Original (English)

PREFACE The ballads in this volume are translated from the Works of Oehlenslæger, (a poet who is yet living, and who stands high in the estimation of his countrymen,) and from the Kiæmpé Viser, a collection of old songs, celebrating the actions of the ancient heroes of Scandinavia. The old Danish poets were, for the most part, extremely rude in their versification.  Their stanzas of four or two lines have not the full rhyme of vowel and consonant, but merely what the Spaniards ca