that he survives to this day in the national songs of the Faroe
Islands and in the folk-ballads of Denmark; that his legend
should have been mingled with northern history through Ragnar
Lodbrog, or southern through Attila and Theodoric; that it should
have inspired William Morris in producing the one great English
epic of the century; (13) and Richard Wagner in the mightiest
among his music-dramas. Of the story as told in the saga there
is no need here to speak, for to read it, as may be done a few
pages farther on, is that not better than to read about it? But
it may be urged upon those that are pleased and moved by the
passion and power, the strength and deep truth of it, to find out
more than they now know of the folk among whom it grew, and the
land in which they dwelt. In so doing they will come to see how
needful are a few lessons from the healthy life and speech of
those days, to be applied in the bettering of our own.

H. HALLIDAY SPARLiNG.


ENDNOTES:
(1) Viking (Ice. "Vikingr"; "vik", a bay or creek, "ingr",
beloning to, (or men of) freebooters.
(2) "West over the Sea" is the word for the British Isles.
(3) See Todd (J. H.). "War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill".
(4) He was son of Ingiald, son of Thora, daughter of Sigurd
Snake-I'-th'-eye, son of Ragnar Lodbrok by Aslaug, daughter
of Sigurd by Brynhild. The genealogy is, doubtless, quite
mythical.
(5) A Collection of Sagas and other Historical Documents
relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen on