out of another book than the +saga:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Earls think of marvellous stories, and along the golden strings<br /></span> +<span>Flit words of banded brethren and names of war-fain Kings.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Over and over again in this poem Morris records the Icelanders' desire +"to leave a tale to tell," and here are Sigurd's words to Regin who has +been egging him on to deeds:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Yet I know that the world is wide, and filled with deeds unwrought;<br /></span> +<span>And for e'en such work was I fashioned, lest the songcraft come to nought,<br /></span> +<span>When the harps of God-home tinkle, and the Gods are at stretch to hearken:<br /></span> +<span>Lest the hosts of the Gods be scanty when their day hath begun to darken.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 82.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>In Book II we have other great speeches that the poet has put into the +mouth of his characters with little or no justification in the original +saga. Chap. XIV of the saga contains Regin's tale of his brothers, and +of the gold called "Andvari's Hoard," and that tale is severely brief +and plain. The account in the poem is expanded greatly, and the +conception of Regin materially altered. In the saga he was not the +discontented youngest son of his father, prone to talk of his woes and +to lament his lot. In the poem he does this in so eloquent a fashion +that almost we are persuaded to sympathize with him. Certainly his lines +were hard, to have outlived his great deeds, and to hear his many +inventions ascribed to the gods. The speech of the released Odin to +Reidmar is modeled on Job's conception of omnipotence, and it is one of +the memorable parts of this book. Gripir's prophecy, too, is a majestic +work, and its original was three sentences in the saga and the poem +<i>Grípisspá</i> in the heroic songs of the <i>Edda</i>. Here Morris rises to the +heights of Sigurd's greatness:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i4'>Sigurd, Sigurd! O great, O early born!<br /></span> +<span>O hope of the Kings first fashioned! O blossom of the morn!<br /></span> +<span>Short day and long remembrance, fair summer of the North!<br /></span> +<span>One day shall the worn world wonder how first thou wentest forth!<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 111.)</span> +</div></div></div> + + +<p>Those who have read William Morris know that he is a master of nature +description. The "Glittering Heath" offered a fine + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_81'></a>( 56 )</span> + +opportunity for this +sort of work, and in this piece we have another departure from the saga, +Morris made hundreds of pictures in this poem, but the pages describing +the journey to the "Glittering Heath" are packed with them to an +extraordinary degree. Here is Iceland in very fact, all dust and ashes +to the eye:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>More changeless than mid-ocean, as fruitless as its floor.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We confess that there is something in the scene that holds us, all shorn +of beauty though it is. We do not want to go the length of Thomas Hardy, +however, who, in that wonderful first chapter of <i>The Return of the +Native</i> has a similar heath to describe. "The new vale of Tempe," says +he, "may be a gaunt waste in Thule: human souls may find themselves in +closer and closer harmony with external things wearing a sombreness +distasteful to our race when it was young.... The time seems near, if it +has not actually arrived, when the mournful sublimity of a moor, a sea, +or a mountain, will be all of nature that is absolutely consonant with +the moods of the more thinking among mankind. And ultimately, to the +commonest tourist, spots like Iceland may become what the vineyards and +myrtlegardens of South Europe are to him now." Is it not a suggestive +thought that England and the nineteenth century evolved a pessimism +which poor Iceland on its ash-heap never could conceive? William Morris +was an Icelander, not an Englishman, in his philosophy.</p> + +<p>In this same scene, a notable deviation from the saga is the +conversation between Regin and Sigurd concerning the relations that +shall be between them after the slaying of Fafnir. Here Morris impresses +the lesson of Regin's greed, taking the un-Icelandic device of preaching +to serve his purpose:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Let it lead thee up to heaven, let it lead thee down to hell,<br /></span> +<span>The deed shall be done tomorrow: thou shalt have that measureless Gold,<br /></span> +<span>And devour the garnered wisdom that blessed thy realm of old,<br /></span> +<span>That hath lain unspent and begrudged in the, very heart of hate:<br /></span> +<span>With the blood and the might of thy brother thine hunger shalt thou sate:<br /></span> +<span>And this deed shall be mine and thine; but take heed for what followeth then!<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 119.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_57'></a>( 57 )</span> + +In still another place has Morris departed far from the saga story. +According to the poem, Sigurd meets each warning of Fafnir that the gold +will be the curse of its possessor with the assurance that he will cast +the gold abroad, and let none of it cling to his fingers. The saga, +however, has this very frank confession: "Home would I ride and lose all +that wealth, if I deemed that by the losing thereof I should never die; +but every brave and true man will fain have his hand on wealth till that +last day." Here, again, we see an adaptation of the story of the poem to +modern conceptions of nobility. It remains to be said that the ernes +move Sigurd to take the gold for the gladdening of the world, and they +assure him that a son of the Volsung had nought to fear from the Curse. +The seven-times-repeated "Bind the red rings, O Sigurd," is an admirable +poem, but it does not contain information concerning Brynhild, as do the +strophes of <i>Reginsmál</i> which are the model for this lay.</p> + +<p>Let us look at the art of Morris as it is shown in telling "How Sigurd +awoke Brynhild upon Hindfell." As in the saga, so in the English poem, +this incident has a setting most favorable to the display of its +remarkable beauties. It is a picture as pure and sweet as it has ever +entered into the mind of man to conceive. The conception belongs to the +poetic lore of many nations, and children are early introduced to the +story of "Sleeping Beauty." There are some features of the Old Norse +version that are especially charming, and first among them is the +address of the awakened Brynhild to the sun and the earth. We are told +that this maiden loved the radiant hero that here awoke her from her +age-long sleep, but not for him is her first greeting. A finer thrill +moves her than love for a man, and in Morris's poem, this feeling finds +singularly beautiful expression:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>All hail O Day and thy Sons, and thy kin of the coloured things!<br /></span> +<span>Hail, following Night, and thy Daughter that leadeth thy wavering wings!<br /></span> +<span>Look down with unangry eyes on us today alive,<br /></span> +<span>And give us the hearts victorious, and the gain for which we strive!<br /></span> +<span>All hail, ye Lords of God-home, and ye Queens of the House of Gold!<br /></span> +<span>Hail thou dear Earth that bearest, and thou Wealth of field and fold!<br /></span> +<span>Give us, your noble children, the glory of wisdom and speech,<br /></span> +<span>And the hearts and the hands of healing, and the mouths and hands that teach!<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 140.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_58'></a>( 58 )</span> + +In order to see just what the art of Morris has done for this poem, let +us compare this address with the rendering of the <i>Sigrdrifumál</i>, which +tell the same story and which Morris and Magnusson have incorporated +into their translation of the <i>Völsunga Saga</i>. The verses are not in the +original saga:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i2'>Hail to the day come back!<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Hail, sons of the daylight!<br /></span> +<span>Hail to thee, dark night, and thy daughter!<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Look with kind eyes a-down,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>On us sitting here lonely,<br /></span> +<span>And give unto us the gain that we long for.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Hail to the Æsir,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>And the sweet Asyniur!<br /></span> +<span>Hail to the fair earth fulfilled of plenty!<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Fair words, wise hearts,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Would we win from you,<br /></span> +<span>And healing hands while life we hold.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>To get the full benefit of the comparison of the old and the new, let us +set in conjunction with these versions a severely literal translation of +the <i>Edda</i> strophes themselves:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Hail, O Day,<br /></span> +<span>Hail, O Sons of the Day,<br /></span> +<span>Hail Night and kinswoman!<br /></span> +<span>With unwroth eyes<br /></span> +<span>look on us here<br /></span> +<span>and give to us sitting ones victory.<br /></span> +<span>Hail, O Gods,<br /></span> +<span>Hail, O Goddesses,<br /></span> +<span>Hail, O bounteous Earth!<br /></span> +<span>Speech and wisdom<br /></span> +<span>give to us, the excellent twain,<br /></span> +<span>and healing hands during life.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>These stages in the progress of the gold from mine to mint furnish their +own commentary. The finished product will pass current with the most +exacting of assayers, as well as gladden the hearts of the poor one +whose hand seldom touches gold.</p> + +<p>If the skill of the poet in this case have merited resemblance to that +of the refiner of gold, what name less than alchemy can characterize his +achievement in the rest of this scene? From the first words of +Brynhild's life-story:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_59'></a>( 59 )</span> +<span>I am she that loveth; I was born of the earthly folk;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>to the tender words that tell of the coming of another day:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>And fresh and all abundant abode the deeds of Day,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>there is a succession of beautiful scenes and glorious speeches such as +only a master of magic could have gotten out of the original story. The +Eddaic account of the Valkyr's disobedience to All-Father, pictures a +saucy and self-willed maiden. Sentence has been pronounced upon her, and +thus the story continues: "But I said I would vow a vow against it, and +marry no man that knew fear." The <i>Völsunga Saga</i> gives exactly the same +account, but the poetic version of Morris saves the maiden for our +respect and admiration. It is not effrontery, but repentance that speaks +in the voice of Brynhild here:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>The thoughts of my heart overcame me, and the pride of my wisdom and speech,<br /></span> +<span>And I scorned the earth-folk's Framer, and the Lord of the world I must teach.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In the Icelandic version, Odin makes no speech at the dooming, but +Morris puts into his mouth this magnificent address:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>And he cried: "Thou hast thought in thy folly that the Gods have friends and foes,<br /></span> +<span>That they wake, and the world wends onward, that they sleep, and the world slips back,<br /></span> +<span>That they laugh, and the world's weal waxeth, that they frown and fashion the wrack:<br /></span> +<span>Thou hast cast up the curse against me; it shall aback on thine head;<br /></span> +<span>Go back to the sons of repentance, with the children of sorrow wed!<br /></span> +<span>For the Gods are great unholpen, and their grief is seldom seen,<br /></span> +<span>And the wrong that they will and must be is soon as it hath not been."<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 141.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Morris has here again exercised the poet's privilege of adding to the +story that was the pride of an entire age, in order to serve his own the +better. If he was wise in these additions, he was no less wise in +subtractions and in preservations. The saga has a long address by +Brynhild, opening with mystical advice concerning the power of runes, +and closing grandly with wise words that sound like a page from the Old +Testament. The former find no place in <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i>, but the +latter are + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_60'></a>( 60 )</span> + +turned into mighty phrases that wonderfully preserve the +spirit of the original.</p> + +<p>One passage more from Book II:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>So they climb the burg of Hindfell, and hand in hand they fare,<br /></span> +<span>Till all about and above them is nought but the sunlit air,<br /></span> +<span>And there close they cling together rejoicing in their mirth;<br /></span> +<span>For far away beneath them lie the kingdoms of the earth,<br /></span> +<span>And the garths of men-folk's dwellings and the streams that water them,<br /></span> +<span>And the rich and plenteous acres, and the silver ocean's hem,<br /></span> +<span>And the woodland wastes and the mountains, and all that holdeth all;<br /></span> +<span>The house and the ship and the island, the loom and the mine and the stall,<br /></span> +<span>The beds of bane and healing, the crafts that slay and save,<br /></span> +<span>The temple of God and the Doom-ring, the cradle and the grave.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 145.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>These ten lines serve to illustrate very well one of the most remarkable +powers of Morris. Just consider for a moment the number of details that +are crowded into this picture, and then notice how few are the strokes +required to put them there. For this rapid painting of a crowded canvas +Morris is second to none among English poets. This power to put a whole +landscape or a complex personality into a few lines is the direct +outcome of his study of Old Norse literature. Icelandic poetry is +characterized by this quality. One has but to compare the account of the +end of the world as it is found in the last strophes of <i>Völuspá</i>, or in +the <i>Prose Edda</i>, with the similar account in <i>Revelations</i> to see how +much two languages may differ in this respect. It would seem as if the +short verses characteristic of Icelandic poetry forbade lengthy +descriptions. The effect must be produced by a number of quick strokes: +there is never time to go over a line once made. A simile is never +elaborated, a new one is made when the poet wishes to insist on the +figure. Take the second strophe of the "Ancient Lay of Gudrun" as an +example, in the translation by Morris and Magnusson:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Such was my Sigurd<br /></span> +<span>Among the Sons of Giuki<br /></span> +<span>As is the green leek<br /></span> +<span>O'er the low grass waxen,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_61'></a>( 61 )</span> +<span>Or a hart high-limbed<br /></span> +<span>Over hurrying deer,<br /></span> +<span>Or gleed-red gold<br /></span> +<span>Over grey silver.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>That is the Icelandic fashion; William Morris has caught it in the +<i>Story of Sigurd</i>. Matthew Arnold has not seen fit to use it in his +"Balder Dead," as these lines show:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Him the blind Hoder met, as he came up<br /></span> +<span>From the sea cityward, and knew his step;<br /></span> +<span>Nor yet could Hermod see his brother's face,<br /></span> +<span>For it grew dark; but Hermod touched his arm.<br /></span> +<span>And as a spray of honeysuckle flowers<br /></span> +<span>Brushes across a tired traveller's face<br /></span> +<span>Who shuffles thro the deep-moistened dust,<br /></span> +<span>On a May-evening, in the darkened lanes,<br /></span> +<span>And starts him that he thinks a ghost went by—<br /></span> +<span>So Hoder brushed by Hermod's side.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>These are noble lines, but altogether foreign to Icelandic.</p> + +<p>Book III opens with the dream of Gudrun and Brynhild's interpretation of +it. This matter is managed in accordance with our own standards of art, +and thus differs materially from the saga story. In the latter a most +naïve procedure is adopted, for Brynhild prophesies that Sigurd shall +leave her for Gudrun, through Grimhild's guile, that strife shall come +between them, and that Sigurd shall die and Gudrun wed Atli. The whole +later story is thus revealed. This is not a story-teller's art, but it +sets clear the Old Norse acceptance of fate's dealings. Of course +Morris' poetic action explains the dream perfectly, but the details are +not so frankly given.</p> + +<p>"Thou shalt live and love and lose, and mingle in murder and war," is +the gist of Brynhild's message, and the whole future history is there.</p> + +<p>This poem has often been called an epic, and certainly there are many +epical characteristics in it. One of them is the recurrence of certain +formulas, and in Books III and IV these are rather more abundant than in +the first two books. Thus the sword of Sigurd is praised in the same +words, again and again:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>It hath not its like in the heavens nor has earth of its fellow told.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then, there is the "cloudy hall-roof" of the Niblungs. Gudrun + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_62'></a>( 62 )</span> + +is "the +white-armed"; Grimhild is "the wisest of women"; Hogni is the +"wise-heart"; the Niblungs are "the Cloudy People"; their beds are +"blue-covered"; "the Godson the hangings" is an expression that recurs +very often, and it recalls the fact that Morris was an artisan as well +as an artist.</p> + +<p>In the preceding books we have noted that Morris lengthened the saga +story in his poem by the introduction of speeches that find no place in +the original. In this book we see another lengthening process, which, +with that already noted, goes far to account for the difference in bulk +between the saga and the poem. Chap. XXVI of the saga, tells in less +than a thousands words how Sigurd comes to the Giukings and is wedded to +Gudrun. His reception is told in one hundred words; his abode with the +Giukings is set forth in even fewer words; Grimhild's plotting and +administering of the drugged drink are told in two hundred words; his +acceptance of Gudrun's hand and her brother's allegiance are as tersely +pictured; kingdoms are conquered, a son is born to Sigurd, and Grimhild +plots to have Sigurd get Brynhild for her son Gunnar, yet the record of +it all is compressed within one hundred and fifty words. Of course, the +modern poet can hem himself within no such narrow bounds as this. The +artistic value of these various incidents is priceless, and Morris has +lingered upon them lovingly and long. He spreads the story over forty +pages, or a thousand lines, and I avow, after a third reading of these +three sections of the poem, that I would spare no line of them. How we +love this Sigurd of the poet's painting! And what a noble gospel he +proclaims to the Giukings:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>For peace I bear unto thee, and to all the kings of the earth,<br /></span> +<span>Who bear the sword aright, and are crowned with the crown of worth;<br /></span> +<span>But unpeace to the lords of evil, and the battle and the death;<br /></span> +<span>And the edge of the sword to the traitor, and the flame to the slanderous breath:<br /></span> +<span>And I would that the loving were loved, and I would that the weary should sleep,<br /></span> +<span>And that man should hearken to man, and that he that soweth should reap.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 174.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Here, by the way, is the burden of Morris's preaching in the cause of a +better society. It recurs a few pages further on in the poem, where the +Niblungs bestow praise on this new hero:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_63'></a>( 63 )</span> +<span>And they say, when the sun of summer shall come aback to the land,<br /></span> +<span>It shall shine on the fields of the tiller that fears no heavy hand;<br /></span> +<span>That the sleep shall be for the plougher, and the loaf for him that sowed,<br /></span> +<span>Through every furrowed acre where the Son of Sigmund rode.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 178.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>It need hardly be remarked that this Sigurd is not the sagaman's ideal. +The Icelanders never evolved such high conceptions of man's obligations +to man, but in their ignorance they were no worse off than their +continental brethren, for these forgot their greatest Teacher's +teaching, and modern social science must point them back to it.</p> + +<p>This Sigurd that we love becomes the Sigurd that we pity in the drinking +of a draught. Sorrow takes the place of joy in his life, and "the soul +is changed in him," so that men may say that on this day they saw him +die the first time, who was to die a second time by Guttorm's sword. +Gloom spreads over all the earth with the quenching of Sigurd's joy:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>In the deedless dark he rideth, and all things he remembers save one,<br /></span> +<span>And nought else hath he care to remember of all the deeds he hath done.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here is illustrated the essential difference between the sagaman's art +and the modern story-teller's. The Icelander must tell his story in +haste; the deeds of men are his care, not their divagations nor their +psychologizings. The modern writer must linger on every step in the +story until the motive and the meaning are laid bare. In the present-day +version Sigurd's mental sufferings are described at length, and our +hearts are wrung at his unmerited woes. The saga knows no such woes, and +to all appearance Sigurd's life is not unhappy to its very end. Indeed, +it appears in more than one place in Morris's poem that Sigurd has +become godlike through the hard experiences of his life. Take this +passage as an illustration:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>So is Sigurd yet with the Niblungs, and he loveth Gudrun his wife,<br /></span> +<span>And wendeth afield with the brethren to the days of the dooming of life;<br /></span> +<span>And nought his glory waneth, nor falleth the flood of praise:<br /></span> +<span>To every man he hearkeneth, nor gainsayeth any grace,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_64'></a>( 64 )</span> +<span>And, glad is the poor in the Doom-ring when he seeth his face mid the Kings,<br /></span> +<span>For the tangle straighteneth before him, and the maze of crooked things.<br /></span> +<span>But the smile is departed from him, and the laugh of Sigurd the young,<br /></span> +<span>And of few words now is he waxen, and his songs are seldom sung.<br /></span> +<span>Howbeit of all the sad-faced was Sigurd loved the best;<br /></span> +<span>And men say: Is the king's heart mighty beyond all hope of rest?<br /></span> +<span>Lo, how he beareth the people! how heavy their woes are grown!<br /></span> +<span>So oft were a God mid the Goth-folk, if he dwelt in the world alone.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 205.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Set this by the side of the saga: "This is truer," says Sigurd, "that I +loved thee better than myself, though I fell into the wiles from whence +our lives may not escape; for whenso my own heart and mind availed me, +then I sorrowed sore that thou wert not my wife; but as I might I put my +trouble from me, for in a king's dwelling was I; and withal and in spite +of all I was well content that we were all together. Well may it be, +that that shall come to pass which is foretold; neither shall I fear the +fulfilment thereof." (<i>Völunga Saga</i>, Chap. XXIX.) These words are +spoken to Brynhild after she has discovered what she regards as Sigurd's +treachery. His words are dictated by a noble resignation to fate, but +his very next remark shows a moral meanness not at all in keeping with +Morris's conception. Sigurd said: "This my heart would, that thou and I +should go into one bed together; even so wouldst thou be my wife."</p> + +<p>There have been many griefs depicted in this poem, but surely here are +set forth the most pitiless of them all. The guile-won Brynhild travels +in state to the Cloudy Hall of the Niblungs, and the whole people come +out to meet her. They are astonished at her beauty, and give her cordial +greeting and welcome to her husband's house. Proud and majestic, the +marvelous woman steps from her golden wain, and gives friendly but +passionless greeting to Gunnar as she places her hand in his. For each +of Gunnar's brothers she has a kindly word, as she has for Grimhild, +too. She asks to see the foster-brother of whom such wondrous tales are +told, and whose name she heard from Gunnar's lips with never a +tremor—"Sigurd, the Volsung, the best man ever born." Grimhild stands +between them for a time, but the + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_65'></a>( 65 )</span> + +meeting has to come. Then Brynhild +remembers, and Sigurd sees the unveiled past:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Her heart ran back through the years, and yet her lips did move<br /></span> +<span>With the words she spake on Hindfell, when they plighted troth of love.<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . . + . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>His face is exceeding glorious and awful to behold;<br /></span> +<span>For of all his sorrow he knoweth and his hope smit dead and cold:<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>. . . + . . . + . . . + . . + . . . + . . .<br /></span> +<span>For the will of the Norns is accomplished, and outworn is Grimhild's spell<br /></span> +<span>And nought now shall blind or help him, and the tale shall be to tell.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 226.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>There's the note of the whole history—the will of the Norns and the +note of a whole Northern literature, as it is of a whole Southern +literature. Man, the puppet, in the hands of Fate; however man may think +and reason and assure himself that the dispensation of Fate is just, the +supreme moment of realization will always be a tragedy:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>He hath seen the face of Brynhild, and he knows why she hath come,<br /></span> +<span>And that his is the hand that hath drawn her to the Cloudy People's home:<br /></span> +<span>He knows of the net of the days, and the deeds that the Gods have bid,<br /></span> +<span>And no whit of the sorrow that shall be from his wakened soul is hid.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 226.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>In such an hour, what are conquests of a glorious past, what are honors, +crowns, loves, hates? The mind can think of little matters only:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>His heart speeds back to Hindfell, and the dawn of the wakening day;<br /></span> +<span>And the hours betwixt are as nothing, and their deeds are fallen away.<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 226.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Is aught to be said to one in such a crisis, the words are weak and +commonplace. There is Brynhild's greeting to Sigurd:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>If aught thy soul shall desire while yet thou livest on earth,<br /></span> +<span>I pray that thou mayst win it, nor forget its might and worth.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The shattered mind of Sigurd tries to grasp the meaning of the harmless +words, and like common sounds that are so fearful in the night, the +phrases assume a terrible import:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>All grief, sharp scorn, sore longing, stark death in her voice he knew.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_66'></a>( 66 )</span> + +Then again conies the dominant note of this story:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Gone forth is the doom of the Norns, and what shall be answer thereto,<br /></span> +<span>While the death that amendeth lingers?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here is a hint of the end of all—"the death that amendeth," and from +this point to the end of the story there is no gleam of happiness for +anyone.