stage on which gods, demons, and heroes were contending for supremacy;
and they told that story in a thousand different ways. Every myth is a
chapter in that story, and differs from other stories and legends
because it is an explanation of something that happened in earth, sea,
or sky.

If the men who created the myths had set to work to make wonder tales as
stories are sometimes made to instruct while they entertain children,
they would have left a mass of very dull tales which few people would
have cared to read. They had no idea of doing anything so artificial and
mechanical; they made these old stories because all life was a story to
them, full of splendid or terrible figures moving across the sky or
through the sea and in the depths of the woods, and whichever way they
looked they saw or thought they saw mysterious and wonderful things
going on. They were as much interested in their world as we are in ours;
we write hundreds of scientific books every year to explain our world;
they told hundreds of stories every year to explain theirs.

This selection represents the work of several authors, and does not,
therefore, preserve uniformity of style. It is probably better for the
young reader that the Greek Myths should come from one hand, and the
Norse Myths from another. The classical work of Hawthorne has been
generously drawn upon. No change of any kind has been made in the text,
but the introductions connecting one myth with another have been
omitted.

HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE.