The Poetic Edda (Oxford World's Classics)

The collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry known as the Poetic Edda contains the greater narratives of the creation of the world and the coming of Ragnarok, the Doom of the Gods. The mythological poems explore the wisdom of the ...

Three Icelandic Outlaw Sagas: The Saga of Gisli, the Saga of Grettir, the Saga of Hord

"Hear a great marvel,/ Hear of manslaughter,/ Hear a great matter,/ Hear of a man's death..."

Here are three epic stories of exile and adventure: the heroes condemned to wander their lands in expiation of crimes committed in honou ...

Sturluson: Edda (Everyman)

Primarily intended as a text book on the traditional poetry of the vikings this version also contains the most complete survey extant of the mythology of pagan Scandinavia. Each book in the "Everyman" series has been re-set with wide margin ...

The Saga of the Volsungs: the Norse Epic of Sigurd and the Dragon Slayer (Penguin Classics)

The saga of the Volsungs, the Norse epic of Sigurd the Dragon-slayer, is one of the most important texts of old Icelandic literature, and of central importance for an understanding of Viking society.

Njal's Saga (Penguin Classics)

Set in the south of Iceland, around the time of the conversion to Christianity in the year 1000, this saga follows a fifty-year blood feud from its violent beginnings to its tragic end. The spare and simple narrative centres on Njal Thorgeirsson who, ...

Egil's Saga (Penguin Classics)

Demon, killer and drunkard, poet, lawyer and farmer: Egil is on eof the most individual and paradoxical characters to emerge from the Icelandic sagas.

The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America. Graenlendinga Saga. Eirik's Saga (The Penguin Classics)

The two medieval lcelandic sagas translated in this volume tell one of the most arresting stories in the history of exploration--the discovery of America by Norsemen five centuries before Christopher Columbus. In spare and vigorous prose they record ...

Laxdaela Saga (Penguin Classics)

Of all the major Icelandic sagas, Laxdæla Saga has always stirred the European imagination the most profoundly. Composed by an unknown author (c. 1245) at a time when the Age of Chivalry was in its fullest flower in continental Europe, Laxd&ael ...

Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney (Penguin Classics)

A fresh and vital fusion of myth and legend, lively anecdote and poetry. Written around AD 1200 by an unnamed Icelandic author, the Orkneyinga Saga is the only medieval chronicle to have Orkney as the central place of action, and from it we derive mu ...

King Harald's Saga: Harald Hardradi of Norway (Penguin Classics)

The biography of one of the most remarkable and memorable of the Medieval kings of Norway.