| Title | : | The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America (Penguin Classics) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0140441549 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780140441543 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 128 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1300 |
The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America (Penguin Classics) Reviews
-
More fun than most medieval historical sources. These two very short sagas are charmingly uneven and direct (and quite unlike the usual dry monkish texts that survive from this era outside Iceland). The focus on relatively ordinary laypeople is refreshing, though will be familiar to those who've already read Icelandic family sagas - all I'd read previously of those was a few chapters of Njal's Saga. The introduction describes family sagas as "the history of a republic in which all the original settlers had been nominally equal".
Yet they are odd texts to modern literary sensibilities, and could be disappointing if one expected them to conform - just as medieval doodles wouldn't fit the standards of 19th century painting. Both sagas make apparently random zooms on to the detail of certain events or individuals, who often aren't the main features, e.g.
Thorhall the Hunter; he had been in Eirik’s service for a long time, acting as his huntsman in summer, and had many responsibilities. He was a huge man, swarthy and uncouth; he was getting old now, bad-tempered and cunning, taciturn as a rule but abusive when he spoke, and always a trouble-maker. He had not had much to do with Christianity since it had come to Greenland. He was not particularly popular, but Eirik and he had always been close friends.
(More character background than many more significant players get.)
For all that the Graenlendinga Saga is described as 'primitive' in style, it feels measured in structure if labelled a 'Vinland Saga', because exploration takes place throughout. Whereas in Eirik's Saga (aka Eirik the Red's Saga), the interesting bit about Vinland is all bunched at the end - but that's because the voyage to, and life in Vinland is not directly about Eirik any more; the introduction keeps reminding us that the sagas are primarily about people.
As there is much lamentation that Magnus Magnusson & Hermann Pálsson's translation of Njal's Saga is out of print, I was delighted to find that some of their other saga translations still are in print (though Laxdaela isn't). This ebook of their Vinland Sagas is even half the price of the new translation. The 1965 introduction felt thoroughly vintage near the end, when they mention excavations at L'Anse aux Meadows as a new and recent endeavour; twenty years ago I was adding that name in games of Civilization II. (Alongside this is an outdated reference to a pair of married archaeologists as "Dr Helge Ingstad … and his wife", with her not named; ironic when female characters, such as the fearsome Freydis, are consistently named in the sagas and are pivotal in various episodes. The word 'primitive' is used in a few instances where anthropologists would now think better.) A 2003 Afterword by Magnusson is a memorial to Pálsson, who had died the previous year.
This is a very short book, which won't outstay its welcome if you are interested in a quick look at the original sources (and is also potentially useful for various obscure categories in reading challenges).
----
Themes:
Northern exploration
- the [Norse] descriptions of the Arctic regions (stretching from Russia to Greenland) and the eastern seaboard of the North American continent are nowhere to be found in contemporary geographical textbooks elsewhere in Europe – in which they were to remain terrae incognitae for a very long time.
- To Icelanders of the period, life in Greenland held a certain fascination; to them it was rather an exotic country, although not an unfamiliar one.
- It is also clear from all the evidence available that the climate of the north from the ninth to the twelfth centuries was warmer than it is even now, and did not begin to deteriorate until the fourteenth century.
- it was not until the fourteenth century that sailors were forced to abandon the old route from Snæfellsness to Angmagssalik entirely, because of the increasing danger of polar ice.
- A century after Thorfinn Karlsefni went to Vinland, its exact location seems to have been forgotten: the Icelandic Annals have an entry for the year 1121 – ‘Bishop Eirik of Greenland went in search of Vinland’ – which implies that the old sailing directions had become confused.
- in the year 1347 a ship that had been to Markland (Labrador?) was driven off course on its way back to Greenland and eventually found haven in Iceland, anchorless and with seventeen survivors on board. Timber from Markland, apparently, was not unknown in Greenland for centuries after the Vinland expeditions
- it could well be that stories about Vinland were current in the seaports of Europe in the fifteenth century, because throughout that period there was considerable, if illegal, trade between Iceland and Bristol and between Bristol and Portugal; and certainly the Icelanders themselves had not forgotten about Vinland, or the general direction in which it lay
- this exhausted outpost of Norse exploration, just beyond the fringe of European endurance … died such a horrible and lonely death while a new age of exploration was dawning in southern Europe
… and what they found there. (Eirik's Saga)
- Altogether there were 160 people taking part in this expedition (to Vinland)
Quite a lot.
- named it Straum Island. There were so many birds on it that one could scarcely set foot between their eggs.
- No one recognized what kind of a whale it was, not even Karlsefni, who was an expert on whales. The cooks boiled the meat, but when it was eaten it made them all ill.
Horror-movie stuff: sea full of maggots that eat the ship itself. (Not heard of this before, perhaps those who read more nautical literature have?)
- Bjarni Grimolfsson’s ship was blown into the Greenland Sea. They found themselves in waters infested with maggots, and before they knew it the ship was riddled under them and had begun to sink…
They had one ship’s-boat which had been treated with tar made from seal-blubber; it is said that shell-maggots cannot penetrate timber which has been so treated…
The boat, however, would not hold them all and so they agreed to this suggestion of drawing lots for places in it...
The Icelander stepped into the boat and Bjarni went back on board the ship; and it is said that Bjarni and all those who were on the ship with him perished there in the maggot sea.
A world with more equal military technologies
- (Intro) it is safe to assume that voyages to Labrador to fetch timber continued for a long time; it had not been the distance that had deterred colonization, but the Native Americans.
