in an epilogue, but still we may note the coincidence between the ‘That is how Thor got back his hammer’ of the Ballad and the ‘This is how Gudrun was cleared of the charge against her’ of the Tapestry school. Both poems are confessedly for entertainment. We should certainly incline to put the Ballad-poet earlier than the Tapestry poems, say about 990. He may be older, but that is probably the safest date. We have noted his marked Western characteristics. The trick of Thor dressing as a bride is the same as the legend of Thorgils’ death in Ireland, when the young heroes dressed themselves up as women to get access to him and slew him.
A poem which presents a very delicate problem is the Weyland’s Lay. On the one side there are such deeply-cut archaisms, such a Homeric spirit breathing through it, so many lines with the ring of the Hamtheow Lay in them, that it was not without long consideration and careful discussion that its present place in this volume was decided on; for, while these traits would claim it as a fellow to the older Epics, there are traces of later phrasing, e. g. ll. 107–110, and of such modern metre, structure, and wording as show certain resemblances to the Ballad-poet. Perhaps to suppose that it is an old poem, which has gone through a remodelling by some admirer of the Ballad style, would be the most reasonable theory. It is an especially fascinating Lay and deserves minute study.
Biarka-mal, unless the legend lies, is older than 1030, the day when the martyr-king heard it sung as the last sun that he was to see rose over his waking host. But we must not pin our faith to this too tightly, for we know that round Sticklestead-battle, as round Senlake and Alcazar, stories have clustered which really belong to older and later events. The extraordinary resemblance between it and the fragment of the Finsburgh fight, amounting even to the identity of parallel lines, must be pointed out[1]. There must be some transfusion of legend
- ↑ Of such parallelisms mark, e.g.—
And onwacnigeað nu wigend mine.And— Vaki ok vaki vina-höfuð.Compare too— Đa árás mænig gold hladen ðegn gyrde hine his sworde,ða to dura eodon drihtlice cempan,Sigeferð and Eaha hyra sword getugon,ond æt oþrum durum Ordlaf and Guþlaf,ond Hengest sylf hwearf him on laste, etc.
And this sentence from the Paraphrase in Rolf’s Saga— Þá stökk upp Hromundr Harði, ok Hrolfr skióthendi, Svipdagr ok Beigaðr, Hvítserkr enn Hvati, Haklangr enn sétti, Harðrefill enn siaundi, Haki inn Frœkni enn átti, Vöttr enn Mikil-afli enn niundi, Stárolfr enn tiundi, Hialti enn Hugprúði enn ellepti, Böðvarr Biarki enn tolfti.
Compare too— Đa gewat him wund hæleð on wæg gangansæde þæt his byrne abrocen wærehere-sceorpum hror and eac was his helm ðyrl:with the paraphrastic—þviat af mer eru hœggnar allar hlífar, fóst-bróðir, ok þykkjomk ek þó all-ákaft vega, ok get ek nú eigi hefnt allra minna hœggva; enn eigi skal nú við hlífaz, ef ver skulum Valhöll gista í kveld.
