Excerpt from Two Leaves of King Wa Lay: A Hitherto Unknown Old-English Epic of the Eighth Century, Belonging to the Saga Cyclus King

In presenting this imperfect attempt to the Public, I must commence by an act of thanks and respectful acknowledgment to the Danish Literary Veteran Prof. E. C. Werlauff, for his great courtesy in extending to me unwont facilities for copying the two leaves now first publisht, and to the Secretary and Council of our noble society of antiquaries of London, for the friendly readiness with which they have assisted me, by a pecuniary grant, in procuring the facsimiles by which this work is guaranteed and accompanied. The World of Letters will join with me in this expression of homage for such generous aid.

Next, altho all apologies of the kind are too commonly and unfairly overlookt, I must plead for indulgence. All parties were anxious that this remarkable discovery should be made public with the least possible delay. I have therefore, as far as other duties permitted, thrown everything else aside, and devoted myself unremittingly to my charming task. But it has been one of great labor and of great haste. No time was to be lost in minutiae. So I at once give it to the world with all its imperfections on its head. It was better to send it out at once, even tho there might be errors of critical detail, rather than keep it back for months or years that I might have leisure for further enquiry. A correct, transcript was the great point.

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.