The present plan, a subject-index practically, has been adopted with a view to the needs of the anthropologist and folk-lorist.

Its details have been largely determined by the bulk and character of the entries themselves.

No attempt has been made to supply full parallels from any save the more striking and obvious old Scandinavian sources, the end being to classify material rather than to point out its significance of geographic distribution.

With regard to the first three heads, the reader who wishes to see how Saxo compares with the Old Northern poems may be referred to the Grimm Centenary papers, Oxford, 1886, and the Corpus Poeticurn Boreale, Oxford, 1883.
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.
King--As portrayed by Saxo, the ideal king should be (as in "Beowulf's Lay") generous, brave and just.

He should be a man of accomplishments, of unblemished body, presumably of royal kin (peasant-birth is considered a bar to the kingship), usually a son or a nephew, or brother of his foregoer (though no strict rule of succession seems to appear in Saxo), and duly chosen and acknowledged at the proper place of election.
In Denmark this was at a stone circle, and the stability of these stones was taken as an omen for the king's reign.