PREFACE.

TO MY YOUNG READERS.

It is now just thirty years since I first began to read the "Saga of Grettir the Strong" in Icelandic. At that time I had only a Danish grammar of Icelandic and an Icelandic-Danish dictionary, and I did not know a word of Danish. So I had to learn Danish in order to learn Icelandic.

It was laborious work making out the Saga, and every line when I began took me some time to understand. Moreover, I had not much time at my disposal, for then I was a master in a school.

Now, after I had worked a little way into the Saga, I became intensely interested in it myself, and it struck me that my boys whom I taught might like to hear about Grettir. So I tried every day to translate, after school hours, a chapter, hardly ever more at first, and sometimes not even as much as that. Then, when on half-holidays I proposed a walk to some of my scholars, they were keen to hear the story of Grettir. Well, Grettir went on for some months in this way, a fresh instalment of the tale coming every half-holiday, and it was really wonderful how interested and delighted the boys were with the story. Nor was I less so; the labour of translation which was so great at first became rapidly lighter, and I was as much interested in the adventures of the hero as were the boys. The other day I met an old pupil of mine, and almost the first thing he said to me was: "Oh! do you remember Grettir? Thirty years ago! Fancy! I am a married man and have boys of my own, and I have often tried to tell them the story which made such an impression on me, but I cannot remember all the incidents nor their order. I do wish you would write it as a story for boys. I should like to read it myself again, and my boys would love it." "Very well," I said, "I will do so."

Now my boy readers must understand that I have told them the story in my own words and in my own way. I went to Iceland in 1861, and went over nearly every bit of the ground made famous by the adventures of Grettir. Consequently, I am able to help out and illustrate the tale by what I actually saw. In the original book there is a great deal more than I have attempted to retell, but much has to do with the ancestors of Grettir, and there are other incidents introduced of no great importance and very confusing to the memory. So I have taken the leading points in the story, and given them.

S. BARING-GOULD.

CONTENTS.

CHAP.

  1. [Winter Tales]
  2. [How Grettir played on the Ice]
  3. [Of the Ride to Thingvalla]
  4. [The Doom-day]
  5. [The Voyage]
  6. [The Red Rovers]
  7. [The Story of the Sword]
  8. [Of the Bear]
  9. [The Slaying of Biorn]
  10. [Of Grettir's Return]
  11. [The Horse-fight]
  12. [Of the Fight at the Neck]
  13. [How Grettir and Audun made Friends]
  14. [The Vale of Shadows]
  15. [How Grettir fought with Glam]
  16. [How Grettir Sailed to Norway]
  17. [The Hostel-burning]
  18. [The Ordeal by Fire]
  19. [The Winter in Norway]
  20. [Of what Befell at Biarg]
  21. [The Return of Grettir]
  22. [The Slaying of Oxmain]
  23. [At Learwood]
  24. [The Foster-brothers]
  25. [How Grettir was well nigh Hung]
  26. [In the Desert]
  27. [On the Great Eagle Lake]
  28. [On the Fell]
  29. [The Fight on the River]
  30. [A Mysterious Vale]
  31. [The Death of Hallmund]
  32. [Of Another Attempt against Grettir]
  33. [At Sandheaps]
  34. [How Grettir was Driven About]
  35. [On the Isle]
  36. [Of Grettir on Heron-ness]
  37. [Of Hœring's Leap]
  38. [Of the Attempt made by Grettir's Friends]
  39. [Of the Old Hag]
  40. [How the Log came to Drangey]
  41. [The End of the Outlaw]
  42. [How Asdis received the News]
  43. [How Dromund kept his Word]