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manwithanagenda's review
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
2.0
This review of 'The Norse Atlantic Saga' I composed first for my own benefit and then showed it to the reviewers of Booklikes; and according as it pleased me and them to have it be in this way, I wrote in the same manner as Gwyn Jones who did attempt to write in the manner of the Norsemen and their sagas.
A history of the Norse men and their deeds requires a good writer to put those deeds to paper and a good translator of tongues to change the tongue of the Norse man into the modern speech of the English. Gwyn Jones, a man of Monmouthshire in Wales, did this thing by virtue of keeping the tone and syntax of the former tongue even after translating the words. To these ears what was intended as due tribute instead rings of mockery.
This writer, by which I mean myself, became interested in the sagas of the Norsemen after reading the long tale called 'The Greenlanders' written down by Jane Smiley, a learned woman of high regard in letters, which also recalled the language of the sagas of the Norsemen. Jane Smiley knew when to have enough of a good thing without spoiling the whole.
The book is divided into two parts, the first being abbreviated tellings of the history of the discovery and settling of Iceland and Greenland, the journeys to Markland and Vinland and some of the events that led to and followed these events. The second part is made up of several sagas including "The Book of the Icelanders", "The Book of the Settlements", "The Greenlander’s Saga", "Eirek the Red’s Saga" and the brief "Karlsefni’s Voyage to Vinland" as related in the Hauksbók telling and "The Story of Einar Sokkason". Photographs and illustrations are generously spaced through the book.
It was a pleasant happening to discover the presence of women in these histories and sagas. The limited role of Wealhþēow and others in the old verse 'Beowulf' led me to expect little insight into their actions apart from that of being good wives and mothers or possibly seers and witches. It was good to read of Aud the Deep-minded and Freydís Eiríksdóttir who were women as fully talked of as much as men, devout and brave, wise and treacherous. Women may not have had the lawful equality of men but they are not mere decorations for the halls of their fathers and husbands in these histories.
It is a good history and the stories are rich, but the slow weighty words of Gwyn Jones do not leave me satisfied. There must be better out there and the word must get around to read this text only if there is nothing else about.
And that is the end of this review.
A history of the Norse men and their deeds requires a good writer to put those deeds to paper and a good translator of tongues to change the tongue of the Norse man into the modern speech of the English. Gwyn Jones, a man of Monmouthshire in Wales, did this thing by virtue of keeping the tone and syntax of the former tongue even after translating the words. To these ears what was intended as due tribute instead rings of mockery.
This writer, by which I mean myself, became interested in the sagas of the Norsemen after reading the long tale called 'The Greenlanders' written down by Jane Smiley, a learned woman of high regard in letters, which also recalled the language of the sagas of the Norsemen. Jane Smiley knew when to have enough of a good thing without spoiling the whole.
The book is divided into two parts, the first being abbreviated tellings of the history of the discovery and settling of Iceland and Greenland, the journeys to Markland and Vinland and some of the events that led to and followed these events. The second part is made up of several sagas including "The Book of the Icelanders", "The Book of the Settlements", "The Greenlander’s Saga", "Eirek the Red’s Saga" and the brief "Karlsefni’s Voyage to Vinland" as related in the Hauksbók telling and "The Story of Einar Sokkason". Photographs and illustrations are generously spaced through the book.
It was a pleasant happening to discover the presence of women in these histories and sagas. The limited role of Wealhþēow and others in the old verse 'Beowulf' led me to expect little insight into their actions apart from that of being good wives and mothers or possibly seers and witches. It was good to read of Aud the Deep-minded and Freydís Eiríksdóttir who were women as fully talked of as much as men, devout and brave, wise and treacherous. Women may not have had the lawful equality of men but they are not mere decorations for the halls of their fathers and husbands in these histories.
It is a good history and the stories are rich, but the slow weighty words of Gwyn Jones do not leave me satisfied. There must be better out there and the word must get around to read this text only if there is nothing else about.
And that is the end of this review.
psr's review
4.0
Well, I've been reading this for research purposes and really enjoyed what I read. It was largely an intelligently argued review of others' work and so I had read much of what he had to say before. For all that, it was a highly cogent summary. Moral force is with Jones too - he won't let appalling behaviour off as anything less than that, no historical moral relativism here.
You get plenty for your money. After the accounts of Norse discoveries and colonies in the North Atlantic come several translations of relevant sagas and various other bits and bobs including a grizzly Inuit folk tale and moving details on the last days of one particular farmstead on Greenland.
Caveats:
The prose was what one might expect of an academic educated a century ago. It was beautifully constructed but to these relatively modern eyes, tending toward the pedantic and pompous at times. It also hasn't aged well in some of its vocabulary. There are endless references to "white men", for example, which feel a little uncomfortable in the world of today. Otherwise, Jones' book is a great introduction to the subject matter.
You get plenty for your money. After the accounts of Norse discoveries and colonies in the North Atlantic come several translations of relevant sagas and various other bits and bobs including a grizzly Inuit folk tale and moving details on the last days of one particular farmstead on Greenland.
Caveats:
The prose was what one might expect of an academic educated a century ago. It was beautifully constructed but to these relatively modern eyes, tending toward the pedantic and pompous at times. It also hasn't aged well in some of its vocabulary. There are endless references to "white men", for example, which feel a little uncomfortable in the world of today. Otherwise, Jones' book is a great introduction to the subject matter.
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