The first edition of these Tales being exhausted, and a demand having
arisen for a second, the Translator has thought it right to add
thirteen tales, which complete the translation of Asbjörnsen and Moe’s
collection, and to strengthen the Introduction by working in some new
matter, and by working out some points which were only slightly
sketched in the first edition.
The favour with which the book was welcomed makes it almost a duty to
say a word here on the many kind and able notices which have been
written upon it. Duties are not always pleasant, but the fulfilment of
this at least gives no pain; because, without one exception, every
criticism which the Translator has seen has shown him that his prayer
for “gentle” readers has been fully heard. It will be forgiven him, he
hopes, when he says that he has not seen good ground to change or even
to modify any of the opinions as to the origin and diffusion of popular
tales put forth in the first edition. Much indeed has been said by
others _for_ those views; what has been urged _against_ them, with all
kindness and good humour, in one or two cases, has not availed at all
to weigh down mature convictions deliberately expressed after the
studies of years, backed as they are by the researches and support of
those who have given their lives to this branch of knowledge.
And now, before the Translator takes leave of his readers for the
second time, he will follow the lead of the good godmother in one of
these Tales, and forbid all good children to read the two which stand
last in the book. There is this difference between him and the
godmother. She found her foster-daughter out as soon as she came back.
He will never know it, if any bad child has broken his behest. Still he
hopes that all good children who read this book will bear in mind that
there is just as much sin in breaking a commandment even though it be
not found out, and so he bids them good-bye, and feels sure that no
good child will dare to look into those two rooms. If, after this
warning, they peep in, they may perhaps see something which will shock
them.
“Why then print them at all?” some grown reader asks. Because this
volume is meant for you as well as for children, and if you have gone
ever so little into the world with open eyes, you must have seen, yes,
every day, things much more shocking. Because there is nothing immoral
in their spirit. Because they are intrinsically valuable, as
illustrating manners and traditions, and so could not well be left out.
Because they complete the number of the Norse originals, and leave none
untranslated. And last, though not least, because the Translator hates
family versions of anything, “Family Bibles”, “Family Shakespeares”.
Those who, with so large a choice of beauty before them, would pick out
and gloat over this or that coarseness or freedom of expression, are
like those who, in reading the Bible, should always turn to Leviticus,
or those whose Shakespeare would open of itself at Pericles Prince of
Tyre. Such readers the Translator does not wish to have.