t began, with a great master.

SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832).

In 1792, Walter Scott was twenty-one years old, and one of his
note-books of that year contains this entry: "Vegtam's Kvitha or The
Descent of Odin, with the Latin of Thomas Bartholine, and the English
poetical version of Mr. Gray; with some account of the Death of Balder,
both as related in the Edda, and as handed down to us by the Northern
historians--_Auctore Gualtero Scott_." According to Lockhart,[13] the
Icelandic, Latin and English versions were here transcribed, and the
historical account that followed--seven closely written quarto
pages--was read before a debating society.

It was to be expected that one so enthusiastic about antiquities as
Scott would early discover the treasury of Norse history and song. At
twenty-one, as we see, he is transcribing a song in a language he knew
nothing about, as well as in translations. Fourteen years later, he has
learned enough about the subject to write a review of Herbert's _Poems
and Translations_.[14]

In 1813, he writes an account of the _Eyrbyggja Saga_ for _Illustrations
of Northern Antiquities_ (edited by Robert Jameson, Edinburgh, 1814).

There are two of Scott's contributions to literature that possess more
than a mere tinge of Old Norse knowledge, namely, the long poem "Harold,
the Dauntless" (published in 1817), and the long story "The Pirate"
(published in 1821). The poem is weak, but it illustrates Scott's theory
of the usefulness of poetical antiquities to the modern poet. In another
connection Scott said: "In the rude song of the Scald, we regard less
the strained imagery and extravagance of epithet, than the wild
impressions which it conveys of the dauntless resolution, savage
superstition, rude festivity and ceaseless depredations of the ancient
Scandinavians."[15] The poet did his work in accordance with this
theory, and so in "Harold, the Dauntless," we note no flavor of the
older poetry in phrase or in method. Harold is fierce enough and grim
enough to measure up to the old ideal of a Norse hero.

"I was rocked in a buckler and fed from a blade," is his boast before
his newly christened father, and in his apostrophe to his grandsire
Eric, the popular notion of early Norse antiquarianism is again
exhibited:

In wild Valhalla hast thou quaffed
From foeman's skull metheglin draught?

Scott's scholarship in Old Norse was largely derived from the Latin
tomes, and such conception