THE FALL OF ASGARD.* HisToarc.sr. novels receive rather a cold
welcome in England at present. Critics complain that they are wearisome, and recom- mend the authors to write history instead ; and publishers, according to Mr. Anthony Trollope, solemnly assure authors that the public does not care for revivals of the past, and will read nothing but pictures of contemporary society. There is one difficulty in accepting this decision without reservation. A large number of the older historical novels retain their place in public favour, and are almost as much read as at the time of their first appearance. It cannot, therefore, be that the taste for historical fiction is dead ; it must rather be that the art of writing it is lost—an art that was as an enchanter's wand in the hands of writers of an older generation. It must be admitted that the task of the historical novelist has become more difficult in recent years, through the growth of the science of history. He can no longer go to chronicles and romances for a few hints, and for the rest, trust to his own fancy, and deal with his material as he pleases, without any fear of being called in question for historical inaccuracies. He is painfully aware that he is watched by a stern gang of historical inquisitors, who have stake and faggot in readiness for any departure from the orthodoxy of accuracy. Fearful of their condemnation, he gets up his subject with great care, follows sources with fidelity, not to say with servility, but too often forgets
• The Poll of Asgard a Tale of St. Olors Days. By Julian Corbett. 2 vols. Landon : Macmillan and Co. 1836.
that his proper business is to produce a work of imagina- tion. Scraps from chronicles, and descriptions of manners and costumes from monuments and paintings, have their value, but there is no reason why they should not appear as avowed contributions to history and archaeology. An his- torical novelist should, of course, know his period well, as ignorance of it will expose him to deserved ridicule, and he must understand its spirit ; but he will not produce a work which the public will welcome unless he possesses the faculty of giving life and individuality to the personages whom he brings upon the stage. A writer who has this power will not want readers. To a multitude of people it is real enjoyment to be suddenly trans- ported into times which had formerly seemed dim and distant, and to find them peopled with real human beings, who, however, possess those large powers and accomplish those great adven- tures which the novelist of modern life cannot without im- probability invent. It is wise policy, however, for the historical novelist to avoid those periods of which historians have complete possession, and to place the scene of his tale in one of the bye- ways of history, or in those dim, half-legendary times where the imagination is often the best diviner.
Mr. Corbett, who understands his craft, has placed the scene of his story in Norway during the eleventh century,—a time for which saga and song are the chief authorities. Olaf the Saint was a missionary King after the fashion of Charlemagne, who made an attempt to found a Christian Empire in the North. He met with stout resistance from the adherents of the old faith ; and the scene of the story lies for the most part in the camp of those worshippers of Thor and Odin who resisted the missionary enterprises of the warrior saint.
Gudrun, a young and beautiful widow, whose husband bad fallen in battle against Olaf Tryggvason, after her husband's death fled with ber infant son, Thorkel, to a lonely refuge among the mountains. There Thorkel grew up with no companions save his mother, a wild thrall-girl named Darla, and Heidrek, an outlaw, whose hound-like fidelity to Gudrun and her child is well described. When Thorkel has grown to be a lad, they all return to the inhabited country, and join the Earl Swend in his attempt to resist the new Olaf who is seeking to impose the Christian law on the Norsemen. Thorkel has been taught to bate the " White Christ " and his laws, and is under a vow to drive them from the land. The conflict lasts for some time ; but the party of the old gods is no match for the astute Olaf- In a great sea-fight at Nessie, the Earl is defeated, and Thorkel and his ship Miolnir' fall into the hands of Olaf. Olaf is a sage ruler, with great qualities, though ruthless in carrying out his designs. He grants his life to young Thorkel, who has per- formed prodigies of valour with his axe "Thirsty," but on condition that he shall accept baptism. Thorkel consents to his terms, not through fear, but convinced, by a clever trick of Olaf's, that the Norns have woven a fate for him that is too strong to . resist. Heidrek also accepts baptism for the second time, with avowed scorn for the rite ; but many of his companions, we are told, received it gladly, for they were angered at the old gods, who had given way before the Christian King. Thorkel returned to his home in the Guide', having forsaken the old gods, but without any love to the new faith. His followers went back to their pagan ways ; but he swore that he would drink no more to god or goddess, pagan or Christian, save to the spirit of his sweet mother, Gudrun, who bad met a tragical death. He was soon again in revolt against Olaf. After a great fight, he got upon a raft, and his followers saw the last of his golden head as it disappeared in the falls of a great river.
