The Complete Sagas of Icelanders, Including 49 Tales. Vol. 4 4

'The Complete Sagas of Icelanders' from Leifur Eiríksson Publishing are the first English translation of the entire corpus of the Sagas of Icelanders together with the forty-nine Tales connected with them. Thirty translators were carefully selected for the project, including leading international scholars and university teachers from seven countries who have studied and written on Nordic medieval literature and culture. All the translators are native English speakers and writers. Careful editorial planning and coordination ensured that translators followed the same translation policy and produced the same high level of accuracy and readability. Coordination work included use of consistent English terms for key words and concepts, recurrent proverbs and phrases, and other cultural realia. Spelling conventions for personal and place names were normalised, as were translations of nicknames occurring in more than one Saga. Eleven Icelandic medieval specialists then carefully checked the translations against the original Icelandic texts to ensure accurate renderings and returned them to the translators for revision. A further revision stage concentrated on the English style, when fourteen native English-speaking scholars read through the translations before the translators gave them a final polish. The publishers are confident that these extensive editorial efforts have produced sound, quality translations. While they reflect the expertise of scholars in this specialist field, a prime concern was to produce a text in smooth and readable modern English. There are probably few examples of comparable coordinated translations of an entire literary corpus into another language. The Sagas of Icelanders are forty narratives of adventure and conflict, set in the Viking Age but written down in the vernacular by anonymous authors in Iceland several hundred years later, during the 13th and 14th centuries. Their action spans the whole world known to the Vikings, but the stories mainly center on the unique society they founded in Icleand, depicting the men and women who settled there and their descendants. For sheer narrative artistry and skill of characterization, the fiest Sagas rank with the world's greatest literary treasuresas epic as Homer, as deep in tragedy as Sophocles, as engagingly human as Shakespeare. The Sagas of the Icelanders form a unique literary genre and have served as a source of inspiration for many outstanding writers of later timessuch diverse authors as Walter Scott, Jorge Lius Borges and W.H. Auden. Deeply rooted in the real world of their day, concise and straightforward in style, the Sagas explore perennial human problems and conflucts: love and hate, fate and freedom, honor and feud, crime and punishment, travel and exile. In saga narrative we may identify the budding of a literary technique that, centuries later, would develop into the great European novel. While steeped in the spirit of Viking age oral tradition, the Sagas tell of the lives and deeds of Icelanders during the decades immediately before and after the year 1000, when they abandoned the Germanic gods such as Odin and Thor and adopted Christianity. In this period, too, Icelanders ventured farther westwards, to explore and settle Greenland; the culmination of this venture was Leif Eiriksson's voyage to North America. Despite their traditional origins, the Sagas are first and foremost works of consciously created literary art. They are also, in a sense, frontier literature, in which the descendants of settlers reflect on their writers, the origins, identity, legends and myths, whilst grappling with troublesome contemporary realitites, not least a 13th century civil war. For the saga writers, the settlement period was something of a Golden Age, the era of a unique commonwealth of free chieftains with no king, dominated by Viking traditions of honor and blood vengeance. The Sagas of the Icelanders are not typical heroic literature, but rather stories of flesh-and-blood humans burdened with a heroic legacy. These were steely-minded men and domineering women in search of worldly wealth and power, fame and love. Typically, a feud could start with a minor slight to a man's honor and escalate into a chain of revenge and counter-revenge, culminating in a major battle or in the heroic death of a great champion. For the modern Saga reader, it is the psychological intensity and depth of the characters as much as the codes of honor and ethics which capture the imagination. And though strong men dominate teh Saga stage, it is often clever and beautiful women who manipulate the course of events behind the scenes and outspokenly voice their opinions on the players involved in it. The horizons of the saga writers extended to the limits of the Viking world: westward to Greenland and Vinland, east to Russia and north to Lappland, south and east to Constantinople and Jerusalem. Iclenaders and other Vikings sailed to the shores of Ireland, upriver to the cities of Rouen and London, all along the Baltic coast. Everywhere we see that the world lies at the feet of saga heroes: witty poets become the companions of kings and earls, fierce and successful fighters never lack the attentions of noble ladies. But though these champions reign victorious on foreign shores they almost always turn their backs on the honors heaped upon them, in order to return home to their Icelandic farms nestled under towering mountains in lonly fjords and valleys. If the Sagas can be compared to novels, the Tales are the medieval equivalent of short stories. Their narrative may have a smaller scale, but