Alfaleith.org - The Prose Edda

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 [xxii] not assume full responsibility for the faults of the translation. Whatever these may be, I trust that the book may perform some service in bringing before the English-reading public a greater portion of Snorri's classic treatise than has previously been accessible. The reader will perceive the value of the Edda if he will compare it, for legendary and antiquarian interest, with the Mabinogion, and will also realize that the Edda is a masterpiece of style, —style that no translator can ever reproduce.

- G. B.

Cambridge, Massachusetts
July 1,1916

<< Previous Page | Back | Next Page >>