Sweden has since the days of Tegnér been prolific in the creation of
virile and wholesome literary masterpieces, but Fritiofs Saga by Tegnér
is still quite generally accorded the foremost place among the literary
products of the nation. Tegnér is still hailed as the prince of Swedish
song by an admiring people and Fritiofs Saga remains, in popular
estimation at least, the grand national epic.

Fritiofs Saga has appeared in a larger number of editions than any other
Scandinavian work with the possible exception of Hans Christian
Andersen's Fairy Tales. It has been translated into fourteen European
languages, and the different English translations alone number
approximately twenty. In German the number is almost as high. Several
school editions having explanatory notes have appeared in Swedish and in
1909 Dr. George T. Flom, Professor of Scandinavian Languages and
Literature of the University of Illinois edited a text with introduction,
bibliography and explanatory notes in English, designed for use in
American colleges and universities, but the present edition is the first
one, as far as the editor is aware, to appear with an English vocabulary.

Fritiofs Saga abounds in mythological names and terms, as well as in
idiomatic expressions, and the preparation of the explanatory notes has
therefore been a perplexing task. A fairly complete statement under each
mythological reference would in the aggregate reach the proportions of a
treatise on Norse mythology, but the limitations of space made such
elaboration impossible. While brevity of expression has thus been the
hard rule imposed by the necessity of keeping within bounds, it is hoped
that the notes may nevertheless be found reasonably adequate in
explaining the text. Many mythological names occur frequently and in
different parts of the text, and as constant cross references in the