OUTLINE OF THE NJAL SAGA. 65 They must also learn to he self-reliant, to make it clear to them- selves that they cannot expect anything from others, and if they wish to thrive, they must do so with their own means.’ ... It is true ‘ Iceland has indeed many disadvantages. The large number of volcanic outlets have rendered extensive tracts uninhabitable. Thousands of square miles are covered with glaciers and snow-fields: and when the i’olar ice comes drifting down upon the northern coasts, summer is turned into winter. In spite of these draw- backs, Iceland is not uninhabitable, if the resources of the island are properly worked and developed, which they are not. There are excellent pastures which if properly used might feed several times the number of sheep and ponies that are now on the island; while the sea round the coasts might be an unexhaustible mine of wealth, if the fisheries were not carried on in the most primitive fashion.’ The NjAl Saga. Sib Geobge Webbe Dasent, in his introduction to his admirable English version of the above, says:—‘ The Icelandic Sagas, nar- rating the lives, and feuds, and ends of mighty chiefs, the heads of the great families, were told by men who lived on the very spot, and told with a minuteness and exactness, as to time and place, that will bear the strictest examination. Such a story is that of Ejal. Of all the Sagas, relating to Iceland, this tragic story bears away the palm for truthfulness and beauty! ’ It also abounds in rare pathos, and it is impossible to read this old-world story, which in the days ‘ lang syne ’ was handed down from one Saga- teller to another, and ‘ told at all great gatherings of the people, and over many a fireside, on sea strand or river bank, or up among the dales and hills,’ without feeling a strong desire to visit the spots where the stirring incidents recorded occurred, and those that figured therein resided. The author of ‘ Six Weeks in the Saddle,’ Mr. S. E. Waller, tells us in the introduction to his very readable little work :—‘ It was “ Burnt Njal” that was at the bottom of it (his visit to Iceland). I had gone through Dr. Dasent’s admirable version of the book with the very deepest interest, and was wild to visit the scene of such a tremendous tragedy.’ In Route 2 is laid down a tour to the most interesting of the spots mentioned in ‘The Tfjal Saga’; and notwithstanding that it is unlikely any one will contemplate a pilgrimage through ‘ the Njal country ’ who has not read Dasent’s version, a brief outline 5

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