Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen of the British Isles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

George Webbe Dasent (Translated by)

9781108052498, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 November 2012

576 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.3 cm, 0.84 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 4 contains Dasent's translation, The Saga of Hacon, the fragment of the saga of Hákon's son Magnús, and other appended texts.

Introduction
Errata
The saga of Hacon, Hacon's son
The saga of Magnus, Hacon's son
Additions to the saga of Hacon
Appendix
Index.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]