pending--Anglo-Saxon versus Icelandic; a writer in the _English
Review_ (Vol. 82, p. 316), pro-Saxon in his zeal, admitting at last that
"of none of the children of the Norse, whether Goth or Frank, Saxon or
Scandinavian, have the others any reason to be ashamed. All have earned
the gratitude and admiration of the world, and their combined or
successive efforts have made England and Europe what they are."

It is refreshing to come upon new views of Old Norse character, that
recognize "amidst anarchy and bloodshed, redeeming features of
kindliness and better feeling which tell of the mingled principles that
war within our nature for the mastery." Laing's translation accomplished
this for English readers, and with the years came a deeper knowledge
that showed those touches of tenderness and traits of beauty which, even
in 1844, were not perceptible to those readers.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882).

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891).

_The Story of the Norse Kings_, thus translated by an Englishman,
suggested to our American poet, Longfellow, a series of lyrics on King
Olaf. The young college professor that wrote about _Frithjof's Saga_ in
the _North American Review_ for 1837, was bound, sooner or later, to
come back to the field when he found that the American reading public
would listen to whatever songs he sang to them. Before 1850, Longfellow
had written "The Challenge of Thor," a poem which imitated the form of
Icelandic verse and catches much of its spirit. In 1859, the thought
came to him "that a very good poem might be written on the Saga of King
Olaf, who converted the North to Christianity." Two years later he
completed the lyrics that compose "The Musician's Tale" in _The Tales of
a Wayside Inn_, published in 1863, and in this work "The Challenge of
Thor" serves as a prelude. The pieces after this prelude are not
imitations of the Icelandic verse, but are like Tegner's _Frithjof's
Saga_, in that each new portion has a meter of its own. There is not,
either, a consistent effort to put the flavor of the North into the
poetry, so that, properly speaking, we have here only the retelling of
an old tale. The ballad fervor and movement are often perceptible,
though nowhere does the poet strike the ringing note of "The Skeleton in
Armor," published in the volume of 1841.

Truth to tell, Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf" is not a remarkable
work. One who reads the few chapters in Carlyle's _Early Kings of
N