Eirik's Saga:
- Vinland where, it was said, there was excellent land to be had.
Outlook strikingly similar to later European colonisers: thinking that there was land for the taking. However, unlike those of 500 years later, they did not have guns and so they were on a relatively more equal footing with the indigenous people.
- Karlsefni and his men had realized by now that although the land was excellent they could never live there in safety or freedom from fear, because of the native inhabitants.
- It was a dog-eat-dog world, and things might not end well if you ended up elsewhere, either:
With that they parted company. Thorhall and his crew sailed northward past Furdustrands and Kjalarness, and tried to beat westward from there. But they ran into fierce headwinds and were driven right across to Ireland. There they were brutally beaten and enslaved; and there Thorhall died.
- Even those who should have had an excellent chance of getting away, were at risk of getting captured and enslaved:
When Leif Eirikson had been with King Olaf Tryggvason and had been asked to preach Christianity in Greenland, the king had given him a Scottish couple, a man called Haki and a woman called Hekja. The king told Leif to use them if he ever needed speed, for they could run faster than deer. Leif and Eirik had turned them over to Karlsefni for this expedition.
I always wonder how the fittest people from the past, who had to spend most of their days in physical activity, would compare with modern athletes.
Native Americans
Introduction: This twelfth-century identification of the Inuit natives of Greenland with the Native Americans of North America, based on the similarity between two primitive material cultures, is an interesting deduction.
From Eirik's Saga: the Norse have been in Vinland a while:
they caught sight of nine skin-boats; the men in them were waving sticks which made a noise like flails, and the motion was sunwise…
[Note: Native Americans are known to have used rattle-sticks during various rituals, which may well be the explanation of this threshing sound the Norsemen could hear.]
What the natives wanted most to buy was red cloth; they also wanted to buy swords and spears, but Karlsefni and Snorri forbade that…
The natives took a span of red cloth for each pelt, and tied the cloth round their heads. The trading went on like this for a while until the cloth began to run short; then Karlsefni and his men cut it up into pieces which were no more than a finger’s breadth wide
The Graenlendinga Saga says they traded milk, not cloth, for the pelts, and drank it on the spot. Cloth seems more logical to the modern reader, at least.
A later visit from the locals is less amicable:
This time all the sticks were being waved anti-clockwise and all the Skrælings were howling loudly…
Karlsefni and Snorri saw them hoist a large sphere on a pole; it was dark blue in colour. It came flying in over the heads of Karlsefni’s men and made an ugly din when it struck the ground. This terrified Karlsefni and his men so much that their only thought was to flee, and they retreated farther up the river.
Religion: a transitional period when Christianity and paganism co-existed
Another, even more strikingly detailed portrait of a minor character: Greenlandic prophetess Thorbjorg, in Eirik's Saga:
she wore a blue mantle fastened with straps and adorned with stones all the way down to the hem. She had a necklace of glass beads. On her head she wore a black lambskin hood lined with white cat’s-fur. She carried a staff with a brass-bound knob studded with stones. She wore a belt made of touchwood, from which hung a large pouch, and in this she kept the charms she needed for her witchcraft. On her feet were hairy calfskin shoes with long thick laces which had large tin buttons on the ends. She wore catskin gloves, with the white fur inside…
she was given a gruel made from goat’s milk, and a main dish of hearts from the various kinds of animals that were available there…
She used a brass spoon, and a knife with a walrus-tusk handle bound with two rings of copper; the blade had a broken point.
I was curious what attempts to recreate this costume would look like: some examples below.
Christian converts and pagans lived side-by-side, and the examples in these two sagas suggest it was generally civil, though sometimes uneasy, with Christians in particular setting boundaries for themselves.
- ‘This is the sort of knowledge and ceremony that I want nothing to do with,’ said Gudrid, ‘for I am a Christian.’ ‘It may well be,’ said Thorbjorg, ‘that you could be of help to others over this, and not be any the worse a woman for that. But I shall leave it to Thorkel to provide whatever is required.
Then Thorbjorn was sent for; he had refused to remain in the house while such pagan practices were being performed.
- Thjodhild refused to live with Eirik after she was converted, and this annoyed him greatly.
- Then Thorhall the Hunter walked over and said, ‘Has not Redbeard turned out to be more successful than your Christ? This was my reward for the poem I composed in honour of my patron, Thor; he has seldom failed me.
In these early days of Christianity, curious hybrid customs emerged, as here from Eirik's Saga:
Gudrid went in to see Thorstein... He whispered in her ear a few words that she alone could hear, and then said that blessed were they who were true to their faith, for that way came help and mercy; but, he said, there were many who did not observe the faith properly:
‘It is a bad custom, as has been done in Greenland since Christianity came here, to bury people in unconsecrated ground with scarcely any funeral rites. I want to be taken to church, along with the other people who have died here – all except Gardi, whom I want to have burned on a pyre as soon as possible, for he is responsible for all the hauntings that have gone on here this winter.’…
It had been the custom in Greenland since Christianity came there to bury people in unconsecrated ground near the farms where they died; a stake was driven into the ground above the dead person’s breast and later, when the priests arrived, the stake would be pulled out and holy water poured down the hole and funeral rites performed, however long after the burial it might then be.
