Customer Reviews

The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America (Penguin Classics)

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"The Vinland Sagas" brings together English translations of two medieval Icelandic sagas: "Graenlendiga Saga" and "Eirik's Saga." These tales tell the story of the discovery and exploration of North America by the Norsemen in the 10th and 11th centuries. Together, they offer fascinating glimpses into a remarkable era in the history of the Americas.

Translators Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson have also produced a thorough 37-page introduction which discusses the archeological evidence for the medieval Norse presence in the Americas, the historical development of the sagas themselves, and the evolution of the saga as a unique genre of literature. Maps, a chronology, and other resources further enhance this book's usefulness for students and teachers.

But don't let the scholarly apparatus fool you into thinking that "The Vinland Sagas" is just a text for the classroom. The sagas themselves, likely written in the 12th and 13th centuries, are still great reading all these hundreds of years later. With their simple, no-nonsense prose style, along with the presence of characters with such names as "Thorhall the Hunter" and "Aud the Deep-Minded," the sagas have a truly unique quality.

And for those interested in the history of the Americas or in multicultural issues, these two sagas contain a wealth of tantalizing episodes and characters. Each tale reflects the conflict between Christianity and Paganism within Norse culture during that great age of exploration. Also fascinating are the accounts of the first encounters between the Norsemen and the "skraelings" (the Norse word for the indigenous inhabitants of this new world). Also noteworthy is each saga's colorful portrayal of the Norse women; both feminist scholars and general readers should be intrigued by these bold foremothers.

The "first contact" tale has long been a mainstay of classic science fiction in book, television, and motion picture form. Think of "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "E.T." and other narratives that depict an imaginary initial encounter between human beings and alien cultures. The stories contained in "The Vinland Sagas" represent the great medieval precursors of such science fiction classics; even more remarkably, these Icelandic sagas are grounded in real history. These stories are full of insights and surprises; read them for both education and enjoyment.

The Vinland Sagas
The Norse Discovery of America
By Magnusson & Palsson

The Vinland Sagas, like all the Edda's & Sagas, are very difficult to review. The Sagas are what they are, collections of original tales, Myths, family histories & genealogies of Icelandic & Scandinavian origin. They ARE history, good, bad or indifferently, after a thousand years or so, they are history.

Magnusson and Palsson have given us two of the more understandable modern translations with more than adequate footnotes and explanations. The Authors introduction gives you an excellent and informative background on the exploration and colonization of both Greenland & Vinland. At the end of the book the Authors have included a useful glossary like chapter titled, "List of Proper Names". I found it very useful in clarifying individuals with the same or similar names. All in all a must for anyone interested in Norse Lore or early North American exploration.

On a side note, my copy is over 40 years old. I hope that Penguin, (or any other publisher for that matter), will revise the books format and maps. Additionally they need to add some notes or even a chapter on the archaeological finds on this subject that have taken place in the last 40 years.

In Frith,
Spence

"Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc"
M. Addams

The Vinland Sagas describe early Norse exploration of Greenland and North America. The two sagas, "Graenlendinga Saga" and "Eirik's Saga," amount to the only major written records of these adventures -- Eirik the Red's colonization of Greenland and Leif Eiriksson's landing on the North American continent, probably in L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, around the year 1000 AD. A mild climate and expert Norse seamanship made both discoveries possible.

The "Full Circle" theory of human migration holds that modern man's early ancestors parted ways about 100,000 years ago in Africa. Some turned east into Asia; some west into Europe. The two civilizations would not meet again until the Vikings encountered the aboriginal people of North America. The book's lengthy introduction provides an excellent primer on the history and controversy surrounding these sagas and the events they relate.

The Vikings treated native Americans -- whom they called "skraelings," which translates into something like "wretches" -- as shabbily as any later colonialists. From Eirik's Saga: "They came upon five Skraelings clad in skins, asleep; beside them were containers full of deer-marrow mixed with blood. Karlsefni's men reckoned that these five must be outlaws, and killed them." The five natives were, of course, a hunting party -- not outlaws.

Though they were probably the first Europeans to set foot on North America, pre-dating Columbus by 500 years, the Norse explorers failed to establish a colony on the continent. Thus, while fascinating, their adventures will never be as historically significant as those of later seafarers.

124 pages, containing maps including one from 1590. This book contains two sagas giving accounts of the Viking arrival and attempted settlement of New England (they called Vinland). The first is Graenlendinga Saga which first speaks to the discovery of Greenland by Erik the Red, and the further exploration of Vinland by his sons. The second, Eirik's Saga gives a somewhat different account of the same events. Although the details remain similar, the persons and personalities shift. Both are short but interesting, and the first chapter of each had to be restored from another account as the original chapters for each were lost. That should no distract from one of the amazing stories in human history.

