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and courtesy, and the rest of their countrywomen with respect. 
Admiration mingled largely with this feeling of veneration. 
The Icelandic language is singularly full of delicate and pas- 
sionate phrases to express the beanty of woman, and must 
reflect, in this respect, the feeling of the nation at large. The 
Sagas abound with incidents of a character far more sentimental 
than one would be ready to expect, and throughout the old 
literature the passion of love is treated with a delicate reti- 
cence that reminds one of very modern romance, and contrasts 
most favourably with the rude and coarse love-tales of the 
Middle Ages. The universal testimony of the poets hears out 
the view that the same order and reticence regulated the 
conduct of the Norsemen towards their own free-women, and 
the laws of marriage that have come down to us testify to the 
solemnity and force of the rites that accompanied domestic ties. 
The education of the girls was tinged with the same athletic 
spirit that gave so strong a colouring to that of the boys. If 
she was not to be a hero, the daughter tvas at least to be 
trained to be the mother of heroes. Accordingly a certain 
manly force, a masculine temper, were the subjects of admira- 
tion and praise in a woman. Even some pale reflection of the 
berserk-fury seems to have reached the women. It is curious 
to read of heroines who shared the toils of warfare with the 
men; in doing so they imitated the Valkyriur, those warrior- 
maidens of the gods. One of the lays of the poetic Edda is 
occupied with the feats of Svava, the daughter of King Eylimi, 
who fell in love with Helgi, and protected him in battle. But 
no story is more curiously illustrative of the manners of the 
time than that one in the Volsunga Saga, which records the 
warlike achievements of the chaste and valorous Alfhilda, 
daughter of the King of the Ostrogoths, Sigurdr. 
15. The laws of maidenly propriety and the customs of wooing 
and betrothal were quite modern in their exactitude of detail; 
by all but those roughest warriors and most lawless vikingar who 
lived altogether outside the pale of social life, these laws were 
strictly observed. The higher the rank of the individual the 
more was she bound by the bondage of etiquette. A maiden 
of the highest class was obliged, by custom, to refuse several 
suitors before she consented to change her condition. It was 
the fashion, too, among the daughters of kings and chieftains 
to send the accepted suitor on expeditions of great danger and 
difficulty, and to consent at last only on his return covered 
with the glory of renown in arms. Many high-born ladies 
would rather die than accept a man of ignoble lineage or un- 
