e.
"stitched together") by somebody more musical than Snorro was? Olaf
Tryggveson and Olaf Saint please me quite as well in their prosaic
form; offering me the truth of them as if seen in their real
lineaments by some marvellous opening (through the art of Snorro)
across the black strata of the ages. Two high, almost among the
highest sons of Nature, seen as they veritably were; fairly comparable
or superior to god-like Achilleus, goddess-wounding Diomedes, much
more to the two Atreidai, Regulators of the Peoples.
I have also thought often what a Book might be made of Snorro, did
there but arise a man furnished with due literary insight, and
indefatigable diligence; who, faithfully acquainting himself with the
topography, the monumental relies and illustrative actualities of
Norway, carefully scanning the best testimonies as to place and time
which that country can still give him, carefully the best collateral
records and chronologies of other countries, and who, himself
possessing the highest faculty of a Poet, could, abridging, arranging,
elucidating, reduce Snorro to a polished Cosmic state, unweariedly
purging away his much chaotic matter! A modern "highest kind of
Poet," capable of unlimited slavish labor withal;--who, I fear, is not
soon to be expected in this world, or likely to find his task in the
_Heimskringla_ if he did appear here.
Pages:
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179