Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/215

 into Danish of parts of the Heimskringla was published in Denmark by Mortenssen. In 1599 a priest, Peter Claussen,—himself as wild a man-slaying priest as the priest Thangbrand, or any other of the rough energetic personages in the work of Snorro,—translated the Heimskringla for the benefit of his countrymen in Norway, the language of Snorro having become obsolete, or at least obscure, even to the Norwegian peasantry. His translation was published in 1633 by Olaus Wormius, and it became a house-book among the Norwegian bonders. At the present day, in the dwellings of the remote valleys, especially of the Drontheim district,—such as Stordal, Værdal, Indal,—a well-used copy of some saga, generally that of King Olaf the Saint, reprinted from Peter Claussen's work, will be found along with the Bible, Prayer Book, Christian the Fourth's Law Book, and the Storthing's Transactions, to be the house-father's library. During a winter passed in one of those valleys, the translator, in the course of acquiring the language of the country, borrowed one of those books from his neighbour Arne of Ostgrunden, a bonder or peasant-proprietor of a farm so called. It was the saga of King Olaf the Saint. Beading it in the midst of the historical localities, and of the very houses and descendants of the very men presented to you in the stirring scenes of this saga at the battle of Stiklestad, he may very probably have imbibed an interest which he cannot impart to readers unacquainted