[1] Viktor Rydberg styles his work Researches in Germanic Mythology, but after consultation with the Publishers, the Translator decided to use the word Teutonic instead of Germanic both in the title and in the body of the work. In English, the words German, Germany, and Germanic are ambiguous. The Scandinavians and Germans have the words Tyskland, tysk, Deutschland, deutsch, when they wish to refer to the present Germany, and thus it is easy for them to adopt the words German and Germanisk to describe the Germanic or Teutonic peoples collectively. The English language applies the above word Dutch not to Germany, but to Holland, and it is necessary to use the words German and Germany in translating deutsch, Deutschland, tysk, and Tyskland. Teutonic has already been adopted by Max Müller and other scholars in England and America as a designation of all the kindred branches sprung from one and the same root, and speaking dialects of the same original tongue. The words Teuton, Teutonic, and Teutondom also have the advantage over German and Germanic that they are of native growth and not borrowed from a foreign language. In the following pages, therefore, the word Teutonic will be used to describe Scandinavians, Germans, Anglo-Saxons, &c., collectively, while German will be used exclusively in regard to Germany proper.—Translator.
[2] Compare O. Schrader, Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte (1883).
[3] As much land as can be ploughed in a day.
[4] A translation of the Younger or Prose Edda was edited by R. B. Anderson and published by S. C. Griggs & Co., Chicago, in 1881.
"Mennor der erste was genant,
Dem diutische rede got tet bekant."
Later on in this work we shall discuss the traditions of the Mannussaga found in Scandinavia and Germany.
[6] Saturday is in the North called Löverdag, Lördag—that is, Laugardag=bathday.—Tr.
[7] The snow-skate, used so extensively in the north of Europe, is called Ski in the Norse, and I have taken the liberty of introducing this word here and spelling it phonetically—skee, pl. skees. The words snow-shoes, snow-skates, hardly describe sufficiently these skees used by the Finns, Norsemen, and Icelanders. Compare the English word skid, the drag applied to a coach-wheel.—Tr.
[8] Geijer has partly indicated its significance in Svea Rikes Häfder, where he says: "The tradition anent Sceaf is remarkable, as it evidently has reference to the introduction of agriculture, and shows that it was first introduced in the most southern part of Scandinavia."