The Saga of Grettir the
Strong (Penguin Classics) Paperback (267 pages)
by Anonymous (Author), & Ornolfur Thorsson & Bernard Scudder
“Composed at the end of the
fourteenth century by an unknown author, The Saga of Grettir the Strong is
one of the last great Icelandic sagas. It relates the tale of Grettir, an
eleventh-century warrior struggling to hold on to the values of a heroic age
becoming eclipsed by Christianity and a more pastoral lifestyle. Unable to
settle into a community of farmers, Grettir becomes the aggressive scourge of
both honest men and evil monsters - until, following a battle with the sinister
ghost Glam, he is cursed to endure a life of tortured loneliness away from
civilisation, fighting giants, trolls and berserks. A mesmerising combination
of pagan ideals and Christian faith, this is a profoundly moving conclusion to
the Golden Age of the saga writing.” – Amazon
The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki
(Penguin Classics) Paperback (99 pages)
by Anonymous (Author), Jesse
L. Byock (Editor, Translator, Introduction)
“Composed in medieval
Iceland, Hrolf's Saga is one of the greatest of all
mythic-legendary sagas, relating half-fantastical events that were said to have
occurred in fifth-century Denmark. It tells of the exploits of King Hrolf and
of his famous champions, including Bodvar Bjarki, the 'bear-warrior': a
powerful figure whose might and bear-like nature are inspired by the same
legendary heritage as Beowulf. Depicting a world of wizards, sorceresses and
'berserker' fighters - originally members of a cult of Odin - this is a
compelling tale of ancient magic. A work of timeless power and beauty, it
offers both a treasury of Icelandic prose and a masterful gathering of epic,
cultic memory, traditional folk tale and myths from the Viking age and far
earlier.” – Amazon
The Sagas of Icelanders:
(Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Paperback (782 pages)
by Robert
Kellogg (Introduction), Jane
Smiley (Editor), and Various
“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 ten 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.” – Amazon
I was surprised; I was
expecting only one of these books today, and I got all three. I don’t know why
I’m suddenly so enthusiastic about the sagas again lately. Grettir is
famously quoted everywhere, especially the weird tale of Grettir and Glam the
disturbingly physical grave-ghost, a drauger, something like a
barrow-wight. Hrolf Kraki has had a fantasy novelization of his saga
done by Poul Anderson. Most unexpected to me was how big The Sagas of the
Icelanders was; but what was I expecting? It contains several whole books,
sagas I was looking into buying in several volumes. Well, I need worry about some
of those no more. But there are others to be gotten, which I may get yet.
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