The chief merit of Mr. Corbett's story does not lie in the plot, but in the characters, which are drawn with fine discrimination, and which show considerable power on the part of the author of reconstructing living personages from the imperfect hints which are to be found in the poems of the skalds and in the sagas. Gudrun is a beautiful picture of the queenly Northern woman. When her child's life is in danger, she can wield her husband's axe " Thirsty ;" but her chief characteristic is the stately gentleness which wins for her the worship of the rough men about her, from the thrall to the Earl. Her son Thorkel, with his joyous love of fighting and adventure, is a true type of the youth of Norway at the time. Heidrek, the sullen outlaw, tho Lapp trader Ban, and the thrall-girl Della, with her love of music and her fits of prophetic frensy, are all careful studies in Northern character. We are less pleased with Einar, whom the readers of Longfellow will remember as the mighty bowman
who, when he scaled the dragon ship, looked like " St. Michael overthrowing Lucifer." Dalla's curse upon Einar was :—" Thou shalt try to be noble, and be ever base ; thou shalt struggle to be true, and be ever false ; and so shalt thou fare on for
ever." The development of such a character might have been full of interest, but Mr. Corbett has made the mistake of ascribing actions to him which would have been more suitable to a cultivated modern villain than to a Viking. A rejected lover of Gudrun's before her marriage, he had never ceased to love her; and when he met her in the days of her widowhood he wished to wed her, although he had a wife. Repulsed with indignation, he still continued to love not only her, but her son Thorkel, whose bright presence cheered his gloomy spirit.
When, however, Thorkel gained a power over Earl Swend which seemed to endanger his own supremacy as a counsellor, Einar laid a base plot to slay the lad. Now, the love of Einar might have been easily changed into hatred by jealousy ; but he is represented as loving Thorkel more than any man in the world at the moment when he is plotting to slay him. Such conduct does not belong to the age of the Bereerkirs, but to modern and highly civilised times, when men have learned to subject all their passions, good and evil, to the supreme law of self-interest. Mr. Corbett has not failed to note the undercurrent of sadness which was characteristic of heroes and heroines of Norse songs and sagas. Amid their boisterous mirth and their adventures, they bore about with them a con- sciousness of a doom that threatened all that is bright and fair in the world. To call them pessimists would convey a false impression, for modern pessimism is tinged with cynicism and with affectation, and the sadness of the Norsemen was free from both ; they loved the brightness of the world, and only mourned because, like their Northern summer, it was destined to be short- lived. Mr. Corbett has likewise brought out the tolerance of Norse Christianity which did not certainly manifest itself in idol-breaking Kings like Olaf, but which is to be seen in the tenderness of Christian skalds, and even priests, towards the beautiful creations of the old belief, which they did not hesitate to blend with the legends of their own creed. When Thorkel was taken captive by Olaf, he was committed to the care of a skald named Sigvat, who had instructions to prepare him for baptism. He performed his duties in the following manner :—
" It was some time before Sigvat could draw him into speech, but at last, unable to resist the gentle persuading tones of the poet, Thorkel looked up. Gradually then he opened his heart to his new friend, and told him of all his life and hopes, and the shame that was on him now. He spoke of his sweet mother, and how for her sake he grieved ; and Sigvat listened, wondering at the earnest fire with which be spoke. His tender heart warmed to the wounded prisoner, for he felt there was something in him that was not of earth, and that there hung about him all the wild mystery of heathendom, whose beauty he still could feel in his inmost heart, in spite of the water and the cross. It was no part of him to hate that which he could not love, or to spurn that to which he could not cling; and Olaf, many a time, in the midst of lays that Sigvat sang in his praise, had to listen to a note that rang for his enemies.. Se it came about that, in spite of the devotion with which he embraced the new faith, Sigvat could not shut out a lingering love of the ancient gods who were fast growing dim before the glory of the White Christ. And as he listened to the handsome, well-knit lad, whom he had seen a few hours since hewing with the might and fury of Thor himself, and who now was brought so low in grief, as be listened to him telling stories of his strange life, his inspired mother, his old-phrased oaths, and his sacrifices, he could not help feeling that he saw before him the embodied spirit of the mighty heathendom that was passing away so troublonsly in fire and blood like a stormy setting of the sun. So his poet's heart warmed to Thorkel, and it became his great delight to speak to him of his life, and try to cheer him from the moody grief into which be seemed ever plunged. Though Olaf bade him speak to his prisoner of Christ and his saints, that he might be won to baptism ; yet the scald could never bring himself to begin, feeling loth to sweep away the glamour of the dying world with which his fancy had clothed hie new-made friend."
The Fall of Asgard deserves to find readers. It is to be regretted that the author has written it in a somewhat inverted, and some- times almost in an archaic style. Everything that savours of difficulty and distance is apt to frighten the rapid novel-reader of our day ; and there was no reason for an archaism in style which is after all no approximation to the style of the original authorities. Those, however, who patiently read Mr. Corbett's volumes will be rewarded with a fresh glimpse of times which must always have an interest for Englishmen.
Previous page