Other customs and details of life
- That common saga background phrase: that a man left a place 'because of some killings', and the complicated stories it could mean:
Eirik’s slaves started a landslide that destroyed the farm of a man called Valthjof, at Valthjofstead; so Eyjolf Saur, one of Valthjof’s kinsmen, killed the slaves at Skeidsbrekkur, above Vatnshorn. For this, Eirik killed Eyjolf Saur; he also killed Hrafn the Dueller, at Leikskalar. Geirstein and Odd of Jorvi, who were Eyjolf’s kinsmen, took action over his killing, and Eirik was banished from Haukadale.
So, either a slave rebellion or an accident led to a feud.
He then asked for his bench-boards back, but they were not returned; so Eirik went to Breidabolstead and seized them. Thorgest pursued him, and they fought a battle near the farmstead at Drangar. Two of Thorgest’s sons and several other men were killed there.
Scandinavian furniture was a lot more trouble in those days, there being much less of it, and taking far longer to make.
Women going to the loo together:
One evening Sigrid wanted to go outside to the privy that was opposite the main door. Gudrid went with her.
A leader's role back then could also involve encouraging positive thinking:
- Then Eirik said, ‘You were much more cheerful in the summer when you were sailing out of the fjord than we are now; but there are still many good things in store for us.’
- They returned to Straumfjord and spent the third winter there. But now quarrels broke out frequently; those who were unmarried kept pestering the married men.
Huh? Why? To get pissed, like in a Will Ferrell movie?
- What people did indoors in winter and and at Christmas:
the Christmas feast was extended into a wedding feast. They all had a splendid time at Brattahlid that winter; there was much chess-playing and story-telling, and many other entertainments that enrich a household. -
These sagas provide great context for the Norse discovery of America. They also offer a glimpse at the character and motivation of some of the chief figures in this age of discovery, especially Erik the Red and Leif Erikson. The sagas also reveal importance of the colonization of Iceland and how this colonization led to further exploration.
-
I’ve actually read the Vinland Sagas before, though not in this translation. Back in the 90s I was also lucky enough to visit the site of the Norse settlement at L’Anse Aux Meadows, in Newfoundland. You might say the subject interests me!
This translation confirms my previous impression, which is that I prefer the Greenlanders’ Saga to Eirik The Red’s Saga. The former is a bit more grounded in reality, whereas the latter has been embellished to include stories of mythical beasts and the like, something medieval storytellers were fond of doing. These two Sagas aren’t the greatest pieces of literature, but they are of course priceless records of the extraordinary Norse voyages to North America.
This edition comes with a longish but excellent introduction by the translators, Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, two Icelanders who spent most of their lives living in Edinburgh. -
“He named the country he had discovered Greenland, for he said that people would be much more tempted to go there if it had an attractive name.”
Eirik the Red was exiled from Iceland in the 10th century after skirmishes with neighbors and being declared an outlaw, and he founded the colony in Greenland. Bjarni Herjolfsson was blown off course on his way to Greenland in 985 or 986 and sighted unknown lands. Eirik’s son, Leif the Lucky, made an expedition to this new land and named it Vinland after the grapes that grew there. Later Leif’s brother-in-law, Thorfinn Karlsefni, created a settlement there, probably in the New England area of Canada. In the 1960s archaeological evidence of Norse settlement from about 1000 was found at L'anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, by Dr Helge Ingstad, former governor of Greenland, and his archaeologist wife, Ann Stine Ingstad.
The settlement in Greenland died out after about five hundred years due to increasingly cold weather in the 14th Century, the return of the Inuits to the south, and the annexing of Greenland and Iceland by Norway. This reduced Greenland’s independence and created a financial burden on a resource poor country. The Americas were rediscovered by Columbus in 1492. It is uncertain whether he knew of its location from the Vikings.
This was a short and engaging book which after an introduction explaining the background gives the translation of two Norse stories: the Grœnlendinga Saga written in about 1190, and Eirik’s Saga, written around 70 years later. The sagas focus on the personalities of the adventurers and their deeds, and also the qualities of the land explored. They were intended to be educational about history and geographical locations as well as providing entertainment. The sagas tell us of the Viking explorers, and we are also presented stories of the women, the remarkable Gudrid, and the scheming and vicious Freydis. I thoroughly enjoyed the Vinland Sagas and found them to be very accessible, simple and surprisingly readable.
-
Very interesting sagas, and very easy to read despite the style being rather dry, the passages too brief and devoid of details when describing anything.
This Penguin Classics edition comprises two sagas, the Groenlandinga Saga and the Saga of Erik the Red, the first dealing with the discovery and early settlement of Greenland and the second with the immediately following accidental discovery of Vinland (actual North America), both by intrepid Norwegian vikings sailing out of their most recent colony of Iceland. Although the main man in both is Leif Eiriksson ("Leif the Lucky"), eldest son of Eirik Thorvaldsson ("Eirik the Red"), it's not only about him or his father's exploits. Both sagas also gives credit to the first Norseman who sighted America, Bjarni Herfjölfsson (though he never landed, just sighted the land) and includes the voyages of the next four people after Leif who sailed to and tried to establish themselves in Vinland: Thorvald Eiriksson, another of Eirik the Red's sons, and Thorstein Eiriksson, also a son of the same whom illness prevented from reaching Vinland; then Thorfinn Karlsefni, the first who attempted to establish permanent colonies and settle down in Vinland, going as far as fathering a child while in the precarious little Norse settlement, who'd be the first European born in America if the saga is true; and Freydis Eiriksdóttir, daughter of the Red. Yes, there was actually a woman amongst the discoverers. 'Tis a pity she turned out to be . . . er, something else. -
“let our ocean-striding ship explore the broad tracts of the sea.”
