THE LILY OF THE NORTH.*

Tins poem deserves the most careful attention, and ought to awaken the interest of all who take an interest in the development of literature, art, and, religion in the northern European races. And that development, we may observe in passing, is among the most striking phenomena in the history of literature. If doubt has been thrown by some anthropologists on the power of any race to civilize itself, and civilization has been perhaps too generally

Litja (The Li(y); an Icelandic Religions Poem of the Fourteenth Century. By Eystein Asgrimsson, Regular of the Monastery of Thykkvlbmr. milted, with a Metrical Translation, Notes, and Ulossary, by ltirikr Magnusson. London: Williams and Norgate, 1870.

regarded as the reception of the ideas and arts of a more by a less advanced race, the case of the Scandinavians ought to be treated as an exceptional and therefore very remarkable one. In the north, in the peninsula which the Romans never reached, nor the sword of Charlemagne subdued, where intercourse with the early civilized and Christianized kingdoms of the South was scarcely possible, we find a nation possessed of a heathen mythology as imaginative and elaborate as that of Greece, and with poets and historians enlightened enough to care to preserve from ruin all these myths, even after they had been supplanted by the light of the spiritual religion. The growth of the mythology was strictly national ; in its preservation by writing, and in other early books, and especially in the early use of the Latin language, we may undoubtedly see the influence of southern civilization and of the Church. But the Church's power over society in these distant regions was necessarily small, and the impulse towards writing, and particularly towards poetizing in the native Norse tongue, was home-bred, and argues strongly for an uncommunicated love of and genius for poetical expression. But after the collection of the rhymed Edda of Sminuud in the eleventh, and that of the prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson in the thirteenth

century, it is certainly surprising to come upon an Icelandic Christian poem in praise of the Virgin so early as the fourteenth. It bridges over the gap which we should have expected to find be- tween the old world of Odin and the new world of Christ and Mary. The historical importance of the poem where the Virgin Mary is adored under the beautiful figure of a Lily, is abundantly evident. Moreover, it stands alone, sai generis. No early song, no song from the Prereformation period, from ally Scandinavian country, is found to compare with this ; and it is, therefore, a

standard work on the religious life, and especially the Mariolatry of the North. It is remarkable also as the first Icelandic text yet published in England from manuscript sources ; though, if Mr. Magnusson continues his residence amongst us, we trust it will not be the last. He remarks :—

"The many poets who sang her [the Virgin's] pr,siao before this time wore eclipsed by Eystoin, nob so much by his praises of her—although these may well be considered on a level with those of the famous Litany of Loretto —as by the superiority of his poetry and diction, and the largo range of the poem in which the praise was embodied Throughout the whole land it was soon known, and in such veneration was it hold, that according to Finn anason, some people doomed it a necessity to recite it in a loud voice daily, or once a week at least ; omitting this was considered a sign of impiety."

The life of the author is here written for the first time. It is skilfully put together, chiefly from the scanty mention of Eyetein. in Finn Jousson's Ifistoria Ecelesictstica Islandiae, and in the

Anndlar Islands. The Church exhibited in the fourteenth century no picture of ideal purity in Iceland, any more than in England, France, and other countries in that age. On the contrary, the peace of the conventual establishments seems to have been dis- turbed by acts of violence and ebullitions of temper, which might be suppressed or smoothed over by bishops, themselves not always of better repute, or by extraordinary ecclesiastical visitations or iuqnests ordered by the Metropolitan. Brother Eystein. Asgrims- sou is supposed by Mr. MAgnusson to have been "An easy-living friar, strongly imbued with the vices inherent in the

genius irritabile natant, haughty, wanton, and witty But whatso- ever his shortcomings may have boon, he must have been endowed with many engaging qualities to counterbalance them. He was a learned man, according to the statement of the Annals, a poet of a high order for his time, and must have been gifted with many personal faseinations to be able to play so fast and loose with the feelings and dignity of Bishop Gyrd, and yet to come out of the hazardous play not only unscathed, but

oven a bosom friend of the Bishop The Lily,' too, bears a clear testimony that the fire of devotion was burning iu the deep of his soul, that his faith was nurtured by prayer, that his sense of humility was profound and unfeigned, and that his yearning for that grace which alone can assuage the sufferings of a troubled and contrite heart was fervid and sincere."

