[Epic and History]

Form of Saga used for contemporary history in the thirteenth century[246]
The historians, Ari (1067-1148) and Snorri (1178-1241)[248]
The Life of King Sverre, by Abbot Karl Jónsson[249]
Sturla (c. 1214-1284), his history of Iceland in his own time (Islendinga or Sturlunga Saga)[249]
The matter ready to his hand[250]
Biographies incorporated in Sturlunga: Thorgils and Haflidi[252]
Sturlu Saga[253]
The midnight raid (a.d. 1171)[254]
Lives of Bishop Gudmund, Hrafn, and Aron[256]
Sturla's own work (Islendinga Saga)[257]
The burning of Flugumyri[259]
Traces of the heroic manner[264]
The character of this history brought out by contrast with Sturla's other work, the Life of King Hacon of Norway[267]
Norwegian and Icelandic politics in the thirteenth century[267]
Norway more fortunate than Iceland—the history less interesting[267]
Sturla and Joinville contemporaries[269]
Their methods of narrative compared[270]

VIII

[The Northern Prose Romances]

Romantic interpolations in the Sagas—the ornamental version of Fóstbræðra Saga[275]
The secondary romantic Sagas—Frithiof[277]
French romance imported (Strengleikar, Tristram's Saga, etc.)[278]
Romantic Sagas made out of heroic poems (Volsunga Saga, etc.)
and out of authentic Sagas by repetition of common forms and motives		[279]
[280]
Romantic conventions in the original Sagas[280]
Laxdæla and Gunnlaug's Saga—Thorstein the White[281]
Thorstein Staffsmitten[282]
Sagas turned into rhyming romances (Rímur)
and into ballads in the Faroes		[283]
[284]

[CHAPTER IV]

THE OLD FRENCH EPIC

(Chansons de Geste)

Lateness of the extant versions[287]
Competition of Epic and Romance in the twelfth century[288]
Widespread influence of the Chansons de geste—a contrast to the Sagas[289]
Narrative style[290]
No obscurities of diction[291]
The "heroic age" imperfectly represented
but not ignored		[292]
[293]
Roland—heroic idealism—France and Christendom[293]
William of Orange—Aliscans[296]
Rainouart—exaggeration of heroism[296]
Another class of stories in the Chansons de geste, more like the Sagas[297]
Raoul de Cambrai[298]
Barbarism of style[299]
Garin le Loherain—style clarified[300]
Problems of character—Fromont[301]
The story of the death of Begon
unlike contemporary work of the Romantic School		[302]
[304]
The lament for Begon[307]
Raoul and Garin contrasted with Roland[308]
Comedy in French Epic—"humours" in Garin
in the Coronemenz Looïs, etc.		[310]
[311]
Romantic additions to heroic cycles—la Prise d'Orange[313]
Huon de Bordeaux—the original story grave and tragic
converted to Romance		[314]
[314]

[CHAPTER V]