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<p rend="hangingIndent">A<hi rend="smallCaps">RT.</hi> X.—<hi rend="italic">History
of the Northmen, or Danes and Normans, from the Earliest Times to the Conquest of England by William of
Normandy.</hi> By <persName key="pe1616">Henry Wheaton</persName>. John Murray. 8vo. pp. 367. 1831.</p>
<fw type="blank"/>
<p rend="noIndent"><hi rend="initial">I</hi>T has been said that Americans have no ancestry; and yet here is an American, with enough of
Gothic blood and Gothic affection to induce him to enter into a field of research, which Englishmen have too much neglected. &#x201C;Smit
with the love of&#x201D; Scandinavian story, and availing himself of his residence in a Scandinavian court, where its best sources were
accessible to him, Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> has produced a volume which will give much information to others, and bring considerable renown to himself.
We welcome the book as a most acceptable offering to literature, and the writer as worthy of &#x201C;golden opinions.&#x201D; His style is
correct and flowing—his knowledge extensive, if not always profound—of his industry, every page gives evidence; and the tone and temper of
the volume are generous and benevolent throughout—dwelling with complacency on every thing that betokens goodness, gentleness, or genius;
though, perhaps, he is sometimes a little dazzled and misled, while surrounded by those mists which hang over the events of a distant
time—events which come down to us with many striking associations—a grand and imposing mythology—the records of historians rocked in the icy
cradle of the ancient north—the songs of Skalds, which have in them the rudeness of an heroic, and the wildness of a romantic age; and above
all, influenced by that undefined but sympathizing feeling, that the history is the history of our forefathers—the progenitors of our own
blood—the history of one great branch, and that the most adventurous, of our renowned Gothic race.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent">The ancients asserted—and it was scarcely a fable, that <rs key="myth1229" type="myth">Chronos</rs> had buried his treasures in the regions of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>.
And strange it is, that they should have been so little sought for there. Strange it is, though we know full well whence came the Goths, the
Angles and the Normans, that we should have done so little to track them back to their ancient abodes. Their fatherland is wrapped for us in
a darkness nearly as thick as <pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax003.jpg" ed="A" n="443"/>surrounded it ere they burst out upon the fairer and
richer lands of the South. Formerly, indeed, the remoter Northern world, was a world given up to the imagination of dreamers, who peopled it
with prodigies and all mysterious things;—in later times, when men have learnt that man every where is man—with common hopes and
fears—modified somewhat by climate, and much by civilization; even in later times, a cold and frozen barrier seems to have girdled the
ancient Scandinavia—a barrier which few have been willing to burst, lest nothing should be found to repay the labour of the adventurers. </p>
<p rend="firstIndent">Yet it is most true, as Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> says in his preface, that the written monuments of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName> &#x201C;throw a
strong and clear light upon the affairs of <placeName key="fak12">Europe</placeName> during the middle ages, and illustrate the formation of
the great monarchies now constituting some of its leading states;&#x201D; and strange would it be, if such records, while they instruct and
guide the inquirer who follows a brave and hardy people in their migrations and settlements in other lands—should not, at the same time,
have a charm when they tell the domestic story of those who remained at home. If energy of thought and will distinguished those who went
forth to encounter the perils of the stormy deep—scarcely less are the same qualities discernible in those who lingered in their native
abodes. Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton's</persName> eye of observation is occupied with the whole field; and in every part of it he has done for our instruction, far more
than any English writer that has preceded him. May he find all encouragement to proceed with his labours! It will be most gratifying to find
that the topic so interesting in itself, is felt generally to be interesting; but it is easier to nourish a curiosity that does exist, than
to call that curiosity into existence. On <placeName key="fak5">England</placeName> the subject has a very especial claim—for in <placeName
key="fak5">England</placeName>, these men, whom the father of northern history calls &#x201C;the Kingly <app type="corrNote" select="yes"><lem wit="GV">Scyldings</lem><rdg wit="A">Scythians</rdg><witDetail n="0" wit="A">tekstkritik er afhandlet i ACCESS</witDetail></app>,&#x201D; not only pitched
their camps, but raised their castles, and built their palaces—not only looked in as visitors, but fixed themselves as inhabitants;—where
they introduced a new language, literature, and social existence, creating one of the great epochs in the history of the human race. To
claim thus much for the Northern men, may seem presumption. Let those who would gainsay the statement, assist the inquiry; there is much to
be done; the subject has the freshness, the bloom of novelty upon it; and if able pens will give it the literary charm, no doubt an interest
will be awakened, whose long long slumbers it is not very easy to excuse or to explain. </p>
<p rend="firstIndent">It may, indeed, be said, that those who have hitherto wandered into the septentrional regions of literature, have been
wanting in <pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax004.jpg" ed="A" n="444"/>qualities which would have enabled them to bring to us materials likely
to attract attention, and invite examination. They have written of an age long vanished, coldly and drily; and have brought from their
researches only a few dull fragments, the mere bricks of an ancient temple, of whose pristine form they themselves have had a most dull
conception. Among them has been no restorer of the Northern <placeName key="fak523">Parthenon</placeName>. They have talked to us of the
dead; and have presented to us their ragged garments, a shield and a sword, a broken lyre, perhaps some mouldering bones; and, above all,
the lapidary inscriptions upon the antique tombs. But in their hands, the soul that animated the living men has wholly evaporated; the
sparks that sprung up from those &#x201C;hearts of fire,&#x201D; they have not known how to preserve. A time may yet arrive when, invoked by
some master spirit, the ancient Northmen will come forth from their graves, and speak in words of life to us, their children. Our
sympathies, hitherto almost barren as respects the past, might then become fruitful both for the past and for the future. There are within
us, strings that would respond with exquisite vibration to the touch of a hand nerved with the power of ancient lore. Sir <persName
key="pe739">Walter</persName> made an experiment in his <rs type="title" key="title3269">Ivanhoe</rs>. That was an appeal to what remains in us of Saxon feelings; and the appeal
has been strongly felt—more strongly, perhaps, than any other he has made. Yet even that appeal was wanting in the great essential: Ivanhoe
is an admirable picture of external manners—a happy, and for the most part, a judicious contrast between Saxon and Norman; but how little
does the author pourtray of the inner man—of the characteristic of thought and expression which naturally grew out of the traditional
history of these different races. True, this may not have been his object, nor, where so much has been done is it quite fair to complain
that all has not been done. He has enticed, as it were, the reading world, not only of <placeName key="fak5">England</placeName>, but of <placeName key="fak12">Europe</placeName>—aye, and of the other
hemisphere, into the domain of popular history. Into the portals that he has unlocked, the kempions of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName> will one day enter. The
vast theatre over which the ancient Goths walked, will again be opened; and their noble race will, in recreated living semblances,
re-appear. Their old saying about &#x201C;immortality on earth&#x201D; is not yet proved to be a delusion. The privilege which mythology
conferred upon poets alone, of plucking out of <rs type="myth" key="myth156">Hades</rs> that which they love, may be hereafter shared by
historians. And for the true poet, a yet higher destiny may be reserved: he will still create, where the historian only records. He, as of
old, will divide his soul with the dead; and vibrate from time that was, to time that is to be, careering in light and eloquence. </p>
<p rend="firstIndent"><pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax005.jpg" ed="A" n="445"/>As a pioneer leading to the ancient Northern lands, as one
who has travelled so far, and gathered up so much, and recorded his observations so well, Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> is highly praiseworthy. It is to be
hoped, as what he tells us is told so agreeably, that it will excite a strong desire to hear more. We are glad of an opportunity of pointing
out some of the topics on which <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName> is capable of affording instruction to the literary inquirer; and in doing so, we shall make
frequent reference to Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton's</persName> book, remarking on what appear to us some of its defects and errors—not in a temper of reprehension
certainly—but in friendly suggestion. </p>
<p rend="firstIndent">The ancient literature of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName> may be grouped under three distinct heads, mythological, poetical, and historical.
