Text extracted from opening pages of book: THE ELDER EDDA AND
ANCIENT SCANDINAVIAN DRAMA CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS C. F. CLAY,
MANAGER LONDON: FETTER LANE, E. G. 4 NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.
BOMBAY \ CALCUTTA LMACMILLAN AND co., Lm MADRAS j TORONTO: THE
MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TOKYO: MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED Fig. i. Plate from a helmet found at Vcntlel in
Uppland. Fig. 2. Bronze plate from Torsluncla, Oland, Sweden. Fig.
j. Bronze plate from Torshmda, Olund, Sweden, AND ANCIENT
SCANDINAVIAN DRAMA BY BERTHA S. PHILLPOTTS, O. B. E., Lirr. D.
Formerly Pfeiflfer Student of Girton College, Cambridge Late Lady
Carlisle Research Fellow, Somerville College, Oxford Principal of
Westfield College ( University of London) Author of Kindred and
Clan CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1920 PREFACE THIS book was
begun in the spring of 1914, and only two chapters were unwritten
in March 1916. In adding these two chapters in 1920 I have
endeavoured to bring the rest of the book up to date, but the
occupations of the intervening years left little time to keep
abreast of the advances of scholarship, and the endeavour has not
been wholly successful. My task has not been lightened by the loss
of a note-book and some pages of the MS. through causes connected
with the war, and I am conscious that there is much to apologise
for. But it seemed better to publish the book as it is, with all
its imperfections, than to wait for the uncertain hour when I could
attempt an elaborate revision and expansion. My aim is simply to
place before scholars a theory of the dramatic origin of the older
Eddie poems. I shall be satisfied if I have made clear the grounds
which have forced me to formulatethe theory: should there be any
truth in it, others, better fitted than I, will work it out in all
its many bearings on history, religion and literature. The
dedication intimates that this book is my gift to Somer villc
College, In a more fundamental sense it is the gift of Somerville
College to me. It is the product of my tenure of the Lady Carlisle
Research Fellowship, and the central idea of the book occurred to
me while I was trying to present a rational picture of early
Scandinavian literature to the College Literary and Philosophical
Society. The idea struck root in favourable soil Miss Pope, Tutor
in Modern Languages at Somerville, was working at a theory of the
genesis of the Old French epic: Pro fessor Gilbert Murray,
Vice-President of the College, was always ready to stimulate and
illumine discussion on the relation of epic and drama: Miss Spens
of Lady Margaret Hall was writing her book on Shakespeare's
indebtedness to folk-drama, Moreover I think that the air of Oxford
was friendly to the growth of a theory viii PREFACE like mine, and
gave me courage to act on the belief that a clear understanding of
the form of primitive Scandinavian literature was an essential
preliminary to an understanding of primitive Scandinavian history.
It was only after I had written the first part of the book an
attempt to solve a literary problem on purely literary lines that I
was able to realise the significance of the heroic poems of the
Edda as a source for Scandinavian history and religion from the
sixth century onwards. Since the theories put forward have a direct
bearing on the problem of Greek tragedy, and may also be of
interest to mediaevalists, I have assumed that some of my readers
maybe unacquainted with Old Norse, and have accordingly given my
quotations in English, adding the original in the notes wherever
there is any doubt as to the reading. I had originally planned to
give translations of the more important poems in an appendix, but
joyfully abandoned the project on finding that there is some hope
that the poet and scholar who has made Greek tragedy live in
English dress may do a similar service to the heroic poems of the
Edda. In the meantime readers may be referred to the trans lations
in Vigfiisson and Powell's Corpus Poetmim Borc
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