cret Murder's hiss is heard
Ere the deed be done:
He wove no web of wile and word;
He bore with none.
When sharp within its sheath asleep
Lay his good sword,
He held it royal work to keep
His kingly word.
A man of valour, bloody and wild,
In Viking need;
And yet of firelight feeling mild
As honey-mead.

Another poem, "The Banner-Bearer of King Olaf," pictures the strong
fighter in a death he rejoiced to die. It is a good poem of the class
that nerves men to die for the flag, and it has the Old Norse spirit.
These poems are all from Massey's volume _My Lyrical Life_ (London.
1889).

A glance at the other poems in Gerald Massey's volumes shows that like
Morris, and like Kingsley, and like Carlyle, the poet was a workman
eager to do for the workman. Is it not suggestive that these men found
themselves drawn to Old Norse character and life? The Icelandic republic
cherished character as the highest quality of citizenship, and put few
or no social obstacles in the way of its achievement. The literature
inspired by that life reveals a fellowship among the members of that
republic that is the envy of social reformers of the present day. Morris
makes one of the personages in _The Story of the Glittering Plain_
(Chap. I) say these words: "And as for Lord, I knew not this word, for
here dwell we the Sons of the Raven in good fellowship, with our wives
that we have wedded, and our mothers who have borne us, and our sisters
who serve us." Almost may this description serve for Iceland in its
golden age, and so it is no wonder that the socialist, the priest, and
the philosopher of our own disjointed times go back to the sagas for
ideals to serve their countrymen.

We have no other poets to mention by name in connection with this Old
Norse influence, although doubtless a search through the countless
volumes that the presses drop into a cold and uncaring world would
reveal other poems with Scandinavian themes. We close this section of
our investigation with the remark already made, that, in the tables of
titles in volumes of contemporary verse, acknowledgment to Old Norse
poetry and prose are not the rarity they once were, and in poems of any
kind allusions to the same sources are very common.

RECENT TRANSLATIONS.

We have already noted the beginning of serial publications of saga
translations, namely, Morris and Magnusson's _Saga Library_ which was
stopped by th