These vivid and truthful records of the middle ages of Denmark are to the modern writer of romance, what the oral traditions of the heroic age were to the chronicler of the Saga. They relate not only the exploits of northern warriors in their own, and in distant lands, but are also especially interesting, from the light they throw on the personal history of Denmark's most chivalrous monarchs. Their joys and sorrows, their sterner passions and gentler affections, are described by the national minstrel in a strain of simple and touching earnestness, which wins the full sympathy of the reader. This power of delineating human passion lends a charm even to some ballads, handing down the wildest superstitions of a superstitious age. In Germany the Danish ballads are known through the translations of Professor Grimm, who has entered with the enthusiasm both of an antiquary and a poet, into the spirit of Scandinavian lore. In the preface to his version of the "Kj[oe]mpe Vise," M. Grimm dwells with peculiar pleasure on those ballads which have not only supplied M. Ingemann with much of the incident, but have also suggested the individual colouring of the historic portraits of "Eric and the Outlaws." All the prominent characters introduced into this romance from King Eric himself, down to Morten the cook, are historical, and enacted scarcely less romantic parts in the drama of real life, than those assigned them by M. Ingemann. The struggle with papal authority--the encroachments of the Hanse towns--and the invidious attempts of the "Leccarii," (the socialists of the 13th century) were important features of that interesting period which this work is designed to illustrate. The translator is aware of the difficulty of attracting attention to a romance drawn from Danish history; the work also makes its appearance without any of those adventitious advantages which sometimes ensure a favourable introduction to the public--it is translated by an unknown pen--is unaided by patronage of any kind--and has solely its own merits to rely on for success. It would afford no slight gratification to the translator were these to be appreciated by the reading public of a nation, which not only in its early history, is closely connected with Denmark, but which has inherited from Scandinavian ancestors, that indomitable spirit which rendered them in olden time masters of the seas. KING ERIC AND THE OUTLAWS. CHAPTER I.