Every one of these deserves special notice; and it might be shown in vast detail what a rich harvest each would afford, even to the gleaner.
Under each particular head, however, we shall make a few observations, both for the purpose of communicating a somewhat more comprehensive
idea of the whole subject than is current among our writers; and of correcting misconceptions into which Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> has sometimes fallen,
though, be it said, almost always in company with some authority or other. The principal source of the imperfections of Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton's</persName> volume
is the want of a correct estimate of the comparative value of different authorities; his affections not unfrequently betray his
judgment—that which interests him—that which decorates his story—he receives on slight and insufficient evidence. There is an intimate
alliance between benevolence and credulity. Credulous, Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> cannot be called, but he is too willing to be satisfied with imperfect
testimony. </p>
<p rend="firstIndent">For instance, he should have swept away, as unworthy of credence—or at all events he should have spoken more
doubtfully on the subject, unless far better support could be found for the theory than any hitherto given—all those tales of the
expeditions of the ancient Northmen to <placeName key="fak147">America</placeName>, which are very current indeed among Icelandic
historians, but which, if traced to their sources, will be discovered to be without authority. But does not <persName key="pe49"
>Snorro Sturleson</persName>, the father of northern history, does he not record these American expeditions? Not he; though Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName>
quotes him; the fact being, that the passage which is printed in the Copenhagen edition, from the very faulty and almost worthless Swedish
edition, and which records the visits of the Northmen to <placeName key="fak147">America</placeName> (<placeName key="fak877">Vinland</placeName>), is not, we believe, to be
found in any existing ancient MS. And the accounts given of the natural productions, natural appearances, and aboriginal inhabitants of the
discovered land, prove that they <pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax006.jpg" ed="A" n="446"/>cannot refer to the American continent. The length
of the days would, as Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> says, give the latitude of <placeName key="fak874">Boston</placeName>, in the <placeName key="fak131">United States</placeName>; yet the Icelandic chronicles tell us, the land
was occupied by a race of squalid and diminutive dwarfs, and produced a quantity of grapes, and that the language of the natives was
&#x201C;something like the Irish tongue.&#x201D; The internal evidence of the story, is enough to show that it is wholly unworthy of credit,
and it should have been mentioned to be refuted. The same tale is told in the life of <persName key="pe1428">Rollo</persName> (Rolf
Rögnvaldsen) the progenitor of <persName key="pe1110">William the Conqueror</persName>; but the Norman historians seem, in his case, to have been especially busy in inventing
all sorts of spurious adventures to give <hi rend="italic">éclat</hi> to the ancestral history of the man who founded in <placeName
key="fak5">England</placeName> a dynasty of kings. It is not from any disposition to lessen the interest of the past, that we desire to
sweep away the rubbish and the weeds that have gathered round its authentic records. On the contrary, the true chronicles of the
Northern-men are pregnant with all the charms of heroic adventure; and rise up in the midst of a mythology, bold, characteristic, and
poetical. The eye of inquiry turns with eagerness proportioned to its knowledge, on the literary Aurora
Borealis of the middle ages; those northern lights that throw so wondrous an illumination on the night of the past. </p>
<p rend="firstIndent"> A very faint and feeble notion of the Scandinavian mythology can, however, be gathered out of a mere catalogue of
names, or out of the Table of Contents of the <rs key="title121" type="title">Edda</rs>: even were those contents rightly and minutely described, they would only serve to
distract the attention of the inquirer, until he had obtained, by previous study, a tolerably accurate notion of the persons and character
of the <app type="corrNote" select="yes">
<lem wit="GV">Scandinavian</lem>
<rdg wit="A">Scandinavan</rdg><witDetail n="0" wit="A">tekstkritik er afhandlet i ACCESS</witDetail></app> divinities. To illustrate our knowledge of the mythology of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>, the <rs key="title121" type="title">Edda</rs> is highly valuable; but it is not alone sufficient to
communicate that knowledge. The list of its contents, given in considerable detail by Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName>, is not however correct; it occupies
sixteen pages of his volume, and is, for the most part, a translation of lists frequently published. The particulars of some of the
chapters, those of the <hi rend="italic"><rs key="title138" type="title">Hyndlu-Liod</rs>,</hi> and the <hi rend="italic"><rs key="title137" type="title">Hymisquida</rs>,</hi> for example, are incorrectly given.
