The Vinland Sagas

by Anonymous (Editor), Keneva Kunz (Translator), Gísli Sigurðsson (Introduction and Notes)

The Saga of the Greenlanders and Eirik the Red’s Saga contain the first ever descriptions of North America, a bountiful land of grapes and vines, discovered by Vikings five centuries before Christopher Columbus. Written down in the early thirteenth century, they recount the Icelandic settlement of Greenland by Eirik the Red, the chance discovery by seafaring adventurers of a mysterious new land, and Eirik’s son Leif the Lucky’s perilous voyages to explore it. Wrecked by storms, stricken by disease and plagued by navigational mishaps, some survived the North Atlantic to pass down this compelling tale of the first Europeans to talk with, trade with, and war with the Native Americans.

Genres: History, Classics, Nonfiction, Medieval, Mythology, Poetry, Historical

123 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1280

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

These guys really just did whatever

Find a dead whale? Eat that shit.

It makes you ill? Launch it off a cliff.

Getting chased? Get your tits out and slap a sword on them to strike fear.

Amazing.

[Etienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, a must read if you're interest in viking history and their exploration. In contain two sagas, an introduction that explain how the saga were born/created and some annexes that contain maps, glossary, and informations about ships and building of the vikings age. Less dense and hard to read then I thought, it was pretty easy to go through but at the same time I've learn a lot so that's great! Love it!!

[E. G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Acknowledgements
Introduction & Notes
Further Reading
A Note on the Translation

The Vinland Sagas

--The Saga of the Greenlanders

--Eirik the Red's Saga

Notes

Reference Section:
Maps
Family Tree
Chronology of the 'Vinland Sagas'
Ships
The Farm
Social, Political and Legal Structure
Glossary
Indexes of Characters and Places

[Hanieh Sadat Shobeiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

شرح سفر وایکینگ‌ها به قاره‌ی آمریکا (یا به قول خودشون وینلند)، پنج قرن قبل از جناب کریستوف کلمب!
مگه ممکنه؟
نه قطب‌نمایی بوده، نه اسطرلابی، نه دوربینی! چطور؟
جالبه که تا مدت‌ها فکر می‌کردن این‌ها افسانه‌‌اند و وایکینگ‌ها این‌ها رو از خودشون درآوردن، تا وقتی که در دهه‌ی ۶۰ میلادی خونه‌هایی به سبک وایکینگی توی نیوفاندلند کانادا پیدا شد و فهمیدن عههه همه‌ش واقعی بوده!
وایکینگ‌ها به آمریکا سفر کردن، با بومی‌ها ملاقات کردن و حتی باهاشون تجارت کردن! اما خب هیچ خوشی‌ای تا ابد پابرجا نیست و بالاخره بومی‌ها و خرافاتشون برنده می‌شه و سفید‌پوست‌های کثیف و نفهمی که با خودشون بیماری به زمین مقدس آوردن رو از سرزمینشون بیرون می‌کنن.
کتاب به سبک روایتی و شسته‌رفته نوشته شده، مثل بیشتر روایت‌های تاریخی قرون وسطی‌ای؛ ولی با این حال هیچ چیز از جذابیتش کم نمی‌شه.
اول بیارنی (Bjarni Herjólfsson: Son of Herjolf) بوده که قرار بوده با کشتی از ایسلند بره به گرینلند و توی راه مه می‌شه و راهشو گم می‌کنه و از سرزمین جدید سردرمیاره. اما خب ترسش به حس کنجکاویش غلبه می‌کنه و حتی حاضر نمی‌شه از کشتی پیاده بشه! دماغه رو می‌چرخونه و برمی‌گرده گرینلند.
بعدش نوبت به لِیف اریکسون (Leif Eriksson: Son of Erik) می‌شه که بعد از کلی بد و بیراه گفتن به بیارنی که "خاک بر سرت! تو یک دنیای جدید کشف کردی و بدون این‌که بری ببینی چیه، برگشتی!" کشتی و خدم و حشم برمی‌داره و راه میفته به سمت سرزمین جدید. اول می‌رسه به سرزمین‌های سنگی و نمی‌تونه پهلو بگیره، بعدش می‌رسه به زمین‌های جنگلی (اگه این‌ها رو همزمان توی نقشه دنبال کنید، جذاب‌تر هم می‌شه!). زمین‌های جنگلی رو هم رد می‌کنه تا بالاخره به سرزمینی می‌رسه که تماماً دشت‌های گندم وحشی و انگورهای درشت و هیجان‌انگیزه! دشت‌هایی که وایکینگ‌ها عمراً توی ایسلند و گرینلند یا حتی دانمارک که سرزمین‌های سرد و سنگی‌ای بودن، شبیهش رو ندیده بودن. اسم اونجا رو میگذاره "وینلند" یعنی سرزمین شراب و کشتی‌ رو پر از انگور می‌کنه و برمی‌گرده.
بعدش نوبت می‌رسه به تورفین کارلسفنی (Thorfinn Karlsefni) تاجر (که از قضا نقش اصلی انیمه‌ی حماسه‌ی وینلند (Vinland Saga) هم هست و بنده اصلاً به خاطر همین این کتاب رو شروع کردم!) که این دفعه اون چندبار به وینلند سفر می‌کنه و اونجا دهکده می‌سازه و گندم پرورش می‌ده و با بومی‌ها ارتباط برقرار می‌کنه و باهاشون بده‌بستون راه‌ میندازه.
ولی خب ادامه‌دار نمی‌شه چون اگه می‌شد، ما خیلی زودتر از این حرف‌ها با آمریکا آشنا می‌شدیم و لازم نبود پونصد سال صبر کنیم تا یکی قطب‌نما رو اختراع کنه!
اما خب شاید صلاح همین بوده...
با این همه اگر به ماجراجویی و تاریخ علاقه دارین، به هیچ وجه این کتاب رو از دست ندید :))

