Excerpt from A Selection From the Poems of William Morris Escaping from this golden thraldom they regain their ship, and after many dangers and privations are driven by the wind to an island inhabited by deseen dants of the ancient Greeks, who have preserved their old worship and their Old freedom. Here the weary wanderers of the main are hospitably received, and here they resolve to dwell in peace, forgetful of their vain search for the earthly paradise. At the beginning and the middle of every month the elders of the people and their guests meet together to while away the time with song and friendly converse. The islanders relate the traditions Of their Grecian home, the mariners relate the sagas of the North, and Laur ence, a Swabian priest who had joined the Norsemen in their quest, contributes the legends of Tannhauser and Of the ring given to Venus by the Roman youth. Here then there is full scope for the quaint beauty of romantic classicism and for the weird glamour of northern myth. Without encroaching upon the field Of criticism proper the writer may state that, in his opinion, amongst the classic tales none is more grace ful and finished than The Golden Apples, and amongst the northern none more grandly developed and more epical in the strict sense of the word than The Lovers of Gudrnn based upon the Icelandic Lax daela saga. The latter, unfortunately, cannot find a place in this volume for reasons of space. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.