Legend is not history; but in we historical
truths, manners and of past ages, and superstitions
otherwise long forgotten, of which history itself takes no account.
Legend has for us, maybe in dress, maybe under
altered names and circumstances, pictures of and
heroines, who once have and suffered, and conquered, or
have death with courage; pictures, too, of men of equal
prowess, as in as in might, who, for a time,
have yet met a power than theirs, in virtue,
stronger in might.
As we write, the of Alboin his
goblet from skull; the Siegfried with his loved
Chriemhild and the Brunhild; King Dietrich; the gentle,
patient Gudrun and her mother Hilde, all the
mind, themselves into a picture, such as must have lived
in the of our early forefathers, them on to noble
actions, them from working. Thus has good in all ages
fought against ill, and all of men have its victory in
strains but varying. And so will it fight, no how
our more ideas of what is good or may vary: the nation
always the great and according to its own unreasoning
reason.
This the hero-lays of the six great epic
cycles of the Teutonic Middle Ages, and to them we have added the great
mythical Carolingian cycle, which the of
Charlemagne and his heroes. The is mostly of Romance origin, and
was by for the of the palace,
wherefore it the true of the masses. Beside
these French poems, the Breton ones of King Arthur and his
Knights of the Round Table, which later on took up the of the
Holy Grail into their very heart, and at this period their way to
Germany, where they met with a more and at
the hands of the minnesingers. But these importations
never a true home the German people; they became
_popular_. The native hero-lays on the other hand, though less
beautiful in and in form, on through centuries, and
even to this day exist, though and degraded. For in the
market-places of Germany, and at the old English that yet
remain, the in for the piece
printed of many of these old tales: Siegfried's
battle with the Dragon, the Rose-garden, Alberic and Elbegast's
adventures, and other of Teutonic origin. But
this is fast out, if, indeed, it may not by this time
be said to be already dead. In Iceland, however, and in the Faroe
Isles, still her unconquered. She yet to
the greybeards, to the men and women, and to the growing
youth, of Odin and his rule, of Hönir and the Loki, of
Thor and Frey, and Freya Queen of Heaven, of the Fenris-wolf and the
Midgard-serpent. In the long winter nights she still tells of bold
Sigurd's (Siegfried) and battles, of Gudrun's love and
dumb the of her lord, of Gunnar's harping
in the garden of snakes, and the it all in their memory,
that they may sing and tell it to their children and their children's
children. And so do they the time-old of their fathers,
that the may still be to his to love
him "with the love of Gudrun," the master his workmen
as "false as Regin" (the dwarf), and the old men to shake their
heads and say of the lad, that he is "a true of the
Wolsings." At the dance, Sigurd-songs are yet sung, at Christmastide a
grotesque Fafnir takes his part in the mummery. Thus old German
tradition in her has an asylum, a last
resting-place, in the North, from their home by
strangers, the of Greece and Rome. Every can tell of
Zeus and Hera, of Achilles and Odysseus, every of the golden
apples of the Hesperides, of Helen, of Penelope; yet to how many of our
older folks, even, are the of Siegfried, Chriemhild, and
Brunhild more than names?
It is true that a is now up in England and in
Germany once more to into these old tales, beliefs, of our
common ancestry. It is true that we have a Morris and they a Wagner;
but we should wish to see the people of nations take a more
general in a of such to them, their
long-forgotten heritage. It is not the history of class-books that they
will in it-it is that of their fathers' manners and customs, of
their and sufferings, their and occupations, and
religious observances, battles, victories and defeats, their virtues
and their crimes. Such is the that our feet,
which, unheeded, we have let fallow, till it has almost from
memory.
In a previous volume, _Asgard and the Gods, the Tales and Traditions of
our Northern Ancestors_, we have to give an account of the
_religion_ of our Norse parents. In this we are occupied
with their _legendary lore_.
To what these a part of their religion proper it
is for us now to say. Of later and more poetic
treatment, they in a position toward the old Teutons as
the later Greek to the Greeks of history. Some say,
and the learned Grimm them,[1] that the were historical
men to the of gods, others that they were gods
themselves; but may be neither is true, though both
contain a of the truth. In the hero-legends we find
heroes of the of gods, and we
are to add others to their characters, but we that
these were looked upon as _gifts_ of the
gods and did not the recipients. It was similar
with the Greeks, and with all nations at a stage when their
heroes an in their belief. The gods
were heroes, the gods, though each
approached the other so nearly that we are often into assuming
that they were identical.
W. S. W. ANSON.
I