[Louis Armitage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christopher Columbus who?

The Vinland Sagas offer a captivating glimpse into Norse exploration - blending history and mythology with tales of two daring voyages. Significantly, these tales are now considered broadly to be describing actual events.

[Zea · Rating 5 out of 5]

best part of this hands down is freydis smacking her tit with a sword to scare off some warriors your wcw could NEVER

[Adam McPhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Greenland Saga is a fun, straightforward read about colonization of Greenland and several trips to Vinland. The Saga of Eirik the Red is a bit more muddied, conflating the stories of the earlier expeditions and sort of hinting at the mixed feelings people might have had at the recent conversion to Christianity (the saga is clearly pro-Christianity, but the old ways are useful and reminisced over). To make up for it, though, it has a bit more of an adventurous attitude, like this skirmish with the skraelings in Vinland:

(Freydis Eriksdottir) called, 'Why do you flee such miserable opponents, men like you who look to me capable of killing them off like sheep? Had I a weapon I'm sure I would fight better than any of you.' They paid no attention to what she said. Freydis wanted to go with them, but moved somewhat slowly, as she was with child. She followed them into the forest, but the natives reached her. She came across a slain man, Thorbrand Snorrason, who had been struck in the head by a slab of stone. His sword lay beside him, and this she snatched up and prepared to defend herself with it as the natives approached her. Freeing one of her breasts from her shift, she smacked the sword with it. This frightened the natives, who turned and ran away.

Karlsefni and his men came back to her and praised her luck.

I also liked the story of Thorhall, who's just some guy who gets depressed in the New World and realizes he's made a terrible mistake. There's a real sense of doom and foreboding to his story:

They spent the winter there, and it was a harsh winter, for which they had made little preparation, and they grew short of food and caught nothing when hunting or fishing. They went out to the island, expecting to find some prey to hunt or food on the beaches. They found little food, but their livestock improved there. After this they entreated God to send them something to eat, but the response was not as quick in coming as their need was urgent. Thorhall disappeared and men went to look for him. They searched for three days, and on the fourth Karlsefni and Bjarni found him at the edge of a cliff. He was staring skywards, with his mouth, nostrils and eyes wide open, scratching and pinching himself and mumbling something.

