Hildibrand's Death Song : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. 52 HILDIBRAND'S DEATH SONG THIS FINE fragment is an offshoot of the South Germanic, and ultimately Gothic, heroic motif best known to us from the famous old German lay in which the greatest tragedy conceivable to the Germanic mind...
The Riddles Of King Heithrek : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. 85 THE RIDDLES OF KING HEITHREK1 [HEITHREKSGTUR] RIDDLES belong to the popular amusements of probably all races endowed with sufficient intellectual vivacity and reflective power to discover analogies. Yet but few collections of them...
Hi'almar's Death Song : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. 26 HILMAR'S DEATH SONG LIKE THE "Vikarsblk" and "Hildibrand's Death Song," this essentially monologic lay belongs to a category which forms a masculine counterpart to the feminine retrospective poems of the Edda, such as "Helreith...
The Lay Of Hloth And Angant'yr Or The Battle : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. 36 THE LAY OF HLOTH AND ANGANTR OR THE BATTLE OF THE HUNS THIS dialogic lay about the hostile half brothers may justly claim high rank among the small number of genuine "heroic" poems. In grandeur of theme, in extraordinary vig...
The Lay Of Harold : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. 56 THE LAY OF HAROLD [HARALDSKVTHI OR HRAFNSML] BY THRBIORN HORNKLOFI NORWAY enters into the full daylight of recorded history with King Harold, surnamed Fairhair1 (ca. 860-933), the son of Halvdan the Black, a petty king of Southeastern...
The Sun Song : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous p. 101 THE SUN SONG [SLARLITH] WITH THIS curious poem we are in another world--that of medieval Christian thought, morality, symbols. Yet, strangely, there is in it far more of the old and heathen than would appear at first blush. Indeed, nothing...
The Old Lay Of Biarki : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. 3 THE OLD LAY OF BIARKI [BIARKAML HIN FORNU] IN A famous passage of his great book on the "History of the Norwegian Kings" ("Heimskringla"), Snorri relates how, early at morn, before the fatal battle of Stiklastad (1030), King laf...
Title Page : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Next OLD NORSE POEMS THE MOST IMPORTANT NON-SKALDIC VERSE NOT INCLUDED IN THE POETIC EDDA BY LEE M. HOLLANDER New York: Morningside Heights Columbia University Press [1936, Not Renewed] TO ALYCE K. WOODWARD ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS are due...
The Lay Of H'akon : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. 66 THE LAY OF HKON [HKONARML] BY EYVIND FINNSSON SKLDASPILLIR IF THE "Lay of Eric" was "made to order" by an unknown poet, as the eulogium of an unpopular, though brave, king, the "Lay of Hkon" is composed by the best-known of Norwegi...
The Lay Of Hervor : Sacred-Texts Legends so that, as in the best ballads, any prose introduction is supererogatory. The lay has been justly admired.1 There is power and subtlety in the portrayal of the amazon maiden. She is self-centered and undaunted, come what may, and ruthless in her fierce insistence ou...
The Lay Of Ingiald : Sacred-Texts Legends " and a third lay, somewhat related to the Icelandic "Vkarsblk," is to be inferred from Saxo's prose narrative. That there were current lays about Starkath, not only in Scandinavia, but also in Anglo-Saxon England, brought thither from the old home, and that they were in fav...
The Song Of The Valkyries : Sacred-Texts Legends but the women mounted their horses and rode away--six to the south and six to the north." Thus the "Nils saga" (Chapter 157), whose narrative is our sole source for one of the most striking poems of Norse antiquity. Down to Walter Scott's days it was recited in the Norn tongue...
The Lay Of V'ikar : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. 18 THE LAY OF VKAR [VKARSBLKR] THIS FINE but difficult retrospective monologue is unique in Old Germanic literature; not so much in manner as in matter. Its hero is, to be sure, the Danish national champion, Starkath, celebrated in song...
The Lay Of Eric : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. 63 THE LAY OF ERIC [EIRKSMOL] THE MANUSCRIPT "Fagrskinna" is our sole source for this magnificent lay also. We are told that it was composed at the behest of Gunnhild, wife of Eric Bloody-axe, oldest of the many sons of Harold Hairfair...
The Curse Of Busla : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. 76 THE CURSE OF BUSLA [BUSLUBN] THE MYSTERIOUS power of the word, whether for prayer, benediction or malediction, has been felt at all times. And at all times, both good wishes and imprecations have been apt to clothe themselves in some...
The Oath Of Truce : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. 80 THE OATH OF TRUCE [TRYGGTHAML] PRIMITIVE law, based as it is on the profoundest ethical convictions and sentiments of the race, has many elements in common with poetry. Especially is this the case when the law seeks to instance...
The Lay Of Innstein : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. 46 THE LAY OF INNSTEIN THIS LAY is found in the mythic-heroic "Hlfs saga," a typical "fornaldarsaga," or "tale of the olden times," consisting of narrative with interspersed poems, which in this instance preponderate. The prose is largely...
Introduction : Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Iceland Index Previous Next p. xi INTRODUCTION THE GROUP of poems here offered comprises practically all the more considerable (non-Skaldic) verse material not in the Edda. It shows, even better than that remarkable collection, of which it is intended to be...