Customer Reviews

The Sagas of Icelanders: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For the price offered ($16) this is an amazing bargain. For the cost of two Penguin translations (2 Sagas) you get 9 sagas and multiple tales. Speaking as a person that bought the hardback the paperback is not missing anything as far as I can tell by comparing tables of contents. However, earlier criticisms that it is missing some very classic sagas such as, _Njal's Saga_ though valid should not deter you from getting this book. I will conjecture that the length of those definitive sagas were too much to put into a one volume collection.

Get the book - no shelf should be without the sagas and it is a thrifty choice.

The collection that both the hardback and softback are taken from is a large collection called _Sagas of the Icelanders_ which is about ~$600 so you might also keep that in mind when buying. By no means is this all the sagas from that massive collection but it is a good survey and there is a good further sources section.

For those who are saga junkies be aware that the Sagas of the Icelanders (Islendasogur) is only the Icelandic family sagas and not any of the Bishop Sagas nor Heroic/Mythic Sagas e.g., Saga of Hralf Kraki. So if you are hoping to score the Saga of Harold or any saga whose action is outside of Iceland or not related to one of the great families look elsewhere. Also, for saga junkies these translations do not footnote the geneaology of the characters which the Penguin translations usually did. So you get more of the original feel with "son of...daughter of.."

Overall, if you have become enthralled with the sagas or just taking the plunge for the first time this is a very good and economical choice. Be aware that it is a very thick paperback and not as sturdy as it could be. But by all means get it.

Highly recommended. If you like this set then get Njal's Saga.

These sagas are selected from the excellent and rare five volume set "Complete Sagas of the Icelanders". The translations are clear and readable. A glossary is provided to explain terms unfamiliar to those new to the sagas. In addition there is considerable historical background material which gives the necessary context for understanding the sagas.

If you enjoy the Old Icelandic sagas, this volume is a _must have_. If you aren't familiar with the Old Icelandic sagas, this is probably the best place to start.

The Icelandic sagas bear repeated readings - these texts are a heritage of ancient European culture that belong on the "canon lists" with Homer and Shakespeare. Their influences and histories are that important, anyone who speaks English should certainly read these stories, they are distantly related to us and are at once familiar and very strange. This massive volume is the best single-source for the sagas, and the translations are all new and take into account the most recent scholarship on the sagas. Five stars for the work and the translations, and a sixth star for the best reason to own this book, the reference section, a book in its own right: illlustrations and diagrams, historical charts, glossary (Icelandic-English), up-to-the-minute and large bibliography, maps, family ties and trees, ages of icelandic history, and essays on the social and political structure that is so important to really understading the sagas and the culture that produced them.

However, I have to subtract a few of my stars, with the proviso that I do recommend this book as a must-own for anyone interested. This may raise a few hackles, but I really think that the "Tales" could have been omitted, and either Njal's saga or Erbyggya Saga added. These are fundamental sagas (esp. the former), but perhaps this is just my own love of Njal that sways me. Naturally, the inclusion of these sagas would mean something had to go, and I think that the sagas can stand without the Tales to augment them.

All that said, the book is still a treasure, and I am very glad to see Penguin coming out with such fine volumes. After all, Njal and Ergyggja are also published in very nice translation by Penguin. If you love Nordic poetry and literature, even if you own editions of these sagas, you should still have this one.

It might be useful to end with what IS here, saga-wise:

Egil's Saga
Vatnsdaela Saga
Laxdaela Saga (w/Bolli Bollison's Tale)
Hrafnkel's Saga
Bandamanna Saga (Saga of the Confederates)
Gisli Sursson's Saga
Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue's Saga
Ref's Saga
The Vinland Sagas

When I saw this book on the table of "new" books at the local chain bookstore, I rushed home with exitement to order the book from Amazon - at a considerable discount!

As a Norwegian-American, I grew-up with other people named "Olaf", "Eirik", "Ragnar", "Einar", "Magnus" and "Bjorn". I always knew that these names had come from Scandinavian history - but I didn't know EXACTLY. Now I know. As children, we would hear small snippets of these stories from our parents and grandparents - but never really knew exactly where they came from. Now I know.

In this age where we are constantly told through a variety of media and social institutions that we must "appreciate" diversity and other cultures, this usually really only means a COUPLE of other cultures that happen to have a lot of political influence right now.

