CURRENT LITERATURE.
Epics and Romances of the Middle Ages. Adapted from the work of Dr. W. Wagner by M. W. Macdowall, and edited by W. S. W. Anson. (Sonnenschein.)—Atnong the legends collected in this volume, some of the most interesting are those which the great sound-poet whom Germany and the Western world have lately lost chose for the speech-substance of the wonderful creations in which, for the first time in the annals of art, the eye, the ear, and the mind were sought to be moved to simultaneous and adequate comprehen- sion of the beautiful, as perceived by the intellect and the intellectual senses. The legends themselves call for no particular remark. They are fairly well told, and adequately represent the original stories as given by Dr. W. Wagner in the work from which they are adapted. On the whole, they are less interesting than those contained in Mr. Anson's former volume, "Asgard and the Gods," but the story of the Nibelungs, the tale of Sigurd's daring, of Gadrun's love, and Regin's falsehood, bears repetition, even after the wonderful alliterative and rhymed verse in which Mr. Morris's genius has cast them. Of the
Carolinian and Arthurian legends, the treatment is somewhat meagre ; and in the version of " Tannhanser," which closes the volume, we miss much of the intrinsic grace and charm of that poetic myth. The book is well got-up, and amply illustrated; some of the wood- cuts are fall of spirit, and of the indefinable chill and weird gloom, of the sense of pain and conflict, rather than of joy and hope, characteristic of Northern folk-lore.
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