Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/69

Rh profound psychological insight and with an unerring appreciation of the distinctive traits of a person's character and of the most important facts in every scene and event. It is difficult to draw the line between fact and fiction; for, though there can be no doubt that all these descriptions are based on actual occurrences (and this must be said of them not only as a whole and in general, but also of a great majority of the details); still it is evident that some fiction has been blended with the facts. This appears not so much from the aptly interwoven verses or epistles as from the masterly and artistic manner in which the materials are arranged, while the creative talent of the artist is present either consciously or unconsciously, especially in the reproduction of the dialogues, which in many instances are worthy of a dramatic poet. This arbitrary element, which lends a peculiar charm to the descriptions akin to that which we find in the works of great poets, is not equally prominent in all the sagas. Those in which this poetic charm is most easily discovered are in all respects the best ones. Not of a single one of them do we know with certainty in what manner or by whom it received its present form; not a single one appears as the work of this or that "author," and this is in one sense as it should be, since a large part of the work must unquestionably be ascribed to tradition which preceded the writing. Frequent efforts have been made to trace the most important sagas to well-known Icelanders like Are and Sæmund, but wholly without reason, since the form in which we now have them cannot be ascribed to distinct individuals.

Generally speaking, no chronological disposition can be made of the Icelandic saga. The evidences of age that may be gathered from the style, the language, etc., are so uncertain that it is not possible to draw conclusions from them in regard to the different kinds of writing. In the enumeration which we are now about to make of the most important ones we have nothing else to guide us as to the