Page:An Icelandic-English Dictionary - Cleasby & Vigfusson - 1874.djvu/15

Rh purpose of securing the services of an Icelandic scholar in completing the work. This was also agreed to; and Mr. Dasent, in the course of the same year, secured the services of Mr. Gudbrand Vigfusson, a born Icelander, already well known for his learning, and for his labours in the field of his native literature.

Mr. Vigfusson’s report of the papers handed over by Mr. Cleasby’s heirs shews that they contained copious materials for a Dictionary, but required much labour and research to work them into a form fit for publication. Mr. Cleasby’s were the first large and comprehensive collections ever made, and are particularly valuable in that they were all taken from the documents themselves. The words of varied construction, such as the chief Verbs and Prepositions, are very rich, and taken from the best writers. But the words relating to Antiquities are left in a meagre condition; and there are many omissions of a kind which shew that Mr. Cleasby kept much of the matter in his head, and intended carefully to revise the whole. He intended no doubt to have worked out every word with the same conscientious accuracy which is shewn in the completed articles,—a task which would have occupied years of labour; and had life been granted him, it is certain he would have fulfilled this self-imposed task well and thoroughly. These circumstances have rendered the business of completing the book very arduous, and must account in a great measure for the delay which has occurred in the publication of even a part of the work.

Unfortunately also, Mr. Dasent’s incessant and various occupations have prevented him from carrying his promised supervision beyond the first two sheets. The task of revising the English part of the work has fallen into hands far less competent, not only in respect to knowledge of the Scandinavian language and literature, but also in respect to acquaintance with those archaic and provincial dialects of the British Isles, which have special affinities to the Scandinavian tongue.

The Delegates however have reason to hope that a fuller account of Mr. Cleasby’s life and labours, as well as a general introduction to the whole work, will be written by Mr. Dasent and prefixed to the Dictionary when it is completed.

Mr. Vigfusson takes this opportunity of acknowledging the help and advice he has received from the officials at the British Museum and the Bodleian Library, and particularly to express his many obligations to the Rev. H. O. Coxe, librarian of the Bodleian. He also desires to render his personal thanks to the following Icelandic scholars,—Mr. Dasent, Dr. John Carlyle, Prof Konrad Maurer of Munich, Prof. C. R. Unger of Christiania, and last, not least, to his friend and countryman Mr. Jón Sigurdsson of Copenhagen. H. G. L. b 2