Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/15

 THE

OR,

CHRONICLE OE THE KINGS OF NORWAY,

PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE LITERATURE AND INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF THE NORTHMEN.

Heimskringla is a work known to few English readers. Heimskringla—the world's circle—being the first prominent word of the manuscript that catches the eye, has been quaintly used by the northern antiquaries to designate the work itself. One may well imagine that the librarian, or the scholar, in the midst of the rolls and masses of parchments of the great public and private libraries of Copenhagen and Stockholm, has found his advantage in this simple way of directing an unlettered assistant to the skin he wishes to unfold. It is likely that the illuminated initial letters of ancient manuscripts, and of the early printed books, may have had their origin in a similar use or convenience in the monastic libraries of the middle ages. Snorro himself is guiltless of this pedantic conceit; for he calls his work the Saga or Story of the Kings of Norway. It is in reality a chronicle, or rather a connected series of memoirs, of kings and