The Northmen Talk: A Choice of Tales from Iceland

Translated and with introduction by Jacqueline Simpson. Foreword by Eric Linklater. The aim of this anthology is to offer a selection from the many tales and narrative poems of medieval Iceland, choosing, on the whole, either complete works or self-contained passages which suffer little loss when removed from their contexts. The greatest of the sagas, therefore, are missing from these pages; the great Sagas of the Kings of Norway and the major Family Sagas are masterpieces of large-scale construction, and it would be as grave a mutilation to represent them by extracts as it would be to offer isolated chapters of "Emma" or "Middlemarch". Fortunately such outstanding achievements as the works of Snorri Sturluson or the sagas telling of Njal, Grettir, Egil, Hrafnkel, the men of Laxdal, and many others, have been frequently translated and are readily available to English readers. But the Icelanders worked on the scale of the short story as well as on that of the novel, and their aptitude for prose narrative is as clear in the brief as in the more complex form. Foreword vii Introduction xv Note on the Translation xxix Icelandic Entertainers Sturla and King Magnus 1 An Icelandic Story-Teller 6 Ottar’s Head-Ransom 8 Lays of Gods and Legendary Heroes Thor’s Hammer 11 The Prophecy of the Wise-Woman 16 Helgi and Sigrun 22 Volund the Smith 29 Sigurd’s First Exploits 37 Sigurd and the Sons of Gjuki 45 The Death of Sigurd 47 Gudrun’s Lament 50 The Lay of Atli 55 Biography, Chronicle, and Semi-Historical Narrative Bishop Jon Ogmundarson 65 Church and Chieftain 77 Bishop Pal Jonsson 84 Episodes in a Blood-Feud 87 The Battles of 1066 101 Realistic Tales Hreidar the Halfwit 119 Hromund the Lame 132 Fantastic Tales The Scoffing Verses 141 The Howls of the Damned 152 The Misers 156 The Price of an Ox 163 Helgi and the Women of the Otherworld 175 A Visit to the Otherworld 180 The Story of Orm Storolfsson 197 The Story of Thorstein Oxleg 212 The Blood-Brothers’ Pact 231 A Giant Outwitted 234 Odd Among the Giants 237 The Breaking of a Burial Mound 244 Ballads Hildibrand 253 Tristran 257 Olaf and the Elf-Maid 261 Iceling 263 Ebbi’s Daughters 266 The Harp Song 272 Lord Ribbald 274 Logi of Vallarahlid 277 The She-Troll 284 The Goodman and the Goodwife 288