PREFACE


It was at the suggestion of Professor John M. Manly that I took up the
study which has resulted in the following dissertation, and from him I
have received much encouragement and valuable assistance on numerous
occasions. I have profited by suggestions received from Professor Tom
Peete Cross and Professor James R. Hulbert; and Professor Chester N.
Gould has been unstinting in his kindness in permitting me to draw on
his knowledge of the Old Norse language and literature. In addition to
the aid received from these gentlemen, professors in the University of
Chicago, I have received bibliographical information and helpful
suggestions from Professor Frederick Klaeber, of the University of
Minnesota; I have been aided in various ways by Professor George T.
Flom, of the University of Illinois, particularly in preparing the
manuscript for the press; and from others I have had assistance in
reading proof. To all these gentlemen I am very grateful, and I take
this opportunity to extend to them my sincere thanks.



INTRODUCTORY.


The following pages are the result of an investigation that has grown
out of a study of _Beowulf_. The investigation has been prosecuted
mainly with a view to ascertaining as definitely as possible the
relationship between the Anglo-Saxon poem and the _Hrólfs Saga Kraka_,