They asked what he was doing there, and he replied that it made no difference. He said they need not look so surprised and said for most of his life he had got along without their advice. They told him to come back with him and he did so.

Shortly afterwards they found a beached whale and flocked to the site to carve it up, although they failed to recognize what type it was. Karlsefni had a wide knowledge of whales, but even he did not recognize it. The cooks boiled the meat and they ate it, but it made everyone ill.

Thorhall then came up and spoke: 'Didn't Old Redbeard prove to be more help than your Christ? This was my payment for the poem I composed about Thor, my guardian, who's seldom disappointed me.'

Once they heard this no one wanted to eat the whale meat, they cast if off a cliff and threw themselves on God's mercy.

Then when summer comes, Thorhall wants to explore in a different direction and Karlsefni lets him take a ship. He composes a nihilistic poem before setting sail. Thorhall's ship gets separated early by a storm, and they're driven all the way to Ireland, where they're beaten and enslaved. 'And there Thorhall died.'

I like how much of their diet is beached whale, though that probably speaks to their poor planning. Also, it bugs me that the Saga admits Eirik the Red called it Greenland to trick people into settling there, but no one's ever pointed out that there's just no way that Vinland (aka Newfoundland) could possibly have grapevines.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars or not, it is hard for me to write excitedly about the Penguin Classics Edition of the Vineland Sagas. The very short book consist of some accessible and generally interesting introduction and very helpful maps and notes by Gisli Sigurdsson and the Sagas of The Greenlanders and Erik the Red both translated by Keneve Sigurdsson. Total page count is about 100.

My notion of the importance of sagas is that they combine history, local legends and perhaps enough facts to transmit travel directions to the careful reader. That is sagas should be somewhat like a Bible, being the oral traditions, and history and generally the main way to carry vital information forward across generations. More than incidentally these particular sagas reflect the arrival of Christianity among the Vikings with some obvious changes in priorities and emphasis.

Speaking only of this translation, for this is the only version I know; these sagas read like academic documents. They seem edited to be dry, documentary, summary and absent any of the kinds of drama and entertainment that would keep pagans, adult or children wide eyed at the communal fireside. Look elsewhere for the heroics of Beowulf. Check your insurance before you depend on these sagas as your sailing directions while exploring in an open boat with neither back up compass nor web based aps.

The sagas do recite the same stories we heard in school about European discovery of Greenland, so named as a sales ploy to promote immigration and do not expect to be thrilled by the early battles between the Viking settlers on what they called Vineland and would come 500 years later to be called America (more exactly the Canadian Maritime) and the ‘Skraelings’. This being the earlier Viking name for most likely Eskimos. Or perhaps what the Canadians now call the people of the First Nations. I rather wish we could have played cowboys and skræingjar (plural). However here the fights were not steel and gunpowder, versus bows and arrows, but rather iron verses large number of locals. Where Iron won, the sagas got to be written.

My decision to read the Vineland Sagas was to learn about the tales of early travelers and non-Greco-Roman mythologies. This deck chair exploration is academically interesting, but too sanitized

[Justin Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

And then some stuff happened, and then some other stuff happened, and then some more stuff happened, and here's a list of names that you'll never remember, and then some stuff happened. Okay, it ain't a work of beauty. I daresay that if these chronicles related the discovery of Gersey nobody would bother translating it, let alone read it. But it is pretty cool that some random viking types found the North American continent. And these 'sagas' are short, so you can read them pretty quick, and get the earliest European literary mentions of what would become America. But entertaining? Only in random details, like a pregnant Freydis *slapping a sword with her bare breasts* to scare away attackers. Shit, I wouldn't have messed with her either.

[Sary Farraj · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book! Highly recommended for any reader interested in voyages and adventures, especially those set in the Medieval age. There is something fascinating in reading about Vinland, because it is a low-key story, although well documented. I guess it is the American glorification and spreading of its cultural hegemony that marginalized the Norse discovery of the New World. However, and thanks to Vinland Saga, many people including me are educating themselves on the matter. The translation is highly accessible and I'm also excited to read a different edition of the book that has a different translator and supplementary materials.

