The scholarship of our own epoch, however, has prepared the
way for another and deeper insight into the relation between saga
or legend and history. For example, the philologist Hermann
Usener indicated (in 1897) ¹ that what finds expression in the saga
is not a post-factum transfiguration of a historical recollection but a
process which follows on the events, "in their footsteps, so to say".
At a more recent date (in 1933) ² the Iranologist Ernst Herzfeld
observed that "saga and the writing of history start out from the
identical point, the event", and that it is the saga which in par-
ticular preserves historical memories, "not of what the conse-
quences show to be 'historical event', but of that which roused the
emotions of the men undergoing the experience". It is possible
to formulate even more precisely the nature of the issue involved.
The man of early times met the unplanned unexpected events
which transformed the historical situation of his community at a
single stroke with a fundamental stirring of all the elements in his
being; a state of affairs properly described by the great Germanist
Jacob Grimm ( 1813) ³ as "objective enthusiasm". It is a primeval
state of amazement which sets all the creative forces of the soul to
work. What happens is therefore not a mere recasting of the
event perceived by imagination become paramount; the experi-
ence itself is creative. "Periods of a more sensuous religious
emotion", says Usener, "see vast, bright, super-human figures
passing before the victorious troops and bringing death and defeat
to the ranks of the foe". Here the emphasis should be put on the
word "see". The historical wonder is no mere interpretation;
it is something actually seen. Even the subsequent comprehension
of the flashing lightning-like visions within the consecutive report
of the saga is not arbitrary in character. An organic and organic-
ally creative memory is here at work.

That this early saga, close as it is to the time of the event, tends
to assume rhythmical form, can well be understood. It is not due
solely to the fact that enthusiasm naturally expresses itself in
rhythm. Of greater importance is the basic idea characterising this
stage of human existence that historical wonder can be grasped by
no other form of speech save that which is rhythmically articulated,
of course in oral expression (a basic concept which is closely associ-
ated with the time-old relation between rhythm and magic). This
is sustained by the wish to retain unchanged for all time the memory
of the awe-inspiring things that had come about; to which end
a transmission in rhythmical form is the most favourable condition.

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