More unity in _Beowulf_ than in some Greek epics. The first 2200 lines form a complete story, not ill composed 160 Homeric method of episodes and allusions in _Beowulf_ 162 and _Waldere_ 163 Triviality of the main plot in both parts of _Beowulf_--tragic significance in some of the allusions 165 The characters in _Beowulf_ abstract types 165 The adventures and sentiments commonplace, especially in the fight with the dragon 168 Adventure of Grendel not pure fantasy 169 Grendel's mother more romantic 172 _Beowulf_ is able to give epic dignity to a commonplace set of romantic adventures 173 CHAPTER III THE ICELANDIC SAGAS I ICELAND AND THE HEROIC AGE The close of Teutonic Epic--in Germany the old forms were lost, but not the old stories, in the later Middle Ages 179 England kept the alliterative verse through the Middle Ages 180 Heroic themes in Danish ballads, and elsewhere 181 Place of Iceland in the heroic tradition--a new heroic literature in prose 182 II MATTER AND FORM The Sagas are not pure fiction 184 Difficulty of giving form to genealogical details 185 Miscellaneous incidents 186 Literary value of the historical basis--the characters well known and recognisable 187 The coherent Sagas--the tragic motive 189 Plan of _Njála_ 190 of _Laxdæla_ 191 of _Egils Saga_ 192 _Vápnfirðinga Saga_, a story of two generations 193 _Víga-Glúms Saga_, a biography without tragedy 193 _Reykdæla Saga_ 194 _Grettis Saga_ and _Gísla Saga_ clearly worked out 195 Passages of romance in these histories 196 _Hrafnkels Saga Freysgoða_, a tragic idyll, well proportioned 198 Great differences of scale among the Sagas--analogies with the heroic poems 198 III THE HEROIC IDEAL Unheroic matters of fact in the Sagas 200 Heroic characters 201 Heroic rhetoric 203 Danger of exaggeration--Kjartan in _Laxdæla_ 204