which forms volume xli of the Íslendinga Sögur, published at Reykjavík.
It was fortunate for me that these last two editions appeared before I began my work. Professor Jónsson provided me with an excellent text; and, second in value only to this, with an index and an invaluable Icelandic prose re-phrasing of the skaldic verses.
I regret exceedingly that the highly technical nature of Háttatal forbids translation into English. There are, to be sure, more or less—usually less—accurate translations into Scandinavian and into Latin. Even in the excellent Arnamagnæan edition, many of the glosses are purely conjectural; and any attempt to convey into English a vocabulary which has no equivalent in our language must fail. Skáldskaparmál, however, is here presented, complete, for the first time in English.
To those who have helped me I wish to express my deepest appreciation. First of all, to Professor William Henry Schofield I owe a debt of gratitude which is more than four years old, and has increased beyond computation. Dr. Henry Goddard Leach, my first instructor in Scandinavian literature, gave me my greatest single intellectual stimulus, and thereby determined the current of my work. Dr. Frederick W. Lieder, of Harvard University, deserves my thanks for his devoted assistance in reading proof, a task as dreary as it is essential. I am also indebted for valuable suggestions to Mr. H. W. Rabe, of Simmons College.
It is a great satisfaction to acknowledge these debts, incurred in the course of a labor which has been my delight for several years. I should, however, do injustice to those who have aided me, as well as to myself, if I did
