Fritofs Saga | Page 2

a foreign text would be most
stimulating and invigorating to a student, if he himself be given a
chance to wrestle with difficult sentences.
The introduction that precedes the text makes no pretension of being
anything more than an attempt to state in broad outline the salient facts
in the life of Tegnér and in the genesis and development of the Fritiofs
Saga theme.
The text in the present edition has been modernized to conform with
the orthography officially adopted in Sweden in 1906.
This new edition of the great masterpiece is accompanied by the
editor's sincere hope that it may in a measure at least serve to create an
increased interest in the study of the sonorous Swedish language and its
rich literature and give a clearer conception of the seriousness and
strength of Swedish character.
The book owes much to the kindly suggestions and corrections of those
who have examined it in proof or manuscript. Special acknowledgment
is due Professor A. Louis Elmquist of Northwestern University, who
carefully revised the vocabulary, and to Mr. E. W. Olson of Rock
Island, Ill., whose accuracy and scholarship has been of invaluable
assistance throughout.
University of Minnesota, December, 1913.
A. A. S.

INTRODUCTION.

I.
In the personality of Esaias Tegnér the vigor and idealism of the
Swedish people find their completest and most brilliant incarnation. A
deep love of the grandeurs of nature, keen delight in adventure and
daring deeds, a charming juvenility of spirit that at least in the prime of
his life caused him to battle bravely and hopefully for great ideas, a
clearness of perception and integrity of purpose that abhor shams and
narrow prejudices and with reckless frankness denounce evils and
abuses, a disposition tending at times to brooding and melancholy, all
these elements, combined in Tegnér, have made him the idealized type
of the Swedish people. He was cast in a heroic mold and his
countrymen continue to regard him as the completed embodiment of
their national ideals. And in the same measure that Tegnér stands forth
as an expression of Swedish race characteristics it may be said that
Fritiofs Saga is the quintessence of his own sentiments and ideals.
Tegnér, according to his own words, "was born and reared in a remote
mountain region where nature herself composes noble but wild music,
and where the ancient gods apparently still wander about on winter
evenings." His ancestry went back for several generations through the
sturdy bonde class, though his father was a preacher and his mother the
daughter of a preacher. The father's people dwelt in the province of
Småland and the mother's ancestors had lived in the picturesque
province of Värmland. The future poet was born on the 13 of
November, 1782, at Kyrkerud, Värmland, his father holding a benefice
in that province. While he was yet a mere child of nine the father died
and the family was left in poverty. A friend of the Tegnér family, the
judicial officer Branting, gave the young Esaias a home in his house.
The lad soon wrote a good hand and was given a desk and a high,
three-legged chair in the office. Branting took a fancy to the young
clerk and soon fell into the habit of inviting him to accompany the
master upon the many official journeys that had to be made through the
bailiwick. Thus Esaias came to see the glories of nature in his native
province, and deep and lasting impressions were left upon his mind.
His quick imagination was further stirred by the heroic sagas of the
North, in the reading of which he at times became so absorbed that the

flight of the hours or the passing events were entirely unnoticed by
him.
Branting, who had become convinced that his young clerk was by
nature endowed for a much higher station than a lowly clerkship
offered, generously provided Esaias with an opportunity for systematic
study. In 1796 he wrote a good friend in whose home an elder brother
of Esaias was then acting as tutor, suggesting that the younger brother
be given a home there also and thus have the advantage of the brother's
tutelage. A ready acquiescence meeting this proposal, Esaias now went
to Malma, the home of Captain Löwenhjelm, and at once plunged into
the study of Latin, French and Greek under the brother's guidance.
Independently of the instructor he at the same time acquired a
knowledge of English and read principally the poems of Ossian, which
greatly delighted him.
The following year the elder brother accepted a more profitable
position as tutor in the family of the great iron manufacturer Myhrman
at Rämen in Värmland and thither Esaias accompanied him. Here he
could drink deep from the fountain of knowledge for at Rämen he
found a fine library of