The Sagas of Icelanders: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Language: English
Pages: 782
ISBN: 0141000031
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
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.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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in much higher repute when he is in Norway among noblemen.’ Gudrun then answered, ‘My sons, Thorleik and Bolli, will have the deciding say in this matter, but you are the third man to whom I look most for counsel, Snorri, when I feel the outcome to be important, as for many years now you have proved a good adviser to me.’ Snorri said he thought it very clear that Thorkel should not be rejected. He then had Gudrun’s sons summoned and raised the question with them, explaining how much a match
he was so racked with pains in his joints that he could not lie still. ‘Could you help me back to bed?’ he said. She did as he asked and went out with the food. Then Helgi got up and followed her and saw what was going on. After that he went back to bed, lay down and stayed there for the rest of the day. Ingjald returned that evening, went to Helgi’s bed and asked him if he felt any better. Helgi said he was improving and asked if he might be ferried from the island the following morning. He
Thorarin’s ‘duty’ towards Ospak arises from his kinship with Ospak’s wife Svala, even though he had refused to countenance the marriage. * The implication is that Hermund has buried two hundreds of silver in the gully, so that Egil’s insult to him (p. 490) was at least partly true. * Gisli, son of Thorkel, is the uncle of the eponymous hero of the saga. Gisli Sursson himself is not introduced until Chapter 2. * Both the wording of the original and the positioning of the two
robbed him and his subjects, too and raided in his country. The brothers asked the king’s permission to set off to attack Thorolf with the band of men they customarily had with them. ‘You may think there are grounds for taking Thorolf’s life, but I feel you badly lack the good fortune to perform that deed,’ the king answered them. ‘Thorolf is more than a match for you, even though you consider yourselves men of strength and accomplishment.’ The brothers said that this would soon be put to the
he ran for a long time afterwards. Skallagrim was a great blacksmith and worked large amounts of bog-iron during the winter. He had a forge built by the sea a long way off from Borg, at the place called Raufarnes, where he did not think the woods were too far away. But since he could not find any stone suitably hard or smooth to forge iron against – because there was nothing but pebbles there, and small sands along the shore – Skallagrim put out to sea one evening in one of his eight-oared
