2 Faradav, IrisJi Influence oji Icelandic Literature. 



or the impulse which started it, to Celtic admixture of 

 race ; nor do they seek in any way to account for the 

 literary supremacy of Iceland. Devotini:^ themselves 

 solely to the poems of the Edda, they dwell on the 

 difference in spirit between these and the prose literature, 

 and account for it by claiming for the majority of the 

 poems an origin not in Iceland, but directly under Celtic 

 and other influences in the British Isles; thus by inference 

 excluding both the Sagas, the greater work of Iceland, 

 and the Skaldic poetry, from these influences. As this 

 theory has lately been brought into special prominence by 

 Professor Bugge, whose work has to a great extent been 

 seriously accepted in England, and has found supporters 

 even in cautious and scientific Germany (Dr. Mogk, of 

 Leipzig, accepts Professor Bugge's arguments wholesale), 

 I will consider it before discussing the broader question. 



In view of Professor Bugge's hypotheses, and of the 

 stress laid by Professor York PowelP on the " prosaic " or 

 unimaginative character of the Icelander (an argument 

 based on the hypothesis it claims to prove), attention has 

 been directed rather to possibilities and to fanciful ana- 

 logies than to the actual facts which go to prove Celtic 

 influence or its absence. From a philological point of 

 view at least, it may be contended that such evidence as 

 does exist, in borrowed words or proper names, is in 

 favour of Norse influence on Irish life and thought, rather 

 than of Celtic influence on Iceland. 



Professor Bugge has advanced his theory in his 

 Studicr over de nor disk e Glide- og Heltesagiis Oprindelse? 

 As time goes on, he tends more and more to emphasize 



1 Folklore, V. p. 98. 



- Studien iiher die Entstchung der nordische Cotter- und Heldeiisagen, 

 transl. Brenner (Miinchen, 1889); Helgedigtene (Kohenhavn, 1896); 

 English version of the latter by Dr. Schotield, Home of the Eddie Poems, 

 with new introduction (London, Nutt, 1899). 