-
I'm fascinated by history and pseudoarcheology, so this seemed like a great way of dipping my toe into the Icelandic Sagas, which I've been meaning to get around to for quite a while now. It was fascinating to read both accounts and try to contemplate & imagine where all along the coast they'd been, what all they'd seen, and what future encampments we might be able to find in the future.
This particular edition was pretty cool in that it had footnotes confirming the existence of various structures mentioned in the verses - chapels, barns, etc - and the excellent (though dated) introduction that gives an abbreviated history of Iceland & Greenland.
That being said, I think I would have enjoyed Eirik's saga on its own merits more if I hadn't read them back to back. Reading them back to back makes it easier to compare the conflicting historical accounts which is good for historical purposes but it just highlights the parts where Christianity was shoe-horned in, giving it a bigger role than it probably had in reality.
An extra star awarded just because I love pseudoarcheology despite fully acknowledging the validity of the pseudo prefix. (I can't help it... it's just so entertaining to read about the Knights Templar exploring the Grand Canyon or Ancient Egyptians having light bulbs.) -
The only reason this gets three stars is that the writing is very straight forward. I wish these sagas had been expanded on a lot, with a better narrative, but the contents of the sagas are brilliant. Norwegians, Icelanders and Greenlanders going to the new world, 500 years before Colombus. The fact that we have any writings on this at all, where a lot of details seem to be corroborated by archeological finds, is crazy. And awesome. This edition also has a great introduction.
-
Informative and sometimes humorous account of Viking excursions into North America. The high point is the fighting between Vikings and Indians.
Be sure not to pass over the introduction, as it gives a useful background to the saga. -
I liked these two short sagas.
It is fascinating to read stories that are this old and find that they are very readable. They are at times a bit short, I tend to think that details in this version/the original/the story that survived were left out, because the people that read them knew them already, living in the same area in the same time fame.
I liked it also, that there were quite a few descriptions of the characters in the saga, and what others thought of their actions.
All in all a nice getting to know this kind of stories. -
Translation by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson.
-
Viking adventures across the Atlantic Ocean
27 September 2010
I have long heard the rumours that the Vikings had discovered North America long before Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic but I had always assumed that it was little more than a single expedition of which nothing more came about. However, this little book, which contains two Viking texts: Eirik's Saga and the Graenlendinga Saga says otherwise. Both of these texts tell the same story, however there are a few differences (in that Eirik's Saga seems to be more of a text telling how Christianity came to Greenland while the Graenlendinga Saga is more focused on the journeys of the Vikings). Both stories begin with the discovery and colonisation of Greenland and then the subsequent journeys to North America, or Vinland, as it was called back then.
It is debatable as to how authentic the stories in this book are, though it is quite clear, specifically with the descriptions of the lands encountered, that the events really did happen. In fact, the Graenlendinga saga is quite descriptive with both the lands discovered and the people discovering the land. It is interesting that the writer of this saga spends time giving a description of the main characters (something which tends to be missing from other ancient texts).
Another thing that I found interesting was the discovery of Greenland. I was told as a child that Greenland was called Greenland so that people would go there instead of to Iceland, which was a much more habitable island. However, according to these sagas, the island got the name to encourage people to emigrate and settle there. The voyages beyond Greenland to Vinland (as I shall call it) were voyages of exploration, though Vinland was originally discovered when a Viking ship was sent off course in a storm. They attempted to establish settlements in Vinland, but hostile natives and the distance made such colonies difficult to support. When the little ice age arrived, the Vikings found that the conditions in Greenland became much more hostile, and thus that passage to Vinland was closed.
The native Americans in this text are called Skaelings. While I think this name sounds much better than Indian, it should be remember that Skaeling is actually quite a derogative term. Therefore, Native American is probably the better term, though the most respectful term would be relating them to their particular nations (of which there were many).
What these sagas demonstrate is that the Vikings where quite a cultured and capable people. Eirik's saga tells of how Christianity came to Iceland and then to Greenland, and it was because of Christianity that these sagas were written (it was preferable to dancing). I always considered Vikings to be big hairy brutes with horned helmets that raided coastal Europe killing people. However these sagas (and no doubt many of the others) demonstrate that not only where they incredibly competent sailors, but that they were also a very sophisticated people with a rich cultural heritage. -
I read these for the early descriptions of North America and its Indigenous people, expecting them to be rather dry, like a lot of historical documents, but the sagas were written as entertainment and they are still an entertaining read, even with the passage of centuries and the problem of translation.
The descriptions of North America turned out to be scant and opaque - it's mostly a setting for stories about Norse men and women. The description of the trip across the North Atlantic is very brief as well - the ships leave Greenland, they pass a landmark or two, and bing they're in Vinland and Freydis is plotting murder. Eirik the Red gets banished three times from three different places for murder and fighting on the first page. And then spends the next page naming the geographical features of western Greenland after himself (he named the continent "green" to try to entice people to go there). A demon whale is summoned and a number of corpses sit up and prophesy; here's Thorstein telling his widow Gudrid her future:Then the corpse of Thorstein Eiriksson suddenly sat up and said, 'Where is Gudrid?'
He said this three times, but Gudrid gave no answer. Then she said to Thorstein the Black, 'Should I answer him or not?'
