Gunnar Refuses to Leave Home     p. 133

"Fair is Lithe: so fair that it has never seemed to me so fair; thecorn fields are white to harvest, and the home mead is mown: and now Iwill ride back home, and not fare abroad at all."

The Story of Burnt Njal

From the Icelandic of the Njals Saga

By the late
Sir George Webbe Dasent, D.C.L.

With a Prefatory Note, and the Introduction, Abridged, from theOriginal Edition of 1861

New York E. P. Dutton & Co.
London Grant Richards
1900

THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED

The design of the cover made by the late James Drummond, R.S.A.,combines the chief weapons mentioned in The Story of Burnt Njal:Gunnar's bill, Skarphedinn's axe, and Kari's sword, bound together byone of the great silver rings found in a Viking's hoard in Orkney.[Pg vii]

PREFATORY NOTE TO THE ONE-VOLUME EDITION.

Sir George Dasent's translation of the Njals Saga, under thetitle The Story of Burnt Njal, which is reprinted in this volume, waspublished by Messrs. Edmonston & Douglas in 1861. That edition was intwo volumes, and was furnished by the author with maps and plans; with alengthy introduction dealing with Iceland's history, religion and sociallife; with an appendix and an exhaustive index. Copies of this editioncan still be obtained from Mr. David Douglas of Edinburgh.

The present reprint has been prepared in order that this incomparableSaga may become accessible to those readers with whom a good story isthe first consideration and its bearing upon a nation's history asecondary one—or is not considered at all. For Burnt Njal may beapproached either as a historical document, or as a pure narrative ofelemental natures, of strong passions; and of heroic feats of strength.Some of the best fighting in literature is to be found between itscovers. Sir George Dasent's version in its capacity as a learned workfor the study has had nearly forty years of life; it is now offeredafresh simply as a brave story for men who have been boys and for boyswho are going to be men.

We lay down the book at the end having added to our store of goodmemories the record of great deeds and great hearts, and to our galleryof heroes strong and admirable men worthy to stand beside the strong andadmirable men of the Iliad—Gunnar of Lithend and Skarphedinn, Njal andKari, Helgi and Kolskegg, beside Telamonian Aias and Patroclus, Achillesand Hector, Ulysses and Idomeneus.[Pg viii] In two respects these Icelanders winmore of our sympathy than the Greeks and Trojans; for they, likeourselves, are of Northern blood, and in their mighty strivings areunassisted by the gods.

In the present volume Sir George Dasent's preface has been shortened,and his introduction, which everyone who is interested in old Icelandiclife and history should make a point