Before starting to read I had some general knowledge of both sagas as a whole, but I felt a little bit confused reading the introduction in the book. While it is rich in information, literary, historical, archeological and cultural context, I felt it could have done a better job in contextualizing the differences between both sagas (both in terms of events and style), and how the Greenlanders'' Saga was obviously written before Erik the Red's Saga. Some of the introductory materials could be split and placed after the sagas themselves as part of the notes.

The Saga of the Greenlanders is somewhat shorter and less compact than the Saga of Erik the Red, which is filled with genealogies, names and events. There is also much more mythological elements in the latter one than the first (which still has its fair share), which seems more interested in the logistics and the geographical discovery of the continent. There are many differences between both sagas which is not surprising. For example Bjarni discovers land in Greenlanders rather than Leif in Erik the Red. Freydis is clearly an imposing female character in both versions, but she does less heinous deeds in the Saga of Erik the Red. The Saga of Erik the Red, however, offers much more social and political context which the notes expand on. Only later did I understand what they meant by searching the island (Iceland) for Erik while he was fleeing, or how slavery and freedom from it plays into the social fabric of society. Gudrid's father looked upon a marriage proposal for his daughter because the latter was a son of a freed slave, although all of his family are descendants of freed slaves as well (Vifil). Thorfinn's mother also looks down upon Gudrid, but later she gains her favor. These themes interplay with the theme of Christianity and the conversion of the Norse settlements at the time, winning favor among the people in folklore as well as evidenced by elements and characters in both of these sagas (Gudrid, Leif, slavery, etc.). Some details are also similar it's uncanny, such as the natives being afraid of the bull, using the axe and throwing it, and Thorvald dying from an arrow. It is clear that the Saga of the Greenlanders heavily influenced the evolution of its counterpart. I love the literary era and origin of such works, as it includes Old Nordic and Christian elements interweaving it in culture and history.

Very enjoyable, rich and short book. Boosts my enjoyment of the Vinland Saga manga/anime. I will definitely be coming back for a second read.

[Khrustalyov · Rating 4 out of 5]

The two sagas contained within this collection are far from the epic scale of history and human drama in the likes of Njal's Saga, but they give an often fascinating window into how the first Europeans to reach the Americas understood the new world. The brevity of The Saga of the Greenlanders and Eirik the Red's Saga is a bit of a shame, but they both cast an interesting light on the dynamics of North Atlantic space in the first millennium.

It is probably the geography that is most interesting here. Having made forays and brief settlements into what is today New England, Newfoundland, and the St Lawrence River area, the Vikings had a unique sense of how the world was geographically organised. Reading these sagas gives a sense of a world that pivots on seafaring in the North Atlantic, a very different worldview from what we get from later Europeans who 'discovered' the Americas, such as Columbus.

The idea of Vinland itself is also fascinating. While it seems to emerge from an Irish mythological belief in a land to the west that was abundant in grapes and grain, scholars agree that Vikings really did explore and briefly settle some part of North America, half a millennium before Columbus did. There is debate as to the precise location, but they believe it was most likely areas around the St Lawrence River.

The story of each saga can be a little unsatisfying though, at least if one reads them with modern sensibilities. The story start to move, we are introduced to characters, then they are suddenly dropped and we are introduced to some more, the story changes. That said, it's important to bear in mind that the sagas are partly serving a social and historical function that stories don't serve today, so context is required. The detailed introduction is helpful here and is probably advisable to read before the sagas, particularly if you aren't familiar with any other Icelandic sagas.

There are also moments of great entertainment: the battle scenes are exciting; the tensions between the Vikings who worship the old gods and the ones who worship the Christian god; an especially funny moment when a Viking woman frightens off Native American warriors by slapping a sword off her breast. If these sagas existed to warn and inspire young Vikings about Vinland, they were also to inspire.

