Translated from the Icelandic edition of Sigfus Bloendal and edited by the translator. The volume covers his life and travels, 1593-1622, in Iceland, England, Denmark, White Sea, Faroes, Spitzbergen, Norway. Continued, with new editors, in Second Series 68. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1923. Owing to technical constraints it has not been possible to reproduce Wije's View of Copenhagen in 1611 which appeared in the first edition of the work.

Originally published in 1920, this book provides a theory of the dramatic origin of the older Eddic poems. Whilst the Eddic collection in general can be seen to contain a variety of unrelated elements, there is an essential unity to the older poems on native subjects. This can be seen in their special metre, their dialogic or monologic form, bearing traces of improvisation by one or more speakers, their stage directions, their stock scenes, their taste for disguised or theriomorphic characters, and their fixed traditional plots. In analysing this unity, the text brings forth observations on the relationship between the poems and the socio-cultural context in which they were written. This is a highly informative volume that will be of value to anyone with an interest in Old Norse literature and literary criticism.

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

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