(12) Snake-tongue -- so called from his biting satire.
(13) "Sigurd the Volsung", which seems to have become all but
forgotten in this century. -- DBK.
TRANSLATORS' PREFACE.
In offering to the reader this translation of the most complete
and dramatic form of the great Epic of the North, we lay no claim
to special critical insight, nor do we care to deal at all with
vexed questions, but are content to abide by existing
authorities, doing our utmost to make our rendering close and
accurate, and, if it might be so, at the same time, not over
prosaic: it is to the lover of poetry and nature, rather than to
the student, that we appeal to enjoy and wonder at this great
work, now for the first time, strange to say, translated into
English: this must be our excuse for speaking here, as briefly as
may be, of things that will seem to the student over well known
to be worth mentioning, but which may give some ease to the
general reader who comes across our book.
The prose of the "Volsunga Saga" was composed probably some time
in the twelfth century, from floating traditions no doubt; from
songs which, now lost, were then known, at least in fragments, to
the Sagaman; and finally from songs, which, written down about
his time, are still existing: the greater part of these last the
reader will find in this book, some inserted amongst the prose
text by the original story-teller, and some by the present
translators, and the remainder in the latter part of the book,
put together as nearly as may be in the order of the story, and
forming a metrical version of the greater portion of it.
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