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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
Not an easy read/listen and not my kind of literature
I was borrowed this book by a friend who majored in history in college, when I told him I was interested in reading about "really far back accounts of things." This is a series of sagas, and a saga fragment, with fictional events dating from around the 800s or so, and they take place all throughout Scandinavia. From the introduction, I believe that this story may have come from Iceland around the 1300s or 1400s, as did so many other sagas or "prose narratives" (p. xi) Reading these stories made me curious about the word "saga" to begin with, so I went over to Wikipedia to find out. Apparently, "saga" is a Norse word that means(1) "what is said, statement" or (2) "story, tale, history". I learned from the introduction that there were many kinds of sagas that were told: sagas of "the old times" where there were trolls and other magical beings, sagas of chivalric tales, sagas of kings' lives, and sagas of the first families that came to settle in Iceland.
The introduction to the sagas, written by the translator Ben Waggoner, set the stage for how a reader should view these sagas. I found out that, though these sagas may contain some history, the connections certainly are tenuous at best, and took to heart the suggestion to enjoy these tales "for their value to folklorists and medieval historians, for their impact on later English literature, and for their value as entertaining tales of derring-do" (p. xi). And that they certainly were: you get three year olds who speak like adults and lead huge armies (or "hosts," as they are referred to in these sagas), maidens who are beautiful and wise, giant serpents and hiding princesses in oversized harps, and crazy battles. Plenty of battles. And battle poetry (so much battle poetry).
In reading Krakumal, Ragnar's death-poem-song(?), I learned about skaldic poetry, and about "kennings," or big elaborate words together that allude to another word. (For example, using phrases like "wyrm of wounds" and "bane-herrings" and "shields' moon"...all of these refer to a sword.) The imagery in this poem was very repetitive at times, but if you take a step back and look at it on the whole, it's pretty metal, especially with the kennings.
Although the tone of the sagas could be somewhat simple seeming at times, I think that the translator's intent to keep the stories in an original voice was a good one. He mentioned at one time that these tales could be shared and passed down at huge gatherings while everyone was around a fire, and the way he put everything together, one could imagine easily doing that. Especially in Krakumal: all this constant talk of ravens, wolves, and eagles constantly picking at the flesh of the untold amounts of dead warriors, having fallen bravely during Ragnar's many battles...it definitely would be something cool for people, especially young people, to hear told round a fire.
I did not read these sagas entirely in the order they were presented in, but even so, many of them seem to contradict each other, and I could not get a clear idea of the times in which events happened, and who had done them. Especially since in some stories, some characters were presented as related to each other, and in some others they were not mentioned or did not seem related. Resourcing the footnotes was the only thing that kept me in check: they essentially say that a lot of these accounts are mixed up, so you have to kind of enjoy them as loosely connected tales.
Lastly, this book was COOL because I discovered Ragnar's wife, Aslaug. My own Norwegian great-grandma had that name, which purportedly means "devoted to God," and it was cool to hear about a kick-ass, smart warrior queen.
If you want to be entertained by some seriously old-school Scandinavian/Icelandic tales, you should read this. I think it would probably help if you have read other sagas before and/or have some knowledge of Norse mythology, but even if you don't (like me), the footnotes will be immensely helpful.
The introduction to the sagas, written by the translator Ben Waggoner, set the stage for how a reader should view these sagas. I found out that, though these sagas may contain some history, the connections certainly are tenuous at best, and took to heart the suggestion to enjoy these tales "for their value to folklorists and medieval historians, for their impact on later English literature, and for their value as entertaining tales of derring-do" (p. xi). And that they certainly were: you get three year olds who speak like adults and lead huge armies (or "hosts," as they are referred to in these sagas), maidens who are beautiful and wise, giant serpents and hiding princesses in oversized harps, and crazy battles. Plenty of battles. And battle poetry (so much battle poetry).
In reading Krakumal, Ragnar's death-poem-song(?), I learned about skaldic poetry, and about "kennings," or big elaborate words together that allude to another word. (For example, using phrases like "wyrm of wounds" and "bane-herrings" and "shields' moon"...all of these refer to a sword.) The imagery in this poem was very repetitive at times, but if you take a step back and look at it on the whole, it's pretty metal, especially with the kennings.
Although the tone of the sagas could be somewhat simple seeming at times, I think that the translator's intent to keep the stories in an original voice was a good one. He mentioned at one time that these tales could be shared and passed down at huge gatherings while everyone was around a fire, and the way he put everything together, one could imagine easily doing that. Especially in Krakumal: all this constant talk of ravens, wolves, and eagles constantly picking at the flesh of the untold amounts of dead warriors, having fallen bravely during Ragnar's many battles...it definitely would be something cool for people, especially young people, to hear told round a fire.
I did not read these sagas entirely in the order they were presented in, but even so, many of them seem to contradict each other, and I could not get a clear idea of the times in which events happened, and who had done them. Especially since in some stories, some characters were presented as related to each other, and in some others they were not mentioned or did not seem related. Resourcing the footnotes was the only thing that kept me in check: they essentially say that a lot of these accounts are mixed up, so you have to kind of enjoy them as loosely connected tales.
Lastly, this book was COOL because I discovered Ragnar's wife, Aslaug. My own Norwegian great-grandma had that name, which purportedly means "devoted to God," and it was cool to hear about a kick-ass, smart warrior queen.
If you want to be entertained by some seriously old-school Scandinavian/Icelandic tales, you should read this. I think it would probably help if you have read other sagas before and/or have some knowledge of Norse mythology, but even if you don't (like me), the footnotes will be immensely helpful.
informative
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
informative
slow-paced
Okay it was actually interesting to see how much of the original sagas that was in the series, now that I watched that first and is obsessed!
I was confused at first because the first saga started with the story of his second wife Aslaug. Jumped lightly over the story of Ragnar and continued with the children they got. Because they only part Ragnar had was being there and did later xD
I mean it's so much more about his sons, their reaction to his death and how big they became. But still fun to see how accurate the TV series is and ifs basically why I read this in the first place.
Ps. King Gandalf is a thing.
I was confused at first because the first saga started with the story of his second wife Aslaug. Jumped lightly over the story of Ragnar and continued with the children they got. Because they only part Ragnar had was being there and did later xD
I mean it's so much more about his sons, their reaction to his death and how big they became. But still fun to see how accurate the TV series is and ifs basically why I read this in the first place.
Ps. King Gandalf is a thing.