Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/56

38 One might suppose that the examples we have given are either exceptional, or at least very striking ones, but this is not the case. On the contrary they illustrate the rules from which even the greatest, the really gifted poets, were unable to free themselves, though they did, now and then, break the fetters and express themselves in the simple and natural style of the ancients. In their most inspired moments they evinced much talent and taste in the choice and invention of their metaphors. The examples quoted rather fall short of representing the whole artificial character of the skaldic poetry, nor does even a literal translation like the one we have given in the foot note do the subject full justice; for if a translation should perfectly reflect the original, the rhythm, the alliteration and the assonance would have to be reproduced. It should also be added that, as a compensation for the manifold difficulties of versification, the skalds had a well-nigh unlimited liberty in the arrangement of the words in each half of the stanza. The words might be given in almost any order the poet saw fit, so that a metaphor already obscure on account of its many members might be broken asunder and the separate members scattered here and there between words belonging to other metaphors. Thus it is evident that it was no easy matter to understand these verses, and in spite of the fact that the figures consisted to a great extent of often repeated, standard and familiar phrases, there can be no doubt that the listeners, as a rule, received but a very superficial impression of the contents of the lay, and if they really desired to comprehend it, they would have to make a careful study of it. Still while these rugged phrases sounded in their ears only as the roar of a waterfall, the listeners did not lose much; for what has once been said of one of these songs, that it is almost without a parallel in bold metaphors, but that this array of words has no great significance, can safely be said of them as a class, although it is true, as stated above, that a lay can here and there be found, which is full