Snorri Sturluson and the Edda


Book Description

Wanner brings us a new account of the interests that motivated the production of the Edda, and resolves the mystery of its genesis by demonstrating the intersection of Snorri's political and cultural concerns and practices.




King Harald's Saga


Book Description

This compelling Icelandic history describes the life of King Harald Hardradi, from his battles across Europe and Russia to his final assault on England in 1066, less than three weeks before the invasion of William the Conqueror. It was a battle that led to his death and marked the end of an era in which Europe had been dominated by the threat of Scandinavian forces. Despite England's triumph, it also played a crucial part in fatally weakening the English army immediately prior to the Norman Conquest, changing the course of history. Taken from the Heimskringla - Snorri Sturluson's complete account of Norway from prehistoric times to 1177 - this is a brilliantly human depiction of the turbulent life and savage death of the last great Norse warrior-king.







Violence and Risk in Medieval Iceland


Book Description

Historians spend a lot of time thinking about violence: bloodshed and feats of heroism punctuate practically every narration of the past. Yet historians have been slow to subject 'violence' itself to conceptual analysis. What aspects of the past do we designate violent? To what methodological assumptions do we commit ourselves when we employ this term? How may we approach the category 'violence' in a specifically historical way, and what is it that we explain when we write its history? Astonishingly, such questions are seldom even voiced, much less debated, in the historical literature. Violence and Risk in Medieval Iceland: This Spattered Isle lays out a cultural history model for understanding violence. Using interdisciplinary tools, it argues that violence is a positively constructed asset, deployed along three principal axes - power, signification, and risk. Analysing violence in instrumental terms, as an attempt to coerce others, focuses on power. Analysing it in symbolic terms, as an attempt to communicate meanings, focuses on signification. Finally, analysing it in cognitive terms, as an attempt to exercise agency despite imperfect control over circumstances, focuses on risk. Violence and Risk in Medieval Iceland explores a place and time notorious for its rampant violence. Iceland's famous sagas hold treasure troves of circumstantial data, ideally suited for past-tense ethnography, yet demand that the reader come up with subtle and innovative methodologies for recovering histories from their stories. The sagas throw into sharp relief the kinds of analytic insights we obtain through cultural interpretation, offering lessons that apply to other epochs too.




Iceland Saga


Book Description

Magnus Magnusson relates the world-famous Icelandic sagas to the spectacular living landscapes of today, taking the reader on a literary tour of the mountains, valleys, and fjords where the heroes and heroines of the sagas lived out their eventful lives. He also tells the story of the first Viking settler, Ingolfur Anarson.




The Road to Hel


Book Description

This 1943 book uses a variety of evidence from archaeology and literature concerning Norse funeral customs to reconstruct their conception of future life.




Delphi Collected Norse Sagas (Illustrated)


Book Description

Norse sagas concern tales of ancient Nordic and Germanic history, detailing early Viking voyages, the battles that took place during these voyages, exotic adventures in foreign lands and the migration to Iceland. These prose sagas were written in the Old Norse language, sharing similarities with epic poetry, telling of heroic deeds of days long gone. The tales offer an endless panorama of pagan chieftains, Viking warriors, historic saints, noble bishops and ordinary men and women, facing human dilemmas that troubled the ancient Scandinavian world. This eBook presents a comprehensive collection of Norse Sagas, with numerous illustrations, rare texts appearing in digital print for the first time, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to the sagas * Concise introductions to the ancient texts * A generous selection of sagas from four categories: Kings’ Sagas; Sagas of Icelanders; Legendary Sagas; Bishops’ Sagas * Features many rare sagas appearing in English for the first time in digital publishing, including the Kings’ Saga ‘Sverris saga’ * Includes Frederick York’s rare translations of Bishops’ Sagas * Images of how the sagas were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * Includes seven bonus collections of Norse Sagas * Special criticism section, with Conrad Hjalmar Nordby’s book evaluating the influence of Old Norse literature on English literature * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and genres Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles CONTENTS: Kings’ Sagas Sverris saga (Tr. John Sephton) Heimskringla (Tr. Samuel Laing) The Saga of Haakon Haakonarson (Tr. James Johnstone) Sagas of Icelanders The Story of the Banded Men (Tr. William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon) Egil’s saga (Tr. W. C. Green) The Saga of Erik the Red (Tr. John Sephton) The Saga of the Ere-Dwellers (Tr. William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon) Færeyinga saga (Tr. F. York Powell) Gísla saga (Tr. by G. W. DaSent) Grettis saga (Tr. William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson) The Saga of Gunnlaug the Worm-Tongue and Rafn the Skald (Tr. William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson) The Saga of Howard the Halt (Tr. William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson) The Saga of the Heath Slayings (Tr. William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson) The Saga of Hrafnkell, Frey’s Priest (Tr. John Coles) The Saga of Hen-Thorir (Tr. William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson) The Saga of Cormac the Skald (Tr. W. G. Collingwood and J. Stefansson) Laurentius saga (Tr. Oliver Elton) Laxdæla saga (Tr. Muriel A. C. Press) Njáls saga (Tr. George Dasent) The Saga of Viga-Glum (Tr. Edmund Head,) The Saga of Viglund the Fair (Tr. William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon) Legendary Sagas Fridthjof’s saga (Tr. Thomas and Martha Holcomb) The Saga of Hervör and Heidrek (Tr. Nora Kershaw) Volsunga saga (Tr. William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon) The Saga of Dietrich of Bern (Tr. M. W. Macdowall) The Saga of Thorstein, Viking’s Son (Tr. Rasmus B. Anderson) The Story of Norna-Gest (Tr. Nora Kershaw) The Tháttur of Sörli (Tr. Nora Kershaw) Bishops’ Sagas Hunger-waker (Tr. Frederick York) Saga of Saint Thorlak (Tr. Frederick York) Saga of Bishop Paul (Tr. Frederick York) Saga of John of Holar (Tr. Frederick York) Collections of Norse Sagas The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths by Padraic Colum In the Days of Giants: A Book of Norse Tales by Abbie Farwell Brown The Heroes of Asgard: Tales from Scandinavian Mythology by Keary and Keary Legends of Norseland by Mara L. Pratt-Chadwick and A. Chase Stories and Ballads of the Far Past, by Nora Kershaw Told by the Northmen: Stories from the Eddas and Sagas by E. M. Wilmot-Buxton Viking Tales by Jennie Hall The Criticism The Influence of Old Norse Literature on English Literature, by Conrad Hjalmar Nordby Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to purchase this eBook as a Parts Edition of individual eBooks




A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth


Book Description

The founding of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth in 930 A.D. is one of the most significant events in the history of early Western Europe. This pioneering work of historiography provides a comprehensive history of Iceland from 870 A.D. to the end of the Commonwealth in 1262.







Anglo-Saxon Culture and the Modern Imagination


Book Description

The Anglo-Saxon world continues to be a source of fascination in modern culture. Its manifestations in a variety of media are here examined.