</p> + +<p>Book IV brings to a majestic close this mighty history. We have dwelt so +long on the wonderful poetry of the other books that we must refrain +from further comment in this strain. As we read these eloquent +imaginings, we regret that the English reading public have left this +work through fear of its great length or the ignorance of its existence, +in the dust of half-forgotten shelves. Gold disused is true gold none +the less, and the ages to come may be more appreciative than the +present.</p> + +<p>For the sake of rounding out this story, be it noted concerning this +Book IV, that the poet has taken liberties with the saga story here, as +elsewhere. Motives more easily understood in our day are assigned for +the deeds of dread that throng these closing scenes. Gudrun weds King +Atli at her mother's bidding, and under the influence of a wicked +potion, but neither mother nor magic drives the memory of Sigurd from +her mind. She lives to bring destruction upon her husband's murderers, +and those murderers are her own flesh and blood. Through her appeals to +Atli's greed, and through Knefrud's lies in the Niblung court, the visit +of her proud brothers to her pliant husband is brought about. The saga +makes Atli the arch-plotter, and the motive his desire to possess the +gold. This sentence exculpates Gudrun from any wrong intention towards +her brothers: "Now the queen wots of their conspiring, and misdoubts her +that this would mean some beguiling of her brethren." (Chap. XXXIV.) In +Chap. XXXVIII, we are told that Gudrun fights on the side of her +brothers. We see at once the superiority of the poet's motive for a +modern tragedy.</p> + +<p>It is impressed upon the reader of an epic that the plan of its maker +does not call for fine analysis of character. The epic poet is concerned +necessarily with large considerations, and his personages do not split +hairs from the south to the southeast side. One sign of this is seen in +the epic formulæ employed to characterize + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_67'></a>( 67 )</span> + +the personages of the story. +Such formulas are in <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i> in abundance, as we have noted +on another page. But there are also many departures from the epic model +in this poem. Some of these we have referred to in the remarks on Book +III, where we noted Sigurd's mental sufferings. In Book IV we have a +discrimination of character that is not epic, but dramatic in its +minuteness. In the speech and the deeds of the Niblungs their pride and +selfishness is clearly set forth, but the individual members of that +race are distinguished by traits very minutely drawn. Thus Hogni is the +wary Niblung, and is averse to accepting Atli's invitation:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"I know not, I know not," said Hogni, "but an unsure bridge is the sea,<br /></span> +<span>And such would I oft were builded betwixt my foeman and me.<br /></span> +<span>I know a sorrow that sleepeth, and a wakened grief I know,<br /></span> +<span>And the torment of the mighty is a strong and fearful foe."<br /></span> +<div class="ref"> +<span>(P. 281.)</span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Gunnar is here distinguished as a hypocrite by word and deed; Gudrun +remembers Sigurd in her exile and schemes and plots to make her husband +Atli work her vengeance on the Niblungs; Atli is greedy for gold and +Gudrun's task is not hard; Knefrud is a liar whose words are winning, +and overcome the scruples of the Niblungs. In these careful +discriminations of character we see a non-epical trait, and of necessity +therefore, a non-Icelandic trait. The sagaman was epic in his tone.</p> + +<p>As a last appreciation of the art of William Morris as it is displayed +in this poem, we would call attention to the tremendous battle-piece +entitled "Of the Battle in Atli's Hall." It is the climax of this +marvelous poem, and in no detail is it inadequate to its place in the +work. The poet's constructive power is here demonstrated to be of the +highest order, and in the majestic sweep of events that is here +depicted, we see the poet in his original role of <i>maker</i>. The sagaman's +skill had not the power to conceive this titanic drama, and the memory +of his battle-piece is quite effaced by the modern invention. In blood +and fire the story comes to an end with Gudrun,</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>The white and silent woman above the slaughter set.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As we turn from the scene and the book, that figure fades not + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_68'></a>( 68 )</span> + +away. And +it is fitting that the last memory of this poem should be a picture of +love and hate, inextricably bound together, for that is the irony of +Fate, and Fate was mistress of the Old Norseman's world.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='5'></a><h4>5.</h4> + +<p>Between the great works dealt with in the last two sections, which +belong together and were therefore so considered, came the book of 1875, +bearing the title <i>Three Northern Love Stories and Other Tales</i>. It is +as good a representation as Iceland can make in the love-story class.</p> + +<p>These tales are charmingly told in the translation of Morris and +Magnusson, the second one, "Frithiof the Bold," being a master-piece in +its kind. Men will dare much for the love of a woman, and that is why +the sagaman records love episodes at all. Frithiof's voyage to the +Orkneys in Chap. VI is a stormpiece that vies with anything of its kind +in modern literature. It is Norse to the core, and we love the peerless +young hero who forgets not his manhood in his chagrin of defeat at love. +Surely there is fitness in these outbursts of song in moments of extreme +exultation or despair! "And he sang withal:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>"Helgi it is that helpeth<br /></span> +<span>The white-head billows' waxing;<br /></span> +<span>Cold time unlike the kissing<br /></span> +<span>In the close of Baldur's Meadow!<br /></span> +<span>So is the hate of Helgi<br /></span> +<span>To that heart's love she giveth.<br /></span> +<span>O would that here I held her,<br /></span> +<span>Gift high above all giving!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Modern literature has lost this conventionality of the older writings, +found in Hebrew as well as in Icelandic, and we think it has lost +something valuable. Morris thought so, too, for he restored the +interpolated song-snatches in his Romances. We are tempted to dwell on +these three love-stories, they are so fine; but we must leave them with +the remark that they show the poet's appreciation of the worth of a +foreign literature, and his great desire to have his countrymen share in +his admiration for them. "The Story of Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue and +Raven the Skald," and "The Story of Viglund the Fair," are the other two +stories that give the title to the volume, representing the thirteenth +and fifteenth centuries, as "Frithiof" represented the fourteenth.</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_69'></a>( 69 )</span> +<a name='6'></a><h4>6.</h4> + +<p>With <i>Sigurd the Volsung</i> ended the first great Icelandic period of +Morris's work. More than a dozen years passed before he returned to the +field, and from 1889 until his death, in 1896, everything he wrote bore +proofs of his abiding interest in and affection for the ancient +literature. The remarkable series of romances, <i>The House of the +Wolfings</i> (1889), <i>The Roots of the Mountains</i> (1890), <i>The Story of the +Glittering Plain</i> (1891), <i>The Wood Beyond the World</i> (1895), <i>The Well +at the World's End</i> (1896) and <i>The Sundering Flood</i> (posthumous), are +none of them distinctively Old Norse in geography or in story, but they +all have the flavor of the saga-translations, and are all the better for +it. They are as original and as beautiful as the poet's tapestries and +furniture, and if they did not provoke imitation as did the tapestries +and furniture, it was not because they were not worth imitating: more +than likely there were no imitators equal to the task. In these romances +we have men and women with the characteristics of an olden time that are +most worthy of conservation in the present time. The ideals of womanfolk +and manfolk in <i>The House of the Wolfings</i> and <i>The Roots of the +Mountains</i>, for instance, are such as an Englishman might well be proud +to have in his remote ancestry. Hall-Sun, Wood-Sun, Sunbeam, and Bowmay +are wholesome women to meet in a story, and Thiodolf, Gold-mane, +Iron-face and Hallward are every inch men for book-use or to commune +with every day. Weaklings, too, abide in these stories, and Penny-thumb +and Rusty and Fiddle and Wood-grey lend humanity to the company.</p> + +<p>The two romances last mentioned are so steeped in the atmosphere of the +sagas, that what with folk-motes and shut-beds, and byres, and +man-quellers, and handsels and speech-friends, we seem to lose ourselves +in yet another version of a northern tale. Morris retains the old idiom +that he invented for his translations, and keeps the tyro thumbing his +dictionary, but the charm is increased by the archaisms. As one seeks +the words in the dictionary, one learns that Chaucer, Spenser and the +Ballads were the wells from which he drew these rare words, and that his +employment of them is only another phase of his love for the old far-off +things. It is true that the language of Morris is not of + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_70'></a>( 70 )</span> + +any one +stadium of English, but it is a poet's privilege to draw upon all +history for his words as well as for his allusions, and the revivals in +question are of worthy words pushed aside by the press of newer, but not +necessarily better forms.</p> + +<p>These works are the kind that show the influence of Old Norse literature +as spiritual rather than substantial. The stories are not drawn from the +older literature, nor are the settings patterned after it; but the +impulses that swayed men and women in the sagaman's tale, and the +motives that uplifted them, are found here. We cannot think that the +English people will always be unmindful of the great debt that they owe +to the Muse of the North.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='7'></a><h4>7.</h4> + +<p>In 1891, Morris engaged in a literary enterprise that set the fashion +for similar enterprises in succeeding years. With Eirikr Magnusson he +undertook the making of <i>The Saga Library</i>, "addressed to the whole +reading public, and not only to students of Scandinavian history, +folk-lore and language." +<a name='FNanchor_33_33'></a><a href='#Footnote_33_33'><sup>[33]</sup></a> +With Bernard Quaritch's imprint on the +title pages, these volumes to the number of five were issued in +exceptional type and form. The munificence of the publisher was equalled +by the skill of the translators, and in their versions of "Howard, the +Halt," "The Banded Men," and "Hen Thorir" (in Vol. I, dated 1891), "The +Ere-Dwellers" (in Vol. II, dated 1892) and <i>Heimskringla</i> (in Vols. III, +IV and V, dated 1893-4-5), the definitive translations of sterling sagas +were given. As was the case with their <i>Grettis Saga</i>, the works rise to +the dignity of masterpieces, and had we no other legacy from Morris' +wealth of Icelandic scholarship, these translations were precious enough +to keep us grateful through many generations.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='8'></a><h4>8.</h4> + +<p>One more contribution to English literature hailing from the North, and +we have done with William Morris's splendid gifts. The volume of 1891, +entitled <i>Poems by the Way</i>, contains several pieces that must be +reckoned with. The vividest recollections of Icelandic materials here +made use of are the poems "Iceland First Seen," and "To the Muses of the +North." No + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_71'></a>( 71 )</span> + +reader of the poet's biography can forget the remarkable +journey that Morris made through Iceland, nor how he prepared for that +journey with all the care and love of a pilgrim bound for a shrine of +his deepest devotion. Every foot of ground was visited that had been +hallowed by the noble souls and inspiring deeds of the past, and that +pilgrimage warmed him to loving literary creation through the remainder +of his life. The last two stanzas of the first of the poems just +mentioned show what a strong hold the forsaken island had upon his +affections, and go far to explain the success of his Icelandic work:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>O Queen of the grief without knowledge,<br /></span> +<span>of the courage that may not avail,<br /></span> +<span>Of the longing that may not attain,<br /></span> +<span>of the love that shall never forget,<br /></span> +<span>More joy than the gladness of laughter<br /></span> +<span>thy voice hath amidst of its wail:<br /></span> +<span>More hope than of pleasure fulfilled<br /></span> +<span>amidst of thy blindness is set;<br /></span> +<span>More glorious than gaining of all<br /></span> +<span>thine unfaltering hand that shall fail:<br /></span> +<span>For what is the mark on thy brow<br /></span> +<span>but the brand that thy Brynhild doth bear?<br /></span> +<span>Lone once, and loved and undone<br /></span> +<span>by a love that no ages outwear.<br /></span> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<span>Ah! when thy Balder conies back,<br /></span> +<span>and bears from the heart of the Sun<br /></span> +<span>Peace and the healing of pain,<br /></span> +<span>and the wisdom that waiteth no more;<br /></span> +<span>And the lilies are laid on thy brow<br /></span> +<span>'mid the crown of the deeds thou hast done;<br /></span> +<span>And the roses spring up by thy feet<br /></span> +<span>that the rocks of the wilderness wore.<br /></span> +<span>Ah! when thy Balder comes back<br /></span> +<span>and we gather the gains he hath won,<br /></span> +<span>Shall we not linger a little<br /></span> +<span>to talk of thy sweetness of old,<br /></span> +<span>Yea, turn back awhile to thy travail<br /></span> +<span>whence the Gods stood aloof to behold?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In several other poems in this volume he recurs to the practice of his +romances, Scandinavianizes where the tendency of other + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_72'></a>( 72 )</span> + +poets would be +to mediævalize. "Of the Wooing of Hallbiorn the Strong," and "The Raven +and the King's Daughter" are examples. Here we have ballads like those +that Coleridge and Keats conceived on occasion, full of the beauty that +lends itself so kindly to painted-glass decoration; clustered +spear-shafts, crested helms and curling banners, and everywhere lily +hands combing yellow hair or broidering silken standards. But the names +strike a strange note in these songs of Morris, and the accompaniments +are very different from the mediæval kind:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>Come ye carles of the south country,<br /></span> +<span>Now shall we go our kin to see!<br /></span> +<span>For the lambs are bleating in the south,<br /></span> +<span>And the salmon swims towards Olfus mouth.<br /></span> +<span>Girth and graithe and gather your gear!<br /></span> +<span>And ho for the other Whitewater! +<a name='FNanchor_34_34'></a><a href='#Footnote_34_34'><sup>[34]</sup></a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The introduction of the homely arts of bread-winning distinguishes the +romance of Scandinavia from the romance of Southern Europe, and here +Morris struck into a new field for poetry. Wherever we turn to note the +effects of Icelandic tradition, we find this presence of daily toil, +always associated with dignity, never apologized for. The connection +between Morris' art and Morris' socialism is not hard to explain.</p> + +<p>No commentary can equal Morris' own poem, "To the Muse of the North," in +setting forth the charm that drew him to the literature of Iceland:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>O Muse that swayest the sad Northern Song,<br /></span> +<span>Thy right hand full of smiting and of wrong,<br /></span> +<span>Thy left hand holding pity; and thy breast<br /></span> +<span>Heaving with hope of that so certain rest:<br /></span> +<span>Thou, with the grey eyes kind and unafraid,<br /></span> +<span>The soft lips trembling not, though they have said<br /></span> +<span>The doom of the World and those that dwell therein.<br /></span> +<span>The lips that smile not though thy children win<br /></span> +<span>The fated Love that draws the fated Death.<br /></span> +<span>O, borne adown the fresh stream of thy breath,<br /></span> +<span>Let some word reach my ears and touch my heart,<br /></span> +<span>That, if it may be, I may have a part<br /></span> +<span>In that great sorrow of thy children dead<br /></span> +<span>That vexed the brow, and bowed adown the head,<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_98'></a>( 73 )</span> +<span>Whitened the hair, made life a wondrous dream,<br /></span> +<span>And death the murmur of a restful stream,<br /></span> +<span>But left no stain upon those souls of thine<br /></span> +<span>Whose greatness through the tangled world doth shine.<br /></span> +<span>O Mother, and Love and Sister all in one,<br /></span> +<span>Come thou; for sure I am enough alone<br /></span> +<span>That thou thine arms about my heart shouldst throw,<br /></span> +<span>And wrap me in the grief of long ago.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_74'></a>( 74 )</span> +<a name='V'></a><h2>V.</h2> + +<h2>IN THE LATTER DAYS.</h2> +<br /> + +<a name='ECHOES'></a><h3>ECHOES OF ICELAND IN LATER POETS.</h3> + + +<p>After William Morris the northern strain that we have been listening for +in the English poets seems feeble and not worth noting. Nevertheless, it +must be remarked that in the harp of a thousand strings that wakes to +music under the bard's hands, there is a sweep which thrills to the +ancient traditions of the Northland. Now and then the poet reaches for +these strings, and gladdens us with some reminiscence of</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span class='i2'>old, unhappy, far-off things<br /></span> +<span>And battles long ago.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As had already been intimated, the table of contents in a present-day +volume of poetry is very apt to show an Old Norse title. Thus Robert +Lord Lytton's <i>Poems Historical and Characteristic</i> (London, 1877) +reveals among the poems on European, Oriental, classic and mediaeval +subjects, "The Death of Earl Hacon," a strong piece inspired by an +incident in <i>Heimskringla</i>. In Robert Buchanan's multifarious versifying +occurs this title: "Balder the Beautiful, A Song of Divine Death," but +only the title is Old Norse; nothing in the poem suggests that origin +except a notion or two of the end of all things. "Hakon" is the title of +a short virile piece more nearly of the Norse spirit. Sidney Dobell's +drama <i>Balder</i> has only the title to suggest the Icelandic, but Gerald +Massey has the true ring in a number of lyrics, with themes drawn from +the records of Norway's relations with England. In "The Norseman" there +is a trumpet strain that recalls the best of the border-ballads; there +is also a truthfulness of portraiture that argues a poet's, intuition in +Gerald Massey, if not an acquaintance with the sagas:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>The Norseman's King must stand up tall,<br /></span> +<span>If he would be head over all;<br /></span> +<span>Mainmast of Battle! when the plain<br /></span> +<span>Is miry-red with bloody rain!<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_75'></a>( 75 )</span> +<span>And grip his weapon for the fight,<br /></span> +<span>Until his knuckles grin tooth-white,<br /></span> +<span>The banner-staff he bears is best<br /></span> +<span>If double handful for the rest:<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>When "follow me" cries the Norseman.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He knows the gentler side of Old Norse character, too, a side which, as +we have seen, was not suspected till Carlyle came:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>He hides at heart of his rough life,<br /></span> +<span>A world of sweetness for the Wife;<br /></span> +<span>From his rude breast a Babe may press<br /></span> +<span>Soft milk of human tenderness,—<br /></span> +<span>Make his eyes water, his heart dance,<br /></span> +<span>And sunrise in his countenance:<br /></span> +<span>In merriest mood his ale he quaffs<br /></span> +<span>By firelight, and with jolly heart laughs<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>The blithe, great-hearted Norseman.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The poem "Old King Hake," is as strikingly true in characterization as +the preceding. In half a dozen strophes Massey has told a whole saga, +and has found time, too, to describe "an iron hero of Norse mould." How +miserable a personage is the Italian that flits through Browning's pages +when contrasted with this hero:</p> + +<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<span>When angry, out the blood would start<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>With old King Hake;<br /></span> +<span>Not sneak in dark caves of the heart,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Where curls the snake,<br /></span> +<span>And secret Murder's hiss is heard<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Ere the deed be done:<br /></span> +<span>He wove no web of wile and word;<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>He bore with none.<br /></span> +<span>When sharp within its sheath asleep<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>Lay his good sword,<br /></span> +<span>He held it royal work to keep<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>His kingly word.<br /></span> +<span>A man of valour, bloody and wild,<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>In Viking need;<br /></span> +<span>And yet of firelight feeling mild<br /></span> +<span class='i2'>As honey-mead.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Another poem, "The Banner-Bearer of King Olaf," pictures the strong +fighter in a death he rejoiced to die. It is a good + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_76'></a>( 76 )</span> + +poem of the class +that nerves men to die for the flag, and it has the Old Norse spirit. +These poems are all from Massey's volume <i>My Lyrical Life</i> (London. +1889).</p> + +<p>A glance at the other poems in Gerald Massey's volumes shows that like +Morris, and like Kingsley, and like Carlyle, the poet was a workman +eager to do for the workman. Is it not suggestive that these men found +themselves drawn to Old Norse character and life? The Icelandic republic +cherished character as the highest quality of citizenship, and put few +or no social obstacles in the way of its achievement. The literature +inspired by that life reveals a fellowship among the members of that +republic that is the envy of social reformers of the present day. Morris +makes one of the personages in <i>The Story of the Glittering Plain</i> +(Chap. I) say these words: "And as for Lord, I knew not this word, for +here dwell we the Sons of the Raven in good fellowship, with our wives +that we have wedded, and our mothers who have borne us, and our sisters +who serve us." Almost may this description serve for Iceland in its +golden age, and so it is no wonder that the socialist, the priest, and +the philosopher of our own disjointed times go back to the sagas for +ideals to serve their countrymen.</p> + +<p>We have no other poets to mention by name in connection with this Old +Norse influence, although doubtless a search through the countless +volumes that the presses drop into a cold and uncaring world would +reveal other poems with Scandinavian themes. We close this section of +our investigation with the remark already made, that, in the tables of +titles in volumes of contemporary verse, acknowledgment to Old Norse +poetry and prose are not the rarity they once were, and in poems of any +kind allusions to the same sources are very common.</p> + +<br /> + +<a name='RECENT_TRANS'></a><h3>RECENT TRANSLATIONS.</h3> + + +<p>We have already noted the beginning of serial publications of saga +translations, namely, Morris and Magnusson's <i>Saga Library</i> which was +stopped by the death of Morris when the fifth volume had been completed. +By the last decade of the nineteenth century Icelandic had become one of +the languages that an ordinary scholar might boast, and in consequence +the list of translations began to lengthen very fast. Several English +publishers with + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_77'></a>( 77 )</span> + +scholarly instincts were attracted to this field, and +so the reading public may get at the sagas that were so long the +exclusive possession of learned professors. <i>The Northern Library</i>, +published by David Nutt, of London, already contains four volumes and +more are promised: <i>The Saga of King Olaf Tryggwason,</i> by J. Sephton, +appeared in 1895; <i>The Tale of Thrond of Gate</i> (<i>Færeyinga Saga</i>), by F. +York Powell, in 1896; <i>Hamlet in Iceland</i> (<i>Ambales Saga</i>), by Israel +Gollancz, in 1898; <i>The Saga of King Sverri of Norway</i> (<i>Sverris Saga</i>), +by J. Sephton, in 1899. If we cannot give to these the praise of being +great literature though translations, we can at least foresee that this +process of turning all the readable sagas into English will quicken +adaptations and increase the stock of allusions in modern writings.</p> + +<p>An example of the publishers' feeling that the reading public will find +an interest in the saga itself, is the translation of <i>Laxdæla Saga</i> by +Muriel A.C. Press (London, 1899, J.M. Dent & Co.). William Morris made +this saga known to readers of English poetry by his magnificent "Lovers +of Gudrun." Mrs. Press lets us see the story in its original form. +Perhaps this translation will appeal as widely as any to those who read, +and we may note the differences between this form of writing and that to +which the modern times are accustomed.</p> + +<p>This saga is a story, but it is not like the work of fiction, nor like +the sketch of history which appeals to our interest to-day. It has not +the unity of purpose which marks the novel, nor the broad outlook over +events which characterizes the history. Plotting is abundant, but plot +in the technical sense there is none. Events are recorded in +chronological order, but there is no march of those events to a +<i>denouement</i>. While it would be wrong to say that there is no one hero +in a saga, it would be more correct to say that that hero's name is +legion. From generation to generation a saga-history wends its way, each +period dominated by a great hero. The annals of a family edited for +purposes of oral recitation, or the life of the principal member of that +family with an introduction dealing with the great deeds of as many of +his ancestors as he would be proud to own—this seems to be what a saga +was—<i>Laxdæla</i>, <i>Grettla</i>, <i>Njala</i>.</p> + +<p>This form permits many sterling literary qualities. Movement + +<span class="pagenum"><a name='Page_78'></a>( 78 )</span> + +is the +most marked characteristic. This was essential to a spoken story, and +the sharpest impression left in the mind of an English reader is that of +relentless activity. Thus he finds it necessary to keep the bearings of +the story by consulting the list of <i>dramatis personæ</i> and the map, both +indispensable accompaniments of a saga-translation. The chapter headings +make this list, and a glance at them for <i>Laxdæla</i> reveals a procession +of notable personages—Ketill, Unn, Hoskuld, Olaf the Peacock, Kiartan, +Gudrun, Bolli, Thorgills, Thorkell, Thorleik, Bolli Bollison and Snorri. +Each of these is, in turn, the center of action, and only Gudrun keeps +prominent for any length of time.</p> + +<p>Character-portraiture, ever a remarkable achievement in literature, is +excellently done in the sagas. There was a necessity for this; so many +personages crowded the stage that, if they were not to be mere puppets, +they would have to be carefully discriminated. That they were so a +perusal of any saga will prove.</p> + +<p>In a novel love is almost indispensable; in a saga other forces are the +impelling motives. Love-making gets the novelist's tenderest interest +and solicitude, but it receives little attention from the sagaman. +Wooing under the Arctic Circle was a methodical bargaining, and there +was little room for sentiment. When Thorvald asked for Osvif's daughter +Gudrun, the father "said that against the match it would tell that he +and Gudrun were not of equal standing. Thorvald spoke gently and said he +was wooing a wife, not money. After that Gudrun was betrothed to +Thorvald.... He should also bring her jewels, so that no woman of equal +wealth should have better to show.... Gudrun was not asked about it and +took it much to heart, yet things went on quietly." (Chap. XXXIV of +<i>Laxdæla</i>.) In Iceland, as elsewhere, love was a source of discord, and +for that reason love is always present in the saga. It is not the tender +passion there, silvered with moonlight and attended by song. The saga is +a man's tale.</p> + +<p>The translation just referred to is in <i>The Temple Classics</i>, published +by J.M. Dent & Co., London, 1899, and edited by Israel Gollancz. The +editor promises (p. 273) other sagas in this form, if Mrs. Press's work +prove successful. He speaks of <i>Njala</i> and <i>Volsunga</i> as imminent. It is +to be hoped that the intention is to give the Dasent and the Morris +versions, for they cannot be excelled.