by Jane Smiley (Author)
In Iceland, the age of the Vikings is also known as the Saga Age. A unique body of medieval literature, the Sagas rank with the world's great 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 in Iceland and of their descendants, who ventured farther west to Greenland and, ultimately, North America. Sailing as far from the archetypal heroic adventure as the long ships did from home, the Sagas are written with psychological intensity, peopled by characters with depth, and explore perennial human issues like love, hate, fate and freedom.
Format: Deckle Edge
Pages: 848
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 24 Feb 2005
ISBN 10: 0141000031
ISBN 13: 9780141000039
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 glory of the Sagas is indisputable. --Milan Kundera
Generally excellent, accurate and readable, these translations are sure to become the standard versions. --The Times Literary Supplement (London)