Page:Popular tales from the Norse (1912).djvu/166

clx sword" which the Princess lays by her side every night, will they fail to recognise Sigurd's sword Gram, which he laid between himself and Brynhildr when he rode through the flame and won her for Gunnar. These mythical deep-rooted germs, throwing out fresh shoots from age to age in the popular literature of the race, are far more convincing proofs of the early existence of these traditions than any mere external evidence.