s as those quoted are therefore common in his
poem. That the poet realized the inadequacy of such knowledge, the
review of Herbert's poetry, published in the _Edinburgh Review_ for
October, 1806, shows. In this article he has a vision of what shall be
when men shall be able "to trace the Runic rhyme" itself.

"The Pirate," exhibited the Wizard's skill in weaving the old and the
new together, the old being the traditions of the Shetlands, full of the
ancestral beliefs in Old Norse things, the new being the life in those
islands in a recent century. This is a stirring story, that comes into
our consideration because of its Scandinavian antiquities. Again we find
the Latin treasuries of Bartholinus, Torfaeus, Perinskjoeld and Olaus
Magnus in evidence, though here, too, mention is made of "Haco," and
Tryggvason and "Harfager." With a background of island scenery, with
which Scott became familiar during a light-house inspector's voyage made
in 1814, this story is a picture full of vivid colors and characters. In
Norna of the Fitful Head, he has created a mysterious personage in whose
mouth "Runic rhymes" are the only proper speech. She stills the tempest
with them, and "The Song of the Tempest" is a strong apostrophe, though
it is neither Runic nor rhymed. She preludes her life-story with verses
that are rhymed but not Runic, and she sings incantations in the same
wise. This _Reimkennar_ is an echo of the _Voeluspa_, and is the only
kind of Norse woman that the time of Scott could imagine. Claud Halcro,
the poet, is fond of rhyming the only kind of Norseman known to his
time, and in his "Song of Harold Harfager" we hear the echoes of Gray's
odes. Scott's reading was wide in all ancient lore, and he never missed
a chance to introduce an odd custom if it would make an interesting
scene in his story. So here we have the "Sword Dance" (celebrated by
Olaus Magnus, though I have never read of it in Old Norse), the
"Questioning of the Sibyl" (like that in Gray's "Descent of Odin"), the
"Capture and Sharing of the Whale," and the "Promise of Odin." In most
of the natives there are turns of speech that recall the Norse ancestry
of the Shetlanders.

In Scott, then, we see the lengthening out of the influence of the
antiquarians who wrote of a dead past in a dead language. The time was
at hand when that past was to live again, painted in the living words of
living men.

III.

FROM THE SOURCES THEMSELVES.

In the preceding