In England, likewise, there arose, partly as a consequence of the Danish and Norman conquests, a particular kind of composition which, in England, is called Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Norman. That all poems of this sort were written by Danes or Normans, I do not venture to assert. All that is meant is, that they were partly produced by the Danish and Norman wars; and that, partly, they were the expressions of the new adventurous and knightly spirit, which, through the Danish-Normanic conquests, became prevalent in England. Some of the most celebrated of them are romances about “Beowulf,” “Havelock the Dane,” and “Guy, Earl of Warwick.” In the oldest romances, which are composed of the same mythic materials as our Scandinavian Edda songs, and some of the Sagas or legends, adventurous combats against dragons, serpents, and similar plagues, are celebrated; whereas, in the later romances of the age of chivalry, warriors are sung who had fallen in love with beautiful damsels far above them in birth or rank, and whose hand and heart they could acquire only by a series of brilliant adventures and exploits. Valour, which before was exerted for the welfare of all, and for the honour that accompanied it, now obtained a new object and a new reward, and that was—love. The heathen poems of the Scandinavian North are all conceived in the selfsame spirit; and it is therefore not altogether unreasonable, perhaps, to recognise in this striking agreement traces of a Scandinavian influence on English compositions. In later times, and down to the middle ages, this influence is still more clearly apparent in the before-mentioned ballads, or popular songs (p. 89), which are only to be found in the northern, or old Danish, part of England, and which betray such a striking likeness to our Scandinavian national ballads.