authorities, doing our utmost to make our rendering close and
accurate, and, if it might be so, at the same time, not over
prosaic: it is to the lover of poetry and nature, rather than to
the student, that we appeal to enjoy and wonder at this great
work, now for the first time, strange to say, translated into
English: this must be our excuse for speaking here, as briefly as
may be, of things that will seem to the student over well known
to be worth mentioning, but which may give some ease to the
general reader who comes across our book.

The prose of the "Volsunga Saga" was composed probably some time
in the twelfth century, from floating traditions no doubt; from
songs which, now lost, were then known, at least in fragments, to
the Sagaman; and finally from songs, which, written down about
his time, are still existing: the greater part of these last the
reader will find in this book, some inserted amongst the prose
text by the original story-teller, and some by the present
translators, and the remainder in the latter part of the book,
put together as nearly as may be in the order of the story, and
forming a metrical version of the greater portion of it.

These Songs from the Elder Edda we will now briefly compare with
the prose of the Volsung Story, premising that these are the only
metrical sources existing of those from which the Sagaman told
his tale.

Except for the short snatch on p. 24 (1) of our translation,
nothing is now left of these till we come to the episode of Helgi
Hundings-bane, Sigurd's half-brother; there are two songs left
relating to this, from which the prose is put together; to a