Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories

Hermann Palsson’s translation captures the distinctive eloquence of the original works, while his introduction sets the tales in context as works from the Golden Age of saga writing.

Written around the thirteenth century AD by Icelandic monks, the seven tales collected here offer a combination of pagan elements tightly woven into the pattern of Christian ethics. They take as their subjects figures who are heroic, but do not fit into the mould of traditional heroes. Some stories concer…