THE HEIMSKRINGLA. 
53 
and ritual reduced to a system, by Icelandic archaeolo¬ 
gists ; and the first historical composition ever written 
by any European in the vernacular, was the product 
of Icelandic genius. The title of this important work 
is “ The Heimskringla ,” or world-circle ,* and its 
author was—Snorro Sturleson! It consists of an 
account of the reigns of the Norwegian kings from 
mythic times down to about A. D. 1150, that is to 
say, a few years before the death of our own 
Henry II.; but detailed by the old Sagaman with 
so much art and cleverness as almost to combine the 
dramatic power of Macaulay with Clarendon’s delicate 
delineation of character, and the charming loquacity 
of Mr. Pepys. His stirring sea-fights, his tender love- 
stories, and delightful bits of domestic gossip, are really 
inimitable;—you actually live with the people he brings 
upon the stage, as intimately as you do with FalstafF, 
Percy, or Prince Hal; and there is something in the 
bearing of those old heroic figures who form his 
dramatis persona, so grand and noble, that it is im¬ 
possible to read the story of their earnest stirring lives 
* So called because Heimskringla (world-circle) is the first word 
in the opening sentence of the manuscript which catches the eye. 
