ris retains the old idiom
that he invented for his translations, and keeps the tyro thumbing his
dictionary, but the charm is increased by the archaisms. As one seeks
the words in the dictionary, one learns that Chaucer, Spenser and the
Ballads were the wells from which he drew these rare words, and that his
employment of them is only another phase of his love for the old far-off
things. It is true that the language of Morris is not of any one
stadium of English, but it is a poet's privilege to draw upon all
history for his words as well as for his allusions, and the revivals in
question are of worthy words pushed aside by the press of newer, but not
necessarily better forms.

These works are the kind that show the influence of Old Norse literature
as spiritual rather than substantial. The stories are not drawn from the
older literature, nor are the settings patterned after it; but the
impulses that swayed men and women in the sagaman's tale, and the
motives that uplifted them, are found here. We cannot think that the
English people will always be unmindful of the great debt that they owe
to the Muse of the North.

7.

In 1891, Morris engaged in a literary enterprise that set the fashion
for similar enterprises in succeeding years. With Eirikr Magnusson he
undertook the making of _The Saga Library_, "addressed to the whole
reading public, and not only to students of Scandinavian history,
folk-lore and language."[33] With Bernard Quaritch's imprint on the
title pages, these volumes to the number of five were issued in
exceptional type and form. The munificence of the publisher was equalled
by the skill of the translators, and in their versions of "Howard, the
Halt," "The Banded Men," and "Hen Thorir" (in Vol. I, dated 1891), "The
Ere-Dwellers" (in Vol. II, dated 1892) and _Heimskringla_ (in Vols. III,
IV and V, dated 1893-4-5), the definitive translations of sterling sagas
were given. As was the case with their _Grettis Saga_, the works rise to
the dignity of masterpieces, and had we no other legacy from Morris'
wealth of Icelandic scholarship, these translations were precious enough
to keep us grateful through many generations.

8.

One more contribution to English literature hailing from the North, and
we have done with William Morris's splendid gifts. The volume of 1891,
entitled _Poems by the Way_, contains several pieces that must be
reckoned with. The vividest recollections of Icelandic materials here
ma