The <rs key="title138" type="title">Hyndlu-Liod</rs> does contain some heroic genealogies, but for the most part, only <hi rend="italic"><rs type="title" key="title144">Völu-Spá</rs>,</hi> or mythological
illustration, and the <rs key="title137" type="title">Hymisquida</rs> is no description of a banquet at <app type="corrNote" select="yes"><lem wit="GV"><rs type="myth" key="myth85">&#x00C6;gir's</rs></lem><rdg wit="A">Agen</rdg><witDetail n="0" wit="A">tekstkritik er afhandlet i ACCESS</witDetail></app>, but of <rs type="myth" key="myth74">Thor's</rs> visit to 
<rs type="myth" key="myth111">Jotun</rs> <rs type="myth" key="myth239">Hymer</rs>, and his fishing for <rs type="myth" key="myth94">Midgaard's</rs> serpents, which is a remarkable
scene in the <rs type="myth" key="myth106">Asa</rs>-drama. </p>
<p rend="firstIndent">There are, however, many passages in which Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> has seized the true character of the Scandinavian poetry, and writes as if he were embued with its spirit. </p>
<p rend="quote"><pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax007.jpg" ed="A" n="447"/>&#x2018;The <rs type="title" key="title144">Völu-Spá</rs> gives a short account of the creation of the
universe, and of the gods and men by whom it is inhabited, according to the cosmogony of the Eddas, and the death of <rs type="myth"
key="myth59">Odin's</rs> son, <rs type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs>, the god of day, who is lamented by all the deities, whose tears and
prayers could not avert his doom. His body is burnt on the funeral pile, with that of <rs type="myth" key="myth56">Nanna</rs>, his lovely
bride, who had died of a broken heart, and with his horse and arms, like those of the ancient heroes of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>. His funeral obsequies are
to be followed by the destruction of the universe by fire, typified in the god <rs type="myth" key="myth71">Sutur</rs>, the Northern <rs type="myth" key="myth156.b"
>Pluto</rs>. <lg>
<l>&#x2018;The sun all black shall be,</l>
<l>The earth sink in the sea,</l>
<l>And ev'ry starry ray,</l>
<l>From heav'n fade away;</l>
<l>While vapours hot shall fill</l>
<l>The air round <rs type="myth" key="myth103">Ygdrasil</rs>,</l>
<l>And flaming as they rise,</l>
<l>Play towering to the skies.&#x2019;</l>
</lg> After which a new heaven and a new earth shall appear, whilst two individuals of the human race, saved from the general destruction,
shall perpetuate their species in the world thus renovated. <rs type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs> shall return again from the dark abodes
of <rs type="myth" key="myth33">Hela</rs>, and reign triumphant in the mansion of the gods, once more restored to its ancient magnificence
and splendor. This beautiful mythos is doubtless an image of the life of the seasons, and has reference to the celebration of the ancient
festival called <hi rend="italic">Midsumers-blót</hi> in the ancient language of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>, when the days, having reached their extreme
length, begin to shorten, soon bring in their train the dog-star's burning ray, and are followed in these Northern climates, in a short
transition, by the winter's cold, when all nature is wrapt in a death-like sleep, which is again succeeded by the renovating spring. But, at
the same time, it probably carries with it another, a more remote and a higher signification, being, to use the words of the eloquent
historian of Sweden, &#x201C;a symbol of all Time, of the changes of the great Year of the World, representing the general dissolution of
all things as a consequence of the first God's Death—the death of Goodness and Justice in the world. <rs type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs>
returns, followed by reward and punishment, by a new heaven and a new earth. Through the truth thus inculcated, and at the same time the
inviolable sanctity which the Northern mythology attaches to an oath, it rises above mere Nature and acquires a moral value for
mankind.&#x2019;—pp. 65, 66.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent">In this track Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> might very advantageously have proceeded farther, and by gathering up the characteristics of
the ancient mythology, which are to be found in so many Danish and Swedish sources, have brought the <rs key="title121" type="title">Edda</rs> to illustrate the whole. </p>
<p rend="firstIndent">The truth is, that the death of <rs type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs>, independent of all arbitrary explanation, is
the great pivot in the conflict between the <rs type="myth" key="myth106">Aser</rs> and <rs type="myth" key="myth111">Jotuns</rs>, upon
which the principal matter of the <pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax008.jpg" ed="A" n="448"/>Northern mythology turns. For the distinctive
peculiarity of the mythic fiction of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName> consists in this, that it is a representation of the conflict which at all times is carried
on in our mortal history, between the spiritual and intellectual energies (the <rs type="myth" key="myth106">Aser</rs>), and the
un-spiritual or mere animal powers, (the <rs type="myth" key="myth111">Jotuns</rs>, or <rs type="myth" key="myth116">Thyrser</rs>), between
high-minded wisdom (<rs type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs>) and that unholy sagacity (<rs type="myth" key="myth48">Loke</rs>), which is but
heartless craft and cunning. Now this conflict, which by the death of <rs type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs> seems decided in favour of the
<rs type="myth" key="myth111">Jotuns</rs>, is arranged under the guidance of a Providence (the <rs type="myth" key="myth112">Noonies</rs>), which causes <rs type="myth"
key="myth48">Loke's</rs> captivity (resembling that of <rs type="myth" key="myth440">Prometheus</rs>) to follow close upon the death of
Balder, and never loses sight of its great end, which is the purification of the noble, and the destruction of the wicked; hence, the drama
closes with the return of <rs type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs> and the renovation of the earth.<note type="footnote"><p rend="noIndent">Consult <rs key="title76" type="title">Norden's
Mythologie eller Udsigt over Edda-Leeren af N. F. S. Grundtvig, Khvn 1808</rs>. Mythology of the North, or view of the doctrine of the Edda, by
N. F. S. Grundtvig. Copenhagen, 1808. Of this work there is a Swedish translation.</p></note> Such a work, the result of the poetical
imagination of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>, is well worthy of being brought out of the dim distance of antiquity, opening as it does, a new gold mine, both
for the poet and his auditors, and affording a lively symbol of human existence, under the great influences which act upon it.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent">We mean not to assert, that the idea of the great conflict is the exclusive property of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>; on the contrary, it
is to be traced in all the remoter popular mythologies,<note type="footnote"><p rend="noIndent">To give every thing an Indian origin is now very much in
fashion amongst the learned upon the Continent, which has occasioned some Icelanders to endeavour to obtain for the <rs type="title" key="title144">Völu-Spá</rs>, and various
