Fritiofs Saga
Tegner, Esaias, 1782-1846
English
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FRITIOFS SAGA
BY
ESAIAS TEGNÉR
Introduction, Bibliography, Notes, and Vocabulary _Edited by_
ANDREW A. STOMBERG
PREFACE.
Ever since the establishment, many years ago, of courses in Swedish in a
few American colleges and universities the need of Swedish texts,
supplied with vocabularies and explanatory notes after the model of the
numerous excellent German and French editions, has been keenly felt.
This need has become particularly pressing the last three years during
which Swedish has been added to the curricula of a large number of high
schools. The teachers in Swedish in these high schools as well as in
colleges and universities have been greatly handicapped in their work by
the lack of properly edited texts. It is clearly essential to the success
of their endeavor to create an interest in the Swedish language and its
literature, at the same time maintaining standards of scholarship that
are on a level with those maintained by other modern foreign language
departments, that a plentiful and varied supply of text material be
furnished. The present edition of Tegnér's Fritiofs Saga aims to be a
modest contribution to the series of Swedish texts that in the most
recent years have been published in response to this urgent demand.
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
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
throughout.
University of Minnesota, December, 1913.
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