This volume was planned initially by Professor William Whobrey, who drew up the original outline and commissioned individual chapters from a wide range of scholars, and we wish first of all to acknowledge his work. He was, however, unable to continue with the editorship, and at a relatively late stage we agreed to take this over. Although some threequarters of the chapters had by then been sent in, several of them some long time previously, there were still gaps for which new contributors had to be found. Our debt of gratitude to the contributors, therefore, is twofold. To those who submitted chapters within the original time-scale goes our gratitude for their patience; and to the second wave of contributors go our thanks for their willingness to produce the material to give the book, we hope, as useful a range as possible. Apart from the editing of the contributions and the re-commissioning of missing chapters, there were a number of technical problems regarding unusual characters, such as those comprising the runic alphabet, as might be expected in a work concerned with the very earliest stages of Germanic literature. We hope that the outcome has been a satisfactory one, and the editors are grateful to James Hardin and Jim Walker for all their assistance in the completion of the project.