other Eddaic songs, an Asiatic authority and origin. The fancy seems a very idle one.</p></note> as it necessarily must, since it arises from
the observation of the profound observer, in every clime and in every age; but in <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName> alone it has developed itself in a universal
historic character, and seems to have taken possession of the whole field of thought and action, and to have stamped the general
idiosyncrasy of the ancient Scandinavian race. That which was the father, became the son; and as earth on its varied surface brings forth
upon the same spot a succession of similar fruits and flowers, so among men, the children resemble the sires that beget them; the mind
creates a mind like itself; ideas are pregnant with their own natural offspring, and &#x201C;the stream of tendency&#x201D; rolls on for
many ages its continuous waves. On some other occasion, we may perhaps develope the beautiful apotheosis of human life, which is described
by the myths of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>—of human life, evincing <pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax009.jpg" ed="A" n="449"/>the struggle between its
greatness and its littleness, its lowering passions, and its elevating spirituality: at present we can only refer to two or three
characteristics of Scandinavian mythology, and show their influences on the ancient Scandinavians.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent">The inhabitant of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>, a warrior by habit, almost by necessity, was, by the guidance of his religious belief,
trained to hope for something of repose and peace, beyond and above the conflict and the joy of victory: his first glory might be the
Warrior-hall (<rs type="myth" key="myth101">Valhal</rs>), but a higher object was pointed out to him, when <rs type="myth" key="myth101"
>Valhal</rs> should sink into the dust, and all the gods of battle (the <rs type="myth" key="myth106">Aser</rs>), have expiated by their death the misuse of power, and arise
glorified in the house of peace, in the golden-roofed <app type="corrNote" select="yes"><lem wit="GV"><rs type="myth" key="myth121">Gimle</rs></lem><rdg wit="A">Gunle</rdg><witDetail n="0" wit="A">tekstkritik er afhandlet i ACCESS</witDetail></app>. Thus was bravery to be released from its impurities, to be emancipated from
that <app type="corrNote" select="yes">
<lem wit="GV">thraldom</lem>
<rdg wit="A">thraldrom</rdg><witDetail n="0" wit="A">tekstkritik er afhandlet i ACCESS</witDetail></app> to which even the noble are subjected from the wicked. The first stage of the spirit's happiness was victory; the second, <rs
type="myth" key="myth101">Valhal</rs>, where the spirit is still but half emancipated; the third, <app type="corrNote" select="yes"><lem wit="GV"><rs type="myth" key="myth121">Gimle</rs></lem><rdg wit="A">Gunle</rdg><witDetail n="0" wit="A">tekstkritik er afhandlet i ACCESS</witDetail></app>, with its eternal, uninterrupted
tranquillity and power.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent"> Again, <rs type="myth" key="myth48">Loke</rs>, who may be considered as a personification of the reasoning power, is
placed upon the confines of the world of <rs type="myth" key="myth106">Aser</rs> and <rs type="myth" key="myth111">Jotuns</rs>, as if his
services were at the disposal of either. Although of <rs type="myth" key="myth111">Jotun</rs> birth, he is the foster-brother of <rs
type="myth" key="myth59">Odin</rs> from the beginning, and seems to be in alliance with the <rs type="myth" key="myth106">Aser</rs>, until,
by compassing the death of <rs type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs>, he betrays his deep and dark design to destroy the divine life, and
stands the convicted representative of a reasoning sophistry, and in prominent contrast to a spiritualized and virtuous intellect.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent"> The third and last singularity which we will point out, is the manner of <rs type="myth" key="myth6">Balder's</rs>
death. It is recorded in the Myth, that when the gods, through distressing dreams, had become filled with fear for the life of <rs
type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs>, his mother <rs type="myth" key="myth133">Frigga</rs> extorted an oath from all the <rs type="myth"
key="myth232">Vætter</rs> (spirits of nature with which it was imagined the things of the world were animated), that they would do no injury
to <rs type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs>, which made the <rs type="myth" key="myth106">Aser</rs> so confident, that they daily, for
diversion's sake, shot at <rs type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs>, whom no weapon could wound. <rs type="myth" key="myth133">Frigga</rs>, in
the mean time, had neglected to take the oath from a creeping-plant, called misletoe, because it was so tender a twig; and <rs type="myth"
key="myth48">Loke</rs> having discovered this, took the twig, and forcing it into the hands of one of the <rs type="myth" key="myth106"
>Aser</rs>, the blind <rs type="myth" key="myth128">Hodur</rs>, said, do you also have a fling at <rs type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs>; whereupon <rs type="myth" key="myth128">Hodur</rs> shot, and gave <rs
type="myth" key="myth6">Balder</rs> his death-wound. This may be deemed an emphatic symbol of the destiny which has often stricken even the
noblest of the self-created divinities of humanity, overwhelmed by the paltriest weapons. So truth itself may suffer for a time from scorn
and mockery—the intellectual misletoe.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent"><pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax010.jpg" ed="A" n="450"/>Passing on to the poetry of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>, it is obvious, that
where the mythology has a universal historic character, the poetry will principally be national-historic, and twine itself, not as a chaplet
of roses around the beauties of nature, but as a laurel-wreath round the brow of the hero, and if it approaches beauty with its myrtle
garland, it will be when beauty becomes linked to valour.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent">It would here be out of place to discuss the peculiar distinctions, or to weigh one against another, the separate
merits of natural and historic poetry. We are here on the domains of taste, where the praise should be according to the pleasure; but if it
cannot be denied that heroic achievements, and passionate and faithful love, are naturally calculated to produce poetical inspirations, the
Skalds of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName> deserve to be listened to by those who desire to be acquainted with, not merely one, but all the regions of the
wonderful creation which poetry has called into existence; and who would not wish to be every where at home in a world, where the human mind
excited by the deepest emotions, strives in all directions to elicit whatever it is able—if not to satisfy, at least to calm or sweeten or
dignify them?</p>
<p rend="firstIndent">In this part of the field, Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> has not quite done all we could have wished. It is, indeed, a theme not easily
to be handled; and we are not sure that poets themselves have said much about poetry that is worthy to be heard and remembered. Mr.
