Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen of the British Isles

This four-volume set (1887–94) includes sagas of Orkney and of King Hákon Hákonarson of Norway, in Old Norse and English translation.

Gudbrand Vigfusson (Edited by)

9781108052467, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 November 2012

536 pages, 3 b/w illus. 1 colour illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm, 0.78 kg

This four-volume set of Icelandic sagas with English translations was prepared between 1887 and 1894 by the celebrated Icelandic scholar Gudbrand Vigfusson (1827–89) and the foremost translator of the day, Sir George Webbe Dasent (1817–96). It includes Orkneyinga saga, a history of the jarls of Orkney from the late ninth century to about 1200, composed in Iceland around 1230 but preserved complete only in the fourteenth-century Flateyjarbók; and Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, the life of the king of Norway from 1217 to 1263 and the principal source for Norwegian history over this period, in which Hákon's reign put an end to a long civil war. It was written soon after his death by the Icelandic chieftain and historian Sturla Þórðarson at the instigation of the king's son. Volume 1 contains Vigfusson's edition of Orkneyinga saga and two variants of Magnúss saga, the life of St Magnus of Orkney.

Preface
Genealogies
Orkneyínga saga
Magnus saga helga
Magnus saga hin skamma
Sequentia
Appendix
Index.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]