There are GENERATIONS of Scandinavian-American people who have completely forgotten THEIR heritage...having been lumped-together with other Western Europeans...as if they ALL had/have the same culture.

These stories of Eirik The Red, Leif Eiriksson, Odin, etc. should be force-fed to EVERY literature student in America - along with Toni Morrison, Shakespeare, Steinbeck AND Greek/Roman mythology. (Heresy, I know!) I see students every day who devour "junk" trade paperback fantasy novels, when everything they are looking for can be found in these beautifully translated sagas that are not only based on some historical fact, but are so beautifully written that they could become a foundation for much further learning.

This edition is wonderful. Beautifully bound, with a few maps and geneological charts, glossary and pronunciation guide. Reading through this collection of sagas reminded me of my experience in junior high when I was reading through J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy. There are a lot of names to keep tract of as you read, but many of these names have important historical references with which you will already be familiar. I am so glad that I purchased this book. It will be on my bookshelf for many years to come, and I am sure that I will take it down and re-read favorite portions of it again and again.

This is a big book, immense really, containing some 17 sagas and tales of the Icelanders. It is a selection from the even larger collection of Viking sagas called "The Complete Sagas of Icelanders." Readers interested in Medieval Literature will surely want to add this book to their collection. These are crisp, new translations that bring the stories of the Vikings to life.

Fans of the literature of the Mediterranean region a thousand years ago, works such as "Poem of the Cid" or "Song of Roland" will notice great differences here. Unlike much of the epic poetry there, the Icelandic Sagas are written in prose. Even so, many of the tales include extensive poetry, for the Vikings admired warrior-poets.

Many of these tales read like history and cover long sequences of time. They "feel" very real. For example, in "Egil's Saga" many generations pass before it is over. Egil himself doesn't make an appearance in the story until almost midway through. The sagas are often the stories of ordinary people rather than kings and knights. But be forewarned, there is much violence here. The modern reader may be bothered by the tendency toward quick violence and sudden death as characters punish with a sudden ax to the head those who have "wronged" them and are admired for such behavior. "The Sagas of Icelanders" includes extensive introductory essays and appendices to help the reader understand this fascinating period of time and these unique peoples.

My historian Father sent me this after I made some sort of witless comment about Leif the Lucky, & when it arrived I was somewhat taken aback -it is HUGE, close to 800 pages if you include index & glossary-but once you dive in, it is hard to put it down. Here we get the stories of the Viukings of the Northwest Atlantic -the Icelanders of the title plus the doomed expeditions to Greenland and Vineland-told in all their wild glory. Of course one wishes one could read it in the original, of course one wishes to hear it sung, but this is the story of a real "other" history that all too often gets left out of the standard texts. This collection contains 10 sagas and several Tales by different translators. While having a number of different folks doing the translation makes for a somewhat uneven "voice" overall I found myself slipping from saga to saga with no trouble. The book includes a nice introduction, several useful maps, plus some simple diagrams of Norse ships and buildings. Anyone with an interest in sea-farers and the history of the north would be well advised to hit their "one-click" buttons right now, then, as soon as the box comes, throw an extra log or two on the fire, pour yourself a flagon of the closest you can get to mead & kiss the rest of the day goodbye -you are in for a treat!

