FOREWORD ix 



were active, the arts flourished, and the North 

 added her contribution to the treasures of Euro- 

 pean culture. 



The poems and tales of those virile days, the 

 eddas and sagas, are too familiar to need more 

 than a mention in this connection. But the fact 

 is not so commonly known that the medieval 

 Northmen were thinkers and students as well as 

 poets and romancers. They, too, were interested in 

 the mysteries of the universe, in the problems of 

 science, and in the intricate questions of social re- 

 lationships. In their thinking on these matters 



d more int.plWtiifl.1 



less slavisJLregard for venerable authority thap was 

 usually the case among medieval writers. And of 

 all the men who in that agf of faif K tnVH to analyse 

 and set in order their ideas of the world in which 

 they moved* perhaps none drew more largely on his 

 own spiritual J^sourcfis than the unknown author 

 of the King's Mirror. 



Unlike the sagas and related writings, the pur- 

 pose of the King's Mirror jg utilitarian and didactic. 

 The author has before him a group of serious and 

 important problems, which he proceeds to discuss 

 for the instruction of his readers. Consequently, 

 certain qualities of style that are often associated 

 with Old Norse literature are not apparent in his 

 work to any marked degree. In his effort to make 

 his language clear, definite, and intelligible, the 



