Eyrbyggja Saga

by Anonymous

Other authorsPaul Edwards (Translator), Hermann Palsson (Translator)

Paperback, 1989

Status

Available

Call number

839.61

Genres

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

Penguin Classics (1989), Paperback, 192 pages

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. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member isabelx

After Thorolf died, a good many people found it more and more unpleasant to stay out of doors once the sun had begun to go down. As the summer wore on, it became clear that Thorolf wasn't lying quiet, for after sunset no one out of doors was left in peace. There was another thing, too: the oxen

which had been used to haul Thorolf's body were ridden to death by demons, and every beast that came near his grave went out of its mind, and howled itself to death. The shepherd a Hvamm often came running with Thorolf after him. One day that autumn neither sheep nor shepherd came back to the farm, and next morning, when a search was made for him the shepherd was found dead, not far from Thorolf's grave, his corpse coal-black, and every bone in his body broken.

As well as lots feuds and pitched battles, Eyrbyggja Saga includes gothic elements such as witchcraft, omens of ill-fortune, and hauntings by the unquiet dead. It was Sir Walter Scot's favourite Icelandic saga.

As Snorri and his men were coming up the scree, Steinthor cast a spear over them for good luck, according to ancient custom. The spear sought out its victim and struck Mar Hallvardsson, Snorri's uncle, putting him out of the fight.

The practice of throwing a spear over men who are about to fight, to dedicate the dead to Odin, also occurs in "American Gods"by Neil Gaiman.

Show Less

1 more

LibraryThing member DinadansFriend

A saga concentrating on the Odinic religion of the Icelanders. It relates a good deal of the career of Snorri the Priest who also appears in the Njal Saga. It reads well, and has a story about an Icelandic zombie, or Draugr.

Fewer