I've been seriously consuming Medeival literature for about a year now after my interest was re-awakened (I found out the Mythology & Folklore shelf at Barnes & Noble is a veritable treasure trove!) I'd never read a saga before, but the Poetic Edda had convinced me that I would enjoy anything Norse or Icelandic. Sagas of Icelanders is a huge, bulky book. To get a book that size at such a reasonable price was a bargain I could not pass up. The introductory material helps put a historical perspective on the sagas and prepares you for what to expect ... then the fun starts with Egil's Saga, which is the longest and possibly best in this collection. Other reviewers have lamented the absence of Njal's Saga here - it is published seperately and was probably too long to include in this collection. (Based on what folks have said though, I'm going to have to get Njal's Saga.)
I am now a saga addict! I devoured this book with amazing eagerness; each story is an engrossing page-turner. I just couldn't stop reading them. The style is intentionally simple with an economy of words and an emotional starkness that reminds me of Dashiell Hammett. There's no chivalric nonsense or courtly fanciness to be found here. The storytellers do not attempt to flatter their audience or paint their characters in a more positive light. Characters are tragically stubborn, stupid, violent, irrational, sometimes even psychotic. They can also be strong, noble, just, independent, faithful, practical, and hardy. The sagas have a "just the facts" attitude that is unique in Medeival literature. They are also unique in being epic-length prose instead of poetry, and having secular subject matter. I have to wonder - these monumental works, produced in the Christian era but portraying semi-historical pagan characters in a sympathetic light - how did they get written? Who wrote them and why? Who was the intended audience? This is the mystery of the sagas when the indroduction refers to them as a "literary Stonehenge."
The world of the sagas is violent. There's plenty of killing - sometimes for no apparent reason, but usually it's an act of revenge for a wrong, real or perceived. One reviewer with an axe to grind has condemned this book as a "distorted view" of Icelandic history, but I think he misses the point of the collection. It's not meant to be an accurate history; it's a sampler of Medeival sagas. Consider how "accurate" a collection of two-fisted detective novels would be as history of early 20th-century America. Literature is supposed to entertain. Who wants to read about Grimwald the Meek who just stays on his farm and lives peacefully for 50 years? That's not interesting. The sagas are about interesting people who did remarkable things.
But - again, strange for Medeival literature - most of the saga characters are NOT of noble blood. They are often members of wealthy and influential families, but seldom are they royalty. People in the sagas are not afraid to get their hands dirty. They make their fortunes by working, trading (and going on Viking raids.) You won't find Romance cliche's of idle kings and queens and knights here. King Harald of Norway shows up often, but he's certainly not presented as much more than a successful warlord, and usually a tyrant.
I was surprised but not especially disappointed to find a lack of "mythology" in the sagas. There's a little bit of magic here and there, and a ghost or two, but little is said of the gods and even less of nature spirits, dragons, fairies, etc. Compared to Celtic tales (like the ones in the Mabinogion, for instance) the sagas are firmly grounded in reality.
One other caution: I found myself sometimes bewildered by the Icelandic names and I had difficulty keeping track of who was who. Most sagas tell a story of several generations of a family, and sons are named after grandfathers, and neighbors have the same names, and after a while you're floundering in a sea of Thorvalds and Thorgrims and Thorsteins and Snorris, etc etc ... and each one of them is a son of another Thorvald, Thorgrim, Thorstein, or Snorri and you lose track of who is who. I had to do some page-flipping sometimes to look back and re-establish who a character was and what he had done earlier. But other than that this was a quick and enjoyable read.
It's interesting, it's huge, it's affordable: If you don't buy it there's something wrong with you!

The Sagas of the Icelanders is an excellent collection of nordic literature in an affordable and attractive book. Heavily notated, with maps detailing the settings of some of the stories, this is an excellent way to get started in learning about the lives of the Scandanavian and Icelandic people.

The stories richly describe the heroism, psychology, strength, values and day to day life and decision making of the people within these tales. This is inspiring and entertaining literature which should grace the shelf of anyone interested in the study of history, anthropology, epic literature, or norse religion.

Amazing! This book is amazing. I have always been interested in history, and when my dad brought me this book, I was very surprised. Icelandic history? We never seem to cover that kind of thing in history classes. So I started reading. I was hooked immediately. The stories were interesting and well translated, and I liked how the book was organized. It was well priced for the information inside it and the preface and introduction were nice. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes history, or even those who don't, because I was fascinated and I was pressed by my fascination to learn more about Icelandic history.

The saga's in this collection are one of a kind. They are as engaging and readable as a modern historical fiction and as epic as the ancient classics. The are as useful to a scholar as they are to someone looking for a riveting novel.
HOWEVER the book is filled with LOTS of intros and explainations. The intros are VERY well written and informative but I'm afraid I learned the hard way that they are full of merciless spoilers. Thats ok for alot of people seeing as a large percentage of the people reading this will do so for scholarly purposes and may indeed have already read many of the saga's contained within. However for those of us who have never read them and are seeking to enjoy a few great stories with amazing plots and emotional climaxes, the intros are a serious downer. Each individual saga has its own intro as well as a place in the gigantic main introduction. What I did after the first saga was spoiled for me was simply read through the sagas first and then read their respective introductions which, again, are superbly written and very informative.

All that aside, if you like GREAT stories, Get this book!
If you enjoy northern european history, Get this book!
and read it. After the first saga you'll soon find yourself unable to stop turning to the next and the next...