<persName key="pe1616">Wheaton's</persName> account of the Skalds in general, and of the historical songs of the <rs key="title121" type="title">Edda</rs>, are however very interesting, if not quite complete;
but he should not have passed so slightly over <rs type="title" key="title3272">Beowulf's <hi rend="italic">Drapa</hi></rs><hi rend="italic">,</hi> one of the very
brightest monuments of ancient Northern poetry, a mirror in which so much light is reflected from the days of old. He has referred to it,
and is certainly not unacquainted with it. In <placeName key="fak14">Denmark</placeName>, it is well known through Grundtvig's admirable
translation—in <placeName key="fak5">England</placeName>, it has hitherto excited attention wholly disproportioned to its high merits. We
are surprised that Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> should deem the <hi rend="italic"><rs key="title302" type="title">Rigs-mal</rs></hi> worthy of comparison with <rs type="myth" key="myth406"
>Beowulf's</rs> poem; and yet more so, that on the authority of <persName key="pe413">Thorkelin</persName>, whom he does not name, and if he
did the authority would not be of much value, he deems <rs type="myth" key="myth406">Beowulf's</rs> great work to be &#x201C;probably a
translation or rifaccimento of some older lay, originally written in the ancient language of <placeName key="fak14"
>Denmark</placeName>.&#x201D; &#x005B;p. 130&#x005D;. We are a little tender, be it owned, of <rs type="myth" key="myth406">Beowulf's</rs>
reputation, and unwilling that the original merit of one of the most remarkable, if not the most remarkable, literary production of our
Anglo-Saxon progenitors, should, without good evidence, be snatched away. Of <rs type="myth" key="myth406">Beowulf</rs> other occasions will
be found to speak. A version into English, and accompanied with a preface <pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax011.jpg" ed="A" n="451"/>from the
Danish translator, is far advanced, and the accessibleness of the work, will soon give it the place in public opinion to which it is
intitled.<note type="footnote"><p rend="noIndent">Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> states, erroneously &#x005B;p. 131&#x005D; that <rs type="myth" key="myth406">Beowulf</rs> has
been translated, or rather paraphrased, in English verse, by the late ingenious Mr. <persName key="pe1380">Conybeare</persName>. Mr. <persName key="pe1380">Conybeare</persName>, in fact, translated only a few
fragments. The adventure related in <rs type="title" key="title3272">Beowulf's &#x201C;Drapa,&#x201D;</rs> is no doubt fabulous; but the
historic relations, which are introduced as Episodes, deserve every attention—that relating the expedition of <app type="corrNote" select="yes"><lem wit="GV"><rs key="myth985" type="myth">Higelac</rs></lem><rdg wit="A">Fligelar</rdg><witDetail n="0" wit="A">tekstkritik er afhandlet i ACCESS</witDetail></app> to <placeName key="his619">Friesland</placeName>, and his
fall in a conflict with the Franks and Frieslanders, is literally corroborated by history.</p></note></p>
<p rend="firstIndent">That the historic poems of the <rs key="title121" type="title">Edda</rs>, or the songs concerning the exploits and downfall of those mighty hero-races, the
<rs type="myth" key="myth119">Volsungs</rs>, <rs type="myth" key="myth549">Budlung</rs>s, and the <rs type="myth" key="myth192.a">Giukungs</rs> or <rs type="myth" key="myth192">Nibelungs</rs>, form a highly remarkable relic of ancient Northern
song, doubly alluring to the inquirer, both on account of their deviation from, and their resemblance to, the Germans' <rs type="title" key="title778">Lay of the Nibelungs</rs>,
is indisputable; but they all look so like translations, and are so wanting in the completeness, clearness, and compactness, which
distinguish <rs key="title3272" type="title">Beowulf's &#x201C;Drapa,&#x201D;</rs> that it would be doing the Skalds of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName> a great
wrong, to take this wreck of a bark stranded on <placeName key="fak4">Iceland</placeName>, for <rs type="myth" key="myth341"
>Skibbladner</rs> (<rs type="myth" key="myth59">Odin's</rs> ship) itself. Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> has made an excellent choice in the specimen he has
given of <rs type="title" key="title3273">the first lay of Gudruna</rs> &#x005B;p. 83&#x005D; which likewise, in regard to form, belongs to the noblest, and depicts in few, but
powerful and masterly strokes, the deep-toned pathos of the warrior-maid of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>; who, as it sounds in the old song, does not beat her
bosom and wring her hands over the corse of the beloved hero, but is turned to stone, like <rs key="myth709" type="myth">Niobe</rs>, till she sees the spear-pierced eye, and
then melts as snow would melt before <placeName key="fak146">Afric's</placeName> sun, under the mere recollection of what formerly glistened beneath the vaulted arches of the
heroic scull.<note type="footnote"><p rend="noIndent">Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> is in error when he says &#x005B;p.88&#x005D; that <persName key="pe3">Œlenschlâger</persName> has enriched his works from
these songs. <app type="corrNote" select="yes"><lem wit="GV">Grundtvig</lem><rdg wit="A">Gruntvig</rdg><witDetail n="0" wit="A">tekstkritik er afhandlet i ACCESS</witDetail></app> has dramatized the story in his View of Northern Heroic life.<note type="footnote"><p rend="noIndent"><rs type="title" key="title82">Optrin af Norners og Asers Kamp. Khvn, 1811</rs>.</p></note> In <placeName key="fak21"
>Germany</placeName>, also, <persName key="pe433">De la Motte</persName> has attempted the same thing with a part of the tale, and at least produced a poetic work which
deserves to be known.<note type="footnote"><p rend="noIndent"><rs key="title343" type="title">Sigurd der Schlangent&#x00F6;dter</rs>.</p></note></p></note></p>
<p rend="firstIndent">The poetical merit of the songs of the <rs key="title121" type="title">Edda</rs> has, perhaps, been commonly over-estimated; but, on the other hand, a
standard has been sometimes applied to them which would sink them far beneath their real value. It is certain, that at a time anterior to
the colonization of <placeName key="fak4">Iceland</placeName>, a race of Norse poets existed whose writings were natural, vivid, and
popular. The few fragments that remain, and especially the elegy of <persName key="pe404">Eivird Skalderspilder</persName> upon <pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax012.jpg"
ed="A" n="452"/><persName key="pe403">Hakon</persName>, the foster-son of <persName key="pe1388">Athelstane</persName>, are indisputable evidence of this. Of the <rs key="title121" type="title">Edda</rs> songs, the descriptions of battle are
the most remarkable passages.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent">There is, however, a source, which has not been referred to by Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName>, whence very valuable relics of ancient
Northern poetry may be derived. Though what is there recorded is only in the shape of translation, there can be no doubt of its
authenticity, and as little of its poetical recommendations. We refer to those Latin imitations of the ancient Northern songs which are to
be found in the writings of <persName key="pe237">Saxo-Grammaticus</persName>. These, collected by him in the twelfth century, and immediately referred to those who might
