Eyrbyggja Saga (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Anonymous (Author), Hermann Palsson (Translator), Paul Edwards (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 1989 | Series: Penguin Classics

This is an Icelandic saga which mixes realism with wild gothic imagination and history with eerie tales of hauntings. It dramatizes a 13th century view of the past, from the pagan anarchy of the Viking age to the settlement of Iceland, the coming of Christianity and the beginnings of organized society.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Icelandic

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (June 6, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140445307
• ISBN-13: 978-0140445305
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #486,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Nonfiction > More Languages > Icelandic

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Famished Ravens Will Feed on the Flesh of Men", April 27, 2001

By 

James Paris "Tarnmoor" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eyrbyggja Saga (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Imagine a society in which someone gets really cheesed off about his neighbor and decides to bushwhack him, and maybe his whole family and his servants while they're at it. Forget the police, forget the army. There isn't any. If you're unhappy about this, you try to get your favorite chieftain to intervene. Of course you'd better have a whole bunch of armed followers to show that you mean business. You can bet the murderer will too as a matter of course. How you come off in this hypothetical society depends on how much influence you wield on your neighbors. If you're willing to go to bat for them -- and vice versa -- your power will increase. Unless, of course, someone decides to swing an axe at your hatrack in the meantime.

This is Medieval Iceland in the 13th century, when this and all the other great sagas were written. The EYRBYGGJA is one of the best of the sagas -- provided that you can handle all the genealogies. (Virtually all the people in the saga were real people; and many of today's Icelanders can trace their families back almost 1,000 years.)

If there is any hero in the EYRBYGGJA, it is Snorri the Priest. He manages to maintain his power despite several threats that unfold during the several generations of this story. At times, as in the case of the feud with Arnkel, Snorri seems to be in the wrong. But he is consistently faithful to his friends and therefore has no problem raising the forces to back up his position. His life bridges the conversion to Christianity in the year 1000: Snorri proves his adaptability by going from a priest of Thor to an advocate of the new religion. In all the Icelandic sagas I've read, most of the characters do not seem to be wholeheartedly committed to either the old or the new religion; but all are superstitious about the restless dead, which brings me to one of the most fascinating aspects of this saga: the ghost episodes that seem to proliferate. I particularly like Thorolf Twist-Foot, a disagreeable old man who keeps coming back from the dead and causing trouble -- which Snorri deals with in most inimitable fashion by holding an ancient legal proceeding called a "door court" to expel them.

My only criticism: This book needed a good set of maps for following the action. The lone map provided is inadequate.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Viking Ghost Stories - Eyrbyggja Saga, December 27, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eyrbyggja Saga (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Eyrbyggja Saga is the most "supernatural" of all of the Norse sagas. Throughout the story, the Ere-Dwellers are confronted by death and disaster, which in turn result in ghosts, eerie occurrences, and hauntings. Eyrbyggja Saga was one of the best sources I located when developing my on-line article about Norse ghosts. There are "shiver up the spine" sections, and also typically droll Norse humor (such as one unique exorcism wherein the people being haunted drive off the ghosts by bringing a formal Norse lawsuit against them). Eyrbyggja Saga is one of the most enjoyable of the sagas to read. Ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wierdest Saga I've Read, May 11, 2005

By 

J. W. Kennedy "in statu uiae et meriti" (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eyrbyggja Saga (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

"Wierd" in the pulp "Wierd Tales" sense. There's definitely more of the supernatural in the Eyrbyggja Saga than in the dozen or so others I have read. Angry ghosts, sinister omens, strange goings-on. This is the "Amityville Horror" of Medeival Literature. It's a short, quick read (the saga itself is 140 pages, set with relatively large type.) Some passages are smooth-flowing, very intense page-turners, and some sections seem choppy and confusing. I'll agree with another reviewer who said that the family relationships and intricate web of who's-fighting-who-for-what-reason are extremely hard to follow, especially in the first third of the story. The action is very violent; there's a lot of fighting for such a short saga. The main character, Snorri the Priest, is a mysterious enigma - he's intelligent, sly, and crafty. He plays "close to the vest" so nobody is ever quite sure what he's up to. Even the author is unsure of Snorri's motives.

I have a few minor complaints with the editorial handling of this saga. The chapters have headings which tend to give away what happens. The introduction should have been an afterword, since it contained far too many spoilers which gave away all the surprises in the story. If you've read any sagas before, then I recommend skipping the intro and reading it AFTER you've read Eyrbyggja Saga. If you've never read any sagas, the first 4 pages of the intro will give you a bit of general background, but the rest of it is a plot synopsis and discussion of the saga in sections - best saved til afterwards, when it will be of more help in gaining closure and filling in some of the details of what you've read.