Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/138

120 how the knights and their friends sit over their wine-goblets; how accompanied by their servants and hounds they set out on their hunting expeditions, or arm themselves for a war either to defend the realm or to take revenge on an enemy. In short, we are able, on the basis of these ballads, to draw vivid and faithful pictures of the life of chivalry in all its aspects, pictures for which these ballads alone can furnish the materials, and thus they are of inestimable value to the student of the history of civilization. And, finally, in their rich and varied contents they reveal to us the customs and usages, the mode of thought and manner of action of the middle age in an endless variety of grotesque stories.

Great prominence is given to love in these ballads. Many a touching episode is given of inviolable faith and of hard struggles against a pitiless fate preventing the union of lovers, as for instance in the celebrated song of Axel and Valborg. Still love, as revealed in these ballads, is rarely of the sentimental kind; on the contrary it is usually passionately sensual and shuns no means of securing the coveted prize. Upon the whole we are in many ways reminded that we are contemplating a remote age teeming with untamed passions and regarding right and honor with eyes totally different from ours. Abduction of women, deeds of violence, savage and cruel revenge on successful rivals, etc., are by no means rare occurrences, but on the other hand there are numerous examples of noble, lofty feelings. In some ballads of chivalry the development of the plot is made so subordinate that the lyric element predominates. Still these are mere exceptions, for as a rule these too, like the other varieties of this group, are epic in their contents though highly lyric in form. Deserving of mention are also the not very numerous humorous poems which must also be included in the category of ballads of chivalry, since they borrow their materials from the life of the knights, and finally the satirical songs in which especially godless monks are held up to ridicule. The latter date, of course, from the close of the