Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/79

Rh and of their defeat in the battle with jarl Hakon, and of Gorm the Old, and Harald Bluetooth, while the latter contains the history of Denmark from Gorm the Old down to Knud VI, and furnishes a very full and interesting account of Knud the Saint. is mentioned only incidentally in some of the sagas, as for instance in that of Egil Skallagrimsson and in a few of the shorter stories of which the historical value is very insignificant. Contributions to the history of are found in, which, though full of embellishments, still helps to illustrate and explain the account of Nestor.

The historical taste which produced this extensive literature was gradually lost. Many causes, both external and internal, united in bringing this magnificent intellectual activity to a standstill. It was a matter of course, that the greater the number of sagas that were put in writing and thus made accessible to the many, the more did the interest in the oral tradition diminish, and the latter was the most important condition for the gathering and preservation of the saga materials. The decline of oral tradition can also be partly accounted for by the fact that the social conditions in Iceland gradually assumed a new character and consequently the saga materials, which were formerly liable to develop anywhere, now gathered around a few centres and no longer awakened the same general interest as before. The original institutions under which the Icelandic freeman considered himself the equal of every other freeman in the land, had gradually developed into the government of a few, inasmuch as a comparatively large power was centred in the hands of a few chiefs; and while formerly the law itself, the greater or lesser knowledge of it, and the ability to apply it, in connection with public opinion, as a rule decided all disputes, it now depended chiefly on who could furnish the largest army with which to annihilate his opponent.