the
Scandinavian and Germanic tale of the Niblungs and Volsungs,[45] turn on
the same incidents or are dedicated to the same heroes, represent a
similar ideal of life, similar manners, the same race. They are all of
them part of the literary patrimony common to the men of the North.

As happened with the Celts, the greater number of the monuments of
ancient Germanic and Scandinavian literature has been preserved in the
remotest of the countries where the race established itself; distance
having better sheltered it from wars, the songs and manuscripts were
more easily saved from destruction. Most of the Celtic tales extant at
this day have been preserved in Ireland; and most of the pieces
collected in the "Corpus Poeticum Boreale" have been taken from
Icelandic documents.

Manners and beliefs of the northern people are abundantly illustrated by
the poems included in this collection. We find ourselves amid giants and
dwarfs, monsters, dragons, unconquerable heroes, bloody battles, gloomy
omens, magic spells, and enchanted treasures. The poet leads us through
halls with ornamented seats, on which warriors spend long hours in
drinking; to pits full of serpents into which the vanquished are thrown;
in the midst of dismal landscapes where gibbeted corpses swing in the
wind; to mysterious islands where whirlwinds of flame shoot from the
tombs, and where the heroine arrives on her ships, her "ocean steeds,"
to evoke the paternal shade, behold once more the beloved being in the
midst of infernal fires, and receive from his hands the enchanted and
avenging sword. Armed Valkyrias cross the sky; ravens comment on the
actions of men; the tone is sad and doleful, sometimes so curt and
abrupt that, in order to follow the poet's fantastic imaginations, a
marginal commentary would be necessary, as for the "Ancient Mariner" of
Coleridge, in whom lives again something of the spirit of this
literature.

Scenes of slaughter and torture abound of course, as they do with all
primitive nations; the victims laugh in the midst of their sufferings;
they sing their death-song. Sigfried roasts the heart of his adversary,
Fafni, the man-serpent, and eats it. Eormunrek's feet and hands are cut
off and thrown into the fire before his eyes. Skirni, in order to win
Gerda's love for his master, heaps curses upon her, threatens to cut off
her head, and by these means succeeds in his embassy.[46] Gunnar,
wanting to keep for himself the secret of the Ni