Hermann Pálsson Livres

Iceland was the last country in Europe to become inhabited, and we know more about the beginnings and early history of Icelandic society than we do of any other in the Old World. This world was vividly recounted in The Book of Settlements, first compiled by the first Icelandic historians in the thirteenth century. It describes in detail individuals’ daily life during the Icelandic Age of Settlement.

Written around 1245 by an unknown author, the Laxdaela Saga is an extraordinary tale of conflicting kinships and passionate love, and one of the most compelling works of Icelandic literature. Covering 150 years in the lives of the inhabitants of the community of Laxriverdale, the saga focuses primarily upon the story of Gudrun Osvif's-daughter: a proud, beautiful, vain and desirable figure, who is forced into an unhappy marriage and destroys the only man she has truly loved – her husband's best friend. A moving tale of murder and sacrifice, romance and regret, the Laxdaela Saga is also a fascinating insight into an era of radical change – a time when the Age of Chivalry was at its fullest flower in continental Europe, and the Christian faith was making its impact felt upon the Viking world.

An Icelandic saga which mixes realism with wild gothic imagination and history with eerie tales of hauntings. It dramatizes a 13th century view of the past, from the pagan anarchy of the Viking age to the settlement of Iceland, the coming of Christianity and the beginnings of organized society.

Unlike the Icelandic sagas with their firm grasp of realism and their moral imperative, these two Viking romances feature gods, heroes, trolls, kings and warriors, and are rich in imaginative power. Blending a range of influences from folklore, mythology, heroic tales and legends, they set out to amuse rather than inform, and as well as depicting the traditional Viking raider in his longboat, they also transport the reader to an imaginary world beyond history or geography. Written around 1300, Bosi and Herraud and Egil and Asmund appear in Seven Viking Romances, which is published in Penguin Classics.