Laxdaela Saga (Penguin Classics)

by Anonymous (Author), Magnus Magnusson (Translator), Hermann Palsson (Translator)

13 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0140442182

ISBN-10: 0140442189

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Written around 1245 by an unknown author, the Laxdaela Saga is an extraordinary tale of conflicting kinships and passionate love, and one of the most compelling works of Icelandic literature. Covering 150 years in the lives of the inhabitants of the community of Laxriverdale, the saga focuses primarily upon the story of Gudrun Osvif's-daughter: a proud, beautiful, vain and desirable figure, who is forced into an unhappy marriage and destroys the only man she has truly loved - her husband's best friend. A moving tale of murder and sacrifice, romance and regret, the Laxdaela Saga is also a fascinating insight into an era of radical change - a time when the Age of Chivalry was at its fullest flower in continental Europe, and the Christian faith was making its impact felt upon the Viking world.

Laxdaela Saga (Penguin Classics)

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Product Details

Series: Penguin Classics (Book 218)
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Penguin Classics (November 30, 1969)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0140442189
ISBN-13: 978-0140442182
Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.7 x 7.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #302,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #162 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Mythology & Folk Tales > Mythology
- #245 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Medieval
- #2722 in Books > Reference > Foreign Language Study & Reference

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Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars

5 star		77%
4 star		15%
3 star		8%
2 star		0%
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

Men (and Women) of Iron

By James Paris on August 11, 2000

Format: Paperback

Whenever I confront the Icelandic sagas, as I have the urge to do from time to time, I feel anew the onrush of a different reality.
Did someone do you dirt? Then bushwhack him and and his family and put them all to the sword. There will be settlements to be paid based on your wealth and influence and that of your victim's friends and remaining family, and the desire of your neighbors to put a cap on a burgeoning intergenerational blood feud. Divorce? Tell your old man you've had it with him, march away, and lay claim to half of his estate. (This while women in mainland Europe barely had the right to breathe.)
The LAXDAELA SAGA is one of the best of the sagas, ranking with THE BURNT NJAL SAGA as one of the greatest works to come from the Viking world -- and the greatest literary works of the 12th-14th centuries from anywhere. Its numerous cast of characters (I count 189 names in the book's helpful Glossary of Proper Names, about 40 of which begin with "Thor") boggles the mind. Just remember, these were real people, and their names are enshrined in the history of Iceland by their descendents.
It takes several generations of ambushes, conniving marriages and bloody divorces, and even the introduction of Christianity around A.D. 1000 before the main story gets under way, namely the story of Gudrun Osvifs-daughter and her four marriages. This is no blushing romance: Look at Gudrun the wrong way, and start drafting your will! Her boyfriend Kjartan Olafsson dallies too long in Norway, and she marries his cousin Bolli out of spite. Then, when he returns, she does everything she can to urge Bolli to kill him and his men. A series of internecine feuds breaks out, and it takes more than twenty years for the bad blood to be drained off.Read more ›

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

One of the finer ones!

By Stuart W. Mirsky on January 22, 2002

Format: Paperback

As a lover of the Icelandic sagas, I can say I've had the opportunity to read quite a few. But this one, the tale of Gudrun Osvif's Daughter who marries four times, while bringing about the death of one of the most remarkable men Iceland had ever seen up to that time, out of a kind of lover's pique, is surely one of the best. Gudrun belongs to an illustrious family and soon comes into the orbit of an even more illustrious one, that of Olaf the Peacock. While this tale, like all true sagas, spans several generations, the core of the book revolves around the fair Gudrun and the men she encounters and enters into relationships with. But it's a tragic tale in the end, as well, because Gudrun, proud and unforgiving as any Norseman in the saga world, cannot give way and is thus doomed to lose the one man she may have desired most of all. It falls, finally, to her son, born after the killing of her third husband, to bring a kind of rough Icelandic justice to those who brought down the father he never knew, while Gudrun, in her old age, remains typically taciturn, unable to tell him who it was she cared for most, the man who sired him or the one whose death she sought.

