Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/190

172 ten," in which he develops the plan of his proposed work, and a few fragments of digested materials for the work. One of these fragments, "King Svend Haraldsson Forkbeard," was published about a hundred years after Vedel's death.

Vedel also rendered important services to literature by his publication of the oldest collection of popular ballads from the Middle Ages. It contains one hundred ballads explained and annotated, and appeared in 1591. He also left behind him, in manuscript, another smaller collection called "Tragica," which was not published before 1657. It was not, of course, Vedel's purpose to subject these ballads to any real criticism; he merely collected what he found and endeavored to clothe it in the most attractive form possible, and to this end he made such changes and additions as seemed to him necessary. These works are, nevertheless, of the greatest importance, for the people's taste for the old poetry was thus kept alive, and without these collections a large number of the ballads would have perished.

The Norwegian preacher (1545-1614) rendered great services to the history of Norway by his translation of the old sagas of the kings. Like Vedel's his work is marked by its excellent style. This also applies to his other writings, as for instance his "Norriges og omliggende Öers Beskrivelse"—a description of Norway and adjacent islands—in which is found historical material of value. His language is remarkably pure and his style is even and artless.

The execution of the work begun by Vedel was undertaken by the chancellor of the realm, Arild Huitfeld (1549-1609). From 1595 to 1604 he edited in ten volumes a chronicle of the Danish kingdom together with a chronicle of the bishops, and he calls it himself a preparation for a more ornate and