Tragic plots in the extant poems 69 The _Death of Ermanaric_ in the "Poetic Edda" (_Hamðismál_) 70 Some of the Northern poems show the tragic conception modified by romantic motives, yet without loss of the tragic purport--_Helgi and Sigrun_ 72 Similar harmony of motives in the _Waking of Angantyr_ 73 Whatever may be wanting, the heroic poetry had no want of tragic plots--the "fables" are sound 74 Value of the abstract plot (Aristotle) 74 II SCALE OF THE POEMS List of extant poems and fragments in one or other of the older Teutonic languages (German, English, and Northern) in unrhymed alliterative verse 76 Small amount of the extant poetry 78 Supplemented in various ways 79 1. THE WESTERN GROUP (German and English) 79 Amount of story contained in the several poems, and scale of treatment 79 _Hildebrand_, a short story 80 _Finnesburh_, (1) the Lambeth fragment (Hickes); and (2) the abstract of the story in _Beowulf_ 81 _Finnesburh_, a story of (1) wrong and (2) vengeance, like the story of the death of Attila, or of the betrayal of Roland 82 Uncertainty as to the compass of the _Finnesburh_ poem (Lambeth) in its original complete form 84 _Waldere_, two fragments: the story of Walter of Aquitaine preserved in the Latin _Waltharius_ 84 Plot of _Waltharius_ 84 Place of the _Waldere_ fragments in the story, and probable compass of the whole poem 86 Scale of _Maldon_ 88 and of _Beowulf_ 89 General resemblance in the themes of these poems--unity of action 89 Development of style, and not neglect of unity nor multiplication of contents, accounts for the difference of length between earlier and later poems 91 Progress of Epic in England--unlike the history of Icelandic poetry 92 2. THE NORTHERN GROUP 93 The contents of the so-called "Elder Edda" (_i.e._ _Codex Regius_ 2365, 4to _Havn_.) 93 to what extent _Epic_ 93 Notes on the contents of the poems, to show their scale; the _Lay of Weland_ 94