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.”--_Athenœum._
“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.”--_Times, April 8._