He told her not to reply. Then he walked across the room and sat down on the stool with Gudrid on his knee and said, 'What is it you want, namesake?'
After a pause Thorstein Eiriksson replied, 'I am anxious to tell Gudrid her destiny, so that she may resign herself better to my death, for I have now come to a happy place of repose. I have this to say to you, Gudrid: you will marry an Icelander and you will have a long life together and your progeny will be great and vigorous, bright and excellent, sweet and fragrant. You and your husband will go from Greenland to Norway and from there to Iceland, where you will make your home and live for a long time. You will survive your husband and go on a pilgrimage to Rome, then return to your farm in Iceland; a church will be built there and you will be ordained a nun and stay there until you die.'
Then Thorstein fell back. His body was laid out and taken to the ship.
(Graenlendinga Saga, pg 63-64)
And then halfway through, everyone
converts to Christianity, and there are Christmas celebrations in Greenland and crosses being erected to show how Christian their patron is. But the corpses do not stop sitting up and prophesying; there's actually more sorcery in the story, because it's something people are concerned about now. The changing belief systems and syncretism were possibly my favourite part of the sagas.
Next up to read:
The Sagas of Icelanders (contains ten sagas and tales, is cheap and easy to find). -
I'm being generous here, giving this 3 stars. This Penquin Classic only reads for around 100 pages. The first 50ish contains Magnus Magnusson's Introduction, and that was the best part of the book. Magnus writes of the two Vinland Saga's, their dates, their origins and the contemporary histories of Norway, Iceland, Greenland and the British Isles. He also includes the archaeological discoveries that back up the saga stories.
So...in 985, as Forkbeard was cuninge in Denmark, the year perhaps Cnut was born, Olaf Tryggvason not King of Norway for another decade, Aethelred was unready in England, getting married that year. Eirik the Red was colonizing Greenland, when Bjarni Herjolfsson pipped C.C. by four hundred years and maybe discovered New Brunswick.
Halu micel Vikinga! Douglas and Curtis just don't make it. -
I’ve had a mild curiosity about the first European discoverers of America for years now, and I’m not sure why it took me so long to get around to their own account of it. It was interesting in a dry sort of way. I don’t know enough about Norwegian history to place these people in any sort of historical setting, so I did appreciate the introductions of each section.
It’s an interesting mix of fact and mythology. We get accurate navigational details and mythical animals, Catholic legend and Pagan rites, heroes and villains. The last part of the book was more interesting, just because it has more details. Whether it is more accurate than the rest who knows.
Unfortunately, I listened to it as an audiobook. I had trouble sometimes separating characters and locations. I would also hope that there were maps. That would have been really helpful. -
This title contains the Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Erik the Red which depict Norse exploration of Greenland and Vinland/North America. Much of the title consists of a historiographical overview of the sagas written in the early 1960's. While this is a dated analysis, especially as the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows was being unearthed at the time of publication, it nonetheless describes the importance of the following sagas as historical sources and literary forms. This compilation provides further value through its footnotes in addition to other reference materials such as notes on place names and maps. The sagas themselves are fascinating accounts of eccentric personalities, their explorations of northern frontiers and essential reading for anyone interested in Norse history and exploration.
-
The Vikings were the first Europeans in the New World. It did not end well, and there are even two different versions of how it failed. There is some light flashing of the Native Americans by the only Viking lady there in order to scare them away. It's the right level of Icelandic crazy with a dash of swashbuckling and being totally out of their depth in a strange new land.
-
3.5 stars. The first saga, that of Eirik the Red, is a bit misleading, as Eirik doesn’t play a major role beyond his exile and founding of Greenland. The first half of the saga is a rather dull laundry-list of names -- warriors who married and begat children, etc. It really begins to pick up with the prophetess and Lief’s exploits, and then comes to an abrupt end.
The Saga of the Greenlanders is much more interesting and detailed in the description of the founding of Vinland (likely in Newfoundland) and the bizarre incidents that might be true (finding grapes?) and might not (a one-legged bandit who terrorizes the vikings?). The account also contains an amusing number of guys named Thorstein.
I found both sagas to have a striking amount of casual violence that is almost comical: “They came upon eight natives, killed them, and then continued down the stream,” etc. These accounts portray vikings (or at the least the ones exiled to Greenland and beyond) as brutish, vile cretins who have some sailing and survival skills. I hope that reading more of these sagas, and some works of history from contemporary sources, can give me greater insight and perhaps offer some different perspectives that might lead me to a more well-rounded view of their culture. -
In my youth I became an avid collector of Penguin Classics and this was one of the first I bought and read. I remember enjoying it; but I don't remember much else about it. Having just re-read it more than 35 years later I think I got more out of it now. For one thing, I actually read the rather lengthy (and very informative) introduction on this occasion, rather than just jumping straight into the two sagas unprepared. My interest in the Viking Age has been rekindled by this second visit to two of the most intriguing of all the Medieval Icelandic texts.
-
Really quite interesting! Half of the book was the introduction and other information, but it's essential to reading the book, I think.
-
The two sagas in question are very short, and the introductory matter is probably no longer up to date (the translation is 40-50 years old). That said, since Magnus Magnusson did the translation, I was willing to give it a whirl. The Graenland Saga (the early and shorter one) was totally loony fun -- I think its freewheeling "anything goes" mentality was a benefit, not -- in the eyes of the introduction -- a hindrance. The later saga (Eirik's Saga) was much less entertaining. It was longer, more structured, more restrained, and went to great pains to depict the positive Christian-centric morality of some of the characters who were related to the author's / compiler's bloodline and/or patron's bloodline. No such qualms occur in the earlier saga, which makes it a much better read at this late date, IMHO. [Please note that I am a Christian, but there are interesting ways and stupendously annoying ways to introduce and maintain a Christian moral order in a work of literature, and "Eirik's Saga" falls heavily on the stupendously annoying side.] All told, the two sagas are about 65-70 pages total. You Have Been Warned.
