The Early Kings of Norway by Thomas Carlyle
The Icelanders, in their long winter, had a great habit of writing; and were, and still are, excellent in penmanship, says Dahlmann. It is to this fact, that any little history there is of the Norse Kings and their old tragedies, crimes and heroisms, is almost all due. The Icelanders, it seems, not only made beautiful letters on their paper or parchment, but were laudably observant and desirous of accuracy; and have left us such a collection of narratives (Sagas, literally Says) as, for quantity and quality, is unexampled among rude nations. Snorro Sturleson's History of the Norse Kings is built out of these old Sagas; and has in it a great deal of poetic fire, not a little faithful sagacity applied in sifting and adjusting these old Sagas; and, in a word, deserves, were it once well edited, furnished with accurate maps, chronological summaries, &c., to be reckoned among the great history-books of the world. It is from these sources, greatly aided by accurate, learned and unwearied Dahlmann, 1 the German Professor, that the following rough notes of the early Norway Kings are hastily thrown together. In Histories of England (Rapin's excepted) next to nothing has been shown of the many and strong threads of connection between English affairs and Norse. excerpt]
Thomas Carlyle was born in Dumfriesshire in 1795 and educated at Edinburgh University. He began training for ministry but turned instead to teaching, law study, and increasingly literary work and studying German literature. His first considerable essay was published in 1822. He continued to write on and translate German literature during the following six years, and published a novel, Sartor Resartus, in 1833-4. In 1831 Carlyle met J. S. Mill, who introduced him to Emerson and interested him in the French Revolution, leading to his history of it, completed in 1837. From 1837 to 1840 he undertook several important lecture series, in which he developed his individualist desire to place a satisfactory model of the hero before his contemporaries. His reputation was firmly established by the mid-1840s. He proceeded to spend an immense amount of work on his history of Frederick the Great. In 1865 he was invited to become Rector of the University of Edinburgh, but published little of significance thereafter. Carlyle died in 1881. Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston in 1803, the son of a Unitarian minister. He was himself ordained in 1829 but found he could not accept Unitarianist orthodoxy and in 1832, shortly after the death of his first wife, resigned his ministry and left for Europe, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Carlyle. Returning to Boston, Emerson turned from preaching to lecturing. In 1835 he remarried and settled in Concord, Massachusetts. He published his first book, Nature, in 1836, and was soon recognised as a revolutionary philosopher. In 1838 he became excluded from Harvard for claiming the priority of individual spiritual experience over any church. In 1842 he became editor of the Transcendentalist quarterly The Dial, and volumes of essays in 1841 and 1844 secured him European reputation. He also became known as a poet through two collections. In the 1850s he became an ardent supporter of the abolition of slavery. In 1866 Harvard conferred an honorary Doctorate of Law upon him. Emerson died in 1882.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780692201763 |
| ISBN 10 | 0692201769 |
| Title | The Early Kings of Norway |
| Author | Thomas Carlyle |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Adp Gauntlet |
| Year published | 2014-04-13 |
| Number of pages | 138 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |