PREFACE

This volume deals with the myths and legends of the Teutonic peoples. These evolved from primitive beliefs, and have been handed down from generation to generation and from century to century in the folk literature of oral tradition. They survive to us in folk tales, divine and heroic lays, and in sagas and epic narratives. In the north the myths about the gods persisted longest and had fullest growth, owing to the slow advance of Christianity, which met with obstinate resistance for over two centuries after the conversion of the southern Teutons. The myths about the old tribal heroes continued to flourish meantime all over the Teutonic area. In Central Europe, however, the folk lays were influenced by the higher and milder civilization which prevailed, and special interest attaches to their stray references to the gods, because these are of distinctly archaic character, as a result, it would appear, of the arrested growth of pagan ideas. The division of the Teutonic peoples, and their development under different conditions, caused the ancient folk literature to be subjected to varied treatment. In Central Europe the tribal songs were welded into detailed narratives, and each had for a central figure a popular hero like, for instance, Dietrich of Bern. A similar

process subsequently prevailed in the north. Thus had origin the "saga cycles", which link one with another, for they were distributed over a wide area by wandering minstrels, who altered and adapted them to meet the requirements of time and locality. The highest literary development occurred when educated poets made still freer use of the subject matter of tribal lays and produced epic narratives, which were not sung, but recited before cultured audiences. These were subsequently revised and committed to manuscripts for perusal. To this class belong two of outstanding merit-the Germanic Nibelungenlied, with its significant although confused historical setting, and the distinctive Anglo-Saxon Beowulf, which is interspersed with fragments of old hero songs, and bears evidence of alterations and additions by the copyists.

In the following pages our readers are afforded a comprehensive survey of the divine and heroic literature of the Teutonic peoples, which grew up at various periods and in different districts under the inspiring influence of common tribal traditions. The drama of Northern Mythology is reconstructed, so far as such has been found possible of accomplishment, in continuous narrative form, with the inclusion of the old Svipdag myth, which exercised so marked an influence on Middle Age romance. We have grouped together the various tales regarding adventurous journeys made by heroes to Hela, so that our readers may be familiarized with Teutonic conceptions of the Other World. The prose renderings of heroic narratives include the Beowulf epic, the BalderHother romance, the Hamlet legend, the saga of the Volsungs, the lay of the Nibelungs, and the less familiar Dietrich legends, in which the deeds of the primitive

Thor are attached to the memory of the Gothic Emperor of Rome. In all these literary productions the development of early myths can be traced, and their internal evidences regarding beliefs and customs and habits of life are of undoubted historical interest.

The folk tales and folk beliefs of the Teutons have not a few points of contact with those of the Celts. On that account Vigfusson suggested that the comparative study of Celtic lore "might throw light on the origin of much so-called Norse mythology", for Iceland, which has given us the Eddas, was partly colonized by the mixed peoples from the Scandinavian settlements in these islands. We have, therefore, dealt in our Introduction with the archaic giant lore of Scotland, which links with that of Cornwall, and drawn attention to the "Seven Sleepers" legends of the Highlands which have hitherto been overlooked. The conclusion suggested, however, is that some of the striking resemblances which are found must be traced to remoter influences than those prevailing in the Viking Age. Both Celts and Teutons were blends of the same ancient races-the Alpine "broad heads" and the Northern "long heads". They had therefore a common heritage of fused tribal beliefs, which must have varied, of course, in different districts. It may be that the westward-moving Celts, who absorbed the Mediterranean peoples of the late Stone Age, were, in turn, strongly influenced by their intellectual life, and that the Teutons came more directly under the spell of Asiatic modes of thought. At any rate it is evident that predominating fundamental conceptions of divergent origin exercised supreme control over the mental habits of the separated sub-races. Teutonic lore is mainly

"father-kin" in character, while Celtic is mainly "motherkin". The deities of the Teutons are controlled by a Great Father, and their elves by a king. The deities of the Celts are children of a Great Mother, and their fairies are ruled over by a queen.

Sometimes we find indications of late fusion of the characteristic folklores of the two great sub-races, which are highly suggestive and of historic significance. In the Teutonic epic Beowulf, the story regarding Grendel and his mother is of special interest in this connection, because it is "mother-kin" lore of British character. It is not found in the North German cycle of romance, and is of a type still surviving in these islands, which closely resembles the monster lore of early Greece. The inference is that the poet who gave the epic its final shape in England had a British mother, or, at any rate, came under the influence of British intellectual life. Like Shakespeare, who utilized old plays, he may have refashioned an earlier Anglian poem, appropriated its geographical setting, and infused the whole with the fire of his genius.

It may be suggested that in the material dealt with in this and Squire's Celtic volume there is much inspiration for the poets of the future. The fusion of peoples in these islands has produced a virile blend, and the combined influence of their myths and legends, and their fairy songs and hero songs, may yet, happily, stir to life a great Romantic revival which will be productive of a new and virile literature truly national in character.

DONALD A. M'KENZIE.