there is no loss of dramatic force, humor or deftness of character protrayal. Preserved either as independent narratives or as parts of larger works, most Tales tell of young Icelanders journeying abroad where they have a variety of encounters with men of power and influence. Their journeys represent a kind of rite of passage which tests the mettle of a potential hero. Tales range from brief anecdotes, sketched with a few masterful narrative strokes and terse dialogue, to light-hearted comedies in which royalty is gently mocked. In The Complete Sagas of the Icelanders , the Sagas and Tales have been grouped on broad thematic principles and divided accordingly among the five volumes of the set. Although overlapping is inevitable in a genre of such diversity, a central distinction can be established between Biogrpahies and Sagas of Feuds. The Biographies tell of exceptional individualspoets, outlaws and championsand the stories spotlight these "odd men out" as they pit their strength against a society they stand out from and defy. At the heart of the Sagas of Feuds are wealth, power, regional status, and the inevitable conflicts that result from life in a singular society which sets its own laws and metes out a hard justice. Each of the five volumes, then, is thematically self-contained and offers a particular angle of approach for exploring and navigating the vast and fascinating world of the sagas. V.1. Foreword. Vinland And Greenland. Eirik The Red's Saga -- The Saga Of The Greenlanders -- Warriors And Poets. Egil's Saga -- Kormak's Saga -- The Saga Of Hallfred The Troublesome Poet -- The Saga Of Bjorn, Champion Of The Hitardal People -- The Saga Of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue -- Tales Of Poets. The Tale Of Arnor, The Poet Of Earls -- Einar Skulason's Tale -- The Tale Of Mani The Poet -- The Tale Of Ottar The Black -- The Tale Of Sarcastic Halli -- Stuf's Tale -- The Tale Of Thorarin Short-cloak -- The Tale Of Thorleif, The Earl's Poet -- Anecdotes. The Tale Of Audun From The West Fjords -- The Tale Of Brand The Generous -- Hreidar's Tale -- The Tale Of The Story-wise Icelander -- Ivar Ingimundarson's Tale -- Thorarin Nefjolfsson's Tale -- The Tale Of Thorstein From The East Fjords -- The Tale Of Thorstein The Curious -- The Tale Of Thorstein Shiver -- The Tale Of Thorvard Crow's-beak. (cont.) V. 2. Outlaws And Nature Spirits. Gisli Sursson's Saga -- The Saga Of Grettir The Strong -- The Saga Of Hord And The People Of Holm -- Bard's Saga -- Warriors And Poets. Killer-glum's Saga -- The Tale Of Ogmund Bash -- The Tale Of Thorvald Tasaldi -- The Saga Of The Sworn Brothers -- Thormod's Tale -- The Tale Of Thorarin The Overbearing -- Viglund's Saga -- Tales Of The Supernatural. The Tale Of The Cairn-dweller -- The Tale Of The Mountain-dweller -- Star-oddi's Dream -- The Tale Of Thirdrandi And Thorhall -- The Tale Of Thorhall Knapp. V.3. An Epic. Njal's Saga -- Champions And Rogues. The Saga Of Finnbogi The Mighty -- The Saga Of The People Of Floi -- The Saga Of The People Of Kjalarnes -- Jokul Buason's Tale -- Gold-thorir's Saga -- The Saga Of Thord Menace -- The Saga Of Ref The Sly -- The Saga Of Gunnar, The Fool Of Keldugnup -- Tales Of Champions And Adventures. Gisl Illugason's Tale -- The Tale Of Gold-asa's Thord -- Hrafn Gudrunarson's Tale -- Orm Storolfsson's Tale -- Thorgrim Hallason's Tale. (cont.) V. 4. Regional Feuds. The Saga Of The People Of Vatnsdal -- The Saga Of The Slayings On The Heath -- Valla-ljot's Saga -- The Saga Of The People Of Svarfadardal -- The Saga Of The People Of Ljosavatn -- The Saga Of The People Of Reykjadal And Of Killer-skuta -- The Saga Of Thorstein The White -- The Saga Of The People Pf Vopnafjord -- The Tale Of Thorstein Staff-struck -- The Tale Of Thorstein Bull's-leg -- The Saga Of Droplaug's Sons -- The Saga Of The People Of Fljotsdal -- The Tale Of Gunnar, The Slayer Of Thidrandi -- Brandkrossi's Tale -- Thorstein Sidu-hallsson's Saga -- Thorstein Sidu-hallsson's Tale -- Thorstein Sidu-hallsson's Dream -- Egil Sidu-hallsson's Tale. V. 5. An Epic. The Saga Of The People Of Laxardal -- Bolli Bollaso's Tale -- Wealth And Power. The Saga Of The People Of Eyri -- The Tale Of Halldor Snorrason I -- The Tale Of Halldor Snorrason Ii -- Olkofri's Saga -- Hen-thorir's Saga -- The Saga Of Hrafnkel Frey's Godi -- The Saga Of The Confederates -- Odd Ofeigsson's Tale -- The Saga Of Havard Of Isafjord -- (cont.) Religion And Conflict In Iceland And Greenland. The Tale Of Hromund The Lame -- The Tale Of Svadi And Arnor Crone's-nose -- The Tale Of Thorvald The Far-travelled -- The Tale Of Thorstein Tent-pitcher -- The Tale Of The Greenlanders -- Reference Section. Maps And Tables -- Illustrations And Diagrams -- Glossary -- Cross-reference Index Of Characters. General Editor, Viðar Hreinsson ; Editorial Team, Robert Cook ... [et Al.] ; Introduction By Robert Kellogg. Viking Age Classics--cover. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Regional Feuds The Saga of the People of Vatnsdal 1 The Saga of the Slayings on the Heath 67 Valla-Ljot’s Saga 131 The Saga of the People of Svarfadardal 149 The Saga of the People of Ljosavatn 193 The Saga of the People of Reykjadal and of Killer-Skuta 257 The Saga of Thorstein the White 303 The Saga of the People of Vopnafjord 313 The Tale of Thorstein Staff-Struck 335 The Tale of Thorstein Bull’s-Leg 340 The Saga of Droplaug’s Sons 355 The Saga of the People of Fljotsdal 379 The Tale of Gunnar, the Slayer of Thidrandi 433 Brandkrossi’s Tale 442 Thorstein Sidu-Hallsson’s Saga 447 Thorstein Sidu-Hallsson’s Tale 460 Thorstein Sidu-Hallsson’s Dream 463 Egil Sidu-Hallsson’s Tale 465 Contents of Volumes I-V 471