Popular Tales from the Norse - Sir George Webbe Dasent

The most careless reader can hardly fail to see that many of the Tales in this volume have the same groundwork as those with which he has been familiar from his earliest youth. They are Nursery Tales, in fact, of the days when there were tales in nurseries--old wives' fables, which have faded away before the light of gas and the power of steam. (Excerpt from Popular Tales from the Norse.)