50 THE KING'S MIRROR 



vnti tn t>iP nlmrfh; he warnsJhis son to shun 

 f every sort; -fr* rmigf a|gQ aypiH gambling, ajirl 

 r[jjpTriTig to excess.* In some respects the author's jnora,L 

 code is Scandinavian rather than Christian: in the, em- 

 phasis that he places upon reputation and the regardjn 

 which one is held by one's neighbors he seems to echojjie 

 sentiment that runs through the earlier Eddie poetry, 

 especially the " Song of the High One." " One thing I 

 know that always remains," says Woden, " judgment 

 passed on the dead." f And the Christian scribe more 

 than three centuries later writes thus of one who has 

 departed this life: " But if he lived uprightly while on 

 earth and made proper provision for his soul before he 

 died, then you may take comfort in the good repute that 

 lives after him, and even more in the blissful happiness 

 which you believe he will enjoy with God in the other 

 world." t And again he says: " Now you will appreciate 

 what I told you earlier in our conversation, namely that 

 much depends on the example that a man leaves after 

 him." 



The author is also Norse in his emphasis on modera- 

 tion in every form of indulgence, on the control of one's 

 passion, and in permitting private revenge. His attitude 

 toward this present world isjSot medievajQ we may enjfi$L. 

 the good things of creation, though not to excessX)n 

 the matter of revenge, however, his ideas are character- 

 istically medievaJL Private warfare was allowed almost 

 everywhere in the middle ages, and it appears to have 

 a place in the political system of the Speculum Regale* 



* Cc. iii-iv, xxxvii. % C. xli. 



t Hdvamdl, 40: Corpus Poeticum Boreale, I, 8. C. xlii. 