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='FOOTNOTES'></a><h2>FOOTNOTES:</h2> + +<a name='Footnote_1_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_1'>[1]</a><div class='note'><p> +Quoted in Gray, by E.W. Gosse, English Men of Letters, p. +163.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_2'>[2]</a><div class='note'><p> B. +Hoff. Hovedpunkter af den Oldislandske +litteratur-historie. København. 1873.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_3'>[3]</a><div class='note'><p> Pp. +xli-l in Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas +Gray, edited by W.L. Phelps. Ginn & Co., Boston. 1894.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_4'>[4]</a><div class='note'><p> Life +of Gray, pp. 160 ff.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_5'>[5]</a><div class='note'><p> Wm. +Sharp in Lyra Celtica, p. xx. Patrick Geddes and +Colleagues. Edinburgh. 1896.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_6_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_6'>[6]</a><div class='note'><p> Of +Heroic Virtue, p. 355, Vol. III of Sir William Temple's +Works. London. 1770.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_7_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_7'>[7]</a><div class='note'><p> Of +Heroic Virtue, p. 356.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_8'>[8]</a><div class='note'><p> Of +Poetry, p. 416.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_9_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_9_9'>[9]</a><div class='note'><p> Spelling +and punctuation are as in the original.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_10_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_10_10'>[10]</a><div class='note'><p> +Stopford Brooke, English Literature. D. Appleton & Co., +New York. 1884. p. 150.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_11_11'></a><a href='#FNanchor_11_11'>[11]</a><div class='note'><p> +Vol. 3, pp. 146-311.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_12_12'></a><a href='#FNanchor_12_12'>[12]</a><div class='note'><p> +Quoted in Introduction, p. vii.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_13_13'></a><a href='#FNanchor_13_13'>[13]</a><div class='note'><p> +Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., Vol. I, p. +231. Boston, Houghton, Osgood & Co. 1879.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_14_14'></a><a href='#FNanchor_14_14'>[14]</a><div class='note'><p> +Edinburgh Review, Oct., 1806.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_15_15'></a><a href='#FNanchor_15_15'>[15]</a><div class='note'><p> +Quoted in Lockhart's Life, Vol. III, p. 241.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_16_16'></a><a href='#FNanchor_16_16'>[16]</a><div class='note'><p> +In G.W. Dasent's Life of Cleasby, prefixed to the +Icelandic-English Dictionary. Based on the MS. collection of the late +Richard Cleasby, enlarged and completed by Gudbrand Vigfusson. Oxford. +1874.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_17_17'></a><a href='#FNanchor_17_17'>[17]</a><div class='note'><p> +In another work by Carlyle, <i>The Early Kings of Norway</i> +(1875) he takes special delight in revealing to Englishmen name +etymologies that hark back to Norse times. Of this sort are Osborn from +Osbjorn; Tooley St. (London) from St. Olave, St. Oley, Stooley, Tooley, +(Chap. X).</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_18_18'></a><a href='#FNanchor_18_18'>[18]</a><div class='note'><p> +<i>The Early Kings of Norway</i> bears a later date—1875—than +the works we are considering just now, and it is dealt with here only +because Carlyle's <i>Heroes and Hero-Worship</i> belongs in the decade we are +considering.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_19_19'></a><a href='#FNanchor_19_19'>[19]</a><div class='note'><p> +Chap. V of Preliminary Dissertation.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_20_20'></a><a href='#FNanchor_20_20'>[20]</a><div class='note'><p> +Letters, Vol. I, p. 55, dated Dec. 12, 1855.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_21_21'></a><a href='#FNanchor_21_21'>[21]</a><div class='note'><p> +Home of the Eddic Poems, p. xxxix. London, 1899. David +Nutt.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_22_22'></a><a href='#FNanchor_22_22'>[22]</a><div class='note'><p> +Introduction to the Cleasby Dictionary.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_23_23'></a><a href='#FNanchor_23_23'>[23]</a><div class='note'><p> +Oxford Essays, 1858, p. 214.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_24_24'></a><a href='#FNanchor_24_24'>[24]</a><div class='note'><p> +Lectures delivered in America in 1874, by Charles +Kingsley. London. 1875. p. 71.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_25_25'></a><a href='#FNanchor_25_25'>[25]</a><div class='note'><p> +P. 78.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_26_26'></a><a href='#FNanchor_26_26'>[26]</a><div class='note'><p> +P. 89.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_27_27'></a><a href='#FNanchor_27_27'>[27]</a><div class='note'><p> +P. 90.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_28_28'></a><a href='#FNanchor_28_28'>[28]</a><div class='note'><p> +P. 91.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_29_29'></a><a href='#FNanchor_29_29'>[29]</a><div class='note'><p> +P. 96.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_30_30'></a><a href='#FNanchor_30_30'>[30]</a><div class='note'><p> +The Life of William Morris, by J.W. Mackail. London, New +York, Bombay. Vol. I, p. 200.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_31_31'></a><a href='#FNanchor_31_31'>[31]</a><div class='note'><p> +Edmond Scherer. Essays on English Literature, p. 309.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_32_32'></a><a href='#FNanchor_32_32'>[32]</a><div class='note'><p> +Citations are from the 3d edition. Boston. 1881.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_33_33'></a><a href='#FNanchor_33_33'>[33]</a><div class='note'><p> +Preface to Vol. I, p. v.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_34_34'></a><a href='#FNanchor_34_34'>[34]</a><div class='note'><p> +The Wooing of Hallbiorn.</p></div> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INFLUENCE OF OLD NORSE LITERATURE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 13786-h.txt or 13786-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/7/8/13786">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/7/8/13786</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Influence of Old Norse Literature on English Literature + +Author: Conrad Hjalmar Nordby + +Release Date: October 18, 2004 [eBook #13786] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INFLUENCE OF OLD NORSE +LITERATURE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE*** + + +E-text prepared by David Starner and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE INFLUENCE OF OLD NORSE LITERATURE UPON ENGLISH LITERATURE + +by + +CONRAD HJALMAR NORDBY + +1901 + + + + + + + + Deyr fe + deyja fraendr, + deyr sialfr it sama; + en orethstirr + deyr aldrigi + hveim er ser goethan getr. + _Havamal_, 75. + + + Cattle die, + kindred die, + we ourselves also die; + but the fair fame + never dies + of him who has earned it. + Thorpe's _Edda_. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +The present publication is the only literary work left by its author. +Unfortunately it lacks a few pages which, as his manuscript shows, he +intended to add, and it also failed to receive his final revision. His +friends have nevertheless deemed it expedient to publish the result of +his studies conducted with so much ardor, in order that some memorial of +his life and work should remain for the wider public. To those +acquainted with him, no written words can represent the charm of his +personality or give anything approaching an adequate impression of his +ability and strength of character. + +Conrad Hjalmar Nordby was born September 20, 1867, at Christiania, +Norway. At the age of four he was brought to New York, where he was +educated in the public schools. He was graduated from the College of the +City of New York in 1886. From December of that year to June, 1893, he +taught in Grammar School No. 55, and in September, 1893, he was called +to his Alma Mater as Tutor in English. He was promoted to the rank of +Instructor in 1897, a position which he held at the time of his death. +He died in St. Luke's Hospital, October 28, 1900. In October, 1894, he +began his studies in the School of Philosophy of Columbia University, +taking courses in Philosophy and Education under Professor Nicholas +Murray Butler, and in Germanic Literatures and Germanic Philology under +Professors Boyesen, William H. Carpenter and Calvin Thomas. It was under +the guidance of Professor Carpenter that the present work was conceived +and executed. + +Such a brief outline of Mr. Nordby's career can, however, give but an +imperfect view of his activities, while it gives none at all of his +influence. He was a teacher who impressed his personality, not only upon +his students, but upon all who knew him. In his character were united +force and refinement, firmness and geniality. In his earnest work with +his pupils, in his lectures to the teachers of the New York Public +Schools and to other audiences, in his personal influence upon all with +whom he came in contact, he spread the taste for beauty, both of poetry +and of life. When his body was carried to the grave, the grief was not +confined to a few intimate friends; all who had known him felt that +something noble and beautiful had vanished from their lives. + +In this regard his career was, indeed, rich in achievement, but when we +consider what, with his large equipment, he might have done in the world +of scholarship, the promise, so untimely blighted, seems even richer. +From early youth he had been a true lover of books. To him they were not +dead things; they palpitated with the life blood of master spirits. The +enthusiasm for William Morris displayed in the present essay is typical +of his feeling for all that he considered best in literature. Such an +enthusiasm, communicated to those about him, rendered him a vital force +in every company where works of creative genius could be a theme of +conversation. + +A love of nature and of art accompanied and reinforced this love of +literature; and all combined to produce the effect of wholesome purity +and elevation which continually emanated from him. His influence, in +fact, was largely of that pervasive sort which depends, not on any +special word uttered, and above all, not on any preachment, but upon the +entire character and life of the man. It was for this reason that his +modesty never concealed his strength. He shrunk above all things from +pushing himself forward and demanding public notice, and yet few ever +met him without feeling the force of character that lay behind his +gentle and almost retiring demeanor. It was easy to recognize that here +was a man, self-centered and whole. + +In a discourse pronounced at a memorial meeting, the Rev. John Coleman +Adams justly said: "If I wished to set before my boy a type of what is +best and most lovable in the American youth, I think I could find no +more admirable character than that of Conrad Hjalmar Nordby. A young man +of the people, with all their unexhausted force, vitality and +enthusiasm; a man of simple aims and honest ways; as chivalrous and +high-minded as any knight of old; as pure in life as a woman; at once +gentle and brave, strong and sweet, just and loving; upright, but no +Pharisee; earnest, but never sanctimonious; who took his work as a +pleasure, and his pleasure as an innocent joy; a friend to be coveted; a +disciple such as the Saviour must have loved; a true son of God, who +dwelt in the Father's house. Of such youth our land may well be proud; +and no man need speak despairingly of a nation whose life and +institutions can ripen such a fruit." + + L.F.M. + COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, + May 15, 1901. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +It should not be hard for the general reader to understand that the +influence which is the theme of this dissertation is real and +explicable. If he will but call the roll of his favorite heroes, he will +find Sigurd there. In his gallery of wondrous women, he certainly +cherishes Brynhild. These poetic creations belong to the +English-speaking race, because they belong to the world. And if one will +but recall the close kinship of the Icelandic and the Anglo-Saxon +languages, he will not find it strange that the spirit of the old Norse +sagas lives again in our English song and story. + +The survey that this essay takes begins with Thomas Gray (1716-1771), +and comes down to the present day. It finds the fullest measure of the +old Norse poetic spirit in William Morris (1834-1896), and an increasing +interest and delight in it as we come toward our own time. The +enterprise of learned societies and enlightened book publishers has +spread a knowledge of Icelandic literature among the reading classes of +the present day; but the taste for it is not to be accounted for in the +same way. That is of nobler birth than of erudition or commercial pride. +Is it not another expression of that changed feeling for the things that +pertain to the common people, which distinguishes our century from the +last? The historian no longer limits his study to camp and court; the +poet deigns to leave the drawing-room and library for humbler scenes. +Folk-lore is now dignified into a science. The touch of nature has made +the whole world kin, and our highly civilized century is moved by the +records of the passions of the earlier society. + +This change in taste was long in coming, and the emotional phase of it +has preceded the intellectual. It is interesting to note that Gray and +Morris both failed to carry their public with them all the way. Gray, +the most cultured man of his time, produced art forms totally different +from those in vogue, and Walpole[1] said of these forms: "Gray has +added to his poems three ancient odes from Norway and Wales ... they are +not interesting, and do not, like his other poems, touch any passion.... +Who can care through what horrors a Runic savage arrived at all the joys +and glories they could conceive--the supreme felicity of boozing ale out +of the skull of an enemy in Odin's Hall?" + +Morris, the most versatile man of his time, found plenty of praise for +his art work, until he preached social reform to Englishmen. Thereafter +the art of William Morris was not so highly esteemed, and the best poet +in England failed to attain the laurel on the death of Tennyson. + +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 +aera, 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. + +It was in the last four decades of the ninth century of our era that +Norsemen began to leave their own country and set up new homes in +Iceland. The sixty years ending with 930 A.D. were devoted to taking up +the land, and the hundred years that ensued after that date were devoted +to quarreling about that land. These quarrels were the origin of the +Icelandic family sagas. The year 1000 brought Christianity to the +island, and the period from 1030 to 1120 were years of peace in which +stories of the former time passed from mouth to mouth. The next century +saw these stories take written form, and the period from 1220 to 1260 +was the golden age of this literature. In 1264, Iceland passed under the +rule of Norway, and a decline of literature began, extending until 1400, +the end of literary production in Iceland. In the main, the authors of +Iceland are unknown[2]. + +There are several well-marked periods, therefore, in Icelandic literary +production. The earliest was devoted to poetry, Icelandic being no +different from most other languages in the precedence of that form. +Before the settlement of Iceland, the Norse lands were acquainted with +songs about gods and champions, written in a simple verse form. The +first settlers wrote down some of these, and forgot others. In the +_Codex Regius_, preserved in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, we have a +collection of these songs. This material was published in the +seventeenth century as the _Saemundar Edda_, and came to be known as the +_Elder_ or _Poetic Edda_. Both titles are misnomers, for Saemund had +nothing to do with the making of the book, and _Edda_ is a name +belonging to a book of later date and different purpose. + +This work--not a product of the soil as folk-songs are--is the fountain +head of Old Norse mythology, and of Old Norse heroic legends. _Voeluspa_ +and _Havamal_ are in this collection, and other songs that tell of Odin +and Baldur and Loki. The Helgi poems and the Voelsung poems in their +earliest forms are also here. + +A second class of poetry in this ancient literature is that called +"Skaldic." Some of this deals with mythical material, and some with +historical material. A few of the skalds are known to us by name, +because their lives were written down in later sagas. Egill +Skallagrimsson, known to all readers of English and Scotch antiquities, +Eyvind Skaldaspillir and Sigvat are of this group. + +Poetic material that is very rich is found in Snorri Sturluson's work on +Old Norse poetics, entitled _The Edda_, and often referred to as the +_Younger_ or _Prose Edda_. + +More valuable than the poetry is the prose of this literature, +especially the _Sagas_. The saga is a prose epic, characteristic of the +Norse countries. It records the life of a hero, told according to fixed +rules. As we have said, the sagas were based upon careers run in +Iceland's stormy time. They are both mythical and historical. In the +mythical group are, among others, the _Voelsunga Saga_, the _Hervarar +Saga_, _Frieththjofs Saga_ and _Ragnar Loethbroks Saga_. In the historical +group, the flowering time of which was 1200-1270, we find, for example, +_Egils Saga_, _Eyrbyggja Saga_, _Laxdaela Saga_, _Grettis Saga_, _Njals +Saga_. A branch of the historic sagas is the Kings' Sagas, in which we +find _Heimskringla_, the _Saga of Olaf Tryggvason_, the _Flatey Book_, +and others. + +This sketch does not pretend to indicate the quantity of Old Norse +literature. An idea of that is obtained by considering the fact that +eleven columns of the ninth edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ are +devoted to recording the works of that body of writings. + + + + +II. + +THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF LATIN. + +THOMAS GRAY (1716-1771). + + +In the eighteenth century, Old Norse literature was the lore of +antiquarians. That it is not so to-day among English readers is due to a +line of writers, first of whom was Thomas Gray. In the thin volume of +his poetry, two pieces bear the sub-title: "An Ode. From the Norse +Tongue." These are "The Fatal Sisters," and "The Descent of Odin," both +written in 1761, though not published until 1768. These poems are among +the latest that Gray gave to the world, and are interesting aside from +our present purpose because they mark the limit of Gray's progress +toward Romanticism. + +We are not accustomed to think of Gray as a Romantic poet, although we +know well that the movement away from the so-called Classicism was begun +long before he died. The Romantic element in his poetry is not obvious; +only the close observer detects it, and then only in a few of the poems. +The Pindaric odes exhibit a treatment that is Romantic, and the Norse +and Welsh adaptations are on subjects that are Romantic. But we must go +to his letters to find proof positive of his sympathy with the breaking +away from Classicism. Here are records of a love of outdoors that +reveled in mountain-climbing and the buffeting of storms. Here are +appreciations of Shakespeare and of Milton, the like of which were not +often proclaimed in his generation. Here is ecstatic admiration of +ballads and of the Ossian imitations, all so unfashionable in the +literary culture of the day. While dates disprove Lowell's statement in +his essay on Gray that "those anti-classical yearnings of Gray began +after he had ceased producing," it is certain that very little of his +poetic work expressed these yearnings. "Elegance, sweetness, pathos, or +even majesty he could achieve, but never that force which vibrates in +every verse of larger moulded men." Change Lowell's word "could" to +"did," and this sentence will serve our purpose here. + +Our interest in Gray's Romanticism must confine itself to the two odes +from the Old Norse. It is to be noted that the first transplanting to +English poetry of Old Norse song came about through the scholar's +agency, not the poet's. It was Gray, the scholar, that made "The Descent +of Odin" and "The Fatal Sisters." They were intended to serve as +specimens of a forgotten literature in a history of English poetry. In +the "Advertisement" to "The Fatal Sisters" he tells how he came to give +up the plan: "The Author has long since drop'd his design, especially +after he heard, that it was already in the hands of a Person well +qualified to do it justice, both by his taste, and his researches into +antiquity." Thomas Warton's _History of English Poetry_ was the +execution of this design, but in that book no place was found for these +poems. + +In his absurd _Life of Gray_, Dr. Johnson said: "His translations of +Northern and Welsh Poetry deserve praise: the imagery is preserved, +perhaps often improved, but the language is unlike the language of other +poets." There are more correct statements in this sentence, perhaps, +than in any other in the essay, but this is because ignorance sometimes +hits the truth. It is not likely that the poems would have been +understood without the preface and the explanatory notes, and these, in +a measure, made the reader interested in the literature from which they +were drawn. Gray called the pieces "dreadful songs," and so in very +truth they are. Strength is the dominant note, rude, barbaric strength, +and only the art of Gray saved it from condemnation. To-day, with so +many imitations from Old Norse to draw upon, we cannot point to a single +poem which preserves spirit and form as well as those of Gray. Take the +stanza: + + Horror covers all the heath, + Clouds of carnage blot the sun, + Sisters, weave the web of death; + Sisters, cease, the work is done. + +The strophe is perfect in every detail. Short lines, each ending a +sentence; alliteration; words that echo the sense, and just four strokes +to paint a picture which has an atmosphere that whisks you into its own +world incontinently. It is no wonder that writers of later days who have +tried similar imitations ascribe to Thomas Gray the mastership. + +That this poet of the eighteenth century, who "equally despised what +was Greek and what was Gothic," should have entered so fully into the +spirit and letter of Old Norse poetry is little short of marvelous. If +Professor G.L. Kittredge had not gone so minutely into the question of +Gray's knowledge of Old Norse,[3] we might be pardoned for still +believing with Gosse[4] that the poet learned Icelandic in his later +life. Even after reading Professor Kittredge's essay, we cannot +understand how Gray could catch the metrical lilt of the Old Norse with +only a Latin version to transliterate the parallel Icelandic. We suspect +that Gray's knowledge was fuller than Professor Kittredge will allow, +although we must admit that superficial knowledge may coexist with a +fine interpretative spirit. Matthew Arnold's knowledge of Celtic +literature was meagre, yet he wrote memorably and beautifully on that +subject, as Celts themselves will acknowledge.[5] + + +THE SOURCES OF GRAY'S KNOWLEDGE. + +It has already been said that only antiquarians had knowledge of things +Icelandic in Gray's time. Most of this knowledge was in Latin, of +course, in ponderous tomes with wonderful, long titles; and the list of +them is awe-inspiring. In all likelihood Gray did not use them all, but +he met references to them in the books he did consult. Professor +Kittredge mentions them in the paper already quoted, but they are here +arranged in the order of publication, and the list is lengthened to +include some books that were inspired by the interest in Gray's +experiments. + +=1636= and =1651=. Wormius. _Seu Danica literatura antiquissima, +vulgo Gothica dicta, luci reddita opera Olai Wormii. Cui accessit de +prisca Danorum Poesi Dissertatio._ Hafniae. 1636. Edit. II. 1651. + +The essay on poetry contains interlinear Latin translations of the +_Epicedium_ of Ragnar Loethbrok, and of the _Drapa_ of Egill +Skallagrimsson. Bound with the second edition of 1651, and bearing the +date 1650, is: _Specimen Lexici runici, obscuriorum quarundam vocum, quae +in priscis occurrunt historiis et poetis Danicis enodationem exhibens. +Collectum a Magno Olavio pastore Laufasiensi, ... nunc in ordinem +redactum, auctum et locupletatum ab Olao Wormio_. Hafniae. + +This glossary adduces illustrations from the great poems of Icelandic +literature. Thus early the names and forms of the ancient literature +were known. + + +=1665.= Resenius. _Edda Islandorum an. Chr. MCCXV islandice +conscripta per Snorronem Sturlae Islandiae. Nomophylacem nunc primum +islandice, danice et latine ... Petri Johannis Resenii_ ... Havniae. +1665. + +A second part contains a disquisition on the philosophy of the _Voeluspa_ +and the _Havamal_. + + +=1670.= Sheringham. _De Anglorum Gentis Origine Disceptatio. Qua +eorum migrationes, variae sedes, et ex parte res gestae, a confusione +Linguarum, et dispersione Gentium, usque ad adventum eorum in Britanniam +investigantur; quaedam de veterum Anglorum religione, Deorum cultu, +eorumque opinionibus de statu animae post hanc vitam, explicantur._ +_Authore_ Roberto Sheringhamo. Cantabrigiae. 1670. + +Chapter XII contains an account of Odin extracted from the _Edda_, +Snorri Sturluson and others. + + +=1679-92.= Temple. Two essays: "Of Heroic Virtue," "Of Poetry," +contained in The Works of Sir William Temple. London. 1757. Vol. 3, pp. +304-429. + + +=1689.= Bartholinus. _Thomae Bartholini Antiquitatum Danicarum de +causis contemptae a Danis adhuc gentilibus mortis libri III ex vetustis +codicibus et monumentis hactenus ineditis congestae._ Hafniae. 1689. + +The pages of this book are filled, with extracts from Old Norse sagas +and poetry which are translated into Latin. No student of the book could +fail to get a considerable knowledge of the spirit and the form of the +ancient literature. + + +=1691.= Verelius. _Index linguae veteris Scytho-Scandicae sive Gothicae +ex vetusti aevi monumentis ... ed Rudbeck._ Upsalae. 1691. + + +=1697=. Torfaeus. _Orcades, seu rerum Orcadensium historiae_. Havniae. +1697. + + +=1697=. Perinskjoeld. _Heimskringla, eller Snorre Sturlusons +Nordlaendske Konunga Sagor_. Stockholmiae. 1697. + +Contains Latin and Swedish translation. + + +=1705=. Hickes. _Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium thesaurus +grammatico criticus et archaeologicus_. Oxoniae. 1703-5. + +This work is discussed later. + + +=1716=. Dryden. _Miscellany Poems. Containing Variety of New +Translations of the Ancient Poets_.... Published by Mr. Dryden. London. +1716. + + +=1720=. Keysler. _Antiquitates selectae septentrionales et Celticae +quibus plurima loca conciliorum et capitularium explanantur, dogmata +theologiae ethnicae Celtarum gentiumque septentrionalium cum moribus et +institutis maiorum nostrorum circa idola, aras, oracula, templa, lucos, +sacerdotes, regum electiones, comitia et monumenta sepulchralia una cum +reliquiis gentilismi in coetibus christianorum ex monumentis potissimum +hactenus ineditis fuse perquiruntur._ _Autore_ Joh. Georgio Keysler. +Hannoverae. 1720. + + +=1755=. Mallet. _Introduction a l'Histoire de Dannemarc ou l'on +traite de la Religion, des Lois, des Moeurs, et des Usages des Anciens +Danois. Par_ M. Mallet. Copenhague. 1755. + +Discussed later. + + +=1756=. Mallet. _Monumens de la Mythologie et la Poesie des Celtes et +particulierement des anciens Scandinaves ... Par_ M. Mallet. Copenhague. +1756. + + +=1763=. Percy. _Five Pieces of Runic Poetry translated from the +Islandic Language_. London. 1763. + +This book is described on a later page. + + +=1763=. Blair. _A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the +Son of Fingal_. [By Hugh Blair.] London. 1763. + + +=1770=. Percy. _Northern Antiquities: or a description of the +Manners, Customs, Religion and Laws of the ancient_ _Danes, and other +Northern Nations; including these of our own Saxon Ancestors. With a +translation of the Edda or System of Runic Mythology, and other Pieces +from the Ancient Icelandic Tongue. Translated from M. Mallet's +Introduction a l'Histoire de Dannemarc_. London. 1770. + + +=1774=. Warton. _The History of English Poetry_. By Thomas Warton. +London. 1774-81. + +In this book the prefatory essay entitled "On the Origin of Romantic +Fiction in Europe" is significant. It is treated at length later on. + + +SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE (1628-1699). + +From the above list it appears that the earliest mention in the English +language of Icelandic literature was Sir William Temple's. The two +essays noted above have many references to Northern customs and songs. +Macaulay's praise of Temple's style is well deserved, and the slighting +remarks about the matter do not apply to the passages in evidence here. +Temple's acknowledgments to Wormius indicate the source of his +information, and it is a commentary upon the exactness of the +antiquarian's knowledge that so many of the statements in Temple's +essays are perfectly good to-day. Of course the terms "Runic" and +"Gothic" were misused, but so were they a century later. Odin is "the +first and great hero of the western Scythians; he led a mighty swarm of +the Getes, under the name of Goths, from the Asiatic Scythia into the +farthest northwest parts of Europe; he seated and spread his kingdom +round the whole Baltic sea, and over all the islands in it, and extended +it westward to the ocean and southward to the Elve."