Note 504 — Chapter XV · THE COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF TEUTONIC AND GREEK HEROIC POETRY.

I would call attention here to an interesting paper by Prof. Heusler (S.-B. d. Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 1909, p. 920 ff.), in which he seeks to show that the historical element in Teutonic heroic poetry has been exaggerated. The evidence adduced in favour of this view consists in the first place of unhistorical situations, chronological dislocations, etc. Most of the examples are taken from the later forms of the stories (Stage IV of our scheme). We have already discussed these phenomena (p. 152 ff.), and here I would only add that the observation quoted from Prof. Murko's paper on p. 936, note, may be applied, mutatis mutandis, to chronological as well as geographical relations. What interests us here however is the second piece of evidence brought forward by Prof. Heusler (p. 924 f.). He fully recognises and admirably expresses the individualistic, non-national spirit of Teutonic heroic poetry—as contrasted with that of the Old French epics: "Es herrschen in unsrer Sage die persönlichen Ideen".... "Die germanische Sage kennt keinen Nationalfeind," etc. Yet apparently he regards this phenomenon ('die persönliche Fabel') as a characteristic of the poetry only, and not of the society which produced it. Now in order to prove that this is an 'unhistorical' element evidence must be brought to show that the attitude of the poems—the early poems (Stage II)—does not faithfully reflect the spirit of the age. I know of no evidence to justify so startling a conclusion; on the contrary we shall see in the following chapters that contemporary historical works frequently testify to the prevalence of the same ideas which we find expressed in the poems. Even the statement that Teutonic heroic poetry is 'unpolitical' seems to me to require some reservation. Certainly it knows nothing of modern ideas of politics. But have we any ground for disputing that it represents the politics current in the courts in which it grew up? Lastly, objection must be taken to the contrast drawn on p. 933 between Teutonic and Greek heroic poetry. So far as the Homeric evidence is concerned the observations made here apply not to the poems as we have them but to certain hypotheses regarding their 'pre-history,' with which we have dealt above (p. 267 ff.).