A must-read for anyone interested in American history, American prehistory, or just anyone wanting a good read! I found the introduction to the book (which was actually the first half of the book) to be the most informative, as it put the Viking voyges to America in historical context. All in all very well written and informative!

The Vinland Sagas
The Norse Discovery of America
By Magnusson & Palsson

The Vinland Sagas, like all the Edda's & Sagas, are very difficult to review. The Sagas are what they are, collections of original tales, Myths, family histories & genealogies of Icelandic & Scandinavian origin. They ARE history, good, bad or indifferently, after a thousand years or so, they are history.

Magnusson and Palsson have given us two of the more understandable modern translations with more than adequate footnotes and explanations. The Authors introduction gives you an excellent and informative background on the exploration and colonization of both Greenland & Vinland. At the end of the book the Authors have included a useful glossary like chapter titled, "List of Proper Names". I found it very useful in clarifying individuals with the same or similar names. All in all a must for anyone interested in Norse Lore or early North American exploration.

On a side note, my copy is over 40 years old. I hope that Penguin, (or any other publisher for that matter), will revise the books format and maps. Additionally they need to add some notes or even a chapter on the archaeological finds on this subject that have taken place in the last 40 years.

In Frith,
Spence the Elder

"Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc"
M. Addams

This small book is a delightful combination of an excellent introduction that provides tons of background to the sagas themselves with saga text that's very easy to read and follow.

When reading texts that have their origins so very long ago, I find it quite helpful to get a thorough and easy to understand background on what I'm about to read. The LONG introduction to these texts does just that and I thank the authors for their efforts in putting these texts in perspective for us.

And unlike some saga texts I've read, these are very easy to follow in their English form. Some English versions of Viking sagas are a real struggle to read, but these were both easy and enjoyable.

I bought this book in particular to gain some insight into the Viking exploration of North America (Vinland) and I'm totally satisfied with it. I now would like to know if these authors have published their renditions of other Viking sagas ... theirs are so much better than others I've read, I'd look forward to reading more.

The Vinland Sagas are important in that they provide textual background for the Norse discovery of North America in the 10th-11th centuries. However, they present a number of problems from a historical perspective (inconsistency being one of them). This work does not shrink from these issues and addresses them head-on.

The work provides the Greenlanders' Saga first and most scholars today accept this as the older one. This is followed by the Saga of Erik the Red. This is combined with a good introduction.

I would recommend this work, and suggest pairing it with Edgar Polome (ed), "Old Norse Literature and Mythology: A Symposium" (1969) which includes a useful paper comparing the sagas and looking at historical vs non-historical aspects of the sagas.

Are you also tired of supermarket magazines where just about everyone in the known universe discovers America before poor Columbus? No? You should be. Forget about the Nephites, the Mandingos, the Knights Templar or space aliens from Wherever. Instead, read this: the Vinland Sagas. This is the real deal. As far as we know today, only one Old World people reached America before Columbus: the ancient Scandinavians, also known as the Norsemen, more colloqially known as Vikings.

How do we know? First, archeological excavations prove it. Second, we have the Vinland Sagas! There are two main characters in these stories: Erik the Red, who is forced to leave Iceland in a hurry after a blood feud and inadvertently discovers Greenland, and Leif Eriksson, who leads the expedition that eventually reaches North America, called "Vinland" by the Norsemen. Yepp, this actually happened, folks.

Since the word "Viking" conjures up pictures of heathen human sacrifice, many will be surprised to learn that Leif Eriksson was a Christian. Thus, the first European to reach America was a Roman Catholic.

The Vinland Sagas also describe the Norsemen's encounters with American Indians. The portrait of the Indians is highly insensitive: they are called skraelings (wretches), and are described as dirty, primitive and irrational. It's chilling to contemplate that the contacts between Whites and Indians got off to such a bad start already 500 years before Columbus!

The Norsemen established several settlements in the New World, but all of them were abandoned relatively quickly. During the Middle Ages, people forgot about the Norse voyages to America, and the Vinland Sagas were regarded as fairytales. Until, one day, Columbus made that fateful journey to what he thought was Asia...

The world would never be the same again.

I had to read this for my Scandinavian history class and I am very pleased with this book. It's fascinating to find out what happened with the Greenland and North American settlements by the early Icelandic peoples. My only complaint is that the book spends too much time on geneology rather than historical facts.