[6] Temple places +Odin's expedition at two thousand years before his own time, but he gets +many other facts right. Take this summing up of the old Norse belief as +an example: + +"An opinion was fixed and general among them, that death was but the +entrance into another life; that all men who lived lazy and inactive +lives, and died natural deaths, by sickness, or by age, went into vast +caves under ground, all dark and miry, full of noisom creatures, usual +in such places, and there forever grovelled in endless stench and +misery. On the contrary, all who gave themselves to warlike actions and +enterprises, to the conquests of their neighbors, and slaughters of +enemies, and died in battle, or of violent deaths upon bold adventures +or resolutions, they went immediately to the vast hall or palace of +Odin, their god of war, who eternally kept open house for all such +guests, where they were entertained at infinite tables, in perpetual +feasts and mirth, carousing every man in bowls made of the skulls of +their enemies they had slain, according to which numbers, every one in +these mansions of pleasure was the most honoured and the best +entertained."[7] + +Thus before Gray was born, Temple had written intelligently in English +of the salient features of the Old Norse mythology. Later in the same +essay, he recognized that some of the civil and political procedures of +his country were traceable to the Northmen, and, what is more to our +immediate purpose, he recognized the poetic value of Old Norse song. On +p. 358 occurs this paragraph: + +"I am deceived, if in this sonnet (two stanzas of 'Regner Lodbrog'), and +a following ode of Scallogrim there be not a vein truly poetical, and in +its kind Pindaric, taking it with the allowance of the different +climates, fashions, opinions, and languages of such distant countries." + +Temple certainly had no knowledge of Old Norse, and yet, in 1679, he +could write so of a poem which he had to read through the Latin. Sir +William had a wide knowledge and a fine appreciation of literature, and +an enthusiasm for its dissemination. He takes evident delight in telling +the fact that princes and kings of the olden time did high honor to +bards. He regrets that classic culture was snuffed out by a barbarous +people, but he rejoices that a new kind came to take its place. "Some of +it wanted not the true spirit of poetry in some degree, or that natural +inspiration which has been said to arise from some spark of poetical +fire wherewith particular men are born; and such as it was, it served +the turn, not only to please, but even to charm, the ignorant and +barbarous vulgar, where it was in use."[8] + +It is proverbial that music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. +That savage music charms cultivated minds is not proverbial, but it is +nevertheless true. Here is Sir William Temple, scion of a cultured race, +bearing witness to the fact, and here is Gray, a life-long dweller in a +staid English university, endorsing it a half century later. As has been +intimated, this was unusual in the time in which they lived, when, in +Lowell's phrase, the "blight of propriety" was on all poetry. But it was +only the rude and savage in an unfamiliar literature that could give +pause in the age of Pope. The milder aspects of Old Norse song and saga +must await the stronger century to give them favor. "Behold, there was a +swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion." + + +GEORGE HICKES (1642-1715). + +The next book in the list that contains an English contribution to the +knowledge of our subject is the _Thesaurus_ of George Hickes. On p. 193 +of Part I, there is a prose translation of "The Awakening of Angantyr," +from the _Harvarar Saga_. Acknowledgment is given to Verelius for the +text of the poem, but Hickes seems to have chosen this poem as the gem +of the Saga. The translation is another proof of an antiquarian's taste +and judgment, and the reader does not wonder that it soon found a wider +audience through another publication. It was reprinted in the books of +1716 and 1770 in the above list. An extract or two will show that the +vigor of the old poem has not been altogether lost in the translation: + +_Hervor_.--Awake Angantyr, Hervor the only daughter of thee and Suafu +doth awaken thee. Give me out of the tombe, the hardned[9] sword, which +the dwarfs made for Suafurlama. Hervardur, Hiorvardur, Hrani, and +Angantyr, with helmet, and coat of mail, and a sharp sword, with sheild +and accoutrements, and bloody spear, I wake you all, under the roots of +trees. Are the sons of Andgrym, who delighted in mischief, now become +dust and ashes, can none of Eyvors sons now speak with me out of the +habitations of the dead! Harvardur, Hiorvardur! so may you all be within +your ribs, as a thing that is hanged up to putrifie among insects, +unlesse you deliver me the sword which the dwarfs made ... and the +glorious belt. + +_Angantyr_.--Daughter Hervor, full of spells to raise the dead, why +dost thou call so? wilt thou run on to thy own mischief? thou art mad, +and out of thy senses, who art desperatly resolved to waken dead men. I +was not buried either by father or other freinds. Two which lived after +me got Tirfing, one of whome is now possessor thereof. + +_Hervor_.--Thou dost not tell the truth: so let Odin hide thee in the +tombe, as thou hast Tirfing by thee. Art thou unwilling, Angantyr, to +give an inheritance to thy only child?... + +_Angantyr_.--Fals woman, thou dost not understand, that thou speakest +foolishly of that, in which thou dost rejoice, for Tirfing shall, if +thou wilt beleive me, maid, destroy all thy offspring. + +_Hervor_.--I must go to my seamen, here I have no mind to stay longer. +Little do I care, O Royall friend, what my sons hereafter quarrell +about. + +_Angantyr_.--Take and keep Hialmars bane, which thou shalt long have and +enjoy, touch but the edges of it, there is poyson in both of them, it is +a most cruell devourer of men. + +_Hervor_.--I shall keep, and take in hand, the sharp sword which thou +hast let me have: I do not fear, O slain father! what my sons hereafter +may quarrell about.... Dwell all of you safe in the tombe, I must be +gon, and hasten hence, for I seem to be, in the midst of a place where +fire burns round about me. + +One can well understand, who handles the ponderous _Thesaurus_, why the +first English lovers of Old Norse were antiquarians. "The Awakening of +Angantyr" is literally buried in this work, and only the student of +Anglo-Saxon prosody would come upon it unassisted, since it is an +illustration in a chapter of the _Grammaticae Anglo-Saxonicae et +Moeso-Gothicae_. Students will remember in this connection that it was +a work on poetics that saved for us the original Icelandic _Edda_. The +Icelandic skald had to know his nation's mythology. + + +THOMAS PERCY (1729-1811). + +The title of Chapter XXIII in Hickes' work indicates that even among +learned doctors mistaken notions existed as to the relationship of the +Teutonic languages. It took more than a hundred years to set the error +right, but in the meanwhile the literature of Iceland was becoming +better known to English readers. To the French scholar, Paul Henri +Mallet (1730-1807), Europe owes the first popular presentation of +Northern antiquities and literature. Appointed professor of +belles-lettres in the Copenhagen academy he found himself with more time +than students on his hands, because not many Danes at that time +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 ou l'on +traite de la Religion, 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. + +We have already noted that Gray's poems on Icelandic themes, though +written in 1761, were not published until 1768. Another delayed work on +similar themes was Percy's _Five Pieces of Runic Poetry_, which, the +author tells us, was prepared for the press in 1761, but, through an +accident, was not published until 1763. The preface has this interesting +sentence: "It would be as vain to deny, as it is perhaps impolitic to +mention, that this attempt is owing to the success of the Erse +fragments." The book has an appendix containing the Icelandic originals +of the poems translated, and that portion of the book shows that a +scholar's hand and interest made the volume. So, too, does the close of +the preface: "That the study of ancient northern literature hath its +important uses has been often evinced by able writers: and that it is +not dry or unamusive this little work it is hoped will demonstrate. Its +aim at least is to shew, that if those kind of studies are not always +employed on works of taste or classic elegance, they serve at least to +unlock the treasures of native genius; they present us with frequent +sallies of bold imagination, and constantly afford matter for +philosophical reflection by showing the workings of the human mind in +its almost original state of nature." + +That original state was certainly one of original sin, if these poems +are to be believed. Every page in this volume is drenched with blood, +and from this book, as from Gray's poems and the other Old Norse +imitations of the time, a picture of fierceness and fearfulness was the +only one possible. Percy intimates in his preface that Icelandic poetry +has other tales to tell besides the "Incantation of Hervor," the "Dying +Ode of Regner Lodbrog," the "Ransome of Egill the Scald," and the +"Funeral Song of Hacon," which are here set down; he offers the +"Complaint of Harold" as a slight indication that the old poets left +"behind them many pieces on the gentler subjects of love or friendship." +But the time had not come for the presentation of those pieces. + +All of these translations were from the Latin versions extant in Percy's +time. This volume copied Hickes's translation of "Hervor's Incantation" +modified in a few particulars, and like that one, the other translations +in this volume were in prose. The work is done as well as possible, and +it remained for later scholars to point out errors in translation. The +negative contractions in Icelandic were as yet unfamiliar, and so, as +Walter Scott pointed out (in _Edin. Rev._, Oct., 1806), Percy made +Regner Lodbrog say, "The pleasure of that day (of battle, p. 34 in this +_Five Pieces_) was like having a fair virgin placed beside one in the +bed," and "The pleasure of that day was like kissing a young widow at +the highest seat of the table," when the poet really made the contrary +statement. + +Of course, the value of this book depends upon the view that is taken of +it. Intrinsically, as literature, it is well-nigh valueless. It +indicates to us, however, a constantly growing interest in the +literature it reveals, and it undoubtedly directed the attention of the +poets of the succeeding generation to a field rich in romantic +possibilities. That no great work was then created out of this material +was not due to neglect. As we shall see, many puny poets strove to +breathe life into these bones, but the divine power was not in the +poets. Some who were not poets had yet the insight to feel the value of +this ancient literature, and they made known the facts concerning it. It +seems a mechanical and unpromising way to have great poetry written, +this calling out, "New Lamps for Old." Yet it is on record that great +poems have been written at just such instigation. + + +THOMAS WARTON (1728-1790). + +Historians[10] of Romanticism have marked Warton's _History of English +Poetry_ as one of the forces that made for the new idea in literature. +This record of a past which, though out of favor, was immeasurably +superior to the time of its historian, spread new views concerning the +poetic art among the rising generation, and suggested new subjects as +well as new treatments of old subjects. We have mentioned the fact that +Gray handed over to Warton his notes for a contemplated history of +poetry, and that Warton found no place in his work for Gray's +adaptations from the Old Norse. Warton was not blind to the beauties of +Gray's poems, nor did he fail to appreciate the merits of the literature +which they illustrated. His scheme relegated his remarks concerning that +poetry to the introductory dissertation, "Of the Origin of Romantic +Fiction in Europe." What he had to say was in support of a theory which +is not accepted to-day, and of course his statements concerning the +origin of the Scandinavian people were as wrong as those that we found +in Mallet and Temple. But with all his misinformation, Warton managed to +get at many truths about Icelandic poetry, and his presentation of them +was fresh and stimulating. Already the Old Norse mythology was well +known, even down to Valhalla and the mistletoe. Old Norse poetry was +well enough known to call forth this remark: + +"They (the 'Runic' odes) have a certain sublime and figurative cast of +diction, which is indeed one of their predominant characteristics.... +When obvious terms and phrases evidently occurred, the Runic poets are +fond of departing from the common and established diction. They appear +to use circumlocution and comparisons not as a matter of necessity, but +of choice and skill: nor are these metaphorical colourings so much the +result of want of words, as of warmth of fancy." The note gives these +examples: "Thus, a rainbow is called, the bridge of the gods. Poetry, +the mead of Odin. The earth, the vessel that floats on ages. A ship, the +horse of the waves. A tongue, the sword of words. Night, the veil of +cares." + +A study of the notes to Warton's dissertation reveals the fact that he +had made use of the books already mentioned in the list on a previous +page, and of no others that are significant. But such excellent use was +made of them, that it would seem as if nothing was left in them that +could be made valuable for spreading a knowledge of and an enthusiasm +for Icelandic literature. When it is remembered that Warton's purpose +was to prove the Saracenic origin of romantic fiction in Europe, through +the Moors in Spain, and that Icelandic literature was mentioned only to +account for a certain un-Arabian tinge in that romantic fiction, the +wonder grows that so full and fresh a presentation of Old Norse poetry +should have been made. He puts such passages as these into his +illustrative notes: "Tell my mother Suanhita in Denmark, that she will +not this summer comb the hair of her son. I had promised her to return, +but now my side shall feel the edge of the sword." There is an +appreciation of the poetic here, that makes us feel that Warton was not +an unworthy wearer of the laurel. He insists that the Saxon poetry was +powerfully affected by "the old scaldic fables and heroes," and gives in +the text a translation of the "Battle of Brunenburgh" to prove his +case. He admires "the scaldic dialogue at the tomb of Angantyr," but +wrongly attributes a beautiful translation of it to Gray. He quotes at +length from "a noble ode, called in the northern chronicles the Elogium +of Hacon, by the scald Eyvynd; who, for his superior skill in poetry was +called the Cross of Poets (Eyvindr Skalldaspillir), and fought in the +battle which he celebrated." + +He knows how Iceland touched England, as this passage will show: "That +the Icelandic bards were common in England during the Danish invasions, +there are numerous proofs. Egill, a celebrated Icelandic poet, having +murthered the son and many of the friends of Eric Blodaxe, king of +Denmark or Norway, then residing in Northumberland, and which he had +just conquered, procured a pardon by singing before the king, at the +command of his queen Gunhilde, an extemporaneous ode. Egill compliments +the king, who probably was his patron, with the appellation of the +English chief. 'I offer my freight to the king. I owe a poem for my +ransom. I present to the ENGLISH CHIEF the mead of Odin.' Afterwards he +calls this Danish conqueror the commander of the Scottish fleet. 'The +commander of the Scottish fleet fattened the ravenous birds. The sister +of Nera (Death) trampled on the foe: she trampled on the evening food of +the eagle.'" + +So wide a knowledge and so keen an appreciation of Old Norse in a +Warton, whose interest was chiefly elsewhere, argues for a spreading +popularity of the ancient literature. Thus far, only Gray has made +living English literature out of these old stories, and he only two +short poems. There were other attempts to achieve poetic success with +this foreign material, but a hundred exacting years have covered them +with oblivion. + + +DRAKE (1766-1836). MATHIAS (1754-1835). + +In the second decade of the nineteenth century, Nathan Drake, M.D., made +a strong effort to popularize Norse mythology and literature. The fourth +edition of his work entitled _Literary Hours_ (London, 1820) +contains[11] an appreciative article on the subject, the fullness of +which is indicated in these words from p. 309: + +"The most striking and characteristic parts of the Scandinavian +mythology, together with no inconsiderable portion of the manners and +customs of our northern ancestors, have now passed before the reader; +their theology, warfare, and poetry, their gallantry, religious rites, +and superstitions, have been separately, and, I trust, distinctly +reviewed." + + +The essay is written in an easy style that doubtless gained for it many +readers. All the available knowledge of the subject was used, and a +clearer view of it was presented than had been obtainable in Percy's +"Mallet." The author was a thoughtful man, able to detect errors in +Warton and Percy, but his zeal in his enterprise led him to praise +versifiers inordinately that had used the "Gothic fables." He quotes +liberally from writers whose books are not to be had in this country, +and certainly the uninspired verses merit the neglect that this fact +indicates. He calls Sayers' pen "masterly" that wrote these lines: + + Coucher of the ponderous spear, + Thou shout'st amid the battle's stound-- + The armed Sisters hear, + Viewless hurrying o'er the ground + They strike the destin'd chiefs and call them to the skies. + +(P. 168.) + +From Penrose he quotes such lines as these: + + The feast begins, the skull goes round, + Laughter shouts--the shouts resound. + The gust of war subsides--E'en now + The grim chief curls his cheek, and smooths his rugged brow. + +(P. 171.) + +From Sterling comes this imitation of Gray: + + Now the rage of combat burns, + Haughty chiefs on chiefs lie slain; + The battle glows and sinks by turns, + Death and carnage load the plain. + +(P 172.) + +From these extracts, it appears that the poets who imitated Gray +considered that only "dreadful songs," like his, were to be found in +Scandinavian poetry. + +Downman, Herbert and Mathias are also adduced by Dr. Drake as examples +of poets who have gained much by Old Norse borrowings, but these +borrowings are invariably scenes from a chamber of horrors. It occurs +to me that perhaps Dr. Drake had begun to tire of the spiritless echoes +of the classical schools, and that he fondly hoped that such shrieks and +groans as those he admired in this essay would satisfy his cravings for +better things in poetry. But the critic had no adequate knowledge of the +way in which genius works. His one desire in these studies of +Scandinavian mythology was "to recommend it to the votaries of the Muse, +as a machinery admirably constructed for their purpose" (p. 158). He +hopes for "a more extensive adoption of the Scandinavian mythology, +especially in our _epic_ and _lyric_ compositions" (p. 311). We smile at +the notion, to-day, but that very conception of poetry as "machinery" is +characteristic of a whole century of our English literature. + +The Mathias mentioned by Drake is Thomas James Mathias, whose book, +_Odes Chiefly from the Norse Tongue_ (London, 1781), received the +distinction of an American reprint (New York, 1806). Bartholinus +furnishes the material and Gray the spirit for these pieces. + + +AMOS S. COTTLE(1768-1800). WILLIAM HERBERT (1778-1847). + +In this period belong two works of translation that mark the approach of +the time when Old Norse prose and poetry were to be read in the +original. As literature they are of little value, and they had but +slight influence on succeeding writers. + +At Bristol, in 1797, was published _Icelandic Poetry, or, The Edda of +Saemund translated into English Verse_, by A.S. Cottle of Magdalen +College, Cambridge. This work has an Introduction containing nothing +worth discussing here, and an "Epistle" to A.S. Cottle from Robert +Southey. The laureate, in good blank verse, discourses on the Old Norse +heroes whom he happens to know about. They are the old favorites, Regner +Lodbrog and his sons; in Southey's poem the foeman's skull is, as usual, +the drinking cup. It was certainly time for new actors and new +properties to appear in English versions of Scandinavian stories. + +The translations are twelve in number, and evince an intelligent and +facile versifier. When all is said, these old songs could contribute to +the pleasure of very few. Only a student of history, or a poet, or an +antiquarian, would dwell with loving interest on the lays of +Vafthrudnis, Grimner, Skirner and Hymer (as Cottle spells them). +Besides, they are difficult to read, and must be abundantly annotated to +make them comprehensible. In such works as this of Cottle, a Scott might +find wherewith to lend color to a story or a poem, but the common man +would borrow Walpole's words, used in characterizing Gray's "Odes": +"They are not interesting, and do not ... touch any passion; our human +feelings ... are not here affected. Who can care through what horrors a +Runic savage arrived at all the joys and glories they could +conceive--the supreme felicity of boozing ale out of the skull of an +enemy in Odin's hall?"[12] + +In 1804 a book was published bearing this title-page: _Select Icelandic +Poetry, translated from the originals: with notes_. The preface was +signed by the author, William Herbert. The pieces are from Saemund, +Bartholinus, Verelius, and Perinskjoeld's edition of _Heimskringla_, and +were all translated with the assistance of the Latin versions. The notes +are explanatory of the allusions and the hiatuses in the poems. +Reference is made to MSS. of the Norse pieces existing in museums and +libraries, which the author had consulted. Thus we see scholarship +beginning to extend investigations. As for the verses themselves not +much need be said. They are not so good as Cottle's, although they +received a notice from Scott in the _Edinburgh Review_. The thing to +notice about the work is that it pretends to come direct from Old Norse, +not, as most of the work dealt with so far, _via_ Latin. + +Icelandic poetry is more difficult to read than Icelandic prose, and so +it seems strange that the former should have been attacked first by +English scholars. Yet so it was, and until 1844 our English literature +had no other inspiration in old Norse writings than the rude and rugged +songs that first lent their lilt to Gray. The _human_ North is in the +sagas, and when they were revealed to our people, Icelandic literature +began to mean something more than Valhalla and the mead-bouts there. The +scene was changed to earth, and the gods gave place to nobler actors, +men and women. The action was lifted to the eminence of a world-drama. +But before the change came Sir Walter Scott, and it is fitting that the +first period of Norse influence in English literature should close, as +it began, with a great master. + + +SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832). + +In 1792, Walter Scott was twenty-one years old, and one of his +note-books of that year contains this entry: "Vegtam's Kvitha or The +Descent of Odin, with the Latin of Thomas Bartholine, and the English +poetical version of Mr. Gray; with some account of the Death of Balder, +both as related in the Edda, and as handed down to us by the Northern +historians--_Auctore Gualtero Scott_." According to Lockhart,[13] the +Icelandic, Latin and English versions were here transcribed, and the +historical account that followed--seven closely written quarto +pages--was read before a debating society. + +It was to be expected that one so enthusiastic about antiquities as +Scott would early discover the treasury of Norse history and song. At +twenty-one, as we see, he is transcribing a song in a language he knew +nothing about, as well as in translations. Fourteen years later, he has +learned enough about the subject to write a review of Herbert's _Poems +and Translations_.[14] + +In 1813, he writes an account of the _Eyrbyggja Saga_ for _Illustrations +of Northern Antiquities_ (edited by Robert Jameson, Edinburgh, 1814). + +There are two of Scott's contributions to literature that possess more +than a mere tinge of Old Norse knowledge, namely, the long poem "Harold, +the Dauntless" (published in 1817), and the long story "The Pirate" +(published in 1821). The poem is weak, but it illustrates Scott's theory +of the usefulness of poetical antiquities to the modern poet. In another +connection Scott said: "In the rude song of the Scald, we regard less +the strained imagery and extravagance of epithet, than the wild +impressions which it conveys of the dauntless resolution, savage +superstition, rude festivity and ceaseless depredations of the ancient +Scandinavians."[15] The poet did his work in accordance with this +theory, and so in "Harold, the Dauntless," we note no flavor of the +older poetry in phrase or in method. Harold is fierce enough and grim +enough to measure up to the old ideal of a Norse hero. + +"I was rocked in a buckler and fed from a blade," is his boast before +his newly christened father, and in his apostrophe to his grandsire +Eric, the popular notion of early Norse antiquarianism is again +exhibited: + + In wild Valhalla hast thou quaffed + From foeman's skull metheglin draught? + +Scott's scholarship in Old Norse was largely derived from the Latin +tomes, and such conceptions as those quoted are therefore common in his +poem. That the poet realized the inadequacy of such knowledge, the +review of Herbert's poetry, published in the _Edinburgh Review_ for +October, 1806, shows. In this article he has a vision of what shall be +when men shall be able "to trace the Runic rhyme" itself. + +"The Pirate," exhibited the Wizard's skill in weaving the old and the +new together, the old being the traditions of the Shetlands, full of the +ancestral beliefs in Old Norse things, the new being the life in those +islands in a recent century. This is a stirring story, that comes into +our consideration because of its Scandinavian antiquities. Again we find +the Latin treasuries of Bartholinus, Torfaeus, Perinskjoeld and Olaus +Magnus in evidence, though here, too, mention is made of "Haco," and +Tryggvason and "Harfager." With a background of island scenery, with +which Scott became familiar during a light-house inspector's voyage made +in 1814, this story is a picture full of vivid colors and characters. In +Norna of the Fitful Head, he has created a mysterious personage in whose +mouth "Runic rhymes" are the only proper speech. She stills the tempest +with them, and "The Song of the Tempest" is a strong apostrophe, though +it is neither Runic nor rhymed. She preludes her life-story with verses +that are rhymed but not Runic, and she sings incantations in the same +wise. This _Reimkennar_ is an echo of the _Voeluspa_, and is the only +kind of Norse woman that the time of Scott could imagine. Claud Halcro, +the poet, is fond of rhyming the only kind of Norseman known to his +time, and in his "Song of Harold Harfager" we hear the echoes of Gray's +odes. Scott's reading was wide in all ancient lore, and he never missed +a chance to introduce an odd custom if it would make an interesting +scene in his story. So here we have the "Sword Dance" (celebrated by +Olaus Magnus, though I have never read of it in Old Norse), the +"Questioning of the Sibyl" (like that in Gray's "Descent of Odin"), the +"Capture and Sharing of the Whale," and the "Promise of Odin." In most +of the natives there are turns of speech that recall the Norse ancestry +of the Shetlanders. + +In Scott, then, we see the lengthening out of the influence of the +antiquarians who wrote of a dead past in a dead language. The time was +at hand when that past was to live again, painted in the living words of +living men. + + + + +III. + +FROM THE SOURCES THEMSELVES. + + +In the preceding section we noted the achievements of English +scholarship and genius working under great disadvantages. Gray and Scott +may have had a smattering of Icelandic, but Latin translations were +necessary to reveal the meaning of what few Old Norse texts were +available to them. This paucity of material, more than the ignorance of +the language, was responsible for the slow progress in popularizing the +remarkable literature of the North. Scaldic and Eddie poems comprised +all that was known to English readers of that literature, and in them +the superhuman rather than the human elements were predominant. + +We have come now to a time when the field of our view broadens to +include not only more and different material, but more and different +men. The sagas were annexed to the old songs, and the body of literature +to attract attention was thus increased a thousand fold. The +antiquarians were supplanted by scholars who, although passionately +devoted to the study of the past, were still vitally interested in the +affairs of the time in which they lived. The second and greatest stage +of the development of Old Norse influence in England has a mark of +distinction that belongs to few literary epochs. The men who made it +lived lives that were as heroic in devotion to duty and principle as +many of those written down in the sagas themselves. I have sometimes +wondered whether it is merely accidental that English saga scholars were +so often men of high soul and strong action. Certain it is that Richard +Cleasby, and Samuel Laing, and George Webbe Dasent, and Robert Lowe are +types of men that the Icelanders would have celebrated, as having "left +a tale to tell" in their full and active lives. And no less certain is +it that Thomas Carlyle, and Matthew Arnold, and William Morris, and +Charles Kingsley, and Gerald Massey labored for a better manhood that +should rise to the stature and reflect the virtues of the heroes of the +Northland. + +RICHARD CLEASBY (1797-1847). + +In the forties of the nineteenth century several minds began to work, +independently of one another, in this wider field of Icelandic +literature. Richard Cleasby (1797-1847), an English merchant's son with +scholarly instincts, began the study of the sagas, but made slight +progress because of what he called an "unaccountable and most scandalous +blank," the want of a dictionary. This was in 1840, and for the next +seven years he labored to fill up that blank. The record[16] of those +years is a wonderful witness to the heroism and spirit of the scholar, +and justifies Sir George Dasent's characterization of Cleasby as "one of +the most indefatigable students that ever lived." The work thus begun +was not completed until many years afterward (it is dated 1874), and, by +untoward circumstances, very little of it is Richard Cleasby's. But +generous scholarship acknowledged its debt to the man who gave his +strength and his wealth to the work, by placing his name on the +title-page. No less shall we fail to honor his memory by mentioning his +labors here. Although the dictionary was not completed in the decade of +its inception, the study that it was designed to promote took hold on a +number of men and the results were remarkable for both literature and +scholarship. + + +THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881). + +First in order of time was the work of Thomas Carlyle. It will not seem +strange to the student of English literature to find that this writer +came under the influence of the old skalds and sagaman and spoke +appreciative words concerning them. His German studies had to take +cognizance of the Old Norse treasuries of poetry, and he became a +diligent reader of Icelandic literature in what translations he could +get at, German and English. The strongest utterance on the subject that +he left behind him is in "Lecture I" of the series "On Heroes, +Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History," dated May, 1840. This is a +treatment of Scandinavian mythology, rugged and thorough, like all of +this man's work. Carlyle evinces a scholar's instinct in more than one +place, as, for instance, when he doubts the _grandmother_ etymology of +_Edda_, an etymology repeated until a much later day by scholars of a +less sure sense.