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Njal's Saga (Penguin Classics) Paperback – May 28, 2002

by Anonymous (Author), Robert Cook (Editor, Translator)

26 customer reviews

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Written in the thirteenth century, Njal's Saga is a story that explores perennial human problems-from failed marriages to divided loyalties, from the law's inability to curb human passions to the terrible consequences when decent men and women are swept up in a tide of violence beyond their control. It is populated by memorable and complex characters like Gunnar of Hlidarendi, a powerful warrior with an aversion to killing, and the not-so-villainous Mord Valgardsson. Full of dreams, strange prophecies, violent power struggles, and fragile peace agreements, Njal's Saga tells the compelling story of a fifty-year blood feud that, despite its distance from us in time and place, is driven by passions familiar to us all.

This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction, chronology, index of characters, plot summary, explanatory notes, maps, and suggestions for further reading.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Njal's Saga (Penguin Classics)

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Product Details

Series: Penguin Classics
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised edition (May 28, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780140447699
ISBN-13: 978-0140447699
ASIN: 0140447695
Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1 x 7.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #201,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1665 in Books > Reference > Foreign Language Study & Reference
- #2910 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Family Saga
- #4780 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics

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Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars

5 star		73%
4 star		15%
3 star		4%
2 star		4%
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67 of 69 people found the following review helpful

A Northern Iliad

By Stuart W. Mirsky on August 5, 2004

Format: Paperback

Although most of us have heard of the Greek epics and, in particular, the Iliad and Odyssey (the two most renowned epics in the western world today), we have a great deal less familiarity with the literary tradition of the old Norse folk who inhabited the lands about the Baltic and North Atlantic in early medieval times. We've heard about the vikings, of course, coastal pirates and fighters who sprang from these folk, and about their wide-ranging adventures across dangerous and often unexplored seas. Yet we are not nearly so familiar with the Norse literary tradition which is, in some ways, as compelling and profound as the literature of the ancient Greeks which we so revere today.

The Norse saga tradition reflects stories handed down orally for generations which were finally committed to written form in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Among these works, Njal's Saga may well be the best. Like all sagas it is a prose epic (as opposed to the poetic form of the Odyssey and its kind), but with a unique rhythm and perspective which only the Norse folk had to offer. It's a somewhat bleak tale of several generations of Icelandic families whose men and women lived and feuded on the remote island of Iceland, itself only settled by expatriate Norwegian farmers and land holders from about 860 AD onward.

Here, in Njal's Saga, is a tale of hard men in a harsh land who push and pull at one another until the only recourse, in their grim pioneering culture, remains the blood-feud.Read more ›

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52 of 53 people found the following review helpful

Don't dismiss Cook's translation out of hand...

By The valkyrie Mist on October 29, 2006

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

I recently became interested in Norse mythology, and after acquiring a number of books on the subject my interest spilled over into Norse, particularly Icelandic, sagas. I bought the hefty Penguin "The Sagas of Icelanders", and since all the reviewers for it lamented the exclusion (understandably, for space reasons) of Njal's Saga, I bought that separately, and I've just finished reading it.

I bought this translation, Cook's. There seemed to be two main choices, this or Magnus Magnusson's, and I noticed a few reviewers quite bluntly trashing Cook's translation, promoting Magnus's instead. I decided to start with Cook's anyway, figuring that, even if it was inferior to Magnusson's, I wouldn't know what I was missing, since I hadn't yet read Magusson's. Admittedly, I still haven't read Magnusson's translation, but I enjoyed Cook's translation very much and did not by any means think of it as lacking.

In fact, in Cook's notes on the translation presented in the book, he explains his motivation and justification for translating the saga the way he did, in a way that seems to anticipate the disfavor of his translation by loyal Magnusson fans:

"[This translation] differs from previous translations of Njal's Saga...in attempting to duplicate the sentence structure and spare vocabulary of the Icelandic text."

After giving a few examples of the stylistic eccentricities in which the saga was originally written and demonstrating how he attempted to reproduce them in his translation--even contrasting an excerpt of Magnusson's translation with his own--he goes on to say:

"It is hoped that the reader of this translation will accept--and even learn to enjoy--these and other efforts at fidelity, though they may seem strange at first.Read more ›

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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

Better than most modern novels

By Jordan M. Poss VINE VOICE on February 7, 2008

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

Njal's Saga is perhaps the single most important and best-known of the entire body of Icelandic saga literature. By turns a legal thriller, domestic drama, and violent revenge tragedy, Njal's Saga is far more complex and entertaining than most of the modern fiction that I've ever read.

Njal's Saga covers one of the most violent and tumultuous periods in European history in general and Norse history in particular. During Njal's long life the first Christian missionaries came to the island and, in 1000, the island voted to convert. Such a brief summation does no justice to the intense machinations involved and the often violent reactions of Icelanders and Christians alike.

But of even greater importance to Njal's story are the many feuds in which he became embroiled and which finally claimed his life. The overall arc of the stories is far too complex to be related here, but every victory that Njal achieves comes at a heavy cost of both money and blood. Throughout, the feuding, fighting, and legal episodes at the Althing are carefully recorded and uniformly exciting.

A word on the translation: Cook's translation of the saga has drawn a considerable amount of flak from fans of the more "contemporary" Magnusson translation, but such attacks are largely unfounded. Cook's aim in translating the saga was to accurately recreate the original Icelandic's terse, forthright, and completely unembellished style. Having read a number of other saga translations, I'd say this is a noble and, in this case, successful aim. This translation is exciting without catering to modern convention, something that speaks well for the power of the story regardless of translator.

My only word of warning about this book: don't put it down.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Njal's Saga - A Great Story, An Interesting Study, and A Warning for...

A classic. One of the greatest and best-known Icelandic sagas, Njal's Saga, or The Story of Burnt Njal, relates the often turbulent relationships of the Norse settlers of Iceland,... Read more

Published 2 days ago by teapot

Njal's Saga remains a portrait of the people of Iceland that is...

My mother went to Iceland last summer and brought this book back home, and it must be said that Njal's Saga is as authentic a translation as possible. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Carsten

Good translation for free.

I love Njal's saga, and for the price this translation is fine, but there are some odd word choices that kept this from being 4 stars. I prefer the penguin edition.

Published 3 months ago by PB

Five Stars

Great

Published 9 months ago by Zero

Five Stars

brand new

Published 10 months ago by Ao Liu

Where are the maps?

This review is for the Kindle edition read on an Ipad:

1. Maps listed in the contents aren't there.
2. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Stuart K Patterson

Five Stars

Great book in barely-used condition. Arrived early. The perfect book for my college class.

Published 16 months ago by Minnie

Ian Myles Slater on: A Good Translation with Attractive Features

"Njal's Saga," otherwise known as "Brennu-Njals saga," the story of Njal who was burned, and "Njala," is the longest and most highly esteemed of the stories (sagas) that later... Read more

Published 22 months ago by Ian M. Slater

a great tale

this is anothre in the line of viking sagas, the tales of the events that happened in thier time, to have a better understanding of what it mean to be a viking

Published on October 15, 2013 by Matthew Aseltine

recomend

I read this before and want to have in my personal library. Story plot is fascinating Viking adventure story. Read more

Published on May 9, 2013 by richard j dooley jr

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