The Heroic Age

The remains of English poetry which have come down to us from times anterior to the Norman conquest are mainly of a religious character and deal with the lives of saints or with...

It will not have escaped notice that a large proportion of the stories described or alluded to in the preceding chapter are found in the literature of more than one nation. The...

In the last chapter it was pointed out that the age covered by the heroic poetry and traditions of the Teutonic peoples coincides with a clearly marked period of history, extend...

In an earlier chapter (p. 3) it was mentioned that the English heroic poems are usually ascribed to the seventh or eighth centuries. We must now try to see whether any means are...

[97] Prof. Morsbach's paper raises a number of questions besides those mentioned above. But I am obliged here to confine my attention to those which have a bearing on the dating...

In the preceding chapters we have seen that the persons and events celebrated in the heroic poems apparently all belonged to the fourth, fifth or sixth centuries, and further th...

Most of the heroic poems and stories which have come down to us contain elements generally comprehended under the term 'folk-tale' (Märchen), and it will be convenient at once t...

We have now to consider the question whether myth is a necessary element in the formation of heroic poetry. It has been noticed that historical persons figure in many stories of...

Reginn is represented as a smith. Again, (4) both in the ballad and in Norse prose authorities Sigurðr breaks the smith's anvil, though the circumstances are quite different. It...

The question how far the use of fiction was permitted in heroic poetry is of course one to which we cannot possibly hope to give a definite answer. All poetry which deserves the...

The literary records of the Heroic Age of Greece resemble those of the northern Heroic Age in several respects. Both literatures alike begin with heroic poems which, as we shall...

It has been mentioned that, according to the theory now most commonly accepted, the Homeric poems were not the work of one author or even of one generation--that on the contrary...

such distant expeditions in early times. But any communication which may have existed must have been interrupted by the invasions of the Bithynoi and Treres, probably in the nin...

In Chapter V we saw that four well-marked stages may be distinguished in the history of Teutonic heroic poetry. The first is that of strictly contemporary court poetry, dealing...

In Chapter VI we saw that the heroic poetry of the Teutonic peoples was very largely affected by folk-tales; that supernatural beings were frequently introduced, while ordinary...

It is commonly held that history, myth and fiction have all contributed to the formation of the Greek heroic stories; but opinions differ widely as to the relative importance to...

We have now to consider briefly how far the use of fiction, i.e. of conscious, deliberate invention, was permitted in the composition of Greek heroic poetry. This question gave...

Our review of the Homeric poems has led us to conclude that their origin and early history was in many respects analogous to that of the English heroic poems; and further, that...

The evidence of the German poems for the social and political conditions of the Heroic Age cannot be regarded as trustworthy owing to the lateness of the period in which they we...

During the Heroic Age of the Teutonic peoples kingship appears to have been practically universal. The Old Saxons may have formed a solitary exception to the general rule; but o...

In the course of the Heroic Age many of the Teutonic peoples were converted to Christianity. The change of faith began among the Goths soon after the middle of the fourth centur...

In the course of the last three chapters we have observed many remarkable resemblances between the Teutonic and Greek Heroic Ages--in social organisation, in the forms of govern...