Chapter II
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CHAPTER II
THE TEUTONIC EPIC
I
The Tragic Conception
Early German poetry65
One of the first things certain about it is that it knew the meaning of tragic situations66
The Death of Ermanaric in Jordanes66
The story of Alboin in Paulus Diaconus66
Tragic plots in the extant poems69
The Death of Ermanaric in the "Poetic Edda" (Hamðismál)70
Some of the Northern poems show the tragic conception modified by romantic motives, yet without loss of the tragic purport—Helgi and Sigrun 72
Similar harmony of motives in the Waking of Angantyr73
Whatever may be wanting, the heroic poetry had no want of tragic plots—the "fables" are sound74
Value of the abstract plot (Aristotle)74
II
Scale of the Poems
List of extant poems and fragments in one or other of the older Teutonic languages (German, English, and Northern) in unrhymed alliterative verse 76
Small amount of the extant poetry78
Supplemented in various ways79
1. The Western Group (German and English)79
Amount of story contained in the several poems, and scale of treatment79
Hildebrand, a short story80
Finnesburh, (1) the Lambeth fragment (Hickes); and (2) the abstract of the story in Beowulf81
Finnesburh, a story of (1) wrong and (2) vengeance, like the story of the death of Attila, or of the betrayal of Roland82
Uncertainty as to the compass of the Finnesburh poem (Lambeth) in its original complete form84
Waldere, two fragments: the story of Walter of Aquitaine preserved in the Latin Waltharius84
Plot of Waltharius84
Place of the Waldere fragments in the story, and probable compass of the whole poem86
Scale of Maldon and of Beowulf88 89
General resemblance in the themes of these poems—unity of action89
Development of style, and not neglect of unity nor multiplication of contents, accounts for the difference of length between earlier and later poems 91
Progress of Epic in England—unlike the history of Icelandic poetry92
2. The Northern Group93
The contents of the so-called "Elder Edda" (i.e. Codex Regius 2365, 4to Havn.) to what extent Epic93 93
Notes on the contents of the poems, to show their scale; the Lay of Weland94
Different plan in the Lays of Thor, Þrymskviða and Hymiskviða95
The Helgi Poems—complications of the text95
Three separate stories—Helgi Hundingsbane and Sigrun95
Helgi Hiorvardsson and Swava98
Helgi and Kara (lost)99
The story of the Volsungs—the long Lay of Brynhild contains the whole story in abstract giving the chief place to the character of Brynhild100 100 101
The Hell-ride of Brynhild102
The fragmentary Lay of Brynhild (Brot af Sigurðarkviðu)103
Poems on the death of Attila—the Lay of Attila (Atlakviða), and the Greenland Poem of Attila (Atlamál)105
Proportions of the story105
A third version of the story in the Lament of Oddrun (Oddrúnargrátr)107
The Death of Ermanaric (Hamðismál)109
The Northern idylls of the heroines (Oddrun, Gudrun)—the Old Lay of Gudrun, or Gudrun's story to Theodoric109
The Lay of Gudrun (Guðrúnarkviða)—Gudrun's sorrow for Sigurd111
The refrain111
Gudrun's Chain of Woe (Tregrof Guðrúnar)111
The Ordeal of Gudrun, an episodic lay111
Poems in dialogue, without narrative— (1) Dialogues in the common epic measure—Balder's Doom, Dialogues of Sigurd, Angantyr—explanations in prose, between the dialogues (2) Dialogues in the gnomic or elegiac measure: (a) vituperative debates—Lokasenna, Harbarzlióð (in irregular verse), Atli and Rimgerd (b) Dialogues implying action—The Wooing of Frey (Skírnismál) 112 112 114
Svipdag and Menglad (Grógaldr, Fiölsvinnsmál)114
The Volsung dialogues115
The Western and Northern poems compared, with respect to their scale116
The old English poems (Beowulf, Waldere), in scale, midway between the Northern poems and Homer117
Many of the Teutonic epic remains may look like the "short lays" of the agglutinative epic theory; but this is illusion117
Two kinds of story in Teutonic Epic—(1) episodic, i.e. representing a single action (Hildebrand, etc.); (2) summary, i.e. giving the whole of a long story in abstract, with details of one part of it (Weland, etc.) 118
The second class is unfit for agglutination119
Also the first, when it is looked into121
The Teutonic Lays are too individual to be conveniently fused into larger masses of narrative122
III
Epic and Ballad Poetry
Many of the old epic lays are on the scale of popular ballads123
Their style is different124
As may be proved where later ballads have taken up the epic subjects125
The Danish ballads of Ungen Sveidal (Svipdag and Menglad) and of Sivard (Sigurd and Brynhild)126 127
The early epic poetry, unlike the ballads, was ambitious and capable of progress129
IV
The Style of the Poems
Rhetorical art of the alliterative verse133
English and Norse134
Different besetting temptations in England and the North136
English tameness; Norse emphasis and false wit (the Scaldic poetry)137
Narrative poetry undeveloped in the North; unable to compete with the lyrical forms137
Lyrical element in Norse narrative138
Volospá, the greatest of all the Northern poems139
False heroics; Krákumál (Death-Song of Ragnar Lodbrok)140
A fresh start, in prose, with no rhetorical encumbrances141
V
The Progress of Epic
Various renderings of the same story due (1) to accidents of tradition and impersonal causes; (2) to calculation and selection of motives by poets, and intentional modification of traditional matter 144
The three versions of the death of Gunnar and Hogni compared—Atlakviða, Atlamál, Oddrúnargrátr147
Agreement of the three poems in ignoring the German theory of Kriemhild's revenge149
The incidents of the death of Hogni clear in Atlakviða, apparently confused and ill recollected in the other two poems150
But it turns out that these two poems had each a view of its own which made it impossible to use the original story152
Atlamál, the work of a critical author, making his selection of incidents from heroic tradition the largest epic work in Northern poetry, and the last of its school153 155
The "Poetic Edda," a collection of deliberate experiments in poetry and not of casual popular variants156
VI
Beowulf
Beowulf claims to be a single complete work158
Want of unity: a story and a sequel159
More unity in Beowulf than in some Greek epics. The first 2200 lines form a complete story, not ill composed160
Homeric method of episodes and allusions in Beowulf and Waldere162 163
Triviality of the main plot in both parts of Beowulf—tragic significance in some of the allusions165
The characters in Beowulf abstract types165
The adventures and sentiments commonplace, especially in the fight with the dragon168
Adventure of Grendel not pure fantasy169
Grendel's mother more romantic172
Beowulf is able to give epic dignity to a commonplace set of romantic adventures173