For the original tale we think little apology is due; that it holds
a very high place among the Sagas of Iceland no student of that
literature will deny; of these we think it yields only to the story
of Njal and his sons, a work in our estimation to be placed beside
the few great works of the world. Our Saga is fuller and more complete
than the tale of the other great outlaw Gisli; less frightful than
the wonderfully characteristic and strange history of Egil, the son
of Skallagrim; as personal and dramatic as that of Gunnlaug the
Worm-tongue, if it lack the rare sentiment of that beautiful story;
with more detail and consistency, if with less variety, than the
history of Gudrun and her lovers in the Laxdaela; and more a work of
art than that, or than the unstrung gems of Eyrbyggja, and the great
compilation of Snorri Sturluson, the History of the Kings of Norway.

At any rate, we repeat, whatever place among the best Sagas may be
given to Grettla[2] by readers of such things, it must of necessity
be held to be one of the best in all ways; nor will those, we hope,
of our readers who have not yet turned their attention to the works
written in the Icelandic tongue, fail to be moved more or less by the
dramatic power and eager interest in human character, shown by our
story-teller; we say, we hope, but we are sure that no one of insight
will disappoint us in this, when he has once accustomed himself to
the unusual, and, if he pleases, barbarous atmosphere of these ancient
stories.

[Footnote 2: Such is the conversational title of this Saga; many of
the other Sagas have their longer title abbreviated in a like manner:
Egil's saga becomes Egla, Njal's saga Njála; Eyrbyggja saga, Laxdaela
saga, Vatnsdaeela saga, Reykdaela saga, Svarfdaela saga, become
Eyrbyggja, Laxdaela, Vatnsdaela, Reykdaela, Svarfdaela (gen. plur.