The Vinland Sagas (Penguin Classics)
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Book Summary Information
Translator: Keneva KunzIntroduction: Gisli Sigurdsson
Edition: Paperback
Audio: Icelandic (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-07-29
ISBN: 0140447768
Number of pages: 144
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780140447767
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of The Vinland Sagas (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: The True Discoverers of North America!
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Vinland Sagas" contains the earliest and most complete information about Vinland the Good. Many scholars believe Vinland to have been on North Newfoundland, which also happens to be the only authenticated Viking archaeological site at L'Anse aux Meadows. This book consists of two short sagas. "Greenlander's Saga" and "The Saga of Erik the Red". Both events depicted took place in the 11th century but were not written down until the 13th Century in Iceland. Two hundred years of Chinese whispers has produced some anomalies in the stories.
The events in "Greenlanders' Saga" concern the voyage of Bjarni Herjolfsson the first Norseman to see the shores of North America and the subsequent voyages of Leif Eriksson, his brother Thorvald, his sister Freyis and an Icelandic merchant Thorfinn Karlsefni. This account describes hostilities with "Skraelings", the natives of Vinland and Greenland. The Vikings held these peoples in contempt.
"The Saga of Erik the Red" gives the account of a single expedition led by Thorfinn Karlsnefi who married Gudrid, Leif Eriksson's widowed sister-in-law. The saga tells how they traveled to Vinland and stayed for seven years. It covers the difficulties they encountered and their subsequent return.
For many years the Vinland Sagas were considered to be merely fanciful myths but recent discoveries have begun to prove their veracity. The Vikings colonized far flung and hostile places like the Faeroe Islands, Iceland and then Greenland. Given the great seafaring abilities of the Vikings, it is not a difficult voyage across the Labrador Sea to North Newfoundland from their settlements in South West Greenland. It is only logical that in their 450 year occupation of Greenland, that they should make this step.
Sadly if they had not treated the native Inuit with such contempt their ancestors might be living still in Greenland and even Newfoundland. Instead of nurturing a friendship with them and learning from their way of life which had stood them in good stead for thousands of years, they chose instead to continue with an unsustainable Western lifestyle and given a changing climate they were wiped out. A sad end to their most remote colonies.
Like so many of the Icelandic Sagas these accounts stand up well as an exciting enjoyable epic of high adventure and exploration. They are simply a treasure not to be missed.
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