ABSTRACT

The Finn-legend of the island of Sylt has a shape which will cause no surprise, when one sees first of all that it has retained from the very beginning the mythical in conjunction with the historical more faithfully than the Old English Finn-legend, and then considers that the legend has been inherited by tradition in the mouth of the people for a millennium and a half since the time of these historically and mythically interwoven events, and for more than a thousand years since the time when it stood, in outer appearance, on a level with the Old English epic lays. The mythical components have become fairy-tale, and what once upon a time embraced the entire North Sea coast has been reduced to the relationships of the island of Sylt, so that what was elevated on the larger scale has taken on a comic character.