George Webbe Dasent

Sir George Webbe Dasent (1817–1896) was a translator of folk tales and contributor to The Times.

Dasent was born 22 May 1817 at St. Vincent, West Indies, the son of the attorney general, John Roche Dasent. His mother was the second wife of his father, Charlotte Martha was the daughter of Captain Alexander Burrowes Irwin.

He was educated at Westminster School, King's College London, and Oxford University, where he was a contemporary of J.T. Delane, whose friend he had become at King's College. On leaving the university in 1840 he was appointed to a diplomatic post in , Sweden. There he met Jakob Grimm, at whose recommendation he first became interested in Scandinavian literature and mythology.

In 1842 he published the first result of his studies, an English translation of The Prose or Younger Edda. In the following year he translated Rask's Grammar of the Icelandic or Old-Norse Tongue, taken from the Danish.

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. He also read for the Bar and was called in 1852.

In 1853, he was appointed professor of English literature and modern history at King's College London and in 1859 he translated Popular Tales from the Norse (Norske Folkeeventyr) by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, including in it an "Introductory Essay on the Origin and Diffusion of Popular Tales."

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