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Title: Laxdaela Saga by Magnussen, Magnus Magnusson ISBN: 0-14-044218-9 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: November, 1969 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the finer ones!
Comment: As a lover of the Icelandic sagas, I can say I've had the opportunity to read quite a few. But this one, the tale of Gudrun Osvif's Daughter who marries four times, while bringing about the death of one of the most remarkable men Iceland had ever seen up to that time, out of a kind of lover's pique, is surely one of the best. Gudrun belongs to an illustrious family and soon comes into the orbit of an even more illustrious one, that of Olaf the Peacock. While this tale, like all true sagas, spans several generations, the core of the book revolves around the fair Gudrun and the men she encounters and enters into relationships with. But it's a tragic tale in the end, as well, because Gudrun, proud and unforgiving as any Norseman in the saga world, cannot give way and is thus doomed to lose the one man she may have desired most of all. It falls, finally, to her son, born after the killing of her third husband, to bring a kind of rough Icelandic justice to those who brought down the father he never knew, while Gudrun, in her old age, remains typically taciturn, unable to tell him who it was she cared for most, the man who sired him or the one whose death she sought.
SWM
Rating: 4
Summary: Notes on Laxdaela Saga
Comment: Notes on Laxdaela Saga
1.Humor
There's little discernible humor in the sagas, but there are occasional moments of grim amusement. Curiously, it seems the German film director Werner Herzog picked up a couple of such moments for use in Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972). In the movie, as I recall -
at one point, the doomed Spaniards on Aguirre's fleet of rafts are beset by unseen people in the forest; an arrow hits one of the soldiers, who says "Long arrows are becoming fashionable" and pitches into the water;
and elsewhere in the movie, two unhappy soldiers hunch over a dice game onshore, and, as one of them rolls, someone cuts his head off for some reason; his head rolls along the ground, comes to a stop, and says "six" or whatever it was he rolled.
In Grettir's Saga (p. 95 of the University of Toronto edition) we read that Thorbjorn dirves his spear through Atli, and Atli says, "Broad spears are becoming fashionable nowadays."
In Laxdaela Saga (p. 213 of the Penguin edition) we read:
"Audgisl was walking past at that moment, and just when Thorgils had counted 'Ten', Audgisl struck at him; and all those present thought they heard the head says 'Eleven' as it flew off his shoulders."
2.Relationships
Much of the interest of fiction depends on human configurations: lover and lover, husband and wife, mother and child, father and child, lord and vassal (or boss and employee), etc. In Laxdaela Saga there are several relationships we don't typically encounter:
--the fosterage system
--bonds of obligation between kings and people recognized as important
--slaves (including concubines) and owners
as well as a couple of arrangements that may seem unexpectedly modern, given the medieval setting:
--wives as chief authorities on an estate in the absence of their husbands
--ease of divorce and remarriage
These all have lots of potential for drama.
3.Disputes about property plus obligations to secure compensation for injuries are recurrent in the sagas.
4.Supernatural beings and events certainly are used to enhance the drama of the stories, but the authors do not "write up"
There's a clear distinction made between people who are gifted (or burdened) with prescience, such as Gest Oddleifson, and practitioners of witchcraft such as Kotkel (Chapter 35).
The sagas, it seems to me from my limited experience of them, do not go into details about the sorcerers' activities, but I get the impression that there's a clear distinction made between people who are gifted (or burdened) with prescience, such as Gest Oddleifson, and practitioners of witchcraft such as Kotkel (Chapter 35).
The sagas do not go into details about the sorcerers' activities, but I get the impression that they were recognized as repellant - that the procedures were disgusting, as well as having consequences deleterious to the community. (So far as I know - here I am unsure - the Icelandic lords declined to make use of sorcery, even before Christianity; it was beyond the pale even for them. However, the worship offered to the gods may have been disgusting as well as wicked - interesting to think that the gods wanted things done on their behalf that were unacceptable as between people. (Human sacrifice was not unknown in the ancient Scandinavian world.)
Rating: 5
Summary: Good.
Comment: I believe I own and have read almost all of the Penguin Classic Icelandic Sagas they sell on this site (Amazon.com). Njal's Saga, Eyrbyggja Saga, Egil's Saga, and this, the Laxdaela Saga. With that said, of those that I have read, I rank this the second of the best and find it entirely entertaining. Unlike Njal's or Egil's saga, it lacks a central character. This may put some off, but I find it for the better, putting the reader in an omnipotent position that allows them to distantly spectate everything happening within the tireless world presented within. Not to suggest the action of the saga is disconnected, only that the reader isn't forced to follow a single character around on their exploits. Instead, like an eye we observe the Lax River and it's people, who all encounter new and dangerous situations in their lives. As to of whether the text is romanticized or not is entirely up to the reader's interpretation and what they care to focus on. For one who simply wants to read about events and the activities of people that 'just simply are' or if you want to read about romantic tragedy and battles, you can find either one in the ambiguous texts of the Laxdaela Saga. ...
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Title: Njal's Saga by Robert Cook ISBN: 0140447695 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 28 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Egil's Saga by Hermann Palsson, Paul Edwards ISBN: 0140443215 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: February, 1977 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer (Penguin Classics) by Jesse L. Byock ISBN: 0140447385 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Vinland Sagas: Norse Discovery of America by Magnus Magnusson ISBN: 0140441549 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: June, 1965 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: King Harald's Saga by Magnus Magnusson, Paulsson Herman, Snorri Sturlusson, Hermann Palsson ISBN: 0140441832 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: October, 1976 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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