abandoned poetry and took to history, though Tegnér says of him that
if he had devoted himself to poetry, he would have surpassed all his
contemporaries. As historian he rose to the highest rank; and he is
perhaps the greatest historian Sweden has ever produced.

Tegnér had modernized his hero and heroine in _Frithiof's Saga_. He
gave them Viking garbs and surroundings, but modern thoughts and
sentiments. By the more copious development of the inner life, and
by placing woman on an equality with man, love had received a higher
meaning, and his poetry unfolded inspirations unknown to the ancient
world, such as melancholy and the love of nature. He did no more than
Tennyson did later in making of King Arthur the type of an English
gentleman. Frithiof and Ingeborg were representatives of the national
ideal. The success of his poem was immense. It had a lyrical
intensity which set the Scandinavian mind vibrating. Unmindful of the
anachronism, youth gloried in the noble disinterestedness of Frithiof,
in his generosity to his rival, his melancholy philosophising and his
high-minded love, as well as in his daring and his love of adventure.
Manly breasts heaved in sympathy with him, and women's tears flowed at
the story of Ingeborg's love. As the poet Snolisky has said--

From the highest to the lowest throughout the land
The poet had created a bond of union.
In every home, within every school door,
His verses were read and conned and loved,
And Sweden's youth felt its cheek glow
At Frithiof's courage and manly mood.
While Ingeborg's love to the maiden's dream
Gave life and thoughts to her weaving and sewing.