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128 NOTICES OF BOOKS-
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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» 'The Story Of Burnt Njal. Translated F...
the fact that these people , whose early history we are now enabled to studyhare nearly the same origin as ourselves ; that is , they
evidentl , the blood relationsand near kindredof our are ancestors the y Danes , who form p robabl very y the largest element , in
our mingled population—very decidedly so , at least , in the northern part of our island—where the names , both personal and local , have
a marked similarity to those mentioned in the story ; and we cannot but feel that in the vivid picture of early Icelandic life , which Dr .
Dasent has so nicely clothed in English garb , we are looking back upon a more faithful description of many of the daily occurrences on
our own shores about the same period than any which has been preserved in our language .
In a work written by Dieuilus , an Irish monk , In the ninth century , entitled " De Mensura Orbis , " mention is made of the first
settlers on tliis island : —the Culdee anchorites—who , as they sought solitude for prayer and meditationand were no lovers of women ,
, soon died out , leaving , however , traces behind them in their cells and churcli furniturewhich were recognised afterwards by the
, early Icelanders themselves , as having been the handiwork of Christian men .
These pious monks were Irishmen , some of those who had followed St . Columban to Iona and the Orkneys , travelling even
to these distant regions that they might worship God in peace . It was not till nearly half a century later , towards the end of the
ninth century , that Iceland was colonised by Norsemen . Many of . them came direct from their own northern shores , and many more
from the coast of Britain , where they were known by the general name of Danes , and where , from the unsettled state of the country ,
they had failed to find that peaceful home and sure refuge from the tyranny of their king , Harold Fairhair , which they sought .
For proofs of the authenticity of " The Story of Burnt Njal , " we shall quote from the preface , where we first get a description of a
saga : — kinds " A of saga is a of story all d or telling of truth in prose There , mixed are with the mythical verse . There are in which many
the wondrous sagas deeds of egrees heroes of old times . —half-gods half-men , sagas - as Si , gural and tions _Hagnar of — the are n told orthern as they race were . Then handed there down are sagas from father recounting to son the in the history tradi ot
and the kings of the of chiefs Norway who ruled and other in Faroe countries . These , of are the all great more line or of less Orkney trustworth Zarls , and in general far worthier of belief than much that passes for the early his y - ,
tory of other races . and " A ends gain , of there mig are hty sagas chiefs rel , the ating heads to Iceland of the , great narrating families the which lives , and dwelt feuds in ,
that the this very or will that spot bear , district and the strictest told of with the examination a island minut . eness These and were exactness told b , y as men to time who and lived place on _,,
. the " The events saga which Njal are a was described not written in it down happened till about , but we one may hundred be sure years tliat after as
matter each event of history recorded , and in when the saga at last occurred the whole , it was story told was and unfolded talked , and about took as
128 Notices Of Books-
128 NOTICES OF BOOKS-
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1861, page 128, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101861/page/56/
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