have impugned their genuineness had there been any grounds for doubt, we cannot but deem of the highest value; and of literary debts, long
owing and still unpaid, we think the debt to <persName key="pe237">Saxo</persName> among the strongest. In his living pages will be found a
moving picture of the past, which, though sometimes verging into too fanciful a world, does notwithstanding present a striking portraiture
of things that were. Here may be traced the original of that master-piece of <persName key="pe972"
>Shakspeare</persName>, his <persName key="pe816">Hamlet</persName>; and here might also be followed to their sources, what <persName key="pe3">Œhlenschlâger</persName>
and many inferior minds have made the topics of their songs.<note type="footnote"><p rend="noIndent"><persName key="pe19">Ewald's</persName> <rs type="title" key="title348">&#x201C;Balder&#x201D;</rs> and <rs key="title1838" type="title">&#x201C;Rolf
Krage&#x201D;</rs> are among the first results of the study; <persName key="pe3">Œhlenschlâger's</persName> <rs key="title3282" type="title">&#x201C;Steerkodder&#x201D;</rs> followed; and Grundtvig's translation of
the whole of <rs type="title" key="title83">Saxo</rs>, is a very important contribution to the subject.</p></note> Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> supposes that
<persName key="pe816">Hamlet</persName> (<persName key="pe237">Saxo's</persName> <rs type="myth" key="myth509">Amlet</rs>) assisted the Saxons against the Franks in the sixth
century. Where Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> discovered any authority for this theory, we know not, unless in that wilderness of <persName key="pe7"
>Suhm</persName>, which the author calls a <rs key="title1138" type="title">&#x201C;Critical History of Denmark,&#x201D;</rs> and of which it
has been somewhat bitterly, but not altogether undeservedly said, that every thing is to be found there, but truth.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent">Proceeding now to the history of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>, let the reader allow his interest to be excited, and he will find how much
the events of the middle ages in general, and of the British isles in particular, will receive of light from the sources to which we are now
directing his attention; he will see, that in <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName> there was formed an historic style in the mother-tongue, so pure, so simple, and so
lively, that it might serve as a pattern even now. He will discover that one kingdom at least in <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>, has an eventful history thus
written, with the pencil of a <persName key="pe739">Walter Scott</persName>, and will feel that it has some claim upon the attention of
civilized man. Now it is really the fact, that <persName key="pe49">Snorro Sturleson's</persName> <rs type="title" key="title551">&#x201C;Heimskringla,&#x201D;</rs> or history
of <placeName key="fak41">Norway</placeName>, written in the thirteenth century, is, beyond any other, a book such as here described, which, al<pb type="text"
facs="1831_494_fax013.jpg" ed="A" n="453"/>though it has only yet been translated into Danish, Swedish, and Latin, deserves to be rendered
into all languages, since it would be an ornament to the literature of any land, and become a favourite book with old and young, with all
who enjoy the union of simplicity and grandeur. More or less resemblance to this master-work have all the Historic Sagas of <placeName
key="fak4">Iceland</placeName>, but even where <persName key="pe49">Snorro's</persName> rank makes his tone and his style questionable, as
in <rs key="title2952" type="title"><app type="corrNote" select="yes"><lem wit="GV">Knytlinga-Saga</lem><rdg wit="A">Knylinga-Saga</rdg><witDetail n="0" wit="A">tekstkritik er afhandlet i ACCESS</witDetail></app></rs> (a history of the Danish kings, from <persName key="pe335">Canute the Great</persName>, to the son of <persName key="pe216"
>Valdemar the Great</persName>) and in <rs type="title" key="title810">Nials saga</rs>, (an Icelandic domestic history) his work is still highly valuable. It represents a
continually renewed conflict for the regal throne on <app type="corrNote" select="yes"><lem wit="GV"><placeName key="fak876">Dovre</placeName></lem><rdg wit="A">Doore</rdg><witDetail n="0" wit="A">tekstkritik er afhandlet i ACCESS</witDetail></app>, and it excites so lively an interest, that it is impossible for the reader to
remain neutral, but he is hurried away by the stream with the hero who pleases him, and sorrows by his grave till he once more arises in a
renovated form.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent">These are some of the motives which ought to direct the attention of literary men to <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>, and it is clear, that
this attention should naturally be strong and fervent, in the degree in which nations are allied to the old Northmen, and consequently
likely to participate in their character, and able to enter into their feelings. Now, that no nation beyond the bounds of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName> is so
nearly akin to it in spirit as the English, has been generally imagined through so many centuries, and is indeed so manifest, that we should
have presumed it to be a decided matter, did not the book which we announce so expressly remind us, that we live in an age, wherein not
merely every thing may be called in doubt, but wherein doubt may become, before one is aware of it, even an article of faith. </p>
<p rend="firstIndent">Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> says,</p>
<p rend="quote">&#x2018;In the latter part of the fifth century of the Christian æra, the island of Britain, deserted by its Roman masters,
was invaded and subdued by three different tribes of barbarians who dwelt between the <placeName key="fak87">Elbe</placeName> and <placeName key="fak26">the Baltic
sea</placeName>,—the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. The history of the Anglo-Saxon nation, which was formed by the blending of these tribes, is
intimately connected with that of the Scandinavians, and it has for us an interest lively and enduring, since from it we trace the origin of
the English name and nation. But the race of the Anglo-Saxons belongs to the Teutonic, not the Scandinavian family; and though they
participated in the widely diffused worship of <rs type="myth" key="myth59">Odin</rs>, the language spoken by them is perfectly distinct
from the ancient Northern, or Icelandic tongue. The Jutes, who came from the northern parts of the <placeName key="fak450">Cimbric Chersonesus</placeName>, were the least
numerous of these emigrating tribes. The Angles dwelt in the present duchy of <placeName key="fak165">Sleswick</placeName>, which they entirely abandoned, leaving the country a
perfect desert. The Saxons were of that tribe of the Saxon confederation <pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax014.jpg" ed="A" n="454"/>who
inhabited <placeName key="his328">Nordalbingia</placeName>, or the territory between the <placeName key="fak87">Elbe</placeName> and the <placeName key="fak513">Eyder</placeName>.&#x2019;—pp. 10, 11.</p>
<p rend="noIndent">The authority referred to here, is that of professor <persName key="pe50">Rask</persName>, who quotes as his authority
<rs key="title3274" type="title">the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle</rs>. Yet it may well be doubted if there be any the slightest ground for these refined and closely drawn distinctions.
