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TITLE: FRIDTHJOF'D SAGA
AUTHOR: ESAIAS TEGNE'R
EBOOK: E02044 (O'Briens Book Cellar)

FRIDTHJOF'S SAGA

By Esaias Tegne'r

NOTE BY THE TRANSLATORS
 
Tegne'r's poem, "Fridthjof's Saga," has been printed in Sweden in many large
editions and in almost every possible style. It has been illustrated, and it
has been set to music. It has been translated into nearly all the modern
European languages. Moreover it has been rendered into English by eighteen
different translators, and has been twice reprinted in America. Bayard Taylor
edited an American edition of a translation by Rev. William L. Blackley of
Dublin, and published it about ten years ago. Professor R. B. Anderson has
just published in his "Viking Tales," a translation made by Professor George
Stephens of Copenhagen, and which received the sanction of Bishop Tegne'r
himself.

And yet we venture to add another, and present here the _first_complete_
American translation. Mr. Taylor said in his preface to Blackley's version
that there had never been an English Fridthjof's Saga which was satisfactory
to Swedes. This is probably owing to the fact that the Swedes have become so
familiar with its original measures and so accustomed to its peculiar rhythm,
that they cannot willingly dispense with any part of the form which Tegne'r
gave it. Several of the metres employed by him were unknown to Swedish readers
until they appeared in this poem. Tegne'r's experiment of introducing them was
a successful one; and they are now, in the minds of Swedes, as much a part of
the work as the story itself. The feminine rhymes, occurring in fifteen of the
twenty-four cantos, are so melodious that no one who had heard the original,
even if he did not understand a word of it, could be quite satisfied with a
version which does not reproduce them. The feminine rhymes and the
alliteration of Canto XXI have presented obstacles which no single translation
has hitherto overcome.

The original measures the feminine rhymes and the alliteration of "Ring's
Drapa,"  are, in our estimation, essential features of a good rendering of the
poem, and if we have done our work well we do not fear that any one will think
there are too many translations.

For a fuller history of "Fridthjof 's Saga" than can be given in this note, we
refer the reader to Anderson's "Viking Tales," where the sagas on which this
story is founded appear in full.

The preparation of this translation has been a home work which has brightened
for us the firelight of many a pleasant evening. We publish it in full faith
that it will have a like happy effect in whatever home it may be read.

   October, 1876.
 
CONTENTS.

Canto I. Fridthjof and Ingeborg
         -

Canto II. King Bele and Thorstein

Canto III. Fridthjof's Inheritance

Canto IV. Fridthjof's Courtship

Canto V. King Ring

Canto VI. Fridthjof Plays Chess

Canto VII. Fridthjof's Happiness

Canto VIII. The Parting

Canto IX. Ingeborg's Lament

Canto X. Fridthjof at Sea

Canto XI. Fridthjof with Angantyr

Canto XII. The Return

Canto XIII. Balder's Funeral Pile

Canto XIV. Fridthjof Goes Into Exile

Canto XV. The Viking Code

Canto XVI. Fridthjof and Bjorn

Canto XVII. Fridthjof Comes to King Ring

Canto XVIII. The Ride on the Ice

Canto XIX. Fridthjof's Temptation

Canto XX. King Ring's Death

Canto XXI. Ring's Drapa

Canto XXII. The King's Election

Canto XXIII. Fridthjof at his Father's Grave

Canto XXIV. The Reconciliation

Glossary

CHARACTERS

Bele. (Pronounced Bay'-lay.) King of Sogn, in Norway.

Helge (Hel'-gay)  and Halfdan. His sons.

Ingeborg. (Ing'-e-borg.) His daughter.

Thorstein. (Tor'-stine.) A peasant, -friend and companion-in-arms of King
Bele.

Fridthjof. (Freet'-yof.) Son of Thorstein.

Hilding. Foster-father and teacher of Fridthjof and Ingeborg.

Bjorn. (B'yorn.) A sworn foster-brother of Fridthjof.

Ring. King of Ringric, in Norway.

Angantyr. (Ang'-an-teer.) Ruler of the Orkney Islands.

Atle. (At'-lay.) A berserk, and one orf Angantyr's warriors.

SCENE--Northern Norway and the Orkney Islands.

FRIDTHJOF'S SAGA.

Fridthjof and Ingeborg.

In Hilding's garden, green and fair,
Protected by his fostering care,
Two rare and stately plants were growing,
Unequaled grace and beauty showing.

The one a sturdy oak tree grew,
With lance-like stem so straight and true,
Its crown in northern tempests shaking
Like helmet plume in battle quaking.

The other like a rose sprang forth
When tardy winter leaves the north,
And spring, which in the buds lies dreaming,
Still waits with gems to set them gleaming.

Around the earth the storm-king raves,
The wrestling oak its anger braves;
The sun dissolves frost's mantle hoary,
The buds reveal their hidden glory.

So they grew up in joy and glee,
And Fridthjof was the young oak tree;
Unfolding in the vale serenely,
The rose was Ingeborg the queenly.

Saw you those two by light of day
You seem in Freyja's house to stay,
Where bride-pairs, golden-haired, were swinging,
Their way on rosy pinions winging.

But seeing them by moonlight pale
Round dancing in the leafy vale,
You'd think: The elf-king now advances,
And leads his queen in fairy dances.

How joyful 'twas, how lovely too,
When firs[ he learned his futhorc through;
No kings had e'er such honor brought them
As when to Ingeborg he taught them.  

How joyously his boat would glide
With those two o'er the dark blue tide:
While he the driving sail was veering,
Her small white hands gave hearty cheering.

No bird's nest found so high a spot,
That he for her could find it not;
The eagle's nest from clouds he sundered,
And eggs and young he deftly plundered.

However swift, there ran no brook,
But o'er it Ingeborg he took;
How sweet when roaring torrents frighten,
To feel her soft arms round him tighten.

The first; spring flowers by sunshine fed,
The earliest berries turning red,
The first of autumn's golden treasure,
He proffered her with eager pleasure.

********************

But quickly sped are childhood's days,--
There stands a youth whose ardent gaze
With pleading and with hope is laden,
And there, with budding charms, a maiden.


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