Sagas

The Saga of the People of Weapon’s Fjord (Vápnfirðinga Saga)

A New English Translation with Old Norse Text, Vocabulary, and Maps

The Saga of the People of Weapon’s Fjord (Vápnfirðinga Saga) is a masterpiece of saga telling. It recounts blood feud in Iceland during the Viking Age and takes the reader deep into struggles for power and honor in Iceland’s East Fjords. Two young chieftains begin as inseparable friends. As they mature, however, they slide into bitter competition for regional dominance. The contest continues into the next generation, entangling the chieftains’ two sons and spreading across Iceland’s northern and eastern regions. As one learns, honor and friendship have many interpretations but revenge is mostly expected.

This new translation is a bilingual edition. It offers all the tools necessary to read a major Icelandic saga in both English and the original Old Norse. Each Old Norse saga chapter has its own specific vocabulary, so that the reader is freed from dependence on separate dictionaries. Notes and discussions explain language, geography, law, and society. An extensive series of maps, freshly drawn for this edition, offer an accurate picture of the landscape. After completing theSaga of the People of Weapon’s Fjord, you will be equipped to read any of Iceland’s longer sagas.

The Tale of Thorstein Staff-Struck (Þorsteins þáttr stangarhöggs)

A New English Translation with Old Norse Text, Vocabulary, and Notes

The Tale of Thorstein Staff-Struck is a short saga set in Iceland’s East Fjords in during the VikingAge. Thorstein, a peaceful young man, is struck in the course of a horse fight by an opponent wielding a wooden staff used as a horse-prod. From then on, Thorstein is mocked and forced to live with the humiliating nickname “staff-struck.” Even Thorstein’s father, an old viking, looks down on his son as a coward. But Thorstein is no coward. Waiting for the right moment to take revenge, he reclaims his good name in a way that brings honor to both him and his chieftain.

This new English translation is a dual language edition that includes the complete Old Norse text with full vocabulary and notes. The combination provides the tools needed to read a saga in English and Old Norse.

Land of Wooden Gods: Book One of the Viking Slave Trilogy

By Jan Fridegard and translated by Robert E. Bjork 

Steeped in myth and pagan ritual, the Viking Slave Trilogy is Sweden’s greatest and most accurate saga of the Viking Age. The three volumes in the series − Land of Wooden Gods, People of the Dawn, and Sacrificial Smoke – recount the sensual but often cruel demands of the gods: Odin, Thor, and Frey. An epic of warrior chieftains and their slaves or ‘thralls’, the trilogy tests belief in the Norse Gods while digging deep into the combative world and sacrificial rituals of Old Scandinavia. Land of Wooden Gods, the first book in the trilogy, introduces Holme, a boy enslaved, who grows into a skilled weapon-smith and dangerous warrior. Holme never accepts his status as a thrall. When he risks his life to save his child and his lover from a chieftain’s wrath, Holme is forced onto a journey through the rival pagan and Christian landscapes of Viking Sweden. His saga is unforgettable. Jan Fridegard is one of Sweden’s foremost authors. The Viking Slave Trilogy is his most famous work

People of the Dawn: Book Two of The Viking Slave Trilogy 

By Jan Fridegard and translated by Robert E. Bjork 

The second book in the Viking Slave Trilogy follows the struggles of the escaped slaves, Holme and his lover Ausi. The two hunted fugitives reach the trading town of Birka, thinking they will be safe, but… Steeped in myth and pagan ritual, this tale recounts the sensual but often cruel demands of the Viking gods: Odin, Thor, and Frey.

Sacrificial Smoke: Book Three of the The Viking Slave Trilogy

By Jan Fridegard and translated by Robert E. Bjork 

This final book in the Viking Slave Trilogy follows the journey of Holme, now a master warrior and leader. Holme and Ausi face difficult choices and new dangers, as they contend with Christian missionaries in the shadow of the great sacrifices at the pagan temple of Uppsala. An epic of warrior chieftains and their slaves, this is a fitting conclusion to a trilogy that captures the violent world and sacrificial rituals of Old Scandinavia.