The proof has not yet been produced that, either in <placeName key="fak14">Denmark</placeName> or in <placeName key="fak5"
>England</placeName>, a people speaking Icelandic ever existed; and as little is it proved that the Anglo-Saxon language, as we find it in
books, is a mixed language sprung up in <placeName key="fak5">England</placeName>, produced by the amalgamation of the Vikings, whom history
calls Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, and by local circumstances with which we are unacquainted. It would, indeed, be much too rash to decide
from this book-language on the German origin of the Anglo-Saxons, even if it had much more of a German character than it really possesses.
Without inquiring into grammatical niceties, the argument which, by means of the language, is brought against the <hi rend="italic"
>Northernity</hi> of the Anglo-Saxons, may be combated by these three facts; that modern English, which has still most in common with
ancient English, is far more nearly allied to Norse than it is to German; that Danes and Icelanders have
found it much less difficult than Germans to make themselves acquainted with Anglo-Saxon; and lastly, that the ancient Icelanders reckoned the language as well of <placeName key="fak5">England</placeName> as of <placeName key="fak14"
>Denmark</placeName>, but never that of <placeName key="fak21">Germany</placeName>, under what they called Danish. If, in the meanwhile,
other positive proof of the preponderance of the northern spirit amongst the Anglo-Saxons is required, than that which springs forth visibly
from their whole history and literature, the &#x201C;Drapa&#x201D; of <rs type="myth" key="myth406">Beowulf</rs> might well serve for such;
since we there not only find <rs type="myth" key="myth982">Hengist</rs> as a fief-holder of the Danish king, but discover the clearest
northern tradition, and are continually occupied with <placeName key="fak14">Denmark</placeName> and <placeName key="fak309">Gothland</placeName>, without hearing one particle
about <placeName key="fak21">Germany</placeName>. To meet this irresistible fact, by declaring, like <persName key="pe413">Thorkelin</persName>, that <rs type="title" key="title3272">Beowulf's &#x201C;Drapa&#x201D;</rs> is a translation from the Icelandic, is certainly easy enough, but if it be merely
remembered that the Icelandic literature first commences at the termination of the eleventh century, just when the Anglo-Saxon, through the
Norman invasion, ceases, there will be little disposition to select so desperate an outlet, instead of following the track of history, and
coming to this reasonable conclusion; that in the North of <placeName key="fak5">England</placeName>, which in particular continued to
maintain a close alliance with <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>, and which was the principal seat of Anglo-Saxon poetry, the Northern legends were preserved, from
the middle of the sixth century, to the beginning of the eighth, when <rs type="title" key="title3272">Beowulf's &#x201C;Drapa&#x201D;</rs>
must have been written.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent"><pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax015.jpg" ed="A" n="455"/>Far, then, from being our duty to seek in Anglo-Saxon for
translations from the Icelandic, it is quite in harmony with the natural course of things to suppose that the Icelanders, who became in Northern literature the immediate successors of the Anglo-Saxons, translated or imitated the most
popular of their writings, and that thus the entire <rs key="title121" type="title">poetic Edda</rs>, or, at least, the greatest portion thereof, may have been of an Anglo-Saxon
origin. This, at least, is what Grundtvig firmly maintains in the introduction to his Danish Translation of <rs type="myth" key="myth406"
>Beowulf</rs>, and we have not seen any strong argument against the weighty reasons he adduces, as well from the language and versification,
as from the spirit of the book. It is quite certain that the right of claim to the <rs key="title121" type="title">Edda</rs> may well be urged on behalf of the Anglo-Saxons; and
if they can, with reason, make a claim thereto, it is obvious that a near relationship between them and the inhabitants of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>, is
incontestibly proved, and this is, indeed, the grand affair; for if it is clear, that the Anglo-Saxon poetry is substantially the same as we
find in the <rs key="title121" type="title">Edda</rs>, and trace in <rs type="title" key="title83">Saxo</rs>, in the <rs key="title803" type="title">Hervarar Saga</rs>, and in many other monuments of <placeName key="fak24">the North</placeName>, it is
a very subordinate question as to the land or dialect in which the poem or the legend first arose.<note type="footnote"><p rend="noIndent">In the <rs key="title3283" type="title">Exeter
Manuscript</rs>, as <persName key="pe1380">Conybeare</persName> has already observed, &#x005B;<hi rend="italic"><rs key="title3270" type="title">Illustration of Anglo-Saxon Poetry</rs>,</hi> p. 235-41.&#x005D; are to
be found clear traces of an Anglo-Saxon poem, which corresponded with the <rs type="title" key="title148">Volundar Quida</rs> in the <rs key="title121" type="title">Edda</rs>. The name is, however, written Veland by Mr. <persName key="pe1380">Conybeare</persName>, and so it is commonly spelt in Anglo-Saxon books; but in the <rs type="title" key="title3283">Exeter Manuscript</rs> it stands clearly Velund, being thus exactly like the <rs key="myth501" type="myth">V&#x00F6;lund</rs> of the <rs key="title121" type="title">Edda</rs>.</p></note></p>
<p rend="firstIndent">Notwithstanding these observations, and slight differences of opinion, we are assured of Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton's</persName> cheerful
recognition of us as fellow-labourers in the field he has been so advantageously exploring; and in which we are equally desirous of planting
friendship, and of gathering truth. The few inaccuracies we have discovered, we speak of without hesitation; for they are few indeed, and
most insignificant, compared with the errors, not only of French and English, but even of German historians, who have been occupied by the
same subject. If Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> is misled, it is under the guidance of some literary name. He has followed <persName key="pe7">Suhm</persName>
