In 1854 I had written _Lady Inger of Ostrat_. This was a task
which had obliged me to devote much attention to the literature
and history of Norway during the Middle Ages, especially the latter
part of that period. I did my utmost to familiarise myself with
the manners and customs, with the emotions, thought, and language
of the men of those days.

The period, however, is not one over which the student is tempted
to linger, nor does it present much material suitable for dramatic
treatment.

Consequently I soon deserted it for the Saga period. But the Sagas
of the Kings, and in general the more strictly historical traditions
of that far-off age, did not attract me greatly; at that time I was
unable to put the quarrels between kings and chieftains, parties and
clans, to any dramatic purpose. This was to happen later.

In the Icelandic "family" Sagas, on the other hand, I found in
abundance what I required in the shape of human garb for the moods,
conceptions, and thoughts which at that time occupied me, or were,
at least, more or less distinctly present in my mind. With these
Old Norse contributions to the personal history of our Saga period
I had had no previous acquaintance; I had hardly so much as heard
them named. But now N. M. Petersen's excellent translation--
excellent, at least, as far as the style is concerned--fell into
my hands. In the pages of these family chronicles, with their
variety of scenes and of relations between man and man, between
woman and woman, in short, between human being and human being,
there met me a personal, eventful, really living life; and as the