SOURCE: Foote, Peter. Introduction to The Laxdale Saga, translated by Muriel Press, pp. v-xvi. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1964.

In the following excerpt from his introduction to a revised edition of Muriel Press's 1899 translation of the Laxdaela Saga, Foote discusses the epic subtext of the poem, its idealized characters, and its generally clear, unassuming style.

Laxdæla saga, the saga of the men of Salmon-river-dale, was written in Iceland about a.d. 1250. The author was at home in the Dales, the inner districts of Breiðifjörðr, the scene of most of the action of the story.

The saga is the work of a mature and sophisticated artist. After the unique Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, written perhaps some twenty-five years earlier, it is the second of the sagas of Icelanders to be conceived and executed on a grand scale. In so far as it is permissible...