Some Sagas bear evident traces of having been derived, or even copied, from earlier documents now lost: in some cases definite quotations are given; others are evidently of a fabulous character, and have to be treated with great caution; but even these may be used as illustrating the customs of the times at which they were written. Occasionally great confusion is caused by the blending of the similar names of persons living at different periods.
My method of putting together the series of descriptions which will be found in the ‘Viking Age’ has been as follows:—
By reading carefully every Saga—and there are hundreds of them—dealing with the events of a man’s life from his birth to his death, I was able to select the passages bearing on the various customs. When in one Saga the bare fact of a birth, or a marriage, or a burial, or a feast, etc., etc., was mentioned, in others full details of the ceremonies connected with them were found. After thus collecting my material, which was of the most superabundant character, I went over it and selected what seemed to me to be the best accounts of the various customs with which I deal in these volumes. I have not been content with the translations of other persons, but have in every case gone to the original documents and adopted my own rendering of them.
Some extracts from the Frankish Chronicles are given in the Appendix, as showing the power of the Northmen, and bearing strong testimony to the truthfulness of the Sagas. If I had not been afraid of being tedious, I could also have given extracts from Arabic, Russian, and other annals to the same effect.
The testimony of archæology as corroborating the Sagas forms one of the most important links in the chain of my argument; parchments and written records form but a portion of the material from which I have derived my account of the ‘Viking Age.’ During the last fifty years the History of the Northmen has been unearthed as it were—like that of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Romans—by the discovery of almost every kind of implement, weapon, and ornament produced by that accomplished race.
The Museums of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, England, France, Germany, Russia, are as richly stored with such objects as are the British Museum, the Louvre, the Museums of Naples and Boulak with the treasures of Egypt and Pompeii.
I have myself seen nearly all the objects or graves illustrated in this book, with the exception of a few Runic stones which have now disappeared, but are given in an old work of Jorgensen.
As my materials expanded themselves before me I felt like one of those mariners of old on a voyage of discovery. To them new lands were continuously coming into view; to me new materials, new fields of literary and archæological wealth unfolded themselves incessantly. Thus carried away by enthusiasm and the love of the task I had undertaken, I have been able to labour for eight years and a half on the present work, with some interruptions from exhaustion and impaired health. May I, then, ask the indulgence of a public, which has always been kind to me, for all the shortcomings of my work?
I have received valuable assistance from many friends, but I desire especially to express my thanks to Mr. Bruun, the Chief Librarian of the Royal Library of Denmark, for his great kindness in allowing me so many privileges during the years I have worked in Copenhagen; to Mr. Birket Smith, of the University Library of Copenhagen; and Mr. Kaalund, Keeper of the Arna Magnæan Collection of Manuscripts, for the uniform courtesy they have shown me; among antiquarians, to my friend Professor George Stephens, author of the magnificent work, ‘Northern Runic Monuments,’ for his readiness in giving me all the information and help I needed, which sometimes occupied much of his valuable time (several illustrations of the runic stones, etc., in these volumes are taken from his work); to Mr. Vedel, Vice-President of the Royal Society of Antiquarians; to Messrs. Herbst, Sophus Müller, and Petersen, of the Royal Museum of Northern Antiquities, for their great courtesy; I am also indebted to the works of the following distinguished antiquarians which have been invaluable to me in my researches and which have furnished me with many of the illustrations for my book: Ole Rygh, Bugge, Engelhart, Nicolaysen, Sehested, Steenstrup, Madsen, Säve, Montelius, Holmberg, Jorgensen, Baltzer, and Lorange; also to the works of the historians, Keyser, Geijer, Munch, Rafn, Vigfusson. My sincere thanks are also due to my young friend Jon Stefánsson, an Icelandic student, for his constant help in rendering the translations of the Sagas as accurate and literal as possible; and to my old friend Mr. Rasmus B. Anderson, late American Minister to Denmark, and translator of the ‘Later Edda,’ etc.; in England, to Messrs. A. S. Murray, Franks, and Read, of the British Museum; to Dr. Warre, the head master of Eton, and to General Pitt Rivers, author of a valuable work on the excavations in Cranborne Chase, which contains objects strikingly similar to those of Scandinavia; also to my friends Mr. J. S. Keltie and Mr. Arthur L. Roberts; to my old friends Messrs. Clowes, who have taken great pains in carrying out what has proved to be a very difficult task for the printer, and who have had the work over two-and-a-half years in type.
I must thank, above all, my esteemed and venerable publisher, John Murray, for the great interest he has taken in the present work, which has tried his patience and liberality many a time, and also for the many years of uninterrupted friendship and the pleasant business relations (unhampered by any written agreement whatever), which have existed between us from the time when I came to him almost a lad, and he first undertook the publication of ‘Explorations in Equatorial Africa,’ in 1861, not forgetting my dear friends, his sons, John and Hallam, the former of whom has assisted me materially in seeing the work through the press, and my old companion Robert Cooke.