[17] But this lecture "On Heroes" is also a +glorification of the literature with which we are dealing, and in this +regard it is worthy of special note here. + +In the first place, Carlyle with true critical instinct caught the +essence of it; to him it seemed to have "a rude childlike way of +recognizing the divineness of Nature, the divineness of Man." For him +Scandinavian mythology was superior in sincerity to the Grecian, though +it lacked the grace of the latter. "Sincerity, I think, is better than +grace. I feel that these old Northmen were looking into Nature with open +eye and soul: most earnest, honest; childlike, and yet manlike; with a +great-hearted simplicity and depth and freshness, in a true, loving, +admiring, unfearing way. A right valiant, true old race of men." This is +a truer appreciation than Gray and Walpole had, eighty years before. In +the second place, Carlyle was not misled into thinking that valor in war +was the only characteristic of the rude Norseman, and skill in drinking +his only household virtue. "Beautiful traits of pity, too, and honest +pity." Then he tells of Baldur and Nanna, in his rugged prose account +anticipating Matthew Arnold. Other qualities of the literature appeal to +him. "I like much their robust simplicity; their veracity, directness of +conception. Thor 'draws down his brows' in a veritable Norse rage; +'grasps his hammer till the _knuckles grow white_." Again; "A great +broad Brobdignag grin of true humor is this Skrymir; mirth resting on +earnestness and sadness, as the rainbow on the black tempest: only a +right valiant heart is capable of that." Still again: "This law of +mutation, which also is a law written in man's inmost thought, has been +deciphered by these old earnest Thinkers in their rude style." + +Thomas Carlyle, seeking to explain the worship of a pagan divinity, +chose Odin as the noblest example of such a hero. The picture of Odin he +drew from the prose Edda, mainly, and his purpose required that he +paint the picture in the most attractive colors. So it happened that our +English literature got its first _complete_ view of Old Norse ethics and +art. The memory of Gray's "dreadful songs" had ruled for almost a +century, and ordinary readers might be pardoned for thinking that Old +Norse literature, like Old Norse history, was written in blood. We have +seen that Gray's imitators perpetuated the old idea, and that even Scott +sanctioned it, and now we see England's emancipation from it. The grouty +old Scotchman of Craigenputtoch knew no more Icelandic than most of his +fellow countrymen (be it noted that he said: "From the Humber upwards, +all over Scotland, the speech of the common people is still in a +singular degree Icelandic, its Germanism has still a peculiar Norse +tinge"); but he saw far more deeply into the heart of Icelandic +literature than anybody before him. His emphasis of its many sidedness, +of its sincerity, its humanity, its simplicity, its directness, its +humor and its wisdom, was the signal for a change in the popular +estimation of its worth to our modern art. Since his day we have had +Morris and Arnold and a host of minor singers, and the nineteenth +century revival of interest in Old Norse literature. + +The other work by Carlyle dealing directly with Old Norse material is +_The Early Kings of Norway_. Here he digests _Heimskringla_, which was +obtainable through Laing's translation, in a way to stir the blood. The +story, as he tells it, is breathlessly interesting, and it is a pity +that readers of Carlyle so often stop short of this work. As in the +_Hero-Worship_, he shows this Teutonic bias, and the religious training +that minified Greek literature. + +Snorri's work elicits from him repeated applause. Here, for instance, in +Chap. X: "It has, all of it, the description (and we see clearly the +fact itself had), a kind of pathetic grandeur, simplicity, and rude +nobleness; something Epic or Homeric, without the metre or the singing +of Homer, but with all the sincerity, rugged truth to nature, and much +more of piety, devoutness, reverence for what is ever high in this +universe, than meets us in those old Greek Ballad-mongers." + +SAMUEL LAING (1780-1868). + +It was the work of Samuel Laing that gave Carlyle the material for this +last-mentioned book.[18] Laing's translation of _Heimskringla_ bears the +date 1844, and although Mr. Dasent's quaint version of the _Prose Edda_ +preceded it by two years, _The Sagas of the Norse Kings_ was the +"epoch-making" book. It is true that a later version has superseded it +in literary and scholarly finish, but Laing's work was a pioneer of +sterling intrinsic value, and many there be that do it homage still. +Laing had the laudable ambition--so seldom found in these days--"to give +a plain, faithful translation into English of the _Heimskringla_, +unencumbered with antiquarian research, and suited to the plain English +reader."[19] With this work, then, Icelandic lore passes out of the +hands of the antiquarian into the hands of common readers. It matters +little that the audience is even still fit and few; from this time on he +that runs may read. + +For our purpose it will not be necessary to characterize the +translation. Laing commanded an excellent style, and he was enthusiastic +over his work. Indeed, the commonest criticism passed on the +"Preliminary Dissertation" was that the author's zeal had run away with +his good sense. Be that as it may, Laing called the attention of his +readers to the neglect of a literature and a history which should be +England's pride, as Anglo-Saxon literature and history even then were. +The reviews of the time made it appear as if another Battle of the Books +were impending--Anglo-Saxon versus Icelandic; a writer in the _English +Review_ (Vol. 82, p. 316), pro-Saxon in his zeal, admitting at last that +"of none of the children of the Norse, whether Goth or Frank, Saxon or +Scandinavian, have the others any reason to be ashamed. All have earned +the gratitude and admiration of the world, and their combined or +successive efforts have made England and Europe what they are." + +It is refreshing to come upon new views of Old Norse character, that +recognize "amidst anarchy and bloodshed, redeeming features of +kindliness and better feeling which tell of the mingled principles that +war within our nature for the mastery." Laing's translation accomplished +this for English readers, and with the years came a deeper knowledge +that showed those touches of tenderness and traits of beauty which, even +in 1844, were not perceptible to those readers. + + +HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882). + +JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891). + +_The Story of the Norse Kings_, thus translated by an Englishman, +suggested to our American poet, Longfellow, a series of lyrics on King +Olaf. The young college professor that wrote about _Frithjof's Saga_ in +the _North American Review_ for 1837, was bound, sooner or later, to +come back to the field when he found that the American reading public +would listen to whatever songs he sang to them. Before 1850, Longfellow +had written "The Challenge of Thor," a poem which imitated the form of +Icelandic verse and catches much of its spirit. In 1859, the thought +came to him "that a very good poem might be written on the Saga of King +Olaf, who converted the North to Christianity." Two years later he +completed the lyrics that compose "The Musician's Tale" in _The Tales of +a Wayside Inn_, published in 1863, and in this work "The Challenge of +Thor" serves as a prelude. The pieces after this prelude are not +imitations of the Icelandic verse, but are like Tegner's _Frithjof's +Saga_, in that each new portion has a meter of its own. There is not, +either, a consistent effort to put the flavor of the North into the +poetry, so that, properly speaking, we have here only the retelling of +an old tale. The ballad fervor and movement are often perceptible, +though nowhere does the poet strike the ringing note of "The Skeleton in +Armor," published in the volume of 1841. + +Truth to tell, Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf" is not a remarkable +work. One who reads the few chapters in Carlyle's _Early Kings of +Norway_ that deal with Olaf Tryggvason gets more of the fire and spirit +of the old saga at every turning. The poet chooses scenes and incidents +very skilfully, but for their proper presentation a terseness is +necessary that is not reconcilable with frequent rhymes. Compare the +saga account with the poem's: "What is this that has broken?" asked King +Olaf. "Norway from thy hand, King," answered Tamberskelver. + + "What was that?" said Olaf, standing + On the quarter deck. + "Something heard I like the stranding + Of a shattered wreck." + Einar then, the arrow taking + From the loosened string, + Answered, "That was Norway breaking + From thy hand, O King!" + +Nevertheless, Longfellow is to be thanked for acquainting a wide circle +of readers with the sterling saga literature. + +One other American poet was busy with the ancient Northern literature at +this time. James Russell Lowell wrote one notable poem that is Old Norse +in subject and spirit, "The Voyage to Vinland." The third part of the +poem, "Gudrida's Prophecy," hints at Icelandic versification, and the +short lines are hammer-strokes that warm the reader to enthusiasm. Far +more of the spirit of the old literature is in this short poem than is +to be found in the whole of Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf." The +character of Bioern is well drawn, recalling Bodli, of Morris' poem, in +its principal features. Certainly there is a reflection here of that Old +Norse conception of life which gave to men's deeds their due reward, and +which exalted the power of will. This poem was begun in 1850, but was +not published till 1868. + +In Lowell's poems are to be found many figures and allusions pointing to +his familiarity with Icelandic song and story. At the end of the third +strophe of the "Commemoration Ode," for instance, Truth is pictured as +Brynhild, + + plumed and mailed, + With sweet, stern face unveiled. + +In these borrowings of themes and allusions, Lowell is at one with most +of the poets of the present day. It used to be the fashion, and is +still, for tables of contents in volumes of verse to show titles like +these: "Prometheus"; "Iliad VIII, 542-561"; "Alectryon." Present-day +volumes are becoming more and more besprinkled with titles like these: +"Balder the Beautiful"; "The Death of Arnkel," etc. In this fact alone +is seen the turn of the tide. Heroes and heroines in dramas and novels +are beginning to bear Old Norse names, even where the setting is not +northern; witness Sidney Dobell's _Balder_, where not even a single +allusion is made to Icelandic matters. + +MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888). + +Matthew Arnold's strong sympathy with noble and virile literature of +whatever age or nation led him in time to Old Norse, and his poem +"Balder Dead" is of distinct importance among the works of the +nineteenth century in English literature. It is an addition of permanent +value to our poetry, because of its marked originality and its high +ethical tone. "Mallet, and his version of the Edda, is all the poem is +based upon," says Arnold.[20] It is the poet's divinely implanted +instinct that gathers from the few chapters of an old book a knowledge +wonderfully full and deep of the cosmogony and eschatology of the +northern nations of Europe. "Balder Dead" tells the familiar story of +the whitest of the gods, but it also contains the essence of Old +Icelandic religion; indeed there is no single short work in our language +which gives a tithe of the information about the North, its spirit, and +its philosophy, which this poem of Matthew Arnold's sets forth. In +future days a text-book of original English poems will be in the hands +of our boys and girls which will enable them to get, through the medium +of their own language, the message and the spirit of foreign literature. +Old Norse song will need no other representative than Matthew Arnold's +"Balder Dead." + +This is an original poem. It does not imitate the verse nor the word of +the older song, but the flavor of it is here. Gray and his imitators +drew from the Icelandic fountain "dreadful songs" and many poets since +have heard no milder note. Matthew Arnold's instincts were for peace and +the arts of peace, and he found in Balder a type for the ennobling of +our own century. Balder says to his brother who has come to lament that +Lok's machinations will keep the best beloved of the gods in Niflheim: + + For I am long since weary of your storm + Of carnage, and find, Hermod, in your life + Something too much of war and broils, which make + Life one perpetual fight, a bath of blood. + Mine eyes are dizzy with the arrowy hail; + Mine ears are stunn'd with blows, and sick for calm. + +Arnold has exalted the Revelator of the Northern mythology, and in +magnificent poetry sets forth his apocalyptic vision: + + Unarm'd, inglorious; I attend the course + Of ages, and my late return to light, + In times less alien to a spirit mild, + In new-recover'd seats, the happier day. + + . . . . . . . . . + + Far to the south, beyond the blue, there spreads + Another Heaven, the boundless--no one yet + Hath reach'd it; there hereafter shall arise + The second Asgard, with another name. + + . . . . . . . . . + + There re-assembling we shall see emerge + From the bright Ocean at our feet an earth + More fresh, more verdant than the last, with fruits + Self-springing, and a seed of man preserved, + Who then shall live in peace, as now in war. + +Here is the grandest message that the Old Norse religion had to give, +and Matthew Arnold concerned himself with that alone. It is a far cry +from Regner Lodbrog to this. There is a fine touch in the introduction +of Regner into the lamentation of Balder. Arnold makes the old warrior +say of the ruder skalds: + + But they harp ever on one string, and wake + Remembrance in our souls of war alone, + Such as on earth we valiantly have waged, + And blood, and ringing blows, and violent death. + But when thou sangest, Balder, thou didst strike + Another note, and, like a bird in spring, + Thy voice of joyance minded us, and youth, + And wife, and children, and our ancient home. + +Here is a human Norseman, a figure not often presented in the versions +of the old stories that English poets and romancers have given us. +Arnold did a good service to Icelandic literature when he put into +Regner's mouth mild sentiments and a love for home and family. The note +is not lacking in the ancient literature, but it took Englishmen three +centuries to find it. It was the scholar, Matthew Arnold, who first +repeated the gentler strain in the rude music of the North, as it was +the scholar, Thomas Gray, who first echoed the "dreadful songs" of that +old psalmody. Gray has all the culture of his age, when it was still +possible to compass all knowledge in one lifetime; Arnold had all the +literary culture of his fuller century when multiplied sciences force a +scholar to be content with one segment of human knowledge. The former +had music and architecture and other sciences among his accomplishments; +the latter spread out in literature, as "Sohrab and Rustum," "Empedocles +on Etna," "Tristram and Iseult," as well as "Balder Dead" attest. The +quatrain prefixed to the volume containing the narrative and elegiac +poems be-tokens what joy Arnold had in his literary work, and indicates +why these poems cannot fail to live: + + What poets feel not, when they make, + A pleasure in creating, + The world in its turn will not take + Pleasure in contemplating. + +Balder is the creation of Old Norse poetry that is most popular with +contemporary English writers, and Matthew Arnold first made him so. As +Bugge points out, no deed of his is "celebrated in song or story. His +personality only is described; of his activity in life almost no +external trait is recorded. All the stress is laid upon his death; and, +like Christ, Baldr dies in his youth."[21] + + +SIR GEORGE WEBBE DASENT (1820-1896). + +Among the scholars who have labored to give England the benefit of a +fuller and truer knowledge of Norse matters, none will be remembered +more gratefully than Sir George Webbe Dasent. Known to the reading +public most widely by his translations of the folk-tales of Asbjoernsen +and Moe, he has still a claim upon the attention of the students of +Icelandic. As we have seen, he gave out a translation of the _Younger +Edda_ in 1842, and during the half century and more that followed he +wrote other works of history and literature connected with our subject. +Two saga translations were published in 1861 and 1866, _The Story of +Burnt Njal_, and _The Story of Gisli the Outlaw_, which will always rank +high in this class of literature. _Njala_ especially is an excellent +piece of work, a classic among translations. The "Prolegomena" is rich +in information, and very little of it has been superseded by later +scholarship. In 1887 and 1894 he translated for the Master of the Rolls, +_The Orkney Saga_ and _The Saga of Hakon_, the texts of which Vigfusson +had printed in the same series some years before. The interest of the +government in Icelandic annals connected with English history is +indicated in these last publications, and England is fortunate to have +had such enthusiastic scholars as Vigfusson and Dasent to do the work. +These men had been collaborators on the Cleasby Dictionary, and in this +work as in all others Dasent displayed an eagerness to have his +countrymen know how significant England's relationship to Iceland was. +He was as certain as Laing had been before him of the preeminence of +this literature among the mediaeval writings. Like Laing, too, he would +have the general reader turn to this body of work "which for its beauty +and richness is worthy of being known to the greatest possible number of +readers."[22] + +To mark the progress away from the old conception of unmitigated +brutality these words of Dasent stand here:[23] "The faults of these +Norsemen were the faults of their time; their virtues they possessed in +larger measure than the rest of their age, and thus when Christianity +had tamed their fury, they became the torch-bearers of civilization; and +though the plowshare of Destiny, when it planted them in Europe, +uprooted along its furrow many a pretty flower of feeling in the lands +which felt the fury of these Northern conquerers, their energy and +endurance gave a lasting temper to the West, and more especially to +England, which will wear so long as the world wears, and at the same +time implanted principles of freedom which shall never be rooted out. +Such results are a compensation for many bygone sorrows." + + +CHARLES KINGSLEY (1819-1875). + +In 1874, Charles Kingsley visited America and delivered some lectures. +Among these was one entitled "The First Discovery of America." This +interests us here because it displays an appreciation, if not a deep +knowledge, of Icelandic literature. In it the lecturer commended to +Longfellow's attention a ballad sung in the Faroes, begging him to +translate it some day, "as none but he can translate it." "It is so sad, +that no tenderness less exquisite than his can prevent its being +painful; and at least in its _denouement_, so naive, that no purity less +exquisite than his can prevent its being dreadful."[24] Later in the +lecture he commends to his hearers the _Heimskringla_ of Snorri +Sturluson, the "Homer of the North."[25] + +Speaking of the elements that mingled to produce the British character, +Kingsley says: "In manners as well as in religion, the Norse were +humanized and civilized by their contact with the Celts, both in +Scotland and in Ireland. Both peoples had valor, intellect, imagination: +but the Celt had that which the burly, angular Norse character, however +deep and stately, and however humorous, wanted; namely, music of nature, +tenderness, grace, rapidity, playfulness; just the qualities, combining +with the Scandinavian (and in Scotland with the Angle) elements of +character which have produced, in Ireland and in Scotland, two schools +of lyric poetry second to none in the world."[26] Over the page, +Kingsley has this to say: "For they were a sad people, those old Norse +forefathers of ours."[27] Humorous and sad are not inconsistent words in +these sentences; the Norseman had a sense of the ludicrous, and could +jest grimly in the face of death. Of the sadness of his life, no one +needs to be told who has read a saga or two. Kingsley says: "There is, +in the old sagas, none of that enjoyment of life which shines out +everywhere in Greek poetry, even through its deepest tragedies. Not in +complacency with Nature's beauty, but in the fierce struggle with her +wrath, does the Norseman feel pleasure."[28] + +This lecture shows a deeper acquaintance with Old Norse literature than +Kingsley was willing to acknowledge. Not only are the stories well +chosen which he uses throughout, but the intuitions are sound, and the +inferences based upon them. He anticipated the work of this +investigation in the last words of the address. He has been telling the +fine story of Thormod at Sticklestead: + +"I shall not insult your intelligence by any comment or even epithet of +my own. I shall but ask you, Was not this man your kinsman? Does not the +story sound, allowing for all change of manners as well as of time and +place, like a scene out of your own Bret Harte or Colonel John Hay's +writings; a scene of the dry humor, the rough heroism of your own far +West? Yes, as long as you have your _Jem Bludsos_ and _Tom Flynns of +Virginia City_, the old Norse blood is surely not extinct, the old Norse +spirit is not dead."[29] + + +EDMUND GOSSE (1849-). + +Among contemporary English poets who have taught the world of readers +that things Norse are worthy of attention, is Edmund Gosse. He has been +more intimately connected with the popularization of modern Norwegian +literature, notably of Ibsen, but he has also found in Old Norse story +themes for poetic treatment. We mention "The Death of Arnkel," found in +the volume _Firdausi in Exile_, more because it shows that our poets are +turning to _the gesta islandicorum_ for themes, than because it is a +remarkable poem. More pretentious is _King Erik, a Tragedy_, London, +1876. Here is a noble drama which displays an intimate acquaintance with +the literature that gave it its themes and inspiration. The author +dedicates it to Robert Browning, calling it: + + ... this lyric symbol of my labour, + This antique light that led my dreams so long, + This battered hull of a barbaric tabor, + Beaten to runic song. + +I have often thought that fate was very unkind to keep Browning so +persistently in the south of Europe, when, in Iceland and Norway, were +mines that he could have worked in to such supreme advantage. To be sure +his method clashes with the simplicity of the Old Norse manner, but from +him we should have had men and women superb in stature and virility, and +perhaps the Arctic influence would have killed the troublesome +tropicality of his language. + +This drama by Gosse is not strictly Icelandic in motive. Jealousy was +not the passion to loosen the tongue of the sagaman, and in so far as +that is the theme of "King Erik," the play is not Old Norse in origin. +Christian material, too, has been introduced that gives a modern tinge +to the drama, but there is enough of the genuine saga spirit to warrant +attention to it here. Something more than the names is Icelandic. Here +is a woman, Botilda, with strength of character enough to recall a +Brynhild or a Bergthora. Gisli is the foster-brother that takes up the +blood-feud for Grimur. Adalbjoerg and Svanhilda are the whisperers of +slander and the workers of ill. Marcus is the skald who is making a poem +about the king. Here are customs and beliefs distinctly Norse: + + I loved him from the first, + And so the second midnight to the cliff + We went. I mind me how the round moon rose, + And how a great whale in the offing plunged, + Dark on the golden circle. There we cut + A space of turf, and lifted it, and ran + Our knife-points sharp into our arms, and drew + Blood that dripped into the warm mould and mixed. + So there under the turf our plighted faith + Starts in the dew of grasses. + +(Act. IV, Sc. II.) + + But all day long I hear amid the crowds, + + . . . . . . . . . + + A voice that murmurs in a monotone, + Strange, warning words that scarcely miss the ear, + Yet miss it altogether. + + _Botilda_. + + Oh! God grant, + You be not fey, nor truly near your end! + +(Act. IV, Sc. III.) + + +Although this work is dramatic in form, it is not so in spirit. The true +dramatist would have put such an incident as the swearing of brotherhood +into a scene, instead of into a speech. This effort is, however, the +nearest approach to a drama in English founded on saga material. It is +curious that our poets have inclined to every form but the drama in +reproducing Old Norse literature. It is not that saga-stuff is not +dramatic in possibilities. Ewald and Oehlenschlaeger have used this +material to excellent effect in Danish dramas. Had the sagas been +accessible to Englishmen in Shakespeare's time, we should certainly have +had dramas of Icelandic life. + + + + +IV. + +BY THE HAND OF THE MASTER. + + +Time has brought us to the man whose work in this field needs no +apology. The writer whom we consider next contributed almost as much +material to the English treasury of Northern gold as did all the writers +we have so far considered. Were it not for William Morris, the +examination that we are making would not not be worth while. The name +_literature_, in its narrow sense, belongs to only a few of the writings +that we have examined up to this point, but what we are now to inspect +deserves that title without the shadow of a doubt. For that reason we +set in a separate chapter the examination of Morris' Old Norse +adaptations and creations. + + +WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896). + +The biographer of William Morris fixes 1868 as the beginning of the +poet's Icelandic stories.