“A work, of which we gladly repeat the judgment of a distinguished American writer, that it is unsurpassed by any existing monument in the narrative department of any literature, ancient or modern.”—Saturday Review.
“An historical romance of the tenth century, first narrated almost at the very time and by the very people to whom it refers, nearly true as to essential facts, and quite true in its pictures of the customs and the temper of the old Norsemen, about whom it tells, is in these volumes edited with the soundest scholarship by Dr. Dasent. There was need of a thorough study of the life and language of the early colonists of Iceland for the effective setting forth of this Njala, or saga of Njal.”—Examiner, March 30.
“This ’Story of Burnt Njal’ is worthy of the translator of the Norse Tales: a work of interest to the antiquary and the lover of legendary lore—that is, to every one capable of appreciating those sources of history which are at once the most poetic and the most illustrative of the character and growth of nations. The events of the story happened while the conflict of the two creeds of Christ and Odin was yet going on in the minds of the Northmen. We must pass the book over to the reader’s attentive consideration, for there are few portions of it that are not pregnant with interest and instruction for a reflective mind.”—Athenœum.
“Hurriedly and imperfectly as we have traced the course of this tale divine, it must be evident to all who have accompanied us in our progress that there is real Homeric stuff in it. The Saga has a double value, an æsthetic and an historic value. Through it we may learn how men and women in Iceland, near a thousand years ago, lived, loved, and died.”—Spectator, April 20.
“Mr. Dasent has given us a thoroughly faithful and accurate translation of the ’Njala; or, the Story of Njal,’ the longest and certainly the best of all the Icelandic Sagas. The style is that pure Saxon idiom with which the readers of his ’Norse Popular Tales’ are familiar. To the translation are prefixed disquisitions on Iceland; its religion, constitution, and public and private life; and the appendix contains a very amusing essay on piracy and the Vikings, the biography of Gunnhillda, the wicked queen of Eric of the Bloody-axe, king of Norway, and afterwards warder of Northumberland, and a disquisition on the old Icelandic currency.”—Times, April 8.
George Webbe Dasent, D.C.L.
Popular Tales from the Norse, with an Introductory Essay on the origin and diffusion of Popular Tales. Second Edition, enlarged. Crown 8vo, 10s. 6d.
A Selection from Dasent’s Popular Tales from the Norse. With Illustrations. 1 vol. crown 8vo.
The Prose, or Younger Edda. Commonly ascribed to Snorri Sturluson. Translated from the Old Norse, by George Webbe Dasent, D.C.L. A New Edition, with an Introduction, in one volume, crown 8vo.