Page:The Story of Egil Skallagrimsson.djvu/13

The preface to Thordarson's edition says:

'The Saga agrees well with other Icelandic Sagas, and may be reckoned as one of the most truthful; but when it is considered that it was kept in men's memory for a very long time—the events happening before the year 1000, and the story not being put into writing till near the end of the twelfth century—naturally every syllable of it will not be true. Neither in this, however, nor in any of the best Icelandic Sagas do the writers thereof deliberately assert untruth or mean to exaggerate.'

To the authority and judgment of these scholars an Englishman can add little. Only, as regards historical events foreign to Iceland and Norway, it may be remarked that no one could reasonably expect Icelanders of the eleventh and twelfth centuries to be infallible about them. In the Egilssaga what is said about foreign countries appears generally like truth. What we read about England, e.g., and what passed there at the beginning of Athelstan's reign, agrees fairly with what we know of that time from history; some facts are undoubtedly true, none palpably untrue, though there are details which present some difficulty. But these will be better discussed in a note on that part of the Saga.

The date of the writing of Egilssaga is put between 1160 and 1200; probably near to the latter date. In chapter xc. we read of the taking up of Egil's supposed bones in the time of Skapti the priest. He is known to have been priest from 1143 onwards. Thordarson's preface suggests as a possible author Einar Skulason. He was a descendant of Egil, being grandson of the grandson of Thorstein Egilsson; he travelled much, knew well both Norway and Iceland, and was a good skald; he lived till late in the twelfth century. But that he was the author is but a guess.

Of the Egilssaga there are several editions. For this translation the following have been used: The large edition, with a Latin translation (Havniæ, MDCCCIX); Einar Thordarson's (Reykjavík, 1856); Finnur Jónsson's (Copenhagen, 1888). Also Petersen's Swedish translation (1862). The text of Thordarson's little book has been followed in the main; Jónsson's differs from it in many places, being