Axel Olrik: Anm. af Die Hvenische Chronik. 193 follow four chapters taking the poems singly and containing the principal facts and theories concerning each of them. I have tťound very little to remark on here, unless it be that our author seems too ready to assign early dates to certain of the poems included in the Canterbury Tales. The arguments given for dividing the Monk’s «Tragedies» into two groups and for placing twelve of them towards the close of the first period are far from conclusive. — Finally, there is a short Appendix about Chaucer’s metres and about the spurious and doubtful works, where Mr. Pollard is more than usually sceptical with regard to Kaluza’s theory of ascribing the first 1705 lines of the Romaunt of the Rose to Chaucer. As the object of the book is only to give a trustworthy handbook to Chaucer’s works, we cannot expect to find much literary criticism in it; the author generally contents himself with an adjective or two to each poem, and unfortunately — in my opinion at least — these adjectives are not always to the point, e. g. When the Dethe of Pite is termed «this beautiful little poem» (p. 609). I also hope. very few readers will agree with Mr. P. in thinking that the Reftractation at the end of the C. 7. has «a genuine ring» (p. 126); and the following is a fair specimen of a certain sort of criticism which does not appear the less objectionable for being still common: «To speak plainly, these churls’ tales are all concerned with low tricks or downright sin. All that can be said for them is that they are told merrily and thoughtlessly, with no lingering over sin for its own sake, and with a general understanding that these things are done in the land of fiction» (p. 122). — Mr. Pollard seems somehow better able to appreciate learned researches on disputed points of scholarship than the healthy realism and humour of the Canterbury Tales. Otto Jespersen. Die Hvenische Chronik in diplomatarischem Abdruck nach der Stockholmer Handschrift nebst den Zeugnissen Vedels und Stephanius und den hvyenischen Volksüberlieferungen herausgegeben von Otto Luitpolt Jiriczek (= Acta germanica III, 2). Berlin 1892. XVII, 39 s. «Den hvenske krønike» er et til Hven knyttet heltesagn, en nordisk stedfæstelse af det tyske sagn om Grimhilds — «fru Kremilds» — brodersvig. Sagnet er blevet nedskrevet på latin, sikkert af den senere historiograf Jon Venusin; i sin visesamling 1591 citerer Vedel denne «huenske chrønicke» efter hukommelsen. Nord. tidsskr. f. filol. 3die række. I. 13