# Sagas in English **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 21, 2011, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166 "2011-04-21T01:55:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pinguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@pinguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinguin)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/1 "2011-04-21T01:55:34Z")
Is there any good source of Norse Sagas in English? I would like to read the stories of Eric the Red and Leif Ericsson directly. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/2 "2011-04-21T02:22:08Z")
I’m no expert on sagas, but just among the books on my shelf I have a book called _The Sagas of Icelanders_ (with an introduction by Jane Smiley) and a book called _Njal’s Saga_. Both are published by Penguin. They have various translators. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/3 "2011-04-21T03:08:53Z")
I’ve read most of them in the Penguin translations and I would recommend them, good introductions too. My personal; favourites are Egil’s Saga, Njal’s Saga and the Laxdaela Saga. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/4 "2011-04-21T03:22:02Z")
Looking at my shelf again, I see that I also have _Eric Brighteyes_ by H. Rider Haggard and _Hrolf Kraki’s Saga_ by Poul Anderson. ---
**Author:** ![pinguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@pinguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinguin)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/5 "2011-04-21T03:23:07Z")
Thanks. By the way, aren’t the Icelandic Sagas free in Internet? I couldn’t find them. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/6 "2011-04-21T05:47:57Z")
Here you go: [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/index.htm](http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/index.htm). The Penguin translations are better, but these are free and online. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/7 "2011-04-21T08:02:37Z")
There’s also this: [http://www.sagadb.org/](http://www.sagadb.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/8 "2011-04-21T08:54:51Z")
Don’t forget [_The Technicolor Time Machine_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Technicolor_Time_Machine) by Harry Harrison. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/9 "2011-04-21T09:49:49Z")
_The Technicolor Time Machine_ is a fine book, but it’s not a translation or a retelling of one of the sagas. It’s a science fiction novel where some of the characters are Vikings. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/10 "2011-04-21T09:51:46Z")
Spoilsport. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/11 "2011-04-21T12:10:55Z")
This is an excellent [modern recreation](http://www.amazon.com/Edda-Icelandic-Medieval-Iceland-Sequentia/dp/B00000IFOM) of some of the Icelandic Eddas being chanted or sung. The sleeve notes give both the Icelandic text of what’s being sung, and an English translation so you can follow along, which I found fairly easy to do. ---
**Author:** ![pinguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@pinguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinguin)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/12 "2011-04-21T12:22:22Z")
Thanks! I will have fun this weekend reading them, ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/13 "2011-04-21T12:26:54Z")
Like **Springtime** above, I read them in the Penguin editions. I have several of these. The one entitled **The Norse Discovery of America** contains the ones the POP asks about, and it was quite slim. I’m not sure if it’s still in print. I see that Penguin has more recently published a massive omnibus edition of sagas. There seems to be something about the publishing industry that militates against the publication of slim volumes these cdays. But you might be able to pick up a used copy through the used book sites. ---
**Author:** ![pinguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@pinguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinguin)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/14 "2011-04-21T12:28:44Z")
Thanks! I’ll do. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/15 "2011-04-21T18:09:20Z")
Don’t miss the Orkneyinga Saga - it’s about the people of Orkney, which you get to by starting out in Scotland and going until you’re out of everything and there you have Orkney. The bits where they go on pilgrimage and try to woo a French lady with battlefield poetry are not to be missed. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/16 "2011-04-22T19:52:01Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > …which you get to by starting out in Scotland and going until you’re out of everything and there you have Orkney… Like Newfoundland? You get to by starting out in Canada and going until you’re out of everything and there you have Newfoundland? ---
**Author:** ![FeAudrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/17 "2011-04-23T02:54:22Z")
Another Penguin: _The Vinland Sagas – The Norse Discovery of America_. The 1965 edition (which I have) is easy to come by; a new translation was published in 2008. Features Eric the Red, Leif Ericson, and a lot of folk whose stories all seem to start with, “So-and-so had to leave the community because of some killings he had done …”. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/18 "2011-04-23T03:03:11Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > … _Hrolf Kraki’s Saga_ by Poul Anderson. Seconding this. A very interesting book. It’s an attempt at retelling parts of the Frodissaga and Ynglingasaga as a modern novel, but aside from filling out what is assumed to be known to the original hearers for the modern reader, it sticks quite close to the original saga stories. In modern prose, of course, where the sagas would (usually) have been alliterative four-stress distichs. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sagas-in-english/579166/19 "2011-04-24T16:42:14Z")
> [@FeAudrey](#): > > Another Penguin: _The Vinland Sagas – The Norse Discovery of America_. > > The 1965 edition (which I have) is easy to come by; a new translation was published in 2008. > > Features Eric the Red, Leif Ericson, and a lot of folk whose stories all seem to start with, “So-and-so had to leave the community because of some killings he had done …”. Already referred to in #13 above.