from oral tradition, which generally goes back in more
or less fixed form to the time at which the characters in the stories
lived, and they give us a vivid picture of the persons themselves and
of the conditions of life in their time. In the 'Stories of Ancient
Times,' on the other hand, though there is some element derived from
tradition, often apparently of a local character, it is generally very
meagre. More often perhaps the source of the stories is to be found in
poems, notable instances of which will be found in _Hervarar Saga_ and
in _Voelsunga Saga_. In many cases, however, the stories without doubt
contain a large proportion of purely fictitious matter.

The texts of the 'Stories of Ancient Times' which have come down to us
date as a rule from the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth
centuries though the actual MSS. themselves are generally later. Most
of the stories, however, were probably in existence before this time.
The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200) was familiar with many
of them, including the story of Hethin and Hoegni[1] and one of the
scenes recorded in _Hervarar Saga_[2]. And we are told that a story
which seems to have corresponded, in its main outlines at least, to
the story of Hromund Greipsson was composed and recited at a wedding
in Iceland in 1119[3]. But in many cases the materials of our
stories were far earlier than this, though they no doubt underwent
considerable changes before they assumed their present form.

Indeed many stages in the literary history of the North are
represented in the following translations. Of these probably the
oldest is that section of the _Hervarar Saga_ which deals with the
battle between the Goths and the Huns "at Dylgia and on Dunheith and
upon all the heights of Joesur." The poetry here included in the saga
dates even in its present form probably from the Viking Age, perhaps
from the tenth century. But the verses themselves do not appear to be
all of the same date. Some of them show a certain elaboration and
a sense of conscious art, while others are comparatively bare and
primitive in type and contain very early features[4]; and there is
every probability that such poetry was ultimately derived from poetry
composed at a time when the Goths were still remembered. This is not
surprising in view of the fact that stories relating to the Goths were
popular in English and German heroic poetry, as well as in the heroic
lays of the North. Ind