The texts of the 'Stories of Ancient Times' which have come down to us date as a rule from the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth centuries though the actual MSS. themselves are generally later. Most of the stories, however, were probably in existence before this time. The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200) was familiar with many of them, including the story of Hethin and Hˆgni[1] and one of the scenes recorded in _Hervarar Saga_[2]. And we are told that a story which seems to have corresponded, in its main outlines at least, to the story of Hromund Greipsson was composed and recited at a wedding in Iceland in 1119[3]. But in many cases the materials of our stories were far earlier than this, though they no doubt underwent considerable changes before they assumed their present form. Indeed many stages in the literary history of the North are represented in the following translations. Of these probably the oldest is that section of the _Hervarar Saga_ which deals with the battle between the Goths and the Huns "at Dylgia and on Dunheith and upon all the heights of Jˆsur." The poetry here included in the saga dates even in its present form probably from the Viking Age, perhaps from the tenth century. But the verses themselves do not appear to be all of the same date. Some of them show a certain elaboration and a sense of conscious art, while others are comparatively bare and primitive in type and contain very early features[4]; and there is every probability that such poetry was ultimately derived from poetry composed at a time when the Goths were still remembered. This is not surprising in view of the fact that stories relating to the Goths were popular in English and German heroic poetry, as well as in the heroic lays of the North. Indeed we know from Jordanes[5] and elsewhere that heroic poetry was common among the Goths themselves and that they were wont to celebrate the deeds of their ancestors in verse sung to the accompaniment of the harp. This poem is no doubt much older than the saga. Originally it would seem to have been complete in itself; but many verses have probably been lost. Thus there can be little doubt that the prose passages in chs. XII-XV are often merely a paraphrase of lost verses, though it must not be assumed that all the prose in this portion of the saga originated in such a way[6]. "It is difficult to tell ... where the prose of the manuscripts is to be taken as standing in the place of lost narrative verses, and where it fills a gap that was never intended to be filled with verse, but was always left to the reciter to be supplied in his own way[7]." The difficulty, however, is greater in some cases than in others. The following picturesque passage from the opening of ch. 14 of the _Hervarar Saga_ is a very probable instance of a paraphrase of lost verses: