The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2001, Page 39

Vol. 56 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
121
Book Reviews
The Complete Sagas of
Icelanders
VIKING AGE CLASSICS
Five volume set, #9979929308
Leifur Eiriksson Publishing
Reviewed by Allan A. Swenson
At last, the truth about the original dis-
covery of the New World and earliest
Viking explorations has been told in plain
English. All 40 Viking Sagas and 49 tales,
The Complete Sagas of the Icelanders, has
been published in a coordinated translation
as Viking Age classics for this new millen-
nium. They are a welcome contribution to
getting the truth verified about Leif
Eiriksson, his epic voyage and many other
aspects of Viking history, exploration and
important contributions to civilization
over the eons. The 5 volume set is a pub-
lishing landmark.
For sheer narrative artistry and skill of
characterization, the finest Sagas rank with
the worlds greatest literary treasures, as
epic as Homer, as deep in tragedy as
Sophocles, as humanly engaging as
Shakespeare. For years, only a few had
been translated and published in English.
Despite their traditional origins, the Sagas
are works of consciously created literary
art. They are also a form of frontier litera-
ture, in which descendants of settlers
reflect on their origins, identity, legends
and the troublesome contemporary reali-
ties of that period.
For those earliest scribes, the world
exploration and settlement period was
something of a Golden Age, the era of a
unique commonwealth of free chieftains
with no king, dominated by Viking tradi-
tions of honour and blood vengeance.
Unlike typical heroic literature, the Sagas
are stories of flesh and blood humans;
steely-minded men and domineering
women in search of worldly wealth, power,
fame and love.
Modern readers will find dramatic psy-
chological intensity and depth of charac-
ters, a strong focus on codes of honour and
ethics and, human frailty too. The horizons
of Saga writers extended to the limits of the
Viking world: westward to Greenland and
Vinland, east to Russia and
Constantinople.
Icelanders and other Vikings sailed the
high seas to the shores of Ireland, upriver
to the cities of London and Rouen, all
along the Baltic Coast. We see in these
Sagas that the world lies at the feet of Saga
heroes: witty poets who are companions of
kings and earls, fierce fighters who never
lack the attentions of noble ladies.
Although these champions reign victori-
ous on foreign shores, as they did in that
era, they almost always return home to
their farms nestled under mountains in
lonely fjords and valleys. Often, clever and
beautiful women are depicted, manipulat-