nately, not the case with the next pioneer in the same
field, although he deserves great credit also. Peter Petersen Syv
(1631-1702) was a very able philologist, who was also a minor poet of
ambition. In 1695 he reprinted and edited Vedel's text, adding 100 more
_kjaempeviser_ which had been unknown to Vedel. But his work was not so
well done; Syv was something of a pedant, and unfortunately either too
critical or not critical enough. He ventured to correct the
irregularities of the ballads, and not seldom has spoiled them. He bore
the proud title of Philologer Royal of Denmark, and he was above all
things else a grammarian. But he added to our store of Ballads. No one,
during the eighteenth century, advanced on the labours of Vedel and Syv,
and their treasuries of beautiful anonymous poetry seem to have attracted
no attention in the rest of Europe.

But in the first decade of the nineteenth century, in consequence of what
we call the Romantic Revival, poets and scholars in many countries turned
simultaneously to the treasure-house of Danish balladry. Jamieson's
work, to which I shall presently return, dates from 1806; about the same
time Herder translated one or two _kjaempeviser_ in his _Stimmen der
Volker_, and in 1809 Wilhelm Carl Grimm started his full translation,
under the title of _Altdanische Heldenlieder_, _Balladen and Marchen_,
which appeared in 1811. But it appears that Grimm had heard and perhaps
even seen the proofs of a Danish edition of the very highest importance,
the _Udvalgte Danske Viser fra Middlealderen_, the first volume of which
was brought out by Abrahamson, Nyerup and Rahbek in 1812. {9} Abrahamson
dropped out, but the work was completed by the others, the fifth and last
volume appearing in 1814.

Borrow's relation to these texts must now be considered, and it offers
some difficulty. In 1826 he published a volume of verse entitled
_Romantic Ballads translated from the Danish_, and in the preface he uses
these words:--"I expect shortly to lay before the public a complete
translation of the KIAEMPE VISER, made by me some years ago." It is
necessary to bear in mind that there are these two collections of
Borrow's translations from the _kjaempeviser_, the second of which, as we
shall see, he did not contrive to publish.

No doubt, he was anxious to emphasise the novelty and rarity of his
literary adventures. But his attitude to Jamieson is very strange. As
early as 1806 Robert Jami