These short sagas are definitely worth a read and will take you no time at all. The volume has some very helpful notes and an interesting appendix with explanations about Viking ships and the structure of their society and politics. That said, I wouldn't advise starting here necessarily. Njal's Saga and Egil's Saga are much more psychologically astute and come much closer to the form of the modern novel than the two short Vinland Sagas. In that regard, they are considerably more satisfying and give much more insight into how the Viking mind and society operated. For that reason, you may wish to start with them before delving further into the sagas, one of the greatest canons in all of world literature.

[MightySSStrawberry · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was neat to read such old Viking sagas, but it was basically just a bunch of them with the same names sailing around and finding dead whales, trees, rocks, and Native Americans whom they fought for about two sentences. Crazy random stuff too, like a pregnant woman making a threat to the enemy by slapping a sword with her breast 🤷🏻‍♀️ Vikings were kinda crazy like that. Whatever intimidated their foes, I guess!

Overall it was pretty boring, but it’s kinda cool I can say that I’ve read legit Viking sagas now 👍🏻

[Christine Spoors · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is all about The Vinland Sagas, which follow the first Vikings to reach North America from Greenland and Iceland. I classed it as non-fiction because much of the book is discussing Viking culture at the time and giving context, such as maps, about the sagas. Although I find the Vikings fascinating, I've never read many books about them, so this was a brilliant Christmas present to receive.

[Kj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent curation of the sequences from Erik the Red's Saga and Saga of the Greenlanders describing the Viking voyages to North America (Vinland). The 1990s translations are highly readable, while still maintaining some of the uncanny cadence conveying cultural and perspectival differences of the Viking worldview. The additional materials, including maps, boat schematics, and 11th century cultural context are great, along with helpful footnotes.
A swift, entertaining, and illuminating read.

[Gianna Conidi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading stuff for medieval lit makes me want to rip each individual hair out of my head 🩷

[Maren]

Leif Eiriksson var, indeed, den første som oppdaget Amerika folkens ;)

[Lukas Sotola]

Two very interesting stories of how Icelanders explored the Americas (what is today Canada) almost five centuries before Columbus. The Saga of Eirik the Red is fragmentary and hard to follow at times, starting off with a long and—to modern readers—uninteresting genealogy of important people, before segueing into a story that doesn’t really have any overarching plot and few vivid characterizations. However, it does have some fascinating and engaging moments, like when Freydis, a woman, essentially calls out the men in her party for being pussies in the face of an attacking group of Native Americans; and when Gudrid, a Christian woman, reluctantly agrees to help a pagan sorceress, Thorbjorg, perform a ritual to allow her to tell the future.

The Saga of the Greenlanders, telling much the same story as the Saga of Eirik the Red, is more of a coherent narrative, although it still feels like three or four separate stories artificially stitched together. It at least has characters who, even if they don’t have much personality, at least seem more human, like when Gudrid is despondent after her husband dies of an illness and is comforted by a new friend. It, too, has a vivid episode involving Freydis: this time, she tricks her husband into slaughtering some men she was angry with, and when her husband refuses to kill the women who’d been accompanying those men because killing women was forbidden, she takes an axe and slaughters them all herself.

So, worth reading for the bits of excitement and their historical value, I’d say, especially given how short they both are (both around 20 pages).

[Ian McKinley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did this one in two days, once I got beyond the introduction. A quick, easy read that is an absolutely fascinating account of the first interaction between Europeans (the Norse) and Canada's first nations, likely Mi'Kmaq. Some neat examples of Norse verse, including kennings. Well worth the read.

[Rebecca Upjohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fantastic and fascinating read especially in conjunction with The Sea Road by Margaret Elphinstone.

[Red · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book covering Norse landings in the US. The stories are quick and barebones. But they're interesting none the less. I had to go back and read some parts to understand, but its fun.

