Ingeborg, too,
had to be a trifle modified and disembarrassed of a few somewhat too
naturalistic traits with which the saga endows her, before she became
the lovely type that she is of the faithful, loving, long-suffering,
womanhood of the North, with trustful blue eyes, golden hair, and a
heart full of sweet and beautiful sentiment. It was because
Oehlenschlaeger had neglected to make sufficient concessions to modern
demands that his "Helge" (though in some respects a greater poem than
"Frithjof's Saga") never crossed the boundary of Scandinavia, and even
there made no deep impression upon the general public.
Though the story of "Frithjof" is familiar to most readers, I may be
pardoned for presenting a brief _resume_. The general plot, in Tegner's
version, coincides in its main outlines with that of the saga. Frithjof,
the son of the free yeoman Thorstein Vikingson, is fostered in the house
of the peasant Hilding, with Ingeborg, the daughter of King Bele of
Sogn. The King and the yeoman have been life-long friends, and each has
a most cordial regard for the other.
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