Iviii INTRODUCTION.

found a hearty welcome from the Delegates of the Oxford Press. To those Dele-
gates past and present, to the Bishop of Chester and Dean of Christ Church in par-
ticular, the thanks of all lovers of Northern learning are due for having so generously
fostered this Icelandic Dictionary, and made it a child of this famous University.

To no one has the Dictionary been more indebted than to-the Dean of Christ
Church, so far as advice with respect to the English is concerned ; but this acknowledgment
really represents very feebly the services rendered by Dr. Liddell to the work. From the
very first, not only did its general superintendence devolve on him, but for the whole
time during which it was passing through the press, his assistance was invaluable, in cor-
recting the English, in adding to the philological character of the work, and. in suggesting
alterations and improvements. In the autumn of 1870, indeed when the serious respon-
sibilities of the Vice-Chancellorship were added to his other duties, Dr. Liddell was unable
to bestow so much time on this labour; it then fell to Mr. Kitchin, who had also revised the
sheets from the beginning, to supply his place, but to the very last every sheet as it
was printed was first submitted to the Dean, then passed on with his suggestions
to Mr. Kitchin, and finally settled by him with Mr. Vigfusson. For such constant
and laborious care the thanks of all Icelandic scholars are due to Dr. Lidclell and
Mr. Kitchin, as without their supervision and advice the English portion of the work
could not have attained its present excellence. In another point too the experience of
the Dean of Christ Church was specially valuable; this was in the arrangement and
simplification of what may be called the mechanical part of the Dictionary. The eye
and hand so practised by the toil of preparing successive editions of Liddell and
Scott's Greek Dictionary stood this Icelandic follower in good stead; and it may be
affirmed without fear of contradiction that in no city or university in the world has the
art and science of printing and publishing a Dictionary with the utmost economy of
space, and at the same time with such distinct and beautiful typography, been carried
to a greater pitch of perfection than at the University Press in Oxford.

To another well-known name in Oxford Mr. Vigfusson has been indebted for
much valuable information and assistance. The Icelandic language is full of seafaring
terms, as befits the speech of those hardy seamen who swarmed in early times on every
sea in Europe. Throughout the whole literature it may be said that there is a whole-
some smack of the salt sea, and mast and sail and rope and pump fill many a page in the
Sagas of the North. When these sea terms had to be rendered into English there was
but one in Oxford to whom Mr. Vigfusson could betake himself. This was Dr. Henry
Acland, whose knowledge of the seafaring terms of England is as exact as his medical
skill. To him, to Mr. Kitchin, to Mr. Coxe, and to many others in Oxford, Mr. Vigfusson
desires through the writer to express his thanks for the help rendered on these and many
other points, as well as for the uniform kindness with which they welcomed the stranger
to Oxford, and relieved to the utmost of their power the monotony inevitably attending
the execution of such work as that in which he was engaged. It will be a recompense to
him for the labour which he has bestowed on this Dictionary, if it should be the means
of attracting the attention of students in England to the literature of Iceland. Nor,