Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/12

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PREFACE.

The translator believes, also, that it opens up a new and rich field of character and incident, in which the reader who seeks amusement only will find much to interest him. The adventures, manners, mode of living, characters, and conversations of these sea-kings, are highly dramatic, in Snorro's work at least; and are told with a racy simplicity and truthfulness of language which the translator cannot flatter himself with having attained or preserved. All he can say for his work is, that any translation is better than none; and others may be stimulated by it to enter into the same course of study, who may do more justice to a branch of literature scarcely known among us.

Edinburgh, 1844.