Ivanhoe: A Romance

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.