WHAT IS A BALLAD? 27

also the Thrymskvida is seen to be a more detailed narrative than
the longer ballad Tord af Havsgaard. Precisely why Tristan and
Isolt should be lovers, yet unable to marry, requires knowledge of
many attendant circumstances in the prose romances. One must
know about the love-drink, that Tristan wooed on behalf of Mark
and was honourably bound to deliver Isolt, that there was no
question of taking her away by force, and that there were quarrels
and reconciliations and moments when secrecy seemed no longer
possible. It is not so in Tistrams tdttur. The ballad poet has
selected the simplest of all motifs for this situation. Tristan's
father and mother frown on his marriage with Isolt and send him
to France to marry the French king's daughter. So, too, in the
Thrymskvida we are given all the circumstantial details attending
Thor and his associates as gods of Asgard or giants of Jotunheini,
but any Squire Western would serve as the hero of Tord af Havs-
gaard. Ogier the Dane fought the giant Brunehaut to win the lovely
Gloriana for his friend the Saracen Karaheu. How Ogier came to
be in the Saracen camp and Karaheu in the Christian, why Ogier
should fight for Karaheu on this occasion and how they had
become acquainted, this is matter for hundreds of lines in the
Enfances Ogier \ but in Holger Danske the hero's imprisonment is
taken for granted, and his friend is written off as a coward.
Similarly, comparing the Chevalerie Ogier with the ballads of the
Marquis of Mantua we find that the lynch-pin of the epic poem
has been removed by the ballad-monger. The general theme is
that a vassal, grievously wronged by his lord's son, is at last
avenged. In the epic poem Charlemagne refuses satisfaction and
Ogier is forced into rebellion, involving a siege, a long pursuit
along the road to Rome, and years of imprisonment. In the ballad
Charlemagne agrees to deliver his son to the judgement of his
peers, and the action is brought to a swift conclusion, though the
style is diffuse and verbose.

This avoidance of circumstantial detail, the broadest generaliza-
tion of motif, situation, and character, is a leading characteristic of
ballad poetry and essential to its traditional preservation. A ballad
king is the king, a ballad Saracen is a dog of a Moor, ballad lovers
are taken for granted and have all our sympathy, ballad situations
repeat themselves and are transferable, ballad motives are the
primary loves and hates, ballad language is formula, and ballad
style is precedent.