Not before
1770, when Bishop Percy translated Mallet's "Northern
Antiquities", was anything known here of Icelandic, or its
literature. Only within the latter part of this century has it
been studied, and in the brief book-list at the end of this
volume may be seen the little that has been done as yet. It is,
however, becoming ever clearer, and to an increasing number, how
supremely important is Icelandic as a word-hoard to the English-
speaking peoples, and that in its legend, song, and story there
is a very mine of noble and pleasant beauty and high manhood.
That which has been done, one may hope, is but the beginning of a
great new birth, that shall give back to our language and
literature all that heedlessness and ignorance bid fair for
awhile to destroy.
The Scando-Gothic peoples who poured southward and westward over
Europe, to shake empires and found kingdoms, to meet Greek and
Roman in conflict, and levy tribute everywhere, had kept up their
constantly-recruited waves of incursion, until they had raised a
barrier of their own blood.
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