-
These are particularly short sagas, in fact more of the book is dedicated to the introduction and notes than the sagas themselves. They both cover the same ground, that being the settlement of Greenland and the discovery of Vinland (North America). I find it fascinating to cover that these stories are over 1000 years old, originally from the oral traditional and then written down in medieval Iceland. These are the history of a people, but also of individuals - as well as the big stuff, there's petty arguements, fights, marriages and so forth. I personally find the elements of the supernatural fascinating, this insight into what people believed at the time. There is a Sibyl who comes and tells them their futures; there is a bought of sickness during which several people die and we see the appearence of revenants - physical ghosts of the dead who can come back to cause trouble and take the living to the land of the dead. The medieval vampire in other words.
It's been a while since I read any sagas, so it's nice to come back to them and touch upon two I don't remember reading before. And just to be reading them for fun rather than part of my studies. -
Ohhhh, get me reading Icelandic sagas from one thousand years ago. One. Thousand. Years. Ago.
Actually this a brilliantly easy-reading saga beyond the fact THE Magnus "I've started so I've finished" Magnusson, translated it. Strangely enough, when you read the blurb you think this is going to be some middle-English drag-a-thon, more struggle than fun read, admittedly one that features Vikings.
*However* once you get beyond the introduction (which is longer than both sagas combined), essentially what you've got is an amazingly accessible tale of the discovery of America - times two - replete with fraught sea voyages, mu-rder (think Taggart), Thor, and encounters with hostile natives or Skraelings... aren't Skraelings in The Amber Spyglass?
Even more intriguingly, it appears the average middle-age Norse monk writes a bit like a bonkers twelve-year-old with an over-active imagination, and a great idea what makes a good yarn. Or maybe Magnus had a few too many horns of ale? -
An amazing insight into how people lived 1000 years ago. Whilst sometimes the structure of the stories can be a bit clunky, I found these two sagas a riveting read. Given that most of the old Norse sagas are written accounts of stories that were orally passed down through the generations, it is a testimony to Icelandic culture that such stories are remembered with any detail at all. According to my history buff friends this is the easiest to read of all of the sagas.
With an interesting introduction that discusses the journey of these two sagas from their origins right up to the current edition, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in history of the Nordic world. -
kickass stories of the norse settlement of north america circa 1000. the best thing about these sagas (they don't have quite the poetry of, say, Egil's) is their blending of historical fact with myth. the norse landing in newfoundland around this time is archaeologically supported, but plenty of magic and violence and weirdness crept into the account by the time it was set down in the Vinland Sagas 200 years or so after the fact. i imagine (without really knowing) that this is the earliest known incidence of the americas in written literature.
-
I learned a lot from this book and I found it semi-entertaining too. The introduction is very very overwritten and I would personally just skip it, or read it after the story like most. But it doesn't really ruin much of the stories contained fortunately. Introduction was well written though.
The sagas are okay, but the most fun parts are speculating for yourself what certain things in them mean, and having your own conclusions on this under-read story of history. Though there is enough strange happenings to keep your imagination in check. -
The Vinland Sagas tell the story of a fascinating time in the history of exploration. Like all great stories there’s action, adventure and of course, romance. As stated in the text
The Vinland Sagas contain the oldest descriptions of the North American continent and tell the story of several voyages undertaken by people from Iceland and Greenland to North America around the year 1000 – the first documented voyages across the Atlantic in which the peoples of Europe and America met for the first time (viiii ; Introduction).
Each saga is jam-packed with primarily the same tales of new landscapes, encounters with the natives, and of course the importance of familial ties. “Generally speaking, the purpose of written sagas is linked with the interest of the patrons of the writer” (xi; Introduction). What stands out about the Vinland Sagas is the mention of familial pride. “The notion of kinship is central to the sense of honour and duty in the sagas, and thereby to their action.“(pg. 82-83).
The importance of kinship only helps to prove the recurring motifs of duty, honor and pride in both sagas. To validate the presence and voyages of the first settlers, the reader is made aware that “ both the Vinland Sagas reflect family traditions and mention that three bishops in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries could trace their families back to Gudrid and Thorfinn Karlsefni through Snorri, the first ‘Vinlander’, and his brother (Thor) Bjorn” (x ; Introduction) . By mentioning the role of Bishops as proof , only helps to drive home the role of Christianity in the sagas. In fact, on the first voyage to Greenland a Christian man composed a
drapa of the Sea fences (Breakers)…[with this refrain]
I ask you , unlblsemied monks terster
To be the ward of my travels;
May the lord of the peaks’ pane
Shade my path with his hawk’s perch (pg. 3)
This sets the stage and makes it clear that Christianity will be a recurring subject in the sagas. It is also mentioned that “Heathen were the people of Greenland at this time” (pg.4). By pointing out the lack of religious guidance of Greenland a comparison is being made to the Christian man who is accompanying them on the voyage.