[☮ morgan ☮ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Vikings were crazy dude

[Bree Hatfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains the two sagas that detail the journeys to Vinland (North America) by Icelanders and Greenlanders, with the chief character being Leif Eiriksson, Thorfinn Karlsefni, and Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir, among other minor characters like Eirik the Red himself and Freydis Eiriksdottir.

The story is actually very fun and compelling! I had heard this one was one of the more entertaining sagas, but I’m always a little wary since it is medieval literature, but it really was good! The language is pretty simple, everything is stated as it is (which is typical for sagas), but there’s strong characterization for many of the major characters, a plot that’s easy to follow, and an entertaining story. It’s also very short (about 50 pages for both sagas), so that does help.

I personally enjoyed The Saga of the Greenlanders more because there was less background information and more on the actual Vinland voyages themselves, but Eirik the Red’s Saga had some good characterization with Thorfinn and a minor character called Thorhall, a follower of Thor and a very good poet! Freydis is also cast in a more sympathetic light in Eirik the Red’s Saga when she takes the defense of her crew into her own hands with the famous breast-bearing scene at the end. It also has a really interesting, and seemingly unrelated, episode about a ship lost at sea where only a few can fit on the lifeboat (Chapter 13).

The voice of the editor, Gísli Sigurdsson, is very easy to understand and even conversational at times. The introduction, while a little long, wasn’t a slog to read. I found most of the information interesting at least, and it did well to prepare the reader for what to expect in the sagas. The notes throughout the sagas were also very good; he doesn’t go overboard, just gives further explanation to things that aren’t fleshed out in the saga itself. In fact, you could feasibly not read any of the notes and be perfectly fine, but it’s good to have them in case you’re into that. The information proceeding the sagas is also pretty good, although I don’t understand why they weren’t in the introduction, particularly the sections on farm life and society and law. But either way, it was good and interesting information.

If you’re looking to get into the sagas, this is a good place to start! It’s not as exciting as The Saga of the Volsungs or any of the other legendary sagas, but it is entertaining and it gives you a taste of the language and structure of most of the Old Norse sagas. Also, if you’ve read/watched the manga/anime Vinland Saga, this is a fun little companion to it.

[Jerimy Stoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Histories that are passed on from oral traditions are always interesting to me. I also like to read about explorers. I like to see how people describe what they see and allude to things that most people might think are highly improbable, but there are often other accounts of the same thing. Let me provide some examples here. In the Tanak there are mentions of unicorns, satyrs, and donkey centaurs, and dragons. All four of these creatures are well known mythological creatures, but are they really mythological and not real? It is hard to say. I didn't see what the narrator saw. Giants are common themes on the internet, and also in the bible. In the journals of Lewis and Clark they mention that they wanted to explore some hills and their native guides would not go there because there were giants there and they were known to eat people. Marco Polo described a race of dog headed men near India. Other books from India also describe these creatures, but more surprising is an account made by Alexander the Great where he claimed to have fought and destroyed an entire army of them. That brings me to this Vinland Saga where some Vikings came into contact with a unipedal creature, which could have been passed off as a misinterpretation of a saga, if it were not for the fact that Canada claims that these actually existed.

Well, that's all I've got for this one. Enjoy.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh what could have been had the Vikings' successful colonization attempts in Iceland and Greenland held in what would become Canada's maritime provinces. I read this on the sea between Iceland and Greenland to try to inhabit the sagas a bit more.

- We get two tales of expedition, one largely in Greenland and one largely in the new world

- The earth around the year 1000 was perhaps the warmest it's been in the last three thousand years, and settlement of Greenland and expedition further west gained purchase in the better climate

- Eirik the Red settled in Greenland in 985, and he meant to go with his son Leif Eriksson in 999-1000 to the New World, but Eirik broke his leg walking to the ship and felt that was a sign he should venture no further west

- Bulls scare the Natives, there is some misunderstanding as the Vikings refuse to sell weapons; the Natives attack and Leif's brother is killed in Newfoundland

- Eirik and Leif were a mix of Norwegian and Irish blood, with the 9th century Viking settlement in Dublin paving the way

