A careful study of the Faroese ballads as a whole might enable one to determine something more of the relation of ballads to 'Literature'[21] and of the various ballad forms to one another, such as that of the short and simple _Ballad of Hjalmar and Angantyr_ to the longer and more complicated _Ballad of Arngrims Sons_. Simplification and confusion are among the chief characteristics of popular poetry[22]; but it is to be noted that in the case of the _Hervarar Saga_ confusion set in long before the days of the ballad--as early as the saga itself, where there must surely be at least one case of repetition of character[23]. In reality, considering through how many stages the ballad material has passed, one is amazed at the vitality of the stories and the amount of original groundwork preserved. A careful comparison of the _Vˆlsunga Saga_ and the Faroese cycle of ballads generally classed together as _Sj˙rar KvÊi_--which, be it observed, were never written down at all till the nineteenth century--brings out to a degree literally amazing the conservatism of the ballads on the old heroic themes. Readers who desire to make further acquaintance with the 'Stories of Ancient Times' as a whole will find a further account of the subject in Professor Craigie's _Icelandic Sagas_ (p. 92 ff.). More detailed accounts will be found in Finnur JÛnsson's _Oldnorske og Oldislandske Litteraturs Historie_[24], Vol. II, pp. 789-847, and in Mogk's _Geschichte der Altnordischen Literatur_ in Paul's _Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie_, Ed. II, 1904, Vol. II, pp. 830-857, while a discussion of the heroic stories will be found in Professor Chadwick's _Heroic Age_, chs. I-VIII. For a full bibliography of the texts, translations, and general literature dealing with the _Fornaldarsˆgur_ collectively, see the annual _Islandica_, Vol. V, pp. 1-9, compiled by HalldÛr Hermannsson and issued by the Cornell University Library, 1912. [Footnote 1: Cf. Saxo Grammaticus, _Dan. Hist._, Book V, p. 160 (Elton's translation, pp. 197, 198).] [Footnote 2: Cf. Saxo, _op. cit._, Book V, p. 166 (Elton's translation, p. 205).] [Footnote 3: Cf. Introduction to the _Saga of Hromund Greipsson_, p. 58 below.] [Footnote 4: Cf. Heusler and Ranisch, _Eddica Minora_ (Dortmund, 1903) p. xii.] [Footnote 5: _De Origine Actibusque Getarum_ (transl. C.C. Mierow, Princeton, 1915), cap. 5.] [Footnote 6: Cf. Heusler and Ranisch, _op. cit._, p. x ff.] [Footnote 7: Ker, _Epic and Romance_ (London, 1908, 2nd ed.), p. 112.] [Footnote 8: S. Grundtvig, _Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser_ (Copenhagen, 1853-1890), Bd I, no. 7.] [Footnote 9: See General Introduction to Part II, p. 166 below.] [Footnote 10: Cf. Axel Olrik, _Danske Folkeviser Ì Udvalg_ (Copenhagen and Christiania, 1913), pp. 81, 82.]