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A review by msand3
The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America by Unknown
4.0
3.5 stars. The first saga, that of Eirik the Red, is a bit misleading, as Eirik doesn’t play a major role beyond his exile and founding of Greenland. The first half of the saga is a rather dull laundry-list of names -- warriors who married and begat children, etc. It really begins to pick up with the prophetess and Lief’s exploits, and then comes to an abrupt end.
The Saga of the Greenlanders is much more interesting and detailed in the description of the founding of Vinland (likely in Newfoundland) and the bizarre incidents that might be true (finding grapes?) and might not (a one-legged bandit who terrorizes the vikings?). The account also contains an amusing number of guys named Thorstein.
I found both sagas to have a striking amount of casual violence that is almost comical: “They came upon eight natives, killed them, and then continued down the stream,” etc. These accounts portray vikings (or at the least the ones exiled to Greenland and beyond) as brutish, vile cretins who have some sailing and survival skills. I hope that reading more of these sagas, and some works of history from contemporary sources, can give me greater insight and perhaps offer some different perspectives that might lead me to a more well-rounded view of their culture.
The Saga of the Greenlanders is much more interesting and detailed in the description of the founding of Vinland (likely in Newfoundland) and the bizarre incidents that might be true (finding grapes?) and might not (a one-legged bandit who terrorizes the vikings?). The account also contains an amusing number of guys named Thorstein.
I found both sagas to have a striking amount of casual violence that is almost comical: “They came upon eight natives, killed them, and then continued down the stream,” etc. These accounts portray vikings (or at the least the ones exiled to Greenland and beyond) as brutish, vile cretins who have some sailing and survival skills. I hope that reading more of these sagas, and some works of history from contemporary sources, can give me greater insight and perhaps offer some different perspectives that might lead me to a more well-rounded view of their culture.