notes would likely be found monotonous, an effort has been made to
facilitate the matter of consulting and reviewing explanatory statements
for these terms by adding an index table.

It has not been thought necessary or desirable to translate many
idiomatic expressions in the text, as the vocabulary ought to enable the
student, without the assistance of a lavish supply of notes, to get at
the meaning. It would seem that the study of a foreign text would be most
stimulating and invigorating to a student, if he himself be given a
chance to wrestle with difficult sentences.

The introduction that precedes the text makes no pretension of being
anything more than an attempt to state in broad outline the salient facts
in the life of Tegnér and in the genesis and development of the Fritiofs
Saga theme.

The text in the present edition has been modernized to conform with the
orthography officially adopted in Sweden in 1906.

This new edition of the great masterpiece is accompanied by the editor's
sincere hope that it may in a measure at least serve to create an
increased interest in the study of the sonorous Swedish language and its
rich literature and give a clearer conception of the seriousness and
strength of Swedish character.

The book owes much to the kindly suggestions and corrections of those
who have examined it in proof or manuscript. Special acknowledgment is
due Professor A. Louis Elmquist of Northwestern University, who carefully
revised the vocabulary, and to Mr. E. W. Olson of Rock Island, Ill.,
whose accuracy and scholarship has been of invaluable assistance