Magnus [Hardcover]

George Mackay Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 20, 1973

First published in 1973 by the Hogarth Press, "Magnus" is George Mackay Brown's tour de force - his most poetic and innovative book. He links the twelfth-century story of the saintly Earl Magnus of Orkney's brutal murder at the hands of his cousin Hakon Paulson, to that of the philosopher Dietrich Bonhoeffer, murdered by the Nazis during World War II. A unique exploration of the eternal questions of guilt, goodness and personal sacrifice.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Magnus is, I believe, the most beautiful contemporary bookI have ever read.' THE TIMES'A distinctive and distinguished novel, of unusual powerand purity ... Brown uses language with beautifulprecision, resource and power.' THE SUNDAY TIMES'[Mackay Brown] weaves the twentieth-century strand intothe Nordic tapestry more deftly than might have beenthought possible.' THE HERALD --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

George Mackay Brown (1921-96) was one of the major Scottish literary figures of the twentieth century - a prolific poet and novelist, he took much of his inspiration from the myths and landscape of Orkney, and also from his deep Catholic faith. He was born in Orkney in 1921 and died there in 1996. Following his first book in 1954 he published many more, including plays, novels and poems. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has set much of his work to music. In 1988 he was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Golden Bird. In 1994 his Beside the Ocean of Time was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and judged Book of the Year by the Saltire Society. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: The Hogarth Press Ltd (September 20, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 070120382X
• ISBN-13: 978-0701203825
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,910,888 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Northern Light, March 11, 2000

By 

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

This review is from: Magnus (Canongate Classics) (Paperback)

I had the great fortune to meet George Mackay Brown while he was still alive, and the great MISfortune of not knowing what a great writer he was at the time. I was at Stromness in the Orkneys in October 1976 and had just come out of a bookstore where his picture was prominently displayed on the backs of several interesting books of poetry, essays, and fiction. I asked him, "Are you George Mackay Brown?" He smiled, answered, "I do not deny it," and walked on with his hands in his pockets.

Now that I have read several of his books and am continually scouring the world for more, I see this as one of the great missed opportunities of my life.

Who was Magnus? Saint Magnus was one of the great Earls of Orkney in the time when the Isles owed their fealty to the Kings of Norway. Those Viking raids that so terrified Europe all stopped off at Orkney for provisions before going off to pillage the Southrons. Into this maelstrom came a saintly Viking (if that isn't an oxymoron!) named Magnus, who was forced to share power with one of his kinsmen. The latter decided to grab it all, and had Magnus butchered under a flag of truce.

Brown takes episodes in Magnus's life and holds them up in the light to see how it reflects off their surfaces. In Magnus's death, he sees Auschwitz in one famous scene which many critics have disliked, but which I thought was brilliant. Somehow, it took a fellow Orcadian to see Magnus to his core; and Brown does it with majesty, lyricism, and love.

In Kirkwall stands the 12th Century cathedral of St Magnus. I am not sure but that George Mackay Brown, that wild lonely man, built a greater one in this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnus Indeed!, September 26, 2011

By 

L. Mack Hall (Kirbyville, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Magnus (Paperback)

George Mackay Brown -- do write the name on your look-it-up list if, like C. S. Lewis, you sometimes feel the cool, clean winds of northern-ness blowing across your soul, leading you to want to row among the icebergs and whales off Scotland and the Orkneys. MAGNUS is a fictionalized story about the very real Saint Magnus who was martyred 'way back when -- the date is in the book, which I lent to a friend. We seldom meet Magnus himself; the story is predicated on the experiences and narratives of people around him: earls, a king or so, monastics, farmers, fishermen, beggars, and pirates. The reconstruction of the mediaeval world is brilliant and detailed, and, at the end, Magnus' stream-of-consciousness (the only time we really know him) as he prays on the night before his death is rare and brilliant.

Not a must-read, but rather a must-row, must-sail, must-pray, must-celebrate.