Nevertheless I must maintain that he, too, is in this instance
mistaken. I have never specially admired Henrik Hertz as a dramatist.
Hence it is impossible for me to believe that he should, unknown to
myself, have been able to exercise any influence on by dramatic
production.

As regards this point and the matter in general, I might confine
myself to referring those interested to the writings of Dr. Valfrid
Vasenius, lecturer on Aesthetics at the University of Helsingfors.
In the thesis which gained him his degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
_Henrik Ibsen's Dramatic Poetry in its First stage_ (1879), and
also in _Henrik Ibsen: The Portrait of a Skald_ (Jos. Seligman &
Co., Stockholm, 1882), Valsenious states and supports his views on
the subject of the play at present in question, supplementing them
in the latter work by what I told him, very briefly, when we were
together at Munich three years ago.

But, to prevent all misconception, I will now myself give a short
account of the origin of _The Feast at Solhoug_.

I began this Preface with the statement that _The Feast at Solhoug_
was written in the summer 1855.

In 1854 I had written _Lady Inger of Ostrat_. This was a task
which had obliged me to devote much attention to the literature
and history of Norway during the Middle Ages, especially the latter
part of that period. I did my utmost to familiarise myself with
the manners and customs, with the emotions, thought, and language
of the men of those days.

The period, however, is not one over which the student is tempted
to linger, nor does it present much material suitable for dramatic
treatment.

Consequently I soon deserted it for the Saga period. But the Sagas
of the Kings, and in general the more strictly historical traditions
of that far-off age, did not attract me greatly; at that time I was
unable to put the quarrels between kings and chieftains, parties and
clans, to any dramatic purpose. This was to happen later.

In the Icelandic "family" Sagas, on the other hand, I found in
abundance what I required in the shape of human garb for the moods,
conceptions, and thoughts which at that time occupied me, or were,
at least, more or less distinctly present in my mind. With these
Old Norse contributions to the personal history of our Saga period
I had had no previous acquaintance; I had hardly so much as heard
them named. But now N. M. Petersen's excellent translation--
excellent, at least, as far as th