I have received valuable assistance from many friends, but I desire especially to express my thanks to Mr. Bruun, the Chief Librarian of the Royal Library of Denmark, for his great kindness in allowing me so many privileges during the years I have worked in Copenhagen; to Mr. Birket Smith, of the University Library of Copenhagen; and Mr. Kaalund, Keeper of the Arna Magnæan Collection of Manuscripts, for the uniform courtesy they have shown me; among antiquarians, to my friend Professor George Stephens, author of the magnificent work, ‘Northern Runic Monuments,’ for his readiness in giving me all the information and help I needed, which sometimes occupied much of his valuable time (several illustrations of the runic stones, etc., in these volumes are taken from his work); to Mr. Vedel, Vice-President of the Royal Society of Antiquarians; to Messrs. Herbst, Sophus Müller, and Petersen, of the Royal Museum of Northern Antiquities, for their great courtesy; I am also indebted to the works of the following distinguished antiquarians which have been invaluable to me in my researches and which have furnished me with many of the illustrations for my book: Ole Rygh, Bugge, Engelhart, Nicolaysen, Sehested, Steenstrup, Madsen, Säve, Montelius, Holmberg, Jorgensen, Baltzer, and Lorange; also to the works of the historians, Keyser, Geijer, Munch, Rafn, Vigfusson. My sincere thanks are also due to my young friend Jon Stefánsson, an Icelandic student, for his constant help in rendering the translations of the Sagas as accurate and literal as possible; and to my old friend Mr. Rasmus B. Anderson, late American Minister to Denmark, and translator of the ‘Later Edda,’ etc.; in England, to Messrs. A. S. Murray, Franks, and Read, of the British Museum; to Dr. Warre, the head master of Eton, and to General Pitt Rivers, author of a valuable work on the excavations in Cranborne Chase, which contains objects strikingly similar to those of Scandinavia; also to my friends Mr. J. S. Keltie and Mr. Arthur L. Roberts; to my old friends Messrs. Clowes, who have taken great pains in carrying out what has proved to be a very difficult task for the printer, and who have had the work over two-and-a-half years in type. I must thank, above all, my esteemed and venerable publisher, John Murray, for the great interest he has taken in the present work, which has tried his patience and liberality many a time, and also for the many years of uninterrupted friendship and the pleasant business relations (unhampered by any written agreement whatever), which have existed between us from the time when I came to him almost a lad, and he first undertook the publication of ‘Explorations in Equatorial Africa,’ in 1861, not forgetting my dear friends, his sons, John and Hallam, the former of whom has assisted me materially in seeing the work through the press, and my old companion Robert Cooke.