| + | N. Y. Times. 10: 214. Ap. 8, ‘05. 290w. |
Vigfusson, Gudbrandur, and Powell, Frederick York, eds and trs. Origines islandicae: a collection of the more important sagas and other native writings relating to the settlement and early history of Iceland. 2v. [*]$14. Oxford.
These volumes are divided into five books: “Landnámabok—the book of the land-taking.... Islandingabok (Libellus islandorum) a collection of notes made in the eleventh or twelfth century ... relating to the old law and customs of the Norsemen settled in Iceland.... Tales and legends relating to the conversion and early church history of Iceland, Sagas relating to the history of Iceland during the first two centuries ... divided into four sections, which treat of the South, the West, the North, and the East quarters respectively.... Sagas relating to the exploring voyages of Icelanders.... All or nearly all of this matter has, we think, been printed before in Iceland or in Denmark, but much of it is now accessible only in books that have become scarce, and in texts far from accurate.”—Nation.
[*] “The present work is by no means free from some of the faults which marked its predecessor, the ‘Corpus poeticum boreale’; but fortunately the comparison of the two works will hold for the merits as well as the defects.”
| + + — | Ath. 1905, 2: 646. N. 11. 2650w. |
Reviewed by W. P. Ker.
| * | + + | Eng. Hist. R. 20: 779. O. ‘05. 1080w. |
[*] “Deeply as we must regret the loss of these two distinguished men before completing their work, the book as it stands is one of great value, and will doubtless find a place on the shelves of every university library and of every scholar of the old Northern literature. The translation is clear, direct, and simple, slightly archaic as is right.”
| + + | Nation. 81: 260. S. 28, ‘05. 2910w. | |
| * | N. Y. Times. 10: 577. S. 2, ‘05. 250w. |
[*] “In this case the peculiar gifts of mediaeval temperament and curious linguistic knowledge of the English translator have given us a translation equally spirited and faithful on the whole, often very near the picturesque quality of the original and yet good honest idiomatic English prose.”