[30] Eirikr Magnusson, an Icelander, was his +guide, and the pupil made rapid progress. Dasent's work had drawn +Morris' attention to the sagas, and within a few months most of the +sagas had been read in the original. Although _The Saga of Gunnlang +Worm-tongue_ was published in the _Fortnightly Review_, for January, +1869, the _Grettis Saga_, of April, was the first published book on an +Old Norse subject. The next year gave the _Voelsunga Saga_. In 1871, +Morris made a journey through Iceland, the fruits of which were +afterwards seen in many a noble work. In 1875, _Three Northern Love +Stories_ was published, and, in 1877, _The Story of Sigurd the Volsung +and the Fall of the Niblungs_. More than ten years passed before he +turned again to Icelandic work, the Romances of the years of 1889 to +1896 showing signs of it, and the translations in the _Saga Library_, +"Howard the Halt," "The Banded Men," _Eyrbyggja_ and _Heimskringla_ of +1891-95. These contributions to the subject of our examination are no +less valuable than voluminous, and we make no excuses for an extended +consideration of them. They deserve a wider public than they have yet +attained. + + +1. + +_The Story of Grettir the Strong_ is the title of Morris and Magnusson's +version of the _Grettis Saga_. The version impresses the reader as one +made with loving care by artistic hands. Certainly English readers will +read no other translation of this work, for this one is satisfactory as +a version and as an art-work. English readers will here get all the +flavor of the original that it is possible to get in a translation, and +those who can read Icelandic if put to it, will prefer to get _Grettla_ +through Morris and Magnusson. All the essentials are here, if not all +the nuances. + +The reader unfamiliar with sagas will need a little patience with the +genealogies that crop out in every chapter. The sagaman has a +squirrel-like agility in climbing family trees, and he is well +acquainted with their interlocking branches. There are chapters in the +_Grettis Saga_ where this vanity runs riot, and makes us suspect that +Iceland differed little from a country town of to-day in its love for +gossip about the family of neighbors whose names happen to come into the +conversation. If the reader will persevere through the early chapters, +until Grettir commands exclusive attention, he will come to a drama +which has not many peers in literature. The outlaw kills a man in every +other chapter, but this record is no vulgar list of brutal fights. Not +inhuman nature, but human nature is here shown, human nature struggling +with unrelenting fate, making a grand fight, and coming to its end +because it must, but without ignominy. How fine a touch it is that +refuses to the outlaw's murderer the price set upon Grettir's head, +because the getting of it was through a "nithings-deed," the murder of a +dying man! William Morris was most felicitous in envoys and dedicating +poems, and in the sonnet prefixed to this translation he was +particularly happy. The first eight lines describe the hero of the +saga--the last six lines the significance of this literary creation: + + A life scarce worth the living, a poor fame + Scarce worth the winning, in a wretched land, + Where fear and pain go upon either hand, + As toward the end men fare without an aim + Unto the dull grey dark from whence they came: + Let them alone, the unshadowed sheer rocks stand + Over the twilight graves of that poor band, + Who count so little in the great world's game! + + Nay, with the dead I deal not; this man lives, + And that which carried him through good and ill, + Stern against fate while his voice echoed still + From rock to rock, now he lies silent, strives + With wasting time, and through its long lapse gives + Another friend to me, life's void to fill. + + +2. + +In the three volumes of _The Earthly Paradise_, published by William +Morris in 1868-1870, there are three poems which hail from Old Norse +originals. They are "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon," and +"The Lovers of Gudrun," in Vol. II, and "The Fostering of Aslaug," in +Vol. III. Of these "The Lovers of Gudrun" forms a class by itself; it is +a poem to be reckoned with when the dozen greatest poems of the century +are listed. The late Laureate may have equalled it in the best of the +_Idylls of the King_, but he never excelled it. Let us look at it in +detail. + +First, be it said that "The Lovers of Gudrun" overtops all the other +poems in _The Earthly Paradise_. It would be possible to prove that +Morris was at his best when he worked with Old Norse material, but that +task shall not detain us now. It is enough to note that the "Prologue" +to _The Earthly Paradise_, called "The Wanderers," makes the leader of +these wanderers, who turn story-tellers when they reach the city by "the +borders of the Grecian sea," a Norseman. Born in Byzantium of a Greek +mother, he claimed Norway as his home, and on his father's death +returned to his kin. His speech to the Elder of the City reveals a +touching loyalty to his father's home and traditions: + + But when I reached one dying autumn-tide + My uncle's dwelling near the forest-side, + And saw the land so scanty and so bare, + And all the hard things men contend with there, + A little and unworthy land it seemed, + And yet the more of Asagard I dreamed, + And worthier seemed the ancient faith of praise. + +Here is the man, William Morris, in perfect miniature. Modern life and +training had given him a speech and aspect quite suave and cultured, but +the blood that flowed in his veins was red, and the tincture of iron was +in it. In religion, in art, in poetry, in economics, he loved the past +better than the present, though he was never unconscious of "our +glorious gains." In all departments of thought the scanty, the bare, the +hard, the unworthy, drew first his attention and then his love and +enthusiastic praise. And so perhaps it is explained that of all the +poems in _The Earthly Paradise_, the one indited first in the scarred +and dreadful land where neither wheat nor wine is at home, shall be the +finest in this latter-day retelling. + +The first seventy years of the thirteenth century were the blossoming +time of the historic saga in Iceland, and those writings that record the +doings of the families of the land form, with the old songs and the best +of the kingly sagas, the flower of Northern literature. These family +records never extend over more than one generation, and sometimes they +deal with but a few years. They are half-way between romance and +history, with the balance oftenest in favor of truth. In this group are +found _Egils Saga_, known at second hand to Warton, the _Eyrbyggja +Saga_, translated by Walter Scott, and the _Laxdaela Saga_. It is the +_Laxdaela Saga_ that gives the story told by Morris in "The Lovers of +Gudrun." Among sagas it is famous for its fine portrayal of character. + +The saga and the poem tell the story of two neighboring farms, Herdholt +and Bathsted, whose sons and daughters work out a dire tragedy. Kiartan +and Bodli are the son and foster-son of the first house, and Gudrun is +the daughter of the second. These are the principal personages in the +drama, though the list of the other _dramatis personae_ is a long one. +Not only in the name of its heroine does the story suggest the +_Nibelungenlied_. The machinery of the Norse stories resembles the +German story's in many of its parts. In this version of Morris, the main +features of the saga are kept, and distracting details are properly +subordinated to the principal interest. Through the nineteen divisions +of this story the interest moves rapidly, and wonder as to the issue is +never lost. As a story-teller, Morris is distinctly powerful in this +poem, and all the qualities that endear the story-teller to us are here +found joined to many that make the poet a favorite with us. There are no +lyrics in the poem--the original saga was without the song-snatches that +are often found in sagas--but there are dramatic scenes that recall the +power of the Master-poet. Least of all the poems in the _Earthly +Paradise_ does "The Lovers of Gudrun" show the Chaucerian influence, and +the reader must be captious indeed who complains of the length of this +story. + +To the unenlightened reader this poem reveals no traits that are +un-English. What there is of Old Norse flavor here is purely spiritual. +The original story being in prose, no attempt could be made to keep +original characteristics in verse-form. So "The Lovers of Gudrun" can +stand on its own merits as an English poem; no excuses need be made for +it on the plea that it is a translation. + +Local color is not laid on the canvas after the figures have been +painted, but all the tints in the persons and the things are grandly +Norse. This story is a true romance, in that the scene is far removed +from the present day, and the atmosphere is very different from our own. +This story is a true picture of life, in that it sets forth the doings +of men and women in the power of the master passion. And so for the +purposes of literature this poem is not Norse, or rather, it is more +than Norse, it is universal. Now and then, to be sure, the displaced +Norse ideals are set forth in the poem, but in such wise that we almost +regret that the old order has passed away. The Wanderer who tells the +tale assures his listeners of the truth of it in these last words of the +interlude between "The Story of Rhodope" and "The Lovers of Gudrun": + + Know withal that we + Have ever deemed this tale as true to be, + As though those very Dwellers in Laxdale, + Risen from the dead had told us their own tale; + Who for the rest while yet they dwelt on earth + Wearied no God with prayers for more of mirth + Than dying men have; nor were ill-content + Because no God beside their sorrow went + Turning to flowery sward the rock-strewn way, + Weakness to strength, or darkness into day. + Therefore, no marvels hath my tale to tell, + But deals with such things as men know too well; + All that I have herein your hearts to move, + Is but the seed and fruit of bitter love. + +It is aside from our purpose to tell this story here. The more we study +this marvelous work, the more it is impressed upon us that in the reign +of love all men and all literatures are one. To the Englishman this +description of an Iceland maiden is no stranger than it was to the men +who sat about the spluttering fire in the Icelander's hall. It is the +form of Gudrun that is here described: + + That spring was she just come to her full height, + Low-bosomed yet she was, and slim and light, + Yet scarce might she grow fairer from that day; + Gold were the locks wherewith the wind did play, + Finer than silk, waved softly like the sea + After a three days' calm, and to her knee + Wellnigh they reached; fair were the white hands laid + Upon the door posts where the dragons played; + Her brow was smooth now, and a smile began + To cross her delicate mouth, the snare of man. + +(_Earthly Paradise_, Vol. II, p. 247.) + +Not less accustomed are we to such heroes as Kiartan: + + And now in every mouth was Kiartan's name, + And daily now must Gudrun's dull ears bear + Tales of the prowess of his youth to hear, + While in his cairn forgotten lay her love. + For this man, said they, all men's hearts did move, + Nor yet might envy cling to such an one, + So far beyond all dwellers 'neath the sun; + Great was he, yet so fair of face and limb + That all folk wondered much, beholding him, + How such a man could be; no fear he knew, + And all in manly deeds he could outdo; + Fleet-foot, a swimmer strong, an archer good, + Keen-eyed to know the dark waves' changing mood; + Sure on the crag, and with the sword so skilled, + That when he played therewith the air seemed filled + With light of gleaming blades; therewith was he + Of noble speech, though says not certainly + My tale, that aught of his he left behind + With rhyme and measure deftly intertwined. + +(P. 266.) + +The Old Norse touch here is in the last three lines which intimate that +the warrior was often a bard; but be it remembered that the Elizabethan +warrior could turn a sonnet, too. + +We have said that the _Laxdaela Saga_ is famous for its portrayal of +character. This English version falls not at all below the original in +this quality. The lines already quoted show Gudrun and Kiartan as to +exterior. But this is a drama of flesh and blood creations, and they are +men and women that move through it, not puppets. Souls are laid bare +here, in quivering, pulsating agony. The tremendous figure of this story +is not Kiartan, nor Gudrun, nor Refna, but Bodli, and certainly English +narrative poetry has no second creation like to him. The mind reverts to +Shakespeare to find fit companionship for Bodli in poetry, and to George +Eliot and Thomas Hardy in prose. The suggestion of Shakespearean +qualities in George Eliot has been made by several great critics, among +them Edmond Scherer;[31] in Hardy and Morris, here, we find the same +soul-searching powers. These writers have created sufferers of titanic +greatness, and in the presence of their tragedies we are dumb. + +An English artist has made Napoleon's voyage on H.M.S. _Bellerophon_ to +his prison-isle a picture that the memory refuses to forget. The picture +of Bodli as he sails back to Iceland, which, though his home, is to be +his prison and his death, is no less impressive: + + Fair goes the ship that beareth out Christ's truth + Mingled of hope, of sorrow, and of ruth, + And on the prow Bodli the Christian stands, + Sunk deep in thought of all the many lands + The world holds, and the folk that dwell therein, + And wondering why that grief and rage and sin + Was ever wrought; but wondering most of all + Why such wild passion on his heart should fall. + +(P. 294.) + +Here we have the poet's conception--and the sagaman's--of Bodli--a man +in the grip of terrible Fate, who can no more swerve from the paths she +marks out for him than he can add a cubit to his stature. The Greek +tragedy embodies this idea, and Old Norse literature is full of it. +Thomas Hardy gives it later in his contemporary novels. We sympathize +with Bodli's fate because his agony is so terrible, and we call him the +most striking figure in this story. But the others suffer, too, Gudrun, +Kiartan, Refna; they make a stand against their woe, and utter brave +words in the face of it. Only Bodli floats downward with the tide, +unresisting. Guest prophesies bitter things for Gudrun, but adds: + + Be merry yet! these things shall not be all + That unto thee in this thy life shall fall. + +(P. 254.) + +And Gudrun takes heart. When Thurid tells her brother Kiartan that +Gudrun has married another, his joy is shivered into atoms before him. +But he can say, even then: + + Now is this world clean changed for me + In this last minute, yet indeed I see + That still it will go on for all my pain; + Come then, my sister, let us back again; + I must meet folk, and face the life beyond, + And, as I may, walk 'neath the dreadful bond + Of ugly pain--such men our fathers were, + Not lightly bowed by any weight of care. + +(P. 311.) + +And Kiartan does his work in the world. Poor Refna, when she has married +Kiartan hears women talking of the love that still is between Gudrun and +Kiartan. She goes to Kiartan with the story, beginning with words whose +pathos must conquer the most stoical of readers: + + Indeed of all thy grief I knew, + But deemed if still thou saw'st me kind and true, + Not asking too much, yet not failing aught + To show that not far off need love be sought, + If thou shouldst need love--if thou sawest all this, + Thou wouldst not grudge to show me what a bliss + Thy whole love was, by giving unto me + As unto one who loved thee silently, + Now and again the broken crumbs thereof: + Alas! I, having then no part in love, + Knew not how naught, naught can allay the soul + Of that sad thirst, but love untouched and whole! + Kinder than e'er I durst have hoped thou art, + Forgive me then, that yet my craving heart + Is so unsatisfied; I know that thou + Art fain to dream that I am happy now, + And for that seeming ever do I strive; + Thy half-love, dearest, keeps me still alive + To love thee; and I bless it--but at whiles,-- + +(P. 343) + +And thus she gains strength to live her life. + +Here, then, in Bodli, is another of the great tragic figures in +literature--a sick man. There are many of them, even in the highest rank +of literary creations, Hamlet, Lear, Othello, Macbeth! Wrong-headed, +defective as they are, we would not have them otherwise. The pearl of +greatest price is the result of an abnormal or morbid process. + +Bodli comes to us from Icelandic literature, and in that fact we note +the solidarity of poetic geniuses. Not only is the great figure of Bodli +proof of this solidarity, but many other features of this poem prove it. +"Lively feeling for a situation and power to express it constitute the +poet," said Goethe. There are dramatic situations in "The Lovers of +Gudrun" which hold the reader in a breathless state till the last word +is said, and then leave him marveling at the imagination that could +conceive the scene, and the power that could express it. There are +gentler scenes, too, in the poem, where beauty and grace are conceived +as fair as ever poet dreamed, and the workmanship is thoroughly +adequate. As an example of the first, take the scene of Bodli's mourning +over Kiartan's dead body. It is here that we get that knowledge of +Bodli's woe that robs us of a cause against him. What agony is that +which can speak thus over the body of the dead rival! + + ... Didst thou quite + Know all the value of that dear delight + As I did? Kiartan, she is changed to thee; + Yea, and since hope is dead changed too to me, + What shall we do, if, each of each forgiven, + We three shall meet at last in that fair heaven + The new faith tells of? Thee and God I pray + Impute it not for sin to me to-day, + If no thought I can shape thereof but this: + O friend, O friend, when thee I meet in bliss, + Wilt thou not give my love Gudrun to me, + Since now indeed thine eyes made clear can see + That I of all the world must love her most? + +(P. 368.) + +Examples of the gentler scenes are scattered lavishly throughout the +poem and it is not necessary to enumerate. + +One other sign that the Icelandic sagaman's art was kin to the English +poet's. The last line of this poem is given thus by Morris: + + I did the worst to him I loved the most. + +These are the very words of Gudrun in the saga, and summing up as they +do her opinion of Kiartan, they stand as a model of that compression +which is so admired in our poetry. Many such _multum in parvo_ lines are +found in Morris' poem, and at times they have a beauty that is +marvelous. Joined with this quality is the special merit of +Morris--picturesqueness, and so the reader often feels, when he has +finished a book by Morris, like the Cook tourist after he has "done" a +country of Europe--it must be done again and again to give it its due. + +Of the other two Old Norse poems in _The Earthly Paradise_ not much need +be said. "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is a fairy +tale, in the strain of Morris' prose romances. It was suggested by +Thorpe's _Yule-tide Stories_, the tale coming from the _Voelundar Saga_. +There is a witchery about it that makes it pleasant reading in a dreamy +hour, but except the names and a few scenes about the farmstead, there +is nothing Icelandic about it. The virile element of the best Icelandic +literature is wanting here, and the hero's excuse for leaving weapons at +home when he goes to his watch is not at all natural: + + Withal I shall not see + Men-folk belike, but faerie, + And all the arms within the seas + Should help me naught to deal with these; + Rather of such love were I fain + As fell to Sigurd Fafnir's-bane + When of the dragon's heart he ate. + +(Vol. II, p. 33.) + +This passage is nominally in the same meter as the opening lines of the +poem: + + In this your land there once did dwell + A certain carle who lived full well, + And lacked few things to make him glad; + And three fair sons this goodman had. + +According to old time English prosody, it is the same, too, as the meter +of Scott's Marmion! + +In the passages quoted from "The Lovers of Gudrun" we see a measure +called the same as that of Pope's _Essay on Man_! Not seldom in "The +Lovers" do we forget that the lines are rhymed in twos; indeed, often we +do not note the rhyme at all. We are sometimes tempted to think that in +this piece, if not in "The Land East of the Sun," rhyme might have been +dispensed with altogether, since it often forces archaic words and +expressions into use. But it is to be said generally of Morris's +management of the meter in the Old Norse pieces, that it was adequate to +gain his end always, whether that end was to tell an Old Norse story in +English, or to carry over an Old Norse spirit into English. Of this +second achievement we shall speak further in considering _Sigurd the +Volsung_. + +There is one more tale in _The Earthly Paradise_ which originated in +Norse legend. "The Fostering of Aslaug" is drawn from Thorpe's _Northern +Mythology_, which epitomizes older sources. Aslaug is the daughter of +Iceland's great hero, Sigurd, and Iceland's great heroine, Brynhild, and +her life is set down in this poem most beautifully. Again we note that +the added touches of later poets fail to leave the sense of the +strenuous in the picture. Aslaug is like a favorite representation of +Brynhild that we have seen, a lily-maid in aspect, or a Marguerite. Her +mother's masculinity is gone, and with it the Old Norse flavor. It is +the privilege of our age to enjoy both the virility of the Old Norse and +the delicacy of the mediaeval conceptions, and William Morris has caught +both. + + +3. + +In the opening lines of "The Fostering of Aslaug," our poet wrote his +doubts about his ability to sing the life of Sigurd in be-fitting +manner. At that time he said: + + But now have I no heart to raise + That mighty sorrow laid asleep, + That love so sweet, so strong and deep, + That as ye hear the wonder told + In those few strenuous words of old, + The whole world seems to rend apart + When heart is torn away from heart. + +(Vol. III, p. 28.) + +It is a common complaint against the poetry of William Morris that it is +too long-winded. Each to his taste in this matter, but we beg to call +attention to one line in the above passage: + + In those few strenuous words of old. + +Whatever may have been Morris' tendency when he wrote his own poetry, he +knew when concision was a virtue in the poetry of others. There is no +better description of the _Voelsunga Saga_ than the above line, and +William Morris gave the English people a literal version of the saga, if +mayhap that strenuous paucity might translate the old spirit. But, as if +he knew that many readers would fail to make much of this version, he +tried again on a larger scale, and the great volume _Sigurd the +Volsung_, epic in character and proportions, was the result. Of these +two we shall now speak. + +The _Voelsunga Saga_ was published in 1870, only two years after Morris +had begun to study Icelandic with Eirikr Magnusson. The latter's name is +on the title page as the first of the two co-translators. The _Saga_ was +supplemented by certain songs from the _Elder Edda_ which were +introduced by the translators at points where they would come naturally +in the story. The work, both in prose and verse, is well done, and the +attempt was successful to make, as the preface proposes, the "rendering +close and accurate, and, if it might be so, at the same time, not over +prosaic." The last two paragraphs of this preface are particularly +interesting to one who is tracing the influence of Old Norse literature +on English literature, because they are words with power, that have +stirred men and will stir men to learn more about a wonderful land and +its lore. We copy them entire: + +"As to the literary quality of this work we might say much, but we think +we may well trust the reader of poetic insight to break through whatever +entanglement of strange manners or unused element may at first trouble +him, and to meet the nature and beauty with which it is filled: we +cannot doubt that such a reader will be intensely touched by finding, +amidst all its wildness and remoteness, such startling realism, such +subtilty, such close sympathy with all the passions that may move +himself to-day. + +"In conclusion, we must again say how strange it seems to us, that this +Volsung Tale, which is in fact an unversified poem, should never before +have been translated into English. For this is the Great Story of the +North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the +Greeks--to all our race first, and afterwards, when the change of the +world has made our race nothing more than a name of what has been--a +story too--then should it be to those that come after us no less than +the Tale of Troy has been to us." + +Morris wrote a prologue in verse for this volume, and it is an exquisite +poem, such as only he seemed able to indite. So often does the reader of +Morris come upon gems like this, that one is tempted to rail against the +common ignorance about him: + + O hearken, ye who speak the English Tongue, + How in a waste land ages long ago, + The very heart of the North bloomed into song + After long brooding o'er this tale of woe! + + . . . . . . . . . + + Yea, in the first gray dawning of our race, + This ruth-crowned tangle to sad hearts was dear. + + . . . . . . . . . + + So draw ye round and hearken, English Folk, + Unto the best tale pity ever wrought! + Of how from dark to dark bright Sigurd broke, + Of Brynhild's glorious soul with love distraught, + Of Gudrun's weary wandering unto naught, + Of utter love defeated utterly, + Of Grief too strong to give Love time to die! + + +4. + +Six years later, in 1877 (English edition), Morris published the long +poem, _The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and The Fall of the Niblungs_, +and in it gave the peerless crown of all English poems springing from +Old Norse sources. The poet considered this his most important work, and +he was prouder of it than of any other literary work that he did. One +who studies it can understand this pride, but he cannot understand the +neglect by the reading public of this remarkable poem. The history of +book-selling in the last decade shows strange revivals of interest in +authors long dead; it will be safe to prophesy such a revival for +William Morris, because valuable treasures will not always remain +hidden. In his case, however, it will not be a revival, because there +has not been an awakening yet. That awakening must come, and thousands +will see that William Morris was a great poet who have not yet heard of +his name. Let us look at his greatest work with some degree of +minuteness. + +The opening lines are a good model of the meter, and we find it +different from any that we have considered so far. There are certain +peculiarities about it that make it seem a perfect medium for +translating the Old Norse spirit. Most of these peculiarities are in the +opening lines, and so we may transfer them to this page:[32] + + There was a dwelling of Kings ere the world was waxen old; + Dukes were the door-wards there, and the roofs were thatched with gold; + Earls were the wrights that wrought it, and silver nailed its doors; + Earls' wives were the weaving-women, queens' daughters strewed its + floors, + And the masters of its song-craft were the mightiest men that cast + The sails of the storm of battle adown the bickering blast. + +Everybody knows that alliteration was a principle of Icelandic verse. It +strikes the ear that hears Icelandic poetry for the first time--or the +eye that sees it, since most of us read it silently--as unpleasantly +insistent, but on fuller acquaintance, we lose this sense of +obtrusiveness. Morris, in this poem, uses alliteration, but so skilfully +that only the reader that seeks it discovers it. A less superb artist +would have made it stick out in every line, so that the device would be +a hindrance to the story-telling. As it is, nowhere in the more than +nine thousand lines of _Sigurd the Volsung_ is this alliteration an +excrescence, but everywhere it is woven into the grand design of a +fabric which is the richer for its foreign workmanship. + +Notice that _duke_ and _battle_ and _master_ are the only words not +thoroughly Teutonic. This overwhelming predominance of the Anglo-Saxon +element over the French is in keeping with the original of the story. Of +course it is an accident that so small a proportion of Latin derivatives +is found in these six lines, but the fact remains that Morris set +himself to tell a Teutonic story in Teutonic idiom. That idiom is not +very strange to present-day readers, indeed we may say it has but a +fillip of strangeness. Archaisms are characteristic of poetic diction, +and those found in this poem that are not common to other poetry are +used to gain an Old Norse flavor. The following words taken from Book I +of the poem are the only unfamiliar ones: _benight_, meaning "at night"; +"so _win_ the long years over"; _eel-grig_; _sackless_; _bursten_, a +participle. The compounds _door-ward_ and _song-craft_ are +representative of others that are sprinkled in fair number through the +poem. They are the best that our language can do to reproduce the fine +combinations that the Icelandic language formed so readily. English +lends itself well to this device, as the many compounds show that Morris +took from common usage. Such words as _roof-tree_, _song-craft_, +_empty-handed_, _grave-mound_, _store-house_, taken at random from the +pages of this poem, show that the genius of our language permits such +formations. When Morris carries the practice a little further, and makes +for his poem such