- Who holds claim to being the first European born in the new world - Virginia Dare, someone from a Portuguese or Spanish expedition circa 1500, or perhaps Snorri, born in the North American Viking settlement after the turn of the millennium

Worth the read; will pick up a larger book of Viking sagas at some point

[Loren Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixture of fact and Viking myth, this was truly a fascinating read! It’s a little tricky to keep up with so it does require quite a bit of focus — keeping the names and places straight (there are so many people whose names start with Thor), and not getting confused between certain events and the order they take place in (especially when you put the two sagas side by side). Nevertheless, a must read for any history lover — an insightful and unique experience! Written in the 13th century, there are no doubt discrepancies, but with modern historical finds we can verify much of this which makes this really awesome.

My favourite of the two sagas was “The Greenlander Saga”. In it we learn about Eirik (Erik) the Red’s children — namely Leif Erikkson and his discovery of Vinland and then there’s Freydis. Freydis and just…well, there’s really no other word but evil….person she was. It’s a deep look into the past, into one of very few cultures where women had power and someone like Freydis yielded it wickedly. This reads like a terrifying folktale — except that it really happened. Just read it, it’s worth it. And this copy has maps, notes, a very detailed introduction, a family tree and other tidbits. Very helpful.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two stories for the price of one!
This also means that the count is reset about halfway through the book, which makes it difficult to track.
On the bright side, it's a small book, so there's no need to worry about that.

The style is completely different from the stuff you'd expect from the likes of Snorri Sturluson, as he's more keen to tell a story than make a historiographical account. Which this is. This doesn't mean however, that funny dumb stuff doesn't happen. In fact, I'd argue that whatever accidents happen in sagas like Egil Skallagrimsson's are used to tell a moral. Here some vikings fall off their horses go "Ow, ow" [sic] and return home, or they decide that falling off your horse and breaking two ribs is just as good an excuse as any to stop going on adventures.

There's also some nice informative blurbs, about boats and farms and political structures, and maps at the end for those interested.

[Jared Guertin]

I went into this book thinking it was going to be an epic poem similar to Beowulf or the Odyssey, but it's more of a recorded history. In that way it was somewhat boring of a read - much of it was, "We sailed to this island, but didn't land. Some people criticized us for that. Then we sailed to this next island, and there was wheat there." Nonetheless there were some exciting moments, with treachery and conflict and murder. When taken for what the book is, I appreciated it as a look into how life in Greenland was, and what the interests, anxieties, and customs of the people at that time and place were.

[Ocean · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite saga is probably just whichever one I happen to be reading in the moment, but this one in particular has an effect on me. Every time I read it, I'm hit with so many harrowing scenes. In particular, the moment of Bjarni's sacrifice for a man in his crew as their ship sinks into the Sea of Worms. Throughout both of the sagas, Eirik the Red and Freydis Eiriksdotter are just incredible, complex, and interesting people, even if their presence in the sagas are limited to only a few moments. Freydis in particular is represented so wildly differently between the two stories, which prompts so many questions about who she really was. Such a quick read with so many mysteries in its pages.

[Kevin O'Keefe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two sagas and lots of historical background and tidbits about Icelandic and Greenland(ic?) culture at the time of Leif Erikson and Erik the Red's voyages to Vinland(North America or the land of vines/grapes).

Semi interesting stories, two versions of travels to Vinland. Got a bit repetitive and dull. They sail around, sail some more, do some farming, hang out for the winter, kill some natives, have some babies, sail some more....

Interesting read and feel like I have some more context for my upcoming trip to Iceland. Not sure I'd read if I wasn't visiting soon.

[Jon Greenlander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Indispensable. Easy to read translations with an academic introduction and lots of maps. Perhaps my favorite part of the whole book is the compilation near the end of where different scholars place the locations in the sagas. It’s cool to see near uniform acceptance of some sites (like Helluland and Markland corresponding to Baffin Island and Labrador, respectively) while others have no real consensus. I love to see incredibly important documents such as these two sagas made widely available for the general public, with commentary by seasoned experts.