by Gwyn Jones (Editor)
The remote and inhospitable landscape of Iceland made it a perfect breeding-ground for heroes. The first Norsemen to colonize it in 860 found that the fight for survival demanded high courage and tough self reliance; it also nurtured a stern sense of duty and an uncompromising view of destiny. The Icelandic sagas relate the adventurous lives of individuals and families between 930 and 1030, which began as oral tales but were skilfully documented in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and are now regarded as written literature.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
Published: 03 Jun 1999
ISBN 10: 0192835300
ISBN 13: 9780192835307
I require my Beowulf students to read Hrolf Kraki's Saga, and GJ's translation in this book is both excellent . . . and readily available. --Marijane Osborn, University of California, Davis
Still the best single-volume collection of Viking tales in English. --James Massengale, University of California, Los Angeles
[Jones's] English has a yeasty Welshness in it that corresponds quite nicely to the idiomatic springiness of the original. --L. Michael Bell, University of Colorado