“Sagas of Icelanders” Edited by Jane Smiley

The Sagas of Icelanders

Edited by Jane Smiley, with the Sagas having Various Translators

Paperback (5.4” X 8.7”), 848 Pages, Mythology/Literature

Penguin Books : Deluxe Edition 2001

Cover $25.00

“A unique body of medieval literature, the Sagas rank with the world’s greatest literary treasures–as epic as Homer, as deep in tragedy as Sophocles, as engagingly human as Shakespeare. Set around the turn of the last millennium, these stories depict with an astonishingly modern realism the lives and deeds of the Norse men and women who first settled Iceland and of their descendants, who ventured further west–to Greenland and, ultimately, the coast of North America itself.

The 10 Sagas and seven shorter tales in this volume include the celebrated “Vinland Sagas,” which recount Leif Eiriksson’s pioneering voyage to the New World and contain the oldest descriptions of the North American continent.”

“A testimony to the human spirit’s ability not only to endure what fate may send it but to be renewed by the experience.” —Seamus Heaney

The Icelandic Sagas are among the masterpieces of world literature whose composition stretches from about the year 1000 to 1500. Presenting the adventures of Norse and Viking heroes, the sagas are told with ritual simplicity and a realism that anticipate the modern novel. This volume offers nine full sagas and six tales, all new translations by various hands and all part of The Complete Sagas of the Icelanders, also edited by Thorsson. Published to mark the 1000th anniversary of Leif Ericksson’s voyage to North America, as told in the Vinland Sagas, this selection includes (along with the Vinland Sagas) the famous Egil’s Saga and that of Gisli Sursson. The volume also offers a preface by novelist Jane Smiley and a scholarly introduction by Robert Kellogg of the University of Virginia. Wonderful for anyone interested in world literature, this selection is recommended for public and academic libraries.
–Thomas L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, GA
Included Works:

Egil’s Saga
Saga of the People of Vatnsdal
Saga of the People of Laxardal
Bolli Bollason’s Tale
Saga of Hrafnkel Frey’s Godi
Saga of the Confederates
Gisli Sursson’s Saga
Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue
Saga of Ref the Sly
The Vinland Saga
Saga of the Greenlanders
Eiriik the Red’s Saga
The Tale of Thorstein Staff-struck
The Tale of Hallord Snorrason II
The Tale of Sarcastic Halli
The Tale of Thorstein Shiver
The Tale of Audun from the West Fjords
The Tale of the Story-wise Icelander