the turn, not only to please, but even to charm, the ignorant and
barbarous vulgar, where it was in use."[8]

It is proverbial that music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.
That savage music charms cultivated minds is not proverbial, but it is
nevertheless true. Here is Sir William Temple, scion of a cultured race,
bearing witness to the fact, and here is Gray, a life-long dweller in a
staid English university, endorsing it a half century later. As has been
intimated, this was unusual in the time in which they lived, when, in
Lowell's phrase, the "blight of propriety" was on all poetry. But it was
only the rude and savage in an unfamiliar literature that could give
pause in the age of Pope. The milder aspects of Old Norse song and saga
must await the stronger century to give them favor. "Behold, there was a
swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion."


GEORGE HICKES (1642-1715).

The next book in the list that contains an English contribution to the
knowledge of our subject is the _Thesaurus_ of George Hickes. On p. 193
of Part I, there is a prose translation of "The Awakening of Angantyr,"
from the _Harvarar Saga_. Acknowledgment is given to Verelius for the
text of the poem, but Hickes seems to have chosen this poem as the gem
of the Saga. The translation is another proof of an antiquarian's taste
and judgment, and the reader does not wonder that it soon found a wider
audience through another publication. It was reprinted in the books of
1716 and 1770 in the above list. An extract or two will show that the
vigor of the old poem has not been altogether lost in the translation:

_Hervor_.--Awake Angantyr, Hervor the only daughter of thee and Suafu