SWM
author of The King of Vinland's Saga

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

One of the best Icelandic Sagas and known as romantic.

By A Customer on March 22, 1998

Format: Paperback

This Icelandic saga deals with event in Laxriverdale, first tracing the story of the families involved before leading into the real story of the desirable Gudrun and her sequential marriage to four gentlemen. The basis for the story is certainly true,
although it is never known how true an Icelandic saga is. This is one of the best sagas
both for its moving story and easier readability than other sagas. Is interesting too in
that it deals in part with the introduction of Christianity into Iceland. Contains family trees
for the characters involved and four maps of Iceland and Laxriverdale.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

Good.

By R. E. P. Esq. on May 15, 2001

Format: Paperback

I believe I own and have read almost all of the Penguin Classic Icelandic Sagas they sell on this site (Amazon.com). Njal's Saga, Eyrbyggja Saga, Egil's Saga, and this, the Laxdaela Saga. With that said, of those that I have read, I rank this the second of the best and find it entirely entertaining. Unlike Njal's or Egil's saga, it lacks a central character. This may put some off, but I find it for the better, putting the reader in an omnipotent position that allows them to distantly spectate everything happening within the tireless world presented within. Not to suggest the action of the saga is disconnected, only that the reader isn't forced to follow a single character around on their exploits. Instead, like an eye we observe the Lax River and it's people, who all encounter new and dangerous situations in their lives. As to of whether the text is romanticized or not is entirely up to the reader's interpretation and what they care to focus on. For one who simply wants to read about events and the activities of people that 'just simply are' or if you want to read about romantic tragedy and battles, you can find either one in the ambiguous texts of the Laxdaela Saga. ...

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

You Can't Go Wrong With This

By J. W. Kennedy on March 16, 2005

Format: Paperback

Icelandic Sagas are truly the best of Medeival literature. They are much easier for modern readers (and therefore more entertaining) than the epic-heroic poetry which was standard throughout the rest of Europe. Other reviewers have already said plenty about this saga. I just wanted to note that Laxdaela Saga is included in the collection "The Sagas of Icelanders" also published by Penguin Classics. That's the version I own. It seems that many of the sagas from that collection are also published in single volumes. If you're interested in sagas, the bigger book is a much better value than buying them all seperately.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Bad Dudes with Axes Run Amok---NOT !

The past is clouded over, dark and murky. Once in a while, a hole opens up and we peer in, not sure what we are going to behold. Read more

Published on July 10, 2013 by Bob Newman

told so baldly and matter of factly that it reads like an income and...

I bought this book based on the full starred reviews but I did not get the same impression as the other reviewers. Read more

Published on July 6, 2010 by Cleo

One of the best sagas

The Laxdaela Saga ranks up with Njal's Saga and Egil's Saga in terms of literary quality and thus should be a part of any saga lover's library. Read more

Published on July 24, 2009 by Christopher R. Travers

One of The Best!

I have spent reading Icelandic Sagas for a year now, almost exclusively. I skipped over this one, because I read that it focused too much on Christian Europe. Read more

Published on November 1, 2007 by Jefferson Paine

Includes interesting part of Iceland's conversion to Christianity

The feeling in this amazing saga is that Iceland is governed moreso by basic decency than by an organized religion. Read more

Published on December 5, 2005 by khw

History or soap opera?

Some of both, probably. The Icelandic sagas are a unique historical resource, a written capture of European oral history, back when the stories were still fresh. Read more

Published on December 18, 2004 by wiredweird

It transports you to another world...

I read the Laxdaela Saga more than a year ago for a class I took on Viking History. I have enjoyed few books in my life as much as I enjoyed this one. Read more

Published on December 2, 2004 by RaeSofSunshine

Notes on Laxdaela Saga

Notes on Laxdaela Saga
1.Humor
There's little discernible humor in the sagas, but there are occasional moments of grim amusement. Read more

Published on December 9, 2001 by Extollager