SCANDINAVIA 227

Orknison dreams of Hell and Paradise. He mentions Christ and
St. Michael, but he also mentions the Gjallarbriii—the bridge
spanning the abyss in old Norse mythology. The basis of the
dream is, in fact, heathen superstition; and for a considerable part
of its length the poem runs parallel to the minor Eddie poem
Sdlarljoff. It is supposed that Astason may be a corruption of
Aasgardson, and so connected with Ansgarius, the apostle of Nor-
way, who died on 3 February 865.

The Faeroese ballads have the interesting feature of being still in
active life. They came late to the islands, but have proved wholly
congenial. Those of Iceland, though earlier, have not flourished.
They came into conflict with the local 4rimur', and were worsted
in the contest,1 The 4rimurJ appealed to the same public by means
of similar themes. The Icelanders have perforce relied on their
own resources for entertainment, both because of their distance
from European foci of literary fashion, and because the hard condi-
tions of life keep the social units small The 4rimurs have circulated
by means of recitations in such circles continuously since the four-
teenth century-. They are, like the *viser', distinctively medieval.
They are narratives. There is no pretence of originality of inven-
tion. Sir William Craigie has reproduced the Danish prose text
of the Gowrie Conspiracy, from which Einar Gudrnundsson carved
his Skotlands Rimur somewhat later than 1620. There is no refrain
in these pieces, and full rhyme is used as against assonance. At
first sight the verse is simple: quatrains, tercets, &c., used without
variation throughout the piece. They were undoubtedly popular.
In all this the £rimur' resemble ballads, but in other ways they are
very different. They are subject to very complex conventions of
alliteration and rhyme, and they are grouped together under rules
which forbid the repetition of the same devices. Alliteration is
present in the 'viser', where it often gives pleasure, and it is a
prosodic principle of the songs of Finland and Esthonia; but it is
nowhere used with the precision demanded by the Icelandic
'rimur'. The poet is generally known; there is no traditional
anonymity in his art. His object is not to contribute to a common
fund, but to display his art before connoisseurs. Relatively un-
interested in the matter of the song, the Icelandic people were, and
are, acute critics of the form. In the long winter nights there is

1 See Sir William Craigie, The Art of Poetry in Iceland, Oxford, 1937, and
Skotlands Rtmur, Oxford, 1908.