Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney (Penguin Classics) | 
| Author: Anonymous
Creators: Hermann Palsson, Paul Edwards
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 180473
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0140443835
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.68
EAN: 9780140443837
ASIN: 0140443835
Publication Date: July 30, 1981
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Product Description
Written around AD 1200 by an unnamed Icelandic author, the Orkneyinga Saga is an intriguing fusion of myth, legend and history. The only medieval chronicle to have Orkney as the central place of action, it tells of an era when the islands were still part of the Viking world, beginning with their conquest by the kings of Norway in the ninth century. The saga describes the subsequent history of the Earldom of Orkney and the adventures of great Norsemen such as Sigurd the Powerful, St Magnus the Martyr and Hrolf, the conqueror of Normandy. Savagely powerful and poetic, this is a fascinating depiction of an age of brutal battles, murder, sorcery and bitter family feuds.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
A Unique Saga August 12, 2008
The sagas were written down in Iceland as a sort of middle-ground between history and historical novel (in this way, it is not that different from the classical histories we have from, say, Rome). Although this particular saga is unusual in translation in that it occurs outside Iceland, it is part of a larger body of such works which occurred in Iceland in its day.
A number of important things distinguish this saga:
1) Violence. The Orkneys lacked democratic legal institutions found elsewhere in the Norse world and essentially amounted to a purely feudal system. Hence there were none of the checks on violence that occurred in Iceland, Norway, or Sweden.
2) Christianity. The Orkneyinga saga occurs after the conversion of Norway, and it is distinctly Christian (almost proto-Calvanist) in its outlook.
3) Location. It is the only saga to my knowledge which is set in Orkney, Shetland, and North Scotland for the most part.
Hence I think that this is an important saga to recommend all saga-lovers.
Must read for all Viking descendants and people interested in Orkney Islands. June 8, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
What an amazing compilation of stories. The Vikings really were horrible, just like Hagar. Written about 1100, 900 years ago, these stories tell the horrible truth about Vikings and what they did to get by, as collected by an unknown author from that time. Life was primitive, just like this book.
I highly recomment this book.
Research August 28, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a marvelous book. I bought it to find out more about the people involved there during Viking times. I found all I wanted to know about that, plus I found a very interesting and entertaining read. The information contained in this saga is priceless.
 A different look at UK history November 20, 2004
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This saga cover eight or ten generations of Norse rulers of the islands north of Scotland, from the 900s up to about 1200AD. Despite its subtitle, it's not a history in the sense that modern reader might expect. Instead, it's more a series of vignettes or anecdotes, strung together in more-or-less chronological order.
Like other sagas, this was put in current form and written down by an Icelander. Until then, the stories had been part of the oral tradition. Small surprise, then, that events of minor interest were dropped and other events dressed up after the fact - despite the book's historical value, it can't always be taken at face value.
This is quite unlike Icelandic sagas in many ways. First, is that Norse paganism was largely supplanted by Christianity. Bishops appeared in positions of power, and pilgrimages to Rome were part of the tale. St. Magnus gets more attention than just about any of the other Earls, even the later ones whose stories had less time to fade.
The difference that struck me most was that, compared to the Icelanders, this was a very violent crowd. They lacked the realtive peace of Icelanders' democratic rule of law and system of courts. Instead, more depended on the authority of kings or of the best-armed thug in the region, not always a clear distinction. Many of the characters, Svein Asleifarson in particular, seemed to rely on twice-annual plundering as their major source of income. Those trips get generally minor attention, as if the vikings were shearing sheep or harvesting grain, instead of reaping plundered loot and human life. I know that peaceful times don't make history, so the stories that are kept always present a skewed view. Still, this sounds like a very different culture.
There's no real plot or character development, and names come and go at a dizzying rate. The translator has provided a glossary of personal names at the end, and that helps keep track of all the players. Still, it's a somewhat dry book by the usual standards of recreational readers.
Anyone interested in medieval Europe, Scotland or Norse culture in particular, will find a lot to like here. It's not the most exciting of the sagas, but gives a remarkable look at a powerful influence on English history.
//wiredweird
Orkneyinga Saga reviewed June 17, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am a fan of all things to do with Orkney and Shetland. The viking history fascinates me. The complex Norwegian/Scottish history of Orkney is extremely interesting. I would recommend this book to people interested in Vikings, western European history and on the distinct culture of Orkney,U.K.
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