In the period of national origins history and legend are
inextricably mingled. In the course of oral transmission
historic narrative necessarily becomes more or less legendary.
Details are emphasized or exaggerated, actions ascribed to
different motives, facts are forgotten or suppressed,
chronological and geographical data confused, and traits and
motifs from older tales are added. Gradually this tradition,
passing from mouth to mouth, takes on a more definite shape and
a more distinct outline, and finally it passes into literature
and receives a permanent and fixed form. We are seldom able to
give a clear and connected account of the origin and development
of a saga or legend. In most cases the literary sources on which
we depend for our knowledge are of comparatively late date, and
even the earliest of them present the legend in an advanced
phase of evolution. Of preceding phases we can form an opinion
only through a critical analysis and comparison of the sources.
In this process of reconstruction much mu