words as _door-ward_, _chance-hap_, _slumber-tide_, +_troth-word_, _God-home_, and a thousand others, he is not taking +liberties with the language, and he is using a powerful aid in +translating the Old Norse spirit. + +One more peculiar characteristic of Icelandic is admirably exhibited in +this poem. We have seen that Warton recognized in the "Runic poets" a +warmth of fancy which expressed itself in "circumlocution and +comparisons, not as a matter of necessity, but of choice and skill." +Certainly Morris in using these circumlocutions in _Sigurd the Volsung_, +has exercised remarkable skill in weaving them into his story. Like the +alliterations, they are part of an harmonious design. Examples abound, +like: + + Adown unto the swan-bath the Volsung Children ride; + +and this other for the same thing, the sea: + + While sleepeth the fields of the fishes amidst the summer-tide. + +Still others for the water are _swan-mead_, and "bed-gear of the swan." + +"The serpent of death" and _war-flame_, for sword; _earth-bone_, for +rock; _fight-sheaves_, for armed hosts; _seaburg_, for boats, are other +striking examples. + +So much for the mechanical details of this poem. Its literary features +are so exceptional that we must examine them at length. + +Book I is entitled "Sigmund" and the description is set at the head of +it. "In this book is told of the earlier days of the Volsungs, and of +Sigmund the father of Sigurd, and of his deeds, and of how he died while +Sigurd was yet unborn in his mother's womb." + +There are many departures from the _Voelsunga Saga_ in this poetic +version, and all seem to be accounted for by a desire to impress +present-day readers with this story. The poem begins with Volsung, +omitting, therefore, the marvelous birth of that king and the oath of +the unborn child to "flee in fear from neither fire nor the sword." The +saga makes the wolf kill one of Volsung's sons every night; the poem +changes the number to two. A magnificent scene is invented by Morris in +the midnight visit of Signy to the wood where her brothers had been +slain. She speaks to the brother that is left, desiring to know what he +is doing: + + O yea, I am living indeed, and this labor of mine hand + Is to bury the bones of the Volsungs; and lo, it is well nigh done. + So draw near, Volsung's daughter, and pile we many a stone + Where lie the gray wolf s gleanings of what was once so good. + +(P. 23.) + +The dialogue of brother and sister is a mighty conception, and surely +the old Icelanders would have called Morris a rare singer. Sigmund tells +the story of the deaths of his brothers, adding: + + But now was I wroth with the Gods, that had made the Volsungs for + nought; + And I said: in the Day of their Doom a man's help shall they miss. + +(P. 24.) + +But Signy is reconciled to the workings of Fate: + + I am nothing so wroth as thou art with the ways of death and hell, + For thereof had I a deeming when all things were seeming well. + +The day to come shall set their woes right: + + There as thou drawest thy sword, thou shall think of the days that were + And the foul shall still seem foul, and the fair shall still seem fair; + But thy wit shall then be awakened, and thou shalt know indeed + Why the brave man's spear is broken, and his war shield fails at need; + Why the loving is unbeloved; why the just man falls from his state; + Why the liar gains in a day what the soothfast strives for late. + Yea, and thy deeds shalt thou know, and great shall thy gladness be; + As a picture all of gold thy life-days shalt thou see, + And know that thou wert a God to abide through the hurry and haste; + A God in the golden hall, a God in the rain-swept waste, + A God in the battle triumphant, a God on the heap of the slain: + And thine hope shall arise and blossom, and thy love shall be quickened + again: + And then shalt thou see before thee the face of all earthly ill; + Thou shalt drink of the cup of awakening that thine hand hath holpen to + fill; + By the side of the sons of Odin shalt thou fashion a tale to be told + In the hall of the happy Baldur. + +(P. 25.) + +In this wise one Christian might hearten another to accept the dealings +of Providence to-day. While we do not think that a worshipper of Odin +would have spoken all these words, they are not an undue exaggeration of +the noblest traits of the old Icelandic religion. + +The poem does not record the death of Siggeir's and Signy's son, though +the saga does. Morris adds a touch when he makes the imprisoned men +exult over the sword that Signy drops into their grave, and he also puts +into the mouth of Siggeir in the burning hall words that the saga does +not contain. The poem says that the women of the Gothfolk were permitted +to retire from the burning hall, but the saga has no such statement. The +war of foul words between Granmar and Sinfjoetli is left in the saga, and +the cause of Gudrod's death is changed from rivalry over a woman to +anger over a division of war booty. In Sigmund's lament over his +childlessness we have another of the poet's additions, and certainly we +find no fault with the liberty: + + The tree was stalwart, but its boughs are old and worn. + Where now are the children departed, that amidst my life were born? + I know not the men about me, and they know not of my ways: + I am nought but a picture of battle, and a song for the people to + praise. + I must strive with the deeds of my kingship, and yet when mine hour is + come + It shall meet me as glad as the goodman when he bringeth the last load + home. + +(P. 56.) + +When the great hero dies, Morris puts into his mouth another of the +magnificent speeches that are the glory of this poem. Four lines from it +must suffice: + + When the gods for one deed asked me I ever gave them twain; + Spendthrift of glory I was, and great was my life-day's gain. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + Our wisdom and valour have kissed, and thine eyes shall see the fruit, + And the joy for his days that shall be hath pierced my heart to the + root. + +(P. 62.) + +It appears from this study of Book I that _Sigurd the Volsung_ has +adapted the saga story to our civilization and our art, holding to the +best of the old and supplementing it by new that is ever in keeping with +the old. Other instances of this eclectic habit may be seen in the other +three books, but we shall quote from these for other purposes. + +Book II is entitled "Regin." "Now this is the first book of the life and +death of Sigurd the Volsung, and therein is told of the birth of him, +and of his dealings with Regin the Master of Masters, and of his deeds +in the waste places of the earth." + +Morris was deeply read in Old Norse literature, and out of his stores of +knowledge he brought vivifying details for this poem. Such, for +instance, is the description of Sigurd's eyes, not found just here in +the saga: + + In the bed there lieth a man-child, and his eyes look straight on + the sun. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + Yet they shrank in their rejoicing before the eyes of the child. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . + +In the naming of the child by an ancient name, the meaning of that name +is indicated: + + O _Sigurd_, Son of the Volsungs, O Victory yet to be! + +The festivities over the birth of the child are wonderfully described +in the brief lines, and they are a picture out of another book than the +saga: + + Earls think of marvellous stories, and along the golden strings + Flit words of banded brethren and names of war-fain Kings. + +Over and over again in this poem Morris records the Icelanders' desire +"to leave a tale to tell," and here are Sigurd's words to Regin who has +been egging him on to deeds: + + Yet I know that the world is wide, and filled with deeds unwrought; + And for e'en such work was I fashioned, lest the songcraft come to + nought, + When the harps of God-home tinkle, and the Gods are at stretch to + hearken: + Lest the hosts of the Gods be scanty when their day hath begun to + darken. + +(P. 82.) + +In Book II we have other great speeches that the poet has put into the +mouth of his characters with little or no justification in the original +saga. Chap. XIV of the saga contains Regin's tale of his brothers, and +of the gold called "Andvari's Hoard," and that tale is severely brief +and plain. The account in the poem is expanded greatly, and the +conception of Regin materially altered. In the saga he was not the +discontented youngest son of his father, prone to talk of his woes and +to lament his lot. In the poem he does this in so eloquent a fashion +that almost we are persuaded to sympathize with him. Certainly his lines +were hard, to have outlived his great deeds, and to hear his many +inventions ascribed to the gods. The speech of the released Odin to +Reidmar is modeled on Job's conception of omnipotence, and it is one of +the memorable parts of this book. Gripir's prophecy, too, is a majestic +work, and its original was three sentences in the saga and the poem +_Gripisspa_ in the heroic songs of the _Edda_. Here Morris rises to the +heights of Sigurd's greatness: + + Sigurd, Sigurd! O great, O early born! + O hope of the Kings first fashioned! O blossom of the morn! + Short day and long remembrance, fair summer of the North! + One day shall the worn world wonder how first thou wentest forth! + +(P. 111.) + +Those who have read William Morris know that he is a master of nature +description. The "Glittering Heath" offered a fine opportunity for this +sort of work, and in this piece we have another departure from the saga, +Morris made hundreds of pictures in this poem, but the pages describing +the journey to the "Glittering Heath" are packed with them to an +extraordinary degree. Here is Iceland in very fact, all dust and ashes +to the eye: + + More changeless than mid-ocean, as fruitless as its floor. + +We confess that there is something in the scene that holds us, all shorn +of beauty though it is. We do not want to go the length of Thomas Hardy, +however, who, in that wonderful first chapter of _The Return of the +Native_ has a similar heath to describe. "The new vale of Tempe," says +he, "may be a gaunt waste in Thule: human souls may find themselves in +closer and closer harmony with external things wearing a sombreness +distasteful to our race when it was young.... The time seems near, if it +has not actually arrived, when the mournful sublimity of a moor, a sea, +or a mountain, will be all of nature that is absolutely consonant with +the moods of the more thinking among mankind. And ultimately, to the +commonest tourist, spots like Iceland may become what the vineyards and +myrtlegardens of South Europe are to him now." Is it not a suggestive +thought that England and the nineteenth century evolved a pessimism +which poor Iceland on its ash-heap never could conceive? William Morris +was an Icelander, not an Englishman, in his philosophy. + +In this same scene, a notable deviation from the saga is the +conversation between Regin and Sigurd concerning the relations that +shall be between them after the slaying of Fafnir. Here Morris impresses +the lesson of Regin's greed, taking the un-Icelandic device of preaching +to serve his purpose: + + Let it lead thee up to heaven, let it lead thee down to hell, + The deed shall be done tomorrow: thou shalt have that measureless Gold, + And devour the garnered wisdom that blessed thy realm of old, + That hath lain unspent and begrudged in the, very heart of hate: + With the blood and the might of thy brother thine hunger shalt thou + sate: + And this deed shall be mine and thine; but take heed for what followeth + then! + +(P. 119.) + +In still another place has Morris departed far from the saga story. +According to the poem, Sigurd meets each warning of Fafnir that the gold +will be the curse of its possessor with the assurance that he will cast +the gold abroad, and let none of it cling to his fingers. The saga, +however, has this very frank confession: "Home would I ride and lose all +that wealth, if I deemed that by the losing thereof I should never die; +but every brave and true man will fain have his hand on wealth till that +last day." Here, again, we see an adaptation of the story of the poem to +modern conceptions of nobility. It remains to be said that the ernes +move Sigurd to take the gold for the gladdening of the world, and they +assure him that a son of the Volsung had nought to fear from the Curse. +The seven-times-repeated "Bind the red rings, O Sigurd," is an admirable +poem, but it does not contain information concerning Brynhild, as do the +strophes of _Reginsmal_ which are the model for this lay. + +Let us look at the art of Morris as it is shown in telling "How Sigurd +awoke Brynhild upon Hindfell." As in the saga, so in the English poem, +this incident has a setting most favorable to the display of its +remarkable beauties. It is a picture as pure and sweet as it has ever +entered into the mind of man to conceive. The conception belongs to the +poetic lore of many nations, and children are early introduced to the +story of "Sleeping Beauty." There are some features of the Old Norse +version that are especially charming, and first among them is the +address of the awakened Brynhild to the sun and the earth. We are told +that this maiden loved the radiant hero that here awoke her from her +age-long sleep, but not for him is her first greeting. A finer thrill +moves her than love for a man, and in Morris's poem, this feeling finds +singularly beautiful expression: + + All hail O Day and thy Sons, and thy kin of the coloured things! + Hail, following Night, and thy Daughter that leadeth thy wavering + wings! + Look down with unangry eyes on us today alive, + And give us the hearts victorious, and the gain for which we strive! + All hail, ye Lords of God-home, and ye Queens of the House of Gold! + Hail thou dear Earth that bearest, and thou Wealth of field and fold! + Give us, your noble children, the glory of wisdom and speech, + And the hearts and the hands of healing, and the mouths and hands that + teach! + +(P. 140.) + +In order to see just what the art of Morris has done for this poem, let +us compare this address with the rendering of the _Sigrdrifumal_, which +tell the same story and which Morris and Magnusson have incorporated +into their translation of the _Voelsunga Saga_. The verses are not in the +original saga: + + Hail to the day come back! + Hail, sons of the daylight! + Hail to thee, dark night, and thy daughter! + Look with kind eyes a-down, + On us sitting here lonely, + And give unto us the gain that we long for. + Hail to the AEsir, + And the sweet Asyniur! + Hail to the fair earth fulfilled of plenty! + Fair words, wise hearts, + Would we win from you, + And healing hands while life we hold. + +To get the full benefit of the comparison of the old and the new, let us +set in conjunction with these versions a severely literal translation of +the _Edda_ strophes themselves: + + Hail, O Day, + Hail, O Sons of the Day, + Hail Night and kinswoman! + With unwroth eyes + look on us here + and give to us sitting ones victory. + Hail, O Gods, + Hail, O Goddesses, + Hail, O bounteous Earth! + Speech and wisdom + give to us, the excellent twain, + and healing hands during life. + +These stages in the progress of the gold from mine to mint furnish their +own commentary. The finished product will pass current with the most +exacting of assayers, as well as gladden the hearts of the poor one +whose hand seldom touches gold. + +If the skill of the poet in this case have merited resemblance to that +of the refiner of gold, what name less than alchemy can characterize his +achievement in the rest of this scene? From the first words of +Brynhild's life-story: + + I am she that loveth; I was born of the earthly folk; + +to the tender words that tell of the coming of another day: + + And fresh and all abundant abode the deeds of Day, + +there is a succession of beautiful scenes and glorious speeches such as +only a master of magic could have gotten out of the original story. The +Eddaic account of the Valkyr's disobedience to All-Father, pictures a +saucy and self-willed maiden. Sentence has been pronounced upon her, and +thus the story continues: "But I said I would vow a vow against it, and +marry no man that knew fear." The _Voelsunga Saga_ gives exactly the same +account, but the poetic version of Morris saves the maiden for our +respect and admiration. It is not effrontery, but repentance that speaks +in the voice of Brynhild here: + + The thoughts of my heart overcame me, and the pride of my wisdom and + speech, + And I scorned the earth-folk's Framer, and the Lord of the world I must + teach. + +In the Icelandic version, Odin makes no speech at the dooming, but +Morris puts into his mouth this magnificent address: + + And he cried: "Thou hast thought in thy folly that the Gods have + friends and foes, + That they wake, and the world wends onward, that they sleep, and + the world slips back, + That they laugh, and the world's weal waxeth, that they frown and + fashion the wrack: + Thou hast cast up the curse against me; it shall aback on thine head; + Go back to the sons of repentance, with the children of sorrow wed! + For the Gods are great unholpen, and their grief is seldom seen, + And the wrong that they will and must be is soon as it hath not been." + +(P. 141.) + +Morris has here again exercised the poet's privilege of adding to the +story that was the pride of an entire age, in order to serve his own the +better. If he was wise in these additions, he was no less wise in +subtractions and in preservations. The saga has a long address by +Brynhild, opening with mystical advice concerning the power of runes, +and closing grandly with wise words that sound like a page from the Old +Testament. The former find no place in _Sigurd the Volsung_, but the +latter are turned into mighty phrases that wonderfully preserve the +spirit of the original. + +One passage more from Book II: + + So they climb the burg of Hindfell, and hand in hand they fare, + Till all about and above them is nought but the sunlit air, + And there close they cling together rejoicing in their mirth; + For far away beneath them lie the kingdoms of the earth, + And the garths of men-folk's dwellings and the streams that water them, + And the rich and plenteous acres, and the silver ocean's hem, + And the woodland wastes and the mountains, and all that holdeth all; + The house and the ship and the island, the loom and the mine and the + stall, + The beds of bane and healing, the crafts that slay and save, + The temple of God and the Doom-ring, the cradle and the grave. + +(P. 145.) + +These ten lines serve to illustrate very well one of the most remarkable +powers of Morris. Just consider for a moment the number of details that +are crowded into this picture, and then notice how few are the strokes +required to put them there. For this rapid painting of a crowded canvas +Morris is second to none among English poets. This power to put a whole +landscape or a complex personality into a few lines is the direct +outcome of his study of Old Norse literature. Icelandic poetry is +characterized by this quality. One has but to compare the account of the +end of the world as it is found in the last strophes of _Voeluspa_, or in +the _Prose Edda_, with the similar account in _Revelations_ to see how +much two languages may differ in this respect. It would seem as if the +short verses characteristic of Icelandic poetry forbade lengthy +descriptions. The effect must be produced by a number of quick strokes: +there is never time to go over a line once made. A simile is never +elaborated, a new one is made when the poet wishes to insist on the +figure. Take the second strophe of the "Ancient Lay of Gudrun" as an +example, in the translation by Morris and Magnusson: + + Such was my Sigurd + Among the Sons of Giuki + As is the green leek + O'er the low grass waxen, + Or a hart high-limbed + Over hurrying deer, + Or gleed-red gold + Over grey silver. + +That is the Icelandic fashion; William Morris has caught it in the +_Story of Sigurd_. Matthew Arnold has not seen fit to use it in his +"Balder Dead," as these lines show: + + Him the blind Hoder met, as he came up + From the sea cityward, and knew his step; + Nor yet could Hermod see his brother's face, + For it grew dark; but Hermod touched his arm. + And as a spray of honeysuckle flowers + Brushes across a tired traveller's face + Who shuffles thro the deep-moistened dust, + On a May-evening, in the darkened lanes, + And starts him that he thinks a ghost went by-- + So Hoder brushed by Hermod's side. + +These are noble lines, but altogether foreign to Icelandic. + +Book III opens with the dream of Gudrun and Brynhild's interpretation of +it. This matter is managed in accordance with our own standards of art, +and thus differs materially from the saga story. In the latter a most +naive procedure is adopted, for Brynhild prophesies that Sigurd shall +leave her for Gudrun, through Grimhild's guile, that strife shall come +between them, and that Sigurd shall die and Gudrun wed Atli. The whole +later story is thus revealed. This is not a story-teller's art, but it +sets clear the Old Norse acceptance of fate's dealings. Of course +Morris' poetic action explains the dream perfectly, but the details are +not so frankly given. + +"Thou shalt live and love and lose, and mingle in murder and war," is +the gist of Brynhild's message, and the whole future history is there. + +This poem has often been called an epic, and certainly there are many +epical characteristics in it. One of them is the recurrence of certain +formulas, and in Books III and IV these are rather more abundant than in +the first two books. Thus the sword of Sigurd is praised in the same +words, again and again: + + It hath not its like in the heavens nor has earth of its fellow told. + +Then, there is the "cloudy hall-roof" of the Niblungs. Gudrun is "the +white-armed"; Grimhild is "the wisest of women"; Hogni is the +"wise-heart"; the Niblungs are "the Cloudy People"; their beds are +"blue-covered"; "the Godson the hangings" is an expression that recurs +very often, and it recalls the fact that Morris was an artisan as well +as an artist. + +In the preceding books we have noted that Morris lengthened the saga +story in his poem by the introduction of speeches that find no place in +the original. In this book we see another lengthening process, which, +with that already noted, goes far to account for the difference in bulk +between the saga and the poem. Chap. XXVI of the saga, tells in less +than a thousands words how Sigurd comes to the Giukings and is wedded to +Gudrun. His reception is told in one hundred words; his abode with the +Giukings is set forth in even fewer words; Grimhild's plotting and +administering of the drugged drink are told in two hundred words; his +acceptance of Gudrun's hand and her brother's allegiance are as tersely +pictured; kingdoms are conquered, a son is born to Sigurd, and Grimhild +plots to have Sigurd get Brynhild for her son Gunnar, yet the record of +it all is compressed within one hundred and fifty words. Of course, the +modern poet can hem himself within no such narrow bounds as this. The +artistic value of these various incidents is priceless, and Morris has +lingered upon them lovingly and long. He spreads the story over forty +pages, or a thousand lines, and I avow, after a third reading of these +three sections of the poem, that I would spare no line of them. How we +love this Sigurd of the poet's painting! And what a noble gospel he +proclaims to the Giukings: + + For peace I bear unto thee, and to all the kings of the earth, + Who bear the sword aright, and are crowned with the crown of worth; + But unpeace to the lords of evil, and the battle and the death; + And the edge of the sword to the traitor, and the flame to the + slanderous breath: + And I would that the loving were loved, and I would that the weary + should sleep, + And that man should hearken to man, and that he that soweth should + reap. + +(P. 174.) + +Here, by the way, is the burden of Morris's preaching in the cause of a +better society. It recurs a few pages further on in the poem, where the +Niblungs bestow praise on this new hero: + + And they say, when the sun of summer shall come aback to the land, + It shall shine on the fields of the tiller that fears no heavy hand; + That the sleep shall be for the plougher, and the loaf for him that + sowed, + Through every furrowed acre where the Son of Sigmund rode. + +(P. 178.) + +It need hardly be remarked that this Sigurd is not the sagaman's ideal. +The Icelanders never evolved such high conceptions of man's obligations +to man, but in their ignorance they were no worse off than their +continental brethren, for these forgot their greatest Teacher's +teaching, and modern social science must point them back to it. + +This Sigurd that we love becomes the Sigurd that we pity in the drinking +of a draught. Sorrow takes the place of joy in his life, and "the soul +is changed in him," so that men may say that on this day they saw him +die the first time, who was to die a second time by Guttorm's sword. +Gloom spreads over all the earth with the quenching of Sigurd's joy: + + In the deedless dark he rideth, and all things he remembers save one, + And nought else hath he care to remember of all the deeds he hath done. + +Here is illustrated the essential difference between the sagaman's art +and the modern story-teller's. The Icelander must tell his story in +haste; the deeds of men are his care, not their divagations nor their +psychologizings. The modern writer must linger on every step in the +story until the motive and the meaning are laid bare. In the present-day +version Sigurd's mental sufferings are described at length, and our +hearts are wrung at his unmerited woes. The saga knows no such woes, and +to all appearance Sigurd's life is not unhappy to its very end. Indeed, +it appears in more than one place in Morris's poem that Sigurd has +become godlike through the hard experiences of his life. Take this +passage as an illustration: + + So is Sigurd yet with the Niblungs, and he loveth Gudrun his wife, + And wendeth afield with the brethren to the days of the dooming of + life; + And nought his glory waneth, nor falleth the flood of praise: + To every man he hearkeneth, nor gainsayeth any grace, + And, glad is the poor in the Doom-ring when he seeth his face mid + the Kings, + For the tangle straighteneth before him, and the maze of crooked + things. + But the smile is departed from him, and the laugh of Sigurd the + young, + And of few words now is he waxen, and his songs are seldom sung. + Howbeit of all the sad-faced was Sigurd loved the best; + And men say: Is the king's heart mighty beyond all hope of rest? + Lo, how he beareth the people! how heavy their woes are grown! + So oft were a God mid the Goth-folk, if he dwelt in the world alone. + +(P. 205.) + +Set this by the side of the saga: "This is truer," says Sigurd, "that I +loved thee better than myself, though I fell into the wiles from whence +our lives may not escape; for whenso my own heart and mind availed me, +then I sorrowed sore that thou wert not my wife; but as I might I put my +trouble from me, for in a king's dwelling was I; and withal and in spite +of all I was well content that we were all together. Well may it be, +that that shall come to pass which is foretold; neither shall I fear the +fulfilment thereof." (_Voelunga Saga_, Chap. XXIX.) These words are +spoken to Brynhild after she has discovered what she regards as Sigurd's +treachery. His words are dictated by a noble resignation to fate, but +his very next remark shows a moral meanness not at all in keeping with +Morris's conception. Sigurd said: "This my heart would, that thou and I +should go into one bed together; even so wouldst thou be my wife." + +There have been many griefs depicted in this poem, but surely here are +set forth the most pitiless of them all. The guile-won Brynhild travels +in state to the Cloudy Hall of the Niblungs, and the whole people come +out to meet her. They are astonished at her beauty, and give her cordial +greeting and welcome to her husband's house. Proud and majestic, the +marvelous woman steps from her golden wain, and gives friendly but +passionless greeting to Gunnar as she places her hand in his. For each +of Gunnar's brothers she has a kindly word, as she has for Grimhild, +too. She asks to see the foster-brother of whom such wondrous tales are +told, and whose name she heard from Gunnar's lips with never a +tremor--"Sigurd, the Volsung, the best man ever born." Grimhild stands +between them for a time, but the meeting has to come. Then Brynhild +remembers, and Sigurd sees the unveiled past: + + Her heart ran back through the years, and yet her lips did move + With the words she spake on Hindfell, when they plighted troth of love. