The Story of Rolf and the Viking's Bow

by Allen French

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  Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been correctedwithout note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text havebeen retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted withunderscores: _italics_.

  "It was Rolf in his weapons"]

  THE STORY OF ROLF

  AND THE VIKING'S BOW

  BY

  ALLEN FRENCH

  AUTHOR OF "THE JUNIOR CUP," "SIR MARROK," ETC.

  ILLUSTRATED BY

  BERNARD J. ROSENMEYER

  BOSTONLITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY1918

  _Copyright, 1904_,BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

  _All rights reserved_

  THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

  TO MY BROTHER

  HOLLIS FRENCH

  PREFACE

  From thirty to sixty years ago appeared the greater number of theEnglish translations of the Icelandic sagas. Since then the reading ofthese heroic tales has so completely gone out of style that theirnames are rarely mentioned in schools or even colleges. What boy feelshis blood stir at the mention of Grettir? How many lovers of goodreading know that the most human of all epics lie untouched on theshelves of the public libraries? The wisdom of Njal, the chivalry ofGunnar, the villainy of Mord, the manhood of Kari, the savagery ofViga-Glum, the craft of Snorri, and the fine qualities of Biarni, ofBiorn, of Skarphedinn, of Illugi, of Kolskegg, of Hrut, ofBlundketil--all these are forgotten in the curious turn of taste whichhas made the stories of a wonderful people almost a lost literature.

  For the Icelanders were a wonderful people. To escape the tyranny ofkings they settled a new land, and there built up the laws and customsin which we see the promise of modern civilization. Few early peopleshad such a body of laws; few developed such manhood. No betterpictures of a law-abiding, rural, and yet valiant race have ever beenmade than in the tales which the Icelanders had the skill to weaveabout their heroes, those men who, at home in their island, or so farabroad as Constantinople, made the name of Icelander respected.

  We read of these men and this people in stories which, somewhat too"old" for boys and girls, reveal the laws, customs, habits of athousand years ago. The Njal's Saga, the Grettir's Saga, theEre-Dwellers' Saga, and the Gisli's Saga are perhaps the greatest ofthose which have been translated. They are reinforced by such shorterpieces as Hen Thorir's Saga, and the Stories of the Banded Men, theHeath-Slayings, Hraffnkell Frey's Priest, and Howard the Halt. Thespirit of those days is particularly well given in that wonderfulfragment of Thorstein Staffsmitten which (not being part of anycomplete saga) has been drawn upon for the closing incidents of thepresent story. Many other such incidents are preserved, a reference toone of which (in a footnote to--I think--the Ere-Dwellers' Saga) gavethe suggestion for the main plot of this book. At the same time, incontemporary writings, we may read of the life of other divisions ofthe Scandinavian race; the story nearest to this book is theOrkneyingers' Saga.

  The main interest of all these tales is the same: they tell of realmen and women in real circumstances, and show them human in spite ofthe legends which have grown about them. The sagas reveal thecharacteristics of our branch of the Aryan race, especially thepersonal courage which is so superior to that of the Greek and Latinraces, and which makes the Teutonic epics (whether the NiebelungenLied, the Morte Darthur, or the Njala) much more inspiring than theIliad, the Odyssey, or the Aeneid.

  The prominence of law in almost every one of the Icelandic sagas hasbeen preserved in the following story; and the conditions of life,whether at home or abroad, have been described as closely as waspossible within the limits of the simple narrative form which thesagas customarily employed.

  ALLEN FRENCH.

  CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS, _May, 1904_.