Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/219



"Omnia terrena per vices sunt aliena,

Nunc mei nunc hujus, post mortem nescio cujus,"—

the rhyme by no means concludes the line. The mode of writing on parchment or paper has, for economy of the material, been in continuous lines, like prose, without any division, in the manuscripts of old date; so that nothing can be concluded from the writing concerning the length or forms of the verses. Whether the scalds adapted their verses to music, or tunes, seems not well ascertained. Little mention, if any, is made in any of the sagas of tunes, or musical instruments; yet they have had songs. All their pieces are called songs, and are said to be sung, and many of them evidently were intended to be sung. We find mention also of old songs; for instance, the "Biarkemal," was instantly recognised by the whole army at Stiklestad. They must have had tunes for these songs. We find also a refrain, or chorus to songs, mentioned. All, perhaps, that can be safely said of Icelandic versification is, that the system has been very artificial, and full of technical difficulties in the construction; and, independently of the beauties of poetic spirit and ideas, may have had the merit of technical difficulties in the verse adroitly overcome by the scald,—a merit which it would be going too far to contemn, because we, with minds and ears not trained in the same way, cannot feel it. How much of our own most esteemed poetry gives us pleasure from similar conventional sources distinct altogether from poetical imagery, or ideas which all men of all countries and ages would relish and feel pleasure from? There may also have been a harmony and measured cadence given by the voice in reciting or chanting such verses—and they were composed to be recited, not silently read—which are lost to us. All we can judge of them is, that if such verses could be constructed in the English language, they would be