The Story of Burnt Njal; or, Life in Iceland at the end of the Tenth
Century. From the Icelandic of the Njals Saga. By G. W. DASENT,
D.C.L. In 2 vols. 8vo, with Maps and Plans, price 28s.
“Considered as a picture of manners, customs, and characters, the
Njala has a merit equal in our eyes to that of the Homeric poems
themselves.”—_Edinburgh Review, October 1861._
“The majority of English readers would have been surprised to be
told that in the literature of Iceland there was preserved a story
of life and manners in the heroic age, which for simple force and
truthfulness is, as far as we know, unequalled in European history
and poetry, and is not unworthy of being compared, not indeed for
its poetic richness and power, but for the insight which it gives
into ancient society, with the Homeric poems.”—_Guardian, May 1._
“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.”—_Athenæum._
“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.”—