The story of him and of his brave sons, and of his slaves,
and of his kindred, and of Queens and Kings of Norway, and of the
coming of the white Christ, are all in the "Njala." That and the
other Sagas would bear being shortened for general readers; once
they were all that the people had by way of books, and they liked
them long. But, shortened or not, they are brave books for men, for
the world is a place of battle still, and life is war. These old
heroes knew it, and did not shirk it, but fought it out, and left
honourable names and a glory that widens year by year. For the
story of Njal and Gunnar and Skarphedin was told by Captain Speedy
to the guards of Theodore, King of Abyssinia. They liked it well;
and with queer altered names and changes of the tale, that Saga will
be told in Abyssinia, and thence carried all through Africa where
white men have never wandered. So wide, so long-enduring a renown
could be given by a nameless Sagaman.
CHARLES KINGSLEY
When I was very young, a distinguished Review was still younger. I
remember reading one of the earliest numbers, being then myself a
boy of ten, and coming on a review of a novel. Never, as it seemed
to me, or seems to my memory, was a poor novel more heavily handled:
and yet I felt that the book must be a book to read on the very
earliest opportunity. It was "Westward Ho!" the most famous, and
perhaps the best novel, of Charles Kingsley.
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