Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/313

Rh in that we have the incident of the "Magic Flight." This, if not traceable to the influence of the French Canadian voyageurs, will add another to the list of "stations" at which this very interesting story-incident is found.

The major part of Dr. Russell's book is taken up by the journal of his experiences during the period of his northern trip, and as a record of travel will be found most entertaining. He has been successful in securing for his university a large and valuable collection of Arctic fauna, and a considerable mass of ethnological specimens illustrating the life and customs of the natives. Should he make a second journey to the north, as he declares is his intention, it is to be hoped that he will bring to the folk-lorist a harvest equally great. Roland B. Dixon.

The volume which bears this title is a translation of Professor Bugge's "Helge-Digtene i den Ældre Edda, Deres Hjem og Forbindelser," which appeared in 1896. The Norwegian original formed the second series of Bugge's "Studier over de Nordiske Gude- og Heltesagns Oprindelse," of which the first series was published at Christiania in 1881-89; the earlier volume was translated into German by Professor O. Brenner under the title, "Studien über die Entstehung der Nordischen Götter- und Heldensagen" (Munich, 1889), and now Dr. Schofield has made the second series accessible to the larger European public by preparing an English translation of it. Dr. Schofield's volume contains, in addition to the treatise on the Helgi-lays, a new introduction on Old Norse Mythology, written by Bugge especially for the English edition.

Professor Bugge is the chief exponent of the theory formerly held, though very slightly worked out, by Vigfusson, that the poems of the elder Edda were composed in a large part in the British Isles, and show in both style and subject-matter the influence of the foreign literatures with which the Scandinavian poets came in contact. In the first series of his "Studier" he investigated the myths of Baldr and of the hanging of Odin, and traced their origin largely to Christian and classical tradition. In the new Introduction to the English volume he recapitulates in part the conclusions of his earlier book, and extends the same method of inquiry to other myths and traditions. He once more draws in detail the parallels between the life of Christ and the story of Baldr; he attempts to find the origin of Loki's name, and of many of his characteristics in Lucifer (understood by Scandinavians as Luci fur); he derives the wolf Fenrir from infernus lupus by a process of popular etymology; and he sees the prototype of the Mithgarthsorm in the Leviathan of the Scriptures. To prepare the way for these identifications, he attempts to show on various grounds that most of the Eddic poems were written in the British Isles by poets who were familiar