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + His face is exceeding glorious and awful to behold; + For of all his sorrow he knoweth and his hope smit dead and cold: + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + For the will of the Norns is accomplished, and outworn is Grimhild's + spell + And nought now shall blind or help him, and the tale shall be to tell. + +(P. 226.) + +There's the note of the whole history--the will of the Norns and the +note of a whole Northern literature, as it is of a whole Southern +literature. Man, the puppet, in the hands of Fate; however man may think +and reason and assure himself that the dispensation of Fate is just, the +supreme moment of realization will always be a tragedy: + + He hath seen the face of Brynhild, and he knows why she hath come, + And that his is the hand that hath drawn her to the Cloudy People's + home: + He knows of the net of the days, and the deeds that the Gods have bid, + And no whit of the sorrow that shall be from his wakened soul is hid. + +(P. 226.) + +In such an hour, what are conquests of a glorious past, what are honors, +crowns, loves, hates? The mind can think of little matters only: + + His heart speeds back to Hindfell, and the dawn of the wakening day; + And the hours betwixt are as nothing, and their deeds are fallen away. + +(P. 226.) + +Is aught to be said to one in such a crisis, the words are weak and +commonplace. There is Brynhild's greeting to Sigurd: + + If aught thy soul shall desire while yet thou livest on earth, + I pray that thou mayst win it, nor forget its might and worth. + +The shattered mind of Sigurd tries to grasp the meaning of the harmless +words, and like common sounds that are so fearful in the night, the +phrases assume a terrible import: + + All grief, sharp scorn, sore longing, stark death in her voice he knew. + +Then again conies the dominant note of this story: + + Gone forth is the doom of the Norns, and what shall be answer thereto, + While the death that amendeth lingers? + +Here is a hint of the end of all--"the death that amendeth," and from +this point to the end of the story there is no gleam of happiness for +anyone. + +Book IV brings to a majestic close this mighty history. We have dwelt so +long on the wonderful poetry of the other books that we must refrain +from further comment in this strain. As we read these eloquent +imaginings, we regret that the English reading public have left this +work through fear of its great length or the ignorance of its existence, +in the dust of half-forgotten shelves. Gold disused is true gold none +the less, and the ages to come may be more appreciative than the +present. + +For the sake of rounding out this story, be it noted concerning this +Book IV, that the poet has taken liberties with the saga story here, as +elsewhere. Motives more easily understood in our day are assigned for +the deeds of dread that throng these closing scenes. Gudrun weds King +Atli at her mother's bidding, and under the influence of a wicked +potion, but neither mother nor magic drives the memory of Sigurd from +her mind. She lives to bring destruction upon her husband's murderers, +and those murderers are her own flesh and blood. Through her appeals to +Atli's greed, and through Knefrud's lies in the Niblung court, the visit +of her proud brothers to her pliant husband is brought about. The saga +makes Atli the arch-plotter, and the motive his desire to possess the +gold. This sentence exculpates Gudrun from any wrong intention towards +her brothers: "Now the queen wots of their conspiring, and misdoubts her +that this would mean some beguiling of her brethren." (Chap. XXXIV.) In +Chap. XXXVIII, we are told that Gudrun fights on the side of her +brothers. We see at once the superiority of the poet's motive for a +modern tragedy. + +It is impressed upon the reader of an epic that the plan of its maker +does not call for fine analysis of character. The epic poet is concerned +necessarily with large considerations, and his personages do not split +hairs from the south to the southeast side. One sign of this is seen in +the epic formulae employed to characterize the personages of the story. +Such formulas are in _Sigurd the Volsung_ in abundance, as we have noted +on another page. But there are also many departures from the epic model +in this poem. Some of these we have referred to in the remarks on Book +III, where we noted Sigurd's mental sufferings. In Book IV we have a +discrimination of character that is not epic, but dramatic in its +minuteness. In the speech and the deeds of the Niblungs their pride and +selfishness is clearly set forth, but the individual members of that +race are distinguished by traits very minutely drawn. Thus Hogni is the +wary Niblung, and is averse to accepting Atli's invitation: + + "I know not, I know not," said Hogni, "but an unsure bridge is the sea, + And such would I oft were builded betwixt my foeman and me. + I know a sorrow that sleepeth, and a wakened grief I know, + And the torment of the mighty is a strong and fearful foe." + +(P. 281.) + +Gunnar is here distinguished as a hypocrite by word and deed; Gudrun +remembers Sigurd in her exile and schemes and plots to make her husband +Atli work her vengeance on the Niblungs; Atli is greedy for gold and +Gudrun's task is not hard; Knefrud is a liar whose words are winning, +and overcome the scruples of the Niblungs. In these careful +discriminations of character we see a non-epical trait, and of necessity +therefore, a non-Icelandic trait. The sagaman was epic in his tone. + +As a last appreciation of the art of William Morris as it is displayed +in this poem, we would call attention to the tremendous battle-piece +entitled "Of the Battle in Atli's Hall." It is the climax of this +marvelous poem, and in no detail is it inadequate to its place in the +work. The poet's constructive power is here demonstrated to be of the +highest order, and in the majestic sweep of events that is here +depicted, we see the poet in his original role of _maker_. The sagaman's +skill had not the power to conceive this titanic drama, and the memory +of his battle-piece is quite effaced by the modern invention. In blood +and fire the story comes to an end with Gudrun, + + The white and silent woman above the slaughter set. + +As we turn from the scene and the book, that figure fades not away. And +it is fitting that the last memory of this poem should be a picture of +love and hate, inextricably bound together, for that is the irony of +Fate, and Fate was mistress of the Old Norseman's world. + + +5. + +Between the great works dealt with in the last two sections, which +belong together and were therefore so considered, came the book of 1875, +bearing the title _Three Northern Love Stories and Other Tales_. It is +as good a representation as Iceland can make in the love-story class. + +These tales are charmingly told in the translation of Morris and +Magnusson, the second one, "Frithiof the Bold," being a master-piece in +its kind. Men will dare much for the love of a woman, and that is why +the sagaman records love episodes at all. Frithiof's voyage to the +Orkneys in Chap. VI is a stormpiece that vies with anything of its kind +in modern literature. It is Norse to the core, and we love the peerless +young hero who forgets not his manhood in his chagrin of defeat at love. +Surely there is fitness in these outbursts of song in moments of extreme +exultation or despair! "And he sang withal: + + "Helgi it is that helpeth + The white-head billows' waxing; + Cold time unlike the kissing + In the close of Baldur's Meadow! + So is the hate of Helgi + To that heart's love she giveth. + O would that here I held her, + Gift high above all giving!" + +Modern literature has lost this conventionality of the older writings, +found in Hebrew as well as in Icelandic, and we think it has lost +something valuable. Morris thought so, too, for he restored the +interpolated song-snatches in his Romances. We are tempted to dwell on +these three love-stories, they are so fine; but we must leave them with +the remark that they show the poet's appreciation of the worth of a +foreign literature, and his great desire to have his countrymen share in +his admiration for them. "The Story of Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue and +Raven the Skald," and "The Story of Viglund the Fair," are the other two +stories that give the title to the volume, representing the thirteenth +and fifteenth centuries, as "Frithiof" represented the fourteenth. + +6. + +With _Sigurd the Volsung_ ended the first great Icelandic period of +Morris's work. More than a dozen years passed before he returned to the +field, and from 1889 until his death, in 1896, everything he wrote bore +proofs of his abiding interest in and affection for the ancient +literature. The remarkable series of romances, _The House of the +Wolfings_ (1889), _The Roots of the Mountains_ (1890), _The Story of the +Glittering Plain_ (1891), _The Wood Beyond the World_ (1895), _The Well +at the World's End_ (1896) and _The Sundering Flood_ (posthumous), are +none of them distinctively Old Norse in geography or in story, but they +all have the flavor of the saga-translations, and are all the better for +it. They are as original and as beautiful as the poet's tapestries and +furniture, and if they did not provoke imitation as did the tapestries +and furniture, it was not because they were not worth imitating: more +than likely there were no imitators equal to the task. In these romances +we have men and women with the characteristics of an olden time that are +most worthy of conservation in the present time. The ideals of womanfolk +and manfolk in _The House of the Wolfings_ and _The Roots of the +Mountains_, for instance, are such as an Englishman might well be proud +to have in his remote ancestry. Hall-Sun, Wood-Sun, Sunbeam, and Bowmay +are wholesome women to meet in a story, and Thiodolf, Gold-mane, +Iron-face and Hallward are every inch men for book-use or to commune +with every day. Weaklings, too, abide in these stories, and Penny-thumb +and Rusty and Fiddle and Wood-grey lend humanity to the company. + +The two romances last mentioned are so steeped in the atmosphere of the +sagas, that what with folk-motes and shut-beds, and byres, and +man-quellers, and handsels and speech-friends, we seem to lose ourselves +in yet another version of a northern tale. Morris retains the old idiom +that he invented for his translations, and keeps the tyro thumbing his +dictionary, but the charm is increased by the archaisms. As one seeks +the words in the dictionary, one learns that Chaucer, Spenser and the +Ballads were the wells from which he drew these rare words, and that his +employment of them is only another phase of his love for the old far-off +things. It is true that the language of Morris is not of any one +stadium of English, but it is a poet's privilege to draw upon all +history for his words as well as for his allusions, and the revivals in +question are of worthy words pushed aside by the press of newer, but not +necessarily better forms. + +These works are the kind that show the influence of Old Norse literature +as spiritual rather than substantial. The stories are not drawn from the +older literature, nor are the settings patterned after it; but the +impulses that swayed men and women in the sagaman's tale, and the +motives that uplifted them, are found here. We cannot think that the +English people will always be unmindful of the great debt that they owe +to the Muse of the North. + + +7. + +In 1891, Morris engaged in a literary enterprise that set the fashion +for similar enterprises in succeeding years. With Eirikr Magnusson he +undertook the making of _The Saga Library_, "addressed to the whole +reading public, and not only to students of Scandinavian history, +folk-lore and language."[33] With Bernard Quaritch's imprint on the +title pages, these volumes to the number of five were issued in +exceptional type and form. The munificence of the publisher was equalled +by the skill of the translators, and in their versions of "Howard, the +Halt," "The Banded Men," and "Hen Thorir" (in Vol. I, dated 1891), "The +Ere-Dwellers" (in Vol. II, dated 1892) and _Heimskringla_ (in Vols. III, +IV and V, dated 1893-4-5), the definitive translations of sterling sagas +were given. As was the case with their _Grettis Saga_, the works rise to +the dignity of masterpieces, and had we no other legacy from Morris' +wealth of Icelandic scholarship, these translations were precious enough +to keep us grateful through many generations. + + +8. + +One more contribution to English literature hailing from the North, and +we have done with William Morris's splendid gifts. The volume of 1891, +entitled _Poems by the Way_, contains several pieces that must be +reckoned with. The vividest recollections of Icelandic materials here +made use of are the poems "Iceland First Seen," and "To the Muses of the +North." No reader of the poet's biography can forget the remarkable +journey that Morris made through Iceland, nor how he prepared for that +journey with all the care and love of a pilgrim bound for a shrine of +his deepest devotion. Every foot of ground was visited that had been +hallowed by the noble souls and inspiring deeds of the past, and that +pilgrimage warmed him to loving literary creation through the remainder +of his life. The last two stanzas of the first of the poems just +mentioned show what a strong hold the forsaken island had upon his +affections, and go far to explain the success of his Icelandic work: + + O Queen of the grief without knowledge, + of the courage that may not avail, + Of the longing that may not attain, + of the love that shall never forget, + More joy than the gladness of laughter + thy voice hath amidst of its wail: + More hope than of pleasure fulfilled + amidst of thy blindness is set; + More glorious than gaining of all + thine unfaltering hand that shall fail: + For what is the mark on thy brow + but the brand that thy Brynhild doth bear? + Lone once, and loved and undone + by a love that no ages outwear. + + Ah! when thy Balder conies back, + and bears from the heart of the Sun + Peace and the healing of pain, + and the wisdom that waiteth no more; + And the lilies are laid on thy brow + 'mid the crown of the deeds thou hast done; + And the roses spring up by thy feet + that the rocks of the wilderness wore. + Ah! when thy Balder comes back + and we gather the gains he hath won, + Shall we not linger a little + to talk of thy sweetness of old, + Yea, turn back awhile to thy travail + whence the Gods stood aloof to behold? + +In several other poems in this volume he recurs to the practice of his +romances, Scandinavianizes where the tendency of other poets would be +to mediaevalize. "Of the Wooing of Hallbiorn the Strong," and "The Raven +and the King's Daughter" are examples. Here we have ballads like those +that Coleridge and Keats conceived on occasion, full of the beauty that +lends itself so kindly to painted-glass decoration; clustered +spear-shafts, crested helms and curling banners, and everywhere lily +hands combing yellow hair or broidering silken standards. But the names +strike a strange note in these songs of Morris, and the accompaniments +are very different from the mediaeval kind: + + Come ye carles of the south country, + Now shall we go our kin to see! + For the lambs are bleating in the south, + And the salmon swims towards Olfus mouth. + Girth and graithe and gather your gear! + And ho for the other Whitewater![34] + +The introduction of the homely arts of bread-winning distinguishes the +romance of Scandinavia from the romance of Southern Europe, and here +Morris struck into a new field for poetry. Wherever we turn to note the +effects of Icelandic tradition, we find this presence of daily toil, +always associated with dignity, never apologized for. The connection +between Morris' art and Morris' socialism is not hard to explain. + +No commentary can equal Morris' own poem, "To the Muse of the North," in +setting forth the charm that drew him to the literature of Iceland: + + O Muse that swayest the sad Northern Song, + Thy right hand full of smiting and of wrong, + Thy left hand holding pity; and thy breast + Heaving with hope of that so certain rest: + Thou, with the grey eyes kind and unafraid, + The soft lips trembling not, though they have said + The doom of the World and those that dwell therein. + The lips that smile not though thy children win + The fated Love that draws the fated Death. + O, borne adown the fresh stream of thy breath, + Let some word reach my ears and touch my heart, + That, if it may be, I may have a part + In that great sorrow of thy children dead + That vexed the brow, and bowed adown the head, + Whitened the hair, made life a wondrous dream, + And death the murmur of a restful stream, + But left no stain upon those souls of thine + Whose greatness through the tangled world doth shine. + O Mother, and Love and Sister all in one, + Come thou; for sure I am enough alone + That thou thine arms about my heart shouldst throw, + And wrap me in the grief of long ago. + + + + +V. + +IN THE LATTER DAYS. + +ECHOES OF ICELAND IN LATER POETS. + + +After William Morris the northern strain that we have been listening for +in the English poets seems feeble and not worth noting. Nevertheless, it +must be remarked that in the harp of a thousand strings that wakes to +music under the bard's hands, there is a sweep which thrills to the +ancient traditions of the Northland. Now and then the poet reaches for +these strings, and gladdens us with some reminiscence of + + old, unhappy, far-off things + And battles long ago. + +As had already been intimated, the table of contents in a present-day +volume of poetry is very apt to show an Old Norse title. Thus Robert +Lord Lytton's _Poems Historical and Characteristic_ (London, 1877) +reveals among the poems on European, Oriental, classic and mediaeval +subjects, "The Death of Earl Hacon," a strong piece inspired by an +incident in _Heimskringla_. In Robert Buchanan's multifarious versifying +occurs this title: "Balder the Beautiful, A Song of Divine Death," but +only the title is Old Norse; nothing in the poem suggests that origin +except a notion or two of the end of all things. "Hakon" is the title of +a short virile piece more nearly of the Norse spirit. Sidney Dobell's +drama _Balder_ has only the title to suggest the Icelandic, but Gerald +Massey has the true ring in a number of lyrics, with themes drawn from +the records of Norway's relations with England. In "The Norseman" there +is a trumpet strain that recalls the best of the border-ballads; there +is also a truthfulness of portraiture that argues a poet's, intuition in +Gerald Massey, if not an acquaintance with the sagas: + + The Norseman's King must stand up tall, + If he would be head over all; + Mainmast of Battle! when the plain + Is miry-red with bloody rain! + And grip his weapon for the fight, + Until his knuckles grin tooth-white, + The banner-staff he bears is best + If double handful for the rest: + When "follow me" cries the Norseman. + +He knows the gentler side of Old Norse character, too, a side which, as +we have seen, was not suspected till Carlyle came: + + He hides at heart of his rough life, + A world of sweetness for the Wife; + From his rude breast a Babe may press + Soft milk of human tenderness,-- + Make his eyes water, his heart dance, + And sunrise in his countenance: + In merriest mood his ale he quaffs + By firelight, and with jolly heart laughs + The blithe, great-hearted Norseman. + +The poem "Old King Hake," is as strikingly true in characterization as +the preceding. In half a dozen strophes Massey has told a whole saga, +and has found time, too, to describe "an iron hero of Norse mould." How +miserable a personage is the Italian that flits through Browning's pages +when contrasted with this hero: + + When angry, out the blood would start + With old King Hake; + Not sneak in dark caves of the heart, + Where curls the snake, + And secret Murder's hiss is heard + Ere the deed be done: + He wove no web of wile and word; + He bore with none. + When sharp within its sheath asleep + Lay his good sword, + He held it royal work to keep + His kingly word. + A man of valour, bloody and wild, + In Viking need; + And yet of firelight feeling mild + As honey-mead. + +Another poem, "The Banner-Bearer of King Olaf," pictures the strong +fighter in a death he rejoiced to die. It is a good poem of the class +that nerves men to die for the flag, and it has the Old Norse spirit. +These poems are all from Massey's volume _My Lyrical Life_ (London. +1889). + +A glance at the other poems in Gerald Massey's volumes shows that like +Morris, and like Kingsley, and like Carlyle, the poet was a workman +eager to do for the workman. Is it not suggestive that these men found +themselves drawn to Old Norse character and life? The Icelandic republic +cherished character as the highest quality of citizenship, and put few +or no social obstacles in the way of its achievement. The literature +inspired by that life reveals a fellowship among the members of that +republic that is the envy of social reformers of the present day. Morris +makes one of the personages in _The Story of the Glittering Plain_ +(Chap. I) say these words: "And as for Lord, I knew not this word, for +here dwell we the Sons of the Raven in good fellowship, with our wives +that we have wedded, and our mothers who have borne us, and our sisters +who serve us." Almost may this description serve for Iceland in its +golden age, and so it is no wonder that the socialist, the priest, and +the philosopher of our own disjointed times go back to the sagas for +ideals to serve their countrymen. + +We have no other poets to mention by name in connection with this Old +Norse influence, although doubtless a search through the countless +volumes that the presses drop into a cold and uncaring world would +reveal other poems with Scandinavian themes. We close this section of +our investigation with the remark already made, that, in the tables of +titles in volumes of contemporary verse, acknowledgment to Old Norse +poetry and prose are not the rarity they once were, and in poems of any +kind allusions to the same sources are very common. + + + +RECENT TRANSLATIONS. + + +We have already noted the beginning of serial publications of saga +translations, namely, Morris and Magnusson's _Saga Library_ which was +stopped by the death of Morris when the fifth volume had been completed. +By the last decade of the nineteenth century Icelandic had become one of +the languages that an ordinary scholar might boast, and in consequence +the list of translations began to lengthen very fast. Several English +publishers with scholarly instincts were attracted to this field, and +so the reading public may get at the sagas that were so long the +exclusive possession of learned professors. _The Northern Library_, +published by David Nutt, of London, already contains four volumes and +more are promised: _The Saga of King Olaf Tryggwason,_ by J. Sephton, +appeared in 1895; _The Tale of Thrond of Gate_ (_Faereyinga Saga_), by F. +York Powell, in 1896; _Hamlet in Iceland_ (_Ambales Saga_), by Israel +Gollancz, in 1898; _The Saga of King Sverri of Norway_ (_Sverris Saga_), +by J. Sephton, in 1899. If we cannot give to these the praise of being +great literature though translations, we can at least foresee that this +process of turning all the readable sagas into English will quicken +adaptations and increase the stock of allusions in modern writings. + +An example of the publishers' feeling that the reading public will find +an interest in the saga itself, is the translation of _Laxdaela Saga_ by +Muriel A.C. Press (London, 1899, J.M. Dent & Co.). William Morris made +this saga known to readers of English poetry by his magnificent "Lovers +of Gudrun." Mrs. Press lets us see the story in its original form. +Perhaps this translation will appeal as widely as any to those who read, +and we may note the differences between this form of writing and that to +which the modern times are accustomed. + +This saga is a story, but it is not like the work of fiction, nor like +the sketch of history which appeals to our interest to-day. It has not +the unity of purpose which marks the novel, nor the broad outlook over +events which characterizes the history. Plotting is abundant, but plot +in the technical sense there is none. Events are recorded in +chronological order, but there is no march of those events to a +_denouement_. While it would be wrong to say that there is no one hero +in a saga, it would be more correct to say that that hero's name is +legion. From generation to generation a saga-history wends its way, each +period dominated by a great hero. The annals of a family edited for +purposes of oral recitation, or the life of the principal member of that +family with an introduction dealing with the great deeds of as many of +his ancestors as he would be proud to own--this seems to be what a saga +was--_Laxdaela_, _Grettla_, _Njala_. + +This form permits many sterling literary qualities. Movement is the +most marked characteristic. This was essential to a spoken story, and +the sharpest impression left in the mind of an English reader is that of +relentless activity. Thus he finds it necessary to keep the bearings of +the story by consulting the list of _dramatis personae_ and the map, both +indispensable accompaniments of a saga-translation. The chapter headings +make this list, and a glance at them for _Laxdaela_ reveals a procession +of notable personages--Ketill, Unn, Hoskuld, Olaf the Peacock, Kiartan, +Gudrun, Bolli, Thorgills, Thorkell, Thorleik, Bolli Bollison and Snorri. +Each of these is, in turn, the center of action, and only Gudrun keeps +prominent for any length of time. + +Character-portraiture, ever a remarkable achievement in literature, is +excellently done in the sagas. There was a necessity for this; so many +personages crowded the stage that, if they were not to be mere puppets, +they would have to be carefully discriminated. That they were so a +perusal of any saga will prove. + +In a novel love is almost indispensable; in a saga other forces are the +impelling motives. Love-making gets the novelist's tenderest interest +and solicitude, but it receives little attention from the sagaman. +Wooing under the Arctic Circle was a methodical bargaining, and there +was little room for sentiment. When Thorvald asked for Osvif's daughter +Gudrun, the father "said that against the match it would tell that he +and Gudrun were not of equal standing. Thorvald spoke gently and said he +was wooing a wife, not money. After that Gudrun was betrothed to +Thorvald.... He should also bring her jewels, so that no woman of equal +wealth should have better to show.... Gudrun was not asked about it and +took it much to heart, yet things went on quietly." (Chap. XXXIV of +_Laxdaela_.) In Iceland, as elsewhere, love was a source of discord, and +for that reason love is always present in the saga. It is not the tender +passion there, silvered with moonlight and attended by song. The saga is +a man's tale. + +The translation just referred to is in _The Temple Classics_, published +by J.M. Dent & Co., London, 1899, and edited by Israel Gollancz. The +editor promises (p. 273) other sagas in this form, if Mrs. Press's work +prove successful. He speaks of _Njala_ and _Volsunga_ as imminent. It is +to be hoped that the intention is to give the Dasent and the Morris +versions, for they cannot be excelled. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Quoted in Gray, by E.W. Gosse, English Men of Letters, p. +163.] + +[Footnote 2: B. Hoff. Hovedpunkter af den Oldislandske +litteratur-historie. Kobenhavn. 1873.] + +[Footnote 3: Pp. xli-l in Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas +Gray, edited by W.L. Phelps. Ginn & Co., Boston. 1894.] + +[Footnote 4: Life of Gray, pp. 160 ff.] + +[Footnote 5: Wm. Sharp in Lyra Celtica, p. xx. Patrick Geddes and +Colleagues. Edinburgh. 1896.] + +[Footnote 6: Of Heroic Virtue, p. 355, Vol. III of Sir William Temple's +Works. London. 1770.] + +[Footnote 7: Of Heroic Virtue, p. 356.] + +[Footnote 8: Of Poetry, p. 416.] + +[Footnote 9: Spelling and punctuation are as in the original.] + +[Footnote 10: Stopford Brooke, English Literature. D. Appleton & Co., +New York. 1884. p. 150.] + +[Footnote 11: Vol. 3, pp. 146-311.] + +[Footnote 12: Quoted in Introduction, p. vii.] + +[Footnote 13: Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., Vol. I, p. +231. Boston, Houghton, Osgood & Co. 1879.] + +[Footnote 14: Edinburgh Review, Oct., 1806.] + +[Footnote 15: Quoted in Lockhart's Life, Vol. III, p. 241.] + +[Footnote 16: In G.W. Dasent's Life of Cleasby, prefixed to the +Icelandic-English Dictionary. Based on the MS. collection of the late +Richard Cleasby, enlarged and completed by Gudbrand Vigfusson. Oxford. +1874.] + +[Footnote 17: In another work by Carlyle, _The Early Kings of Norway_ +(1875) he takes special delight in revealing to Englishmen name +etymologies that hark back to Norse times. Of this sort are Osborn from +Osbjorn; Tooley St. (London) from St. Olave, St. Oley, Stooley, Tooley, +(Chap. X).] + +[Footnote 18: _The Early Kings of Norway_ bears a later date--1875--than +the works we are considering just now, and it is dealt with here only +because Carlyle's _Heroes and Hero-Worship_ belongs in the decade we are +considering.] + +[Footnote 19: Chap. V of Preliminary Dissertation.] + +[Footnote 20: Letters, Vol. I, p. 55, dated Dec. 12, 1855.] + +[Footnote 21: Home of the Eddic Poems, p. xxxix. London, 1899. David +Nutt.] + +[Footnote 22: Introduction to the Cleasby Dictionary.] + +[Footnote 23: Oxford Essays, 1858, p. 214.] + +[Footnote 24: Lectures delivered in America in 1874, by Charles +Kingsley. London. 1875. p. 71.] + +[Footnote 25: P. 78.] + +[Footnote 26: P. 89.] + +[Footnote 27: P. 90.] + +[Footnote 28: P. 91.] + +[Footnote 29: P. 96.] + +[Footnote 30: The Life of William Morris, by J.W. Mackail. London, New +York, Bombay. Vol. I, p. 200.] + +[Footnote 31: Edmond Scherer. Essays on English Literature, p. 309.] + +[Footnote 32: Citations are from the 3d edition. Boston. 1881.] + +[Footnote 33: Preface to Vol. I, p. v.] + +[Footnote 34: The Wooing of Hallbiorn.] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INFLUENCE OF OLD NORSE +LITERATURE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE*** + + +******* This file should be named 13786.txt or 13786.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/7/8/13786 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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