{"product_id":"2940013332522","title":"THE STORY OF BURNT NJAL","description":"SIR GEORGE DASENT'S PREFACE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e(ABRIDGED.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat is a Saga? A Saga is a story, or telling in prose,\u003cbr\u003esometimes mixed with verse. There are many kinds of Sagas, of all\u003cbr\u003edegrees of truth. There are the mythical Sagas, in which the wondrous\u003cbr\u003edeeds of heroes of old time, half gods and half men, as Sigurd and\u003cbr\u003eRagnar, are told as they were handed down from father to son in the\u003cbr\u003etraditions of the Northern race. Then there are Sagas recounting the\u003cbr\u003ehistory of the kings of Norway and other countries, of the great line of\u003cbr\u003eOrkney Jarls, and of the chiefs who ruled in Faroe. These are all more\u003cbr\u003eor less trustworthy, and, in general, far worthier of belief than much\u003cbr\u003ethat passes for the early history of other races. Again, there are Sagas\u003cbr\u003erelating to Iceland, narrating the lives, and feuds, and ends of mighty\u003cbr\u003echiefs, the heads of the great families which dwelt in this or that\u003cbr\u003edistrict of the island. These were told by men who lived on the very\u003cbr\u003espot, and told with a minuteness and exactness, as to time and place,\u003cbr\u003ethat will bear the strictest examination. Such a Saga is that of Njal,\u003cbr\u003ewhich we now lay before our readers in an English garb. Of all the Sagas\u003cbr\u003erelating to Iceland, this tragic story bears away the palm for\u003cbr\u003etruthfulness and beauty. To use the words of one well qualified to\u003cbr\u003ejudge, it is, as compared with all similar compositions, as gold to\u003cbr\u003ebrass.[1] Like all the Sagas which relate to the same period of\u003cbr\u003eIcelandic story, Njala[2] was not written down till about 100 years\u003cbr\u003eafter the events which are described in it had happened. In the\u003cbr\u003emeantime, it was handed down by word of mouth, told from Althing to\u003cbr\u003eAlthing, at Spring Thing, and Autumn Leet, at all great gatherings of\u003cbr\u003ethe people, and over many a fireside, on sea strand or river bank, or up\u003cbr\u003eamong the dales and hills, by men who had learnt the sad story of Njal's\u003cbr\u003efate, and who could tell of Gunnar's peerlessness and Hallgerda's\u003cbr\u003einfamy, of Bergthora's helpfulness, of Skarphedinn's hastiness, of\u003cbr\u003eFlosi's foul deed, and Kurt's stern revenge. We may be sure that as soon\u003cbr\u003eas each event recorded in the Saga occurred, it was told and talked\u003cbr\u003eabout as matter of history, and when at last the whole story was\u003cbr\u003eunfolded and took shape, and centred round Njal, that it was handed down\u003cbr\u003efrom father to son, as truthfully and faithfully as could ever be the\u003cbr\u003ecase with any public or notorious matter in local history. But it is not\u003cbr\u003eon Njala alone that we have to rely for our evidence of its genuineness.\u003cbr\u003eThere are many other Sagas relating to the same period, and handed down\u003cbr\u003ein like manner, in which the actors in our Saga are incidentally\u003cbr\u003ementioned by name, and in which the deeds recorded of them are\u003cbr\u003ecorroborated. They are mentioned also in songs and Annals, the latter\u003cbr\u003ebeing the earliest written records which belong to the history of the\u003cbr\u003eisland, while the former were more easily remembered, from the\u003cbr\u003econstruction of the verse. Much passes for history in other lands on far\u003cbr\u003eslighter grounds, and many a story in Thucydides or Tacitus, or even in\u003cbr\u003eClarendon or Hume, is believed on evidence not one-tenth part so\u003cbr\u003etrustworthy as that which supports the narratives of these Icelandic\u003cbr\u003estory-tellers of the eleventh century. That with occurrences of\u003cbr\u003eundoubted truth, and minute particularity as to time and place, as to\u003cbr\u003edates and distance, are intermingled wild superstitions on several\u003cbr\u003eoccasions, will startle no reader of the smallest judgment. All ages,\u003cbr\u003eour own not excepted, have their superstitions, and to suppose that a\u003cbr\u003estory told in the eleventh century,--when phantoms, and ghosts, and\u003cbr\u003ewraiths, were implicitly believed in, and when dreams, and warnings, and\u003cbr\u003etokens, were part of every man's creed--should be wanting in these marks\u003cbr\u003eof genuineness, is simply to require that one great proof of its\u003cbr\u003etruthfulness should be wanting, and that, in order to suit the spirit of\u003cbr\u003eour age, it should lack something which was part and parcel of popular\u003cbr\u003ebelief in the age to which it belonged. To a thoughtful mind, therefore,\u003cbr\u003esuch stories as that of Swan's witchcraft, Gunnar's song in his cairn,\u003cbr\u003ethe Wolf's ride before the Burning, Flosi's dream, the signs and tokens\u003cbr\u003ebefore Brian's battle, and even Njal's weird foresight, on which the\u003cbr\u003ewhole story hangs, will be regarded as proofs rather for than against\u003cbr\u003eits genuineness.[3]","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079375372528,"sku":"2940013332522","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013332522_p0.jpg?v=1763579455","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013332522","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}