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76 INTRODUCTION.
represented, and highly interesting in the delinea-
tion of the mythic age—in the Ynglinga Saga.
This gives an acbount of the first mythic race of
Kings in Sweden and Norway, the Tnglingar, and
is a kind of Introduction. Snorri wrote it from
Thjodolf 's "fnglinga-tal, and throughout the latter
part of it he inlaid every important transaction with
a strophe of that ancient poem. This portion of the
work is of no historical value, and, in a mythological
point of view, it becomes absurd in the earlier chap-
ters, where the attempt is made to establish the
Ynglinga history upon the history of the Gods, and
to connect the two by means of foreign, Grseco-Eoman
ideas and traditions. The other portions of the
Heimskringla are adorned with fine poems, which
impart a ' certain mythologic interest to the whole
work.
It was continued by various authors, down to the
time of Magnus the Law-mender ; namely, in Sverris-saga,
begun by the Abbot Carl Jonsson, and
finished by Styrmir the Learned; and further,
through fom- other Sagas, down to Magnus Lagabsetis-Saga,
written by Sturla Thordarsson, of which
only a fragment remains. "With Snorri's history,
the masterpiece of Icelandic Historiography, and
the pieces annexed to it, we conclude this brief
sketch of the Saga literature of Iceland.