To understand the sagas it is worth mentioning that every main character is first introduced not by their name but who their parents were and sometimes how they are related to the character mentioned before them. The reason being is that “characters are not only literary prototypes, as is often the case in heroic literature, but also flesh and blood people … ( xiv; Introduction). After their lineage is established then do you know their name. An example of this is “ Herjolf was the son of Bard Herjolfsson and a kinsman of Ingolf the settler of Iceland ” ( pg. 3) Each person is known as either the son (son of ) or dottir ( daughter or ). Clearly it is important to confirm not only their true identity but also their value in the sagas.
Establishing kinship is one of the justification for the long genealogies…Members of the modern nuclear family or close relatives are only part of the picture , since kinsmen are all those who are linked through a common ancestor –preferable one of high birth and high repute- as far back as five or six generations or even more . (pg. 82).
There is a lot of attention paid to establishing a person’s heritage and that Christianity is prevalent and also the reason for guidance.
There’s no mistake, why grapes and wheat are the only natural resources that are spoken so highly about and remembered. The text states “since the holy sacrament requires wine and flour (for the bread), it was quite valuable to be able to prove that the distant settlements in Greenland had access to them (xi; Introduction). Just in case, there was a doubt about what kind of religion to follow, it is pointed out that wine and bread is readily available and in abundance in Vinland. Early Irish ideas and medieval writings helped to reinforce the idea that Vinland is supposed to be reminiscent of “Paradise”. Christianity plays a prominent role in the sagas, more so in the Eirik the Red’s Saga than The Saga of the Greenlanders which focuses on the voyages of the Vikings. In fact, “Leif Eiriksson is commissioned by King Olaf Tryggvason to convert the heathen settlers of Greenland to Christianity” (x ; Introduction).
As mentioned previously names not only tell of a person’s parentage but also a bit about their character. “The names of Gudrid and Freydid also point to the conflict: Gud – alluds to the Christian God, while Frey and Freyja were heathen fertility gods. Freydis’s outrageous behaviour is thus linked to heathendom. The antithesis of Gudrid’s Christian kindness” (x-xi; Introduction). Gudrid has a good christen name so therefore she is a good woman. She is described as “a woman of striking appearance and wise as well, who knew how to behave among strangers” (pg.12). It’s no coincidence that every time Gudrid is mentioned it is with praise of her attractive looks, knowledge and wisdom. Meanwhile, Freydis (who has a heathen name) is described as being an officious woman who married her husband just for his money. Even the natives are afraid her and run away. When he hears of her crimes , Leif , her brother predicts that “their descendents will not get up well in this world. As things turned out, after that no one expected anything but evil from them”. (pg.20). Freydis’ wicked deeds are several and without remorse, she is pleased with herself.
In Eirik the Red’s Saga Gudrid and Karlsefni’s romance helps to reinstate the importance of the Christian faith. The saga, in spite of its title, hardly tells anything about Eirik , but exalts the memory of Thorfinn Karlsefni …( viiii; Introduction ). Thorfinn Karlsefni is given significance not only because of his name, which “ derives from the thunder-god Thor (xi ; Introduction) but also because of his noble birth. While Gudrid origins are humble compared to that of her husband it is her devout faith in God that she is revered for. Her mother in law was not impressed by her and yet through her faith she is a “worthy foremother of bishops” (xi; Introduction). It is clear that Gudrid’s role in the sagas is to emphasize her Christian beliefs and practices.
The emphasis on Gudrid’s devout Christianity , which she takes to the end of the known world and back, is connected with the naming of the bishops in the closing chapters , who presumable saw benefits in championing the memory of the voyages to Vinland of such character they could consolidate their position in society and gain further respect and honour ( xi; Introduction )
Found by mere coincidence, Vinland proved to be a lure to all those that heard about it. Ultimately, it was the inimical natives and the distance that made it fairly difficult for colonies to form and prosper. It’s no surprise that the Vikings were expert seamen. Traveling from Greenland to Vinland and spending long periods of time in each location.
There is no doubt that the Vinland Sagas contain memories of real characters and events …coincidence or wishful thinking simply could not have produced descriptions of topography , natural resources and native lifestyle to unknown people in Europe that can be corroborated in north America ( xv; Introduction)
It seemed almost effortless on their part to constantly be at move. Not only did they settle quite well in a new land but they also interacted with the natives. It’s amazing how they were able to forgo the language barrier and trade goods with them. They were even great in battle, always suffering fewer casualties than the natives they fought. The Vinland Sagas prove not only their exploration of North America five centuries before Columbus, but also that they were cultured, remarkable people.
In conclusion, Kunz’s translation of The Vinland Sagas is a fast and easy read. In short, it tells the story of Eirik the Red’s settlement of Greenland after he is outlawed from Iceland. Sailor’s blown off course discover land and Eirik’s son, Leif goes to explore. He finds a land filled with grapes and wheat and decides to name it Vinland. Having spent several voyages to and fro , the expeditions abruptly stopped after Eirik’s daughter Freydis’ visit to Vinland. The sagas are a “mix of fact and fiction, the merging of the oral and the written, where the traditional and the individual meet”(xii ; Introduction). “They were written by Christians about their pagan ancestors , using the literary technique bought to them by the Church , in order to present their own heritage , drawing on the only available sources ; their elders” (xiii; Introduction). Without a doubt the sagas are a great blend of both historical fact and magic. But the one thing that stands out is the power of Christianity and assertion of family relations. -
Vinland Sagaları - Vikinglerin Amerika'yı Keşfinin Destanı
[vinlad: üzüm ülkesi]
[grönland: kalaallit nunaat, greenland, yeşil ülke].
