The Hevoic Age. By H. Alunro Chadwick, Fellow of 

 Clare College, Cambridge. 



Cambridge Archaeological and Ethnological Series. Demy 8vo. Cloth, 

 pp. xii + 474. With 3 maps. Price I2J-. net. 



Extract from the Preface 



The type of poetry commonly known as heroic is one 

 which makes its appearance in various nations and in various 

 periods of history. No one can fail to observe that certain 

 similar features are to be found in poems of this type which 

 are widely separated from one another both in date and 

 place of origin. In view of this fact it has seemed worth 

 while to attempt a comparative study of two groups of such 

 poems with the object of determining the nature of the 

 resemblances between them and the causes to which they 

 are due. 



The first part of the book deals with the early heroic 

 poetry and traditions of the Teutonic peoples, more especially 

 with those stories which were the common property of various 

 Teutonic peoples The subjects discussed include the distri- 

 bution of the stories and the relationship between the various 

 versions of them, the antiquity of the earliest poems and the 

 conditions under which they were produced. Lastly, an 

 attempt has been made to estimate the significance of the 

 various elements, historical, mythical and fictitious, of which 

 the stories are composed. 



The second part deals with Greek heroic poetry and 

 traditions. These relate to a period for which little or no 

 external evidence is available ; and consequently they present 

 many problems, the bearings of which can hardly be estimated 

 without reference to the existence of similar phenomena else- 

 where. In general I have followed the same plan as in the 

 first part, and made use throughout of the results obtained 

 there. 



In the third part attention has been called to the existence 

 of a number of somewhat striking characteristics common to 

 the two groups of poems and an attempt made to account for 

 them. The conclusion to which I have been brought is that 

 the resemblances in the poems are due primarily to resem- 

 blances in the ages to which they relate and to which they 

 ultimately owe their origin. 



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