Preface vii 



the flies, wherewith the sportsman provides himself — 

 that his imagination ' rose ' at once to words and 

 phrases such as 'Edda,' ' Saga/ ' Old Norse Poetry,' ' Old 

 Norse Heathenism,' ' Odin,' ' Thor,' ' Viking,' and so 

 forth. But that these words and phrases connoted only 

 the vaguest ideas to him ; so vague were they, indeed, 

 that he could hardly have given them any sort of defini- 

 tion. To make these words and the vistas of ideas 

 which they open out to us somewhat more real and 

 definite is one of the chief aims of this book. Then to 

 give such links as are necessary to connect the ancient 

 heroic past of Norway and of Scandinavia generally 

 with modern times. Finally, to say something about 

 Norway as it is, enough to make the traveller realize — 

 as he sometimes fails to do — that it is not a mere 

 assemblage of hotel-keepers and shyds-guts ; and there- 

 with to say something about the literature of Norway, 

 which is beginning to occupy such an important place 

 in the literature of Europe. 



The writer has designedly selected the ' plums ' from 

 all this class of information — always, I mean, within 

 the limitations imposed by his own ignorance. But he 

 has added enough of drier detail to prevent the interest- 

 ing parts (of the history for example) from standing 

 out as mere isolated fragments. To carry on the 



