so much both the climate and the temperament of the North. But neither
should the storm howl till the very quicksilver froze and all the more
tender emotions of the breast were extinguished."

"It is properly in the bearing of Fritiof's character that I have sought
the solution of this problem. The noble, the high-minded, the bold--which
is the great feature of all heroism--ought not of course to be missing
there, and sufficient material abounded both in this and many other
sagas. But together with this more general heroism, I have endeavored to
invest the character of Fritiof with something individually Northern--
that fresh-living, insolent, daring rashness which belongs, or at least
formerly belonged to the national temperament. Ingeborg says of Fritiof
(Canto 7):

'How glad, how daring, how inspired with hope,
Against the breast of norn he sets the point
Of his good sword, commanding:
"Thou shalt yield!"'

These lines contain the key to Fritiof's character and in fact to the
whole poem." [Tegnér, Samlade Skrifter, II, p. 393. The entire treatise
is found in English translation in Andersen's Viking Tales.]

In what manner Tegnér modernizes his story by divesting the original saga
of its grotesque and repugnant features can most readily be illustrated
in a comparison between his account of Fritiof's encounter with king
Helge in Balder's temple (Canto 13) and the original story. The latter
tells how Fritiof unceremoniously enters the temple, having first given
orders that all the king's ships should be broken to pieces, and threw
the tribute purse so violently at the king's nose that two teeth were