and <persName key="pe109">Munter</persName>, where they have led him astray, and if he had sought <hi rend="italic">their</hi> leaders, they would nowhere have been found,
except in some ancient legend, some old woman's tales, which pleased their fancy and occupied their pen. Thus when <persName key="pe109">Munter</persName> speaks, as quoted
by Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName>, of the &#x201C;female skalds, or poetesses, whose lays sometimes breathed the harsh notes of war, and celebrated the
achievements of conquering heroes, and at others sang the pro<pb type="text" facs="1831_494_fax016.jpg" ed="A" n="456"/>phetic mysteries of
religion,&#x201D; he merely pours forth fancies, without the least historic foundation, unless we call it a foundation that <persName
key="pe49">Snorro</persName> cites a pair of unmeaning lines of a single skaldic maid, and that the
<rs type="title" key="title144">Völuspa</rs> of the ancient skald is placed in the mouth of a spæ-woman. Such again is the relation of <persName key="pe7">Suhm</persName>
&#x005B;p. 51&#x005D; of a skald, who was raised to the vacant Juttish throne, on the decease of Frode
III, in the fourth century of the Christian æra; for however exact all this may sound, it is quite certain that it refers to nothing but the
old <rs type="myth" key="myth408">Hiarne skald</rs>, who, according to a popular legend in <rs type="title" key="title83">Saxo</rs>, was immediately after the birth of <persName
key="pe45">Christ</persName>, made king over the whole of <placeName key="fak14">Denmark</placeName>, as a reward for his elegy on the
celebrated and beloved <rs type="myth" key="myth137">Frode Fredegod</rs>. Somewhat similar is the relation &#x005B;p. 174&#x005D; respecting
<rs key="myth1209" type="myth">Thorkild Adelfar</rs>, who, about the year 730, embraced the Christian belief, &#x201C;and whose conversion was probably attended with the less
difficulty, as he already belonged to a heathen sect which adhered to the gods or demons, enemies of the <rs type="myth" key="myth106"
>Aser</rs>;&#x201D; for this <rs key="myth1209" type="myth">Thorkild</rs> is neither more nor less than the hero of a beautiful fiction in <rs type="title" key="title83">Saxo</rs>, derived probably from an Anglo-Saxon skald, who cared so little about chronology, that he made <rs key="myth1209" type="myth">Thorkild</rs> an Icelander long before <placeName key="fak4">Iceland</placeName> had any inhabitants, so that all the historian can
say about the matter is, that he is well paired with <rs type="myth" key="myth37">Holger the Dane</rs> (the hero of Norman Romance), whose
conversion is also confidently related &#x005B;p. 175&#x005D;.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent">There are some other errors which should be corrected. <placeName key="fak875">Nissa</placeName> (where the conflict took place between <persName key="pe997">Svend Estrithson</persName>
and <persName key="pe1049">Harald Haardraade</persName>) is placed on the Norwegian coast &#x005B;p. 346&#x005D;, instead of on the Danish
(now Swedish), off <placeName key="fak162">Halland</placeName>; the battle between the Jomsvikinger and <persName key="pe395">Hakon
Jarl</persName> &#x005B;p. 295&#x005D;, is represented to have taken place in the Bay of <placeName key="fak451">Bergen</placeName>
(Bergens Vaug), instead of <placeName key="his515">Hiorung Vaug</placeName>, by <placeName key="fak878">Sul-oe</placeName>. If our memory do not deceive us, the words also
about the position of the skalds during the battle which are attributed &#x005B;p. 31&#x005D; to <persName key="pe436">Oluf
Trygvason</persName>, confound him with <persName key="pe1048">Saint Oluf</persName>, whose words they were, and used at the battle on
<app type="corrNote" select="yes"><lem wit="GV"><placeName key="fak575">Stiklestad</placeName></lem><rdg wit="A">Siklestad</rdg><witDetail n="0" wit="A">tekstkritik er afhandlet i ACCESS</witDetail></app>, where he, as is rightly observed &#x005B;p. 53&#x005D; &#x201C;assigned to his skalds a conspicuous post, where they might be
able distinctly to see and hear, and afterwards relate the events of the day.&#x201D; So again when Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> says of <persName
key="pe1048">Saint Oluf</persName>, that his zeal against the pagan religion induced him to include the songs of the skalds among the other
inventions of the demon, and that Sighvat Skald said of him, &#x201C;he was unwilling to listen to any lay.&#x201D; The story which is here
not correctly represented, is to be found in <persName key="pe49">Snorro</persName>, to the following effect: That when <persName
key="pe1476">Sighvat Skald</persName> came first to king <persName key="pe1048">Oluf</persName>, and wished <pb type="text"
facs="1831_494_fax017.jpg" ed="A" n="457"/>to obtain a hearing, the king said, that he would not hear such things as he could not understand
(namely, such dark cramped verse as the skalds of <placeName key="fak4">Iceland</placeName> were in the habit of producing), but when
<persName key="pe1476">Sighvat</persName> assured him, that his verse was intelligible enough, the king immediately lent him ear, and
retained him ever afterwards as his skald. This is the old account, and it is a natural one; but the story of an ancient Northern king, who
considered poetry as an invention of the demon, is a mere fiction.</p>
<p rend="firstIndent">Again, Mr. <persName key="pe1616">Wheaton</persName> says of <rs type="myth" key="myth985">Higelak</rs>, &#x201C;he is supposed to have been a petty
king, who reigned in the island of <placeName key="fak70">Fionia</placeName>;&#x201D; and in the note &#x005B;p. 156&#x005D;, is a reference to the Introduction to Grundtvig's
translation of <rs type="myth" key="myth406">Beowulf</rs>, whence it would seem that the Gothic king <rs type="myth" key="myth985"
>Higelak</rs> is made into a petty king of <placeName key="fak70">Fyen</placeName>, which is far from being the case. Grundtvig has, on the
contrary, shown that <rs type="myth" key="myth985">Higelak</rs> in <rs type="title" key="title3272">Beowulf's &#x201C;Drapa,&#x201D;</rs> is
the same person as the Danish king Cochilac, whose fall in a battle with the Frank king, is related by <persName key="pe1415">Gregory of Tours</persName>. These are slight
defects, but, perhaps, not unworthy of notice; and having suggested them to the attention of the reader, we can very sincerely recommend Mr.
<persName key="pe1616">Wheaton's</persName> volumes.</p>
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