His memory was cherished in his own country, not only by priests and literati, but by the common people, who transformed him into a legendary hero and magic-minstrel, in the following curious tale :—

" Brother Eystein so roused Bishop Gyrd's wrath by puns and pert rhymes, that the latter had him taken prisoner and thrown into a dark pit underground, a hundred feet deep. In this plight Eyetoin began to compose 'Lilja.' When he had finished twenty-two stanzas of the song, he discovered, in good sooth, that be was gradually being lifted up from his dungeon. And groat was his astonishment when he found, by some moans or other, that be was really twenty-two foot above the flJor of the prison ; the reason of this eould be none other than a latent power in his song. An overwhelming sense of Joy pervaded the aggrieved penitent, and . . . he broke out into the too selfish twenty-third stanza . . . • Scarcely had the last word died away on his lips, when down tumbled the bard and lay prostrate on the floor of his dark pit. On recovering from the shook, he thought that the lesson had been taught him well enough that ' pride goes before a fall,' and in the humblest of moods he now concluded the stanza The sincere humility of this sonol-ntrophe (minced to mond the afflicted sinner all the twenty-three steps up again, and henceforth his upward progress continued unbroken, one step for every finished stanza, until he had sung himself fairly out of prison."

Of the poem itself no satisfactory judgment can be formed without a study of the rhythmical or prosodical rules under which it was composed ; nor will these laws pour their native sweetness into foreign ears accustomed to the magic of widely different systems of versification. But it must be mentioned that Mr. Magnusson has given a treatise on Icelandic prosody in general —especially valuable as being (we believe) the first attempt of the kind in English—in which some original and very plausible explanations of obscure terms are offered. As we can- not attempt here an exposition of the laws of assonance and alliteration which are observed in every line—and the general character of these laws is well known to all who read Anglo-Saxon verse—we will content ourselves with drawing attention to the larger features of composition. The poem consists of one hundred

stanzas of eight lines each. Twenty-five stanzas form the intro- duction, and the same number the conclusion, so that for the body of the poem fifty stanzas are left. This centre is distinguished from the rest by the use of a burden or stave of four lines at regu- lar intervals, from which it bears the name of steffruntil or stave- lay ; and the burden of the first twenty-five stanzas is different from that of the second, thus dividing the stefjanuil or centre into two sections. The burden is used at intervals of five clear stanzas, and is therefore found (1) at the end of stanzas 26, 32, 38, 44, 50; (2) 51, 57, 63, 69, 75. The subject- matter is skilfully distributed in accordance with the metrical divisions. The introduction commences with the creation, the fall of man, and the curse, and suggests the problem how the world thus lost is to be saved. The Stavelay then gives the whole work of salvation ; its first division speaking of the whole period from the Annunciation to the Crucifixion ; and its second of that from the Crucifixion to the Ascension, and thence to the

final joys of heaven. The conclusion 'contains prayers to God, Christ, and Mary, with a dedication and address to the reader. From this exposition, even without an explanation of the extremely subtle laws governing the composition of each line, it will be seen what a high degree of art Icelandic poetry exhibited. And if the mediocre poet felt himself bound in fetters and unable to

speak, what praise must not one have gained who, like Eystein, could move easily and speak naturally and fervidly even under these trammels !

