SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Germanic and Celtic Heroic Traditions 27
ourselves to the mention of literary borrowings alone, for
with them new modes of feeling and expression gain
access to peoples who have not known them before. We
are accustomed to this spectacle; we have experienced
the influence of Scandinavian and Russian literature as
well as of Italian or Spanish. We have assimilated them
all. The unification of Europe began long ago, in the
realm of imagination and literary expression, even of
innermost thought in general: the melting of national
idiosyncrasies into a uniform mould of European thought.
In former times, it seems to me, the individuality of
peoples and races was more sharply defined, more
thoroughly consistent in its basic characteristics and
manifestations. The confrontation of Celts and Teutons
must have been different in character from that of more
recent cultures; it may be likened in some ways to a shock.
And therefore the imprint of one people's mental
structure on the other appears to us in higher colours.
If we grope back into the Dark Ages, when Western
Europe began to become conscious of herself, and seek
for instances of the intermingling of Celtic and Germanic
literature, the examples to be found are rather few.
They are nonetheless of great interest. Let us consider
for a moment the poem Beowulf. Its contents are
certainly of Scandinavian origin. The personages playing
a role in it can be identified in the half-legendary history
of Denmark and Sweden and there are episodes reflecting
conflicts between the Gauts and the Swedes. This is all
well known; it shows a mighty current of tradition
wandering from Scandinavia to England and shows
moreover that people here were deeply interested in the
affairs of Northern Europe. We find a receptiveness
of mind to the facts of history, which seems so akin to the
spirit of the Icelandic saga.
An epic poem, however, has not the character of
a chronicle. The plot of the action is not at all a reflection
of actual political life. A monster entering a king's hall