The Vinland Sagas (Penguin Classics)

This book actually consists of two Icelandic sagas, "The Saga of the Greenlanders" and "The Saga of Erik the Red," which offer tantalizing and all too brief accounts of one of the most intriguing events in history--the exploration and attempted colonization of North America (in this case basically the Canadian Maritime Provinces) by Norsemen (Vikings) half a millennium before Columbus. The Vikings today are best known as looters and marauders, but they were also intrepid explorers, enterprising merchants, and hardworking farmers who succeeded in carving out long-term colonies in Greenland (which lasted until the sixteenth century) and Iceland (which still exists). They did not succeed in Vinland, largely because the hostile "Skraelings" (Native Americans) were too numerous and too powerful. Remember, folks, this was before the invention of gunpowder. They were also plagued by internal dissensions and the machinations of one truly evil woman, Leif Ericsson's half-sister Freydir Eriksdottir. The sagas were written down some three centuries after the events narrated therein, and must not be regarded as sober history, based as they are on oral traditions combining myth, legend, and solid fact. They have the directness of the Bible and the objectivity of Homer, and like the Bible and Homer much time is taken up by confusing genealogies and polysyllabic names that are hard to keep track of (a key to Icelandic pronunciation would have been nice). Though the tone is largely objective, there is a subtle evangelical spin to the narratives: the sympathetic characters are mostly Christians, while the unsympathetic characters are largely pagan. Also, one cannot help noticing that the pagan characters usually come to bad ends. This Penguin Classic version, translated by Keneva Kurz and edited with notes and introduction by Gisli Sigurdsson, contains maps, illustrations, and a glossary, and examination of Norse ships, farms, and legal structures. A very useful book for students of Norse culture and pre-Columbian America.

This is the second edition of The Vinland Sagas that I've purchased from the Penguin Classics series. The first, published a few decades ago, was adequate, but this new edition is well worth having an extra copy around. These translations, by Keneva Kunz, are fast-paced, clear, and easy to read.The two sagas included here are The Saga of the Greenlanders and The Saga of Eirik the Red. Both tell of the Norse discovery of and attempts (there were more than one) to settle in North America. They differ in focus and emphasis, but tell essentially the same stories. First, Eirik the Red settled himself in Greenland. Then, when Norse sailors were blown off course and sighted more land even farther west, Eirik's son Leif decided to check it out for himself. Leif, later known as "the Lucky" after rescuing wrecked sailors, discovered a land where wild grapes and "self-sown wheat" grew and named it Vinland. He and others explored up and down the coast of Canada and New England, perhaps as far south as Manhattan. They settled in several places all along the coast and even traded with the natives. Then things turned sour.The Vikings, many are shocked to learn, actually fought wars with the Indians. Of course, the Norse settlers won handily in every engagement, but the fighting was enough to convince them that the sheer numbers of the natives would eventually wear them down, and after several years of exploration, settlement, and farming, they packed up and returned to Iceland and Greenland. But Vinland was never forgotten.The book is short, and the sagas even shorter--the two combined take up only 48 pages in this edition. But the book is rounded out with an informative--if sometimes dry--introduction and notes by Gisli Sigurdsson. Sigurdsson mentions several instances from later records in which people were said to have sailed to Vinland, including a man cutting lumber who returned from his trip and a bishop who did not. Also included are illustrations and diagrams of Icelandic farms and Norse ships that have been lifted from the Sagas of Icelanders collection.Perhaps the most helpful appendix in the book is the map section. There are six pages of maps and a two-page table setting out scholars' guesses on the locations of places in the sagas. For example, is Vinland actually Newfoundland? Or perhaps Prince Edward Island? The maps themselves are labeled according to Sigurdsson's suggestions, which certainly helps while reading the sagas.But even if you aren't going to look at the introduction or back matter, the sagas themselves are well worth reading. And of course, if you are interested in learning more about Leif the Lucky and the New World's first European settlers, this edition of the Vinland Sagas, with its strong translation and good supplementary material, is the one to have.Highly recommended.