Acknowledgements

These volumes are the result of collaborative work of several scholars from many parts of Scandinavia as well as Europe and North America. The General Editors for this series recruited a team of two editors for each of the volumes. The Volume Editors selected contributors with a view to eliciting comparative perspectives that have not been typical of literary scholarship of the region. The contributions are written from various points of view and embody a broad range of critical approaches. Thus, the fundamental goal has never been encyclopedic coverage, but rather syntheses drawn from exemplary selections. Although introductory material to each of the major sections has been provided, minimal effort has been made to level differences in approach by the individual contributors. Their essays involve expertise in several languages and various cultural traditions, some closely related, others best characterized by contrast.

The General Editors listed on the title page have worked with contributions after the rounds of editing with the Volume Editors were completed to add through source checking and verification, to standardize style and formatting, to bring the manuscript together through the review process and final publication steps, including indexing.

The late Steven P. Sondrup is listed as one of the General Editors of this volume not only because of his substantial contributions to the second-level editing process before he passed away but also because both published volumes of this literary history project are the result of a long process of conceptualization and development that he initiated and led. He received the initial request to explore the feasibility of a multi-volume, regional literary history of the Nordic countries from the International Comparative Literature Association’s Coordinating Committee for CHLEL (Comparative History of Literature in European Languages). The early workshops and overall conceptualization of the project were his initiative, and the finished volumes owe a great debt to his persistence and dedication to the idea. The remaining members of the general editorial team of Mark B. Sandberg, Christopher Oscarson, and Nathaniel Kramer express their thanks and admiration for Steven’s work on this project, spanning the last years of his life.

During the preparation of this series numerous colleagues from various parts of the world have graciously shared their expertise in many different but always constructive ways: Ástráður Eysteinsson, Margaret Clunies-Ross, Thomas A. DuBois, Niels Ingwersen†, James Knirk, Nathaniel Kramer, John Lindow, Lars Lönnroth, Pirjo Lyytikäinen, Malan Marnersdóttir, James Massengale†, Finn Hauberg Mortensen†, Andrew Nestingen, Christopher Oscarson, Dan Ringgaard, Linda H. Rugg, Karin Sanders, Stephanie von Schnurbein, George Schoolfield, Tone Selboe, and Tim Tangherlini.

The assistance of students at both Brigham Young University and the University of California, Berkeley in electronic formatting and source checking has been invaluable. They have worked diligently, patiently, and with great care. Appreciation is expressed to David Delbar, Zakarias Gram, Ida Moen Johnson, Matt Kershaw, Joseph Murphy, Natalya Nielsen, Abigail Pinegar, and Anne Taylor. Thanks also to Lotta Weckstrom at the University of California, Berkeley for help with Finnish-language questions throughout the editing process.

Generous financial support came from several sources. A significant three-year grant was provided by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Coordinating Committee for Nordic Studies Abroad to support the early developmental stages of this literary history project and promotional public outreach events at University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Brigham Young University (BYU), and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Support for student contributions to the project came from several Mentoring Grants from the College of Humanities (BYU) as well as Research Assistantships in the Humanities provided over several summers by the UCB Committee on Research. Funding has also come from the Barbro Osher Chair for the Department of Scandinavian (UCB) and the Loftar Bjarnason Fund (BYU) for planning symposia and workshops, translations, and the final preparation of the manuscript. Sincere gratitude is extended to each, without whose assistance the completion of this volume would not have been possible.