Dark Ages; and their pictures of knightly courage and generosity,
faithfulness, and loyalty, appeal to our nobler feelings and stir our
hearts with admiration.

To know something of these three great cycles, or groups, of classic
and romantic stories--the hero tales of Troy, those of the ancient
North, and those of Charlemagne--is essential to the acquirement of
refined literary tastes. For this knowledge will go far toward helping
its possessor to enjoy many things in our modern literature that would
otherwise be puzzling or obscure. The importance, therefore, of
placing some of the best of such tales early within the reach of school
children and all young readers cannot be disputed.

In three volumes somewhat larger than the present one--"A Story of the
Golden Age," "The Story of Siegfried," and "The Story of Roland"--I
have already endeavored to introduce young readers to the most
interesting portions of these great cycles of romance, narrating in
each the adventures of the hero who is the central figure in the group
of legends or tales under consideration. The present volume, made up
of selections from these earlier books, has been prepared in response
to repeated suggestions that certain portions of them, and especially
some of the independent shorter stories, are well adapted to use in
reading-classes at school. Of the seventeen stories herein presented,
nine are from the "Golden Age," four from "Siegfried," and four from
"Roland." They are, for the most part, episodes, complete in
themselves, and connected only by a slender thread with the main
narrative. Their intrinsic value is in no way diminished by being thus
separated from their former setting, and each tale being independent of
the others, they lend themselves more readily to the demands of the
schoolroom.