Andersen. — Tin' Vcrxe-mut. 615 



occur, Alexandrines are almost absent — as though the two national metres 

 were, like the two peoples, mutually inimical. In the first eight Adventures* 

 of the great epic — that is, in 544 stanzas, containing 2,176 verses — there are 

 only five Alexandrines, viz. : — 



(24.) a. E'en so/ did she/ excel/ / all good/ly dames/ thereby/ ; 



(Adv. V, St. 19, V. 3.) 



b. Dame U/te there/ also/, / the king/ly wife/ sat/. 



(Adv. V, St. 54, V. 3.) 



c. Though not/ so much/ for thee/ / I serve/ or love/ of thine/, 



(Adv. vi, St. 71, V. 1.) 



d. Full soon/ Brunhild/ the fair/ / did on/ a state/ly robe/ ; 



(Adv. vii, St. 29, v. 1.) 



e. And mark/ aright/ thou/, / what thou/ dost hear/ me ut/ter. 



(Adv. vii, St. 68, v. 2.) 



Of these, the first example is perhaps better scanned, — 



(24a.) a. So stood/ she / before/ them / and good/ly dames/ excelled/ ; 



this being a common type of verse in the epic (see example (16) h). Again, 

 d might be scanned : — 



(24a.) d. Brunhild/ / the fair/ one / donned quick/ly a state/ly robe/ ; 



but this is doubtful, as, were such intended, " Brunhild " would probably 

 have been written " Brunhilde," as in — 



(25.) The love/ly / Brunhil/de, / she/ who bore/ a crown/ 



(Adv. X, St. 26, V. 3.) 



This means that four, or at most five, Alexandrines are admitted in a total 

 of 2,176 verses, a proportion so small, considering the large amount of varia- 

 tion the Nibelungen verse takes, as to suggest a foreign form. One con- 

 clusion may perhaps be drawn with some certainty — that is, whilst the 

 Nibelungen appears to be a variation, by shortening, of the Ballad, the 

 Alexandrine is not a variation, by shortening, of the Nibelungen. It may 

 not be demonstrable, but it will possibly be found that the Alexandrine, 

 being a peculiarly French form, developed directly from the Romance 

 metre in France, as the Ballad developed from the Romance in England. 

 Wartonf quotes a " Norman-Saxon poem " in which there are traces of 

 Nibelungen in a body of Alexandrine verse. He was of opinion " that a 

 pause, or division, was intended in the middle of every verse ; and in this 

 respect its versification resembles also that of ' Albion's England,' or 

 Drayton's ' Polyolbion,' which was a species very common about the reign 

 of Queen Ehzabeth." 



13. If, however, we turn to modern Danish poetry, we may find perfect 

 examples of the blending of Nibelungen, Alexandrine, and Ballad in poems 

 whose metre is basically Nibelungen. The following examples are from 

 Winther's series " Woodcuts " : — 



(26.) a. When on/ the o/cean fell/ / the sun's/ low e/ven beam/. 



And our hou/ses and/ church stee/ple then/ were bathed/ in ro/s}^ gleam/, 

 Upon/ the door's/ board mos/sy / his fol/ded arms/ he laid/, 

 Whilst down/ the vale/ below/ him, /his glance/ unwea/ried strayed/. 



(Steffen og Anne, st. 2.) 



* German edition by Dr. Gustav Pfizer : Stuttgart und Tiibingen, 1843. 

 t " History of English Poetry," section 1 (page 16 of Ward, Lock, and Tyler's reprint 

 in one volume). 



