pletion in middle age. But the delay need not be regretted since it enables us to enjoy this great epic tale in as perfect a form as patient erudition and a genuine love of the most untrodden paths of antiquity could present it.
The interest of this tragic story revolves around the duties and the rights of the blood-feud, and shows us how a man, gentle, generous, and forgiving, like Njal, was, in spite of all his virtues, gradually involved in a network of bloody retaliation; how in spite of all his wise and pacific counsel massacre replied to massacre around him, until he and his whole household perished in blood and fire, leaving, however, a fearful heritage of vengeance to be exacted by Kari, his son-in-law.
In 1861, and again in the following year, Dasent visited Iceland in person, in company with the late Mr. John Campbell of Islay (himself an earnest student of the folklore and popular tales of the Western Highlands) and other friends.
He was received with great cordiality at Reykjavik and entertained at a public banquet by the authorities, who acclaimed him as the foremost Icelandic scholar in Europe. He rode across the gigantic snowfield of the Vatna Jokull, and visited many of the places of interest in the country, whose physical features were already well known to him through its literature.
The adventures of the party on the occasion of Dasent's second visit to Iceland were so humorously described by the late Sir Charles Clifford in his Travels by Umbra, and the disposition and personal appearance of each of the five members of this merry group so admirably
