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INTEODTTOTION. 63
adorned, and the genuine legend is so transformed
and variegated by the fictions of the writer, that
they are more properly Bomantio than Mythic.
In the best Sagas of this class me violation of the
original material was not caused by the caprice of
the individual, so much as by the change which had
been wrought upon the general mind through the
influence of Christianity and the Romanticism of
the Middle Ages^ The views and feelings of the
mass became gradually estranged from heathenism,
and in the fourteenth century (in which the most of
them were written), the Gods, Heroes, Elves, Yalas,
&c., were looked upon by the people only as Kings,
Knights, Sorcerers, Witches, &c.
All the Sagas of this class border on the fabu-
lous ; some are pure fable, others are chivalric Ro-
mances. Some are not to be slighted for richness of
invention, skillful development and graceful representation,
while others are flat stories of goblins and
witches. They have little mythological importance,
except that here and there a pure grain of Mythos
may be picked out from a great mass of rubbish.
The best known among them are rri6J)jofs-saga
and Hervarar-saga. The former is probably from
the beginning of the fourteenth century, and is full
of most beautiful poetry. The subject is thorough-
ly mythic, but the romantic predominates in the
ti'eatment. It is interesting for it» representation of
the worship of Baldur and his temple. ~ The latter
contains some very flne poems inwoven among
much fabulous matter. The most celebrated among
them Hervarar-kviSa—Hervor's conversation with