The Influence of Old Norse Literature on English Literature | Page 4

of which was 1200-1270, we find, for example, _Egils
Saga_, _Eyrbyggja Saga_, _Laxdæla Saga_, _Grettis Saga_, _Njáls
Saga_. A branch of the historic sagas is the Kings' Sagas, in which we
find _Heimskringla_, the _Saga of Olaf Tryggvason_, the _Flatey
Book_, and others.
This sketch does not pretend to indicate the quantity of Old Norse
literature. An idea of that is obtained by considering the fact that eleven
columns of the ninth edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ are
devoted to recording the works of that body of writings.

II.
THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF LATIN.
THOMAS GRAY (1716-1771).
In the eighteenth century, Old Norse literature was the lore of
antiquarians. That it is not so to-day among English readers is due to a
line of writers, first of whom was Thomas Gray. In the thin volume of
his poetry, two pieces bear the sub-title: "An Ode. From the Norse
Tongue." These are "The Fatal Sisters," and "The Descent of Odin,"
both written in 1761, though not published until 1768. These poems are

among the latest that Gray gave to the world, and are interesting aside
from our present purpose because they mark the limit of Gray's
progress toward Romanticism.
We are not accustomed to think of Gray as a Romantic poet, although
we know well that the movement away from the so-called Classicism
was begun long before he died. The Romantic element in his poetry is
not obvious; only the close observer detects it, and then only in a few
of the poems. The Pindaric odes exhibit a treatment that is Romantic,
and the Norse and Welsh adaptations are on subjects that are Romantic.
But we must go to his letters to find proof positive of his sympathy
with the breaking away from Classicism. Here are records of a love of
outdoors that reveled in mountain-climbing and the buffeting of storms.
Here are appreciations of Shakespeare and of Milton, the like of which
were not often proclaimed in his generation. Here is ecstatic admiration
of ballads and of the Ossian imitations, all so unfashionable in the
literary culture of the day. While dates disprove Lowell's statement in
his essay on Gray that "those anti-classical yearnings of Gray began
after he had ceased producing," it is certain that very little of his poetic
work expressed these yearnings. "Elegance, sweetness, pathos, or even
majesty he could achieve, but never that force which vibrates in every
verse of larger moulded men." Change Lowell's word "could" to "did,"
and this sentence will serve our purpose here.
Our interest in Gray's Romanticism must confine itself to the two odes
from the Old Norse. It is to be noted that the first transplanting to
English poetry of Old Norse song came about through the scholar's
agency, not the poet's. It was Gray, the scholar, that made "The Descent
of Odin" and "The Fatal Sisters." They were intended to serve as
specimens of a forgotten literature in a history of English poetry. In the
"Advertisement" to "The Fatal Sisters" he tells how he came to give up
the plan: "The Author has long since drop'd his design, especially after
he heard, that it was already in the hands of a Person well qualified to
do it justice, both by his taste, and his researches into antiquity."
Thomas Warton's History of English Poetry was the execution of this
design, but in that book no place was found for these poems.
In his absurd _Life of Gray_, Dr. Johnson said: "His translations of
Northern and Welsh Poetry deserve praise: the imagery is preserved,
perhaps often improved, but the language is unlike the language of

other poets." There are more correct statements in this sentence,
perhaps, than in any other in the essay, but this is because ignorance
sometimes hits the truth. It is not likely that the poems would have been
understood without the preface and the explanatory notes, and these, in
a measure, made the reader interested in the literature from which they
were drawn. Gray called the pieces "dreadful songs," and so in very
truth they are. Strength is the dominant note, rude, barbaric strength,
and only the art of Gray saved it from condemnation. To-day, with so
many imitations from Old Norse to draw upon, we cannot point to a
single poem which preserves spirit and form as well as those of Gray.
Take the stanza:
Horror covers all the heath, Clouds of carnage blot the sun, Sisters,
weave the web of death; Sisters, cease, the work is done.
The strophe is perfect in every detail. Short lines, each ending a
sentence; alliteration; words that echo the sense, and just four strokes to
paint a picture which has an atmosphere that whisks you into its own
world incontinently. It is no wonder that writers of later days who