Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/206

 196 Reviews.

the old stories, under the curses of step-mothers." The miracle on p. 1 5 probably has some natural explanation ; the story is of a raft which floated while men were on it, and sank the moment after they had left it. On p. 32 it is told how Sverri shamed the men of Helsingjaland into giving him food by threatening to eat horse-flesh. Sverri's men once thought their ship was spell-bound ; it turned out that they had forgotten to pull up the anchor (p. 86). When a plot was preparing against Sverri, he showed prescience of it by making a thrust in the air with a knife, saying, " The fetches of our foes are now flitting about us " (p. 146). Sverri had a fondness for using proverbs and quoting verses. The most interesting of his quotations is one from Fdfnismdl, while his best proverb is the excellent Wellerism, " Such things often happen at sea, as the seal said when it was shot in the eye" (p. 209).

Various writers have pointed out that Sverris saga has one defect ; it gives only one side of the great king's character ; we learn much about his battles, and little or nothing about his statesmanship. This, however, is the real Icelandic spirit (com- pare the modern tale, in which the old woman says, " There's no fun in the Gospels ; there's no fighting in them ") ; it is action of a stirring kind that forms the mainspring of a saga, and there are few historical works of the 12th and 13th centuries that could bear comparison with Abbot Karl's history of King Sverri.

W. A. Craigie.

Studies on Biblical Subjects. No. II. Jacob at Bethel: The Vision — The Stone — The Anointing. By A. Smythe Palmer, D.D. London : David Nutt. 1899.

This is the second instalment of Dr. Smythe Palmer's Studies on Biblical Subjects, the first of which, on " Babylonian Influence on the Bible," has already been noticed in Folk-Lore (vol. ix., p. 71). It displays the same amount of wide reading, the same power of happy combination, and the same charm of style. The story of Jacob's vision at Beth-el is treated with a wealth of illustration from folklore and mythology which is really wonderful. Every detail in it is shown to have its counterpart in the beliefs and