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142 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
which convey the most familiar ideas in the most
forcible manner; those which every good writer
endeavours to use as much as possible, and which children
first learn to use and always prefer. Good old hearty
English is, in fact, a dialect of the old Norsk or
Icelandic, as it is sometimes called; the language in
which the Sagas are written. German is another
dialect; Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and modern Norsk,
are others.
There can be no doubt that during the period between
the tenth and fourteenth centuries, England, Ireland,
Scotland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, had a
common language; for the Skalds or bards of Iceland
visited these countries and there recited or sung their
poems, many of which are still extant. Iceland at that
period was the literary focus of Europe; her poets
travelled from court to court, receiving high honours
and rich gifts from princes and warriors, and then retired
to their native land. It must be remembered that these
princes and warriors were not literary, book-reading
gentlemen, who could learn a classical language set
apart for poetry; but rude fighters, whose enthusiasm
could only be roused by purely vernacular poetry.
The Danes and Saxons must have spoken the same
tongue, or how could Alfred have sung in the camp
of the Danes, or even have had the exploit put upon
him by tradition? Anything beyond a difference of
dialect would have been sufficient to disable even a
literary man like Alfred from extemporizing poetry.
Without professing to be a philologist, I cannot help
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