Chapter I
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
I
The Heroic Age
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Epic and Romance: the two great orders of medieval narrative3
Epic, of the "heroic age," preceding Romance of the "age of chivalry"4
The heroic age represented in three kinds of literature—Teutonic Epic, French Epic, and the Icelandic Sagas6
Conditions of Life in an "heroic age"7
Homer and the Northern poets9
Homeric passages in Beowulf and in the Song of Maldon10 11
Progress of poetry in the heroic age13
Growth of Epic, distinct in character, but generally incomplete, among the Teutonic nations14
II
Epic and Romance
The complex nature of Epic16
No kind or aspect of life that may not be included16
This freedom due to the dramatic quality of true (e.g. Homeric) Epic as explained by Aristotle17 17
Epic does not require a magnificent ideal subject such as those of the artificial epic (Aeneid, Gerusalemme Liberata, Paradise Lost)18 18
The Iliad unlike these poems in its treatment of "ideal" motives (patriotism, etc.)19
True Epic begins with a dramatic plot and characters20
The Epic of the Northern heroic age is sound in its dramatic conception and does not depend on impersonal ideals (with exceptions, in the Chansons de geste)20 21
The German heroes in history and epic (Ermanaric, Attila, Theodoric)21
Relations of Epic to historical fact22
The epic poet is free in the conduct of his story but his story and personages must belong to his own people23 26
Nature of Epic brought out by contrast with secondary narrative poems, where the subject is not national27
This secondary kind of poem may be excellent, but is always different in character from native Epic28
Disputes of academic critics about the "Epic Poem"30
Tasso's defence of Romance. Pedantic attempts to restrict the compass of Epic30
Bossu on Phaeacia31
Epic, as the most comprehensive kind of poetry, includes Romance as one of its elements but needs a strong dramatic imagination to keep Romance under control32 33
III
Romantic Mythology
Mythology not required in the greatest scenes in Homer35
Myths and popular fancies may be a hindrance to the epic poet, but he is compelled to make some use of them36
He criticises and selects, and allows the characters of the gods to be modified in relation to the human characters37
Early humanism and reflexion on myth—two processes: (1) rejection of the grosser myths; (2) refinement of myth through poetry 40
Two ways of refining myth in poetry—(1) by turning it into mere fancy, and the more ludicrous things into comedy; (2) by finding an imaginative or an ethical meaning in it 40
Instances in Icelandic literature—Lokasenna41
Snorri Sturluson, his ironical method in the Edda42
The old gods rescued from clerical persecution43
Imaginative treatment of the graver myths—the death of Balder; the Doom of the Gods43
Difficulties in the attainment of poetical self-command44
Medieval confusion and distraction45
Premature "culture"46
Depreciation of native work in comparison with ancient literature and with theology47
An Icelandic gentleman's library47
The whalebone casket48
Epic not wholly stifled by "useful knowledge"49
IV
The Three Schools—Teutonic Epic—French Epic—The Icelandic Histories
Early failure of Epic among the Continental Germans50
Old English Epic invaded by Romance (Lives of Saints, etc.)50
Old Northern (Icelandic) poetry full of romantic mythology51
French Epic and Romance contrasted51
Feudalism in the old French Epic (Chansons de Geste) not unlike the prefeudal "heroic age"52
But the Chansons de Geste are in many ways "romantic"53
Comparison of the English Song of Byrhtnoth (Maldon, a.d. 991) with the Chanson de Roland54
Severity and restraint of Byrhtnoth55
Mystery and pathos of Roland56
Iceland and the German heroic age57
The Icelandic paradox—old-fashioned politics together with clear understanding58
Icelandic prose literature—its subject, the anarchy of the heroic age; its methods, clear and positive59
The Icelandic histories, in prose, complete the development of the early Teutonic Epic poetry60