But, just as Pascal admits that the sceptic
can only become religious by living as if he WERE religious--by
stupefying himself, as Pascal plainly puts it, with holy water--so
it is to be feared that there is but a single way of winning over
the general reader to the Sagas. Preaching and example, as in this
brief essay, will not avail with him. He must take Pascal's advice,
and live for an hour or two as if he were a lover of Sagas. He
must, in brief, give that old literature a fair chance. He has now
his opportunity: Mr. William Morris and Mr. Eirikr Magnusson are
publishing a series of cheap translations--cheap only in coin of the
realm--a Saga Library. If a general reader tries the first tale in
the first volume, story of "Howard the Halt,"--if he tries it
honestly, and still can make no way with it, then let him take
comfort in the doctrine of Invincible Ignorance. Let him go back to
his favourite literature of gossiping reminiscence, or of realistic
novels. We have all, probably, a drop of the Northmen's blood in
us, but in that general reader the blood is dormant.
What is a Saga? It is neither quite a piece of history nor wholly a
romance. It is a very old story of things and adventures that
really happened, but happened so long ago, and in times so
superstitious, that marvels and miracles found their way into the
legend. The best Sagas are those of Iceland, and those, in
translations, are the finest reading that the natural man can
desire.
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