GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 205

influence of High Germany on the whole ballad production of the
nation is as marked as the specifically national ballads of the Swiss,

Scandinavia, lying at a farther remove from the focus of western
civilization, was less strongly and directly affected by French in-
fluences, though we must not rule out the possibility of immediate
contact by sea. The sea route doubtless brought to Denmark the
matter of The Short Straw (La Courte Faille), represented in Eng-
land only by Thackeray's Little Billee, but known in France,
Catalonia, Spain, and Portugal. More often, however, the French
material \vas conveyed through Germany or England. Through
England came the Carolingian compendium, the Karlamagnussaga^
and the story of Tristan. There is a Norse Roland og Magnus
Kongin and a fragment on Roncesvalles, and six Faeroese ballads
in Hammershaimb's collection systematically excavated from the
prose compilation. Ballads on the death of Tristan are known in
Iceland and the Faeroes. More important, however, was the know-
ledge of the Enfances Ogier de Dinamarche which seems to have
reached Denmark by way of Low Germany. This gave rise to a
most popular ballad, Olger Danske og Burmand, which reproduced
the material in free fashion. Olger was felt to be a compatriot;
Burmand a foreigner, and probably a German. That the ballad
signified something important was made clear by the fact that its
refrain was cut into the wrood of a Swedish church in the fifteenth
century. When Olger's enemy was stated to be Diderik af Bern, in
another ballad freely modelled on the style of the Thidrekssaga, the
superiority of the Danish champion to the representative of Ger-
man might was made patent. A primitive epic had sung of the
defence of that border by Offa; in the fourteenth century, the
historical ballad of Niels Ebbes0n is to the same effect. But some-
how, the legendary feat of Olger Danske was felt to be more sym-
bolic, and this was the ballad chanted by the Danes who manned
the Danneverk in 1864.

With this knowledge of the common background of Northern
balladry and its different perspectives, we may go on to state what
are the relations between the various subdivisions. The unity of
the Scandinavian group is at once apparent, as also the priority
of Denmark in general. The historical series is particularly well
developed in that country, and Sweden shares in some of these
ballads. Denmark and Sweden thus form a particularly close
group. Norwegian ballads stand farther off; they contain many