IV
The Three Schools—Teutonic Epic—French Epic—The Icelandic Histories
| Early failure of Epic among the Continental Germans | 50 |
| Old English Epic invaded by Romance (Lives of Saints, etc.) | 50 |
| Old Northern (Icelandic) poetry full of romantic mythology | 51 |
| French Epic and Romance contrasted | 51 |
| Feudalism in the old French Epic (Chansons de Geste) not unlike the prefeudal "heroic age" | 52 |
| But the Chansons de Geste are in many ways "romantic" | 53 |
| Comparison of the English Song of Byrhtnoth (Maldon, a.d. 991) with the Chanson de Roland | 54 |
| Severity and restraint of Byrhtnoth | 55 |
| Mystery and pathos of Roland | 56 |
| Iceland and the German heroic age | 57 |
| The Icelandic paradox—old-fashioned politics together with clear understanding | 58 |
| Icelandic prose literature—its subject, the anarchy of the heroic age; its methods, clear and positive | 59 |
| The Icelandic histories, in prose, complete the development of the early Teutonic Epic poetry | 60 |
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