İçindekiler:
-giriş,
-grönland sagası, s.15
-eirik, grönlandı keşfediyor,
-bjarni, batıda bir toprak görüyor,
-leif, vinlandı buluyor,
-leif, grönlanda dönüyor,
-thorvald, vinlandı keşfediyor,
-thorstein eiriksson, ölüyor,
-karlsefni, vinlandda, [thorfinn karlsefni, izlandalı tüccar],
-freydis, vinlandda,
-karlsefninin torunları,
-eirikin sagası, s.41
-gudridin soyu,
-eirik grönlandı keşfediyor,
-gudrid, grönlanda gidiyor,
-gudride geleceği söyleniyor,
-leif, vinlandı keşfediyor,
-thorstein eiriksson, ölüyor,
-karlsefni, grönlandda,
-karlsefni, vinlanda gidiyor,
-thorhall kaçıyor,
-karlsefni, güneye gidiyor,
-skraelingler saldırıyor [yerliler],
-thorvald eiriksson, ölüyor,
-[beyaz insanlar ülkesi; Hvitramannaland; irlandanın 6 gün batısında]
-bjarnigrimolfssonun ölümü,
-karlsefninin soyu,
-açıklamalar, s.75
-çıkmalar [notlar],
-özel adlar sözlüğü,
-kişi adları,
-yer adları,
-süredizin [kronoloji], s.99
-haritalar, s.101.
kitaptan bazı notlarım:
700-1000'li yıllar, izlanda, grönland ve amerikayı keşfin, yerleşimin izi:
-landnámabók; yerleşimler kitabı, 1100lerde yazılımış,
-snaebjorn galtinin sagası,
-vinland sagaları, vinlad: üzüm ülkesi.
-fostbroedra saga,
-floamanna saga,
-ari thorgilsson, izlanda tarihi, 1127.
-1121, izlanda yıllıkları,
-1492, papalık mektubu,
-grönland sagası, 11. yy.
-eirikin sagası, 13. yy.
-gesta hammaburgensis, 1075.
-ari thorgilsson, izlanda tarihi, 1030.
-flateyjarbók, 1395.
-hauk erlendsson, hauksbok, 14. yy.
-skálholtsbók,15. yy
-olaf tryggvasonun büyük sagası, 14. yyda yazıya geçirilmiş.
-thorgils ile haflidi (Þorgils saga ok Hafliða), (o Saga de Thorgils y Hlafidi), 1119.
-egilin sagası,
-laxdaela saga,
sagaların kaleme alınması, 12. yyda, izlanda kilisesi tarafından teşvik edilmiş. sebepleri de; hem cehalete karşı bir önlem olarak, halk arasında hikaye anlatma-okuma meşguliyetiyle [tabii kiliseye göre] halk, dans gibi akıl çelici eğlenceye engel olmak.
yine din, burada, sosyal hayatı etkileyen yönlendiren bir olgu durumunda. burada biraz hayırlı olmuş diyebiliriz; sözlü birikimin yazıya geçirilmesi.
kilise; halkın, pagan öğretilerini takip etmesinden ziyade, hikaye anlatması okuması yönünde destekleyici yönlendirici olmuş.
AMERİKAYI KEŞİF:
ülke her zaman oradaydı, ve üzerinde birileri yaşıyor, gidiyor görüyordu. şöyle ki;
göbekli tepe her zaman oradaydı, çoban çifçi çubukçu, oranın her zaman bi ören yeri olduğunu, yıkıntılar olduğunu biliyordu; sorun, akademik dünyaya ne zaman sunulduğu, tanıldığı problemidir. yoksa, yörede yaşayan herkes bilir, nerde yıkık var, asarı atıka var.
kuzey avrupalıların, henüz 800 lerden itibaren atlantiki iki yakasını da haritalandırdığı bir gerçek. yalnız, müslümanların akdenizden bu kadar açılıp keşif yapabildikleri hakkında kesin konuşmak sanırım doğru olmaz.
23.3.2019 -
The Vinland Sagas tell the weird story of the Norse discovery of America circa 1000 AD. Outlaw Erik the Red and his dysfunctional family stage a daring series of expeditions to North America. When Karlsefni attempts a serious colony, Skraelings drive out the outnumbered Vikings.
Written between 1050 and 1300, these two sagas tell the story from the Icelandic medieval perspective, not with a rationalist Christianity contrasted to pagan superstitions, but with real spirits--Norse and Christian--battling it out in the lives of Erik the Red, his family, and friends (and frenemies, and enemies).
Several incidents in Erik's Saga seemed to me to be pre-shadows of elements that showed up in JRR Tolkien's writings. Particularly prescient of Bilbo Baggin's splendid party was Thorbjorn's decision to hold a lavish party for all his friends just to tell them he's throwing in the towel on Iceland to leave and join Erik.
I was most surprised by how the decisions to go to Greenland, then Helluland, Maryland, Vinland, etc. were driven by economics. The original Viking to discover, Bjarni, was roundly condemned for not landing to capitalize on the available resources before returning to Greenland. Leif Erikson built houses in Vinland which he continued to "rent" to other explorers and colonizers for decades after he'd even set foot there. And of course, Erik the Red returned to Iceland and recruited colonizers by calling his new settlements "Greenland", a name he explicitly chooses for monetary gain. He gets into my marketing hall of fame.
