Page:Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (Volume 1).djvu/10

Rh derived from the Harz Mountains; nor is this to be wondered at; the belief in supernatural agents has its native home among mountains and deserts, and snows, and in short wherever society is broken into small masses and detached from the frequent intercourse of the general world; scepticism is the inhabitants of cities as credulity is of solitude, and the man, who was an unbeliever of all things amidst crowds, will become a believer of all things in loneliness.

The legends of these volumes have been gathered from various sources, and, of course, will be found to have characters as various; the elegant and playful Musäus has nothing at all in common with the dark, wild fancy of La Motte Fouqué; just as little similarity is there between Veit Weber and