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Title: Stories and Ballads of the Far Past
Translated from the Norse (Icelandic and Faroese) with
Introductions and Notes

Author: Nora Kershaw

Release Date: August 20, 2010 [EBook #33471]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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STORIES AND BALLADS
OF THE FAR PAST

TRANSLATED FROM THE NORSE
(ICELANDIC AND FAROESE)
WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES

BY

N. KERSHAW

CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1921

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

Preface

Very few of the _Fornaldar Soegur Northrlanda_ have hitherto been
translated into English. The _Voelsungasaga_ is of course well known,
but with this exception the 'Stories of Icelanders,' and the 'Stories
of the Kings of Norway' are probably the only sagas familiar to the
majority of English readers. Of the four sagas contained in this
volume only one--the _Thattr of Soerli_--has appeared in English
before, though the poetry which they contain has frequently been
translated, from the time of Hickes's _Thesaurus_ (1705). So far as
I am aware no version of any of the Faroese ballads has appeared in
English. Out of the great number which were collected during the
18th and 19th centuries I have chosen a few which deal with the same
stories as the sagas translated here; and for purposes of comparison I
have added a short extract from one of the Icelandic _Rimur_, as well
as a Danish ballad and part of the Shetland _Hildina_.

In accordance with general custom in works of this kind I have
discarded the use of accents, unfamiliar symbols, etc., except in a
few Norse words which can hardly be anglicised.

My thanks are due to the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press for
undertaking the publication of this book, and to the staff for their
unfailing courtesy.

To Professor Thuren of Christiania I am indebted for kindly allowing
me to print the melodies from his son's _Folkesangen paa Faeroerne_