Frithiof’s sea journey

Life Stories for Young People

THE FRITHIOF SAGA

Translated from the German of
Ferdinand Schmidt

BY
GEORGE P. UPTON

Translator of “Memories,” “Immensee,” etc.

With Four Illustrations

CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1907

Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1907
Published September 21, 1907

The University Press, Cambridge, U. S. A.

Translator’s Preface

Iceland is the home of the Saga, a form ofliterature which includes the telling of the storyof a hero’s life and adventures in a fixed, regularform, and which is usually intended for recitation,though the Saga is never set in the customary versifiedstyle of poetry. A large number of these Sagas,relating to Iceland, Greenland, North America, andthe Norse countries, still remain, and among themthe Frithiof Saga, narrating the stirring adventuresof that hero of the Northland and Viking of its seas,is one of the most beautiful. Its subject is noble,heroic, and free from exaggerated description oroverwrought sentiment. Frithiof is a splendid typeof the old Norse hero, invincible in battle upon theland, fearless of Nature’s wrath as he sails the seas inhis dragon ship, impulsive yet just, swift in punishmentyet quick in forgiveness. The central motivesof the Saga are his love for King Bele’s daughter,Ingeborg; the refusal of her brothers to sanctiontheir marriage because the hero is not of royalbirth; her unwilling marriage to the old King Ring;Frithiof’s exile, and his final union with Ingeborgafter the death of her husband and reconciliationwith her brother. Interwoven with the narrativeitself, which is full of dramatic situations, are someof the old myths, than which none is more beautifulthan the death of the gentle god Balder. The verybreath of the North sweeps through the stately storywhich the German author has told with so muchskill. Those who wish to come in closer contactwith the Saga itself can do so by consulting BishopTegner’s masterly translation.

G. P. U.

Chicago, June, 1907.

Contents

Chapter Page

I Frithiof and Ingeborg 11

II The Death of Balder 15

III King Bele and Thorsten 26

IV ...