Preface and Acknowledgements.
This volume contains about one-fourth of the material in Heidenstam's three volumes: Vallfart och Vandringsår, 1888; Dikter, 1895; and Nya Dikter, 1915—all published by Albert Bonnier, Stockholm. The translations are published with the personal approval and consent of Herr von Heidenstam.
The translator hereby extends his thanks to the proprietors of the following publications for their courteous permission to reproduce such poems or critical material as first appeared in their pages: Harper's Monthly Magazine, The Independent, New York Nation, Bookman, Stratford Journal, Poetry Journal, Pagan, Contemporary Verse, and Youth.
More particular thanks is due to the American-Scandinavian Foundation for the use of poems which appeared in my Anthology of Swedish Lyrics and in the American-Scandinavian Review. To the Foundation I am also indebted for a plebiscite conducted through the Stockholm Dagblad, to which several hundred readers sent the titles of their favorite poems. From this contest Heidenstam emerged in a tie for second place with Axel Erik Karlfeldt, another living poet. First place fell to Gustaf Fröding, of whose selected poems I have already brought out a volume. As, however, Fröding's charm lies so peculiarly in the verbal magic of the Swedish, I
