Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/125

Rh theory is implicitly and properly rejected. The point of view taken is on the whole too narrow, and the whole subject, beyond a few such references, is left where Grimm left it. One is a little disappointed at the sterility of the survey, which, as treated by Dr. Symons, opens out no prospect of future fruitfulness, and neglects the anthropological side completely.

Sievers’ useful little notice, chiefly concerning Wulfila, is beside our purpose here. Mogk’s sketch of O. N. literature is again rather flat: it summarises handily enough much that is sufficiently known, but, like Symons’ paper, it lacks what one might call the suggestive quality. The MSS. are not noticed; the chronology is sometimes at fault; thus, 872 is too early for Hafursfrith battle, and the Greenland Lay is dated rather too soon, and Alvíss-mal too late; the upward date of Angantheow’s Lay, fixed by the allusion to Harold Fair-hair—an ec Noregi narðag ᵹllom—and other like examples, are not considered. The defective plan of the Grundriss in separating the Norwegian and Icelandic from the Swedish and Danish classic literature is responsible for the omission of the Northern sources of Saxo, and of the Hrolf-cycle, where one naturally looks for it. Still, on the whole, Dr. Mogk’s work is painstaking, and, while by no means replacing earlier work, will probably help the German student. The bibliography is useful.

Of the succeeding fasciculi of the Grundriss der germanischen Philologie received up to present date, Band i, Lieferung 3, is taken up with the history of the Old Northern, German, and Netherland tongues, by A. Noreen, O. Behaghel, and J. F. Winkel, respectively; and does not directly concern us here. Band ii, Abteilung 2, Lieferung 3, is occupied by the end of K. von Amira’s interesting sketch of Teutonic Law, A. Schultz’s little article on the Teutonic Weapons of War, and F. Klaund’s well-ordered description of the social life and condition of the Scandinavians, from all three of which