Ivanhoe: A Romance Page 53
by Walter Scott
NOTE TO CHAPTER XXXI
Note G.--Ulrica's Death song.
It will readily occur to the antiquary, that these verses are intendedto imitate the antique poetry of the Scalds--the minstrels of the oldScandinavians--the race, as the Laureate so happily terms them,
"Stern to inflict, and stubborn to endure, Who smiled in death."
The poetry of the Anglo-Saxons, after their civilisation and conversion,was of a different and softer character; but in the circumstancesof Ulrica, she may be not unnaturally supposed to return to the wildstrains which animated her forefathers during the time of Paganism anduntamed ferocity.