206 NORDIC BALLADS

independent reminiscences of the sagas. There are also Norse
ballads like the famous Axel and Valborg which have extended over
the whole Scandinavian area, including Denmark. In Iceland the
Viser5 are a relatively late importation, which has not proved
entirely congenial. The stories arrive in evolved forms from Den-
mark or Norway. They have then to withstand the competition of
the local 'rimur', excavated from written sources like some ballads,
with their elaborate alliteration and kennings. This sharpness of
wit in the crfmury was truly congenial to the Icelanders, so that
the naive 'viser5 remained few and insignificant. The Faeroese
ballads seem to have arisen by the example of Iceland, but they
firmly established themselves in popular favour. One unfailing
source of supply has been Icelandic sagas, the prose of which has
been cut by Faeroese improvisers into verse length. They drew
also on Denmark directly, as may be seen in such bilingual pieces
as The Nix's Ballad (Hammershaimb, Anthologi, 3). Scandina-
vian settlers in America have composed new ballads in the old
manner.

With the ballads of Scandinavia go our own ballads. Our ballads
are divided between England and Scotland, but it would not be
practicable to form two collections. They are, when compared to
those of Denmark, late and deficient in some categories, such as
the epic. The ballads of Scotland are the most closely associated
with Scandinavia, those on general themes are normally Norse or
Danish ballads acclimatized in our island. They are marked by the
use of refrain, though one cannot be certain they were danced. In
England, on the contrary, there is a strong French influence,
associated with a more definitely narrative technique. Yet Sir
Aldingar is English, but is one of our most striking ties with Den-
mark; and the ballad cycle of Robin Hood is exactly paralleled by
that of Marsk Stig. The old stores of English and Scottish balladry
have travelled with their tunes to the United States, where they are
collected by modern investigators among the mountaineers of
Virginia and the Carolinas. These settlers have created new ballads
in the old style, which is represented also by such offshoots as the
ballads of cowboys and negroes.

German ballads form a separate group. They are stanzaic in
form, but seem always to have been designed for recitation, and
refrains are exceptional. There are numerous instances of borrow-
ing and lending, but there is no such identity of details as exists in