Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/83

Rh admitted, though there is throughout the later additions a manifest effort to preserve the fundamental thought that characterizes the oldest and original parts of the story.

The or the  (Verona) has preserved much less of the original character. It is connected with the Volsunga Saga, and like the Niebelungenlied and the other poems, and songs relative to this Middle High German epic, forms an important supplement to it, inasmuch as it belongs to the same group of traditions, but it is not based on old northern poems. It is probably a collection of oral traditions and songs from Germany compiled and translated in Bergen, Norway, about the year 1250. Of great value is the (saga of Hervor), which for the greater part is based on very ancient songs, a large number of which have come down to us in fragments that are in many respects very remarkable. It contains a number of traditions in regard to the sword Tyrfing, forged by dwarfs. It reflects the old heathen time with remarkable fidelity, and is full of poetry of the finest flavor, wherefore it has frequently been reproduced by the later poets; but the close of this thrilling saga is only a dry chronicle-like account of Swedish kings. The short but beautiful has furnished the materials for one of the most excellent poetical productions of modern Scandinavian literature, but it bears no strong impress of antiquity, and is really a striking illustration of how homely materials may be utilized, when the national taste has been influenced by contemporary foreign literature. Nor can the poems contained in this saga be regarded as very old, and it seems indeed most probable that they are of the same age and by the same author as the saga. The saga of King Half and his Heroes is on the other hand full of fragments of genuine old poems which are of great interest. An important work for the study of Danish traditions is. It is based on old Danish traditions and poems, which, however, by their fabulous character and by their very style