Product Description

An Icelandic saga which mixes realism with wild gothic imagination and history with eerie tales of hauntings. It dramatizes a 13th century view of the past, from the pagan anarchy of the Viking age to the settlement of Iceland, the coming of Christianity and the beginnings of organized society.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #307518 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-25
• Original language: Icelandic
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

Eyrbyggja Saga
I have long been familar with many of the other Sagas, but somehow Eyrbyggja slipped me by. I found the tale the most human of the Icelandic material I have read, with a simple disagreement between where and where not to relieve oneself rapidly desending into murder and slaughter. The tale was not choked with christian morality, the characters did not spend aeons 'doing a Hamlet' trying to justify their actions before they do them, they just get on with it. On the downside the style is rather plain at times, especially if the reader is familar with more flowery modern fiction, and can be confusing to follow. Helpfully there are some nice maps in the index and a list of all the characters so you know whoose who. Overall, great story, viscious battles, wonderful characters but to fully appreciate all these you have to work with the book. As with many things, the more Sagas you read the more you understand, for many of the characters spring up in other places. Not an ideal starting point for someone trying to get into saga's though.

Haunting and feuding in a hostile land.
Eyrbyggja is a saga heavy on the supernatural. Characters do not always disappear when they are killed, but often return as ghosts to cause mischief, murder and, in one instance, to prepare a meal while stark naked! Hauntings, omens and visions of the afterlife are treated as part of the natural order of things.

This is essentially a saga of the clans of early Icelandic settlers, especially of their feuds and disputes, over two centuries. The genealogies get very confusing. The translator includes a List of Characters in the front and A Glossary of Personal Names at the back. You will be constantly referring to these, but will still get your Thorbrandssons mixed up with your Thorlakssons and wonder which Thorgrim is which. This work must be a treasure trove for Icelandic historians and geanalogists. One of the delights of the book is the occasional weird name, like Thorstein Cod-Biter and Ketil Flat-Nose.

This is not the courtly or romantic epic of the French or German culture of the same period. This is a narrative as hard, cold and bleak as the Icelandic landscape in which these characters struggle for survival. There is some black humour, and I guiltily confess to enjoying the story of the cowardly Scotsman. Speaking of Scots, this was Sir Walter Scott's favorite saga and might well have helped him to form the concept of the historical novel.

This is a readable translation with some useful footnotes and a good introduction. The latter however, should be left until you read the story itself, as it contains a lot of spoilers.