Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/82

64 When we compare the poems that have come down to our time with the Volsunga Saga we find that the relation between song and story, wherever the transproser's method can be detected, is of such a nature that in all probability the leading features of the traditions have as a rule been preserved in their pure and original form. Occasionally, it is true, a romantic chord is struck which cannot be traced back to the songs, and which cannot be made to harmonize with the ancient traditions, but reminds us of the age of chivalry with its tendency to tell supernatural adventures and paint the most grotesque pictures with the most glowing colors. Not unfrequently the original plot has been distorted by the transproser for the reason that he has not correctly understood the poem. But viewed as a whole the transprosing is faithfully done, and the impression we get from those parts of which we possess only the prosaic paraphrase is uniformly the same as that which we get from those passages of which the original poems are preserved. The saga is in fact throughout, by virtue of its natural simplicity, an exceedingly fascinating reproduction substantially of the songs with which we are familiar, and frequently it approaches the form of the verse so closely that we catch glimpses of the latter with its alliterations. The Volsunga saga is particularly interesting from the fact that it illustrates how the original and ancient nucleus of the saga in the course of time has received various additions, other traditions having become united with the Volsung legends. A remarkable example of this is the expansion which the Sigurd traditions have received by becoming united with the traditions relating to the viking king Ragnar Lodbrok, the latter's wife Aslaug being represented as a daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild. This is a striking illustration of the tendency quite common among the ancients to connect the most prominent families with kings and heroes of the heroic age. That the organic unity of the story could not but suffer by this blending of one episode with another for the purpose of bringing the Volsung race down to historical times, must be