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Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths Hardcover – October 30, 2012

by Nancy Marie Brown (Author)

39 customer reviews

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Much like Greek and Roman mythology, Norse myths are still with us. Famous storytellers from JRR Tolkien to Neil Gaiman have drawn their inspiration from the long-haired, mead-drinking, marauding and pillaging Vikings. Their creator is a thirteenth-century Icelandic chieftain by the name of Snorri Sturluson. Like Homer, Snorri was a bard, writing down and embellishing the folklore and pagan legends of medieval Scandinavia. Unlike Homer, Snorri was a man of the world—a wily political power player, one of the richest men in Iceland who came close to ruling it, and even closer to betraying it… In Song of the Vikings, award-winning author Nancy Marie Brown brings Snorri Sturluson’s story to life in a richly textured narrative that draws on newly available sources.

Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths

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Product Details

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition (October 30, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0230338844
ISBN-13: 978-0230338845
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1 x 9.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #853,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #58 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Ancient & Medieval Literature > Medieval
- #104 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Regional & Cultural > European > Scandinavian
- #985 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Medieval

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Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars

5 star		64%
4 star		23%
3 star		10%
2 star		3%
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

Great book on an under served topic

By Joe Lusk on December 10, 2012

Format: Hardcover

I have been traveling to Iceland for almost 10 years now and have been fascinated with the country, the people and the history. One figure always stood out for me, Snorri. He is almost single-handedly responsible for all of our knowledge of Norse myths and he had an interesting life himself. Unfortunately most of the source material on him is in Icelandic, and as an English speaker I was reduced to just snippets and anecdotes of information about him. Thanks to the painstaking work done by the author, this one volume changes that completely. It is well written, scholarly in some parts and conversational in others. In enjoyed reading it immensely. The opinion on his influence on Tolkien and modern fantasy is very interesting as well. If you enjoy myth, folklore or history you will enjoy this book.

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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

Myth, Legends, and Reality

By AUTHORAUTHOR on December 12, 2012

Format: Hardcover

I just finished reading Song of the Vikings--what an amazing piece of scholarship that brings to life the times and machinations of Snorri Sturluson. At a time in Iceland when a common expression was "Don't kill what you can't pay for," when uncle plotted against nephew and blood feuds carried on for generations, Snorri attempted to create the alliances that would enable him to rule Iceland. In many ways the constant shifting of alliances and enmities reminded me of Martin's "Game of Thrones--except this is history not fiction.

And who would have guessed how much our knowledge of Norse myths is due to the writings of one man? At at time when the medieval aristocracy was becoming enthralled with the legends of King Arthur and chivalry, Snorri chose to write down many of the old Norse myths (some of which he may have embellished). Without this source material, Tolkein's Lord of the Rings may have been very different since in many cases Snorri is the only source for some of these stories. Nancy Brown's analysis of this legacy to modern literature is fascinating.

And it is paragraphs like this one, which foreshadows the death of Snorri, that underlie my enjoyment of this book:

"It is cold in Iceland in late September. The birch leaves are bright gold, the berry shrubs crimson. The songbirds have all flown. Swans flock in the marshlands, sounding their haunting note. Night falls quickly and lingers long: the wind has the bite of ice. When the rain lets up, the northern lights wash the sky with streams of emerald and turquoise and sometimes blood. An old fat man in his nightshirt, barefoot, would not get far in the cold and dark of a late September night." (p. 179)

Nancy Brown has spent considerable time in Iceland soaking up (sometimes literally by relaxing in Snorri's own hot springs) its landscape, history, and culture and this immersion shows in the quality of this book.

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

Flashes of Brilliance Among Confusion

By K.Cruz on May 30, 2013

Format: Hardcover

Overall, there is much of "Song of the Vikings" that I find very clever and make the book worth reading. Nancy Marie Brown spends a great deal of time tying Snorri and the myths themselves together, explaining why certain myths reflect points in Snorri's own life or how specific characters like Odin connect to Snorri himself. This not only injects the book with nice interludes of mythology but reminds the reader why we might be reading this book: Snorri wrote these myths down (if he didn't build some of them on his own altogether), and now we want to know about Snorri.

However, while this Snorri/mythology thread weaves throughout the text very successfully, overall I find "Song of the Vikings" a rather patchwork tale. Historically, Brown jumps all over the place. She often mentions someone, offers their entire life story from the get go, and constantly repeats these details throughout the narrative as they actually become important. While this may help someone remember all the names/dates/details, this gets very repetitive very quickly. It also makes it almost impossible to keep track of the time period in certain places, such as what events are happening when. Since so much of this story hinges on when someone is king or when so-and-so was a chieftain, this is an unfortunate and devastating flaw.

My next issue, and it is a related one, is that I didn't see enough Snorri. Brown is obviously very well-versed in this history and literature, and she has a great deal to talk about. However, what often happens is Snorri will have some incident with someone who Brown then goes on a five page tangent about, only to rush back to Snorri as though this tangent in no way took away from the narrative.Read more ›

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

By Tracy Barrett on December 13, 2012

Format: Hardcover

I enjoyed Nancy Marie Brown's The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman, and when I recently heard her talk about her new book on NPR I knew I had to read it too. And I'm very happy I did; it's an enthralling story of a man who made great contributions to Western civilization but is practically unknown outside scholarly circles.

What I particularly enjoyed was the way Brown wove the tales told by Snorri into the account of his life and the history of medieval Iceland and its people. I've tried to read Icelandic sagas (in translation!) and always had a hard time relating to them. I didn't understand people's relations to one another or, many times, their motivations for behaving in sometimes extreme ways. But by grounding the myths in the lives of real people, Brown shows the human side of the myths, bizarre though some of them may seem. Her book will send me back to the tales with a greater understanding and I'm sure a greater appreciation.

This book is a rare combination of scrupulous accuracy and good story-telling. Highly recommended.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

good summary of viking history, reason for move to Iceland and life on Iceland

Published 1 month ago by David Horsma

Iceland and Norway have a great history and literature.

Published 2 months ago by James B. Durkin IV

Engrossing history as it should be taught. Superb.

Published 5 months ago by James E.

Fantastic well written, and explores Snorri's life and stories and how Tolkien got them into LOR

Published 7 months ago by merlyn

Snorri Sturluson's writings gave us the History and Myths of the...

This very well researched book tells the story of 1300th century writer and poet Snorri Sturluson's life. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Carl-Uno

Another intriging book from Nancy Marie Brown. A must-have for anyone interested in Icelandic Saga history.

Published 11 months ago by kim brehm

Great

Published 16 months ago by mike wojnar

An enjoyable and informative work

An insightful, enjoyable, and informative work. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of culture and/or their european roots.

Published 18 months ago by William Colburn

Worth every dime!

Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths is, in my opinion, absolutely essential for any student of Norse lore and mythology. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Heather OBrien

Who was Snorri Sturluson? How did his rise to power in Iceland...

Each of the six chapters starts out with a recap of Snorri’s Norse myths, it follows by delving into the life of Snorri and how his experiences shape his stories. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Shuffy2

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