DASENT

dasent, sir george webbe (1817-1896), english writer, was born in st vincent, west indies, on the 22nd of may 1817, the son of the attorney-general of that island. he was educated at westminster school, king's college, and oxford, where he was a contemporary of j. t. delane (q.v.), whose friend he had become at king's college. on leaving the university in 1840 he was appointed to a diplomatic post in stockholm. here he met jacob grimm, and at his suggestion first interested himself in scandinavian literature and mythology. in 1842 he published the results of his studies, a version of _the prose or younger edda_, and in the following year he issued a _grammar of the icelandic or old-norse tongue_, taken from the swedish. returning to england in 1845, he became assistant editor of _the times_ under delane, whose sister he married; but he still continued his scandinavian studies, publishing translations of various norse stories. in 1853 he was appointed professor of english literature and modern history at king's college, london. in 1861-1862 he visited iceland, and subsequently published _gisli the outlaw_ and other translations from the icelandic. in 1870 he was appointed a civil service commissioner and consequently resigned his post on _the times_. in 1876 he was knighted. he retired from the public service in 1892, and died at ascot on the 11th of june 1896. in addition to the works mentioned above, he published _the story of burnt njal_, from the icelandic of the _njals saga_ (1861). see the _life of delane_ (1908), by arthur irwin dasent.