It would be obviously impossible to translate a poem composed under metrical laws so widely different from our own, into an English metre imitating the Icelandic artifices. Mr. Magnusson has acted wisely in not attempting anything of the sort, especially as he has had the skill to furnish a translation which reproduces the original actually line by line, if not word for word, and yet reads as very racy English, dashed with some quaint words quite suitable to the age and character of the poem. We give two stanzas from the introduction, exhibiting the original and the translation side by iide

The tortures of earth's low abyss ; These wonders bid me to record In song thy beauteous works, 0 Lord."

A note tells us that this last stanza "gives a paraphrastic ab- stract of Boda's summary of the contents of the songs of Coed- mon." This acquaintance with the Anglo-Saxon literature on the part of the old Icelander is especially interesting. The following is from the latter portion of the poem :— " Fyrri wenn, at frcoNin kumou Fern ok kl6k of heilinum hokum, Shingin onjtikt af inum kongum Soingu lof we'll danskri ttingu ; Al pvflfku m6Nur-inati

Meirr skyldumst, enn nokkur peirra Ilrmr'San dikt we'll actor orthica Allsvaldanda kungi at gialdo.

" Skapanok freSing, skim ok prfici Skynsemd full, at botri er gulli, Dreyrtnn limits of sihu.nart, Synda.likn, ok dngligt yndi, Haleit von it himna snolu, Hryein jar'Nor nel.istu bygNar, Bjota m6r ( f rasiign fcora Fogr stOrrnerkin Drottinn Yorke."

"The former men, who drew their lore From heathen books in days of yore, Sang many a smooth and praise- ful song About their kings in Danish tongue ; In that same language I emprise, On whom a holier duty lies,

A song in lovesome speeoh to

bring

Devoutly to my heavenly King.

"The shapon world, man's beauty, birth,

His baptism, wit beyond gold's worth,

The blood from Jesus' side that ran,

Redemption, daily joy of man ; The hope of heaven's eternal bliss, "Thus the doomed ones are chased aright

Into dire death and foulest plight, Whore teeth are gnashed, where chills the frost,

Where devils guard around the lost ; In scoffs and arias their deeds resound, And gruesome plague and gloom abound ; For aught but plague, eternal pain, And living death, all hope is vain."

" Against this shall have joyanco% sweet All such, whom to their glory'e, seat

The Lord bids come triumph- antly

Their homeward way ; for there, be they

All glad, and free, and fair, an& young, And hale, and wise, and bright,. and strong ; They feast in honour meet and glee, Through ages everlastingly."

The idea of a hell "where chills the frost" is natural to a country where the terrors of heat are never known, but those of cold are familiar ; and indeed it is borrowed from the Norse mythology. The Norseman could as little shake off the ideas derivedfrom his heathen mythology as he could change words like hell, fiend, and the names of the day of the week, for those- consecrated by the Church (infernutp., diaboltts, dies. Lttnae, &c.), as was done in southern countries.

Great as is the praise which the translation merits, the critical treatment of the text deserves greater. The editor has, indeed, settled it, from the two chief manuscripts and the only editions worth consulting, and has made it consistent, correct, and (by hie valuable notes) intelligible, except in one or two crabbed passages, where the corruption goes too far to allow of conjectural, emendations. We could wish for somewhat greater fullness in the critical notes, especially where the reading of the Stockholm MS., which Mr. Magnusson considers the earlier and better, has- been set aside in favour of another.

There are a few inaccuracies to be note I. In the biography the name Canon Brand Eyjolfsson is wrongly written for Eykilf Brandsson. The references to the Historia Ecclesiastica on pp. xiv. and xv. have wrong numbers : note 16, read i. 453; 17,, read ii, 56; 18, read i. 453, ii. 101 ; 19, read i. 527; 20, i. 104. On p. xxv. Ljcimr surely ought to be Ltheur, fem. pl. But in spite of a few defects, we find this book to be a model edition of an ancient author, presenting a critical text, an admirable transla- tion, a capital glossary, so full of information as to be available beyond the mere requirements of his poem, and prolegomena oil all the circumstances surrounding the poem, the author's life au& times, the MSS., and the metre.