the hands of Bergthora and her women strewed the earthen
floor some nine hundred years ago, and even the greasy and clotted
remains of the whey that they threw upon the flame to quench it. He may
discover the places where Fosi drew up his men, where Skarphedinn died,
singing while his legs were burnt from off him, where Kari leapt from
the flaming ruin, and the dell in which he laid down to rest--at every
step, in short, the truth of the narrative becomes more obvious. And yet
the tale has been added to, for, unless we may believe that some human
beings are gifted with second sight, we cannot accept as true the
prophetic vision that came to Runolf, Thorstein's son; or that of Njal
who, on the evening of the onslaught, like Theoclymenus in the Odyssey,
saw the whole board and the meats upon it "one gore of blood."

Thus, in the Norse romance now offered to the reader, the tale of Eric
and his deeds would be true; but the dream of Asmund, the witchcraft of
Swanhild, the incident of the speaking head, and the visions of Eric
and Skallagrim, would owe their origin to the imagination of successive
generations of skalds; and, finally, in the fifteenth or sixteenth
century, the story would have been written down with all its
supernatural additions.

The tendency of the human mind--and more especially of the Norse
mind--is to supply uncommon and extraordinary reasons for actions and
facts that are to be amply accounted for by the working of natural
forces. Swanhild would have needed no "familiar" to instruct her in her
evil schemes; Eric would have wanted no love-draught to bring about his
overthrow. Our common experience of mankind as it is, in opposition to
mankind as we fable it to be, is sufficient to teach us that the passion
of one and the human weakness of the other would suffice to these ends.
The natural magic, the beauty and inherent power of such a woman
as Swanhild, are things more forceful than any spell magicians have
invented, or any demon they are supposed to have summoned to their
aid. But no saga would be complete without the intervention of such
extraneous forces: the need of them was always felt, in order to throw
up the acts of heroes and heroines, and to invest their persons with
an added importance. Even Homer felt this need, and did not scruple to
introduce not only second sight, but gods and goddesses, and to bring
their supernatural agency to bear directly on the personages of his
chant, and that far