Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/498

 456 Reviews.

glorious memory, no Northern poet would have taken him as a hero centuries after his death, in an heroic age. His story must have been remembered, and remembered in several forms, too. That these various forms were drawn upon, one can hardly doubt, by poets of an age when men from many tribes and lands of the North met round the bivouac fire, at the king's table, and on watch a-shipboard, each bringing his own legends and memories of song and saga. These varied forms from different localities will more easily explain variations and additions than "classic in- fection," and it is not necessary to drag in Ulysses and Meleager and Protesilaus for the purpose. Hence, on the constructive side the book must be pronounced largely unsatisfactory and frequently over-fanciful. On the other hand, Dr. Bugge has enforced the theory of Vigftisson up to the hilt, and very skillfully refuted the ridiculous attempts that have been lately made to bolster up the old ideas. Dr. Bugge understands thoroughly that history in these matters is the key to literature, and though he permits himself to imagine a barbaric poet as more open to alter his facts in obedience to foreign influence than I think probable or even possible, he never forgets that the poems he is commenting on were living things capable of development and obedient to the circumstances of their day. His book, forced and strained as it often confessedly is, cannot be passed over by those that wish to have a real know- ledge of the critical problems that still lie about these remarkable poems, the Helgi-lays. That this keen scholar may be spared to give us his final views on the Eddie lays of the Wolsung cycle must be the wish of every attentive reader of the present volume, a most worthy and adequate member of the "Grimm Library," which under Mr. Nutt's auspices has proved itself a series of high value to the student of early folklore.

F. York Powell.

The Magic of the Horseshoe, with other Folklore Notes. By Robert M. Lawrence. Boston and New York : Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. The Riverside Press, Cambridge.

Mr. Lawrence has brought together much that has been re- corded in other places and by previous writers, regarding the