Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/240

 224 and of the various channels through which it has come down to us. The author perhaps hardly attaches sufficient value to Snorri's Edda, which may not unfairly be described as a transcript in longhand of the shorthand notes of the poetic Edda. Of course there are amplifications in some of the tales, where Snorri lets himself go as a story-teller; but, seeing how saturated with mythology was the poetic speech of the Scandinavian lands, it is clear that a knowledge of the origin of that speech must in the main have been preserved by the skalds, and must have been known to Snorri, who made it his business to explain in his Skaldskaparmál the kennings of the northern poetic tongue. Miss Faraday sketches clearly the main points of the mythology and the attributes of the chief gods, touching but lightly on controversial questions, which obviously could not be discussed in a brief handbook. The main points over which issue is joined are, however, indicated sufficiently to guide inquirers who may wish to go more deeply into the subject.—.