Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/11



a Series like the present, intended chiefly for the purposes of recreation, and including a considerable number of translations from foreign writers, we should hardly have been pardoned for passing over the Popular Tales of Musaeus, which have so long been established favourites in their own country. The present Volume contains such a selection from the whole Series as seemed best fitted for the general English reader; and,—in order to adapt the Stories as much as possible to popular use,—in several places, where the original was thought somewhat prolix, the Editor has not scrupled to use his judgment in condensing them. In particular, the first Legend of Rübezahl will be found to be rather a summary of the Story than a translation; the object of inserting it in this collection, indeed, being chiefly to serve as an introduction to the two Tales which follow.

Musaeus must not be looked upon as much more than an amusing writer; nor, indeed, does he profess to write with any high moral purpose; still, to those who are disposed to find it, a moral may, without much difficulty, be deduced from many of his Tales. We may observe, for instance, the hardening effects of vanity and pride in the case of the wicked Richilda; and, again, in the story of the “Nymph