Page:Old English ballads by Francis Barton Gummere (1894).djvu/97

Rh INTRODUCTION. xci stev are described by Landstad* as of two kinds, with improvisation for the common and most prominent feature, and communal drinking and dancing as the proper conditions; although, he remarks, in modern times one b more likely to remember and vary than to compose outright. The variety of stev now most popular is the rapid dialogue, in which the singers propose a set of alternate riddles, or express their feelings about something, or else — by preference — gibe and taunt each other. But this duel in song, this attempt to overwhelm one's opponent by sheer profusion of verses, or by extravagant bragging, is in Landstad's opinion only a de- generation of the stev. The older and normal stev were in close relation with heroic ballads, were less lyric in character, and sang of deeds rather than of personal emotions. Improvisation, however, was a constant factor; and to this day in Iceland " there is hardly an adult man who cannot in some fashion put verses together." ^ From Norway to Italy, verse-combats and like improvisations were once universal and are still far from uncommon.* Especially interesting is the German schnaderhupfel^^ a short song, usually of four lines, to a simple air, and mainly a pure improvisation; it seems often to have been composed in the dances of harvest. Schmeller, who lays stress upon the spontaneous element in its making, brings it into parallel with the stev of Norway and the coplas of Spain; unquestionably we are dealing with a custom once common among all the peasants of Europe, and, however 2 Lundell, in Paul's Grundrissy II, i, 730. Schnaderhupfel. G. Meyer, in the essay just quoted, p. 332 ff., where he discusses the literature of the subject. Digitized by LjOOQIC
 * Norske FolkeTHser^ p. 365 ff.
 * Gustav Meyer, Essays und Studien^ p. 366 f ., in the essay on the
 * See Schmeller, Bayerisches Worterbuch^ 1836, III, 499; and